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Prime Minister Netanyahu Should Take Responsibility in Meron Disaster
Ultra Orthodox Jews look at stairs with waste on it in Mount Meron, northern Israel, where fatalities were reported among the thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered at the tomb of a 2nd-century sage for annual commemorations that include all-night prayer and dance, April 30, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/ Ronen Zvulun
King Saul was returning triumphantly from the battle against Amalek. Even then, he may have been trying to silence that still, small voice of conscience that was quietly calling out to him:
Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you to Hashem, I have fulfilled Hashem’s word.” Samuel said, “And what is this sound of flocks in my ears, and the sound of cattle that I hear?” (Shmuel Alef 15:13-14)
Saul stubbornly refused to take responsibility until, faced with the undeniable facts and the loss of his kingdom, he acknowledged his wrongdoing.
In contrast, following King David’s sin with Bathsheba, when David was confronted by Nathan the prophet, who pronounced, “You are the man!” — David immediately admitted, “I have sinned to Hashem.”
In response, Nathan announced, “Even Hashem has removed your sin; you will not die.” (Shmuel Bet 12:13)
David did not lose his kingdom because he accepted responsibility. Saul lost his kingdom because he refused to accept responsibility.
This demonstrates an obvious truism in the Jewish understanding of leadership: leaders sometimes make mistakes, but the leaders who deserve and maintain their positions accept responsibility once they realize that they are culpable.
Which brings us to the disgraceful response of the Likud Party to the findings of a state commission of inquiry established to investigate the Meron disaster of April 2021.
During Lag B’Omer celebrations that year, a crowd stampede at the burial site of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the Galilee village of Meron led to the deaths of 45 men and boys; 150 people were injured, as well.
Accidents happen, acts of God happen. But accidents that are preventable are not quite accidents; acts of God that were predicted cannot be blamed upon God.
As early as 2008, the State Comptroller determined that the site was not large enough, given the huge number of annual visitors. The Jerusalem Post reported, “Israeli officials had been warned of the challenges at Mount Meron in two State Comptroller’s reports published in 2008 and 2011. Additionally, a 2016 Police report said infrastructure at the site could not safely accommodate the large number of attendees and that the mountain lacked escape routes and access roads to provide rescue in the event of an emergency.” The New York Times wrote that while the government had agreed upon a plan to drastically limit the number of participants because of the coronavirus, the plan “was never implemented because none of the government departments took responsibility for doing so.”
The failure to fulfill responsibilities is not a neutral act. When action is designed to prevent harm, inaction is morally abhorrent.
The state commission of inquiry released its findings, and, according to the Times of Israel, it determined that Prime Minister Netanyahu was “one of a number of officials responsible for the 2021 Meron disaster.” Frankly, for those of us raised to admire Harry Truman’s admonition, “The buck stops here,” it would be hard to absolve Netanyahu even if he had known nothing about the dangers of Meron, given that it happened under his watch.
But according to the Times of Israel, the commission laid blame squarely at his feet, arguing that, “There is a reasonable basis to conclude that Netanyahu knew that the site of Rashbi’s grave… was liable to be a danger to the masses that visit the site, especially on Lag B’Omer. Even if, in the name of caution, we assume Netanyahu didn’t have concrete knowledge of the matter, he should have known about it after the issue was brought to his office many times.”
What was Likud’s response to this damning indictment? To cast aspersions upon the committee itself, calling it a political tool in the hands of former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, and refusing to take any responsibility whatsoever.
This has become Prime Minister Netanyahu’s modus operandi: take credit for anything positive that happens under his watch, refuse to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong, while simultaneously blaming everyone else — much like Saul after the battle against Amalek.
I’m reminded of Gary Wills’ memorable account of the failure of the Catholic Church to take any real blame for creating the conditions that led to the Holocaust. An official commission appointed by Pope John Paul II spent more than 10 years preparing We Remember, which was supposed to be an honest reckoning with the church’s complicity in the murder of six million Jews. According to Wills, “Though expressions of sympathy for Jewish suffering are voiced in the new statement, it devotes more energy to exonerating the church – and excoriating the Nazis for not following church teachings — than to sympathizing with the Holocaust’s victims. The effect is of a sad person toiling up a hill all racked with emotion and ready to beat his breast, only to have him plump down on his knees, sigh heavily – and point at some other fellow who caused all the trouble.” (Papal Sin, p. 13)
I don’t expect Prime Minister Netanyahu to be swayed by the moral failure of We Remember. But I certainly expect that the Israeli voting public remembers, when all is said and done, that the leader of our country chose to look at events that took place during his premiership, surveyed the wreckage of his rule, looked squarely in the eyes of nine million Israelis, and pointed at someone else and said, “He did it.”
