“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

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Syria Collapsed Only Because of those Who Learned in Beit Medrish With a "Bren" ! Grodna Rosh Yeshiva






 

I don't even know where to begin!

An outraged parent of  a talmid learning in Grodno wrote me an email to go pick up the latest Yated! He said "look at the first page, it is the second leading story!"

In my immediate neighborhood of Beit Shemesh they are smart enough not to distribute this trash, so I had to travel to Ramat Gimmel to pick one up! 

I have to be very careful what I am going to say, and so before posting I bounced off my reaction to a huge Talmid Chachim in my neighborhood, and he said "Kol Hakovod, post! 

The Rosh Yeshiva of Grodna is Harav Drabkin Shlitah, and he explained the following to hundreds of his naive students! 

I have to take back the word "naive" as most students according to this parent who emailed me said that the talmidim mocked and ridiculed him causing according to this parent a huge "Chillul Hashem!" and in addition, a lot of his talmidim lost respect for their Rosh Yeshiva ....

The Rosh Yeshiva  explained that 

"Yes, there are soldiers with tanks and planes fighting the enemy but the victory comes only from the strength of those who learn in Beit Hamedrish with a "bren" a spark of fire!" The proof is that in Syria the soldiers did not use tanks and planes and yet Syria collapsed!"

First off, I need to point out that HKB"H is mentioned only twice in the entire article of over 500 words ! Reading the article you would not know that Hashem played any role! 

It is exclusively the talmidim! 

In the first instance where Hashem is even mentioned in the article is in respect to a "mashal" about Yaakov!, and the second time about the war between the Chashmonoim and the Greeks!

I'l address the second time the Rosh Yeshiva mentions HKB"H, the first one is completely off the charts! 

The Rosh Yeshiva stated:

"HKB"H gave the  זדים ביד עוסקי תורתך  ....  the  arrogant (the Greeks) into the hands  of those who were engaged in the study of Torah" 

HKB"H delivered the Greeks into the hands of Maatisyahu who didn't fight in the war but sat and learned in Beit Medrish and learned Torah that is fire, it was in his hands that the Greeks were defeated and it was in his merit that the Chashmonoim won the war"

This idea that Hashem gave the Greeks into the hands only to  Mattisyahu  because he was learning Torah is not mentioned anywhere in the entire Shas and not even in Al Hanissim!!!

In fact if you read the Al Hanissim you see that this fact that the Greeks were delivered into the hands of those learning Torah, is mentioned last in the pasuk, and from the Al Hanissim it is "mashmeh" that they were all fighters , and nowhere is it mentioned that it was in fact Mattisyahu that was learning Torah! Not before, not during or even after the war! 

The good Rosh Yeshiva also left out an entire verse, deliberately!

בימי מתתיהו בן יוחנן כהן גדול חשמונאי ובניו, כשעמדה מלכות יון הרשעה על עמך ישראל להשכיחם תורתך ולהעבירם מחקי רצונך ואתה ברחמיך הרבים עמדת להם בעת צרתם

רבת את ריבם, דנת את דינם, נקמת את נקמתם, 

מסרת גבורים ביד חלשים, ורבים ביד מעטים, וטמאים ביד טהורים, ורשעים ביד צדיקים,ןזדים ביד עוסקי תורתך

"You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and the arrogant into the hands of those who engaged in the study of Torah" 

If you read the first Book of the Maccabees you will see that Mattisyahu fought together with his sons! It is only from the Book of Maccabees that we know anything about the war, the gemarrah only speaks about the miracle of the oil! 

The Rosh Yeshiva made this up without any support whatsoever!

I am not a talmid chachimm and I certainly don't come to the Rosh Yeshiva's toenails but having said that, I will venture to say that the עוסקי תורה were in fact fighting and not in Bais Hamedrish! And my pshat is embedded in the words of the Al Hanissim,

 that in the "days of Mattisyahu Kohein Gadol, HKB"H gave the Greeks into the hands of the "weak" the "few" the "pure" the righteous, and those "learning Torah!"  

All those mentioned were the fighters physically fighting the Greeks, not one of those mentioned were in Bais Medrish !

