The Talmudic advice of "rise and kill first" does not glorify violence; it acknowledges evil. It does not desire war; it seeks to prevent death in a world that has rarely cared for Jewish survival.
We are seeing the eradication of Amalek which means any entity that has as its ideology the destruction of the Jewish People in its plainest form over the skies of Iran
Great post; appreciate the Talmudic references. In fact, I don't speak Hebrew very well, but was intrigued to see the phrase "l'hargekh." I've always wondered what it meant because my Yiddish-speaking grandfather used to say that "I'm gonna l'hargekh you," In a loving and joking manner, (more like "I'm gonna get you!") when we were young kids coming to visit and threatening to eat all the chopped liver that grandma had made. I've asked many Yiddish and Hebrew speakers, but must have pronounced it wrong as no one knew what I was talking about
I especially appreciate your last line in this essay; the anti-Israel folks have no idea or don't care about history and all that we've learned from it.
The amount of sheer stupidity around Israel, Jews and Zionism is stunning.
A young man on Bluesky yesterday posted that Israel & its people should either just die or go back to Poland where they came from and that Palestine declared its independence in 1980.
The hatred is palpable, the morons are out in force.
I am old enough to remember the murder of 9 Jewish Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972. Were the terrorists blamed? Only tangentially. The fault lay with the "politics in Israel."
Great article as usual but Israel strike on Iran is preemptive only if you ignore Iran’s two major salvos of ballistic missiles and 20 years of funding proxy armies to attack Israel. The New York Times considers it preemptive and a dangerous escalation, but most of us see it as finally hitting the octopus’ head instead of its tentacles.
Joshua, thanks for another great piece. Here are a few thoughts I have been mulling over the last two days with regard to which I would value your thoughts. Is the main objective right now to fully eliminate Iran's nuke capacity and assets or achieve regime change ( obviously both are desirable but i am getting the feeling that IF there is in fact a struggle here between trump and Netanyahu this may be part of the impasse). Trump seems to want an agreement to dismantle while Netanyahu seems to be threatening taking out the religious and civilian leadership. It seems clear Israel needs the bunker busters to get rid of the nuke program and only US can do that. At what point does Israel threaten to take out the Iranian leaders if the bunker busters are a no go? Of course it is also possible this is more kabuki theater and that trump and Netanyahu are on the same page but who the hell.knows. my point is we seem to be reaching a point where Israel says we take out the leaders (and possibly oil infrastructure) if no concrete agreement is in place in say a week or two ( with a quick timetable to dismantle). In other words in a week or two either bunker busters or assassinations, or we resume whatever have seen the past week ( or until Israel destroys all missile launchers). I ask because I am now reading and a lot of comments from the right here in the US that trump should not use the bunker busters under any circumstances. Thanks
Aside from the USA/Trump administration, the Jews, and the state of the Jews finds itself being hectored and scolded and chastised for such as "dangerous escalation" and more of the "disproportionate response" alleged...that has so devastated Gaza. so a big ef u to the EU, to the UN and to dozens of NGOs, code pink, antifah, blm columbia, harvard professors and student unions and other bad actors who cheer Iran's goal of genocide of the Jews. Trying to reason with the Germans preceding and during WWII was a futile effort. And I'm tired of calling them just nazis...it was the German nation and its Romanian Hungarian, Slovakian etc allies ...not some aliens from planet nazi in a far off galaxy. Likewise Iran's regime to borrow from the left..."has got to go."
Awesome as usual. “The doctrine of ‘rise and kill first’ may sound brutal to Western ears, trained to think in terms of Geneva Conventions, peace conferences, and “proportionality.” Just want to add that what got us to the Geneva Convention and such things was, in fact, a show of power and strength.
