Court Threatens Magazine over Cartoon Bashing Esther Hayut

 

 An attorney for the legal counsel of the courts system sent a letter to the management and editors of Shvi’I, a national-religious shul weekly magazine, demanding the removal of a cartoon (above) by Or Reichert showing former Supreme Court Justice Esther Hayut planting her flag on the back of a fallen IDF soldier.

The one  below 

 was published in Ha’aretz recently, and shows Minister Orit Struk flying on her witch’s broom above Air Force warplanes and saying, “I smell leftists here.” It was a response to Struk’s daring to ask an IDF representative during a cabinet meeting about the rumors that some pilots refuse to support ground forces on conscientious grounds. Both cartoons are equally nasty, but only one received a special note from a public servant.

“This is a seriously dangerous item that may raise suspicion of incitement to violence,” wrote the legal hack, one Barak Leiser. “In addition, the publication may result in a suspicion of denigrating the court. … You are ordered to act immediately to remove the item from all the media under your control.”

The note from your friendly public servant concluded: “This letter does not constitute a waiver of the right to take any legal or other action, including filing a complaint with the authorized agencies.”

Those of us who grew up or spent some time in a Western democracy are invited to scream in rage, disgust, fear, and above all, astonishment. Yes, Virginia, in the Jewish State posting harsh cartoons of public officials past and present may get you a visit from the “authorized agencies,” and even land you in jail.

Needless to say, this cartoon (below), also by Haaretz cartoonist Amos Biderman, did not get the warning letter. It shows Hayut dumping Justice Minister Yariv Levin in the toilet. Classy.

‘How could we not come?’ American Jews flock to Israel to help

 

See that beige duplex? That is where a father sacrificed himself by drawing terrorists’ fire, allowing his wife and kids to escape from a second-story window.

That rooftop across the street, that is where a lone Jewish teenager took down terrorists who were dressed as IDF soldiers, ending their grenade attack against his neighbors.

On this corner is the bullet-riddled home of Rachel Edry, a 70-year-old woman who outwitted five terrorists by baking them cookies and chatting them up for 15 hours until a SWAT team could overtake them.

During her winter break, Sophie Katz, 15, of Atlanta, Ga., listened with awe and sadness as locals walked her through the small Israeli town of Ofakim, which Hamas terrorists besieged on Oct. 7, gunning down 56 people, most of them elderly, in a matter of hours.

“This could have been us. This could have been any of us,” said Sophie, who, on her first trip to Israel, was taking part in a Ramah Israel Solidarity Mission, a four-day opportunity for North American Jews to volunteer in the Jewish homeland as it mourns its dead and fights for its life.

The Ramah mission is one of hundreds of organized trips that are bringing thousands of Jewish volunteers to Israel to fill the needs of a society reeling from war.

Following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, which left 1,200 dead and at least 240 people kidnapped, Israel responded with a military campaign to destroy Hamas, remove the Iranian-backed terror organization from power in Gaza and rescue the hostages.

To that end, 350,000 Israelis were immediately pressed into service in the Israel Defense Forces, creating gaping needs in the tiny nation that only volunteers could fill.

And so Sophie joined the ranks of Jews from all over the world who have come to Israel to help.

New York financiers pack personal hygiene supplies for soldiers and reservists.

Canadian physicians make sandwiches for displaced families.

California attorneys work as farmhands.

Hamas deployed more than 170 children to the frontlines while terrorists ‘hide in shelters’

Hamas has been training children to join their campaign of terror and has even deployed the youngsters to the frontlines to “deliver messages and ammunitions.”

Israel Defense Force (IDF) released photos Wednesday that show the aspiring child soldiers posing alongside Hamas terrorists while holding semiautomatic weapons and manning deadly rocket launchers.

“Terrorism is not innate, it is learned,” IDF wrote in a post on X, alongside a video of children running through Hamas tunnels.

“During the ongoing war, Hamas has positioned children on the frontlines, sending them to deliver messages and ammunition while its operatives hide in shelters.”

 Gazan children are taught in “schools, youth movements, and summer camps” that “killing Jews and Israelis is justified.”

