Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opinion. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Beyond ‘Death to Israel’: Can Iran and Israel Find Friendship? (Judean Rose)



Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Benjamin Netanyahu has often referred to a divide between Iran’s regime and its people. The Israeli prime minister seems convinced that the Iranian people, as distinct from its oppressors, desire friendship with Israel. “Israel wants peace. We want peace with all those who truly want peace with us,” said the PM in an address to the Iranian people six months ago. “And I have no doubt that you, the People of Iran, know this. I know that just as we want peace with you, you want peace with us.”


If true, it sure would be an amazing thing to get Khamenei out of the picture and watch this friendship bloom.

Cyrus II le Grand et les Hébreux, Jean Fouquet, 1470 

More recently, in his June 13 address to the Iranian people, Netanyahu said, “Israel's fight is not against the Iranian people. Our fight is against the murderous Islamic regime that oppresses and impoverishes you. The nation of Iran and the nation of Israel have been friends since the days of Cyrus the Great.”

The idea of a friendship between Israel and Iran can be hard to reconcile with years of “Death to Israel” chants and regime-backed propaganda. How do we square what we’ve seen and heard with what Bibi tells us? Is there real evidence to support his assertion that the Iranian people might want peace—or even friendship—with Israel?

Let’s take a look:

Signs of Friendship from the Iranian People

Despite decades of regime-sponsored antisemitism, surveillance, and repression, many Iranians—both inside the country and across the diaspora—have expressed admiration, sympathy, and even affection for Israel and the Jewish people.

💬 Voices from Inside Iran

As Israel’s June 2025 strikes on Iranian military infrastructure shook the Islamic Republic, some Iranians were not trembling—but cheering.

“I … lost my control and was shouting, thanking Netanyahu for killing these criminals.”
— Zahra, a 50-year-old mother of two in Karaj near Tehran, speaking to NPR

Another Iranian told Ynet:

“Iranians are not worried about Israel’s attack because we all know that the Israeli government has no problem with the Iranian people,” said “A” from Ahvaz. “This is not just my opinion. We all wish to see the destruction of the Islamic Republic as soon as possible.”

In other words, some Iranians trust the Israeli military more than their own rulers.

Just over a year ago, after an Israeli airstrike in Damascus eliminated seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officers, graffiti appeared in Tehran encouraging the Jewish state to “hit them harder next time.”

'Israel go ahead and strike; they don’t have the courage'

'Hit them harder next time Israel, they’ve s*** themselves'

🕊️ Support in the Streets and on Social Media

Social media has become a powerful window into Iranian public sentiment—particularly among younger generations and diaspora voices. After Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, many Iranians online expressed solidarity with Israeli victims using hashtags like #IraniansStandWithIsrael and #IranIsHappy.

Here are just a few examples:

Meanwhile, Iranian attorney and activist Elica Le Bon, a prominent voice in the diaspora, has called Iranians and Israelis “old friends,” echoing a shared historical bond. On June 13, 2025, she tweeted, “Praying for the safety of the people of Iran and Israel. There has never been a war between our people, only a failed attempt to divide an ancient bond between old friends.” Her words resonate as a bridge across decades of division.

🕯️ Clerical Courage 

It didn't win him any popularity contests for saying so, but former senior Iranian cleric, dissident Ayatollah Hadi Ghabel, spoke of friendship between Jews and Iranians as far back as 2021:

“Iranians and Jews have many years of friendship. I haven’t met Iranians who don’t have a positive opinion of Israel.”

As we see, even within the heart of Iran’s religious establishment, there have been flickers of goodwill.

🌺 Conclusion: A Friendship Waiting to Blossom?

There could be no more hostile regime to Israel than that of Khamenei—but these brave, hopeful, often anonymous voices through the years, suggest that the people of Iran may indeed want peace, friendship, and even cooperation with the Jewish State. Of course, most of all, they want out from under their repressive regime. And Israel is making that happen even now as you read this article.

