Kamala Harris Invokes Godwin's Law; Walz Jumps Right In (Judean Rose)

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

Kamala Harris didn’t actually call Trump a Nazi, but she might as well have. Echoing allegations by disgruntled Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, she declared that Donald Trump wants a military that will be "loyal to him personally" and "obey his orders even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the constitution of the United States."

Vice President Kamala Harris continued on, saying, "It is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans. All of this is further evidence for the American people of who Donald Trump really is."

And there it is, Godwin’s Law. The longer the election dragged on, the more inevitable it had been that someone would bring in the Holocaust. Not in the sort of, “We must never forget the Holocaust,” kind of way, but in the sort of, “He’s the author of the Final Solution, Adolf Hitler himself,” kind of way.

Harris running mate Tim Walz was happy to run with it, remarking that Trump’s alleged comment regarding Hitler’s generals “makes me sick as hell.”

“Folks, the guardrails are gone. Trump is descending into this madness — a former president of the United States and the candidate for president of the United States says he wants generals like Adolf Hitler had,” said Walz, who has lied about his military service.

Walz said he was a retired command sergeant major, but he wasn’t. He claimed he carried weapons “in war,” but never saw combat. In truth, he skipped out on his battalion only months before they were deployed to Iraq. J.D. Vance, among many others, condemned these falsehoods as “stolen valor.”

This is something to keep in mind when weighing the credibility of those Walz “orange Hitler”-style slurs. But it gets worse with Walz. Much worse, in this Jewish writer’s opinion.

From The Hill:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, compared former President Trump’s Sunday rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden in to a 1939 pro-Nazi event.

“Donald Trump’s got this big rally going at Madison Square Garden,” Walz said at an event in Henderson, Nev. “There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid-1930s at Madison Square Garden.”

An American Nazi Party held a rally at Madison Square Garden in February 1939 that lured 20,000 supporters to the iconic New York City landmark.

“And don’t think that he doesn’t know for one second exactly what they’re doing there,” Walz said.

When Walz speaks, he draws a picture. We can see that pro-Hitler rally in our minds. It hits you right in the kishkes.

Up next is Hillary Clinton. The former (failed) 2016 presidential candidate picked off where Walz left off, continuing on with the same “Trump is a Nazi” narrative, claiming that Trump with this rally was reenacting the infamous Nazi rally, held in that very same space. “Trump [is] actually re-enacting the Madison Square Garden rally in 1939,” said Clinton to CNN’s Kaitlin Collins.

“President Franklin Roosevelt was appalled that neo-Nazis, fascists in America were lining up to essentially pledge their support for the kind of government that they were seeing in Germany,” said Former President Clinton’s wife never-to-be-president Clinton.

"It is clear from John Kelly's words that Donald Trump is someone who I quote 'certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.' Who in fact, vowed to be a dictator on day one, and vowed to use the military as his personal militia to carry out his personal and political vendetta,'" said Clinton.

Harris, meanwhile, is not better than Walz or Clinton, only more boring—she doesn't believe her own rhetoric but is determined to get to the top with her gleaming eyes and maniacal laugh. She’s not even original. In fact, she’s a yawn. And frankly, unintelligent. 

“I invite you to listen and go online to listen to John Kelly … who has told us Donald Trump said, why — essentially, ‘Why aren’t my generals like those of Hitler’s, like Hitler.'

 “The American people deserve to have a president who encourages healthy debate … and certainly not comparing oneself in a clearly admiring way to Hitler.

“This is a serious, serious issue. And we know who he is. He admires dictators.

“The American people deserve to have a president who encourages healthy debate, works across the aisle, not afraid of good ideas wherever they come from, but also maintains certain standards about how we think about the role and the responsibility, and certainly not comparing oneself in a clearly admiring way to Hitler.”

Asked if Trump were a fascist, Harris' bluffed right on through. “Yes, I do,” she said. “Yes, I do.”

There was something in her smile. Something sly in it for that tiny split second.

Well, what else could Kamala Harris, famous for her word salads, do to win at this point but smear her opponent? She wants to be president, but has done so little to articulate her policies. Or rather, she’s articulated many words that go good with Thousand Island dressing.

As November 5 draws nearer, Harris seems to have stopped even trying to outline what it is she intends to do if elected president. Instead, she has begun this slow crescendo of hateful tropes, each day ranting and raving about Donald Trump ever more vigorously, insistently and repeatedly telling us that Trump is a very bad person.

There is a name for this. It’s called negative campaigning. Whether or not smearing one’s opponent is an effective strategy is up for debate, but it certainly seems the coward’s way out of articulating an actual policy. Something Harris can’t and hasn’t done.

We have seen Kamala Harris a lot these past weeks, Tim Walz, less so. I think they hide him. He’s scary. He has crazy eyes. And I did not like the look of hatred that flashed on his face, that downturn of the mouth when Walz was asked by a reporter about the hostages in Gaza—it was so quick I had to watch the exchange a few times to confirm it. Then the mask came down and Walz was Mister Friendly Guy once more—all smiley like he didn’t hear the reporter’s question. But we all saw it. I saw it. I saw Mr. Evil Man rear his ugly head for that little almost undetectable blip in time.

I dread the thought of Walz in a position of influence. Kamala is a power-hungry puppet who will not be kind to Israel should she win, but she is too stupid to craft or carry out policy, and that’s where others come in.

Will Walz distinguish himself as an advisor? Will he have a voice? More likely Walz is a signal to Israel-hating voters: Here is someone in Kamala’s corner.

Someone who hates the Jews.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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Biden Calls October 7th a “dark day for the Palestinian people” (Judean Rose)

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

Joe Biden could not have chosen to end his statement commemorating the first anniversary of October 7 in a more inappropriate manner. “I believe that history will also remember October 7th as a dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day.”

A dark day for the Palestinian people? Really Joe? Really??

