RSS
Destiny in Disaster?
A 1539 representation of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known as Rashi. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
JNS.org – Have you ever met a professor of comparative religion? I’ve often wondered whether these academics have really studied all religions and if they believe in any of them.
In this week’s Torah reading, Yitro, we are introduced to the world’s first professor of comparative religion. His name was Jethro (Yitro in Hebrew), and he had investigated every faith of ancient times until he came to embrace Judaism. He did so not because Moses was his son-in-law but because he had studied every faith in depth and came to an educated conclusion.
The reading begins with, “And Jethro heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, His people; that He had taken Israel out of Egypt.” Yitro was the high priest of Midian, and after familiarizing himself with every religion, cult and creed of his day, he said, “Now I know that Hashem is greater than all other deities.” Seeing how the Israelites were miraculously redeemed from slavery in Egypt put the Jewish God in another league entirely, so he came to join the Jewish people.
The Torah scholar Rashi, quoting the Talmud, adds other events that influenced Jethro to leave Midian and meet the Israelites in the desert. What were they? “The splitting of the sea and the war against Amalek.”
The splitting of the sea is arguably the biggest miracle in all of history. In fact, when the Talmud mentions something particularly difficult, it uses the expression, “As difficult as splitting the sea.” Also, that an untrained, ill-equipped slave nation defeated the fierce warrior nation of Amalek in battle was surely divine intervention.
But why did Rashi need to look for any other reasons at all? The Torah explicitly states that Jethro heard about the Exodus from Egypt. It doesn’t say he heard about the sea or Amalek.
Perhaps Yitro was not just looking for a God to believe in but a nation to be part of. In the splitting of the sea and the war of Amalek, Jethro found a special destiny embedded in Jewish peoplehood, and that was what attracted him.
The splitting of the sea was heard around the world. The guiding hand of God protecting the Jews, who were trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea, was a miracle second to none. With the Egyptian chariots bearing down on them and nowhere to run, only the Almighty could come to their rescue. Jethro saw a special destiny there—the destiny of deliverance.
But that wasn’t all Jethro heard. He also heard of the attack by Amalek. Here was a nation that had no logical reason to be troubled by the Israelites. They were not coming their way. They weren’t looking to conquer their territory. It was complete chutzpah on the Amalekites’ part. The Jews were minding their own business. Why should Amalek launch an unprovoked all-out war?
Yitro saw something more than just a military confrontation. This was not a case of neighboring countries fighting over land or an imperialistic despot ambitious to conquer the continent. It was a case of senseless hatred. It was an unnatural opposition to the Jews and everything the nation of Israel stands for. Yitro correctly perceived that this was not a typical war. Amalek’s malicious, unwarranted, wanton attack put him in the category of not just an enemy but an arch-enemy. Indeed, we have described our most vicious enemies throughout history as Amalekites. Though they were not genealogically related, the Nazis personified Amalek. And so do Hamas and company.
When Yitro saw that Israel was the subject of such unwarranted hate, he realized that the Jewish people were different from all other nations. This simply does not happen to other nations. War is, unfortunately, all too common. But a senseless war, an irrational animosity, is not at all common. It is, in fact, unique. If the Jewish people can stir such hatred and hostility in people with whom we have no business, then, clearly, we are a people with a purpose and fate that transcend logic. Yitro saw the Jewish destiny in disaster, too.
We, too, have experienced sea-splitting miracles in the survival of modern Israel over seven decades. Surrounded by neighbors whose dominant dream is to drive us into the sea, we are still here to tell the tale. We have witnessed with our own eyes how “The Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” We experienced the miraculous, lightning victory of the Six-Day War, how He carried us “on the wings of eagles” to and from Entebbe, how the “clouds of glory” protected us from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s deadly Scud missiles during the Persian Gulf War and from Iran’s massive missile barrages on Israel within the past year. To not see and feel the miracle of Jewish survival is to be blind, deaf and dumb. We have seen our destiny in deliverance.
But we have also seen the irrational hatred of Amalek again today. Gaza could have been a peaceful and prosperous haven of tranquillity and success. With the infrastructure left behind by Israel in 2005 and the billions poured into the region by the West, the Palestinians could have built a strong and prosperous economy and society. Instead, their hate fueled them to pour all their energy into tunnels of terror while their people remained impoverished. The bloody massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, established Hamas as Amalek personified today, and I’m afraid we have also seen our destiny in disaster.
The Holocaust remains unique in all of history. It was not only genocide but an attempt at a Final Solution, which would have utterly annihilated an entire nation. Had Hamas not been stopped in its tracks, they would have been only too pleased to finish the job Adolf Hitler began.
Holocausts don’t happen to other nations. Yes, there have been terrible genocides in different countries, but a Final Solution? Never. I wish we could not claim this dubious distinction, but it is a historical fact. The sheer number of dead from the Holocaust is so catastrophic—so unearthly and absurd—that it demonstrates that we are not a people like any other, not just in our deliverances, but sadly, also in our tragedies. Yes, we have experienced our destiny in disaster, too.
In the Torah reading this week, we also learn about the great Revelation at Sinai and the Ten Commandments. This is our special providential mission—to be a “Kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Israel and the Jewish people are called upon to live by God’s Torah and our ancient but eternal traditions. May we live up to our unique purpose as messengers of God, and may we merit to see our extraordinary destiny in the Almighty’s deliverance and redemption.
The post Destiny in Disaster? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says
A closed Israeli military gate stands near Ramallah in the West Bank, February 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.
The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in the West Bank in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.
Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.
The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”
The ministers required Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to the West Bank.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
Palestinians want the West Bank territory, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
But the area is now criss-crossed with settlements that have squeezed some 3 million Palestinians into pockets increasingly cut off from each other though a network of military checkpoints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the announcement this week of 22 new settlements in the West Bank was an “historic moment” for settlements and “a clear message to Macron.” He said recognition of a Palestinian state would be “thrown into the dustbin of history.”
The post Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday as officials waited for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals.
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close but Hamas has said it is still studying the latest proposals from his special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the proposals.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
At the same time, a separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on the social media platform X.
NO BREAD IN WEEKS
The World Food Program said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Overnight on Saturday, he said trucks had been stopped by armed groups near Khan Younis as they were headed towards a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and hundreds of desperate people had carried off supplies.
“We could understand that some are driven by hunger and starvation, some may not have eaten bread in several weeks, but we can’t understand armed looting, and it is not acceptable at all,” he said.
Israel says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
The post Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump’s envoy rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian terrorist group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group’s response to the proposals from Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought by the group.
“This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Hamas statement.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Program trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.
‘A MOCKERY’
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
The post Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.