 | |||
| This is just brilliant. They’re pro-Hamas until they hear the terms and conditions. pic.twitter.com/AmZVcDX27n | |||
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Before Israel's War is over, I suspect Biden (Obama) will stab them in the back or certainly make every effort to do so. In fact he (they)may already be doing so.
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Biden is upping the odds that Israel will lose
By Post Editorial Board,
For all its headline support of Israel as the IDF moves to eliminate Hamas, the Biden administration is sticking to its pre-Oct. 7 approach to the Middle East — and so effectively working toward Israel’s defeat .
For starters, the Biden team still refuses to admit Iran is pulling the strings of what Tehran calls the “Axis of Resistance”: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the West Bank, Hezbollah in Lebanon and other Iranian proxies across the region.
This when both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times have reported what US intelligence must also know: Top Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officers helped plan the Oct. 7 attacks and coordinate follow-up strategies for the entire “Axis.”
That is: Most of the civilian government in Tehran may have been out of the loop — but that’s not who rules the country.
The IRGC reports directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who without question gave the green light.
President Biden’s actions could lead to Israel’s defeat, not a victory, the Post editorial board writes.
The Bidenites’ willful denial isn’t just a public relations move: They’re still plainly worried about “provoking” Iran, imagining they can somehow get past this current crisis so they can get back to appeasing the mullahs .
National security adviser Jake Sullivan even admits that they’re not breaking with the approach that he’d bragged (just days before Hamas’ attacks) had “de-escalated crises in Gaza” and made the region “quieter than it has been for decades.”
Witness the beyond-minimal US response after Iran’s proxies have attacked US bases at least 20 times since Oct. 7: We’ve answered only with pinprick bombing designed to damage IRGC property and not take lives.
The president can issue all the “Don’t” threats he likes; Tehran and its “axis” will look at his actions and see that he’s ruled by fear.
Even sending in the Ford aircraft carrier battle group off Lebanon’s coast looks like a bluff: Asked on his flight home from Israel if he’d promised US forces would intervene if Hezbollah goes all-in, Biden answered: “Not true. I’ve never said it.”
The prez also keeps saying how he’s urged Israel to “respect the laws of war”; Sullivan on Sunday again stressed the IDF’s “responsibility to distinguish between terrorists and innocent civilians and to protect the lives of innocent civilians as they conduct this military operation.”
Israel has never done otherwise — it’s even now warning Gazans to evacuate a hospital beneath which Hamas has built a huge base, in brazen defiance of the laws of war, because those same laws say the IDF has every right to destroy that base, with Hamas responsible for all civilian casualties.
So all the Biden-Sullivan rhetoric amounts to a warning to Israel that they’ll hold it responsible for the results of Hamas’ war crimes: Washington will jump ship in the face of major Palestinian civilian deaths — i.e., anything on the scale that US allies inflicted in taking out ISIS.
Not to mention Biden’s calls for Israel to put off any full-on Gaza invasion until many more hostages are released, and his warnings that occupying Gaza would be a “big mistake.”
The president pretends he’s only offering Israel advice, but the implicit threat is blatant.
In reality, he’s giving our ally, amid its worst crisis in decades, an offer it can’t refuse .
Maybe Biden is only focused on what the progressive fringe believes: The top House prog, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), claims , “The American people are actually quite far away from where the president … has been on Israel and Gaza” — because he’s supporting Israel too much .
That’s utter nonsense: The pro-Hamas marchers are a tiny minority; the vast majority of Americans overwhelmingly support Israel in its time of need.
Even the liberals and moderates who worry about the consequences of an all-out IDF drive through Gaza understand that Israel must destroy Hamas after what it’s done, lest it do it again.
But Biden is tying Israel’s arms behind its back, increasing the odds that Hamas will get away with its atrocities
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Has Iran decided it is time to unleash Hezbollah and widen the war in order to test Biden's intentions?
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And:
Why would the jihadists give up their hostage leverage so easily? Meanwhile, Hezbollah blinks—for now.
The Editorial Board
He may want to hold off on that last desire. After Hamas used Gaza to carry out massacres, and with some 200,000 Israelis now internally displaced, creating a new Palestinian state near Israel’s big cities sounds reckless even to Israeli doves. Maybe some time down the road.
