Starlink now available in IsraelAfter a year of regulatory paperwork, the Israel government has finally allowed SpaceX to offer Starlink to customers in Israel proper, but not in the West Bank or Gaza.
The company received an operating license from the Communications Ministry last year, following lengthy negotiations and regulatory procedures, but its launch was delayed until now. The restriction on coverage in the West Bank and Gaza is likely due to security concerns over potential use by hostile actors.
Expect the usual leftist anti-Semites to accuse Israel of bigotry for excluding access to Palestinians, but until those Palestinians show some willingness to live with Israel in peace (something they so far show no signs in doing, especially in Gaza), this policy makes perfect sense.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
After a year of regulatory paperwork, the Israel government has finally allowed SpaceX to offer Starlink to customers in Israel proper, but not in the West Bank or Gaza.
The company received an operating license from the Communications Ministry last year, following lengthy negotiations and regulatory procedures, but its launch was delayed until now. The restriction on coverage in the West Bank and Gaza is likely due to security concerns over potential use by hostile actors.
Expect the usual leftist anti-Semites to accuse Israel of bigotry for excluding access to Palestinians, but until those Palestinians show some willingness to live with Israel in peace (something they so far show no signs in doing, especially in Gaza), this policy makes perfect sense.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I’m sure I am going to get plenty of “feedback” from this comment, but I feel it has to be said.
I have very many problems with the actions of the Israeli government recently. We don’t need to go there… I know the viewpoint of our host and most of the posters here. However, I am absolutely not antisemitic.. I believe everyone has the right to worship how they want, indeed I have more problems with Islam than any other religion. But if I criticize the political situation in Israel I immediately get labeled antisemitic. Not just on here, but almost everywhere I interact with. There are questions to be asked about Netanyahu and the charged pending, and how prolonging the war in Gaza is keeping him out of court… I cannot ask these questions without being called an anti-Semite. Also, if I express some sympathy for the civilian casualties in Gaza I am an anti-Semite.
As I have stated many times, I absolutely believe in free speech, but it seems any discussion regarding Israel has been “cancelled”. Try and you are anti-Semitic. How do we address this problem, and allow free discussion without unwarranted claims of “whatever”ism?
I hope there is an answer, but it’s hard to see from where I am sitting.
Lee S: People think you are anti-Semitic because of your blind belief in the many anti-Israeli slanders, propaganda and lies that have been pushed for years by Hamas, the left, and others. And when I and others try to educate you to these lies, you seem unable to absorb that information.
I explain this knowing it will do no good, as you will deny its truth. That everyone sees you in this way however should provide you a clue as its correctness.
“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
Bob…… You just exactly proved my point. I have no problems with Jews, I have no problems with Israel’s right to exist in safety, I do have problems with some of the actions of the mostly far right factions over there… But they are mostly political points… I also have problems with Netanyahu and his trying his hardest to stay out of court, and yes I have many problems with the state of the conflict with Palestine right now. I don’t consider Israel’s response to the horrendous attack on innocents to be proportional or measured. Hamas need to be eliminated, but by completely flattening someone’s home you are just breeding more hate.
The Bosnian Croatian conflict called genocide when 6000 civilians were murded… By best estimates 40,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza… It is disingenuous to call the women and children Hamas. And despite Israeli propaganda, it is proved that they are restricting the influx of aid to the point where the population are starving, and aid distribution points have become killing fields.
I don’t expect to change your mind either Bob, but I have read your essays, your replies to my comments and even a book ;-) but my opinion on this matter remains the same. I am absolutely not an anti-Semite, and because I disagree with Israeli politics I don’t deserve to be called one. I am 100% anti Hamas, but I genuinely don’t think Israel is on the right track to create lasting peace. Jaw jaw not war war.
Lee–
Pro-tip:
Never start anything with the phrase “I’m not [X], but….”
At wayne…. I’m not going to disagree with you but…. Thanks for bringing some humor to what will probably pan out to be a long and involved subject…. Much appreciated!!!!
