Shabbat shalom! And a tip of the kippah this week to President Biden, who made a great personal sacrifice by putting the country before politics. More on that later, but what a week!

The news keeps coming hard and fast, as though the whole world is on some kind of cocaine binge and doing a whirling dervish dance that only Hunter Thompson and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, could begin to appreciate. Let’s just hope we don’t crash too hard when this week’s news party is over. 

Here is just a short list of what happened last week: 

• On Sunday, the President of the United States issued a statement from his beach house saying he was dropping out of the race, which was a moment right out of William Shakespeare’s King Lear. This is good news for the country, on many fronts, and a relief to know we won’t be subjected to any more of Hunter’s dick pics.
• The same Sunday, by the way, was the hottest day ever recorded on the planet (probably a coincidence?)
• We had the news of what tragically stays the same: The hostages continue to languish in the tunnels of Gaza. The death count of Palestinians in Gaza approaches by most estimates 40,000, although those numbers are squishy at best and do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. 
• And while the world burns, and a hostage deal finally progresses with the Knesset getting ready to take a fucking vacation, Bibi dithers and boards a plane to Washington.
• Then on Wednesday, Nut-and-yahoo delivers that speech to Congress in the afternoon and Joe Biden, having recovered from COVID, if not from the trauma of facing the reality of confronting his fallen condition politically and mortally, goes before the nation and in a truly emotional speech tells the American people that he’ll step aside for Kamala Harris. Nearly everyone feels the emotional power of that speech except one person, the orange turd, who takes to Truth Social and declares with all the compassion he can muster (none) that Biden’s speech was “barely understandable”. What an a-hole.

I knew the moment Joe Biden staggered onto the debate stage like a hospice patient that couldn’t find his way to the bathroom, that the gig was up. The party hierarchs must have believed they could beat the orange turd with Biden, or as Bill Maher (who we saw last night in Boston) suggested, just Biden’s head in a jar of blue liquid. Then at the debate, even when Trump held a long conversation with himself (“sharks…shower heads…and the late, great Hannibal Lecter”), he still seemed more with it than Joe. Hence, Obama, Clinton and Pelosi sent George Clooney with the hatchet job to let Joe know that the bucks stopped there. And the rest is now history. 

But, while I was an early advocate for an open convention to choose a new Dem for the top of the ticket, I am now a proud partisan supporting the coronation of Kamala, who in a short 100 day campaign, should be able to flush the orange turd once and for all!

The early hype and excitement around her candidacy has been palpable, probably helped by pent up demand for any other candidate not requiring hospice care, but, we’ll take it any way we can get it. In the week after Biden’s endorsement:

• Democrats have poured more than $100m in donations into Vice-President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid. And that tally was boosted by what her team calls a record 24-hour period of fundraising – $81m raised. During that timeframe, more than 888,000 people donated sums of up to $200 each, according to progressive donation platform ActBlue. Donors who had pulled back their funding over concerns about Mr Biden’s age have said they now intend to resume their support for the party.
• More than 28,000 volunteers signed up to help Kamala immediately after Sunday’s endorsement by Biden. And that enthusiasm is flowing to the down-ticket races as well. The day after Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race for the White House, Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee’s Michigan campaign office saw 650 people sign up to volunteer. The next night in Nevada, Rep. Steven Horsford had another 600 volunteers register in his Las Vegas-area district. Pennsylvania Rep. Madeleine Dean’s constituents were “fired up.” New Hampshire Rep. Annie Kuster felt “palpable” enthusiasm. And by week’s end, Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s team had 400 volunteers ready to “get on the bus” to campaign for Democrats in neighboring Michigan and Wisconsin.

Can Kamala win? Can she ride that enthusiasm along with a smile that looks like she could win “Queen for a Day”? I hope so. She showed a lot of political savvy closing her endorsement in short time. As one insider said, “But who knows if she can prevail in a campaign based largely on a letter of reference from the Clintons and all those temper tantrums to the effect that if she’s not given the nomination, she’ll take 100% of the black vote in 2024 and deliver it to Brother West’s Upper West Side revivalist tent, and swing the election to the Trump’s Hole-in-the Condo Gang. In politics, this is know as a ‘moral position’.” Shrewd yes, but it’s the way the game is played and if true, I would say she used her leverage effectively. 

In this week’s post from Andrew Sullivan, a Never Trumper and usually clear-headed centrist and sane conservative voice on these matters, he reminded us of some of Kamala’s down sides, which there are clearly many. He portrays her as a “super woke” leftist, noting her positions on DEI, the border, BLM riots, and her pension for saying a lot with little substance. Frankly, let’s hope she can continue to do so, which is why it’s probably a good thing there are only 100 days to go. And personally, I hope she tacks more to the center than capitulating to the looney left in the party, the latter point being one of the contributing factors to the orange turds popularity. 

As for Joe, let’s give him credit. Although he took longer to do the right thing, he did the right thing. And he did it with grace and dignity. In the end, Joe Biden’s drama and legacy will be judged based on what happens in November. If Kamala loses, I think Biden will be judged to have waited too long and should have stepped aside and have been, as promised, a bridge to the future and a one-term president. If Kamala wins, he’ll be seen as someone who selflessly stepped aside in the service of the nation, and the nation was rescued. Let’s pray, vote, and contribute for the latter. 

Before I move on to Israel and the news for the Jews, a quick call-out to an organization I was introduce to by our cousins Robin and Ari. Right after Sunday’s Biden endorsement of Kamala, I made a symbolic donation to her campaign via a link from one of the countless and annoying text messages and emails I received. The donation was processed by Act Blue, which is the major clearinghouse and processing organization for most Democratic candidates and causes. But going forward, and I recommend this to all who lean Democrat, I will donate via Force Multiplier, a super organization that makes sure your donations are applied to the most optimal races in the country. Their mantra: Flip the House, Hold the Senate, and get out the vote! “Force Multiplier does the research so you don’t have to.”

Now for Bibi. Or as some Israelis refer to him as, “The Republican Senator from Jerusalem”. JNR readers know that I am no fan of Nut-and-yahoo, who has done an abysmal job leading Israel during this war, now taking place on multiple fronts. His policies were a major factor in Hamas committing mass butchery and for someone who is known as a great communicator, he has done an awful job dealing with the international community and social media, which now portray Israel as a pariah nation. His treatment of hostage families has been just awful, as I have heard from many insiders that the families have had little to no access to him and his ministers, some even saying that they had easier and better access to the German Chancellor than to Bibi or anyone in his cabinet in the days and weeks immediately following October 7. Just shameful. 

And Bibi got slammed by most of Israel for the timing of his presentation to the joint session of Congress, coming as it did while a hostage deal was on the table, a deal that even the IDF and most of the security chiefs support. But, I give him kudos for delivering a decent speech. This was Bibi’s record-breaking 4th time presenting to this esteemed body, besting Winston Churchill for the honor. And as usual, he used his masterful communication skills effectively, even if most of the content was old tropes he has used many times before. Despite the heavy regurgitation, the major messages, in my humble opinion, were on point, and a history lesson for the younger generations was needed and welcomed. 

Tall steel barriers ringed the Capitol leading up to his speech, and police deployed pepper spray as thousands of protesters rallied, denouncing Netanyahu as a “war criminal” and calling for a ceasefire. Netanyahu argued that, “Incredibly, many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers.”

Capitol police forcibly removed from the chamber six relatives of hostages who disrupted the speech. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” one told The Times of Israel. Added Jon Polin, the father of Israeli American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin: “I came here wanting to hear one sentence: ‘Today I announce that the hostages are coming home,’ and I didn’t hear that once.”

