Remembrance to Independence – From Siren to Celebration

 

From Memory to Miracle As Yom Hazikaron gives way to Yom Ha’atzmaut, the Jewish heart moves through one of the holiest passages in our calendar. Tonight, we do not move from sorrow to joy because the sorrow is over. We move from sorrow to joy because the sorrow made the joy possible. We remember those who gave their lives so that the Jewish people could live free in our ancestral homeland, defend ourselves in our own language, raise our children under our own flag, and stand among the nations not as wanderers at their mercy, but as a sovereign people restored to history. Yom Hazikaron asks something sacred of us. It asks us to remember that Israel was not born in theory. It was born in sacrifice. It was built by men and women who understood that Jewish survival could no longer depend on the goodwill of others. It would require courage, responsibility, and a willingness to bear the burden of freedom. And then comes Yom Ha’atzmaut. Seventy-eight years. Seventy-eight years of Jewish sovereignty after exile, persecution, dispersion, and catastrophe. Seventy-eight years of reviving an ancient language, rebuilding a nation, defending a homeland, gathering exiles, cultivating the desert, creating beauty, producing wisdom, and proving to the world that the Jewish people did not return to history to disappear from it again. That is not merely politics. That is not merely statecraft. It is something close to a miracle. And yet this year, we do not mark the miracle lightly. We do so in the long shadow of October 7. We do so after a year in which Israelis and Jews everywhere were forced to remember, once again, that freedom is never self-sustaining. We do so under the shadow of war with Iran, with uncertainty still hanging in the air and the possibility that the ceasefire may not hold. We do so knowing that the threats around us have not disappeared, and that the burden of vigilance remains. But if the past year has reminded us of danger, it has also reminded us of something else: the depth of Jewish courage. It has reminded us that there are still young men and women willing to stand between our people and those who would destroy us. It has reminded us that the State of Israel is not an abstraction. It is a living covenant of responsibility between generations. It is the promise that Jewish blood will not be abandoned again. It is the answer our grandparents prayed for—and the answer our children will one day judge us by. This is why we must hold both days together. Without Yom Hazikaron, Yom Ha’atzmaut becomes shallow. Without Yom Ha’atzmaut, Yom Hazikaron becomes unbearable. One tells us what was paid; the other tells us why it was worth paying. One sanctifies memory; the other sanctifies purpose. So tonight, as we remember the fallen and celebrate the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty, let us do so with humility, gratitude, and resolve. Let us honor the memory of those who gave everything not only with tears, but with the kind of Jewish future worthy of their sacrifice. Let us build a stronger Israel. Let us build a prouder Jewish people. Let us build children who know who they are, where they come from, and what this flag has cost. Let us never again take sovereignty for granted. And let us never forget that the existence of Israel, after everything, remains one of the most extraordinary chapters in the story of our people. May the memories of Israel’s fallen be a blessing. May the wounded find healing. May Israel’s defenders be protected. And may the State of Israel continue to stand, to thrive, and to shine as a sign that the Jewish story is not over. Am Yisrael Chai. Happy Yom Ha’atzmaut!

With gratitude and hope,    Adam Scott Bellos    Founder & CEO, The Israel Innovation Fund

Perhaps Someone Can "Read" This Article To The Rabbinical Medical Geniuses In Lakewood, New Jersey, Philadelphia & Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

 

Measles Took My Daughter. This Is What I Want Everyone to Know.

A photo illustration based on a photograph of Renae Walker that was provided by the author, her mother, Rebecca Archer

By Rebecca Archer

Ms. Archer is a mother in Salford, England. Her daughter Renae died of a complication of measles in 2023.

Leer en español

When my daughter Renae, my firstborn, was 5 months old she spiked a fever. By that evening, she was having trouble breathing — the color was gone from her face and I could see her skin tugging in around her ribs. At the hospital the doctors noted the red spots on her body and diagnosed her with measles.

This was 2013, and Manchester, England, where we lived, was experiencing a measles outbreak that resulted in more than 1,000 suspected cases. A 1998 study by a British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism had caused vaccination rates to plummet. The study was later retracted and Mr. Wakefield stripped of his medical license, but the damage had been done. In 2013, most of the cases were among school-age children whose parents had refused to give them the vaccine, which is not compulsory in Britain, or among babies too young to be vaccinated, like my daughter. (The first measles vaccine is usually given at 1 year of age.)

While I was concerned about Renae, I wasn’t panicked by the diagnosis. At the time, I thought of measles as being like chickenpox. And I knew she was in the right place, in the hospital. Doctors were able to stabilize her breathing quickly, and her fever was responding to Tylenol. Renae would feel poorly for a bit, and then get better.

Renae when she was 3 years old.Credit...via Rebecca Archer

And that’s what happened. Within a week she seemed back to normal. What I didn’t know was that measles can cause long-term complications. A child can seem fine while the virus slowly replicates in her brain, poised to exact a terrible toll years later. Because both Britain and the United States are confronting outbreaks, I am sharing my story. Parents should know just how dangerous this disease is.

Renae was a happy and bubbly child. She was early to talk, and speaking in full sentences well before she turned 2. She could write her name at 3. When she was 8, she was so proud when she brought home her report card, which said she read at the level of a teenager. She loved arts and crafts and books — every day after school she’d ask me to read with her. She squabbled with her two younger siblings and also adored them. You could never really scold Renae because if you did, she’d just find a way to make you laugh.