Hamas runs summer camps, in which the children learn to shoot weapons, attack from a tunnel, fight against tanks and kidnap soldiers. The camps are early stages for military training in Hamas and integration into the military wing,” IDF told Fox News Digital.

The Israeli military also said Gazan children are “trained to fight in tunnels, shoot, and [to] kidnap.” The kids are handed explosives to hide and deliver to Hamas operatives to ambush Israel soldiers.

The footage was reportedly taken in Khan Younis in Gaza, IDF told Fox News.

“The transfer of explosives from place to place in Gaza by children, in vegetable bags and placing them in the Hamas ambushes,” IDF told the outlet. “Also, children are sent to the battlefields after an attack in order to assess the damage and report it to the terrorists who are hiding in shelters.”

 More than 170 minors are working for Hamas and the Islamic Jihad throughout Gaza, it told Fox.

The revelation comes after Hamas claimed Israeli forces killed senior official Saleh al-Arouri, who was considered one of the founding members of the terrorist group.

Israel has not confirmed that Arouri was assassinated, but said they are “in a very high state of readiness in all arenas, in defense and offense.”

“We are highly prepared for any scenario. The most important thing to say tonight is that we are focused and remain focused on fighting Hamas,” IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on X.

Democrats are moving to bar Republicans from ballots nationwide

 

As the decisions disqualifying former President Donald Trump from the 2024 election work their way through the courts, a new filing in Pennsylvania seeks the same “ballot cleansing” by barring Rep. Scott Perry.

It’s only the latest effort targeting congressional candidates as Democrats seek to bar opponents as “insurrectionists” for questioning the election of President Biden.

We have become a nation of Madame Defarges — eagerly knitting names of those to be subject to arbitrary justice.

Former congressional candidate Gene Stilp, who’s made headlines by burning MAGA flags with swastikas outside courthouses, filed the challenge.

Using the 14th Amendment to disqualify candidates like Perry is consistent with Stilp’s signature flag-burning stunts.

But what’s chilling is how many support such efforts, including Democratic officeholders from Maine’s secretary of state to dozens of members of Congress.

New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell sought to bar 126 members of Congress under the same theory for challenging the election before Jan. 6, 2021.

Rep. Cori Bush’s similar legislation to disqualify members got 63 cosponsors, all Democrats, including New York Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman and Ritchie Torres and Squad members Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Tehillim Found In Gaza Home Will Be returned to Owners

 

Gay Palestinian Ahmad Marhia Beheaded in West Bank

 

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Former Palestinian Authority Representative to the United Kingdom, referred to Hamas the terrorist organization as an 'integral part of the Palestinian people. Gets Kicked Off Interview '

 

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The Mole

 

It's Not Just Tucker Carlson: Conservative pundits blast Ben Shapiro, accuse Israel of ‘war crimes’

 

A pair of conservative online pundits are taking aim at conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and other pro-Israel conservatives, while defending former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s recent controversial comments.

Brothers Keith and Kevin Hodge, known online as The Hodgetwins, accused Shapiro of disloyalty to the United States and “bias” regarding the current war between Israel and Hamas.

In a video posted on Youtube Wednesday, the twins defended Carlson, after the former Fox News host came under fire for his criticism of Shapiro and other American supporters of Israel.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and right-leaning online personality Dave Rubin both chastised Carlson for his comments.

“My friend @benshapiro is an American patriot who cares deeply about our country,” Friedman tweeted. “Anyone who has listened to him over the past 22 years knows that. He wakes up every morning thinking about how he can advance American security and prosperity.”

Rubin called Carlson’s comments “a seriously low-I.Q. take” and “dishonest.”

“You’ve got to do a little bit better than that.”

The Hodgetwins, however – whose Youtube channel has nearly 2.7 million subscribers – lauded Carlson, while accusing Shapiro of not being loyal to the U.S. and claiming Israel is guilty of war crimes in the conflict with the Hamas terror organization.

Claudine Gay the Liar & Plagiarist Plays the victim "I was ousted by lies and insults"

 

Former Harvard University President Claudine Gay commented on her resignation on Wednesday, admitting that she made mistakes but insisting she was the target of a sustained campaign of lies and personal insults, AFP reported.

Gay stepped down on Tuesday after coming under attack over plagiarism accusations as well as her response to anti-Israel demonstrations on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war.

"Those who had relentlessly campaigned to oust me since the fall often trafficked in lies and ad hominem insults, not reasoned argument," she wrote on Wednesday in The New York Times.

"They recycled tired racial stereotypes about Black talent and temperament. They pushed a false narrative of indifference and incompetence," added Gay.

"It is not lost on me that I make an ideal canvas for projecting every anxiety about the generational and demographic changes unfolding on American campuses: a Black woman selected to lead a storied institution. Someone who views diversity as a source of institutional strength and dynamism," she wrote.

Gay, who made history as the first Black person to be president of Harvard, argued she was targeted because she believed "that a daughter of Haitian immigrants has something to offer to the nation's oldest university."

Gay courted controversy starting with her initial response to the Hamas massacre of October 7, including her initial refusal to condemn the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust or the 34 Harvard student groups that published a statement in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, blaming Israel for the Hamas slaughter of over thousand of its own citizens.

The antisemitic controversy came to a head on December 5, when Gay, along with MIT President Sally Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, testified before a congressional hearing on the issue of antisemitism on college campuses.

All three university presidents gave similar answers to Rep. Elise Stefanik in which they failed to unequivocally condemn antisemitism or even calls for genocide against Jews.

In response to a question about whether such calls for genocide violate Harvard's code of conduct, Gay responded that this depended on the "context" and whether or not the genocidal language turned into action.

Barack Obama Antisemitic Staffers Turn on Joe Biden Over Israel

 

Former staffers of ex-President Barack Obama have come out against Joe Biden's Israel policy, as the country's war with Hamas continues.

On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and seizing about 240 hostages, according to the Associated Press. That prompted the Israelis to carry out extensive airstrikes and a ground offensive in Gaza.

Following the attacks, Biden, who recently called himself a Zionist, has faced criticism for reiterating Washington's support of Israel, which has long been an ally of the U.S. He said that Israel has the right to defend itself, proposed $14 billion in aid and provided weapons. He has also resisted calls for a ceasefire.

Despite softening his language, telling a campaign event in December that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is "starting to lose support" because of the mounting death toll in Gaza, the Democrat has been hit with negative polling from young people disapproving of how he is handling the conflict and White House interns have called on him to support a ceasefire.

Now, pressure on the president has increased from within his own party. On X, formerly Twitter, Tommy Vietor, who was Obama's assistant press secretary then special assistant, shared a Mother Jones article about the conflict with an extract which appeared to criticize the mounting death toll in Gaza.

The extract said: "In the early days of the war, Biden underscored the scale of the Hamas attack by saying it was equivalent to 15 9/11s for a nation of Israel's size. The equivalent figure for Gaza, where more than 20,000 people have been killed, is now approaching 900."

Meanwhile Jon Favreau, Obama's former director of speechwriting, shared a post by Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid reporting on Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticizing the U.S., and added: "By all means, let's send this government more money and weapons without delay. What on Earth are we doing here?"

JetBlue Kicks Off Three Chareidim Because One of Them Sat in a Vacant Seat

 Three Jewish travelers were ordered off a JetBlue flight this week after being told that an amicably arranged seat swap with another passenger made the flight crew uncomfortable.

The Forward (bit.ly/4aBWUuJ) reported that the incident took place on a December 31st red eye from Palm Springs to New York’s JFK Airport, when an elderly Orthodox Jewish man tried to take an apparently vacant seat in order to avoid sitting next to an unrelated female passenger in his assigned spot. After being told by a flight attendant that he couldn’t stay in the seat he had chosen, the Jewish man tried sitting in a different spot, only to be rebuffed by the flight attendant a second time. Attempts by his traveling companions, two Orthodox women, to explain the man’s religious concerns to the flight crew fell on deaf ears, prompting passenger Ron Passaro to voluntarily trade seats to accommodate the Jewish man’s request.

Passaro’s girlfriend, Rachel Sklar, shared details of the incident on X, formerly known as Twitter, explaining that the Orthodox man was assigned to 18A, a window seat, while she was seated in 19B, next to the man’s daughter in 19A. Passaro traded his aisle seat -20D – with the Jewish man and it seemed as if the problem had been settled with little fanfare until the plane’s captain and a member of the JetBlue security team approached the Orthodox passengers and ordered them off the plane.

