The Eagle Has Landed
The Delusion of Jewish Strength
Palestinians traveling through the re-opened Rafah crossing into Gaza receive the following stamp in their passports:
It’s stamped by the “Palestinian Authority” (and will apparently soon be changed to “State of Palestine”) and features its emblematic eagle. This might strike you as odd, given Bibi’s insistence that the PA will not be involved with Gaza.
And then there’s the official logo for the new National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG):
Does it look familiar? It should, because the main part of is identical to this:
That’s the official emblem of both the PLO and the PA.
Meanwhile, the eagle featured in this emblem is a heraldic eagle that also serves as the coat of arms in other Egypt, Iraq and Yemen. It is known as “The Eagle of Saladin,” after a carving on an Egyptian citadel built during his 12th century reign and believed to have been his emblem.
Saladin was the Kurdish Sultan of Egypt who was obsessed with jihad and led the Muslim fight against the Crusaders in Palestine. The Eagle of Saladin later became re-popularized in the Arab world following the Egyptian revolution against the British and its attacks on Israel. Arab leaders drew direct parallels between their own battle and that of Saladin in Palestine. It’s an important symbol for Arab victory, whether over Crusaders, British colonalists or Zionists. Israel protested the use of Saladin’s eagle in the NCAG’s emblem, but it’s still there.
None of this is particularly surprising. After all, Qatar is heavily involved. Trump praised the Qataris at the opening “Board of Peace” session for the NCAG as people who do “so much good” and just need better PR, but the truth is that they are Islamic fundamentalists who finance everything from Al Jazeera to Hamas. Consequently, as Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib pointed out, the NCAG is “filled by Hamas sycophants who literally cheered on the terror group's field executions and violent thuggery during the war and after the ceasefire. The Board of Peace continues to head in a troubling direction that'll ensure Hamas's continued rule and governance over Gaza, with zero prospects for disarmament, deradicalization, or demilitarization.”
Whatever happened to Bibi’s promises of “absolute victory” and no Hamas or Palestinian Authority involvement in Gaza?!
Well, all of that was clearly just another case of a politician making false promises. And it’s not difficult to see why it happened. Bibi was incapable of creating or even articulating a “day after” plan for Gaza (due to his coalition relying on people with delusional objectives), and so Trump and the Qataris stepped in. The hostages were only released because Trump imposed a “deal,” and Hamas went along with it because they realized that Trump would deliver their survival.
Clearly, Bibi is neither capable of delivering on his promises, nor the person who is as amazing for Israel’s security as he claims to be. (You’d think that people would realize that after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, but apparently not everyone does.)
Meanwhile, on Bibi’s political right is a party called Otzma Yehudit, claiming to stand for Jewish Strength. One of its MKs just posted a photo of herself breaking the law and entering Gaza to plant a tree as an initial act of “settlement”:
This was met with a furious backlash from IDF soldiers who had to endanger themselves in order to extract her.
An MK endangering soldiers’ lives in a crime against the State of Israel is not an example of either “Jewish Strength” or even Zionism. But it is a perfect example of the anti-Zionism, anarchy, and reckless dangerous folly that is embodied by her party.
The idea that the current government is “good for Israel’s security” is delusional, even aside from it empowering the rapidly growing anti-Zionist charedi sector to collapse the economy and military.
First of all - It's easy to criticize the people in power but a rational voter should consider the relevant question which is - WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS? not what the anti Bibi pundits clearly see should've been done to avoid October 7th but rather the question of what would have any of the other potential leaders have done in the last two years.
What is clear if you follow their actions and statements in the past 2 years is that if anyone else were at the helm other than Bibi the war would likely have been over long before Trump entered the white house. The path of least resistance, which is the path taken by those who don't have the incredible audacity to stand up the to USA, was even before 2024 to surrender, ceasefire, which would've had the Hamas rebuilding for 2 years now, with Sinwar at the helm, Hizballah intact, Assad intact. It is hard to argue that any other individual could've led us to where we are which is a precarious position but FAR better than where we could've been, a different geopolitical order of magnitude.
Yes, Bibi is still not right wing enough - we should've kept everybody out and completely destroyed Hamas. Maybe if the nation were focused on crippling Hamas during the war instead of demonstrating against Bibi - if all those at Kaplan demonstrated to stop aid from going to Hamas instead we probably could've done a better job at that. But at the end of the day, Bibi probably traded off the possibility of getting back the hostages for making a deal with Hamas and that's where we are. But it would've been far worse with any other leader at the helm.
Finally - I find the cynical title an affront to the tremendous part Hashem has played in protecting our nation.
Leaders give people direction, strength and hope, not delusion but hope.
You should follow in Rav Rimon's footsteps who was out throughout the war giving strength to soldiers and able to provide proper perspective.
https://bit.ly/4oRZ677
To claim the Palestinians are more powerful than Israel because they are able to pull a fast one (over and over) over the West is still a bit ridiculous. So your title is factually ridiculous. The Islamists are also taking the UK, Canada, Australia etc. etc. for a ride, that is the current Western malady - we don't like to call people enemies and treat them as such but that is a psyche that has to change, people like you have to start focusing on the real enemy instead of your petty rivalries. Instead of getting people to Rafah to demonstrate against the PA use of that stamp you just use it as a bludgeon against Bibi. Call out the bad and try to change it, don't just propogate your populist anti Bibi nonsense.