We’d spent a lovely evening with old family friends — the
kind of people who’ve been part of your life for so long that conversation
feels natural, no matter how many years have passed. I think we could have
talked forever and never run out of things to say. So we talked for hours about
our memories from a different time and place, about the people we’d loved and
lost, and about what it means to revisit a world that lives now only in the
stories we share.
But as we walked back toward our car, I had a sudden flash of inspiration. Up until now, the
conversation had been about our shared past, but here beside me was a Reform
rabbi in the flesh. I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to learn how Reform Jewry felt about Israel in relation to Gaza and the war.
“How does the Reform community view the war in Gaza? Do they
think it’s a genocide?”
He looked down and gave a small, quizzical smile — the kind
people get when they’re about to explain something to you. “You have to
understand. The Palestinian people are oppressed.”
Somehow, the conversation had shifted. I was told that
Israel had withheld aid from Gaza. I asked if he knew that since October 7, Israel
has facilitated the delivery of over
two million tons of aid, including 1.3 million tons of food. I asked if he
knew of any other country that supplies aid to the enemy in wartime.
He was unimpressed. Jews, in his view, are supposed to be
different.
It didn’t matter to him that historically, the enemy is
never fed in wartime, let alone sent massive amounts of aid. His answer was
that we’re supposed to be fighting Hamas, not the Gazan people. “Do you think
all of Gaza is Hamas?” he asked.
“Actually, yes,” I told him.
His face lit up. He thought I’d just proven his point. To
him, my answer meant I was a hater, that the war was all about hate, and that
Israel was punishing the Gazan
people for what Hamas did.
But it’s nonsense, of course. The people of Gaza are with
Hamas all the way, and the latest poll from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and
Survey Research back me up. As the New York Post reported this week,
Hamas’ popularity has surged:
— 51% of Gazans now approve of Hamas’ performance, in
spite of its violent “crackdowns” that amount to public executions.
— A year ago, Hamas’ approval was just 39%, and Gazans were protesting
in the streets, calling on the terrorists to give up power.
There’s no way around it. The trend is clear: support for
Hamas is not shrinking — it’s growing.
And let’s not forget: the people of Gaza overwhelmingly voted
Hamas into power in democratic elections overseen by the UN. I asked the rabbi
if he knew that not everyone who killed, burned, raped, and beheaded Israelis
on October 7 was a Hamas operative. Had he seen the footage of the crowds
spitting on and kicking the bodies of murdered Jews dragged into Gaza?
“Yes, yes,” he said. “I’ve seen all that.”
The implication being that even so, not all Gazans are
Hamas.
But it doesn’t matter if they’ve signed a pledge or worn a uniform. It’s all
the same — they drink in Jew-hatred with their mothers’ milk. Little girls sing
antisemitic jump-rope rhymes. And the so-called “regular people of Gaza” didn’t
just celebrate the massacre on October 7. They took hostages into their homes.
They held them, hid them, used them. They made them cook and clean. They helped
keep them captive. They gave terrorists cover and stored weapons for them under
baby cribs.
One of the things our rabbi friend said to me was that Bibi
says one thing in English and another in Hebrew. “I’ve heard him,” he said.
I wasn’t sure what he meant, and I didn’t much care. But the
irony was hard to miss: it’s the enemy, people like Abu Mazen who talks about
peace in English and killing “Jew
dogs” in Arabic.
I asked him where he gets his news. “Everywhere from Al
Jazeera to the Jerusalem Post,” he said, as if those two outlets
covered the entire gamut of views on Israel and Gaza. I must have smiled,
because he quickly expanded his list: “Israel National News.”
I asked him if he’d seen the New York Times article
with the skeletal
child who turned out not to be starving at all. “I know about that,” he
said — he knew it had been a manipulated, false report. So I asked, “But when
you first saw it, did you believe it?”
He looked down, a little sheepish. “Sure, there’s some
misreporting,” he said. “But it’s undeniable that people in Gaza were
starving.”
“Uh huh,” I told him. “That’s because Hamas steals the aid —
they even ate it in front of the hostages.”
I asked if he’d scanned the QR code* Bibi wore during his address to
the UN.
He said he hadn’t watched the speech.
So I explained that Bibi had worn a badge on his lapel with
a QR code, inviting the audience to zoom in with their phones and see the
footage and still photos of the October 7 carnage for themselves — to finally
understand why we went to war, and why Hamas has to be destroyed.
Within 24 hours, the QR code had been scanned over a million times,
with roughly 30 percent of the scans coming from Iran and Gaza.
Our rabbi friend said he wouldn’t have looked at the photos
or videos anyway. He doesn’t need see these things to understand what happened,
that there would be no value for him in looking at the gruesome images. He
knows what happened.
I knew I was blowing up the evening a bit, and I felt bad
about that. I’d genuinely wanted to know what the Reform community thinks, not
pick a fight with him. I told him so, and I thanked him.
But on the way home I kept thinking: here was a Reform rabbi who is unaware
that the Gazan people support Hamas even now and that Israel has sent in
massive amounts of aid nonetheless. His concept is that Gazans are oppressed.
