Friday, August 7, 2026
Schumer Endorses Vicious Antisemite Adbul El-Sayed
Endorsing Adbul El-Sayed today is a clear all-time low point for @SenSchumer.
— Prof. Jeffrey Lax (@CUNY_Prof) August 5, 2026
Schumer will go down as one of the most traiterous Jews in world history.
He'll also soon be primaried out of politics by El-Sayed's friends.
Schumer is truly evil.https://t.co/MIPSpqzyZ5
With Friends like the Gerer Rebbe & Yoeli Landau who needs Enemies??
כן יאבדו כל אויביך השם
חשיפה: האדמו"ר מגור נגד מדינת ישראל. תיעוד בלעדי שכמותו לא נראה מתוך ביתו של האדמו"ר - במפגש שלו עם המיליארדר האנטי ציוני מסאטמר, יואלי לנדא, נחשפת התוכנית למלחמה במדינת ישראל בהאג ובקונגרס: "האם מותר למסור את היהודים לגויים?" - הצצה להקצנה החרדית הדרמטית מתוך החדר הסגור. צפו: pic.twitter.com/9qvw4rZFAE
— יואלי ברים yoeli brim (@yoeli_brim) August 6, 2026
Ger Rebbe Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter met this week with New York Satmar businessman Yoeli Landau to discuss creating a multimillion-dollar legal fund to challenge Israel’s enforcement of its military draft law, including filing complaints against the country with international bodies, according to an investigation broadcast by Israel’s Channel 13 News.
The report said Landau, a wealthy member of the anti-Zionist Satmar movement in the United States, proposed financing a legal organization that would represent ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students facing arrest over enlistment orders and pursue complaints before the International Criminal Court in The Hague and other international forums.
According to recordings aired by Channel 13, participants argued that Israel’s enforcement of the draft law discriminates against the ultra-Orthodox community and compared police handling of anti-draft demonstrations with other protests. During the meeting, one participant asked whether, after exhausting legal options in Israel, it was permissible to seek help from foreign authorities. Alter replied that the matter “should be asked of the rabbis.”
Channel 13 said the meeting highlighted growing cooperation between Ger, Israel’s largest Hasidic dynasty and a leading force within the ultra-Orthodox political party United Torah Judaism, and members of the anti-Zionist Satmar movement over opposition to the government’s military conscription policies.
The report drew criticism from opposition lawmakers, who accused the participants of seeking to take Israel’s internal disputes to international institutions. Neither Ger, nor Landau immediately responded publicly to the report.
A Man after my own Heart! Chardeie Starts a New Party in Israel .." answers will not come from the existing Charedi parties"
Around a year ago, the Charedi community suddenly seemed to become the subject of every front page, television debate and political confrontation in Israel. Questions about Torah study, military service, education, employment and the relationship between Charedim and the state were no longer being discussed quietly. They had become the center of a national storm.
Much of the public discussion was hostile, simplistic and disconnected from the reality of Charedi life. Yet as I watched our established Charedi political representatives respond, I became increasingly troubled. Their answer to every attack was another accusation. Their answer to every difficult question was another slogan. There was anger, blame and endless talk about what could not be done, but almost no serious discussion about what could be done.
So I decided to listen. I traveled across the country and met Charedim from different communities, backgrounds and stages of life. I spoke with avreichim and working fathers, mothers struggling to support large families, educators, business owners, young people trying to find their place and those who had already begun to feel that there was no place for them at all. I listened to people from Chassidish, Litvish and Sephardi communities, including those who remain deeply connected to the existing institutions and those who increasingly feel pushed to their margins.
The details differed, but the message was remarkably consistent: people were not happy. They did not feel represented. They did not believe their voices were being heard. Many felt trapped between two political camps, neither of which truly understood them. On one side were those who spoke about the Charedi community as a problem to be solved, often proposing measures from outside without understanding our values, responsibilities or way of life. On the other side were the parties that had claimed to represent us for four decades, but had become more effective at preserving their political power than addressing the mounting difficulties within our homes and communities.
The people I met did not want to abandon Torah life; they wanted to protect it. They did not want outsiders to dictate their future, but they also understood that refusing to confront reality was placing that future in danger. They asked difficult but necessary questions. How can a father support his family with dignity without feeling that he must choose between earning a living and belonging to his community? What future is being offered to a young man who is not suited to full-time Torah study? Why are educational options so limited for those who need a different path? How can military or national service be made appropriate for those who are able and willing to serve without requiring them to sacrifice their religious identity? How can genuine Torah learners receive the respect and support they deserve while other members of the community are given the tools to build independent lives?
