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🧵About 2 weeks before the 2005 Gaza pullout, my editor sent me into the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif to embed myself with the residents. I was one of the few reporters who sympathized with the residents, viewing their forced evacuation as a moral and strategic blunder.
A salad. A simple, delicious crystal (lalik) lettuce salad. This kind of salad is on the menu of almost every foodie-lover restaurant in Tel Aviv, which, by the way, is almost always packed. I never miss these salads on my visits to Israel.
Israel is still in the midst of a multifront war. We’ve battled. We’ve been massacred. We’ve lost our men and women. And yet, somehow, the fresh, scrumptious raw ingredients make their way from farms and vendors to restaurant owners and chefs, who create the perfectly balanced mix of crisp lettuce, nuts, vinaigrette and cheese.
There are still people here who, no matter what is thrown at them, refuse to give up on life. While the men and women in uniform protect them, these people deliver to your table an ingenious salad.
The love for human creation and God’s creations. The effort behind every plant watered. Every commercial transaction—all to deliver a taste of something healthy yet flavorful. To remember: we are human. We strive to enjoy. We strive to be happy. And we will be.
And this salad is why Israel can never be destroyed. And why her enemies will ultimately fail.
(Pic: Norder Restaurant)
Orit Arfa retweeted
🚨 YES, OCTOBER 7 CAN BE LEGALLY CLASSIFIED AS GENOCIDE!
Avraham Shalev, @russell_sl, director of international law at the @KoheletForum, argues that Hamas’ October 7 attack satisfies the central legal requirement for genocide: intent to destroy a national, ethnic or religious group, in whole or in part.
His case rests on three layers:
1. Hamas’ explicitly eliminationist ideology.
2. Years of planning for Israel’s destruction, including operational orders to enter Israeli communities and kill as many people as possible.
3. And the attack itself — directed heavily at civilian communities and accompanied by atrocities that, he argues, demonstrate genocidal intent.
Shalev says Hamas should not escape the genocide label simply because Israel’s military stopped it from killing more people:
“The only thing that prevented Hamas from killing more was its lack of capacity.”
Meanwhile, he argues, the global conversation has largely inverted the story: a war that began with what he describes as an act of genocide is now overwhelmingly framed around accusations of genocide against Israel.
🤖 Made with AI
Orit Arfa retweeted
Antizionists want to commit another genocide of Israelis and escalate their global hate movement. They are using a campaign around ‘settler violence’ to manufacture consent for this. Failure to recognize this or do due diligence in examining the activist and terrorist involvement behind these media spectacles will harm Jewish communities.
Journalists be like:
Pro-Palestinian riots in France? Nah. Let’s leave those to civilian reporters with iPhones. A bit too dangerous for me, even with police around. Anyway, if the government ignores them, why shouldn’t we?
But predictable scuffles in tiny pockets of Judea and Samaria/the West Bank? Bring it on! Got my press vest ready. Maybe I’ll even win a Pulitzer if I can catch some Jews behaving badly. Bonus points if a Jew throws a rock at me.
This is getting out of hand, and it’s all so sad to witness.
A lot of good conservatives are justifiably upset about NatCon’s panel on the American Right, but rather than engaging in difficult conversations and showing genuine humility and calm in response to criticism on such a sensitive, serious topic, people on all sides, but particularly the panelists and their milieu, are getting defensive, taking cheap shots at critics, and calling on their friends/associates to go to bat for them. It’s spin after spin after spin.
And now we have good Americans fighting good Americans when we have far more dangerous enemies at our doorstep. I thought nationalism was supposed to be about maintaining national cohesion. Where is the adult in the room?!
James Lindsay, "anti-Communist," accused Amanda Milius of dog-whistling to groypers because she stood next to a portrait of the most famous anti-Communist strategist in American history.
Michael Anton with a must-read in American Mind.
americanmind.org/salvo/james…
Orit Arfa retweeted
That is a fair defense for some of the speakers, given the context of their other work. And even if a few speakers might deserve criticism, your basic point is vital: the problem is, and the focus must be, on the problem they described.
The answer must be on fighting the problem, not indulging it not for Israel’s sake, but for America’s.
Israeli society has begun a great change from the war and is on a right path. What worries me is the rest of the west. Europe is all but gone and if its future generations have any hope, it is in the wake already of great agony.
