Shimon Levit

✍️ 'Supporting a regime that jails and kills its own people isn’t progressive – it’s moral failure dressed up as virtue' | Writes George Chesterton 🔗telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/…

When the Jews were Palestinians.

When Judea and Samaria was the Jordanian West Bank, they divided the territory into three districts: Nablus, Al Quds (Jerusalem), and Hebron. This regionalism preceded Jordan's unification with those lands and still exists today. Nablus was an entirely separate province from Jerusalem and Hebron under the Ottomans, and its links to central Transjordan (Balqa, also referred to as As Salt, after the biggest city there at the time) were about as strong as they were to Jerusalem. Though were was a general regionalism that stretched from the Jezreel Valley to Hebron, and west to Gaza and Jaffa (but not Galilee and Beersheba), the three different parts of what historically had been "Central Palestine" (including the coasts) tended to have as strong or stronger links to lands outside of "historic Palestine" to the east or north than to one another on a north-south axis. So you you had Jabal Nablus (Mount Nablus; aka Samaria - the Nablus-Jenin-Tulkarem-Caesarea area) with links to Balqa/Transjordan. Galilee (which, it should be noted, had never been part any Arab or Muslim concept of "Palestine" prior to the British Mandate) with strong links to Irbid, the Syrian Hauran, and Lebanon. Hebron had tribal links to Karak in Transjordan (south of Balqa). Gaza was principally an outlet for Beersheva, which had links to Ma'an in Transjordan. The roots of modern "Palestinianness" as a political concept in the end of the 19th century (1890s) came from the elites of Jerusalem and of Christians in the area in particular. Early "Palestinian" literature couldn't even agree on what constituted Palestine, and typically identified it with the Ottoman Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem (Jerusalem, Jaffa, Hebron, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Beersheva) or with the combined Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem and Sanjak of Nablus. Occasionally the city of Haifa might be included too. Some Palestinian Arab Christians (particularly those educated at Russian academies) would use the western concept of Palestine or the scope of the Archiodese of Jerusalem (which extended as far north as the Litani in Lebanon and included much of Transjordan), but this was uncommon compared to the narrower definitions. If you look at a dialect map of Levantine Arabic, you can even see much of what I'm getting at. Although in the 20th century these differences have tended to fade as Palestinianness as a modern concept formed and Palestinian Arabs interacted more with one another than with the groups they traditionally associated with. Although today Hebron regional identity remains more persistent than other regionalisms in the West Bank / Judea and Samaria. Although it's also not a coincidence that it is in the camps of Tulkarem, Nablus, and Jenin that you see so much resistance to the PA.

Remarkable historic interview with PM Menachem Begin, a great Betari. There’s always been a double standard against the Jewish state!

Here’s a list of synagogues that have been targeted since October 7: - Oct 17: El Hamma, Tunisia - Oct 18: Berlin, Germany - Nov 8: Montreal, Canada - Nov 15: Yerevan, Armenia - Nov 19: Lakewood, NJ, USA - Dec 10: Albany, NY, USA - Feb 28: Sfax, Tunisia - Apr 5: Oldenburg, Germany - Apr 10: Moscow, Russia - May 1: Warsaw, Poland - May 17: Rouen, France - May 30: Vancouver, Canada - Jun 10: Yerevan, Armenia - Jun 23: Derbent & Makhachkala, Dagestan, Russia - Jul 11: Obninsk, Russia - Jul 29: Pittsburgh, PA, USA - Aug 10: Brooklyn, NY, USA - Aug 24: La Grande-Motte, France - Oct 26: Chicago, IL, USA - Dec 6: Melbourne, Australia - Dec 18: Montreal, Canada - Dec 30: Mykolaiv, Ukraine - Jan 11: Sydney, Australia - Jul 4: Melbourne, Australia - Aug 13: Obninsk, Russia - Oct 2: Manchester, UK - Oct 7: Minneapolis, MN, USA - Nov 27: Chernivtsi, Ukraine - Jan 10: Jackson, MS, USA - Jan 14: Giessen, Germany - Jan 28: Brooklyn, NY, USA - Feb 10: Olney, MD, USA - Feb 22: Charleston, SC, USA - Mar 3: Toronto, Canada - Mar 7: Toronto, Canada - Mar 7: Ontario, Canada - Mar 9: Liège, Belgium - Mar 12: West Bloomfield Township, MI, USA - Mar 23: Golders Green, London, UK Every time a synagogue is targeted, I have to update this list. And it doesn’t feel any less heavy.