These questions are not attacks on the world of Torah. Ignoring them is what threatens the world of Torah. That listening campaign led to the establishment of HaTzibbur HaCharedi – The Charedi Public Party, a new political home for Charedim who believe that protecting Torah requires responsible leadership, honesty and practical solutions.
We stand for strengthening genuine Torah study, expanding educational and professional opportunities, enabling dignified employment, developing appropriate frameworks for military or meaningful national service, and helping Charedi families become more economically self-reliant.
None of this means weakening our identity or allowing others to determine who we should become. It means ensuring that every member of our community has a place, a future and the ability to contribute according to his or her circumstances and abilities.
The answers will not come from opposition politicians who seek to impose their worldview and plans upon us. They do not possess the trust, understanding or cultural sensitivity required to produce lasting change.
However, after many decades of political representation without meaningful progress on the central challenges facing our community, we must also acknowledge that the answers will not come from the existing Charedi parties. If they were going to provide those answers, they would have done so by now.
The answers must come from within the Charedi community itself. Those without connections, without access to the portals of power. They must be developed by people who love Torah, understand Charedi life and recognize both the pain within our community and our responsibilities to the wider Jewish people. At the same time, they must be advanced through cooperation with other parts of Israeli society.
We cannot secure our future through hermetic isolation, nor can Israel build its future through coercion. A strong Charedi community and a strong Am Yisrael are not competing goals. They depend upon one another. Israel needs a Charedi community that is confident, economically secure and able to contribute its values and talents to the country. The Charedi community needs an Israel that respects Torah, protects religious life and treats Charedim as partners rather than as a burden or an enemy.
We have spent too many years shouting past one another. The result has been greater poverty, deeper alienation, growing resentment and diminishing trust. We now have a small window in which to choose another path. HaTzibbur HaCharedi – The Charedi Public Party was created because our community deserves more than excuses, and Am Yisrael deserves more than endless confrontation. We can protect the world of Torah, restore dignity and opportunity to thousands of families, and build a healthier relationship with the rest of Israel. But first, the Charedi public must finally be heard.
The writer is Chairman of HaTzibbur HaCharedi – The Charedi Public Party, a new political home for Charedim who believe that protecting the world of Torah requires responsible leadership and practical solutions to the challenges facing our community. We stand for genuine Torah study, increased educational options, dignified employment, appropriate military or national service, economic self-reliance and a stronger partnership between the Charedi community and all of Am Yisrael.
Thursday, August 6, 2026
Ben Gvir crushes coalition rivals in new poll
A new poll published on Channel 14's "Sheva" program indicates broad support among coalition voters for the government's current ministers to remain in office.
According to the survey, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir received the highest level of support among all ministers included in the poll.
The results show that 72.5% of coalition voters said they would like to see Ben Gvir continue in his position.
The rest of the rankings were Transportation Minister Miri Regev with 54.9% support, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar with 54.8%, Education Minister Yoav Kisch with 45.9%, and Justice Minister Yariv Levin with 45.1%.
Ireland Removed Israeli Navigation Tech From Its Government Jet, Now It Struggles to Land in Fog
This story is too funny to be true!
Ireland’s new €53 million government jet was ordered without FalconEye, an Israeli-developed vision system that helps pilots identify runways, obstacles and airport lighting through fog, darkness and other low-visibility conditions.
The technology, developed by Dassault with Israel’s Elbit Systems and normally standard on the Falcon 6X, can permit approaches in weather that would otherwise force an aircraft to divert. Irish officials reportedly excluded it because installing the system would have required a written procurement agreement with Elbit.
Ireland’s Department of Defence insists the aircraft faces “no current limits” on its operational capability. Aviation sources say the jet remains safe and operational, but pilots now have fewer landing options in severe fog and may need clearer conditions or an alternate airport.
The decision is especially striking because other new Irish military aircraft still contain Israeli technology, including Elbit-linked helicopter avionics and Israeli-made radar, where officials determined the systems could not practically be excluded.
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Watch Charedeim Chase, Harass and threaten another Charedie who just enlisted in the IDF
When a Community Turns on Its Own
Let’s speak plainly.
