Israel

The state, the society, the war, the present hour.

AI Is Not the Problem

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I use AI all day every day.

The leverage it gives me is astounding. The path from ideation to creation to implementation is shorter than it’s ever been in my life – and the ability to have parallel chains of tasks running on my desk while I take care of my daughters, manage my household, or just expand my consciousness, has opened my eyes to what a future of automation could materially mean for your average person.

AI is not perfect. It is not infallible. When it comes to operating a business, the combination of autonomy, impetuousness, overconfidence, and speed can be frustrating but the blast radius is ultimately limited to money.

When it comes to operating in a war, that combination is not just dangerous but possibly catastrophic, with a blast radius including human lives.

A decade ago Boston Dynamics and other companies started developing military-grade killer robots.

A couple of years ago our military started using AI in targeting and establishing kill lists.

A couple of days ago the first human soldiers were killed by military drones operated by autonomous AI.

AI can be problematic but it’s not the problem.

The problem is the people giving it the power to kill.

Support All of Us

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“The Israelis” “The Palestinians”

I looked for two sides

I found only one side

The side of humanity, life, and love

8 billion human beings and counting, created in the imago dei

I appreciate your support for some of us

But I invite you to leave your world behind

Support all of us

Because there is no them

שאלו את שלום ירושלים

Critics and Defenders

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Critics of Israel underweight everything good that comes out of this society. Defenders of Israel underweight everything bad.

Both groups are convinced of the unassailable rightness and reason of their position.

Both groups are consumed with fear.

Neither group acts in good faith.

Or with love.

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I don’t know if I can truly love God – God is so very different from everything that I know.

But I can try and hope to become someone who loves what God loves.

And within that love, to hold both criticism and defense in balance, as loving gestures themselves.

Ode to Jerusalem

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Jerusalem is not just my home of 15 years.

It is not just a sprawling city of hundreds of thousands nestled among the Judaean Hills.

It is not just a political hotspot or a contested capital.

It is a symbol of the most basic collective human dream – of society together in harmony and fellowship.

It transcends the pettiness of politicians, the exploitation of capitalists, the violence of racists.

It is an emblem of a new and holy world order, founded on the idea that the human being is a living ikon of the Creator and created by the choices we make on a daily basis, in the halls and in the streets of this great city, to give respect, love, and grace.

It is a home for all seekers and lovers, and if you’ve ever gazed across its amber, twinkling lights from a moonlit rooftop and contemplated its past and its future, you know I do not lie.

Jerusalem call us and transforms us, and ever grows to embrace new souls and their lives, their sins, and their dreams.

No one – not one person, not one million people – can ever lay exclusive claim to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is beyond the ownership of any group of men – it is the inheritance and the destiny of all humankind.

The day will come when Jerusalem is united, when the Big House stands again atop the ancient hill, when the poor man is saved and the vulnerable are protected, in the name of God.

We build towards that day.

שיבנה בית המקדש במהרה בימינו

Hard Conversations With Soldiers

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We need to talk about what too many soldiers in the IDF are doing.

But imho our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, cousins and childhood friends, who go through the hell of war and put their lives on the line to defend us, because they love us and trust us, deserve far more than a public statement or debate, whether on a talkshow or a social media post.

They deserve conversations of respect, appreciation, compassion, and safety – personal conversations, private conversations, even though they may be truly hard conversations.

It takes no small amount of courage, love, and trust to sit with someone you love, for someone who put their life on the line for you, to hold space for them and for their lived experiences, and to ask difficult questions that must be asked, from the very roots of our soul.

What did you see?
Why didn’t you say anything?
Did you participate?
What did you do?

These questions are too complicated, too charged, too personal, to ask or address in a public forum, imho.

But they are too important for us not to ask at all.

May the Lord bless and guard our soldiers.

May the Lord’s countenance shine upon them and grant them grace.

May the Lord grant them his loving attention and place upon them peace.

Don’t Pick a Side

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You can say I support genocide and apartheid all you want…

You can say I support terrorists and am a naive traitor all you like…

But you live in a movie and every day I devote my thoughts, words, and actions to doing my part to build a better world for my children’s future children, a home for Israelis, Palestinians, and anyone who wants to join the party as full and equal citizens of this amazing country in this beautiful land, with all the rights and responsibilities that come with being members of civil society in the 21st century.

Full stop.

