Two Wolves Inside Me
On the fight between Boruch Hasofer and Maskil Bina
I have been following the tension between משכיל בינה and Baruch Hasofer with great interest. Both are highly intelligent, great communicators and present a great case for each of their respective sides.
Maskil argues for a more tempered approach to Israel security and PR issues, recognizing the value in an engaging according global democratic norms and sensibilities. He argues that Israel needs some level of foreign support and that makes it imperative that Israel show some level of restraint.
Boruch correctly points out to the often hypocrisy of those norms and advocates for a “us versus them” tribalistic approach.
If one examines their backgrounds, their philosophies are a clear outgrowth of their proclivities and life experiences.
Boruch is a USMC vet that served during the Global War on Terror and Maskil is an academic with a PHD.
In a sense, this tension is the classic infantry man in the field versus the leadership back at home. The infantryman has the warrior sense of honor and craves conquest and romanticizes the honorable last stand.
He also understands the on-the ground reality of the battlespace, the culture of the enemy combatance and populance because the warspace is his home, not a 2D illustration on a map hanging in a strategy meeting.
However, his issue is that he often doesn’t see the bigger picture. Wars are not won by battles and short term victories, you need to play the long game. Leadership has the benefit of the full picture and long term strategy.
That being said, leadership are often are disconnected from the reality on the ground. It is easy to dictate policy and rules of engagement when you are thousands of miles away sipping coffee in a temperature controlled room and are not subjected to the downside of those policies. Additionally, there is the risk of overintellctualizing and taking an overtly talmudic approach to a realm that needs bloodlust and fixing bayonets not theories.
Yukio Mishima critiqed those who limited their philosophy and worldview to the abstract and knowledge without an embodiment in the physical world. Often, intellectuals think they can outlogic or outheorize reality and hide their lack of physical embodiment behind flow charts and wall of texts.
It isn’t for no reason that upper echelons in the military are derisively referred to as “REMF”s (Rear- Echelon- M#$%^$%-F#@%^&!#)
Truth is, both are needed.
The Allie retreat in Dunkirk was a defeat by the warrior definition but a clear long term strategic victory.
Boruch Hasofer would probably call them “Gay, retarded and cucked” for not mounting a heroic but futile last stand but had he been in charge, we would be either all dead, or speaking German now.
In modern times, the settler violence may be nesscary for their community safety but they need to realize that their actions will be scrutinized by the global press and their actions have direct implications for Jews worldwide.
Like, don't knock down a statue of Jesus.
However, sometimes you need a heroic but suicidal last stand like the 300 Spartans versus the Persian army in Thermopylae.
( Boruch actually looks like Zach Snyder's 300 King Leonidas )
Oslo, “Land for peace” and the regime change attempts in tribal, third-world countries clearly showed the limits of accademic and theoretical approaches to real world problems.
Baruch Hasofer and משכיל בינה need to both recognize the value of both ends of the dichotomy and should recognize the need for the opposite perspective.Honestly, it would be a bigger miracle then Israel- Iran peace.
I see Baruch's position as fundamentally honest and aligned with pragmatic reality. Despite having the brains to be a successful rootless cosmopolitan, he has firmly planted his feet in a place, a very *specific* place, come what may. To that, I say יישר כוח.
On the other hand, I think Maskil uses this platform to hash out some of his deeply held convictions, many of which are contradictory. There is an unresolved tension in Maskil's writing, almost a sense of intellectual torment, presumably originating in ideological rigidity, that I do not detect in Baruch. A lot of Maskil's writing comes off, to me at least, as convoluted, self-flagellating, and unnecessarily incendiary as he tries to place the blame for Israel's predicament exclusively on other Jews. I believe this is a misguided holdover from the exile.
I've tried, as you have, to get the two of them to talk to one another in some kind of moderated forum, but this has yet to come to pass.
As an external Muslim viewer also interested in the Maskil Binah vs Baruch Hasofer fight it is interesting to see 2 ideas of future Judaism, also funny given they both hold very close ideas like religiosity and about HBD and would hate me IRL.
The issue I find is while Baruch is smart and he can keep pragmatic ideas about violence and conquest, many of his fellow Jews seem less capable of such grey thinking which is how Arabs got to the point of being led by fanatical retards.
Jews usually don't focus on the Arab side because why do it, but a lot of the base endemic dysfunctions of the Arab countries are being copied via osmosis in Israel (from what an external viewer can see) and while today the society is capable of leading a pragmatic, truth oriented and technically competent army/society there are some corroding forced which are decreasing the advantage year after year.
Notably after Oct 7th a lot of the global opinion soured because while everyone expects Arabs to be savages, Israelis always purported themselves to be a "shining beacon of democracy in the middle east" which they have not shown to be. This plus the whole Amalek shit, the far right taking power, Bibi and the establishment proclaiming to go after Turkey next (retarded move) this has put the idea in the heads of many normies that Israel will not stop even if its neighbours are pacified which is motivating them to pull away from Israel and more towards the neighbours. The land and population pressures seem to be putting some weight to this idea as well.
When I see the criticisms of Maskil Binah or others I feel a weird mix of rejoicement that Jews (overall) are trending to the same low level of retardation and short sightedness as their Arab neighbours and the martial attitude of Baruch confirms this direction and concern as on the other hand it is strange because I don't wish to have the same frustration the average Palestinian or Lebanese has to Jews because it is a kind of powerlessness of being led by retards you cannot do much about, because the enemy is worse and they actually want to take your land/kill you (what many think). So you accept the bad leadership because it is less worse than sure exile or death.