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Robert's avatar

Excellent article about an amazing book! I agree with everything.

My concern is that Israel knows it is moral and is inhabitated by a lot of very smart, intellectuals, who are all about the law. On the other side, you have a death cult, with lying to further its religious and political goals built into society.

As much as I wish everyone would read Landes' book, most people are moved by emotion not intellectual exposé. TikTok videos seen to be more effective at influencing beliefs. I hope, one day, the Israelis figure this out and fight fire with fire.

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Dena Tauber's avatar

Thank you and so true.

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Ian Mark Sirota's avatar

Absolutely fantastic analysis. I have come to loathe the MSM for its scurrilous reporting, to the point where I think that the goal is to deliberately provoke people into hating Israel.

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Ted Goldstein's avatar

This is a tour de force. Excellently done.

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Dena Tauber's avatar

Thank you.

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Louis Wellington Jr 🎗️'s avatar

Dena, your article is truly excellent! It informs and is straightforward, but not boring. Thank you for putting out the truth! Western Progressives are projecting their own mindset onto Islamists, just as you said.

Western Civilization is like the water that Liberal fish swim in. The fish don’t comprehend that everything they have is due to that water.

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Dena Tauber's avatar

Thanks so much Louis! Love your content!

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The Cholent's avatar

I have a term for this: Western Intellectual Colonialism.

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jerry kleiner's avatar

I think it's important to point out that the young journalists that have entered MSM have been indoctrinated in the WOKE, DEI, Marxist, Postmodernism, White Colonizer, etc. ideology. This Ideology has been fueled financially by the Islamists, notably Iran and Qatar, who have invested billions over the last 2-3 decades. They have influenced the curriculum in the education system and hired Marxist teachers who not only undermine Israel but also undermine Western Culture in general. I hope that the trend will be reversed with the new administration in power. The large Jewish organizations have done relatively nothing to combat these issues. They truly need to be overhauled, but I doubt that will happen. What Trump calls the "Swamp" in US government could easily apply quite well to the "Swamp" in the large Jewish organizations.

papa j

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Betty Loewen's avatar

What an excellent and thorough analysis!! A must for anyone v truly wanting to understand the real situation we in the West find ourselves!

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Dena Tauber's avatar

Thank you

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Robin Alexander's avatar

Great article! The Anti-Zionist Jews section reminds me of a tongue-in-cheek song from a little known play "To Live Another Summer, To Pass Another Winter" which was on Broadway in 1971 or 1972; my synagogue performed it I think in 1972. It was about the Six Day War. My favorite song was "We're Sorry We Won It" (as I said, tongue-in-cheek). The chorus all wore eye patches in imitation of Moshe Dayan!!!

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Ehud Neor's avatar

"News consumers rightly expect reporting to reflect objective facts, and not the opinion of the reporter." Dena, no-one expects this anymore. I mean, no-one with a head on his shoulders. Landes owes you some thanks. I'll be ordering.

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Iuval Clejan's avatar

Avi Shlaim, not Shalem. I still think the antisemitism explanation is too shallow. Maybe there is some guilt about slavery of africans and genocide of native americans, which the liberal folks are feeling, and then projecting unto Israel so they don't have to deal with the guilt?

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Dena Tauber's avatar

He does mention that. Thanks for correcting the name.

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The Cholent's avatar

Jews will always be connected to power. It's unfathomable that Jews can have autonomy, especially in a land that is considered by Muslims to be Muslim. Power is an antisemitic throughline. And look at the liberal West now: what's the worst thing you can have? Power.

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Iuval Clejan's avatar

It's not power that bothers liberals. It's power unequally distributed. That is one reason they don't like Israel, because it is so much more powerful than its neighbors. They like the underdog, even if the underdog is genocidal, and the overdog is merely trying to survive the genocidal intent and actions of the underdog. But also guilt about their colonial and slave-owning ancestors. They don't get that the Israel-Palestine situation is the opposite of what happened with their ancestors and the native americans or slaves.

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Iuval Clejan's avatar

As far as Shlaim, I don't know, I recall his book The Iron Wall wasn't so bad. Pappe on the other hand is a known, exposed liar. He is probably motivated by some trauma, or maybe he is getting paid to lie.

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Kafr Dhimmi's avatar

Wait what you’re kidding he used Jabotinsky’s title “The Iron Wall” wtf. If you haven’t read the original delivered at the Zionist conference in October 1923 it’s a treasure all 8 pages.

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Iuval Clejan's avatar

It's been a while, but I think Shlaim was not a fan of Jabotinsky, and critiqued his views. He didn't paint Israel as a monster, but maybe he didn't show enough the intransigence and genocidal intents of most of the arabs.

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Kafr Dhimmi's avatar

No just ironic

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Charlotte C's avatar

Thank you for this, it sheds so much clarity on the morally bankrupt media hellscape the world is in the grips of. It is maddening trying to communicate the 'truth' of these matters to people, it seems they really want to believe the worst.

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carrie's avatar

Time that Jews are as proactive as the Arabs - marketing and PR should be good to go on a steady basis. Pre-empt, like the IDF!!

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Steven Brizel's avatar

Great article! Unfortunately anti Zionism in Israel has a pedigree going back to the 1930s and now calls itself post Zionism with much influence in Israeli universities and Haaretz the defeatist secular newspaper of the secular left that despite 10/7 still dreams of a two state solution and an Israel that is a Hebrew speaking Sweden with no appreciation of traditional Jewish values and beliefs

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Richard Hacker's avatar

"Like a person who suffers from anorexia", the perfect analogy for the " as a Jew" Jew. I would like to call that type of person pathetic, but that gives them a pass.

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Tabitha Spears's avatar

In the end, we all know that Israel wins ultimately. God says so. This was an excellent article and well written. Hopefully President Trump can fix some of the issues that are happening in the eastern region.

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Diana Brewster's avatar

Outstanding. Thank you Dena Tauber for extracting such important points. I hadn't heard of this book, but Richard Landes's analysis needs to be promoted everywhere.

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