It was in the spring and summer of 2023, when Renae was 10, and I was pregnant with my fourth child, that we got the first hints that something might be wrong.

Renae’s handwriting, which had always been exceptionally neat, got a bit wobbly. Renae was never an athletic kid, but when I attended her school’s Sports Day, she wasn’t participating at all. She seemed a bit off balance. She was growing up quickly. She had just started her period. The school had called to say she was holding hands with a boy in her class. So when her personality changed and she became more snappish, I didn’t think much of it at first. She was excited about the new baby, helping set up the nursery.

In mid-June, I got a call from her teacher. Renae had had a seizure — could I come straightaway? By the time we got her to the hospital, she was pretty much back to herself. “Oh, my God, did it happen at school!?” she asked, mortified. We were referred to an epilepsy clinic.

A week after that, she had another seizure. And then several days later, while lying in bed with a friend, another one. She was admitted to the hospital, where she received an M.R.I. that showed mild brain swelling. The doctors told us that this can happen sometimes, that maybe she had a recent infection, and it often resolves on its own. They started her on an anti-seizure medication and, since it seemed that she was getting better, released her.

The author and Renae.Credit...via Rebecca Archer

But toward the end of the summer, she told us she saw things that weren’t there. I wondered if it could be a side effect of the medication, but she had also started moving very slowly, almost robotically, and often seemed confused. We took her back to the hospital, where another M.R.I. showed the swelling in her brain had become much worse.

The doctors put her on an antibiotic drip. They did lumbar punctures, collecting cerebrospinal fluid from between her vertebrae. They hooked her to a machine that took the blood out of her body, cleaned it, and put it back in.

She was rapidly slipping away. The nurses tested her strength each day, and each day she was getting weaker. I remember giving her a bath. She said, “Mom, get in.” So I did, and I brushed her hair. When she tried to get out, she fell. After that, we started using a wheelchair.

Renae would ask me, “What could it be?” I told her once the doctors figured it out, they could make her better. Her voice got weaker and she started sleeping more and more.

Within a couple weeks, Renae had stopped talking and eating. Her last food was cotton candy and an Oreo doughnut, which she always loved. She was transferred to the intensive care unit and given a breathing tube. Though she couldn’t speak to me, she still squeezed my hand when I talked to her. I worried she could overhear us talking about her condition, and wondered how scared and confused she must be.

We got the diagnosis when one of the tests of her spinal fluid had come back from London. Renae had subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a rare complication of measles. The doctors told me it was fatal, and there was nothing else they could do.

I ran outside onto the hospital grounds and sat on a bench. I looked down and at my feet was a stone that said, “Keep smiling” — it’s a phrase Renae used to say to me.

Not long after, one of the doctors got on his knees and held my hands and told me that, with all the stress, he was worried about the health of the baby I was carrying. I was 38 weeks pregnant. The C-section was a blur. The doctors told me to rest, but I said, “No, I’m going back to Renae.” My sister took care of my newborn, the little sister Renae had been so excited to meet.

That last weekend in the hospital, watching Renae die, was so traumatic. I told the doctors that I didn’t want them to continue the treatments. I could tell Renae was in distress, and I just wanted her to be at peace. We turned off the machines on a Friday. My family and I stayed in the room that weekend. On Monday morning, Sept. 25, 2023, Renae took her last breath. It was nine days before her 11th birthday.

Renae in the intensive care unit due to complications from measles.Credit...via Rebecca Archer

In January of this year, Britain lost its measles elimination status. Our national M.M.R. vaccination rate hovers at 84 percent, far below the 95 percent target set by the World Health Organization.

In the United States, where schoolchildren are required to be vaccinated against measles, the national vaccination rate is 92 percent. Many states also allow for exemptions to vaccine requirements, and as a result, U.S. vaccination rates are uneven. Last year, the United States saw its highest rate of measles cases in more than three decades and the country may soon lose its measles elimination status as well. Despite this, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he doesn’t think the government should be mandating vaccines, and that they should be a matter of personal choice.

Parents must realize that refusing vaccinations doesn’t just put your own child at risk. It puts other children at risk. I don’t know where Renae picked up measles. It’s one of the most contagious viruses that exists, and it could have been from anywhere.

That’s why herd immunity is so important. If there hadn’t been an outbreak when Renae was a baby, I don’t think she would have contracted it. She was eligible for the vaccine just seven months later, and I gave it to her, but it was too late.

For a long time after Renae died, I couldn’t really believe she wasn’t coming back. It’s only been in these past several months that it’s started to really sink in. I have days that I don’t want to see anyone, but I try to stay strong for everyone else, including my children who are now 8, 5 and 2. The youngest, who was born less than two weeks before Renae’s death, has glasses just like her older sister and many of her mannerisms.

It’s hard to tell Renae’s story, but I can hear her saying, “Go on, Mom.” It’s the only thing I can do.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/opinion/measles-child-britain-vaccination.html

 

 

There is a certain tragic comedy in watching a self-proclaimed master negotiator reveal, move by move, that he needs the deal more than the deal needs him.

I'm writing this on Monday morning, April 20 at 30,000 feet. Donald Trump sent his messengers to Pakistan without knowing if Iran shows up. There is no better way of describing and gauging this man's weakness, than realizing "my pilot" may be mentally impaired after a night of boozing it up on Truth Social.

