Uncategorized
Israeli democracy is ‘robust,’ former PM Naftali Bennett assures New Yorkers
(New York Jewish Week) — Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told an audience here that reports of the deaths of Israeli democracy are exaggerated, and urged American Jews to make their concerns known to the new far-right government rather than walk away.
“There are a lot of foolish words flying out in the air,” Bennett said last night in remarks at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan, referring to various proposals among newly installed Israeli cabinet members. “There’s a core of responsibility that will fend off the most radical of the suggestions, but to be fair, I don’t know.”
Speaking onstage with Eric Goldstein, CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, Bennett appeared to be referring to two critics of LGBT rights in Israel, Bezalel Smotrich and Noam Party leader Avi Maoz, when he said, “No one’s going to touch the LGBT community in Israel. No one’s going to mess around with it. Israel is robust.”
Bennett, who served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022 in the rotation government that preceded Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power in December, spoke at the Reform synagogue at a particularly tense time in Diaspora-Israel relations. Leaders of groups representing American Judaism’s largely liberal community have expressed deep concerns over proposals by Netanyahu’s new coalition partners to greatly expand Jewish settlement in the West Bank, curb minority rights and strengthen Orthodox control in matters of Jewish religious status.
Two weeks ago, Goldstein wrote a statement saying that he is “alarmed” by recent reforms, introduced by Israel’s newly installed justice minister, that would allow Israel’s parliament to override decisions by the Supreme Court and further politicize the selection of its justices. He implored Netanyahu to reject the overhaul.
On this too, Bennett sought to be reassuring. He criticized a Supreme Court that he said had “gradually usurped authority that it didn’t have,” but said that it needed only a “small little nudge” to address those concerns. “I smell a compromise coming,” he said.
“I recommend you enter a dialogue with the government” in Israel, he urged the audience. “Speak up and talk with the government. Israelis sometimes think the world revolves around Israel and don’t always see the broader view of Jews around the world and the world itself. I think sharing with the Israeli leadership, what’s going on and what it means and what the implications are, is meaningful. There are ministers who have never been abroad, so you are what you are experience.”
Bennett, who stepped away from politics last year ahead of the November election, also spoke at length about his efforts to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the first months of Russia’s unprovoked war on its neighbor. Bennett asserted that in meetings with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president said he would no longer demand regime change and demilitarization in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Vlodomyr Zelensky told him Ukraine would “no longer want to join NATO, which was the very reason for the war.” Bennett suggested the negotiations fell apart because of Ukrainian objections. “I want to be cautious here,” he said. “The message [from Zelensky] was ‘we don’t want to run yet to ceasefire for various reasons…. Putin was an aggressor and he needs to pay the price.’”
Despite Bennett’s reassurances that Israel’s democracy remains robust, many audience members remained wary about the new government.
“I’m concerned about what I’m seeing in Israel,” said Asaf Jacobi, 39, who earned his law degree in Israel and served in its military. “They’re trying to unstabilize the checks and balances in Israel to the extreme. [Netanyahu] is clearly putting his interests over the country, and you can see people in the streets are really not happy with what’s happening. It’s too religious and too extreme.”
Debra Delorenzo, who has lived in the Upper East Side her whole life, said Bennett “did a wonderful job. He’s a good speaker and engages the audience.” And yet, she said, “I wanted him to address certain things and he skirted around it. I wanted him to talk about the occupation. I wanted him to talk about [Netanyahu] who I can’t stand. Israel is a democracy, but it’s losing it’s panache about it. It’s become more of an occupier. I love Israel, and I”m Jewish, but there are things going on there that [Bennett] didn’t address.”
One elderly woman, who declined to give her name, welcomed the political changes in Israel.
“We love the government,” she said. “And we think that the change in the judicial system should have occurred long ago.”
