The Tragic Ignorance of Those Who Spit on Jewish Soldiers

 

ISRAEL

There is a special kind of blindness that afflicts certain Jews — a blindness not of the eyes but of the soul. It is the blindness of the Satmar demonstrators marching in Brooklyn, chanting “Judaism yes, Zionism no,” while Jewish blood soaks the soil of Israel. It is the blindness of the Haredim in Bnei Brak and Meah Shearim who throw stones and curses at Israeli soldiers, calling them Nazis as they go off to defend Jews everywhere — including their mockers. It is not holiness. It is not faith. It is ignorance masquerading as righteousness, a perverse distortion of Torah that denies the brutal reality of Jewish history.

These protests are not isolated incidents of dissent. They are moral obscenities that expose a chasm within the Jewish world — between those who understand that Jewish survival has always depended on Jewish defense, and those who retreat into fantasy, thinking that God will protect them while they spit on those who bear that divine responsibility with their lives.

There are Satmar banners that read, “Judaism opposes the Zionist State.” Their message is simple: the return to the Land of Israel before the Messiah is forbidden. They believe that the establishment of the State of Israel was a rebellion against God Himself. The late Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, articulated this view in his 1961 work Vayoel Moshe, grounding his argument in the Talmudic legend of the Three Oaths — that the Jewish people must not “ascend as a wall” to the Land, rebel against the nations, or force the end of exile.

To the devout Satmar, these oaths are divine decrees. But history has shown, in blood and smoke, that the nations themselves have long since violated their side of the covenant — “that they not oppress Israel too much.” From Pharaoh to Hitler to Hamas, the world’s response to Jewish helplessness has not been mercy but murder. To remain motionless under the banner of exile, to trust the world’s kindness rather than Jewish self-defense, is not piety; it is suicide.

The Satmar ideology was born in the ashes of Auschwitz, an attempt to make sense of catastrophe by blaming human defiance rather than human evil. The Rebbe saw in the Holocaust divine punishment for Zionist arrogance, for daring to rebuild Jewish sovereignty without awaiting Messiah. In his mind, the Shoah was not a call to arms but a divine warning: never again should Jews try to save themselves through human power. (To Hell with Kastner)

It is a theology of paralysis. And it has left generations of Jews shackled to a fantasy of exile even while living in freedom. In the postwar decades, Satmar Hasidim flourished in Williamsburg and Kiryas Joel — shielded not by God’s hand alone but by American democracy, by police, by the U.S. military, and yes, by the deterrent power of the Israeli army, which guarantees that Jews worldwide will never again be defenseless.

When Satmar protesters in New York burn Israeli flags, they do so under the protection of a Christian-majority nation whose values are secured, in part, by the same principles of self-defense that Israel lives by. The irony would be amusing if it weren’t tragic.

Jewish tradition knows no virtue in passivity. The Rambam — that paragon of reason and halakhic clarity — wrote in Hilchot Melachim that in a milchemet mitzvah (a war of divine obligation), “everyone must go forth — even a groom from his chamber and a bride from her canopy.” The defense of Jewish life is not optional; it is sacred duty. There is no exemption for the pious, the learned, or the fearful.

The Torah itself declares: “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?” (Numbers 32:6). Moses rebuked the tribes of Reuven and Gad for precisely this sin — preferring comfort to courage. Today, that same rebuke echoes across the yeshivot of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem, where too many study while others bleed.

Torah study is indeed holy, but holiness divorced from responsibility is hypocrisy. A Torah that cannot protect Jewish life is a desecrated Torah. A faith that calls its defenders “Nazis” while terrorists slaughter Jews is not faith — it is blasphemy.

Jewish arms are not a modern innovation. From the Bible through the Talmud, Jewish tradition honors those who fight for the people of Israel. Abraham led 318 men into battle to rescue Lot. Joshua fought for the land itself. King David — the singer of psalms — was also commander of armies. The Maccabees were kohanim, priests of God, who took up the sword against tyranny.

Even the Talmud praises the “heroes of Israel who fell in war, who sanctified God’s Name with their blood.” To dismiss the modern Israeli soldier as “secular” or “heretical” is to forget that courage, too, is a mitzvah.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbi Akiva himself believed Bar Kokhba to be the Messiah. He knew that messianic redemption might fail — but he also knew that the fight for Jewish sovereignty was itself sacred. When Bar Kokhba fell, Akiva did not curse the fighters. He wept for their loss — but he understood the holiness of their attempt. Better a failed defender of Israel than a silent bystander in exile.

Contrast that to the Satmar theology of surrender, which condemns every Jewish act of self-assertion as rebellion. Their doctrine has turned despair into faith, and faith into fear. It is a betrayal of the living spirit of our ancestors who, time and again, picked up the sword because no one else would defend them.

In Israel itself, the paradox is even starker. The Haredi population enjoys unprecedented prosperity, safety, and freedom — all safeguarded by the very army they refuse to serve. Yeshiva students in Bnei Brak debate Talmudic minutiae while secular and religious soldiers alike defend the borders that make such study possible.

Many Haredi leaders justify this exemption by claiming that Torah study “protects” the Jewish people. But protection is not theoretical. When rockets fall on Sderot, it is not pages of Gemara that intercept them; it is the Iron Dome, manned by Jewish soldiers.

Yes, the merit of Torah may bring unseen blessings. But the Torah itself commands action. It commands responsibility. Rambam’s “groom from his chamber” applies no less to the yeshiva student than to the farmer or merchant. To sit in safety while others die for your freedom is not faith — it is cowardice sanctified.

The Satmar in America and the insular Haredim in Israel share one common denominator: a refusal to look reality in the eye. They have built walled cities of ideology to keep out the harshness of history. But the world has not changed. Antisemitism is rising in America, Europe, and beyond. Israel is under existential threat. And yet they cling to the fantasy that exile is safer than sovereignty.

It is a grotesque delusion. The exile that Satmar idealizes was not a golden age but a graveyard. Every century of Jewish dispersion ended in violence — from the Crusades to the Inquisition, from the Cossack massacres to the Shoah. The difference between then and now is the existence of an army willing to fight back.

That army — the Israel Defense Forces — is not merely a military institution. It is the embodiment of Jewish continuity. It is the living proof that the curse of helplessness has been broken. To curse it, to mock it, to equate it with evil, is to spit in the face of every Jew who died defenseless before it existed.

