I am My Brother’s Keeper, not My Brother’s Prosecutor!

 

Why we must join Trump in demanding an end to the witch hunt against Netanyahu in the light of the war against Iran. The height of absurdity was when he was questioned on a Bugs Bunny stuffed animal his son received decades ago

The US-Israel stealth mission to bomb Iran’s ensconced nuclear plants was a stunning achievement in both military might and in painstaking coordination between two world leaders. 

The logistics of this mission posed some of the most challenging conditions that anyone has ever faced in a military operation. Specifically, the US had to fly B-2 bombers with very heavy payloads along with over two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles, and 125 U.S. aircraft to support the attack. And to reach their destination, they had to fly over Syria and Lebanon, and parts of Iraq, without being caught.

Such an operation required months and months of preparation. Certainly, Israel’s steady efforts to degrade the air defenses in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran paid off, and the mission was recognized as an achievement of epic proportions.

US cabinet members who participated in a phone call between Netanyahu and Trump immediately following the successful raid on Iran’s formidable nuclear facilities described the feeling as “cathartic.” For Bibi, it was the result of his 30-year relentless campaign against Iran, alerting the world to Iran’s existential threat to Israel and to neighboring countries.

The morning after the successful US-Israel covert mission to destroy Iran’s major nuclear plants, news reports showed Bibi standing at the Kotel holding a siddur as he expressed gratitude to Hashem for this extraordinary defeat of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Not unlike the Battle of Jericho in the Book of Joshua, where the walls collapsed after the Israelites marched around the city blowing horns for six days, the walls of Fordow were blown apart by the bunker-buster 30,000 pound bombs, leaving the centrifuges and enriched uranium 235 isotopes (the fissile variant used in nuclear reactors and weapons) severely damaged.

Yet, amidst this legendary US-Israel joint strike on Iran’s redoubtable nuclear facilities, the war hero at the center of this mission - the person credited with making the courageous decision to start the Rising Lion operation, miraculously galvanizing President Trump to take an unprecedented military part in Israel’s existential battles - is the target of criminal prosecutions.

Not unlike the Dreyfus Affair, Netanyahu is being railroaded by his political adversaries for crimes he did not commit.

The reason for this is simple. Bogus charges were brought against the prime minister of the Jewish state to tie his hands so that he could not participate in judicial reform by preventing him from naming judges to serve on the bench. That is, to stay in office while these criminal trials were pending, Netanyahu had to sign an agreement that he would not appoint judges to the bench, lest it would appear as a “conflict-of-interest” because he himself was before the courts.

In short, this gambit of false charges were brought against the prime minister to prejudice him so that he would not be able to reign in the freewheeling judiciary enjoying undeserved power for far too many years.

Caught in this imbroglio of a long-standing fight between the judicial branch and the government, Netanyahu became a hapless victim. Even when he tried to replace the head of the Shabak, that, too, was deemed a conflict of interest.

Trump has shared a similar fate of politically-motivated witch hunts against him and recognized the travesty of justice. Even worse, this was being done to Israel’s prime minister while facing an existential fight for the survival of the Jewish state. So, shortly after the successful US-Israel strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Trump declared on Truth Social (his social media platform) that the US “won’t stand” for Netanyahu remaining on trial. In fact, Trump renewed his exhortation for all charges to be dropped. Preserving the same tone of urgency, he stated in his second social media posting: “LET BIBI GO, HE’S GOT A BIG JOB TO DO!”

In response, the head of the Israel Bar Association, Amit Becher, said - appallingly and with not a shred of evidence - that if Netanyahu had requested the US president to demand that the charges against him be dismissed, it would be a “criminal offense.”

 I raise the question, “Is this a threat?” 

Or is it a harbinger of a whole new set of charges to be brought against Netanyahu for alleged interference with a prosecution/obstruction of justice? 

If so, then Israel’s attorney general will need to subpoena Trump as a witness to verify whether or not Netanyahu cajoled, co-opted, or suborned the US president to come to his aid?

Didn’t we learn our lesson in history? 

We suffered the destruction of the Holy Temple because of sinat chinam (baseless hatred of one Jew for another). We are now placing the security of the Jewish state at risk by demoralizing our truest war hero and military strategist, who has devoted himself tirelessly to strengthening the Jewish state on all its borders. And he has proven to be successful in degrading and weakening Iran’s defenses - destroying missile launches and eliminating entire teams of nuclear scientists and commandoes - and its major terror proxies.