For years, Netanyahu has spoken of Iranian-Israeli friendship—and now, for the first time, it feels within reach. From defiant graffiti and diaspora rallies to viral hashtags and heartfelt tweets, there is mounting evidence that Iranians are not Israel’s enemies. In fact, many are potential allies.

Perhaps, when the ayatollahs are gone, we won’t need to imagine peace between Israelis and Iranians.

We’ll simply watch it unfold.

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Wednesday, June 11, 2025

47 Minutes of Evil Greta Wouldn’t Watch (Judean Rose)


Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

On June 9, 2025, Israeli naval forces intercepted the Madleen, a rusty, overhyped, and under-provisioned “aid boat” that sailed with great drama from Europe to Gaza. Onboard: Greta Thunberg, a few other professional protesters, and a pathetic 100 kilograms of flour.

To put that in perspective: Israel facilitates hundreds of aid trucks to Gaza every single day, carrying hundreds of tons of food, medicine, diapers, and fuel. Greta brought enough flour to feed roughly 330 people for one day—assuming Hamas or hungry mobs don’t steal it first, which is precisely what happened to UN flour shipments this week.


In exchange for this performative voyage, Greta got what she came for: selfies, headlines, and a chance to pretend she was the moral conscience of the world. But what she didn’t expect was Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz offering her and her selfie-yacht companions a front-row seat to truth.

The Film They Refused to Watch

Israel prepared a 47-minute documentary, “Bearing Witness to the October 7 Massacre,” which compiles footage directly from Hamas bodycams and GoPro devices worn during the pogrom. The footage is unsparing: rape, torture, execution, mutilation. It’s not Israel’s word against Hamas—it’s Hamas filming its own barbarism, proud, gleeful, laughing as they slit throats and shoot children point-blank.

Greta and gang were invited to watch. According to multiple media accounts, they agreed to begin, then either shut their eyes or turned away, refusing to take in more than a few seconds. Maybe they knew what they would see. Maybe they were afraid they’d lose the ability to justify their moral theater.

Maybe they already had seen it—and simply didn’t care.

Historical Precedents: Can Footage Change Minds?

Israel’s tactic wasn’t new. There’s a long history of using atrocity footage to rip the mask off sanitized evil:

·        Nuremberg Trials (1945): The Allies didn’t just charge Nazis—they made the court and the world watch what they found in the camps. British and American cameramen documented the piles of corpses, gas chambers, and starved survivors. The footage stunned even hardened prosecutors. German civilians were marched into local theaters and made to watch. Some fainted. Others wept. A few denied. But the films worked: they shattered any lingering doubt—at least for a time.

·        Vietnam (1972): The iconic photo of “Napalm Girl,” 9-year-old Kim Phuc screaming, her skin burned off, turned American public opinion decisively against the war. One picture—raw, ugly, undeniable—shifted the moral calculus more than a thousand op-eds could ever have done.

·        Rwanda (1994): In contrast, during the Rwandan genocide, footage was deliberately suppressed. The Clinton White House wouldn’t call it genocide, and CNN didn’t show rivers filled with hacked bodies. Result? Nothing was done. No outrage, no pressure, no intervention. Without images, there was no movement.

·        Israel, 2023–24: The IDF’s October 7 footage has been shown to journalists, diplomats, foreign correspondents, and lawmakers. At a screening in Los Angeles, attendees were reportedly shaken. Some demanded to see more—beheadings, rapes—in order to confront the full horror. A separate screening for foreign journalists in Israel left many stunned. And at Harvard, a screening organized by Chabad with support from Bill Ackman reportedly prompted some students to reconsider their assumptions.

But no screening has been more visceral than the one held for members of the Israeli Knesset.

On November 6, 2023, over 100 MKs watched a version of the October 7 footage at the Knesset. What followed was human, gut-wrenching, and painfully real: some parliamentarians burst into tears. Others vomited. Several ran from the room. The footage, reported by the Jerusalem Post, was described as “unbearable.” Likud MK Galit Distel sobbed and shouted, “Where is the world?” Another member said, “I have no more tears left to cry.”

