Israel News Today

Military's new Eitan armored personnel carriers can carry 12 soldiers, reach speeds of 100 km/h, and even provide life-saving medical care for injured personnel from ynet - News https://ift.tt/YPik1o0

אויף „יוטוב‟ קען מען זען אַ סך פֿילמען, אין וועלכע געניטע זינגער שטעלן פֿאָר ייִדישע לידער. ס׳איז אָבער דאָ עפּעס אייגנאַרטיק אין דעם ווידעאָ פֿון שׂרה גאָרבי, אין וועלכן זי זינגט מאַני לייבס „גייען זיי אין די שוואַרצע רייען‟, באַגלייט פֿון אַ פּויק, וואָס זײַנע ריטמישע קלעפּ שפּיגלען אָפּ דעם טרויער. דער פֿילם איז אַ טייל פֿון אַ קאָנצערט פֿון חורבן־לידער, וואָס גאָרבי האָט געהאַלטן אין פּאַריז אין 1966. מאַני לייב האָט לכתּחילה אָנגעשריבן דאָס ליד וועגן די ייִדישע פּליטים פֿון פּאָגראָמען בעת דער ערשטער וועלט־מלחמה אָבער ס׳איז שפּעטער אַדאַפּטירט געוואָרן ווי אַ חורבן־ליד. אויך זייער רירנדיק איז גאָרביס אומפֿאַרגעסלעכער נוסח פֿון מאַרק שוויידס „מודה אַני‟ אינעם זעלביקן קאָנצערט, אין וועלכן זי ווערט באַגלייט פֿון דרײַ „קרישטאָל־אָרגלען‟ — אינסטרומענטן, וואָס פּאַסן זיך גוט צו צו איר קול. די מוזיק צו ביידע לידער האָט געשאַפֿן מיכל געלבאַרט. שׂרה גאָרבי (פֿון דער היים גאָרבאַך) איז געבוירן געוואָרן אין קעשענעוו, בעסעראַביע אין 1900. זי האָט זיך געלערנט אין אַ מוזיק־קאָנסערוואַטאָרי

In the coming days and weeks, there will be many analyses of what went wrong on Columbia University’s campus this spring. And as an alumna who has been watching the campus from afar for the past seven months, I am mourning the alternate version of what could have unfolded on Columbia’s campus — not just on the night of April 30, when hundreds of NYPD descended on campus to forcibly evict protesters who had seized Hamilton Hall —  but throughout the preceding months.  The administration repeatedly and aggressively failed to make choices that could have, not just kept students safe, but fostered an environment that could have served as a positive inspiration for the rest of the country. When I arrived on the Columbia campus as an undergraduate in the fall of 1999, the school was still emerging from the shadows of a decades-old tragedy. Whenever US New & World Report would release its annual rankings of American universities, Columbia would inevitably be docked for its low rate of

Public Diplomacy Directorate completes part of Israel's project to make public the testimony of dozens of hostages who were held in Gaza; The Government Press Office will hold a special screening for foreign journalists with hours of testimonies of atrocities against women, men, the elderly and children from ynet - News https://ift.tt/EfLyMki

The missile was fired during Iran's recent attack on Israel and contained hazardous materials; reporters in Iran receive special glimpse of an IRGC exhibition of missiles used against Israel from ynet - News https://ift.tt/RMthXzj

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — Inside the Harvard Square subway station as I headed home from campus a few days ago, I watched a group of pro-Palestinian protesters while waiting for my train. One actually held a sign with the single word “Hamas.”  I yelled out, in response, “Let Israel live.” A young man who seemed to be a leader of the demonstration looked at me and laughed. I felt insulted by his dismissive reaction, and watching the spectacle, I found myself thinking back to my own years as a Harvard undergraduate in the late 1960s.  Back then, too, I watched as nonviolent protests against the Vietnam War gradually morphed into extremism. I was a sophomore in 1967, when Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara spoke on campus and was prevented from leaving Lowell House. By 1969, when a student strike had shut down Harvard for days, calls of “Peace now!” had been replaced by a chant celebrating the National Liberation Front, the communist body that the U.S. was fighting against in Southe

Riyadh seeks a more modest agreement with the US amid expectation that the cease-fire talks would fail and the fighting would continue, preventing normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel from ynet - News https://ift.tt/4GZajWz

The House is poised to pass a contentious bill aimed at addressing rising antisemitism in colleges and universities  and nationwide pro-Palestinian protests.  The bill is led by Republican lawmakers, and while it has some bipartisan support, top Democrats — including Rep. Jerry Nadler, a prominent member of the Congressional Jewish Caucus — worry it could suppress constitutionally protected free speech on campuses. Called the Antisemitism Awareness Act, the legislation mandates the Department of Education to use the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which classifies most anti-Zionism as antisemitic. However, some Jewish advocacy groups and progressives have said the IHRA definition stifles legitimate criticism of Israel.  Instead, the Democratic leadership suggested pushing through legislation that would implement the Biden administration’s national strategy to counter antisemitism , released last year. That plan did not endors

Reservists Ido Aviv and Kalkidan Mehar were killed Sunday when the building they were inside in central Gaza was fired on by an Israeli tank which viewed the structure as suspicious from ynet - News https://ift.tt/Zmxjuhr

There’s a moment in David Adjmi’s Stereophonic that heightens the pressure in the room. The unnamed 1970s band at the play’s center, who bear more than a glancing resemblance to Fleetwood Mac, learn that Columbia Records has tripled their budget. In the words of their overwhelmed engineer Grover, “they’re getting more than Pink Floyd got for Dark Side of the Moon .” In a way, art mirrors life. Adjmi’s play, set within the walls and partitions of a recording studio, received wall-to-wall raves last year Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. Tonight it will begin previews at a much larger house : Broadway’s Golden Theatre. “The whole thing is so meta,” Adjmi said of the transfer. “We’re all new to this. We’ve not worked in houses this big.” Adjmi’s chief concern for the new venue was losing the intimacy of the piece, a raw look at relationships punctuated by live music written by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire. But Adjmi’s confident that the Golden can deliver the same exper

For many in the college class of 2024, pro-Palestinian protests at commencement would mark yet another milestone celebration disrupted. These are the same students whose senior year of high school was marred by pandemic lockdowns that began in March 2020. Classes went remote, proms were canceled and graduations were held on Zoom or in parking lots where masked students stepped out of cars, grabbed diplomas and drove off. Their first year at college consisted of online classes, locked-down dorms and orientations never held. Now, four years later, some worry the protests roiling dozens of campuses will disrupt their college commencements, too. Evan Heidel, a senior at San Diego State, said the derailing of his high school graduation was “frustrating but understandable,” because “it made sense to not have a bunch of people get together in the middle of the pandemic.” This time around, though, “I’m just more angry with the protesters,” he said. “There’s just a lot of uncertainty.” With

Since the atrocious Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and the catastrophic response by the Israeli government in Gaza, too many students, faculty, and community members at U.S. universities have been mimicking the worst kinds of discourses coming out of Israel and Palestine.  I have seen those who consider themselves to be on the progressive left, and who care about Palestinians, parroting ultranationalist slogans like “From the river to the sea,” excusing violence that amounts to war crimes with the slogan “By any means necessary,” and using the word “Zionist” as an expletive.  Many of those who care about Israelis proclaim they are “standing with Israel,” without criticizing the Israeli government’s ultranationalist policies of occupation and Jewish supremacy, which are the law of the land in Israel-Palestine from the river to the sea. Others have used the label “antisemitic” to describe anything from actual antisemitism to mere calls for a ceasefire or denouncements of Israeli violence in Ga

Caught in the middle of a deadly Israel-Hamas conflict, many Palestinians confess there's no love lost for the terrorist organization; Gaza resident, Dr. Mukhaimer Abu Saada, sheds light in a revealing interview from ynet - News https://ift.tt/CFDqcL2

28-year-old Ido Aviv and 37-year-old Master Sergeant Kalkidan Mehar both perish in building explosion in the Netzarim Corridor in the center of the Gaza Strip, with another reservist seriously wounded from ynet - News https://ift.tt/DvdsHm4

US President reiterates 'clear position' on military operation in Rafah in a phone call with Netanyahu; military spokesperson says more humanitarian aid going into the Strip 'than ever before' from ynet - News https://ift.tt/CLaHFAu

LOS ANGELES ( JTA ) — Inside the University of Southern California Hillel, there were signs of normalcy. Some students were making matzah pizza in the courtyard, while another set up an art installation devoted to actor Larry David. Students and staff discussed plans for the evening’s Shabbat programming. But outside the building, students only a block away could be heard hawking cookies and other baked goods at their makeshift “Bake Sale 4 Gaza.” Their table was set up next to another booth with a large sign declaring that “‘I stand with Israel’ equals ‘I stand with genocide.’” And in a plaza a few steps away, the Los Angeles chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace was hosting a pro-Palestinian Passover gathering, complete with Streits matzah and bottles of grape juice. One attendee held a large poster listing the “10 Plagues of Zionist Idolatry.” The scene on Friday follows a chaotic stretch in which USC canceled the planned commencement speech of its valedictorian , who had drawn criti

I once studied with a rabbi who told me that whenever one is not sure of an answer to a question — any question — one should simply say, “Because we were slaves in Egypt.” Whatever the question, he advised, this answer would be a good place to start.  Passover, of course, is the holiday of freedom and memory, when we Jews celebrate our exodus from that period of enslavement in Egypt. Mitzrayim, the Hebrew word for “Egypt” also means “narrow place.” This Passover, more than any I can remember, feels like we are stuck in a narrow place amid the crisis in the Middle East and the rise of antisemitism around the world.  Campuses are boiling with unrest because many students feel that their institutions are participating in patterns of murderous oppression. They see the people of Gaza as the ones in “the narrow place,” and are demanding we cut all ties with Israel, divesting from companies that manufacture weapons used in the war and ending academic exchanges.  Roger Cohen, a longtime