Let’s Come Back Home Again
Living Lchaim-tweet-7November2023-Let’s Come Back Home Again
We will come back home. 🫶🏻
Not sure who made this. It’s brilliant.
 Living Lchaim-tweet-7November2023-Let’s Come Back Home Again Time to COME HOME AGAIN…
Posted 3November2023 Abraham’s Legacy:
Am Yisrael, it’s time we stop chasing “their” cheers and instead awaken to our inner strength, unashamed of who we are, “Orr Lagoyim”. The time to return is NOW – Let’s COME BACK HOME AGAIN!
My greatest hope with this film is that it doesn’t simply inspire but rather that it inspire each of us to ACTION. It may seem impossible to drop everything and return back to our homeland, but isn’t that what we pray for day in and day out? The power to return is in our hands, we simply need to heed the wake up call of Hashem and make the journey; to head out on our very own “Lech Lecha”.
I do not own this footage or music – just did the edit. This message has been in my heart for several years and I hope it inspires you.
Song Rights: The Greatest Showman | “From Now On” Lyric Video | Fox Family Entertainment
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The Jews built #Israel 🇮🇱 from nothing!
Sami Alexis-tweet-20April2024-The Jews built Israel from nothing
The Jews built #Israel 🇮🇱 from nothing!
 Sami Alexis-tweet-20April2024-The Jews built Israel from nothing
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Nefesh B’Nefesh is staying focused on its responsibilities and unique capabilities committing our efforts to three main areas:
Relief for Olim in distress, support for our Lone Soldiers and their families, and recruitment and coordination of volunteer physicians to bolster Israel’s national health care system.
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Rabbi Shalom Arush Posted on 13November2023 https://breslev.com/video/cleansing-the-world/?_atscid=2_92797_86200982_4966760_0_Tawxttjaeucshh8uw
Miracles!! How many miracles – protection from missiles, teshuva, unity! This war is global and affects all Jews. Who will hold firm to emuna in Hashem? Hashem is ridding the world of evil and those who oppose Him. CRITICAL: Aliyah – come now to experience the miracles! Importance of daily teshuva in personal prayer.
Humanity-Howard Klineberg
Hillel Fuld-tweet-14February2024-Humanity-Howard Klineberg
“When we were led into the gas chamber, YOU said nothing.
When we were forcibly converted, YOU said nothing.
When we were thrown out of a country
just for being Jews, YOU said nothing.
When we now defend ourselves
all of a sudden, YOU have something to say.
How did we take our revenge
on the Germans for their Final Solution?
How did we take revenge
on the Spanish for their Inquisition?
How did we take revenge
on Islam for being Dhimmis?
How did we take revenge
on the lies of the Protocols of Zion?
We studied our Torah
We innovated in medicine
We innovated in defense systems
We innovated in technology
We innovated in agriculture
We made music
We wrote poetry
We made the desert bloom
We won Nobel prizes
We founded the movie industry
We financed democracy
We fulfilled the word of Hashem by becoming a light unto the Nations of the Earth.
So World, when you criticize us for defending our heritage and our ancestral homeland, we the Jews of the world do exactly what you did, we ignore you.
You have proven to us for the last 2,000 years that when the chips are down, you don’t care.
Now leave us alone and go sort out your own backyard whilst we continue our 5784-year-old mission, enhancing the world we share.”
– Howard Klineberg,
 Hillel Fuld-tweet-14February2024-Humanity-Howard Klineberg
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This week, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Let’s be thankful for being able to live in Eretz Yisrael! The Land of Israel is stronger than all other mitzvot, and therefore it is important to always remember the greatness of living there!
Rabbi Shalom Arush Posted on 21November2023 https://breslev.com/4073222/
 My Lot in the Land of Life by Rabbi Shalom Arush Never Get Used to This!
The Torah warns us time and again not to get used to abundance. When a person gets used to abundance, he loses his ability to feel it; he loses any sense of gratitude. He doesn’t appreciate – and that is precisely the sin of “Yeshurun (Yisrael) grew fat and kicked” that leads to distance from Hashem to the point of doing avoda zara (worshiping false gods).
We have much good, much light, much chessed, much abundance in the Land of Israel. And, unfortunately, we became accustomed to it. We didn’t thank Hashem enough, and did not appreciate all this, and due to our sins, we were forced to learn to appreciate our existence here in the Holy Land the hard way.
The greatest chessed is the very fact that we are living in the Land of Israel!
This is not the place to bring all the amazing sayings of Chazal about the Land of Israel and its holiness.
So many generations yearned and prayed, cried and hoped to set foot on the land of Eretz Yisrael and to kiss it, and even just to be buried in it. The greatest rabbis endangered their lives to travel to this land. Hashem yitbarach had mercy on us and gave us the merit to live in the Holy Land, and to breathe the holy air, and to observe Torah and mitzvot here, including the mitzvot that are dependent on living here, and to visit the graves of our forefathers and ancient luminaries.
Tie-breaking Weapon
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Bender zt”l, who was one of the greatest of Breslev chassidim, conveyor of its message in the previous generation, would say to his disciples: “Avreichim! Test me on this one! Do your best to remember that you are in Eretz Yisrael and be happy about this fact – and you will feel a great positive influence on all your service of Hashem.”
That means that if Rabbi Nachman of Breslev said that all of one’s service of Hashem depends on a person always searching for and finding good points, merits, mitzvot – Rabbi Levi Yitzchak says that there is one special point that is a “tie-breaking weapon” – and that is the Land of Israel. In other words, the Land of Israel is not just one other mitzvah, but rather a super-mitzvah, a mitzvah so big and powerful that it is stronger than all other mitzvot, and therefore it is important for a person to remember at all times the greatness of the merit of being in the Land of Israel and to think of it as a huge asset.
This is very useful for our service of Hashem because we have a rule: Every mitzvah brings glow to a person according to his attitude, his appreciation, and his yearning for the mitzvah. The rule of “As water reflects the face shown to it, so does one man’s heart reciprocate another’s” is true for mitzvot as well. All the immense light of the mitzvah of living in the Land of Israel depends on our appreciating the mitzvah, loving the Land of Israel, and thanking Hashem for this gift, and on our never taking for granted the immense merit we have earned.
Win-Win
Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), too, “gains” from our residing in it. Eretz Yisrael glows only when the Jewish people live there. Rashi explains this in parashat Chayei Sarah.
In this parasha an amazing thing happens in the history of the Jewish People. Avraham Avinu purchases the first tract of land in Eretz Yisrael. “The Promised Land” is not just “on paper” anymore: it becomes a real property of the Jewish People.
Even before we were a Jewish People, we had a plot in Eretz Yisrael.
And after the transaction, the Torah says: “Vayakom – And Efron’s field rose”. (Bereishit 23:17) What does vayakom mean? How can a field rise? Says Rashi: “Tekuma haita lo: It rose in importance, for it passed from the hand of a commoner to the hand of a king.”
When Eretz Yisrael was in the hands of other nations it was actually in a state of falling; but when Eretz Yisrael passes into the hands of the Jewish People – that is the rising. Eretz Yisrael rises and brushes off the dirt, renewing itself as in times of old.
Rabbi Natan explains wondrous things in the parasha relating to the purchase of Me’arat HaMachpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron) according to the sod – the secrets of the Torah. He says that Efron had the aspects of afar – of dirt, of the Serpent, of sadness, and therefore the holy field of Me’arat HaMachpelah seemed dark and full of foreboding for him, and he didn’t have the merit to see the immense light and smell the fragrance of Gan Eden in this field.
The rectification of the trait of sadness is the trait of emuna (faith), as explained in the books of Rabbeinu. Avraham Avinu was the first of the believers, and therefore it was he who had to rectify the klipa of sadness of Efron and transfer the Land of Israel from being controlled by the klipa, to being controlled by kedusha – holiness.
And Eretz Yisrael itself was elevated, it had tekuma. Its holiness and light were revealed, and it became “the Land of Life”, as David Hamelech calls it. And therefore, the first act that Avraham Avinu performs in the land is to bury a righteous person in it. Because righteous people have the aspect of life; long life. Righteous people are considered to be alive even when they’re dead, and therefore immediately after buying a plot in the Land, it says about Avraham, “And Avraham was old, advanced in days (years),” for he merited a long life thanks to the holiness of Eretz Yisrael.
It is explained in several places in the books of Rabbi Nachman of Breslev that a long life doesn’t mean only living for many years, rather, that the days themselves should be long and full of Torah and tefilla, full of yir’at Shamayim (fear of Heaven) and love of Hashem.
Now we will go back to our piece of advice: never forget for a minute the extent of the merit, be joyful and thank Hashem endlessly.
No More Sleeping
It is clear that the focal point of this entire tragedy and terrible massacre [Editor: on Simchat Torah], and the whole difficult situation that the Jewish People finds itself in is the control over Eretz Yisrael. The cruel enemy – enemy of Hashem and enemy of the Jews – is willing to die for Eretz Yisrael. And our answer to that is to strengthen our connection with Eretz Yisrael, strengthen our emotional connection, our joy in the mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisrael.
And as I have said repeatedly since this terrible disaster occurred, we must pray with all our might and insist in our prayers to Hashem that we get the complete Ge’ula (Redemption) – nothing less. So too we must pray to Hashem ceaselessly and without compromise for Eretz Yisrael, that the entire land should be in the hands of the Jewish People, with no exceptions.
Unfortunately, the main parts of Eretz Yisrael – all the places where our holy forefathers lived, and all the holiest places are in the hands of the lowliest of the nations. The princes, sons of the queen, have been shunted off to the coastal plain, whereas the prime parts of the Land are being ruled by the children of the maidservant.
Holy Jews, we were not given this difficult situation in order to ask Hashem only for peace and quiet, so that we can go back to slumbering.
Hashem has shaken us and woken us up in such a painful way, so that we will truly wake up and not go back to sleep again.
And waking up means to rise and shout: We are asking for the complete Ge’ula, we are asking for the kingdom of Heaven, we are asking for the kingship of the House of David and not for any cheap substitute. And we want the Land of Israel in its entirely, and specifically our holy Temple in its full glory that precisely from this big crisis will be built speedily in our days, Amen.
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We don’t need Mashiach to come to solve our problems. We need Mashiach to come so that Hashem’s glory will be fully revealed and the desecration of His Name will end.
Rachel Avrahami | 11January2024 | https://breslev.com/4085308/
 End the Shame by Rachel Avrahami Since my last article on antisemitism, of course things are only getting scarier.
At some point, I realized that I was drowning in terror – but where was my emuna? If Hashem does everything for the best, then clearly this also must be the “darkness before the dawn,” or as Rabbi Arush puts it – the light of salvation that just hasn’t been revealed yet.
Clearly the 400%+ rise in Aliyah applications is a result of that fear (I actually wish that number was much higher based on Rabbi Arush’s warnings). I’ve spoken with Jews around the world who are starting to get closer to Hashem specifically through this tragedy. As Rabbi Arush said, “It’s forbidden to call it [Oct 7] ‘Black Shabbat’ – call it ‘White Shabbat’ because on that day, the light of repentance came down to this world!”
Even more than that, I realized that I can understand one of Rabbi Arush’s teachings about Mashiach a lot better now.
Some months ago, Rabbi Arush said, “What do we need Mashiach for? He is not coming for us or for our problems – there is the Law of Gratitude. Whatever suffering you have, do the Law – we don’t need Mashiach for our troubles.
“We need Mashiach because Hashem’s name is being desecrated and humiliated. Mashiach is coming for God’s Honor, not for us.”
Now I understand better the rampant antisemitism and the outrageous lies being spread about Jews, the IDF, and Israel. The Jews do represent God and a good portion of the world recognizes that, even if it’s subconsciously.
So, when the world has completely reversed the roles of the Jewish people and thinks that Israel i.e. JEWS are occupier-Nazis who are committing genocide – we have here a desecration of Hashem’s name of the worst kind.
The issue here is not what Israel is doing. The issue is that the hatred for Jews runs so deep. No matter how hard Israel tries to prove that these are just the usual blood libels (it’s just a modern twist on the “Jew killed a non-Jewish baby to use its blood in Passover matzah”) – the reality is that truth doesn’t matter when there is an agenda. The world and many people in it simply don’t want the truth. No matter what the circumstances, Jews are always to blame, and the current situation is no exception.
Herein lies the quintessential problem. The world does not recognize that goodness and morality come from the Jewish people – because we learned it from God Himself, Who is all good! Rather, the world thinks that the Jewish people are the evilest of all peoples! Evil incarnate! This thinking demonstrates complete psychopathic gaslighting role-reversal. This is the twisted, crooked thinking of so many people living on this planet!
Just a small example – We are the most righteous country, definitely human and imperfect but even in Gaza, the civilian death rate is 0.8%, compared to a global average of 4.5% and better than the US civilian death rate in Afghanistan! Rabbi Arush actually bemoaned and cried over this fact, because Jewish soldiers are dying to protect Gazan civilians. As Rabbi Arush put it, “The government is putting our boys in danger in order to protect our enemies.”
Another example – When the IDF did a military operation in Jenin to clear out terrorists a few months ago with ZERO civilian deaths, the UN Secretary General called it an illegal use of “excessive force.” Clearly then, any use of force is considered illegal or excessive if Jews are the ones wielding it. Every human on the planet is granted basic human rights, including the right of a country to strike offensively to defend its population. Self-defense is part of international law, and the US has been doing this recently with strikes in Syria to defend American troops. Clearly, Jews must not be humans with the basic right to defend themselves. I mean, what other country in the world even needs to have major politicians declare that Jews DO in fact, have a right to defend themselves?! Since when is it even a question? But clearly despite all the equal rights promises – Jews just don’t make the cut. We’re just not humans.
The truth is that in a certain respect, they are right. The Jews are called “the light unto the nations,” God’s “chosen people”, and a “priestly nation.” We ARE different, and we are supposed to be different. Even Hitler himself, his name should be erased, said “Conscience is a Jewish invention.” 1
Hitler continued: If one little Jewish boy survives without any Jewish education, with no synagogue and no Hebrew school, it [Judaism] is in his soul. Even if there had never been a synagogue or a Jewish school or an Old Testament, the Jewish spirit would still exist and exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning, and there is no Jew, not a single one, who does not personify it. 2
Sometimes an enemy can say it best.
Israel is going out of its way to prove its righteousness to the world, with little visible results. Jews are making Hashem’s name great by going to war, but with none of the typical war crimes that have been committed for centuries. The world is blaspheming God by saying that Israel is anyway doing all of that and worse. The world ignores the real act of genocide committed by Hamas against Israel and the captives, who are quite possibly near death in tunnels in Gaza. The massacre by Hamas was against all international laws. The hypocrisy and double standard are breathtaking.
I just don’t see any way out of this pit without Mashiach showing up and proving the world wrong. Mashiach will vindicate Hashem’s holy name. And THAT is why we want Mashiach to come as fast as possible!
It’s true that Rabbi Arush has been stressing the need to scream every day for Mashiach to come save us (watch the intro of The Geula is Ready! ) just like the Jews in Egypt did. Hashem immediately sent Moshe (Moses) after the Jews cried out from the oppression.
But what we should be screaming the most about is the terrible desecration of His name currently taking place.
If the purpose of creation is to learn emuna and recognize God – and that is true for every human on this planet, Jew and non-Jew – well, if this much of the world thinks what they do of emuna, God, and His people – we’re in big trouble.
So, scream for Hashem to not only save us, but most importantly, for God Himself to show up and prove Who is right – once and for all. And then the nations will recognize Him, and His name will be made great, and everyone will know that Hashem is good and will learn emuna – amen.
1 The complete quote: “The tablets of Mount Sinai have lost their validity. Conscience is a Jewish invention. Like circumcision it mutilates man…”. Published in Hitler Speaks (English translation of Gespräche mit Hitler) by Hermann Rauschning, p. 220, 1939.
***
Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.
Reader’s Comments:
1. Tamar
12January2024
Israel on trial – with tremendous international media coverage!
When this article went to press, the ICJ (International Court of Justice) began hearing South Africa’s case of genocide against Israel.
Such an unfounded accusation is a major chillul Hashem on a planet-wide scale!
How true is Harav’s call to cry out to Hashem for Mashiach to vindicate Hashem’s honor!
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Don’t threaten us with cutting off aid to give up our principles.
–
Netanel Worthy-tweet-19February2024-Don’t threaten us
“Don’t threaten us with cutting off aid to give up our principles. I’m not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”
-Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Senator Joe Biden, 1982
 Netanel Worthy-tweet-19February2024-Don’t threaten us
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 SOVEREIGNTY-logo https://www.ribonut.co.il/ 74% of Israeli citizens oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state
womeningreen@womeningreen.org from E-Mail 25January2024
 Ad that Haarestz doesnt want you to see 2024 An ad by the Sovereignty Movement with data from a survey that was conducted, stating that 74% of Israeli citizens oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state – was rejected for publication in the Ha’aretz newspaper. The Sovereignty Movement: “Ha’aretz is trying to hide from its readers the awakening of Israeli citizens”.
Also, according to the survey that was conducted by the Direct Polls Survey Institute for the conference organized by the Sovereignty Movement and the Yesha Council entitled “Wake-up call from Gaza – putting an End to the Two-States Paradigm”, a mere 20% of Israeli citizens support the idea of two states, and 6% responded with “no opinion” on the matter.
SEE: https://www.ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=861&lang=2
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SOVEREIGNTY-logo https://www.ribonut.co.il/ 83% of Israeli citizens support total victory
Meir elipur 12January2024 https://www.ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=858&lang=2
Here are the results of the survey presented by the Sovereignty Movement at the Lessons of the Gaza War Conference. The voice of the people is clear and unequivocal: no to a Palestinian state, yes to encouraging emigration of the Arabs from the Gaza Strip
49% of Israeli citizens support total victory and tell the US to “Go to Hell”.
33% of Israeli citizens support total victory and we need to talk to the US.
 Sovereignty Movement Poll 10January2024-1
 Sovereignty Movement Poll 10January2024-2
 Sovereignty Movement Poll 10January2024-3
 Sovereignty Movement Poll 10January2024-4
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SOVEREIGNTY-logo https://www.ribonut.co.il/ Meir elipur 16January2024 https://www.ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=860&lang=2
Minister of Intelligence Gila Gamliel laid out her plan for the day after the war at a conference organized by the Sovereignty Movement, in collaboration with the Yesha Council.
Sovereignty Movement Poll 10January2024-1 76% of Israeli citizens support voluntary emigration of the residents of the Gaza Strip to other countries
[JerusalemCats Comments: How about New York, London, Los Angeles, The Hague, San Francisco, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Vermont and so on 🇺🇸🐎, 🇪🇺]
To read the article in its entirety
Jerusalem Post Article by Atara Bec* January 15, 2024
The conference, titled “Lessons from Gaza – an end to the idea of two states,” held at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem last Thursday, focused mainly on opposition to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to a poll presented at the conference, in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, an overwhelming majority (74%) also said they were against a two-state solution; 20% were in favor, and 6%
had no opinion.
The poll, conducted by Direct Polls Ltd. for the Sovereignty Movement a day ahead of the conference, also asked: “Are you for or against voluntary transfer emigration of the residents of the Gaza Strip to other countries?” A clear majority – 76% – responded in favor; 16% were against, and 8% had no opinion.
Surprisingly, center-left voters from the Yesh Atid and National Unity parties, headed by Opposition leader Yair Lapid and Minister Benny Gantz respectively, responded similarly regarding the issue. Among the Yesh Atid voters, 61% were in favor of the emigration, 24% were against, and 15% had no opinion. Among those who voted for Gantz’s party, 71% were in favor, 18% were against, and 11% had no opinion.
*Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, a longtime supporter of sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria, addressed the conference on the issue of voluntary emigration.*
“Now is the time that we must try new solutions,” she told the audience. “It is clear that much has to change if any conceptions were proven wrong on the day of the pogrom of October 7.
“Every time Israel retreated from territory, it became a base for terror and bloodshed”
……
“Gaza has long been thought of as a problem without an answer. The greatest failure was the disengagement from Gaza,” she said. The State of Israel tried many solutions – enrichment, conflict management, and building high walls – in the hope of keeping the monsters of Hamas out of Israel. These have all failed.
“One of the issues on which my office has been working diligently is how to proceed the day after Hamas has been defeated and annihilated. We will still have about two million people, many of whom voted for Hamas and celebrated the massacre of innocent for men, women, and children. Gaza is a breeding ground for extremism… Gaza is a place devoid of hope, stolen by the genocidal terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.”
*‘Open the door’*
Gamliel then referred to a recent article in the Guardian (UK) that described the hopelessness of the Palestinians in Gaza. “These people are desperate, and the international community, which claims to care about the Palestinians, sits by idly and watches. This is an opportunity,” she declared.
“Unfortunately, for the last 75 years, UNRWA has done zero to help the Palestinian people even though it has an annual budget of well over one billion dollars,” she continued. “Instead of funneling money to rebuild Gaza or to the failed UNWRA, the international community can assist in the cost of humanitarian voluntary resettlement, helping the people of Gaza build new lives in their new host countries
“I will make it simple by stating it in three simple words: Open the door.
“I say to the international community: No one is pushing or forcing anybody out, but surely you can’t be indifferent to their suffering. Just open the door and let those who wish it to join the hundreds of thousands of Gazans who have already left voluntarily in the last few years…
“It is an obligation of leadership to propose solutions and not just circle back to the same tired ideas and cliches,” she concluded.
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 The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies BESA https://besacenter.org/ By Brig. Gen. (res.) Dr. Meir Finkel | 14February2024 | https://besacenter.org/the-occupation-of-territory-in-war-a-diplomatic-and-strategic-achievement-for-israel/
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,263, February 14, 2024
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The occupation and holding of territory, which used to be a central component of the IDF’s war concept at all levels, became almost irrelevant during Israel’s many years of fighting terrorism and guerrillas in Gaza and Lebanon. But there are three reasons why it is a big mistake to discount the value of conquered territory. First, the occupation by Israel of enemy territory (while evacuating the local population for its own protection) is considered by Israel’s enemies to be a painful loss, and the possession of territory can serve as a bargaining chip in political negotiations. Second, occupation offers the IDF an asymmetric advantage, as only it can occupy territory, clear it of the enemy, and protect it from counterattack. Third, after a long period of “wars of choice” in which Israel was the strong side, we have returned to the era of “wars of no choice” in which the occupation of territory has both internal and external legitimacy. These insights should be applied to any future war in Lebanon.
Until the 1980s, the occupation of territory and transfer of the war into enemy territory for the purpose of removing the threat of invasion into Israel were central components in the IDF’s perception of warfare. But combat against guerrilla warfare in the security zone in Lebanon, and against terror and guerrilla warfare in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, caused a shift in this perception. The holding of conquered territory that contained an enemy population prepared to conduct guerrilla warfare was perceived as a liability rather than an advantage.
The transition of enemy behavior to a pattern of stand-off bombardment of Israeli territory, and the development of an Israeli response of counter-fire and active defense implemented in limited “rounds” in Gaza, almost completely removed the occupation of territory from Israeli military and public discourse. This diminished the IDF’s focus on maintaining the military capability meant to implement occupation: the ground maneuver.
This trend can be seen in IDF strategic documents over the years. In the IDF Operations Concept document of Chief of Staff Dan Halutz (2006), for example, an emphasis was placed on developing the capability of operational-level fire against armored fighting vehicles as an alternative to the strategy of occupying territory when fighting enemy states. Occupation was perceived as an unacceptable burden because of the guerrilla warfare to which occupying IDF forces would be subjected.
The prolonged influence of the IDF’s experience in Lebanon is evident here. In the IDF Strategic Concept document of 2015, written almost a decade after the Second Lebanon War, a return to ground maneuver capability was stressed, with two components: the “focused maneuver” against key political and authoritative centers and the “distributed maneuver” against dispersed enemy artillery units and military infrastructures. However, occupying territory to be used as a diplomatic bargaining chip was not defined as an objective.
The Victory Concept authored by Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi had three pillars: long-range fire strikes, ground maneuver, and defense. With the ground maneuver emphasizing “neutralizing capabilities” – in other words, maneuvering for the purposes of destroying specific enemy assets: artillery, combatants, and military infrastructure, but not for the purpose of occupying territory.
Israel’s operations in Gaza clearly illustrate the IDF’s preference for stand-off fire and defense. The offensive maneuver was activated during Operation Protective Edge only to neutralize the threat of the attack tunnels. Ever since the Second Lebanon War, the IDF has immediately withdrawn from every territory it conquered, forfeiting any achievement provided by the occupation of territory. In all documents and operations, occupation was meant to neutralize artillery fire or tunnels but was not viewed as an objective unto itself.
This is a narrow view, as occupying territory serves multiple purposes on all levels of warfare. On the tactical level, it can be used to capture advantageous positions from the enemy. On the operational level, it can disrupt enemy formations. On the strategic level, the enemy’s capital can be occupied for the purpose of regime change. On the diplomatic level, occupied territory can be a bargaining chip for negotiation.
There are three reasons why it is a serious mistake to devalue the achievement of occupying territory.
The first reason is at the diplomatic and strategic level: It’s the land, stupid. Losing territory is a painful loss for Israel’s enemies. Hamas in Gaza wants to “return” to Jaffa, Ashdod, Ashkelon (Majdal), and indeed the rest of the State of Israel, either through direct occupation, by exhausting Israel until it collapses, or by exerting enough political pressure to force the “right of return”. Hezbollah is fighting for the Galilee foothills, and the Rashidun force wanted to conquer the Galilee. Territory remains as important to Israel’s enemies as it ever was. Therefore, Israel’s occupation and holding of enemy territory constitutes a serious loss for those enemies.
Holding territory is also a bargaining chip in diplomatic negotiations. This was the case with Egypt and Syria in the agreements on the separation of forces at the end of the Yom Kippur War, and later in the framework of the peace agreement with Egypt, which insisted on the complete return of Sinai.
This will always apply when Israel occupies territory. Hamas’s claim that it will return the captives as long as the IDF withdraws from Gaza’s population centers proves that occupied territory is once again a diplomatic bargaining chip.
The second reason is at the operational level: The occupation of territory gives the IDF a clear asymmetrical advantage. This exploits enemy vulnerabilities and maximizes the IDF’s strengths. Only the IDF can occupy territory, clear it of the enemy, defend it against counterattack, use it to reduce the threat of infiltration, and hold it as a bargaining chip for diplomatic negotiations. None of Israel’s enemies can occupy territory and hold it for more than a few hours.
This asymmetry is especially important when it comes to firepower. Though the IDF is reluctant to admit this, a sort of symmetry has emerged between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah has built a vast arsenal containing statistical rockets, short-range rockets, precision missiles, 120mm mortars, and drone-delivered explosives. The IDF has a highly sophisticated air force with precise intelligence-guided targeting capabilities on a world-class scale. The problem is that a symmetry has emerged. Both sides are capable of inflicting significant damage on the other, and victory in this operational space will be by points.
It has been argued for many years that occupying territory is not worth the price it will cost in terms of heavy casualties and exposure of IDF troops to guerrilla warfare. The “Iron Swords” war demonstrates that both these risks are limited in scope. It appears that with adjustments, territorial occupation can be restored during a future war in Lebanon. This can be done with relatively low attrition ratios (harder to achieve in Lebanon than in densely built Gaza) and with the evacuation of the local population from the battlefield area (easier to achieve in Lebanon than in Gaza).
Territory captured in a future war must be cleared of military infrastructure. Residents should not be allowed to return until Israel’s desired diplomatic arrangement is achieved, even if this means the IDF maintains a security zone for months or years in the enemy’s territory. I stress that preventing the return of the population is not for the purpose of punishing them. Rather, it is for the same reason that they were evacuated before the war: to minimize the chances of their being harmed. Territory captured during ground combat will remain largely destroyed and will lack any basic electricity or water infrastructure, and it will be filled with ruins and explosive remnants. Fighting is also likely to continue to occur in the area, even if only sporadically.
The third reason is that warfare changes constantly, both globally and regionally. Unlike advanced science, which progresses forward, the phenomenon of warfare sometimes returns to old motivations and patterns. When Israel was perceived as the stronger side against Hamas, the limitations placed upon it were severe. The Western world expected Israel to defend its citizens solely with active defense systems and counter-fire, without resorting to ground action. In terms of internal legitimacy, the cost of occupying territory was believed to outweigh the benefits when each round of conflict ended with relatively minor damage.
But on October 7, 2023, both Israel’s and the world’s understanding of the conflict with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran changed completely. In response to Hamas’s brutal, genocidal massacre and mass hostage-taking, the State of Israel declared a comprehensive war. After a long period of “wars of choice” in which Israel was the stronger side, the Jewish State has returned to an era of “no-choice wars”. In a comprehensive multi-front war, which will include fighting against Hezbollah and Iran and possibly other elements, Israel will have to utilize all means at its disposal to defend itself. This includes occupying and holding territory.
Occupying territory in Lebanon – for the fifth time
Without attempting to broadly speculate on how the next war in Lebanon will unfold, we will consider a situation in which Israel has decided to enter Lebanon on the ground. In such a scenario, a defensive zone would be established and held as a security belt to protect the northern border settlements from surface-to-surface fire and ground attack until a diplomatic arrangement is reached. The conquered territory would remain “sterile”, with neither an enemy presence nor returned local residents, in order to protect those residents from the fighting that is likely to continue in the area as the enemy attempts to reconquer the territory or attack IDF forces.
Israel has a great deal of experience in Lebanon. During Operation Hiram in October 1948, the IDF captured 14 villages in the eastern sector. Israel withdrew half a year later as part of an agreement with the Lebanese government, but in Operation Litani in 1978, the villages were recaptured. In the First Lebanon War in 1982, they were captured a third time; in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, they were captured a fourth time. If we were to capture them a fifth time, as well as other areas along the border for a fourth time, we will need to ensure as much as possible that that will be the last time they pose a threat to the border settlements.
The way to do this, given the history I have described, is to gain internal and international legitimacy by turning these rural areas into a security zone under Israeli control. They should remain under Israeli security control until an agreement is reached that ensures that if Israel withdraws, the areas will no longer pose a threat.
view pdf
Brigadier General (res.) Dr. Meir Finkel is head of research at the Dado Center and its former commander. He has written a series of books about the IDF’s senior headquarters: the Chief of Staff (2018), the General Staff (2020), Air Force Headquarters (2022) and Ground Headquarters (2023).
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Protect yourselves; Hire Jewish Labor
7 Shevat 5784 16January2024 http://palmtreeofdeborah.blogspot.com/2024/01/never-forget.html
The message seems to have finally gotten through that we cannot safely employ Arabs from Palestinian areas. (Petition) Now, if only people will understand that no Arab can be trusted and that’s just how it is.
But, never forget that it is not only Yishmael whom we are fighting but Eisav and their attached Erev Rav as well. As more and more Jews are rejecting Arab labor, there is going to be a big push on by The Other Side to replicate the Hayovel model across the country, replacing Arab labor with imported Christian Evangelical “lovers of Israel.” God forbid!!
Watch out for it!
Citizens of Beit Shemesh 31December2023 https://www.change.org/p/beit-shemesh-residents-concerned-for-security-say-yes-to-jewish-foreign-workers
Residents of Beit Shemesh concerned for their security, say YES to Jewish and foreign workers!
We, the residents of Beit Shemesh, write with deep concerns regarding the potential entry of non-Israeli Arabs into our city. We understand the economic needs and the importance of cooperation, but recent events, particularly the tragic October 7th massacre, have heightened our fears for the safety of our residents and families.
In the aftermath of this terrible incident, with many of our men drafted to serve in various capacities, our community is already facing a heightened sense of vulnerability. The trauma and anxiety stemming from the events of October 7th have left us grappling with a profound sense of insecurity. In light of these circumstances, we are apprehensive about the introduction of non-Israeli Arabs into Beit Shemesh, even with the presence of guards.
While we acknowledge the necessity of labor from various sources, we believe that the safety of our families should be the top priority. The recent tragedy serves as a stark reminder of the unpredictable nature of the region, and we fear that allowing non-Israeli Arab workers to roam freely, even with security measures in place, exposes our community to unnecessary risks.
In light of these circumstances, we respectfully request that the government reconsiders any plans to allow non-Israeli Arabs into Beit Shemesh. We understand the complexities of balancing the economic needs of our residents and security concerns but believe that alternative solutions can be explored to address labor needs without compromising the safety of our families.
Sincerely,
The residents of Beit Shemesh
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 Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH
 French Jews arriving at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, November 2, 2016. (JTA/IFCJ)
The Evil Inclination will do anything in the world to keep a Jew from moving to the Land of Israel. When the EI hears the word Aliya – it goes on the warpath. Why?
Rabbi Shalom Arush Posted on 09October2023 https://breslev.com/479379/
 Anything but Aliya by Rabbi Shalom Arush Rebbe Nachman couldn’t say enough good things about the Land of Israel. It’s therefore no wonder that the Yetzer Hara (the evil inclination, or “EI”) wages an ongoing battle on both Rebbe Nachman’s teaching and Aliya (immigration) to the Land of Israel.
The EI will do anything in the world to keep a Jew from moving to the Land of Israel. When the EI hears the word Aliya – it goes on the warpath. And, once a person has made Aliya and has moved to Israel, the EI doesn’t give up; it still fights tooth and nail to convince a person how terrible Israel is, Heaven forbid, and how good life once was in New York, LA, Chicago, Miami, or Toronto.
Why does the EI get so upset about a Jew living in the Land of Israel? On a national scale, the EI doesn’t want Geula (redemption), including Mashiach and our Holy Temple. Every Jew who comes here hastens the Geula. On an individual level, the EI wants you and your children wallowing in the diaspora, stressed and depressed, and not coming home to where your soul belongs. The Yetzer doesn’t want you attaining your soul correction, so he fights to keep you away from here and gives you fifty reasons to remain in the Diaspora.
With so much opposition from the Dark Side, a person with spiritual awareness can begin to realize the value of living in the Land of Israel.
The holiness of the Land of Israel is honey for the soul. Rebbe Nachman teaches that emuna leads to having one’s prayers answered. All prayers rise by way of the Land of Israel. A person’s prayers are strongest in the Land of Israel, to the extent that they can work miracles, above the limitations of nature.
The Land of Israel is the place to acquire emuna, for one sees Hashem’s hand very clearly here, every single day, especially in recent current events.
 Shofar sounding as Jewish Olim land on a Nefesh B’ Nefesh flight to Israel Rebbe Nachman teaches that the Land of Israel is the place for children. Our forefathers were barren outside of Israel, but Abraham and Sarah came here and had children. This can work for you too.
The Land of Israel can save a person from all evil, because of its high-level kedusha. Only in Israel can a person attain the level of emuna where natural restrictions and limitations don’t affect him at all, for here is the place of upper-level holiness.
The air of the Land of Israel makes a person’s brain function better. The Talmud teaches that a person can fulfill his intellectual potential only in the Land of Israel. That’s understandable, because the more emuna a person has, the better his or her mind functions. Since the Land of Israel is the land of emuna, one can attain a broadening of the mind here.
Rabbi Zeira fasted 100 times in order to forget the Babylonian Talmud, so that he could have a clean mind to learn the Torah of Eretz Yisrael.
Every Jew has a share in the Land of Israel – it’s your home!
The Torah teaches that Hashem’s eyes never depart from the Land of Israel. Therefore, those who are privileged to dwell here enjoy a maximum measure of Divine providence over their lives.
The Land of Israel is the source of blessings, for all blessings are derived from here.
There’s an optical illusion that money is easier to come by outside of the Land of Israel. That’s another trick of the Evil Inclination.
Why do you pray three times a day for the in-gathering of the exiles if you have no intention of coming here?
It is surprising the extent to which Shabbat-observant people don’t want to come to the Land of Israel. Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who had nothing but good to say about every Jew, said that if a Jew doesn’t earnestly strive to come to the Land of Israel, and if he doesn’t long for the Land of Israel, and pray to come here and beg Hashem to let him have a foothold in the Land of Israel – then he won’t have a share in the redemption of our people in the Land of Israel! Are you waiting for Mashiach before you come?
Mashiach will say, “Now you’ve come? Where were you when we needed you?”
The Land of Israel is the place to get to know Hashem. The Land of Israel is the place where body and soul find unity and happiness. You can change your life for the better by coming here. If you yearn for fulfillment, emuna, fulfilling your potential, raising your children the best way possible, living as a Jew, and attaining personal freedom, there is no better place on earth than the Land of Israel!
Ask Hashem to take you home to Eretz Yisrael. I sincerely hope to see you here soon, with Mashiach, the in-gathering of the exiles, and the full redemption of our people speedily and in our time, amen.
 Olim from North America arrive in Israel – Nefesh B’Nefesh TOP |
The world is increasingly dangerous for Jews and supporters of Israel. How can we protect ourselves? Let’s take our enemies’ message to heart and grab our weapons!
Rachel Avrahami | Posted on 14November2023 | https://breslev.com/4070244/
 You Get What You Ask For by Rachel Avrahami
Jews around the world are alarmed by the sharp increase in antisemitism around the world in the wake of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Besides the war on the ground in Gaza, there are “battles” being fought in protests, both for Israel and ever-increasingly violent mobs of pro-Palestinian protesters, in addition to the war of comments all over social media.
I just saw a comment on X that “all Israelis are illegal occupiers.” With one swipe we’re no longer civilians, no longer HUMANS, we’re “occupiers” – and therefore our death and abduction is “justified,” dismissed and even celebrated. Who cares about international law or history?
“Our weapon is prayers and mitzvot – begging God to save us, our soldiers, our captives.”
So I add – if antisemites say essentially that we’re all soldiers, no civilians here – then let’s realize that’s a wake up call from G-d Himself! Everyone needs to fight in this war! Our weapon is prayers and mitzvot – begging G-d to save us, our soldiers, our captives. Our weapon is holiness and modesty, that Hashem should be “in our camp… to save us” and not “turn away from behind us.”
Even the nations recognize that, like it or not, we are all soldiers in Hashem’s army – so let’s act like it!!!
We have already seen the silence of the UN, the EU, and other international bodies and countries in the face of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. We can’t make them care. We can’t make them not hate us or our continued existence despite all their efforts to the contrary.
I keep thinking about all the miracle stories of our enemies. In the Gulf War, some captured Iraqi generals admitted that they sent thousands of missiles, they carpet bombed Israel with everything including chemical weapons! And they watched the missiles simply disappear off the radar. Only 39 missiles fell in Israel – 39, for the 39 types of prohibited work on Shabbat and the 39 lashes that can be given by the Jewish court. Hashem sent them to atone for the people.
There are so many more stories. They openly admit that “their G-d is moving the missiles.” So why are they still fighting? Why continue to fight G-d Himself???
The answer is that it doesn’t make any sense, correct. But Hashem is making them fight against all reason, and be stubborn against all reason – because we Jews are fighting Hashem against all reason! We are stubborn and refuse to listen to Him, to obey His laws for our own benefit! It’s midda k’neged midda – tit for tat.
“Israel is the only country in the world that is forced to defend itself for defending itself.”
The reality is that Israel is the only country in the world that is forced to defend itself for defending itself. The world is screaming for a cease-fire. Excuse me, is anyone screaming for Ukraine to make a cease-fire? Since when does anyone get to say boo about what another sovereign country decides to do? And when Hamas still has hundreds of hostages???
It’s not just a double-standard – it’s downright ridiculous! I continuously remind myself that all of these people have a special place in Hell, don’t worry! And the media is first in line…
So, what CAN we do in the face of all of this terrifying reality that we cannot directly change??? Clearly, we need special protection from above!
Rabbi Shalom Arush makes an awesome comment in The Garden of Emuna:
He says that the only way to merit 100% Divine Providence – is to ask for it!!!
And that someone who doesn’t ask for it and doesn’t focus on the reality that Hashem is the only power and only good comes from Him – can have real evil, that was not originally part of his soul correction, happen to him, G-d forbid!
The idea is simple. Hashem loves us and only wants to do good things for us. Every parent knows just how much they want the best for their children, even better than for themselves! Could it be that the Creator is less loving than a flesh and blood parent?! As Rabbi Arush repeats over and over: Emuna is – Hashem loves me, everything is good and it’s only getting better and better!
So, what’s the catch? Everything goes according to the emuna! We have to believe!!!
Hashem is pushing us, individually and collectively, way past our ability to cope. He is asking us to wake up, to repent, to realize that our old way of living is gone, and He wants to give us something so much better in response.
We only have to respond – but we must respond.
We have to dig deep and create a connection in this darkness, which will light our way. To recognize that Hashem is always there with us. To believe He is here, loving us.
To not shrug off thousands of missiles and hardly any casualties, and a baited and ready Hamas just waiting for the IDF to come in and get slaughtered – and not see Hashem protecting us, and fighting for us, with outright miracles!
To work hard on our emuna, building those emuna muscles, that Hashem is the only power in the world, ein od milvado. Nothing and no one can hurt me, or anyone who calls out to Him, if it’s not His will. And if it’s His will, then it’s good – so there is nothing to be afraid of!
Rabbi Arush promises that anyone who strengthens their emuna and trust in Hashem in this way – Hashem will personally guard him and nothing bad can happen to him. As King David says in Psalms, “G-d is with me – what can a human do to me?” (Psalm 118:6)
And the opposite is true as well – if we don’t do this work, if we don’t focus on Hashem’s protection, if we don’t work on our absolute rock-solid belief that the only power in the world is G-d – then G-d forbid real evil could happen.
In the face of the evil on the streets, emuna isn’t just a nicety anymore. It’s our ticket to salvation. Please read my article Not Just Another War which includes specific segulot for protection during this very dangerous time.
They know we are Hashem’s people – that’s why they hate us!
But when we step up and call out to Hashem, to fight for us, to protect us, because really this is His war after all – and we act like Hashem’s people by trusting in Him and really try, really WANT, to return to His ways – then we will surely see wonders even greater than the Exodus of Egypt!
Amen soon and in our days!
***
Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.
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We are living in the days of Avraham Avinu, Abraham Our Father. It is our birthright to follow in his footsteps as mankind’s first activist. We must continue his work of acknowledging the One True God and of serving Him with determination and faith.
David Ben Horin Posted on 21November2023 https://breslev.com/4072624/
 Why Hashem Loves the Activist by David Ben Horin The world was created three times. Twice it was destroyed. The third time it survived.
Adam lived 930 years. He gave birth to the succeeding generations. He introduced the concepts of sin, free choice, and forgiveness to the world.
After ten generations, God destroyed the world he lived in.
Noah lived 950 years. He saved the world. He introduced the concept of reward for the righteous, the seven universal standards of mankind, and eating meat to the world.
After ten generations, God scattered his world into a multitude of languages.
Both of these great men, Adam and Noah, were the focus of their portion of the Torah (parshat Bereishit and parshat Noach respectively). But neither are mentioned beyond their parsha.
Breaking His Limitations
Avraham was different. He deduced the Kingship of God at the age of three!
He fought for Hashem by destroying his father’s idols. He gained followers. He confronted Nimrod, the king of the earth, and was willing to die al Kiddush Hashem when Nimrod threw him into a fiery furnace.
Avraham lived 175 years. He introduced to the Jewish People the commandment to live in the Land of Israel, hosting guests, eternal and limitless faith in God, and the covenant of circumcision.
Avraham is the first to be mentioned beyond a single parsha in the Torah. He is mentioned hundreds of times through the Book of Deuteronomy whose events take place over three hundred years later.
How did Avraham merit to outlive his parsha?
Avraham’s Mission
Adam and Noah knew the truth, but the world didn’t listen.
Adam fasted for 120 years after the sin in the Garden of Eden. Noah spent 120 years building the ark. People had time to reflect on what they were doing and mend their ways. Adam and Noah were shining lights to the world. Anyone who chose to look could see the truth and live accordingly.
Avraham refused to shine like a light. He chose to blaze like a fire. A fire’s job is to spread its flame to everything it touches. When a fire shares a part of its flame with another object, that object gets its own flame while the original fire maintains its strength.
This is Abraham.
A Holy Cause
Avraham rebelled against his father. He rebelled against the country of his birth. He rebelled against all the idols of the day. He rebelled against what society considered to be moral, socially just, and progressive. He rebelled against 2,000 years of what everyone was comfortable with and pledged to change the course of history by recognizing the King of the earth and refusing to follow anyone else.
By following the One True God, Avraham rebelled against mankind. He was just like Adam and Noah throughout their lives.
Then, he took it one step further. He refused to be a spark in a world of darkness. Like a flame, he vowed to spread his light to others – Avraham became an “activist”.
He invited people to his tent for dinner and taught them about the True God. He begged Hashem for more guests, even as he nursed the most sensitive part of his body after performing the covenant of circumcision at the age of 99.
From the moment he learned the truth, he made it his mission to tell everyone. His vision was to transform mankind into a God-serving world.
It made him immortal. Right now, almost four millennia later, there are millions of Jews around the world all praying the Shemonei Esrei prayer three times a day by invoking God’s Name as the God of Avraham.
Fighting for the Truth Today
Once again, our world is drowning in darkness. On Oct 7, the world bore witness to women being raped, men beheaded, and babies burned alive by Hamas terrorists.
The world did nothing to stop the slaughter during the Holocaust. Likewise, world media today is siding with Hamas to the point of justifying their savagery.
Only a world that has blinded itself to Truth can reach such an abyss of human behavior. How can we convince the world that murder is wrong when they refuse to acknowledge He Who establishes that murder is wrong?
We are living in the days of Avraham. We possess a truth that few hold. We own knowledge that most have relinquished.
It is our birthright to follow in the steps of our forefather Avraham and to continue his work. We must acknowledge the One True God of Heaven and earth. We must serve Him with determination and with unbounded and unbending faith. We must scream to the four corners of the earth that His Name is One, His universe is one, His Torah is one, His reign is one, and His vision of right and wrong is one.
We, the sons of the world’s first activist, will continue the revolution until the world is set right.
***
David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.
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New arrivals cite incidents of being spat on, bullied, and general rise in antisemitism; many had intended to make aliya and accelerated plans; authorities predict many more to come
By Deborah Danan 23December2023
https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-safest-place-to-be-jewish-2600-people-have-moved-to-israel-since-hamas-invaded/
JTA — When Yona and Mikhael Benichou decided over the summer to move to Israel from their home in France, they set a target date of around a year later — in time for their eldest son, David, 15, to begin his studies for Israel’s matriculation exams.
But after the murderous Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, they sped up their plans to immigrate, known in Hebrew as making aliyah. The straw that broke the camel’s back, Yona Benichou said, came a week after the attack in which the terrorists killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and took 240 hostage in Gaza, when the family, who wear identifiably Jewish symbols, were spat on by a group of rugby fans while walking down the street in their hometown of Marseilles.
“I was in total shock, I didn’t know how to react. Lots of other people saw what happened but no one tried to help us,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“The antisemites were always there. But after October 7, we felt like they have a platform to do whatever they like and that no one — and definitely not the French authorities — can stop them.”
The Benichous landed in Israel on October 31, arriving in a country still reeling from Hamas’s devastating attack on its southern communities and in the early stages of a grueling ground war that has reshaped society.
They are among the more than 2,600 people whom Israeli authorities say have chosen to move to Israel over the last two months despite the crisis.
Accelerated aliya
Almost all of the new arrivals had been planning to move to Israel for some time, though a handful, like the Benichous, have accelerated their immigration.
Aaron Gold, 26, had planned to move to Israel next year and was in the country visiting when the war broke out. His parents, alarmed by the emergency evacuation of American citizens and by the fact that Gold did not live in an apartment with a safe room, pressured their son to return to the United States. He flew back to Philadelphia on October 18, but said he “despised” being there and returned to Israel as a new immigrant on November 16.
Gold, a product manager at Deloitte, said making aliyah had “always been a dream of mine” and said he felt waiting to see how the war played out would not make any difference.
“Hezbollah could attack now, they could attack in six months, they could attack in six years,” he said. “You can’t plan it.”
According to Israel’s Immigration and Absorption Ministry, 2,662 people have made aliyah since October 7, including 1,635 from Russia, 218 from the United States, 128 from Ukraine, 116 from France, and 106 from Belarus.
The numbers are smaller than the average in recent years and dramatically lower than in the same period in 2022, when 16,400 new immigrants arrived, propelled by people escaping the war in Ukraine. They also come at the end of a year when political discord in Israel had already depressed immigration beyond the usual rate.
More expected
Still, the new immigrants, known as olim, demonstrate that during challenging times, some Jews will still choose to move to Israel. And the organizations that support them say they anticipate a flood of arrivals soon, once the war ends but concerns about spiking antisemitism are still fresh.
The Benichous reached out to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which has helped 317 people make aliyah since October 7. The organization purchased flights for the family and donated around $2,000 toward the cost of furniture for the family’s new apartment in the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh.
According to the group’s president, Yael Eckstein, fewer new immigrants have arrived in Israel since October 7 than in other years due to a combination of canceled flights and decisions to put plans on hold until the security situation stabilizes. Israel quickly retaliated to the Hamas attacks of October 7, launching a dedicated operation to topple the Hamas rule in Gaza. At the same time, Hezbollah has consistently sent rockets and armed drones over the northern border, leading to a months-long tit-for-tat campaign.
But Eckstein said she has seen an “increase in the number of requests for information about the immigration process from countries where cases of antisemitic incidents have risen.”
Nefesh B’Nefesh has facilitated aliyah for 384 people from the US and Canada since the start of the war, mostly for people who had begun the process long before October 7, the group’s vice president of communications, Yael Katsman, told JTA.
Still, like Eckstein, Katsman pointed to a “vast surge” in interest since the attack, marking an “an unprecedented increase” of more than 100% in aliyah applications compared to the same timespan in 2022. She attributed the spike to an increased “commitment to building Israel” by Diaspora Jewry during “difficult historic events.”
Many people who initiate aliyah applications, required for new immigrants to secure a range of benefits, do not end up completing them. But the chair of the Jewish Agency, which facilitates immigration, recently told an Israeli news station that he expects 1 million new Jewish immigrants in the coming years — a number that would dramatically reshape the country of about 10 million.
The agency’s head of international relations, Yigal Palmor, was more circumspect in comments to JTA but likewise said signs pointed to a rise in new arrivals. One thousand people initiated applications in France in October and November, according to agency data, marking a 470 percent increase over the previous two months.
“We’ve witnessed a dramatic rise in aliyah applications since the outbreak of the conflict, most notably in France and the US,” Palmor said. “We will probably see the results in the coming months, but it’s premature to predict numbers.”
Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer told JTA in a statement that his ministry was preparing for a surge in immigration as a result of the war.
Since October 7, there has been “a lot of interest [in immigration] from young people, students and young couples from western countries, including those from western European countries where people in the past did not show much interest in immigrating,” Sofer said.
The two main reasons, he said, were “growing antisemitism around the world, and solidarity with Israel.”
Gold said antisemitism in the United States redoubled his commitment to move to Israel permanently.
“You kind of realize you’re afraid to go to work, not only of physical violence but just emotionally,” he told JTA about his return in October. “I was with coworkers who told me that from their office they were able to hear people saying, ‘Restart the Intifada, death to the Jews’ and things like that.”
The safest place to be Jewish
Daniel Bleiweiss, 51, made aliyah with his 14-year-old son Emiliano this fall from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He had made the decision years ago, but postponed it because of the pandemic as well as bureaucratic issues related to Emiliano’s adoption, a yearslong process that was resolved only in 2019.
Bleiweiss, a physician, planned on arriving in Israel on October 10 with his wife Natalia and her teenage daughter, Lucia, from a previous marriage. The war threw a wrench into their original plan and the flights were canceled. Ultimately, the family decided that Daniel and Emiliano would move immediately, while Natalia and Lucía would join them in the future when conditions become more stable.
Bleiweiss cited several reasons for wanting to make aliyah, including Argentina’s economic crisis and the South American country’s inadequate resources to support his son, who has learning and social difficulties. But like the other new immigrants JTA spoke to, the main impetus was a rise in antisemitism coupled with a strong desire to live in the Jewish homeland, which he described as a “historic responsibility.”
Bleiweiss recounted a recent incident in which his wife had tried to check into a hotel where she had a reservation. The clerk saw the Israeli visa in her passport and subsequently refused to allow her to stay at the hotel, Bleiweiss said, adding that his wife chose not to press charges. He also said that his son had been bullied at school for being Jewish.
“It is painful, but it reinforces our conviction that Israel is the safest place to be Jewish right now, and it is perhaps the only place where we can express our identity proudly and in peace,” he said.
Bleiweiss said that another reason he didn’t want to delay his aliyah again was because he felt compelled to be in the Jewish state in its time of need.
“If a friend is in trouble, you shouldn’t wait for a better time to go see him,” he said. “That’s the time you should be there.”
Meanwhile, in Beit Shemesh, life isn’t without its challenges for the Benichou family. Because of how suddenly they left France, they didn’t have time to save up money or sell their belongings.
“We never thought in a million years we would come within a month. We came without any money,” Yona Benichou said. “It’s not easy to build yourself anew.”
But there are no regrets for Benichou or her children, who she said were understanding of the fact that this Hanukkah they wouldn’t be receiving gifts on every night of the festival as they were used to from previous years.
She said: “My 8-year-old son told me, ‘Mommy, we don’t need Hanukkah presents this year. The biggest present is that we’re here.’”
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Jewish Heroes
Aviva Klompas-tweet-20November2023-Adar defended 120 newly enlisted soldiers
“My 20-year-old daughter Adar, an officer, commander and combat soldier in the Search and Rescue Brigade, heard on October 7 that terrorists had infiltrated her military base. With great determination, she and her friends defended 120 newly enlisted soldiers. Adar directed all of them to the shelter and went bravely to fight the terrorists. Please share her story in her memory.” -Zehava (Adar Ben Simon’s mother)
May Adar’s memory forever be a blessing🕯️
 Aviva Klompa-tweet-20November2023-Adar defended 120 newly enlisted soldiers TOP |
From English teacher to volunteer chef for soldiers. a young American discovers a new Israel.
ETGAR LEFKOVITS https://www.jns.org/the-indomitable-spirit-of-volunteerism-in-wartime/
 American Israel Tolchinsky (right) and another volunteer with IDF soldiers. Photo: Courtesy.
(November 14, 2023 / JNS) When the war with Hamas broke out last month, 25-year-old Israel Tolchinsky from Queens, New York, had been in Israel for less than six weeks on an educational program aimed at immersing Diaspora Jews into Israeli society.
Then, with rocket attacks raining down nationwide, the phone calls from the U.S. started coming in urging him to come home. With most airlines suspending service to and from Israel, his father found him a connecting flight via Europe and urged him to take it.
“I love it here so much, I need to stay,” Tolchinsky responded. “The flight will be sold out, take it,” his father exhorted. “That’s OK,” he responded.
 Israel Tolchinsky prepares a barbecue for soldiers. Photo: Courtesy. From English teacher to volunteer chef
Tolchinsky arrived in Israel in late August on a Masa Israel Journey program, to teach English in an elementary school. He had “fallen in love” with Israel on an earlier Birthright trip, and was looking for something steady to do for the year when the idea of teaching came up.
“It seemed like the perfect opportunity to come to Israel and give back to my own country and teach kids at the same time,” he told JNS in an interview.
Tolchinsky began teaching in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Letzion this fall, not without some trepidation, amid cautionary tales that Israeli kids are much more aggressive than their American peers.
His experience was just the opposite.
“I fell in love with the school and felt the love and connection real closely,” he said. When his pupils heard he was from New York, they assumed he must be an actor, he recounted.
But no sooner had the school year started—quickly followed by the fall Jewish holidays—than the war erupted on the very last day of the extended holiday period, before he had a chance to make friends with any Israelis.
With the educational program put on hold, and some of his roommates packed up to leave, Tolchinsky was determined to find something useful to do and not waste his days staying in his apartment.
“I got to be more Israeli,” he told himself, and with his minimal Hebrew, he walked into a bar that had put up signs asking for volunteers to help pack food clothes and essentials for soldiers.
“Everybody was so welcoming,” he said, with some finding his story crazy and others telling him he really must stay in the country.
As the rocket fire grew in the first weeks of the war, the calls from home intensified (“every second,” in his words) to as many as three times a day. His aunt offered to buy him a ticket; his cousin told him to just get on the plane. But Tolchinsky would have none of it.
“’I’m sorry, I feel something,” Tolchinsky told them. “This is my real home. I need to be here.”
Having worked in catering in New York for some years, he decided to volunteer as a chef and connected with an organization of veteran American immigrants in Modi’in, “Grilling for the IDF,” which makes barbeques for soldiers.
Next, he volunteered with Israeli chefs making meals for soldiers. He was even asked to cook for a wartime wedding in the IDF for 150 people.
“It felt so good to go to the bases and be thanked by the soldiers,” Tolchinsky said. “Bro, you are from New York—we love it,” they told him.
“We are all one family,” Tolchinsky said in the interview last week from a bustling cooking school kitchen in Or Yehuda, east of Tel Aviv, where meals were being prepared for soldiers and bereaved families.
 Israel Tolchinsky with some buddies from the Israel Air Force. Photo: Courtesy. A nation of volunteers
Nearly 50% of Israelis volunteered during the first month of the war, a recent survey found.
Some 48.6% of the population engaged in volunteering during the war, including 28% who had not previously volunteered, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem study found.
The rate of volunteerism among the Israeli Arab population also reached a record high during the war, 29%.
Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 of the 5,700 young Jewish adults (aged 18-30) from abroad on the Masa Israel Journey program ended up staying in Israel during the war, a Masa spokesperson said. Many of those who left at the beginning of the war are now coming back.
In addition, the organization has launched a new six-week volunteer program after receiving more than 1,000 requests from young Jewish adults to volunteer in Israel.
Since its founding in 2004, Masa Israel has provided long-term educational programs to about 200,000 young people from more than 60 countries, aimed at immersing Diaspora Jews into Israeli society.
 Israel Tolchinsky with some friends from the army. Photo: Courtesy.
Bonding
For Tolchinsky, the war opened a whole new Israel to him.
“I would never have met all these wonderful people if not for the war,” he said. “You don’t feel this connection in New York that you feel here.”
In the meantime, with school back on in central Israel, Tolchinsky is mixing his English teaching with volunteer cooking, with this past month in a country both at war and united irrevocably shaping his life.
“Nearly all my friends here are now Israelis,” he said. “I feel I should live my life here more than ever before.”
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Daniel Greenfield published November 19, 2023 href=”http://www.danielgreenfield.org/2023/11/1-in-10-american-jews-showed-up-in-dc.html
On a Tuesday in November, around a third of a million American Jews left their jobs, skipped class and headed to Washington D.C. Some didn’t make it. In Detroit, bus drivers deliberately stranded hundreds of Jews heading to D.C. Others ran into less widely reported problems.
Even among those who arrived, tens of thousands never made it through into the secured area. In the final count, 290,000 people passed through the metal detectors at the ‘March for Israel’.
This was not only the largest ever rally by American Jews, but the largest gathering against Islamic terror.
Having a third of a million people show up at the National Mall is not completely extraordinary. Farrakhan’s Million Man March did manage to turn out 400,000 black people from a total population of 34 million. The ‘March for Israel’ brought over 300,000 out of 4.2 million Jews.
There are an estimated 4.2 million American Jews by religion. 7% of them showed up.
Accounting for the very old and very young who could not have made the trip, that’s 1 in 10 American Jews traveling to be in D.C. on a random Tuesday on fairly short notice.
The demographic equivalent would be 3 million black people, 4.5 million Latinos, 1.2 million Asians and 14 million white people rallying on the National Mall.
While the Million Man March received widespread media coverage at the time and in succeeding anniversaries, and was immortalized in movies like Spike Lee’s ‘Get on the Bus’, the media offered less coverage of the ‘March for Israel’ than it did of far smaller anti-Israel events.
The March for Israel ruined the media’s narrative that American Jews are turning on Israel. And so the media did what it always does: it protected the narrative by spinning and suppressing..
 The Washington Post. which recently censored an anti-Hamas cartoon, falsely claimed that only “thousands” had attended the rally even though its own photos clearly showed far more than that. The AP began its coverage with the false claims of “thousands” and later updated it to the still false claims of “tens of thousands”. It’s easy to see from aerial photos that this is not true.
While the Post put the Women’s March, which turned out 470,000 participants, on its front page, it buried the ‘March for Israel’ in its metro section.
But despite the predictable media bias and the flaws of the rally, organized by liberal groups, it was an important statement of where American Jews stand. After weeks of the media providing disproportionate coverage to pro-Hamas rallies of hundreds of people by hate groups like If Not Now, hundreds of thousands of Jews stood with Israel and its war against Islamic terrorism.
In contrast to the pro-Hamas rallies in D.C. where flags were burned and monuments vandalized, the pro-Israel rally was a sea of American flags and attendees sang the anthem. Police officers were assaulted at pro-Hamas rallies and thanked at the ‘March for Israel’.
It wasn’t just across the ocean that the difference between Israel and Hamas was made clear, but right here in America. Pro-Israel rallies don’t break down into violence, vandalism and orgies of hatred for America. It’s the pro-Hamas rallies that turn into riots over and over again.
The ‘March for Israel’ had plenty of flaws. Like most liberal Jewish establishment projects, it sacrificed meaningful commitments for simple truisms (Hamas is bad, Israel is good) even if these truisms are now being disputed by academia, the media and large parts of the Left. Rather than taking a direct position on the issues being debated in D.C., pauses in the fighting, trading a ceasefire for hostages, and whether the PLO will take over Gaza, the march sought the broadest possible unity platform which maximized turnout, but didn’t break new ground.
Some rally speakers pledged support for a two-state solution: meaning an Islamic terrorist state inside Israel, whose existence is the reason for thirty years of terrorism against Israelis. The only Israel they seemed to be willing to support was one willing to give its enemies every possible chance until they finally do something so horrific that fighting back becomes justified.
There was little concept of who the enemy was, apart from Hamas, and what the issue was, apart from antisemitism coming from undefined sources, including on college campuses. And so there was also little concept of what standing for Israel actually meant beyond opposing Hamas. Speakers at the rally expressed pain, grief and determination, but lacked any real focus.
Biden spurned the rally, refusing to send a high-profile official, instead dispatching Deborah Lipstadt, the administration’s antisemitism monitor, but offering no larger presence at the event as another sign that he is moving even further away from his support for the war on Hamas. Other elected officials however showed up as did a whole lot of other seemingly random people.
The emphasis on unity did bring together people you would otherwise have trouble imagining participating in the same event. Not just Speaker Mike Johnson alternating with Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, but Pastor John Hagee and former Will and Grace star Debra Messing, a baffling appearance by Van Jones who didn’t seem to know which rally he was at, and a musical performance by Ishay Ribo, a major Israeli Orthodox Jewish pop star probably unknown to much of the parts of the audience that binge watches Will and Grace.
While to outsiders, American Jews may seem like members of the same group and reflect familiar stereotypes, the reality is those few millions consist of a dizzying variety of different groups which have little in common with each other and inhabit echo chambers. The ‘March for Israel’ brought together devout and secular, Reform and Orthodox, Christian supporters of Israel and Hollywood celebrities: people whose worlds never really meet.
And it took a major crisis to get at least some Jews from suburban temples and urban synagogues, those who study the Talmud and those who believe in Tikkun Olam, to temporarily stand in the same place and realize that Islamic terrorists, like the Nazis, want to kill them all.
That brief community is not likely to last, just as the unity of unity that brought together New Yorkers after 9/11 fell apart into infighting and routine, but it still is a meaningful moment.
Although it may not last, it is a rehearsal for what needs to happen for all of us, Jews and Christians, people who believe in something and those who believe in nothing, in the face of an enemy that wants to destroy us all.
There is plenty to criticize about the ‘March for Israel’, but the content of the march mattered less than the statement that bringing so many people together to stand up to terror made.
The flaws of the rally were those of American Jews: many still addicted to the illusion of peace with terrorists, incapable of questioning their partisan political allegiances and trapped in their echo chambers, in pain, but failing to understand where the pain is coming from.
But for all its failures of imagination, the March for Israel was representative of American Jews. From the mother of a hostage to a standup comedian outraged at the hypocrisy of his industry hostage, from angry college students to the politicians they hope will save them, the rally was a snapshot of what is wrong with American Jews, but also a reminder that there is hope.
The Left has put out a narrative that American Jews are turning on Israel. Those who are still Jewish, rather than merely possessing Jewish last names, have not. American Jews suffer from a painful ignorance and some of their lost descendants, like Kamala’s stepdaughter, may rally for the enemy, but those who have not given up on being Jewish have not abandoned Israel.
In Washington D.C., representatives of the scattered strands of American Jewry briefly met and stood together in the shadow of enormous hate and evil. And briefly became one.
After the Passover Massacre by Hamas in 2002, one hundred thousand Jews had rallied in Washington D.C. That rally may have been smaller, but resembled this one in many ways.
Elie Wiesel, then still alive, told the crowd that, “this day will be remembered in the history of American Jewry.” It was not. But that failure of memory is a choice. Whether or not this one will be remembered is also a choice. The choice is a matter of commitment and priorities.
If American Jewry is to have a history, it will have to remember and more importantly act.
Nearly 1 in 10 American Jews showing up in D.C. on a random Tuesday is a historic moment. But whether it will change history is up to that third of a million and all the others who watched from home and attended rallies locally. History is made up of the choices that we make.
Will the March for Israel crystalize a wave of commitment in Jewish communities? Will it change how people vote, how they act and the cultural values that they pass on to their children?
Either we make history or we become history.
Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center’s Front Page Magazine.
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Rabbis for Ceasefire vs. God’s Vow About Israel
By Rachel M. Emmanuel 20November2023 https://www.westernjournal.com/rabbis-ceasefire-start-reciting-torah-rally-rashida-tlaib-reader-gets-gods-vow-israel/
That awkward moment when the undiluted Word of God gets in the way of your agenda.
On Nov. 13, dozens of Jewish leaders from “Rabbis for Ceasefire” gathered near the U.S. Capitol in Washington to pray and call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to ABC News.
The Detroit News reported the event was accompanied by a news conference that included members of the “squad” of left-wing lawmakers: Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, some of whom have made grossly anti-Semitic statements in the past.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib(D-Gaza)-tweet-14November2023-Hamas-Useful Idiots
I stood in solidarity with Rabbis from across the country and Jewish peace advocates calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the violence. Their commitment to recognizing our shared humanity inspires me.
Translated from DoubleSpeak by 
These Useful Idiots will say or do anything to screw the Jews.
 Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib(D-Gaza)-tweet-14November2023-Hamas-Useful Idiots
“This is a public Shacharit, the Jewish morning service, so prayers for a CEASEFIRE will ring into the streets and our elected officials’ offices,” the group said in a post on X.
Rabbis for Ceasefire-tweet-13November2023-Act 1-Shacharit
RIGHT NOW: Over 40 Rabbis, members of their congregations, and communities are gathered in front of Congress. This is a public Shacharit, the Jewish morning service, so prayers for a CEASEFIRE will ring into the streets and our elected officials’ offices. Livestream link in bio!
 Rabbis for Ceasefire-tweet-13November2023-Act 1-Shacharit
During the service, rabbis also chanted a portion of the Torah in keeping with Jewish custom to read the same section across communities in the same week.
What happened next is proof God has a sense of humor.
As several Jewish posters on social media pointed out, the week’s reading included God’s promise to Isaac, the son of the Jewish patriarch Abraham, found in Genesis 26:3.
“Watch her drop her voice to a whisper TWICE when she awkwardly gets to the text, ‘to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel)…,’” Israeli entrepreneur Lazer Cohen noted on X.
Lazer Cohen-tweet-19November2023-You can’t make this stuff up
You can’t make this stuff up!
Token anti-Israel Jews were holding a Torah reading before a rally with Rashida Talib. Watch her drop her voice to a whisper TWICE when she awkwardly gets to the text, “to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel)…”
 Lazer Cohen-tweet-19November2023-You can’t make this stuff up
“This is delicious,” said Ari Hoffman, a host at KVI-AM in Seattle. “Anti-Israel ‘Jews’ were reading the Torah at a rally with Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Gaza). The person reading goes quiet when she gets to the Hebrew for ‘…to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel).’”
Ari Hoffman-tweet-20November2023-This is delicious
This is delicious
Anti-Israel “Jews” were reading the Torah at a rally with Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Gaza).
The person reading goes quiet when she gets to the Hebrew for “…to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel)”
 Ari Hoffman-tweet-20November2023-This is delicious
Rabbi Yaakov Menken called it like it is, posting, “For those who don’t understand, when the so-called ‘Rabbis for Ceasefire’ read the Torah portion, they deliberately mumbled & skipped over God’s promise of the Holy Land to the Jews.
“What do you call a ‘Rabbi’ who repudiates Torah? A fraud. They are frauds, each & every one.”
Rabbi Yaakov Menken-tweet-17November2023-Rabbi who repudiates Torah-A fraud
For those who don’t understand, when the so-called “Rabbis for Ceasefire” read the Torah portion, they deliberately mumbled & skipped over God’s promise of the Holy Land to the Jews.
What do you call a “Rabbi” who repudiates Torah? A fraud.
They are frauds, each & every one.
Vaad HaBadchanim-tweet-17November2023-
CEASEFIRE RABBIS PLANNING MEETING:
“Ok so then we’ll do Torah reading in Hebrew and English.”
“Great, love it. Oh wait, what Parsha?”
“Toldos.”
“Shoot, not good. There’s some stuff in there about how Hashem promised the land to the Avos.”
“Not to worry, we’ll handle that.”
 Rabbi Yaakov Menken-tweet-17November2023-Rabbi who repudiates Torah-A fraud
Maybe these rabbis should have checked what the reading of the week was before deciding to read it out loud before the world, publicly disproving themselves.
The Torah — included in the Bible’s Old Testament — is clear that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people as promised to Abraham and his descendants through his son Isaac.
While some people may disagree on policies and politics related to the Holy Land, it is entirely contradictory to say you believe in the Scriptures and yet deny the right of the Jewish people to possess the land.
The ridiculousness of the rabbi trying to mumble away an inconvenient passage serves as a powerful reminder that the Word of God transcends our agendas.
Although some try to interpret Scripture in ways that align with their views, God’s truth will always remain unchanged.
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12January2024 https://www.newenglishreview.org/shylock-at-the-hague-embracing-shylock-and-disdaining-the-international-criminal-court/
 Illustration from Phillip Medhurst Collection depicting Joshua fighting Amalek (Exodus 17). by Howard Rotberg
“As for legal niceties, the team of august lawyers Israel summoned to the Hague gives a shot in the arm to the ICJ, signalling that Israel concedes the case can be won on legalities. Israel was naive to rely only on jurists to defeat antisemites. One expert on anti-Israel propaganda could be worth a bench full of gowns.” – Steve Apfel
I am trained as a lawyer, but sometimes great literature is more enlightening than great law.
“Thou callst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:”
– Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
Anti-Israelism has passed into the realm of anti-Semitism through its holding of Israel to different standards than any other country, and its focus on the retributive aspects of Israeli reactions, rather than the actions of murderers attacking Israel.
The underlying premise is that modernity and culture itself, whether it was the modernity of a supposedly cultured German society in 1939, or whether it is present day modernity and culture, offers no protection for the well-being and safety of Jewish civilians. To the extent that modernity has embraced moral relativism, it is by nature hostile to our cause. And no assertion of a higher morality, be it religious, secular, judicial, or (as the Jews and later the American founding fathers saw it), a type of hybrid where religious notions could be adapted to a liberal, secular, and just democracy will be attractive to post-modern relativists.
