Shabbat shalom!
A tip of the baseball kippah this week to Shohei “Shotime” Ohtani, baseball player extraordinaire, who created a new record in the baseball history books by hitting over 50 home runs, and stealing over 50 bases. Ohtani finished his game yesterday against the Miami Marlins going 6-for-6 with three homers, two doubles, two steals, and 10 RBIs.
Baseball is considered by many to be “America’s Pastime”. Some call it the “greatest show on dirt”. My wife would say it’s a boring way to spend three hours (she used to bring crossword puzzles to Red Sox games). But, there was nothing boring about the new major league record set by Ohtani, who also became the first player in MLB history to hit three homers and steal multiple bases in a single game, a game which helped his Dodgers clinch a playoff berth.
We could be witnessing the ascendence of the greatest player in baseball history. Yes, better than the “Sultan of Swing”, Babe Ruth, better than Mantle or Maris or Aaron. I think the Ruth comparison is more apt, given the pitching and hitting prowess of both. But comparing across eras, especially in baseball, is almost always a fool’s errand, and I am certainly no expert on the matter. Hence, I will leave it up to the sports sleuths to run the stats comparisons and indulge in the bar stool debates that will surely ensue in the days and weeks and years ahead. But, one thing I am certain of: If not for the barrage of weird and awful news that continues to pummel our media and damage our collective brains, this most amazing athletic feat would be getting much more media attention, certainly more than Moo Deng, the pygmy hippopotamus that is blowing up social media platforms. Although Moo is pretty cute.
Speaking of show time, Israel has stepped up its intelligence game and finally started taking it to the Hezbollah terrorist a-holes. Since October 8, Hezbollah has been pounding northern Israel with thousands of rockets (of course, the useless United Nations has never spoken a word about this aggression) leading to the evacuation of over 80,000 residents from the kibbutzim and villages that ring the northern border. Netanyahu finally and formally added the return of those evacuees as one of their stated war goals.
The flames from Iran’s ring of fire strategy continue to engulf Israel on multiple fronts but there are more signs beyond the exploding pagers and recent bombings in Lebanon that suggest Israel is about to launch a more strategic operation. For example, Division 98, the elite Israeli division of paratroopers has been in Gaza for nine months, but was moved north just this week. There have been a number of postponements and cancellations of ceremonies where the Defense Minister was scheduled to attend, and then Netanyahu met with Israel’s President to provide him with a security briefing, an unusual move that usually only happens before a major war or operation.
No-one wants a war, but Iran has been asking for it for many years. And I say, bring it to them Israel! Maybe even bring it directly to Iran instead of devastating Lebanon, whose citizens can’t stand Hezbollah and would probably welcome an Israeli liberating victory. It’s time to lance the terrorist boil that is Iran and stop their exportation of jihad to their proxies that have one goal: kill Jews and eliminate Israel. Is Israel ready for a war way riskier than Hamas? Hezbollah is said to have over 150,000 missiles with precision capability that could hit anywhere in Israel. Are Israelis too exhausted from dealing with Hamas to turn their focus to a much more capable enemy? Will the US and allies continue to support them militarily? Will this be Israel Alone? On the latter question – I hope not, as the issue with Iran and Muslim extremism goes well beyond the middle east. Israel is at the vanguard of the war against that extremism, which is really a battle that needs to be engaged and fought by all civilized and democratic countries.
And now, without any further ajieu, here is this week’s generous selection of Jewie journalistic gems, culled and carefully curated, and copied and pasted from the likes of The Forward, JTA, The Times of Israel, Kveller, Jewish Boston, Haaretz, and other Jewish journals:
- More from the war:
- Israel bombarded Lebanon with airstrikes Thursday, following Tuesday and Wednesday attacks targeting Hezbollah members’ pagers and walkie-talkies, with the IDF saying it had hit more than 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers. As strikes continued this morning, the IDF warned Israelis in the country’s north to stay close to bomb shelters in anticipation of retaliation.
- IDF confirms eliminating multiple top Hezbollah commanders in Friday’s Beirut strike – Hezbollah acknowledged that the airstrike had killed two of its most senior commanders and 14 other members of the terror group who were meeting in the basement of a Beirut residential building. The devastating strike was a further blow to the Iranian proxy and brought the sides closer to a full-scale war.
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French President Emmanuel Macron urged against further escalations in the Middle East, particularly against Lebanon.
- Some U.S. officials no longer see a route forward for a ceasefire deal before the end of Biden’s term, per reporting from The Wall Street Journal.
- A 72-year-old Israeli businessman is facing charges after allegedly being recruited by Iran to participate in an assassination plot targeting Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials.
- Vice President Kamala Harris was asked about Israel’s war with Hamas on the campaign trail Tuesday. “I am entirely supportive of the pause that we’ve put on the 2,000-pound bombs. And so there is some leverage that we have had and used. But ultimately, the thing that is going to unlock everything else in that region is getting this deal done.”
- A poll in June found that a majority of Gazans thought Hamas was correct to attack Israel on Oct. 7. When the poll was conducted again this month, it found something different: Most Gazans no longer support the attack. (Read more findings from the survey.)
- Institutional investors diverted roughly $40 billion out of Israel since the onset of the war.
- On campus…
- Universities are trying a new strategy on Israel and Gaza: Say nothing.
- Students for Justice in Palestine announced a national “Week of Rage”beginning on Oct. 7 “to mark a year of genocide in Gaza.”
- The Senate plans to advance a contentious bill to crack down on antisemitism on campus, but it has some detractors because it classifies most anti-Zionism as antisemitic, upsetting free speech advocates.
- A California school district is being sued for allegedly creating ethnic studies courses in secret that contain antisemitic material.
- The Cornell professor who praised the Hamas attack — and has since apologized — can resume teaching, since his statements were made “as a private citizen in his free time,” the school said.
- Donnie-dumb-fuck says Jews would deserve blame if he loses. “In a speech Thursday billed as former President Donald Trump’s answer to rising antisemitism, he said Jews would bear much of the responsibility if he loses the presidential election,” writes The Forward’s Jacob Kornbluh — a stunning moment in an election cycle during which Trump has raised eyebrows with increasingly aggressive rhetoric toward Jewish voters. In back-to-back addresses to largely Jewish audiences, Trump also fell back on a new rhetorical habit that has irkedsome of his pro-Israel supporters: predicting that Israel “will be eradicated” if his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is elected. Read the story ➤
- Thousands attend hostage deal rally outside UN headquarters in New York – The rally, which coincided with the start of the 79th UN General Assembly this week, called for world leaders to pay attention to the plight of the captives held in Gaza by Hamas and featured speeches from released hostages and relatives of those still in captivity.
- Columnists quit Jewish Chronicle in Gaza articles row – Jonathan Freedland, Hadley Freeman and David Aaronovitch announced they were quitting their columns over what Freedland described as a “great disgrace” at the London-based newspaper. It comes after the JC said it conducted a “thorough investigation” into one of its freelance journalists, Elon Perry, “after allegations were made about aspects of his record”. It said it was “not satisfied” with some of the claims made by the writer, and therefore had deleted his articles and ended its association with him. Jonathan Freedland – who described the stories as fabricated – said the JC had shown only the “thinnest form of contrition”.
- Why a rabbi is overseeing PornhubRabbi Solomon Friedman is trying to clean up internet porn from the inside by running one of the world’s most-trafficked porn sites. Which may not be as strange as you think.
- Judaism is generally sex positive. Most Jewish texts about sex focus on understanding and regulating the act, not warning people of its dangers.
- The Talmud has passages instructing husbands to have regular sex with their wives, emphasizing the importance of pleasure and encouraging experimentation.
- Friedman is also a criminal defense lawyer and is working on tech challenges at the site, like how to digitally fingerprint videos or implement facial scans to ensure all the performers are consenting and of age.
- 🎞️ A new thriller starring Peter Sarsgaard as an ABC Sports executive covering the 1972 Munich Olympics where Palestinian militants took Israeli athletes hostage was one of the buzziest movies at the recent fall film festivals. Paramount acquired it and plans to release it in November with a big Oscar push. (Hollywood Reporter)
That’s all folks! Enjoy the weekend! And hey, as usual, let’s be careful out there!
I will probably not be posting next week as we have a busy weekend attending the wedding of our niece. So, until the next post….
Brad out.
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