Yes, it’s about Israel, but the laws of physics determined that my latent secular Judaism would be activated by the Hamas/Israel war. Never before have I seen such a bushel of lies, misrepresentations, biased reporting, near-complete ignorance of history, willingness to excuse Hamas and the UN—all accompanied by sheer hatred of Israel and the Jews. It’s enough to make steam come out of my ears like a character in a Warner Brothers cartoon. Never in my own life have I seen so much of the world go off the rails at once. (Well, there are some sane ones, but they’re not “progressives,” which angers me even more.)
So, in lieu of ranting, I present to you 5½ minutes of video commentary on the wary by Lucy Aharish, the “the first Arab-Muslim news presenter on mainstream Hebrew-language Israeli television.” This is one of the sane ones.
Thanks for sharing the video. I agree with most of what was said, except the section where we are asked to think about why it is that the majority of the population in Gaza lives in abject poverty. Yes, I do not doubt for one second that donated money meant for humanitarian purposes has been mis-allocated for the self-preservation of Hamas. But I think it is unfortunate that it was not mentioned that the blockade of Gaza by Israel is likely one of the main reasons why that poverty exists in the first place.
She didn’t mention it simply because she knows the truth. The blockade of Gaza (which is an attempt to stop weapons, and only weapons, coming into Gaza – obviously with very poor results) has nothing to do with the poverty of inhabitants of Gaza Strip.
Israel should besiege Gaza to starve Hamas. Then the people of Gaza will know what real privation feels like. They will pine for the days when they were an open-air prison which will seem like Club Med in their memories.
I agree with starving out Hamas but I believe the people of Gaza know full well what privation feels like.
Oh they ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Every dead or grievously wounded IDF soldier is another click of the “proportionality” ratchet that leads toward Old Testament wrath. Hamas has sown the wind. It will reap the whirlwind.
Remember this will stop if Hamas surrenders.
Yes, indeed. If only they (Hamas) would surrender!
To Debi,
Well, the consequences for Gazans from Hamas’s refusal (so far) to surrender aren’t Israel’s problem. At some point, like now, the life and limbs and cerebral gray matter of one IDF soldier are probably worth 100 Gazan civilians who are shielding Hamas. The ratio will rise with the accumulating casualties. This might be one reason why Israel has been using more unguided (“dumb”) bombs than the world (and Gazans) would prefer. JDAM precision-guided munition kits are expensive and in uncertain supply with the Americans giving the appearance of being uncertain allies. It would be reasonable to not squander them on merely reducing civilian shield casualties when going after a military target, whose value includes the military cost of destroying it. And Israel will be a pariah no matter what she does.
(JDAMs were developed to reduce the number of aircraft sorties that have to be flown to assure destruction of a target that’s hard to hit. This is important if the aircraft have to fly long distances consuming jet fuel or have to face an effective air defence en route to the target. Neither of these obtains in Gaza but both would in Iran. Dumb bombs will do just fine in Gaza, especially since the aircraft that drop them have much more sophisticated targeting systems than the seat-of-the-pants methods used by tactical aircraft in Vietnam.)
I’m not saying that the IDF actually invokes any of these rationales for their weaponeering, as the process of arming strike aircraft is called. I’m just steel-manning their putative case (if they need to make it) that they aren’t blood-thirsty murderers but the people of Israel do expect them to destroy Hamas with the wise use of the people and ordnance they have put at their disposal. This reply isn’t directed at you so much as a general observation about casualties in Gaza.
It was the October 7 attack that made it obvious why a blockade was necessary. I always had sympathy for the Palestinians, at first because of my upbringing (as a former Communist we were cool towards Israel but I always believed in Israel’s right to exist) and later because I just felt bad for the many Arab people’s caught between despots and religious fanatics(I still do). I did not like the right wing part of the Israel government but even then I did wonder if it was even possible for a left wing Israel to have a trustworthy partner with the Palestinians (and maybe that was why Bibi kept getting elected). After October 7 and the revelations of the systematic hatred of Jews taught all over the Arab world and Hamas vow to repeat these attacks the progressive refusal to admit to this situation would have anyone angry whether they were Jewish or not.
Armado, the blockade of Gaza was *after* Hamas “won” the election in 2005-2007.
“A blockade has been imposed on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s takeover in 2007, led by Israel and supported by Egypt. The blockade’s stated aimed to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.” – Wiki.
I believe it – the blockade- has very little to do with the impoverished condition of the majority of people in Gaza. The blockade is supported by Egypt, an Arab nation.
Precisely. Imagine what a blockade lasting close to 20 years would do to the economy of any country in the world.
I am not saying that Israel does not have the right to be unhappy with having Hamas in power in Gaza, it clearly does. What I am saying is that if not for all the humanitarian aid, the poverty in Gaza would undoubtedly be much worse and that the blockade from Israel is certainly a big part of that poverty. I hope we can agree on that.
A blockade of Israel meant that Israel was checking everything that goes in and out of Gaza for weapons and for items which can function as parts of weapons. Everything else was going through: from food, clothing and medicines to luxurious cars and most modern models of laptops. People with serious illnesses, who couldn’t be treated in Gaza hospitals, were treated in Israel. Israel organized training courses for medical personnel from Gaza, for farmers and others. Israel facilitated export from Gaza. Thousands of Gazans could daily cross the border to work in Israel for much higher wages than they could get in Gaza. Quite many of them drew maps of kibbutzim and marked on them where the people responsible for defense were and where the weapons were. Some even returned on October 7 to take part in the murderous orgy.
So you can’t blame this blockade for the poverty of part of Gaza’s population. Those who belonged to Hamas and other terrorist organizations were not poor. There are many videos showing the opulence in Gaza, villas with swimming pools, exclusive restaurants and what not. Now, of course, a lot of it is destroyed. The highest leaders of Gaza are millionaires and billionaires living in luxury abroad. They also subverted much of “humanitarian help” into their terror tunnels and arms. Blame them for the poverty and not the blockade.
There is an excellent video showing Gaza before Oct. 7.a Gaza very few in the West had seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1icBL6lLOcM
OK, Israel’s border controls on Gaza do contribute to its poverty and squalor. Grant that. (But another part of its poverty results from the reluctance of anyone to invest capital there, a cultural disease that affects all Arab Muslim countries that aren’t sitting on vast lakes of oil. Would you invest your own money in a place like Gaza?)
That parenthetical aside and granting your argument that the blockade aggravates poverty, can we not agree that the job of your country’s foreign and military policy should be to impose poverty on nations that mean you harm and can’t seem to bring themselves to work cooperatively and peacefully with you? Guns or butter. Constrain them to choose one and be thankful they have no butter to sell for more guns.
How long do you think an “unhappy” United States would allow free trade and aviation to continue across its undefended border with Canada if Canadian anti-imperialists were launching rockets and murderous incursions into little American border towns, and occasionally dared to hit Seattle or Detroit …and the Canadian government not only connived but directed these attacks as its stated foreign policy?
The United States would show in graphic detail how “unhappy” it was with us. If we didn’t get the message, the US Navy would blockade the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and Halifax and close the St. Lawrence River as a retaliatory act of war. The Air Force would interdict our domestic aviation. Even if they didn’t have to shoot anyone, this would impoverish Canada as surely as it does Gaza and like Gaza we would be bringing it on ourselves.
Leslie, +1
Armado, my understanding is that the blockade did not prevent goods/materials from getting through, rather, the blockade was installed as a means to check for weapons.
If you have evidence to the contrary, I will be happy to read your sources, fraknly, I would like to know more about this aspect of the conflict.
It is established that Hamas leaders lived in luxury while the people suffered or -at least- most of the people suffered:
Quote:
“But as the territory’s 2.3million people suffer, several hundred millionaires are registered in the coastal Strip.
And while the majority of citizens in the densely populated territory – which is a quarter of the size of Greater London – languish in poverty, a select few live in marble-floored mansions and luxury hotels.
According to the Embassy of Israel in the US, three of Hamas’s most senior leaders – Mousa Abu Marzouk, Khaled Mashal and Ismail Haniyeh – have net worths of more than $3billion each. The embassy also claims that Hamas’s annual turnover is $1billion and suggests the group is second only to ISIS as the world’s richest terror group.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12706715/Hamas-terrorist-billionaires-live-marble-floored-mansions.html
Note** Malgorzata has provided a detailed/thorough response above.
Thanks to all of you for the clarifications. I am definitely not an expert on this matter, I should maybe instead say that my knowledge is quite limited, so I won’t dispute any of the information above. What I will say is that blockading things that can be used to build weapons can be construed to include almost anything one wants. After all you can use most flammable liquids to make a Molotov cocktail. But I won’t insist on the details as again, my knowledge is quite limited.
