Directly on point. No reasonable person can dispute what you’ve set out with precision and eloquence. These dangerous times are all the more reason why Israel needs to exist. Just see what is happening to the Druze in Syria, and Kurdish and Yadzi peoples
I believe antisemitism on the right, is limited to a fringe, kook "right winger."
While antisemitism on the left, is a given with the dominant progressive populace of the upper middle class.
.
And with that, America has firmly entered the territory occupied by Vienna 1910, Berlin 1935, Paris 1940. "Friends and neighbors" of the "fully" assimilated are in fact all to willing to look the other way, or find acceptable rationale, for violence against Jews.
.
For which there is clearly no easy answer; that's why it keeps recurring.
I think you have also left off one of the main antagonists in this drama and that is Qatar. They are aligned with Iran and patrons of Hamas. Trump and his envoy are enthralled to them.They are listening to the Qataris rather than to Israel. We are being led by fools. Not that the alternative would have been better for Israel, in fact it would have been much worse. Truth be told, Israel as she has done in the past needs to forge her own path. Do what she needs to do.
Very good so good there is probably not much more to say. Oh and yes at this time its more the leftist nuts out there. But there are still good influential right-winger nuts out there.
Yeshar Coach Peter! I heard Rabbi Uri Sharki the other day talking about Rabbi Akiva's famous "All is foreseen and freedom of choice is granted". His point was complementary to your initial point that the concept of "choice is granted" is still radical to this day. Just look at all the people around the world claiming their life sucks because someone of some group is preventing them from succeeding. I don't have a choice, someone is preventing me from success...
PS, releasing the hostages should not end the war in Gaza IMO. Hamas as a military and governing force should be completely eradicated at the very least.
Having been calling out Jew Hatred for years, and most particularly since 7 Oct 2023, I can say empirically that "right wing" Jew Hatred today - whatever it used to be - is a fringe group of morons, with no real impact on events. Sure, when a former TV host turned podcaster highlights a particular dipshit, there is a flurry among the chattering classes.
But the millions marching in North American and European streets are all funded by leftwingers. The cash and drive for organized Jew Hatred comes from the Democrats. The evil traitor Rashida Tlaib has a Fakestinian flag outside her office in the building the taxpayers pay for.
Had this been 1942 and a hypothetical Rep. Schmidt had had a Nazi flag outside his office, he would have been arrested and tried for treason.
Same thing should be happening now. But it is not. Why not?
I hope you have shared this with The Times of Israel based on their invitation to publish there and sent it to other publications read by Jewish people.
Powerful, Peter. Thank you for making the space, time, and guts to write it.I and Adele touched on these ideas in our Zoomcast from this last Sunday. Go give a watch and listen, if you would.
There were already many two state solutions put forward by Israel and various third parties, first in 1948, and then 3 or 4 times subsequently. Every one of them was refused, outright, with no room for further negotiations, by Islamic Arab, so-called Palestinian, leaders. Their rejection has always been absolute; their only goal, both plainly stated and often acted upon, has been the total destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, and often, the death, or enslavement by Sharia, of all Jews. There can no longer be a true two-state solution without a tectonic change in the Islamic world. Theirs' is a religious war against the Jews, period. It is Jihad made plain. While I don't know if moderation will ever come to the Islamists of the Middle East, I can guess that it may either be never or a very, very long time coming. Perhaps the only thing that might bring that opening for real peace, would be, ironically, the total and acknowledged military defeat of the wide range of Islamic forces against Israel, like those defeats of Germany and Japan in WWII, when the losers of the war accepted defeat and opened themselves to change by necessity.
Antisemitism in the West, however, will only be defeated when Jews themselves, especially those congenital "Progressive" Democrats, and enough other people of good will stand up and loudly say no to the huge, pervasive and powerful Jew hate on the woke Left and the much smaller in scope, but equally fetid, Jew hate of the Tucker Carlson wing of the Right. As an optimist, I think I see a minor trend toward that positive goal starting to coalesce, mostly notably due to the recent work of Trump himself and the majority of the MAGA coalition. As always, we shall see.
