Mediterranean holiday

Over the weekend, I flew to Greece for a writing retreat, which is where I’m writing this newsletter. (I know, poor me.) I’m currently looking out onto the Aegean Sea, which is as blue and calm as advertised. It is weird to know that, just seven hundred miles over the horizon—the distance, in American terms, from Orlando to Washington—at the far edge of the Mediterranean, a core U.S. ally is bombing yet another set of civilians from the sky, putting the entire region at the edge of all-out war.

I got a small geographic reminder on the flight. It turned out my seatmate, on the nonstop from Washington to Athens, was the father of an Israeli-American family. They’d been split up on the flight because their previous booking, a United direct to Tel Aviv, had gotten canceled, all because the prime minister of the country of their birth had decided to roll the dice, again, on starting World War III. They were headed to a wedding in Jerusalem; getting to Athens would put them most of the way there, after which they hoped to hop a different airline’s puddle jumper from one holy land to another. (I chose not to ask his opinion on Israel’s escalation with Hezbollah or the war in Gaza; nine hours in coach is a long time to sit in acrimony.)

What, once again, is Benjamin Netanyahu thinking? Why did the Mossad decide to launch its deadly, James Bond villain-style exploding-pagers-style attack on the Lebanese populace — an attack whose targets included Hezbollah operatives, yes, but also maimed thousands of civilians and killed at least two children, leading no less a hawk than former Director of Central Intelligence and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to call it unquestionably a “form of terrorism?” Doesn’t Israel have enough going on, with its refusal to end its slaughter in Gaza — a slaughter that has claimed over 41,000 Palestinian lives, and possibly multiples more than that — as the High Holidays and the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack (which occurred on Simchat Torah) approach?

It’s almost become commonplace to note that Israel is not operating under anything that could be deemed a military or political strategy. I think that’s underselling it a bit: Netanyahu’s goal is to stay in office (and out of prison, in Israel and potentially the Hague). His strategy to achieve that goal is to just keep the killing going as long as possible. The side benefit for him is that he continues to cause chaos, to provoke fear (i.e., terror) among his enemies at home and abroad, seeing how far he can push everyone in the region until they take the bait for a regional war or fold. As I wrote in August, he may have the U.S. elections partially in mind—a regional war that Americans might blame on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Democrats, and thus peel off votes in favor of his ally and preferred president, Donald Trump.

A desire to deny Trump any advantage may also be motivating Iran’s refusal, so far, to take the bait: as Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian told CNN today: “We know more than anyone else that if a larger war were to erupt in the Middle East, it will not benefit anyone throughout the world.” But whether motivated by political restraint or a feeling their forces are overmatched, it likely can’t last forever. As Pezeshkian added: “Hezbollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries—European countries, and the United States of America … We must not allow for Lebanon to become another Gaza at the hands of Israel.”

Anyway, here we are, and here I am. As noted, I’m here in Aristotle country to focus on writing — I’m kicking around a new book project, of which I will hopefully have more to say soon. But that doesn’t mean I can’t keep in touch with you, my wonderful Racketeers.

Please send along your questions, or things you’d like me to weigh in on, either by responding to this email or clicking on the button below. You can ask about the wars, Haiti, the election, shows I’m watching, what I’m eating in Greece, whatever you like. I’ll pick the best submissions and answer them as best I can in (hopefully) the next issue of The Racket:

In the meantime, rest, eat, and be well.