Suppose a man has already murdered most of your family, including several of your children, for no other reason than that he believes your kind doesn’t deserve to exist on earth. The murderer was never seriously punished for this, because most of your hometown actually shared his feelings about your family. They watched the murders with attitudes ranging from ineffectual squeamishness to indifference to unconcealed glee.

Now the man has kidnapped your last surviving child, a 9-year-old girl, and has tied her screaming to train tracks. You can pull a lever to divert the train and save your daughter. But there’s a catch, as there always is in these moral dilemmas: namely, the murderer has also tied his own five innocent children to the tracks, in such a way that, if you divert the train, then it will kill his children. What’s more, the murderer has invited the entire town to watch you, pointing and screaming “SHAME!!” as you agonize over your decision. He’s persuaded the town that, if you pull the lever, then having killed five of his children to save only one of yours, you’re a far worse murderer than he ever was. You’re so evil, in fact, that he’s effectively cleansed of all guilt for having murdered most of your family first, and the town is cleansed of all guilt for having cheered that. Nothing you say can possibly convince the town otherwise.

The question is, what do you do?

Zionism, to define it in one sentence, is the proposition that, in the situation described, you have not merely a right but a moral obligation to pull the lever—and that you can do so with your middle finger raised high to the hateful mob. Zionism is the belief that, while you had nothing against the murderer’s children, while you would’ve wanted them to grow up in peace and happiness, and while their anguished screams will weigh on your conscience forever, as your children’s screams never weighed on the murderer’s conscience, or on the crowd’s—even so, the responsibility for those children’s deaths rests with their father for engineering this whole diabolical situation, not with you. Zionism is the idea that the correct question here is the broader one: “which choice will bring more righteousness into the world, which choice will better embody the principle that no one’s children are to be murdered going forward?” rather than the narrowly utilitarian question, “which choice will lead to fewer children getting killed right this minute?” Zionism is the conviction that, if most of the world fervently believes otherwise, than most of the world is mistaken—as the world has been mistaken again and again about the biggest ethical questions all through the millennia.

Zionism, so defined, is the deepest moral belief that I have. It’s deeper than any of my beliefs about “politics” in the ordinary sense. Ironically, it’s even deeper than my day-to-day beliefs about the actual State of Israel and its neighbors. I might, for example, despise Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers, might consider them incompetent and venal, might sympathize with the protesters who’ve filled the streets of Tel Aviv to demand their removal. Even so, when the murderer ties my child to the train tracks and the world cheers the murderer on, not only will I pull the lever myself, I’ll want Benjamin Netanyahu to pull the lever if he gets to it first.

Crucially, everything worthwhile in my life came when, and only when, I chose to be “Zionist” in this abstract sense: that is, steadfast in my convictions even in the face of a jeering mob. As an example, I was able to enter college three years early, which set the stage for all the math and science I later did, only because I finally said “enough” to an incompetent school system where I was bullied and prevented from learning, and to teachers and administrators whose sympathies lay with the bullies. I’ve had my successes in quantum computing theory only because I persisted in what at the time was a fairly bizarre obsession, rather than working on topics that almost everyone around me considered safer, more remunerative, and more sensible.

And as the world learned a decade ago, I was able to date, get married, and have a family, only because I finally rejected what I took to be the socially obligatory attitude for male STEM nerds like me—namely, that my heterosexuality was inherently gross, creepy, and problematic, and that I had a moral obligation never to express romantic interest to women. Yes, I overestimated the number of people who ever believed that, but the fact that it was clearly a nonzero number had been deterrent enough for me. Crucially, I never achieved what I saw for years as my only hope in life, to seek out those who believed my heterosexuality was evil and argue them out of their belief. Instead I simply … well, I raised a middle finger to the Andrea Dworkins and Arthur Chus and Amanda Marcottes of the world. I went Deep Zionist on them. I asked women out, and some of those women (not having gotten the memo that I was “problematic,” gross, and worthless) said yes, and one of them became my wife and the mother of my children.