As always, Peter, I appreciate your clarity, and I share your support for Israel's quest to recover the hostages and destroy Hamas. However, I cannot help but think that there must be a way to feed starving people without, occasionally, under duress, opening fire on them. I don't know the answer, but surely smart and determined people can find a solution to this problem if it is a priority. And it should be, for Israel's own reputation if not for the sake of the lives of the Palestinians who are starving. When Israel has lost the sympathy of people like Omer Bartov, an Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University and veteran of the Yom Kippur War who accused his own country of genocide in the pages of the NY Times, I fear it may be losing its standing among the nations of the world; indeed, may already have lost it.
I read the article. There are parts that are compelling. In large part, I see it as having a political agenda — as most things in life do. The political schisms in Israel, like in the US go deep. Here’s another view: Feeding civilians in Gaza should be simple—just bring food to hungry people. But nothing in this war, or any other is simple. Hamas has a well-documented history of intercepting aid: stealing it, hoarding it, selling it, using it to reward loyalty or punish dissent. It’s not just theft—it’s strategy. Then there’s the fact that these aid lines aren’t orderly queues; they’re chaotic, desperate crowds, and among the genuinely starving are Hamas operatives in plain clothes—armed, embedded, and indistinguishable.
So when you send soldiers to distribute food at close range, you’re not just risking a bad headline. You’re risking their lives. You’re walking them into a trap. And that’s not hypothetical—there are credible reports of Hamas firing into its own crowds to create exactly the kind of carnage that plays well on the nightly news. The last thing Hamas wants is to have an entity other than themselves to distribute food. The food is both its source of economic staying power and “proof” of its ability to govern the strip — which is dwindling daily.
Your points are all valid. But as a Jew, I neither want to see Israel attacked as it was on 10/7 nor slaughtering starving civilians--or even being accused of that. Here's a statement you can pass on to Bibi:, free of charge, which he can use to get out of this quagmire "On behalf of the Israeli people, I am declaring an immediate cease fire, which will last 30 days presuming we are not attacked during that time. We give you these 30 days in order for you to return all Israeli hostages. If you do so, the cease fire will continue as long as you do not attack Israel. During these 30 days, any organization that wishes to bring food or medical supplies to Gaza may do so providing they pass through an Israeli checkpoint and show they are unarmed. At the end of 30 days, if the hostages have not all been returned, we will attack Gaza in full force until Hamas has been destroyed and we have recovered every hostage. The world has 30 days to feed the starving. You have 30 days to return the hostages. The alternative is all out war. The choice is yours." Let's see if any aid organization will walk into Gaza unarmed to feed the starving. Let's give the Palestinians a chance to return the hostages in exchange for peace. This would be a win-win for Israel--either the hostages are returned or the world can see that even a last chance for peace will not persuade their captors to let them go.
Yes. Israel’s tactics are under intense scrutiny, particularly regarding civilian harm and access to aid. But it’s dishonest and dangerously simplistic to say the humanitarian crisis is “all Israel’s fault.” The reality is far more complex, involving a brutal terrorist regime, a devastating war, and the manipulation of humanitarian aid as a weapon of war.
Things to consider, should you wish to tweak your proposal before sending it to Bibi…
1. Hamas will never release all the hostages. Neither the living or dead. Never. They are their lifeblood, their last desperate hold on political and physical survival.
2. There is no entity that will ever enter a war zone unarmed or without the protection of arms.
Let’s get on the phone to discuss a new plan. I’m serious.
I would certainly never say the crisis is "all Israel's fault." You may be right on both points, but my message is designed to return Israel to the moral high ground they seem to have lost in the eyes of the world. If Hamas won't release the hostages in exchange for peace, they reveal themselves for what they are: the murderous warmongers behind October 7 and the entire Palestinian crisis. If no one will enter Gaza unarmed to feed the Gazans, they will be conceding that without the threat of lethal force it is not safe to do so; let the army of a neutral third country which has condemned Israel's actions (say the UK, Australia, or Canada) defend the aid workers if necessary. Israel is in desperate need of a PR strategy as much as a military or humanitarian one. I'm offering all three. But yes, by all means, let's talk--we can hash this out some more. Call me!
