When Criticizing Israel Crosses the Line

Mark Ruffalo (Forward)

 “I am not an antisemite. In fact, I find it repugnant to hate the Jewish people. But there are a lot of powerful Jews in the world who are responsible for some truly horrific acts against humanity. To call them out for genocide is no more antisemitic than calling out Hitler for his genocide. And it isn’t only genocide. There are a lot of powerful Jewish oligarchs who are causing all kinds of havoc in the world. They need to be called out and stopped. But I am not an antisemite and I love the Jewish people.”

That opening paragraph pretty much describes the Mark Ruffalos of the world. People who might believe their own rhetoric, but whose condemnation of Jews is almost bad as the rabid antisemites that think the Jewish people ought to be extinguished. This miserable excuse for a human being sickens me!

Sadly, many ignorant Jews tend to go along with this narrative, even claiming that they are expressing Jewish values when making broad antisemitic statements. These statements often recycle tropes that have been used against us for decades, if not centuries: The Jews control the banks. The Jews control Hollywood. The Jews control the government. Or at least their leader, Netanyahu, does.

I am not talking about the antisemitic right. They wear their ignorance on their sleeve for the entire world to see. And many of them admire Hitler for his attempt to “eradicate this degenerate blood-sucking people” from the world. They are not going to convince any normal person of their nonsense. I am talking about an altruistic left that sees the world through its own unique lens of oppressors and the oppressed, of the wealthy and the poor. In each case, the former are supposedly perpetually taking advantage of the latter.

That pretty much describes the ‘Ruffalos’ of the world. Despite his strong denials - Jews are the target of his accusations – using rhetoric which creastes the perception among many of his fans that Jews are as evil and control everything. The only Jews Ruffalo and company seem to like are those who know little to nothing about their Judaism and therefore agree with their characterization of wealthy and powerful Jews exploiting powerless non-Jews.

I completely understand why he gets away with it. As I have said many times - It is hard to disagree with the observation that Israeli Jews are, for the most part, prospering while many Palestinians are struggling to survive under what they regard as the harsh policies of their occupiers.

Indeed, Ruffalo’s anti-Israel sentiments did not begin with Israel’s war in Gaza. Long before that, he portrayed Israel as a vicious apartheid state that should be boycotted divested from, and sanctioned - until its supposedly evil system is destroyed. Replaced with a Palestinian state that would restore dignity to the people supposedly living under Israel’s thumb.

To the casual observer, this might seem logical and even just. The supposedly inhumane Jews would be replaced by the far more humane Palestinian people, who would never establish a government of repression. Because, after all, that would supposedly be incompatible with their Muslim faith. Islam is a religion of peace!

This is what happens when you see the world through jaundiced eyes. You see what you want to see…

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Unjust Army Exemptions

Once again, Mishpacha publisher Eli Paley’s recent article arguing against Charedim serving in the IDF made me angry.

I say this despite acknowledging that he recognizes the tremendous burden being borne by reservists because Charedim unwilling to share the burden of military service. In fact, that admission is precisely what makes me so angry.

In a number of columns, Mr. Paley has been trying to explain the rationale for his staunch support for the Charedi leadership’s position of refusing to allow Charedim to serve in the IDF. Even as the burden on those who have been serving continuously for three years continues to grow.

That he acknowledges their pain while continuing to justify an ideology that says everyone who studies Torah full-time should be exempt is, in my view, an exercise in perpetuating the very pain he freely admits exists. The Charedi refusal to allow their own to serve means that a burden that could so easily be relieved by Charedi enlistment – will continue. In what world is this a just outcome?

First, not every Charedi man learns full-time. Second, I would be willing to bet that among those who do “learn” full-time, many do so because it is expected of them after a lifetime of indoctrination to that effect. And there are probably more than a few among them who do not learn much at all, but simply hang around in and out of the Beis HaMedrash.

Even though I do not agree with a blanket exemption for all learning Charedim, let us, for the moment, concede that those who genuinely learn full-time should automatically be exempt. What about working Charedim? Why should they be exempt? That is where his argument begins to fall apart.

His argument now is that political and military figures who are not generally supportive of Charedim or their agenda have said that the IDF does not need Charedim and could not accommodate all of them anyway if they decided to enlist. He adds that there are other ways of addressing the IDF’s manpower shortage that have been suggested by people with no connection to the Charedi world.

From this, he concludes that the push to draft Charedim is not really about relieving the manpower shortage at all, but rather:

“The proposals that were put forward did not seek a temporary response. They sought to use the crisis to permanently alter the structure of the yeshivah world. The very fact that the proposed solutions are permanent rather than temporary demonstrates that the discussion is not only about the specific needs of the current war, but about a fundamental change—a change that people had been seeking even before the war.”

There are two glaring problems with his conclusion, which I am sure is informed, at least in part, by his preexisting bias…

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Altruism, Ideology, and Antisemitism

I think it is safe to say that the spike in antisemitism in this country has been particularly prevalent among younger and more highly educated Americans. The question is, ‘Why’? Why are better educated young people more inclined to be antisemitic? One would think the opposite would be true.

If we are honest, much of it is directly connected to Israel’s defensive war in Gaza. Whatever one thinks of Israel’s conduct of the war, the images coming out of Gaza are undeniably powerful. News reports show large numbers of civilian deaths, destroyed homes, displaced families living in makeshift conditions… and shortages of food and other necessities. For someone seeing these images day after day, it is not difficult to conclude that Israel is committing atrocities. Or even genocide.

What those images often fail to convey is the larger context. Israel did not enter Gaza simply because it wanted to. Hamas’s October 7^th attack, in which civilians were deliberately murdered and hostages were taken on a scale not seen since the Holocaust, fundamentally changed Israel’s calculations.

Israel concluded that Hamas could not be allowed to retain its capability to repeat such an attack. Nor is the nature of Hamas always adequately explained when the suffering in Gaza is reported. Hamas deliberately operates within a civilian environment, making it extraordinarily difficult to separate the military from the civilian population.

This is old news. And yet almost completely ignored by the media.

None of this diminishes the suffering of innocent Palestinians. Their suffering is real. But a news narrative that presents Palestinians primarily as victims of an unprovoked Israeli assault, while minimizing the actions and ideology of Hamas that precipitated the war, and adds to the carnage of their own people for their own PR - inevitably produces a distorted understanding of the conflict.

There is another factor at work, particularly on college campuses: ideology.

Much of academia has become deeply influenced by a progressive and socialist ideology that permeates academia. Many in this intellectual class view socialism as the most humane form of government, emphasizing social justice, economic equality and the redistribution of wealth. Capitalism, by contrast, is often portrayed as a system in which the wealthy exploit the oppressed poor for personal gain. A system by which they see the Jewish state being governed.

This worldview shapes the way international conflicts are understood. The world is divided into oppressors and oppressed, colonizers and indigenous peoples, the powerful and the powerless. Once that framework is adopted, Israel is easily cast as the quintessential oppressor: a supposedly colonialist state occupying the land of an indigenous people.

The October 7^th attack then becomes, in the minds of the socialist - not an act of terrorism but an understandable if not an entirely justifiable response to oppression.

That is a profound moral distortion completely ignored by the socialist mindset of academia.

It is therefore hardly surprising that younger, college-educated Americans are more likely to express anti-Israel views than the population as a whole. The more one is immersed in an academic culture dominated by this ideological framework, the more likely Israel is to be viewed through it.

Of course, being anti-Israel does not automatically make someone antisemitic. Legitimate criticism of Israeli policy is perfectly acceptable.

But when a Jewish state is singled out for criticism by socialist ideologues it is not too much of a leap from there to hold Jews everywhere responsible.

The reasoning is remarkably simple…

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Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Charerdi students in Ponevezh (Forward)

I am pessimistic. But my pessimism about the Charedi world may yet change because of the confluence of pressures upon them with respect to the draft and education now taking place. In my view, these pressures could eventually result in a quiet revolution among rank-and-file Charedim—if they are able to express their views through the privacy of the ballot box.

As things stand now, there is a malaise that has been caused, at least in part, by the longstanding tradition of steering virtually every young Charedi man into uninterrupted full-time Torah study for as long as possible. Torah study is expected to be pure and pristine, free of extraneous distractions such as Limudei Chol. This has been the paradigm of the Charedi world in the State of Israel since its very beginning.

How this came to be is beyond the scope of this post. But that is the reality today.

Limudei Chol is considered a dilution of Torah study. As I have noted here many times—and as recently as yesterday—this lack of education has contributed to an unnecessary level of poverty within the Charedi world.

Not that every Charedi is poor. Far from it. Many Charedim have found their way out of poverty, often with educated working wives whose careers provide enough income to support their large families. But on the whole, the poverty rate among Charedim is considerably higher than it is among the general population.

And yet the Charedi public has been indoctrinated to maintain this system as the highest form of Avodas Hashem—serving God. That, together with meticulous observance of Halachic stringencies, is what defines the Charedi ideal.

There is, of course, a significant Charedi working population. But working Charedim are often regarded as second-class citizens by their “learning” peers. That cannot be a very comfortable position to occupy among one’s friends.

That attitude is reinforced by the stridency with which Charedi leaders oppose offering Limudei Chol as part of a Torah-oriented way of life.

The Israeli government has made it mandatory for Charedi schools to offer a verifiable core curriculum of Limudei Chol in order to receive state funding. It appears, however, that the law is not being adequately enforced, and many Charedi schools that do not offer a core curriculum continue to receive government funding.

The reason for this lax approach to enforcement is political. Charedi parties have repeatedly been relied upon to form governing coalitions and have effectively pressured ruling parties to continue funding their schools in exchange for their support. That is essentially the situation today with Likud, although other parties have been guilty of the same practice in the past.

What is the effect of all this on the future of the State of Israel? Is the sky falling…

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Anger - Not Hate

Charedi and religious Zionist soldiers learning Torah together (Arutz Sheva)

I remain angry. But I am not hateful. I hope I am not alone feeling this way. That what is happening between the Charedi and non-Charedi worlds is anger, not hatred. Anger can be assuaged by actions. Hatred is much harder to overcome.

I am angry at the Charedi world for insisting on perfection: refusing to compromise even one iota on its current paradigm of religious life. What it seems not to understand is that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Compromise is not a dirty word.

I believe this is at the heart of the strident resistance to changes in the Charedi world that would benefit them as well as Israeli society as a whole. Two issues in particular are driving the growing divide between Charedim and Religious Zionist and, even more broadly, between Charedim and traditional and secular Israelis: military service and secular education.

The Charedi leadership’s refusal to allow its young men to serve in the IDF has existed for years, but October 7 dramatically intensified the consequences. An already understaffed IDF has had to extend reserve duty to extraordinary lengths, placing enormous unprecedented pressure on those who serve and their families.

The government has been withholding financial support from yeshivas whose students do not register for the draft - and arresting many of those draft dodgers. Meanwhile, the more militant ‘Jerusalem Faction’ has repeatedly staged massive demonstrations that have disrupted daily life - some of which have become violent.

I understand the Charedi concern that military service can undermine religious commitment. But I do not believe that serving in the army and being a devoted Torah Jew are inherently contradictory. That is precisely the philosophy behind the Religious Zionist Hesder Yeshiva system.

That being said, there are legitimate concerns about religious dropouts, which should not be dismissed…

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They Changed the World of Torah Study

Rabbis Scherman and Zlotowitz, ZL

Michael Feldstein has hit the nail squarely on its head. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, his recent Times of Israel article provides an excellent review of the powerhouse publishing company, Mesorah Publications. Better known as ArtScroll. There is very little I can add. Nevertheless, I will try.

