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Message from Israel: A Different Planet
By ORLY DREMAN Prepare yourselves and your tissues before reading. Before they go into battle, our soldiers are asked to write farewell letters to their loved ones in case they will not return.
They write that they do not regret anything and if they die then it is for their country. They ask their relatives and friends to remain happy, to be good people and to touch hearts and celebrate life. They thank their parents for the values they instilled in them and how it fulfills them to participate in saving the country. For them family and friends are everything and they wish the tragedy will make them stronger people.
Three weeks ago we experienced the “Entebbe” operation over again with the heroic rescue operation of four hostages, among them Noa Argamani whose picture at the moment of being brutally kidnapped by Hamas became world famous. T.V broadcasters were drowning in their tears. The rescuers were worried that the women in captivity might be pregnant and were ready to bring back a mother and a baby because nine months have passed and we don’t know how many of the young women who were raped gave birth and are still alive. We so needed that rescue day and when the lifeguards on the beaches announced the good news live, the crowds were overwhelmed and cheered loudly. It was a day of national pride. There is no recovery for any of us if we do not bring them all home. There are still one hundred and twenty hostages in Gaza, maybe fifty are alive. At least we do not have any more holidays till Rosh Hashana in October, since it is very difficult to go through a holiday when they are not back home. The hostages were moved from place to place and when they were notified that they are to move again they were scared because they had already become accustomed to it. One weekend we had great happiness and the following weekend we had a dozen killed. Several weeks earlier a few bodies of hostages were also returned by heroic actions of our soldiers. It feels absurd to say those families received a grave “as a present” since it was not obvious that the bodies would be brought back. The mood in the country changes instantly as it does when the sun sets on Memorial Day and then immediately we start celebrating Independence Day.
Some of our friends tried to take a trip abroad “to breath a little”, but they were not able to enjoy themselves. They felt as if they were on a different planet. To illustrate, a friend of mine took a trip to Thailand, when a British tourist heard her speak Hebrew she was brutally beaten.
After the Holocaust the revenge was to build a country. Now we should build a big and strong south and be united. We have what our brethren the Holocaust survivors could only dream about- a country and an army of our own. The survivors chose to look forward. With the loss, the bereavement and the orphanhood they chose to build a new life. I hope our people can imitate them. Thousands of Holocaust survivors experienced Oct 7t.h. They had more emotional strength than the youngsters at the Nova festival or the kibbutzim.
The Hamas wants us all dead. We give them a finger they want the whole hand. If two months ago they were ready to accept just the end of the war, now they are back to their original goal that Israel will cease to exist. They still want to burn us, murder us and dance on our grave. Seventy percent of the humanitarian aid given to Gazans the Hamas steals, which leaves their needy citizens with only thirty percent. They also threaten that they will not receive food and medicine unless they join them in their military struggle. Therefore, it is not surprising the four rescued hostages were found in the homes of both a doctor and a journalist. If Hamas wants a cease fire they must return our hostages. Unfortunately, they indoctrinate their children to hate all Jews and to want to exterminate them.
Many Israelis have dual citizenships but they do not leave the country. We love our country. We are patriots and loyal.
Whenever a baby is born, at the Brit we bless the child that by the time he grows up he will not have to go to the army. I desperately have to say that we cannot keep this promise. We live in chaos, desperation and fear. This country is facing collapse. We are bankrupted in every area. We are facing an existential threat led by Iran that also supplies Hezbollah, Hamas, the Hutim in Yemen and the Shias. Their plan is to carry on a war of attrition for some years until they destroy us. How do you fight a guerrilla warfare against an ideologically armed body? It resembles how the Americans were in Iraq 20 years ago and had believed they accomplished their mission but a democracy was never established there. The Hamas is surviving even though they were badly hurt and they are still the landlords in Gaza. Some of the residents of the south were told they could return home like in “Shderot” (2 miles from the Gaza border), but they are still suffering from artillery just as they did for dozens of years even before Oct 7th. They drive with their car windows open so they can hear the sirens. They feel cheated; where is the victory they were promised? Let’s face it: We will not attain “complete victory”.
In the north for nine months now Hezbollah has been the main threat to Israel….burning the north of the country with hundreds of missiles each day. Tens of thousands of Israelis will not be able to return home even when the hostilities are over because their homes, farms and businesses are destroyed. Small animals do not survive the fires and the bigger ones can run but have no food since almost all the forests are burned down.
In addition, there is the problem of education with the pupils in the north who were not evacuated. They studied under sirens – running to shelters. It was a lost year. Parents do not know where to register their kids for school in September…- to the place they were moved or will they be moved again? The teachers and students experienced major losses. The main goal of the present educational system is not academic right now, but to build personal and community strength.
In the West Bank we see daily parades of armed terrorists creating havoc, trying to reach our populated centers half an hour away and they are dealt with. There is Iranian money flowing to those areas -meant to promote attacks against civilians.
On the international level- the U.N deliberately falsifies the facts. They report tens of thousands less humanitarian supplies going into Gaza than what really does.
What “land” are they fighting about? When was Palestine born? Did it have currency, history, a leader? The answer to all the above is NO. They are not fighting over land, it is their ideology to kill all the Jews.
I would like in this context to mention the bereaved grandparents who built the country, fought in its wars in order to provide their descendants a safe place. However, the nightmare occurred and left these grandparents broken hearted.
On Oct 7th three of my cousins who lived far away from the kibutsim on the Gaza border heard what happened, immediately took their M16s and drove to kibbutz Beeri. They fought against the terrorists for many hours and saved 100 residents. The three did not live there, they were not called for duty but volunteered. Menachem and Itiel received the Israeli Prize in the name of their brother and uncle Elchanan who was one of the three who fought, but did not survive. In the prestigious ceremony for the Israeli prize speech Menachem said:” We believe in our way, together we shall continue this wonderful journey of the Jewish people because we deserve it.”
All those pro-Palestinian young Western supporters of Hamas do not understand that they are exploited. At the end the Palestinians will get rid of them too since Jihad wants to exterminate all the infidels who are not Muslims, including Christians, Buddhists, Hindus etc. One could ask why are these Westerners not fighting for women’s rights in the Muslim countries… women who get murdered for not covering their faces completely or not obeying their husbands.
In spite of the turmoil prevailing in Israel today, the apartment market in Israel has risen 82% because Jews in the diaspora are beginning to feel the anxiety of antisemitism. They feel Israel is safer than the diaspora.
To conclude, we are strong and have resourcefulness in extreme situations even though we have differences of opinion. I believe we are an eternal nation and we shall not give up.
This has proven to be true for thousands of years, where the Jewish people even when they did not have a homeland prevailed despite centuries of antisemitism and oppression.
Your job North American Jews, is to invite your non Jewish friends to stand with the Jewish people internationally and in Israel.
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Remembering Abe Foxman, the longtime ADL leader known as the ‘Jewish pope,’ who always answered my calls
Friday before sundown, I realized that Abe Foxman had not sent me his weekly “Shabbat Shalom” message. For the past seven years, since we began texting regularly about Jewish and political issues, the message would arrive each Friday like clockwork — often accompanied by screenshots of Shabbat memes. My response never changed: “Good Shabbos, tzaddik,” using the Hebrew word for a righteous person that Foxman himself often used.
A few minutes after sundown, I texted him anyway: “Good Shabbos, tzaddik.” Then I turned off my phone. The message showed as “read” Saturday night. But there was no response.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one waiting for Foxman’s Shabbat greetings. The silence said everything. On Sunday, the Anti-Defamation League announced that its former longtime chief had died at age 86.
I first started texting with Foxman after he stepped down in 2015 as national director of the ADL, concluding a remarkable 50-year run with the organization, including nearly three decades at its helm. By then, he had become one of the most recognizable Jewish communal leaders in America. He was nicknamed the “Jewish Pope.” Former President Barack Obama, a frequent target of Foxman’s criticism over Israel policy, said upon Foxman’s retirement: “Abe is irreplaceable.”
For me, a rookie journalist covering national politics through a Jewish lens, Foxman became an invaluable source. He was in the room with presidents, prime ministers and world leaders during some of the Jewish community’s most consequential moments. Yet he was always available. He answered calls quickly. He texted back. He spoke candidly. He could be sharp, direct and deeply critical when he thought leaders were making mistakes. But he was also compassionate, warm and surprisingly personal.
