Shabbat shalom!
A tip of the kippah this week to the US Olympic athletes, as they continue to shine and accumulate shiny medals that proudly represent the culmination of their amazing training and even more amazing skills. Just looking at outcomes, the USA is leading in the overall medal count, which at this posting stands at 113, with the cheating Chinese and their steroid hamburgers in second with 84. In the run for gold, those cheating Chinese are one medal ahead, but not for long I hope. One other note for the USA is the power of “She”. Of the 33 gold medals to date, American women own 21 of them. You go girls!
And what a relief to turn off the news and spend a few hours watching these amazing athletes perform at levels that are other-worldly in a venue that is also other-worldly. Paris should also get a gold medal just for producing incredibly beautiful backdrops. USA! USA!
Meanwhile, it’s also been fun watching Trump melt down as he realizes a Black Asian woman might put an end to his monstrous ego-ride and prison-avoiding candidacy. The main stream media has been helpful in their absolute fawning over Harris (and her Walz selection), and the country has clearly bought into a campaign that is positive, uplifting and hopeful vs Trump’s dark, angry and looney one. I can’t resist the obvious reference and analogy to Dorothy putting a watery damper on the wicked witch and ending her evilness for good: “I’m melting! Melting! Oh, what a world, what a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness!”
This is the craziest I have seen the orange turd for quite some time. While Harris/Walz continue to win hearts and minds across the country, the turd seems otherwise preoccupied with posting unhinged rants on social media and trying to get the vaguely racist-sounding nickname “Kamabla” to take off. I think his lizard brain has been exposed to too much sun and it’s continuing to decay and shut down.
When Walz was named the VP pick, the turd suggested the humble Midwesterner would “unleash HELL ON EARTH” and his Right-wing sycophants swung hard on the idea that Walz is some kind of radical antifa super soldier wearing a friendly 60-year-old-white-dad costume, but that pitch has been no where near the strike zone. And unfortunately for the orange turd and his fellow commode dwellers, Walz’s policies are broadly popular, and his state’s economy is one of the best. So it’s more than a stretch to claim that a guy who looks like he’d be happy to help you fix your snowblower is also a mendacious socialist tyrant. Good luck with that.
So, keep up the goofy crazy bullshit Donald. The more you spin, tweet and act out, the more votes you lose among the independents and swing voters. Just you being you is the best thing that can happen to the country. Nuf said.
Things over in Israel are tense, to say the least. This last Wednesday marked a sad milestone, the 10th month since the October 7th pogrom started the war in Gaza, and even more sadly, Israelis are talking a lot this week about hostage Ariel Bibas turning five, captive in some horrible tunnel below Gaza. He was kidnapped with his mother Shiri and his brother, Kfir, a reminder that the monsters who did this kidnapped mothers and children barefoot from their homes. Ariel’s father, Yarden Bibas, was kidnapped separately, and there are pictures of mobs in Gaza beating him to a pulp, followed by a video that came out a few months ago of Hamas telling him that his family is dead and filming his reaction. These are real sadists.
With major airlines cancelling all flights into Tel Aviv, and Israelis being told to stock up their bomb shelters, the country has been on edge since Iran announced it would strike back for the assassination that took place in an IRG “safe house” in Tehran, a bold and brilliant maneuver that embarrassed Iranian leaders. So, at one point this week, there were 100,000 Israelis stranded outside of Israel, fighting for El Al seats to get back into the country, a country which is on the precipice of a major war. That says something about the resilience and character of Israelis, that they’re fighting to get back to their country when it’s obvious it is about to be attacked by Iran and their murderous proxies.
What is Iran up to? Is the current pause merely a psyop maneuver to inflict psychological anguish on Israelis even before they launch an arsenal of “retaliatory” missiles? Is there really hope for some kind of urgent cease fire that might avoid escalation? I hope it’s the latter, but history does not favor that option. For the last few decades, the Iranian strategy has long been what is called the “ring of fire”approach, surrounding Israel with its proxies that do its dirty work and trying to eliminate Israel via death by a thousand cuts, as implied in their Supreme Leader’s speech on October 3rd, where he predicted Israel would die of anger and hate.
Since October 7th, despite Biden’s “Don’t” warning to Iran, it’s proxies have deeply wounded Israel, borders have been shrunk by pressure and violence from both the north and south, and Israel has been de-legitimized around the world with protests against Israel happening on a regular basis in the United Stats and Europe, with diplomatic and international organizations condemning Israel. Just this week, Turkey formally requested to join the South Africans in their preposterous case of genocide against Israel at the UN International Court of Injustice. But even with Israel on its diplomatic heels, I don’t think Iran will take a chance on picking a major fight. Not only are they fearful of the IDF’s intelligence and air force capabilities, but they know America will stand by their side, and the one thing they fear the most is losing their power over a citizenry that can’t stand them.
There is still the question of what Hezbollah will do, independent of marching orders from Iran. And any strike from any proxy, if Israeli civilians are impacted, could lead directly to a full scale regional war. It’s a tinder box right now, and there are sparks and flames in all directions. Let’s hope a cease fire can help de-escalate matters, but in the long term, there needs to be some way to convince the Arab world that Israel is here to stay, and recognizing the Jewish state and living in peace is a better way forward.
What about the rest of the news for the Jews across the Jew S of A and the rest of the world? Here is your skillfully selected sampling of semitic stories taken from the likes of The Forward, Haaretz, Kveller, Jewish Boston, Times of Israel, and other fine Jewy journals:
- Israel/Iran: Potentially big news out of Iran – a new report in Al-Monitorsuggests Iran is moderating its threat to launch a devastating attack on Israel any day. The outlet quotes Iran’s UN Mission saying that “Our priority is to establish a lasting ceasefire in Gaza….” adding that any retaliation “will be timed and conducted in a manner not to the detriment of the potential ceasefire.” This suggests the planned attack could be put on hold until after negotiators meet on a revived hostage-for-ceasefire deal. This comes after the US, Egypt and Qatar issued a public statementtoday announcing that a hostage/ceasefire deal is ready and “called on both sides to resume urgent discussions”. They set an August 15th date to “close all remaining gaps.” Israel has agreed to negotiate, so far Hamas has not. A delay could provide Iran a face-saving way to avoid a shooting war with Israel and an opportunity to boast that they forced a deal on Gaza. Israel is still bracing for an attack — there is no indication Hezbollah is backing off. More on the war:
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for Oct. 7 in a new interview with Time, his first conversation with a major American outlet since the war began. And he repeated a line that he’s often deployed in the months since the Hamas attack, saying that an investigation into the Israeli government failures involved in the catastrophe should wait until the war is won and done.
- The European Union and United Nations condemned remarks by Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, that seemed to suggest the mass starvation of Palestinians in Gaza “might be just and moral.”
- The Israeli military embarked on its third offensive of the war in Khan Younis, ordering another mass evacuation of the Gazan city.
- New Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is fighting hardliners in the Islamic Republic to tone down the scale of Tehran’s promised strike against Israel over its alleged killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran last week, Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported Friday. According to the report, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is pushing for a missile attack on Tel Aviv and other cities — though with a focus on hitting military facilities to avoid civilian casualties.
- Hamas still hiding behind civilians – The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday it struck a command room that terror operatives set up at a school in Gaza City where Palestinian civilians were sheltering. The Gaza Strip’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said over 90 people were killed in the airstrike, describing the incident as a “horrific massacre.” The IDF expressed heavy skepticism toward the claim, saying the numbers appeared to have been inflated. The IDF said that according to its intelligence, at least 20 terror operatives, including “senior commanders,” were at the site when it was struck.
- Pro-Palestinian vandals are painting red inverted triangles on their targets. What does it mean? “Pro-Palestinian protesters have made liberal use of the inverted red triangle,” writes Forward news editor Lauren Markoe: “They daubed it on the apartment building of a Columbia University leader Thursday, on a replica of the Liberty Bell in Washington, D.C., in July and on the home of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum in June.“ Now, there’s controversy over whether the stateside popularization of the symbol — which terror groups in the Middle East have occasionally used to mark targets — should be considered threatening. Read the story ➤
- Doug Emhoff installed mezuzahs at the Vice President’s Residence. What happens to them when he moves out, or up? In 2021, after Harris moved into the vice presidential residence, her husband Doug Emhoff did what many Jews do when they move into a new home: He installed a mezuzah on its doorposts. The act was a first in the history of the United States, which had never before had a Jewish resident in the vice president’s mansion, and teed off four years in which Emhoff has centered his Jewish identity as second gentleman. Emhoff later cited installing the mezuzah as a high point of his year. Now, with Emhoff’s tenancy set to end Jan. 20, 2025, he will need to decide what to do with the mezuzah that hangs at its front door. Read the story.
- Israel’s team wins silver in rhythmic gymnastics, claiming 7th medal at Games – The members of Israel’s silver medal-winning rhythmic gymnastics team at the Paris Olympics tell Israel’s Sport5 channel that they’re still absorbing their success and are delighted that they could give a boost to Israel. Speaking immediately after the medals ceremony, Romi Paritzki, 20, says the five of them “fought to the end” after being in fifth place following the first of the final’s two exercises. “We had such a great time,” she says, adding that “the crowd was fantastic.” Noting that there are lots of Israeli flags in the hall, she says they are “so proud to represent the state, and to lift it; we’re a strong people.”
- The first trailer for Jason Reitman’s film Saturday Night, about the birth pangs of NBC’s iconic sketch show Saturday Night Live, is out and serving up a heaping dose of anxiety. The teaser features Gabriel LaBelle as show creator Lorne Michaels, trying to launch a counterculture program while network executives root for his failure and stage lights and scenery collapse around him. Complicating matters are a famously chaotic — and legendary — cast including an antic Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), glamorous Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), and guest Andy Kaufman (Succession’s Nicholas Braun, also doubling as Jim Henson) appearing with his Mighty Mouse record player. And, if my eyes don’t deceive me, that’s Paul Shaffer coaching announcer Don Pardo on how to pronounce “Aykroyd.”
That will do it for this week. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, be careful out there, and hope for the best for our Israeli friends.
Brad out.
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