Fact vs. Modern Distortion: The Centrality of Jerusalem to the Jewish People

 The effort to deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem is not an academic dispute. It is part of the unrelenting political, ideological, and religious war against Israel. The Palestinian Authority has long accused the Jewish state of inventing a false Jewish history while “appropriating" Palestinian history, culture, and heritage. Palestinian Arab officials routinely describe Jewish historical presence in Jerusalem as “Judaization," as though the Jewish people are foreign intruders in their own ancient capital.

This language is not accidental. It is a strategy. If Jewish history in Jerusalem can be denied, then Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem can be delegitimized. If the Temple Mount can be transformed from Har HaBayit-the holiest site in Judaism-into an exclusively Islamic space called only Al-Aqsa, then Jewish memory itself can be treated as an act of aggression.

MEMRI has documented how Islamic and Palestinian Arab narratives repeatedly challenge Jewish historical ties to the Temple Mount, often denying or minimizing the existence of the First and Second Temples. This is not merely a distortion of Jewish history. It is also a departure from classical Islamic sources, many of which acknowledged the ancient Jewish connection to the site.

Israel Suing New York Times for accusing Israel of using dogs to rape Palestinians

 The Israeli government announced that it would file a lawsuit against the New York Times following the publication this week of a column by Nicholas Kristof accusing Israel of the mass rape of Arab prisoners, including by allegedly training dogs to rape prisoners.

The Foreign Ministry stated: "Following the publication by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times of one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press, which also received the backing of the newspaper, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times."

Prime Minister Netanyahu stated: "Today I instructed my legal advisers to consider the harshest legal action against The New York Times and Nicholas Kristof.They defamed the soldiers of Israel and perpetuated a blood libel about rape, trying to create a false symmetry between the genocidal terrorists of Hamas and Israel’s valiant soldiers."

"Under my leadership, Israel will not be silent. We will fight these lies in the court of public opinion and in the court of law. Truth will prevail," Netanyahu said.

On Monday, Kristof published an opinion piece in the Times claiming that there is widespread sexual abuse of Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons. Kristof's piece has been criticized for a lack of evidence, relying on anonymous testimony, and for using non-credible sources, such as an NGO that is known to spread fake conspiracy theories about Israeli crimes, including the false claim that Israel has trained dogs to rape prisoners, a claim that is made in Kristof's piece.

Israel's Foreign Ministry previously accused Kristof and the newspaper of deliberately timing the piece to counter the publication of a 300-page report detailing the mass rapes committed by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 massacre and against hostages in the years following the massacre.

"The New York Times, in service of a Hamas-driven narrative, deliberately timed its piece to undermine today’s horrific Civil Commission report documenting Hamas’ preplanned, systematic sexual atrocities on Oct. 7 and against hostages thereafter - attempting to create false equivalence and belittle documented crimes," the ministry stated.

It stated that the New York Times piece was "built on unverified claims and Hamas-linked sources like EMHRM. No evidence. No verified complaints. A politically driven smear campaign by a biased paper designed to support efforts to blacklist Israel. The ministry demanded that "this disgusting shameful piece must be removed immediately."

Yom Yerushalayim- marking 59 years since the liberation of Jerusalem ....

 הודו לה' כי לעולם חסדו

What was Jerusalem like under Jordanian rule?

Today is Yom Yerushalayim- marking 59 years since the liberation of Jerusalem

People say Jerusalem was "better before 1967." Let me tell you what it was actually like.
Under Jordanian rule, Jews were completely banned. Not less… pic.twitter.com/JoQrkg10Iy

— Rabbi Daniel Rowe (@rabbidanielrowe) May 14, 2026

 What was Jerusalem like under Jordanian rule?

Today is Yom Yerushalayim- marking 59 years since the liberation of Jerusalem

People say Jerusalem was "better before 1967." Let me tell you what it was actually like.

Under Jordanian rule, Jews were completely banned. Not less access. Zero access. All 58 synagogues in the Jewish Quarter were systematically destroyed. Every single one. Mount of Olives gravestones were ripped up and used for roads and latrines. This wasn't apartheid, it was worse. At least under apartheid people could physically live in the country.

Christians weren't spared either. Church land ownership was restricted. Christian schools were controlled by the Jordanian government.

And this happened despite a signed armistice agreement guaranteeing freedom of access. Jordan simply ignored it.

Then came June 7th, 1967. Israeli paratroopers entered the Old City. Three words came over the radio that stopped a nation:

"The Temple Mount is in our hands."

Since that day, Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship freely here. All their populations have grown. The Waqf still administers the Temple Mount. Every church has remained open.

Today I'm standing where the last Jews were expelled in 1948. Elderly people sitting in the squares. Children playing in the streets. Exactly as Zechariah prophesied.

The city is alive. And it's open to everyone.

Chassidim Do a Beautiful Job Of Israel's Eurovision Song Singing it in Yiddish

 I know, I know , I know its AI

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A post shared by יעקב וקשטוק (@yakov_waki)

NYT Doubles Down on Blood Libel column alleging IDF train Dogs to rape Palestinian inmates

 The New York Times repeatedly defended a column that alleged Israeli security forces rape Palestinian inmates, as Jewish groups announced they would protest outside the newspaper’s Manhattan offices on Thursday over the “libels.”

But the Times did not respond to a statement by former prime minister Ehud Olmert accusing columnist Nicholas Kristof of misrepresenting his words so that they appeared to validate the allegations in the Monday op-ed, “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians.”

Israel had slammed the star journalist’s column, calling it “one of the worst blood libels” in modern media and assailing its use of a report from an NGO whose leaders have been photographed alongside top Hamas officials.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry also alleged that the Times deliberately published Kristof’s column ahead of an independent Israeli report that found Hamas had systematically used sexual violence in the onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. The Foreign Ministry claimed the Times had been approached with the Israeli report “months ago.”

In a statement Wednesday, the Times said it “never passed on” the Israeli report “and wasn’t told about its completion or the timing of its release.”

“Once the report was made public, we covered its findings,” it said, adding that the Israeli report “has no bearing on Nicholas Kristof’s opinion column or its publication timing.”

In a separate statement, the Times on Tuesday also denied journalist David Shuster’s claim on X that there were “already discussions, including up the masthead, about retracting” Kristof’s column over “issues with source credibility and lack of evidence.”

The Times responded that “there is no truth to this at all,” noting that Kristof was “a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has reported on sexual violence for decades.”

“He traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of Palestinians who suffered abuse, and his article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies,” the Times said.

And in another statement late Wednesday, the outlet said Kristof’s piece “draws together on-the-record accounts and cites several analyses documenting the practice of sexual violence and abuse conducted by various parts of Israel’s security forces and settlers,” adding that the accounts were “corroborated with other witnesses, whenever possible, and with people the victims confided in,” that they were “extensively fact-checked,” and “further cross-referenced with news reporting, independent research from human-rights groups, surveys and in one case, with UN testimony.” It said “independent experts” were consulted throughout the process.

Kristof’s column alleged “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.”

It cited personal testimony from Palestinians, and included Olmert’s comments near the end, so that they appeared to confirm what came before.

“Olmert told me he didn’t know much about sexual violence against Palestinians but was not surprised by the accounts I had heard,” Kristof wrote, before quoting ex-Con,Olmert, as saying: “Do I believe it happens? Definitely… There are war crimes committed every day in the territories.”

Olmert, a convicted fraudster who sat in prison, interviews with foreign media often accuses the current Israeli government of war crimes, said in a statement cited by The Free Press on Tuesday that the placement of the quote was misleading and that he could not confirm the allegations in Kristof’s column.

“Mr. Kristof’s article includes claims of extraordinary gravity: that Israeli authorities have directed the rape of children, that dogs have been used as instruments of sexual assault, that systematic sexual torture is state policy. I did not validate these claims,” Olmert said in the statement.

“I have no knowledge supporting these claims as I said to Mr. Kristof. Therefore, the positioning of my quote after pages of such allegations misrepresents my views,” he said.

Meanwhile, pro-Israel Jewish groups EndJewHatred, Stop Antizionism, Hineni and the Movement Against Antizionism said they would hold a protest outside the Times’ Eighth Avenue headquarters on Thursday following Kristof’s column.

Other than EndJewHatred, the organizations behind the rally are relatively new, having been established following the October 7, 2023, onslaught and ensuing surge in anti-Jewish sentiment in the US. The rally marks an early foray into organized protests for the newer groups.

“Join us to rally and let NYT know they must stop the anti-Zionist libels! Enough is enough!” the organizers said.

The protest comes after anti-Zionist activists marched through a Jewish area of Brooklyn on Monday and scuffled with residents as a local Young Israel synagogue hosted an event by a real estate group that advertises listings in West Bank settlements.

Several anti-Zionist protesters at the Monday night rally accused Jewish counter-demonstrators and neighborhood residents of “raping people with dogs,” citing The Times report.

Turns Out that the ones responsible for the Wave of Arson in Nevei Yaakov & Pisgat Ze'ev are Chardeie Children

Jerusalem has recently been dealing with a wave of arson in the neighborhoods of Pisgat Ze'ev and Neve Yaakov, and it turns out to shame that those responsible for this are actually Charedie  children, some of whom even harass firefighters who come and disgrace their lives 

 One of the commanders of the fire department, David Sror, writes in a letter to parents and children in an attempt to stop the dangerous wave that could cost lives: "One day," he writes, "God forbid, a firefighter will not return home - and you will know why" 

A wave of arson has recently swept the city of Jerusalem, especially in the neighborhoods of Pisgat Ze'ev and Neve Yaakov, and shamefully, it turns out that those responsible for this are actually Charedie children.

And if that were not enough, at night they set fire to forests, in an arson that in a short moment can turn into a death trap, some of them harass the firefighters, the firefighters, who risk their lives to prevent the flames from spreading and fight to save lives.

Now, after a special meeting between the fire chiefs and the neighborhood's rabbis, one of the commanders, David Sror – the commander of the Jerusalem Fire Brigade – is issuing an emotional letter – published for the first time in Kikar HaShabbat, to parents and children, in an attempt to stop the dangerous wave, which could cost lives.

