The illusions are gone. We are living in a time that demands intellectual fortitude, moral clarity, political intelligence, creative genius, and spiritual stamina.
Part of this renaissance should be ceasing to use the term ‘anti-semitism’! We are Jews, we come from Judea. Our enemies claim they are Semites and thus can’t be ‘anti-Semitic’. What we have seen for the past two years is pure unadulterated Jew hatred. Start using that term and not some 19th century term coined by German Jew hater Wilhelm Marr. Time to liberate ourselves and our movement from this inaccurate term by a non-Jew. Am Yisrael Chai!🦁💪🇮🇱
"Our enemies claim they are Semites and thus can’t be ‘anti-Semitic’..."
Yet, disingenuous as they are, they aren't even semites, anyway.
Unlike the Jews, who --- beginning with Abraham himself --- studiously avoided out-marriage [see Gen 24], all the OTHER early semitic peoples (incl the Arabs) practiced it routinely, and had consequently ceased to be semites by the end of the Bronze Age.
"What we have seen for the past two years is pure unadulterated Jew hatred. Start using that term..."
I would offer "judeopathy" --- it has the same clinical sound to it as "antisemitism" (while being less contrived), and comes FAR closer to the poisoned heart of the matter.
"...and not some 19th century term coined by German Jew hater Wilhelm Marr."
Marr favored 'antisemitism,' as a term, precisely because it made it possible for post-Enlightenment-Era Jew-haters like himself & his friends to find each other without having to even use the WORD, "Jew" --- an important matter for them, as the embarrassment of publicly admitting to Jew-hatred during that period (which had come to find it. . . gauche) presented them with a theretofore inextricable conundrum. . . .
Annie, I have not seen you here before. Whether or not you are Jewish yourself, please be aware that we Jews ARE aware of both the good and the unsavory events throughout our own history. We ARE educated and continue to educate ourselves. We are not monolithic and we do not always agree with each other, but as students of Torah and of our more recent history, while we may regret the violence that has been committed against others, we know that our continued existence depends on our being willing to defend ourselves and to stand up against those who wish us total destruction. We know that Israel has not committed any form of genocide, and that the Islamists are indeed intent on accomplishing one. They have been killing ‘infidels’ and glorying in their own martyrdom since long before Israel became more than a hope. Its subsequent successes on the world stage have focused their hatred onto Jews. Their PR success has re-ignited that age-old hatred in the rest of the world, and brought it out from the shadows. I am guessing that by looking into your own soul, whether or not you are Jewish, you may find that we are correct in our well-educated assessment that anti-Zionism is Jew hatred dressed up as humanism.
Incredible response, bravo. Annie, “millions of people are researching the Nakba”? It is tragic beyond words that a place called Gaza, given it’s “freedom “ in 2005 choose to use the ensuing 20 years building underground tunnels and bunkers instead of building above ground, for it’s people. It’s tragic that for 75 years the Palestinians have done nothing but destroy every opportunity given to them. They invaded a sovereign country, massacred savagely over 1220 people, destroyed all the kittbuzim by burning them. Over 4000 Hams and regular civilians took part in this orgy of violence. Then they kidnap over 250 hostages including over 30 children. That Annie, is a declaration of war and every other country in the world would have responded the same way. No Israeli mask has slipped off, it was never on. This war could have ended two years ago with the return of the hostages. War causes death, it’s horrible and devastating, but enough with your hysteria about cleansing and Nakba. Israel is here to stay!
That is the most nauseating defence of genocide I've ever heard. Hitler would have been proud of you and Jews like you. I am Jewish and proudly so. Don't appropriate my identity for your murderous ideologies.
That's a bald, unbuttressed assertion --- not an argument. Merely repeating it that way will not make it any more true on the FORTIETH occasion that you mouth it than it it was on the FIRST.
"You doofus."
Thank you, genius lady, for showing me what I'm dealing with here (most cooperative of you).
"I expect you know about the bombing of King David Hotel?"
