The Power of the Sabbath in the Age of the Smartphone

In an age where everyone is constantly connected to the Internet—to the extent that now some speak of “smartphone addiction”—Ephraim Mirvis, chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, argues that traditional Sabbath observance provides the perfect antidote. (Interview by John Bingham).

[W]e are finding that society is coming around to appreciate such a day at a time when everybody naturally wants to be connected. . . . [People today] don’t realize that sometimes the more connected one is [electronically], the more disconnected one is from everything that is important. . . .

We are finding that now in our Internet era there are particular advantages to the Sabbath; it is . . . our “digital detox day.” . . . On Shabbat you are dealing with real friends, real people, real challenges. . . .

I want to stress . . . that commercial activity is good; the Internet is good; social media are good; smartphones are good; they are a power for the advancement of mankind in a most spectacular fashion. But I think we need to have an element of self-discipline—and that’s certainly [part of] what Shabbat is about.

Read more at Telegraph

More about: Internet, Judaism, Religion & Holidays, Shabbat, Technology

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF