Wednesday: Hili dialogue

November 22, 2023 • 6:45 am

Welcome to a Hump Day ( “כאַמפּ טאָג” in Yiddish):  November 22, 2023, and National Cranberry Relish Day, which beats the jellied stuff in cans (coming up Thursday!)

It’s also National Stop the Violence Day, Go For a Ride Day, National Humane Society Anniversary Day (founded on this day in 1954), National Jukebox Day, National Kimchi Day in South Korea , and What Do You Love About America Day.

Here’s a video about kimchi and the holiday (I do love the stuff):

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the November 22 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The NYT reports that Israel and Hamas are close to a hostage deal, which is one piece of good news in this unholy mess of a war.

The Israeli government and Hamas agreed to a brief cease-fire in Gaza to allow for the release of 50 hostages captured during Hamas’s assault last month on Israel and the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, Qatar said early Wednesday.

The cease-fire’s start will be announced within the next 24 hours, and it will last for at least four days, said the government of Qatar, which helped lead the negotiations. It added that the pause in fighting would also allow for more aid and fuel to reach civilians in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced its approval of the deal in a WhatsApp message early Wednesday. If the multiday pause holds, it would be the longest halt in hostilities since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks prompted Israel to begin its bombardment and subsequent ground invasion of Gaza.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office said women and children would be among the hostages released and that “the release of every 10 additional hostages will result in an additional day in the pause.”

“The Israeli government is committed to bringing all the hostages home,” the government added.

Less than an hour later, Hamas said in a statement on Telegram that it too had agreed to the deal.

This is a great relief to those those whose family and friends want hostages back, but some think the agreement will ultimately bring an end to the war, with Israel losing. I still think that Israel will continue to pursue its aim of defeating Hamas. But if you do one cease-fire, and allow Hamas to regroup, there will be pressure to have a permanent cease fire, and that’s the end of the war, with Israel withdrawing and Hamas having achieved its aims. To see an explication of this view, go here.

*Even if there is a hostage deal, though, that’s not the end of the war, much as those who are historically ignorant think that a cease-fire accompanying a hostage deal will solve the war problem for good. And Netanyahu, who’s rightfully doomed after the war is over has also said, also rightfully, that the campaign to get rid of Hamas will resume after a cease-fire. But, as I said above, pressure from the world and the U.S. may make him change his mind. With the hostages and calls to bring them home, Israel has been put in an impossible situation.

 Israel and Hamas on Tuesday appeared close to a deal to temporarily halt their devastating six-week war for dozens of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip to be freed in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

But as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Cabinet for a vote, he vowed to resume the Israeli offensive against Hamas as soon as the truce ends.

“We are at war, and we will continue the war,” he said. “We will continue until we achieve all our goals.”

The Israeli Cabinet was expected to vote on a plan that would halt Israel’s offensive in Gaza for several days in exchange for the release of about 50 of the 240 hostages held by Hamas. Israel has vowed to continue the war until it destroys Hamas’ military capabilities and returns all hostages.

. . .Netanyahu acknowledged that the Cabinet faced a tough decision, but supporting the cease-fire was the right thing to do. Netanyahu appeared to have enough support to pass the measure, despite opposition from some hard-line ministers.

Netanyahu said that during the lull, intelligence efforts will be maintained, allowing the army to prepare for the next stages of battle. He said the battle would continue until “Gaza will not threaten Israel.”

I am very anxious for all the hostages to be released, but it looks as if Hamas, who kidnapped them in a nasty war crime, won’t do that. I also wish Israel could find them, but my bet is that they’re in the tunnels, and that is a very hard, if not impossible, rescue.

*According to the WaPo, the crisis that the “border issue” poses for the Democrats has gotten very serious, threatening the election a year from now.

Panicky Democrats don’t need anything else to fret about ahead of the 2024 election. But high on the list of things that probably should register for them right now is the southern border.

That’s because the pro-immigration moment that Donald Trump rather unwittingly ushered in appears to be coming to a close. Even the Democratic base is concerned.