Of all the things to say on a day marking pogroms against the Jewish people so depraved and vicious it is an obscenity to describe them. October 7^th didn’t happen to just any people and it certainly didn’t happen to the “Palestinian” people. The events that took place on October 7^th happened to the Jews.* It was arguably the single darkest day in Jewish history, the darkest day the Jewish people have ever known.

But it seems Jewish tragedy is fair game for a crooked hack like Joe Biden to exploit for his own gain and/or nefarious pleasure. Because one thing cannot be in doubt. If we know the facts, Joe Biden knows them too.

And the facts are this: On that “dark day,” regular “Palestinian people” stormed the fence and came flooding into Israel just like the “real” terrorists, killing, raping, maiming, and burning Jews alive.

 

The Free Beacon’s Andrew Tobin wrote of this massive civilian assist to the terrorists on October 24, 17 days after that “dark day for the Palestinian people” occurred (emphasis added):

As Hamas terrorists carried out a highly choreographed massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, they received a source of support that amplified the horror that took place that day. A mob of ordinary Palestinians spontaneously joined in what became the deadliest pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust, according to videos, eyewitness accounts, and the Israel Defense Forces.

Whereas the Hamas terrorists wore uniforms and carried military-grade weapons, the Gazans who followed them into the Jewish state were dressed as civilians and mostly unarmed, two officials from Israel's devastated Gaza border region said. Young men with knives, overweight dads, and at least one elderly man on crutches were among those who exploited Hamas's rampage to create a second wave of carnage that rivaled the barbarism of the professional terrorists.

The IDF declined to provide details about non-Hamas Gazans’s involvement in the Oct. 7 attack. But IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that large numbers of Gazans who were not members of any terrorist group entered Israel and participated in the atrocities.

"They did what you say they did," Conricus said.

Gadi Yarkoni, mayor of the Eshkol Regional Council, which serves most of the Gaza border communities, told Tobin that there was no difference between the Gaza civilians who raped, burned, and murdered Jews and their Hamas “terrorist” counterparts (emphasis added):

"The second wave of Arabs who came into the country were just as cruel as the terrorists of the first wave. We saw that it was not only Hamas who came to slaughter us. It was all the residents of Gaza, including people who worked in our kibbutzim.

"I saw a scene where a Gazan civilian chopped off a man's head. It took him several attempts to detach the head from the body," said Yarkoni.

There is ample footage of these “ordinary” Gazans looting, killing, and assisting the “terrorists” in kidnapping Israeli civilians including women and children.

Security footage from 7/10 shows ordinary Gaza citizens entering Be'eri and mass looting the Kibbutz. pic.twitter.com/lvgaC05uxJ

— The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome (@TheMossadIL) October 16, 2023

These “not terrorist” Gazans, including their “not terrorist” children, cheered, jeered, and praised Allah as Jews were brutalized and defiled in ways not seen before. They, the “not terrorists,” burned Jewish homes. “Not terrorists” kicked the dead bodies of the murdered Jews, and “not terrorists” spat on Jewish hostages as they were driven through the streets of Gaza.

If you can stomach it, take a look. (This is actually milder than much of what is out there.)

Tobin also spoke with an eye witness to the bestial acts of “Palestinian people” that day. (emphasis added):

Raz Cohen, a 24-year-old former Israeli commando, saw both Hamas terrorists and ordinary Gazans kill and rape revelers at the Supernova music festival in Re'im, where at least 260 people were slaughtered. After escaping the Hamas terrorists, Cohen hid in a bush with a group of friends for almost seven hours. He watched as a gang of Gazan civilians—men wearing Adidas and armed only with knives and axes—raped and murdered a young Jewish woman.

"While they were raping and killing, they always laughed. I can't forget how they laughed," Cohen told the Free Beacon.

Several members of Cohen's group later ran from the bush and were caught by the same gang of Gazans. He said he heard his friends' screams as they were tortured and stabbed to death.

"You know when you hear the screams of someone who is dying," said Cohen, who was eventually rescued by Israeli soldiers.

We’ve looked at the first part of Joe Biden’s appalling reference to October 7 as a tragedy shared by Jews and “Palestinians.” Now let us examine the rest. Here is the “dark day” comment again, this time with the emphasis on the second part of the sentence:

“I believe that history will also remember October 7th as a dark day for the Palestinian people because of the conflict that Hamas unleashed that day.”

Joe calls the natural response to what happened that day as a “conflict,” as if there were parity between Israeli Jews and Hamas terrorists, Israeli Jews and Gazans. But the IDF is not targeting the “Palestinian” people. The IDF is not doing to the “Palestinian” people what the “Palestinians” did to the Jews on October 7th. Jews and “Palestinians” are not two kids in the sandbox who won’t stop fighting, and who share equal blame for the death and destruction. The Jews are not the aggressors, here.

Joes tries to distract from these facts, by using the word “unleashed.” Translated, Biden blames Israel for making Gaza pay for what Hamas started. It was Hamas that unleashed the violence.

But that’s not true, is it? The horrors unleashed on October 7 were unleashed on Jews by Hamas terrorists and ordinary Gazans alike. To compare the suffering of Jewish Israelis to the subsequent suffering of Gazans is therefore nauseating. The Gazan people support Hamas. They elected Hamas. They raped Jews and burned babies with and alongside Hamas on October 7. They are culpable.

Anyone who wanted to could and did take part in the barbaric cruelty of the “dark day” that was October 7 and that is exactly what the “Palestinian” people did, relishing every dark evil moment.

This is how Biden gives license to a Jew-hating world to hold the Jews responsible for Gazan suffering; to believe that it is somehow unfair for the Gazan people to be forced to bear the onus for the October 7 atrocities.

This is neither a fair nor true characterization of events as Biden well knows. No matter. His comments are all now nicely recorded for posterity.

On the one-year anniversary of October 7, and in the waning days of his demented presidency, Joe Biden still has enough cussed meanness in him to call October 7^th, a “dark day” for the “Palestinian people,” though the ordinary citizens of Gaza stood shoulder to shoulder with the terrorists and attacked the Jews with gusto.

