Iran unveils underground 'missile city' that houses rockets to be used in attacks on Israel in chilling footage

 

Chilling footage broadcast by Iranian media on Friday showed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander General Hossein Salami inspecting an underground missile facility. 

In one clip, General Salami can be seen addressing troops in a speech.  

'Every day, the number of systems and missiles is added in the far corners of this land', he says.

'Maybe the enemy thought that our production power has stagnated, but the growth rate of our missile power is up to date'. 

In other videos, he can be seen examining what appear to be missiles.  

It was not immediately clear when and where the footage was filmed.

General Salami has risen through the ranks of the IRGC since its inception following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. 

He is known for his menacing speeches and his devotion to Iranian leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei. 

The release of the footage comes as Israeli military said scores of Israeli jets completed waves of strikes against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran last October.

Iran played down the air attack against its military targets, saying it caused only limited damage.

Also, Israel's military said it had carried out new airstrikes in Yemen against what it said were Houthi rebel targets.  

Its statement Friday said fighter jets struck 'on the western coast and inland Yemen,' a day after the Houthis launched three drones at Israel.

The US military bombed Yemen earlier this week. 

Houthi-controlled media reported one worker dead and six people wounded at the Ras Isa port. 

The Houthis said the strikes occurred while Yemenis were rallying in the capital Sanaa in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. 

Tensions in the region have grown rapidly since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas, raising fears of a wider conflict that could drag in global powers and imperil world energy supplies.

In recent weeks, Israel and Hamas have appeared to inch closer  to an agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages.

Gaza's Health Ministry said Thursday that 46,006 Palestinians have been killed and 109,378 wounded in the Israel-Hamas war with no end in sight. 

The ministry says women and children were more than half the fatalities but does not say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians.

The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

It blames Hamas for civilian deaths because it says militants operate in residential areas. 

Israel's air and ground operations have driven hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into sprawling tent camps along the coast with limited access to food and other essentials.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting around 250. 

A third of the 100 hostages still held in Gaza are believed to be dead

Guess who's back in about two weeks?

 

Judge Merchan tries to defend himself after Trump sentencing — but he and Bragg are responsible for this monster

 On Friday, the sentencing of President-elect Donald Trump saw one of the most impassioned defense arguments given at such a hearing in years … from the judge himself.

Acting Justice Juan Merchan admitted that the case was “unique and remarkable” but insisted that “once the courtroom doors were closed, the trial itself was no more special, unique, and extraordinary than the other 32 cases in this courthouse.”

If so, that is a damning indictment of the entire New York court system. Merchan allowed a dead misdemeanor to be resuscitated by allowing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to effectively prosecute declined federal offenses.

He allowed a jury to convict Trump without any agreement, let alone unanimity, on what actually occurred in the case.

Merchan ruled that the jury did not have to agree on why Trump committed an alleged offense in describing settlement costs as legal costs.

Neither the defendant nor the public will ever know what the jury ultimately found in its verdict.

I once described this case as a legal Frankenstein: “It is the ultimate gravedigger charge, where Bragg unearthed a case from 2016 and, through a series of novel steps, is seeking to bring it back to life … Bragg is combining parts from both state and federal codes.”

Even liberal legal experts have denounced the case and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) recently called it total “bulls–t.”

Now, Merchan seemed quick to assure this Frankenstein case was just like any other creature of the court. It did not matter that it was stitched together from dead cases and zapped into life through lawfare.

Merchan knows that there is a fair chance this monstrosity will finally die on appeal, and he was making the case for his own conduct.

The verdict, however, is likely to last far longer than the Trump verdict. It is a judgment against not just Merchan but the New York legal system, which allowed itself to be weaponized against political opponents.

Trump can now appeal the case as a whole. Prior appeals in the New York court system were unsuccessful, and hopes are low that the system will redeem itself.

However, Trump can eventually escape the vortex of the New York court system in search of jurists willing to see beyond the rage and bring reason to this case.

Merchan’s monster will now go on the road and work its way back to the Supreme Court. Outside of New York, this freak attraction will likely be viewed as less thrilling than chilling.

Lawfare is that monster. It threatens us all, even those who hate Trump and his supporters. Once released, it spreads panic among the public, which can no longer rely on the guarantees of blind and fair justice.

That includes businesses that view this case and the equally absurd civil case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James as creating a dangerous and even lawless environment. Many are saying “There but for the grace of God go I” in a system that allows for selective prosecution.

Many will be blamed as the creators of this monster but few will escape that blame, including Merchan himself.

 Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

Zera Shimshon Parshas Va'Yechi

 

Shocking Footage: "I've never seen such destruction.... it looks like a war zone."