I must say that I came into reading this blog for my appreciation for Prof. Ceiling Cat’s (PCC) work on speciation and evolutionary biology. With time, I became quite interested in the topics regarding the faith/science question so I stayed on. Since October 7th, the tone has changed quite considerably, understandably so, as PCC explained he writes about what interests him, and the situation in Israel/Gaza definitely interests him a great deal.
I share that interest and though many statements and positions diverge from my own, I feel like I have lots to learn from the expertise from PCC and other commenters.
So, thanks to PCC and others who comment here. I’ll keep reading.
Armando, as someone who disagreed sharply with you, I acknowledge your grace in your most recent comment at 14:45. Thank you.
Joe Biden needs some un-love. That comment about Israel doing “indescriminate bombing” hideously keeps cropping up. I saw it a few nights ago from a hostile BBC reporter. Plus a rumbling undertow of 1) get done quick, I need to get elected; and 2) be careful how you do the bombing!
Be careful? Biden should be right behind Netanyahu, urging him “don’t hold back.”
That comment has indeed come back to haunt Biden—and worse—the Israeli war effort. I have heard it used over and over in the media, forcing Israel to refute it repeatedly. President Biden has long been regarded as a gaffe machine, and this one was a doozie. I wish he could un-say it.
It was not a gaffe. It was an appeasment to his left. And to the Woke Diaspora. This is not the moment for USA and Israel to be nice. They should be fierce.
Could be.
I agree completely that now is the time to be fierce. That’s the only way to rid the world of Hamas. They will be coming for the rest of us if they are not stopped.
This is good, very good:
“the laws of physics determined that my latent secular Judaism would be activated by the Hamas/Israel war. Never before have I seen such a bushel of lies, misrepresentations, biased reporting, near-complete ignorance of history, willingness to excuse Hamas and the UN—all accompanied by sheer hatred of Israel and the Jews. It’s enough to make steam come out of my ears like a character in a Warner Brothers cartoon. Never in my own life have I seen the so much of the world go off the rails at once.”
I’d like to use it, with citation, of course.
And yes, it’s discouraging AF to see self-styled “progressives” parrot Hamas propaganda.
I recall falling for some crap when I was young in the anti-war movement (Viet Nam War) but I’m not willing to admit it was so utterly distorted. The Stalinists and the Weathermen made me nervous. I do recall the chant: “Kim, Kim — Kim Il Sung, Revolution by the Young” — but I could never get that one past my lips. It was always, like…what??? (I also knew at least one fire-breathing gun-toting radical who later turned out to be police agent – he was quite effective, too. I felt like such an idiot not to have sussed that out.)
Other topic, I think Biden’s statements are forced by his political position. My only objection to him is that he’s perceived as too old.
There’s a lot packed into that commentary.
What did the people of Gaza get for the millions in aid that came their way? They got tunnels. They got to serve as munitions placed at the front of a battlefield. They got rubble where they could have had a shining city by the sea.
What would it take to prove to the world that Hamas committed horrible atrocities against innocent civilians? Because the victims were Jews, nothing will suffice. The Jews are alone in this world.
What about the feminists? Jewish women don’t matter.
Does the truth always win out in the long run, as the speaker states? I have my doubts.
A brave young woman, and powerfully said – thanks for sharing the video.
“the laws of physics determined that my latent secular Judaism would be activated by the Hamas/Israel war. Never before have I seen such a bushel of lies, misrepresentations, biased reporting, near-complete ignorance of history, willingness to excuse Hamas and the UN—all accompanied by sheer hatred of Israel and the Jews. It’s enough to make steam come out of my ears like a character in a Warner Brothers cartoon. Never in my own life have I seen the so much of the world go off the rails at once.”
I read this, and I think we live on different planets. On what possible grounds does the horrific murder of 1200 Israelis, most of them innocent civilians, justify the killing of over 20,000 Palestinians, an estimated 64% of them women and children – hence innocent civilians as well – and the total destruction of their living environment? What is the purpose? I don’t want to blame “Israel” or the Jews (at the age of 66, I discovered this year that my Polish/Ukrainian mother was an Ashkenazi Jew), but surely everybody interested in this subject here knows what the current Israeli government is. A Prime Minister who will happily create a landscape of corpses in order to stay out of jail, supported by dyed in the wool fascists who are explicitly and unashamedly comfortable with genocide and ethnic cleansing.
My mother survived Nazi occupation and Soviet occupation, most of her family and friends did not. She witnessed the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto, and described it to me in detail, without ever revealing that she was herself Jewish. I grew up with an affection for and belief in the value of an Israeli state, a homeland for the Jewish people, but what is happening now is unconscionable. I don’t see how the idea of Israel can survive it. Israel’s status as the only “democratic” state in the region renders its population collectively responsible for what it is doing in Gaza, since they have, through the country’s convoluted democratic mechanisms, voted in a government largely made up of fascists headed by a narcissistic sociopath.
I don’t have steam coming out of my ears. I have fountains coming out of my eyes.
Just chill; Netanyahu will be gone after the war is over. And seriously, what about all the terrorism that happened before he ever became prime minister? What aabout the attempts of Left-wing governments to make peace, or curb terrorism.
I see that you’re not blaming the Jews or Israel about this, despite what I’ve said above, and despite the fact that the Hamas charter, which, BTW, was made well before Netanyahu is explicitly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel? Have you read it? If not, I’ll as you to, and then tell me why you think anti-Semitism and anti-Israel-ism is NOT behind the attacks of Hamas.
Oh, and then there are all those UN resolutions against Israel but not other countries like North Korea or Yemen, well before Bibi became Prime Minister?
As for the disproportionality, blame that on Hamas, which uses humans, hospitals, schools, and nearly every other public place as a venue for human shields. Or would you prefer that Israel stop its attempt to eliminate Hamas, let them win and take over Gaza, ensuring eons of repeated attacks, as they promised, and have Israel pull back to its borders to again endure rockets, tunnels, and terrorism? Apparently, as you proffer no other solution. Or do you have something that will bring an end to the war and to the terrorist attacks without eliminating Hamas. Your tears, my friend, are due to Hamas, which started all this after having fomented terrorist attacks on Israel since it came into being. Well, let’s have your solution?
Yes, we are on different planets, but I’m on planet Earth and I don’t know where you are. What you’re telling me is that the war is all the fault of Netanyahu’s government and has nothing to do with hatred of Jews and Israel. As far as I can see, “what is happening now” doesn’t include the events of October 7, which you appear to see as “Israel had it coming because of Netanyahu.” Sorry, but I find that attitude shameful.
This is a serious misreading of what Crisp wrote. He did not defend Hamas, or exculpate it, or deny its responsibility in the current war. Nor is any of that necessary to criticism of Israel’s conduct in the current war. Responsibility is not the sort of zero sum game you seem wedded to. Hamas is responsible for the horrors of October 7. Hamas is also responsible for the ensuing war on Gaza, a predictable result of what it did on October 7. But Israel too has agency, and it is responsible for what it does. Its responsibility for what it does does not lessen or limit the responsibility of Hamas for what Hamas does and did. Condemning Hamas’ October 7 attack does not entail support for Israeli policies, and condemning Israel’s war on Gaza does not entail support for Hamas.
I will just copy two short quotes and leave it at that:
“Neither Jewish morality nor Jewish tradition can be used to disallow terror as a means of war. … We are very far from any moral hesitations when concerned with the national struggle.
“First and foremost, terror is for us a part of the political war appropriate for the circumstances of today, and its task is a major one: it demonstrates in the clearest language, heard throughout the world including by our unfortunate brethren outside the gates of this country, our war against the occupier.”
Yitzhak Shamir, future Prime Minister of Israel, writing in 1943.
“Concerning your letter to the prime minister with regard to a Palestinian state I am replying: The prime minister is of the opinion that there is no room for a Palestinian state.”
Letter to a private citizen, signed on behalf of Yitzhak Rabin by his top aide on December 25, 1994, quoted in The Times of Israel yesterday.
The first is self-explanatory. The second backs up a great deal of evidence now emerging that Israeli governments never negotiated in good faith over Palestinian statehood, notably many statements by current political leaders that Hamas was tolerated with the specific aim of demonstrating the impossibility of a two-state solution, precisely for the reasons you give above.
The quote from Yitzhak Shamir is irrelevant here as it was from the time before Israel existed—1943. (And Jewish groups never raped or beheaded anybody. Neither did they torture civilians.)
Yitzhak Rabin knew very well the hate of the Arab world towards Jews and didn’t want to have a fully independent Arab state in the midst of Israel. His vision was more like autonomy with security in the hands of Israelis. Later, the attitudes of Israel’s leaders changed and both Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert proposed an independent Palestinian state in 100% of the Gaza Strip plus 95% of the West Bank (with a piece of Israel proper to make it 100% of land demanded by the Palestinians) plus East Jerusalem. These proposals were made in good faith and were rejected by the Palestinian side.
Strangely, some people refuse to believe the many Palestinians who say in plain language that they will never agree to the existence of a Jewish state anywhere in the Middle East. Hamas has it in its Charter, while the PLO (Palestinian Authority, Fatah etc.) are less open but still say openly that the whole area between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea is Palestinian and that their aim is the one Palestinian state. Already Arafat said that he agreed to the two-states solution as the first step and and then use the new Palestinian state as a place from which to launch the further initiative that would take Palestine to the sea. He called it his “stage” plan.
So, do you think the Palestinians were negotiating in good faith? It’s always Israel’s fault, you say, though you’ve once again distorted the history of the country.
This discussion is over as I’m tired of the Gish galloping. I notice that you are claiming that there is a “great deal of evidence” that Israel is not negotiating in good faith, though you don’t cite that evidence. And, of course, you say NOTHING about whether the Palestinians were negotiating in good faith, even though all the evidence says “no”. Israel made offers; the Palestinians rejected them time after time.
Once again you are distorting history for reasons I can only guess at. But this is the last time you’ll comment on this thread; I’m tired of the way you argue.
For a man who preaches free speech, you are remarkably intolerant of dissent. But it’s your house, so you get to decide who holds the conch.
You did get to dissent, didn’t you? Twice, in fact. And, as in free speech, I and others got to respond to what you said. Apparently you don’t seem to realize even that. What you’re objecting to is that people disagreed with what you said. And I brought the conversation to an end after you had two says, as is normal when somebody is trying to dominate matters.
But, like most dogs trying to bite the postman’s leg, you simply can’t let go, but had to make a snarky and rude comment. So now, as per the Roolz, I’m going to detach your teeth.
I am 100% in your court.
Hamas must be eliminated totally and if the destruction of Gaza and population is the result, so be it.
The survival of Israel and all Jewish people is paramount as is a message to the world that Islam and its intentions will fail.
Western democratic nations need to WAKE UP!
Give me your plans to eliminate Hamas. Please. Not bloody their nose, eliminate. You sound like somebody who would have landed a million troops on Normandy and said ‘well we taught Hitler a lesson now didn’t we’, declared victory and gone home.
If your comment is aimed at me, of course I would not conduct any landing such as the Normandy event you quote. That would be foolish and why you would assume this of me I do not know. You do not know me or indeed anything about me and I am not about to justify my statement relating to the elimination of Hamas with detail except to state categorically that I know enough to succeed and it would not be pleasant.
I find your comment unnecessarily rude.
Robert, wearing my peacemaker hat and school crossing guard Sam Brown belt, I think John Reynolds’s reply was not to you. In this thread it is hard to keep track of the indents but when I saw it I thought it was directed at a comment farther up that advocated for a cease-fire and withdrawal or some such nonsense.
OK, the kids have got across safely. Let the traffic roll again.
Leslie, I thank you for your concern and kind words. I read the content and thought it was directly aimed at me. Still whoever it was intended for it was somewhat sarcastic and rude, but so be it.
Happy New Year.
Robert.
The numbers: “20,000 civilians, an estimated 64% of them women and children” comes directly from Hamas and is a part of their propaganda war against Israel. They know very well how people in the West will react to such numbers and how much pressure will be exerted on Israel and how hate of Jews (both Israel and Diaspora Jews) will grow. Now, if you analyse these numbers: where are dead terrorists? In all previous conflicts, Hamas gave orders to the Ministry of Health (which is documented) to report all casualties as if they were civilians. We have no reason to suppose this order has been rescinded now.
So, 20,000 includes: terrorists killed in battles (who often are in civilian clothes), child soldiers (if a 15 to 18 year old has a gun and is shooting at Israelis, he is a legitimate target but he is counted by Hamas as a “child”), all people killed by Hamas’ and Islamic Jihad’s rockets which “fell short” (and at least one fifth of such rockets land on Gazans, like in the hospital Al-Ahli).
According to IDF estimates some 8,000 terrorists were killed in battles. So if we accept Hamas’s numbers it means that for every killed terrorist 1.5 civilians were killed. This is an unheard-ofratio,—extraordinarily low. In urban fights between forces of democratic states (U.S., U.K, France etc.) this ratio ranged from 3 to 9 civilians killed for every terrorist. And Israel in Gaza fights under much more difficult conditions than any other army ever had (Hamas had 16 years to build their tunnels).
But there are further problems. According to a recent poll, 75% of Gazans support Hamas’ “operation” on October 7. That means that many of them are helping terrorists now and are willing human shields. We know that some of the hostages were kept, guarded and starved in civilian homes. We know that on October 7, after Hamas fighters came to kill civilians, and rape, rob and take Israeli as hostages. We know that Gazans who got permission to work in Israel, prepared detailed maps of kibbutzim in which they worked and informed Hamas who in the kibbutzim is responsible for defense and where the weapons were kept, and much more. Is it possible that these people (not formal members of Hamas) are now helping Hamas and therefore are legitimate targets?
I weep for small Palestinian children who pay the price for the fanaticism of their parents. But I do not blame Israel for their death. I blame Hamas, Islamic Jihad as well as Iran and the “humanitarian” West which gave terrorists enough money to build their fortress of horror. And this fortress must be destroyed, otherwise innocent Israeli children will be killed again.
“On what possible grounds”? On the grounds of self-defense and preventing future reruns. It is the duty of the Israeli state to protect its citizens. If that comes at the cost of killing other civilians (many of whom supported the organization that attacked Israel), that’s a secondary concern. And seeing how Gazans are now living under a dictatorship that is brainwashing the younger generation into striving for martyrdom, maybe the price to wipe out Hamas is not too high in the long run.
John,
How does Israel defend herself against an enemy that shields itself behind civilians? How does Israel do this without inflicting incidental (not targeted) death on civilians?
Before *preserving* an idea (“the idea of Israel”) a nation has to preserve its territory, protect its citizens and halt a rapist regime (Hamas) from attacking it again.
Ideas are good. Safety is better. Life is better.
Professor Coyne, can you say why you – and many other Jews.Isralies – are against Natanyahu?
Aside from corruption, he has made the ultra orthodox the tyrant/ruler over all of secular life in Israel, with his extreme right coalition. The latest reason? He facilitated Qatar money transfer to Hamas, as part of his plan to keep Fatah and the Palestinian Authority squashed. Didnt you know about all this? Time for you to do some research.
I find it incredible that hamas has managed to convince so many people around the world that it is not the villain in this war but the victim. PR folk around the world must be looking on in wonder at this achievement.
Four days ago in Germany:
“German police thwart suspected Islamist attack on Cologne Cathedral on New Year’s Eve”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/german-police-thwart-suspected-islamist-attack-on-cologne-cathedral-on-new-years-eve/
This *feature* may be on its way to a theater near you.
A simple exercise. Imagine your baby (or babies) were burned, your sister was raped, abused and mutilated and your 70+ year old father/mother was kidnapped – while your community was destroyed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html
What context justifies the crimes?
And what is the proportional response?
Hamas must be eliminated. OR it can surrender (wholesale) and release the hostages. The *ball* really is in Hamas’s court.
Israel has the right to go the distance to protect herself, without making civilians an intentional target – it is not engaging in the latter.
Here’s the thing; we would ALL do the same had the 10/7 massacre been against us.
As for the UN, a significant number of agencies within the organization (like the WHO) need to be overhauled/reformed – with intention.
Progressivism has devolved into a cult, like Trumpism.
When we lose the ability to see clearly, we lose our moral compass. Lucy Aharish is brave. Applause for her.
Ideas matter. Life matters more.
Dear Jerry Coyne (if I may)
In Europe (France) the “progressive” media, let’s say “left-wing”, adopt the same attitude as the one you describe. Is this a reason to despair about the future? It took a very long time for the left (and not just the Communists) to recognize the true nature of the USSR and then Maoist China. But we have a saying: les mauvais jours finiront – “bad days will end”.
And just a clarification: I’m not Jewish, there’s no need to be to be on the side of Israel. According to opinion polls, the majority opinion in France is that the war against Hamas is justified (a memory of the Paris Islamist attacks, no doubt).
And, last, but not least : many thanks for your blog.
Kind regards,
Jean