1 is certainly THE priority. 2 is impossible unless Israel plans to kill every person in Gaza who might one day sign up for Hamas and receive arms from its allies in Iran, Lebanon and other Arab countries. Shall we kill every boy child born in Gaza? That has bad historical echoes to the time of Moses. As it is, Hamas has been functionally destroyed for the time being--Israel should take the victory because doing more will make it a pariah on the world stage, and that will potentially have severe consequences for its well-being moving forward. The next US president may cut off arms to Israel, may introduce sanctions, if Israel does not restore its moral standing in the eyes of the world. We as Jews may believe Israel is in the right, but we are .2% of the world and must live among the other 99.8% of the people of the world. Now is the time to challenge the Palestinians with an offer of Peace for the remaining hostages. If, as Peter believes, they will never return the hostages, at least they will be revealed (AGAIN!) as the instigators and prolongers of the suffering their own people are forced to endure.
Peter, I don't understand why you limit your criticism to specific Muslim groups but never use the word Muslim or Islam in the article. It is Islam and the useful idiots for Islam that are to blame, including leftist Jews, who are intentionally or ignorantly, aligned with the Jew-haters. A great number of the useful idiots, including leftist Jews, such as Jeffrey Sachs and Glenn Greenwald, are aligned with the Jew-haters because they share a common religion, the religion (and hoax) of climate change. The leftists ignore the fact that they are the next victims in the Dar-al-Harb, Islam's war against the infidel, and consider it much more important to demonize Israel and acquire vast support for their climate agenda that way (because what leftist doesn't believe that the ends justify the means), than it is to see the larger picture that if Islam rules, the leftists won't be left alive to conquer the fossil fuel industry which finances Islam's war against the infidel.
Nailed it. Completely. This is now. Thanks for your voice, thanks for standing strong. It’s hard to be right in a time, so wrong. God have mercy on us all.
It's a classic case of blaming the victim and turning justice upside down.
Ralph Keyes wrote, in "The Hidden History of Coined Words," that Some words were born of necessity. “None was greater than the need for a way to describe Nazi atrocities during World War II. How do you depict in words the magnitude of this carnage? Existing terms simply weren’t up to the task. ‘Mass murder’ didn’t have enough scope or weight to describe Hitler’s attempt to wipe Jews and others from the face of the earth.” Keyes found that “in 1943, New York lawyer Raphael Lemkin—a Polish-Jewish refugee who lost 49 relatives to the Nazis—combined genos (Greek for tribe) with cide (Latin for killing) and came up with genocide. … Lemkin’s concept, amplified in his 1944 book "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe," figured prominently in the postwar prosecution of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg.” https://web.archive.org/web/20210622234252/https://hamodia.com/columns/words-old-new-nu/
I despise HAMAS and believe it should be obliterated. That goes for any individual or group that calls for the wholesale destruction of groups of people. Yes, all the hostages should be freed. There should be a clear 2-state solution. As long as there are countries with official religions, there is no reason that Israel cannot be a JEWISH state. In fact, it must be.
Directly on point. No reasonable person can dispute what you’ve set out with precision and eloquence. These dangerous times are all the more reason why Israel needs to exist. Just see what is happening to the Druze in Syria, and Kurdish and Yadzi peoples
I believe antisemitism on the right, is limited to a fringe, kook "right winger."
While antisemitism on the left, is a given with the dominant progressive populace of the upper middle class.
.
And with that, America has firmly entered the territory occupied by Vienna 1910, Berlin 1935, Paris 1940. "Friends and neighbors" of the "fully" assimilated are in fact all to willing to look the other way, or find acceptable rationale, for violence against Jews.
.
For which there is clearly no easy answer; that's why it keeps recurring.
Oh, friends and neighbors didn’t simply look the other way. They actively made sure the Jews were carted away to death camps.