“What *was* unusual here – this was resolved pretty easily (my boyfriend gladly switched seats once he realized what the need was) and everyone was seated & waiting,” tweeted Sklar. “Then they were kicked off.”

JetBlue security told the group that the crew was “not comfortable” with their presence on the flight. Attempts by the man’s companion to allow them to remain on the flight asking if they appeared “dangerous” or “unsafe,” fell on deaf ears. A security member can be heard on an audio recording captured by Sklar that “changing seats is a violation when it comes to weight imbalance.”

Sklar also tried to intervene, explaining that passengers were happy to accommodate the man’s request. But her efforts also proved fruitless, with JetBlue personnel insisting that the problem was weight related and had nothing to do with religion. The Orthodox passengers, who were described by Passaro as “svelte,” were eventually removed from the plane, saying that they felt that they were being targeted because they are Jewish.

“They said obviously this is clearly anti-Semitism and I was like ‘It sure seems like it to me.’” said Sklar. “The whole thing was really upsetting. It seemed very unnecessary and kind of bewildering.”

Sklar was mystified by JetBlue’s actions, saying that she has had flight attendants cheerfully make seat changes to accommodate her allergy to cats.

“Flight attendants have a lot of discretion,” said Sklar. “They can switch people around. The weight thing didn’t make any sense.”

The Chareidie Pilot Takes Off

 

Satmar Rebbe R' Aron Teitelbaum says that the Israeli Soifrim Have No "Yerei Shamayim"

Israel in talks with Congo and other countries on Gaza ‘voluntary migration’ plan

 

The “voluntary” resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza is slowly becoming a key official policy of the government, with a senior official saying that Israel has held talks with several countries for their potential absorption.

Zman Israel, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site, has learned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is conducting secret contacts for accepting thousands of immigrants from Gaza with Congo, in addition to other nations.

“Congo will be willing to take in migrants, and we’re in talks with others,” a senior source in the security cabinet said.

Congo has high levels of inequality, and 52.5 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Food Programme.

Meanwhile, Gaza is facing a growing humanitarian crisis amid the Israel-Hamas war, which was sparked on October 7, when thousands of terrorists stormed the border and rampaged through southern Israeli communities, massacring some 1,200 and kidnapping approximately 240 more as hostages in the Strip.

At least 100 killed in blasts near grave of slain Iranian general Soleimani on his Yurzeit

 

In Kerman, Iran, there seems to be chaos with unconfirmed reports of an explosion during a memorial for Soleimani

The mullahs can never manage to hold a funeral without casualties.

Dozens were killed in a stampede during Soleimani's procession in 2021

pic.twitter.com/AY1x6lhni7

— Nioh Berg ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) January 3, 2024

UPDATED:
 Explosions in Iran:* Multiple explosions have killed approximately 100 people—per initial reports—and wounded nearly 200 near a cemetery in Iran where a ceremony was being held to mark the 2020 assasination of the country's top commander Qassem Soleimani.

Iranian state television reported multiple explosions during the ceremony in the southeastern city of Kerman.

The deadly cemetery blasts were caused by explosive devices triggered remotely by terrorists per local media.

100 people are reported killed in two explosions that occurred in the central city of Kerman during the fourth anniversary of the death of Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.

State TV says two explosions were heard near Soleimani’s burial place. The live broadcast showed thousands of mourners participating in the commemoration, with ambulances on site.

The semi-official Nournews says “several gas canisters exploded on the road leading to the cemetery.” A local official is quoted by Iranian state media as saying “it is not yet clear whether the explosions were caused by gas cylinders or a terrorist attack.”

State TV shows Red Crescent rescuers attending to wounded people at the ceremony, where hundreds of Iranians had gathered to mark the anniversary of Soleimani’s death. Some Iranian news agencies said at least 50 people were wounded.

“Our rapid response teams are evacuating the injured… But there are waves of crowds blocking roads,” Reza Fallah, head of the Kerman province Red Crescent tells state TV.

Soleimani was the architect of Iran’s regional military activities and is hailed as a national icon among supporters of Iran’s theocracy.