 

*Shocking Footage: "I've never seen such destruction.... it looks like a war zone."*

News chopper gives a shocking report on the view from above Pacific Palisades.

Thousands of homes are destroyed.

Kamala doesn’t look thrilled that Obama is talking with Trump.

 

Watch LA Lady Confront Newsom asking him "Why the Hydrants have no water"?

 LA woman runs up to confront Gavin Newsom about his failures, asks him why her daughter’s school burned down and why the hydrants didn’t have any water.

Fetterman Sticks it to the DemonRats!

U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) made waves with two major announcements that have taken social media by storm. The first shock came when Fetterman revealed his intention to vote YES on several of President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, a move that defies party lines and has sent shockwaves through Washington.

Fetterman mentioned several notable names, including Marco Rubio, Elise Stefanik, Sean Duffy, and Brooke Rollins as individuals he would support for cabinet positions under a future Trump administration. He also left the door open to consider RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, signaling a rare willingness to cross party lines.

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Angry Bnei Brak Torah Learners Attack Accost IDF General While He Eats Cholent

 

זו תורה וזו שכרה

ומי כעמך ישראל 

I see that the Bochrim know how to riot not only in Yeshiva but also in the streets. I wonder how they would fair opposite a couple of Hamas terrorists? 

On Thursday, a frightening incident took place in the heart of Bnei Brak, as IDF Major General David Zini was accosted by hundreds of members of “Peleg Yerushalmi”.

Major General Zini, along with his advisor, were reportedly visiting Bnei Brak to meet with local figures. He was eating cholent at the Goldis restaurant, when a member of Peleg Yerushalmi recognized him and encouraged his peers to join in assaulting him.

As can be seen on video, the protesters tried to storm the restaurant. Police were called to intervene and rescue the general.

Though Ponovitz Boys Refuse to Fight in the IDF They beat the crap out of Each Other

 

Ponevezh Yeshiva head Rabbi Asher Deutsch, right, and Rabbi Shmuel Markovitz in an undated photo.

I wonder if Torah is "Meigin Umatzleh" when you beat the crap out of each other? Harav Deutsch z"l was also the leader of the Peleg "Auerbach" Terrorists! When he fought the police in Yerushalayim calling them "Nazis" he was a hero, but in Ponovetz itself, where he taught, they wouldn't let him be buried in the "respected" area, the body was lying in a room while both sides were fighting! Ironies of ironies they needed to call in a secular Zionist Judge to mediate! 

By Mati Wagner

A sacrilegious tug-of-war over the body of a brilliant Talmud scholar and firebrand as he was being brought to rest has unleashed a new bout of violence in a decades-old power struggle at Ponevezh Yeshiva, where young men belonging to the intellectual elite of the Haredi community are educated.

Divisive in his lifetime, the head rabbi of Ponevezh, Rabbi Asher Deutsch, was no less so in his death.

On December 16, Deutsch’s body awaited burial at his apartment at Rabbi Wasserman Street 5 in Bnei Brak, a short walk from Ponevezh Yeshiva. Ponevezh is the Haredi equivalent of an Ivy League university where Deutsch taught since 1988.

Meanwhile, two warring yeshiva factions bickered over where to bury his remains.

Deutsch’s detractors, aligned with Rabbi Eliezer Kahaneman, the 77-year-old grandson of Ponevezh’s founder — and who has property rights over most of Ponevezh’s assets, including the Ponevezh Cemetery — opposed allowing Deutsch’s burial anywhere in the cemetery, let alone in the VIP section.

Deutsch’s supporters, led by 77-year-old Rabbi Shmuel Markovitz, who is married to Kahaneman’s sister, insisted that Deutsch’s body be buried in the section of Ponevezh Cemetery reserved for the yeshiva’s most illustrious rabbis.

A secular former judge was called in to mediate.

Retired Jerusalem District Court judge David Cheshin, who was born into a well-connected Haredi family and speaks Yiddish but left religious observance after IDF service, has been serving as a mediator in a myriad of conflicts between the two brothers-in-law for three years.

As the recitation of Psalms by tens of thousands of Deutsch’s students, followers and admirers through a vast PA system dragged on, Cheshin called an impromptu Zoom meeting that brought together representatives of the Deutsch family and representatives of Kahaneman and Markovitz in an attempt to reach a compromise that would enable Deutsch’s body to be laid to rest in a dignified manner.

UnitedHealthcare slammed for denying cancer patient's surgery... while she was on the operating table

 

Dr Liz Potter

A surgeon has slammed UnitedHealthcare after the insurance giant allegedly disputed her patient's care while she was on the operating table.