The greatest Kiddush Hashem — sanctification of God’s Name — is not in ritual perfection or theological correctness. It is in moral courage. When a young Jewish soldier risks his life to save others, he sanctifies God’s Name more profoundly than any sermon ever could. When the Jewish people stand united, defending their homeland, they declare to the world that Jewish life will never again be cheap.

By contrast, the protests of Satmar and their ideological cousins are a chilul Hashem — a desecration of the divine. They give comfort to Israel’s enemies and mock the very idea of Jewish solidarity. They display not piety but arrogance — the arrogance of those who mistake fear for faith and confusion for conviction.

It is time for the Jewish world — especially the religious world — to grow up. The Holocaust should have shattered the illusion that Jews can survive without power. Instead, it became for some a theological crutch, an excuse to retreat from responsibility. But history has no patience for cowards cloaked in holiness.

The Jewish soldier in Gaza, the pilot over Lebanon, the medic tending to the wounded — they are not the enemies of Torah. They are its truest heirs. For without them, there would be no yeshivot, no synagogues, no future.

To those who curse them from the safety of exile or the comfort of their study halls: your ignorance is no longer innocent. It is a luxury bought with the blood of others.

 

 REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-tragic-ignorance-of-those-who-spit-on-jewish-soldiers/ 

Thank You, President Trump — But the Arab-Israeli War Is Not Over

 

The twenty Israeli hostages you brought home are a triumph of courage and conviction. But peace cannot be declared while our enemies still dream of our destruction. 

As a proud Jewish American, I want to begin with gratitude once and again.

President Trump, thank you. Twenty Israeli hostages are home because of your direct intervention — because you refused to accept “impossible” as an answer. For that, families in Israel are lighting candles not of mourning, but of joy. You have done something few world leaders even attempted. The Jewish people will not forget it.

But gratitude does not blind us. And it must not blind you.

Mr. President, I say this with the deepest respect: your declaration that “the Arab-Israeli war is over” is dangerously premature.

The Middle East does not operate by the logic of Western diplomacy. It is not a problem to be negotiated — it is a century-long religious and civilizational struggle. The conflict is not about land; it is about existence. The Jewish state’s very being is the offense. Until that changes, there is no peace.

Yes, Arab leaders are weary. Many are pragmatic. They want trade, technology, and quiet skies. But beneath the suits and smiles, the sermons and the schoolbooks still preach the same message: Israel is a temporary evil. The Jews are tolerated, not accepted. The dream remains — to erase the Jewish return from the map of history.

You, Mr. President, above all should recognize that reality. You’ve seen how flattery in the Middle East can melt overnight into fury. Today’s allies can turn tomorrow when the winds shift in the mosques and the media. You’ve been in the deal business long enough to know: never mistake a handshake for a settlement.

Hamas did not kidnap those hostages to negotiate peace. Iran did not fund them to build coexistence. They acted to humiliate Israel, to remind the Jewish people that they are still prey in a hostile neighborhood. The “ceasefires” that follow each massacre are not peace — they are intermissions in a very old play.

History is uncomfortably clear on this point. The 1949 armistice wasn’t peace. Neither were Oslo’s White House handshakes. Every “new dawn” in the Middle East has been followed by rockets in the night. When Arab regimes have recognized Israel, it has been for survival — not reconciliation.

You have done more for Israel than any American president. You recognized Jerusalem. You stood firm on Israel’s right to self-defense. You saw through the polite hypocrisy of the “international community.” For that, you’ve earned Israel’s trust and admiration.

But even your closest friends must tell you the truth: the Arab-Israeli war is not over because the ideology that fuels it is not gone. That ideology cannot be appeased or reasoned with. It must be defeated — militarily, morally, and theologically.

The Prophet Jeremiah warned long ago: “They have healed the wound of My people lightly, saying ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” Those words should hang in every foreign ministry and every Oval Office. False optimism can kill. It lulls the innocent into lowering their guard.

So yes, Mr. President — celebrate the hostages’ freedom. But do not announce the end of a war that has not yet been won. Do not ask Israel to relax when her enemies have not repented. This is not 1979 Egypt or 1994 Jordan. This is a region still haunted by 1400 years of theological resentment. The weapons may modernize, but the hatred remains ancient.

The Jewish people have survived Babylon, Rome, the Inquisition, and Auschwitz — not because we believed the world had changed, but because we prepared for the day it would not. Israel cannot afford illusions.

Your instincts — strength, clarity, loyalty — are right. Don’t let the diplomats and the dreamers around you turn a victory for twenty hostages into a delusion for ten million Israelis.

Peace will come one day. Jews pray for it daily. But it will come not from a press conference or a peace plan. It will come when the Arab world finally accepts that the Jewish nation is home, permanently and providentially, in the Land of Israel.

Until that day, let America’s friendship with Israel be not only warm — but wise.

 

 REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/thank-you-president-trump-but-the-arab-israeli-war-is-not-over/

 *

Cc; President Donald J. Trump

The White House

🚨Hamas Are Preparing For A Complete Takeover Of Gaza

No, Trump Does Not Know What’s Better for Israel Than Bibi

 

Donald J. Trump likes to believe he knows what’s better for Israel than Israel’s own prime minister. It’s an astonishing claim, but then again, humility was never his strong suit. In recent months, Trump has scolded Benjamin Netanyahu for being “too tough,” for “losing control,” for not listening to his “advice.” As though the Middle East were another Manhattan construction deal waiting for “The Art of the Deal, Part II.”

But Israel is not a casino or a golf course. It is a nation surrounded by enemies sworn to its destruction, forced to make moral decisions in seconds that most American presidents wouldn’t dare confront in a lifetime. Trump’s belief that he “knows better” than Bibi is more than arrogance — it’s a dangerous illusion.

Yes, Trump gave Israel historic gifts. He recognized Jerusalem as its capital, moved the U.S. embassy, and tore up the Iran nuclear deal that Barack Obama had naively embraced. He blessed the Abraham Accords and ended decades of diplomatic paralysis. Those acts earned him deep gratitude and a chapter in Israel’s history books.

But gratitude does not equal obedience. And friendship is not fealty.

Netanyahu is not a client of Washington, nor a prop in an American political drama. He is the democratically chosen leader of the Jewish state, accountable to Israeli citizens — not to Trump’s campaign rallies. When Bibi weighs a military decision, he isn’t thinking about polling numbers in Michigan. He’s thinking about Jewish lives — children in Ashkelon, soldiers in Gaza, families in Sderot. Trump may understand power, but Bibi understands survival.

