Our new face towards Arabs

Captain Ella is our new face. Lt. Col. Ella Waweya, known in the Arab world by her online name "Captain Ella", will replace IDF Arabic spokesperson Avihai Adraee, who is leaving the IDF after 20 years of service.

Ella grew up in Qalansawe, and at around age 22 decided to perform national service, which she carried out at Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba. Two years later she decided to enlist in the IDF as well, and served as a new media officer in the Arabic communications section of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit. 

Il Ghetto

 Il ghetto nuovo di Venezia. 5,000 Jews of different "nations" lived crowded on a small island. The German nation (Ashkenazim), which also included Italians, was confined to the Campo di Ghetto Nuovo, and was joined by the Levantine (Turkish) nation, which occupied the neighbouring streets of the Ghetto Vecchio in 1541. Later, the Jews from the west, mostly Sephardic Jews, took up residence in the same streets. Other Sephardic Jews were granted houses close to the Ghetto Nuovo, forming the Ghetto Nuovissimo in 1633. The French Revolution liberated and dissolved the ghetto. Cecil Roth's book describes some exotic figures of the ghetto. 

In retrospect, Venice allowed a safe and stable, if marginal, existence for the Jews. All the while, Jews were forbidden to live in Spain, France, Scandinavia, and most of the German states. 

Seeing the Light

Sasha Troufanov was 27 when he was kidnapped on Oct. 7 from his parents’ home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. After his release 498 days later, he spoke at the Palm Beach Synagogue about his life before Oct. 7. “One of the things I realized I had done wrong was that I wasn’t open to believing in God,” he said.

“My life had been pretty good; I had a good job, a good salary, a great girlfriend, everything I had ever wanted, but I hadn’t been happy at all. I was always planning ahead; I didn’t focus on doing right in the present. October 7 made me realize I can’t control what’s ahead; I can only control what I do in the present.”

On February 16, 2025, he put on tefillin for the first time in his life. “Doing a mitzvah, making a blessing before eating, kissing a mezuzah, or praying is a chance to feel gratitude and say ‘Thank you’ for what God has given you,” he said.

Pic.: Sasha thanking Putin for help in his release.

εὐαγγέλιον

Hamas leadership says it has lost all contact with the 150 terrorists trapped in underground tunnels in Rafah, Gaza, fearing that they have died of starvation.

These are the people who captured and enslaved, and assassinated our 18-year-old girl-soldiers.

Blanket Deleverage

NVidia in free fall - without any reason except that it has been rising steadily for a long time. Strong earnings unnerved the market, a sign that people are very nervous and will react unreasonably.

"The selloff appears to be largely positioning-driven, with recent outperforming names taking the worst of the move," said Jon Withaar, senior portfolio manager at Pictet Asset Management in Singapore.

There was no obvious trigger for the pullback, but it began with an unexpectedly negative reaction to strong financial results at Silicon Valley data and artificial intelligence firm Palantir Technologies. Pic.: Coffee Commerce, Pictet Collection.

Mr Herbert Hoover (1932): Now is the time to buy

 Just around the corner,
there's a rainbow in the sky,
So let's have another cup of coffee,
and let's have another piece of pie.

Gaza now

 https://x.com/i/status/1985243190937444826

This is an explosion of a main tunnel in Gaza. See the smoke emerging from ten or more outlets at the same time.