Remarkable polling results came out of New York on Monday. Even Democrats in this Siena College poll are saying things that sound somewhat reminiscent of the views of immigration hawks in the GOP:

  • Nearly as many New York Democrats said migrants coming to the state over the past 20 years have been a “burden” (35 percent) as said they have been a “benefit” (37 percent).
  • 75 percent of New York Democrats said the recent influx of migrants to the state was at least a “somewhat serious” problem. Nearly half (47 percent) said it was a “very serious” problem.
  • 53 percent of New York Democrats agreed with the statement that “New Yorkers have already done enough for new migrants and should now work to slow the flow of migrants to New York.” (The alternative was that the state should “accept new migrants and work to assimilate them into New York,” a position with which 41 percent of the Democratic respondents agreed.)

This is just one state, and it has experienced a migrant surge unlike virtually any other state not on the southern border.

But it’s hardly the only evidence that the Democratic base and the country are shifting in a more concerned and immigration-skeptical direction — and in a particularly troublesome way for President Biden and his party.

A Fox News poll this month showed that a majority of Democrats were at least “very” concerned about border security. And last month, the same pollster showed three-quarters of Democrats describing the situation at the southern border as either an “emergency” or a “major problem.” That’s double the 37 percent saying the same in early 2019.

All I can say is “I told you so.”  But the Democrats, who could have done something about this before, often seem more worried that they’ll lose elections, rather than any unhealthy effects of unrestricted migration on the country (of course, Donald Trump’s election could be worse for the country).

*At my request, reader Jez Grove has contributed a complete news item, indented below:

Raja Shehadeh, a Palestinian lawyer, writer, and founder of the human rights organisation Al-Haq, has written an article for The Guardian titled “Israel has long wanted Palestinians out of Gaza – my father saw it firsthand“.

It’s an opinion piece published in The Grauniad‘s “Comment is Free” section, but one that entirely disregards the second half of the famous phrase coined by the newspaper’s former owner and editor CP Scott: “Comment is free, but facts are sacred”.

In setting out his views, Shehadeh gives examples of senior Israeli politicians, including Golda Meir (during her time as the secretary general of Israel’s ruling party Mapai) and prime minister Levi Eshkol, making statements about permanently annexing the occupied Gaza Strip for Israel. He then skips forward to more recent times. I make no claims to be an expert on the history of Israel/Palestine, but even in my ignorance a glaring omission leapt out. In Shehadeh’s discussion of Israel’s attitude towards Gaza there is absolutely no mention of Israel’s total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Nothing. Not even a reference to that crucial year at all.

Only the author himself, and The Guardian staff responsible for approving the publication of the article, can know how it made its way into print and online despite such an incredible oversight. Whatever the reason, ignoring a basic fact that itself destroys the thesis set out in the article’s headline is incredibly sloppy journalism.

In the absence of an explanation from either Shehadeh orThe Guardian it is presumptive to attribute the egregious error to anti-Semitism.  However, it is notable that with a few exceptions, such as pieces by its (Jewish, for what it’s worth) columnist Jonathan Freedland, the paper’s coverage of the current conflict has been biased towards the pro-Hamas point of view. In common with other left-leaning news sites, it has reported on Israeli Defense Force (IDF) statements with scepticism, but accepted Hamas’ claims much more readily. For example, it initially said that the (likely exaggerated) death toll at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital was the result of an Israeli strike, when in reality it was almost certainly caused by a malfunctioning Palestinian terrorist rocket aimed at innocent Israeli citizens.

Is The Guardian anti-Semitic? Sadly, as a former long-time reader, it seems to be passing the looks, walks, and quacks test to me.

*Finally, I happen to love the animations of Hayao Miyazaki and his studio Ghibli; my favorites, “My Neighbor Totoro” and especially “Spirited Away” are masterpieces that mesmerized me when I first saw them.