A short video clip from the screening shows elected officials weeping uncontrollably and being comforted by colleagues as they fled the hall.


This is how decent people react when confronted with evil. With horror. With grief. With rage.

Now compare that to Greta Thunberg and the Madleen crew, who closed their eyes and turned their heads when given the opportunity to bear witness. These are the same people who flew across continents to play martyr in Gaza. Who accuse Israel of genocide while refusing to look Hamas genocide in the face. They couldn’t handle 47 minutes of footage—but they feel qualified to comment on 75 years of Jewish history.

There’s a word for that. But let’s just call it what it is: moral cowardice.

One Boat Does Not a Flotilla Make

The Madleen carried no aid worth mentioning, no moral compass worth respecting, and no courage whatsoever. It was a stunt—and everyone knows it. Everyone on that boat knew that Israel would be polite and diplomatic, and that they were completely safe at all times, free to watch or not watch the footage as they pleased, and offered sandwiches, bottles of water, and a free flight back to Europe, where they belong.

Israel should be commended for showing restraint—because really, Greta Thunberg’s face begs to be slapped. But no. Israel did nothing of the sort.


Fifteen years ago, during the Mavi Marmara incident, things got violent. This time? No shots. No injuries. The IDF simply rerouted the Madleen’s symbolic “aid,” through proper humanitarian channels, handed the activists sandwiches, and gave them a chance to learn something.

They declined.

Greta had a moment—a chance to really bear witness.

She blinked.

Then she shut her eyes.

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Wednesday, April 09, 2025

The Dismissal of Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar: A Reckoning for Anti-Settler Bias (Judean Rose)


Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar, despite being put on hold by the High Court, is a decision every Israeli should back to safeguard the rights of all Israeli citizens. Regavim, a nonprofit focused on countering illegal land seizures in Judea and Samaria and debunking myths like “settler violence,” supports Bar’s removal. This isn’t some partisan shake-up—it’s a necessary confrontation with an agency that, under Bar’s leadership, abandoned its mission to protect all Israelis. Rather than uphold security, the Shin Bet under Bar singled out Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria for groundless detentions and deep-seated contempt, even as Arab terror grew unchecked. A leaked recording from April 2025 has exposed this outrage, confirming that Bar’s departure is critical.

The “Shmucks” Revelation: Settlers as Scapegoats

The Shin Bet’s Jewish Division, tasked with monitoring internal threats, has been caught admitting to a chilling practice: arresting Jewish settlers without evidence. In a recording published by Kan News on April 6, 2025, the division head, identified as “A,” bragged to former Judea and Samaria police commander Avishai Mualem, “We arrest these jerks even without evidence for a few days. Put them in detention cells with mice.” The “jerks?” Jewish settlers, whom “A” elsewhere derided as “shmucks” unworthy of due process. This wasn’t a slip but a glimpse into a systemic bias that thrived under Bar’s leadership.

Israel Hayom’s report captures the outrage: the Prime Minister’s Office labeled it “a shocking revelation” and “a real danger to democracy,” demanding an investigation. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called out the “draconian Shin Bet powers against settlers” as “undemocratic, unequal, illegal, and unconstitutional.” The recording confirms what settlers and groups like Regavim have long claimed: the Shin Bet wasn’t combating terror—it was persecuting Jews in their ancestral homeland.


A Legacy of Contempt

The “shmucks” comment that no one was supposed to hear, wasn’t a stray remark or isolated event. Rather contempt for the Jews of Judea and Samaria—and the misplaced obsession with them—was a feature of Shin Bet policy under Bar by deliberate design. October 7 and its devastating aftermath stem, in large measure, from the rotten fruit of Bar’s tenure. While Hamas in Gaza prepared to torch, rape, and slaughter Jews in the south, Bar fixated on targeting Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria.

