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https://aish.com/is-american-jewry-doomed-to-repeat-the-mistakes-of-their-grandparents/?src=ac
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IS AMERICAN JEWRY DOOMED TO REPEAT THE MISTAKES OF THEIR GRANDPARENTS?
YAEL ZOLDAN M.A.by Yael Zoldan M.A.
November 26, 2023
They forgot that under the genial faces of their friends and neighbors simmered an ancient hatred. Are we making the same mistake?
On the rare occasions when my grandmother spoke of Europe before the war, I listened with the mounting dread of someone watching a horror movie. The tension was terrible. Underneath the singsong sound of her accented words, I could hear my own shallow breathing and feel the small hairs on my neck rising. Strains of eerie music were ramping up in my ears. My stomach clenched and twisted. My heart beat madly in my chest. I needed her to go on, and I wished that she would stop.
Because I knew the ending. The shattered glass, the cattle cars, Arbeit Macht Frei on the twisted metal gates to Auschwitz. I knew what she didn't know then, and it terrified me.

I wanted to go back in time to help her. I wanted to shake her. I wanted to shock her, to shock all of them out of their complacency. I wanted to scream, Don't stay in Europe. Don't you know what's going to happen? Get out while you can!

But of course, they didn't know. They didn't believe. And they didn't leave.
We didn’t think they’d ever hurt us.

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“You see, they were our friends,” my grandmother continued gently, oblivious to my rising horror. “They were our neighbors. We had known them all our lives. We did not think they would ever hurt us.”

But they were wrong. They were horribly, fatally wrong. Because they had grown comfortable, complacent where they lived. And because they had forgotten that under the genial faces of their neighbors and friends simmered the ancient evil of otherness, that hatred lurked just underneath the civilized surface.

“Surely they understood that we were just like them,” she said. “We were professors and prominent businesspeople, you know. We were in all the elite universities. We were good citizens, part of the fabric of the community. Surely, they could see that we contributed!”

I listened with a helpless, terrible sadness. From my vantage point in the safety of America, the kindest of any of our exiles, I knew what she did not know then. And I thought it would never apply to me.

These days, in a different America, I look around at libraries and parks, peaceful places that have been turned into sites of mass protests by raging, screaming, hate-filled people. I don’t know these people. But they seem to know me. They know me and they hate me. They hate you, too.

These are college students. Professors. Deans and businessmen. Newscasters, reporters, senators. I look at these people, the best and the brightest our country has to offer, and I can't decide if they’re mad. Or if we are.

Just yesterday – or last week? Last month? – these normal-looking people stood before us on line at the store, exchanging murmured “Good mornings,” commenting on the weather and the price of milk. Today, they gather in seething masses, protesting our right to be alive. Such an old hatred on their bright young faces, twisting their features into diabolical masks.

Kill the Jews, they chant. Gas the Jews. Their eyes shine with the seductive hatred that is ancient and knows no reason. Hitler should have finished you off, they shout hoarsely.
I’m frightened because I hear that eerie music foretelling disaster. Only this time, we’re the ones turning a blind eye.

But it’s not the chanting that twists my stomach. That causes my shallow breathing and the hairs on my neck to rise. I’m frightened because I hear that music again. That eerie, foreboding music foretelling disaster.

Only this time, we’re the ones ignoring the angry shouting, turning a blind eye to the shocking crimes, disregarding the foreshadowing, insisting that we’re good citizens. We’re the ones shaking our heads and protesting that these are our neighbors and friends. That surely, they would never hurt us.

This is my home where I have lived my whole life, raised my children, built a family. The light shines through the windows of my kitchen at exactly the right angle, and I have a favorite takeout place around the corner. It’s impossible to consider leaving a place where we have been so very comfortable for so very long. Where we’re part of the fabric of the community. I can’t imagine it.

But I’m hearing that music in my head again, and I can’t imagine ignoring that either.

A version of this article appeared in Mishpacha magazine.
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https://aish.com/4-more-myths-about-israels-war-with-hamas/?src=ac
4 MORE MYTHS ABOUT ISRAEL’S WAR WITH HAMAS
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
November 26, 2023

Confronting the unending stream of misinformation with essential facts.
As Israel's war with Hamas progresses, new false assertions about Israel’s behavior and the war’s progress arise. Here are four big recent myths and facts about what is truly going on.

Myth: Hamas didn’t rape Israeli women on October 7
Israeli investigators have been documenting a systematic campaign of brutal rapes carried out by Hamas against Israeli women on October 7. Over a thousand testimonies and 66,000 video clips paint a picture of widespread, systematic sexual violence, as well as other instances of torture, dismemberment, and mutilation.

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But that hasn’t stopped the myth that Hamas carried out no rapes from being spread. For example, two Canadian politicians – Susan Kim, a city councilor in Victoria, and Sarah Jama, an MP in Ontario’s Provincial Parliament – claimed that accusations of rape are “unverified.” Ms. Jama also asserted “there is no actual evidence of these rapes and the babies with their heads cut off - all these things are pieces of misinformation.” Their letter was signed by a host of Canadian human rights organizations and the director of the sexual assault center at the University of Alberta.

Those who wish to read first person accounts of Hamas’ sexual violence can do so here. Foreign outlets such as PBS have conducted extensive interviews with survivors of Hamas’ attacks and have found that rape was an integral part of the attacks. The sheer scale of corroborating accounts indicates that the thousands of victims and witnesses who described Hamas’ atrocities are telling the truth.

Myth: Israel is Targeting Women and Babies
The myth that civilians are Israel’s main targets are women, children, or other groups of civilians – not Hamas terrorists – is gaining traction around the world. Resulting memes include pictures of graves in Gaza alongside pictures of mass graves in Nazi death camps, and placards equating a Jewish star with a Swastika. The accusations affect Jewish communities around the world. A synagogue in Seattle was defaced with anti-Israel graffiti demanding: “Stop the killing.”
n reality, Israel has articulated that it has two military aims in Gaza: freeing Israel’s 240 hostages being held by Hamas, and destroying Hamas’ leadership. If anyone is putting Gaza’s women and children at risk, it’s Hamas, which locates its military centers in hospitals, schools, mosques, and residential apartment buildings and has been fighting fiercely from those civilian sites for weeks.

NATO documents Hamas’ cynical use of its own people as human shields as far back as nine years ago, reporting: “Hamas most common uses of human shields include: Firing rockets, artillery, and mortars from…heavily populated civilian areas…(e.g. Schools, hospitals, or mosques)....” “If the IDF [Israeli military] uses lethal forces and causes an increase in civilian casualties, Hamas can utilise that as a lawfare tool: it can accuse Israel of committing war crimes….”

Civilian suffering in Gaza is real. Yet the ultimate blame lays with Hamas, which steals aid from its people, refuses to allow civilians access to its 500 km of sophisticated underground tunnels and supplies , and is only strengthened by the world’s condemnation of Israel.

The myth that Israel’s goal is creating misery for Gaza’s civilians is enabled by the fact that Western media outlets almost never discuss Israel’s military achievements, dwelling instead on tales of individual civilian suffering in Gaza, making it seem that Israel has no military aims at all and is instead focused on “revenge” or “collective punishment” of civilians. In fact, Israel has made significant progress in its military aims.

Ten of Hamas’ 24 battalions (which October 7 each numbered in the vicinity of 1,000 soldiers) are no longer operational. Israel estimates it has killed approximately 5,000 Hamas combatants, and has captured several of Hamas’ rocket launching sites in Gaza City. Hamas is still sending regular long-range missiles into Israeli civilian centers (another fact that’s seldom reported in the West), but after weeks of fighting, their capabilities are eroded. “Today we are talking about a salvo of four or five rockets every three days” into Israeli cities and towns, explains Zvika Haimovich, a former Israeli Air Defense Forces commander. “”In the first two weeks (of the war), it was a salvo every four or five hours. It’s a huge difference.”

Myth: Gazans Don’t Support Hamas
The myth that Hamas is deeply unpopular in Gaza has been surging in recent weeks. The reality is more nuanced. Hamas was popularly elected to run Gaza (and the West Bank, which later rebelled and voided the results) in 2006. In the years since, support for the group - which is designated a terrorist organization by the US, EU and others - has fluctuated. A poll conducted by Arab Barometer and concluded the day before Hamas’ devastating October 7 attack found that only about a quarter of ordinary Gazans showed enthusiastic support for Hamas. Respondents reported they were tired of Hamas’ corruption, theft off of aid money, incompetence, and autocracy.

Yet Hamas was able to amass an army estimated to number about 40,000 (numbers vary). When Hamas fighters brought back approximately 240 Israeli hostages, large crowds in Gaza (as well as the West Bank and elsewhere) gathered to cheer them on, dancing, playing music, firing guns into the air in celebration, and passing out candies.

Since October 7, Hamas’ popularity in Gaza and elsewhere has soared. A poll released on November 14 by the Arab World Research and Development Group (AWRAD) found that 64% of Gaza residents reported supporting Hamas even “extremely” or “somewhat” strongly. 75% supported Hamas’ October 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis.

Myth: Hamas’ Statements Are a Reliable Source of Information.
The war in Gaza has disrupted the lives of virtually every resident there; many innocent civilians have been killed and injured in Israel’s attacks on Hamas targets. Each and every civilian death is a tragedy. The statistics being provided by Gazan officials about the number of people who are killed and injured is likely unmoored from reality. Every official in Gaza lives in fear of Hamas; every single statistic given by Gaza’s Health Ministry is a statement that was disseminated direct by Hamas.

Even ostensibly independent actors aren’t free to speak their mind. Take the case of Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the head of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. During Israel’s attack on the hospital, which Israeli intelligence named as Hamas’ command and control center, Dr. Salmiya was a frequent subject of sympathetic interviews with foreign news agencies, claiming that his hospital had no links to Hamas. Yet Israeli troops found evidence that Hamas used the hospital as a base, and discovered CCTV footage of Hamas terrorists bringing Israeli hostages into the hospital. The bodies of two Israeli hostages were recovered from the hospital’s grounds.

On November 22, Israeli forces arrested Dr. Salmiya as he tried to flee to southern Gaza and charged him with operating a Hamas center out of the hospital, with a network of doctors who cooperated with the terror group.

Veteran journalist Bret Stephens described the near impossibility of gaining accurate statistics from Gaza. “Western audiences will never grasp the nature of the current conflict until they internalize one central fact. In Israel…journalists…tell the stories they want to tell, and don’t live in fear of midnight knocks on the door. The Palestinian territories, by contrast, are republics of fear…. Palestinians are neither more nor less honest than people elsewhere. But, as in any tyrannical or fanatical regime, those who stray from the approved line put themselves at serious risk.”
Stephens refers to a 2009 article by the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera for a sense of how inflated Hamas death toll numbers are. In the midst of another military conflict between Israel and Hamas that year, Hamas said 1,400 Palestinians had been killed, mostly civilians. A doctor in Al-Shifa Hospital secretly told an Italian journalist that these numbers were made up: “The number of deceased stands at no more than 500 to 600. Most of them are youths between the ages of 17 to 23 who were recruited to the ranks of Hamas, who sent them to the slaughter.” The newspaper noted “The doctor wished to remain unidentified, out of fear for his life.”

Confronting Myths
There are two wars going on right now. One is the physical one Israel is waging against Hamas. The other is the spread of damaging myths about the Jewish state.

When you see or hear falsehoods, speak up. On social media, remember that the goal isn’t to convince dedicated anti-Zionists, but to post accurate information and links to reliable news sources for a wider audience to see. On news sites, comment when you see biased reporting; write letters to your local news outlets when you see something inaccurate. Educate yourself too. Read online news sources from Israel. Become the voice of reason in your social, school, and work environments, offering an intelligent take on the news and some of the smears and slanders that are being directed against Israel.

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https://aish.com/jews-from-arab-lands-the-middle-easts-forgotten-refugees/?src=ac
JEWS FROM ARAB LANDS: THE MIDDLE EAST’S FORGOTTEN REFUGEES
WILL BARCLAY
By the end of the 1970’s, 900,000 Jews were expelled from Islamic states and Muslim nations around the world.
by Will Barclay
November 14, 2023
5 min read
By the end of the 1970’s, 900,000 Jews were expelled from Islamic states and Muslim nations around the world.

In 1947, the United Nations (UN) adopted UN Resolution 181 and, thereby, resolved to subsequently divide Great Britain’s former Mandate into Palestinian and Jewish states.1

Although the international community and the Jewish People eagerly embraced UN Resolution 181, all of the Arab nations that surrounded the nascent state of Israel immediately vowed to exterminate the newborn Jewish state.2
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Numerous Arab and Muslim leaders also explicitly declared that they would severely punish and expel any Jews who elected to remained within their territories.

For example, in 1947, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Faris el-Khouri, stated that “Unless the Palestine problem is settled, we shall have difficulty in protecting and safeguarding the Jews in the Arab world.”3 In addition, the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Said, proudly declared that "…if a satisfactory resolution to the Palestine case was not reached, severe measures should be taken against all Jews in Arab countries."4

Yemeni Jews aboard a plane during the Operation Flying Carpet, 1949 (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Consequently, when the state of Israel was ultimately founded in 1948, swathes of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries were slaughtered and violently expelled from their ancestral homes and communities. In fact, over 90% of the Jewish population in Iraq and Yemen was forced to escape with only their lives in tow.5

Yemen boasted a Jewish population of 55,000 in 1948. By 2016, only 50 Jews remained.