And now, at 82, he’s directed a new movie, “The Boy and the Heron,” which, while based on the director’s life, has a twist: not so much storytelling:

Now 82, Miyazaki is so universally beloved that Studio Ghibli, the director’s animation home, didn’t bother advertising the film before its opening in Japan last summer. A brand unto himself, he retired with his 2013 film, “The Wind Rises” — then, changing his mind, returned. Magical, beautiful and uneasy, his films are beloved by children, but are certainly not just for children. With Miyazaki, the draw is subliminal, tapping an unsettling emotional well that seals over as we age.

Even by his standards, though, “The Boy and the Heron” is enigmatic, at least regarding plot. Better to watch as an exercise in contemplation than storytelling; this is the work of a man pondering life from its endpoint. It’s confounding, meandering through worlds that melt into one another. Magical fires rage, souls of the preborn and the dead mingle, and the fate of the universe is determined in ways unclear.

To tell a straightforward narrative, though, is not really the point. The Japanese title of the film is “How Do You Live?,” which it shares with a 1937 novel by Genzaburo Yoshino. The writer had been imprisoned for socialist thinking by a branch of the Tokyo police tasked with eradicating anti-authoritarian thought in music, literature and art. Upon release, he was invited to contribute to a series of books for young people, and intended to publish an ethics textbook to help youths live principled, freethinking lives. Knowing the dangers of such forthrightness, the series’ editor suggested Yoshino write a novel instead.

Thus “How Do You Live?” is more elliptical than bluntly instructive. Considered a classic today, it’s about a teenage boy named Koperu (a reference to the astronomer Copernicus) who struggles with change in the wake of his father’s death, while his uncle writes letters offering advice on the challenges his nephew encounters. The novel concludes with the narrator posing the title’s provocative question to the reader, making us a part of the story, instead of just an onlooker.

. . .Though the film isn’t explicitly based on the novel, elements of Yoshino’s story surface throughout, including a rather Copernican-looking character late in the film. But the clearest link comes early, when Mahito finds a copy of “How Do You Live?” in a stack of books. He discovers a note on the flyleaf from his mother, addressed to him. He reads the book and weeps before setting out on his journey.

The references give the serpentine plot fresh meaning. “The Boy and the Heron” has few straightforward lessons to teach. Mahito learns he cannot save the world single-handedly, and shouldn’t try. Love and art, balanced together, are how a person can manage to exist without malice or fear. With that, it’s easy to imagine Miyazaki, whose life and work have spanned so many decades, implicitly turning to his audience, a single question in mind: How do you live?

Here’s the trailer in English.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is a hunting and fain would lie down:

A: What are you looking at?
Hili: At a potential meal.
In Polish:
Ja: Na co patrzysz?
Hili: Na potencjalny posiłek.

*******************

From Facebook we learn how to catch a runaway pig:

Here’s a news video about the pig; note that actor Kevin Bacon weighed in:

Another one from Facebook:

From Annie:

From Masih: These young Iranians are brave as hell!

Is Ilhan in trouble? (Luana sent this with a note, “Your best friend needs help!!!”) I don’t think Omar will get dime one from me, though. . .

Two from Jez. Look at those eyelashes!

. . . and a message from the former Miss Iraq. Well, she was actually Miss Universe Iraq 2017 and a secular Muslim who supports Israel.

From gravelinspector, who notes, “Most people forget, as they look at huge foot- and hand- claws in the museum, that these are the *cores* of the claws, and there was a *substantial* keratin sheath around the claw.”

From my home feed, and you’ll definitely need the sound up:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, a 13 year old girl gassed upon arrival:

Tweets from Dr. Cobb. First, a huge mess of crustaceans:

19 thoughts on “Wednesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. The dino fact is M I N D B L O W N worthy!

    Yeah, makes sense! Rhino horn is not bone, right? It’s keratin?

    What bone is ever pointing out as plain bone?

    Thank you Grav Guv, the Graveliest, the Gravel Meister!

