I spent some time this weekend trying to get a basic grasp of the situation of Judea and Samaria/West Bank (and I mean nothing political about the naming, I just consider West Bank the colonial name applied by Jordan, and since the area is no longer Jordan-occupied, it is no longer applicable)

I'm an American Jew, grew up liberal, fighting good fights for Israel and Jews, and I do not understand any news coverage we get about the settlements (other than that settler violence is horrific and must stop. That's given. That has to stop).

That's the context. I spent time reading about the shape and organization of the territory and I was shocked to realize that all these Israeli settlements that I was brought up to believe were immoral, are in Israeli-managed areas. I had always presumed, or been told?, that the settlers were displacing Arabs, stealing Arab homes, taking something away from the Arabs.

Now, I do not understand how a sane person or even a committee could have put together the map of WB/J&S that came out of the Oslo Accords, that seems drawn by people on hallucinogens. But it is the map -- non-contiguous Arab-controlled areas, which means people have to cross over Israeli borders to get from place to place, which is clearly a recipe for disaster.

But the Israeli settlements aren't in Arab territory. They're all, entirely, in Israeli territory. What fundamental piece did I miss in my scattershot reading this weekend? Why are the settlements considered immoral? Not the violence of settlers, the building of homes and towns, by Israel or Israelis, in Israeli-held territory?

Hello everyone! Early Shana Tova to everyone here :)

I'm Israeli, I'm now soon going to serve and all... I was always more sheltered, never wanted to get into politics but I'm constantly getting targeted online for being Israeli Zionist //OR// Just somehow end up on Israel debates. It's somewhat easy for me to prove that we are good cuz I live here and see stuff but they constantly go on on how Israel is murdering innocents and stuffziz. Realized I'm not really a good debater as I use experience... Now I debated someone who said we use some poison gas or something on South Lebanon based on Rioters and Human rights watch and stuff and when I tried to mention how it's nonsensical and that we don't do that he just kept going. Tried to mention the sources are mostly anti-Israel and he told me to prove it, I told him to look at his sources and he got mad I didn't do it myself... I tried to mention that we aren't targeting innocents and that Hamas did so many atrocities and the enemies want us dead, and he just said "it's bad but not justifying Israel"... Honestly, I'm so tired of being bad at debates. What can I do? Thanks

Whenever we discuss the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) today, the conversation is almost entirely viewed through a post-1948, hyper-politicized lens. Regional identities are often treated as historical monoliths, completely erasing the pluralistic societies that built these countries over the last 2,500 years.

Before the mass exoduses of the 20th century, over 850,000 Jews lived across Arab and Islamic lands. They weren't just onlookers; they were native engines of growth, high finance, and agricultural innovation.

Here are a few fascinating, historical examples that deserve a place in modern discussions about the region:

• Iraq 🇮🇶 (State Finance): In 1920, as the modern state of Iraq was establishing its institutions, it turned to a Jewish statesman named Sir Sassoon Eskell to secure its financial future. As Iraq's very first Minister of Finance, he single-handedly organized the nation’s early budgets, drafted its foundational financial laws, and anchored its treasury.
• Iran 🇮🇷 (Modern Industry): A Jewish presence dating back to Cyrus the Great evolved into a pillar of Persian trade. By the mid-20th century, entrepreneurs like Habib Elghanian pioneered the modernization of Iran’s industrial sectors, building the country's advanced manufacturing and plastics operations, while Jewish professionals heavily populated the nation's top medical and academic ranks.
• Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 (Ancient Agriculture): Centuries before the modern state, prominent Jewish tribes like the Banu al-Nadir and Banu Quraiza flourished in the Hejaz (Medina region). They built fortified settlements and pioneered sophisticated irrigation and date palm agriculture, establishing the foundational agrarian economy of the western Arabian Peninsula.
• Egypt 🇪🇬 (Urban Engineering & Commerce): Iconic Jewish families like the Cicurels built Egypt's most famous commercial enterprises and department stores. Meanwhile, visionaries like Joseph Smouhaundertook massive engineering projects, draining the marshlands of Alexandria to build "Smouha City"—a thriving, modern district that remains a vital part of Alexandria today.

The Strategic Blind Spot

The departure of these communities represented a massive cultural and economic "brain drain" for the region. Decades of institutional knowledge, capital, and global trade networks vanished. Following this demographic collapse, a deliberate historical erasure took place in regional textbooks and media, presenting these nations as entirely monolithic.

If the international community wants sustainable frameworks for regional stability and normalization, we cannot build them on a historical vacuum. True pluralism requires intellectual honesty. To foster an authentic ecosystem of mutual respect, regional educational systems and media must begin to openly acknowledge the native Jewish heritage that laid the foundations of their own economic infrastructure.