—
The post Israeli democracy is ‘robust,’ former PM Naftali Bennett assures New Yorkers appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Berlin to Lift Suspension of Israel Weapons Sales, but Says Ceasefire Must Hold
A German and Israeli flag fly, on the day Chancellor Friedrich Merz meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog for talks, in Berlin, Germany, May 12, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen
Germany on Monday moved to resume weapons sales to Israel that had been suspended since August over the war in Gaza, but said the decision is subject to the observance of the ceasefire and the large-scale provision of humanitarian aid.
Germany, the second-largest exporter of arms to Israel after the United States, announced a suspension of some arms exports to Israel in August, amid mounting popular pressure over the war.
The decision affected weapons and systems that could be used in Gaza but not others deemed necessary for Israel to defend itself from external attacks.
Berlin will lift the suspension order on Nov. 24 and return to a case-by-case review of arms exports to Israel, while continuing to monitor the developments on the ground, a German government spokesperson said on Monday.
HUMANITARIAN AID MUST CONTINUE ‘ON A LARGE SCALE’
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas “is the basis for this decision, and we expect everyone to abide by the agreements that have been made – that includes maintaining the ceasefire,” a second government spokesperson said.
“It also means that humanitarian aid is provided on a large scale and that the process continues in an orderly manner, as agreed,” the spokesperson added.
Germany remains committed to supporting a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of a two-state solution and would continue to engage in supporting reconstruction in Gaza, the spokesperson said.
Germany is one of Israel‘s staunchest supporters, in part because of historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz came under massive criticism from his own conservatives for the decision to partially suspend the deliveries, which he said was in response to Israel‘s plan at the time to expand operations in Gaza.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Germany provided 30 percent of Israel‘s major arms imports in 2019-2023, primarily naval equipment including Sa’ar 6-class frigates (MEKO A-100 Light Frigates), which were used in the Gaza war.
ISRAEL CALLS ON OTHERS TO FOLLOW
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on X lauded Germany for its decision to lift the order.
“I call on other governments to adopt similar decisions, following Germany,” he wrote.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the decision, in which his ministry was closely involved, was “responsible and correct” and that the ceasefire appeared to be sustainable.
Uncategorized
Britain to Overhaul Asylum System With Review of Human Rights Laws and Refugee Status
French gendarmes on a boat approach a group of migrants travelling on an inflatable dinghy leaving the coast of northern France in an attempt to cross the English Channel to reach Britain, from the beach of Petit-Fort-Philippe in Gravelines, near Calais, France, Aug. 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
Britain will set out an overhaul of its asylum system on Monday, making refugee status temporary and reinterpreting human rights laws to make it easier to deport migrants who arrive illegally, in bids to stem the rise of the populist Reform UK party.
Interior minister Shabana Mahmood will outline changes to how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) should be interpreted by UK courts to give the government greater control over who can remain in Britain.
“These reforms will block endless appeals, stop last-minute claims and scale up removals of those with no right to be here,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, said in a statement.
In what the center-left Labour government says is the most sweeping asylum policy overhaul of modern times, Mahmood will announce changes that include quadrupling to 20 years the time refugees will have to wait to settle permanently.
The government also threatened visa bans on Angola, Namibia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo unless those countries accepted the return of illegal migrants and criminals.
GOVERNMENT SETS OUT TOUGHER STANCE ON ASYLUM
Immigration has become the most important issue for voters in recent months, with those arriving in small boats from France the most visible sign of illegal arrivals. The issue has helped propel Reform UK, led by veteran anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage, into a commanding opinion poll lead.
Zia Yusuf, a senior member of Reform, said the public were sick of being told there was no way to prevent people from arriving illegally on beaches, but said existing laws and likely opposition from Starmer’s lawmakers meant Mahmood’s proposed changes were unlikely to ever happen.
Tony Vaughan, a Labour lawmaker and senior lawyer, was one of the first to publicly criticize the proposals, adding the rhetoric would encourage “the same culture of divisiveness that sees racism and abuse growing in our communities.”
In the year to the end of March, 109,343 people claimed asylum in Britain, up 17 percent on the previous 12 months. Still, fewer people claim asylum in Britain than in its EU peers France, Germany, Italy, or Spain.
