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Israel inks largest defense deal in its historyThe German Air Force is to take delivery of Israel's Arrow 3 missile defense system by the fourth quarter of 2025.
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Trust in American institutions is collapsing
The Wall Street Journal's Gerry Baker on why.
Three things from our pod this week with Gerry Baker — talking about his new book, and great column on the cratering trust Americans have in our vital institutions:
It’s not just you. Trust, hope, optimism — it’s all in the dumps.
Newspapers, the criminal justice system, TV news, big business, and Congress have the confidence of fewer than 20 percent of Americans.
The solutions are two: America must restore dynamism to its economy. And America needs better leaders.
The answers aren’t that tough. It’s finding people to do what’s necessary to restore confidence, dynamism, and hope to the United States that seems so difficult right now. And yep, the angry left has something when it talks about inequality. And the angry right has something when it talks about stagnant wages and elite privilege. That stuff is real. Boring factoids like the rich are paying a way higher percentage of taxes than the poor, and that government income from taxes is shooting up every year… those things don’t make a difference in people’s lives.
The secret to returning to dynamism isn’t income redistribution or communism or socialism or getting rid of Amazon (tempting as that sometimes seems) or Google (ditto). It’s broadening opportunity and re-incentivizing work and all the fine things that AEI scholars write about all the time. And again, it’s finding someone who has the leadership qualities to make those changes.
One of the greatest things about the United States of America was its optimism, the sense that every family, if it worked hard enough, would bequeath a better life to its children. That the world was a better place because America was there. That, sure, we have problems, but we believe in each other and our leaders. How these qualities have evanesced is hard to stuff into one substack. But some things are very clear:
If Congress did its job, Americans would have more confidence in Congress.
If leaders of both parties didn’t refer to their opponents in derogatory, demeaning terms, there would be more confidence in our leaders.
If the press stopped serving its worst partisans and worked for all, more Americans would trust the press.
Sure, some of these genies can’t be stuffed back into the bottle. It would be nice to see some effort, however. Surely, we can stop incentivizing bad behavior? Because — forgive the maudlin note — when Americans stop loving their neighbors and trusting that tomorrow will be better, it means very bad days ahead.
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More biased reporting:
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Media Disregard Hamas Affiliation of Palestinian Killed in IDF Raid
In the early hours of Sunday, Israeli forces conducted a counter-terrorism raid in the Nour Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem.
During the operation, which focused on dismantling a terror command center and bomb warehouse, two Palestinians were killed in a gunfight between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen.
In reporting on this raid, several mainstream media outlets either buried the fact that one of those killed, Osaid Abu Ali, was a member of the internationally recognized terror group Hamas or ignored it altogether.
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Sherwin is a friend and fellow memo reader:
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Where Israel’s Judicial Reform Debate Doesn’t Matter
By Sherwin Pomerantz
While talk continues about the negative effect that the judicial reform debate is having on international business, there was no seeming impact on this week’s US-Israel Business Summit held in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
With over $31.5 Billion of trade between the US and Israel, the bilateral relationship and friendship is as vibrant today as ever.
Evidence of that was particularly strong at the summit hosted by Ernst & Young at their midtown Tel Aviv conference space. The event was produced in the name of the American State Offices Association (ASOA), the umbrella group resenting the 14 US state trade and investment offices and 8 regional representatives operating in Israel to promote business relationships between the two countries.
Partnering with ASOA were the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute as well as the U.S. Commercial Service. The Summit focused on offering Israeli companies information and guidance as they look to expand to the US market.
The program featured dynamic panels on legal, tax and talent considerations from expert panelists: Jeremy Lustman (DLA Piper), Chezi Yehezkeli (Shinolet & Co), Amir Chenchinski (Ernst & Young), Arik Bandel (UMTB), Alan Cutter, (AC Lion International), and Sharona Mizrahi, (Blumberg Capital) along with one-on-one meetings with the state representatives present. The 268 registered guests discussed how to enhance trade and build bilateral bridges between Israel and its closest ally.
