Monday, October 23, 2023
Testimony from a soldier
Testimony from a soldier:
It's been a couple weeks, but I have some time now and I wanted to write about a נס that happened to me during those first few days of hell.
My unit was called in on shabbat morning. No Tzav 8, no ishurim, no official order, nothing. Our brigade commander saw that the south needed a battalion to respond asap, and he told us to come in. 4 hours later we got on humvees and headed straight to Kfar Aza.
Our weapons had been handed to us on the spot; We had never shot them, didn't have time to clean them, we had no idea if they worked and the sights definitely weren't zeroed in. The weapons in the Reserve units are notorious for being unreliable and usually don't even shoot properly before a good clean, or in some cases, a visit to the armory. That's how we went in to combat.
We walked into the yishuv and were engaged by terrorists within the first few minutes of walking. A few minutes later we encountered one hiding in a bush with an AK-47, waiting to ambush us. My rifle worked perfectly, firing every shot, cycling every round, hitting what I was aiming at. Not a single jam. I thanked Hashem for giving me a rifle that worked right off the bat. After 3 days of fighting, I had learned to rely on my rifle completely.
On Tuesday night we finished clearing Kfar Aza, were switched out by another battalion, and were sent up to a base so we could rest, shower, and finally clean and check our weapons. We went to the range. Immediately I got a jam. Another round, another jam. And another. They were getting worse, I had to start taking out my pliers on my utility knife to clear them. We ended up having to take it to the armory so they could switch out all the internal parts, to basically rebuild it from the inside. The gun just didn't work. It was a broken rifle, it was broken from the moment it was handed to me on shabbat morning.
But for me, in those few days in Kfar Aza, it had worked to perfection. So we could do what we needed to do. I heard similar stories from many other soldiers in our battalion. I look forward to the day where I can stand in my shul on shabbat, at קריאת התורה, and recite Birkat HaGomel for this miracle and the countless others that Hashem performed for us.
הנה לא ינום ולא יישן שומר ישראל
Greta Thunberg Pro-Hamas ...Israel removes her from school curriculum
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| ThunCrap |
The Education Ministry has said it will remove any reference to climate activist Greta Thunberg after she published a post over the weekend holding an anti-Israel sign reading "stand with Gaza."
"Hamas is a terrorist organization responsible for the murder of 1,400 innocent Israelis, including children, women, and the elderly, and it has abducted over 200 people to Gaza," the ministry said. "This stance disqualifies her from being an educational and moral role model, and she is no longer eligible to serve as an inspiration and educator for Israeli students."
Reaction to Hamas massacre shows it’s time to decolonize College Campuses
Nothing has so vividly revealed the moral rot of our elite universities as the reaction to Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of Jews.
A closer look at the peculiar vocabulary of the dominant campus left points to the core of the problem — and the left’s insincerity.
Normal human beings not handicapped by a contemporaneous college education may be wondering why the pro-Hamas academics coming out of the woodwork make their chief complaint that Jews are “colonizers.”
It has long been tiresome to review the lengthy history of Jews living in “Judea” (as the Romans called the Holy Land when they occupied it) centuries before Islam was a gleam in Muhammad’s eye, not to mention the 20th-century international mandate to restore a Jewish homeland after centuries of occupation by the Ottoman Empire and other previous “colonizers” or Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza more than 15 years ago, after which Gaza decided self-government meant empowering Hamas.
Nor does it do any good to point out the entirety of human history is one of invasion and conquest and virtually no nation or ethnic group, including especially Jews, is without a history of conquest by a hostile or opportunistic neighbor.
Nothing has so vividly revealed the moral rot of our elite universities as the reaction to Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of Jews.
A closer look at the peculiar vocabulary of the dominant campus left points to the core of the problem — and the left’s insincerity.
Woke left’s getting punished under its own rules: Let's not stop now!
The woke left is finally getting a taste of its own medicine. Let’s hear it for sanity.
