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What Does the Pharaoh Have in Common with Anti-Israel College Professors?
In this week’s Torah portion, we read about the process through which Moses and Aaron try to persuade the Pharaoh that he should let the children of Israel go. After all, Pharaoh was the absolute head of the most powerful state and civilization of that era. He had every reason to feel confident in his assumptions. When faced with a people who had no state, no power, and no authority, why would he take them seriously?
Initially, Moses and Aaron simply approached with an argument and a request. But when that was rejected, they began to use what we might look at as tricks, or magic, to get Pharaoh to change his mind — which is strange given that magic comes to be specifically forbidden by the Torah.
Aaron, as the spokesman, starts the process by using Moses’ stick, and turning it into a snake. Then Pharaoh called his magicians, or more accurately, necromancers, and they are able to do exactly the same thing. Except the snake that Aaron threw down swallowed theirs and Pharaoh was not persuaded. The next act was to strike the river so that everything would turn into blood. Once again, the magicians were able to do the same thing. The plague of frogs was also replicated by the magicians. Only this time, they were not able to remove the frogs, which was something that Moses was able to achieve. But Pharaoh was still not impressed.
Aaron then hit the ground, turning the dust into lice. This time the magicians were unable to replicate it, and for the first time, they admitted that there was something more powerful. Even so, Pharaoh was still not persuaded. Then the plague of wild beasts which does not affect the Israelites but still no progress. Plagues followed that struck Egyptian livestock, along with hail and boils, which finally convinced Pharaoh to think about freeing them.
One is bound to ask why Aaron and Moses started with signs that could be replicated? Why not start right away with the big ones?
One answer lies in how to break down prejudice, and get people to change their minds. You rarely get somebody who has an entrenched point of view to concede quickly. It is a process that takes time. Secondly, the basis on which Egyptians made decisions through magic or necromancy is non-rational and based on superstition. Most human beings are both non-rational and superstitious, so the first thing you have to do is to break down their certainties.
I think this lesson in persuasion is applicable to our current times, where we have witnessed how a whole generation of academics and teachers has turned against the Jewish State – and then encouraged their students to do the same.
It started slowly and imperceptibly, with contributions to universities to set up departments that would present a specifically anti-Israel narrative and appoint staff in other areas who would share such an agenda, until it became the accepted narrative. Then people who were focused entirely on race and an oppressor vs. oppressed mindset twisted the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to fit their agenda.
Pharaoh was never convinced he was wrong. Let us hope that this time, it might be different. We were commanded in the Bible not to hate the Egyptians for their destructive policies. However, we were encouraged to establish an alternative narrative. And that remains true to this day.
The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York.
The post What Does the Pharaoh Have in Common with Anti-Israel College Professors? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.