Notice: non of the reasoning in this compelling and accurate article invokes either Religion or Deity to justify this military doctrine. It is purely about survival in a Genocidal world which murders Jews. That is why I support and applaud this Military doctrine and the IDF. Also, some European countries have Nazi elements who have re-formed The Nazi Party. This has been monitored and verified. Knowing the reality of what this means, future planned Nazi genocides, against white people too (Hitler murdered 27 MILLION Russian folk for ‘Lebensraum in the East for the Ethnic Germans’ in Hitler’s own words, as well as 1/2 MILLION Allied troops both American and British) is to be forewarned. Our group offers and dedicates our Service to the preservation of Western Freedoms, and we are Delighted to be of service, both to Israel and the Western Democracies.
Yes. I spoke to the wife about this story. She is smarter than me. She makes my morning coffee, which is good, and then we chat about whatever has hit my feed. What did you think about it I ask. Well its a whole lot of David meets Goliath incidents rolled into one production. You know the drum, the uderdog wins every time. We survive, celebrate get fat and repeat. Go on I said, not really understanding the point. Honey she says, do we want to have these disasters, win, maybe relax a bit, then fight again as a definition of the Jewish story ? No I reply but whats your point. Ok let me explain. If you throw a coin and it comes up heads 23 times in a row whats the chances of a head next throw. Thats easy i reply its 50 %. Good man she says but you could agree that at some point in time, not sure when, it will come up tails. Yep agree i say. Ok she says that means your smarter than the average bear. But it confirms an old (Arab ??) Saying that the most important thing is to win the last fight .. sort of makes the thousands of previous wins irrelevant. So whats this got to do with the situation we have at the moment. Dont forget you asked me what i thought of the story so i just wanted to point out that this might be the time the coin breaks the run of heads which then makes all the wins and sacrifices of the past not such a good story. Go on i ask.. so what is a better story. We dont want stories that repeat the drama we want to win and be happy, forever and ever. Happy?? How can we be happy if someone is eating my breakfast !! This is getting complicated she says. To be honest i dont know maybe the story of the three bears, Mama Papa and baby bear has a clue. How i love my wife. Just get me another cuppa and we can talk more.
I will hold in my heart the photo of an Israeli fighter pilot over the photos of naked Jewish men and women being shot into the ditches they were forced to dig during The Holocaust all over nazi-occupied Europe.
We are seeing the eradication of Amalek which means any entity that has as its ideology the destruction of the Jewish People in its plainest form over the skies of Iran
Great post; appreciate the Talmudic references. In fact, I don't speak Hebrew very well, but was intrigued to see the phrase "l'hargekh." I've always wondered what it meant because my Yiddish-speaking grandfather used to say that "I'm gonna l'hargekh you," In a loving and joking manner, (more like "I'm gonna get you!") when we were young kids coming to visit and threatening to eat all the chopped liver that grandma had made. I've asked many Yiddish and Hebrew speakers, but must have pronounced it wrong as no one knew what I was talking about
I especially appreciate your last line in this essay; the anti-Israel folks have no idea or don't care about history and all that we've learned from it.
The amount of sheer stupidity around Israel, Jews and Zionism is stunning.
A young man on Bluesky yesterday posted that Israel & its people should either just die or go back to Poland where they came from and that Palestine declared its independence in 1980.
The hatred is palpable, the morons are out in force.
I am old enough to remember the murder of 9 Jewish Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972. Were the terrorists blamed? Only tangentially. The fault lay with the "politics in Israel."
It was always thus.
Great article as usual but Israel strike on Iran is preemptive only if you ignore Iran’s two major salvos of ballistic missiles and 20 years of funding proxy armies to attack Israel. The New York Times considers it preemptive and a dangerous escalation, but most of us see it as finally hitting the octopus’ head instead of its tentacles.
