I would add a 4th point. The inability or unwillingness of the West, especially the US, to recognize or acknowledge that they’ve miscalculated their strategy towards Hamas & Iran. The US continues to act as if Hamas is a traditional state actor, that it plays by the same rules as the US & Israel. The deal in December wasn’t the result of shrewd negotiations. The IDF was crushing Hamas & Hamas was running low on supplies. The strategy for freeing the hostages must reflect this reality. Appeasement & endless aid keep the hostages trapped.
“Make no mistake: You can (and ought to) have simultaneous, equal compassion for both Israelis and Palestinians, but that’s not what happened. In many cases, relatively mild concern for Israel was replaced with profuse support for the Palestinians.”
But why? Why simultaneous or equal? This is said by not just a few people as some axiom. And while people look askance when I question this, I’ve yet to hear an explanation.
Yes! Because it sounds cruel and cold not to begin every speech for Israel with some such axiom. But it’s just a PC thing, part of the new weakness of the West. I have looked into my heart and I know that if I say those words I don’t really mean them. I am tired of defending Israel’s right to exist (it exists and if you don’t like it, too bad), tired of worrying about not offending someone, and tired of pretending that I feel for the Palestinian people Right now I am focused on MY tribe. This is war. When it’s over and the enemy has been crushed destroyed devastated and demoralized (which is how wars are won), I will then bring back empathy for the Gazans - if they behave. Until then I do not have the heart for it.
Well said! I was equally irked to see simultaneous equal compassion to the tens of thousands of Gazans on video Oct 7 abusing the hostages and cheering Hamas.
As Simon Weisenthal recounted, the most beautiful music he ever heard was at Dachau: the sound of American bombs falling on Munich.
Thank you, again, for a clear, understandable look at what is going on in this war. The explanation of the laws of war (and what is said about humanity that we need them!) was especially helpful. If only more people cared enough to really look at what is happening. I continue to pray for God's people.
One of the few articles I've seen that correctly describes the idea of proportionality in the Laws of War (Article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention). The majority of commentators, like CNN Fareed Zhakaria, think proportionality means war reduce to a sequence of identical tit for tats.
One mistake with Israel's public diplomacy was the dismissal of the exceptional Noa Tishby due to, apparently, problems with judicial reform.
I really liked what you said in your article. However, I want to add that Jesus gave the land to the Jews a long time ago. Please read Ezekiel 47:13-23. Therefore, this land of Israel rightfully belongs to the Israeli's today. Israel shared the land with the Palestinians! These "poor Palestinians" celebrated in the streets of Gaza and wanted the Hamas to not stop. This is very sad 😔. I'm sorry, but I have no compassion for them.
I 100% agree with your point, although Jesus had nothing to do with it? That’s not New Testament stuff, that’s on our side of the Bible. Don’t get me wrong - Jesus had a great message, and I’m not denigrating him in any way - but our side of the playing field has a separation between what G-d says and what Jesus says.
Right, but in context to this particular person? Separating Ezekiel from the stuff that came post-C.E. seemed best without me really feeling the need to extend the debate. I know what you’re saying and agree (and have probably read at least a couple of the same things you’re talking about), but I also appreciate the point Crystal was making.
Read Melanie Phillips today. I had made a much longer post, but thanks to those idiotic drop downs that appear everytime someone with a stack makes a comment and I accidently touch it, I lost my work and there is no way to close those obnoxious things.
They are utterly pointless, 90 percent of the Stacks they promote are worthless and they make me close the site I am on when they appear and go on to something else, not explore every amateur writer on Substack.
I was in a hurry and still am. Melanie Phillips is here on Substack and today she details what most of us know;that China Joe is Israel's worst enemy and is actively betraying Israel.
Yes, but it doesn't really bother me that everyone gets a shot.
I don't mind seeing the banners, it's not being able to choose not to subscribe
Subscribing is the only way to get rid of the banner and I have to use a private DNS to even get to Substack and Cisco's ironically named Open DNS fights my DNS every step of the way which means it is often a time consuming battle where I have to switch among private DNS to find one who has a fix for Cisco's latest hack and it can take as long as 15 minutes to re open a Stack after closing the page because a drop down blocks me. If it happens while I am writing a post, I lose my work.
There is no reason there couldn't be an "x" to click and close and if there was one I would have no complaint.
It's good to try different sites and find new stuff. Until recently, I was a big fan of LewRockwell.com but recently it has devolved into Jew Hate idiocy, just total BS and instead of a great source of hidden truths it's just a bunch of idiot Jew Haters spewing nonsense and displaying their utter ignorance while imagining themselves sophisticated...
Absolutely! From the very beginning the UN should have been seeking the unconditional release of the hostages! It is quite incredible that they didn’t. At the same time, many of us know the IDF has standards that are on the highest level. Mainstream media does not show this. I really Hope that Israel can find a way to communicate this to the world. The sickness of Hamas and the fact that the US has buckled its support for Israel and given Hamas a platform is utterly vile.
I would add a 4th point. The inability or unwillingness of the West, especially the US, to recognize or acknowledge that they’ve miscalculated their strategy towards Hamas & Iran. The US continues to act as if Hamas is a traditional state actor, that it plays by the same rules as the US & Israel. The deal in December wasn’t the result of shrewd negotiations. The IDF was crushing Hamas & Hamas was running low on supplies. The strategy for freeing the hostages must reflect this reality. Appeasement & endless aid keep the hostages trapped.
“Make no mistake: You can (and ought to) have simultaneous, equal compassion for both Israelis and Palestinians, but that’s not what happened. In many cases, relatively mild concern for Israel was replaced with profuse support for the Palestinians.”
But why? Why simultaneous or equal? This is said by not just a few people as some axiom. And while people look askance when I question this, I’ve yet to hear an explanation.
Yes! Because it sounds cruel and cold not to begin every speech for Israel with some such axiom. But it’s just a PC thing, part of the new weakness of the West. I have looked into my heart and I know that if I say those words I don’t really mean them. I am tired of defending Israel’s right to exist (it exists and if you don’t like it, too bad), tired of worrying about not offending someone, and tired of pretending that I feel for the Palestinian people Right now I am focused on MY tribe. This is war. When it’s over and the enemy has been crushed destroyed devastated and demoralized (which is how wars are won), I will then bring back empathy for the Gazans - if they behave. Until then I do not have the heart for it.
Well said! I was equally irked to see simultaneous equal compassion to the tens of thousands of Gazans on video Oct 7 abusing the hostages and cheering Hamas.
As Simon Weisenthal recounted, the most beautiful music he ever heard was at Dachau: the sound of American bombs falling on Munich.
Thank you, again, for a clear, understandable look at what is going on in this war. The explanation of the laws of war (and what is said about humanity that we need them!) was especially helpful. If only more people cared enough to really look at what is happening. I continue to pray for God's people.
One of the few articles I've seen that correctly describes the idea of proportionality in the Laws of War (Article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention). The majority of commentators, like CNN Fareed Zhakaria, think proportionality means war reduce to a sequence of identical tit for tats.
One mistake with Israel's public diplomacy was the dismissal of the exceptional Noa Tishby due to, apparently, problems with judicial reform.
https://www.noatishby.com/
If you prefer the written word, here is Begin's riposte when Senator Biden threatened to cut off military assistance
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/menachem-begin-warned-us-about-joe-biden/
Israel's arms industry has grown by leaps and bounds since then.
I really liked what you said in your article. However, I want to add that Jesus gave the land to the Jews a long time ago. Please read Ezekiel 47:13-23. Therefore, this land of Israel rightfully belongs to the Israeli's today. Israel shared the land with the Palestinians! These "poor Palestinians" celebrated in the streets of Gaza and wanted the Hamas to not stop. This is very sad 😔. I'm sorry, but I have no compassion for them.
I 100% agree with your point, although Jesus had nothing to do with it? That’s not New Testament stuff, that’s on our side of the Bible. Don’t get me wrong - Jesus had a great message, and I’m not denigrating him in any way - but our side of the playing field has a separation between what G-d says and what Jesus says.
Right, but in context to this particular person? Separating Ezekiel from the stuff that came post-C.E. seemed best without me really feeling the need to extend the debate. I know what you’re saying and agree (and have probably read at least a couple of the same things you’re talking about), but I also appreciate the point Crystal was making.
I really appreciate your strong, erudite analysis Josha
The other side lies and nobody seems to care.
Read Melanie Phillips today. I had made a much longer post, but thanks to those idiotic drop downs that appear everytime someone with a stack makes a comment and I accidently touch it, I lost my work and there is no way to close those obnoxious things.
They are utterly pointless, 90 percent of the Stacks they promote are worthless and they make me close the site I am on when they appear and go on to something else, not explore every amateur writer on Substack.
I was in a hurry and still am. Melanie Phillips is here on Substack and today she details what most of us know;that China Joe is Israel's worst enemy and is actively betraying Israel.
Yes, but it doesn't really bother me that everyone gets a shot.
I don't mind seeing the banners, it's not being able to choose not to subscribe
Subscribing is the only way to get rid of the banner and I have to use a private DNS to even get to Substack and Cisco's ironically named Open DNS fights my DNS every step of the way which means it is often a time consuming battle where I have to switch among private DNS to find one who has a fix for Cisco's latest hack and it can take as long as 15 minutes to re open a Stack after closing the page because a drop down blocks me. If it happens while I am writing a post, I lose my work.
There is no reason there couldn't be an "x" to click and close and if there was one I would have no complaint.
It's good to try different sites and find new stuff. Until recently, I was a big fan of LewRockwell.com but recently it has devolved into Jew Hate idiocy, just total BS and instead of a great source of hidden truths it's just a bunch of idiot Jew Haters spewing nonsense and displaying their utter ignorance while imagining themselves sophisticated...
Absolutely! From the very beginning the UN should have been seeking the unconditional release of the hostages! It is quite incredible that they didn’t. At the same time, many of us know the IDF has standards that are on the highest level. Mainstream media does not show this. I really Hope that Israel can find a way to communicate this to the world. The sickness of Hamas and the fact that the US has buckled its support for Israel and given Hamas a platform is utterly vile.