@wayne…
I thought I had left a response… But it seems to have vanished… If it doesn’t reappear…can I just say.. I’m not saying I’m right… But…. Doh!
” I am 100% anti Hamas, but I genuinely don’t think Israel is on the right track to create lasting peace. Jaw jaw not war war.”
Sometimes “Jaw Jaw” only plays into an enemy’s strategy to continue their war.
Sometimes when all the useless talking is done extreme measures have to be taken in order for there to be actual peace.
So, when anyone proposes that an enemy’s strategy must be accepted and embraced over and over again when everyone can see and understand the strategy taking place, then you in fact and in deed fully support them and their war.
Let’s not confuse weakness and appeasement with virtue, morality and the good.
This is the fundamental problem with the thinking on the Liberal and the Left side of the equation.
HAMAS has murdered, raped, decapitated and taken hostages knowing that those on the Left will be weak and will pander and will serve HAMAS.
HAMAS is desperate, but they are not stupid.
The ONLY solution?
HAMAS is eliminated and banned one way or another and the people of GAZA rebuild their situation and live under the protection of Isarel.
In addition, as I have proposed before:
The people of GAZA are for all intents and purposes a conquered people.
A conquered people as history will confirm without question, a conquered people either assimilate or……………….
But our “Civilized” Liberal and now Leftist and Globalists of the world who propose that they are the final moral and virtuous authority on all such things have become the biggest promoters of murder, rape, decapitation and hostage taking.
I strongly suspect that Trump will have a great deal to say about what will become of HAMAS and the GAZENS and the solution will tend to be along the lines that I have laid out.
Lee S,
You wrote: “Bob…… You just exactly proved my point,” which proved Robert’s point.
“How do we address this problem, and allow free discussion without unwarranted claims of “whatever”ism?”
Robert pointed out that we cannot discuss these topics with you, and you proved him right. There is no addressing this problem with you without you getting defensive. Even pointing out this problem makes you defensive. In fact, you couldn’t even ask the question without your first sentence being defensive.
Hamas does what it does, because people like you are willing to take their word for what happened and then are willing to criticize Israel for “Israel’s response to the horrendous attack on innocents [not being] proportional or measured.” You place blame on Israel and Netanyahu, but far more horrific attacks on innocent Israelis and Americans and anyone else in the terror zone don’t get the same response from you.
The next time Hamas or any Muslim group performs horrendous attacks, it is because people like you did their bidding: being far more intolerant of their victims than of Hamas.
Hamas has fooled you into advocating for them, and you have no idea that you have been fooled or even that you are the advocate. This is why your mind cannot be changed. The rest of us see it clearly, but all you see is Hamas’s complaints that they are losing, phrased as unfairness.
Hamas need to be eliminated, but by completely flattening someone’s home you are just breeding more hate.. Hatred that is bred into you by the action of eliminating Hamas.
And we cannot even discuss your points and questions with you, because you will once again become defensive.
But I am stupid and gullible, so here goes:
“By best estimates 40,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza…”
By best estimates 50,000 Americans were killed in Viet Nam. Was that a genocide?
Killing 40,000 terrorist supporters is not a genocide, it is a start. Weak, to be sure, but a start nonetheless.
“Jaw jaw not war war.”
Israel gave peace a chance, even giving Gaza back to the undeserving terrorist population, and all it got them was October 7 and complaints from people like you. As we have seen, even Hamas, Palestinians, and Muslims in general do not believe peace is the answer. They don’t believe talking is the answer. All that is left is war or capitulation, and you and people like you have helped drive everything into that direction. Now you complains about the consequences of your own actions and of your own words.
I would have thought Israel would have had Starlink already.
South Africa likely helped Israel with the Bomb, what with the Vela event–unless that had a cosmological source.
I don’t know if rank and file Afrikaners at large were anti-Semites.
Edward, as always, your comments are well thought out and rational!
Lee,
I don’t think you are anti-Semitic or even unilaterally anti-Israel.
You strike me as a well meaning person who is misinformed.
