Thoughtful Blonde

✝️ Foreign policy/geo-political analysis - Syria 💚 especially. 🙏🕊️🌍. I like to write, research, and argue. My little kids still think they know more than me

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

Meanwhile we should complete the investigation into the bombing of the Minab school and pay reparations.

It's good to do the right thing, and the psychological impact of doing the right thing matters for the war and for humanity.

[U.S. Central Command @CENTCOM]

U.S. Central Command forces have begun launching a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway. The U.S. strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

So Gazans are lying about civilians being killed? You are more worried about the headlines than whether there were civilians killed in a hospital during a supposed ceasefire? Who has killed more civilians at this hospital do you think - Israel or Hamas?

@grok how many civilians have been killed by the IDF at Nasser Hospital since October 7, 2023?

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

@omar_dddg How will we be convinced?

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

@JoeTruzman If they were going after a single person, why attack when others were there? They killed a doctor. Israel seems to want to demonstrate the Naza accusations fit. https://t.co/OhXxArc6UT

[Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا @SMohyeddin]

Israel kills doctor, Dr. Rezq Abu Sheera. The 53 year old father was a general surgery specialist and head of the surgical department at Nasser hospital.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

This is a blockade. Do not let Israelis like @eylonlevy say they are humanitarians for letting some things through in their blockade.

[Joanna Wren @1962Wren]

@SeemaJilani James Elder of UNICEF said they negotiated for over a year with COGAT and the 'Board of Peace' to be allowed repair the water system causing the floods, they reached an agreement, had equipment in place and then COGAT pulled the plug citing 'security concerns' with the equipment

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

In the US the biggest god is the economy. People love money. No one can fight a culture war in the US without a good economy as many have pointed out.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

Ideology matters. It affects how people act and their decision-making. The more I've listened to interviews of Jewish Israelis and their posts, the more it is obvious that "security" is their god generally.

So it's shocking, but not shocking that he uses language that make that overt here.

Netanyahu knows this and knows the people are affected when their god is desecrated or threatened. So he tries to be the supreme god of war and peace so that all bends to his will.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

When I was a kid I guess I just assumed that Jews had the Hebrew scriptures and just didn't believe in Jesus, though I had probably heard the word Talmud. 🙂

So I was surprised at some point to find out that most Jews today don't actively proselytize. I think this is bound up in the idea that comes through our Christian subconscious that the chosen people spread the fame of God through the nations by what He has done through Israel as a nation, and they actively bring people to God or show them God. I asked ChatGpt how the Bible describes how God choose the Israelites and it gave me this chart. 😊 But I think we also take 1 Peter 2:9-12 and layer that over these passages, so if we read them their meaning is already layered over with the idea that the Messiah has come and our goal is to spread his love among the nations, so people love God and their neighbor as themselves.

But especially dispensionalists, like Huckabee, might even have a lot more layers in their head, when they think of the words "chosen people."

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

@AureleTobelem Verse 10. 🙂 https://t.co/IIXJc3DAz2

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

How do you justify this in your head @araghchi?

[Center for Human Rights in Iran @ICHRI]

Iranian authorities’ execution of five more protesters in just six days is horrific.

The five men were executed in connection with the January 2026 protests following grossly unfair trials marred by severe due process violations, including credible reports of torture, the use of forced confessions as evidence, and restrictions on defendants’ and their lawyers’ access to case files.

Since March, Iranian authorities have executed at least 40 people in connection with the January 2026 protests, amid a broader surge in politically motivated executions.

Dozens more protesters remain at imminent risk of execution. Without strong and urgent diplomatic action, Iranian authorities will continue using executions as a weapon to silence dissent.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

Half a million new trees after years of war... 👍💚🌳

[عامر الشيخ @AmerAlsheikh0]

أطلقنا اليوم حملة «ريفنا أخضر»، بالشراكة مع وزارة الزراعة، بهدف زراعة 500 ألف غرسة في مختلف مناطق ريف دمشق، واستعادة الغطاء الأخضر الذي عُرفت به أرضنا.
تشمل الحملة زراعة الزيتون في 70 مسجداً، والأشجار المثمرة في 160 مدرسة، وتشجير حدائق المدن والمشافي والمراكز الصحية، وإنشاء 9 حدائق للنساء وأطفالهن، إضافة إلى توزيع 200 ألف شجرة مثمرة للمزارعين في محافظة ريف دمشق.
كما تتضمن إنشاء غابة شهداء ريف دمشق في الغوطة الشرقية، بـ10 آلاف شجرة من التين والزيتون.
مسؤوليتنا لا تنتهي عند الغرس، بل تمتد إلى رعايته حتى ينمو ويثمر. نعمل معاً لنستعيد خضرة ريفنا ونترك لأبنائنا بيئة أجمل وأكثر استدامة.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

The problem with running both works through AI is that scholars need to do the same with their own papers and the works they cite as a control. The problem there is obviously the footnote.

