15 Comments
Apr 13Liked by Elissa Wald, Joshua Hoffman

What a strong, beautifully written defense of the simple truth: Israel is the aggrieved party which suffered violent aggression. Israel has responded with remarkable restraint, limiting itself to the goal of making sure Hamas will never be able to repeat its murderous assault.

I spent an hour on X this morning watching the demonstrations around the world protesting Israel's genocidal war against the "poor, innocent Palestinians." It's amazing how the Gazan population who created, elected and supports Hamas are always "innocent civilians," but Jewish students at universities thousands of miles away are somehow guilty and deserve collective punishment.

Thanks for reminding us all of what's real and true in the midst of the swirling craziness of unhinged hatred.

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Apr 13Liked by Elissa Wald, Joshua Hoffman

So well stated.

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Apr 13Liked by Elissa Wald, Joshua Hoffman

Very well put. It wouldn't harm any of our political "leaders" to read this, but most of them seem to be interested only in appeasing the "broken-hearted" anti-Israel/anti-Semitic mob threatening their power. I am neither Israeli nor a Jew. In fact, I am Irish, and I am one of the largely silenced minority in my country who stands firmly with Israel.

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Apr 13Liked by Elissa Wald, Joshua Hoffman

You have my heartfelt gratitude and respect. Unfortunately, most of your countrymen have misread the Muslim/Arab conflict with Israel and aligned themselves with the aggressors.

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Apr 13Liked by Joshua Hoffman

And that just it if Israel truly wanted this terrorist problem sorted it could in one day destroy gazza and Hamas, I find it strange that what Hamas did is belittled, one person thought to say Israel just bandy the death of babies, burning of babies and raping of women to deflect their actions, he accused Israel of using these crimes against them for propaganda, to further their cause, to use these to excuse what's happening in gaza,why what happened on the 7th was without any doubt a war crime deliberate slaughter of women and children it happened, and its disgusting in a civilised world that a person can just pass it off oh yeah but that was yesterday today were suffering poor us, maybe all these representatives of the gaza civilians instead of preaching poor Palestinians maybe join together and say Hamas what are you achieving what use is it to allow civilians to die, release those hostages, its the step that stops the bombing israel made that clear, and of course those who committed the 7th of October all of them planners, suppliers and backers are rightly punished.

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Truly; I fail to understand the unbridled hatred toward Jews -- obviously in this day and age, the old bells and whistles of blood libel and deicide may no longer hold true. Insofar as the Muslim issues, my feeling is that they remain embittered because of their failure to achieve success (hence blaming the Jews) .. my conclusion: complete the current job because unless Israel does, there will never be peace for anyone. As humans we are obligated to maintain a healthy environment for all humans and if complying cannot be accomplished than "you gotta do whatcha gotta do" (Jimmy Hoffa had a way with words)

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Apr 13Liked by Elissa Wald, Joshua Hoffman

Powerful words, thank you.

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Apr 13Liked by Elissa Wald, Joshua Hoffman

Such an excellent and heartfelt piece. You captured what so many of us are feeling and thinking. Thank you.

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Apr 13Liked by Elissa Wald, Joshua Hoffman

Exactly! But, as Goebbels said, Hamas and MADA Republicans do: "Always blame the opposition for the wrongs that you are doing, and claim credit for the good the opposition is doing!"

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Thank you. The sad truth is that you are correct about so many of my countrymen. However, there are some of us who stand with Israel and the Jewish people. Recently, however, we have been advised by the authorities here to keep a low profile as they say they cannot guarantee our safety.

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The War on Terror was a huge mistake. Obviously the lesson that Americans learned from that is not to get involved in wars in the Middle East.

Israel doesn’t have that option, but America doesn’t have an obligation to support Israel. Why should western countries bankroll and supply Israel?

It seems like one wants to have their cake and eat it to. If you want a free hand to conduct affairs in the Middle East without interference, you have to do it on your own two feet. If you rely on others for help then you have to put up with strings being attached.

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Apr 15Liked by Joshua Hoffman

Q. "America doesn’t have an obligation to support Israel. Why should western countries bankroll and supply Israel?"

A. To keep the terrorists from bringing their insanity to your doorstep.

American aid to Israel amounts to a measly 3B annually, most of which is spent on securing weapons systems from US suppliers. Ukraine has received well over 150B since Biden took office! Yet for some reason it's financial assistance to Israel that receives all the criticism. We know the real reason for that, don't we, forumimposter?

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Why would terrorists be on my doorstep? Isn’t the whole reason people in the Middle East hate America because we support Israel. Seems to me cutting them off would reduce terrorism.

I strongly oppose all Ukraine funding. I consider it a much worse war than Israel (at least Israel has the moral high ground, Ukraine is a shithole country).

But just because I sympathize with Israel doesn’t mean I have to give it weapons.

The “real reason” is that leftists (including a lot of diaspora Jews in America) imported lots of hostile Arab voters to the west and pushed oppression based victimology narratives for decades (naively thinking the holocaust would get them top victim slot forever). Now those things are biting them in their own ass.

Israel will do fine with or without our weapons. That they are losing their support in the west is an issue they should take up with their fellow Jews abroad, a good chunk of this is their own making.

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No, support for Israel is not the reason for the hatred. That's the pretext: a strategic ploy to put distance between Israel and the US. People in the Middle East hate America because it is not an Islamic country. If you think that Jihad stops once the Jews are gone, you need to read a bit more. After the Jews, the next target is the Christians. Check out what's happening in places like Nigeria or Sudan.

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They don’t hate Japan, and it’s not an Islamic country. This is nonsense.

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