Yman

An artistic representation of the consequences The horrible massacre on Simchat Torah is a miracle that Gd did for the sake of the people of Israel. Our state was internally divided with a large, organized, and well-funded faction that is backed by the media and all the institutions, that was willing to tear the state apart and start a civil war if only to maintain its hold on power. All our enemies needed to do was stand aside quietly and watch us fight each other until our state falls apart. A burnt house in Kibbutz Beeri If I were the head of Hamas I’d prepare everything for the day this happens: I’d prepare forces in Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and inside sovereign Israel. When the state stopped functioning I’d send out the order to go out, capture territory, disrupt, riot, massacre in the Gaza envelope, Judea, Samaria, and inside sovereign Israel. I’d do it in coordination with the Huthis in Yemen who would blockade the naval routes in the south, and with Hizballah who would invade from...

  AI rendering of Syria. Source: https://designer.microsoft.com A few days ago there was a demonstration in the Syrian village of Maariya against Israel's presence in southern Syria, which resulted in one Syrian being wounded by the IDF. This incident only serves to highlight a greater question: Why is it the first? Why was there no noticeable opposition to the Israeli incursion into Syrian territory until now? Ma'rbah and Hader. Source: https://earth.google.com To the contrary, Druze communities near the border declared their desire to be annexed by Israel , calling Israel the lesser of two evils. In other cases the communities in the demilitarized zone and even in Syria proper cooperated with the IDF's demand to hand over weapons, and there have been videos showing relaxed and amicable interactions between IDF troops and Syrian residents in Syrian villages. One reason is Israel's conduct throughout the Syrian civil war. Israel's approach was to officially stay ou...

Many years ago I was accidentally exposed to Japanese media, and fell in love. It felt new and fresh, with a variety of themes and topics that I didn't encounter much in stories I was used watching or reading, and spoke to me on an emotional level with stories and characters that resonated with how I felt, my life, my situation, and aspirations. In the beginning the Japanese language was completely incomprehensible to me. I couldn't even distinguish which sounds I heard first and which I heard after. It was only after dozens if not hundreds of hours of listening to Japanese being spoken in those shows that I started to develop an ear for it, and ever since then I've wanted to study the language so that I could understand without subtitles, or read ahead in the manga, especially for series where the English translation had been discontinued, a desire that is in no way unique to me. Over the decades I've started studying Japanese many times from books, apps, or other res...

On Tuesday I happened to watch the following video about calculating the real population size of the PRC: Which got me thinking. The One Child Policy was put into place in 1979. Although it wasn't as restrictive as it sounds, it still provides an interesting opportunity for a thought experiment. According to Population Pyramid in 1979 the population of China that was under 50 (still young enough to have children) was a little over 827 million, although perhaps instead I should take the population under 45, or under 40 instead. Assuming that the one child policy was strictly enforced with no exceptions, and assuming that women are 50% of the population, that would mean that each generation is half the size of the previous generation. Assuming that nobody ever dies of anything, and assuming an infinite number of generations, we get this formula for the total population size: lim x → ∞ ∑ 0 x 1 ...

Recently MK Benni Gantz repeated what was already said by other Leftists, which is that if the current government passes judicial reform, they will make sure to undo all of it once they get elected. Here's the video: https://x.com/gantzbe/status/1867557108041875795  To quote (from Hebrew): "And if you exploit political power without consideration for the entirety of the public and manage to unfortunately pass something that harms Israeli democracy, we'll make sure to cancel everything." Their claim is that judicial reform is undemocratic, and repeately say that it will lead to Israel canceling democracy and becoming a dictatorship. However, at the same time they also say that if they win the election they will undo all of it. Thus they admit that even if judicial reform passes, Israel will still use a democratic system to elect its government, and that government will still have the power to change the system of government. Thus they are admitting that judicial refor...

On the face of it, an alliance between HTS and Russia would make a lot of sense. Russia’s alliance with Syria was a cold business transaction. Syria needed outside support to survive against the various rebel groups, and Russia wanted to expand its influence, regain its position as a global superpower, and to have ports and bases in the eastern Mediterranean. Now that Syria has fallen, Russia has no reason to maintain the deal it had with it, so it should be open to allying with the rebels. At the same time, the rebels have Turkey as their patron. They might not always see eye to eye with Turkey, as each has its own ambitions, and Turkey and Russia are geopolitical rivals. It makes sense for the rebels to also ally with Russia as a way of keeping Turkey in check. If Turkey doesn’t provide enough support, or if it makes unreasonable demands, they can cozy up to Russia. If that doesn’t motivate Turkey to be more accommodating then they can switch their primary patronage to Russia until...

As has been published, Al-Julani is the founder of Hiat Tahrir Al-Shams, which means something like "The Front for the Liberation of the Levant". It's a radical Islamist offshoot of Al-Qaeda and ISIS that aims to conquer Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel. Their leadership is putting on a moderate front, but that's all it is, a front. However, putting on this friendly face indicates that their leader is intelligent, crafty, and wise, and has strategic vision.   The following is my assumption as to what his plan is. Stage 1 Consolidate power and territorial control. Build up institutions. Gain international recognition and legitimacy. Stage 2 Draw in international investments and build up the economy and military. Stage 3 Destabilize the neighbors by supporting and arming radical groups. Lebanon is divided with the largest group being Christians and Shiites and Sunnis being about equal with around 28% each, and the Shiites are still well-armed and organized, so the mai...