Now let's ask the Rosh Yeshiva a question!

Why didn't Gaza collapse on October 8? 

There were no tanks, no planes and not even soldiers in Gaza! The IDF invaded Gaza on October 28, that's almost 3 weeks after Ocober 7?

The talmidim of Grodno Yeshiva were learning with a "bren" and I might add with "geshmak" yet Gaza didn't fall? 

The Grodno boys had three full weeks to get Gaza to fall! Not only didn't it fall, the Gazans launched thousands of rockets!  

Not only didn't Gaza fall, but Hezbollah didn't fall either! We are old enough to remember that Hezbollah were firing rockets and the IDF didn't really respond till sometime in late November! Entire communities in the North had to evacuate! 

So if it is the "bren" then why didn't Lebanon fall? 

His statements that Syria fell without a shot is delusional!

 Even Blinken admitted that it was the killing of Sinwar, the killing of Nasralla, and the total destruction of the South of  Lebanon that gave the rebels the courage to advance! Don't forget that in September of this year the IDF not Grodna went into the heart of Syria and eliminated the entire air defense of Syria giving the IDF free reign! 

Now of course, everything has been orchestrated from above, and HKB"H mentioned only twice in the  Holy Yated article is the Sole Savior of the Jewish people! But we all understand especially those familiar with the Chovas Halvovos, Shaar Habitachon, that HKB"H used the IDF not Grodno to destroy Syria! 

And the most important point to remember is ...

We don't even know how this will turn out! This could G-d forbid be the worst calamity! 

I really believe that the Rosh Yeshiva doesn't even believe what he said and as it turns out his talmidim don't believe it either!

 But the stupid Hebrew Yated puts this utter nonsense on the front page! 

Judge Juan Merchan’s vendetta against Donald Trump has reached madness


 Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan is abusing his power one last time in a bid to ensure that Donald Trump is technically a convicted felon when he takes the oath of office Jan. 20.

Yes: The term “convicted felon” doesn’t legally apply until you’ve been sentenced, which is also a requirement for nearly all appeals of a conviction — and Merchan’s many errors over the course of the trial are all too likely to result in Trump’s conviction being reversed.

So the judge has been dragging things out so that he can sentence Trump on Friday, barely a week before the inauguration and with insufficient time to win that reversal.

Merchan on Monday refused to postpone sentencing; a higher state judge has declined to overrule him; Trump’s asked the US Supreme Court to intervene and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s weighing in Thursday morning on why SCOTUS shouldn’t.

Meanwhile, Merchan has indicated the sentence will be “unconditional discharge,” meaning no jail time, no probation, no fine — but Trump’s official conviction would remain on record.

Again, that would allow Democrats and other Trump-haters to forever harp on how he’s the first convicted felon to become president, no matter how the case proceeds on appeal.

It’s also a bid to get the prez-elect to not bother appealing, and so avoid a higher-court slapdown of the Manhattan trial judge: Once he’s again the leader of the free world, he’ll have far more important things to do.

Indeed, Trump has bigger fish to fry even now; the nation’s in such a state that he needs to hit the ground running after the inauguration — it’s obscene that he may have to spend time next week filing for an emergency appellate hearing in this case to avoid the “felon” agitprop.

Bragg was playing low politics in bringing these charges in the first place; Merchan has all too outrageously played along.

Fact is, they’ve already handed the incoming Trump Justice Department with ample grounds to investigate them both for unconstitutional abuse of state power to influence the last federal election.

But New York’s higher courts also have a duty to slap down Merchan and his abuses.

Trump Derangement Syndrome has left Merchan a modern Captain Ahab, dooming himself with an obsessive pursuit of his target long past all reason: He’s going to go under, tangled in his own harpoon.

519 Doctors Made Aliyah During Wartime

 

From left to right, Ministers Yitzchak Wasserlauf, Ofir Sofer, and Uriel Busso at a conference for doctors who made aliyah in the past year.

As left-wing media outlets claim that numerous Israelis have left the country in recent years, first due to the so-called threat of a “judicial revolution” and then the very real threat of Israel’s bloodthirsty enemies post-October 7, hundreds of doctors have made aliyah over the past year.

The Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, in collaboration with the Nefesh B’Nefesh organization, the Jewish Agency, and the Ministry of the Negev, Galil, and National Resilience, held a conference on Tuesday for doctors who made aliyah in the past year from various countries.

During the conference, doctors met with potential employers and received information about the procedures for recognizing their medical licenses in Israel, with the aim of integrating as many doctors as possible into the healthcare system.

The event was attended by Minister of Aliyah and Integration Ofir Sofer (Religious Zionism), Minister of the Negev, Galil, and National Resilience, Yitzchak Wasserlauf (Otzma Yehudit), and Minister of Health Uriel Busso (Shas).

Data from the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration shows that in the past year, 519 doctors made aliyah and many of them have already integrated into the healthcare system in various roles and in a range of hospitals, health maintenance organizations, and clinics across the country – including Ichilov, Barzilai, Galil, Hadassah, Emek, Wolfson, Laniado, Soroka, Rambam, Shamir, Shaare Tzedek, Sheba, and others.

The Aliyah Ministry’s Directorate For Immigrant Physicians has accompanied about 600 doctors over the past year at different stages, some of whom have not yet made aliyah while others have been in the country for several years.

Approximately 450 doctors who made aliyah in recent years have received assistance in recognition processes for their licenses and specialties and have found employment. Additionally, according to data from the Jewish Agency, about 575 doctors and other healthcare professionals have opened aliyah files, and some are expected to arrive in the country as early as 2025.

Dr. Deborah Maman, a surgeon, made aliyah with her husband and their three children – ages 6, 4, and a baby – in July. “We made the decision to immigrate about a year ago, and we wanted to live in Ashkelon because my father lives here, and we love the area. We weren’t afraid to come despite the war, and thankfully, since we’ve been here, there have only been a few sirens.”

Deborah started working at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon and will soon transition to a full-time position: “I attended the MEDEX conference in Paris, which helped me with the bureaucracy and licenses. I met amazing people at Barzilai who agreed to employ me. I feel a sense of duty in my work as a doctor in Israel, especially during this time. It is important for me as a person and as a doctor, and it is important for the Jewish people.”

Over the past year, with the assistance of the Takuma Directorate [which was established by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to rehabilitate Israel’s northern and Gaza border regions] and the Ministry of the Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience, grants amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels were offered to doctors who chose to work and reside in the Negev and Galil. In total, grants worth four million shekels were distributed to nine doctors who met the established criteria.

Aliyah Minister Sofer said: “The national program is a unique collaboration aimed at encouraging the immigration of doctors and strengthening the healthcare system, with an emphasis on the Negev and Galil. The initiative aims to bring in about 2,000 Jewish doctors over the next five years, while removing bureaucratic barriers and ensuring immediate employment upon their arrival in the country. The success of the program will address an urgent national need, strengthen the healthcare system during a challenging period, encourage immigration, and contribute to strengthening the Israeli economy.”

While LA is burning ..Clueless FD Chief talks about LGBT inclusion

 

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Kalmonowitz Family of Mirrer Yeshivah Go to Secular Court Without "Heter Arkaois"

 

‘I Grew Up Hating Israel, Jews’: Former Antisemite-Turned-Zionist Takes on World’s Oldest Hatred in New Doc

 




In a world grappling with a resurgence of antisemitism, a new documentary seeks to confront the issue head-on, positing an unsettling take on the motivations behind the world’s oldest hatred through the insights of Rawan Osman, a Syrian-Lebanese antisemite-turned-Zionist.

“Tragic Awakening: A New Look at the Oldest Hatred,” directed by Canadian-Israeli filmmaker Raphael Shore, interweaves historical analysis with contemporary events through the voices of clerics, historians, sociologists, and cultural commentators, including the late British Chief Rabbi Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, author Yossi Klein Halevi, Israel’s antisemitism envoy Michal Cotler-Wunsh, and journalists Bari Weiss and Douglas Murray. It argues that antisemitism stems not from a perception of Jewish inferiority, but rather from resentment of Jewish excellence and moral leadership.

