Gavriel Raanan

@mehdirhasan It isn't antisemitic to conflate Jews with Israel, obviously. Nice try. What is antisemitic is to demonize Israel in ways that would be considered antisemitic if you had just used the word Jew instead of Israel or Zionist (because they are indeed so tightly related).

I’m amused by people in the replies saying ‘what’s the second word of the Shema, Mehdi?’ As if the Israel in the Bible and the Shema is the Israel of today. As if every Latino guy called Jesus today is the literal son of God from the Gospels. As Tucker Carlson of all people pointed out to Ted Cruz, in their infamous viral interview, it is absurd to suggest a secular modern nation-state called Israel today, run by a wanted war criminal Netanyahu, and carrying out a genocide, is what God is referring to in the Hebrew Bible. Also, you can’t have it both ways: either it’s antisemitic to conflate all Jews and Judaism with Israel or it isn’t. Make up your mind.

I think we should have more Jewish actors on TV playing Jewish characters open about their awesome Jewish faith. I love the Shema and have had it memorized since I was a child. Not sure why Israel has to play a role in any of this. Let’s not conflate Israel with Judaism please.

@canarymission She's almost right. Hamas in Gaza has indeed done nothing to instigate a holocaust either. But they did instigate an overwhelming military defeat.

Susan Abulhawa: “Can we talk about what Jews in Germany did to instigate the Holocaust? ... Who instigates a genocide?” Abulhawa claims that it's “completely inappropriate” to say Hamas did something to instigate the war in Gaza, comparing it to saying that Jews did something to instigate the Holocaust. Well, for one, Jews in Germany didn’t brutally murder entire families in their homes, torture them, starve them, rape them and kidnap them like Hamas did on October 7.

The international community says Hamas must disarm, but Hamas says they won’t. So who’s going to disarm them? They say Hezbollah must disarm, but who’s going to make them? The fact is that global condemnation of Hamas and Hezbollah without meaningful action leaves Israel alone to deal with them. That’s fine; I expect Israel sees it as their lot in life. But to insist that Hamas and Hezbollah should be disarmed, do nothing about it, and then complain when Israel tries to do what you’ve called for seems incoherent to me. Especially when it’s Israel that’s mainly picking up the consequences of those wishes not leading to action.

The current anti-Israel and even anti-Jewish sentiment online is a social contagion, no different than transgenderism or autism before it. Of course, there is actually a condition known as gender dysphoria. But every family in Hollywood didn't suddenly and coincidentally have at least one child with gender dysphoria at the exact same time by natural processes. And of course there is actually a condition known as autism. But every family in Manhattan didn't suddenly and coincidentally have at least one child with autism at the exact same time by natural processes. You aren't an Israel skeptic, and you didn't start "noticing." You were told, and shown by interested parties, and you were rewarded with attention and dopamine by the tellers and showers. And as with every social contagion, what you have been told and shown is an overwhelming quantity of selectively chosen half-truths -- or full-truths with half-context. You believe you are a free thinker, but when every "free thinker" arrives at the same conclusion at the exact same time... well, the thinking isn't as free as you believe it is.

A country that has spent 75 years trying to negotiate peace with people who want it eliminated doesn’t want war. A country that handed back the Sinai, offered a Palestinian state multiple times, and unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005 only to have Gaza become a rocket launchpad doesn’t want war. A country where every family has someone in uniform, where every citizen knows someone who died, doesn’t want war. It goes to war so that it can exist. And despite its size it kicks the ass of every single enemy that comes for it and there are a lot. You can believe that’s it’s a coincidence that a nation and a people that make up .02% of the world defeat all their enemies every single time. My faith tells me it’s God. But that doesn’t matter for the purposes of this argument. Running around screaming like a little girl that America wants war, Israel wants war. Everyone is salivating for war. They love war for wars sake makes you a petulant child with the IQ of an amoeba. None of this is political analysis. It’s just low IQ grifting. What is the correct response when a regime that funds terrorism across four countries, that has armed every proxy that fired at Israeli civilians, that chants death to Israel and death to America as official state policy starts building a nuclear weapon? Silence? Sanctions? Strongly worded letters? ✅ We did all that. It didn’t work. Putting your hand in the sand and pretending like the problem doesn’t exist only makes it worse and even a child knows that. Nobody wants war. Some people just understand that refusing to fight one doesn’t make it go away. Because some people are adults and other people are grifters who pass Russian and Chinese propaganda off as America first analysis. And at this point in the game, those people should be mercilessly mocked because of their intentions. You can be wrong, you can be dumb, and that can still warrant compassion. What you cannot do is be wrong on purpose and make money off of the type of analysis that you know hurts this country, then you don’t deserve compassion then you deserve condemnation.

