The debates are flying fast and furiously about the attack on Israel which has killed upwards of 600. Women have been raped, babies kidnapped - it’s the worst attack on Israel since the 1970s. It seems to be quite controversial all the way around.
My thoughts on it are that while I can’t help but be sympathetic to the people of Palestine or the people who call themselves Palestine, however you want to say it - it’s not possible to shrug and move on when an attack of this magnitude occurs.
I think about the bigger picture, like Iran and the $6 billion in funds they just acquired thanks to the Biden administration.
I think about the United States essentially inventing Israel when President Truman made the call after WWII.
Correction from a reader: "The US did not invent Israel which preceded the birth of the USA by about 2,000 years. Israel was reborn after 2,000 years of exile and by the blood sweat and tears of millions.”
I think about the war in Ukraine and how this is different.
I think about World War III.
I think about Afghanistan and how our exit killed 13 of our own soldiers and revealed to all the world that Joe Biden is an inept leader.
I think about the Biden administration spending the last three years persecuting a former president and how weak that makes us look.
I think about Trump and how none of this would have happened, probably, on his watch because he projected strength, not weakness.
But I’ll throw it out to you, dear readers, for your own thoughts on the matter. Hopefully we can keep it civil.
My first thought was how horribly and in how many ways our country and our world have become degraded since the arrival of the Biden administration. Say what you will about Trump, he projected an attitude that made the rest of the world wary about poking the Eagle.
You are correct. The Washington swamp rats hated Trump and they mis labeled him a hawk when he was a dove. Trump sent about 70 missles into a Russian airfield in Syria. If he listened to Bolton, he would have had more conflict all over the world.
Indeed! BHO’s muse, Valerie Jarret, who lived in the WH, has advocated the top levels of US power to enable pallets of cash and now 6 Billion dollars to Iran enabling the mullahs to financially back Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I’m waiting for typical commenters to some how blame Maga and Trump for these attacks. Didn’t we just have peace in the middle east a few years ago? They attacked as soon as they had money backing them (Iran) and saw weakness with Biden.
McCarthy making a lot of sense here with his comments of freezing the $6B Biden gave to Iran and sanctioning Iran’s oil production (since they are making hand over fist since we are out of the game) and begin American energy production and independence again. oh wait-nuts -that’s maga so that’s really bad. darn
WATCH LIVE: Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy delivers remarks after historic ousting
The Palestinians are for all intents and purposes a terrorist people (not just governed by terrorist organizations) who have never wanted “land for peace” or a two-state solution, but simply want the wholesale destruction of Israel and of any Jewish state and of Jews as Jews. Nothing proves that better that this attack, which is routinely described as “unprovoked” but should more accurately be described as “terrorist,” because it was aimed at virtually entirely civilian targets, including women, children, and the elderly, not at any military ones of significance.
Apparently, Palestinians think it is an act of courage to slaughter unarmed civilians in their homes.
What we are witnessing is yet another battle in an ancient family feud. Where does the hatred between Jews and "Palestinians' begin? With Ishmael and Isaac, two half-brothers, continued by Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob. The Isaac/Jacob line was favored by God, and the descendants of Ishmael and Esau have never forgiven them for it.
First thought is that Israel pretty much stands alone among nations that when its citizens are slaughtered, there are others around the world that rejoice.
My 2nd thought was this attack was another Pogram, and the birth of Israel in 1948 was an attempt to stop Pograms from occurring again (on large scale)
It’s true that Jews have always occupied the Holy Land. But there were not many still there by 1880’s.
The persistent Pograms across Europe however gave birth to the Zionist movement which saw many Jewish immigrants from the Pale of Settlement (south Ukraine) and other locations start ‘returning’ to present day Israel — and this started in earnest well before WW2.
At close of WW2, the USA still wasn’t open to Jewish immigration from Europe and the British were blockading Europe Jews immigrating to Israel. British even had barb wire enclosed camps in Cyprus to house Jews coming out of Nazi concentration camps to keep them out of present day Israel. Brits didn’t know what to do, as they were faced w/ previous colonial promises to Arabs, but they crumbled (rightly IMO) to the guilt & shame of Jews wanting/needing to forge a new nation, and stop pograms from occurring again. So British stood aside, recognizing that Hitler’s Pogram of the 1940’s almost wiped them off the face of the earth.
Another thought: Judaism is the only Abrahamic religion that has never attempted to forcibly convert others through conquest and warfare. Christianity ended its attempts centuries ago; Islam continues in this endeavor even today.
The history of Arab peoples is one of tragedy. In 7th century Islam erupted upon semi civilized Bedouin tribes of desert. Swept out of sands by Mohammed’s divine teachings they spread thru fire & sword their gospel almost to China and up to the doorstep of Paris. During Islam meteoric rise, Jews held very high positions of in the Arab world. But after about 500 years the Crusades hit, then 100 years on, the Mongol invasions which also resulted in so many Arab deaths. These double whammies and decimation of their cities resulted in Arab in-fighting and division. Then came the Ottoman Empire to gobble up their land, and about 5 centuries of corruption & feudalism. The sad result was big mistrust of outsiders, little compassion from Arab to Arab, and backwards stuff like slave culture, hand cut off for thieves, ear & nose for prostitution, along w/ illiteracy, & poverty. Ripe conditions for rise of fanaticism and religious hysteria when one is beat down. Not condoning the actions of more radical elements of Islam. But this is the historical backdrop to when Jews started to show up in Palestine around 1900. Jews were pining to buy the land from the poor, Arab landowners who for historical reasons, trusted nobody
Nevertheless, those Arabs sold to Jews. This is in contrast to the history, going back to Muhammad's first successor in 632 Abu Bakr, who established the tradition of general sharing of war and raiding booty. The pseudo-prosperity was then established and has mostly ever after been about takings from others. Conquest and occupation has been the cultural center for all of the history of Islam. They took Jerusalem from the Byzantines in 634, just two years after Muhammad's death. This continued for a millennium until all the productive life had been sucked out of the Levant. The remainders of the last parasitic Ottomans sold to Jews throughout the 19th and early 20th Century. Jews restored the parts they bought and Arabs saw another chance to plunder. And here we are.
There were cheers from the Arab world on 9/11 as well. It's a reminder that the world still is home to some vile scum. Civilized humans should endeavor to exterminate this vermin.
“Extermination” is no different than “genocide” or “Holocaust”. And if you’re so gung ho to kill, fly over there and join the army. Tough talk is cheap.
I'm too old or I would. And extermination of parasitic vermin is exactly the prescription called for. The sad Palestinians in Gaza are at least equally abused by Hamas. Two bits jumped out in a Bari Weiss interview:
Hamas deliberately restricts the quantity of goods allowed into Gaza. The portal is designed for 1,200 trucks per day but Hamas allows only 400. This is in order to maintain shortages and force everyone in Gaza into a dependence on Hamas for goods.
So were you in the military when you were younger? Seems to me you want American youth to go fight and die in places like the Ukraine and Middle East but never actually went yourself. If you did serve in the military, I am sorry for mistaking you for someone who hasn’t. As a veteran and father of sons, I like to see those advocating for violence be the first to join in it personally and physically.
All that is pretty accurate. In addition, hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews flocked to Israel, from Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, and other countries, in many cases partly because they were second or third class citizens in their Arab birth places. After a few generations, including mixed marriages with Western and other Jews, their descendants are at least half of Jewish population of Israel.
Yes, and I can’t blame Arabs for coming. If one looks at the topography of the region, the land around Jordan River (connecting Sea of Galilee to Dead Sea) plus lands to West (present day Israel + West Bank) are fertile and green. Compared to all the desert lands everywhere around them East and South, especially. Who would want to keep on w/ nomadic way of life when there is land of milk & honey available to put down roots, and gain food security.
What’s more, the British left them pretty much defenseless when they pulled out, vs the Arabs who were better armed and funded.
They fought off not only the native Arabs but, IIRC, FIVE invading armies, with no assistance from any foreign government.
Look at a map of the Middle East and Israel looks like an island surrounded on three sides by Arab nations mostly hostile to their very existence.
If it were a matter of land, there’s any number of Arab nations the Palestinians could emigrate to. The only fathomable reason for their remaining in what is essentially a war zone is to terrorize the Israelis.
I know if I lived somewhere like that, even among my WASP brethren, I’d get the hell out ASAP.
Not referring to you, but that’s a huge part of the problem in politics -- especially after decades of poor quality education. If we don’t know the complexity of our our history, we end up with opinions that are based on nothing but disembodied “feel good” pablum (oppressors/oppressed) and we can easily adopt injustice because we don’t know how a situation came to be.
Admittedly it is pro-Israel. But I like it because it’s provides good backdrop to how 1948 came about from viewpoint of Jewish people, and historical emotional energy behind it.
The Jews and Arabs got along well when they lived together in Spain before 1492. Mohammed learned a lot from the Jews when he visited Jerusalem circa 690 CE. Both the Jews and the Muslims believe in one God, as do the followers of Jesus who was Jewish. Religious wars are fought over money and power. The leaders use religion to convince their people to die for their leader.
I don’t believe in religious wars, They are generally different cultures clashing. Question; was the Falklands war a religious war? Brits Anglican, Argentines Catholic. Why is it not generally thought a religious war?
You are completely correct, Gerald. Arabs and Jews lived in relative symptomatic harmony up thru the start of the Inquisition. It has been Euro Gentiles, Mongols, and Ottomans/Turks that have beaten down these two people groups. And now very sadly, both have been fighting each other, with most ferocity the last ~125 years. Jews were ‘pushed’ back to present day Israel or risk a future extinction
I think it’s more that Muhammad started out admiring and imitating Jews, he turned against them when they didn’t want to follow his new religion. He persecuted and slaughtered them, and his dying words were to leave no Jew alive in the Saudi peninsula. Numerous hadith teach the hatred and murder of Jews.
Cia, a few years ago I studied the life of Mohammed at a retreat in North Carolina near Ashville: The Five Pillars of Islam. Circa 690 CE, Greater Medina consisted of 5 villages. Two were Jewish. The monotheist Mohammed fled Mecca, where his extended family held the tourist franchise for storage of Idols worshipped by the various nomadic tribes of the Saudi peninsula. He fled to Medina, where he was invited to relocate and help settle disputes. When the Meccans attacked Mohammed for promulgating one God, which new religion was threatening the Meccans idol storage business (perhaps in a structure in Mecca similar to the Kaaba), one of the Jewish communities fought on the side of the Meccans, according to my teacher. But the Meccans did not conquer Medina and retuned to Mecca. Regaining strength and a larger following, Mohammed led his an army of his followers to march on Mecca where, pausing outside the city, he sacrificed his camel (worth more than a sheep or goat at the time) to convince the Meccans he wanted peace. He also changed the facing of prayer (five times a day) from Jerusalem (north of Medina) to Mecca (south of Medina). This 180 degree shift of face made Mecca Mohammed's (and God's) holy city. Mohammed also instructed his followers to visit Mecca at least once in a lifetime. This tradition, called the Hajj, continues today). Securing for the Meccans the revenue of the tourist business from a much larger population than those of the idol worshippers, the Meccans accepted Mohammed. To your point: I did not learn that the followers of the Mohammed hated the Jews after the battle at Medina. Mohammed flourished so I would assume any animosity was forgiven long ago. But, on the other hand, the Sunni and Shite followers of The Prophet remain at odds with each other about whether or not a descendant of Mohammed is required to lead the religion. So animosity can remain for centuries. I suspect, however, the root cause of the current conflict in Israel is about power and money, not religion, but, it's just a hunch. What do you think?
And if they were to succeed at destroying Israel, they'd just move on to destroying one another. When your faith promises heavenly rewards for killing other humans, I'm not sure how the world can help.
MSNBC is blaming the 'far right government' of Benjamín Netanyahu.
Say what? You're not pro palestinian - means we can attack and kill you. Not pro BLM? We can attack and burn down your cities. Not pro tranny? we will attack and slander you and shoot up your schools and blame guns. Not onboard with Me Too? you must be a rapist - we'll slander you and hope you lose your job. Anti vax? Throw you in jail and lock your bank accounts. Don't support Ukraine? You nazi.
Wow inventing Israel? More like inventing Palenstine. The fact is innocent people have been kidnapped assaulted raped and murdered by evil animals. I don’t feel bad for Palestine- they should renounce their men and their violent religion and forge a new path of tolerance not hate. Two questions- where can women move around freely, especially non Muslim women- Palestine or Israel? Another- where are you free to practice your own religion outside the states authorized one- Palestine or Israel? Let’s start with that.
Anyone who knows anything about the history of the state of Israel recognizes instantly the error of this statement. I thought Ms. Stone was better informed than this........I'm disappointed!
The modern state of Israel was created in 1947 after WWII.
The Balfour Declaration of 1922 had already submitted that a homeland be found for the Jewish people and Palestine was divided in order for it to happen.
They were resentful of the new state but that new state decided to encroach ever further into Palestinian land, occupying it illegally. What did they think was going to happen?
There is no *&#%ing Palestine! There is the country of Israel. Ask any other Arab nation to give the Palestinians land so they can have their own nation and they flat out refuse to accommodate anything to help out their fellow jihadists. yes, I know not all of them are, but they want NO PEACE. and the rest of the Muslim world wants Israel WIPED OFF THE MAP!
It was not illegal. Jews had been returning to their ancestral homeland since the early nineteenth century. They BOUGHT the land they occupied from absentee Ottoman and Egyptian landlords. Large numbers of Arabs went there for the first time to get jobs from Jews. Infant mortality among Arabs plunged because Jewish doctors and midwives delivered thousands of Arab babies using modern practices.
Coalitions of Arab countries picked wars with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Israel won all of them. Most countries would have forced their enemies to leave after the wars. Israel should have, but chose compassion, giving the Palestinians everything they needed, food, water, electricity, gas, education, medical care. Many Arabs became doctors and lawyers, members of the Knesset. Israel gave them Gaza in 2007. And how have their kindness and respect been repaid? Enough of that! They have to leave.
That’s true for modern people who value human rights. Muslims value the sharia, Islamic law, abd believe that it is the Allah-ordained blueprint fir orderly human life.
I have many Persian friends, some Islam devoted, some not. Neither of them value Sharia law. This may be because they are 1st and now 2nd generation Americans (fled Iran in late 1970’s). I often have more in common with these friends when it comes to living in service to a higher Power, than most of my non-Persian friends
Ordinary Palestinians are afraid to speak out. It's how Israel has been so effective at maintaining intelligence networks in the PA and Gaza. The corner storekeeper wants the murderous animals gone so has no compunction about ratting them out so long as it doesn't put him or his family in danger.
As to the $6 billion dollars to Iran going to help fund Hamas, the current "fact check" (Fox News, btw) of that dastardly thought is that the money is still in a Qatari bank. Okay - fine.
But let's pose a scenario all of us have been through - it's Tuesday and you know your direct deposit will hit Friday but you really want/have to buy something pricey, though affordable on Friday without having to use the credit card. Do you whip out the credit card and buy it and then cover it (let's be honest, cover most of it) on Friday?
Yes - yes you do.
And that's why the $6 billion dollars not already being in a pile on the Ayatollah's kitchen floor does not matter - attempting to destroy Israel is, shall we say, an important purchase for Iran so they can pay for it right now knowing they will be made whole very very soon.
Damn - I could have save two sentences by using the word "fungible." Now I feel like Billy Crystal in "Throw Momma from the Train" when he heard word the "sultry."