Roughly 70 Democrats from the House and Senate boycotted Netanyahu’s speech, based on statements from those doing so and a rough head count of those in the audience. Netanyahu’s last speech to a joint session of Congress in 2015 saw 58 Democrats boycott.

The only bit of news I could garner from the content was the few bits on his view of “the day after” plan, which he has carefully avoided for far too long. To some degree, it seems like what he has in mind for the so-called day after is roughly the “West Bankization” of Gaza, post-Second Intifada, which is to say the neutralization of any fighting force there, despite the fact that some will persist. The day after Hamas is defeated a new Gaza can emerge, he said. “My vision for that day is for a demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza.”

He said Israel “does not seek to resettle Gaza,” but must maintain overall security control for the foreseeable future to make sure Gaza never again poses a threat to it. Gaza should have a civilian administration run by Palestinians who don’t seek to destroy Israel, he said. “That’s not too much to ask.”

Frankly, that sounds reasonable to me, and perhaps a step toward a two state solution, which most Israeli’s think is now beyond comprehension, given recent events and all of history. It will likely take a generation or two to really deradicalize Gaza, but we know it is possible based on the success of Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that have done so. 

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:

1. The latest on the war…
   • The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday morning issued fresh evacuation orders to Palestinians in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, including in sections of the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone, citing intelligence that Hamas terrorists were operating in the area. Shortly following the orders, the IDF said a jet had targeted a Hamas command center in a school in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah. Hamas said at least 31 people had been killed in the strike.
   • Israel’s military said it discovered evidence of the polio virus in sewage in Gaza, “a reminder that nine months of war have unleashed threats beyond bombs and bullets,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
   • A survivor of the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival said he was raped during the attack, the first time a male victim has publicly described such sexual crimes.
   • “Several major labor unions on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to halt all military aid to Israel,” reports Jewish Insider.
   • Hamas has detailed dossiers on thousands of Israeli soldiers and their families — including phone numbers, social media profiles and bank details, according to a trove of documents leaked online this week.
   • With Netanyahu away, his far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said he would allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, a holy Muslim site where it was agreed long ago to not allow Jewish prayer, where conflict could escalate. A fellow Knesset member called Ben-Gvir a “pyromaniac interested in igniting a Third Intifada.” Netanyahu immediately announced the policy will not be changed despite Ben-Gvir’s pronouncement.
   • Israeli special forces recovered the bodies of five Israelis who were killed on Oct. 7 and dragged into Gaza. (Times of Israel)
2. The latest on the hostage deal …
   1. Israel is seeking changes to the current proposal for a cease-fire/hostage dealwith Hamas, complicating a final agreement, a Western official, a Palestinian official and two Egyptian sources told Reuters.
   2. Israel wants to screen displaced Palestinians as they return to northern Gazawhen the cease-fire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the four sources said. Israeli negotiators “want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, said the Western official.
   3. Hamas rejected the new Israeli demand, according to the Palestinian and Egyptian sources. Another sticking point, the Egyptian sources said, was overIsrael’s demand to retain control of Gaza’s border with Egypt. “Netanyahu is still stalling. There’s no change in his stance so far,” said Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri, who did not comment directly on Israel’s demands.
   4. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said at a press conference that she had a “frank and constructive meeting” with PM Netanyahu and reiterated her “unwavering commitment” to Israel’s security. “It is time for this war to end and end in a way where Israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination,” Harris told reporters after the meeting, adding that “Israel has a right to defend itself. And how it does so matters…I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation…I will not be silent. We cannot look away.”
   5. A senior Israeli official slammed VP Harris for calling for a quick end to the war, saying that “it’s to be hoped” that her comments would not be interpreted by Hamas as suggesting daylight between the U.S. and Israel, “which would make a deal less likely.” The comments came a day after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who will host Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Friday, told Fox News that he wants the PM “to finish up [the war] and get it done quickly, he’s got to get it done quickly, because they [Israel] are getting decimated with this publicity.” 
3. Fire in the Olympic hole – In addition to the rain in Paris, security was stepped up again after arsonists set fire to 3 high speed train lines, delaying the arrival of thousands for the opening ceremonies. Despite the threat, the Olympics kicked off with a cultural tour de force opening ceremony, featuring a parade of boats, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and a host of rain-soaked performances tied into the themes of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité. The NBC hosts had no clue of what was going on, but despite their lack of any meaningful analysis, the show was tres entertaining. Oui, Oui! 
4. Israel’s 88 Olympic athletes arrived this week in Paris amid heightened security threats. Israeli officials said they doubled the security budget since the Tokyo Games. “Aside from security concerns,” reports the Times of Israel, “many of the athletes are also bracing themselves for an angry reception, including protests outside games, boos inside stadiums, opponents’ refusing to shake their hands or other staged provocations.”
5. Kamala Harris says she ‘will not be silent’ about plight of Palestinians after meeting Benjamin Netanyahu – In her first statement on Israel as a presidential candidate, Kamala Harris struck a markedly different tone than President Joe Biden, saying after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that she “will not be silent” in the face of what she called the “devastation” in Gaza. Frankly, not much she said after her meeting demonstrated any daylight or difference between her and Biden’s position. Her empathy for Palestinians was probably a bit stronger. By the time she becomes President, the Gaza war will probably be over, so IMHO, she should try and stay clear of this issue to avoid pissing off the lefties and keep the pressure on Hamas to surrender themselves and the hostages. 
6. Actor Jon Voight said in a new interview that his daughter, actress and activist Angelina Jolie, has been exposed to “propaganda” because she supports Gaza.“She’s been influenced by antisemitic people,” he said. “Angie has a connection to the U.N., and she’s enjoyed speaking out for refugees. But these people are not refugees.” (Variety)
7. Couple who lost legs on Oct. 7 walk down the aisle together – A couple who both lost their right legs during the Hamas October 7 attack on southern Israel were married on Thursday after spending months in rehabilitation together. Ben Binyamin and Gali Segal’s journey of recovery was originally reported upon by Channel 12 in November, and the network revisited the couple as they embarked on their special day. In November, Segal told Channel 12, “We want to come to the wedding walking. Only then will we get married.

Let’s call it a wrap. Enjoy your weekend everyone, and remember, let’s be careful out there.

Brad out.

Shabbat shalom!

I recently was part of a family text chain that somehow veered off into Israeli politics. I am not a fan of text chains in general and usually avoid attempting to communicate anything serious on a platform usually reserved for confirming logistics around grand children or posting silly birthday or fantasy sports memes, but this particular chain got my dander up since someone on the chain made a comment that “Israel is committing genocide”. 

After an angry retort on my part, and upon later reflection, I should have viewed what I consider to be a deplorable comment as a learning opportunity. A chance to educate and inform, and hopefully persuade anyone in the JNR community holding that opinion, how wrong it is, and how awful it is to promote it, especially to anyone who considers themselves Jewish. 

It also made me realize that while I spend a lot more time these days deep in Israeli news and politics, I should not assume the same of most people. And given the rampant anti-semitic coverage of Israel by the mainstream media, and the actual real carnage of innocent people in Gaza, it should come as no surprise that others – the loony left, ivy league students, and yes, even my liberal leaning family members – may hold the same opinion on the issue of genocide, apartheid, proportional response, and others. 

