37% aged 14-18 Jewish Teens sympathize with an enemy actively working to murder as many Jews as possible and publicly vowing the destruction of Israel.

 

By MICAH HALPERN

Israel and the Jewish people have a serious perception problem – that fact is known to all who care. Yet, in this case, the bigger and less-known problem is one of self-perception.

In the United States, a significant percentage of young Jews are sympathizing with Hamas. Some 37% aged 14-18 sympathize with an enemy actively working to murder as many Jews as possible and publicly vowing the destruction of Israel.

The phenomenon is so befuddling it takes time to set in. I had to read the headline several times because I thought it was a typo or an editorial mistake. I ran to the study commissioned by the Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry.

How can young Jews come to such an obtuse conclusion? The issue further complicating this puzzling fact is that out of the 662 young people studied between June 16 and July 23, 2024, 80% of them had visited Israel at least once. The study reveals an even more troubling reality, specifically regarding 14-year-olds.

In the 14-year-old group, 60% felt sympathy for Hamas. As they get older the sympathy numbers drop. For 18-year-olds, the Hamas sympathy rating is 10%. According to the study, 60% of the youth sympathize with the Palestinian cause.

These are very significant findings. Maybe the study is wrong. If the findings are correct, the entire premise of focusing on Israel education has been mistaken – totally mistaken.

The working assumption was that a solution to the floundering future of young Jews was sending them to Israel: that seeing Israel with their own eyes was a solution. According to this study, however, it is not. Those studied saw the “real Israel” and they left prepped to criticize Israel. And they did not stop there but actually joined the Hamas side.

Some will retort that 94% of the teens “feel a connection to Israel,” and 94% want to foster a deeper connection to Israel through education.

Those youth who were studied in the US who sympathized with Hamas are casting their lot with the murderers of Jews and Israelis. It is absurd.

However, when you look at those who went on Birthright trips, the numbers tell a different story.

The Principle behind Birthright was to get Jewish youth to Israel. Once there, they cannot help but be moved into a transformative relationship with the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Sounds perfect.

Mega-donors Bronfman, Steinhardt, and Adelson, as well as the Israeli taxpayers, contributed tens of millions of dollars, all in the hope that bringing young Jews to Israel will help reinvigorate the Jewish people. They were investing in the future.

The very first trip took place in 1999. At first, the target group of Jewish youth was ages 18-26. They then raised the upper limit to 32.

Most studies on Birthright show that participants are 16% more likely to marry Jews than non-participants. And they are more committed to the Jewish community, Jewish learning, and Israel.

How do we make sense of this new study?

Maybe because these young people are more familiar with Israel, they are closer to Israel and hence more likely to criticize Israel.

Some might say that it is criticism out of love of Israel. Remember, that is how former US president Barack Obama would couch his scathing attacks against Israel – masquerading as a friend.

Or maybe it is a Haaretz-like style of criticism: that their hatred for a certain dimension of Israel is so vitriolic that it colors every aspect of how they view the Jewish state. Israel’s leaders are so bereft of morality that everything they do is tainted with evil.

They disagree with the policies of Israel. The study showed that more than 60% believe that Israel is perpetrating a genocide on the Palestinians.

Why is Iran claiming the US and Israel are behind Syria escalation?

 

Iran was initially shocked by how fast Syrian opposition groups had advanced in Idlib province late last month.Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni rebel group, led the advance and swept aside Syrian regime forces to take Aleppo.

Days later, it looked like HTS would also take Hama, a city on the road to Damascus. The rebels are now stalled outside Hama. Iran is gathering support for the Syrian regime.

“Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the developments on the ground in Syria indicate that there is complete coordination between the Zionist regime, the United States, and terrorist groups aimed at destabilizing the Arab country,” Iranian state media reported Tuesday.

Araghchi made his comments during a TV interview. The attack on Aleppo was a “plot” hatched by the US and Israel, according to the Iranians. Araghchi said the timing proves this.

“There is complete coordination between the Zionist regime, the US government, and terrorist groups, and the course of events indicates such coordination because these attacks followed a ceasefire in Lebanon,” he said.

Why does Iran see it this way? It cites the ceasefire in Lebanon on the eve of the attack by HTS. The Syrian opposition surprised the Syrian regime. This is because the regime was likely watching developments in Lebanon relating to the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Syria’s regime and Iran back Hezbollah. Once the ceasefire began, however, HTS launched its attack in northern Syria. In all likelihood, the defeat of Hezbollah by Israel contributed to the timing of the attack.

There is no evidence that the US and Israel are cheering over the attack by HTS. On the contrary, Israel may be concerned that chaos could develop in Syria. When there is chaos, there are threats to Israel, usually by Iranian-backed groups that exploit the vacuum in power.

13 Ministers Call for the removal of Israel's AG

 

What Trump Told Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago Meeting

Six Thousand Chabad Shiluchim Singing "Ani Maamin"

 

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Schumer "I got nothing further on you on that! Refuses to Answer Simple Question

 

Hilarious! Extremists Rabbis Now Going After songs

This is what happens when your children are not in the army and you don't have to worry if they will ever come home!

 Rav Deutsch a good friend of the Peleg extremists has plenty of time on his hands! Rav Deutsch based his accusations on an interpretation of the Chafetz Chayim!  Rabbi Yisrael Groweis, the editor of the Kulmus magazine of Mishpacha, also criticized the popular song, claiming that it contradicts the Chazon Ish’s views on Bitachon!

I don't get it! Who says that the meaning of Bitachon is as the Chazon Ish wrote, in fact the Chazon' Ish's meaning of Bitachon goes against many Rishonim? There are many differents hashkafos out there that aren't based on the Chofetz CChayim or the Chazon Ish! 

Rav Deutsch says that the refrain of the song "“And it will be better and better, better and better”is "possible Apikorsas! And brings proof from a bubba maasah from the Chafetz Chayim! Mamash crazy! The hilarious part is Rav Deutsch showed the song to Rav Ezrial Auerbach and he says that Rav Auerbach agreed! 

In what alternate universe are these people living in? Rav Ezrial Auerbach once a moderate has become an extremist since his brother R' Shmuel passed on and has taken over the Peleg crazies!! So he shows it to him! Hilarious! 

The meaning of Bitachon has been explained in many ways all the way back to the Rabbeinu Bachya, who lived 1,000 years ago! Taking one explanation over another is not apikorsas! There are 70 ways to learn the Torah! 

Rav Deutch is jealous of Rav Arush who has written best sellers on Bitachon and has now written a song that went viral! That bothers Rav Deutch who before taking on Rav Arush no one ever heard of him!

Chareide Blogs are mocking Rav Deutch:

נטען על ידי מי שטען כי  השיר "ועוד יותר טוב.. " הוא אפיקורסי .

כי הקב"ה  תמיד עושה לנו את הטוב ביותר עבורנו.

ויעקב אבינו מתפלל לפני פגישתו עם עשיו :

"הצילני נא מיד אחי מיד עשיו, כי ירא אנכי אותו, פן יבא והכני אם על בנים ".

 נראים הדברים, שיעקב אבינו לא חשב שהמצב הזה הוא "הכי טוב בשבילו".

אם כן, אליבא  דדרשנים ידועים גם הוא אפיקורס, או "ספק אפיקורס"?

אתמהא !

Others question :

?על פי האוסרים האם מותר לאחל שתהיה שנה "טובה" ומתוקה

  

Rabbi Avraham Deutsch, the Av Beis Din of Maale Adumim, published a sharp criticism of a trendy new song: ‘Hashem always loves me and things will always be good for me’, claiming that the song, which is based on the words and teachings of Rabbi Shalom Arush, demonstrates a lack of faith.

Rabbi Arush stresses that one who believes and says that Hashem loves him and does good for him will indeed merit good. “Like a child believes his father loves him and then when his father sees him run into the street he’ll hold him tight- it’s clear that this is because he loves him and wants his good. In the same way we need to believe that whatever Hashem does is because he loves us and wants our good,” Rabbi Arush’s students explained.

