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Jewish Professor’s Book Explaining the Truth About the Gaza War Is Much Needed
November 2023: An Israeli soldier helps to provide incubators to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Photo: Screenshot
Thane Rosenbaum’s new book is a breath of fresh air amid the stench of antisemitic slander perpetrated by Jew-hating mobs.
Rosenbaum is a professor at Touro College, a noted interviewer and lecturer, columnist for The Jewish Journal, and author of many books, including the newly-released, Beyond Proportionality: Israel’s Just War in Gaza.
Rosenbaum goes through both the logic and the legalese to demonstrate that Israel is not committing a genocide, and that those who make such erroneous claims are divided into people who do so simply to harm Israel, those who don’t know what the term means, or those creating an alternative definition of the word to try to attack Israel.
Rosenbaum also makes clear that it is a tragedy that Palestinian noncombatants are killed, but that it is difficult to avoid this when Hamas is fighting in civilian areas and using human shields. He also notes there is a possibility that in individual instances, Israel or any country in any war may commit individual war crimes that should be investigated to determine what took place. But Israel never purposefully attacks civilians, as opposed to Hamas, whose primary policy is to target innocent women, children, and men.
Rosenbaum also notes that Hamas has given no figure of how many of its “fighters” or terrorists have been killed, but the ratio of combatant to non-combatant deaths indicates anything but a genocide. He also talks of a friendship with the late Jewish CBS reporter Bob Simon. Rosenbaum recounts that Simon could not tolerate the killing of Palestinian children, which no person of good conscience wants to occur. Asked how to avoid casualties when children are deliberately placed in harm’s way by terrorists, Simon told Rosenbaum he didn’t know how that could be done.
The same is true if you watched as many debates as I have since October 7. When some people say Israel had a right to respond to October 7 but has gone too far, they are often asked what combatant to non-combatant ratio would have been acceptable. Usually, they have no answer. The alternative, as Rosenbaum notes, is that by not seeking to defeat Hamas, Israel would be saying that the Hamas blueprint of murdering and raping civilians, and also taking hostages, should be repeated all over the world — because it worked.
In order to win a war, quite often you kill more people than the other side has killed. This has been true since the beginning of war, and does not mean a war is genocide. Rosenbaum correctly points out that rather than playing with “house” money, Hamas is playing with Qatari and Iranian money, and while Israel makes sure nearly every Israeli home has a bomb shelter, Hamas does not allow its citizens to seek protection in tunnels, claiming most absurdly that it is the UN’s responsibility to provide protection.
He also correctly notes that virtually nothing has been done to stop the spread of antisemitic vitriol on college campuses, which has been fueled by professors who talk about intersectionality and the oppressor vs. oppressed mentality.
One of the important points Rosenbaum makes (which you will never see on Joe Rogan or Piers Morgan’s shows) is that Professor Salman al Dayah, the former dean of the faculty of Sharia law at the Islamic University of Gaza, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack for “violating Islamic principles governing jihad.” Why his voice has not been amplified, or there have not been many others like him is tragic.
But the anti-Israel movement seeks to take away all agency from Hamas and Palestinians, and blame Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu for everything negative that has occurred. In his most sober moment, Rosenbaum writes: “I think it is high time for Israel to stop apologizing for fighting a war in self-defense. It has to stop listening to people who have never been to war, like Joe Biden, Antony Blinken and Barack Obama, who have no understanding about the Middle East where Jews have always faced murderous enemies.”
Rosenbaum’s book is a crucial read at this time, and while many who need to read it may not, if at least some can, it will be extremely worthwhile in the asymmetrical battle Israel and Jews face against blood libels and lies geared to turning the world into Jew haters.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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FBI Investigating ‘Targeted Terror Attack’ in Boulder, Colorado, Director Says
FILE PHOTO: FBI Director Kash Patel testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Trump’s proposed budget request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday the agency was aware of and fully investigating a targeted terror attack in Boulder, Colorado.
While he did not provide further details, Patel said in a social media post: “Our agents and local law enforcement are on the scene already, and we will share updates as more information becomes available.”
According to CBS News, which cited witnesses at the scene, a suspect attacked people with Molotov cocktails who were participating in a walk to remember the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza.
The Boulder Police Department said it was responding to a report of an attack in the city involving several victims. It has not released further details but a press conference was expected at 4 p.m. Mountain Time (2200 GMT).
The attack comes just weeks after a Chicago-born man was arrested in the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, D.C. Someone opened fire on a group of people leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights antisemitism and supports Israel.
The shooting fueled polarization in the United States over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
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Terrorist Responsible for Death of 21 Soldiers Eliminated
An Israeli F-35I “Adir” fighter jet. Photo: IDF
i24 News – Khalil Abd al-Nasser Mohammed Khatib, the terrorist who commanded the terrorist cell that killed 21 soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip on January 22, 2024, was killed by an Israeli airstrike, the IDF said on Sunday.
In a joint operation between the military and the Shin Bet security agency, the terrorist was spotted in a reconnaissance mission. The troops called up an aircraft to target him, and he was eliminated.
Khatib planned and took part in many other terrorist plots against Israeli soldiers.
i24NEWS’ Hebrew channel interviewed Dor Almog, the sole survivor of the mass casualty disaster, who was informed on live TV about the death of the commander responsible for the killing his brothers-in-arms.
“I was sure this day would come – I was a soldier and I know what happens at the end,” said Almog. “The IDF will do everything to bring back the abductees and to topple Hamas, to the last one man.”
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Stanley Fischer, Former Fed Vice Chair and Bank of Israel Chief, Dies at 81
FILE PHOTO: Vice Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve System Stanley Fischer arrives to hear Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney delivering the Michel Camdessus Central Banking Lecture at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, U.S., September 18, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
Stanley Fischer, who helped shape modern economic theory during a career that included heading the Bank of Israel and serving as vice chair of the US Federal Reserve, has died at the age of 81.
The Bank of Israel said he died on Saturday night but did not give a cause of death. Fischer was born in Zambia and had dual US-Israeli citizenship.
As an academic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fischer trained many of the people who went on to be top central bankers, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as well as Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank president.
Fischer served as chief economist at the World Bank, and first deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund during the Asian financial crisis and was then vice chairman at Citigroup from 2002 to 2005.
During an eight-year stint as Israel’s central bank chief from 2005-2013, Fischer helped the country weather the 2008 global financial crisis with minimal economic damage, elevating Israel’s economy on the global stage, while creating a monetary policy committee to decide on interest rates like in other advanced economies.
He was vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017 and served as a director at Bank Hapoalim in 2020 and 2021.
Current Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron praised Fischer’s contribution to the Bank of Israel and to advancing Israel’s economy as “truly significant.”
The soft-spoken Fischer – who played a role in Israel’s economic stabilization plan in 1985 during a period of hyperinflation – was chosen by then Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as central bank chief.
Netanyahu, now prime minister, called Fischer a “great Zionist” for leaving the United States and moving to Israel to take on the top job at Israel’s central bank.
“He was an outstanding economist. In the framework of his role as governor, he greatly contributed to the Israeli economy, especially to the return of stability during the global economic crisis,” Netanyahu said, adding that Stanley – as he was known in Israel – proudly represented Israel and its economy worldwide.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also paid tribute.
“He played a huge role in strengthening Israel’s economy, its remarkable resilience, and its strong reputation around the world,” Herzog said. “He was a world-class professional, a man of integrity, with a heart of gold. A true lover of peace.”
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