Which leaves us with the question: Who is a terrorist if everyone is a terrorist?

From a moral standpoint, the answer is obvious. It makes no difference if the attackers are Hamas operatives or just plain old, regular “Palestinians.” Terror is terror. And the “Palestinian” people are now reaping the natural consequences of what they sowed on that very dark day for the Jewish people.

*As we know, there are a significant number of migrant workers who were also savaged and or kidnapped on October 7^th. Perhaps in the frenzy, the October 7^th rapists and killers got to a point where they didn’t care who they brutalized. Or perhaps these workers were considered tainted by association with Jews. None of this changes the fact that this day belongs squarely within the confines of Jewish history, alone.

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Panetta’s Double Standards: Unpacking a Legacy of Betrayal and Historical Antisemitism in U.S. Defense Policy (Judean Rose)

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

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta condemned on Sunday the exploding beeper attack on Hezbollah terrorists, referring to the attack—widely thought to be the work of the Israeli Mossad—as “terrorism.” 

“I don’t think there’s any question that it’s a form of terrorism,” said Panetta, someone who’s been around in Washington for a long time. In addition to having served as SecDef under Obama, Panetta served as director of the CIA, also under Obama, and was White House chief of staff under Clinton.

It’s never good when someone with Panetta’s CVs denounces an ally. Characterizing as “terror” a targeted attack on Hezbollah terrorists, however, is nothing short of evil.

Panetta, while speaking with CBS, said he feared that terrorism is “going right into the supply chain.”

“And when you have terror going into the supply chain, it makes people ask the question: ‘What the hell is next?'” added Panetta, who also said that “This is a tactic that has repercussions. And we really don’t know what those repercussions are going to be. The forces of war are largely in control right now.”

“I think it’s going to be very important for the nations of the world to have a serious discussion about whether or not this is an area that everybody has to focus on, because if they don’t try to deal with it now, mark my word, it is the battlefield of the future,” said Panetta.

It’s not the first time Panetta has trashed Israel this year. In April, after the accidental deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza during an Israeli airstrike, Panetta, without waiting for an investigation to be conducted said it was “not surprising” that the aid workers were killed, because  “the Israelis usually fire and then ask questions.”

I would posit that Panetta has selective blindness induced by Jew-hatred. He ignores the fact that 80,000 Israelis have been evacuated due to incessant Hezbollah rocket attacks on their homes in the north since October 8. These are facts of which Panetta would be well aware, being who he is, and who he knows in Washington. Panetta knows that Hezbollah has been attacking Israel all along, and that tens of thousands of Israelis cannot go home. The only way then, to understand his characterization of an ally’s actions as terror is that he is a very evil man who really hates Jews.

Likewise, Panetta ignores the events that led to the deaths of the WCK aid workers, namely the pogroms of October 7th in which Jews were brutalized; the women gang-raped and beheaded; babies burned alive, and captives taken, stolen away from their families and kept in damp, cramped tunnels where there is no oxygen to breathe, and no food to eat. The accidental WCK aid worker deaths were the regrettable collateral damage that is inevitable in war—a war that began when Hamas broke the ceasefire its ceasefire with Israel on October 7th and visited mass atrocities on innocent Israeli civilians, including pregnant women and infants. A war that continues because Hamas refuses to cease fire.

Panetta knows all of this. Yet he pretends that Israel is the aggressor: “The Israelis usually fire and then ask questions.”

Then again, castigating the Jews and the Jewish State is an old Washington tradition. Panetta is not the first secretary of defense to denounce the Jews and Israel. That distinction goes to James Forrestal, who was not only the first U.S. secretary of defense, but in fact held that position in 1948, the year of Israel’s founding. Forrestal was known to be against Partition, and really—against having anything to do with the Jews and their state. The Jews knew it, too. They felt his hatred.

First U.S. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal held the office from 1947-1949 under President Harry Truman

A 1951 JTA piece appeared to confirm what had been all too apparent to the Jews; that James Forrestal hated them. Some excerpts (full pdf below):

Forrestal Diaries Reveal Late Secretary’s Rabid Anti-Zionism, Disregard For U. S. Jews

New York , ( JTA)—Publication this week of extracts of the diaries kept by the late James Forrestal as Secretary of Defense revealed part of the story of the bitter fight within the United States Government on Palestine policy during the crucial days during which the United Nations was debating the fate of the Holy Land.

Forrestal, the diaries disclose, was intensely active in the question and his activities, according to Walter Millis and E. S. Duffield, editors of the diaries, “sprang from bottom from his sense of the immense strategic significance of the Middle East. They took the form of seeking to “lift the Jewish-Palestine question of politics . . .

. . . That Forrestal felt intensely on the Palestine question is shown in his diaries. He complained bitterly that Democratic Party policy on the issue was dictated by the fact that Jews were large contributors to the party campaign funds and he went so far as to charge that the Zionists were putting their Palestine interest above the security of the United States. . .

. . . Forrestal noted a conversation with the then Under Secretary of State Robert A. Lovett whom he quoted as saying that he had never in his life been subject to as much pressure as he had been in the three days prior to the General Assembly vote. He [said that] the zeal and activity of the Jews had almost resulted in defeating the objectives they were after.

Under date of Feb. 3, 1948, Forrestal noted a meeting with Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., in which the Defense Secretary charged the Zionists with subordinating the national security of the United States. “I was forced to repeat to him what I said to Sen. McGrath in response to the latter’s observation that our failure to go along with the Zionist [sic] might lose the states of New York, Pennsylvania and California — that T thought that it was about time that somebody should pay some consideration to whether we might not lose the United States,” the diary noted.

Already in 1947, the Jews had known that in Forrestal, they'd had a powerful enemy in Washington. But Truman didn’t get along with him either, and eventually, in 1949, Truman compelled Forrestal to resign. 

No doubt it was the ignominy of this forced dismissal that led to the decline in Forrestal’s mental state.  Depressed and in need of treatment, the former secretary of defense was admitted to Bethesda Naval Hospital.* It was there that James Forrestal decided to end his evil little, piddly little, Jew-hating life by jumping out a window on the sixteenth floor.

*Known today as the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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Miriam Kresh: Israeli food writer and online cooking coach (Judean Rose)

Miriam Kresh was 17 when she learned to make rice by her mother’s side, in the style of Latin America. Producing the perfect bowl of rice, each grain separate and with the right amount of bite, was for Miriam a revelatory process. The cook needs only to follow the age-old steps, step by step, for flawless results. Miriam did just that, following the steps as she stood alongside her mother, cooking rice. It was in those moments that Venezuelan-born Miriam Kresh, a food writer, cook, and cooking teacher, first encountered kitchen magic.

In the years following that first pot of rice, Miriam, now 70, moved from place to place, living in the United States, Venezuela, and Brazil before making Aliyah in 1976. Today, Miriam Kresh makes her home in Petach Tikvah, Israel. The food she cooks, the recipes she develops and teaches, all reflect her journey, and all of it is delicious.

You don’t have to imagine it—tucked into the following Q&A is a mouthwatering recipe from Miriam’s Kitchen. Miriam Kresh is gracious like that.

Varda Epstein: What can you tell us about your background? You come from an intriguing mix of cultures. 

I was born in Venezuela, of an American dad and Nicaraguan mom. I lived in the States for ten formative years, during which English became my most important language. My parents were cultured, cosmopolitan people who enjoyed cooking and eating foods from many different cuisines. Mom had a fine palate and a fine hand in the kitchen. While cholent and chicken soup were Shabbat standards, she would occasionally produce a sumptuous dish like duck a l’orange. She set a high standard in home cooking, and I’ve done my best to keep it.

Varda Epstein: Who taught you how to cook? How do those early cooking adventures impact on your cuisine and your methods, today? I remember you once telling me that you always have to have a tomato in there, somewhere!

Miriam Kresh: Yes, I love a juicy tomato, but I was probably talking about garlic. I love garlic, to the point where my family and friends make fun of it.

My mother taught me the first dish I ever cooked, when I was age 17. It was rice, Latin American style. Mom taught me to first toast the rinsed, drained rice in a little oil, then add salt and crushed garlic. Next, to stir in boiling water, and cover the pot tightly. Cook at very low heat for 20 minutes until all the water has been absorbed and each grain is separate and tender. Rice made this way goes through frying, seasoning, and steaming. This taught me multiple lessons, not only about flavor, texture, and timing, but also about focus. The essential lesson was to pay attention. Cooking has taught me a lot about mindfulness.

Once I understood that cooking involves a flow of successive stages, learning other dishes was natural. As I became more confident and discovered a certain culinary talent, I made a point of learning from other cooks whose food I admired. Having kept kosher now for 50 years, I’ve learned to adapt certain well-loved dishes from treif to kosher. One example is Brazilian feijoada, a stew of beans and about four kinds of pork. I found substitutes and developed a kosher feijoada that’s pretty darn good, if I say so myself. The recipe was published on the Forward and picked up by the NY Times, who linked to it.

I’ll talk to anyone about food and cooking, and shamelessly solicit recipes. As a food writer and reporter, I’ve had great opportunities to learn from professional chefs. 

Eggplant Stuffed with Bulgur and Herbs (photo: Miriam Kresh)

Varda Epstein: I remember you won the contest for the cooking column at “Green Prophet.” Do you still write there? Where else have your cooking columns appeared? 

Miriam Kresh: I still write for Green Prophet. At the moment, I’m working on a review of The Eucalyptus Cookbook, by Moshe Basson, chef of the famous Jerusalem restaurant bearing that name. The review should appear in Green Prophet by the end of this month (September 2024). My first food writing was self-published: a blog I used to run named Israeli Kitchen. An online magazine called “From The Grapevine” bought the blog – domain, content, and all. I was ready to move on anyway and welcomed the opportunity to sell it. Subsequently, they sold their content to a different online magazine, Jewish Unpacked. My recipes are still online there, and I still get fan mail
from there. I understand that some individual now runs a blog under the name Israeli Kitchen; they never asked permission to use the name.

I’ve had recipes and articles published across the English-language Jewish spectrum, from left-leaning the Forward to the Haredi HaModia. I wrote a chef interview column at the Jerusalem Post for several years, besides features on non-cooking-related issues. Many of my freelance articles appear across the Net. Sometimes I Google my own name and am surprised to find my work copied onto sites I had no idea existed. That’s the way it is.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Shallots and Parmesan (photo and recipe: Miriam Kresh)

 

RECIPE: Roasted Butternut Squash with Shallots and Parmesan

You can easily make this recipe vegan by omitting the cheese and adding 1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar to the olive oil indicated in the recipe.

Some prefer to eat butternut squash with the peel on. It’s perfectly edible, with a crisp/tender texture.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

·        4 cups butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1″ cubes

·        3 medium shallots or 1 large red onion, peeled and cut into medium-sized chunks

·        3/4 cup white flour

·        1/2 teaspoon baking powder

·        1 teaspoon finely chopped dried rosemary, or dried thyme, or za'atar

·        1/2 teaspoon salt

·        1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

·        1/3 cup grated Parmesan, Kashkeval or other aged cheese

·        2 large garlic cloves

·        1/3 cup olive oil

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C).

2.      Put the flour and dry seasonings, except the cheese, in a large bowl.

3.      Dredge the vegetables in the flour/seasoning mixture. Place the pieces on a parchment- lined baking sheet, leaving a little space in between the pieces.

4.      Sprinkle the cheese over the vegetables.

5.      Crush the garlic. Scrape it into a bowl with the oil (and the Balsamic vinegar, if doing this vegan). Drizzle the garlicky oil over the vegetables.

