100 years after Jews settled on the Great Plains, Long Beach rabbi returns to set a gravestone for his grandmother
Rabbi Benny Berlin leads a hakamas matzeiva, the unveiling of the gravestone, for his grandmother Edith Porter (Edit bat Mendel), pictured inset, at the Hebrew Cemetery in Minot, South Dakota. Born in 1927, she was niftar on June 2, 2024. Flanking Rabbi Berlin (from left) is his
Iwant to share something a bit unusual for a rabbi on Long Island. I just returned from a trip to North Dakota for the hakamas matzeiva, the setting of the gravestone for my grandmother.
Over 100 years ago, a group of Jews came to North Dakota during the Homestead Act of 1862, which offered up to 160 acres of free land to anyone who lived there for at least five years. That opportunity attracted my Russian immigrant great-grandparents to the Great Plains, where they built homes, raised families, and preserved their Judaism far from the kind of Jewish community they had known.
Life was not easy. The winters were brutal, and keeping Jewish life alive took real effort. My grandparents helped build a small shul that became the heart of the community, where Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, and funerals marked each stage of life.
uncle David Porter, his mother Carol Berlin, and his uncle Gary Porter. Rabbi Berlin’s father, Daniel Berlin, livestreamed the ceremony. The pictured mezuzah is on the door of his grandmother’s assisted-living residence in Minot. Rabbi Berlin is spiritual leader of BACH Jewish Center in Long Beach.
Last week, I stood in the small Hebrew Cemetery in Minot, North Dakota, surrounded by more than a hundred graves with traditional Hebrew inscriptions. The gravestones stood as silent witnesses to a once small but thriving Jewish community that has now almost entirely disappeared.
My mother gave me the mezuzah from my grandmother’s front door at her assisted living apartment. It was likely the only mezuzah on any doorpost in the entire building. That small parchment, rolled in its case, was more than a ritual object. It was a declaration that Hashem was present in that home. Holding it, I reflected on the power of a single mezuzah.
The legacy of those North Dakota Jews lives in me, in my family and, G-d willing, in the generations yet to come.
In this week’s parsha, Eikev, the Torah commands us to place Hashem’s words “Al mezuzos beisecha” on the doorposts of our homes. The Gemara in Sanhedrin 71a teaches that if even one mezuzah exists in an Ir HaNidachas, a city whose people have turned to idol worship, the city cannot be destroyed. This is why Chazal say “Lo Haya V’Lo Yihyeh,” it never happened and never will happen that such a city will be destroyed, no matter how wicked its inhabitants.
One mezuzah can save an entire city. That is the power of the mezuzah. It stands quietly on a doorpost, but its presence declares that Hashem’s name is in this place. It reminds us, every time we walk through the door, that we are stepping into a space where the Divine Presence dwells.
We often think major change requires dramatic action, but Jewish tradition reminds us that even the smallest constant presence of holiness can shift the balance of an entire environment.
There is little Jewish life left in Minot today. The shul is closed, the Torah scrolls have been moved, the minyanim
See The power of one on page 2
RABBI BENNY BERLIN Jewish Star Columnist
Here’s how Hamas became a big social media influencer
Master plan was built over 30 years. Israel should not have been blindsided.
By Shachar Kleiman, Israel Hayom
This is a story about a strategic threat that grew right under Israel’s nose, a project involving Qatar and Iran that has been ongoing for two decades.
Israel appears to the world as solely responsible for the current Gaza crisis despite its streaming in enormous quantities of food. Beyond the government’s failure to efficiently manage humanitarian aid and its lack of public diplomacy, this perception is also the result of a well-funded propaganda apparatus with multiple arms.
It’s a system managed by the terror organization’s leadership abroad, with assistance from international media corporations. It penetrates deep into Gaza’s health system, trains Palestinians for social media activity, and receives support from students in the US.
Most of its people, who have thus far survived the war, have no intention of stopping. And they’re playing on an almost empty field on the Israeli side.
The seeds of this operation were planted in January 1996 in Al-Risala, Hamas’ Gaza newspaper that was serving as a platform for incitement against Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The PA often tried to shut it down without success. The initial editor was Salah alBardawil, who would become a member of the Political Bureau in Gaza, led by Yahya Sinwar. In March, he was eliminated in the Khan Younis area.
A year after Al-Risala’s publication, the “Palestinian Information Center” — a network of Palestinian news sites identified with Hamas in multiple languages — was established. Al-Bardawil didn’t settle for written media. In 2006, he was a partner in establishing the AlAqsa TV propaganda network. Another partner was Fathi Hamad, who operated the channel through a subsidiary company he managed. The network established a radio station and a news agency called “Shihab.” Before the war, Hamad managed to leave for Turkey.
Each platform was designed to capture a different segment of the Palestinian population. “Shihab” was responsible for the youth wing and, not coincidentally, earned millions of followers on social networks.
Over the years, every Hamas media entity (Al-Risala, Al-Aqsa TV, and others) established its own social media accounts. Together, an enormous mass of Hamas mouthpieces was created in the digital space. And this doesn’t include influencers of all kinds, of course.
One of the network’s managers is Palestinian media figure Wissam Afifa, who previously managed Al-Risala. These days, Afifa is careful to present himself as a “commentator.” In this
capacity, he appears on the Qatari network AlJazeera and participates in echoing Hamas messages.
In a conversation with Israel Hayom, Dr. Ariel Admoni, a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and Qatar expert, said that part of the Al-Aqsa TV network’s staff received training from the Qatari AlJazeera network.
“From the beginning, the Qataris were very involved in Hamas rule,” Admoni said. “Qatari media knew how to break down the Gaza event into content suitable for different audiences — those suitable for the supposedly institutional network of Al-Jazeera, and those suitable for more subversive platforms, like Al-Jazeera Plus, the Middle East Eye website, or even various influencers that Qatar finances.
“Qatar was a force multiplier,” he explained. “That is, videos of Israeli soldiers being killed in the Gaza Strip received an echo from Qatari
newspaper editors, like Jaber al-Harmi, editor of the Al-Sharq newspaper, owned by the Qatari Emir’s family. Similarly, we can see how, in the recent starvation campaign, it wasn’t just an Al-Jazeera production; Qatari ministers also participated, like Mariam al-Masnad, Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation, who usually reports more on meetings here and there, and suddenly she supposedly took a position on the shocking hunger in Gaza and how Israel is wrong.”
Echo chamber
Simultaneously, Hamas continues to maintain a well-oiled spokesperson apparatus divided into military and civilian arms.
The first is managed by Hadaifa al-Kahlout, known as Abu Obaida. Its missions include documenting hits on IDF soldiers, filming hostage videos, and transmitting the wing’s messages through social networks. In short, pure psycho-
logical warfare. Here, there’s an expression of additional Al-Jazeera support — echoing these contents, sometimes in exchange for “exclusives,” and employing terrorists on the network.
The “civilian” wing is responsible for distributing data regarding the population’s condition and pushing statements to the media. One of its spokesmen was Abd al-Latif al-Qanua, considered close to Sinwar and eliminated in March. Additional spokesmen operate abroad within Political Bureau branches in Qatar, Turkey, and Algeria. For example, Basem Naim, Osama Hamdan, Mahmoud Mardawi, and Izzat al-Rishq.
Today, three spokesmen head the civilian wing in Gaza — Hazem Qasem, responsible for statements, Salama Maarouf, defined as head of the “governmental communications” office, and Ismail Thawabta, who manages the office. The latter two are responsible for publishing casualty data in the war (naturally, those that fit the narrative Hamas wants to broadcast). Beyond that, Maarouf served on the boards of Al-Risala publication and Al-Aqsa TV network.
Iranian connection
Iran also sensed the opportunity.
Dr. Michael Barak, a terrorism expert from Reichman University, told Israel Hayom about the involvement of a giant media conglomerate — IRTVU — which unites over 200 radio stations, news sites and television channels. Some entities are identified with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Shiite militias in Iraq.
The conglomerate, defined as the Revolutionary Guards’ propaganda arm by the US, transferred training to Hamas media personnel in Beirut studios, including instruction in news program presentation.
Hezbollah supervised the process, with the model being the Al-Manar propaganda network.
“During COVID, they did the training on Zoom,” Barak said, “Hamas and Islamic Jihad members spoke with a Hezbollah representative, a Lebanese journalist named Safa Salmani. The Palestinian branch of IRTVU was established in 2017. This is essentially another Iranian foothold in Gaza in the ‘public diplomacy’ field.”
The senior researcher reveals that the person responsible for Palestinian training in Lebanon was a Hezbollah figure named Nassar Akhdar. Since then, he has been appointed as IRTVU deputy secretary-general and a senior official in the Iranian axis. He recently accompanied Quds Force commander Ismail Qaani on his visit to Baghdad in July.
About four months before the October 7 massacre, a delegation from Hamas’ spokesperson apparatus arrived in Lebanon and met with Akhdar. There, the sides discussed mobilizing joint propaganda efforts against Israel.
Continued from page 1
are gone. But the legacy of those Jews is not gone. It lives in me, in my family, and, G-d willing, in the generations yet to come.
The Torah says in next week’s parsha, “Acharei Hashem Elokeichem Teileichu” (Devarim 13:5), which means “Behind Hashem your G-d you shall walk.” Even from far behind, we can follow Him.
No matter how distant we feel, whether in miles, generations, or spiritual connec-
tion, one small step toward G-d matters. One mezuzah on one door can make all the difference.
My family in North Dakota could not have imagined that a century later, their greatgrandchildren would be telling their story across the country. They did not know which mitzvos would endure or which acts of faith would echo forward. But they placed mezuzos on their doorways because they understood that these small acts could hold an entire
world together.
Never underestimate the power of one mitzvah
Great change often begins not with grand gestures, but with small acts that quietly shape the future. Like a single mezuzah in a city, one point of holiness can protect, inspire, and sustain far more than we imagine.
Rabbi Benny Berlin is spiritual leader of BACH Jewish Center in Long Beach.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
In Gaza, the conglomerate’s representative was Salah al-Masri, a journalist identified with Islamic Jihad. According to Barak, Hezbollah’s training over the years included the following topics –how to counter the Israeli narrative, how to train social media influencers, how to train school children to produce their own content, and even how to try recruiting Israeli citizens for propaganda efforts.
Akhdar, needless to say, defined the activity of Iranian axis media entities as “the first front in the campaign.”
One of the Iranians’ contacts in Hamas, re-
See Hamas’ multimedia on page 9
The homepage of the proaganda-infused Palestinian Information Center’s English website, on Aug. 12.
—Lisa Basini, Baking Coach, Bellport
Lisa’s passion is baking. Opening a store was a big step—one she made with support from PSEG Long Island’s Business First Program. She earned incentives for choosing a vacant space and rebates for upgrading to efficient LED lighting. Now, she’s saving on energy costs and her thriving business has made life a little sweeter for all of us.
5 Towns Rehab aids in the healing of IDF vets
By Melissa Berman, LI Herald
With an assist from a rehabilitation facility in the Five Towns, IDF Commander Jonathan Benhamou is seeing his vision come to life, with other IDF soldiers getting the chance to come to the US for properly fitting prosthetics and rehabilitation, just like Benhamou did last year.
A rocket-propelled grenade that exploded 30 feet from his vehicle during a Gaza mission on Nov. 2, 2023, seriously wounded Benhamou, 24. After doctors at a Tel Aviv hospital removed shrapnel and amputated his left leg, he underwent five months of physical therapy before being discharged in March 2024.
He initially came to the US on vacation, and ended up receiving additional surgery and rehabilitation.
After Dr. Oren Michaels, of Cooperman Barnabas Hospital in New Jersey, performed nerve-reattachment surgery on Benhamou’s left leg and nerve transplants on his right leg that June, Benhamou rehabilitated at Five Towns Premier Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Woodmere. There, he formed close bonds with the staff and received a free prosthetic from Dr. Michael Nadata, whose practice is in Valley Stream.
“I needed a new prosthetic, and he made for me a prosthetic like a Ferrari — then I started walking, running and playing basketball,” Benhamou said of Nadata. “Here they are very professional and technologically advanced.”
Over a year later, Benhamou has
helped a number of IDF soldiers receive proper care after being injured while fighting the ongoing war in Gaza.
“The surgeon asked me if I had more friends who need help, and he was also a soldier in the second Lebanon War, so he wanted to help others,” he said.
Benhamou said he believes that Hashem saved his life, and that his mission is to bring more soldiers over to get the same treatment he had, through his nonprofit, Care for Heroes. Nadata offers his services and the prosthetics at cost, just the price of the materials.
“My mission is to change the rules for wounded soldiers, close the charity and hand it over to the government,” Benhamou said.
Noam, 22, and Ilan, 28, who were identified only by their first names, are two of the soldiers who have come to the US with the help of Benhamou and his organization.
As a company commander in the Armored Corps 188th Battalion, Noam, in the infantry deployed after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was in one of the tanks in the first wave to respond.
“When we entered Gaza the first time, I was injured on Nov. 16 — my tank was sabotaged from the outside,” Noam recounted. “A terrorist stuck a bomb between the turret and the base, and me and another friends were injured.
I got an amputation on the spot, below the knee on my right leg,” he added. “I was awake the whole time. I put a tourniquet on myself, jumped
on one leg toward the exit of the tank and had a very fast evacuation — a half-hour from the explosion to the hospital.”
He was in the same rehab unit in Israel as Benhamou, and was unhappy with the prosthetic he received. “I talked to Jonathan, and wanted
to get a normal prosthetic done, and came here in March, got a new one and then came back, received an adjustment and got a running prosthetic as well,” Noam said.
Ilan is a reserve soldier who was injured on Nov. 11, 2024, in Lebanon. He has been in the IDF since he was 18, and is a combat engineer who operates heavy machinery, including bulldozers, excavators and loaders.
“When the war started, I knew I was going to get called from the reserves,” Ilan recalled. “I was called on Oct. 16, 2023, and fought for almost a year, basically in three rounds — got injured twice. The first time was in Gaza — I fell from a bulldozer and broke my ribs.”
After recovering for four months, Ilan returned to Lebanon for two months, and was injured again.
“I was (on) an excavator working on the border and I got hit by a new anti-tank missile — it was fired from five miles away,” he said. “I broke my neck, and had shrapnel all over my body. One of them was stuck in my neck, 2 millimeters from the spinal cord.”
He spent over two months recovering at a hospital.
“I have a few nerve problems, and I told Jonathan I will do anything I can to help him,” Ilan said. “I came here and got checked out by a surgeon about a nerve problem in my hand, and will need surgery in the future.
“The Jewish community has been the best thing I’ve seen. We’re here for doctors and prosthetics — we just want our lives back,” he said.
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IDF Commanders Jonathan Benhamou, second from left, and Noam, third from left, showed off their prosthetics with soldiers Ilan, far left and Yarin. Melissa Berman, LI Herald
Empowerment day aids 500 bereaved women
By Sharon Altshul, JNS
Opening the doors to a packed ballroom at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem, one is struck not just by the number of attendees, but by the weight of shared grief.
More than 500 women gathered for the annual Women’s Empowerment Symposium, all bereaved by acts of terrorism and war. Religious and secular, grandmothers and young mothers with babies in arms, widows, sisters, daughters, some have carried their loss for over 20 years, while others have only just begun to navigate the pain. The emotional toll of the current war becomes tangible in their presence.
The event, organized by OneFamily, a national organization supporting bereaved families of terror and war victims, founded during during the Second Intifada.
The day began with a video greeting from Israel’s first lady, Michal Herzog, and was emceed by media personality Dana Varon. Among the featured speakers were Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi, journalist and author Sivan Rahav-Meir, cosmetics entrepreneur Hava Zingboim and nutrition expert Maya Rozman.
Each speaker delivered a unique message rooted in a shared theme: focusing on what we can control, making intentional choices and strengthening ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Mizrachi reflected: “We are at this remarkable OneFamily event, the one I always feel disappointed is so well-attended.”
The beloved rabbanit shared a conversation she had with a grandmother who had lost two grandsons in the current war. “She told me she’s distressed because she sometimes can’t remember which one did what. That, to me, captures the essence of this extraordinary community. Every person here has their own story, but somehow, all the stories blend together, because we are one.
Our nation mourns as one.”
Zingboim moved the audience with her personal journey. Despite losing her family at a young age, facing cancer and raising a son struggling with addiction, she managed to build a business empire.
“We don’t control what happens to us or our children — that’s in G-d’s hands. What we do control is how we respond. We can choose life. I always say: ‘David stood up’ — just two words, but [they have] such power. That’s what we must do — stand up, stay strong and hold our families together. Because that’s how we hold up the entire nation. The power is in women’s hands.”
Rahav-Meir offered a vivid metaphor: “If you’re carrying a cup of coffee and bump into something, you’ll spill coffee. If it’s orange juice in your cup, you’ll spill orange juice. The same goes for life, what spills out of you in tough times is whatever you’ve filled yourself with.”
She urged the audience to reduce negative input, like endless news alerts. and fill themselves with strength and faith instead. Each participant received a copy of her book, “Birkot HaShachar-A Guide to the First Moments of the Day,” to help start each morning with purpose and positivity.
Throughout the day, women shared their personal stories of loss, finding strength in community. The day included breakfast on arrival at the hotel, time to meet and talk and quiet moments of reflection.
“It’s not just about what’s said on stage,” one attendee noted. “It’s about not having to explain your pain.”
Cheryl Mandel, whose son, Lt. Daniel Mandel, 24, was killed by Hamas terrorists in Nablus in 2003, said that for her, the day was both good and bad.
“The bad? Seeing so many new faces, new grandmothers, new young widows, new mothers. The good? Incredible women with inspiring stories. And my family, the women I’ve known for 22 years, and exchanging hugs. To look into the eyes of the new women and feel the connection. Wonderful.”
Shlomit Tzeiger of Shavei Shomron shared how her husband, Yitzchak, a ZAKA volunteer, was murdered at the site of a second terrorist attack at a gas station in Eli, just nine months after he responded to the first.
She had been across the street offering comfort to her neighbors, the Belete family, who lost their
son, Staff Sgt. Nerya Belete, 21, in battle in Gaza on Feb. 25, 2024. “The only thing I can do now is live with kindness and chesed, as Yitzchak did.”
At the event’s closing, Nerya’s mother, Batsheva Belete, sat beside her neighbor Shlomit and added, “We must be strong for the living. Nerya has siblings, some still very young. We need to stand tall for them.”
The day concluded with a deeply emotional presentation from Iris Haim, the mother of Yotam Haim, 28, a hostage in Gaza who was mistakenly killed by IDF forces after escaping Hamas captivity on Dec. 15, 2023. She has become a symbol of compassion for embracing the soldiers responsible. After her talk, she was surrounded by women wanting to approach and comment, offering hugs and tears.
One first-time participant, whose son was killed in the current war, reflected when asked how she felt at the end of the day. She paused, then answered in one word: “Empowered.”
OneFamily president Chantal Belzberg closed the day by reminding the women, “Our job is not to make you forget your pain, but to help you live with it, not alone, but together. That’s what family means.”
Sharon Altshul
Inside the historic building boom in Jerusalem
By Shimon Sherman, JNS
Jerusalem is experiencing the most significant building boom in its modern history.
In the past year alone, city authorities approved more than 7,700 new housing units, more than double the annual average of the previous decade.
High-rise towers, many exceeding 30 stories, are rising across neighborhoods lined with modest walk-ups. At the western entrance to the capital, cranes fill the skyline as construction on a multibillion-shekel transit and business hub, the Jerusalem Gateway project, accelerates.
“Urban renewal is a vital pillar of the housing revolution,” said Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion in a recent press conference. “It revitalizes neighborhoods, updates infrastructure and promotes justice while preserving our historic character and green spaces.”
Former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum explained that market forces were the central driver behind the urban development boom.
“Prices are high because the supply does not meet demand. The mayor wants young people to be able to buy an apartment in Jerusalem, and currently, that is not an option,” she told JNS.
“The more building occurs, the more affordable the housing becomes, so the rationale is to transform Jerusalem and make it accessible both physically and economically,” she added.
The building wave is a turning point for a city once resistant to vertical growth. Construction in Jerusalem long lagged behind demand due to topography, preservation laws and political caution.
Now, priorities such as national urban policy and accelerated infrastructure development are driving a rapid shift — the city is growing upward, faster and in greater volume than ever.
“From an average of about 2,300 housing units per year up to 2019, we’ve grown to 8,000
annually from 2021 to 2024,” said Sharon Mandelbaum, head of Jerusalem’s Municipal and Business Strategic Development Division. “That’s over 28,000 units that were granted permits in these few years.”
The change is especially visible in neighborhoods marked for densification. In Talpiot, Kiryat Yovel and the Katamonim neighborhoods, mid-century housing blocks are being replaced by towers.
“Jerusalem is a city of heritage with a lot of cultural considerations, which creates a very complex building environment,” said Hassan-Nahoum. “A lot of the decisions around where to expand are based on trying to avoid historically significant areas. Some neighborhoods are less culturally sensitive, which makes it a lot easier to quickly permit and expand living space there.”
Commercial construction has surged alongside housing. The Jerusalem Gateway project alone includes more than 20 towers, hotels, offices and public buildings, creating an employment district linked to light and intercity rail.
Officials estimate these projects could bring more than 50,000 housing units and vast commercial space to the city by decade’s end.
Hassan-Nahoum explained that Jerusalem’s unique constraints are what make tower building and vertical expansion a trademark of the city’s urban development. “Jerusalem is cut off on the east by political considerations and cut off on the west by a green belt of forest. Because of that, Jerusalem has to build up,” she said.
Scarce land and high prices
Jerusalem’s building surge is not taking place in isolation; it reflects broader demographic and policy shifts shaping urban development across Israel. With a national population nearing 10 million and expected to double by 2050, demand for housing in major cities has intensified, especially in the country’s center, where land is scarce and
prices are high.
While greater Tel Aviv has historically absorbed much of this growth, rising costs and limited space have prompted policymakers to identify alternative urban centers.
“Jerusalem now has a population exceeding one million, growing annually by over 1.5%,” said attorney Avi Porten, a zoning expert. “It also has a higher proportion of young people and new immigrants than the national average. This creates strong annual demand for new housing.”
The capital’s growth is steady and demographically driven. Nearly 40% of residents are under 25, fueling consistent demand, especially in middle- and lower-income sectors.
National housing policy has shifted toward urban renewal and infill development over continued sprawl. Long viewed as politically complex and geologically constrained, Jerusalem is now central to that strategy.
Much of the momentum stems from a shift in
city policy. The Local Planning and Building Committee has taken a more active role, prioritizing urban renewal and easing regulatory barriers in key zones.
A key driver has been the expanded use of two national programs: TAMA (National Outline Plan) 38, which strengthens older buildings against earthquakes, and Pinui-Binui (“Evacuation and Reconstruction”), which enables the full redevelopment of residential complexes.
Though long available, these frameworks only gained traction in Jerusalem starting in 2022. Since then, eligibility zones have widened and developers have received expanded building rights, often permitting towers of 25 to 35 stories in areas once capped at six.
Transit-oriented projects
Simultaneously, the city has prioritized transit-oriented projects, especially along existing or
Cranes working at a construction site in Jerusalem on Feb. 19. Nati Shohat,
Europe’s payday for barbarism
Continent will be haunted for rewarding Palestinian terror with ‘statehood’
THANE ROSENBAUM
Distinguished University Professor Touro College
Who knew barbarism as a career path pays so well? With the ostensible objective of bringing the war in Gaza to an end — and the moral perversity of punishing Israel for the continued endangerment of Gazans at the hands of Hamas — the leaders of France, the UK and Canada have announced their nominal recognition of a Palestinian state. (Germany, for now, is merely halting the shipment of weapons to Israel.)
Israel’s immediate answer was to extend its sovereignty by occupying all of Gaza — thus prolonging the war until Hamas is finally vanquished and the hostages returned. This is what you get when you trivialize a crime like what occurred on October 7, by rewarding savages with a state instead of allowing Israel to finish the job.
Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, Friedrich Merz and Mark Carney are absolute geniuses at international diplomacy.
A Palestinian state! Now? There’s no better example of the Western world’s groveling capitulation to Islamic extremism. Given the jackpot of statehood, what incentive does Hamas now have to release hostages, agree to a ceasefire and surrender?
A Palestinian state! Now? There’s no better example of the Western world’s groveling capitulation to Islamic extremism.
As a parting gift for its savagery and continued intransigence, Hamas manages to preserve whatever of its ranks remain, and graduate from outlawed terrorists to legitimate state actors. Not a bad deal: welcomed into the family of nations to kill off one of the others — the explicitly Jewish one.
The world is already flush with nations that bring little benefit to humankind — and that fail all measurable standards of democratic liberalism: their treatment of women, homosexuals, artists and intellectuals; and the absence of free speech, religious tolerance and the rule of law.
There are 22 Arab-Muslim states that specialize in oil, Sharia law, terrorism and antisemitism — and not necessarily in that order. For 20 years the West has guilelessly imported
these pathologies of the Middle East. Alleged asylum seekers were actually making inroads into anti-infidel mischief. And now we can look forward to Palestine, which has all the accouterments of a terrorist state — natural resources in instability, bloodthirstiness, and Jew-hating aplenty, without the oil.
After rejecting five offers of statehood that required direct negotiations with Israel and reassurances that they would renounce terrorism and live within peaceable borders, European leaders of democratic nations — held hostage by violent Islamists to whom they have granted citizenship — took it upon themselves to say, “Abracadabra! Presto Chango!” here we have Palestine.
If Hamas is deserving of such a reward, can ISIS, al Qaeda and Boko Haram be far behind? Macron, Starmer and Carney are now de facto benefactors of rogue states, the Oprahs of Gaza:
“You get a state! And you get a state, too!”
But can they even do this, legally — serve as state-makers for a people who have never shown an appetite for nation-building?
Some reference to international law might prove instructive. Pursuant to Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Conference on the Rights and Duties of States, nationhood demands a stable population, defined territorial boundaries, a government capable of governance, the
willingness to live in peace with its neighbors and an aptitude to engage in diplomatic affairs.
“Palestine” fails on all accounts.
Palestinians presently live in non-contiguous regions: the West Bank and Gaza. And they are governed by two different entities that despise one another: Fatah, which directs the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza. The former is an anti-democratic kleptocracy that can’t even deliver the mail; the latter is a jihadist death cult. Hamas murdered Fatah leaders soon after they defeated them at the ballot box in 2007.
Unity exists nowhere within these regions. The West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus might as well be in Gaza given the population’s sympathies for Hamas.
Neither Fatah nor Hamas has held elections since each took power; and neither has demonstrated any capacity for self-governance, or desire to live in peace with neighboring Jews — or Christians, for that matter.
What’s more, no recognized international boundaries for a Palestinian state exist on any map. Perhaps that’s because no Arab state named Palestine has ever existed in human history. Neither the United Nations nor Israel, for that matter, has a clue as to where the lines for a Palestinian state should be drawn. This has never bothered Palestinians because the only state
they have ever wanted goes by the name Israel. Finally, and most damningly, Hamas and the PLO never amended their respective charters calling for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews wherever they may be found.
These are the statesmen France, the UK and Canada have in mind?
Immediately after October 7, 2023, one Hamas leader, Ghazi Hamad, appearing on Lebanese television channel LBC, pledged a repeat performance, “again and again. … [T] here will be a second, a third, a fourth [until the] annihilation of Israel.”
Not once has anyone from Hamas or Islamic Jihad withdrawn those genocidal commitments. And the world is expecting Israel to withdraw from Gaza and welcome a Palestinian state?
Meanwhile, the UN High-Level International Conference on the Two-State Solution recently “condemn[ed] the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians on the 7th of October,” and declared that “Hamas must free all hostages, … end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons.” France, the UK and Canada all participated in that conference! How is this reconcilable, especially when Hamad told Al Jazeera: “The powerful blow that was delivered to Israel on Oct. 7 has yielded … historic achievements. … Why are all these countries recognizing Palestine now?”
These political and moral contradictions are easily explainable. Macron, Starmer and Carney are terrified of rampaging Muslims and see their Jewish minority as easily expendable. Rarely are survival instincts so cynically dependent upon brass knuckles and mind-numbing politics. Europe’s Enlightenment has been thrown into moral darkness. Western culture, as we have come to know it, has surrendered to those who glorify death and see beauty in extinguishing life. Sleeper cells are suddenly wide awake. Insomniac jihadists have become a fitting fifth column. Western culture, as we have come to know it, has surrendered to those who glorify death and see beauty in extinguishing life. Sleeper cells are suddenly wide awake. Insomniac jihadists have become a fitting fifth column.
Over the weekend, a Jewish man in Montreal was brutally beaten in front of his children, who pleaded for their father’s life. The culprit was a Canadian Muslim waiting impatiently for the next caliphate. Maybe he just got overly excited by the prospect of a Palestinian state. First published in Jewish Journal.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Hamas’ multimedia master plan…
One of the Iranians’ contacts in Hamas, responsible for “children’s training,” was someone we already mentioned — Salama Maarouf. Through the governmental communications office, he dictated content to the Palestinian education system aimed at explaining how to distribute propaganda content on networks.
Another body assisting the campaign is the organization “National Students for Justice in Palestine,” operating on US campuses (National SJP).
“They’re connected to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in the US, and they also helped the starvation campaign,” Barak said. “They distribute content on Instagram, TikTok, and additional platforms to pressure decision-makers at universities to sever ties with Israel. It’s not just in the Middle East.”
Doctors with borders
The echo chamber Hamas created in Gaza doesn’t end here.
The logo of “Gaza Now.”
is the spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry. He’s one of the most quoted information sources in Israeli
and international media. Except al-Qudra isn’t in the Strip at all. During the war, he left for Qatar, where he maintains direct contact with Hamas leadership. Al-Qudra indeed relies on information from Gaza health system personnel, but they, too, depend on Hamas.
In 2007, following Hamas’ coup in Gaza, this health system underwent purges for all intents and purposes. The then-Health Minister in Hamas’ government, Basem Naim, now sitting in Qatar, made sure to fire central hospital directors, remove approximately 600 doctors, and get rid of an unknown number of staff members who were “identified with Fatah.” They were replaced with terror movement loyalists.
In other words, every senior figure in Gaza’s health system depends on Hamas or belongs to it. Indeed, under the watchful eyes of Gaza hospital administrators, Israeli hostages were held, and some were even murdered by terrorists in those same centers. Moreover,
those same complexes served Hamas as headquarters and hiding places, with underground tunnels dug in their vicinity.
Another factor to note is the spokesman for the “Civil Defense System,” Mahmoud Basal. This refers to Hamas’ rescue team mechanism, subordinate to Hamas senior Tawfiq Abu Naim.
According to the IDF, the defense system spokesman was responsible in recent months for publishing fabricated data received by international media outlets. Furthermore, it was revealed that simultaneously, he operated as a Hamas terrorist.
This is obviously the tip of the iceberg. Hamas’ propaganda apparatus also extends across additional accounts in the digital arena, like GAZA NOW, and includes various influencers with millions of followers.
While the mechanism swells daily, Israel has been leaving the arena almost empty for many long years.
Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra
St. John’s in Far Rock opens new maternity unit HEALTH, MIND & BODY
By Brian Norman, LI Herald
St. John’s Episcopal Hospital has officially opened its new Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum unit, marking a milestone in maternal care for families in the Rockaways and the Five Towns.
A celebratory ribbon-cutting took place at the Far Rockaway hospital in advance of the unit’s official opening next week.
The hospital’s goal is to to improve patient experiences and safety while creating a welcoming, high-quality environment for expectant mothers.
“Maternity is finally here,” said Donald T. Morrish, CEO of Episcopal Health Services. “All the blood, sweat and tears that went on during the 12 years of getting labor and delivery finally has come to fruition. … Episcopal Health Services is on a tremendous trajectory to provide highquality care that is patient centered.”
The new unit features six 400-square-foot rooms designed for labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum care, all equipped with private showers, allowing most patients to remain in a single room throughout their birth experience. The unit also includes two operating rooms for cesarean deliveries, two recovery rooms and four triage spaces, and the focus is on patient comfort and supporting high-risk pregnancies with specialized services for mothers and newborns.
Dr. Jacqueline Marecheau, chair of obstetrics and gynecology, said the project has personal meaning for her.
“This space is a sanctuary,” she said. “This space is a love letter to the community, and it is very deep and personal to me. I, too, had preeclampsia and postpartum depression — so for me, I empathize with all the woman in this community, and I think that this community and the surrounding community deserves a beautiful space.”
The hospital has been raising money through its ICARE Foundation, hosting gala events and fundraisers. It also received grants from every level of government, including a $500,000 state grant facilitated by Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato.
“Investing in women and our health is what this labor delivery unit is going to do for us in this community,” Amato said. “I was born in St. John’s.”
Turning to Morrish, Amato added, “Don, you talked about an antiquated hospital I’m sure it was the same [in] 1966: That investment was never made. [Now,] this is all of us electeds listening to the community — we have listened to you loud and clear, and this hospital has done that.”
To build awareness of maternal care, the hospital has hosted giveaways offering diapers and baby supplies, wellness sign-ups and a Women’s Health Fair in May that included workshops and conversations with mothers-to-be.
In addition to the new space, the hospital launched a doula program and a centering model for maternal health education, initiatives aimed at reducing infant mortality, pre-term births and low birth weights.
Erica Young, an expecting mother from Far Rockaway, said she was eager to deliver her baby at the new facility.
“I think this new unit is important because they have technology here that they don’t have at other places,” Young said. “Everything is new and clean and professional. You want to be somewhere were you have the right support, the right doctor, the right nurses. It is super important.”
Rabin Medical reports genetic disease breakthrough
By Howard Blas, JNS
If Professor Idit Maya has her way, countless Jewish families in Israel and around the world will be spared from confusing information and, in some cases, agonizing decisions about possible termination of pregnancies due to the risk of hereditary diseases.
In an exclusive interview with JNS from her office and lab at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Hospital, which is affiliated with the Clalit Health Services in Petach Tikvah, Maya, the acting director of RMC’s Genetics Institute and head of the research team, explained that current global standards may overestimate the risk of genetic defects in the offspring of Jewish couples. This can cause unnecessary alarm for parents who undergo prenatal testing for genetic disease. The results of the study have “significant implications, especially for Jews in Israel and the Diaspora,” the team said.
Maya and her team, in collaboration with Professor Lena Sagi-Dain, chair of
the Israeli Society of Medical Genetics, analyzed vast amounts of genetic data from Jewish ethnic subgroups, with the aim of estimating the risk of genetic disease in Jewish populations.
Maya’s groundbreaking study has resulted in the creation of a new genetic risk model, recently adopted by the Genetics Society of Israel. The model of-
fers more accurate, community-specific assessments that have the potential to better guide genetic experts and physicians worldwide as they counsel their patients.
Using white paper, a dozen colorful highlighters and elaborate graphs, Maya explained both basic genetic concepts and details of the new model.
“Everyone has two copies of all genetic material. We get one copy got from our mother, and one copy from our father. Small blocks of your DNA, only three million out of the billions, will be the same on both copies — the same DNA inherited from the mother and the father.”
She went on to explain that these stretches of identical DNA, called regions of homozygosity (ROH), may be found when doctors use a genetic test called Chromosomal Microarray Analysis (CMA). This test looks at variations in the DNA to identify patterns.
ROH — identical segments of DNA that are inherited from both of the parents — may mean that the parents are related or share a common ancestor. Doctors use the test as a tool in diagnosing rare genetic diseases and in genetic counseling. But there’s no universal agreement on how large ROH regions need to be before they should be reported to doctors or patients. Genetic labs need to report ROH when
there is a real worry of disease, but not create unnecessary concern when there is no real issue.
According to Maya, the amount of ROH in a person’s genome can vary depending on a person’s ethnic background, and it is critical to take this into consideration when interpreting these tests, especially for Jews. She said that the worldwide rules for reporting ROH that might signal a health risk may be too strict for ethnic Jewish populations. In many small Jewish communities around the world, there was a tendency to marry within extended families and communal members. The evidence for this is in our DNA today.
Maya and her team looked at how much ROH is present in people from different ethnic backgrounds and determined whether some groups have a higher percentage or longer ROH than others. The goal was to help decide when ROH should be considered medically important, based on a person’s background.
Hospital staff and elected officials cut the ribbon to officially welcome the new Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum unit at Far Rockaway’s St. John’s hospital on July 31. Brian Norman, LI Herald
Left: One of the two Cesarean operating rooms suites in the maternity unit. Right: State-of-the-art birthing suite at St. John’s Hospital. Tim Baker, LI Herald
Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva. Sky Pro
WINE
AND DINE
Almost time for Labor Day BBQs and picnics
Kosher Kitchen
JoNI SchocKEtt Jewish Star columnist
t’s hard to believe that Labor Day is just around the corner. (This year, it’s as “early” as it gets — on Monday, Sept. 1.)
The summer, as usual, has flown by in the proverbial blink of an eye. The lazy days have been replaced by the flurry of activity surrounding school supplies, new shoes, clothes and schedules. Stores are filled with kids getting ready to leave for college and I am still amazed at the amount of stuff they can fit into a tiny dorm room. I keep hoping for more 90-degree days — I know, most people hate them, but I love the heat and the I’m blessed to be able to go to the beach or a friend’s pool if I want. Or I can stay home and try out a new recipe or start the baking for the holidays.
I love summer, and just like my dad, my happiest place on earth is the beach no matter the weather, or the season. So, as I watch the days get shorter, and the mornings cooler, I feel nostalgic and a bit sad that another summer will soon be gone.
Labor Day has always been a day of gathering and backyard cook-outs, a time for families to gather and play just once more before everyone hunkers down for the year to come and the winter we all know is too close for comfort.
We all want the summer to last, so we make Labor Day the punctuation mark of the season — a big blast of last-minute grilling and fun, a day filled with friends and family and lots of food. And still, I will look on the long-range forecasts for just one more day of summer — even after the holiday.
I hope that you have had a wonderful summer and that you have relaxed, eased up on schedules (and cooking, too), and really enjoyed these long languid days and nights. Have a wonderful end-of-summer blast and stretch out those lazy, hazy days just a little longer with a great barbecue or picnic. (And, it really is not too early to bake a few things to freeze for the upcoming chagim!)
Grilled Summer Vegetable
Ka-Bobs (Pareve)
These can be made with any vegetables that you like. Standard Veggie ka-bobs are often made with small baby veggies, but you can cut up any vegetables to fit a skewer. Marinate veggies for about an hour or overnight in the refrigerator
• 4 large cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 yellow summer squash
• 1 zucchini
• 2 Japanese eggplants
• 1 yellow sweet onion (Vidalia is great)
• 1 red onion
• 1 green pepper
• 1 red pepper
• 15 mushrooms
• 15 cherry tomatoes
• 15 very small red potatoes
• 3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
OPTIONAL: 3 ears of sweet corn, husked and cut into 2-inch long pieces
Place the gloves of garlic in a small saucepan and add the oil. Bring to a low simmer and cook until the garlic cloves are light golden. Watch closely and cook until the cloves turn a bit darker
and the small nitty. Remove from the burner and add 1/4 cup of olive oil. This will stop the cooking process and keep the cloves from overcooking. Stir and set aside.
Blanch the potatoes in boiling water for 4-5 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.
Slice the squash and zucchini into half-inch thick slices. Set aside. Slice the eggplant into 3/4 -inch-thick slices and set aside.
Seed the peppers and cut them into large chunks and set aside. Clean the mushrooms and trim the stems.
Place the garlic cloves in a medium bowl, and add 1/3 cup of the olive oil in which the garlic was cooked. Mash with a fork and then mix until blended. Add the balsamic vinegar, sugar, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Whisk until everything is emulsified, add the cut up vegetables and stir well. Cover and refrigerate for one or two hours or overnight.
Just before grilling, cut the onions into chunks and dip into the marinade without
breaking them. Wash the tomatoes. Place the vegetables on skewers in any order, but be careful with the mushrooms, they tend to break so I usually put them on the end of the skewer. Grill over medium heat until deep golden brown. If you don’t want to use skewers, use a veggie grill basket and shake and toss until brown. The onions will probably break apart, but that’s ok. Baste the cooking veggies with any leftover marinade. Cook until the veggies are softened and have some charred areas. You can figure about 1/3 to 3/4 cup per person, so adjust as needed.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS: Serve with rice or pasta as a main dish or with any meat, fish or poultry as a side dish, or use them in the recipe below. Makes about 6-10 skewers.
Grilled Veggies Antipasto (Meat or Dairy)
• Several Grilled Veggie Skewers (see recipe above)
• 1 head Romaine lettuce
• 1 head red or green leaf lettuce and additional lettuce, if needed
• 4 Tbsp. capers
• 1 cup black olives (green or brown are fine)
• Sliced red onion, as much as you like
• Thinly sliced carrots, as much as you like
• Thinly sliced red or green pepper, as much as you like
• 1 large cucumber, cut in half, seeded and cut into slices
• Any homemade or bottled pareve vinaigrette dressing
• croutons
FOR DAIRY: Fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into slices, Fresh Burrata or other cheeses that you may like
FOR MEAT: Add sliced chicken breast, or London Broil, Roast Beef or other meat you like. Wash and dry the romaine lettuce and line a large serving platter with the leaves. Wash, dry and tear the red or green leaf lettuce into bite sized pieces. Place on the romaine leaves. Add some additional baby lettuce leaves if you like.
Add the remainder of the cold veggies and then place the grilled veggies (hot or cold) over the lettuce and add the cucumbers and olives. Slice the cheese and place around the platter. Garnish with the pepperoncini. Add the capers and drizzle with the dressing. Serves 4-6, or more..
Many Mushroom Skewers With Lemon-Garlic Marinade (Pareve)
This is a wonderful recipe to serve with a wild rice pilaf, pasta, chicken or beef for a great main or side dish. The flavors of the different wild mushrooms come out in the grilling and the marinade enhances their deliciousness
• 4 portabella mushroom caps
• 16 large button mushrooms
• 16 oyster mushrooms
• 16 shitake mushrooms
• 8 skewers
Lemon Garlic Marinade
NOTE: You can use as many different kinds of mushrooms as you like, allowing about 6-8 mushrooms per skewer.
Mix together in a glass jar and refrigerate. Peel the Portobello mushrooms and remove the gills with a spoon. Wash and then cut them into quarters.
Place cleaned mushrooms in a large shallow glass baking dish. Drizzle the marinade over the mushrooms and marinate for about 30 minutes. Carefully skewer the mushrooms and grill for about 10 -20 minutes, until charred in spots and golden brown, turning frequently and basting often. Serves 4-6 or as many as you like allowing about 6-10 mushrooms per person.
Hot Cajun Jerk Wet Rub for B-B-Q (Pareve)
If your family likes hot, Cajun spices then this barbecue wet rub is for you. Just make it in advance and then use sparingly on chicken, thick fish fillets, and beef.
Process all the ingredients in a blender or food processor, adding the hot peppers to taste. Process until smooth and liquid, 1-2 minutes. Pour into a glass jar and refrigerate. This will stay up to a month in the refrigerator. Brush onto cooking food. Use sparingly as it is quite potent. You can also use it over a sweet barbecue sauce to give an extra layer of flavor.
NOTE: You can easily adjust the amount of heat by decreasing the amount of peppers used.
NOTE: Scotch Bonnet peppers are the hottest peppers and you must use care when handling. Use food prep gloves and try not to touch the peppers with your bare hands. If you do, do not touch your eyes and be sure to wash your hands thoroughly immediately after handling the peppers. Jalapeno peppers are milder, but precautions should also be taken to wash hands immediately and avoid the eyes. Adding sugar to the mix cuts the heat a bit but use just a pinch or two.
NOTE: Use your favorite hot peppers for this hot, hot sauce to adjust the heat to your liking.
Summer Fruit Pies (Pareve)
Summer fruit pies are the perfect ending to any barbecue or picnic. Who can resist a juicy peach or a tart strawberry-rhubarb pie. If you make your own crust (well worth the extra effort) the recipe takes about an hour with an hour resting time for the dough. If you use a purchased crust, it takes about 30 minutes to make a pie.
Traditional Home-Made Pie Crust (Pareve)
This is a traditional pie crust that is flaky and delicious and has been in my family for generations
• 3 cups unbleached flour, sifted
• 1/2 cup ice-cold solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup ice-cold orange juice
• 2 tsp. salt
• 4 tsp. sugar
Dissolve the sugar and salt in the orange juice and place the cup of orange juice in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes.
Place the flour and the vegetable shortening in the food processor and pulse until the dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Pour in the juice while pulsing the motor. Blend just until the dough forms a ball. You may not need all the juice. Remove from the mixing bowl, bring the dough together into a disc, wrap in plastic and let rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
Divide the dough in half and roll out half on a floured surface until it is 3 inches wider than the pie pan you are using. Roll the dough over the rolling pin and transfer to the pan. Gently place into the pan, letting the excess hang over.
After filling the pie, roll out the rest of the dough about an inch or so larger than the pan. Place over the filling, roll up the bottom edges and crimp. Poke holes in the top, glaze or sprinkle with sugar and bake according to directions.
Whole Wheat Pie Crust (Pareve)
This is an adaptation of a pie crust dough I saw made on a television cooking show called “Christina Cooks.” It is actually very good, though some may object to the definite whole wheat flavor and the fact that it is not quite as flaky as a traditional crust.
• 1-1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 (scant) tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup corn oil
• 1/4 cup chilled orange juice or ice water
Mix flour, salt and oil in a bowl. Use a pastry blender or fork and mix well. Add the juice or water, just enough to form a stiff dough. Gather together and knead for about 2 minutes. Let the dough rest for about 5 minutes and roll out on a floured surface. NOTE: You will need two recipes for a two-crust pie. Don’t double this as it becomes too stiff to handle.
Fruit Fillings for Summer Pies (Pareve or Dairy)
3 pounds or any fruit you like or 3 quarts of any berries. Suggestions below are stand alone fillings or a mixture of any:
• Blueberries
• Peaches
• Nectarines
• Cherries, pitted and cut in half
• Strawberries
• Rhubarb
• Apricots
• Raspberries
• Blackberries
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2/3 to one cup sugar depending on tartness of fruit
• Juice of one-half to one lemon
FOR FRUIT: You may want to peel the
peaches, nectarines, etc. Boil a large pot of water and gently drop in the fruit. Fill a large bowl with ice and water. Let the fruit boil for about 20 seconds or until the skin cracks. Remove with a slotted spoon to the bowl of ice water. The skins will peel off very easily, saving lots of time.
FOR BERRIES: Wash and pick over the berries carefully to avoid stems, leaves, etc. Drain them well or place on paper towels to absorb excess moisture.
Mix the fruit with the lemon juice, cornstarch and sugar. You can add a bit of flour and a bit of butter for a richer, dairy pie. You can also add some pure extracts for a different flavor such as apricots with almond extract (about a half teaspoon tossed with the fruit).
Mound the fruit into the prepared crust, top with the top crust, poke a few holes in the center top, sprinkle with sugar, and bake at 350 to 375 degrees for about 45-60 minutes. Be sure to place the pie plate on a foil-lined cookie tray to catch any spills.
Be creative with this. Mix all kinds of berries and fruits together for a delicious treat. Apricots and cherries, nectarines and raspberries, these are great combinations. Makes one pie.
Hot Cajun Jerk Wet Rub for B-B-Q. punchfork.com
Many Mushroom Skewers With Lemon-Garlic Marinade. giverecipe.com
Fruit Fillings for Summer Pies. completelydelicious.com
Jerusalem…
Continued from page 7
planned light rail lines. Developers in “transportation priority zones” receive streamlined approvals and additional density in exchange for including amenities such as parks, schools or commercial space.
While planning policy and incentives have created the conditions for growth, it is the expansion of transportation infrastructure that has made high-density development viable. Over the past five years, Jerusalem has heavily invested in a multi-modal transit network to connect peripheral neighborhoods with the city center and reduce reliance on private vehicles.
A central element in this transformation is the city’s expanding light rail system. Beyond the established Red Line, from Pisgat Ze’ev in the north to Mount Herzl in the west, new lines are forming a broader network. The Green Line, under construction, will serve institutions such as Hebrew University’s Givat Ram campus and Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem, while the Blue and Purple Lines are in advanced planning.
These lines are designed not just for mobility but for urban restructuring; most new high-rise construction is concentrated within 550 yards of future stations.
In 20 years, we imagine a future where people are mostly based on public transport and a lot less on private vehicles,” Hassan-Nahoum said. ‘There is great value in expanding the public transport lines, which could allow for greater population density around the centers of transportation.”
Meanwhile, intercity connectivity has improved dramatically. The high-speed rail link to Tel Aviv, inaugurated in 2019 and now at full capacity, has reduced commute times to just over 30 minutes. This redefines Jerusalem’s connection to Israel’s economic center, enabling professionals to live in the capital while maintaining access to Tel Aviv’s job market.
In anticipation of further demand, early-stage planning is underway for a Jerusalem metro, an underground network that would supplement the light rail with higher-capacity service. Though not expected to break ground before the 2030s, the metro is already influencing long-term zoning, with planners reserving corridors for future tunneling.
Barriers to implementation
Despite the ambitious pace of planning, many projects face serious barriers to implementation. Chief among them are rising construction costs, labor shortages and logistical challenges unique to Jerusalem’s topography and legal landscape. In the past two years, construction costs in Israel have surged. Contractors report material
price hikes of up to 25%, driven by global supply disruptions, currency fluctuations and inflation. In Jerusalem, costs are further inflated by the challenges of working in densely built environments, with limited equipment access and delays from archaeological reviews or infrastructure relocation.
Labor shortages pose an even greater constraint. Since late 2023, Israel’s construction sector has suffered severe workforce depletion. The war in Gaza and related security restrictions removed tens of thousands of Arab laborers from Judea and Samaria from the workforce. Efforts to bring in foreign workers from India and Sri Lanka have been slowed by bureaucracy and limited training infrastructure.
These challenges don’t halt construction, but do extend timelines and raise risk. Projects with full approval can take years to break ground, and some developers are delaying final commitments due to uncertain costs and labor availability. For policymakers, the gap between approved plans and actual builds has become a key concern, prompting discussions about financial guarantees, streamlined title resolution and greater state support.
Affordability, though not the primary goal of most projects, remains a concern. Many new developments target mid- to upper-tier markets, particularly in transit-accessible zones where demand is strong from professionals and dual-in-
come households. While this helps attract capital and speed approvals, it raises questions about how to ensure income diversity over time. Affordable housing quotas exist, but they remain relatively small.
There are also technical concerns with the pace of densification. In neighborhoods undergoing high-rise growth, the infrastructure, sewage, electrical and road systems were not built for current or future loads.
While transportation upgrades are underway via light rail expansion, other civic infrastructure, schools, clinics and public space often lags. This has led planning departments to focus on aligning vertical growth with horizontal service capacity.
The current wave of development in Jerusalem is part of a broader strategic shift in how the city is planned, positioned and governed. At the core of this vision is the Jerusalem Development Authority, a joint body of the Municipality of Jerusalem and the Ministry for Jerusalem and Heritage.
The JDA plays a central role in aligning urban development with national priorities, coordinating investments across housing, transportation and employment zones. Its strategy centers on dense, transit-oriented nodes that integrate residential towers with commercial activity and public services.
The goal is to reduce sprawl, improve mobility and grow the city’s tax base by attracting residents and businesses to underutilized areas.
Jewish Star Torah columnists: Rabbi Benny Berlin, spiritual leader of BACH Jewish Center in Long Beach; Rabbi Avi Billet of Anshei Chesed, Boynton Beach, FL, mohel and Five Towns native; Rabbi Binny Freedman, rosh yeshiva of Orayta, Jerusalem; Dr. Alan A. Mazurek, former ZOA chair, retired neurologist, living in Great Neck, Jerusalem and Florida.
Contributing writers: Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks zt”l, former chief rabbi of United Hebrew Congregations of British Commonwealth; Rabbi Yossy Goldman, president South African Rabbinical Association; Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive VP emeritus.
Five Towns Candlelighting: From the White Shul, Far Rockaway, NY
Scarsdale Candlelighting: From the Young Israel of Scarsdale, Scarsdale, NY
Scarsdale candles: 7:03 • Havdalah: 8:02 rabbi Sir
The morality of love in the Jewish tradition
Something implicit in the Torah from the very beginning becomes explicit in the book of Devarim. G-d is the G-d of love. More than we love Him, He loves us. Here, for instance, is the beginning of this week’s parsha, Eikev:
If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the L-rd your G-d will keep His covenant of love [et ha-brit ve-et ha-chessed] with you, as He swore to your ancestors. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. Deut. 7:12-13
Again in the parsha we read:
To the L-rd your G-d belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the L-rd set His affection on your ancestors and loved them, and He chose you, their descendants, above all the nations — as it is today. Deut. 10:14-15
And here is a verse from last week’s: Because He loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, He brought you out of Egypt by His Presence and His great strength. Deut. 4:37
The book of Deuteronomy is saturated with the language of love. The root a-h-vappears in Shemot twice, in Vayikra twice (both in Leviticus 19), in Bamidbar not at all, but in Sefer Devarim 23 times. Devarim is a book about societal beatitude and the transformative power of love. Nothing could be more misleading and invidious than the Christian contrast between Christianity as a religion of love and forgiveness and Judaism as a religion of law and retribution.
As I pointed out in my “Covenant & Conversation” for Vayigash, forgiveness is born (as David Konstan notes in “Before Forgiveness”) in Judaism. Interpersonal forgiveness begins when Joseph forgives his brothers for selling him into slavery. Divine forgiveness starts with the institution of Yom Kippur as the supreme day of Divine pardon following the sin of the Golden Calf.
