tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64892909135085753562024-02-06T19:45:01.780-08:00American Trial Attorneys in Defense of IsraelA Los Angeles litigator courageously stands in solidarity with Israel: channeling his aggressive zealous advocacy on behalf of Israel. Defending the State of Israel's: right to exist, right to protect her citizens from terrorism, right to defend her borders from hostile enemies. Prosecuting and impeaching Israel's defamers.BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comBlogger14442125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-26230871238199148462023-11-05T09:09:00.002-08:002023-11-05T09:09:23.889-08:00Anatomy of a College Brainwashing: How UCI Makes Students Empathize with Hamas and Hate Israel The kids don’t know what is hitting them. DOV FISCHERAnatomy of a College Brainwashing:
How UCI Makes Students Empathize with Hamas and Hate Israel
The kids don’t know what is hitting them.
DOV FISCHER
November 2, 2023, 8:36 PM
We all know that the colleges turn good Christian and Jewish children from good homes with good values and love of G-d and country into America-hating G-dless woke progressives. They come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and parents hardly can believe their visitors are the children they reared for 18 years, taught, and cherished. “What happened to my son or daughter?” they ask. “I just signed on for four years at $60,000 a year for the precious child of my life to get a world-class mind-expanding college education and to dorm on campus. What did they do to my child? How did they destroy 12 years of education and home values? How do they brainwash kids?”
Here is an example.
READ MORE from Dov Fischer: The Brooklyn College Black-Jewish Jukebox Riot of 1970
I know the University of California, Irvine, very well. It is a seven-minute drive from my home and congregation. I taught at their law school for six years and was one of their most popular professors. My subjects there were Remedies and Advanced Torts. Students begged to get into my class. I have documentation: six years of stellar student reviews. I was so popular that students persuaded the administration to allow me to create a brand-new course in American Law and Jewish Legal Issues, as a sort-of expansion beyond other courses on law of interest to Black and Muslim students. I worked 200 hours on preparing that course proposal. We went through all the channels. The course finally was approved by the deans. Students were ready to sign up. And then the course never was offered.
Nor was I ever allowed an opportunity to be considered for a tenure-track position. Rather, I was an adjunct, invited to teach courses on a temporary year-to-year basis, with no employee benefits. I was hired by the extreme-leftist Erwin Chemerinsky, the soft-spoken radical who backs packing the Supreme Court with as many leftist judges as needed to reverse the conservative majority. He knew I am a conservative and an Orthodox rabbi, and he would not consider me for tenure track. I had all the qualifications for a tenure-track position: I had graduated from a nationally ranked Top 15 law school, UCLA Law. Not only had I done Moot Court and made law review, but I even was chief articles editor of the UCLA Law Review. Not only had I spent time under a judge, but I clerked in the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit for one of the nation’s top appellate judges and unquestionably the smartest, Danny J. Boggs of Louisville, Kentucky. Judge Boggs rose to be chief judge of the appellate circuit and even was on George H.W. Bush’s short list when he ultimately named Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Moreover, I had actual real-life law experience by litigating nearly a decade at two of the nation’s highest-rated law firms, Jones Day and Akin Gump. My clients included the biggest corporate names: Experian, AT&T, Samsung, and so many more. I was overqualified to teach at the new law school. But I was a political conservative, so all that was nullified. Only years later did Erwin’s disgustingly corrupt and dishonest hiring practices become public knowledge. Watch this one-minute video, posted by Christopher Rufo, in which the churlish cheating Chemerinsky tells an entire class at University of Berkeley Law School that he proudly lies, defrauds, and covers up his dishonesty and bigotry when it comes to hiring or refusing faculty, based on race and ethnicity:
When the pandemic hit and my lungs degraded, UCI stopped inviting me to teach. Dozens of law students wrote me, asking where I was, why I was not back. No answer could be given until today — and here.
So I know UCI and how it operates, brainwashing students by enveloping them in an all-leftist environment. I still keep tabs on UCI, particularly its college and its School of Law. Several years ago, a bunch of Arab and Muslim students infamously disrupted a speech by Israel’s ambassador to America, Michael Oren. The thing is that Orange County still has enough of a conservative Republican presence not to stand for the garbage that goes on in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Ithaca and Manhattan, New York. So, although the UCI college president wimped out, the district attorney of Orange County brought criminal charges against 11 of the wild animals who disrupted Ambassador Oren. That gutsy move by the off-campus Orange County DA put an end to it, and no Arab Muslim UCI student ever again has done that. Yet, in that heated environment, the anti-Semitic Muslim Arab organization CAIR came out in support of the prosecuted 11 animals, and I was invited to debate a national CAIR leader in two televised debates:
YouTube video player
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQnLrCxJHMY&t=15s&ab_channel=DovFischer
YouTube video player
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aen9mL1AmC8&t=43s&ab_channel=DovFischer
The poison remains at UCI, and it reared its ugly head at this latest leftist anti-Israel brainwashing event titled: “Ask a UCI Professor: Israel-Palestine Conflict 101.”
That sounds academically fruitful, doesn’t it? “Ask a UCI Professor: Israel-Palestine Conflict 101.” Sounds like an opportunity to learn. But at UCI it is a scheme to brainwash.
The key: Ask which professors. These were the four: a Muslim Arab who hates Israel. Another Muslim Arab who hates Israel….
Hmmm. That calls for balance, does it not? And balance there was:
A Jewish professor who hates Israel. And another Jewish professor — this one an Israeli who has a long record of attacking Israel.
Imagine college kids coming to such a program. They hear one professor after another attack Israel, distort history, say things about Israel that are lies, things about a phony entity fraudulently called “Palestine” and about Arabs who fraudulently call themselves “Palestinians.” The concern is not that Jews have been murdered, slaughtered, butchered, beheaded, raped, with pregnant women cut open live and their fetuses torn out of them, then burned, and then the women burned. That is not the day’s concern. Understand who these four snakes are:
One is sometimes Mark “Levine,” when he wants to attack Israel and intensify the attack by conveying that even a Jew hates Israel. And when he wants to hide the Jewish roots of which he is ashamed, he goes by Mark LeVine, professor of history, as though he is French. He ain’t French. He has been cited several times by Campus Watch for his Israel hate. As professor Steven Plaut wrote:
While hardly the only Israel-hating extremist at UCI, LeVine has built an academic career on it in a way that others have not. There are few anti-Israel or pro-jihad events at UCI in which he is not somehow involved. LeVine regularly addresses the anti-Semitic Hate Rallies at UCI organized by the student supporters of Hezb’Allah and al-Qaeda, in which Jews are denounced as “Zio-nazis.” LeVine rationalizes and defends the UCI intifada, and blames violence and tensions at the UCI campus on the malevolent Zionist Lobby….
LeVine routinely organizes anti-Israel “scholarly conferences” at UCI, which are little more than anti-Israel indoctrination camps. No dissident pro-Israel opinion may be expressed in them. The standard LeVine format is to include Arab haters of Israel alongside Israeli far-leftist anti-Israel radicals, and then present the invariable bashing of Israel as the consensus position of both Jews and Arabs seeking peace. Among the Israelis who have been included in LeVine “panels” have been Oren Yiftachel, a geographer and fanatic anti-Zionist from Ben Gurion University, best known for his endless rants against Israeli “apartheid,” and Yoav Peled, a hard-core Stalinist Israeli professor of Political Science from Tel Aviv University.
One former UCI student even devoted an entire blog to exposing the lies against Israel taught by Mark Levine of the vine.
The Israeli, Liron Mor? More poison. She endorsed a hate Israel book.
Meryem Kamil
And this!
She signed as “Liron Mor, Cornell Students for Justice in Palestine.”
On another Hate Israel list, she is #136 on “Elephant in the Room.” The aforementioned Mark LeVine is #1256.
That’s the second of the 2 Jewish presenters. Now for their “cousins”:
Yousuf Al-Bulushi wrote this: “In World War II, the Nazis were the obvious aggressors, occupying a foreign land illegally. In present-day Israel and occupied Palestine, it is Israel that is the aggressor…”
Thus, Israel is to be equated with Nazi Germany. Get it?
As for Meryem Kamil, she likewise has attacked Israel’s “occupation of Palestinian land.”
Imagine: a college student, perhaps your son or daughter, perhaps your grandchild or nephew or niece, attending such a Hate Israel Fest without realizing that is what it is. On another day, your child, grandchild, or other young relative attends another such UCI program aimed not at hating Israel and loving Hamas-ISIS rapists, beheaders, and terrorists but at hating our America. A full day to hate America. In their classes, they are assigned to read books that hate America on reading lists aimed at hating America. They teach such hate in history class, sociology class, philosophy class, political science class, and even in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) courses.
The kids do not even know what is hitting them, that they are not being educated but are part of a coordinated nationwide effort at brainwashing peons. Then they come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, transformed. They no longer are the children you brought to church or temple every weekend and holy day. The child you had baptized or circumcised. The one who loved America and the values you taught at home. They are lost to you. You will never have them back. In the left-wing nationwide college invasion of the body snatchers, they have been seized, their minds and souls emptied.
That is what is going on today on America’s campuses. How is it done? You just read it.
Rabbi Fischer’s two memorial programs and prayer services for Israel in the face of the Hamas–Gaza massacre may be found on YouTube here and here. Because they contain video and photos taken by Hamas at the massacre, YouTube is restricting viewing of the service exclusively to individuals over 18. What they lack in production values, they make up for in heart and soul.BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-87286033605618121412023-11-05T09:04:00.004-08:002023-11-05T09:04:25.847-08:00Unethical Gaza Reporting Cuts Crucial Context by Noah Beck Special to IPT News November 5, 2023<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unethical Gaza Reporting Cuts Crucial Context</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><b>by Noah Beck<br /><i>Special to IPT News</i><br />November 5, 2023</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The adage that "journalism is the first draft of history" understates the impact that journalists have on the present, given that their reporting can change perceptions and public discourse in a way that shapes the history being recorded in that first draft.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The media's ethical duties and challenges are among the greatest when it comes to reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an issue plagued by misinformation and disinformation, and where passions are inflamed by reports that can quickly affect events on the ground. Compounding those concerns is the broader geopolitical context of reporting in the Middle East, a volatile region of proxy wars, terrorism by state and non-state actors, and nuclear weapons and proliferation.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Failures to adhere to journalistic standards can perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by creating a moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel that leads global public opinion and world leaders to pressure Israel into allowing <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12623843/Israel-releases-images-babies-murdered-burned-Hamas-verified-photos-beheaded-terrorists-confirmed-local-media-IDF-drops-Gaza-leaflets-telling-citizens-flee.html&source=gmail&ust=1699289023640000&usg=AOvVaw1c4Vyn8nEflTGAeFUT_KhE" href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12623843/Israel-releases-images-babies-murdered-burned-Hamas-verified-photos-beheaded-terrorists-confirmed-local-media-IDF-drops-Gaza-leaflets-telling-citizens-flee.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">a baby-burning terror group</a> at its doorstep to prepare for the next round of war, within months after the latest round of violence, rather than allowing Israel to defeat Hamas once and for all.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Through defamatory allegations of "genocide," anti-Israel activists add to the global pressure on Israel that prevents it from militarily eliminating the Hamas threat, a necessary step towards any improvement in the lives of both Gazans and Israelis, given Hamas' commitment to killing all of the Jews in the world (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/&source=gmail&ust=1699289023640000&usg=AOvVaw1Xc_b6CdB03o6t_GImqhOO" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">as the organization clearly states in its charter</a>). So while activists and the media outlets that quote them (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/13/israel-hamas-live-iran-says-new-fronts-may-open-if-gaza-bombing-continues&source=gmail&ust=1699289023640000&usg=AOvVaw0M1HM4HHqdYScBZsCXZkwm" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/13/israel-hamas-live-iran-says-new-fronts-may-open-if-gaza-bombing-continues" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">like Al Jazeera</a>) ignore the very genocidal elements in Hamas' foundational document, they will absurdly allege that Israel is engaged in a "genocide" against Gaza, but never explain why such a powerful army needs nearly two decades and multiple wars to accomplish this "genocide," when the Israeli military could easily do so in a day.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It is Israel's own extraordinarily high ethical standards that have prevented it from committing "genocide," despite countless vicious Hamas attacks whose barbarism has gotten progressively worse over the last few decades, culminating in the October 7th slaughter of 1,400 Israelis, which is the equivalent of almost 52,000 deaths in the USA – about seventeen September 11s in one day, or about 1.3 times the 39,000 people killed by the nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. And the horrific savagery of those murders even in far smaller numbers would likely prompt most militaries in the world to act far more aggressively and decisively than Israel has thus far. Indeed, it is the many battlefield advantages that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) concedes to its enemies, in order to comply with the IDF's exceptionally high ethical code, that have led observers, including British military expert and war hero Richard Kemp, to note that the IDF is the most moral army in the world. In the October 9, 2009 debate on the infamous Goldstone Report issued in the wake of Operation Cast Lead, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://unwatch.org/issue-208-british-hero-military-expert-tells-u-n-idf-moral-army-history-warfare/&source=gmail&ust=1699289023640000&usg=AOvVaw0RUidJUMd54dU-_MydZQMO" href="https://unwatch.org/issue-208-british-hero-military-expert-tells-u-n-idf-moral-army-history-warfare/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Colonel Kemp asserted that "</a><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://unwatch.org/issue-208-british-hero-military-expert-tells-u-n-idf-moral-army-history-warfare/&source=gmail&ust=1699289023640000&usg=AOvVaw0RUidJUMd54dU-_MydZQMO" href="https://unwatch.org/issue-208-british-hero-military-expert-tells-u-n-idf-moral-army-history-warfare/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare."</a></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Yet journalists quickly forget these ethically crucial details and too often fail to provide critical context for those trying to gain a meaningful understanding of the conflict and the moral character of each side. And the international community – fueled by the unethical and/or sloppy reporting of so many journalists – forces Israel into accepting military half-measures that simply bring a temporary "quiet" to the region. Tragically, the international pressure for cease fires that allow the root problem of Hamas to fester have proven to be utterly counterproductive, even from the perspective of those claiming to care about the Palestinians, because leaving Hamas in power condemns Gazans to indefinite suffering with only brief respites that end as soon as Hamas decides once again to launch violent attacks against its northern neighbor.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But bad journalism does more than perpetuate the conflict – it actually aggravates it. By omitting crucial context or publishing inflammatory rumors rather than verified facts, the news media fuel a dangerous strategy preferred by Palestinians: inciting fury on the Arab street (often by <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/348728&source=gmail&ust=1699289023640000&usg=AOvVaw1ojttxO39eRutSrjqNG4zY" href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/348728" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">claiming that Jews are endangering the Al-Aqsa mosque</a> or grossly exaggerating Palestinian casualty figures, as with the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2002/05/03/jenin-the-truth/5c71e68f-fa63-43d2-b0a2-2b39c3774f05/&source=gmail&ust=1699289023640000&usg=AOvVaw0hxn96LnEKKt2NfTesGfgU" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2002/05/03/jenin-the-truth/5c71e68f-fa63-43d2-b0a2-2b39c3774f05/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">2002 libelously labeled "massacre" in Jenin</a>). The more the Arab street is enraged by misleadingly incomplete or patently false news, the more likely an already combustible situation can quickly spin out of control, with more attacks on Israel by "lone-wolf" attackers, terrorist groups, and/or Arab states feeling public pressure to jump into the fray (as is the current concern with Lebanon, a failed state that is effectively ruled by the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah).</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">And even when the conflict of the day finally calms down, after however many lives have been lost and billions of dollars of damage has been done, the unethical news reports disseminated during the war will have still left their mark on the hearts and minds of the whole region and beyond, making it that much harder for Arab regimes to support any long-term peace agreement and/or apply any pressure on the Palestinians regarding their intransigence, incitement and terrorism.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As the saying goes, a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can put its pants on. So when the hastily written first draft of history, produced without proper context or verification, travels far and wide, the damage is done. On the rare occasions that the news media admit their mistakes, there are no massive protests assembled on college campuses and in major cities around the world to vocally apologize for all of the previous marches and condemnations based on bad journalism. The United Nations doesn't retract any of its statements or resolutions that were issued in the wake of biased reporting.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">When a crafty lawyer manages to display inadmissible evidence before a jury, the judge will instruct the jury to disregard that information, but every psychologist knows that the jurors' minds have been impacted in a way that cannot be easily undone. Similarly, the harms of unethical journalism inflicted upon Israel, a tiny, embattled democracy, persist long after the conflict being reported on has ended.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tomorrow, we will detail the many reasons why Hamas is an extremely unreliable source and examine 8 examples of how different media outlets handle this fact when reporting on the latest death tolls in Gaza in part 2 of this story, <i>Why Hamas is an Unreliable Source and How Many Reporters Fail to Disclose This</i>.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Noah Beck is the author of The Last Israelis, an apocalyptic novel about Iranian nukes and other geopolitical issues in the Middle East.</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Copyright © 2023. Investigative Project on Terrorism. All rights reserved.</p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-3964008814443244332023-11-05T08:49:00.007-08:002023-11-05T09:06:13.677-08:00Why Israel? Why invest your life in a country that faces such dangers? NATAN SLIFKINWhy Israel? Why invest your life in a country that faces such dangers?
NATAN SLIFKIN
Lately, I’ve been struggling with the question, Why have Israel? How does it make sense? Why would I raise my children in a country with so many threats, with so many dangers - and raise them to serve in the defense forces, with all the added risks entailed? Some people say that God is on our side, but unless He has issued a new update since October 7th, I am not reassured. The picture above, from my daughter’s IDF ceremony, fills me with pride; but the thought of my oldest son being in this ceremony in two years also fills me with dread.
Obviously, it’s October 7th which brought this into sharp focus. But there were people discussing this question even beforehand. A few years ago, Daniel Gordis wrote a book titled Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End. He spells out the problems with brutal realism: No realistic chance of peace with the Palestinians, Hezbollah and Hamas amassing weapons, a huge Israeli-Arab population which is largely hostile, Iran and others striving for nuclear weapons. Why does it make sense for us to do this?
When the State of Israel was originally conceived, some thought it would cause antisemitism to cease. We can all see that as a joke; it’s just provided antisemitism with a new mask. Many consider that the goal of Israel was to provide safety, and some still say that they believe that Israel is the safest place for a Jew to live. Unfortunately, while Israel might psychologically feel safe, the objective reality is that it is certainly far from the safest place. The odds of being harmed by a terrorist outside of Israel are extraordinarily low; the chances of being hit by a missile or being nuked are virtually non-existent. The same cannot be said for living in Israel.
But we don’t always choose the safest places to live or the safest things to do. Life is about more than maximizing lifespan and minimizing risk. Life has to have meaning.
Daniel Gordis provides other goals and functions of Israel, to which I would like to add some of my own. Here they are, in no particular order.
Israel is an opportunity to show ourselves and others what the Jewish People can do when we have sovereignty. What has thousands of years of Torah and the Jewish experience done to condition us, and how is it expressed when we finally have a nation? In the 75 years of the State’s existence, we have accomplished so many things, in so many areas. Whether it’s incredible “social capital,” amazing accomplishments of an idealistic society, technological innovation, assistance for other countries, rescuing other Jews and absorbing astonishing numbers of immigrants, Israel’s accomplishments are extraordinary - especially against the backdrop of the dismal failures of the rest of the Middle East.
Israel is our ancestral homeland. Mayim Bialik, in a recent video bemoaning the rampant Judeopathy in the US and the dangers she sees for her son entering college, says, “I feel like a stranger in my own country.” No Jew feels like a stranger in Israel, no matter how poor their Modern Hebrew. We are connected here to an astonishing three thousand years of history and ongoing presence in the land.
Israel’s care for Jews is guaranteed. Any Jew, anywhere in the world, has a country that is not only his ancestral homeland, but which will welcome him to live in it. And if Jews are in trouble, anywhere in the world, Israel will try to help, with the resources that only a state can provide.
Israel creates a message of hope, even amidst despair. The creation of the State of Israel - with UN approval! - after two thousand years of exile and persecution is the greatest miracle of recent history. Its timing, a few years after the unimaginable devastation of the Holocaust, was utterly revitalizing. And since its creation, there have been many more examples of hope amidst despair - the military victories of ‘48 and ‘67, the Entebbe rescue, even the rescue of Ori Megidish last week. No, things don’t always work out. But the track record means that we have reason to hope that they will. We can’t be certain that God will perform miracles, but in this country He does so pretty often.
These are just some of the reasons why Israel is so important and valuable. Feel free to add more.BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-65004741622741627692023-11-02T07:39:00.002-07:002023-11-02T07:39:13.718-07:00Latest News and Comments on War of Hamas-ISIS Extinction<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">The mainstream news media are focused now on the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. </span><em style="color: #202020; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">So am I.</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;"> And yet we are focused on two different universes. I am focused on the humanitarian tragedy that sees 240 people snatched from Israel being held as hostages by Hamas. Remember that the people of Gaza freely elected Hamas to lead them. They keep electing them. Polls show that they support them almost unanimously. When Hamas murders Jews, the "poor innocent civilians" in Gaza</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;"> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D107c0b88bd%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw0TPegehoJuwjqiSIQS0nzi" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=107c0b88bd&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;" target="_blank">dance </a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">in the streets,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;"> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D282da0e796%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw3z4G6kOkiDXBwxGGYcArin" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=282da0e796&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;" target="_blank">celebrate</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">, and distribute candies.</span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;"><br />Daniel Greenfield has written eloquently about the innocent "Palestinian" Gaza "civilians." They are <em>not </em>innocents. See, e.g., here <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Dfb4b27ae17%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw3e7omol6iFmp02MDVt81Fd" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=fb4b27ae17&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://www.jns.org/most-<wbr></wbr>palestinians-would-vote-for-<wbr></wbr>hamas/</a> and here <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D61b1860bae%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw067PJc9Kt4XVySYtKa-Ln-" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=61b1860bae&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://www.<wbr></wbr>danielgreenfield.org/2023/10/<wbr></wbr>israels-work-permits-for-gaza-<wbr></wbr>enabled.html</a><br /><br />Israel abandoned its presence in Gaza 18 years ago in 2005. She left behind an infrastructure. The Arabs destroyed what Israel left them. In 18 years they never have built their own electricity infrastructure or water infrastructure. Rather, they have designated all steel and concrete to building an underground tunnel network for the purpose of destroying Israel. Reliable estimates are that 40,000 Hamas terrorists are based in the tunnels. That is no typo:<strong> Forty Thousand </strong>Hamas terrorists are based in the tunnels. Like rats underground, it is an entire country population living and hiding in tunnels. They get their food and water, and the electric power to provide lights and ventilation, by seizing food, water, and fuel from hospitals that receive them as "humanitarian assistance" from America and the European Union. Citation below.<br /><br />It now is reliably accepted by even hostile media that <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Dc8a8232079%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw0Re3tuETA2W107Gs4Fm9RO" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=c8a8232079&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Hamas's main headquarters </a>are based in a tunnel deliberately built <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D369583cef8%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw0VEQR0kejZVSv-j9Qnp_TA" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=369583cef8&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">under Gaza City's Shifa Hospital.</a> The only way (presently) to destroy Hamas headquarters is to destroy the <em>hospital </em>by aerial bomb. So far Israel has not touched the Hamas HQ because they don't want the bad press.<br /><br />Israel has released telephone recordings its intelligence operations picked up that confirm how Hamas maintains the fuel needed for rocket launching, as well as the food and water its 40,000 terrorists need: <em>they seize those resources from the hospitals that are given "humanitarian" fuel, food, and water by European Union and American taxpayers.</em> Again: Israel is trying to blockade Gaza, except for "humanitarian assistance." Then that humanitarian assistance gets seized by Hamas from its recipients. Israel has released the phone conversations and proof. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D9b1d6b79f8%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw2_3vTeUmeZyhGnLGSE1W3D" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=9b1d6b79f8&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://www.<wbr></wbr>israelnationalnews.com/news/<wbr></wbr>379539</a><br /><br />The war is in its second phase. A methodical ground invasion has begun. The strategy has been that the northern part of Gaza gets aerial bombed to destroy as many of its tunnels, IEDs, land mines, Koronet anti-tank missiles, rocket launchers, military drones, etc., as possible. Then Israeli ground troops come in by armored personnel carriers, tanks, and on foot. They inch forward and clean up what the aerial bombing could not get, and they identify the next forward area of tunnels, IEDs, etc. The air force then bombs that, and the ground forces inch forward to clean up that next area. And so on. It is slow, methodical, and perilous.<em> So far, 331 IDF boys have been killed.</em><br /><br />The "world" is calling for a "humanitarian ceasefire." In each of her past 6 "mowing the lawn" wars with Hamas in the past 18 years, Israel has agreed to ceasefires prematurely. This time is different. There are several reasons. Obviously, the October 7 attack was different from anything ever before. Hamas was revealed as ISIS. The first 270 who were murdered, raped, beheaded, and kidnaped were peace activists at a Trance Rave all-night dance festival and drug orgy. Those were the first slaughtered by the paragliders. More Jews died on October 7 than died on any other single day since the Holocaust.<br /><br />But the main reason that Israel will reject all calls for ceasefire, no matter how intense those calls get and how badly the mass media attack Israel, I believe, is that voter polls in Israel show that Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been unbeatable for two decades, now has been abandoned by the entire electorate from left to right, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3De071d41b2b%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw3jBRcnbT87iqnK0cWabwDL" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=e071d41b2b&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">including his brother-in-law</a>. Many blame him for the entire mess, accusing him of following a failed strategy of "mowing the grass" for 18 years that made the October 7 catastrophe possible. That strategy of 18 years is known widely in Israel as "The Concept" (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 22px;"><strong>הַקּוֹנְסֶפְּצִיָּה</strong></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">): the "Concept" that, (i) if Israel allowed Qatar to supply Hamas with hundreds of millions of dollars annually, (ii) and if Israel allowed into Gaza endless shipments of concrete and steel, (iii) and if Israel allowed into southern Israel 17,000 "innocent Gazan civilians" every day to work at wages higher than possible in Gaza, then Hamas would be motivated to be responsible and abandon its stated goal of destroying Israel. <em><strong>The Concept.</strong></em><br /><br />This was "The Concept" that gained popularity on the Israeli Left, the Center, and the moderate Right. From Labor and Meretz to Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz and Netanyahu's Likud, this became the dominant "Concept."<br /><br />As people are wont to do, everyone in Israel now says "Hey, it wasn't <em>my </em>concept." So they all are blaming Netanyahu for October 7. The latest polls show his opponent, Benny Gantz, is favored over him by 48-28 percent, and that Likud's coalition, which now has 64 of 120 Knesset seats, would fall to 43 seats if elections were held today. That would be a political catastrophe for Likud and would leave Netanyahu's legacy in tatters. Just as Israelis (unlike American Jews, who have no idea what goes on) now look upon Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan as colossal historical failures because of their blunders pertaining to the Yom Kippur War (and Dayan's nervous breakdown), Netanyahu now faces the same harsh judgment of history. Overnight, he has fallen from the acclaimed longest-ever-serving Prime Minister, the beloved and adored electoral Wiz and Magician who could not be beaten, the visionary who changed Israel from failed socialism to booming capitalism and built Israel as "The Start-Up Nation" -- all while securing the peace for a generation . . . to a failed loser.<br /><br />Bibi always has lived with an outsized focus on his place in the public mind and in history. He has been beyond-great in many ways, but he always has been known universally as a narcissist and hedonist, as revealed for example by his efforts to have a friend gift him with enormous amounts of expensive champagne and cigars. It just is. I actually have backed him, pretty-much consistently over the years, as the best leader Israel reasonably could hope for. His narcissism and hedonism just are. My unhappy reason for recounting these less sterling traits here is to explain why I believe, contrary to many "expert" and "experienced" Israeli observers, that Netanyahu will <em>not </em>agree to a ceasefire until he crushes Hamas. This time, for the first time, he will not agree to a real extended pause. He of course will not want to harm bystanders, but nothing will stop him until he can go back to the voters of Israel and say "Don't compare me to Golda and Dayan. They lost the Yom Kippur War , cost 3,000 sacrifices, and lost the peace. <em>Not me. </em>OK, maybe I blew it a little and did oversee tactical mistakes, but I blame my advisors for misleading me. And once I saw how wrong they were, after October 7, I took over and made things right and crushed Hamas. Gaza is quiet, and it will remain quiet for the rest of your lives."<br /><br />And then it will be up to the voters and historians to decide his legacy. But I don;t believe he will stop before then.<br /><br />So I expect this war to continue for at least six months, probably 8-12 months. That means the IDF soon will be fighting in the middle of the winter when the region gets frosty cold and rainy.<br /><br /><strong><em>So what is the latest news you have not been hearing? Here goes:</em></strong><br /><br />1. As noted, there are 40,000 Hamas terrorists living underground like rats in the tunnels. They get their food, water, and ventilation by seizing it from the "humanitarian aid" given to Gaza hospitals. The IDF, as of today, has killed 9,525 Hamas terrorists. They have bombed and otherwise attacked 22,016 structures during the course of 11,008 attacks in Gaza. They have wounded 21,543.