6.      Bake for 30-40 minutes. The butternut squash should be soft and caramelizing slightly.

Varda Epstein: You’re also a dab hand at descriptive writing, with an ongoing series on Substack. Tell us about that, if you would.

Miriam Kresh: I write fantasy fiction, something I’ve always wanted to do, and now have time for. The stack is named Fantastical Fiction. I do my conscientious best to write quirky stories about strange people and strange events…but can’t seem to keep food out of them. Recently I published a short story where a woman goes out to buy butter and meets the Mad Hatter from "Alice in Wonderland."

Varda Epstein: Why did you make Aliyah? What is your general philosophy about Aliyah? Is it something you feel every Jew should do?

Miriam Kresh: My family are Zionists from way back. My Dad, as a youth, did fundraising among American Jewry to buy weapons for the Hagana. My family weren’t 100% religiously observant, but there was always Shabbat, chagim, Hebrew lessons, shul: we were part of the Jewish milieu, wherever we lived.

I made Aliyah from the conviction that Israel is the place where a Jew should live. I was living in Caracas, Venezuela again, in my early twenties. It was a peaceful and prosperous country then. No noticeable antisemitism. The Jewish school had functioned for decades and was still going. Chabad had established a kindergarten and a Kollel. One building in a middle class part of Caracas housed the various youth groups, the Jewish Agency and the Israel National Fund. There was a Jewish social center, a handsome building in a good part of town. A Jewish bookstore, two kosher butchers, at least three shuls that I can remember.

All that’s gone now, under a communist dictatorship. But I couldn’t know that would happen. Nobody could.

What I did know was that I was out of place. The Jewish kids my age were away at university, often abroad, or were getting married. I was a footloose single, feeling empty. I became religiously observant in a search for meaning; became close to other religious families. But I wasn’t fitting in, either too old to be with the cool kids or too young to be comfortable among the marrieds. The more I looked around, the clearer it became that I needed to live not just with Jews, but in Jewish society. To prepare for Aliyah, I read up on Jewish and Israeli history and closely followed current events in Eretz Israel.

Then Entebbe happened. I made a bargain with God: get those Jews home safe, and I’ll make Aliyah. As we know, Yonatan Netanyahu tragically lost his life in that rescue mission; somehow it hardened my determination to get to where being Jewish matters most.

So here I am, all those years later. Now, should every Jew make Aliyah? Historically, Diaspora Jewry has supported Jews in Israel since ancient times and until today. We still need that support. What I say is, yes, send us all kinds of support, we need it – and send your children.

I hope the time comes when every Jew will live here. But doubt it’ll happen in my lifetime. On the third hand - who knows? 

Swiss Chard Stuffed with Potatoes (photo: Miriam Kresh)

 

Varda Epstein: What made you choose Petach Tikvah as your home? What do you like about this city?

Miriam Kresh: I lived for years in Jerusalem, then in Safed. I moved to Petach Tikvah with my late husband and youngest daughter because my aging parents lived here and needed me. My tsadik late husband promised we’d move to be near them when the time came, and it came. Now my folks are gone, and I comfort myself knowing that we were there for them till the end.

Petach Tikvah is a butt for jokes around the country, regarded as an industrial town with no night life, sort of a drab suburb of Tel Aviv. But there are important schools and hospitals here, and between my parents’, my husband’s, and my children’s needs, not to mention my own, I’ve been well served here.

There’s city development with a new eco-consciousness going on all the time. There’s a big movement of hi-tech businesses to Petach Tikvah. The shuk (open-air market) is open every day. The mayor, Rami Greenberg, is accessible and menschlicht. And transportation is good. Don’t mean to sound like a promotional brochure, here… But Petach Tikvah has been good to me. 

Varda Epstein: Aside from writing about food and cooking, you’ve also taught classes. I remember you teaching virtual cooking classes during the pandemic. It was so chill and pleasant. A really lovely break from the fear and isolation. Can you describe how that worked for our readers? What are some of the menus you cooked in tandem with your students?

Miriam Kresh: I began the Israel Cookalong with a clutch of international participants - friends, and friends of theirs. We were all so lonely and bored, being stuck at home. We cooked together in real time, via Zoom, every Sunday. It was safe and fun, like having a party in the kitchen every week. And each had a delicious fresh dish by the end of the session. That version of the Cookalong had a good run of three years. Some people came and went, but a core group formed. We’re all still good friends and stay in touch.

My focus is on Israeli/Mediterranean/North African dishes like humus and majadra (spiced lentils and rice), expanding to fancier foods like artichoke bottoms stuffed with meat and pine nuts, and baklava. I teach a lot about Israeli foodways. My students enjoyed learning about typical culinary herbs and spices - like za’atar, the fresh herb, and za’atar the spice blend, which is based on it.

There was one month when I taught classic Ashkenazi cooking. Blintzes, knishes, kugel, cholent. The week we cooked cholent, my Japanese-American student in Ohio served it to guests. She said they loved it! You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy cholent.

I’m proud of having taught the group a different world of food. But I’m happiest that one nervous participant who thought she’d never master cooking gained the confidence to cook, and cook well. I love knowing that she gained an important life skill through the Cookalong. 

 

Varda Epstein: Tell us about your latest foray into the world of cooking and sharing about food. What are you cooking these days, and with whom?

Miriam Kresh: My new project is a Cookalong for English-speakers in Israel. It’ll be via Zoom, twice a month, on Thursdays. The sessions will be one hour long, sometimes an hour and a half if we’re cooking more than one recipe, or if the recipe is more elaborate than usual.

By popular request, this Israeli Cookalong will be vegetarian, at least in the beginning. That might change, according to the wishes of the group.

The sessions are for pay, but you don’t subscribe to X number of sessions. You just choose which Thursday’s menu appeals to you, and register ahead of time. I send out the monthly menus the first week of the month, and email the recipes by Sunday to give participants time to shop.

