Even casual observers of American Jewry voting habits are asking me: What more red lines have to be crossed for them to rethink their voting habits

WASHINGTON TIMES
When is enough enough for Jewish Democrats?
Matthew Brooks
March 27, 2024

…This comes in the midst of a long list of actions by President Biden that have shaken the U.S.-Israel relationship: giving billions of dollars to Iran and thereby funding its support of terrorism against Israel; reversing the Trump-Pompeo policy and declaring any Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria illegal; trying to manage Israel’s war against Hamas from Washington — including dictating that Israel stop fighting the remaining Hamas forces in Rafah; threatening to stop military aid and supplies to Israel if Israeli leaders refuse U.S. demands; and refusing to veto a pernicious U.N. Security Council resolution that demands an immediate and lasting cease-fire from Israel before Hamas has released a single remaining hostage. READ MORE

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“A story of unabashed Jewish pride and human depth that honors Christians and Jews alike, with a sly gay subplot courtesy of Gore Vidal”

TABLET MAG
The Miracle of ‘Ben-Hur,’ Hollywood’s Tastiest Christo-Zionist Epic
Thomas Doherty
March 28, 2024

In the American Masters documentary Directed by William Wyler (1986), Charlton Heston tells the kind of story that gives actors night terrors. He is starring in the title role of MGM’s $15 million epic Ben-Hur. The dailies are coming back and director William Wyler is not happy. Heston can take criticism, he can work with a director, he appreciates guidance. What do you need? he asks “Better,” snaps Wyler. Heston got better of course. Ben-Hur went on to win 11 Academy Awards, save MGM from insolvency, and imprint itself on the popular imagination. READ MORE

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“The claim that racial disparities are proof of racial discrimination has been percolating in academia and the media for a long time”

MANHATTAN INSTITUTE
Disparate Impact Thinking Is Destroying Our Civilization
Heather Mac Donald
February 2024

The most consequential falsehood in American public policy today is the idea that any racial disparity in any institution is by definition the result of racial discrimination. If a cancer research lab, for example, does not have 13 percent black oncologists—the black share of the national population—it is by definition a racist lab that discriminates against competitively qualified black oncologists; if an airline company doesn’t have 13 percent black pilots, it is by definition a racist airline company that discriminates against competitively qualified black pilots; and if a prison population contains more than 13 percent black prisoners, our law enforcement system is racist. READ MORE

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Attorney General tells court army will be obligated to begin drafting Haredi men on April 1; judges shoot down PM’s request for 30 more days to settle matter

TIMES OF ISRAEL
In ‘historic’ step, High Court orders halt to yeshiva funds for students eligible for draft
Jeremy Sharon
March 28, 2024

In a step that could have deep political and societal ramifications, the High Court of Justice issued an interim order Thursday evening barring the government from providing funds to ultra-Orthodox yeshivas for students eligible for IDF enlistment — as the legal framework for deferring their military service will no longer exist…The political battle over enlistment has thrown Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition into disarray, with National Unity’s Benny Gantz threatening to bolt if the Knesset passes a bill allowing blanket exemptions to remain — even if it does satisfy the court — while the Haredim have said they will quit if the government fails to pass legislation to prevent the draft. READ MORE

UPI Ultra-orthodox rabbi says citizens will leave Israel over draft, drawing ire from lawmakers Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, said Saturday that citizens will leave the country if they are forced to be drafted — drawing the ire of lawmakers. “Will they force us to join the army? We will go abroad,” Yosef said. The Haredim have long enjoyed exemptions from mandatory military service, but the issue has sparked debates between those calling for fairness in military service and those advocating religious freedom.

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Qatar, the country that shields Hamas leaders, has been tapped by Biden Administration to develop Gaza’s “Terrorist Pier”

GATESTONE
Biden Administration’s Terrorist Pier in Gaza: The Trojan Horse For Terrorists to Take Over the Region
Bassam Tawil
March 27, 2024

At the request of the Biden administration, Qatar has agreed to take charge of operating and financing a temporary pier in the Gaza Strip. Qatar agreed to run the port on condition that the construction work go to a company controlled and sponsored by Hamas, according to Israel’s Channel 14. The Biden administration’s decision to involve Qatar, Hamas’s major funder and ally, in the project is akin to putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop. This is a big, deliberate finger from the Biden administration not just in the in the eye of Israel but also in the eyes of America’s allies in the Gulf who do not support terrorists, as well as for US national security. READ MORE

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“With the gun pointed at me, he forced me to commit a sexual act on him,” Soussana said. After it was over, Muhammad left the room to wash up and left Soussana naked in the dark.