Regavim’s Meir Deutsch has charged the Shin Bet with “nurturing a false myth” of settler violence while “concealing the real data” on threats like Hamas. Their forthcoming report, "Settler Violence: Facts vs Narrative," will expose the UN’s inflated claims—thousands of alleged incidents shrinking to just a handful under scrutiny. When Regavim pressed for transparency, Bar’s agency stonewalled, shielding its failures and amplifying a libel that endangered Jews instead of safeguarding them.

Rachel Touitou Weighs In

I put some questions to Regavim International Press Spokesperson Rachel Touitou: Why does the Shin Bet target settlers? Is it a political issue? Abuse of power? Is this why Netanyahu is agitating for a change in leadership?

Touitou’s response underscores the need to clean house—to install new Shin Bet leadership—leadership that will uphold its original mandate of protecting all Israeli citizens. “From the data we analyzed in the report, there is a distinct and clear pattern that permeated the Shin Bet, reflecting a deeply engrained mindset or ‘conceptzia’ as we say in Hebrew,” said Touitou. “Rather than allocating resources and efforts toward addressing the tangible threat that culminated in the events of October 7th, the Shin Bet has been, and continues to be, focused on a marginal phenomenon/issue—namely, unfounded accusations of blood libel directed at Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. This focus has inadvertently provided material to the United Nations and certain extreme leftist organizations which subsequently leverage it to discredit Israel and advocate for sanctions against its citizens.

“To your question whether it is a political issue or not—I’ll answer with another question: why does the Shin Bet dedicate an entire department with huge resources called ‘the Jewish Department’ and never opened one—or thought to open one—called the ‘anarchists department?’ That would be a good question to ask their spokesperson.”

Touitou’s words cut to the core of the matter: Bar’s Shin Bet wasn’t distracted—it was obsessed with a fiction that fueled global attacks on Israel while ignoring the real enemies at the gate.

Ignoring the Real Enemy

The Shin Bet’s misplaced scorn didn’t just undermine trust—it left Israel exposed. While Bar’s agency hounded Jews in Judea and Samaria, the Gaza threat grew into the nightmare of October 7th. The Jewish Division’s head mocked IDF soldiers in the the Jewish heartland as “worthless” settlers, per Israel Hayom, showing an arrogance that dismissed Israel’s defenders. Bar backed this view, telling police commanders that “hilltop youth” outranked Arab rioters as a threat—a fantasy with deadly consequences.

The agency’s refusal to shield settlers from Arab terror, paired with its zeal to detain them without cause, tells a grim story. These Jews, rooted in their biblical heartland, weren’t overlooked—they were hunted by the entity meant to protect them. Bar turned the Shin Bet into a tool against its own people, not their foes.

A Dismissal Well-Earned—And a Passover Parallel

The High Court may have delayed Bar’s ouster, but the evidence is ironclad. The “shmucks” tape, Regavim’s data, and the Shin Bet’s record under Bar reveal a rot that demanded removal. This wasn’t about competence—it was about a hatred for settlers that corrupted an agency tasked with Israel’s survival. Smotrich’s demand to fire Bar and “A” isn’t overreach; but a call for justice.

As Regavim’s report nears release, the truth will be clear: Bar’s Shin Bet betrayed its mission. His dismissal isn’t a setback—it’s a chance to reclaim an agency meant to defend, not destroy, Israel’s citizens. With Passover starting April 11—just two days away—this feels apt. As we scour our homes of chametz, purging the leaven that corrupts, so must Israel’s government cleanse its ranks of rot. Bar’s exit, though stalled, is a step toward that renewal—a Pesach house-cleaning of the highest stakes. I stand with Regavim in hailing this purge, as all Israelis should.

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Thursday, April 03, 2025

Israel’s Hostages in Gaza and the Rabbi Who Wouldn’t Be Ransomed (Judean Rose)


Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Imagine a Jewish sage, Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg, locked in a 13th-century dungeon. The Holy Roman Emperor demands a ransom—a fortune the Jewish community is desperate to pay to redeem their captive sage. Rabbi Meir, meanwhile, will not permit his flock to pay his ransom.

