Israeli officials convinced that Iran’s willingness to enter direct talks with Trump is a direct result of US threats

Posted on April 10, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Significant gaps ahead of US-Iran talks: Tehran demands sanctions freeze during negotiations
Danny Zaken
April 9, 2025

Three days before the scheduled start of talks between the Iranian regime and representatives of US President Donald Trump in Oman, the gaps between the two sides regarding both the format of the talks and the subjects to be discussed appear especially wide…Another major dispute concerns the agenda for the talks. Iran firmly rejects any discussion of its missile program, particularly in light of reports that Israel is pressing the US to include this issue in the negotiations. Javan, a conservative Iranian newspaper aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, wrote in an editorial that any attempt to bring the missile issue to the table would result in the immediate termination of the talks. READ MORE

FDD ‘The Ball Is in America’s Court’: Iran Insists Against Trump That Forthcoming Nuclear Talks Will Be ‘Indirect Iranian officials have confirmed that negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program will be held on April 12. However, in contrast to President Donald Trump’s statement during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the talks would be held face to face, the Iranians said the negotiations would be “indirect.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on X that “Iran and the United States will meet in Oman on Saturday for indirect high-level talks. It is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The Ball is in America’s court.”

AXIOS Trump envoy Witkoff to lead high-stakes nuclear negotiations with Iran One prominent Iran hawk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was in the Oval Office when Trump announced the Iran talks. Israeli officials say Netanyahu was briefed ahead of time. Still, the situation was embarrassing for a prime minister who has strongly criticized past administrations for their Iran outreach.

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“For Christians, the Passover seder is a deep part of our Easter celebration”

Posted on April 10, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

UNPACKED
Why are Christians celebrating Passover and hosting non-Jewish Seders?
Sara Himeles
April 8, 2025

Celebrating Passover is extremely common with 70% of American Jews attending  Passover seders. In many ways, Passover is the ultimate Jewish holiday that recalls the Jewish people’s miraculous exodus from Egypt. But did you know some Christians are starting to celebrate the holiday as well, and even host their version of a Passover seder?…[Pastor Tom] Holladay explained that participating in the Passover seder “reminds us of how tied we are to our Jewish roots,” noting that Jesus and his disciples were Jewish. He said that the ritual helps Christians become more familiar with Judaism and promotes understanding between the two religions. READ MORE

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Palantir, a U.S. publicly traded company, sees in Israel a kindred spirit, a nation that embraces the “founder personalities” and “interpersonal friction” — prerequisites for defense innovation

Posted on April 9, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FUTURE OF JEWISH
The Controversial Company Betting Big on Israel
Amir Mizroch
April 10, 2025

He came, he saw, he dropped a truth grenade. “The West has lost deterrence,” Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s Chief Technology Officer, told Israeli defense entrepreneurs last week. Over an hour-long Zoom webinar, Sankar listed the evidence: a pogrom in Israel, Russian aggression in Ukraine, Iranian provocations across the Middle East, Chinese militarization in the South China Sea. “We’re in the 11th hour. And if we’re going to deter World War Three, we have to get really serious about this,” he added…Sankar’s connection to Israel runs deep, introducing himself as “the biggest Zionist at Palantir, including him [Alex Karp],” referring to the company’s CEO, who himself is as staunch of a supporter of Israel as you can get. He then put on a yarmulke — he calls it his Shyarmulke…READ MORE

SEQUOIA CAPITAL Partnering with Kela: Modern Defense for Israel and Western Allies Israel is unusual in the West: It still has a draft. At the end of high school, instead of applying to colleges, students make bids to join elite units in the military. From the paratroopers to the combat divisions to the elite intelligence group Unit 8200, competition to get the best assignments is fierce. Israel’s startup ecosystem has thrived by leveraging this talent to build tremendous businesses: post-draft, the country’s “technowarriors” staff many of its most successful tech companies. Veterans of 8200 and other units founded Sequoia portfolio companies Wiz, Island, Cyera, Eon and Decart, among others—and today, about half of global cybersecurity investment goes into Israeli companies. 

