Is Israel Becoming Dhimmis in Their Own State?

Times of Israel Headline Screams:
“In Israel, Sec. of State Rubio Reaffirms US Ties”  

 

The headline looks harmless enough. A senior American official lands in Israel, flashes smiles, pledges “ironclad” support, and recites the well-rehearsed script of eternal friendship. But beneath the pleasantries lurks a darker question: why does Israel look like the supplicant, waiting for reassurance, as though its sovereignty and survival depend on the blessing of Washington?

Israel was reborn in 1948 so Jews would never again live as dhimmis—a tolerated but humiliated minority, second-class in their own land or any land. Yet reading the headlines, one wonders: have we traded one master for another? Once, Jews looked nervously over the shoulder of the local sultan or czar; today we look toward Foggy Bottom and Capitol Hill.

Of course, Israel needs allies. No nation, especially one surrounded by implacable foes, survives in isolation. But there is a line between alliance and dependency, between partnership and patronage. When every Israeli military move is prefaced by, “Will the Americans approve?”—when every headline trumpets the reassurance of a visiting dignitary rather than the confidence of our own leaders—we risk internalizing the mentality of second-class status.

The irony is painful. In the Arab world, Jews once endured dhimmitude—paying the jizya, bowing their heads, living under the whim of rulers who allowed their existence but never their equality. In the modern State of Israel, founded with blood and faith precisely to end that degradation, headlines now hint at a different but parallel subservience: Jews waiting for the nod from a foreign power before daring to act like a sovereign people.

What does it say about us if Israel’s legitimacy is measured not by its eternal right to the Land of Israel, not by the covenant of Tanach or the sacrifices of our soldiers, but by the reassuring words of an American politician whose tenure will be gone in four years? What happens the day that reassurance is not offered—or worse, is withdrawn?

The danger is not only strategic, but spiritual. A nation that defines itself by foreign approval will inevitably forget its own essence. Israel’s essence is not as a “strategic asset” for America, but as the covenantal homeland of the Jewish people, answerable to Hashem, to history, and to its own people’s destiny.

By all means, let American officials come, shake hands, and reaffirm ties. But Israel’s headlines should not scream with relief at their patronage. They should scream with the confidence of a sovereign nation that knows who it is, why it exists, and Who brought it back to life.

Israel cannot afford to live as dhimmis in its own state. Not before America, not before Europe, not before anyone. We are not guests here. We are home.

 

 REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/is-israel-becoming-dhimmis-in-their-own-state/

Let’s stop lying to ourselves!

 

Gaza is not about 1967. It’s not about settlements. It’s not about humanitarian aid, water rights, or another donor conference in Geneva. Gaza is not even about Gaza.

 The war Israel fights today is the same war our ancestors faced 1,400 years ago — the Arab–Jewish war. It began when Islam declared that Jews were a cursed people, fit only to be humiliated, ruled, and ultimately erased. It has never ended.

And what drives them mad is not “occupation.” It is Jewish sovereignty. The very existence of Israel is the unforgivable crime. For 1,400 years Jews were allowed to live — but only as dhimmi, broken, subordinate, grateful for the scraps of tolerance thrown their way. Then came 1948. For the first time in Islamic history, Jews stood up, armed, independent, and sovereign in their own land. That is the “Nakba.” That is the real wound that never heals. 

Every Western diplomat and well-meaning pundit insists the “conflict” between Israel and Gaza has a solution: a two-state arrangement, land swaps, economic aid, confidence-building measures. They propose endless conferences, road maps, accords. They speak the language of compromise. But the truth is harsher: Gaza is not a land dispute. It is not about settlements or 1967 borders. It is not even about statehood. Gaza is simply the latest battlefield in a 1,400-year Arab–Jewish war that has never ceased — and for which there is no neat solution.

Since the 7th century, when Islam burst out of Arabia, Jews have lived under Muslim domination as dhimmi: tolerated but humiliated, allowed to survive only as long as they knew their place. The Jew could live — but never stand as an equal. This was not colonialism or modern geopolitics. This was theology. The Quran and subsequent Islamic tradition carved out a worldview: Jews rejected Muhammad, and thus they are forever marked as enemies. The Hadith even anticipates the apocalypse in which Muslims will hunt down Jews hiding behind rocks and trees. When Hamas screams that they are “carrying out the will of Allah,” they are not inventing anything new. They are quoting scripture.

What Israel represents is not just a piece of territory in the Middle East. Israel is the ultimate rebellion against 1,400 years of Muslim domination. For the first time since the rise of Islam, Jews are not a tolerated minority under Islamic power, but a sovereign people in their ancestral land, armed, independent, and unwilling to bow. That fact alone is intolerable to the ideological heirs of the Caliphate. No peace plan can erase that humiliation.

The Arab–Jewish war is therefore not cyclical violence; it is the continuation of an ancient clash. Gaza’s rockets and Israel’s responses are modern expressions of an old pattern: Islam’s refusal to accept Jewish sovereignty, and the Jewish refusal to disappear. Every cease-fire is a pause in a centuries-old war of civilizations. Every attempt at compromise founders on the same reef: Israel insists on being, and the Arab world insists it cannot be.

Western negotiators, sitting in air-conditioned hotels, refuse to hear this. They treat Gaza as a solvable border dispute, as if Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat could sign away 1,400 years of theology. But ideas rooted in scripture do not vanish with diplomatic signatures. That is why every “peace process” has failed, and why each new round of violence erupts with greater ferocity.

Does this mean Israel is doomed? No. It means Israel must stop believing in fantasies. There will be no permanent peace, no handshake that “ends the conflict.” Israel survives, and thrives, by strength — by recognizing that survival is the goal, not utopia. The only “solution” is deterrence, vigilance, and a clarity of vision: we are not engaged in a border squabble but in an ancient war, with no expiration date.

