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Being Jewish Today: The Curse That Became a Blessing
Orange balloons fill the skies above Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Thursday as hundreds gathered to mark the grim milestone of the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, who is a hostage in Hamas captivity. Wednesday, January 17, 2024. (Photo: Debbie Weiss)
The time has come to take the hard steps needed for healing and to come together stronger than ever before. Let us take the necessary steps to confront our new reality, to cleanse our wounds, and to stand united with the people who are truly our allies.
In doing this, it is imperative to help re-educate well intentioned people who have been misled by half-truths and lies. Let us take the experiences of the curse of antisemitism and turn them into the blessings of understanding and common decency.
In a recent conversation on Honestly with Bari Weiss, Shabbos Kestenbaum shared a personal story that resonates deeply with the Jewish community. He described how he supported the Black Lives Matter movement and even marched alongside them, believing he was standing for justice.
He described how he was an advocate and supporter of Bernie Sanders in 2016 and then also in 2020. His credentials for the progressive movement were unmatched, and he assumed that those that he stood with would support him and his community in their time of crisis. What befuddled him, and ultimately woke many people up, was discovering that justice applies to all except for the Jewish people.
An example of this was that female Israelis’ experiences of being sexually abused were not initially believed. This surprised him, as it surprised many people, who otherwise believed that they were in complete alignment with the progressive side of the Democratic Party.
Similarly David Harris, the former head of the American Jewish Committee, gave a speech in Westchester, New York, where he expressed shock that in the past 40 years, he had been building bridges and supporting a gamut of different causes including women’s causes, LGBTQ causes, children’s cause’s, interfaith causes, and many more. He found it unconscionable that these organizations which have received the support of the Jewish community for decades remained silent in the face of the extreme violence perpetrated against the civilian population in southern Israel.
There is a recognition that something went very wrong along the way — where an ideology was promoted (and then reinforced) that allowed for the dehumanization of Jewish people.
As a tiny minority we must attempt to seek unity, however true unity cannot exist if we do not agree on certain fundamental facts.
One of the most basic — and urgent — questions we must ask ourselves is: who stands with us, and who stands against us. This is a truth that is painful to confront, but necessary to move forward. Liberty yes, justice yes, equality yes — selective justice no, subjective truth no, hierarchy of the oppressed, no.
As Jews, we are heirs to a tradition that emphasizes introspection and moral clarity. Our tradition of teshuva — repentance — is not just about returning to God; it’s about returning to our core values. One of these is the value of self-preservation (survival). This journey starts with reflection and intellectual honesty. It requires us to admit difficult truths, first to ourselves, and then to others. We must be willing to do the hard work of partaking in teshuva — to ourselves and for our children.
In the wake of the October 7th attacks, many people have been shocked by the resurgence of antisemitism, both overt and subtle. It’s made many Jews feel vulnerable, in ways they haven’t felt in decades. Some have compared the current climate to 1930s Germany, but this comparison is flawed.
The United States, despite its challenges, remains a liberal democracy with a long history of equality and freedom. This is something that Weimar Germany, with its brief and unstable democracy, never had.
Moreover, we now have the State of Israel, a homeland for the Jewish people, which didn’t exist in the 1930s. This alone marks a fundamental difference between then and now. In today’s world, there is a country that will intervene on the behalf of worldwide Jewry in the event of an existential threat. It’s simply incorrect to equate today’s environment with that of Nazi Germany.
While we can recognize that we do have many challenges in front of us we should also know that it’s never been a better time to be Jewish when taking into account the arc of history. History has taught us that blessings can become curses and curses can become blessings. We will emerge stronger than before once we retrench and re-educate ourselves, as well as other people of good will.
Daniel Rosen has been a recognized opinion leader since his early college days, when he co-founded Torchpac, a pro-Israel advocacy group at New York University. Daniel is currently the chairman and co-founder of the pro-Israel group, Minds and Hearts.
The post Being Jewish Today: The Curse That Became a Blessing first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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JD Vance Says US, Israel Sometimes Have ‘Distinct Interests,’ Underscores Importance of Avoiding War With Iran
Then-US Senate candidate JD Vance, now the 2024 Republican vice-presidential nominee, speaks as GOP presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump smiles at a rally, in Dayton, Ohio, US, Nov. 7, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
US vice presidential nominee JD Vance has appeared to temper a potential Trump administration’s support for Israel during a recent interview, arguing that the US and Jewish state can at times have conflicting interests and warning that Washington should seek to avoid a war with Iran, the Jewish state’s chief adversary in the Middle East.