This isn’t the first time an American president has presumed to know what’s “best” for Israel. Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 threatened sanctions when Ben-Gurion refused to retreat from the Sinai after routing Egypt in the Suez War. Ben-Gurion resisted for as long as he could, declaring, “Israel will not be a vassal state.” He knew that dependence is the enemy of sovereignty.

Ronald Reagan, beloved as he was, also lectured Israel after Menachem Begin ordered the bombing of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981. Washington condemned it as “reckless.” A decade later, the entire world realized it was one of the most courageous preemptive strikes in modern history. Without Begin’s audacity, Saddam Hussein would have had the bomb.

Even Richard Nixon, who privately bristled at “those Jews,” understood better than most that Israel must be free to defend itself. When Golda Meir came to Washington during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Nixon — against the advice of his entire national security team — ordered an airlift that resupplied Israel’s nearly depleted forces. Nixon later said he acted because he remembered his mother telling him as a boy: “One day, the Jews will need help. And you must be there for them.” He didn’t think he knew better than Golda. He respected her judgment and trusted her instincts.

Benjamin Netanyahu carries the same burden those leaders carried — and more. He leads a nation that cannot afford to lose a single war. Every battle is existential. Every ceasefire is temporary. And every inch of restraint is analyzed by enemies who interpret mercy as weakness.

Trump, with all his bombast, confuses diplomacy with branding. He sees peace as a contract, not a covenant; war as a negotiation, not a nightmare. Netanyahu knows that the Jewish people are not living in the post-war world Trump imagines — We are still living in the shadow of the Crusades, vicious pogroms for thousands of years, and the Holocaust. We can not get this war wrong!

When Trump scolds Israel for being “too harsh” in Gaza, or for rejecting his “peace plans,” he betrays his ignorance of Jewish history. He forgets that every Israeli leader since 1948 — left, right, religious, secular — has been forced to make decisions that would break lesser men. From Ben-Gurion’s defiance in ’56 to Begin’s strike on Iraq, from Rabin’s painful Oslo gamble to Sharon’s tragic Gaza withdrawal, every Israeli prime minister has carried the same question: How do we stay alive?

That is the question Netanyahu wakes up with every morning. It’s not the question Donald Trump asks.

Trump’s favorite slogan, “America First,” should make him the first to understand why Israel must put Israel First. Yet somehow, when Israel asserts independence — when it refuses to bend to an American president’s political timetable — Trump takes it personally. He mistakes sovereignty for betrayal.

Israel’s moral compass cannot spin around Mar-a-Lago. Its security cabinet cannot be an appendage of a campaign committee. A true ally does not demand submission; he respects self-determination.

And this is what Trump fails to grasp: Israel’s mission is not to please the White House, but to protect Jewish life and Jewish destiny. The State of Israel exists precisely so that never again will Jews rely on the benevolence of foreign powers to live.

If that principle offends Donald Trump’s pride, so be it. It is the same principle that offended Pharaoh, Haman, and Antiochus — that the Jewish people answer to a higher authority than earthly kings.

When Trump says he knows what’s best for Israel, he’s revealing that he doesn’t understand what Israel is. It is not just a military power or a strategic ally. It is the vessel of a three-thousand-year covenant. Its survival defies logic, and its endurance is a miracle.

Bibi Netanyahu may be cynical at times, and his political maneuvers may exhaust even his supporters. But in his bones, he understands the ancient rhythm of Jewish destiny: Ein li al mi l’hisha’en ela al Avinu shebashamayim — “We have no one to rely on but our Father in Heaven.”

Trump believes in deals. Bibi believes in destiny. And that’s the difference.

Trump may think he knows what’s better for Israel. But Israel was not reborn so that foreign leaders — even friendly ones — could script its fate. It was reborn so that Jews could finally chart their own course, make their own mistakes, and defend their own existence — on their own terms.

And on that, Mr. Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu knows infinitely better.

 

REPUBLISHED: 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/no-trump-does-not-know-whats-better-for-israel-than-bibi/

The Theater of Absurdity: Trump’s Envoys Land in the Wrong Country!

 

'Bibi-sitting' the PM to keep ceasefire

 

CAN YOU FIND ISRAEL?

When the financiers of terror sit undisturbed in Qatar and Turkey, and the lectures are delivered in Jerusalem, the world has turned moral clarity into a diplomatic crime.

There are moments in history when the theater of politics becomes so absurd that even satire bows out, muttering, “I can’t compete with reality.” This is one of those moments. President Trump — self-anointed dealmaker, lover of spectacle, and self-proclaimed “friend of Israel” — is once again dispatching his emissaries, not to the sponsors of Hamas terror, not to the architects of October 7’s bloodshed, but to Israel itself.

One stands bewildered.

Why send envoys to Jerusalem, when the real puppeteers sit comfortably in Doha and Ankara? Why rebuke the patient, while ignoring the infection?

Qatar bankrolls Hamas — proudly, openly, even ostentatiously — hosting its leaders in five-star suites as they sip imported espresso and order more rockets for Gaza. Turkey, under Erdoğan, has turned its once-proud republic into a megaphone for Islamist rage, giving Hamas legitimacy as “freedom fighters.” These two nations don’t hide their intentions. They celebrate them.

And yet, it is Israel that receives the envoys, the lectures, the “urging of restraint.” Israel — still burying its dead, still retrieving the kidnapped, still patching the holes in its soul — is told to “show moderation.”
Moderation to whom?

To Hamas, which executed families and burned babies? To the sponsors who cheered it on?

One remembers the old Biblical pattern: the prophets were never sent to the nations who sinned, but to Israel, who could be rebuked. The nations never listen, and Israel, being moral, always listens too much. The modern prophets wear tailored suits and speak from press podiums, but the old script remains.

The bewilderment deepens when one recalls Trump’s boasts — that he was the “most pro-Israel president in history,” the architect of the Abraham Accords, the man who moved the embassy to Jerusalem. But in this new act of political theater, his envoys treat Israel not as an ally under siege, but as a misbehaving child in need of supervision.

Where are the envoys to Qatar, to demand the expulsion of Hamas’s politburo?

Where are the envoys to Turkey, to confront Erdoğan’s poisonous embrace of jihadist rhetoric?

Where are the sanctions, the diplomatic cold shoulders, the grandstanding that Trump so loves to perform when it suits his ego?

Perhaps the answer lies not in diplomacy but in vanity. Sending envoys to Qatar wins no votes. 

