Think like your enemy

A while ago, a wise friend told me that when you’re trying to understand people’s motivations, or the state of play, and you’re overwhelmed and confused by trickery, the best thing to do is to think like your enemy. Put the enemy’s hat on, and ask: if you were them, what would you do?

Last week I listened to a brilliant podcast. It is one of the best explanations I've ever heard about why Islam is obsessed with Israel. It explains the wider conflict with the Arab world in a way I had never heard before courtsey of Haviv Rettig Gur of The Times of Israel. Here is an excerpt:

"The Jews – the refugees who they kicked out of every country, penniless and weak – are pushing back to conquer a piece of Islam. It’s not about the Jews, it’s about the fact that even Jews can push back on Islam. For the Iranian regime the problem of Israel isn’t that it exists, it’s that it cannot be destroyed by Muslims. If it could be, it wouldn’t have to be destroyed by Muslims because it wouldn’t be the standing symbol of Islamic weakness, and therefore distance from God. The path to Islamic redemption and renewal and return to a powerful agent in history cuts a bloody path through ‘Jewish arrogance’, which is what Israel is to them.” [This explains why there are crowds celebrating every time Israel is attacked; which is echoed across the globe in marches for Palestinian rights.] "Why would the Iranian regime, which doesn’t believe in human rights, invest billions that it doesn’t have in the idea of Palestinian rights? It has nothing to do with Palestinian rights. It has to do with Islam coming back as a force in history and proving that they are not far and distant from their god. Israel’s existence – because the Jews are so weak – is incontrovertible evidence that Islam does not have god’s grace."

This explains the intent of Hamas on October 7 while go-pro-ing and broadcasting their humiliation of Israel. That was the core message. Render Israel weak.

This coming Friday, just before Shabbat, and a day before the non-Jewish world’s annual attempt to let itself off the hook for the Shoah while talking about everything and anything except for the six million Jews who were killed by Nazis (ie, International Holocaust Rememberance Day), the International Court of (In)Justice will deliver its order on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by South Africa in the case South Africa vs Israel. I don’t have high hopes, despite the excellent defence provided by Israel’s legal team a few weeks ago.

Why? Well I’m thinking like the enemy. That’s what I’ve been doing more of. That’s why I’m scared about the ICJ. Because if I was thinking like the enemy I’d be wanting an international legal body to kosher all the propaganda I’ve just placed in every Western institution to truly isolate the Jews and Israel and I’d hire a willing assailant to perform this exercise (ie, South Africa, who I’ve built a great relationship with going back decades now, and who aren’t exactly beacons of morality themselves), and I’d effectively negotiate for the verdict I want. There’s precedent for this, proving that it may be successful (The Dreyfuss Affair in 1906). A result here legitimizing my decades’ worth of international investment and time with The UN, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Western universities including Harvard and Penn, and political leaders such as Jeremy Corbyn, and Ilhan Omar, would be of high value. Worth some business.

Here’s a little tidbit from The Jerusalem Post yesterday:

“Research conducted by The Jerusalem Post staff and several sources uncovered what appears to be a network of several South African organizations and straw man companies deeply involved with funding Hamas activities through the Al-Quds Foundation, an international group sanctioned by the US and outlawed by Israel, using accounts registered in major local South African banks: Standard Bank, Nedbank, and Absa.”

What an interesting financial connection.

Yesterday, a Bloomberg piece estimated that Hamas is getting $8 million to $12 million a month through online donations, much of it through organizations posing as charities to help civilians in Gaza. Reader, when you donate money to a cause, do you care more about how you feel donating the money or knowing that your money is going where you want it to go? What is motivating your call to aid? Because the Islamic Republic of Iran are counting on donors just wanting to feel good, but not necessarily wanting to do good.

I question everything, and so should you. I’m starting to ask a lot of questions about where the money came from and went to in these past few decades. I ask myself often, thinking like the enemy, about what would be the most effective way to spread my message; to make it seem cool and righteous and part of a resistance uprising?

So how about the social justice world? How about those who claim to advocate for human rights? How about The UNHRC? How about Iran’s role there now? How about Iran’s role in the Western movements? Did it play a role?

Well, were any social justice causes made to serve the people they promised? "Free Palestine" isn't. We know this. Palestinian activists who believe in a two-state solution and can speak freely will tell you this.

But what about #MeToo? Did it serve women when it mattered? Or was that about making an example of an evil man/men (haphazardly Jewish ones) with power? It was certainly about banning Stars of David at the Women's March and championing misogynist Islamists like Linda Sarsour. What about BLM? Did it drive racial equality and fight prejudice? Or was that about imposing a racial binary of Black and white onto every subject, notably Israel/Palestine. It was certainly about graffiting Jewish places of worship and rendering the Jew the ultimate beacon of white supremacy. It was certainly about amplifying Marxist voices like Ibram x Kendi. What about climate change? Why is Greta Thunberg turning all her meetings into anti-colonialism events targeting Israel? What about the trans movement? Is that serving the trans community, or is just about erasing women's rights? Why are there Palestinian flags at trans rallies?

Ask questions. Who is paying for all this? And who is paying the price?

Tomorrow, the ICJ is not really ruling on whether or not Israel is acting within the realm of international law. Tomorrow the International Court of Justice is ruling on its own legitimacy as an institution designed to protect the international realm from corruption. But whatever happens at the ICJ, the enemy is way ahead of us.

In Oakland, Imams are freely championing Nazi ideology.

In NYU, October 7 denialists are giving lectures to students.

This is NYU professor Amin Husain, who participated in the First Intifada. He is the founder of Decolonize This Place and an organizer of shutitdown4palestine (protests in NYC). Husain praises solidarity to Hamas and other terror groups, and denies the October 7th massacre.

You know, if I was a college student in America, I'd be pissed that my professors were taking my money and passing off their biased views as my education. Higher education is supposed to nourish your intellect and curiosity. But professors of higher education seem to be putting their own emotional agendas above the critical reasoning of their students.

Another report this week from CyberWell – an innovative tech nonprofit focused on monitoring for and combatting the spread of antisemitism on social media – said that a recent analysis of 910 potentially antisemitic posts to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X reviewed in the last month alone included 313 that denied or distorted the Hamas attack on October 7. This content reached nearly 26 million viewers on all platforms. This week Elon Musk told Ben Shapiro after a day’s visit to Auschwitz that social media sites like X would have prevented a Holocaust. How very wrong he is, playing right into the hands of the enemy.

Also this week, 21 IDF soldiers fell in one day, in one incident, putting its own citizens at risk in reservist units in order to fight a war to eliminate terror, not to promote a genocide, as the smears would have it. Meanwhile Hamas – said genocidal terror group – rejected Israel’s proposal for a two-month ceasefire. The proposal required Hamas to release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners, and would have allowed Hamas leaders to relocate to other countries. The enemy is only motivated by one thing. Make Israel weak, put the Jews on the back foot, so Hamas can be strong, and therefore closer to God. What kind of a God?