That Israel withheld allow aid from Gaza. That Bibi says one thing in English
and another in Hebrew. And anyone who believes that all of Gaza is aligned with
Hamas is, by definition, a hater.
I don’t mind that designation at all, because I hate evil and I especially hate
Amalek. Take that as you will.
I left with the sense that the rabbi was trying to sound
more reasonable than the people who openly accuse Israel of genocide. And I
appreciate that. I know he believes the Gazans are oppressed, and that Israel is
oppressing an oppressed people by “withholding” aid — which seemed to be a quiet
way of suggesting deliberate starvation. He won’t say the word genocide, but
the implication is there. If indeed, this reflects the views of the wider
Reform Jewish community, I think it is very sad.
There was a time when American Jews reflexively stood with
Israel. Now, too many are eager to criticize Israel. They think this is a virtue, a kind of healthy introspection. And it's obvious they want to blend in with wider society, especially within the progressive movement. But they don’t even have the facts.
*Note that Israelis are blocked from seeing this content,
because it’s too difficult for us to bear. Some do it anyway, accessing the
website through a VPN. And then they are sorry. I saw the following comment
on Facebook from an Israeli who succumbed to the temptation: “I used a
VPN...you don't want to see it.”
The day the 20 living hostages were released, the media told
us that all Israelis were celebrating. But that wasn’t quite the truth. For
many of us, it was more of a collective sigh of relief. The last of the live hostages
had made it out. It had not been at all certain they would, or that they had
even survived. Thank God they were out.
But this peace deal was nothing to celebrate, because it
would not bring peace and would not keep us safe. How could it when in exchange
for those 20 living hostages, tortured and starved for 737 days, we released 1,968
Arab terrorists from our jails, 250 of them serving life sentences for murdering
or planning the murders of Israeli Jews? Only 200 would be expelled, the rest
would be released into the wild.
For our dear 20 hostages, we were releasing murderers back into our cities and
towns to ride on our buses and trains, to work and shop freely alongside
Israelis. At least this time we were getting more bang for our buck. In 2011, Yahya
Sinwar, the eliminated architect of October 7, was released from Israeli
custody along with 1,026 of his fellow terrorists, all for a single Jew, Gilad
Shalit.
This time we “only” had to set 2,000 more monsters free among us for 20 live Jews
and 28 dead.
How could this be right—even celebrated? How many more Sinwars/October
7ths will there be? Why on earth would this bring peace? It is a fact so blatantly obvious:
releasing terrorists from Israeli custody never brings peace.
It didn’t this
time, either.
Hamas has already broken the truce — attacking Israeli
troops and murdering two IDF soldiers. It broke it earlier by not releasing all
the hostages all at once. Broke it so many ways, so many times. Playing Hamas terrorist chicken, as
always.
But at the point where they attack and murder Jews, it
should have been over. Done.
One would expect an honest US broker at that point, to back
Israel to the hilt and call it all off. All the wonderful peace. But no. Instead
we get Jared Kushner chiding us, “A lot of people are getting a little hysterical
about different incursions. But what we are seeing is that things are going in
accordance with the plan. Both sides are transitioning from two years of very
intense warfare to a peacetime posture.”
Yeah, Jared. Tell that to the families of Yaniv Kula and
Itay Yavetz. Do you think they're being a "little hysterical about
different incursions?"
Tell us more, oh Jared Kushner who has business dealings with
the Hamas-supporting Qatar. Tell us what you told Lesley Stahl, about how murdering
two of your fellow Yidden qualifies as acting in good faith “as far as we’ve
seen” (emphasis added):
Lesley Stahl: Now, part of the agreement was that, as you had mentioned, Jared, 28 bodies, Israelis were supposed to come out in phase one by now. Do you think that Hamas is breaking the agreement? Is it bad faith?
Jared Kushner: So this has been a very intense effort on behalf of our joint center with Israel and with the mediators in order to convey whatever information Israel has on the whereabouts of the bodies to the mediators and to Hamas in order to retrieve them.
Lesley Stahl: So you're involved in this part of what's going on right now. Are you trying to reassure the Israelis that Hamas is really looking for the bodies?
Jared Kushner: We're just trying to convey information and make sure that everyone knows the expectations and push both sides to be proactive in terms of finding a solution instead of blaming each other for breakdowns.
Lesley Stahl: But are you saying publicly right now that Hamas is acting in good faith, seriously looking for the bodies?
Jared Kushner: As far as we've seen from what's being conveyed to us from the mediators, they are so far, that could break down at any minute. But right now we have seen them looking to honor their agreement.
The things he said!
It made me want to vomit. Still does.
How could
anyone use the word “honor” anywhere near "Hamas?" And what does honor mean to
Jared Kushner—that Hamas can kill a couple of Jews and we’ll look the other
way, nudge nudge, wink wink?