It’s tough to get accurate information especially regarding Israel. I have a friend who has a similar view to yours. He wants to support the right/just side and does try to find out what is going on. So he goes to his usual “trusted” sources… the BBC, the NY Times, etc. He even seeks an Israeli view so he reads the English version of the Israeli paper Haaretz. Unfortunately those outlets (especially Haaretz) are hopelessly biased.
Today a seeker of facts needs a variety of sources and then filter the info through common sense.
Does it really make sense that Israel is engaged in a program of genocide against the Palestinians? If so, they are doing an awfully poor job of it.
I recommend a YouTuber named Preston Stewart. He’s a US military vet who does not have a particular bias and does a very good job being objective (he also does a lot of Russia – Ukraine coverage). His military experience brings some valuable insights.
You might also want to check out some of Douglas Murray’s reporting.
BTW while I lean right, I also check left sources to avoid being stuck in a one sided bubble.
Lee S,
It would be nice if you would particularize your “very many problems with the Israeli government.” Without at least a partial laundry list, no one here can tell if any of your “problems” are real or simply Hamas/Western leftist talking points – the vast majority of which are complete fiction.
With respect to assertions that can actually be evaluated, you don’t score very well. The butcher’s bill in the various post-Yugoslav-breakup conflicts vastly exceeded 6,000, for example. The 6,000 were one particular atrocity in a conflict which saw many such attempted genocides. The terms “genocide,” and its newer quasi-euphemism “ethnic cleansing,” were applied because that is exactly what was going on – one side was attempting to exterminate the other within particular territories with no distinction drawn between military and civilian victims.
What is going on in Gaza is not genocide. If it was, there would not be a single “Palestinian” still alive there. The civilians killed there are the collateral damage pursuant to going after Hamas. That is an inevitable part of war, even war when fought in far more civilized fashion than Hamas has chosen to do in Gaza. Allied armies in WW2, for example, killed a fair number of French, Belgian and Dutch civilians in the process of liberating those nations from the Nazis, but none of these deaths were intentional. There is, sadly, no way for the Israelis to snap their fingers and cause just Hamas hardcases to magically disappear.
The problem is considerably exacerbated by deliberate Hamas efforts to use the Gazan civilian population as human shields in many ways. Hamas, for example, does not field its fighters in recognizable uniforms. Say what one will about the erstwhile Nazis and even the “militias” that did much of the “ethnic cleansing” in various parts of the former Yugoslavia, but at least they dressed for the occasion in actual uniforms. But “Palestine” is not a nation and one of the clearest tells that this is the case is the lack of uniforms for what amounts to its “national army.”
There has been civilian starvation in Gaza since the beginning of the current conflict. It got little or no mention in the pro-Hamas Western left-wing press early on because it would have reflected badly on Hamas which was, as it has always done, confiscating relief supplies as soon as they arrived in Gaza to keep its membership fed at the expense of the general population – who could only get food by purchasing it from Hamas at inflated prices.
Ever since Israel took over distribution of relief supplies from pro-Hamas NGOs, the Western pro-Hamas press has suddenly discovered that there is hunger in Gaza. This is so precisely because distribution points have become killing fields. But, as usual, it is Hamas doing all the killing of civilians trying to get food. Gazan civilians now have the unenviable choice of catching a bullet in the back should they seek to make a grocery run to an Israeli-operated distribution point or hanging back and dying more slowly of starvation. The Western pro-Hamas press blames Israel for both.
As for the alleged basis for the war, that Israel is an interloper nation on what has long been “Palestinian” land, this is transparent twaddle. There has been a continuous Jewish presence in “Palestine” for more than three millennia. The so-called “Palestinians” are simply Arabs who are the descendants of comparatively late arrivals. Prior to the rise of Islam in the 7th century there was no consequential Arab population in “Palestine.” The assertion of “Palestinian” rights to the land between “the river and the sea” is simply a case of wholesale attempted title theft on the part of the so-called “Palestinians.”