Confronting Turkey risks oil, trade, and complications with NATO. But pressuring Israel? That’s the easy applause line. It looks “balanced,” it sounds “presidential,” and it costs nothing politically. The irony is bitter — and so typically American.

Trump’s envoys should be landing in Doha, not Tel Aviv. They should be speaking to the financiers of terror, not the defenders of civilization. But perhaps that’s too much to expect from a world where moral courage is inversely proportional to global influence.

So the bewilderment remains.

REPUBLISHED: 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-theater-of-absurdity-trumps-envoys-land-in-the-wrong-country/

 

 From Tablet:

"President Trump's Middle East emissaries were chatting with Lesley Stahl, and, like a modern day Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, delivered a few perfect deadpan howlers. As Park Macdougald reported in The Scroll:

 

Our favorite was Witkoff's claim that to convince Hamas to disarm, the United States would be arranging a "weapons buyback program"—a ludicrous proposal made even funnier by its association with decades of Democratic Party domestic gun control efforts. (If it's too hard to buy back assault rifles from Steve in Waycross, Georgia, try convincing Abu Jihad in Gaza City.) Kushner was less ridiculous but possibly more misguided. "The success or failure of this will be if Israel and this international mechanism is able to create a viable alternative [to Hamas]. If they are successful, Hamas will fail, and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future," Kushner said during the interview. "You can't replace a corrupt government with another corrupt government."

 

How to react to such blatant bulls***? Maybe a quote from Marcus Aurelius's Meditations can come in handy: "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

 

It's Tablet's literary editor David Samuels's favorite quote from the great Roman, and in a blockbuster essay in Tablet today, Samuels tracks the insanity that is crippling so much of the west and keeping it from recognizing simple truths that would have been self-evident to westerners from Aurelius onwards. He writes:

 

I am not a fan of killing babies. On the other hand, as a person who exists in the world, I accept the death of innocent people, children included, as part of the observable world of cause and effect, which is at best only partially amenable to human control. That belief hardly makes me a monster. In fact, it makes me a normal citizen of any civilized order I might name, whether Roman, Christian, Muslim or Enlightenment Europe. It is true however, that some individual human decisions may tilt the odds in favor of less fortunate outcomes. For example, if you choose to cross the border of your enemy and murder over 1,100 people in the most barbaric ways imaginable, your life is very likely forfeit, as are the lives of your family members and neighbors—not to mention the leaders of the states that trained you and funded your attack. To believe otherwise would be to license barbarism, which historically didn't work out too well for Rome or any other empire that tried it."

Abbott and Costello Return To The Middle East - Who's In Gaza?

Likud MK Amit Halevi warns that US Envoy Steve Witkoff 'pushing us to the gates of hell' with new US-backed ceasefire deal.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/416522

 

What Trump Convinced Me of at His Knesset Speech: Israel Must Never Rely on America Alone

 

Trump didn’t mean to teach Israel a moral lesson, but he did. He reminded us that Israel’s survival can never hang on a foreign vote, a White House whim, or a Pentagon shipment. The Jewish state must be self-sufficient in every realm—military, economic, spiritual. We cannot subcontract Jewish survival to anyone, not even the mightiest nation on earth.

 The next time a president promises eternal friendship, we should smile, shake hands, and quietly triple our ammunition stockpiles. Because the day may come—again—when we stand alone. And when that day comes, the world will see what it has always secretly feared: the Jew who no longer begs for protection, but provides it for himself.

America’s friendship is not Torah. It’s policy. And policies change the moment it’s politically convenient. In Washington, loyalty lasts only until the next election or the next oil crisis. A superpower’s love is a transactional love—it comes with a bill attached. 

Donald Trump did not come to Jerusalem as a prophet. He came as a showman — a man who loves the sound of his own applause and the grandeur of his own reflection. Yet, for all his vanity, he may have spoken the most important unintended truth ever uttered in the Knesset: Israel must never depend on America alone for its survival.

He stood there, flanked by flags and flattery, proclaiming “America will always stand with Israel.” The applause that followed was dutiful, not devout. Every Israeli statesman and soldier in that hall knew the truth that Trump, in his bluster, accidentally revealed: all alliances are conditional.

History has a way of stripping illusions. The British once promised to “protect the Jewish national home.” They armed Arab militias and disarmed Jews. In 1939, with Europe’s Jews burning, Britain’s White Paper slammed shut the gates of Palestine, condemning countless Jews to death while promising “stability.” And yet, when the Jews fought for independence in 1948, Britain armed our enemies and blockaded our coast. That was the “friendship” of empires.

America learned well from its imperial predecessors. It mastered the language of moral obligation, the theater of eternal alliance. “Unbreakable bond,” they call it — a phrase used by every president since Truman, as if repetition makes it truer. But it was Truman who refused to send Israel a single bullet during its War of Independence. It was Eisenhower who threatened sanctions if Israel did not withdraw from Sinai in 1956. It was Reagan who sold AWACS planes to Saudi Arabia. It was Obama who sent cash to Iran — the same Iran that swore to wipe Israel off the map. And it was Trump, that self-anointed Messiah of populism, who made Israel’s sovereignty sound like a subsidiary of his “deal-making.”

When Trump spoke in the Knesset, he looked less like a friend and more like a benevolent landlord inspecting his prized tenant. He called Israel “our greatest ally in the Middle East,” but every “our” was a reminder that in his mind, Israel was part of his project — not her own. He meant it as praise. It landed as possession.

The lesson was not new, only clarified. No foreign nation, however powerful, can be trusted as the guarantor of Jewish existence. Not when Rome offered “peace,” not when Britain offered “protection,” and not when Washington offers “partnership.” The Torah teaches, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man” (Jeremiah 17:5). That verse should be engraved above the Knesset chamber door.

Israel’s rebirth was not the result of global sympathy — it was the defiance of it. Ben-Gurion didn’t wait for America’s permission to declare independence; he did it knowing Washington and Moscow might both turn against him. He didn’t ask permission to build a nuclear deterrent. He didn’t outsource the defense of the Jewish people. He understood that the world respects the Jew only when he stands tall, armed, and unafraid. The moment Israel becomes dependent, it becomes dispensable.

Trump’s speech, with all its theatrical patriotism, was a master class in American self-interest. It wasn’t malicious — it was natural. America does what is best for America. That is how great powers behave. But Israel must never mistake the warmth of a handshake for the permanence of protection. One administration calls us brothers; the next calls us occupiers. The applause of the U.S. Congress can turn into the cold silence of the U.N. in a single election cycle.

