Look what they did with it. Only idiots don’t learn from history.
But today, facts, truth, and logic are obsolete; only emotions, opinions, stories, and fables count. So the facts below won’t make you win arguments, but they can help you understand what’s going on.
***
For what turned out worthless US promises and guarantees, Israel left Gaza 20 years ago on the condition that this State would be demilitarized.
Gaza was to become the largest weapons depot ever. Egypt and Israel set up a blockade that leaked like a sieve. The Egyptians were complacent, corrupt, and collaborative with the terrorists. Gaza was dubbed the world’s largest concentration camp because the world will always try to neutralize their Holocaust shame by accusing the Jews of doing worse.
The leading Gaza terrorists raised an army from its plentiful youth of tens of thousands, well-trained in the endemic Jew-hatred from the cradle.
Despite almost all resources being spent on weaponry and building fortifications, and the corrupt top terrorists living in the lap of luxury with huge Swiss bank accounts, the population grew in leaps and bounds.
Despite their narrative of being poor, hungry prisoners and victims of the Jews, Gazans lived well, with well-stocked markets and shopping malls around, still crossed the border daily to work or seek free medical care in Israel, and were helped by the collective efforts of the world’s leading Antisemitic organizations like the UN, the IRC, Muslim dictatorial States, the leading international press organizations, and others, while the world’s really hungry died from starvation in silence all over the world.
Dozens of Gaza terror groups stealthily built the Gaza subway, hundreds of kilometers of interconnected bunkers, safehouses, and weapons depots abundantly stocked by Iran, North Korea, Qatar, and others, connected to entrances to almost every house, school, mosque, and hospital, and with corridors to ambush the Jews—forbidden entry for the population, to protect the terrorists, not bystanding women and kids.
There was no freedom, a reign of terror and oppression, but the population lived on quietly. Chamas succeeded the Palestinian Authority (the pay-for-slay Jew-murderers’ enablers), with whom it had played good cop, bad cop for decades. They were all rival terrorists, and the only change was one of rhetoric.
The plan was to kill all the Jews. Different from Turkey, Iran, and Lebanon, almost the whole Gaza population was hostile to Jews, and so, Israel’s intelligence gathering was poor, compounded by most Israelis being incapable of fathoming another genocide until it was too late.
When, on Simchat Torah 2023, Gaza delivered the greatest slaughter and plunder of Jews since the Holocaust, the Islamic street erupted in worldwide protests against Israel. Not because Israel fought back. It took its time not to fall into traps, no doubt set. No, just because it was encouraged in their existing Antisemitic bloodthirst.
Israel fought the cleanest war of self-defense ever, labeled genocide by the Antisemitic press. Some people were just so eager to believe that.
***
To reward the poor Gazans with a ‘demilitarized’ State is like releasing all school shooters, weaponizing them, and giving them school passes.
Generally, Jews are relatively naive but not incapable of learning from mistakes. There won’t be a next Palestinian State. Over our dead bodies.
Antisemites don’t learn from history. Their hatred is like alcohol to the alcoholics. No defeat will discourage them. They will keep shutting their eyes to the obvious, denying the open miracles for all to see of how most Jews are saved every time. And in an epoch of denial of fact and reason, Earth has become the worst place for Jews ever, but Israel the safest.
The worst is not even when die-hard Antisemites convince the majority in countries or the world of the Jews’ moral inferiority, but when Israeli or Diaspora Jews themselves start believing the baseless slander.
However, the Jews will survive, prosper, feast, and safeguard their lore of ethics’ greatest testaments while the world’s shame is piling up, growing to unseen proportions.
How angry the Jew-slayers will be when they discover that Jews only acknowledge their depravity but deny them any power. They’re only wicked fools who signed up for evil, becoming powerless pawns in G^d’s hand to bring out the best in the Jews and eventually destroy every vestige of wickedness among the Jew-haters.
No pillow sleeps better than the clean conscience of innocent victims. Like during the Holocaust, again, the losers morally are many Gentiles. Not an easy inheritance for non-Jews who stayed or, once again, will become our friends. The Antisemites will continue to complain and fail to understand why G^d calls the innocent Jews the apple of His eye.
PS: It’s not the Jews that make a Palestinian State impossible. Israel would welcome a State for the Druze. On day one, we would suggest forming a federation and dual citizenship for the welfare of both Peoples.
You may find more controversial writings on Amazon or my own blog.
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. Of the 15 (!) books he has in mind, the next two are about homosexuality in Judaism and new rabbinics. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2600 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 that also may contain updates to Times of Israel posts, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. *
He's getting ready to publicize books on: "Free Will, "Judaism and Homosexuality, "His parents in the Holocaust, "Judaism, "A New Torah Translation and "A New Hebrew Grammar, "Co-Counseling, "Vegan Facts, "Immortality, and more. *
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 agrees that in a post-truth world, that's irrelevant, but then this is for the record. 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. His posts are spell, grammar, and style polished by AI, but all written by himself. *
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
