Palestinianism is not about building roads, or governing a territory, or seeking coexistence. Its highest aspiration, its unifying ideal, is the genocide of the Jews.
This is one of the most powerful and honest to truth pieces I have read since 10/7. Or perhaps in decades. With our day of reckoning approaching, Yom Kippur, taking stock of our responsibility is timely. This article is not only written coherently and is historically credible, but seems to come from the pain of realising we had it so wrong and in so many ways ,and for so long.
It also pains one to read it, of course, and at times one rejects the torrent of " mea culpa" indictments , remembering that guilt, the one we invented when we were Ancient Israel and which we assumed formed the accountability basis of Western morality and ethics, that " guilt" we so frequently apply to ourselves , and the discernment of right and wrong we took for granted was enshrined in our civilisation since the Genesis allegory was manifest in our moral evolution, has been the root of the hatred of us.
Blaming ourselves , however necessary and so uniquely Jewish , is also demoralising.
But there is the other side of our Janus -head predicament: we also have our unique antidote, forged in the hell imposed on us. We can take it. We chose ourselves a long time ago for a mission ,the result of our inability to believe our God could ever have abandoned us.
The hatred of a demented society strengthened us. My own latent, ancestral knowledge , perhaps transferred from generation to generation, also hears the message: when our ancestors fought, their instruction was to eliminate enemies, not to love them. This eternally extended hand in hallowed hope of reconciliation that brought us tragically to this point is a learned reflex. It was adopted from the Christian " love your enemies". That had never been Israel's guideline .Israel would not commit suicide, as the West does now. Israel would survive, fight as soon as it again has the chance, and therefore Israel lives.
This is why we are not just hated. We are hated because we are feared. If they only understood....Their animosity has made us more resilient and powerful. The same West that despises us responds in silent awe when we invent blowing pagers, destroy Iran's intelligence, as it was marvelled in 1967. When we show superiority, real superiority, and ruthlessness, there is a gasp of recognition. It's very short lived, but like the silences in great music, each explodes with meaning.
We are aliens to them, perhaps even seen as somewhat supernatural. Our only obligation is to prevail. We reserve the moral accounting to our own criteria, the world is not our judge.
We always knew ourselves to be a " nation that dwells alone".
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your essay. It would be a lot easier to achieve if the Arab world would absorb their Gazan Arab brothers (just as Israel has done with World Jewry since her birth)
This article is very sobering but it is being realistic and seeing things as they are NOT as we would like them to be! There can be no Palestinian state anytime soon. Not unless a secular, liberal democracy was in charge of it. Sadly, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Israel must take control of all the land between the river and the sea for the time being. Israel must annex Gaza when the war is over and assert its full sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. Kick out the Palestinian Authority and send them into exile, purge the Jihadists and give all Palestinians citizenship, voting rights and representation in the Knesset. Build settlements in Gaza and develop the Galilee, the Negev and the Golan Heights. Expand the settlements in East Jerusalem and build the E1 settlements. Get rid of the useless Oslo Framework and abandon for the time being, the fantasy of the two-state solution.
The current Palestinian leadership doesn’t want a state, they want to destroy Israel. A future Palestinian state would either be ruled by a corrupt kleptocracy or Islamist rapist psychopaths. Israel’s survival ultimately depends on putting an end for the push for a Palestinian state until such time as Palestinian leadership can emerge that favors coexistence. Europe couldn’t protect the Jews thus why Israel must exist. So they don’t get to tell Israel what they can and can’t do. Their getting some sweet karma right now with Arab and African mass migration. Recognizing a Palestinian state is essentially the equivalent of recognizing Atlantis or Disneyland as a state, it’s pure fiction.
"This failure was not only operational. It was conceptual. Israel has never truly understood who its enemy is. It has treated the war as a conflict with this or that faction (Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organization) rather than with Palestine itself, the political entity in all its forms."
Absolutely! Clear as day, by which we mean as opposed to night, just as the good Lord said and meant when He created light and separated it from darkness. Israel does not need better hasbara, but better policy and strategy. Putting an end to Palestine is precisely where to start.
We have monitored The Nazis in 2014, asking for this entity here in London, precisely to provoke war. This is in our monitoring Reports to the Authorities here and abroad.
"We failed to fortify our towns. We did not defend our people. We militarily controlled Gaza until 2005, then tore down our own settlements, expelled our own citizens, and handed the territory to the enemy. That retreat lit the fuse. Everything that followed — the tunnels, the rockets, the massacre — was the consequence of our own choices."
I'm not a Jew. I'm a Christian.
I'm not an Israeli. I'm an American.
But I care very much about Israel, and so when I watched the videos of October 7th, 2023 I was hoping for a rethinking of Israel's policy of not allowing its Jewish citizens to defend themselves. Only 5% of non-IDF or non-law enforcement Israeli Jews have gun "permits." Since 10/7 Israel given out another 100,000 "permits."