The Gaza war is not 2025. It is 732, 1099, 1929, 1948, 2023. It is the same story told over centuries: the Jew insists on life and sovereignty; the Arab world insists he cannot have it. That is why the Gaza–Israel war is not solvable — because it is not a conflict at all. It is the continuation of the Arab–Jewish war, 1,400 years old, and still raging.

There is no solution. There is only survival. Israel’s only path is to fight, win, and keep winning. To crush those who rise against her. To stop yearning for the photo-op handshake that will never come. This war will not end in our lifetime because it did not begin in our lifetime. It began in Medina in the 7th century. It roared in Hebron in 1929, in the refugee camps in 1948, on the Temple Mount in 2000, and in the skies over Gaza today. 

 

REPUBLISHED: 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/lets-stop-lying-to-ourselves/

Haredi "Olam Hatorah" To IDF Sodiers - "You Should Have Stayed In The 4 Walls Of The Yeshiva" --- Defense Ministry says 45% of 20,000 wounded soldiers have physical injuries, 35% have PTSD or other mental ailments, and 20% are suffering both physically and mentally

 

WE DO NOT CARE:The challenges include “a shortage of staff, with a ratio of 1:750 patients per rehabilitation worker; the need to simplify bureaucracy; and new and unique needs required for the newly wounded” 

More than 10,000 IDF soldiers have been treated for mental health issues since Oct. 7

 

Defense Ministry says 45% of 20,000 wounded soldiers have physical injuries, 35% have PTSD or other mental ailments, and 20% are suffering both physically and mentally

 

Wounded IDF soldiers arrive for the funeral of a comrade at Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, July 8, 2025. 

 

The Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department said on Sunday that it has treated some 20,000 wounded soldiers since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023, more than half of whom are suffering from mental health conditions.

According to the Defense Ministry, some 56% of those treated by the rehab centers amid the war are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions.

Some 9% of the wounded are defined as having moderate-to-severe injuries; 56 soldiers are classified as having over 100% disability — the most severe level of injury; 24 wounded have 100% disability; 16 of those wounded are paralyzed; and 99 are amputees who received prosthetics, the ministry said.

Each month, around 1,000 wounded soldiers from the war are treated by the rehab department, in addition to around 600 requests from previous wars.

 

 Israeli soldiers wounded in the war with Hamas walk in the rehabilitation division of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan

 

Including previous wars, the ministry said the rehab department is caring for a total of 81,700 wounded veterans, including 31,000, or 38%, suffering from mental health conditions. It forecasts that by 2028, the center will be treating some 100,000, with at least half of them suffering from PTSD and other mental health conditions.

The rehab department’s budget stands at NIS 8.3 billion ($2.5 billion), NIS 4.1 billion of which is dedicated to treating those with mental health conditions, the ministry said.

Officials at the rehab department say they have identified that “in the coming years, alongside the national challenges of the increase in the number of wounded, the continuation of the war, the treatment of those dealing with mental health conditions, the concern about suicide, and the shortage of therapists, there are challenges that require immediate response.”

The challenges include “a shortage of staff, with a ratio of 1:750 patients per rehabilitation worker; the need to simplify bureaucracy; and new and unique needs required for the newly wounded,” it said.

The Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department said on Sunday that it has treated some 20,000 wounded soldiers since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023, more than half of whom are suffering from mental health conditions.

According to the Defense Ministry, some 56% of those treated by the rehab centers amid the war are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions.

Some 9% of the wounded are defined as having moderate-to-severe injuries; 56 soldiers are classified as having over 100% disability — the most severe level of injury; 24 wounded have 100% disability; 16 of those wounded are paralyzed; and 99 are amputees who received prosthetics, the ministry said.

Each month, around 1,000 wounded soldiers from the war are treated by the rehab department, in addition to around 600 requests from previous wars.

 

 Israeli soldiers wounded in the war with Hamas walk in the rehabilitation division of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan

 

The rehab department’s budget stands at NIS 8.3 billion ($2.5 billion), NIS 4.1 billion of which is dedicated to treating those with mental health conditions, the ministry said.

Officials at the rehab department say they have identified that “in the coming years, alongside the national challenges of the increase in the number of wounded, the continuation of the war, the treatment of those dealing with mental health conditions, the concern about suicide, and the shortage of therapists, there are challenges that require immediate response.”

The challenges include “a shortage of staff, with a ratio of 1:750 patients per rehabilitation worker; the need to simplify bureaucracy; and new and unique needs required for the newly wounded,” it said.

 

IDF troops simulate an aerial evacuation of wounded soldiers near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, in images cleared for publication on March 26, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

 

In light of the challenges, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich recently announced the establishment of a public committee headed by Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, chairman of Leumit Health Services, to formulate recommendations on how to expand the treatment and rehabilitation of wounded IDF soldiers.

The new initiative plans to examine and recommend improvements in key areas, including recognition of wounded veterans, streamlining medical and psychological rehabilitation, employment integration, family support systems and allocation of budget and manpower resources.

Since the war began with the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion, 904 IDF soldiers have been killed across the various arenas of conflict.

That figure includes 329 soldiers killed during the October 7 attack and 460 during the ensuing ground operations in Gaza and amid operations on the border. It also includes 29 soldiers killed in Hezbollah attacks inside Israel, and 51 soldiers who were killed during ground operations in Lebanon.

Two soldiers were killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and one soldier was killed in a ballistic missile attack from Iran.

The military’s list also includes a soldier killed by friendly fire in the West Bank, a soldier killed due to malfunctioning ammunition on the Lebanon border, two soldiers killed in a tank accident in northern Israel, and a number of other deadly incidents amid the war that were not directly related to the fighting.

 

Friends and family attend the funeral of Sgt. Shlomo Yakir Shrem, who was killed during an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, at the military cemetery in Kfar Etzion, July 15, 2025. 

 

Twelve soldiers were killed in terror attacks in the West Bank and Israel, and five soldiers were killed during counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/more-than-10000-idf-soldiers-have-been-treated-for-mental-health-issues-since-oct-7/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2025-09-14&utm_medium=email

The Echoes of 9/11 on October 7: A War Rooted in Hate Theology

 

September 11, 2001, and October 7, 2023, are not two separate events. 

They are chapters in the same book, authored by the same ideology: radical Islam’s war against Jews, Christians, and the West. The methods differ—planes into towers, paragliders into kibbutzim—but the theology behind both atrocities comes from the same place: the conviction that Islam must rule the world, and that Jews especially must be destroyed.

Let’s stop deluding ourselves. The terrorists are not vague “militants.” They are not “resistance fighters.” They are theological warriors, quoting chapter and verse as they slaughter. Al Qaeda on 9/11 and Hamas on October 7 were not acting despite Islam, but in their own eyes, because of it.

Hamas’s founding charter quotes the Quran directly: “The Day of Judgment will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Jews hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees say, O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him” (Sahih Muslim 2922). That isn’t a fringe idea—it’s a Hadith considered authentic in Islamic tradition. For Hamas, this is not metaphor. It is policy.

When Al Qaeda struck America, bin Laden declared it was a holy war. He quoted the Quran: “Fight them until there is no more fitnah [unbelief] and religion is all for Allah” (Quran 8:39). His target was not just the U.S. military—it was the very existence of a free, pluralistic West. The Jews were the “little Satan,” America the “great Satan,” both obstacles to a world submitted to Allah.

October 7 was soaked in the same theology. Hamas fighters stormed Israeli towns screaming “Allahu Akbar,” not “Free Palestine.” Their goal was not territory, but theology: the humiliation of the Jews. In their eyes, this is obedience to the Quran: “Humiliation and wretchedness were stamped upon them [the Jews]… They incurred wrath from Allah” (Quran 2:61). To Hamas, slaughtering Jews is not a crime—it is a divine command.

And the hatred is not limited to Jews. The Quran describes Christians, too, as destined for defeat: “They have certainly disbelieved who say, ‘Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary’” (Quran 5:72). This is why 9/11 targeted America, not only Israel. It is the same war, the same creed, the same script.

The echoes between 9/11 and October 7 are therefore not just tactical, but theological. Both were sermons with bullets. Both were commentaries on scripture written in Jewish and American blood. Both were acts of worship as much as they were acts of war.

What does the West do? Deny it. Whitewash it. Pretend this is about borders, poverty, or politics. After 9/11, intellectuals rushed to insist “Islam is a religion of peace.” After October 7, the same voices bend over backwards to claim Hamas does not represent “real Islam.” Meanwhile, Hamas clerics broadcast weekly sermons dripping with Jew-hatred, quoting Quran 5:82: “You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews…” These are not marginal verses. They are mainstream. And jihadists act on them.

The tragedy is not only that Jews were butchered on October 7. The tragedy is that we still pretend this has nothing to do with religion. The West hides behind illusions of “coexistence.” Israel clings to hopes of “managing” Hamas. But the killers have told us in plain Arabic: they are obeying God.

The echoes of 9/11 on October 7 ring with one command: believe your enemies when they tell you who they are. Radical Islam wants the West humiliated, America dethroned, and the Jews eradicated. If 9/11 was a wake-up call, October 7 is the alarm blaring again.

Israel must respond not as if this is a border dispute, but as if it is a holy war—because that is exactly how our enemies see it. Hamas must be crushed, not contained. And the West must face reality: the jihad that hit New York and the jihad that hit the Negev is the same jihad. If Israel falls, the towers will fall again—whether in Manhattan, London, or Paris.

The towers burned. The kibbutzim burned. The texts that inspired both burn still. Until we take them seriously, the echoes of 9/11 and October 7 will not fade. They will grow louder.

 

 REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-echoes-of-9-11-on-october-7-a-war-rooted-in-hate-theology/

 

WATCH: 

 

Halbertal — a Haredi leader — advocates a complete separation of “church” and state, and argues against continued government subsidy of the Haredi community

As the Haredi draft issue simmers, Dov Halbertal has some fascinating things to say

 

Rabbi Dov Halbertal

Monday was a terrible day. The terror attack in Jerusalem that killed six and wounded many more, some very seriously, felt like a return to the “old days” of terror attacks on busses and at busy intersections. Not a good return, obviously. Horrible.

Interestingly, and to their great credit, as the crowd was (understandably) fleeing the shooting, a Haredi soldier and another Haredi young man (armed, I’m not sure how) ran towards the terrorists and eliminated them. It was an act of great bravery, expected of soldiers … but still. And a reminder that there’s every reason for Haredim to be in the army. Period.

Later that day, we learned that that same morning four soldiers had been killed in Gaza when their tank went over a mine that had been placed in their way for precisely that purpose. Another reminder of the horrific cost that the continued military assault on Gaza City (which may or may not be the right move—a different issue) will undoubtedly exact.

Which will again raise the question of who’s bearing what burden?

In Israeli jargon, to “carry the stretcher” is to help share the burden of protecting this country. Why? Because one of the milestones of basic training is a long hike (how long and where depends on the unit) in which soldiers carry a stretcher the entire way. “No one gets left behind” — AND everyone has to take a turn carrying the stretcher.

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That was hardly the only clip about and by Haredim that has been making its way around, and today we introduce an important public figure in Israeli circles, Rabbi Dov Halbertal.

Dov Halbertal identifies as Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and has held significant positions within the Haredi religious establishment in Israel, including serving as head of the Office of the Chief Rabbi of Israel.

Some of his positions are controversial in larger Israeli society,. Early in Israel’s history, there was bitter disagreement (even more boisterous than the controversy surrounding Haredi service in the IDF) about whether or not women should have any role in the army at all. Though that issue has long since been settled, Halbertal, interestingly, remains a hold-out and continues to argue that women should have very limited roles in the IDF and should not serve in combat units.

But some of his other positions are controversial in, and critical of, Haredi society. The following clips speak for themselves.

The first clip, which was clearly created for social media (though I don’t know where it was first posted), is about as clear an indictment of Netanyahu as anyone has made. That it comes from the Haredi sector makes it particularly interesting.

Those around the world who continue to support Netanyahu (which is fine—that’s politics) should ask themselves, as an indication of how familiar they are with what’s really roiling this society — how many of the names that Halbertal names can they identify, and whether they understand why is he pointing to them …

Elsewhere, Halbertal opined about the ongoing Haredi demands of the government, and its threats that it will topple the coalition (a threat it has made for years and years with other coalitions, too) if the Haredim do not get what they want.

Halbertal — a Haredi leader — advocates a complete separation of “church” and state, and argues against continued government subsidy of the Haredi community. 

There are voices out there, even in the Haredi world, who want something different. What we do not know yet is how much pressure will come bottom-up to force current leadership to care more about people like Dov Halbertal think and say.

Will the heroism of a Haredi soldier this week change the discourse in that community? That’s an issue worth following.

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 WATCH VIDEOS WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES:

https://danielgordis.substack.com/p/as-the-haredi-draft-issue-simmers?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=ts9o2&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The World Has to Get Used to Jews With Military Power

 

 The Era Of The Passive Jew Is Over!

For nearly two thousand years, the image of the Jew was largely the same across continents: powerless, bookish, vulnerable. From medieval Europe to the Arab lands, Jews lived at the mercy of their hosts. They survived by wit, prayer, commerce, and scholarship—but rarely by the sword. The notion of the Jew as a soldier, let alone as a military power, was unthinkable. The world grew accustomed to this stereotype. Jews were victims, not fighters. They were the persecuted, not the defenders.

Then came the rebirth of the State of Israel, and with it a historic reversal. For the first time in millennia, Jews became masters of their own defense. The same people who were herded into ghettos, who endured pogroms, who were deported to the gas chambers, now patrol borders, fly fighter jets, and command tanks. This is nothing less than a revolution in Jewish history and in the consciousness of the nations.

But not everyone has adjusted. Much of the international community still instinctively recoils when Jews exercise power, especially military power. When Israel fights back against terror, critics are quick to invoke disproportionality, as though the Jew must remain weak to remain authentic. The expectation lingers that Jews may suffer, but not strike. They may pray, but not shoot. They may cry, but not conquer.

This is not only hypocrisy—it is historical blindness. The Torah itself records a nation that fought wars, built armies, and secured its survival by strength and faith together. King David was not only a poet; he was a warrior. The Maccabees were not only priests; they were generals. Jewish sovereignty has always required Jewish arms. What the world sees today in the Israeli soldier is not an aberration but a restoration.

Israel’s military power is not an accident; it is a necessity. Surrounded by hostile neighbors, the Jewish state cannot afford illusions. Without deterrence, there is no survival. Without strength, there is no peace. And so the world must adjust its expectations: Jews are no longer a powerless minority but a sovereign nation with tanks, missiles, and resolve.

This shift is uncomfortable for many, not least because it shatters centuries of ingrained imagery. But it is time to face reality. The era of the passive Jew is over. The era of the sovereign Jew has begun. Israel is not ashamed of its military; it is proud of it. A Jewish soldier defending his people is as authentic an expression of Jewish destiny as a rabbi studying Torah.

The world may struggle with this new reality, but it will have to get used to it. Never again will Jews wait helplessly for others to defend them. Never again will Jewish survival depend on the goodwill of kings, priests, or presidents. From now on, the Jewish people carry their fate in their own hands. And that is how it must be.

Let’s be clear: no one lectures America about being “disproportionate” when it bombs terrorists. No one told Britain to hold back when the Nazis blitzed London. But when Jews defend themselves? Ah, then the rules change. Then the world remembers the Jew it preferred — weak, dependent, apologetic.

Too bad. That Jew is not coming back.

The Jewish people are not going back to the ghettos of Europe or the refugee camps of the Middle East. We are not returning to a time when others decided whether we live or die. We have our own state, our own army, our own destiny. And yes, that means Jews with tanks, jets, and an iron will to win.

If that makes the world uncomfortable, so be it. History has changed. Jews with power are not a temporary accident — they are the new reality. Israel exists, Israel defends itself, and Israel will not ask permission from anyone to survive.

The world had two thousand years to get used to powerless Jews. Now it must get used to Jews with power.

 REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-world-has-to-get-used-to-jews-with-military-power/

Am Yisrael lives because Jews of every stripe stood together today

 

Six killed, 6 seriously injured in Jerusalem as terrorists open fire on bus, pedestrians

 

Photo Courtesy Times Of Israel/Chaim Goldberg

In the civilized chaos that defines our modern reality, an ultra-Orthodox man—someone many would hurry to dismiss as detached from Israel’s battlefront—rose in defense of life. At the Ramot Junction bus stop, where two Palestinian gunmen opened fire in broad daylight, six people were killed and over twenty injured. But history turned its gaze in an unexpected direction. A  Haredi soldier and an armed civilian, identified as a Haredi man, neutralized the attackers.

There is a grim irony here: while today our community proved its willingness to defend, many within it still believe the opposite—rejecting conscription and labeling service as betrayal. But when crisis strikes, heroes emerge regardless of ideology or uniform. It’s time to ask: are we honoring those heroes, or are we betraying them with our silence?

Our nation has survived thanks to the unexpected defenders—warrior-yeshiva students, craftsmen turned security guards, battalions formed against existential threats. When we forget that legacy, we weaken our collective identity. Today’s act of courage is not an outlier; it is a call to remember. 

The Haredi man defied the dominant narrative: that Haredim are removed from national duty, that Torah and arms cannot coexist. 

It is worth reminding ourselves: Haredim were once soldiers. They fought for the walls of Jerusalem, for the shtetlach of Poland, for the survival of their families in forests and cellars, and later for the State of Israel itself. 

The tragedy of our time is that an entire community has been taught to forget its own story. The courage of their grandfathers is no longer seen as their inheritance. Yet history still whispers the truth: the Torah world has always produced warriors. And if destiny calls again, it can do so once more.

So how did the narrative shift? Partly it was survival strategy: the Chazon Ish, in the fledgling years of the State, sought to preserve the flame of Torah by carving out narrow exemptions for yeshiva men after the Holocaust. That temporary policy hardened into ideology. Over time, what began as an emergency measure evolved into a claim that army service and Torah are inherently incompatible. History, however, testifies otherwise.

Even in the earliest years of the State, the religious Zionist brigades like the “Netzah Yehuda” unit were overwhelmingly traditional. To speak of “Haredim do not fight” is to ignore entire battalions of Torah-observant Jews who fought in ’48, ’56, ’67, and ’73. 

Let no one dare say again, “Haredim don’t fight.” The bus stop in Ramot is the witness, and the dead are the testimony. May we never forget — and may we never again divide ourselves when the enemy is united against us.

 

 REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/am-yisrael-lives-because-jews-of-every-stripe-stood-together-today/

 

 

When A Briiliant Rabbi Is Too Smart To Be Appreciated By The Haredi Yeshiva World! Yehi Zichro Baruch! I encourage everyone to "YouTube" his videos (Jews Get It Free)

 Paraphrased -"My software converting my speech to text was anti-Semitic, every time I said the Prophets of Israel, it spelled "P-R-O-F-I-T-S". PM

 

Rabbi Berel Wein ZTL

No Opinion (excerpted From The Wein Press)

For the past few decades, I have written two articles every week for distribution in my synagogue and through the Destiny Foundation. One article has always been based upon the teachings and insights that one can derive from understanding and studying the Torah portion of the week that will be heard publicly in the Sabbath services.  

 

The other article was based upon my own personal thoughts and opinions concerning events, personalities, issues and societal controversies that were then under general discussion. Since everyone else had an opinion regarding these matters, I took the liberty of expressing my opinion as well. And the truth be said, I did have an opinion regarding almost every issue raised in Jewish and general society over the past number of decades. In fact, I so valued my opinions that I collected quite a number of them, edited them and then published them in a book entitled “In My Opinion…”. I was quite satisfied with the reception and distribution of this book, and I have received many comments regarding its contents. Needless to say, not everyone agreed with my opinions, but that never bothered me because deep down in my heart I always know that I am always right.

 

However, as my years have advanced and my eyesight has declined. it has become increasingly difficult for me to produce these two articles every week. It is not so much that I lack what to say as it is that I find it harder and harder to find the energy and the simple physical skills necessary to produce and write these articles. I therefore decided, beginning with this year's Torah cycle last month, that I would only produce the article about the Torah reading of the week and cease continue writing and producing the opinion article. The opinion article always was longer and, in many ways, much more difficult to write and produce. It always required heavier and more detailed editing because opinions are by their very nature controversial ideas and are about personal controversy, and I was always hesitant about my producing and publishing these types of articles. But nevertheless, the opinion articles flowed on for a number of decades. However, as I mentioned above, my energy level and my eyesight have declined over the past year, and I therefore resolved that I was no longer going to produce any opinion articles for general circulation.

 

Somewhat naïvely, I thought that this would pass relatively unnoticed. There is no shortage of printed material published by excellent writers and noted rabbinic scholars every week so I certainly felt safe in assuming that the opinion article that I wrote would not necessarily be noted as being missing. However, I was wrong because I received quite a number of messages from people demanding to know why I stopped sending them my weekly opinion article. In one sense, I am very flattered that apparently people have noted that my opinion article no longer appears. However, I have also been forced through the medium of this newsletter to apologize and explain why my opinion article no longer appears. Again, my friends, it is not for any lack of opinion that I do not publicly express my opinion any longer. It is simply that the process of writing it and distributing it has become difficult and burdensome to me. I long ago learned that when there is no longer any enthusiasm for the project at hand then it is wiser and safer to close down the project and let it rest on its previous laurels. So, I simply decided to close down the project of writing an opinion article every week. I am never happy to give up on a project but I have always prided myself on being practical and realistic and being able to say when enough is enough.

 

I had thought that when I no longer have to write about my opinion, I would have fewer opinions. 

 

However, this has not been the case. In fact, I am afraid that I have become even more opinionated than I was before when I was still writing an opinion article every week. It is simply human to have an opinion about everything that goes on around us. Life itself is little more than a series of incidents that lead to decisions that form the type of life that we live in general terms through the creation of the society in which we exist. There are very few individuals if any that have no opinions about the country and society in which they live, about the governmental leaders of that society and about their own personal goals, ambitions and plans.

 

 Sometimes our opinions are obvious to all and sometimes they are so delicate and sensitive that we ourselves don't quite recognize and appreciate them. They are certainly there, and they certainly guide and lead us in myriad ways, even if we do not acknowledge or understand their presence and importance. It may be possible to abstain in expressing one's opinion, from voting in an election process, from even acting upon one's own opinion, but I feel that it is almost impossible to say honestly that one has no opinion. We all have opinions on issues that matter even if we do not reveal them to others and sometimes we even stifle them within our own selves. So, I am certain that all of you are aware that even if I do not resume an opinion article every week for distribution, I still have opinions about the life and society that goes on around me. Advanced age serves as a stimulus for achievement in life goals, no matter what age we attain or infirmity that we may unfortunately suffer from. 

 

And as I write these words, the sneaking suspicion has crossed my mind that perhaps occasionally in the near future I will once again write about my opinion concerning the events and personalities of the time. Just as one should be able to say that enough is enough, one should also be able to say never say never.

https://www.rabbiwein.com/blog/post-2437

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/rabbi-berel-wein-ztl-the-rabbi-who-gave-the-jewish-people-their-story/

Full-Page Ad In The Jerusalem Post - “Instead of spending money to keep bochurim out of the army, let’s invest in finding ways to support their Torah learning while in the army.

 

The Abraham Accords Were Never More Than A Trump Photo-Op!

 

West Bank annexation could end Israeli normalization hopes, Saudi crown prince warns - KAN

 

This comes after a similar warning from the UAE, which stated that any annexation would be a red flag that could lead his country to exit the Abraham Accords.

Israel’s annexation of the West Bank would end any chance of normalization, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) said on Saturday, according to a report by Israeli public broadcaster, KAN News.

MBS's comments came during a meeting with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) in Riyadh, according to the report.

MBZ previously issued a similar warning, stating that any annexation would be a "red flag" that could lead to the Gulf country exiting the Abraham Accords.

The two leaders agreed in Riyadh that if Israel moves forward with West Bank annexation, then withdrawal from the Abraham Accords would be a real possibility, according to a source in the Saudi royal family cited by KAN.

The source added that annexation would also kill the chances of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. He further noted that by taking such steps, Israel is playing into the hands of Iran and Hamas, whose interest is to block ties between Israel and Arab states.

 

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (L), President of the United Arab Emirates, stands for a photograph with Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz (R), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia September 3, 2025. 

 

UAE, Saudi Arabia push for a Palestinian State

 

The report also specified how Saudi Arabia’s endgame goal seems to be the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution to the conflict.

On Wednesday, MBZ wrote on X/Twitter: "In these challenging times, the UAE sends a clear message: annexation is a red line, and peace through a two-state solution must remain the path forward."

The Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and the UAE in 2020, were signed on the basis that Israel would forgo applying sovereignty in the West Bank in exchange for normalized relations.

Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan are also signatories to the accords, which were signed during the first term of the Trump administration.

 

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-866569?

And these "guardians", who refer to themselves as the "eini ha'edah" or the eyes of the community, have gone blind!

 

The UOJ Perspective - As relevant today as ever!

A Time to Cry - A Time to Learn What is Genuine and What Are Lies!

The # 1 Most Widely Read Post of all 2011 

The events of the past several years, very obviously demonstrate the way you and your leaders understand our cultural history. But for the few of us that truly understand our history, as I do, untangling some of its complex strands has practical and intellectual consequences.

In my own case, the hardest - and the most challenging - is my never-ending research of Judaism's core values. I had to unlearn what I thought I knew, and was forced to shed presuppositions I had grown up with and taken for granted internally and intellectually.

This type of introspection, difficult to the extreme, has given me the depth of understanding of the Jewish doctrines to which is part of my very being, embedded in my DNA, and has assisted me in determining, at least for myself, what is divine and what is human.

For those who will never experience my struggle, there is no contradiction at all to the divine and human perception, the challenge is integrating the two. They are not diametrically opposed to one another as your ignorant rabbis would have you believe. They rule out that learned and spiritually inclined Jews, have always sought to discern spiritual truth via their intuition, reflection, senses, and creative imagination.

The rabbis that will deny you your God-given intellect, to experience on your own what humankind was destined to evolve into, a mirror-image of the beauty of what could and should be the Divine will of chochmat ha'briah; the understanding of the evolution of the intellect to adapt to today's realities of truth and practicality. What they would want you to forget, that only with the shedding of the "Church" as the arbiter of truth and morality in the U.S. Constitution, a mere couple of hundred of years ago, was then civilization, at least the United States, able to remove its intellectual shackles burdened and encumbered by nonsense, cruelty, ignorance and hell.

We've developed more in the last few hundred years, than we have in the last untold thousands. That does not come without a price, however. But that is not the thrust of this post.

Rabbis who will deny such experiences, can teach us anything they choose to about God,and have always identified themselves as our "guardians" of the ancient traditions, or Mesorah. They will preach with fire in their eyes and bimah-banging that it is only they that can determine your faithfulness - by your ability to abide by their interpretation of what was handed down from ancient witnesses -- never adding or subtracting anything unless you consult with them first. And these "guardians", who refer to themselves as the "eini ha'edah" or the eyes of the community, that this view of their role expresses appropriate humility; and it vests them and them alone of the Divine Truth, with God's own authority.

These so-called leaders, of course could not ban the imagination entirely, but they effectively channeled your religious imagination to support their opinions, no matter how cruel and ignorant they may be. Everything you are, they teach, is because you are merely an extension of them, not individuals who have the ability to know right from wrong. And if you stray; like Heaven forbid, do not consult with them if an ongoing series of heinous crimes and cover ups are transpiring under your noses, by the very rabbis that will have you consult with them only, than it is you that is the heretic, the maskil, the sheigetz, the oisvorf and the menuvel.

But in fact, these "heretics" having left the intellectual Jewish ghettos of New York, have impoverished the very system that they outgrew. These "heretics" often walk alone - despite the fact that the spiritual inquiry that they undertook, forcing them to leave their ghettos of origin behind, have become primary sources of inspiration to tens of thousands, and eventually their ideas to the vast majority of Jews, because ultimately I pray "right makes might"!

What such people seek, however, is NOT a different set of rules and obligations to their faith, but rather insights or intimations of the Divine, that would validate themselves in experience. Some who have engaged on this path pursue it in voluntary solitude; others participate in various forms of worship, prayer and action, or a combination of the above.

Engaging in such a practice requires the highest form of faith, or belief, but it also involves so much more; the trust that enables us to commit ourselves to what we hope and love. We have the knowledge and experience to declare boldly; "THIS IS NOT SO, I DO NOT ACCEPT THAT!"

The sociologist Peter Berger points out that everyone who participates in tradition today chooses among elements of that tradition. We survived thousands of years BECAUSE we were able to relive, reinvent, and transform what we received.

This act of choice - which the term heresy originally meant - leads us back to the problem that Orthodoxy meant to resolve; how can we tell truth from lies? What is genuine and thus connects us with one another and with reality, and what is shallow, self-serving, or evil? Anyone who has seen foolishness, sentimentality, delusion, and murderous rage disguised as God's truth, knows that there is no easy answer to this dichotomy. Orthodox Judaism distrusts your capacity to make such discrimination and insists on making them for us. Given the often notorious human capacity for self-deception, we can thank your so-called rabbis for this. And the many of you that wish to be spared hard work, gladly accept what these rabbis tell you.

But the fact that we do not have a simple answer, does not mean we should evade the question. We have also seen the hazards - even terrible harm - that sometimes result from unquestioning of religious authority. Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman's tyrannical, unforgivable conduct during the Holocaust comes immediately to mind. Thousands went to their death upon instruction from him. How many hundreds of thousands of "modeh ani l'fanechahs" will forever remain unsaid every morning from the mouths of children?, perhaps only God knows, but I suspect that He does not know either.

Many of us, however, sooner or later, at critical points in our lives, will have to make our own path where none exists. And that, done correctly, is a good thing. As for me, I am resolute, passionate in my beliefs, non-yielding to any ideological foe that crosses my path. I live in my head and in my contemplative soul. Any setback I view as temporary and a challenge to outhink my opponent. I never concede to evil, never...and I never will. My children and your children are counting on me, whether they know it or not.

And so are you....

As the posuk in יְשַׁעְיָהוּ Isaiah - 10:13 says, "The light of Israel will be fire and its Holy One - flame, it will burn and consume its thorns..."

There is a lot more to be said about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, but the essence of it remains in 2025 what it was in 1947: the Arabs said no.

 

There Never Will Be a Palestinian State. So What’s Next?

By Elliott Abrams

October 7 was not Palestine’s independence day, but the final nail in the two-state solution’s coffin. Is confederation with Jordan all that remains?

Late this month, and exquisitely timed to coincide with Rosh Hashanah, the United Nations General Assembly will meet and, addressing it, the president of France will recognize “Palestine” as a state. France will be the 148th country (by most counts) to recognize a state that does not exist and never will—a “state” with no borders, no government, no economy, and no control over its claimed territory. Norway, Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia recognized Palestine in May 2024 in a clear reward for the Hamas terrorist onslaught in October 2023. The United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia will join the French, as may a dozen or more other countries. These acts of “recognition” do nothing to help Palestinians. Their effect and their usual objective is to harm Israel, both by blaming it for the Gaza war and by making an end to that war more difficult to achieve. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in August, “Talks with Hamas fell apart on the day Macron made the unilateral decision that he’s going to recognize the Palestinian state.” 

President Emmanuel Macron’s move, and those of Prime Ministers Keir Starmer of the UK and Anthony Albanese of Australia, are largely domestic policy matters—responses to low approval ratings and large Muslim populations. It seems to have escaped their attention that they are contributing to a Palestinian conclusion that only brutal violence will produce a path forward. In an effort to defend himself from such criticism, Macron stated “there is no alternative” to Palestinian statehood and announced in July that, “in light of the commitments made to me by the president of the Palestinian Authority, I have written to him to express my determination to move forward.”

What were the Palestinian Authority’s solemn commitments to the president of France? “To fulfilling all its governance responsibilities in all Palestinian territories, including Gaza, to reforming fundamentally, [and] to organizing presidential and general elections in 2026 in order to enhance its credibility and its authority over the future Palestinian state.” Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney told CNN that “Canada intends to recognize the state of Palestine . . . because the Palestinian Authority has committed to lead much-needed reform.” Albanese talked of “major new commitments from the Palestinian Authority” and proclaimed that the “president of the Palestinian Authority has reaffirmed these commitments directly to the Australian Government.” Similarly, while the so-called “New York Declaration,” adopted on July 30 by the entire Arab League, the European Union, and more than a dozen other countries usefully condemns the October 7 attacks and calls for Hamas’s removal from power, it calls for a Palestinian state under a reformed Palestinian Authority (PA) that will “continue implementing its credible reform agenda.”

It is difficult not to laugh at all those “commitments” to a “credible reform agenda” by the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, who has made them and others like them over and over again during his nearly twenty years as head of Fatah, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and the Palestinian Authority. The PA is no closer to ruling Gaza than it has been since June 2007 when it was expelled from there by Hamas, nor any closer to fundamental reform. Macron also stated that “we must build the state of Palestine (and) guarantee its viability,” and it apparently never occurred to him to suggest that Palestinians must “build the state of Palestine and guarantee its viability.”

Why, after 80 years of efforts to partition the Holy Land, has a Palestinian state never been created? Why am I persuaded that this objective will never be achieved? Scores of new countries have been created since the Second World War. What is unique about the struggle for “Palestine” that has doomed it, and what are the alternatives? While my particular focus here is on the West Bank, most of the analysis that follows applies just as well to Gaza.

I.

The “two-state solution” is an offshoot of the older idea of partition—the division of the Palestine Mandate held by the United Kingdom into Jewish and Arab lands. Transjordan, a separate British mandate and now the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, came into being in 1946, and the UN General Assembly voted in November 1947 to create two more new states, one Arab and one Jewish. The Jews said yes and the Arabs said no.

There is a lot more to be said about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, but the essence of it remains in 2025 what it was in 1947: the Arabs said no.

Daniel Pipes has commented on this many times, writing of what he called the Palestinians’ “genocidal rejectionism.” Why haven’t peace and Palestinian statehood prevailed? In the early years, Pipes wrote, “The local population, which we now call Palestinians, didn’t want them there and told them to get out. And [the Zionists] responded by saying no, we are modern Westerners, we can bring you clean water and electricity. But Palestinians engaged in rejectionism, and said, ‘No, we want to kill you; we’re going to drive you away.’” Over a century ago, the Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky explained that this is the response the Jews should expect to such offers of economic advancement, although he believed the attitude would change in the fullness of time. But little has changed, as Pipes writes:

It hasn’t worked because it can’t work. If your enemy wants to eliminate you, telling him that you’ll get him clean water is not going to convince him otherwise. What’s so striking is that the Palestinians have retained this genocidal impulse for such a long period. I would argue, as an historian, that this is unique. No other people have ever retained that kind of hostility for such a length of time.

Such views can be, and have often been, attacked as those of a Zionist and conservative. But Pipes’s conclusion has now been given support by an unexpected source: Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, who have written a book called Tomorrow is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine about their decades of efforts, individually and together, to promote Palestinian statehood. Agha was a trusted confidant and key negotiator for Yasir Arafat. Raised in Beirut, now holding a British passport (after previously having Lebanese and Iraqi citizenship), a member of Fatah from 1968, educated at Oxford and associated for 25 years with St. Antony’s College there, the wily and charming Agha advised the Palestinian leadership and participated in talks from the Madrid Conference in 1991 through those with John Kerry in 2014. Malley, son of a far-left and anti-Zionist Egyptian Jew, was special assistant to the president for Arab-Israeli affairs during the Clinton administration and then a key Middle East adviser and negotiator for Barack Obama. Malley and Agha worked together, each for his respective team, to prepare for the Camp David Summit in 2000, and then collaborated on a famous New York Review of Books article in August 2001 that defended Arafat and rejected the view (advanced by President Clinton and most other U.S. participants) that Arafat was to blame for the failure of the peace effort....

 

READ ALL OF IT: https://ideas.tikvah.org/mosaic/essays/there-won-t-be-a-palestinian-state-in-the-west-bank-it-s-time-to-reconsider-the-j

Tens of thousands of young Haredi men refusing to serve while hundreds of thousands of Israelis—right wing and left, religious and secular—risked their lives for their country.

 The Upside of Down

The single issue that unites most of Israeli society and will influence the next Israeli election.

Michael Oren Sep 2

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Haredi demonstrations in Jerusalem

Amid the rising number of our soldiers who have fallen, the unbearable suffering of the hostages and their families, the endless international condemnations, and bitter divisions within Israeli society, it’s difficult to find positive aspects of almost 700 days of war. And yet, in certain ways, the war has changed Israel for the better and contributed substantially to its future survival.

The most obvious “benefit” of the war is the lifesaving lesson learned, albeit at an excruciating price, regarding the buildup of massive terrorist forces along our borders. Never will the Israeli government ever let that happen again. Never will we forfeit the need for deep buffer zones along all our frontiers. Never again will the IDF favor a defensive over an offensive strategy—Iron Dome over tanks and armored personnel carriers—and rely almost exclusively on technology rather than soldiers to guard our land. Never again will our reservists go years without training or go into battle without even the most basic gear.

In 2021, in an article in the American Jewish magazine Tablet, I called for an end to American military aid to Israel. Receiving such aid, I argued, was undignified for an affluent, sovereign country like Israel and enabled our critics to blackmail us by threatening to cut off support if we didn’t act as they wished. Aid also made us dependent on the U.S. for crucial types of tank and artillery ammunition. That dependency, I warned, could prove very dangerous in a war over which American and Israeli leaders disagreed.

Today, four years later—and nearly two years after 10/7—Israeli policymakers agree that Israel must never again be ammunition-dependent on the U.S. or any other foreign power. They understand that the old arrangement of “Israel begs and America gives” must be replaced by a new partnership in which Americans and Israelis participate as equals in strengthening their mutual security.

These security results of the war, however beneficial, pale beside its most transformative outcome. If, before the war, the questions of Haredi military service and integration into the economy were important but still open to debate, today that discussion has ended.

It ended thanks to the sight of tens of thousands of young Haredi men refusing to serve while hundreds of thousands of Israelis—right wing and left, religious and secular—risked their lives for their country. Today, perhaps no single issue unites most of Israeli society and will have the largest impact on the next Israeli election.

If not for the war, the Haredi communities would have grown to be the largest single block in the society, while contributing almost nothing to it economically. In time, that society would have collapsed. The war has been deeply traumatic for Israel. The healing process will take many years. But in certain crucial areas—in defending our borders, arming our troops, and ensuring the survival of our society—the war has not been beneficial; it may well have saved us.

This article was originally published in Hebrew on Ynet on August 27, 2025.