Similarly with love: when the New Testament speaks of love it does so by direct quotation from Leviticus (“You shall love your neighbor as yourself”) and Deuteronomy (“You shall love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart, all your soul and all
We are here because Someone wanted us to be, One who seeks our wellbeing.
your might”). As philosopher Simon May puts it in his splendid book, “Love: A History:”
The widespread belief that the Hebrew Bible is all about vengeance and “an eye for an eye,” while the Gospels supposedly invent love as an unconditional and universal value, must therefore count as one of the most extraordinary misunderstandings in all of Western history. For the Hebrew Bible is the source not just of the two love commandments but of a larger moral vision inspired by wonder for love’s power.
His judgment is unequivocal: If love in the Western world has a founding text, that text is Hebrew.
More than this: in “Ethical Life: The Past and Present of Ethical Cultures,” philosopher Harry Redner distinguishes four basic visions of the ethical life in the history of civilizations.
•One he calls civic ethics, the ethics of ancient Greece and Rome.
•Second is the ethic of duty, which he identifies with Confucianism, Krishnaism and late Stoicism.
•Third is the ethic of honor, a distinctive combination of courtly and military decorum to be found among Persians, Arabs and Turks as well as in medieval Christianity (the “chivalrous knight”) and Islam.
•The fourth, which he calls simply morality, he traces to Leviticus and Deuteronomy. He defines it simply as ‘the ethic of love,’ and represents what made the West morally unique:
The biblical “love of one’s neighbor” is a very special form of love, a unique development of the Judaic religion and unlike any to be encountered outside it. It is a supremely altruistic love, for to love one’s neighbor as oneself means always to put oneself in his place and to act on his behalf as one would naturally and selfishly act on one’s own.
To be sure, Buddhism also makes space for the idea of love, though it is differently inflected, more impersonal and unrelated to a relationship with G-d.
What is radical about this idea is that, first, the Torah insists, against virtually the whole of the ancient world, that the elements that constitute reality are neither hostile nor indifferent to humankind.
We are here because Someone wanted us to be, One who cares about us, watches over us and seeks our wellbeing.
Second, the love with which G-d created the universe is not just Divine. It is to serve as the model for us in our humanity. We are bidden to love the neighbor and the stranger, to engage in acts of kindness and compassion, and to build a society based on love. Here is how our parsha puts it:
For the L-rd your G-d is G-d of gods and L-rd of lords, the great, mighty and awesome G-d who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. So you must love the stranger, for you yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt. Deut. 10:18-19
In short: G-d created the world in love and forgiveness and asks us to love and forgive others. I believe that to be the most profound moral idea in human history.
There is however an obvious question. Why is it that love, which plays so great a part in the book of Devarim, is so much less in evidence in the earlier books of Shemot, Vayikra (with the exception of Leviticus 19) and Bamidbar?
The best way of answering that question is to ask another. Why is it that forgiveness plays no part — at least on the surface of the narrative — in the book of Bereishit?
G-d does not forgive Adam and Eve, or Cain
(though he mitigates their punishments). Forgiveness does not figure in the stories of the Flood, the Tower of Babel or the destruction of Sodom and the cities of the plain (Abraham’s plea is that the cities be spared if they contain fifty or ten righteous people; this is not a plea for forgiveness).
Divine forgiveness makes its first appearance in the book of Exodus after Moses’ successful plea in the wake of Golden Calf, and is then institutionalized in the form of Yom Kippur (Lev. 16), but not before. Why so?
The simple, radical, answer is: G-d does not forgive human beings until human beings learn to forgive one another. Genesis ends with Joseph forgiving his brothers. Only thereafter does G-d forgive human beings.
Turning to love: Genesis contains many references to it. Abraham loves Isaac. Isaac loves Esau. Rebecca loves Jacob. Jacob loves Rachel. He also loves Joseph. There is interpersonal love in plentiful supply. But almost all the loves of Genesis turn out to be divisive. They lead to tension between Jacob and Esau, between Rachel and Leah, and between Joseph and his brothers. Implicit in Genesis is a profound observation missed by most moralists and theologians. Love in and of itself — real love, personal and passionate, the kind of love that suffuses much of the prophetic literature as well as Shir HaShirim, the greatest love song in Tanach, as opposed to the detached, generalized love called agape which we associate with ancient Greece — is not sufficient as a basis for society. It can divide as well as unite. Hence it does not figure as a major motif until we reach the integrated social-moral-political vision of Deuteronomy which combines love and justice. Tzedek, justice, turns out to be another key word of Deuteronomy, appearing 18 times. It appears only four times in Shemot, not at all in Bamidbar, and in Vayikra only in chapter 19, the only chapter that also contains the word “love.”
In other words, in Judaism love and justice go hand in hand. Again this is noted by Simon May: [W]hat we must note here, for it is fundamental to the history of Western love, is the remarkable and radical justice that underlies the love commandment of Leviticus. Not a cold justice in which due deserts are mechanically handed out, but the justice that brings the other, as an individual with needs and interests, into a relationship of respect. All our neighbors are to be recognized as equal to ourselves before the law of love. Justice and love therefore become inseparable.
Love without justice leads to rivalry, and eventually to hate. Justice without love is devoid of the humanizing forces of compassion and mercy. We need both. This unique ethical vision — the love of G-d for humans and of humans for G-d, translated into an ethic of love toward both neighbor and stranger — is the foundation of Western civilization and its abiding glory. It is born here in the book of Deuteronomy, the book of law-as-love and love-as-law.
Do we really know what is truly important?
Little things count. Details matter.
What is really important in Jewish life: Fasting on Yom Kippur? Attending a seder on Passover night? Marrying in the faith?
For many, those big and very important traditions may well be the beginning and end of their Jewish observance. But much more is necessary.
Our Torah reading this week is Eikev. The word literally means “because.”
And it shall be that because you will listen to these laws, and you will observe and perform them, that G-d will keep His covenant with you and … He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. (Deuteronomy 7: 12-15).
A host of blessings, including health and wealth, will follow because we will keep the faith.
But why does the Torah use the unusual word eikev to mean because? There are far simpler Hebrew words it could have employed, rather than eikev.
The most famous explanation given by commentaries, including Rashi, is that the Hebrew word eikev also means “heel,” the very bottom of the human anatomy. Therefore, the Torah is referring particularly to those commandments that we often trample underfoot — those we step on with our heels. When we keep the commandments and traditions that many people deem insignificant, then we are worthy of these special blessings from the Almighty.
The question is: Why should these commandments earn us a special reward? Isn’t there a good reason why these commandments are considered insignificant? Shouldn’t observing the more famous, important ones be the more logical way to receive heavenly rewards?
The mystics explain that there are two aspects to every commandment. Every mitzvah is given for a specific reason. It has its own particular purpose to achieve in the world
The first verse in this week’s Torah portion, Eikev, presents a difficulty for those who choose to translate each word literally. Many translators simply avoid translating the word in question.
The word eikev literally means the heel, the bottom of one’s foot. If we translate the verse literally, it would read, “It will be heel you heed these laws, always vigilant to keep them, the L-rd your G-d will keep with you the covenant and the oath He forged with your ancestors.”
Obviously, the word “heel” makes no sense in this context.
The traditional commentaries deal with this difficulty in various ways. Rashi suggests: “If you keep even those laws which men tend to
tread upon with their heel. … The L-rd your G-d will keep the covenant.”
We are certainly inclined to belittle, or even neglect, rules which we consider unimportant. But although this approach has homiletic value, it goes beyond the plain meaning of the text.
Others adopt an alternative translation offered by Targum Onkelos, who finds that the word eikev need not mean “heel” at all, but can mean “in exchange for.” Hence, “in exchange for your keeping the laws, the L-rd will keep His covenant.”
Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban, or Nachmanides) supports the view of his predecessor, Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra, who understands eikev to often mean the “end result,” just as the “heel” is the “end result,” the “bottom line,” of the human body.
Thus, the meaning of the verse, according to these major commentators, is something like this: “It will be in the end, after which you will have heeded and kept these laws, that the L-rd will reward you by keeping His covenant. … He
Awell-known quote from Mark Twain was actually attributed to the first and only Jewish British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, (1804–1881):
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.
Whether Disraeli originated the quote is open to question, but no matter. Israel and world Jewry are victims of all three, much as Jewry has been since Jew-hatred began millennia ago, starting with the persecution and attempted murder of Avraham Avinu, thrown into the Kivshan Ha’esh, the fiery furnace, by King Nimrod (Midrash Bereishit Rabba 38:11).
The Pharaoh of Egypt raised it to a national hatred and vilification (Shemot 1:9-10). Since then it has accompanied with us through the ages.
When I was in high school I read Bernard Malamud’s, “The Fixer,” a fictionalized version of the Mendel Baylis murder trial in Tsarist Rus-
sia in 1911. He was accused of ritual murder of a Christian child for Passover. I was astounded by the sheer absurdity of it all (Jews never imbibe blood), and the fact that it occurred in the 20th century — the modern age! Never did I think that such a medieval hatred would persist into the late 20th and the 21st centuries. How wrong I was.
From the northernmost latitudes of Norway and Sweden to the southernmost of Australia; in virtually every country in the Americas save Argentina (because of the remarkable pro-Jewish president Javier Milei). From the entirety of Europe and Asia, including our putative allies, Britain, France, and Spain, to our most vicious enemies in the Muslim world.
County after country, politically from left to
will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land… You shall be blessed over all other peoples. … Free from all sickness. …”
This approach, a “consensus” translation, raises a fundamental question. Are we to ob-
serve the L-rd’s commandments to receive a reward? Is our worship of the Creator no more than a children’s game with prizes at the end for the winner?
Are we not enjoined by the ancient sage Antigonos of Sokho “not to be like servants who serve their master on condition of receiving a reward”? (Pirkei Avot 1, paragraph 3).
Surely our spiritual aspirations would be better served if we would adopt Maimonides’ eloquent climax to his Laws of Repentance (Hilchot Teshuvah 10:2):
One who worships out of love, studies Torah, performs mitzvot, and walks the paths of wisdom, but not because of worldly considerations — he does not do so because of fear of disaster and not to gain benefit, but to commit to truth because it is truth (oseh ha’met mipnei shehi emet). This, in the end, will bring only good in its wake.
There is a perspective on this dilemma which appeals to me. It is based upon a comparison of the first two parshiyot in the recitation of the Shema.
It happens that both passages are to be found in last week’s and this week’s Torah portions, Va’etchanan and Eikev.
The first of the passages of Kriat Shema, in last week’s portion, reads, in Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ excellent translation:
Listen, Israel: the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is
right, there is agreement on one thing: The Jews are evil, committing genocide, killing babies and causing mass starvation, prolonging the war for power and profit (or whatever excuse is convenient).
No matter how outrageous the accusation, it is said with seriousness, sagacity, and a straight face. Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson have historians on their podcasts who declare Hitler was “misunderstood” and Churchill was a vengeful war monger. History, truth, justice, good and evil have been turned completely upside down.
And there is but one target — the Jew.
Once couched in euphemistic terms (the Israelis, the Zionists), now it’s openly declared it’s the Jews. Is this a mass delusion, a mass hysteria? Perhaps, but I think it is far more primal and animalistic than that. It is almost as if an infection of hatred was implanted by the devil himself.
To help us understand this incomprehensible sequence of events we must once again turn to our Holy Torah and realize we have entered the world of Sodom.
Avraham Avinu, the first Jew, had to go against the entire world to bring about the idea of ethical monotheism. But even he, the ultimate man of Chesed, loving kindness, could not con-
vince Hashem that the city of Sodom should be saved. Why?
Chazal tell us that Sodom institutionalized unmentionable cruelty and sexual perversion.
The Torah (Bereishit 13:13) states that “the people of Sodom were evil and sinful to Hashem, exceedingly.” Further descriptions of their bad behavior are mentioned in Bereishit 19:4, where all citizens of Sodom were engaged in evil “from young to old.”
Rashi quotes the Midrash Bereishit Rabba that giving charity was punishable by death (see also sefer Yechezkel 16:49). The Mishna in Sanhedrin (10:3) notes that the people of Sodom “have no share in the world to come.”
The Talmud in Sanhedrin (109b) relates that hospitality was forbidden, but should guests come to stay in Sodom, if they did not fit into the bed given them, they were either stretched or had their legs cut off. If someone injured another person, the injured was required to pay a fee to their attacker for “letting blood.”
Pirkei Avot (5:13) states that “Midat Sodom, the characteristic of Sodom, is what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours,” reflecting an inherent selfishness.
In short, Sodom was a society characterized
Rabbi DR. tzvi heRsh weinReb Orthodox Union
A simple loose screw can abort a space launch. Small things matter. In Torah. nothing is trivial or insignificant. Pixabay via JNS
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OPINION COLUMNISTS
Mitchell Bard, foreign policy analyst, authority on USIsreal relations; Ben Cohen, senior analyst, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Stephen Flatow, president, Religious Zionists of America-Mizrachi and father of Alisa Flatow, murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995; Yisrael Medad, Americanborn Israeli journalist and political commentator; Rafael Medoff, founding director of David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies; Fiamma Nirenstein, Italian-Israeli journalist, author of 13 books, leading voice on Israeli affairs, Middle Eastern politics and antisemitism; Melanie Phillips, British journalist; Moshe Phillips, national chairman, Americans for a Safe Israel; Thane Rosenbaum, Distinguished University Professor at Touro University (published by Jewish Journal); Jonathan S. Tobin, editor-in-chief, Jewish News Syndicate.
Antisemitism surges. Islamist threat is real.
S. TOBIN
JNS Editor-in-Chief
You don’t need to read the latest FBI hatecrime statistics to know that there has been a surge in antisemitism in the United States since Oct. 7, 2023. The evidence that a global wave of Jew-hatred was making itself felt in America was plainly evident on the streets of American cities, and especially on college campuses, where mobs were chanting for the destruction of the one Jewish state on the planet and for terrorism against Jews everywhere.
