It's in Hebrew, but believe me you don't have to understand one word in Hebrew to understand what happened here!
“I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” Rav Kook z"l
Monday, November 20, 2023
No go, Joe: Putting the UN in charge of Gaza would be a sick joke
DIN: This idiotic idea of putting the UN in charge is not a new one, this was actually proposed seriously by R' Yoel Teitelbaum z"l in his book "Al Hagilah" and in his Va'Yoel Moshe, and Der Goy the Satmar Yiddish Weekly still keeps pushing this "farkakte" proposal.
The Biden administration is pressuring Israel to define its plan for “the day after.”
This is a bit like demanding America have a plan for postwar Japan weeks after Pearl Harbor.
But worse, Washington insists the end goal of Israel’s war be the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Understanding how unlikely Israel is to accept this suicidal proposal, Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggests it turn Gaza over to a United Nations peacekeeping force or other multinational presence.
President Biden just called for the “international community” to provide “interim security measures.”
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon literally has “interim” in its name and has been failing at its job since 1978.
The idea of international forces in Gaza repeats decades of mistakes.
In every single case, UN forces and agencies failed to provide Israel any security and were coopted and used by its enemies.
Israel raids terrorists’ luxury homes, take over parliament and police HQs in Gaza
Israel raided Hamas terrorists’ luxury homes and parliament and police headquarters in Gaza City on Sunday, taking control of the sites and uncovering a slew of weapons and tunnel entrances below them.
Israeli paratroopers and armored units descended on the neighborhoods of Sheikh Ijlin and Rimal, executing a series of rocket launches and raids in the heart of Gaza City, where Hamas has maintained power since 2007.
Much of the once-affluent area was already leveled by Israeli air strikes since the war began last month, but the Israel Defense Forces said it still encountered several Hamas operatives in Sheikh Ijlin and Rimal and killed them while also raiding some wealthy terrorist homes.
The IDF said it found 35 tunnel shafts in the area leading to Hamas’ 300-mile underground network, along with dozens of weapon stashes, The Jerusalem Post reported.
In addition, the IDF’s 7th Armored Brigade and Golani Infantry Brigade successfully took control of Hamas’ parliament building, its entire government complex and its police headquarters, The Times of Israel said.
The IDF captured a Gazan university faculty building, too, that allegedly served to produce and develop weapons for the terrorist group.
A Hamas training base, command center, interrogation rooms and detention cells were commandeered as well by the advancing Israeli army.
Hamas officials have yet to comment on the fighting in Sheikh Ijlin and Rimal, as rolling communications blackouts have become the norm in Gaza.
Ramat Beit Shemesh Buries Our Hero Binyamin Airly Who Fell Fighting in Gaza
Rabbi David Bagno, Rabbi of the community in Ramat Beit Shemesh of fallen soldier Binyamin Meir Airly, who fought in Gaza, tells about his character.
"Just a pure boy. Really. I had a close relationship with him, not on a daily basis, but every time he came home. He study at the Hesder yeshiva in Tzfat, and when he came, we met, a hug and 'how are you and what's going on', a pure boy, a boy who wanted to do what's right. He wasn't interested in other things. He was just looking for what's right," he said in an interview with Esti Perez on Kan Reshet Bet.
Rabbi Bagno elaborated on Binyamin’s character, saying, "He was guided by doing what was right. His mother said that after they were notified [that he fell in battle], she looked for something in his room to hang on to, and she found almost nothing, he was that simple. We went shopping and I told him I will buy him clothes. He replied that there’s no need, that was the kind of child he was."
Rabbi Bagno had difficulty starting the interview with Perez due to his immense pain. "It's hard for me to speak. I have been the rabbi of the community for 13 years, I have been with him and the family since he was a child. The Mishkan Shilo community in Ramat Beit Shemesh is a Zionist Torah community, new immigrants, 90% of the community came from the US, England and other places. Very high quality idealistic people.”