What we saw in those videos below is not a “rare incident,” not a “fringe group,” and not a “misunderstanding.” It was hundreds of Charedim — from different sects, different neighborhoods, different backgrounds — all converging with one purpose: To threaten, intimidate, and silence one of their own.
And for what crime?
Not heresy.Not betrayal.Not immorality.
His “crime” was daring to challenge the single most sensitive nerve in the Charedi world:the refusal to serve in the Jewish army that protects Klal Yisrael.
That’s all it took.
One man expressing a view that threatens the ideological bubble — and suddenly the full weight of communal pressure, mob intimidation, and orchestrated outrage comes crashing down on his head.
This is not accidental.This is not spontaneous.This is what happens when a community builds an identity around a single dogma and treats any deviation as existential danger.
Whenever someone inside the Charedi world steps outside the accepted script — whether it’s military service, academic study, women’s education, reporting abuse, or challenging leadership — the reaction is immediate and brutal:
mobs in the streets, coordinated harassment, threats, social isolation, pressure on family, pressure on employers, pressure on rabbanim, pressure on anyone who dares to stand near the “offender”
This is not about one man.This is about a system that cannot tolerate internal dissent.
The tragedy is that the man they attacked wasn’t calling for the destruction of Torah. He wasn’t calling for assimilation.He wasn’t calling for rebellion.
He was calling for responsibility — for Jews to defend Jews. For a community that benefits from the protection of the IDF to share in the burden of that protection.And for that, he was treated like a criminal.
There is a difference between loving Torah and worshipping a system. There is a difference between preserving tradition and enforcing silence. There is a difference between disagreement and intimidation.
What we saw was not “Torah.” It was fear. Fear of losing control.Fear of losing the narrative.Fear of losing the ideological wall that keeps the community insulated from the rest of Am Yisrael.
And the question remains:
If a community reacts with such violence toward one of its own for simply suggesting that Jews should defend Jews — what does that say about the strength of the ideology itself?
Chana Malka Zweig 21, and brother, Yosef Yehuda 18, drown in Lake Michigan.
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| Zweig shared that her brother Yosef was developmentally disabled. |
A heartbreaking tragedy has struck the South Bend Jewish community with the petirah of Chana Malka Zweig A”H, 21, and her brother, Yosef Yehuda Zweig Z”L 18, following a drowning accident on Lake Michigan.
The siblings were on a family vacation when the incident occurred on Monday while they were boating on Lake Michigan. They were transported to McLaren Northern Michigan Hospital, where they were later niftar.
Chana Malka A”H and Yosef Yehuda Z”L were the beloved children of R’ Yehoshua and Hadassa Zweig of South Bend.
They were the grandchildren of HaRav Yochanan Zweig, shlit”a, Rosh Yeshiva and founder of the Talmudic University of Florida (Yeshiva V’Kollel Beis Moshe Chaim) in Miami Beach.
Iranian rabbi calls to assassinate Trump, Netanyahu
By World Israel News Staff
A senior rabbi in Iran castigated Israel and pointed to opposition to military service among Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews, days after calling for those responsible for the death of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to be killed.
Rabbi Younes Hamami Lalehzar, a leader of Iran’s Jewish community, made the latest remarks to Iranian media while discussing Judaism, justice and the distinction he draws between the Jewish religion and Zionism.
Hamami said monotheistic religions were founded on compassion, kindness and divine mercy, but argued that mercy must be accompanied by justice.
He cited the biblical account of Cain and Abel and said the deliberate killing of an innocent person was among the gravest possible sins. A person who unjustly takes a life, he argued, must face a fair trial and could be subjected to the death penalty.
Hamami also asserted that the spilling of innocent blood could be atoned for only by imposing justice on the person responsible.
“Mercy and justice are two principles that complement one another,” he said, warning that emphasizing mercy without enforcing justice could allow wrongdoing to spread.
Hamami then accused the State of Israel of committing crimes against civilians and sought to separate Judaism from Zionism.
He described Zionism as a political movement that has faced Jewish opposition since its emergence and claimed that resistance grew after the establishment of Israel.
“A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews opposes the policies of the Zionist regime and is not willing to serve in its army,” Hamami said.
Most ultra-Orthodox opposition to IDF service is rooted in demands to preserve exemptions for full-time yeshiva students and protect the community’s religious way of life. While some small ultra-Orthodox groups are explicitly anti-Zionist, Israel’s major ultra-Orthodox factions participate in the Knesset and have served in numerous Israeli governments.