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“ISGAP’s research has shown that donations from Qatar have significantly influenced antisemitic discourse and campus politics in US universities, while also promoting anti-democratic values”

Posted on April 8, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH PRESS
Antisemitism Expert Testifies to Senate: Qatar Fueling Campus Riots
David Israel
March 30, 2025

…In his testimony, Dr. [Charles] Small presented findings from ISGAP’s “Follow the Money” initiative, which highlights a direct link between foreign authoritarian funding—particularly from Qatar—and the rise in antisemitism on U.S. college campuses. ISGAP’s analysis reveals that universities receiving funding from authoritarian regimes, including those from the Middle East, report 300% more antisemitic incidents than institutions that do not accept such funding. Dr. Small explained that Qatari funding has skewed campus discussions, undermined academic freedom, and created environments where antisemitism is not only tolerated but sometimes encouraged. READ MORE

GATESTONE Khaled Abu Toameh: Qatar’s Muslim ‘Scholars’ Call For Death And Destruction It is time for the US to understand that Qatar continues to serve as a base and platform for jihad and Islamist terrorism. Qatar is not an ally in the war on terrorism. Qatar is the predominant sponsor and leading voice that promotes Islamist terrorism. Qatar is also, perilously, the towering donor to universities in America.

COMMENTARY How American Aid Has Subsidized Terror Another striking case involves Bayader, a Gaza-based charity that has received at least $900,000 in U.S. funding since 2016. Bayader operates in Hamas-controlled territory and openly collaborates with Hamas officials, including holding joint events with Hamas leaders. Similarly, the Unlimited Friends Association, another Gaza group, received U.S. support despite paying stipends to families of “martyrs” (Hamas terrorists) and having a director who publicly called for “cleansing” Jews from holy sites.

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“Trump has repeatedly said that he would prefer to reach a deal with Iran rather than have to attack its nuclear facilities, but has left the military option on the table””

Posted on April 8, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZ SHEVA
Trump on Iran: If it requires military action, Israel will be the leader of that
Elad Benari
April 10, 2025

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that, if military action is required to thwart Iran’s nuclear program, Israel will be involved and even lead the effort. “With Iran, if it requires military, we’re going to have military. Israel will be the leader of that. But nobody leads us, we do what we want to do,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office. Asked what his deadline would be for Iran to reach a deal, the President replied, “I can’t really be specific, but when you start talks, you know if they’re going along well or not, and I would say the conclusion would be when I think they’re not going along well.”…Later, the President warned Iran that “if they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing — and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”READ MORE

JNS New US sanctions on Iran, days after Trump says direct talks with Islamic Republic underway Days after U.S. President Donald Trump said that direct talks were underway with the Islamic Republic and that a major meeting was scheduled for Saturday, the Trump administration announced sanctions on five entities and one person in Iran for supporting the regime’s nuclear program.

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“Never again will Israelis allow a “ring of fire” to burn on their nation’s borders”

Posted on April 8, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

WASHINGTON TIMES
Israel’s second War of Independence
Clifford May
April 8, 2025

It has been 18 months since Hamas’ invasion of Israel and the barbaric pogrom that followed. Hamas is still holding and torturing hostages. The Israel Defense Forces are still fighting not just Hamas but also Hamas’ allies, all of them guided and supported by the jihadi regime in Tehran. That’s the bad news. The good news: Painfully but steadily, Israelis have been making progress against enemies who intend not to subjugate them but to exterminate them. Israel’s first War of Independence, 1948-1949, lasted 20 months. This one will take longer. READ MORE

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“In a world of globalized alienation, secular and religious Israelis alike remain proudly connected to their story as a people, through rituals as old as the Passover Seder and as new as the letters soldiers write before they go into battle”

Posted on April 8, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
Why Are Israelis So Happy?
Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy
April 10, 2025

…Israel is a happy place. Despite constantly facing vicious enemies and enduring a year and a half of sustained fighting and funerals, Israel ranks in the top 10 countries with the highest levels of happiness, according to the newly released 2025 World Happiness Report. At No. 8, Israel contrasts sharply with other war-torn countries that are quite reasonably miserable: Ukraine sits at 111, and Lebanon, which opened a second front against Israel in October 2023, is third from the bottom, at 145….Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israelis have rushed ahead with making babies. Baby booms often occur postwar, not in the middle of one. But Israelis have continued to affirm life even while mourning more than 1,700 dead. At almost three babies per woman, Israel already has the leading birth rate among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)—a forum of 37 democracies with market-based economies—and in the final months of 2024, it witnessed an estimated 10 percent increase in births. READ MORE