But all of that aside, do the “Palestinians” actually deserve a nation-state of their own? Given their consistently psychopathic behavior since the re-establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, I would argue no, they do not. Contrast the death-cult behavior of “Palestinians” with the far less problematical Kurds who certainly have to be regarded as standing well above the “Palestinians” in the ranks of ethnic groups deserving their own nation-state and who are presently without one. Once the Ayatollahs have been deposed in Iran and the current jihadi government of Syria is also put down, I would hope to see a sovereign Kurdistan assembled from the Kurdish-majority pieces of Syria, Iraq and Iran. Iraq should receive, in exchange, the Iranian oil-rich province of Khuzestan. The Azeri-majority provinces of present-day Iran should be annexed to Azerbaijan.
What should happen to Gaza, the West Bank and the “Palestinians?” Gaza and the West Bank should simply be annexed by Israel in fee simple. The IDF should hunt Hamas to extinction. Send “tunnel rats” into the extensive subterranean ant nest that is Gaza and kill anyone found down there who is not a hostage. Rescue any hostages that fall into IDF hands, but assume, going in, that remaining hostages – if any – will be killed. The rules of engagement should be no mercy, no quarter, no prisoners. Once a section of tunnel is cleared, it should be collapsed with sapper charges.
The “Palestinians” should be forcibly removed from both Gaza and the West Bank and dumped into Syria where I would expect their Arab “brothers” to quickly kill or enslave them. End of “Palestinian” problem.
Syria needs to go to the Kurds, I would think.
Dick Eagleson asked Lee S: “It would be nice if you would particularize your ‘very many problems with the Israeli government.’ Without at least a partial laundry list, no one here can tell if any of your ‘problems’ are real or simply Hamas/Western leftist talking points – the vast majority of which are complete fiction.”
The trouble is that Lee S has particularized his “very many problems with Israel” in past comments, and every single one of his complaints has been based entirely on Hamas/leftist talking points, all false. When I and others have tried to explain this to him, he gets offended and disappears.
For example, in this very thread he once again cites the fake Gaza death count of 40,000, even though this has been proven a lie by others many times (see here, here, and here). For Lee, the real data doesn’t count, only numbers provided by Hamas are real.
He might not be anti-Semitic, but he surely is willing to be fooled by those who are.
I might as well plop this down here because you are discussing the irrational Liberal / Leftist mind: Related:
“MOMMY, I THINK I AM A CONSERVATIVE!” WHAT!!!
“I am having a civilized conversation with a “progressive” Democrat. And they are explaining to me how parents being upset about what any reasonable person IMO anyway would consider to be raw graphic pornography being in their minor child’s school library. In the form of books which were specifically written for them, the parents should not be that concerned.
“Progressive Democrat: “I am not certain that having a book available in the library qualifies as young people being “targeted””.
“Young people do absorb all kinds of material. It’s an exciting period of life, one where they begin to figure out who they are as human beings. They also learn how to understand and interpret all sorts of influence, from media, including literature, from their friends, family, etc.
There’s nothing wrong with that. I hope a parent would try to help guide their kids through this period of time and answer questions and help them become critical thinkers, not shield them from everything they don’t want their kids to think about or be.”
Keeping in mind they do not have children nor do I.
Shouldn’t parents of minor children in public grade school have a say about what is being taught and poured into their minor child’s mind in the public school that they pay for? The “progressive” Democrat says, no, not really. Nothing to see here.”
A parent comments: https://youtu.be/9l5MAyRdnlY?si=MpoGWLup_EU5OBd3\
And some more: https://youtu.be/KxS_T9NpdUU?si=bCltI-T3RVNiu5tw
Then I added this component into the equation. Still waiting for a response.
“If you had a minor child and these books depicting one mans interpretation of American history written specifically for children were in your minor child’s school library and the books were read by those children and discussed in class, should they be banned?”
Limbaugh’s 5-book RUSH REVERE series — Rush Revere and the . . . Brave Pilgrims / First Patriots / Star-Spangled Banner / American Revolution / Presidency
You send your minor child to school and you are a “progressive” more Liberal even Leftist Democrat oriented in your politics and your child after being exposed to such material at dinner announces one evening: “Mommy, who was Rush Limbaugh, I think I am a Conservative!”