So? India, Pakistan and Israel decided to go it alone outside the NPT nuclear club since they all felt they needed a nuclear program but none of them wanted to cheat and enter in bad faith, as Iran and North Korea did. Israel thus gave up access to nuclear technology after 1970 when the NPT came into effect, had no ability to buy uranium, was completely severed from the world on all matters nuclear. It was choice they made and for which they paid a price. Iran entered the NPT and enjoyed all its technological and material benefits, while cheating profoundly in trying to get a bomb that it could not have even begun to develop even by 10% had it gone it alone like israel. So Israel’s program is legal. Iran’s is not.

Yesterday I posted about growing up in Lebanon with Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion on the shelves of Arabic book fairs; books I held before I ever held a Quran. That post went viral. And the most common response I am receiving is this: "So it's okay to kill people based on the books they read?" Let me be direct: no one said that. And you know no one said that. I am one of the children I described. I was handed that literature before I was old enough to choose for myself, and no one in my community thought that was strange. So I am not talking about punishing anyone. I am talking about what we were given; and what it did to us. We do not hesitate to analyze how Nazi propaganda shaped an entire generation of Germans. We do not flinch when scholars examine how Soviet literature produced authoritarian thinking across the Eastern Bloc. But the moment someone points to the same dynamic inside Arab and Islamic culture, the conversation immediately collapses into: "are you calling for violence?" That is not a response. That is a way of avoiding one. Ideas have consequences. Culture has consequences. What children are handed shapes what they become; that is not a controversial claim, it is the most basic principle of education. The question worth sitting with is not whether I am justifying harm. The question is why you are so determined to change the subject. You cannot protect the next generation of Arab and Muslim children from ideological poison if every attempt to name that poison is treated as an act of aggression. The most honest thing I can do for my own people is tell the truth about what we were given to read; and refuse to pretend it did not matter.

Well, @ShawnRyan762, I know my comparing you to @maddow seems like a joke to some, but I can assure you that it is not. As a former SEAL that has sat in briefing rooms in theater, run ops against jihadist networks, and built a platform interviewing many sharp people in both operations and intelligence, you of all people should understand how strategic warfare actually works. Despite all of that, you are sitting here and pushing posts like a cable news commentator with rimmed glasses on a communist news network, framing decisive pressure against the world's leading state sponsor of militant jihadist terrorism as "chaos" and "loss." Let's cut through this selective timeline you laid out: Trump issued a brutal, unmistakable warning over the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint Iran's regime was weaponizing to strangle global energy and fund its proxies. That wasn't just some bluster for fun, it was quite literally combatant messaging 101 in asymmetric conflict against an enemy that only respects raw and credible power. Jihadist Islamists like the IRGC, Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, and their ilk don't negotiate in good faith or respond to polite diplomacy, and you absolutely know this. They only respond to negotiations from positions of strength. If you do not negotiate that way, they will probe weaknesses, exploit hesitation, and interpret restraint as invitations to push attacks. History from the Beirut barracks to the USS Cole to Benghazi and to decades of proxy attacks has proven that. You've had guests that have spoken about these things, yet you act ignorant of them now? This apocalyptic rhetoric is the only language these people understand, and you know it. Iran blinked because of that rhetoric, floated a ceasefire tied to reopening the strait, and the administration secured a pause to lock in gains. That is not "lighting the world on fire then calling the fire department," you two bit propagandist, that is literally the way war has always worked. It is coercion through strength: downgrade the enemy's capacity, signal willingness to escalate decisively, then offer the off ramp on your terms. It's wild that you are ignorant about this. And then you cry about Israel hitting Beirut like the soft lefty you have turned into... Beirut is in Lebanon, mind you, which is a completely different country than Iran. Perhaps you need a geography lesson as well as a lesson on strategic level warfare? So yeah, that is not Trump chaos, that is Israel finishing the job against an Iranian proxy that has quite literally fired thousands of rockets and embedded itself among civilians in Lebanon for decades. And Lebanon was explicitly carved out of the US and Iran ceasefire for a reason, so even bringing it up here is silly and meant to distract. Also, Iran quickly "closed" the Strait back up because they are purveyors of taqiyya style negotiations, just like jihadists always are. But let's talk about how they "closed" the Strait, because everyone is being dishonest about that as well. They didn't actually close anything, they are just signaling that they will attack ships that cross through it. All it takes is one drone or one missile hitting one tanker and 20% of the world's oil shipping halts until insurance companies feel confident that the crazy Islamic terrorist regime in Iran won't sink any more hundred million dollar tankers. You also conveniently leave out the real reason for this war from the get go, which is curtailing China and China's Belt and Road Initiative and re-establishing the world order firmly behind the United States. I miss the days just months ago when you weren't a fully captured op... seeing what you and guys like Kent have become is truly disheartening. I hope the money is worth it.

Just so I understand your logic here: Israel couldn't stop the U.S. from agreeing to a cease-fire that Israel clearly opposes and forcing it on Israel... but they definitely control D.C. anyway, because they kept bombing Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the Trump admin says wasn't part of the ceasefire, Israel says waasn't part of the ceasefire, and, most importantly, Lebanon itself says wasn't part of the ceasefie (Lebanon's govenrment says Iran does not speak for them and can't make deals on their behalf). Makes total sense. This actually proves the opposite. Israel has its own interests, but is a junior partner, and Trump dictates the overall direction. If Trump wanted them to stop in Lebanon, they would. But Trump, unlike some others, has no special interest in protecting Hezbollah, and it makes no sense to do so to appease the Islamic Republic. If there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon, it should be between Lebanon and Israel.. not unrelated parties.

An Israeli guy joined our space tonight. His whole family is in bomb shelters back in Israel right now. He said they’ll happily stay there if that’s what it takes, for a free Iran and no more threats to Israelis. The people of Israel are so strong. It humbles me every time I talk to them. Even though the Islamic Republic has been trying to destroy them for decades, they still wish us Iranians well. They’re sitting in bomb shelters, and every single time, without exception, they tell me: 
“It’s worth it. If this is the price we have to pay to free Iran and remove the existential threat against Israel, we will do it.” What a strong and admirable nation. They started from ashes and built one of the most powerful and advanced countries in the world. That’s why, even if the entire world came together against them, Israel will survive.

One of the biggest false claims made against Israel is that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Israel has Military Advocate Generals (MAGs), the equivalent of our Judge Advocate Generals (JAGs), deployed with commanders in the field. MAGs engage in precisely the kind of cost-benefit analysis that the law of proportionality requires before strikes are carried out. That underscores the extent to which Israel is neither committing genocide nor violating the laws of war. Here in the U.S., when JAGs give instructions to a commander in the field, those instructions are precatory. They are advisory. The commander can override them; he does not have to follow them. In Israel, if MAGs tell a commander not to strike a target because of the collateral consequences for the civilian population, that is not a precatory instruction. It is a mandatory order that must be followed unless the commander wants to go up the chain of command, which can ultimately lead to a court of justice that would rule on whether the strike was appropriate given the collateral consequences. When I took a group of federal judges to Israel, we witnessed video after video of MAGs waving off strikes at the last moment because they discovered civilians in the area. That is just a small piece, but a critical piece of evidence in the legal case showing that Israel did not commit genocide in Gaza.

@christopherrufo @micsolana As a huge fan of this platform, I can't help noticing that the noise to signal ratio here has deteriorated. Monetisation has created an incentive structure that is conducive to neither authentic discussion nor quality content.

You have no clue what our people are actually living through. You are out here clutching your pearls over the words “stone age” while our people are literally stuck in one, total internet blackout, no connection for over a month. I haven’t even seen my family’s faces in weeks. Meanwhile you sit with unlimited internet, lecturing us because a desperate nation is fighting for the freedom you were born with. They’ve already spilled blood for it, and now they’re welcoming bombs on the people trying to kill them. All you want is to talk over us and shut our voices down. And guess what? You did it, Dave. I’m too exhausted to even argue back. Congrats. You successfully spoke over an entire population that can’t even log on to respond. While the ones cheering you on are the regime-approved accounts who actually get internet access to push their narrative. What an accomplishment.

@wil_da_beast630 Anyone remember "The Mouse that Roared?"