Rabbi Scott Kahn is the CEO of Jewish Coffee House (www.jewishcoffeehouse.com) and the host of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast and co-host of Intimate Judaism. You can see more of his writing at https://scottkahn.substack.com/.
The post Prime Minister Netanyahu Should Take Responsibility in Meron Disaster first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Rashida Tlaib Set to Speak at Terrorist-Connected Conference for Second Consecutive Year
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaking at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, March 11, 2025. Photo: Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), one of the most vocal critics of Israel in the US Congress, is set to headline the upcoming People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, sharing the stage with individuals who have voiced explicit support for terrorist organizations.
The three-day event, scheduled for Aug. 29-31, brands itself around the theme “Gaza is the Compass” and will feature dozens of anti-Zionist activists, academics, artists, and political organizers. Tlaib, who has long been one of the most strident opponents of US military support for Israel, is slated to deliver remarks on the final day of the conference. Her presence at the event, which will also include cultural performances and youth programming, underscores her continued alignment with organizations that reject Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state.
Tlaib’s appearance at last year’s iteration of the People’s Conference for Palestine sparked intense backlash, with critics pointing out the event’s connections to Wisam Rafeedie and Salah Salah, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization.
The conference is convened by a coalition that includes the Palestinian Youth Movement, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, among others. Several of these groups have maintained ties with PFLP, openly supported boycott efforts against Israel. and called for an arms embargo in the wake of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas. The programming highlights sessions on “Documenting Genocide” and “Breaking the Siege,” rhetoric that critics argue mischaracterizes Israel’s actions as it seeks to defend itself against terrorist attacks following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
The Detroit gathering is expected to attract thousands of attendees, with dozens of speakers and activists scheduled to participate. Among the roster are well-known anti-Israel figures such as Linda Sarsour, Miko Peled, and Chris Smalls.
Sarsour, a far-left political organizer, said in a 2015 “Millions for Justice” event that “the same people who justify the massacre of the Palestinian people and call it collateral damage are the same people who justify the murder of black, young men and women.” In 2019, she accused Israel of perpetuating “Jewish supremacy,” asking, “How can you be against white supremacy in America … but then you support a state like Israel that is based on supremacy, that is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else?”
Peled, a far-left Israeli activist, has stated that Israel does not “have a right to exist” as the Jewish state abd labeled the Israel Defense Force (IDF) a “terrorist organization.” He stated that the Israeli education system teaches Jewish children to view Palestinians “as culturally inferior, violent, and bent on the annihilation of the Jews.”
Arabs comprise about 21 percent of Israel’s population and include full rights of citizenship, including the ability to serve in parliament and on the Supreme Court as well as the ability to protest openly against the government.
Abed Abubaker, a self-described “reporter” from Gaza, is expected to make a physical appearance at the Detroit conference later this month. Abubaker has repeatedly praised the Hamas terrorist group as “resistance fighters” on social media and won a “journalist of the year” award from Iran’s state-controlled media outlet PressTV. In a January 2025 post, he showered praise on long-time Hamas leader and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, saying that the terrorist’s “love of resistance and land is seen very clearly.” In a March 2025 post, Abubaker posted that international supporters of the Palestinian cause should “attack your governments.” He also defended Hamas’s murdering of dissidents, saying that the victims were “collaborating” with Israel.
The event will also host Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of the anti-Israel encampment movement at Columbia University. Khalil rose to national prominence after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him in March for what the Department of Homeland Security alleged to be leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” Khalil became a permanent US resident last year. The activist also drew scrutiny last month after he refused to condemn Hamas’s Oct. 7 slaughters throughout the Jewish state during a CNN interview.
Panels at the conference will touch on subjects such as US military aid, legal accountability, and grassroots organizing, all presented through an anti-Israel lens, according to the event website.
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Tennis Officials Ignore Pressure to Cancel Israel’s Upcoming Davis Cup Matches in Canada
Israeli athletes competing in the Davis Cup 2025 Qualifiers Israel vs. Germany. Photo: IMAGO/Paul Zimmer via Reuters Connect
Tennis officials are ignoring demands by hundreds of anti-Israel activists to cancel a Davis Cup match-up with Israel slated to take place in Halifax, Canada, next month.
The Davis Cup – the world’s largest annual international team competition in the sport — is organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). As a member of the ITF, Tennis Canada is a nonprofit that leads the growth, development, and promotion of tennis and events related to the sport within Canada, including the Davis Cup matches in September. Israel and Canada are both scheduled to compete on Sept. 12 and 13 at Scotiabank Centre in a series of matches that will determine which country advances to the 2026 Davis Cup Qualifiers.
Both ITF and Tennis Canada said it will not ban Israel from competing in the matches, despite pressure to do so.
“We recognize this is a highly complex situation that goes far beyond sport. However, Israel has not been excluded from international sporting events, and it has not been suspended by the International Olympic Committee,” an ITF spokesperson said in a statement to The Algemeiner. “Across tennis, careful consideration is given to the participation of teams and players representing every nation, and the safety of all players, tournament staff, and supporters is always paramount at every event. We will continue to work closely with Tennis Canada in relation to this event.”
In an open letter published on Monday, which The Algemeiner has obtained a copy of, more than 400 Canadian and Canada-based scholars, coaches, athletes, Olympic medalists, sports journalists, and sports officials called on Tennis Canada to cancel the matches with Israel in September. Among the letter’s signatories, 106 are based in the Atlantic Canada region, where the matches will take place.
The anti-Israel activists, including three United National Special Rapporteurs, argued in their letter that it is “unconscionable” to allow Israeli athletes to participate in the matches in light of the Jewish state’s alleged “ongoing genocide in Palestine” during the Israel-Hamas war. They also called on the Canadian government and Tennis Canada to “forbid Canadian athletes to compete against Israeli athletes at the Davis Cup and all other international events.”
The letter additionally urged Canadian officials to follow other nations who “refuse to legitimize Israel’s crimes” by pulling out of international sports competitions in which Israel is participating. Just last week, Jordanian tennis player Abdullah Shelbayh withdrew from a tournament in Greece to avoid facing a competitor from Israel.
“Sport is an important space for engendering national sentiment. For this reason, it has, both in the past and today, played an essential role in both promoting national sentiment tied to genocide and in producing national sentiment essential for dismantling apartheid states,” the letter stated in conclusion. “As such, this is an important moment for Sport Canada and Tennis Canada to promote social justice and stand on the right side of history … sport sanctions against the nation [of Israel] are an essential tool for demonstrating Canada’s ongoing disapproval of Israel’s actions.”
In June, Canada issued sanctions against Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for “inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.”
In response to Monday’s letter, Tennis Canada said the matches with Israel scheduled for September will continue to take place as planned.
“Tennis Canada acknowledges the ongoing and deeply complex situation in the Middle East,” it said in a statement to The Algemeiner. “As a national sports organization, our mission is to promote the sport of tennis and create opportunities for players and fans to engage with the game in a spirit of respect and inclusivity. Our focus remains on ensuring a safe, fair, and professional competition for all athletes, staff, volunteers, and spectators.”
The organization added that it will work closely with ITF and authorities “to ensure this event is conducted in accordance with international sporting standards and with the well-being of all participants as our top priority.”
In a post on X, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) applauded Tennis Canada and the ITF for not caving to the pressure and for “providing opportunities for athletes to compete while ensuring the event remains safe and focused on tennis.”
“A small mob of extremists cannot be allowed to decide who plays tennis in Canada,” the CIJA added.
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‘Nazi Summer Camp’: Fidelity Investment Employee Launches Antisemitic Tirade Against Jewish Journalist
Danielle Gordon, who harassed Jewish author, journalist, and mother Bethany Mandel. Photo: Screenshot.
A telecenter operator who was, until recently, employed by Fidelity Investments launched on Monday a volley of antisemitic insults at a Jewish journalist via social media after learning that her children attend a summer camp which fosters pride in Zionism.
“F—k you and f—k your kid who goes to Nazi summer camp!” Danielle Gordon, the now-former employee, wrote to Bethany Mandel, author and contributor to the “Mom Wars” Substack. “Free Palestine from you sick f—ks!”
The exchange began when Mandel publicly discussed the presence of a paraglider over the camp’s property which, due to lingering trauma caused by the memory of the use of paragliders in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel — which preceded an explosion of antisemitic incidents across the US — appeared to pose an imminent security threat. Gordon seemingly took umbrage at Mandel’s concern for Jewish life and the lives of her children, and hastily fired off the messages from an account which listed her legal name.
