Weekend Wrap: Wartime in Tel Aviv. AI Wars and More...

Local mood in Israel, vicious antisemitism in Canada, Basij attacked, a lemon olive-oil recipe, and then some

Editor’s Note: Our newish weekly feature – which was launched in January and initally called the Friday Wrap has now been renamed “Weekend Wrap”. Truth is that yesterday, Friday, I was spent. Could barely hold my head up. It has been a difficult week. And so, the decision was made….the Wrap is now going to drop anytime between Friday and Sunday…..

Just as soon as you dare to think that maybe things are calming down…..

I’ll begin with some very good news from this week: the regional fitness center in my neck of the woods is open again. I’m back in the pool. Amazing - what a good workout does for the mind and body….and there are plenty of shelters and safe rooms on site. You see, this is how we plan our lives. Proximity to shelters.

“Do I really need to run that errand today or can it wait?”

In the southern district of Sha’ar HaNegev, where I live, schools reopened this week. On the first day they opened there were several sirens, so they were closed and reopened a day or two later. Honestly, I can’t keep track. I don’t even try. Kibbutz kids are just fine with no school. They run around freely and either play with their friends or participate in the many organized activities in the community.

Tuesday afternoon. It was beautiful and sunny. The small field across the path from my house was teeming with kids. The sounds of everything – their toys, their happy play – was balm. And then there was a siren. Shortly after 4pm. Within seconds the children had all dashed to one of the many small shelters in the area. And everything went silent. When we all emerged from our fortified confines ten or fifteen minutes later, the kids went home.

We have up to 30 seconds to make it to a shelter after the alarm sounds. Children live like this. This is normal. This is not normal.

For city kids – especially those in Tel Aviv and other areas with high-density populations and unceasing sirens and missile intercepts, it’s a whole different story.

I had a Tel Aviv day on Wednesday. A combination of errands that could not be put off and then, as always, I fit in some fun stuff. Like a touch up at the hair salon.

It was like dropping onto another planet. People are bedraggled. Streets are empty. Many shops are closed. Most telling? There is no traffic. Like – none. You can get a parking spot. Anywhere. In Tel Aviv.

Before leaving my home I entered my destination into my GPS, as always.

I figured it wasn’t working properly. Impossible. Just one hour in peak morning traffic time from my home in the south to Kfar Saba? (Tel Aviv suburb – errand run there). One hour? Can’t be. But it was.

Once in Tel Aviv I usually park in a lot and taxi around. Traffic and parking can make you crazy. Mid-afternoon, I was standing outside Tel Aviv City Hall. I called a taxi on my app. It insisted that I was in Amman, Jordan. Me and the app – we went back and forth. I restarted my phone several times. The app was adamant about the Amman thing. Eventually, I went old-school and hailed a taxi by raising my hand. It worked. GPS systems developing minds of their own is a classic symptom of wartime here.

I spent a few hours getting things done in my old neighborhood in central Tel Aviv. I saw friends and acquaintances. To a person they were drained.

During a barrage of missiles that hammered Tel Aviv and area on Tuesday night, a married couple in their 70s was making the mad dash to the safe room in their apartment. One of them used a walker to move about. They were a few feet away from safety when shrapnel debris from a an Iranian missile crashed through the roof of their four-storey building and killed them.

That was all anyone spoke about. A heavy gloom hung over Tel Aviv. People were exhausted and feeling helpless.

“I feel like I’m at the edge,” my hair stylist said. “I can’t take much more of this. I’m beginning to feel like we’re going to be like Ukraine. A war that never ends.”

“Two weeks. No sleep. No school for the kids,” another friend says. She is weary. “No one comes into my store (she sells beautifully curated housewares from the Far East). “This is our busiest month of the year – right before Passover. Who is thinking of buying things that you don’t really need?”

“I have to get out,” says a third acquaintance. She has booked tickets to visit family in Paris on three different airlines, hoping that one of them will fly. “I just need to breathe.”

You get the drift.

Many Israelis have decamped for long semi-permanent stretches to places like India and Thailand. Some have been there since October 2023. With each month and year of this intensity, more leave. Very few return.

Also on Wednesday, I popped into the Ramat Aviv shopping mall in the north end of Tel Aviv. Known for its concentration of high-end retailers, the mall was packed, but not with the usual clientele. Families made a day of hanging out there. You have everything. A supermarket. Restaurants. And the kids can run around. Plenty of shelters and protected spaces there. It just feels safer. Even if it isn’t.

Artificial Intelligence and the War

There has been a surfeit of online content lately portraying life in Tel Aviv as a never-ending party. Young people sharing snippets of their fun lives that never quit. “Just going about my day. No biggie. A siren here and there.”