It's because you guys kicked off this round of wars, and got your ass whipped. The three steps are: (1) Boast about genociding every Jew/Maronite/general kaphar alive while committing multiple horrendous atrocities (2) Die (3) Beg the international community for relief and sanctions against "the death cult" on "aren't you a heckin' decent person?" grounds. I would personally show you no mercy or compassion at all, after reviewing this sequence, but I am unfortunately not a Western elected leader yet.

@CraigMurrayOrg @atkinsmike1 Using your logic, I accuse you and those who think and post like you do of this crime, so that you could benefit by posting and accusing like this. And if you try to argue I"m wrong it will even further prove your guilt. Nice logic you've got there.

@atkinsmike1 Cui Bono?

Could they make the false flag any more obvious? There is only one entity I have ever heard of which routinely and deliberately destroys ambulances - the state of Israel.

@DrMikeSepulveda @GadSaad You are ignorantly conflating anti-zionism with "criticism of political policy by Israel". You can criticize policy without advocating for the destruction of Israel (anti-Zionism). Zionism = supporting Israel's existence Anti-Zionism = advocating for Israel's destruction

Two Israelis wanted to buy a book about Jerusalem, they didn’t expect what would happen next 😂🤣🇸🇩

Listen up all you champagne socialists and basement dwelling “America First” LARPers that love to opine about war, a subject you chumps know absolutely nothing about: American global dominance doesn’t care what you morons think about this conflict. One side of you preens about “human rights” while cheering regimes that stone women to death for not wearing head coverings and tosses gays off of rooftops, while the other side cosplays as rugged isolationists while being perfectly okay with embracing Islamists and handing tyrants the keys to global dominance on a silver platter as long as you can blame it all on the Jews. Both of you morally posturing idiots are united under one sacred agreement: cowardice disguised as principle. You are both happy to virtue signal from the safety that American dominance brings you while the real world gets carved up by the very monsters you would refuse to confront. You all have the geopolitical understanding of toddlers waiting on their next tantrum and are happy to believe in whatever lies make you feel most comfortable with the fact that you lack a spine. It’s a pathetic, vomit inducing symmetry, your lefty moral exhibitionism and your Halal right strategic suicide pact making up two sides of a coin stamped “weakness” and “self sabotage.” American military doctrine is quite literally built on engaging only military targets and goes through rigorous checks to ensure civilian casualties are minimized, but war is war and mistakes happen; you gaggle of rejects would understand that if you actually had the gumption required to serve your country and fight for something bigger than yourselves. History will remember you cowardly losers as the useful idiots who teamed up to embrace the decline of America because climbing out of the closet or your mother’s basement to face reality was just too icky of a concept. It makes me sick, seeing your conglomeration of slacktivists cheering for the demise and failure of the very service members that are fighting for your right to endlessly run your own worthless suck holes. Absolutely screw all of you people. We are winning, and we will continue to win no matter how loud you malcontents cry and squeal.

Fun project. Let’s trace the propaganda to its origins and figure out how it got injected into American media. Claim # 1: Israel did 9/11 because 4,000 Jews didn’t go to work that day Four days after 9/11, the first piece of evidence linking Israel to the attacks was reported in Syrian government newspaper Al-Thawra. The paper stated that “4,000 Jews were absent from their work on the day of the explosions.” The original source of that precise 4,000 number was actually the Jerusalem Post, which reported on the day of the attacks that the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem had received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attacks. So the Syrians took a real news report about Israelis who might have been in the area and deliberately inverted it into a claim that 4,000 Jews had been warned to stay away. That is the precise moment of fabrication. It then moved to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television and spread through the Arab world. From Al-Thawra, it was picked up by the Hezbollah-owned TV station Al-Manar on September 19, 2001. Al-Manar had received its Lebanese media license in 1997 at the request of then-Syrian president Hafez Al-Assad. The Al-Manar report was cited as the story spread around the world, including where it appeared in Russia’s Pravda before it was pulled. The claim made its way into American media through Carto who founded the Institute for Historical Review, a Holocaust denial organization, and was one of the first American writers to deny the Holocaust in print. The IHR once offered a $50,000 reward to the first person who could prove Jews were gassed at Auschwitz, then refused to pay the Holocaust survivor who provided documentary evidence. A total of 2,071 occupants of the World Trade Center died on September 11. According to the Wall Street Journal, roughly 10% of those identified by religion were Jewish. A later article stated there were at least 400 victims confirmed or strongly believed to be Jewish approximately 15% of total WTC victims (at the time NYC was 9% Jewish). This is just one of many. Pay attention to who pushes this. It’s enlightening.