<br /><br />2. The Biden Administration is reportedly calling for a "humanitarian pause." I do not believe Israel will agree, as I discussed above. The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted for a "humanitarian pause." Israel has ignored it. Israel's UN ambassador, Gil Erdan, responded to the UN vote by wearing a Holocaust yellow star:<br /><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Db98fb481d8%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw0XExnq3AWogN-0oAQQeM97" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=b98fb481d8&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/i/status/<wbr></wbr>1719220590001729781</a><br /><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhOJ6R8PeYcvB8jRRelkljoGkBj3Wrle6JoA58FRgtfw2DA3K8jvk9wFzELJr_JHr5T7FVj_7sy1-036idlV8rqLZxWkgTA_2T_3SuivXYjD8cAg-D98kjegq-Kz5TqczyJiC-3W9CDkdEmA7JHkGnT4jnasOCfNc8UKGzqcuznz_4jqXnLl_zvZZI8ENQ=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /><br /><br />Some Israelis got that he was conveying that the world once again was consigning Jews to the ovens. Other Israelis were offended, seeing that as a nationwide image of weakness. See above for why I don't believe Netanyahu will dare pause until Israel crushes Hamas. Any pause simply gives them time to regroup, plan new strategies, build new weapons, fix bombed tunnels, and reassign terrorists.<br /><br />3. Israel has shown the entire Middle Eastern press corps a 43-minute film of all the things Hamas did on October 7. The film contains 43 minutes no one else has seen. All reports are that it is so shocking that many of the foreign press had to leave at certain points because they could not watch any more of it. Some vomited. The film was shown today to Knesset members. Several had to leave. Two had to be medicated for panic attacks by doctors on call for that purpose. Descriptions are what we have heard about, but have not actually seen: They cut open pregnant women while still alive, tore out the fetuses, stabbed or set the fetuses on fire, and then stabbed or burned the mothers. They raped women on the bodies of other women. They likewise raped dead women. They filmed all this. They beheaded people. In one case, an Arab without a knife or sword used a shovel for many minutes to behead a dead worker from the Philippines. Other heavy equipment was used to cut off heads when they had no knives. It was a conscious thing to cut off as many heads as possible and to film it. They are ISIS. They are not humans but animals. There is no basis ever for coming to terms with them.<br /><br />4. So far, 331 Israeli soldiers have fallen in battle. Together with the 1400 civilians murdered by the 3,000 Arabs who entered on October 7, more than 1,700 Israelis have died so far. The number will exceed 2,000 and this becomes the biggest catastrophe since 3,000 fell in the Yom Kippur war.<br /><br />5. Unlike in America and other countries, Israel is unique in that each and every person who falls generates national mourning and a nationwide grieving experience. This link reflects how the Israeli media devote space to each who has fallen: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Da8ee56c093%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw3pF3zduFG-ApzYmBQf6gkE" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=a8ee56c093&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://w.ynet.co.il/<wbr></wbr>news/attackingaza?externalurl=<wbr></wbr>true</a> Each one's face appears each night on the nightly news, and each one's story is told. America is nothing like this. I was watching the Channel 14 news. It was extraordinary, watching them devote several minutes of the nightly news to show each fallen soldier's face and for the two news anchors alternately to read the respective soldier's names, their age, and their city. See this link at 10:56 <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Dc7a85a74a8%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw3jRJka-8p_SJHCne9VeNqm" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=c7a85a74a8&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://screenil.tv/#/<wbr></wbr>zapper?viewMode=1</a><br /><br />6. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has supplied 4,100 flak jackets, 500 first-responder kits, and 30 mobile shelters. These are mostly American Christian donors.<br /><br />7. I was at DMV yesterday to renew my driver's license. (I passed the written test!) While waiting on line for them to take an awful photo of me -- a requirement of DMV cinematography -- a woman behind me saw my kipah and said to me: "G-d bless you and G-d bless Israel. I pray for your people every day, and our entire church is praying for Israel." And, yes, Israel <em>are</em> my people. Anyone who says he is "only" an "anti-Zionist" but not an anti-Semite can -- and eventually will -- go to Hell.<br /><br />8. Israel has killed dozens of leading Hamas commanders. Today they killed an Arab named Muhammad A'sar, the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D444e7c2ad3%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw0U16I47m3M4E23IPYm7ujz" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=444e7c2ad3&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">head of Hamas Anti-Tank operations</a>. They have killed several high-value targets. In some cases, to kill them while they were hiding out in high-rise residential apartment buildings, Israel has taken down the whole buildings. There was much news from the Left and mainstream media about how Israel just bombed the living daylights out of a "Palestinian" "refugee" camp in Gaza. There are photos of a huge crater reminiscent of Petersburg during the American civil war. The reports never mention that leading Hamas commanders were hiding out there, basing operations there, and that the bombings were as targeted as possible to harm as few as possible Hamas human shields.<br /><br />9. Some of you may recall that the Mossad set up a special team that successfully killed each and every impossible-to-reach Arab who was behind the Munich Olympic Games massacre of eleven Israeli athletes in 1972. Reports today are that the Mossad now is setting up a similar team that will hunt down and kill every Hamas leader, no matter where in the world he now is hiding, no matter how many years it takes to neutralize him. <br /><br />10. Israel's newspapers regularly are publishing the 240 faces, names, and stories of each person kidnaped by Hamas. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D10870eb0d1%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw0rW81gDZ7BT92y0X-YuqLg" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=10870eb0d1&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://www.ynet.co.il/<wbr></wbr>news/article/r17c5000w6#<wbr></wbr>autoplay</a><br /><br />11. Yesterday (Tuesday), IAF jets eliminated Ibrahim Biari, the Commander of Hamas's Central Jabaliya Battalion. Biari was one of the leaders responsible for sending terrorist operatives from the "Nukhba" force to Israel to carry out the murderous terror attack on October 7th. Many other Hamas terrorists were caught in the strike.<br /><br />12. In England, tomorrow morning's issue of<em> The Sun </em>will have a front page of 32 children kidnaped by Hamas, and the paper will feature their stories. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Db12311afd7%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw0MA6UmNurpi-LvfdzdUCbm" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=b12311afd7&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://www.<wbr></wbr>israelnationalnews.com/news/<wbr></wbr>379558</a><br /><br />For more, see here: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D5f33d3e943%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw2EpdBGpV2kkYIZs_oXzKdz" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=5f33d3e943&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://www.thesun.co.<wbr></wbr>uk/news/24602299/children-<wbr></wbr>hostages-hamas-parents-<wbr></wbr>release/?utm_medium=Social&<wbr></wbr>utm_campaign=sunmaintwitter</a><br /><br />13. In Europe, anti-Semitism in the wake of the war now has gotten so bad that a guy invented a cover for front-door mezuzahs that looks like it's an electronic device, like a high-tech front-door security camera with a flashing red light, so people won't know that the people living in the house are Jewish. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Dbf4469b9f2%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw3n49ydhW2xXbtGwva87g2F" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=bf4469b9f2&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://www.timesofisrael.<wbr></wbr>com/in-europe-soaring-<wbr></wbr>antisemitism-popularizes-a-<wbr></wbr>new-invention-the-camouflaged-<wbr></wbr>mezuzah/?utm_campaign=daily-<wbr></wbr>edition-2023-10-31&utm_medium=<wbr></wbr>email&utm_source=The+Daily+<wbr></wbr>Edition</a><br /><br />14. We have been donating to United Hatzalah, who are on the front line of attacks, racing to the scene as Israel's premier medical emergency ambulance service. Here are two minutes of Eli Be'er, the founder of United Hatzalah, describing what his people have been encountering at the scenes. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D55515f4679%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw0tzfIzEVCmMB2pDxdtd_wQ" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=55515f4679&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/<wbr></wbr>i/status/1718938562601583073</a> They found so many babies beheaded in one terror site that his men had great difficulty identifying which head belonged to which baby torso. He, the head of United Hatzalah, describes having gone into a crying depression for five days. In other cases, they found babies placed in kitchen ovens and baked alive.<br /><br />15. The entire Jewish student community of Cornell University went into hiding when a single tweet showed up on X (Twitter) with someone saying he would come to slit Jewish throats, rape Jewish women, etc. The Cornell kosher dining facility closed down. Today the police announced they arrested some mental case, who had been contemplating suicide and also hates Jews. End of story.<br /><br />I wish, instead of their hiding, the Jews had announced they would be coming to that cafeteria, 100-strong, with bicycle chains, sink pipes, baseball bats, and -- if legal in Ithaca, with legally registered firearms -- inviting the social-media posting person to come to the cafeteria for a good old-fashioned campus dialogue. (1) He would not have shown up. (2) The University President would have taken action. (3) No threat ever again would be made to Jews at Cornell.<br /><br />(I love being rav at a shul where I can speak truths safely.)<br /><br />16. <strong><em>The prayer for the IDF: </em></strong><br />Ross Nichols (English): <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D1c51398dad%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw3YJTdRjl6mbr6aYVPDDRR_" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=1c51398dad&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://www.<wbr></wbr>youtube.com/watch?v=<wbr></wbr>dQnr73lliy0&ab_channel=RossK.<wbr></wbr>Nichols</a><br />Chazan Chaim Freund: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D6fe4d38fd2%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1699021997452000&usg=AOvVaw06Gpadh4ZAr4UUSw0pyZIQ" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=6fe4d38fd2&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.<wbr></wbr>com/watch?v=17a19GT2ZK0&ab_<wbr></wbr>channel=shiezoli</a></span>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-80164333863631023812023-11-01T08:27:00.005-07:002023-11-01T08:27:49.332-07:00The Brooklyn College Black-Jewish Jukebox Riot of 1970 Today’s Jewish students need to take some notes. DOV FISCHER<p> </p><h2 style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 22px; line-height: 27.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong><span style="font-size: 32px;">The Brooklyn College Black-Jewish<br />Jukebox Riot of 1970</span></strong><br /><span style="color: grey;"><strong><em>Today’s Jewish students need to take some notes.</em></strong></span></h2><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D339d134f3a%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw0Nti2Lq4REjjA32HrRGAB-" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=339d134f3a&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">DOV FISCHER</a></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">October 31, 2023, 11:15 PM</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"> </span><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><em>You will not be saved by General Motors or the pre-fabricated house.</em><br /><em>You will not be saved by dialectic materialism or the Lambeth Conference.</em><br /><em>You will not be saved by Vitamin D or the expanding universe.</em><br /><em>In fact, you will not be saved.</em></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><em>— Stephen Vincent Benét, “<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D035b19e3e4%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw1N9El1qUZuQ6u2iqY9kc1y" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=035b19e3e4&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Nightmare with Angels</a>,” 1935</em></span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">I still am thinking of all the whining cowardly Jewish students at America’s elite private colleges, belly-aching: “Mommy, the Arab and Muslim foreign students here and the non-Jewish ‘Jewish’ woke progressive apostates on campus don’t like me. They are chanting Israel has no right to exist. They say Hamas rape is good rape, liberation rape. I am scared.”</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgYOkoK1TFaTMHhLsYYIVkCZJYtcEa54JrRZPVsB70_0FGhG3sRJLd5PzX5R0LQhC7d45MYGuKjfIiRPzV2JYZwCttpqBD_EG0rjnIxg2H_E6dz6v0FGNto5yT5T6UILY5BAIrW-z4w6RFPUvMsKtRPl-JxVJq6j-DYJZJPLDTplgN5NcIUerw7J-d-6VpV2A=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /> <img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgwtqYps9X3OP6KQdJtlDy_ywP8DHnY2hTx1NO1aW2ammiP_UcKOE0svr6ijWFntp8nsBBifCRZhZYHr9wBg4l-mmql65F1XNWKGuOHi0jwSPmkUBH8lsXbaBhptaCB0ga4vZv66dgHDiU0-4n1DtyOBUWosgCeFbW-7pHfJBIoq_IUqtrBczWBY362DnBaDQ=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /></p><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"><p style="line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong>READ MORE from Dov Fischer: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Df4d0c738df%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw0Z4kLjqvO5Abte8F6SO3Xs" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=f4d0c738df&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">Jewish College Students: Stop Whining and Grow Some!</a></strong></span></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">As I wrote in <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D66be2e37c3%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw0YnrqW6ee2uUMHDTtdJh9_" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=66be2e37c3&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">my prior column</a>, with words that apparently touched a nerve among thousands of readers, I am disgusted with revulsion at these wimps and wusses who do not have the pride and self-respect that my generation had when we attended Columbia University in the 1970s. Toward that end, I share a memory from 1970s Brooklyn, New York.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">I am a New Yorker from Brooklyn. I'm talking Kings Highway & Avenue J. When G-d told Abram to go forth from (i) his land, (ii) his place of birth, and (iii) his family home (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Ddd9614584a%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw3pV9PFuT6_PnyTIeF2QmK0" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=dd9614584a&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank"><em>Genesis </em>12:1</a>), I relate to why three separate injunctions were needed. If I were to leave the land where my fathers died, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D613fff87e2%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw0s5VK6UIr72XQJkP52Ca38" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=613fff87e2&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">my blessed America</a>, I would feel the loss meaningfully. I love America. I love its Constitution that <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D60346e6695%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw2Ric52Qo5WsRt7-fKSaHRa" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=60346e6695&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">protects my right to worship</a> and believe as I choose. I love the values at the core of this kindest of all lands: how we are first to help others at times of their tragedies, whether devastating earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, or visits by Kamala Harris.<br /><br />I love English. O how I love the language of this land, its possibilities and broad vocabulary choices, imported from both Romantic and Anglo-Saxon roots, and opportunities for loving word play. I love our <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Df91b2ea241%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw045h8cs4QMERERNVh7j9Rk" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=f91b2ea241&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">patriotic songs</a> and <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Dc3be601759%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw2vNGQ_Wp4p3v0M5jVFM4Jv" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=c3be601759&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">country music</a> that gets to the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D7301155f61%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw1pbaewHHD9D40xx5kziyrZ" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=7301155f61&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">soul of America</a>. I don’t know what the singers of the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D062fb280ee%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw28vGE7Zai8_br_EoraGiei" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=062fb280ee&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">band Alabama</a> think about Jews or whether they ever saw one, but I love their songs of values, like their honoring America’s otherwise-unsung workers who <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D613576e985%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw2cxJXYOQiFU7xgoOgjw_TO" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=613576e985&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">do their part every day to keep America running</a> and then send it on down the line. <br /><br /><strong>(READ MORE from Dov Fischer: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D0d962d1e8a%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw3XzluEn4g5qsP054BkO-Vj" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=0d962d1e8a&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">Bigotry in Motion: The Frenzied Woke Attacks on Jason Aldean</a>)</strong></span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEj4AuvOSSD1O6fx-hSn1RNw7NRUoPZkJw-884vRyCIZYkugNI6wjYuHPtC4EIZLZ1WleAgBiU72LwZjE4pEevmw1uyaO7V36231Tqm18NG2zx3Rr8tYyWxsTuT7TIeXyMF7dyzjM4v9lCZLcCrvQM1s50_JZ0YfsuKanMf-LAcyJXMe0QqF5yNzvpc3IEHzLA=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Even as I love (i) my land, America, I particularly love (ii) the place of my birth, the Brooklyn of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. How did Neil Diamond put it? <br /><br /> Well, I'm New York City born-and-raised.<br /> But nowadays, I'm lost between two shores.<br /> LA's fine, but it ain't home. <br /> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D283607bddf%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw2bJkAF0hBaGdhiei4X85ek" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=283607bddf&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">New York’s home, but it ain’t mine no more</a>.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">I love the way we tawked. <em>You got a problem widdat?</em> I still love the Brooklyn of my memories. What a tragedy! That which was, no longer is and will not be again.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">The city of New York had and has its own college system, CUNY. Not only were there world-class private colleges in New York like Columbia and NYU, and excellent state colleges like New Paltz, Hofstra, Binghamton, and Stony Brook, but New York City had CUNY, the City University of New York. These municipal colleges all were tuition-free, and you had to have high SAT scores to get in. Some of America’s most successful entrepreneurs and writers were first-generation children of Jewish immigrants who attended Upper Manhattan’s CUNY outlet, CCNY, the City College of New York. If tuition were not free, they could not have attended college. If the standards were not exceptionally high -- as they were until John Loindsay and now DEI have ruined it -- they could not have become <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D35cbc6d9c5%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335632000&usg=AOvVaw3K6oW__yymwC7g_ajB_vGV" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=35cbc6d9c5&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">CCNY alumni</a>: Nobel Laureate Robert Aumann, Henry Kissinger, Tony Curtis, Colin Powell, Stanley Kubrick, Barry Manilow, Judd Hirsch, Henry Miller, Sheldon Adelson, Edward G. Robinson, Jonas Salk, Upton Sinclair, Ed Koch, Hal Linden, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Jackie Mason, Bernard Baruch, Ira Gershwin, Kenneth Arrow, A. Philip Randolph, Felix Frankfurter, Paddy Chayefsky, Daniel Bell, Irving Kristol, Red Holzman, Marvin Kalb, and Irving Howe.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjSw6V3Xtfo_po_x2WOkncTtdS6OWY5Jz6xH0bDZo0ohHNOlBZ6IB2ocdIqnUViaTZjNYYlFxIHQ-vISMLuexE5ldR9qwFN5UH5RRLKe6lFWbeu-E93cYQVK_30xfwOOSRcABe1bgQkSvLI-1RIc2967wmHCjTAzFGISmrUmzLETrldet_9KgTgvEZQkDAaxQ=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /> <img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjsMZ5u9XPvKVbenVz2wPaPqSnCiSG3PkWCMHY7IeSqT7c0cUm_EIYZW8wNAzHqL6MpGwsAbAdIitTyCaKZl5efuRHXnBCOL1AEKhtZOt7j-zzb1Bndm_8mEu9WBNd_grsNPbpzEGcOPw54AXK4YZba06PpzOLVLwVIZRtaiCOrucVmUA5zZZRqbuXRAbNPICycmy-y2w=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /><br /><br /><img alt="Tony Curtis" class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEj8nBmb341_fWdpYNgIubsrgH_woMiIZZcn-8rRr_WjA9QKbEHu1qQJI9iZhNyyWA7L9jJocUZQkMZkWe0pAv5-rjaT9gZbo83WNpM7R8jFKXxni3TYrbgq_hrtTxQs99DoC2JHiY9hHQfxqAm0I_FNVaSqgVQ=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">There was Queens College, chock full of more brilliant kids with high SAT scores who got an excellent education without needing to pay a dime of tuition. And there was Brooklyn College, perhaps the gem of the entire system in the 1960s and ’70s, again full of genius kids with 1600 SAT scores getting a freebie.<br /><br />John Lindsay, the left-wing mayor of the late 1960s who destroyed New York City as Obama later would destroy America, ruined the CUNY system. He imposed “open admissions”: no more standards. Rather, every single New Yorker, no matter how unqualified for college, is guaranteed automatic admission to the free education. As a result, most CUNY colleges, except for Queens and Hunter and a few others, went down the toilet. My generation was the last who got an outstanding education at Brooklyn College.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjMH7DvcbhkDgTJQeEukK_dLUP6sQ5Dt64YZAzacR38nZm57um1HqPRFjMeH6d-78h9GvzFF6Hsi_1-3XzUk0RrgBMom8gh2vgQqbUy6E8bvaI0oKkDbKS7RHQ74YVbip5P_293OV3SWHgwxDm6n8c0OX6Ba6CwW2cSdqwvuM68KbrO1RcQgztHt4kIR_8-ng=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /> <img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiml8xtg50K9cPSsFQSgOMWh6Y9T4UalEvm5N61LTw7SjLrOHCaed-hIsEH9qbCZ_Em76M7Aaj3o2du8MzexmQU_V2l1AncWwv6bC86cFBJcqYaQ9f3T4N-Z9rOd5xHRxBnEqfp4F0tJv8CDbsJBNIuslN7Q2pZrptk3jJGS59dp7jIXozWdxBSUQgDUgL-DQ=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhbF2o9F7lUPGlGqO6mZnhnqBBSZQOxUq-GqISdS-QS8ssB-5uORszaZ-2J-v632Kd1xWB_73r2x-r82rjx5u4f9Vs-eNRW0CllucdVgUfHGkB_7durouG7NeftcQFJ91Mny9l9ogV1dmpMg0atu8YBeN5pgfLcLuqDyxQIQBgebj9a_H95DMiiKKHVYE-HQQ=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">It was 1970. Every culture has its music, and so do American Jews and so do Israelis. The most popular Jewish and Israeli song that year was “<em>Bashana Haba’ah</em>” (“In Next Year”). <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D8abd064a23%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw3KNojIv9fzK64006RZ7Yxv" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=8abd064a23&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Here</a> is a version sung by the choir of Bob Jones University. Yes, Bob Jones singing Israeli Hebrew. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D8606bbea47%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw3KoiQ0DtWOt1LvxMOUpnTS" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=8606bbea47&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Here</a> is Northwest Girlchoir. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3De2771f7aca%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw3JEdXIDUd5Cs1yQgh3sk9n" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=e2771f7aca&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Fort Worden Festival</a>. And <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D534e903653%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw3IeFmMjKgrMjSLG1b_7nBm" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=534e903653&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">here</a> the classic Israel version, with English titles. I am sharing many versions to convey that this was a <em>huge</em> song in its time and has become world famous, sung even by non-Jewish choirs throughout the world. It was not “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgiP6td_IBQTvdJCXeKwi4l-gH89XggJZLLfXMf7jheAmE6MrTAaYzL8DIClHTFlGL4cf4c7rDRXeX9Vl9ZUXONz9sHOKkOyAiJ4do4rqXsTox9kBjLqn-kWNyMmzVhVTvHQiJKeGf6zOKE_003HpfEWYz2VIKIpi2J7iqpG1tFEfLuTkdSxQuDvaj98qAK8A=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /><br /><br /><img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgJ8my1KNUkUiYH8QtuL3CKQx-xYiuFPV4e4h0PNH3OvzMn3u6BNSMnc-JuZoCuyoEzExmeprccbGkgul5YYUpggmNeZK7WE7XZjiUpI808BtLW1uxw0kTwSRSu8uZIFHU4_0SSs6bIMU3-UkcNAlXi81YNE4h-lNxfJj1l5uVyCCkIid1atb20RWfwiA1Jjg=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /> <img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEj09oTP_M-oEhA0hRnrXW_8JMRybbPc1Ma7TGtL5T2Z-j6Of6QufkfuurLotxCD9NVWOnZbaoDTSiViKb3AERB28_Nq27no-UspUHg2JXHPeEJDoRU4hkleEnu0T4gr3hGiQmwvE0vY2KRx4oiFL1aaYRUAfNo8VZrhf5svwRFou1UdD7xqUt1h8JhH6Pe8Gg=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">It was 1970. The Jewish student group on campus brought a guest speaker, Rabbi Meir Kahane of blessed memory. Rav Kahane spoke that day about Judaism and Jewish pride. At the end, he took questions from the floor. One stood out. It was from a girl, Jewish, shaking, teary-eyed, crying. “Rabbi Kahane, you are here talking about being Jewish, but I am scared here. There is a jukebox in the campus cafeteria, and it has only one Jewish song in it, ‘<em>Bashanah Haba’ah</em>.’ We were playing the song the other day, and a bunch of Black students slammed the jukebox and told us we are not allowed to play that ‘Jew song’ anymore, or they will beat up anyone who tries to play that song. I am scared and frightened.”</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Rabbi Kahane asked members of his audience to please raise their hands if they knew this incident to be true and if they also were scared by this. In his audience of 200 students, some 100–150 hands were raised.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">The rav next asked: “How many students would you say composed the goons who said not to play the song again?”</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">The response from the questioner was: “It was scary. It was like 10 of them.”</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Rabbi Kahane said: “Maybe these Black students don’t like the particular version of the song in the jukebox. Why don’t we show our understanding for these goons and all go down to the cafeteria right now and give them a <em>live performance</em> — <em>all of you, especially those who can’t sing</em>.”</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgDIjr8eIm9MU489dMPziWZ8KLH91TCDjqR8zHEifbmNew94k_PIDt2RkRCrok_NFElNUqflC6gKdPwF0mZtCarDZpVCzdFEEbaVveIuu6wDMuUzDlLnTz52ZGjtvpH_ivDW6sAuZIeoGMJr0Qtzbdx0599NIqxFKolGRFmZSaJ0p3djgzJ_Cj27heJtKrWwQ=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiWN4Eu1eJAJ0kXxYZZHCweuUGcN-1gmQLtRItp5M46wSDojMjOIbi3JuhtrX4VVAW-UQS3p88WBj_KRow9ITpg_CNtYpwMNmJRpKXqfKpm9_vm0iBR0lahTaMg1-pE8FShUq2LJlGP3GWzbaLVqRYnjJ427g81S8uNRR80FeeLmFvxn3kTm8k0oJDkiLfrZA=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /> <img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhubKPH-X7wTFV_TMNhJdhMTeqHaHnmL9SWz1CIlYjkFtKYiT1ZNhCeog9UATes-715Fh1jCzbDg9idvm96_04TfyznMlfp4Wih3HkVIFhmimmTXF7GTRK2bXnSNR9-ZlM8kLjNBFXBrISQy1cBeCzU8-6fE9gmD_XtysadwVW0gh4QhtRSXgFCa7kGYadAvg=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">He then led 100 of those students into the cafeteria, and they started singing the song. The 10 Black students told them to shut up. The Jews sang louder. The Black students started throwing chairs at the Jews. The 100 Jews were afraid and scared of the 10 goons.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Rabbi Kahane said: “Show some brotherhood. Some people dance to music. If their cultural preference to music is chair throwing, then let’s throw chairs back at them. And if you run out of chairs, throw tables.”</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">It turned into a wild melee. Made page one of the next day’s New York tabloids. And there were two results:</span></span></p><ol style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"><li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Rabbi Kahane was banned from the campus by the school administration.</span></span></li><li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">No Black student ever again told a Jew not to play that song.</span></span></li></ol><div style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEha-gCZNSOZcAbRXTN6mxSs7W1WuBNY7oEZm6qDuhQ9NFTCqm_Qp4cRbyKW4J8LEFuEeVrb92iBY50m5oT5Qpuf3SZARYUTHCusT36LQTGjYiM-i0_yDHefndZ_e9A7Eb-Vfc8j_EpF8yG5t7deq30VQ4nJ96DStQUKOx1XKJu71JHA37p46mZzIobKbauxbB3mXhqV5Q=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">I think back to 1950s-1970s Brooklyn when all Jews were authentically Jewish and supported Israel. The difference today is that 40 percent of people who now say they are “Jews” are not Jews, and some 90 percent of “Jews” who march with Arabs for Hamas nowadays and say, “Not in Our Name,” in fact are not born of Jewish mothers and thus are not Jews.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">In those days, New York college Jews threw chairs back at Nazis who threw chairs at them. Color did not matter. That rabbi taught Jews to buy guns, promoting the slogan “Every Jew a .22” (He told the <em>New York Times</em>, “I preferred a slogan of ‘Every Jew an M-1,’ but it didn’t rhyme.”)</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">And then I watch the moaning, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Dddaad5fdcb%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw1VO3niL3JuBocfk51nEeQs" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=ddaad5fdcb&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">kvetching</a>, whining, scared, frightened, privileged campus Jews of today who are politically and socially paralyzed because a dozen or a hundred Arab and Muslim foreign students who don’t even belong here in our country are chanting, “Death to Israel,” and endorsing Hamas rape. Penetrate a woman’s genitals for freedom. Ejaculate in her to free Palestine. #GoodRapeMeToo.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEirQLLrBgQOwoo9oDDAiVlAt2KZTItoHTDO48oKIeh59hn_eHIOTcJGW04-A1jRI84a88jmZDbGD_iM2Tixn6HVMY_ddamc95CvidgGUbS0F21rRnW5PXqT6VYi-cxxODSMe7vGZleZy57FbJLslxQtfipz_-bZoW9cMaql6lxoJeyn0eqoxi_jl6oA7e37Ug=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">They disgust me. Not the Arab Muslim Hamas supporters. I expect that of them. <em><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Ddef49069f5%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw0ou3O6t-8oDPHvltjAJo-j" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=def49069f5&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Genesis </a></em><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D734624cd8b%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw2BuybASYG94GAIwvhiQS2N" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=734624cd8b&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">16:12</a>. Not the fake “Jews” who are not born of Jewish mothers and, hence, are not Jews by definition but march for the fraud of "Palestine." But the actual Jews who were reared by liberal parents in the privileged exurbs to believe that the way to the world’s heart is by being victims. That is the failed message of Holocaust education and endless Holocaust museums: “Look at what the Nazis and all of Europe did to us. You should feel bad for us and, therefore, love us because we were victims, too.”</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">No one cares. No one cared then when the world knew what Hitler was doing, yet barely lifted a finger. That is <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D5ebc2ed00d%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw1BFWIo1IS6p830FPjTDhwU" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=5ebc2ed00d&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">my contribution to Holocaust education</a>: <em>No One Cares</em>. People have their own problems. How many millions did Pol Pot murder? No one cares. Or how Stalin starved out millions of Ukrainians? No one cares. Or what Putin is doing today? No one cares. Or what Mao did? No one cares. People have their own problems: paying for food in the Biden years, watching the gas pump approach $6 a gallon, getting baby formula, seeing their blue-state cities now overrun, too, by Illegals. They care more about Buttigieg’s train wrecks in Palestine, Ohio, than the fake “Palestine” in Judea and Samaria that Israel one day will liberate so that, from the river to the sea, Yisrael will be free.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgR4QdIhQ4eZNV9Yk0UQDabcVHLZvnQ2kiaF2nZbUmkJfWfpA9wn6QMqsDgvPvEte68dUeOm0f9T4Ujw8-ZzpvZ-A2PtENCmI_u2aZczL_X02xt07Fy0Mh-1WpDRgP1M4XSHV3gCSGOoBikEjr2UvmODh0xJttOjs-hfjy06P21Cv_G17ar396JdmZ2ejk=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /><br /><br /><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjDdmDPtZEKtvHwY15exSy6F3WmtQwk5QOJFbrpLwd_ejxEUQLEtdxXBFYzJwewecE7E8M90eQ_RmBDjEgUkZ05dDx0djeMwRDpGU7AOT6xiky1j0EpMM1YHEGU1o_gfdmidEmzpILDRC2ULrsrx1D-4td23-tiiimh3yMUr8R7zZotIkYqOtP7L5E4=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">If <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D54fdcbaae1%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw0MojFpqZ7z3c_lCmb7Dwu7" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=54fdcbaae1&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Arabs and Muslims at Cornell</a> in Ithaca now are threatening to beat up Jews who go to eat in the campus kosher cafeteria, don’t look to the university president or provost for protection. Don’t look to Biden or Deborah <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D7448ff54bd%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw0_TgfWSpvPSH7LqolDVVUq" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=7448ff54bd&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Lipstadt</a>, his <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D9e3e1b9848%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw1QVnMdg1FLhCGWQXmz373O" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=9e3e1b9848&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">useless</a> joke of an <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D76277ede13%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw2tDVjytJfVDWf1qhSgN_3S" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=76277ede13&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">adviser</a> on anti-Semitism. Just bring some chairs on the way to lunch. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D8951c6dc09%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw0Gwxfw1ATLQf6h_2zhYD0u" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=8951c6dc09&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Metal folding chairs are best</a> for the purpose. And sing a Hebrew song live for them. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D07774f3836%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335633000&usg=AOvVaw2IC-en9K849AG9DnlThkZI" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=07774f3836&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Any song will do.</a></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjvQTBQUZVlVAyUXRNLVFGfIUerJBuUSfdJ4id6RJUUp-xlbfo7Cbwc5w6ysL3PJnmR3HxBiz2LKxdNO1V_sn4YksR_z_29oMbhlkRHhztoOWUEfY_rPewWbOdqpJ1qA1tu4YCfMxHZF6xIJfxB90Ef0yuekDiU0mHMIqrrQ0lHUe7IWuJUKq-MJcxFVmfoCw=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /> <img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjF-rf7L-_-QfQOV1viCaUSejgEPMhbF0vxyQnEjuT9BpYgA2LtVbSuieauMxhRUci0s-YQQ3cC7aYfAdSA1XxKbIUVpjCkyc-pWORS4AmM60cor7pvjj8nKMmR_Y_gqtRp0YPvlHmH7kcKTlXnbvahpUkNSbCcXEAq2N6ziix7iIaCQ59ig7resONX33clYQ=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><br /><strong><em>Rabbi Fischer’s two memorial programs and prayer services for Israel in the face of the Hamas–Gaza massacre may be found on YouTube </em><em><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D4d934e657f%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335634000&usg=AOvVaw2JinljG3HLIfEsas6BOlCn" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=4d934e657f&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">here</a> and <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Db39b83fa65%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698937335634000&usg=AOvVaw3qL_ouBOwmm-pnEDiXblFj" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=b39b83fa65&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">here</a>. </em><em>Because they contain video and photos taken by Hamas at the massacre, YouTube is restricting viewing of the service exclusively to individuals over 18. What they lack in production values, they make up for in heart and soul.