Donald Trump approaches Iran like a man pounding on a locked door and then announcing to the neighborhood that he is being invited in. He dispatches envoys to Pakistan, sets the stage, whispers about negotiations—and Iran has not even agreed to show up. This is not choreography; it is improvisation bordering on desperation. In the Middle East, where perception is currency and hesitation is weakness, you do not signal eagerness unless you are prepared to be toyed with. And yet here we are: America leaning forward, Iran leaning back, and the world taking notes.

There is a certain tragic comedy in watching a self-proclaimed master negotiator reveal, move by move, that he needs the deal more than the deal needs him. The strong man does not chase the meeting; the strong man sets the terms and lets others come running. But this—this is something else entirely. This is the language of urgency masquerading as strategy. It is the quiet confession that time matters more than outcome, that optics matter more than substance, that the photograph at the signing table is worth more than the fine print no one will read.

That is why this feels so familiar, and so cheap. He is not asking whether the deal is good for America in any serious, durable sense. He is asking whether it is good enough for him. Good enough to postpone trouble. Good enough to claim he “solved” something. Good enough to get through the next stretch of his political calendar with the cameras still pointed his way.

And that is the part that gives the game away. This is not the posture of a man calmly directing events. It is the posture of a man who needs a deal, any deal, preferably one he can wrap in a flag, hold up to the cameras, and sell as proof that he is still the indispensable strongman. The problem is that weakness has a smell to it. Everybody in the room can detect when a leader is not pursuing peace because it serves the country, but because he wants the headline, the leverage, and the temporary illusion of control. That is what this looks like: not strategy first, but ego first.

Strip away the slogans, and the motive begins to flicker into view. Not history, not stability, not even victory in any meaningful sense—but survival. Political survival. Narrative survival. The kind of survival that demands a headline today and worries about consequences tomorrow. January 20, 2028 sits on the horizon like a finish line, and every decision bends toward it. If a deal can be branded as “historic,” it will be. If a handshake can be sold as strength, it will be. Whether it holds, whether it restrains, whether it actually serves the country—that becomes secondary, almost irrelevant.

And that is the deeper problem. A leader who treats diplomacy as theater eventually becomes captive to the performance. He must keep producing climaxes, keep manufacturing tension, keep resolving crises he helped inflate. The audience must never grow bored. But nations are not audiences, and adversaries are not props. They see the hunger behind the curtain. They see the need. And when they see it, they exploit it.

So what we are witnessing is not merely a policy misstep; it is a posture. A posture of a man who cannot afford to walk away, and therefore cannot truly negotiate. He is not holding the line—he is hoping the line holds long enough for him to declare it victory. And hope, in the realm of power, is not strategy. It is surrender dancing America's interests away.

 

REPUBLISHED

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/trump-sounds-like-a-man-begging-iran-to-cooperate-so-he-can-declare-victory/

This is not “Jewish paranoia”

Trump tells Israel to hold its fire on terrorists on their northern border, and suddenly everyone is expected to treat that as a normal act of statesmanship. Maybe it is. Maybe it is not. But the first question any sane person asks is simple: why is Washington always so quick to put a leash on the Jewish state, and so mysteriously reluctant to put one on the world’s actual aggressors?

Because let us not pretend these things are morally symmetrical. If Israel is told not to hit Lebanon, the language is “restraint,” “stability,” and “avoiding escalation.” If Russia bombs Ukraine, nobody says, “Well, perhaps Vladimir Putin should be given a little space to express himself.” The West roars, sanctions, arms Ukraine, freezes assets, and calls Putin what he is: a thug. The difference is not subtle. It is the whole story.

So no, this is not “Jewish paranoia.” That phrase is usually tossed around by people who want Jews to doubt their own eyes. The instinct here is not paranoia. It is memory. Jews have a long history of being told to trust the goodwill of powerful outsiders right up until the moment that goodwill evaporates. A Jew who asks whether pressure on Israel is really pressure on Israel, or just another demand that Jews absorb danger quietly, is not being irrational. He is paying attention.

And there is another embarrassment in all of this. America does not actually “prohibit” Israel from doing much of anything. It can threaten, postpone, condition, discourage, and complain. But prohibit? That is the language of a master speaking to a subordinate. If Trump believes he can dictate Israeli military choices with a phone call and a scowl, that says something not only about his temperament, but about how Washington sees Israel: not as an ally, but as a client that is allowed to defend itself only when it does so in a manner approved by the State Department and the cable news crowd.

That is the central insult. Israel is expected to fight like a democracy, behave like a saint, absorb attacks like a monk, and still be judged as though it had failed the exam if it does not smile while doing it. Meanwhile, other regimes can massacre, invade, and terrorize, and the moral lecture is always reserved for Jerusalem.

So the comparison with Russia is not a distraction. It is the point. America does not “prohibit” Moscow from bombing Ukraine because America is not in the business of managing Russian moral convenience. It opposes Russia. It punishes Russia. It arms the victims of Russia. With Israel, the relationship is always more complicated, more conditional, more patronizing, and more prone to the old favorite: “We support your right to self-defense, but not that self-defense.”

