Lacking Haredi manpower, IDF turns to womanpower: 1 in 5 fighters are now female - "Out of female candidates for military service, 37% identify as religious – either ultra-Orthodox or national-religious. Additionally, 25% of enlisted women are assigned to units in which the mandatory service period is 32 months"

During recent Knesset committee discussions, IDF representatives revealed that women now make up 20.9% of the combat force. 

Among them are a growing number of religious women! (Giant Rabbis Get Out From Under Your Nursing Home Beds & Start Issuing a Kol Koreh To Be Finished by Shavuot!)

 

One in five Israeli combat soldiers is female, a senior officer said in a recent Knesset hearing, underlining a major uptick in women serving in fighting roles.

“Today, women make up 20.9% of the IDF’s combat force – this is an unprecedented figure. We’re also seeing an increase in the technological units, but the main surge is in women serving as combat soldiers,” Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, said on May 7 while presenting official data to Knesset members in a discussion focused on female combat soldiers in the context of the need for an equitable conscription law for ultra-Orthodox men.

However, as women increasingly enlist in light infantry battalions, elite combat units, and other units that may put them on the frontlines, the army may struggle to address the dual challenge of integrating them alongside a hoped-for influx of ultra-Orthodox soldiers, policy planners warned.

Out of 18,915 Haredim who received initial draft orders since July 2024, around 319 have enlisted; 2,521 who ignored multiple draft orders were sent immediate call-up orders requiring them to show up at an induction center within 48 hours or be declared a draft evader.

In direct opposition to Haredi men evading the draft, Maj. Sapir Barabi, head of the Sources Department at the IDF Personnel Directorate, noted that between 2012 and 2024 – based on recruitment yearbook data – the number of female combat soldiers rose tenfold.

Regarding the types of combat roles open to women, the IDF said that women can today be assigned to 58% of combat positions. Units still closed to women include all of the IDF’s maneuvering infantry and armored forces, along with the vast majority of commando units, all of which are trained to operate within enemy territory.

Cracks in the special forces glass ceiling

The IDF has offered women combat service for about 20 years in the framework of mixed-gender light infantry battalions that are permanently stationed on Israel’s borders with Egypt, Jordan, and, more recently, the West Bank, as part of the Border Defense Corps.

Women comprise approximately 60% of all mixed-gender battalions, and the male and female combat soldiers train and serve together from the moment of enlistment through training and deployment to the borders.

During the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught, members of one of the light infantry battalions normally stationed on the Egypt border, Caracal, and its all-female tank company fought for hours, killing dozens of attackers along the border and in communities overrun by terrorists.

The Home Front Command’s Search and Rescue Brigade, whose troops are mostly women and fully combat-trained, is often deployed to carry out routine arrest and defense operations in the West Bank. During the war, the search and rescue forces operated in Gaza to assist the maneuvering troops.

In the Air Force, women and men serve together in the aerial defense array — technically considered combat service. The Navy also sees women serving alongside men aboard missile boats.

Female soldiers also serve as canine handlers in the elite Oketz unit and as paramedics in other male-dominated infantry and armored brigades, including during the ground offensive in Gaza.

The IDF is expanding other opportunities after seeing a significant rise in the number of women serving in combat roles.

Female combatants of the Paratroops mobility unit in the Gaza Strip during the October 7 war (IDF)

In 2024, the IDF launched pilot programs to integrate women into special forces units, including Unit 669, Sayeret Matkal, and Yahalom – the Combat Engineering Corps’ elite unit. The pilot at Yahalom has ended and the IDF is awaiting a decision on whether it will officially open the unit to female service.

Some female soldiers who completed the Yahalom pilot have already gone on to the IDF officers’ course, while others are now completing two years in the unit. It is unclear whether the IDF has integrated those women who completed the pilot into operational activity beyond the border.

The two female soldiers who were recruited to the prestigious 669 rescue unit dropped out, and no public information is available about the one recruited to the Sayeret Matkal special reconnaissance unit. At this point, there is no information on whether the pilot as a whole will continue or whether additional female recruits will be added to these units.

The IDF notes that all the women initially passed the screening and combat training requirements, using an adjusted physical fitness scale.

A  discussion on women in combat service at the Knesset Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, chaired by MK Elazar Stern (center) of Yesh Atid (Danny Shem-Tov/Knesset Spokesperson’s Office)

 

Another ongoing IDF pilot is testing the integration of women into combat mobility units in the Ground Forces. Each infantry battalion currently has mobility platoons, usually composed of regular infantry soldiers who receive additional training in operational driving on Hummers and/or ATVs.

The primary mission of the mobility unit is to deliver heavy supplies to forces operating in enemy territory – water, food, ammunition, mortars, missiles, and more. Other tasks include evacuating wounded soldiers under fire or transporting equipment between company commanders or from company commanders to battalion commanders, also under fire.

This pilot began recently and includes about 30 female combat soldiers recruited as a cohesive platoon. They are in advanced training at the Paratroopers Brigade training base, Camp Eitan, near Kibbutz Shomria.

According to Barabi, their training course is identical to that of male combat soldiers. The IDF decided to keep the women as a separate gender-segregated platoon within the brigade training base and not to integrate them into mixed-gender units with male combat soldiers.

Female soldiers in training at the commando brigade (IDF)

 

A further pilot program expected to open to female combat soldiers in the 2025 recruitment cycle is in Unit 504 – the unit responsible for recruiting agents in enemy territory and interrogating prisoners, both in the field and in IDF facilities. Unit 504 belongs to the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate, which has the highest number of women serving in general intelligence roles.