It is time we end our dependency addiction — the illusion that U.S. aid is oxygen. Israel today is a technological and military superpower. We build Iron Dome, we train elite cyber units, we export innovation to the world. Why then should the State of the Jews still act like a client state, bowing before every “request” to show restraint while our enemies arm to the teeth?

True friendship is welcome. Subservience is not. America’s friendship should be appreciated — never worshipped. Let there be cooperation, not codependence; alliance, not reliance. Let America admire us, but never imagine that we cannot survive without her.

When Trump thundered his promises of eternal loyalty, I heard something else — the echo of our ancestors who stood alone in every generation. From Egypt to Babylon to Spain to the Pale of Settlement, no gentile empire ever guaranteed our safety. Only our God and our courage did. “Am Yisrael Chai” is not a slogan to be underwritten by the Pentagon. It is a covenant of self-determination — a declaration that Jewish survival will never again depend on anyone’s permission.

And if we need a modern example of that courage, we need only recall Ben-Gurion in 1956. The Americans demanded that Israel retreat from Sinai after its lightning victory in the Suez campaign. Eisenhower threatened sanctions. Congress warned of isolation. The world barked. But Ben-Gurion — short, stubborn, and unswayed — stood before the Knesset and declared: “The IDF will not move one step without security guarantees worthy of a sovereign nation.” He faced down the pressure of the world’s greatest power with the confidence of a man who answered to history, not diplomacy. In the end, he withdrew on his own terms — but only after proving that Israel bends to no one.

That is the model. That is the posture of a free people.

Trump, with his oversized ego and his salesman’s charm, only made the lesson impossible to ignore. He spoke as though Israel were a client in his global portfolio—another asset to be managed, not a people whose destiny is their own. “We’ll always have your back,” he said. But the subtext was clear: as long as you play by our rules. 

So yes, Mr. Trump, thank you for your words. In your speech, you reminded me — and perhaps all of Israel — of a truth older than America itself:

A free Jewish nation must be strong enough to thank its allies — and strong enough to outlive them.

 REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-trump-convinced-me-of-at-his-knesset-speech/  

Stage One Cancer — Stage One Gaza War: Every Ceasefire Is Just a Pause in the Disease - it’s the Quiet Before it Explodes.

 

The Ceasefire Illusion and the Long Disease of Jewish Denial

There’s a moment every cancer patient dreads more than diagnosis itself — that fragile instant when the doctor says, “Stage One.” The words are meant to comfort: It’s early. It’s treatable. You have time. But anyone who’s lived through it knows that “Stage One” is still cancer. It’s not the absence of danger — it’s the quiet before it explodes.

Israel, too, has been living in its Stage One for decades. Every ceasefire, every truce, every so-called peace process has been nothing but a medical illusion — a temporary remission of a disease the world refuses to name. The cancer is not Gaza. It’s not even Hamas. The true malignancy lies in the ideology that sanctifies death, glorifies hatred, and feeds its children the fantasy that killing a Jew is holy.

The world, with its infinite moral vanity, still insists that this is a conflict between equals. But the conflict is not between Israel and Gaza. It’s between civilization and barbarism. Between life and the worship of death. And yet, the diplomats and editorial boards prescribe the same familiar therapy — “ceasefire,” “restraint,” “confidence-building measures.” As if human decency were a kind of chemotherapy that might make the cancer see reason.

But cancer doesn’t reason. Cancer spreads.

From 1949’s “armistice” to Oslo’s “peace process,” Israel has been asked to mistake breathing for healing. Each truce was a ritual of denial, an exercise in global self-deception: “We’ve contained it,” the world said, as the next generation of children in Gaza were taught to hate.

After 1948 came the “temporary” armistice lines that froze Israel inside a coffin of geography.

After 1967 came the promise of “land for peace,” and we discovered that surrendering land brought neither peace nor love, only proximity to rockets.

After 1973 came “disengagement.”

After Oslo came “hope.”

After every massacre came “restraint.”

 

Stage One in 2025 — just another round in the same unhealed wound.

Every ceasefire is Stage One — the illusion of control, the pause mistaken for progress. The tumor sleeps; the world applauds. And then it wakes up again — more aggressive, more resilient, more convinced that Israel lacks the moral will to finish what it starts.

Israel’s wars have never been against one enemy, one border, or one generation. They are against an idea — the idea that the Jew must never be sovereign, that Jewish blood is cheap, and that Jewish power is a cosmic mistake.

That idea has metastasized. It has spread from Gaza to Europe’s capitals, to American universities, to NGOs dressed up as human rights crusaders. The hatred that once wore the uniform of the Egyptian army now wears the mask of “intersectionality.” The rockets have become hashtags, the tunnels have become boycotts, but the ideology is the same: erase the Jew, delegitimize his nation, sanctify his suffering only when he’s dead.

The West doesn’t even recognize its own infection. It still clings to the myth that this is a conflict about borders. But no border will ever satisfy those who believe Israel itself is the disease.

The Torah saw this pathology long before the diplomats did.

“Do not show them mercy, nor shall you make covenant with them” (Devarim 7:2).

Because misplaced compassion — mercy for the cruel — becomes cruelty to the merciful. Rambam wrote that when life is threatened, mercy becomes sin. Pikuach nefesh docheh hakol — the preservation of life overrides everything.

The world worships moral symmetry. The Torah rejects it. There is no equivalence between a nation defending its citizens and a cult that trains its children to die for Allah. Yet every ceasefire pretends there is. The result is predictable: the world rewards pathology and punishes survival.

The pattern repeats: the headlines change, the enemy’s name changes, the years pass — but Israel remains in permanent Stage One. The diagnosis never progresses because the world never allows the cure. “Proportional response,” they lecture, as if morality were measured in matching body counts. “Peace process,” they insist, as if coexistence were possible with those who see your existence as a sin.

Stage One in 1948.
Stage One in 1967.
Stage One in 1973.
Stage One in 2009.
Stage One in 2014.
Stage One in 2021.
Stage One in 2023.

And now, again, Stage One in 2025 — just another round in the same unhealed wound.

Every ceasefire has been another denial of diagnosis. Every truce, another postponement of the inevitable surgery. The world prefers Israel “contained.” It cannot stomach a Jewish state that cuts out its own cancer without permission.

Real peace, like real healing, requires clarity. It requires the moral courage to destroy what threatens life, not manage it. Israel must finally stop believing that evil can be persuaded into remission. It cannot. Evil doesn’t compromise; it consumes.

The world calls it “de-escalation.”
Heaven calls it procrastination.

Israel has tried the treatments: restraint, diplomacy, land concessions, apologies, press releases. None have cured the disease. The only cure is the same now as it was in Sinai: moral certainty. To defend life without apology. To stop measuring survival by the standards of those who prefer Jews quiet, weak, or gone. Stage One is the moment of mercy — when there’s still time to act. Stage Two is the obituary.

Israel stands again at the edge of that decision. It can live in remission — endlessly negotiating with its own destroyers — or it can choose life. U’vacharta ba’chaim. “And you shall choose life.” (Devarim 30:19)

But choosing life sometimes means refusing a pretend peace. It means refusing to pretend that a ceasefire with death is anything but suicide by increments.

Because history has taught this patient one brutal truth:
There is no peace with cancer.

Only cure — or collapse.

And the time to choose has come again.

Because make no mistake: it’s just a matter of time.

 

 REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/stage-one-cancer-stage-one-gaza-war-its-the-quiet-before-it-explodes/

Chag Sameach!

תּוֹרַת ה' תְּמִימָה, מְשִׁיבַת נָפֶשׁ, עֵדוּת ה' נֶאֱמָנָה, מַחְכִּימַת פֶּתִי

"The Torah of Hashem is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of Hashem is trustworthy, making the simple one wise." (Tehillim 19:8-Pesukei D'zimra for Shabbos/Yom Tov)

 

 

 

 

תּ֮וֹרַ֤ת יְהוָ֣ה תְּ֭מִימָה מְשִׁ֣יבַת נָ֑פֶשׁ עֵד֥וּת יְהוָ֥ה נֶ֝אֱמָנָ֗ה מַחְכִּ֥ימַת פֶּֽתִי: (תהלים פרק יט פסוק ח)

 אַחַת, שָׁאַלְתִּי מֵאֵת-יְהוָה--    אוֹתָהּ אֲבַקֵּשׁ
שִׁבְתִּי בְּבֵית-יְהוָה,    כָּל-יְמֵי חַיַּי;
לַחֲזוֹת בְּנֹעַם-יְהוָה,    וּלְבַקֵּר בְּהֵיכָלוֹ. 

 

The Golden Exile Is Ending: A Letter to Young American Newlyweds in Israel

 

 After two years meditating on the future of American Jewry, reflecting on faith, exile, and Jewish destiny, I say this with love and urgency: if you are in Israel now, stay. This is home.

To the young American Jewish couples now walking the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, or Beit Shemesh — studying, learning, and beginning your married lives together — this is a letter born of two years of meditation. Two years of reflection, heartbreak, and clarity about what awaits you if you go back “home.”

Because home, dear brothers and sisters, is not where your passport was issued. Home is where your soul is safe. And that home is here.

When I began this meditation, I wanted to believe that America — my America — was different. That the Jews had finally broken the ancient pattern of exile. That history had changed its tune.

But history never changes; it only repeats itself in more sophisticated language. The same pattern has returned — quieter this time, polite, “progressive,” even righteous in tone.

The universities where your parents proudly sent you now drip with hatred. “From the river to the sea” is not a debate — it is an indictment. The professional world, once a safe haven for Jews, is turning cold. Colleagues avert their eyes; friends grow cautious; your moral worth is questioned if you refuse to apologize for Israel’s right to exist.

October 7 tore away the mask. The slaughter of Jews was not met with outrage — it was met with excuses. When Jews were murdered, many of the “enlightened” explained why it was justified. The same society that wept for every other victim of violence found its empathy gone when the victims were us.

That day exposed the great illusion: America’s golden exile is dimming.

And so I turn to you — the newlyweds living in Israel for a year or two, planning to “go back” when life feels more stable, more practical, more predictable. I beg you: do not go back.

You are already standing on the only soil in the world that does not question your right to stand upon it. You are breathing the air of your ancestors. You are raising your voices in the land that remembers every word of your people’s story.

Yes, Israel is hard. It’s noisy, expensive, and often infuriating. But it is ours. The arguments here are family arguments. The chaos is Jewish chaos. And every frustration is still part of a miracle.

In America, your Jewishness must be managed — measured, softened, explained. Here, it is lived.

Aliyah is no longer a dream of idealists; it is the only rational conclusion of history. Exile is temporary by design. Every exile ends — not with a headline, but with a silence. You are living at the hinge of that ending.

My two-year meditation has made this clear: Jewish life in America is approaching twilight. It still glows — but it glows like the last light before dusk. Meanwhile, here in Israel, the sun keeps rising — bright, harsh, holy, alive.

So before you board that plane back to your “real life,” ask yourself one question:
Why would you leave the only place where being Jewish is not an act of courage, but an act of living?

Stay home. Because this is home.

 

REPUBLISHED: 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-golden-exile-is-ending-a-letter-to-young-american-newlyweds-in-israel/

חסדי ה'

No Mercy for Monsters: When Rabbis Plead for the Unforgivable - Until the rabbinate purges this moral rot from its ranks—until letters of “support” for abusers are replaced by public cries for the protection of children—the rabbis who sign them will bear the shame of standing on the wrong side of Heaven. Because Heaven weeps not for the predator, but for the child.

Rabbi overseeing Jewish elementary school asked judge to go easy on man guilty of child porn

 

“Basically what did he do? Did he touch anybody or just watch a video?” Rabbi Moshe Yosef Unger said when asked why he sent a letter to a judge seeking leniency for former congregant Dovid Akiva Shenkman. Unger wrote to the court: “I am confident that he poses no danger to anyone.”

 

No Mercy for Monsters: When Rabbis Plead for the Unforgivable

by Paul Mendlowitz 

It is an obscenity that in our time, when Jewish children are still healing from wounds inflicted in the dark corners of their own communities, we see rabbis—men who claim to bear the Torah’s moral authority—signing letters begging for leniency for sexual abusers and consumers of child pornography. What Torah are they reading? What G-d are they serving? Certainly not the G-d of justice, nor the Torah of truth.

Let’s be clear: these are not victimless crimes. Every image, every act, every predator represents a human soul shattered. A child’s trust stolen. A life derailed. When a rabbi asks a judge for compassion for such men, he is not showing mercy—he is trampling mercy underfoot. He is siding with the serpent against the child.

This sickness in parts of our rabbinic leadership—the reflex to “protect” the abuser because he once wore a yarmulke and learned in a yeshiva—is nothing less than moral collapse. It reeks of tribalism masquerading as piety. They fear chillul Hashem, a desecration of G-d’s name? The desecration is their letter. The scandal is their silence toward the victims, their eagerness to turn perpetrators into “nebbachs” who “need help,” as if therapy could wash away depravity.

