RSS
The Missing Man of Kissufim
An Israeli soldier keeps guard next to an entrance to what the Israeli military say is a cross-border attack tunnel dug from Gaza to Israel, on the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip border near Kissufim, Jan. 18, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Jack Guez/Pool
JNS.org – What do you yearn for? For Shlomo Mansour, it was not a flashy career or riches, just a peaceful and happy life.
In 1941 Iraqi Muslims, in alliance with the Nazis, launched the Farhud pogrom. The then-leader of the Palestinian Arabs, Amin al-Husseini, was in Iraq and deeply involved in the violence. Shlomo was a 3-year-old celebrating Shavuot with his family in Baghdad. In the ensuing massacre, hundreds of Jews were slaughtered and many more were raped and assaulted. Shlomo’s family thankfully survived.
With no desire to wait around for the next pogrom, nor to live in an increasingly antisemitic country, the Mansour family joined over 100,000 other Iraqi Jews and moved to Israel. Jews were one-third of the population of Baghdad on the eve of the Farhud but, within a decade, only a few thousand were left.
Shlomo lived most of his life in the bucolic farming collective of Kissufim, nestled in the Negev desert. For much of the community’s history, the mantra was socialism, with luxuries such as televisions and even disposable diapers considered too bourgeois. People made it their home because they yearned for social and economic equality in a communal setting and to make the desert bloom.
And they did. Established in 1951, the first inhabitants encountered a harsh and unforgiving landscape, a glimpse of which was filmed in 1956. Today, pine forests hug Kissufim, expanded every year on Tu B’Shevat, along with fields of blooming anemones and orchards.
Israelis are relatively familiar with Kissufim. This is not due to the 1,500-year-old archeological sites in the vicinity—complete with Hebrew inscriptions—nor to the 1,700-year-old remains of a church. For many, it is because of the award-winning cult Israeli comedy “Operation Grandma,” based on a true story from director and writer Dror Shaul’s youth in Kissufim. The film even includes a scene with an actor playing the part of Shlomo. Shaul followed this up with his darker but still award-winning film “Sweet Mud,” about his experiences in Kissufim in the 1970s. Topping it all off is Keren Nechmad’s movie “Kissufim.” Filmed on location, it won Best Foreign Film at multiple festivals in 2023.
However, most Israelis are familiar with Kissufim due to the frequent terrorist attacks in the immediate area.
As Shlomo tended chickens and worked in his carpentry shop over the years, he enjoyed the relative tranquility of his life. However, since Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, his neighborhood has become subject to increasing violence.
Palestinian terrorist groups frequently broke ceasefires. Tunnels were found in the vicinity, complete with handcuffs and other equipment for taking hostages. Kites with incendiary devices were flown into the fields, burning in the hot dry summers, causing intense smoke and ruining crops. Rocket attacks increased in frequency, and bomb shelters multiplied like mushrooms after the rain.
Residents adapted to this new reality. In recent years, Kissufim began to grow, peaking at more than 300 people. Israelis from all over were drawn to communal living in this beautiful oasis. Its residents never gave up on investing in peace. They took part in various initiatives, including “Another Voice,” aimed at strengthening connections and technology partnerships with both Israeli Bedouins and Palestinians.
This progressive population celebrated Jewish and secular American holidays alike—from Pride Month to Halloween. They hadn’t even had a chance to take down their sukkahs when, on Oct. 7, 2023—some 82 years after Shlomo survived the Farhoud—he encountered people in his neighborhood on a mission, once again, to slaughter Jews.
Kissufim was a microcosm of the horrors unleashed by Hamas throughout the western Negev. Although the village rented land to an IDF base, on the morning of Oct. 7 it, too, was overwhelmed.
Sgt. Ilay Noam Ben Mucha and Sgt. David Mittelman found themselves on guard duty, facing a horde of 50 terrorists. Fighting to the death, they held off the terrorists for 20 minutes, buying crucial time for the other soldiers to prepare.
The terrorists did not stick to military targets. Impersonating IDF soldiers, they searched door to door for civilians. Ordinary citizens, such as high-tech worker Shai Asher, found themselves heroically repelling dozens of Hamas terrorists in firefights lasting hours.
Shlomo turns 86 today. Unfortunately, it is far from a happy day for him. He holds the distinction of being the oldest person held captive by Hamas. After Shlomo was beaten in his home, he was led away in handcuffs in full view of his wife, who miraculously escaped.
Gina Semiatich, 90, was dragged to her living room and shot in the head. She was perhaps the oldest victim of the Oct. 7 massacre. She had lived in Kissufim since making aliyah from Chile in her early 20s.
Reuven Heinik may have been the last civilian to have been attacked by the terrorist invaders. He was murdered on Oct. 9 while tending to Kissufim’s famished cows. He is survived by his wife and three daughters.
The Zaq family were burned to death as they hugged each other in their home. Tom Godo was murdered on Oct. 8 in front of his wife and children, who managed to escape. They had just recently moved to Kissufim. Thai workers, the breadwinners for their families back home, were slaughtered. Even pet dogs were shot to death during the rampage. These are just a few of too many tragic stories.