The relativists, however, have eliminated the notion of personal and community responsibility from their lexicon. The severance of rights from responsibilities is the essence of today’s anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism. If the Palestinians are going to have the right to a sovereign nation, they must accept the responsibility to stop killing Jewish civilians, and the responsibility to create some kind of justice system and some freedoms in their own society. If the relativists simply critique Israel’s reactions without dissecting the actions that caused those reactions, that is bias, and a rather nasty bias, too. In a world of moral relativism, in a world of violent Islamism where European countries again are sacrificing Jews to aggressive totalitarianism (this time Islamism), we need more than ever a vigilance in our pursuit of justice. Tragically, the more vigilant we Jews and our homeland are, the more we are labeled “vengeful”, “disproportionate”, “unmerciful” and “extreme”. In other words, we risk being seen as Shylocks.
At least, Shakespeare gave Shylock the voice to ruminate over his situation (“Hath not a Jew eyes?”); the vast majority of persecuted Jews, including those of the Holocaust, had no Shakespeares to emphasize their profound moral struggles and their ultimate fates, which were certainly no more palatable than Shylock’s.
Jonathan Pollard, about whom I wrote in The Second Catastrophe, stepped outside the law; Shylock tried to have his “contract” enforced within the law. In fact, Shylock was judged in a sham of a trial, presided over by Portia impersonating a Roman doctor named Balthasar. Driven to madness by his faith that a Court controlled by anti-Semites could ever dispense justice, Shylock continues to assert his claim for a surety’s pound of flesh, even when presented with the option of taking three times the monetary indebtedness. Pollard’s greatest error, ultimately, was also his faith in a corrupted Justice system (corrupted by Caspar Weinberger’s secret memo to the Judge.) He also passed into a form of madness due to the refusal of his superiors to pass on a clear threat to an ally, and so he also ignores justice while he continues to insist on it. He thought a plea bargain for a charge of passing secrets to a friendly nation would attract the appropriate sentence for that crime, not a sentence commensurate with treason. Shylock’s fate was forced conversion to Christianity; Pollard’s fate was abandonment by his community – many American Jews would “excommunicate” him if they could. Finally, after serving his unjust sentence he has been released and is now living in Israel.
If, as American politician Barry Goldwater argued, “moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”, and if there were some severe problems in the administration of justice when it comes to both Pollard and the fictional Shylock, there is a problem, that too many commentators have glossed over. The actions of Pollard and Shylock can be seen as neurotic responses to travesties of justice, rather than themselves being unjust. In Shylock’s case, look at what the Duke, who presided over the Court in Venice (before turning it over to Portia’s impersonation) had to say to Antonio, at the very start of the trial, about the other litigant:
“I am sorry for thee: thou art come to answer
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch.”
A Court this predisposed against him could not render justice to Shylock, and he knew it. That knowledge more than anything else explains why he turns aside an offer of three times the debt, and instead insists on his contractual “pound of flesh”. As he states in the quote at the start of this Chapter, having been called a “dog” without any cause, and since he has been pre-judged to be a dog, then, he states, “beware my fangs”.
The Jewish “dog”, says Shakespeare, is forced to seek salvation in justice because he cannot understand Christian concepts of mercy. Says Portia in the famous speech which starts with the words:
“The quality of mercy is not strained…”:
“And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence against the merchant there.”
Goldwater disagreed: Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Goldwater says that the Americans are with the Jews on this one.
This is the key to understanding our current cultural struggle against Islamism, and why the Americans and the Israelis are on one side, and most Europeans are on the other side. It is an issue of Justice and Liberty. Unfortunately, any Jew in England or France or Israel today who insists on Justice, may find himself descending into that particular madness of Shylock. Israel avoids this fate only because of its military and other elements of its power and is not as isolated as Shylock.
Given their situations, neither Pollard nor Shylock had any alternative to the courses of action they tried. If their sad fates are meant to serve as a warning, however, I think we should rethink the whole matter of just what the warning tells us. The reader might ask, “Understanding Shylock is one thing, but embracing him is surely going too far?” I respond: In embracing Shylock we are not condoning his acts of madness, but instead we are embracing him as he faces his horrible situation. We are showing mercy. We are showing mercy towards one whose very existence is marginalized by an anti-Semitic society that allows him only the occupation of a usurer. We are showing mercy to one who clings to Justice as his only friend, his only protector, even as it is clear that the rules of justice have been subverted, subverted by the Duke who at the outset of the trial calls him an “inhuman wretch” and then abdicates his judicial duties by turning over the decision-making to a supposed Roman doctor, who is actually Portia in disguise. The anti-Semite focuses on Shylock’s evil character. We focus on the evil character of the Justice system as described by Shakespeare. Surely, the Judge in the trial between Shylock and Antonio could simply have directed Shylock to accept the funds tendered by Bassanio and release the bond. Instead, Portia tricks Shylock by pointing out that his bond is only a pound of flesh and not any blood, so that it is impossible to take the flesh without causing bleeding, thus voiding this evil bond. Throughout the
Court scene, the Duke and Portia (in her disguise as Balthasar) subvert justice rather than carry it out. Poor Shylock – surely the modern mind realizes that his sanity has been jeopardized by the actions toward him; his actions and words are not as much the result of his evil character, or the evil Jewish character, as they are of the anti-Semitism of Venetian society.
And so we embrace him, embrace him for the pitiful example of what happens to the Jew who is powerless, who ceases even to recognize that it is ridiculous to insist on Justice in a world in which the justice system is itself corrupted and used against him. We embrace him because of what he tells us about the world today. Even in America, the left is weaponizing the justice system and using injustice such as lawfare and removal of candidates from the ballot. Israel in the United Nations is like Shylock in the Court of Venice. Jonathan Pollard in the American Court system in the time of Caspar Weinberger and CIA Director Bobby Ray Inman, was like Shylock in the Court of Venice. Israel, defending itself against Hezbollah and Hamas missiles aimed at Israeli civilians, is seen by much of the world as exacting its “pound of flesh” against the “innocent” Palestinian civilians, notwithstanding that these civilians had allowed Hezbollah and Hamas to use their apartment blocks as launching sites, and notwithstanding that Israel dropped warning leaflets before bombing the launching sites. Yet Shakespeare’s Shylock was powerless. In the end, he is forced to convert to Christianity. We do not embrace him for the sad fact of what was his fate in 16th century Venice; we embrace him because of what it tells us about 16th century Venice, about 20th century Europe, and now about 21st century Iran. The evil is not in the Jew; it is in the anti-Semite. The Duke characterizes Shylock as inhuman even as the trial begins. The mullahs of Iran characterize Israel as deserving of destruction as they prepare their nuclear weapons knowing that America is appeasing them. Shylock tried to adhere to Justice, but in his society, justice was not meant for the Jews. Israel tries to adhere to Justice, and then is told by the United Nations that it is a Shylock, it is vengeful, it uses “disproportionate force”, and its ruthless neighbours are hardly criticized.
We return to Shylock’s words:
“Thou calledst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:”
No we do not depart from our quest for Justice and Liberty, but be sure, if you make us into dogs, because of your animal conduct, beware our fangs. Yet here is the question: how do we use our fangs, in a just and productive manner? To use our fangs is to empower Shylock, and thus to transform him. Have we not learned anything from the history of the Holocaust and modern day Israel? Strength of the Jewish state, Israel, creates respect; Weakness conduces to anti-Semitism. It is that simple. Diaspora Jews must learn that lesson, above all. Respect does not come from our accomplishments; it does not come from our wealth. Look how quickly Europeans are turning on their Jews in the last few years. Shylock’s wealth did not save him. Only a strong Jewish state could inhibit the unjust actions of the corrupt Venetian Court. Only the option of removing himself entirely from their jurisdiction (to a jurisdiction where a Jew could obtain justice) would give Shylock the strength and sanity he lacked.
The late Isi Leibler, a heroic and wise former leader of Australian Jewry, who moved to Israel, wrote the following in the October 31, 2006 edition of the Jerusalem Post: “The reality is that when Israel is perceived as strong and able to stand up to its foes, anti-Semitism tends to decline. Public manifestations of Judeophobia reached their lowest point following the Six Day War. In contrast, the exponential revival of anti-Semitism can be traced back to the Oslo Accords, reaching its climax in the course of the Gaza disengagement and during the Lebanese war, which were perceived by our enemies as manifestations of weakness.
“Unlike the 1930s there is an Israel and it is not powerless in the face of anti-Semitism and, together with Jewish communities throughout the world, not least the influential American Jewish community, we can defend ourselves. But we must galvanize to confront the barbarians in the war of ideas with no less determination than our adoption of countermeasures against terrorists seeking to bleed us. The decision is ours.”
So, to answer the question, how do we use our fangs, in a just and productive manner: The fangs that ultimately protect every Jew around the world, every potential Shylock, are the fangs of the Israel Defence Forces, and the strength and wisdom of Israel’s political and military leaders, to keep Israel strong and safe, while at the same time upholding freedom and justice. We Diaspora Jews must give our support, both financial and moral, to keep Israel strong. Israel’s strength, then protects all Jews from future victimhood, and protects all Jews from becoming pathetic Shylocks. Yet strength is one thing; knowing when to use it is another. In other words, if we are constrained by our confusion, or by international pressures, from using our strength, we begin to lose it, and our enemies know this. Accordingly, we must examine the threshold issue of when to use our strength.
This is a particularly difficult question in an age of moral and cultural relativism, which is loath to label anyone as “evil” and holds that in all conflicts, there must be wrong on each side, there must be evil on both sides; otherwise there would have been some way to avoid the conflict, some negotiated settlement possible. For example, the relativists still see Israel as faulty as the Palestinians that there is no settlement of the dispute, notwithstanding that Israel has tried every type of offer, even vacating Gaza, only to have Palestinian violence and terrorism increase. An ideologically based reluctance to label any people or any leader as evil is the trend today. I am opposed to that trend, because I contend that the leader of Iran, with his holocaust-denial, his threats to create a nuclear bomb and “wipe out” Israel, is more than just “nasty”; I contend that he is evil, just as Hitler was evil. I know that my language is outside the norms of the language used by the post-modernists, the relativists and the politically correct. But that is because I take seriously the words of the Jewish Torah. In particular I take seriously the teaching concerning Amalek. In Deut. 25:17-19 we read: “Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.”
Rabbi Marc Gellman has written: “What made Amalek so dastardly was that unlike any other enemy who attacked the Israelites fleeing slavery in Egypt from the front, Amalek attacked the rear. This meant that his soldiers could kill women and children, the elderly and the infirm and in so doing avoid engagement with the soldiers at the front. In this way he could produce maximum carnage and maximum terror. The moral problem the Bible addresses is that this is not warfare, it is the slaughter of innocents—it is terrorism.”
Rabbi Gellman concludes: “Why, I wondered, would God command us to remember the terrorist Amalek? There are other villains in the Bible, but there is no biblical command to remember Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar, or Cyrus. We are commanded only to remember Amalek… Indeed our remembrance of Amalek is combined with a chilling pledge from God that is also unique in the Bible: ‘The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation’ (Exod. 17:16). Our enemies are just our enemies except if our enemy is Amalek. In that case our enemy is also the enemy of God. Amalek thus becomes the symbol of terrorism in every generation. He is the symbol not of evil but of radical evil. In our generation Amalek is alive and well.”
And so the Jewish people have faced an Amalek in every generation. In my father’s generation, he was Hitler; in my generation, he is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. We are commanded, not to seek out what might be good with such Amaleks, not to try to appease and negotiate with such Amaleks, but we are commanded to “blot” them out, that is, to wipe them out. When doing so, we shall try to minimize the death or injury of innocent civilians, but we are commanded to do so, and do so we must. Then we must never lose sight of the distinction that our armies, uniformed and
subject to the laws of warfare, are morally different from non-uniformed terrorists who fight under the cover of their own civilians and intentionally attack our weakest, that is, our women, children and old people. Amalek represents the terrorists; the moral world must defeat Amalek, must defeat the terrorists, and must understand that failure to use our strength is not a moral position.
Shylock failed to understand the evil of the pseudo-justice system of the Venetian Court, and that is why he submitted his case to it. So many of use today fail to understand the evil of Radical Islam and that is why some of us submit to it or fail to meet it with the strength and determination required. Let us not make Shylock’s mistake. Let us understand the lesson of the Torah that when we face an evil, we must call it an evil, and we must blot it out as we have been commanded to do.
Relying on an unjust court system is, as Steve Apfel argues in the quote that starts this essay, “naive”.
Howard Rotberg is the author of The Second Catastrophe: A Novel About a Book and its Author; Tolerism: The Ideology Revealed; The Ideological Path to Submission; and the forthcoming Second Generation Radical; The World Through One Man’s Second Generation Lens, from which this essay is excerpted.
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“It was important to bring this group to see the truth firsthand so that they bring this story to millions of their readers and followers.”
Etgar Lefkovits https://www.jns.org/indian-journalists-including-muslims-from-kashmir-tour-israel/
 Sajid Yousuf Shah, head of media for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party in Kashmir, visits Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Jan. 16, 2024. Credit: Sharaka
(January 19, 2024 / JNS) A delegation of Indian journalists and social media influencers, including three Muslim writers from Kashmir, are in Israel on a weeklong media tour in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the three-month-old war in Gaza as Israel seeks to bolster its case in the world of public opinion.
The group, which also includes an Afghan journalist living in exile in Germany, is visiting amid a bitter media war over the narrative of the war with the Islamic terrorist organization in Gaza and growing international focus on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Hamas uses civilian buildings to launch attacks from densely populated urban areas.
“How do I stop the support for the evil things that Hamas has done,” Yana Mir, Kashmir’s first Muslim female blogger, told JNS in an interview.
Mir has been threatened for her support for Israel in Muslim-dominated Kashmir.
She said that reading a children’s book at the age of nine about the birth of Christianity changed her worldview and put her at odds with the universal teaching in Kashmir that Israel is the land of the Muslims.
“How can Israelis and Jews occupy their own land?” Mir asked. Of the Oct. 7 massacre that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and triggered the war, she said, “Now in our era, Jews are being exterminated again.”
Columnist Irfan Ali Pirjade added, “We felt the parallels with what Hamas is doing after visiting the [Yad Vashem] Holocaust Museum.”
“I am Muslim, but Jews deserve life and dignity,” said Sajid Yousuf Shah, the founder and CEO of The Real Kashmir News who now serves as media head of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Kashmir. “It’s not a matter of land but a matter of existence.”
He noted that his mother and uncle were killed in Kashmir by Islamist terrorists in front of his four-year-old cousin.
Educational tour
The weeklong study visit, which was funded by an Israeli NGO, included time at hard-hit southern kibbutzim attacked by Hamas, which have become a focus of war tours, and the traditional tourist stops at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Center and the Knesset in Jerusalem.
“Especially during these times, it was important for us to bring this group of journalists and social media influencers to see the truth firsthand so that they bring this story to millions of their readers and followers in India,” said Amit Deri, chairman of Sharaka (“Partnership” in Arabic), an Israeli NGO founded after the Abraham Accords were signed that seeks to shape a new Middle East built on dialogue, understanding, cooperation and friendship.
The Afghan journalist on the delegation, Abdulhaq Omeri, said that he had no clue before the visit that Muslims make up 20% of Israeli citizens, noting that he was pleasantly pleased to freely visit the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and hear the Muslim call to prayer by the muezzin, things that he did not think were possible.
 Swati Goel Sharma, an editor at “Swarajya” magazine in India, visits Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Jan. 16, 2024. Credit: Sharaka.
News cycle moved on
“People have forgotten the brutality of October 7 with the relentless propaganda of the media,” said Swati Goel Sharma, an editor at Swarajya magazine who is Hindu.
She said that while the Qatari-based Al Jazeera television network openly picks a side in the conflict, the Western media was more deceptive in their pretense of reporting on both sides’ perspectives.
The Indian journalist noted that the majority Hindu India was largely supportive of Israel, with the exception of the upper class and the cinema world, which follow the cue of the American left.
“Not too many people in Bollywood have an understanding about Israel, but if [American actress] Susan Sarandon says something about Jews or Israel then it’s fashionable,” Sharma said.
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The war is one scene in the biblical story of Jacob’s return from exile and his taking on an Israeli identity.
Shlomo Vile https://www.jns.org/the-torahs-blueprint-for-the-simchat-torah-war/
Shlomo Vile is the webmaster and digital marketing director for JNS.
(January 18, 2024 / JNS) Knowing that we’re in a biblical story can help make us less anxious. Knowing where we are in the story and what needs to happen next can help cement our commitment to wiping out Hamas and moving us toward the story’s glorious conclusion.
Jacob’s return is the central theme of the Torah portion Vayishlach (Genesis 32-36), and it is the prototype for all the subsequent returns of the Jewish people from exile. The modern return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel closely follows the Genesis prototype. In the story, when Jacob returns to the land of his fathers, he is renamed Israel. Curiously, he is renamed Israel twice in two separate incidents.
The first renaming: All-night wrestling match
The first renaming takes place after Jacob wrestles all night with the angel of his brother, Esau. In the wake of this struggle, the angel renames Jacob. “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.” In this first renaming, the meaning of the name Israel is given explicitly in the Torah text: “You have wrestled with Gods and with men and prevailed.”
Our sages associated Esau with Rome and with Christian Europe. The wrestling match between the Jewish people and Christian Europe was indeed a dark night of struggle, culminating in the darkest night of the Holocaust.
Even after the Holocaust ended in 1945, the Jewish people still had to struggle with Great Britain to gain its independence. In 1945, the British Empire spanned the globe; it was the Esauian power of the day. The Jewish underground organizations waged an intense and bloody struggle with Britain in order to gain independence. In the biblical story, Jacob did not destroy Esau’s angel, but the angel “could not prevail” over him (Genesis 32:16). So too, the Jewish underground guerrillas did not destroy Great Britain, but they convinced Britain to leave and allow the Jews to create an independent state named Israel.
The second renaming, Part 1: Rape and kidnapping of Dina
The second time that Jacob is renamed Israel, he is renamed by God. But first, Jacob and his family have to deal with the rape and kidnapping of Jacob’s daughter by the prince of the city of Shechem (Genesis 34).
When we read this section of the Torah—most recently, the week of Nov. 26—the story had a disturbing resonance with current events. Rape and kidnapping were central to what happened on Oct. 7.
The second renaming, Part II: Shimon and Levi wipe out Shechem and look bad to the neighbors
The two sons of Jacob—Levi and Shimon—were the elite commandos of Jacob’s 12 sons. They kill every male inhabitant of Shechem, and they successfully rescue their sister.
Right now, every Jew around the world who treasures their Jewish identity is hoping and praying for two outcomes of war that are unmistakably similar: the utter destruction of Hamas; and the rescue of our sisters and brothers who were kidnapped.
Jacob voices two criticisms of Shimon and Levi for their actions. The first criticism (עֲכַרְתֶּ֣ם אֹתִי֒) is explained by the 13th-century sage, Rabeinu Bahaya, to mean that Shimon and Levi appear to the surrounding people as having spilled innocent blood. The 11th-century commentator Rashi, says that the term indicates that Jacob’s mind was clouded by what Shimon and Levi did.
The second criticism (הַבְאִישֵׁ֙נִי֙) means that Shimon and Levi’s actions made Jacob’s family smell rotten to the surrounding people.
It is uncanny how accurately these terms characterize the negative impact of the war on Israel’s image in the world. The world is accusing us of killing innocent Gazans, and Israel’s image in most of the world’s media stinks right now.
In response to these concerns, Shimon and Levi ask their father: “Shall we allow our sister to be turned into a prostitute?”
Have you seen the videos and heard the witnesses describe what happened on Oct. 7? Can we allow our sisters and brothers to be raped/murdered/mutilated in such a horrific and degrading way? Can we allow the fear of not looking good to the world to cloud our minds and prevent us from doing what must be done to destroy Hamas?
The second renaming, Part III: Idolatrous conceptions are buried
In the next scene of the Genesis story, Jacob has his family undergo a spiritual cleansing in which they relinquish and bury their false idols.
So, too, the belief that Israel can live in peace with a Palestinian state needs to be buried. The belief that we can rely on technology for our security needs to be buried. These and other false conceptions that have guided Israel’s leaders over the last three decades need to be rejected and buried.
The second renaming, Part IV: Israel achieves security and God-awareness grows
In the next verses of the biblical narrative, we learn that the neighboring people felt fear of God and did not pursue Jacob’s family (Genesis 35:5). Wiping out Shechem instilled a fear of God in the surrounding people and provided Jacob’s family with security.
So, too, in the current story, destroying Hamas is a prerequisite to Israel’s security. This war truly is a second War of Independence.
More than that, the story implies that a heightened global awareness of God will follow in the wake of Israel’s destruction of Hamas.
The second renaming, Part V: Israel rises to leadership
God renames Jacob as Israel. The meaning of Israel here, according to Rashi, is a prince or a leader. In this second renaming, Israel’s stature is elevated in the world. Israel and the Jewish people are looked up to for leadership and guidance.
For the last 100 years, we have been living in the biblical story of the return of our forefather Jacob to the land of Israel and his taking on Israeli identity, and we are now reaching the climax of that story.
My hope in writing this article is that everyone reading this can feel more at ease in these unsettled times, knowing that we’re living out an old story with a glorious ending.
Secondly, I hope that knowing where we are in the story can strengthen our nation’s commitment to fulfilling the two conditions necessary to reach that glorious ending:
- destroying Hamas and
- burying the false conceptions that led to Oct. 7.
The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
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Ultra-Orthodox will be able to maintain empty kibbutzim and settlements in the south and north within the framework of the purity of the holy place.
 Emuna and Dancing with the IDF near Gaza JerusalemCats Comments: YES! Each kibbutzim and settlement will have a Yeshiva and Jews will be able to Learn Torah, Dance and Sing to Hashem beside guard the Land and People of Israel!
berale_crombie-tweet-1February2024-ultra-Orthodox will maintain empty kibbutzim and settlements
מקור בכיר במשרד הביטחון אומר לי: בחודשים הקרובים החסר של חיילים בצבא יגיע ל-2500. אנחנו שוברים את הראש איך מביאים עוד חיילים בלי למוטט את המשק והאפיק היחידי שעומד כרגע על הפרק הוא הציבור החרדי. לדבריו חרדים יוכלו לשמור על קיבוצים וישובים ריקים בדרום ובצפון במסגרת על טהרת הקודש.
Translated from Hebrew by
A senior source in the Ministry of Defense tells me: in the coming months the shortage of soldiers in the army will reach 2500. We are racking our brains on how to bring in more soldiers without collapsing the economy and the only channel that is currently on the agenda is the ultra-orthodox public. According to him, ultra-Orthodox will be able to maintain empty kibbutzim and settlements in the south and north within the framework of the purity of the holy place.
 berale_crombie-tweet-1February2024-ultra-Orthodox will maintain empty kibbutzim and settlements
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THE CONTINUING STORY…November 15, 2023 https://www.nbn.org.il/stories/standing-with-israel-physician-volunteers-from-overseas/
With continued stress on Israel’s national healthcare system, Nefesh B’Nefesh, together with Israel’s Ministries of Health and Aliyah as well as The Jewish Agency for Israel, is working to help alleviate the nation’s physician shortage
 Nefesh B’Nefesh -Standing with Israel: Physician Volunteers from Overseas Jerusalem, November 15, 2023 – In response to Israel’s pressing healthcare challenges during wartime, Nefesh B’Nefesh has been collaborating with the Israeli Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and The Jewish Agency for Israel on assembling a comprehensive database of thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish physician volunteers from around the world. The Iron Swords War has heightened the demand for additional medical professionals in Israel, particularly in areas affected by the conflict in the south and north and this new initiative serves as an immediate solution for the shortage.
Designed to immediately bolster Israel’s national healthcare system, this extensive database includes essential information about the volunteers’ medical specialties, Hebrew-language proficiency and the documentation necessary to expedite the process for obtaining a temporary Israeli medical license. This enables the physicians to begin volunteering in hospitals and medical facilities around the country as quickly and efficiently as possible. Each participating physician will generously dedicate an average of two weeks of their time, although some may choose to extend their stay to provide longer-term assistance.
If you are a physician from overseas who would like to volunteer in Israel, click the button below.
 American Jewish medical professionals seen at Galli Medical Center as they volunteer to help Israel’s medical system during the war. “Supporting Israel’s healthcare system and finding an immediate solution for the physician shortage is extremely vital today,” said Tony Gelbart, Chairman and Co-Founder of Nefesh B’Nefesh. “We are honored to lead this joint initiative, in order to immediately provide Israel with essential care while alleviating the pressure on the nation’s healthcare system in areas where assistance is most urgently needed. In addition, Nefesh B’Nefesh is exploring ways to help solve Israel’s long-term physician shortage as part of a broader strategic plan.”
“The Israeli healthcare system is one of the best in the world, and its remarkable capabilities were demonstrated as soon as the war broke out. At present, we see great importance in strengthening our medical system with highly skilled, value-oriented, Zionist professionals who seek to tie their fate with that of the State of Israel,” said Israel’s Minister of Health, Uriel Buso. “These physicians are offering to help from a deep sense of national mission and love of the people and the Jewish homeland. I thank the doctors who have volunteered to come and help Israel and who are embodying the expression of ‘all of Israel are bound to each other’ in the purest of ways. And I’d like to especially thank Nefesh B’Nefesh, the Jewish Agency, and the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration for their cooperation on this blessed issue.”
“The support, solidarity, and rallying of our Jewish brothers in the Diaspora, in general, and in North America, in particular, during the war, is very heartfelt and strengthens the State of Israel,” said Minister of Aliyah and Integration, MK Ofir Sofer. “I want to thank them and salute them for helping our healthcare system by saving the lives of our soldiers as well as the civilians on the home front. Together with all the partners in the project – the Ministries of Aliyah and Integration and Health, Nefesh B’Nefesh, and the Jewish Agency – the people of Israel will win.”
“The mobilization of the Jewish communities in support of the State of Israel, at this difficult time, is particularly moving and strengthens us all,” said Maj.-Gen (ret.) Doron Almog, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. The physicians who have come to volunteer in the Israeli healthcare system and the volunteers from the Jewish communities who are working side by side with the Israelis in essential fields throughout the country, are a tremendous display of strength and resilience.”
Over seventy physicians from various specialties, including emergency and urgent medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, pediatrics, cardiology, orthopedics and psychiatry have already arrived in Israel and additional doctors are expected to arrive in the coming weeks as needed. These doctors have integrated into medical centers throughout the country, including Ichilov, Barzilai, Soroka, Beilinson, Hadassah, Rambam, Shamir, Galil Medical Center, and the Magen David Adom Association. There is a particular emphasis on centers in combat areas, such as Sderot and Ashkelon.
This first-of-its-kind program has been made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of The Marcus Foundation, an organization committed to making a difference in the lives of countless individuals and communities.
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7October
History is repeating itself. Remember 30November. Don’t Be A Statistic!
Why Didn’t You Save Us By: Asher Schwartz http://www.jewishpress.com/cartoons/god-will-save-us/ Published: February 16th, 2015
From UK: Make Aliyah! Have them call Jewish Agency to start the formal application 0800-085-2105 / 0800-051-8227 or email gci-en@jafi.org
Depuis la France : faites votre Aliyah ! Demandez-leur d’appeler l’Agence juive pour lancer la candidature formelle 0-800-916-647 ou par courrier électronique à gci-fr@jafi.org
US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH Israel 02-659-5800 www.nbn.org.il
Alyah : mode d’emploi https://www.jewishagency.org/fr/ Choisissez celle qui vous correspond et inscrivez-vous sur notre site Internet en cliquant ICI ou par téléphone, en appelant le Global Center au 0-800-916-647
The Jewish Agency Global Service Center http://www.jewishagency.org/global_center
כ”ב בתשרי, תשמ”ד October 7, 2023 should be called ‘White Shabbat’ because on that day, the light of repentance came down to this world!
כ”ב בתשרי, תשמ”ד October 7, 2023 – “שבת שחורה Shabbat HaSh’chora – Black Shabbat” (Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah) when Palestinian militants from Hamas, along with other groups and civilians, invaded Israel and proceeded to systematically kill civilians, including women, children, the elderly and babies. They literally raped, pillaged and plundered their way through several Israeli communities close to the Gaza border.
Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il
It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH
When do we leave?
28 January 2016 Lori Palatnik of the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project thinks it is time for Jews to send their kids to live in Israel.
She explained that after 9/11, she started reading about “the end of days,” and asked “a very great” rabbi – “when do we leave?” He said that the time to get out was when “they start killing Jews in the street.”Unfortunately, she said – this is precisely what is already happening in France and New York.
The Antisemites are in Full force!
The Palestinian and their Antisemitic supporters are now after EVERY JEW IN THE WORLD. THEY WANT TO DO TO YOU WHAT THEY DID IN ISRAEL
Let’s Come Back Home Again
Let’s Come Back Home Again
This corridor is the most magical place on earth.
Joe Roberts-tweet-25December2023-this corridor is the most magical place on earth
Forget Disneyworld, this corridor is the most magical place on earth.
Joe Roberts-tweet-25December2023-this corridor is the most magical place on earth
We are waiting for you family! be safe, dont take too long.
Roark-tweet-25April2024-We are waiting for you family
We are waiting for you family! be safe, dont take too long.
Roark-tweet-25April2024-We are waiting for you family
Joe Roberts-tweet-20February2024-Aliyah is up
🇮🇱’s Aliyah and Integration Ministry reports applications for Aliyah (immigration to Israel) are up:
300% from 🇫🇷
100% from 🇺🇸
150% from 🇨🇦
40% from 🇬🇧
Joe Roberts-tweet-20February2024-Aliyah and Integration Ministry reports, Aliyah is up
Arsen Ostrovsky-tweet-4March2024-Golda Meir-The Jewish people have regained our sovereignty
Golda Meir famously said: “The world hates a Jew who hits back. The world loves us only when we are to be pitied.”
She was right! Looking at the world reaction to Israel’s response to the Oct 7 Hamas massacre, I would just add:
“Well, no more will we settle for the world’s pity. The Jewish people have regained our sovereignty, our army and our independence, having made a solemn promise of Never Again, whereas Hamas seeks to repeat the massacre of Oct 7 again and again.”
Arsen Ostrovsky-tweet-4March2024-Golda Meir “The Jewish people have regained our sovereignty”
The world has lost it. Don’t play their game. Step away. Shut it down. Take a breather.
Hillel Fuld-tweet-7April2024-The world has lost it
Note to self on a Sunday afternoon.
I see you’re having a moment.
You open your X feed, Jew hatred.
Your Instagram? Jew hatred.
TikTok? 🤮
You are ready to give up. I get it.
Don’t.
It’s ok to not be ok. In fact, if you were ok, that would be reason to worry.
So shut it down. You don’t have to be there all day. Consuming the news like a junkie helps no one.
Shut it down for now. You can go back later.
But I need to remind you of some things.
When you’re told you’re crazy enough times, you start to question whether you really are crazy.
So let’s just get this out of the way.
You’re not crazy.
I know everywhere you look, people are telling you you’re crazy, but guess what? They are. You’re not. You care about facts. You care about truth. You don’t have hate in your heart.
They’re the sick ones. You’re healthy.
Don’t forget that for a second.
The lies being told about Jews are extremely reminiscent of what came before the darkest days in our history. The rhetoric. The blood libels. The calls for violence. It’s Deja vu on steroids.
So here, come back to this post every time you are having a moment.
So let’s break this down.
Israel is the good guy here. Hamas and all of its supporters wherever they may be? They’re the bad guys.
That is not up for discussion.
The world has lost its moral compass. That doesn’t mean you have to. They can’t differentiate between good and evil. You can, and don’t let anyone confuse you.
Israel is, in no way whatsoever, the aggressor here. Israel didn’t start the war. Israel wants to end the war. There is one aggressor here and that is Hamas. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Humanitarian crisis in Gaza?
Oh, where do I even begin?
If anyone has a problem with what’s going on in Gaza, let them turn to Egypt to open their borders to Gazans. If someone talks about Gaza and doesn’t mention Egypt, then they don’t have a problem with Gaza. They have a problem with Israel. Don’t fall for their tricks.
Besides, let me say this as clearly as possible.
There. Is. No. Genocide. In. Gaza!
The numbers the press blindly quotes originate from a savage barbaric terrorist organization. They are lies. The numbers you’re being fed are straight up lies.
There are way less people dead in Gaza than the lies in the press, and out of those dead, the majority are either terrorists or terror supporters.
Genocide my butt.
Remember. Keep your moral clarity. Keep your honesty in a world full of deception. Don’t let them get to you. Don’t let them make you question your values. They are ideologically lost. You aren’t.
By no honest standards is Israel committing anything even remotely resembling a genocide. The Palestinian population has grown exponentially. That proves there is no genocide. Period. Glad that conversation is now over.
Israel must enter Rafah. It is the moral thing to do. You don’t put out 75% of a fire. Sure, Israel can try to minimize civilian death, but that has nothing to do with the legitimacy of the upcoming Rafah operation. You don’t decide whether a war is morally justified based on how many innocent people will die. By that standard, WWII was unjustified. Enough with that nonsense. Don’t let them confuse you.
Anything less than the total destruction of Hamas is both immoral and dangerous. Anyone who says otherwise is morally bankrupt. Don’t doubt yourself. Hamas must not exist for the world to be safe. Period. Full stop. Not one Hamas terrorist should be spared. Not a single one. That doesn’t make you immoral. That is the epitome of morality, irrelevant of what the world says.
There is ZERO indiscriminate fire in Gaza. I mean, by the IDF. Hamas does nothing BUT fire indiscriminately. No matter what anyone tells you, the IDF has never and will never intentionally kill innocent people. I know that’s what everyone is saying. They’re all liars. It’s a modern day blood libel. Don’t let it in.
As far as innocent people, every single innocent life lost in this war is on Hamas. There is nothing else to say about that. The IDF has ZERO responsibility to protect Gazans who Hamas is using as human shields. Sure, the IDF can do what it can, but every one of those deaths is on Hamas.
I know that diplomatic isolation is not fun. I know you’re worried about it. That’s fine. It’s worrisome. But again, remember morality. Biden can say what he wants and we can take his opinion into account, but that doesn’t make him right. He isn’t. Hamas needs to be a thing of the past. Biden can either get on board with that mission or not, but the mission remains.
I know it’s infuriating and frustrating that everywhere you look, Jews are being vilified.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. But it’s new for you. And so it’s hard. I never thought I’d see this level of antisemitism in my lifetime.
But let me just remind you, anyone who ever tried to annihilate us is extinct.
Right now you feel very alone, I get it.
You’re not. The vast majority of people in the western world support Israel’s right to defend itself. They don’t make headlines. They’re not as exciting as Neo Nazis marching in the streets. But the majority has our back. And those who don’t, made a very big mistake that they’ll pay for. That’s not a threat. It’s a historical fact.
Oh, and another thing… This is going to anger some people and that’s fine.
Enough with the artificial differentiation between Jews and Zionists. The vast majority of Jews are Zionists. The anti Zionist Jews that all the antisemites love to quote are statistically non-existent. They are a fraction of a percentage. If you think Jews don’t deserve self determination in their eternal homeland, you’re antisemitic. There, I said it.
Anti Zionism is antisemitism. End of story. Enough with the ridiculous notion that you can be against Zionism and pro Jewish. That’s impossible.
So, I know you’re feeling overwhelmed and sad by all the news. Step away. Shut it down. Take a breather.
The world has lost it. Don’t play their game. Step away, stay sane, and remember, you are one of the good guys, no matter what the world keeps telling you.
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StandWithUs Supporting Israel
For Jews, every day is October 7th
https://www.standwithus.com/post/for-jews-every-day-is-october-7th
The Times of Israel
Michael Dickson
2November2023
Jewish Star Of David on Brick Photo via: StandWithUs/Shutterstock
Experiencing violent trauma would have been enough.