We are a few weeks away from the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz, Shiv’ah Asar B’Tammuz, beginning the period of mourning for the Temples. We must course-correct so that we do not repeat a dismal history of destruction. The first step is to recognize “I am my brother’s keeper.” What that means is that I am not my brother’s prosecutor.

Netanyahu must be freed from the sinister, endless and ridiculous trials that have no merit or purpose other than to feed the self-serving agenda of those agitating vociferously against judicial reform and his government.

It’s time to remove the shackles from one of the greatest war-time leaders of the Jewish state. We owe that to Trump and, even more so, to ourselves.

Amy Neustein, Ph.D. (sociologist) is the author/editor of 16 academic books. Her most recent book, From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers are Running from the Family Courts -And What Can be Done about It, 2nd Edition, will be published by Oxford University Press in August.

Duty-free cigarette tax exemption to be fully canceled in Israel

 

The Knesset Finance Committee on Monday approved today Amendment No. 9 to the Customs and Exemptions Tariff Order, under which the tax exemption on importing tobacco products into Israel will be gradually phased out until its complete removal in June 2028.

The exemption had previously applied to the import of tobacco, cigarettes, and e-cigarette liquids from abroad.

According to estimates by the Israel Tax Authority, the order is expected to generate approximately NIS 50 million in 2027, NIS 70 million in 2028, and around NIS 100 million annually thereafter, once fully implemented.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Health’s latest annual smoking report revealed that one in five Israeli adults smokes — a rate 30% higher than the global average — while efforts to quit lag significantly, with cessation rates 50% lower than the OECD average.

A separate Ministry of Health survey found that 53% of teens experimenting with tobacco products first try electronic cigarettes. Use of flavored smoking products is widespread: 88% of teens use flavored shisha, 82% flavored e-cigarettes, and 45% flavored cigarettes or rolling tobacco.

Among haredi youth, a new survey found that 54% of students in ultra-Orthodox high schools, and 80% of youth in dropout programs aged 12-17, have tried smoking products.

Despite laws requiring municipalities to enforce bans on smoking in public spaces, compliance remains low. While 82 local authorities reported activities under the smoking prevention law in 2024, more than 65% did not submit required reports, and enforcement remains inconsistent even among those who did.

Israeli Mayor Bans the Israeli Nazi Paper Haaretz

Arad Mayor Yair Maayan announced on Friday that he would ban the left-wing daily Haaretz from his city over what he said was a “false blood libel” in a feature article accusing the Israeli Defense Forces of “deliberately” firing on Gazans near aid distribution sites.

“The municipality will not allow false incitement against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel, certainly in times of war. The municipality will act to prevent the entry of the inciting newspaper into the city in accordance with the Prevention of Incitement Law,” Maayan told JNS.

The mayor wouldn’t say if the ban would include door-to-door deliveries of Haaretz to subscribers, although that number is likely negligible given the newspaper’s relatively small Hebrew print distribution.

The Haaretz article, by Nir Hasson, Yaniv Kubovich and Bar Peleg, titled, “‘It’s a Killing Field’: IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid,” cites anonymous Israeli soldiers and officers who accuse the IDF of firing on Gazans using tanks, artillery and snipers to prevent them from approaching areas where they weren’t permitted.

The IDF rejected the accusations, saying its directives “prohibit” intentional attacks on noncombatants. “The IDF did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers,” the IDF Spokesman’s Office said in a statement.

 

Non-Jewish Fox News anchor says she ‘100%’ questions faith of Jewish lawmakers who endorse NYC’s Mamdani

 

Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner said she “100 percent” questioned Jewish politicians’ “commitment to Judaism” if they endorsed progressive New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, all while her co-host Emily Compagno accused Mamdani of not condemning the Holocaust or speaking out on antisemitism.

Meanwhile, the remarks from Faulkner – who herself is not Jewish, though her husband is – sparked pushback from liberal Fox News pundit Marie Harf, prompting the daytime anchor to double down on policing the religious devotion of Jewish Democrats.

“The same way I would question Chuck Schumer, who works against the interests of his own people at times for the politics,” she exclaimed, adding: “And that’s what they’re doing here.”

Since his upset victory in the Democratic primary last week, Mamdani – a 33-year-old democratic socialist who energized young voters with his campaign focused on affordability – has been the target of Islamophobic attacks from conservatives due to his Muslim faith.

President Donald Trump has suggested that he would defund New York City if Mamdani is elected, all while claiming “New York City has fallen” and falsely labeling him a “communist.”