Survivors endured hearing screams for hours. Many saw their friends and loved ones suffer. More than 50 children remain traumatized. Some of those hiding went days without food, water or contact with the outside world.
Kissufim is where I spent the first few wonderful years of my life. I didn’t know what a bomb shelter was or how to lock a door. At the age of 5, I would bike alone in the dark from my friend’s house across the kibbutz back to my home. Will children ever know those tranquil evenings with the air soaked with the intoxicating blended aroma of manure and pine?
Kissufim for the time being is no more. The survivors are at a hotel by the Dead Sea and are currently in the process of moving to temporary housing in Omer. They have been touched by people all over the world coming together to help them rebuild through donations from helpkissufim.com or fundraising drives held by various Jewish communities in North America, such as Oak Park Temple in Illinois, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and JNF Canada.
Shlomo’s wife of 60 years, as well as his children and 15 grandchildren, are longing for his return home. Kissufim, which translates in Hebrew to “yearning,” has taken on a whole new meaning for the Mansour family and millions of others around the world.
Among the remains of Shlomo’s home lies his garden, the plants brown and shriveled after five months without Shlomo’s love. A bullet-riddled ceramic survives. The Hebrew inscription reads: “Life is happy here.”
The post The Missing Man of Kissufim first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iran Rejects US Nuclear Proposal, Says ‘Counteroffer’ Coming as Talks Stall Over Uranium Enrichment, Sanctions
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran has denounced the latest nuclear proposal from the United States as “unprofessional and untechnical,” reaffirming the country’s right to enrich uranium and announcing plans to present a counteroffer in the coming days.
“After receiving the American proposal regarding the Iranian nuclear program, we are now preparing a counteroffer,” Ali Shamkhnai, political adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Shamkhani criticized the White House draft proposal as “not well thought out,” emphasizing its alleged failure to address sanction relief — a key demand for Tehran under any deal with Washington.
“There is no mention whatsoever of lifting sanctions in the latest American proposal, even though the issue of sanctions is a fundamental matter for Iran,” Shamkhnai said.
The Iranian official also warned that Tehran will not allow the US to dismantle its “peaceful nuclear program” or force uranium enrichment down to zero.
“Iran will never relinquish its natural rights,” Shamkhani said.
Washington’s draft proposal for a new nuclear deal was delivered by Omani officials — who have been mediating negotiations between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff — during last month’s talks in Rome.
On Wednesday, Khamenei dismissed such an offer, saying it “contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance” and runs counter to Iran’s key objectives.
“The proposal that the Americans have presented is 100 percent against our interests,” the Iranian leader said during a televised speech.
“The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?” Khamenei continued.
After five rounds of talks, diplomatic efforts have yet to yield results as both adversaries clash over Iran’s demand to maintain its domestic uranium enrichment program — a condition the White House has firmly rejected.
In April, Tehran and Washington held their first official nuclear negotiation since the US withdrew from a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal that had imposed temporary limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief.
Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has sought to curtail Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon that could spark a regional arms race and pose a threat to Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran seeks to have Western sanctions on its oil-dependent economy lifted, while maintaining its nuclear enrichment program — which the country insists is solely for civilian purposes.
As part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran — which aims to cut the country’s crude exports to zero and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon — Washington has been targeting Tehran’s oil industry with mounting sanctions.
Amid the ongoing diplomatic deadlock, Israel has declared it will never allow the Islamist regime to acquire nuclear weapons, as the country views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to uphold any agreement that prevents Tehran from enriching uranium.
“But in any case, Israel maintains the right to defend itself from a regime that is threatening to annihilate it,” Netanyahu said in a press conference last month, following reports that Jerusalem could strike Iranian nuclear sites if ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran fail.
The post Iran Rejects US Nuclear Proposal, Says ‘Counteroffer’ Coming as Talks Stall Over Uranium Enrichment, Sanctions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Day After Colorado Attack, Founder of Anti-Israel Group Chides Activists Who Are Insufficiently ‘Pro-Resistance’
Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of WithinOurLifetime (WOL), leading a pro-Hamas demonstration in New York City on Aug. 14, 2024. Photo: Michael Nigro via Reuters Connect
Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of the radical anti-Israel organization Within Our Lifetime, chastised those within the pro-Palestinian movement who only support “resistance” in the abstract but not in practice following Sunday’s antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado.
“A lot of people who call themselves anti-Zionist or pro-resistance don’t actually understand what resistance is,” Kiswani posted on X/Twitter on Monday. “They support it in theory, but when it shows up in practice, they hesitate, distance themselves, or shift the conversation entirely.”
She continued, “And it makes it even harder for those of us who are principled to take public stances. We’re already marginalized, already painted as extreme or dangerous and that isolation only deepens when others in the movement won’t stand firm when it counts.”
Kiswani’s comments came the day after a man threw Molotov cocktails at a Boulder gathering where participants were rallying in support of the Israeli hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza — which resulted in 15 injuries, including some critically, in what US authorities called a targeted terrorist attack. Her tweets also came less than two weeks after a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they were leaving an at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee. In both attacks, the perpetrator yelled “Free Palestine” as they targeted innocent civilians, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
After Kiswani’s social media posts sparked some backlash among pro-Israel users on X, she provided limited pushback on the idea that it was an expression of support for the prior day’s attack in Colorado.