JERUSALEM POST
Released hostage: ‘I was forced to commit sexual acts with a gun pointed at me’
Jacob Laznik
March 26, 2024

Released Gaza hostage Amit Soussana gave her personal testimony of the sexual violence and physical abuse she endured in Hamas captivity in an eight-hour interview with The New York Times that was published on Tuesday. She is the first released hostage to give direct testimony of sexual atrocities committed by Hamas. Soussana previously made headlines when a video surfaced of the moment of her capture, when she fought off seven Hamas terrorists before being brought to Gaza. READ MORE

MEDIA LINE Terrorist Confesses to Atrocities, Including Rape, in October 7 Attack The Israel Defense Forces released a video Thursday showing the interrogation of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist, Manar Mahmoud Muhammad Kasem, who confessed to raping an Israeli woman and committing murder during the Hamas-led attack on October 7. Kasem, identified as a member of PIJ’s naval forces, was captured during an IDF operation at Shifa Hospital in Gaza. In the video, he details his participation in the attack, including how he entered Israel, and the violent acts he subsequently committed. READ MORE

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Biden repeats Obama’s 2016 backstabbing at the UN: Hamas was certain that the West would save them from defeat in Gaza. The administration has now confirmed that they were right

NATIONAL REVIEW
Biden’s Shameful Betrayal of Israel at the United Nations
Editors
March 26, 2024

By allowing the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution demanding an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza while Hamas remains in power and still holds 130 hostages, the Biden administration has shamefully betrayed a key ally while empowering a terrorist group committed to its destruction….Over the weekend, the administration dispatched Vice President Kamala Harris to ABC to again chastise the planned Israeli offensive, claiming, laughably, that she had “studied the maps” and decided that Israel’s plan to evacuate civilians from the area wasn’t feasible. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL America’s Abstaining Duo On December 23, 2016, President Barack Obama orchestrated America’s coldhearted abstention on United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334…Over seven years later, President Joe Biden, too, stuck it to Israel with another inglorious abandonment: Resolution 2728. It is a sly attempt to separate the issue of a ceasefire and release of all the hostages, and it gives Biden wiggle room to both satisfy his pro-Palestinian constituents and to claim support for the Jewish State. This time, Biden’s desertion came during a very painful war and with American hostages languishing in Gazan tunnels. READ MORE

JNS Jonathan Tobin: Biden’s UN betrayal of Israel is a victory for Hamas Rather than merely sacrificing Israel’s security, it is also handing a major victory to both Hamas and its Iranian allies. With the United Nations demanding an end to the war, there is no reason for Hamas to stop trying to hold onto those parts of Gaza it still controls. Nor is there any reason for it to release the hostages it still holds captive except for a deal that will force Israel to acquiesce to a return, in one form or another, to the pre-Oct. 7 status quo. That will ensure that it gets away with having committed the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, as well as asserting its primacy over Palestinian politics in the foreseeable future. READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS) Biden’s duplicitous history against Israel Joe Biden is, once again, at loggerheads with Israel. This has been brewing for decades. Biden infamously admitted telling Benjamin Netanyahu, “Bibi I love you, but I don’t agree with a damn thing you say.” Biden seems to have learned nothing from his personal contentious relationship with Israel going back decades. Biden’s animus towards Israel has not been confined to Netanyahu…Biden’s long and contentious relationship with Israel goes back to June 1982 when, as a senator, Biden threatened another Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin with holding back US aid. READ MORE

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Joe Lieberman was almost U.S. vice president. But his real distinction was as a politician who stuck to his principles and showed how to be a faithful Jew in the public square

JNS
A politician who was also a role model
Jonathan S. Tobin
March 28, 2024

…And what made that truly remarkable was that it was also reflected in the public observance of his faith. By the time Lieberman was first sworn into the U.S. Senate in January 1989, there had been many other Jews who had served in that body, as well as in the U.S. House of Representatives and prominent federal positions. Some of them, though not all, expressed pride in their heritage and faith. But what made Lieberman special was that he observed Shabbat and kept kosher while performing his duties. And he did so without fuss or making any special demands on the institution. As he wrote in his 2011 book The Gift of Rest, if he had to walk to the Capitol or walk home from it, then that’s what he did. READ MORE

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Foreign Minister Israel Katz: “The historic ban on US funding to UNRWA that passed today with overwhelming bipartisan support, demonstrates what we knew all along: UNRWA is part of the problem and can not be part of the solution.”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel lauds US ban on UNRWA financing until 2025 under new government funding bill
Jacob Magid
March 23, 2024

The US Congress passed a massive appropriations package early Saturday including a one-year ban on US funding to UNRWA. The ban is the latest blow to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees, following allegations earlier this year that 12 of its employees actively participated in Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught and that many others have ties to terror groups. The approved legislation banned UNRWA funding “for any amounts provided in prior fiscal years or in fiscal year 2024, or for amounts provided in fiscal year 2025, until March 25, 2025.” The clause was separated from the rest of the appropriations package and is stipulated as a calendar-year ban, which leaves open the potential for allocating any leftover funds to UNRWA after March 2025. READ MORE

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Hamas caught fabricating stories of rape at Shifa Hospital

I24NEWS
Hamas admits women not raped by IDF at Shifa hospital, following deleted Al Jazeera report
March 25, 2024

Al Jazeera columnist and former managing director Yasser Abuhilalah acknowledged “through Hamas investigations” that a story which the Qatari broadcaster aired was fabricated, and Israeli soldiers did not rape women at Shifa hospital as was alleged. While Al Jazeera itself issued no formal correction, retraction or acknowledgement, all the content related to the allegation were reportedly removed from the Qatari broadcasting channel. “It was revealed through Hamas investigations that the story of the rape of women in Al-Shifa Hospital was fabricated,” Abuhilalah wrote on X, yet accusing Israel of “genocide.” READ MORE

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