This is Tel Aviv in 1909. As you can see, it's just sand and seashells. So how did it become a city? During the 1880s, under Ottoman rule, Jews started founding new neighborhoods outside of Jaffa due to overcrowding. The first was Neve Tzedek, founded in 1887 by Mizrahi Jews on lands purchased by Aharon Chelouche, an Algerian Jew who moved to the Land of Israel in 1840 and made a fortune trading in gold and silver. He purchased the land from local Arabs. In 1890 Neve Shalom was founded by Zerah Barnett, a wealthy Lithuanian Jew, who purchased the land with his own money in the same way. Other neighborhoods have similar stories. Notice that they were all founded under Muslim rule on land bought from Muslims. So when did these neighborhoods become Tel Aviv? In 1906, 60 Jewish families purchased plots near Jaffa and registered them under the name of Jacobus Kann, a Dutch citizen. The funding came from the Jewish families themselves, who were aided by a loan from the Jewish National Fund. The town was originally named Ahuzat Bayit ("homestead") but was renamed Tel Aviv in 1910. In 1917, the Ottoman authorities expelled the residents of Jaffa and Tel Aviv as a wartime measure. The Jews returned to the area after the British defeated the Ottomans. After the war, Tel Aviv became an attraction to immigrants because it offered the comforts they were used to in Europe: electric light, water, cinema, opera, theatre, restaurants... all the good things you couldn't get in a kibbutz. It received township in 1921, under British rule, and was granted the status of an independent municipality in 1934, after its population swelled due to riots against Jews in Jaffa, forcing many to flee to Tel Aviv, as well as Jews fleeing the rise of Nazism in Europe. No stolen homes, no stolen land, no stolen money. Just hardworking people turning desert into prosperity with their own wealth and effort.

It's uncanny how closely the US is following in Israel's footsteps in Gaza starting from 2005. A humiliating withdrawal, an attempt to buy quiet from Islamists, ineffectual tit-for-tat that acquiesces to a drizzle of terror. It's painful to watch because I know what comes next.

A quick reaction for those interested in my opinion about the newly signed agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Look at this photo. No one is smiling. Everyone is tense. They look like hostages taking a photo for their captors. Even Rubio, who is supposed to mark this as a diplomatic achievement, looks grim. Only the Americans are wearing pins with their flags. The Israeli ambassador (who is an American citizen) is wearing an American flag crossed with an Israeli flag. The Lebanese are not wearing their flags at all. Does this look like the happy occasion of signing a peace treaty to you? Everyone in this photo is a hostage in another one of Trump's harebrained schemes for "peace" in the Middle East. Oh, and a fun fact: Nada Hamade, the Lebanese ambassador, was a senior official in the World Bank until recently. If you know, you know. Perhaps I'm being too kind by calling the Israeli delegation "hostages." Maybe "collaborators" is a better term for Israeli officials who signs away land won by Jewish blood and tears to please a foreign government in return for nothing. Actually, it's less than nothing. The US has already started sending money to the Lebanese military as part of this "agreement." This is not a happy occasion. Not for Israel, not for Lebanon, not for the US. The only winner is Iran. There is nothing to celebrate here.

To the people demanding I do a DNA test to prove your latest antisemitic theory: I'd love to do one (this is totally legal in Israel) and publish the results, but since you're the ones demanding to see it, it's only fair that you pay for it. Deal?

To the people demanding I do a DNA test to prove your latest antisemitic theory: I'd love to do one (this is totally legal in Israel) and publish the results, but since you're the ones demanding to see it, it's only fair that you pay for it. Deal?

There is a Frank Herbert quote that describes the future of the West perfectly: "When I am weaker than you I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles."