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Sunday Reads and Listens...What Is Islamophobia, The Surrender of Hamas and Golfers Surrendering to LIV Tour

Author

Howard Lindzon
December 10, 2023

Happy Sunday everyone and a belated happy Hanukkah.

The kids are not home this year but we are having family and friends over to celebrate.

For me, time has mostly stood still since October 7th.

Lately, for me, that has meant reading Israeli hostage survival stories. They truly know the meaning of time standing still.

The horror stories that I have been reading are in my stream are now interspersed with stories of life moving on in Israel. This one of Ariel Zohar really is really special (click on the link ‘show more’ to read it all):

I woke up this morning to day 3 of massive Hamas surrenders in Gaza:

What does it mean? Here is one explanation of the surrender:

The end of Hamas in Gaza would be great, but we are a long way from the end of Jihadism.

Luckily Sam Harris produced a short 11 minute podcast on Islamaphobia. It is excellent. Please listen, but I recommend reading the transcript immediately after - you can do that right here.

Sam sums it up well here (please do read the whole essay):

When hundreds of thousands of people show up in London to condemn Hamas, or the Islamic State, or any specific instance of jihadist savagery, without both-sides-ing anything, then we will know that something has changed. When Muslims by the millions pour into the streets in protest, not over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, but over the murder of cartoonists by their own religious fanatics, we will know that we’ve made a modicum of progress.

The Muslim world needs to win a war of ideas with itself, and perhaps several civil wars. It has to de-radicalize itself. It has to transform the doctrine of jihad into something far more benign than it is, and it has to stop supporting its religious fanatics when they come into conflict with non-Muslims. This is what’s so toxic: Muslims supporting other Muslims no matter how sociopathic and insane their behavior.

If the Muslim community and the political Left can’t stand against jihadism, it is only a matter of time before their moral blindness leads to rightwing authoritarianism in the West. If secular liberals won’t create secure borders, fascists will. And that is a world that none of us should want to live in.

Onward…to …GOLF?!?!

Max and I had a fun day last weekend playing right behind Jon Rahm at our home course Silverleaf. It was very slow so we were chatting with his on every tee box (as he plays the tips). Here is the proof:

Jon was playing with another young Spanish pro that also attended ASU, David Puig (LIV tour). Jon was all smiles as you can see but I did not dare ask if he had signed as per speculation, for $600 million to head to LIV. Jon was talking about his Masters win and lifetime exemption to the Masters and his US Open win and 10 year exemption. Max was thrilled to get this picture.

This week he announced he was headed to the LIV tour.

A few years ago I would have been upset about LIV and his departure, but now we have Hamas and Qatar and American Colleges that have sold out and I just don’t care about golf and what golfers do. Jon is an independent contractor and the PGA has blown it all on their own. Jon went and got his Taylor Swift entertainer money from LIV and hopefully does good things with the money.

I personally think ‘Amateur’ golf is the new ‘Professional Golf’ and this just helps our vision at Grass Clippings in Phoenix. Time will tell.

Have a great Sunday.

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