Most migrants arrive legally. Net migration reached a record high of 906,000 in the year to June 2023, before it fell to 431,000 in 2024, partly reflecting tighter rules.
MAHMOOD WARNS DARK FORCES AT PLAY ON MIGRATION
Mahmood said Britain had always been a tolerant and welcoming country to refugees, and she realized that her proposals might receive backlash from some in her own party, who said that it was wrong to deport people recognized as refugees.
But she said an asylum system prone to abuse was allowing “dark forces” to stir up anger, such as protests outside hotels housing migrants.
“Unless we act, we risk losing popular consent for having an asylum system at all,” Mahmood, whose parents moved to Britain from Pakistan in the late 1960s and 1970s, wrote in the Guardian newspaper.
“A country without secure borders is a less safe country for those who look like me.”
Under her proposals, the government wants to change the interpretation of Article 8 of the ECHR, governing the right to a family life. It would make clear that a family connection means immediate family, such as a parent or child, preventing people from “using dubious connections to stay in the UK.”
It added that Britain would also work with like-minded countries to review the application of Article 3, which prohibits torture. It argued that the “definition of ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ has expanded beyond what is reasonable,” making it too easy to challenge deportations.
The changes stop short of leaving the ECHR altogether, as Reform and the Conservative Party have advocated. But human rights charities still lamented the moves.
Sile Reynolds, Head of Asylum Advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said the rules would “punish people who’ve already lost everything,” adding this is “not who we are as a country.”
Polls suggest the country is divided on the issue. However, a YouGov survey in August found 45 percent of Britons would support admitting no more new migrants and requiring large numbers who had arrived in recent years to leave.
“I can understand why there’s been protests,” Jenny Fenwick, 56, a personal assistant, told Reuters at London’s Charing Cross train station. “I think asylum seekers come here because they know that they’re going to get given accommodation, money, you know, a good life.”
Uncategorized
In the most talked-about Epstein File exchange, a lesson in Yiddish
The tranche of documents known as the Epstein Files is full of odd, grammatically dubious, correspondence. Perhaps the most scrutinized exchange also contains a Yiddish word. Fittingly, for such a shande as Jeffrey Epstein, it’s a word for distress.
In emails from March 2018, the financier and convicted pedophile’s brother Mark opened a dialogue asking after Epstein’s health. Mark signed off by asking what “is your boy Donald up to now.”
This seems to be a reference to Donald Trump, then in his first term in office. Epstein responded the same day to inform Mark that Bannon (likely Stephen K. Bannon, onetime senior counselor for Mr. Trump) was with him. Things take a turn for the blue here, with Mark suggesting Epstein ask Bannon if “Putin has the photos of Trump blowing Bubba.”
Many on the internet have posited that Bubba was a nickname for former President Bill Clinton (Mark Epstein denied it was). Some also stated that Bubba was the name of a horse owned by Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell (Mark Epstein has said they weren’t referring to a horse).
What is undeniable is Jeffrey Epstein’s response to this inquiry about strange kompromat: “and i thought I had tsuris (sic).”
“Tsores,” most often transliterated as “tsuris” means troubles or woes. It is one of those Yiddish words that has entered into North American parlance, with Leo Rosten writing in The New Joys of Yiddish that it has “gained considerable vogue in theatrical and literary circles.”
Epstein, who grew up Jewish in Sea Gate, the heavily Jewish gated community in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, likely didn’t need to travel in that literary demimonde to have picked up on this word.
The wry note Epstein struck about his worries could be a reference to his own legal troubles (the emails came about a decade after his infamous plea deal, and a few months before the Miami Herald published its investigation into it). In March 2018 Trump was in the thick of the Russia investigation into interference into the 2016 election.
If you recall, at the time there was discussion that Russia might have a “pee tape” of the president. That’s a lot of tsores to deal with, though Trump, for his part, likes a different kind of Yiddish word.
The post In the most talked-about Epstein File exchange, a lesson in Yiddish appeared first on The Forward.