“I found it troubling that she sent such antisemitic vitriol when she’s just a working class, college educated white woman living in Denver — that is how far this rot has spread,” Mandel told The Algemeiner on Monday after her sharing of Gordon’s messages amassed over a million views on X. “Antisemitism has become normative discourse for people of her demographic.”
Mandel continued, “That word, Zionist, triggered her very much, and she had no qualms about coming at me, coming at my kids … There should be consequences for talking like this.”
On Tuesday, StopAntisemitism, a Jewish civil rights group based in New York City, reported that Fidelity Investments promptly fired Gordon from her role, citing anonymous reports from people close to the situation. The corporation, however, has so far declined to publicly comment on the matter.
“Internal Fidelity employees have confirmed that Danielle Gordon’s employment has been terminated. Fidelity Investment Services deserves recognition for acting swiftly and decisively, sending a powerful message that violence and blatant antisemitism have no place in our society,” StopAntisemitism said in a statement. “At a time when moral clarity is often missing, their response sets an example we should all uphold.”
A source separately confirmed with The Algemeiner that Gordon no longer works at Fidelity.
This incident comes just weeks after another sudden outburst of hatred against Jews.
Earlier this month, Eden Deckerhoff — a female student at Florida State University (FSU) — allegedly assaulted a Jewish male classmate at the Leach Student Recreation Center after noticing his wearing apparel issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“F—k Israel, Free Palestine. Put it [the video] on Barstool FSU. I really don’t give a f—k,” the woman said before shoving the man, according to video taken by the victim. “You’re an ignorant son of a b—h.” Deckerhoff has since been charged with misdemeanor battery.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Deckerhoff has denied assaulting the student when questioned by investigators, telling them, “No I did not shove him at all; I never put my hands on him.” However, law enforcement charged her with misdemeanor battery and described the incident in court documents as seen in viral footage of the incident, acknowledging that Deckerhoff “appears to touch [the man’s] left shoulder.” Despite her denial, the Democrat noted, she has offered to apologize.
Days later, an unknown person or group graffitied swastikas and other hateful messages on the grounds of the Israeli-American Council’s (IAC) national headquarters in Los Angeles, underscoring the severity of the antisemitism crisis in the US.
“F—k Jews,” one cluster of graffiti said.
“BDS,” the message added, referring to the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel.
Elsewhere, the vandal defaced the property with a symbol representing the Nazi paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) group, several more swastikas, and, scrawled in capital letters, the word, “BURN.” Local law enforcement is on the case, numerous outlets have reported since the incident.
Mandel and the male Jewish FSU student were not the first victims of violence or harassment motivated by antisemitic anti-Zionism in the US. In some cases, such incidents have been fatal.
In June, a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by a national Jewish organization. The suspect charged for the double murder, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested by police after the shooting, according to video of the incident. The FBI affidavit supporting the criminal charges against Rodriguez stated that he told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza.”
Less than two weeks later, a man firebombed a crowd of people who were participating in a demonstration to raise awareness of the Israeli hostages who remain imprisoned by Hamas in Gaza. A victim of the attack, Karen Diamond, 82, later died, having sustained severe, fatal injuries.
Another antisemitic incident motivated by anti-Zionism occurred in San Francisco, where an assailant identified by law enforcement as Juan Diaz-Rivas and others allegedly beat up a Jewish victim in the middle of the night. Diaz-Rivas and his friends approached the victim while shouting “F—k the Jews, Free Palestine,” according to local prosecutors.
“[O]ne of them punched the victim, who fell to the ground, hit his head and lost consciousness,” the San Francisco district attorney’s office said in a statement. “Allegedly, Mr. Diaz-Rivas and others in the group continued to punch and kick the victim while he was down. A worker at a nearby business heard the altercation and antisemitic language and attempted to intervene. While trying to help the victim, he was kicked and punched.”
The wave of hate continues a pattern of year-on-year surges in acts of anti-Jewish bigotry.
In 2024, according to newly released FBI statistics, hate crimes perpetrated against Jews increased by 5.8 percent to 1,938, the largest total recorded in over 30 years of the FBI’s counting them. Jewish American groups noted that this surge, which included 178 assaults, is being experienced by a demographic group which constitutes just 2 percent of the US population.
A striking 69 percent of all religion-based hate crimes that were reported to the FBI in 2024 targeted Jews, with 2,041 out of 2,942 total such incidents being antisemitic in nature. Muslims were targeted the next highest amount as the victims of 256 offenses, or about 9 percent of the total.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.