“As president and foreign minister listen, mother of slain captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin reveals new details of his captivity and murder, says he was found with his face resting on the face of Eden Yerushalmi, ‘a girl named after paradise’”

Posted on May 1, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
In raw speech, Rachel Goldberg-Polin tells foreign envoys they can get hostages freed
Lazar Berman
May 2, 2025

With President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and US Ambassador Mike Huckabee in attendance, the mother of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin told foreign diplomats on Thursday that they have the ability to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza. “It is absolutely doable, as long as people with power decide it is an interest and an equity for them,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin said in an emotional address at Herzog’s annual Independence Day reception for the foreign diplomatic corps in Israel. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that “victory” over Hamas, not the return of the hostages, was the supreme objective of the war in Gaza, provoking anger from captives’ families. READ MORE

Click here for video of Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s moving speech “I will always be the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Hersh will always be my first-born child. Hersh will always be my only son. And Hersh will always be 23 years old.”

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“On Yom HaZikaron, the typical Israeli noise – the arguments, the honking, the chaos of daily life – all vanish into reverent silence”

Posted on May 1, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

THE ISRAEL BIBLE
Israel’s Memorial Day: What Should We Think About When the Siren Sounds?
Rabbi Elie Mischel
April 30, 2025

Today is Yom HaZikaron – Israel’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror. The air raid siren pierces the morning sky across Israel. Within seconds, an entire nation freezes in place. Drivers pull to the roadside and exit their vehicles. Pedestrians stop mid-stride. Shopkeepers step out from behind their counters. Children stand motionless in schoolyards. For one minute, Israel stands completely still. This is the raw power of Yom HaZikaron. Unlike American observances with barbecues and department store sales, Israel’s day of remembrance cuts to the bone. In a small country where military service is mandatory, everyone knows someone who has paid the ultimate price. The faces on memorial walls are not distant historical figures but sons, daughters, siblings, parents, and friends. When the siren wails, the weight of collective grief is palpable as an entire nation stands united in remembrance. READ MORE

STANDWITHUS WATCH: Moment of silence across Israel during Yom Hazikaron siren On Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, the nation stands in solemn silence, heads bowed in remembrance of the fallen soldiers and victims of terror

TIMES OF ISRAEL Israel at war – Day 574 Those we have lost Stories of civilians and soldiers killed since Hamas’s onslaught on Israel on October 7, 2023

COMMENTARY Seth Mandel: 77 Years of Vindication and Miracles It’s hard not to see some symbolism in the coinciding of three events this week: Israeli Independence Day, a rainstorm over areas of Israel scorched by a raging wildfire, and the U.S. and Ukraine signing a mineral deal. To back up: Today is Yom Ha’atzmaut, the day Israelis celebrate the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish people’s ancient land. Because Israel is still relatively young as a nation state—77 years—Jews around the world each year still contemplate the meaning of that independence.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

National emergency declared in Israel as firefighters battle wind-fueled blazes spreading across Jerusalem hills; Greece, Croatia, Italy, and Cyprus expected to deploy firefighting resources to help combat spreading wildfires

Posted on April 30, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Massive wildfires rage across Jerusalem hills; Israel requests international aid
April 30, 2025

A fire broke out Wednesday morning, on Israel’s Memorial Day, in a forest near Beit Shemesh. Firefighting teams are working at the scene after authorities declared an emergency, triggering nationwide assistance mobilization, including aircraft, reinforcement teams from additional districts, and logistical support. The Israel Fire and Rescue Services announced that all Independence Day events requiring firefighter security will not be able to receive protection, therefore, Independence Day events cannot be held…Numerous firefighting teams from the Beit Shemesh area are currently battling a developing forest fire in Eshta’ol Forest. Strong winds in the area are contributing to the rapid spread of the flames. READ MORE

JPOST Israel ablaze in national emergency believed to be terrorist act “It’s a terror attack on Israel,” Eli Beer, president of the United Hatzalah emergency response organization, told The Media Line. He noted that fires were started in 20 separate locations. A security source also confirmed to The Media Line that a terrorist act was likely behind the fires, adding that several people had been arrested.

TIMES OF ISRAEL 163 crews battle Jerusalem-area fire which official says may be Israel’s largest ever IDF helps fire service, police fight wildfires in Jerusalem hills as towns evacuated, Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road closed; dozens suffer smoke inhalation, burns, but nobody seriously hurt

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Why is Congressman Nadler afraid of the new antisemitism envoy?