There was also the series of violent murderous attacks on Jewish targets, as well as the mainstreaming of blood libels about Israel and Jews in legacy media outlets.
But a deep dive into the report issued by the FBI this week for crimes reported in the year 2024 confirmed for anyone not already convinced that antisemitism is spiking. Of all the crimes based on religious prejudice that year, some 69.1% were against Jews. Though Jews have been the leading victims of such attacks for as long as the FBI has been issuing statistics, this was an increase over previous years.
Just as significant was the annual reminder that despite the push in the media and from groups purporting to represent the interests of Muslim Americans to treat Islamophobia as a national problem second only to anti-black racial prejudice, the evidence for that assertion is still lacking. In fact, crimes against Muslims were second only to those against Jews. Indeed, despite the rising population of believers in Islam and declining American-Jewish demographics, attacks on Jews again vastly outnumbered those against Muslims, with only 9.3% being listed as anti-Islamic.
Surge in Jew-hatred
That means Jews were about 660% more likely than Muslims to be victims of anti-religiousbias offenses in the United States last year. Throw in the fact that the numbers of anti-Jewish crimes recorded by the Anti-Defamation League are far higher than those in the FBI statistics, and it’s apparent that the problem of antisemitism is approaching the level of an epidemic. What isn’t to be found in the data is an under-
standing of the primary engines of antisemitism in 21st-century America.
There are a variety of sources of the world’s oldest hatred, some from the left and some from the far-right. But that which has been directed against Jews since the Hamas-led PalestinianArab attacks on southern Israeli communities started the current war with unspeakable atrocities has largely been driven by those who support the perpetrators. That is why any discussion about the massive uptick in anti-Jewish crimes must not only focus on notorious instances of antisemitism, such as the encampments at major universities, where Jews were targeted by woke leftists activists, or even the vitriol spewed by right-wing podcasters like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens.
We must also speak directly about the widespread antisemitism that is coming out of the Muslim-American community and the groups, both foreign and domestic, which are helping to direct and fund it.
This is why authorities shouldn’t just note the hate-crime statistics with dismay and issue anodyne statements calling for everyone to be nicer to each other. Instead, action must be taken to curb the activities of hate groups, especially those masquerading as civil-rights advocates and those who receive foreign funding from entities and states playing an active role in spreading Jew-hatred.
CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood
At the top of the to-do list should be the stripping of one of the principal engines of AmericanMuslim antisemitism — the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) — of its tax-exempt status, as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) recently demanded. Just as high on that list must be a congressional vote to do something the United States should have done decades ago: designate the Muslim Brotherhood, which plays a large role in fomenting hate at home and abroad — and to which CAIR is directly connected — as a
terrorist organization, as members of the Senate and House have proposed.
The Brotherhood is a century-old group, founded in the Middle East and dedicated to unremitting conflict and hatred of the West, particularly of Jews. Its loosely organized network was a major source of instability in countries like Egypt, but in our day, its most prominent offspring is Hamas. Its leadership lives in Qatar and, backed by the enormous oil wealth of that emirate, spreads its ideology throughout the world.
One example of its activity is, as documented by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy, is its thorough infiltration of Canada via local Muslim groups. This poses a threat to both the Jewish community and the country’s democratic culture, as it seeks to shut down scrutiny of its antisemitism by using the government in Ottawa to punish acts of alleged Islamophobia.
As was the case in 2019, when President Donald Trump first proposed, but ultimately failed, designating the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, there will be considerable opposition to such a measure today.
At the heart of that reluctance is the convic-
tion among many in America’s political/foreignpolicy establishment, the mainstream media, academia and the world of popular culture that to speak of Muslim antisemitism — and the way those influenced by or part of the Brotherhood’s network are promoting hate — is something that can’t be done. Why? Because those who have tried to point out the problem expose themselves to charges of bigotry and Islamophobia.
A mythical backlash
For much of the last 24 years, since the 9/11 attacks, Americans have been subjected to endless lectures about their obligation not to associate Islam with Islamist terrorism. Those admonitions about the evils of religious prejudice were correct as a matter of principle. But in the context of the misnamed “war on terrorism” launched by President George W. Bush against a global Islamist terror network, those warnings tended to undermine the sense of urgency about the struggle. Indeed, Bush’s incessant scolding about Islam’s being a “religion of peace” didn’t merely verge on the comic. It also made a mockery of any hope of having a serious national discus-
JONATHAN
30
years later, we should ask, ‘Et tu, Bosnia?’
GLOBAL FOCUS BEN COHEN
In March 1992, as a young journalist eager to make his mark with an exciting foreign assignment, I visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, on the eve of the brutal three-year war that tore this former Yugoslav republic apart. Unlike the other Western journalists in town, I had family there with whom I stayed, relatives of my late grandfather, the descendant of Spanish Jews who arrived in the Ottoman-ruled Balkans after being driven out by the 15th–century Inquisition.
Over breakfast one morning, my grandfather’s cousin — a veteran of the Communist partisans during World War II and a professor who taught in the medical department of Sarajevo University — gave me the lowdown.
The Bosnian Serb leadership, he said, was composed of pathological liars who could not be trusted.
He told me that the previous week, he had run into Radovan Karadzic — the Bosnian Serb leader who engineered the siege of Sarajevo and was later sentenced for war crimes and crimes against humanity — and asked him point blank what nefarious plans he had for the city in which they both lived. Karadzic flashed him an ingrati-
Sanctioning Jews of other countries for the actions of Israel is an act of discrimination.
ating smile and implored, “Please don’t believe all those terrible things that are said about me.”
My elder relative’s cynicism was not limited to the Serbs, however. He also warned me that the elected government in Bosnia, drawn largely from the Muslim-led Party of Democratic Action (SDA), could not be trusted either, particularly by the Jewish community.
“They don’t like Israel,” he harumphed. “They support the Arabs.”
As I wrote and broadcast about the war over the next three years, including a stint as a media-relations officer with the United Nations peacekeeping force deployed in the former Yugoslavia, I didn’t find much evidence of hostility to Israel among the Bosnian Muslims. They were too busy trying to win over international backing, particularly from the United States, and perhaps calculated that sounding off on the Middle East conflict was not the wisest strategy.
At the same time, I was well aware that Bosnian Jews had not forgotten how the Holocaust had arrived on their doorsteps through the Nazibacked Croatian puppet state, and that the notorious Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, had recruited several thousand Bosnian Muslims for the Nazi S.S. Handzar (Turkish for “scimitar”) Division.
Still, in my youthful naivete, I told myself that this was purely history, that the present situation was very different and that the goal had to be to end the Serb onslaught. I was also struck by the split between Diaspora Jews and Israel over the issue.
In the Diaspora, organizations like the American Jewish Committee and individuals like the French-Jewish intellectual, Bernard-Henri Lévy, spoke out passionately and eloquently on behalf of the Bosnian cause, reminding the world that after the horrors of the Holocaust, ethnic chauvinism had no place in Europe — a message I
enthusiastically endorsed. Israel took a different stance, subtly aligning with the Serbs and avoiding condemnation of the many atrocities committed by Serb, and later Croat, militias in Bosnia.
Thirty years later, I find myself wondering if both my grandfather’s cousin and the Israelis had identified a kernel of truth that I was too reluctant and impatient to see back then. To be clear, I haven’t revised my view that the Bosnian Serbs, backed by Slobodan Milošević’s regime in Belgrade, committed a genocide. But the history of the Jews in Bosnia was not a straightforward tale of happy coexistence either.
Indeed, hundreds of the veterans of the S.S. Handzar Division had moved to the Arab world after World War II, volunteering for the Arab effort to crush the nascent State of Israel during its 1948-49 War of Independence. In post-war, Communist-ruled Yugoslavia, the old suspicions
between Jews and their neighbors simmered, once more coming to the surface as Yugoslavia violently disintegrated in the early 1990s.
The main trigger for my current self-reflection is the announcement last week from Bosnia’s National Museum that revenues drawn from visitors to its exhibition of the Sarajevo Haggadah — an extraordinary and beautifully preserved illustrated manuscript from the 13th century that was carried to Bosnia by Jews expelled from Spain — will be donated to Palestinian causes.
“In this way, the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina provides support to the people of Palestine who are suffering from systematic, calculated and cold-blooded terror, directly by the State of Israel, and indirectly by all those who support and/or justify its shameless actions,” the museum’s director, Mirsad Sijarić,
See Cohen on page 22
American Jews: The war in Gaza is your war too
Let’s be honest: Benjamin Netanyahu is not everyone’s favorite politician. That’s fair. Debate over policy, leadership and politics is healthy in any democracy, including Israel’s. But there comes a point in times of war when internal disagreements must be set aside.
Because this war is not about Bibi. It is about Israel’s survival. And the Jewish people, especially American Jews, must not let personality distract from principle.
Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has faced a military, moral and psychological assault of unprecedented complexity. Hamas’s slaughter of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 250, including children, the elderly and entire families, was not just a “battle.” It was a pogrom, fueled by genocidal ideology and celebrated openly by its perpetrators. Yet today, Israel is the one on trial in the court of public opinion, not the murderers who triggered the war.
What Israel faces in Gaza is not a convention-
Hamas doesn’t care whether you support Netanyahu or not. It’s murdering Jews for being Jewish.
al war or even a typical counterterrorism campaign. It is asymmetric warfare against a terrorist organization that intentionally uses its own civilians as tools of war. Hamas stores weapons in schools, digs tunnels under hospitals and launches rockets from densely populated neighborhoods. It steals food aid from the population. This is not incidental; it is strategy.
Hamas leaders have made this explicit.
In 2008, Fathi Hammad, then Hamas’s interior minister, declared: “For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry. … This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly and the mujahideen.”
He added proudly: “We desire death like you desire life.”
What sane person would say that?
That’s not rhetoric; it’s policy.
Hamas relies on images of dead civilians, especially children, to inflame world opinion and pressure Israel into submission. Tragically, too many in the West, including some Jewish voices, fall for this manipulative theater. They call for ceasefires, condemn Israeli “disproportionality” and wring their hands at the humanitarian crisis, while ignoring how Hamas engineers that crisis.
But put this in perspective. During the USled assault on ISIS in Mosul from 2016 to 2017, between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians were estimated to have died, according to the New York Times. That battle, fought by Western militaries with advanced precision weaponry, still resulted in tens of thousands of casualties. No one accused the United States of genocide. No one proposed sanctions.
Yet Israel, which goes to unprecedented lengths to warn civilians, including dropping leaflets, making phone calls and pausing opera-
tions to allow evacuations, is treated like a rogue state.
The moral asymmetry here is staggering. Hamas celebrates death. Israel mourns it, even when forced to cause it to protect its own people.
And yet, Western diplomats — many from countries that have never faced a single rocket attack — dare to lecture Israel on restraint. The European Union, Canada and even the United States have called for a “ceasefire,” as if peace can be restored by papering over mass murder.
Some American Jews have joined that chorus, distancing themselves from Israel out of discomfort with its current government. That’s not
just misguided. It’s dangerous. Hamas doesn’t hate Israel because of the policies of Netanyahu and his government. It hates Israel because it exists. Article 13 of the Hamas Charter states: “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad.” Diplomacy, negotiation, peace-building? “All are a waste of time,” the document says. This is the enemy Israel is fighting. An enemy backed by Iran and Qatar, supplied by global jihad networks and committed — openly, unapologetically — to the eradication of the Jewish state.
Library and City Hall, Sarajevo. Flickr in the album “Bosnia & Herzegovina,” via JNS
A giant Israeli flag at the Kotel on the eve of Jerusalem Day, May 25, 2025. Chaim Goldberg, Flash90 See Flatow on page 23
StEpHEN M. FLAtOw
Journalistic values absent in Hamas-run Gaza
Since July 19, when Hamas launched a campaign charging Israel with inflicting widespread starvation in the Gaza Strip, the attentive Western press corps has displayed an insatiable appetite for coverage of severe hunger in the war-torn coastal territory.
So great was the desire and passion to cover hunger in the Hamas-run territory that some media outlets completely jettisoned the bedrock journalistic value to “seek truth and report it,” unable to resist the temptation of falsely casting emaciated children suffering from severe underlying medical disorders as representative of starvation victims.
The New York Times, for instance, infamously featured one of these tragic but misrepresented cases, an article accompanied by a shocking above-the-fold, four-column photograph, on the front page of its July 25 edition, “Young, Old and Sick Starve to Death in Gaza: ‘There Is Nothing’.” The paper later was compelled to backtrack with an editor’s note acknowledging that toddler, Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, suffers from “pre-existing health problems.”
But that laser-sharp focus on undeniable
The hostages are literally wasting away. And the media can’t erase their presence fast enough.
hunger in the Gaza Strip remarkably dissipated in recent days when shocking new footage documenting emaciation emerged from the Hamas-controlled territory: horrific clips of Israeli hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, deliberately starved and tortured by terror groups, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, respectively.
There was no front-page the New York Times article and photo for David and Braslavski.
Instead, the paper of record relegated the two Israeli hostages, who unlike little Muhammad, do not suffer from any underlying medical conditions, to page 10. Even there, in that place of relative obscurity, the print edition did not deem a photograph necessary. Notably, too, The Times’ page-10 story omitted one of the most shocking elements of Hamas’ video of David, that the emaciated and severely abused captive was digging what he said was his own grave.
Buried coverage of the horrific hostage starvation videos is the latest, most blatant and jarring example of mainstream media erasing the hostages.
