Where We Are This Week

Wedding anniversaries, Iran strikes Israel, and my sis goes substacking.

Nine years ago, I stood behind a row of white chairs facing the largest oak tree in the field. Dark clouds formed over the horizon and were rolling quickly in our direction and Led Zeppelin’s ‘Out on the Tiles’ was playing loud. There was no way it wasn’t going to rain.

Moments later, I watched my soon-to-be wife walk down the aisle.

Nearly a decade later, the life we have now is nearly unrecognizable from the one we were entering back then. No more late nights at music venues, no more early mornings at the coffee shop for my wife, and I’m not working well past dark at the bike shop these days.

Our love is less on display than it used to be. After dating and the first few years of marriage, you’re left to your own devices - to build your hidden empire. The love that you created folds in on itself countless times over, takes on an identity of its own and resonates in a soft hum like the tape hiss of reality.

Oxford, MS, 2023

There was no romantic outing planned, no fancy dinner. My wife made a preserved lemon cake to ‘celebrate’ but her baking something is hardly a unique occurrence. Our day was indistinguishable from any of the rest, save for the occasional ‘happy anniversary!’ said between tasks.

We had our coffee and cake together, broke for work and a trip to Target, and saw each other briefly at lunch, then parted ways once more. Later, I snuck in a workout before we spent the afternoon playing with our daughter in the backyard. I made a quick, decidedly un-celebratory, dinner, then we went to the Catholic church in our neighborhood where I play in a bocce league with some friends.

It was when we were putting our girl down to sleep that I realized how much of a celebration that day had been. Our life is the ‘house that Babe love built’, and every successful, joyous day is a testament to the quiet, reliable spirit that resides within us.

Nine years ago, as the clouds broke, the sun shone again, and my wife emerged with it. Neither of us could have orchestrated that moment any more than we could have planned the events that would unfold over the next decade, but still, it didn’t rain then, and it’s not raining now.

A ray of sunshine melts my frown
And blows my blues away
There's nothing more that I can say
But on a day like today I pass the time away
And walk a quiet mile with you

---

The Arnold’s Take Substack

Much to the chagrin (I can only imagine) of her husband, I still call my sister an Arnold. Be that what it may, I realize now her surname - past or present - isn’t even displayed on her page. As I’m figuring out this out in real-time, stream-of-consciousness-style, I realize I’m burying the lede.

My sister

Joanna Dee

has started her own Substack. While similar, and both artists, I’ve never really thought we had a sibling rivalry. We’re four years apart which is just enough of a difference to not produce a lot of competitive overlap, and artistically, we might as well be in different worlds. Granted our medium has always been different, mine music and poetry, her’s illustration and design, but still, where she has been more commercially adept, I’ve never been smart enough to make something for which someone is willing to pay.

Regardless, this whole ‘no sibling rivalry’ nonsense ends now. I was here first, and now, I’m going to be in her comments every article, talking up my own publication. It’s what younger brothers are for.

In all seriousness, my sister is a talented artist whose illustrative work I can only think to describe as historical pop culture - or would it be pop historical culture? As her publication, The Sentimentalist, is only in its infancy, I have no idea what it will ultimately comprise, but Joanna is a unique individual with a unique perspective that will undoubtedly be worth your time.

When she told me she was starting a newsletter, I told her it would take her no time to surpass modest success on this platform. So, with no further ado, you may now go fulfill my own prophecy.

---

Israel v. Iran

Great news, my friends. The situation in the Middle East continues to degrade at pace.

Last week, cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas hit a little bit of a snag when representatives from the terrorist organization rejected the terms of the lopsided (in Hamas’ favor) prisoner/hostage swap.

This isn’t the first time they’ve walked away from a deal, though. Repeatedly, Palestinians have rebuffed their chance at statehood and self-governance, and Hamas has repeatedly gotten up from the negotiation table since October 7th. This time, however, was admittedly different.

Though at least 100 hostages are believed to be held in Gaza, the negotiations were focused on the exchange of 40 women, elderly men, or sick captives. Hamas turned down the proposal citing the fact that they don’t have or cannot locate 40 alive hostages that meet this description to carry out the first phase of the cease-fire.

Israel began striking targets in the Southern Gaza city of Rafah midweek this week in what looks to be the last mode of the 6-month-long war. Ceasefire talks had been all but scuttled until the events of the weekend put the final nail in that coffin.

Between Saturday night and Sunday morning, Iran, you know, the bad guys, launched over three hundred aerial attacks into Israel. This is notable for a couple of reasons. One, it’s the first time that the Islamic Republic of Iran has attacked the Jewish State directly from within its borders. Previously - and especially since October 7th - the theocratic regime has preferred to only use its proxies to do its bidding.

Secondly, there’s an entire Iraq-sized country between Iran and Israel where said drones and missiles had to cross. In the post-Saddam era, Iraq has been somewhat caught between the Western influence of America and neighboring Iran. Recently, relations between the United States and Iraq have begun to deteriorate with the request that all American military bases be removed from the nation. The apparent cooperation - or at least quiet obeisance - it would take for a sovereign nation to sit idly by as a barrage of weaponry traverses its horizons signals where its allegiances likely now lie.