    [ regretful embarrassment in 3.. 2.. 1..]

  2. On this day:
    1307 – Pope Clement V issues the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets. [The Knights Templar were active in the area where I live and one theory links them to the mysterious Royston Cave underneath our town centre.]

    1718 – Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard attacks and boards the vessels of the British pirate Edward Teach (best known as “Blackbeard”) off the coast of North Carolina. The casualties on both sides include Maynard’s first officer Mister Hyde and Teach himself.

    1837 – Canadian journalist and politician William Lyon Mackenzie calls for a rebellion against the United Kingdom in his essay “To the People of Upper Canada”, published in his newspaper The Constitution.

    1869 – In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched.

    1943 – World War II: Cairo Conference: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan.

    1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald, who also kills Dallas Police officer J. D. Tippit after fleeing the scene. U.S Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th President of the United States afterwards.

    1967 – UN Security Council Resolution 242 is adopted, establishing a set of the principles aimed at guiding negotiations for an Arab–Israeli peace settlement.

    1971 – In Britain’s worst mountaineering tragedy, the Cairngorm Plateau Disaster, five children and one of their leaders are found dead from exposure in the Scottish mountains.

    1975 – Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain following the death of Francisco Franco.

    1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdraws from the Conservative Party leadership election, confirming the end of her Prime-Ministership.

    2004 – The Orange Revolution begins in Ukraine, resulting from the presidential elections.

    Births:
    1428 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, English nobleman, known as “the Kingmaker” (d. 1471).

    1635 – Francis Willughby, English ornithologist and ichthyologist (d. 1672).

    1710 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer (d. 1784).

    1808 – Thomas Cook, English businessman, founded Thomas Cook Group (d. 1892).

    1819 – George Eliot, English novelist and poet (d. 1880).

    1820 – Katherine Plunket, Irish supercentenarian (d. 1932).

    1857 – George Gissing, English novelist (d. 1903).

    1890 – Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician, President of France (d. 1970).

    1898 – Wiley Post, American pilot (d. 1935).

    1899 – Hoagy Carmichael, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (d. 1981).

    1901 – Joaquín Rodrigo, Spanish pianist and composer (d. 1999).

    1913 – Benjamin Britten, English pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1976).

    1917 – Andrew Huxley, English physiologist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012).

    1921 – Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian, actor, rapper, and screenwriter (d. 2004).

    1922 – Eugene Stoner, American engineer and weapons designer, designed the AR-15 rifle (d. 1997).

    1924 – Geraldine Page, American actress and singer (d. 1987).

    1930 – Peter Hall, English director (d. 2017).

    1932 – Robert Vaughn, American actor and director (d. 2016).

    1936 – John Bird, English actor, writer and satirist (d. 2022).

    1940 – Terry Gilliam, American-English actor, director, animator, and screenwriter.

    1941 – Tom Conti, Scottish actor and director.

    1943 – Billie Jean King, American tennis player.

    1948 – Saroj Khan, Indian dance choreographer, known as “The Mother of Dance/Choreography in India” (d. 2020).

    1948 – Mick Rock, English photographer (d. 2021).

    1950 – Steven Van Zandt, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor.

    1950 – Tina Weymouth, American singer-songwriter and bass player.

    1955 – George Alagiah, British journalist (d. 2023).

    1958 – Jamie Lee Curtis, American actress.

    1961 – Mariel Hemingway, American actress.

    1961 – Stephen Hough, English-Australian pianist and composer.

    1967 – Boris Becker, German tennis player.

    1967 – Mark Ruffalo, American actor.

    1980 – Shawn Fanning, American computer programmer and businessman, founded Napster.

    1984 – Scarlett Johansson, American actress.

    1986 – Oscar Pistorius, South African sprinter and convicted murderer.

    Then I heard what I thought was a motorcycle backfiring, only it wasn’t – it was the first shot and then in a few seconds, another shot and a third.”
    1538 – John Lambert, English Protestant martyr. [Burned at the stake for denying the doctrine of transubstantiation.]