Jared Kushner asserts a moral equivalence between monsters and (Jewish) victims, characterizing Israel's reaction to the Hamas attack as no different than the attack. It's just two sides "blaming each other." Yet two more young Jewish men now lie cold in their graves.
How can we speak of peace when they're killing us. How do we celebrate while our hearts are bleeding.
Jared, somewhere inside your bespoke Savile Row suit I know you remember Beeri, what you saw there, when the air was still thick with the smell of what had happened there.
Why have you chosen not to be, after all, a Jewish hero?
Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of
the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
Donald Trump, during his previous administration, brought us
the Abraham Accords and established a U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. This time
around, Israeli Americans voted for him in droves, there being a general feeling
among us that Biden was bad for Israel and Trump the opposite of that. We were
frightened for our hostages, needed weapons, and more importantly a strong voice
in support of our war on Hamas. Trump appeared to tick all the boxes. We had
high hopes.
It began so well. The president gave Israel carte blanche to
do
as it pleased in Gaza and helped us fight the Houthis. And though there was
a feeling that the president was being wildly misled by Qatari
puppet Witkoff, he was a good friend to Israel. We appreciated it and were
glad we voted for him.
Then rumors of a rift began to flow, a narrative built from
a sequence of events. The US would no longer help Israel fight
the Houthis. Israel was excluded from the itinerary of Donald Trump’s Middle
East tour. Trump accepted a very expensive private plane
from Qatar. There was a secret
US deal to free Edan Alexander that was in the works for months without Israel’s
knowledge. The murmurs that Trump has turned against Israel have been gathering steam. Nobody I know wants to talk about it much, but there is thick nervous tension
in the air.
That’s my sense, at least, though I keep looking for
articles that prove me wrong. I don’t want to believe there’s a rift. But I don’t
like the way Trump kept us out of negotiations for Edan Alexander and made us
look weak, made Bibi look ineffectual, not in Trump’s good graces. I do
understand that America and Americans come first, but in my view, the way this deal
was done was really not cool.
It didn’t help that Edan Alexander’s mother Yael, pointedly thanked everyone but Netanyahu for freeing her son from captivity. Her failure to acknowledge him spoke
volumes, especially since the deal was negotiated behind Israel’s back, making
Bibi look sidelined.
Witkoff, of course, couldn’t help but rub it in, telling the hostage families that if only Israelis weren’t so divided, we’d be strong, the war would end, and the
hostages come home. That was the sense of what he said anyway, if not his
actual words.
But not everyone is worried. Ruthie Blum, senior contributing
editor at JNS, for example, believes the buzz is baseless. In a recent op-ed, Is
Trump Really Turning His Back on Bibi and Israel?, Blum says the gossip
comes from two agenda-driven sources, isolationists and anti-Netanyahu Israelis.
She also notes “conflicting versions of what is essentially gossip in disguise.”
Blum’s does an able job dissecting all the scuttlebutt. She paints
a reassuring picture of how things stand between Israel and President Trump, and
points to a recent meeting between Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron
Dermer with several important members of the Trump team. "Another clue
that Washington hasn’t turned its back on Jerusalem is that U.S. Vice President
JD Vance, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (doubling as interim national
security advisor) and special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff were present at the
powwow [with Dermer]."
The meeting does suggest that the relationship remains strong. At
the same time, JD Vance is a known isolationist, who in October said of the
US-Israel relationship, “Sometimes we’re going to have overlapping interests,
and sometimes
we’re going to have distinct interests. And our interest very much is in
not going to war with Iran. It would be a huge distraction of resources. It
would be massively expensive to our country.”
I asked Blum if, as she contends, isolationists are responsible
for the rumors of a rift, how do we know that JD Vance isn’t leading the charge
and what does this portend for the future? Vance may very well be the next
president of the United States.
“Had those leaning in an isolationist direction reprimanded
Dermer, it would have been a bad sign. We know this didn't happen, however,
since it would have been front page ‘news,’ given all the media mudslinging
about Dermer's supposedly being "arrogant" and a source of irritation,”
“Nothing so far suggests that there's a rift between
Washington and Jerusalem,” said Blum. “And the fact that Trump didn't make
Israel part of his Mideast trip this week is actually a good thing. The last
thing he needs is for it to appear that America is doing Israel's bidding in
the region.”
Ruthie Blum, it seems, is betting on Trump playing a long
game, not cutting ties. That makes a lot of sense. That does seem to be the way
Trump operates.
But there are other voices. An Arab political analyst,
speaking on condition of anonymity, had a completely different take. “Trump is
being played by the Islamists. Sadly, he has chosen to align himself with the
bad guys. Many Arabs are convinced that he has thrown Israel under the bus and
that he could be easily bought with their charm, hospitality and money. This
does not bode well for the future of the region, especially because his actions
and rhetoric embolden the radical Muslims.”
I think it is true to a degree that Trump is being played by
the Islamists. For me, the proof of that is Witkoff’s admission in March
that he had been duped
by Hamas into thinking they had accepted his proposal to extend the
ceasefire when they had no intention of doing so. “I thought we had an
acceptable deal. I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that’s
just me getting duped. I thought we were there, and evidently we weren’t."