During the nearly hour-and-a-half interview with podcaster Tim Dillon, Vance stated that although he believes Israel has the right to defend itself from threats, there are instances in which the Jewish state’s military goals could conflict with US interests.
“Israel has the right to defend itself, but America’s interest is sometimes going to be distinct — like sometimes we’re going to have overlapping interests and sometimes we’re going to have distinct interests, and our interest, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran,” Vance said.
The Republican senator from Ohio argued that a war between Iran and the US would be a significant resource drain on the American military.
“It would be [a] huge distraction of resources; it would be massively expensive to our country,” Vance said.
US intelligence agencies have for years labeled Iran as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, noting it devotes significant sums of money and weapons each year to supporting proxies across the Middle East such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Reflecting on Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel last year, Vance said that he and his wife felt “worried” for their personal friends who live in the Jewish state. The senator then claimed that many American supporters of Israel “were actually much more militaristic than the Israelis that were actually living in Israel” following the Hamas atrocities and suggested that, in the immediate aftermath of the onslaught, American allies of the Jewish state expressed enthusiasm to prosecute wars against Iran and Russia.
“We just have to be smarter, right? We have to be smarter. Now, I don’t want Iran to get a nuclear weapon. And, I think we should be, like, strongly encouraging the Iranians, and using all the influence we have, to encourage them to not have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said.
The senator underscored the importance of engaging in “smart diplomacy” to advance US interests without using military force. Vance used the Abraham Accords — a series of historic, US-brokered normalization agreements struck between Israel and several countries in the Arab world when Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was in the White House — as examples of how the US government should secure peace between the Jewish state and its neighbors.
Vance’s comments raised eyebrows among many pro-Israel supporters on social media, with some arguing that the senator undermined the Trump campaign’s attempts to frame the former president as more supportive of the Jewish state than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In the months leading up to the election, Trump has aggressively courted Jewish voters, touting his administration’s previous work on the Abraham Accords and close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump has also stated that his administration would deport non-American residents who participate in violent anti-Israel protests.
The post JD Vance Says US, Israel Sometimes Have ‘Distinct Interests,’ Underscores Importance of Avoiding War With Iran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Turkey’s Erdogan Sends ‘Best Wishes’ to Iran After Israel Strike, Continues Fierce Criticism of Jewish State
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave his “best wishes” to Iran and accused Israel of trying to provoke a regional war in the Middle East in response to the Jewish state’s airstrikes against Iranian military targets over the weekend.
Erdogan’s comments continued his hostile posture toward Israel over the past year, during which Turkish-Israeli relations have nosedived amid Israel’s ongoing military operations against two Iran-backed Islamist terrorist groups: Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
On Saturday, over 100 Israeli aircraft targeted missile production sites and air defenses inside Iran, significantly crippling Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities and production capacity. The sophisticated operation was in response to Iran firing more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier in the month, as well as ongoing attacks from its terror proxies in the region, according to Israeli officials.
Responding to the strikes, Erdogan expressed solidarity with Iran and portrayed Israel as the aggressor.
“I extend my best wishes to our neighbor Iran and the Iranian government, which were the target of Israeli aggression last night,” Erdogan said at an event in the southern city of Hatay, according to Turkish media.
The Turkish president also claimed without evidence that Israel was seeking to set a “trap” to start a regional war.
“The Zionist Israeli government is attempting to ignite a regional conflict. It is crucial not to fall into the trap set by Israel and its supporters,” he said. “With this mindset, Israel will achieve nothing. We expect their wrath from Allah.”
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning Israel’s military strikes and similarly accusing the Jewish state of bringing the region toward a broader conflict. The ministry went on to falsely accuse Israel of “committing genocide in Gaza,” preparing to annex the West Bank, and attacking civilians in Lebanon.
“Ending the terrorism created by Israel in the region has become a historic duty in terms of establishing international security and peace,” the statement read, calling on the international community to take steps to avoid further escalation.
The ministry and Erdogan’s comments came two months after Turkey’s Ambassador to Iran Hicabi Kırlangıç lambasted Israel in an interview as “one of the most ruthless enemies” and condemned Western countries for supporting Jerusalem. He also said that Iran’s plan to attack Israel in retaliation for the killing over the summer of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran should be harsh enough to force the Jewish state to “fall to its knees.”