Rabbi Arush was surprised by the success of the song, which he says he has been singing “for years” and which expresses the faith of the Jewish nation in Hashem.

Yet Rabbi Deutsch disagrees. In a booklet published in honor of his son’s Bar Mitzvah, Rabbi Deutsch referred to the refrain of the song “And it will be better and better, better and better” and called it “possible heresy[apikorsut].”

Rabbi Deutsch based himself on the Chafetz Chaim, who wrote that a person can say that something bitter occurred to him but one cannot say it is bad, as “Whatever Hashem does is for the good.” On one occasion the Chafetz Chaim asked somebody how he feels and the man said “a few more kopeks wouldn’t hurt.” The Chafetz Chaim responded that “Of course it would hurt. Hashem is merciful and wishes to give you more than you need and if he didn’t this is the best situation for you.”

Thus whoever says unthinkingly that it will be “better and better” is demonstrating that he doesn’t believe that what Hashem does is the best possible thing, and this is Apikorsus and a basic lack in the faith that whatever Hashem does is for the good.”

Rabbi Deutsch added that he had presented his interpretation to Rabbi Azriel Auerbach who agreed with him and said that the song “should be cancelled.”

Rabbi Deutsch added that “due to lack of understanding and lack of common sense they bring inadvertently words of lack of faith to all the schools and all of the homes…it is obvious to any G-fearing person that one mustn’t express doubts in faith and which go against our simple faith which we received from generation to generation.

Rabbi Yisrael Groweis, the editor of the Kulmus magazine of Mishpacha, also criticized the popular song, claiming that it contradicts the Chazon Ish’s views on Bitachon, that one may pray that things will always be good but one should truly believe that everything is from Hashem and not that they must be good. However, many readers noted that the Chazon Ish’s view is not in consonance with the rishonim, many of whom define Bitachon as believing that things will indeed be good.

Things Are Moving Fast

 

by Saul Sadka

This thread from a month ago aged well, and faster than I imagined. The end game is here.

Hamas' Al Aksa flood didn’t flood Israel. Instead, it has been swept away by Israel's rising tide, dooming its Hezbollah allies and quenching the Ring of Fire that Iran spent 30 years building around Israel, crippling its own economy in the process.

Iran was playing chess, but Hamas didn’t understand the game and didn’t realize it was just a pawn.

I wrote that thread a month ago because I realized almost nobody had any idea what the real game was.

People needed to know that Hamas and Hezbollah did not exist to "liberate Palestine." They were nowhere near powerful enough to do that. Their purpose was to protect the otherwise defenseless Iranian regime and its nuclear program from Israeli attack.

Iranian air defense is two generations out of date and has been shown to be farcical in Ukraine. Their air force was designed in the 1960s and hasn’t been properly maintained since the 1970s. So to protect themselves, they disfigured the Middle East, from Yemen to Syria, setting up terror armies as proxies.

The plan was to have them sit on Israel’s borders and menace the country, offering an occasional show of force, but never enough to provide a casus belli that would invite a knockout blow from Israel. They were simply there to ensure that Israel wouldn’t dare attack Iran.

Media lied about Joe Biden for years — and he just burned them

 

The fiction that Joe Biden is a selfless, honorable public servant — long undermined by his own deeds — collapsed in on itself Sunday night.

As did the credibility of his longtime allies in the Fourth Estate who helped write it.

For well over a year now, the president and his surrogates have indignantly insisted that he would not pardon his son, Hunter.

And because Biden is a Democrat, he enjoyed not only the benefit of the doubt from America’s journalists, but preemptive praise from them.

S.E. Cupp marveled that “the contrast” between Biden and Donald Trump — who protested the politically-motivated zombie case brought against him by Alvin Bragg — was “profound.”

Andrew Weissmann declared that Biden was “living what it means to have rule of law in this country.”

Legal commentator Neal Katyal said he knew “no other word” for Biden’s decision other than “presidential.”

Chris Whipple, the author of a book about the Biden White House, called his choice “extraordinary” and stood in awe of his “moral clarity.”

Biden biographer Evan Osnos expounded on his subject’s “old-school” conception of his duty and agitation at “abuses of power.”

And when a Republican strategist had the gall — nay, the temerity — to suggest that Biden would go back on his word, CNN’s Abby Phillip informed him, with no shortage of annoyance in her tone, that the president had “ruled out” a pardon for Hunter.

So much for all that.

On Sunday, Biden announced that he had pardoned his progeny not just for the gun and tax crimes he committed, but for any and all illegal conduct over the course of the last decade.

Asked about the reversal on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden had determined that “war politics” had “infected the process.”

If you’re wondering what she actually means by that, the answer is nothing.

It’s obfuscatory jargon, not a credible explanation.

America’s journalists tell themselves a story about their profession in order to move product and feed their egos.

According to that story, they are the guardians of capital-D Democracy, the ones best positioned and most willing to speak truth to power.

It’s little more than a narcissistic myth.

When it’s Democrats who wield it, most in the press regard their job not as standing up to power, but protecting it.

It’s only when Republicans are at the helm that they suddenly activate the cynical gene that should motivate every journalist worth their salt.

The media was complicit in Biden’s lies about The Post’s accurate reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop on the eve of the 2020 election.

The media was complicit in covering up Biden’s rapidly deteriorating condition.

And it was complicit in cultivating an image of a noble, publicly-minded Joe Biden that never existed.

During Trump’s first term, journalists warned that “democracy in darkness.”

On the campaign trail, Biden promised to “restore the soul” of the country.

All of this haughty talk was the product of the delusions of grandeur that haunt America’s progressive establishment.

Their preposterous self-conception as the champions of all that is good and right — as well as their castigation of their opponents as all that is evil and wrong — compels some of them to lie and renders the rest of them blind to truths that strike the rest of us as self-evident.

Now, though, with the curtain closing on his failed presidency and lamentable political career, there is one truth too stark to deny.

Joe Biden has destroyed not just his own legacy, but that of those who went to bat for him.

By Isaac Schorr

Two Vile DemonRats Jamie Raskin and Nadler Challenging Each other For Top Judiciary Post In Bid To Counter Trump

 

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland announced Monday that he will run to become the top Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee next year, directly challenging fellow Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler as the party prepares to fight a second Trump administration and an emboldened Republican majority.

“House Democrats must stand in the breach to defend the principles and institutions of constitutional democracy,” Raskin wrote in a letter to colleagues. “That is our historic assignment now. We dare not fail.”

Raskin said in the letter — obtained by The Associated Press — that he decided to run for the post after spending the week consulting with House Democrats and “engaging in serious introspection” about where the party is following their stunning electoral defeat last month that handed Republicans control of Congress and the White House.

While currently the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Raskin said that come next year, the Judiciary Committee under his leadership would become “the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism” as well as other efforts by President Donald Trump and his allies to thwart the Constitution.

Being the face of the resistance against Trump is not new territory for Raskin who spent the last two years on Oversight as the most vocal defender of President Joe Biden and his family as they faced a sprawling Republican investigation — encouraged by Trump — into their various business affairs.

Raskin, who is a former constitutional law professor, also helped draft articles of impeachment against the incoming president for his encouragement of the violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021, and led the impeachment prosecution in the Senate.

But by throwing his hat in the ring, Raskin is inviting what a bitter intra-party fight with Nadler, who is currently serving his 17th term in Congress and who has held the top spot on Judiciary since 2019. Democrats have over the years rarely broken from the seniority system for committee assignments, no matter how long someone has held a position, making the outcome of the race uncertain.

Both men did not respond to requests for comment but Raskin closed his letter by praising Nadler, saying that he made this decision “with respect and boundless admiration” for him.

“If I’m lucky enough to be chosen for this responsibility in the 119th Congress, I will turn to Jerry first and throughout for his always wise counsel and political judgment,” Raskin added.

