Excellent piece. Yes, Israel is armed to its teeth and essentially is defending the entire West. Here is then a larger problem: the West no longer distinguishes between right and wrong. Perhaps it never truly did, as the horrific persecution of Jews for so long has shown. The West is weak, mentally ill, and responding to an appeasing complex once it regards Islam's domination as inevitable . The proof is that the West takes no measures against that very possible future. America, being still young and still principled, is not yet under such urgent peril, but as soon as Jew hatred appears, unexpected, we know what comes next. Come 2028, new elections, who knows? We can't despair, as we still have the miraculous fact of Jewish survival. But we need leadership.
Israel is not only defending the entire West, it is defending the Arab Muslim countries whose stability and prosperity is threatened by extremists Islamist terrorist groups and by Iran.
I say 100% on everything you wrote. Except this: "America, being still young and still principled, is not yet under such urgent peril..." I believe the peril is already here and growing rapidly. It has infected unions (including teacher's unions), professional organizations, local politics, and of course--the elite universities.
Agree. But we are still fighting back. I meant- but was not clear enough- the danger of an Islamic take over in the US like Europe is experiencing , where demographics will eventually have the last word, assuming democracy survives.
ah, it will be a big holiday celebration because it will include the elimination of Hamas AND Hezbollah, and the Houthis and the Iranian regime, et al. And it will be sweet to watch the moderate Arab states celebrate alongside, as they sign the Abraham accords...
It’s the plural for FAFO. “-im” is the Hebrew suffix for the plural masculine. It’s a joke. Judaism has lots of festivals called Yom Tovim - Holy Days, hence another one can be added to celebrate the many FAFOs perpetrated by the enemy which turned into celebrations of Jewish victory. “Purim” for example is the day of the lots cast.
The Israeli military is quite extraordinary. It isn’t just the arsenal of weaponry it is the fierce determination of its fighters to defend and protect their land, their citizens, their way of life and most of all their families. May peace come to Israel.
Right on. Since the Western world has both lost its moral compass and is asleep at the wheel, history teaches us what to inevitably expect. Under such prevailing conditions and in consideration of the Middle Eastern mindset of fanaticism and fantasy, the only route that ensures Jewish survival is FAFO. Unfortunately, notwithstanding irrelevant world opinion, there is no other viable alternative.
Some of the things you mention were in fact abject failures. The actions of Israel between the signing of the Oslo accords and October 7 2023 projected weakness and clearly led Israel's enemies from Gaza to Iran to not be deterred. October 7 was the result. Israel's actions since that day have done a lot ro restore deterrence but STILL Hamas believes it is going to be bailed out and live to fight another day. Israel can never let its deterrence fall again.
Such is the lot of many a would-be conquerer who failed to adequately estimate their opponent. I am reminded of the often quoted statement by Japanese General Yamamoto upon hearing of the success of the attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval base in Hawaii in 1941. "I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve". Got that right. American airmen assassinated him in 1943 and we pulverized the Japanese homeland before that war finally ended. Talk about the morality until you are out of breath, but the fact remains, the war ended. The Hamas big shots living the good life wherever they are need the Yamamoto treatment. Hamas in Gaza needs the Japanese homeland treatment. Perhaps then, Israel may know a few years of peace.
Never confuse Kindness for weakness. Israel has been kind (tolerant) for too long as the world demands cease fires every time Israel is attacked, Israel understands that "cease fire" simply means restock the tunnels.
How sad is the correct conclusion that Jews are on their own? No one cares about Israel except for how it impacts its Muslim neighbors. I fear for our Jewish children and grandchildren.
Do not succumb to pessimism. Our children in the IDF are showing the world what it means to be 20 years old and have a backbone. No snowflakes there. And our grandchildren will grow up holding their heads high and proud to be Jews.
I( hope you are right. I look at fellow Jews like Jon Stewart and Chuck Schumer - different generations but not particularly pro-Israel and Stewart has bought into the whole "genocide" "apartheid" bullshit in Gaza. Schumer told Columbia, Harvard, etc. to go easy on the campus protesters. They do so much damage.
I realize those two have a wide audience, but they obviously don’t speak for us. Since 10/7, I have new north stars: Joshua Hoffman, Einat Wilf, Haviv Rettig Gur, Natasha Hausdorff. Before reading this very article, I was just thinking about how it has never worked out well for those who bet against the Jews. Another way of saying “FAFO” to the world. Am Yisrael Chai! 💪🏽 🇮🇱 💙
now add his highness Mandy Patinkin to the list of those chiding Israel for all its alleged crimes. JS....stopped watching Daily Show....not that I was ever a big fan ....over 20 years ago? during another war and he showed his bias and bullshyte to a cheering young audience. eff him.
