Make the robot do it.
Somewhere beyond the sea
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Simplicity retweeted
Why they NEED it to be a genocide.
From a live event at Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue, Encino, California. With Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz and Reverend Drew Sams, Senior Pastor of Bel Air Church.
Simplicity retweeted
Palestinian illegal "ghost structures" in Judea and Samaria (Area C) are unauthorized buildings—often empty luxury villas, multi-story homes, or incomplete shells—erected without Israeli permits on state land under full Israeli civil and security control per the Oslo Accords. Groups like Regavim document 90,000–100,000+ such structures, many unoccupied (owners abroad) and placed strategically to claim territory and create contiguity, following the PA’s Fayyad Plan. Israel treats them as illegal and has stepped up demolitions.
Simplicity retweeted
The vote count is complete. The Reservists and Economic Party received the support of approximately 152,000 voters, who appear to have come in roughly equal numbers from both political “blocs,” and from socioeconomic clusters reflecting the full political, economic, and identity spectrum of those who rushed to the front lines to defend the country on October 7. In doing so, we became the only party in these elections whose agenda and voters alike transcended the division into political “blocs.”
But it is possible that, despite not being represented in the Knesset, the election results will nevertheless allow us to achieve the very thing for which we sought to enter it. The results hold enormous political potential. Precisely because neither side got what it wanted, an opportunity has opened up to form the government Israel needs: a broad, centrist Zionist government that will finally begin confronting the country's fundamental challenges.
What do the results tell us?
Netanyahu's coalition does not have a majority to return in its current composition. That is over.
The change bloc does not have a majority to form a government without relying on parties and members of Knesset who hold explicitly antizionist and Palestinianist positions.
And it seems it will take time to fully grasp the significance of the scale of political support for anti-Zionist Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties, especially in a scenario of their full voter mobilization. The possibility of political cooperation between anti-Zionist Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties, and the emergence of an “antizionist bloc” that increasingly places the interests of these two groups above the shared Zionist interest, represents a strategic threat to the future of the State of Israel. For Zionist parties to rely on anti-Zionist parties in order to defeat a Zionist political rival is dangerous behavior.
And here lies the paradox: an outcome that makes almost nobody happy individually could turn out to be an excellent result for the State of Israel and Zionism. Precisely because neither side can get everything it wants, the necessity of working together has emerged.
The right government for Israel at this moment is a government of Likud, Yashar, Lieberman, and Bennett. A broad, centrist Zionist government, without the ultra-Orthodox and Arab parties, and also without the less centrist Zionist parties.
Such a government could, if it chose to, commit to preserving the existing legal situation, under which there are no longer any arrangements granting exemptions from service and the law currently in force is the Defense Service Law. It could ensure that state services and public-sector positions are reserved for those who serve and defend the country. It could guarantee state Zionist education, in Hebrew, for all Israeli children. And it could put an end to the economic mechanisms through which Israel's welfare state has, for decades, encouraged draft evasion and separation from the Zionist enterprise. (And it certainly wouldn't hurt to lower the electoral threshold to encourage Zionist Arab and Zionist ultra-Orthodox political representation.)
Such a government could confront the enormous diplomatic and security challenges ahead, finally begin working to dismantle Palestinianism at home and abroad, and return Israel to a Zionist and productive path.
There are no serious security or economic differences between the parties of Netanyahu, Eisenkot, Bennett, and Lieberman that justify continued paralysis or another election. They have far more in common than our political discourse allows us to see. If they wanted to, they could form an excellent government.
But for that to happen, both sides would have to give something up.
Netanyahu cannot insist on preserving every component of his current coalition and expect everyone else simply to join it. The election results neither allow nor justify that.
Conversely, the change bloc cannot insist on boycotting Netanyahu at the price of relying on antizionist and Palestinianist forces.
The danger now is that, instead of seizing the opportunity, both sides will choose escalation, which could look like this:
Netanyahu will entrench himself in a coalition that lacks a majority, while the other side will use its parliamentary majority to pass confrontational legislation and paralyze the government. Each side will respond with further escalation, and Israel will find itself in a prolonged political and institutional crisis, precisely when it needs a functioning government more than ever.