Should those books be removed from your minor child’s school library because you interpret these books as indoctrinating your “Liberal” / “progressive” child into a belief system that is counter to your / their parents belief system?
We all understand what is actually going on within the public school system, now don’t we? Let children figure out who and what they are and learn mutual respect for others and their differences and choices, that is my general philosophy of life. And I find that reasonable. But that is not what is going on.
An interesting question related to what should and should not be allowed in your minor child’s public school library, no? When did parents lose their Rights regarding their children and what they were taught in the public school system over and above the basics? Depends on your politics?
What is pornography? What is indoctrination?
“You know it when you see it”.
Are you paying attention Yet America? JGL 8/12/25
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/mommy-i-think-i-am-a-conservative-what
Lee S is just a light weight contrarian.
If the right came out on the Hamas and Palestinian side he would switch over and be against them again inside a year because the support was being done wrong or something like that.
He is a “feeler” not a “thinker”. feelings over logic.
But aside from that.
I hope the Palestinians and Hamas fight to the last man down to the last child. If it can hold a grenade it should go to war. And paradise. But they do not have the real courage. their solders are untrained thugs and terrorists and their leaders hide hundreds of miles away calling the shots, calling for other idiots to die for them.
The Palestinians just cant see that they are being used.
“The Palestinians just cant see that they are being used.”
That and is suspect that the mass of the Palestinian people are being held at the point of a gun and are also hostages of HAMAS, Iran and whom ever else is using them.
Who would dare not support HAMAS?
I have to believe that the mass of Palestinians would just like to live in peace but the politics of the middle east has them all by their collective stones.
The solution?
An asymmetrical strong leader in the west that can change the paradigm of darkness and death.
Hmmmmmm, who could that possibly be?
Jeff Wright,
The majority-Kurdish areas in the north of Syria should become part of a unitary Kurdistan that also includes roughly the northern 1/3 of Iraq and the Kurd-majority provinces of Iran.
Syria has never really been a country so much as a place where a lot of “leftovers” were consolidated without rhyme or reason once other countries in the region were defined – generally by former imperial powers on their way out.
The Golan Heights should always have been Israeli and that oversight, at least, was repaired back in 1967.
But the north of Syria is Kurdish, not Arab, and should not be part of an Arab-majority state.
Ditto the south of Syria, which is majority Druze. The Druze are another generally well-behaved regional minority who are far more deserving of having a homeland nation-state than the two-legged cockroaches who are the “Palestinians.” Any Druze state carved out of Syria should also include the Druze-majority part of Lebanon.
The middle part of Syria, which is Arab-majority, might make for a rump Syrian state after the border rationalizations and new state creations I have outlined. But even that is going to be nothing but trouble so long as the current jihadi Syrian administration is in power there.
Perhaps the Israelis, once Hamas and Hezbollah – along with their Islamic Republic puppet masters in Teheran, plus the jihadi Syrian government in Damascus, are all eliminated, could do a deal with the relatively sane Arabs left in both Lebanon and Syria and combine the leftover parts of both countries into a Greater Lebanon and restore Beirut to its former status as the Paris of the Middle East.
In the Middle East, as everywhere else, the good guys need to be rewarded and the bad guys need to be exterminated. Simple, really.
Robert Zimmerman,
You’ve been keeping much better score on Lee S than I have and keeping score is something you have a notable talent for. Lee S seems to be a pretty typical leftist in that he always wants his virtue-signaling opinions received with approbation and can’t really deal with opposition or contradiction of any sort. When he fails to elicit “atta-boys” and “right-ons” he whines and sulks. In that, at least, he is completely indistinguishable from normative lefties here in the US. In addition to all of the near-infinite other entitlements lefties feel they are owed, they also feel entitled to be agreed with when they drop one of their little turd-lets of faux “wisdom” in the middle of the living room rug.