Enough pilot programs; let the women fly

MK Merav Michaeli of the Labor party accused the military of using the pilot program system as a tool to delay integrating women into combat roles.

“I don’t see other parts of the population being placed under various pilot programs,” she said. “Just let them be assessed according to the ‘right person for the right role’ policy and put an end to all these pilots.”

One of the more contentious issues raised in the discussion, in the Knesset’s Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, was the IDF’s decision to allow religious female soldiers to serve in combat roles within “gendered platoons,” similar to the arrangements offered to religious male soldiers who do not want to serve alongside female combatants.

For example, the IDF is expected to soon open up for women a gender-segregated combat platoon in the Combat Intelligence Collection Array — part of the Border Defense Corps — likely within the Eitam Battalion, which monitors the Egypt and Jordan border in southern Israel, and another such platoon within one of the Aerial Defense Array’s Iron Dome battalions.

Maj. Lior Engel (Rovach) during her service as a company commander in Caracal

 

Michaeli sees the IDF’s allowing of sex-segregated units for religious soldiers as a dangerous path that could undermine the army’s operational goals.

“Dividing units by gender or sex does not stem from operational needs but from political considerations,” she said. “You described a phenomenon of ultra-Orthodox soldiers who don’t want to serve in artillery units because they’d have to serve alongside female combatants. This is a dangerous approach for the IDF. The great concern is that gender segregation will expand, and ultimately this will harm the IDF – and will harm women.”

Female combatants of the Paratroops mobility unit in the Gaza Strip during the October 7 war with a stray dog. (IDF)

 

Similar dropout rate

Asked about the dropout rate of female combat soldiers from their training tracks, Barabi noted that in the Border Defense Corps the dropout rate among women is 15%, compared to 14% among men. “There is no major difference between the genders,” she said, “and the rates of leaving combat roles are similar across all units.”

Also participating in the discussion was Ofra Ash, CEO of the Deborah Forum, which promotes women in national security and foreign policy, who pointed out that there is still a lack of women in senior command roles in the IDF.

“Until there are women at the General Staff Forum – women who rose through the combat and operational ranks – we cannot say that progress has been made,” she said.

Currently, there are only two female generals serving in the General Staff Forum, both legal officers.

Chief Military Advocate Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi at a farewell ceremony for retiring acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on October 1, 2024. 

 

Taking pressure off the reserves

At a follow-up discussion in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on May 8, the IDF’s Tayeb emphasized that “every new regular mixed-gender battalion – male and female – presents immense potential to reduce dependence on the reserves.”

Tayeb explained that a single regular battalion – for example, a mixed-gender battalion in the Border Defense Corps or the Search and Rescue Brigade – is equivalent in operational output to about seven reserve battalions.

However, if there is one statistic that indicates the growth in the number of women serving in significant roles in the IDF, it is the percentage of women currently serving in the reserves.

During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, women made up only 3% of reservists. By Operation Protective Edge in 2014, that figure had risen to 8%, and in the October 7 war, the proportion of women in the reserves surged to 20%.

On a general IDF level, he said, 90% of all IDF roles are currently open to women.

Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, addresses the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, May 8, 2025. 

Tayeb revealed that of female candidates for military service, 37% identify as religious – either ultra-Orthodox or national-religious. Additionally, 25% of enlisted women are assigned to units in which the mandatory service period is 32 months, the same as for men. These units include the combat forces as well as some intelligence units.

During the discussion, MK Simcha Rothman from the Religious Zionism party asked how the sharp increase in the number of women – particularly religious ones – joining combat roles occurred organically, without any special measures taken by the IDF. This, Rothman noted, contrasted with the IDF’s considerable logistical and financial investment in recruiting ultra-Orthodox men, which has not yielded similar results.

Three female MKs — Michaeli, Sharon Nir, and Efrat Rayten — told Rothman that women’s motivation stemmed from watching their brothers and friends enlist, and from a desire to take an equal part. In fact, in many cases, they said, the women’s families did not support their decision to choose combat service.

The female MKs said that in the case of women’s enlistment, the IDF did not run any special recruitment campaigns – the demand for meaningful service arose from the ground up.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/lacking-haredi-manpower-idf-turns-to-womanpower-1-in-5-fighters-are-now-female/?

"Putin Wants To Stop" - "Stage 9 Cancer" - "Walter Reed Is A Great Hospital" " I Aced The Cognitive Test" ..... Big Beautiful Perfect Dementia In The Oval Office Redux!

New intelligence obtained by the United States suggests that Israel is preparing to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, CNN reports, citing multiple US officials familiar with the matter.

 

New US intel suggests Israel readying to strike Iranian nuclear facilities — report

By Reuters 21 May 2025, 1:23 am

 

A handout picture released by Iran's Atomic Energy Organization shows the atomic enrichment facilities Natanz nuclear research center, some 300 kilometers south of capital Tehran.

 

New intelligence obtained by the United States suggests that Israel is preparing to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, CNN reports, citing multiple US officials familiar with the matter.

It’s not clear whether Israeli leaders have made a final decision, CNN adds, citing the officials.

What age is a PSA test recommended?

While the general guidelines recommend starting at age 55, you may need PSA screening between the ages of 40 and 54 if you: Have at least one first-degree relative (such as your father or brother) who has had prostate cancer

Creator of ‘Dilbert’ Says He Has the Same Cancer as Biden

 

Scott Adams shared the news on his podcast and expressed sympathy for the former president. “My life expectancy is maybe this summer,” he said.

Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created “Dilbert,”

 

 

Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created the comic strip “Dilbert,” said on his podcast on Monday that he had the same kind of aggressive prostate cancer as former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and that it had spread to his bones. He said he had only months to live.

“My life expectancy is maybe this summer,” he said.

Mr. Adams, 67, is a supporter of President Trump and has been critical of Mr. Biden, but on Monday he expressed his sympathy for the former president.

“I’d like to extend my respect and compassion and sympathy for the ex-president and his family because they’re going to be going through an especially tough time,” Mr. Adams said. “It’s a terrible disease — it’s going to get very painful for the president.”

It was not clear when Mr. Adams was diagnosed, but he said that he decided to share the news after learning that Mr. Biden had the same disease, in part because he hoped that Mr. Biden’s announcement would draw attention away from his own. He had kept quiet about it to prolong a sense of normalcy, he said: “Once you go public, you’re just the dying cancer guy.”

Mr. Adams said he was also wary of sharing his diagnosis because he wanted to avoid the kind of negative online attention that Mr. Biden has received since his office announced the news on Sunday.

“One of the things I’ve been watching is how terrible the public is,” he said, adding that people had been “cruel.”

“There’s no sympathy for Joe Biden for a lot of people,” Mr. Adams said. “It’s hard to watch.”

Mr. Adams created “Dilbert,” which mocks office culture, in 1989, and it was syndicated around the world. In 2023, hundreds of newspapers dropped the cartoon after Mr. Adams said on his podcast that Black people were “a hate group” and that white people should “just get the hell away” from them.

On his podcast at the time, he defended his remarks, saying that “you should absolutely be racist whenever it’s to your advantage.” He later said his comments were intended as hyperbole.

On Monday, Mr. Trump said he was surprised that Mr. Biden’s diagnosis wasn’t made public earlier, seeming to suggest without evidence that the former president’s cancer had been covered up. But Mr. Adams said on his podcast that it was possible for Mr. Biden to not have been showing symptoms when he received a clean bill of health from his doctor last year.

Part of Mr. Adams’ sympathy for Mr. Biden seemed to come from his own lived experience with the disease, which he called “intolerable.” Mr. Adams said he had been using a walker for months and was in a constant state of pain. Apart from recording his podcast, he said, he spends most of his days sleeping. As a California resident, he indicated that he would be using aid-in-dying drugs, which are available to the terminally ill in the state.

“I don’t have good days,” he said. “Every day is a nightmare. And evening is even worse.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/us/scott-adams-dilbert-prostate-cancer-biden.html

In Chutzpah: A Memoir of Faith, Sexuality and Daring to Stay, the author and campaigner recounts how she helped jail her abuser, exposed failures of rabbinic authority and found strength in the community that once turned its back

 

Chutzpah and courage: How Yehudis Fletcher won her fight to be heard

 

Matisyahu Salomon

Mashgiach ruchani of Beth Medrash Govoha - Covered Up Every Sex Abuse Crime He Could - From The Agudah Convention in 2006 "The Bloggers Should Be Beaten"

until the day he died!

She called a rabbi, who is now dead, so we can name him, Rabbi Salomon, who was the mashgiach [spiritual supervisor] at Beth Medrash Govoha [yeshiva in New Jersey] – so one of the most senior rabbis of his generation. He very much "blamed me for tempting him, but no-one was surprised.”

Yehudis Fletcher

 

“People ask me, ‘How do I speak?’ says Yehudis Fletcher of the manifold abuses she has had to overcome throughout her life. “It’s more like: ‘I can’t stay silent.’”

The 37-year-old gave evidence in court that helped convict the Talmudic scholar who was supposed to be looking after her as his family’s vulnerable lodger, but instead abused her the summer she turned 16.

She has since become a disruptor inside her own community – a charity founder consulting the Government on everything from forced marriage to the denial of secular education, and an out-and-proud lesbian who brings her partner to her Charedi shul.

And now she has written it all down, in a powerful new book – lauded by comedian David Baddiel and human rights lawyer Harriet Wistrich – Chutzpah: A Memoir of Faith, Sexuality and Daring to Stay.

Fletcher, the Glasgow-born daughter of a rabbi, was not the first person to report the abuse by Todros Grynhaus.

“His wife was,” she tells me in a kosher pizza restaurant in Golders Green. “She came in and found him in my bedroom. She’s the one who blew the whistle. She called a rabbi, who is now dead, so we can name him, Rabbi Salomon, who was the mashgiach [spiritual supervisor] at Beth Medrash Govoha [yeshiva in New Jersey] – so one of the most senior rabbis of his generation. It was very much blamed on me for tempting him, but no-one was surprised.”

Fletcher spent years trying to alert various people in two different countries. “And I haven’t shut up since.”

Initially, she did not even know the word “abuse”. It was a rabbi in Israel who “gave me the language”, she says (even though he “later refused to support the prosecution”).

The crime itself was far from the end of Fletcher’s ill treatment. She says the late Rabbi Yehuda Brodie, the registrar of the Manchester Beth Din, responded by asking: “Do you think you’re his first?” “He was like, ‘You silly girl.’ There was no denial that this man had done this before and would probably do it again.”

The Beth Din did not report the abuse to the police. And the vital evidence that Fletcher provided – including a teddy bear that Grynhaus had picked the lock of the bathroom door to hang inside while she was showering, texting her to ask if she had received his “calling card” – disappeared.

Grynhaus was jailed for 13 years and two months in 2015 for seven counts of sexual abuse against Fletcher and another girl.

She is keen to point out “there are loads of incredible people” too. When Grynhaus fled to Israel on another man’s passport, it was a member of her Manchester community who reported his appearance on a Tel Aviv passenger list so he could be arrested on arrival back in the UK.

“Charedi people do not want their own children to be sexually abused,” she says. “What we don’t have yet is enough of an alliance to create that critical mass so that, as a community, we behave differently. There’s been lots of people who’ve been very supportive in private, who probably disagree with me on the pages of Jewish News.”

Despite it all, Fletcher remains sanguine. She has a job at Nahamu, the charity she founded to combat “the harms arising from extremism in the Jewish community”

However, the succour that meant the most came from closer to home. “My grandma was the only person in my immediate family that, when I told, she got angry on my behalf.”

Her grandmother went on to reveal that the rage stemmed in part from her own experiences.

“Later the same evening, she shared with me that she had been assaulted. She was 11 and at a family wedding. She’d never told anyone else ever before.”

Despite it all, Fletcher remains sanguine. She has a job at Nahamu, the charity she founded to combat “the harms arising from extremism in the Jewish community”. It is work that is bolstered by a degree in social policy – she obtained a place on the course without any GCSEs thanks to the support of the charity Mavar.

“The theory of change is to be able to envision a future in which the community is not a haven for abusers where sexual misbehaviour is constructed as a sin – rather than harm to another person.”

And though her book ends with her having been cut off by almost her entire family after coming out as a lesbian (“Every so often, I bend over double, winded by the excruciating cost of my freedom,” she writes), Fletcher says today that relations have already begun to improve since she handed in her manuscript.

She was wed twice by the age of 20 – the first marriage ending swiftly in divorce after her husband throttled her on her wedding night and she walked in on him and his middle-aged “mentor” in her marital bedroom. She has since discarded her sheitel and long skirt, but continues sending her three children to Charedi schools and resolutely remains a member of the community, whether they like it or not.

She was wed twice by the age of 20 – the first marriage ending swiftly in divorce after her husband throttled her on her wedding night and she walked in on him and his middle-aged “mentor” in her marital bedroom

It is a philosophy informed by Maureen Kender, the late London School of Jewish Studies teaching fellow. “’Threatening to stay, not threatening to leave’ was her brilliant sort of throwaway line at the end of a presentation. It has driven me. The act of staying in is an act of resistance.”

To those who fear that her campaigning serves to fuel negative views of Jews, she has this to say: “If you leave a black hole of information, that allows other people to fill the gaps. The fact that we don’t have statistics on sexual abuse within our community doesn’t mean that there’s no abuse.

“I think what I offer in Chutzpah is not a tell-all tale that’s going to produce a kind of fetishised version of horrible things that happen within a closed community. On the contrary, it’s a critical and honest portrayal of the real impact of the harms that are systemic. It’s a response. It’s a hopeful response.”

It is also perhaps Fletcher’s final act of casting off the dishonour repeatedly attached to her by the community she refuses to reject.

“I was taught to be ashamed,” she says. “But shame isn’t holy.”

Chutzpah: A Memoir of Faith, Sexuality and Daring to Stay, by Yehudis Fletcher, is published by Penguin on May 22.

https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/chutzpah-and-courage-how-yehudis-fletcher-won-her-fight-to-be-heard/

Israel Day on New York’s Fifth Avenue 2025

Vaccines using mRNA are currently being studied for a wide range of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders like Type 1 diabetes and rare diseases like cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that results in excessively thick, sticky mucus that can plug the airways and damage the lungs.

 

5 Questions About mRNA Vaccines, Answered

 

We asked experts about how the technology works, its safety and its potential in medicine.

 

Listen to this article · 7:39 min Learn more

 

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly questioned the safety of mRNA vaccines against Covid-19. Scientists with funding from the National Institutes of Health were advised to scrub their grants of any reference to mRNA. Around the country, state legislatures are considering bills to ban or limit such vaccines, with one describing them as weapons of mass destruction.

While mRNA, or messenger RNA, has received widespread attention in recent years, scientists first discovered it in 1961. They have been studying it and exploring its promise in preventing infectious diseases and treating cancer and rare diseases ever since.

What is mRNA?

A large molecule found in all of our cells, mRNA is used to make every protein that our DNA directs our bodies to build. It does so by carrying information from DNA in the nucleus out to a cell’s protein-making machinery. A single mRNA molecule can be used to make many copies of a protein, but it is naturally programmed to die eventually, said Jeff Coller, a professor of RNA biology and therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University and a co-founder of an RNA therapeutics company.

How do mRNA vaccines work?

Right now, there are three FDA-approved vaccines available that use mRNA, two for Covid-19 and one for R.S.V., or respiratory syncytial virus, in older adults. These vaccines consist of strands of mRNA that code for specific viral proteins.

Say you get a Covid-19 vaccine. The strands of mRNA, packaged into tiny fat particles, go into your muscle and immune cells, said Robert Alexander Wesselhoeft, director of RNA therapeutics at the Gene and Cell Therapy Institute at Mass General Brigham. Protein factories in the cells then take instructions from the mRNA and manufacture a protein like the one found on the surface of a Covid-19 virus. Your body recognizes that protein as foreign, and mounts an immune response.

More on Covid-19

• Efforts to Thwart mRNA Therapies: The therapies, a key to Covid vaccines, hold great potential in treating several diseases, but some lawmakers want to ban them and the government is cutting funding. We asked experts about how the technology works, its safety and its potential in medicine.

• Vaccine Approvals: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to require all new vaccines to be tested against placebos and to develop new vaccines without using mRNA technology, moves that raise questions about whether Covid boosters will be available in the fall.

• Gut Issues: Why does Covid cause diarrhea, constipation, pain and bloating? Here are some suggestions for what to do about these conditions.

• Heart Problems: One recent study found that a Covid infection doubled the risk of a major cardiovascular event for up to three years afterward. People who had severe infections were especially vulnerable.

• Paxlovid and Long Covid: A new report suggested the drug might improve symptoms for some patients, but results were mixed.

• Retracing Covid’s Origins: Researchers contend that the Covid pandemic got its start from bats, which jumped to wild mammals in China that were taken by wildlife traders.

Most of the mRNA will be gone within a few days, but the body retains a “memory" of it in the form of antibodies, Dr. Coller said. As with other types of vaccines, immunity wanes both over time and as a virus evolves into new variants.

Why are mRNA vaccines being used now?

In the mid-2000s, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania figured out how to get foreign mRNA into human cells without it degrading first. That enabled researchers to develop it for use in vaccines.

The main use for such vaccines right now is to prevent infectious diseases, like Covid-19 and R.S.V., said Dr. Wesselhoeft, who founded a company that develops RNA therapies. The mRNA vaccines can be made very quickly because all of the components, other than the RNA sequence, remain the same across different vaccines.

This feature could be helpful for developing the annual flu vaccine, said Florian Krammer, a virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who has previously consulted for Pfizer and CureVac on mRNA therapies. Typically, scientists decide in February or March which influenza virus strains to include in a vaccine that will be rolled out in the United States in September. But by that time, a different strain may be dominant. Because an mRNA vaccine can be manufactured more quickly than the current flu shot, scientists could wait until May or June to see which strains are circulating, Dr. Krammer said, increasing the likelihood the vaccine will be effective.

Do these vaccines have risks?

A common question patients ask is whether an mRNA vaccine can affect their DNA, Dr. Boucher said. The answer is no. Our cells cannot convert the mRNA into DNA, which means that it can’t be incorporated into our genome.

The vaccine for Covid-19 can cause muscle aches and flulike symptoms, but these are expected side effects for vaccines generally, Dr. Krammer said.

It’s been more than four years since the Covid-19 vaccine was first rolled out “and there are not long-term safety signals,” said Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in New York. Many parents were concerned about myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle that was reported as a possible side effect of the vaccine. But, Dr. Ratner said, the risk of such inflammation from an actual Covid-19 infection, or of long Covid or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, was far greater.

What else can mRNA be used for?

Vaccines using mRNA are currently being studied for a wide range of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders like Type 1 diabetes and rare diseases like cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that results in excessively thick, sticky mucus that can plug the airways and damage the lungs.

In cancer, the idea is that the mRNA codes for a tumor protein that the immune system will recognize as foreign, telling the body to attack the tumor. In a genetic disorder like cystic fibrosis, it codes for a functioning version of a deficient protein to replace the faulty one and restore the mucus to healthy state.

A paper in the journal Nature earlier this year showed that an experimental mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer provoked an immune response in some patients after they had undergone surgery for the cancer. Patients who experienced that immune response lived longer without cancer than patients who did not.

Another recent paper showed that, in monkeys, an inhaled mRNA therapy could produce a protein needed to form cilia, the hairlike structures that line our airways and move mucus out of them. These proteins malfunction in a debilitating respiratory disorder called primary ciliary dyskinesia.

This research is still in early stages: The pancreatic cancer study, a Phase I trial, included only 16 patients, and there may have been other differences between the two groups that accounted for the different survival times. There is a long history of research showing that interventions may lead to immune responses without actually changing patients’ outcomes, explained Dr. Steven Rosenberg, chief of the surgery branch at the National Cancer Institute and an expert in cancer immunotherapy.

Dr. Richard Boucher, a pulmonologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, noted that for lung diseases, it’s extremely difficult to safely get the particles carrying mRNA into exactly the right cells.

In general, Dr. Ratner said, mRNA vaccines are “exciting” in that they offer hope for disease treatments where prior technologies have failed. But mRNA therapy is still a drug technology like any other: In some diseases it likely will work, he said, “and in other cases it probably won’t.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/well/mrna-vaccines-safety.html

Haredi Battalion Celebrates Lag B’Omer Near Gaza Border

 After two months of intensive operations on the Lebanese border, the Haredi Netzah Yehuda Battalion has completed its mission in the north and has now been redeployed to the Gaza Strip in preparation for the next phase of ground operations.

During its time on the northern front, the battalion achieved a number of operational successes, including the seizure of weapons caches intended for use by terrorist cells. In several cross-border missions into Lebanese territory, Netzah Yehuda soldiers displayed initiative, resilience, and tactical skill, working closely with other units in the division.

As they transitioned between two high-intensity combat zones, the soldiers paused briefly to mark Lag B’Omer, drawing spiritual strength before returning to the battlefield. Organized by the Netzah Yehuda Association, the celebration honored Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and featured a festive atmosphere: the completion of a Talmudic tractate, a traditional mitzvah meal, singing and dancing, and the distribution of tzitzit garments to the troops.

Rabbi Shaul Abdiel, a spiritual leader with the Netzah Yehuda Association, joined the celebration and praised the battalion: “I was privileged to meet fighters of great spirit—courageous in defending the people of Israel, and equally committed to guarding their souls with Torah, joy, and unity. This is the essence of the Netzah Yehuda vision: the fusion of holiness and combat, spirit and strength, faith and duty. They are the spiritual heirs of the Rashbi—fighters of light and valor.”

Netzah Yehuda soldiers celebrate Lag B'Omer near Gaza border

Netzah Yehuda soldiers celebrate Lag B'Omer near Gaza border

Netzah Yehuda soldiers pray Maariv near Gaza border on Lag B'Omer

While you are being reduced to choosing between two dolls or owning five pencils in Trump’s tariff-ravaged economy (according to his own estimates), he needs a $400 million flying palace for all to be right with the world.

 1. Stop backing the swampiest of all swamp creatures.

2. Become more honest, and stay that way.

The Ben Shapiro "Honesty" Hustle

 

Has King Donald's Qatari private jet gift finally gone too far for MAGA? Don't hold your breath

Matt Labash

May 15, 2025

∙ Paid

Ben Shapiro, Making Hats Uncool Again

Sometimes, you have to laugh at today’s headlines. Or maybe you don’t, but I do. Since laughing helps ward off the wailing and gnashing of teeth. The latter of which I try to only do behind closed doors, or at least behind the paywall, in the interest of preserving what’s left of my dignity.

And so, I broke into hearty guffaws earlier this week when reading stories about Donald Trump being poised to receive a bribe “gift” of a $400 million 747 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar (“royal family” being an aspirational title for the Trumps these days). The idea, aside from personally enriching Trump, is to temporarily replace the aging Air Force One — still a luxe private plane by anyone’s standards — with a “flying palace” that will eventually become the property of Trump’s presidential library, the latter of which will doubtless include works of high scholarship like Lee Greenwood’s God Bless The USA Bible (“the only Bible officially endorsed by Lee Greenwood and President Trump” — still available for a cool 60 bucks), along with Trump’s long list of “authored” titles, such as Think Big And Kick Ass In Business And Life, one or two of which, he might have even skimmed before publication.

That’s right. While you are being reduced to choosing between two dolls or owning five pencils in Trump’s tariff-ravaged economy (according to his own estimates), he needs a $400 million flying palace for all to be right with the world. And you are a “world class loser” (again, his words) if you criticize him for it. Go Populism!

The Grifter's New Home!

It’s not that Trump’s grifterhood is particularly amusing. It’s old news, and we’ve always known he’s a two-bit hustler, going back to his days peddling Trump University (a scam so colossal it resulted in a $25 million settlement to students who were duped). Or Trump Vodka (the guy doesn’t even drink, though he’s driven plenty of us to do so). Or Trump ties (long enough to swaddle yourself like you were wearing a silky diaper, but tailored with the finest American craftsmanship, if by “American craftsmanship,” you mean “made in China”).

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Trump’s a con man, and always has been. But for the purposes of this piece, I’m more interested in his cast of subordinate flimflam artists, with many articles taking note of all the blowback Trump was getting even in usually friendly quarters for violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Though Trump’s bribe/gift passed muster with his ethics czar/Attorney General, Pam Bondi, which is no great surprise since ethics-wise, she doesn’t have any. For Trump wasn’t just taking fire from fake-news libs and media types — always a redundant classification in Trump’s world — but from reliable allies like Ben Shapiro, who called it “skeezy stuff.”

Shapiro’s right, of course. But news stories that breathlessly related his bold declaration nearly portrayed it as an act of integrity. Which, sorry, it isn’t. If you looked up the word “integrity,” you would not find a photo of Ben Shapiro next to it, unless it was an antonym dictionary. It’s just that the facts on the ground — the screamingly apparent corruption — sometimes become so incontrovertible, that even Trumpy fan-fiction writers like Shapiro occasionally have to acknowledge reality. Not to pick on Shapiro — there are much more extreme examples of MAGA knob polishers. See Benny Johnson, Speaker Mike Johnson (no relation), and the entire Fox primetime lineup, for starters. But what the hell? Shapiro’s a smart guy, which means he knows exactly what he’s doing. So scratch what I just said. Let’s go ahead and pick on him for a while!

Shapiro, you probably know, is the founder and chief propagandist at the Daily Wire, which, even after recent cutbacks and layoffs, has made more money than the Sun King by milking MAGAbots until they moo. (Sample headline on his current podcast: “Trump’s Saudi TRIUMPH”). And yet, like any talented propagandist, Shapiro knows that the best way to push big lies is to bolster credibility by telling small truths along the way. So he’ll sometimes relate Trump’s unpardonable sins, which, of course, are always subject to later pardoning, since no sin seems to be disqualifying, and pointing out such iniquities doesn’t leave you in good standing with the cult or the cult leader, upon whom your media empire is financed.

Therefore Shapiro, who in 2016, wrote “I will never vote for Donald Trump,” by 2020, was indeed voting for Donald Trump, claiming “I wasn't really wrong about Donald Trump on character, but whatever damage he was going to do has already been done, and it's not going to help if I don't vote for him this time.” Whoops! Guess he hadn’t counted on Trump trying to overturn an election that he soundly lost, while sending his mob to invade Congress to reverse the results. Character, or lack of it, tends to keep counting long after you’ve counted it out. Which a screechy moralist like Shapiro knows, or used to know, before pretending to fall in love with Donald Trump.

At the time, Shapiro called January 6 “the worst thing to happen to America since 9/11. It was cataclysmically awful.” But by 2024, of course, a now amnesiac Shapiro — like most of the rest of the GOP — was practically a wholly-owned MAGA subsidiary. He not only voted for Trump, he co-hosted a fundraiser for him.

To illustrate Shapiro’s schizo behavior, I was prepared to delve deep into his recent oeuvre, though mercifully, Media Matters’ Jason Campbell spared me from that unenviable task by just cranking out a pretty handy one-stop-Shapiro-shopping guide. I should add that I kicked around right-wing world long enough in my former magazine-writer life to know that many old pals on the right would say something like, “Jeez, Labash’s TDS is now so acute, that he’s rewriting Media Matters press releases.” To which I’d say — as I often do to lippy commenters — Trump Derangement Syndrome is most evident when you tell obvious truths about Trump, and his supporters become deranged upon hearing the unwelcome news. And I will take truth wherever I can get it, since my old pals don’t seem to be much in the business of telling it anymore. Therefore, I will do no such thing as rewriting a Media Matters press release. Rather, I’ll reprint a large chunk of it verbatim.

Since Trump’s inauguration in January, Shapiro has thumped Trump on everything from his tariffs (“a massive tax increase on American consumers”), to Trump suggesting Ukraine started the war with Russia (“Ukraine absolutely did not start the war”), to Trump suggesting the impeachment of a federal judge (“obviously I don’t think that President Trump should be calling for the impeachment of judges based on decisions not going his way”), to saying that Trump’s “skeezy stuff” — from his free jet caper to his cryptocurrency schemes — “need to stop” (“I think if we switch the names to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, we’d all be freaking out on the right”).

So far, so good! Or good enough. To Shapiro’s partial credit, those are the closest approximations of honest admissions you’ll get from anyone in the MAGAsphere. And yet in spite of them — or perhaps because of them — Shapiro always seems to comfortably land back in Camp Trump, no matter how apparent it becomes that he’s backed a sleazy, self-dealing charlatan masquerading as a populist avenger, and not at-all-convincingly. Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s an abridged chapter-and-verse sampling of Shapiro’s shilling, from Media Matters:

· After Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde urged Trump to show mercy to migrants, Shapiro said, “Jesus was not in favor of free migration across all borders.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 1/22/25]

· After Trump fired several inspectors general, Shapiro said, “These inspectors general tend to be Democratic plants very often.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 1/27/25]

· Early in the administration, Shapiro said Trump could be “the most transformative president in American public life since LBJ, maybe since FDR.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/12/25]

· Shapiro downplayed Trump administration cuts to national park workers, saying, “You can cut all those people by just having an automatic parking meter.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/19/25]

· Shapiro launched an effort to pressure Trump to pardon former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for federal charges related to George Floyd’s 2020 death. [CNN, 3/7/25]

· Shapiro wrote, “The SignalGate story basically went nowhere because the truth is that everybody has, at one point or another, included somebody in a group chat by accident and it gets very awkward.” [The Daily Wire, 4/1/25]

· When a Maryland father with protected legal status was sent to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador, Shapiro said it was a “bureaucratic screw-up” but not a “human tragedy.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/1/25]

· Shapiro praised Trump’s “u-turn” on tariffs following so-called Liberation Day, saying the president showed “strength” in backtracking. [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/10/25]

· Shapiro has been supportive of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, saying, “The White House should stand by Hegseth. He was their pick. He was an out of the box pick, and he remains the right pick for secretary of defense.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/22/25]

· Shapiro said, “I’m a voter for President Trump, supporter of President Trump’s. I gave money to his campaign, fundraised for him, campaigned with him. President Trump needs to succeed on the economy because if he does not succeed on the economy, everything else goes down in flames.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/28/25]

· Shapiro defended the Trump administration after a judge noted a two-year-old U.S. citizen may have been removed from the country with “no meaningful process.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/28/25]

How could a God-fearing winger with a healthy respect for our founders and the Constitution still support a guy who has now said he’s not sure if it’s his duty to uphold the Constitution (even if he swore to do so in his presidential oath, twice)? A guy who regularly defies judicial decisions including the Supreme Court’s, even though he appointed three of the justices? A guy who is brokering deals with third-world dictators to imprison those who have seen no due process? A guy who is essentially running a White House extortion racket, targeting everyone from law firms to media outfits, shaking down payments which directly benefit Trump? (The kind of Big Government power move that so-called conservatives like Shapiro used to decry before their favorite autocrat retook the reigns.)

Again, I’m not picking on Shapiro because he’s some notable exception, but because he’s become the rule in the Republican Party, now so thoroughly corrupted that it can’t even remember the once-cherished principles it’s aggressively thrown over. Under Trump’s stewardship, it’s come less to resemble a political party than a criminal syndicate or a cartoonishly corrupt pol’s vanity project/slush fund.

As Shapiro himself had to recently admit:

Taking sacks of goodies from people who support Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, al-Jazeera, all the rest, that's not America first. Like, please define America first in a way that says you should take sacks of cash from the Qatari royals who are behind al-Jazeera. It just isn't America first in any conceivable way. So back to the original question — is this good for President Trump? Is it good for his agenda? Is it good for draining the swamp and getting things done? The answer is, no. It isn't. It isn't. If you want President Trump to succeed, this kind of skeezy stuff needs to stop.

Aside from Shapiro’s misguided notion about Trump not fulfilling his agenda (Trump’s agenda is to enrich Trump, which has been a stunning success by any measure), he makes a fair point. And yet, if Shapiro wants to pretend that he’s still interested in anything resembling swamp drainage, he’s going to have to do two things that are utterly foreign to him:

1. Stop backing the swampiest of all swamp creatures.
2. Become more honest, and stay that way.

https://mattlabash.substack.com/p/the-ben-shapiro-honesty-hustle

'Neocon' - Code Name -"Jew"

 

Prominent neoconservatives include figures who emerged as influential voices in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, often associated with a strong foreign policy stance, interventionism, and the promotion of democratic values globally. Key figures include Irving Kristol, considered the "godfather" of neoconservatism. Other notable neoconservatives include Paul Wolfowitz, Norman Podhoretz, William Kristol, Robert Kagan, Max Boot, Douglas Feith,  Elliot Abrams, Richard Perle, Paul Bremer, David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, Dennis Prager.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism

Trump Declares the 'Neocon' Era Over

 

The speech in Saudi Arabia promised a new course for U.S. policy in the Middle East. Can He Provide Overnight Delivery With The Qatari Bribe?

 

President Donald Trump has a vision of a "great transformation" in the Middle East. But it's not the transformation that American leaders have talked about bringing at gunpoint. At his Tuesday speech at a U.S.-Saudi investment summit in Riyadh, the president denounced the failures of "interventionists" and promised a future "where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out of existence."

Those words came with action. In his speech, Trump promised to lift all U.S. sanctions on Syria, and the day after, he shook hands with new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who had a $10 million bounty on his head from the U.S. government just six months ago. In the weeks leading up to the summit, Trump ended the U.S. war in Yemen and negotiated the release of the last American in Hamas captivity. It remains to be seen whether he can follow through.

Riyadh was only the first stop in Trump's planned four-day tour of the Persian Gulf. He also plans to stop in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In his speech, Trump praised the oil-rich Arab monarchies of the Gulf—and used their success to attack the architects of past U.S. policy. 

 "The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation builders, neocons, or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Kabul, Baghdad, and so many other cities," Trump said. "Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves, the people that are right here, the people that have lived here all their lives, developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions, and charting your own destinies in your own way."

He also offered Iran "a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future," emphasizing that "some of the closest friends of the United States of America are nations we fought wars against in generations past." Although Trump threatened Iran with more economic sanctions if it didn't accept a deal, he didn't bring out his usual threats to bomb the country.

The Trump administration is currently negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, and briefed the media that it was "encouraged" by the latest meeting in Oman last week. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the negotiations "more serious and more direct" than before. 

If Trump's brief war in Yemen was a dry run for war with Iran, his outreach to Syria demonstrated his eagerness to turn enemies into friends. There were two issues at play. One was that Congress and the White House had imposed intense economic sanctions on Syria designed to weaken the rule of Bashar al-Assad. Sharaa's new government inherited that embargo despite overthrowing Assad by force.

The second issue was that Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, was himself a former commander in Al Qaeda. (As Trump joked, Sharaa has a "very strong past.") There was intense debate in Washington about whether to continue pursuing economic pressure. In the end, Trump decided to offer Syria a clean slate. During his handshake, Trump asked Sharaa to join an alliance with Israel, deport Palestinian rebels, and assume responsibility for accused Islamic State supporters currently being held by Kurdish-led rebels, according to a White House statement.

"This is good for Israel, having a relationship like I have with these countries," Trump told reporters on the Wednesday flight from Saudi Arabia to Qatar.

But the Israeli government and its supporters are pretty nervous about being left behind by Trump's new policies. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) stated in a press release on Tuesday that he has "been in close contact with Israel, as they are extremely concerned about the state of play in Syria." And Trump's peace deal in Yemen does not forbid Houthi forces from attacking Israel, which they did in the middle of Trump's speech.

Perhaps most concerning for Israel, the Trump administration has begun direct talks with Hamas, via Arab Americans for Trump founder Bishara Bahbah. The U.S. did not inform Israel, which only discovered this backchannel through spies, according to Axios. Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday that there is "no way we will stop the war," even if more hostages are released, Trump said in his Tuesday speech that he would "work to get that war ended as quickly as possible."

On Monday, Hamas agreed to release Edan Alexander, an American teenager from New Jersey captured while fighting for the Israeli army. Alexander "wouldn't be there if it weren't for us, he wouldn't be living right now, probably none of the hostages would be living right now," Trump said during the Wednesday flight. Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who serves as foreign minister, told reporters on Wednesday that he was expecting "very courageous decisions" from Trump on "resolving the broader issues of Palestine."

The prince added that he "fully supports nuclear talks between America and Iran and hopes for positive results." Trump also joked in his speech that lifting the sanctions on Syria was one of the "things I do for" Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

Trump has always been close to the Gulf monarchies. Saudi Arabia has invested $2 billion into a business run by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Just before the summit, Qatar gifted the White House a $400 million luxury airplane. In the past, these states were an influence for more U.S. intervention. They used much of their influence trying to incite Washington against their mutual enemies, such as Iran and Syria, and against each other.

But the Gulf states' outlook has changed. On one hand, they're satisfied with the victories they've won so far; the Syrian government was overthrown and Iran was cut down to size. On the other hand, the success of Yemeni and Iranian missile attacks has demonstrated that even direct U.S. protection can't shield the Gulf states from the cost of further war. And the Gulf leaders seem genuinely scared that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could spill over to threaten their rule.

Of course, the Gulf states still fundamentally want U.S. protection, despite their shifts on some issues. Along with his peaceful gestures, Trump signed a new $142 billion weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. The next day, he publicly signed off on a previously agreed $2 billion drone sale to Qatar. While Trump mocked the "Western interventionists flying people in beautiful planes" to the Middle East, these arms deals historically bring hundreds of U.S. military advisers and defense contractors to the region—along with unspoken promises of more direct U.S. military assistance.

Before Trump soured on the Yemeni war, Saudi Arabia was reportedly egging on U.S. escalation. The influence that the kingdom is now using to encourage diplomacy could easily be used to encourage war again.

After all, former President Barack Obama made the same promises as Trump early in his presidency, telling an audience in Egypt that there would be "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect." Over the next eight years, he ended up permanently entrenching U.S. military involvement in the region.

"In a meaningful way, this is Trump delivering Obama's Cairo speech…only this time in Riyadh, and with notable tweaks, of course. But at its core, the message is much the same," wrote New Lines Magazine Editor in Chief Hassan Hassan. The only question is whether Trump can succeed where his predecessor failed.

https://reason.com/2025/05/14/trump-declares-the-neocon-era-over/?