Why I Am So Angry!

Shari Redstone, former CEO of Paramount - parent company of CBS

I don’t recall ever being so angry over the way Israel is being treated. Directly by world leaders, and mostly by implication from the media, I NEVER thought I would feel so much anti-Israel bias in the world. With the exception of the one ‘Shining City on the Hill’ – the US.

(Yes, I know the origin of that phrase, but as applied to the US it fits! We are a beacon of light unto the world. As our sole full support of Israel demonstrates. That so many are too blind to see that is their own fault! Thank you, Mr. President!) 

I’ve long recognized that bias has existed. Ever since Israel went from being a persecuted nation of refugees under fire from hostile and more powerful Arab nations, to becoming a superpower in the Middle East able to defeat its enemies even when attacked simultaneously. Which is what happened in 1967. Since then, Israel has been considered a first rate military power. Recognized as such by military experts in the US.

Once Israel achieved that distinction, it went from being seen as a vulnerable nation in danger of extinction to being condemned as a military occupier that mistreats vulnerable indigenous peoples under its jurisdiction.

To put it simply: Israel went from being the ‘good guys’ to  being the ‘bad guys’ the moment its military could defend it successfully .

Had the Arabs succeeded in 1967, the world would have lamented another Jewish Holocaust. Instead, because Israel triumphed Israel (read: the Jews) are now accused of perpetrating one. That’s when the animosity started. And it has been increasing ever since.

What angers me so much is that Hamas exaggerations and outright lies are swallowed whole by world leaders and the media. While Israel’s denials are ignored or dismissed as lies. The truth is lost in the fog of war - relying on Hamas lies, distortions, and exaggerations.

The latest falsehood is that Gaza City is now officially in famine. And that this humanitarian crisis is solely the result of Israel having turned much of Gaza into a parking lot, destroying Palestinians’ ability to get food. The implication is obvious. The media doesn’t have to say it. It’s Israel’s fault. They are the ones dropping bombs. They are ones that are supposed to be supplying food. And ‘obviously’ they are not!

Of course, world leaders deny that they’re blaming the Jews, insisting instead that it’s Israel’s conduct in a war led by a Prime Minister accused by the ICC of war crimes who is to blame.

But this ignores reality. Any mainstream Israeli leader would have declared war after October 7^th. The IDF would have bombed Hamas targets regardless of who was Prime Minister. One can argue that the war may now be dragging on too long. But that is a separate issue. It is Hamas that assured from the outset that there would be civilian casualties precisely in order to provoke world condemnation of Israel. And sadly, it’s not hard to get that from a world that less than 80 years ago was complicit in Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews. The greatest single genocide in world history.

What makes me angriest is that, because of media spin based on their sole anti-Israel sources, the average American is led to believe these falsehoods and exaggerations .

What is never mentioned, however, is that if there really is famine, Hamas doesn’t care. They could end it in a heartbeat by returning the hostages they brutally took on October 7^th and laying down their arms. The moment they did that, the bloodshed would stop. The famine would be over. And Israel could turn Gaza over to responsible Arab leadership with the means to rebuild it into livable housing and eventually improve Palestinians’ standard of living by orders of magnitude.

Why should Israel cease fire in a war for survival, allowing Hamas to rebuild its terror tunnels and prepare for their next attempt at genocide? Why lay the sole responsibility at the feet of Israelis when Hamas could end it even more quickly?

And what about that accusation? Is there a famine in Gaza and is Israel starving them? Absolutely not!

Israel has been feeding Palestinians. Dozens of food drops have been carried out from the air. Since July, over 800 food trucks have entered Gaza - with a daily 10-hour pause in fighting to allow delivery without risk of being caught in crossfire. Israel has also worked with the US backed GHF (Gaza Humanitarian Foundation), which has distributed hundreds of thousands of food packages to Palestinians since May.

The mainstream media has vilified the GHF based on unverified reports that the IDF and the former military personnel hired to administer distribution of GHF’s food packages - have shot innocent Palestinians desperate for food. Which both GHF and Israel have denied.

The mainstream media is so biased against Israel that this is one of the reasons Shari Redstone, the Jewish former CEO of Paramount (parent company of CBS),sold the company to Skydance Media.

The power of media influence is so strong it affects not only good Americans, but even many Jews. including at least one respected Orthodox rabbi who happens to be one of my heroes. Rabbi Yosef Blau has been swayed by images and narratives of bloodied bodies and emaciated Palestinian children. Scenes of women and children begging for food, and scenes of a uninhabitable wasteland destroyed by Israeli bombs. Land that was once dotted with homes and civilian infrastructure.

Who wouldn’t be moved by such pictures and narratives? What kind of human being wouldn’t demand ‘better’ from those portrayed as exclusively responsible for all that misery?

And yet, not a word is said about the simplest solution: Hamas could end any starvation immediately if they cared about their own people. But they don’t. All they care about is ridding the Jews from their land. If their own people starve to death - so be it. And if the world blames the Jews for that, all the better.

So as I said at the start, I have never been angrier at the injustices Israel is accused of.

I’m sick of it. Sick of the backward morality of a media that doesn’t realize how much it is being manipulated by true evil.

I completely reject the notion that it’s all Netanyahu’s fault. Or even Ben Gvir’s, or Smotrich’s fault. Despite my total rejection of their politics, it wasn’t them who murdered 1,200 Jews and kidnapped 250 hostages on October 7^th.They do not set policy of determine Israel’s war tactics. They aren’t even in the war cabinet!

The best thing the world can do for the Palestinians of Gaza is to stop blaming the Jews for all their problems, and in one unified voice demand that Hamas release the hostages immediately and leave Gaza. Once Hamas realizes that their PR tactic has finally backfired, they might actually respond. Especially with 80,000 Israeli troops poised to invade if they don’t.

A Question of Moral Clarity

Rabbi Yosef Blau

*One of the people I truly admire for the courage of his convictions is Rabbi Yosef Blau, the now-retired Mashgiach of RIETS (Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan), which is the yeshiva component of YU (Yeshiva University).

Rabbi Blau stands up for his beliefs regardless of the consequences. Even in the face of criticism from right-wing rabbinic leaders whom I know he respects. If he sees an injustice, he will call it out. This was evident at the height of the sexual abuse scandals, when many rabbinic leaders were reluctant to speak out against suspected or convicted abusers in the Orthodox community. Time and again, Rabbi Blau - regardless of the personal consequences - stood up for survivors. And for this he has earned my eternal admiration.

But now his name has surfaced in yet another controversial area, in the form of a letter. One about which I have some serious misgivings. As reported by JTA:

The letter was spearheaded by Rabbi Yosef Blau, a longtime leading rabbi at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, who retired and moved to Israel this year… Dozens of Orthodox rabbis have issued “A Call for Moral Clarity, Responsibility, and a Jewish Orthodox Response in the Face of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis,” in addition to a recent cascade of open letters from Jewish voices responding to a hunger crisis in the Palestinian enclave nearly two years into the Israel-Hamas war.

Unlike some of the other letters, this one stresses condemnation of Hamas and does not call for Israel to end the war in Gaza. Instead, the rabbis write:

“Hamas’s sins and crimes do not relieve the government of Israel of its obligations to make whatever efforts are necessary to prevent mass starvation.”

The letter also laments the rise of extremist voices in Israel, the hardening of sentiments about Palestinians, and the explosion of settler violence in the West Bank — which they refer to as Yehuda and Shomron, acknowledging the historic Jewish connection to the land:

“The justified anger toward Hamas has dangerously expanded by some extremists into blanket suspicion of the entire population of Gaza — children included — tarnished as future terrorists,” they write. “Meanwhile, in Yehuda and Shomron (the West Bank), extremist settler violence has resulted in the murder of civilians and has forced Palestinian villagers from their homes, further destabilizing the region.”

There is a lot to digest here. First, let me say that I do not necessarily disagree with much of the sentiment. To the extent that there is right-wing extremist violence in Yehuda and Shomron, it deserves condemnation. There is absolutely no excuse to harass Palestinians who have done nothing to you — regardless of how they may feel about you.

Taking out one’s anger and frustration over the events of October 7^th on innocent Palestinians who had zero involvement is immoral. Those who do so should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If, as many of them claim, they acted in self-defense, they can make that case at trial and see if it holds water. And those in the Knesset who defend these extremists, or worse, encourage them, are not much better morally.

That this letter does not call for a ceasefire, and recognizes that continuation of the war may be necessary, is another point on which I agree. Both the authors of the letter and I recognize that we are not in a position to make that call. Only Israel’s leaders are. I also agree that prosecuting the war does not absolve Israel of responsibility toward humanitarian issues.

But here is where I part company with Rabbi Blau. I am not convinced that Israel has ignored the humanitarian crisis. To the contrary, it seems very likely that the crisis has been manufactured or at least manipulated by Hamas. Exaggerated with lies, and amplified by refugees themselves who surely know who is responsible. Who full well that Hamas could end their suffering in an instant. And yet continue to blame Israel in accordance with their ideology that all the land, ‘from the river to the sea’, must be liberated from the ‘colonialist Jews’ who have occupied it since well before the end of the British Mandate. All of which has been perpetuated by a media all to eager to embrace the Palestinian narrative while rejecting the Israeli one.

To the extent that Israel bears any responsibility for the humanitarian crisis, it is only insofar as it must defend its people from another October 7^th. That Rabbi Blau does not even suggest this possibility is surprising. By omitting it, his declaration that Israel must not ignore the humanitarian crisis implies that Israel has done exactly that. Ignored it or worse -  created the crisis itself.

What does not surprise me, however, is the identity of most of the other signatories. As JTA notes:

“The signatories are largely drawn from the liberal edge of Modern Orthodoxy, and relatively few hold congregational roles.”

That explains a lot. I have difficulty recognizing rabbis on the far left of Orthodoxy as Orthodox at all. As I recently noted in another post, when your flagship school (YCT) proudly ordains an openly gay man with his future ‘husband’ standing right next to him, I fail to see how they can still be considered Orthodox by any standard. Even a Modern Orthodox one. As I said then: 

(The) deliberate violation of even a single mitzvah removes someone from the realm of being fully observant, especially when that violation concerns a capital offense.

So forgive me if I do not quite see their signatures on this letter as compelling or representative of a genuinely Orthodox position. Regardless of how they choose to identify.

At the end of the day, issuing a critical letter about Israel’s conduct in the midst of a war for survival strikes me as a disservice that undermines its goals. Even if their criticism contain some merit, they completely ignore Hamas’s central responsibility and ends up falsely placing the blame on Israel’s leaders. The very leaders who are fighting for the nation’s survival. That can only hamper Israel’s ability to succeed.

With 60,000 citizen-soldiers called up from the reserves, in addition to the 20,000 already serving — all poised to put the finishing touches on that goal - now is certainly not the time to do so.

*Update A response from a member of the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America) to this controversial letter can be read in the Jerusalem Post.

Is the IDF Anti Torah?

I have not changed my views on Charedi opposition to army service. Without repeating all the reasons why their opposition is so wrong, suffice it to say that there is no other way to characterize it than to call it an abandonment of their responsibility to the Jewish people

I am not going to dispute their claim that the merit of Torah study is why God protects Israel. But it cannot be denied - in my view -  that it is through the medium of the IDF that God has chosen to do so at this time.

I also completely reject the notion that a quota of 35% Charedi enlistment needed to relieve the excessive burden being placed on those who are already serving - is an ‘anti-Torah’ edict. Which has been the mantra of religious and political Charedi leadership from the very beginning.

None of this is new. I’ve said it all before. I just want to make that clear before I go on.

