For a people once victims of genocide themselves, Israel is disappointing. So are the decisions lately of “Fearless Leader” with regard to the Middle East.

The simple version of the story: Israel plans to retake Gaza City, escalating the war with Hamas | AP News

No, I do not support Palestinians and their struggle. Near as I can figure it they are an angry lot. But, like the old saying goes, “This is war.”

Is it? Or something deeper, darker, and more revelatory? Check it out:

On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants breached Israel’s border in a massive, multi-front attack. Reports estimate around 6,000 Gazans entered Israeli territory—about 3,800 of them from Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces, the rest civilians or other fighters caught in the chaos.

Israel’s immediate response was shock and fury. The government declared a state of war and launched “Operation Swords of Iron” to crush Hamas’s military capacity and secure the Gaza frontier.

Before the war, crossings like Erez and Rafah were tightly controlled. Tens of thousands once crossed each month for work or medical needs, but after Hamas took power in 2007, those numbers collapsed—border restrictions became the norm.

Inside Gaza, conditions were already dire. Since the war began, aid entering through Rafah dropped to a fraction of pre-October-7 levels—reports indicate it was about 5% of what it used to be.

By mid-2025, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza had risen well above 60,000. Gaza’s Health Ministry reported over 60,000 killed, including a significant number of women and children.

The fighting displaced over 90% of Gaza’s population. Israeli military orders designated approximately 70% of Gaza as no-go zones, and by mid-2025 the IDF controlled roughly three-quarters of the territory.

On August 8, 2025, Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to retake and occupy Gaza City, aiming to disarm Hamas, impose Israeli security control, and eventually transfer governance to friendly Arab authorities. The plan could displace up to a million more Palestinians.

Critics warn the plan risks the safety of the remaining hostages—around 59 are still believed held—and could deepen the humanitarian catastrophe. Some senior military officials caution the occupation could exact a steep cost—militarily, politically, and morally.

Netanyahu frames this as essential for Israel’s survival: a final blow to Hamas. Detractors see it as moral overreach—an act that may only entrench cycles of violence and imperil Israel’s long-term security.

Neighboring Arab states have largely declined to intervene. Egypt refuses to open its border—fearful of regional destabilization—and Jordan has declined entry, citing security concerns.

In the end, the question persists: Is Israel’s escalating response truly in its own hands—or has it been driven by fear, vengeance, and political survival? For a people whose history is defined by survival, this moment is testing not only strategy—but soul.

That could all end this weekend. (Maybe there was a reason I slept in today—two hours past my usual 4 AM work call.)

You see, I have studied human nature a lot over my news-chasing days. Admired religions and movements that strive for peace and, when allowable, calling out human shortcomings as well. As part of that, in the Bahá’í faith, there was a talk by Abdu’l-Bahá, given in Paris on October 21, 1911, in a talk titled “The Pitiful Causes of War, and the Duty of Everyone to Strive for Peace.”

“The news of the Battle (it was for Benghazi at the time) grieves my heart. I wonder at the human savagery that still exists in the world! How is it possible for men to fight from morning until evening, killing each other, shedding the blood of their fellow-men: And for what object? To gain possession of a part of the earth! Even the animals, when they fight, have an immediate and more reasonable cause for their attacks! How terrible it is that men, who are of the higher kingdom, can descend to slaying and bringing misery to their fellow-beings, for the possession of a tract of land!”

This weekend, the world will go HODL—”hold on, don’t look”—over what comes now. But blindness isn’t innocence. And there’s been enough blood from all of this to go around. It’s on the hands of all of us.

If you perchance to wonder, “Why haven’t we been visited by advanced civilizations? Where are the Brothers of the Sky?”

Open your eyes and think about it.  Yeah – it’s war.  It’s global failure and we all own it. But the market will rally, the narratives will continue.  Nothing changes.  The cycles repeat.

Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten up today.

Hope from the Headlines?

Hmm…you tell me…this sound like a planet worth defending?

Steady hand on the tiller? Not so much… Trump gives Putin deadline as Ukraine peace talks and tensions loom .

Our low-level concerns about Fearless Leader’s “shoot first, aim later” track pops up in Trump to Correct ‘Extremely Regrettable’ Error in Tariffs

We’ve been quietly muttering for a long time that America’s Founders screwed up by not lumping corporations into the doctrine of Separation of Powers – as in Church and State.  As we figure it, corporations bloodlust for money is a kind of perverse religion in its own right.  Mentioned today as context for Apple CEO Tim Cook mocked after giving ‘embarrassing’ gift to Trump.

Here we go – again with L.A. fires kicking up: Canyon Fire in Ventura County Prompts Evacuation Orders for Thousands – The New York Times

In politics especially, payback’s a bitch: Enraged House Democrats prepare to go scorched earth on redistricting. Here in Texas, democrats were still holding the states lawmaking process hostage.

Around the Ranch: End of the Heat Coming…

Heat in the breadbasket is only 3-4 weeks from breaking.  So we’re using the occasion to line up the project ducks.  Cool mornings begin in just three weeks (on average) and will drop 1 degree per week for a while…which we’re looking forward to.

Rainfall has been really well spread this year leaving the front yard of Uretopia looking more golf course-like than usual.  At the cost of more fuel and seat-time.

Nice as it looks, it’s still shaggy (no, not Scooby) from our view.  But over a certain age, it’s easier to fuel a lawn rider than feed some sheep to keep it cropped down.

Why So Sleepy?  

May have had something to do with a long conversation with G.A. Stewart of the Age of Desolation site.  Who is back in the saddle running a flight sim center for the Air Force.  Knowing that pilots are able to earn their “beans” *(recurrent training cycles) takes one tiny fear off the table.  Also reminded me – as some very deep level – that you can’t change everything in life. I can’t, Stu can’t – all the well-intended people we follow can’t, either.

Kinda like projects in the shop, in ham radio, in books-to-write, or even in kitchen cookery: You may not be able to Do It All.

So, you do what you can and give it your best.  Beyond that?  Yeah, they couldn’t get along without Stu, the market will arb up at the open, it will be hot again, and I’m still not smart enough and the clock is still running.

Yet sometimes you have to give yourself permission not to set an alarm. Taking a moment now and then to appreciate that which we can change and that what we can’t.

Today is hereby framed as “Out of our hands” day.

ShopTalk Sunday this week will have a longish article on how to adapt declining vision (*which comes with aging) to home hobbyist/DIY work… We’ll continue our “pushing water uphill” efforts tomorrow morning in Peoplenomics.

Think of this as an “Andy Day.”  Relax, quiet, and above all listen.

Write when the noise is back,

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