Yemen, for instance, boasted a Jewish population of 55,000 in 1948.6 Due to the rampant antisemitism that plagued Yemeni Jews after the advent of the state of Israel, 50,000 Jewish people were quickly forced to evacuate from Yemen between 1949 and 1950.7 By 2016, only 50 Jews remained in all of Yemen.8

Moreover, approximately 160,000 Jewish people inhabited Iraq in 1948.9 However, after the state of Israel was founded, Iraq was placed under martial law and the state of Iraq actually amended its own respective Criminal Code, in order to render Zionism a criminal activity and punishable by death.10 In fact, Shafiq Adas, a famous Jewish magnate and “the richest Jew in Iraq”, was arrested and publicly hanged, due to the fact that he allegedly sold goods to the state of Israel.11

Furthermore, Iraq's Prime Minister, Nuri al-Said, personally campaigned to violently excise and eliminate Iraq’s Jewish population. According to Britain’s Ambassador, Sir Alec Kirkbride, “Nuri Said…came out with the astounding proposition that a convoy of Iraqi Jews should be brought over [to Israel] in army lorries escorted by armored cars… Either the Iraqi Jews would have been massacred or their Iraqi guards would have had to shoot other Arabs to protect the lives of their charges.”12

By the end of 1952, nearly 130,000 Jews had fled Iraq, and, by 2004, Iraq’s vibrant Jewish community was reduced to a paltry 35 Jews in Baghdad.13

Immigrants from Iraq soon after landing at Lod Airport, summer 1951 (Teddy Brauner, GPO)

Ultimately, 900,000 Jews were violently expelled from Islamic states and Muslim nations around the world by the end of the 1970’s.14 However, throughout the modern era, the international community and human rights activists have focused their efforts overwhelmingly on the 360,000 Palestinians that were displaced as a result of the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.15

The reality that countless Jews were murdered and savagely displaced from their ancestral homes and communities that they lovingly inhabited for well over 2500 years has become forgotten, and is, in fact, often unabashedly ignored by modern political actors because the international community is unwilling to confront the intergenerational antisemitism that has permeated throughout the Middle East for millennia.

Works Consulted

Basri, Carole. “The Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: An Examination of Legal Rights-A Case Study of the Human Rights Violations of Iraqi Jews”. in Fordham International Law Journal. 2002.
“Jews in Islamic Countries: Iraq”. Jewish Virtual Library. [8 November 2023].
“Jews in Islamic Countries: Yemen”. Jewish Virtual Library. [8 November 2023].
Ministry of Aliyah and Integration. “On Eagles’ Wings”–Aliyah from Yemen (1949). 2022. [8 November 2023].
Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. Yale University Press, 2008.
“Quotes from Arab and Islamic Leaders Regarding Jews and Israel”. Jewish Virtual Library. [8 November 2023].
United Nations. Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine: In pursuance of paragraph 2, part II, of resolution 186 (S-2) of the General Assembly of 14 May 1948. 1948.
United States Department of State: Office of the Historian. Milestones: Creation of Israel, 1948. [8 November 2023].
United States Department of State: Office of the Historian. Milestones: The Arab-Israeli War of 1948. [9 March 2023].

United States Department of State: Office of the Historian, Milestones: Creation of Israel, 1948. [8 November 2023].
United States Department of State: Office of the Historian, Milestones: The Arab-Israeli War of 1948. [9 March 2023].
“Quotes from Arab and Islamic Leaders Regarding Jews and Israel”, Jewish Virtual Library. [8 November 2023].
Benny Morris, 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War, (Yale University Press, 2008).
Carole Basri, “The Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: An Examination of Legal Rights-A Case Study of the Human Rights Violations of Iraqi Jews”, in Fordham International Law Journal, (2002).
“Jews in Islamic Countries: Yemen”, Jewish Virtual Library. [8 November 2023].
Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, “On Eagles’ Wings”–Aliyah from Yemen (1949). (2022). [8 November 2023].
“Jews in Islamic Countries: Yemen”, Jewish Virtual Library. [8 November 2023].
Carole Basri, “The Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: An Examination of Legal Rights-A Case Study of the Human Rights Violations of Iraqi Jews”, in Fordham International Law Journal, (2002).

“Jews in Islamic Countries: Iraq”, Jewish Virtual Library.
[8 November 2023].
Carole Basri, “The Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: An Examination of Legal Rights-A Case Study of the Human Rights Violations of Iraqi Jews”, in Fordham International Law Journal, (2002).
United Nations, Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine: In pursuance of paragraph 2, part II, of resolution 186 (S-2) of the General Assembly of 14 May 1948, (1948).
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https://aish.com/the-long-tragic-jewish-history-of-the-german-city-of-erfurt/?src=ac
THE LONG, TRAGIC JEWISH HISTORY OF THE GERMAN CITY OF ERFURT
DR. YVETTE ALT MILLER
The city, recently designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site, was a place of significant Jewish scholarship and horrific antisemitic violence.
UNESCO, the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, recently designated three buildings in Erfurt’s city center UNESCO world heritage sites. “Located in the medieval historic center of Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, the property comprises three monuments: the Old Synagogue, the Mikveh, and the Stone House,” UNESCO declared. “They illustrate the life of the local Jewish community and its coexistence with a Christian majority in Central Europe during the Middle Ages….”

The Old Synagogue, Western façade, courtesy Unesco
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https://aish.com/putting-up-posters-of-the-kidnapped-victims-in-nyc/?src=ac
Putting Up Posters of the Kidnapped Victims in NYC
Sonia Jean-Baptiste, the director of the Chelsea Film Festival in NY, and her daughter are fierce advocates for Israel.

After the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel – and the subsequent kidnapping of more than 230 Israelis – two artists in New York City, Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid, started putting up posters of those who were kidnapped. The campaign spread worldwide to raise awareness about the hostages and urge governments to demand and secure their release.
Sadly, videos soon emerged of pro-Hamas protestors angrily ripping down the posters in different cities around the globe, including in New York City
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Pecan Pie Babka
Sonia Jean-Baptiste, a French-Caribbean Jew from Martinique who raised in Paris from the age of six, wasn’t going to tolerate that. Armed with posters and strong tape, she took to the streets of New York City with her daughter Ingrid and passionately put posters back up. Ingrid filmed her and posted it to Instagram in late October, and the video spread like wildfire, amassing over 27,000 likes, more than 4,000 comments, and tons of reposts.
“It came naturally for me to do that,” said Sonia, who runs the Chelsea Film Festival. “We didn’t hesitate for one second on whether or not we should.”
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What Led to the Video
On October 15, just eight days after the massacre, Sonia and Ingrid held a panel for their film festival featuring Israeli filmmakers. One of the guests was Israeli director Gal Genossar, who flew into New York the week prior, on October 7, to talk about his short film about the Holocaust, “The Monopol.”
“He heard the sirens in the airport in Tel Aviv, but it wasn’t until he landed in the U.S. that he found out Israel was at war,” said Ingrid.
Genossar stayed for a few days to promote his film, and then flew home to fight.
“He was just with us in a fancy outfit, and now he’s in the IDF, fighting for Israel,” Ingrid said.
Around the same time, the festival also hosted the artists who created the kidnapping campaign, Nitzan and Dede.

“They had a bunch of spare printed posters and they had also the tape and they were giving it out,” said Ingrid. “It was our duty to post it. It was the right thing to do.”
As Sonia taped up the posters on a pole in Manhattan, Ingrid filmed her. In the video, Sonia is clearly emotional; Ingrid clarified what was happening.
“A guy with a keffiyeh scarf came right behind her at the same time,” said Ingrid. “You can see Sonia was upset in the video. She was very firm in putting up the posters, and this guy started filming us. We didn’t know what was happening. He took pictures of Sonia and recorded her and then left. He didn’t say anything. The police were right there.”
A few days later, Ingrid put the video on her stories – which disappear after 24 hours – and was then asked by a follower to post it, where it would stay on her page. From there, it picked up massive steam.
“I never thought this would go viral,” Ingrid said.
Aside from the intimidating man in the keffiyeh, the response from Sonia and Ingrid’s poster campaign has been mostly positive.

“When we were putting on the posters the week prior and even that day, a lot of people were supporting us,” Ingrid said. “They were driving and they stopped and said, ‘Thank you so much.’ We do see the posters have been ripped down where we put them, but people don’t do it in front of us.”
Both mother and daughter, who have friends and family in Israel, are appalled by people ripping down the posters.
“It’s disgusting,” Sonia said. “There are no words for it.”

Ingrid said, “It’s inhumane. If it was their family, I don’t think they’d do it. They don’t rip down posters of cats and dogs that are missing. But they do for human beings.”

While Ingrid and Sonia have not felt targeted as Jews in New York City, Sonia is more fearful when she goes back home to France.

“It’s a little scary there,” she said. “Here, I feel there is more security. We can feel the antisemitism much more in France.”
Taking Action in Powerful Ways
Ingrid, who has 40,000 followers on Instagram, has been vocally supporting her people and the land of Israel. She and her mother went to the Washington, D.C. rally and posted a video with the caption, “A day to remember. 300K brave women, men and children came together to say NEVER AGAIN! We MUST bring them home! ” Sonia commented below her, ‘Stand up with Israel! If not NOW, When? ’”
While the two believe that the poster campaign is effective, they advocate for spreading it online as well.

“If it’s digital, people can’t take it down,” Ingrid said. “Send it out on newsletters and social media. We can get pins made that have the faces of the abducted people on it too. We would love to be more involved. We do what we can, but we have to do more.”

Sonia echoed this. “We want to support our people,” she said. “We have to, it’s just human. Everybody can do it. If you’re a human, you have to do it.”

Despite the fact that people are ripping down posters and pro-Hamas rallies and antisemitism are spreading, Ingrid has an uplifting message for the world.

“Keep having hope and do not be scared,” she said. “Being scared is going to slow us down. Keep believing that there will be a positive outcome for Israel. We are going to win this one. There is no other choice.”

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https://aish.com/osama-bin-ladens-letter-to-america-goes-viral/?src=ac
5 min read
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Osama bin Laden’s Letter to America Goes Viral
by Sarah Pachter
November 19, 2023
5 min read
More chilling than the contents of the letter is how young Americans today are rebranding bin Laden as a hero.

Remember when we used to travel without having to remove our shoes in the airport security line? That all ended on Sept 11, 2001 when Osama bin Laden spearheaded the largest terrorist attack in America when terrorists crashed two planes into the Twin Towers in New York City and a third plane crashed into the Pentagon (a fourth plane was crashed into a field in Pennsylvania). Three thousand people were murdered and after ten years of being at the top of the US most wanted list, Bin Laden was found and killed by US special forces at his compound in Pakistan in May 2011.

But there is a new generation who never experienced life before this increase in security. For them, removing shoes and tossing our bottles of water before passing through the metal detector is normal. And many of them don’t know who Osama Bin Laden is.

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Osama bin Laden’s Letter to America Goes Viral
Shortly after the attack on 9/11 Bin Laden circulated a letter that strongly criticized the US and their governmental support of Israel. He described America as the devil and explained that America and others who support Israel are committing a heinous crime that must be paid for.
"Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its price, and pay for it heavily." His claimed that this “crime” justified the murder of American civilians.
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Over 20 years later, this letter is recirculating, and more chilling than its contents is the reaction of young Americans today. The letter has gone viral on social media with over 14 million views. Some people described it as a "revelation", stating “Osama bin Laden was right.”
Another TikToker claims that the attacks committed by terrorists are justified. "It's actually so mind-blowing to me that terrorism has been sold as this idea to the American people…that this group of people, this random group of people, just suddenly wakes up one day and just hates you…it doesn't make sense."
Another TikToker critical of the American government said of the letter, “If we’re going to call Osama bin Laden a terrorist, so is the American government.” Her video had over 100,000 views.

Young social media influencers are redefining terrorism, casting the terrorist as victim.

How can a terrorist responsible for murdering thousands of people be espoused as someone to sympathize with and even revere?

Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate believes Tiktok is indoctrinating youth. He stated that TikTok encourages high engagement at any cost. The platform “is utterly ruthless about whether it uses hate, disinformation, or positive content to keep you addicted. The smart takes aren’t the ones that succeed. It is the dumb takes that get the most virality on a platform like TikTok.”

Ahmed studies the increase of conspiracy theories amid young people and shared with CNN that TikTok “claims to be an entertainment machine” but is actually “an indoctrination machine.” He continued, “We have no visibility nor any control over the algorithms that are shaping the minds of young people in America today.”

David Kaufman, fellow at the Tel Aviv institute, explains that “this would actually be funny if it wasn't so dangerous.”

Kaufman describes a 27-year-old woman in Los Angeles who is a lifestyle influencer on TikTok. After stumbling upon Osama bin Laden’s letter, she now “understands” the war between Israel and Hamas. Kaufman states:

Why Israel the bad guy, and why Hamas is righteous. Why we need to free Palestine from the river to the sea. Why we are in the midst of a genocide. She understands it all because she found a 21- year-old manifesto from none other than Osama Bin Laden. What she fails to remember is that Osama was the architect for the most horrendous example of terroristic mass murder in the history of the western world. When she says ‘I promote Islamic Jihad’ she forgets that Islamic Jihad would also apply to her. Islamic Jihad is not about going to a candy store and saying I’m going to take a few pieces of the antisemitism but I’m going to leave the homophobia and anti-feminism behind. When you promote Islamic Jihad you are promoting the whole bag. It's a perfect example of everything that is going wrong right now and my only hope is that the new cycle will wash this through very fast.

The popularity of bin Laden’s letter shows that it doesn’t matter how flagrantly Hamas exposes their mission to destroy Israel, America and all Jews; many are not hearing the message.

TikTok made a statement saying that content that promotes this letter “clearly violates our rules of supporting any form of terrorism. We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it goes into our platform.”

The future feels bleak when American flags are being torn down on campuses, and American women mindlessly claiming their alliance with Hamas (who would have no problem gang raping them and chopping off their limbs) are circulating. The climate of hate in America has reached an all-time low and there is no telling where it can go. It’s time to wake up and speak out against hatred. Get activated, whether it’s through spiritual resistance and strengthening your Jewish identity, or through physical activism. Everyone can do something to help.

While My Husband Fights in Gaza
https://aish.com/while-my-husband-fights-in-gaza/?src=ac
Dear Antisemites, Thank You
3 min read
by Rebekah Mor
November 19, 2023
5 min read
My three little children and I wrestle with good, evil and living through a war.
“Is this a playground, Mama?” Gefen asked me

“No, it’s not a playground,'' I answered, maneuvering the stroller along the rocky ramp leading up to Mount Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery.
I watched her serious, three-year-old eyes taking in the scene around her, trying to understand the world as much as possible. I half hoped that it would all go over her head. I wondered how much she realized life had changed since October 7th, when my husband had returned quickly from synagogue to pack his army bag. Before I knew it, I was standing outside our house with our three kids, watching my husband drive off. He has been working hard training and performing missions ever since. At home, the kids and I were slowly adjusting to day-to-day life in a state of war.

Chananel squirmed in his seat, itching to escape the stroller and follow the stream of people walking quickly and solemnly past the tombstones of fallen soldiers, each one carefully arranged and lovingly attended to.

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I wasn’t entirely sure that it made sense for me to be in the military cemetery with my three small children, but I continued to make my way towards the funeral of Uriah Mash, a soldier from the settlement right next to ours. I didn’t know him personally. I had seen the message about his funeral and how he had fallen fighting in Gaza the night before.


Before October 7th, he probably wasn’t an active soldier. He was a husband to a loving, devoted wife, and the father of four children, with another one on the way. His mind, like my husband’s, had probably been far away from the world of the army. But like so many other loyal men in this country, he threw himself back into our military the second that it called him.

Uriah Mash, of blessed memory
I parked the stroller a bit of a distance away from the ceremony and prayed that our presence wouldn’t be an intrusion.

Gefen looked up at me. “Why are there a lot of people?” she asked.

I bent down next to her and said, “They're here because so many people loved a man who was brave and good and strong. He was a soldier, and he wanted to keep Israel very safe.” I hoped my answer would satisfy her.

“Like Abba?”

“Yes, like Abba”

“Why did he go to keep Israel safe?” she asked.

I explained that there are many good people in this world, but some are bad…very bad.

“Like Pharaoh?” she asked, with a glimmer of recognition in her eyes

“Yes, very much like Pharaoh”

“And then there was Moses,” she said, nodding her head, putting things together.

“Yeah, I guess he was a lot like Moses” I answered. I felt connected to the Jews who had been at the shores of the Red Sea with nowhere else to go, when God had split the sea.

“Why are they sad, Mama?” Gefen asked, pulling me back to the cemetery full of mourners. I looked at all the red, devastated eyes, and didn’t know how much to answer.

“Because the world is a bit broken right now, and we really need to fix it.”

She was quiet. And suddenly I was overwhelmed with everything -- with the way we were slaughtered, our women raped, our babies murdered, our children dragged away to tunnels deep in Gaza. I felt the weight of everything that had unfolded in the past weeks, flipping the world upside down and somehow leading me to Mount Herzl cemetery with my children, as my husband was fighting somewhere in or near Gaza.

A lump rose in my throat. I looked at the deceased’s friends and family, and then looked at my own little kids who were now playing quietly with Eliav, the baby, watching his little fists grab at the small Israeli flag I had draped over our stroller.


Thank you, I said to Uriah, the soldier killed in battle, realizing why I had come. Thank you, for everything. Thank you. Because of you, Hamas is further away from the reach of my children. Because of you, my kids will God-willing never need to fight them.

Thank you is not enough.

I thought of my own husband, and I thought of every soldier. I thought of every wife and family in this country and I felt overwhelmed and suddenly determined

“Are we afraid, Gefen?” I asked her, and then hoped I hadn’t scared her with the randomness of the question

She looked up at me and answered no

“Why are we never, ever, ever afraid?” I pressed her because if there is one thing I must inculcate into my children, it is this:

“Because we have Hashem,” she answered simply.

“That’s right,” I said.

And He can split seas.

I guided my children away from the funeral back to our car, offering another prayer to God to protect my husband and all the soldiers.

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https://aish.com/dear-antisemites-thank-you/?src=ac
Dear Antisemites, Thank You
by Audelia Hadad November 19, 2023
3 min read
You have reawakened my Jewish identity.
Dear Anti-Israel Protesters and Antisemites,
Thank you. Your antisemetic rhetoric has taught me four powerful lessons.

1. As Jews, we are different. No amount of assimilation can erase that.
Over the years, a part of my Jewish identity has been compromised. I’ve looked to the non-Jewish world for directions on big questions like “how to live” and “who am I”. The past few weeks, you have reminded me that I don’t belong. I can no longer rely on the non-Jewish world for those answers. I am forced to turn towards my Jewish roots for answers.

Thanks to the wake up calls that I am Jewish, I am beginning to ask real questions. What does it really mean to be a Jew? What are the passions and pleasures of a Jew? What's the role of connection and love in Judaism?

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I am grateful to the Jew-haters for sparking my journey into a rich and meaningful Jewish world.

2. Yep, I am part of the chosen people.

The notion of “the chosen people” always evoked shame surrounding privilege and elitism. I distanced myself from it. Then the war happened and the western world, particularly anti-Israel advocates, have been obsessing over Israel’s morality in battle. They are holding Israel accountable to a higher standard than any other country. I can’t help but marvel at the world reaffirming the Jewish narrative of being the chosen people. If they can say it without shame, then I can internalize it with pride.

Yes, Jews are a people with higher morals and standards. We are sensitive, kind and compassionate people. Whenever we forget that, the world, especially the anti-Israel advocates, will remind us who we are meant to be. .

3. The importance of Jewish Unity.
Before the war, there was so much disunity and friction amongst the Jewish People. October 7th changed all that. Israel is united as never before. Jews around the world are coming together. The rise of antisemitism created space for the largest pro-Israel rally ever. When you experience hate, you gravitate towards love. The amount of overflowing kindness practiced by Jews in the past few weeks has been mind-blowing. So, thank you to all those antisemites for reconnecting me with pride to my newfound extended Jewish family.

4. We only have God to rely on.
I thought I could rely on the western world for safety. I trusted academia that preached humanitarianism and civil rights. I trusted a culture that protested for equality and tolerance. I trusted politicians that promised “never again.” I trusted the media that professed diversity and acceptance. And the feeling of needing God's protection slowly dissipated. We’re ok. They have our back.

And then they didn’t. Antisemitism seeped into all the groups I trusted. I realized, I only have God to rely on. Only He is keeping us safe and protected. I’ve turned to God in prayer and good deeds to concretize and build my faith. My trust in God has gotten stronger and deeper thanks to the rise in antisemitism.

So to all of you antisemites out there, I have a lot to be grateful for. Thanks to you I have grown a lot the past few weeks. I’m getting comfortable with my Jewish identity, getting clarity as to what it means to be a Jew, discovering incredible Jewish people, and strengthening my relationship with God. The past few weeks of hate and bigotry and have been filled with so much love and light. You’ve sparked an inner revolution. And for that I am so grateful.

You have reawakened my Jewish identity.
Dear Anti-Israel Protesters and Antisemites,
Thank you. Your antisemetic rhetoric has taught me four powerful lessons.

1. As Jews, we are different. No amount of assimilation can erase that.
Over the years, a part of my Jewish identity has been compromised. I’ve looked to the non-Jewish world for directions on big questions like “how to live” and “who am I”. The past few weeks, you have reminded me that I don’t belong. I can no longer rely on the non-Jewish world for those answers. I am forced to turn towards my Jewish roots for answers.

Thanks to the wake up calls that I am Jewish, I am beginning to ask real questions. What does it really mean to be a Jew? What are the passions and pleasures of a Jew? What's the role of connection and love in Judaism?

I am grateful to the Jew-haters for sparking my journey into a rich and meaningful Jewish world.

2. Yep, I am part of the chosen people.

The notion of “the chosen people” always evoked shame surrounding privilege and elitism. I distanced myself from it. Then the war happened and the western world, particularly anti-Israel advocates, have been obsessing over Israel’s morality in battle. They are holding Israel accountable to a higher standard than any other country. I can’t help but marvel at the world reaffirming the Jewish narrative of being the chosen people. If they can say it without shame, then I can internalize it with pride.

Yes, Jews are a people with higher morals and standards. We are sensitive, kind and compassionate people. Whenever we forget that, the world, especially the anti-Israel advocates, will remind us who we are meant to be. .

3. The importance of Jewish Unity.
Before the war, there was so much disunity and friction amongst the Jewish People. October 7th changed all that. Israel is united as never before. Jews around the world are coming together. The rise of antisemitism created space for the largest pro-Israel rally ever. When you experience hate, you gravitate towards love. The amount of overflowing kindness practiced by Jews in the past few weeks has been mind-blowing. So, thank you to all those antisemites for reconnecting me with pride to my newfound extended Jewish family.

4. We only have God to rely on.
I thought I could rely on the western world for safety. I trusted academia that preached humanitarianism and civil rights. I trusted a culture that protested for equality and tolerance. I trusted politicians that promised “never again.” I trusted the media that professed diversity and acceptance. And the feeling of needing God's protection slowly dissipated. We’re ok. They have our back.

And then they didn’t. Antisemitism seeped into all the groups I trusted. I realized, I only have God to rely on. Only He is keeping us safe and protected. I’ve turned to God in prayer and good deeds to concretize and build my faith. My trust in God has gotten stronger and deeper thanks to the rise in antisemitism.

So to all of you antisemites out there, I have a lot to be grateful for. Thanks to you I have grown a lot the past few weeks. I’m getting comfortable with my Jewish identity, getting clarity as to what it means to be a Jew, discovering incredible Jewish people, and strengthening my relationship with God. The past few weeks of hate and bigotry and have been filled with so much love and light. You’ve sparked an inner revolution. And for that I am so grateful.

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https://aish.com/5-facts-about-al-shifa-hospital-in-gaza/?src=ac
5 FACTS ABOUT AL-SHIFA HOSPITAL IN GAZA
DR. YVETTE ALT MILLER
Hamas’ headquarters sit below Al-Shifa Hospital which is now the site of bitter fighting.
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is currently the focal point of Israel’s war with Hamas. Both Israeli and American intelligence agencies agree that Hamas’ headquarters sit underneath the hospital, yet these rock-solid claims are met with skepticism in much of the world.

“Hamas denies” that their headquarters are the hospital, claims The New York Times. The BBC said claims that Hamas is occupying al-Shifa Hospital is “theatrical farce.” World leaders and commentators are accusing Israel of looking for an excuse to massacre civilians.

EXCLUSIVE: Inside Hamas Terrorist Tunnel Under Rantisi Hospital in Gaza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLp84A6TBJ0
Aish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4U-g9JIoQA
Worse Than Hell: Dr. Mads Gilbert Decries Israeli Military Raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza

Be informed. Here are five facts about al-Shifa to help make sense of the claims, smears, and outright lies about the battle there.

1. Israel helped build al-Shifa Hospital
Al-Shifa Hospital - the name means “healing” in Arabic - was founded in 1946 by British forces who ruled what was then Mandatory Palestine. It’s located in the western part of Gaza City, which is in the northern part of Gaza. The hospital operated under British leadership until 1948, when Egypt conquered Gaza and the al-Shifa passed into Egyptian control.
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Israel captured Gaza during the 1967 Six Day War. In the 1980s the Israeli Department of Public Works embarked on a large-scale plan to enlarge and modernize al-Shifa Hospital. Israeli architects Gershon Zippor and the late Benjamin Idelson were tapped to redesign the hospital. Their innovative designs inadvertently helped set the stage for al-Shifa’s role as a terrorist headquarters today.


Gershon Zippor designed al-Shifa to be a modern four-story medical complex. In an innovative move, he included a complex set of below-ground floors, helping the hospital maximize its footprint. Al-Shifa is a large, sprawling medical center, made even larger by the extensive network of basement rooms that lie below ground. Zippor foresaw expanding the hospital again in 2000, but by then, Gaza had become a hostile semi self-governing territory implacably opposed to any further cooperation with Israel.

Today, al-Shifa Hospital is Gaza’s largest, with 1,400 beds and 4,000 employees.

2. Al-Shifa’s Violent History
Al-Shifa Hospital has long been the scene of violence, even as it’s treated generations of patients. During the Six-Day War, it treated wounded Egyptian soldiers. Egypt’s final surrender to Israel occurred in the hospital.

After the hospital came under Israeli control, Israel expanded the hospital but soon ran into difficulties: in 1969, al-Shifa’s Internal Medicine Director Dr. Riyad Zanon (later Minister of Health for the Palestinian Authority) left suddenly after his involvement in terrorist organizations came to light. Three years later, at least one terrorist found refuge in al-Shifa’s nurses quarters. In 1987 al-Shifa became a center of the First Intifada. In 1994, control of the Gaza region - including al-Shifa Hospital - passed to the Palestinian Authority. In 2005, Israel withdrew from all of Gaza; Hamas soon won local government elections in Gaza and the West Bank and took control of Gaza, including al-Shifa Hospital.

The entire functioning hospital had become a human shield for Hamas, preventing any military actions against the buildings.

Hamas began establishing their headquarters in the subterranean areas of al-Shifa Hospital soon after coming to power. In 2008, Israel announced that its intelligence agencies had established al-Shifa as a center of Hamas’ command and control operations. In essence, the entire functioning hospital had become a human shield for Hamas, preventing any military actions against the buildings.

In 2008 The New York Times “reported that Hamas terrorists were going through the wards, killing individuals the group believed were collaborating with Israel.” That same year, the Palestinian Authority (which governs the West Bank) accused Hamas of using al-Shifa Hospital as a prison and torture site, and stealing medical supplies and other materials from the hospital.

The Washington Post reported in 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, that Hamas was once more using the hospital as a base: Al-Shifa was “a de facto headquarters for Hamas Leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.” It later emerged that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh hid in al-Shifa during military operations.

3. Hamas’ Torture Center in al-Shifa Hospital
In 2014, after years of rumors, Amnesty International issued a damning report detailing Hamas’ use of al-Shifa Hospital as a torture center. Those who oppose Hamas are abducted by masked Hamas operatives and taken to al-Shifa Hospital for brutal treatment and murder.

“Hamas forces used the abandoned areas of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, including the outpatients’ clinic area, to detain, interrogate, torture and otherwise ill-treat suspects, even as other parts of the hospital continued to function as a medical centre,” Amnesty International reported. In one typical case, Amnesty International documented the torture and murder of a 56-year-old father of 11 named Sabir al-Zain in al-Shifa Hospital in 2014. (Note: the following paragraph contains graphic descriptions of torture.)

Sabir al-Zain’s family received a phone call telling them that his body was at the morgue of al-Shifa hospital and they could collect it from there. One of the dead man’s sons told Amnesty International: My father had been tortured beyond belief. It was horrible. His arms were both broken. They had burnt him on a stove. His body was broken. I inspected his body myself. I was the only one capable of seeing the sight of his body. I was the only one that went in and saw the body. There was a paper printed with all the names [of the dead], except for my father’s name, which was handwritten with a dry ballpoint pen at the end like an afterthought…

4. Hamas’ Abuse of its Human Shields
Israeli intelligence estimates that 5,000-7,000 Gazans are seeking shelter in al-Shifa Hospital right now, while Hamas operates its headquarters from the complex. Each person is a human shield for Hamas.