</em></strong></p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-4854509178235731552023-10-30T07:53:00.005-07:002023-10-30T07:53:50.267-07:00Jewish College Students: Stop Whining and Grow Some! You have to save yourselves, for G-d’s sake! DOV FISCHER<p> </p><h2 style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 22px; line-height: 27.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong><span style="font-size: 32px;">Jewish College Students:<br />Stop Whining and Grow Some!</span></strong><br /><span style="color: grey;"><strong><em>You have to save yourselves, for G-d’s sake!</em></strong></span></h2><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Df8ff0eab32%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954276000&usg=AOvVaw36lFPUTvidituC209wLI7j" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=f8ff0eab32&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">DOV FISCHER</a></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">October 29, 2023, 10:35 PM</span><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">I told it to my four-year-old kids, then when they were seven and nine and fourteen and eighteen and twenty-plus. It was a mantra that my Dad, of blessed memory, told me: “Life is not a bowl of cherries. So stop whining!”</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Stop whining, O Jewish college students of America. Stop your incessant whining. Your complaining and kvetching. Stop whining. <strong>(READ MORE from Dov Fischer: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D7327d5af59%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954276000&usg=AOvVaw3TqM7WF4x5ZmUen7rmi34d" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=7327d5af59&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">Biden Loves Israel to Death</a>)</strong></span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgl2Qq3d4o1YgykpOE2aMnxwFUuXXu0YqgaPqV4nvXie0PIWG822JBkdnhD4KCKd0W2xqmUjH06RUwYk84MR0rVR75g-pNjeyxXJoA1xQUQdwsBgRAkltjN6c7eZHA4XKW_0Nxubaj24eLsmYdkC1T05ZbVnoDB9KVFCe3TxEnW1-QfBiE9G56bZUvnFKby4g=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">You were reared by rich, comfortable, Long Island and Westchester liberals to be liberals and woke. They had abandoned the Judaism of their parents and grandparents, and now had nothing Judaic to offer you. You attended reform temples where you learned nothing Judaic of substance. You learned no Rashi, no Talmud, no Rambam. All you know is that, by happenstance, you were born Jewish just as others, by happenstance, are born left-handed.</span></span></p><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"><p style="line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #3399ff;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Stop marching to the showers like lambs. This is not Auschwitz; it’s Harvard Yard.</span></span></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">The mainstream Orthodox Jews among your generation, the students of Torah and Mishneh and Halakha (Judaic law), have gone to other colleges and advanced yeshivas where Jew-haters do not hold court. But you, the children of the liberals who advanced to be progressive and woke, chose Harvard and Columbia and University of Pennsylvania in an era when all your professors are either woke Jews or non-Jews. They all hate Israel. They all hate observant Jews. <em>Everyone knows this.</em></span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhqbvJZG-Ev_GsICgVj5Utxbcx3_st009L-lHapFRW0c6XIYtFFEtG7GtiQ1_7SCsJTcSGodDkgBn932XD5pZnx9oKmNZyy-3y7X-4S56Wn2P-BtC_s-mhlln-Nv8-otN-eFfM-1xGYOALQ-OTQ-s8T75DdWcDKqu0emOexr_xG01tK4Si5vLJlZPcHqCuIYQ=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><em>Fools</em>: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D62cef2edbd%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954277000&usg=AOvVaw2Q9GFbq6SP0jBmqB1bxRCU" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=62cef2edbd&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">There is no room for Jews in DEI</a> — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Even as White Supremacists on the Crazy Right say Jews are not White, the reality is, O Jews, you are not Black. You are not Hispanic, even those of you born and reared in Latin and South America, because you are Jews.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjS9Qjw8HLaQavc17cLNMFAamW-rg9NEXy6bcxXc-VCZQMRMP-0JmTw8J0IsHO-w_KyJF8oyxbY9CkUwjznHYYSacqCRxX_s2wkEy6WTrVALqOLkWYgK5179l3XUdUqgWWn3xBStEkcLh63UFwXTOTXQCxayT0pS_cYK1xr_IJmozl_ZBbDOepzXCy4txpWew=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">You are not Asian. You are Jews. You are not from India, O Jews, like Kamala and Ramaswamy. Even if you win a <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D75945ede15%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954277000&usg=AOvVaw286X5fn7_P4AxM27lcya4M" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=75945ede15&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">thousand national spelling bees</a>, you will not ever be of India, O Jews. You do not fit in. You are not Native American, O Jews. Not even in the case of the Jewish mother who goes searching for her long-lost son and finds him in an Indian reservation. She finds he is happy. “Marvin, what are you doing here?” she asks. “Mom, I became an Indian. This is my bride, Floating Feather. This is her father, Flying Eagle. This is her mother, Running Lamb.” The father-in-law extends his hand to Marvin’s mother and asks: “Am much pleased to meet you, and what is your name?” She responds: “Sitting Shiva.”</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEh-84Ihfz9dv4ac9Co5sWs89NW36HwWv2v7ZfswlNoXDg9kn9hTap0sPqaCGUnfBEwEOhdUlGP78R0OHDAFv1R6GSjeWE6NQ-PTru2Tye5G0CyzoPw-0eNyExQSyhqk2BT0L0_pNz5AEYmEpeVbQWgtLPQeq739iLsyuaVLkPTZc03WgJjjGWvLxm6EbaaRLw=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">You don’t fit in with DEI, O foolish left-wing college Jews. Not Black. Not Puerto Rican. Not American Indian. Not Spelling Bee Indian. Not Asian. And G-d knows not Arab Muslim. None of the DEI Chosen People. Even the homosexuals among you do not fit in. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D2106ccf4fd%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954277000&usg=AOvVaw1lbqYjb88a3bW-Ux9veDcH" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=2106ccf4fd&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">One after another LMNOPQ associatio</a>n has voted its endorsement of Hamas-ISIS, the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Df6d4351f09%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954277000&usg=AOvVaw1A4oesv5fyEzVenPp7bd-l" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=f6d4351f09&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Arab Muslims who throw gay Arabs off rooftops.</a> None of them wants you.</span></span><br /><br /><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEipH4IeBWU3Bux5JXbRd65JT6_cag3G5BVdC3FUQ3Pbf1BH-_MB4CI9wfCA_EA36GrPEYRxjnBLPrRpHesI_RqlQZ_lhyphenhyphenBeMI0NM0yP3Tb_ZXp13pIdSxlAizmqUmPuN8lz_hlrd-pN_KiXmGZlVRA2cS_PfJ3gOXiBU8XDARFtpO403qi4NKEf7PBB-wJWOdXLmeOvmQ=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhlTgY8ODZNGimhbGGFyb_yWNLUVwLornpNDGKwye-aQs5_9UKVBdd_kt468ER4-gFWw0AUN8dqcikZRWPFd-j8SHqb5e9lLna0bYb1fCxuef18scxhiJMLh-JpcCkQsI4j0jXFgTUg28tI9Yv0X-Afu9PlRD9_iJxuqwHQ1Feaiq3G_dq8PRqOe3RU5-O34A=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhhATEuoUliG43W7ETVy21CD3MeyRFSGjDziJvBgqEMFoEPIPUMwgBpDgTcKgdxOK-oyebcLkWb3QePzqzGkAw0qsnCUi-FA8biXQLw4BP-248yyaLDWVvcTl4NlsDbDUME0_coksmOGye61ey7SBED4FIcD4mLyOw4qrYV6suEz-f6zwcI38-TVKBExThRxg9kT_kDLA=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /> <img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEitDjb0abIRf5T1t9sU45ijkrubcbjm1Rk0non1JyoMxVJs_QdZx1TelUall0r6D0mk12x1Aoy1evv9RrOfsnwdjiDqrXBmjQcvGgOQVYtheoY5GmS9K9SGKj4sJxr26cjeb2iaNEtKGyshE2_lUO0rIaLgCaWIpvQ7Vq0IYHsZqhuYIC71u9lnbsVzcx3geYu7CBI-Qw=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">At your parents’ behest, you ran from your roots, foolish liberal Jews, fleeing the anti-Semitism you feared would come from the right because anti-Semitism so often indeed comes from the extreme right. You thought, having abandoned your G-d and His Torah, that you would find succor among the left and the progressives and the Woke because <em>they care about everyone.</em> They care about the climate and the homeless, everyone. So you all became variations on George Soros and Bernie Sanders and Ben & Jerry — fleeing your heritage. “Yeah, I’m Jewish. But not really. I eat pork. I vote for Bernie. The Squad speaks for me. I’m for Palestine. I am woke. I oppose climate change. I fit in here at Harvard / Yale / U. of Penn / Columbia.”</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgI7n1OCFPSgsAxBT0q0lRWOI_nrbkmk1kizoHNrkvuQ4J1-rD2KHgETKqj8UZLUQhqH_NCcH5zE9JwxSLoEKnuFPyIpctbFLZ4PgqctIb5rkVwWMl0OiESldy8g_AU6azmAmyP9EIlo56xGddqQqmUe6ZxDmNrO_ffgZ0VJjVOzY0IsixpN2vdDnQxwwVfdw=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">No, you don’t. You never did. You never will. You know that Greta Thunberg? Guess what, O liberal progressive woke Ivy League Jews? That <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3De465d606ca%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954277000&usg=AOvVaw1yjZzTRLMg45T-aFdzt_9V" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=e465d606ca&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">little snot also supports Hamas-ISIS</a>.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg4x6_jXEGxXZsGMEe55SrJwxprpXr1xn8RXUi4Akzh3Gdj4f4N7Skvipi6iouff8vOzMwTHFgwb6XhfmOjRPbXCqZEuvRORNhVQvDt9ks9NgmIdbVrozHIDIVpH5-Gk6ekHXYlNoOmGKSPHBLuC9YJ2YsxnN-rG2eDE5rQR9uTZf-OqKsPPfp7NkaTSZ8=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">No one respects <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D37e2d9f97a%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954278000&usg=AOvVaw0gF81cvZvu9Uyus9t4saS7" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=37e2d9f97a&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">people who deny who they are</a>. <em>It never works.</em> You should learn about the Soviet Union, a hell that existed once upon a time, and now is dead as a doorknob. Many foolish apostate Jews — people like you — thought <em>that</em> was their ticket to fleeing the endless murderous Tsarist pogroms. So these Jews — like Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zinoviev, Karl Radek, and Leon Trotsky — embraced Communism. <strong>(READ MORE: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D831810226f%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954278000&usg=AOvVaw2LhmfkiKNy0IbJwD7J8mZT" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=831810226f&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">Israel’s Ground Incursion Won’t Look Pretty, but Let It Be</a>)</strong></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">You know what happened to them, O Jews of Harvard and Columbia? The first three were arrested, forced to sign confessions after weeks of being kept sleepless, then were put on trial in the middle of the night with their signed confessions read, and then were shot in rooms that had shower heads to quickly wash their blood down the drain, one by one. Trotsky hid in Mexico, so Stalin sent someone to slam a hatchet into his head. Trotsky was axed from the Communist party.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhnkdBPm7kp64nFzDCj9tgOOpGyqSgHA6Qe0WY81LqfoqitgnuMHMyCvMNpWxlLv0LwG7yiXZYs1s1CdEtlTiPVdEHh2Vp45-z2EL-zsV0guHBkab5DXcvk2Yzh1tV3m02pMm2ew-TYPHf6egQksdwpVmT-esJuASvqBcl2zgp49mHk2aMFxhRzsEj5yMpTbQ=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /> <img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiN8EGCYfNnngU7lzNrwPyXGL-dEe5TrN_NJRf5z5RQGRksgTazWQ2HRG4gSc5mBqhbtvFQ5TWUkpW17zY7OZBX3JVlvZsKTSGWdB_1uCY9JDlBQtKjAzPg4tgbxmnsybA3KpKzU1ArYOPkTH2L1zqFRTRi83wVGT9ZjIrnR7mpjRUvvoW6dO-oYw87ivKGvw=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">So stop whining. “Mommy, they hate us! Arab Muslims and all our friends are turning on us! They are cheering for the Hamas-ISIS butchers who slaughtered peace activists.” Hamas began by slaughtering 270 peace activists, butchering and raping and beheading peace activists at an all-night Trance Rave music festival, while more authentically committed Jews in Israel were in synagogue observing Shabbat and Shmini Atzeret. “Mommy, the Hamas-ISIS terrorists slaughtered families, murdered children, as many as 40 babies in a kibbutz, then cut off their baby heads, set their baby corpses on fire, burned others, cut off limbs, then photo’d and video’d all of it, as the Nazis had documented their atrocities. And all the students here support that, Mommy. And, Mommy, now they are chanting ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine Must Be Free’ — meaning no more Israel because Israel is the only thing that stands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg43GMk-61wiU7n-HKONdzDhlSTIhP6U2d4J_waAvEXOWoYltjrhNjw3qemGrcxXRuX6tQRWYOZrxPVaVci1p1cLgMAXzUTdjxLgbBrfT2ZTVzQyxzETkBQe_KTxHXmrMZ1Q3EjX0-vv6Kt1SpJgraJYHfu4Wqckx4naHsWY8jCvgm5zKbrcwWEskGIyLDTew=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">“Mommy,<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D51cc54784d%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954278000&usg=AOvVaw37M0GQ-C7bOlWopXH483eW" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=51cc54784d&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank"> I’m scared</a>. I <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D8f42e1b7a1%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954278000&usg=AOvVaw0t1NudPFn_NwESkFIrvmOR" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=8f42e1b7a1&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">don’t feel safe here.</a> Mommy, I don’t know what to do. You always taught me that, as liberals, we can count on people feeling sorry for us. You taught us to worship the victims. You taught us victimology. The only thing Jewish you ever taught us about was not the Torah but the Holocaust. But how come no one here is standing with us as the victims, Mommy?”</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Stop your damn whining, O coddled and over-protected Ivy League Jews! Grow up. Instead of being Woke, the real world invites you to awake.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgIctdVxA4EUzy7YP-0Gb_YJduopohEQZizVXkt3YoR3UbJKJEkXrvycLavUQWUi7qDLOzl6sBYcdB_hhWrH6KuX4MywLMR1X0ybSuLKvqX9ekEH6SbXlyxJCRQvwAqKQJm9Ac5AwyJid2t0IkLJ4K0IUONEzbbQJRlOajbnFwxzeWnH8BXY58_VjwX=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /> <img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiAh4mTQLuWEcqXrP0Ou5pQprMusyOrC-bqN8kFjxpPGpgAVhhL-ANR_KW9sqtyIGSmh65wVJc_QHf08LRO78AhscblGKmF8BTAkCPMRexeS8YzgRvOtrjYtM6fLQZqCmf_ITHa-w4acrJjqOFBQCm8Hmsh4KOqZixfSVdvI4G9NdBGXcKvjGpLi5doi7o=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">The <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3De1fe080bb8%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954278000&usg=AOvVaw1pQ-AM6NnFT00Nnb3qEyeG" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=e1fe080bb8&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">campuses now are flooded with Arab Muslims</a> imported as full-tuition-paying exchange students from foreign lands that hate and despise America, the countries that blew up the World Trade Center or cheered it. They dominate the Middle Eastern Studies departments because the Saudis and their ilk put up the money to fund them. The few Jews who teach in Middle Eastern or even “Jewish Studies” must prove they are anti-Israel to get tenure. The anti-Israel petitions are filled with Jewish signers, all professors of Middle Eastern and Jewish Studies. Hate for Israel is their ticket to tenure.</span></span></p><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"><p style="line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">The Left distinguishes between bad rape and good rape. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D156dbccf80%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954278000&usg=AOvVaw0MiXuBoltS3iNY9DbtF_He" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=156dbccf80&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Hamas-ISIS is good Woke rape</a>. Rape women who want peace. #MeToo.</span></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">I went to Columbia University a bit ago. Not only did I attend, but I got the undergraduate student body to elect me to represent the entire college in the University Senate from 1974-1976. Look it up. I, a politically hard-conservative Orthodox Jew with yarmulka and tzitzit, was the elected representative of all Columbia College students. You know how I did it? By being a proud Jew. I was known on campus. No one dared mess with me as I led Jews on campus to make Jewish demands. At the time, Pepsi was dealing only with Arab countries, and essentially boycotting Israel, while they also were dealing with the Soviet Union that persecuted Jews and would not let them leave. At the time, Coca Cola famously was marketing in Israel. So we demanded that Columbia end its contract with Pepsi and replace them with Coke. We won.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiUmyZyBzXFxgkbcToF_k5ZqOFqp0w-p4FV0sVdMs6lRO0IWC0xEMtc8nBWnixPARR_nN7r10fxkrUtgp8n4J7xb_fwxFyn6DXVvBsHByqGf5Rkxmxk1nCjGiz71N3u-lPr5CHdaQ1yt4mTMB1N3b869KsNwgkb4yFUxAP70IryIcLrnU0kCbGJFG__-P1Vrg=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /> <img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEi3caKK-_hSUM7r5LiO8to2hnyHJeHe0C9uLf_bltgWxCDbww7N35Zk9ciZwhjyWh57tNE5BztZTsfdOtL7nxPh2W7no5dYxa7L_BCPgDBFcxY5jldIgPxiwZfXzT0_jnWkvVhndsLOTsnLAoQVfQDFBa2rJsAwdeNY9imvZZDzDEBJUEFb7heuJ42BGf4KdA=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"> <br />We demanded days off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — and we got it. We demanded that Columbia end all academic exchange programs with the Soviets until Prof. Vitali Rubin, some Jew who taught Chinese, was freed from the USSR. Columbia responded that they are not going to end an entire academic exchange program just for one Jew. So things happened on campus and Columbia ended its exchange program with the Russians. A year later Vitali Rubin was in Israel, and we allowed the exchange program to resume.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">So stop your despicable whining. You are a disgrace and a shame to Jews like my friends and me who, for two thousand years, never had life as good and as privileged as you have it. They were getting butchered in Kishinev, Kiev, and Odessa in their meager hamlets. They were burned at the stake during the Inquisition. The Crusaders broke into their homes and treated them as Hamas-ISIS does. And you are whining that 32 Muslim and Indonesian and Pakistani and Black Student groups sign a statement hating Israel and loving Hamas-ISIS? That is what they are.</span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjnh1LIdQ6uGTm-ffpBz-REHrBs5SjZAYIQUAzb9S569ICOsE1S6wbXe6-eXzKSdGAmPBqZIVmuCpIC65M430r-8etUrJyX0meUwHuxTyNybZ_p1v4Oko7SwfhWnzLrGw1fultZ7b0Qg1lmwXPK2vkD_aIdw7l9Jze0QBsATP75B5n3rwzQ1VkqrqTDYei30w=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /> <img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjfePcSoMLCQZ7Dmb7tFZV3Xnt3yu9Ak7-POzGKKZbh4wwhf2KOlxKtpz4_TAbiGqYzh2BINwRsZEbqdjFgl0pEpUD_AKe_WftG7LxSpDsXwvYGqh579YhtkkNCb7vLNEQQiFc2sTMPyP1M456Y1RfA-Uh_QqmhpBaS-MVA63nJJbndR4TpRo4DOioD3aNe8Q=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Grow up. They cheer the subhumans <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Da66188a9f0%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954279000&usg=AOvVaw3SSQzDWbKDUxxEoMNupGtG" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=a66188a9f0&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">who cut off limbs, beheaded, and burned even children and babies</a>. The Left distinguishes between bad rape and good rape. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D306ac80eda%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954279000&usg=AOvVaw3-NUwKLnVZAuKKujeKI1UQ" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=306ac80eda&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Hamas-ISIS is good Woke rape</a>. Rape women who want peace. #MeToo.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">So, O Jews of campuses, stop whining. If they chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free!” then gather a hundred of you and chant “From the River to the Sea, Yis-Ra-El Will Be Free!” If they chant for a “Palestine” that is a fraud because there are no “Palestinians.” But then you chant for Israel. Chant for Israel. And <em>really</em> get them angry by singing <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D6b1d873bdb%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954279000&usg=AOvVaw0-jLleXd00X08bNbu4-Gu-" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=6b1d873bdb&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">“G-d Bless America</a>.” <strong>(READ MORE: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3Deda9a2ccc5%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954279000&usg=AOvVaw1WLWMWv_4lWyCI47ia7Fn_" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=eda9a2ccc5&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">Patiently Waiting for Israel’s Ground Invasion to Crush Hamas</a>)</strong></span></span><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img class="CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgt2F1t8IdXCT5x6fstY-HCTaJsqZkr_IUNAlBZXrvNtAbRzqgmbE8CVqGmFsdGLMCVC8s_QnZ3Z0aC9vyudFTnkYMh-jUZGw-msuvIPS4A03LDZudkrdjjz4liK6b8iBY2hKeWDlqLULg1bAtXo8ILL6y9HYipMSdEY4CguB3VtW7J3JPVeL-iZzaIOiLBAg=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; outline: none;" /> <img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEib_XLpFR_ytaJ5C349Gr6KPJT_cqyjYB88kD7Fc6cxo7SnxyYDgXhyphenhyphenlI6fjJ_zLAVMcbUsktfGyRG3gKeOAX9iEoISnSXGj3e2_gDgYLuyF1aqyPuJpCbguMI7Cox-Kffv4O9hkDHExdxms8knz2UhPqicqktRdfBQlJeMlouiWdRBgNgrxvf4_PuA7UJG5w=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /><br /><br /><img class="CToWUd a6T" data-bit="iit" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgIa5bDSv2O2XKMOv_5kN573bMHiKyCCMzIqsNh7hW1SPV35BGNy4G_E7VeDpaasrTPUBhZEp__odLe60jsior_UtXtzddyxtzq4oa-NyBZbrASWTmb0ONwhQiT5JA85oMjNCAtTPOAgtngr8fkryZvSlSmrvLYBwyae-2QNi_ZklKqoGecYKUyiAH0-Fj53w=s0-d-e1-ft&pid=Api&P=0&h=220" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; height: auto !important; outline: none;" tabindex="0" /><br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">As Woke leftists, you have been taught to whine, to seek safe spaces, to cringe at microaggressions. But whining will do no good. It never does. Get out there and affirm you are Jews. Affirm Israel’s right to live, even if it must kill 100,000 Gazans as collateral damage to exterminating Hamas-ISIS. Accept that the DEI Woke have no room for you.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Stop waiting to be saved by off-campus organizations. <em>You have to save yourselves, for G-d’s sakes!</em> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D8cf5d6d1f7%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1698762954279000&usg=AOvVaw3Zzev0cDQpjQecbDGVkiO2" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=8cf5d6d1f7&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">Christians will respect you</a> for it. Many will join you. You don’t have to let a handful of foreign students — who do not even belong in America — along with a bunch of Jewish self-hating apostates, beat you down. There are more of you than them. Stop marching to the showers like lambs. This is not Auschwitz; it’s Harvard Yard.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Stop whining. Fight back.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"> </p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-45819410688822071982023-10-25T14:17:00.004-07:002023-10-25T14:17:36.701-07:00Blood libel against Jews: Back with a vengeance The current reaction to the events in Gaza cannot be understood without taking into account the long history of blood libels and Jew-hatred.<br /><br /> A document from the end of the 15th century features an illustration of a bearded Jew extracting the blood of a Christian child. The adjoining text explains that Jewish law requires that Passover matzoh be baked with the blood of Christian children.<br /><br />Such documents were widely circulated through Europe during the Easter season and led to frequent pogroms—murder, rape and destruction—against Jewish children, women and men.<br />Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories<br />FREE SIGN UP<br />By signing up, you agree to receive emails from JNS and our advertising partners<br />ADVERTISEMENT<br /><br /><br />There was never any actual evidence of such cannibalism. In fact, Jewish law explicitly prohibits the consumption of any blood or its use in cooking.<br /><br />The total lack of evidence, however, did not matter to those who were taught and believed what has come to be known as the “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/blood-libel">blood libel</a>.” Despite all the evidence to the contrary, many believed this falsehood.<br /><br />This blood libel persisted throughout Europe into the early 20th century. Jews were put on trial and executed for supposedly killing Christian children for their blood.<br />RELATED ARTICLES<br /><a href="https://www.jns.org/before-all-hell-breaks-loose/"><img src="https://cdn.jns.org/uploads/2023/10/shutterstock_644244382-480x480.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="https://www.jns.org/before-all-hell-breaks-loose/">‘Before all hell breaks loose’</a>October 25, 2023<br /><a href="https://www.jns.org/the-humanitarian-situation-in-gaza-is-code-for-killing-jews/"><img src="https://cdn.jns.org/uploads/2023/10/F231016EI006-480x480.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="https://www.jns.org/the-humanitarian-situation-in-gaza-is-code-for-killing-jews/">The ‘humanitarian situation in Gaza’ is code for killing Jews</a>October 25, 2023<br /><a href="https://www.jns.org/hamas-its-supporters-and-prevarications-about-international-law/"><img src="https://cdn.jns.org/uploads/2021/08/shutterstock_1121418476-400x400-1684235416.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="https://www.jns.org/hamas-its-supporters-and-prevarications-about-international-law/">Hamas, its supporters and prevarications about international law</a>October 25, 2023<br /><br />Other libels against Jews formed the basis for classic antisemitism, culminating in the Nazi lies that dehumanized Jews to an extent that made the Holocaust possible. Following the murder of 6 million innocent Jews, including babies, the world said “never again,” and antisemitism abated in many parts of the world.<br /><br />Now it is back with a vengeance, accompanied by blood libels and other systematic lies about the Jewish people and their nation state, Israel.<br /><br />It is against this sordid historical background that the current blood libel—that Israel targeted a Gaza hospital, deliberately causing the death of 500 Muslim children, women and men—can best be understood and assessed.<br /><br />There is absolutely no evidence that Israel struck the hospital, whether deliberately or accidentally. Evidence from videos, photographs and telephone intercepts have proved to intelligence agencies worldwide that a barrage of rockets was launched toward Israel from near the hospital, almost certainly by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and that one of the rockets malfunctioned mid-flight, landing not directly on the hospital but in its outdoor parking lot, and that the explosion killed far fewer than 500 people.<br /><br />The claim of 500 people killed came, within minutes of the PIJ rocket strike, from the “Gaza Ministry of Health”—in other words from Hamas. They lie. No facts or numbers are ever verifiable. Moreover, Hamas claims that no rocket parts survived—another self-serving lie. Yet their blood libel is widely believed by Israel’s enemies—perhaps because they want to believe it. It is too good a story to be ruined by the facts. As journalist Becket Adams <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/10/the-media-will-never-forgive-israel-for-not-bombing-that-hospital/">wrote</a> in National Review:<br />ADVERTISEMENT<br /><br /><br />“The Media Will Never Forgive Israel for Not Bombing That Hospital…. Reporters and pundits mishandled the Gaza hospital story because they wanted so badly for it to be true.”<br /><br />New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/opinion/biden-speech-israel-gaza.html">wrote</a>:<br /><br />“As the Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea pointed out to me, Palestinian Islamic Jihad achieved more this week with an apparently<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/18/world/middleeast/gaza-hospital-deaths-aftermath.html"> misfired rocket</a> ‘than it achieved in all of its successful missile launches.'”<br /><br />The “Muslim street” has been indoctrinated by its leaders to believe anything negative about Jews or Israel. And the Arab media generally reports Hamas lies and exaggerations—such as the claim that 500 civilians were killed at the hospital—as unvarnished truth.<br /><br />It is unlikely that all the facts surrounding the tragedy at the Gaza hospital will emerge. Most of the physical evidence attesting to the rocket having been launched from Gaza by terrorists has been suppressed or manipulated by Hamas.<br /><br />Credible intelligence agencies around the world have assessed the likelihood of various possible scenarios: an errant terrorist rocket; the debris of an Iron Dome defensive missile; a misfired Israeli missile; a targeted Israeli missile. The current consensus is that it was a Palestinian terrorist rocket that malfunctioned, as reportedly 20% of such rockets do, and landed at home in Gaza. There has been no objective assessment that points the finger at an Israeli strike.<br /><br />The Palestinians have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-hospital-evidence.html">refused</a> to produce fragments that could reveal if the rocket was Israeli, and no evidence so far has pointed to a missile having been launched there by Israel—to deliberately kill civilians or for any other reason. In fact, Israel blanketed northern Gaza with leaflets in Arabic urging its residents to flee to the south in order to avoid killing them—while the leadership in Gaza ordered them to stay, and then tried to block their safe passage south.<br />ADVERTISEMENT<br /><br /><br />Yet that lie is precisely the blood libel that Israel’s enemies—in Gaza, on the “Muslim street,” in the Arab media and on university campuses around the world—are fomenting.<br /><br />The current reaction to the events in Gaza cannot be understood without taking into account the long history of blood libels and Jew-hatred. The current focus is on Gaza, but the goal of Hamas supporters is what Hamas itself proclaims in its <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp">charter</a>: the obliteration of any nation state for the Jewish people in any part of Israel.<br /><br />This conflict is not about occupation or settlements. The chant of anti-Israel protesters, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” means that the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea—all of Israel—must be free of Jews.<br /><br />Antisemitism has always been based on lies. No amount of evidence, regardless of how strong, can persuade fervent Jew-haters to accept the truth.<br /><br />In the weeks to come, Israeli strikes will accidentally kill civilians in Gaza, because Hamas deliberately uses Palestinian children, women, the elderly and disabled as human shields. Some are willing shields; others are pressured or forced to risk their lives to protect Hamas killers. The international law of “proportionality” allows Israel to destroy important military targets—such as Hamas leaders or rocket launchers—even though they know that a certain number of civilians may be killed or injured. The only requirement is that the military value of the target be proportional to the number of anticipated collateral deaths and injuries among civilians.<br /><br />The rule of “proportionality” does not mean that Israel is permitted to kill the same number of civilians as those killed by Hamas. The rule of proportionality also depends on how “civilian” these “civilians” actually are. Israel legally has more leeway in endangering the lives of civilians who volunteer to be shields, or who are in other ways complicit with Hamas, than they would be with regard to young children or others who are completely innocent.<br /><br />Do not expect, however, the blood-libeling liars of Hamas or their cheerleaders to consider these and other legal and moral distinctions. For them, every death of a Palestinian is automatically the fault of Israel, even if they are killed by an errant terrorist rocket, or while being used by Hamas as a human shield. The truth does not matter to bigots.BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-26173985341472454972023-10-24T10:05:00.001-07:002023-10-24T10:05:07.631-07:00No more silence, from anyone Now is the time to act against all those who promote and support Hamas’s evil. by Bobby Rechnitz(October 24, 2023 / JNS)<br /><br />Elie Wiesel famously wrote, “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”<br /><br />For many years, when it came to Israel, too many were silent. Part of it was fear, part of it might have been economic, part of it might have been simple ignorance.<br /><br />What happened on Oct. 7 should lay all that to rest.<br /><br />The bloody pogrom unleashed by Hamas tortured and then killed members of families in front of each other, beheaded and burned babies, raped and kidnapped women, children and old ladies and butchered young men and women who just wanted to enjoy a music festival.<br /><br />No one can claim that they have not seen and do not understand.<br /><br />No one.<br /><br />Social media is rife with these haunting and difficult but necessary images. Media outlets around the world are showing them in all their horrifying detail, or at least enough to know that Israel’s enemies act with a nature not witnessed in the animal world. Animals kill to eat and protect, not for the pure pleasure of it.<br /><br />The monsters who perpetrated these crimes against humanity and nature must be stopped. They, those who organized and sent them, and those who celebrated the butchery are the enemies of mankind. This is evil and it must be fought.<br /><br />Those of us in the Diaspora and around the world who are outside the physical fight must think long and hard about what we can do to ensure that these crimes are punished appropriately, until the State of Israel wins this war and its people can sleep peacefully and securely once again.<br /><br />It might not be fashionable in some quarters to talk like this anymore, but Israel is fighting pure evil.<br /><br />To those who might retort that this language belongs to another era, I would argue that these murderous and medieval massacres belong to another era as well. Unfortunately for all of us, much of humanity may have developed and progressed, but it is clear there are many of us who have not.<br /><br />To stop this evil, we are called to arms. The images and the cries of the Israeli families who have lost loved ones serve as our enlistment papers. We Jews of the Diaspora must fight alongside our brothers and sisters in Israel. Our weapons will be our keyboards, our phones and our voices.<br /><br />Advocacy is influence. We can advocate publicly and privately, as part of an organization or as individuals. For example, we must contact local, state and federal representatives about funding to schools and universities that support and promote such antisemitic slaughter. This is not the 1930s. We have influence. We must use it.<br /><br />We must call out any and every decision-maker, opinion-shaper, public figure, NGO or organization that is silent on this massacre. They must understand that silence is no longer an option.<br /><br />Those who have expressed support for the Palestinians and Gaza but not for Israel and its victims must be named and shamed. They like to think they are humane. They are not. They are mendaciously cloaking their evil ideology in the language of humanitarianism.<br /><br />Those who think they can explain away these massacres as a response to something betray their lack of humanity. These murderers were not people trying to be free. They were people who took pleasure in seeing innocent people suffer because of the murderers’ pure, unadulterated hate.<br /><br />Most importantly, we must investigate the organizations and corporations that, wittingly or unwittingly, have helped fund mass murder. Many NGOs and businesses all over the world have financial ties to Iran and Qatar, whose money helped plan and execute the pogrom. The blood of innocents is on their hands and they must be held accountable.<br /><br />We should be compiling lists. The names on them must become synonymous with murder and bloodshed until they divest any financial ties from any countries or entities connected with Hamas and other equally evil terrorist groups.<br /><br />These are just some of the actions we can take.<br /><br />This advocacy should extend far beyond the Jewish community. Jews are always on the front lines of supporting and showing solidarity with every oppressed or marginalized group or community. For too long we have accepted that this is an unequal and unfair relationship. This isn’t good enough anymore. We need our allies to show up. This is their time as well as ours.