This is exactly where we wanted to play a political role.
We did not seek to be the kingmaker who determines who becomes prime minister. We sought to be the spearhead for establishing a broad, centrist Zionist government. A political force capable of standing up to either side that refused to compromise, and making it clear that refusal carries a price.
This was our message throughout the campaign: What, not who.
Israel is a parliamentary, coalition-based democracy. The prime minister, as the English name suggests, is the first among ministers, not a president and not a king. The identity of the prime minister matters, but the composition of the coalition and the policies it advances matter far more.
Therefore, the question of who will be prime minister is secondary to the question of what kind of governing coalition we will have.
Will it be a government that continues subsidizing draft evasion and separation from the rest of society, or one that restores service, Zionist education, and shared responsibility to the center of Israeli life? Will we continue postponing the confrontation with our fundamental problems, or will we seize the opportunity to halt processes that have been endangering our future for decades? These are the questions that truly matter. And if we fail to confront them now, the future price will be far higher — and the damage may not even be reversible.
We ran in these elections to change the direction in which Israel is heading. We had hoped to do so from within the Knesset, and we are disappointed that we will not be able to. But the results have created a genuine opportunity to achieve the very goal for which we embarked on this journey.
The responsibility now lies with the leaders who were elected. They can continue to entrench in political blocs that have led Israel into repeated election cycles and governments dominated by the extremes, or they can recognize that the new political reality requires them to do something different.
If a broad, centrist Zionist government is formed here, without the ultra-Orthodox and Arab parties, and finally begins confronting the fundamental questions facing the State of Israel, that will be the achievement we sought.
And that will be reward enough for us.
Simplicity retweeted
everyone thinks codex computer use only works inside codex
it doesn't, it's a local mcp server in the chatgpt mac app and claude code can just call it, even headless with claude -p
same 8-task test: opus 5.5 on codex's engine got 6/8, codex itself got 6/8, cua driver got 3-4/8 at 4x the cost
cua's background mode on mac only goes through accessibility, so canvases and drags just don't land
codex's engine sends real clicks and drags to the app without touching my cursor
no hover though, and it's unofficial, so enjoy it until a chatgpt update breaks it
give this to your claude:
"Set up Codex's computer use as an MCP server for you on my Mac. Find the "cua_repl" entry in ~/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/unified-computer-use/<newest version>/.mcp.json and register it as a user MCP server called "codex-cu" with the same command, args and env. Then test it by using Calculator in the background to work out 12 × 12."
Simplicity retweeted
[This essay was originally recorded with Liel Leibovitz of Tablet Magazine on the morning of Friday, October 6, 2023. The next day was October 7th.]
Let’s start at the end.
This High Holiday season, as we do every year, we conclude the Torah with the Israelites as they are just about to enter the Land of Israel. You would think this would be a time for celebration. Yet instead, in those final moments, Moses details to the Jewish people how they have failed time and again, and predicts they will fail again. Then standing in sight of the most Promised Land, Moses dies, the greatest of dreams unrealized. And like a good first installment in a series, the screen cuts black – we are left on the edge of our seats.
One of the clear messages we take away from this ending is delivered throughout the Torah: failure is part of the program. It is both our opportunity and our onus to return from it.
This is also a classically American concept – or rather, it was. We were once a country that saw itself as a never ending project. Alexis de Tocqueville observed in Democracy in America that “the greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
Something we’ve inherently understood as Americans is constantly striving towards the idea of ‘a more perfect Union.’ We love the comeback story, root for the underdog, and celebrate the triumphant return.
But there is a crisis of the American soul today. First, the obsession with fixating on historical flaws cut the legs off what was once a unifying power. Now, in the place of a shared history is a void filled with attitudes of helplessness and division. Our country has become sick with self-flagellation, cancel culture, and dangerous conspiracy theories born from a victim mentality. It is a shift that leaves no room for forgiveness.
And a society that hates itself cannot survive.
