Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Devastating Gaza Hospital Blast—What We Know

 https://www.newsweek.com/devastating-gaza-hospital-blastwhat-we-know-1835576

Later, in a virtual briefing with reporters, Hagari went into further detail on the IDF's investigation, saying it constituted a review of Israeli air, land and sea attacks on Gaza, as well as rocket-detecting radars, which he said detected a barrage of rockets going toward Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital. Hagari said that there were no such Israeli attacks that occurred "next to the hospital" at this time, nor did the damage "fit any ammunition with the air force."

IDF tells world: This is how Islamic Jihad destroyed the Gaza hospital

 https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-768942

IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari on Wednesday laid out the IDF's full comprehensive intelligence case to prove that an Islamic Jihad failed rocket caused the damage Tuesday night to a Gaza hospital, leading to a still-unclear, but large, number of Palestinian civilian deaths.

The chief spokesman presented actual audio recordings in which Islamic Jihad members say out loud that they are responsible for the explosion.

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Hamas Uses Western Morality as a Weapon Against Israel | Opinion

 https://www.newsweek.com/hamas-uses-western-morality-weapon-against-israel-opinion-1834774

Israel is generally held to a higher standard of morality by other governments, the media, and academia. Hamas knows this and exploits it as a weapon of war. Hamas understands that the killing of civilians—whether deliberate or collateral to legitimate military actions—is seen as wrong. But when dead children are shown on TV, many viewers fail to distinguish between deliberate targeting of civilians and unintentional collateral deaths. Hamas takes advantage of this psychological reality. Hamas has even come up with a name—"The CNN strategy"—for this misuse of morality.

Why does the Torah not mention Olam Habah The time of the giving of Torag or Ressurection?

 There is a major debate going on now regrading the significance of peshutei hamikra vs derash

Is eye for an eye meant literally?

Why is there pshat and drasha?

Monday, October 16, 2023

How the Activist Left Turned On Israel

 https://time.com/6323730/hamas-attack-left-response/

Instead of condemning and mourning the deadliest day for Jews since Israel’s founding, factions of the grassroots left appeared to celebrate the assault as an act of Palestinian heroism. The national chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine called it "a historic win for the Palestinian resistance." A coalition of 34 Harvard student organizations issued a statement saying they "hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence." The Democratic Socialists of America promoted a pro-Palestinian rally in New York where attendees reportedly chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied.” One was shown displaying a swastika. A Twitter account apparently belonging to Black Lives Matter Chicago posted an image of a paraglider with a Palestinian flag on X, appearing to celebrate the Hamas terrorists who descended to slaughter hundreds of Israelis at a music festival.

The left faces a reckoning as Israel divides Democrats

 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/left-faces-reckoning-israel-divides-democrats-rcna120076

But after this weekend’s terror attack, the worst killing of Jews since the Holocaust, Simonds said many liberal Jews feel abandoned by people they thought were friends, some of whom have expressed little sympathy for the Israelis killed while focusing instead on the plight of Palestinians.

University Loses Funding on Israel Stance as College Donors Apply Pressure

 https://www.newsweek.com/university-loses-funding-israel-stance-donors-1835027

Jon Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador to China and Russia, told Penn President Liz Magill that his family will "close its checkbook" on future donations to the university.

"The University's silence in the face of reprehensible and historic Hamas evil against the people of Israel (when the only response should be outright condemnation) is a new low," Huntsman wrote in an email to Magill, according to the student-run Daily Pennsylvanian. "Silence is antisemitism, and antisemitism is hate, the very thing higher ed was built to obviate."

Biden Gains Ground Among Republicans on Israel Response as Trump Stumbles

 https://www.newsweek.com/biden-gains-ground-among-republicans-israel-response-trump-stumbles-1834812

Posting to X, formerly Twitter, Georgia's GOP Governor Brian Kemp wrote: "Women, children, elderly, Israelis, and Americans alike have been slaughtered by these evil terrorists. It is never acceptable to praise deranged murderers or undermine one of our closest allies in their darkest hour.

Sunday, October 15, 2023

Creation & The Big Bang

 https://aish.com/creation-the-big-bang/

I have trouble reconciling my reading of Genesis with current scientific theory. When I read the beginning of creation, is seems clear that God created the world complete, as well as the rest of the universe. But physics says that there was a primordial speck which exploded in what is known as the Big Bang, and from this expansion the universe came to be.

Is there a way to integrate the two versions of the story?

Who's behind Israel-Gaza disinformation and hate online?

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67114313

Ultimately, though, determining whether a profile is actually fake and who exactly is behind it is a very difficult task. It requires information from the social media companies that journalists don't often have access to.

Friday, October 13, 2023

Hamas Abducted My Wife and Babies. They're Running Out of Time

 https://www.newsweek.com/hamas-abducted-my-wife-babies-theyre-running-out-time-1834098

They were on some kind of vehicle as one of the captors put a cover on my wife's head. I immediately recognized my older daughter Raz with her little purple dress. All around them, the attackers were shouting "Allahu akbar". At that moment, I knew they'd been abducted.

'Dad. They shot me. Help': Surviving the Kfar Aza kibbutz massacre

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67089114

"You want the truth? I don't want the Hamas anymore in my life. We need to destroy them one by one. We need to be strong."

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Does Hamas Have a Training Center in Mexico?

 https://www.newsweek.com/hamas-training-center-camp-mexico-israel-war-united-states-1833860

Former President Donald Trump, among others, shared a baseless theory that President's Joe Biden's immigration policies had resulted in Hamas militants "pouring" across the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump also said that Biden and his "boss," former President Barack Obama, would be responsible for any Hamas attacks inside the U.S.

Aliza Lavie: Where is women's sisterhood? These are not women's rights

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/377727

Referring to the latest incident as part of the recent incidents in which religious Jewish leaders were attacked, the most prominent of which is the Yom Kippur incident, Dr. Aliza Lavie says that indeed, "The tables have turned," and red lines were crossed. "We have now seen the opposition leaders realize the damage of their words that were said right after the fast ended and they changed their attitude." Lavie mentions that the municipal order has been in place since 2018 and the question has arisen as to what happened now that led to this incident.