After beep-explode-reload, I'm playing "right here, right now" and "praise you".
After a year following the empty threat of "don't" by the US, Israel shows the world how it's done, James Bond style. Let's celebrate together.
As for many good people around the world, the news of exploding Hezbollah pagers brought comic relief in dark times of war and Western decline. That Israel had figured out a way of blowing up Jew-hating, West-hating Islamists from their pagers and walkie-talkies is simply the stuff dreams are made of. Forget James Bond. This is the real deal, baby. Come, celebrate.
As the euphoria was settling, I metaphorically dusted off the track by Fatboy Slim called Right Here, Right Now and played it over and over. It had been a long time since I listened to it and it sure felt good. I remembered going nuts over it when it came out in 1999 and I was living on Ripplevale Grove in London, about equidistant to Angel and Highbury & Islington tube stations.
I don’t know what made me think of it. It’s strange how thought processes operate. I mean there were a bazillion things that could’ve come to mind. But what automatically came to mind when I first heard the news was that famously limp, “I have one word: don’t… don’t” warning that US President Biden murmured while looking half asleep to Iran, Hezbollah and all the other Jew-, American-, and West-hating groups in the region nearly a year ago. Beep-explode-reload was the antithesis of “don’t”.
We know how effective that “don’t” warning was. Iran attacked Israel. The Houthis attacked Israel. Hezbollah attacked and continues to attack Israel. Hamas, degraded as it is, still vows to fight on and recently shot six hostages including an American citizen at point-blank range after forcing some of them to make videos denouncing their government. We’re way past don’t and empty red lines, and we were already way past them on 10/7.
The world is at war and the West is asleep. The militant Islamists who want to chop off Jewish heads, burn babies, kill Holocaust survivors, capture vulnerable hostages, and destroy Israel also want to decapitate the West. Israel is just the first stop along the way, not only because it is close, but because it’s Jewish. It’s not the Hamas-Israel war. It’s the war of militant Islam against the rest of the world. There are militant Islamists in my city of Toronto threatening the Jewish community and it is happening across the West.
Do you know what will stop militant Islam? Power. Superior intelligence, awesome kinetic force, and cutting-edge technology aimed at destroying them so thoroughly that they are forced to give up, just like the Nazis had to when all hope was lost. The Nazis weren’t deradicalized on a 12-point rehabilitation plan. We didn’t try to win their hearts and minds. We (the Allies) destroyed them to the point where unconditional surrender was the only option.
Now, we are dealing with evil just like the Nazis. These modern-day Islamists whose pants are blowing up now and their Iranian counterparts who are shitting in theirs are the descendants of Muslims who cheered on Hitler and the Nazis and relished the thought of making the world Judenrein (yeah, Jew-free).
Germany and Japan unconditionally surrendered, but militant Islam never did. They instead buckled down for the long war, the war we’ve been in all our lives with most of us not even knowing it. The war that smouldered even as the West was occupied fighting the Cold War. It’s the same war that was fought early this century by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and ISIS. It’s the war fought now by Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and the rest of the Islamist rat pack.
The long war is an asymmetric world war. It is militant Islam against the rest of the world, including any part of the Muslim world that does not subscribe to its interpretation. It is wrong to call it terrorism and, after 9/11, GWOT (the Global War on Terrorism) was a misnomer. Terrorism is merely one set of tactics our Islamist adversaries use because they can. Was Yemen’s attack on Israel merely a terrorist attack? Was Iran’s hundreds of missiles just a terrorist attack? Is Qatar’s cash flow aimed at shaping the hearts and minds of American youth terrorism?
No. These are acts of war on the kinetic and information planes and every one of the adversaries attacking Israel hates the West. They would attack it just as forcefully if they could and they don’t mind waiting another century before they do. They’re sure that time is on their side, and if the West continues to stick its head in the sand and bind the hands of its staunchest ally in the region, they may be right. This is why Ali Khamenei thanks the Western useful idiots who chant slogans for Hamas and hate the West as much as they hate Israel. He understands that their stupidity is to his advantage, that is, to the advantage of militant Islam in the long war.
Wishful thinking is not an effective mode of self-preservation. The West is acting foolish and that makes those of us who love it at times angry, at other times confused, and sometimes sad.
And this is why Israel’s most recent and brilliant attack gives us hope. This is why my mind veered straight from “don’t” to “Right Here, Right Now.” Because the Israelis are saying, okay, bring it on. If you want a war, we will mess with you psychologically and kinetically. We will undermine your confidence in your communications and internal security while we blow the balls off your men and make them scared to answer a call. This is right here, right now, Tarantino-style.
The Israelis have caused embarrassment with a vengeance to the Islamists and, yet again, signalled in no uncertain terms that Israel can strike Iran and its proxies wherever and whenever it chooses. That’s why “Right Here, Right Now” popped into my head. I guess the ‘90s had an impact on me, after all. Go figure.
Of course, it might also be because the human brain is a remarkable associative information processor. And when I think of Right Here, Right Now, I also naturally think of this other Fatboy Slim classic that is apropos of the time.
That’s right, tonight, I have to praise you, Israel. I have to praise you like we all should. This was an incredible covert operation that will go down in history as a daring feat.
Wonderful article David. Thank you for your work!🇮🇱
I do agree with you, David. What really disturbs me is the near total absence of calls for Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, etc. to stop their wars of Jewish extermination and surrender. Most calls are asking Israel to let itself be attacked forever and stop defending itself. Instead of blaming Israel, the blame should be on the shoulders of those who kill, behead, torture, enslave in the name of Islam. It is total lunacy to argue that terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis are oppressed and fighting an oppressor. That is not the record. That said, Israel may not be blameless about how it goes about defending itself, but given its geographical position, not to fight is to let the terrorists win. Unless those who criticize Israel have a plan to get rid of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, they do not have the higher moral ground to criticize Israel's wish and efforts to survive, which necessitates defeating its enemies.