YWN reports the following:

A group of religious soldiers from Battalion 77 of the Armored Brigade sent a sharply worded letter to their commander following a two-day battalion vacation, Arutz Sheva reported.

The soldiers wrote that they were promised the vacation would take place in a setting that respected their religious lifestyle, including gender separation. But they were sorely disappointed when they discovered “that these were false promises.”

The soldiers said the event was held in a place where female soldiers were walking around in clothing inappropriate for their religious way of life. According to Arutz Sheva, the event was held near a pool, and although they were promised separate swimming hours, this promise was not fulfilled.

“This was a severe blow that damaged our faith, our values, and our way of life,” they wrote. “We expected the battalion—which is entrusted with the value of comradeship—to take care of the needs of soldiers who are shomrei mitzvot. Instead, we left with a feeling of hurt and betrayal.”

The letter was signed by dozens of soldiers from the battalion, who demanded an appropriate response to the situation.

I don’t know if this was a ‘one-off’ or a policy decision. Either way, if the IDF is going to live up to its promise to accommodate Charedi sensibilities, they cannot allow something like this to happen. Especially in a vacation setting. We are not talking about combat situations where compromising Charedi values might sometimes suddenly come up that are unavoidable.

But when the IDF has full control over conditions such as vacation time, they must honor their commitment. Or else lose credibility in their claim that they are ‘bending over backwards’ to accommodate Charedim. They know full well that placing Charedi soldiers at a pool with bikini-clad female soldiers is a gross violation of Charedi sensibilities. Surely they could have devised a plan to provide separate times for secular IDF soldiers and male-only times for Charedi soldiers.

If this was done intentionally - as is claimed in the YWN article - as a means of accommodating feminist ideals of egalitarianism, then Charedi leaders might actually have a point in saying that the IDF is ‘anti-Torah’. You cannot stick devout Jews who wish to observe the high standards of modesty demanded by their convictions into such a compromised setting and then claim that the IDF is not hostile to Torah.

That being said, the obligation to serve in the military during an existential war is not absolved because of modesty violations during vacation time. But neither does that absolve the IDF from accommodating religious soldiers when they can. And if this incident was deliberate, it will be impossible to argue against the Charedi claim that the IDF is anti-Torah. Even though serving in the IDF during a time of existential war is clearly not anti-Torah at all, regardless of the compromised religious circumstances that may arise.

So, as strong as my criticism of Charedi leadership has been for urging their youth to shirk their duty to their people during a time of war, I am equally critical of the IDF for shirking its responsibility to keep its word to the very community it wishes to attract into service.

This kind of thing ought never happen again. The IDF needs to apologize to these soldiers and their rabbinic leaders for dropping the ball on this one. And if there really is some sort of feminist or anti religious agenda to force Charedi soldiers into compromised modesty situations, that needs to end - YESTERDAY.

World Indifference to Jewish Suffering - and Charedim

*There are so many Jewish Organizations and politicians expressing sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza, that it is comforting to see reciprocal sympathy from that community for the suffering of our people. In a grand gesture - the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York (UJA-Federation of NY) pledged $1 million to IsraAID to provide clean water, medicine, and food to displaced Gazans. 

Palestinians are showing their support for us, too. Protesting the way hostages are being treated by Hamas. There are protests all over America by Palestinian supporters over the starvation tactics used by Hamas against the hostages they so brutally captured on October 7^th. CAIR has in fact pledged a similar amount of money to be distributed to the displaced Jews of Northern Israel's border with Lebanon.

Day after day, one can hear calls by pro-Palestinian groups outraged at how fellow human beings in captivity - who happen to be Jewish - are systematically being starved to death.

Day after day, sympathy is expressed for the families of hostages suffering the mental anguish of not knowing whether their loved ones in captivity are alive, or if alive, whether they are near death’s door because of the brutality of their captors.

Nice to hear words of consolation and support for what the Jewish people are going through from Palestinians  themselves and their supporters.

Except that none of this reciprocity is true. 

These indisputable facts are never uttered by Palestinian supporters. They are totally ignored. Instead, they are busy accusing Israel of genocide against their own people without so much as a mention of the suffering the Jewish people are enduring right now because of their own Palestinian terrorists martyring themselves for the greater glory of Islam.

One might be tempted to forgive Palestinians and their supporters for being blinded to these realities. After all, their own people are suffering, and they don’t care to notice whose fault it really is.

But what about the rest of the world? They too have ignored these hard facts, choosing instead to focus their anger on Israel. Blaming it for genocide and for starving innocent civilians, even though both allegations are demonstrably false.

So, instead of the world uniting against Hamas and supporting the real targets of genocide, they are focusing their anger against the Jews. In their holier-than-thou mission to prove how much more moral they are than the Jews, they show great concern for the death and (non-existent) starvation of Palestinians while completely ignoring the suffering endured by Israelis.

And what’s their solution? To recognize the nonexistent state of Palestine. As if that is suddenly going to feed hungry Palestinians.

One might be tempted to defend these reprobates - leaders of  foreign nations who pretend to be great humanitarians. After all, are they not simply responding to the plight of Palestinians in a way that Israel might take note of and thereby change how they are doing things?

Maybe. But you cannot be a humanitarian by half. In a conflict between 2 peoples, feeling bad for the suffering of one people while ignoring the suffering of the other can only mean one thing in this case. It is latent antisemitism that guides their sense of morality. Even though they surely believe they are following in the finest tradition of morality in support of one people - the absence of support for the other people who were brutally attacked first - reveals what drives them.

They can deny it all day long. But don’t believe it! Macron and his gang of progressive cronies don’t care about Jewish suffering at all -even as they might once in a while pay lip service to it! If the emphaisis is on only one side -  and the action taken is to reward terrorism against the Jewish people by endorsing a Palestinian state - that is all you need to know about their motives. 