Osman — who founded “Arabs Ask,” a forum designed to challenge preconceived notions about Judaism and Israel among Arabs, and who describes herself as an Arab Zionist — narrates the movie.

Born in Damascus, Syria, she was raised in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley and later lived in Saudi Arabia and Qatar before eventually settling in Germany. Her first encounter with a Jewish person was when she moved to Strasbourg, France in her twenties. In her words, the encounter prompted her “first and last panic attack.”

But a long process of exploration, including studying Modern Hebrew and Jewish history at a German university, led her to challenge the antisemitic beliefs she had absorbed growing up in the Middle East and ultimately change her perspective.

“Life is strange. I grew up hating Israel and the Jews, just like many Lebanese and Syrians,” Osman told The Algemeiner.

“Living in Europe, especially the decade I spent in Germany, made me one of the most vocal supporters of the Jewish state. Who would have thought?”

After reexamining her beliefs, Osman dedicated herself to soft diplomacy, educating the Arab world about Jewish history and the Holocaust. However, following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7, she adopted a more direct and assertive approach, despite the personal risks tied to openly supporting Israel. Reflecting on a conversation with her son, she recalled him asking, “Why are you doing this to me?” to which she responded, “I am doing this for you.”

Osman, who has expressed a desire to convert to Judaism and move to Jerusalem, teamed up with Shore and Rabbi Shalom Schwartz, the film’s executive producer and founder of Aseret, an organization dedicated to promoting the universal values of the Ten Commandments.

“I found myself on a quest to try and understand antisemitism. The Jews are blamed for all ills of the world. Why? Antisemitism requires a different type of explanation,” Osman says in the film.

Shore, who released the film alongside his new book Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Jew?, argued that while religious, social, and political reasons may trigger antisemitism, they fail to explain its deeper motives, leaving efforts to combat it ineffective.

“Today, more than ever before since the Nazis were defeated, we are forced to discover ways of finding greater tolerance in our world. We are completely delusional if we think that hatred of the Jews will end with the Jews. We are always the canary in the coal mine — a harbinger of what is to come for the entire civilized world,” Shore told The Algemeiner.

“If we are ever to effectively combat antisemitism, we need to better understand its roots with moral and spiritual courage, which demands unwavering pride in our common Jewish identities,” he continued. “Combating antisemitism requires pushing back at our enemies with clarity, unity, and an appreciation that our traditions and history are what have allowed us to overcome our enemies.”

Osman says at one point in the movie: “Hitler didn’t want to kill the Jews because they were bad; he wanted to kill them because they were good.”

Shore explains that for Hitler, the Jews represented “a spiritual and moral threat” because the ethical foundations of Western civilization — at their core, Jewish ideas — are the antithesis of his Darwinian outlook.

“Hitler believed that there was one great conflict that drives human history, and that was the idea of survival of the fittest,” Shore said. “Hitler believed that if the ideas of humanitarianism, love, equality, democracy were to succeed, that would be the end of humanity.”

After a screening of the movie in Tel Aviv last week, Osman shared her thoughts on the downfall of Iran’s regional axis of proxies, culminating with the recent fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Osman said that the reaction of some Israelis’ apprehension at Assad’s demise “literally broke my heart,” she said.

“I invited my Israeli friends to reach out to the Syrians and congratulate them” on the fall of Assad, who was the “monster of the century,” she said.

“Some of them misunderstood — they thought I’m endorsing Islamists,” she said, referencing the rebels led by a former member of ISIS and al Qaeda, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani.

Still, she noted, these groups achieved what the world, including the US and Israel, could not, emphasizing that the removal of Assad had to come from within Syria, as an external force taking him down would have turned him into a martyr.

Though Osman approached the recent changes with caution regarding their impact on Israel’s relations with its neighbors, she remained hopeful. “While I watch myself together with Rav Shalom Shwartz and Rav Shore on the big screen, I feel that peace between Israel, Lebanon, and Syria might come in my lifetime after all,” she told The Algemeiner.

John Fetterman says if Democrats can’t get 7 votes in the Senate to pass the Laken Riley Act, then “that’s the reason why we lost."

