Israel Shamir

Closing the circle, completing Gestalt, opening a new chapter – any simile you like, but choosing 9/11 for inauguration day calls for a heavy-duty sense of humour. This is what the Taliban decided. Their new government, the first in 20 years to rule from Kabul, will be inaugurated on 9/11. They decided to troll Uncle Sam. In addition to c[...]

My congratulations, friends and readers! The Taliban’s victory is our victory, yours and mine. We, non-Muslim and non-Pashtun folk, in the US and Europe, may rejoice, for in Afghanistan, virile (not “toxic”) masculinity defeated gender-diversity, believers defeated those weak of faith, the morals of our fathers overcome the morals of our [...]

Let’s begin with good news. Resplendent August, the last summer month, has blessed the North! The sun is shining, the lakes are still warm enough for swimming, the mushrooms are ready for picking, the wild raspberries are crimson and sweet, the ginger Bambi fawns frolic in the forest as it reaches up to our summer house; God’s in His heav[...]

The Russian people have successfully managed to foil the latest attempt by the Global Covid Party to enforce its most current list of restrictions and vaccinations. The covid restrictions were unleashed June 16, while Putin was away at the Geneva summit. Moscow Mayor Sobyanin announced that QR codes would be required to enter all cafés an[...]

I love scientists but they will kill us all, said Jon Stewart on The Late Show with Steven Colbert . Science eased our suffering due to a pandemic that was most likely caused by science, he told the audience.[...]

The recently inaugurated Israeli government, the Coalition-for-Change, the wet dream of Israeli and American liberals, Biden-approved-and-blessed after fifteen years of Bibi Netanyahu’s tyranny and four rounds of elections in the last two years – barely surviving a vote of confidence in cliffhanger-fashion – 59:59. It came to power on a s[...]

The Russian Direct Line is a unique exercise in direct democracy: Russian citizens call up their president and he answers their queries and solves their problems, like a Nordic konung a thousand years ago. Russia came into being as a chain of Nordic princedoms that practiced this sort of direct access to their ruler; early Russian [...]

The Geneva rendezvous of two presidents remains an enigma. Why did they meet at all? They agreed that nuclear war is bad for all; fine! Didn’t they know that? Did they check on their partner’s soul, did they look into the eyes? Now we have some answers, based on conversations with my Israeli friends who had the advantage of hearing both s[...]