<br /><br />Hamas and their allies know the power of the media and public opinion. They are already trying to lie and do damage control. This is where we come in. We must fight back.<br /><br />Everyone must pick a side—good or evil. No one is permitted to sit on the fence. Silence is not an option, because, as Weisel wrote, it encourages the tormentor.<br /><br />This is the time to act.BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-9655278988945800392023-10-20T11:11:00.003-07:002023-10-20T11:11:28.519-07:00Bitter Betrayal: How the Gaza Disengagement Planted the Seeds of Tragedy Debbie Maimon<p> <img alt="" class="attachment-full size-full wp-image-28573" height="766" loading="lazy" src="https://yated.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/maimon.gif" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; border: none; box-shadow: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Inter var", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: -0.27px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: middle; word-break: break-word;" width="1021" /></p>As the world learns how Hamas succeeded in duping the Israelis into complacency ahead of the barbaric Simchas Torah massacre, what stands out is the tragic ease with which the current government allowed itself to be deceived. <br /><br />“We made them think Hamas was busy with governing Gaza, and that it wanted to focus on the 2.5 million Palestinians there and had abandoned the resistance altogether. All the while, under the table, Hamas was preparing for this big attack,” boasted senior Hamas terrorist Ali Baraka in an interview last week with RT (Russia Today).<br /><br />In other words, writes prominent news analyst Caroline Glick in JNS, “Hamas pretended it was a credible partner for negotiations” [for a two-state solution], “and Israel let itself be played.”<br /><br /> <br /><br />Dangerous Self-Deception<br /><br />Israel let itself be blinded to facts on the ground that its leaders know all too well: the depraved nature of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists, whose foremost agenda is to annihilate the Jewish state and to glory in the torture and murder of every Jew they lay hands on.<br /><br />Fatal self-deception and underestimation of the enemy have driven other critical moments in recent Israeli history. One thinks immediately of the disastrous 1993 Oslo Accords under Yitzhak Rabin and later, the ill-fated Gaza Disengagement under Ariel Sharon. With the perspective of time, these initiatives have come to be recognized by many as gross failures of leadership and judgment.<br /><br />Deceptively called “peace plans,” these fateful events witnessed Israeli governments making reckless concessions based on empty or imagined promises, only to endure vicious waves of terror when freshly armed terrorists were empowered to slaughter Jews with impunity.<br /><br />The Hamas tactic of faking out the world about its true intentions is nothing new for the Islamic jihadists, asserts Caroline Glick. It has its roots in the modus operandi of arch terrorist Yassir Arafat and his comrades—and this deceit should have informed a key component of Israeli counterstrategy.<br /><br />“In the P.A.’s early days in the 1990s, Arafat would routinely condemn Hamas terror attacks against Israel in English and then call for the Palestinian Arabs to slaughter the Jews through jihad in Arabic,” the author notes.<br /><br />Hamas’s current “pretend separation” from Islamic Jihad, and its use of Islamic Jihad as the bad guy while Hamas wore the mantle of “good guy” to persuade Israel and the U.S. that it had “moderated,” was the same trick.<br /><br />The Israeli government has known the truth all along, yet allowed itself to be lulled by Hamas into a false sense of security and to fall asleep at the wheel.<br /><br />“Hamas was able to deceive Israel and the U.S. for two years because they wanted to be deceived. Israel’s generals wanted to believe that the Palestinian Arabs aren’t implacable foes,” notes Glick. They can be appeased. We don’t have to defeat them,” was the wishful thinking of the government’s leaders.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Historic Backstabbing by Ariel Sharon Lay The Groundwork<br /><br />A classic case of Israeli leaders falling prey in a similar way to a hallucinatory pipe dream is the 2005 Gaza Disengagement, when the Israeli government under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew all military forces and all civilians from Gaza. Strikingly, he did so one-sidedly, without negotiations, as a “free gift” to the Palestinians.<br /><br />Sharon’s Disengagement Plan followed five years of relentless suicide bombings of the Second Intifada beginning in 2000. Israelis’ belief in the possibility of peace had faded and Sharon, known as “The Bulldozer,” had been elected on the strength of his reputation as a military hawk. The expectation was that the new government under Sharon would deal with the Palestinians with an iron fist.<br /><br />Sharon had been a champion of the settlements, believing that they created “facts on the ground” that would impede the forfeiting of land captured in the 1967 war to the Palestinians. The relinquishing of territory, any territory at all, was something he had always campaigned against.<br /><br />Yet the new prime minister, with two thirds of the Knesset supporting him, stunned his voter base shortly after he was elected by abandoning those who had helped put him in office, and all the residents of Gush Katif who saw him as their “protector.” Sharon had literally run on a platform promising not to leave Gaza. His drastic turnaround was seen as backstabbing, an unforgiveable betrayal.<br /><br />The towns and kibbutzim in Gaza, collectively referred to as Gush Katif, were not a haphazard bunch of trailers or tent cities. Gush Katif in the south of Gaza was home to almost 9,000 Jews in a block of 18 towns boasting fully built communities with roads, industry, countless shuls and schools, much of which had been in place for decades.<br /><br />No one on the Palestinian side had even made a show of promising Sharon anything in return for the mass expulsion of Israelis from their homes. For reasons not clear to this day, Sharon had totally sidestepped the Palestinians, pursuing his withdrawal plan without extracting a single concession from the other side.<br /><br />The theory is that he anticipated that the sweeping evacuation would win Israel (and himself) international favor, and induce the Palestinians to abandon their long-running intifada—a terror campaign that had claimed 134 Jewish lives in a five year period. Sharon made grandiose promises to Israeli citizens that the Disengagement would grant them “the maximum level of security and minimize friction between Israelis and Palestinians.”<br /><br />Having bought in to this delusional thinking, he then swept much of the country with him, and in the end resorted to ruthless tactics to force the plan through.<br /><br /> <br /><br />A Passionately Divided Israel<br /><br />Not everyone fell under the enchantment of the Gaza “peace” initiative. The Disengagement Plan passionately divided Israeli society. For many to the political left of Sharon, the challenge of protecting almost 10,000 Jewish settlers surrounded by more than a million Palestinians was not worth the drain on military resources. They, along with a sizable percent of the Israeli public, fell under the spell of Sharon’s confident predictions of “maximum security” and supported the withdrawal.<br /><br />Many on the right argued that the settlements in Gaza served as a buffer to Palestinian violence. They warned that if the settlements were removed, Gaza could turn into a terrorist breeding ground and a launching pad for attacks against all of Israel. Hamas helped prove these critics right when in 2004—after the Disengagement Plan was made public—the terror group fired 882 mortar shells and 276 Qassam rockets at Israel.<br /><br />For many religious Zionists, the Disengagement violated a cherished lynchpin of Zionist doctrine—settling the land of Israel. Some feared this was only the beginning; dismantling the settlements in Gush Katif would lead to the uprooting of more and more moshavim in Yehuda and Shomron, giving up on the Zionist dream of a “Greater Israel.” See Sidebar One and Two<br /><br />Almost every Jew has seen heart-wrenching images of Jewish families in Gush Katif being dragged out of their homes by soldiers of the IDF. Many spent their final hours in the area davening and crying in the beautiful shuls in the community. There are many stories of soldiers crying with the residents as they removed them from their homes. Some refused to carry out orders and simply davened together with their brothers and sisters.<br /><br />Ultimately, every single settler was evicted. Even the dead were expelled, their graves dug up for reburial in the new borders of Israel. Every last Israeli soldier was also withdrawn from Gaza.<br /><br />The full Operational IDF Plan for the Evacuation of Gaza is now a matter of public record. Reading through it, one is stunned by the flagrant trampling of civic rights that accompanied the expulsion of the settlers—as if these families were enemies of the state.<br /><br />The plan, called “Operation Eshel Tz’chiach,” details all military and logistical aspects of the expulsion, including psychological warfare to maximize the shock of surprise and neutralize residents’ resistance.<br /><br />The IDF document singles out certain radio stations as necessary to jam, to prevent accurate information from reaching evacuees: “The Communications Corps will jam the cellular phone networks in the entire Gaza Strip and nearby area,” the document reads. “It is necessary to prevent in any way possible radio broadcasts from the Arutz Sheva ship or similar ones, and to locate transmitters operating throughout Israel and the territories.”<br /><br />We know all too well what happened in the immediate aftermath of the evacuation.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Violent Hamas Takeover<br /><br />In less than a year later, Hamas won elections in Gaza and went on to violently seize control of the territory from the Palestinian Authority, which was controlled by the rival Fatah terrorist movement (that still governs the West Bank.)<br /><br />Some may recall how in the fight with Fatah, Hamas fighters were reported to have executed their opponents by dragging them up steep staircases and throwing them out of windows. Around 600 Palestinians were killed from early 2006 to mid-2007 from Palestinian infighting within the strip.<br /><br />Since then, no further elections have been held in Gaza. Instead of building up the economy and infrastructure and providing for Palestinians’ daily needs, the Hamas leadership used hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid and supplies to wage war on Israel. Thousands of rocket attacks were launched at civilian population centers. Materials were repurposed to construct miles of underground tunnels in order to infiltrate Israel and conduct terror attacks, abductions, and smuggle weapons.<br /><br />The continuous terrorism and rocket attack barrages provoked Israeli military retaliation, resulting in three consecutive wars in Gaza between 2008 and 2014 that claimed hundreds of lives.<br /><br />The unrelenting violence and murderous aggression also led Israel to enforce strict borders — both on land and sea — to prevent further terrorist activity and Israeli civilian casualties. A few years later, Egypt enforced strict borders with Gaza on their side as well.<br /><br /> <br /><br />‘Mowing the Lawn’—A Doomed Policy<br /><br />Israeli government policy toward these wars has been guided by a strategy of “mowing the lawn”—reducing terrorism without uprooting the terrorist infrastructure, or “kicking the can down the road” so it becomes the problem of future prime ministers and army generals. That way the crisis will be postponed so current government leaders will not have to risk their political futures by staging a lengthy all-out war.<br /><br />Hamas exploited the periods of calm in between wars by greatly extending its military capacities, to an extent barely imaginable a decade ago.<br /><br />“When Israel left Gaza in 2005 the range of the Palestinian rockets was barely 5 km. (3 miles), and the explosive charge they carried, about 5 kg. Now their missiles have a range of over 100 km. and warheads of around 100 kg,” writes Dr. Martin Sherman of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.<br /><br />“When Israel left Gaza, only the sparse population in its immediate proximity was threatened by missiles. Now well over 5 million Israelis, well beyond Tel Aviv, are menaced by them.”<br /><br />A Gadol’s Prediction<br /><br />One of Ariel Sharon’s most outspoken critics was Rav Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the Shas party, and the posek hador for much of the Sephardic Jewish world until his death in 2013. Rav Yosef repeatedly condemned the Gaza Disengagement, slamming Sharon’s promises of “a maximum level of security” as worthless.<br /><br />He argued passionately against unilateral action outside the framework of a peace agreement, saying that empowering the Palestinians without a commitment to end terror would imperil Jewish lives.<br /><br />Widely reported in newspapers around the world, Rav Yosef referred to Sharon “as a cruel person” for ruthlessly driving Jews out of their home. He predicted that “The Holy One will strike him down. He will sleep and never wake up.”<br /><br />These words proved eerily prescient. Less than seven months after the last Jew was removed from Gush Katif, the prime minister suffered a massive stroke. He fell into a coma and drifted into a vegetative state for the next eight years from which he never awoke. He died in 2014.<br /><br />Sharon was spared from witnessing any of the harrowing fallout from his misguided plan. He saw neither the Hamas takeover nor the explosion of terror that dominated the region after the Disengagement, culminating 18 years later in the unspeakable horrors of the Hamas massacre of over 1300 defenseless Jews.<br /><br /> <br /><br />*****<br /><br />The following editorials by Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz, editor of Yated, were written just days after the Gaza Disengagement. They offer a fascinating perspective on one of the most confusing and emotionally charged issues of the day.<br /><br />August 3, 2005<br /><br />A Prayer for The People of Sharon<br /><br />Everyone wants to know what the gedolei Yisroel say about the Disengagement. I had the occasion this week to discuss the matter with my rebbi, Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky, and what he tole me was most enlightening.<br /><br />Rav Shmuel remarked with a pained expression how awful it is for the people living in Gush Katif to be evicted from their homes and that we must all feel their pain. “Bochoh sivkeh balaylah,” he quoted from Megillas Eicha, noting how applicable that poignant passage is to the present situation.<br /><br />The settlers believed that their moving to Gaza would hasten the arrival of Moshiach. Ariel Sharon dashed their dreams. His original plan was to complicate the givebacks of captured land by creating large settler blocs. By urging people to settle in places like Gush Katif, the day of reckoning would be delayed or even avoided entirely.<br /><br />I remember him showing me maps over ten years ago and proudly pointing to places all along Yehuda, Shomron and Azza, to ensure that no leftist government would ever be able to return that land to the Arabs. Who would ever have imagined he would totally abandon this position as prime minister.<br /><br />The pawns in this chess game, the people who settled formerly barren areas and built up homes and communities, have known terrible suffering. The Arabs of Gaza have been unrelenting in their attacks on Gush Katif. Katyushas and other flying bombs have rained down on the region for close to three decades, murdering good people who made the ultimate sacrifice for their ideals. Hashem yinkom damam.<br /><br />And now, the very same Sharon who stood behind them all these years and pointed with pride at their towns and cities, has ordered their evacuation.<br /><br />While we love Eretz Yisroel with much passion, we realize that Moshiach has not yet come. Even in Israel we are in golus.<br /><br />We put Jewish lives ahead of nationalist agendas.<br /><br />But there is the pain.<br /><br />It is very hard for us to stand by and witness the despair of our brethren in Gush Katif.<br />Yes, they bought into a lie and are now paying the price, but they are our brothers and they are heartbroken. And when our brother is down, we are down. We pray for them to be able to survive this crushing blow and rebuild their lives.<br /><br />We are not sure that living in Gush Katif was ever a smart thing to do. We don’t know how wise it was for the people who moved and lived there to endanger themselves, their families and so many soldiers. But now as they stand on the threshold of expulsion, as they hold their heads in agony contemplating the wasted lives sacrificed on the altar of Sharon’s lie, our hearts go out to them.<br /><br />Divine Message From the 16th Century<br /><br />Rav Shmuel had a further insight. He went on to say that during the Gezairos Tach v’Tat, the devastating pogroms against the Jews in Poland and Russia that wiped out 100,000 of our people, the Tosfos Yom Tov said that the reason for the terrible persecutions was revealed to him from Shomayim.<br /><br />He said that the Jews of that period did not show proper respect for shuls and botei medrash. He aroused the community to take the Divine message to heart and wrote a special tefillah on behalf of those who would restrain themselves from talking during davening.<br /><br />If shuls and botei medrash in Gaza are about to be blown up and the Jews who frequent them are being chased from their homes, this wrenching prospect may carry a message for us as well. Let us take that message to heart and merit the yeshuos the Tosfos Yom Tov prayed for during the bitter Gezeiros Tach v’Tat.<br /><br />*****<br /><br /> <br /><br />August 25, 2005<br /><br />Move To My Settlement<br /><br />The period of Jewish, Zionist settlement of Gaza has ended. There are no longer any Jews living in the Gaza strip. The man on which so many pinned their hopes spurned them, threw them out of their homes and snuffed out their dreams.<br /><br />The media dispatches from Gaza are full of raw emotion. Rarely do we read of such an outpouring of grief when not concerning death or dying. Women cried, men cried, children cried, soldiers cried. Why the extraordinary level of pain and tears? Let us probe the history of this sad debacle in an effort to understand.<br /><br />Decades ago, at great risk to their lives, the settlers moved to a forsaken desert. They made it bloom, building beautiful houses and farms. They believed that building Jewish settlements would help hasten the arrival of Moshiach. They felt they were keeping the enemies of Israel at bay by living in the midst of so many bloodthirsty Arabs.<br /><br />Soon after his election as prime minister, Ariel Sharon, who had been their champion and protector, decided to expel them from the paradise they had carved out. None of their heartrending entreaties could budge him. No miracle intervened to reverse the dreaded evacuation. The Tisha B’Av deadline arrived and the soldiers with their orders were at the door, ready to carry fellow Jews out of their homes.<br /><br />The tears gushed as cameras snapped, recording the grief for posterity. To be thrown out of your home is devastating; to be homeless is a nightmare. To have fought dearly for something and lost is deeply painful, but I think there is an even deeper dimension to the tragedy.<br /><br />I think the settlers were crying because they believed they were doing G-d’s work; they were fighting for Zionism and they lost. Their life’s mission was uprooted. In the words of one settler quoted in The New York Times as he was being dragged from his home, “This is not about our house. We are fighting the battle for Zionism.”<br /><br />The Mizrachi religious Zionist movement was founded in 1902 in a bid to work together with the secular Zionists to settle the land of Israel. Following the wars of 1967 and 1973, followers of Rav Kook’s son, Rav Zvi Yehuda, saw an opportunity to help speed the arrival of Moshiach. They teamed up with the secular Ariel Sharon and planted settlements of Jews all across parts of Eretz Yisroel and Gaza that had been captured in the Six Day War of ’67.<br /><br />The settlements exerted a powerful emotional pull and religious Jews in Israel and around the world supported the mitnachalim. In the wake of the demoralizing losses of the Yom Kippur War, the growing settlement movement infused new hope and optimism. The moshavim morphed into complete towns, with yeshivos, factories and beautiful houses—like a gan eden in olam hatachton.<br /><br /> <br /><br />An Elter Yid’s Foresight<br />During the heady days of their founding, Rav Shach would frequently speak against the settlement activity, saying we have no need for them and that it was forbidden to establish them. He was mocked and vilified for his position. A talmid once approached him, pleading to understand. “Rebbi, why do you keep on criticizing the settlements? You’re not accomplishing anything, your words are being scorned.”<br /><br />Rav Shach answered that he had no faith in the country’s leaders and did not trust their motives. He knew the day would come when they would relinquish the land they had liberated and return it to the Arabs. The settlers invested so much religious zeal into those settlements, he said, that he feared their loss would be so devastating, it would shatter their emunah.<br /><br />Rav Shach went on to say that he felt compelled to repeat his message so that when that future time arrives, the settlers would remember that there was once an alter Yid in Bnei Brak who stood and darshened that the settlements were not needed and were not destined to last, but our people would survive without them.<br /><br />Let them remember that when the day of betrayal comes, he said. Then they will not despair and will not forsake their faith in the religion of our forefathers.<br /><br />Alas, the bitter day the alter Yid foresaw has arrived. And now it is our duty to call out to our sorrowful brothers who have been turned out of their homes and repeat that message. With brotherly love, we cry out to you to come join our settlements of Ponovezh, Mir, Brisk, Chevron and Slabodka. They are ready to absorb you. They reach out to you with hearts full of compassion.<br /><br />Let us join forces. We can work together building yeshivos and Torah communities. Help us reach out to the tinokos shenishbu and bring them to lives of Torah.<br /><br />Now that you have been dumped across the country while your homes are bulldozed into oblivion, perhaps it is time to take stock. Perhaps the state and its army do not deserve the religious awe and respect with which you have honored them.<br /><br />The Zionist dream has failed the Jewish people; it has neither ended anti-Semitism nor engendered respect for our nation. The words of Rav Saadya Gaon echo: “Ein umaseinu umah elah b’Torah,” Torah is what binds us and defines us, not land, not a flag and not settlements.<br /><br />We live in historic times; Moshiach is knocking on our door. Can’t we join together and do what needs to be done to let him in?BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-64042585123850474052023-10-20T08:38:00.005-07:002023-10-20T08:38:24.245-07:00It Is Heartwarming That the World Loves Dead Jews So Much, By Rabbi Dov Fischer<p> Isn’t it heartwarming that the world loves dead Jews so much? I almost feel guilty for getting that lung transplant. It pains me that I deprived so many members of Black Lives Matter — may they all be damned by G-d Almig-ty — and so many neo-Nazi White Supremacists of a small moment of extra joy.</p><p>My gosh, how beautiful their eulogies are! In England, they have projected an Israeli flag image, replete with Jewish star, on 10 Downing. In France, on the Eiffel Tower. In Germany, on the Brandenburg Gate. I could go on. Projecting six-pointed stars in the blue and white. Touching.</p><p>When was the last time England exercised its veto power on the U.N. Security Council for Israel? Once in 75 years? Twice? Never? They sip Pimms No. 1 Cup or No. 6 and leave it for America to be the heroes, as they did in The Great War, World War II, and every war since. And what about Le France? Jamais — Never. And again never. And even never again. They leave it for America to show courage while they snicker behind our backs and also leave it for us to save them — again and again. As for Germany, we Jews don’t hold our breaths for much more than that they just keep their hands off us.</p><p>In the United Nations, Israel has only one almost totally reliable ally, America. And even that was not the case when Obama was there, thanks partly to leftist Jewish votes that contributed to helping elect him twice and the likes of the snake Jack Lew who served as his “Orthodox Jewish” defender. Or as they say in politics: Obama’s human shield. And human shill.</p><p>On vote after vote in the U.N., on the most simple and obvious of opportunities to stand with Israel, the “great world powers” are gutless. The final vote tallies on some General Assembly resolutions are appalling, as one after another after another of these “great Western powers” gutlessly votes to “abstain,” leaving it to Israel and America to stand alone, backed only by — I am sorry to say — the least important of itsy-bitsy countries that no one ever knew existed until Jewish news reports started hailing them for voting with Israel. We can always count on Micronesia (name says it all), Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua – New Guinea, and Togo (not the sandwich takeout chain). Often Cameroon, Uruguay, and Guatemala. Sometimes on Canada, sometimes not. Australia used to be a surprisingly reliable friend, but their new leader is changing course, hopping backward like a kangaroo in heat.</p><p>I once wondered “How will there be room for all the souls of 6,000 years of humankind to fit in the Holy Land when Moshiach (the Messiah) comes and the era of Olam Haba (the World to Come) arrives?” Well, there is part of the answer, I guess. There will be the righteous nations of the United States of America joined by the denizens of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua-New Guinea, and Togo. And when other nations come, embodying an image some Talmud students may recognize from the first chapter of Mesekhet (Tractate) Avodah Zarah, the Holy One Blessed Is He will hear the leaders of England and France and Germany and Japan ask of Him: “May we also enter eternal life and the World to Come?” And G-d will answer: “I abstain.”</p><p>So they love us when Jews die. The armed security guards companies send us moving cards of sympathy, with competitive pricing if we increase our temples’ and synagogues’ paid security coverage now during their seasonal Hamas Sale. Insurers of synagogue and temple property and personnel send us lovely words of comfort while reminding us to add special riders to our policies, still at popular prices. University presidents — more spineless than worn-out bound book volumes on a library shelf — wait four, five, six days to see whether the pro-Hamas Black Lives Matter, and all the Jewish apostate professors who back them, and all the “Jewish” students born of non-Jewish mothers who back Hamas, in alliance with foreign exchange students from anti-American Arab Muslim countries, will topple the campus. If the anarchists and Antifa lovers threaten campus instability, which can endanger University presidents’ jobs, then the University presidents remain silent. Their silence is broken, if at all, not when conscience or soul-searching takes place but when a few self-respecting billionaire Jewish and Christian Zionist alumni advise that they are pulling their donation pledges to fund new buildings and laboratories and professors’ lounges and students’ recreation centers. And then the University presidents finally issue their statement on the Hamas War: “As a matter of conscience, we hereby call on all sides to the conflict to stop beheading babies and raping women. #MeToo. Black Lives Matter. And stop climate change.”</p><p>Well, here is my statement to them: Drop dead all of you: Black Lives Matter, Jewish leftist apostates, anti-Zionists (a synonym for anti-Semites) of all colors and creeds and ethnicities. Just drop dead. All of you. And when you do, I will lay a wreath on your graves — to make sure you are where you belong.</p><p>My lot is with my people and with Christians who stand for decency and by Israel. And with atheists and agnostics who stand by the right of Jews not only to die but also to live. And not only in ghettoes constructed for Jews by others but in a free land where Hebrew is the spoken language, the Bible is the GPS road map, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the national holidays when the highways are almost empty of traffic, where United Jerusalem is the nation’s capital and the Temple Mount overlooks the Western Wall, and where 3,750,000 Jews spend half of each day of their lives arguing heatedly with 3,750,000 other Jews over every imaginable issue: court reform, drafting those who indefensibly seek to evade military service, whether big cities should be taxed in favor of communities of the “periphery,” whether Jews in the Knesset are to blame for Arabs killing other Arabs in Galilee, matters of war and peace, whether trains should run on Shabbat, whether restaurants should be open during a night of national mourning in August, and whether Jews in Tel Aviv should be directing anger at Orthodox Jews who pray to the G-d of Israel on Yom Kippur when much more serious physically violent wars loom in the city between fans of Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv.</p><p>And yet all agree — sometimes begrudgingly — that they ultimately are a single family, writ large: non-stop arguing, but warm tears and hugs before taking leave.</p><p>Which raises the last point. What exactly is the motivating thought animating Hamas on Israel’s south, Hezbollah on Israel’s north, and the Evil Palestine Authority of lifelong terrorist Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) on Israel’s east? When Arab terror against Israel began the day she was born in 1947, there were 630,000 Jews there. Jews living in Israel and in Judea-Samaria comprised 39 percent of the population. Arab countries decided to crush Zionism by persecuting and expelling their own Jewish residents. Geniuses, they. Their expulsions drove 900,000 more Jews to Israel. Thus, in 1950, the Jewish population of Israel had almost doubled to 1,203,000; in 1955 to 1,590,000; and by 1960 1,911,000. Moreover, with the Soviets persecuting Jews from the minute the Bolsheviks and Communism took over, another million opted for Israel.</p><p>How’s that Jew hate doin’ for ya, Arabs?</p><p>After 75 years of Arab terror attacks, Jews now comprise 69 percent of Israel’s population — including all of Judea and Samaria. There are 7.5 million Jews in Israel (including the “West Bank”) and only two million Arabs in pre-1967 Israel plus 1.4 million in Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”). The Jewish birthrate in Israel has grown to 3.13 per household, while the Arab birthrate has dropped from 9 per family in the 1960’s to 2.85 in pre-1967 Israel and 3.02 in Judea and Samaria. In other words, contrary to the myth of an Arab demographic time bomb, Jews there have more babies than Arabs do.</p><p>Instead of scaring Jews into leaving, the terrorists inspire Jews from overseas to donate wherewithal to Israel and move to Israel. More than twenty of my closest friends and colleagues have moved to Israel in the past ten years, inspired part by religious passion, part by idealism, part by a perceived duty to respond that way to Arab terrorism, and part by Obama and what he wrought.</p><p>Soon, Israel will learn the hard way which friends are rock-solid and which fair weather. One way or another, and at great cost in Jewish blood and world opinion, Israel may finally annihilate Hamas this time — not because it is long overdue but because Netanyahu’s and Likud’s collapse in the polls guarantee this time will be different, or Likud will disappear alongside Michaeli’s Labor party. Israel will encounter Hamas hiding their weapons and themselves behind women and children, in hospitals, in schools, in residential buildings, and in ambulances, and this time will wipe out whatever Hamas can be found. Inevitably, hundreds and maybe thousands of Gazans who elected Hamas will be killed as collateral damage to war. Germans who bombed London every night, and British who later bombed Germany each night, and the French who begged FDR and Churchill to save them will demand that Israel stop. “It is enough. You got your revenge. Now the numbers are disproportionate.” And Democrats, whose Harry Truman atom-bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and converted Dresden into the Town of Bedrock, will echo their overt Jew haters like Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, and Betty McCollum: “It’s too much. You got your revenge.”</p><p>But this war has nothing to do with revenge. Revenge will not bring back the dead. This war is not even about justice, although little could be more righteous. Rather, this war is about putting murderers out of business for once and for all so that fewer Jews die pointlessly in the future. The miserable nations of Europe and elsewhere will have to find somewhere else to weep and lay wreaths.</p><p>https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/it-is-heartwarming-that-the-world-loves-dead-jews-so-much/2023/10/19/</p><div><br /></div>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-87104716452767941722023-10-19T08:19:00.003-07:002023-10-19T08:19:59.158-07:00MY STRENGTH AND SOLACE By Family First Contributors | OCTOBER 17, 2023 EmailPrint Readers find faith and fortitude in Dovid Hamelech’s timeless words<p> </p><h6 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">In response to the rockets, the rumors, the unimaginable atrocities committed, our worst nightmares came to life, we turned to what Jews throughout the ages have turned to for protection and solace: sefer Tehillim. Dovid Hamelech's words resonate, describing the full gamut of our emotions and experiences. Here, readers share the pasuk that is providing them with comfort and chizuk</span></em></span></h6><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Translations reprinted with permission from ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications</em></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">תָּעִ֗יתִי כְּשֶׂ֣ה אֹ֭בֵד בַּקֵּ֣שׁ עַבְדֶּ֑ךָ כִּ֥י מִ֝צְוֺתֶ֗יךָ לֹ֣א שָׁכָֽחְתִּי׃ <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים קי״ט:קע"ו" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.119.176?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים קי״ט:קע"ו</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">I have strayed like a lost sheep, seek out Your servant for Your commandments I have not forgotten <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 119: 176" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.119.176?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 119: 176</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Seek Us Out</span></span></h3><h6 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Lani Harrison</span></em></span></h6><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">MY</span></span></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">favorite <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">kapitel</em> is one that makes me very popular in Tehillim groups and on signup lists: 119.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">I became <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">frum</em> in my late teens, and I remember the first time I said that <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">kapitel</em>. It was Erev<span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;"> <a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Rosh Hashanah 25" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Rosh_Hashanah.25?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Rosh Hashanah 25</a></span> years ago, and I was on the Boston “T” subway, on my way to visit a dear friend in the hospital. I made my way through the letters of her name, taking notice of the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">eidosecha</em>s and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">eidvosecha</em>s as the tears rolled down my cheeks. Sadly, I was not able to visit her that day; the nurses kept asking me to wait longer and longer so they could do some procedures, and I had to leave in order to be back home in time for Yom Tov. To my great sadness, I never saw my friend again. She was <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">nifteres</em> on the fourth of Tishrei that year, right before I was planning to attempt another visit. But my relationship with 119 remained.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Not only does <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> 119 contain all of our names, but in reciting it from beginning to end, one gets a sense of how absolutely central Torah was to all facets of Dovid Hamelech’s life, as it should be to all parts of our lives. I remember fashioning a little poster for my desk at work during those early years of saying it. It was a photo I’d cut out, probably from an advertisement somewhere, of beautiful jewels on a light-blue background. I wrote the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pasuk</em>, “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tov li soras picha me’alfei zahav vachasef</em> — I prefer the Torah of Your mouth more than thousands in gold and silver” underneath. Jewelry ads are fine, but we have to know what’s paramount.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">My favorite <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pasuk</em> within this <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> is actually the last one. No, not because it means I’ve accomplished saying it — I practically have the whole thing memorized by now. It’s that after reading through this entire odyssey of Dovid Hamelech’s life, framed by his love for Torah, we read, “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ta’isi k’seh oveid, bakeish avdecha</em> — I have strayed like a lost sheep, seek out Your servant.” After all this, after 175 <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pesukim</em>, is it still possible to stray and beg Hashem to seek us out? Yes. But: “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ki mitzvosecha lo shachachti</em> — For I have not forgotten Your mitzvos.”</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">It’s not an ending of despair. It’s an ending of hope. We must keep trying. We must keep doing mitzvos. We must keep Torah at the forefront. And Hashem will seek us out. Just like that lost sheep, He’ll find us and bring us in wherever we are.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">L’zecher nishmas Sara Miriam bas Reuvain Leibel, for whom I first started saying 119</em></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">וְלִבִּי חָלַל בְּקִרְבִּי. <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים ק"ט כ"ב" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.109.22?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים ק"ט כ"ב</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">My heart has died within me <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 109:22" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.109.22?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 109:22</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Where My Heart Should Be</span></span></h3><h6 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Anonymous</span></em></span></h6><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">T</span></span></span></span>here’s an empty place where my heart should be — it must have fallen into my stomach. Something keeps fluttering around down there.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">In the space where my heart used to be, there’s an empty black pit, with no potential for joy, just worry about the fate of the beautiful young woman who was taken hostage, and the old grandmother, and that gorgeous little red-haired three-year-old, and the families of all those wonderful young men who went to save Hashem’s people and Hashem’s land.</p><div class="article_content_added" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">הִנֵּ֣ה לֹֽא־יָ֭נוּם וְלֹ֣א יִישָׁ֑ן שׁ֝וֹמֵ֗ר יִשְׂרָאֵֽל <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים קכ״א:ד" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.121.4?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים קכ״א:ד</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">He neither slumbers nor sleeps, the Guardian of Israel <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 121:4" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.121.4?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 121:4</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Nighttime Whispers</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Rebbetzin Aviva Feiner</span></span></em></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Having gone through so many years of infertility, and many unsuccessful medical interventions, the words of<span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;"> <a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 127" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.127?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 127</a></span> have always struck a chord in my heart: “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Im Hashem lo yivneh bayis, shav amlu bonav bo</em> — if Hashem does not build a house, its builders will labor in vain.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">In our collective horror this week, the words that follow reflected a tragic reality. “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Im Hashem lo yishmor ir, shav shakad shomer</em> — if Hashem doesn’t watch a city, its watchman will watch in vain.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">And yet… elsewhere in Tehillim, we are told, “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hinei lo yanum v’lo yishan shomer Yisrael</em> — The Guardian of Israel does not slumber nor sleep.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">These words <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 121" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.121?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 121</a></span>) are so often cried out in pain mixed with confidence. Hashem is not corporeal; He does not tire. Clearly, He makes no human mistakes, and His judgment does not err. His guard doesn’t falter — and yet He can choose to look away.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">My tears have been pouring and my heart aches. My brothers, my sisters — why did Hashem look away? I know with confidence that all those who ascended On High already know the answer to that question. I am a proud Jew standing in a place in history where, again, we must live and forge forward without the answer to that question. But He alone watches all our comings and goings. He alone decides who comes and who goes — now and forever.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">And we will continue to go to sleep at night and whisper to our children: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hinei lo yanum v’lo yishan shomer Yisrael.</em></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">נָ֘תַ֚תָּה לִּֽירֵאֶ֣יךָ נֵּ֣ס לְהִתְנוֹסֵ֑ס מִפְּנֵ֖י קֹ֣שֶׁט סֶֽלָה<span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים ס:ו" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.60.6?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים ס:ו</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">You gave to those who fear you a banner to be raised high for truth’s sake. Selah! <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 60:6" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.60.6?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 60:6</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Miracles in Pain</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Rabbi Menachem Nissel</span></em></span></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">IT</span></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">took just three seconds for me to become a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tehillim-zogger</em>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">On the 28th of Tammuz, just over two years ago, I slipped in the Rebbe Reb Elimelech’s mikveh in Lizhensk and found myself in a gloomy Soviet-era hospital. I had cracked my right upper arm horizontally and in three places vertically, like a sliced salami. Funnily enough, that bone is called a humerus.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The doctors recommended that I get immediate surgery — they would drill a screw through my broken bones. I pictured a carpenter who moonlights as a doctor hammering through my bones.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">I managed to call my friend Dr. Michael Wilshansky of Hadassah Hospital, who screamed at me, “I don’t care how much pain you’re in, take the first flight home.” We drove all night to Warsaw. At one point I saw the driver falling asleep at the wheel. In panic I told him to pull to the side and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">schloof</em>. He veered into a forest and immediately fell asleep. At that moment, to the sounds of snoring and imaginary Polish bears, I started to think. Really think.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Never in my life had I felt so vulnerable and in so much pain. How would I function with one hand? I couldn’t even put my shirt on. Would I ever drive again? Hold a child? Would my life ever be normal again?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Through tears I started to say Tehillim. In all my life as a tefillah teacher I never felt <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ein od milvado</em> as I did in those dark moments. Through pain I had touched reality.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">It turned out we were just five minutes from the airport. Hashem wanted me to have those precious moments of clarity. What followed was a series of miraculous events that brought me to recovery. Rav Chaim Kanievsky advised me to start saying ten <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perakim</em> of Tehillim daily. I bought myself a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Masok Midvash</em> Tehillim and embraced my new connection to Dovid Hamelech’s gift.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">I never wanted to forget the way I felt in that Polish forest. One of the first phrases that I underlined was, “<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nesata l’yerayacha neis l’hisnoses, mipnei koshet”</em></span> <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 60:6" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.60.6?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 60:6</a></span>). The Chasam Sofer (<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Derashos, Rosh Chodesh Tammuz 5569</em>) gives a powerful translation, based on his own experience:</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The Chasam Sofer, for whom every moment was precious, felt it necessary to write a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Sefer Zikaron</em> on Napoleon’s siege of Pressburg in 1806. For 42 days, French firepower rained rockets and missiles that devastated the city and decimated its population. Something extraordinary happened. The Jewish population simultaneously witnessed the horrors of war yet witnessed seemingly endless miracles that left them virtually unscathed.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The Chasam Sofer marveled that Hashem would punish His people by having them witness the horrors of war, while teaching them that He has total dominion, that every missile has an address. He then translated the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pasuk</em> the following way:</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nesata l’yerayacha neis</em> — You showed miracles to those who fear You,</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">L’hisnoses — </em>as a banner that elevates You, to show Your total control,</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mipnei koshet — </em>for the purpose of bringing us to teshuvah, to mend our ways.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Unfortunately, we don’t always get the message. Then Hashem sends a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">neis l’ra’ah</em>, an evil miracle (Ritva,<span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;"> <a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Yoma 54b" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Yoma.54b?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"></a></span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Yoma 54b" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Yoma.54b?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Yoma</a></em><a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Yoma 54b" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Yoma.54b?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">54b</a>). We suffer in such a horrific, miraculous fashion that it’s obvious that it can only come from the Hand of Hashem.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">I learned in three seconds in a mikveh in Lizhensk what the Jewish people learned on Simchas Torah. How can it be that an army that destroyed three nations in six days in 1967, could not defend its people against an enemy using tractors and paragliders? It was a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">neis l’ra’ah</em>, something so miraculous that it screams out the message: When Hashem says yes, we are infinitely powerful; when Hashem says no, we are infinitely weak. It was a devastating display of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ein od milvado.</em></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Perhaps that is what was meant when we said on Hoshana Rabbah, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hoshana na, shalosh sha’os, hoshana na</em>!</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The Ritva’s example of a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">neis l’ra’ah </em>was the humiliating miracle of Titus seeing the Keruvim intertwined as husband and wife in the Kodesh Hakodoshim at the time of the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash (ibid.). Reb Tzaddok HaKohein of Lublin (<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Pri Tzaddok</em>,<span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;"> <a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Devarim:13" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.13?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Devarim:13</a></span>) notes the secret message of hope in that miracle. The husband and wife depicted by the Keruvim are Hashem and Knesses Yisrael. In the middle of all the destruction and carnage, Hashem was giving us a hug, showing His unwavering love and closeness to His beloved people. He wanted us to see Him. He wanted us to do our part, with our Tehillim, Torah study, and displays of chesed and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">achdus</em>. Meanwhile, says Reb Tzaddok, Hashem was doing His part.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">He was planting the seeds of Mashiach.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">לָמָּה פָּרַ֣צְתָּ גְדֵרֶ֑יהָ <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים פ׳:י”ג" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.80.13?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים פ׳:י”ג</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Why have you breached its fences? <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 80:13" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.80.13?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 80:13</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">From Chaos to Chorus</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Aviva Orlian</span></em></span></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">WE</span></span></span></span>are still reeling from the shock and chaos of this past week’s horrific events. However, as I read the words of Asaf in<span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;"> <a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 80" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.80?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 80</a></span>, the dystopian images of our collective nightmare begin to take form.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The words within this <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> reflect the gaping void that we feel. We beg Hashem, three times (<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pesukim</em> 4, 8, 20), with a familiar refrain: to restore our relationship with Him by shining His light upon us. Asaf’s words reflect our raw emotions. We cry, we mourn the destruction, and we ask the question (<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pasuk</em> 5) that is so difficult to even utter: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ad masai ashanta b’tefillas amecha?</em> — Hashem, until when will You be angry and reject the prayer of Your people?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The word <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ashanta</em> — from the root <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ashan</em>, smoke — is significant. Smoke blinds and masks. Has our tefillah not accomplished the goal of bringing us close to Hashem? A frightening question, but it may plague many who are experiencing a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">tzarah</em>. We were so recently steeped in prayer during Elul and Tishrei. Did You not want, or attend to, our prayers? We ask, not to challenge G-d, but for the purpose of growth. Sefer Tehillim gives us permission to ask. For without the questions, our <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">avodah </em>may remain shallow and rudimentary.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Asaf continues to echo our stream of consciousness (6-7): <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hashem, You fed us bread of tears; we are the object of scorn, laughter, and cheers of our enemies. </em>The cries and shrieks of terror from men, women, and children; the maniacal screams of celebration from Hamas as they dragged their civilian captives is something that will be etched in our consciousness indefinitely.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Am Yisrael is compared to a vineyard that Hashem uprooted from Egypt and lovingly replanted, nourished, and then protected with a fence in Eretz Yisrael (9-12). We bear our broken hearts to Hashem: “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Lamah paratzta gederehah —</em> Why have You broken down the fence and the passersby pluck at Your vineyard?” (13). Images of bulldozers flattening large areas of protective fences, with no detection from arguably the most sophisticated army in the world, is an open display of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Yad Hashem</em>, for it is not within the realm of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">teva.</em> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Lamah Paratz<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">ta</span></em>? Why, oh why, Hashem, have You broken down that fence with Your tools, the vicious terrorists?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">“The swine and animals come out of the woods and feed upon that vine” (14)<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">.</em> Comparing Hamas to animals is too kind, for animals feed upon their prey for the purpose of nourishment. Hamas are not just subhumans, they are subanimals, mutants, ugly caricatures. We cry:<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> “Lamah!</em> — or<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">L’mah</span></em> — for what purpose?” We don’t point fingers outward, rather we peer deep within ourselves. How did <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">I, my service of Hashem, my interaction with others, my attitudes</span> — play a part in this modern-day pogrom?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We implore Hashem not to remain in the state of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">hester panim</em>. “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Shuv na, habeit mi’Shamayim ure’eh u’pekod gefen </em>zos — Please show us <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ha’aras panim</em>; look and display Your Hashgachah pratis on Your vineyard, Hashem” (15), as you have done for us throughout history. “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Techayeinu </em>— give us life.” Keep us alive, keep our Jewish soldiers and citizens and mothers and fathers alive, “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">U’beshimcha nikra</em> — so that we can proclaim Your name” (19).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">This intensely painful and emotional <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> counterintuitively begins with<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> “Lamintzeich <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Mizmor</span></em>.” We maintain a dialogue and relationship with Hashem, amid the challenges and cries, and this gives us reason to sing. As Dovid Hamelech tells us earlier in Tehillim: “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ba’erev yalin bechi, v’laboker rinah” </em>(30:6)<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">. </em>May the nights filled with tears, chaos, and questions transform to a morning of chorus, song, and clarity.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">וְאַתָּ֣ה ה’ מָגֵ֣ן בַּעֲדִ֑י כְּ֝בוֹדִ֗י וּמֵרִ֥ים רֹאשִֽׁי׃ <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים ג׳:ד" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.3.4?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים ג׳:ד</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">But You, Hashem, are a shield for me, for my soul, and the One Who raises my head <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 3:4" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.3.4?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 3:4</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Raise Our Heads</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Anonymous</span></span></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">H</span></span></span></span>ashem, how great are my troubles; people say that there is no hope.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">You are my shield, my Kavod.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We are fighting a two-pronged war: the vicious enemy itself, and the public opinion of the world. Those in the halls of academia, heads of governments who have morally equated a peace-loving, tolerant, virtuous democracy to a rogue, horrific terrorist organization.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Dovid Hamelech asked Hashem: Please protect us from our enemy, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">magen ba’adi</em>, and give Your nation Kavod, and raise their heads. Let the nations see our virtue, our mercy, our being a nation of Rachmanim, Bayshanim, and Gomlei Chasadim.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Let them see that we love peace, we only defend, and we are Rachmanim to a fault.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Please, Hashem protect us and <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"> תן כבוד לעמך</span>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">מִשְּׁמוּעָ֣ה רָ֖עָה לֹ֣א יִירָ֑א נָ֘כ֥וֹן לִ֜בּ֗וֹ בָּטֻ֥חַ בַּֽה’ <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים קי”ב:ז" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.112.7?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים קי”ב:ז</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Of evil tidings he will have no fear, his heart is firm, confident in Hashem <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 112:7" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.112.7?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 112:7</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Steadfast Heart</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Toby Friedman</span></em></span></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">A</span></span></span></span>nticipation is greater than realization is a truism used in the context of joyful events — but it is equally applicable to good events. Our imaginations take flight when we look forward to a much-anticipated simchah, and many times that joy doesn’t match up to our expectations. It is also true that our imaginations take flight in times of uncertainty. Whether we are students waiting for test results from a final or are adults waiting for test results from a biopsy, that waiting period can be excruciating. And as life and time are partners, we live our days and look to our tomorrows. As much as we want to have control, we know in our hearts that we are impotent. Our future is unpredictable. That is why one of my favorite phrases in Tehillim is “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mashmuah ra’ah lo yira </em>— he will not fear bad news.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Practicing this mindset on smaller issues prepares us for the bigger tests in life. No time for rehearsals now. Whether we live in Eretz Yisrael or have loved ones living there, it is challenging to keep our spirits up. For those who indulge in catastrophic thinking, these times are unbearably challenging. But <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">mashmuah ra’ah lo yira.</em> He will not fear bad news. Not because it is the smart thing to do but because <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nachon libo batuach b’Hashem. </em>His heart is steadfast, trusting in Hashem.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We have been reminded that “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ein al mi l’hisha’en </em>— there’s no one or anything to rely on.” Not on politicians nor ambassadors, not on intelligence nor brave armies, not on sophisticated weapons, and certainly not on any nations of the world. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nachon libo batuach b’Hashem</em>. His heart is steadfast, trusting in Hashem.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We are <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ma’aminim bnei ma’aminim</em>, and our eyes look only to Him. And only He will bring our salvation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">קַוֵּה אֶל-ה’ חֲזַק וְיַאֲמֵץ לִבֶּךָ וְקַוֵּה אֶל-ה’ <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים כ”ז:י”ד" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.27.14?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים כ”ז:י”ד</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Place your hope in Hashem, strengthen yourself and He will instill in your heart and place your hope in Hashem <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim, 27:14" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.27.14?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim, 27:14</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Fear Not</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Yitzchak Pinkus</span></em></span></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">H</span></span></span></span>ere in Yerushalayim, we knew on Shabbos morning — from the air raid sirens and explosions that we could feel, even in our secure room — that something serious was happening. We wouldn’t know how serious until Motzaei Shabbos. Instead of attending the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">hakafos shnios</em> typically held on Motzaei Simchas Torah, our family gathered in our dining room. We tried to calm the children and explain what was going on — as if we as adults understood what was happening. And we said Tehillim together as a family, the words of Dovid Hamelech calming and strengthening, prophetically appropriate.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We began with <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> 20, recalling how the enemy puts their faith in chariots and horses (rockets and guns?), while we put our faith only in Hashem. We continued from there in order. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">My G-d, my G-d, why have You forsaken me? (22:2)… For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me, like a lion, my hands and feet (22:17)… Even when I walk in the valley of darkness, I will fear no evil for You are with me (23:4)… Who is this King of Glory? Hashem, Who is strong and mighty, Hashem Who is a mighty warrior (24:8)… </em></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Then in the next <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em>, the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pasuk</em> jumped out at me with new meaning. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">See my enemies for they have increased, and <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">they hate me with unjust hatred</span> (25:19). </em>The word translated here as “unjust” is <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">סמח, </span>Chamas, and the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pasuk</em> could be translated as “They hate me with a Hamas hatred.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">But not to fear. For all those crowded in their homes or bomb shelters crying out with the words of Dovid Hamelech, the mothers putting their children to sleep with these words comforting their hearts as they try to comfort their children, and the great men of our nation engaged in protecting the Jewish People, with arms and with Gemaras, saying a few more <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perakim</em> of Tehillim will bring some comfort. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kaveh el Hashem, chazak v’ya’ametz libecha v’kaveh el Hashem. Hope for Hashem, be strong and He will give your heart courage, and hope for Hashem (27:14).</em></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">לְדָוִ֨ד ה’ אוֹרִ֣י וְ֭יִשְׁעִי מִמִּ֣י אִירָ֑א <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים כ״ז:א" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.27.1?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים כ״ז:א</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">By Dovid, Hashem is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 27:1" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.27.1?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 27:1</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Hashem Is My Light</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Shira Fogel</span></em></span></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">A</span></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">fter many years of snatching brief opportunities for tefillah in between my family responsibilities, it’s been difficult for me to get back into the habit of regularly, fully davening, now that my children are getting older. This year, when Elul began, I resolved not to close my siddur at the end of Aleinu, but to turn a few more pages and recite the words of L’Dovid Hashem Ori.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Some days, I paid closer attention to the words I was murmuring, and different words would jump out at me, depending on what was on my mind. As I finished davening on Hoshana Rabbah, I was wistful to see this <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> go until next year. Then I read the fine print in the siddur more closely and realized that we say this beautiful <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> through Shmini Atzeres. Two more days!</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">But on Shemini Atzeres, everything changed. My children came home from shul with the news that something terrible had happened in Eretz Yisrael. Now, when I said L’Dovid Hashem Ori, the words jolted me with powerful intensity: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hashem ma’oz chayai, mimi efchad?</em> Hashem is my life’s strength; whom shall I dread? <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">B’krov alai mere’im le’echol es b’sari… heimah kashlu v’nafalu.</em> When evildoers approach me to devour my flesh… it is they who stumble and fall. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Im takum alai milchamah, b’zos ani boteiach. </em>Though war would arise against me, in this I trust. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ki yitzpeneni b’suko b’yom ra’ah yastireini b’seser ahalo.</em> He will hide me in His shelter on the day of evil, He will conceal me in the concealment of His Tent.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Suddenly, every word was so relevant to current events. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Al taster panecha mimeni! </em>Conceal not Your Presence from me! <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Al titneini b’nefesh tzarai!</em> Deliver me not to the wishes of my tormentors! And finally ending with the comforting words, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kaveh el Hashem, chazak v’yaametz libecha, v’kaveh el Hashem</em>. Hope to Hashem, strengthen yourself and He will give you courage, and hope to Hashem.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Simchas Torah 5784 — a day of mixed emotions — our last chance to say these words before next Elul. I was afraid of the setting sun, of the full impact of the news we’d hear when Yom Tov departed — news that was worse than anything we could have imagined.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">But then, the next evening, my family took out the Tehillim <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">mechulak</em> to daven for our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael. Why had I never noticed before how many <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perakim</em> of Tehillim talk about our enemies who seek to destroy us? As I opened the next booklet, I saw the familiar words of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek chaf zayin</em>: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">L’David Hashem Ori v’Yishi</em>. I don’t have to wait until next year after all. I can access these words whenever I need to.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">יִוָּדַע כְּמֵבִיא לְמָעְלָה בִּסֲבָךְ עֵץ קַרְדֻּמּוֹת <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים ע”ד:ה" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.74.5?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים ע”ד:ה</a></span>) </span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">It was known, as if he were bringing axes upward in a thicket of wood <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 74:5" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.74.5?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 74:5</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Knocking on Your Doors</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Rabbi Binyomin Adler </span></span></em></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">IT</span></span></span></span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">was known, as if he were bringing axes upward in a thicket of wood </em>(The Gemara expounds on this <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pasuk</em> to mean that the enemy knew that they were, so to speak, knocking on Heaven’s doors.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">With all the predictions that people are positing, it seems clear that the enemy is the catalyst for us to start knocking on Hashem’s door. As we recently said in Selichos, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">k’dalim u’k’rashim dafaknu dilasecha </em>— like the poor and impoverished we knock on Your doors.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Hashem should answer our knocking and bring the complete downfall of our enemies, with the arrival of Mashiach, may he come speedily in our days.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">עֶ֭זְרִי מֵעִ֣ם ה’ עֹ֝שֵׂ֗ה שָׁמַ֥יִם וָאָֽרֶץ <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים קכ״א:ב" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.121.2?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים קכ״א:ב</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">My help is from Hashem, Maker of heaven and earth <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 121:2" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.121.2?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 121:2</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Source of Salvation</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Tirtza Green</span></em></span></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">W</span></span></span></span>hen I try to wrap my brain around the horror going on, I can’t do it. I don’t have a place to put this kind of atrocity. There’s no internal file folder that can store the knowledge of our brothers and sisters being brutalized and terrorized. Not a thousand years ago. Not a hundred years ago. Not fifty years ago. Today. Yesterday.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Motzaei Yom Tov, when I heard the news, I cried. My husband told me to daven, that it’s the only thing we can do. I struggled to find words to say to express my feelings, words to pray to express my feelings. Desperation. Terror. Horror. I felt like the world was caving in on us. And in a way it was, and is. “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mei’ayin yavo ezri</em>?” How will we get through this? Will we get through this? The fear clogged up my blood, my brain cells, my lungs. It was choking, smothering, all-encompassing.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">“<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ezri mei’im Hashem</em>” is our only answer. It’s the only answer. It’s become my inner refrain. Internalizing this message is far more productive than frantically following the news, sitting in a terrified stupor, or ranting about the injustice of it all.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">When will this end? How will this end? We don’t know. But I do know that the salvation will come. And it will come from the “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Oseh Shamayim va’aretz</em>.” He created this world. He runs this world. And when the doubts, worries, and fears try to take hold of my system, “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ezri mei’im Hashem”</em> helps me tap into the peace of knowing we are in the Hands of the Most Powerful. “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mei’ayin yavo ezri</em>?” my inner fearmongers cry. But I have an answer. I don’t know what it looks like, but I believe in it with all my heart.