 

 

Sunny Hostin Who Compared Jan 6 to the Holocaust ..Husband Arrested in Huge Insurance Fraud Scam

 






 

Innocent Palestinian Children Learning in UNRAW "With Allah's help The Jews will die."

 

Why the Trump campaign was denied to forensically examine Dominion machines.

 

The George Soros interview they don’t want you to see

 



Los Angeles fire hydrants are OUT OF WATER Meanwhile the Mayor absent 7,400 miles away in Arica

Furious Los Angeles residents tore into their absent Mayor Karen Bass, who was 7,400 miles away in Arica on a political trip as raging fires turned the City of Angels into an apocalyptic hellscape Tuesday.

“RESIGN! WHY ARE YOU IN GHANA?!,” one person commented on an X post by Bass’ office giving an update on the wildfires

Bass traveled with three other people to Ghana for the inaguration of President John Dramani Mahama, who was elected last year.

 “Hey Karen! How’s Ghana?” another person asked. “LA you ask? Yeah it’s burning to the f–king ground but it’s better you’re not here anyways because you’re useless.”

Others demanded that Bass, who took office in 2022, resign from her post.

“You’re a disgrace & embarrassment to our country,” one comment read.

“You need to resign you incompetent fool,” said another.

According to Fox LA, Bass was heading back to Los Angeles. 

Former US Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell also noted Bass’ absence in a post on X, writing, “The national media hasn’t even mentioned that Karen Bass is in Africa while our city is literally burning to the ground.”

Far-Left PolitiFact Melts Down over Facebook Ousting ‘Biased’ Fact-Checkers


PolitiFact, a disgracedfakefar-leftunofficial propaganda arm of the Democrat party, is already melting down over the bombshell news Tuesday that Facebook will no longer allow them or any of the media’s fake fact-checkers to censor and blacklist conservative opinions.

We can now discuss things like “gender” and “immigration” openly.

Mark said so.

Tuesday morning, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg told the corporate media to kiss his ass in a video where he announced an end to “censorship” on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Further, more than once, he referred to the corporate media with the red-pilled term “legacy media.”

“We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms,” he said. “More specifically, here’s what we’re going to do. First, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.”

“The legacy media pushed to censor more and more,” he said. “After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote non-stop how misinformation was harming democracy.”

Zuckerberg claims he is not only reversing these policies, he will work with incoming President Trump to “push back on governments around the world going after American companies and pushing to censor more.”

Before we get to PolitiFact crybabying, allow me to sum up what’s happening here… For the first time since the creation of mass media a hundred years ago, we are witnessing an end to the bad guys having control over the flow of information — control over what debate is acceptable, what questions are asked, what is and is not covered, what does and does not matter. In other words: The Narrative.

We all saw it yesterday on January 6, as the corporate media pleasured themselves pretending that a mostly peaceful protest where no one brought weapons was an “insurrection.” Nobody listened. No one cared. The media are Chubby Checker still singing “The Twist” in 1991 while Normal People focus on what matters — the future at the hands of a president who actually loves his country.

Yes, we should be wary of Zuckerberg’s transformation into a red-pilled believer in free speech, but maybe — just maybe — this is who he really is. Maybe Trump’s reelection triumph in the face of 100 percent media opposition showed Zuckerberg that the media’s hold on power is an illusion. Maybe Elon Musk thriving in the face of 100 percent media opposition drove the point home again. Whatever his intentions, Zuckerberg had a clear choice between MAGA and the legacy media, and he not only chose MAGA, he called the media and their fake fact-checkers “censors” and “biased” and announced a total end to their influence on Facebook and Instagram, two of the most powerful communication tools ever created.

So, of course, the fascists at PolitiFact are butthurt. No more can they tell a billion-plus Facebook and Instagram users that lies are truth. No more can they intimidate Normal People from speaking a truth or floating a crazy idea (Biden’s dementia) that might actually turn out to be true. No more can they control the debate, the questions asked, or what we as free people wish to discuss and how we wish to discuss it.

PolitiFact and their big daddy backers at the fascist Poynter do not give a damn about democracy or free speech. What they want is to empower the state by disempowering the individual’s right to be an individual.