I do not think that Israel has been "kind (tolerant)" in past years, but rather that Israel has wisely bided its time so that it could put into place all the assets that it has activated in recent months and have the crucial information it has needed to be successful in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere. Arab nations even joined in protecting Israel from Iran's air assaults because Israel cultivated the needed relationships with them.
The failure of western leadership to defend democracy is terrifying. The failure of western minds to understand the stakes is also terrifying. The scope of media disinformation flips history and political integrity on its head while the masses wallow in self rightous, misguided virtue for a failed State and malevolent terrorist groups posing as 'resistance'. However, this happened before when kings and celebrities appeased the war drums of Nazi Germany and embraced its false religion. But they lost.
FINALLY, my grandfather’s birth nation have taken to the streets in huge masses…the Brits are rising. They may even get around to making sten guns again in their loo, as their liberal leaders have oppressed natural citizenry and pandered to the murderous Islamic hordes.
So sad to watch. France too. Their leaders pandering to Islamists instead of protecting their nation and people. They need to take a lesson from Trump and grow a spine, weather the bad press, and do what’s right. Deport all those who don’t accept and honor their culture.
👏👏👏 Spot-on, Joshua! Messing with Israel has never gone well for anyone who’s done it. Israel knows they can’t depend on anyone but themselves to defend them and they do it exceptionally well. The Arabs and Islamist groups have come at Israel again and again and always paid the price. In 1948, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, etc. you name it. The PLO perpetrated the Munich Massacre in 1972 and Israel responded with Operation Wrath of God and killed nearly everyone who had had anything to do with it. Adolf Eichmann was hiding in Argentina, the Mossad kidnapped him, snuggled him across the border and brought him to Israel to stand trial. Otto Skorzeny fled to Spain to avoid prosecution, the Mossad found him and made him work for them. Saddam Hussein started developing a nuclear bomb in 1981, so the IAF bombed his facility into dust.
On October 7th, 2023, Hamas perpetrated one of the worst war crimes in all human history. They entered Israel after blowing hundreds of holes in the Iron Wall. They set to work shooting at drivers on the highway, gunning down vulnerable young people at the NOVA Music Festival, shooting at people walking on the sidewalk, looting and burning Kibbutzims, kidnapping thousands of innocent people, shooting dogs for target practice, eating people’s food and ransacking their homes, hacking elderly grandmas and grandpas to death, burning whole families alive, beheading foreign workers, and doing bloody pogroms against Jews wherever they could find them. Hamas are savages with no heart or soul. They put pure demonic evil on display that day for all to see.
They were assisted by Islamic Jihad and civilian collaborators including children who gleefully joined in on the grotesque orgy of chaos and destruction. Israel responded with a fury never before seen in the history of the world and rightly so. Does that mean those legitimately innocent Gazan civilians who died don’t matter? Of course not. Does that mean it isn’t sad that the strip’s entire population is displaced? No, not at all. But Hamas and their allies brought all this down on their own people when they attacked Israel on October 7th. The IDF has taken all necessary precautions to protect Gazan civilians for becoming collateral damage. They have saved countless Palestinian lives. They honestly deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. But leveling Gaza was sadly never not going to be done, because Hamas inserts themselves everywhere and into everything.
They also have many civilian supporters who are only too happy to help them. Such a story I heard of a family who lured IDF soldiers into a trap hoping to get them killed. Or a Palestinian family that the IDF attempted to rescue but they refused to leave their home and the father repeated a common phrase the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade says, “We love death more than you love life.” They were subsequently killed in the Israeli bombing. That’s how fanatical these people are. This is not to say everyone in Gaza thinks like this, of course not. But way too many do I’m sorry to say. What Israel is going in Gaza is NOT collective punishment, it’s collective consequences.
I’m praying 🙏 for a decisive Israeli victory in Gaza before the year is out and for Israel to annex Gaza and put an end to that threat once and for all. Israel directly govern Gaza, fill it with Jewish settlers and demilitarize, deradicalize and de-Hamasify the strip. Those Palestinians living in Gaza will be given permanent residency and representation in the Knesset. If they can prove good character and loyalty, they can be given Israeli citizenship and the right to vote. Jewish settlements and cities will be built immediately. Gush Katif will be rebuilt from scratch. Any Jewish settler who was expelled in 2005 should be given the right to return. Israel should also reoccupy Southern Lebanon after the war.
Excellent piece. Yes, Israel is armed to its teeth and essentially is defending the entire West. Here is then a larger problem: the West no longer distinguishes between right and wrong. Perhaps it never truly did, as the horrific persecution of Jews for so long has shown. The West is weak, mentally ill, and responding to an appeasing complex once it regards Islam's domination as inevitable . The proof is that the West takes no measures against that very possible future. America, being still young and still principled, is not yet under such urgent peril, but as soon as Jew hatred appears, unexpected, we know what comes next. Come 2028, new elections, who knows? We can't despair, as we still have the miraculous fact of Jewish survival. But we need leadership.