Yes, indeed; what of it? --- If that's YOUR idea of a 'terrorist' act, then you need to invest in a cheap dictionary and look up the word. You don't get to wield it like a weapon. There are unambiguous, objective criteria for the designation.
The KDH bombing of July 22, 1946, was clearly no 'terrorist' act --- though HMG routinely labeled ALL insurgencies against the British Crown as 'terrorist,' irrespective of their modus operandi.
(The Brits would've hanged a certain "George Washington" from a sour apple tree --- as a 'terrorist' --- if they could only have laid hands on his sweet, smooth, tender toddler tushy.)
THE FACTS OF THE KING DAVID HOTEL BOMBING
1. Since the Hotel was the British Mandate military GHQ in 1946, it was a legitimate military target during the Jewish Underground's anticolonialist war against the UK, which immediately preceded Israel's 1947-49 War of Independence.
2. More significantly, the objective of the action that day was specifically, and exclusively, the destruction of DOCUMENTS --- and no human casualties (not even military ones) were sought.
Three weeks earlier [July 1], UK troops had raided the offices of a lawful organization --- the Jewish Agency for Palestine (an Article 4 creation of the Mandate Charter, and operationally the kernel of the embryonic Jewish State-in-waiting) --- and in that raid, the Brits had seized massive quantities of documents containing sensitive intel concerning (inter alia) the names & whereabouts of Jewish undercover agents throughout the Arab world.
--- The lives of those agents & their families were thereby put instantly into enormous danger.
The info regarding Jewish Agency operations, including intelligence activities in Arab countries, was taken promptly to military HQ at the King David Hotel. The docs (but only the docs) would have to be destroyed --- and w/o delay.
Again, there was absolutely no reason why ANY PERSONS --- repeat, not even military personnel --- had to die that day.
Explosives were carefully emplaced in the basement of the bldg by well-trained Etzel [aka Irgun] operatives, who set the charges in a manner carefully calculated to allow adequate time for all to evacuate the bldg --- yet NOT sufficient time for anybody to also go searching for the bombs, or for sappers to try disarming them.
As was typical of the demands made upon his field commanders by Menahem Begin (then Director of the Etzel), multiple WARNINGS TO EVACUATE the bldg (because it was set to detonate) were phoned-in --- in English, in French, and in Hebrew:
--- A. to the Hotel Switchboard;
--- B. to the French Consulate across the street, to open their windows (to avoid blast concussion), which the Consulate personnel did then proceed to do; and
--- C. to the Palestine Post newspaper (after Independence 1948, and to this very day, known as the Jerusalem Post), whose staff, in turn, also then promptly notified the British Mandatory authorities.
However, despite the warnings, the bldg was NOT evacuated --- Sir John Shaw, Chief Secretary for the Palestine Govt, when told by a police officer that "the Jews say they have placed bombs in the King David," was reputed to have replied, "I am here to give orders TO the Jews, not to take orders FROM them."
And after 30 minutes, a massive explosion took off the entire SW wing of the bldg, all 7 stories. And 91 persons --- Brits, Arabs, Jews --- died in the blast.
For decades thereafter, the (now-former) UK Mandatory authorities would insist that they'd never received warnings of any sort. And then, in 1979, a British MP introduced evidence on the floor of the Commons that the Irgun had indeed placed the telephone calls.
The Member offered the testimony of a British officer who'd overheard other officers in the King David Hotel bar --- joking, at the time, about a Zionist threat to HQ. The officer who'd witnessed the conversation promptly exited the bldg, and lived to tell about it.
The loss of life was a source of great anguish for the Irgun personnel & leadership: not least because those deaths had been utterly unnecessary to their objectives. But there is simply NO WAY the action can justly or honestly be designated a 'terrorist' act --- howsoever much YOU or others may need to so characterize it.
"...then 75 more years of terror..."
For example? --- and this time, please, provide verifiable sources relating those allegations, and w/ direct, verbatim quotes of the pertinent text[s].