Al-Shifa Hospital is running out of fuel, but Hamas has a stockpile of 200,000 gallons of diesel which it is using to launch rockets into Israel and to run the vast network of generators that supplies ventilation and electricity to its 500 km underground tunnel system. The source of all this diesel? Hamas stole it from Gaza’s hospitals - including al-Shifa - and other civilian sites.

Al-Shifa Hospital isn’t the only Gaza hospital that Hamas is using as military sites: Qatari Sheikh Hamad Hospital houses troops in underground bunkers who’ve fired on Israeli troops; and the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza houses underground tunnels and rocket launchers on its property.

Yet al-Shifa’s terror network is the most extensive, with several miles of underground tunnels, massive stores of fuel and other supplies, and a huge contingent of heavily armed fighters hiding out in the hospital. Hamas troops have been documented disguising themselves as patients in order to leave and enter the hospital in ambulances.

Hamas troops based in al-Shifa have been battling Israeli soldiers for two weeks. On November 14, Israel’s military issued a statement to al-Shifa’s Hamas fighters: “We call upon all Hamas terrorists present in the hospital to surrender.” Israel gave Hamas 12 hours to comply before Israeli soldiers entered the hospital. Hamas ignored Israel’s ultimatum and in the early hours of November 15, Israeli forces entered al-Shifa Hospital.

Israel’s military confirmed that it was fighting Hamas operatives inside the hospital itself. Today they have entered the hospital in what the IDF describes as a “precise and targeted operation” that is still underway. The IDF says there has been no “friction” between soldiers and patients and medical staff during the ongoing operation. Weapons and Hamas assets have been found.

5. Rejecting Israel’s Aid
Rejecting Fuel:

On November 13, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that his government offered to supply al-Shifa Hospital with fuel to keep it running, but hospital authorities rejected this offer. The New York Times confirmed this, quoting Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, Hamas’ head of its health ministry explaining that “Taking this fuel would give Israel credit for allowing fuel into Gaza.” Prime Minister Netanyahu cautioned that after Hamas rejected this offer, “every dead baby is a tragedy” at Al-Shifa Hospital whose death is squarely due to Hamas, which “prevented the hospital from receiving the fuel.”

Rejecting Neonatal Incubators:

As battles rage in and around the hospital, Israel is ramping up its offers of aid. On November 12, Israeli soldiers left 300 liters of fuel at the entrance to al-Shifa, and publicized an evacuation route for people inside to escape. The following day, Israel began moving incubators for newborns from Tel Hashomer Hospital in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan into Gaza in order to help move premature babies out of al-Shifa Hospital. The hospital has rejected Israel’s offers of help, but last night incubators for newborns, baby food, and medical supplies were brought by IDF tanks from Israel.

Accompanying Israel’s soldiers are “medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields,” Israel’s military reported.

What You Can Do

As Israeli soldiers battle Hamas forces inside al-Shifa Hospital, press coverage and public statements are becoming overwrought, with some people lobbing false accusations of genocide, massacres, and other incendiary claims against Israel. It’s up to each one of us to fight incorrect statements with facts.

Stand up for the truth. Hamas is operating out of al-Shifa Hospital and has been doing so for years. Speak out about this fact. Point out that every tragic death in al-Shifa Hospital is a result of Hamas’ actions. May we all merit to see a speedy end to the suffering in Gaza and in Israel, and an end to Hamas’ homicidal war against Jews and the Jewish state, and their own people.

Watch IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari walk through one of Hamas' subterranean terrorist tunnels—only to exit in Gaza's Rantisi hospital on the other side.
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LATEST
WHY ARE WOMEN’S GROUPS BACKING HAMAS?
DR. YVETTE ALT MILLER
In the aftermath of Hamas’ brutal attacks on women, many women’s groups are strangely silent.

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 As the Times of Israel reports: “The sexual abuse committed by Hamas includes acts of gang rape, genital mutilation and necrophilia.” Hamas terrorists gang raped women before killing them. They raped young girls, old women, and disabled people. Many of their victims were attacked so savagely that they had broken pelvises and legs. Hamas terrorists cut open the abdomens of pregnant Jewish women, removed their fetuses, and beheaded both mothers and babies. Hamas fighters paraded naked and partially-naked bodies of women they’d killed through the streets of Gaza as people danced, cheered and shouted God is Great in Arabic.

Terrorists filmed their attacks and broadcast them on social media - including on accounts belonging to the victims themselves - thereby violating their victims a second time.

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With 240 Israeli hostages currently being held in Gaza - including babies, children, women, people with disabilities, and the elderly - many worry that some are being forced into sexual slavery.

Prosecuting Rape

Given the orgy of violence towards Jewish women that day, one might expect a groundswell of outrage and calls for prosecutions from many of the world’s women’s organizations. Israelis would have been buoyed by statements of solidarity showing they were not alone, that their intense national pain was shared by others.

The world’s foremost women’s organizations have shrugged off Hamas’ attacks, remaining silent about Hamas’ outrages while they bash Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

Israeli investigators trying to build a case to prosecute the mass rapes could have used some practical help: with so many hundreds upon hundreds of dead to identify, valuable DNA evidence that could have been used to build cases to prosecute rape has been degraded and irrevocably lost.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) considers sexual violence during an armed attack to be a war crime. When rape is used as part of a widespread or systematic attack on civilians, the ICC considers it to be a crime against humanity, as well. International groups could have helped build cases against Hamas terrorists, holding them accountable for mass rape and sexual violence.

Instead there’s been only silence.

Deafening Silence
The world’s foremost women’s organizations have shrugged off Hamas’ attacks, remaining silent about Hamas’ outrages while they bash Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

Take UN Women, the United Nations body responsible for ensuring women’s rights globally. A full six days after the Hamas attack, UN Women released a bland statement merely deploring “attacks on civilians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” They made no mention of Hamas’ brutal rapes; most of their surreal, corporate-speak report expresses sympathy not for Israeli victims of mass rape and is capable only of feeling empathy for Gazans affected by Israel’s war against Hamas.

The United States’ National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) finally issued a statement about the attacks on October 13, nearly a week afterwards. Instead of decrying mass rape of women and use of sexual violence acts of war, the NWSA lamented “extensive loss of civilians life in the past few days” among both Jews and Arabs, obfuscating who the victims were. The statement then went on to state Israel is illegitimate and to call for a mass boycott of the Jewish state. NWSA declared their support for “Palestinian liberation”; the word “rape” never appears.

Ms. Magazine remained silent about Hamas’ attacks for a week, then finally ran a column criticizing Israel for attacking Hamas. They did not use the word “rape” even once. Equality Now, a major international grassroots feminist organization, hasn’t condemned Hamas. Instead, they issued a statement “acknowledging” the “pain and suffering” of “all people”, a cruel gesture, given that Israeli women were targeted specifically for being Israeli and for being women.

Supporting Hamas
Supporting radical Palestinian movements has become a core value of some of the most prestigious feminist organizations in recent years. Two years ago, amidst previous fighting between Hamas and Israel, over 120 Gender Studies departments across the English-speaking world joined a statement denouncing Israel and proclaiming that their “inclusive feminist vision(s)” mandated that they support Palestinian opposition to the Jewish state.

Too many feminists today look at Hamas’ mass rape of women and girls and see nothing.

Feminist groups are placing fealty to a radical vision that excuses Hamas’ violence over their commitment to women’s safety and rights. Like Alice through the looking glass, too many feminists today look at Hamas’ mass rape of women and girls and see nothing. Only Israel’s perceived evil is worthy of comment and condemnation. Groups justify any and all “liberation struggles” against Israel. It’s a tacit way of endorsing Hamas’ extreme agenda.

One of the most visible feminist groups in Britain today, Sisters Uncut, is emerging as a major player trying to push public opinion against Israel. Originally formed to provide emergency support for victims of domestic violence, the group has become a strident apologist for Hamas. On October 31, Sisters Uncut arranged a demonstration demanding that Israel immediately cease fighting in Gaza, letting Hamas retain power and giving it space to rearm. When Sisters Uncut closed down busy Liverpool Station in London with a sit-in, 500 people joined them. They’ve promised more mass disruptions demanding that Israel cease fighting.

Britain’s Jewish Chronicle points out that Sisters Uncut’s demonstration came a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke publicly about what he’d seen in footage of Hamas attacks. (Warning: the following italicized paragraph is highly graphic; sensitive readers might want to skip to the next non-italicized text.)

Blinken “described one Israeli family in a kibbutz who were tortured by Hamas terrorists. The father’s eyes were gouged out, the mother’s breasts sliced off, the eight-year-old girl’s foot cut off, the six-year-old boy’s fingers cut off. They were all then executed, and their killer sat down and ate the breakfast the family had been enjoying together before hell emerged in their home.”

For a feminist group to tacitly support Hamas after these atrocities became publicly known defies belief. Yet Sisters Uncut is hardly alone. Feminist group after feminist group is placing “intersectionality” - the belief that one struggle (say, for women’s rights) is inextricably linked to all other global struggles (such as Hamas’) - above their mandates to protect women and girls.

Hamas’ Dismal Record on Women
It’s doubly ironic that few women’s groups are condemning Hamas, given Hamas’ dismal record on women’s rights. In Gaza, Hamas courts have ruled that women need a guardian’s permission to travel. Hamas imposes draconian rules of modern dress on women and allowed discrimination against women in the workplace to increase. Hamas is openly tolerant of honor killings. It enforces rigid gender discrimination in school. Hamas blocked attempts to set up a women’s television station in Gaza, dashing hopes that women could be empowered even within the rigid gender barriers on which Hamas insists. Overlooking these and other assaults on women’s rights betrays the foundational principles of women’s organizations around the world.

While it’s too late to document Hamas’ sex crimes in Israel in a manner that could result in legal prosecution, women’s groups can still make the right choice and condemn Hamas’ barbaric assaults.

Dozens of Jewish women’s organizations have gone on record condemning Hamas’ attacks. It’s time for the major women’s groups to follow suit.

https://aish.com/rose-lubin-american-israeli-hero/?src=ac
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Rose Lubin: American Israeli Hero
LATEST
ROSE LUBIN: AMERICAN ISRAELI HERO
ADINA HERSHBERG
May her fierce courage, commitment and strength to her family, her faith and to her people inspire us all.
As Hamas terrorists were conducting their massacre in Jewish communities near the Gaza border on October 7, Rose Lubin, a 20-year-old lone soldier and Border Policewoman, received permission from the Rapid Response Team of Kibbutz Sa’ad where she lived to help protect the community. She changed into her uniform, grabbed her weapon and helped defend her community from the attack.

Rose then rushed to assist other communities, removing the injured to safety and fighting the terrorist onslaught.
Aish
What Would Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Do?
“We were in contact with her that entire day on Saturday and heard about the horrors she had witnessed, but that did not break her spirit,” her commander said. “We offered to allow her time off to recuperate, but she insisted on resuming her duties and said she was more motivated to protect civilians.”
Rose grew up in Dunwoody, Georgia, a small suburb of Atlanta. She moved to Israel by herself in 2021 after finishing high school in order to join the Israel Defense Forces. After arriving in Israel and learning Hebrew, she enlisted in the IDF. As is the practice in the kibbutz movement, she was given an “adopted” family in Kibbutz Sa’ad, a religious kibbutz in the south.

Lone soldier Rose Lubin was stationed in Jerusalem’s Old City in the Damascus Gate area, a real hot spot. It is the main entry used by many Arabs and one of the most highly guarded streets in the city due to tension between Moslems and Jews in the area.

In May of this year she spoke at a Friends of the IDF evening in Atlanta. Rose described the dangerous demands of her border police service. She mentioned her unit’s charge to defend Jerusalem. She said that she derived personal meaning from her work of protecting Jews praying at the Western Wall.

“There are generations of my family who could have been here today if there was an Israel during the Holocaust. I feel an obligation to them to fulfill the opportunities they didn’t have. It’s our duty to watch over the Jews who are living the dream of walking to the kotel (Western Wall) on Shabbat,” she stated. “If you ever stroll through the Damascus Gate, toss me a high five and I will welcome you,” she said.

On Monday, November 6th, a 16-year-old Arab from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya ran toward the border police officers stationed near Herod’s Gate with a knife in his hand. He stabbed Rose several times, injuring another police officer as well, before her fellow officers shot and killed him. Rose and the other injured officer were evacuated to Hadassah Hospital, and she was pronounced dead several hours later.

In a video recorded just days before her murder, Sgt. Lubin smiled and waved at the camera, sending love to her family in America and thanking them for their thoughts and prayers. “Shabbat shalom everyone,” she said. “I love everyone. Thank you for the support.”

VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ThzlWdXko

Her great-uncle Rick Halpern said, “We knew she was in a dangerous place. Probably the most dangerous assignment in all of Israel. She wanted very much to be there. She was a tremendously dedicated and committed person, and she wanted to be in that location. She was very committed to making sure that things were safe for this generation.”
https://aish.com/rose-lubin-american-israeli-hero/?src=ac

Arnold Schwarzenegger: It’s Time to Step Up
https://aish.com/arnold-schwarzenegger-its-time-to-step-up/?src=ac
by Susan Hornik
November 9, 2023

This week, Arnold Schwarzenegger received the inaugural Award of Courage from Los Angeles’ Holocaust Museum, for his ongoing efforts confronting antisemitism.

In accepting the award from Oscar-winning producer Mike Medavoy, Schwarzenegger said, “I’ve received many awards involving muscles, but tonight was about recognizing heart. Education to fight antisemitism has been something I’ve cared about since I was a young man. Love must always prevail over hatred.”

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Why Israel Must Destroy Hamas
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Addressing the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 people, Schwarzenegger asserted that people need to step up.

“There's all this chatter out there and all this stuff and all this negativity and hatred that we have to speak up and confront them. The more we speak out about that issue, the better it is. So every day you have to talk about that, you have to talk about it over and over again.”

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He continued: “Because we cannot let them get away with those lies and with this hatred. You’ve got to talk to them, and talk them down and let them know that the only way to go is through love… hatred you never ever win; love in the end always wins.”


The son of a Nazi, Schwarzenegger reflected about his Austrian background, and told the audience his desire to fight “for inclusion against hatred and speak out about hatred, and how wrong it is to not look at everyone’s life equally. And to attack each other because of someone’s religion and religious background or their color or their sex, whatever it is.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger honored at Holocaust Museum LA (Photo Credit: Al Seib)

He added: “I felt it was very important, especially since I come from a country that is known to be a big part of the Second World War and had the most vicious Nazis during the war and beforehand. I thought it is important to go out and to let people know that the next generation doesn’t have to be the same, that the next generation can change.”