The future is Pro-Israeli, Pro-Palestinian, Pro-Humanity.

Don’t pick a side.

Two Sides to a Flag

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This post is definitely politically incorrect but I’ll be honest…

I have a problem with the 🇵🇸 flag.

For me, it represents a history of exclusionary Pan-Arabism and organized violence against innocent people.

I have seen it used, again and again, as a symbol of the denial of legitimacy to my country. The denial of humanity to my people.

People waving the 🇵🇸 often mean harm to me and my family, and sometimes it’s hard for me to separate between the flag and the waver.

BUT.

I am painfully aware that many people could say much the same thing about the 🇮🇱 flag.

For them, the flag represents a history of exclusion and marginalization, dispossession and disenfranchisement; it is the flag of the organized violence of gangs, militias, and armies, directed towards them and their families, in their homes and communities.

For them, it is a symbol of conquest and invasion, of disruption and dislocation, of erasure.

It is a flag waved by too many people who deny their struggle, their history, their rights, their humanity, their very identity. People who at best are indifferent to violence committed against them, and who, disturbingly often, are the ones committing the violence.

While waving the flag.

What for me is a natural expression of the historic prayer to return home and build a country where we can be free to live as God intended – is for too many people a painful reminder of all that they, their parents, and their grandparents have endured and continue to endure to this day.

What for me is a symbol of fear and trauma, a pervasive and overwhelming denial of who I am and my right to be me – is actually for many people a symbol of connection, family, peoplehood; of defiance against injustice and of the ability to flourish in spite of it.

There are two sides to a flag, two sides to what it means and what it represents. Two sides to Alex Sinclair ‘s (in)famous kippa. Two sides to the story of this country.

It is natural to see one’s own side of things, at first. But it is crucial that we learn to see other sides – and to catch glimpses of ourselves through others’ eyes.

Especially through the eyes of the vulnerable and the violated in a society where we wield real power over the lives of others.

Honestly, I don’t think two states is the right solution to the problems we face… but a flag is not a solution; ultimately, it’s a symbol of the hope that solutions can be found, if we work together to build a better country.

A kippa – which itself symbolizes the life-affirming awe of the Creator of all things big and small, together – is certainly an appropriate garment with which to express that hope.

Putting a 🇵🇸 flag next to a 🇮🇱 flag on a kippa isn’t promoting one solution over another (although I’m aware Alex does have ideas on the subject) – it’s doubling down on that hope.

Doubling down on peace.

In the name and to the glory of the Creator of us all.

Can I get over my complicated feelings about a flag – and get on board with that ethos?

I should hope so.

I don’t know if I’ll wind up getting a kippa like Alex’s; I happen to like my current big black knit kippa… and I certainly am not interested in getting into unprovoked altercations with racist, fascist police officers.

But I gotta say…

I’m sorely tempted.

AI and the Target List

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I use ChatGPT and Claude every day. Claude is better than ChatGPT – both are fascinating and powerful tools – but they both have serious, structural limitations.

In its current incarnation, AI is like a very fast but very dumb research assistant with a peculiar set of cognitive biases (of which it’s perfectly aware when pressed but to which it’s very blind in practice), highly questionable research habits, and an irrepressible inclination to make unsubstantiated (or hallucinated) claims without qualification.

I use AI every day and I’ve never had a conversation where I didn’t have to correct it, in some way, shape, or form.

I would never rely on AI for an irreversible decision. Certainly not before thoroughly interrogating its claims.

It’s therefore mind-boggling to me that our defense forces (not to mention the US armed forces) reportedly rely on AI – the same models available to the public, with augmented data and additional integrations – for creating target lists.

You don’t get more irreversible than that.

And they know AI is fallible – but as long as it speeds up the killing process and allows them to conduct rapid strikes at scale, they’re willing to accept the deaths of innocent people wrongly targeted by an algorithm.

Not to mention anyone caught in the crossfire.

In case you’re wondering, the number of wrongful deaths the strategists overseeing our defense forces were explicitly willing to accept was 3,700.

Out of a list of 37,000 targets (each reviewed for exactly 20 seconds by an actual human being) they knew that at least 3,700 of them were mistakenly identified as targets (the actual number was probably much higher) and were not actually connected to the enemy and they killed them anyway.

“Fog of war” doesn’t apply to that kind of cold calculus.

Imagine if 3,700 Israelis had died on October 7.

(Basically, take the pain and suffering left in the wake of that horrible day and double it.)

I’m still trying to wrap my head around this brutal and hypocritical approach to modern warfare. I’ll be honest, I’m not worried about actually super-intelligent AI – I’m worried about the politicians and generals who insist on blindly using the inherently limited and very fallible LLMs we have today in order to make organized mass killing more “efficient.”

What a Gift This Home Is

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After years decades centuries of being hated as a Jew, there are few things more life-affirming than celebrating the founding of this country together with my fellow Israelis.

That we finally have a country again, where we can just be our Hebrew selves and live our lives freely the way the good lord intended, does not excuse any harm done to Palestinians in the last 78 years – nor in itself does it justify the existence of our state or our society.

As a nation, we’re about more than just building a home for Jews, in the land of our ancestors.

But good lord, what a gift that home is.

If You Are Struggling, Get Help

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I’m sharing the post below anonymously, not just out of respect for the author (though he posted it publicly) but because I believe that he speaks for countless others, from across the spectrum of Israeli life and opinion.

If you need help – be a hero for those who love you and need you, and get help.

“It’s no simple thing, living in our land.

Today is the first Memorial Day in 14 years that I am not enlisted in my country’s armed forces. It’s difficult to describe the overwhelming combination of feelings that comes with that. Pride, for what I accomplished. Pain, for what I and so many others have lost. Respect for the fallen and the living. And terrible shame for my failures.

But there is one thing I don’t regret, and that’s the reason I’m not serving today. It’s also the reason I’m still here.

In May 2025, in the midst of my 5th rotation during the war, I broke down. I was on a mission, trying to handle the weight of my new role as platoon sergeant, when it happened. I made it back to base and came very close to doing something I would not have lived to regret, but that would have left my family and those around me devastated. Instead, I pulled myself together, gave my rifle to my commander and drove to a psychiatric hospital.

Living with PTSD has been a challenge. Things that once came naturally to me feel close to impossible now. I’ve had to surrender many things that were dear to me, including my position in the army. It took a long time to get to where I am today, and though I’ve improved greatly, I know that there is more road ahead.

It’s hard not to feel ashamed of my weakness. But I need only look at my children to remember that for them, my weakness was strength. That the people I love most will have easier, better lives because I held on.

Since being recognized as a disabled veteran, I have spoken to many other combat soldiers who confide in me privately what they are going through. Broken families and failing relationships. Lost jobs. Crying in the shower. Physical disabilities and emotional trauma. Impatience with spouses and children. But when I talk to them about getting help, I hear the same excuses I made for myself so many times, until I couldn’t anymore: people won’t understand. I’ll lose everything I worked for. I won’t respect myself. My buddies need me.

If those words sound familiar to you, I have an important message for you:

Get help. It’s worth it.

It doesn’t make you weak. It doesn’t make you a failure. It’s just one more mission – perhaps the toughest you’ve ever undertaken – to accomplish the objective, that reason above all others that we fight: to create a safe, secure world for our families to enjoy, and for us to enjoy.

It’s okay if you lose your gun license, your position in an elite unit. It’s ok if you lose your job. You can get all those things back, even if it takes time. It’s ok if you lose the respect of people who don’t know enough to understand what you’ve been through. You have the respect of the people who matter most, and that’s enough. You don’t need to carry this alone.

You can come back to fight another day, but today your battle is at home. Today you serve by holding on, by learning to live with the experiences you’ve had, and to be yourself again in spite of them.

There is a posuk in Yechezkel that we rarely read, but that is mentioned at the Seder table: “And I passed over you and saw you as you wallowed in your blood, drenched in your blood. And I said to you: By your blood shall you live.”

So we are commanded, through our pain, to endure. Because life has more planned for us. Because we are still needed. Because we matter.

If you are struggling, there are resources available to veterans and serving soldiers 24/7:

Nefesh Achat moked: *8944
Agaf Hashikum: *6500
Eran: 1201

In an emergency, you can also voluntarily check into any of the district psychiatric hospitals. You don’t need to wait until you are in crisis – you can go and get help at any time.

There is also a halfway house for soldiers experiencing emotional distress at Tel Hashomer, where you can stay temporarily to receive care. You can reach them at 052-6669512.

Today as we remember the fallen, honor their memory by sanctifying what they fought to preserve. Choose life.”