Posted on April 28, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FRONT PAGE MAG
Nadler Goes After Rabbi for Exposing Dem Antisemitism
Daniel Greenfield
April 28, 2025

When President Trump put forward his new envoy to combat antisemitism, Rep. Jerrold Nadler urged Senate Democrats “not to provide the Trump Administration with a single vote to confirm Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun.” Rep. Nadler had opposed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, opposed Trump’s crackdown on campus antisemitism, opposed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, and opposed defunding colleges that tolerate antisemitism…While many Jewish groups sent their good wishes to Rabbi Kaploun, joining Nadler in his opposition to the new antisemitism envoy was [CAIR and other pro-Hamas groups as well as] the anti-Israel group J Street which had lobbied for recognizing and funding a ‘Palestinian’ government that would include Hamas. READ MORE

FREE PRESS The Handsome Face of Terror Apologia Just this week, he [Hasan Piker] claimed on Twitch that “in a totally just world, regardless of your background, any kind of fucking Zionist tendency should be treated in the same way as being a fucking rabid neo-Nazi.” (The vast majority of Jews identify as Zionists.) He went on: “You shouldn’t even let someone be the fucking local dog catcher . . . if they have exhibited any sort of positive feelings about the state of Israel.” At the same time, Piker implies that acts of violence committed by Islamists are justified. On November 29, 2023, he described the attacks of October 7 as “a retaliation for an ongoing apartheid.” Piker doesn’t only justify terrorism. Sometimes, he glorifies it…READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Today, USAID still employs bureaucrats who are willing to look the other way as American taxpayers’ dollar subsidize terror infrastructure”

Posted on April 27, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

MIDDLE EAST FORUM
Terror Subsidizers to Receive Billions of Surviving USAID Dollars
Sam Westrop
April 23, 2025

A State Department list of 898 approved government grants and contracts authorized by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) includes over $2.5 billion of authorized funding to organizations that have previously supported the charitable infrastructure of designated terrorist organizations. In March, the State Department provided a document to Congress listing some 5,341 awards terminated as part of the administration’s decimation of USAID, alongside 898 surviving grants. Surviving beneficiaries that have supported terrorist charitable infrastructure are set to receive, the Middle East Forum has found, a total of $2.5 billion across 103 awards [see Appendix], for projects that the USAID estimates will cost the taxpayer a total of $3.4 billion. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

There is, in reality, no difference between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood organization

Posted on April 27, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
There is, in reality, no difference between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood organization
Khaled Abu Toameh
April 24, 2025

….Hamas is not so much an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood as an extension of it. This linkage is why the Trump administration needs to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. We have seen how Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Egypt, Jordan and other Arab countries have come out in support of Hamas, especially after its October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, which resulted in the murder of 1,200 Israelis and the injury of thousands. Another 251 Israelis were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 59 – dead and alive – are still held as hostages. Hamas sees no difference between an Israeli soldier and an Israeli civilian. To Hamas, everyone in Israel is a “Zionist invader.” This view is why Hamas has been targeting Jews not only in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but also in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and other Israeli cities. READ MORE

FUTURE OF JEWISH The Palestinians’ Sick Obsession With Holocaust Envy The bludgeoning of Israel with appropriated Jewish trauma is a textbook case of Holocaust envy, in which the singular destruction of European Jewry is softened, relativized, and rendered fungible. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a local Nakba commemoration — “Nakba,” Arabic for “catastrophe,” a term originally coined by Syrian intellectual Constantin Zureiq to describe the Arab world’s failed 1948 attempt to annihilate Israel — but these events today exist largely to reassure Palestinians, and especially their admirers abroad, that they too, have had a Holocaust. The rhetoric surrounding the 1948 Palestinian displacement is increasingly and intentionally shaped to elicit not only sympathy, but reverence, as though it represents a moral singularity akin to the Holocaust.