"His father came from England and his mother from the US, a gentle, gentle family, all the purity and goodness that can be put in there. They are really, a very, very special family, with the ideal of being here in Israel and building their home here. Sending their children to institutions that combine army service and doing it as well as possible. That's who he was."
Asked if it was clear to Binyamin that he wanted to be a combat soldier, the rabbi replied, "Yes, his parents must have been worried. I remember that one Shabbat I walked with his mother after shul and we talked. She was very worried. It was clear, though, that this was the right thing to do. We have 30-40 soldiers from the community who are combat soldiers. Until you experience this and are hit with it, you can’t describe it. Everything broke. Literally."
In Toms River NJ Brazen Thieves Break Into Jewish Home Over Shabbos, Steal Over $300,000
A packed home in Toms River was burglarized over Shabbos, with thieves making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit proceeds – including a vehicle worth over $250,000.
The thieves broke into the home just before 4 am, and rummaged through it for valuables, including car keys, before making off about 20 minutes later.
The culprits were incredibly brazen, as all 8 rooms in the home were filled with people, including a baby room that they went through. The baby inside was thankfully not harmed.
The Chofetz Chaim to Rav Moshe Londinski on Eretz Yisroel
by Rabbi Yair Hoffman
On January 30th, 1933, seven and a half months before the Chofetz Chaim passed away (September 15th, 1933), Hitler yimach shmo was appointed the Chancellor of Germany.
At that time, Rav Moshe Londinski zt”l (1862-1938), one of the three Roshei Yeshiva of the Chofetz Chaim’s Yeshiva in Radin, inquired of the Chofetz Chaim, “What will be the fate of our brethren in Germany and in Poland?” Rav Londinski pointed out that Hitler y”s had been talking about destroying the entirety of Klal Yisroel for years.
The Chofetz Chaim responded that it is impossible for someone to succeed in wiping out Klal Yisroel in all the lands of the exile and he cited the pasuk (Bereishis 32:4-9) “’If Esav comes to the one camp and attacks it, the other camp will escape.”
At that point, Rav Moshe Londinski zt”l realized that the danger was quite grave. He asked further, “If Heaven forbid, he succeeds in wiping out European Jewry, who and where is the other camp that will survive?”
The Chofetz Chaim answered, “This too is a pasuk, it is in the beginning of the Navi Ovadiah (1:17), “And on Mount Zion there shall be a remnant, and it shall be holy..”
Rav Londinski left the Chofetz Chaim’s presence with his hands shaking on the future destruction of European Jewry, but he was assured that the Holy Land will be spared and no sword of the Nazi menace would pass before it.
Indeed, the beginning of the end for the Nazis y”s was when they set their eyes on Eretz Yisroel in 1942 and planned to conquer it and murder the half million Jews living there at the time (including the author’s mother).
They even brought a German SS officer, Walther Rauff, to Libya, who would do advance work for the Einsatzkommando unit which expected to join him and help murder the Jews of the Middle East once it was under full Nazi German control.. He was the one who had pioneered the using mobile killing vans in Nazi-occupied Soviet Union. Rauff had reached Tobruk on July 20th of 1942.
Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein shlita uses this statement of the Chofetz Chaim to encourage Yeshiva bochurim to remain in Eretz Yisroel during this rough period.
IDF Releases Footage of Hamas Hiding Hostages at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital
Hamas held at least three of the estimated 240 hostages kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7 at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the Israel Defense Forces revealed on Sunday night.
The military presented CCTV footage of the hostages being brought into the hospital, under which Hamas has built terror infrastructure.
IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said intelligence confirmed that Hamas terrorists “quickly” murdered Cpl. Noa Marciano at Shifa, after she was taken there with non-life-threatening injuries sustained during her captivity.
In addition to Marciano, two hostages from Nepal and Thailand were hidden at Shifa Hospital in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre, said Hagari.