The remarks came shortly after Hamami participated in an Iranian conference titled “Fulfilling the Promise of Revenge,” which focused on retaliation for the killing of Khamenei.
Khamenei was killed on February 28 in the opening US-Israeli strikes of the 2026 Iran war. His death was confirmed by Iranian state media.
At the conference, Hamami invoked Torah passages concerning bloodshed and punishment while calling for the deaths of those he blamed for the operation.
“The murderers of Supreme Leader Khamenei must be killed,” Hamami said.
He cited a verse from the Book of Numbers stating that land polluted by bloodshed cannot be cleansed except through the blood of the person who spilled it.
Hamami said he preferred to describe Iran’s promised response as “blood vengeance,” arguing that the phrase was more precise than the general term “revenge.”
Iranian state coverage of the conference presented his remarks as an argument that retaliation should be understood as the pursuit of justice rather than an emotional act of anger.
Homayoun Sameh, the representative of Iran’s Jewish community in parliament, has made similar calls for retaliation against Trump and Netanyahu.
Sameh said those who ordered the operation against Khamenei should be punished and urged Tehran to move beyond speeches and slogans by carrying out successful operations against those it held responsible.
“I expect those who ordered the killing of Ali Khamenei to receive their punishment soon,” Sameh said.
He added that Iran’s enemies should understand that the governing principle would be “an eye for an eye and blood for blood.”
Sameh said Iran should cause the people of the US and Israel to “regret and suffer” over the killing of the country’s leader. He described revenge as a legitimate right and argued that failing to retaliate would expose Iran to further attacks and casualties.
At the Tehran conference, Sameh also accused Western governments and international news organizations of applying a double standard to violence carried out by the US and Israel.
“For years, the Islamic Republic of Iran was accused of supporting terrorism,” he said. “Today, they remain silent in the face of attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime against Iranian commanders, officials and civilians.”
Sameh sought to ground Iran’s threatened retaliation in Jewish tradition, referring to the Torah’s demand that punishment correspond to the offense committed.
Iran’s Jewish community is the largest remaining Jewish population in the Middle East outside Israel. Estimates generally place its current population at between 10,000 and 15,000, down from roughly 100,000 before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A dangerous deal: Trump’s Board of Peace and Hamas
By Khaled Abu Tomaeh, Gatestone Institute of Technology
For nearly a year, the international community insisted that there could be no future for the Gaza Strip unless Hamas was stripped of every weapon, every tunnel, every missile factory, and every military capability.
US President Donald J. Trump’s September 2025 peace plan was explicit: Gaza would be demilitarized, terrorist infrastructure destroyed, and weapons rendered permanently unusable.
Article 13 of Trump’s 20-point plan states:
“All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. There will be a process of demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning and supported by an internationally funded buyback and reintegration program, all verified by the independent monitors.
Now, however, that clear objective appears to have been replaced by something radically different.
Instead of eliminating Hamas’s arsenal, negotiators are discussing storing weapons, transferring them to another Palestinian party, and even allowing Hamas members to retain “personal firearms.”
Twenty-Four Million People Will Live in Israel in 2100
Israel, where fertility rates, calculated for both secular and religious Jewish Israelis, has remained above the replacement value. In fact, earlier this year, The Times of Israel reported that the TFR value for Jewish Israelis was 3.07 children per woman in 2024, up from 3.03 in 2022, a number about double the OECD average, and higher than for Arab Israelis.
However, the real surprise, where Israel and world demographics are concerned, are the results of a comprehensive multi-center, multi-authored study published in 2020 in The Lancet, a leading medical journal. The article evaluated fertility, mortality, migration, and population scenarios for 195 countries and territories from 2017 to 2100. The overall result is the prediction that the global population will peak at 9.7 billion in 2064 and decline to about 8.8 billion by 2100.
The report also predicted that the fertility number for 97 % of the countries studied, will be below the replacement fertility value by the year 2100. A few, such as Niger, Chad and South Sudan, will be among the holdouts, with numbers above replacement, while the predicted value for Israel will be just barely below replacement. In other words, fertility will fall in Israel as well, but at a much slower rate than for any other developed nation.
Twenty-three nations, including, for example, Latvia, Ukraine, Portugal, South Korea and Japan could experience population reductions of more than 50%. In some cases, Ukraine, for example, emigration along with reduced fertility will be the cause. Canada and the US will experience modest population increases because of immigration, while the population of Russia will decrease by about 30%. China’s population will decrease by almost half and Nigeria will overtake China as the country with the second largest population, after India.
What about Israel? Today the population of Israel is a little over 10 million, about 80% Jews (and others) and 20% Arabs. The Lancet article predicts that Israel will have a population of about 24 million by the year 2100. Yes, 24 million! It is important to keep in mind that this value is the average of a range, and the range for Israel is 13 million to 40 million. (The range reflects a 95% confidence interval; meaning there is a five percent chance the range does not include the true value.)
These are predictions, not certainties. The numbers they rely on assume some degree of stability over time and when it comes to the Middle East stability is an oxymoron. Nevertheless, the population numbers predicted for Israel should be taken seriously.
First, Israel is already one of the most densely populated places in the world. How will the country accommodate the increased millions?
Second, study of Jewish demographics in the US indicates that with the exception of the ten percent of American Jews who are Orthodox, Jewish birth rates are even lower than that of the general population. It appears that based on the population data, the population center of Jewish life is shifting to Israel. A Jewish diaspora will continue to exist, but its relevance to Jewish continuity will likely diminish.
Finally, the non-Jewish world will have to accept that Israel and the Jewish people are an integral part of the Middle East. No amount of self-delusion will make this fact go away.
Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.
The Zionist State Continues to be the Largest Donor To Moisdois Ha'torah as it Approves Nearly NIS 250 Million for Chareidi Education
In a major boost for Chareidi education, the Knesset Finance Committee on Tuesday approved sweeping budget transfers totaling nearly NIS 250 million, with the funds designated for a wide range of educational and family support programs. The package includes long-awaited salary parity for Chareidi kindergarten teachers, transportation funding for major school networks, after-school program subsidies, assistance for at-risk youth, and expanded teacher training initiatives.
The broad funding package is designed to strengthen the Chareidi educational system at every level while addressing longstanding disparities in funding for schools, educators, and student support services. Many of the approved measures have been the subject of extensive debate in the Knesset over recent legislative sessions.
One of the most significant provisions provides, for the first time since the establishment of the State of Israel, full recognition of seniority for all Chareidi kindergarten teachers. Under the new funding, their salaries will fully reflect their years of professional experience, bringing them into line with the pay scale of kindergarten teachers in the general public education system and ending a decades-long disparity.
The approved budget also includes substantial funding for student transportation in the Chinuch Atzmai and Bnei Yosef school networks. Transportation has long presented financial and logistical challenges for both parents and school administrators, and the additional funding is expected to ensure safe and reliable transportation for thousands of students.
A Tale of two Cities bordering each other..
Somalis Pressure Public Schools to Teach Children in Somali Instead of English
Faribault, Minnesota, is a small city about an hour’s drive from Minneapolis. On paper it should have the smaller crime rate of the alphabetically similar Farmington which is nearly the same size and only a half hour away. Instead, Faribault has more than twice as much violent crime, aggravated assaults, burglaries and car thefts, 30% more rapes, and 8 times as many robberies. Farmington has no arsons, but Faribault has the most arsons of any city outside major strongholds like Minneapolis, St. Paul or Duluth.
Rare Photo of Rav Kook's Journey to the USA 1924
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In the photograph, from right to left on the train: Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap, Rabbi Kook, and to the left of Rabbi Kook stands, apparently, Leibush Shuchman, his well‑known attendant.
Rabbi Kook’s Train Photograph from His Journey to America (1924)
The documentation center at Beit HaRav Kook has this special photograph, recently discovered among the belongings of Rabbi Yitzhak Arieli zt”l, a close disciple and friend of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook zt”l.
In the winter of 1924 (Hebrew year 5684), Rabbi Kook set out on a journey to the United States together with Rabbi Avraham Dov Kahana Shapira, the rabbi of Kovno, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, head of the Slabodka Yeshiva, and other rabbis.
The purpose of the trip was to raise funds for yeshivot in Europe and the Land of Israel and to strengthen the connection between American Jewry and the deep, authentic Judaism of Israel and Europe.
Rabbi Kook’s route to America began at the Jerusalem train station, where he boarded a train bound for Alexandria, Egypt. His close companions who accompanied him were permitted to travel with him only as far as Gaza, the last station within the Land of Israel.
From the port of Alexandria, Rabbi Kook boarded a ship to Naples, Italy, and from there continued through several stops until reaching the United States.
In Naples, a moving story took place:
Rabbi Kook met an acquaintance from the Land of Israel who told him that his wife was dying in the city and that even the doctors — including a professor brought specially from Vienna — had given up on her life.
Rabbi Kook visited her and blessed her with a full recovery. The woman recovered and lived in Jerusalem for more than twenty additional years.
In the photograph, from right to left on the train: Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap, Rabbi Kook, and to the left of Rabbi Kook stands, apparently, Leibush Shuchman, his well‑known attendant.
Photo courtesy of the Arieli family.
Tuesday, August 4, 2026
Massive Protests in front of the Home of R' Yaakov Farber After His Shiva
These animals didn't let him live and now they don't let him die in peace!
A day after the completion of the shiva for the founder of the "Ma'alot Tzur" organization, Yaakov Farber z"l, dozens of Chareidim arrived at the home of the late Yaakov Farber z"l, a prominent figure in the Chasidic community in Be'er Sheva, to protest.
The protest was massive, unprecedented, and took place in front of his house, with crowds from all over the country.
As we recall, last week, after a serious illness, the late Yaakov Aharon Farber z"l, a prominent figure in the Chassidic community in Be'er Sheva, and only 32 years old at the time of his passing, passed away leaving a widow and six orphans
The deceased z"l was ill for the past year and received many prayers for his recovery, but his condition worsened in recent days, and on the night between Sunday and Monday last week, when Tehillim and the Shema Yisrael were recited around his bed, he returned his pure soul to its Creator. (Kikar HaShabbat).
Saudis gravitate toward Middle East basket cases when it should join US’ fight against Iran
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly called President Trump on Saturday and implored him to hold off on striking the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Trump acquiesced and punted on a massive American bombing raid that could have potentially turned the tide of the war.
Admittedly, Saudi Arabia is in a tough spot: The Iranian regime continues to hammer the kingdom with drones and missiles, threatening its oil and water resources.
But the Saudis have not gone unprotected. American warfighters and even Greek air defense teams have ensured the safety of the Saudi state throughout this conflict.
Yet rather than aligning more closely with us, the Saudis have started to gravitate toward an alliance of basket cases in the Middle East.
The alliance is now referred to as “STEP”: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan.
These are all theoretically American allies. But they are not exactly working for American interests right now.
They view the weakening of the Shiite regime in Iran as an opportunity to reassert Sunni state dominance in the Muslim world.
At the same time, they are not eager to see the widening of the war because it would wreak more havoc, which is why they keep calling for diplomatic agreements.
By now, however, it should be clear that the Iranian leadership is not interested in a diplomatic agreement.
Every time one is brokered, the regime carries out aggressive actions in the Strait of Hormuz or it attacks our Persian Gulf Arab allies. And that’s not likely to change. So when the Saudis ask America for restraint, they need to offer clear alternatives, not platitudes.
Better yet, the Saudis should join the fight.
Admittedly, the Saudis last month launched one strike against Iran-backed militias in Iraq.
And according to recent reports, the Saudis may be preparing for military action against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, particularly if the group tries to shut down Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.
The Saudis have a history of conflict with the Houthis; Riyadh launched a war against the group in 2015.
That war garnered a huge amount of criticism from US lawmakers, primarily due to errant strikes that led to high civilian casualties.
But that was then and this is now. A wider war has erupted across the Middle East.
Iran and its proxy network are fighting America and its allies on multiple fronts, and America should not be expected to fight on its own.
The Israelis have stepped up when asked. They’ve put skin in the game.
It’s time to ask the Saudis to do the same.
The kingdom boasts a vast arsenal of American-made planes, helicopters, tanks and other weapons.
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Saudis must decide
Its forces are clearly equipped to fight, even if questions linger about the readiness of Saudi fighters, who have not seen much action on the battlefield.
In the end, however, it boils down to will.
Now, whenever the war heats up, the Saudis seem to want to cool it down — a significant shift from the beginning of the conflict, when Saudi officials quietly backed Trump’s effort.
With the war at an impasse, and the Iranian regime looking increasingly emboldened by that, Saudi Arabia must be put to a choice.
There’s no time for fence-sitting.
The president should send our allies in Riyadh a clear message: It’s time to either join the fight, foot the bill, or get out of the way.
Why is Spain occupying Arab territory?
Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.