Where is their outrage for the children who can’t sleep at night? For the victims who lost their faith in G-d because the men of G-d defended their tormentors? “Lo ta’amod al dam re’echa”—do not stand idly by your brother’s blood. Yet these rabbis do more than stand idly—they advocate for those who spilled that blood in the first place.

The Torah demands compassion, yes—but compassion for the innocent. The Rambam writes that pitying the cruel is cruelty to the kind. Every plea for a reduced sentence tells victims their suffering is negotiable, their dignity expendable, their pain a PR problem for the community to manage. And Midrash Tanchuma (Metzora 1) warns: “He who shows mercy to the cruel will ultimately be cruel to the merciful.”

This is not mercy. This is betrayal.

 
It is betrayal of Torah, of justice, and of every survivor still waiting for someone in authority to simply say: I believe you. And I will not protect the man who hurt you.

Until the rabbinate purges this moral rot from its ranks—until letters of “support” for abusers are replaced by public cries for the protection of children—the rabbis who sign them will bear the shame of standing on the wrong side of Heaven. Because Heaven weeps not for the predator, but for the child. 

The community must never forgive these twisted rabbis whose confused minds destroy everything that is our most sacred - our children!

 

 CHICAGO SUN TIMES:

By  Robert Herguth

 

The Jewish school in West Rogers Park is overseen by Rabbi Moshe Yosef Unger, who wrote a letter to a federal judge seeking leniency for a former congregant who’s pleaded guilty to child pornography charges.

After Dovid Akiva Shenkman was arrested last fall on child pornography charges, a federal judge ordered him held in custody pending trial, citing evidence that he had a “relentless and longstanding sexual interest in children.”

That involved images of “rape, torture and infants,” as well as “bestiality,” court records show.

A resident of the New York City region who previously lived in Chicago, Shenkman sought “even more messed up stuff” to “sexually gratify himself,” the records say, and he carried child porn on “two different devices across an international border” — where he was arrested while returning to the U.S. from Canada.

A prosecutor asserted in court records that in “graphic” social media chats prior to his arrest, Shenkman “claimed to have committed hands-on sexual abuse of children,” though he wasn’t charged with that.

Shenkman has since pleaded guilty to possession and transportation of child pornography. Now 40, he was sentenced last week in a Michigan courtroom to nearly eight years in prison — but not before Jewish religious figures in the Chicago area and elsewhere sent letters to the court to seek leniency, with some seeming to minimize his misconduct.

Among them: Rabbi Moshe Yosef Unger, a North Side resident who oversees an Orthodox Jewish school for children in prekindergarten through eighth grade in West Rogers Park, called Yeshiva Ohr Boruch-The Veitzener Cheder.

 

Rabbi Moshe Yosef Unger of Chicago (pictured) appealed to a judge to go easy on Dovid Akiva Shenkman, who pleaded guilty to possession and transportation of child pornography. Shenkman got nearly eight years in prison.

“I am confident that he poses no danger to anyone — young or old — and my experience has proven that young men drawn to self-corrosive behaviors usually suffered some serious trauma which can be healed,” Unger wrote to U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman.

“He is already bearing the punishment of stigmatization and shaming.”

In the letter, Unger omitted his connection to the school, which includes nearly 400 students, instead describing himself as “spiritual leader of Congregation Shearis Yisroel” that was “attended by Akiva and his family when they moved to Chicago shortly after his parents divorced” when he was a youngster.

Although Shenkman later moved to the East Coast, they stayed in touch, Unger indicated, saying: “Over the years, I’ve observed Akiva emerging as a kind and socially competent adult. He was always a welcome guest in the synagogue, admired for his courteous and warm demeanor.”

Reached through his school’s automated switchboard more than a week ago, Unger confirmed sending the letter, and said to a reporter: “Basically what did he do? Did he touch anybody or just watch a video?”

Unger also said, “How can I be of service to him by talking to you?”

He then said he was “in the middle of a meeting; I will call you back,” but didn’t.

Another letter writer on Shenkman’s behalf was from Esther Shkop, who described herself in her letter as director of the Wisdom of Torah Institute and a longtime former dean and professor at the Hebrew Theological College, with campuses on the North Side and in Skokie.

A letter from Rabbi Moshe Yosef Unger on behalf of Dovid Akiva Shenkman.

U.S. District Court

“Whatever Akiva did — howsoever reprehensible — damaged only his own soul — he did not harm others, and I am confident that he poses no danger to anyone,” Shkop wrote, indicating she’s an aunt to Shenkman.

“I know that he is deeply regretful and ashamed of his behavior. I ask your honor to give him the opportunity to rebuild his life as soon as possible. He will continue to be a valuable and contributing member to society.”

From a Skokie address, Rabbi Yitzchak Shkop also wrote to the judge, saying, “I can emphatically state that Akiva would not — and could not — hurt anyone.”

“He is deeply remorseful and will never repeat his shameful lapse into immoral ideation. ... He is surrounded by many loving friends and relatives who have witnessed and come to adore his kind and gentle disposition.

“We ask that he be given a chance to rebuild his life as early as possible so he can return to being the productive and generous member of the community and society at large.”

In a recent phone conversation, Shkop confirmed sending the letter and said of Shenkman, “The guy never hurt anyone” — even though prosecutors asserted in court records that child porn is not a victimless crime because it creates a marketplace for the sex abuse of minors.

Before hanging up on a reporter, he said that if a news story is published, “When time comes, and you go off to God, you’ll have to tell why you did it. ... If you have the conscience to go and write about someone who never hurt anybody ... go ahead and enjoy. ... It’s not in the public interest.”

He added, Shenkman is “not really a criminal but a sick person.”

A psychological report prepared by Shenkman’s defense team before his sentencing also references broader child sexual abuse in Jewish communities — believed to be a serious problem in Chicago and beyond that is often hidden or otherwise dealt with inadequately by religious leaders and families.

A letter from Esther Shkop to a federal judge earlier this year.

U.S. District Court

While growing up, Shenkman “experienced sexual abuse by a babysitter within the context of an Orthodox Jewish upbringing. In that community, there is a concept of ‘personal modesty’ which takes the form of suppressing external appearance and action, but most importantly sexual activity and views of sexuality.”

The report states this “is very likely a contributing factor to the sexual deviance that led to these charges.”