Therefore…

This. Is. Glorious…

The bad guys are finally-finally-finally losing.

They are losing so bad, you can listen to the lamentations of their women:

No one’s watching CNN or MSNBC.

The Washington Post is collapsing.

The New York Times is beholden to its far-left subscribers and lives in that echo chamber.

The Los Angeles Times is openly courting Trump supporters.

And now, Xwitter, Facebook, and Instagram — the public square — are free of the legacy media’s evil and corrupt influence.

If villains like PolitiFact can no longer control how we talk to one another online, they have nothing.

Everything changed today. We must remain vigilant with Bond villains like Mark Zuckerberg, but everything changed, and the lamentations of their women prove it.

John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook


 

Williamsburg Resident and Hatzolah Paramedic, Levi Steinberg, Arrested and Charged with Sexually Assaulting Woman


 

Levi Steinberg is a paramedic for Hatzolah of Williamsburg, and a resident of Williamsburg. Following an indictment by a grand jury, Steinberg was arrested on one count of rape in the 3rd degree, and one count each of forcible touching and sexual misconduct. The charges are in relation to his alleged sexual assault of a woman in Williamsburg.

If you have been abused by Levi Steinberg, please reach out to get support and discuss your legal options.

Why does Donald Trump want Greenland?

 


President-elect Donald Trump revealed Tuesday that he would not rule out using military force to annex Greenland, leaving many Americans asking: “But why?”

In fact, the ice-covered Danish territory, the largest island in the world, has long been a hot topic among strategists in Washington and elsewhere — despite Copenhagen’s insistence it is not for sale — due to its location along vital shipping routes and the presence of key raw materials that are rarely found anywhere else.

“Why? A few critical reasons,” a source close to the Trump transition efforts told The Post on Tuesday when asked about the president-elect’s goal. “Sending a strong, deliberate message to Beijing. Not just talk. Action. Making America Ambitious Again.

“And the president-elect is laying out the early framework of the ‘Trump Doctrine.'”

The US is currently locked in a three-cornered fight with China as well as Russia over the Arctic region’s natural resources — such as lithium, cobalt and graphite, according to the Wilson Center, a foreign policy-focused think tank in Washington.

“There are two main reasons [to annex Greenland]. The first is the large deposits of rare earth elements needed for critical defense and electronics manufacturing,” Atlantic Council nonresident fellow Alex Plitsas told The Post.

“Second, Greenland has a legitimately large claim to the Arctic and that would provide the US with a stronger position as competition there heats up for navigation and resources.”

Arctic access and resources

J Street – How a Son Betrayed His Father and His Country

 


As the 40th anniversary of Yitshaq Ben-Ami’s Yartzeit has just passed, the chasm between father and son reveals a painful and dramatic betrayal. Their differing approaches to Israel advocacy demonstrate how the once united cause of support for Eretz Yisroel has fractured across generations, culminating in Jeremy Ben-Ami’s stark break from the ideals his father so ardently upheld.  The tale of the betrayal can be read in a newly released book entitled, “J Street UnMasked.”

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Zuckerberg dumps Facebook fact-checkers after ‘too much censorship’

 

Facebook is to scrap its fact-checking programme after founder Mark Zuckerberg pledged to “restore free expression” on the social network.

Mr Zuckerberg on Tuesday promised that parent company Meta would “get rid of fact-checkers” and replace them with a system of “community notes, similar to X”, echoing the approach of rival billionaire Elon Musk.

It follows the exit of Sir Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader, as the tech giant’s head of global affairs, a role in which he led a crackdown on hate speech.

Sir Nick has been replaced by the former Republican Party operator Joel Kaplan, who will lead Facebook’s public policy operations.

In a further sign of the company’s shift towards the Right, Mr Zuckerberg this week appointed longstanding Donald Trump ally Dana White, the chief executive of Ultimate Fighting Championship, as a board member.

Mr Zuckerberg said: “Fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created.”

He added that Facebook would “get rid of a bunch of restrictions” on topics including gender and immigration amid a wider corporate backlash against diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Mr Zuckerberg said: “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions.”