Joshua, thanks for another great piece. Here are a few thoughts I have been mulling over the last two days with regard to which I would value your thoughts. Is the main objective right now to fully eliminate Iran's nuke capacity and assets or achieve regime change ( obviously both are desirable but i am getting the feeling that IF there is in fact a struggle here between trump and Netanyahu this may be part of the impasse). Trump seems to want an agreement to dismantle while Netanyahu seems to be threatening taking out the religious and civilian leadership. It seems clear Israel needs the bunker busters to get rid of the nuke program and only US can do that. At what point does Israel threaten to take out the Iranian leaders if the bunker busters are a no go? Of course it is also possible this is more kabuki theater and that trump and Netanyahu are on the same page but who the hell.knows. my point is we seem to be reaching a point where Israel says we take out the leaders (and possibly oil infrastructure) if no concrete agreement is in place in say a week or two ( with a quick timetable to dismantle). In other words in a week or two either bunker busters or assassinations, or we resume whatever have seen the past week ( or until Israel destroys all missile launchers). I ask because I am now reading and a lot of comments from the right here in the US that trump should not use the bunker busters under any circumstances. Thanks
Yes, the right is becoming as much a problem as the left. They converge when it comes to foreign policy.
Aside from the USA/Trump administration, the Jews, and the state of the Jews finds itself being hectored and scolded and chastised for such as "dangerous escalation" and more of the "disproportionate response" alleged...that has so devastated Gaza. so a big ef u to the EU, to the UN and to dozens of NGOs, code pink, antifah, blm columbia, harvard professors and student unions and other bad actors who cheer Iran's goal of genocide of the Jews. Trying to reason with the Germans preceding and during WWII was a futile effort. And I'm tired of calling them just nazis...it was the German nation and its Romanian Hungarian, Slovakian etc allies ...not some aliens from planet nazi in a far off galaxy. Likewise Iran's regime to borrow from the left..."has got to go."
Awesome as usual. “The doctrine of ‘rise and kill first’ may sound brutal to Western ears, trained to think in terms of Geneva Conventions, peace conferences, and “proportionality.” Just want to add that what got us to the Geneva Convention and such things was, in fact, a show of power and strength.
Notice: non of the reasoning in this compelling and accurate article invokes either Religion or Deity to justify this military doctrine. It is purely about survival in a Genocidal world which murders Jews. That is why I support and applaud this Military doctrine and the IDF. Also, some European countries have Nazi elements who have re-formed The Nazi Party. This has been monitored and verified. Knowing the reality of what this means, future planned Nazi genocides, against white people too (Hitler murdered 27 MILLION Russian folk for ‘Lebensraum in the East for the Ethnic Germans’ in Hitler’s own words, as well as 1/2 MILLION Allied troops both American and British) is to be forewarned. Our group offers and dedicates our Service to the preservation of Western Freedoms, and we are Delighted to be of service, both to Israel and the Western Democracies.
Yes. I spoke to the wife about this story. She is smarter than me. She makes my morning coffee, which is good, and then we chat about whatever has hit my feed. What did you think about it I ask. Well its a whole lot of David meets Goliath incidents rolled into one production. You know the drum, the uderdog wins every time. We survive, celebrate get fat and repeat. Go on I said, not really understanding the point. Honey she says, do we want to have these disasters, win, maybe relax a bit, then fight again as a definition of the Jewish story ? No I reply but whats your point. Ok let me explain. If you throw a coin and it comes up heads 23 times in a row whats the chances of a head next throw. Thats easy i reply its 50 %. Good man she says but you could agree that at some point in time, not sure when, it will come up tails. Yep agree i say. Ok she says that means your smarter than the average bear. But it confirms an old (Arab ??) Saying that the most important thing is to win the last fight .. sort of makes the thousands of previous wins irrelevant. So whats this got to do with the situation we have at the moment. Dont forget you asked me what i thought of the story so i just wanted to point out that this might be the time the coin breaks the run of heads which then makes all the wins and sacrifices of the past not such a good story. Go on i ask.. so what is a better story. We dont want stories that repeat the drama we want to win and be happy, forever and ever. Happy?? How can we be happy if someone is eating my breakfast !! This is getting complicated she says. To be honest i dont know maybe the story of the three bears, Mama Papa and baby bear has a clue. How i love my wife. Just get me another cuppa and we can talk more.
As always, we fight alone.
I will hold in my heart the photo of an Israeli fighter pilot over the photos of naked Jewish men and women being shot into the ditches they were forced to dig during The Holocaust all over nazi-occupied Europe.
Never Again.
Am Israel Chai.