Is This What True Friendship With Israel Looks Like, America?

 https://www.newsweek.com/this-what-true-friendship-israel-looks-like-america-opinion-1883323

By abstaining rather than an explicit veto, the U.S. allowed the Security Council to put Israel in the defendant's docket, alongside Hamas. It's an astounding degree of moral equivalency between an Iran-backed terrorist organization and the democratically elected government of the State of Israel.

Or, as Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan put it, "It was the Hamas massacre that started this war... Nearly six months has passed, and the Security Council still has not condemned the child-murdering rapists that started this war. The resolution just voted upon makes it seem as if the war started by itself... Israel did not start this war, nor did Israel want this war."

Unrealitic belief in being Safe

Making of a Godol (page 365)

 This author came across another instance of blind faith in the safety of Torah sites during times of war in another episode conveyed by Hayyah-Miriam Shulman. She related that her father, R' Isaac Scher, and R' Moshe-Mordkhai Epstein did not believe World War I would erupt because they "could not picture the dismantling  of the essence of holiness  that the Slabodka yeshiva represented

UN Security Council resolution will only harden Hamas stance in hostage talks, envoy says

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hyv8irk1a#autoplay

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan on Monday night slammed the UN Security Council's call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza during the month of Ramadan.

“Although the American ambassador said they see it as contingent upon the release of hostages, it is no coincidence that Hamas welcomed this and the Palestinians celebrated,” he said in an interview with Ynet.

PM calls off delegation to Washington after US abstains on UNSC resolution

 https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/03/25/un-security-council-passes-ceasefire-resolution-as-us-abstains/

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled Monday a planned trip to Washington by his senior aides Ron Dermer and Tzachi Hanegbi after the United States abstained in a United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolution that was passed.

The UNSC demanded a ceasefire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, its first demand to halt fighting.

Trump’s Weird Israel Rant: ‘You Shouldn't Be Doing That’

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-weird-israel-rant-you-shouldnt-be-doing-that?ref=home?ref=home 

Days after claiming Jewish Democrats who criticize Israel “hate” the country and hate “their religion,” Donald Trump went on a confusing rant in which he both criticized Israeli military actions in Gaza as a “big mistake” and indicated he would have responded similarly to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.

Biden Abstains on Israel and Hamas

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-abstains-united-nations-security-council-vote-israel-hamas-ceasefire-biden-6dd91dee?mod=hp_opin_pos_2

The U.S. withheld its veto and abstained as the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution that demanded a cease-fire in Gaza but didn’t make the cease-fire contingent on Hamas releasing its 134 hostages. That condition, on which the U.S. had previously insisted, has been dropped.

Perplexed by ‘overreaction,’ White House says PM stirring crisis in US-Israel ties

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/perplexed-by-overreaction-white-house-says-pm-stirring-crisis-in-us-israel-ties/

The White House suggested on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to manufacture a crisis in US-Israel ties after he canceled plans to send an Israeli delegation to Washington over the Biden administration’s decision to allow the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire and hostage release.

Netanyahu said the US abstention marked a divergence from Washington’s policy linking a ceasefire to Hamas releasing the hostages it abducted on October 7, but US officials asserted that this wasn’t their interpretation of the resolution and that their position in favor of that conditionality has not changed.

“It seems like the Prime Minister’s Office is choosing to create a perception of daylight here when they don’t need to do that,” White House National Security Council John Kirby said in a press briefing.

Can Gedolim err?

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/387377

An opinion of our Sages teaches that the evil decree in the Purim story came when the Jews of Shushan attended the feast of Achashverus which celebrated his false understanding that the Jews would not return to Eretz Yisrael to build the Beit Hamikdash. Apparently, Mordechai was the only Jew who protested. He begged the Jews not to participate, but they were happy to attend, insisting that the food and drink would be glatt kosher.

The cause for the celebration – the belief that the Jews were freed of the obligation to return to the Land of Israel and to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash did not seem to bother anyone save Mordechai. There is no record that the other great Rabbis of the time, of which there were many, supported Mordechai’s vehement protest. Perhaps they dd and perhaps they erred and attended the gala party which celebrated the disconnection from Eretz Yisrael and an open door to acceptance amongst the Gentiles and assimilation, believing it would cement good relations with the powers that be.

Golders Green rabbi Chaim Halpern charged with sexual assault

 https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/golders-green-rabbi-chaim-halpern-charged-with-sexual-assault-br2xu8bc

Golders Green rabbi Chaim Halpern has been charged with two counts of sexual assault of a woman after a police investigation.

Police launched inquries after the unnamed woman alleged in a broadcast interview in December 2022 that she had been a victim of sexual offences in London.

Halpern, who is 65, was arrested in March last year in connection with the incident which allegedly took place on June 1 2022 and a file submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service last December.

He has been bailed to appear at Willesden Magistrates Court on April 19.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN JEWS IS ENDING

 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/04/us-anti-semitism-jewish-american-safety/677469/

Anti-Semitism on the right and the left threatens to bring to a close an unprecedented period of safety and prosperity for Jewish Americans—and demolish the liberal order they helped establish.

Preaching to the Choir

 Everybody knows about the dybbuk and the Chofetz Chain. Rav Elchonon Wasserman used to tell the story at the Purim Seudah, But he said only those who believe in these things should be invited.

In other words these stories are meant as spiritual chizuk not as a means of convincing anyone about spirituality. In Making of a Godol (page 363-354) he also notes that his father was against telling spooky tales even about the Golem as it convinces some that Judaism is full of bizarre superstitions The above probably is true of Agada medrash and chassidic miracle stories

Lies exposed | Fmr. Al Jazeera director says rape allegations against IDF false

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/387313

Yasser Abu Hilala says the woman who alleged in an interview that IDF soldiers raped women in Shifa Hospital admitted that she fabricated the story to incite fury.

Hamas, Al Jazeera admit: Story of IDF rapes in Gaza hospital fabricated

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-793560

After more than 24 hours of letting the story run freely, Qatari mouthpiece Al Jazeera deleted the page featuring their former story, which accused Israeli soldiers of allegedly perpetrating rape against women during the IDF’s latest excursion against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who barricaded themselves inside the former hospital-cum-terror headquarters at Shifa Hospital.

Though the Qatari mouthpiece hasn’t yet officially referred to the retraction, all content related to the allegation has been reportedly deleted.

Fani Willis warns ‘train is coming’ in Trump Georgia case

 https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4552102-fani-willis-warns-train-is-coming-in-trump-georgia-case/

All while that was going on, we were writing responsive briefs, we were still doing the case in a way that it needed to be done,” she told CNN on Saturday. “I don’t feel like we’ve been slowed down at all.”

“I do think there are efforts to slow down this train, but the train is coming,” Willis continued.