"...leading up to Gaza genocide."
'Gaza genocide'? --- a charge of 'genocide' presumes, and requires, two essential elements besides a pile of dead bodies: INTENTION and SYSTEMATIZATION.
The fact is that there is no 'genocide' in Gaza --- unless, of course, you refer to the maliciously brazen genociding of truth itself.
"SHAME SHAME SHAME!"
The shame is unmistakably your own, my dear --- your bloated ego is shamefully incapable of relinquishing its own hatred:
Are you nuts? What does the King David hotel have to do with Gaza? Back then Gaza was part of Egypt up until 1967. No one advocated for a Gaza state, Egypt left it alone in the peace accords. The Sinai was returned but Egypt refused to take back Gaza
You educate yourself. Zionism is ingrained into Judaism and enough about the bogus genocide claim, it’s been debunked by Hamas themselves, unless you’re on the ground there and somehow know something that nobody else does. The Palestinians are masters of their own stupidity and demise. Israel will ALWAYS be here. Get used to it and try to temper your stupidity
What wise words! For myself, seeing these wonderful reunions brought me to tears. I really believe you can build on this and stand up to the weaklings in the world. Israelis are wonderful people and your beautiful Country is beyond belief. Standing together is the most important thing you can do. 🙏
Truly a Chag Sameach. Thank you for this strong message of hope, an eloquent reminder of the things that bind us together and the strengths we bring to the present task. I am forwarding to the leaders of my Vancouver community, who have managed, to a remarkable degree, to work together with each other to get us through these awful two years. May they go from strength to strength. I am praying for all the Israeli families, the reunited ones and the grieving ones. Praying hard!
‘The Jewish People are a strong people, and Israel is a strong country.’ I have heard this said of us in many places and by people of quite a few institutions in The West now, in our monitoring work. We are admired, in fact. And not only in The West. This is nice to hear. The success of Jewish Nationhood and solidarity are being copied in some of these countries now too. Thus we continue: Agile, resilient, and upstanding, amongst many other qualities of Jewish excellence.
Mazel Tov. That took you 2 years to allow it to emerge through your hard work and contemplations of all sorts. 'That' brainstorm is dense in the best ways. A Few Minutes Guide For the Perplexed. Do Not Use or more specifically REFRAIN from using the following:'antisemitism'; 'west bank'; 'holocaust'; so-called 'palestinian'. Your text could become as an edited version A 10- Points Guide as to how Jewish individuals/groups/organizations are best to proceed 'from here to enternity'. That 10-Points Guide MUST accompany a game called Tenish:) 10 Utterances 10 Commandments 10 Trials of Abraham 10 Sephirot Rebbe's 10 Mitzvot Campaign etc. A most simple metaphor for our metafuture is that we need to be on the same page. Literally and Metaphorically. Practically the 'same page' implies the proscribed weekly Torah Parshot and their proscribed daily aliyah study. As a uber minimalist, trust me, a little bit goes a long way. But it takes a long time that way. C'est la vie. The way you continue to outdo yourself is a phenomenon. It is like a solo game of Leap Frong. I hereby promise myself that I will read this minaturized tome a minimum of 3 more times this week.
A quote from this excellent essay: "The Jewish story has always been a relay race across generations. The baton is in our hands now, and history is watching how we run." Yes.
Joshua, you have been a voice of such clarity through these dark times. This is maybe one of your most inspired and inspiring pieces. Thank you for holding me - holding us - during these terrible years; for cutting through the noise - and for being one of the shining lights of our people. This Substack - and many of your pieces in particular - have helped shape my thinking, contained the volcano of my emotions and given me language by which to understand what we’ve experienced. You are one of the leaders of our people. Thank you, dear Joshua.
Yes, we do—we need a vision, a strategy, and a doctrine for how to deal with growing Islamism and other emerging threats. It must start with a deep understanding of reality and these threats, move on to an analysis of possible solutions, and end with the most promising one that most people believe in and are willing to support.
