Quit believing the doomsayers and the addiction to drama and desperation
Surprised still? The proofs you find in the embedded hyperlinks.
The IDF is killing thousands of ruthless terrorists, mass murderers, perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity with hardly any collateral civilian deaths. 0.5M IDF soldiers, right-wing and left-wing, are witnessing this every day, and if it weren’t true, it wouldn’t stay a secret. Why does the world give any credence to terrorists’ baseless slander about the number of civilians supposedly killed by the IDF? 15,500? Ridiculous! Without even the flimsiest proofs. In previous conflicts in Gaza, Chamas provided not only numbers but also names, ages, and terrorist affiliations!
Besides only dozens of fanatics out of two million Muslim Israelis, most of them are deeply and forever ashamed of the crimes committed at the onslaught on October 7. Similar to Germans after WW II, the Christian Holocaust. They had already bitterly given up on the pipedream of a Two-State Solution, but now they want to be counted as Israelis! This in stark contrast with Muslims outside of Israel. Our Muslims will teach them. In the Diaspora, governments must ramp up the Jews’ safety to keep some.
We have (indirect) proof that Iran was in on the October 7 massacre. How so? It must have been top secret. Yet stock market activity leading up to that fatal date saw increases in short selling in dozens of Israeli companies trading on the Tel Aviv stock exchange. Of one particular Israeli company alone, 4.43 million new shares sold short from September 14 to October 5, yielding profits (or avoiding losses) of 3.2 billion NIS. That must have been tens of billions of US dollars in stock value. We know Palestinian rulers stole from their population for decades, but I doubt if they could have amassed US$ 10s of billions in stocks already of just one Israeli company.
Documentation and trials of the Simchat Torah slaughter by Chamas may, for Muslims, work as trips to Auschwitz. Every foreign dignitary visiting Israel should, from now, pass Yad waShem and the Chamas killing fields.
Many ‘caring’ Anti-Zionists and people ‘just’ critical of Israel finally came out as stone-cold Jew-haters attacking Jews, shouting Death to the Jews, and chanting the genocidal From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free. For years, they denied not loving Palestinians and just hating Jews. It’s not about racism, the occupation, or colonialism; plain old Antisemitism.
Slowly, it becomes clear to everyone Jew-haters mainly designed and are spreading lies to hide what Chamas had done on October 7. It committed at least 15 types of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Who are the baby killers, rapists, genocidal mass murderers? Not the Jews. Chamas outdid the Nazis by not being secretive, exhausted, and revolted by their genocide but being proud of it, energized by it, and gleefully enjoying it.
It turns out Israel is not divided at all, as I have pointed out many times. The main divisions were between the People and the government. The ultra-Orthodox were not with the government; they were just uninformed. G^d disliked the administration pushing through their plans. G^d is a democrat. But now, even the left and the right are talking about uniting.
The ultra-Orthodox have started engaging with the secular/kosher-style Zionist State: joining the army, volunteering, and demonstrating solidarity.
Clearer than ever, Netanyahu is not a hawk (every time, he was the first to withdraw from Gaza and enabled the dismantling of Gush Katif), and the Israeli Left leaders are no doves. Just like Simon Perez worked hard for the peace process and built up the military. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Call us old-fashioned, but we’re into survival, not for or against war.
Now everyone can see that the real fight is between Jews plus Allies and extremist Muslims, not between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is about religiously rooted bigotry, not land (just as with Nazi Germany). The Land is big enough as soon as Antisemitism is put in the dustbin of history.
The threats from Chezbollah and Iran are tremendous. Given that Chamas still thinks to defeat Israel (true Antisemites never learn), we may hope that Chezbollah and Iran’s dictators will follow soon, after which the IDF and US Army may obliterate them, with much support of everyone else.
Turns out we were not weakened and not poor. Two billion dollars per week this war costs. Does the State crumble? No. Now, quit capitalism, return to our socialist-like, Jewish roots, and let us all live prosperously.
It becomes clearer which of the powerful nations are our true friends, in contrast to some fair-weather buddies. Only a group of true Allies could fight off the axis of evil: the occupying dictatorships of Chamas in Gaza, the PA on the West Bank, Chezbollah in South Lebanon, the Revolutionary Guard in Iran, Kim in North Korea, Communist China, and Putin in Russia. Democracy, equality, and safety for Jews vs. evil, dictators, and supremacy.
We were beaten down for millennia. It’s over. Get used to it. Now, we get to fight threats and end them. While it’s still darkish, notice the light.
***
I’m not denying the bad and wicked that need us to fight them.
If Gaza after Chamas could be ruled by ‘a revitalized PA’ and if that means Barghouti, you can forget it. More vital but as deadly. I still favor renting out (for $ 1) Gaza to Egypt with much aid from the World Bank Group.
MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. *
As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. *
This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. *
Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. *
Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. *
Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. *
He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. *
He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. *
He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. *
His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. *
To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. *
His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1