The Facebook founder said the technology company had gone too far in tackling “disinformation” in the wake of Mr Trump’s election victory in 2016, amid fears over Russian meddling and fake news, adding that “we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship”.

He has previously accused Joe Biden’s White House of pressuring Facebook to censor content around coronavirus, saying: “I regret we were not more outspoken about it.”

The decision to ditch some of Facebook’s core moderation policies comes after the departure of Sir Nick, previously one of Mr Zuckerberg’s key lieutenants who was closely involved in the decision to suspend Mr Trump from Facebook in 2021.

Fact checking by experts will be replaced with something like the community notes system pioneered on X, where users can add their own checks to controversial statements.

Speaking to Fox on Tuesday, Mr Kaplan said: “Instead of going to some so-called expert, it instead relies on the community and the people on the platform to provide their own commentary to something that they’ve read.”

He added: “We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and [is more] a huge supporter of free expression.”

The loosening of online moderation follows Mr Musk’s takeover of X, formerly Twitter, and his decision to implement a system of “community notes”, where users fact-check posts and videos on the social media site.

Currently, Facebook relies on a network of third-party fact-checkers and news groups to report and flag posts that are spreading disinformation. These include news agencies like Reuters and AFP and smaller groups such as the UK’s Full Fact.

The changes will raise questions over the future of Facebook’s “Oversight Board”, which was set up to review the tech giant’s moderation decisions and is made up of public figures including the Alan Rusbridger, the former Guardian editor.

It will also raise questions over whether user-generated community notes will be enough to tackle coordinated disinformation campaigns by hostile nations.

Mr Zuckerberg admitted the changes would mean Facebook will “catch less bad stuff”.

In a statement, the Oversight Board said: “The Oversight Board welcomes the news that Meta will revise its approach to fact-checking, with the goal of finding a scalable solution to enhance trust, free speech and user voice on its platforms.”

Mr Zuckerberg added that Facebook planned to “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more”.

It comes as Britain prepares to implement the Online Safety Act, starting in March.

New GOP Congress Declares War On ICC Over Israel Arrest Warrants




The newly Republican-led Congress is swiftly advancing the “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act,” aiming to sanction International Criminal Court officials involved in investigations against allies like Israel. 

The bill proposes a 60-day timeline to implement these sanctions and seeks to halt U.S. funding to the ICC.
 

10% to 15% of the 1.8 billion Muslims in the world are radicalized. That’s hundreds of millions of people

 

Israel Signs Game-Changing Defense Deals with Elbit Systems Totaling NIS 1 Billion ..Reducing Dependence on US


The Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD) has signed two massive agreements with Elbit Systems, reshaping the country’s defense strategy with a focus on independence and cutting-edge capabilities. The deals, worth approximately NIS 1 billion, address two critical areas: heavy air munitions and domestic raw material production.

The first deal involves the supply of thousands of heavy air munitions to the IDF. These munitions are key to the IDF’s ability to maintain operational dominance across all theaters of combat. This isn’t just about stocking up—it’s about preparing for the future with high-quality, Israeli-manufactured equipment that ensures readiness at every level.

The second deal is a major move toward self-reliance. Elbit will build a national raw materials facility, creating advanced production lines for energetic materials. Until now, these materials had to be imported, but this project changes the game. It ensures Israel can produce critical defense components in-house, reducing dependence on foreign suppliers—something the war highlighted as a major vulnerability.

Beyond security, these agreements are a boost to Israel’s economy. They’re part of the IMOD’s “Blue and White” policy to keep manufacturing local. This means more jobs, expanded production lines, and a stronger domestic defense industry. Thousands of families will directly benefit from the economic ripple effects of these projects.

Maj. Gen. (Res.) Eyal Zamir, Director General of the IMOD, called the agreements “historic” and emphasized how they address the critical lessons learned during the war. By accelerating these initiatives, the IDF will soon achieve full independence in both munitions and raw materials—essential for long-term operational sustainability.

This isn’t just business as usual. These deals represent a transformative moment for Israel’s defense strategy, merging innovation, economic strength, and operational readiness into a future-proof plan for security.