Jacob Ben-David Linker 🇺🇸🕎🇺🇸✡️🇺🇸🕎🇺🇸

Azadi Erani Marg Bar Khamenei 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜️⬜️🦁⬜️⬜️ 🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥

I was blessed to have had the ability to relocate some of my surviving immediate family members from Gaza to the UAE during the most ferocious days of the war following October 7, in which our family’s two homes were destroyed, and dozens were killed and maimed by Israeli airstrikes. They were welcomed by the kindness, generosity, and openness that are so characteristic of the Emirati ethos, whether by the country’s wise leadership or compassionate and informed citizenry. My mom, sister-in-law, nieces, and nephews moved to Fujairah in the eastern parts of the UAE, a place they now consider home, and look to as an opportunity to rebuild their shattered lives and repair the damage associated with life under Hamas and the decimated Gaza Strip. All of them suffer from severe PTSD, but were making immense progress in their schooling, medical healing journeys, and finding a new life – until Iranian missiles, drones, and instruments of death began unjustly and unjustifiably raining down upon them. They live close to the Fujairah port, which was exporting hydrocarbons to the outside world to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, and have endured the fear and terror from indiscriminate and random attacks by a terrorist regime determined to destroy any symbols of life, stability, security, and success (to be clear, these began in the very early stage of the war – before Iran’s energy facilities had been attacked). They felt the sheer terror of Tehran’s ruthless calculus that began targeting the UAE in the early stages of this current war, even though Abu Dhabi had made it clear that it was a neutral party to the Iran-US-Israel conflict. Four-year-old Maria started experiencing panic attacks that she had last experienced under bombardment in Gaza two years ago, while baby Ahmed began showing signs of uncontrollable aggression and fear despite his usually lovely and very calm nature. Ironically, however, the new fighting spirit of the local population, Emirati and otherwise, has been incredibly inspiring and reassuring. Instead of collapsing into fear, the Emirati ethos and the perseverance of the UAE's society and leadership have bolstered a new realignment and strengthened societal bonds across national differences. Local Emiratis have been especially supportive and in tune with my mom and nieces and nephews, even as they themselves face unrelenting threats and risks. That this occurred in Ramadan was a boost to the spirit of unity and togetherness, adding a new dimension to the uniqueness of the UAE’s identity, and it is why the Emirates will emerge from this stronger. As Islamists, terrorists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the dark lords of regression reveal their true anti-human colors, I am unabashedly and unashamed to stand with our US allies in the Middle East, and especially, the United Arab Emirates, in the face of evil and destructive Iranian aggression against their soil, peoplehood, and resources.

@habeebhabeeb The US and Israel messed up bigly backing Amin in 1982 instead of Camille Chamoun Senior...

The host retorts back at him about the Lebanese that are dying. "Are you congratulating the Israelis" and she interrupts him again saying the Israelis are targeting civilians. He answers: "No no no no. In the areas that are struck, the civilians are being asked to vacate so that the people who are not part of this war don't become victims (meaning they are not Hezbollah). She retorts back at him, and he says: "listen, when they are targeting specific [bad] people, of course they are not going to warn them. And the danger now is that we have to be careful in our villages, our towns, our areas, and our building that there are no dangerous elements [Hezbollah or IRGC] so that bad things will not happen. I hope this translation helps you @JacobALinker 🇱🇧🕊️🇮🇱 And I hope @MEMRIReports does an official translation of this

Deputy Camille Chamoun congratulates the "Israeli army on its humanity": "The only army I've seen in my life that gives notice to the area it's going to bomb and asks for the evacuation of civilians." You should listen to him arguing with the host. The dialogue in Lebanon has changed completely for the better.

Israeli fighter jets struck a building on Palestine Street in central Tehran. Unconfirmed reports of a targeted elimination.

@habeebhabeeb @Ghadi can you translate?

A big explosion at Parchin military complex, which houses missile production facilities and suspected nuclear weapons research sites.

BREAKING: The IDF says it has begun a new wave of airstrikes in Tehran, coinciding with footage showing air defense activity in the skies of the Iranian capital.

Loud explosions heard in Tehran right now.

If we lose WW3 to China because dumb fucks like this stop us from automating our factories out of a misplaced sense of social justice then America will go down as the dumbest hegemon in history.

@David__Well It's Area B. I checked.

@JacobALinker In fairness I think it’s area C.

1. Israeli public shelters are for all Israelis, irrespective of race, religion, or ethnicity 2. Beit Awwa (where the women were hit by the missile) is in Area B and under Palestinian Civil Jurisdiction. The Palestinian Authority has the responsibility to build shelters there 3. Most shelters in Israel are privately built. Israeli building codes require apartments and other structures to have them. Perhaps you want Israel to just annex Beit Awwa, provide services there, and impose its building codes? It's literally on the Green Line. And as of 2006, two thirds of the people there either worked in Israel or resold refurbished Israeli goods to Palestinians.

Today, the map is intended to show the separation of the battle plan between Israelis and Americans, with the Israelis concentrating in the west and in Tehran, the Americans concentrating in the south, while conducting joint strikes with Israel in the north.

Israel-myopic obsessives seem to have missed that the Gulf Arab states, especially Mohammad Bin Salman, also reportedly lobbied Trump to bomb Iran, and are now urging him to go all the way with regime change. Learning this might upset the weird cartoon world they've constructed

MacDougald hits Kent harder than Trump hit Soleimani.

To recap: Netanyahu has admitted that the facilitation of an Iranian uprising will include a ground operation component on Israel's part. Things are looking up more and more each day.

@hahussain That village southwest of Hebron seems like a prime candidate for a border rectification.

No Palestinian figure bothered to show up and denounce the Iranian attack that killed Palestinians.

@ArchaeoBenjamin Most shelters are also private. Israel could annex the village and impose its zoning and development requirements there, I suppose. But I don't think Khalil would like that. It's on the green line. Prime candidate for border rectification!

Why is it not the Palestinian Authority's responsibility to provide shelters for Palestinians in PA-controlled WB territory? Israeli shelters are not "exclusively for Jewish Israelis." It is ILLEGAL to deny anyone of any religion or ethnicity access to public OR PRIVATE shelter.

@History__Speaks Could you restate the argument I'm making here? Your response seems very divorced from the narrow matters of "was Tel Aviv sand dunes" and "Jaffa wasn't Palestinian in the way today use the term Palestinian".

Dude nobody buys these bizarre arguments. Israel was settler colonialism; you're not Middle Eastern because a minority of your ancestors were thousands of years ago. Judaism has nothing to do with a modern secular-ethno state. Western support for Israel (endless welfare, going to war for Israel, etc) is ending sooner than people think. Israel itself may end - decades from now - with a one-state solution and a right of return for the indigenous population, even if that is hard to imagine now. This project is not only morally unjust but radically disruptive to the region and now the world.

This amounts to saying "Tel Aviv was not built on sand dunes because an area that wasn't Tel Aviv wasn't sand dunes." Or that a desert is not a desert because there is an oasis in one spot. An 1872 account of Jaffa by a European traveller notes that "Surrounding Jaffa are the orange gardens for which it is justly extolled, and which are a considerable source of wealth to the owners. The annual value of fruits grown in Jaffa was said to be 10,000 pounds." But that seems to be the only part of that general area (the coast) described as such. Jaffa was special. ... Consider an analogy. Today Shenzen in China is it the third largest city in the country and the world's fourth busiest port. But before 1980 it was a sleepy rural area compared to next door Hong Kong. Tel Aviv was Shenzen and Jaffa is Hong Kong. It sprung up in unused waste lands near something else. Its chosen site was picked *because* that something else was there. But what began as a suburb or satellite entity quickly outpaced the original city. ... Jaffa, meanwhile, wasn't quite a "Palestinian" City. And much of it was a fairly "new" city. First and foremost, it was an *Ottoman* City. Civic-minded persons tended to view themselves as Ottomans when the modernization campaigns began in the mid-19th century. Second, even within the Ottoman framework it wasn't a particularly Arab-Palestinian City when Tel Aviv was founded. Jews, European Citizens, Americans, Lebanese, Egyptians/Sudanese, etc. made up perhaps half the city and did a lot of the building and development. Jews were about 10 to 12% of Jaffa's population in 1900. Jews had already been moving to Jaffa for a century prior to Tel Aviv's Construction. This included Moroccan and Gibraltar Sephardim in the 1830s (a religious school was even established in 1838), a wave of Ashkenazim in 1839, and an Ashkenazi Torah Academy established in 1884. The Jaffa Railway was first proposed in by Montefiore in 1838, and constructed by Yosef Navon (a Jew from Jerusalem whose parents were part of the aforementioned Moroccan wave in the 1830s). Jaffa's lighthouse (built in 1865) was built by a French engineer at the request of Ottoman authorities. And it was tended to by an Armenian from Jerusalem. Various other groups were in and around Jaffa too. There were consuls and missionaries from a variety of foreign nations and many foreign citizens (perhaps a fifth of the population of Jaffa in 1900!). An American colony was established in 1866. A German Templar colony was established in 1868 (with "Jaffa Oranges" first being sold under that label by a German colony in 1870). And there were migrants from Lebanon, Egypt, and Sudan in and around the city too. Not to mention the Turkish officials. Jaffa's population over time meanwhile was 1850: 5,000 1887: 14,000 1900: 30,000 to 40,000 1913: 50,000 And the Jaffa Municipal Council was only established in 1871.

@avidseries @HeTows I think he'd appreciate if you'd say "hasn't produced the desired results YET" and "it is possible the war is slowing down to the pace sought by Iranian war planners." You post has a definitiveness which, three weeks in, is iffy.

@HeTows People assess the current status of military conflicts on every day that they are ongoing, from beginning to end. Which part of my assessment do you believe doesn't reflect the war's current status?

The US and Israel's execution of their Iranian leadership decapitation strategy has worked beautifully, but it hasn't produced the desired results. The regime lumbers on, and the Iranian masses haven't taken to the streets. The regime's highly decentralized command structure, particularly within the IRGC, remains intact. The US and Israel's relentless destruction of Iran's missile and drone assets has been impressive, but, even by their own admission, many (if not most of) the locations of the manufacturing facilities are unknown to them. And so, unless the supply chain has been sufficiently disrupted, the regime's assembly lines continue to hum. It looks like the war is slowing down to the pace sought by Iranian war planners: A grinding conflict of attrition that it hopes will ultimately bore or frustrate Trump and will result in Gulf State pressure on the US to abandon its efforts to topple the regime.

Herodotus was a foreigner and the Philistines colonized part of the area, so it is technically is of foreign and colonial origin in your telling. Anyways, it's questionable if Herodotus actually visited the place, he certainly didn't venture beyond the Philistine Coast coast if he did, and he referred to the area as constituting part of Syria ("Palestinian Syria") Calling the whole area from river to sea including Galilee Palestine was a Roman innovation though; and it would remain a western and Christian concept going forward. Herodotus's "Palestine" was south of Phoenicia - an area that stretched down to Tel Dor. Galilee, the Jezreel Valley, Mt. Carmel, and the southern Negev weren't part of it. When the Arabs conquered the area, they had a Syrian sub-province of Filastin until 1100. It stretched from Gaza to Tel Dor, like the Greek concept. Then after the crusades the name disappeared until 1918.

That's not true. The term Palestine dates to pre-Christian Greek. Herodotus referred to the region as Palaistine, derived from the Philistines who lived there. The more important point is that leveraging the name of the region into some kind of proof of ownership is absurd.