Every conversation began the same way: asking about me. My kids. How I was holding up. Only then would we get to politics. The conversation would often veer from Yiddish to English and back again.
Our last conversation was on April 15, after a record 40 Senate Democrats voted to block $295 million for the transfer of bulldozers to Israel and 36 of them also supported a measure to block the sale of 1,000-pound bombs to the Jewish state. “A broch,” Foxman replied, using the Yiddish word for disaster. “A sad time for American politics.”
That worldview shaped much of his public commentary in recent years. In interviews with the Forward and other publications, Foxman weighed in on rising antisemitism, campus protests, Democratic divisions over Israel, President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, and the Biden-Netanyahu relationship.
Foxman could be combative and unapologetic. Critics on the left viewed him as too hawkish on Israel, while critics on the right sometimes accused him of being too willing to criticize the Israeli government or American conservatives. But nobody doubted his commitment to the Jewish people and to Israel.
Foxman’s own life story
Born in Baranavichy in 1940, in what is now Belarus, Foxman survived the Holocaust as an infant after being hidden by his Polish Catholic nanny, who baptized him to hide his Jewish identity, while his parents were confined to a ghetto. After the war, he was reunited with his parents, first living in a displaced persons camp in Austria before immigrating to the United States.
Those early experiences shaped the course of his career and ultimately made him one of the most influential Jewish communal leaders of the modern era.
In 1965, after getting degrees from City College of New York and New York University School of Law, Foxman joined the Anti-Defamation League as a legal assistant. Over the next five decades, Foxman rose through the ranks of the organization before being named its national director in 1987, a position he held until 2015.
Under his leadership, the ADL became one of the world’s most prominent voices combating antisemitism and hate.
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed Foxman to serve on the council of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He was reappointed by Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden. He was also vice chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.
Foxman was often willing to challenge leaders he believed were wrong on Israel, including Democratic presidents he otherwise respected. He was sharply critical of Obama’s approach toward Israel early in his presidency and became one of the leading Jewish voices opposing the administration’s 2009 demand for a freeze on Israeli settlements.
In remarks at Foxman’s farewell dinner in 2015, Susan Rice, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and national security advisor under Obama, told the audience: “The thing I most value about Abe is his candor and integrity. He holds everyone to the same high standards, and I can always count on him to tell it to me straight, even when he knows I won’t necessarily like what he has to say.” In 2020, Foxman publicly advocated for Biden to choose Rice as his vice-presidential running mate.
“America and the Jewish people have lost a moral voice, a passionate advocate for the Jewish people and the state of Israel, and a remarkable leader,” Foxman’s successor, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, said in a statement announcing Foxman’s death.
Foxman’s political commentary
Even after retiring from the ADL, Foxman remained a leading voice in Jewish public life, especially after the election of Trump in 2016.
Foxman told me in an interview at the time that the Jewish community should engage with Trump and hold him accountable when needed. He advised Trump to be cautious about making good on his promise to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He became more critical of Trump after the president said that there were “very fine people on both sides” in response to a 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
In 2020, Foxman broke his tradition of not endorsing political candidates to back Biden. He argued that Trump was a “demagogue” whose reelection would be a “body blow for our country and our community.”
Once Biden took office, Foxman started to express doubts about the president’s handling of the U.S. relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said it “sends the wrong message to our friends and enemies” that Israel is being held to a higher standard than other countries in the region. Foxman was also a harsh critic of the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul, warning that the right-wing cabinet ministers could hamper support for Israel among American Jews.
In 2024, he warned that Biden’s increasingly harsh rhetoric over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza would repel Jewish voters. “I believe that this administration, because of its political season, is taking American Jews for granted or has written us off,” said Foxman. ”If they’re worried that the Arabs in Michigan will vote with their feet, they need to worry that Jews can also vote with their feet.”
Most recently, Foxman was critical of national Democrats opposing the military operations against the Iranian regime in March for a lack of congressional authority. “Sadly, it is purely political games,” Foxman told me, noting that previous Democratic administrations conducted military operations without explicit congressional authorization. “Ninety-nine percent of Democrats are on record saying Iran is a terrorist state and cannot have nuclear weapons. So why this game?” he asked.
