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What It Means to Bring a Jewish Child Into the World Today
A Birthright Israel trip. Photo: Facebook
I am 29.5 weeks pregnant with my fourth child, and I increasingly wonder if I am making a mistake.
Not because I don’t desperately want this child. I do. With every fiber of my being. Not a day has gone by over the last seven months in which I haven’t felt grateful to be carrying this child, despite the pain and agony of a pregnancy that forces me into a wheelchair because of pain walking and standing, a pregnancy which has me made me sick non stop; a pregnancy which keeps me up throughout the night. I know I can handle all of that.
What makes me doubt whether I am doing the right thing in bringing another Jewish life into the world right now is the fact that two beautiful young Jews, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, can get shot by a cold blooded murderer in the name of “social justice” as they left a panel discussion aimed at finding solutions to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza. And the world says almost nothing.
Where is the outrage? Where are our non-Jewish friends and allies? The same questions we’ve asked every single day since Oct. 7, 2023.
The free world has either buried its head in the sand and turned a blind eye to the rising tides of radicalization and antisemitism — or worse, justified it because of the same pernicious lies touted by “reputable” organizations and institutions like the United Nations, and the International Criminal Court, not to mention the mainstream media, the British Parliament, and members of our own Congress. The false accusations of genocide and apartheid take their toll, eroding the world’s ability to care about the murder of innocent, Zionist Jews.
In 2025, after all, Zionist or even Israeli, has become a radioactive label — something people want to stay far away from. One only need to walk through a college campus today to see the workings of that hate machine, which pedals “social justice” and “free speech” as the justification for vile slogans just the same as the ones uttered by the murderer of Yaron and Sarah, like “Free Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free,” and “resistance by any means necessary.”
It would be better if the world was shocked and outraged when those violent and threatening slogans actually lead to violence — and yet, more than anything, the resounding response is… silence.
I desperately find myself scrolling through my social media, looking for some affirmation, some validation, that my Jewish children’s lives matter outside of my Jewish world. But the outside world seems to be mostly ignorant to the news out of D.C., and despite many Jewish friends’ pleas — “check in on your Jewish friends” today” — a total of zero of my non-Jewish friends actually do reach out.
It’s not that I think my non-Jewish friends don’t care. I know they do. But whether because the news of these beautiful souls’ death hasn’t registered across their feeds, or because they don’t want to get “political” — after all, these young bright souls, on the verge of engagement, worked at the Israeli embassy, so there is that “radioactive” bit again — it’s easier for them to stay silent.
What they fail to realize, what we have been screaming out time and again for the last 18 months, is the age old truism that what starts with the Jews, never ends with the Jews. We are but the canary in the coal-mine, the weathervane for the ailments of our failing, faltering society.
If nothing else, at least the gloomy weather feels in sync with the mood, I thought to myself, as I numbly went through my day. Some small measure of external validation.
“I don’t think I can wear a kippah anymore,” my husband says, for the first time, as he walks in through the door last night. This is my husband, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, who refused to take off his kippah, the physical representation of his Jewish identity, even after his father was beaten to a pulp on the streets of New York City just because he was wearing a kippah. My husband, who refused to take off his kippah after October 7, when he had to walk through hateful masked hooligans blocking foot-traffic outside of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, ah the irony.
But in some ways, last week feels like a turning point. A sickening dawning realization, that nowhere feels safe for Jews anymore. That my husband and I — who years ago was on ACCESS, the same young leadership board of the AJC that Sarah was involved with, the organization that hosted the event at the museum — could easily have been attending that very event or one like it … that Yaron and Sarah could have been us.
And that is why a part of me cannot help but wonder if I am making a mistake. The lonely echo chamber of justifying our existence has gotten lonelier with every passing day. And yet … the greater part of my being, the inexplicable “link in the chain” part of my soul, knows that the only answer as Jews that we have ever or will ever know in the face of the ongoing cycle of attempted genocides towards our people, is to bring more Jewish life into this dark and morally upside down world.
Because even in the darkest times of our history, we have chosen to imagine the light we cannot see, to find the crevices of hope in the greatest depths of despair, to provide for ourselves the answers and the validation that we aren’t getting from the outside world — that if you prick us, we do in fact bleed.
Daniella Kahane is a Peabody Award winning producer, writer, and the Co-Founder and CEO of WIN (Women in Negotiation), as well as the Co-Founder of Atoof, an original luxury artisanal Judaica collection.