This week saw three unhinged antisemites removed from their cushy gigs over ugly remarks made about Israel.
One was a Beverly Hills radiologist, Andrew Thierry, who posted on X that “Zionists” are “genicidal, demonic, greedy, pedophilic r—–s.” (Try spellcheck next time, Doc.)
“Zionists” is the preferred lefty code word for Jews.
Another was a Citigroup banker, Nozima Husainova, who shared a post on Instagram spreading the lie that Israel destroyed the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, and added a note that read: “No wonder why Hitler wanted to get rid of all of them.” She even included a smiley emoji.
Then there’s a Department of Homeland Security employee, Nejwa Ali, who worked on asylum issues for the agency. She celebrated and justified the Hamas atrocities on Instagram with art and emojis.
All three were ousted this week. (Ali, insanely, is a former PLO staffer; she clearly should never have been hired in the first place.)
All three have been treated as their political comrades customarily treat others: with online vitriol leading to severe economic punishments.
The same thing happened when an NYU Law student blamed Israel for the Hamas atrocities: Ryna Workman lost a job offer from Winston & Strawn. The firm Davis Polk has reported three more such moves over similar statements.
And hedge funders Bill Ackman and Ken Griffin have declared Harvard’s publicly jubilant antisemites unhirable.
They may cry that this is unfair, but this is the cancel-culture world they created.
Remember Emmanuel Cafferty, the Latino power company worker whom BLM crazies got fired over an imaginary racist gesture he made? (The man was, in fact, cracking his knuckles.)
Or Joshua Katz, the professor of classics at Princeton booted from his tenured job for merely daring to question the DEI policies some colleagues demanded?
The shoe’s on the other foot now, as some of America seems to be waking up from its fever dreams.
Here’s hoping more people get hip to the fact that these attitudes — Jew-hatred, “decolonization” and all the rest — are nothing new. And not acceptable.
They’re the fruits of the long leftist march through our institutions.
And while it’s good that some of the vilest are now withering in daylight, many more people with the same beliefs still hold places of real power across government, media and the academy.
Until they’re all gone, nothing will change.
Euro'Pisher Diplomat showed Gaza paragliding as he took to the skies while shouting 'free Palestine' 3 months before attack
A former European Union envoy to Gaza is being slammed for allegedly empowering Hamas to use paragliders, the very devices employed by the Palestinian terrorists to invade Israel and kill more than 1,400.
Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, a German diplomat, crowed on video in July that he was conducting “the first Gaza paragliding flight in history” as he soared over Gaza’s coast while shouting, “Free Palestine!”
The giddy then-EU envoy told Palestinians in the footage that once they’re free, “You can do exactly the same thing.”
But rather than seeing Palestinians enjoy recreational paragliding as he advocated, such gliders were instead used by Hamas to kill Israelis on Oct. 7.
Israel has since declared war on Hamas and launched devastating airstrikes on Gaza, prompting von Burgsdorff to condemn the Jewish state, claiming it “doesn’t matter what Hamas did,” Israel Hayom reported.
“It cannot be that Israel has carte blanche because terrible acts, cruel and shocking acts happened to 1,000 or even 1,200 Israelis,” von Burgsdorff said during a recent radio interview. “This is not the excuse you can use to flatten Gaza.”
The former diplomat found himself in the middle of the debate raging around the Israel-Hamas war after the video resurfaced of him taking to the skies over Gaza in July, claiming Palestinians could enjoy things such as paragliding and kayaking if Israel ended its blockade.
Israel’s foreign ministry condemned the spectacle at the time as a form of “provocative” propaganda that only serves to empower Hamas.
“The European diplomat forgot a long time ago that he represents the European Union and its member states,” the ministry said in a statement.
“[He] continues to represent the Palestinian narrative and to be a propaganda tool in the hands of the terrorist organizations that control Gaza.”
A rep for the EU delegation to the Palestinians told Reuters that the paraglider used in the stunt belonged to von Burgsdorff.