Mr. Blinken presented “humanitarian pauses” as critical to protecting Gazans, getting them aid and freeing Israeli and U.S. hostages. The “pause” idea was embraced by Mr. Biden Wednesday in response to an anti-Israel protester’s hectoring for a cease-fire. “I think we need a pause,” the President said. “A pause means give time to get the prisoners out.”
On Thursday 13 Senate Democrats echoed that call. Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) even advised Israeli generals to rethink their “current operational approach.”
The President may conciliate some Democrats to his left, but a pause would halt Israel’s advance and momentum in exchange for uncertain gains. Mr. Blinken acknowledged that Israel has raised “legitimate questions” about “how to connect a pause to the release of hostages, how to ensure that Hamas doesn’t use these pauses or arrangements to its own advantage.”
“We believe they can be solved,” the Secretary of State added, but he didn’t say how. He’ll need details to convince Israel, which won’t consider a temporary cease-fire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, unless Hamas releases its 242 hostages.
As Israeli forces have advanced, quickly encircling Gaza City and bearing down on tunnel networks and strongholds, Hamas would like nothing more than to slow them down.
It strains credibility to think Hamas wouldn’t use a pause to its advantage. Nor is Hamas likely to release all hostages and forfeit its best leverage. It may drag out negotiations, dribbling out hostages to win reprieve after reprieve, plus propaganda bumps.
The way to help Palestinian civilians isn’t to slow the Israeli advance. The less control Hamas has over Gaza’s streets, the more civilians can escape the fighting and the more aid can be brought in securely. The ground invasion has already allowed humanitarian assistance to ramp up, with more than 100 truckloads now arriving each day. Hamas would use freedom of action to keep civilians as shields and pilfer more aid—limiting what Israel can let in.
Mr. Blinken’s wasn’t the only big speech Friday. Hassan Nasrallah, the terrorist leader of Hezbollah, emerged from the bunker from which he rules Lebanon to huff and puff and conspicuously fail to blow the house down. He made the usual threats against Israel and the U.S., but he also claimed Hezbollah is already doing its part to fight Israel.
Hezbollah’s daily attacks are dangerous, but Mr. Nasrallah said nothing to indicate a break from the low-intensity, tit-for-tat pattern of fighting. This is a tentative success for U.S. policy, which seeks to constrain both Hezbollah and Israel from escalating. The aircraft-carrier strike groups that Mr. Biden deployed so far have served their purpose.
Pushing for pauses in Gaza, on the other hand, could backfire by keeping Hamas afloat and dragging out the conflict—to the detriment of Israeli and Palestinian civilians. The U.S. interest is in a swift and decisive Israeli victory.
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IAF strikes Hezbollah infrastructure following launches towards Israel.
IDF soldiers on Israel's northern border
On Saturday evening, a number of launches were identified from Lebanese territory toward Israel, the IDF said.
The launches did not fall in Israeli territory.
In response, IDF aircraft struck military infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon.
In addition, anti-tank missiles were fired a short while ago toward the area of Metula, in northern Israel. No injuries were reported.
On Friday, the IDF reported that a soldier was moderately injured and a reservist soldier was lightly injured after a UAV hit an IDF post in the Mount Dov area.
The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment, and their families were notified. And:
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Ordman continues to seek and post good news:
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Many of my subscribers have asked that I continue to publish good news from Israel, even during these difficult times. I have therefore compiled another reduced size newsletter, which includes a section containing some of the positive stories related to the on-going war.
Please recommend www.verygoodnewsisrael.
In the 5th Nov 23 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
- Israel has become the “Volunteer Nation”.
- Two Israeli startups have donated their stress-relieving medical devices.
- Six of TIME Magazine’s 200 best inventions of 2023 are Israeli.
- Israel’s largest ever sale of a defense system.
- Canada’s largest ever fundraising campaign for the Jewish State.
- Please click here, to donate (a small or large amount) to help me publicize VeryGoodNewsIsrael
- If someone wishes to be added to the free email subscription list, they should either click here or send a request (with their name) to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.
com
POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
Civilians raise money for IDF. Our People is a new volunteer NGO of 100 people, primarily immigrants from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa. It has raised $3.7 million to purchase and deliver ceramic inserts for the standard combat vest that IDF frontline soldiers use.
https://www.jns.org/startup-
Vegan meals for soldiers. The Israeli startups joining Israel’s Redefine Meat (see last week) to provide plant-based meats and dairy alternatives to the IDF include Green Butcher, More Foods, YoEgg! Foods and Creative Pea. JO-MO Chocolate also provided sweet treats. https://www.jomo-chocolate.