The post What It Means to Bring a Jewish Child Into the World Today first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Says It Would Reduce Troops in Lebanon if Beirut Takes Steps to Disarm Hezbollah
An Israeli tank is positioned on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, March 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israel on Monday signaled it would scale back its military presence in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese armed forces took action to disarm Iran-backed Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah.
The announcement from the Israeli prime minister’s office came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu met with US envoy Tom Barrack, who has been heavily involved in a plan that would disarm Hezbollah and withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon.
“If the Lebanese Armed Forces take the necessary steps to implement the disarmament of Hezbollah, Israel will engage in reciprocal measures, including a phased reduction” by the Israeli military, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
The statement did not explicitly say if Israeli forces would fully withdraw from the five positions they hold in Lebanon.
The Israeli military has maintained a presence in southern Lebanon near the border since agreeing to a United States-backed ceasefire with Hezbollah in November.
Israel was to withdraw its forces within two months and Lebanon‘s armed forces were to take control of the country’s south, territory that has long been a stronghold for Hezbollah.
This month, Lebanon‘s cabinet tasked the army with drawing up a plan to establish state control over arms by December, a challenge to Hezbollah, which has rejected calls to disarm.
The prime minister’s office described the Lebanese cabinet’s decision to back the move as a momentous decision. Israel stood “ready to support Lebanon in its efforts to disarm Hezbollah,” the statement said without saying what support it could provide.
Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, has said Israel should comply with the plan for Hezbollah disarmament, which would mean the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The Israeli military continues to carry out periodic air strikes in Lebanon that it said targeted Hezbollah terrorists and facilities used by the Islamist group to store weapons.
Palestinian factions in Lebanon surrendered some weapons to the armed forces last week as part of the disarmament plan.
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Syria Says Israel Takes Some Territory Around Mount Hermon Despite Talks
Israeli forces operate at a location given as Mount Hermon region, Syria, in this handout image released Dec. 9, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Syria said on Monday that Israel had sent 60 soldiers to take control of an area inside the Syrian border around Mount Hermon, saying the operation violated its sovereignty and posed a further threat to regional security.
Israel did not immediately comment on the accusation by Syria‘s foreign ministry, which comes as the two countries engage in US-mediated talks on de-escalating their conflict in southern Syria. Damascus hopes to reach a security arrangement that could eventually pave the way for broader political talks.
Monday’s incident took place near a strategic hilltop that overlooks Beit Jinn, an area of southern Syria close to the border with Lebanon, the ministry said. Israel also arrested six Syrians there, according to residents in the area.
The area is known for arms smuggling by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group and by Palestinian jihadist factions. Previous Israeli incursions have mostly been in the southern Quneitra governorate.
The Israeli military on Sunday shared footage of what it said were troops locating weapons storage facilities last week in southern Syria.
“This dangerous escalation is considered a direct threat to regional peace and security,” the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Israel has cited its own security concerns for its military interventions inside Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December, including what it sees as its obligation to protect members of the Druze minority in southern Syria.
Hundreds of people were reported killed in clashes last month in the southern province of Sweida between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces. Israel intervened with airstrikes to prevent what it said was mass killings of Druze by the Syrian government forces.
In January, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli troops would remain on the summit of Mount Hermon indefinitely.
Israel has since then formed a de facto security zone, where it regularly patrols, sets up checkpoints, and carries out searches and raids in villages.
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Widespread Anti-Israel Protests Held in Australia
Demonstrators hold a placard as they take part in the ‘Nationwide March for Palestine’ protest in Sydney, Australia, Aug. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Thousands of Australians joined anti-Israel rallies on Sunday, organizers said, amid strained relations between Israel and Australia following the center-left government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
More than 40 protests took place across Australia on Sunday, Palestine Action Group said, including large turnouts in state capitals Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. The group said around 350,000 attended the rallies nationwide, including around 50,000 in Brisbane, though police estimated the numbers there at closer to 10,000. Police did not have estimates for crowd sizes in Sydney and Melbourne.
In Sydney, organizer Josh Lees said Australians were out in force to “demand an end to this genocide in Gaza and to demand that our government sanction Israel” as rallygoers, many with Palestinian flags, chanted “free, free Palestine.”
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for more than 200 Jewish organizations, told Sky News television that the rallies created “an unsafe environment and shouldn’t be happening.”
The protests follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week stepping up his personal attacks on his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision this month to recognize a Palestinian state.
Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel soured after Albanese’s Labor government said it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain, and Canada.
The Aug. 11 announcement came days after tens of thousands of people marched across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, calling for peace and aid deliveries to Gaza, where Israel began an offensive nearly two years ago after the Hamas terrorist group launched a deadly cross-border attack.