do you think mordy might one day make aliyah to a settlement?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyTu_ZdcBCo

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2013/01/29/obituaries/20130129ArielSharonObit-slide-YW1Q/20130129ArielSharonObit-slide-YW1Q-superJumbo.jpg

Sharon talking to Rabin - Peres sitting to the side

the highest income tax rate in israel is 52%, comparable to the netherlands

http://www.timesofisrael.com/2013-record-year-for-tourism-government-says/

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2014/04/breaking-news-thousands-of-vintage.html

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AMQwnSL7Q4g/Tgq6DmJ6DgI/AAAAAAAABUM/F-8ki3eVmNY/s1600/Jer%2Btitle%2Bpage.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUDaLuwUiX8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUDaLuwUiX8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39W3oCzw4SQ

http://i.imgur.com/U70c7ak.jpg

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/13743/israel-s-navy-transforms-itself-for-21st-century-power-projection

http://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?id=245270&h=236&w=370

lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Class_Championship_Wrestling#Israel_tour

http://online.wsj.com/articles/israel-issues-tenders-for-1-500-new-housing-units-in-west-bank-east-jerusalem-1401991417

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpZNRyMCIAETZZW.jpg:large

who are they

the middle guy is mick jagger

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpPDAFJCAAIb5ab.jpg:large

want

http://static.wixstatic.com/media/9b4a09_5ff3ed4485f0422c9d0679e149ffa828.jpg

do you think mordy might one day take aaliyah to a settlement?

people think her death was just a loss to rnb but it was a loss to delightful wordplay also

http://i.imgur.com/1pSCMJK.jpg

wonder if ppl would prfer liberman to bibi

obama has enough trouble with an asperger case, avigdor would alpha the fuck out of him every single time

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/11/10/would_hillary_be_good_for_the_holy_land_obama_israel_bibi

i believe jews should have the right to pray on the temple mount if they want

i know if means nothing but one of this week's terror victims shares the same name as my daughter and it is giving me heartache

http://www.timesofisrael.com/tel-aviv-dubbed-worlds-smartest-city/

Intel to spend $550 million in Israel through 2020
http://www.timesofisrael.com/intel-to-spend-550-million-in-israel-through-2020

that garbage sodastream story is neatly prefigured by this toaster related stramash at the same university two decades ago instigated by race theorist noel ignatiev

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1992/3/18/no-toaster-subsidy-pito-the-editors/

So could it be that Chinese food is a manifestation of Jewish life in America? Lee seems to think so. “I would argue that Chinese food is the ethnic cuisine of American Jews. That, in fact, they identify with it more than they do gefilte fish or all kinds of the Eastern Europe dishes of yore.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/why-american-jews-eat-chinese-food-on-christmas/384011/2/

...

From the early days of Sa
udi–Wahhabi expansion, the crucial element
was to gain submission to the tenets of Wahhabi Islam among the population,
both sedentary and nomadic. This submission led to the creation
of a quasi-tribal confederation with which to conquer further territories in
the absence of an identifiable ‘Sa
udi tribal confederation’.

Wahhabism provided a novel impetus for political centralisation. Expansion
by conquest was the only mechanism that would permit the
emirate to rise above the limited confines of a specific settlement. With
the importance of jihad in Wahhabi teachings, conquests of new territories
became possible. The spread of the Wahhabi da
wa (call), the purification
of Arabia of unorthodox forms of religiosity and the enforcement of the
shari
a among Arabian society were fundamental demands of the Wahhabi
movement. The amir of Dir
iyyah took the Wahhabi reformer, recently
expelled from
Uyaynah, under his wing, and accepted these demands.
Wahhabism impregnated the Sa
udi leadership with a new force, which
proved to be crucial for the consolidation and expansion of Sa
udi rule.

The historical alliance between the Wahhabi religious reformer and the
ruler of Dir
iyyah that was sealed in  set the scene for the emergence of
religious emirate in central Arabia. Without Wahhabism, it is highly unlikely
that Dir
iyyah and its leadership would have assumed much political
significance. There was no tribal confederation to support any expansion
beyond the settlement, and there was also no surplus wealth that would
have allowed Muhammad ibn Sa
ud to assemble a fighting force with which
to conquer other settlements. The settlement itself did not have sufficient
manpower to initiate conquest of other oases or tribal territories.

Most accounts of the success of the Sa
udi–Wahhabi
polity highlight the fact that raids were congruent with
tribal practice, and as such they encouraged tribal confederations to take
part in the expansion of the Sa
udi–Wahhabi realm with the promise
of material rewards.

However, this emphasis completely overlooks the
spiritual dimension, a strong motivating force behind the eager submission
of some sections of the population who had already been timidly
but persistently trying to develop a spirituality deriving from the sim-
ple and austere message of Wahhabism.

Ibn Sa'ud’s indifference towards the Palestinian problem was maintained
until the outbreak of the Second World War. This attitude was summed
up by his famous saying: ‘ahl filis in adra bi shiabiha’ (Palestinians know
better their own valleys).

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-22/israel-gains-as-france-loses-entrepreneurs-among-persecuted-jews.html

Bruce: I grabbed my copy of David Isby’s “Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army” off the shelf and blew the dust off the top. Published in 1981 (London: Jane’s Publishing Co.), it’s the perfect guide to the weapons of this game’s period. There is a separate section on Soviet anti-tank weapons, and covers both first- and second-generation Soviet ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles). The Malyutka is actually the AT-3 Sagger, a first-generation Soviet ATGM. And right on page 151, there is a section on “Countermeasures.”

Soviet first-generation ATGMs are vulnerable to countermeasures. Many of the countermeasures developed by the Israelis during the 1973 War have been adapted and improved by the US, British and other NATO armies.

