I've only read half the article, so far, but I have to say this: We are in war mode. When in war mode, I do not feel compelled AT ALL to feel empathy for my enemy. Sorry, don't have that emotional band width and besides, I think it's out of place AND dangerous. You cannot do the awful things you must do when at war if you are worrying about the "innocent civilians" on the other side. Doesn't work that way, as the article points out. As I always say, we must be Athens, but Sparta when it's necessary; and then we must go back to being Athens. Right now I'm Sparta. To the suffering Palestinians I advise: get your own act together. It's not my job.
There is a reason no one wants to import the murderous, uncivilized “Palestinians” into their own countries. In my opinion, Israel has shown remarkable (and way too much) restraint after the heinous October 7 attack. But they are the only civilized country in the Middle East.
Agreed. The way to end all this nonsense -- including the nonsense with Iran -- is to just "end them" once and for all. Less people die in the long term when you do it that way.
When Israel had been (re) established as a state for 20 years, it had infrastructure, a functioning economy and was exporting goods and knowledge to the world. When "Palestine" was carved out of our homeland, it had infrastructure that Israel had left behind and after 20 years, it had turned it into a giant dunghill.
The world demands a sick asymmetry from Jews. Palestinians may rage, hate, indoctrinate, celebrate terror, deny atrocities, and launch wars from civilian areas, while Jews must prove moral worth by grieving louder for the other side than for themselves. That is not compassion. It is psychological warfare. Empathy without judgment rewards the aggressor. Empathy without boundaries teaches Jews that everyone’s safety matters except theirs. Israel must fight with discipline, law, and conscience. But it must fight. No nation has a duty to die politely so its enemies can retain comfort, narrative control, and another chance to murder.
Palestine ceased to exist in 1947. In 1948 it became Jordan and the population, Jordanian.
The " Palestinian people" was created by Arafat, an Egyptian, and the KGB in 1964 as an instrument against the West. Since then, they tried to take over Jordan, and Jordan slaughtered them.
No "Palestinianism" was even real then. The myth, hoax and false origin of the"Palestinians" is purely political abuse and a stratagem for the sake of destroying Western civilisation. Israel, as so often is the case, is the last bastion of resistance.
All the misnomers attached to Israel - genocide, colonialism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and more- are to be assigned to the nations that have committed them. Inverting the perpetrator and the victim is an old mind control tactic.
Now, look at the Islamic nations. All are Totalitarian. All mistreat women . All further ignorance. All are misogynistic by definition. Many chop heads and hands and hang teenagers for homosexuality. These societies are violent and barbaric. Millions of Muslims have been recently slaughtered by other Muslims. They are not mourned and no movements exist for their sake.
But those Arabs who always refused a state, whose only goal is to destroy Israel, created, with the help of a mentally ill world faction, a fake entity, with a fake history and fake pretences.
We need to stop defending ourselves; we are too used to it.
We need to stop giving the libellous accusations the dignity of a reply.
We need to take over AI and produce mass propaganda for the truth.
We need to scream the truth about this monumental hoax , the greatest in modern history, from the rooftops, and mourn the Israeli children with every interaction and chance we get.
I think one of the biggest myths we continue to tell ourselves is that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians simply want peace. Whenever credible polling has been done—particularly after October 7—the results have often shown substantial support for Hamas or for the attack itself. That reality has to be part of the conversation.
Of course, innocent civilians, especially children, deserve our compassion. But compassion should never require us to ignore what the polling tells us about the broader society or the ideology that has been cultivated for decades.
That's why I think we keep misunderstanding the conflict. We focus almost exclusively on the consequences instead of asking why this cycle continues. Until the ideology changes, lasting peace will remain extremely difficult.
Instead of merely hiding the comment of the Jew hater who posted above, is it possible to block him completely? This Substack is too important to be sullied by his filth.
In the US - Protestant gun ownership is 30% - Mormons 25% - Jews 11% and we have the most solid gun rights laws in the Western World - You have a God given right to have a gun. So glad we were a Protestant country in 1776. (5) of my direct ancestors were in the Continental Army and (3) were Minutemen, They were proud gun owners.
In Israel - only 5% of non-IDF, non -police have guns - you need a permit and they are hard to get which explains a lot about October 7th. You can only have a hand gun and 50 rounds. Want to fight crazed Muslims with AK-47's with a handgun? That is total insanity.
Those poor Jews were defenseless by choice. Some Kibbutz had zero weapons or they had a few but were locked up. Some Kibbutz had their guns removed by the government because they were being stold by Bedouins. I rememeber listening to a man who was on aKibbutz next to gaza with a high death toll. He said he had a hand gun but was afraid to keep it loaded. Bizarre.
The Left in Israel is totally opposed to the Jewish rights to self defense - totally - 100%
So Jews are defenseless - by and large - by choice.
You have to figure out why before the NEXT TIME you need them both here in America and most certainly in Israel. I know Jews in America who are rabidly anti-gun. I have attempted to reason with them but they are essentailly pacifist or basically Eloi. They will be eaten alive. They are stupid in addition to being nuts. As in Israel so in America. It must be deeply cultural.
Someone help me out on this. I want Jews to protect themseleves.