America’s founders drew heavily from the Exodus and the Hebrew prophets. They studied Hebrew. Some even proposed it as the official language of the United States. Benjamin Franklin, for his part, suggested that the national seal feature Moses crossing the parted Red Sea. The reverence for the stories of the Torah runs deep in our national DNA.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (z”l) once wrote the question: “How do you live with the past without being held captive by the past?”
Well, Judaism insists: a life without forgiveness of the past is a life without progress towards the future.
We are a religion that does not shy away from our history. This is true even down to the commandments. The Talmud tells us that both sets of tablets, including the first ones that Moses broke when he returned to the scene of the golden calf, are together in the Ark of the Covenant. “Even though the first tablets were broken, their sanctity obligates one not to treat them with contempt.” (Brachot 8b)
Judaism instructs us clearly; keep the faith, remember the past. Neither shame nor deny it, but move on from it. Our story, complete with flaws, is what allows us to return.
In another example in the Gemara, Avoda Zarah 5a, we ask the question: Why is it so important to mention King David’s sin with Bathsheba? Why ruin the image of one of our iconic leaders? Rabbi Yochanan explains that that’s exactly the point. David’s moral collapse teaches us that we too can sin and repent, just as the generation of the golden calf shows that a community can do the same.
Our free will begets failure, and we must believe in the pursuit of our own redemption.
This concept is both one of forgiveness and assignment. Judaism does not let us off the hook – David pays for his mistake for the rest of his life. But even so, G-d still acknowledges David’s greatness and makes him the father of all future kings. We understand that the blood of our actions is on our hands, but it is also in our hands to fix it.
The Hasidic concept of ratso vashov (run and return) echoes that inherent to the act of being alive is failing. There is no paradigm of constant growth. The founder of Hasidic Judaism, the Baal Shem Tov, compares the need for failure in life to a parent teaching his child to walk. The father’s goal as he moves his hands away is to let the child fall. When G-d accompanies us in life, He has to step back.
Simply put, you cannot learn to walk on your own unless you learn to fall. Progress necessitates failure.
Back in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), in a remarkable plot twist, Judaism extends the line of leaders from Judah instead of Joseph. Judah, who concocts the plan to sell his brother into slavery and sleeps with a prostitute who turns out to be his son’s wife. And yet when choosing the future King of Israel, how is it that he is chosen to be the model? The answer is that Joseph famously avoids failure. Judah knows how to lead because he has lived and grown.
America, on the other hand, has become exceptionally bad at handling her past. In one extreme form, failure is now treated by many as an indelible stain that can never be forgiven. Tear down the statues, rewrite historical events to suit a modern stomach, nullify any merits with any demerits. And at the other end, there is the total avoidance of dealing with failure. Give everyone a participation trophy, excuse bad behaviors, coddle minds with the low expectations of a victim mentality. After all, there is no individual responsibility when the past – or others – are to blame.
However you slice it, both tracks take the easy way out. Completely at odds with the Judeo-Christian values that form the bedrock of this country, they remove the core concepts of individual autonomy and liberty. How easy life would be with no expectation for change. Working towards ideals requires risk and hard work. Having a direct hand at the outcome means opening the chance to falling short.
Failure is intrinsic to freedom.
Yes, the United States has lost its center of gravity – but so did the Israelites. These were the people who witnessed G-d’s miracles through the ten plagues. Yet still, only chamushim (one-fifth) of Jews in Egypt chose to leave. These were the Jews who witnessed the splitting of the sea, yet still built the golden calf. They received manna, and still, the spies returned with lies.
Today, we have miracles around us all the time. We have trees that grow and hearts that beat. But sure, we arguably don’t have the same awesome, in-your-face wonders. So perhaps we can be easier on ourselves for needing reminders when we fail too.
The founders of both nations believed in the continuing, ever evolving stories of their people. We are two nations distinguished in our belief that nothing is predetermined. America, the great unfinished symphony. Judaism, with her structured mechanisms that remind us never to give up. It is the essence of the High Holidays that begin with Tshuva (repentance) and close out with the holiday of Simchat Torah. Just as we complete the Torah, we immediately start again with the first chapter. We are told clearly that it is only just the beginning. We must continue the story.
So we end back at the beginning. Bereishit.
