Israel Brief: Thursday, November 27
Hamas surfaces starving, Hezbollah waits for its turn, and Washington decides how serious it is about the Brotherhood.
The day has always felt like a kind of secular Sukkot. One big communal pause to sit with family, eat far too much, and remember that gratitude is its own kind of shelter.
We’re on the far edge of the map this week — still out on the West Coast — in someone else’s kitchen, with plans to make all the traditional Thanksgiving foods. And while I’m not convinced anyone actually likes Türkiye turkey, we’ll power through.
On Sunday, my husband and I wandered into a sun-blasted strip-mall Judaica shop near one of LA’s wealthiest enclaves. Books stacked everywhere. Tallitot hanging like prayer-sails. The place was being run by a teenager who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else. We were almost done when his saba shuffled in — the real spine of the store — and you could watch the quick sequence in his eyes: confusion while confirming we were a married couple, a little squint… and then a shrug of generations, and then the questions (though not what you’d necessarily expect): “Nu, so where are your kids? You have kids yet? What are you waiting for?”
We probably don’t see the world the same way. Our politics may not align. We’d argue about halacha (who doesn’t?). But the instinct was: you’re here, you’re ours, we’re in this together. And after that, the only real question: how do we keep this people going?
As Americans carve turkey and Israelis still keep an ear open for the Red Alert app — mercifully quiet the past month and a half — I want to say aloud what I’m thankful for.
For the soldiers, medics, pilots, and rescue teams who haven’t had a real day off in over two years. For the parents and partners holding the line at home. For the Jews in shuls, JCCs, community centers, and WhatsApp groups who keep showing up for one another. And yes — for you. The readers, the arguers, the forwarders, the people who catch my mistakes, sharpen my thinking, and insist that we stay anchored to what’s actually happening on the ground. This whole project works because you’re in it with us.
Thank you also for bearing with the travel schedule. We’re still getting up at 5:30 a.m. every morning to track the fronts — just from a few time zones away. We’ll be back on our normal cadence Wednesday, December 3.
⚡️Flash Brief: The Day in 90 Seconds or Less
Rafah: IDF kills a Hamas sniper, two Islamic Jihad infiltrators, and multiple tunnel fugitives as work begins toward “Green Rafah.”
Lebanon: IAF strikes Hezbollah launch sites and depots near Jarmaq and Mahmoudiyeh as Egypt privately warns Beirut to disarm or face major Israeli escalation.
Judea & Samaria: Three-brigade operation in the Tubas–Tammun belt hits over 220 targets, foils a Turkey–Jordan gun pipeline, and follows the elimination or arrest of every fugitive murderer.
Internal front: High Court battles Levin over the Sde Teiman overseer, IDF standardizes senior officers on iPhones and Morpheus, while missile-hit residents remain stuck in a rebuild bureaucracy war.
Negev and Jerusalem: Ben-Gvir pushes Bedouin crackdowns amid blood-feud murders, Ofakim robbery attempts, Gaza smuggling via Rahat, and stray gunfire from Shuafat and Anata into Pisgat Ze’ev.
Lawfare and diplomacy: Texas designates the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR, Trump orders federal review, while Qatar and Ireland push a “chemical weapons” libel against Israel from the OPCW podium.
Palestinian politics: Fatah leaders seek urgent unity talks with Hamas to lead the next “struggle” just as Israel shuts their shared terror infrastructure in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
The full brief and analysis continue below.
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The Thanksgiving edition of the Israel Brief opens in a sun-blasted LA Judaica shop, where a saba's only real question — how do we keep this people going? — frames everything that follows. Beyond the Flash Brief, the full edition runs the fronts from a few time zones away: Rafah's starving tunnel cells, Egypt privately warning Beirut to disarm or get hit, and Texas designating the Brotherhood and CAIR while Qatar and Ireland push a chemical-weapons libel from the OPCW podium. Gratitude and analysis in one sitting.
Am Yisrael is still here. And we intend to hand it forward.
The Israel Brief is the Mitzpe Institute's read on Israel and the region — most mornings, Sunday through Thursday. More at mitzpe.org.