I think you have also left off one of the main antagonists in this drama and that is Qatar. They are aligned with Iran and patrons of Hamas. Trump and his envoy are enthralled to them.They are listening to the Qataris rather than to Israel. We are being led by fools. Not that the alternative would have been better for Israel, in fact it would have been much worse. Truth be told, Israel as she has done in the past needs to forge her own path. Do what she needs to do.
If I mention Qatar once more, I’ll sound like a broken record. And yes. Yes.
I think we need to keep talking about Qatar. I don’t care if I sound like a broken record. Pointing out evil is a necessity.
There is much more to say. Their influence— all negative — goes way beyond even what most “informed” people are aware of.
He left off the main antagonist - Islam.
Very good so good there is probably not much more to say. Oh and yes at this time its more the leftist nuts out there. But there are still good influential right-winger nuts out there.
Yeshar Coach Peter! I heard Rabbi Uri Sharki the other day talking about Rabbi Akiva's famous "All is foreseen and freedom of choice is granted". His point was complementary to your initial point that the concept of "choice is granted" is still radical to this day. Just look at all the people around the world claiming their life sucks because someone of some group is preventing them from succeeding. I don't have a choice, someone is preventing me from success...
PS, releasing the hostages should not end the war in Gaza IMO. Hamas as a military and governing force should be completely eradicated at the very least.
Let’s just say, “end of this phase of the war.” The road ahead is many times longer than most believe it to be.
עם הנצח לא מפחד מדרך ארוכה ;)
Amen, Amen, Amen. A thousand times Amen.
Having been calling out Jew Hatred for years, and most particularly since 7 Oct 2023, I can say empirically that "right wing" Jew Hatred today - whatever it used to be - is a fringe group of morons, with no real impact on events. Sure, when a former TV host turned podcaster highlights a particular dipshit, there is a flurry among the chattering classes.
But the millions marching in North American and European streets are all funded by leftwingers. The cash and drive for organized Jew Hatred comes from the Democrats. The evil traitor Rashida Tlaib has a Fakestinian flag outside her office in the building the taxpayers pay for.
Had this been 1942 and a hypothetical Rep. Schmidt had had a Nazi flag outside his office, he would have been arrested and tried for treason.
Same thing should be happening now. But it is not. Why not?
Mysteries. All of it.
It’s turtles, all the way down.
🐢
🐢
🐢
I hope you have shared this with The Times of Israel based on their invitation to publish there and sent it to other publications read by Jewish people.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-train-of-jew-hate-left-and-right/
Fantastic!!
Powerful, Peter. Thank you for making the space, time, and guts to write it.I and Adele touched on these ideas in our Zoomcast from this last Sunday. Go give a watch and listen, if you would.
Great essay by Peter.
There were already many two state solutions put forward by Israel and various third parties, first in 1948, and then 3 or 4 times subsequently. Every one of them was refused, outright, with no room for further negotiations, by Islamic Arab, so-called Palestinian, leaders. Their rejection has always been absolute; their only goal, both plainly stated and often acted upon, has been the total destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, and often, the death, or enslavement by Sharia, of all Jews. There can no longer be a true two-state solution without a tectonic change in the Islamic world. Theirs' is a religious war against the Jews, period. It is Jihad made plain. While I don't know if moderation will ever come to the Islamists of the Middle East, I can guess that it may either be never or a very, very long time coming. Perhaps the only thing that might bring that opening for real peace, would be, ironically, the total and acknowledged military defeat of the wide range of Islamic forces against Israel, like those defeats of Germany and Japan in WWII, when the losers of the war accepted defeat and opened themselves to change by necessity.
Antisemitism in the West, however, will only be defeated when Jews themselves, especially those congenital "Progressive" Democrats, and enough other people of good will stand up and loudly say no to the huge, pervasive and powerful Jew hate on the woke Left and the much smaller in scope, but equally fetid, Jew hate of the Tucker Carlson wing of the Right. As an optimist, I think I see a minor trend toward that positive goal starting to coalesce, mostly notably due to the recent work of Trump himself and the majority of the MAGA coalition. As always, we shall see.