Fail, the Torah tells us. Fail again. Fail better.
It is so incredibly Jewish to keep trying. It is so deeply American to do the same.
Simplicity retweeted
One of the things I have noticed in the video from the FlyDubai plane is this small episode, where the father that sits nearby calms down his little children and telling them with a soothing voice that “nothing bad is happening, it’s just a pocket of air, calm down, all is good”
I’m sure he was scared beyond imagination but the fact that he stayed calm for his children to ease their fear is just incredible
Simplicity retweeted
Motaz Azaiza is forcing a reckoning the “pro‑Palestine” movement never anticipated. Because he’s celebrated by activists, politicians, and journalists and can’t be smeared as a “Zionist shill,” his admission carries weight: Gaza’s journalism space functioned under Hamas’s control, and any reporter who deviated from the group’s narrative risked “disappearing behind the sun.” That single truth reshapes how we understand the stories pushed out of Gaza since October 7 and explains why dissent against Hamas’s rule never surfaced publicly. Western journalists and outsiders, unaware of this coercive ecosystem, ended up amplifying Hamas’s information warfare rather than scrutinizing it.
Simplicity retweeted
Every news story follows a predictable decay function- it peaks, then is soon forgotten. That is, every story except one: Israel. I analyzed 14.7 million news articles in 65 languages, cable news airtime, and social media data from X. The results were staggering. 🧵
Simplicity retweeted
The land was not stolen. It was for sale.
By 1947, Jews held about 463,000 acres. Most of it bought. 73% of the plots were purchased from absentee landowners living in Cairo, Damascus, and Beirut.
John Hope Simpson walked the country in 1930 and wrote the sentence the slogans cannot survive: the Jews paid high prices, and then paid tenants to whom they were under no legal obligation to pay a dime.
In 1944 as the Holocaust raged, Jews were paying $1,000 to $1,100 an acre for sand and marsh. For comparison, Iowa black dirt that year was going for $110 an acre.
King Abdullah later wrote in his memoirs that the Arabs were as prodigal in selling as they are in weeping.
It was all the rage to sell worthless land to Jews for exorbitant prices. The mayors of Gaza and Jerusalem sold land to Jews. Members of the Muslim Supreme Council sold land to Jews. As’ad el-Shukairy, the father of the first PLO chairman, took Jewish money for land.
The nationalism came after the check cleared.
Simplicity retweeted
You won't see celebrities condemning this. You won't see senators demanding aid cuts for this. You won't see the UN convening a vote on this.
Hamas brutalizing Palestinians doesn't matter to them. No Jews, no news.
Simplicity retweeted
This is a legitimate question, which deserves a serious answer. And that answer is: sue for peace.
Abandon your century-long war against Jewish self-determination in the Land of Israel, and sue for peace.
Here are several minimal confidence-building measures the Palestinians could take to convince Israelis that they do not want to kill us all as soon as we turn our backs:
1. Clarify you do not want "from the river to the sea". When activists cry "FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA!" in London and New York, reply, "NOT IN MY NAME!" Tell them you want to live next to Israel, not instead of it.
2. Renounce the so-called "right of return" and dissolve UNRWA. Palestinians born in Palestinian-governed territories in the West Bank should receive their services from their Palestinian government, not the UN. Announce that Gazans wish to rebuild permanent homes, not refugee camps where they'll bide their time at international taxpayers' expense till they can move to Tel Aviv. Drop the illusion that millions of descendants of refugees from a war 80 years ago are going to settle in Israel's sovereign territory.
3. Stop supporting terrorism. Condemn terror attacks against Israelis, just like you expect Israel to condemn settler violence. Stop the pay-for-slay scheme for good, instead of funneling it through other channels.
4. Announce your willingness to negotiate on the basis of the "Peace to Prosperity" plan. Accept that Israel is never going to divide its capital city and turn the Western Wall, or the Old City Walls, into a border wall. Accept that Israel is never going to surrender the mountains surrounding Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and sue for the best you could possibly hope to get.
Here are just some ideas. Palestinians are adults. They have agency. They are not hopeless children with no options but throwing rocks and blowing themselves up. These ideas are a good place to start.