I also give private cooking classes, via Zoom. These one-on-one sessions are great, because you get 100% of my attention, and cook the recipes in your own kitchen with me coaching. 

Tajine of Sweet Potatoes and Prunes (photo: Miriam Kresh)

Varda Epstein: What’s your favorite food/dish? 

Miriam Kresh: Now that is a question. There are foods I’ll gladly eat every day, like black beans and rice as my Mom used to cook them. Then I have a weakness for lamb. I’d say my favorite is a festive tajine of lamb cooked in the Moroccan way, with dried fruit, and funky spices like saffron and cumin. But I couldn’t eat it every day! Or even every month. That’s a dish for birthdays and holidays. 

Miriam Kresh

Varda Epstein: What’s next for Miriam Kresh?

Miriam Kresh: The new Israeli Cookalong! Can’t wait to begin. Spoiler alert: the first class of the year will be salmon baked in coconut sauce. While the fish is in the oven, we’ll cook turmeric rice.

I also teach a floating class where participants make homemade condiments, relishes, dips and spreads. That’s available on demand either privately or as an extra session for a group.

Betayavon (bon appetit)! 

 Contact Miriam Kresh at miriamkresh1@gmail.com for full details about the Israeli Cookalong, or to book a private class. Or WhatsApp Miriam at 050-786-7211. Outside of Israel, it’s +972 507-867-211.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

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Losing the Jewish Vote: Trump will be Trump, A Debate Postmortem (Judean Rose)

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

The Trump-Harris debate was on every politically-aware person’s mind for the past month. We heard commentator after commentator weigh in in the run-up to that time: it’s crucial that he focus on substance, and not be, well, Trump, they all said. But we all knew, as did the commentators, that Trump would be Trump.

We hoped that Tulsi Gabbard, who had been enlisted to prepare Trump for the debate, would be a moderating influence. But we knew better. We knew that Trump would be Trump and that there was nothing and no one who could change that.

A lot of people like that about Trump—that he is what he is and doesn’t care what we think of him. But a lot of people don’t like that about Trump. And those are the people he needs to sway—the others were going to vote for him anyway.

I went to bed Monday night, knowing that the debate would begin while I slept here in Israel. I wasn’t upset about that. I only felt down, so sure was I that Trump would be Trump, and that as a result, Israel would have to contend with a hostile Harris-Walz government.

I woke up, and not at all hopeful, caught the tail end of the debate. It was exactly as we all knew it would be. Trump didn’t care how he said what he said, didn’t stop to think how offensive it would be for a Jew to hear from his lips, “Israel will not exist within two years from now.”

This is offensive on so many levels and some of those levels are difficult to express. There’s a visceral recoiling from those words, it’s instinctive, and surely that’s not what Trump wants the undecided Jewish voter to feel right now. Trump thinks he will frighten us into voting for him. In actual fact, the statement gives grave offense to us. We existed before Trump, and we will continue to survive as a nation should he lose, but it would, God forbid, take a toll. A “terrible” toll, as Donald Trump might say.

Still, it’s an alienating thing to say; and if Trump alienates the Jews, they won’t vote for him, and as a result, Harris may win. And that is exactly why I blame Trump for what happened last time. I believe Trump’s bull-in-a-china-shop attitude, at least in part, led to a win for Biden. Trump’s attitude and manner of behavior is every bit as much to blame for the division in America as the politicians who slander anyone who does not agree with them, and the news media and the echo chamber that echo them.

So much of what Trump said was good and true. But the effect of that is destroyed when he says, “I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now” (emphasis added):

[When] she mentions Israel, all of a sudden, she hates Israel. She wouldn't even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers. She went to go to the sorority party. She hates Israel. If she's president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now, I've been pretty good at predictions. I hope I'm wrong about that one.

She hates Israel. At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up. Arabs, Jewish people, Israel, Israel will be gone.

It would have never happened. Iran was broke under Donald Trump. Now, Iran has $300 billion because they took off all the sanctions that I had. Iran had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah or any of the 28 different spheres of terror. And they are spheres of terror, horrible terror."

 

 Is Donald Trump wrong about any of this? Aside from saying Israel won’t exist, he’s probably right. But even if he’s not wrong about any of it, God forbid, that’s not the way to say it. The right way to say this is—as I’m sure Tulsi Gabbard tried to impress upon Trump— “A Harris win poses an existential threat to Israel.”

Would it be so hard for him to say those words instead of the ones that make us bristle?

At the Republican Jewish Coalition summit last week, speaking to a Jewish audience, it was even worse, and at the same time, even better. Trump expanded on what he would do to help Israel were he to win. He listed many good things he has done in the past and also all the good things he will do for Israel and the world should he win the election. Many, many good things.

Unlike at the debate, Trump’s words at the RJC summit were heartening and hopeful in many respects. At the same time, it’s upsetting to see how Trump sabotages his own campaign, likely losing the Jewish vote again, only for his refusal to speak like a human being instead of like an ape.  

The RJC speech, on balance, is very fine, and worth reading in full, as I found out when I read over the transcript I cobbled together from YouTube auto-generated text. If it weren’t for the threats and childish nicknames he slings at his opponents, the good would outweigh the bad, and Trump would have many more Jewish votes in his pocket. But Trump can’t seem to help himself—or rather, doesn’t care enough about Israel and the Jews—to even try to speak and comport himself with enough moderation to tip the scales in his favor (emphasis added):

Take a look at what's happening with that whole group. Harris Biden Administration has sought to cast blame for these deaths on Israel. They have not been your friends. I don't understand how anybody can support them and I say it constantly, if you had them to support, and you were Jewish, you have to have your head examined. They have been very bad to you, let me state this very clearly; the blame for these wicked murders lies with Hamas and Hamas alone.