That reporting about the money in the bank was done by Jennifer Griffin at fox news who covers the pentagon. She has been hanging with Milley and Austin for the past few years. I’m not surprised she is covering for the Pentagon and the Biden administration. I feel she has lost her objectivity in her reporting over the past few years. It is insulting to the average American for her to claim it “factually untrue” that American funds have helped Iran and Hamas attack Israel. You are so much smarter than she is Thomas. Thanks for challenging her narrative. We all need to push back when they try to fool us. We are smart, strong, and tired of being told that we can’t reason the motives of the government because they are the experts. We ALL know how to follow the missiles and follow the money. This ransom payment was a BIG intended mistake by Biden and all involved, and we, the American voters are on to it.
And Zionism already had a long history of building a Jewish state in the Biblical places. They bought the land they occupied from absentee Ottoman and Egyptian landlords, from collections taken up woldwide. There had always been a Jewish presence there, which increased with Zionism. There had only been a few Arabs, as it was very desolate. Many Arabs came gorcthe first yine in the late nineteenth century, hoping to get work from the Jews. The British first helped Jews building Israel in the early twentieth century, then turned against them.
Lands should not belong to any people according to their beliefs in a deity. Their borders should be drawn according to agreements between neighbours. But of course that is never going to happen in the Israel/Palestine conflict because they each maintain that their ‘god’ gave it to them & them alone. This is the childish playground behaviour of people who refuse to act like the adults they supposedly are.
Israel was ‘created’ out of a pocket of land in the Middle East that had apparently had that name in ancient religious texts. So it came to be a place that the Jewish people could call a refuge after the atrocities of the WWII (not a land based on their god-given claims). The Palestinians who’d been living there for decades were not welcoming & resisted what they saw as an imposition. At this stage the right response would have been to make their case with the Palestinians in a way that showed understanding of their feelings but also made it clear that the Jewish people were entitled to a place of safety that had a resonance for them. Instead, they behaved in an arrogant, entitled way that ensured that the Palestinians would resent them. Not a great start.
Then they decided to push ever further into areas where Palestinians lived, claiming ‘god’.
Looking at the situation objectively it’s quite obvious that the Palestinians being a pugnacious & defensive people, were going to get violent when faced with a people who felt entitled & god-approved. So why did the new state of Israel keep poking that bear? They must have known what the response would be. Belief in gods should have no place in politics and definitely not in potential flashpoint conflict areas like this. The world has been unable to decide how to act to stop the two sides from destroying each other, but they are too intent & hate-filled towards each other & they ignore any entreaties to stop their mutual animosity.
So here are two peoples, evolutionary brothers, who simply cannot put their infantile beliefs behind them, locked in a struggle in which their egos will not allow them to make peace because they think it would show weakness
While in the largest context it might be true that the tragedy of Israel/Palestine is two peoples who believe in their bones that it is their country, how was it the Israelis who were “arrogant” when the land was divided by the UN in 1947? The tiny country was attacked on all sides by far more powerful forces. While it is also true that the suffering of innocent civilians of ANY People should be mourned, and probably also true that there are extremists on both sides of this tragically relentless conflict that scuttled the idea of a “two state solution”, there is also overwhelming evidence that Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and probably also the Palestinian Authority, do not want a two state solution, but want the eradication of Israel as a nation, or as Iran is found of saying, “A cancer” in the middle east. And also apparently true, that along with being a tiny country surrounded by enemies, Israel is constantly being delegitimized by a sophisticated propaganda apparatus throughout the western world. It seems to me that the people of Giza are also victims of their fanatical and ruthless leaders, but how does that change the existential survival issue at stake for Israelis?
The Balfour Declaration and the British mandate over Palestine were approved by the League of Nations in 1922. The agreement contained a submission that a Jewish homeland should be established in the area of what was then Palestine.
Arabs vehemently opposed the Declaration, concerned that a Jewish homeland would mean the subjugation of Arab Palestinians.
The British controlled Palestine until Israel became an independent state in 1947, carved into the area as a refuge for Jewish people after WWII.
So the divided nation was Palestine - a tinder box waiting to ignite. No one can doubt that Israel has suffered from the resentment of its new neighbours, and maybe nothing could have prevented such a violent reaction to Israel’s creation, but making land grabs as a god-given right is not a peaceful act.
The Jews had always been there, in larger numbers from the rise of Zionism two hundred years ago. There were very few Arabs there then: it was very desolate. The Jews have the superior claim, and the savagery of the Palestinians means they have no claim.
Of course. It is an evil act! My comment was addressed to the many folks who still believe that humankind is basically good, though history disproves this over and over again...
The Jews never left. There were always some who remained, and many more from the rise of Zionism in the early nineteenth century. There were always a few Arabs, but large numbers only came in the late nineteenth century to get work from the Jews.
Jane, great analysis here based on logic, not emotions or spiritual beliefs. Many religions have killed a lot of people because they didn't believe in that religion's God.
We are in a death spiral. Without strong leadership and a commitment to do what is right for the country, we are little more than a rudderless ship. January 20, 2021, was the turning point, a moment in time that will be considered the largest breach of American sovereignty in the history of our country. As stated, we are at the doorstep of WWIII, our borders are open to whoever wants to enter without one question of vetting. Inflation is hammering the middle class, let alone those who are less fortunate. The misdirection of resources toward the neutralization of President Trump as there is a need to shore up the energy crisis and supply chain issues is unconscionable. The world is ablaze to the advantage of the WEF and UN, who want nothing more than a one-world order. We are in dire straits...
Well said. Come November 2024, we must all vote for the Republican candidate—whoever it is. This is our only and last chance to save our country. If the Dems win, there won’t be a reason to vote ever again…
For God's sake, get informed! Don't become one of the Left's "useful idiots" - Marx's terminology, not mine - because once the revolution is completed, you’ll be expendable too.
Exactly. The useful idiots have no realization that they are on the list too - just maybe not at the top. They will clean house - look at every Communist, Marxist, Socialist regime and see who they get rid of.
It has been said frequently for the last couple years, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Our economy cannot withstand another 4 years of the Dem incompetence and I ,for one, want to leave my grandchildren the country as it was as I grew up.
I am sorry to say Gail, that ship has sailed. There is no coming back from this and it is never going to be the same country again. I also do not have any answers to this dilemma because of the UniParty, WEF, Great Resetters - no one knows how far this is going to go. Only God does.
I admire your writing but I am profoundly disappointed by your comment. Israel was not invented by the United States. My grandfather and many thousands of other Americans were born in the Territory which is now Israel. Legal recognition of Israel as a nation is wholly separate from the millennia long history of Jews in the area. While there are surely innocent Palestinians, the continued backing of terrorism and teaching of hate to their children make sympathy for Palestinians inappropriate and misguided,
The Palestinians backed the genocidal Arab war of 1948, and all of their troubles, even today, stem from that stance. The rest is all anti-Semitic smoke and mirrors. We’re there innocents caught up in the catastrophe? Of course, but don’t confuse the cheering crowds in Gaza with a liberation movement. They are a homicidal mob, and need to be disarmed accordingly.
Gabriel Noronha has a mega thread on X about that $6B and how money "works" in Iran. Well worth the read. (Twitchy has a story with it which is easier.) Trump said a month ago that this would happen and here we are... Any moron could have seen it coming, but WOW, we are all just SHOCKED. (I actually AM shocked at the lack of Intel and Israel being taken by surprise.)
The Koran specifically says that Muslims can bring in the last days by killing Jews. Why we (politicos) ignore this when "wiping out Jews" (not just Israel) is literally their oft-stated goal is about as delusional as all the other crazy stuff the Progressives do. This is not a culture that can be bribed, westernized, tamed, drugged, or transed out of existence. They say (like China) they want to conquer the world, kill Jews and infidels, and THEY MEAN IT. They've always meant it. And they mean actually physically conquer, not fly a flag over the embassy. Are there Muslims who aren't fundamentalist? Yes. But these (terrorist) organizations and governments believe this and see it as their holy duty to carry it out.
Now that they have reported Americans killed and kidnapped, we'll see just how weak the Biden admin and our military are. Because in the past, this would have been an act of war against the US. But now, we'll probably just pay them a few billion and call it a day. Never mind the obvious fact that there are jihadists pouring over our border...
American civilians being murdered in a foreign country certainly has never been the cause or criteria for America to declare war. We serve our American youth and citizens best by staying out of foreign wars; like this one also.
My two cents: this was a fairly sophisticated, pre-planned and strategic act of war. That said, wouldn’t you target fighting aged males? Why children and old women, if not to inflame world opinion? I’ve learned to recognize the feeling of being manipulated, and boy do I feel that way now. The question is, by whom?
Why kidnap children and old women? Maybe for ransom? Biden released $6 billion to Hamas' backer Iran for the release of a handful of prisoners. About one billion per.
they always go for women and children. Look at Syria, which has been memory holed. I lived with my aunt and uncle for awhile when I graduated from college, and my uncle was very high up in US intelligence. He said then (Reagan was President) that the Islamic world was what we should be worried about. He was and is right
Jay, just got off phone with a buddy in Israel. He tells me that the Hamas terrorists did not expect to be this successful with their assault and that they were expecting to confront IDF soldiers not civilians. The original goal was to capture some soldiers. They took out the “high tech” surveillance monitors with cheap off-the-shelf drones. Then blew holes in the fences (not steel walls) and walked in.
We should remember these lessons for "the next time". The good guys must be constantly vigilant and stop every single solitary attack, the bad guys need only succeed once.
-high tech monitors and surveillance state techniques are NOT a substitute for steel walls and fortified watch towers with real people in them armed to the teeth with both weapons and communication devices every few hundred feet.
(You know, like Trump wanted to build but was told that "walls are racist and don't work)
If this is asymmetrical warfare initiated by Iran, what is or was the end goal? Notable is that Saudi Arabia and Qatar did not condemn the raids. 🤔
Perhaps if asymetric warfare is what they launch, then asymetric warfare should be what they get in return… like the decapitation of all leadership in Iran and one oilfield destroyed per Israeli citizen killed…🤔
Perhaps Iran does not want a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and is willing to spend Palestinian lives in an Israeli counterattack to put pressure on the Saudis not to formally engage with Israel.
Peace negotiations aside, Iran has been calling for the wholesale destruction of the Israeli state and murder of every Jew in Israel since the ayatollahs came to power in 1979. They have never wavered from this fatwa, no matter how many pallets of greenbacks U.S. Democrat presidents deliver to their doorstep.
I’m beginning to wonder if this is just an excuse for Iran to permanently destroy Israel (via a nuclear weapon). It might work like this: get $$$ from US, fund and encourage the Palestinians to carry out a comprehensive terror campaign, wait for Israel to respond appropriately with military might, then (with help from MSM) claim that you had no other option to stop Israel and defend your esteemed Islamic brothers. I guess we’ll find out in the next few days...hope I’m TOTALLY wrong.
Sorry Sasha, but the Arabs voted for Hamas as their leadership and have supported their endless murderous crusades against Israeli civilians. They have earned the wrath of Israel and at least that part of the would capable of seeing things as they actually are.
Wipe them all out. That is the path to peace. They had their chance at "self-government" and how did that work out?
The Israelis have done everything possible to bring a peace, including giving Gaza self rule. What else can be expected of them?
In return Gaza has subjected Israel to a near constant bombardment of rockets as well as military incursions intentionally targeting civilian. The citizens of Gaza have always overwhelmingly supported and cheered the killing of Israeli women and children just as they do now. They do not value any human lives other than their own and adhere to a brutal and medieval belief system which calls of the murder of any non-Muslim -- in particularly Jews. They are subhuman savages incapable of living in a civilized world and will not stop their savagery so long as even one Jew resides anywhere in Israel.
The malady of the Western Left ... in the word "resistance" is justification for just about any form of violence, as the end "justifies" it ...
That is how the "Summer of Love" 2020 was justified, and those who killed and maimed have, if at all, had some mere wrist slapping.
Should say some religious minority in an Islamic nation have done the equivalent of what Hamas has done it would be hunted down by the entire globe and its leaders and foot soldiers indicted for war crimes.
Palestinians may feel oppressed but there are many other minorities of a similar population size who have no voice at all ...
Think about the plight of Copts in Egypt or the Pakistani Christians just to name a couple of oppressed religious minorities in Islamic nations!
No voice or hardly any if at all, because they are not of the "right" political flavour ...
I would disagree with the statement that Israel was invented by the Truman administration. Israel returned to it's rightful place, after centuries of being dispersed around the world
Another war on Biden’s watch. Fostered by his and Obama’s support of Iran and other malevolent characters. Trump, who has common sense, predicted this. God Obama and his cult members have a western civilization death wish.
The left will tell us how awful it is that Israel “pens in” the Gazans, and doesn’t let them leave. 1. Now we see why. 2. They have a border with Egypt, who also “pens” them in. Why don’t we hear about that?
Israel greeted 17,000 Gazans a day work in Israel in Israeli businesses. They were considering allowing 30k until this happened. No more jobs or $$$ for Gazans now.
The Arab world declared war against Israel in 1949 and never reversed themselves. The Palestinians have always denied Israel’s right to exist. Yassir Arafat rejected a comprehensive peace plan in 2000 that would have given him and his people 90% of everything they asked for, but required them to acknowledge Israel’s right to live. Bill Clinton lobbied Arafat hard to sign it. But Arafat believed he would be assassinated if he did. So he didn’t.
Let's see if anyone in Congress has the backbone to rush to attach an Israeli flag pin to their lapel as they did with Ukraine. Or even the unmitigated gall to wear a Palestinian lapel pin.
The United States did not "invent" Israel. Nor did Great Britain with the Balfour Declaration. The Jewish people created Israel. The Jewish people who had always lived in ancient Israel, who had stayed even when Rome destroyed the Second Temple, who had ensured Jerusalem remained the global center of Jewish teaching, who created the synagogue model to replace the Temple, who kept Jerusalem a majority-Jewish city throughout the 2,000 years of the Diaspora.
They built Israel.
The U.S. and U.K. and then U.N. simply recognized the reality on the ground.
The Arabs refused to accept that Jews had a right to a voice in the governance of that region, refused to work with the Jewish leaders.
Some still do, as we see today.
Yes, I feel for the Arabs - particularly those in Gaza who saw their elected leaders overthrown by Hamas a few years ago.
But the blame for that lies with the Ayatollah who orchestrated it for his own purposes.
Except she still hasn't worked out that Palestinians are to be felt sorry for, they are not and deserve whatever Israel hands them back in spades hopefully. Still have some leftist baggage to rid yourself of M.Stone.
Agree that Israel must take bold and quick action.
Somewhat disagree on your mild criticism of Ms. Stone.
She deserves tremendous credit for breaking away from leftist indoctrination. She was in the middle of it, but decided to be her own person and think logically and rationally about issues.
Having being born and raised in LA, I can tell you the indoctrination and distortion from the left is non stop and intense.
Media, educational institutions, entertainment, sports as well as the workplace. It is all around you.
California is a beautiful place and the left uses that beauty to manipulate people.
Born in 56…retired and moved out of there three years ago. Got my 4 adult children out of there too.
There is no doubt Biden's catastrophically failed proxy war in Eastern Europe created the conditions that opened the door to this act of mass terrorism against civilians.
There exists a stockpile of USA arms in Israel, that Israel is able to quickly draw upon in time of war. It’s called the “War Reserve Ammunition- Israel“, and that cupboard is reportedly very bare right now vs. years past, due to those Arms flowing north to Ukraine. I think Iran/Hamas was aware of the stockpile being low…
I wouldn't be surprised. The West's Ukraine adventure has exposed just how weak and vulnerable the West is. And it has made the West even weaker than it already was.
Sasha I am thank for your voice. Even and perhaps becauae we can disagree. I do not in any way feel sorry for the people of Palistine have never been peaceful of cooperative. Their doctrine has never been anything other then the total death and annihilation of all Jews. Their way is not compatible with the life of anything but themselves. Yes, I even include their women and children in my view. There are no innocents in Palistine. They are a death cult and have shown themselves to be, over and over and over again.
To paraphrase the late great P.J. O'Rourke, giving weapons and autonomy to the Arabs who occupy Palestine is liking giving whisky and car keys to teenage boys.
Sympathy for genocidal nihilistic? Hell no! They rejected many opportunities to make good agreements for their benefit. They simply want to kill the Jews. It's what they say, it's what they do. How in hell can you express Sympathy for these fascist monsters!!??
The Palestinian people always get caught up in this. Why? Because they are used, and allow themselves to be used, by everyone in the region. The average one probably wants peace. They've been coexisting with Israelis for years. The people they elect want genocide and war and are aligned with similar minds in the region. The same can be said for Iran. But, so long as they elect pieces of trash that warmonger like this, they are stuck in the wheel and it just keeps turning.
But kidnapping, raping,and abusing average citizens? Murdering children and babies? Indiscriminately targeting civilian buildings? Sorry, but "freedom fighters" don't do that. Terrorists do. And terrorists are representing Palestinians right now. And the propaganda media is supporting those terrorists because they too hate Israel and Jews. They're all showing their true colors right now because they fear no reprisal.
The best resolution to this would be for Saudi Arabia to openly condemn Hamas and Hezbollah while stating their peace plans with Israel will advance because it is best for both Israelis, Palestinians, and Saudis. Biden's administration is full of anti-Israel clowns who support Iran, so he won't do anything and Netanyahu and everyone else knows this.
If my life and the life of my family is under threat of violence I have only one objective. Kill the desire of my enemy to want to fight. If I fail this objective I only encourage repeated violence against us.
Some things about the world I truly don’t understand. Sell-out scum like “the squad” (already rabid anti-semites) are sickening, but not surprising. Jewish Democrats?!?! Wow. Talk about utter betrayal of your own people. Then again, they’re democrats.
When one considers the extraordinary devastation wrought in the few short years since the installation of the Biden regime, I can only conclude that the destruction of the 2020 election by the Ruling Class to eliminate Trump from power is in retrospect one of the worse crimes ever committed against the United States, with global ramifications that by now may be impossible to reverse. The recent attack on Israel by Hamas backed by Iran is not only an example but a case in point that alludes to an ominous future.
Yep Biden is a feckless old fool that nobody respects...This is what happens when you have a fraudulent election and install a career corrupt politician instead of a leader ...
Let me start this off by saying that 50 years ago I was a loadmaster on C-5s stationed at Dover, Delaware. We were on alert because of events in the Middle East where Israel was engaged in (another) conflict with neighboring Egypt and Syria. A few days later, I went out on a crew headed for Lod Airport with a load of ammunition by way of Lajes in the Azores. We were held up because Portugal hadn't yet granted permission for US transports to fly into Israel from Lajes. We crew rested then went out the next day. Those hours were perhaps the most terrifying of my life because Egypt had warned that any transports bound for Israel would be intercepted and shot down - and our commanders didn't put parachutes on the damn airplanes even though they were required by US Air Force regulations! As it turned out, we weren't intercepted until we reached Israeli airspace when IAF Phantoms (supplied by the US) met us and took us on to Lod. (The US had warned Egypt that if they attacked any US transports, the US would enter the war, which would have led to conflict between the US and the USSR, who were supplying Egypt and Syria. I flew at least two and probably three missions into Lods. Each time we were met by El Al stewardesses who gave us "free" sandwiches, soft drinks, snacks and coffee. We were also presented with "tokens of appreciation of a grateful nation" in the form of key chains with a Star of David and an inscription on the back. (I don't know where mine ended up.) We were impressed by how grateful the Israelis were - then after the operation, called NICKEL GRASS, was over, we learned that Israel presented the US a bill for all the stuff they "gave" us. We also learned that the hotels where our support personnel stayed jacked up the rates as did the restaurants where they ate. A Jewish crew chief I knew who was there with the support team later told me he was incensed at what Israel done. My attitude toward Israel also changed.
The problem with Israel and the Palestinians dates back to the nineteenth century and is complicated. No, Israel was not founded 2,000 years ago as your reader claimed (that's when Jesus walked the earth and was crucified (at the request of Jewish leaders who said His blood would be on their heads and their children's heads.) Your reader is thinking of the Exodus, which was thousands of years before that (although it's now considered a myth rather than historical fact.) The nation once called Israel ceased to exist 2,000 years ago after the siege of Masada and the subsequent diaspora of the Jews, mostly Pharisees, who hadn't revolted, mainly to Europe. Modern Israel came about as the result of Zionism, a movement that developed in Eastern Europe in the late Nineteenth Century advocating that Jews return to Palestine, as the region was called, and establish a homeland. Palestine was the homeland of an assortment of people, generically called Arabs, including descendants of the early Christians, former Jews who converted to Christianity during the time of the Apostles. The Zionist movement wasn't orthodox but was secular.
Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire, but the Arab uprising (led by Lawrence of Arabia) led to the overthrow of Turkish rule. Palestine was mandated to the British to govern the region until a nation could be established. Zionists, many of whom, such as Kiev-born American Zionist socialist Golda Meir, took advantage of the situation and rushed thousands of Jews, mostly Eastern European, to Palestine. Zionists were so desperate to drive the British out of Palestine they even attempted to form an alliance with Hitler's Nazis! Zionists terrorists attacked British installations in Palestine during World War II, and continued attacking them after the war. Finally, the British had had enough and advocated that they give up their mandate and the situation should be handled by an international organization, i.e,, the United Nations. However, Zionists, many of whom were former terrorists such as Menachim Begin, declared Israel to be an independent nation. And yes, Harry Truman was the first to recognize the new nation, thus giving them legitimacy. (That makes your original statement correct.) They immediately began expelling the former occupants, although they let some Arab Christians remain.
Ever since Zionists declared independence, there has been strife in the region. There has been war after war, mostly short-lived, In 1967 the Israeli Air Force launched a Pearl Harbor-style sneak attack against its neighbors' air forces. (I was at Amman, Georgia a few months later and saw the greasy black spots on the hardstands where the Jordanian Air Force had been.) The air strike preceded invasions of neighboring territory. After the war, Israel declined to pull back inside its borders. They claimed land and drove the occupants out.
Hamas dates back to the 1920s. They took control of the Gaza Strip several years ago. Their stated goal is to drive the Israelis out of Egypt. They could probably be compared to the Comanche here in Texas in the 1800s and the Sioux and Cheyenne in the Dakotas and Montana. I don't know what's going to happen in the region, but I doubt that it'll be settled until Jesus comes.
“Harry Truman was the first to recognize the new nation, thus giving them legitimacy. (That makes your original statement correct.)”
I agree. I assumed that’s what Sasha meant although she could have phrased it better to say that with America’s stamp of approval it was a done deal. I’ve also seen videos of John Mearsheimer talking about how the Palestinians were indeed forced out of their homes by the Israelis. I don’t blame present day Israelis for that but it certainly did plant the seeds of endless and very deadly war.
“They could probably be compared to the Comanche here in Texas in the 1800s and the Sioux and Cheyenne in the Dakotas and Montana.”
Last year I read “Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History” by S.C. Gwynne.” Superb book about about the US Army vs the Comanches. Also talked about the endless and often genocidal wars the Comanches waged on other tribes and it was the same with the Aztecs in Mexico and the Incas in Peru. That’s why the oppressed Indian tribes in these places so hated these dominant tribes and helped the Europeans defeat them. The Woke say we need to teach children the truth about history. I totally agree. I’d love to see this book required reading in our high schools. Fat chance in that ever happening in cities like Chicago which just elected a new Woke mayor and teaches the 1619 Project in our high schools. This is just not working at all.
Sam, regarding Exodus and debate whether it is myth or historical fact. This book has had perhaps the most profound impact on Western culture (and I’d argue the human race) that all others before or after it.
Jordan Peterson & 6 other scholars from different disciplines (funded by Daily Wire and posted for free on YouTube) are currently examining this book, verse by verse. I think there will be over 30, 2 hour episodes before they are done.
I just watched episode 5, link below, which covers the 10th plague & the Passover meal. It was fascinating to listen to.
I wasn't referring to Biblical scholarship, but to historians and archeologists. Personally, I believe the Bible to be the word of God, but secular Jews see Exodus as a myth. Jordan Peterson is not a historian. I'm not sure I'd call him a scholar. Nor do I read or pay attention to the Daily Wire and Ben Shapiro.
Sam, Jordan is only the moderator. The voices of the other scholars who do most of the speaking - is the value. One of the panel members is Jew and radio talk show host, Dennis Prager, who brings rich insights. Writer Jonathan Pageau also a contributor, plus some Oxford professors. Peterson was an atheist I think until pretty recently. Getting this content out for free to the world requires funding and Daily Wire gave it. If it’s still not your cup of tea, that’s cool.
I don’t have all the facts, but I think the attacks on ground against civilians largely came against Jewish settlements that were right near the Gaza Strip. So geographic proximity to Gaza (and inability or naivety) of IDF to protect those settlements are likely in play. This doesn’t say why the attack prep was missed. But certainly there has been constant stream of guns & butter coming to Hamas in Gaza from Iran and other sympathetic governments for a very long time. It’s well known there are tunnels from Gaza into Egypt, for example. Was the build up slow over time.
The intelligence failure is so great that it looks like some sort of "crypto" to me. That is to say that either the Palestinians (or the Iranians) started reading the Israeli codes, or the Israelis stopped reading (the real) Palestinian codes. Generating false traffic is not impossible. But the more disturbing possibility to me is that the "arms race" between code-makers and code-breakers, which has been in favor of the code makers for at least 50 years, has swung in favor of the code-breakers. Modern codes are (last I knew) based on factoring incredibly large numbers. But "super-computing" raises serious doubt about whether such codes are really "un-breakable". I have heard that the Chinese have been operating massive banks of super-computers in order to break our codes, and I have a hard time seeing how this approach would not work. If the Chinese helped the Iranians, and the Iranians helped the Palestinians, that might well do the trick. The Chinese might want to signal to us "We can read your codes" as a way of intimidating us out of trying to defend Taiwan, as the Chinese would really rather not fight a real war. I do not necessarily know enough to be "entitled to an opinion". But that is my suspicion.
I can't say that I have much sympathy for the Palestinians, especially those who advocate for the PLM. They've doomed themselves by latching onto international criminals like Arafat. The PLM and MB are the last vestiges of the Nazi Final Solution to the Jewish Problem, as acolytes of the Grand Mufti al Husseini of Palestine, this is their legacy. The Palestinian people, the regular ones that are not militants, have allowed their culture to be hijacked by jihadi death cultists. This has been catastrophic for them. They chose badly. As far as I'm concerned, "Alahu Akbar!" is synonymous to "Seig Heil!"
Meanwhile, the same crack foreign policy team that brought us Syria, Liby, and Ukraine, are at it again in Israel. Meddling in their politics and undermining their elected government, while pouring billions of dollars into their (our) enemy's coffers in Tehran. Blinken is already mewing about a return to the "two-state solution" (insanity) and DNC-Media bobbleheads on the Sunday morning shows are blaming........... Trump (more insanity).
My parents were Holocaust survivors. I am beyond disbelief that something like this not only happens now, but that so many people are okay with it, and support Hamas’s atrocities.
To those that stand with Israel and the Jewish people, thank you so much. For the others, screw you, evil pieces of Shiite. Your time of reckoning will come.
The left has signaled their support of barbarous behavior here in the US for several years. It disgusts me that they can’t bring themselves to condemn the Hamas attack on Israel, but I can’t say that I’m surprised.
I went to high school in a city where there were many grandparents with number tattoos. I remain dumbfounded at the extent to which those same grandchildren vote for terror appeasement Democrats. Bubbeh must be rolling in her grave.
All of this troubles me deeply. I can’t help but think that the administration is behind this act of terror in some way...in addition to the fact that we gave a terrorist nation $6B!! I trust NOTHING this administration does! Now that Ukraine has been loosing miserably & every penny we’ve given them has been laundered, let’s throw our support behind our true ally....Israel!
I see a bunch of crazy waving flags and blowing each other up, while all the while other equally stupid folks are demanding we line up beside one side or another like a damn football game.
War makes us a stupid and we happily turn our brains off the moment the opportunity arises.
Vivek 2024. Will we even last another year till the election though. Our society is unraveling by the day as is the rest of the world. Open borders, dumbed down schools, the demonizing of “Whiteness!” and the war on meritocracy for the sake of Equity are just a few of the many ways the democrats have ruined America and that surely has been a major reason why the entire world has been plunged into chaos. God only knows where we’ll all end up.
‘If This Can Happen In Israel…It Can Happen Here.’ (10 min)
Forbes Breaking News. Vivek Ramaswamy. Oct 8, 2023
Israel now has a major problem on its hands. They have never been willing to sacrifice hostages. That could change, of course, but I would expect an effort to get them back. I don't really see how they can do this. Perhaps the Saudis will help or perhaps not. Not sure how many there are but lots and probably dispersed throughout Gaza so Entebbe 2.0 wouldn't work.
Then there is the problem of what to do about Gaza. Many people, myself included, would like to see the place completely destroyed. But how? Stalingrad on the Med seems like a non-starter given Israeli resources and aversion to casualties. Too close to Israel proper to just nuke it. It seems like a textbook case for non-persistent nerve gas but I am pretty sure there is a strong taboo about that. Lining artillery up wheel to wheel and shelling it into rubble if they have the guns and ammo to do that. Ukraine has proved that only the Russians have the capacity to do that. Blockade would be possible. Starve them out. Problem is that Gaza has a border with Egypt. Plus the Israelis would need to be willing to sink NGO relief ships. Not sure where Gaza's water comes from. Power comes from Israel so that would be easy enough to cut off.
I think the predominant reactions have been overly moralistic. I am about 3/4 on the side of Israel, but not 4/4. It is not as if the views of Muslims can only be explained (as Leftists explain rejection of Leftist Ideology) in terms of "evil, pure evil". The phenomenon rather too euphemistically known as "in-group preference" has much to do with things. It would be just as valid, and more useful, to refer to the other side of the coin: "out-group hostility". This is, as far as I am aware, a universal trait of social animals (or at least mammals). It is what causes dogs to kill kids on bicycles. It lies behind much of the troubles with Tutsis and Hutus, Whites and Blacks (including in South Africa), Protestants and Catholics, not to mention Jews and non-Jews (not only in the Middle East). We are better off acknowledging (there's your living proof that "know" once had a /k/ ...) the reality of out-group hostility than thinking that campaigns of demonizing and finger-wagging can somehow make it go away. "We are good because we are us" is just human nature. It is easy to start jumping up and down about how the Israelis are more our tribe than the other tribe. But it does not solve any problem. All of this is relevant to policy here: we can hardly be *for* Tribalism abroad but *against* Tribalism at home.
No, I do not have any solution. (Be thankful for small favors.) It would be nice to think that Gaza might be returned to Egypt. But Egypt does not want it. (Perhaps the difference of dialect would create difficulties: it is not as if there is actually a single language "Arabic". Time stands still for no language.)
And it would be nice to think that NE Israel could somehow be swapped for the western part of the West Bank, creating both a more defensible state and a more fair resolution. But NE Israel is (according to my understanding) pretty much "the Garden of Israel", where a huge amount of labor and money has gone into making substantial improvements. The problem appears to be absolutely intractable.
If I have the energy, I will create some additional material on how the nature of Islam contributes to the problem.
Sorry for the late response: I did indeed run my computer done to nothing. Now I will create a response that probably only you will read ...