Simplicity retweeted
A Hamas oppositioner posts a video of a Gazan foodie reviewing B12, one of the new restaurants in Gaza.
He wonders why the Israeli foreign office, Israeli media and commentators are not covering the social media videos coming out of Gaza "filled with all kinds of food and cuisine (Turkish, Spanish, Mexican, Chinese, etc.)... where the cheapest party costs 15,000 shekels. Every day there are at least 30 weddings in the Gaza Strip... This is in addition to the expenses for halls, wedding dresses, makeup, hairdressers, and clothing. And then there are the thousands of videos documenting daily life on Instagram and Facebook, showing the routines in the tents that have become like royal tents.
...
A torrent of videos, and the Israeli press is either clueless and doesn't see it, or they see it and are pretending not to! These videos are the best propaganda confirming that there is no war in Gaza right now, no famine..."
**I've been saying this for years.**
#TheGazaYouDontSee
Telegram timestamp: 17 Aug '26, 22:05
Link to post in 1st response
Simplicity retweeted
"If the money and aid entering Gaza were distributed fairly, there would not be a single person in need in all of Gaza."
The severe inequality and injustice within Gazan society, some living in luxury, despite 3 years of war, while others are destitute. (Eng subs)
TikTok timestamp: 5 July '26
#TheGazaYouDontSee
Link in 1st response
Simplicity retweeted
Mohammed Haboub, Head of the Gold Traders Syndicate in Gaza, was interviewed on al-Kofiya TV* (English subtitles) about the high prices of gold in Gaza.
He explains that there has been sharp increase in demand, which has caused a shortage. The new millionaires in Gaza, entrepreneurs (who grew rich from collecting online donations) and people who worked illegally (probably referring to looters and thieves) invest in gold to prevent investigation into their new wealth, and also because it is easier to hide than cash. And no one is selling.
Timestamp: 21 July '26
#TheGazaYouDontSee
*Al-Kofiya is an independent Palestinian satellite channel, believed to be associated with Mohammad Dahlan, former Fatah official now oppositioner living in UAE.
Link in 1st response
1/ Turns out the ancient Gold Market "Qesariyya" in Old #Gaza didn't actually become an ancient gold market until the Israeli period in the 1970's-1980's. Before that other things were sold in the covered market, built by the Mamlouks. #TheGazaYouDontSee
youtu.be/v0S7xYt71k0
Simplicity retweeted
Having seen the infamous 47-minute compilation of the 7 Oct atrocities with my own eyes (not publicly available), I can attest that the Silenced No More report, which is freely available online, is even worse. It's just words on a page, but it leaves enough to the imagination to be even more horrific than the video. At least for me.
In the 47-minute compilation, there is some evidence of sexual sadism, but not much. Probably for two reasons: proud though Hamas was of massacring Jews, they were less keen on broadcasting scenes of sexual depravity. And the Israeli government likely declined to include the most horrific footage out of respect for the victims.
The report is exhaustively documented, horror story after horror story. I've read it only once, and I won't do so again. Especially the sections about the Nova festival are extremely disturbing. So I asked Claude to summarize the documented patterns in the report:
- Rape and gang rape, with victims passed between attackers in sequence, witnesses describing laughter throughout
- Targeted gunshots to groin, abdomen, buttocks and face; genital mutilation of both women and men
- Rape followed by execution—victims shot or stabbed immediately afterward, some shot in the head during the assault
- Rape continuing after victims were dead
- Sexual mutilation—breasts severed, genitals cut off or shot
- Burning, including deliberate burning of the groin; bodies set alight with accelerants
- - Hands bound behind backs; bodies tied to trees and poles along the road
- Sharp objects inserted into victims' genitals
- Women raped in view of their desperate partners, who were then killed
- Male victims gang-raped, beaten, and threatened with castration
- Dismemberment and decapitation
These findings of systematic sexual violence and torture are corroborated by the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict (2024) and the UN Commission of Inquiry (2024).