First 2 state solution was proposed in 1937 by the Peel Commission. Rejected by the Arabs, accepted by the Jews.
As always, Peter, I appreciate your clarity, and I share your support for Israel's quest to recover the hostages and destroy Hamas. However, I cannot help but think that there must be a way to feed starving people without, occasionally, under duress, opening fire on them. I don't know the answer, but surely smart and determined people can find a solution to this problem if it is a priority. And it should be, for Israel's own reputation if not for the sake of the lives of the Palestinians who are starving. When Israel has lost the sympathy of people like Omer Bartov, an Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University and veteran of the Yom Kippur War who accused his own country of genocide in the pages of the NY Times, I fear it may be losing its standing among the nations of the world; indeed, may already have lost it.
I read the article. There are parts that are compelling. In large part, I see it as having a political agenda — as most things in life do. The political schisms in Israel, like in the US go deep. Here’s another view: Feeding civilians in Gaza should be simple—just bring food to hungry people. But nothing in this war, or any other is simple. Hamas has a well-documented history of intercepting aid: stealing it, hoarding it, selling it, using it to reward loyalty or punish dissent. It’s not just theft—it’s strategy. Then there’s the fact that these aid lines aren’t orderly queues; they’re chaotic, desperate crowds, and among the genuinely starving are Hamas operatives in plain clothes—armed, embedded, and indistinguishable.
So when you send soldiers to distribute food at close range, you’re not just risking a bad headline. You’re risking their lives. You’re walking them into a trap. And that’s not hypothetical—there are credible reports of Hamas firing into its own crowds to create exactly the kind of carnage that plays well on the nightly news. The last thing Hamas wants is to have an entity other than themselves to distribute food. The food is both its source of economic staying power and “proof” of its ability to govern the strip — which is dwindling daily.
Your points are all valid. But as a Jew, I neither want to see Israel attacked as it was on 10/7 nor slaughtering starving civilians--or even being accused of that. Here's a statement you can pass on to Bibi:, free of charge, which he can use to get out of this quagmire "On behalf of the Israeli people, I am declaring an immediate cease fire, which will last 30 days presuming we are not attacked during that time. We give you these 30 days in order for you to return all Israeli hostages. If you do so, the cease fire will continue as long as you do not attack Israel. During these 30 days, any organization that wishes to bring food or medical supplies to Gaza may do so providing they pass through an Israeli checkpoint and show they are unarmed. At the end of 30 days, if the hostages have not all been returned, we will attack Gaza in full force until Hamas has been destroyed and we have recovered every hostage. The world has 30 days to feed the starving. You have 30 days to return the hostages. The alternative is all out war. The choice is yours." Let's see if any aid organization will walk into Gaza unarmed to feed the starving. Let's give the Palestinians a chance to return the hostages in exchange for peace. This would be a win-win for Israel--either the hostages are returned or the world can see that even a last chance for peace will not persuade their captors to let them go.
I appreciate the sentiment in your reply Jeff.
Yes. Israel’s tactics are under intense scrutiny, particularly regarding civilian harm and access to aid. But it’s dishonest and dangerously simplistic to say the humanitarian crisis is “all Israel’s fault.” The reality is far more complex, involving a brutal terrorist regime, a devastating war, and the manipulation of humanitarian aid as a weapon of war.
Things to consider, should you wish to tweak your proposal before sending it to Bibi…
1. Hamas will never release all the hostages. Neither the living or dead. Never. They are their lifeblood, their last desperate hold on political and physical survival.
2. There is no entity that will ever enter a war zone unarmed or without the protection of arms.
Let’s get on the phone to discuss a new plan. I’m serious.