Vanderbilt has been making a push to distinguish themselves from the Ivies by becoming an explicitly Jewish-friendly institution. This is a smart move which will help their university grow prestige over time as families start to see it as preferable to Harvard.

I’m asked this a lot in my lectures: Why did the Soviets invest so many resources in propagating antizionism globally? Did they really hate Jews that much? The answer is that they invested in antizionism because it worked for them, both geopolitically and domestically. To be sure, there were many individuals in the Soviet antizionist apparatus who were driven by personal antisemitism. The Zionologists — individuals tasked with formulating the key tenets of the ideology — are the prime example. But at the state level, the demonization of Israel served much bigger, strategic purposes. It strengthened the Soviet-Arab alliance. It helped mobilize groups and states around the world against the US and the West, pulling them into the Soviet anti-Western orbit, including at the UN. At home, it functioned as a warning to other minorities: don’t organize around your own national interests, and definitely forget about any emigration demands. For the Soviets, antizionism was a tool — and a highly effective one at that. That’s why they kept using it, even when internal discussions acknowledged that their antizionist language was echoing the Protocols and Nazi propaganda. This is useful to understand because antizionism is still a political tool today. We talk a lot about antizionist hate, and there is no question that much of it is driven by that. But there are also political entrepreneurs who use antizionism to get ahead: to gain social media followers, raise money, advance socially and professionally, or pursue political goals. States do the same: witness South Africa filing its case against Israel at the ICJ or China deploying antizionist propaganda online. When incentives align, antizionism gets used. And right now, antizionism is rewarded. It’s a crucial aspect of its growing popularity, and it’s really important that we understand it as we develop strategies to combat it.

A new study from Indiana University just analyzed 2,335 YouTube Shorts and 94,000+ video frames from major international news outlets covering the Israel-Hamas war. The data on media bias is staggering, yet unsurprising 🧵

Israel today - quote: as you can clearly see—this is me, hiding underground, just like the rest of the Israelis. And obviously, in apartheid Israel, Muslims and Jews never mix. #iranusisrael #IranWar‌ #israel facebook.com/share/1HZNvd6K…

And this is why, to America, Israel is an asset ally, not a liability. — An American pilot with 25 years of experience, a veteran of three wars and hundreds of combat sorties, spoke about Israeli military pilots. He published a post that quickly went viral: “I’ve flown over Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. I thought I had seen everything. But when I saw what the Israeli Air Force is doing in Iran, I realized I’m still a student. Precision. Logistics. 200 aircraft in one night. 500 targets. 1,500 kilometers. No aerial refueling from American bases. All the fuel from home. All the weapons from home. It’s like flying from Miami to New York, bombing targets along the way, and returning while 200 aircraft move simultaneously without a single collision. To the Israeli pilots: You are not just the best in the Middle East. You are the best in the world. And that’s the final word.” —

UNRWA became a “social fabric” for terror under Lazzarini’s tenure, and Israel has found that almost 12% of the agency’s staff in Gaza are members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, jns.org/news/world/uni…

Passover priestly blessing (Birkat Kohanim) at Western Wall restricted due to war. typically attracts tens of thousands of worshippers.. will be held with a highly restricted “limited prayer quorum,” due to the ongoing war with Iran, jns.org/passover-pries…

Robin Williams at his best. Bless him!

This is a powerful rebuke of @MarkJCarney's recent claim that the "invasion" of #Lebanon by @Israel is "illegal," and fwiw I agree with every point Shuv makes here. Still, his post highlights a strategy @CPC_HQ & conservative parties elsewhere can adopt to drastically improve the effectiveness of their messaging & better hold left-wing gov'ts to account. The strategy involves focusing - with pinpoint accuracy - on how liberals misrepresent the language of international law as an excuse to adopt ineffective foreign policy measures that also often play right into the hands of terrorist groups like #Hezbollah & the malign actors backing them in #Iran. Shuv makes a strong case regarding why PM Carney's stance on 🇮🇱 military operations is ill-advised. The last line of his post sums his points up well: PM Carney is essentially, "Extending one hand of friendship to our enemies, while slapping our friends in the face with the other one." Shuv is right, and this is a reasonable criticism of @liberal_party @parti_liberal position on the issue. But in addition to that point, here's what Conservative messaging is missing out on: Carney just LIED to the electorate while also affirming his UTTER INCOMPETENCE engaging with relevant aspects of international law. To capitalize on that messaging, though, the opposition has to possess an intricate understanding of those relevant aspects of int'l law. Developing the requisite depth of knowledge involves a bit of extra work - as does shaping that knowledge into effective political messaging. But - if it's done right, the impact can be politically devastating. So the juice would be worth far more than the squeeze. And these remarks by PM Carney that Shuv is criticizing here provide a perfect example of how this strategy of countering misleading claims related to international law can come together. In the clip, Carney claims current @IDF ops are "an illegal invasion" of Lebanon as a "violation of their territorial sovereignty - integrity and sovereignty." He goes on to acknowledge "the government of Lebanon" is "taking action - trying to take action - against Hezbollah and their terrorist activities and their threats to Israel. And that is the purported justification for this invasion. So we condemn it." Here's the problem. The last part acknowledging the "purported justification" is "terrorist activities" & "threats to Israel" is INCONSISTENT AS A MATTER OF INTERNATIONAL LAW with the allegation that it's an "illegal invasion." In the middle, PM Carney stumbles over art. 2(4) @UN Charter requiring all Member States to "refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state" (not pictured). Here's probably the most devastating point regarding misleading legal messaging. Yes, there is a general requirement not to use force against the "territorial integrity" of other states. But PM Carney IGNORES another critically important provision of the Charter: nothing therein "shall impair the INHERENT RIGHT of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs..." (pic 1). That is exactly what has occurred - AS CARNEY ACKNOWLEDGES when he nods to the "purported justification for this invasion." There is also a framework of relevant UNSC Resolutions to consider (pics 2-4), but 2 main takeaways there are that Lebanon has yet to fulfill its obligations to dislodge Hezbollah AND nothing therein precludes exercise of the inherent right of self-defense. So yes, PM Carney's denouncement is bad foreign policy. But the claim of "illegal" invasion is BOTH misleading AND incompetent. With a bit of honing, turning these false narratives related to international law against liberal gov'ts can be a devastating political tool. Thus far, it's one that the right in general has yet to capitalize on. Just something constructive for conservatives to consider in the effort to hold liberal gov'ts to account.

Tucker Carlson is promoting a 2024 documentary as a suppressed exposé despite it being widely available, with its Israel “ban” tied to privacy laws over leaked testimony rather than censorship and its key claims long publicly known. honestreporting.com/tucker-carlson…

Shocking map of global anti-palestinian death-penalty laws. Every one of the countries in red has laws allowing for the execution of Palestinians. In fact Palestinians have been executed in a large number of countries all over the world, including in Palestine. Number of Palestinians executed in Israel: 0

If only we had recordings of what the Arabs intended to do to the Jews in the lead up to the 1967 Six Day War - maybe THAT would shut @mehdirhasan up. Oh wait ... we do have that ... they wanted to slaughter all of the Jews and throw their bodies into the Sea.