Full disclosure (shocking, I know): I am not a social media maven. I dabble in “X” (and do so less and less as time goes on). I keep meaning to post more content on Linkedin but – it remains an aspirational thing, mostly. I have someone manage the social accounts for State of Tel Aviv and Beyond. I have less than no interest in changing any of that. And the last few weeks just reinforce my thoughts about this.

During this war I have spoken with some younger people who have been churning out a genre of wartime content that I find peculiar. These are the people who call themselves “influencers.” It’s a concept that I’ve never quite grasped and still do not. It’s the Tik Tok/Instagram generation. They think and speak in clipped sound bites clashing with a barrage of images. The idea, I think, is to influence – or change – the way someone thinks about an issue within 30 seconds or so. Big issues. Complicated issues. All are reduced to content that appeals to herds.

Call me an intellectual snob. I can take it.

What I have learned in the last few weeks is that Iran and all sorts of bad people are flooding the online environment with anti-Israel content. Antisemitic content. No surprise there.

There have been many fake images generated by AI purporting to show Tel Aviv in ruins. And it seems that there are many people who believe it to be true. So, this cadre of influencers generate stuff that is intended to counter the lies. How? They write about life on the beach and in the cafes. A never ending frolic. They see it as hard-hitting psy-ops. But what they post is also a lie. It does not reflect the reality of Tel Aviv and this nation.

And I highly doubt that the Islamists and blue-haired progressives and groypers will be moved by pro-Israel influencer content.

But this past week - even PM Benjamin Netanyahu jumped into the fray.

Responding to multiple Iranian fake social media content that he was dead – Bibi played along and put out a few clips meant to be ironic but – most importantly – show that he is very much alive.

But he did not pretend that this war is a lark or that life is “normal.” That would just be, well, dumb.

Here is one of PM Netanyahu’s responses to regime propaganda:

Also on my Tel Aviv day I popped into the i24 TV studio at the Jaffa port to join Natasha Kirtchuk and Owen Alterman for the the daily news rundown. Among other things, by we discussed the wartime mood a bit. Here’s a clip of me addressing a question about how the war is wearing on Israelis:

On Tuesday morning, Israelis woke to the news that the head of the Basij police force in Iran had been killed in a targeted bombing. The Basij are the thugs who beat and shoot civilians protesting for freedom. They drag injured patients from hospital beds to execute them. I wrote about this and more in my National Post column which just went online at noon ET today.

Here’s the link and the first few paragraphs…..you can read the full piece on the National Post website:

On Tuesday morning, Israelis awoke to the news that the head of the Basij police in Iran had been killed in a targeted overnight air strike.

Gholamreza Soleimani led the almost one-million strong force that is feared and loathed by Iranians for its violence and savagery in repressing even peaceful protest and dissent.

The top tier of Basij police are paid a salary, but most are not. They join and carry out their savage enforcement orders out of what is likely a desire for social status and power. Basij forces are the ones removing wounded protesters from hospitals and executing them in their beds. They shoot wildly and drive motorcycles into crowds.

Earlier this month, thousands of Basij members were sent a mass warning by an unknown actor: “You are under our complete surveillance. We know what crimes you have committed against the Iranian people. We have identified you and all your associates. Surrender or flee. There will be no second warning.”

This week, Basij men were filmed changing from their uniforms into street clothes on the streets of Tehran, which may suggest they’re fearful.

This could be the beginning of the moment when regime change moves from fantasy to reality. Typically, when an authoritarian regime loses control of its enforcers, the house of cards begins to collapse in upon itself.

The Hezballah and Iranian response to the Basij attack and others has been harsh and unrelenting. All over Israel.

We have also seen an escalation of critical energy infrastructure being targeted. I spoke today (Saturday) with a top expert on oil markets and movements – but he’s not the type who focuses on the micro issues – he’s a macro kind of guy who advises governments and large organizations. It will be an amazing podcast episode and accessible to premium subscribers only.

Back to the week in Israel. It just doesn’t stop. Was it Thursday? Or Friday? Maybe Wednesday? Does it matter? An Iranian missile scored a direct hit on the largest oil refinery in Israel located in the port of the northern city of Haifa.

America targeted Kharg Island – the beating heart of Iran’s oil and gas industry. In response, Iran attacked a major liquid natural gas refinery in Qatar…just a sampling of the escalation of energy hits. Some have renamed this conflict The Energy War.

And overnight we learned that Iran’s missile reach is beyond what any intelligence service or government disclosed publicly. If they even knew……

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If you missed our mailings this past week featuring podcasts focusing on antisemitism in Canada, we’ve popped in the links, below.

The first one is an interview with The Honorable Pierre Poilievre – Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in the Canadian Parliament. Pierre also appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast last week. The episode was aired on Friday and has caused a minor sensation.

