Poll finds nearly 1 in 4 Americans hold antisemitic views, highest in 60 years

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-finds-nearly-1-in-4-americans-hold-antisemitic-views-highest-in-60-years/

Nearly a quarter of Americans hold antisemitic beliefs, with a disturbing reversal in trends showing that younger generations are more likely to believe in antisemitic tropes than previous generations, the Anti-Defamation League found in a survey released Thursday.

The poll of more than 4,000 US adults asked respondents the extent to which they agree with statements such as “Jews have too much power in the business world,” “Jews have too much control and influence on Wall Street” and “Jews are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want.”

The results showed that 24 percent of Americans agreed with at least six of the statements, up from 20% in 2022, and the highest figure since the 11 statements were first polled in 1964, when 29% agreed. Only 9% to 11% agreed with the statements from 2014 to 2019 before spiking this decade.

US blocks Security Council motion blaming Israel for deadly Gaza aid convoy incident

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-blocks-security-council-motion-blaming-israel-for-deadly-gaza-aid-convoy-incident/

Amid American opposition, Arab nations failed Thursday overnight to get immediate support for a UN Security Council statement that would have blamed Israeli forces for the more than 100 reported deaths as Palestinians in northern Gaza swarmed an aid convoy.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, told reporters after an emergency closed council meeting on the deaths, that 14 of the 15 council members supported the statement put forward by Algeria, the Arab representative on the body.

Algeria’s draft declaration expressed “deep concern,” and stated that the situation was “due to opening fire by Israel forces.”

The United States did not support the statement and US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters: “The parties are working on some language to see if we can get to a statement.

“The problem is that we don’t have all the facts here,” he said, adding that he wanted the wording to reflect “the necessary due diligence with regards to culpability.”

Jim Jordan defends Kushner after Hunter Biden raises Saudi deals

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4498193-jim-jordan-defends-jared-kushner-hunter-biden/

“The idea that Jared Kushner did something wrong is ridiculous,” Jordan told Newsmax’s Eric Bolling during a Wednesday night appearance on “The Balance.” 

“I mean, the Trump family has been investigated more than any family on the planet, and what they’ve attempted to do to President Trump and been doing to President Trump over the last seven years is unbelievable,” Jordan said. 

Hunter Biden appeared for a closed-door deposition Wednesday, where he was grilled by Republicans about his foreign business deals. During the process, the president’s son flipped the question back on the GOP interrogators.

“He drew the distinction between what he has done in a business world with independent businessmen, versus foreign governments, which he did not do any business with — unlike Jared Kushner,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday during a break in the testimony. 

First recorded case of pregnancy in liver shocks Israeli doctors

 https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/b1emnd03a

“The danger in this situation is that if the pregnancy grows in an unprotected area and if a fetus is growing inside the liver, it may rupture it, which could lead to death. When an egg is released from the ovary and moves toward the uterus, this transition passes through an organ called the fallopian tube, which isn’t completely hermetic," he explained.

IDF Spokesman: 'IDF did not fire on Gaza aid convoy'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/386044

Rejecting Hamas' accusations of a massacre of over 100 civilians, he said that “The Israel Defense Forces operates according to the rules of engagement and international law. No IDF strike was conducted toward the aid convoy. I want to repeat that: No IDF strike was conducted toward the aid convoy."

FBI Informant in Hunter Biden Case Left Trail of Broken Promises

 https://www.wsj.com/us-news/informant-charged-with-lying-about-bidens-flaunted-fbi-ties-for-financial-gain-fcf86af2?mod=hp_lead_pos8

Born in Soviet Ukraine, Smirnov spent years in Israel before moving to the U.S. in 2006, where he drew on his international contacts and bounced between business ventures as he fed information to the FBI, according to the Journal’s review. Prosecutors said that on several occasions, Smirnov was authorized by the FBI to engage in criminal activity as part of a continuing investigation.

A dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, Smirnov spent 16 years in Los Angeles before moving in recent years to Las Vegas, where his girlfriend in 2022 bought a high-rise apartment for $1.4 million—after he had wired her nearly twice that, prosecutors said.

Smirnov carved out a role for himself raising money for fledgling companies, connecting investors to founders in exchange for equity, former associates said. He was an officer of at least four businesses, the Journal’s review found. All of them have since closed.

Michigan Democratic Protest Votes Aren’t as Big a Threat to Biden as They Look

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/michigan-democratic-protest-votes-arent-as-big-a-threat-to-biden-as-they-look?ref=home

Finally, there’s Trump, who instituted a ban on travelers from several majority-Muslim countries as one of his first significant acts as president in 2017. If the “uncommitted” vote manages to sufficiently harm Biden in November to return Trump to the White House, he is all but certain to pursue policies harmful to both Arab Americans in the United States and Palestinians fighting for statehood and survival. He has, for example, already promised to deport immigrants who voice support for Hamas at pro-Palestinian protests.

“Unless you actually want Trump back in the White House, your inability to support the only viable alternative to him doesn’t make any rational sense,” the progressive activist Joanne Carducci, who is better known as @JoJoFromJerz on X, where she has nearly a million followers, wrote for The Daily Beast.

In other words, we hear you, Dearborn. We see the suffering in Gaza. But electing Trump again is not the answer to your pain.

Dems Bet a Vote Against Biden in Michigan Now Will Move Him on Israel and Save Him Later

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/dems-bet-a-vote-against-biden-in-michigan-now-will-move-him-on-israel-and-save-him-later?ref=home

If the activists are wrong—which veteran Michigan pollster Bernie Porn fears they may be—“the Listen to Michigan effort could well help to give the election to Trump.”

“It is possible that Biden may have already lost the election,” Porn said in a statement to The Daily Beast.

If Listen to Michigan organizers aren’t careful, he said, “they could be playing a very dangerous game that could hand the election over to Trump, mostly because of Biden’s age, which will make life for civilians in Gaza even more difficult, which is hard to believe but indeed possible.”

In short, it’s a risky electoral gambit. (The February EPIC-MRA poll found that 53 percent of Michigan voters support a ceasefire.)

Whose Blood Is Redder

 https://etzion.org.il/en/talmud/studies-gemara/talmudic-methodology/mai-chazit-whose-blood-redder

These different approaches in explaining mai chazit yield an interesting nafka mina: Would yeihareig ve-al ya'avor apply to a sin performed passively?  One of the Ba'alei Tosafot (Rivam) adopts an opinion (cited in several Tosafot in shas - Ketubot 3b and Sanhedrin 74b) that if a woman remains completely passive, she has no obligation to surrender her life to avoid giluy arayot.  As the very source of yeihareig ve-al ya'avor stems from the logic of mai chazit in the case of retzicha, passive involvement is not included in this principle.  I cannot ACTIVELY murder since his blood might be redder.  But by similar logic, if I am completely passive (for example, I allow myself to be thrown onto another person whereby he will be crushed), I cannot refuse, since my blood might indeed be redder than his.  The paralysis which results from the inability to evaluate forces me to withdraw from any active decision.  If the murder will be executed without my active contribution, the logic of mai chazit disappears and yeihareig ve-al ya'avor no longer applies.

‘Uncommitted’ Voters Must Accept Trump Is Much, Much Worse Than Biden

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/uncommitted-voters-must-accept-trump-is-much-much-worse-than-biden?ref=home?ref=home

I have a question for the roughly 100,000 “uncommitted” voters in Michigan—do you want Donald Trump back in the White House?

Kiddush Hashem

 https://etzion.org.il/en/talmud/seder-nezikin/massekhet-sanhedrin/kiddush-hashem

The Rishonim's discussion of this halakha gives rise to two possible approaches to the halakha's conceptual basis.  One approach claims that the particular severity of the three cardinal sins does not allow for their cancellation, even by the specter of death. Whereas, generally, the Torah's laws give way to the overriding concern of pikuach nefesh, these three sins are so principal that they obtain even under these extenuating circumstances and cannot be overridden by pikuach nefesh. Alternatively, we might view these aveirot as fundamentally similar to ordinary aveirot, in that extenuating conditions of pikuach nefesh override the aveira proper. However, a separate injunction to sanctify Hashem's name requires the surrender of life even at the cost of death. A person yields his life not because he must avoid the particular aveira - that issur has already been cancelled by the extenuating conditions – but rather to perform the mitzva of glorifying Hashem's name by publicizing our love for Him and our willingness to prioritize that love over our own lives.

Kiddush Hashem: The obligation to sanctify God’s Name

 https://outorah.org/p/6474/

The reasons those three mitzvos are the ones for which we must die are as follows: (1) Murder – logically, why is my life more important than another person’s? (That goes both ways. If lost in the desert with a canteen, I can’t sacrifice myself by giving it away to another person because who says his life is more important than mine?) (2) Adultery/incest – the Torah compares the rape of a betrothed maiden to murder (Deut. 22:26), from which we derive that illicit relations are equally prohibited, even under coercion. (3) Idolatry – if we’re talking about the choice of desecrating vs. sanctifying God’s Name, what could be more of an issue than whether or not to bow down to a hunk of stone?

The reason for this mitzvah is that we are only here because of God. He should be the end-all and be-all of our lives. We should work hard to reflect well upon him and be willing to turn in those lives when necessary, such as if under compulsion to violate one of the cardinal sins.

On Being a Kiddush Hashem

 https://aish.com/on-being-a-kiddush-hashem/

The Rambam, based on the Talmud, says the mitzvah of kiddush Hashem is fulfilled when a person is placed in a situation where they have to give up their life for the sake of God. We know there is the sacrosanct Torah principle of pikuach nefesh, which means in order to save a life virtually all of the commandments are set aside. But there are exceptions. If one of the three “cardinal” sins – idolatry, murder and sexual immorality – is involved, then a person must give up their life rather than transgress them. And, actually, during a period in which the Jewish people and the Jewish way of life is under systemised attack, it is a great mitzvah to give one’s life for the cause, even under other circumstances. In fact, this is the ultimate expression of kiddush Hashem; a brave declaration of total dedication, love and trust, a visceral demonstration that there is nothing more important than living in accordance with God’s values and with our ultimate purpose in life.

Why is ribis prohibited

 Alschech (Devarim 23:20) Don’t charge interest  - The reason for the prohibition of the ribis, the Sages said that a trangressor of this prohibition is a disbeliever in the G-d of Israel and the redemption from Egypt because ribis shows a disbelief in Divine providence, and indicates he thinks that success and profit  are natural, or according to mazel.