Last week’s controversy over tens of thousands of Moroccans trying to enter Spain (amid antisemitic social media posts attempting to blame Israel) has reminded the world of an uncomfortable fact: While Spain regularly accuses Israel of “occupying Arab territory," Spain itself is occupying Arab territory.
The tens of thousands of Arabs from Morocco who crossed the border into Spanish-occupied territory did so simply by walking into the region of Ceuta, next door.
Spain has controlled Ceuta since the 17th century. The Spanish claim to the territory is that they’ve been there for a long time.
Morocco counters that Ceuta is physically part of Morocco’s northern coast, while Spain is part of a different continent, twelve miles away and across the Strait of Gibraltar. Spain’s control of Ceuta is a remnant of the era of European colonialism.
By contrast, the territory where Israel is situated has been the Jewish national homeland since biblical times. It has been the core of Judaism itself for more than 3,000 years. The very name “Judea" testifies to the area’s deep Jewish roots.
The name “Ceuta" is the Spanish corruption of the Arabic name for the area, “Sebta," a reminder that Arabs and Berbers (Morocco’s other large ethnic group) were there long before the Spanish conquistadors showed up.
Off the coast of western coast of Morocco, 800 miles to the south, is another Spanish-occupied territory-the Canary Islands. The Spanish occupiers committed mass atrocities against the Guanches and other indigenous peoples when they conquered those islands.
And let’s not forget about the various regions of mainland Spain where local residents are seeking independence, such as the 9 million Catalans in northern Spain, the 3 million Basques in northwest Spain, and the 2.7 million individuals of Celtic heritage in Spain’s Galicia region.
Perhaps the Spanish leaders who often yell about “freeing Palestine" from “Israeli occupation" should take a look in the mirror.
The consistent negligence and recklessness of Chardeie People during Bein Hazmanim
by Yehuda Dov
The news clips are laconic, but they reveal a story of consistent negligence, ignorance and shocking indifference to human life.
Today’s news started with a search for a father and his six children who had gone missing in a Negev Wadi. For the uninformed, it should be mentioned that Israel is currently experiencing a heat wave not unlike those in Europe. In many areas, temperatures have crossed 40°C (105°F), and in the northern Negev they are even more extreme. It is more than ill advised to take a hike in such conditions, it borders on lunacy. Within two hours or so the body loses liquids and starts dehydrating, and heat stroke is another possible danger in the blazing desert sun. Nobody can carry the amount of water required to stave off these hazards, and even the IDF prohibits training in such conditions.
Fortunately, after the family failed to show up at the end of their route, the worried mother called rescue teams in and they managed to locate the group, exhausted and dehydrated but alive.
The next news item, broadcast the same afternoon, revealed a less fortunate outcome, but a similar lack of respect for safety precautions. A 2-year-old toddler at a villa in central Israel had drowned in a pool. This has happened before, but repeats itself far too often. There should be no situation in which a pool is not locked with a high lock if children are around. Parents must know that if the child is anywhere near the pool, and even if they have other young children, they cannot let go of them for even a second. If they cannot control the children, they mustn’t let them into the pool.
The child was taken to hospital in critical condition, but doctors were forced to declare him dead. A 16-year-old boy is also in serious condition after drowning last week, but at least he was in a public pool with a lifesaver, who managed to extricate him before his condition deteriorated further.
The day’s tragedies were not yet over. In the evening it was reported that two young men had overturned in an ATV southeast of Jerusalem. One of them was lightly injured but the other bore the brunt of the accident and was declared dead at the scene.
The two young men, like the others from the previous items, were charedi, and they join the litany of accidents and mishaps which always seem to befall the community during the Bein Hazmanim period. Even more tragic, the victim in this case, a student at the prestigious Ponovezh yeshiva, was due to get married in the coming weeks.
The real issue here is hubris. People who have never ridden an ATV or only done so on rare occasions have no business riding it out on rugged, steep desert ridges. People who rarely take trips and hikes think that they can consult a map, plan a route and go out in all weathers. People who have only a bathtub to worry about at home rent villas with pools and sometimes rely on an irresponsible older child to take care of his younger sibling.
It is high time that the Torah community, so aware of the value of life and of what can be done with every minute of precious time granted to us by Hashem, makes a concerted campaign to educate people on “V’Nishmartem L’Nafshoseichem”, including all the numerous examples from bitter past experience, and may we set an example for safe vacation activities and not wild, dangerous or extreme pastimes.
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