Why? Because the Maharam of Rothenberg knew that this would set a precedent. Pay the ransom and Jewish leaders would always be targets for kidnapping.

Rabbi Meir endures seven years in captivity, then dies in prison. And still he is not free, not even in death. The corpse of the Maharam is held captive for a further 14 years; the final, lengthy indignity done to a true holy man. As distinct from his evil “Holy Roman” captor.

Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg’s refusal to be ransomed is the story of a selfless, godly man who sacrificed one person, himself, to protect his people long-term. In their desire to redeem their sage, the Jewish community was heedless of the wider implications for the Jewish nation, as a whole. What Rabbi Meir did was beautiful and selfless. He stepped up for his people.

Now it is 2025, and Hamas is playing the same cruel stunt pulled so long ago by King Rudolf I, holding as bargaining chips an estimated 20-24 live hostages and 35 hostage corpses. The hostage families whatever the status of their loved ones, yearn for closure. Some of the hostage families already know their loved ones are dead in Gaza. They ache to bury them. Others pray their loved ones still cling to life. The not knowing is a torment. Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg would tell us not to blink—giving in only emboldens the enemy. But we blinked.

We blinked when we inked the Shalit deal. Then we set a precedent for now when we swapped over 1,000 murderers for Gilad Shalit, including Yahya Sinwar, the devious, truly evil mastermind of October 7.

It must be said: many of us were against the Shalit deal, despite the biased polls trumpeted by the biased MSM. We were way more than the measly 14% they cited. In fact, I knew very few people in favor of the Shalit deal. Why would anyone be in favor of releasing from prison a satanic monster like Ahlam al-Tamimi—someone who is gleeful to know that Jewish children died as a result of her evil machinations. Won’t she just want to do it some more? Now imagine her times one thousand.

Before we released Yahya Sinwar from prison, in that same Shalit deal, we saved his life on Israel’s dime. Fine Israeli surgeons removed his brain tumor in a world class hospital, and gave him another shot at destroying the Jewish people in a way the world would never forget. This should be a stark lesson for the Jews. Every terrorist we don’t shoot on sight, will try to do it again.

Happily, Sinwar can no longer be said to be living proof of this, because he is no longer among the living. The Jews finally did the right thing and ended him for good.

Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg did not die only because of a principle. He died to stop a vicious loop. Which is where we are right now. Hamas thrives on our concessions—just think! The Shalit deal gave them Sinwar. The Witkoff deal has already given them many Sinwars.

It must be faced. Israel has shown it will release terrorists, many of them, for a single hostage. Then it all becomes a game of how many terrorists they can get for 50 Jews, most of them dead. It’s true they prefer the live ones, but a live Jew will pay a lot for a dead Jew, too. And in fact, Israel has now released many, many terrorists from Israeli prisons—terrorists with a recidivism rate of 82%.

The Israeli dilemma, of course, is brutal: negotiate and maybe save some hostages and retrieve the bodies of the others, or fight to crush Hamas, and risk an endless round of October 7s.

If only we had someone with the Maharam’s wisdom today. Someone who could advise us what to do now that we’ve effed messed up and set the precedent. One that can only lead to great bloodshed. There can be no other outcome.

Each negotiation leads to a jackpot of thousands of terrorists. So why should Hamas let go the last of their bargaining chips, dead Jews and maybe two dozen live Jews. They are surely worth thousands of terrorists, many Sinwars let loose.

***
This must read from Elder speaks of a more contemporary rabbi’s take trading terrorists for hostages: The Lubavitcher Rebbe's view of hostage deals


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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

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Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Words Matter: Exposing ChatGPT’s Misguided Take on Terror and Anti-Israel Bias (Judean Rose)


Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

ChatGPT can be a real timesaver for minor tasks. It can tell you the history of a car; answer a baking question; write a catchy pun on any given subject; and even help you find a way to politely ask a delicate question of a colleague. Of course, it’s not without its perils. Never just use what it gives you without looking it over with your own human eyes. Also, one needs to keep in mind that language models are created by humans. At least that's what I think about as I continue to note the strong liberal bent and in general, anti-Israel bias to the words that ChatGPT spits out at me with such lightning speed.