History strongly suggests that such a state would quickly turn into another Jihadist run Gaza, only much larger and far more lethal.  They afre motivated by an antisemitism they don’t even realize they have. So, as far as I’m concerned, Macron and his progressive cronies in Europe and Canada can all take a long walk off a short plank on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic!

Israel will have to wait until Europe and Canada restores more sane leadership to their people before they restore support for the Jewish state. In the meantime Israel will have the support of the only nation that really matters. The US. (Albeit without progressive Democrats.)

MK Meir Porush (Matzav)

On a completely unrelated subject, I am once again appalled by the attitude of Charedi politicians like Meir Porush, who cry not for the suffering of IDF soldiers and their families, but for the Charedim arrested and jailed for not responding to their draft notices. From Matzav:

The veteran politician referred to the arrests of yeshiva students for learning Torah:

“I don’t remember that Charedi Jewry, in the 77 years since the state was founded, has ever endured such a blow, such a crisis, regarding life itself and our way of life. We’ve never had anything like this.”

Porush cautioned that the crisis could spiral out of control:

“This will develop and swell, and no one will be able to stop it. Maybe now something can still be done, but later? It will be too late. The message will be clear: people will begin to be afraid. No one will be able to take responsibility for what might happen when fathers see their sons being arrested.”

When their sons get arrested?! How many Charedi fathers have lost a son in battle; or whose son lost a limb; or his eyesight; or suffers from PTSD because of the trauma of war - sometimes permanently?! 

Jail time for draft dodging?! Forgive me if I don’t sympathize all that much with these fathers for that.

It’s one thing to protest a war that involves so much blood being shed by the sons and daughters of the nation. But to protest a draft designed to relieve the burden on those who have already sacrificed so much?! To protest against drafting just 35% of their community - which would allow the other 65% to remain in the Beis Hamedrash  untouched by this suffering - is not only something I don’t support. It’s something that itself deserves a very strong counter-protest.

And the theme of such a counter-protest should be to completely reject the absurd claim that the need for some Charedim to enlist in the IDF soldiers is in any way an anti-Torah edict. That should be the most obvious counterpoint emphasized in every counter-protest, with as many Religious Zionist rabbinic leaders and Roshei Yeshiva as possible making that case. These ridiculous accusations from the Charedi world must not go unchallenged - publicly and forcefully.

And featured among the speakers at these counter-protests ought to be the brave IDF soldiers who have already given so much to their country. Let them stand and embarrass the Charedi world for refusing to recognize their own failed responsibility to Klal Yisroel. We must not allow their narrative to be the sole representation of Torah Judaism - they claim it to be.

*Post has been updated

The Pros and Cons of Continuing the War

Hundreds of thousands protest in Hostage Square yesterday (JTA)

If I’m honest, I am more conflicted now than ever. I have strong feelings both in favor of - and in opposition to - the Prime Minister’s plan to take control of all of Gaza.

First, let me reiterate. I want to be absolutely clear and consistent. I completely reject the notion that the Prime Minister would sacrifice many additional IDF casualties for the sole purpose of staying in power.

I know this is a popular view among his many detractors. But I do not believe his long record in office supports that contention. He has never shown that kind of callous indifference toward Jewish lives. Especially those directly involved in the protection of his people. Those who believe otherwise are blinded by their sheer hatred of the man, regardless of the many and varied reasons for that hatred. Some of those reasons may even be justified, but I truly believe he is sincere in his stated motive: the goal of destroying Hamas as the only means of protecting his people from another October 7^th.

I obviously agree with that goal. Which is why I have strong feelings in favor of the prime minister’s plan. Israel needs to do whatever it takes to succeed in protecting its people. If that plan is the way to do it, I am in favor of it.

There is of course no objective way of knowing whether it will work at all, or whether it will even completely backfire. But to impugn his motives as pure self-interest does not align with his many years of service to his country, which included the loss of his brother in action and his own wounds in action as an IDF soldier.

Whether the plan is wise or not is part of why I also have strong feelings in opposition to it. It is not only the risk of failure that troubles me, but also several other considerations that weigh just as heavily.

First, the remaining 50 hostages - of whom only about 20 are believed to still be alive, and barely so. Logic would seem to dictate that a group of people who see Jews as little more than vermin, to be abused at their disposal in any way imaginable, would quickly murder them all as a final gesture of defiance before being ‘martyred’ as Israel launches the final phase of the war.

Then there is the toll on the citizen-soldiers who have already gone far beyond the call of duty, serving lengthy tours of combat. The physical and mental burden on them and their families is immeasurable, as is the impact on their ability to provide for those families.

There is also the toll on Israel’s economy. Wars are expensive, and when so many citizens are serving as soldiers, GDP falls and so does government revenue.

The Israeli people were divided before the war, but the divide seems far greater now. Exponentially so! Extremists on the right have become more extreme, as have extremists on the left.

On top of that, animosity against the Charedim has never been greater, due to their lack of participation in the IDF. Their absence has only increased the burden on every other segment of Israeli society - both secular and non-Charedi religious. This resentment will surely be exacerbated by the massive call-ups of reservists, who are already more than fatigued after carrying both their own share of the burden and that of the draft-dodgers - Charedi or otherwise.

Then there is the world’s condemnation of Israel, which rarely mentions Hamas’s openly declared genocidal mission against the Jewish people. A mission they have acted upon many times and have promised to continue until fulfilled.

The hypocritical leaders of the world see only Palestinian suffering, for which they blame Israel entirely. If Netanyahu goes ahead with his plan, their accusations of genocide against Israel will only increase, while  continuing to ignore Hamas’s intentional genocide on October 7^th and the starvation of the remaining hostages.

And now, even more Democrats in Congress have joined that chorus, including prominent Jewish members such as progressive Democrat Jamie Raskin, who co-sponsored a bill severely restricting U.S. arms transfers to Israel.

And finally, there is the uncertainty of the ‘day after’.