Well, duh. Of course you were getting duped. Did you expect
fairness and honesty from Hamas?
Witkoff is Trump’s guy on this. Trump trusts Witkoff knows
what he’s doing. Ergo, when Witkoff is duped by Hamas, by default so is Donald
J. Trump.
Has Trump turned cold toward Israel and its prime minister? Ruthie
Blum says no. It’s only a mirage, stirred up by political vultures. Others say
Trump is falling for Qatar’s charm and risking a regional firestorm by
expressing a willingness to negotiate with Iran. It is unfortunate, but Donald
Trump’s weakness for flattery could very well make him ripe for Qatar’s
game. Let’s hope the president sees through all the ceremonial fawning and glitz, and
understands that it is Israel, and Israel alone, who stands as America’s always
faithful ally in the Middle East.
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.
Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
The night before the first three women hostages were
released, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the nation. Attempting to placate
a nation appalled at the prospect of another terrorist release, the prime
minister made a promise [emphasis added]. “We have established that terrorists
who have killedwill not be released to Judea and Samaria; they will
be expelled to the Gaza Strip or abroad, and we also decided in the cabinet on
a very significant reinforcement of our forces in Judea and Samaria to protect
our citizens,” said Bibi.
Because we have been lied to before, we didn’t really
believe this declaration. But it didn’t much matter. The only difference
between a terrorist who has killed and one who hasn’t, is that in the first
instance, the victims died, and in the second, they lived. That is why the
distinction isn’t much comfort to the 5,700 or so Jewish residents of Beit El. Of
the first 200 terrorists released in this deal, 114 of them were sent
to Ramallah, adjacent to Beit El.
One woman in my town of Efrat heard that a further 22 terrorists
“who have not killed” were released to Hebron, quite close to us. I asked how
she knows this, since everything about the mass terrorist release has been
cloaked in mystery. It turns out her son’s friend is serving there. He said he
would have been safer in Gaza.
In truth, there is a general air of despondency here. Many assume
that what we hear about the terrorist release is not true, or at least not the whole truth, because so
little information filters down to the common man that it makes us suspicious. Others are more pragmatic. “I'm
not sure it's a ‘lie’ as much as politics and hands tied and deals behind the
scenes,” says Chani Ugowitz of Efrat.
Be that as it may, the lack of information has created an
air of distrust. Victim families directly affected by the release have yet to
be contacted by the government. Those of us who live in close proximity to
locations where terrorists will now roam free, have not been briefed.
“This is a crazy
complicated situation. I am so against this "deal"/ blackmail but
know so many people that are going with it because they feel we had no choice.
We tried the other way and it didn't work. I don't know. Makes me mad, scared,
and sad,” says Ugowitz.
“It’s incredibly painful,” said another Efrat friend, Rachel
Schwartz, “Statistically, half of those will do another terror attack. 170 out
of 200 hundred that were released had life sentences. Varda, it is so
incredibly painful. I can’t stand it.”
I had heard the same figure regarding terrorist recidivism.
But it seems this figure has been updated. Lt. Col. (res.) Attorney Morris
Hirsch formerly of the Military Prosecutor’s Office, writes that [emphasis
added], “[As] part of the cabinet discussion
going into approving the deal, the head of the Shin Bet noted that 82% of
those released in the Shalit deal returned to terrorism.”
In the frightening
Hebrew-language article, Without
you knowing: This is how Israeli terrorists will be released back to the
country,Hirsch shares a further, little known but profoundly disturbing
fact, “The list of terrorists who will be released as part of the deal includes
no less than 73 terrorists who hold Israeli citizenship or residency. This
means they will be released back to the country.”
“Of that list, 21
terrorists are serving life sentences – that is, murderers. Of these, eight
terrorists are to be released to Israel (within the 1949 armistice lines),
while the rest are to be deported, although at this stage it is not clear
where,” writes Hirsch. “Five of the eight are affiliated with Hamas and the
rest with Fatah. All eight were arrested between 2001 and 2003, during the
terror attacks initiated by the PA, starting in September 2000.”
All in all, of the 73
Israeli terrorists to be released from prison, 45 will be released into Israel,
writes Hirsch, “while the remaining 28 terrorists will be deported abroad,
either temporarily (3 terrorists) or permanently (25 terrorists).”
We may not know nearly enough about the terms of this deal but
one thing seems certain, exactly none of the terrorists slated for release will be deported to
America. President Trump wants Americans to feel safe. He doesn’t want any more
innocents killed, people like Jocelyn Nungary and Riley Laken. So Mr. Trump is having
these criminal elements deported. He doesn’t want them in his country.
“And there they are deporting murderers and
criminals,” said Chani Ugowitz of the new administration, “while forcing us to
take them to our streets with our children.
“I've gotten very harsh in my views since the war and I don't like it but I don't like how the other side has pushed me to think in an "us or them" mentality. There is no partner on the other side of the negotiation table so it becomes blackmail on their end and force on ours.”