Today, because of the post-October-7 public stands I’ve taken in favor of Israel’s continued existence, I deal with emails and social media posts day after day calling me a genocidal baby-killing monster. I’ve lost perhaps a dozen friends (while retaining hundreds more friends, and gaining some new ones). The haters’ thought appears to be that, if they can just raise the social cost high enough, I’ll finally renounce my Zionist commitments and they can notch another win. In this, they oddly mirror Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRGC, who think that, if they can just kill and maim enough Israelis, the hated “settler-colonialist rats” will all scurry back to Poland or wherever else they came from (best not to think too hard about where they did come from, what was done to them in those places, how the Palestinian Arabs of the time felt about what was done to them, or how the survivors ended up making a last stand in their ancestral home of Israel—even afterward, repeatedly holding out olive branches that were met time after time with grenades).

Infamously, Israel’s enemies have failed to understand for a century that, the more they rape and murder, the more Zionist the hated Zionists will become, because unlike the French in Algeria or whatever, most of the Zionists have no other land to go back to: this is it for them. In the same way, my own haters don’t understand that, the more they despise me for being myself, the more myself I’ll be, because I have no other self to turn into.

I’m not opening the comments on this post, because there’s nothing here to debate. I’m simply telling the world my moral axioms. If I wrote these words, then turned to pleading with commenters who hated me because of them, then I wouldn’t really have meant the words, would I?

To my hundreds of dear friends and colleagues who’ve stood by me the past two years, to the Zionists and even just sympathetic neutrals who’ve sent me countless messages of support, but who are too afraid (and usually, too junior in their careers) to speak up in public themselves: know that I’ll use the protections afforded by my privileged position in life to continue speaking on your behalf. Know that I’m infinitely grateful, that you give me strength, and that if I can give you a nanoparticle of strength back to you, then my entire life wasn’t in vain. And if I go silent on this stuff from time to time, for the sake of my mental health, or to spend time on quantum computing research or my kids or the other things that bring me joy—never take that to mean that I’ve capitulated to the haters.

To the obsessive libelers, the Peter Woits and other snarling nobodies, the self-hating Jews, and those who’d cheer to see Israel “decolonized” and my friends and family there murdered, I say—well, I don’t say anything; that’s the point! This is no longer a debate; it’s a war, and I’ll simply stand my ground as long as I’m able. Someday I might forgive the Gentiles among you if you ever see the light, if you ever realize how your unreflective, social-media-driven “anti-fascism” led you to endorse a program that leads to the same end as the original Nazi one. The Jews among you I’ll never forgive, because you did know better, and still chose your own comfort over the physical survival of your people.

It might as well be my own hand on the madman’s lever—and yet, while I grieve for all innocents, my soul is at peace, insofar as it’s ever been at peace about anything.

Update (Aug. 29): This post was born of two years of frustration. It was born of trying, fifty or a hundred times since October 7, to find common ground with the anti-Zionists who emailed me, messaged me, etc.—“hey, obviously neither of us wants any children killed or starved, we both have many bones to pick with the current Israeli government, but surely we at least agree on the necessity of defeating Hamas, right? right??“—only to discover, again and again, that the anti-Zionists had no interest in such common ground. With the runaway success of the global PR campaign against Israel—i.e., of Sinwar’s strategy—and with the rise of figures like Mamdani (and his right-wing counterparts) all over the Western world, anti-Zionists smell blood in the water today. And so, no matter how reasonable they presented themselves at first, eventually they’d come out with “why can’t the Jews just go back to Germany and Poland?” or “the Holocaust was just one more genocide among many; it doesn’t deserve any special response,” or “why can’t we dismantle Israel and have a secular state, with a Jewish minority and a majority that’s sworn to kill all Jews as soon as possible?” And then I realize, with a gasp, that we Jews really are mostly on our own in a cruel and terrifying world—just like we’ve been throughout history.

To say that this experience radicalized me would be an understatement. Indeed, my experience has been that even most Israelis, who generally have far fewer illusions than we diaspora Jews, don’t understand the vastness of the chasm that’s formed. They imagine that they can have a debate with outsiders similar to the debates playing out within Israel—one that presupposes basic factual knowledge and the parameters of the problem (e.g., clearly we can’t put 7 million Jews under the mercy of Hamas). The rationale for Zionism itself feels so obvious to them as to be cringe. Except that, to the rest of the world, it isn’t.