Rescued Hostage: “My Views Have Completely Changed Since October 7”

 Louis Har, who was rescued from the heart of Rafah in a heroic operation by Yamam special forces after 129 days in captivity, appeared on Shneor Webber’s Melting Pot podcast and shared his harrowing experience in Hamas captivity and personal awakening.

“My views have changed a lot from October 6 until today,” Har said. “I don’t trust any of them. I know that in some way, everyone in Gaza is involved. They were born to hate. They are given weapons when they are babies. They’re happy to sacrifice their children to kill Jews. That’s how they live.”

“To achieve dialogue and coexistence, several generations of proper education in which hatred isn’t taught need to pass. That does not exist. There is no one to talk to. Before I was abducted, I wanted to live in the country in peace and coexistence. We do not hate. We are truly trying to move forward.”

Luis recounted the frightening moments on the morning of Simchas Torah: “We understood they were getting closer to us. We heard the terrorists breaking our windows and entering the house, shooting everywhere, breaking everything. They shot towards the bomb shelter door. Luckily, we were near the corner of the room and crouched down. In hindsight, that saved our lives. They continued shooting as they broke into the bomb shelter and entered. The bullets went over us and from the side.”

“We shouted: ‘Don’t shoot!’ The terrorists barbarically pulled us out and dragged us outside the bomb shelter. There were terrorists in every corner of the house. They asked us for the car keys. We spoke to each other in Spanish and decided not to respond and not to look at them. Afterward, they took us towards the [border] fence. They put Gabriela [Har’s sister] and her daughter Mia in a white pickup truck and drove out of the kibbutz gate toward Gaza. It was exactly at 11:12. a.m. Afterward, they returned and put Fernando, [Har’s brother-in-law], Clara [Har’s wife], and me in the same pickup truck.”

“We sat in the pickup on weapons. Five Hamas terrorists got into the truck. Each had two weapons – one hanging around their neck and the other in their hand which they used to shoot above and shout ‘Allahu Akbar’. Around us, we saw many unarmed Gazan civilians coming to steal whatever they could from the kibbutz homes. We saw them walking around with computers and equipment they had stolen.”

Moving ahead to his surprising rescue, Har said: “My first thought was that the building was bombed by the IDF. I fell from the mattress, toward the direction where the terrorists were. Suddenly, I heard calls: ‘Louis, come here!’ Someone grabbed my leg and said: ‘The IDF is here. We’re taking you home.'”

“They put our heads down and lay on us. It was madness,” he continued. “I’ve never seen anything like this even in movies. I said to the soldier sitting next to me: ‘Tell me, are you sure we’re not in a movie?’ I had to pinch myself to see that I was awake, that this wasn’t just another one of my dreams.”

One week before Har’s miraculous rescue, his daughter and son-in-law took on kabbalos in ruchniyus.

Trump Demands Immediate Release of Oct. 7 Hostages, Says Otherwise There Will Be ‘Hell to Pay’

 U.S. President-elect Donald Trump vowed consequences for Hamas on Monday if the terror group did not release its hostages before inauguration day.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that there had been “all talk, no action” to free the captives so far.

“If the hostages are not released prior to Jan. 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume office as president of the United States, there will be all hell to pay in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity,” Trump wrote.

“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America,” he added. “Release the hostages now.”

Jerusalem believes that 97 of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, remain in Gaza after 423 days. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed during “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014.

Trump’s statement demanding the release of hostages comes on the same day that the Israel Defense Forces revealed that Omer Neutra, an Israeli-American serving in the IDF who was previously thought to have been taken alive, was killed on Oct. 7 and that Hamas continues to hold his body in the Gaza Strip.

It also follows Trump’s meeting on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s older son, Yair, and the prime minister’s wife, Sara, at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Trump has previously indicated through surrogates that he wants a ceasefire-for-hostage deal to be completed by the time he takes office, but Monday’s statement is one of the most direct such calls the president-elect has made and the clearest indication that he would demand consequences if a deal fails to materialize.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog welcomed Trump’s message on Monday.
“Thank you and bless you Mr. President-elect Donald Trump,” Herzog wrote. “We all pray for the moment we see our sisters and brothers back home.”