Then too, what does it say about
Israel that we’re freeing murderers into the wind? Whatever it was that was
held over Bibi’s head to agree to this deal, it’s hard to hear that it was
worth letting these murderers roam loose. Why would anyone even ask us to do
so?
“How depressing that monsters like these are the price of getting innocent
Israelis freed from the Hamas underworld,” remarked Arnold Roth, father of 15-year-old terror
victim Malki Roth, murdered in a pizzeria. “and that there's no one so monstrous that Israel
would keep him or her in prison if the blackmail demands were perceived as
warranting an even more painful surrender.”
Meantime, outside of Israel, Jews are giving Trump's Middle
East Envoy Steve Witkoff multiple ovations (!) for forcing Israel into accepting
Biden’s May horrific deal. Yet he managed to get not a single American hostage
released.
What then, was the point?
I wonder if President Trump is aware that among the terrorists
released or slated for release in this deal, are many who were convicted of
murdering Americans. JD Vance begged us Israeli Americans to vote for Trump, and
we did. Now we wonder at the betrayal of American Israeli victims of terror
whose murderers we were leaned on to release.
Why was Israel pressed into this
deal now, when we were ahead of the game, when we were winning, when we were no
longer between a rock and a hard place because it was no longer Joe Biden
threatening us, slow-walking arms, and supplying the enemy with cash dollars? Trump
had won and could now push Hamas into releasing the captives with just a few
threatening words. Why then force Israel to release murderers from Israeli
jails into the wild?
Will we ever know why we were compelled by Trump to sign a bad deal months after it had been rejected? Or why not one American hostage has yet been released since this ceasefire was
implemented. As of this writing, Keith Siegel is not to be released in this
latest batch of hostages, and we know he is fast fading. Emily Damari was so worried about Siegel that she offered to switch places and let him go first. Hamas refused.
Keith Siegel, an dual American citizen held captive in Gaza
So we watch as no Americans are released, but the murderers
of Americans like Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava, who were blown up
in the Hillel Café on the night before what would have been Nava’s wedding are
going free in this “deal.”
Dr. David Applebaum, Nava Applebaum, murdered at the Hillel Cafe in Jerusalem
Member of the cell that killed them, released or about to be.
The same is true of the murderer of American citizen Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan, who were on their way to spend Shabbat with their family when their murderer stoned their car with boulders.
Asher and Yonatan Palmer, murdered when their car was stoned while driving to family for Shabbat
On the list of terrorists demanded by Hamas
Ditto the murderer of Tuvia Yanai Weissman, an American killed by a child terrorist in 2016 while shopping at a supermarket.
Out or about to be out and free as birds.
It was that last name that grabbed at my throat, as I
finished scanning a new list of the terrorists to be released, this time in
English, from Palestinian Media Watch
(PMW). It was just before Shabbat, and I had to shut down my computer, but I
remembered that one. I never could get Tuvia Yanai Weissman out of my mind,
because of the photo that circulated of him with his young wife and infant son.
He had such a beautiful baby face, and his wife’s face was so full of joy and light. How awful to
lose her young husband with whom she was clearly smitten. I mentioned Tuvia at
the Shabbat table, and my youngest son told me that Weissman’s wife is his
friend’s sister.
Tuvia Yanai Weissman, a dual American citizen, murdered in a supermarket.
Every Israeli has multiple connections to multiple terror
victims. Connections upon connections upon connections. That’s the way it is.
Ari Fuld, dual American citizen, murdered while talking to his wife on the phone
I wonder: does President Trump feel a connection to the American
victims whose murderers are now being set free in this deal we were compelled by
his man Witkoff, to sign?
Why don’t we hear President Trump threatening Hamas
if they don’t release Keith Siegel, now?
Why don’t we hear Witkoff saying to
Hamas, “No. You can’t have the terrorists who killed American citizens. You can’t
have the murderers of Americans Marla Bennett and Ben Blustein, exchange
students killed in the Hebrew University Cafeteria,” or “No. You can’t have the
terrorist who killed American citizen Ari Fuld while he was standing outside a
supermarket talking on the phone with his wife,” or “No. You can’t have the
murderers of David and Nava Applebaum, or the murderers of Asher and Yonatan
Palmer. You can’t have the murderers of Tuvia Yanai Weissman.”
Ben Blustein, American exchange student
Marla Bennett, American exchange student, who along with Ben was murdered in the Frank Sinatra cafeteria on the Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus
Instead, we hear none of this. We hear people say things
like, “What if it were your family members being held in Gaza?” as if those of
us who feel as I do, that this “deal” is a horrible, unjust, and dangerous
thing, are heartless.
But two things can be true at once. We are joyous at the release of each
hostage, and sick at the release of murderers of loved ones we tracked down, caught,
and jailed. Where is the justice for the victims?
How do you think their families feel?
And how would you feel if you lived in Beit El, and 114
murderers had just been released next door to your home?
Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
Tim Walz just can’t seem to get enough of the imam Asad
Zaman of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MAS Minnesota). We should
examine why Walz is a fan of the cleric of an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Does
the man who may become vice president of America share the philosophy and goals
of the Muslim Brotherhood? Or is the association of Walz with the imam—an avowed,
Hitler-loving, Hamas-loving antisemite who wants to eradicate the Jews—completely
innocent?
To give the devil his due, Walz may be using his relationship
with Asad Zaman only to curry favor with his Muslim constituency. But it’s awfully
difficult to overlook the implications of the more than $100,000 Walz has contributed to
MAS Minnesota. Walz must want something for that cash payout, unless of course,
he deeply admires Zaman’s worldview.
It was Gabe Kaminsky, investigative reporter at the Washington
Examiner who brought the affiliation between Tim Walz and Asad Zaman, to
light:
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, on at least
five occasions as governor of Minnesota, hosted a Muslim cleric who
celebrated Hamas‘s Oct. 7 attack last year on Israel and
promoted a film popular among Neo-Nazis that glorifies Adolf Hitler, the Washington
Examiner found.
The imam, Asad Zaman of the Muslim American Society of
Minnesota, joined other Muslim leaders in May 2023 for a meeting
about mosque security with Walz’s gubernatorial office in Minnesota. Zaman
also spoke at a May 2020 event to call for peaceful protests with the
governor during the riots in Minnesota sparked after George Floyd’s death. In
April 2019, the cleric delivered an invocation before Walz’s state address — just months
after Zaman called for an end to a government shutdown at a press
conference with Walz in January 2019.
Zaman, moreover, attended a May 2019 event that Walz hosted
for Ramadan, social media posts show.
For the first time ever, we will have chaplains of 3 different faiths deliver the invocation at #MNSOTS tomorrow. I am humbled to welcome Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, Imam Asad Zaman, and Bishop Patricia Lull – three faith leaders who truly understand the meaning of #OneMinnesota.
More from the Washington Examiner about the worldview of
Walz’s friend, the cleric Zaman (emphasis added):
Zaman, who is from Bangladesh, said on
Oct. 7 of last year that he “stands in solidarity with Palestinians
against Israeli attacks.” That day, which saw 1,200 Israelis murdered by
Hamas terrorists, he also shared an image of a Palestinian flag on
Facebook in response to a post by Yusuf Abdi Abdulle, director of the
Islamic Association of North America,declaring that “Palestine has the
right to defend itself.” The Biden-Harris administration, Abdulle wrote in
the post, was “on the wrong side of history” in “supporting the extremist
Zionist regime and its illegal settlements.”
Asad Zaman’s loyalty to “Palestinians” should be translated
as “loyalty to Hamas,” since he once shared a Hamas press release. The
occasion? The 2016 hanging of Motiur
Rahman Nizami, a Bangladeshi Islamic leader, after he was convicted of genocide,
rape and torture.
One of Asad Zaman’s favorite things, of course, is Hitler.
Zaman even shared a link to the website of the pro-Hitler film, The Greatest Story Never Told.
Here is a text from the website of this 6-hour documentary
on Hitler:
Since the mid-20th century, the world has only ever heard
one side of an incredible story. The story of a boy from an ordinary family
whose ambition it was to become an artist, but who instead became a drifter.
His destiny however was not to drift into the awaiting
oblivion, but to rise to the greatest heights of power, eventually to become
one of the most influential men who ever lived.
Now for the first time, here is a documented account of a
story many believe to be…
The Greatest Story NEVER Told!
Learn the untold story about the most reviled man in
history. Adolf Hitler, The Greatest Story Never Told is a 6-hour Documentary by
TruthWillOut Films.
This ground-breaking documentary chronicles the rise of
Germany from defeat in World War I, to communist attempts to take over Germany;
hyperinflation during the Weimar Republic, widespread unemployment and misery,
and Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.
It also reveals a personal side of Adolf Hitler: who he was,
his family background, his artwork and struggles in Vienna and what motivated
him to come to power.
There’s so much hidden history to recount; FDR Pearl Harbor
conspiracy, Soviet brutality, betrayal and treachery on all sides. Do we really
know the true cost of war? Do we really possess all the facts?
Watch this series and uncover the real root causes of World
War II. Do your own research and decide what you choose to believe. Think
differently.
The Washington Examiner explains that the 2013 movie is
popular among antisemites, citing an Anti-Defamation League spokesperson. “Imam
Zaman has a troubling history of playing into classic anti-Jewish themes and
justifying violence against Israel.
“He also has justified violence against Israel, including
from terror groups. Given his hurtful remarks post-Oct. 7, and absent any
recognition of the pain he has caused the Jewish community, we urge all public
officials and leaders to avoid meeting with him in the future. Those who have
met with Imam Zaman should clarify that they don’t agree with his toxic views
about Jews and the Jewish state.”
After a terror attack, it is always meaningful to see who
rushes to support the Jewish State; and all the more so after the slaughter of
October 7. On that black day, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) was quick to offer
sympathy and support to Israel and the Israeli people. At the other end of the
scale was Asad Zaman, who asked Porter if she were willing to “reaffirm the
right of Palestinians to defend themselves.”