Sunday, November 19, 2023
Is Hamas going after Satmar now? Grenade Found Near Satmar Shul in Lakewood
UPDATE ON GRENADE IN LAKEWOOD:
— The Lakewood Scoop (@LakewoodScoop) November 19, 2023
- Police were notified shortly before 8:00 AM about a grenade strapped to a utility pole across the street from a synagogue in Lakewood
- Upon arrival, police determined the grenade appeared real, and called for bomb squad
- The NJSP removed the… pic.twitter.com/r2fw7UxUub
Developing: Israel Confirms that Houthi Rebels in Yemen took over an Israeli Ship ...
The source says that there were no Israelis on board
Updated: The boat is not Israeli . It is a British Ship that was carrying cargo from Turkey with its destination ..India!
Rep Dan Goldman the Squad Tuchislekker Who Condemns ‘Settler Violence’ but Pro-Palestinians deface his office anyway
Congressman Dan Goldman (D-NY), representing Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights, on Thursday joined Senator Cory Booker (D- NJ) in a letter the two sent to President Joe Biden about the urgent need “to address Israeli settler violence in the West Bank.”
Which is so sick and perverted!
On Friday, Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and several other Democrats sent out a press release saying, “We stand together to condemn the vandalism discovered this morning targeting Representative Dan Goldman’s district office. While everyone has a First Amendment right to peacefully protest and make their voice heard, that must not extend to intimidating staff or outright criminal behavior. This is a deeply personal and emotional issue for all who care about a future of peace for both the Israeli and Palestinian people, but we cannot let our disagreements turn us against each other and inflame violence here at home.”
The vandals graffitied in red and white paint: “Blood on your hands,” “Free Palestine,” and “Let Gaza live” on the front of the office and the sidewalk on 9th Street in Park Slope.
Who says there’s no poetic justice in God’s great universe?
Saturday, November 18, 2023
Must Listen: Rabbi Wein On DC Rally "Frum Jews are Gutless, I don't care who they Had for speakers" I don't care if she was a Lesbian, a Reform Rabbi"
The Arab Street has come to America
The old conventional wisdom was that the United States couldn’t be too pro-Israel for fear of inflaming “the Arab street.”
The new conventional wisdom will have to be that we can’t be too pro-Israel for fear of inflaming “the Western street.”
The Arab street, a hoary cliché of commentary on the Middle East for decades, was a reference to public opinion in the Arab countries, with the strong implication that if we offended it, the result would be massive anti-Western demonstrations and perhaps violence.
Well, here we are, with this dynamic playing out throughout the United States and other Western countries.
We have offended the new Arab street within our own societies.
Actress Susan Sarandon Joins Pro-Palestinian Rally That Shouted ‘Long live the Intifada!’ and passed out maps of pro-Israel locations to target in NYC
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at Union Square Friday – before joining another massive rally near Bryant Park and marching to locations listed on a troubling map that called for “direct action” to “globalize intifada.”
By early Friday evening, the crowd made at least five stops in Manhattan that the Palestinian-led community organization Within Our Lifetime called for followers to target in a since-deleted social media post Thursday.
Outside The New York Times building, one enraged protester holding a Palestinian flag appeared to say “Bomb the New York Times. Bomb the New York Times!”
In front of Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall protesters chanted “If Palestine don’t get it, shut it down! Shut it down!” as scores of NYPD officers blocked them from pushing through the doors.
The Long Island Rail Road issued an advisory warning commuters to “build in added travel time” as an estimated 750 protesters flooded the area.
Before the two protests converged in front of New York Public Library’s main branch – the original group of roughly 300 met in Union Square around 3 p.m.
“From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada!” was one of the many slogans the crowd chanted, while many waved Palestinian flags.
“Intifada intifada. Long live the intifada!” was another cheer, as well as a chorus of “We don’t want no two-state, we want 48!”
The latter cheer refers to the 1948 United Nations Partition Plan, which created the modern State of Israel.
‘Doxxing Truck’ creator says he will tail antisemitic students for years even after they graduate "there is no statute of limitations for antisemitism"
The creator of the so-called “doxxing truck” chasing allegedly antisemitic students from Harvard to Hunter College says his effort will continue indefinitely.