Now imagine experiencing violent trauma, the rape of your loved ones, their murder in ways so brutal as to be almost unimaginable, and then their dismemberment and the defilement of their bodies. Add to this unfathomable loss, the constant fear of attack as you attempt to grieve, the inability to give your surviving family a sense of security and the consistent dripfeed of new, gruesome testimony – and indeed video as the perpetrators filmed it all – on a daily basis. And as each shiva in each mourning-house takes place, the shadow of anxiety about the wellbeing of the mass-kidnappees is ever-present.
I studied the psychology of resilience in the face of terrible ordeals and wrote a book about it, but there is no psychologist on this earth that is fully equipped to counsel the victims of the Hamas massacre of October 7th. Help is certainly at hand – but there will never be a coming to terms with what happened that grisly Sabbath morning in southern Israel.
Your Jewish friends are suffering. Days, weeks have passed since the news started to seep out and the revelations began to be heard, but it is as if the clocks stopped on that unbearable day and time has yet to move on.
Jewish friends are mourning Photo via: StandWithUs/Shutterstock
I studied the psychology of resilience in the face of terrible ordeals and wrote a book about it, but there is no psychologist on this earth that is fully equipped to counsel the victims of the Hamas massacre of October 7th. Help is certainly at hand – but there will never be a coming to terms with what happened that grisly Sabbath morning in southern Israel.
Your Jewish friends are suffering. Days, weeks have passed since the news started to seep out and the revelations began to be heard, but it is as if the clocks stopped on that unbearable day and time has yet to move on.
The deadliest day for the Jewish People since the Holocaust, a shadow that looms large in the mind of every Jew. The parallels abound. Yet – with the exception of a decreasing amount of people – we didn’t live through the Holocaust. We did live through October 7th. (One awful thought I had following the massacre: for the first time, I am pleased that most Holocaust survivors are no longer with us so they were spared having to see this atrocity take place again in their lifetime.)
It is as the terrorists intended. The Nazis carried out systemic murder, and cruelty and took pride in it. But they didn’t have social media. The Hamas jihadists tortured and massacred families – and uploaded it to Facebook in real-time so their extended family and friends would have to watch. The psychological damage alone to so many – including children – is gargantuan.
It took time for modern-day racists to begin to deny the Holocaust. Today’s massacre-deniers did not pause for breath. Trawl through your favorite digital platform of choice and see denial, minimization and justification – not just from Hamas – but from people who live near you. Antisemitic attacks and threats peak. Never again is ever again.
Jews are the eternal survivors. From Greek and Roman attempts to snuff out our nationhood and appropriate our symbols, to the bloodletting of the Crusades, the pogroms of Eastern Europe, the Arab Farhud attacks of Middle Eastern Jews and beyond, we are still here. We are also no strangers to terrorism. Hamas and their allies have murdered civilians riding buses, eating out, dancing at clubs and at prayer. We are still here.
And we will be here forevermore. Hamas will be relegated, much like the aforementioned Jew-oppressors, to the recesses of history. Jews will continue, never the same, but as committed to life and their peoplehood as ever. Meanwhile, we grieve and we would appreciate your solidarity.
For now, every day is October 7th. It will be October 7th for some time.
Caroline Glick-tweet12-November2023-We don’t want peace
We don’t want peace. We want liberation.
Globalize the Intifada (that means kill Jews everywhere)..
Some of the zingers at the LA march for peace for Hamas.
Oh, one more, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians started Oct. 7.
And the U.S. needs to disappear.
https://www.thefp.com/p/video-peace-is-for-suckers
Caroline Glick-tweet-12November2023-We don’t want peace
Dr. Eli David-tweet-1December2023-long airport security lines
Ever wondered why you’re standing in long airport security lines?
Not because a Jew blew up or hijacked an airplane. In all cases they were the same “peaceful” people:
1970: Four airplanes blasted in Jordan
Perpetrators: Palestinian Liberation Front (PLO)
1985: American TWA flight 847 hijacked
Perpetrators: Hizbullah
1988: American Pan-Am Flight, 243 passengers killed.
Perpetrator: Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi
2015: Russian Metrojet Flight, 224 passengers killed
Perpetrators: ISIS-backed Ansar Bait al-Maqdis
2001: 9/11 Twin Towers New York
Perpetrators: Al-Qaeda
Dr. Eli David-tweet-1December2023-long airport security lines
Jewish wedding pictures-Lakewood, NJ.
Frum TikTok-tweet-19February2024-Jewish wedding pictures-Lakewood NJ
Jewish wedding pictures looking different these days. 😉
Location: Lakewood, NJ.
Mazel Tov! ❤️
Frum TikTok-tweet-19February2024-Jewish wedding pictures: Lakewood, NJ.
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Tuesday, 05 June 2018 https://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2018/06/rav-yehuda-zev-leibowitzs-third-prediction.html Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20180607122634/https://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2018/06/rav-yehuda-zev-leibowitzs-third-prediction.html
Rav Yehuda Zev Leibowitz’s Third Prediction
If I were running for office or attempting to win a popularity contest, I wouldn’t be writing this post. Many of our readers outside of Israel are not going to like this. But what can a person do if he doesn’t like the weather? Bury his head in the ground? Close the curtains and say that there’s no hurricane with killer winds outside? Once a person’s house becomes flooded, the closed windows and curtains don’t help anymore. There comes a time when one cannot escape the storm outside. Yet, once the storm is predicted, he doesn’t sit with folded arms until it washes him away. He can get in the car or on a plane and move to a more amenable climate.
Don’t forget that the inclement weather, as well as the inclement political climate, all come from Hashem and for a reason.
Be patient, I’m getting to the point. But first, I must preface and ask a question: Why are we so happy on Passover Seder night? Any 7-year-old will laugh and say, “What a dumb question! That’s when Hashem took us out of slavery in Egypt!”
Is it such a dumb question when I show little 7-year-old Chaimk’e and his parents that in the three days that preceded our Exodus from Egypt in the Hebrew year of 2448 (1282 BCE), eight million Jews died, and that’s according to the conservative figure. Some say it was 10 million. Rashi explains that only 1 out of 5 Jews left Egypt in the Exodus; the other 4 died during the three days of darkness. Since a minimum of 2 million left, that means that at least 8 million perished!
Why, therefore, do we not mourn during the three days that precede Pesach, and declare them as national Holocaust Days, when 33% more Jews died than during the entire six years of the Nazi Holocaust? Not only do we not mourn, we rejoice! What’s going on?
Our sages rule that we do not mourn anyone who denies the Redemption and refuses to be a part of it, just as we don’t mourn a heretic who denies the veracity of Moses’s prophecy and the Torah (Rambam, Laws of Teshuva, 3:8, and other places). This notion is even anchored in The Code of Jewish Law (see Shulchan Oruch, Yora Deah 345:5; Mishna Berura on Orach Chaim 126:1, letter b). Moses, in the Name of Hashem, told the Children of Israel to arise, we must quickly leave Egypt. 80% didn’t listen to him. They paid a steep price but we don’t mourn for them. They had become used to Egypt and had no desire – despite what Hashem wanted – to leave Egypt. Even though they were slaves, they liked the Egyptian culture, music, pastimes and food. Moses said no, we must go to our Promised Land. Egypt is not our home.
Moses’s voice saying, “We must go to our Promised Land”, echoes through all of our history.
The periodic “Golden Ages” of our Diaspora have always been followed by calamity. The Golden Age of Jewry in the Iberian Peninsula culminated in 1492, when the horrendous Inquisition began. Jews were either killed, exiled or forcefully converted to Catholicism. The Golden Age of German and Eastern European Jewry ended in Hitler’s Holocaust.
There is only one, true Golden Age in Judaism, and that’s when our exiles return home, Moshiach comes and our Holy Temple is rebuilt.
Hashem wants to redeem His people but in the meanwhile, He won’t until they come home. The sand of that “meanwhile” keeps is emptying out from the top of that 2,000 year hourglass. When a certain date comes according to Hashem’s timeline, He won’t wait anymore and Moshiach will come whether we like it or not or whether we’re here in Israel or not.
Rav Yehuda Zev, of saintly and blessed memory, lived through the Nazi Holocaust. He witnessed the slaughter of his parents, his siblings and his fiance. He never had children because of the torture that the satanic Nazis did to his body. He did not take the word “Holocaust” lightly – he lived through it and experienced it on his own flesh and in his own heart in the most excruciatingly painful way. Though scarred, completely, inside and out, he was a tzaddik of perfect emuna and not bitter in the slightest. He knew that everything was from Hashem. Yet, with all his heart, he did everything to prevent another Holocaust. He didn’t want Moshiach to come if the price would be tragic.
A tzaddik of Rav Yehuda Zev’s caliber has 20/20 spiritual vision because nothing in this world can fool, sway or tempt him. No wonder he was so accurate in predicting the Arab Spring and Bibi’s inability to attack Iran as we wrote on our No Go post from this past Friday.
A movie clip has now become public, where Rabbi Aharon Stern shlit’a from Bnai Brak, who was Rabbi Yehuda Zev’s personal attendant, reveals the tzaddik’s third prediction and says: “Before his death, Rav Leibowitz told me that the anti-Semitism in the United States is only going to continue to grow, until it gets to the point where the Jews will be forced to flee. They must come to Israel soon; if they wait too long, they’ll be lucky to exit with the shirt on their backs…come soon, the Redemption will be here in the Land of Israel, not anywhere else.” In case anyone doubts the veracity and authenticity of the quote, at the bottom of this post is the vid in Hebrew where you can see Rav Stern saying this (see minutes 2:48-3:40).
Hashem wants to redeem us, so He wants us all here. But what about those who for any number of reasons can’t come now? What about those with joint custody on children from a previous marriage or those with an elderly parent? (Plug in your own reason…)
Rav Shalom Arush shlit’a says that even if you can’t come now, you can do 2 things:
1) Pray daily for Aliya, so that you too can come home to the Land of Israel;
2) Spread emuna far and wide, in any way you can. This will protect you in the meanwhile, because the spread of emuna is also needed to expedite Geula, the full redemption of our people, speedily and in our days, amen!
ביבי בוקר טוב – הרב אהרון שטרן שליט”א
Kristallnacht 1938 and 2018
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Spotted in Los Angeles
Kylie Ora Lobell-tweet-11April2024-Spotted in Los Angeles
Spotted in Los Angeles
Kylie Ora Lobell-tweet-11April2024-Spotted in Los Angeles
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Kristallnacht 2024 | Chabad Shul-Pomona NY-Arson-17April2024
The Voice Of Truth-tweet-21April2024-Chabad Shul-Pomona NY-Arson-17April2024
The Chabad Shull (synagogue) in Pomona NY was set on fire last Wednesday.
The holy Torah books were burnt to ashes.
This was no accident .
It reminds me of dark ages we all thought we won’t have to go through again.💔
#Kristallnacht
The Voice Of Truth-tweet-21April2024-Chabad Shul-Pomona NY-Arson-17April2024
Kristallnacht-Burning synagogue Siegen, Germany
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Canada in 2024 is Germany in 1939!
Michael Sachs-tweet-21March2024-Canada in 2024 is Germany in 1939
If you are a #Jew in #Canada in 2024, it is resembling Germany in 1939👇🏼
🚨Targeted radical protests of intimidation and hatred
🚨Daily incidents of #antisemitism
🚨Theatres canceling plays and banning #Jewish films
🚨Upcoming ban of #Kosher slaughter
🚨Politicians using #antisemitic tropes on the floor of parliament
🚨Systemic antisemitism unmasked in government, healthcare and multiply public services
🚨Jewish students having to hide being Jewish on campus
History will judge our leaders
#cdnpoli
cc @JustinTrudeau @theJagmeetSingh @yfblanchet @ElizabethMay @Dave_Eby @NikiSharma2
Michael Sachs-tweet-21March2024-Canada in 2024 is Germany in 1939
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The World does not want to see
Israel Foreign Ministry-tweet-2December2023-The World does not want to see
“We were foolish to believe after WWII, the world will never forget. At least back then, people could use the excuse they did not know. And now what you’re really saying, is not that you don’t know, is just that you don’t want to see.”
Every word @lucyaharish.
Israel Foreign Ministry-tweet-2December2023-The World does not want to see
Canary Mission-tweet-19December2023-Prof Rabab Abdulhadi at SFSU
Prof @AbdulhadiRabab @SFSU objects to @IlhanMN calling Hamas’ massacre of Jews “senseless violence.” Abdulhadi says the attacks were self-defense. Imagine being a Jewish student at SFSU & having your prof justify the brutal slaughter of 1,200 Israelis. https://canarymission.org/professor/Rabab_Abdulhadi
Canary Mission-tweet-19December2023-Prof Rabab Abdulhadi at SFSU
Don’t say we didn’t warn you
The Persian Jewess-tweet-25March2024-Don’t say we didn’t warn you
There hasn’t been a single country that has prospered after turning against its #Jewish population.
The rise of Jew Hate is always the harbinger of the fall of society into tyranny and totalitarianism.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
#AntizionismIsAntisemitism
#WakeUpAmerica
The Persian Jewess-tweet-25March2024-Don’t say we didn’t warn you
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#KidnappedFromIsrael
https://www.kidnappedfromisrael.com/
Poster of abducted Israeli
Poster of abducted Israeli
On October 7th, 2023 more than 240 innocent civilians were abducted from Israel into the Gaza Strip by Hamas. Ranging in age from 3 months to 85 years old, these people were kidnapped in the midst of a vicious attack against Israel during which thousands of children, elderly, women, and men were slaughtered, raped, and wounded.
With the clear goal of returning these hostages back home safely and immediately, thousands of people have been hanging photos of the hostages in dozens of cities around the world, pasting up posters that were circulated via dropbox for individuals to print independently.
These are the Posters. Please Download and Print them out.
Emily holds up her own kidnapped poster
Aviva Klompas-tweet-30November2023-Emily holds up her own kidnapped poster
Emily holds up her own kidnapped poster.
I hope every horrible person who tore down her poster sees this.
Aviva Klompas-tweet-30November2023-Emily holds up her own kidnapped poster
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Antisemites caught ripping down posters of kidnapped Israelis.
Baruchy-tweet-7November2023-Try Again
Try again
Baruchy-tweet-7November2023-Bring Them Home Now
Bring Them Home Now
Share!
#BringThemBackHome
#BringThemHome
Baruchy-tweet-7November2023-Try Again
StopAntisemitism-tweet-7November2023-
UPDATE: NY County public defender Victoria Ruiz has resigned from her position after she was caught ripping down a poster of kidnapped Israelis.
StopAntisemitism-tweet-7November2023-Victoria Ruiz caught removing posters of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas terrorists
NYC – New York County public defender Victoria Ruiz caught removing posters of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.
It is absolutely unacceptable for someone with such bias and hate to serve in your office @nyc_defenders
StopAntisemitism-tweet-7November2023-Victoria Ruiz caught removing posters of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas terrorists
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Senior CIA Official Posts, Then Deletes Pro-Palestine Content
by Tyler Durden, 29November2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/senior-cia-official-posts-then-deletes-pro-palestine-content
Via Middle East Eye,
A senior official at the CIA posted a pro-Palestine photo on her Facebook page amid Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip but later deleted the post and other pro-Palestinian content after it was reported by the media.
The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the CIA associate deputy director for analysis changed her Facebook cover photo on 21 October to an image of a man waving a Palestinian flag.
The photo of a man waving a Palestinian flag that was shared on the Facebook page of a senior CIA official (Photo by Ahmed Abu Hameeda/Unsplash)
The image posted to the CIA official’s Facebook page, as identified in FT.
The official also published a selfie with a sticker saying “Free Palestine” superimposed on the photograph, which the Financial Times reported was posted to Facebook years before the ongoing war, citing an unnamed person familiar with the image.
The images were deleted on Monday after the Financial Times contacted the official, the report said. Middle East Eye reached out to the CIA associate deputy director for analysis on LinkedIn for comment but didn’t receive a reply by the time of publication.
While CIA officials like those in the directorate of operations mainly work undercover with their identity obscured, others who provide analysis for the agency can have a more public profile. It is extremely rare, however, for officials working in government intelligence, particularly senior officials, to share their political views on current events.
The associate deputy director for analysis at the CIA reviews and studies the raw intelligence that field officers collect from foreign sources abroad. That intelligence goes into a highly classified document known as the President’s Daily Brief, which the US leader receives almost daily.
The revelation that a senior US intelligence official was posting images widely seen as supportive of the Palestinian cause comes at a sensitive time for the Biden administration, which has faced pushback from officials over its unconditional support for Israel.
Middle East Eye reported in October that State Department officials had penned dissent cables calling for the US to push Israel for a ceasefire. The Biden administration’s stance has also pitted senior officials within the National Security Council against younger staffers, particularly those from diverse backgrounds, who have expressed concern over the support to Israel.
A former US official was recently filmed advocating for killing Palestinian children. New York police arrested Stuart Seldowitz, a former US State Department official, earlier in November after he was captured on video calling an Egyptian halal food street vendor a terrorist and saying the death of 4,000 Palestinian children “wasn’t enough”.
Seldowitz was deputy director in the US State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs. He was later National Security Council advisor to President Barack Obama.
The Financial Times report is notable because it is the first to suggest that a senior US official within the intelligence community has expressed pro-Palestinian sentiment since the outbreak of war on 7 October.
The CIA official was later identified by name in a Washington Free Beacon report…
Chuck Callesto-tweet-28November2023-CIA Officer Found Sharing Pro-Palestinian Material
JUST IN: High-Ranking CIA Officer Found Sharing Pro-Palestinian Material on Social Media..
Amy McFadden, the Associate Deputy Director for Analysis at the CIA, altered her social media cover photo to one supporting Palestine, which occurred two weeks after Hamas, recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States, launched attacks against Israel.
Chuck Callesto-tweet-28November2023-CIA Officer Found Sharing Pro-Palestinian Material
The CIA prides itself on being apolitical and delivering unbiased intelligence to the US president regardless of the political views of its officers and staff. It is extremely rare for a senior intelligence officer to make personal political statements.
The disclosure comes as the head of the spy agency, Bill Burns, takes on a leading role in managing the administration’s response to the conflict. The CIA director has met with leaders from Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Gulf states to discuss Israel’s battle plans and the release of hostages. On Tuesday, he was in Doha for talks with his Israeli counterpart and Qatari officials serving as mediators with Hamas.
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JerusalemCats Comments: Look at the News with all the pro-Palestinian riots, look at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Look at the Universities! Hamas is in America and Europe!
Netanyahu Warns America: “You’re Next” If IDF Doesn’t Decimate Hamas “Barbarism”
by Tyler Durden, 14November2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/netanyahu-tells-americans-youre-next-if-idf-doesnt-defeat-hamas-barbarism
Israel has been ramping up its global messaging campaign at a moment it faces increased isolation from Global South countries, and amid growing criticism from large powers like China, Russia, and major Latin American countries such as Brazil.
But there have been signs of dissent even within the Biden administration as well, with pushback especially coming from the State Department of late, as US officials want to see the White House become more publicly critical of alleged Israeli war crimes, given also the immense death toll, at over 11,200 Gazans killed – with some half of these believed to be women and children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now taking his message to the American public, in a Monday night appearance on Fox News’ Sean Hannity, warning that the US will be “next” if his military doesn’t decimate Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and biden Via AP
“We have to win not only for our sake, but for the sake of the Middle East, for the sake of our Arab neighbors. You know what, for the sake of Gazans who’ve been held by this dark tyranny that has brutalized and brought them nothing but bloodshed and poverty and misery,” Netanyahu introduced.
“We have to win to protect Israel. We have to win to safeguard the Middle East. We have to win for the sake of the civilized world. That’s the battle we’re fighting, and it’s being waged right now. There is no substitute for that victory.”
And that’s when he emphasized the potential dire repercussions for the West if Israel fails in its objectives. “If we don’t win now, then Europe is next and you’re next. And we have to win,” he added.
Netanyahu’s words carried a theme of a war between ‘barbarians’ and ‘civilization’, with an intent to make Americans believe what’s happening in the Middle East is “your fight” as well. According to Fox:
Such messaging filled with a ‘good vs. evil’ motif was also heavily relied upon by the Bush administration and neocons in selling the Iraq War in 2003. Netanyahu has in past years also painted such simple contrasts when speaking about Iran and its supposed ‘nuclear threat’ as well.
Netanyahu may have been responding to rare words of restraint issued by President Biden on the same day. “I have not been reluctant in expressing my concerns about what’s going on and it’s my hope and expectation that it will be less intrusive action relative to the hospital,” Biden said Monday regarding the worsening humanitarian crisis at al-Shifa hospital in the center of Gaza City.
Zelensky’s playbook of “you’re next”?…
Michael Tracey-tweet-14November2023-Netanyahu on Hannity
Netanyahu on Hannity last night:
– Israel is invading Gaza “for the sake of Gazans.” Sounds very generous and humanitarian
– War boils down to “good guys” versus “bad guys”
– If Israel doesn’t occupy the Gaza strip, “Europe is next, and you’re next.” I guess he means Ohio
Michael Tracey-tweet-14November2023-Netanyahu on Hannity
“So, I remain somewhat hopeful but the hospital must be protected,” he said. This was in response to growing international condemnation, including from the UN, of Israeli troops laying siege to the large Gaza hospital, amid reports that patients – including the very young – are dying, and as the hospital has run out of fuel to keep vital generators going.
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EU Supreme Court has just outlawed kosher slaughter in the EU
Caroline Glick-tweet-13February2024-EU bans kosher slaughter
The EU Supreme Court has just outlawed kosher slaughter in the EU. That means the EU has just declared Judaism illegal within its boundaries.
This comes the day after the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for a weapons embargo against Israel.
The Palestinians are Europe’s way of maintaining its 2,000 year war against the Jews.
Caroline Glick-tweet-13February2024-EU bans kosher slaughter
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The lives of French Jews today
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-28November2023-The lives of French Jews today
This article in Le Figaro describes the lives of French Jews today:
” A hairdresser refusing a Jewish client
* Jews changing their names on mailboxes so as not to be targets
* 74% of French Jews say they have already experienced anti-Semitic behavior, from mockery to physical aggression.
* 48% sometimes avoid saying that they are Jewish in a discussion
* 55% of parents ask their children not to wear distinctive Jewish clothing
* Taxi driver at Orly airport: “Dirty Jew! If I would take you (in my cab), I would have slaughtered you, your wife and your children ”
* Muslim Uber drivers are giving low ratings to visibly Jewish customers
* Delivery people refuse to take food from kosher restaurants
* Post office employees purposefully “lose” mail and packages to and from Israel
https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/tu-es-juive-donc-je-ne-te-coifferai-pas-la-montee-de-l-antisemitisme-au-quotidien-en-france-20231127
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-28November2023-The lives of French Jews today
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Dear diaspora Jews: It’s over
The past month has reinforced my belief that there is one place we’re meant to be, and it isn’t New York, Buenos Aires, or London
Josh Feldman Nov 19, 2023, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/dear-diaspora-jews-its-over/
As an Australian Jew, I’ve always proudly contended that I live in the safest Jewish community in the world. We have no lists of synagogues shot up by white supremacists, nor politicians whose campaign to become prime minister prompted nearly half the country’s Jews to consider leaving (high standards, I know). And while Australian Jewry — which is believed to have the world’s largest Holocaust survivor population per capita outside of Israel — is well aware of the dangers of antisemitism, much of the community has long-shared this sentiment. Antisemitism has always been present, but it was rarely, if ever, a cause for widespread anxiety.
If the outbreak of Jew-hatred after the October 7 Massacre didn’t change that, then November 10 did. As Melbourne’s Jews welcomed Shabbat, a mob of Arab and far-left thugs traveled from the other side of the city to protest in the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community, forcing a synagogue only meters from the protest to evacuate mid-prayer.
Masked in keffiyehs, waving Palestinian flags, and accompanied by an astonishingly useless police force, the group chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — that all-too familiar call for the Jewish state’s destruction — and hurled vile insults at Jewish locals who exited their homes in a show of defiance, sparking violent clashes. Multiple witnesses told me protesters threw rocks and full water bottles at Jewish attendees.
One protester, keenly aware of the significance of harassing Jews in their backyard on Shabbat, taunted Jewish counter-protesters that they “can’t do this in Broadmeadows,” a heavily Muslim suburb around 40 minutes by car from where the protest took place. “People inside their homes having Shabbat dinner terrified hearing the chants of Allahu Akbar,” one Jewish local wrote during the ordeal.
To say this has shaken Melbourne’s Jewish community is a gross understatement. The quiet suburban life for Melburnian Jews, often accompanied by varying levels of naivety and denial about the dangers facing us, is over as we know it.
Such a story has become chillingly familiar for too many Diaspora Jewish communities since Hamas’s sadistic orgy of terror on October 7 and the terrifying explosion of antisemitism that followed. Jews have begun removing mezuzahs from their front doors. Jewish schools are telling their students they don’t have to wear school uniform so as to avoid being identifiably Jewish in public. Others are letting students study at home, while some Jewish parents have banned their children from taking public transport to school.
The night of the Melbourne protest, a Jewish family friend had invited people over to celebrate their birthday. Some refused to go: they were too scared to leave their homes.
The confident assertion that now is the best time in history to be Jewish has been all but forgotten. Welcome to the new Jewish reality.
For much of Diaspora Jewry, this is an immensely disorientating time, and understandably so. But as I told a friend who said the other day that no matter where we live, Jews will always be outnumbered by those who hate us, there is, in fact, one place we can go. It’s home to some seven million Jews, is run by Jews, for Jews, and three of its last six prime ministers have been veterans of one of the most elite Jewish fighting forces in our people’s history.
If ever there was a time to move to Israel, it’s now.
Modern Zionism’s founding father Theodor Herzl’s rationale was simple: Europe is not safe for Jews; only in an independent Jewish state in the land of Israel can we guarantee our own safety. He was right. In a post-Holocaust West, however, many Jews believed that they too, had found countries that could guarantee not just their safety, but their sense of security. As long as that remained true, there was little reason to leave — hence why approximately half of world Jewry lives outside of Israel.
The last few weeks have shattered that illusion for many Jews. In response, some Jewish writers and activists have argued that now is the time for Diaspora Jewry to create new institutions, rethink who its allies are, and change how it educates the non-Jewish world about antisemitism.
While well-intentioned, these miss the point entirely. Generation after generation, Jews were expelled from their homes, shoved into ghettos, and murdered at will. Nothing our ancestors did could change that. Jewish communities today need to come to the same realization. This is not, and never has been, a question of allyship or education. Antisemitism is not an enemy you can defeat with well-funded and cleverly planned campaigns. The game is up. It’s over.
For some, moving to Israel now might feel like giving up, and I can understand why. I began the process of making aliyah months before October 7, and as someone who has never had much faith in the non-Jewish world’s ability or desire to guarantee Jewish safety, the past month has only reinforced my belief that there is one place we’re meant to be, and it isn’t New York, Buenos Aires, London, or Johannesburg.
For other Jews, however — many of whose families have spent generations flourishing in the Diaspora — it’s far from simple to admit that the societies they, their parents, and their grandparents invested in have proven to be a false promise.
But moving to Israel is not giving up. It is an embrace of Jewish destiny. It is to unapologetically declare that as Jews, we are choosing to direct our energy towards helping our ancestral homeland instead of spending countless hours and dollars contributing to societies that are already beginning to turn on us. My sense of Jewish pride demands that I accept nothing less than a society that will do everything in its power to guarantee my ability to live safely as a proud Jew. A world in which Jews are scared to be publicly Jewish is not one I want to live in.
Diaspora Jews have long-described Israel as the one place we can go to if we no longer feel safe in our host countries. It’s our insurance policy on which we hoped we’d never have to make a claim. But since October 7, what was usually little more than a comforting remark has been violently transformed, against our will, to a concrete reflection of reality.
It’s time for us to cash in.
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1970-2020 Jewish golden age
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-30January2024-1970-2020 jewish golden age
Some seven decades of limited antisemitism in the West has come to an end. People can now publicly harass and attack Jews at will, and Jews are reverting to living in fear.
History will look at 1970-2020 as a golden age, where Jewish men in most Western cities could walk openly with a kippah without much concern. Where Jews could go on family outings with only a vague worry that there is a tiny chance that some crazy person might harass them. Where no one had a second thought about walking to and from synagogue with the kids.
Certainly there are some neighborhoods where this is still true, but the map of where Jews can walk without fear has been shrinking over the past several years, and shrank dramatically since October 7, after decades of expansion.
Like it or not, the normal state of the world over the past 2000 years is where Jews are outcasts and demeaned. These last decades were not a trend as we had hoped, but an anomaly.
The West should be nervous. Jews are the canary in the coal mine, and this is just the beginning. History shows that the future for countries that decide that it is too much trouble to protect their Jews is bleak indeed.
JerusalemCats-tweet-31January2024-Baal Teshuva movement
1970s Baal Teshuva movement; Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Aish HaTorah, The Jewish Catalog, 1980-1990s Russian Refuseniks Aliyah, Rabbi Meir Kahane, 2000s Nefesh B’Nefesh, 2010s Gaza Wars,
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-30January2024-1970-2020 jewish golden age
JerusalemCats-tweet-31January2024-Baal Teshuva movement
JerusalemCats Comments: I would add that the start of the “Golden Age” was the Six Day War on June 5 to 10, 1967 and ended on October 7, 2023
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The truth is Israel’s narrative
It took 30 years, billions in petrodollars and billions more from cultural Marxists to develop a language of lies and manipulation that placed Jews in Israel and the Diaspora in the oppressor column.
A single photograph of a couple remains on the wall of a bullet-riddled home in Kfar Aza in southern Israel after Hamas terrorists rampaged through the community on Oct. 7, murdering families and taking civilians hostage, Oct. 16, 2023. Photo by Rina Castelnuovo.
https://www.jns.org/the-truth-is-israels-narrative/
Caroline B. Glick
Caroline B. Glick
Caroline B. Glick is the senior contributing editor of Jewish News Syndicate and host of the “Caroline Glick Show” on JNS. She is also the diplomatic commentator for Israel’s Channel 14, as well as a columnist for Newsweek. Glick is the senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington and a lecturer at Israel’s College of Statesmanship.
(November 8, 2023 / JNS) Paul Kessler went to a pro-Hamas demonstration in the Los Angeles area waving an Israeli flag to stand down the crowd gathered to support the genocide of Jews. A pro-Hamas demonstrator, who tracked the 69-year-old before he approached him, clubbed Kessler in the head with a megaphone. Kessler fell to the ground and died of cerebral bleeding.
Forty-eight hours after Kessler was killed, his murderer was still free, even though the police know who he is. Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryoff hadn’t arrested him because he couldn’t decide whether the murderer’s blow was the reason that Kessler died. Maybe he would have fallen on the ground head-first anyway. These things happen.
Fryoff isn’t the only one who can’t see the connection between A and B these days.
From coast to coast, university presidents can’t figure out whether Israel is to be supported and Hamas condemned, or Hamas is to be supported and Israel is to be condemned. It’s true Hamas murderers savagely executed, raped, sodomized, decapitated, dismembered and kidnapped thousands of innocent Israelis. But then again, Israel retaliated and stuff.
The confusion isn’t limited to police chiefs and professors.
Consider Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Socialist from Vermont told CNN that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is impossible. As he put it, “I don’t know how you can have a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the State of Israel.”
But then again, Sanders said: “The immediate task right now is to end the bombing, to end the horrific humanitarian disaster, to build—go forward with the entire world for a two-tier, two-state solution to the crisis to give the Palestinian people hope.”
So, on the one hand, you can’t have a ceasefire because Hamas won’t cease firing since it seeks Israel’s annihilation. And on the other hand, Israel needs to stop firing on Hamas and give the people who elected Hamas a state. Sanders’s confusion makes sense, given his Jewish roots on the one hand, and his ties to the Hamas caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives on the other.
The obvious contradiction in his position resonates with President Joe Biden’s viewpoints as well. True, Biden says, Israel has a right and a duty to defeat Hamas. But it must do so without harming any of Hamas’s human shields, and it needs to accept a ceasefire that will allow Hamas to regroup, resupply and rearm.
True, Biden admits, Hamas wants to annihilate the Jews. And true (although he won’t acknowledge it), the unpopular PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority also wants to annihilate the Jews. All the same, Biden insists that they must always be empowered and never punished for anything.
Deeper than the competence of spokespeople
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that after the war, Israel will need to maintain overall security control over the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military capabilities. The next day, the U.S. State Department publicly rejected the notion that Israel might stick around. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters, “Our viewpoint is that Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions, and Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land.”
People keep comparing Hamas’s slaughter of civilians to Sept. 11 and Israel’s counterattack as its invasion of Iraq. But as Capt. Thomas Wheatley, a professor of international law at West Point, explained in a paper he published in a George Mason University international legal journal, the analogy is wrong. Hamas didn’t hijack a plane. It invaded Israel. It occupied Israeli territory for several hours and used its time in power to conduct crimes against humanity and genocidal acts. It seized 244 hostages. The proper analogy of Israel’s counterattacks isn’t Mosul but Normandy. Israel needs to treat Gaza how the United States and the Allies treated Nazi Germany, Wheatley explained.
Why can’t the West’s “best and brightest” understand this basic truth?
Israelis like to blame ourselves for this fiasco. We say that our public diplomacy, aka hasbara, is a complete failure. Our spokespeople are incompetent, the critics insist. But the truth is different. Israel’s official spokesmen are generally competent and often well-spoken. Palestinian spokesmen are just as often incompetent, and look and sound like terrorists.
The problem is much deeper than the competence of official spokespeople.
Partly, it’s that a lot of people around the world simply hate Jews. We’ve been getting a good look at the dimensions of the phenomenon since the Oct. 7 mass slaughter. Jew-haters from Pakistan to Philadelphia like Hamas because Hamas is killing Jews.
But not all of the people who insist that Israel is in the wrong—or simply can’t see the difference between Israel and Hamas—are motivated primarily by bigotry.
Their problem isn’t that they despise Jews or even that Israel isn’t providing the facts. Their problem is that they have been trained to care more about “the narrative” than the facts. And “the narrative” tells them to stand with the Palestinians, who seek to annihilate the Jews.
Whether the problem began with Edward Said’s destruction of Middle East Studies with the publication of his anti-intellectual and glamorous Orientalism in 1978—or with the imposition of groupthink under the title “political correctness” as a litmus test for social, academic and professional advancement in the 1990s—over the last generation and a half, the details of the narrative were filled in. Across all fields of human endeavor and experience, humankind was divided into the oppressed, who can do no wrong, and the oppressors, who can do no right.
It took 30 years, billions in petrodollars and billions more from cultural Marxists to develop a language of lies and manipulation that placed Jews in Israel and the Diaspora in the oppressor column. But with enough money and indoctrination, David was transformed into Goliath, and Goliath was transformed into the Jews who were so scared of the Philistine giant that they sent a 13-year-old shepherd with a slingshot in to defend them.
“David and Goliath” fresco, 1509, by Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel. Credit: Web Gallery of Art via Wikimedia Commons.
The ‘new’ David and Goliath
None of this made any sense. None of it had anything to do with history, facts or scholarship. Indeed, to believe these lies, it was necessary to reject objective truth as a measuring rod for academic or professional advancement.
Faced with a state of affairs where public discourse was dominated by a narrative that vilified Jews, Jewish liberals in Israel and the United States invented their own narrative they hoped would satisfy their indoctrinated and incentivized colleagues in the West. They based their narrative on the same oppressor-oppressed narrative their Western counterparts embraced. But their narrative distinguished between “good Jews” and “bad Jews.”
They were the good Jews. And as good Jews, they accepted that Israel was Goliath. But they insisted that they didn’t want to be Goliath. They wanted to give the oppressed Palestinian David a state. They embraced the “two-state solution” that requires Israel to give up Israel’s biblical heartland—Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem along with the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians. The “bad Jews,” the oppressor Jews, refused to do so based on their atavistic, messianic belief that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews.