Israel is not only defending the entire West, it is defending the Arab Muslim countries whose stability and prosperity is threatened by extremists Islamist terrorist groups and by Iran.
I say 100% on everything you wrote. Except this: "America, being still young and still principled, is not yet under such urgent peril..." I believe the peril is already here and growing rapidly. It has infected unions (including teacher's unions), professional organizations, local politics, and of course--the elite universities.
member of NYC's teacher union and thoroughly disgusted by its endorsement of a racist Jew Hater for mayor....as the left chants....SHAME.
Agree. But we are still fighting back. I meant- but was not clear enough- the danger of an Islamic take over in the US like Europe is experiencing , where demographics will eventually have the last word, assuming democracy survives.
our retribution and eventual elimination of H*m*s should become an unofficial holiday called Yom Faforim
hooRAH! Hamas has to be removed forever by Jews, by Israel. Never forget those red haired babies.
ah, it will be a big holiday celebration because it will include the elimination of Hamas AND Hezbollah, and the Houthis and the Iranian regime, et al. And it will be sweet to watch the moderate Arab states celebrate alongside, as they sign the Abraham accords...
and we will hand out candy shaped like little pagers
What does "Faforim" mean?
It’s the plural for FAFO. “-im” is the Hebrew suffix for the plural masculine. It’s a joke. Judaism has lots of festivals called Yom Tovim - Holy Days, hence another one can be added to celebrate the many FAFOs perpetrated by the enemy which turned into celebrations of Jewish victory. “Purim” for example is the day of the lots cast.
FAFOim would be a better way to write it. Lose the "r". That is what confused me and likely others.
During these days, when israel is taking so much heat , your inspirational words are so appreciated.thanks
The Israeli military is quite extraordinary. It isn’t just the arsenal of weaponry it is the fierce determination of its fighters to defend and protect their land, their citizens, their way of life and most of all their families. May peace come to Israel.
Right on. Since the Western world has both lost its moral compass and is asleep at the wheel, history teaches us what to inevitably expect. Under such prevailing conditions and in consideration of the Middle Eastern mindset of fanaticism and fantasy, the only route that ensures Jewish survival is FAFO. Unfortunately, notwithstanding irrelevant world opinion, there is no other viable alternative.
Some of the things you mention were in fact abject failures. The actions of Israel between the signing of the Oslo accords and October 7 2023 projected weakness and clearly led Israel's enemies from Gaza to Iran to not be deterred. October 7 was the result. Israel's actions since that day have done a lot ro restore deterrence but STILL Hamas believes it is going to be bailed out and live to fight another day. Israel can never let its deterrence fall again.
Such is the lot of many a would-be conquerer who failed to adequately estimate their opponent. I am reminded of the often quoted statement by Japanese General Yamamoto upon hearing of the success of the attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval base in Hawaii in 1941. "I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve". Got that right. American airmen assassinated him in 1943 and we pulverized the Japanese homeland before that war finally ended. Talk about the morality until you are out of breath, but the fact remains, the war ended. The Hamas big shots living the good life wherever they are need the Yamamoto treatment. Hamas in Gaza needs the Japanese homeland treatment. Perhaps then, Israel may know a few years of peace.
Amen
You had me at the title to this!!! עם ישראל חי!!!! And Eff the activists at the NYT, Washpost, MSNBC, The UN, Guardian, etc!!!
They are supposed to be journalists, not activists.
Exactly!!!! באמת!!!
YES.
Never confuse Kindness for weakness. Israel has been kind (tolerant) for too long as the world demands cease fires every time Israel is attacked, Israel understands that "cease fire" simply means restock the tunnels.
How sad is the correct conclusion that Jews are on their own? No one cares about Israel except for how it impacts its Muslim neighbors. I fear for our Jewish children and grandchildren.
Do not succumb to pessimism. Our children in the IDF are showing the world what it means to be 20 years old and have a backbone. No snowflakes there. And our grandchildren will grow up holding their heads high and proud to be Jews.
I( hope you are right. I look at fellow Jews like Jon Stewart and Chuck Schumer - different generations but not particularly pro-Israel and Stewart has bought into the whole "genocide" "apartheid" bullshit in Gaza. Schumer told Columbia, Harvard, etc. to go easy on the campus protesters. They do so much damage.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. They have lost their way. I call them J.I.N.O.s. Fortunately, we don't have to agree with them.
I realize those two have a wide audience, but they obviously don’t speak for us. Since 10/7, I have new north stars: Joshua Hoffman, Einat Wilf, Haviv Rettig Gur, Natasha Hausdorff. Before reading this very article, I was just thinking about how it has never worked out well for those who bet against the Jews. Another way of saying “FAFO” to the world. Am Yisrael Chai! 💪🏽 🇮🇱 💙
now add his highness Mandy Patinkin to the list of those chiding Israel for all its alleged crimes. JS....stopped watching Daily Show....not that I was ever a big fan ....over 20 years ago? during another war and he showed his bias and bullshyte to a cheering young audience. eff him.
