Several left-wing organizations such as Ameinu and UnXeptable will be joining representatives of families of hostages still being held captive in Gaza, in a protest demonstration in Washington next week. They will meet on Capitol Hill to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
An advertisement published by UnXeptable features a photograph of the upper portion of Netanyahu’s face, with a determined glint in his eye, and the words “Non Grata,” in large yellow capitals over his forehead.
Even though the families of the hostages have made it clear that their campaign is not political but on purely humanitarian grounds, many of their supporters on the Left make the most disparaging remarks about Netanyahu.
The Ameinu call for people to join the protest claims that Netanyahu is a threat to Israeli democracy.
Regardless of what they may think of him, no Jewish organization should be publicly critical of a prime minister of Israel who is visiting their country – especially during a period of rising antisemitism.
To do so adds fuel to the fire and proves that something is rotten in the state of Jewish affairs.
Prior to his address to Congress, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet on Monday with President Joe Biden, but now that the latter has been diagnosed with COVID, it is not certain that such a meeting will take place.
A historical assassination attempt
ON THE subject of prime ministers of Israel, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who spends a lot of his time meeting with the families of hostages, paying condolence calls to bereaved families of fallen soldiers, and talking To individual soldiers and groups of soldiers on their base, also finds time to look at hi-tech developments.
It will be remembered that before entering the political arena, Bennett was a hi-tech tycoon. Recently, accompanied by Tomer Raved, owner and CEO of Bezeq, Bennett visited the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation.
Both he and Raved had met with Shimon Peres several times in the last years before the latter’s death.
In addition to looking at what is happening in the field of innovation, the two visited Peres’s book-lined office, which is being kept exactly as he left it when he died.
Now that he is officially the Republican nominee for president after surviving an assassination attempt, and getting a commiserating phone call from President Joe Biden, it will be interesting to see if Donald Trump changes his tone when talking about Biden on the campaign trail. Perhaps by now, he’s learned the importance of words.
Many Trump allies are blaming Biden for the attempted assassination. Last week, according to Politico and other sources, Biden, in a call to donors, said, “It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”
When asked about this strategy, Biden replied: “Attack, attack, attack.” Someone who read these reports presumably interpreted the message literally.
This should serve as a warning to anyone who castigates public figures. Be careful about the manner in which you phrase your criticism.
Although words in themselves cannot kill, they can provide an incentive for murder.
A brush with death
Apropos Trump, his best-known daughter, Ivanka Trump, who is married to Jared Kushner, posted on X on the day after her father narrowly escaped with his life, “Two years ago today, my mom passed away. I believe she was watching over Dad last night during the attempt on his life. I miss her every day and pray for the safety of the family and friends she left behind.” Even though he had two more wives after his divorce from Ivana, the two remained on good terms, and when she died, he attended her funeral and eulogized her in the most positive terms.
Visiting the victims of Hamas
Aside from the regular affairs of state that are part of his job description, President Isaac Herzog deliberately makes time to meet with survivors of the Hamas atrocities, families of the hostages, former hostages released or rescued from Gaza, wounded soldiers, displaced residents from the North and the South, soldiers on army bases, and residents still living in vulnerable areas where they are subjected daily to rocket fire.
He visits many of these places and is often told that no minister or member of Knesset has bothered to come and see the devastation for themselves.
This week, he and his wife, Michal, went south to the region of the Ashkelon beach and met with residents of Moshav Netiv Ha’asara and Kibbutz Zikim.
They were accompanied by Itamar Revivo, the head of the Ashkelon Beach Regional Council, and Amit Yifrach, the secretary-general of the Moshav movement and chairman of the Israel Farmers Association, as well as representatives of communities in the region.
At Netiv Ha’asara, Herzog saw the monument erected to members of the moshav who were murdered on October 7.
In the center of the monument stands a national flag believed to be the highest in the country.
In his various conversations, Herzog learned that despite living so close to the border, people were willing to restore and renew, and to repopulate the places that have been evacuated, but only if they have a security guarantee.
Herzog also paid condolence calls to two families – the Ta’assa and Berger families. The Ta’assa family came to attention when the father, Gil Ta’assa, after killing three terrorists on October 7, threw himself on a grenade, giving his own life to save the lives of two of his children.
Several members of the Berger family had been murdered in the October 7 massacre.
During the past nine months, Herzog has revisited some of the places where he has felt the need to give personal encouragement to the population and to applaud their resilience.
On this occasion, he promised to return – and there’s no doubt that he will.
To draft or not to draft?
With the controversy over haredim serving in the IDF, the situation has been exacerbated by comments made by rabbis Yosef Yitzhak and Moshe Maya, who stated that the army is no place for a young ultra-Orthodox man, regardless of whether or not he is a Torah student.
That’s very sad, because some haredim who were not cut out to be students may have the potential to be excellent soldiers, and the opportunity to prove themselves in this sphere has so far been denied them.
If they can take time away from their studies to engage in violent and destructive protest demonstrations, surely all that energy could be channeled to serving the interests of the state, and contributing to the self-esteem of the young men involved.
Serving in the IDF is not like serving in the army of the tsar.
One would think that some of the young men who are being held back are ashamed that they are not doing anything for the state, while the Druze population, which has suffered many casualties, exhibits loyalty and fierce pride in serving in the IDF, and in many cases, reaching high ranks.
Jews in Europe
In last Sunday’s Jerusalem Post there was a feature about the Krakow Festival, an annual tribute to Jewish culture in its various genres, which brings Jews and non-Jews from all over Poland and abroad to Krakow to hear lectures, listen to music and singing, and to dance in the streets.
In the article, only a passing mention is given to the festival founder Janusz Makuch, and only a hint is given to the fact that he isn’t Jewish.
In the tale end of a sentence that states “His yiddishisms and quotes from famous rabbis make it hard to believe that he isn’t a fully paid-up member of the tribe.”
He’s not even a half paid-up member of the tribe, though someone should make him an honorary Jew, because with his beard and his Fiddler on the Roof hasidic garb, he not only looks like one, but knows Jewish liturgy off by heart and occasionally joins a minyan.
Up until his late teens, he had never met a Jew. He had heard that there had been a large Jewish community in pre-Holocaust Krakow, but until he found someone who could tell him what happened to them, he knew nothing about them.
He was horrified to learn that most had been exterminated by the Nazis, and when Poland was just on the brink of emerging from Communist rule, he put together the first Jewish festival, which over the years has grown enormously and is part of Krakow’s cultural calendar.
He frequently comes to Israel in search of talent for the next festival, and to see the many friends he has in this country.
A DNA test may prove whether he has a Jewish bloodline. Whether or not he has Jewish blood, he certainly has a Jewish soul.