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Do Jews Only Learn From Catastrophe?
Nineteenth century philosopher Max Nordau once reportedly told Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky that Jews don’t learn by reason, but by catastrophe. They won’t buy an umbrella because they see clouds in the sky, but instead will wait until they are drenched and have pneumonia.
In the United States, Jews are in great danger. They are unprotected, second-class citizens. No one believes that if African-Americans or gay people were under attack at campuses nationwide, they’d be treated this way. The world would be in an uproar. Yet, once again, it’s perfectly acceptable to hate Jews.
We must realize that Jewish history requires American Jews to have a plan B.
In New York City, Jews are terrified, wondering if they will be safe. Even if a perpetrator is arrested, they can be put right back onto the street due to New York’s bail reform laws. Jews have been attacked all across the city, and are being banished or assaulted at Columbia, NYU, and other educational and cultural institutions.
Jews are lost, without a unified leadership that has any organized plan to combat this hatred. Most have never before seen an environment where open antisemitism flourishes. And while a handful of Jewish youth have valiantly stood up, we largely see an American Jewry kvetching, complaining, bereft of the will or ability to truly fight back. Judaism requires action and self-defense, not just a brain.
On campuses where we hear “From the River to the Sea” — a call for mass murder of Jews — one wonders at what point do American Jews point to Hillel, the largest Jewish organization for students in the US, and ask “where have you been?” Have all of the years of multi-cultural dialogue with the Muslim community gotten us anywhere?
I haven’t heard of a single DEI program to support Jews at any of the schools featuring mass protests, or a single company counseling Jews who feel scared or in need. And we’ve seen silence from all of these liberals who have lectured us on these snowflake values for years.
At what point do American Jews consider plan B –aliyah to Israel? Some will argue that we’re not close to the time that Jews need to flee for our safety. Others argue we must stay and fight. But any American Jew who doesn’t have a plan B hasn’t read Jewish history. In Israel, Jews can live a real Jewish life. It’s not easy, but what happens if this becomes the last resort?
The materials being distributed on campus are heinous and atrocious. They feature calls for “resistance,” the glorification of terrorism, and support for Hamas and its massacre of 1,200 Israelis on October 7.
These are direct calls for violence at universities — and nothing will happen to the vast amount of these protestors who call for mass murder.
We live in a new world — or maybe an ancient one. But we must be prepared to take action.
Ronn Torossian is an entrepreneur and author.
The post Do Jews Only Learn From Catastrophe? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel’s Gantz Demands Gaza Day-After Plan By June 8, Threatens to Quit Cabinet
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz speaks at Reichman University on Nov. 23, 2021. Photo: Ariel Hermoni / IMoD
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz demanded on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to an agreed vision for the Gaza conflict that would include stipulating who might rule the territory after the war with Hamas.
Gantz told a press conference he wanted the war cabinet to form a six-point plan by June 8. If his expectations are not met, he said, he will withdraw his centrist party from the conservative premier’s broadened emergency coalition.
Gantz, a retired top Israeli general who opinion polls show is Netanyahu’s most formidable political rival, gave no date for the prospective walkout but his challenge could increase strains on an increasingly unwieldy wartime government.
Netanyahu appears outflanked in his own inner war cabinet, where he, Gantz and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant alone have votes. On Wednesday, Gallant demanded clarity on post-war plans and for Netanyahu to forswear any military reoccupation of Gaza.
If the prime minister were to do that, he would risk angering ultra-nationalist coalition parties that have called for Gaza to be annexed and settled. Losing them could topple Netanyahu, who before the war failed to enlist more centrist partners, given his trial on corruption charges he denies.
“Personal and political considerations have begun to penetrate the Holy of Holies of Israel‘s national security,” Gantz said. “A small minority has seized the bridge of the Israeli ship and is piloting it toward the rocky shoal.”
Gantz said his proposed six-point plan would include bringing a temporary U.S.-European-Arab-Palestinian system of civil administration for Gaza while Israel retains security control.
It would also institute equitable national service for all Israelis, including ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are now exempted from the military draft and have two parties in Netanyahu’s coalition determined to preserve the waiver.
The post Israel’s Gantz Demands Gaza Day-After Plan By June 8, Threatens to Quit Cabinet first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Pushes Into New Parts of Northern Gaza, Recovers Another Slain Hostage
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia refugee camp northern Gaza Strip, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
Israeli troops and tanks pushed on Saturday into parts of a congested northern Gaza Strip district that they had previously skirted in the more than seven-month-old war.
Israel’s forces also took over some ground in Rafah, a southern city next to the Egyptian border that is packed with displaced people and where the launch this month of a long-threatened incursion to crush hold-outs of Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas has alarmed Cairo and Washington.
In what Israeli media said was the result of intelligence gleaned during the latest incursions, the military announced the recovery of the body of a man who was among more than 250 hostages seized by Hamas in a cross-border rampage on Oct. 7 that triggered the war.
Ron Binyamin’s remains were located along with those of three other slain hostages whose repatriation was announced on Friday, the military said without providing further details.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Israel has conducted renewed military sweeps this month of parts of northern Gaza where it had declared the end of major operations in January. At the time, it also predicted its forces would return to prevent a regrouping by the Palestinian Islamist group that rules Gaza.
One site has been Jabalia, the largest of Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps. On Saturday, troops and tanks edged into streets so far spared the ground offensive, residents said.
“Today is the most difficult in terms of the occupation bombardment, air strikes and tank shelling have going on almost non-stop,” said one resident in Jabalia, Ibrahim Khaled, via a chat app.
“We know of dozens of people, martyrs (killed) and wounded, but no ambulance vehicle can get into the area,” he told Reuters.
The Israeli military said its forces have continued to operate in areas across the Gaza Strip including Jabalia and Rafah, carrying out what it called “precise operations against terrorists and infrastructure.”
“The IAF (air force) continues to operate in the Gaza Strip, and struck over 70 terror targets during the past day, including weapons storage facilities, military infrastructure sites, terrorists who posed a threat to IDF troops, and military compounds,” the military said in a statement.
RISING DEATH TOLL
Armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and Fatah said fighters attacked Israeli forces in Jabalia and Rafah with anti-tank rockets, mortar bombs, and explosive devices already planted in some of the roads, killing and wounding many soldiers.
Israel’s military said 281 soldiers have been killed in fighting since the first ground incursions in Gaza on Oct 20.
In the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 1,200 people were killed. About 125 people are still being held in Gaza.
In Rafah, where Israeli tanks thrust into some of the eastern suburbs and clashed with Palestinian fighters there, residents said Israeli bombing from the air and ground persisted all night.
Israel says it must capture Rafah to destroy Hamas and ensure the country’s security.
The post Israel Pushes Into New Parts of Northern Gaza, Recovers Another Slain Hostage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Houthis Attack Another Oil Tanker in Red Sea
Illustrative. Houthi military helicopter flies over the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea in this photo released Nov. 20, 2023. Photo: Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – British naval security firm Ambrey said on Saturday it had received information that a Panama-flagged crude oil tanker was attacked in the Red Sea off Yemen’s Mokha.
Ambrey said a radio communication indicated the vessel was hit by a missile and that there was a fire onboard. It did not provide details of the communication.
Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, who controls the most populous parts of Yemen and are aligned with Iran, has staged attacks on ships in the waters off the country for months in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Months of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around Southern Africa, and stoking fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilize the wider Middle East.
The post Houthis Attack Another Oil Tanker in Red Sea first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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