I have to go and speak out about hatred.

The much-loved actor told the audience about the moments when he first dealt with antisemitism with his dad – when he bought a bodybuilding magazine as a teenager and his father disapproved of it when he found out its publisher was Jewish. Then, years later, after Schwarzenegger won Mr. Universe and was invited to the U.S., and given shelter and money, he called his father to tell him it was that very same publisher who had helped him.

“From that moment on, I said to myself, ‘I have to go and fight that, I have to go and speak out about hatred, I have to go and get involved in this issue,'” he said. “And the more I became a celebrity, the more I became a movie star and a bodybuilding star and all that, the more I felt like, ‘Oh, I have another power,' in being a public voice against antisemitism.”

Schwarzenegger visited Auschwitz last year and wants to return with “a whole bunch of Hollywood celebrities so they can see what is going on, what went on there and to put the spotlight on this issue.”

Also in attendance at the gala were 27 Holocaust survivors. One thing was clear; the fear of history repeating itself was clearly in their eyes.


Ildako Good, an 84-year-old child survivor from Hungary who was in a concentration camp for 11 months, has immensely been affected by the atrocities that occurred in Israel, she told Aish.com.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t watch the news and yet I have to. It’s incredibly upsetting, I can’t help but worry about antisemitism and what could happen next. The world has gone mad.”

Both Good and survivor Eva Perlman have spent time as public speakers, educating children and teens about the Holocaust.

“Holocaust education is vital – it’s very important to get the word out,” acknowledged Perlman, who attended the event with her granddaughter.

“I am absolutely horrified by these recent events – it seems as if people have lost all morality. To celebrate killing families – I don’t know where we are going… That there are people who have been conditioned since infancy to hate Jews, we can’t do anything about them, they are so set in their beliefs. This is why I must be as vocal as possible about what happened to me during the Holocaust.”

Beth Kean, CEO of Holocaust Museum LA, said, “Holocaust Museum LA’s mission of education to fight antisemitism and stop hate is more critical than ever. Both Arnold and our survivors have demonstrated throughout their lives the courage, determination, strength and resiliency to remind the world that we must never forget the critical lessons of the past.”

https://aish.com/hebrew-hammer-la-teen-is-determined-to-stand-up-for-the-jewish-people/?src=ac
Hebrew Hammer: LA Teen Is Determined to Stand Up for the Jewish People
Meet Asher Tessler, a 17-year-old Orthodox Jew and Muay Thai fighter.

Shortly after Hamas massacred 1400 Israelis on October 7, Asher Tessler was walking with his family home from synagogue in Los Angeles when he faced a terrifying threat.

“Someone yelled ‘Allahu akbar!’ at us,” he said. “They were threatening to kill us.”

Aish
Non-Jewish Diner Owner Received Boycotts and Death Threats for Backing Israel

The 17-year-old, who is an Orthodox Jewish Muay Thai fighter and goes by the name “The Hebrew Hammer,” has been vocal about his support for Israel, online and off.

“I put the Israeli flag in my Instagram bio,” he said. “I got messages from people telling me they want to fight me.”

Tessler stands tall at 5’10 and holds an American/Israeli flag up for photos. He weighs 132 pounds and trains six days a week – except for Shabbat – spending eight-and-a-half hours a day getting ready for his next fight. He’s homeschooled and has religious and secular studies in the afternoons before he heads back to the gym.

READ MORE

https://aish.com/hebrew-hammer-la-teen-is-determined-to-stand-up-for-the-jewish-people/?src=ac

https://aish.com/non-jewish-diner-owner-received-boycotts-and-death-threats-for-backing-israel/?src=ac
NON-JEWISH DINER OWNER RECEIVED BOYCOTTS AND DEATH THREATS FOR BACKING ISRAEL
SARAH PACHTER
Peter Tsadilas got enormous flak for putting up Israeli flags and posters of hostages. He refused to back down.
Mr. Rogers famously said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

Peter Tsadilas, owner of Golden Globe Diner in Huntington, New York is one of those helpers.
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Tsadilas is a gentile of Greek origin. Although not Jewish himself, his best friend is Jewish and his diner has been frequented by Jews for years. He knew he had to do something to show solidarity with the current plight of Israelis and Jews worldwide. Little did he know the mayhem his efforts would create.

Tsadilas explained in an Aish.com interview, “My best friend, who is Jewish, came over one night, crying to me. His son was on medical leave from the Israeli Army and was in America visiting his father. He went back to Israel and was going to do another semester of college. When the bombing occurred on October 7th, his father called and said, ‘Son, you’re coming back. Come back now.’
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“His son replied, ‘No, Dad, I'm staying to fight.’”
Peter grew up in Woodbury New York, a primarily Jewish neighborhood. His father-in-law and business partner are both Jewish. When he lived in California for 11 years, he had many Israeli friends.”

Peter decided he had to do something to show support amidst the war in Israel.
“I put up four Israeli flags around the diner, and pictures of the hostages. I started by posting pictures of the kids under ten years old. There are about 15 of them. I thought to myself, these kids deserve to get home. After doing the kids, I started to put up the older hostages as well, and it filled up about half the window. I figured by the weekend, I would fill up the other half.”
Tsadilas took this initiative without consulting with anyone.

“I didn’t ask my employees. They didn’t want it because they were scared, but I did it anyway.”

After posting the signs of hostages, three new employees just disappeared, abandoning their jobs without notice. Tsadilas also lost a lot of Middle Eastern clients immediately.

“We lost some business, but the real issues began when Doordash stopped picking up my food. I got backlash from Doordash clients. They told Doordash I was promoting hate and killing babies. I didn’t get any orders for nine days. My restaurant was removed from their app.

“I called them up after nine days and threatened to take legal action. I threatened to sue them in the Supreme Court. Suddenly, it popped back up.”

One of the heads of the local Hebrew school came in for lunch. She saw the flags, and decided to stop in to support the business.

She told Tsadilas, “‘I wasn’t hungry. I couldn’t find parking, but I want to stop in and have some eggs to support you.’ She took a picture and sent it to her temple. Then it took a life of its own.”

Having the backing of the Jewish community has been crucial for Tsadilas’s efforts. The backlash unfortunately hasn’t stopped with Doordash’s short-lived boycott. The phone at the diner rings off the hook with constant death threats

People have been calling and saying, “This is Hamas, we know you are in there. We are going to kill you.”

Despite facing such hate, Tsadilas refuses to back down. “Employees are leaving. We don’t even answer the phones at the diner now. It’s a miracle I answered your call, Sarah. All this because we posted pictures of innocent, civilian hostages.”

Tsadilas has a plan to enlist other Greek diners to join him in his support of Israel and Jewish people worldwide. “I want to try to get all the Greek restaurants to jump on board and support Israel. The first one is always the hardest. We hired a lawyer. We are going to approach the 500 Greek diners in the tristate area.”

Tsadilas will personally pay these restaurants to put flag poles up to display Israeli flags, as well as pay for the upkeep and service of them throughout the year.

Peter Tsadilas has taken a strong stand in his community and serves as a light amidst darkness for Jews worldwide, even as such actions have caused him personal harm and loss.

Take a moment to express your thanks in the comment section below.
Click here to comment on this article
https://aish.com/non-jewish-diner-owner-received-boycotts-and-death-threats-for-backing-israel/?src=ac

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5 MORE MYTHS ABOUT ISRAEL’S WAR WITH HAMAS
DR. YVETTE ALT MILLER
Vital information that debunks 5 smears directed against Israel as the war heats up.
“5 Big Lies About Israel’s War with Hamas” confronted slanders, half-truths, and outright lies about the current Israeli-Hamas war. As the war progresses, new lies are appearing in the media. Here are five new myths about the war - and the facts you need to effectively discuss them.

Lie #1: Israel is Committing Genocide in Gaza
Protests around the world feature the chant: “Israel Israel you can’t hide: we charge you with genocide.” Some influential figures have echoed this baseless charge. This slander misrepresents - and belittles - the very concept of genocide. It deliberately miscasts Hamas’ cynical use of human shields in its war against Israel as evidence of Israeli war crimes, and it cleverly inverts people’s conception of Israel (as a Jewish nation founded after a massive Jewish genocide) to accuse it of the very crime that helped bring about Israel’s birth.

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5 More Myths about Israel’s War with Hamas
The 1948 international Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as: “crime(s) committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part.” That sounds a lot like Hamas, which is committed to Israel’s destruction and the death of Jews worldwide. In battling Hamas, Israel is pursuing military goals, seeking to eradicate Hamas (which is defined as a terrorist group by the USA, EU, Britain, and other nations) and rescue Israeli prisoners being held in Gaza. Israel’s “intent” is military victory, not the death of civilians.
What of the fact that Gaza’s civilian death toll is so high?
Hamas has given extremely high estimates of casualties (which, given Hamas’ cynical history of lying, are likely - and one hopes - highly inflated). According to Hamas, somewhere in the region of 10,000 Gazan civilians have died in Israeli airstrikes and the overwhelming majority of these deaths are among women and children, not fighting age men. (Hamas has released virtually no pictures of any fighters, despite Israel’s assertion that it’s killed hundreds of key Hamas terrorists.) The large number of civilian casualties in Gaza is due to Hamas’ cynical use of its own people as human shields. NATO observes that Hamas uses human shields by “(f)iring rockets, artillery, and mortars from or in proximity to heavily populated civilian areas, often from or near…schools, hospitals, or mosques.” NATO also observes that by “engaging in these acts, Hamas employs a win-win scenario: if indeed the IDF uses (military means), and the number of civilian casualties surges, Hamas can use that as a weapon in the lawfare it conducts. It would be able to accuse the IDF (the Israeli Military) ...and Israel…of committing war crimes” in the hopes that these accusations would lead to international sanctions against the Jewish state.
READ MORE https://aish.com/5-more-myths-about-israels-war-with-hamas/?

IN ISRAEL, RELIVING THE 1941 BAGHDAD MASSACRE
RABBI SHRAGA SIMMONS
Shuddering in her bomb shelter outside of Tel Aviv as a missile from Gaza is en route, Oria Jackson recalls another terror massacre, 82 years ago in her birthplace of Baghdad, Iraq.
October 7, 2023. The Tel Aviv suburb of Givatayim, 8 pm. Sirens wail, signaling an incoming missile from Gaza.

Oria Jackson rushes to the protected room of her apartment, located on the top floor of a seven-story building.

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The horrific Hamas’ massacre of 1,400 Jews and kidnapping of 230 Israelis and foreign nationals earlier that day race through her mind.
Oria Jackson Shuddering in her bomb shelter, Oria recalls another terror massacre, 82 years ago in her birthplace of Baghdad, Iraq. During the two-day Farhud (“violent dispossession” in Arabic), mobs of Arabs wielding swords, axes and guns invaded thousands of Jewish homes – raping, pillaging, and massacring. Oria’s thoughts of mutilated bodies, from Baghdad to Gaza, meld in a gruesome mix. Then suddenly – SLAM! – a missile from Gaza strikes the roof of Oria's building, just meters from where she sits. The impact and explosion send shock waves, shattered glass and twisted metal hurtling through her apartment.
The protected room, made of reinforced concrete and steel, saves her from violent death.
“I grew up hearing gory details from my parents and six siblings who experienced the horrific Farhud,” Oria tells Aish.com, “but I never imagined the same thing would happen in Israel.”
READ MORE https://aish.com/in-israel-reliving-the-1941-baghdad-massacre/?src=ac

https://aish.com/what-it-means-to-be-a-jew-in-america-today/?src=ac
What It Means to Be a Jew in America Today
by Debbie Gutfreund
October 31, 2023
5 min read
It’s knowing the world will never be the same again and wondering how we will ever go back to any kind of normalcy.
Being a Jew in America today is watching in horror as videos are posted of demonstrations for Hamas marching on your college campus. It’s contacting the head of your alumni association and the university president to protest allowing these groups on campus, only t
It’s being a Jewish student at an Ivy League university who went home last week because he was terrified to walk to class.
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It’s being locked in a university library because there is a pro-Palestinian group surrounding the building and police are “afraid” to interfere.
It’s signing petitions and resigning from executive boards only to have the demonstrations continue.
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It’s sitting in a staff meeting and having a colleague suggest a pro-Palestinian support group for a client. It’s biting your lip to keep yourself from saying something unprofessional in your meeting because you are beyond furious and losing your composure.


It’s having to look in the eyes of the people in your office who are protesting donating money to help Israel because it might cause a controversy. It’s having to go to the office the next day and pretend nothing happened.

It’s having dozens of police cars outside of your children’s day school and watching your child look out the window at drop off with an unfamiliar look of despair flickering in their eyes.

It’s watching the news and wishing you hadn’t watched it. It’s staying away from the news and then feeling guilty for not knowing what is happening.

It is going to demonstrations for Israel and prayer gatherings and feeling like you’ve hardly helped at all.

It’s waking up nauseous in the middle of the night thinking about the hostages. It’s wondering where they are and picturing the kidnapped children. It’s walking into your children’s bedroom and sitting on the floor to watch them sleep as you cry for the parents and children across the ocean.

It’s calling relatives in Israel and asking if they are ok multiple times a day.

It’s making a trip to Israel with equipment and safety gear for soldiers and coming right back to collect more and go back again.

It’s putting up pictures of the hostages all over your city, only to have anti-Israel activists tear them down.

It’s being unable to stop looking at your phone at all hours of the day and night even though you know you should put it down. It’s waiting every day for something to change and being frustrated at night when the news is the same as it was yesterday. It’s waking up and immediately checking to see what happened in Israel while you were sleeping.

It’s wearing your IDF shirt and Jewish star and wondering if you will be attacked for it. It’s knowing the world will never be the same again and wondering how we will ever go back to any kind of normalcy.

It’s looking at a map of Israel being bombarded with hundreds of rockets and listening to people insisting on sending more fuel into Gaza.

It’s praying for our soldiers but trying not to look too closely at their pictures so you don’t have to see how young they actually are. It’s wanting our soldiers to go into Gaza and simultaneously wanting them to go right back home to their families.

It’s feeling the incredible unity of the Jewish people and wondering why it took such a tremendous tragedy to realize we are all one family.