Yeah, right? Adapted and improved by the good ol’ US of A! Let’s see what we need to do here.

The Israelis discovered that the best countermeasure against Saggers was to destroy or suppress them using combined-arms tactics. They increased their use of artillery against suitcase Sagger gunners, who were without cover. Reorganised to meet the Sagger threat, Israeli armour units now had an even mix of tanks and armoured personnel carriers mounting at least three machine guns. They would advance in a checkerboard formation, tanks and APCs alternating. If heavy ATGM or RPG fire was encountered, the APCs would lead the advance, spraying suppressive machine gun fire while the tanks supported them with high explosive or blinded the enemy with smoke or white phosphorus. If the advance was halted, the infantry would dismount and clear the Saggers out.

Advancing Israeli armour in the later stages of the 1973 War also used the “Sagger watch” technique now adopted by NATO. Each tank and APC would search a key point of terrain where a Sagger might be located. When a Sagger was spotted in flight, the watching vehicle would give a warning to whoever appeared to be the target and would immediately fire in the direction of the Sagger launch, hoping to disturb the gunner’s concentration, make him lose control of the missile and obscure his vision with the dust raised by firing. Meanwhile, the target would take evasive action. Forces advancing against suspected ATGM positions can also use “bounding overwatch,” with half of the force moving while the other half remains in overwatch position, their weapons trained on likely enemy positions.

This stuff is, like, gold! Try to shoot me now, Soviet pinkos! There are like four more paragraphs of protips, but I’ll just finish with this part:

Hull-down tanks can dodge ATGMs spotted in flight by simply reversing down the slope and letting it pass overhead. Even if there is no cover, a tank can still outmanoeuvre a first-generation ATGM. It is difficult for the gunner to correct for sudden, sharp moves by the target, and a turn to the right or left by the target in the last four or five seconds before impact cannot be compensated for, and the missile will go past. Tanks can also dodge these ATGMs by following an erratic, swerving path. None of these first-generation Soviet ATGMs has an autopilot, so the gunner’s natural tendency is to overcorrect while trying to keep the missile on target, and thus to lose control. US Army officers estimate that dodging techniques alone can reduce first-generation ATGM effectiveness by at least 50% and possibly by as much as 70%.

During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the Arab Legion was considered[1] the strongest Arab army involved in the war. Glubb led the Arab Legion across the River Jordan to occupy the West Bank (May 1948). Despite some negotiation and understanding between the Jewish Agency and King Abdullah, severe fighting took place in Kfar Etzion (May 1948), Jerusalem and Latrun (May-July 1948). According to Avi Shlaim,

Rumours that Abdullah was once again in contact with the Jewish leaders further damaged his standing in the Arab world. His many critics suggested that he was prepared to compromise the Arab claim to the whole of Palestine as long as he could acquire part of Palestine for himself. 'The internecine struggles of the Arabs,' reported Glubb, 'are more in the minds of Arab politicians than the struggle against the Jews. Azzam Pasha, the mufti and the Syrian government would sooner see the Jews get the whole of Palestine than that King Abdullah should benefit.' (p. 96)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bagot_Glubb

mordy have you ever read guy gavriel kays 'lions of al-rassan'? if so do you have any thoughts abt it?

i have not, but guy gavriel has been recommended to me in the past. should i read it?

yeah its an enjoyable book

but it has an idea of 'jewishness' that is interesting to me and maybe overly common amongst canadas professional/intellectual class (see also the depiction of the girl that david staunton loves in robertson davies).

PfJfJ

http://www.theguardian.com/profile/farah-halime

hi mordy, are there any books on judaism you’d particularly recommend? i’ve read a little robert alter but that’s more exclusively literary

i know the literature must be vast so it's an impossible question.

(me: one parent adamantly atheist jew who was sorta don draper denying background, other parent believing catholic; got family in israel; but anyway i’m shockingly ignorant, despite my ilx name and interests)

prob should find another thread to ask nakh for recs re islam & middle east history; i’ve only superficial knowledge; should i start with bernard lewis

oh i don't have any great knowledge of middle eastern history at all, just something i've taken a more recent interest in during the last periodic flare-up

bernard lewis' 'from babel to dragomans' is good certainly, i recommended this to mordy a while back, contains essays on sundry topics over many years

thanks nakh, looks good

what are your jewish interests? most of my background is in primary sources (tanakh, mishnah, talmud, shulchan aruch, chassidut) but if you let me know what you want to know more about (jewish history? law? scripture? classical, medieval, modern? diaspora, israel? ashkenazim, sephardim, persians, bukhara, morroco, ethiopia?) i might have some suggestions.

interested in lots of that, but for now let's say:
judaism as a "worldview", so any philosophical takes on judaism (its understanding of the world & what it is to be human in it), overall but starting with early judaism-- i guess that would incorporate early jewish history, law, scripture & its interpretation
what’s a good (possibly annotated) edition of the Hebrew Bible
generally speaking i'm interested in the origins & genealogy of things (ideas, practices, forms of life), I like starting “from the beginning” then following their development
interested in tradition of midrash
interested in history & history of ideas, especially classical, medieval, early modern period
if there’s a good overall history of judaism and/or the jews as a people i’ll start with that
particularly interested in ashkenazim
interested in modern jewish history too of course, again esp ashkenazim, & establishment of state of israel

ha, hardly narrowed it down; don’t know that that helps at all! seriously, don’t recommend books on all or most of that; just, if there are any books you especially like on one or a couple of the above topics, let me know

Heschel is the best and I recently read and really loved his On Prophets. If you do end up reading it I'd love to discuss it w u

thanks mordy, looks very interesting, will do

Just wait till the conspiracy theory crew hear about this.