Feeding preemies. Magen David Adom National Human Milk Bank announces that since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct 7, hundreds of liters of Israeli breast milk has been donated to feed premature babies and babies whose mothers have been killed, abducted, or injured, or who have been called up to military duty.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Sew important. 400 volunteer fashion designers, design students, lecturers, and graduates, at Tel Aviv’s Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, work in shifts to help complete IDF gear for reservist soldiers. They stitch pockets and straps that attach to the ceramic bulletproof vests worn by combat soldiers.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
A hotline for non-Hebrew speakers. The Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at Bar-Ilan University has recruited dozens of volunteers to help non-Hebrew speakers contact emergency responders and aid organizations. It aims to help callers with immediate medical, emotional and logistical needs.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Israeli Arab reservists fight fake news. Arab-Israelis who volunteered to serve in the IDF and are now in the reserves, are informing the Arab world of Israel’s case. Their main message is “Everyone was shocked by Hamas, which is against Islam.” https://www.ynetnews.com/
UK Ambassador volunteers. (TY Hazel) British Ambassador to Israel Simon Walters volunteered at Asif – Culinary Institute of Israel, that since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 has been functioning as a center for cooking, packing, and shipping food to families evacuated from their homes, hospitals, and more.
https://www.israelhayom.com/
Female fighters save lives. (TY Hazel) Israel’s Caracal Battalion, led by Lt.-Col. Or Ben-Yehuda and comprised mostly of female IDF combat troops, eliminated approximately 100 terrorists on Oct 7. Also, orthodox border police Superintendent Shifra Buchris, plus 3 from her unit, rescued many at the rave party.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-
https://www.ynetnews.com/
All my sons. The story of Ruti, a mother of 12, who has 6 sons (5 married) and 4 sons-in-law serving in the IDF reserves. She also has 3 grandchildren in the IDF. https://www.timesofisrael.com/
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
The premier of Surgical Theater’s AR spine surgery. (TY OurCrowd) Stanford Medicine performed the first spine surgery using the augmented reality technology from Israel’s Surgical Theater (see here previously). The successful tumor resection operation employed Surgical Theater’s SyncAR Spine platform.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
Great results in heart monitoring trials. (TY Atid-EDI) The SmartHeart monitoring system from Israel’s SHL Telemedicine (see here previously) is undergoing trials at Imperial College London. It has reduced ER visits by 27.5% and hospital readmission rates by 55%, surpassing expectations.
https://www.shl-telemedicine.
US approval for dialysis artery connector. The US FDA has approved the VasQ External Vascular Support from Israel’s Laminate Medical Technologies (see here previously). It follows a US 144-patients study. VasQ safely connects a patient’s arteries and veins to dialysis machines, by creating arteriovenous fistulas or AVFs.
https://vascularnews.com/
http://www.laminatemedical.
US funds Israeli virus versus bacteria trial. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s MeMed (see here previously) has been awarded nearly $727,800 from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support a trial of its 15-minute MeMed BV test that distinguishes between bacterial and viral infections.
https://www.me-med.com/press_
Devices to relieve stress. Israeli startups XRHealth (see here previously) and CalmiGo (see here previously) are donating their anxiety-relieving devices to hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and mental health centers throughout Israel. XRHealth’s headsets and CalmiGo’s inhalers help relax worried citizens.
https://www.israel21c.org/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
University grants for students in IDF. Bar-Ilan Uni is granting 1,000-5,000 NIS ($250-$1,250) for 6,000+ of its students who are now serving on the front lines. Ben Gurion Uni is paying NIS 1,200 ($300) grant and are delaying rental fees. 5,000+ Tel Aviv Uni students will each receive NIS 1,000 from the TAU Emergency fund.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Israeli Arab party leaders reject Hamas. The leaders of two of Israel’s Arab parties rejected Hamas's call for Arabs in Israel to join Hamas’ war on Israel. MK Dr. Mansour Abbas, chairman of Ra'am and MK Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Hadash-Ta'al urged their followers to exercise restraint. Also read Yoseph Haddad.