Hence, I decided to post a special edition of the JNR dedicated to busting many of the myths perpetrated and promoted by Hamas propaganda, and enabled in large part by mainstream and social media. Each Wednesday I will post a portion of Sam Harris’ “5 Myths about Israel and the war in Gaza”, each post focusing exclusively on one of the five myths. This inaugural post will bust the myth around Israel committing “genocide”, a term first created by a Jewish lawyer from Poland, Raphael Lemkin in 1944 to describe the Nazi plans to eliminate Jews, and other groups. The United Nations adopted the following in 1948, “Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. (Article 2 CPPCG)”

For those not familiar with Sam Harris, he is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including Israel, but he is best known as one of the “Four Horsemen” of New Atheism, along with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett. Since September 2013, Harris has hosted the Making Sense podcast (originally titled Waking Up), which has a large listenership. 

Harris wrote and broadcast this piece in January, 2024. For sure, it is still relevant today, and the poll numbers he quotes have only gotten worse. He begins with a couple of broader, key points, one about the larger issue on the clash of cultures between “Islamic extremists—more appropriately called jihadists—and ordinary human beings struggling to maintain the norms of open societies”. But let’s pick it up at his second introductory point and if you want to read or listen to the full posting, use the link above. 

This is a bit lengthy, so grab a cup of coffee, get comfy, and enjoy the read. This is Sam:

The second point, and I fear that this will be forgotten almost immediately, the moment I begin defending Israel, is that there is no ethical or political argument that makes sense of the sight of lifeless children being pulled from rubble. With just a glimpse of the imagery coming out of Gaza, it is only natural to think that any action that could produce such carnage must be evil. It is absolutely natural to feel that, since urban warfare guarantees that innocent children will die, violence cannot be the answer. So Israel should just stop fighting. But this is an illusion. However horrific, even unthinkable, sometimes war is necessary. Now, many of the decisions Israel has made in how it wages this war are certainly debatable. But there is no way of waging it without a massive loss of innocent life, as I will discuss.

What is the alternative to violence for Israel in its current conflict with Hamas, given what Hamas did on October 7th, and given what it has vowed to do again at any opportunity? Pacifism? Pacifism only works against a morally sane adversary. It worked against the British in India. But pacifism would not have worked against the Nazis. Had the Allies decided that war is just too awful, and they just couldn’t stomach killing any more German children, we would all be living in the 1000-year Reich. And if the Israelis practiced pacifism, Hamas and Hezbollah and a fair number of ordinary Palestinians would simply murder them. This is not an opinion. This is what these groups have claimed openly for decades. And if there were any doubt—and there was never any doubt—October 7th has made it obscene to doubt this now. What more do you need? Hamas has said that it will repeat the atrocities of October 7th again and again. And recent polls indicate that 80 percent of Palestinians approve of what they did. You might worry that Palestinians can’t afford to answer such polls honestly, for fear of Hamas, but support for Hamas is around 40 percent in recent polls. Support for what Hamas did on October 7th is double that. So many of those who had the courage to say they don’t support Hamas still approve of what happened on October 7th.  

The problem for Israel, and for the whole world, is that Jihadism is more dangerous than Nazism. Jihadists are Nazis who are certain of paradise. They are Nazis who are eager to die and have their children die because they actually believe in martyrdom. They don’t just sort of believe in it. They don’t merely hope that it’s true. They absolutely believe that dying while attempting to kill infidels, or apostates, or Jews leads directly to Paradise. I understand that this sounds like dehumanizing wartime propaganda. But it isn’t. This is fundamentalist religion in its worst form. We are dealing with religious fanatics who have had most rational human goals and considerations scraped from their minds by a lunatic ideology. And while there are differences among jihadist groups—and they can be sometimes found murdering one another—they are all part of the same death cult. I’m not saying that ordinary nationalism and tribalism aren’t also part of the problem. They are. There are many contributors to every conflict. I’m talking about what makes these particular conflicts worse than those born of ordinary nationalism, or tribalism, or competition for resources, or any other earthly motive.

The aims of jihadists really are antithetical to everything that civilized people value, and are right to value, in the 21st century. And the fact that we have on our own side rich, educated people, who are concerned about gay rights and trans rights and women’s rights, who want to fight climate change and save the whales, taking the side of Hamas in the aftermath of their atrocities on October 7th, just reveals how confused and decadent and morally vulnerable our civilization has become. We have to face the facts that are staring us in the face. And, most important, the majority of Muslims everywhere need to face these facts and be honest about what jihadism is, and where a sincere belief in martyrdom leads. They have to moderate Islam in ways that other religions have been moderated. And there are some hopeful signs that this is happening—at least among the rulers of the gulf states. But a disavowal of jihadism needs to become the majority opinion among 2 billion Muslims worldwide. Until this happens, there will be no exit from these sorts of conflicts.

Myth #1: Israel is guilty of “genocide” in Gaza.

The term “genocide” has a clear meaning—it’s the destruction or attempted destruction of a whole people. According to the 1948 international genocide convention, genocide constitutes “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” To claim that Israel has perpetrated a genocide in Gaza, or that it has attempted genocide anywhere, is patently false. There were around 250,000 people in Gaza in 1948. There are now more than 2 million. This rate of growth is triple the world average. So if Israel has perpetrated a genocide in Gaza, it is the most inept genocide in history. And yet this false charge has been made against Israel for years. It’s telling that the most recent allegations of genocide could be heard before Israel had dropped a single bomb in response to the atrocities of October 7th. Really, people were shrieking “genocide” on October 8th. What does that tell you? This is just a new blood libel.

Of course, it is true that the Israeli Defense Forces have killed a lot of people in Gaza. However, it is also true that if the IDF wanted to kill every person in Gaza next week—that is, actually commit genocide—it could. But, of course, it doesn’t want to do that and has never wanted to do that. In fact, the Israeli army routinely drops leaflets, and broadcasts on the radio, and calls cellphones to alert Palestinian civilians when specific areas will be bombed. They did this for weeks in advance of their most recent invasion of Gaza. Conversely, Hamas is using its own population as human shields. It built its headquarters under a hospital, and built hundreds of miles of tunnels under civilian apartments and schools and mosques, and fires its rockets from populated areas, and often prevents families from evacuating in a conscious attempt to maximize the loss of innocent life. These are war crimes.

Of course, the IDF makes terrible mistakes, and this is inevitable in war. The IDF recently killed Israeli hostages who were mere moments away from being rescued. There are tragic accidents and errors of judgment in every war. However, any conflict with jihadists is made immeasurably worse by the tactics they use. Why can’t Israeli soldiers simply trust people who appear unarmed and want to surrender or move to safety? Because they are confronting a culture of religious fanatics that has produced an endless supply of suicide bombers over the last 50 years. Just take a moment to contemplate how the tactic of suicide bombing changes everything. Nothing and no one can be taken at face value. Normally, if someone is driving a car or truck, you can be confident that he hasn’t rigged it to explode. Most people aren’t eager to die. We rely on the near universality of that attitude in all kinds of ways. But here we are talking about people who have literally rigged children to explode—this has happened in a dozen different conflicts with jihadists across the world—many of which had nothing to do with Israel or the West or even non-Muslims. How do you expect an army, or a police force, or any other organization, to deal with this possibility in a compassionate and civilized way—one that is recognized to be compassionate and civilized by all the innocent people who are subjected to it, day after day and year after year, at check points, and in other places where they have to be treated like they too might be suicide bombers? Just imagine what it is like to have to wonder whether a child is actually a bomb? And just think for a moment about a culture that has normalized this nihilistic behavior—a culture that literally teaches the love of martyrdom to 6 year-olds in school. This has nothing to do with Israel or Jews—or the Palestinians even. This is just jihadism. For instance, Boko Haram routinely uses children as suicide bombers in Nigeria, and elsewhere in Africa. This insane behavior has nothing to do with Israel. Most members of Boko Haram have never met anyone who has ever met anyone who has met a Jew. This nihilism falls directly out of the doctrines around martyrdom and jihad, which are unique to Islam. Again, I’m not saying nationalism and ordinary grievances never play a role. They do. I’m talking about the religious layer of these conflicts that make them worse than other types of conflict.