In the State of Tel Aviv and Beyond episode, Poilievre addresses the real and escalating danger faced by Canadian Jews. We spoke just days after three Toronto area synagogues were attacked with gunfire. Here’s the link:

Also this week we dropped an episode with Deputy Conservative Party Leader, Melissa Lantsman. One of the synagogues that was attacked in Toronto is in her electoral riding. Pierre and Melissa are exceptionally principled, articulate and standing up fiercely for the fourth largest Jewish community in the world. If you missed these episodes last week I urge you to make time to watch them. You will not be disappointed.

Ok – I’m going to call it a wrap here. I must get to the pool and work out all that pent up physical energy. It’s a ten minute drive and if any missile alerts sound while I’m in transit there are plenty of ditches and roadside shelters to jump into with thirty seconds notice.

Yes. That’s the reality of how we go about our days here. It is exhausting but you would be hard-pressed to find an Israeli who does not support the defanging of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This truly is a fight for civilization as we know it, no less so than WWII. There are times when choices are very clear. Binary – to invoke an overused word these days. Good and Evil.

I’m on the side that supports freedom and democracy. Full stop.

Oh – and since I always try to end on a lighter note – I’m going to finish up today with the recipe for my lemon olive-oil dessert bars that I promised a few weeks ago. Stuff happened.

This recipe? Beyond delish. Here’s a not great photo of my most recent batch. (I never claimed to be a food photographer/stylist – this was just for my kids.) I like to decorate with black volcanic salt flakes – yes – it’s a thing. I pick it up at one of my favorite bougie food shops in Tel Aviv. Or – sometimes I cut fresh rosemary stalks from one of the many bushes at my doorstep. This kibbutz is basically one big clump of rosemary. It grows everywhere.

Lemon Olive Oil Salt Bars

Credit where due: This recipe is from the NYT cooking section, but I have modified it over time. And will continue to do so.

Step 1. Prep for prep

Heat oven to 325. Line a 9x9” pyrex or other baking pan with parchment. Leave excess on both sides so that you can lift the bars out of the pan once finished. I never do that, though. I do use the parchment because it makes cleaning easier. But I cut the bars in the pyrex and then leave the edges for whoever is around and wants to eat them. Kind of like licking the beaters when your mom made icing.

Step 2. Make the shortbread crust:

1 and1/4 cups/ 150 g flour

¼ cup/50 g plus 3 tablespoons of sugar – any kind you wish but nothing too fine. I always use golden or demerrara.

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest. No shortcuts.

¼ tsp fine sea salt

10 tbsp/150 g cold, unsalted butter cut into small cubes

Combine flour, sugar, lemon zest and salt. You can pulse in a food processor. Add butter cubes and pulse until it has the texture of a crumbly dough. I use a pastry fork (instead of a food processor) for this step. And at the end I often put on a pair of latex gloves and mash it up well. I’m one of those who thinks that working dough by hand makes it…..better?

Spread the crumble in the pyrex/pan and press it down firmly and evenly. I give it a few pokes with a fork (pressure release) and pop it in the oven until lightly toasted/golden brown. About a half hour.

Voila. Your shortbread crust.

Step 3. Making the Curd. But really, it’s more like a custard.

4-6 lemons

1 ½ cups/ 300 g sugar – I use about half this amount. Do it to suit your taste. I like it tart and find if you use all this sugar it’s kind of sickeningly sweet. Adjusting the sugar will not impact the thickness of the custard. I mean – I’m sure it does but it’s plenty thick with half the sugar.

Two large eggs plus three egg yolks.

1 ½ tsp /5 g cornstarch – I had someone bring me cornstarch from Canada because whatever they say is cornstarch in Israel – trust me – it isn’t.

Pinch of fine sea salt.

4 tbsp/ 55-ish grams butter

¼ c / 60 milliliters extra virgin olive oil with fruity notes. Seriously. It’s a thing. Bougie food stores carry this sort of product. I have to buy it in Tel Aviv. When I asked where I could find it in a local shop, the clerk looked at me like I had six heads.

Stuff for decorating – the best part. I love a visual contrast with these bars. My current obsession is volcanic black salt flakes. But any big flakes of colored salt will do. Dried or fresh blueberries. I often save a little lemon zest to sprinkle hither and thither. You can use peppercorns or very coarsely ground pepper. Go crazy. Serve these on a white dish and let the color pop and talk.

I think I want to try making a dessert with just the lemon curd. Layers of lemon, whipped cream in a clear glass vessel. Maybe drizzle a little strawberry, blueberry or raspberry (except you can’t get raspberries here, ever) sauce (easy peasy to make). Whatever strikes your fancy. Maybe add something with crunch. Stay tuned…..

And that, dear readers, is a wrap…..