The Ten Commandments of the IDF’s New Charedi Division

 

Channel 14 on Thursday revealed new details about the first Haredi brigade in the IDF since the establishment of the Jewish State in 5708. The Haredi soldiers of the Hasmonean Brigade must pledge to observe the commandments, wear Shabbat clothes during prayers and meals on the Day of Rest, and participate in daily Torah lessons. The kashrut standards will be the most “Mehadrin,” and the soldiers will be obligated to pray three prayers a day – four on Shabbat, and five on Yom Kippur.

THESE ARE THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF THE HASMONEAN BRIGADE

1. The Hasmonean Brigade will strictly observe the commandments according to Halacha.
2. The Hasmonean Brigade will be run according to a Haredi lifestyle to allow those who serve there to maintain their identity.
3. Service in the brigade is not a melting pot; moreover, the brigade will make every effort not to disconnect those who serve there from his community.
4. The brigade will maintain a full gender service of men only without compromise, throughout the entire period of service and in every place and/or framework in which it operates (except for operational activity during war, and this too out of the necessity to protect life only).
5. The brigade will provide food under “Mehadrin” kosher supervision of Badatz and/or Rabbi Landau only.
6. The brigade obliges all those who serve there to pray in a minyan three times a day.
7. The brigade obliges all those who serve there to participate in Torah classes every day (except for operational activity during a war, and this too out of the necessity to protect life only).
8. The IDF is committed to maintaining a Haredi rabbinical body, comprised of rabbis from a variety of communities within Haredi society who support serving in the brigade. This rabbinical body will accompany the brigade and deal with every aspect of the Haredi spiritual and Torah-related needs of those who serve there, and supervise the maintenance of the Haredi identity of the Haredi soldier.
9. The brigade will make sure that the rabbis come and will continue to come in the future from within the Haredi public.
10. All the commanders and support staff must be God-fearing and observers of Torah and Mitzvot.

Finally: the soldiers will be required to wear a black kippah throughout their service, dress in Shabbat clothes on non-operational Shabbat days, and maintain a Haredi lifestyle throughout their service, even while at home. And they will be prohibited from using unfiltered cell phones.

It looks like the Division’s rules may be stricter than some Haredi Yeshivas.

Before we end this report and wish our Haredi soldiers a huge Mazal Tov, I’d like to make one personal observation about the name picked for the new Haredi unit by the powers that be in the IDF: the Hasmonean Brigade. It is named after the dynasty that ruled Judea from the 2nd century to the first century BCE. The Hasmonean kings were the offspring of the five sons of Mattathias the priest, who led the revolt against Seleucid rule. From the start, the Hasmoneans violated the long-held tradition that Judea must be ruled by the offspring of King David, and not by priests, who were from the tribe of Levi. As a result, the entire line of Hasmonean kings were removed from office either due to madness, or assassinations. They were loathed by the sages, founding fathers of the Rabbinic tradition, who mistrusted their intentions and feared their affiliation with Hellenism. Wasn’t there a less controversial name for this very important IDF division?

During a meeting in July with Rabbi David Leibel for the purpose of establishing the Haredi brigade, Major General Zini and the head of the Planning and Human Resources Management, Brigadier General Shai Taib, were attacked by dozens of extremist Haredim who surrounded their vehicle, threw objects and bottles at them, and shouted insults. But I don’t think it was because of the choice of a name for the new unit…

by David Israel JP

Hezbollah Deal Proves Again Negotiating With Terrorists Leads to Terrorism

As a reported truce agreement with the Hezbollah Islamic terrorist group winds its way through the process, the terror group fired 250 rockets into Israel marking one of the largest assaults in a while.

To Western minds, the two events, a truce and an attack, seem disconnected, but in the Muslim world, negotiating with terrorists is exactly what leads to terrorism.

As I recently wrote in ‘The Gentle Art of Negotiating With Terrorists’, trying to make peace with terrorists signals weakness.

