Nurit Ben

@AmitSegal @HalawaMark Why are Israelis consistently, still, surprised that the Trump administration will make deals it feels are good business, without thinking of security implications, its allies, the geopolitical picture or anything else?

I was raised with the belief that trust isn’t given—it’s earned. When Turkey, a NATO ally, lost the U.S.’s trust in 2019 by purchasing Russian S-400 air defenses, it was rightfully banned from receiving F-35s due to the risk of allowing Moscow to collect sensitive data on the fighter’s stealth signature. Now, according to The New York Times, Trump is likely to reopen the sale to Ankara, and for the life of me I can’t imagine how the Turks earned it. Since 2019, they have kept every last unit of their S-400s—up to 200 missiles, many still in their shipping containers. They have remained the only NATO member that refuses to sanction Russia over Ukraine. They have hosted Hamas leadership in Istanbul and laundered billions for Iran, while Erdogan openly threatens Israel with destruction and, in Benjamin Netanyahu’s words this week, “talks openly about conquering Jerusalem.” They continue to occupy half of Cyprus—a fellow EU member—and to menace Greece, another one. Not to mention, this is the same country Trump himself claims he had to stop from joining Iran in the last conflict. If trust isn’t earned, it seems it can be bought. The salesman on the account is Tom Barrack, the billionaire real estate investor, longtime Trump friend and ambassador to Ankara. Barrack doesn’t talk about Turkey’s conduct; he talks about the deal. The seven-year ban his own boss imposed? “Insane,” he says. The legal requirement that Turkey actually give up its Russian missiles? A technicality to be workshopped—the S-400s are inactive, he assures us, so possession is just paperwork. This is, in his own words, “classic Trump deal-making.” And when trust itself came up, Barrack showed us exactly what the word weighs in his ledger: Describing the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, America’s ambassador announced that “everybody has been equally untrustworthy.” Netanyahu appears to have known about the impending sale and tried his best to derail it. During an interview with Fox yesterday, Netanyahu, unprompted, launched into an attack on selling the technology to “a regime infected by the Muslim Brotherhood, an extreme movement that hates America and chants ‘Death to America.’” There was already early warning of this turn in late June, when the administration notified Congress of its intent to proceed with the sale of F110 engines to power Turkey’s indigenous fifth-generation fighter, the Kaan. Speaking alongside Vice President JD Vance, the president signaled he was prepared to make Erdogan “very happy” on both the engines and potentially on readmitting Turkey to the F-35 program. A “very happy” Erdogan sends a chill down my spine; thankfully, Congress is poised to ruin his mood. The law bars F-35 transfers so long as Turkey possesses the S-400, so the administration is hunting for a workaround: hand the systems to some unnamed third party (a mechanism, one official admits, that hasn’t been worked out), or pull a few key parts and declare them “inoperable.” And then there’s Israel. U.S. law obligates Washington to preserve its qualitative military edge, the guarantee that Israel outflies every rival in the region. Handing the region’s premier stealth fighter to Israel’s next regional rival certainly undermines that supremacy. To preserve the gap, Israel may receive further access or compensation of that nature. Even if Erdogan gets his announcement at this week’s NATO summit, the sale itself must survive a one-to-two-year gauntlet: some legal sleight of hand to make the S-400s “disappear,” lifting sanctions that remain in place, formal notification to Congress, and bypassing resolutions of disapproval lawmakers are already promising. Then Turkey joins the back of Lockheed’s queue, where recent customers have waited four to five years from contract to first delivery, meaning that beyond the handful of jets Turkey paid for in 2019, which are collecting dust in U.S. storage, no new F-35 is likely to fly over Anatolia before 2030. That gives Israel time—time it can use to throw up roadblocks for Turkey and to get itself into the F-47 program.

@Flomerboy @Flomerboy. If I have a full article in a document and I’m at the initial stage of conceptualizing design, how do you recommend to get started? Is it reasonable to upload the entire article to Claude design to brainstorm ideas or should that be done in another part of Claude?

🧵 My tips for getting the best results out of Claude Design! I’m on the verticals team at Anthropic which means I serve 7 different products. Claude Design makes it possible! 1. Set up your design system and your core screens. An hour of setup and refinement here is worth it