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“The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 200 plaintiffs, including the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the Israeli American victims who was initially taken hostage but later killed”

Posted on April 7, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

DAILY MAIL
American billionaire is accused of facilitating Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel in bombshell lawsuit
Brittany Chain
April 7, 2025

A billionaire American-Palestinian businessman has been sued by grieving families whose loved ones were victims of the October 7 terror attack in Israel…It states that [Bashar] Masri’s investments in Gaza directly benefited Hamas. One of his properties, an industrial park near the Israeli border, had an ‘elaborate subterranean attack tunnel network’ which was ‘siphoning electricity from their World Bank-funded solar project.’ His Blue Beach Resort allegedly also had a complex tunnel system which linked it to a Hamas training base. Israel’s Defense Forces claimed the hotel was also used ‘as a shelter where [Hamas] planned and executed attacks both above and below ground.’ READ MORE

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Reprimand against antisemitic Chicago therapist doesn’t require her to apologize to the therapists whose names she shared publicly, nor does it affect her ability to continue practicing in Illinois

Posted on April 6, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Chicago therapist who created blacklist of ‘Zionist’ therapists disciplined by state licensing body
Gabby Deutch
April 4, 2025

A Chicago therapist who created a blacklist of “Zionist” therapists that she said people should avoid was reprimanded by Illinois’ professional licensing body, after concerns about her conduct were raised last year.  In March 2024, Heba Ibrahim Joudeh shared in a group for “anti-racist therapists” in Chicago that she had created a list of Zionist therapists “that we should avoid referring clients to.” Most of the people on the list had never publicly spoken about Israel or identified themselves publicly as a Zionist. Instead, several of them told Jewish Insider last spring, their only unifying factor was being Jewish.  Last month, Joudeh received a formal reprimand and was “ordered to take continuing education due to unprofessional conduct,” after months of disciplinary proceedings. READ MORE

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Tobin: “Centrists may be wrong to think that they can steer their party in a moderate direction. Looking to 2028 and beyond, the implications for supporters of Israel are ominous”

Posted on April 5, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
AOC and the diminishing prospects for Jewish Democrats
Jonathan Tobin
April 4, 2025

…The Democratic Party of 2025, let alone 2028, is not the same. Most members of Congress may still not wish to be seen as being too far to the left. But their party base, if not all of their voters, has no such qualms. And as far as Israel is concerned, the impact of the post-Oct. 7 war and surge of antisemitism that has swept across the nation have solidified the trend that was already turning the party against Jerusalem. As the most recent Gallup tracking poll indicates, voters who identify themselves as Democrats have decisively turned against Israel, favoring the Palestinians over Israel by a shocking 59% to 21% margin. By contrast, Republicans favor Israel by 75% to 10%, and independents do so by a smaller margin of 42% to 34%. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA 15 Democrats back Sanders’ failed bid to block Israel arms sales A group of 15 Senate Democrats on Thursday backed resolutions introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to halt billions of dollars in US arms sales and military aid to Israel, Axios reported, though the measures were overwhelmingly rejected. The two resolutions, aimed at preventing the sale of $8.8 billion in bombs and other munitions to Israel, were defeated by votes of 15-82 and 15-83. The initiative, which drew no support from Republican senators, exposed a growing rift within the Democratic Party. Among those voting in favor of Sanders’ resolutions were Illinois Senator Dick Durbin…

THE HILL AIPAC targets Senate Democrats who backed Sanders on Israel aid AIPAC is launching a new series of ads on Tuesday targeting the Senate Democrats who voted in favor of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) motions last week to withhold military aid to Israel.  The six-figure ad buy targets 11 states on television and on social media with senators who backed the measures, which overwhelmingly failed in the Senate. Sanders has previously introduced similar unsuccessful measures to block aid to Israel amid the country’s war with Hamas and criticism of its handling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza. 

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