That is why the question lands so hard. Not because Jews are paranoid, but because history teaches Jews that when a great power starts talking about what the Jews may or may not do to survive, it is wise to ask what exactly the great power is protecting. Peace? Or its own comfort?

And there is the final irony. When Jews object to this double standard, they are told they are overreacting. When they stay silent, they are told they accepted it. There is, apparently, no perfectly polite way to notice that the rules change the moment Jews are the ones under attack.

 

REPUBLISHED

 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/this-is-not-jewish-paranoia/

Mr. Eastman under the instruction of Donald Trump had concocted a legal strategy to put forward fake electors for Mr. Trump in several swing states that the candidate had lost in order to have Congress block or delay certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021

 

Lawyer John Eastman Disbarred for Efforts to Overturn 2020 Election - His Client Becomes President of the U.S.A.

 

The California Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision that said Mr. Eastman, had violated the rules of professional ethics.

John Eastman has defended his actions, and one of his lawyers said he would explore his options at the U.S. Supreme Court

 

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the lawyer John Eastman disbarred for his role in seeking to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Eastman had concocted a legal strategy to put forward fake electors for Mr. Trump in several swing states that the candidate had lost in order to have Congress block or delay certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021.

He also promoted what a lower court judge called a “wild theory” that Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, could unilaterally declare Mr. Trump the victor during a certification proceeding that day. Since then, Mr. Eastman has insisted that the 2020 election was stolen, that he did nothing wrong and that he was simply representing Mr. Trump.

On Wednesday, the court ordered Mr. Eastman’s name “stricken from the roll of attorneys.” He was also asked to pay $5,000 to the State Bar of California.

In a statement, George Cardona, chief trial counsel for the State Bar of California, said the court’s decision “affirms the fundamental principle that attorneys must act with honesty and uphold the rule of law.”

“The Court’s order underscores that Mr. Eastman’s misconduct was incompatible with the standards of integrity required of every California attorney,” he added.

Randall Miller, a lawyer representing Mr. Eastman, said he and Mr. Eastman disagree with the decision because it “raises pivotal constitutional concerns regarding the limits of state regulation of attorney speech.” He added that he plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court “to repudiate this threat to the rule of law and our nation’s adversarial system of justice.”

In March 2024, a California judge recommended that Mr. Eastman be stripped of his law license, finding that he had violated professional ethics rules by making false statements about the 2020 election.

In her ruling, the judge, Yvette Roland, said Mr. Eastman had “exhibited gross negligence by making false statements about the 2020 election without conducting any meaningful investigation or verification of the information he was relying upon.”

Since then, Mr. Eastman had been suspended from practicing law in California as his case went through the appeal process. His license was also suspended in Washington, D.C., in a separate proceeding.

Bar officials across the country have been trying to seek accountability against a group of lawyers, among them Mr. Eastman, who pushed false claims of election fraud and tried to help Mr. Trump stay in office after he lost the 2020 election.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, another lawyer who helped Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse his electoral defeat, was disbarred in New York in 2024. Later that year, he lost his license in Washington, D.C., as well.

Another lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, was recommended for disbarment last year by a Washington disciplinary board. He has appealed the recommendation.

On Wednesday, Mr. Clark called the California court’s ruling in Mr. Eastman’s case “a travesty” and said he is hopeful the Supreme Court reverses the decision.

Mr. Trump last year issued a sweeping federal pardon for several lawyers involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but they were largely symbolic, since those people were not facing federal charges. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/us/john-eastman-disbarred-2020-election.html?

 

 

How goes the war? Very, very, very well indeed though danger still lurks...Mark Dubowitz...A Brilliant & Dedicated Jew whose name ends with "WITZ"

 

Rich Goldberg : Just how well the embargo on Iran is working? Note The Seforim Behind Him....Tucker Carlson Would Agree: Goldberg Knows Money

 

Two Jews (JINO) and A Gentile Walk Into a Hotel Conference Room In Pakistan On Shabbos!

 

 “Look at this! They flew halfway around the world to sit in a room with no windows—so nobody can see nothing is happening!”

“So I’m reading about these negotiations—big important meeting, hotel conference room, very serious. You ever notice, the more serious the meeting, the worse the coffee? This is how you know nothing’s getting solved!

Three Americans walk in, very confident—very confident. They got charts, graphs, bullet points. Bullet points! Like the other side is gonna say, ‘Oh! Number three! We didn’t think of number three! Let’s change 40 years of policy!’

Across the table, you got negotiators who’ve been negotiating since before these guys knew how to negotiate with their parents for a later curfew. These people invented patience. They sit there, they nod, they smile—meanwhile they’re thinking, ‘This guy flew 8,000 miles to tell me what I already decided not to do!’

And then at the end—this is my favorite part—they come out and say, ‘The talks were productive.’ Productive?! Nobody agreed on anything! In regular life, if nothing happens, you don’t call it productive—you call it a Pesach Seder with your relatives!

And the discussion goes on for hours. Hours! You ever sit in a meeting that long? After 20 minutes, you’re not negotiating anymore, you’re just trying to remember your own name. But here, they keep going. Why? Because nobody wants to be the first one to say, “This is going nowhere.” In diplomacy, going nowhere—this is somewhere! This is progress-adjacent!

“Look at this! They’ve got charts! Charts! Like the other side is waiting all these years—‘If only somebody would bring a chart, we’d change everything!’”