Such a solution should provide clear answers on how to deal with the new information battlefield, define what unity means and how to build it, and outline the changes our society must undergo—and how they should be implemented—in order to win this struggle, which encompasses not only the military battlefield but also the demographic, informational, and legal arenas, among others
What you have just outlined, New Western Doctrine, is now being done. The New Maga Movement and President Trump are now doing this. The important thing is to absolutely avoid the Horror and The monstrous Lie which was Genocidal Nazism which killed seventy million people here in Europe and in The Far East, and all of the attractions of The Dark and cruel Side of human nature which Nationalism used to unleash, but to answer all of the questions of secure borders, Demographics and strong fiat currencies here in The West, to secure our Western Freedoms. This is now being done.
Yes, there are actually quite a few visions for how to deal with the modern threats on Western society. In about a week, I’ll publish a post outlining a full taxonomy of these approaches and the reasoning behind them (and I invite everyone to take part in the discussion about these approaches). Trump’s approach seems to be one of the best—and definitely very unorthodox. Still, in my view, there are some missing components, especially in how it addresses the information battlefield ...
Certainly Trump has moved on from the Right wing Libertarianism of the 1980’s. He has a strong anti-Drugs stance, for example, which is welcome, whereas the Libertarians were for Legalisation. I look forward to your Taxonomy. Best wishes!
Now we see Extremism promoted by people like Musk, whose Grok AI returns the words Adolf Hitler as the saviour when he killed 50 million whites in WWII. Nazism was and remains an utter Catastrophe for the shear number of high-quality European people it murdered. Please therefore include Pure Rationalism and the fantastic tradition of Reason and critical analysis we are the inheritors of here in The West. This will see off the Nazi-sympathising demagogues such as Musk, because Nazism, which Musk supports, has been thoroughly debunked by Reason, as I just have done here, and reason’s application to practical Political Science.
Reason is a tricky thing because all logic is based on certain assumptions—or beliefs. In politics, each person/social group has its own feelings toward others (I call it: an empathy bias), and based on those feelings, people choose the assumptions that suit their feelings and then build their logic on top of that.
So, the idea of the post I’m working on is to show how different assumptions about the world lead to different kinds of logic—and ultimately, different ideologies.
As for Grok AI (and more broadly, the question of what freedom of speech really is): right now, there are only two main approaches—absolute freedom of speech above everything, or censorship to fight fake news and disinformation (but who decides what counts as disinformation, right?). Both are deeply problematic. I believe there are better solutions. Take a look at this:
The bloated administrative class locked onto the teat of Jewish communal life won’t let us take the absolute wrecking ball to their organizations that is needed. So many completely failed in their primary missions and yet there remains zero accountability AND they purport to speak for all of us when they represent an outdated model and belief system. I think we’ve all known this for several years yet no one seems to be in a position to dethrone ineffective and in many cases detrimental leadership. It’s concerning that the community seems yet again woefully unprepared to deal with what’s coming.
Part of this renaissance should be ceasing to use the term ‘anti-semitism’! We are Jews, we come from Judea. Our enemies claim they are Semites and thus can’t be ‘anti-Semitic’. What we have seen for the past two years is pure unadulterated Jew hatred. Start using that term and not some 19th century term coined by German Jew hater Wilhelm Marr. Time to liberate ourselves and our movement from this inaccurate term by a non-Jew. Am Yisrael Chai!🦁💪🇮🇱
“The Jewish People must reclaim the moral high ground”
I’d disagree.
The Jewish people never lost the high ground - it was Western Europe that did so by embracing Left, racist wokery and by importing Islam.
President Trump is resisting the evil of that Left.
Am Yisrael Chai
Canada and Australia are cess pools of hatred. I should know im Canadian
Add Britain to that cesspit. Starmer, the PM is a total disgrace since his wife is ‘considered’ Jewish.
Amen, EJV! It is a whole different beast and deserves the name Jew hatred. It is time we accepted that.