“We don’t think that your antisemitic record should die when you graduate,” said Adam Guillette, president of Accuracy in Media, a nonprofit that has been sponsoring the effort. “I think it’s incredibly important to make an example of these people.”
Guillette has become a bête noire of campus bigots after plastering the names and faces of roughly 150 students who have engaged in college antisemitism on video screens attached to large trucks parked outside their campuses.
Despite its popular moniker, the trucks are not actually doxxing anyone.
Guillette notes he’s not putting out sensitive personal information such as addresses or phone numbers on the targeted students.
Guillette said a “possibility we’re considering” is sending trucks to the employers who hire the students in the years to come.
“There’s no statute of limitations on racism and antisemitism,” he said dryly.
Guillette attributed rising antisemitism among young people to Diversity Equity and Inclusion bureaucracies which have permeated education and cultural institutions in the last decade.
“It’s directly related to the massive increase in the emphasis of DEI in K-through-12 education,” he said.
Guillette, 42, a longtime conservative activist in Florida said the trucks didn’t start with college activists — they were first deployed in 2021 with messages protesting former Gov. Cuomo’s Emmy award, which he was later stripped of.
“Cuomo lied, thousands died, revoke his Emmy now,” the truck blared.
The pushback, however, has been fierce. During a ride along with a doxxing truck outside Hunter College — which staged an anti-Israel rally on Tuesday — The Post saw students hurling insults and flipping off the vehicle.
Others took photographs of the truck’s license plate.
Most wore masks in an effort to shield their identity.
Guillette is also being sued by a Columbia student who says his appearance on the “doxxing truck” has caused “pain and suffering, emotional distress and mental anguish.”
“We never defame anybody, we always act entirely within the law and always will,” Guillette said.
Sometimes the response is physical.
“I got spray painted at Harvard,” he recalled. One agitator threw a brick at a truck.
He and the trucks now have their own security detail.
In less than a month, Guillette said pranksters had called his local police eight times to post false tips triggering a SWAT team response.
The practice, known as swatting, is illegal.
“They sent a half a dozen heavily armed officers to my home who then storm inside. And if you’re home at the time, and if you’re not expecting such a thing, and if you leave your property, you might get shot and killed. It’s attempted murder,” Guillette said.
The right-wing provocateur said he’s now on joking terms with his local police dispatcher.
“They claimed that there was a hostage situation at our home. And I immediately told the dispatcher, ‘Don’t pay the ransom,’ and she laughed.”
Friday, November 17, 2023
Watch Terrorists attempt to escape by ambulance into Jenin hospital, are arrested by IDF forces.
The Kfir Brigade, as well as undercover units and Border Police officers, on Thursday night carried out counterterror operations in Jenin.
During the operation, five terrorists were eliminated and eight wanted suspects were arrested.
The forces also discovered explosives placed in the ground by terrorists, including beneath roads.
No IDF forces were injured.
Arab reports say that one of the eliminated terrorists is Baha al-Lahlouh, one of the leaders of the Islamic Jihad terror group's Jenin branch.
During the operation, some of the suspects attempted to escape into Jenin's hospital by ambulance. The forces surrounded the hospital and conducted searches, during which the terrorists were arrested.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the IDF has conducted six widescale operations in Jenin to thwart terror activities. During the previous operation, 12 terrorists were eliminated, 20 were arrested, and an underground tunnel shaft containing ready-to-use explosives was destroyed.
With Jews Like Rep. Becca Balint in Congress Who Needs Enemies ..Calls for a Ceasefire
Democratic Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont on Thursday became the first Jewish member of Congress to call for a ceasefire in Israel's war against Hamas.
What is needed right now is an immediate break in violence to allow for a true negotiated cease-fire," Balint wrote in an op-ed for VTDigger, a local news site in her home state.
It's a shift from her previous position, when she said in a statement that she supported Israel's "right to defend itself after the unprecedented surprise attack against them" while urging the country to avoid "collective punishment" against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
But in the op-ed, Balint indicated that she had changed her mind in part due to the suffering of Palestinians in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack.
