[ MS: At this moment, we begin by recalling what happened long (??!!) ago, ...and lessons learned since ..., ..., October 7th 2023 - and new military interpretations of how to fight an Amalek-like enemy today.]
We begin, first, with a Purim photo.
These are “tatzpetaniyot,” the Israeli soldiers, mostly women, who sit at computers all day and all night and monitor cameras along the border on infinite screens. There are tatzpetaniyot along the Gaza border in the south, the Lebanon and Syria borders in the north. And elsewhere.
These are the tatzpetaniyot of Nahal Oz, celebrating Purim.
It’s sweet, no?
No, not really. Because these are the tatzpetaniyot of Nahal Oz last Purim, when they were still alive. On October 7th, tatzpetaniyot took the brunt of the hit. For days, some of them had warned of strange activity on the other side of the border, as is now well known and as will surely be thoroughly investigated, but they were ignored. “It’s nothing,” they were told. “Calm down.”
There was no one to protect these women (here’s that father we posted recently, screaming at the commander, asking where he was when the “girls” needed him). Many of them did not live to see this Purim. Of those who didn’t, some were shot, some were burnt alive.
Take a look at the joy, the fun, the camaraderie, the youth, the lives just beginning. Who could possibly have imagined?"
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Military Self Defense - Against Modern Amalek
Major John Spencer - West Point, Modern War Institute
John Spencer, a top-level, global military expert on Urban Warfare, studied the Israeli military for years and recently walked through the Israeli towns, police stations and bases attacked by Hamas. His reports are widely credited, in military circles like West Point and in publications, like Time magazine.
URBAN WARFARE PROJECT PODCAST: STUDYING THE OCTOBER 7 TERRORIST ATTACKS
John Spencer | 03.15.24
Here is his podcast on what happened in each Israeli community after Hamas attacked them (NOTE, its edited and with warnings before very sensitive scenes. I did not watch them.) The Attacks by Hamas in Israel - a true military invasion and battle war plans, not a raid on October 7th.
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Parshat Zachor
Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary: Three-Volume Set - W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
[MS: Alter Bible on Kindle: Complete with 28 Introductory essays and Notes, in addition to landmark translation word by word. The 2024 Price is quite reasonable at about $75. Copyright Material. Emphasis and editing are added.]
See dozens of Sheets about Alter on the MS Robert Alter Sefaria Collection.
[MS: Copyright material. Editing, additions and deletions are supplied.]
Zachor: Alter Notes - Deuteronomy 25:17- 19
17 . Remember what Amalek did to you. It is not entirely clear why Amalek (compare Exodus 17:8–16) is singled out as the archenemy of Israel. In historical terms, the Amalekites, a seminomadic people of the Negeb and southern trans-Jordan region, carried out frequent and brutal marauding raids against Israelite settlements (see the story about the Amalekite raid against David’s town of Ziklag in 1 Samuel 30). Deuteronomy here offers an explanation for the opprobrium of Amalek not mentioned in Exodus—that the Amalekites attacked the Israelite stragglers, who would have been the old, the infirm, and women and children, and slaughtered them. [MS: But see fraud and deception in FN 18, based on verses 25:13-18]
18 . he fell upon you . . . and he did not fear God . This language suggests an ambush of the stragglers. S. D. Luzatto, the nineteenth-century Italian Hebrew exegete, proposes that this injunction is connected to the previous one about false weights and measures through the idea of deception.
19 . when the LORD your God grants you respite from all your enemies. Historically, a campaign to wipe out the Amalekites was undertaken in the time of Hezekiah late 8th century BCE.
19. you shall wipe out the remembrance of Amalek . The noun zekher , which is also used in the parallel verse in Exodus 17:14, means “name” but derives from the root meaning “remembrance.” .... But it is important to retain the idea of remembering in translation because the writer is pointedly playing with “remembrance . . . do not forget.”
Fraud and Deception:
[MS: See verses: 25:13-18 and Alter Note 18 - Why is Amalek singled out for the archetypal enemy of the Jews? Alter suggests it was Amalek's deception and fraud plus brutal slaughter of the civilians and the powerless (perhaps like a hostage after the battle is over).]
13 You shall not have in your pouch different weight-stones, a big one and a small one.
14 You shall not have in your house different ephah measures, a big one and a small one.
15 A whole and honest weight-stone you shall have; a whole and honest ephah measure you shall have, so that you may enjoy length of days on the soil that the L ORD your God is about to give you.
***16 For the abhorrence of the LORD your God is anyone who does all these things, who commits any fraud. 17 Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt, 18 how he fell upon you on the way and cut down all the stragglers, with you famished and exhausted, and he did not fear God. ***
Hamas War against the Jews - The use of Fraud and Deception?
How could October 7th have happened? In the midst of the war against Hamas, the time is not yet come to have the historic investigation in depth in Israel about how Hamas completely surprised the IDF and Israel.
A further question must be this one: How did so many global friends of Jews and Israel suddenly switch over to support for Hamas' genocidal attack and leveled an accusation that Israel is conducting genocide agains the Palestinians?
Was there deception and fraud?
Already there are voices by scholars and public intellectuals of decades of deception, dishonesty and fraud by Hamas. If so, how did it work? How did so many fall for it?
Sources to follow include these:
Einat Wilf: The Palestine Propoganda Complex
Richard Landes: "Can the Whole World Be Wrong?"
Daniel Gordis - Israel from the Inside
Haviv Retig Gur: The Great Misinterpretation: How Palestinians View Israel - Anti-Zionist Palstinian Self Deception and Deceiving the Infidels:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlK2mfYYm4U/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Revised March 21, 2024