I think, personally, that ‘anti-Zionism’ is just the same old antisemitic trope dressed in a checkered dish towel.
Erm - OK - always willing to learn.
Why is any-Zionism not, effectively, antisemitism given that the sought outcome is the same?
"Our enemies claim they are Semites and thus can’t be ‘anti-Semitic’..."
Yet, disingenuous as they are, they aren't even semites, anyway.
Unlike the Jews, who --- beginning with Abraham himself --- studiously avoided out-marriage [see Gen 24], all the OTHER early semitic peoples (incl the Arabs) practiced it routinely, and had consequently ceased to be semites by the end of the Bronze Age.
"What we have seen for the past two years is pure unadulterated Jew hatred. Start using that term..."
I would offer "judeopathy" --- it has the same clinical sound to it as "antisemitism" (while being less contrived), and comes FAR closer to the poisoned heart of the matter.
"...and not some 19th century term coined by German Jew hater Wilhelm Marr."
Marr favored 'antisemitism,' as a term, precisely because it made it possible for post-Enlightenment-Era Jew-haters like himself & his friends to find each other without having to even use the WORD, "Jew" --- an important matter for them, as the embarrassment of publicly admitting to Jew-hatred during that period (which had come to find it. . . gauche) presented them with a theretofore inextricable conundrum. . . .
Annie, I have not seen you here before. Whether or not you are Jewish yourself, please be aware that we Jews ARE aware of both the good and the unsavory events throughout our own history. We ARE educated and continue to educate ourselves. We are not monolithic and we do not always agree with each other, but as students of Torah and of our more recent history, while we may regret the violence that has been committed against others, we know that our continued existence depends on our being willing to defend ourselves and to stand up against those who wish us total destruction. We know that Israel has not committed any form of genocide, and that the Islamists are indeed intent on accomplishing one. They have been killing ‘infidels’ and glorying in their own martyrdom since long before Israel became more than a hope. Its subsequent successes on the world stage have focused their hatred onto Jews. Their PR success has re-ignited that age-old hatred in the rest of the world, and brought it out from the shadows. I am guessing that by looking into your own soul, whether or not you are Jewish, you may find that we are correct in our well-educated assessment that anti-Zionism is Jew hatred dressed up as humanism.
Incredible response, bravo. Annie, “millions of people are researching the Nakba”? It is tragic beyond words that a place called Gaza, given it’s “freedom “ in 2005 choose to use the ensuing 20 years building underground tunnels and bunkers instead of building above ground, for it’s people. It’s tragic that for 75 years the Palestinians have done nothing but destroy every opportunity given to them. They invaded a sovereign country, massacred savagely over 1220 people, destroyed all the kittbuzim by burning them. Over 4000 Hams and regular civilians took part in this orgy of violence. Then they kidnap over 250 hostages including over 30 children. That Annie, is a declaration of war and every other country in the world would have responded the same way. No Israeli mask has slipped off, it was never on. This war could have ended two years ago with the return of the hostages. War causes death, it’s horrible and devastating, but enough with your hysteria about cleansing and Nakba. Israel is here to stay!
That is the most nauseating defence of genocide I've ever heard. Hitler would have been proud of you and Jews like you. I am Jewish and proudly so. Don't appropriate my identity for your murderous ideologies.
not a chance, but I’m happy to let you have the last word, such as it is.
"Yes, they are Semites."
That's a bald, unbuttressed assertion --- not an argument. Merely repeating it that way will not make it any more true on the FORTIETH occasion that you mouth it than it it was on the FIRST.
"You doofus."
Thank you, genius lady, for showing me what I'm dealing with here (most cooperative of you).
"I expect you know about the bombing of King David Hotel?"
Yes, indeed; what of it? --- If that's YOUR idea of a 'terrorist' act, then you need to invest in a cheap dictionary and look up the word. You don't get to wield it like a weapon. There are unambiguous, objective criteria for the designation.