"I do not claim to know how to solve every aspect of this decades-long conflict," wrote Balint. "But what I do know is that killing civilians, and killing children, is an abomination and categorically unacceptable — no matter who the civilians are, and no matter who the children are."
Balint, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, had faced pressure from progressives to urge for a ceasefire. And the topic remains controversial within the Democratic Party.
On Wednesday, two dozen progressive lawmakers led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York urged President Joe Biden to support a ceasefire.
Opponents of a ceasefire, including many Jewish Democrats, have argued that doing so would only allow Hamas to regain strength and attack Israel again in the future.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, another progressive Jewish lawmaker from Vermont, has resisted calling for a ceasefire, though he has argued that Israel is violating international law.
In her op-ed, Balint acknowledged those critics' concerns about a ceasefire, writing that a "lasting" ceasefire "can only work if Hamas does not continue to rule in Gaza."
But she also said that the continued existence of Hamas does not justify current Israeli actions, which have led to the deaths of thousands of Palestinians in the last several weeks.
"Even with Hamas operations intentionally embedded among civilians, Israel cannot bomb targets in densely populated areas," wrote Balint. "The United States must demand it."
Video shows the moment Antony Blinken winces after Biden calls China's Xi a dictator, upending months of careful diplomacy
REPORTER: "Would you still refer to President Xi as a dictator?"
— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) November 16, 2023
BIDEN: "Look, he is. He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that's based on a form of government totally different than ours," pic.twitter.com/XSaoyUwMW5
A video has captured the moment US Secretary of State Antony Blinken winces after President Biden calls Chinese leader Xi Jinping a "dictator".
During a press conference in the wake of a meeting designed to smooth frayed US-China relations, Biden was asked whether he stood by remarks in June in which he described Xi as a "dictator."
"Look, he is. He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that's based on a form of government totally different than ours," Biden said.
How the Agudah & the Moetzes Have Lost Touch With Their Followers
The following anonymous letter has been circulating:
Dear Agudas Yisroel of America.
I write to you as someone who considers himself an “Agudah Yid” even if I may be a few years behind in my membership dues! I grew up in a household where the Agudah and the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah reigned supreme. But it seems to be that we have reached a crossroads and that Agudah needs to make a decision. Fast.
It is no secret that Ultra Orthodoxy today is divided into several groups.
There are the Chassidim. Many major groups of Chassidim were anti Agudah from the start and the ones who weren’t don’t seem to be too eager to join right now. They are largely insular and prefer the leadership of their own rebbes. No rebbe of a major chassidus is part of Agudah. And so Agudah does not represent them nor should they attempt to.
There is “Lakewood” and the people under their influence. (Full disclosure, I live in Lakewood) The Lakewood yeshiva community is a right-leaning community. This means practically that the Lakewood Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbanim will sign bans against 24/6 (and Megillas Lester), will take strong positions against all new technology, always rule stringently in areas of women’s modesty, and – well, you get my point. Similar to the Chassidim, they are insular and do not have much interest in the outside world. To date, there is no major support, respect, or interest in Agudah from the Lakewood yeshiva community.
Then there are the others. These are the Ultra-Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn to Passaic to Monsey and from the tens of smaller communities across the country. They have a bona-fide yeshiva education but also look outward. They may have gone to college, or they may not have, but they certainly see value in a broader education and worldview. They also see themselves as part of a larger Jewish world, at home and abroad. They do not “support” the non-religious, but they are pained by the fact that so many Jews do not live a life of Torah. It seems to me that this is Agudas Yisroel’s constituency. To be fair, I think this was the dominant (non-Chassidic) view of Ultra Orthodoxy in American since World War 2, and it is the Lakewood Yeshiva crowd that has slowly moved in a new direction.
You may not want that or like that, but those are the facts. The core followers of the Agudah are the non-Chassidish, non-Lakewood communities.