When Shenkman was arrested Nov. 24 crossing from Canada into Detroit, federal agents searched his cellphones and found exchanges of child porn via Telegram, “an encrypted social media application where users can send each other messages, images, and videos using the internet.”

Some other videos that had been exchanged were no longer accessible to investigators, but the accompanying messages were. In one such instance, Shenkman shared a video and wrote to someone, “These two, I convinced her to do and now she is hooked, I just need to get her to make more videos,” court records show.

Prosecutor Tara Hindelang, who sought 15 years in prison for Shenkman, wrote: “Shenkman’s interest in trafficking in child pornography has persisted since at least 2021.”

Court records show a day after his arrest, Shenkman spoke to a man, possibly a relative, over the phone from jail and encouraged him to visit his apartment — in what officials suspected was a coded attempt to clear out other evidence.

“My refrigerator has stuff in there that is going bad. There is food in there sitting that needs to be cleaned out,” Shenkman said on the call, which was recorded.

The man responded in Yiddish, “Akiva, when you are among the Gentiles, you have to be totally quiet. Don’t talk at all.”

Three days later, “men were seen going into Shenkman’s apartment removing items.”

https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/09/30/north-side-rabbi-jewish-school-yeshiva-ohr-boruch-veitzener-cheder-west-rogers-park-dovid-akiva-shenkman

 

 REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/no-mercy-for-monsters-when-rabbis-plead-for-the-unforgivable/

The Kedoshim That Were Slaughtered Because They Were Jews - Please Light A Yahrzeit Candle Tonight In Their Forever Memory

 

VIDEO OF THE KEDOSHIM THAT WERE SLAUGHTERED BECAUSE THEY WERE JEWS: 

https://www.nli.org.il/website/SCREEN7OCT2025_EN.mp4

 

אַל תִּירָא מִפַּֽחַד פִּתְאֹם וּמִשֹּׁאַת רְשָׁעִים כִּי תָבוֹא: עֻֽצוּ עֵצָה וְתֻפָר דַּבְּרוּ דָבָר וְלֹא יָקוּם כִּי עִמָּֽנוּ אֵל: וְעַד זִקְנָה אֲנִי הוּא וְעַד שֵׂיבָה אֲנִי אֶסְבֹּל אֲנִי עָשִֽׂיתִי וַאֲנִי אֶשָּׂא וַאֲנִי אֶסְבֹּל וַאֲמַלֵּט:

יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא בְּעָלְמָא דִּי בְרָא כִרְעוּתֵהּ וְיַמְלִיךְ מַלְכוּתֵהּ בְּחַיֵּיכוֹן וּבְיוֹמֵיכוֹן וּבְחַיֵּי דְכָל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל, בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: יְהֵא שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְמֵי עָלְמַיָּא: יִתְבָּרַךְ וְיִשְׁתַּבַּח וְיִתְפָּאַר וְיִתְרוֹמַם וְיִתְנַשֵּׂא וְיִתְהַדָּר וְיִתְעַלֶּה וְיִתְהַלָּל שְׁמֵהּ דְקוּדְשָׁא, בְּרִיךְ הוּא לְעֵֽלָּא וּלְעֵֽלָּא מִכָּל בִּרְכָתָא וְשִׁירָתָא, תֻּשְׁבְּחָתָא וְנֶחֱמָתָא, דַּאֲמִירָן בְּעָלְמָא, וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: יְהֵא שְׁלָמָא רַבָּא מִן שְׁמַיָּא 

וְחַיִּים עָלֵֽינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: עוֹשֶׂה הַשָּׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו הוּא יַעֲשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן:

 

Exalted and sanctified be His great Name in the world which He created according to His will and may He rule His Kingdom in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of the entire House of Yisrael, speedily and in the near future— and say Amein. May His great Name be blessed forever and for all eternity. Blessed and praised, glorified, and exalted and uplifted, honored and elevated and extolled be the Name of the Holy One, blessed is He; far above all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations which we utter in the world—and say Amein. May there be abundant peace from heaven and life for us and for all Yisrael, —and say Amein. He Who makes the peace in His high heavens may He, make peace for us and or all Yisrael, and say, Amein. 

 

 

  REPUBLISHED:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-kedoshim-slaughtered-because-they-were-jews-light-a-yahrzeit-candle/ 

Trump isn’t treating Israel like a partner — he’s treating it like Puerto Rico with better falafel

 

The year is 2025, and Donald J. Trump is apparently still president — not only of the United States, but of Israel too. At least that’s what one might think after his fiery declaration: “I will not let Israel annex Judea and Samaria.” 

Donald J. Trump has finally done it. He’s achieved the dream no man before him has dared: he is president of two countries at once. Not satisfied with running America into the ground, he has now taken it upon himself to run Israel too.

When he thundered, “I will not let Israel annex Judea and Samaria,” the world should have asked one simple question: since when does an American president get to veto Jewish sovereignty in Jewish land? Israel has a Knesset, a Supreme Court, and a prime minister. What it apparently also has is a freelance American overseer who believes he has power of attorney over Zion.

This is not “alliance.” This is colonial cosplay. Trump isn’t treating Israel like a partner — he’s treating it like Puerto Rico with better falafel. He imagines he’s the landlord of the Middle East, doling out permission slips for Jews to live where Abraham once walked.

Trump may imagine himself the “best friend Israel ever had,” but the irony is glaring. A true friend doesn’t sit on your couch, eat your food, and then tell you which rooms you’re allowed to sleep in. A true ally doesn’t become a co-president — uninvited. 

This is how you manufacture “one president, two countries.” The formula is simple: America pays the bills, Israel fights the wars, and Trump decides the borders. Israel may have the right to self-determination, but only if the White House press secretary approves the press release. 

The hypocrisy is staggering. America jealously guards its borders, lectures the world about sovereignty, and celebrates independence every July 4th. Yet when Israel wants to apply sovereignty to its own heartland, suddenly it’s not allowed — because President of Two Countries, Donald J. Trump, says so.

 Judea and Samaria aren’t Jewish heritage to Trump; they’re bargaining chips in his Nobel Prize fantasy. Israel’s destiny reduced to a vanity project.

The whole charade is insulting. A true ally doesn’t say, “I won’t let you annex your own land.” That’s not friendship — that’s occupation by proxy. Trump’s slogan might as well be: Make Israel Obedient Again.

 

REPUBLISHED: 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/is-israel-a-partner-with-the-usa-or-like-puerto-rico-with-better-falafel/