@RepKatiePorter. Do you also condemn Israel’s attacks on Palestinian civilians and children? Do you also stand with the Palestinian people? Do you also reaffirm the right of Palestinians to defend themselves?
Beyond Porter, there is Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor
Party Chairman Ken Martin, who wrote on social media that he was “beyond
heartbroken” to hear about Israeli acquaintances “brutally killed or kidnapped”
on Oct. 7. Of course, Zaman was there to respond with the threat that his group
would be shunned by the Muslim community, that it “cannot be joined at the hip
to apartheid Israel and still hope to court the Muslim vote.”
Ken. Did you visit Gaza? Did you visit any Palestinians living under apartheid in the West Bank?
The DFL cannot be joined at the hip to apartheid Israel and still hope to court the Muslim vote.
When can we see a similar expression of grief over Palestinian children suffering?
The Zaman way is to twist the truth, equating Hamas terror to
Israel defending itself. Because this is how they roll at the Muslim
Brotherhood offshoot known as the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. On October
7, MAS Minnesota issued a statement that it “reaffirms its unwavering support
for the Palestinian people in their struggle against the Israeli occupation.” We
don’t wonder that MAS Minnesota expresses its support for Hamas, a fellow branch of
the Muslim Brotherhood; but why has the Walz administration forked over more
than $100,000 in funding to MAS Minnesota?
Sam Westrop, a terrorism researcher and
analyst at the Middle East Forum think tank, told the Washington Examiner that
Walz’s ties with Zaman suggests that the Harris-Walz cabinet will be filled
with anti-Israel extremists.
“It is astounding that with all the available public reporting
and information about the iniquities of Imam Asad Zaman and MAS Minnesota that
Gov. Walz has repeatedly given public platforms and taxpayer money to this
extremist,” said Westrop.
“Across the country, Islamists hungry for government support
will surely welcome Walz as vice president.”
Note that the Muslim American Society has been described by federal prosecutors as being “founded as
the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.” In the United Arab Emirates, the Muslim Brotherhood was designated as a terrorist group in 2014. There
was a brouhaha in 2019 when a video surfaced online of children at an event
held by MAS Philadelphia calling to murder Jews.
“We will chop off their
heads, and we will liberate the sorrowful and exalted Al-Aqsa Mosque,” recite two
young girls, reading from a prepared text.
How does Tim Walz describe his pal, the pro-Hitler movie fan
Asad Zaman? Walz calls Zaman a “master teacher” who offers Walz lessons whenever
they spend time together.
“I would like to first of all say thank you to imam,” Walz
said at the MAS Minnesota 2018 event, standing next to now Lieutenant Governor
of the Gopher State, Peggy Flanagan:
“I am a teacher, so when I see a master teacher, I know it.
Over the time we’ve spent together, one of the things I’ve had the privilege of
is seeing the things in life through the eye of a master teacher, to try and
get the understanding. It was imam talking [saying that] ‘in those times is
where we find who we are, in those times is where we really see.’
“That brings me to the second lesson that imam taught me,” said
Walz, going on to accuse Congress of feeding on “fear more than hope” and
“division.”
EXCLUSIVE: Tim Walz—in footage unearthed by @dcexaminer—called Hitler-promoting imam Asad Zaman a “master teacher” who offered Walz lessons over the time they “spent together"
The footage further contradicts the Harris campaign’s claim Walz has no personal relationship w/ Zaman pic.twitter.com/F1lKcJyzI1
Ben Shapiro spoke with Gabe Kaminsky after his exposé of
Walz’s friendship with Zaman. During the interview, Kaminsky said that MAS
Minnesota had been deemed a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot as far back as 2008, in
a terrorism financing case.
“But this individual, Asad Zaman, has a controversial
history on social media, on his Facebook page. He has, in one case, promoted a
pro-Hitler movie, a movie that glorifies Adolf Hitler. On Oct. 7, when 1,200
Israelis were slaughtered in the Jewish state, his immediate response was to
say that Palestinians had a right to resist, a right to defend themselves. And
this individual has promoted other conspiracy theories on his social media
history.”
Fox
News also asked for clarification from the Harris campaign regarding Walz’s
links to the imam. The Harris-Walz campaign responded to Chicago-based
correspondent Mike Tobin by lying, telling him that "Gov. Walz does not have
a relationship with [Zaman],” though Walz has hosted Asad Zaman on numerous
occasions.
For the first time ever, we will have chaplains of 3 different faiths deliver the invocation at #MNSOTS tomorrow. I am humbled to welcome Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, Imam Asad Zaman, and Bishop Patricia Lull – three faith leaders who truly understand the meaning of #OneMinnesota.
The campaign also said that Walz "strongly condemns
Hamas terrorism.”
Fox's Tobin expressed his concerns:
We start to see more appearances with Zaman and Gov. Walz in
2019, January, April and May. At one point, Zaman delivers an invocation to the
state of the state address.