The well know Jewish saying is "Never Again." That to me means Jews will now have to defend themselves in the face of its enemies. Yet, Israel is surrounded by Muslim countries that have historically hated Israel and Jews. Why does a Jew in Israel need a "permit" to defend themselves against them being murdered, their women raped and their children taken hostage? Before October 7th that was stupid. After October 7th it is insane.
In America we have the right to bear arms. We fought our masters, The British and their 40,000 German mercenaries, to gain our freedom to among other things, to arm ourselves so we can protect our families. In Israel The IDF is mandatory so we are talking about a wonderful nation with a citizen armed forces where all but the Haredim have shot military weapons.
Could an Israeli here or anyone for that matter explain why Israeli governments for the past 77 years has seen to it that its Jewish citizens are forbidden to defend themselves in the face of mortal danger?
Before 2023 I would never have agreed with your thesis. Now I applaud it. My late, dear Toronto friend, Tony Wallis, used to make us roll our eyes when he would espouse what we considered rightwing views of Israel’s situation, but I see now that he was so right. Oddly, it was a leftwing tour of Israel organized by my former Toronto synagogue in 2019 that birthed the dissonance for me. Some of what I saw and heard just did not compute. Spending more time studying Torah since I moved to Vancouver may have made a difference. October 7th sealed the deal. As much as it pains this former peacenik to admit it, I believe you are completely correct in your assessment. Our Europhilia created blinders for North American Jews. It is definitely time to get over it and shed them.
Well Yonatan, I concur with the judgement of everyone else here, you have written a very powerful, very provocative piece. It is rich with truths - many of which cry out for further exposition and some, for a bit of clarification. I listed right (8) portions in that regard myself, but don’t worry, I won’t go into them all here and now!
I am in full agreement with your views on annexing Gaza and the so-called ‘West Bank’, the international community of faithless, fearful, cowards and wolves in sheep’s clothing be damned. It is the bold action that is called for, even though it won’t bring you any lasting peace. It will, however, strengthen Israel in ways she needs strengthening, and hold off the forces that seek your destruction.
I get we see this differently, but that peace we all seek won’t come until the Messiah, whom we Christians see as Yeshua/Jesus, returns in fulfillment of prophecy.
This is one of the most powerful and honest to truth pieces I have read since 10/7. Or perhaps in decades. With our day of reckoning approaching, Yom Kippur, taking stock of our responsibility is timely. This article is not only written coherently and is historically credible, but seems to come from the pain of realising we had it so wrong and in so many ways ,and for so long.
It also pains one to read it, of course, and at times one rejects the torrent of " mea culpa" indictments , remembering that guilt, the one we invented when we were Ancient Israel and which we assumed formed the accountability basis of Western morality and ethics, that " guilt" we so frequently apply to ourselves , and the discernment of right and wrong we took for granted was enshrined in our civilisation since the Genesis allegory was manifest in our moral evolution, has been the root of the hatred of us.
Blaming ourselves , however necessary and so uniquely Jewish , is also demoralising.
But there is the other side of our Janus -head predicament: we also have our unique antidote, forged in the hell imposed on us. We can take it. We chose ourselves a long time ago for a mission ,the result of our inability to believe our God could ever have abandoned us.
The hatred of a demented society strengthened us. My own latent, ancestral knowledge , perhaps transferred from generation to generation, also hears the message: when our ancestors fought, their instruction was to eliminate enemies, not to love them. This eternally extended hand in hallowed hope of reconciliation that brought us tragically to this point is a learned reflex. It was adopted from the Christian " love your enemies". That had never been Israel's guideline .Israel would not commit suicide, as the West does now. Israel would survive, fight as soon as it again has the chance, and therefore Israel lives.
This is why we are not just hated. We are hated because we are feared. If they only understood....Their animosity has made us more resilient and powerful. The same West that despises us responds in silent awe when we invent blowing pagers, destroy Iran's intelligence, as it was marvelled in 1967. When we show superiority, real superiority, and ruthlessness, there is a gasp of recognition. It's very short lived, but like the silences in great music, each explodes with meaning.
We are aliens to them, perhaps even seen as somewhat supernatural. Our only obligation is to prevail. We reserve the moral accounting to our own criteria, the world is not our judge.
We always knew ourselves to be a " nation that dwells alone".
Bravo, Yonatan. I subscribed.
Thank you very much! I’m so glad it resonated so deeply.