America is not gone, but at the crossroads. If its youth continue to embrace the sentiments as described I believe accurately in the conference, and influential public figures tap into it or embrace it rather than recoil and rally to challenge, change it and follow a path akin to Israel’s next generations, America’s future as a great power is questionable.
The magnitude of the calamity of reduced American greatness must be understood. Yes, the Jews will suffer, not only because of antisemitism but because the fate of the Jewish people has been inextricable linked, as the historic record bears out, with the advance of human freedom. Jews suffer most in the most repressive regimes and eras and thrive most in freer societies and thrive in freer eras.
But it ultimately isn’t about Jews. The lifestyle we Americans enjoy is held up by our greatness and power. The incredible wealth, safety and peace Americans enjoy and which leads to such societal confidence, innovation and enterprise, was delivered to us by generations of Americans who fought for it and understood their personal role and responsibility to sacrifice to secure, protect and nourish their freedom. When a generation arises in the U.S. that feels it is entitled to the benefits of that greatness but exempt for sharing the burden of the cost of maintaining or even growing that burden, then the it all can very rapidly be lost.
The debate over Israel has become, as the Jewish question in societies often has before, a sort of medium for the internal debate in a society. The debate over support for Israel is a vehicle for debating about ourselves.
The problem is that as a conservative, if Israel has become an emotive symbol of the internal debate over the nature of conservatism, then the positive aspects of Israel should be tapped by conservatives as a model and rallying point to guide and motivate ourselves. If Israeli youth have found valor, cultural vitality, self-reliance and faith and other forms of what we once saw as “Cincinnatan Virtues,” then we can use our alliance, affinity and interactions with the Jewish state as adrenaline to trigger a revival in American youth of the same virtues.
But there are those in the conservative camp, however, who instead use Israel and Jews as a negative rallying point to attack American culture and portray America as evil and even go back and take the most decisive and exemplary moments of American greatness, such as World War II, and portray us as the evil problem, which is sadly becoming a more pervasive view in our youth. They are, I believe, still as rather small minority in the camp, but their views are far more current among the young generations.
But that cannot be accepted. The use of Israel as a negative rallying cry, which has rotted already evil leftist thought, has descended in its parallel on the right into antisemitism. And that antisemitism will, as it did on the left, rot the brain. It always does.
This is cancerous to America’s health even more than Israel’s. Because American society, as Israel’s, can really only be defeated from within. And Israel is already turning itself around.
As such, the purveyors of this sort of thinking in the conservative cause must be defeated, not indulged as resolutely as we must defeat the left. Their continued currency as purported conservatives is incompatible with an effort to secure and grow American greatness.
I don't think this is fair to the speakers. They were asked to give talks on the topic of New Right thinking in the US. It is at least *possible* that some, or most, wd agree w/@Wurmserscribit overall (I certainly do!), but that was not their assignment.
Some zingers from my grandfather, Holocaust survivor Henryk Arfa, in his plea to Christians:
—Christianity is a spin-off of Judaism. If not for the Jews and Judaism, there would be no Jesus Christ.
—For producing such a great individual as Jesus was in his time, Christianity should be grateful to Jews.
—Remember, Christians: by ridiculing, abusing, and mistreating Jews, the blood-brothers of Jesus Christ, you Christians are ridiculing your own God, Jesus Christ.
—Because of the wrong interpretation of the profile of Christianity, I, Henryk Arfa, became a victim of the circumstances of the Second World War for no reason at all.
—Jesus Christ could never have reached such heights of morality without knowing the fundamentals of Judaism and the Torah!
—Christians and the Christian world: Stop ignoring the value of the Jewish people and of Judaism, because Judaism is educational in nature and stands for ethics and moral behavior for all mankind in the whole world!
—Every person should take a course in Judaism.
Full letter: oritarfa.substack.com/p/chri…
At NatCon’s panel on the American Right, Israeli Jews were hit over the head with the message that Israel is losing “young people” (particularly young men) on the American right who don’t feel connected to the tragedy of the Shoah or to biblical sentimentality about Israel.
In Israel, we are also losing “young people.” Literally. All the time.
Israeli “young people” can give a lesson to their American counterparts in courage, valor, and unbelievable self-sacrifice for one’s nation and family.
WATCH this heart-wrenching video of the girlfriend of a 21-year-old soldier who put everything on the line in Lebanon to defend his country from the same enemies and ideologies that threaten America.