https://www.ynetnews.com/
Support for Israel from 100+ top German companies. 106 German companies, representing the bulk of the country’s economy employing millions of workers, took out a full-page ad in major German Sunday newspapers. The ad was headlined “Never again is now,” and denounced antisemitism and Jew hatred.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Best inventions. TIME Magazine’s 2023 list of 200 Best Inventions includes six Israeli startups. Beewise (BeeHome4), Wiliot, Salignostics (Salistick), Lumen, UBQ, and Brenmiller (bGen Zero). Another – Sensibo (AirPro) received a special mention.
https://nocamels.com/2023/10/
https://time.com/collection/
Streamlining wartime aid delivery. Israeli tech companies Fiverr (see here previously) and HiBob (see here previously) have partnered to create the AI platform Lev Echad (One Heart). It manages any Israeli public needs or requests (civilian or military) during the current conflict and escalates them to the relevant bodies.
https://nocamels.com/2023/10/
https://www.levechad.org/
AI transforms overhead Gaza images. (TY OurCrowd) The IDF uses the software platform from Israel’s Edgybees (see here previously) to ensure accurate real-time visual data and protect innocent lives. Edgybees aligns aerial video and satellite imagery with reference data in real time.
https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/
Combating hate on social media. With Israel’s Trendtrack, social media users can easily identify and report posts containing hate speech, violence, and false information or share pro-Israeli content. Use it to stop hate, stop misinformation and support Israel. Just 5 minutes a day can help promote Israeli advocacy.
https://nocamels.com/2023/10/
https://brightinitiative.com/
Keeping drivers safe. Travel applications Waze and Google Maps have disabled reports of road congestion, traffic, and the location of other drivers in Israel. They aim to prevent terrorist organizations from using real-time reports to target vehicle concentrations. They will continue to give directions and estimated arrival times.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Cybersecurity breakthrough awards. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Opus Security (see here previously) was the Gold Globee Business Award winner for AWS Cloud Security in the 2023 CyberSecurity Breakthrough Awards. Opus also won two bronze awards for innovation and startup achievement.
https://globeeawards.com/
Detecting potential disasters. (TY Atid-EDI) The Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers has given its Successful Innovation Award to Israel’s ASTERRA (see here previously) for its EarthWorks for Mining system. https://www.businesswire.com/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Germany buys Israeli defense system. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel has signed a letter of commitment for the sale of an Arrow 3 long-range anti-ballistic missile system to Germany for $3.5 billion, the largest single security sale by Israel to date. Germany will initially transfer 600 million Euros to Israel for production to begin.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/
More global corporate support. Global corporations providing material support to Israel include Walmart ($1 million to Magen David Adom); McDonald’s (100,000 free meals to the IDF, residents, and hospitals); SAP (cash to employees, 250k Euros to MDA & others, agricultural produce from farmers to evacuees & IDF).
https://worldisraelnews.com/
https://www.algemeiner.com/
New VC Fund to aid war effort. A new Venture Capital fund “1948 Ventures” has just been launched. It will invest in early-stage Israeli-founded companies that develop technologies for civilian use in a war environment. Areas include supply chain, communications, medical devices, and tech to help track and trace missing persons.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Down on the farms. Some 2,500 Israelis have applied to replace the thousands of foreign workers, Gaza Arabs, and drafted IDF reserves, who are unavailable to work in the agriculture industry. They are being recruited by Israeli NGO HaShomer HaChadash (see here previously) which is protecting Israel from food shortages.
https://www.israel21c.org/
US to test Israeli screening system. (TY OurCrowd) The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is to evaluate the security technology from Israel’s SeeTrue (see here previously) for passenger screening at government laboratories and US airports.
https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/
Innovative wheels get environmental certification. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s REE Automotive has received US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certification for its P7 range of electric trucks. It will help REE’s goal to deliver its unique fully by-wire electric vehicles by the end of 2023.
https://ree.auto/press-
https://ree.auto/segments/p7-
Reasons to be optimistic. More upbeat sentiments by OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved on the resilience of the Startup Nation in this interview on Sky News Australia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
THE JEWISH STATE
Hassidic Rabbi brings aid to IDF. One of the Sadigura Rebbes (there are currently three) travelled from Jerusalem to visit soldiers in the north and show support. With donations from his community, he bought the soldiers ceramic vests. https://www.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
One family’s prayers answered. The family of IDF soldier Ori Megidish, who was held captive in Gaza, requested that a new Torah scroll be brought into her bedroom, while it was being paraded in her hometown. One week later, she was miraculously rescued unharmed. We pray for more than 240 similar miracles.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
Canadian Jewry raises $100 million CAD. The Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA (JFC-UIA) has raised $100 million CAD for Israel. It is Canada’s largest ever fundraising campaign on behalf of the Jewish State. Canada has less than 400,000 Jewish citizens (2021 census) compared to the US’s estimated 6.3 million Jews.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
How to help Israel. Here are some sites where newsletter readers can donate to Israeli organizations that provide vital help to Israelis at this difficult time. Many thanks to those who have already contributed and to those who are helping by donating their own valuable time and resources.