Additional sponsors and partners included DLA Piper Israel Country Group , UMTB USA, and Shibolet & Co.
While a recent Bloomberg report indicated that foreign direct investment in Israel has dropped by 60% in the first quarter of 2023 compared with similar quarters in previous years, it is difficult to prove that this is solely as a result of the political challenges in today’s Israel. With war raging in Ukraine that poses a long-term threat to the entire world, the economic warning signs coming out of China, along with inflation and democracy challenges worldwide, there are plenty of reasons why the investment community might be taking things slower than in the past.
Nevertheless, the U.S., as Israel’s strongest ally, remains an economy of significant interest to Israel’s business community. Clearly that was the draw that brought hundreds of Israeli business people to the Summit. Business people here still believe that America is one of the most attractive markets for their products and a major continuing source of investment capital.
The bilateral relationship is further strengthened by the fact that 14 U.S. states have chosen to place contract representatives here to promote additional bilateral business relationships. They include Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia along with those who represent regions within America: Cedar Park (Texas), Dayton Region (Ohio), District of Columbia (City of Washington), Fairfax County (Virginia), Michigan-Israel Business Accelerator, California-Israel Chamber of Commerce (CICC), 412x972 Pittsburgh Israel Innovation, and Global St Louis (Missouri). This is a higher number than operate in most countries around the world and speaks to the importance of the relationship to both countries.
$19 billion in Israeli exports to the U.S. represents 25% of all of Israel’s exports and makes America the country’s largest trading partner. The participation in this event gave testimony to the importance of the bilateral relationship and the hope that it will continue to grow in the future as it has in the past.
Sherwin Pomerantz is the CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., a Jerusalem based international business development consultancy, Founder and Chair of the American State Offices Association, a Board Member of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce and former National President of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel.
And:
Netanyahu Presses Need for Judicial Reform in Meeting With Divided American Jewish Leaders
In a 'respectful' meeting in New York, the prime minister argued that those opposing the reforms 'have the wrong perception'
By Haley Cohen
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed his case for the need for judicial reform in a wide-ranging, hour-long meeting with Jewish leaders in New York on Friday afternoon, trying to convince the skeptics in the room that they have the “wrong perception” of his government’s controversial moves.
The discussion with about 20 Jewish communal leaders from across the political and denominational spectrum took place at the Israeli Consulate hours after the prime minister addressed the UN General Assembly. The meeting also touched on issues including threats from Iran, the role of women and the rise of anti-Semitism.
“The prime minister kept his remarks short and then it was opened up to questions, responses and a few back-and-forths,” Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), told JewishPhilanthropy as she was leaving the closed-door event. “I brought up gender and women in Israel. It was a robust conversation with a diverse cross set of Jewish leaders; not the full swath of Jewish leaders but a diverse set of mainstream leaders.
“Everybody was really respectful, thoughtful and kind, which is notable because it’s not always that way,” Katz continued. “There are two different tales in the Jewish community. What I heard in a lot of the comments today was everybody saying their side is right. Prime Minister Netanyahu told us our perception is wrong. He spent a lot of time trying to clarify that we have the wrong perception on judicial reform. I didn’t hear everything I wanted to hear but did get a better understanding of where the administration is."
Finally:
The dark side of Israel’s ‘democracy’ debate comes out into the open
The disruption of a public Orthodox prayer service in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur cannot be excused. But it should be also understood as part of a political and cultural conflict.
By JONATHAN S. TOBIN - JNS
Explaining the lifestyles and religious practices of American Jews to Israelis (and vice versa) has its challenges. While many in the United States still seem to think of it as a 51st state, or, in recent years—thanks to the election victories of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the popularity of former President Donald Trump there—as a “red state,” Israel is nothing of the kind. There are shared values and a strong affinity between the two nations based on history and faith that make them natural allies. Events in Tel Aviv during Yom Kippur this year, however, demonstrated that the gap between these countries and their people when it comes to understanding about faith and rights can seem as wide as the Atlantic Ocean.
