To be clear, the rockets from Gaza are an effort—even amid their own health crisis—“to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic state”

Posted on March 29, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
Palestinians: Despite Coronavirus, Jihad Against Israel Continues
by Khaled Abu Toameh
March 31, 2020

As the world is busy pursuing the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the Iranian-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) groups in the Gaza Strip have found the time to remind everyone that they remain committed to pursuing the fight against Israel. While many international media outlets and human rights organizations, including the United Nations, are warning of a “catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip after the discovery of nine coronavirus cases there, Hamas and PIJ — the two dominant groups that have been ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007 — seem to care less about the safety and health of their people. READ MORE

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“The rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S. exposes the distressing fact that the American Jewish community lacks both a unified leadership and a singular voice with which it can respond appropriately”

Posted on March 29, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

MIRYAM INSTITUTE
Awaiting ancient hatreds, anticipating new normals
by Rozita Pnini
March 29, 2020

Like a mutating virus, anti-Semitism continues to raise its ugly head in the United States. This virulent form of prejudice has infected the world for many centuries, culminating in the worst genocide in human history. Today, this virus is resurgent, and responsible governments should seek to stamp it out – just as they would in response to a viral pandemic – because innocent people die in both cases….There are some who assign responsibility for the rise of this hatred to President Trump. Some within the Jewish community have even criticized his December, 2019 executive order against anti-Semitism on college campuses. Criticism of such an order is indicative of the depth of division that exists within the Jewish community. Where we need unity, we find only division. READ MORE

CENTER FOR COMBATING ANTISEMITISM StandWithUs has been fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism for the last 18 years, and we recognize that now it is more important than ever, to challenge Jew hatred. That’s why we have opened a new, dedicated division to fight antisemitism: The StandWithUs Center For Combating Antisemitism. The new department will employ new strategies focused on aggressively confronting “the world’s oldest hatred”, including through legal means. To file an Incident Report, click here.

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“Despite his very critical condition, Neumann’s family was holding out hope that he would emerge from his coma”

Posted on March 29, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK POST
Monsey Hanukkah stabbing victim Josef Neumann dies three months after attack
by Larry Celona and Kenneth Garger
March 30, 2020

Josef Neumann, the most gravely wounded victim from a Hanukkah machete attack at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, died on Sunday, law-enforcement sources said. He was 72. Neumann was one of five men allegedly hacked by Grafton Thomas on Dec. 28 while celebrating the Jewish Festival of Lights in Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg’s home. The 18-inch machete allegedly used by 37-year-old Thomas “penetrated [Neumann’s] skull directly into the brain” his family said in a statement at the time. Two days after the attack, a graphic photo posted to Twitter by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council showed Neumann on a respirator and lying comatose in a bed at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. READ MORE

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Netflix series #Unorthodox doesn’t “accurately capture the soul of the Hasidic community”

Posted on March 29, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

FORWARD
I left the Satmar Hasidic community. ‘Unorthodox’ is a grossly inaccurate depiction of that world.
by Frieda Vizel
March 31, 2020

…It’s okay to show the dark side of Hasidism, but the portrayal still needs to be human. The characters in Unorthodox are othered. They are cartoonishly evil. Their kind moments seem out of character and are unconvincing. They are not like any humans I have met ever, Hasidic or otherwise. Shtissel provides a good contrast to Unorthodox. Unlike Unorthodox, the human story in Shtissel comes to the fore, and the particulars of the culture are only the setting in which they unfold. Rituals like an eruv are not heavy-handedly emphasized. Shtissel makes the watcher feel drawn inside the world. READ MORE

HAARETZ Top Israeli TV Shows and Films to Binge-watch During the Coronavirus Lockdown From classics like ‘Fauda’ and ‘Shtisel’ to little-known gems like ‘Off White Lies’ and ‘Dancing in Jaffa,’ here are over 20 Israeli works to keep you entertained

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“The sheer amount of interaction that religious Jews have with their communities made Orthodox Jewish communities Ground Zero for the coronavirus”

Posted on March 29, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ELDER OF ZIYON
Religious Jews are among the biggest victims of COVID-19
Sunday, March 29, 2020

Boro Park. Flatbush. Crown Heights. Forest Hills. Fresh Meadows. Every single New York neighborhood with a large religious Jewish population has the highest percentage of patients testing positive for the coronavirus, according to this map published by the NYC Department of Health. Looking at New York State as a whole, the heavily Jewish Rockland County has a higher percentage of COVID-19 cases per capita than New York City (as far as I can tell, second only to Westchester County.) And in New Jersey, the two towns with the highest number of COVID-19 cases are not the major cities of Newark (155) or Jersey City (130) or Camden (2) or Trenton (7). READ MORE

JNS Mix-up leads to wrong corona funeral in New York “I’m sorry,” he told the shocked family. “We took out the wrong casket. Please wait while I return this casket and bring out Mr. Grunwald.”