The KDH bombing of July 22, 1946, was clearly no 'terrorist' act --- though HMG routinely labeled ALL insurgencies against the British Crown as 'terrorist,' irrespective of their modus operandi.
(The Brits would've hanged a certain "George Washington" from a sour apple tree --- as a 'terrorist' --- if they could only have laid hands on his sweet, smooth, tender toddler tushy.)
THE FACTS OF THE KING DAVID HOTEL BOMBING
1. Since the Hotel was the British Mandate military GHQ in 1946, it was a legitimate military target during the Jewish Underground's anticolonialist war against the UK, which immediately preceded Israel's 1947-49 War of Independence.
2. More significantly, the objective of the action that day was specifically, and exclusively, the destruction of DOCUMENTS --- and no human casualties (not even military ones) were sought.
Three weeks earlier [July 1], UK troops had raided the offices of a lawful organization --- the Jewish Agency for Palestine (an Article 4 creation of the Mandate Charter, and operationally the kernel of the embryonic Jewish State-in-waiting) --- and in that raid, the Brits had seized massive quantities of documents containing sensitive intel concerning (inter alia) the names & whereabouts of Jewish undercover agents throughout the Arab world.
--- The lives of those agents & their families were thereby put instantly into enormous danger.
The info regarding Jewish Agency operations, including intelligence activities in Arab countries, was taken promptly to military HQ at the King David Hotel. The docs (but only the docs) would have to be destroyed --- and w/o delay.
Again, there was absolutely no reason why ANY PERSONS --- repeat, not even military personnel --- had to die that day.
Explosives were carefully emplaced in the basement of the bldg by well-trained Etzel [aka Irgun] operatives, who set the charges in a manner carefully calculated to allow adequate time for all to evacuate the bldg --- yet NOT sufficient time for anybody to also go searching for the bombs, or for sappers to try disarming them.
As was typical of the demands made upon his field commanders by Menahem Begin (then Director of the Etzel), multiple WARNINGS TO EVACUATE the bldg (because it was set to detonate) were phoned-in --- in English, in French, and in Hebrew:
--- A. to the Hotel Switchboard;
--- B. to the French Consulate across the street, to open their windows (to avoid blast concussion), which the Consulate personnel did then proceed to do; and
--- C. to the Palestine Post newspaper (after Independence 1948, and to this very day, known as the Jerusalem Post), whose staff, in turn, also then promptly notified the British Mandatory authorities.
However, despite the warnings, the bldg was NOT evacuated --- Sir John Shaw, Chief Secretary for the Palestine Govt, when told by a police officer that "the Jews say they have placed bombs in the King David," was reputed to have replied, "I am here to give orders TO the Jews, not to take orders FROM them."
And after 30 minutes, a massive explosion took off the entire SW wing of the bldg, all 7 stories. And 91 persons --- Brits, Arabs, Jews --- died in the blast.
For decades thereafter, the (now-former) UK Mandatory authorities would insist that they'd never received warnings of any sort. And then, in 1979, a British MP introduced evidence on the floor of the Commons that the Irgun had indeed placed the telephone calls.
The Member offered the testimony of a British officer who'd overheard other officers in the King David Hotel bar --- joking, at the time, about a Zionist threat to HQ. The officer who'd witnessed the conversation promptly exited the bldg, and lived to tell about it.
The loss of life was a source of great anguish for the Irgun personnel & leadership: not least because those deaths had been utterly unnecessary to their objectives. But there is simply NO WAY the action can justly or honestly be designated a 'terrorist' act --- howsoever much YOU or others may need to so characterize it.
"...then 75 more years of terror..."
For example? --- and this time, please, provide verifiable sources relating those allegations, and w/ direct, verbatim quotes of the pertinent text[s].
"...leading up to Gaza genocide."
'Gaza genocide'? --- a charge of 'genocide' presumes, and requires, two essential elements besides a pile of dead bodies: INTENTION and SYSTEMATIZATION.
The fact is that there is no 'genocide' in Gaza --- unless, of course, you refer to the maliciously brazen genociding of truth itself.