Seeing a plethora of low IQ “Israel FORCED the US into war” takes. Xi thanks you for helping to unwittingly launder CCP propaganda btw. The US strikes come down to Iran and China having engineered a mathematically unwinnable war of attrition for any purely defensive strategy. In other words, they can replace missiles faster than the US can replace the interceptors needed to stop them. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated this week that Iran is now producing over 100 ballistic missiles per month, while the US can manufacture only 6–7 relevant ballistic-missile interceptors per month (the high-end systems actually capable of reliably knocking down Iran’s advanced threats). Even the broader Patriot PAC-3 MSE line is only at ~45 per month today and THAAD/SM-3 production is even tighter at under 10 per month before emergency surges. Surely you can see how this is a giant problem. And what is China doing? China is deliberately supercharging this imbalance. Beijing has been caught shipping dual-use propellant ingredients, planetary mixers, and components that let Iran rebuild its munitions factories at breakneck speed. Reuters released a report on Feb 24 revealing that Iran was days from sealing a deal with China for CM-302 supersonic anti-ship missiles capable of evading defenses, sinking US carriers / destroyers from a distance of 290 km, which turns the Strait of Hormuz into a lethal kill zone. If this doesn't strike you as a red line that should galvanize action now rather than later, then you are unable to handle the reality of geopolitical survival. Why is China doing this? Because a cheap, endless Iranian missile barrage that forces the US to expend $4-million interceptors against $20K Shaheds (or $200K ballistic missiles) is Beijing’s perfect trap - keep America’s navy, aircraft and industrial base tied down in the Middle East burning through stockpiles. Basically, keep America busy and out of the West Pacific. The imminent arrival of a Chinese-backed “gamechanger” would have rendered America’s naval supremacy obsolete and provide an anti-access shield over the Gulf, Iranian nuclear sites, and every proxy from Hezbollah to the Houthis. This is why the Gulf States are also aligned with US action. The US needed to restore deterrence against a regime racing toward nukes, and send an unmistakable message that the United States will never cede the Gulf to a Sino-Iranian nightmare. I highly recommend listening to the latest episode of @triggerpod and @havivrettiggur. These guys provide the best analysis of the situation.

@hubermanlab No good work goes unpunished

Me getting into an Uber: “how’s it going?” Me getting out of Uber: “so it’s 2 inhales then a long exhale until lungs are empty to calm down & 10min of viewing sunlight each morning, 20 on cloudy days to wake up & sleep better & 5g creatine a day, 10g if you’re sleep deprived…”

How did a Qatar-—a refuge of Islamist radicalism, a country criticized for modern-day slave labor, become the center of global politics and commerce? How did this tiny peninsular country of 300,000 citizens manage to so successfully ingratiate itself within the Trump administration? Over the past few months, The Free Press investigated these questions. What we found is that no obstacle, no history, no bad headline is too big for Qatar’s money.

The families of “Prisoner 21” Yosef Chaim Ohana and “Prisoner 22” Elkana Bohbot have approved distribution of Hamas latest sick propaganda video. Both men are CIVILIANS abducted from a music festival 582 days ago by Hamas jihadists.

60 Minutes directly calls out its parent company, Paramount, following the resignation of executive producer Bill Owens

“Shiri, I love you and will always love you! Shiri, you are everything to me! You are the best wife and mother there could be. Shiri, you are my best friend. Mishmish, who will help me make decisions now? How am I supposed to make decisions without you? Do you remember our last decision together? In the safe room, I asked if we should "fight or surrender." You said fight, so I fought. Shiri, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you all.”

Returns a toddler and a baby and their mother in coffins, like always, in an obscene festival, with fawning crowds cheering on. And a defeating silence from the global voices who claim to most fiercely support liberal values and rights. #BibasFamily

Just devastating. A terror group that carries a massacre so barbaric it’s difficult to fathom, slaughtering entire families, children, babies, elderly, alongside mutilation and gang rape. Takes hostages for 500+ days. Men, women, teenage girls, elderly, children, a baby.

For 490 days in captivity, he believed his wife and daughters were alive. That belief likely kept him alive. And now this.

These screams. This hatred. And, jostled, almost lynched, a terrified young woman who spent 16 months in a tunnel, who sees the light of day again and who does not understand. Atrocious. Unforgivable. Hommage to Arbel Yehud.

Hamas put out a video of Gadi and Arbel, reuniting pre-release. Gadi is incredible. He is 80, having spent the last 16 months in Hamas dungeons, but the first thing he does is stand and comfort Arbel. He envelopes her in a hug. He is a grandfather even in the belly of the beast.

For as long as I live, I will never ever forgive the so-called feminists who sided with Hamas over the Israeli women they murdered, raped, captured, and sexually abused in captivity. You and your morally perverse cultural relativity disgust me to my core. This scene, amongst the joy of Doron, Emily, and Romi coming home, is a horror. I ask every single woman who follows me: how would you feel being in this car? Being surrounded by hundreds of jeering men?

The pogrom always has an excuse ("the Jews didn't remove their hats when the Host paraded by")- but the excuse for the pogrom is never the reason for the pogrom.

This iconic photo is now part of Iranian history, capturing the deep frustration of women with the regime—a powerful statement against repression.

These are the 6 hostages before they were executed. Look at their hollow faces. The pain behind Eden's unrecognizable eyes tells a story I don't want to read. It's hard to imagine what they were going through in claustrophobic terror tunnels deep under Middle Eastern grounds, held hostage by terrorists with no light or air, while New Yorkers dressed up as their torturers, waved Hamas flags, and bought $11 pistachio lattes before protesting to globalize the intifada and bring the war home. They then tucked themselves into bed at night, satisfied that they had changed the world for the better when in reality, they only helped kill them.

💥Family members of freed hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, of Rahat, racing to his bedside at Soroka Hospital after 326 days in Hamas captivity. He was rescued in southern Gaza & brought to Israel in an IDF chopper. His captors may have fled.

As of today, this is how women must dress in Afghanistan, according to the Taliban's Supreme Leader. The following rules are now in effect: The full face must be covered—no hands, nothing visible. The black veil was presented as a "recommendation" a year ago, now it is the law.

Parents of Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin speak at 2024 Democ... youtu.be/_PleW3qZSxQ?si… via @YouTube