Friends of the IDF (US donors): https://www.fidf.org/
or IDF Soldiers Fund in Israel: https://www.ufis.org.il/en/
American Friends of Magen David Adom (US donors): https://afmda.org/
or Magen David Adom (Israel): https://www.mdais.org/en/
Zaka (US donors): https://donate.zakatelaviv.
or (Israeli donors): https://charidy.com/zaka
United Hatzalah: https://israelrescue.org/
Leket Food Israel: https://www.leket.org/en/
JNF USA - https://my.jnf.org/gaza-
Orthodox Union - https://www.charidy.com/
Hadassah Hospital Israel: https://www.hadassah.org/
Laniado Hospital (Netanya) https://my.israelgives.org/en/
And many more charities here:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
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Truth might set you free unless you like killing Israelis and assorted Jews.
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https://www.facebook.com/reel/
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Truer words were never spoken:
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https://pjmedia.com/rabbi-
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Democrats have a Donkey as an emblem, Republicans an Elephant. Perhaps Muslims can have as their emblem a goat or perhaps a beheaded baby. What a pathetic, hateful sect.
Dear Muslims,
The world is scared of us. The world is laughing at us. The world is worried about us. And there are legitimate reasons for their worry that we cannot keep denying.
It is time for us to flush the word ”Islamophobia” down the toilet and start looking in the mirror and ask ourselves:
How did we get here?
Hw come the largest and most thriving terrorist organizations in the world are Muslim?
How come terrorists successfully use Islam to mobilize thousands of Muslims?
What is the problem with our leaders, our Imams, and our religion?
Why do we keep repeating these stone-age traditions that have failed us and continue to fail us?
Th world has left us behind.
The ”kuffar” that Imams tell us to hate have traveled to the future while we are still stuck in the Middle Ages reading stories about Mohammed and his flying horse.
You are reading this with your phone, tablet, or computer, which was created by the ”kuffar.”
The same ”kuffar” that we hate so much have created medicine that cures diseases. Medicine that our religion’s crystal balls failed to bring about.
The ”kuffar” have moved forward and traveled to space. Meanwhile, we are stuck on Earth in the Middle Ages, going to our poisonous mosques every Friday, reciting the same chapters and the same stories of Mohammed.
Why haven’t all of these books and teachings led to any scientific, technological, or medical advancements?
1,400 years of us, stuck, debating: ”Which is the correct sect?” ”What is the correct interpretation?” ”Who is a real Muslim? And who is a kaffer?” ”How can we convince people to become Muslims?”
Why on Earth would anyone want to become Muslim today?
They are all scared of us.
They are all laughing at us.
They are all worried about us.
Delete Israel and the West from the world, and we would still be as ignorant as we are. We would still be stabbing each other.
Stop blaming them – and look at yourselves instead. The enemy is not out there. The enemy is within.
And:
| Hamas security chief killed; 34th IDF soldier falls in Gaza |
| Over 450 terror targets were struck in the past 24 hours. |
| By JOSHUA MARKS |
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Not just your generation.
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Why My Generation Hates Jews
My peers have been indoctrinated to believe that Jews are oppressors. And so even our mass slaughter is seen as justifiable revenge.
By Julia Steinberg
I am 21 years old and Jewish. Apparently, 48 percent of my peers want people like me dead.
As of October 23, 64 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds think what happened on October 7 was a terrorist attack. Seventy-seven percent of us think “it’s true that Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 Israeli civilians by shooting them, raping and beheading people including whole families, kids and babies.” But when asked, “in this conflict do you side more with Israel or Hamas?”
Forty-eight percent said Hamas.
I am not surprised.