He appeared with Gov. Walz in May of 2020, calling for calm
in the George Floyd riots, and again in 2023 following a string of vandalism at
mosques.
Sam Westrop of The Middle East Forum says Gov. Walz has been
willfully ignorant of Zaman’s radicalism because he relies on the Arab or
Muslim voting bloc and cannot do anything that would make him appear Islamophobic.
Westrop said, “This is a serious problem. Under a
Walz-Harris ticket, given Walz's ability to embrace really just the worst kind
of radicals within the Muslim community, one can only imagine this will be
replicated at the White House level. Walz clearly doesn't want to know about
the extremists he embraces.”
Even the Dem-friendly CNN
wants to know what’s up with Walz and the imam. They got the same response from
the Harris campaign’s Lauren Hitt, who told CNN that Walz and Zaman do not have
a “personal relationship.”
“The Governor and he do not have a personal relationship.”
Is Hitt getting around what is now known by all, by qualifying
the nature of the Walz Zaman relationship? It’s not “personal.” Does Hitt mean
they’re not gay, they’re only friends?
Hitt, still sticking to the script, blah-blah-blahed the
same thing she’d said to everyone else who’d inquired. “Governor Walz strongly
condemns Hamas terrorism,” said Hitt to CNN.
Zaman separately told CNN that he does not have a “personal
relationship” with Walz. Pressed by CNN about his antisemitic social media
posts, he said that sometimes he shares links “without fully looking at them.”
“People, myself included, will sometimes pass along social
media items without fully looking at them. I support organizations, leaders and
efforts to bring greater justice, equality and wellbeing to all people whether
Muslim or Jewish, Christian or Hindu, believer or atheist. Desiring harm to
people is against my faith and my personal convictions,” said the imam to CNN.
Asad Zaman isn’t the only terrorist with whom Tim Walz has
fraternized. There’s also Hatem Bazian, an antisemitic academic. Bazian has
been an ever-abundant and dependable source of antisemitic propaganda in the
wake of October 7. Naturally, this is someone Walz wants to cultivate. In
fact, Walz cozied up to Bazian the Jew-hater for a photo
opp in 2019, at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) event. The views
of CAIR and Bazain were transparent even then.
CAIR, much like MAS, was labeled by federal prosecutors an
unindicted co-conspirator of Hamas in a terror finance case from 2008. In 2017,
Bazian was compelled to apologize for posting an antisemitic meme depicting a Jewish man with the caption,
"Mom look! I is chosen! I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs & steal
the land of Palestinians Yay #Ashke-Nazi."
Walz posed for photos with this man, Hatem Bazian. What does
this say about Walz? By now we know. He likes hanging out with known antisemites.
And giving them money.
Meanwhile, you won’t get any kind of admission from the Harris campaign about the vice presidential candidate and his close associations with terrorists. When questioned, all they do is lie. Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition was blunt not only about Walz’s relationship with Asad Zaman, but how the Harris campaign responds when confronted with the evidence:
It is an outrage to the American Jewish community that Tim
Walz would champion Hitler-promoting cleric Asad Zaman of the Muslim American
Society of Minnesota. On Oct. 7, 2023, as Israel was suffering the worst
massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, Mr. Zaman disgustingly asserted that he
‘stands in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli attacks.’ Appallingly,
under Tim Walz, Minnesota has awarded over $100,000 in funding to Zaman’s
Israel-hating organization.”
At a time of spiking antisemitism here at home and as Israel
faces an existential war for survival, it is essential for the American Jewish
community to have confidence in our leaders—and it is clear that we cannot trust
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Their priorities are not our priorities, and the
American people will reject their radicalism and extremism in November.
Beyond the stolen valor issue and more, the American public has
begun to notice Tampon Tim's affinity for terrorists. Florida Senator Rick
Scott spoke out about Walz hosting a Hamas-affiliated terrorist who celebrated
October 7 on some five occasions, saying that Harris/Walz is the “pro Hamas
ticket.”
As Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz — on at least 5 occasions — hosted a Muslim cleric who celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) meanwhile questioned the
response of the Harris team: “Why did Tim Walz lie about his obviously friendly
relationship with a Minnesota Muslim cleric who promoted Hamas and Hitler?
“Weird—and disqualifying.”
Why did Tim Walz lie about his obviously friendly relationship with a Minnesota Muslim cleric who promoted Hamas & Hitler?
Many are the accusers who call Donald Trump “Orange Hitler”
with no proof. There’s just a call that goes out to the echo chamber, and the media
and its audiences, fall in. Meantime, in Walz we have a potential VP who has
the very bad habit of legit hanging out with genuine Hitler fans. Donald Trump
told Elon Musk that any Jew who votes for Harris should have his head examined;
and in truth, an examination of the facts about Walz and his Muslim cronies can
lead to only one conclusion: Walz is a terrorist sympathizer.
If you vote for Harris, you’re voting for Walz.
And if you vote for Walz, you’re voting for Jews to die.
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!
Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.
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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