Just one quote from a survivor:
"I heard one rape where they were passing her around. She was probably injured, judging by her screams—screams you have never heard anywhere. It's between silence and screams, between pain and wanting to die. These are screams... it's something I have never heard in my life, and I have no way to explain to you what it sounds like. But it's screams. It's screams. It was simply horrific. And after one finished, he told another to go up 'Ta'al' [in Arabic], like to the next one. And apparently there was a round... And after they finished, they shot her." She continued: "You hear the screams, and then you hear silence. You hear a bang—and silence. And then there's a kind of calm. And then you say: okay, it's over at least. She's done with it. And like that with each person they abused—you heard. The moment they were killed, I said, 'Oh my God, finally, it's over.'"
You privileged Westerners have no idea how you would react if this happened to you and your loved ones—if a group committed these atrocities, vowed to repeat them again and again, and openly declared that it would not stop until your country no longer existed. You have no idea.
civilc.org/silenced-no-more
A while ago, I watched the infamous 47-minute video documenting the atrocities of October 7th — the one not made publicly available, to protect the privacy of the victims.
The worst part of this video is not what it displays, but who is displaying it: the perpetrators themselves. Gleefully. Sadistically. Unabashedly. Most of the footage was filmed by Hamas terrorists on their GoPro bodycams, some also by ordinary Gazan civilians on their cellphones.
Even the Nazis tried to cover up their atrocities, but Hamas brags about theirs for the entire world to see. The killers are euphoric throughout the massacre, and their relentless, ecstatic cries of "Allahu Akbar" (punctuated by the occasional "Kill the Jew!") are simply nauseating.
Some images are seared into my memory forever. I will never forget the two boys in their underwear — one with his eye socket hanging out of his face — asking his brother whether he thinks they're going to die, while the Hamas monster who had just thrown a grenade in their saferoom helps himself to a drink from their fridge, taking a casual break from the slaughter.
Neither will I ever forget the terrorists playing football with a severed head. Or the Thai migrant worker whose head is viciously hacked off with a garden hoe — another "Zionist colonizer" getting what he deserved, right?quillette.substack.com/p/wha…
Or the throngs of Gazans crowding around pickup trucks loaded with the mutilated corpses of Jewish women, filming and spitting on the bodies. Or the woman in Kibbutz Mefalsim, crouching and begging in vain for mercy.
There is some evidence of sexual violence in the video — the charred corpse of a young woman with her legs splayed and her genitals exposed — but not much. Apparently even Hamas draws a line somewhere: they are not as proud of raping Jewish women as they are of murdering them. Or, more likely, they simply didn't want to embarrass the delicate sensibilities of their legions of useful idiots in the West.
But yes — there was rape. Not "rape" in scare quotes, as the apologists would have it, but sadistic, murderous sexual violence, documented in a new damning new report by The Civil Commission, an independent Israeli women's rights NGO. (video summary here: youtube.com/watch?v=K7fJuzr4…)
Across its 180 pages, the report describes "a recurring pattern of rape and gang rape; sexual torture; mutilation; targeted shooting to the face, head and genital area; forced nudity; binding and restraint; genital burning; objects inserted into intimate areas; post-mortem sexual humiliation; and execution during or after sexual assault."
And it was premeditated and organized. The terrorists crossing into Israel carried printed Arabic-to-Hebrew phrasebooks with handy expressions like "take off your pants," "lie down," "spread your legs," and "don't make trouble." I wonder why they expected to need those particular phrases?
I know one thing: no civilized country on earth would tolerate the existence of an organization like Hamas on its border after October 7th. Not one. This includes every self-righteous Westerner currently lecturing Israel from thousands of kilometres away, without an inch of skin in the game.
dailymail.com/news/article-1…
Simplicity retweeted
No, this isn't Zionist propaganda. The meme paraphrases Ismail Haniyeh's real Oct 2023 speech (Al-Mayadeen, translated by MEMRI): Hamas needs "the blood of the women, children and elderly" of Gaza to awaken revolutionary spirit and resolve against Israel. He explicitly said their deaths should not make people cry out but fuel the fight.
Hamas leaders have repeatedly glorified civilian sacrifice for their cause while using human shields. The core message is accurate.