In high school, my homeroom had an exercise where we made a T-chart dividing various ethnicities, religions, and other identities into the categories of “oppressor” and “oppressed.” Women: oppressed. Straight people: oppressor. Black people: oppressed. Then we reached the “Jew” category. And we paused. This being a high school in Los Angeles, many of my classmates were Jewish. I recall we skipped it altogether. But the T-chart stayed on the whiteboard.
If there were fewer Jews in that room, I’m confident that “Jews” would’ve gone squarely in the “oppressor” column.
Social justice theory became part of everything. My senior English class was not about great literature, but about readings in critical theory, mostly about race and gender. I had a nonacademic weekly homeroom class in which we learned that every white person is racist, and all men are evil. It took me a long time to shake off a hatred of men. It wasn’t socially acceptable to disagree, and no one really tried.
My high school got a dean of gender studies and feminism. At the time, one of her roles was to help seniors write their college applications. In answer to the question “What is the most significant challenge that society faces today?” I wrote it was identity politics. She gave me a note saying that meant I was rejecting the advances of the civil rights movement. I changed it.
I see the biggest part of growing up to be the acceptance of gray areas. But Gen Z worships these identity categories and the distinction of oppressor/oppressed. I know that’s true—I am submerged in it every day. The oppressor is always wrong, and the oppressed are always right. Since high school, we’ve been trained to identify and slot people based on their identities alone.
That’s intersectionality for you.
The cheering of Hamas among people my age on college campuses in the U.S. might seem shocking to older people. But it doesn’t shock me. For most of my peers, social issues are unanimous. At my college campus, the tiny group of people who publicly celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade were mocked mercilessly.
And so, even a terrorist group’s mass murder of innocent Jews—babies, grandmothers, entire families—cannot defeat my generation’s Manichean belief system. Jews are the worst, and October 7 is about justifiable revenge.
I am a college junior at Stanford. For my freshman and sophomore years, I lived in a dorm with the only dining hall that serves kosher food. Last winter, a Jewish student in my dorm found that a portrait of Hitler had been drawn on his door. My friend was the RA who had to report it. They never found the perpetrator.
Soon after, swastikas were carved into bathrooms in the main quad.
In my freshman year, I took part in a Great Books program: Structured Liberal Education (SLE). Weeks were labeled by students like Shark Week: Plato week, Marx week, Holocaust week. (I’m not kidding.)
In SLE’s third quarter, my classmates and I were lucky enough to dive deeply into the ideologies that have shaped where we are now, a tour of the great books of the past 200 years. That quarter, I recall a conversation where I was shot down during “Fanon week” (which celebrates “anti-colonial” hero Frantz Fanon) for suggesting that approving violence under the guise of “decolonization” could have nasty consequences. I was the only person to vehemently disagree with Marx in my discussion section. In a moment of weakness, I pretended to be a communist during my oral exam to save my grade.
In another section during spring quarter’s “Holocaust week” where we read Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem and Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz, a student gave a presentation on how Zionism is the new Nazism and how Israelis were the new Nazis. He chose this specific week to present. A Chinese student argued with the presenter, but that was that. The class went on as usual.
This is only my small corner of Gen Z. Gen Z, comprised of people born in 1997 to 2013, makes up a fifth of America’s population. Not all of us—thank God—go to elite universities, where the obsession with the so-called “oppressed” is our intellectual north star. But the vast majority of us were raised on Instagram and Twitter—our ideas are tweet-length and infographic-sized. And the oppressor/oppressed framework was made for us.
After seeing a thread on X about how TikTok—the preferred search engine for just over half of Gen Z—is an echo chamber for virulently anti-Israel posts and how its algorithm promotes pro-Palestine content, I re-downloaded the app for the first time since Covid to see how bad it really was.
In my foray ack into TikTok, I was reminded of how my friends and I would doomscroll on the app. By osmosis, we mindlessly bleated the same talking points served up to us in thirty-second videos. The same critical theory books we read championing “decolonization” and “resistance” had been distilled into the perfect format: the explainer video.
Dipping my toes back in was a wake-up call as to how sinister this information flow has become. (It’s worth noting that TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.)
Within thefirst minute of scrolling under a search for “Zionism” on TikTok, I saw a “Zionism Explained” video with over 125,000 views. It said that Jews are forbidden by God to have their own state, completely ignoring the fact that the State of Israel is secular. “How did this start? Let’s go back to 1897,” the video instructs. But Jewish history in Israel started thousands of years ago, not in 1897.