Notably, photos of emaciated Israeli hostages, subjected to cruelty beyond words with deliberate starvation and torture, do not serve the desired Hamas narrative, which the Western press corps both eagerly consumes and serves up to its vast audiences.
Hamas has articulated the requisite story and set it as a strategic goal. “Palestinian group Hamas on Saturday [July 19] urged the international community to ‘raise its voice and take to the streets’ in solidarity with Gaza and to denounce ‘Israel’s policy of starvation and genocide’,” Turkish media reported about the launch of the terror group’s propaganda campaign. Western journalists dutifully obliged, and the flawed coverage alleging singular Israeli culpability for mass starvation in the Gaza Strip and highlighting appalling cases of emaciated indi-
viduals appeared at a dizzying pace.
On the Middle East news page at National Public Radio, for example, headlines are: “In Gaza, more Palestinians are killed while waiting for food aid,” Aug. 3; “More than 1,000 rabbis and Jewish leaders denounce starvation in Gaza,” heard on Morning Edition, Aug. 1; “A ‘worst-case scenario of famine’ is unfolding in Gaza, a UN-backed report finds,” July 29; “What reporting in Gaza shows amid Trump’s break with Netanyahu on starvation,” Consider This podcast, July 28; “His name is Mohammad alMotawaq. He is 18 months old. And he is starving in Gaza,” July 27.
That is just one single week of coverage. Hamas released the horrific propaganda footage of the starving Evyatar David on July 31. Islamic Jihad released the devastating video of Rom Braslavski on July 30.
On Aug. 3, CAMERA contacted NPR pointing out that its news site still had not said a word about the hostage videos. It urged that the media outlet devote as much space to the two deliberately starved hostages, who suffer from no underlying medical conditions, as it has given to the toddler, who suffers from cerebral palsy, but whom the network falsely repre-
See Sternthal on page 23
The media front in the war against civilization
melanie phillips British journalist
Dramatic evidence was produced this week to illustrate the hijacking of the Western media by Hamas in its attempt to turn Israel into the pariah of the world and accelerate the destruction of the Jewish state.
The German publications Bild and Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed that Western media outlets had been publishing images purporting to be of starving Gazans but which were in fact staged and manipulated by Hamas as part of its propaganda offensive to blacken Israel’s name.
Bild showed how a widely circulated picture of apparently desperate Gazan women and children holding out empty pots for food had been staged. Photographs taken from other angles revealed the Gaza photographer, Anas Zayed Fteiha, orchestrating the tableau by getting the women and children to pose beseechingly with their pots being offered not toward the food site but toward him.
Fteiha, whose pictures have been published by CNN, the BBC and Reuters, has a record of posting hatred toward Israel and the Jews.
He has also worked with the Europe Palestine Network, which says it conducts “global actions in Europe,” portraying hardship in Gaza while promoting “resistance” against Israel internationally.
As an activist posing as a journalist, he is far from alone.
Süddeutsche Zeitung found that many of the Arab photographers operating within the Gaza Strip have Hamas connections. A historian and photography expert, Gerhard Paul, told
the paper that, in southern Gaza, “Hamas controls 100 percent of image production” to generate Western sympathy while inflaming anger toward Israel.
In other words, major Western media outlets have been perpetrating a systematic journalistic fraud on the public by promoting as the truth images generated by a jihadi terrorist group intent on exterminating Israel and murdering Jews.
Even without the German papers’ investigation, the deceit has been obvious enough to anyone whose grip on reality has not been loosened by hatred of Israel.
The pictures of skeletal Gazan children allegedly being starved by Israel were in fact of children with terrible congenital diseases. The “starving” women and children in Fteiha’s picture were conspicuously well fed.
There is zero evidence of Israel’s deliberately starving the Gazans, because that claim is a lie. The only people being starved to death are the Israeli hostages.
The fraud doesn’t stop at the published images. Media outlets constantly use as reliable the Hamas totals of those killed in the war, even though these ludicrously fail to acknowledge that any of the dead were Hamas terrorists.
The near daily reports by the BBC and other outlets falsely accusing Israel of deliberately firing on civilians queuing for food ignore the video coverage of Hamas deliberately shooting them dead for receiving this aid.
All journalists in Gaza work on terms dictated by Hamas.
They ignore the evidence of Hamas gunmen stealing the food from the trucks for themselves. And they ignore the Gazans in orderly queues at the American-Israeli aid points cheering President Trump and the Israel Defense Forces for safely providing them with food by preventing it from being stolen by Hamas.
The media ignore all this, because Western journalists refuse to acknowledge anything that challenges their core narrative of Israeli abuses and “Palestinian” victimization.
Back in 2014, journalist Matti Friedman, who worked for the Associated Press from 2006 to 2011, blew the whistle about a media class that was determined to push a story of Jewish moral failure in the Middle East.
As he recounted, media outlets systemati-
cally erased news about Israel that put it in a good light, distorted Middle East history and reversed cause and effect to promote Palestinian-Arab propaganda. Acting in concert, they portrayed Israel as a country “whose motivations could only be malevolent, and one responsible not only for its own actions but also for provoking the actions of its enemies.”
They were backed up by an interchangeable world of progressive NGOs and academics who were referred to as experts, “creating a thought-loop nearly impervious to external information.”
The result — as Friedman wrote last year in The Free Press, when the Oct. 7 atrocities and the war that followed put this malevolent
See Phillips on page 23
Palestinian Islamic Jihad releases a propaganda video of Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, July 31. Hostage and Missing Families Forum
mountsinai.org/southnassau
Antisemitism surges. Islamist threat is real…
TOBIN Continued from page 18
sion about the distinction between the many peace-loving Muslim citizens and the hundreds of millions of other followers of that faith who supported Islamist sects that were anything but peaceful.
That confusion led to a standing narrative in American culture — bolstered by the manifest opposition of the mainstream liberal media in any conflict with non-Western belief systems — in which the main outcome of 9/11 was a mythical backlash against Muslims. Over the years, that fictional wave of prejudice was never backed up by objective evidence that it was anything more than stray anecdotes woven together in order to subvert efforts to take the threat of Islamist terror seriously.
Eventually, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Islamist front groups masquerading as civil-rights organizations — such as CAIR — it was expanded into a new form of bias for which Americans were told they must atone: Islamophobia.
But, curiously, as soon became apparent, most of what was labeled “Islamophobia” wasn’t really prejudice against Muslims. Instead, it almost always involved attempts to call attention to the antisemitism in the Muslim world–specifi-
Goldman…
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and in us, and so it brings singular benefits and rewards.
But there is also a common denominator in every mitzvah, and that is the fact that it is the will of G-d. If it’s important enough to Him, does it really matter if it is big or small, significant or seemingly less significant, in our eyes? If G-d wants it and if He asks us to do it, then that should be more than enough motivation for us to do it.
As Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, once wrote: If, theoretically, G-d had commanded us to do nothing more than chop wood all day, a seemingly rather meaningless exercise, then that would be the most important thing in the whole world for us to do. Chopping wood would have then been the whole Torah and essence of our faith.
Why? Because that’s what G-d wants. The bottom line in matters of faith is that we try to do the will of G-d.
Are there differences and priorities in mitzvot? Of course. And sometimes, there may be occasions when we will be compelled to choose between them. If there are two commandments to observe at the same time, and practically, we can only observe one, then we must choose the one that is halachically more “important.”
So, yes, there is a priority list, a hierarchy of commandments if you will. And while there will be times when we must choose which is more important, we should always remember the special quality in every mitzvah, even the seemingly less important ones.
With this approach, we can better appreciate those commandments which we don’t really understand rationally, what we call the chukim, the statutory decrees, for which no reason was given to us in the Torah.
We commit ourselves to observing these commandments because if they are the will of G-d, then they are important enough to command our attention. Each will be imbued with the spirit of the infinite and, in fulfilling the commandment, we become closer and bond with the infinite heavenly commander Himself. This spirit is present in every mitzvah, even the seemingly insignificant.
My teacher, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson — the Lubavitcher Rebbe — once commenting on an interesting
cally in relation to groups like CAIR with roots in Muslim Brotherhood-related activities, among them fundraising for Hamas.
Indeed, what they really mean when they cry “Islamophobia” is that holding Muslims accountable for the hate uttered by those who speak for them is something they not only won’t tolerate; they’re determined to ban it.
Biden and DEI
This sentiment was never more in fashion than during the Biden administration, when toxic left-wing ideologies like critical race theory and intersectionality were embraced by the bureaucracy. President Joe Biden’s decision to force the entire federal government to implement the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in all of its doings meant that Islamophobia became a particular priority for Washington.
The notion that Muslims were under particular threat from other Americans wasn’t backed up by hate-crime statistics or anything else. But it fit in with the mantra that all “people of color” or designated minorities were under continual threat and in the right no matter what they did. By the same token, the impulse to see Jews and Israel as “white” oppressors who were always in
incident from the early days of NASA space missions. I believe it was in 1973. There was a space capsule set to blast off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Organizers were just about ready for the countdown when, at the very last second, a red light went on and the project was aborted.
It would take a few days and a cost of billions of dollars and a loss of much international prestige until the problem was sorted out. And what was the problem?
It was not the sophisticated heat-resistant metal alloys on the exterior of the capsule. Nor was it the most advanced computer system and programming in the world at the time.
It was, in fact, nothing more than a simple loose screw.
That’s right. A screw was loose. An ordinary screw that costs a few cents — one that can be bought in any hardware store. Because of that fact, a certain connection was not made; therefore, the red light went on as a warning signal.
Small things matter … and so it is with the commandments of the Torah. In truth, nothing is trivial or insignificant.
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Weinreb…
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One. Love the L-rd with all your heart. … These words which I command you today shall be on your heart. Teach them repeatedly to your children. … Bind them as a sign on your hand, they shall be an emblem between your eyes. Write them on the doorposts of your house and gates. Note that several important mitzvot are prescribed above, including the study of Torah and teaching it to one’s children, the tefillin, and the mezuzah
Note too that no reward is promised for keeping these commandments, and no punishment is threatened for failing to do so. The motive is love for the Almighty, no more and no less.
Now I must give you a brief lesson in one of the differences between the Hebrew and the English language. In English, there is no distinction between the second person singular and the second person plural. If I speak to one friend, I address him as “you” and if I speak to an audience of a thousand, I refer to them as “you.” Hebrew, however, distinguishes between singular and plural. In speaking to one friend, I refer to him as atah, but when I address an audience of many, I refer to them as atem
the wrong made itself felt even when the White House tried to pretend that it cared about antisemitism.
That was made clear when Biden included CAIR, a major source of Jew-hatred itself, in his task force working on a strategy against antisemitism. This was followed up in the last weeks of the administration by the issuance of a strategy paper about Islamophobia that sealed the Democrats’ effort to create a moral equivalence between a real problem — antisemitism — and a fake one.
The second Trump administration has started to roll back this whitewashing of CAIR. But it needs to go further.
By stripping CAIR of its non-profit status and potentially designating it, along with its spiritual godfathers in the Muslim Brotherhood, as affiliated with terrorism, the government can send a strong message that it will no longer tolerate the way a conspiratorial Islamist group’s message of terror and hate has infiltrated the American mainstream.
Doing this won’t have an impact on anyone’s First Amendment rights, since American citizens will always be free to voice their opinions, even when hateful. But the Brotherhood and its network are criminal organizations linked to some
The first passage of the Shema, which I excerpted above, is spoken to each of us singularly, individually. Each one of us is commanded to study Torah, to have a mezuzah on our doorpost, et cetera, out of love for our Creator, consistent with the teaching of the ancient Antigonos and the medieval Maimonides.
But the second passage is spoken to the Jewish nation as a whole, in the plural form of the second person. This passage, in this week’s parsha, reads:
If you indeed heed My commandments. … I will give rain in your land in its season… And you shall gather in your grain, wine and oil. … And you shall eat and be satisfied. … Be careful lest your heart be tempted and you go astray and worship other gods. … Then the L-rd’s anger will flare against you, and He will close the heavens so that there will be no rain.
Note that when the entire Jewish nation is addressed, rewards are promised and punishments threatened.
The lesson is clear. Each of us as individuals must keep the commandments as the central component of our spiritual attachment to the L-rd. We are not to act morally for personal benefit, nor are we to refrain from wrongdoing out of fear of divine retribution.
An entire nation cannot be expected to develop such a spiritual attachment. Obedience is demanded of the nation, and obedience is best achieved by virtue of behavioral reinforcement, reward or punishment.
Rabbi Yehudah Shaviv, in his wonderful book, “MiSinai Ba,” uses a similar concept to explain the text of one of the prayers in the weekday Amidah. It is the phrase in the blessing Al HaTzaddikim, “The Righteous.” It reads, “Grant a good reward to all who sincerely trust in Your name.”
Rabbi Shaviv asks, “Doesn’t this prayer contradict the directive of Antigonos, that we are not to seek reward for our good deeds?”
He responds:
Truthfully, when we recite the Amidah prayers three times each weekday, we do not pray as individuals, we do not seek personal favors. We ask for a better world, a redeemed world, that the Divine guidance of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, become revealed to us all, that evil be eradicated, that the righteous be recognized. For the Jew knows and declares and pleads morning, afternoon, and evening, that there is justice and a Judge, and that justice will prevail, and that then all will distinguish between those who sincerely worship the L-rd, and those who do not.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
of the worst terrorist atrocities of recent history. Saying this out loud doesn’t constitute Islamophobia. It’s a recognition of a potent source of Jew-hatred that has been flying under the radar of government scrutiny by pretending to be defending a minority community against hate.
More to the point, it is way past time for the government to take notice of the fact that these foreign conspirators and their local agents are the engine of a surge in attacks on American Jews that should not be tolerated.
Arrayed against this effort are powerful and wealthy forces, principally a regime in Doha that poses as a US ally while also backing Iran and Hamas. To this end, Qatar has not only become the largest foreign funder of American higher education, but also has used its wealth to buy influence on both the left and the right, including with Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
The statistics showing the rise in antisemitism should be a wake-up call to an administration that wants to be taken seriously on the issue. And it will require confronting the Brotherhood’s Qatari paymasters local network affiliates like CAIR. If Washington doesn’t act, the out-of-control surge in Jew-hatred will only get worse.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Mazurek…
Continued from page 17 by violence, hate, lying, thievery, selfishness, sexual immorality, a corrupt legal system, lack of compassion and extreme cruelty. Does this not describe Gaza led by Hamas, where not a single “innocent Gazan” has come forward to assist in locating and identifying a single hostage.
Meanwhile, a world that has taken up Hamas’ cause, supporting its cruelty and murderous torture of the Children of Abraham, shares in Hamas’ culpability.
At times, it seems that the world has gone mad, and perhaps it has. But as noted above, we’ve been here before, throughout our history. And we’ve not only survived, we’ve thrived! As true children of Avraham we are suffused with a tradition of loving kindness, morality, and a belief and faith in the one true G-d. But as also noted in sefer Bereishit (14:1417), when Avraham had to rescue his nephew Lot, he took on four kings in battle and won. On Shabbat Nachamu, we read in the famous haftara, “nachamu, nachamu,” from sefer Yeshayahu (40:1-26), that when Hashem metes out justice to our enemies those nations will be “like a bitter drop from a bucket, and as dust on the balance” (40:15).
“All the nations are as nothing before Him, as nothingness and emptiness are they considered by Him” (40:17).
So don’t mess with us.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
explained. “As an institution that deals with the protection of cultural, historical and natural heritage, we are obliged to warn that in the shadow of this tragedy, the targeted erasure of the cultural and religious identity of primarily Muslims and Christians of Palestine is taking place.”
Sijarić’s statement is as uncomplicatedly antisemitic as the decision in June to cancel a meeting of European rabbis in Sarajevo, which, according to one Bosnian official, would have otherwise sent “a message of legitimization of the occupation and systematic destruction of the Palestinian people.” Sanctioning Jewish citizens of other countries for the actions of the State of
Journalistic values absent in Hamas-run Gaza…
STERNTHAL Continued from page 20
sented as representative of all of Gaza’s one million hungry children.
Also on Aug. 3, NPR’s then latest article highlighting food security problems in the Gaza Strip, completely omitted the starvation atrocity videos of Braslavski and David even as it discussed the hostages, “In Gaza, more Palestinians are killed while waiting for food aid,” obscuring: In Tel Aviv, the families of hostages still held inside Gaza protested, urging the Israeli government to instead intensify efforts for a ceasefire for their loved ones’ release. … Some family members met with [Steve] Witkoff, [President Donald] Trump’s Mideast envoy, during a visit he made to Tel Aviv. They said he had told them that Trump intends to seek a comprehensive hostage deal that would see Hamas agree to disarm and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to ending the war in Gaza.
On Aug. 4, NPR responded to CAMERA, promising “an updated version of the story [on al-Matouq] which will include more of the boy’s medical history as well as some of the developments that have happened since he came to the world’s attention.”
The same day, or four days and three days respectively after the clips of Rom and Evyatar emerged, NPR subsequently published an Associated Press story on the skeletal hostages, “Videos of emaciated hostages in Gaza raise pressure on Israel for a ceasefire.”
Unlike its previous intensive coverage of earlier in the week, in which NPR tasked its own reporters with original coverage, NPR downgraded the hostages to warranting only a wire service story.
Cohen…
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Israel is an act of discrimination.
What seems to be happening is that Bosnia is going the way of South Africa. Just as South African leaders have licensed the use of the word “apartheid” to defame Israel, the Bosnians are doing much the same with the word “genocide.” And, just as in the South African case, what’s involved here is an utter distortion of history.
Though you may have the impression from the endless media coverage that the current war in Gaza is the first example of a “genocide” since the World War II, that simply isn’t true, as the Bosnians themselves know from bitter experience. And what makes Bosnia different is that the genocidal war launched by the Serbs was not provoked by a vile massacre of Serb civilians by the Bosnian Army. The Serbs did not have to endure an Oct. 7 pogrom at the hands of the Bosnians.
The other nations to have suffered genocide in the last 80 years — the Kurds, the Cambodians and the Rwandan Tutsis, among others — similarly did not inflict atrocities that brought down the wrath of their persecutors. They were in the firing line simply because of who they were.
The refusal in Bosnia to understand that Israel’s war is directed at Hamas, the author of the Oct. 7 atrocities, and not Palestinians as a people, is yet another demonstration of the success of the Hamas propaganda effort outside the boundaries of the Middle East. Yet by endorsing the Hamas narrative uncritically, the Bosnians are risking their own security.
The prospect of another war in the republic, where the uneasy peace settlement secured in 1995 is tottering amid Russian machinations with the Serbs, cannot be dismissed. In that regard, Bosnia will need the support of the United States if it is to survive as an independent entity. Parroting Hamas talking points is a surefire way of not receiving it.
Back in the 1990s, I, along with many other Jews, truly believed that our support for a mul-
The Associated Press, for its part, was equally guilty of producing nothing more than crumbs of coverage in the immediate days following the release of the appalling hostage videos. The tardy Aug. 4 article was the AP’s first dedicated article to the hostage videos.
Readers could find kernels of coverage buried in earlier AP stories covering the larger story of Israeli culpability, such as Israeli Minister Itamar “Ben-Gvir’s visit to Jerusalem holy site sparks tensions as Israeli fire kills 33 seeking aid,” which recounted (Aug. 3):
Ben-Gvir visited [the Temple Mount] following Hamas’ release of videos showing two emaciated Israeli hostages. The videos caused an uproar in Israel and raised pressure on the government to reach a deal to bring home the remaining 50 hostages who were captured on Oct. 7, 2023, in the Hamas-led attack that triggered the war. …. He raged against a video that Hamas released Saturday of 24-year-old hostage Evyatar David showing him emaciated in a dimly lit Gaza tunnel and called it an attempt to pressure Israel.
It’s not that AP was generally not attentive to starvation in the Gaza Strip. To the contrary, just like NPR, that same week, the wire service devoured the Hamas-fed storyline, producing robust coverage on malnutrition in the coastal territory with Israel as the culprit.
AP’s bounty of coverage included “Photo Essay: Starvation attacks the body of these children in Gaza,” Aug. 1; “With growing urgency, more US Jews urge Israel to ensure ample food deliveries to Gaza,” Aug. 1; “‘Worst-case scenario of famine’ is happening in Gaza, food crisis experts warn,” July 29; “Israel begins daily pause in fighting in three Gaza areas to allow
tinational Bosnia composed of Muslims, Serbs, Croats, Roma and other minorities would cement good relations indefinitely. We were wrong.
I am skeptical that we can persuade the various Hamas groupies in Sarajevo of the profound errors in their thinking. But for the sake of its own interests, Bosnia needs to follow the path of Ukraine, which actively identifies with Israel’s struggle for survival, and eschew the South African model.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Flatow…
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To our fellow Jews in the Diaspora, especially in America: This war is about you, too. Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran don’t care whether you vote Likud or Labor, whether you’re Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or unsure. On Oct. 7, Hamas murdered Thai farm workers and Israeli Bedouin alongside Jews. Their hatred is not nuanced. It is total.
And as antisemitism, let’s call it what it is — Jew-hatred — surges on campuses, in public squares, and online, it’s clear that Hamas’s war against Israel is fueling a broader war against Jews everywhere. This is not just a political crisis but a civilizational one.
So, what is the role of American Jews?
It is to stand with Israel — not conditionally, not reluctantly and not just when it’s easy. It is to reject the moral fog that equates a democratic state defending its citizens with a terrorist group that hides behind children. It is to recognize that you can critique Israeli policy at another time, but right now, we must remain united.
To those who are hesitant, ask yourself this: Would you demand moral perfection from any other country under siege? Would you have told Britain in 1940 to cease fire until Winston Churchill stepped down?
Israel’s democracy will sort out its leadership in due time. However, today, it needs our solidarity. Our advocacy. Our unapologetic defense in the face of global slander.
‘minimal’ aid as hunger grows,” July 28; “Israel’s leader claims no one in Gaza is starving. Data and witnesses disagree,” July 28 and “The latest child to starve to death in Gaza weighed less than when she was born,” July 27; among countless other articles.
Agence France Presse was an early adapter of Hamas’ campaign, claiming on July 21 that its photojournalists were facing imminent death due to starvation. Yet supposedly dying photographers Bashar Taleb and Omar Al-Qattaa were subsequently spotted in full photography gear, looking well-nourished and crisscrossing the coastal territory to shoot scenes.
To its credit, AFP nevertheless quickly covered the horrific video of David, “Hamas armed wing publishes video Of Gaza hostage,” Aug. 1.
But subsequent AFP coverage reported without challenge Hamas propaganda that the hostages live under the same conditions as the rest of Gaza’s population, stating in the piece “Security Council to meet on Gaza hostages: Israel ambassador”:
“The Al-Qassam Brigades said it did ‘not intentionally starve’ the hostages, but they would not receive any special food privileges ‘amid the crime of starvation and siege’ in Gaza.”
In his memoir, “Hostages” (to be released in English on Oct. 7), former hostage Eli Sharabi recounts that his well-nourished captors fed him the same lie even as they deliberately starved him.
Earlier this year, the Associated Press used this Hamas trick, merging the unparalleled plight of the hostages into the general misery of the surrounding population.
“The hostages often experience the same
As the Psalmist wrote: “He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” But Israel still needs us to stay awake — and to stand up.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
Phillips…
Continued from page 20
onslaught on steroids — was “the creation of a news story that happens to press one of the deepest buttons in Western civilization: the idea that the evils of a given time are personified by Jews, and thus doing something about Jews isn’t bigotry but virtue.”
Many are now claiming absurdly that this sustained journalistic corruption and moral collapse are the product of Israel’s not allowing Western journalists into Gaza. A number of reporters are embedded with the IDF, but foreign journalists aren’t allowed to move freely around the Strip.
The logic of such critics is non-existent. The fact that Israel doesn’t let the media roam around Gaza hardly explains why the press and broadcasters therefore publish Hamas lies and “Pallywood” theatrics day in, day out.
The critics assume that Western journalists in Gaza would produce enlightenment about the war because they would be reporting in good faith. This is fanciful and naive.
All journalists in Gaza work on terms dictated by Hamas. Arab reporters and photographers who supply Western media outlets with material either fear or support Hamas. Any Gazan reporter or photographer who steps out of line faces being removed or killed.
Yet the media have never once publicly acknowledged that every report or image from Gaza is produced under Hamas censorship. As Friedman noted in 2014, it’s why AP would censor certain information from Gaza because Hamas had threatened the agency’s reporters if it appeared, but failed to inform its readers about those threats and told them instead that Hamas was “becoming more moderate.”
dire circumstances as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, whether it be food scarcity, the dangers from Israeli bombardments or the winter,” intoned AP’s Tia Goldenberg on Jan. 8, 2025.
Reuters, in contrast, this week commendably countered Hamas propaganda that Israeli hostages live under the same conditions as their captors, “Hamas says it will allow aid for hostages if Israel stops its airstrikes, opens permanent humanitarian corridors”:
On Saturday, Hamas released its second video in two days of Israeli hostage Evyatar David. In it, David, skeletally thin, is shown digging a hole that, he says in the video, is for his own grave. The arm of the individual holding the camera, which can be seen in the frame, is a regular width.
Released hostage Tal Shoham, who was held together with David and hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal in that pictured tunnel, recounts that their Hamas captors feast on plenty of food just meters from that spot, and enjoy TV, air conditioning and more.
Medical experts who examined the horrific starvation videos estimate that David lost more than 40% of his body weight; Braslavski reportedly lost 31% of his weight, and both face “immediate risk of death” due to “systematic starvation,” the medical experts say.
The Israeli hostages are literally wasting away. And the media can’t erase their presence fast enough.
Tamar Sternthal is director of the Israel office of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
News desks collude in these lies because they are ravenous for the story their Gaza fixers, stringers or photographers provide — the story of “Palestinian” suffering and Israeli evil.
Not one of their reports or images from Gaza can ever be assumed to be truthful, because their sources are all Hamas mouthpieces or sympathizers.
On today’s Gaza battlefield, the risks posed by this media corruption, both to Israel’s security and to the truth, are magnified many times over.
It’s not just that opening up Gaza to Western journalists would mean even more Hamasdictated propaganda bamboozling even larger swaths of the Western public, and playing into their own innate prejudices against Israel and the Jewish people.
Given the obsessive and malignant partisanship by Western journalists in support of the “Palestinian” cause, they might well pass on to Hamas information they discover about IDF positions, intentions or army units.
The despicable behavior by the Western media is not some marginal sideshow. The media is itself an active front in this war, a crucial weapon being wielded by the Islamic world against Israel through Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar and Iran.
This axis has been waging a cognitive war against Israel by suborning and weaponizing the entire liberal internationalist establishment through the United Nations, human-rights law, international courts, NGOs, the universities and, above all, the Western media.
Whether they realize it or not, all have been harnessed to the same cause — to bring about the darkest and most deeply embedded desire of the West to knock the Jews off their moral pinnacle and cast them instead as the cancer of the world.
The Western media must therefore be regarded as an enemy force in the service of a great evil. Rather than giving it more access and privileges, it must accordingly be fought, along with the Islamic forces that have deployed it as a key front in the war they are waging against civilization itself.
