The @washingtonpost did its own "analysis" of #ShireenAbuAkleh's death, and ignores the same evidence that the others did. Because they had already determined the outcome before the "investigation" they ignored the more compelling evidence. @SarahCahlan@mmkelly22@SBHendrix 1/
@washingtonpost@SarahCahlan@mmkelly22@SBHendrix The interview Ali Samoudi, a known Pallywood liar. He says that he knows the bullets came from the IDF convoy. But on May 11, he said they came from roofs of buildings "opposite" from him. WaPo didn't ask him about that.
There is line of sight from buildings across. 3/
@washingtonpost@SarahCahlan@mmkelly22@SBHendrix He was not the only witness who noted the snipers on buildings across from the Shireen. But they assumed they were IDF. THEY WEREN'T. The IDF didn't take over any buildings that day - but the shebab sure did.
4/
@washingtonpost@SarahCahlan@mmkelly22@SBHendrix The WaPo said that Shireen was 182 meters away from the IDF convoy. Based on their own pictures, Google Maps and Bing say they were nearly 200 meters away. This is a major difference - one is within the audio forensics distance, and one isn't.
But even more important....
5/
@washingtonpost@SarahCahlan@mmkelly22@SBHendrix The WaPo is measuring from Shireen;'s location - NOT THE MICROPHONE LOCATION. The audio forensics is from mic, not her. That adds an additional 10-15 meters beyond her - 210-215 meters away from gunshots, which is WELL outside the range of the audio analysis.
6/
@washingtonpost@SarahCahlan@mmkelly22@SBHendrix Which means that if Google and Bing are correct in distance, and the IDF was at that street corner (which video shows they were), there is no way this could be from the IDF.
7/
@washingtonpost@SarahCahlan@mmkelly22@SBHendrix And if you want to see what a clear line of sight looks like from 177-187 meters away from the camera mic, here it is. Did you check this building out as a possibility? Did you ask residents about Pal snipers? Did you act like real reporters? @SarahCahlan@mmkelly22@SBHendrix
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So I decided to ask different AIs to create a plot of a Jewish Christmas movie. My prompt: "Write the plot for a movie where a committed Jewish person is unwillingly stuck inside a Christmas movie."
A thread of the responses, and my ratings. 🧵
Meta:
Title: "Stuck in a Winter Wonderland"
Protagonist: David, a devoted Jewish man who runs a small deli in New York City. He's proud of his heritage and traditions, and loves celebrating Hanukkah with his family and friends.
The Premise: One day, while watching a classic Christmas movie marathon at his sister's house, David gets sucked into the TV and finds himself trapped inside a cheesy, over-the-top Christmas movie called "A Winter Wonderland". The movie is full of clichés, from the quaint small town to the handsome, charming lead actor.
The Conflict: David is horrified to find himself in the middle of a Christmas movie, surrounded by Christmas trees, decorations, and carolers. He's determined to find a way back home, but every time he tries to escape, he's pulled back into the movie. The lead actor, a charming but dim-witted guy named Nick, thinks David is a new character in the movie and tries to befriend him.
The Comedy: As David navigates the absurd world of the Christmas movie, he encounters a series of wacky characters, from a wise-cracking elf to a villainous toy manufacturer. Despite his initial reluctance, David starts to enjoy the ridiculousness of the movie and even finds himself developing feelings for a lovely Christmas shop owner named Emma.
The Heart: As David gets closer to Emma and the other characters, he starts to realize that the true meaning of the holiday season is about kindness, generosity, and community - values that are just as important in Judaism as they are in Christianity. David starts to see the beauty in the Christmas traditions and even finds ways to incorporate his own Jewish heritage into the movie.
The Climax: Just as David is starting to feel at home in the Christmas movie, he's confronted by the movie's villain, who threatens to ruin the holiday season for the entire town. David uses his wits and resourcefulness to help the townspeople defeat the villain and save Christmas.
The Resolution: As a reward for his heroism, David is given the chance to return home to his own world. But before he goes, he says goodbye to his new friends and Emma, who has become the love of his life. David returns home, but with a newfound appreciation for the holiday season and the people who celebrate it.
The Twist: As David settles back into his life in New York City, he starts to notice strange things happening around him. The deli's Christmas decorations seem more vibrant than usual, and the customers are all singing Christmas carols. David starts to wonder: did he really escape the Christmas movie, or is he still trapped in a never-ending winter wonderland?
I give this two stars. I specifically did not want an inter-religious romance which is why I used the word "committed." And the end is a nightmare!
Gemini:
Title: "The Unlikely Christmas Caroler"
Main Character: Sarah, a young, successful Jewish attorney in New York City. She's career-focused, cynical, and dismissive of Christmas traditions.
Plot:
Sarah is assigned to a last-minute pro bono case defending a small, struggling Jewish bakery against a giant corporate chain trying to shut them down.
The bakery is owned by the warm and kind Goldstein family, who are preparing for their annual Hanukkah celebration. Sarah reluctantly agrees to help, seeing it as a way to meet her deadline.
As she spends more time with the Goldsteins, Sarah starts to soften. She witnesses their joy and love for their traditions, and begins to appreciate the importance of community and family.
The night before Hanukkah, Sarah is walking home from the bakery when she is suddenly transported into a magical Christmas movie world. She finds herself the star of a cheesy holiday romance, where she's forced to sing carols, decorate a Christmas tree, and fall in love with a handsome, but clueless, Christmas enthusiast.
Sarah initially resists, but as she navigates the bizarre world, she begins to see the magic and wonder of the holiday season. She also starts to connect with her own Jewish heritage, realizing that her traditions are just as special and meaningful as any other.
Back in the real world, Sarah realizes that her time in the Christmas movie has changed her. She's more appreciative of the holiday spirit, and she's also learned to embrace her own cultural identity.
She helps the Goldstein family save their bakery, and she even finds herself falling in love with a charming Jewish man who works there.
Rating: 2.5 stars. The plot details are way too vague and the plot really doesn't hang together.
Nobody knows anything about the future of Syria and the region. But here are three things we do know and lessons we can learn, today. ift.tt/thjMHIP
The rapid fall of the Assad regime in Syria is stunning.
There is no shortage of analysis, but essentially every "expert" in the field is warning of things that could or might happen.
What I haven't seen is any of these experts admitting that they couldn't see this coming.
The Middle East is the most watched, analyzed and studied region on Earth. Isn't it strange that no one saw the coordination necessary for the disparate Syrian rebel groups to mount this offensive? The planning must have taken weeks, if not months. Israel's escalation against Hezbollah in September would undoubtedly have either started these plans if not accelerated already existing plans.
Where were these analysts then? And - why should we believe any of them now when they didn't see this coming?
We can expect to see analysis in the coming weeks of how the signs were there all along, all ignoring that these supposed experts missed those signs.
Lesson #1: Media and academic experts are no better at predicting what will happen than anyone else.
To be sure, Western intelligence agencies appear to have been caught flat-footed as well. Any decent intel organization must go back, look at any evidence of this development that must have been visible but ignored, and ask itself where it went wrong.
Every intelligence failure that I am aware of comes not from missing the evidence, but from not connecting the dots. Intelligence agencies have to deal with massive amounts of data that they gather from tens of thousands of sources. The challenge is being able to notice patterns and properly prioritize the data coming in.
How many times have we seen after the fact that the pieces of the puzzle were always there? From Pearl Harbor to the Yom Kippur War to October 7, the data wasn't the problem. It was the refusal to believe the data, the refusal to properly prioritize the data, the overriding of the evidence with beliefs.
Perhaps artificial intelligence can overcome these issues, which are after all human blind spots. But AI is often being programmed too often with the same blind spots, at least the AIs I've been playing with. Nevertheless, it shouldn't be hard to adjust AIs to avoid bias in the models and programming to learn to put together data. Expect to see accelerated work in that arena.
Lesson #2: Even national intelligence agencies have blind spots and they need to adjust their methods of analysis.
Of course, @time is part of the problem of spreading the new antisemitism.
Its initial report of #October7massacre was about Israel's response, and didn't mention any Israelis were killed. elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2023/10/repreh…
Ten of the basic facts that the news media doesn't report:
1. The conflict is older than Israel and older than Zionism. Arabs have held Jews in contempt since Mohammed.
2. You cannot assume the Palestinian side is rational. Their mindset is governed by an honor/shame mentality that is more important than what is best for Palestinians altogether.
3. That same honor/shame mindset means that lying is acceptable - or even mandatory - when the truth is embarrassing.
4. According to surveys, Palestinians are the most antisemitic group on Earth. Not "anti-Zionist" - antisemitic.
5. Urban warfare is the most difficult warfare there is. The extensive tunnel system makes it perhaps the most difficult in history.
6. If Hamas survives the war, it is a major blow to the entire Western world's freedom.
7. The only winner when Gaza civilians die is Hamas.
8. Hamas' entire war strategy is based on Israel not wanting to kill civilians and willing to do anything to protect Israeli civilians. In short, Hamas views Israel's morality as its weakest attribute.
9. Palestinians - West Bank and Gaza, Fatah and Hamas - overwhelmingly support murdering Jews. A huge majority have supported the most heinous specific terror attacks. And they overwhelmingly do not support a two state solution, except as a stage to destroy Israel.
10. The IDF is a professional army. It doesn't act out of revenge or fury. Every move it makes is for a specific military purpose and every attack has a specific military target in mind.
Supporting data:
1. The Quran includes the themes that Jews - as a whole - are "killers of prophets" and that they cannot be trusted to hold on to their side in agreements.
The Jews of Yemen wrote a letter to Maimonides in the 12th century asking for advice on how to deal with their persecution. His response included very pointed criticisms of how Arabs treat Jews throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds.
The "kinot" - intricate poems chanted on Tisha B'Av, the Jewish fast day that recalls many historic tragedies - include oppression by Arabs of Jews. And some communities like the Tunisian and Moroccan Jewish communities wrote their own kinot about pogroms and attacks on their communities centuries ago.
19th century travelers throughout the Middle East often noted that the worst insult an Arab could hurl at another was to call him a "Jew."
All of these were before modern Zionism.
The Arabs don't hate Jews because of Israel. They hate Israel because of Jews. And all the talk about "Nakba" or "occupation" or "apartheid" are excuses for Arab hate created after the fact, not explanations of it.
2. The Honor/Shame psyche is a larger topic than I could do justice to in a tweet, but in short it means that some societies have a shame culture (much of the East) and some have a guilt culture (much of the West.) In a shame culture, one must do everything to avoid being dishonored (hence, "honor killings" of women who embarrass their fathers/husbands.) In a guilt culture, people take personal responsibility for their own actions, in a shame culture, the guilty party tries to hide their shameful actions.
Everyone likes to project their own feelings and attitudes onto others; after all, we are told to put ourselves into others' shoes before judging. But the two systems are utterly alien to each other, and both sides constantly attribute their own ways of thinking onto the other.
Israel's very existence is an intense source of shame. A small number of Jews, who were derided as weak and inferior, defeated Arabs in the one field they are most proud of: the battlefield. This is why 1948 was a "nakba," a catastrophe for the Arab world, and not just another of their many military defeats. They could handle being defeated by Christians since they were undoubtedly many and powerful, but Jews? The shame is unmeasurable. And the only solution is the complete destruction of Israel.
The good news is that this attitude can be changed. The UAE, Bahrain and to some extent Morocco have managed to look at Israel as a permanent fixture and a nation that they can cooperate with for mutual benefit - a corollary to shame/guilt is zero-sum/win-win thinking. But Palestinians have entrenched themselves in the failed shame culture, and to them, any Jew they kill helps restore their lost "honor."
Abbas tells UN that the Kotel is exclusively Muslim: "The occupation government is also violating the city of Jerusalem and its people, assaulting our Islamic and Christian sanctities there, and violating the historical and legal status of the holy places, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which international legitimacy has recognized as an exclusive right for Muslims alone, including the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall and the Buraq Wall (Kotel), according to the report of the League of Nations in 1930."
He also called for "an apology, reparation, and compensation" from the US and Britain for the Balfour Declaration.
Abbas again falsely claims that Israel's recognition by the UN was conditional on accepting resolutions 181 and 194. That is a lie, as anyone can see by reading the resolution accepting Israel. elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2011/07/erekat…
The only reasonable response to this has been that the Zionists had large amounts of capital from the Jewish diaspora.
This is true - and it proves my point. Jews didn't depend on anyone else to build their nation. They funded it themselves, they drained the swamps themselves..
...they built their government themselves, they built cities from scratch themselves, they built an economy themselves. They had no foreign aid, no NGOs giving advice, and the British didn't allow them to do a great deal.