Simply put, it is hard to imagine Americans on either the right or the left regarding the attack on a public prayer service in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square as remotely defensible, no matter the context. Nor could they accept that a municipal ban on gender separation at a public event—even a religious service—could be considered legal by a Supreme Court that is supposedly dedicated to the protection of individual rights, since, by definition, such a regulation constituted a ban on public prayer by Orthodox Jews.
The First Amendment protections of speech and free exercise of religion that Americans have generally always taken for granted make such things unimaginable in the United States.
But in Israel, the prayer service on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar in the center of largely (though not exclusively) secular Tel Aviv was somehow considered a “provocation” aimed at allegedly intimidating secular liberals. Non-religious Israelis are no more threatened by Jews praying in their vicinity than are religious Jews by those who might choose to violate the Sabbath or go for a picnic at the beach on the Day of Atonement. In a free country, it ought to be a given that people are allowed to live as they choose so long as they do not interfere with the practices of others.
Yet Opposition Leader Yair Lapid jumped at the opportunity to signal to his secular voter base that he, too, was offended by Jews praying in Dizengoff in the traditional manner and characterized the prayer service as the work of “messianists” who were “bringing war” to Israel’s most liberal city.
As it happens, the service, which is sponsored by a religious outreach group, has been held in that spot every year since the COVID-19 pandemic because of the fear of praying in enclosed spaces. But after nine months of weekly protests against the Netanyahu government’s efforts to pass judicial reform legislation, the line between the rhetoric about preserving democracy from “a tyranny of the majority”—i.e., the largely Mizrachi, religious and nationalist voters who delivered a clear majority of the Knesset to Netanyahu and his allies last November—and a culture war against those groups has been erased. The notion that the mere public practice of religion constitutes a coercive act that both gives offense and seeks to intimidate secular Jews seems, from an American perspective, to be both madness and a sign of intolerance that gives the lie to the protesters’ claim to be defending liberal values.
Still, there is context here that makes it slightly understandable.
Secular Jews can perhaps be forgiven for thinking that if ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem or in other cities can be considered “no-go” zones for those dressed or acting immodestly (by the standards of the observant) or not observing Shabbat, then why can’t Dizengoff be kept off-limits to public prayer.
By the same token, some Orthodox Jews believe that women praying in egalitarian services or in a manner that they considered reserved for men, but which is normative among the overwhelming majority of American Jews who are not Orthodox, at Jerusalem’s Western Wall is also a “provocation.” Is the violence and bullying that the Women of the Wall—whatever you might think of their beliefs—experience any better than the actions that took place in Dizengoff on Yom Kippur? And what about those instances when the space set aside for egalitarian prayer in Robinson’s Arch, away from the main Western Wall Plaza, is taken over by Orthodox worshippers who are intolerant of the non-Orthodox?
Clearly, both sides of this cultural and religious divide lack tolerance for their opponents, let alone a willingness to live and let live in spaces that they consider solely their turf.
In the short term, it may be that the only way to ensure that communal peace is a sort of status quo agreement is, in essence, to divide the country between “safe spaces” for prayer and others for secular Jews to enjoy “freedom from religion.” That is hardly a solution that would guarantee individual rights, but at least it would avoid appalling scenes like those that the world witnessed this week in Tel Aviv.
But that brings us back to the issue that is supposedly creating such turmoil and worries about the threats to “democracy”—the effort to rein in the out-of-control power of the Israeli Supreme Court.
The arguments most frequently heard against judicial reform proposals tend to rest on the following idea. Namely, without a Supreme Court with untrammeled power to intervene in virtually any dispute or any issue even without it being a question of interpreting the laws or solely on the basis of what the judges think is “reasonable,” that individual rights will be trampled by the Knesset and the executive branch.