But here’s the genius of it—this is the part that really kills me—everybody’s happy! Nobody agreed, nobody changed, nobody even looked surprised, and still they say it was a success. Why? Because nobody walked out. That’s the bar! You don’t storm out, you’re a hero! In any other job, this is not success. Imagine a pilot: “Good news, folks—we didn’t take off, but nobody panicked!” You’re not flying with that guy again!

Then comes my favorite part: the official statement. This is where language goes to lie down and take a nap. A guy comes out, very serious, and says, “The talks were constructive.” Constructive?! What did they build, a sandwich? Nothing happened! In regular life, if nothing happens, you don’t call it constructive—you call it a Tuesday! 

“Constructive! I go to a contractor, he does nothing—I don’t say ‘very constructive!’ I say ‘Where’s my kitchen?!’”

Across the table, you’ve got negotiators who look like they’ve been sitting there since the room was built. Calm, patient, not impressed. These are people who understand something very important: if you wait long enough, the other guy will start negotiating with himself. They don’t interrupt. They don’t argue. They nod in a way that says, “I hear you… and I will remember none of it.” It’s not rudeness—it’s strategy with excellent posture.

Into this masterpiece of blandness walk the delegations. The Americans arrive like they’re about to fix a group project that’s been going badly since 1979. They’ve got binders, folders, tabs—tabs on the tabs! You ever see this? Tabs! Like the other side is gonna say, “Oh! Section 4B—this changes everything! Why didn’t you say so sooner?!” There’s this unstoppable confidence, the kind that only comes from believing that if you just explain things clearly enough, history will apologize and straighten itself out.

The Americans present their plan. It’s got phases. You need phases! Phase One, Phase Two—by Phase Three, everybody’s friends, there’s maybe a handshake, somebody orders better coffee. It’s beautiful. It’s also completely fictional. Because on the other side, they’re thinking, “This is very nice. We will now take this plan and put it in a very safe place… where all the other plans are… forever.”

I’m telling you, diplomacy is the only job where if you accomplish nothing, everybody keeps their job—and writes a book about it later!” “They came, they talked, they accomplished nothing—and they’re proud! You gotta admire it.

 

 

REPUBLISHED

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/two-jews-and-a-gentile-walk-into-a-hotel-conference-room-in-pakistan-on-shabbos/

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The best Orthodox Jewish blogs curated and ranked based on multiple factors, including content relevancy, subject expertise, posting frequency, and freshness of content. Blogs with highest credibility within the Orthodox Jewish space are ranked higher. This list is updated regularly to ensure it reflects the most active, influential, and valuable Orthodox Jewish blogs on the internet today. https://bloggers.feedspot.com/orthodox_jewish_blogs/

*A Little Slow Mr. President* "Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz."

 

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

So, there you have it, the meeting went well, most points were agreed to, but the only point that really mattered, NUCLEAR, was not. Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz. At some point, we will reach an “ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT” basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, “There may be a mine out there somewhere,” that nobody knows about but them. THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted. I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits. Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL! Iran knows, better than anyone, how to END this situation which has already devastated their Country. Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti Aircraft and Radar are useless, Khamenei, and most of their “Leaders,” are dead, all because of their Nuclear ambition. The Blockade will begin shortly. Other Countries will be involved with this Blockade. Iran will not be allowed to profit off this Illegal Act of EXTORTION. They want money and, more importantly, they want Nuclear. Additionally and, at an appropriate moment, we are fully “LOCKED AND LOADED,” and our Military will finish up the little that is left of Iran! President DONALD J. TRUMP

 

Donald Trump: If You Had Any Guts....and Sechel...

 

Donald Trump: Send American Tankers to The Strait of Hormuz and Block it to everyone:

Two ships from Iran’s shipping line IRISL — Shabdis and Berzin have departed from Gaolan Port in China, and it is being claimed that they may be carrying chemicals that can later be used to produce rocket and missile fuel. However, these ships leaving China will have to pass through the same region of the Indian Ocean where, on March 4, 2026, a US submarine sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena.

In such a situation, if the United States attempts to stop this supply coming from China, the challenge will directly involve China. If that happens, China could completely halt the supply of rare earth minerals,  which would make it almost impossible for the US to manufacture intercepting missiles and all the world depends on for our current technological structure of energy, water, satellites...etc. In other words, no matter what happens, China is positioned to benefit either way. A global Depression in the making!

So Mr. Trump, if you had any guts, you would stop speaking like a man auditioning for the history books and start acting like one. The Strait of Hormuz is not some reality show talking point. It is the world’s pressure point, the narrow throat through which the global oil economy gulps for air. If Iran wants to strangle the region, threaten shipping, and play pirate with a modern state’s toys, then the answer cannot be another carefully worded statement, another tremble of “concern,” another little choreography of restraint for the benefit of diplomats who mistake caution for strength.

Send the American tankers. Block the straits to all traffic. Let them sail straight toward that choke point, and block it! Make the message impossible to misunderstand: this passage does not belong to Tehran, and it does not belong to any regime that thinks terror gives it ownership of international waters. Sometimes deterrence is not a memo. Sometimes it is a steel hull in the water, a flat refusal to blink, and a demonstration that America still understands how to draw a line and mean it. A civilization that cannot protect a sea lane is a civilization already rehearsing its own decline.