First, let me state the obvious. ArtScroll is by far the largest and most successful publishing house in the Orthodox Jewish world. Probably in the history of Jewish publishing. There is probably not a single Orthodox shul in America that does not have, as its standard Siddur, the Hebrew ArtScroll Siddur. This was preceded by their Hebrew-English Siddur, which offers a fine translation of the Hebrew text. Most shuls have both versions.

But clearly, its magnum opus is the ArtScroll Shas (Talmud Bavli). It is a translation and, more importantly, an elucidation of the complex subjects discussed therein. It includes copious footnotes to foster a clearer understanding of these difficult subjects.

What they have succeeded in doing is opening up the world of Torah study and the development of Halacha as it observed today. A study that was once largely limited to Torah scholars who spent years developing the ability to understand the Gemara and the commentaries that explain it. Now it has become available to the entire English-speaking world. They have enabled countless numbers of people to study texts they would never previously have been able to understand.

That accomplishment has created a climate in which more people are currently studying Daf Yomi—a Blatt (folio) of Gemara per day than at any time in history. People from all walks of life, from the most Charedi to most modern Orthodox to non-observant Jews. Including women, and, in some cases, even non-Jews. All of whom can now participate in this remarkable undertaking and understand the Talmud in far greater number and far greater depth than would otherwise have been possible - except for the few Talmidei Chachamim who have mastered it in the original Aramaic.

All of this can be credited in large measure to ArtScroll’s founders, Rabbis Nosson Scherman and Meir Zlotowitz of blessed memory, who turned a tiny project of publishing a new translation of Megillas Esther with an artistic cover into what it is today. A near-miraculous accomplishment. There are no words that can adequately express the contribution these two giants of Jewish publishing have made to the widespread study of Torah.

As if publishing the ArtScroll Shas in English, French, and Hebrew weren’t enough, they have published an enormous number of other classic Hebrew books with English translations. It started with the Chumash, which is now almost as ubiquitous in shuls as their siddur. There is also an excellent five-volume set of Chumash and Rashi, both translated and elucidated into English by my friend and fellow HTC alumnus, Mitch (Yisrael) Herzog. That, too, can be found in many synagogues. There are also many other volumes of this sort, all widely available in shul libraries throughout the country.

Then there are the Hashkafa books and biographies. That is where the “hiccup” lies…

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The Trump Board of Peace

Jared Kushner meets with Hamas leader in Egypt (TOI)

Sometimes I wonder just how aware those pushing Israel to make peace with Hamas are of the nature of this terrorist army. It’s almost as though they have no clue about what happened on October 7th nor about Hamas’s celebration of that event and its successful execution. It’s almost as though it never happened.

It is also perplexing that people involved in trying to end this conflict seem to be oblivious to Hamas’s charter, which specifically has as its goal the elimination of the State of Israel by any means necessary. Perplexing as well is that these people seem to have forgotten that Hamas is funded and supported by a nation dedicated not only to Israel’s destruction, but to the destruction of the United States as well.

This is why I am disappointed that there was some sort of framework of peace reached with Hamas that would remove their weapons in exchange for Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza. If the goal of Hamas is the destruction of Israel, and they are willing to carry out multiple Holocaust-level atrocities toward that goal, it is certainly safe to assume that they would lie about disarming in order to achieve it.

The current lie is that Hamas will give up its weapons if Israel withdraws from Gaza first. I have a bridge to sell you if you believe that. And they aren’t even shy about rejecting total disarmament. What they have agreed to is putting their weapons into storage. Not giving them up. You would have to be brain-dead not to realize that they want to retain the option of returning to their terrorist ways against Israel at the earliest opportunity.

And yet, the so-called Board of Peace, comprised of representatives of a number of Muslim or Muslim-friendly nations, has condemned Israel for not agreeing to that deal which Hamas already ‘agreed’ to!

