The 15,000,000 Jews alive today are the product of 40 generations of people who said "no," often at great cost. Evolutionary selection pressures made them countercultural contratians.

They aren't "chosen"—that's a misunderstanding of the theology. They are the "choosers." (1/3)
And this—not any extra level of innate intelligence (some Asian groups are smarter on average), nor in-group clannishness (many cultural groups are far more nepotistic)—is the reason Jews have had an outsized impact on so many fields of human endeavour. (2/3)

As Francesca Albanese tries to revive BDS—just as Arab states clamour for peace & trade with Israel—few have noticed that next week (July 9) marks 20 years since the BDS movement set out to defeat Israel by isolating & boycotting it. 🧵

So let’s review the results: (1/8) Over that period, Israel has overtaken all the major European nations in terms of GDP per capita and now boasts the sixth highest GDP per capita in the world, of all nations with 10 million population or more. (2/8)

There are three goals for the war. Forcing Israel to end the war prematurely means you can only pick two:

1. Bring home the last 20 hostages (and the 30 bodies being held as bargaining chips).

2. Ensure Hamas can never again pose a strategic threat to Israel.

3. Free the two million Gazans from Hamas— a prerequisite for any form of meaningful rebuilding.

Israel has already achieved point 2. Hamas is now permanently boxed in behind a large buffer zone, and even a small IDF presence with close surveillance ensures they can never rearm or threaten Israelis again.

So, from a purely cynical Israeli perspective, a deal that ends the hostage situation in return for allowing Hamas to remain in some form of power might be acceptable. True, they won't be able to claim "Total Victory" while Hamas still rules the rubble and terrorizes its own people—but Total Victory would have come with Total Responsibility, and a new set of risks. For most Israelis, “We reduced them to a harmless (to us) rabble” is victory enough.

The people who have been clamoring for a ceasefire since 2023 always supported Hamas. They never cared a jot for the Gazans, whom they saw only as useful tools. If they had even an ounce of humanity—or even common sense—they would recognize that Hamas is now only a threat to the Gazans themselves, and that a Total Israeli Victory is what they should be calling for too. Article from the Jewish Chronicle:

thejc.com/opinion/if-a-c…

On set today with Inbal Rabin-Lieberman, the 26-year-old heroine whose quick thinking and IDF weapons training meant that her village, Nir Am, was the only one along the Gaza border where none of the residents was killed.

She’s watching today as they film a reenactment of her actions on October 7. She and her team, with only light weapons, killed 70 heavily armed, drugged-up terrorists as they came to murder their families—twelve civilians held the line for four hours.

Remember: this is why they chant "Death to the IDF"—they want these pesky heroes out of the way so the savages can have their fun unmolested.

How do the "Death to the IDF" kids at Glastonbury hold up to young women like Inbal? What have they ever done to protect their families, their communities? What would they do when the barbarians come to scale the fence? Her 700 neighbours owe her their lives. Including her then unborn nephew, now 18 months, who will one day get to watch the movie about his aunt and how she saved his life.

There are 100 stories like Inbal that could be dramatised into full-length movies, with no need for even a drop of embellishment.

Qatar's Machiavellian schemes have reached a dead end. Can it make a U-turn?🧵

Nobody did more to support Hamas than Qatar—money, propaganda—so when this video of Qataris running from Iranian missiles in terror was shared in a Hamas group, what was the universal reaction? Laughter & joy. (1/7) Qatar’s strategy was so clever. Whoever thought it up and implemented it is some true genius—or perhaps a very sharp team of Western consultants. They picked every point of influence in the West and made them their dependents.

It's almost as if they read "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", believed it was real, and decided it to try it themselves. Who knows? That might actually be true, since The Protocols is a bestseller across the Arab world. (2/7)

A week into one of the most audacious military operations in history, what is the state of play? Iran is petulantly lashing out, flailing, while Israel is tearing its way through the regime, inflicting 2 to 3 orders of magnitude more damage on Iran than vice versa. 🧵(1/7) Their attacks are simply depleting their remaining stocks, exposing their launch sites, but doing no damage at all to Israel’s military apparatus. They have killed 22 Israeli civilians, as well as 5 Ukrainians, and done perhaps $50 million worth of property damage.