And let us be honest about the language of “escalation,” that favorite word of the timid. The same people who panic at the thought of resolve always seem strangely calm when tyrants, militias, and clerics are the ones escalating. They love tension when it is inflicted on everyone else. They call aggression “strategy” when it comes from the enemy, and call strength “provocation” when it comes from us. That is not prudence. That is surrender wearing a red necktie.

The point is not recklessness. The point is clarity. If the world keeps rewarding threats from Iran with patience, then Iran learns patience is weakness. If the West keeps answering force with lectures, then the mullahs will keep betting that nobody has the nerve to stop them. A nation that can move ships, protect lanes, and enforce consequences is a nation that still has a spine. A nation that cannot is just a press release with a flag on it.

So yes, Mr. Trump, the message should be simple: American power is not decorative, and the Strait of Hormuz is not up for negotiation by gangsters in turbans pretending to be statesmen. If you mean what you say, then act like it. History does not remember the cautious. It remembers the ones who had the nerve to move first and make the world adjust.

And when you're not mouthing off about some drunken nonsense, remember if America does not get the Iranians 1000 pounds of nuclear enriched uranium, your children and grandchildren lives will be endangered along with the entire planet's children, much sooner than you can imagine.

 

REPUBLISHED

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/donald-trump-if-you-had-any-guts-and-sechel/

“Excuse me Mr. President, could you start a regional conflict before lunch?”

 

A Gentile watches a war and says, “This is very complicated—history, religion, politics.” A Jew watches the same war and says, “Give it five minutes, we’ll be blamed. Iran has generals, missiles, oil fields—but the real power, according to the conspiracy theorists, is apparently a guy in Brooklyn who can’t get a decent parking spot.”

You turn on the news today, and already you know how the story ends. Missiles flying, diplomats arguing, experts explaining things nobody understands—and somewhere, somehow, this will become a Jewish story. Not a Middle Eastern conflict, not a geopolitical chess match—no, no. A Jewish story. Because in the grand tradition of human logic, whenever the world gets complicated, people immediately look for the smallest group available and say, “Ah, they must be running it.”

And you have to admire the efficiency. The Jewish people—what are we, a rounding error in the global population? Yet somehow we are credited with orchestrating wars between nations with armies larger than our entire census. This is not a community; this is a management consulting firm with supernatural reach. Iran has generals, missiles, oil fields—but the real power, according to the conspiracy theorists, is apparently a guy in Brooklyn who can’t get a decent parking spot.

Now here is where you see the difference between Jews and Gentiles, and it’s not what anybody expects. A Gentile watches a war and says, “This is very complicated—history, religion, politics.” A Jew watches the same war and says, “Give it five minutes, we’ll be blamed.” Not because he’s cynical—because he’s experienced. This isn’t paranoia; this is pattern recognition with a 2,000-year data set.

They say, “The Jews control everything.” Everything? Jews can’t even agree on what to order in a restaurant. You put three Jews at a table, you get four opinions and nobody pays the bill without a discussion that qualifies as a minor treaty negotiation. And yet these same people are supposedly coordinating global oil prices, military alliances, and media narratives. If Jews had that kind of control, at the very least flights would leave on time and deli sandwiches would be cheaper.

And then come the accusations, dressed up like insight. “The Jews pushed America into war.” This is my favorite fantasy. As if there is a quiet meeting somewhere: “Excuse me, Mr. President, if it’s not too much trouble, could you start a regional conflict before lunch?” America can barely pass a budget on time, but somehow it is being steered like a shopping cart by a handful of overcaffeinated intellectuals arguing about hummus.

But here’s the deeper truth hidden under the jokes. When Jews argue, they argue with each other—endlessly, passionately, sometimes loudly enough to qualify as a public event. When the rest of the world argues, somehow the Jews get invited into the disagreement whether they RSVP or not. War breaks out—Jews. Economy shifts—Jews. Weather changes—give it time, someone will connect it to a rabbi with a suspicious umbrella.

And what you begin to see, if you’re paying attention, is that none of this is really about Jews at all. It’s about the human need for simple answers to complicated problems. War is frightening. Chaos is overwhelming. So people reach for a story that reduces it all to something manageable. And the oldest, most convenient story in the book is to point at the Jews and say, “There. That explains everything.” It never does—but it always satisfies.

So what do Jews do in response? The same thing they’ve always done. They complain, they debate, they write long essays nobody finishes, they eat something comforting, and then they go on living. Because if history teaches anything, it’s that survival is not built on winning arguments—it’s built on outlasting them.

And maybe that’s the final irony. The same people who accuse Jews of controlling everything can’t understand the one thing Jews actually do well: endure. Not because of power, not because of secret influence, but because after generations of being blamed for things both real and imagined, you develop a kind of resilience that no conspiracy theory can explain.

So if you want to do Jews a real favor, it’s very simple. Don’t love them, don’t praise them—just give them a little less credit. Because if they were truly responsible for everything they’re accused of, they wouldn’t be exhausted from suffering. They’d be exhausted from success—and believe me, nobody is that well-rested.