That’s the rationale behind court rulings that guaranteed the right of the Women of the Wall to pray in a non-Orthodox manner at the Kotel, though the beneficiaries of their ruling have found it difficult to exercise it absent adequate protection from the police or a willingness on the part of the authority running the area to respect the decision.
But when it came to those who wished to pray in the traditional manner in Dizengoff, the very same court had no interest in defending the rights of the individual. In Tel Aviv, the prerogative of the municipality to enact a regulation that, for all intents and purposes, banned public Orthodox prayer was considered eminently “reasonable.”
At the Kotel, the rights of the individual or even a group to flout the traditions of the plaza, which treats the area as an Orthodox synagogue rather than a national shrine, were treated as pre-eminent. Yet in Tel Aviv, the court made no bones about its belief that prohibiting any practice it considered inherently discriminatory, even if it is a normative religious practice in Israel where the non-Orthodox are a tiny minority, is more important than the rights of those practicing their faith.
Like so many other examples of the court’s activist practices that have enabled left-wing administrations while seeking to hamstring Netanyahu’s government with impunity, there is no consistency or really any principle on display in their conduct. This betrays the upsetting and demoralizing truth that rather than an objective defender of rights, the court is merely a juristocracy that acts as a bulwark of the secular left and its traditional Ashkenazi elitist base.
Those who care about Israel must hope that the disgusting images in which those crying democracy “defended” it by preventing people from praying, won’t be repeated. At this point, the notion that it is only a coercive religious right that threatens the freedoms of the non-religious and not the other way around can no longer be reasonably sustained.
Those who claim that Netanyahu is a proto-authoritarian for seeking to establish some checks on the power of the court need to think seriously about how the judiciary’s hypocrisy when it comes to supporting bans on public prayer undermines their case. Just as important, those who claim that those crying “democracy” are somehow defending a truly liberal cause must also rethink the valorization of a movement that seems more intent on suppressing their opponents than on defending individual rights.
Let’s hope that both the courts and Israelis on both sides of the political divide will treat the events in Tel Aviv as a reason to ratchet down their rhetoric and seek compromise rather than destroy their opponents. Those who love Israel and who are looking at these events from abroad should also realize that efforts to delegitimize Israel’s elected government are not as righteous a cause as they may have thought. In this context, their support for democracy may not mean what they think it does.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate) Follow him: @jonathans_tobin
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TRENDING NEWS
Voluntarily Homeless: Portland Spent $65,000 Offering Shelter and Housing to 100 “Unhoused Individuals” — Only 18 Accepted
Who is Hansjörg Wyss, the Billionaire Swiss National Bankrolling Progressive Media and Politics in Maine?
BY STEVE ROBINSON
Mainers learned this week that left-wing mega donor Johann Georg Wyss, known as Hansjörg Wyss, bankrolled a national nonprofit’s purchase of five daily news papers in Maine, including the Portland Press Herald.
At the same time, a Wyss-funded nonprofit, States Newsroom, has launched a new online outlet in Maine, the Maine Morning Star.
Wyss is hardly a newcomer to influencing Maine politics — even if he is, as a Swiss foreign national, prohibited under federal law from voting in America or donating to American political campaigns.
[RELATED: Major Progressive Donors, Including Swiss Foreign National Hansjörg Wyss, Funded Press Herald Purchase and Are Funding Yet Another News Outlet in Maine…]
Through his $2.7 billion Wyss Foundation, his $232 million Berger Action Fund, the Democracy Alliance’s Democracy Fund, and the Arabella Advisors network of dark money, Wyss has joined other progressive billionaires like George Soros, S. Donald Sussman, and Pierre Omidyar in financing Democratic politicians and progressive activists, in Maine and nationally.
Most Mainers, however, haven’t the foggiest idea who Wyss (Pronounced VEES) is despite the fact that he holds more sway over American and Maine politics than most voters and most elected officials.
So who is this mysterious billionaire with such a keen interest in sculpting the news Mainers consume and the policies we live under?
Meet Hansjorg Wyss
Hansjörg Wyss joined the Switzerland-based medical device company Synthes after a fortuitous flight placed him in conversation with one of the surgeons who had founded the company. An airplane salesman at the time, Wyss had attended Harvard Business School. The chance meeting opened the door for him to start Synthes USA. Wyss would eventually become CEO of the whole company and spend the next three decades building a medical device empire, by hook or by crook.
Wyss resigned as CEO of Synthes in 2007, but he remained involved as Chairman until the company was sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2012 for $20 billion, one of Johnson & Johnson’s largest-ever acquisitions. At the time, Wyss and his family owned half of the company. Forbes estimates his net worth at $5.1 billion.
Wyss’ transformation from Swiss businessman to American political titan has not been without scandal. Three years before Wyss offloaded his company, the U.S. Justice Department accused Synthes and its subsidiary, Norian Corporation, of conducting illegal experiments on unknowing human subjects. At least five patients who were subjected to the illegal procedures at Synthes direction died.
The illegal procedures involved two products called Norian XR and Norian SRS, which were bone cements. Synthes and Norian had clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market these products for certain orthopedic uses, but not for treating vertebral compression fractures of the spine. Laboratory tests had shown that the bone cement, while useful in some applications, could quickly clot blood and cause potentially fatal complications. For these reasons, the FDA explicitly barred Synthes from trials that involved spinal fractures.
Despite lacking FDA approval for this specific use, the company carried out unauthorized clinical trials between 2002 and 2004. Synthes had forged close relationships with surgeons by funding educational trips where they could learn how to use Norian, including in the spine. Surgeons were trained and encouraged by the company to use the bone cement products for spinal surgeries. The subjects of those experimental treatments were never informed that the procedures had been prohibited by the FDA, and surgeons were often kept in the dark.
The first spinal test subject for Norian’s bone cement died from the procedure on January 28, 2003. Eight months later, a second patient died under similar circumstances. Four months later, a third died. On all three occasions, according to the Justice Department, a Synthes sales rep was in the operating room watching. Despite the three deaths, Synthes never took steps to withdraw Norian products from the market or to alert the roughly 50 surgeons it had trained on the use of Norian products for spinal fractures.
The U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia charged Synthes and Norian in 2009 with 52 felony and 44 misdemeanor counts related to the unauthorized clinical trials. The charges included conducting unauthorized clinical trials, making false statements to the FDA, and shipping adulterated and misbranded products in interstate commerce.
The U.S. Attorney described an elaborate conspiracy whereby Synthes employees intentionally flouted federal rules and medical ethics in order to gain approval for a lucrative application of their bone cement. Knowing the fatal risks, the company conducted the illegal experiments anyways, never informing patients that they were undergoing experimental and FDA-banned treatments. Following the deaths, company executives took steps to conceal what had happened, including lying to FDA officials.
In 2010, Norian Corporation pleaded guilty to the charges and agreed to pay a $22.5 million fine. Synthes, meanwhile, also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, agreed to divest Norian, and agreed to pay a $669,800 fine. Although it is rare for corporate executives to face prison time for corporate misconduct, the conduct in this case was so egregious that four top executives were held criminally responsible, receiving prison sentences.
Michael D. Huggins, the president of Synthes North America, was sentenced to nine months in prison; Thomas B. Higgins, the Senior Vice President of Synthes’ Spine Division, was sentenced to nine months in prison; Richard E. Bohner, the vice president of operations, received an eight-month prison sentence; and John J. Walsh, the director of regulatory and clinical affairs for Synthes Spine, was sentenced to five months in prison. All four were charged under the Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine. Prior to the Synthes case, the doctrine had not been used to charge such a crime.
At the time, there was speculation as to how Wyss could escape charges while four top executives faced jail time. During the trial, the Justice Department presented evidence that showed Wyss was closely involved with the Norian trials. It emerged that top Synthes employees brought their concerns about the experiments directly to Wyss. One subsequently saw their contract cancelled. Another dropped their concern after a one-on-one meeting with Wyss.