The key to peace, the “good Jews” proclaimed, is for the liberal Jews to be supported by all right-thinking people. Right-thinking, narrative-driven people need to oppose the leaders of the “bad Jews”—first and foremost, Netanyahu—and to deny tenure, promotions and even legitimacy to Jews in Israel and abroad who think like Netanyahu about certain things, particularly the “two-state solution.
Like their Western counterparts, these Jewish liberals were immune to rational debate. True, the Palestinians rejected the “two-state solution,” and all factions of Palestinian society call for the elimination of Israel. And true, the “two-state solution” foresees Israel shrinking to indefensible boundaries that invite invasion. But since the “two-state solution” would end Israel’s status as an oppressor, the Palestinians and their allies would bury the hatchet, and Israel could live securely in indefensible boundaries because no one would think of attacking it. Many liberal Jews accepted the slaughter of wrong-thinking Jews with something bordering on equanimity. They were asking for it, of course, by refusing to end the so-called “occupation.”
The problem with liberal Israelis’ and Diaspora Jewry’s acceptance of narrative over facts is that facts have proven their narrative—and the broader oppressed/oppressor narrative—false. As they wake up to the realization that Israel’s enemies see no difference between “good” Jews who support the “two-state solution” and the “bad” Jews who oppose it, they are coming to realize that their colleagues on the left really don’t care. They prefer their narrative to reality—and won’t reject it even if keeping the faith with the oppressed means embracing the eliminationist slogan, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.”
Which brings us back to public diplomacy.
It is the liberal Jewish embrace of the oppressor-oppressed narrative about themselves that has rendered Israel’s hasbara efforts dead in the water. If Israel is in the wrong and the Palestinians are in the right, then Hamas is right to slaughter and rape and abduct Israeli Jews. After all, we had it coming. And Israel has no right to annihilate Hamas because Hamas is oppressed. Rape isn’t a form of oppression if it is carried out by the oppressed against the oppressor. What does it matter how many women were brutalized? The same is the case with burning babies.
What’s missing from Israel’s hasbara isn’t facts and figures—of dead, of atrocities, of dates and of genocidal covenants, or even decent English.
What is missing is our story. Our history is the most compelling tale of human will and hope that the world has ever known. Our Jewish state is an apotheosis of justice. Jewish freedom is the triumph of the oppressed Jews against an oppressive humanity. Jewish settlement of the land of Israel from north to south, east to west is the victory of a native people against centuries of colonialist, imperialist invaders and occupiers. The Palestinians have organized themselves as a cult that sanctifies death, sadism, mass murder and destruction. They have no identity independent of their hatred of Israel. Were Israel to vanish, the Palestinians would be forgotten immediately.
It’s time to tell the truth about them, too.
Perhaps more than we need to tell our story to the world, we need to tell it to ourselves. We need to let the truth remind us of who we are after a generation of unwarranted and deeply destructive self-flagellation. The more we tell our story, the less we will care whether people are persuaded because we will understand that our greatest triumphs across time happened when we were true to ourselves, our people, our traditions and our God. And when we stop caring whether we are alone or not, we will see that people of goodwill around the world will be standing with us.
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New York is turning into a Nazi city
Caroline Glick-tweet-13February2024-New York is turning into a Nazi city
New York is turning into a Nazi city. Can’t go to the MOMA, can’t walk down the street, can’t get to the airport, can’t go to school or get a coffee without being assaulted by Nazi goon squads who hate Jews and want to banish them from public spaces.
Oliya Scootercaster-tweet-12February2024-Pro-palestine protesters shut down a tunnel
#NOW Pro-palestine protesters shut down a tunnel on 40th street and Park Avenue in Manhattan.
Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 Desk@freedomnews.tv to license
Caroline Glick-tweet-13February2024-New York is turning into a Nazi city
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Elderly Jewish man dies after being beaten by pro-Palestinian protester
A video posted to the social media platform by StopAntisemitism captured the event.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
NOVEMBER 7, 2023 02:26 Updated: NOVEMBER 7, 2023 03:51 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-772031
PRO-PALESTINE demonstrators protest outside the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles in May. (photo credit: LUCY NICHOLSON / REUTERS)
An elderly Jewish man [65 years old] was allegedly beaten to death at a pro-Israel rally in Los Angeles on Monday in America by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed.
According to eyewitnesses a confrontation developed between the elderly man and the suspect. The elderly man was then found on the ground bleeding and was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead from a cerebral hemorrhage.
“We are devastated to learn of the tragic death of an elderly Jewish man who was struck in the head by a megaphone wielded by a pro-Palestinian protestor in Westlake Village,” the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles said in a statement. “Our hearts are with the family of the victim.
“While we wait for more information from our law enforcement partners, we remind you that this is the fourth major antisemitic crime committed in Los Angeles this year alone,” the federation continued. “Violence against our people has no place in civilized society. We demand safety. We will not tolerate violence against our community. We will do everything in our power to prevent it.”
The incident was caught on film by locals and shared with a warning of graphic content on X by the NGO StopAntisemitism.
[EDD: updated tweet]
StopAntisemitism-tweet-7November2023-Jewish man murdered by pro Palestinian protestor
Content warning ⚠️ – an elderly Jewish man has been killed by a pro Palestinian protestor who hit him over the head with a megaphone at yesterday’s Israel rally.
Sadly, the victim has passed away from internal bleeding.
May his memory be a blessing and his attacker be prosecuted to the fullest degree of the law!
StopAntisemitism-tweet-7November2023-alleged attacker
These photos of the alleged attacker are circulating online; we will update this thread once we learn more.
StopAntisemitism-tweet-7November2023-Jewish man murdered by pro Palestinian protestor
‘Long live the Intifada’: Palestinians and pro-Palestinian supporters protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza amid days of conflict between the two sides, in Brooklyn, New York, US, May 15, 2021. (credit: RASHID UMAR ABBASI / REUTERS)
Police have declined to provide further details and it is unknown if the suspect has been arrested
UPDATE:
StopAntisemitism-tweet-8November2023-College Professor Loay Alnaji Murdered Paul Kessler
Los Angeles area – a pro Hamas video has been discovered on the Instagram feed of Loay Alnaji, the college professor who hit Jewish individual Paul Kessler in the face with a megaphone, ultimately killing him.
Kessler was holding an Israeli flag and standing with other supporters when two pro-Palestinian agitators crossed the street to start trouble.
Paul Kessler passed away from skull fractures, as well as brain swelling and bruising.
Meanwhile, Loay Alnaji STILL has not been arrested. This is unacceptable @VENTURASHERIFF!
Becca-tweet-9November2023-Alnaji deliberately crossed the intersection to confront Paul
Kessler’s friend who was holding signs with him that day said that Alnaji and/or his allegedly gun toting friend was also filming them earlier, before the attack. He also said Alnaji deliberately crossed the intersection to confront Paul. This shows plan and intent to attack.
StopAntisemitism-tweet-8November2023-College Professor Loay Alnaji Murdered Paul Kessler
Becca-tweet-9November2023-Alnaji deliberately crossed the intersection to confront Paul
UPDATE:
Suspect Arrested in Death of Jewish Man at California ‘Pro-Palestine’ Rally
An autopsy ruled Paul Kessler’s death a homicide. The medical examiner concluded a blunt-force head injury killed him.
Posted by Mary Chastain 16November2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/11/suspect-arrested-in-death-of-jewish-man-at-california-pro-palestine-rally/
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest of Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji, 50, in the death of Paul Kessler, a Jewish man, at an anti-Israel rally in Thousand Oaks, CA.
The police charged Alnaji with involuntary manslaughter. His bail is set at $1 million.
The department did not mention if authorities will add a hate crime charge
An autopsy ruled Kessler’s death a homicide. The medical examiner concluded a blunt-force head injury killed Kessler.
People on the scene claimed that Alnaji, a computer science professor at Ventura County Community College, hit Kessler with a megaphone:
Leftism-tweet-7November2023-pro-Palestine protester has been arrested after killing
BREAKING: A pro-Palestine protester has been arrested after killing a 65 year old Jewish man by hitting him over the head with a megaphone during a verbal altercation in the Thousand Oaks area of LA.
The man suffered from a brain hemorrhage as a result & succumbed to his injuries.
Leftism-tweet-7November2023-pro-Palestine protester has been arrested after killing
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Citing Jew-hatred, Jewish families seek transfers out of Oakland school district
At least 30 Jewish families had their transfer requests approved to leave the Oakland Unified School District, per media reports.
Jessamyn Dodd https://www.jns.org/citing-jew-hatred-jewish-families-seek-transfers-out-of-oakland-school-district/
(January 18, 2024 / JNS) On Jan. 16, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced a Title VI investigation of alleged “discrimination involving shared ancestry” at the Oakland Unified School District, which consists of about 34,000 students and nearly 2,300 teachers at 80 schools in Oakland, Calif.
The department doesn’t specify the nature of the discrimination. But a few days beforehand, J. The Jewish News of Northern California reported that at least 30 Jewish families had transfer requests approved between October and Dec. 19 to leave the Oakland Unified School District “specifically due to issues related to the Israel-Hamas war,” according to John Sasaki, the district’s communications director.
“I just felt that there wasn’t a path forward for Jewish families, because I had reached out to OUSD and asked them to have a conversation about how they were going to keep Jewish families feeling safe and included,” a parent named Rebecca told CBS News Bay Area.
“When there were lesson plans that were being taught that said, ‘Draw the Zionist bully,’ or ‘I for Intifada, J is for Jesus.’ And to me, it felt like—honestly—we were being targeted and singled out and alienated,” she added in the interview.
A catalyst for the exodus of Jewish families, reportedly, was a “teach-in” of the Oakland Education Association, a teachers union, that drew dozens of teachers. The union encouraged using pro-Palestinian lesson plans about the war in Gaza, including a coloring book for elementary-school students that states: “A group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land, so they stole it by force and hurt many people.”
The parents reportedly felt it was important to transfer their children out of the school district mid-year, despite the inconvenience, to protect their kids. Some were reportedly unable to do so, as other districts were at capacity.
JNS contacted the Oakland Unified School District for a statement but did not receive a response by publication time.
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Even before Oct. 7, Jewish groups struggled with security issues, burnout
A survey of more than 18,000 employees and CEOs puts forth ideas on how to keep Jewish employees energized and engaged.
DAVID SWINDLE https://www.jns.org/even-before-oct-7-jewish-groups-struggled-with-security-issues-burnout/
(January 4, 2024 / JNS) Leading Edge released its report “The State of the Jewish Workplace 2023” based on data from 18,212 employees and 304 CEOs at 327 organizations. The information comes from a May 2023 survey.
The results of the survey—the largest of its kind researching Jewish organizations—offered five conclusions presented by Leading Edge
First, the organization urged increased security, given that 14% of employees in May reported not feeling safe. Leading Edge pointed out that post-Oct. 7 polls showed that 70% of American Jews now feel less safe. The survey also found a link between workers feeling a sense of belonging and their on-the-job performance.
The research also revealed that organizations’ managers also needed more support. Leading Edge also reported that 66% of employees felt that employee well-being was a priority at their organization, a number below that of the average employer. Leading Edge urged an improvement here to reduce burnout, which it described as a “crisis.”
The report also found that the primary problem with employee engagement was a lack of confidence in organizational leadership—an issue that could be relieved with greater dialogue between workers and their bosses.
“Check in frequently with your team about their workloads and well-being. You can do that with employee surveys, conversations in one-on-one meetings, and other ways of checking in,” Gali Cooks, the president and CEO of Leading Edge, told JNS. “Set aside frequent, official times to ask for help. Ask in every weekly all-staff meeting if anyone has a project they need support on.”
Cooks urged for the occasional organization-wide shutdown, saying: “Giving all employees the chance to be ‘offline’ at the same time gives everyone permission to truly shut down and recharge, and allows executives to model the behavior for everyone. Plus, when everyone is out of the office, no one returns to a full inbox or a sense of missing out on key meetings.”
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Background: Remember Germany and look around you.
Brownshirt Clouds
1932: The Jewish ‘grape vine’ has information that the Brown Shirt’s are already getting military training and will soon be getting firearms as well…
Yaakov Bar Nahman Posted on 16April2023 https://breslev.com/365103/
Meanwhile on a fine afternoon in the autumn of 1932 in grand Vienna, the city of the Blue Danube, the Waltz, Kneissl skis, delicious cakes made more of whipped cream and butter than flour —
“Moshe Paul, look at you!” his mother shouted, “Just look at you, bruised, dirty, your shirt torn. You and your rowdy friends got into another silly fight?”
“Boys will be boys Mama.”
“Go clean yourself up and change your clothes. You and your friends are 17 years old already. When will you boys calm down?”
“Yes Mama I’ll go clean up. Sorry I cause you grief. We didn’t look for this one. A gang of thugs from the third quarter came over and beat up cousin Rudolf Klinger and Bobbi Levi, and stole their bicycles. We went to rescue them. You know that the police won’t do anything to help Jews or catch those thugs.”
“Nu, fine but why are you always involved in such things?”
“Oh, Mama, you know I care about my fellow Jews. Also we have so many cousins that almost every attack by neighborhood gangs involves at least one of them. Really Momma can I let family get hurt and stand by doing nothing?”
“Nu fine what can I say? Go wash up and come down for dinner.” “Martha, please bring a clean set of clothes to the bath for our knight in shining armor. Ernst, hot water for his bath, please.”
Moshe Paul climbed the oak staircase with the carved cherry wood banister and went to the bath. There Ernst was already preparing the bath. They chatted while waiting for the water boiler to heat enough for the bath, and for Martha to bring fresh clothes.
“Master Paul”, said the servant Ernst, “You and your friends must be more careful.”
“Why do you say that Ernst?”
“You know the servants ‘grape vine’. Before you came home I already knew about the fight you and your buddies were in today. And I know about your group and what you do. But don’t worry, as you see we have not told your mother, Frau Hermina.”
“Good, thank you. Thank God she believed my story too. Well it is at least half truth. I wouldn’t want Mama to know that I am in the Yuden Bundt. It will likely soon come a day that it would be dangerous for her to know.” Silently he thought to himself, ‘and not just a member but an officer and secret weapons maker, and whenever Ze’eiv comes to Vienna I am his body guard.’
Ze’ev Vladamir Jabotinski, was a controversial man of vision, a man with guts. Early on he saw the oncoming danger to European Jewry that would come from that little Austrian madman who gained power in Germany. Ze’eiv wanted to Jews to get out and to be ready to fight for their survival. The Vienna Yuden Bundt crew was operating by his inspiration and guidance. They were the youths of the Herut Movement.
Paul Feldman, Stephan Goldschmidt, Moti Klinger, Aharon Glick, Dudi Shmerler and Moshe Paul were the core of the defense crew in their neighborhood and in the high school.
Paul Feldman was later during war to escape to the U.S.A. to become a heavyweight wrestling champion.
“You know Ernst, that in a few months I will be eligible to go to the army to get military training. It will serve us well to fight better against those who seek to harm us.”
“Yes, master Paul. Yet even so, I tell you that you and your friends must be careful. The ‘grape vine’ brings us information from the Brown Shirt’s side as well. They are already getting military training and will soon be getting firearms as well. On top of that, in the police they have more and more sympathizers. The police soon will not only refuse to help Jews against the Nazi Youth gangs, but will help those gangs against you. In case you haven’t heard any news lately, there is growing fear that the Anschluss will hit Austria soon, and there is great effort to infiltrate the police force and army command with their sympathizers.”
“Thank you Ernst, though Ze’ev has already warned us about the approaching take over by the Anschluss. He has ordered us that the day Austria falls to the Nazis we are to leave immediately. By the way that reminds me, I need you to buy me some items for survival, a hunting knife etc. I will give you a list and the money.”
“As you wish young master. Well the bath is ready and here are your clean clothes. Wash up quickly and I’ll clean up the bath room when you’re done. Your mother is waiting for you with dinner. Oh and here is the bottle of iodine for your scrapes if you wish.”
After the hot bath, Moshe now refreshed and polished descended the decorative stair case and entered the posh dining room. His mother and the kitchen servant were awaiting him.
“Mama, here I am, sparkling clean. What a wonderful smelling gulash (stew). You are indeed a kitchen marvel, God bless you. You can teach our cooks their profession.”
“Thank you Mosheleh, now sit down and eat please.”
“Mama has Papa returned from his sales tour yet?”
“Not yet. This tour is a little longer since he’s going through Yugoslavia as well. He’s using the trip as a way to get to visit with his big brother Layish too.”
“Uncle Layish?! Oh I haven’t seen him in a long time. Pity Papa didn’t take me too. I love visits with him. I remember him still wearing the turban and long cloaks like our previous generations. I remember when I was six and Papa took me to visit uncle’s home in Yugoslavia seeing him fire his rifle while standing on horseback. Not only shooting, but hitting bullseye of the target while stepping from one horse’s back to another with both horses running.
He’s a master swordsman too. Mama did you know that he is a super horseman & rifleman as well? Well at least he came to visit here now and then and sent his sons sometimes.”
Pondering to himself he recalled the training sessions in the woods, learning the ancient martial arts system used by King David and his brethren in the Tribe of Judah. “Ben Teimah … light as an eagle … audacious as a panther …” The system served him well against the Brown Shirts and would yet serve him well later in life too.
“Oh yes Layish is indeed a dashing fellow. You know Moshe, you do look a lot like him too.”
Rally of Hitler youth
Photo above: Rally of Hitler youth
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JerusalemCats Comments: Remember the Democrats hate the Jews and Israel
Protester burn Israeli flag outside DNC, Byron Tau/ Wall Street Journal
White House Sanctions Israeli Settlers For 1st Time Since Clinton Administration
by Tyler Durden, 06December2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/white-house-sanction-israeli-settlers-1st-time-clinton-administration
The Biden administration is moving to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians, which will involve banning them from traveling to the United States.
Fresh Axios reporting on Tuesday has cited government officials who specify that multiple dozens of known Israeli settlers will be impacted by the visa ban, expected to be implemented by the State Department.
The US government has not sanctioned Israeli settlers going all the way back to the Clinton administration, but Washington has consistently condemned settler expansion in the West Bank, at least as far as public policy and rhetoric goes.
Gaza sources have said the death toll in the Strip has reportedly surpassed 15,200. Meanwhile the White House has come under increased international pressure to impose limits on Israel’s military operations as well as usage of US-supplied bombs.
The conflict centered on Gaza has received by far most international media attention, but there’s been a parallel war happening in the West Bank. Nablus, for example, last week was declared a closed military zone, and is under blockade by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for 55 days.
Regional sources say that since Oct.7 more than 250 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank – mostly in army raids and clashes with Israeli security forces, but also as a result of settler violence.
Axios has noted that since the conflict’s start there’s been “a spike in the number of attacks by settlers against Palestinians.”
Two weeks ago the Biden administration circulated a memo to top State Department and other officials asking them to prepare action “against individuals or entities who directly or indirectly engaged in actions that threaten security or stability in the West Bank or take actions that intimidate civilians in the West Bank or actions that significantly obstruct, disrupt or prevent efforts to achieve a two-state solution.”
Abdelrahman Badawy-tweeet-5December2023-NY Times Antisemitic Propaganda
Abdelrahman Badawy-tweeet-5December2023-NY Times Antisemitic Propaganda
European countries like France are also said to be readying sanctions against settlers. European leaders have long been more vocal in highlighting the problem.
Since the Hamas terror raids which kicked off the Gaza war, individual Israeli citizens have sought to obtain assault rifles in droves. This has sparked concerns over US small arms being used by hardline Jewish settlers to attack Palestinians. Often it’s for the sake of removing entire West Bank families from their land or olive groves.
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Victory is more important than US support
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers must remember that Israel is not an American vassal state.
Caroline B. Glick
https://www.jns.org/victory-is-more-important-than-us-support/
(January 10, 2024 / JNS) At his press conference Tuesday evening, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken showed that contrary to popular belief, the Biden administration is not Israel’s ally. It is the greatest obstacle to Israel’s victory.
Blinken began his remarks by drawing a moral equivalence between the suffering of Israeli hostages and their families and that of the Palestinians in Gaza. The Palestinians in Gaza, who overwhelmingly support Hamas, are just as innocent as the hostages, Blinken insisted.
Blinken said nothing about the torture, rape, mutilation and deliberate starvation of the hostages carried out by Hamas terrorists and its civilian accomplices alike. Instead, Blinken spoke of the “acute food insecurity,” that Gazans suffer from—and blamed that “acute food insecurity” on Israel.
“Israel needs to do everything it can to remove any obstacles from [aid] crossing to…Gaza. Improving deconfliction procedures to ensure that the aid can move safely and securely is a critical part of that,” he said.
The body responsible for distributing “humanitarian aid” in Gaza today is the United Nations, through UNRWA. Blinken ignored completely the documented fact that thousands of UNRWA employees posted fulsome praise for the Oct. 7 slaughter on social media. He ignored the overwhelming evidence that UNRWA schools and clinics are Hamas military bases. He ignored that UNRWA employees have been credibly accused of holding Israeli hostages and deliberately starving them. And he ignored that UNRWA employees, including all of its regional directors in Gaza, have been credibly accused of being Hamas terrorists themselves.
Burying his head deep in the sand, Blinken cooed, “The United Nations is playing an indispensable role in addressing the immense humanitarian needs in Gaza. There is simply no alternative.
“UN personnel…in Gaza are demonstrating extraordinary courage by continuing to provide lifesaving services in what are extremely challenging conditions.”
Israel, he demanded, must join the United States in giving the United Nations its “full support.”
As for Israel’s military campaign to wipe out Hamas, Blinken said that military operations must take no toll on civilians, even if that means that Israel will lose the war.
“We know that facing an enemy that embeds itself among civilians—who hides in and fires from schools, from hospitals—makes this incredibly challenging. But the daily toll on civilians in Gaza, particularly on children, is far too high,” said Blinken.
The only way to separate the civilians from the terrorists and so protect them is by permitting them to leave Gaza, just as 6 million Ukrainians left their country since the Russian invasion.
Gazans are so eager to leave that the Guardian reported they are paying $10,000 to middlemen to bribe Egyptian officials to let them leave. But the United States will have none of it.
“The United States unequivocally rejects any proposals advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza,” said Blinken with a scowl.
Not only must Israel force the Palestinians to stay in Gaza and care for them, Israel must allow them to return to northern Gaza, thus subverting Israel’s main sustained operational achievement since the ground operation began.
“In today’s meetings” with Israeli leaders, Blinken said, “I was also crystal clear: Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow.”
The only way for the now abandoned Israeli towns and villages bordering Gaza to be rebuilt and for their surviving residents to return safely is to block Hamas from rebuilding its terror infrastructure, including its forces in northern Gaza.
Keeping that area unpopulated, or lightly populated, for the foreseeable future is a military imperative.
After demanding that Israel permit Hamas to survive and regroup in Gaza, Blinken moved to the northern front against Hezbollah. There too, the United States demands that Israel lose.
“As I told the war cabinet and other senior officials, the United States stands with Israel in ensuring its northern border is secure. We’re fully committed to working with Israel to find a diplomatic solution that avoids escalation and allows families to return to their homes, to live security in northern Israel and also in southern Lebanon,” he said.
The problem is that the “diplomatic solution,” the United States proposes will make it impossible for Israel to secure its northern border or permit the 80,000 civilians that were forced to flee their homes along to border to return to their homes.
Blinken and the administration are pushing for a deal that will see no decrease in Hezbollah’s forces trained to invade Israel and commit genocide. Their deal will see no decrease in Hezbollah’s missile and drone arsenal, which are capable of destroying strategic targets and civilian populations throughout Israel.
The administration’s “diplomatic solution” requires Israel to surrender sovereign territory to Hezbollah in exchange for the removal of Hezbollah forces from the border area.
There are two problems with the plan. First, it requires Israel to surrender its land to terrorists. And second, the only force capable of pushing Hezbollah away from the border is the Israel Defense Forces, a prospect the deal is geared towards blocking at all costs.
In other words, just as is the case with Gaza, U.S. policy is to enable Israel’s enemies to win strategic victories against Israel by forbidding Israel to defeat them on the battlefield.
Leaving aside the administration’s slavish commitment to establishing Iran as the regional hegemon by empowering the regime and its terror proxies, the expressed goal of the administration’s effort to induce an Israeli defeat is to establish a Palestinian state.
As the administration sees things, the main obstacle to this goal is Israel, and specifically, the Netanyahu government, which represents the people of Israel.
To push this obstacle aside, the administration is working to overthrow the Netanyahu government. On Sunday, CNN’s Jake Tapper reported that an administration official told him that Netanyahu has to choose between his coalition partners from the nationalist Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, respectively, and his ties to President Biden and the United States.
In other words, Netanyahu needs to choose between the Israeli public, which elected him to office as the head of a right-religious governing coalition, and Washington, which rejects the will of the Israeli people.
During his visit Tuesday, Blinken took the unprecedented step of meeting privately with Minister Benny Gantz and Knesset member Gadi Eisenkot. In the wake of the Oct. 7 invasion, Gantz and Eisenkot brought their leftist opposition party into the government to form an emergency unity coalition. The administration has been all but explicit about its intention to use these men and their party to overthrow the Netanyahu government.
Immediately after their meeting, reports began to stream in that Gantz’s inclination to leave the government is growing. Blinken and the administration see two scenarios for Gantz to seize power. Either Gantz can incite a revolt in Likud that can lead to Netanyahu’s ouster and the formation of an alternative government led by Gantz in the current Knesset; or by working with the administration, Gantz can force Netanyahu to accept pro-Palestinian policies that will compel Smotrich and Ben-Gvir to bolt the government. If they leave and Gantz remains in the coalition, Netanyahu will become completely dependent on Gantz to remain in power.
Under both scenarios, the administration believes that it will be in a position to force Israel to crown the terrorist Fatah-led Palestinian Authority as the new leader of Gaza. That in turn will set the stage for a massive pressure campaign to coerce the Gantz-controlled government to make massive strategic concessions to the P.A. in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem that will facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Blinken’s statements on the topic were nearly bereft of diplomatic niceties.
“As I told the prime minister, every [Arab] partner that I met on this trip said that they’re ready to support a lasting solution that ends the long-running cycle of violence and ensures Israel’s security. But they underscored that this can only come through a regional approach that includes a pathway to a Palestinian state,” he said.
“To make this possible, Israel must be a partner to Palestinian leaders who are willing to lead their people in living side by side in peace with Israel and as neighbors,” he continued, adding, “and Israel must…stop taking steps that undercut Palestinians’ ability to govern themselves effectively.”
Doubling down on his practice of slandering Israelis as the moral equivalents of terrorists, Blinken then libeled the half million Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria as well as IDF forces operating in these areas.
“Extremist settler violence carried out with impunity, settlement expansion, demolitions, evictions all make it harder, not easier, for Israel to achieve lasting peace and security,” he said.
Finally, echoing Tapper’s report, Blinken took a shot at Israel’s leadership, stating that, “If Israel wants its Arab neighbors to make the tough decisions necessary to help ensure its lasting security, Israeli leaders will have to make hard decisions themselves.”
Blinken made his remarks during the primetime news hour. Before he spoke, commentators from left to right insisted that Blinken is a friend and an ally in Israel’s war. After his diatribe, they sheepishly changed their tune.
Blinken, they admitted, presented demands that would foment Israel’s defeat. The only way for Israel to rout its enemies and enable its citizens to return to their homes in southern and northern Israel is to do precisely the opposite of what the United State demands. Israel must end the farce of “humanitarian assistance” to Gaza. It must stop providing electricity and fuel to Gaza. It must fully control the distribution of food and water to the population. It must block the return of the population to northern Gaza. And it must open the Egyptian border with Gaza to permit the Gazans to leave or permit them to exit through Israel.
As for Hezbollah, the government must stop participating in the destructive farce of U.S. diplomacy. Instead, Israel should strike missile stores and terrorist barracks and be prepared to carry out a ground operation in the immediate term.
Israel must defeat Hezbollah. It is the only way Israelis in northern communities will be able to live safely in their homes.
If the United States retaliates by placing a weapons embargo on Israel, then Israel must make do with what it has and what it can produce. Use of imprecise missiles will expand collateral damage, but it will also win the war faster at less risk to IDF soldiers.
Since entering office, the Biden administration has treated Israel with colonialist contempt. Rather than respect Israel as an independent ally, Biden and his aides have acted like imperial overlords barking orders at a backwater, troublesome province.
Despite the pressure, Netanyahu and his ministers must remember that Israel is not a vassal state. We are a successful regional power. It is Israeli power, not U.S. charity that has sustained us to date. And it is Israeli power, not U.S. largesse that will bring us victory in this war for our survival. If forced to choose between support from Washington and victory, the choice is an easy one.
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Jews In Name Only promoting Antisemitism
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-17November2023-JINOs-Jewish activists
OK, so “Jewish Voice for Peace” and “IfNotNow” have been shutting down federal buildings, major bridges, and major commuter hubs, with banners and T-Shirts and signs with “JEWS SAY CEASEFIRE NOW!” printed.
And some media is referring to them as “Jewish activists” even though they represent no one in the Jewish community besides themselves.
But think about it: average working people, who don’t have the privilege these pseudo-Jews have to spend all day protesting, just want to get to their work or home to his or her family. Who’s stopping them? All these jerks with big signs claiming they are JEWS.
Not only are these self-entitled jerks directly promoting antisemitism with their “anti-Zionist” rhetoric, they are potentially causing ordinary Americans to hate Jews because they see these “Jews” disrupting their lives for a cause most don’t care about.
These progressive “Jews” are not only antisemites. They are actively choosing to piss normal people off as Jews.
This is what is known in real Judaism as a “chilul Hashem” and there are very few sins that are worse than this.
Elder of Ziyon-tweet-17November2023-JINOs-Jewish activists
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Denial of Hamas’ October 7 massacre spreads in US
‘False flag attack’: Washington Post reports that US groups saying Israel staged attack to justify ‘genocide’ in Gaza grow on social media despite ample proof of Hamas’ atrocities
Ynet| 22January2024 | https://www.ynetnews.com/article/syxgwasy6
A U.S.-based news outlet The Washington Post reported Sunday on a disturbing phenomenon that is gaining momentum: the denial of the massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7. The newspaper said despite numerous pieces of evidence indicating that Hamas committed these horrible acts, including footage captured by the terrorists themselves, denial continues to spread.
Pro-Palestinian protest in New York
(Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
According to The Washington Post, the number of massacre deniers in the United States is currently small, but growing. Some claim the IDF carried out the massacre to “justify genocide in Gaza,” while others believe some hostages were kidnapped by Israel. Some are even confident that the United States is behind the attack.
These false narratives have circulated on social media, and users on platforms like TikTok and Reddit are already blaming Israel for a “false flag” attack – a staged attack designed to justify a harsh retaliatory action.
This phenomenon is troubling Jewish leaders and researchers who see a connection between it and Holocaust denial. They also identify similarities between the denial of the massacre and conspiracy theories with antisemitic foundations, including supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
In The Washington Post article, the news outlet shared the story of Mirela Monte, a real estate agent and holistic healer from South Carolina, who was shocked when she first heard about the October 7 massacre.
She continued to read more about it on Uncensored Truths, a Telegram group with 2,958 members focusing on international news and “supposed perils” related to vaccinations. According to posts in the group, Israel stood behind the attack.
Pro-Palestinian protest in New York
(Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
Now, Monte is convinced that the massacre is a “false flag” attack by Israel – carried out with American assistance – to justify “genocide” in Gaza. Monte called Israel “pure evil.”
The false narrative according to which “Israel murdered their own people on October 7,” isn’t only growing online but is also present in anti-Israel demonstrations and protests where posters of Israeli hostages were hung in London, Chicago and other cities.
Following Hamas’ attack, Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, claimed the terrorist organization didn’t kill Israeli civilians, saying it was “Israeli propaganda.” Some Reddit users are convinced he’s telling the truth.
“So basically the Hamas attack was a false flag for Israel to occupy Gaza and kill Palestinians. Expected behavior from Nazi wannabes.'” wrote one user in r/LateStageCapitalism, a left-wing forum on Reddit.
Pro-Palestinian protest in New York
(Photo: AP)
This claim can also be seen on extreme news websites like Electronic Intifada and GrayZone, where it was written that most Israeli victims were killed by operations carried out by the IDF, and not Hamas. According to The Washington Post, it’s not only extreme left-leaning individuals who blame Israel for killing its civilians, but also extreme right-wingers and Holocaust deniers.
Holocaust denial, the American newspaper wrote, is gaining momentum among American youths. According to a survey by The Economist and YouGov conducted in early December 2023, one in five Americans under the age of 30 agrees with the statement that the “Holocaust is a myth.” More than a fifth of respondents in the survey believe the data published about the Holocaust are exaggerated.
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Israel’s Response To October 7 Massacre Triggers Virulent Antisemitic Pro-Hamas Demonstrations Across Europe
UK media, politicians slam ‘far-right’ for disrupting London’s ‘pro-Palestinian’ demonstration.
Posted by Vijeta Uniyal 12November2023 https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/11/israels-response-to-october-7-massacre-triggers-virulent-antisemitic-pro-hamas-demonstrations-across-europe/
Pro-Hamas demonstration-UK-Germany-Europe
Israel’s counter-terrorism operation in Gaza triggered angry pro-Hamas demonstrations in London, Berlin, Brussels and other European cities. Tens and thousands of largely immigrant Muslims turned out for anti-Israel rallies, marked with violent clashes and antisemitic incidents.
Islamist and pro-jihad demonstrators are joined by useful idiots from the European Left, who see terror-supporting Palestinians as allies in their struggle for Utopian Socialism.
These ‘pro-Palestinian’ rallies are accompanied with antisemitic attacks on Europe’s tiny and dwindling Jewish population “The public prosecutor’s office is investigating the attempted arson attack on a Jewish community in Berlin,” German state TV ARD reported recently. “Since Hamas’ attack on Israel, more than 200 antisemitic cases have been registered in Germany.”
Turning Point UK-tweet-11November2023-Pro-Palestine protestors attack man
Pro-Palestine protestors attack man holding up “Hamas is ISIS” sign in London.
Isn’t it interesting that at all these “ceasefire” protests they never condemn the terrorist group Hamas.
In fact whenever someone criticises Hamas they react violently.
Turning Point UK-tweet-11November2023-Pro-Palestine protestors attack man
In London, hundreds and thousands of pro-Hamas marchers on Saturday were confronted by English nationalists, who wanted to prevent them from desecrating British monuments and war memorials as their anti-Israel rally coincided with Armistice Day, marking the end of the WWI.
The UK media and politicians condemned ‘far-right’ demonstrators for guarding national symbols. “Far-right protesters repeatedly tried to ambush pro-Palestinian supporters on a huge march across central London,” The Times of London reported Saturday.
Oli London-tweet-11November2023-Police surround British men carrying the British flag
Police surround British men carrying the British flag during Remembrance Day in London.
Police officers have been repeatedly targeting those who carry the British flag whilst allowing those carrying the Hamas flag and chanting hate to march freely.
Oli London-tweet-11November2023-Police surround British men carrying the British flag
The mainstream media blamed the ‘far-right’ for disrupting the pro-Hamas demonstration. “More than 300,000 people gathered in London for a pro-Palestinian march as police arrested dozens of mainly far-right counter-protesters seeking to disrupt what had turned into a hot political issue,” the Bloomberg reported.
Emily Schrader-tweet-11November2023-Hamas supporter in London
Hamas supporter in London:
“Hitler knew how to deal with these people”
Emily-Schrader-tweet-11November2023-Hamas-supporter-in-London
Ahead of Saturday’s pro-Hamas march, the London police apparently remove the Union Jacks from national war memorial. The Daily Mail (UK) reported November 5:
Rɪᴄʜᴀʀᴅ Kᴇᴍᴘ ⋁-tweet-11November2023-British government minister attempted murder by Hamas
Without the bravery of the police a senior British government minister would have been murdered by Hamas-supporting thugs on the streets of London today.
