So much has been happening in the last two weeks alone, it’s difficult to play catch up, so I will just try to recap the latest news from this part of the world.

Hizbulla in Lebanon has continued to lob missiles and rockets as well as unmanned suicide drones laden with explosives at us here in the North. There repeated attacks have increased in frequency and intensity over the last couple months. Since 8 October, over 8300 missiles alone have crossed into Northern Israel, mostly the Upper Galilee region. Tens of thousands of acres of brush and forests, vineyards and farms have burned. Homes and businesses in border towns are irreparable – just destroyed. There have been many casualties. Just this morning a katbam (UAV) hit a service vehicle filled with passengers on their way to work.

Last week, the IDF flew deep into Syria to take out an Iranian weapons factory. Paratroopers -boots on the ground- were needed because the facilities were deep underground. Iranian and Lebanese terror supporters were taken prisoner, the facility was completely destroyed. It was a middle of the night operation, and a complete success. No civilian casualties.

In May, Hizbulla decided to drop their cell phone means of communication between the terrorists as it was too easily hackable. They purchased thousands of beepers to use instead. They were purchased by Iran from a Taiwanese factory, shipped to Hungary, then to Lebanon and distributed to members of Hizbulla. When a coordinated Arab attack on Israel was to occur, the terrorist would get a beep and message on his pager. This past Tuesday, just two days ago, at exactly 5:05pm, the pagers started beeping, heating up, and exploding. It was a precisely targeted operation to avoid civilian casualties and just get the Hizbulla operatives. 14 were killed and many were injured quite badly. The Iran ambassador to Lebanon was badly injured when his pager exploded. Why was he carrying a beeper given to Hizbulla command operatives? Hmmmmm…. The Hungarian shell company that distributed the pagers has completely disappeared. Vanished into thin air. All lines are down. No one home. Perhaps it was Acme Pager Co. Beep beep.

Yesterday, the Hizbulla commanders made the move to use walkie-talkies and radio as back up to the pager system. So at precisely 4:45 in the afternoon, the walkie-talkies and radios all blew up. Several more Hizbulla and IRGC members were killed and many injured. Israel has remained quiet and not taken responsibility for the explosive devices. We don’t know if this is the beginning of an extended opening of the Northern front, or if this was just another warning move.

Also on Wednesday, the UN passed a resolution calling for Jerusalem (the Holy City/Old City), Judaea, Samaria and Gaza to be completely free of Jews within 12 months. The ruling passed 124-14 with 43 abstentions. This follows the July UN ruling calling for a complete arms embargo and boycott of Israeli products. Kamala Harris has promised a stricter embargo on weapons to Israel if she is elected. The US just granted Egypt $1.3 billion in military aid, waiving all human rights requirements. PM Starmer in the UK and Macron in France have both decided to halt all shipment of needed replacement parts to Israel. And to cap it all off – in a landmark decision, the “State of Palestine” has been given a permanent seat at the United Nations.

In other news, Osama Bin Laden’s son, Hamza, seems to be alive and well. He is rebuilding AlQaeda, holding regular meetings with the Taliban leaders and is setting up military training camps in North Afghanistan. Known terrorists trained in the Middle East and on the government’s ’watch list’ have been flooding into the United States via Venezuela.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION: A friend of ours just gave us a book that I finished reading in three days. It was hard to put down, incredibly relevant (PROPHETIC almost) to today, and a MUST-READ. Please get The Attack by Kurt Schlicter. I can see this coming in the next year. It is very pertinent. Highly, highly recommended!!! Very well researched.

With everything going on, weddings are still happening. We went to a gorgeous wedding two weeks ago. The bride is native Israeli from generations back. Super sweet, and a beautiful young woman. The groom is Canadian-Israeli. I’m so glad we and a cadre of friends attended. Because there is only one airline flying here, and because there was a temporary shutdown due to fears of an attack on Ben Gurion International, 38 members of the groom’s extended family were caught – stranded in North America. So there were 4 empty tables at the lavish reception dinner.

Speaking of flight drama. My husband’s father just passed away. We’ve been scrambling for almost two days now to find a flight out of Israel to Washington, D.C. Only ElAl is flying. No other airlines. There are no more bereavement fares on any airlines that we could find. That seems to be a thing of the past. The only available seats were for 3 October (Rosh haShannah) in business class. Nearly $6000 EACH WAY per person. That would have cost us $24,000. Not happening. We finally found a flight to Italy on the 5th. Then we will take Italia Air to DC getting in the 6th of October.

My father-in-law was a decorated war hero in WWII and Vietnam, a full colonel in the USAir Force. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery with a full 21-gun salute and military corps. With all the government bureaucracy, there is now a 6 month hold and interment is tentatively scheduled for March. So there will be a memorial service on the 9th of October, giving us time to fly the kids to DC. Life is so complicated these days. We will be gone (hoping nothing else happens and the airport remains open) for that week in October.

Later in the month, through the beginning of November, John and I are planning a getaway 40th anniversary trip to Northern Italy…Venice, Tuscany, Florence, Lake Como and Milan. I pray it all works out and we will be able to relax and have fun. We have friends outside Venice and another family we know has a property in the Milan area, so we can stay there for parts of the adventure.

I leave you with a picture of an IDF reservist who made it to the hospital just in time to see his new baby after it was born. There are tons of babies arriving daily in Israel. So many women are pregnant!!! And that’s a sign of hope for the future – and a vey good thing indeed-