It’s hearing the pain from the families who have lost loved ones or are waiting for their relatives to come home, and it’s being speechless in the face of such unimaginable loss. It’s knowing that you can’t go on with your life the way it was before but not knowing how exactly to go on.

It’s speaking to your mother early in the morning and hearing in her voice that she was up in the middle of the night too. It’s knowing she also could not get the images of the children being held hostage out of her mind, without her having to say a word.

It’s lighting candles and saying Psalms and trying not to talk about the news in front of your children.

It’s being shocked by the people who are silent in the face of our suffering.

It’s exclaiming “mazel tov” in shul for the birth of a new baby and moments later crying silently into your siddur as you pray for our soldiers protecting Israel’s borders.

It’s realizing that Israel is not just the home of every Jew around the world but the insurance policy for each and every one of us. Because saying the Holocaust could never have happened in America sounds naive now.

It’s waking up to a new reality in which we need to fight every day for our right to exist. It’s knowing that we are in a moment of history in which we will all be asked: Did you speak up for Israel and defend its right to fight against terror, no matter what the world said?

It’s waking up tomorrow and not giving up, no matter how many petitions and letters and gatherings and donations and trips and prayers it’s going to take. Because we are fighting not only for Israel but for our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren.

It’s waking up in the middle of the night and hearing that faint whisper in your heart that says: the Jewish people need you. And to realize that you can no longer ignore that whisper.

https://aish.com/gazas-long-jewish-history/?src=ac
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
October 29, 2023
9 min read
10 facts about Jewish communities in Gaza, from ancient to modern times.
A Jewish rabbi in Gaza? The great Gaza Yeshiva? Ancient Jewish Gazan villages? Yes, they were all real. Here are 10 surprising facts about Jews’ long relationship with the region.

1. Possession of the Tribe of Judah
The area of Gaza has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Four thousand years ago, during the time of the Jewish patriarch Jacob, it was inhabited by a tribe known as “the Avvim who dwell in (unwalled) cities until Gaza” (Deuteronomy 2:23). When Jacob divided up the Land of Israel between his twelve sons, Gaza was allocated to Judah and his descendants.
The tribe of Judah didn’t live in Gaza; it eventually passed into Canaanite hands, then was colonized by Egypt as an outpost of the Egyptian empire.
2. Ancient Greek Outpost
In the 13th Century BCE, a group of Greek sailors attacked and sacked Anatolia, Cyprus, and Syria, before attacking Egypt. The earliest mention of this group is recorded inside the mortuary temple of Ramses III in Egypt; King Ramses repulsed the would-be invaders, and encouraged them to settle nearby in Gaza instead. There, the invaders called themselves Philistines (Plishtim in Hebrew).
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Philistine bichrome pottery was produced during the Iron I
period in ancient Canaan (circa 1200–1000 B.C.E.)
The Philistines differed greatly from the Israelites who inhabited the area. Though they adopted some local customs, the Philistines continued to worship Greek gods. They also ate a diet heavy in pigs and dogs, as evidenced in archeological remains of their cities, in stark contrast to Jewish settlements of the same era.
Philistines built five cities which formed a Philistine political union: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath and Ekron, all in modern-day Israel, plus Gaza. The ancient Greeks called the area Philistia, which later evolved into the Greek name Palestine. Gaza became an outpost of Greek culture within ancient Judah.
3. Samson and Delilah in Gaza
Philistines were relentless enemies of the Jews; the Torah describes a terrible period in Jewish history when the “Children of Israel (were) delivered…into the hands of the Philistines” who oppressed them (Judges 13:1).
One of the most heartbreaking stories in Jewish history occurred in Gaza: Samson, a hero of Israel, went to Gaza and fell in love with a Philistine woman named Delilah. Philistine leaders urged her to pretend to be in love with Samson and to find out what made him so strong: “The governors of the Philistines went up to her and said to her, ‘Entice him and find out by what (means) his strength is so great, and by what means we may overpower him, so that we may bind him, to afflict him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver” (Judges 16:1).
Johann Georg Platzer (1704-1761), “The Death of Samson”
Delilah eventually learned Samson’s secret: he possessed superhuman strength because he abstained from wine and had never cut his hair. While he was sleeping, Philistines cut off Samson’s hair then tortured him. They brought him to one of their temples to continue his torture during a great feast there. In desperation, Samson asked God for one more moment of strength, and pushed down the pillars supporting the temple, killing himself along with all the revelers inside.
4. Jewish Conquest During the Time of Hanukkah
As a Greek outpost, Gaza was a center of Hellenizing influence in ancient Israel and became a battle zone during the revolt of the Maccabees. Jonathan the Hasmonean – Judah Maccabee’s brother – conquered Gaza and moved there in the year 145 BCE, 20 years after the Temple in Jerusalem was captured and the miracle of one container of oil lasting for eight days. Gaza was absorbed into the Kingdom of Judah, ruled by the Jewish Hasmonean kings.
5. Why are There Jewish Symbols on the Great Mosque of Gaza?
Gaza became a major Jewish center during Talmudic times, boasting magnificent synagogues and a renowned Gaza Yeshiva (Jewish school). The city of Gaza was home to a large Jewish community; the Talmud also mentions a small Jewish town in the Gaza region called Kfar Darom. In 1965, Egyptian archeologists discovered the remains of an ancient synagogue near Gaza’s harbor. Beautiful mosaic floors declared that the synagogue was built in 508-9 CE, and depicted a picture of King David, with his name written in Hebrew above.
Menorah engraving at the Great Mosque of Gaza
More evidence of Gaza’s ancient Jewish roots can be found in the Great Mosque of Gaza: a pillar of this mosque contains carvings of Jewish symbols: a lulav and etrog, a shofar, a menorah, plus Hebrew inscriptions. Jewish life flourished in Gaza for hundreds of years, until Crusaders destroyed the area, putting a temporary stop to normal life in the area.
6. Famous Shabbat Song Written in Gaza
Jews returned to Gaza after the devastation of the Crusades, and once again built a flourishing Jewish community. The famous author and spiritual leader Rabbi Avraham Azoulai moved to Gaza from Morocco in the early 1600s and wrote his mystical work Chesed l”Avraham there.
Around the same time, Rabbi Yisrael Najara moved from Safed to Gaza. The popular Shabbat song he wrote, Kah Ribon Olam, is a fervent plea for God to rescue Jews from danger and exile; it beseeches the Divine to “save (Israel) Your sheep from the mouth of lions….” Its words are as true in Gaza today as they were 400 years ago when they were written.
7. 1929 Pogrom
After a decade of increasing anti-Jewish rhetoric from Arab leaders in Mandatory Palestine, armed Arab groups rose up to attack Jews in August, 1929. Anti-Jewish riots began in late August in the new Jewish neighborhoods that were springing up around Jerusalem. The riots began to spread to other areas, including the cities of Safed and Hebron, and Gaza; scores of Jews were killed.

Gaza ruins 1898 (American Colony Photograph at the Library of Congress)
After taking no action for six days during the riots, on August 26, 1929, British soldiers stepped in to stop the riots - and to remove Jews from areas where they’d lived for centuries. All of the Jews living in Hebron and Gaza were forced from their homes and forbidden by the British authorities to return.
8. Rebuilding Jewish Gaza
Jews soon returned to Gaza and established a kibbutz, or collective farm, there in 1946. They called it Kfar Darom, after an ancient Gazan Jewish town by that name. But Jewish life in Gaza was to be short-lived. In the United Nations’ proposed division of Mandatory Palestine, Gaza itself was divided between a proposed Arab state and Israel. Israel accepted the UN’s plan, but the Arab states did not, attacking Israel the moment it declared independence in 1948. In the bitter fighting that followed, Israel captured Gaza. In subsequent ceasefire negotiations, Israel gave Gaza to Egypt in return for control over the nearby cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon. At the same time, the Arab population of Gaza swelled as Palestinians moved to Gaza from the newly founded State of Israel.

Israel conquered Gaza once more during its 1956 war with Egypt, and once again gave the territory to Egypt. During the 1967 Six Day War, Israel once again conquered Gaza. In the 1970s, Jews began to return to Gaza once again: over the next thirty years, Jews built 21 new farms and towns in Gaza. Gaza became home to most of Israel’s organic farms and accounted for 15% of Israel’s overall agricultural output.
9. Making Gaza “Jew-Free”
For over a decade, Arabs and Jews lived and farmed side by side in Gaza. With the outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987, however, peaceful coexistence came to a halt. In the Oslo Accords of 1993 Israel promised to evacuate most of Gaza, giving way for it to be governed by the newly-formed Palestinian Authority. That peace agreement fell apart, however, and tensions continued to rise.
Jewish children at a greenhouse in the Gadid settlement a week before disengagement (Photo Tom Gross)
In 2005, after heavy political pressure from world leaders and domestically, Israel agreed to withdraw from all of Gaza and to force every Jew living there out of the territory. Gaza was to be entirely self-governed; Israel believed that by disengaging, they would be free of the terrorism and international opprobrium that governing Gaza had exposed them to.
Starting on August 17, 2005, Israel’s army moved in to remove all of Gaza’s Jews. The process was highly emotional and took a week. A total of 1,700 Jewish families left their farms and homes in Gaza. Knowing that Jewish graves would be desecrated, Israel’s chief rabbis ordered all Jewish cemeteries to be dug up and their bodies reburied in Israel. .
Before Gaza became entirely “Jew free,” American Jewish donors spent $14 million buying greenhouses from the Jewish farmers there and donated them to Gaza’s new Arab government. Former World Bank President James Wolfensohn even gave half a million of his own money to the scheme. Within moments of the final Jew leaving Gaza, however, the greenhouses were utterly destroyed, looted and smashed while Gaza’s police officers stood watching.
10. Violence Out of Gaza
Since 2005, anti-Jewish sentiment has swelled in Gaza. With the election of Hamas to govern the region in 2007, attacks on Israeli targets from Gaza increased. In the past 18 years, dozens of Israelis - as well as many Palestinians in Gaza and in areas under Palestinian Authority control - have been killed and injured by tens of thousands of rockets launched from Gaza. (Click here for a list of casualties preceding the October 7, 2023 attacks.) On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists entering Israel from Gaza perpetrated their worst massacre since the Holocaust, killing over 1,400 people and abducting over 220 prisoners.
The Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system (left) intercepts rockets fired by Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip toward southern Israel
Long a Jewish outpost, Gaza has also been the site of some of the most intense hatred against Jews throughout history. From the ancient Philistines, to antisemitic Greeks during the Hanukkah era, to fanatical Islamist resentment today, Gaza has been a place where Jews have been targeted - and yet have managed to survive and even triumph. May it be so again soon.

https://aish.com/gazas-long-jewish-history/?src=ac
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
October 29, 2023
9 min read
10 facts about Jewish communities in Gaza, from ancient to modern times.
A Jewish rabbi in Gaza? The great Gaza Yeshiva? Ancient Jewish Gazan villages? Yes, they were all real. Here are 10 surprising facts about Jews’ long relationship with the region.

1. Possession of the Tribe of Judah
The area of Gaza has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Four thousand years ago, during the time of the Jewish patriarch Jacob, it was inhabited by a tribe known as “the Avvim who dwell in (unwalled) cities until Gaza” (Deuteronomy 2:23). When Jacob divided up the Land of Israel between his twelve sons, Gaza was allocated to Judah and his descendants.
The tribe of Judah didn’t live in Gaza; it eventually passed into Canaanite hands, then was colonized by Egypt as an outpost of the Egyptian empire.
2. Ancient Greek Outpost
In the 13th Century BCE, a group of Greek sailors attacked and sacked Anatolia, Cyprus, and Syria, before attacking Egypt. The earliest mention of this group is recorded inside the mortuary temple of Ramses III in Egypt; King Ramses repulsed the would-be invaders, and encouraged them to settle nearby in Gaza instead. There, the invaders called themselves Philistines (Plishtim in Hebrew).
SUBSCRIBE
Our weekly email is chockful of interesting and relevant insights into Jewish history, food, philosophy, current events, holidays and more...
Philistine bichrome pottery was produced during the Iron I
period in ancient Canaan (circa 1200–1000 B.C.E.)
The Philistines differed greatly from the Israelites who inhabited the area. Though they adopted some local customs, the Philistines continued to worship Greek gods. They also ate a diet heavy in pigs and dogs, as evidenced in archeological remains of their cities, in stark contrast to Jewish settlements of the same era.
Philistines built five cities which formed a Philistine political union: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath and Ekron, all in modern-day Israel, plus Gaza. The ancient Greeks called the area Philistia, which later evolved into the Greek name Palestine. Gaza became an outpost of Greek culture within ancient Judah.
3. Samson and Delilah in Gaza
Philistines were relentless enemies of the Jews; the Torah describes a terrible period in Jewish history when the “Children of Israel (were) delivered…into the hands of the Philistines” who oppressed them (Judges 13:1).
One of the most heartbreaking stories in Jewish history occurred in Gaza: Samson, a hero of Israel, went to Gaza and fell in love with a Philistine woman named Delilah. Philistine leaders urged her to pretend to be in love with Samson and to find out what made him so strong: “The governors of the Philistines went up to her and said to her, ‘Entice him and find out by what (means) his strength is so great, and by what means we may overpower him, so that we may bind him, to afflict him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver” (Judges 16:1).
Johann Georg Platzer (1704-1761), “The Death of Samson”
Delilah eventually learned Samson’s secret: he possessed superhuman strength because he abstained from wine and had never cut his hair. While he was sleeping, Philistines cut off Samson’s hair then tortured him. They brought him to one of their temples to continue his torture during a great feast there. In desperation, Samson asked God for one more moment of strength, and pushed down the pillars supporting the temple, killing himself along with all the revelers inside.
4. Jewish Conquest During the Time of Hanukkah
As a Greek outpost, Gaza was a center of Hellenizing influence in ancient Israel and became a battle zone during the revolt of the Maccabees. Jonathan the Hasmonean – Judah Maccabee’s brother – conquered Gaza and moved there in the year 145 BCE, 20 years after the Temple in Jerusalem was captured and the miracle of one container of oil lasting for eight days. Gaza was absorbed into the Kingdom of Judah, ruled by the Jewish Hasmonean kings.
5. Why are There Jewish Symbols on the Great Mosque of Gaza?
Gaza became a major Jewish center during Talmudic times, boasting magnificent synagogues and a renowned Gaza Yeshiva (Jewish school). The city of Gaza was home to a large Jewish community; the Talmud also mentions a small Jewish town in the Gaza region called Kfar Darom. In 1965, Egyptian archeologists discovered the remains of an ancient synagogue near Gaza’s harbor. Beautiful mosaic floors declared that the synagogue was built in 508-9 CE, and depicted a picture of King David, with his name written in Hebrew above.
Menorah engraving at the Great Mosque of Gaza
More evidence of Gaza’s ancient Jewish roots can be found in the Great Mosque of Gaza: a pillar of this mosque contains carvings of Jewish symbols: a lulav and etrog, a shofar, a menorah, plus Hebrew inscriptions. Jewish life flourished in Gaza for hundreds of years, until Crusaders destroyed the area, putting a temporary stop to normal life in the area.
6. Famous Shabbat Song Written in Gaza
Jews returned to Gaza after the devastation of the Crusades, and once again built a flourishing Jewish community. The famous author and spiritual leader Rabbi Avraham Azoulai moved to Gaza from Morocco in the early 1600s and wrote his mystical work Chesed l”Avraham there.
Around the same time, Rabbi Yisrael Najara moved from Safed to Gaza. The popular Shabbat song he wrote, Kah Ribon Olam, is a fervent plea for God to rescue Jews from danger and exile; it beseeches the Divine to “save (Israel) Your sheep from the mouth of lions….” Its words are as true in Gaza today as they were 400 years ago when they were written.
7. 1929 Pogrom
After a decade of increasing anti-Jewish rhetoric from Arab leaders in Mandatory Palestine, armed Arab groups rose up to attack Jews in August, 1929. Anti-Jewish riots began in late August in the new Jewish neighborhoods that were springing up around Jerusalem. The riots began to spread to other areas, including the cities of Safed and Hebron, and Gaza; scores of Jews were killed.