☮️
I would certainly never say the crisis is "all Israel's fault." You may be right on both points, but my message is designed to return Israel to the moral high ground they seem to have lost in the eyes of the world. If Hamas won't release the hostages in exchange for peace, they reveal themselves for what they are: the murderous warmongers behind October 7 and the entire Palestinian crisis. If no one will enter Gaza unarmed to feed the Gazans, they will be conceding that without the threat of lethal force it is not safe to do so; let the army of a neutral third country which has condemned Israel's actions (say the UK, Australia, or Canada) defend the aid workers if necessary. Israel is in desperate need of a PR strategy as much as a military or humanitarian one. I'm offering all three. But yes, by all means, let's talk--we can hash this out some more. Call me!
It's a thorny problem. A serious one. I'll give you a call Jeff.
You appear to forget that Israel has two goals in Gaza:
1. to get back the live hostages and the return of the dead hostage bodies.
2. to ensure as best as possible that Hamas cannot reconstitute and again attack Israel either by land or with missiles.
Yes. Sorry, if I didn't make that clear.
1 is certainly THE priority. 2 is impossible unless Israel plans to kill every person in Gaza who might one day sign up for Hamas and receive arms from its allies in Iran, Lebanon and other Arab countries. Shall we kill every boy child born in Gaza? That has bad historical echoes to the time of Moses. As it is, Hamas has been functionally destroyed for the time being--Israel should take the victory because doing more will make it a pariah on the world stage, and that will potentially have severe consequences for its well-being moving forward. The next US president may cut off arms to Israel, may introduce sanctions, if Israel does not restore its moral standing in the eyes of the world. We as Jews may believe Israel is in the right, but we are .2% of the world and must live among the other 99.8% of the people of the world. Now is the time to challenge the Palestinians with an offer of Peace for the remaining hostages. If, as Peter believes, they will never return the hostages, at least they will be revealed (AGAIN!) as the instigators and prolongers of the suffering their own people are forced to endure.
There is much to consider here.
Peter, I don't understand why you limit your criticism to specific Muslim groups but never use the word Muslim or Islam in the article. It is Islam and the useful idiots for Islam that are to blame, including leftist Jews, who are intentionally or ignorantly, aligned with the Jew-haters. A great number of the useful idiots, including leftist Jews, such as Jeffrey Sachs and Glenn Greenwald, are aligned with the Jew-haters because they share a common religion, the religion (and hoax) of climate change. The leftists ignore the fact that they are the next victims in the Dar-al-Harb, Islam's war against the infidel, and consider it much more important to demonize Israel and acquire vast support for their climate agenda that way (because what leftist doesn't believe that the ends justify the means), than it is to see the larger picture that if Islam rules, the leftists won't be left alive to conquer the fossil fuel industry which finances Islam's war against the infidel.
Nailed it. Completely. This is now. Thanks for your voice, thanks for standing strong. It’s hard to be right in a time, so wrong. God have mercy on us all.
Right on, Peter.
It's a classic case of blaming the victim and turning justice upside down.
Ralph Keyes wrote, in "The Hidden History of Coined Words," that Some words were born of necessity. “None was greater than the need for a way to describe Nazi atrocities during World War II. How do you depict in words the magnitude of this carnage? Existing terms simply weren’t up to the task. ‘Mass murder’ didn’t have enough scope or weight to describe Hitler’s attempt to wipe Jews and others from the face of the earth.” Keyes found that “in 1943, New York lawyer Raphael Lemkin—a Polish-Jewish refugee who lost 49 relatives to the Nazis—combined genos (Greek for tribe) with cide (Latin for killing) and came up with genocide. … Lemkin’s concept, amplified in his 1944 book "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe," figured prominently in the postwar prosecution of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg.” https://web.archive.org/web/20210622234252/https://hamodia.com/columns/words-old-new-nu/
Unfortunately those who need to read this and process the truth
Will not
Bravo and thanks
I despise HAMAS and believe it should be obliterated. That goes for any individual or group that calls for the wholesale destruction of groups of people. Yes, all the hostages should be freed. There should be a clear 2-state solution. As long as there are countries with official religions, there is no reason that Israel cannot be a JEWISH state. In fact, it must be.
In fact — it “is.”
And that is an excellent thing!