"SHAME SHAME SHAME!"
The shame is unmistakably your own, my dear --- your bloated ego is shamefully incapable of relinquishing its own hatred:
--- It ENJOYS it too much.
Why are you even on this site?
I would not waste your time replying to scum bag Annie
You’re right
Are you nuts? What does the King David hotel have to do with Gaza? Back then Gaza was part of Egypt up until 1967. No one advocated for a Gaza state, Egypt left it alone in the peace accords. The Sinai was returned but Egypt refused to take back Gaza
You educate yourself. Zionism is ingrained into Judaism and enough about the bogus genocide claim, it’s been debunked by Hamas themselves, unless you’re on the ground there and somehow know something that nobody else does. The Palestinians are masters of their own stupidity and demise. Israel will ALWAYS be here. Get used to it and try to temper your stupidity
You need to go back to school .. Hamas are the genocide culprits.
Two great videos .. I really found this Arab women interesting .. her parents are Lebanese / Syrian
https://youtu.be/_YB8xqBIq_s?si=FJnQdtfwsWydL_cx
And this Palestinian christian guy taught me so much
https://youtu.be/7E7pIIEwW1M?si=67Dhwl5FLB9LD4LJ
I hope you find them as interesting as I did.
What wise words! For myself, seeing these wonderful reunions brought me to tears. I really believe you can build on this and stand up to the weaklings in the world. Israelis are wonderful people and your beautiful Country is beyond belief. Standing together is the most important thing you can do. 🙏
Truly a Chag Sameach. Thank you for this strong message of hope, an eloquent reminder of the things that bind us together and the strengths we bring to the present task. I am forwarding to the leaders of my Vancouver community, who have managed, to a remarkable degree, to work together with each other to get us through these awful two years. May they go from strength to strength. I am praying for all the Israeli families, the reunited ones and the grieving ones. Praying hard!
So profound. Beautifully written, brilliant, you are the forerunner and visionary.
Strong, focussed and empowering words. Thank you, Joshua.
‘The Jewish People are a strong people, and Israel is a strong country.’ I have heard this said of us in many places and by people of quite a few institutions in The West now, in our monitoring work. We are admired, in fact. And not only in The West. This is nice to hear. The success of Jewish Nationhood and solidarity are being copied in some of these countries now too. Thus we continue: Agile, resilient, and upstanding, amongst many other qualities of Jewish excellence.
This. 100%.
Absolutely. Today we dance. Tomorrow we return to repair and rebuild with clarity and purpose. Together.
Amen! But our trust must be in the LORD, not in ourselves. Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.
Mazel Tov. That took you 2 years to allow it to emerge through your hard work and contemplations of all sorts. 'That' brainstorm is dense in the best ways. A Few Minutes Guide For the Perplexed. Do Not Use or more specifically REFRAIN from using the following:'antisemitism'; 'west bank'; 'holocaust'; so-called 'palestinian'. Your text could become as an edited version A 10- Points Guide as to how Jewish individuals/groups/organizations are best to proceed 'from here to enternity'. That 10-Points Guide MUST accompany a game called Tenish:) 10 Utterances 10 Commandments 10 Trials of Abraham 10 Sephirot Rebbe's 10 Mitzvot Campaign etc. A most simple metaphor for our metafuture is that we need to be on the same page. Literally and Metaphorically. Practically the 'same page' implies the proscribed weekly Torah Parshot and their proscribed daily aliyah study. As a uber minimalist, trust me, a little bit goes a long way. But it takes a long time that way. C'est la vie. The way you continue to outdo yourself is a phenomenon. It is like a solo game of Leap Frong. I hereby promise myself that I will read this minaturized tome a minimum of 3 more times this week.
Part of the recovery and fighting antisemitic narratives and hate speech on social media is using the evolving potential of AI.
It is far from a level playing field but we need to reshape minds with targeted counter-messaging.
This technology has been actively developing over the past 2 year.
See “the digital iron dome” site to learn more how Jews can confront hatred. Fascinating.