When I searched “history” on TikTok, a woman with the “cute freckles and lashes” filter told me and over 80,000 viewers that, in “the biggest plot twist of the century,” Jews are using their ancestors’ “tragedy to justify and inflict another Holocaust.”
That explainer video is why, when I went to a pro-Palestine rally at Stanford on Wednesday and asked a fellow student what she meant when she chanted “from the river to the sea,” she said that, after admitting she wasn’t knowledgeable about the issue, Palestine must be free from the Tigris River (in Iraq) to the Black Sea (north of Turkey). This student, though she has no sense of geography, is actually chanting for the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea to no longer contain the state of Israel. It is an eliminationist slogan.
I saw a similar message at an off-campus café recently when I walked by a girl whose laptop bore a newly applied sticker with the words “By Any Means Necessary” stamped over an outline of Israel. It’s been less than three weeks since October 7 and already these glib stickers plugging genocide, aimed at my generation, are proliferating.
A new axis of evil—Big Tech, social media companies, and China—has taken the once-fringe position that Jews are undeserving of a homeland, and is now pushing the idea of their mass slaughter via shoddy animation and beautiful women hosting “explainer” videos. And it’s trickling down onto t-shirts and “cute” laptop stickers.
It’s cool to promote hate.
My Jewish parents, whose hearts break to hear about what I go through at college, did everything they could so that my brother and I would reject this simplistic, horrible way of thinking. But they can’t change that my little brother’s high school also teaches ideology with T-charts. I doubt his teachers or classmates care to understand that no T-chart can account for why he and his Jewish friends feel sick when they see slogans calling for their deaths.
Julia Steinberg is an intern at The Free Press. Her last piece was about California’s War on Math. Follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) @juliaonatroika.
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Subject: What Happens When A Bartender Is In charge...
This video commentary on AOC is narrated by Simon Winchester, a British author of considerable renown. It is really quite good, a kind of political slapstick that warns us of the perils of governance by a weak-minded ideologue. “The problem with political jokes is they get elected.”
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Israel’s 31st Day of War
By Sherwin Pomerantz
As we begin the second month of the war with Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces now know that there remain 242 hostages held captive in Gaza and that 30 Israeli soldiers have died in combat since the beginning of the war.
Over the weekend, Israeli intelligence confirmed that most of the 242 captives held in Gaza are likely still alive. Though this fact brings a measure of comfort to their families, the conflict's severity persists unabated. IDF soldiers face relentless rocket fire as their ground incursion deepens into Gaza's heart. Hamas militants maintain their resistance, engaging in heavy gunfire and launching anti-tank missiles, despite disruptions to their mortar fire coordination.
The IDF has now completed the total encirclement of Gaza City and has effectively separated the Gaza Strip into two distinct parts, Gaza North and Gaza South. In the northern part all telecommunications has been disabled and a major Hamas control center has been captured as well. Deep incursions into the streets of Gaza City are occurring regularly.
Nevertheless, in an effort to encourage civilians in the northern part of Gaza to seek safety in the south, Israel provided a four hour safe passage window in Gaza earlier today to encourage civilians to move to the southern part of the strip. This duplicated yesterday’s effort which saw a large number of Gaza residents, primarily women and children, walking south to places of refuge.
On the northern border with Lebanon, cross border shelling continues from positions situated within 3 miles of the border. The evacuated north of Israel continues to be hit by rockets and mortars with a direct hit last night on buildings in Kiryat Shmona. No injuries were reported there although an Israeli citizen was killed when a mortar landed in a field where he was walking. To date, Hizballah in Lebanon has buried 56 of their soldiers who died as a result of the cross-border activity
The U.S. continues its military buildup in the region. A nuclear submarine last seen in the Suez Canal is now on its way into the Eastern Mediterranean although it is not clear where it will be stationed. The submarine is both powered by nuclear energy and armed with nuclear warheads as well.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made some previously unscheduled visits in the region over the weekend, meeting in Ramallah with Palestine President Abbas as well as in Baghdad with the leadership there as well. In addition, the new US Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, presented his credentials to Israel President Yitzchak Herzog at the president’s residence on Sunday. He succeeds Tom Nides who returned to the US earlier this year after serving two years in Israel.