We’re not completely on our own though. There remain decent people of every background, who understand the stakes and feel the weight of history—and I regularly hear from them. And whatever your criticisms of Israel’s current tactics, so long as you accept the almost comically overwhelming historical case for the necessity of Jewish self-defense, this post wasn’t aimed at you, and you and I probably could discuss these matters. It’s just that the anti-Zionists scream so loudly, suck up so much oxygen, that we definitely can’t discuss them in public. Maybe in person sometime, face to face.

Tensions flared anew in the South China Sea after China deployed several coast guard ships, maritime militia vessels, and fast boats with mounted weapons near a Philippine warship grounded at Second Thomas Shoal—known in the Philippines as Ayungin Shoal—on Wednesday.

“China Coast Guard vessels have been observed conducting maneuvers and drills involving the use of water cannons at sea, while a number of smaller craft—such as rigid-hulled inflatable boats and fast boats—were also deployed inside the shoal,” AFP said in a statement.

A total of five Chinese coast guard vessels were spotted, along with 11 fast boats “upgraded with mounted weapons, including heavy crew-served weapons,” and nine maritime militia vessels. The deployment was further supported by a Chinese navy helicopter and a drone.

Video footage released by the AFP showed two Philippine rubber boats attempting to block a Chinese small boat armed with a heavy machine gun from approaching the BRP Sierra Madre—a Philippine Navy vessel deliberately grounded at Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to serve as an outpost and symbol of Manila’s claim.

Also on Friday, the CCG called on the Philippines to “immediately cease infringement activities, provocations, and false accusations,” according to a report by state-run Xinhua. The CCG said it would continue law enforcement operations in the waters of Ren’ai Jiao—China’s name for Second Thomas Shoal—vowing to “resolutely defend” national sovereignty and maritime rights.

Located 105 nautical miles off Palawan, Second Thomas Shoal lies within the area Manila refers to as the West Philippine Sea, part of its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea. The shoal has been a flashpoint in recent years, particularly during Philippine resupply missions to the Sierra Madre.

One of the most violent incidents in the shoal occurred on June 17 last year, when a Philippine Navy sailor’s thumb was severed as Chinese troops punctured, boarded, and towed Philippine vessels. A month later, the Philippines and China reached a “provisional arrangement” to de-escalate the situation in Ayungin.

This latest incident comes on the heels of a collision earlier this month involving Chinese ships chasing a Philippine Coast Guard vessel near Scarborough Shoal, another contested area in the South China Sea. Beijing has yet to officially acknowledge the incident, which reportedly resulted in damage to both Chinese navy and coast guard vessels. It was unknown whether there were casualties.

The post Philippine Military Reports Surge in Chinese Activity at Second Thomas Shoal appeared first on Naval News.

It is the first time that a FLF (frégate légère furtive – stealth light frigate) will conduct continuous operations off France’s Western coast coast. The first-in-class ship, La Fayette, is one of the three vessels that have been upgraded with new systems.

According to the Marine Nationale, the frigate will be dedicated to patrolling, surveillance:

“Maritime defense, surveillance of maritime space, policing on the high seas – the La Fayette frigate will be carrying out these missions all summer long in the Atlantic Ocean.”

The move is also significant because the four Le Triomphant-class SSBNs (ensuring France’s sea-based nuclear deterrent) are also based bear Brest. Thanks to their sonar upgrade, the FLF will now be able to secure the underwater approaches for SSBN movements in and out of the area.

This temporary change is explained due to ageing D’Estienne d’Orves-class patrol ships (also known as Avisos or PHM) which are gradually decommissioned, and which are originally dedicated to these missions. Another factor is the delay in the induction of France’s new generation of frigates, the new FDI.

“At the end of the summer, in order to continue our Atlantic missions, a La Fayette-class frigate will take over from the PHM offshore patrol vessels. These long-planned temporary locations will enable us to reinforce our resources on the Atlantic seaboard for short periods, pending the arrival of new OPV”.

Marine Nationale

It is understood that La Fayette-class ships will alternate until the arrival of the new class of OPVs with the Patrouilleur Hauturiers program and the FDI program.