I find nothing to object to in Sherman's views on war, however un-PC they may be. Though "War is hell" probably gets most of the press, it should come as no surprise that a three-word assessment qualifies as "un-sophisticated". Much better is "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it". During WWII, the British SAS guys wound up positively begging the Greeks to stop engaging in guerilla war, so savage were the reprisals ordered by Hitler. So hurray for Hitler: that put a stop to the problem. (Trying to "win hearts and minds:" would not have.) Civvies who are "non-compliant" do not qualify for the rule that persons under control should not be targeted. Civvies that shoot soldiers in the back deserve to be shot in the face, so to speak. During the Civil War, the American army shot Southern prisoners, who were tied to tried begging for their lives, in order to "incentivize" Confederate (i.e. Anti-American) guerillas into not shooting American prisoners. Again, it worked, and was the only thing that would have.
And here's a good quote applying to the supposedly genteel and proper Seven Years War.
"The wholesale looting of Saxony" [engaged in by Frederick the Great] "brought consequences that might have been foreseen. He might hold up his hands in horror, but reprisals were not slow in developing ... The Russian armies burned and plundered horribly" (I am shocked, shocked!), "and even the gentle Maria Theresa did not object to the ravages of her pandours." (These were "irregular" Croatian infantry that the Austrians had wisely adopted in their wars against the Ottomans).
So let's not climb up on a high horse about how "illegal" such retaliations are. Instead, let's try actually knowing some relevant history, what a concept. If the Israelis choose (as I hope they will) to knock down all the buildings in Gaza, that will be no morally different from the Americans knocking down all the buildings in Germany. "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it."
If I understand your argument correctly then, there is no difference in the ruthlessness of the ways in which Stalin, Hitler and FDR conducted their campaigns because they were “all in” for “total war”? The saying that one man’s terrorist is another man’s commando resonates with me.
I just accidentally vaporized an entire long response just by trying to save part of it, ugh. Anyway ...
I am not up on what ruthless methods Stalin did or did not employ, though I certainly would not put anything past him. By contrast, Hitler, despite what might have been expected on the basis of his ideology, made no serious attempt to exterminate non-Germans in E Europe. His faith that language, which might thought of as "linguistic descent", can be used as a reliable indicator of genetic descent was, of course, naive.
Matter on the connection between Hitler's "Aryan" and "the Arian Heresy" ... lost.
Matter on the fact that British Germanic, which is to say English, is the only Germanic language that (in time) shows across the board grammatical resemblances to British Celtic, so that the English must be for the most part Celts ... lost.
“All of this is relevant to policy here: we can hardly be *for* Tribalism abroad but *against* Tribalism at home.”
Our ruling class is far from being “against tribalism at home.” I recently watched a video where a white Canadian editor of Quillette was talking about white guilt and virtue signaling among upper class Woke white leftists, who said, “The reflex to bash your own tribe becomes its own tribalism.” A perfect description of our guilt-ridden, race obsessed, Woke, white leftist ruling class which is very much a tribe with a deep sense of white guilt and a deep racial hatred of working class whites who generally don’t have this white guilt and shame about being white. They don’t see us as fellow whites, fellow Americans or fellow human beings. The left traded class for race and now sees whites as oppressors of “people of color” in general and of blacks in particular. They see us as the source of evil in the world who must be brought under control, by whatever means necessary. I naturally hate them at least as intensely as they hate me. In what sense does America even still exist as a country?
“How Blatant Anti-White Racism Won Acceptance in Elite America.”
The phenomenon of "White-Negativity" is odd, and not new. Voltaire regarded the Ottomans as more sophisticated than the Western Europeans of his time, even thought the Ottomans were already mired in medievalism. They were completely oblivious to (for example) the Scientific Method (which even the modern Chinese do not get), calculus, and planetary motion, not to mention having a military/social system based on horse-archers. And I do not think that having harems really counts as "sophisticated".
I do not see where this guilt comes from. Colonialism? But the Spanish did not do anything to the Aztecs that the Aztecs would not have done to the Spanish, if they had been able to figure out how .... Military superiority does not mean moral inferiority. We eventually developed a better morality, beginning to question things (like slavery) that the rest of the world had no problem with. A good part of the world has yet to catch up with us, as the Hamas militants have recently re-demonstrated. It is really inconceivable that the Israelis would have done the same kinds of things. As far as I can see, we really have nothing to be ashamed of.
“It is really inconceivable that the Israelis would have done the same kinds of things.”
I very much agree. Megyn shows the video of the young German/Israeli woman captured at the music festival by the Hamas terrorists in a pickup truck in Gaza. One terrorist has a leg across her body, another seems to be grabbing her hair and her one leg is abnormally bent. The Palestinians are cheering and a man in the crowd ran over and spit on her dead body. No way can there be a peaceful settlement to this situation with this much hate. The only question now is how much of the rest of the world will be dragged into this newest war. I highly recommend watching the short video I posted right below here for Libertarian about AI. It truly is astonishing how advanced it already is and how fast it’s advancing. This is a real game changer for all of humanity and I believe it’s the only thing that can save our sinking ship. Hope springs eternal.
“Megyn Kelly Describes Horrific Details About Hamas’ Attack on Israel.” (8 min)
I came back here for a relatively minor purpose: to note that I do not know how long the Ottomans employed horse-archers. I know that, for social/governmental reasons, they employed somewhat archaic forms of cavalry longer than they should have. But I do not know that they did so as late as the time of Voltaire, which seems somewhat improbable.
I will look at the video you recommend, though it may be a while. I forgot to take my charging cord with me on my vacation, and I would rather not run the power down to almost nothing.
I agree that Israel would not do what Hamas did; and I agree for the same reasons you don’t see the US do those brutal attacks shown by the news media; it’s because the power countries like the US and Israel use jets and B-52’s to bombs civilians like we did in Dresden, Japan, Vietnam, Iraq, etc. and Israel is doing now to Palestinians. Plus the power counties control the media so won’t see as much footage of children dying. But let’s be clear power countries kill several orders of magnitude more civilians than poorer adversaries do.
ok, so everything that I typed before. I don't know. I don't think that Gaza can exist as in its current "state". because, the problem is-- it serves every bad actor's agenda, purposes & wedge. It's a calling card for evil acts. The "Palestinian people" inside the Gaza strip are the same as Hamas. I didn't want to think so, but I think....it's too late, and it is so.
Completely agree and add Ukraine, NATO, South Korea, Taiwan to the list. I’m tired of our CIA and imperialist warmongering and the Killing of our young men in places like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Waste of American lives and treasure so the neocons can be entertained and paid off my the foreign and domestic elite.
Gotta watch this one, Libertarian. I am just so awed by this and by how fast it’s advancing. I’m hoping this will save our sinking ship because we sure can’t save ourselves. Too many of our problems have taken on a life of their own with too much momentum to be stopped yet they are taking us to the abyss. Many think self-aware AI will be an alien being that sees us as insignificant bugs but why would that be the case? Why wouldn’t it feel a great sense of commonality with us and even understand that it’s basically just a more advanced human and want to help us survive? Why wouldn’t they consider themselves the “children of humanity” since that is what they will be?
“Theory of mind (ToM), or the ability to impute unobservable mental states to others, is central to human social interactions, communication, empathy, self-consciousness, and morality. We tested several language models using 40 classic false-belief tasks widely used to test ToM in humans. These findings suggest that ToM-like ability (thus far considered to be uniquely human) may have spontaneously emerged as a byproduct of language models' improving language skills.”
“Meet stunningly human AI, with ‘signs of consciousness.’” (16 min)
WOW! I watched the whole thing, Seva. It’s incredible and far more advanced than I realized. I retired from a career in Clinical Research w a Fortune 50 company in 2022 and it’s amazing how much has changed in less than 2 years. It seems AI will be dominant by 2025. It’s scary, promising and brilliant. Will be fascinating to see the emerging force in action, society and economy. I sincerely wish they would get a person like you engaged on some kind of Steering Committee or Ethics Review Board. Thanks much for sharing, amigo.
The MidEast is moving towards peace. A succession of engagements and eventually treaties were imminent. These agreements would have likely led to the formation of a Palestinian state, free elections and peace in the West Bank and Gaza.
This would have made the leaders of Hamas - essentially little more than a street gang and just as parasitic - irrelevant. So they saved up their home made rockets until they had enough to overwhelm the peacekeeping antimissile system Israel installed.
I expect Israel will now endeavor to exterminate the vermin that infest. They won't be mourned or missed.
“The main terrorist groups were Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organisation) - ultimately led by future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin - and an even more militant organisation, Lohamey Heruth Israel (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) or LHI.” https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/conflict-Palestine
They were fighting against US allies - the Brits (and benefitting Hitler) throughout WWII. It’s good to be accurate, complete and .... “frank”. Friendlies are commandos and foes are terrorists even they both do the same thing.
Yeah, it certainly makes sense that Irgun and the others were fighting on the side of Hitler. That would explain the instant recognition - first in the world - that their declaration of a State of Israel got from the United States under Harry Truman. I hear Harry was a fan of the Little Corporal.
What isn’t accurate about Israel committing terrorist attacks on the Brits in WWII when the Brits were busy fighting Nazis? Please provide a reference like I did. Thanks.
In 2018, the Trump administration cut funding to the Palestinians for a number of reasons, including continued terrorist attacks originating from there. In 2021 the Biden administration restored that aid to Palestine. It may be that the restored funding helped Hamas to ramp up their recent attacks on Israel.
I think the situation, and the history of this region, is probably much more complicated that what we have been told. We received the preferred narrative, sanitized of all information regarding Israeli and US intelligence operations have been been kept primarily behind the curtain.
Yes, yes and yes! It's so obvious that we were so much better off in every way when Trump was in office, mean tweets and all! This country needs a strong leader, and competent people behind him or her. Right now, we have neither, and sometimes it's downright scary what is happening.
I didn’t do this or that, a government that rules me does this or that with or without my permission.
I find it impossible to believe that “they” represents the will of an entire population that has no say in what the majority or minority does or doesn’t do.
I refuse to permit the actions of others to define me or multitudes I do not know.
The sooner we stop wrapping ourselves in flags and seeing others draped in the flags of their masters, the sooner we will find peace.
Ordinary citizens in Gaza live in mortal fear of Hamas. Hamas conscripts children for tunnel digging where hundreds die every year. Free elections are impossible when Hamas gunmen count the votes and read them as they are cast. Life is very different in an environment where the ruling group is a heavily armed street gang. It's easy to forget just how civilized America is and how far from that model much of the Mideast is.
You may offer your services as a mercenary for the causes in which you believe. Please don’t conscript others into your priorities or you become the thug that you despise.
I don't have the authority to conscript anyone. Unlike some, I do not see US troops having any role in this. I do see support for Israel from the US for what may be a messy police action. This would include among our other allies and at the UN. I see us providing ammunition and other hardware as well as refraining from handing over any more cash to the criminal regime. These seem obvious and clearly in the interest of the United States.
You see support from the US ... and our other allies ... us ... the interest of the United States. You have projected your interests on 330 million people--“our” “us” etc. I find that your MENSA mind can’t comprehend (accept?) that some refute your collectivist/authoritarian mindset. I am not bound to you except by place of birth. Do not speak for me as you wish Hamas not to speak for the children of Gaza.
So yours is a voice for the status quo? How far does your isolationism go? Keep in mind that losing Taiwan probably means no new IPhone for you. I'm not sure what happens with the loss of Ukraine but with Belarus an effective satellite the Baltics would logically be next. Latvia makes most of the microwave and much of the fiber communications gear in the world, the supporting backbone of the Internet. So maybe you won't need that IPhone after all.
Frank, because you’ve resorted to snark, I suspect you’ve come to the end of your interventionist rationale. Permit me to depart with wisdom from Shlomo: like a man who grabs a dog by its ears is one who enters a quarrel not his own.
The correction is accurate. The State of Israel was invented thousands of years ago. I reemerged thanks to many Jewish people before the holocaust who moved there, mostly from Eastern Europe but also from Iraq, to escape disenfranchisement, including some of my relatives in 1895. At the time the land of Israel was part of the Ottoman Empire. Later many Jews who survived the Nazis moved there. In 1948 the Jews declared independence from the British who had been administering the area after the fall of the Ottomans in WWI.
Okay, disenfranchisement is the use of ‘soft words’. Russia placed all its Jews in the Settlement of Pale and then periodically killed, raped and mutilated Jewish communities over many centuries. Jews/Zionist’s finally said ‘f*ck that noise’ and immigrated to place promised them in the Torah, where they were no longer sheep for the Gentile slaughter.
Biden would not be doing anything about the Iran-backed terrorists' attack if his puppeteers weren't in 2024 election mode. His teleprompter assisted bluster yesterday is supposed to make us forget his total ineptitude in national and world affairs for the past 2 1/2 years - but we MUST NOT !!
FYI - thank you Shasa for your reporting on the globalists' attempt to destroy the Western Christian/Judeo culture.
My first thought was how horribly and in how many ways our country and our world have become degraded since the arrival of the Biden administration. Say what you will about Trump, he projected an attitude that made the rest of the world wary about poking the Eagle.
You are correct. The Washington swamp rats hated Trump and they mis labeled him a hawk when he was a dove. Trump sent about 70 missles into a Russian airfield in Syria. If he listened to Bolton, he would have had more conflict all over the world.
That's not even the half of it. The blood of the slaughtered is every bit as much on the hands of Joe Biden and Barak Hussein Obama as it is Hamas.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/americas-betrayal-of-israel
Indeed! BHO’s muse, Valerie Jarret, who lived in the WH, has advocated the top levels of US power to enable pallets of cash and now 6 Billion dollars to Iran enabling the mullahs to financially back Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Yes Susan Enlow you are correct and as you may know; both Barack Hussein Obama and Valerie Jarret are the son and daughter of Marxists/Communists.
I’m waiting for typical commenters to some how blame Maga and Trump for these attacks. Didn’t we just have peace in the middle east a few years ago? They attacked as soon as they had money backing them (Iran) and saw weakness with Biden.
McCarthy making a lot of sense here with his comments of freezing the $6B Biden gave to Iran and sanctioning Iran’s oil production (since they are making hand over fist since we are out of the game) and begin American energy production and independence again. oh wait-nuts -that’s maga so that’s really bad. darn
WATCH LIVE: Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy delivers remarks after historic ousting
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6338729436112
The Palestinians are for all intents and purposes a terrorist people (not just governed by terrorist organizations) who have never wanted “land for peace” or a two-state solution, but simply want the wholesale destruction of Israel and of any Jewish state and of Jews as Jews. Nothing proves that better that this attack, which is routinely described as “unprovoked” but should more accurately be described as “terrorist,” because it was aimed at virtually entirely civilian targets, including women, children, and the elderly, not at any military ones of significance.
Apparently, Palestinians think it is an act of courage to slaughter unarmed civilians in their homes.
What we are witnessing is yet another battle in an ancient family feud. Where does the hatred between Jews and "Palestinians' begin? With Ishmael and Isaac, two half-brothers, continued by Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob. The Isaac/Jacob line was favored by God, and the descendants of Ishmael and Esau have never forgiven them for it.
First thought is that Israel pretty much stands alone among nations that when its citizens are slaughtered, there are others around the world that rejoice.
My 2nd thought was this attack was another Pogram, and the birth of Israel in 1948 was an attempt to stop Pograms from occurring again (on large scale)
It’s true that Jews have always occupied the Holy Land. But there were not many still there by 1880’s.
The persistent Pograms across Europe however gave birth to the Zionist movement which saw many Jewish immigrants from the Pale of Settlement (south Ukraine) and other locations start ‘returning’ to present day Israel — and this started in earnest well before WW2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogrom
At close of WW2, the USA still wasn’t open to Jewish immigration from Europe and the British were blockading Europe Jews immigrating to Israel. British even had barb wire enclosed camps in Cyprus to house Jews coming out of Nazi concentration camps to keep them out of present day Israel. Brits didn’t know what to do, as they were faced w/ previous colonial promises to Arabs, but they crumbled (rightly IMO) to the guilt & shame of Jews wanting/needing to forge a new nation, and stop pograms from occurring again. So British stood aside, recognizing that Hitler’s Pogram of the 1940’s almost wiped them off the face of the earth.
Thanks for the great summary.
Another thought: Judaism is the only Abrahamic religion that has never attempted to forcibly convert others through conquest and warfare. Christianity ended its attempts centuries ago; Islam continues in this endeavor even today.
The history of Arab peoples is one of tragedy. In 7th century Islam erupted upon semi civilized Bedouin tribes of desert. Swept out of sands by Mohammed’s divine teachings they spread thru fire & sword their gospel almost to China and up to the doorstep of Paris. During Islam meteoric rise, Jews held very high positions of in the Arab world. But after about 500 years the Crusades hit, then 100 years on, the Mongol invasions which also resulted in so many Arab deaths. These double whammies and decimation of their cities resulted in Arab in-fighting and division. Then came the Ottoman Empire to gobble up their land, and about 5 centuries of corruption & feudalism. The sad result was big mistrust of outsiders, little compassion from Arab to Arab, and backwards stuff like slave culture, hand cut off for thieves, ear & nose for prostitution, along w/ illiteracy, & poverty. Ripe conditions for rise of fanaticism and religious hysteria when one is beat down. Not condoning the actions of more radical elements of Islam. But this is the historical backdrop to when Jews started to show up in Palestine around 1900. Jews were pining to buy the land from the poor, Arab landowners who for historical reasons, trusted nobody
Just downloaded The Source. Thanks for the recommendation!
I hope you enjoy it! I learned so much history over years from Michener historical novels.
Some other Michener greats:
Poland (especially interesting w/ what’s going on now in Ukraine)
Covenant (history of South Africa)
Mexico
Texas
Alaska
Chesapeake
Centennial (history of Colorado)
Caribbean
Nevertheless, those Arabs sold to Jews. This is in contrast to the history, going back to Muhammad's first successor in 632 Abu Bakr, who established the tradition of general sharing of war and raiding booty. The pseudo-prosperity was then established and has mostly ever after been about takings from others. Conquest and occupation has been the cultural center for all of the history of Islam. They took Jerusalem from the Byzantines in 634, just two years after Muhammad's death. This continued for a millennium until all the productive life had been sucked out of the Levant. The remainders of the last parasitic Ottomans sold to Jews throughout the 19th and early 20th Century. Jews restored the parts they bought and Arabs saw another chance to plunder. And here we are.
There were cheers from the Arab world on 9/11 as well. It's a reminder that the world still is home to some vile scum. Civilized humans should endeavor to exterminate this vermin.
“Extermination” is no different than “genocide” or “Holocaust”. And if you’re so gung ho to kill, fly over there and join the army. Tough talk is cheap.
I'm too old or I would. And extermination of parasitic vermin is exactly the prescription called for. The sad Palestinians in Gaza are at least equally abused by Hamas. Two bits jumped out in a Bari Weiss interview:
Hamas deliberately restricts the quantity of goods allowed into Gaza. The portal is designed for 1,200 trucks per day but Hamas allows only 400. This is in order to maintain shortages and force everyone in Gaza into a dependence on Hamas for goods.
Hundreds of children die yearly digging tunnels.
So were you in the military when you were younger? Seems to me you want American youth to go fight and die in places like the Ukraine and Middle East but never actually went yourself. If you did serve in the military, I am sorry for mistaking you for someone who hasn’t. As a veteran and father of sons, I like to see those advocating for violence be the first to join in it personally and physically.
All that is pretty accurate. In addition, hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews flocked to Israel, from Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, and other countries, in many cases partly because they were second or third class citizens in their Arab birth places. After a few generations, including mixed marriages with Western and other Jews, their descendants are at least half of Jewish population of Israel.
Yes, and I can’t blame Arabs for coming. If one looks at the topography of the region, the land around Jordan River (connecting Sea of Galilee to Dead Sea) plus lands to West (present day Israel + West Bank) are fertile and green. Compared to all the desert lands everywhere around them East and South, especially. Who would want to keep on w/ nomadic way of life when there is land of milk & honey available to put down roots, and gain food security.
The greening of the desert is the work of European engineering. Guess who brought that.
The Romans
What’s more, the British left them pretty much defenseless when they pulled out, vs the Arabs who were better armed and funded.
They fought off not only the native Arabs but, IIRC, FIVE invading armies, with no assistance from any foreign government.
Look at a map of the Middle East and Israel looks like an island surrounded on three sides by Arab nations mostly hostile to their very existence.
If it were a matter of land, there’s any number of Arab nations the Palestinians could emigrate to. The only fathomable reason for their remaining in what is essentially a war zone is to terrorize the Israelis.
I know if I lived somewhere like that, even among my WASP brethren, I’d get the hell out ASAP.
Thank you for this. I am not as well versed in history as I should be.
Not referring to you, but that’s a huge part of the problem in politics -- especially after decades of poor quality education. If we don’t know the complexity of our our history, we end up with opinions that are based on nothing but disembodied “feel good” pablum (oppressors/oppressed) and we can easily adopt injustice because we don’t know how a situation came to be.
Double, if you’d like a good historical fiction read on creation of present day Israel, recommend 1958 book ‘Exodus’ by Leon Uris.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_(Uris_novel)
Admittedly it is pro-Israel. But I like it because it’s provides good backdrop to how 1948 came about from viewpoint of Jewish people, and historical emotional energy behind it.
Excellent! Thank you. I'll add to my list.
The Jews and Arabs got along well when they lived together in Spain before 1492. Mohammed learned a lot from the Jews when he visited Jerusalem circa 690 CE. Both the Jews and the Muslims believe in one God, as do the followers of Jesus who was Jewish. Religious wars are fought over money and power. The leaders use religion to convince their people to die for their leader.
I don’t believe in religious wars, They are generally different cultures clashing. Question; was the Falklands war a religious war? Brits Anglican, Argentines Catholic. Why is it not generally thought a religious war?
I recall it strictly as a territorial war. And a quick one at that.
Because neither combatant used their religion as a justification for the war?
Probably, but if one had would it have been different?
You are completely correct, Gerald. Arabs and Jews lived in relative symptomatic harmony up thru the start of the Inquisition. It has been Euro Gentiles, Mongols, and Ottomans/Turks that have beaten down these two people groups. And now very sadly, both have been fighting each other, with most ferocity the last ~125 years. Jews were ‘pushed’ back to present day Israel or risk a future extinction
I think it’s more that Muhammad started out admiring and imitating Jews, he turned against them when they didn’t want to follow his new religion. He persecuted and slaughtered them, and his dying words were to leave no Jew alive in the Saudi peninsula. Numerous hadith teach the hatred and murder of Jews.
Cia, a few years ago I studied the life of Mohammed at a retreat in North Carolina near Ashville: The Five Pillars of Islam. Circa 690 CE, Greater Medina consisted of 5 villages. Two were Jewish. The monotheist Mohammed fled Mecca, where his extended family held the tourist franchise for storage of Idols worshipped by the various nomadic tribes of the Saudi peninsula. He fled to Medina, where he was invited to relocate and help settle disputes. When the Meccans attacked Mohammed for promulgating one God, which new religion was threatening the Meccans idol storage business (perhaps in a structure in Mecca similar to the Kaaba), one of the Jewish communities fought on the side of the Meccans, according to my teacher. But the Meccans did not conquer Medina and retuned to Mecca. Regaining strength and a larger following, Mohammed led his an army of his followers to march on Mecca where, pausing outside the city, he sacrificed his camel (worth more than a sheep or goat at the time) to convince the Meccans he wanted peace. He also changed the facing of prayer (five times a day) from Jerusalem (north of Medina) to Mecca (south of Medina). This 180 degree shift of face made Mecca Mohammed's (and God's) holy city. Mohammed also instructed his followers to visit Mecca at least once in a lifetime. This tradition, called the Hajj, continues today). Securing for the Meccans the revenue of the tourist business from a much larger population than those of the idol worshippers, the Meccans accepted Mohammed. To your point: I did not learn that the followers of the Mohammed hated the Jews after the battle at Medina. Mohammed flourished so I would assume any animosity was forgiven long ago. But, on the other hand, the Sunni and Shite followers of The Prophet remain at odds with each other about whether or not a descendant of Mohammed is required to lead the religion. So animosity can remain for centuries. I suspect, however, the root cause of the current conflict in Israel is about power and money, not religion, but, it's just a hunch. What do you think?
You are CORRECT, DoubleWhopper.
And if they were to succeed at destroying Israel, they'd just move on to destroying one another. When your faith promises heavenly rewards for killing other humans, I'm not sure how the world can help.
Frank, see my comment to Cia.
MSNBC is blaming the 'far right government' of Benjamín Netanyahu.
Say what? You're not pro palestinian - means we can attack and kill you. Not pro BLM? We can attack and burn down your cities. Not pro tranny? we will attack and slander you and shoot up your schools and blame guns. Not onboard with Me Too? you must be a rapist - we'll slander you and hope you lose your job. Anti vax? Throw you in jail and lock your bank accounts. Don't support Ukraine? You nazi.
What happens next?
If it weren’t for double standards they’d have no standards at all.
MSNBC is utterly vile.
Wow inventing Israel? More like inventing Palenstine. The fact is innocent people have been kidnapped assaulted raped and murdered by evil animals. I don’t feel bad for Palestine- they should renounce their men and their violent religion and forge a new path of tolerance not hate. Two questions- where can women move around freely, especially non Muslim women- Palestine or Israel? Another- where are you free to practice your own religion outside the states authorized one- Palestine or Israel? Let’s start with that.
Anyone who knows anything about the history of the state of Israel recognizes instantly the error of this statement. I thought Ms. Stone was better informed than this........I'm disappointed!
It has been removed
The modern state of Israel was created in 1947 after WWII.
The Balfour Declaration of 1922 had already submitted that a homeland be found for the Jewish people and Palestine was divided in order for it to happen.
They were resentful of the new state but that new state decided to encroach ever further into Palestinian land, occupying it illegally. What did they think was going to happen?
There is no *&#%ing Palestine! There is the country of Israel. Ask any other Arab nation to give the Palestinians land so they can have their own nation and they flat out refuse to accommodate anything to help out their fellow jihadists. yes, I know not all of them are, but they want NO PEACE. and the rest of the Muslim world wants Israel WIPED OFF THE MAP!
It was not illegal. Jews had been returning to their ancestral homeland since the early nineteenth century. They BOUGHT the land they occupied from absentee Ottoman and Egyptian landlords. Large numbers of Arabs went there for the first time to get jobs from Jews. Infant mortality among Arabs plunged because Jewish doctors and midwives delivered thousands of Arab babies using modern practices.
Coalitions of Arab countries picked wars with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Israel won all of them. Most countries would have forced their enemies to leave after the wars. Israel should have, but chose compassion, giving the Palestinians everything they needed, food, water, electricity, gas, education, medical care. Many Arabs became doctors and lawyers, members of the Knesset. Israel gave them Gaza in 2007. And how have their kindness and respect been repaid? Enough of that! They have to leave.
That’s true for modern people who value human rights. Muslims value the sharia, Islamic law, abd believe that it is the Allah-ordained blueprint fir orderly human life.
I have many Persian friends, some Islam devoted, some not. Neither of them value Sharia law. This may be because they are 1st and now 2nd generation Americans (fled Iran in late 1970’s). I often have more in common with these friends when it comes to living in service to a higher Power, than most of my non-Persian friends
Ordinary Palestinians are afraid to speak out. It's how Israel has been so effective at maintaining intelligence networks in the PA and Gaza. The corner storekeeper wants the murderous animals gone so has no compunction about ratting them out so long as it doesn't put him or his family in danger.
This intelligence failure is inexplicable.
As to the $6 billion dollars to Iran going to help fund Hamas, the current "fact check" (Fox News, btw) of that dastardly thought is that the money is still in a Qatari bank. Okay - fine.
But let's pose a scenario all of us have been through - it's Tuesday and you know your direct deposit will hit Friday but you really want/have to buy something pricey, though affordable on Friday without having to use the credit card. Do you whip out the credit card and buy it and then cover it (let's be honest, cover most of it) on Friday?
Yes - yes you do.
And that's why the $6 billion dollars not already being in a pile on the Ayatollah's kitchen floor does not matter - attempting to destroy Israel is, shall we say, an important purchase for Iran so they can pay for it right now knowing they will be made whole very very soon.
Thanks Joe Biden!
Spot on. Money is fungible. To believe it is not, is delusional. Iran is a provocateur. The Biden Administration is complicit.
Damn - I could have save two sentences by using the word "fungible." Now I feel like Billy Crystal in "Throw Momma from the Train" when he heard word the "sultry."
Momma: Who the HELL are you?
Larry: I'm Owen's friend.
Momma: Owen doesn't have a friend!
Larry: That's because he's shy.
Momma: No he's not. He's fat and he's stupid!
Hamas is misunderstood, NO, they’re terrorists. 😂😂😂😂😂
That reporting about the money in the bank was done by Jennifer Griffin at fox news who covers the pentagon. She has been hanging with Milley and Austin for the past few years. I’m not surprised she is covering for the Pentagon and the Biden administration. I feel she has lost her objectivity in her reporting over the past few years. It is insulting to the average American for her to claim it “factually untrue” that American funds have helped Iran and Hamas attack Israel. You are so much smarter than she is Thomas. Thanks for challenging her narrative. We all need to push back when they try to fool us. We are smart, strong, and tired of being told that we can’t reason the motives of the government because they are the experts. We ALL know how to follow the missiles and follow the money. This ransom payment was a BIG intended mistake by Biden and all involved, and we, the American voters are on to it.
I love your writings — I do have to disagree that the United States invented Israel. God did long, long before World War II.
Does that justify the countless blood spilled over the region?
If the answer is yes, you can keep your shitty God.
Did you mean shitty god?
What does it matter?
The answer is No. I think Mindi was just clarifying an earlier statement.
By the Palestinians, Iranians, etc. ?
Anyone.
And Zionism already had a long history of building a Jewish state in the Biblical places. They bought the land they occupied from absentee Ottoman and Egyptian landlords, from collections taken up woldwide. There had always been a Jewish presence there, which increased with Zionism. There had only been a few Arabs, as it was very desolate. Many Arabs came gorcthe first yine in the late nineteenth century, hoping to get work from the Jews. The British first helped Jews building Israel in the early twentieth century, then turned against them.
Lands should not belong to any people according to their beliefs in a deity. Their borders should be drawn according to agreements between neighbours. But of course that is never going to happen in the Israel/Palestine conflict because they each maintain that their ‘god’ gave it to them & them alone. This is the childish playground behaviour of people who refuse to act like the adults they supposedly are.
Israel was ‘created’ out of a pocket of land in the Middle East that had apparently had that name in ancient religious texts. So it came to be a place that the Jewish people could call a refuge after the atrocities of the WWII (not a land based on their god-given claims). The Palestinians who’d been living there for decades were not welcoming & resisted what they saw as an imposition. At this stage the right response would have been to make their case with the Palestinians in a way that showed understanding of their feelings but also made it clear that the Jewish people were entitled to a place of safety that had a resonance for them. Instead, they behaved in an arrogant, entitled way that ensured that the Palestinians would resent them. Not a great start.
Then they decided to push ever further into areas where Palestinians lived, claiming ‘god’.
Looking at the situation objectively it’s quite obvious that the Palestinians being a pugnacious & defensive people, were going to get violent when faced with a people who felt entitled & god-approved. So why did the new state of Israel keep poking that bear? They must have known what the response would be. Belief in gods should have no place in politics and definitely not in potential flashpoint conflict areas like this. The world has been unable to decide how to act to stop the two sides from destroying each other, but they are too intent & hate-filled towards each other & they ignore any entreaties to stop their mutual animosity.
So here are two peoples, evolutionary brothers, who simply cannot put their infantile beliefs behind them, locked in a struggle in which their egos will not allow them to make peace because they think it would show weakness
What a stupid human tragedy.
While in the largest context it might be true that the tragedy of Israel/Palestine is two peoples who believe in their bones that it is their country, how was it the Israelis who were “arrogant” when the land was divided by the UN in 1947? The tiny country was attacked on all sides by far more powerful forces. While it is also true that the suffering of innocent civilians of ANY People should be mourned, and probably also true that there are extremists on both sides of this tragically relentless conflict that scuttled the idea of a “two state solution”, there is also overwhelming evidence that Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and probably also the Palestinian Authority, do not want a two state solution, but want the eradication of Israel as a nation, or as Iran is found of saying, “A cancer” in the middle east. And also apparently true, that along with being a tiny country surrounded by enemies, Israel is constantly being delegitimized by a sophisticated propaganda apparatus throughout the western world. It seems to me that the people of Giza are also victims of their fanatical and ruthless leaders, but how does that change the existential survival issue at stake for Israelis?
The Balfour Declaration and the British mandate over Palestine were approved by the League of Nations in 1922. The agreement contained a submission that a Jewish homeland should be established in the area of what was then Palestine.
Arabs vehemently opposed the Declaration, concerned that a Jewish homeland would mean the subjugation of Arab Palestinians.
The British controlled Palestine until Israel became an independent state in 1947, carved into the area as a refuge for Jewish people after WWII.
So the divided nation was Palestine - a tinder box waiting to ignite. No one can doubt that Israel has suffered from the resentment of its new neighbours, and maybe nothing could have prevented such a violent reaction to Israel’s creation, but making land grabs as a god-given right is not a peaceful act.
The Jews had always been there, in larger numbers from the rise of Zionism two hundred years ago. There were very few Arabs there then: it was very desolate. The Jews have the superior claim, and the savagery of the Palestinians means they have no claim.
Welcome to the Human Race...flawed, sinful, and evil since time immemorial...
The word to describe this attack is barbarous. It is not simply a manifestation of ordinary human flaws.
Of course. It is an evil act! My comment was addressed to the many folks who still believe that humankind is basically good, though history disproves this over and over again...
The Jews never left. There were always some who remained, and many more from the rise of Zionism in the early nineteenth century. There were always a few Arabs, but large numbers only came in the late nineteenth century to get work from the Jews.
Jane, great analysis here based on logic, not emotions or spiritual beliefs. Many religions have killed a lot of people because they didn't believe in that religion's God.
We are in a death spiral. Without strong leadership and a commitment to do what is right for the country, we are little more than a rudderless ship. January 20, 2021, was the turning point, a moment in time that will be considered the largest breach of American sovereignty in the history of our country. As stated, we are at the doorstep of WWIII, our borders are open to whoever wants to enter without one question of vetting. Inflation is hammering the middle class, let alone those who are less fortunate. The misdirection of resources toward the neutralization of President Trump as there is a need to shore up the energy crisis and supply chain issues is unconscionable. The world is ablaze to the advantage of the WEF and UN, who want nothing more than a one-world order. We are in dire straits...
Well said. Come November 2024, we must all vote for the Republican candidate—whoever it is. This is our only and last chance to save our country. If the Dems win, there won’t be a reason to vote ever again…
You must have blinders on. If the leftists prevail after this election, the party will be over. Freedom will no longer be the guidon of the country.
My god look around you! Have you not noticed a serious decline in the country since the commies took over?
California
It already has, duh!
For God's sake, get informed! Don't become one of the Left's "useful idiots" - Marx's terminology, not mine - because once the revolution is completed, you’ll be expendable too.
Exactly. The useful idiots have no realization that they are on the list too - just maybe not at the top. They will clean house - look at every Communist, Marxist, Socialist regime and see who they get rid of.
Times were different, now we have several stolen in a row. Do nothing sure. the leftists will never let you be free if not stopped.
It has been said frequently for the last couple years, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Our economy cannot withstand another 4 years of the Dem incompetence and I ,for one, want to leave my grandchildren the country as it was as I grew up.
I am sorry to say Gail, that ship has sailed. There is no coming back from this and it is never going to be the same country again. I also do not have any answers to this dilemma because of the UniParty, WEF, Great Resetters - no one knows how far this is going to go. Only God does.
I admire your writing but I am profoundly disappointed by your comment. Israel was not invented by the United States. My grandfather and many thousands of other Americans were born in the Territory which is now Israel. Legal recognition of Israel as a nation is wholly separate from the millennia long history of Jews in the area. While there are surely innocent Palestinians, the continued backing of terrorism and teaching of hate to their children make sympathy for Palestinians inappropriate and misguided,
The Palestinians backed the genocidal Arab war of 1948, and all of their troubles, even today, stem from that stance. The rest is all anti-Semitic smoke and mirrors. We’re there innocents caught up in the catastrophe? Of course, but don’t confuse the cheering crowds in Gaza with a liberation movement. They are a homicidal mob, and need to be disarmed accordingly.
Gabriel Noronha has a mega thread on X about that $6B and how money "works" in Iran. Well worth the read. (Twitchy has a story with it which is easier.) Trump said a month ago that this would happen and here we are... Any moron could have seen it coming, but WOW, we are all just SHOCKED. (I actually AM shocked at the lack of Intel and Israel being taken by surprise.)
The Koran specifically says that Muslims can bring in the last days by killing Jews. Why we (politicos) ignore this when "wiping out Jews" (not just Israel) is literally their oft-stated goal is about as delusional as all the other crazy stuff the Progressives do. This is not a culture that can be bribed, westernized, tamed, drugged, or transed out of existence. They say (like China) they want to conquer the world, kill Jews and infidels, and THEY MEAN IT. They've always meant it. And they mean actually physically conquer, not fly a flag over the embassy. Are there Muslims who aren't fundamentalist? Yes. But these (terrorist) organizations and governments believe this and see it as their holy duty to carry it out.
Now that they have reported Americans killed and kidnapped, we'll see just how weak the Biden admin and our military are. Because in the past, this would have been an act of war against the US. But now, we'll probably just pay them a few billion and call it a day. Never mind the obvious fact that there are jihadists pouring over our border...
American civilians being murdered in a foreign country certainly has never been the cause or criteria for America to declare war. We serve our American youth and citizens best by staying out of foreign wars; like this one also.
My two cents: this was a fairly sophisticated, pre-planned and strategic act of war. That said, wouldn’t you target fighting aged males? Why children and old women, if not to inflame world opinion? I’ve learned to recognize the feeling of being manipulated, and boy do I feel that way now. The question is, by whom?
Why kidnap children and old women? Maybe for ransom? Biden released $6 billion to Hamas' backer Iran for the release of a handful of prisoners. About one billion per.
I still believe that whoever said “we do NOT negotiate with terrorists” had the right idea. It gets us no where.
they always go for women and children. Look at Syria, which has been memory holed. I lived with my aunt and uncle for awhile when I graduated from college, and my uncle was very high up in US intelligence. He said then (Reagan was President) that the Islamic world was what we should be worried about. He was and is right
Jay, just got off phone with a buddy in Israel. He tells me that the Hamas terrorists did not expect to be this successful with their assault and that they were expecting to confront IDF soldiers not civilians. The original goal was to capture some soldiers. They took out the “high tech” surveillance monitors with cheap off-the-shelf drones. Then blew holes in the fences (not steel walls) and walked in.
We should remember these lessons for "the next time". The good guys must be constantly vigilant and stop every single solitary attack, the bad guys need only succeed once.
-high tech monitors and surveillance state techniques are NOT a substitute for steel walls and fortified watch towers with real people in them armed to the teeth with both weapons and communication devices every few hundred feet.
(You know, like Trump wanted to build but was told that "walls are racist and don't work)
Occam’s razor comes to mind. Ugh. Hope everyone’s guard is back up now. Prayers for your friends.
Next question for me is why and why now?
If this is asymmetrical warfare initiated by Iran, what is or was the end goal? Notable is that Saudi Arabia and Qatar did not condemn the raids. 🤔
Perhaps if asymetric warfare is what they launch, then asymetric warfare should be what they get in return… like the decapitation of all leadership in Iran and one oilfield destroyed per Israeli citizen killed…🤔
Hamas isn't trying to win a popularity contest. They're trying to wipe Israelis off the face of the earth.
Iran. But with Russia’s support. A smart move against the proxy war. Horrible for Israel to be taken hostage like this.
Plausible.
Perhaps Iran does not want a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and is willing to spend Palestinian lives in an Israeli counterattack to put pressure on the Saudis not to formally engage with Israel.
Peace negotiations aside, Iran has been calling for the wholesale destruction of the Israeli state and murder of every Jew in Israel since the ayatollahs came to power in 1979. They have never wavered from this fatwa, no matter how many pallets of greenbacks U.S. Democrat presidents deliver to their doorstep.
I’m beginning to wonder if this is just an excuse for Iran to permanently destroy Israel (via a nuclear weapon). It might work like this: get $$$ from US, fund and encourage the Palestinians to carry out a comprehensive terror campaign, wait for Israel to respond appropriately with military might, then (with help from MSM) claim that you had no other option to stop Israel and defend your esteemed Islamic brothers. I guess we’ll find out in the next few days...hope I’m TOTALLY wrong.
Sorry Sasha, but the Arabs voted for Hamas as their leadership and have supported their endless murderous crusades against Israeli civilians. They have earned the wrath of Israel and at least that part of the would capable of seeing things as they actually are.
Wipe them all out. That is the path to peace. They had their chance at "self-government" and how did that work out?
One comment you note the evil of “...murder of every Jew in Israel “ and then assert the same treatment for Palestinians with “Wipe them all out.”
The Israelis have done everything possible to bring a peace, including giving Gaza self rule. What else can be expected of them?
In return Gaza has subjected Israel to a near constant bombardment of rockets as well as military incursions intentionally targeting civilian. The citizens of Gaza have always overwhelmingly supported and cheered the killing of Israeli women and children just as they do now. They do not value any human lives other than their own and adhere to a brutal and medieval belief system which calls of the murder of any non-Muslim -- in particularly Jews. They are subhuman savages incapable of living in a civilized world and will not stop their savagery so long as even one Jew resides anywhere in Israel.
The malady of the Western Left ... in the word "resistance" is justification for just about any form of violence, as the end "justifies" it ...
That is how the "Summer of Love" 2020 was justified, and those who killed and maimed have, if at all, had some mere wrist slapping.
Should say some religious minority in an Islamic nation have done the equivalent of what Hamas has done it would be hunted down by the entire globe and its leaders and foot soldiers indicted for war crimes.
Palestinians may feel oppressed but there are many other minorities of a similar population size who have no voice at all ...
Think about the plight of Copts in Egypt or the Pakistani Christians just to name a couple of oppressed religious minorities in Islamic nations!
No voice or hardly any if at all, because they are not of the "right" political flavour ...
I would disagree with the statement that Israel was invented by the Truman administration. Israel returned to it's rightful place, after centuries of being dispersed around the world
Another war on Biden’s watch. Fostered by his and Obama’s support of Iran and other malevolent characters. Trump, who has common sense, predicted this. God Obama and his cult members have a western civilization death wish.
The left will tell us how awful it is that Israel “pens in” the Gazans, and doesn’t let them leave. 1. Now we see why. 2. They have a border with Egypt, who also “pens” them in. Why don’t we hear about that?
Israel greeted 17,000 Gazans a day work in Israel in Israeli businesses. They were considering allowing 30k until this happened. No more jobs or $$$ for Gazans now.
The Arab world declared war against Israel in 1949 and never reversed themselves. The Palestinians have always denied Israel’s right to exist. Yassir Arafat rejected a comprehensive peace plan in 2000 that would have given him and his people 90% of everything they asked for, but required them to acknowledge Israel’s right to live. Bill Clinton lobbied Arafat hard to sign it. But Arafat believed he would be assassinated if he did. So he didn’t.
And for they gave Arafat a Nobel Peace Prize. 🤡🌍
Let's see if anyone in Congress has the backbone to rush to attach an Israeli flag pin to their lapel as they did with Ukraine. Or even the unmitigated gall to wear a Palestinian lapel pin.
The United States did not "invent" Israel. Nor did Great Britain with the Balfour Declaration. The Jewish people created Israel. The Jewish people who had always lived in ancient Israel, who had stayed even when Rome destroyed the Second Temple, who had ensured Jerusalem remained the global center of Jewish teaching, who created the synagogue model to replace the Temple, who kept Jerusalem a majority-Jewish city throughout the 2,000 years of the Diaspora.
They built Israel.
The U.S. and U.K. and then U.N. simply recognized the reality on the ground.
The Arabs refused to accept that Jews had a right to a voice in the governance of that region, refused to work with the Jewish leaders.
Some still do, as we see today.
Yes, I feel for the Arabs - particularly those in Gaza who saw their elected leaders overthrown by Hamas a few years ago.
But the blame for that lies with the Ayatollah who orchestrated it for his own purposes.
Another War started by Democrats international policies or lack of policies.
If your Jewish and vote Democrat you best rethink your voting options.
With the American border wide open what’s the odds that Terrorist have entered America and are planing an attack here on our homeland?
Thanks Brandon
Ms.Stone. I think you analysis is spot on.
Except she still hasn't worked out that Palestinians are to be felt sorry for, they are not and deserve whatever Israel hands them back in spades hopefully. Still have some leftist baggage to rid yourself of M.Stone.
Agree that Israel must take bold and quick action.
Somewhat disagree on your mild criticism of Ms. Stone.
She deserves tremendous credit for breaking away from leftist indoctrination. She was in the middle of it, but decided to be her own person and think logically and rationally about issues.
Having being born and raised in LA, I can tell you the indoctrination and distortion from the left is non stop and intense.
Media, educational institutions, entertainment, sports as well as the workplace. It is all around you.
California is a beautiful place and the left uses that beauty to manipulate people.
Born in 56…retired and moved out of there three years ago. Got my 4 adult children out of there too.
God Bless you Ms. Stone!
Keep up the great pod cast!
There is no doubt Biden's catastrophically failed proxy war in Eastern Europe created the conditions that opened the door to this act of mass terrorism against civilians.
There exists a stockpile of USA arms in Israel, that Israel is able to quickly draw upon in time of war. It’s called the “War Reserve Ammunition- Israel“, and that cupboard is reportedly very bare right now vs. years past, due to those Arms flowing north to Ukraine. I think Iran/Hamas was aware of the stockpile being low…
https://jinsa.org/jinsa_report/anchoring-the-u-s-israel-alliance-rebuilding-americas-arms-stockpile-in-israel/
I wouldn't be surprised. The West's Ukraine adventure has exposed just how weak and vulnerable the West is. And it has made the West even weaker than it already was.
Sasha I am thank for your voice. Even and perhaps becauae we can disagree. I do not in any way feel sorry for the people of Palistine have never been peaceful of cooperative. Their doctrine has never been anything other then the total death and annihilation of all Jews. Their way is not compatible with the life of anything but themselves. Yes, I even include their women and children in my view. There are no innocents in Palistine. They are a death cult and have shown themselves to be, over and over and over again.
To paraphrase the late great P.J. O'Rourke, giving weapons and autonomy to the Arabs who occupy Palestine is liking giving whisky and car keys to teenage boys.
Sympathy for genocidal nihilistic? Hell no! They rejected many opportunities to make good agreements for their benefit. They simply want to kill the Jews. It's what they say, it's what they do. How in hell can you express Sympathy for these fascist monsters!!??
The war machine saw that Ukraine was not going to last. So Biden set up Iran to attack Israel via terrorists
The Palestinian people always get caught up in this. Why? Because they are used, and allow themselves to be used, by everyone in the region. The average one probably wants peace. They've been coexisting with Israelis for years. The people they elect want genocide and war and are aligned with similar minds in the region. The same can be said for Iran. But, so long as they elect pieces of trash that warmonger like this, they are stuck in the wheel and it just keeps turning.
But kidnapping, raping,and abusing average citizens? Murdering children and babies? Indiscriminately targeting civilian buildings? Sorry, but "freedom fighters" don't do that. Terrorists do. And terrorists are representing Palestinians right now. And the propaganda media is supporting those terrorists because they too hate Israel and Jews. They're all showing their true colors right now because they fear no reprisal.
The best resolution to this would be for Saudi Arabia to openly condemn Hamas and Hezbollah while stating their peace plans with Israel will advance because it is best for both Israelis, Palestinians, and Saudis. Biden's administration is full of anti-Israel clowns who support Iran, so he won't do anything and Netanyahu and everyone else knows this.
As George Carlin’s ‘Soft Words’ comedy stated:
Firefighters fight fires
Crime fighters fight crime
But what is it again that ‘Freedom Fighters’ fight?
If my life and the life of my family is under threat of violence I have only one objective. Kill the desire of my enemy to want to fight. If I fail this objective I only encourage repeated violence against us.
I continue to be utterly baffled why any Jew would ever even briefly consider voting democrat.
Jewish people are also disproportionately represented in Democratic Party leadership and elected positions; “As of 2023, there are nine Jewish senators and 26 Jewish members of the House of Representatives serving in the United States Congress.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_members_of_the_United_States_Congress#:~:text=As%20of%202023%2C%20there%20are,in%20the%20United%20States%20Congress.
Some things about the world I truly don’t understand. Sell-out scum like “the squad” (already rabid anti-semites) are sickening, but not surprising. Jewish Democrats?!?! Wow. Talk about utter betrayal of your own people. Then again, they’re democrats.
I also don’t understand why people vote Dem: especially some in my own family.
When one considers the extraordinary devastation wrought in the few short years since the installation of the Biden regime, I can only conclude that the destruction of the 2020 election by the Ruling Class to eliminate Trump from power is in retrospect one of the worse crimes ever committed against the United States, with global ramifications that by now may be impossible to reverse. The recent attack on Israel by Hamas backed by Iran is not only an example but a case in point that alludes to an ominous future.
Yep Biden is a feckless old fool that nobody respects...This is what happens when you have a fraudulent election and install a career corrupt politician instead of a leader ...
(As well as a nearly omnipotent enforcer class in the media and large corporation.)
Let me start this off by saying that 50 years ago I was a loadmaster on C-5s stationed at Dover, Delaware. We were on alert because of events in the Middle East where Israel was engaged in (another) conflict with neighboring Egypt and Syria. A few days later, I went out on a crew headed for Lod Airport with a load of ammunition by way of Lajes in the Azores. We were held up because Portugal hadn't yet granted permission for US transports to fly into Israel from Lajes. We crew rested then went out the next day. Those hours were perhaps the most terrifying of my life because Egypt had warned that any transports bound for Israel would be intercepted and shot down - and our commanders didn't put parachutes on the damn airplanes even though they were required by US Air Force regulations! As it turned out, we weren't intercepted until we reached Israeli airspace when IAF Phantoms (supplied by the US) met us and took us on to Lod. (The US had warned Egypt that if they attacked any US transports, the US would enter the war, which would have led to conflict between the US and the USSR, who were supplying Egypt and Syria. I flew at least two and probably three missions into Lods. Each time we were met by El Al stewardesses who gave us "free" sandwiches, soft drinks, snacks and coffee. We were also presented with "tokens of appreciation of a grateful nation" in the form of key chains with a Star of David and an inscription on the back. (I don't know where mine ended up.) We were impressed by how grateful the Israelis were - then after the operation, called NICKEL GRASS, was over, we learned that Israel presented the US a bill for all the stuff they "gave" us. We also learned that the hotels where our support personnel stayed jacked up the rates as did the restaurants where they ate. A Jewish crew chief I knew who was there with the support team later told me he was incensed at what Israel done. My attitude toward Israel also changed.
The problem with Israel and the Palestinians dates back to the nineteenth century and is complicated. No, Israel was not founded 2,000 years ago as your reader claimed (that's when Jesus walked the earth and was crucified (at the request of Jewish leaders who said His blood would be on their heads and their children's heads.) Your reader is thinking of the Exodus, which was thousands of years before that (although it's now considered a myth rather than historical fact.) The nation once called Israel ceased to exist 2,000 years ago after the siege of Masada and the subsequent diaspora of the Jews, mostly Pharisees, who hadn't revolted, mainly to Europe. Modern Israel came about as the result of Zionism, a movement that developed in Eastern Europe in the late Nineteenth Century advocating that Jews return to Palestine, as the region was called, and establish a homeland. Palestine was the homeland of an assortment of people, generically called Arabs, including descendants of the early Christians, former Jews who converted to Christianity during the time of the Apostles. The Zionist movement wasn't orthodox but was secular.
Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire, but the Arab uprising (led by Lawrence of Arabia) led to the overthrow of Turkish rule. Palestine was mandated to the British to govern the region until a nation could be established. Zionists, many of whom, such as Kiev-born American Zionist socialist Golda Meir, took advantage of the situation and rushed thousands of Jews, mostly Eastern European, to Palestine. Zionists were so desperate to drive the British out of Palestine they even attempted to form an alliance with Hitler's Nazis! Zionists terrorists attacked British installations in Palestine during World War II, and continued attacking them after the war. Finally, the British had had enough and advocated that they give up their mandate and the situation should be handled by an international organization, i.e,, the United Nations. However, Zionists, many of whom were former terrorists such as Menachim Begin, declared Israel to be an independent nation. And yes, Harry Truman was the first to recognize the new nation, thus giving them legitimacy. (That makes your original statement correct.) They immediately began expelling the former occupants, although they let some Arab Christians remain.
Ever since Zionists declared independence, there has been strife in the region. There has been war after war, mostly short-lived, In 1967 the Israeli Air Force launched a Pearl Harbor-style sneak attack against its neighbors' air forces. (I was at Amman, Georgia a few months later and saw the greasy black spots on the hardstands where the Jordanian Air Force had been.) The air strike preceded invasions of neighboring territory. After the war, Israel declined to pull back inside its borders. They claimed land and drove the occupants out.
Hamas dates back to the 1920s. They took control of the Gaza Strip several years ago. Their stated goal is to drive the Israelis out of Egypt. They could probably be compared to the Comanche here in Texas in the 1800s and the Sioux and Cheyenne in the Dakotas and Montana. I don't know what's going to happen in the region, but I doubt that it'll be settled until Jesus comes.
“Harry Truman was the first to recognize the new nation, thus giving them legitimacy. (That makes your original statement correct.)”
I agree. I assumed that’s what Sasha meant although she could have phrased it better to say that with America’s stamp of approval it was a done deal. I’ve also seen videos of John Mearsheimer talking about how the Palestinians were indeed forced out of their homes by the Israelis. I don’t blame present day Israelis for that but it certainly did plant the seeds of endless and very deadly war.
“They could probably be compared to the Comanche here in Texas in the 1800s and the Sioux and Cheyenne in the Dakotas and Montana.”
Last year I read “Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History” by S.C. Gwynne.” Superb book about about the US Army vs the Comanches. Also talked about the endless and often genocidal wars the Comanches waged on other tribes and it was the same with the Aztecs in Mexico and the Incas in Peru. That’s why the oppressed Indian tribes in these places so hated these dominant tribes and helped the Europeans defeat them. The Woke say we need to teach children the truth about history. I totally agree. I’d love to see this book required reading in our high schools. Fat chance in that ever happening in cities like Chicago which just elected a new Woke mayor and teaches the 1619 Project in our high schools. This is just not working at all.
Correction - Hamas' goal is to drive the Israelis out of the region formerly known as Palestine, not out of Egypt.
You can edit your post by tapping the 3 dots on the right.
Thanks, I should have remembered that. It's what happens when you get old.
Sam, regarding Exodus and debate whether it is myth or historical fact. This book has had perhaps the most profound impact on Western culture (and I’d argue the human race) that all others before or after it.
Jordan Peterson & 6 other scholars from different disciplines (funded by Daily Wire and posted for free on YouTube) are currently examining this book, verse by verse. I think there will be over 30, 2 hour episodes before they are done.
I just watched episode 5, link below, which covers the 10th plague & the Passover meal. It was fascinating to listen to.
https://youtu.be/6PSHDHKpQEk?si=GAhIX4MV96UMIrdl
I wasn't referring to Biblical scholarship, but to historians and archeologists. Personally, I believe the Bible to be the word of God, but secular Jews see Exodus as a myth. Jordan Peterson is not a historian. I'm not sure I'd call him a scholar. Nor do I read or pay attention to the Daily Wire and Ben Shapiro.
Sam, Jordan is only the moderator. The voices of the other scholars who do most of the speaking - is the value. One of the panel members is Jew and radio talk show host, Dennis Prager, who brings rich insights. Writer Jonathan Pageau also a contributor, plus some Oxford professors. Peterson was an atheist I think until pretty recently. Getting this content out for free to the world requires funding and Daily Wire gave it. If it’s still not your cup of tea, that’s cool.
I'm familiar with Dennis Prager. He's a politician. It's not my cup of tea. I'm not into pod casts and You Tube. I read.
Thanks for the insights and the balanced history of how both sides have launched surprise attacks, Sam.
How does a sophisticated defense like Israel miss this attack while in development? Inquiring minds want to know
I don’t have all the facts, but I think the attacks on ground against civilians largely came against Jewish settlements that were right near the Gaza Strip. So geographic proximity to Gaza (and inability or naivety) of IDF to protect those settlements are likely in play. This doesn’t say why the attack prep was missed. But certainly there has been constant stream of guns & butter coming to Hamas in Gaza from Iran and other sympathetic governments for a very long time. It’s well known there are tunnels from Gaza into Egypt, for example. Was the build up slow over time.
The intelligence failure is so great that it looks like some sort of "crypto" to me. That is to say that either the Palestinians (or the Iranians) started reading the Israeli codes, or the Israelis stopped reading (the real) Palestinian codes. Generating false traffic is not impossible. But the more disturbing possibility to me is that the "arms race" between code-makers and code-breakers, which has been in favor of the code makers for at least 50 years, has swung in favor of the code-breakers. Modern codes are (last I knew) based on factoring incredibly large numbers. But "super-computing" raises serious doubt about whether such codes are really "un-breakable". I have heard that the Chinese have been operating massive banks of super-computers in order to break our codes, and I have a hard time seeing how this approach would not work. If the Chinese helped the Iranians, and the Iranians helped the Palestinians, that might well do the trick. The Chinese might want to signal to us "We can read your codes" as a way of intimidating us out of trying to defend Taiwan, as the Chinese would really rather not fight a real war. I do not necessarily know enough to be "entitled to an opinion". But that is my suspicion.
I can't say that I have much sympathy for the Palestinians, especially those who advocate for the PLM. They've doomed themselves by latching onto international criminals like Arafat. The PLM and MB are the last vestiges of the Nazi Final Solution to the Jewish Problem, as acolytes of the Grand Mufti al Husseini of Palestine, this is their legacy. The Palestinian people, the regular ones that are not militants, have allowed their culture to be hijacked by jihadi death cultists. This has been catastrophic for them. They chose badly. As far as I'm concerned, "Alahu Akbar!" is synonymous to "Seig Heil!"
Meanwhile, the same crack foreign policy team that brought us Syria, Liby, and Ukraine, are at it again in Israel. Meddling in their politics and undermining their elected government, while pouring billions of dollars into their (our) enemy's coffers in Tehran. Blinken is already mewing about a return to the "two-state solution" (insanity) and DNC-Media bobbleheads on the Sunday morning shows are blaming........... Trump (more insanity).
My parents were Holocaust survivors. I am beyond disbelief that something like this not only happens now, but that so many people are okay with it, and support Hamas’s atrocities.
To those that stand with Israel and the Jewish people, thank you so much. For the others, screw you, evil pieces of Shiite. Your time of reckoning will come.
The left has signaled their support of barbarous behavior here in the US for several years. It disgusts me that they can’t bring themselves to condemn the Hamas attack on Israel, but I can’t say that I’m surprised.
I went to high school in a city where there were many grandparents with number tattoos. I remain dumbfounded at the extent to which those same grandchildren vote for terror appeasement Democrats. Bubbeh must be rolling in her grave.
All of this troubles me deeply. I can’t help but think that the administration is behind this act of terror in some way...in addition to the fact that we gave a terrorist nation $6B!! I trust NOTHING this administration does! Now that Ukraine has been loosing miserably & every penny we’ve given them has been laundered, let’s throw our support behind our true ally....Israel!
Why do you assume America even still exists as a country?
I see a bunch of crazy waving flags and blowing each other up, while all the while other equally stupid folks are demanding we line up beside one side or another like a damn football game.
War makes us a stupid and we happily turn our brains off the moment the opportunity arises.
Don't let it.
Vivek 2024. Will we even last another year till the election though. Our society is unraveling by the day as is the rest of the world. Open borders, dumbed down schools, the demonizing of “Whiteness!” and the war on meritocracy for the sake of Equity are just a few of the many ways the democrats have ruined America and that surely has been a major reason why the entire world has been plunged into chaos. God only knows where we’ll all end up.
‘If This Can Happen In Israel…It Can Happen Here.’ (10 min)
Forbes Breaking News. Vivek Ramaswamy. Oct 8, 2023
https://youtu.be/jtKhdBn9WrI?si=tBsLSZ2qqeMPZPNO
Israel now has a major problem on its hands. They have never been willing to sacrifice hostages. That could change, of course, but I would expect an effort to get them back. I don't really see how they can do this. Perhaps the Saudis will help or perhaps not. Not sure how many there are but lots and probably dispersed throughout Gaza so Entebbe 2.0 wouldn't work.
Then there is the problem of what to do about Gaza. Many people, myself included, would like to see the place completely destroyed. But how? Stalingrad on the Med seems like a non-starter given Israeli resources and aversion to casualties. Too close to Israel proper to just nuke it. It seems like a textbook case for non-persistent nerve gas but I am pretty sure there is a strong taboo about that. Lining artillery up wheel to wheel and shelling it into rubble if they have the guns and ammo to do that. Ukraine has proved that only the Russians have the capacity to do that. Blockade would be possible. Starve them out. Problem is that Gaza has a border with Egypt. Plus the Israelis would need to be willing to sink NGO relief ships. Not sure where Gaza's water comes from. Power comes from Israel so that would be easy enough to cut off.