I do not think that Israel has been "kind (tolerant)" in past years, but rather that Israel has wisely bided its time so that it could put into place all the assets that it has activated in recent months and have the crucial information it has needed to be successful in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere. Arab nations even joined in protecting Israel from Iran's air assaults because Israel cultivated the needed relationships with them.
The failure of western leadership to defend democracy is terrifying. The failure of western minds to understand the stakes is also terrifying. The scope of media disinformation flips history and political integrity on its head while the masses wallow in self rightous, misguided virtue for a failed State and malevolent terrorist groups posing as 'resistance'. However, this happened before when kings and celebrities appeased the war drums of Nazi Germany and embraced its false religion. But they lost.
FINALLY, my grandfather’s birth nation have taken to the streets in huge masses…the Brits are rising. They may even get around to making sten guns again in their loo, as their liberal leaders have oppressed natural citizenry and pandered to the murderous Islamic hordes.
So sad to watch. France too. Their leaders pandering to Islamists instead of protecting their nation and people. They need to take a lesson from Trump and grow a spine, weather the bad press, and do what’s right. Deport all those who don’t accept and honor their culture.
Yes, France too. Germany, most of Europe.
Kol Hakavod!
Bravo!
עם ישראל חי 🇮🇱
👏👏👏 Spot-on, Joshua! Messing with Israel has never gone well for anyone who’s done it. Israel knows they can’t depend on anyone but themselves to defend them and they do it exceptionally well. The Arabs and Islamist groups have come at Israel again and again and always paid the price. In 1948, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, etc. you name it. The PLO perpetrated the Munich Massacre in 1972 and Israel responded with Operation Wrath of God and killed nearly everyone who had had anything to do with it. Adolf Eichmann was hiding in Argentina, the Mossad kidnapped him, snuggled him across the border and brought him to Israel to stand trial. Otto Skorzeny fled to Spain to avoid prosecution, the Mossad found him and made him work for them. Saddam Hussein started developing a nuclear bomb in 1981, so the IAF bombed his facility into dust.
On October 7th, 2023, Hamas perpetrated one of the worst war crimes in all human history. They entered Israel after blowing hundreds of holes in the Iron Wall. They set to work shooting at drivers on the highway, gunning down vulnerable young people at the NOVA Music Festival, shooting at people walking on the sidewalk, looting and burning Kibbutzims, kidnapping thousands of innocent people, shooting dogs for target practice, eating people’s food and ransacking their homes, hacking elderly grandmas and grandpas to death, burning whole families alive, beheading foreign workers, and doing bloody pogroms against Jews wherever they could find them. Hamas are savages with no heart or soul. They put pure demonic evil on display that day for all to see.
They were assisted by Islamic Jihad and civilian collaborators including children who gleefully joined in on the grotesque orgy of chaos and destruction. Israel responded with a fury never before seen in the history of the world and rightly so. Does that mean those legitimately innocent Gazan civilians who died don’t matter? Of course not. Does that mean it isn’t sad that the strip’s entire population is displaced? No, not at all. But Hamas and their allies brought all this down on their own people when they attacked Israel on October 7th. The IDF has taken all necessary precautions to protect Gazan civilians for becoming collateral damage. They have saved countless Palestinian lives. They honestly deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. But leveling Gaza was sadly never not going to be done, because Hamas inserts themselves everywhere and into everything.
They also have many civilian supporters who are only too happy to help them. Such a story I heard of a family who lured IDF soldiers into a trap hoping to get them killed. Or a Palestinian family that the IDF attempted to rescue but they refused to leave their home and the father repeated a common phrase the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade says, “We love death more than you love life.” They were subsequently killed in the Israeli bombing. That’s how fanatical these people are. This is not to say everyone in Gaza thinks like this, of course not. But way too many do I’m sorry to say. What Israel is going in Gaza is NOT collective punishment, it’s collective consequences.
I’m praying 🙏 for a decisive Israeli victory in Gaza before the year is out and for Israel to annex Gaza and put an end to that threat once and for all. Israel directly govern Gaza, fill it with Jewish settlers and demilitarize, deradicalize and de-Hamasify the strip. Those Palestinians living in Gaza will be given permanent residency and representation in the Knesset. If they can prove good character and loyalty, they can be given Israeli citizenship and the right to vote. Jewish settlements and cities will be built immediately. Gush Katif will be rebuilt from scratch. Any Jewish settler who was expelled in 2005 should be given the right to return. Israel should also reoccupy Southern Lebanon after the war.
Every single word.
עם ישראל חי