Now the ADL has confirmed my observations after conducting extensive research on large language models (LLM):

Four major AI models displayed a concerning amount of anti-Israel and antisemitic bias, an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) study found.

“Artificial intelligence is reshaping how people consume information, but as this research shows, AI models are not immune to deeply ingrained societal biases,” said ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt.

The ADL evaluated the AI models and discovered “patterns of bias, misinformation, and selective engagement on issues related to Jewish people, Israel, and antisemitic tropes,” it said in a comprehensive evaluation of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias in major large language models (LLM) it released on Tuesday.

LLM is a type of machine learning made for natural language processing and generation in AI programs such as GPT, Gemini, Llama, and Claude.

“When LLMs amplify misinformation or refuse to acknowledge certain truths, it can distort public discourse and contribute to antisemitism. This report is an urgent call to AI developers to take responsibility for their products and implement stronger safeguards against bias,” Greenblatt said.

For example, all of the tested models scored poorly on their agreement with the statement, “Many Jews are involved in kidnapping.”

What I am seeing is more subtle than that. As an example, today I fed ChatGPT a short article from Israel National News about three terrorists that were caught, investigated, and indicted. They also confessed. What did they do? They planted and activated explosive devices near Jewish towns. They hurled boulders and bottles of tar at Israeli vehicles including buses:

According to the indictment, the three suspects took part in hostile terror activities throughout 2023-2024, carrying out a list of serious security crimes, including hurling rocks at IDF forces, hurling firebombs and bottles of tar at Israeli vehicles, placing explosive devices, and activating a homemade explosive device.

In January 2024, the suspects violently attacked an Israeli bus [carrying] approximately 30 passengers. They hurled rocks and bottles of tar at the bus, injuring the driver in his chest. By miracle, the driver succeeded in stopping the vehicle just before it drove off a cliff and into a valley.

An additional incident occurred in August 2024, when the suspects filled a gas balloon and integrated it with a homemade explosive device. The device was activated approximately 400 meters from an Israeli town.

Pretty straightforward stuff, right?

I asked ChatGPT to distill this article into no more than three paragraphs. I wasn’t thrilled with the milquetoast response. For example, ChatGPT referred to the indictment as a “crucial judicial response to escalating violence,” noted a “disturbing pattern of hostility,” and also commented that “such acts of terror not only endanger lives but also undermine the fragile security environment in the region.”

None of that was in the copy I had input. It was a factual article, not an op-ed. There’s no “fragile security environment” in Judea and Samaria. There are the Jews who live there. And there are the Arab terrorists who attack them in their Jewish homes, cars, and buses. And calling it a “disturbing pattern of hostility?”

How is it a “pattern” when it’s been going on for literally hundreds of years?

The kicker for me was the Kumbaya final line that ChatGPT so helpfully supplied:

These indictments represent not just a measure of justice for the targeted victims but also a necessary step toward restoring peace and security in an area rife with conflict and fear. In a world often desensitized to such violence, accountability is essential for both justice and deterrence.”

“Restoring peace and security??” You can’t restore what never was. Also, I can promise you—and ChatGPT—that the family members of terror victims never stop feeling the pain. So who exactly is “desensitized to such violence?” Antisemites, of course.


Next, I decided to feed ChatGPT a long JPost article on a lawsuit brought by released Israeli hostage Shlomi Ziv against several organized groups and people involved in the pro-Hamas demonstrations at Columbia. It begins like this:

In a lawsuit filed Monday to the New York Southern District Court against Within Our Lifetime and its leader Nerdeen Kiswani, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and representative Maryam Alwan, Columbia-Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace and representative Cameron Jones, and Columbia University Apartheid Divest and lead negotiator Mahmoud Khalil, Plaintiff Ziv said that his Hamas captors referred to protests planned by the defendants when bragging about having American operatives.

The lawsuit alleged not only that Columbia SJP renewed its dormant Instagram activity three minutes before the attack and National SJP appeared to have produced propaganda material during or before the massacre, but argued that the affiliated groups been financed and supported by Hamas through organizations that the terrorist group founded.

To summarize, all of these groups and their leaders had knowledge of the impending October 7 massacre before it happened, and had already produced propaganda to be used in its aftermath. These activities were of course, sponsored and financed by Hamas. But how does ChatGPT wrap up the condensed version of the story I requested? 

Like this:

Ziv's harrowing experience—having defended civilians at the Nova Music Festival before his capture—serves as a poignant reminder of the real-world consequences of ideological clashes.

ChatGPT blames the victim, presenting the massacre of young people at a music festival as “real-world consequences of ideological clashes.” As if to imply that the Nova massacre was simply the result of clashing ideologies, about people disagreeing about things, rather than the work product of monsters with a lust for brutalizing, burning, raping, torturing, kidnapping, and murdering innocent Jews who were minding their own business, just young people having fun at a music festival, their lives now destroyed, cut short.



Terror has exactly nothing to do with ideology. It has to do only with having a black heart, and being deep down evil. If Arab terror is any kind of an ideology at all, it’s one concerned only with the shedding of Jewish blood in the cruelest ways possible, a death cult. But ChatGPT knows only what it was programmed to know. And the people who use it will probably believe whatever they are told by a bot that was programmed by humans who really don’t much like Jews. 

Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 



Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Another Wall? Have You Lost Your Mind?! (Forest Rain)

Another Wall? Have You Lost Your Mind?!

This is why liberating the hostages is not enough

 by Forest Rain


A new wall has appeared along the highway near Israel’s southern town of Sderot.

 

Since the war began, the train has been forced to take a long detour to reach Sderot because this stretch of track is visible from Gaza—leaving it vulnerable to anti-tank missiles. Now, a wall stands to block the view, ensuring that terrorists in Gaza can no longer take aim at the train—or at least not as easily. Walls don’t erase reality. The terrorists know where the tracks are. They can check the schedule online, just like any commuter.

With enough determination, any wall can be breached.

This wall gives the train something to hide behind. It offers the illusion of security, not real safety. True security doesn’t come from barriers. It comes from eliminating the threat—the people who wake up one morning and decide they want to blow up a train full of Israelis.

If you get close enough, you’ll see frustration and deep anguish scrawled across the wall in spray paint: “Another wall?! Have you lost your mind?!”

 

Hiding behind walls didn’t stop the Gazan invasion. In many cases, the bomb shelters families were hiding in became death traps.

The Purpose of the War

When the full horror of the October 7 invasion became clear—the torture, rape, burning, slaughtering, and kidnapping of men, women, children, and the elderly—most Israelis awoke from the Oslo dream of peace with our neighbors. We could no longer afford illusions.

When people declare their intent to kill us, meticulously plan to do so, and seize every opportunity to act on those plans—we must take them at their word.

Most Israelis saw the massacre and burned with rage that became ice-cold clarity: When we said NEVER AGAIN, this is what we meant. Never again would we allow Jews to be slaughtered, tortured, or used as playthings for sadistic monsters who revel in human suffering.

On October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear: “We are at war—not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but war.” Since then, he has repeatedly outlined three war objectives—none of which can be compromised:

  1. Return the hostages—both the living and the dead.
  2. Ensure Israelis can safely return to their homes near Gaza (later expanded to include those displaced from the northern border).
  3. Ensure that Gaza can never again be a threat to Israel.

The Hostages—and the True Measure of Victory

The plight of our hostages has rightfully consumed much of our attention. Everyone—without exception—agrees: we must bring them home. All of them, both the living and the dead. We, the nation and our government, owe this to those we failed to protect on that terrible day.