I’m going to take a little detour here, just to hammer this point home—because in my experience, secular people find it impossible to understand what’s going on here. This from The New York Times on February 12, 1984… Almost exactly 40 years ago. Reported by Terence Smith, who at the time was a former foreign correspondent and chief White House correspondent for The New York Times. Reading from the start of the article, about the war between Iran and Iraq. This is being reported from the Iranian side, about their routine use of child soldiers on suicide missions. Again, this is from The New York Times 40 years ago:

“THEIR TICKET TO PARADISE IS the blood-red headband and the small metal key that they wear into battle. ”Sar Allah,” (”Warriors of God”), some of the headbands read in Farsi script, identifying the wearers as divinely designated martyrs who will use their keys to go directly to heaven if killed in the holy war against Iraq declared by their leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The headbands and the keys are worn by young boys, aged 12 to 17, [I should note that younger ages have been reported elsewhere, I’ve read about children as young as 9 used in this way] who are recruited by local clergy or simply rounded up in the villages of Iran, given an intensive indoctrination in the Shiite tradition of martyrdom, and then sent weaponless into battle against Iraqi armor. Often bound together in groups of 20 by ropes to prevent the fainthearted from deserting, they hurl themselves on barbed wire or march into Iraqi mine fields in the face of withering machine-gun fire to clear the way for Iranian tanks. [Just picture this from the Iraqi side: You’re an Iraqi tank commander, and you see groups of children coming at you across a minefield, tied together with rope, clearing the mines and barbed wire with their lives.] Across the back of their khaki-colored shirts is stenciled the slogan: ‘’I have the special permission of the Imam [that’s the maniac Khomeini] to enter heaven.’

“In dozens of interviews conducted by this reporter in recent weeks with Iranian exiles, academics and government and intelligence officials in the United States and Europe, the blind faith of these teen-age martyrs was frequently cited as symbolic of the fanaticism that is part of life today in the Islamic Republic of Iran. An East European journalist who witnessed one of these human-wave assaults, in which tens of thousands of young Iranians have gone willingly to their deaths, could hardly believe what he was seeing, as first one boy, and then another, detonated a mine and was hurled into the air by the explosion. ‘We have so few tanks,’ an Iranian officer explained to the journalist, without apology.”

Ok, a few things should be clear. Again, this madness has nothing to do with Israel. Here, we’re talking about the war between Iran and Iraq, 40 years ago. These were Muslims fighting other Muslims. And it was a zombie movie. This belief in martyrdom is cancer for the mind. Until the Muslim world outgrows it—anathematizes it, vomits over it, can’t believe it ever indulged it—the potential for the most insane violence will never go away. And this is why nuclear weapons in the hands of jihadists cannot be tolerated. As bad as nuclear proliferation is in every other context—just think of how bonkers things are with North Korea. North Korea has nuclear weapons. And they have also built ICBMs. Though their accuracy is still debatable. And they have threatened to bomb the United States. As bad as that is, one thing makes it tolerable: We don’t believe that Kim Jong Un is eager to die. The guy loves basketball. He has 100 cars and a harem and a private island. If a fanatical belief in martyrdom were endemic to North Korea and its leaders, that would make the situation incalculably worse. The entire world, and the Muslim world in particular, needs to recognize that jihadism is the one ism that can no longer be tolerated.   

As for genocide, the intentions of Hamas, as declared in their founding charter, and as they have reiterated numerous times since October 7th, are explicit: They aspire to commit an actual genocide. This is something they proudly claim to want to do. And the worst part is that they don’t ultimately care about their own survival. Members of Hamas, like jihadists everywhere, routinely chant, “We love death more than the Jews, or the infidels, or the Americans, love life.” While this might sound like posturing, and it may be posturing for any specific person who lacks real faith, in general, it is an honest expression of their religious worldview. They are a death cult. And Hamas is a death cult that happens to be very popular among Palestinians. Even though Hamas has engineered a situation in which to fight them effectively requires that Palestinian civilians also die.

Again, they are consciously using their own population as human shields. They have built hundreds of miles of tunnels under Gaza, more extensive than the London underground, with thousands of entrances that use hospitals, mosques, schools, apartment buildings, and other civilian infrastructure as cover. Hamas fighters are hiding in these tunnels right now, and using the innocent civilians they kidnapped from Israel as an additional layer of human shields. Crucially, these tunnels are not being used as bomb shelters for the civilian population. On the contrary, the civilian population is being sacrificed to protect the tunnels. Again, that was the whole plan. They have spent billions of dollars, over the course of 17 years, building these tunnels. The Palestinians in Gaza have received more international aid than almost any community on earth. They could have built a Singapore on the Mediterranean. In fact, if they were pacifists, they would already have a state. Pacifism would actually work if practiced by the Palestinians against Israel. There is no way that Israel could resist a Gandhian-style campaign of nonviolence in support of a 2-state solution. The Palestinians would absolutely win a moral contest like that, and could have won it 50 years ago. But, generally speaking, they are a culture of religious fanatics, ruled by absolute fanatics, who are willing to sacrifice everything for martyrdom. As a top Hamas official said in response to all the destruction in Gaza, “We are called a nation of martyrs. And we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.” That is the problem that Israel is dealing with. What Hamas is doing is not, in any sense, normal human behavior in a time of a war. But it is normal for jihadists. What Israel is doing, in a desperate attempt to eradicate Hamas, while minimizing civilian death, is not in any sense an act of genocide.

Again, nothing that I just said, even while true, makes sense when you see the bodies of dead children being pulled out of rubble. The only thing that provides moral clarity here is the recognition that this whole catastrophe is Hamas’s fault. And that there can be no peaceful response to jihadism. Anyone calling for a cease fire at this point needs to ask themselves, why aren’t you calling for Hamas to release the hostages? And why don’t you remember that there was a ceasefire on October 6th? The truth that we cannot lose sight of is that Hamas has deliberately engineered the chaos on both sides of the Gaza border.

I hope you found this re-post useful and informative. Next week, I will cover Myth #2: The atrocities committed by Hamas (and over one thousand Palestinian civilians) on October 7th were a legitimate response to oppression.

Today, Bibi will present to a joint session of Congress. There are numerous protests happening, one yesterday led by a group called Jewish Voice for Peace. FYI, they are a small, aggressive organization funded by antisemitic and terrorist organizations. Here is a link to the ADL review of JVP.

Finally, to put an exclamation point on the danger of Hamas and other jihadists, here is what Hamas just said yesterday: “You invited zionists to the Olympic Games. You will pay for what you have done. Rivers of blood will flow through the streets of Paris.”

Oh dear. Let’s pray the Israelis do the civilized world a favor and rid us of Hamas before they can commit further acts of terrorism.

Brad out.

Shabbat shalom! 