Only an evil and inhuman, really inhuman ideology, kidnaps, tortures, and murders innocent men, women, and children, and likewise, only a deeply sick political party here in America would make common cause with those who sympathize with such evil, and they are, there's nobody been close, closer than this group of people, radical left people running for office right now, and they're not going to win because they can't win, because we wouldn't have a country any longer and then Israel would not have an ally. That I can tell you and only a morally rotten president and vice president would seek to blame Israel for heinous acts of terror committed against its own citizens.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are a disgrace to your nation and to my nation. If Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden are looking for another cause for this crisis, they should do nothing more than look in the mirror: they are the cause. They gave you no support. They gave Israel no support.

The October 7th attack on Israel would never have happened if I was president. Zero chance. It was not going to happen, just like the disaster in Afghanistan would never have happened, and frankly the invasion of Ukraine by Russia would not have happened. Happen this November, we're going to replace weakness with strength; cowardice with courage and clarity; and war with peace. We're going to tell Comrade Kamala Harris, “You're fired.”

[Applause]

Thank you. 

Now we have no choice in doing so. You'll never survive if they get in and our country America will never survive if they get in.

When I left office, America was safe. Israel was safe. The Jewish people were safe, and the whole world was at peace. Under my leadership, we obliterated the Isis caliphate. 100% done. We did it in four weeks. It was supposed to take five years I did it in four weeks, and it was done, over.

I withdrew from the horrendous Iran nuclear deal, and imposed the toughest ever sanctions on the regime. Iran was weak. Iran was broke. They had no money and they wanted to make a deal.

As president, I withdrew from the antisemitic United Nations Human Rights Council, which is terrible, absolutely terrible.

I defunded the Palestinian Authority and choked off the money to Hamas, and we actually defunded that. We were paying them a fortune every year. The United was States was paying a fortune, and I said we're not going to pay, they're not our friends, and not the friend of Israel.

I recognized Israel's eternal capital and opened the American Embassy in Jerusalem, something which every president said they were going to do, and they never did it. I got it done, and I also got the embassy built. Somebody else would have never gotten it built.

I also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights was a big thing. We were talking to a lot of people. I got it done in 15 minutes. They've been negotiating it for 52 years. Nothing was ever going to happen without me.

With the historic Abraham Accords, we made peace in the Middle East. We had wonderful support, and had I been president for the remainder of that, the time that we're talking about, this year, period. Everybody, every country virtually, would have been signed into the Abraham Accords whereas Biden and Harris have done nothing. Nobody signed.

So, here at home, American Jews felt safe on our streets and college campuses when I was president, and we kept radical Islamic terrorists out of our country. They were out. They weren't allowed to come in, but all of that changed with Comrade Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden in the White House.

Harris restored funding to the Palestinian Authority and even much more money than they were being paid before; and the UN Relief and Works Agency, which both funnel money now to Hamas, and they funnel a lot of money to Hamas, and nobody knows that better than you.

She supported removing the Houthis, to list—we had a terror list that was really, uh, very important for them to be on that terror list, and she took them off the terror list, a group whose motto includes the words “Death to America, Death to Israel” and “A curse on the Jews.”

This is their motto and they don't want them on a terror list.

Kamala Harris helped deliver over $100 billion in sanctions relief to Iran. Gave him all the money. They gave him $6 billion for hostages. They gave them money that Iran never expected—never, never could have made—and now because of them, in three and a half years they've got $350 billion.

When I was there they had no money. They wanted to make a deal, and we would have had a deal very easily if the election turned out the way it should have turned out, frankly, but the regime used it to expand its terror brigades and to fund Hamas. Iran was doing that, and funding them at a level that nobody thought even possible.

Kamala Harris is the candidate of the forces who want to destroy Western civilization and Israel. I am the candidate of those who want to defend Western civilization; defend Israel; and defend of course, the United States of [Applause] America. When I'm president, the United States will once again stand shoulder to shoulder with the State of Israel.

I will support Israel's right to win its war on terror and we will win fast. You have to win, and you have to win fast. We will restore stability and peace in the Middle East, and we will be using a phrase that's been used by some very great leaders over the years, including Ronald Reagan. “Peace through strength.”

You will have peace through strength.

If Kamala Harris wins, terrorist armies will wage an unceasing war to drive Jews out of the Holy Land and you know it, and we've had a great relationship with Israel, but I can say honestly that we got 25% of the vote, we got 26% after four years, after I did more for Israel than any other president by far, and this year we're probably around a 50% mark.

But I only ask you who are the 50% of Jewish people that are voting for these people that hate Israel and don't like the Jewish people, why are they, why are they voting, why? How do they exist?

Iran and his proxies will spread bloodshed and death all around the globe, and as she continues to set the world on fire, Kamala Harris will support unlimited migration from terrorist hotbeds into the United States, and will totally abandon Israel. You're going to be abandoned if she becomes president, and I think you have to explain that to your people because they don't know it, they have no idea what they're getting into.

You're not going to have an Israel if they become, if she becomes president Israel will no longer exist. When I'm president we will deport the foreign Jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters from our midst. We don't want them in our midst, thank you very much, thank you. If you hate America, if you want to eliminate Israel, then we don't want you in our country.

[Applause]

I will ban refugee settlements from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip. We will arrest the pro-Hamas thugs who vandalize federal property, and I will put every single college president on notice. The American taxpayer will not subsidize the creation of terrorist sympathizers on American soil. Colleges will and must end the antisemitic propaganda or they will lose their accreditation and federal support. No money will go to them if they [Applause] don't.

In the Republican Party, we know that militant antisemitism and support for terror have no place in a civilized society. They have no place. We must reject antisemitism in our schools; reject it in our foreign policy; reject it in our immigration system; and reject it at the ballot box this November.

You must get Jewish people or people that love Israel, you must get them to vote for Republican {sic].

You must get them to vote for Trump, and if you don't, you're not going to have a country. I am telling you I've been very good at predicting things. You will not have a country. This is a radical left Marxist that we have running, you will not have a country.