I've only read half the article, so far, but I have to say this: We are in war mode. When in war mode, I do not feel compelled AT ALL to feel empathy for my enemy. Sorry, don't have that emotional band width and besides, I think it's out of place AND dangerous. You cannot do the awful things you must do when at war if you are worrying about the "innocent civilians" on the other side. Doesn't work that way, as the article points out. As I always say, we must be Athens, but Sparta when it's necessary; and then we must go back to being Athens. Right now I'm Sparta. To the suffering Palestinians I advise: get your own act together. It's not my job.
There is a reason no one wants to import the murderous, uncivilized “Palestinians” into their own countries. In my opinion, Israel has shown remarkable (and way too much) restraint after the heinous October 7 attack. But they are the only civilized country in the Middle East.
Agreed. The way to end all this nonsense -- including the nonsense with Iran -- is to just "end them" once and for all. Less people die in the long term when you do it that way.
When Israel had been (re) established as a state for 20 years, it had infrastructure, a functioning economy and was exporting goods and knowledge to the world. When "Palestine" was carved out of our homeland, it had infrastructure that Israel had left behind and after 20 years, it had turned it into a giant dunghill.
The world demands a sick asymmetry from Jews. Palestinians may rage, hate, indoctrinate, celebrate terror, deny atrocities, and launch wars from civilian areas, while Jews must prove moral worth by grieving louder for the other side than for themselves. That is not compassion. It is psychological warfare. Empathy without judgment rewards the aggressor. Empathy without boundaries teaches Jews that everyone’s safety matters except theirs. Israel must fight with discipline, law, and conscience. But it must fight. No nation has a duty to die politely so its enemies can retain comfort, narrative control, and another chance to murder.
Wonderfully said. I'm saving this comment.
It's worse than that:
Palestine ceased to exist in 1947. In 1948 it became Jordan and the population, Jordanian.
The " Palestinian people" was created by Arafat, an Egyptian, and the KGB in 1964 as an instrument against the West. Since then, they tried to take over Jordan, and Jordan slaughtered them.
No "Palestinianism" was even real then. The myth, hoax and false origin of the"Palestinians" is purely political abuse and a stratagem for the sake of destroying Western civilisation. Israel, as so often is the case, is the last bastion of resistance.
All the misnomers attached to Israel - genocide, colonialism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and more- are to be assigned to the nations that have committed them. Inverting the perpetrator and the victim is an old mind control tactic.
Now, look at the Islamic nations. All are Totalitarian. All mistreat women . All further ignorance. All are misogynistic by definition. Many chop heads and hands and hang teenagers for homosexuality. These societies are violent and barbaric. Millions of Muslims have been recently slaughtered by other Muslims. They are not mourned and no movements exist for their sake.
But those Arabs who always refused a state, whose only goal is to destroy Israel, created, with the help of a mentally ill world faction, a fake entity, with a fake history and fake pretences.
We need to stop defending ourselves; we are too used to it.
We need to stop giving the libellous accusations the dignity of a reply.
We need to take over AI and produce mass propaganda for the truth.
We need to scream the truth about this monumental hoax , the greatest in modern history, from the rooftops, and mourn the Israeli children with every interaction and chance we get.
Beautifully expressed.
Vanessa, another excellent article.
I think one of the biggest myths we continue to tell ourselves is that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians simply want peace. Whenever credible polling has been done—particularly after October 7—the results have often shown substantial support for Hamas or for the attack itself. That reality has to be part of the conversation.
Of course, innocent civilians, especially children, deserve our compassion. But compassion should never require us to ignore what the polling tells us about the broader society or the ideology that has been cultivated for decades.
That's why I think we keep misunderstanding the conflict. We focus almost exclusively on the consequences instead of asking why this cycle continues. Until the ideology changes, lasting peace will remain extremely difficult.
yes Israel is forever
Instead of merely hiding the comment of the Jew hater who posted above, is it possible to block him completely? This Substack is too important to be sullied by his filth.
I reported it for libel and Nazi commentary similarity
It's the "jizya" that "liberal" Jews voluntarily pay.
Jews and Self Defense - Crazy Statistics
In the US - Protestant gun ownership is 30% - Mormons 25% - Jews 11% and we have the most solid gun rights laws in the Western World - You have a God given right to have a gun. So glad we were a Protestant country in 1776. (5) of my direct ancestors were in the Continental Army and (3) were Minutemen, They were proud gun owners.
In Israel - only 5% of non-IDF, non -police have guns - you need a permit and they are hard to get which explains a lot about October 7th. You can only have a hand gun and 50 rounds. Want to fight crazed Muslims with AK-47's with a handgun? That is total insanity.
Those poor Jews were defenseless by choice. Some Kibbutz had zero weapons or they had a few but were locked up. Some Kibbutz had their guns removed by the government because they were being stold by Bedouins. I rememeber listening to a man who was on aKibbutz next to gaza with a high death toll. He said he had a hand gun but was afraid to keep it loaded. Bizarre.
The Left in Israel is totally opposed to the Jewish rights to self defense - totally - 100%
So Jews are defenseless - by and large - by choice.
You have to figure out why before the NEXT TIME you need them both here in America and most certainly in Israel. I know Jews in America who are rabidly anti-gun. I have attempted to reason with them but they are essentailly pacifist or basically Eloi. They will be eaten alive. They are stupid in addition to being nuts. As in Israel so in America. It must be deeply cultural.
Someone help me out on this. I want Jews to protect themseleves.
One way EMPATHY says it all