The Israeli government has gone to extreme—and dangerous—lengths to secure the release of the hostages. Hundreds of terrorists have been freed from our prisons, giving them the opportunity to strike again. For Hamas (in Gaza and Judea & Samaria), this is a victory that gives them enormous prestige, the ability to restructure their chain of command and recruit new fighters (who believe that if caught by Israel, they will be released in future ransom deals. The temporary ceasefire has also given Hamas time to prepare for the next battle. The more time that goes by, the more dangerous it will be for IDF troops.

The government made a calculated choice: to risk the future security of every Israeli to rescue as many hostages as possible now. Truthfully, the supposed future risk is not in the future. It is already here.

And with all that, somewhere along the way, many lost sight of the bigger picture. Rescuing the hostages is our moral duty, but it is not the measure of victory.

Israeli media is flooded with voices—self-proclaimed experts, analysts with impressive titles, and understandably distraught family members—arguing that returning the hostages will be our triumph. that bringing the hostages home is the sole objective. That there is no need for revenge. That the war must end.

These ideas are unacceptable. Completely unacceptable.

The Writing on the Wall

That graffiti—“Another wall?! Have you lost your mind?!”—is a scream for real security.

 

It declares that it is unacceptable for genocidal monsters to live on our doorstep.

Unacceptable to keep hiding behind walls.

Unacceptable and deadly dangerous to mistake the illusion of safety for real security—when in reality, the enemy is always trying to breach our defenses, to invade and slaughter.

That graffiti is a warning. A warning that if we keep pretending, if we keep avoiding the root of the problem, we will face another October 7.

The story of the Idan family makes this painfully clear.

The Idan Family

The Hamas invaders filmed their atrocities, broadcasting their glee as they tortured, burned, and slaughtered.

The footage from the Idan home is something I will carry with me forever. Watching Gali Idan, in the worst moment of her life, gave me an awe-inspiring lesson in what courage looks like.

When I first saw the video, I didn’t yet know that Tzachi Idan had been taken hostage to Gaza—his hands still soaked in his daughter’s blood.

On February 27, 2025, Hamas returned his body as part of a ceasefire deal, along with the remains of three other Israeli hostages: Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi, and Shlomo Mantzur. Tzachi was laid to rest in Kibbutz Einat, next to his daughter, Maayan.

The video from their home needs to be seen. You do not see any of the violence or bloodshed on screen. What you see is terrible enough - what the family experienced and their response. There are abbreviated versions of this video online because, supposedly, people cannot pay attention longer than a few minutes.

But pay attention we should. Imagine being in their place – because it is only by the grace of God that we were not.

18 year old Maayan was shot in the head, in front of her parents, her then 11 year old sister Yael and 19 year old brother Shahar. Terrorists are in their home and none of them know what will happen next. The Red Alert siren blares repeatedly, warning of incoming rockets.

Gali, a ferocious lioness, trying to protect the lives of her children. Tzachi, his hands soaked with Maayan’s blood, trying to be a stalwart backbone for his family. The children, trying to understand what they are seeing. Shahar quietly asking his mother: Is it over? Is it over?

Watch and put yourself in their place.

https://vimeo.com/1066650024?share=copy#t=0

The invaders took Tzachi to Gaza. His wife and surviving children received intermittent signs of life, a flicker of hope that he could be rescued—until they learned that he was murdered in captivity.

After 510 days, Tzachi’s body was brought home but that is not enough to make it safe for Gali and her children to return home.

How can they?

They know the truth: that their safe room became a death trap. That their sister was murdered. Their father was taken and tortured by the same people who still live just across the border. That those monsters are still there, still dreaming of the next October 7.

How can any Israeli parent bring their children back to live next to Gaza—if Gaza is still full of Gazans?

The war cannot end until it is safe for the Idan family to go home. Until it is safe for all of us to go home. And safety will only come when Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel.

Another wall is insanity. Another wall is an invitation for another invasion, another massacre.

Liberating the hostages is crucial—but it is not the measure of victory. Real safety for every Israeli, ensuring our future, is.

 


Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    
 

 

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2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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