All of this explains the side of me that is opposed to lengthening the war. We are all tired of fighting. The question is whether fighting on - whatever the cost in blood and treasure - is necessary. Because if we do not, we may have gained nothing other than the world’s condemnation.

Is the price of complete success worth it - if it’s even possible? Or is the price too high? Is it possible to say that the victory we have already achieved is enough to ensure safety of Israel for the foreseeable future? That if we stop now, and bring all the hostages home through negotiation, the price of not finishing off Hamas will still have been worth it?

I can’t answer the question. But just yesterday, the largest protest yet against Netanyahu was held in Tel Aviv. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis joined with most of the hostage families, who fear their loved ones will be killed if the new Gaza invasion proceeds. Their message was clear: nearly two years of war is enough. They want their lives back, and they want their loved ones back. Even if it means a deal with Hamas.

This is why I am conflicted. I honestly do not know who is right. The arguments on both sides are compelling.

May God help us make the right decisions.

How Jewish Are the Jews of New York?

How Jewish? Sadly, not very. That may seem shocking for a city regularly touted as the most Jewish city in the United States. About 12% of New York’s population is Jewish. Of the nearly 9 million people that live there, that means about 1.1 million are Jewish. Of those, 44% voted for Zohran Mamdani to be their next mayor. Looking only at younger Jewish voters (ages 18–44), support for Mamdani surged to 67%!

The idea of supporting someone who openly advocates for the destruction of the only Jewish state in the world - which also happens to be home to the largest number of Jews today - can only mean one thing: their Judaism means next to nothing to them. And the younger they are, the truer that is.

A retort often made is that Mamdani’s support transcends Middle East politics, reflecting frustration with a political status quo that has ignored working-class New Yorkers. His progressive agenda, they argue, resonates with those who feel left behind by ‘politics as usual’. But that does not excuse ignoring the existential threat to the State of Israel.

Neither does sympathy for Palestinian suffering, or even anger at Israel’s prime minister for that suffering, excuse abandoning your own people. And certainly not when the candidate in question has said he does not support the existence of a Jewish state, has been deeply involved in the anti-Israel movement long before October 7^th, and refuses to condemn calls to ‘Globalize the Intifada’ - a slogan that glorifies suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

Any Jew who can support a man like that for public office is not much of a Jew. No matter how loudly they protest that they are. No matter how often they claim their support for Mamdani is in the finest tradition of Jewish values. For them, Mamdani’s identity as a Democratic Socialist is seen as an extension of those values.

Think about that for a moment. The younger a Jew in New York is, the more likely they are to support someone like that. Is it any wonder that when people talk about a ‘New York Liberal’, they’re usually talking about New York Jews?

These statistics sicken me. It is beyond sad that this has happened to the Jewish people increasingly over generations since the earliest waves of immigration to the United States.

It is heartbreaking that Torah observance was abandoned by so many of those immigrants. It’s hard to blame them. They believed they had no choice. Very few had enough courage of their religious convictions to strive for the near impossible task of finding a job that did not entail working on Shabbos. The struggle for parnassah (livelihood) made it seem impossible for most Jewish immigrants to support their families without that. Even if they wanted their children to remain observant, very few succeeded. First, there was the pull of the melting pot culture luring their young into the pursuit of American-style ‘happiness’. A lifestyle hardly compatible with Jewish observance.  

Added to that was the hypocrisy of fathers who broke Shabbos for work while demanding that their children keep it. There were few if any religious schools to reinforce the observance their parents tried to instill in their children.

The result was predictable. Most young Jews ran as fast and as far as they could from their Judaism. They raised their own children as fully assimilated Americans, unfettered by the old-world ways of their European parents. And with the help of a misguided heterodoxy that ignored observance of their members entirely, we now have young Jews in New York proudly supporting the most anti-Israel mayor in the city’s history.

And they do so arrogantly, with the absurd claim that their support reflects the most Jewish of values.

So while the trajectory away from Judaism is sad, it angers me is that any Jew could support a man like Mamdani.

It doesn’t matter that he won’t be able to enact anti-Israel policies at the federal level. What matters is the outsized voice he will have as mayor of the largest city in the United States, with the largest Jewish population. Whose ‘savvy’ young Jews supported him by more than two-thirds (67%). 

(Orthodox Jews did not support Mamdani. But they are only 19% of the total number of Jews in the city.)

Mamdani is poised to win the general election. And there doesn’t seem to be anything anyone can do about it. That Jews themselves are enabling it makes me sick.

Are Zionists Worse than Nazis?!

Taking a stand against the Zionist 'Nazis' (YWN)

I truly feel bad for Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, whom I consider a dear friend and someone with like-minded values. He is truly one of the good guys. A Charedi Rav who actually realizes the injustice of Charedim refusing to participate in the IDF during a time of war. That is something any decent human being should instinctively feel, regardless of how ‘frum’ they are. But as a Charedi who understands the imperative of respecting religious leadership, he is at odds with their views right now. Here is how he put it in his most recent Cross Currents article:

As the war and the issue of Charedi service in Tzahal both drag on, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated. It is harder each day to maintain silence about the main — and ancillary — issues. I’ve become more and more vocal, while trying so hard to maintain proper kevod talmidei chachamim while doing so. It is not easy.

I’m sure that considering his impassioned views, saying ‘It’s not easy’ is an understatement.

In some ways, I have similar issues. I fully admit that I am nowhere near these leaders in Torah knowledge or in the ability to give advice based on that. But at the same time, I have other leaders whom I respect just as much, who vehemently disagree with these Charedi leaders. Both on this issue and on others.

And I could not disagree with the Charedi leadership more on the issue of drafting Charedim into the IDF.

As I have said many times, their views are often expressed in hyperbolic exaggerations, if not outright falsehoods (which they might actually believe) about what the government is trying to do.  