This heatwave is making me more than a bit irascible, and the news here in the Jew S of A, doesn’t help my temperament much either. To avoid inducing any further anxiety, and to keep my optimistic wits about me while I watch a perfect political storm potentially demolish our democracy, I have turned to two of my favorite past times – baseball, and, eccentric British politicians. 

Of the former, we are approaching the half way point of the baseball season with the All Star game scheduled to begin next week. For most of us in the USA, baseball is in our DNA. I still have vivid memories of my Little League years: putting on a wool uniform too big for my undersized frame, running chalk-lined base paths in stiff leather cleats, the smell of recently mowed grass, the sting of a batted ball on a cold day, the taunts and jeers coming from the dugouts, the home run I hit against Randy Friedman, buying waxed lips, pixie sticks and dots candies at the concession stand. For obvious reasons, I am investing more and more time in baseball, making the game do more of the work that helps keep me from losing my shit. Whatever whacky and depressing news is hitting the daily cycle, I know I can count on the game’s deeply enduring patterns, as A. Bartlett Giamatti noted, “three strikes, three outs, three times three innings, and its deepest impulse, to go out and back, to leave and to return home, to set the order of the day and to organize the daylight.” And with my home team, the Boston Red Sox, running like rabbits in this new and improved version of baseball, I have a deeper appreciation than ever for the summer game.

As most politicians know, if the shit is hitting the proverbial fan on the domestic front, one can always turn their focus and agenda to foreign affairs. In that regard, there has been a lot to talk about this past week with elections taking place in both Britain and France, with the former providing much entertainment mostly from that notable and peculiarly British cultural phenomenon known politely as “the eccentric British politician”. Confession: I am a bit of an anglophile, ever since my 10 week consulting gig working in Bishop’s Stortford, where I learned how to hit a tennis ball on grass and enjoy warm beer, not necessarily in that order. I also learned a little about British elections, a far more efficient process than our never-ending campaigns and transitions. In Britain, this last election cycle was all of 4 weeks. Elections were on a Thursday, and by Friday morning Sunak was gracefully handing over the reigns of power to Starmer, (who for some strange reason has British women swooning). Sadly, the US may never see that kind of peaceful transition ever again.

While the British Parliamentary system may run more smoothly than ours, it doesn’t lose its sense of humor in the process. There was a time in the US when we didn’t take ourselves and our elections too seriously. Pat Paulson, a straight-faced comedian, ran for President in 1968 claiming he was neither Democrat nor Republican.  His party was the Straight Talkin’ American Government Party, the STAG Party.  “Are you right-wing or left-wing?” someone asked.  “Neither,” he said.  “I’m kind of middle of the bird.  Too much left-wing, too much right-wing and you fly around in concentric circles.”

And of course there was the campaign by Mad Magazine icon, Alfred E. Neuman whose campaign slogan was “What, me worry?” Neuman is MAD magazine’s signature character, the goofy, gap-toothed guy who fictitiously runs for president every four years in the pages of the humor magazine. “He’s just got this stupid face that people seem to like and they write in his name,” MAD magazine editor John Ficarra told the JNR. “He’s sort of like Ron Paul, but with better looks and better positions.” 

I myself ran a satirical campaign for Student Government President in 1978 at the University of Massachusetts with my partner in crime, Bill Edelstein. We ran as Co-Benevolent Dictators against “None of the Above”, a Yippie named Russell Swan who along with his toy duck ran on the Swan-Duck platform, and about six other candidates. With student funding, Edelstein and I rented a Piper Cub plane at Northampton Airport and actually dropped leaflets from said plane onto the Amherst campus, in what is probably one of the best political stunts in UMass history. Unfortunately, we misjudged the wind and our leaflets fell on the Dean of Students house and a nearby Amherst elementary school. We didn’t win, but as Edelstein claimed in the student newspaper interview, “we nailed the 4th grade vote.”

So, I am someone who can appreciate some good satire and few good political stunts. Hence, I was particularly thankful to the leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey, who launched himself into some attention-grabbing stunts which helped propel his party into the media, while also carrying serious messages. Some of his crazier stunts included:

1. The bungee jump

2. Paddle boarding in Lake Windermere

3. Interview in a tea cup

Sir Ed’s Liberal Democrats came in 3rd in the voting, ending up with 72 seats, a gain of over 60 from the last election in 2019. So, it seems that these planned stunts paid off for Sir Ed and the Liberal Democrats. It was not a fun night for the Tories however, who predictably were clobbered in what most considered a rebuke of 14 years of incompetence. Even Liz Truss, the Conservative MP who couldn’t last longer than a head of lettuce as Prime Minister, lost her seat. And no MP symbolized Tory humiliation more than Senior Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg, who lost his seat while standing next to a man in a baked beans balaclava. Mr Rees-Mogg looked solemn in the moment, but the man standing next to him in a brunch-themed balaclava and a wooden tie stole the show. This was Phin “Barmy Brunch” Adams, a schoolteacher, radio presenter, and Monster Raving Loony Party candidate for North East Somerset and Hanham. Barmy Brunch stood on a platform of introducing a “statutory brunch hour,” but also to make a statement about mental health. You really can’t make this shit up.

So, thank you baseball for being a great summer distraction, and thank you eccentric British politicians who continue to provide comic relief during these particularly dreadful dog days of summer. 

Now, what about all the news for the Jews? Without any further ajieu, here is your weekly buffet of baffling, beguiling, and sometimes bitter news for the Jews copied and pasted from the likes of The Forward, Kveller, Times of Israel, The Jewish Chronicle, JTA, and other reputable sources of all things Jewish-y.  