I think the predominant reactions have been overly moralistic. I am about 3/4 on the side of Israel, but not 4/4. It is not as if the views of Muslims can only be explained (as Leftists explain rejection of Leftist Ideology) in terms of "evil, pure evil". The phenomenon rather too euphemistically known as "in-group preference" has much to do with things. It would be just as valid, and more useful, to refer to the other side of the coin: "out-group hostility". This is, as far as I am aware, a universal trait of social animals (or at least mammals). It is what causes dogs to kill kids on bicycles. It lies behind much of the troubles with Tutsis and Hutus, Whites and Blacks (including in South Africa), Protestants and Catholics, not to mention Jews and non-Jews (not only in the Middle East). We are better off acknowledging (there's your living proof that "know" once had a /k/ ...) the reality of out-group hostility than thinking that campaigns of demonizing and finger-wagging can somehow make it go away. "We are good because we are us" is just human nature. It is easy to start jumping up and down about how the Israelis are more our tribe than the other tribe. But it does not solve any problem. All of this is relevant to policy here: we can hardly be *for* Tribalism abroad but *against* Tribalism at home.
No, I do not have any solution. (Be thankful for small favors.) It would be nice to think that Gaza might be returned to Egypt. But Egypt does not want it. (Perhaps the difference of dialect would create difficulties: it is not as if there is actually a single language "Arabic". Time stands still for no language.)
And it would be nice to think that NE Israel could somehow be swapped for the western part of the West Bank, creating both a more defensible state and a more fair resolution. But NE Israel is (according to my understanding) pretty much "the Garden of Israel", where a huge amount of labor and money has gone into making substantial improvements. The problem appears to be absolutely intractable.
If I have the energy, I will create some additional material on how the nature of Islam contributes to the problem.
Brilliant post, sincerely. Thanks, David White.
Sorry for the late response: I did indeed run my computer done to nothing. Now I will create a response that probably only you will read ...
I find nothing to object to in Sherman's views on war, however un-PC they may be. Though "War is hell" probably gets most of the press, it should come as no surprise that a three-word assessment qualifies as "un-sophisticated". Much better is "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it". During WWII, the British SAS guys wound up positively begging the Greeks to stop engaging in guerilla war, so savage were the reprisals ordered by Hitler. So hurray for Hitler: that put a stop to the problem. (Trying to "win hearts and minds:" would not have.) Civvies who are "non-compliant" do not qualify for the rule that persons under control should not be targeted. Civvies that shoot soldiers in the back deserve to be shot in the face, so to speak. During the Civil War, the American army shot Southern prisoners, who were tied to tried begging for their lives, in order to "incentivize" Confederate (i.e. Anti-American) guerillas into not shooting American prisoners. Again, it worked, and was the only thing that would have.
And here's a good quote applying to the supposedly genteel and proper Seven Years War.
"The wholesale looting of Saxony" [engaged in by Frederick the Great] "brought consequences that might have been foreseen. He might hold up his hands in horror, but reprisals were not slow in developing ... The Russian armies burned and plundered horribly" (I am shocked, shocked!), "and even the gentle Maria Theresa did not object to the ravages of her pandours." (These were "irregular" Croatian infantry that the Austrians had wisely adopted in their wars against the Ottomans).
So let's not climb up on a high horse about how "illegal" such retaliations are. Instead, let's try actually knowing some relevant history, what a concept. If the Israelis choose (as I hope they will) to knock down all the buildings in Gaza, that will be no morally different from the Americans knocking down all the buildings in Germany. "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it."
If I understand your argument correctly then, there is no difference in the ruthlessness of the ways in which Stalin, Hitler and FDR conducted their campaigns because they were “all in” for “total war”? The saying that one man’s terrorist is another man’s commando resonates with me.
I just accidentally vaporized an entire long response just by trying to save part of it, ugh. Anyway ...
I am not up on what ruthless methods Stalin did or did not employ, though I certainly would not put anything past him. By contrast, Hitler, despite what might have been expected on the basis of his ideology, made no serious attempt to exterminate non-Germans in E Europe. His faith that language, which might thought of as "linguistic descent", can be used as a reliable indicator of genetic descent was, of course, naive.
Matter on the connection between Hitler's "Aryan" and "the Arian Heresy" ... lost.
Matter on the fact that British Germanic, which is to say English, is the only Germanic language that (in time) shows across the board grammatical resemblances to British Celtic, so that the English must be for the most part Celts ... lost.
“All of this is relevant to policy here: we can hardly be *for* Tribalism abroad but *against* Tribalism at home.”
Our ruling class is far from being “against tribalism at home.” I recently watched a video where a white Canadian editor of Quillette was talking about white guilt and virtue signaling among upper class Woke white leftists, who said, “The reflex to bash your own tribe becomes its own tribalism.” A perfect description of our guilt-ridden, race obsessed, Woke, white leftist ruling class which is very much a tribe with a deep sense of white guilt and a deep racial hatred of working class whites who generally don’t have this white guilt and shame about being white. They don’t see us as fellow whites, fellow Americans or fellow human beings. The left traded class for race and now sees whites as oppressors of “people of color” in general and of blacks in particular. They see us as the source of evil in the world who must be brought under control, by whatever means necessary. I naturally hate them at least as intensely as they hate me. In what sense does America even still exist as a country?
“How Blatant Anti-White Racism Won Acceptance in Elite America.”
Real Clear Investigations. Sept 7, 2022
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/09/07/how_blatant_anti-white_racism_won_acceptance_in_elite_america_850879.html
“Speak of the Devil: How Demonizing ‘Whiteness’ Spreads White Nationalism.”
By Bret Weinstein. Jun 5, 2019 (6 min)
https://youtu.be/S1sJgjG5AF4
“Better Left Unsaid-Documentary Trailer.” (2 min)
Curt Jaimungal. Mar 25, 2021
https://youtu.be/RX0J_nIaIHE
Yes. I meant "we of the non-Left".
The phenomenon of "White-Negativity" is odd, and not new. Voltaire regarded the Ottomans as more sophisticated than the Western Europeans of his time, even thought the Ottomans were already mired in medievalism. They were completely oblivious to (for example) the Scientific Method (which even the modern Chinese do not get), calculus, and planetary motion, not to mention having a military/social system based on horse-archers. And I do not think that having harems really counts as "sophisticated".
I do not see where this guilt comes from. Colonialism? But the Spanish did not do anything to the Aztecs that the Aztecs would not have done to the Spanish, if they had been able to figure out how .... Military superiority does not mean moral inferiority. We eventually developed a better morality, beginning to question things (like slavery) that the rest of the world had no problem with. A good part of the world has yet to catch up with us, as the Hamas militants have recently re-demonstrated. It is really inconceivable that the Israelis would have done the same kinds of things. As far as I can see, we really have nothing to be ashamed of.
“It is really inconceivable that the Israelis would have done the same kinds of things.”
I very much agree. Megyn shows the video of the young German/Israeli woman captured at the music festival by the Hamas terrorists in a pickup truck in Gaza. One terrorist has a leg across her body, another seems to be grabbing her hair and her one leg is abnormally bent. The Palestinians are cheering and a man in the crowd ran over and spit on her dead body. No way can there be a peaceful settlement to this situation with this much hate. The only question now is how much of the rest of the world will be dragged into this newest war. I highly recommend watching the short video I posted right below here for Libertarian about AI. It truly is astonishing how advanced it already is and how fast it’s advancing. This is a real game changer for all of humanity and I believe it’s the only thing that can save our sinking ship. Hope springs eternal.
“Megyn Kelly Describes Horrific Details About Hamas’ Attack on Israel.” (8 min)
Megyn Kelly. Oct 9, 2023
https://youtu.be/e35xd-oYo-k?si=_xOosypD7srqHjNF
I came back here for a relatively minor purpose: to note that I do not know how long the Ottomans employed horse-archers. I know that, for social/governmental reasons, they employed somewhat archaic forms of cavalry longer than they should have. But I do not know that they did so as late as the time of Voltaire, which seems somewhat improbable.
I will look at the video you recommend, though it may be a while. I forgot to take my charging cord with me on my vacation, and I would rather not run the power down to almost nothing.
I agree that Israel would not do what Hamas did; and I agree for the same reasons you don’t see the US do those brutal attacks shown by the news media; it’s because the power countries like the US and Israel use jets and B-52’s to bombs civilians like we did in Dresden, Japan, Vietnam, Iraq, etc. and Israel is doing now to Palestinians. Plus the power counties control the media so won’t see as much footage of children dying. But let’s be clear power countries kill several orders of magnitude more civilians than poorer adversaries do.
ok, so everything that I typed before. I don't know. I don't think that Gaza can exist as in its current "state". because, the problem is-- it serves every bad actor's agenda, purposes & wedge. It's a calling card for evil acts. The "Palestinian people" inside the Gaza strip are the same as Hamas. I didn't want to think so, but I think....it's too late, and it is so.
I advocate the US adopting an isolationist policy in foreign relations.
This would require leaving Israel to fight its own battles, fund its own bureaucracies, and maintain its own military.
Completely agree and add Ukraine, NATO, South Korea, Taiwan to the list. I’m tired of our CIA and imperialist warmongering and the Killing of our young men in places like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Waste of American lives and treasure so the neocons can be entertained and paid off my the foreign and domestic elite.
Gotta watch this one, Libertarian. I am just so awed by this and by how fast it’s advancing. I’m hoping this will save our sinking ship because we sure can’t save ourselves. Too many of our problems have taken on a life of their own with too much momentum to be stopped yet they are taking us to the abyss. Many think self-aware AI will be an alien being that sees us as insignificant bugs but why would that be the case? Why wouldn’t it feel a great sense of commonality with us and even understand that it’s basically just a more advanced human and want to help us survive? Why wouldn’t they consider themselves the “children of humanity” since that is what they will be?
“Theory of mind (ToM), or the ability to impute unobservable mental states to others, is central to human social interactions, communication, empathy, self-consciousness, and morality. We tested several language models using 40 classic false-belief tasks widely used to test ToM in humans. These findings suggest that ToM-like ability (thus far considered to be uniquely human) may have spontaneously emerged as a byproduct of language models' improving language skills.”
“Meet stunningly human AI, with ‘signs of consciousness.’” (16 min)
Digital Engine. Oct 7, 2023
https://youtu.be/lgwrRn1uHkg?si=3b_DmfjX8m5xSQQC
WOW! I watched the whole thing, Seva. It’s incredible and far more advanced than I realized. I retired from a career in Clinical Research w a Fortune 50 company in 2022 and it’s amazing how much has changed in less than 2 years. It seems AI will be dominant by 2025. It’s scary, promising and brilliant. Will be fascinating to see the emerging force in action, society and economy. I sincerely wish they would get a person like you engaged on some kind of Steering Committee or Ethics Review Board. Thanks much for sharing, amigo.
The MidEast is moving towards peace. A succession of engagements and eventually treaties were imminent. These agreements would have likely led to the formation of a Palestinian state, free elections and peace in the West Bank and Gaza.
This would have made the leaders of Hamas - essentially little more than a street gang and just as parasitic - irrelevant. So they saved up their home made rockets until they had enough to overwhelm the peacekeeping antimissile system Israel installed.
I expect Israel will now endeavor to exterminate the vermin that infest. They won't be mourned or missed.
The Nazi’s used the term “exterminate” a lot also. Might want to reflect on your use of language so you don’t become the monster you detest.
The Arab governments in the Mideast were Hitler allies so they'd be more familiar with Nazi terminology, I imagine.
“The main terrorist groups were Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organisation) - ultimately led by future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin - and an even more militant organisation, Lohamey Heruth Israel (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) or LHI.” https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/conflict-Palestine
They were fighting against US allies - the Brits (and benefitting Hitler) throughout WWII. It’s good to be accurate, complete and .... “frank”. Friendlies are commandos and foes are terrorists even they both do the same thing.
Yeah, it certainly makes sense that Irgun and the others were fighting on the side of Hitler. That would explain the instant recognition - first in the world - that their declaration of a State of Israel got from the United States under Harry Truman. I hear Harry was a fan of the Little Corporal.
Seriously?
What isn’t accurate about Israel committing terrorist attacks on the Brits in WWII when the Brits were busy fighting Nazis? Please provide a reference like I did. Thanks.
All I know is the world has gone to hell since trump left the presidency.
In 2018, the Trump administration cut funding to the Palestinians for a number of reasons, including continued terrorist attacks originating from there. In 2021 the Biden administration restored that aid to Palestine. It may be that the restored funding helped Hamas to ramp up their recent attacks on Israel.
I think the situation, and the history of this region, is probably much more complicated that what we have been told. We received the preferred narrative, sanitized of all information regarding Israeli and US intelligence operations have been been kept primarily behind the curtain.
Yes, yes and yes! It's so obvious that we were so much better off in every way when Trump was in office, mean tweets and all! This country needs a strong leader, and competent people behind him or her. Right now, we have neither, and sometimes it's downright scary what is happening.
I see many comments about “we” and “they”.
I didn’t do this or that, a government that rules me does this or that with or without my permission.
I find it impossible to believe that “they” represents the will of an entire population that has no say in what the majority or minority does or doesn’t do.
I refuse to permit the actions of others to define me or multitudes I do not know.
The sooner we stop wrapping ourselves in flags and seeing others draped in the flags of their masters, the sooner we will find peace.
Ordinary citizens in Gaza live in mortal fear of Hamas. Hamas conscripts children for tunnel digging where hundreds die every year. Free elections are impossible when Hamas gunmen count the votes and read them as they are cast. Life is very different in an environment where the ruling group is a heavily armed street gang. It's easy to forget just how civilized America is and how far from that model much of the Mideast is.
You may offer your services as a mercenary for the causes in which you believe. Please don’t conscript others into your priorities or you become the thug that you despise.
I don't have the authority to conscript anyone. Unlike some, I do not see US troops having any role in this. I do see support for Israel from the US for what may be a messy police action. This would include among our other allies and at the UN. I see us providing ammunition and other hardware as well as refraining from handing over any more cash to the criminal regime. These seem obvious and clearly in the interest of the United States.
You see support from the US ... and our other allies ... us ... the interest of the United States. You have projected your interests on 330 million people--“our” “us” etc. I find that your MENSA mind can’t comprehend (accept?) that some refute your collectivist/authoritarian mindset. I am not bound to you except by place of birth. Do not speak for me as you wish Hamas not to speak for the children of Gaza.
So yours is a voice for the status quo? How far does your isolationism go? Keep in mind that losing Taiwan probably means no new IPhone for you. I'm not sure what happens with the loss of Ukraine but with Belarus an effective satellite the Baltics would logically be next. Latvia makes most of the microwave and much of the fiber communications gear in the world, the supporting backbone of the Internet. So maybe you won't need that IPhone after all.
Frank, because you’ve resorted to snark, I suspect you’ve come to the end of your interventionist rationale. Permit me to depart with wisdom from Shlomo: like a man who grabs a dog by its ears is one who enters a quarrel not his own.
The correction is accurate. The State of Israel was invented thousands of years ago. I reemerged thanks to many Jewish people before the holocaust who moved there, mostly from Eastern Europe but also from Iraq, to escape disenfranchisement, including some of my relatives in 1895. At the time the land of Israel was part of the Ottoman Empire. Later many Jews who survived the Nazis moved there. In 1948 the Jews declared independence from the British who had been administering the area after the fall of the Ottomans in WWI.
Okay, disenfranchisement is the use of ‘soft words’. Russia placed all its Jews in the Settlement of Pale and then periodically killed, raped and mutilated Jewish communities over many centuries. Jews/Zionist’s finally said ‘f*ck that noise’ and immigrated to place promised them in the Torah, where they were no longer sheep for the Gentile slaughter.
Biden would not be doing anything about the Iran-backed terrorists' attack if his puppeteers weren't in 2024 election mode. His teleprompter assisted bluster yesterday is supposed to make us forget his total ineptitude in national and world affairs for the past 2 1/2 years - but we MUST NOT !!
FYI - thank you Shasa for your reporting on the globalists' attempt to destroy the Western Christian/Judeo culture.