Author: Blazingcatfur

Since she was a child, Staff Sergeant Shaked had wanted to be a frontline soldier in the Israel Defence Forces. “It’s just something that spoke to me,” she said. “I wanted to serve in the army with a weapon.”

In most countries, little girls rarely dream of becoming combat soldiers. In Israel, where military service is compulsory for men and women and the armed services are part of the fabric of daily life, many do. At least for now.

The difference between the many recent pro-Palestinian rallies and Tuesday’s March for Israel in D.C. is night and day.

On Tuesday, one of the largest gatherings of American Jewry in U.S. history took place in Washington, D.C., where an estimated 290,000 people descended on the National Mall to stand in solidarity with Israel in its war against Hamas.

“Everything changed” in Israel on Oct. 7. Except it did not. Despite much talk of victory by the prime minister and survey research showing the public endorses a tough new approach, Israeli officialdom and its security establishment show signs of reverting to their old failed policies, even before the bodies have all been buried.

Those failed policies mean primarily one thing: wrongly assuming that enrichment – more work permits in Israel, a larger fishing zone, outside funding – gives Palestinian Arabs something to lose, taming them and making them less inclined to aggress.

In past conflicts, one side has successfully managed to push through propaganda that changes how civilians on the other side view military action. However, we have never before seen a situation in which the world’s media simply hand over to one of the combatants the entire responsibility for reporting on the war. That’s what’s happening across the West, though, including in America, as rising antisemitism is fueled by “news” reports direct from Hamas central.