Richard D
Richard D's JournalThis 115-year-old Zionist essay is more relevant than ever.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky was a Russian-born author, poet, orator, soldier, and founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in Odessa.
With Joseph Trumpeldor, he co-founded the Jewish Legion of the British Army in World War I.
In 1911, Jabotinsky wrote this essay. It’s more relevant today than ever:
‘Instead of Apologizing’
Taking a long, hard look at the current penchant for accusations of ritual murder, one is left with a most oppressive feeling — a feeling that any impressionable individual will find hard to bear. Just think about it: these things are being said about us — about me, about you, about your mother!
So whenever we Jews speak with a Gentile, we must remain aware, every one of us, that our interlocutor may at that very moment be cowering to himself and thinking, “How do I know that you, too, haven’t been tippling from the glass of ritual murder?” Just try and get your head around that! I mean, when it comes down to it, this is even worse than everything else we have to put up with in this prison of a country.
The rest:
https://www.futureofjewish.com/p/this-115-year-old-zionist-article?publication_id=844794&post_id=168009937&isFreemail=true&r=2r9s5y&triedRedirect=true
Beneath Efrat, the Truth Flows: I Walked the Aqueduct That Supplied Yerushalayim Until 1967 . . .
. . . and it shut every liar's mouth.
Come walk where I walked.
Not in a hotel lobby. Not on a Tel Aviv boardwalk. Underground. Through living Jewish history. Through a 2,000-year-old aqueduct that carried the waters of our ancestors from the hills of Judea to the heart of Yerushalayim.
I didn’t read about it in a book. I didn’t hear it in a speech. I walked it. I stood in the freezing spring water. I ducked through stone tunnels carved by the calloused hands of Jews who lived and died for this land. And I emerged gasping for air—not from the physical exertion, but from the soul-shattering realization of what I had just touched:
Truth.
Undeniable. In your face. Eternal. Jewish truth.
Much more: https://jfe3.substack.com/p/beneath-efrat-the-truth-flows-i-walked
Comprehensive report on Sexual Violence on Oct 7 just released
I posted it here. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to make two of the same post in different groups.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1134144131
Comprehensive report just released on the use of sexual violence on Oct 7
Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI.
The report by the Dinah Project, a team of legal and gender experts, based its findings on survivor and witness testimonies, accounts from first responders, and forensic, visual and audio evidence. It called for a shift in how conflict-related sexual violence is prosecuted, saying Hamas silenced its victims by killing them, robbing investigators of key evidence.
“Most victims were permanently silenced — either murdered during or after the assaults or remain too traumatized to talk — creating unique evidentiary challenges,” the report said, calling for a more tailored legal approach.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/07/08/israel-hamas-gaza-sexual-violence-weapon-war/1d21d70e-5bed-11f0-a293-d4cc0ca28e5a_story.html
The full report can be read here: https://thedinahproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/The-Dinah-Project-full-report-A4-pages_web-1.pdf
For my 9,999th post: We are stuck in the middle (Posted in the Jewish Alliance Group)
9,999 is a significant number in Judaism. Each letter in the Hebrew alphabet has numeric significance. the 18th letter is Chai, which means life. So 9999 is Chai doubled.
This is a topic I have been struggling with. At times, I have considered leaving the democratic party, a party I have been totally loyal to since before I could vote - a very long time ago. It was always the party that resonated the most with Jewish values and morality, until recently.
Oh, yes, many of the values are still the same. Yet in its various forms, antisemitism seems to be where the party has been headed. Can I go to a demonstration where the chanting of River to Sea and Globalize the intifada and Death to the IDF are the background chants? No. Not only can I not support that, but it could put me into a life-threatening situation.
It gets worse. Can I vote for a democrat who wants the nation of Israel to be destroyed, either de facto or by neutering its Jewishness? I cannot. Can I vote against a candidate who wholeheartedly supports Israel, even though they are a republican while their democratic opponent supports the other side? I don't know, and I dread that situation.
I could go on, but the video attached says so perfectly what I have been feeling over the last couple of years.
I would love it if we discussed this as I really don't know how to reconcile these insane contradictions we are being forced into as Jews.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DLszHPYigpf/
I hope that this doesn't offend anyone to the point of reporting it to the admins, and then gets deleted.
IAEA chief: Fordow centrifuges 'no longer operational' after US bunker-buster strikes
Source: Ynet News
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Thursday that the uranium enrichment centrifuges at Iran’s underground Fordow facility are believed to be no longer operational, following U.S. airstrikes using bunker-buster bombs.
In an interview with French media, Grossi explained that, while satellite imagery alone cannot fully reveal the extent of the damage at Fordow, “we already know the centrifuges are no longer active.”
He noted that the machines, which enrich uranium, are extremely sensitive to vibration and require highly precise calibration. “Given the strength of the bombs and the technical characteristics of the facility, significant physical damage was unavoidable,” he said. “That leads to a fairly accurate technical conclusion.”
Read more: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hkbeafo4le
Imagine if Hitler had remained untouched . . . (Posted in the Jewish Alliance group)
This is a powerful viewpoint, one that may offend many. However, I do not see any part of it that is not accurate and truth-based. (Hopefully it will not get me kicked out of DU for thinking outside of the approved box) It's an important one for our alliance, I believe, so I share it despite the risk.
But Hitler’s goals were never peace; they were conquest, domination, and genocide. The signs were all there: Mein Kampf, the persecution of Jews, the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the annexation of Austria. But leaders preferred delusion to confrontation.
Hitler was given time. And with time, he built a death mega-machine.
Ali Khamenei has been given time, too. Over three decades of it. He has used it to build a rogue nuclear program, bankroll global terrorism, and export a fundamentalist ideology that fuels proxy wars from Beirut to Baghdad to Sana’a. His slogans — “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” — are not metaphors. They are mission statements.
https://open.substack.com/pub/futureofjewish/p/imagine-if-hitler-had-remained-untouched
10 Jewish Ethics That Guide Wartime Israel
These timeless Jewish values aren’t just ancient teachings; they shape how Israel defends itself, even in the most difficult moments of war.When the Jewish state goes to war, it doesn’t leave its values behind. On the contrary, it brings them to the front lines.
Israel is often accused of being aggressive, militaristic, even heartless in its defense. But few stop to ask: What actually guides Israel in moments of war? What moral code shapes a nation constantly forced to defend itself in a world that rarely gives it the benefit of the doubt?
The answer is found not in think tanks or weapons systems, but in something much older: Jewish values. Rooted in Torah, refined through centuries of exile and persecution, and reborn in Jewish sovereignty, these principles form the spiritual architecture of Israel’s actions, even when those actions involve life-and-death decisions.
At a time when headlines flatten moral complexity, and Israel is judged by double standards, it’s worth stepping back and asking: What does it mean to fight like a Jew? What does it mean to wield power with a conscience?
Here are 10 Jewish values that don’t just explain how Israel fights, but why it must.
1) The Sanctity of Human Life:
https://open.substack.com/pub/futureofjewish/p/10-jewish-values-that-israel-goes
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Member since: Fri Nov 14, 2003, 09:44 AMNumber of posts: 10,018