1. The latest on the war
   1. There was significant progress made at hostage-truce talks Tuesday in Egypt, according to a U.S. official. Talks are set to resume in Qatar. Netanyahu has announced 4 red lines in the negotiations, which hostage family members believe is a deliberate attempt by him to derail the negotiations.
   2. A cease-fire in Gaza could also calm tensions in Israel’s north, where dozens of Israelis and hundreds of Hezbollah fighters have been killed since the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group began launching missiles on Oct. 8. Hezbollah has launched yet another barrage of explosive drones into northern Israel. One person in the Western Galilee has been reported as critically wounded from the barrage. Nearly 100,000 residents of northern Israel remain displaced around the country through the end of August, according to a government order issued earlier this week. With school starting the day after the latest evacuation order ends, families who are unable to return to their homes in the north are unlikely to uproot their children in the middle of the school year. That would make the prospects of an imminent return even less viable, which is likely to have a devastating impact on northern communities for the foreseeable future.
   3. IDF strike targets Hamas military chief Muhammad Deif; group claims at least 70 killed – Muhammad Deif, the elusive commander of Hamas’s military wing, and another top commander in the terror group were targeted in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, the Israeli military said. The pair were struck with large munitions above ground while in a low building between the al-Mawasi area and Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and not in a tunnel. Hamas claimed that over 70 people had been killed in the strike.
   4. The Biden administration will soon begin shipping the 500-pound bombs to Israel that it initially withheld in May. The heavier 2,000-pound bombs are still on hold.
   5. The IDF is moving forward with drafting Haredi men. Some prominent rabbis are urging yeshiva students to ignore the draft notices.
   6. A vandal in Amsterdam defaced a statue of Anne Frank, painting the word “Gaza” across the base.
   7. A Jewish man is suing two groups that protested outside a Los Angeles synagogue last month, claiming that his right to access a house of worship was impeded.
   8. An Israeli airstrike in Gaza Tuesday afternoon killed at least 25 people, according to local health authorities. The IDF said it was targeting a Hamas leader and is investigating the incident. Separately, the IDF warned all residents of Gaza City to evacuate.
   9. The FBI is interviewing U.S. survivors and relatives of victims of the Oct. 7 attack as it builds a case against Hamas’ financial backers.
   10. Iran has provided funding for pro-Palestinian protests in the U.S., the director of National Intelligence said on Tuesday. Related: Iran’s new president reaffirmed his country’s commitment to support anti-Israel groups.
   11. Two Israeli civilians were killed Tuesday night when a Hezbollah rocket struck their car in northern Israel.
   12. A judge ruled on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must continue testifying in his corruption trial on Dec. 2, and that an ongoing war should not impact his ability to prepare for that.
2. French Jews reel over shock election results boosting extreme parties – Many in France celebrated the unexpected victory of a left-wing coalition in blocking the rise of Marine Le Pen’s controversial far-right party in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. But for the country’s Jewish community – the largest in Europe – the results cast a gloomy outlook on their future, although it is unlikely to spark mass immigration to Israel, at least for now, those who spoke to Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash this week said. “This is the worst parliament since the Shoah if you look at all the seats gained on the extreme right and all those gained on the extreme left,” Ariel Kandel, CEO of Qualita, an umbrella organization for French immigrants to Israel, told JI. “And those numbers will just keep on growing.”
3. HFAC Republicans pass measure to claw back UNRWA funding with no support from Democrats – The House Foreign Affairs Committee split along party lines on a bill seeking to rescind U.S. funding previously provided to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency before the administration and Congress froze funding to the U.N. body earlier this year, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
4. Notes on the North: In The Times of Israel, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, previously a member of Knesset, argues that Israel needs to take a harder stance against Hezbollah as the Iran-backed terror group continues to attack Israel’s north. “Israel is losing the north, but the loss will not be of land alone. Endangered, too, is the state’s commitment to defend all of our citizens irrespective of their place of residence, to preserve our precious human and natural resources, and to deter our enemies. Nor will that fate be confined to the north but, along with Hezbollah’s southward-creeping rocket fire, it will eventually afflict the center. A new northern border running from Haifa to Kfar Saba is not unimaginable, or even from Ra’anana to Netanya.” [TOI]
5. A newly released IDF report into operational failures on Oct. 7 found that the Israeli military made a number of grave errors in its response to Hamas’ terror attack on the community of Kibbutz Be’eri.
6. On a private Zoom call, Biden’s top Jewish supporters question his ability to win – The Biden campaign dispatched a staffer on Wednesday to reassure the members of Jewish Women for Joe, a grassroots group that for years has contained some of the president’s fiercest backers, and several other politically involved Jewish Democrats — who are now, like many other Democrats, privately stressed about President Joe Biden’s ability to beat former President Donald Trump. It didn’t go well, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports, after obtaining leaked audio from the call. 

Finally, I recommend Dan Senor’s latest interview, this time with former Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett. Here is a link to the podcast and a short excerpt from the transcription:

“Well, unfortunately, right now, the evidence shows that their big driver is a deep religious desire to destroy the Jewish state, and they view that superior to their own desires for their welfare. Now, this is very hard to accept as a Western mind, people who live in Israel and had normal lives, we assumed that our neighbors also pursue happiness and pursue the good of their children. Unfortunately, both the polls, even the most recent polls show that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians, roughly 75% support Hamas and support the massacres of October 7th and the consequences.

And whoever perpetrated October 7th, which was thousands of Hamasnicks, but also thousands of random civilians who went in and joined the party, the pogrom, it shows that this is a massive popular sentiment that is a result of decades and decades of brain poisoning by their own leadership, by their media, by their mosques, by the schools. So I don’t think a baby is born bad. I think babies are born neutral and it’s what you feed their minds and hearts for decades that shapes them.”

From Call Me Back – with Dan Senor: Naftali Bennett, (former) Prime Minister, Jul 12, 2024

That’s all folks. Try to stay cool, stay optimistic, and remember, be careful out there. And go Red Sox!

Brad out. 

Shabbat shalom! And a shout out to all the Dad’s out there. I miss my old man, but think of him often and wish he could be here to enjoy the new generation of Hirsh Govermans, many of them sporting some shade of his amazing blue eyes. 

If you are someone like me who watches the news, has more than a few social media outlets, reads a lot and enjoys culture, or in other words, you are still breathing, you may be thinking, as my mother occasionally tells me, that the country and the world are going to hell in a hand basket. And based on the onslaught of negative news we are all subjected to, that would be an understandable position to take. But the truth is that all the good news on all subjects is covered-up by the algorithmic driven dynamic whereby bad news gets higher ratings and drives more clicks than good news. Hence, we can blame big tech for the general malaise, which maybe, explains why in the midst of one of the best economies in the history of the world, grandpa Joe is not getting much respect in the polls.

But the case for pessimism is compelling. Let’s do a quick review of some major forces and trends from the last few decades, courtesy of Substack writer Matthew Yglesias: a disastrous war in Iraq; a ruinous financial crisis followed by a decade of anemic growth when most of the new wealth went to those who were already well off; a half-assed response to the deadliest pandemic in a century; a botched withdrawal from Afghanistan; rising prices and interest rates; skyrocketing levels of public and private debt; surging rates of homelessness and the spread of tent encampments in American cities; undocumented migrants streaming over the southern border; spiking rates of gun violence, mental illness, depression, addiction, suicide, chronic illness and obesity, coupled with a decline in life expectancy; a Supreme Court in ethical decline, and of course, climate change, the war in Gaza and the new wave of anti-semitism. Phew. I am already depressed just writing this shit down.

But, are we missing the bigger picture? Can we make a case for optimism amidst these disasters and dumpster of despair? 

According to Yglesias, there is counterbalancing good news, but we just don’t get to see it. Poverty, for example, has decreased significantly across the world, steadily.

And child mortality is another positive indicator of a world getting increasingly “better”. Here is the good news on that front, with a historical prospective on how this indicator can get even better.

If we narrow the aperture and look just at our good old US of A, we can see more positivity. It’s true, for example, that we had a span of highly unequal growth in the wake of the financial crisis. But in our recent economic recovery  wealth has grown most rapidly at the bottom and so have wages. That’s good news!

Yglesias points out even more good news:

Back when homicide was, in fact, surging in 2020-2021, I thought “things were worse in the 1990s” was a lame response. But we’re now living through the third straight year of falling murder, the drop appears to be accelerating, and the fact that the spike peaked at a lower level than we saw in my childhood does feel relevant to me. It’s not just that the murder situation is getting better, the overall policy feedback loop has improved — that, not “spiking rates of gun violence,” seems like the story to me.

Public debt has gone up, but private debt is at record low levels. Obesity is a genuine problem, but the rate has been rising as far back as we can find records(i.e., the 1880s and possibly earlier), so this is hardly a reason to feel like the world is suddenly in disarray. The actual big news on obesity is that we, for the first time ever, have a new class of drugs that appear to be highly effective in treating it. There are more GLP-1 agonists in development, and it looks like they have benefits beyond treating obesity.

Similarly, while falling life expectancy has made a ton of news year after year, fewer people seem to have noticed that last fall, the CDC reported that life expectancy rose in 2022. What’s more, the data is laggy. But traffic fatalities fell last year for the second straight year. And we know that the murder rate declined in 2023 and that the Covid death rate also declined, so this fall when we get the 2023 life expectancy numbers, they will likely report another rise that again won’t get as much attention as the drop.