But there's not enough there to make the accusation of deliberare written plagarism, since the theory that AI would find this in everyone's scholarship where a footnote is forgotten is plausible until tested.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

@Lidia0416094641 I definitely don't think all Israeli Jews are the same. But it is an overall pattern that "security" is the thing that cannot be touched.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

Ideology matters. It affects how people act and their decision-making. The more I've listened to interviews of Jewish Israelis and their posts, the more it is obvious that "security" is their god generally.

So it's shocking, but not shocking that he uses language that make that overt here.

Netanyahu knows this and knows the people are affected when their god is desecrated or threatened. So he tries to be the supreme god of war and peace so that all bends to his will.

[Gadi Eisenkot - גדי איזנקוט @gadi_eisenkot]

ישראל נמצאת במציאות ביטחונית מאתגרת ונפיצה.
בשבועות האחרונים פורסמו ידיעות מדאיגות מאוד בנוגע להחדרת שיקולים זרים לקודש הקודשים: ביטחון ישראל.

פניתי הערב לראש הממשלה היוצא, בנימין נתניהו, בנוגע לחובתו הביטחונית והממלכתית בשעה זו.

מתוך הפנייה:

"אני דורש ממך: בתקופה רגישה זו אתה נדרש לאחריות לאומית, גלה איפוק וזהירות מפני מהלכים מסוכנים שיכולים לחכות להשבעת ממשלה חדשה הזוכה לאמון הכנסת. אל תחלל את אמון העם במוסדות השלטון ובהליך קבלת ההחלטות.

הפעלה של כוחות הביטחון ללא איום ישיר ומידי שאינו סובל דיחוי, עלולה להוביל להשלכות הרסניות על הדמוקרטיה הישראלית ועל אמון האזרחים במוסדות השלטון.

אל לך להציב את ראשי מערכות הביטחון בקונפליקט חוקתי קשה וספקות באשר לנדרש מהם ולדבר הנכון לעשותו. אפשר להם לשמור ללא ספקות על הציווי הקדוש המוטל עליהם".

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

@PhilipDBunn @K1009000 If you were quoting an academic on X that might be acceptable but you're quoting a random X dude with 43 followers.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

@PhilipDBunn @K1009000 I asked if you reveiwed this accusation yourself, and you're not answering directly.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

@eyal_tsamir Haha, thanks. Just found it.

[Qalaat Al Mudiq @QalaatAlMudiq]

Helicopters flying over #Daraa are often misidentified.

This regularly creates fake news, frequently amplified by Hijri supporters.

There's a rule: a pair of helicopters flying in daylight over E. & N. Daraa countryside are usually US helicopters heading from Jordan to #Damascus.

This is how Tom Barrack travels, but other delegations use the same route as well.

[Tom Fletcher @UNReliefChief]

No more delays. No more excuses. We must open all the crossings, mobilize the whole humanitarian community, and get our full Winter plan delivered for Gaza.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

@AhmadMas22 Good point. This is true. It was interesting how Lister kept describing rumors of the US maybe using the Mezzeh airbase. It seems that was offered to improve relations but nothing came of it. They're scanning what allies might want in order to create closer ties.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

Wow. A dock open for friends rather than just for Russia.

[Charles Lister @Charles_Lister]

Significant.

For the 1st time, a French La Fayette class Frigate docked into #Latakia port in #Syria — paying a visit to the Syrian Navy & met on arrival by #France’s Charge d’Affairs @JBaptisteFaivre.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

@AhmadMas22 I am surprised, to be honest. I can predict some of the government's moves, but not this. 😅 A needle in Putin's eye for sure, plus also an interesting geopolitical move.

[Thoughtful Blonde @thoughtflblonde]

@Nuorgolan I doubt they are real people.