The cost to them of these attacks, when all is said and done—including the sanctions they forced their people to bear over decades, the R&D, the opportunity cost? Certainly hundreds of billions of dollars. Most of what they built up over 40 years has disappeared in a week. (2/7)

MEHDI: "Wow! All you had to do to make me like Nazi-apologia fan, & fellow Qatari teet-suckler Tucker, was to stop the IRGC, who promised for 50 years to genocide the Jews, from getting the tools to actually do it! It's almost like a horseshoe!" (1/6) This is not a coincidence: you can learn a lot about what really matters to someone by what they are willing to compromise on. For example, Netanyahu and Lapid are bitter rivals—but faced with the threat of nuclear annihilation, they come together, because that is the most important issue.

And so too with Mehdi and Tucker: they can also come together around the issue of the nuclear annihilation of Israel. Because that is the true core of their belief systems; everything else is peripheral, secondary. (2/6)

It's a landscape of broken glass here at the end of my street in Tel Aviv where my friend, the journalist, @ShannaFuld had her apartment trashed by an IRGC missle, as she explains to CNN's Jeremy Diamond. Iran attacks random civilians, Israel eliminates generals. Some photos from the scene, edited to remove any information about the precise location.

Nobody has noticed Netanyahu’s deeply symbolic choice of the name “Rising Lion” for the operation he’s dreamed of for 30 years.

Iran, like Israel, has been a symbolized by a lion for 2,500 years. And now history comes full circle: it was Persia that, after 50 years of Israelite exile, enabled the restoration of Israel in Jerusalem. Now, 2,500 years later, Israel—reborn—repays the favor with perfect symmetry. Persia’s great civilization will be restored, and its occupiers vanquished, after 50 years. Isn’t that beautiful? So, Sinwar's attack will indeed achieve its stated goal: It will end the occupation... of Iran...

What did y’all think "globalize the intifada" meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays? 🧵

It meant this sweet young couple, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, gunned down at an American Jewish Committee event at the Jewish Museum by radicalized monster Elias Rodriguez, chanting “Free, free Palestine.” (1/20) We need to know how it came to this—how did Jew-hate become so normalized that the killer can be assured of widespread support from certain quarters? And what future awaits Jews in the West? TL;DR: It's grim. (2/20)

It took 23 years, but India has brought justice for Daniel Pearl. His last words, "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish."

https://x.com/Saul_Sadka/status/1920455379437199630?s=19

There's an easy way to know if someone has taken Qatari money: Have they said nice things about Qatar?

Qatar isn't Italy or Norway. It's just a little patch of sand with a few gaudy towers and 2,000,000 semi-slaves to serve its little theocratic tribal dictatorship with a population smaller than Lexington, Kentucky. So if you "like" Qatar, it's because they pay you.

Feel free to share examples of people saying nice things about Qatar in the comments. So, if someone goes to Italy, and comes back gushing about how great the food is, they did not necessarily get paid to do this. However, if they have the same reaction to Qatar, they did.

Why is Heinz Ketchup Called "Tomato Seasoning" in Israel—and How Trump's Tariffs could end up being great for Israelis.

The victims might be the monopolies, Netanyahu and the public might be the victors. This presents huge opportunities for the savvy. Here’s how: (1/8) When Israel announced a few days ago that it was cancelling all tariffs on American goods, it was essentially bluffing.

There have been virtually no tariffs on American goods for over 30 years. The total amount collected annually was around $40 million — about 0.02% of the Israeli government’s budget. (2/8)

We can learn some critical facts from the current clan-based protests in Gaza:🧵

1. The Gazans know they leaders failed.
2. How Israel has infiltrated the Hams command.
3. Why the clans are critical to the present and future.
4. How you can defeat ideas, actually. (1/5) 1. The people of Gaza fully understand that their Jihadi leaders have lost the war, and that their suffering continues only because they—and their children—are the final weapons in the arsenal.

This realization is crucial, as it is essential for both sides that the Gazan population—brainwashed into Jihad over decades—can never again be manipulated into believing that self-destructive attacks on their neighbors might somehow bring them joy. (2/5)

Ehud Olmert has revealed publicly for the first time the map of the peace offer that Mahmoud Abbas rejected in 2008 (the picture on the right is Abbas' sketch of it.

Abbas rejected this ridiculously generous offer and now there will never be a Palestinian state in any borders.
The best hope for the Arabs of the southern Levant is something modeled on the UAE, but demilitarized. Perhaps the "United Sheikhdoms of Palestine."

Each of the major cities (Gaza, Khan Yunis, Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Kalkilya, Nablus, Tulkarem, Jenin, Jericho), along with their hinterland villages, will decide how to run their own lives, and can federate to whatever extend they chose.

But the Israeli public is not going to be ready for anything more than that for a very very long time, and they have a veto.