Rɪᴄʜᴀʀᴅ Kᴇᴍᴘ ⋁-tweet-11November2023-British government minister attempted murder by Hamas
Uncontrolled mass-migration from the Middle East and Muslim-majority North Africa, has converted major European cities into strongholds for Islamic radicalism. Israel’s anti-terror offensive in Gaza gave many jihad-supporters an opportunity to come out in full force.
“Several thousand people took part in a demonstration in Dublin city centre in support of Palestine today,” Irish state broadcaster RTÉ reported. “Around 1,500 people attended the march in Cork city in support of Palestine.”
Similar “peaceful” pro-Hamas demonstration took place in the Belgian capital of Brussels. The France24 TV channel reported:
Berlin: Pro-Hamas mob angered by Israel flag; Berlin state bans antisemitic “From the River to the Sea” slogan
In Berlin, a mob of Hamas supporters got enraged when a resident waved an Israeli flag from his apartment. A video clip showed demonstrators kicking the person’s door and shouting threats at him.
“Residents waved an Israeli flag,” German weekly Der Fokus reported Saturday. “This angered the Demonstrators, who booed and screamed.” According to the magazine, “one of the Israel-haters reportedly broke into the house. Another video shows an unknown person kicking the residential apartment’s front door.”
But there is still some silver lining despite this dark pro-jihad cloud over Germany. Berlin reportedly became the first German state to ban the antisemitic “From the River to the Sea” slogan. “Berlin appears to be the only one of the 16 German federal states to outlaw the chant ”From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” which has often been heard at mass rallies in the capital city. The criminal penalty for incitement to hate can be a prison term or a fine,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Friday.
ZOKA-tweet-12November2023-Palestinian and Hamas supporters today in Germany tried to break in jew apartment
Palestinian and Hamas supporters today in Germany tried to break in jew apartment after he showed them Israel flag.
How is Germany allowing rise of antisemitism again? I don’t get it. This isn’t diversity. It is pure hate.
ZOKA-tweet-12November2023-Palestinian and Hamas supporters today in Germany tried to break in jew apartment
Pro-Israel demonstrations are a rare thing in German cities nowadays. Every pro-Israel gathering is met with a much larger pro-Hamas mob.
Here is a video I myself took on October 19 in the Germany city of Bonn, showing a few dozen of us (pro-Israel demonstrators) surrounded by 600 Hamas supporters screaming Allahu Akbar and trying to shout us down. Only a strong police presence prevented them from getting into a hitting-distance from us.
vijeta uniyal-tweet-19October2023-Israel supporters surrounded by hundreds of angry pro-Hamas demonstrators
A few dozen Israel supporters surrounded by hundreds of angry pro-Hamas demonstrators. Police protecting us. Germany 2023
vijeta uniyal-tweet-19October2023-Israel supporters surrounded by hundreds of angry pro-Hamas demonstrators
Protester Wraps Palestinian Flag Around World War I Memorial In London, U.K., On Armistice Day
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Britain is the new capital of anti-Israel hate
As their country unites in the face of terrorist evil, ours is exposing a nasty and divided underbelly
Douglas Murray 16 November 2023 • https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/16/britain-new-capital-anti-israel-hate/
London’s marching season Anti-Israel protestors head for the US embassy in Vauxhall
London’s marching season: Anti-Israel protestors head for the US embassy in Vauxhall
I have spent recent weeks in Israel, and goodness knows this is a country that has plenty of challenges. But one question I have been asked a lot by an alarmingly wide array of Israelis is: “What happened to Britain?”
Generally, I get protective after this question, and reassure people that Britain is still Britain and that our core of decency remains as it always was. But the response is always the same: “But these marches?” Now perhaps they will say “… and the vote?”
It amazes most Israelis – as it amazes me – that Britain has seen some of the worst scenes of all the anti-Israel marches across the world. And I say “anti-Israel” for a reason. The first protests in London happened before Israel had even begun its military response to October 7. Rallies were held within hours of the massacres. To most Israelis this is nearly unfeasible.
What other country would see 1,400 of its citizens slaughtered, 240 kidnapped and countless more wounded for life, and not be allowed even a day to mourn? What other country, having suffered a set of atrocities hardly superseded in the whole history of violence wouldn’t get even one day of sympathy?
Only the Jewish state. And everybody in Israel knows as much. Pakistan is currently in the process of forcibly deporting two million Afghans. Nobody cares. Bashar al-Assad is in his twelfth year of killing Muslims in Syria and the world’s cameras turned away long ago. Only Israel, when involved in any military action, or even when it is simply on the receiving end of extreme violence, cannot rely even on the world’s understanding.
And it is in this light that Israel notices the British politicians calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The ignorance of a large number of figures in British political life, from Humza Yousaf to Jess Phillips, can hardly be exaggerated. As it happens, a ceasefire of a kind existed in Gaza. Israel withdrew from Gaza unilaterally, and very painfully, in 2005 – removing every Jew from the strip. They handed over the land and got rockets in return.
Everyone around the Gaza border and across wider Israel was used to running from rockets to the shelters. But despite various exchanges over the years, nobody ever foresaw the battalion-sized terrorist attack of October 7. It was Hamas who broke what ceasefire existed that day when its legions gunned down young people at a music festival, went door to door in small communities, and burned people alive in their homes.
I have been to the sites of many of these massacres. I passed by one – the utterly destroyed kibbutz of Be’eri – earlier this week as I went into Gaza. It is a reminder of a dream that once was. Many of the residents of kibbutzim such as Be’eri were peace activists. I have seen with my own eyes the peacenik literature that lies among the blood stains and looted remains of their houses. Their dream died with them on October 7. Not one Israeli believes they can now live with Hamas – a group whose leaders say they want to repeat the October 7 time and again.
To call for a ceasefire now shows an astonishing lack of military understanding but also a horrific lack of decency. I have watched the Israeli Defence Force manage the evacuation of Gazans from the north of the strip to the south, so that the IDF can try to isolate Hamas and destroy them. It is a righteous mission, though one that is likely to prove incredibly hard.
I have also met many of the parents of the children and others stolen into Gaza. They want their children back. Why has there been no mass movement of MPs – from Labour, say – demanding that there be no ceasefire until Hamas hand back the hostages? Such a move seems to have never been on the cards.
Anti-Israel Labour MPs and others only ever campaign and condemn when they attack Israel. Perhaps because they know that Hamas would never listen to them anyway. These MPs are internationalist eunuchs. But my, do they talk a big game. Especially while they whip along the sectarian politics, which are the real driver of the protests on our streets.
In my view, Israel can look after itself. Watching the unity of this nation at war assures me of that.
But as I watch hooligans clamber over our war memorials and statues and hold our city centres hostage, I wonder whether it isn’t Britain that is the one in real trouble here.
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They’re literally just hunting Jews on the streets of England.
Marina Medvin-tweet-18November2023-They’re literally just hunting Jews on the streets of England
They’re literally just hunting Jews on the streets of England.
From Harry’s Place
Marina Medvin-tweet-18November2023-They’re literally just hunting Jews on the streets of England
Amy Mek-tweet-18November2023-Islamized UK
Islamized UK
Muslim School Children march through the streets chanting the Islamic battle cry: “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar…”
Most popular name among those born in England in 2022 is Mohammed
Britain has the 3rd largest Muslim population in the EU, after France, then Germany
Notice the young sharia-compliant school girls wearing their Hijabs…
Hijab is supposed to prevent men from being tempted to sin by the appearance of women, right!?
So, what exactly is tempting about the body of little girl that needs to be covered?
Amy Mek-tweet-18November2023-Islamized UK
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London just canceled the Jews
Marina Medvin-tweet-29November2023-London just canceled the Jews
London can’t control its Islamist problem so they decided to take the easy way out and just canceled the Jews.
Marina Medvin-tweet-29November2023-London just canceled the Jews
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London is now a “no-go zone for Jews.”
The International Legal Forum – ILF-tweet-8March2024-London is now a ‘no-go zone for Jews.’
#London is now a “no-go zone for Jews.”
The International Legal Forum – ILF-tweet-8March2024-London is now a ‘no-go zone for Jews.’
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metpoliceuk-swastikas disturbing public order “depends on context”
Yad Vashem-tweet-31March2024-The Swastika is a symbol of evil cruelty and death
The Swastika was used to rouse and galvanize Nazi followers during the Holocaust; it terrified both the Nazis’ victims and the innocent bystanders of the world
The Swastika is a symbol of evil, cruelty and death
Emily Schrader-tweet-30March2024-swastikas disturbing public order depends on context
When the @metpoliceuk refuse to arrest Hamas supporters with a swastika sign today in London one officer told a girl that swastikas disturbing public order “depends on context”
If you’re holding a sign with a swastika at an anti-Israel march — this is blatantly antisemitic. Come on Met Police…this is pathetic.
#HamasAreTerrorists
Emily Schrader-tweet-30March2024-swastikas disturbing public order depends on context
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Let’s Come Back Home Again
Living Lchaim-tweet-7November2023-Let’s Come Back Home Again
We will come back home. 🫶🏻
Not sure who made this. It’s brilliant.
Living Lchaim-tweet-7November2023-Let’s Come Back Home Again
Time to COME HOME AGAIN…
Posted 3November2023 Abraham’s Legacy:
Am Yisrael, it’s time we stop chasing “their” cheers and instead awaken to our inner strength, unashamed of who we are, “Orr Lagoyim”. The time to return is NOW – Let’s COME BACK HOME AGAIN!
My greatest hope with this film is that it doesn’t simply inspire but rather that it inspire each of us to ACTION. It may seem impossible to drop everything and return back to our homeland, but isn’t that what we pray for day in and day out? The power to return is in our hands, we simply need to heed the wake up call of Hashem and make the journey; to head out on our very own “Lech Lecha”.
I do not own this footage or music – just did the edit. This message has been in my heart for several years and I hope it inspires you.
Song Rights: The Greatest Showman | “From Now On” Lyric Video | Fox Family Entertainment
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The Jews built #Israel 🇮🇱 from nothing!
Sami Alexis-tweet-20April2024-The Jews built Israel from nothing
The Jews built #Israel 🇮🇱 from nothing!
Sami Alexis-tweet-20April2024-The Jews built Israel from nothing
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Strengthening Olim in Times of Crisis
Nefesh B’Nefesh is staying focused on its responsibilities and unique capabilities committing our efforts to three main areas:
Relief for Olim in distress, support for our Lone Soldiers and their families, and recruitment and coordination of volunteer physicians to bolster Israel’s national health care system.
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Cleansing the World
Rabbi Shalom Arush Posted on 13November2023 https://breslev.com/video/cleansing-the-world/?_atscid=2_92797_86200982_4966760_0_Tawxttjaeucshh8uw
Miracles!! How many miracles – protection from missiles, teshuva, unity! This war is global and affects all Jews. Who will hold firm to emuna in Hashem? Hashem is ridding the world of evil and those who oppose Him. CRITICAL: Aliyah – come now to experience the miracles! Importance of daily teshuva in personal prayer.
Humanity-Howard Klineberg
Hillel Fuld-tweet-14February2024-Humanity-Howard Klineberg
“When we were led into the gas chamber, YOU said nothing.
When we were forcibly converted, YOU said nothing.
When we were thrown out of a country
just for being Jews, YOU said nothing.
When we now defend ourselves
all of a sudden, YOU have something to say.
How did we take our revenge
on the Germans for their Final Solution?
How did we take revenge
on the Spanish for their Inquisition?
How did we take revenge
on Islam for being Dhimmis?
How did we take revenge
on the lies of the Protocols of Zion?
We studied our Torah
We innovated in medicine
We innovated in defense systems
We innovated in technology
We innovated in agriculture
We made music
We wrote poetry
We made the desert bloom
We won Nobel prizes
We founded the movie industry
We financed democracy
We fulfilled the word of Hashem by becoming a light unto the Nations of the Earth.
So World, when you criticize us for defending our heritage and our ancestral homeland, we the Jews of the world do exactly what you did, we ignore you.
You have proven to us for the last 2,000 years that when the chips are down, you don’t care.
Now leave us alone and go sort out your own backyard whilst we continue our 5784-year-old mission, enhancing the world we share.”
– Howard Klineberg,
Hillel Fuld-tweet-14February2024-Humanity-Howard Klineberg
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My Lot in the Land of Life
This week, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Let’s be thankful for being able to live in Eretz Yisrael! The Land of Israel is stronger than all other mitzvot, and therefore it is important to always remember the greatness of living there!
Rabbi Shalom Arush Posted on 21November2023 https://breslev.com/4073222/
My Lot in the Land of Life by Rabbi Shalom Arush
Never Get Used to This!
The Torah warns us time and again not to get used to abundance. When a person gets used to abundance, he loses his ability to feel it; he loses any sense of gratitude. He doesn’t appreciate – and that is precisely the sin of “Yeshurun (Yisrael) grew fat and kicked” that leads to distance from Hashem to the point of doing avoda zara (worshiping false gods).
We have much good, much light, much chessed, much abundance in the Land of Israel. And, unfortunately, we became accustomed to it. We didn’t thank Hashem enough, and did not appreciate all this, and due to our sins, we were forced to learn to appreciate our existence here in the Holy Land the hard way.
The greatest chessed is the very fact that we are living in the Land of Israel!
This is not the place to bring all the amazing sayings of Chazal about the Land of Israel and its holiness.
So many generations yearned and prayed, cried and hoped to set foot on the land of Eretz Yisrael and to kiss it, and even just to be buried in it. The greatest rabbis endangered their lives to travel to this land. Hashem yitbarach had mercy on us and gave us the merit to live in the Holy Land, and to breathe the holy air, and to observe Torah and mitzvot here, including the mitzvot that are dependent on living here, and to visit the graves of our forefathers and ancient luminaries.
Tie-breaking Weapon
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Bender zt”l, who was one of the greatest of Breslev chassidim, conveyor of its message in the previous generation, would say to his disciples: “Avreichim! Test me on this one! Do your best to remember that you are in Eretz Yisrael and be happy about this fact – and you will feel a great positive influence on all your service of Hashem.”
That means that if Rabbi Nachman of Breslev said that all of one’s service of Hashem depends on a person always searching for and finding good points, merits, mitzvot – Rabbi Levi Yitzchak says that there is one special point that is a “tie-breaking weapon” – and that is the Land of Israel. In other words, the Land of Israel is not just one other mitzvah, but rather a super-mitzvah, a mitzvah so big and powerful that it is stronger than all other mitzvot, and therefore it is important for a person to remember at all times the greatness of the merit of being in the Land of Israel and to think of it as a huge asset.
This is very useful for our service of Hashem because we have a rule: Every mitzvah brings glow to a person according to his attitude, his appreciation, and his yearning for the mitzvah. The rule of “As water reflects the face shown to it, so does one man’s heart reciprocate another’s” is true for mitzvot as well. All the immense light of the mitzvah of living in the Land of Israel depends on our appreciating the mitzvah, loving the Land of Israel, and thanking Hashem for this gift, and on our never taking for granted the immense merit we have earned.
Win-Win
Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), too, “gains” from our residing in it. Eretz Yisrael glows only when the Jewish people live there. Rashi explains this in parashat Chayei Sarah.
In this parasha an amazing thing happens in the history of the Jewish People. Avraham Avinu purchases the first tract of land in Eretz Yisrael. “The Promised Land” is not just “on paper” anymore: it becomes a real property of the Jewish People.
Even before we were a Jewish People, we had a plot in Eretz Yisrael.
And after the transaction, the Torah says: “Vayakom – And Efron’s field rose”. (Bereishit 23:17) What does vayakom mean? How can a field rise? Says Rashi: “Tekuma haita lo: It rose in importance, for it passed from the hand of a commoner to the hand of a king.”
When Eretz Yisrael was in the hands of other nations it was actually in a state of falling; but when Eretz Yisrael passes into the hands of the Jewish People – that is the rising. Eretz Yisrael rises and brushes off the dirt, renewing itself as in times of old.
Rabbi Natan explains wondrous things in the parasha relating to the purchase of Me’arat HaMachpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron) according to the sod – the secrets of the Torah. He says that Efron had the aspects of afar – of dirt, of the Serpent, of sadness, and therefore the holy field of Me’arat HaMachpelah seemed dark and full of foreboding for him, and he didn’t have the merit to see the immense light and smell the fragrance of Gan Eden in this field.
The rectification of the trait of sadness is the trait of emuna (faith), as explained in the books of Rabbeinu. Avraham Avinu was the first of the believers, and therefore it was he who had to rectify the klipa of sadness of Efron and transfer the Land of Israel from being controlled by the klipa, to being controlled by kedusha – holiness.
And Eretz Yisrael itself was elevated, it had tekuma. Its holiness and light were revealed, and it became “the Land of Life”, as David Hamelech calls it. And therefore, the first act that Avraham Avinu performs in the land is to bury a righteous person in it. Because righteous people have the aspect of life; long life. Righteous people are considered to be alive even when they’re dead, and therefore immediately after buying a plot in the Land, it says about Avraham, “And Avraham was old, advanced in days (years),” for he merited a long life thanks to the holiness of Eretz Yisrael.
It is explained in several places in the books of Rabbi Nachman of Breslev that a long life doesn’t mean only living for many years, rather, that the days themselves should be long and full of Torah and tefilla, full of yir’at Shamayim (fear of Heaven) and love of Hashem.
Now we will go back to our piece of advice: never forget for a minute the extent of the merit, be joyful and thank Hashem endlessly.
No More Sleeping
It is clear that the focal point of this entire tragedy and terrible massacre [Editor: on Simchat Torah], and the whole difficult situation that the Jewish People finds itself in is the control over Eretz Yisrael. The cruel enemy – enemy of Hashem and enemy of the Jews – is willing to die for Eretz Yisrael. And our answer to that is to strengthen our connection with Eretz Yisrael, strengthen our emotional connection, our joy in the mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisrael.
And as I have said repeatedly since this terrible disaster occurred, we must pray with all our might and insist in our prayers to Hashem that we get the complete Ge’ula (Redemption) – nothing less. So too we must pray to Hashem ceaselessly and without compromise for Eretz Yisrael, that the entire land should be in the hands of the Jewish People, with no exceptions.
Unfortunately, the main parts of Eretz Yisrael – all the places where our holy forefathers lived, and all the holiest places are in the hands of the lowliest of the nations. The princes, sons of the queen, have been shunted off to the coastal plain, whereas the prime parts of the Land are being ruled by the children of the maidservant.
Holy Jews, we were not given this difficult situation in order to ask Hashem only for peace and quiet, so that we can go back to slumbering.
Hashem has shaken us and woken us up in such a painful way, so that we will truly wake up and not go back to sleep again.
And waking up means to rise and shout: We are asking for the complete Ge’ula, we are asking for the kingdom of Heaven, we are asking for the kingship of the House of David and not for any cheap substitute. And we want the Land of Israel in its entirely, and specifically our holy Temple in its full glory that precisely from this big crisis will be built speedily in our days, Amen.
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End the Shame
We don’t need Mashiach to come to solve our problems. We need Mashiach to come so that Hashem’s glory will be fully revealed and the desecration of His Name will end.
Rachel Avrahami | 11January2024 | https://breslev.com/4085308/
End the Shame by Rachel Avrahami
Since my last article on antisemitism, of course things are only getting scarier.
At some point, I realized that I was drowning in terror – but where was my emuna? If Hashem does everything for the best, then clearly this also must be the “darkness before the dawn,” or as Rabbi Arush puts it – the light of salvation that just hasn’t been revealed yet.
Clearly the 400%+ rise in Aliyah applications is a result of that fear (I actually wish that number was much higher based on Rabbi Arush’s warnings). I’ve spoken with Jews around the world who are starting to get closer to Hashem specifically through this tragedy. As Rabbi Arush said, “It’s forbidden to call it [Oct 7] ‘Black Shabbat’ – call it ‘White Shabbat’ because on that day, the light of repentance came down to this world!”
Even more than that, I realized that I can understand one of Rabbi Arush’s teachings about Mashiach a lot better now.
Some months ago, Rabbi Arush said, “What do we need Mashiach for? He is not coming for us or for our problems – there is the Law of Gratitude. Whatever suffering you have, do the Law – we don’t need Mashiach for our troubles.
“We need Mashiach because Hashem’s name is being desecrated and humiliated. Mashiach is coming for God’s Honor, not for us.”
Now I understand better the rampant antisemitism and the outrageous lies being spread about Jews, the IDF, and Israel. The Jews do represent God and a good portion of the world recognizes that, even if it’s subconsciously.
So, when the world has completely reversed the roles of the Jewish people and thinks that Israel i.e. JEWS are occupier-Nazis who are committing genocide – we have here a desecration of Hashem’s name of the worst kind.
The issue here is not what Israel is doing. The issue is that the hatred for Jews runs so deep. No matter how hard Israel tries to prove that these are just the usual blood libels (it’s just a modern twist on the “Jew killed a non-Jewish baby to use its blood in Passover matzah”) – the reality is that truth doesn’t matter when there is an agenda. The world and many people in it simply don’t want the truth. No matter what the circumstances, Jews are always to blame, and the current situation is no exception.
Herein lies the quintessential problem. The world does not recognize that goodness and morality come from the Jewish people – because we learned it from God Himself, Who is all good! Rather, the world thinks that the Jewish people are the evilest of all peoples! Evil incarnate! This thinking demonstrates complete psychopathic gaslighting role-reversal. This is the twisted, crooked thinking of so many people living on this planet!
Just a small example – We are the most righteous country, definitely human and imperfect but even in Gaza, the civilian death rate is 0.8%, compared to a global average of 4.5% and better than the US civilian death rate in Afghanistan! Rabbi Arush actually bemoaned and cried over this fact, because Jewish soldiers are dying to protect Gazan civilians. As Rabbi Arush put it, “The government is putting our boys in danger in order to protect our enemies.”
Another example – When the IDF did a military operation in Jenin to clear out terrorists a few months ago with ZERO civilian deaths, the UN Secretary General called it an illegal use of “excessive force.” Clearly then, any use of force is considered illegal or excessive if Jews are the ones wielding it. Every human on the planet is granted basic human rights, including the right of a country to strike offensively to defend its population. Self-defense is part of international law, and the US has been doing this recently with strikes in Syria to defend American troops. Clearly, Jews must not be humans with the basic right to defend themselves. I mean, what other country in the world even needs to have major politicians declare that Jews DO in fact, have a right to defend themselves?! Since when is it even a question? But clearly despite all the equal rights promises – Jews just don’t make the cut. We’re just not humans.
The truth is that in a certain respect, they are right. The Jews are called “the light unto the nations,” God’s “chosen people”, and a “priestly nation.” We ARE different, and we are supposed to be different. Even Hitler himself, his name should be erased, said “Conscience is a Jewish invention.” 1
Hitler continued: If one little Jewish boy survives without any Jewish education, with no synagogue and no Hebrew school, it [Judaism] is in his soul. Even if there had never been a synagogue or a Jewish school or an Old Testament, the Jewish spirit would still exist and exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning, and there is no Jew, not a single one, who does not personify it. 2
Sometimes an enemy can say it best.
Israel is going out of its way to prove its righteousness to the world, with little visible results. Jews are making Hashem’s name great by going to war, but with none of the typical war crimes that have been committed for centuries. The world is blaspheming God by saying that Israel is anyway doing all of that and worse. The world ignores the real act of genocide committed by Hamas against Israel and the captives, who are quite possibly near death in tunnels in Gaza. The massacre by Hamas was against all international laws. The hypocrisy and double standard are breathtaking.
I just don’t see any way out of this pit without Mashiach showing up and proving the world wrong. Mashiach will vindicate Hashem’s holy name. And THAT is why we want Mashiach to come as fast as possible!
It’s true that Rabbi Arush has been stressing the need to scream every day for Mashiach to come save us (watch the intro of The Geula is Ready! ) just like the Jews in Egypt did. Hashem immediately sent Moshe (Moses) after the Jews cried out from the oppression.
But what we should be screaming the most about is the terrible desecration of His name currently taking place.
If the purpose of creation is to learn emuna and recognize God – and that is true for every human on this planet, Jew and non-Jew – well, if this much of the world thinks what they do of emuna, God, and His people – we’re in big trouble.
So, scream for Hashem to not only save us, but most importantly, for God Himself to show up and prove Who is right – once and for all. And then the nations will recognize Him, and His name will be made great, and everyone will know that Hashem is good and will learn emuna – amen.
1 The complete quote: “The tablets of Mount Sinai have lost their validity. Conscience is a Jewish invention. Like circumcision it mutilates man…”. Published in Hitler Speaks (English translation of Gespräche mit Hitler) by Hermann Rauschning, p. 220, 1939.
***
Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.
Reader’s Comments:
1. Tamar
12January2024
Israel on trial – with tremendous international media coverage!
When this article went to press, the ICJ (International Court of Justice) began hearing South Africa’s case of genocide against Israel.
Such an unfounded accusation is a major chillul Hashem on a planet-wide scale!
How true is Harav’s call to cry out to Hashem for Mashiach to vindicate Hashem’s honor!
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Don’t threaten us with cutting off aid to give up our principles.
–
Netanel Worthy-tweet-19February2024-Don’t threaten us
“Don’t threaten us with cutting off aid to give up our principles. I’m not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”
-Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Senator Joe Biden, 1982
Netanel Worthy-tweet-19February2024-Don’t threaten us
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SOVEREIGNTY-logo https://www.ribonut.co.il/
74% of Israeli citizens oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state
womeningreen@womeningreen.org from E-Mail 25January2024
Ad that Haarestz doesnt want you to see 2024
An ad by the Sovereignty Movement with data from a survey that was conducted, stating that 74% of Israeli citizens oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state – was rejected for publication in the Ha’aretz newspaper. The Sovereignty Movement: “Ha’aretz is trying to hide from its readers the awakening of Israeli citizens”.
Also, according to the survey that was conducted by the Direct Polls Survey Institute for the conference organized by the Sovereignty Movement and the Yesha Council entitled “Wake-up call from Gaza – putting an End to the Two-States Paradigm”, a mere 20% of Israeli citizens support the idea of two states, and 6% responded with “no opinion” on the matter.
SEE: https://www.ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=861&lang=2
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SOVEREIGNTY-logo https://www.ribonut.co.il/
83% of Israeli citizens support total victory
Overwhelming support for encouraging emigration and against a Palestinian state – the survey
Meir elipur 12January2024 https://www.ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=858&lang=2
Here are the results of the survey presented by the Sovereignty Movement at the Lessons of the Gaza War Conference. The voice of the people is clear and unequivocal: no to a Palestinian state, yes to encouraging emigration of the Arabs from the Gaza Strip
49% of Israeli citizens support total victory and tell the US to “Go to Hell”.
33% of Israeli citizens support total victory and we need to talk to the US.
Sovereignty Movement Poll 10January2024-1
Sovereignty Movement Poll 10January2024-2
Sovereignty Movement Poll 10January2024-3
Sovereignty Movement Poll 10January2024-4
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SOVEREIGNTY-logo https://www.ribonut.co.il/
OPEN THE DOOR!
Meir elipur 16January2024 https://www.ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=860&lang=2
Minister of Intelligence Gila Gamliel laid out her plan for the day after the war at a conference organized by the Sovereignty Movement, in collaboration with the Yesha Council.
Sovereignty Movement Poll 10January2024-1
76% of Israeli citizens support voluntary emigration of the residents of the Gaza Strip to other countries
[JerusalemCats Comments: How about New York, London, Los Angeles, The Hague, San Francisco, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Vermont and so on 🇺🇸🐎, 🇪🇺]
To read the article in its entirety
Jerusalem Post Article by Atara Bec* January 15, 2024
The conference, titled “Lessons from Gaza – an end to the idea of two states,” held at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem last Thursday, focused mainly on opposition to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to a poll presented at the conference, in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, an overwhelming majority (74%) also said they were against a two-state solution; 20% were in favor, and 6%
had no opinion.
The poll, conducted by Direct Polls Ltd. for the Sovereignty Movement a day ahead of the conference, also asked: “Are you for or against voluntary transfer emigration of the residents of the Gaza Strip to other countries?” A clear majority – 76% – responded in favor; 16% were against, and 8% had no opinion.
Surprisingly, center-left voters from the Yesh Atid and National Unity parties, headed by Opposition leader Yair Lapid and Minister Benny Gantz respectively, responded similarly regarding the issue. Among the Yesh Atid voters, 61% were in favor of the emigration, 24% were against, and 15% had no opinion. Among those who voted for Gantz’s party, 71% were in favor, 18% were against, and 11% had no opinion.
*Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, a longtime supporter of sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria, addressed the conference on the issue of voluntary emigration.*
“Now is the time that we must try new solutions,” she told the audience. “It is clear that much has to change if any conceptions were proven wrong on the day of the pogrom of October 7.
“Every time Israel retreated from territory, it became a base for terror and bloodshed”
……
“Gaza has long been thought of as a problem without an answer. The greatest failure was the disengagement from Gaza,” she said. The State of Israel tried many solutions – enrichment, conflict management, and building high walls – in the hope of keeping the monsters of Hamas out of Israel. These have all failed.
“One of the issues on which my office has been working diligently is how to proceed the day after Hamas has been defeated and annihilated. We will still have about two million people, many of whom voted for Hamas and celebrated the massacre of innocent for men, women, and children. Gaza is a breeding ground for extremism… Gaza is a place devoid of hope, stolen by the genocidal terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.”
*‘Open the door’*
Gamliel then referred to a recent article in the Guardian (UK) that described the hopelessness of the Palestinians in Gaza. “These people are desperate, and the international community, which claims to care about the Palestinians, sits by idly and watches. This is an opportunity,” she declared.
“Unfortunately, for the last 75 years, UNRWA has done zero to help the Palestinian people even though it has an annual budget of well over one billion dollars,” she continued. “Instead of funneling money to rebuild Gaza or to the failed UNWRA, the international community can assist in the cost of humanitarian voluntary resettlement, helping the people of Gaza build new lives in their new host countries
“I will make it simple by stating it in three simple words: Open the door.
“I say to the international community: No one is pushing or forcing anybody out, but surely you can’t be indifferent to their suffering. Just open the door and let those who wish it to join the hundreds of thousands of Gazans who have already left voluntarily in the last few years…
“It is an obligation of leadership to propose solutions and not just circle back to the same tired ideas and cliches,” she concluded.
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The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies BESA https://besacenter.org/
The Occupation of Territory in War: A Diplomatic and Strategic Achievement for Israel
By Brig. Gen. (res.) Dr. Meir Finkel | 14February2024 | https://besacenter.org/the-occupation-of-territory-in-war-a-diplomatic-and-strategic-achievement-for-israel/
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,263, February 14, 2024
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The occupation and holding of territory, which used to be a central component of the IDF’s war concept at all levels, became almost irrelevant during Israel’s many years of fighting terrorism and guerrillas in Gaza and Lebanon. But there are three reasons why it is a big mistake to discount the value of conquered territory. First, the occupation by Israel of enemy territory (while evacuating the local population for its own protection) is considered by Israel’s enemies to be a painful loss, and the possession of territory can serve as a bargaining chip in political negotiations. Second, occupation offers the IDF an asymmetric advantage, as only it can occupy territory, clear it of the enemy, and protect it from counterattack. Third, after a long period of “wars of choice” in which Israel was the strong side, we have returned to the era of “wars of no choice” in which the occupation of territory has both internal and external legitimacy. These insights should be applied to any future war in Lebanon.
Until the 1980s, the occupation of territory and transfer of the war into enemy territory for the purpose of removing the threat of invasion into Israel were central components in the IDF’s perception of warfare. But combat against guerrilla warfare in the security zone in Lebanon, and against terror and guerrilla warfare in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, caused a shift in this perception. The holding of conquered territory that contained an enemy population prepared to conduct guerrilla warfare was perceived as a liability rather than an advantage.
The transition of enemy behavior to a pattern of stand-off bombardment of Israeli territory, and the development of an Israeli response of counter-fire and active defense implemented in limited “rounds” in Gaza, almost completely removed the occupation of territory from Israeli military and public discourse. This diminished the IDF’s focus on maintaining the military capability meant to implement occupation: the ground maneuver.
This trend can be seen in IDF strategic documents over the years. In the IDF Operations Concept document of Chief of Staff Dan Halutz (2006), for example, an emphasis was placed on developing the capability of operational-level fire against armored fighting vehicles as an alternative to the strategy of occupying territory when fighting enemy states. Occupation was perceived as an unacceptable burden because of the guerrilla warfare to which occupying IDF forces would be subjected.
The prolonged influence of the IDF’s experience in Lebanon is evident here. In the IDF Strategic Concept document of 2015, written almost a decade after the Second Lebanon War, a return to ground maneuver capability was stressed, with two components: the “focused maneuver” against key political and authoritative centers and the “distributed maneuver” against dispersed enemy artillery units and military infrastructures. However, occupying territory to be used as a diplomatic bargaining chip was not defined as an objective.
The Victory Concept authored by Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi had three pillars: long-range fire strikes, ground maneuver, and defense. With the ground maneuver emphasizing “neutralizing capabilities” – in other words, maneuvering for the purposes of destroying specific enemy assets: artillery, combatants, and military infrastructure, but not for the purpose of occupying territory.
Israel’s operations in Gaza clearly illustrate the IDF’s preference for stand-off fire and defense. The offensive maneuver was activated during Operation Protective Edge only to neutralize the threat of the attack tunnels. Ever since the Second Lebanon War, the IDF has immediately withdrawn from every territory it conquered, forfeiting any achievement provided by the occupation of territory. In all documents and operations, occupation was meant to neutralize artillery fire or tunnels but was not viewed as an objective unto itself.
This is a narrow view, as occupying territory serves multiple purposes on all levels of warfare. On the tactical level, it can be used to capture advantageous positions from the enemy. On the operational level, it can disrupt enemy formations. On the strategic level, the enemy’s capital can be occupied for the purpose of regime change. On the diplomatic level, occupied territory can be a bargaining chip for negotiation.
There are three reasons why it is a serious mistake to devalue the achievement of occupying territory.
The first reason is at the diplomatic and strategic level: It’s the land, stupid. Losing territory is a painful loss for Israel’s enemies. Hamas in Gaza wants to “return” to Jaffa, Ashdod, Ashkelon (Majdal), and indeed the rest of the State of Israel, either through direct occupation, by exhausting Israel until it collapses, or by exerting enough political pressure to force the “right of return”. Hezbollah is fighting for the Galilee foothills, and the Rashidun force wanted to conquer the Galilee. Territory remains as important to Israel’s enemies as it ever was. Therefore, Israel’s occupation and holding of enemy territory constitutes a serious loss for those enemies.
Holding territory is also a bargaining chip in diplomatic negotiations. This was the case with Egypt and Syria in the agreements on the separation of forces at the end of the Yom Kippur War, and later in the framework of the peace agreement with Egypt, which insisted on the complete return of Sinai.
This will always apply when Israel occupies territory. Hamas’s claim that it will return the captives as long as the IDF withdraws from Gaza’s population centers proves that occupied territory is once again a diplomatic bargaining chip.
The second reason is at the operational level: The occupation of territory gives the IDF a clear asymmetrical advantage. This exploits enemy vulnerabilities and maximizes the IDF’s strengths. Only the IDF can occupy territory, clear it of the enemy, defend it against counterattack, use it to reduce the threat of infiltration, and hold it as a bargaining chip for diplomatic negotiations. None of Israel’s enemies can occupy territory and hold it for more than a few hours.
This asymmetry is especially important when it comes to firepower. Though the IDF is reluctant to admit this, a sort of symmetry has emerged between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah has built a vast arsenal containing statistical rockets, short-range rockets, precision missiles, 120mm mortars, and drone-delivered explosives. The IDF has a highly sophisticated air force with precise intelligence-guided targeting capabilities on a world-class scale. The problem is that a symmetry has emerged. Both sides are capable of inflicting significant damage on the other, and victory in this operational space will be by points.
It has been argued for many years that occupying territory is not worth the price it will cost in terms of heavy casualties and exposure of IDF troops to guerrilla warfare. The “Iron Swords” war demonstrates that both these risks are limited in scope. It appears that with adjustments, territorial occupation can be restored during a future war in Lebanon. This can be done with relatively low attrition ratios (harder to achieve in Lebanon than in densely built Gaza) and with the evacuation of the local population from the battlefield area (easier to achieve in Lebanon than in Gaza).
Territory captured in a future war must be cleared of military infrastructure. Residents should not be allowed to return until Israel’s desired diplomatic arrangement is achieved, even if this means the IDF maintains a security zone for months or years in the enemy’s territory. I stress that preventing the return of the population is not for the purpose of punishing them. Rather, it is for the same reason that they were evacuated before the war: to minimize the chances of their being harmed. Territory captured during ground combat will remain largely destroyed and will lack any basic electricity or water infrastructure, and it will be filled with ruins and explosive remnants. Fighting is also likely to continue to occur in the area, even if only sporadically.
The third reason is that warfare changes constantly, both globally and regionally. Unlike advanced science, which progresses forward, the phenomenon of warfare sometimes returns to old motivations and patterns. When Israel was perceived as the stronger side against Hamas, the limitations placed upon it were severe. The Western world expected Israel to defend its citizens solely with active defense systems and counter-fire, without resorting to ground action. In terms of internal legitimacy, the cost of occupying territory was believed to outweigh the benefits when each round of conflict ended with relatively minor damage.
But on October 7, 2023, both Israel’s and the world’s understanding of the conflict with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran changed completely. In response to Hamas’s brutal, genocidal massacre and mass hostage-taking, the State of Israel declared a comprehensive war. After a long period of “wars of choice” in which Israel was the stronger side, the Jewish State has returned to an era of “no-choice wars”. In a comprehensive multi-front war, which will include fighting against Hezbollah and Iran and possibly other elements, Israel will have to utilize all means at its disposal to defend itself. This includes occupying and holding territory.
Occupying territory in Lebanon – for the fifth time
Without attempting to broadly speculate on how the next war in Lebanon will unfold, we will consider a situation in which Israel has decided to enter Lebanon on the ground. In such a scenario, a defensive zone would be established and held as a security belt to protect the northern border settlements from surface-to-surface fire and ground attack until a diplomatic arrangement is reached. The conquered territory would remain “sterile”, with neither an enemy presence nor returned local residents, in order to protect those residents from the fighting that is likely to continue in the area as the enemy attempts to reconquer the territory or attack IDF forces.
Israel has a great deal of experience in Lebanon. During Operation Hiram in October 1948, the IDF captured 14 villages in the eastern sector. Israel withdrew half a year later as part of an agreement with the Lebanese government, but in Operation Litani in 1978, the villages were recaptured. In the First Lebanon War in 1982, they were captured a third time; in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, they were captured a fourth time. If we were to capture them a fifth time, as well as other areas along the border for a fourth time, we will need to ensure as much as possible that that will be the last time they pose a threat to the border settlements.
The way to do this, given the history I have described, is to gain internal and international legitimacy by turning these rural areas into a security zone under Israeli control. They should remain under Israeli security control until an agreement is reached that ensures that if Israel withdraws, the areas will no longer pose a threat.
view pdf
Brigadier General (res.) Dr. Meir Finkel is head of research at the Dado Center and its former commander. He has written a series of books about the IDF’s senior headquarters: the Chief of Staff (2018), the General Staff (2020), Air Force Headquarters (2022) and Ground Headquarters (2023).
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Protect yourselves; Hire Jewish Labor
NEVER FORGET!
7 Shevat 5784 16January2024 http://palmtreeofdeborah.blogspot.com/2024/01/never-forget.html
The message seems to have finally gotten through that we cannot safely employ Arabs from Palestinian areas. (Petition) Now, if only people will understand that no Arab can be trusted and that’s just how it is.
But, never forget that it is not only Yishmael whom we are fighting but Eisav and their attached Erev Rav as well. As more and more Jews are rejecting Arab labor, there is going to be a big push on by The Other Side to replicate the Hayovel model across the country, replacing Arab labor with imported Christian Evangelical “lovers of Israel.” God forbid!!
Watch out for it!
Beit Shemesh residents concerned for security say YES to Jewish & Foreign workers
Citizens of Beit Shemesh 31December2023 https://www.change.org/p/beit-shemesh-residents-concerned-for-security-say-yes-to-jewish-foreign-workers
Residents of Beit Shemesh concerned for their security, say YES to Jewish and foreign workers!
We, the residents of Beit Shemesh, write with deep concerns regarding the potential entry of non-Israeli Arabs into our city. We understand the economic needs and the importance of cooperation, but recent events, particularly the tragic October 7th massacre, have heightened our fears for the safety of our residents and families.
In the aftermath of this terrible incident, with many of our men drafted to serve in various capacities, our community is already facing a heightened sense of vulnerability. The trauma and anxiety stemming from the events of October 7th have left us grappling with a profound sense of insecurity. In light of these circumstances, we are apprehensive about the introduction of non-Israeli Arabs into Beit Shemesh, even with the presence of guards.
While we acknowledge the necessity of labor from various sources, we believe that the safety of our families should be the top priority. The recent tragedy serves as a stark reminder of the unpredictable nature of the region, and we fear that allowing non-Israeli Arab workers to roam freely, even with security measures in place, exposes our community to unnecessary risks.
In light of these circumstances, we respectfully request that the government reconsiders any plans to allow non-Israeli Arabs into Beit Shemesh. We understand the complexities of balancing the economic needs of our residents and security concerns but believe that alternative solutions can be explored to address labor needs without compromising the safety of our families.
Sincerely,
The residents of Beit Shemesh
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Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il
It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH
French Jews arriving at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, November 2, 2016. (JTA/IFCJ)
Anything but Aliya
The Evil Inclination will do anything in the world to keep a Jew from moving to the Land of Israel. When the EI hears the word Aliya – it goes on the warpath. Why?
Rabbi Shalom Arush Posted on 09October2023 https://breslev.com/479379/
Anything but Aliya by Rabbi Shalom Arush
Rebbe Nachman couldn’t say enough good things about the Land of Israel. It’s therefore no wonder that the Yetzer Hara (the evil inclination, or “EI”) wages an ongoing battle on both Rebbe Nachman’s teaching and Aliya (immigration) to the Land of Israel.
The EI will do anything in the world to keep a Jew from moving to the Land of Israel. When the EI hears the word Aliya – it goes on the warpath. And, once a person has made Aliya and has moved to Israel, the EI doesn’t give up; it still fights tooth and nail to convince a person how terrible Israel is, Heaven forbid, and how good life once was in New York, LA, Chicago, Miami, or Toronto.
Why does the EI get so upset about a Jew living in the Land of Israel? On a national scale, the EI doesn’t want Geula (redemption), including Mashiach and our Holy Temple. Every Jew who comes here hastens the Geula. On an individual level, the EI wants you and your children wallowing in the diaspora, stressed and depressed, and not coming home to where your soul belongs. The Yetzer doesn’t want you attaining your soul correction, so he fights to keep you away from here and gives you fifty reasons to remain in the Diaspora.
With so much opposition from the Dark Side, a person with spiritual awareness can begin to realize the value of living in the Land of Israel.
The holiness of the Land of Israel is honey for the soul. Rebbe Nachman teaches that emuna leads to having one’s prayers answered. All prayers rise by way of the Land of Israel. A person’s prayers are strongest in the Land of Israel, to the extent that they can work miracles, above the limitations of nature.
The Land of Israel is the place to acquire emuna, for one sees Hashem’s hand very clearly here, every single day, especially in recent current events.
Shofar sounding as Jewish Olim land on a Nefesh B’ Nefesh flight to Israel
Rebbe Nachman teaches that the Land of Israel is the place for children. Our forefathers were barren outside of Israel, but Abraham and Sarah came here and had children. This can work for you too.
The Land of Israel can save a person from all evil, because of its high-level kedusha. Only in Israel can a person attain the level of emuna where natural restrictions and limitations don’t affect him at all, for here is the place of upper-level holiness.
The air of the Land of Israel makes a person’s brain function better. The Talmud teaches that a person can fulfill his intellectual potential only in the Land of Israel. That’s understandable, because the more emuna a person has, the better his or her mind functions. Since the Land of Israel is the land of emuna, one can attain a broadening of the mind here.
Rabbi Zeira fasted 100 times in order to forget the Babylonian Talmud, so that he could have a clean mind to learn the Torah of Eretz Yisrael.
Every Jew has a share in the Land of Israel – it’s your home!
The Torah teaches that Hashem’s eyes never depart from the Land of Israel. Therefore, those who are privileged to dwell here enjoy a maximum measure of Divine providence over their lives.
The Land of Israel is the source of blessings, for all blessings are derived from here.
There’s an optical illusion that money is easier to come by outside of the Land of Israel. That’s another trick of the Evil Inclination.
Why do you pray three times a day for the in-gathering of the exiles if you have no intention of coming here?
It is surprising the extent to which Shabbat-observant people don’t want to come to the Land of Israel. Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who had nothing but good to say about every Jew, said that if a Jew doesn’t earnestly strive to come to the Land of Israel, and if he doesn’t long for the Land of Israel, and pray to come here and beg Hashem to let him have a foothold in the Land of Israel – then he won’t have a share in the redemption of our people in the Land of Israel! Are you waiting for Mashiach before you come?
Mashiach will say, “Now you’ve come? Where were you when we needed you?”
The Land of Israel is the place to get to know Hashem. The Land of Israel is the place where body and soul find unity and happiness. You can change your life for the better by coming here. If you yearn for fulfillment, emuna, fulfilling your potential, raising your children the best way possible, living as a Jew, and attaining personal freedom, there is no better place on earth than the Land of Israel!
Ask Hashem to take you home to Eretz Yisrael. I sincerely hope to see you here soon, with Mashiach, the in-gathering of the exiles, and the full redemption of our people speedily and in our time, amen.
Olim from North America arrive in Israel – Nefesh B’Nefesh
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You Get What You Ask For
The world is increasingly dangerous for Jews and supporters of Israel. How can we protect ourselves? Let’s take our enemies’ message to heart and grab our weapons!
Rachel Avrahami | Posted on 14November2023 | https://breslev.com/4070244/
You Get What You Ask For by Rachel Avrahami
Jews around the world are alarmed by the sharp increase in antisemitism around the world in the wake of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Besides the war on the ground in Gaza, there are “battles” being fought in protests, both for Israel and ever-increasingly violent mobs of pro-Palestinian protesters, in addition to the war of comments all over social media.
I just saw a comment on X that “all Israelis are illegal occupiers.” With one swipe we’re no longer civilians, no longer HUMANS, we’re “occupiers” – and therefore our death and abduction is “justified,” dismissed and even celebrated. Who cares about international law or history?
So I add – if antisemites say essentially that we’re all soldiers, no civilians here – then let’s realize that’s a wake up call from G-d Himself! Everyone needs to fight in this war! Our weapon is prayers and mitzvot – begging G-d to save us, our soldiers, our captives. Our weapon is holiness and modesty, that Hashem should be “in our camp… to save us” and not “turn away from behind us.”
Even the nations recognize that, like it or not, we are all soldiers in Hashem’s army – so let’s act like it!!!
We have already seen the silence of the UN, the EU, and other international bodies and countries in the face of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. We can’t make them care. We can’t make them not hate us or our continued existence despite all their efforts to the contrary.
I keep thinking about all the miracle stories of our enemies. In the Gulf War, some captured Iraqi generals admitted that they sent thousands of missiles, they carpet bombed Israel with everything including chemical weapons! And they watched the missiles simply disappear off the radar. Only 39 missiles fell in Israel – 39, for the 39 types of prohibited work on Shabbat and the 39 lashes that can be given by the Jewish court. Hashem sent them to atone for the people.
There are so many more stories. They openly admit that “their G-d is moving the missiles.” So why are they still fighting? Why continue to fight G-d Himself???
The answer is that it doesn’t make any sense, correct. But Hashem is making them fight against all reason, and be stubborn against all reason – because we Jews are fighting Hashem against all reason! We are stubborn and refuse to listen to Him, to obey His laws for our own benefit! It’s midda k’neged midda – tit for tat.
The reality is that Israel is the only country in the world that is forced to defend itself for defending itself. The world is screaming for a cease-fire. Excuse me, is anyone screaming for Ukraine to make a cease-fire? Since when does anyone get to say boo about what another sovereign country decides to do? And when Hamas still has hundreds of hostages???
It’s not just a double-standard – it’s downright ridiculous! I continuously remind myself that all of these people have a special place in Hell, don’t worry! And the media is first in line…
So, what CAN we do in the face of all of this terrifying reality that we cannot directly change??? Clearly, we need special protection from above!
Rabbi Shalom Arush makes an awesome comment in The Garden of Emuna:
The idea is simple. Hashem loves us and only wants to do good things for us. Every parent knows just how much they want the best for their children, even better than for themselves! Could it be that the Creator is less loving than a flesh and blood parent?! As Rabbi Arush repeats over and over: Emuna is – Hashem loves me, everything is good and it’s only getting better and better!
So, what’s the catch? Everything goes according to the emuna! We have to believe!!!
Hashem is pushing us, individually and collectively, way past our ability to cope. He is asking us to wake up, to repent, to realize that our old way of living is gone, and He wants to give us something so much better in response.
We only have to respond – but we must respond.
We have to dig deep and create a connection in this darkness, which will light our way. To recognize that Hashem is always there with us. To believe He is here, loving us.
To not shrug off thousands of missiles and hardly any casualties, and a baited and ready Hamas just waiting for the IDF to come in and get slaughtered – and not see Hashem protecting us, and fighting for us, with outright miracles!
To work hard on our emuna, building those emuna muscles, that Hashem is the only power in the world, ein od milvado. Nothing and no one can hurt me, or anyone who calls out to Him, if it’s not His will. And if it’s His will, then it’s good – so there is nothing to be afraid of!
Rabbi Arush promises that anyone who strengthens their emuna and trust in Hashem in this way – Hashem will personally guard him and nothing bad can happen to him. As King David says in Psalms, “G-d is with me – what can a human do to me?” (Psalm 118:6)
And the opposite is true as well – if we don’t do this work, if we don’t focus on Hashem’s protection, if we don’t work on our absolute rock-solid belief that the only power in the world is G-d – then G-d forbid real evil could happen.
In the face of the evil on the streets, emuna isn’t just a nicety anymore. It’s our ticket to salvation. Please read my article Not Just Another War which includes specific segulot for protection during this very dangerous time.
They know we are Hashem’s people – that’s why they hate us!
But when we step up and call out to Hashem, to fight for us, to protect us, because really this is His war after all – and we act like Hashem’s people by trusting in Him and really try, really WANT, to return to His ways – then we will surely see wonders even greater than the Exodus of Egypt!
Amen soon and in our days!
***
Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.
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Why Hashem Loves the Activist
We are living in the days of Avraham Avinu, Abraham Our Father. It is our birthright to follow in his footsteps as mankind’s first activist. We must continue his work of acknowledging the One True God and of serving Him with determination and faith.
David Ben Horin Posted on 21November2023 https://breslev.com/4072624/
Why Hashem Loves the Activist by David Ben Horin
The world was created three times. Twice it was destroyed. The third time it survived.
Adam lived 930 years. He gave birth to the succeeding generations. He introduced the concepts of sin, free choice, and forgiveness to the world.
After ten generations, God destroyed the world he lived in.
Noah lived 950 years. He saved the world. He introduced the concept of reward for the righteous, the seven universal standards of mankind, and eating meat to the world.
After ten generations, God scattered his world into a multitude of languages.
Both of these great men, Adam and Noah, were the focus of their portion of the Torah (parshat Bereishit and parshat Noach respectively). But neither are mentioned beyond their parsha.
Breaking His Limitations
Avraham was different. He deduced the Kingship of God at the age of three!
He fought for Hashem by destroying his father’s idols. He gained followers. He confronted Nimrod, the king of the earth, and was willing to die al Kiddush Hashem when Nimrod threw him into a fiery furnace.
Avraham lived 175 years. He introduced to the Jewish People the commandment to live in the Land of Israel, hosting guests, eternal and limitless faith in God, and the covenant of circumcision.
Avraham is the first to be mentioned beyond a single parsha in the Torah. He is mentioned hundreds of times through the Book of Deuteronomy whose events take place over three hundred years later.
How did Avraham merit to outlive his parsha?
Avraham’s Mission
Adam and Noah knew the truth, but the world didn’t listen.
Adam fasted for 120 years after the sin in the Garden of Eden. Noah spent 120 years building the ark. People had time to reflect on what they were doing and mend their ways. Adam and Noah were shining lights to the world. Anyone who chose to look could see the truth and live accordingly.
Avraham refused to shine like a light. He chose to blaze like a fire. A fire’s job is to spread its flame to everything it touches. When a fire shares a part of its flame with another object, that object gets its own flame while the original fire maintains its strength.
This is Abraham.
A Holy Cause
Avraham rebelled against his father. He rebelled against the country of his birth. He rebelled against all the idols of the day. He rebelled against what society considered to be moral, socially just, and progressive. He rebelled against 2,000 years of what everyone was comfortable with and pledged to change the course of history by recognizing the King of the earth and refusing to follow anyone else.
By following the One True God, Avraham rebelled against mankind. He was just like Adam and Noah throughout their lives.
Then, he took it one step further. He refused to be a spark in a world of darkness. Like a flame, he vowed to spread his light to others – Avraham became an “activist”.
He invited people to his tent for dinner and taught them about the True God. He begged Hashem for more guests, even as he nursed the most sensitive part of his body after performing the covenant of circumcision at the age of 99.
From the moment he learned the truth, he made it his mission to tell everyone. His vision was to transform mankind into a God-serving world.
It made him immortal. Right now, almost four millennia later, there are millions of Jews around the world all praying the Shemonei Esrei prayer three times a day by invoking God’s Name as the God of Avraham.
Fighting for the Truth Today
Once again, our world is drowning in darkness. On Oct 7, the world bore witness to women being raped, men beheaded, and babies burned alive by Hamas terrorists.
The world did nothing to stop the slaughter during the Holocaust. Likewise, world media today is siding with Hamas to the point of justifying their savagery.
Only a world that has blinded itself to Truth can reach such an abyss of human behavior. How can we convince the world that murder is wrong when they refuse to acknowledge He Who establishes that murder is wrong?
We are living in the days of Avraham. We possess a truth that few hold. We own knowledge that most have relinquished.
It is our birthright to follow in the steps of our forefather Avraham and to continue his work. We must acknowledge the One True God of Heaven and earth. We must serve Him with determination and with unbounded and unbending faith. We must scream to the four corners of the earth that His Name is One, His universe is one, His Torah is one, His reign is one, and His vision of right and wrong is one.
We, the sons of the world’s first activist, will continue the revolution until the world is set right.
***
David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.
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‘The safest place to be Jewish’: 2,600 people have moved to Israel since Hamas invaded
New arrivals cite incidents of being spat on, bullied, and general rise in antisemitism; many had intended to make aliya and accelerated plans; authorities predict many more to come
By Deborah Danan 23December2023
https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-safest-place-to-be-jewish-2600-people-have-moved-to-israel-since-hamas-invaded/
JTA — When Yona and Mikhael Benichou decided over the summer to move to Israel from their home in France, they set a target date of around a year later — in time for their eldest son, David, 15, to begin his studies for Israel’s matriculation exams.
But after the murderous Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, they sped up their plans to immigrate, known in Hebrew as making aliyah. The straw that broke the camel’s back, Yona Benichou said, came a week after the attack in which the terrorists killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and took 240 hostage in Gaza, when the family, who wear identifiably Jewish symbols, were spat on by a group of rugby fans while walking down the street in their hometown of Marseilles.
“I was in total shock, I didn’t know how to react. Lots of other people saw what happened but no one tried to help us,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“The antisemites were always there. But after October 7, we felt like they have a platform to do whatever they like and that no one — and definitely not the French authorities — can stop them.”
The Benichous landed in Israel on October 31, arriving in a country still reeling from Hamas’s devastating attack on its southern communities and in the early stages of a grueling ground war that has reshaped society.
They are among the more than 2,600 people whom Israeli authorities say have chosen to move to Israel over the last two months despite the crisis.
Accelerated aliya
Almost all of the new arrivals had been planning to move to Israel for some time, though a handful, like the Benichous, have accelerated their immigration.
Aaron Gold, 26, had planned to move to Israel next year and was in the country visiting when the war broke out. His parents, alarmed by the emergency evacuation of American citizens and by the fact that Gold did not live in an apartment with a safe room, pressured their son to return to the United States. He flew back to Philadelphia on October 18, but said he “despised” being there and returned to Israel as a new immigrant on November 16.
Gold, a product manager at Deloitte, said making aliyah had “always been a dream of mine” and said he felt waiting to see how the war played out would not make any difference.
“Hezbollah could attack now, they could attack in six months, they could attack in six years,” he said. “You can’t plan it.”
According to Israel’s Immigration and Absorption Ministry, 2,662 people have made aliyah since October 7, including 1,635 from Russia, 218 from the United States, 128 from Ukraine, 116 from France, and 106 from Belarus.
The numbers are smaller than the average in recent years and dramatically lower than in the same period in 2022, when 16,400 new immigrants arrived, propelled by people escaping the war in Ukraine. They also come at the end of a year when political discord in Israel had already depressed immigration beyond the usual rate.
More expected
Still, the new immigrants, known as olim, demonstrate that during challenging times, some Jews will still choose to move to Israel. And the organizations that support them say they anticipate a flood of arrivals soon, once the war ends but concerns about spiking antisemitism are still fresh.
The Benichous reached out to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which has helped 317 people make aliyah since October 7. The organization purchased flights for the family and donated around $2,000 toward the cost of furniture for the family’s new apartment in the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh.
According to the group’s president, Yael Eckstein, fewer new immigrants have arrived in Israel since October 7 than in other years due to a combination of canceled flights and decisions to put plans on hold until the security situation stabilizes. Israel quickly retaliated to the Hamas attacks of October 7, launching a dedicated operation to topple the Hamas rule in Gaza. At the same time, Hezbollah has consistently sent rockets and armed drones over the northern border, leading to a months-long tit-for-tat campaign.
But Eckstein said she has seen an “increase in the number of requests for information about the immigration process from countries where cases of antisemitic incidents have risen.”
Nefesh B’Nefesh has facilitated aliyah for 384 people from the US and Canada since the start of the war, mostly for people who had begun the process long before October 7, the group’s vice president of communications, Yael Katsman, told JTA.
Still, like Eckstein, Katsman pointed to a “vast surge” in interest since the attack, marking an “an unprecedented increase” of more than 100% in aliyah applications compared to the same timespan in 2022. She attributed the spike to an increased “commitment to building Israel” by Diaspora Jewry during “difficult historic events.”
Many people who initiate aliyah applications, required for new immigrants to secure a range of benefits, do not end up completing them. But the chair of the Jewish Agency, which facilitates immigration, recently told an Israeli news station that he expects 1 million new Jewish immigrants in the coming years — a number that would dramatically reshape the country of about 10 million.
The agency’s head of international relations, Yigal Palmor, was more circumspect in comments to JTA but likewise said signs pointed to a rise in new arrivals. One thousand people initiated applications in France in October and November, according to agency data, marking a 470 percent increase over the previous two months.
“We’ve witnessed a dramatic rise in aliyah applications since the outbreak of the conflict, most notably in France and the US,” Palmor said. “We will probably see the results in the coming months, but it’s premature to predict numbers.”
Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer told JTA in a statement that his ministry was preparing for a surge in immigration as a result of the war.
Since October 7, there has been “a lot of interest [in immigration] from young people, students and young couples from western countries, including those from western European countries where people in the past did not show much interest in immigrating,” Sofer said.
The two main reasons, he said, were “growing antisemitism around the world, and solidarity with Israel.”
Gold said antisemitism in the United States redoubled his commitment to move to Israel permanently.
“You kind of realize you’re afraid to go to work, not only of physical violence but just emotionally,” he told JTA about his return in October. “I was with coworkers who told me that from their office they were able to hear people saying, ‘Restart the Intifada, death to the Jews’ and things like that.”
The safest place to be Jewish
Daniel Bleiweiss, 51, made aliyah with his 14-year-old son Emiliano this fall from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He had made the decision years ago, but postponed it because of the pandemic as well as bureaucratic issues related to Emiliano’s adoption, a yearslong process that was resolved only in 2019.
Bleiweiss, a physician, planned on arriving in Israel on October 10 with his wife Natalia and her teenage daughter, Lucia, from a previous marriage. The war threw a wrench into their original plan and the flights were canceled. Ultimately, the family decided that Daniel and Emiliano would move immediately, while Natalia and Lucía would join them in the future when conditions become more stable.
Bleiweiss cited several reasons for wanting to make aliyah, including Argentina’s economic crisis and the South American country’s inadequate resources to support his son, who has learning and social difficulties. But like the other new immigrants JTA spoke to, the main impetus was a rise in antisemitism coupled with a strong desire to live in the Jewish homeland, which he described as a “historic responsibility.”
Bleiweiss recounted a recent incident in which his wife had tried to check into a hotel where she had a reservation. The clerk saw the Israeli visa in her passport and subsequently refused to allow her to stay at the hotel, Bleiweiss said, adding that his wife chose not to press charges. He also said that his son had been bullied at school for being Jewish.
“It is painful, but it reinforces our conviction that Israel is the safest place to be Jewish right now, and it is perhaps the only place where we can express our identity proudly and in peace,” he said.
Bleiweiss said that another reason he didn’t want to delay his aliyah again was because he felt compelled to be in the Jewish state in its time of need.
“If a friend is in trouble, you shouldn’t wait for a better time to go see him,” he said. “That’s the time you should be there.”
Meanwhile, in Beit Shemesh, life isn’t without its challenges for the Benichou family. Because of how suddenly they left France, they didn’t have time to save up money or sell their belongings.
“We never thought in a million years we would come within a month. We came without any money,” Yona Benichou said. “It’s not easy to build yourself anew.”
But there are no regrets for Benichou or her children, who she said were understanding of the fact that this Hanukkah they wouldn’t be receiving gifts on every night of the festival as they were used to from previous years.
She said: “My 8-year-old son told me, ‘Mommy, we don’t need Hanukkah presents this year. The biggest present is that we’re here.’”
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Jewish Heroes
Aviva Klompas-tweet-20November2023-Adar defended 120 newly enlisted soldiers
“My 20-year-old daughter Adar, an officer, commander and combat soldier in the Search and Rescue Brigade, heard on October 7 that terrorists had infiltrated her military base. With great determination, she and her friends defended 120 newly enlisted soldiers. Adar directed all of them to the shelter and went bravely to fight the terrorists. Please share her story in her memory.” -Zehava (Adar Ben Simon’s mother)
May Adar’s memory forever be a blessing🕯️
Aviva Klompa-tweet-20November2023-Adar defended 120 newly enlisted soldiers
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The indomitable spirit of volunteerism in wartime
From English teacher to volunteer chef for soldiers. a young American discovers a new Israel.
ETGAR LEFKOVITS https://www.jns.org/the-indomitable-spirit-of-volunteerism-in-wartime/
American Israel Tolchinsky (right) and another volunteer with IDF soldiers. Photo: Courtesy.
(November 14, 2023 / JNS) When the war with Hamas broke out last month, 25-year-old Israel Tolchinsky from Queens, New York, had been in Israel for less than six weeks on an educational program aimed at immersing Diaspora Jews into Israeli society.
Then, with rocket attacks raining down nationwide, the phone calls from the U.S. started coming in urging him to come home. With most airlines suspending service to and from Israel, his father found him a connecting flight via Europe and urged him to take it.
“I love it here so much, I need to stay,” Tolchinsky responded. “The flight will be sold out, take it,” his father exhorted. “That’s OK,” he responded.
Israel Tolchinsky prepares a barbecue for soldiers. Photo: Courtesy.
From English teacher to volunteer chef
Tolchinsky arrived in Israel in late August on a Masa Israel Journey program, to teach English in an elementary school. He had “fallen in love” with Israel on an earlier Birthright trip, and was looking for something steady to do for the year when the idea of teaching came up.
“It seemed like the perfect opportunity to come to Israel and give back to my own country and teach kids at the same time,” he told JNS in an interview.
Tolchinsky began teaching in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Letzion this fall, not without some trepidation, amid cautionary tales that Israeli kids are much more aggressive than their American peers.
His experience was just the opposite.
“I fell in love with the school and felt the love and connection real closely,” he said. When his pupils heard he was from New York, they assumed he must be an actor, he recounted.
But no sooner had the school year started—quickly followed by the fall Jewish holidays—than the war erupted on the very last day of the extended holiday period, before he had a chance to make friends with any Israelis.
With the educational program put on hold, and some of his roommates packed up to leave, Tolchinsky was determined to find something useful to do and not waste his days staying in his apartment.
“I got to be more Israeli,” he told himself, and with his minimal Hebrew, he walked into a bar that had put up signs asking for volunteers to help pack food clothes and essentials for soldiers.
“Everybody was so welcoming,” he said, with some finding his story crazy and others telling him he really must stay in the country.
As the rocket fire grew in the first weeks of the war, the calls from home intensified (“every second,” in his words) to as many as three times a day. His aunt offered to buy him a ticket; his cousin told him to just get on the plane. But Tolchinsky would have none of it.
“’I’m sorry, I feel something,” Tolchinsky told them. “This is my real home. I need to be here.”
Having worked in catering in New York for some years, he decided to volunteer as a chef and connected with an organization of veteran American immigrants in Modi’in, “Grilling for the IDF,” which makes barbeques for soldiers.
Next, he volunteered with Israeli chefs making meals for soldiers. He was even asked to cook for a wartime wedding in the IDF for 150 people.
“It felt so good to go to the bases and be thanked by the soldiers,” Tolchinsky said. “Bro, you are from New York—we love it,” they told him.
“We are all one family,” Tolchinsky said in the interview last week from a bustling cooking school kitchen in Or Yehuda, east of Tel Aviv, where meals were being prepared for soldiers and bereaved families.
Israel Tolchinsky with some buddies from the Israel Air Force. Photo: Courtesy.
A nation of volunteers
Nearly 50% of Israelis volunteered during the first month of the war, a recent survey found.
Some 48.6% of the population engaged in volunteering during the war, including 28% who had not previously volunteered, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem study found.
The rate of volunteerism among the Israeli Arab population also reached a record high during the war, 29%.
Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 of the 5,700 young Jewish adults (aged 18-30) from abroad on the Masa Israel Journey program ended up staying in Israel during the war, a Masa spokesperson said. Many of those who left at the beginning of the war are now coming back.
In addition, the organization has launched a new six-week volunteer program after receiving more than 1,000 requests from young Jewish adults to volunteer in Israel.
Since its founding in 2004, Masa Israel has provided long-term educational programs to about 200,000 young people from more than 60 countries, aimed at immersing Diaspora Jews into Israeli society.
Israel Tolchinsky with some friends from the army. Photo: Courtesy.
Bonding
For Tolchinsky, the war opened a whole new Israel to him.
“I would never have met all these wonderful people if not for the war,” he said. “You don’t feel this connection in New York that you feel here.”
In the meantime, with school back on in central Israel, Tolchinsky is mixing his English teaching with volunteer cooking, with this past month in a country both at war and united irrevocably shaping his life.
“Nearly all my friends here are now Israelis,” he said. “I feel I should live my life here more than ever before.”
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1 in 10 American Jews Showed Up in D.C. on a Tuesday to Stand for Israel
Daniel Greenfield published November 19, 2023 href=”http://www.danielgreenfield.org/2023/11/1-in-10-american-jews-showed-up-in-dc.html
On a Tuesday in November, around a third of a million American Jews left their jobs, skipped class and headed to Washington D.C. Some didn’t make it. In Detroit, bus drivers deliberately stranded hundreds of Jews heading to D.C. Others ran into less widely reported problems.
Even among those who arrived, tens of thousands never made it through into the secured area. In the final count, 290,000 people passed through the metal detectors at the ‘March for Israel’.
This was not only the largest ever rally by American Jews, but the largest gathering against Islamic terror.
Having a third of a million people show up at the National Mall is not completely extraordinary. Farrakhan’s Million Man March did manage to turn out 400,000 black people from a total population of 34 million. The ‘March for Israel’ brought over 300,000 out of 4.2 million Jews.
There are an estimated 4.2 million American Jews by religion. 7% of them showed up.
Accounting for the very old and very young who could not have made the trip, that’s 1 in 10 American Jews traveling to be in D.C. on a random Tuesday on fairly short notice.
The demographic equivalent would be 3 million black people, 4.5 million Latinos, 1.2 million Asians and 14 million white people rallying on the National Mall.
While the Million Man March received widespread media coverage at the time and in succeeding anniversaries, and was immortalized in movies like Spike Lee’s ‘Get on the Bus’, the media offered less coverage of the ‘March for Israel’ than it did of far smaller anti-Israel events.
The March for Israel ruined the media’s narrative that American Jews are turning on Israel. And so the media did what it always does: it protected the narrative by spinning and suppressing..
While the Post put the Women’s March, which turned out 470,000 participants, on its front page, it buried the ‘March for Israel’ in its metro section.
But despite the predictable media bias and the flaws of the rally, organized by liberal groups, it was an important statement of where American Jews stand. After weeks of the media providing disproportionate coverage to pro-Hamas rallies of hundreds of people by hate groups like If Not Now, hundreds of thousands of Jews stood with Israel and its war against Islamic terrorism.
In contrast to the pro-Hamas rallies in D.C. where flags were burned and monuments vandalized, the pro-Israel rally was a sea of American flags and attendees sang the anthem. Police officers were assaulted at pro-Hamas rallies and thanked at the ‘March for Israel’.
It wasn’t just across the ocean that the difference between Israel and Hamas was made clear, but right here in America. Pro-Israel rallies don’t break down into violence, vandalism and orgies of hatred for America. It’s the pro-Hamas rallies that turn into riots over and over again.
The ‘March for Israel’ had plenty of flaws. Like most liberal Jewish establishment projects, it sacrificed meaningful commitments for simple truisms (Hamas is bad, Israel is good) even if these truisms are now being disputed by academia, the media and large parts of the Left. Rather than taking a direct position on the issues being debated in D.C., pauses in the fighting, trading a ceasefire for hostages, and whether the PLO will take over Gaza, the march sought the broadest possible unity platform which maximized turnout, but didn’t break new ground.
Some rally speakers pledged support for a two-state solution: meaning an Islamic terrorist state inside Israel, whose existence is the reason for thirty years of terrorism against Israelis. The only Israel they seemed to be willing to support was one willing to give its enemies every possible chance until they finally do something so horrific that fighting back becomes justified.
There was little concept of who the enemy was, apart from Hamas, and what the issue was, apart from antisemitism coming from undefined sources, including on college campuses. And so there was also little concept of what standing for Israel actually meant beyond opposing Hamas. Speakers at the rally expressed pain, grief and determination, but lacked any real focus.
Biden spurned the rally, refusing to send a high-profile official, instead dispatching Deborah Lipstadt, the administration’s antisemitism monitor, but offering no larger presence at the event as another sign that he is moving even further away from his support for the war on Hamas. Other elected officials however showed up as did a whole lot of other seemingly random people.
The emphasis on unity did bring together people you would otherwise have trouble imagining participating in the same event. Not just Speaker Mike Johnson alternating with Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, but Pastor John Hagee and former Will and Grace star Debra Messing, a baffling appearance by Van Jones who didn’t seem to know which rally he was at, and a musical performance by Ishay Ribo, a major Israeli Orthodox Jewish pop star probably unknown to much of the parts of the audience that binge watches Will and Grace.