Von Burgsdorff left his post in Gaza in August but has continued to voice his opposition to Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory, most recently involving its airstrikes
Von Burgsdorff did not condemn Hamas’ attack in Israel that targeted hundreds of innocent civilians, many of them women and children, and also involved the kidnapping more than 200 people, including at least a dozen Americans.
Von Burgsdorff could not be immediately reached for comment.
See Video on next page of the bastard using the ParaGlider
South African Chief Rabbi rewrites prayer after government supports Hamas will pray instead for the people of South Africa and not the government.
The Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, has rewritten the Sabbath prayer traditionally recited in synagogues for the country in which worshippers reside, in response to the South African government’s public support for Hamas, according to the South African Jewish Report.
Following the amendment, Jews will pray for the people of South Africa, not the government, the report said. Rabbi Goldstein spoke to a number of rabbis online on October 18 and followed up the conversation with a letter to explain the reasons for the change.
The current prayer for the Republic of South Africa was composed by the late Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris in 1994. It reflected the country’s transition to democracy, and beseeched G-d to protect and guide the president, the deputy president, and the ministers of South Africa with wisdom.
Ground incursion delayed to allow US to send additional forces to Middle East
The US has informed Israel that it intends to send additional American forces to the Middle East, ahead of the expected ground incursion, due to concerns that Iranian attacks against US forces in the area will increase, Galei Zahal reported.
According to assessments, Israel has agreed to delay the ground incursion until additional US forces are sent.
It was also reported that Israeli sources have clarified that this is not the only reason for the delay. Among the other reasons are increasing the forces' operational preparedness, and an attempt to do as much as possible - including, potentially, prisoner swaps - to free the hostages prior to a ground incursion.
The sources also said that Israel has a clear interest in the US sending additional forces to the region, since it will help the shared effort to fight off attacks on the various fronts which may escalate tensions during the next stages of the war.
Deputy Ambassador of Israel to the US, Eliav Benjamin, told Galei Zahal, "There has been dialogue between us and the US government since the first day. They understand that we are running the war according to our interests. At the end of the day we will do what we need to do, when we need to do it."
When asked about the US insistence on allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, Benjamin said, "They understand the pain here and they call October 7, 'Israel's 9/11,' but the humanitarian issue is also an issue which is close to their hearts."
Thousands Gather For Atzeres Tefillah on Avenue L in Flatbush
A large Atzeres Tefilah took place in Flatbush on Sunday. The NYPD tells YWN that approximately 4,000 people attended.
This gathering was held on afternoon on Avenue L and East 9th Street – near Landau’s Shul.
Mincha was led by HaRav Eliezer Ginsberg of the Mirer Yeshiva, followed by Divrei Chizuk delivered by HaRav Elya Brudny, and HaRav Dovid Ozeri.
Prominent Rabbanim of greater Flatbush led the assembled in words of Tehillim, including HaRav Hillel David, HaRav Yosef Frankel, HaRav Meyer Yedid, and others.
Security was provided by the NYPD and Flatbush Shomrim, who were there is great numbers, ensuring that everyone was safe.
Thousands in London’s Trafalgar Square, ‘Largest Gathering of British Jewish Community in Decades’
Several days after London police shut down the Campaign Against Antisemitism’s billboards showing images of kidnapped children held in Gaza, 15,000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square “to stand in solidarity and to call for the release of the hostages taken by Hamas terrorists,” per the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
Pictures that the nearly 265-year-old representative body shared on social media showed seas of Israeli flags and people holding signs bearing photos of people whom Hamas kidnapped—imagery that resembles the displays that the police had canceled days before.
The solidarity rally was called “Bring Them Home.”
“To give you some idea of what we’re talking about here, this is more than 5% of the entire Jewish population of the UK, assembled at less than 48 hours notice, even taking into account allies in the crowd,” wrote Daniel Sugarman, public affairs director for the Board of Deputies. “The largest gathering of the British Jewish community in decades.”