Now, as Jews mark Jewish American Heritage Month, that voice is silent. But for me, and for the many people still waiting for one more “Shabbat Shalom” message from Foxman, he will not soon be forgotten.
Foxman is survived by his wife Golda, his daughters Michelle and Ariel and four grandchildren.
JTA contributed to this article.
The post Remembering Abe Foxman, the longtime ADL leader known as the ‘Jewish pope,’ who always answered my calls appeared first on The Forward.
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Jailed Iranian Peace Laureate Mohammadi Moved to Hospital in Tehran
A picture of Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on the wall of the Grand Hotel in central Oslo before the Nobel banquet, in connection with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize 2023, in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2023. Photo: NTB/Javad Parsa via REUTERS
Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been moved to a hospital in the capital, Tehran, and has been granted a suspension of her sentence on heavy bail, a foundation run by her family said on Sunday.
Mohammadi, 54, won the prize in 2023 while in prison for a campaign to advance women’s rights and abolish the death penalty. She suffered a heart attack two weeks ago.
Her family had called for her to be transferred from Zanjan, northwest of Tehran, where she was serving her sentence and where she had been initially taken to a hospital, so that she could receive better medical care.
She is now at Tehran Pars Hospital for treatment by her own medical team after being transferred by ambulance, the Narges Mohammadi Foundation said in a statement.
Mohammadi was sentenced to a new prison term of 7-1/2 years, the foundation said in February, weeks before the US and Israel launched their war against Iran. The Nobel committee at the time called on Tehran to free her immediately.
She had been arrested in December after denouncing the death of a lawyer, Khosrow Alikordi. A prosecutor told reporters that she had made provocative remarks at Alikordi’s memorial ceremony.
The foundation gave no details of the bail arrangements or suspension of her sentence.
“However, a suspension is not enough,” it said. “Narges Mohammadi requires permanent, specialized care. We must ensure she never returns to prison.”
Iran shut down most of the internet in the country in January as authorities suppressed mass protests triggered by economic unease. Rights groups have reported ongoing executions of people involved in the unrest.
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Israel’s Attorney General Calls to Cancel Netanyahu’s Mossad Chief Appointment
Israeli Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara. Photo: Twitter
i24 News – Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told the High Court of Justice on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman as the next Mossad chief must be canceled.
Baharav-Miara filed her position ahead of a Tuesday hearing on petitions challenging the appointment, telling the court that “substantial flaws” had been found both in the process conducted by the advisory committee and in the conclusions it drew. She said Netanyahu’s decision suffered from “extreme and blatant unreasonableness” and could not stand legally.
At the center of the dispute is the case of Ori Elmakayes, who was a 17-year-old minor when he was activated in 2022 by Division 210, without going through authorized intelligence channels. At the time, the division was commanded by Gofman. Elmakayes was arrested in May 2022 under espionage charges after two officers sent him classified information and told him to post it online as part of an “influence campaign,” despite not being authorized to do so. Gofman initiated this operation. Elmakayes was then held in full detention until July, spending an extended period under electronic monitoring and house arrest before the indictment against him was canceled in late 2023.
Baharav-Miara says Gofman’s involvement in leaking the classified information to the minor, “casts a heavy shadow on Gofman’s integrity and thus on his appointment to head the Mossad.” The attorney general also identified serious procedural failings in the advisory committee’s work. She notes that the majority members signed their opinion before committee chairman and former Supreme Court president Asher Grunis had written his dissent and before two members had reviewed several classified documents significant to the full picture. Grunis concluded that integrity flaws had been found and that it was not appropriate to appoint Gofman as Mossad chief.
The attorney general also says the committee failed to hear directly from Elmakayes or from a relevant senior military intelligence officer, instead relying in part on media interviews.
Netanyahu, who appointed Gofman to head the Mossad starting in early June, for a five-year term, submitted his own response to the court on this past Friday, arguing that the decision fell within his executive authority. The Prime Minister also said that his assessment of the matter was “dozens of times superior” to that of the court, adding that Gofman’s integrity was “found pure,” and describing him as the most qualified candidate.
Other coalition figures responded to the attorney general with sharp criticism, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir accused Baharav-Miara of fighting the state, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said her position was “one step too far” and vowed to advance legislation splitting the attorney general’s role in the Knesset’s summer session.