    1697 – Libéral Bruant, French architect and academic, designed Les Invalides (b. c.1635).

    1774 – Robert Clive, English general, politician and first British governor of Bengal (b. 1725).

    1871 – Oscar James Dunn, African American activist and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana 1868-1871 (b. 1826).

    1896 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., American engineer, invented the Ferris wheel (b. 1859).

    1900 – Arthur Sullivan, English composer (b. 1842).

    1916 – Jack London, American novelist and journalist (b. 1876).

    1943 – Lorenz Hart, American playwright and composer (b. 1895).

    1955 – Shemp Howard, American actor and comedian (b. 1895).

    1963 – Aldous Huxley, English novelist and philosopher (b. 1894).

    1963 – C. S. Lewis, British writer, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian (b. 1898).

    1980 – Mae West, American stage and film actress (b. 1893).

    1981 – Hans Adolf Krebs, German-English physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900).

    1986 – Scatman Crothers, American actor and comedian (b. 1910).

    1989 – C. C. Beck, American illustrator (b. 1910).

    1992 – Sterling Holloway, American actor (b. 1905).

    1993 – Anthony Burgess, English novelist, playwright, and critic (b. 1917).

    1996 – Terence Donovan, English photographer and director (b. 1936).

    1997 – Michael Hutchence, Australian singer-songwriter (b. 1960).

    2000 – Emil Zátopek, Czech runner (b. 1922).

    2007 – Verity Lambert, English television producer (b. 1935)
    [Founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who from 1963 until 1965.]

    2011 – Lynn Margulis, American biologist and academic (b. 1938).

    1. The expedition to get pirate Teach/Blackbeard was funded by the Virginia Colony’s Royal Governor at that time and legend has it that Blackbeard’s severed head was brought back to port and posted on a piling overlooking what is now Hampton Roads to warn off other pirates from attacking Virginia settlers. This is the same Hampton Roads estuary on which the first airplane was launched from a ship (birth of naval aviation) and the Union ship Monitor fought the Confederate ship Merrimack in the first battle of naval ironclads.

  4. My daughter at an early age was glad her dad was an animation freak and absolutely loved totoro.

  5. Actor/Director Rob Reiner is now doing a circuit to promote his “deep dive” book on the Kennedy assassination. From what I can see, he has bought in to just about every crack-pot theory out there while posing as an objective expert now who has done more “research” than you did so there. You know, in my youth I was once one of those people, fairly obsessed with the event and conspiracies around it. I read books, and poured over a boot-leg copy of the Zapruder film (where one can see an obvious contradiction to a key conspiracy detail). That was the beginning of my falling out with conspiracy theories and declarations of truth from some adults. Little by little, and especially with the help of some documentaries that realistically tested how Oswald could have done it, I learned that the Warren commission got it basically right insofar that Oswald needed no help. I also learned that it’s common for eyewitnesses to be a very dubious source for facts, and that back then ballistics experts did not know jack about full metal jacket bullets. Oswald would have had little trouble doing what was done on his own with that cheap but very powerful mail-order rifle. The evidence for that is very convincing.

      1. 60 years ago, the assassination of JFK, it doesn’t see possible and such was the impact of him and his death most of our generation and others can remember exactly what they were doing and where at the time.

        1. Yeah, Don DeLillo’s Libra is a great novel (though some stuffed shirts, such as George Will, labelled its writing an “act of bad citizenship”).

          But for fictional verisimilitude regarding the facts leading up to JFK’s assassination, give me James Ellroy’s American Tabloid.

          I read Libra around the same time I read Norman Mailer’s nonfiction Oswald’s Tale. It wasn’t until a few years later, while brooding about the two books, that it struck me how strange it was that two of America’s greatest writers would take a few years out of the prime of their writing careers to research in minute detail the life of a widely described “loser” who died at age 24 more than two decades earlier.

          Tells you something about how large the JFK assassination looms in the American imagination.

          1. “Bad citizenship?” Because DeLillo implicated the CIA or something? Will is a turd.

            I will pick up Ellroy’s novel…I keep forgetting about Ellroy. Pity for me.

            Nice observation about great writers scrutinizing Oswald and his looming presence. It’s strange. In America, he’s still a part of our zeitgeist, while an assassin like Gavrilo Princip, arguably the most influential character of the 20th century, is pretty much forgotten.

      3. I’d add one more work. After the Warren Report was published and began receiving pushback, Dwight MacDonald, the great literary/film critic and gadfly, published an excellent article in Esquire that knocked the report for bad writing (“The Warren Report is an American-style Iliad, i.e., an anti-Iliad that retells great and terrible events in limping prose instead of winged poetry. And what prose! The lawyer’s drone, the clotted chunks of expert testimony, the turgidities of officialese, the bureaucrat’s smooth-worn evasions”) but also criticized the conspiracists and argued that Oswald, despite the inadequacies of the Warren Report, was still the guilty culprit.

        A link:
        https://kenrahn.com/JFK/History/WC_Period/Reactions_to_Warren_Report/Reactions_of_left/Macdonald_critique_of_WCR.html

  6. Not my decision, but I worry about this ceasefire. Ceasefires during active operations are usually seen as an opportunity for one side to gain an advantage, unless clear rules are set, such as no moving equipment into or out of the ceasefire zone, or no building or reinforcing fortifications. Violations of those rules could allow on side to unilaterally end the ceasefire. So the question is, what does Hamas gain from this? The folks they are getting back from Israel, of course. Anything else? I’ve no doubt that they will use the ceasefire to redeploy men and equipment. Hopefully, Israel will be watching.

    1. Agreed. Releasing hostages in dribs and drabs could potentially drag the cease fire out for weeks, giving Hamas time to scatter, regroup, and rearm, and/or giving Hamas leaders time to flee the country for a safe haven. During this long lull—or intermittent lulls—the international community will call for a permanent cease fire. The Biden administration’s resolve may soften. IDF strategy will become stale, benefiting Hamas. And Israelis, with their hostages coming home, may lose their desire to fight. They may want to return to the practice of “mowing the grass.” Unfortunately, as we learned from the October 7 attack, that is not a good long-term strategy.

      So, yes, this cease-fire and hostage release is fraught. In the end, Hamas could very well remain intact.

  7. I think this genocidal attack by Hamas was meant to take attention away from Ukraine.
    The real war is in Ukraine. The West should give Ukraine what it needs. That is ATACMs, GLSDBs, 155mm shells, more air defense systems, more thermal cameras .
    Only overwhelming aid to Ukraine can prevent Putin’s expansionist plans. Stronger: a firm support for Ukraine may convince Putin this war is lost, and hence to be terminated on shorter notice.
    Of course, I’m not holding my breath.

    1. I have to disagree but it did take the focus off Putin’s war on Ukraine. No doubt though he welcomed this turn of events e.g. the west can’t be trusted look what the Israeli puppet allied to the US/west are doing in Palestine, genocide etc., etc. Ramping up Russian nationalism as part of his veil of propaganda, clamping down hard on critics of the army, the war.
      It has been reported the police are busy running around arresting people for minor violations and investigating “my neighbour has curtains that look like the colours of the Ukrainian flag.”
      The Iranian link and that connection with Hamas will definitely be where Putin will align, his war effort needs them.
      An aside, Putin had good relations with Israel and he had childhood friends that were Jewish. Not sure about this now but Israel are yet to place sanctions on Russia like the west did but there are holes in the so called sanctions like swiss cheese.

  8. Love all the ‘spy’ critters though there are clearly many other cameras around, ‘spy’ or otherwise, since we get to see the ‘spy’ critters a great deal of the time. It must have been a blast designing and building all the ‘spy’ critters which are wonderful in their imitations of the way the real critters move. We just got the four underwater episodes recently.

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