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

David Horowitz (1939-2025)

Posted on April 26, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FRONT PAGE MAG
Tributes Pour in for David Horowitz
Mark Tapson
May 2, 2025

In the wake of the passing of Freedom Center founder David Horowitz, tributes are pouring in from everyone from world leaders and politicians to activists and thought leaders, attesting to the former-radical-Marxist-turned-conservative firebrand’s courage, vision, and inestimable influence on conservatism. Newly installed United States ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee wrote, “Heartbreaking news. David was one of the most brilliant minds in the conservative movement & came to his convictions by intellectual honesty. We will miss you my friend! David Horowitz R.I.P.” Dutch politician and freedom fighter Geert Wilders tweeted, “David Horowitz, my dear friend and ally, passed away. David was an American hero, a giant, a warrior for freedom, one of the bravest patriots I have ever met. We will miss you David. Condolences to his family, friends and to America. May his memory be a blessing.” READ MORE

YOUTUBE One of David’s most memorable videos: David Horowitz Brilliantly Exposes Muslim Student’s True Intentions – UC San Diego

THE FREE PRESS Haviv Rettig Gur: The Jews Who Saw Around History’s Darkest Corner The early Zionists saw only dimly, vaguely, the bloodletting that would come. But this foreknowledge rested on serious analysis and theory, and recommended clear action. This was true across the political spectrum of the Zionist movement, from socialists to liberals to right-wing Revisionists. Theodore Herzl, in a letter addressed to the Rothschilds early in his Zionist career, gave this ominous prediction: “Will it be a revolutionary expropriation from below or a reactionary confiscation from above? Will they chase us away? Will they kill us? I have a fair idea it will take all these forms, and others.” READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Trump’s UNRWA pronouncement could have major implications relating to lawsuit filed by victims’ families of 10/7 massacre

Posted on April 26, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Trump administration strips UNRWA of legal immunity in court filing
Mike Wagenheim
April 25, 2025

The U.S. Department of Justice told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has been stripped of its legal immunity. The decision was taken as part of a case filed last year in which families of victims of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sued UNRWA for its ties to terrorism. Israel has said that at least 18 UNRWA staff members took part directly in the assault across the Gaza border into southern Israel. The plaintiffs also allege long-term fraud and corruption in handling financial aid routed through UNRWA into the Gaza Strip—$1 billion of which critics say has fallen into the hands of Hamas and other terror groups. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Wisse: “If Harvard shirks its responsibility to shore up the foundations of America and allows itself to be hijacked by an Islamist-inspired grievance coalition, why would it expect any support from the government?”

Posted on April 25, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Harvard Is an Islamist Outpost
Ruth R. Wisse
April 24, 2025

…Harvard was a soft target for foreign penetration, having developed an adversarial relationship to the American government and increasingly to the country itself. Veterans of the antiwar movement banished the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps from Harvard in the 1970s and kept it off campus for 40 years. When memories of Vietnam faded, the military’s exclusion of open homosexuals became the high-minded excuse for shutting out recruiters—but not government funding. This selective antigovernment policy was reflected in the curriculum, which took an increasingly critical approach to America and Western civilization. READ MORE

FREE PRESS Harvard’s Antisemitism Report Found Harvard University released its long-overdue report on campus antisemitism exactly 10 days after Trump officials demanded to see it. The findings are disturbing. Nearly 60 percent of Jewish students at Harvard said they had experienced “discrimination, stereotyping, or negative bias on campus due to [their] views on current events,” according to the 311-page report. The report said that 73 percent of Jewish students expressed discomfort sharing their political opinions, while 75 percent believed there was an “academic or professional penalty” for expressing their views at Harvard.

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The administration’s executive order eliminating disparate-impact theory restores the 1964 Civil Rights Act to its original meaning

Posted on April 25, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

CITY JOURNAL
Trump Takes His Biggest Step Yet Toward Restoring Meritocracy
Heather MacDonald
April 24, 2025

Measured in Trump time, it took them eons to get around to it, but the White House has finally taken the most important step it can to restore meritocracy to American society: eliminating disparate-impact theory from civil rights analysis and enforcement. Disparate-impact theory holds that if a neutral, colorblind standard of achievement or behavior has a disproportionately negative effect on underrepresented minorities (overwhelmingly, on blacks), it violates civil rights laws. It has been used to invalidate literacy and numeracy standards for police officers and firemen, cognitive skills and basic knowledge tests for teachers, the use of SATs in college admissions, the use of grades for medical licensing exams, credit-based mortgage lending, the ability to discipline insubordinate students, and criminal background checks for employees and renters. READ MORE

Posted in Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment