Hyperbole has turned the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a contest of moral absolutes. When everything is genocide, apartheid, and absolute evil, what happens to historical truth?
It's actually one of the least complex. One side wants to live in peace. The other is death cult committed to wanton slaughter. Why the world fails to see the reality of this is the question of the century.
There’s so much about Islam and the Palestinian invocation of it that is the complete opposite of everything we in the West value. It’s there in black and white in Hamas’s charter, among other places.
People in the West simply don’t comprehend that there are people who really don’t value just living in peace and trying to make a decent living so they can provide for their families. They can’t accept that these people actually *mean* it when they say they love death above life.
It’s not necessary to actually comprehend a worldview like this, but it’s essential to take what they say at face value and act accordingly.
When people - *any* people - tell you who they are - in *any* context or format, whether explicitly or by their actions - only a fool doesn’t believe them.
Definitely too tolerant. That's the crux of the problem these days. The good guys are afraid of winning, afraid of appearing too powerful? As I like to say, and I got this from someone else (maybe Douglas Murray), the West has to be Athens but willing to be Sparta when it has to be AND FINISH THE JOB. The hard part is going back to being Athens, but we can do it. We did it after WW2.
This is such a clear, easy to follow, factual summing up of the history of Israel. I wish everyone who considers themself an expert on this topic would read it. Thank you!
SW7, the problem is that Joshua’s summary is a factual account of what took place. The problem, is that ‘those, on the other side’ tell their own narrative. A narrative of a people dispossessed by European colonialists, which together with the apartheid lie, and the fake genocide claim, are now so deeply entrenched.
The constant victimhood facilitated by the likes of UN, UNRWA, EU, NGOs and the obsession of UK based Milliband, Corbyn, BBC, Guardian, Jeremy Bowen and channel 4, make for an explosive and misguided attack on Israel and Jews.
When combined with the hateful PR emanating from the jihadist Islamist groups & the Arab world, added to the islamisation of Western societies, it feels like most of the world is against us.
And for sure…performing in that costume was something he totally understood and is like performing in Black face. It’s just pure bigotry. Apology not accepted.
And what to make of poor Ed Sheeran. Should have just invited Gene Simmons to open for him and let him sing HaTikvah.
Not so "poor Ed Sheeran." In his vast wisdom , he defamed Israel's response as "unjustifiable and disproportionate." So one more know-nothing judges Israel and finds it sorely wanting.
Hyperbole has been harming our society for decades, but the Left has taken it to a whole new level - a societal wrecking level. When your hyperbole becomes totally detached from reality, language gets destroyed, communication fails, cooperation becomes impossible, un-reconcilable division becomes inevitable, and such a society (to quote Lincoln) cannot stand. So thank you for that lunatic Left. 👏
How many temples in America not to.mention Jewish day schools teach this history? There were plenty of jews in Brooklyn yesterday led by Lander who need some education as well. Nice touch wearing their kippahs though to show they were denigrating israel "as jews".
Your question answers itself: we Jews are shamefully ignorant of our history and heritage. And just about every Jewish institution is at fault for that.
Wow. Amazing article - wish more understood this history. I know in my bones we just tried to get along without leaving (my father's side). I'm grateful for the return of Jews to their homeland. It should have been seen as a blessing after all the conquests. It could have been seen as getting the inhabitants over the line to a better existence. Of course, people don't like change. That's a fact and perhaps the formation of Israel wasn't perfect. Nothing ever is. Unfortunately though some chose not to see the blessing and continued to perpetuate the aggrieved narrative. 😭
Agreed completely. People refer to it as such because both sides are powerful, and they just don’t wanna upset anyone. Calling it “complicated” is an attempt to alleviate responsibility on whatever you’re going to say next.
There was never a moral equivalence between the actions of Nazi Germany and the response of the allies. When the threat is at your doorstep the difference is easy to understand. Bankrupt of moral leadership, much of Europe has sold its soul to the Arab vote and investment. Hating Israel has become a new Godless religion.
Once he used the term “disproportionate” anything he said was useless.
I disagree, however, that the dispute is complex. Abba Eban explained the dispute simply and eloquently. “It takes two sides to shake hands, but only one to make a fist.” A stopper in many debates I’ve had is my simple comment, “The Palestinians want a state. One tactic they refuse to employ is choosing peace.”
As a physicist I've always hugely admired Einstein. I've only enough talent to understand the significance of his work and nowhere near enough of his talent to actually do that kind of work. One thing that has always struck me about Einstein's work was his ability to strike to the heart of a matter, to see the 'shape', the 'geometry' if you like. I try to do the same kind of thing, albeit poorly, with this, supposedly, complex question.
I'm not Jewish so the centuries of strife and yearning have not seeped into my cultural bones, so to speak, and yet from the outside looking in the 'shape' I see is not really all that complex.
I know that the history stretches thousands of years back before 1948, but it's there that, for me at least, the 'shape' becomes apparent. Things didn't start at 1948, but maybe they crystallized there in some sense.
It's almost as simple as asking the question "who were the builders and who were the destroyers?". Almost. In Ben-Gurion's speech on the day of independence we see, despite the conflict that had already escalated, the hand of friendship extended and a promise to make this imperfect solution of the UN work for the good of all. Those non-Jews who chose to cast their lot with the newly-formed state were promised equality, tolerance, and fairness under the law. It was a promise that Israel kept.
The Arab response, and the underlying psychology, was as different as it could be. It was to wage war, to deny any Jewish role in the region, and to set about the extermination/expulsion of Jews. The central fact, and it's still somewhat difficult for me to 'get my head around', is that a day after this speech Israel was at war with the Arabs in the region and invaded by the armies of 5 surrounding countries.
I try to look at this as dispassionately and objectively as I can, to understand everything from all sides, and I still cannot honestly understand how Israel ended up being the 'bad guy' in all this. It isn't complex, for me at all. I may be wrong in this, I am often wrong about my historical and political interpretations, but I'm not sure that I would say the 1948 war ever ended, and the barbarity of the Hamas Palestinians on Oct 7th is a continuation of this conflict.
This, then, as others here have pointed out, is the 'shape' of things and I don't think the history, and particularly that of 1948, justifies casting Israel in the role of aggressor. To use a physics analogy, the experimental data (1948 and subsequent events) does not support the hypothesis of Israeli aggression.
We've seen it time and time again over the years - the language used reveals the underlying 'shape', the psychology, and one only has to compare the language of Israel's leaders (not always, obviously) with the language of the Arab leaders (almost always). One almost always seeks peace, the other does not.
Islam is a Organized Crime Syndicate masquerading as a death cult religion. It is very similar to Cosa Nostra - you commit crimes and you can't leave. Then include some Koran, Sira and Hadith Mumbo Jumbo.
That's not particularly complicated or complex at all.
It's actually one of the least complex. One side wants to live in peace. The other is death cult committed to wanton slaughter. Why the world fails to see the reality of this is the question of the century.
And they openly state their intentions. Western nations just refuse to listen.
I think they refuse to believe it, too.
There’s so much about Islam and the Palestinian invocation of it that is the complete opposite of everything we in the West value. It’s there in black and white in Hamas’s charter, among other places.
People in the West simply don’t comprehend that there are people who really don’t value just living in peace and trying to make a decent living so they can provide for their families. They can’t accept that these people actually *mean* it when they say they love death above life.
It’s not necessary to actually comprehend a worldview like this, but it’s essential to take what they say at face value and act accordingly.
When people - *any* people - tell you who they are - in *any* context or format, whether explicitly or by their actions - only a fool doesn’t believe them.
Truly.
Not complicated at all! Israel is dealing with IslamoNazis in its very backyard and it has been too tolerant in dealing with the problem.
Definitely too tolerant. That's the crux of the problem these days. The good guys are afraid of winning, afraid of appearing too powerful? As I like to say, and I got this from someone else (maybe Douglas Murray), the West has to be Athens but willing to be Sparta when it has to be AND FINISH THE JOB. The hard part is going back to being Athens, but we can do it. We did it after WW2.
This is in NO WAY, a complex issue!
This is such a clear, easy to follow, factual summing up of the history of Israel. I wish everyone who considers themself an expert on this topic would read it. Thank you!
SW7, the problem is that Joshua’s summary is a factual account of what took place. The problem, is that ‘those, on the other side’ tell their own narrative. A narrative of a people dispossessed by European colonialists, which together with the apartheid lie, and the fake genocide claim, are now so deeply entrenched.
The constant victimhood facilitated by the likes of UN, UNRWA, EU, NGOs and the obsession of UK based Milliband, Corbyn, BBC, Guardian, Jeremy Bowen and channel 4, make for an explosive and misguided attack on Israel and Jews.
When combined with the hateful PR emanating from the jihadist Islamist groups & the Arab world, added to the islamisation of Western societies, it feels like most of the world is against us.
me too.
And for sure…performing in that costume was something he totally understood and is like performing in Black face. It’s just pure bigotry. Apology not accepted.
And what to make of poor Ed Sheeran. Should have just invited Gene Simmons to open for him and let him sing HaTikvah.
Not so "poor Ed Sheeran." In his vast wisdom , he defamed Israel's response as "unjustifiable and disproportionate." So one more know-nothing judges Israel and finds it sorely wanting.
