Before we to get the video above:
Below, after the video, a post by a soldier who mentioned to a bus driver that she was hungry after days of fighting … and what happened. And we are posting again — at the request of some who missed it — the video from earlier this week about Ma’ayan Gross and her return to her old unit, albeit under very different circumstances.
And now, as they say, for something completely different.
I had occasion to do a video podcast with Amy E. Schwartz of Moment Magazine a couple of days ago. Our conversation covered a wide range of issues related to Israel’s challenges at this moment, but interestingly, she also wanted to discuss Israel from the Inside—how it started, what we’ve been seeking to do since we launched it in May 2021 and how the project’s goals have changed, and why, since October 7.
Since many of our readers joined the conversation long after those initial days, I thought some might be interested in hearing why we launched this project and, in “normal times,” what we hoped to accomplish.
There’s a very brief clip of an opening segment our conversation above, which includes the (either amusing or ridiculous) story of how Israel from the Inside got (partially) started while I was out for a bike ride as Hamas rained missiles on Jerusalem, and found myself in an Arab village as the sirens went off.
Our full conversation was longer, of course, and included some discussion of what’s going on inside the souls of Israelis, and—in what I thought was a great and interesting question—when it was that I really felt Israeli. I’d never really thought about that question in that way, so very much appreciated Amy’s raising it.
In any event, Moment Magazine has made the full conversation available on their website, and if you’re interested, you can find it here.
Slightly related, this week we met with those at the National Library of Israel who are heading up a mammoth project to chronicle and document the horrors of October 7th and its aftermath in perpetuity. We’ll be doing a podcast with members of the staff to hear about what this entails—it’s incredible how complicated it is.
I was very honored that they asked us to contribute all the postings of Israel from the Inside to that archive, and we’ll begin working on that soon, too.
Israelis are facing an unfolding crisis, but also an important opportunity to rebuild. If you would like to share our conversation about what they are feeling and what is happening that the English press can’t cover, please subscribe today.
This post by Faragi Pearl (about whom I know nothing) is making its way around Israeli social media. The fact that it’s gone viral says something about the kinds of vignettes Israelis want to hear these days.
The translation into English is Google-generated (it’s not bad, just substitute “moving” for “exciting” on the second line. מרגש can mean either, and Google got it wrong).
In the meantime, a few people misplaced the email with Sunday’s clip about Ma’ayan Gross and her return to her combat unit under very different circumstances than what they were the previous time she’d served. They asked that we repost it, so if you missed it and would like to see it, it follows for your convenience.
The original posting and what we wrote about it is here, if you’re interested.