The first FDI ‘Amiral Ronarc’h’ sea trials will start from September and should last about 1 year and be delivered by end of 2025. As for the first OPV, it is scheduled to arrive in 2026.

About Patrouilleur Hauturier OPVs

The 2024-2030 French military planning law calls for ten new generation OPVs to be in service by 2035, with a first delivery planned for 2026. These OPVs will replace the venerable Avisos (known as PHM in the French Navy) based in Brest and Toulon, as well as the Flamant-class patrol vessels (PSP) based in Cherbourg.

The French defense procurement agency (DGA) ordered on 17 November 2023 seven OPVs out of ten.

The Patrouilleurs Hauturiers OPVs will have a displacement of about 2,400 tons. As previously reported by Naval News, the initial requirements called for a displacement of around 2,000 tons. The vessels can accommodate up to 84 personnel (crew + passengers) and have a range of 6,000 nautical miles. They will accommodate the next generation RHIBs of the French Navy (EDO 4G and ETRACO NG) and HIL / Guépard Marine (H160M) helicopter. The panoramic bridge offers a 360° view on the surroundings of the vessel.

The vessels will feature modern sensors such as the Bluewatcher hull mounted sonar, NS50 surveillance radar and IFF – friend/enemy identification system. They are also expected to be fitted with the new Rapidfire naval gun system by Nexter and Thales. Naval Group will supply the SETIS-C combat management system and the Shipmaster surface ship automated operating system.

About Lafayette-class upgrade

Naval News was aboard Courbet in July 2021. To learn more about the La Fayette-class upgrade program, check out our video at this link:

The post French frigate ‘La Fayette’ reinforces the Fleet in the Atlantic appeared first on Naval News.

A new mechanism capable of reloading the U.S. Navy’s vertical launching system (VLS) cells while underway at sea completed its first ground-based test at Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division last week. 

In 2023, Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Carlos Del Toro said in his speech at the American Society of Naval Engineers Combat Systems Symposium 2023 that reloading at sea was a “main priority.” His remarks also included the first mention of the Transferrable Rearming Mechanism (TRAM), a 20-year-old concept declared to be the most feasible to allow ships to reload their missile cells while underway. While the service used strike-down cranes on Ticonderoga-class cruisers and early Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, these cranes were deemed impractical and dangerous due to relative motion issues. 

Through TRAM, the Navy looks to overcome these issues. Rich Hadley, Director of the NSWC Port Hueneme Underway Replenishment Division, stated in a press release of the test that “by solving key relative motion challenges, TRAM is a capability enabling reloading operations while underway in significant sea states, TRAM will greatly expand the fleet’s logistical flexibility, resilience, as well as volume and tempo of long-range fires.”

The Navy has traditionally conducted VLS reloading pier side with cranes, requiring warships to return to port for extended periods to replenish missiles. With lessons from the Red Sea and concerns about great power competition in the Indo-Pacific, the need to reload missiles underway has only increased since the inception of the concept in 2022. Movement on the system’s development has also been fast, with the testing facility at NSWC Port Hueneme appearing in Dec. 2023.

 “This demonstration that you superbly delivered on the Secretary’s aggressive timeline sends a powerful message. This revolution in surface warfare will make our existing fleet even more formidable, both in sustained forward presence and lethality—and will create a powerful new near-term deterrent that will disrupt the strategic calculus of our adversaries.”

Steve Brock, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Navy,

While the specifics of TRAM are not yet known, statements from SECNAV and images of the ground-based testing facility at NSWC Port Hueneme indicate that the system involves the transfer of missiles from a supply vessel to the warship. According to Hadley, TRAM will “allow our ships to reload missiles just like they refuel—using connected underway replenishment, steaming at speed and in open ocean.” Unlike the old strike-down crane, missile canisters appear to be secured to the crane during the reloading process.

Naval Sea Systems Command guided sailors from USS Chosin (CG-65) and the Expeditionary Reload Company during the test, which reportedly involved “real-time analytics and in situ monitoring through instrumentation.” While the system has yet to complete its at-sea test, which is set to occur in the fall, data collected from this test will be used to inform its future trial. 

The post U.S. Navy Ground Tests Underway VLS Reloading Mechanism  appeared first on Naval News.