Gisele, you and Yonatan are both brilliant writers. Thanks for the clarity.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your essay. It would be a lot easier to achieve if the Arab world would absorb their Gazan Arab brothers (just as Israel has done with World Jewry since her birth)
This article is very sobering but it is being realistic and seeing things as they are NOT as we would like them to be! There can be no Palestinian state anytime soon. Not unless a secular, liberal democracy was in charge of it. Sadly, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Israel must take control of all the land between the river and the sea for the time being. Israel must annex Gaza when the war is over and assert its full sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. Kick out the Palestinian Authority and send them into exile, purge the Jihadists and give all Palestinians citizenship, voting rights and representation in the Knesset. Build settlements in Gaza and develop the Galilee, the Negev and the Golan Heights. Expand the settlements in East Jerusalem and build the E1 settlements. Get rid of the useless Oslo Framework and abandon for the time being, the fantasy of the two-state solution.
The current Palestinian leadership doesn’t want a state, they want to destroy Israel. A future Palestinian state would either be ruled by a corrupt kleptocracy or Islamist rapist psychopaths. Israel’s survival ultimately depends on putting an end for the push for a Palestinian state until such time as Palestinian leadership can emerge that favors coexistence. Europe couldn’t protect the Jews thus why Israel must exist. So they don’t get to tell Israel what they can and can’t do. Their getting some sweet karma right now with Arab and African mass migration. Recognizing a Palestinian state is essentially the equivalent of recognizing Atlantis or Disneyland as a state, it’s pure fiction.
I couldn’t agree more!
This new entity is a front for rabid European antisemites and The Nazi Party, and must be met with TOTAL resistance by Israel.
I wish I had the $$$ to put your essay on billboards, or at least as a full page ad in the NYT!
Haha thank you very much!
"This failure was not only operational. It was conceptual. Israel has never truly understood who its enemy is. It has treated the war as a conflict with this or that faction (Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organization) rather than with Palestine itself, the political entity in all its forms."
The enemy is Islam.
Absolutely! Clear as day, by which we mean as opposed to night, just as the good Lord said and meant when He created light and separated it from darkness. Israel does not need better hasbara, but better policy and strategy. Putting an end to Palestine is precisely where to start.
excellent piece, thank you.
Let's do it!
Excellent article. Agreed !
We have monitored The Nazis in 2014, asking for this entity here in London, precisely to provoke war. This is in our monitoring Reports to the Authorities here and abroad.
"We failed to fortify our towns. We did not defend our people. We militarily controlled Gaza until 2005, then tore down our own settlements, expelled our own citizens, and handed the territory to the enemy. That retreat lit the fuse. Everything that followed — the tunnels, the rockets, the massacre — was the consequence of our own choices."
I'm not a Jew. I'm a Christian.
I'm not an Israeli. I'm an American.
But I care very much about Israel, and so when I watched the videos of October 7th, 2023 I was hoping for a rethinking of Israel's policy of not allowing its Jewish citizens to defend themselves. Only 5% of non-IDF or non-law enforcement Israeli Jews have gun "permits." Since 10/7 Israel given out another 100,000 "permits."
The well know Jewish saying is "Never Again." That to me means Jews will now have to defend themselves in the face of its enemies. Yet, Israel is surrounded by Muslim countries that have historically hated Israel and Jews. Why does a Jew in Israel need a "permit" to defend themselves against them being murdered, their women raped and their children taken hostage? Before October 7th that was stupid. After October 7th it is insane.
In America we have the right to bear arms. We fought our masters, The British and their 40,000 German mercenaries, to gain our freedom to among other things, to arm ourselves so we can protect our families. In Israel The IDF is mandatory so we are talking about a wonderful nation with a citizen armed forces where all but the Haredim have shot military weapons.
Could an Israeli here or anyone for that matter explain why Israeli governments for the past 77 years has seen to it that its Jewish citizens are forbidden to defend themselves in the face of mortal danger?
Before 2023 I would never have agreed with your thesis. Now I applaud it. My late, dear Toronto friend, Tony Wallis, used to make us roll our eyes when he would espouse what we considered rightwing views of Israel’s situation, but I see now that he was so right. Oddly, it was a leftwing tour of Israel organized by my former Toronto synagogue in 2019 that birthed the dissonance for me. Some of what I saw and heard just did not compute. Spending more time studying Torah since I moved to Vancouver may have made a difference. October 7th sealed the deal. As much as it pains this former peacenik to admit it, I believe you are completely correct in your assessment. Our Europhilia created blinders for North American Jews. It is definitely time to get over it and shed them.
Well Yonatan, I concur with the judgement of everyone else here, you have written a very powerful, very provocative piece. It is rich with truths - many of which cry out for further exposition and some, for a bit of clarification. I listed right (8) portions in that regard myself, but don’t worry, I won’t go into them all here and now!
I am in full agreement with your views on annexing Gaza and the so-called ‘West Bank’, the international community of faithless, fearful, cowards and wolves in sheep’s clothing be damned. It is the bold action that is called for, even though it won’t bring you any lasting peace. It will, however, strengthen Israel in ways she needs strengthening, and hold off the forces that seek your destruction.
I get we see this differently, but that peace we all seek won’t come until the Messiah, whom we Christians see as Yeshua/Jesus, returns in fulfillment of prophecy.