So, pay no attention to that man (or woman) behind the curtain. Those algorithmic levers they are pushing to get your attention and sell more advertisements is a major reason you are feeling depressed, or anxious about the crazy shit we deal with daily. And while we Jews are getting more than our fair share of bat shit craziness, there has been some good news on that front as well. But truthfully, not enough. 

Last week ended with the good news about the dramatic rescue of four hostages in Gaza, but was quickly followed by main stream media and left wing nonsense about the cost of that rescue. In what fucking world does a heroic rescue of innocent hostages held for over 8 months become a story about how many innocents were killed in the process? By the way, those “innocents” were holding the hostages in a densely populated area whose “innocent” citizens just polled 90% support of Hamas! If your son or daughter were being held hostage for 8 months by rapist/terrorists, how many “innocents” would you be willing to sacrifice for their rescue? The Associated Press, a long time bastion of journalistic excellence, went with this ridiculous headline: “Gaza’s Health Ministry says 274 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid that rescued 4 hostages”. How many times are they going to use the ridiculously stupid lies from the Gaza Health Ministry, and why is the lead about the Palestinians?! Fuck!

And here is the absolute kicker from the BBC. Their news anchor, Helena Humphrey, actually asked an IDF spokesperson if Israel had provided a warning to Gazans before the rescue attempt. Really. Because of course everyone knows that proper hostage rescue etiquette dictates that you must first inform the terrorists holding the hostages of the exact time you plan to rescue them. Even worse, Humphrey starts out by stating, “I would like to start out by getting your reaction to the news of the four hostages and them being released.” Released! Are you fucking kidding me?

How am I doing making the case for optimism? It ain’t easy these days. But, let’s get to the good stuff, and I will try and lean toward some good news.

1. Ceasefire/Hostage Deal: The IDF renewed operations in and around Rafah. Meantime, negotiations on a ceasefire/hostage deal continue, but a deal seems elusive. Visiting the region, Sec. Blinken accused Hamas of changing the goalposts of negotiations and questioned whether they are negotiating in “good faith.” Doesn’t sound like it, but this is good news. The more the US runs out of patience with Hamas, the more likely the leverage increases on wiping them out, which is the only outcome Israel will accept and the only outcome that could lead to a lasting peace in the region.
2. Northern Israel underwent the most intense Hezbollah barrage to date during the war, with the terror group launching 30 drones and 100 rockets in a coordinated Thursday attack. This is not good news. 
3. Antisemitism Intensifies: In the past week there’s been a concerning spate of antisemitic incidents in the New York area. What’s newsworthy is not just the frequency of the events but the alarming change in tone, with self-described pro-Palestine protesters threatening violence against Jews and denying the atrocities on 10/7.
   • “Day of Rage” Protests: Protesters gathered at the Nova Exhibition in New York City. It recreates the Nova Festival where Hamas slaughtered hundreds of young Israelis 10/7. The protesters shouted “long live the intifada” and unfurled a banner reading “long live October 7th.” One video shows keffiyeh-clad protesters filling a subway car in New York and chanting, “Raise your hand if you’re a Zionist. This is your chance to get out.” Also, the homes of several Jewish board members of the Brooklyn Museum were vandalized with signs calling them “white supremacist Zionists” and red paint, including red inverted triangles and red handprints (both associated with violence against Jews).
   • Anti-War or Anti-Jew? Elected Democrats condemned the protests. House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries said the language was “designed to justify the killing of Jews.” Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez called it “atrocious antisemitism – plain and simple.” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she’s now considering a ban on wearing face masks in NYC subways, after, in her words: “a group donning masks took over a subway car, scaring riders and chanting things about Hitler and wiping out Jews.” New York law long banned face masks in public, but that rule was lifted during COVID. 
4. Shiva call – Super Jew Morrie Markoff, listed as the oldest man in America, calls it a day at 110 – Mr. Markoff, who was born in New York City on Jan. 11, 1914, six months before World War I began, joined the “Supercentenarian” club this year. Mr. Markoff attributed his longevity to regular walking; he and his wife, who lived to 103, often completed three miles a day into their 90s, holding hands, they joked, “to keep themselves up,” his daughter said. He believed in eating simply, rarely drank alcohol and avoided water in plastic bottles. If that is the recipe for human longevity, I should be dead soon. Optimistically, I probably have a few more years.

5. Swift silence is golden – While Taylor Swift’s popularity knows no borders, one non-musical choice has recently added to her appeal in Israel, said Paz-Klapp — her abstention from speaking about the Israel-Hamas war. Her Israeli listeners are well-aware of their growing isolation on the world stage as public opinion turns against Israel’s eight-month war. Simply saying nothing about it has won Swift points with Israeli fans, many of whom view her music as an escape from the trauma of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that launched the war and the surging global censure of Israel.
6. Hot rodent men – A new trend among the glitterati is to compare the hot men on screen to rodents. I am not making this up. The rat trend grew out of an ongoing meme format comparing people’s faces to different animals. Horses, bears, eagles and dogs were the usual categories for men, while foxes, cats, deer and rabbits were for women. But somewhere along the line, it morphed into comparing the faces of the culture’s current heartthrobs — Timothee Chalamet of Dune fame, Jeremy Allen White from The Bear, Barry Keoghan who danced naked in the iconic closing scene of Saltburn, both Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor from the sexually-charged tennis flick Challengers  — to rodents. So, here you go.

That should do it for this week. Remember to be careful out there, and, try to stay optimistic!

Brad out.

Shabbat shalom! 

And a big tip of the kippah this week to the 12 jurors who literally have risked their lives by delivering a guilty verdict on the orange turd’s attempt to buy off a porn star in pursuit of the 2016 election. We may actually find out how the orange turd will look in an orange jump suit, but not likely. And if he should go to jail, how will he smuggle in all his beauty products?

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right of all accused criminals to a trial by a jury of their peers. The orange turd has lived most of his adult life as a privileged grifter who has cheated, defrauded, assaulted, bullied and abused thousands of people, weaving in and out of ethical and legal boundaries along his gilded life. So it was a fitting bit of justice that 12 ordinary people, chosen by lot, should finally be able to deliver some long-overdue accountability which the political and legal elites of this country have not been able to do on so many occasions. 

The news of his guilt and potential for the orange turd to finally be flushed, reminded me of an internal Arthur Andersen conference I attended in the 80’s. The kickoff speaker was a prominent partner/leader who started his speech with a prop: a rubber hose that looked like something he pulled off the back of a washing machine. He began his speech by creating a circle with the hose and declaring: “What goes around comes around”. And this is hopefully one of the lessons for Trump and MAGA world: If you act like a narcissistic asshole for most of your life, it’s bound to catch up with you eventually. In this case, the slow and grinding wheels of justice finally rolled over the Donald and delivered a 34 count gut punch that the 24/7 news cycle is cashing in on big time. MSNBC is having a ratings erection, and the rest of mainstream media is also joining in the news orgy while Fox called upon its viewers to “vanquish the evil forces that are destroying this republic”. Yikes. Our venerable Speaker of the House, Mike “knee pad” Johnson asked the Supreme Court to step in! To do what god only knows, but this is the fucked up, crazy world we live in.

Meanwhile, buried beneath the deranged Trump news avalanche, grandpa Biden announced his support of a new Israel-Hamas deal that he claims comes from Nut-and-yahoo himself. It was Biden’s most direct and forceful appeal to the people on both sides of the conflict, saying, “It’s time for this war to end and for the day after to begin.” Biden provided some context around the issue, and provided some leadership which so far, at least regarding an end to this madness, has been sadly missing, as Israel seems more intent on the tactics of crushing Hamas than with developing or even discussing an endgame strategy. 