Haniyeh was killed in an explosion in Iran’s capital city on July 31. Iran, the chief international sponsor of Hamas, accused Israel of carrying out the assassination and vowed revenge. The Israeli government has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.
Iran, which initially launched an unprecedented direct attack against Israel in April, also said it would retaliate following Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks that killed the top leaders of its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, including longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
On Oct. 1, Iran acted on its threats, firing nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. The only fatality from the barrage was Sameh Asli, 37, a Palestinian from Jabalia in Gaza. He was killed by missile shrapnel in the West Bank village of Nu’eima, near Jericho, during the attack.
Following Israel’s retaliatory strikes this past weekend, Iranian officials attempted to downplay the severity of the strikes. However, an Israeli weapons systems and intelligence expert told The Algemeiner on Sunday that the Islamist regime’s ballistic missile program will need at least a year to recover from the strikes.
Amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran and its proxies, Turkey has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel — and defenders of Hamas — since the outbreak of the Gaza war last October.
Last month Erdogan said that the United Nations General Assembly should recommend the use of force, in line with a resolution it passed in 1950, if the UN Security Council fails to stop Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
In August, Erdogan declared Aug. 2 a day of national mourning over the killing of Haniyeh.
The announcement came days after Erdogan made an explicit threat to invade Israel, leading Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to call on NATO to expel Turkey, which has the alliance’s second largest military.
Turkey has reportedly blocked cooperation between NATO and Israel since last October because of the war in Hamas-ruled Gaza and said the alliance should not engage with Israel as a partner until the conflict ends.
Erdogan’s comments were the latest in a recent wave of hostile moves targeting the Jewish state.
Earlier this year, for example, Turkey’s foreign ministry compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
In May, the Turkish trade ministry said it had ceased all exports and imports to and from Israel. The announcement came after Turkey imposed trade restrictions on Israeli exports over Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 invasion of and massacre across the southern region of the Jewish state.
That followed Erdogan in March threatening to “send Netanyahu to Allah to take care of him, make him miserable, and curse him.” He previously accused Israel of operating “Nazi” concentration camps and compared Netanyahu with Hitler.
Weeks earlier, Erdogan said that Netanyahu was a “butcher” who would be tried as a “war criminal” over Israel’s defensive military operations in Gaza. He has also called Israel a “terror state.”
Turkey hosts senior Hamas officials and, together with Iran and Qatar, has provided a large portion of the Palestinian terrorist group’s budget.
Several Western and Arab states designate Hamas, an offshoot of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, as a terrorist group.
However, Erdogan has defended Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” against what he described as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
Israel withdrew all its troops and civilian settlers from Gaza in 2005.
Turkish-Israeli diplomatic relations have nosedived since the Hamas atrocities of last Oct. 7, when the terrorist group that rules Gaza murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped over 250 hostages, launching the ongoing war in the Palestinian enclave.
The post Turkey’s Erdogan Sends ‘Best Wishes’ to Iran After Israel Strike, Continues Fierce Criticism of Jewish State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Wants More Peace Deals With Arab Countries After War, Netanyahu Says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a memorial ceremony for those murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and those who fell in the “Iron Sword” war, at the Knesset, the Parliament, in Jerusalem, Oct. 28, 2024. Photo: DEBBIE HILL/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he hopes to reach peace deals with more Arab countries once the war against Iranian terrorist proxies Hamas and Hezbollah is complete.
“The day after Hamas no longer controls Gaza and Hezbollah no longer sits on our northern border [in Lebanon], we are working these days on plans to stabilize those two fronts. But the day after includes something else of utmost importance,” Netanyahu said in a speech to parliament.
“I aspire to continue the process I led a few years ago of the signing of the historic Abraham Accords, and achieve peace with more Arab countries,” he said.
Israel, under the US-brokered 2020 accords, normalized relations with four Arab countries: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
Since then, Israel, with US support, has sought to also include other nations, particularly Saudi Arabia. Riyadh says it will not recognize Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
“These countries, and other countries, see clearly the blows we are landing on those who attack us, the Iranian axis of evil,” he said. “They aspire, like us, for a stable, secure, and prosperous Middle East.”
The post Israel Wants More Peace Deals With Arab Countries After War, Netanyahu Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.