Thanks to allied and cooperating nations in the region, however, nearly all of the projectiles were shot down before they entered Israeli territory - again, likely meaning Iraq. The sad irony of the failed attack is the only real casualty the operation was able to claim was a 7-year-old Bedouin girl living in the Negev Desert in Israel. Amina Hassouna was struck in the head by shrapnel from a disabled ballistic missile and remains in critical condition following surgery on Sunday. Let’s take a brief pause while we wait for the international outrage for the harming of an innocent Muslim girl at the hands of a brutal, oppressive government. Anyone? Bueller?

Now, I’m faced with the hard task of telling you why the 350 drones and ballistic missiles sent from Iran to Israel are a good thing.

Of course, I don’t mean that in the most literal sense or in the specific case of little Amina, but more generally. So, hear me out.

Though the Iran attack was pantomimed, telegraphed, or half-hearted (whatever you want to call it) it was no foregone conclusion that the ordnances would be shot down before they reached their targets. A casual swing of the bat can still put you on base if you catch my meaning. Thousands of deaths may have not been expected but it’s not a stretch to suggest that they would have been considered a happy accident of sorts by the Ayatollah.

The event moves the shadow conflict into the sun-drenched surface. Iran will claim that their assault was only in retaliation to Israel’s assassination of several high-ranking military officials at the IRI consulate in Syria and that those killings were an act of war. Conversely, however, the Israeli government will assert that the military operation in Damascus was a direct consequence of the instrumental role that Iran plays in terror in the region.

And that’s exactly what this new phase of conflict will reveal to the rest of the world - that consequences still exist.

It looks as if Israel will move into Rafah in the coming days as reports have emerged suggesting that the Biden Administration has approved its proposed operations in exchange for a promise that Israel will not respond to the Iranian assault. Fat chance. Israeli officials have already announced that the scale and type of response have been chosen, only the timing is left to be determined.

It’s absurd that some countries, the ones that control the purse strings, are above military reprisal because they weren’t actually the ones who have been pulling the trigger. If I bought you the gun, showed you how to use the gun, gave you ammunition when you ran out, and showed you where to point the gun, it’s fair to say I can’t be shocked when I’m made culpable.

If you think that this logic would justify Russia striking the United States - or any number of EU nations - for their role in supporting Ukraine then you’d be right - but it’s not in Russia’s best interest to embroil itself in a war it could never win. The United States understands this, which is why it has barely made any qualms about providing Ukraine with whatever weapons of war it could want.

The idea that the nation at the absolute center of the sphere of influence ought to not be held responsible for its enabling or encouragement is something that has only been normalized in the modern era. France found itself caught up in a protracted naval war with the English due in no small part to its support of the American revolutionaries (Vive le France! Vive L’America!).

You see what I mean? You play the game at your own risk, but if I could offer a small bit of advice from Jim Croce to those plucky upstarts of the world, “You don’t mess around with Jim.” Jim being a nuclear power, of course.

Additionally, the Iranian attack drew some interesting lines of cooperation. Not only were Western nations like France, England, and the United States involved in shooting down said drones, but Middle Eastern nations like Jordan and Saudi Arabia as well. Jordan, the nation that is majority Palestinian, played an active part in defending Israel. As did Saudi Arabia! Could additional Abraham-esque accords be around the corner? 2024 knows no limits.

And neither does the Biden Administration and its most coveted left-wing voter base. If it weren’t clear that in the United States, the ‘pro-Palestine’ protests have been thinly disguised as ‘pro-Hamas’ or ‘anti-Israel’, their true motivations are even more evident. After the weekend’s events, anti-Israeli protesters blocked the roads to O’Hare Airport in Chicago, and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. This series of idiotic demonstrations culminated in an employee sit-in at a Google executive’s office after which they were subsequently excised from the employee roster. Sometimes justice is served.

There’s an aspect of this I do like though, like demonstrating against events that haven’t happened yet. I’m heading out this weekend to protest a Kamala Harris presidency, won’t you join me?

On a less joyful note, do you remember the chorus of calls for a ceasefire in honor of Ramadan earlier this spring? The president and the media were all hoping Israel and Hamas would have some 1914 World War 1 Christmas Truce in Northern Gaza but to no avail. Neither party seemed rather interested in materially making that a reality, but that’s not to say that all hope is lost for another major holiday is next week.

The Jewish holiday of Passover starts on Monday and I’ve yet to hear or read a single call for the release of the remaining hostages in respect for the date on the religious calendar that celebrates freedom. Jews made matzah underground during Nazi-occupied Europe and Natan Sharansky held his own makeshift Passover Seder in a Soviet gulag before being freed after nine years of imprisonment.

That’s nine times Sharansky said the words ‘next year in Jerusalem’ before that was a possibility for him. God willing, the remaining hostages held by Hamas will only have to say it in captivity just this once.

To a better next week,

Cheers,

~FDA