A quote from this excellent essay: "The Jewish story has always been a relay race across generations. The baton is in our hands now, and history is watching how we run." Yes.
Joshua, you have been a voice of such clarity through these dark times. This is maybe one of your most inspired and inspiring pieces. Thank you for holding me - holding us - during these terrible years; for cutting through the noise - and for being one of the shining lights of our people. This Substack - and many of your pieces in particular - have helped shape my thinking, contained the volcano of my emotions and given me language by which to understand what we’ve experienced. You are one of the leaders of our people. Thank you, dear Joshua.
Amen!
Yes, we do—we need a vision, a strategy, and a doctrine for how to deal with growing Islamism and other emerging threats. It must start with a deep understanding of reality and these threats, move on to an analysis of possible solutions, and end with the most promising one that most people believe in and are willing to support.
Such a solution should provide clear answers on how to deal with the new information battlefield, define what unity means and how to build it, and outline the changes our society must undergo—and how they should be implemented—in order to win this struggle, which encompasses not only the military battlefield but also the demographic, informational, and legal arenas, among others
What you have just outlined, New Western Doctrine, is now being done. The New Maga Movement and President Trump are now doing this. The important thing is to absolutely avoid the Horror and The monstrous Lie which was Genocidal Nazism which killed seventy million people here in Europe and in The Far East, and all of the attractions of The Dark and cruel Side of human nature which Nationalism used to unleash, but to answer all of the questions of secure borders, Demographics and strong fiat currencies here in The West, to secure our Western Freedoms. This is now being done.
Yes, there are actually quite a few visions for how to deal with the modern threats on Western society. In about a week, I’ll publish a post outlining a full taxonomy of these approaches and the reasoning behind them (and I invite everyone to take part in the discussion about these approaches). Trump’s approach seems to be one of the best—and definitely very unorthodox. Still, in my view, there are some missing components, especially in how it addresses the information battlefield ...
Certainly Trump has moved on from the Right wing Libertarianism of the 1980’s. He has a strong anti-Drugs stance, for example, which is welcome, whereas the Libertarians were for Legalisation. I look forward to your Taxonomy. Best wishes!
Thanks!
Now we see Extremism promoted by people like Musk, whose Grok AI returns the words Adolf Hitler as the saviour when he killed 50 million whites in WWII. Nazism was and remains an utter Catastrophe for the shear number of high-quality European people it murdered. Please therefore include Pure Rationalism and the fantastic tradition of Reason and critical analysis we are the inheritors of here in The West. This will see off the Nazi-sympathising demagogues such as Musk, because Nazism, which Musk supports, has been thoroughly debunked by Reason, as I just have done here, and reason’s application to practical Political Science.
Reason is a tricky thing because all logic is based on certain assumptions—or beliefs. In politics, each person/social group has its own feelings toward others (I call it: an empathy bias), and based on those feelings, people choose the assumptions that suit their feelings and then build their logic on top of that.
So, the idea of the post I’m working on is to show how different assumptions about the world lead to different kinds of logic—and ultimately, different ideologies.
As for Grok AI (and more broadly, the question of what freedom of speech really is): right now, there are only two main approaches—absolute freedom of speech above everything, or censorship to fight fake news and disinformation (but who decides what counts as disinformation, right?). Both are deeply problematic. I believe there are better solutions. Take a look at this:
https://elusive-world.com/western-supranational-union-a-shared-unbiased-information-space/
The bloated administrative class locked onto the teat of Jewish communal life won’t let us take the absolute wrecking ball to their organizations that is needed. So many completely failed in their primary missions and yet there remains zero accountability AND they purport to speak for all of us when they represent an outdated model and belief system. I think we’ve all known this for several years yet no one seems to be in a position to dethrone ineffective and in many cases detrimental leadership. It’s concerning that the community seems yet again woefully unprepared to deal with what’s coming.
This is an excellent game plan namely reaffirming and exploring our Jewish identity