There might be some truth to what they say in isolated cases, where certain anti-religious politicians or members of the IDF brass are guilty of what they’re accused. But the reality is that the majority are only interested in ensuring there are enough citizen-soldiers to fight in this existential war. They also want to relieve the burden of those who have already gone far beyond the call of duty by serving extra-long tours of duty.

I have to wonder whether these leaders are as clueless as they seem about this. Based on their rhetoric, they appear to be. But their rhetoric is so outlandish, so egregiously wrong, and so clearly designed to incite anger in their followers, that I have to believe their “cluelessness” is intentional.

Their constant harangue against the government, using hyperbole usually associated with Palestinian protestors or Neturei Karta, has fueled grassroots protests by Charedi youth determined to dodge the draft at all costs. These leaders have even called the draft a ‘war against the Torah’ more often than I can count.

As noted by YWN:

Thousands of Bnei Torah converged Thursday night outside the Beit Lid military prison, protesting the continued imprisonment of yeshiva bochurim who refused to bow to the government’s renewed draft decrees.

The demonstration, called for and attended by HaRav Dov Landau shlit”a, came at the climax of a week of demonstrations against the army’s escalating campaign to drag bochurim away from the daled amos shel halacha and into the barracks. Rav Landau had personally visited two of the imprisoned bochurim last week, telling them, “The entire olam haTorah stands behind you. Be strong, and hold firm.”

Groups from Peleg Yerushalmi, Slonim Chassidim, and other kehillos broke through police barricades before being pushed back by riot units. Some burned and tore up draft orders, while others sang and danced while shouting cries of “Gevalt!” and “We won’t give up even one bochur!”

Banners and shouts from the crowd made clear the protest’s purpose: “No quotas, no sanctions!” and “Free the hostages!” — a reference not to captives in Gaza, but to the imprisoned bochurim.

I only hope that this ‘war’ against Charedim does not cause any of these young people to lose life or limb, suffer PTSD, or lose their family’s source of income. I hope their families don’t spend sleepless nights wondering if they will ever see them alive again.

After all, we are talking — according to some rabbinic leaders — about a Zionist army that is akin to Nazi Germany. As noted by RabbiNatan Slifkin:

Rabbi Yigal Rosen declares that the Zionists are worse than the Nazis, and claims that they would readily massacre Charedim in gas chambers!

Does that mean that religious Zionists are like religious Nazis?

Hmmm. Maybe the Charedim have a point.

What say you, Rabbi Adlerstein?

The Left's Increasing Antisemitism

I’m sorry, but I think it has now been made abundantly clear that antisemitism’s new home is on the left. I say this knowing full well that most Jews tend to be politically liberal — which is on the left side of the political divide. The only Jews that tend to lean conservative are Orthodox Jews.

The irony is that it was the left that had always championed our cause. They were in the forefront of fighting antisemitism. They were the ones clamoring the loudest about defeating Hitler before US entry into the war. Conservatives tended to want to leave Hitler alone, saying that he knew what he was doing and that his antisemitism was just rhetoric — that he would never actually implement anything drastic.

As I have said many times, that is the way of the left. They see an injustice being done and they react to it immediately. Jews were being rounded up and systematically killed in Nazi occupied Europe. There were massive rallies in the US by the left (which included the Communist party) advocating entry into the war and defeating Hitler. 

It is that same attitude - appropriate in World War II - that has caused the left to support what they are certain is the injustice caused by Israel to Palestinians. Not just during the war in Gaza, but ever since Israel stopped being seen as the victim and were transformed into the victimizer after their amazing military victory in 67. Now, it is the Palestinians that are seen as suffering the injustice of their Zionist ‘occupiers’ whose military strength vastly outmatches anything the Palestinian people can muster in resistance.

The left will always take the side of the underdog regardless of the issues that bring about perceived injustice. They will always vilify a mighty army governing weaker, occupied people who are suffering hardships - no matter the reason. They do not see terrorist attacks as evil; they see them as legitimate forms of resistance. Measures taken by an occupying force are, by definition, seen as evil attempts to put down ‘legitimate’ protests, leaving those wishing to resist no alternative but to do so with violence. Even terrorism – for lack of any other means to achieve their ‘justifiable’ ends.

While it’s true that not all liberal Jews see things this way, the further to the left one goes, the more likely they are to see it that way. Once that line is crossed, Palestinians are viewed as refugees whose fighters are martyring themselves for the sake of freeing their brethren from the ‘slavery’ of Israel’s draconian occupation, and getting ‘their’ land back.

Any Jewish claim to the land -  whether religious or historic -  is dismissed as an ancient fantasy and rejected by the tenets of Islam adhered to by the devout Muslims that make up the vast majority of Palestinians. Espeically in Gaza. The left doesn’t care about that. They see injustice and want to ‘solve’ it by defeating the fascist occupiers of ‘Palestine’.

It is rather well-established that most of Western Europe and Canada reside on the left side of the political divide, at least as far as their leadership is concerned. The same is true of the Democratic party. Once the champions of the Jewish people and Israel, they are increasingly joining calls to condemn Israel. The latest example just happened in Minneapolis, whose current mayor, Jacob Frey — a Jew — is seeking a fourth term. The state’s Democratic party has not endorsed him. Instead, they endorsed Omar Fateh. As noted in Jewish Insider:

Two political activists closely affiliated with Omar Fateh, a far-left Minnesota state senator now running for mayor of Minneapolis, have expressed a range of extreme views on the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, endorsing the violence as a justified act of resistance and accusing Israel of initiating the war in Gaza… Fateh, a 35-year-old democratic socialist, has been a staunch critic of Israel, calling its conduct in Gaza a genocide and pushing for a ceasefire 10 days after Hamas’ attack.

This follows New York Democrats choosing someone just as abhorrent to be their next mayor.

As is well known by now, France, the UK, and Canada have decided that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to give the Palestinians their own state. All three intend to officially recognize the ‘State of Palestine’ at the UN annual meeting in October. They, of course, ‘know’ far better what’s good for Israel than Israelis and their political leaders (on both the right and the left) do. (And I’ve got a bridge to sell you.)