“We are here today to speak on behalf of those who have been taken from us and have no voice,” said Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies, at the event. “We stand here united, with one voice, to say, bring them home.”
In an Oct. 12 press conference in London, family members had shared their anguish having not heard from loved ones, whom Hamas was holding hostage. “People who survived the Holocaust found themselves facing another one,” Noam Sagi, a British-Israeli psychotherapist whose mother was taken hostage, told reporters. He urged reporters to “call Hamas for what they are.”
Sharon Shochat, the British-Israeli director of Defend Israeli Democracy UK and organizer of the press conference, said it was the “biggest hostage crisis the world has faced” in recent years.
Spineless coward Comedian Sarah Silverman Walks Back Pro-Israel Comments After Getting Decimated on Twitter
Leftist Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman has backtracked on social media posts that were supportive of Israel, after she got heavy backlash from the left.
In an Instagram Story shared with her 2 million followers on October 18, Silverman reposted this statement.
“Many are saying that it’s inhumane that Israel is cutting off water/electricity to Gaza,” the post reads. Israel made it pretty simple—’release the hostages and we will turn it back on.’ Instead of pleading with Hamas to release civilian hostages which include babies and toddlers there are politicians (cough cough AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]) calling Israel inhumane.
“If that isn’t enough for you: Israel does not need to supply Gaza with these resources (which they do, for free). If Hamas didn’t spend billions of dollars on terrorism they would be able to build the infrastructure to support themselves.”
Her post was met with intense outrage, with one Twitter user calling the comedian “a genocidal maniac supporting starving Palestinian civilians by depriving them of water and electricity.”
Sunday, October 22, 2023
Turns Out Ben Gevir Was Right Was Derided for Efforts to Fortify Civilian Communities Against Terrorist Attacks
As part of the National Security Ministry’s effort to arm the citizens’ standby units throughout the country, Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Friday monitored the distribution of weapons to volunteers in the standby unit in Beer Sheva. Ben Gvir stressed the importance of equipping the standby squads with long weapons that may save lives and are an important force multiplier for the police and security forces.
Not so long ago, on March 29, Calcalist, the economic daily of Yedioth Aharonoth, mocked National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (Ben Gvir’s police will cost billions, compete with the police and take years to establish): “The Dream Guard of the Minister of National Security Ben Gvir is already established in the police, is budgeted in hundreds of millions of shekels and has thousands of employment spots. Former senior police officers warn against transferring the guard to a politician: ‘Like the Revolutionary Guards in Iran or the Phalanxes in Lebanon.’”
To remind you, in the 10/7 Hamas surprise attack on the Gaza envelope settlements, the standby squads were for the better time of the first 8 hours the only defenders of the residents against the terrorists’ infiltration. The standby units acted alone for many hours without the support of the IDF or the police, and, in fact, police patrol cars were documented escaping the onslaught of armed terrorists. In several settlements, the standby squads managed to repel the attackers.
Israel’s work permits for Gaza enabled the Hamas attack
Israeli communities foolishly allowed workers from Gaza into their homes, grew fond of them and believed all their talk about peace. Then they watched their children be murdered by them
Among the litter of guns, Qurans, and maps discarded by the Hamas terrorists whose bodies lie alongside bullet-riddled vehicles and dusty roads are green Gaza IDs with work permits. Normally residents of the Hamas territory can’t enter Israel, but work permits allowed over 18,000 Gazans to enter Israel. When some returned, it was as Hamas rapists and killers.
The Hamas invasion succeeded so well because the terrorists had an intimate knowledge of the communities they were targeting because they had worked there or had intelligence from those who had worked there. The attackers had detailed maps and building layouts. One woman whose husband and son were murdered said that the Hamas terrorists knew the names of the people, how many children they had and even which of them owned dogs.