"To my brothers," the team commander writes in his letter, "I am writing these words after another fire. Another night of smoke in the forests around Jerusalem. Another call, another group of exhausted firefighters get on trucks as families sit down for dinner. Another danger that no one sees, because thank God, most nights we come home alive. And again they tell us that it was Charedie children."

Chardeie Civil War as Shas Does Not Share Rav Landau's Divisive Statement on Netanyahu and will remain in Government

 

Sources in Shas say: We do not share the tone of United Torah Judaism. We hope that Netanyahu will win the next elections as well, but contrary to settling for past promises, this time we will not join the government headed by him before the coalition passes a conscription law, similar to what Minister Ben-Gvir did on the eve of his appointment as minister of national security with the law to amend the Police Ordinance.

Split between Degel and Shas:

 Sha'ar Darach tomorrow declares allegiance to the right-wing bloc: "Anyone who naively believes that a left-wing government will give us everything – lives in imaginations, the only common denominator of the collection of figures there – is hatred of the ultra-Orthodox. They will do everything to form a government without them."

If America Turns on Its Jews

 

American Nazis march in NY City, October 30, 1938

By:Yori Yanover

It’s a deeply disturbing question: will something like the European Holocaust happen again – this time in America? It comes down to understanding the warning signs of genocide and mass persecution, most notably the rising antisemitism and political instability, which gnaw at the foundation of American democracy.

Historically, the 1939-1945 Holocaust followed a distinct pattern of escalating state fascism and militarism in German-influenced Europe, while Western democracies were in decline because of economic troubles. It’s reasonable to assume that if a Holocaust were to begin in the US, it would likely not start overnight, and it will look nothing like the 1930s in Europe. It would begin gradually, and through a process that would often appear like the opposite of the European model. For one thing, while in Europe it was a resolute, aggressive leadership that drove the excitable masses, in America and the rest of the Western world, it is the masses who aggressively push the leaders.

Lady Who Wrote Children's Book about processing grief ...Killed her Husband !

Video of hearing ...Note: It's 5 Hours+

 Utah mom Kouri Richins — who killed her husband and then wrote a children’s book  for their sons about processing grief — was sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday after she made a deluded, saccharine speech to the judge about how she had been persecuted.

Judge Richard Mrazik threw the book at the 35-year-old mother after it was revealed her three young sons said they were terrified of her and wouldn’t feel safe unless she remained imprisoned for life.

Before the sentence, Richins gave a 30-minute address that was aimed mainly at her boys — who are now being care for by the sister of Eric Richins, the man she was convicted of killing.

Parents blast IDF over soldier’s punishment for wearing a "moshiach" Patch

 Parents of soldiers serving in the Nahal Brigade responded to the sentence handed down to the soldier who was caught by the IDF Chief of Staff wearing a "Messiah" patch on his uniform.

In a strongly written letter addressed to Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Nahal Brigade Commander Colonel Arik Moyal, the parents demanded that the 30-day jail sentence, which they referred to as "draconian," be overturned.

In their letter, the parents stress that the soldier is a hero who just returned from the battlefields in Lebanon, and that punishing him for a symbol of Jewish faith is a critical blow to the fighting spirit and the foundations of the Jewish people's tradition.

"To see that the Chief of Staff is the one who chooses to send a soldier to prison for expressing basic Jewish faith is a slap in the face to thousands of soldiers," the letter reads.

The parents criticized what they called a focus on a “patch police" during wartime and claimed double standards. “It is puzzling how the chief of staff is photographed alongside figures who led the refusal to serve, yet chooses to show a heavy hand toward a soldier who sought to connect with his people’s tradition."

The letter, a copy of which was forwarded to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, ends with an unequivocal demand to overturn the sentences against the soldier and his commander.

As previously reported, the soldier's platoon commander was sentenced to 14 days' probation, the company commander received an official reprimand, and the battalion commander received a command citation.

The IDF claimed that the soldiers were briefed ahead of the Chief of Staff's expected visit, and despite this, "they behaved in a manner that was inconsistent with expectations and did not comply with rules of discipline."

The brigade commander who disciplined the soldier and his commanders wrote to his subordinates on Wednesday: “It is important that you know, as I told you in our conversation, that the full responsibility is mine, and I acted as I did because discipline is a fundamental value. It starts with us, the commanders, and extends through all our soldiers. Unfortunately, a lack of discipline confronts us both in operational incidents and in routine situations, sometimes resulting in loss of life. The issue is not the patch; the issue is the values by which we educate."

He added that the Nahal Brigade “will serve as an example and model in this field as well; this is our duty."

The commander continued: “Once, a senior commander told me he had left the home of a bereaved family, where the mother asked him: ‘Why did you let him go up to the roof... and because of that he was hurt.’ I will never forget that. Anything is preferable to a soldier being killed because of a lack of discipline. I believe in this path, and therefore, the background noise around it is part of the process. Do yourselves a favor, ignore it and keep hitting hard the way only you know how," he concluded.