These are the 24 hostages still held in Gaza who will not be among the four released on Thursday. The remains of 34 others, who have been declared dead by the IDF, are also being held.🧵

From top left:

1. Eitan Horn
2. Segev Kalfon
3. Bipin Joshi
4. Guy Gilboa-Dalal
5. Avinatan Or
6.  Yosef Haim Ohana
7.  Nimrod Cohen
8.  Rom Braslavski
9. Evyatar David
10. David Cunio
11. Tamir Nimrodi
12.  Bar Kupershtein
13.  Gali Berman
14.  Eitan Mor
15.  Edan Alexander
16.  Pinta Nattapong
17. Omri Miran
18. Elkana Buchbut
19. Alon Ohel
20. Matan Zangauker
21.  Ziv Berman
22.  Ariel Cunio
23.  Maxim Herkin
24.  Matan Angrest 1. Eitan Horn (37) was captured alongside his brother Iair, there are serious concerns for his heath.

Walls. What are they good for? And why Jordan should beg Israel to annex the Jordan Valley—and why it probably will soon.

Israel built two walls. One a complete success; the other a total failure. The Israel–Egypt border fence succeed while the Israel–Gaza one failed? (1/12)
Faced with an endless wave of drug smuggling and human trafficking from Africa toward Israel across the lawless Sinai desert, and increasing public unrest about the approximately 80,000 illegal immigrants (about 1% of Israel’s population at the time) who had arrived in previous years, Israel built a 150‑mile barrier along the border with Egypt in 2010.

It cost about $3 million per mile and took three years to complete across the mostly mountainous, arid terrain. (2/12)

An intractable and revealing tension:

On the left, a hostage release the way Hamas likes it, portraying a picture of victory.

On the right, the setting for today's release of Arbel Yehoud, Agam Berger and Gadi Mozes—after some production notes from Qatar—featuring a devastated landscape, to present a picture of victimhood.

Both are lies. They are defeated, and they are not victims. When you see images like this, of Palestinian flag bunting used as decoration for the celebration of war crimes aggaisnt Jews, can you blame Jews worldwide for seeing thst flag as a hate symbol? If Abbas was a leader he would protest this and tell Hamas to use their own flags.

The year 2025 marks 20 years since the BDS movement set out to bring about the defeat of Israel by isolating it geopolitically and boycotting it economically. So let's review the results of their campaign: 🧵 Over that period, Israel has overtaken all the major European nations in terms of GDP per capita and now boasts the 8th highest GDP per capita in the world, of all nations with 10 million population.

Since Hamas are now celebrating their “great victory” over Israel, let's review their many achievements over the last 15 months in the light of their initial goals:

1. They failed to conquer Jerusalem.
2. They failed to drive the Jews into the sea.
3. They failed to split Israeli society—instead they united them.
4. They failed to isolate Israel internationally—even the Abraham Accords remain intact.
5. They failed to harm Israel’s economy, which continues to grow.
6. They failed to prove Israel was fragile—if anything, they demonstrated the opposite.
7. They failed to make the Jews “flee back to Europe,” as Israel’s population has increased by 2.5%.
8. They failed to crash Israel’s currency, which is now stronger.
9. They destroyed their own “axis of resistance.”
10. They derailed the geopolitical plans of their backers, Iran, leaving them completely exposed.
11. Their once-fertile land is now devastated, requiring a generation to rebuild.
12. Most of their homes, booby-trapped and used as weapon caches, are destroyed. Clearing the rubble alone will take decades.
13. Their tunnel network is gone.
14. They have alienated almost all their own people.
15. They have lost 99% of their rockets and have no means to rearm.
16. Their leaders are either in hell or in Qatar—or both.
17. Most of their fighters are dead.
18. Over 5,000 of their men will face trial for war crimes.
19. They lost their fighters at a 50:1 ratio compared to Israeli troops.
20. More than 10% of their population has fled, and perhaps another million have lost everything.
21. They caused destruction and losses among their allies in Lebanon.
22. They are now boxed in by the IDF, with no hope of resupply and no means of harming Israelis.
23. They tarnished the reputation of their UNRWA allies.
24. Israel has established a presence in their territory and will maintain constant surveillance.
25. They are being extirpated from the West Bank by their own Palestinian brothers.

What other “great Hamas victories” can you think of? Happy Unvictory Day to Hamas!

It's not a miracle. It's called "concrete." To be honest, I don't really understand why people build beautiful new homes with timber adjacent to forests that combust at regular intervals. Concrete houses will still often get destroyed in fires, but not nearly as often. Particularly if the glazing holds up.

It can't really be to save money? On some of the most expensive building plots on the planet?