Dr Elisabeth Potter, a plastic surgeon in Texas, claims performing breast reconstructive surgery on a breast cancer survivor when she received a phone call in the operating room.

Mid-surgery, Dr Potter was allegedly told to contact UnitedHealthcare 'right now' about the patient on the operating table, forcing her to stop the surgery and take the call. 

The insurance representative allegedly said he needed information about the patient's diagnosis to determine 'if her inpatient stay should be justified.'

Dr Potter said in a TikTok video this week: 'I was like, "Do you understand that she's asleep right now and she has breast cancer?" and the gentleman said, "I don't actually. That's a different department that would know that information. 

'I've never had this happen before,' she said. 'It's out of control. Insurance is out of control. I have no other words.' 

UnitedHealthcare told DailyMail.com that Dr Potter's claims are unconfirmed and that the company would never ask a physician to step out of surgery.

A company spokesperson told DailyMail.com: 'There are no insurance related circumstances that would require a physician to step out of surgery and it would create potential safety risks if they were to do so. 

'We did not ask nor would ever expect a physician to interrupt patient care to answer a call and we will be following up with the provider and hospital to understand why these unorthodox actions were taken.'

Dr Potter claims she was performing a bilateral deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap procedure, which reconstructs breasts after a mastectomy.

Mastectomies, which remove one or both breasts, are performed in breast cancer patients to get remove diseased tissue.

According to data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), around 100,000 breast reconstructive surgeries are performed every year, making it one of the most common procedures in the US. 

Without insurance, the DIEP flap surgery costs anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000. 

A 2020 study from ASPS found that between 2012 and 2017, 28 percent of patients were denied coverage for their breast reconstructive surgeries. 

Dr Potter claims she had to leave the operating room to take the call, which could have increased the patient's risk of infection since the area outside of the operating room is not sterile.

The patient would also have to be under anesthesia for a longer amount of time, making them more likely to suffer complications like nausea and blood clots.

UnitedHealthcare is the nation's largest health insurance conglomerate. 

The company expected to bring in revenues of $450 billion in 2025, with Thompson believed to earn a salary in the region of $10million a year. 

UnitedHealthcare leadership is in the hot seat over a history of denying medically necessary treatments, an issue believed to have driven Luigi Mangione, 26, to allegedly assassinate one of the company's top executives. 

UnitedHealthcare has also been accused of using an AI program with a 90 percent error rate to deny claims. 

In the weeks since Thompson's assassination, patients and healthcare providers like Dr Potter shared their stories of denied claims.

One pediatric neurology nurse on Reddit said the company has allegedly denied anti-seizure medications for children with epilepsy.

The nurse wrote: 'We have UHC deny seizure medications that we can definitively tell will benefit patients based on their EEG results because it's not UHC's preferred medication.

'Patient has to fail the preferred medication first. And by fail, this means the patient has to have a s***load of seizures. So these kids have to seize their f****** brains out to get a medication that we know will control their seizures.'

Uncontrolled seizures can damage neurons and brain cells, leading to irreversible brain damage. 

And a bombshell report released by ProPublica found UnitedHealthcare has allegedly working to cut therapies for more than 10,000 autistic children.

TikTok users responded to Dr Potter's video with shock and disgust.

One user said: 'So instead of calling the other department within United, they call a surgeon out of surgery?'

Another wrote: 'That is outrageous! A doctor leaving a surgery to talk to their insurance. No.'

And one said: 'That is literally INSANE.

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

 

Let me get this straight:
* California is burning.
* All of its fire chiefs were selected based on their LGBTQ status, not on merit.
* Gavin Newsom spent all the state's fire resources on illegals.
* He hasn't called in the National Guard.
* The LA Mayor is nowhere to be found.… pic.twitter.com/iCrzc3JLU8

— Afshine Emrani MD FACC (@afshineemrani) January 8, 2025

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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."

 

Fetterman is based and truthful https://t.co/h602zSQElD

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2025

 

For George Floyd, Democrats will riot, build memorials, and defund the police.

For Laken Riley, 159 House Democrats will vote against legislation to prevent similar tragedies from happening.

Every American citizen should be outraged. pic.twitter.com/NcGieWJt8k

— Christian Collins (@CollinsforTX) January 7, 2025

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

 

 

Interesting pic.twitter.com/oMQlh4aAkt

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 7, 2025

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

 

UNRWA 🇺🇳 students:

"We must sacrifice ourselves and become martyrs." "With Allah's help The Jews will die."
"The settlers will be executed."pic.twitter.com/w1Qsusyg1P

— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) January 7, 2025