I hope her pain is one they will never have to know.
If these “young people” cannot be moved by their counterparts in Israel risking it all to fight our shared enemies, then I’m not sure they are worth catering to, and it’s up to Israel and her friends to nurture relationships with sensible, honorable young people—true conservatives—who are capable of growing a healthy conservative movement in America.
@AmandaMilius @L0m3z @docMJP @WilliamWolfe
Orit Arfa retweeted
Antizionist protests are exploding across Europe right now precisely because of the recent October 7 anniversary. It is not a reaction to Israel’s military response. It is a movement that is entirely based on supporting genocide of Israelis.
Duh!
Since this is making the rounds: Yes, Leonardo da Vinci was Jewish.
tabletmag.com/sections/histo…
As I listened to excerpts of NatCon speeches in which Christian chastised Jews for being too liberal, for expecting Americans to care about Israel, or for accusing too many of hating them—all on October 7—I found myself turning to the words of my grandfather, Henryk Arfa.
A Holocaust survivor, "Saba" wrote this plea to the Christian world decades ago. Today, his words feel like my answer to the false prophets on that stage.
The letter would have made the perfect speech! Here is an excerpt:
"Now Christians, remember again, ridiculing, abusing, and mistreating the Jews, the blood-brothers of your savior Jesus Christ, and calling those Jews, the blood-brothers of Jesus Christ, names and insulting them, is a crime against humanity. What a shame, ignoring your own God, Jesus Christ. You Christians want to be rewarded by Him for your ignorance. God rewards people for doing good deeds and punishes them severely for performing bad deeds against humanity.
"I, Henryk Arfa, appeal to the good side of Christianity to make Christians understand that Christianity stands for morals, ethics, respect for others and the performance of good deeds toward one’s fellow man and humanity on a daily basis, to please God’s will forever and ever.
"I, Holocaust survivor Henryk Arfa, ask Christians to know that Jesus Christ’s greatness and wisdom derived from knowing the fundamentals of Judaism. The Christian world, and also the Islamic world, must recognize the devotion of the Jewish people to the welfare and peace of the whole world.
"Christians and the Christian world: Stop ignoring the value of the Jewish people and of Judaism, because Judaism is educational in nature and stands for ethics and moral behavior for all mankind in the whole world!
"Every person should take a course in Judaism."
Full letter: oritarfa.substack.com/p/chri…
My October 7th was March 9, 2002: the Moment Café attack in Jerusalem. The moment that shook my world.
It was my neighborhood hangout. I lost a man I dated—a good man—and people I knew from the nightlife scene. They were sitting at the bars, drinking beers, enjoying life, when a jihadi suicide bomber ripped their bodies apart. Eleven murdered. Dozens wounded. I was almost there that night.
That moment completely changed my perception of the “peace process.” We Jews do not need to wait for more brutal massacres—beheadings, gang rapes, and the burning of entire Jewish families alive—to understand that we are the true victims of attempted genocide and must act forcefully for our self-interest and survival.
Ich habe auch einen Beitrag. Kol HaKavod an @Achgut_com dafür, dass ihr immer dorthin geht, wo andere Medien nicht hingehen wollen
#Buchtipp
Herausgegeben von Simone Schermann und @ChaimNoll könnt Ihr dieses wichtige Buch hier vorbestellen:
shop.achgut.com/collections/…
Eine Rezension von @shlomosapiens auf @niusde_
nius.de/politik/buch-7-oktob…
A new era for American news, culture and entertainment set to begin Oct. 7.
We will (Sky)dance again!
The merged Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery will officially be named “Skydance,” according to chairman and CEO David Ellison:
• The deal forming the new Skydance is set to close Oct. 6
• The merger will combine two of Hollywood’s biggest movie studios; the HBO Max and Paramount+ streaming services; and TV businesses including CBS, CNN, MTV, TBS, Comedy Central, Food Network and more
• The new company’s entertainment franchises will span Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, “Game of Thrones” and other HBO hits, the DC Universe, “Yellowstone,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Top Gun” and the Nickelodeon kids’ empire.
variety.com/2026/film/news/n…
Looking for a praise song to sing in celebration of God’s wondrous rescue of His people through His angels on that flydubai flight? You have a few options:
oritarfa.substack.com/p/a-ta…



