What they fail to understand is that a Palestinian state is a prescription for more massacres like that of October 7^th. But those three countries aren’t worried about a little detail like that because they are placing ‘conditions’ on that recognition. Such as recognizing Israel’s right to exist. The promise by Palestinians to do that will ‘surely prevent’ any further terrorist attack against Israel! (And I have another bridge to sell you.) These leaders are so blinded to reality that they can’t recognize the absurdity of their views. Blinded by the milk of antisemitism they suckled from their mothers’ breast (to paraphrase the late prime minster of Israel Ytzhak Shamir).

Then there is the left-wing entertainment community. One would think that Toronto would be fair and open-minded about the atrocities of October 7^th. But one would be wrong. As noted in a JTA article:

The head of the Toronto International Film Festival says he is still open to screening an Israeli documentary about Oct. 7 that had been yanked over concerns about disruption and, allegedly, about whether the filmmakers had the right to use footage created by Hamas terrorists as they attacked Israel. Cameron Bailey denied that the film had been rejected over censorship and apologized “for any pain this situation has caused.”

That non-apology just about made me throw up. What disgusts me most is that Bailey, in his infinite stupidity, doesn’t even realize how offensive pulling this film from the festival was. A stupidity surely based on his leftist view of Israel as the aggressor.

I do not accept that any of this is really NOT about Israel, that it is really all about Netanyahu. And that it isn’t only the left.

I concede that there are plenty of antisemites on the right. some of them MAGA supporters like Marjorie Taylor Greene. But their numbers are minuscule compared to the antisemites of the left - whose antisemitism is ‘hidden’ by the fig leaf of anti-Zionism.

Netanyahu is an easy target. He has a lot of flaws and gets a lot of blame from his own people (most of it from the left) and from political colleagues he’s double-crossed on the right, left, and center. He is hated by Charedim because he couldn’t pull the trigger on promises to exempt them from the IDF, and by right wing extremists like Ben Gvir and Smotrich because he did not agree to their war goals of resettling Gaza.

But I do not blame Netanyahu for the anti-Israel sentiment of the left. There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that Israel would have gone to war in Gaza after October 7^th regardless of who the prime minister was. And that there would have been the same massive civilian casualties at the outset of the war that generated all the pro-Palestinian protests. Bringing the same wrath upon Israel. One can argue about the longevity of the conflict, or the fate of Netanyahu’s strategies and tactics on the hostages. But to say that another prime minister would not have caused anti-Israel protests by the left is to misunderstand the nature of leftist politics.

I was once a liberal. But I have done Teshuva.

Feminism Versus Tradition

Orthodox Women in Medicine (TOI)

When it comes to the Charedi world (especially in this country), one of the most important developments of the 20th century is the advent of feminism.

This may sound counterintuitive, but the truth is that the lifestyle of full-time Torah study by Charedi men could not have been sustained without it. The feminist push for equal rights for women enabled women to pursue lucrative careers - earning enough to relieve their husbands of the responsibility to support the family. In most cases, Charedi women have become the breadwinners. Feminism opened the door to careers that were formerly closed to women.

This, of course, has turned traditional Jewish values on their head. In Judaism, the roles for men and women are traditionally very structured: men are supposed to support their families, while women are meant to take care of the home, raise the children, and nurture them. In my view, the children are often getting short shrift in this arrangement. There is simply not enough time for a mother to devote to her children if she is, for example, a cardiothoracic surgeon whose life-saving services are in constant demand and cannot be delayed.

The point is that a win for feminism (the byproduct of which is a win for the Kollel lifestyle) is not necessarily a win for the family. This is not to say it is impossible to ‘chew gum and walk’. But rather that sometimes great success comes with collateral damage. In this case the casualty of feminism’s victories is that many women who choose demanding careers delay having children, sometimes well into their 40s. While women in their forties can still have children, the chances for a healthy child decrease with age. The solution for many is to freeze their eggs while still in their 20s, when fertility is highest and the likelihood of healthy births is greater. Those eggs are then fertilized and implanted much later in life. The problem is, this doesn’t always work for various reasons. In more than a few cases those women are not even married and use donor sperm.  And if the pregnancy takes (which is not always the case - they become single mothers. Depriving their child of the full family experience that includes having a father.

Ironically, what was once predicted in the 1960s to be an unmanageable ‘population explosion’ many decades hence - has gone in the opposite direction. The U.S. population is shrinking. We are not replacing ourselves at the current rate of 1.6 children per family.

As an aside this negatively affects the financial stability of a large and aging population (baby boomers like me), whose social security benefits are funded by a shrinking workforce. In other words - the math doesn’t work.

What feminism has done, in my view, is erode the traditional roles of men and women and contribute to a decline in U.S. birth rates. Many women no longer place high enough value on their primary roles as mothers and homemakers to make them the central priority of their lives. Careers take precedence over family, even if that means delaying motherhood and freezing their eggs to become mothers later - once their careers are in high gear.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I think it’s wonderful that women now have the opportunity to excel in careers that were once the exclusive domain of men. There is no reason a woman cannot become the top neurosurgeon in the world. Intellect, talent, and determination are not gender-specific. And I could not feel a greater sense of pride in my people when something like that happens. 

But still, something very valuable has been lost in the process. I have to wonder whether subordinating motherhood to career goals is worth the price.

I’m sure some will see my thoughts as sexist. I can’t control how people react. But I remain a strong believer in equal pay for equal work and in equal opportunity for men and women in any career they choose. That said, it cannot be denied - at least in my mind - that something major has been lost. The freedom to choose a lifestyle that precludes the primary role Judaism assigns to women of being an Akeres Habayis (the anchor of the home) and a 24/7 nurturing mother - may not be something to celebrate quite so uncritically.