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">ַקוֵּ֗ה אֶל ה’ <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים כ״ז:י”ד" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.27.14?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים כ״ז:י”ד</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Place your hope in Hashem <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim, 27:14" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.27.14?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim, 27:14</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">A Long Journey</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Dina Schoonmaker</span></em></span></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">WE</span></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">just finished saying the beautiful <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> of L’Dovid Hashem Ori, right before this tragic event. The last <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pasuk</em> in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> is <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">kaveh el Hashem chazak v’yaametz libecha v’kaveh el Hashem</em>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">This <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">pasuk</em> is relating to the ongoing struggles we face. Some struggles are <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">yeshuos Hashem k’heref ayin</em>: we daven, we see salvation, and it’s beautiful.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Then there are ongoing struggles, the ones we daven for and we don’t see a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">yeshuah</em>. And they tire us out.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">And we need a littzle <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">chazak v’yaametz libecha</em>. Strengthen your heart, because you fell off the bandwagon. Then <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">kaveh el Hashem</em>, get back on the bandwagon. This is particularly true throughout our history as the Jewish People. It’s been a long journey. I heard this beautiful expression sung by <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">chayalim</em>: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Am hanetzech lo mifacheid m’derech aruchah</em>, the eternal nation is not afraid of a long journey. We’ve had <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">tzaros</em> for thousands of years. We’re not afraid of a long journey.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">And as we say each morning in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">birchos hashachar</em>, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">hanosein layaeif koach</em>. Hashem gives strength to the weary. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kaveh el Hashem</em>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">אֱלֹקים אַל־דֳּמִי־לָ֑ךְ אַל־תֶּֽחֱרַ֖שׁ וְאַל־תִּשְׁקֹ֣ט <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="תהילים פ”ג:ב" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.83.2?lang=he&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">תהילים פ”ג:ב</a></span>)</span></span></h5><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">O G-d, do not hold Yourself silent, be not deaf and be not still, o G-d <span class="sefaria-ref-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;">(<a aria-controls="sefaria-popup" class="sefaria-ref" data-ref="Tehillim 83:2" href="https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.83.2?lang=he-en&utm_source=mishpacha.com&utm_medium=sefaria_linker" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; display: inline-block; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Tehillim 83:2</a></span>)</em></span></span></h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">One Family</span></span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;">Elana Moskowitz</span></em></span></h6><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">I</span></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">t’s late Sunday afternoon when the car circles our corner of the neighborhood. It takes a slow, meandering route, broadcasting a prerecorded message in a tenor I associate with funeral announcements. But instead, in Yerushalmi Hebrew, we are summoned at 10 p.m. for tefillah at the Ezras Torah shul.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">I’m accustomed to Israeli time, where things run comfortably late. So I’m surprised when I arrive at three minutes after ten and barely manage to shoehorn myself into the women’s section. The air is dense, women compressed shoulder-to-shoulder across the swooping arc that’s the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ezras nashim</em>. And they’ve already begun reciting Tehillim, the sonorous <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">baal tefillah</em> chanting line by line, hundreds of voices rebounding after his. If not for the tension, the tautness sketched in the faces and posture of the women around me, we could be mistaken for a symphony, with the give and take of a maestro and his orchestra.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">At first, he directs us to the familiar <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perakim</em>, 20 and 22, but now, somehow, they assume another persona, a significance I never attributed them: In “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Eileh varechev v’eileh vasusim</em>,” I see the Hamas terrorists bulldozing through Israel’s security fences. “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kol ro’ai yaligu li,</em>” is the vicious Palestinian laughter as they cart hostages, elderly women and children, over the Gaza border.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">And <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> 79, a dreadfully prescient account of the last two days in Eretz Yisrael: “Nations infiltrated your land… poured blood like water…we were shamed before our neighbors…may the desperate cries of the captive come before you….”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">baal tefillah</em> leads us through <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perek</em> 83 — “Elokim… do not be deaf, nor silent…they said, let us annihilate them… and the name Yisrael will not be remembered… do to them as You did to Midian, to Siserah.” We speak words of Dovid Hamelech seemingly scripted for us alone, volleying them back and forth, from <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">baal tefillah</em> to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">tzibbur</em>, in a seamless exchange.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">By now the women sob unabashedly, shameless heaving from teens, young mothers, middle-aged women and weathered grandmothers. An elderly woman stoops two rows ahead, eyes squeezed in wrinkled slits, tears pooling in her Tehillim. Is she here with us now, or has she been transported back 50 years to another desperate tefillah gathering in Tishrei?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">I glance up, noting familiar faces from the neighborhood. Israelis and Americans and South Africans, litvish and chassidish women pressed together in clammy rows. Just yesterday we davened in our separate orbits, scattered between myriad community minyanim. But tonight we are in the same cramped space, in sync with the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">baal tefillah</em> and with each other.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We begin Avinu Malkeinu: “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Avinu Malkeinu, hachazireinu b’teshuvah sheleimah lefanecha.</em>” The notion that we uttered this tefillah a mere few days ago is alarming. Was our teshuvah imperfect? Somehow lacking, that we have to revisit it once again a week and a half later?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">baal tefillah</em> leads us through select portions of this timeless tefillah, guiding us to parts that are disconcertingly relevant, almost clairvoyant. “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Avinu Malkeinu, chamol aleinu v’al olaleinu v’tapeinu</em>.” The children herded as hostages into Gaza, some only two years old. The 12-year-old who hid to evade the rampaging Palestinians and is yet to be found. The 12 and 16-year-old brothers on their way to captivity.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">“<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Avinu malkeinu aseh l’maan harugim al shem kadshecha… l’maan tevuchim all yichudecha… l’maan ba’ei ba’eish</em>…” The soldiers slaughtered, the medics that snipers shot dead, the houses and their inhabitants torched, the teenagers shot at dead range, “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">n’kom l’eineinu nikmas dam avadecha hashafuch</em>!”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">And now everyone is crying, the men, the women, self-conscious teenagers, and elderly zeidies. The tefillah ascends, rising to skim the 30-foot ceiling, swelling to fill the rounded expanse of the shul, until its roar mimics the sound of streaking fighter jets I heard earlier today.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">And as I peer at the sobbing ladies packed around and across and on the other side of the women’s section, it occurs to me: Most of us do not have relatives in the army, friends in the border communities targeted by Hamas, or acquaintances from the police rescue units, yet we are davening and crying like the victims and hostages and imperiled Jews are our own brothers and sisters, our closest relatives and family.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Because during times like these we know, deep down, they are.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 864)</em></p></div>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-52317210064534644132023-10-18T14:10:00.006-07:002023-10-18T14:10:45.649-07:00The US-Israel alliance: A major help in the war with Hamas, Iran - opinion President Biden’s visit to Israel is an important milestone and is an opportunity to lead the world now to confront the terrorists of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. By MARVIN HIER<br /><br /> <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-768891">President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel</a> Wednesday is an incredible illustration of America’s strong alliance with Israel and commitment to the security of the Jewish state as it battles to destroy the ruthless and murderous Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. For coming to Israel during a war and everything else he has done since the Hamas massacre on October 7, we thank the president on behalf of the entire Jewish people.<br /><br />What <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-768598">Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran</a> are now doing is a repeat performance of the great tragedy that our world experienced during the Hitler era. On March 7, 1936, Adolf Hitler sent over 20,000 troops into the Rhineland, an area that was restricted and demilitarized according to the Treaty of Versailles.<br /><br />Hitler was gambling because Germany was not yet strong enough to face the French army. When he saw that his hunch was right, that the French as well as the British did nothing, he left his troops there.<br /><br />Biden: We have no higher priority than freeing the hostages<br /><br />In a January 1939 speech, Hitler told the German people: “it is a shameful spectacle to see how the whole democratic world is oozing sympathy for the poor tormented Jewish people but remain hard-hearted when it comes to helping them.”<br /><br />By the time the democratic governments acted, it was too late, bringing the world to a war in which more than 50 million people, Jews and non-Jews, paid with their lives.<img src="https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/Icons/zoom-image-icon.svg" /><br /><br />And here we are, some 84 years later, and our world is again repeating the same mistake. Rather than being a friend of the West, Iran is the greatest danger to world peace, pursuing nuclear weapons while nurturing an insatiable thirst of Jews, and desperately seeking ways to destroy Israel and the Western world. <br /><br />And look at what Hamas is now doing in Gaza. Using a mosque as their secret headquarters from which they plot the slaughtering of innocent civilians – woman, children, and the elderly, laughing and taking pictures, documenting their inhuman acts. <br /><a href="https://cat.da.us.criteo.com/delivery/ckn.php?cppv=3&cpp=pJvwhAkstTA5LhjLG_NATW48IY9Akq-ww73YhTYudagLl6bSIw5TE-aAFrwCKkQJ_SSyvAI6stQXLQkiZCf3lsmktB_WXAILYNQMNo-6RN3FTqMDxMLCdy5sQa-gQ8PSud3fnTB3MrV-TaJdRUJDhE6XOqBhVjIPWB5Yli7-j0-QtdGbfWG9Mld2oi2R7JmLggupj7VofKD37-BzdNDeaBFDIeNZJW0EyaBRBn1iq2wi-fAgSr3KovA6eO4G7jipzPgbJxDZFQLo09bPX8Y--GqSO5whlCmOX7jdh9Em-EcJxUTylx_Fz7mwWUSPvxNuNdFp-6w2enWjPY55heJqMbZv6y-Sc_icwSviIqhSS-XPyYIcdlHNj5iqmPOOtlxADZLr7q8iAy5ic8TloQTLLGPttWfqWcOx-AUuwIM32PKTgwgUX-HhZQ2Jhc5nQMmplBLoHmWM4Y722PgrybhgNZdmFcfoKiW1Qn7qgkJdSLwYHzAb58oN-BHCHFa24nQV6JbWtfrYlXQHtfow3xHw62p3R81rLXW-e_bkSZgvl-4L0hUd&maxdest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.warbyparker.com%2Feyeglasses%2Fwomen%2Fnadia%2Fopal-tortoise%3Futm_campaign%3Ddisplay_network_186520%26cvosrc%3Dretargeting.criteo.display_network%26utm_medium%3Dretargeting%26utm_source%3Dcriteo%26utm_content%3D0x0%26singular%3D627____186520____10550917%26pcid%3D186520%26pcrid%3D10550917%26cr_bannerid%3D10550917%26cr_campaignid%3D186520%26cr_type%3Ddisplay%26cto_pld%3Dnaup2R-OAABBY0C8huP4Mw&obOrigUrl=true"><br /></a>Undeniably, Iran is the world’s greatest sponsor of terrorism and has gone as far as to plan and finance its Hamas client’s descent into mass killings and butchery without any compassion and trace of humanity. <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/2023-10-07/live-updates-762053">October 7th, 2023</a> was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust and it could have been prevented had the world put its foot down.<br /><br />President Biden’s visit to Israel is an important milestone and is an opportunity to lead the world now to confront the terrorists of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.<br /><br />The time has come for the world to unlock its silence. Simon Wiesenthal, who lost 89 members of his family in the Holocaust, who gave up his career as an architect to fight back – who brought 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice, warned the world, “Freedom is not a gift from heaven, it is something we have to fight for each and every day.”<br /><br />So thank you President Biden, leader of the free world, for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the State of Israel.<br /><br /> Am Yisrael Chai!<br /><br />The writer, a rabbi, is the co-chair of the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem and the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-38599116153491976322023-10-18T08:14:00.002-07:002023-10-18T08:14:40.773-07:00Consequences in Congress for the Gaza Hospital Blood Libel Peddled by Rashida Tlaib & Ilhan Omar<p>“We are calling on the House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to take immediate action against these dangerous terrorist-lovers by opening an ethics inquiry into their tweets which had, within hours, incited violence against Israeli and American targets around the Middle East and America,” said Dov Hikind and Ambassador David Friedman in a joint video statement.</p><a href="https://americansaa.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32cb25f9e7f4cfee8fd6acc6&id=47eef66794&e=7a6d245f9b"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjFMbZr2gFIiT29UMQLdTZ70n1-5PzK-ylYfFWXxpwmew-gZkc0k780vcTcawDimIKbPDKyF9fYOoSR9oUC02hWuw7rE2QAe2VVFDVr0meiIVxGBI8JHr8hTPX44xq528rVSkipRe_4i06WgEosJO_V425ZDhZTH3fWpbM90d_V2zAfiHkw6-M0YGChm82xcAnmLnKQjdV89iALnKh00Fd3mtfNR6z1E98LMV7arw=s0-d-e1-ft" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />As news broke of a hospital in Gaza that had been hit by a missile, news outlets and members of Congress who form the Hamas Caucus and Squad, rushed instantly to the conclusion that Israel was behind the strike and that 500 Palestinians had been killed, despite not a shred of evidence to back either claim. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Within a couple of hours, Israel released irrefutable evidence in video form, intercepted communications of Hamas, and even an Al Jazeera clip from a live broadcast, which showed that it was an Islamic Jihad/Hamas rocket that the terrorists misfired and hit not the hospital directly but the parking lot nearby.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />There is still no confirmation of the number dead and wounded, but the Hamas Caucus did not wait to get credible information before taking the Hamas murderers and rapists of women and children at their word. Nor did Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib pause for a moment to question how it was possible that the "Gaza Health Ministry," i.e., Hamas, could have tallied 500 dead bodies within a few minutes of when the strike was first reported!Worse yet, almost 24 hours later, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, the BBC, and other peddlers of this pernicious blood libel, still haven't removed their erroneous and dangerous tweets! <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Clearly the Hamas Caucus doesn't give a damn about Palestinian lives because if they did, not only would they immediately retract their statements, but they would reissue them with Hamas and Islamic Jihad as the subject of their scorn rather than Israel.Very clearly, accuracy is not the concern for these fomenters of anti-Jewish violence, but demonizing Israel is.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Therefore, we are calling on the House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to take action against these dangerous terrorist-lovers by opening an ethics inquiry into their tweets which had, within hours, incited violence against Israeli and American targets around the Middle East and America.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and any other member of Congress who promoted this nasty blood libel crossed all lines and exposed their truest intention which is not support for Palestinians but to harm and enfeeble Israel. Hakeem has an opportunity to prove to American Jewry that the Democrats are not the anti-Israel/pro-Hamas party their loudest representatives make them out to be! The ball is in his court.<br /><br />BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-80206902754564670392023-10-18T08:07:00.001-07:002023-10-18T08:07:12.237-07:00How the NYT—and Others—Do Hamas’s Dirty Work by John Podhoretz<p> <span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #282828; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.02em;">his afternoon came word of a horrific set of explosions at a hospital in Gaza. Within minutes, Hamas propagandists were not only claiming a death toll of 500 but that an Israeli rocket had targeted and destroyed the hospital. One might perhaps think it prudent to keep one’s powder dry when a terrorist organization claims its enemy did something bad. You would think wrong. Within minutes of that, this was the headline and subhed atop the</span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #282828; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.02em;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.02em;">New York Times</em><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #282828; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.02em;">: “ISRAEL STRIKE KILLS HUNDREDS AT HOSPITAL, PALESTINIANS SAY. At least 500 dead; Israel urges caution as it investigates.”</span></p><p style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-top: 0px;">Please note it did not read “Missile Strike Kills Hundreds at Hospital; Investigation Ongoing.” The formulation of the headline sentence was designed to make Israel the motive actor, even if the final clause acknowledges it as a Palestinian claim.</p><p style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-top: 0px;">Oh, and did the entire gang of moral equivalencers go immediately to work. My favorite, or my least favorite, is of course NGO hustler supreme Kenneth Roth, who is to human rights what Gogol’s Chichikov was to dead souls. He began <a href="https://x.com/KenRoth/status/1714340792892858625?s=20" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; display: inline; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" target="_blank">tweeting and retweeting</a> the claim that Israel had committed this supposed barbarity. Not to be outdone, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who is to legislating as Joseph Goebbels was to newspapering, stated outright on X that Israel had murdered people at the hospital.</p><p style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-top: 0px;">I can’t actually tell if the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Times</em> is right that the Israelis ever urged caution, because almost immediately Israeli officials began releasing video footage of a rocket being fired <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">from Gaza </em>hitting the hospital. The Israel Defense Forces quickly judged that the rocket had been fired not by Hamas, but by <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">another Palestinian terrorist cabal</em> aside from Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad, which is to terrorism as Hamas is to terrorism, which is to say, evil incarnate. In the minutes that followed, Israel released two more videos making the rocket’s trajectory—toward central Israel but failing to reach it—plain.</p><div class="advads-373fbb9ef73d6883ba883b7e3006c958 advads-podcast_placement" id="advads-373fbb9ef73d6883ba883b7e3006c958" style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 18px;"><div class="advads-podcast_placement advads-target" data-advads-trackbid="1" data-advads-trackid="2793234" data-cfpa="2793234" data-cfptl="1" data-cfpw="2793234" id="advads-719877999" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;">Listen and Subscribe to the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Commentary Podcast</em><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><div align="center" class="elfsight-app-46d01e77-6774-4a2a-9632-2f8e164186b3" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></div><hr style="border-bottom: 0px; border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); border-top-style: solid; box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 1rem; overflow: visible;" /></div></div><div class="advads-8e83d8eca8072d19502ba49ec614e21f advads-content_5" id="advads-8e83d8eca8072d19502ba49ec614e21f" style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #161616; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 18px;"></div><p style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-top: 0px;">Oh, hey, news flash, everybody: The <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em> changed its headline since I started writing this! Now it reads: “Hundreds Dead in Blast at Hospital, Palestinians Say.” But click through and here’s what the story page has at its top: “Israel and Palestinians Blame Each Other for Blast at Gaza Hospital That Killed Hundreds.” The point here is that the media in the United States and elsewhere are desperate—desperate—to blame things on Israel and credulous about doing so in a way that should be shameful to any sense of professionalism—or simple morality—they might possess.</p><p style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; font-family: miller-text, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-top: 0px;">Many decades ago, when Palestinians were massacred by Lebanese militiamen, an Israeli leader was alleged to have muttered, “Goyim kill goyim and they blame the Jews.” For this he was roundly denounced, and obviously, speaking in such terms about a horrible killing spree was, at the very least, inappropriate. But today, unless the IDF is very wrong, we literally have a situation in which Palestinians murdered Palestinians by the hundreds—and they blamed, or tried to blame, the Jews. That’s who they are. So let me ask this: Is this what the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em> is, too, Mr. Arthur Gregg Sulzberger?</p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-814790736956571262023-10-18T08:04:00.000-07:002023-10-18T08:04:01.234-07:00HAMAS IS MORE DANGEROUS, UTTERLY INHUMANE: ISRAEL MUST NOT UNDERESTIMATE IT AGAIN The terrorist army that came to kill our people must be vanquished, with no more illusions about its capabilities and goals; and this time, we have to be taking Hamas by surprise DAVID HOROVITZ<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-size: 18px;">At a junction in southern Israel close to the Gaza border, groups of parents are cooking food for dozens of soldiers gathered here ahead of Israel’s imminent invasion of Gaza. It’s a celebratory scene. Smiling faces. Young soldiers slapping each other on the back. You know from their uniforms that they will be going to war, against a skilled and savage enemy, but not from their expressions.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Driving from that junction toward Kibbutz Be’eri, I hear IDF Col. Golan Vach being interviewed on the radio. Vach, who heads the army’s National Rescue Unit, which dashes to save lives in disasters worldwide, is describing some of the challenges he’s encountered in this tragedy, including removing 120 bodies from a bonfire constructed by Hamas of its victims at the Supernova outdoor music festival, where over 260 people were massacred. Vach and his team pulled the bodies from the pyre, he explained as calmly as he could, so they would not be consumed beyond the possibility of identification.</p><div class="cnx-player-placeholder" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 26px; vertical-align: baseline;"><cnx class="cnx-main-container cnx-in-desktop cnx-el cnx-main-container-flex" id="d8dfcc3d17a24e4fba1f7428bbb0cd70" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: content-box; display: flex !important; font-family: Roboto, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; 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You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard</cnx></cnx></cnx></cnx></cnx></cnx></div><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">At Be’eri, where a sizable number of the 2,000-plus terrorists headed in pickup trucks and on motorbikes after bursting through the border nine days ago, the bodies of the 103 residents slaughtered here have been removed. So, too, the bodies of those in uniform who fell in the kibbutz’s defense. And the bodies of over 100 terrorists.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A group of newspaper editors are being shown around by a group of officers — some of whom fought here, and others who fought elsewhere in the large swath of southern Israel where the Gaza killers seized temporary control to unprecedentedly terrible effect.</p><div class="newsletter newsletter-article" data-from="Hamas is more dangerous, utterly inhumane: Israel must not underestimate it again" data-website="timesofisrael" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 39, 41); 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border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #3b8bea; float: none; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">terms</a></div></div></div></div><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The scenes of devastation at this kibbutz have become bitterly familiar in the last few days. The homes where families were killed en masse, bound and burned and mutilated. The white pickup trucks on which some of the terrorists drove in. The impossible contrast between this pastoral community — with its surrounding fields of agriculture and the sign near the gate giving directions to Be’eri’s “Tourist Sites” — and the yellow gate itself, entryway to murder, burned and battered where waves of killers from Gaza forced their way in.</p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_3125838" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><a data-featherlight="image" href="https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/10/gate-e1697490619473.jpeg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #3b8bea; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="size-large wp-image-3125838" height="375" loading="lazy" src="https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/10/gate-e1697490619473-640x400.jpeg" style="border: 0px; cursor: zoom-in; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="600" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border-bottom-style: dotted; border-color: rgb(214, 214, 214); border-image: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: both; color: #878787; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The entrance to Kibbutz Be’eri, where over 100 residents were killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 (David Horovitz/Times of Israel)</div></div><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The fighting in the wider area raged for 50 hours — until the last of the terrorists was dealt with, and the threats to the Gaza-envelope area’s residents were deemed over. By then, a tenth of this kibbutz’s population was dead.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A failure to comprehend the nature of the enemy</h3><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What’s underlined by what we hear on our visit is the courage against impossible odds displayed by Israel’s fighting forces, here and everywhere that Hamas targeted in 22 communities, the Supernova party and something like a dozen IDF bases and posts — heroism by soldiers, police officers, the local civil defense squads, and ordinary civilians. At Kibbutz Nirim, further south, the civil defense squad, led by an officer named Amit Levy, is credited with repelling dozens of terrorists and saving many, many lives on the kibbutz.</p><div class="banner-placeholder" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; display: inline-block; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 24px; min-height: 250px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; position: relative; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><span class="banner-label" style="border: 0px; color: #878787; display: inline-block; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.5px; line-height: 11px; margin: 8px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">ADVERTISEMENT</span><div class="banner-sticky" data-google-query-id="CLnIlYzv_4EDFe3duAgdPKsB5w" id="pb-slot-content-1" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x280_Middle_1_0__container__" style="border: 0pt none; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe allow="attribution-reporting" aria-label="Advertisement" data-google-container-id="4" data-load-complete="true" frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x280_Middle_1_0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x280_Middle_1_0" role="region" scrolling="no" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" tabindex="0" title="3rd party ad content" width="300"></iframe></div></div></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-size: 18px;"></span><blockquote style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(205, 39, 41); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(205, 39, 41); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 6px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #878787; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 32px; padding: 30px 50px; position: relative; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-indent: 40px; vertical-align: baseline;">Despite the suicide bombings, summer camps training young kids to kill, and the bloodthirsty rhetoric, there was, in our army, a failure to comprehend that Hamas simply wants to kill Jews, and that its evolution into an increasingly effective and disciplined fighting force would do nothing to make it any less savage</p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But what also emerges from our visit was that there was a belief inside the IDF that Hamas’s increasing professionalism would one day mean a harder struggle for the army, not that the terror group’s improved killing skills would continue to be primarily directed against civilians. Despite the suicide bombings, summer camps training young kids to kill, and the bloodthirsty rhetoric, there was, in our army, a failure to comprehend that Hamas simply wants to kill Jews, and that its evolution into an increasingly effective and disciplined fighting force would do nothing to make it any less savage. (This, of course, parallels the political and security leadership’s assessment that Hamas could and had been deterred, that it could be bought off with the permitted influxes of Qatari money, and that it was interested in governance rather than slaughter.)</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Indeed, that was one of the key details that emerged from our horror tour of Be’eri — that the waves of Hamas gunmen had been organized on October 7 to kill as many civilians as possible, by any and every means. That required gunning down the armed forces, and they did a great deal of that too. But the prime targets were the civilians.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hamas set up its invading forces to enable squads of murderers to rapidly reach the homes at the kibbutzim and other communities, while other terrorists were dealing with the limited armed forces deployed in the area and organizing to intercept further Israeli forces as they rushed to the rescue. The rescuers found Hamas in control of roads, deployed at entrances to communities — immensely complicating the ensuing battles to save the civilians.</p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_3125837" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><a data-featherlight="image" href="https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/10/house.jpeg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #3b8bea; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="size-large wp-image-3125837" height="375" loading="lazy" src="https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/10/house-640x400.jpeg" style="border: 0px; cursor: zoom-in; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="600" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border-bottom-style: dotted; border-color: rgb(214, 214, 214); border-image: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: both; color: #878787; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Eight children were found dead in this house at Kibbutz Be’eri, killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 (David Horovitz/Times of Israel)</div></div><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We stood outside a house in which eight children were found bound together and dead; an adult couple was killed there, too. We saw another home where 26 terrorists had hidden out, hoping to emerge later and continue the slaughter. The terrorists came to just about every home in this kibbutz, killing everyone they could.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Those who fought in this area quickly noticed car after Israeli car with the trunk open, the contents strewn on the ground, and the spare tire missing. At first, they thought the vehicles had been looted. But why take only the tires? And then they realized this was part of the Hamas planning — taking the tires to help set fire to the homes where many residents were trying to protect themselves in their saferooms, and either to burn them alive inside or to shoot them when they were forced out by the flames and the smoke.</p><div class="banner-placeholder pb-slot-content-2" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; display: inline-block; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 24px; min-height: 250px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; position: relative; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><span class="banner-label" style="border: 0px; color: #878787; display: inline-block; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.5px; line-height: 11px; margin: 8px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">ADVERTISEMENT</span><div class="banner-sticky" data-google-query-id="CLfpgI3v_4EDFV3buAgdSxMIDw" id="pb-slot-content-2" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x280_Middle_2_0__container__" style="border: 0pt none; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe allow="attribution-reporting" aria-label="Advertisement" data-google-container-id="5" data-load-complete="true" frameborder="0" height="280" id="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x280_Middle_2_0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x280_Middle_2_0" role="region" scrolling="no" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" tabindex="0" title="3rd party ad content" width="336"></iframe></div></div></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-size: 18px;"></span><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The IDF had drilled for potential infiltrations in which a small number of troops might be targeted, or even for several simultaneous attacks on soldiers. But officers had been assured from on high that, broadly speaking, Hamas was deterred from wider attacks and that in any case the sophisticated border fence was an effective defense. And, of course, it was Shabbat, so perhaps half of those soldiers who would have been deployed on a weekday were not.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Even so, there is a belief that even an hour’s advance warning of the scale of the attack might have enabled the IDF to repel it. But there was no warning. The initial onslaught, through so many sections of the blown-up fence, meant the surprised army was playing catch-up with impaired communications, waves of gunmen pouring in, and a porous border. And the Air Force, though it could and did begin to target the gunmen at the border, could not use its capabilities effectively inside Israel, where the terrorists, the IDF and civilians were in close proximity, for fear of killing our own people. (<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Update, October 18:</em> Many of the terrorists, I neglected to mention when I first published this piece, had donned army and army-style uniforms, to make the task of the IDF troops still more confusing and dangerous.)</p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_3125839" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><a data-featherlight="image" href="https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/10/jeep-e1697490801368.jpeg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #3b8bea; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="size-large wp-image-3125839" height="375" loading="lazy" src="https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/10/jeep-e1697490801368-640x400.jpeg" style="border: 0px; cursor: zoom-in; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="600" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border-bottom-style: dotted; border-color: rgb(214, 214, 214); border-image: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: both; color: #878787; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One of several pickup trucks in which Hamas terrorists attacked Kibbutz Be’eri, where over 100 residents were killed, on October 7, 2023 (David Horovitz/Times of Israel)</div></div><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Troops fought with incredible bravery, but they take no comfort in that. They feel that they failed personally, when they clearly did not. They have now succeeded in clearing the terrorists from the Gaza envelope communities — though they cannot promise that gunmen have not still managed to evade their searches somewhere. And they are now awaiting their orders to fight back.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fighting for the free world</h3><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As I began the drive back from the border toward Jerusalem, Israel’s politicians were making speeches in the Knesset, interrupted by alerts signaling rocket attacks on the capital and much of the country — Hamas and its terrorist allies seeking to humiliate Israel.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">President Isaac Herzog was declaring: “We are not alone in this war. We are fighting the war as part of the family of nations – of all those who seek justice, peace and freedom – against an enemy that has proven that humanity and humanism are its enemy.”</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Well, I hope the family of nations recognizes this, and recognizes Iran’s orchestrating hand and the danger its rapacious agenda poses for the free world.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The United States plainly does. The administration has been as engaged as it could possibly be, with President Joe Biden heading our way — flying into a war zone — and Secretary of State Antony Blinken sitting in for hours at Monday’s war cabinet meeting.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In his extensive shuttling through the region, however, Blinken extracted no condemnation of Hamas from Israel’s peace partners in Egypt, Jordan or Morocco, where the leaders’ fears of “the street” are high, and there is a rising tide of hostility to Israel and to Jews on the streets of some of Europe’s enlightened nations.</p><div class="banner-placeholder" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; display: inline-block; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 24px; min-height: 250px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; position: relative; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><span class="banner-label" style="border: 0px; color: #878787; display: inline-block; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.5px; line-height: 11px; margin: 8px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">ADVERTISEMENT</span><div class="banner-sticky" data-google-query-id="CPjgrI7v_4EDFTrQuAgdZLANSg" id="pb-slot-content-3" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x280_Middle_3_0__container__" style="border: 0pt none; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe allow="attribution-reporting" aria-label="Advertisement" data-google-container-id="6" data-load-complete="true" frameborder="0" height="280" id="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x280_Middle_3_0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x280_Middle_3_0" role="region" scrolling="no" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" tabindex="0" title="3rd party ad content" width="336"></iframe></div></div></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-size: 18px;"></span><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Opposition leader Yair Lapid did not sound certain that the “family of nations” is firmly with us. He proclaimed that Israel was about to “uproot Hamas” because “it is impossible to live next to a terror group… It will take time, it will require the use of a lot of force. If the world doesn’t like it, let it not. It was not the children of the world who were murdered, our children were murdered.”</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, promising a “crushing victory,” was calling Hamas a “new iteration of the Nazis.”</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Some in the IDF, indeed, describe the Hamas gunmen who came to kill our people as Einsatzgruppen.</p><div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_3120766" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><a data-featherlight="image" href="https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-11-at-21.10.56-e1697047969929-1.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #3b8bea; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="size-large wp-image-3120766" height="375" loading="lazy" src="https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-11-at-21.10.56-e1697047969929-1-640x400.jpg" style="border: 0px; cursor: zoom-in; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="600" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border-bottom-style: dotted; border-color: rgb(214, 214, 214); border-image: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: both; color: #878787; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Relatives of Shaked Haran from Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border missing and believed to have been in Hamas captivity since Saturday, October 7, 2023. (Courtesy)</div></div><h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 26px; margin: 26px 0px 13px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nothing here will be the same</h3><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This short piece does not begin to adequately describe the horrors that befell those who were killed and tortured and abducted and injured last week, or the traumas of their loved ones, or the impact on the whole State of Israel. Nothing here will be the same.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But one imperative on the route back from the hell into which we have been plunged is that our people maintain the resilience most have found in recent days, the determination to overcome.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Another is that our leaders muster the strategic and tactical wisdom to ensure, in the coming deepened conflict, that those motivated soldiers now gathered around Gaza are properly directed, with no more delusions about the enemy they are fighting. Hamas, as I’ve written <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/day-5-of-the-war-israel-internalizes-the-horrors-and-knows-its-survival-is-at-stake/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #3b8bea; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">before</a>, will be on home ground, and believes it is luring Israel into a death trap. It will have known that Israel will enter Gaza after October 7, and it may well know more about Israel’s capabilities and plans having overrun IDF bases that black day.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In that regard, Blinken’s extensive direct involvement in our war planning marks a precedent that either underlines US support, signals we need more help than ever before from the US right now, or suggests that the US doesn’t entirely trust us to manage this crisis effectively. Or perhaps all three.</p><div class="banner-placeholder" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; display: inline-block; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 24px; min-height: 250px; padding: 0px 0px 25px; position: relative; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><span class="banner-label" style="border: 0px; color: #878787; display: inline-block; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.5px; line-height: 11px; margin: 8px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">ADVERTISEMENT</span><div class="banner-sticky" data-google-query-id="COaWnI_v_4EDFdDauAgdsoYDJw" id="pb-slot-content-5" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x260_InContent_1_0__container__" style="border: 0pt none; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe allow="attribution-reporting" aria-label="Advertisement" data-google-container-id="7" data-load-complete="true" frameborder="0" height="280" id="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x260_InContent_1_0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/3933714/TOI_Desktop/336x260_InContent_1_0" role="region" scrolling="no" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" tabindex="0" title="3rd party ad content" width="600"></iframe></div></div></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-size: 18px;"></span><div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_3125886" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px;"><a data-featherlight="image" href="https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/10/GPOHZ0_2943.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #3b8bea; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="size-large wp-image-3125886" height="375" loading="lazy" src="https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/10/GPOHZ0_2943-640x400.jpg" style="border: 0px; cursor: zoom-in; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="600" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border-bottom-style: dotted; border-color: rgb(214, 214, 214); border-image: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: both; color: #878787; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center left) and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv after talks on October 16, 2023 ((Haim Zach / GPO)</div></div><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We have a mighty, highly motivated army.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And it faces enemies who have lost any shred of humanity, must not again be underestimated, must themselves be surprised by us this time, must be vanquished.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: "pt serif", serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Once Hamas can no longer threaten Israel, needless to say, nothing like this can be allowed to happen again. But, for now, there is a war to be won.</p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-84303065577501589622023-10-18T08:02:00.000-07:002023-10-18T08:02:02.122-07:00WHY WON’T THE JEWS JUST LET THEMSELVES BE KILLED? Nothing better captures the moral decay of our woke elites than their haughty disdain for the State of Israel. Brendan O'neillSo let me get this right. If Israel bombs Hamas targets in Gaza, it is recklessly endangering civilian life. But if it gives civilians fair warning to move away from certain areas, it is engaging in ethnic cleansing. If it drops bombs in built-up suburbs, it is committing a war crime. But if it advises civilians to leave those built-up suburbs before the bombs come, it is also committing a war crime. If it attacks northern Gaza, that’s genocide. Yet when it tells the civilians of northern Gaza to leave first, that’s ‘forced transfer’, which is to say: genocide.
Everything Israel does is a war crime. Everything. Killing civilians – war crime. Trying not to kill civilians – war crime. Bombing populated areas – war crime. Giving a population time to leave before dropping bombs – war crime. The surrealism of these screams of ‘genocide!’ every time an Israeli soldier so much as picks up his gun was brought home by two headlines in the Independent last week, published just 10 hours apart. Israel is engaged in ‘collective punishment in Gaza’, claimed the first. ‘Israel accused of “trying to ethnically cleanse Gaza Strip” as one million ordered to evacuate’, said the second.
Got that, Israel? ‘Punish’ Palestinians and you’re a criminal. Do everything in your power to avoid ‘punishing’ Palestinians and you’re still a criminal. I’m starting to wish the Israel-haters would just say what they mean with their entire chest: ‘Let yourselves be killed, Jews. Don’t fight back. Don’t do anything at all.’
The twists in the public discussion of Israel’s military response to Hamas’s recent act of unspeakable barbarism have been extraordinary. It was predictable, given the Israelophobic myopia of the West’s cultural elites, that Israel would be damned the minute it took action against the neo-fascists who had just executed the worst act of anti-Semitic savagery since the Holocaust. All the usual accusations were made. Israel’s missile strikes add up to ‘collective punishment’. Israel is using ‘genocidal language’. It is committing ‘war crimes’. It is ‘breaking international law’. Etc etc. One is forced to wonder what kind of messed-up law prevents the victims of racist slaughter from pursuing their killers.
This time, what’s been most striking is that even Israel’s efforts not to hit civilians, not to ‘collectively punish’ Gazans, have been rebranded as war crimes. Consider its advice that the people of northern Gaza should evacuate their homes so that they won’t be injured or killed in bombings. This is being called ‘ethnic cleansing’. One Palestinian politician says it is further proof that Israel is waging a war of ‘annihilation’. This is linguistic contortionism of an Orwellian degree: in trying to avoid annihilating the people of northern Gaza, Israel is being annihilationist. War is peace, freedom is slavery, evacuation is annihilation. Ash Sarkar says the evacuation is a ‘Second Nakba’. Norway’s Refugee Council damns it as ‘forced transfer’, which – you guessed it – is a war crime. It must be. Israel’s doing it.
We need to say how unhinged this discussion has become. Evacuation is a part of every war. Wars always cause waves of refugees. You probably have a few, from Ukraine, in your neighbourhood. And yet when it’s a war involving Israel, evacuation becomes ‘forced transfer’. The inevitable creation of refugees becomes ‘ethnic cleansing’. The movement of people away from destruction becomes the attempted destruction of those people. This is where we’re at: not killing people is genocide now, if the state not killing them is Israel.
It is a straight-up lie to say Israel is enacting ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Ethnic cleansing is the violent expulsion of an ethnic minority by a dominant majority determined to enjoy homogeneity across the realm. There is not one shred of evidence this is Israel’s intention with its evacuation of northern Gaza. Nothing exists – literally nothing – to suggest Israel will never allow these people back again because it wants to imprint its own supremacist ideology on their old towns and villages. There’s a ‘sneaky Jew’ feel to the idea that under the cover of a fairly normal wartime evacuation, Israel is really erasing an entire ethnic group. It is a vile calumny against a nation that just lost more than a thousand of its citizens to a genuinely genocidal movement to describe its response to that horror as genocidal.
That is one of the most troubling things in the tortured discussion about Israel’s pursuit of the racist terrorists who murdered so many of its people: the flagrant and sometimes even taunting misuse of the terminology of ‘genocide’. We live under a cultural elite that sees genocidal intent where it doesn’t exist, and ignores it where it does. Very few of the woke commentators and agitators who are gnashing their teeth over Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza would openly condemn the truly genocidal nature of the Hamas ideology. Even though Hamas is a group whose founding charter committed it to a ‘struggle against the Jews’. Whose officials have goaded people to ‘cut off the heads of Jews’. Whose terrorists – yes, BBC, terrorists – slaughtered more than a thousand people on Saturday 7 October for the crime of being Jewish in Israel. Yet when the Jewish State says, ‘We will not tolerate this racist savagery’, it is branded genocidal.
And so are the victims of racist terror rebranded as racist terrorists. The people whose kibbutzim were ethnically cleansed are insulted as ethnic cleansers. The nation that witnessed the annihilation of entire families is defamed as the annihilator. The cruelty of our cultural elites in the face of the worst act of anti-Jewish violence since the 1940s is bone-chilling. I see all those newspaper headlines and academic musings on the sneakiness and wickedness of Israel as a mildly more sophisticated version of the utterances of the scumbags who have gathered in public to say ‘Aww, are your people dead?’ or who’ve said we should ‘Rejoice’ over Hamas’s slaughter. In both instances, morality and solidarity are violently elbowed aside by a peculiar loathing for Israel that long ago crossed the line from reasoned critique into blind bigotry.
There is something really grim in the marshalling of the rules of war to shame Israel. Many of these rules – the Geneva Conventions, human-rights law – were introduced in the aftermath of the Second World War and the Nazis’ attempted destruction of the Jews. And yet now it is the Jewish State more than any other – more than the warmongers of the Saudi regime, the bomb-happy Turks, the destructive imperial powers of America, Britain and France – that has these postwar rules barked in its face. ‘We will protect you from genocide’, the Western world said to Jews, yet now it wags its postwar officious finger in Jews’ faces because they dare to hunt down men who committed an act of genocidal terrorism against them. The cant and perfidy of the postwar order have rarely been so starkly exposed. There is a concerted effort to quasi-criminalise Israel’s desire to protect its people from racist torment and murder.
The West’s anti-Israel elites seem utterly bereft of the essentials of morality. Consider their insistence on moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Israel kills children too, they say, so is it really any better than Hamas? The moral infantilism of such hollow platitudes is difficult to comprehend. If you cannot tell the difference between people killed as a consequence of war and people killed because they are Jews, then you are beyond help.
Everyone – including Israel – regrets the collateral damage of the war in Gaza, especially if the victims are children. But such tragedy cannot be compared to Hamas’s murder of children in southern Israel for being Jewish. That is of an entirely different order to war. It is the conscious, willing destruction of innocent life from the standpoint of venomous racial hatred. To kill a child on account of its race is the most unconscionable act a society can commit. It is an act of unforgiving eugenicism that brings shame on our species. Nothing – including the accidental deaths of civilians in conflict – comes close to the mindset that would erase a child as an expression of its deeper desire to erase a people.
It is horrendous that children in Gaza have died. Which is why some of us believe the US, the UK and the UN should be putting enormous pressure on their tyrannical allies in Egypt right now to construct well-resourced, Red Cross-approved refugee camps in the Sinai to which Gazans might flee. However, it is a warning sign to civilisation itself that Jewish children have been killed for being Jewish children. That in this new millennium the genocidal execution of Jews has returned. The Western world fails to recognise at its peril what a vast moral challenge this poses to the enlightened values we claim to hold dear.
Israel’s Western haters cannot see what is at stake. This is about more than the Middle East. It is about whether we are willing to stand against the forces of unreason and anti-Semitism, and for the values of liberty and decency. Are you for civilisation or barbarism – that is what the horrific events of last Saturday demanded of us all. Far too many are giving the wrong answer.BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-66606632453469933122023-10-16T16:04:00.003-07:002023-10-16T16:04:33.083-07:00THE ATLANTIC: STUDENTS FOR POGROMS IN ISRAEL By excusing murder and kidnapping, activist groups have already changed campus politics in America. By Conor FriedersdorfCampus politics in America irrevocably changed this week when student groups that champion the noble goal of justice for Palestinians endorsed the evil means of war crimes in pursuit of it.
Last Saturday, hundreds of gun-toting men stormed into Israel by land, air, and sea with the express purpose of killing as many Jews as possible. They succeeded in perpetrating a pogrom reminiscent of the Cossacks and the Nazis. They murdered civilians in their homes as their families watched. They massacred young people at a music festival. They kidnapped children.
Across America, millions of people with wildly diverse opinions on the longstanding conflict between Israel and Palestine denounced those atrocities, because it is always wrong to deliberately target and slaughter civilians and it is always wrong to abduct, let alone kill, children.
I naively believed that those were near-consensus beliefs on college campuses––that whether one sided with Israelis or Palestinians in the long and heartrending conflict between them, almost everyone could agree that certain actions were evil regardless of who took them. Then this week, on dozens of campuses, student groups reacted to the attacks by attempting to absolve the murderers and child abductors of all responsibility.
“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” a letter signed by multiple student organizations at Harvard stated. (Several of the named groups have since withdrawn their endorsement.)
At the University of Virginia, the chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine declared that it “unequivocally supports Palestinian liberation and the right of colonized people everywhere to resist the occupation of their land by whatever means they deem necessary.” How depraved a response to Hamas war criminals who just demonstrated that they deem murder of civilians, including children, necessary.
George Washington University’s Students for Justice in Palestine joined the swell of extremists who reject the Geneva Conventions on noncombatants. “Decolonization is not a metaphor,” the group stated. “It is not an abstract theory to be discussed and debated in classrooms and papers. It is a tangible, material event in which the colonized rise up against the colonizer … We reject the distinction between ‘civilian’ and ‘militant.’ We reject the distinction between ‘settler’ and ‘soldier.’ Every Palestinian is a civilian even if they hold arms. A settler is an aggressor, a soldier, and an occupier even if they are lounging on our occupied beaches.”
At a small liberal arts school near Philadelphia, the group Swarthmore Students for Justice in Palestine said, “We call on all Swarthmore community members to unite in solidarity with the plight of the oppressed and confront the dishonest, racist tropes that view resistance as barbaric and uncivilized only when it is exerted by indigenous people.” (Do they not know that most people regard murdering civilians and kidnapping kids as barbaric and uncivilized regardless of who the perpetrators are?)
I understand various reasons why advocates for the Palestinian cause might keep quiet––as many supporters of Israel have done after abuses of Palestinians. I understand why, thinking of loved ones in Gaza, they might skip right to anticipating and preemptively denouncing retaliatory attacks, hoping to avert the deaths of still more innocent people. I understand why some observers feel there is a double standard in the West that accords less attention to the killings of Muslim innocents. I saw that firsthand when I condemned America’s drone war and argued for a moratorium, to little avail. When Senator Lindsey Graham says of Gaza, a place dense with civilian children, “Level the place,” I’m appalled.
What I cannot understand is endorsing, validating, or standing in solidarity with war crimes. That so many student organizations did so is stunning. It commits them to positions anathema not only to the conservatives they often tangle with but to left-leaning liberals and progressives, many of whom now perceive a frightening difference in core values that too many had scarcely pondered before.
The issue isn’t support for Palestinians, who deserve better advocates than pro-pogrom zealots. As Eric Levitz put it in New York magazine:
Hamas’s project is antithetical to the left’s foundational values of secularism, universalism, and egalitarianism. And it is also completely at odds with the progressive vision for Palestinian liberation. Western radicals’ predominant prescription for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict is a “one-state solution,” in which Israelis and Palestinians all enjoy democratic equality in a single binational state. Hamas’s atrocities have not advanced this ideal but set it back, lending credence to those who insist a one-state solution is a recipe for ceaseless civil war. This weekend was not a triumph for the left’s project in Palestine but a disaster.
Israel is sometimes accused of targeting civilians or taking too little care to spare innocent lives. Whether that is true of any given incident is subject to debate, but the wrongness of targeting civilians for death or kidnapping is not. Partisans of Israel who endorse those actions should lose moral standing. And Israeli President Isaac Herzog and others are wrong to assign collective responsibility to Palestinians, as if collective punishment is ever just.
Indeed, the dubious morality of collective punishment helps to explain why apologies for Hamas’s atrocities are a political disaster for the broad coalition of left-leaning activist organizations who have long shaped how social justice is understood on campus. Up until this point, the left’s most radical elements exerted influence disproportionate to their numbers because of the belief among their progressive allies that however zealous or utopian its members might be, their hearts were in the right place and their influence was bending the arc of history toward justice. So long as that seemed true, relative solidarity could prevail in spite of disagreements.
But one cannot cheer what Hamas did and retain moral high ground; nor can one declare solidarity with campaigns of civilian slaughter and remain in solidarity with liberal humanists, progressive wonks, or adherents of international human rights or the beloved community.
Though many on the left, including many critics of Israel, bear no responsibility for its pro-Hamas faction, newly aware observers cannot help but wonder what flawed ideas informed the violence-endorsing statements. So this episode will rightly cause some who deferred to leftists on social justice to regard their views with less deference and more skepticism. Virtue signaling on campus will change as radical views are seen as less virtuous. New scrutiny will be applied to concepts like “decolonization.” Academics who oppose othering and dehumanization should be newly attentive to the ways colonizer and oppressor can be misused to justify atrocities.
This event will also scramble ongoing debates on free speech, cancel culture, and the relationship between college administrators and the events they are pressured to comment on. Even the most deplorable and hateful statements that I’ve seen from student organizations are entitled to First Amendment free-speech protections. Free expression, even of abhorrent views, is worth defending.. Better that we know which students stand in solidarity with whatever Hamas deems necessary, so that their views can be challenged and defeated. So I will defend their free-speech rights, as I have defended BDS advocates in the past.
But how will the leftists who long claimed that hate speech is not free speech react? What will advocates of “safe spaces” tell students who feel like this young woman at the University of Washington, who cried, amid a crowd of students waving Palestinian flags, “How is this allowed? They want our people dead! They want us killed! How is this allowed? How are you allowing this?”The therapeutic university cannot survive these tensions.
The contours of cancel culture are changing as people appalled by the statements put out by student organizations try to identify their members, publish their names, and deny them future jobs. At Harvard, a truck drove around publicly shaming students by displaying their names and faces.
My own skepticism of cancel culture is unchanged. These “cancellation” or “accountability” efforts will unfold as arbitrarily and capriciously as ever, with rushes to judgment and a dearth of due process and guilt by association; principled critics of cancel culture’s injustices and unintended consequences will continue to object. But with changes in the ideologies most subject to cancel culture’s excesses and attendant chilling effects, I believe we can expect to see some on the left and the right swap positions on the subject while deflecting charges of hypocrisy.
Indeed, that is already happening.
“Shaming people for saying things others disapprove of has been something I’ve opposed for a long time,” the populist-right commentator Kurt Schlichter said on Twitter. “But I was overruled. And I was overruled by the kind of people who, by and large, make up Harvard law school. They decided they wanted a different rule. Well, now they’ve got it. I’m not sure what I’m expected to do here. But I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to ensure that they feel the full consequences of their bad decisions in the hopes that they decide we’re going to go back to the old rule.” It won’t take many people behaving that way to alter the incentives students perceive.
At the conservative outlet The Dispatch, Nick Catoggio argued that, for the most part, students at schools like Swarthmore, UVA, NYU Law, and Harvard “get to be radically chic during their stay in the university playpen,” and future employers agree not to hold it against them if they leave it behind when they graduate. “So imagine the surprise of the students who signed this week’s statements upon finding out that their bargain has an outer moral bound after all and that overt enthusiasm for war crimes crosses it,” he wrote. “And imagine their outright shock upon realizing that ‘cancellation’ isn’t a punishment American businesses reserve exclusively for right-wing thought criminals. Big Law, Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and the media industry may lean left on cultural issues, it turns out, but beheading infants is where they’re apt to get squeamish.”
I am not sure if Catoggio’s narrative is accurate, but I am confident that many people will perceive employers as newly willing to punish leftist excesses and alter their behavior accordingly. For example, I suspect that in the future, heads of student organizations and individual students alike will think much more carefully before signing group political statements in solidarity. According to J. Sellers Hill and Nia L. Orakwue at The Harvard Crimson, “Amid continued national backlash, multiple Harvard student groups have withdrawn their signatures from a controversial statement calling Israel ‘entirely responsible’ for the ongoing violence, and group members have faced doxxing attacks.”
And what of college administrators who have struggled with making statements about this controversy? In 1967, another era of polarizing ideological conflict, the University of Chicago published an influential report on the university’s role in political and social action. “The university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic,” the Kalven Report stated.
The report went on to assert that the university “is a community which cannot take collective action on the issues of the day without endangering the conditions for its existence and effectiveness.”
Had universities kept to that model, today’s administrators wouldn’t have to do or say much of anything about a small faction of students declaring their solidarity with violent extremists. Instead, these institutions spent years issuing all manner of official statements on controversial events while creating huge administrations to micromanage student life. Diversity-equity-and-inclusion bureaucracies with expensive staffs purport to ensure that all students on campus feel a psychological sense of safety and belonging. Many monitor even alleged “microaggressions.”
Endorsing violence against Israeli civilians is more of a “macroaggression” against a national-origin group. Many Jewish students understandably feel unsafe and unwelcome when college classmates affirm solidarity with the anti-Semitic attackers rather than the Jewish victims.
Hence the pressure on campus leaders to say something now. Administrators at elite colleges do not want to be seen as anomalously insensitive toward Jews, let alone in silent agreement with the hard-left students acting as apologists for murder and kidnapping. At the same time, denouncing violent extremism on the right, which has no meaningful representation on most faculties, is easier than denouncing violent extremism on the left. I suspect that the Kalven Report approach will make a comeback. Just this week, Stanford and Northwestern University administrators have both put out statements about how, going forward, they’re going to refrain from putting out so many statements.
If I’m right, many will understandably perceive a double standard and find it galling. For my part, however, I think Stanford’s statement is broadly correct in many of its particulars, including these:
We believe it is important that the university, as an institution, generally refrain from taking institutional positions on complex political or global matters that extend beyond our immediate purview, which is the operations of the university itself. Maintaining university neutrality allows for our individual scholars to explore them freely. In recent years, many universities have gotten into the habit of issuing frequent statements about news events. This creates a number of difficulties. The decision to take a position about one event or issue yields implications for silence with regard to other issues; given that different subsets of a campus community may be more or less affected by particular issues, this inconsistency is felt acutely. It can enmesh universities in politics and create a sense of institutional orthodoxy that chills academic freedom.
Looking back on the Manson killings, Joan Didion wrote, “Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969, ended at the exact moment when word of the murders on Cielo Drive traveled like brushfire through the community, and in a sense this is true. The tension broke that day. The paranoia was fulfilled.” A few people I know believe last Saturday’s attack on Israel and the responses from leftist student groups mark the end of the “Great Awokening.”
Although it is too early to evaluate the accuracy of that hypothesis, campus politics have certainly transformed in recent days. Now we are left wondering whether what comes next is better or worse than what preceded it.BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-22384760019117594572023-10-16T15:56:00.000-07:002023-10-16T15:56:04.661-07:00Dear Jew Haters: Thank You for Uniting the Jews That’s a hard pill to swallow: 1300 Jews get massacred and it’s the Jewish students who are not feeling safe. The upside is that I’ve never seen such a show of Jewish unity.I’m not sure if you noticed the stunning reaction of Jew haters around the world after 1300 Jews were brutally massacred by Palestinian Hamas terrorists on October 7.
They came after the Jews!
That’s neither a joke nor a typo.
Even before Israel began its retaliation campaign against the Hamas murderers in Gaza, demonstrations had already sprouted on college campuses and around the world in support of…Palestinians!
Clearly, they were not marching to show empathy for the 1300 Jewish victims. Jew haters are so hypnotized by their hatred they’re incapable of seeing Jews as victims, even when Jewish babies are slaughtered in front of their parents, or Jewish families are burned alive, or Jewish partygoers are murdered, raped and mutilated.
As bewildering as it sounds, it is the Jewish college students who are actually on the defensive. At a Friday night Shabbat dinner I attended in New York, I heard several students grieve the atrocities of October 7, but they also said they haven’t been feeling safe on their campuses. Why? Because of hostile demonstrations glorifying terrorism against the Jewish state. We’ve been hearing similar reports from campuses across the country.
That’s a hard pill to swallow: 1300 Jews get massacred and it’s the Jewish students who are not feeling safe.
The upside is that I’ve never seen such a show of Jewish unity. The great majority of Jews have said “enough is enough.” Thousands of Jewish groups, synagogues and individuals, from the very small to the very big, have mobilized and jumped into action.
Jewish donors to universities have put their alma maters on notice, demanding that they fight Jew hatred and protect Jewish students. And yes, they’re using financial support as leverage. They want results. If Jewish students are singled out for hostility, it’s only fair that they be singled out for protection.
Meanwhile, countless initiatives are under way across the Jewish world to deliver assistance of all kinds to Israel. A mini-army of social media activists are swarming the platforms to expose the truth about Israel’s enemies and raise funds and awareness. Rallies are organized within a few days. Chat groups are buzzing with useful action. At the Park Avenue Synagogue on Friday night, the rabbi announced an $18 million emergency campaign to help Israel. He had already raised $16 million and needed $2 million more. It would come quickly.
The synagogue was standing room only. I stood in the back, moved by this communal show of force. Jews who live thousands of miles away were coming together to tell their Israeli brothers and sisters, “We will not abandon you.” By the time we sang the Hatikva at the end of the services, it was hard not to choke up.
The rabbi, Elliot Cosgrove, delivered the line that perhaps best captures the mood of the moment: “We are traumatized but we are not paralyzed.”
As I walked outside with my daughter after the services, emotionally drained after a week of grieving, I found comfort in something that will surely help us cope with the trauma.
For now at least, the murderers of Hamas and the Jew haters of the world have united the Jews like never before.BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-38706316390536505622023-10-12T16:37:00.001-07:002023-10-12T16:37:07.682-07:00Hamas Calls for Worldwide Global Jihad <br />ICC must prosecute Hamas for crimes against humanity mass murder, kidnapping, rape, targeting of civilian families<br /> <br />Tomorrow, Hamas and Khaled Mashal, have issued a statement designating tomorrow, Friday, October 13, 2023, as a day of general mobilization for the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operations. In the statement, it urged Palestinians in the West Bank and within Israel to participate in large-scale rallies and confront Israeli soldiers at every opportunity.<br /><br /><br />Extending its call to Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and advocates of freedom worldwide, Hamas exhorted them to dedicate this coming Friday as a day of unwavering support, to "expose the occupation and earn the honor of taking part in defending Al-Aqsa Mosque and to “show anger” toward Zionists and America.<br /> <br /><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgfel-6g73O8bBqXVEtBe4cvkAWVWPprW-ZNuzJOr1Tu4zBg6oOuK-PHFbK1d9p-_6FL7q8t3KPQOsprXY8M8wa7kWexN8o9NQ8XufWurg2ubpP92j2deEh8aBmZFyGGihhJJOeUzlgGzMN6uoI6RXgCkZG-oK2ZoOB5tGuLZTPckf5fhwRnk_jeSb0aE4y58dCZYM=w320-h200" width="320" /><br /> <br />Simon Wiesenthal Center statement:<br /><br />“Instead of providing aid and comfort to terrorist Hamas’s top leaders, Qatar should turn them over to the International Criminal Court for them to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity including mass murder, kidnapping, rape, targeting of civilian families including the killing and beheading of 40 Israeli infants in one community.<br /><br />Hamas’s top leadership should no longer have a safe haven anywhere else in the world but Tehran with their paymasters and ultimate supporters.”<br />BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-35400062857635532212023-10-12T16:32:00.005-07:002023-10-12T16:32:35.480-07:00TO CRY WHILE YOU SING By Rav Yitzchak Berkovits | OCTOBER 10, 2023 We feel both the trust and the pain simultaneously, and that’s what Hallel is all about<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1e4a7e; font-family: "Roboto Slab"; font-size: 90pt;">T</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600;">his Succos, we rejoiced with Hashem and felt that sense of safety and</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600;">bitachon</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600;">. We wished one another a good year with confidence. Then, at the finale — on Simchas Torah — we learned that we did not merit Divine protection.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We learned that there had been a massive invasion by terrorists, with hundreds of casualties, and so many taken hostage. What happened to our tefillos?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">If this question bothers us, we may have been a little bit too simplistic in the way we view <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">bitachon</em>, perhaps even in the way we daven.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The skeptics talk about religion as the “opiate of the masses,” some movement that provides simplistic answers to the most complicated questions and lends its adherents a false sense of security when there’s in fact real danger. That’s true of conventional religion — but it’s not what Judaism is about.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Last week, we spent eight days saying Hallel. Take a closer look at Hallel — at the feelings it expresses — and you find that it’s an emotional roller coaster. In Hallel, we praise Hashem, then call out to Him with desperation. We talk of the wonderful things He does for us, and then beseech Him to save us from our <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">tzaros</em>.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We begin by describing Hashem as “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hamagbihi lashaves</em>” — He sits on High — and yet He comes down to earth to see what takes place there. “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Mei’ashpos yarim evyon</em>” — He lifts the needy out of the dumps and seats them among the wealthy benefactors.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">And then there’s “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">B’tzeis Yisrael</em>,” describing how we came out of Egypt and the sea split for us. Then Hallel continues, and the nations ask “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ayeh na</em>” — “Where is your G-d?” Why do they ask? After all, He just performed outright miracles.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Well, He doesn’t just perform miracles. He also hides. And in the middle of Hallel, we cry to Him, “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ki l’shimcha tein kavod</em>” — for Your sake, Hashem — why should they be asking where You are? Why isn’t Your presence more evident in the world?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">And the answer is sort of there.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">“<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Elokeinu ba’Shamayim</em>” — Our G-d is in Heaven, and whatever He wants, He does.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Jews don’t believe that G-d is a candyman. We don’t believe that He just dishes out all sorts of nice things. He wants to give in a way that only G-d can. He builds us. And part of building us means He hides.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Hallel continues, as we toggle from singing to pleading, from brachah to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">tzarah v’yagon</em>, from “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ana Hashem hoshia na</em>” — a plea for help — to the joyous finale of “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hodu L’Hashem ki tov</em>,” praising Hashem for all the good.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">This emotional roller coaster is the story of every individual Jew, and it’s the story of the Jewish nation. Hashem is there on the good days, and He’s the one we call out to on the difficult days. We ask that He smile at us, that He shower us with overt and abundant good. But at the same time, we acknowledge that He and only He knows what’s best for us.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We have to understand that life is complicated. We have to be mature Jews, and we can’t turn Judaism into simplistic answers to complicated questions. We don’t run to Judaism for security. We run to Judaism because it’s true.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Yes, we want to feel safe. But true security stems primarily from the knowledge that Hashem knows what He is doing — that ultimately everything is for the best, whether we know it and understand it or not. True, a lot of what He does is very painful. But there’s a plan — a plan for our people as a whole, and a plan for every individual Jew.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">SO</span></span></span></span>much for philosophy. From an emotional perspective, the natural state of the human being in this day and age — including the Jew, I’m afraid — is a desire above all for personal comfort and safety.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Yet part of being a mature Jew is understanding that we’re part of the Jewish nation. As much as we crave comfort and safety, we have to be open to feeling the pain of our fellow Jews.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">There are Jews in Gaza enduring unspeakable conditions. The future is uncertain to them. There are men, women, children, and soldiers in captivity who understand that their fate is even more complicated. There are so many of our brethren down south who’ve lost family members: husbands, wives, children, soldiers involved in difficult battles.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We’ve got to feel for them. We’ve got to feel their pain. These are our brethren. Some question how we rejoiced and celebrated Simchas Torah, knowing that this was going on. To clarify, this was not the Olympics, where “the games must go on.” We don’t ignore the pain of our fellow Jews; we don’t party while shutting out other people’s suffering.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Our Simchas Torah celebration is <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">avodas Hashem</em>. It’s serving Hashem and feeling close to Him, expressing our love for His Torah, and dancing with the confidence that He knows what He’s doing even though our reality is so very complicated.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Dancing on Simchas Torah this year was an expression of our trust. We trust that things will work out, but in the interim there’s so much pain. We feel both the trust and the pain simultaneously, and that’s what Hallel is all about.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The heart, as you know, contains more than one chamber. We can feel pain and joy and desperation and exultation. What is it that allows us to fuse all those conflicting feelings as one? Only our closeness to Hashem and closeness to Klal Yisrael.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">W</span></span></span></span>hen terrible events happen, we naturally employ some sort of defense mechanism to help us cope. Many of us create an illusion of safety by pinpointing some sort of “reason” why an event happened so we can conveniently exclude ourselves from the pool of victims.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Naturally, this week’s events provide a great opportunity for everybody to blame our terrible losses on their pet causes. Of course, Orthodox Jews will say it’s because most of the nation doesn’t keep Shabbos. Others will say it’s because <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">frum</em> Jews aren’t keeping what they’re supposed to in the right way, that we have to take responsibility for the entire Jewish nation (which is, by the way, a very important attitude).</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">I don’t want to be a false prophet, to finger one specific failing as the cause of so much tragedy. But Chazal are very open to that. When they discuss the Jewish People during wartime, they tell us there’s one thing that determines whether we will be victorious in battle — and that is whether we’re united. It’s clear from the Gemara that “united” does not mean “we all agree.” United means that we get along with one another; we feel like we’re one people.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">The Gemara talks about the days of King Achav, who was one of the wicked kings of the Ten Tribes of Malchus Yisrael. Even though these tribes were led by a wicked king, they triumphed on the battlefield because they had unity.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Without question, we have currently reached an all-time low in this area. In the wake of Israel's conflict regarding judicial reform, its right and the left flanks are completely fractured, delegitimizing one another terribly. We should have seen the writing on the wall.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Now, you may not consider yourself part of that debate, but there’s a need to see to it that Jews know how to talk to one another. True, Jews have always disagreed. On Succos, I mentioned that the succah is meant to remind us of the Ananei Hakavod, the Clouds of Glory that were our Divine protection during our 40-year trek through the wilderness. How did we merit those Clouds of Glory?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We’re taught it was in the merit of Aharon HaKohein. He loved peace. He pursued peace. He loved people, and that love brought them closer to Torah. We see clearly that Divine protection is the fruit of a love of Jews, a love of peace among Jews.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">That doesn’t mean that we should sacrifice our values for the sake of peace. What it means is that we learn to love people we disagree with. We learn to talk to people we disagree with. We learn to understand where they’re coming from.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">You may be a left-basher, you may have grown accustomed to thinking that liberals are “out of their minds” or “not thinking.” So now you have a new assignment. Where are they coming from? What’s bothering them? What are they afraid of? What are their concerns?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">We know that human beings’ philosophies don’t sprout in a vacuum. When you hear hostility or animosity, that’s an expression of an underlying fear. Understand that. Feel for them.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366;"><span id="first-letter" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e4a7e; float: left; font-family: "Roboto Slab" !important; font-size: 90pt !important; font-weight: 300; line-height: 95px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 10px;">SO</span></span></span></span>what should we be doing now?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">At a time when so many Jews are in danger, we’ve got to be intelligent and mature. We may be far from the battlefront, but we’re close to the people. We have to feel the pain of our fellow Jews and feel the closeness to Hashem and keep davening to Him. This is not a time, obviously, for idleness or pleasure trips. This is a time when you must feel for so many Jews who are in danger.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">And do what you can to feel close to Hashem. Daven. Learn.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">What kind of spirit should we be exuding? One of pride. We’re proud to be Jewish, and while we understand that the history of the Jewish nation is that they’re always out to get us — that we’ve always had enemies — we know also that we’ve outlived them all.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">Until Mashiach comes, the world is going to hate us. We will always have enemies. And throughout those episodes, Hallel will be repeated again and again. We will continue to voice our conflicting emotions of praise and desperation, joy and suffering, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hodu l’Hashem ki tov </em>along with <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ana Hashem hoshia na</em>.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;">That’s how we live. That’s what it means to be a Jew. We know how to feel pain and sing at the same time — because we’re confident that Hashem knows what He’s doing, and that one day He will finally reveal Himself to his people.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Whitney Light"; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 981)</em></p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-42967718415577711632023-10-12T16:31:00.001-07:002023-10-12T16:31:08.261-07:00How October 7 Exposed the Robotic Cruelty of the Anti-Israel Left by David Suissa<p> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">The idiots couldn’t see the difference. They treated October 7 like just another terror attack. You know, one of those attacks where a few Israelis get killed. When those attacks happen, the idiots have their marching orders: What did you expect? These are freedom fighters resisting the Zionist occupation! The colonialist Israelis had it coming!</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Only this time, of course, it wasn’t one of those “attacks where a few Israelis get killed.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">This time, it was the biggest Jewish slaughter since the Holocaust.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">This time, it was a barbaric invasion of Israeli towns and private homes where babies were murdered and mutilated; where families were burned alive; where rave dancers were raped and slaughtered; where children were murdered in front of their parents; where more than 1200 Jewish lives were extinguished and many thousands wounded.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">So, how did the idiots react to these massacres? Like icy, cruel robots, they followed their usual marching orders: The Israelis had it coming!</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">I can give you dozens of examples; you’ve probably seen a whole bunch yourself. For now, just meditate on the headline of this statement from the leftist Jewish Voices for Peace, in response to the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">“The Root of Violence is Oppression.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Think about that. Babies are being murdered in front of their parents, 260 party-goers are raped and slaughtered, and this “peace” group is focusing on the oppression of the rapists and murderers.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Notice the sanitized language: “Following 16 years of Israeli military blockade, Palestinian fighters from Gaza launched an unprecedented assault, in which hundreds of Israelis were killed and wounded, and civilians kidnapped.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">These are not terrorists or murderers. They are “fighters” reacting to 16 years of a “military blockade” with an assault in which Israelis were “killed.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Then they explain that “Israeli apartheid and occupation — and United States complicity in that oppression — are the source of all this violence.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">In other words, the source for families being burned alive is “oppression.” Of course!</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">The anti-Israel class has never looked so clueless and callous. The atrocities of October 7 have exposed them for what they are: anti-Israel robots. The roots of their anti-Israel bias are so deep they can withstand a hurricane of Jewish destruction.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">But you don’t have to be anti-Israel to look callous. Heads of universities, Hollywood players, political leaders, media influencers, leftist Zionists—any public or private figure who has failed to unequivocally condemn this unspeakable massacre of Jews deserves condemnation themselves. There are plenty of Israel critics who have unequivocally condemned the massacres. But there are many others who haven't.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Indeed, habits die hard. The reflex to treat Jews differently is hard-wired into the mainstream. Jews are powerful. Jews are successful. Jews have the strongest nation in the Middle East. Given all that, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic;">how can they ever be victims?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">The massacres of October 7 have shaken this hard-wired reflex. Suddenly, the usual arguments in favor of Palestinians and against Israel look not just callous and ill-timed but stupid and hardly relevant.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Many elites are so used to the chic victim cachet of the Palestinian cause, their heads are reeling with cognitive dissonance from Palestinian terrorists murdering and mutilating 1200 Jews in their homes and bedrooms. What will happen now to their cherished Palestinian cause-- the cause they can always count on to keep them in the right clubs?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">As if the failure to condemn weren’t bad enough, there is a more perverted dimension to the response of the anti-Israel class. This you see especially on college campuses, where hateful agitators actually </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic;">double down</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;"> on their anti-Israel activism. In fact, as I write this, a “National Day of Resistance” organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is taking place on campuses across the U.S. Jews get massacred and it's the Jewish students who are on the defensive. It’s as if the greater the massacre of Jews, the greater the victim status of Palestinians.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">With Israel now fighting back in Gaza, the anti-Israel left is waiting for the right moment to regain the initiative, and that moment will surely come: Israel is killing civilians! The bombings must stop! And so on.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">But regardless of where this war goes, let’s never forget the robots. Let’s never forget those who kept quiet. Let’s never forget those who blamed Israeli “oppression” for the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Let's never forget the Jew haters who couldn't take a five-second timeout from their Jew-hatred to ponder the slaughter of Jewish babies.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">When humanity called, they remained robots.</span></p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-27917261568859911692023-10-12T16:28:00.003-07:002023-10-12T16:28:46.091-07:00Honey Kessler Amado's response to NPR's Ayesha Rascoe interview of Yousef Munayyer<p> <strong style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Honey Kessler Amado</strong></p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px;"></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in;">October 11, 2023</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in;">Response to NPR – Weekend Edition Sunday, October 8, 2023</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in;">“How the Al-Aqsa Mosque became a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Ayesha Rascoe, Host, and Hadeed Al-Shalchi</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1204545845&source=gmail&ust=1697225457086000&usg=AOvVaw2zC6TLz8_k2GqZcpFO3l94" href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1204545845" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.npr.org/<wbr></wbr>transcripts/1204545845</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">In the story “How the Al-Aqsa Mosque became a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” host Ayesha Rascoe interviewed Yousef Munayyer, senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington, D.C. and director of the Palestine/Israel program, to give background on the Saturday morning, October 7, terror attack by Hamas against unarmed Israeli civilians in their homes. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Mr. Munayyer put forward Palestinian grievances justifying the brutality: 1) Palestinians have been refugees for over 75 years, ignoring that their refugee status after 75 years indicts not the circumstances which led to their initial status, but the unwillingness of Arab countries to absorb their refugee brethren; 2) the military occupation and siege of Gaza, ignoring that Israel left Gaza nearly two decades ago, leaving it to govern itself; and 3) escalating violence against Palestinians, ignoring that the violence against Palestinians has been largely located in the West Bank, has been perpetrated by right-wing religious extremists, and has been condemned by many in the Israeli public. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Mr. Munayyer also cites to the displacement of Palestinians from their towns and villages and denial of freedom to Palestinians, implying both from the foundation of the State of Israel, ignoring that only some, not all, Palestinians were involuntarily displaced during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 (some 75 years ago) and further ignoring that Arab-Israelis, sometimes called Palestinian-Israelis, are not denied any rights of citizenship. (Many Arab-Israelis living in East Jerusalem have declined citizenship in Israel in favor of permanent-residency status, which gives them many of the same rights and privileges as citizens, with the exceptions of voting and holding an Israeli passport.) </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Nevertheless, whatever the real or perceived grievances against the government, the attack by Hamas was an attack against civilians, not against government installations or military targets. It was a brutal, vicious attack against families in their homes, our most sacred places. Whole families were murdered, children in the presence of their parents; parents in the presence of their children. Children, women, and elderly were taken as hostages at gun point. Women and girls have been repeatedly raped; children have been beheaded. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">This is the work of cowards. It shocks sensibilities. There is no excuse or grievance which justifies such violence, such depravity. NPR has no business presenting such arguments in the guise of “background” as if there is an explanation that could justify the attack on civilians for political causes. As of October 10, over 1,000 Israelis have been killed; over 2,700 Israelis critically injured; over 130 kidnapped; over 5,000 rockets launched against Israel. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">Hamas, the perpetrators of this heinous, unprovoked attack, is not a government which seeks to improve the lives of the residents of Gaza. It is a militant terrorist organization, backed by Iran, which has suppressed and oppressed the residents of Gaza for years, with little care about the consequences to Gaza and Gazans from <em>its</em> provocations. Hamas has only one goal: the elimination of Israel. And, failing that, it seeks to derail any efforts by Israel’s neighbors to normalize relations with Israel, normalizations which are creating partnerships for the economic benefit of the region and as a counterbalance against Iran. Arab countries are turning to Israel, seeing her as a reliable partner in the region, and are effectively ending the Palestinians’ veto over these countries’ future. This is the real provocation to Hamas. </p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-46442959478692254852023-10-12T08:07:00.003-07:002023-10-12T08:07:25.358-07:00AN IMAGE YOU SHOULD NEVER FORGET<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEga3zQ3GsB7dq4H1JJrfi1GyKB_Dx0f66yoej9LE2KXMWkk6PlAjlEjF_xlSvj8YVDIlYHzpqmbCialQ5wUe4xaOk1OX9KoqoEf0h7wQ27q-YhvwCVQRjeJFnz4mUxMs6G2jfbOB4TOnjs99a1Vljujc0smUj65lp7GY1VCxesIDduyDggffz1EDMqVQDNA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="671" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEga3zQ3GsB7dq4H1JJrfi1GyKB_Dx0f66yoej9LE2KXMWkk6PlAjlEjF_xlSvj8YVDIlYHzpqmbCialQ5wUe4xaOk1OX9KoqoEf0h7wQ27q-YhvwCVQRjeJFnz4mUxMs6G2jfbOB4TOnjs99a1Vljujc0smUj65lp7GY1VCxesIDduyDggffz1EDMqVQDNA" width="210" /></a></div><br /><p></p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-77040708304356585682023-10-11T17:58:00.003-07:002023-10-11T17:58:41.922-07:00Open Letter by Harvard Professors to the Jackasses Who Signed That anti-Semitic Letter<p> </p><h2 id="m_6189383460666544770h.e0uavlw1og1h" style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 22px; line-height: 27.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Open letter to the Harvard Community</h2><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;">[Link to the letter: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D17be4fd203%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1697157616509000&usg=AOvVaw2cYIf6KmaeXQ0Oiu4D6b4_" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=17be4fd203&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/<wbr></wbr>harvard-against-terrorism</a> ; <wbr></wbr>While this letter has been circulating, President Gay posted an <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D671bdcb931%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1697157616509000&usg=AOvVaw23NO4dNnRUV7_4RqSNDaZ5" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=671bdcb931&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">updated statement</a> on the war. ]</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">We are faculty at Harvard who are deeply concerned about the events in the Middle East, as well as the safety of our students here on campus. On October 7th, Hamas launched a premeditated attack on the Israeli population. Hundreds of terrorists infiltrated Israeli towns and houses. Children were killed in front of their parents; entire families were executed. Grandmothers, mothers, and their babies were kidnapped. All in all, more than 900 Israelis were killed in a single day and the death toll is continuing to grow. There have also been deaths on the Palestinian side, including hundreds of terrorists and, tragically, civilians as well.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Every innocent death is a tragedy. Yet, this should not mislead us to create false equivalencies between the actions leading to this loss. Hamas planned and executed the murder and kidnapping of civilians, particularly women, children, and the elderly, with no military or other specific objective. This meets the definition of a war crime. The Israeli security forces were engaging in self-defense against this attack while dealing with numerous hostage situations and a barrage of thousands of rockets hidden deliberately in dense urban settings.<br /><br />The <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D981b01ddd0%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1697157616509000&usg=AOvVaw2kdCD8ye41R6I5KS3253mQ" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=981b01ddd0&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">leaders of the major democratic countries</a> united in saying that “the terrorist actions of Hamas have no justification, no legitimacy, and must be universally condemned” and that Israel should be supported “in its efforts to defend itself and its people against such atrocities.“ In contrast, while terrorists were still killing Israelis in their homes, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D24b3259725%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1697157616509000&usg=AOvVaw1NzkSWwL7Q99Cb2PjNyI8c" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=24b3259725&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">35 Harvard student organizations</a> wrote that they hold “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” with not a single word denouncing the horrific acts by Hamas. In the context of the unfolding events, this statement can be seen as nothing less than condoning the mass murder of civilians based only on their nationality. We’ve heard reports of even worse instances, with Harvard students celebrating the “victory” or “resistance” on social media.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"> As a University aimed at educating future leaders, this could have been a teaching moment and an opportunity to remind our students that beyond our political debates, some acts such as war crimes are simply wrong. However, the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D22f61c728f%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1697157616509000&usg=AOvVaw3rJeEdptn4jl2tXmGPI32X" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=22f61c728f&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">statement by Harvard’s administration</a> fell short of this goal. While justly denouncing Hamas, it still contributed to the false equivalency between attacks on noncombatants and self-defense against those atrocities. Furthermore, the statement failed to condemn the justifications for violence that come from our own campus, nor to make it clear to the world that the statement endorsed by these organizations does not represent the values of the Harvard community. How can Jewish and Israeli students feel safe on a campus in which it is considered acceptable to justify and even celebrate the deaths of Jewish children and families?</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">We recognize that Harvard has students and community members from all regions, including from the Gaza Strip. These are not easy times, and we pray for the safety of all our members and their families. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long and complex history. We hold varying opinions, but none of us endorses all of Israel's past actions. However, the events of this week are not complicated. Sometimes there is such a thing as evil, and it is incumbent upon educators and leaders to call it out, as they have with school shootings and terrorist attacks. It is imperative that our academic leadership, whose good faith we do not doubt, state this clearly and unequivocally. Further, while individuals’ free speech should be protected, our leaders should make it clear that our community rejects any statements that excuse terrorist acts.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">We stand with any member of the Harvard community who feels unsafe or alone and pledge to do what we can individually and collectively. We hold our hope for better days in the future. To quote <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4%26id%3D5f4eb2d46e%26e%3Da84ca84235&source=gmail&ust=1697157616509000&usg=AOvVaw13RfnWnMhCxcUsTVsztRJm" href="https://rabbidov.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6de5b30964fb185ea6f20d4&id=5f4eb2d46e&e=a84ca84235" style="color: #007c89;" target="_blank">President Obama</a>, “As we support Israel’s right to defend itself against terror, we must keep striving for a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”</span></span></p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489290913508575356.post-23626926422528102932023-10-11T17:51:00.003-07:002023-10-11T17:51:57.297-07:00How October 7 Became the Biggest Jewish Story of Our Time by David Suissa<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">If it’s possible for the Jewish world to have a collective nervous breakdown, then the calamity of October 7 triggered it.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">A constellation of emotions seems to be colliding within us, from one minute to the next: Anger, sadness, revulsion, bewilderment, outrage, fear, confusion, shock, resolve, disgust, determination, depression, solidarity—we’re feeling it all. The sheer breadth of emotions is itself overwhelming.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">And they’re all justified, starting, certainly, with disgust. Given the savagery of the attacks, the murder of babies in front of parents, the rapes, the eagerness to disseminate videos of the massacres, the ghoulish nature of the massacres themselves, how could disgust </span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic;">not</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;"> be the primal emotion that comes out of October 7?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">But there’s also shock. Shock is at the core of the trauma of October 7.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at how the most powerful army in the Middle East, an army known for its brilliant intelligence, obsessed with providing security for its people, could break down on such a grand scale.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at the timing of the massacres, on a holy Shabbat at the end of the Sukkot festival, when Jews are supposed to dance in jubilation.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at the scenes of the massacres—living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, a desert rave where 260 happy revelers were murdered in cold blood.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at the 130 Israeli hostages now held in Gaza by the same barbarians who rampaged on October 7.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at the reaction of certain anti-Israel groups who insist that the 1200 Israelis murdered had it coming, including the babies.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at Jewish activists who blamed the calamity on Israel, like the co-founder of IfNotNow, who posted this message on her people’s darkest day since the Holocaust:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">“Israel makes every day under apartheid a living hell for Palestinians. Human beings can’t live like this…. Blood is on the hands of Israel’s fascist government, army, and everyone who has aided their crimes against Palestinians.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at universities who rush to protect non-Jews against all kinds of microaggressions but suddenly discover “free speech” when Jewish students are singled out for hostility.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at groups like the NYU Student Bar Association, who looked at the massacre of Jews by Palestinian terrorists and expressed “unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians,” adding that “Israel bears full responsibility” for the massacres.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at the more than 30 Harvard University student organizations who released a statement holding Israel “entirely responsible” for the mass slaughter of Jews by Hamas terrorists.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at how Black Lives Matter Grassroots, a collection of racial-justice activists, released a statement “in solidarity with the Palestinian people” a few days after the massacre. “When a people have been subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense,” the group said. In other words, all those slaughtered babies had it coming.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock at how the legacy media continues to use the term “militants” for terrorists who specialize in murdering innocent civilians.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Shock and high anxiety at what the war against Hamas might lead to, including attacks from other terror groups like Hezbollah.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">I’ve been hearing from stunned Jews on the left who usually see “both sides” and often side with the Palestinians, because they see them mostly as oppressed victims. They’re in shock, too. The atrocities of October 7 that have been gradually revealed day after day are simply too much. The very word “Palestinian” always had a certain victim cachet among the elite left. Let’s see how long it takes for the shock of the massacres to wear off and the sheen of that cachet to return.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">For the great majority of Jews, it is surely this mix of disgust and shock that has made October 7 the biggest Jewish story of our time. We were shocked by the attacks that led to the Yom Kippur War in 1973. We’ve been disgusted before by horrific terrorist attacks. But we’ve never seen a savage volcano of violence like the one we saw on October 7.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">One sign of the enormity of the story is the deluge of emails I’ve been receiving daily, with virtually every Jewish organization in the world releasing statements of solidarity, and many arranging missions to send assistance to Israel. </span></p><blockquote align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #001a81; font-size: 20px;">One sign of the enormity of the story is the deluge of emails I’ve been receiving daily, with virtually every Jewish organization in the world releasing statements of solidarity, and many arranging missions to send assistance to Israel. </span></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">It’s obscene to look for silver linings while 1200 Jewish bodies are being buried in the holy land. But I was forced to do that yesterday when I spoke to my mother in Montreal and saw how despondent she was over the massacres. As I was walking to a pro-Israel rally at the United Nations, she could hear the noise of hundreds of Jews gathering to show their solidarity with Israel.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">When we lost six million Jews eighty years ago, I told her, we couldn’t defend ourselves. We couldn’t fight back.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Now we can. You can hear all the Jews making noise, I told her.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #403f42; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Perhaps that noise makes the story even bigger.</span></p>BCChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17081548866864359816noreply@blogger.com