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“About 12% of Israel’s population are Haredim, often referred to as “ultra-orthodox,” an expression which they strongly dislike”

Posted on March 29, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH PRESS
The Haredi Disconnect
by Vic Rosenthal
March 31, 2020

…On the other hand, some things are true in general, and they are not good things for the future of the state of Israel. Haredi schools mostly teach secular subjects like English, the sciences, and mathematics very poorly or not at all. The native language of many Haredi communities is Yiddish, not Hebrew. Most Haredi young men do not serve in the military, and prefer to study Torah in yeshivot than to work at a secular job. These facts make the expected increase in the percentage of the population that is Haredi extremely problematic for the future economy of the state. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Virus cases in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem surge, stoking fears of ‘wildfire’ spread Cities with large ultra-Orthodox populations see big jump in new diagnoses; police minister says cops carrying out ‘unprecedented enforcement’ in Bnei Brak

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Former Senator Tom Coburn died Saturday: “He heroically opposed much of what goes on in D.C. — secrecy, pork-barrel spending, and corruption”

Posted on March 29, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

NATIONAL REVIEW
Mr. Coburn Went to Washington and Left a Remarkable Example
by John Fund
March 29, 2020

Tom Coburn, the 72-year-old physician and former Oklahoma senator who passed away Saturday, battled the prostate cancer that felled him the same way he battled big spenders and spineless politicians in Washington: with cheerful, unrelenting persistence. If you’re ever seriously ill, Coburn’s life is itself an inspiration. He contracted melanoma when he was 28 and working as manager of his family’s optical-lens factory. He was given only a 20 percent chance of living. He beat the melanoma, and his struggle convinced him to enter medical school and become a doctor. Years later, he contracted colon cancer and conquered that, too. In 2008, he had brain surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. READ MORE

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“In what Freud might have analyzed as a classic case of the narcissistic wound run amok, the Never Netanyahus fell victim to a kind of collective insanity rooted in their own sense of virtuous entitlement”

Posted on March 26, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
Bibi, King of Israel
by Liel Leibovitz
March 27, 2020

After 24 hours that would have filled several seasons of a great Netflix political drama, the once and future prime minister of the State of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has struck a coalition deal with former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, whose Blue and White political party immediately disintegrated, thus dealing a lethal blow to the Never Netanyahu alliance that has spent the last year and a half feverishly and fruitlessly trying to unseat King Bibi. If you’ve been otherwise preoccupied, here’s a very brief summary of Israel’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month…READ MORE

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It’s decided: “Gantz to be defense minister under Netanyahu, Gabi Ashkenazi to serve as foreign minister”

Posted on March 26, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Blue and White splits as unity deal with Likud approaches
by Gil Hoffman
March 26, 2020

In a dramatic turn of events, the Blue and White Party, which served as the alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 2 election, broke up on Thursday after party head Benny Gantz decided to enter Netanyahu’s government. The three parties that made up Blue and White – Gantz’s Israel Resilience, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem – all went in different directions. Israel Resilience is joining the government, Lapid will head the opposition and Telem will split up, with Ya’alon on the outside and divided. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Netanyahu, Gantz, Ashkenazi meet to iron out details of unity government deal Telem MKs Hauser and Hendel reportedly plan to join coalition, giving PM leverage for right-wing agenda; premier said to seek legislation that acting PM can serve under indictment

JNS Jonathan Tobin: Israel’s democracy was never in danger The resolution to a long coalition standoff was messy. But Netanyahu’s continued hold on power was rendered inevitable by a democratic process, not attempts to undermine it.

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“Coronavirus exposed a truth that global village fans have spent the past generation denying: Borders are important”

Posted on March 26, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Israel and the demise of the global village
by Caroline B. Glick
March 27, 2020

In the face of the steeply rising number of coronavirus patients and the breakneck speed of political changes in Israel, few people have stopped to notice that the world we have grown accustomed to living in for the past generation is falling apart. The global village is collapsing under the weight of the pandemic. How Israel deals with this dramatic turn of events today, and in the coming weeks, months and years will determine both how we emerge from the present crisis and how we manage in the new world now taking form. READ MORE

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