With your vote, we will defend our citizens. We will defend our values; and we will defend our country America; and Israel will be respected [Applause] again.

We will deliver low taxes; low regulations; low energy costs; low interest rates; and low inflation. We will stop the invasion, end migrant crime; support our police; strengthen our military; build a missile defense shield like you have, slightly larger; keep critical race theory and transgender insanity out of our schools; and keep men out of women's sports in our country.

[Music]

We will defend the Second Amendment; restore free speech; and we will secure our elections. In everything we do, I will put America first. I will keep America safe, and I will work with you to make sure that Israel is with us for thousands of years. We're not going to let go of it.

If they win, Israel is gone. Just remember that if they win, Israel is gone. You can forget about Israel. That's what's going to happen, so they have to get out on November 5^th, and they have to vote for Trump. If they don't I think it's going to be a very terrible situation.

We're going to make America great again. We're going to, frankly, help Israel become great again. Right now, what you're going through is horrible, that you have to go through that, with all the death, destruction, and waste, and ruining a civilization. 

You have to go on. You have to win, but you need a partner. You can never have that partner if these radical Marxists win the election, so I thank you, and God bless Israel, God Bless America, I'll see you soon, thank you very much.

As stated in his speech, the list of good things Trump would do for us is detailed and it is long. And many of us know that Trump would do each and every one of these good things for Israel and for the world. We know and we believe that he would defund every bad and evil influence possible; the gross George Soros people persecuting Jewish youth on campus; UNRWA; Iran. He’d defund them all, Trump would.

But first he has to get into office. And I fear that last night, with his threatening remarks at the debate, Trump has lost the election yet again, by alienating Jewish voters, put off by his off-putting words. Trump would have been smart, instead, to learn from the closing remarks of Douglas Murray when he faced off against Mehdi Hassan in June: 

The Jewish State and the Jewish people have survived an awful lot worse than this. They have seen off every single one of their enemies, from Pharaoh to the Abyssinians, to the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans. They will see off Hamas. They will see off Mehdi, and they will outlive everybody in this [Applause] room.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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The Very Heavens Wept for Our Six (Judean Rose)

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

It was a drear Sunday morning when we heard the news that Hamas had executed six hostages, among them American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Israeli Parents struggled to put on a brave face as they readied their excited children for the first day of school. Teachers had to smile and pretend they were happy as they welcomed students into classrooms all over Israel. For the most part, the rest of us had no need to hide our sadness. Even the sky was sad—it drizzled, an almost unheard of phenomenon at this time of year. I was not the only one who remarked that the heavens were crying for our dead.

On that mournful morning, all of Israel shared the pain. We suffered together all at once, a nation depressed, beset by collective grief. There’s unity in that. But it’s not a good kind of unity. It’s a unity that palpably hurts.

There’s the pain of the loss; the way it happened; and the fact that we were so close to getting them home. Then too, by now we felt we knew them. We knew their faces and names. They were a part of us now, especially Hersh, whose parents had fought so hard for him with their very visible efforts to spread word of the plight of their beautiful son, the boy with the dark curls and impish grin who suffered so hard for 330 days.

We were hurting, and even more, we hurt for the families, knowing that our pain was as nothing compared to what they were now experiencing; pain beyond our imagination. Perhaps that’s why US President Joe Biden’s words fell so flat. “I am devastated and outraged,” he said, the words contrasting strangely with his history vis-à-vis Israel and his Middle East policy in general; the hampering of Israel’s defensive war, and the funding of Iran, which in turns funds Hamas.

The very next day, of course, Biden turned around and blamed the execution of Jews on the Jews themselves, via the man who represents them, Netanyahu.

Kamala Harris' public reaction to the six hostage deaths, in contrast with Biden's brief statement, was long, careful, and noncommittal—so balanced it was almost a refutation that what happened to Hersh was in any way special in proportion to the thousands of dead in Gaza. Stuff happened to Israelis, she seemed to say, but also to the people of Gaza (emphasis added):

On October 7, Hersh Goldberg-Polin—an American citizen—was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. He was just 23 years old, attending a music festival with friends. We now know he was murdered by Hamas. His body was recovered today in the tunnels under Rafah, along with five other hostages.

Doug and my prayers are with Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, Hersh’s parents, and with everyone who knew and loved Hersh. When I met with Jon and Rachel earlier this year, I told them: You are not alone. That remains true as they mourn this terrible loss. Americans and people around the world will pray for Jon, Rachel, and their family and send them love and strength. As is said in the Jewish tradition, may Hersh’s memory be a blessing.

Hamas is an evil terrorist organization. With these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands. I strongly condemn Hamas’ continued brutality, and so must the entire world. From its massacre of 1,200 people to sexual violence, taking of hostages, and these murders, Hamas’ depravity is evident and horrifying.

The threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel—and American citizens in Israel—must be eliminated and Hamas cannot control Gaza. The Palestinian people too have suffered under Hamas’ rule for nearly two decades. President Biden and I will never waver in our commitment to free the Americans and all those held hostage in Gaza.

Shiva tent for Hersh Goldberg-Polin, seen from a distance, Jerusalem

Signing the guest book at the Goldberg-Polin shiva

The worst of the three was Tim Walz, who had nothing at all to say about our dead. When asked for his reaction to the executions, his expression shifted abruptly; his mouth turning briefly downward into an angry frown. Suddenly deaf, he pretended not to hear, thanked the crowd, then walked away, dismissing the crowd with a wave

Reporter: "What's your reaction to the 6 hostages being found dead in Gaza?"

Tim Walz ignores the question like Biden and said "Thanks everybody". pic.twitter.com/sw02ctFsH4

— Real Mac Report (@RealMacReport) September 1, 2024

In our fresh state of grief, the sense of betrayal cuts a little deeper. But not by much. Israeli Jews, better than most, understand that Jewish history repeats itself, with betrayal by friends a common feature. The very heavens may have wept for our six, but many bad "friends" did not.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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