Gaza ruins 1898 (American Colony Photograph at the Library of Congress)
After taking no action for six days during the riots, on August 26, 1929, British soldiers stepped in to stop the riots - and to remove Jews from areas where they’d lived for centuries. All of the Jews living in Hebron and Gaza were forced from their homes and forbidden by the British authorities to return.
8. Rebuilding Jewish Gaza
Jews soon returned to Gaza and established a kibbutz, or collective farm, there in 1946. They called it Kfar Darom, after an ancient Gazan Jewish town by that name. But Jewish life in Gaza was to be short-lived. In the United Nations’ proposed division of Mandatory Palestine, Gaza itself was divided between a proposed Arab state and Israel. Israel accepted the UN’s plan, but the Arab states did not, attacking Israel the moment it declared independence in 1948. In the bitter fighting that followed, Israel captured Gaza. In subsequent ceasefire negotiations, Israel gave Gaza to Egypt in return for control over the nearby cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon. At the same time, the Arab population of Gaza swelled as Palestinians moved to Gaza from the newly founded State of Israel.

Israel conquered Gaza once more during its 1956 war with Egypt, and once again gave the territory to Egypt. During the 1967 Six Day War, Israel once again conquered Gaza. In the 1970s, Jews began to return to Gaza once again: over the next thirty years, Jews built 21 new farms and towns in Gaza. Gaza became home to most of Israel’s organic farms and accounted for 15% of Israel’s overall agricultural output.
9. Making Gaza “Jew-Free”
For over a decade, Arabs and Jews lived and farmed side by side in Gaza. With the outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987, however, peaceful coexistence came to a halt. In the Oslo Accords of 1993 Israel promised to evacuate most of Gaza, giving way for it to be governed by the newly-formed Palestinian Authority. That peace agreement fell apart, however, and tensions continued to rise.
Jewish children at a greenhouse in the Gadid settlement a week before disengagement (Photo Tom Gross)
In 2005, after heavy political pressure from world leaders and domestically, Israel agreed to withdraw from all of Gaza and to force every Jew living there out of the territory. Gaza was to be entirely self-governed; Israel believed that by disengaging, they would be free of the terrorism and international opprobrium that governing Gaza had exposed them to.
Starting on August 17, 2005, Israel’s army moved in to remove all of Gaza’s Jews. The process was highly emotional and took a week. A total of 1,700 Jewish families left their farms and homes in Gaza. Knowing that Jewish graves would be desecrated, Israel’s chief rabbis ordered all Jewish cemeteries to be dug up and their bodies reburied in Israel. .
Before Gaza became entirely “Jew free,” American Jewish donors spent $14 million buying greenhouses from the Jewish farmers there and donated them to Gaza’s new Arab government. Former World Bank President James Wolfensohn even gave half a million of his own money to the scheme. Within moments of the final Jew leaving Gaza, however, the greenhouses were utterly destroyed, looted and smashed while Gaza’s police officers stood watching.
10. Violence Out of Gaza
Since 2005, anti-Jewish sentiment has swelled in Gaza. With the election of Hamas to govern the region in 2007, attacks on Israeli targets from Gaza increased. In the past 18 years, dozens of Israelis - as well as many Palestinians in Gaza and in areas under Palestinian Authority control - have been killed and injured by tens of thousands of rockets launched from Gaza. (Click here for a list of casualties preceding the October 7, 2023 attacks.) On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists entering Israel from Gaza perpetrated their worst massacre since the Holocaust, killing over 1,400 people and abducting over 220 prisoners.
The Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system (left) intercepts rockets fired by Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip toward southern Israel
Long a Jewish outpost, Gaza has also been the site of some of the most intense hatred against Jews throughout history. From the ancient Philistines, to antisemitic Greeks during the Hanukkah era, to fanatical Islamist resentment today, Gaza has been a place where Jews have been targeted - and yet have managed to survive and even triumph. May it be so again soon.

LATEST
5 BIG LIES ABOUT ISRAEL’S WAR WITH HAMAS

DR. YVETTE ALT MILLER
Facts, information and sources to help counter some of today’s most common smears.
We are being bombarded with inflammatory smears and misinformation about Israel’s war with Hamas. Here are five big lies about Israel, along with the facts to help you respond.

Lie #1: Israel is seeking revenge in Gaza.
Accusations that Israel is seeking “revenge” implies that Hamas no longer poses a threat to Israel and since Israel has nothing to gain by fighting the deadly terror group.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The October 7, 2023 attacks showed Hamas’s genocidal nature. Hamas is dedicated to Israel’s destruction and calls on Muslims to fight Jews in a worldwide jihad. On October 7, 2,500 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel via land, sea, and air. They raped, tortured and killed over 1,400 Israelis and kidnapped over 230 Israelis, including 30 babies. While these attacks were going on, Hamas launched nonstop barrages over 2,000 missiles into Israeli towns and cities. Hamas is prepared for a long fight, having amassed an army and built 500 km of bomb-resistant terror tunnels in the region.

Since October 7, Hamas has launched thousands of deadly missiles into Israel and continues to do so every day. Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beersheva, Ashkelon, Eilat, and Haifa have all been targeted. Israelis understand that they are in a war for their very survival. They’re fighting out of necessity, not revenge.

Lie #2: Israel rules Gaza.

A recent poll found that a majority of Americans between 18-24 erroneously believe that Israel, not Hamas, runs Gaza. Israel first conquered Gaza in the 1956 Suez Crisis with Egypt and returned the region in a negotiated settlement afterwards. Israel conquered Gaza once more in the 1967 Six Day War. Egypt relinquished its claim to Gaza in its 1978 peace treaty with Israel.

Israelis began settling in Gaza in the 1970s. For a time, relations between Jews and Arabs were peaceful in Gaza. With the start of the Intifada in 1987, this changed. Israel completely withdrew from Gaza in 2005, uprooting all Jews from the territory; even Jewish graves were removed. Gazans soon elected Hamas into office, and Hamas has governed Gaza ever since.

Lie #3: Gaza is an open air prison.
Gaza is not a “prison” in any sense. Both Israel and Egypt have land borders with Gaza and - given Hamas’ bloodthirsty terrorism - both nations insist on inspecting goods entering the Gaza region. (Israel alone inspects goods entering Gaza via sea.) Under the most recent rules, agreed in 2013, all non-military goods are allowed into Gaza. (This has been suspended since the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks.) In 2023, before the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, more goods entered Gaza than during the pre-blockade era.

In a prison, people can’t leave and certainly don’t return, yet both Egypt and Israel allow goods and people to enter and exit the territory. Before the Oct. 7 attacks, nearly 60,000 Gazans a month entered Israel for work purposes. Between January 1 and October 6, 2023, 113,234 people left Gaza for Egypt while 116,651 people entered Gaza from Egypt.

Huge numbers of Gazans have also emigrated in recent years, often heading to the USA, Europe, and Turkey. A Turkish news report published on Oct. 6, 2023 lamented the “mass emigration” of young men from Gaza. In fact, the report noted, the major factor in limiting the flow of Gazans moving abroad for work wasn’t Israeli or Egyptian blockades, but Hamas’ own bureaucracy, which slowed down the process of obtaining travel visas.

Besides the legal ways to move goods and people into and out of Gaza, Hamas has built a huge network of deep tunnels, used for smuggling illicit goods and transporting terrorists. Over the past decade - in a move that’s been almost entirely overlooked by the Western press - Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has demolished thousands of homes and farms along the border with Gaza, creating a “buffer zone” of no man’s land, designed to prevent Hamas from using tunnels to smuggle and attack.

The prison-like conditions that do exist in Gaza are due the fanaticism of Hamas. Residents are told what to wear, with whom to associate, what to think, and what they can say publicly. Women are forced to wear black hijabs and long black robes in public - even at the beach. Political opposition is banned, and gay rights are nonexistent. Those who transgress these draconian rules face torture, prison or death at the hands of Hamas officials.

Lie #4: Gaza is poor because of Israel.
Lie #5: Israel is committing war crimes in Gaz
READ MORE https://aish.com/5-big-lies-about-israels-war-with-gaza/?src=ac
https://aish.com/5-big-lies-about-israels-war-with-gaza/?src=ac

https://aish.com/why-the-from-the-river-to-sea-chant-is-antisemitic/
Why the "From the River to Sea" Chant Is Antisemitic/
by Kylie Ora Lobell
October 24, 2023
4 min read
During the Israel-Gaza war, you may have heard the phrase “from the river to the sea” being chanted. Learn why it’s not a freedom call – it’s straight up antisemitism.
Since the start of the Israel-Gaza War, sparked by the Hamas massacre of 1400 Israelis on October 7, along with 220 kidnapped, there have been a number of pro-Palestinian protests around the world. Many of the protestors have shouted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” may sound like an empowering chant, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find that it means something much more nefarious than presented.

Pro-Palestinian activists will say that “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” means that Palestinians will one day have their own state that would exist from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, the current location of Israel. These are the western and eastern borders. The chant means that the entire land of Israel will be ethnically cleansed of the Jewish population, and the Palestinian people would live there instead.
The chant denies the Jewish connection to Israel, which has existed since Biblical times. Jews have always lived in the land of Israel – in fact, its real name is “Judea.” “From the river to the sea” supports the expulsion, and even genocide, of Israel’s Jewish inhabitants. Additionally, it rejects a peaceful solution to the conflict, where Israel and Palestine could have a two-state solution and live side-by-side. It calls for the eradication of Israel in its entirety.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyrpWwftLbd/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=1f61258b-dc8b-4421-be0e-b79fadefb891
This phrase has been used for years and it’s gaining prominence once again. Is it an encouraging, optimistic phrase meant to signify the bright future for the Palestinian people? Or is it meant to tear down Israel and the Jewish People?
What Does “From the River to the Sea” Mean?
click the link above read the comments on the right
some misinformation others get what it is.

https://aish.com/14-facts-about-hamas-every-college-student-needs-to-know/?src=ac
14 FACTS ABOUT HAMAS EVERY COLLEGE STUDENT NEEDS TO KNOW
DR. YVETTE ALT MILLER
Arm yourself with these basic facts to combat disinformation.
Since carrying out brutal terror attacks in Israel on October 7, the terror group Hamas has been in the news constantly - both criticized and, in some corners of the internet, lionized by gullible and mistaken writers who overlook its brutal history and barbaric aims.
Here are 14 facts about Hamas that you need to know to understand the news and battle disinformation.
1. Hamas grew out of antisemitic Islamist movements.
Aish
Held Hostage: Four Faces
Hamas grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist movement that was founded in Egypt in 1928 by a hardline preacher named Hasan al-Banna. al-Banna was implacably opposed to a Jewish state. He admired Hitler and established outposts of his movement in Jordan and present-day Israel during World War II. In 1948, he told The New York Times: “If the Jewish state becomes a fact…the Arab peoples…will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea….”

An influential proponent of Muslim Brotherhood’s ideas was Ahmed Yassin, a popular preacher who spent most of his life in Gaza. He established a Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s and 1980s, getting arrested along the way for raising a private army and amassing a huge collection of arms. In 1987, he co-founded Hamas.

2. Hamas is Dedicated to Israel’s Destruction.
In Arabic, Hamas is an acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement”: Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya. (In Hebrew, the word hamas means violence.) From its start, Hamas lived up to both meanings, pledging to destroy all of Israel using all available means. Hamas’ charter calls for the violent destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamist government in all of Israel, Gaza, plus the areas governed by the Palestinian Authority.

3. Hamas Has Perpetuated Attacks on Israel Since the 1990s

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Hamas’ military wing - called the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades - has been attacking Israel since the 1990s. According to the US Government: “These attacks have included large-scale bombings against Israeli civilian targets, small-arms attacks, improvised roadside explosives, and rocket attacks. In 2021, for instance, Hamas launched over 4,000 missiles into Israel, causing over 300 casualties and 10 deaths.

4. Hamas’ Charter Calls for Genocide
Hamas’ Charter is filled with paranoid ranting about Jews and calls for Muslims to kill them. “Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people,” the Charter declares. It also quotes a Muslim injunction: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews. When the Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say O Muslims…there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him….” In Hamas’ eyes, Jews - not just Israelis - are an enemy to be eradicated.

Some commentators point to a 2017 Statement of General Principles and Policies as “proof” that Hamas became more moderate. In the midst of Arab-Israeli peace talks, Hamas’ new document accepted the possibility of a two-state agreement with Israel establishing an independent Palestinian State - but only as an interim step before Israel’s complete obliteration.