 

REPUBLISHED

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/excuse-me-mr-president-could-you-start-a-regional-conflict-before-lunch/ 

The best Orthodox Jewish blogs curated and ranked based on multiple factors, including content relevancy, subject expertise, posting frequency, and freshness of content. Blogs with highest credibility within the Orthodox Jewish space are ranked higher. This list is updated regularly to ensure it reflects the most active, influential, and valuable Orthodox Jewish blogs on the internet today. https://bloggers.feedspot.com/orthodox_jewish_blogs/

Only a fool, an ignoramus, or a useful idiot could suppose that the current wave of hatred against Israel and the West will stop with the Jews.

Christians, mark my words: after the Jews, Islamists will come for you! 

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ChristiansIslamistGiulio Meotti

• 2 minutes

Bethlehem - 

Israel is not on the list of the 50 countries that persecute Christians.

Zero political outrage, zero clerical mobilization, and zero digital uproar for the Christians killed in Nigeria on Palm Sunday. Where are the fiery sermons, the hashtags, and the worldwide denunciations?

The Kotel, holiest place for Jews in Jerusalem, the closest point to what remains of the Temple, always crowded, day and night, has been empty for a month. Empty because of the war and Iranian missiles. But it seems that an antisemitic missile is not a missile, but a message of peace.

Thus, Israel closing the Church of Sepulchre to Cardinal Pizzaballa out of fear of Iranian attacks caused more noise and scandal than the Iranian missile that fell near the Sepulchre a few days earlier.

Antisemitism truly seems to be the socialism of fools (including Christian ones).

In the end, Prime Minister Netanyahu intervened to guarantee Pizzaballa safe passage to the Sepulchre for prayer and Mass. Case closed? Not so fast.

350,000 posts in 10 hours about the cardinal’s access to the Holy Sepulchre for security reasons, compared to 9,100 posts two weeks earlier, when a fragment of an Iranian missile had struck the same church.

This is called antisemitism, and we will pay dearly for it, as we all do every time. Because if left-wing and Islamic antisemitism have their own twisted “logic" (Jews as a symbol of the West and dhimmis to be erased), Christian antisemitism in 2026 is both pathological and masochistic.

Christians who today revel in antisemitism-whether from the nostalgic right or the third-worldist left-will discover too late that the Islamist enemy makes no fine theological distinctions. It wants to uproot Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then come for Peter and Paul.

There is only one place in the Middle East where Christians are growing rather than declining: Israel. They are 185,000 out of 10 million, whereas in 1948 they were 34,000.

In Syria, out of 25 million? 300,000 remain. In Jordan, out of 12 million? 200,000. In Iraq, out of 48 million? 250,000. Algeria? Fewer than 100,000 out of 48 million. And we are talking about countries that were historically cradles of Christianity: the Syria of Paul, the Jordan where Jesus was baptized, the Iraq of the Chaldeans, the Algeria of Augustine.

Within a decade, Israel will have the largest Christian population in the Middle East.

Not a single Israeli church in nearly 80 years has been attacked, as regularly occurs in every surrounding country.

Israeli Christians sit in Parliament and serve as judges on the Supreme Court. In which other Islamic country are there Christians in the highest court?

Haifa is the most multicultural city in the Middle East. There are Jews, Christians, Sunnis and Shiites, Druze, Arameans, and Baha’i, the community originally from Iran that has its headquarters in Israel. The syncretic Baha’i minority, persecuted by Iranian ayatollahs, has found refuge in that small state-smaller than Tuscany-with its twenty thousand square kilometers, compared to the 13 million square kilometers of the surrounding Arab-Islamic countries. The splendor of the Baha’i temple in Haifa testifies to this.

The great Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal defined Israel as “the vector of a terrible contradiction: that of the uniqueness of Islam. Israel is like the Gallic village that resists in a land that prevents it from being Islamic from beginning to end. It goes beyond politics and religion. It is ontological."

As the independent intellectual Michel Onfray put it: “Since, ten years ago, I began going to Israel, I have had the intimate conviction that those who have not been there reason only in the realm of ideas. My first awakening in Tel Aviv, with the call of the muezzin broadcast over loudspeakers, also heard in East Jerusalem, shows in practice that the two peoples already coexist in Israel. I am not aware that in Palestinian territories synagogues are open and safe."

In the so called “Palestinian West Bank" and Gaza there is not a single open and safe synagogue. Not one in Bethlehem, Nablus, Jenin, or Ramallah. The only ones are in the Israeli part of Hevron, the city of David, Rachel's tomb and the grave of the biblical patriarchs, but only thanks to a strong Israeli military presence.

By contrast, there are 400 mosques in Israel, all open and all safe, including 73 in Jerusalem.

Israel is not on the list of the 50 countries that persecute Christians.

In 1964, when Pope Paul VI arrived in Jerusalem for the first historic visit of a pontiff, the city was divided by barbed wire. Jordanian snipers were stationed on rooftops, landmines everywhere in the “no man’s land," seven kilometers long. The only passage between the two parts of the city, Israeli and Jordanian, was Mandelbaum Gate, named after the couple Esther and Simcha Mandelbaum, owners of the house where the border passed.

There were neighborhoods, like Abu Tor, with houses that had one entrance in the Jordanian section and one in the Israeli section. But while Paul VI and his entourage could move freely through Jerusalem to pray in holy sites, Israelis and Jews could only look across the barbed wire at the walls of the Old City and dream of the Kotel.

When three other pontiffs (John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis) later visited Jerusalem, they found an Israeli city open to all three religions. A city where anyone can come to pray and honor their God-even many Wahhabi Muslims arriving from Saudi Arabia to visit the Mosque Esplanade.