The President outlined a new 3-phase hostage/ceasefire deal Israel is offering to Hamas. The deal calls for the release of all living hostages, withdrawal of Israeli troops, a “surge” of humanitarian aid, the eventual release of deceased hostages’ bodies, the establishment of a permanent ceasefire and the reconstruction of Gaza. His remarks seemed to focus more on the Israeli people, saying that Hamas has already been so badly degraded that they are “no longer capable” of carrying out another 10/7 attack. A large majority of Israelis still support completing the Rafah war effort and removing any further threat from Hamas, as they rightly view Hamas as an existential threat. Not surprisingly, Hamas already responded that they would only accept a deal that begins with a permanent ceasefire. 

And here is the bald, naked truth of any agreement resembling a two state solution: It’s not what Palestinians want. What they really want, and are fairly transparent about, is for the Jews to go away, disappear, or even better, be victims of a jihadist genocide. Only then will they get what they really want, from the River to the Sea. Sad but true, not just today, but throughout history.

Also in Israeli headlines, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz’s centrist party proposed on Thursday a bill to dissolve parliament, showing the growing strains in Nut-and-yahoo’s government even if the prime minister has enough lawmakers to keep him in office. The move follows an ultimatum Gantz issued in May, demanding that Netanyahu agree to a day-after plan for the Gaza war by June 8. He threatened to quit the coalition if no such agreement was forthcoming, although the prime minister’s Likud party and hard-right allies still have a majority of seats without Gantz. On top of that bit of news, hostage families on Friday accused Netanyahu of sacrificing their loved ones for the Rafah operation. Wow, it sure sucks to be Bibi these days. 

Before I get to this week’s roundup, some good news: It looks like Mexico will elect a Jewish woman President of the country! The frontrunner is Claudia Sheinbaum, a former governor of Mexico City and a protégée of current President López Obrador. She has a PhD in energy engineering. If elected, she would be Mexico’s first Jewish president. Hmmm, let’s compare: US elects a convicted rapist who has never read a book and recommended treating Covid with bleach. Mexico elects a woman scientist with a PhD. Sounds about right. 

Ok, I hear you. Let’s get to the rest of the news for Jews across the Jew S of A and the world. Here then, finally, is your weekly buffet of baffling, beguiling, and sometimes bitter news for the Jews copied and pasted from the likes of The Forward, Kveller, Times of Israel, The Jewish Chronicle, JTA, and other reputable sources of all things Jewish-y.  

1. Trump blames Soros for guilty verdict – Of course he does. And despite the obvious anti-semitic trope, republican Jews still support the a-hole! Speaking outside the Manhattan courthouse where his trial unfolded over several weeks, Trump blamed Jewish billionaire George Soros, invoking a trope that Jewish organizations have denounced as leading to antisemitic violence. Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, said the real verdict would come on Nov. 5, Election Day. Voters “know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here,” said Trump, who is the presumptive Republican candidate for president. “You have a Soros-backed D.A. and the whole thing, I didn’t do anything wrong, I am a very innocent man.” Soros’s connection to Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor, is tenuous. Soros, long an advocate for criminal justice reform to reduce incarceration rates, has donated money to Color of Change, which helps campaign for liberal prosecutors. He gave to the organization years before it backed Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor, when he ran for office in 2021.
2. Latest on the war…
   • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted it was a “tragic mistake” that an Israeli strike that killed two senior Hamas figures also reportedly killed dozens of Palestinians at a displaced persons camp in Rafah.“For us, every uninvolved civilian who is hurt is a tragedy,” Netanyahu said. “For Hamas, it’s a strategy. That’s the whole difference.”
   • Only 19% of Israeli Jews believe an Israeli and a Palestinian state can peacefully coexist — one of several headline-making findings in a new Pew study released Thursday. Among the others: 77% of Israeli Arabs and 66% of Israeli Jews are worried about the war “lasting a long time.”
   • Israel said it had gained complete “tactical control” over Gaza’s border with Egypt, known as the Philadelphi corridor, and found some 20 tunnels in the area; it aims to cut off external supply lines to Hamas. Separately, Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said he expects the war to last through at least the end of the year.
   • Deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza have dropped by about two-thirds since Israel began a ramped-up operation in Rafah earlier in May, said the United Nations. Separately, the Palestinian Red Crescent, an aid organization, said two of its employees were killed Wednesday while crossing into Rafah to retrieve injured people. And, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called Wednesday for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying a pause is desperately needed to allow aid deliveries.
   • U.S. officials said a $320 million temporary pier set up to allow aid deliveries, damaged by bad weather, would be operational again next week after parts undergo repairs in southern Israel.
   • Demonstrators at a Wednesday protest outside the Israeli embassy in Mexico City threw rocks and Molotov cocktails, causing some fires around the building and injuring 18 police officers, law enforcement said.
   • Brazil called back its ambassador to Israel. Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been a vocal critic of the war, drawing backlash in February after comparing the Israeli campaign in Gaza to the Holocaust.Only one hospital remains functional in Rafah after multiple humanitarian operations, including a field hospital, have been forced to shutter this week.
   • The Mossad said Thursday that criminal enterprises in Europe had worked as proxies for Iran to strike Israeli targets, including in the lobbing of two grenades at the Israeli Embassy in Belgium last weekend.
   • Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, reportedly told hostage families on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would not end the war in exchange for the release of all the hostages who remain in Gaza.
   • Slovenia became the latest European country to endorse a motion to recognize a Palestinian state.
3. ⚖️  Nail the jerk! A Texas judge ruled Wednesday that a Jewish college student’s defamation lawsuit against Elon Musk can proceed. Ben Brody, 23, says Musk amplified a false accusation that he attended a neo-Nazi rally last year. (Reuters)
4. 😓  Say it ain’t so Canada, eh? A Montreal Jewish school was targeted by gunfire Wednesday; no one was injured, but at least one bullet hit the building. Separately, Toronto’s mayor was among attendees at a rally at a Jewish girls’ school that was targeted by gunfire last weekend. (CBC, JTA)
5. 🏫  Oy! Harvard learns a hard lesson – Harvard said on Tuesday that it will refrain from taking official positions on controversial public policy issues, after months of grappling with a campus fractured by debate over the Israel-Hamas war. (Crimson)
6. Seinfeld breaks down recalling his December trip to Israel – “It was the most powerful experience of my life,” he said. On a lighter note, he thinks it’s funny that pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt his shows. “It’s so silly,” he said. “They want to express this sincere, intense rage, but it’s a little off target,” noting that comedians don’t have much political power. The conversation about Judaism, antisemitism and Israel starts at around the 22:30 mark.

Finally, some news that doesn’t suck, this item from Jessica Yellin’s News Not Noise Substack:

What’s Puszta? Here’s some news that doesn’t suck (unless you were the competition): 12-year-old Bruhat Soma won this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee in a record-shattering tiebreak round. In only the second-ever “spell-off” speed round, Soma managed to spell 29 difficult words in 90 seconds. The previous record was 22. Some of the mind-bending winning words included puszta, heautophany, caixinha, and ramoneur. 

As Porky Pig use to say at the end of a Looney Tunes cartoon, “That’s all folks!” And hey, let’s have a great weekend in this gorgeous weather, be safe out there, and remember, what goes around, comes around.

Brad out.