While to outsiders, American Jews may seem like members of the same group and reflect familiar stereotypes, the reality is those few millions consist of a dizzying variety of different groups which have little in common with each other and inhabit echo chambers. The ‘March for Israel’ brought together devout and secular, Reform and Orthodox, Christian supporters of Israel and Hollywood celebrities: people whose worlds never really meet.
And it took a major crisis to get at least some Jews from suburban temples and urban synagogues, those who study the Talmud and those who believe in Tikkun Olam, to temporarily stand in the same place and realize that Islamic terrorists, like the Nazis, want to kill them all.
That brief community is not likely to last, just as the unity of unity that brought together New Yorkers after 9/11 fell apart into infighting and routine, but it still is a meaningful moment.
Although it may not last, it is a rehearsal for what needs to happen for all of us, Jews and Christians, people who believe in something and those who believe in nothing, in the face of an enemy that wants to destroy us all.
There is plenty to criticize about the ‘March for Israel’, but the content of the march mattered less than the statement that bringing so many people together to stand up to terror made.
The flaws of the rally were those of American Jews: many still addicted to the illusion of peace with terrorists, incapable of questioning their partisan political allegiances and trapped in their echo chambers, in pain, but failing to understand where the pain is coming from.
But for all its failures of imagination, the March for Israel was representative of American Jews. From the mother of a hostage to a standup comedian outraged at the hypocrisy of his industry hostage, from angry college students to the politicians they hope will save them, the rally was a snapshot of what is wrong with American Jews, but also a reminder that there is hope.
The Left has put out a narrative that American Jews are turning on Israel. Those who are still Jewish, rather than merely possessing Jewish last names, have not. American Jews suffer from a painful ignorance and some of their lost descendants, like Kamala’s stepdaughter, may rally for the enemy, but those who have not given up on being Jewish have not abandoned Israel.
In Washington D.C., representatives of the scattered strands of American Jewry briefly met and stood together in the shadow of enormous hate and evil. And briefly became one.
After the Passover Massacre by Hamas in 2002, one hundred thousand Jews had rallied in Washington D.C. That rally may have been smaller, but resembled this one in many ways.
Elie Wiesel, then still alive, told the crowd that, “this day will be remembered in the history of American Jewry.” It was not. But that failure of memory is a choice. Whether or not this one will be remembered is also a choice. The choice is a matter of commitment and priorities.
If American Jewry is to have a history, it will have to remember and more importantly act.
Nearly 1 in 10 American Jews showing up in D.C. on a random Tuesday is a historic moment. But whether it will change history is up to that third of a million and all the others who watched from home and attended rallies locally. History is made up of the choices that we make.
Will the March for Israel crystalize a wave of commitment in Jewish communities? Will it change how people vote, how they act and the cultural values that they pass on to their children?
Either we make history or we become history.
Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center’s Front Page Magazine.
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Rabbis for Ceasefire vs. God’s Vow About Israel
‘Rabbis for Ceasefire’ Start Reciting Torah Before Rally with Rashida Tlaib, Then Reader Gets to God’s Vow About Israel
By Rachel M. Emmanuel 20November2023 https://www.westernjournal.com/rabbis-ceasefire-start-reciting-torah-rally-rashida-tlaib-reader-gets-gods-vow-israel/
That awkward moment when the undiluted Word of God gets in the way of your agenda.
On Nov. 13, dozens of Jewish leaders from “Rabbis for Ceasefire” gathered near the U.S. Capitol in Washington to pray and call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to ABC News.
The Detroit News reported the event was accompanied by a news conference that included members of the “squad” of left-wing lawmakers: Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, some of whom have made grossly anti-Semitic statements in the past.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib(D-Gaza)-tweet-14November2023-Hamas-Useful Idiots
I stood in solidarity with Rabbis from across the country and Jewish peace advocates calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the violence. Their commitment to recognizing our shared humanity inspires me.
These Useful Idiots will say or do anything to screw the Jews.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib(D-Gaza)-tweet-14November2023-Hamas-Useful Idiots
“This is a public Shacharit, the Jewish morning service, so prayers for a CEASEFIRE will ring into the streets and our elected officials’ offices,” the group said in a post on X.
Rabbis for Ceasefire-tweet-13November2023-Act 1-Shacharit
RIGHT NOW: Over 40 Rabbis, members of their congregations, and communities are gathered in front of Congress. This is a public Shacharit, the Jewish morning service, so prayers for a CEASEFIRE will ring into the streets and our elected officials’ offices. Livestream link in bio!
Rabbis for Ceasefire-tweet-13November2023-Act 1-Shacharit
During the service, rabbis also chanted a portion of the Torah in keeping with Jewish custom to read the same section across communities in the same week.
What happened next is proof God has a sense of humor.
As several Jewish posters on social media pointed out, the week’s reading included God’s promise to Isaac, the son of the Jewish patriarch Abraham, found in Genesis 26:3.
“Watch her drop her voice to a whisper TWICE when she awkwardly gets to the text, ‘to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel)…,’” Israeli entrepreneur Lazer Cohen noted on X.
Lazer Cohen-tweet-19November2023-You can’t make this stuff up
You can’t make this stuff up!
Token anti-Israel Jews were holding a Torah reading before a rally with Rashida Talib. Watch her drop her voice to a whisper TWICE when she awkwardly gets to the text, “to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel)…”
Lazer Cohen-tweet-19November2023-You can’t make this stuff up
“This is delicious,” said Ari Hoffman, a host at KVI-AM in Seattle. “Anti-Israel ‘Jews’ were reading the Torah at a rally with Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Gaza). The person reading goes quiet when she gets to the Hebrew for ‘…to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel).’”
Ari Hoffman-tweet-20November2023-This is delicious
This is delicious
Anti-Israel “Jews” were reading the Torah at a rally with Rep. Rashida Talib (D-Gaza).
The person reading goes quiet when she gets to the Hebrew for “…to you and to your descendants will I give all these lands (Israel)”
Ari Hoffman-tweet-20November2023-This is delicious
Rabbi Yaakov Menken called it like it is, posting, “For those who don’t understand, when the so-called ‘Rabbis for Ceasefire’ read the Torah portion, they deliberately mumbled & skipped over God’s promise of the Holy Land to the Jews.
“What do you call a ‘Rabbi’ who repudiates Torah? A fraud. They are frauds, each & every one.”
Rabbi Yaakov Menken-tweet-17November2023-Rabbi who repudiates Torah-A fraud
For those who don’t understand, when the so-called “Rabbis for Ceasefire” read the Torah portion, they deliberately mumbled & skipped over God’s promise of the Holy Land to the Jews.
What do you call a “Rabbi” who repudiates Torah? A fraud.
They are frauds, each & every one.
Vaad HaBadchanim-tweet-17November2023-
CEASEFIRE RABBIS PLANNING MEETING:
“Ok so then we’ll do Torah reading in Hebrew and English.”
“Great, love it. Oh wait, what Parsha?”
“Toldos.”
“Shoot, not good. There’s some stuff in there about how Hashem promised the land to the Avos.”
“Not to worry, we’ll handle that.”
Rabbi Yaakov Menken-tweet-17November2023-Rabbi who repudiates Torah-A fraud
Maybe these rabbis should have checked what the reading of the week was before deciding to read it out loud before the world, publicly disproving themselves.
The Torah — included in the Bible’s Old Testament — is clear that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people as promised to Abraham and his descendants through his son Isaac.
While some people may disagree on policies and politics related to the Holy Land, it is entirely contradictory to say you believe in the Scriptures and yet deny the right of the Jewish people to possess the land.
The ridiculousness of the rabbi trying to mumble away an inconvenient passage serves as a powerful reminder that the Word of God transcends our agendas.
Although some try to interpret Scripture in ways that align with their views, God’s truth will always remain unchanged.
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SEE: South Africa takes Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ, UN) for the Gaza War
SHYLOCK AT THE HAGUE: Embracing Shylock and Disdaining the International Criminal Court
12January2024 https://www.newenglishreview.org/shylock-at-the-hague-embracing-shylock-and-disdaining-the-international-criminal-court/
Illustration from Phillip Medhurst Collection depicting Joshua fighting Amalek (Exodus 17).
by Howard Rotberg
“As for legal niceties, the team of august lawyers Israel summoned to the Hague gives a shot in the arm to the ICJ, signalling that Israel concedes the case can be won on legalities. Israel was naive to rely only on jurists to defeat antisemites. One expert on anti-Israel propaganda could be worth a bench full of gowns.” – Steve Apfel
I am trained as a lawyer, but sometimes great literature is more enlightening than great law.
“Thou callst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:”
– Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
Anti-Israelism has passed into the realm of anti-Semitism through its holding of Israel to different standards than any other country, and its focus on the retributive aspects of Israeli reactions, rather than the actions of murderers attacking Israel.
The underlying premise is that modernity and culture itself, whether it was the modernity of a supposedly cultured German society in 1939, or whether it is present day modernity and culture, offers no protection for the well-being and safety of Jewish civilians. To the extent that modernity has embraced moral relativism, it is by nature hostile to our cause. And no assertion of a higher morality, be it religious, secular, judicial, or (as the Jews and later the American founding fathers saw it), a type of hybrid where religious notions could be adapted to a liberal, secular, and just democracy will be attractive to post-modern relativists.
The relativists, however, have eliminated the notion of personal and community responsibility from their lexicon. The severance of rights from responsibilities is the essence of today’s anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism. If the Palestinians are going to have the right to a sovereign nation, they must accept the responsibility to stop killing Jewish civilians, and the responsibility to create some kind of justice system and some freedoms in their own society. If the relativists simply critique Israel’s reactions without dissecting the actions that caused those reactions, that is bias, and a rather nasty bias, too. In a world of moral relativism, in a world of violent Islamism where European countries again are sacrificing Jews to aggressive totalitarianism (this time Islamism), we need more than ever a vigilance in our pursuit of justice. Tragically, the more vigilant we Jews and our homeland are, the more we are labeled “vengeful”, “disproportionate”, “unmerciful” and “extreme”. In other words, we risk being seen as Shylocks.
At least, Shakespeare gave Shylock the voice to ruminate over his situation (“Hath not a Jew eyes?”); the vast majority of persecuted Jews, including those of the Holocaust, had no Shakespeares to emphasize their profound moral struggles and their ultimate fates, which were certainly no more palatable than Shylock’s.
Jonathan Pollard, about whom I wrote in The Second Catastrophe, stepped outside the law; Shylock tried to have his “contract” enforced within the law. In fact, Shylock was judged in a sham of a trial, presided over by Portia impersonating a Roman doctor named Balthasar. Driven to madness by his faith that a Court controlled by anti-Semites could ever dispense justice, Shylock continues to assert his claim for a surety’s pound of flesh, even when presented with the option of taking three times the monetary indebtedness. Pollard’s greatest error, ultimately, was also his faith in a corrupted Justice system (corrupted by Caspar Weinberger’s secret memo to the Judge.) He also passed into a form of madness due to the refusal of his superiors to pass on a clear threat to an ally, and so he also ignores justice while he continues to insist on it. He thought a plea bargain for a charge of passing secrets to a friendly nation would attract the appropriate sentence for that crime, not a sentence commensurate with treason. Shylock’s fate was forced conversion to Christianity; Pollard’s fate was abandonment by his community – many American Jews would “excommunicate” him if they could. Finally, after serving his unjust sentence he has been released and is now living in Israel.
If, as American politician Barry Goldwater argued, “moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”, and if there were some severe problems in the administration of justice when it comes to both Pollard and the fictional Shylock, there is a problem, that too many commentators have glossed over. The actions of Pollard and Shylock can be seen as neurotic responses to travesties of justice, rather than themselves being unjust. In Shylock’s case, look at what the Duke, who presided over the Court in Venice (before turning it over to Portia’s impersonation) had to say to Antonio, at the very start of the trial, about the other litigant:
“I am sorry for thee: thou art come to answer
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch.”
A Court this predisposed against him could not render justice to Shylock, and he knew it. That knowledge more than anything else explains why he turns aside an offer of three times the debt, and instead insists on his contractual “pound of flesh”. As he states in the quote at the start of this Chapter, having been called a “dog” without any cause, and since he has been pre-judged to be a dog, then, he states, “beware my fangs”.
The Jewish “dog”, says Shakespeare, is forced to seek salvation in justice because he cannot understand Christian concepts of mercy. Says Portia in the famous speech which starts with the words:
“The quality of mercy is not strained…”:
“And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence against the merchant there.”
Goldwater disagreed: Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Goldwater says that the Americans are with the Jews on this one.
This is the key to understanding our current cultural struggle against Islamism, and why the Americans and the Israelis are on one side, and most Europeans are on the other side. It is an issue of Justice and Liberty. Unfortunately, any Jew in England or France or Israel today who insists on Justice, may find himself descending into that particular madness of Shylock. Israel avoids this fate only because of its military and other elements of its power and is not as isolated as Shylock.
Given their situations, neither Pollard nor Shylock had any alternative to the courses of action they tried. If their sad fates are meant to serve as a warning, however, I think we should rethink the whole matter of just what the warning tells us. The reader might ask, “Understanding Shylock is one thing, but embracing him is surely going too far?” I respond: In embracing Shylock we are not condoning his acts of madness, but instead we are embracing him as he faces his horrible situation. We are showing mercy. We are showing mercy towards one whose very existence is marginalized by an anti-Semitic society that allows him only the occupation of a usurer. We are showing mercy to one who clings to Justice as his only friend, his only protector, even as it is clear that the rules of justice have been subverted, subverted by the Duke who at the outset of the trial calls him an “inhuman wretch” and then abdicates his judicial duties by turning over the decision-making to a supposed Roman doctor, who is actually Portia in disguise. The anti-Semite focuses on Shylock’s evil character. We focus on the evil character of the Justice system as described by Shakespeare. Surely, the Judge in the trial between Shylock and Antonio could simply have directed Shylock to accept the funds tendered by Bassanio and release the bond. Instead, Portia tricks Shylock by pointing out that his bond is only a pound of flesh and not any blood, so that it is impossible to take the flesh without causing bleeding, thus voiding this evil bond. Throughout the
Court scene, the Duke and Portia (in her disguise as Balthasar) subvert justice rather than carry it out. Poor Shylock – surely the modern mind realizes that his sanity has been jeopardized by the actions toward him; his actions and words are not as much the result of his evil character, or the evil Jewish character, as they are of the anti-Semitism of Venetian society.
And so we embrace him, embrace him for the pitiful example of what happens to the Jew who is powerless, who ceases even to recognize that it is ridiculous to insist on Justice in a world in which the justice system is itself corrupted and used against him. We embrace him because of what he tells us about the world today. Even in America, the left is weaponizing the justice system and using injustice such as lawfare and removal of candidates from the ballot. Israel in the United Nations is like Shylock in the Court of Venice. Jonathan Pollard in the American Court system in the time of Caspar Weinberger and CIA Director Bobby Ray Inman, was like Shylock in the Court of Venice. Israel, defending itself against Hezbollah and Hamas missiles aimed at Israeli civilians, is seen by much of the world as exacting its “pound of flesh” against the “innocent” Palestinian civilians, notwithstanding that these civilians had allowed Hezbollah and Hamas to use their apartment blocks as launching sites, and notwithstanding that Israel dropped warning leaflets before bombing the launching sites. Yet Shakespeare’s Shylock was powerless. In the end, he is forced to convert to Christianity. We do not embrace him for the sad fact of what was his fate in 16th century Venice; we embrace him because of what it tells us about 16th century Venice, about 20th century Europe, and now about 21st century Iran. The evil is not in the Jew; it is in the anti-Semite. The Duke characterizes Shylock as inhuman even as the trial begins. The mullahs of Iran characterize Israel as deserving of destruction as they prepare their nuclear weapons knowing that America is appeasing them. Shylock tried to adhere to Justice, but in his society, justice was not meant for the Jews. Israel tries to adhere to Justice, and then is told by the United Nations that it is a Shylock, it is vengeful, it uses “disproportionate force”, and its ruthless neighbours are hardly criticized.
We return to Shylock’s words:
“Thou calledst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:”
No we do not depart from our quest for Justice and Liberty, but be sure, if you make us into dogs, because of your animal conduct, beware our fangs. Yet here is the question: how do we use our fangs, in a just and productive manner? To use our fangs is to empower Shylock, and thus to transform him. Have we not learned anything from the history of the Holocaust and modern day Israel? Strength of the Jewish state, Israel, creates respect; Weakness conduces to anti-Semitism. It is that simple. Diaspora Jews must learn that lesson, above all. Respect does not come from our accomplishments; it does not come from our wealth. Look how quickly Europeans are turning on their Jews in the last few years. Shylock’s wealth did not save him. Only a strong Jewish state could inhibit the unjust actions of the corrupt Venetian Court. Only the option of removing himself entirely from their jurisdiction (to a jurisdiction where a Jew could obtain justice) would give Shylock the strength and sanity he lacked.
The late Isi Leibler, a heroic and wise former leader of Australian Jewry, who moved to Israel, wrote the following in the October 31, 2006 edition of the Jerusalem Post: “The reality is that when Israel is perceived as strong and able to stand up to its foes, anti-Semitism tends to decline. Public manifestations of Judeophobia reached their lowest point following the Six Day War. In contrast, the exponential revival of anti-Semitism can be traced back to the Oslo Accords, reaching its climax in the course of the Gaza disengagement and during the Lebanese war, which were perceived by our enemies as manifestations of weakness.
“Unlike the 1930s there is an Israel and it is not powerless in the face of anti-Semitism and, together with Jewish communities throughout the world, not least the influential American Jewish community, we can defend ourselves. But we must galvanize to confront the barbarians in the war of ideas with no less determination than our adoption of countermeasures against terrorists seeking to bleed us. The decision is ours.”
So, to answer the question, how do we use our fangs, in a just and productive manner: The fangs that ultimately protect every Jew around the world, every potential Shylock, are the fangs of the Israel Defence Forces, and the strength and wisdom of Israel’s political and military leaders, to keep Israel strong and safe, while at the same time upholding freedom and justice. We Diaspora Jews must give our support, both financial and moral, to keep Israel strong. Israel’s strength, then protects all Jews from future victimhood, and protects all Jews from becoming pathetic Shylocks. Yet strength is one thing; knowing when to use it is another. In other words, if we are constrained by our confusion, or by international pressures, from using our strength, we begin to lose it, and our enemies know this. Accordingly, we must examine the threshold issue of when to use our strength.
This is a particularly difficult question in an age of moral and cultural relativism, which is loath to label anyone as “evil” and holds that in all conflicts, there must be wrong on each side, there must be evil on both sides; otherwise there would have been some way to avoid the conflict, some negotiated settlement possible. For example, the relativists still see Israel as faulty as the Palestinians that there is no settlement of the dispute, notwithstanding that Israel has tried every type of offer, even vacating Gaza, only to have Palestinian violence and terrorism increase. An ideologically based reluctance to label any people or any leader as evil is the trend today. I am opposed to that trend, because I contend that the leader of Iran, with his holocaust-denial, his threats to create a nuclear bomb and “wipe out” Israel, is more than just “nasty”; I contend that he is evil, just as Hitler was evil. I know that my language is outside the norms of the language used by the post-modernists, the relativists and the politically correct. But that is because I take seriously the words of the Jewish Torah. In particular I take seriously the teaching concerning Amalek. In Deut. 25:17-19 we read: “Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.”
Rabbi Marc Gellman has written: “What made Amalek so dastardly was that unlike any other enemy who attacked the Israelites fleeing slavery in Egypt from the front, Amalek attacked the rear. This meant that his soldiers could kill women and children, the elderly and the infirm and in so doing avoid engagement with the soldiers at the front. In this way he could produce maximum carnage and maximum terror. The moral problem the Bible addresses is that this is not warfare, it is the slaughter of innocents—it is terrorism.”
Rabbi Gellman concludes: “Why, I wondered, would God command us to remember the terrorist Amalek? There are other villains in the Bible, but there is no biblical command to remember Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar, or Cyrus. We are commanded only to remember Amalek… Indeed our remembrance of Amalek is combined with a chilling pledge from God that is also unique in the Bible: ‘The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation’ (Exod. 17:16). Our enemies are just our enemies except if our enemy is Amalek. In that case our enemy is also the enemy of God. Amalek thus becomes the symbol of terrorism in every generation. He is the symbol not of evil but of radical evil. In our generation Amalek is alive and well.”
And so the Jewish people have faced an Amalek in every generation. In my father’s generation, he was Hitler; in my generation, he is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. We are commanded, not to seek out what might be good with such Amaleks, not to try to appease and negotiate with such Amaleks, but we are commanded to “blot” them out, that is, to wipe them out. When doing so, we shall try to minimize the death or injury of innocent civilians, but we are commanded to do so, and do so we must. Then we must never lose sight of the distinction that our armies, uniformed and
subject to the laws of warfare, are morally different from non-uniformed terrorists who fight under the cover of their own civilians and intentionally attack our weakest, that is, our women, children and old people. Amalek represents the terrorists; the moral world must defeat Amalek, must defeat the terrorists, and must understand that failure to use our strength is not a moral position.
Shylock failed to understand the evil of the pseudo-justice system of the Venetian Court, and that is why he submitted his case to it. So many of use today fail to understand the evil of Radical Islam and that is why some of us submit to it or fail to meet it with the strength and determination required. Let us not make Shylock’s mistake. Let us understand the lesson of the Torah that when we face an evil, we must call it an evil, and we must blot it out as we have been commanded to do.
Relying on an unjust court system is, as Steve Apfel argues in the quote that starts this essay, “naive”.
Howard Rotberg is the author of The Second Catastrophe: A Novel About a Book and its Author; Tolerism: The Ideology Revealed; The Ideological Path to Submission; and the forthcoming Second Generation Radical; The World Through One Man’s Second Generation Lens, from which this essay is excerpted.
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Indian journalists, including Muslims from Kashmir, tour Israel
“It was important to bring this group to see the truth firsthand so that they bring this story to millions of their readers and followers.”
Etgar Lefkovits https://www.jns.org/indian-journalists-including-muslims-from-kashmir-tour-israel/
Sajid Yousuf Shah, head of media for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party in Kashmir, visits Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Jan. 16, 2024. Credit: Sharaka
(January 19, 2024 / JNS) A delegation of Indian journalists and social media influencers, including three Muslim writers from Kashmir, are in Israel on a weeklong media tour in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the three-month-old war in Gaza as Israel seeks to bolster its case in the world of public opinion.
The group, which also includes an Afghan journalist living in exile in Germany, is visiting amid a bitter media war over the narrative of the war with the Islamic terrorist organization in Gaza and growing international focus on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Hamas uses civilian buildings to launch attacks from densely populated urban areas.
“How do I stop the support for the evil things that Hamas has done,” Yana Mir, Kashmir’s first Muslim female blogger, told JNS in an interview.
Mir has been threatened for her support for Israel in Muslim-dominated Kashmir.
She said that reading a children’s book at the age of nine about the birth of Christianity changed her worldview and put her at odds with the universal teaching in Kashmir that Israel is the land of the Muslims.
“How can Israelis and Jews occupy their own land?” Mir asked. Of the Oct. 7 massacre that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and triggered the war, she said, “Now in our era, Jews are being exterminated again.”
Columnist Irfan Ali Pirjade added, “We felt the parallels with what Hamas is doing after visiting the [Yad Vashem] Holocaust Museum.”
“I am Muslim, but Jews deserve life and dignity,” said Sajid Yousuf Shah, the founder and CEO of The Real Kashmir News who now serves as media head of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Kashmir. “It’s not a matter of land but a matter of existence.”
He noted that his mother and uncle were killed in Kashmir by Islamist terrorists in front of his four-year-old cousin.
Educational tour
The weeklong study visit, which was funded by an Israeli NGO, included time at hard-hit southern kibbutzim attacked by Hamas, which have become a focus of war tours, and the traditional tourist stops at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Center and the Knesset in Jerusalem.
“Especially during these times, it was important for us to bring this group of journalists and social media influencers to see the truth firsthand so that they bring this story to millions of their readers and followers in India,” said Amit Deri, chairman of Sharaka (“Partnership” in Arabic), an Israeli NGO founded after the Abraham Accords were signed that seeks to shape a new Middle East built on dialogue, understanding, cooperation and friendship.
The Afghan journalist on the delegation, Abdulhaq Omeri, said that he had no clue before the visit that Muslims make up 20% of Israeli citizens, noting that he was pleasantly pleased to freely visit the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and hear the Muslim call to prayer by the muezzin, things that he did not think were possible.
Swati Goel Sharma, an editor at “Swarajya” magazine in India, visits Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Jan. 16, 2024. Credit: Sharaka.
News cycle moved on
“People have forgotten the brutality of October 7 with the relentless propaganda of the media,” said Swati Goel Sharma, an editor at Swarajya magazine who is Hindu.
She said that while the Qatari-based Al Jazeera television network openly picks a side in the conflict, the Western media was more deceptive in their pretense of reporting on both sides’ perspectives.
The Indian journalist noted that the majority Hindu India was largely supportive of Israel, with the exception of the upper class and the cinema world, which follow the cue of the American left.
“Not too many people in Bollywood have an understanding about Israel, but if [American actress] Susan Sarandon says something about Jews or Israel then it’s fashionable,” Sharma said.
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Torah’s blueprint for the Simchat Torah war
The war is one scene in the biblical story of Jacob’s return from exile and his taking on an Israeli identity.
Shlomo Vile https://www.jns.org/the-torahs-blueprint-for-the-simchat-torah-war/
(January 18, 2024 / JNS) Knowing that we’re in a biblical story can help make us less anxious. Knowing where we are in the story and what needs to happen next can help cement our commitment to wiping out Hamas and moving us toward the story’s glorious conclusion.
Jacob’s return is the central theme of the Torah portion Vayishlach (Genesis 32-36), and it is the prototype for all the subsequent returns of the Jewish people from exile. The modern return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel closely follows the Genesis prototype. In the story, when Jacob returns to the land of his fathers, he is renamed Israel. Curiously, he is renamed Israel twice in two separate incidents.
The first renaming: All-night wrestling match
The first renaming takes place after Jacob wrestles all night with the angel of his brother, Esau. In the wake of this struggle, the angel renames Jacob. “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.” In this first renaming, the meaning of the name Israel is given explicitly in the Torah text: “You have wrestled with Gods and with men and prevailed.”
Our sages associated Esau with Rome and with Christian Europe. The wrestling match between the Jewish people and Christian Europe was indeed a dark night of struggle, culminating in the darkest night of the Holocaust.
Even after the Holocaust ended in 1945, the Jewish people still had to struggle with Great Britain to gain its independence. In 1945, the British Empire spanned the globe; it was the Esauian power of the day. The Jewish underground organizations waged an intense and bloody struggle with Britain in order to gain independence. In the biblical story, Jacob did not destroy Esau’s angel, but the angel “could not prevail” over him (Genesis 32:16). So too, the Jewish underground guerrillas did not destroy Great Britain, but they convinced Britain to leave and allow the Jews to create an independent state named Israel.
The second renaming, Part 1: Rape and kidnapping of Dina
The second time that Jacob is renamed Israel, he is renamed by God. But first, Jacob and his family have to deal with the rape and kidnapping of Jacob’s daughter by the prince of the city of Shechem (Genesis 34).
When we read this section of the Torah—most recently, the week of Nov. 26—the story had a disturbing resonance with current events. Rape and kidnapping were central to what happened on Oct. 7.
The second renaming, Part II: Shimon and Levi wipe out Shechem and look bad to the neighbors
The two sons of Jacob—Levi and Shimon—were the elite commandos of Jacob’s 12 sons. They kill every male inhabitant of Shechem, and they successfully rescue their sister.
Right now, every Jew around the world who treasures their Jewish identity is hoping and praying for two outcomes of war that are unmistakably similar: the utter destruction of Hamas; and the rescue of our sisters and brothers who were kidnapped.
Jacob voices two criticisms of Shimon and Levi for their actions. The first criticism (עֲכַרְתֶּ֣ם אֹתִי֒) is explained by the 13th-century sage, Rabeinu Bahaya, to mean that Shimon and Levi appear to the surrounding people as having spilled innocent blood. The 11th-century commentator Rashi, says that the term indicates that Jacob’s mind was clouded by what Shimon and Levi did.
The second criticism (הַבְאִישֵׁ֙נִי֙) means that Shimon and Levi’s actions made Jacob’s family smell rotten to the surrounding people.
It is uncanny how accurately these terms characterize the negative impact of the war on Israel’s image in the world. The world is accusing us of killing innocent Gazans, and Israel’s image in most of the world’s media stinks right now.
In response to these concerns, Shimon and Levi ask their father: “Shall we allow our sister to be turned into a prostitute?”
Have you seen the videos and heard the witnesses describe what happened on Oct. 7? Can we allow our sisters and brothers to be raped/murdered/mutilated in such a horrific and degrading way? Can we allow the fear of not looking good to the world to cloud our minds and prevent us from doing what must be done to destroy Hamas?
The second renaming, Part III: Idolatrous conceptions are buried
In the next scene of the Genesis story, Jacob has his family undergo a spiritual cleansing in which they relinquish and bury their false idols.
So, too, the belief that Israel can live in peace with a Palestinian state needs to be buried. The belief that we can rely on technology for our security needs to be buried. These and other false conceptions that have guided Israel’s leaders over the last three decades need to be rejected and buried.
The second renaming, Part IV: Israel achieves security and God-awareness grows
In the next verses of the biblical narrative, we learn that the neighboring people felt fear of God and did not pursue Jacob’s family (Genesis 35:5). Wiping out Shechem instilled a fear of God in the surrounding people and provided Jacob’s family with security.
So, too, in the current story, destroying Hamas is a prerequisite to Israel’s security. This war truly is a second War of Independence.
More than that, the story implies that a heightened global awareness of God will follow in the wake of Israel’s destruction of Hamas.
The second renaming, Part V: Israel rises to leadership
God renames Jacob as Israel. The meaning of Israel here, according to Rashi, is a prince or a leader. In this second renaming, Israel’s stature is elevated in the world. Israel and the Jewish people are looked up to for leadership and guidance.
For the last 100 years, we have been living in the biblical story of the return of our forefather Jacob to the land of Israel and his taking on Israeli identity, and we are now reaching the climax of that story.
My hope in writing this article is that everyone reading this can feel more at ease in these unsettled times, knowing that we’re living out an old story with a glorious ending.
Secondly, I hope that knowing where we are in the story can strengthen our nation’s commitment to fulfilling the two conditions necessary to reach that glorious ending:
The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
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Ultra-Orthodox will be able to maintain empty kibbutzim and settlements in the south and north within the framework of the purity of the holy place.
Emuna and Dancing with the IDF near Gaza
JerusalemCats Comments: YES! Each kibbutzim and settlement will have a Yeshiva and Jews will be able to Learn Torah, Dance and Sing to Hashem beside guard the Land and People of Israel!
berale_crombie-tweet-1February2024-ultra-Orthodox will maintain empty kibbutzim and settlements
מקור בכיר במשרד הביטחון אומר לי: בחודשים הקרובים החסר של חיילים בצבא יגיע ל-2500. אנחנו שוברים את הראש איך מביאים עוד חיילים בלי למוטט את המשק והאפיק היחידי שעומד כרגע על הפרק הוא הציבור החרדי. לדבריו חרדים יוכלו לשמור על קיבוצים וישובים ריקים בדרום ובצפון במסגרת על טהרת הקודש.
A senior source in the Ministry of Defense tells me: in the coming months the shortage of soldiers in the army will reach 2500. We are racking our brains on how to bring in more soldiers without collapsing the economy and the only channel that is currently on the agenda is the ultra-orthodox public. According to him, ultra-Orthodox will be able to maintain empty kibbutzim and settlements in the south and north within the framework of the purity of the holy place.
berale_crombie-tweet-1February2024-ultra-Orthodox will maintain empty kibbutzim and settlements
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THE CONTINUING STORY…November 15, 2023 https://www.nbn.org.il/stories/standing-with-israel-physician-volunteers-from-overseas/
Standing with Israel: Physician Volunteers from Overseas
With continued stress on Israel’s national healthcare system, Nefesh B’Nefesh, together with Israel’s Ministries of Health and Aliyah as well as The Jewish Agency for Israel, is working to help alleviate the nation’s physician shortage
Nefesh B’Nefesh -Standing with Israel: Physician Volunteers from Overseas
Jerusalem, November 15, 2023 – In response to Israel’s pressing healthcare challenges during wartime, Nefesh B’Nefesh has been collaborating with the Israeli Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and The Jewish Agency for Israel on assembling a comprehensive database of thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish physician volunteers from around the world. The Iron Swords War has heightened the demand for additional medical professionals in Israel, particularly in areas affected by the conflict in the south and north and this new initiative serves as an immediate solution for the shortage.
Designed to immediately bolster Israel’s national healthcare system, this extensive database includes essential information about the volunteers’ medical specialties, Hebrew-language proficiency and the documentation necessary to expedite the process for obtaining a temporary Israeli medical license. This enables the physicians to begin volunteering in hospitals and medical facilities around the country as quickly and efficiently as possible. Each participating physician will generously dedicate an average of two weeks of their time, although some may choose to extend their stay to provide longer-term assistance.
If you are a physician from overseas who would like to volunteer in Israel, click the button below.
Physician Volunteer Application
American Jewish medical professionals seen at Galli Medical Center as they volunteer to help Israel’s medical system during the war.
“Supporting Israel’s healthcare system and finding an immediate solution for the physician shortage is extremely vital today,” said Tony Gelbart, Chairman and Co-Founder of Nefesh B’Nefesh. “We are honored to lead this joint initiative, in order to immediately provide Israel with essential care while alleviating the pressure on the nation’s healthcare system in areas where assistance is most urgently needed. In addition, Nefesh B’Nefesh is exploring ways to help solve Israel’s long-term physician shortage as part of a broader strategic plan.”
“The Israeli healthcare system is one of the best in the world, and its remarkable capabilities were demonstrated as soon as the war broke out. At present, we see great importance in strengthening our medical system with highly skilled, value-oriented, Zionist professionals who seek to tie their fate with that of the State of Israel,” said Israel’s Minister of Health, Uriel Buso. “These physicians are offering to help from a deep sense of national mission and love of the people and the Jewish homeland. I thank the doctors who have volunteered to come and help Israel and who are embodying the expression of ‘all of Israel are bound to each other’ in the purest of ways. And I’d like to especially thank Nefesh B’Nefesh, the Jewish Agency, and the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration for their cooperation on this blessed issue.”
“The support, solidarity, and rallying of our Jewish brothers in the Diaspora, in general, and in North America, in particular, during the war, is very heartfelt and strengthens the State of Israel,” said Minister of Aliyah and Integration, MK Ofir Sofer. “I want to thank them and salute them for helping our healthcare system by saving the lives of our soldiers as well as the civilians on the home front. Together with all the partners in the project – the Ministries of Aliyah and Integration and Health, Nefesh B’Nefesh, and the Jewish Agency – the people of Israel will win.”
“The mobilization of the Jewish communities in support of the State of Israel, at this difficult time, is particularly moving and strengthens us all,” said Maj.-Gen (ret.) Doron Almog, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. The physicians who have come to volunteer in the Israeli healthcare system and the volunteers from the Jewish communities who are working side by side with the Israelis in essential fields throughout the country, are a tremendous display of strength and resilience.”
Over seventy physicians from various specialties, including emergency and urgent medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, pediatrics, cardiology, orthopedics and psychiatry have already arrived in Israel and additional doctors are expected to arrive in the coming weeks as needed. These doctors have integrated into medical centers throughout the country, including Ichilov, Barzilai, Soroka, Beilinson, Hadassah, Rambam, Shamir, Galil Medical Center, and the Magen David Adom Association. There is a particular emphasis on centers in combat areas, such as Sderot and Ashkelon.
This first-of-its-kind program has been made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of The Marcus Foundation, an organization committed to making a difference in the lives of countless individuals and communities.
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