The holy city has been conquered by Jebusites, Jews, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans, British, and Jordanians. But in thousands of years, Jerusalem was divided only for nineteen years, from 1948 to 1967-and it was a nightmare.

During the years under Jordanian rule, every vestige of Jewish presence in the Jordanian part of the city was erased. Jews were never allowed to visit their holy sites in the occupied part of the city, in violation of international law and armistice agreements. The ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives was systematically desecrated; ancient synagogues, such as the famous Hurva, and most buildings in the old Jewish quarter were deliberately destroyed.

For the first time in a thousand years, not a single Jew or synagogue remained in the Old City. It was a kind of ISIS before its time.

In 1947, Christians in Bethlehem-the birthplace of Jesus-made up 85 percent of the population; today they are less than 15 percent. In 2002 Palestinian Arab terrorists besieged the Church of the Nativity, held dozens of parishioners hostage, looted, and set fires.

When Barack Obama visited Bethlehem in 2013, even the ultra-liberal NBC reported on the “Islamization" of the city.

Only a fool, an ignoramus, or a useful idiot could suppose that the current wave of hatred against Israel and the West will stop with the Jews.

As Fabrice Hadjadj writes in Le Figaro:

“The ‘Al-Aqsa flood’ takes place in this alignment of stars, giving voice to a famous jihadist cry: ‘After Saturday comes Sunday,’ in other words: after the Jews, the Christians. The hour is decisive. It had to come. Israel could only end up producing a Dreyfus Affair on a global scale, in which everyone is called to take part. If the Hebrew Scriptures are our source, the Jewish state is our estuary. If Israel falls, Europe can only fall."

That is why I despise an antisemitic Christian more than a progressive or Quranic antisemite.

Also because, as it is said in “Submission" by Houellebecq, “there is no Israel for us".

Giulio Meotti is an Italian journalist with Il Foglio and writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is a fellow at the Middle East Forum and the author, in English, of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and of "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books, in addition to books in Italian. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Gatestone, Frontpage and Commentary.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/424926

Passover Message To Israel: Free Yourselves From American Financial Aid

 

Passover is not a holiday for the timid. It is the season of rupture, of memory, of refusal. It is the night we remember that freedom was never handed to the Jewish people by a sponsor, a committee, or a powerful patron with strings attached. Freedom came from God, from courage, and from the stubborn decision to walk out of Egypt before Pharaoh had the courtesy to approve it. That is why this Passover is as good a time as any to say to Israel: if you want to be truly sovereign, then think seriously about the crippling habit of depending on American financial aid.

This is not an argument against friendship. America has been, and remains, a vital ally. The bond between the two countries is real, strategic, and often deeply moving. But friendship is not the same as dependency, and alliance is not the same as tutelage. A nation that receives billions year after year from abroad does not merely receive help; it also absorbs expectations, warnings, pressures, and limits. The money arrives with invisible paperwork attached, and over time that paperwork can become a leash. A sovereign Jewish state should ask itself whether its strategic choices are always fully its own when so much of its security budget is subsidized by Washington.

Passover teaches a harsher lesson than comfort culture likes to admit: redemption requires sacrifice. The Israelites did not leave Egypt with a grant package and a bipartisan farewell ceremony. They left in haste, with unleavened bread on their backs and faith in their hearts. That is the model. Not the model of permanent assistance. Not the model of national life organized around foreign generosity. Real independence means paying a price for independence. It means building a military, an economy, an industrial base, and a political culture strong enough to stand when the world gets fickle, which it inevitably does.

And make no mistake, the world gets fickle fast. Today’s sympathetic administration may be replaced by tomorrow’s hostile one. Today’s alliance may become tomorrow’s lecture. Today’s aid may become tomorrow’s condition. Israel cannot afford to build its future on the hope that American politics will remain favorable forever. That is not strategy. That is wishful thinking dressed up as realism. The Jewish people survived because they learned, repeatedly, that no empire is permanent, no benefactor is guaranteed, and no external protector can be counted on more than one counts on Providence and oneself.

So this Passover, let Israel hear the message in the oldest language we have: be free enough to say no. Free enough to fund what must be funded. Free enough to endure temporary discomfort for long-term dignity. Free enough to make decisions from strength rather than dependence. That does not mean severing ties with America. It means ending the childish illusion that aid is the same as autonomy. A truly strong Israel should welcome partnership, but reject paternalism. It should accept friendship, but not need permission.

Passover is the holiday of leaving behind what enslaves us. Sometimes slavery is chains, and sometimes it is habits. Sometimes it is a master, and sometimes it is a grant. Israel should take the holiday seriously. If it wants to walk in the full light of national destiny, it must stop living as though its survival depends on the benevolence of another capital. The road to sovereignty is not easy, but then, neither was the Exodus.

 

REPUBLISHED

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/passover-message-to-israel-free-yourselves-from-american-financial-aid/

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The best Orthodox Jewish blogs curated and ranked based on multiple factors, including content relevancy, subject expertise, posting frequency, and freshness of content. Blogs with highest credibility within the Orthodox Jewish space are ranked higher. This list is updated regularly to ensure it reflects the most active, influential, and valuable Orthodox Jewish blogs on the internet today. https://bloggers.feedspot.com/orthodox_jewish_blogs/