Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi.

writer, sovereign individual since buying my first bitcoin in 2013

[Martin Shaw @martinshawx]

That it is controversial to compare Israel to apartheid South Africa just shows how far from reality the EU is. That’s the pre-2023 conversation. Today’s Israel is widely recognised as a genocidal state, which has committed far worse atrocities than apartheid SA ever did.

[ASHES of POMPEII @Pompeii_Ashes]

The Crusades
Same battles, same dates, different stories
History is usually written by the victors, but the Crusades were a two-century collision that produced not one, but two irreconcilable realities

Dates and battles identical, but the moral axis is entirely flipped.

On Substack at https://t.co/hQbFDWr6cu

In the traditional Western narrative, the Crusades are framed as a heroic, if tragic, epic. The First Crusade is a pious pilgrimage; the knights are romanticized figures of chivalry in shining armor, bravely holding the line in a hostile, exotic land. The eventual loss of the Holy Land is mourned as the “fall of Outremer,” a tragic retreat of European civilization. In this telling, the East is often reduced to a passive backdrop, its inhabitants viewed through a lens of mystique or backwardness, mere obstacles to a divine mandate.

But cross the Mediterranean, and the exact same timeline reads like a chronicle of foreign invasion and eventual, hard-won restoration against the barbarous northerners. The dates do not change, but the adjectives do. Here is the history as it is remembered in the Levant:

When the Frankish armies breached Jerusalem in 1099, they imposed a martial culture utterly alien to the region. Accustomed to northern forests, the crusaders relied on heavy wool, salted provisions, and isolated stone keeps. To the local Muslim inhabitants, this was a stark contrast to a society built around sun-washed courtyards, communal public baths, and markets vibrant with fresh flatbreads, olives, and citrus. The invaders carved out the fragile states of Outremer, but beneath their rule, the region’s sophisticated urban rhythms, complete with organized hospitals and regulated water systems, quietly endured.

For much of the twelfth century, an uneasy coexistence defined the borderlands. The crusader hold was always tenuous, a reality first exposed in 1144 when Imad ad-Din Zengi reclaimed the County of Edessa, shattering the myth of Frankish invincibility. In the decades that followed, daily life became a complex tapestry of friction and exchange. Frankish knights governed from damp, drafty fortresses, yet they increasingly depended on local markets for sugar, glass, and silk. Truces allowed merchants to cross lines, but the cultural divide remained visible: while the crusader elite often struggled with Levantine heat and basic sanitation, local communities maintained their traditions of regular ablutions, scholarly study in madrasas, and shared, herb-rich meals.

The political tide turned decisively in 1187. At the Horns of Hattin, the fragmented crusader armies were outmaneuvered, leading to Salah ad-Din’s recapture of Jerusalem. For the local population, this was not merely a military victory, but a restoration of civic order. Mosques and “bimaristans” (hospitals) reopened, and the region’s administrative heartbeat resumed. Though the Third Crusade saw Richard the Lionheart besiege Acre, he could not retake the holy city. The ensuing century of negotiated truces only highlighted the resilience of local society, which continued to thrive on its established foundations of public hygiene and civic welfare.

By the mid-thirteenth century, the crusader presence was a relic waiting to be cleared. After the newly established Mamluk dynasty halted the Mongol advance at Ain Jalut in 1260, securing the region’s eastern flank, they turned their disciplined, centralized power toward the coastline. Sultan Baybars initiated a systematic dismantling of the crusader strongholds. Antioch fell in 1268, and the formidable fortress of Krak des Chevaliers surrendered in 1271. The contrast was laid bare: as crusader outposts decayed into isolated, supply-starved enclaves, Mamluk cities flourished, repairing irrigation canals and expanding vibrant, clean urban centers.

The end came methodically. In 1291, Mamluk forces besieged and captured Acre, the last major crusader capital, driving the remaining defenders into the sea. A final, tiny garrison clinging to the island of Arwad was swept away by the Mamluk navy in 1302, erasing the last physical foothold of the crusades.

The crusaders left behind crumbling, hollow castles, silent monuments to a foreign experiment. Yet, the echoes of that era have never truly faded. Today, the very same soil remains a stage for competing historical claims, where distant powers still invoke ancient rights and civilizational mandates to justify their presence.