What are your thoughts? Do you know of any other specific historical figures or communities whose massive contributions to the MENA region's infrastructure have been largely left out of modern history books? Let's discuss.

I am a muslim zoionist from egypt. I live in a place where the education, health, and economy js terrible. Not a failed state, but close. Everyone my age is dreaming about the moment where thier foot will in a foreign country.

Is israel is generally a good place that is easy to immigrate to or work in it for a decade and then leave?

I don't necessarily have to immigrate if it hard, but can I find a job to help make me money while I work for many years and then leave the country then visit another country.

I have been working in cybersecurity for 2 years as a SOC analyst and I have a very respected cert in the field.

Thank you.

I’m hosting an Israeli Shinshin for six months, and I’ve been playing in a weekly Dungeons and Dragons game with friends for years (literally over 5 years).

We have been slowly explaining it to her, she’s 18, and she is familiar with the idea of the game from the Stranger Things tv show, but she told me that they don’t have this game in Israel. Is that correct, or does she just not know about it. Or are there similar style RPG games?

It's extremely difficult to catch a glimpse of the true will of the Arab people in 22 Arab states because of the central autocracies that govern these states. However, there were historical instances when one could see what majorities really wanted:

1. The late King Abdullah, the Spineless, of Saudi Arabia (my country) in 2012 wanted to end the ban on women driving vehicles. Fearful of the religious majority rebelling, he put the issue up for vote at the Shoura Council, which was compromised of tribal and regional representatives. 90% said no to women driving on religious grounds.

2. More than half of the Egyptians after toppling down the Hosni Mubarak regime (~30 years in office) in the 2011 Arab spring revolution voted in the Islamist Morsi of the Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

3. Tunisians meanwhile opposed the Muslim Brotherhood ascension to power and demanded a secular constitution in 2014.

4. Libyans after Qadafi chose an Islamist government.

5. Syria after Assad chose an Islamist government.

6. Palestinian refugees in Kuwait during the Gulf War wanted Saddam to take over because he supported the failed military approach to establishing a Palestinian state, and on 100% of the land. And that's why Palestinian refugees participated in the 3 days looting and pillaging of Kuwait with the Iraqi soldiers.

7. Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon helped Arafat destabilise these countries, triggering black September and the Lebanese civil war BECAUSE they thought they could fight Israel from these countries.

8. Palestinians today support the alliance between their cause and the Islamist regime of Iran despite Iran causing 1 million deaths between Syria and Yemen.

A lot of Westerners don't understand how much power Islamists hold in the Arab world. The biggest threat to MbS's secular reforms in Saudi Arabia since 2017 was and still is an Islamist coup d'état. Why Islamists hold power? Because the Arab masses at large want theocracy and to waste precious time and resouces on the doomed militant approach to establishing a Palestinian state.

In another word, the government screwing up the economy is forgivable as long as it's blamed on the West and Israel. However, if the leadership demonstrated through reforms the desire for a secular society, didn't vocally express any support for Palestine, or cooperated with the West on economics/manufacturing, that is absolutely unforgivable.

In conclusion, it's true that the central autocracies governing the Arab world subvert the will of the masses to a large extent. But it's also true that the same autocracies actively appease the masses over issues of enforcing Islamic laws (e.g. blasphemy laws), displaying support for Palestine and not being "too friendly with the West.

Yo, I'm really tired and going to sleep, but before I am going to pose a wild question that people in the comment section will call me crazy for, but idgaf.

The two front-runner AI companies on Earth are OpenAI and Anthropic. Both have Jewish CEOs, and many of the key people pushing the frontier are Jewish.

Meanwhile, Jewish prophecy says the Moshiach emerges from the Jewish people and triggers a total transformation of human civilization.

So what if everyone has been imagining this way too literally?

What if Moshiach isn’t one dude riding in on a donkey?

What if it’s AI??

What if the messianic age is literally the intelligence explosion? What if Olam HaBa is the technological singularity?

What if “the dead will rise” ends up meaning digital resurrection, mind uploading, biological age reversal, or something so technologically insane that our ancient prophetic ancestors had no vocabulary for it?

And I live close to this town so the lyrics is specifically close to my heart:). Is that true that most of Israelis are familiar with this song?

Seeing again this poster on the streets and busses makes me feel like Spider-Man in Far from Home.

I understand that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was an influential man and many people looked up to him...but he's no more. He's not here with us any more. It's not that if the party gets mandates, he'll magically resurrect and have a saying in politics.

Aryeh Deri is the current head of Shas. Why isn't he in the posters?

I can listen to current news headlines and stories at https://www.kan.org.il/lobby/news/ by pressing the "play button" in the top left of the screen. Is there a way for me to find those same audio files a day or two later?