Last year, Secretary of State Blinken addressed a J Street event and told the anti-Israel lobby that the Biden administration had pushed Israel to “improve the lives of Palestinians” by, among other things, “issuing thousands of work permits for Palestinians in Gaza”.
What Charedim Need To Understand About Religious Zionists
DIN: I copied and pasted without permission an article from Rationalist Judaism by NATAN SLIFKIN.
I think that all Chareidim better read this. Everything in Israel has changed. I don't think that the non-chareidim are going to allow Chareidim to dodge the draft any longer. As bugs bunny said "It's all over folks"
There is tremendous resentment even amongst the frummies, that able healthy guys are getting away with murder, literally. All this "Chazon Ish business" is going out the window quicker than a snowball in hell. Chareidim are no longer going to enjoy the same benefits as those putting their lives on the line, some are realizing this and there is a feeling of change in the air. I don't think that Chareidie parties will be able to demand anything in the near future. Torah learning which I agree is "mesiras nefesh" is not like putting a uniform going to front knowing they might never see their wives, children and parents ever again. When an Avreich learns, he knows that he will come home at night with a hot meal waiting for him. "mesiras nefesh" is not like being "moiser nefesh". Torah will still being learned as Slifkin points out, as never before.
You may not agree with Slifkin, but you had better read it to finally see what the Israeli citizens will require, after this war.
Since the Hamas war started, I’ve become aware of several families which have developed rifts between charedi and non-charedi relatives. And when this war is over, there is going to be a rift between charedi and Zionist society which will be greater than ever seen before. While some will say that “now is not the time to talk about this,” I think that now is davka the time. It is important and I hope that my comments will be helpful. My goal in this post is not to argue against the charedi perspective; it is to explain what the religious Zionist perspective is, and how to avoid family - and national - rifts.
The charedi world is very far from monolithic. There are some sectors in which they are continuing life as normal and talking about how secular Israel is getting a Divine message about the arrogance of the IDF. There are other sectors of charedi society in which many people (I’m not sure what percentage of the community) are making various helpful efforts to assist with the war, such as by providing supplies.
There are a small proportion who do incredible work with Zaka and Hatzolah. There are even a (very) small number who, amazingly, are trying to join the IDF in various capacities; the publisher of the Israeli Mishpacha magazine announced that he was trying to help with such efforts. And there seems to be a widespread increased consciousness and identification with the nation in general and the IDF in particular.
The problem is that some charedim (especially Anglo-yeshivish types) make statements to their non-charedi relatives which, to their minds, sound to be very gracious and representing a spirit of achdus, as well as reflecting the unequivocal Torah perspective. They do not realize that from a religious but non-charedi perspective, these statements are (A) theologically invalid, and (B) offensive.
I’m referring to the various campaigns and statements like, “the yeshivah students are the soldiers in Hashem’s army, they are providing the merit by which the soldiers survive and triumph, they are fulfilling a role of equal (or greater) importance, look at our amazing achdus!”
This makes perfect sense from a charedi perspective, in which the starting point is that learning Torah automatically creates an unimaginably great merit. Therefore young men who are learning Torah are providing an invaluable service for the Jewish People. Accordingly, Israel is benefiting tremendously from all those many tens of thousands of young men who are learning in yeshiva rather than serving in the IDF. (I am not sure whether charedim believe that Religious Zionist young men should also exempt themselves from army service and stay in yeshivah; I’d appreciate hearing charedi perspectives on this.)
Haaretz journalist cries, denounces Israeli conduct against Gaza
"I keep myself from crying in these terrible days, not much, but sometimes I cry when certain people talk about their grandfathers, Holocaust survivors," she began.
She also said in tears: "I also want to represent my dead parents who are Holocaust survivors and ask how the world stands by and does nothing to stop this terrible massacre."
"Nothing can justify what Israel, what my tax money is causing right now. I don't know if my tax money is behind the missiles that killed one of my best, beloved friends in Gaza."
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