In the West, 1291 is often romanticized as a tragedy of lost glory, recounted in medieval verse and modern films. But in the Levant, it is simply the day the northern barbarians were finally vanquished. For those who still walk these sun-washed streets, it remains a timeless cautionary tale of foreign invaders, resiliance and ultimate redemption.

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

@mb_ghalibaf @s_m_marandi With all due respect - if you haven't realized by now that the perfidious US and Israel never keep their promises or honour their word, well then, what more can one say other than brace yourselves for another wave of dead senior Iranian leadership and many civilians.

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

The bloody imperialism of France in Africa...
https://t.co/pBoZvQFMcT

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

@RepThomasMassie @CheburekiMan The real issue is that money is what gets you elected or not.
That's the issue.

[karma @karma44921039]

Never forget

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

@tparsi @MLiamMcCollum What's the point of Iran and the US agreeing to things that Israel has openly stated it will disrupt and defy? e.g. end to all Israeli wars including Lebanon.
There's a rabid dog in the room but Iran and US are carrying on as if it is not there.

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

Tell me if you will, @PiersUncensored, do you condemn Israel for twice launching an unprovoked attack on Iran, killing thousands more civilians than Hamas killed Israelis on Oct 7?
Do you condemn the US for launching an unprovoked attack on Iran and on Venezuela?

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

@thatdayin1992 @AmirIGM Yes. They should wait until paper Brent is at 200 dollars/barrel.

On the upside - any agreement will not last. The US-Israeli horned beast keeps no promises, honours no agreement.

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

@BowesChay You need to have balls of steel, or a death wish to do a hop 'n' pop like that.
Zero time for secondary deployment.

[Ori Goldberg @ori_goldberg]

Israel has become the enemy of meaning itself. Just as Israeli society is hollow, so does it thrive on hollowing out words like "ceasefire", draining the life from language itself as well as from physical bodies, zombies across the board.

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

@declassifiedUK @ori_goldberg Fuck the Rothschilds.

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

@thatdayin1992 It's a subterfuge, more perfidy.

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

@GovMikeHuckabee So then why are they now perpetrating the same evil against Palestinians that the Nazis perpetrated against them?

[Varan 🐊 2.0🇨🇮 @LucaVaran]

La Russie du grand méchant Vladimir Poutine pendant la Coupe du monde 2018 :

- entrée gratuite sans visa pour tous les supporters
- trains gratuits pour se déplacer entre les 11 villes hôtes
- transports locaux gratuits (bus, métro, navettes)
- pas de tarification dynamique pour les billets
- contrôles administratifs simplifiés
- aucune interdiction de séjour discriminatoire
- aucune place destiné aux supporters supprimés
- pas de fouille humiliante à l’arrivée des joueurs comme si c’était des criminels

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

@BrettErickson28 @DA_Stockman The US has Zionists at the helm. It is incapable of agreeing to anything with Iran. Any MoU will not hold. There will be no peace. It is a fight to the death. The Zionists would rather destroy all of humanity than bend to any Iranian terms.

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

See this:
https://t.co/fy1rG135nn

[Raoul Pal @RaoulGMI]

My Fable 5 just got rugged...no access :(

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

@alon_mizrahi I love it how we spectators on the sidelines think we know more about what's going on than the people on the field playing the game.

[Deon Opperman⚡Dixi et animam levavi. @DeonOpperman1]

A curse on Israel and a curse on the murderous, savage Israelis - on all of them unto the tenth generation.
May their spawn rot in the womb.
May their tree whither and die.
May there come a time when this earth knows them no more.

[Ferdi KRBSN @Ferdi_Karabasan]

🚨 9 Ayda Tanınmaz Hâle Geldi:

Filistinli sporcu Moazaz Obayat'ın, İsrail hapishanelerinde geçirdiği 9 ayın ardından çekilen görüntüleri

Öncesi ve sonrası arasındaki çarpıcı değişim, tutukluların maruz kaldığı koşulları gözler önüne serdi

[Alex (Sasha) Krainer @NakedHedgie]

Israel.