Interestingly, out of concern for the declining birth rate, there is now a natalist movement in the U.S. that advocates for higher birth rates, prioritizes family formation, and de-emphasizes women’s careers. I don’t know how large this movement is, but if the U.S. wants to reverse the population decline, this would be a good place to start.

That, however, is not a problem the Charedi world faces. They are far ahead of the game in this regard. The only question is: what is a high-paying, time-consuming, family-supporting career doing to their children?

It would be interesting to get input from Kollel wives who have these kinds of careers. Anyone like that reading this -  I would love to hear from you.

When Good People Start Condemning Israel

U2 frontman and noted humanitarian, Bono (JTA)

I admit to being depressed. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that Israel would no longer be seen as a light unto the nations - especially given how it succeeded at such monumental levels economically, ethically, and militarily over the course of its 77 year history.

The apex of those feelings came in the immediate aftermath of the Six-Day War, when Israel reclaimed all of Eretz Yisroel and began settling it. The feeling then was that it was great to be a Jew. Israelis were truly admired for the miracle of winning a war against enemy nations far greater in number and military might (supposedly). U.S. military experts could not say enough about the genius of Israel’s strategies and tactics.

Since then, Israel’s economy has boomed — becoming a powerhouse of economic development, especially in the field of technology. There were also innovations in agriculture (even before the Six-Day War), as well as scientific research and medicine, recognized worldwide by experts in those fields. Excellence in the arts was also recognized, with many international awards granted to achievers in those areas. Israel was seen worldwide as the only democracy in the region. All this was achieved under the most adverse of conditions, challenged constantly by wars and relentless terrorism.

Today, Israel is no longer seen as a light in the darkness. It is seen as darkness itself. A nation that, over the last two years, has been accused of committing genocide: killing innocent civilians with bullets, bombs, or starvation; destroying the majority of homes in Gaza, making it uninhabitable; and in general making life miserable for every Palestinian living there. And the person blamed for all of this misery is its elected leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Whose resolve to destroy every last member of Hamas has, according to his critics, brought all this tragedy upon innocent Palestinians. His recent announcement to take control of all of Gaza will, they say, surely cause even more death and destruction. While hostages have languished for nearly two years under the most inhumane conditions imaginable at the hands of their Hamas captors.

Many believe Netanyahu has cost his country far too much blood and treasure -  and his new initiative will only add to that toll. Condemnations are being made against Israel all over the world, and recognition of the non-existent State of Palestine is catching on among the nations like wildfire.

Individual condemnation is increasing as well. From celebrities and other prominent figures, many of them Jews, and many of them Israelis who have been increasingly protesting the war. Hostage families are worried that the captives are being endangered by Netanyahu’s stubborn insistence on carrying on a war that they feel has no good purpose. In short, Netanyahu’s conduct of the war has - in the eyes of his critics -  has ruined Israel’s reputation, perhaps even irretrievably.

So yes, it was depressing to read of yet another prominent person condemning Israel today. Especially someone recognized for his humanitarianism. U2 frontman, Bono, was quoted today condemning Israel - using two prominent Jews as his moral guides in making that condemnation (Mandy Patinkin and Rabbi Sharon Brous). As noted by JTA:

U2 frontman Bono stood out in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel for dedicating a song to the hundreds of “beautiful kids” murdered at the Nova music festival.

I’m not much of a U2 fan. But Bono cannot be classified as any kind of antisemite. And when celebrities like this start condemning Israel, that’s pretty depressing.

But as depressing as this ‘change of heart’ by what seems like the entire world may be -from seeing Israel as a light unto the nations to seeing it as darkness  - I cannot lose sight of the fact that almost all of this criticism is based on Hamas propaganda – aided and abetted by the UN and other ani Israel ‘humanitarian’ organizations in Gaza, re the only news sources being used by the mainstream media (by their own admission), When the only people talking about the Jews are Nazi like terrorists and their enablers, what can one expect other than completely negative reporting?

This is not to say that all the images are fake - although many of them are. There is no doubt in my mind that Palestinians are suffering. The only questions are: why, whose fault is it, and to what extent?

The answers can be found among those of us willing to dig for the facts. Facts that seem to elude the mainstream media, which simply regurgitates what it is being fed by Israel’s enemies. And then pretending to be providing hard evidence when in reality the ‘facts’ are often made up or grossly exaggerated.

I hate to keep repeating this, but there are individuals - civilized people - who have gone to the trouble of finding out the truth and have reported it to both the mainstream liberal. media and conservative media. But the mainstream media generally doesn’t believe them, preferring to rely on sources in Gaza that are dripping with anti-Israel bias. Bias that existed long before October 7^th, and that has since used the war as an excuse to capitalize on that bias as if it were irrefutable fact.

The truth? The ‘truth’ is their truth which is what mainstream media shows you every night on TV and blame only on Israel.

That is why the world now sees Israel as spreading darkness rather than light. They see bombs being dropped by Israel killing civilians. They believe the lie that the IDF is preventing Palestinians from being fed. They accuse Israel of killing anyone who tries to get food from U.S.-backed GHF. They believe the lie that the IDF kills Palestinians that are simply trying to get food from them for their families. They believe the lie that GHF aid isn’t enough - repeating the demand by Hamas that GHF operations cease, despite having already delivered hundreds of thousands of food packages to hungry Palestinians. They ignore the fact that Hamas has controlled the food supply from day one, and blames Israel for using starvation as a weapon — a lie perpetuated by the media to this day!

Fortunately, there are still good people who know the truth: the president, his foreign policy team (thank you Ambassador Huckabee - see below), most Evangelical Christians, most conservative Republicans and a few Democrats in Congress, and the conservative media. For this, I am grateful.

But the fact is so many good people who were once supportive have been duped by media coverage into becoming extremely critical of Israel.

I therefore remain depressed. Good people are assuming the worst, when – in my opinion - all Israel is trying to do is protect its people from future attacks like the one on October 7^th. And there is not a damn thing I can do about it.