If Israel were to agree to remove its troops from Gaza while Hamas gradually gives up its weapons by placing them in storage, it would be an invitation for another October 7th type attack – ‘as soon as things calm down and Israelis start living normal lives again.

The following was reported at WIN:

The foreign ministers of eight Muslim countries on Sunday condemned Israel’s rejection of a roadmap for implementing US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, accusing Israel of obstructing efforts to end the conflict as Hamas and US officials held talks in Cairo on the framework.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates said Israel’s opposition amounted to a “direct repudiation” of the peace plan that “jeopardizes its implementation, and fundamentally undermines the collective efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace.”

“Such rejection confirms that Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza” and the rest of the Palestinian territory, the foreign ministers said in a joint statement.

Hamas has accepted the roadmap, which requires the terror group to disarm.

When is the world going to learn that you can’t make peace with people who consider it the will of God to destroy you? That any deal they make is not worth the paper it is written on? And that Hamas will never give up its ultimate goal of restoring what is now Israel to its ‘original’ Palestinian owners?

And when will the world recognize that Iran will do everything it can to ensure that Hamas and its allies have the means to pursue that goal. (Unless its regime is overthrown and replaced with a government friendly to Israel, as it was before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. And that seems as unlikely as ever right now. Things may yet change—but I wouldn’t hold my breath.)

There is no such thing as making a peace deal with Hamas. No more than there was such a thing as the United Kingdom making a lasting peace deal with Hitler. The difference is that, in the case of Hamas and the ideology behind it, there is a zealous religious determination to achieve that goal that even Nazi Germany did not have.

That Jared Kushner is in Egypt now meeting with Hamas leaders is reminiscent of the meeting British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had with Hitler, declaring that a deal had been made guaranteeing “peace for our time.”

We all now know how well that turned out…

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Jews Without Judaism

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

That antisemitic attacks are up is no secret. Since October 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents have spiked to an alarming level. The latent antisemitism that existed among some Americans was released with a vengeance I never imagined still existed.

That seems to corroborate the view articulated by Rashi centuries ago: “Esav sonei l’Yaakov” - Esav hates Yaakov. So said the newspaper comic-strip character Pogo, in 1971, on Earth Day, commenting on humanity’s responsibility for climate change. Never has that observation been more applicable to the Jewish people than it is right now.

on-Jews, in other words, inherently hate Jews unless proven otherwise. While that has generally been true historically, for a variety of reasons, I have always maintained that the United States is the exception to that rule, citing many examples of why that was the case.

I still feel that way, notwithstanding the massive increase in antisemitism that has occurred since October 7, 2023. Why that happened is beyond the scope of this post. What is relevant here is that many of these antisemitic attacks are taking place in a climate of anti-Israel rhetoric that gives the latent but virulent antisemites of the world “permission” to attack Jews as supporters of the Jewish government supposedly guilty of genocide. A narrative whose chief spokesman these days is the mayor of New York.

How did such a rabid critic of Israel become the mayor of a city that hosts, by far, the largest Jewish population of any city in the United States? And how did a number of like-minded politicians come to be running for major offices in the United States?

Is it because of antisemitic voters? Sure, some of it is. But many of those voters are Jews, as noted by Rabbi Emanuel Feldman in his Mishpacha column this week.

For example, 50% of the Jewish vote on New York’s heavily Jewish Upper West Side went to Mamdani.

The more liberal the Jew, the more likely that Jew is to vote against Jewish interests. Substantially more of these Jews disapprove of Netanyahu than disapprove of Mamdani—by a margin of 5%!

How is that possible? 

Rabbi Feldman provides the obvious answer, which is something I have been talking about for quite some time now.

The Jews voting for Mamdani are ignorant of the most elementary truths about their own heritage. As Rabbi Feldman also notes, their Bible is The New York Times. Is it any wonder that they see Israel in the same negative light as their “Bible” does - and vote for a man who reflects those views?

And then there is this little statistic noted by Rabbi Feldman: Between 2000 and 2024, 146,000 more Jews permanently left Israel than entered it.

Wow! There are more Jews leaving Israel than there are Jews making Aliyah.

That is where the Pogo comment becomes relevant. He was not the first to make it. Rabbi Feldman cites Isaiah 49:17: “Thy destroyers and thy traitors emanate from thine own selves.”

The solution to this dilemma is pretty much the same as that articulated recently by Conservative Jewish rabbis... 

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A Wake Up Call

Palestinian ‘journalist’ reporting from Gaza (Ifex)

One of the most revealing movies I have ever seen about the Holocaust was The Zone of Interest. It portrayed what life was like for the family of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, whose family lived just beyond the wall enclosing the camp. 

In short, life was pretty normal for his family. Had you not known that genocide was taking place just on the other side of that wall, you would have thought this was a simple story about the peaceful and loving domestic life of a German soldier and his family.

To my great dismay, when Jonathan Glazer - the Jewish director of the film - accepted the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, he publicly condemned Israel for its conduct in the war against Hamas, comparing the Palestinians in Gaza with the Jewish inmates at Auschwitz. He received applause from an audience consisting mainly of A-list actors and other important entertainment-industry figures.

The war had only been going on for a few months at the time. To say the least, I was both shocked and disappointed.

It has been all downhill since then. What was once broad support for the Jewish state has turned into a contest over who can bash Israel the most. While there has been an increase in closet antisemites on the right who now bash Israel as a euphemism for bashing Jews, most mainstream conservative Republicans generally still support the State of Israel.

On the left, however, bashing Israel has become far more mainstream. This can be seen in the recent gains made by far-left, anti-Israel candidates for public office. And by the many mainstream Democrats who have disavowed their relationship with AIPAC. It is almost as though there is a race to see who can reject AIPAC support the most.

AIPAC’s support used to be eagerly sought after by any politician who wanted Jewish support. That mattered more in terms of campaign donations than Jewish votes, since our percentage of the population is less than 2 percent. Governor J.B. Pritzker – who is Jewish - was quick to reject their support in any way, shape, or form, as were many mainstream Jewish Democrats who apparently felt the need to prove their anti-Israel bona fides.

The mainstream media has also been guilty of contributing to this through the way it had reported the war in Gaza. It repeatedly used images of carnage and destruction without bothering to explain what they were really about - trusting the bloody screens to tell their story for them. And since it was Israel dropping bombs in Gaza, along with reports of 76,000 civilian deaths coming out of there, Israel was seen as committing genocide. Even by those who did not use the word, the implication was clear, based on those images and the narrative coming from a variety of sources that were not friendly to Israel then and never were.

Had those reports been accurate, honest, and complete, Gaza would not be seen as the second coming of Auschwitz and the Jews as Nazi-like exterminators. And yet more and more Jews are beginning to believe the worst about their own people based on unexplained images of war and the perpetual lies being forwarded and repeated by the mainstream media. A lot of Jews are being gaslighted into believing these falsehoods. The idea that repeating a lie often enough makes people think it is true has never been more evident than it is now...

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The Baruch Goldstein Brigades

Rodfim. That is what these rogue settlers are.

A rodef (plural: rodfim) is an individual who pursues another person to the point where the pursued may be killed. The Torah provides that one may kill the pursuer as a matter of self-defense in order to preserve the life of the pursued. This is, in fact, the rationale given in Jewish law for permitting an abortion when the life of the mother is threatened by a pregnancy: the fetus is considered a rodef.

I submit that those settlers who continue to harass their Palestinian neighbors - people who have done nothing to them - qualifies them in a moral sense, as rodfim.

That is how evil these people are in my eyes.

First, because it is immoral in the highest degree to inflict harassment upon innocent people simply because they resent you or because terrorism stems from among their ranks. This is not justice. It isn’t even vigilantism. It is pure evil. And if a Palestinian dies in the course of that harassment, it is murder. Plain and simple.

What makes these people rodfim is that by terrorizing innocent Palestinians, they increase by orders of magnitude the world-wide hatred of Israel and Jews. Which lends credence to antisemitic accusations that Israel is an apartheid state guilty of genocide and ought to be boycotted. Or better - even dismantled!

It increases Palestinian terrorism against all Israelis. The very terrorism these miscreants claim to be fighting - they are actually increasing!. They are, in essence, pursuers by virtue of behavior that is likely to increase death and destruction to our people. They must be stopped by any means necessary!

I believe calling them the Baruch Goldstein Brigades is apt name for them. Baruch Goldstein is likely an icon to them. An example to follow. Goldstein was a mass murderer who killed numerous Palestinian Muslim worshippers at Ma’aras HaMachpela before he was finally subdued and beaten to death by Palestinians who came to his victims’ rescue.

Goldstein has since been revered as an almost godlike figure by extremists like these and their sympathizers. Many of whom used to make pilgrimages to his gravesite – treating it like a shrine. (It has since been made illegal by the Israeli government to do that.)

Goldstein represents, for them, a model of how Jews should treat Arabs. Especially Arabs living in parts of Eretz Yisrael that consist of Palestinian villages. These extremists have an ultimate goal of eradicating these villages and re-settling them exclusively with Jews.

Not only do these people directly endanger the lives of all Israelis - they have also caused the wrath of one of our biggest supporters to descend upon Israel.

The Jewish people cannot afford to treat these people with any kind of leniency. Nor does the argument that Arabs commit violence against us exponentially more often than these settlers do have any redeeming value. These people are evil to the core. And yet they consider themselves among the holiest of Jews because they are on the front lines of settling Eretz Yisrael - risking their lives to do so.

They may think they are holy. They may even be meticulous in the observance of many Mitzvos. But to whatever degree they may be observant, it is all wiped away, in my eyes, by their despicable behavior.

I should add that anyone who tries to defend them or ‘explain’ why they might have some justification for terrorizing innocent West Bank Palestinians - are guilty of contributing to it.

And yet there are plenty of people who support these ‘Jewish terrorists to the point of worshipping at the gravesite of Baruch Goldstein, as though he were a tzaddik to be emulated. I am sure that these settlers feel exactly that way about Goldstein. Hence, the title “The Baruch Goldstein Brigade.”

What sparked my latest outrage is the following report from the Associated Press:

QUSRA, West Bank (AP) — Israeli settlers have besieged three homes in the occupied West Bank for several days, including one owned by a Palestinian American, in what the U.S. ambassador called a “horrific act of terror” on Thursday.

Mike Huckabee’s remarks on X represented an unusually sharp rebuke from the Trump administration of the latest episode in a surge of settler violence in the region.

Starting Sunday, settlers gathered around three houses in the village of Qusra, according to local officials, Palestinian American homeowner Loui Ridi, and Ridi’s brother. At times numbering dozens, the settlers threw stones, attempted to bring down a stone wall nearby, and prevented the occupants from leaving as their food and water dwindled.

Israeli troops intervened to try to restore order. On Thursday morning, Ridi’s brother, Qusai Abu Rida, who had holed up in the house with his own teenage son to defend it, said they were moved by Israel’s military to another home but still could not leave the area, which is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Palestinian city of Nablus.

The military said that its troops dismantled “two illegal outposts” near the homes on the outskirts of Qusra and a nearby village, and detained one Israeli. It added that additional soldiers were sent to “carry out defensive missions and patrols.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz joined Huckabee in sharply condemning these Jewish terrorists. Rightly so.

What is not “rightly so” is the continued silence of religious Zionist Roshei Yeshiva on the West Bank in response to this apparently ongoing incident. Their silence lends credence to the idea that these Jewish terrorists have, at the very least, their tacit approval!

If that is indeed the case, I have no use for them. The “Torah” they teach and the Torah they learn is worthless in my eyes…

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