A century before Claudine Gay, Harvard helped Nazi Germany improve its image in the West

Doctor Ernst 'Putzi' Hanfstaengl, formerly Press Chief for German Chancellor Adolf Hitler at his London home on July 7, 1937

By MATT LEBOVIC

 Ninety years ago at Harvard University, campus administrators had what some historians call “friendly” relations with Nazi Germany.

Whether Harvard president Claudine Gay’s resignation was catalyzed by a plagiarism scandal or her much-criticized lack of response to calls for the genocide of Jewish students, the university already has a century-old history of repressed antisemitism, historian Rafael Medoff told The Times of Israel.

“What today’s Harvard administration has in common with its predecessor in the 1930s is its reluctance to reject an evil regime and its supporters,” said Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

“In her recent congressional testimony, Gay’s instinctive response was to equivocate when asked about restricting those who advocate genocide of the Jews,” said Medoff.

“Now pro-Hamas non-university groups are being allowed to march on the Harvard campus,” said Medoff, whose center has researched the ties of American university leaders to Nazi Germany for two decades.

In the past few years, Harvard made efforts to atone for its history regarding slavery, including renaming buildings and erecting historical plaques. However, the university maintains a fellowship and professorship named for Alfried Krupp, a top Nazi industrialist.

According to some critics, including the Institute for the Global Study of Antisemitism and Policy, Harvard’s response to antisemitism cannot be disconnected from billions of dollars that Mideast regimes — some of them totalitarian — have donated to Harvard in recent decades. Top donors include Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar, where Hamas leaders are said to be hiding.

On December 27, a prominent international partner of the school — the Lauder Business School in Vienna, Austria — severed ties with Harvard “in solidarity with the Jewish student community,” according to a statement.

Israeli Battalion Say the Ha'Gomel Blessing on Their Way Out of Gaza

 

Top Hamas leader Saleh Arouri killed in Beirut explosion

 

Hamas’ No. 2 leader and a key “architect” of the deadly Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel was killed in an airstrike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut late Tuesday.

Saleh al-Arouri, the Palestinian terror group’s deputy chief, was taken out when the drone struck a Hamas office in Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh — a stronghold of the allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hamas said on its official Telegram channel.

Al-Arouri — who was a founder of the group’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades — is now the most senior Hamas figure killed since the terrorists’ surprise attack triggered the devastating Israel war three months ago.

Five other people, including another Palestinian militant commander, were also killed in the Tuesday night strike, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported, though details on their identities weren’t immediately available.

The strike targeted a Hamas meeting, multiple security sources told Reuters.

Izzat al-Sharq, a top Hamas political figure, immediately condemned the strike as a “cowardly assassination” by Israel.

But Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC in an interview that Israel has not taken responsibility for the deadly strike but “whoever did it, it must be clear: That this was not an attack on the Lebanese state.

“Whoever did this did a surgical strike against the Hamas leadership,” Regev added.

State Dept Getting Involved in Israeli Politics Slams “Inflammatory And Irresponsible Rhetoric” From Ben Gvir And Smotrich

DIN: Israel must ignore the antisemitic State Department who want Israel to lose the war. Ben Gvir and Smotrich have the correct solution. 

 The US State Department on Tuesday released a scathing rebuke of Israeli MKs Itamar Ben Gvir and Betzalel Smotrich, who have suggested in recent days that Palestinians should be thrown out of the Gaza Strip.

Ben Gvir told members of his Otzma Yehudit party that the war presents an “opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza,” which he called “a correct, just, moral and humane solution.”

“We cannot withdraw from any territory we are in in the Gaza Strip. Not only do I not rule out Jewish settlement there, I believe it is also an important thing,” he said.

Similarly, Smotrich said that the “correct solution” about what to do with Gaza once Hamas is toppled is “to encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees,” and ensure that “Israel will permanently control the territory of the Gaza Strip.”

“The United States rejects recent statements from Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza,” State Dept. spokesman Matthew Miller said. “This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible. We have been told repeatedly and consistently by the Government of Israel, including by the Prime Minister, that such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. They should stop immediately.”

He added: “We have been clear, consistent, and unequivocal that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel. That is the future we seek, in the interests of Israelis and Palestinians, the surrounding region, and the world.”