Offering to negotiate with Islamic terrorists is a statement of weakness. Jihadists only offer to negotiate out of fear, weakness or to entrap us and they assume we do the same thing. Nothing would ever convince them that we genuinely want to live in peace with them or that we prefer alternatives to violence. So any time we offer to negotiate, they see it as a weakness or a trick.

Some are trying to spin the proposed truce with Hezbollah as a victory. It’s not. Any deals made here are worthless, not only won’t Hezbollah keep them, neither will any other parties whether it’s the UN, the Lebanese government or the international community. All that such a deal does is give the enemy a chance to recover and sends a signal of weakness. And the terrorists respond by announcing that they intend to press their attack.

by Daniel Greenfield  {Reposted from FrontPageMag}

 

“The Prosecutors Will be Prosecuted”: Attorney General Nominee Pam Bondi Vows to ‘Clean Out the Deep State’

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi declared last year that if Trump were to return to the White House, she would work to eliminate the “deep state” from the U.S. Department of Justice and ensure accountability.

 Her nomination as U.S. Attorney General by President-elect Trump sends a clear signal: 

the Justice Department will undergo a seismic shift in its priorities, with a renewed focus on accountability for those who, Bondi says, have weaponized the justice system for political gain.

In 2023, Bondi didn’t mince words in her appearance on Fox News following Trump’s fourth indictment. “When Republicans take back the White House, you know what’s going to happen? The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones,” Bondi said.

Jews were key to Dave McCormick’s win in Pa.

On Thursday night, Sen. Bob Casey finally did what he should have done the day after the election: He called Dave McCormick and conceded. 

It was an upset Casey didn’t expect and struggled to accept; the race was a Rocky-like story for Pennsylvania Republicans.

How did McCormick pull it off? In a year where moral clarity in the fight against antisemitism and outspoken support of Israel was too often viewed as controversial, McCormick’s bold approach was critical.

Throughout that fall, Dave confronted antisemitism in Pennsylvania with moral clarity and strong leadership.  

In a scene reminiscent of 1930s Germany, in early December, a group of pro-Hamas protesters stood outside a Philadelphia restaurant owned by an Israeli-American and chanted “Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”

Dave immediately responded on X: “This ‘protest’ is despicable — antisemitism, plain and simple. I call on everyone who cares about our Jewish community to support Goldie’s. There are more supporters who care than antisemites who hate.”

That evening, Dave and his team invited a group of local Jewish leaders to dine with him the next day at the restaurant.

Notably, he did not make a press event or photo-op out of the visit. He simply wanted to support the restaurant and Jewish community.

‘The View’ is a pointless, irrelevant, Trump-loathing joke — cancel it

by Pierce Morgan 

In my worst nightmares, I find myself trapped on a desert island with the hosts of “The View.”

And all day long, I’m subjected to them all snarling, whining, scowling, seething and cursing about the same thing: Donald Trump.

The nightmares are long, torrid, mentally scarring and always involve the exact same pattern.

“Joyless” Joy Behar, who once wore blackface to a Halloween party — and then lied about it — marches up and down the beach loudly mocking and reviling Trump as a lying, racist hypocrite.

Whoopi Goldberg, who was suspended for saying the Holocaust wasn’t about race, sits by the ocean howling that Trump is a deluded, ill-informed, race-baiting imbecile.

Ana Navarro, who said Trump was not elected legitimately in 2016 and spews constant bile-fueled abuse about him, resides under a palm tree, ranting that he’s a lying election denier who deploys ugly rhetoric.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was once paid $183,000 to be Trump’s communications aide at the White House and enthusiastically sold him to America as a brilliant president, paces around seething that he’s the worst president of all time.

Sunny Hostin — who cruelly and heartlessly accused Nikki Haley of crying fake tears over her husband’s deployment to war zones and called her a “hypocrite chameleon” for not using her real first name, Nimrata, despite Hostin not using her own first name, Asunción — wails to the lizards that Trump is a cruel, heartless, hypocritical charlatan.

And Sara Haines, the saintly voice of compassionate, unifying sunshine who disapproves of Trump’s trash-talking but repeatedly called him a “jerk” and “jerkoff” in one episode, stands in the shade shouting, “HE’S STILL A JERK!”

Meanwhile, I just lie face-down in the sand, feeling like Bill Murray in a never-ending, hellish “Groundhog Day.”

Fortunately, I get to wake up from these horrific nightmares.

But those who watch “The View” aren’t so lucky.

Every day is like that for them — a relentless assault on their eardrums from a bunch of partisan obsessives competing with each other over who detests Trump most.

Their nadir came the day after the election, when to their horror, the man they’ve spent years branding a vile, bigoted, racist fascist won absolutely everything: the popular vote, the Electoral College, the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

In a truly farcical gesture of brazen bias, the six hosts all trotted out in funereal black clothing because they were in mourning.

And yet, ironically, it was their own professional funeral that they were almost certainly attending.

Because “The View” has become a pointless, irrelevant parody of itself that urgently needs to be put out of its — and our — misery.

Just look at what they all said that day.

“He’s the president,” sighed Whoopi. “I’m still not going to say his name. That’s not going to change.”

Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous?

“I’m profoundly disturbed,” said a grim-faced Sunny. “It had nothing to do with policy. This was a referendum of cultural resentment in this country.”

This made me laugh out loud.

Trump’s win had everything to do with policy, especially on the economy and immigration, and the people most aggressively fueling cultural resentment have been the hosts of “The View,” whose insufferably woke worldview just got repudiated in spectacular fashion.

“I vehemently disagree with the decision that Americans made,” sniffed Joy.

That’s the problem, right there. Behar, like so many of the Democratic elite, just arrogantly assumed that her own scathingly disparaging opinion of Trump was shared by most of her fellow Americans.

But it wasn’t.

“I worked hard as hell for Donald Trump not to be president,” snarled Ana. “Today we can be sad.”

Who is “we,” exactly?

The majority of Americans don’t feel sad at all about Trump’s victory; they feel either jubilant or relieved it’s not word-salad Kamala Harris and her ruinously progressive, policy-devoid agenda.

“Let’s continue to fight for the people we care about,” moaned Sara. “I still feel optimistic because I am arm in arm with people who agree with me.”

Hmm, maybe she should try locking arms with people she doesn’t agree with — then she might learn why her side just suffered such a crushing defeat.

As for shameless flip-flopper Alyssa, who revealed on Election Day she voted for a Democrat for the first time in her life, she declared Trump was “the most dangerous man to have ever sat in the American presidency.”

Oh, whatever.

It’s precisely that kind of hyperbolic, apocalyptic nonsense, along with saying he’s the new Hitler, that drove so many undecideds to vote for Trump.

When the late, great Barbara Walters created “The View,” she wanted it to be a show hosted by women with different opinions.

But it isn’t anymore.

They all despise the man who is to be their president again, and that tediously myopic, one-sided act just won’t play now that he’s been given such a resounding endorsement from the American people.

I don’t like cancel culture — but given that the hosts of “The View” have, by their own admission, worked so hard to cancel Donald Trump, it’s time they were canceled themselves.

 

CAIR forced to reveal sources of funding after defamation case against former employee backfires

 Lori Saroya

 The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will be forced to open its books and reveal its sources of funding after a defamation suit it filed against a former employee completely backfired. 

US Magistrate Judge David Schultz ruled Monday that CAIR’s donors, funding sources – including potentially foreign ones – and any assets owned by the group are all within the “scope of permissible discovery” as part of former chapter leader Lori Saroya’s lawsuit against the controversial Muslim rights group. 

Saroya filed a federal defamation complaint against CAIR in January after the group dropped its own lawsuit against the former employee, which accused her of embarking on a “defamation campaign” against the organization, including by implying that CAIR is funded by foreign governments and terrorist organizations.

CAIR alleged that Saroya’s statements – posted on social media, in comment sections and emailed to the group’s supporters –  damaged the organization’s ability to fundraise and build partnerships, but it ultimately dropped the lawsuit in January of 2022 over fears that Saroya’s legal team would “demand the names of CAIR supporters who have donated to us.” 

Jeffrey Robbins, Saroya’s lawyer, described Monday’s ruling as “the mother of all legal boomerangs.”

“It’s a very important ruling,” Robbins said of the Minnesota district court judge’s order, in an interview with The Post, noting that the ruling is “very methodical, very careful, very detailed and very analytical.” 

Robbins explained that the order will force CAIR to “turn over evidence about everything from fundraising practices, such as having raised money from foreign sources and concealed it;  whether it deceived donors; whether it mismanaged donor money; whether it retaliated against employees or threatened to retaliate against employees for raising concerns about sexual harassment or the like.” 

The judge noted that “the thrust of CAIR’s allegations against Saroya in the 2021 complaint is that Saroya falsely implied CAIR received funding from foreign governments and terrorists when she stated CAIR accepted ‘international funding through their Washington Trust Foundation.'”

Schultz stated that “CAIR points to no public admission that it received funding from terrorists or that it received funding through the Washington Trust Foundation” but “discovery into these matters is proportionate to the needs of the case.”

“CAIR has not shown that the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit, or that it unwarrantedly taxes its resources,” he ruled.

Formed in 1994 by a group of young Muslim activists concerned about the rise in anti-Muslim discrimination, CAIR is now the biggest Muslim civil rights group in the US and includes about 33 local chapters across the US.

Federal tax filings show that CAIR received more than $5 million in grants and charitable contributions in both 2021 and 2022. 

As a tax-exempt 501(3) nonprofit organization, CAIR is not typically required to reveal information about the identity of its donors.

A September 2013 Department of Justice Office of Inspector General report on CAIR noted that evidence obtained during a 2008 federal case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development – a Muslim charity organization in the US found to have funneled millions of dollars to the Hamas terror group – “linked CAIR leaders to Hamas, a specially designated terrorist organization, and CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.” 

CAIR officials have denied the DOJ OIG’s claim.

More recently, the White House cut ties with CAIR last year after the group’s co-founder, Nihad Awad, said he was “happy” to witness Hamas’ terror attack against Israel on Oct 7.

Robbins told The Post that he didn’t want to speculate about what discovery disclosures would reveal about CAIR’s funding sources but he said he expects the Minnesota federal court to issue a deadline for the group to fork over the names of its secret donors soon.

“We served requests that CAIR produce the documents that would show that what Ms. Saroya had said was true, and CAIR took the position that it should not have to turn over those documents,” he said. 

“So the ruling is almost across the board that CAIR does indeed have to turn over this evidence.”  

Saroya is seeking at least $75,000 in compensation from CAIR and an injunction forcing the group to retract a January 2022 press release which allegedly defames her.

CAIR did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Yedidya Kellerman killed in Thailand

 

The Israeli man killed in northern Thailand in a traffic accident has been identified as Yedidya Kellerman, 25, a resident of Nof Ayalon.

Kellerman, who married around a year ago, was traveling with his wife, Kesem, for their honeymoon at the time of his death. Kesem was also moderately injured in the accident.

The Israeli consulate in Bangkok, ZAKA, and Chabad emissaries in Thailand are working to have the body transferred to Israel.

According to Mati Goldstein, commander of ZAKA's international unit, Kellerman was run over by a drunk driver as he walked with his wife on a street in the town of Pai in northern Thailand. He said that Kellerman was killed on the spot.

"The impact of the crash was hard and deadly. The local doctor who arrived was forced to confirm his death at the scene."

Yedidya worked as an mortgage adviser and event photographer. He served in the IDF's armored corps and participated in 2014's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.