“Zionists are freaking out in the QTs about this, insisting it’s about Colorado,” she wrote. “Newsflash: the world doesn’t revolve around you. Resistance hasn’t stopped in Gaza, look at what just happened in Jabalia [where three IDF soldiers were killed] for instance. The perpetual victimhood is getting old.”
However, Kiswani did not say her comment had no connection to the attack in Colorado, and she did not say that she opposed the firebombing.
Kiswani and her group, Within Our Lifetime (WOL), have been at the forefront of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas activism since Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages during their invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a massacre that started the war in Gaza.
On Oct. 8, 2023, one day after the biggest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, WOL organized a protest to celebrate the prior day’s attack, which it described as an effort to “defend the heroic Palestinian resistance.” Kiswani notably refused to condemn Hamas and the Oct. 7 massacre following the atrocities.
Then, in Apil 2024, Kiswani refused to condemn the chant “Death to America” and organized a mass demonstration to block the “arteries of capitalism” by staging a blockade of commercial shipping ports across the world in protest of Western support for the Jewish state. That same month, she was banned from Columbia University’s campus in New York City after leading chants calling for an “intifada,” or violent uprising.
The following month, Kiswani led a demonstration in Brooklyn, New York in which she lambasted the local police department, claimed then-US President Joe Biden will soon die, and called for the destruction of Israel.
That proceeded the activist saying she does not want Zionists “anywhere” in the world while speaking in defense of a person who called for “Zionists” to leave a crowded subway car in New York City.
WOL, which planned a protest last year to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, was also behind demonstrations at the Nova Music Festival exhibit, which commemorated the more than 300 civilians slaughtered by Hamas while at a music festival.
The latter protest prompted widespread condemnation, including from Biden and even progressive members of the US Congress who are outspoken against Israel.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), for example, posted on social media that the “callousness, dehumanization, and targeting of Jews on display at last night’s protest outside the Nova Festival exhibit was atrocious antisemitism – plain and simple.”
The post Day After Colorado Attack, Founder of Anti-Israel Group Chides Activists Who Are Insufficiently ‘Pro-Resistance’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo
Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza. Photo: IDF via Reuters
Israel reached a new all-time high in defense exports in 2024, nearing $15 billion — the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking sales — despite mounting international criticism over the war in Gaza and growing pressure from European countries to suspend arms deals.
In a press release on Wednesday, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced that defense exports reached over $14.7 billion last year — a 13 percent increase from 2023 — with more than half of the deals valued at over $100 million.
According to the ministry, Israel’s military exports have more than doubled over the past five years, highlighting the industry’s rapid expansion and growing global demand.
“This tremendous achievement is a direct result of the successes of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and defense industries against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Ayatollah regime in Iran, and in additional arenas where we operate against Israel’s enemies,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
“The world sees Israeli strength and seeks to be a partner in it. We will continue strengthening the IDF and the Israeli economy through security innovation to ensure clear superiority against any threat – anywhere and anytime,” Katz continued.
In 2024, over half of the Jewish state’s defense contracts were with European countries — up from 35 percent the previous year — as many in the region have increased their defense spending following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Despite increasing pressure and widespread anti-Israel sentiment among European governments amid the current conflict in Gaza, this latest data seems to contradict recent calls by European leaders to impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state over its defensive campaign in Gaza against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
On Wednesday, Germany reversed its earlier threat to halt arms deliveries to Israel, reaffirming its commitment to continue cooperation and maintain defense contracts with Jerusalem.
“Germany will continue to support the State of Israel, including with arms deliveries,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told lawmakers in parliament.
Last week, Berlin warned it would take unspecified measures against Israel if it continued its military campaign in Gaza, citing concerns that exported weapons were being used in violation of humanitarian law.
“Our full support for the right to exist and the security of the State of Israel must not be instrumentalized for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul said in a statement.
Germany would be “examining whether what is happening in the Gaza Strip is compatible with international humanitarian law,” he continued. “Further arms deliveries will be authorized based on the outcome of that review.”
Spain and Ireland are among the countries in Europe that have threatened or taken steps to limit arms deals with Israel, while others such as France have threatened unspecified harsh measures against the Jewish state.
According to the Israeli defense ministry’s report, since the outbreak of war on Oct. 7, 2023, after the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, the operational successes and proven battlefield performance of Israeli systems have fueled strong international demand for Israel’s defense technology.
Last year, the export of missiles, rockets, and air defense systems reached a new high, making up 48 percent of the total deal volume — up from 36 percent in 2023.
Similarly, satellite and space systems exports surged, accounting for 8 percent of total deals in 2024 — quadrupling their share from 2 percent in 2023.
While Europe dominated Israel’s defense export market in 2024, significant portions also went to other regions. Asia and the Pacific made up 23 percent of total sales — slightly lower than in previous years, when the region approached 30 percent.
Exports to Abraham Accords countries fell to 12 percent, down from 23 percent in 2022, while North America remained stable at around 9 percent.
The post Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login