The grand jury in the Synthes case referred to “Person #7” as a major shareholder and chief executive officer of the company from 2001 to 2004, when the experiments occurred. That description only fits Wyss. According to the indictment, Person #7 decided in 2001 that the company should skip costly clinical trials demanded by the FDA for the Norian products to be used on spinal injuries. Instead, Person #7 directed the company to facilitate up to 80 of the prohibited procedures and publish the results as a way of popularizing the off-label use of the Norian bone cement.
A 2012 investigation by CNN, based on interviews with surgeons, court transcripts, and company documents, confirmed that Wyss and Synthes leadership disregarded multiple warnings that it was breaking the rules and ignored warnings from scientists that the Norian product could cause lethal blood clots. The report also highlighted testimony from former employers that drew an even brighter line connecting Wyss and the Norian trials. Former employees of Wyss’ described how he would micromanage the minutiae of the company’s affairs, including the brand of toilet paper provided in restrooms or the shape of plates in the company cafeteria.
The implication being: If Wyss was this involved with toilet paper, how was he not involved with a potentially billion dollar application of the Norian technology?
Despite the information that emerged from the trial, the Obama Justice Department somehow never brought charges against the progressive billionaire who would go on to donate hundreds of millions of dollars to progressive political activists.
In 2016, Citizens United submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Justice Department seeking documents that would shed light on why Wyss was never charged.
The Justice Department denied the request on the basis that it would infringe on Wyss’ privacy.
Sexual Abuse Allegations
Wyss has also faced allegations of sexual assault from a former employee.
In 2015, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported that Wyss had entered a seven-figure settlement agreement with a woman who claimed to have endured repeated sexual abuse by Wyss.
Wyss had just made a $5 million commitment to a Clinton Foundation project aimed at “Women’s Empowerment,” but that didn’t stop him from fighting to keep allegations that he harassed and sexually abused a former female employee out of public view.
The allegations revolved around a May 15, 2013 settlement Wyss agreed to with a former employee, Jacqueline Long.
Wyss agreed to pay Long $1.5 million in return for her silence regarding sexual abuse she claimed to have suffered while working for the HJW Foundation, a now-dissolved forerunner to the Wyss Foundation.
In Sept. 2014, Long filed a lawsuit in federal district court alleging that Wyss enticed her to move to Colorado and enter a “personal” relationship with him before reneging on the deal. According to Long’s complaint, she agreed to move out to Colorado and “maintain a personal relationship” with Wyss in exchange for the house.
And:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
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WHAT WENT WRONG ???
I ONCE WAS A NORMAL PERSON and NORMAL OLD GRAD.
I used to think I was pretty much just a regular person, but I was born white, into a two-parent household which now, whether I like it or not, makes me privileged, a racist, and responsible for slavery.
I am a fiscal and moral conservative, which by today's standards, makes me a fascist because I plan, budget, and support myself.
I went to school for 19 years and have always held a job. But I now find out that I am not here because I earned it, but because I was "advantaged".
I am heterosexual, which according to gay folks, now makes me a homophobic.
I am not a Muslim, which now labels me as an infidel.
I am older than 70, making me a useless dinosaur who doesn't understand Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat.
I think, and I reason, and I doubt most of what the ‘mainstream’ media tells me, which makes me a Right-wing conspiracy nut.
I am proud of my heritage and our inclusive culture, making me a xenophobe.
I believe in hard work, fair play, and fair reward according to each individual's merits, which today makes me an anti-socialist.
I believe our system guarantees freedom of opportunity not freedom of outcome or subsidies which must make me a borderline sociopath.
I believe in the defense and protection of my nation for and by all citizens, now making me a militant.
I am proud of our flag, what it stands for, and the many who died to let it fly, so I stand during our National Anthem - so I must be a radical.
Funny - it all took place over the last decade!
If all this nonsense wasn't enough to deal with, now I don't even know which toilet to use!
GOD BLESS ALL OF US NORMAL PEOPLE!!!
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