Sorry I was tongue in cheek calling him poor Ed Sheeran—hard to see that in a post I guess :)
Hyperbole has been harming our society for decades, but the Left has taken it to a whole new level - a societal wrecking level. When your hyperbole becomes totally detached from reality, language gets destroyed, communication fails, cooperation becomes impossible, un-reconcilable division becomes inevitable, and such a society (to quote Lincoln) cannot stand. So thank you for that lunatic Left. 👏
How many temples in America not to.mention Jewish day schools teach this history? There were plenty of jews in Brooklyn yesterday led by Lander who need some education as well. Nice touch wearing their kippahs though to show they were denigrating israel "as jews".
Your question answers itself: we Jews are shamefully ignorant of our history and heritage. And just about every Jewish institution is at fault for that.
Yes the question was rhetorical just as the disgrace in Brooklyn was predictable.
I understood that your question was rhetorical: My comment was intended to express agreement and reinforcement.
I figured. If i implied otherwise my apologies.
Wow. Amazing article - wish more understood this history. I know in my bones we just tried to get along without leaving (my father's side). I'm grateful for the return of Jews to their homeland. It should have been seen as a blessing after all the conquests. It could have been seen as getting the inhabitants over the line to a better existence. Of course, people don't like change. That's a fact and perhaps the formation of Israel wasn't perfect. Nothing ever is. Unfortunately though some chose not to see the blessing and continued to perpetuate the aggrieved narrative. 😭
Agreed completely. People refer to it as such because both sides are powerful, and they just don’t wanna upset anyone. Calling it “complicated” is an attempt to alleviate responsibility on whatever you’re going to say next.
There was never a moral equivalence between the actions of Nazi Germany and the response of the allies. When the threat is at your doorstep the difference is easy to understand. Bankrupt of moral leadership, much of Europe has sold its soul to the Arab vote and investment. Hating Israel has become a new Godless religion.
Once he used the term “disproportionate” anything he said was useless.
I disagree, however, that the dispute is complex. Abba Eban explained the dispute simply and eloquently. “It takes two sides to shake hands, but only one to make a fist.” A stopper in many debates I’ve had is my simple comment, “The Palestinians want a state. One tactic they refuse to employ is choosing peace.”
They had a State! They just want Israel not to exist.
As a physicist I've always hugely admired Einstein. I've only enough talent to understand the significance of his work and nowhere near enough of his talent to actually do that kind of work. One thing that has always struck me about Einstein's work was his ability to strike to the heart of a matter, to see the 'shape', the 'geometry' if you like. I try to do the same kind of thing, albeit poorly, with this, supposedly, complex question.
I'm not Jewish so the centuries of strife and yearning have not seeped into my cultural bones, so to speak, and yet from the outside looking in the 'shape' I see is not really all that complex.
I know that the history stretches thousands of years back before 1948, but it's there that, for me at least, the 'shape' becomes apparent. Things didn't start at 1948, but maybe they crystallized there in some sense.
It's almost as simple as asking the question "who were the builders and who were the destroyers?". Almost. In Ben-Gurion's speech on the day of independence we see, despite the conflict that had already escalated, the hand of friendship extended and a promise to make this imperfect solution of the UN work for the good of all. Those non-Jews who chose to cast their lot with the newly-formed state were promised equality, tolerance, and fairness under the law. It was a promise that Israel kept.
The Arab response, and the underlying psychology, was as different as it could be. It was to wage war, to deny any Jewish role in the region, and to set about the extermination/expulsion of Jews. The central fact, and it's still somewhat difficult for me to 'get my head around', is that a day after this speech Israel was at war with the Arabs in the region and invaded by the armies of 5 surrounding countries.
I try to look at this as dispassionately and objectively as I can, to understand everything from all sides, and I still cannot honestly understand how Israel ended up being the 'bad guy' in all this. It isn't complex, for me at all. I may be wrong in this, I am often wrong about my historical and political interpretations, but I'm not sure that I would say the 1948 war ever ended, and the barbarity of the Hamas Palestinians on Oct 7th is a continuation of this conflict.
This, then, as others here have pointed out, is the 'shape' of things and I don't think the history, and particularly that of 1948, justifies casting Israel in the role of aggressor. To use a physics analogy, the experimental data (1948 and subsequent events) does not support the hypothesis of Israeli aggression.
We've seen it time and time again over the years - the language used reveals the underlying 'shape', the psychology, and one only has to compare the language of Israel's leaders (not always, obviously) with the language of the Arab leaders (almost always). One almost always seeks peace, the other does not.
How is that 'complex'?
Brilliant piece, so clearly articulated. Enough said.
Islam is a Organized Crime Syndicate masquerading as a death cult religion. It is very similar to Cosa Nostra - you commit crimes and you can't leave. Then include some Koran, Sira and Hadith Mumbo Jumbo.
That's not particularly complicated or complex at all.
Ed is finding out what its like to be a Jew, so give him a break. It takes more than a week to get good at dealing with all this bullshit.
Western leaders are just saying what they want now. You should look for stipends 🤔