The tragedy follows a string of incidents in recent months in which Israelis have been killed while traveling abroad.

In July, a man was killed and his wife was seriously injured in a zip-lining accident in Honduras. The Israeli couple was also on their honeymoon at the time.

A week before that, an Israeli citizen was killed in a traffic accident when his motorcycle collided with a bus in the Kullu district of the state of Himachal Pradesh in India.

A week prior, a 19-year-old Israeli youth was killed in a motorcycle accident in Zanzibar, off the eastern coast of Africa.

Levaya Of Rabbi Zvi Kogan HY”D, Chabad Shliach Murdered In The United Arab Emirates

 

The grandfather who lost both his son Gavriel noach Holtzberg 16 years ago and his grandson Tzvi kogen related over that both were niftar on his fathers yartzeit 

The name of both wife’s were Rivka

Both were 28 years old

Both sagas began in a Thursday

Both were on the week of 28 cheshvon

Both were butchered by Arab terrorists

Both left America for a shlichus abroad

Evil Dan Goldman is coping hard with the fact that President Trump won't be thrown in prison

 

 Special counsel Jack Smith asked a federal judge on Monday to dismiss the case accusing President-elect Donald Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, citing longstanding Justice Department policy shielding presidents from prosecution while in office.

The move announced in court papers marks the end of the Justice Department’s landmark effort to hold Trump accountable for what prosecutors called a criminal conspiracy to cling to power in the run-up to his supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Justice Department prosecutors, citing longstanding department guidance that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted, said the department’s position is that “the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated.”

Dershowitz’s ‘Dream Team’ to Defend Bibi Will Include Mark Levin, Andrew Cuomo

 

Mark Levin

Alan Dershowitz is assembling a ‘dream team’ to defend Israeli leaders in The Hague, he proclaimed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “I am assembling a team of world-class lawyers from around the globe to help defend Israeli leaders against the false charges,” Dershowitz wrote.

Dershowitz said that several prominent lawyers have already promised to join the legal battle, including former US attorneys and a former FBI director. In a video, Andrew Cuomo proudly declared that he will assist in the defense.

Among those who agreed to join Dershowitz:

* Former US attorneys general Michael Mukasey and William Barr
* Former Solicitor General Seth Waxman
* Former FBI Director Louis Freeh
* Former Canadian attorney general and minister of justice Irwin Cotler.

Other former judges, government officials, prosecutors and professors and criminal lawyers have also signed on.

In addition, distinguished lawyers Kendall Coffey, Floyd Abrams, Susan Estrich, Nathan Lewin, Benjamin Brafman, Arthur Aidala, Ron Sullivan and other former prosecutors are joining the team, as are Nadine Strossen, the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union, and “the great one” Mark Levin.

“Interestingly, David Boies — one of America’s most famous litigators — has agreed to work with us. He and I have been involved in antagonistic litigation against each other for years, but we agree on this issue, and he is enthusiastic about joining me in this effort,” Dershowitz wrote.

“Without making comparisons to the Holocaust, the ICC — which along with the International Court of Justice has shown bias against Israel for years — would probably have issued warrants against the Jewish fighters in the Warsaw ghetto along with the Nazis who were seeking to murder them. By pursuing these illegal and unjustified warrants, the ICC has lost its credibility. The US should sanction the institution. This process is already under way in Congress and should be pursued,” he wrote.

“We will argue that the ICC has no jurisdiction against Israel, not only because it isn’t a member, but also because the treaty that established that court precludes it from considering cases against any country with a valid judicial system that is willing and able to investigate the alleged crimes,” he wrote.

“We will also demonstrate that Israel’s actions in Gaza don’t violate any international law or laws of war over which the ICC has jurisdiction.”

“This case will be tried in a courtroom in The Hague. It will also be tried in the court of public opinion, both in the US and throughout the world,” Dershowitz wrote.