5. Hamas Was Voted into Power
There are two main Palestinian political parties: Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority and rules the West Bank, and Hamas, which governs Gaza.

Israel conquered the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt during the Six Day War of 1967. In 2005, under international pressure, Israel withdrew from Gaza, uprooting every Israeli and making sure the area was completely free of Jews. Even Jewish graves were relocated. Two years later, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza held local elections: Hamas won a clear majority of seats in both areas. The Fatah party ejected Hamas from the government in the West Bank, but the terror group tightened its grip on Gaza. There has never been another election in Gaza.

6. Hamas is a Designated Terrorist Organization
Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union (and 15 individual EU member states), Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

7. Hamas Kills and Oppresses Women, Gays, and Political Opponents
Women’s rights in Gaza are seriously constrained: women are barred from most Government positions, compelled to wear a black hijab in some public settings, and face widespread and pervasive state-sanctioned discrimination. Hamas’ charter declares that Muslim women are important only because they “manufacture men.” Amnesty International has documented Hamas’ tolerance honor killings.

Gaza’s Christian population declined precipitously under Hamas to only a few hundred today. The US Government has documented “individual killings, physical attacks and verbal harassment of worshippers and clergy, and vandalism of (Christian) religious sites” under Hamas. .

Human Rights Watch calls Hamas’ treatment of political prisoners “crimes against humanity.” They’ve documented widespread torture, imprisonment and murder of any Gazan who dares defy Hamas.

8. Hamas Uses its People as Human Shields
Hamas uses its own people as human shields, hiding military sites and targets in civilian areas. NATO calls Hamas’ actions a “war crime.” According to NATO, Hamas fires “rockets, artillery, and mortars from…heavily populated civilian areas, often from…facilities which should be protected according to the Geneva Convention (e.g. schools, hospitals, or mosques).” NATO also documented Hamas’ practice of locating military bases in civilian areas, prioritizing saving the lives of Hamas fighters over those of civilians, and forcing civilians to act as spies, often through blackmail.

9. Hamas is Funded by Billions of Dollars
Hamas-Generated Funds - Hamas collects approximately $144 million annually in taxes on goods entering Gaza from Egypt. It also controls a vast and secret network of companies with investments of half a billion dollars around the world. According to the United States’ Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, “Hamas moves funds through the smuggling of physical currency as well as a regional network of complicit money transmitters, exchange houses, and Hezbollah-affiliated banks,” allowing it to collect and invest money around much of the world with impunity.

Donations - Hamas receives a huge amount of donations: at least $100 million annually from Iran, $360 million - plus fuel - from Qatar, as much as $300 million annually from Turkey, plus donations from individual donors and charities around the world.

Theft of Aid. All this is on top of the aid money that flows into Gaza, much of which is stolen outright by Hamas. The UN spends about $600 million in Gaza annually, providing schools, medical care and food. Qatar has donated about $1.3 billion in aid money since 2012. The Palestinian Authority donates about $1.7 billion in aid money each year. Other countries, including Egypt and the United States, plus the European Union, also donate tens of millions of dollars for discreet aid projects. Most of this aid money winds up not aiding poor civilians, but in the pockets of Hamas’ officials.

10. Iran Trains Hamas’ Army
Besides funding, Iran provides Hamas with advanced weaponry, military training, cyber security, and expertise to manufacture military equipment inside Gaza. Hamas now maintains a naval commando unit and a standing 40,000-man army.

Since October 7, Iran has provided support for Hamas by using Hezbollah, another proxy army it controls, to bomb Israel from Lebanon. With two borders to defend, Israel has found its resources stretched and its population severely traumatized.

11. Hamas Built 500 km of Terror Tunnels - and No Bomb Shelters
Hamas used billions of dollars in aid money to build a network of 500 km - about 300 miles - of deep tunnels underneath Gaza and extending into Israel and Egypt. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, “Gaza tunnel entrances are hidden under houses, mosques and schools….” guaranteeing that any military assault on them will cause widespread casualties.

Tunnels are up to ten feet deep, reinforced with concrete and wired for ventilation, electricity and communication.

While Hamas leaders and fighters shelter in the tunnels, this huge underground network is off limits to ordinary Gazans. For Palestinian civilians used as human shields, there’s no protection during wartime: Hamas has built no bomb shelters in Gaza.

12. Hamas is Bombing Israel Daily - And 20% of Hamas Bombs Fall on Gaza
Hamas has regularly attacked Israel for years, sending mortars, rockets and incendiary devices into Israeli cities and towns. Since October 7, 2023, Hamas has launched missiles into Israel daily, aiming for major centers such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. 20% of Hamas’ missiles malfunction and fall within Gaza, causing casualties among the civilian population, as in the Al-Ahri Hospital, which was hit by a bomb launched by the Hamas-affiliated group Islamic Jihad on October 17, 2023.

13. Hamas’ Leaders are Protected, with Many Abroad
Hamas’ political chief is Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in Doha, Qatar. Several senior Hamas leaders live with their families in Turkey, where they’ve gained citizenship and run their own lucrative businesses. Muhammad Qassem Sawalha lives in a taxpayer-subsidized house in London, where he’s helped plan terror attacks and launder money to Hamas.

Saleh al-Arouri heads Hamas’ Lebanon office and lives in Lebanon, with homes in Qatar, Iran, and Turkey. Khaled Mashal, Hamas’ former leader, lives in Qatar and recently called on a global jihad against Jews. Khaled Qaddoumi is Hamas’ representative in Iran, Hamas’ chief backer in recent years.

High-level Hamas leaders actually living in Gaza include Gaza political leader Yahya Sinwar (who served 22 years in jail in Israel for arranging the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers), Issam al-Da’alis, who serves as a de facto prime minister in Gaza, and Marwan Issa and Mohammed Deif, who command Hamas’ military organization, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

14. Hamas is Admired in Much of the World
After Hamas’ horrific, brutal attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 that brutally murdered 1400 and kidnapped over 200, leaders in much of the Muslim world praised the attacks and Hamas. Leaders of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Lebanon complimented Hamas on the attacks. In the West, some groups - including individual chapters of the Democratic Socialists for America and independent chapters of Black Lives Matter - spoke warmly of Hamas’ attacks. The leaders of a recent 100,000 strong pro-Palestinian march in the center of London have ties to Hamas, yet their march was allowed to go ahead.

Actions We Can Take
We all can help weaken Hamas. Urge your elected representatives to impose tough financial sanctions on Hamas. Call your representatives today and ask them to support steps that aggressively shut down charities and businesses shown to have Hamas ties.

Push for stronger Iranian sanctions. As Hamas’ greatest backer, a stronger Iran means a stronger Hamas. The United States has been leading the way, imposing sanctions on people and companies with ties to Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programs. It’s crucial that we don’t let up the pressure, and that more countries crack down on firms that do business with Iran.

The global conventional arms embargo on Iran expired on October 18, 2023. The United States is attempting to gain backing for a snapback provision in the United Nations, which would allow a permanent reimposition of sanctions without the resolution going to a vote in the Security Council (which Russia and China would prevent passing). Urge your representatives to support snapback, ensuring that Iran doesn’t gain access to even more military goods.

Finally, speak up. Educate yourself about the war between Israel and Hamas (and Hezbollah). Blog about it. Post on social media, drawing attention to the danger Hamas poses. Fill people in on what’s at stake. Become a foot soldier in the war of public opinion now, during Israel’s hour of need.

LATEST
HELD HOSTAGE: FOUR FACES
SUSAN HORNIK
At least 210 hostages are being held by Hamas in Gaza. Don’t forget them. Here are a few of their stories.
READ MORE https://aish.com/held-hostage-four-faces/?src=ac

10 Facts Every College Student Needs to Know about Israel
https://aish.com/
by Elliot Mathias
October 22, 2023
Basic facts you need to know to combat the disinformation and outright lies about the situation in Israel.
The disinformation, confusion, and outright lies about the situation in Israel is pervasive. I worked with students for 17 years on university campuses helping them educate and advocate for Israel, and the accusations and claims we are hearing today on campus, on social media, and beyond, is nothing new. The specific circumstances might be current, but the claims against Israel are not.

Here are 10 facts that every college student (and others) should know.
Aish
Campus Wars: Supporters of Hamas vs Brave Jewish Students
1. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Israel is fighting against Hamas, a terrorist organization with a similar Islamist worldview as Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Hezbollah. Their charter1 calls for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews. They believe that the Land of Israel is Muslim land that only Muslims can control. They have no interest in negotiations, compromise or peace settlements.

2. Israel is not “occupying” Gaza. Israel fully left the Gaza Strip, which Hamas controls, in 2005. Israel removed 8,000 civilians and all military presence there. Immediately after Israel left Gaza, Hamas and other terrorist organizations began shooting rockets at Israel. If the reason for this conflict is Israel’s “occupation” of Gaza, why has Hamas continued to attack since Israel left?

3. Israel’s blockade is to prevent terrorism. Many people cite Israel’s blockade of Gaza since 2005 as causing the conflict. Israel has only blockaded Gaza to prevent materials that could be used for terrorism from entering. Israel has continued to provide electricity, water, fuel, and other necessities, even while being attacked repeatedly by Hamas rockets. Additionally, approximately 15,000 Palestinians from Gaza were permitted to enter and work in Israel in 2022. Israel has intensified their blockade since the Hamas terror attack on October 7th to prevent any materials from reaching Hamas. On October 21st, Israel agreed to allow humanitarian aid to enter through Egypt.

4. Israel is attacking terrorists, not civilians. The accusation that Israel is “indiscriminately” targeting Palestinian civilians is a lie. Israel has urged Palestinian civilians to leave the conflict zone. Sadly, Hamas has told Palestinians not to leave and the terrorists hide behind and literally under civilian locations. Israel is allowed under international law to attack military targets even if civilians will be hurt or killed, as long as there is a legitimate and necessary military objective. Destroying Hamas terrorists and strongholds is legitimate and necessary. It is horrific and disturbing that Hamas hides behind their civilians. Their death is the fault and intention of Hamas, not Israel.

5. There is a clear moral difference between Israel and Hamas. Israel is protecting Israeli civilians and doing all they can to avoid harm to Palestinian civilians. Hamas targets Israeli civilians and hides behind their own civilians, causing their death and harm.

6. Israel is the indigenous people in this land. Many claim the root of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is that Israel is a foreign, colonialist power that has come and taken the land from the indigenous Palestinian population. In fact, the Jews are the indigenous population. There has been a continued presence of Jews in the Land of Israel for over 3800 years. Even when the vast majority of Jews were exiled from their homeland by the Romans, there still remained a population of Jews in the Land of Israel. This doesn’t mean that Arabs or others can’t also live in the Land of Israel or don’t have a history there. But it does mean that Jews have just as much, if not more of a connection and right to the Land of Israel.

7. Israel has made many attempts at peace. Anyone who tries to justify Hamas terrorism by claiming they are "fighting Israeli oppression" is ignoring Israel's multiple attempts to give the Palestinians independence. In addition to the previously mentioned complete Israeli evacuation of Gaza, Israel has had many other attempts at reconciliation. In 1947, the United Nations created a partition plan to divide the Land of Israel into two countries – one Jewish and one Arab. The Jews accepted and the Arabs rejected the compromise.

If Israel put down their arms tomorrow, there would be no Israel; if the Palestinians put down their arms, there would be peace.

In the 1990's Israel engaged in the Oslo Accords to create Palestinian independence but continuous terrorist attacks by Hamas derailed the process. In 2000 at the Camp David talks, Israel agreed to give the Palestinians 97% of the land they desired, and the Palestinians rejected it. The bottom line – if Israel put down their arms tomorrow, there would be no Israel; if the Palestinians put down their arms, there would be peace.

8. This has nothing to do with race. Many claim Israel is a "racist" or "apartheid" country. Israel's population is 20% non-Jewish, the majority of which are Arab Muslims. These Arabs have Israeli citizenship and full access to and participation in Israel's democracy, as well as full freedom to practice their religion. Palestinians don't have the same rights as Israelis – not because they are Arabs or Muslims – as the fact that Israeli Arabs do have these rights. The reason they don't have the same rights is that they are not Israeli citizens. Just as a Canadian doesn't have the same rights as an American citizen when visiting the USA, so too the Palestinians don't have the same rights as Israelis. The conflict has nothing to do with race or religion – it's about Hamas' desire to destroy Israel.

9. All loss of innocent life is horrible, but there is no genocide happening in Gaza. Israel haters claim Israel is committing a "genocide". Since the Hamas terrorist attack killed over 1,400 Israelis, over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed (as of Oct 21). Again, the loss of any innocent life is terrible, but genocide is the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group. Israel is trying to destroy Hamas – not Palestinians. That distinction must be made clear.

10. Now is not the time for a cease-fire. Some well-meaning voices are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. While no one wants to see innocent people killed, a cease fire would leave Hamas in power and a threat to continue their deadly attacks against Israel. Israel must be given the ability to destroy Hamas to ensure it can no longer attack Israeli civilians. This ultimately will save the most innocent lives in the long run.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp

I AM A QUIET AMERICAN JEW
HEATHER LIBMAN KAFETZ
I am not religious, I never publicly display my love for Judaism or Israel. But something is awakening inside of me.
I have always been a quiet American Jew. I am not religious. I am not kosher. My children do not go to a Jewish day school, and I do not go to synagogue on most Shabbats. Instead, I quietly celebrate the high holidays, quietly respond “thank you” when a stranger wishes me a Merry Christmas at Hanukah time, quietly pray to God when I am really desperate and quietly thank God for all of the blessings in my life.

I quietly try to instill a love of Judaism in my children, while quietly hoping that they will gain this love without putting in much effort. And certainly, I never publicly declare or display my love of Judaism or Israel, because, after all, I am just a quiet American Jew.
So why is a quiet American Jew so deeply affected by the atrocities in Israel? Why is the pain of a quiet American Jew so deep? Am I even entitled to feel so heartbroken or to express my anger and frustration when I am just a quiet American Jew?

Something has awakened inside of me. A profound love and connection to my people, to my brothers and sisters in Israel.

I don’t know that I can articulate the answers to these questions, as the answers are deeply rooted in the fabric of every Jew. Of course, as a human being, the horrors committed upon the Jewish people should elicit heartbreak and outrage in any decent person. Surely, if a quiet American Jew can recognize this, everyone should, right?

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