Worldwide massive demonstrations continue in support of Gaza and the Palestinian cause. The question remains as to how long official western support will remain committed to Israel’s objective to eliminate Hamas from Gaza in the face of mounting impatience on the streets of western capitals. The leadership of the Muslim World, uncharacteristically, has not been particularly vocal in criticizing Israel (with the exception of Turkey and the Shi’ite bloc) giving one the impression that in private they may be happy that we are working here on eliminating one menace to regional peace and cooperation.
The next days will be critical as our troops work to get to the top leadership of Hamas and neutralize them without putting the lives of the hostages in danger. The sooner they are released from Gaza the better. Let us hope that they will return soon and in good health.
Sherwin Pomerantz has lived in Israel for 40 years, is CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., a international business development consultancy. He is also the Founder and Chair of the American State Offices Association, former National President of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel and a past Chairperson of the Board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.
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S-- is a very dear fried, a Marine and fine investment person. He also is a memo reader of many years and sent this unsolicited email.
My response is attached:
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Dark days indeed, Dick. I think I have never seen a more disheartening number than the poll showing 51% of American 18 to 24 year old's believing that what Hamas did on October 7 was justified. What sort of country will this be in twenty years?
Anyway: I and all clear-thinking, decent people stand 110% with Jews everywhere, and Israeli Jews in particular.
Is there an effective way to express that support? Any charities or political groups that you judge to be particularly effective helping Israel or combatting this upsurge in anti-Semitism? I learned at my father’s knee to be an anti- anti-Semite, and the thing he was proudest of about his Danish ancestry was that “the Danes saved their Jews”. (We had relatives involved in that effort.) There’s a book, “Countrymen”, that captures in its title why the Danish people rallied to thwart the Holocaust in their country: to the overwhelming majority of Danes, Danish Jews were Danes who happened to be Jewish—not aliens, outsiders.
Words are not adequate to express my sympathy and horror, but that’s all I have….
S--
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Response:
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Hearing from you and knowing you are well made my day.
I would suggest a contribution to Hadassah, the great hospital organization but in a recent memo, to be sent soon, my Israeli friend, Ordman, suggests some names. Your local Jewish Federation is also another appropriate charity or you can purchase an Israeli Bond and get solid interest.
Stay well, be safe and send me an up to date memo and tell me more about how you are doing and about the family. Semper Fi and God bless you.
Obama wanted what is happening to happen. I do not know whether we can recover from the debacle in our society, our schools and education system, political institutions and Congress etc.
The enemy is us and only time will tell. Me
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Gideon Sa'ar: Hamas uninterested in releasing hostages, sees them as negotiating chip
Min. Gideon Sa'ar says war has not yet been decided, Hamas uninterested in releasing hostages.
Minister Gideon Sa'ar on Monday spoke to 103 FM Radio about the ongoing war with Hamas and the 240 hostages held captive in Gaza.
"We are fighting a stubborn enemy, who is determined to fight," Sa'ar told the radio station. "The IDF has made very impressive achievements, including in Hamas' systems, including harming the tunnel system. At this point, the hit is only partial, and the battle isn't really decided. I think that the main part is still ahead of us, and we need calm heads, patience, and determination."
"We are in the second stage," he added. "But after the aerial strike, we are in the stage of ground coordination, within Gaza City itself. We are at the stage of very difficult battles, and this is not after defeating them, it is ongoing. I say clearly: There are a large number of terrorists killed, and hits on Hamas' systems. The battle is still at its peak."
Sa'ar also said that Israel is "before a long battle, and it could be that its characteristics will change over its course. We must wage this battle until we achieve the goals we have set. We cannot stop the war before we have achieved the goals. We joined [the government] for the benefit of the country, and that was the right decision."
When asked about the hostages, Sa'ar said, "Right now there is no better alternative on this matter. There are always negotiations ongoing. [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar's approach is that the hostages are a negotiating chip. He has no desire to free them right now, and I don't see, even when looking at this goal, an alternative to increasing the military pressure in order to bring about a change in Sinwar's approach."
"We are committed to the goal of bringing them home. There is no intention of compromising on this goal, but at the same time, we need to understand who we are fighting against," he concluded.
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Antisemitism |
Israel-Hamas War Proves America’s Ivy League Colleges Are Festering With Violent Antisemitism – Part One |
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Something is rotten in America’s elite educational establishments; Ivy League schools are becoming breeding grounds for extremism and intolerance. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
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