Tag: ceasefire

We are not alone and my dad (z’l) visited me last night to prove it

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

Last night, my dad (z’l) came to visit me. It was the second time he has come to visit me since he died on September 6, 2022. The first time was well over a year ago and it was very emotional for me. We spent a lot of time talking and I really needed him at that time. Things in my life we unsettled and he has always been my ‘go to person’ to talk about my life and get perspective. I was very lucky that way. Lately, I have been missing him and treasuring my mom a lot. I have asked him to come visit again, something I didn’t expect would happen but I knew that if I asked, maybe it would happen. After a month or two of asking, he showed up last night.

Many of you may not believe that those we love can come visit us in our dreams at night and that is perfectly fine. I do believe it and have now have had it happen twice with my dad. It was a crazy dream – things were all over the place and nothing was connected until all of a sudden I walked up to the gym counter and there he was. He started to talk to me and I just reached out and gave him a big hug. I hugged him intensely the entire time, tears in my eyes, until he was gone. Whatever words he was saying didn’t matter. I needed that long hug from my dad and I got it.

I think this is because of what happned with the hostages this past Saturday. I was deeply affected not just by the way they looked and how they were clearly mistreated, but also by the story of Eli Sharaby. A bright eyed, vigorous, healthy man, who is only 5 years younger than me, was taken hostage on October 7th. His wife and daughters were murdered by the Hamas terrorists that day but he didn’t know this for his 491 days of captivity. He actually spoke about how much he looked forward to seeing them when when Hamas paraded him before release and forced him to speak. They knew his family was murdered and they watched him and laughed. It was painful to see. It was painful to hear. I cannot even imagine what it was like when he was told they were murdered 491 days ago.

Perhaps it is because we are close in age. Perhaps it is because I have one child who has started his career and lives in North Carolina doing what he loves and isn’t at home. Perhaps it is because my second child is graduating college in May and while he wants to get a job and stay local, who knows what will happen. Eli’s loss felt very personal to me.

Perhaps it is the story of the Bibas family. This family of four, mother, father, and 2 boys who are just about the same age difference as my boys, were kidnapped on October 7th. Yarden, the father, was released a week ago from captivity. His wife Shiri and two beautiful boys, Ariel and Kfir, remain hostages and we don’t know if they are alive or dead. More and more, I have been preparing myself for their bodies to be returned and to have to know that these beautiful young children were murdered by terrorists out of hate while the world didn’t care. They remind me of my family. With Yarden home, perhaps I am identifying closely with him and the fears for his family and their lives. I can’t imagine that feeling nor do I want to imagine it. Last night, I needed my dad and his hug and I got it.

These are crazy times. After more than a year with nothing strong coming from the American administration, President Trump spoke loudly and clearly yesterday about the condition of the returned hostages. CNN reported that the hostages “appeared to look gaunt”, a horrible minimization of their condition. The legacy media still can’t report the news, they have to insert their own Jew hatred and anti-Israel takes into their reporting.

Today, Hamas announced they are pausing the release of the hostages this upcoming weekend. It was only a matter of time before they would violate the agreement. Everybody knew that because Hamas has no morals and no ethics. Their word is not reliable nor dependable. It is why there can be no peace. It is why there is no hope for a Two State Solution. As my friend, Fleur Hassan Nahoum has eloquently stated, “The Palesteinian leadership have never wanted a state. It is not their dream. It was our dream.” She continues, “The problem of the conflict is not that there isn’t a Palestinian State. The problem is that there is a Jewish State.”

Hamas’s announcement suspending Saturday’s planned hostage release is an intentional plan for them to regain world sympathy through their lies. Their reason for suspending the release is a complete lie, as available data shows consistent humanitarian aid flow since January 19, with 12,600 trucks entering Gaza, maintaining the 600 trucks per day requirement. This steady flow, averaging 4,200 trucks each week, directly challenges Hamas’s claims of aid restriction. It is not just the COGAT (Israeli data) that shows this. Other monitoring mechanisms confirm these figures, with their own data validating that Israel has consistently met the agreement’s humanitarian benchmarks.

Don’t expect the media to report the facts. They will report what Hamas says and the lies. I’m telling you now so that you have the accurate information before the lies come out. Hamas is trying to frame this violation of the agreement through a humanitarian lens because they know the media will report their lies and not the truth, helping them to gain international support. I can already see the tweets coming from Antonio Gutteres, Secretary General of the UN, complaining about the lack of aid going in despite the documentation saying the opposite. I can already see the tweets from the bigoted and racist Francesca Albanes, they UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, claiming Israel is starving the people of Gaza despite having just seen what starvation looks like with the release of the hostages on Saturday.

The world will demand that Israel maintain the ceasefire even though Hamas has broken the agreement unilaterally. The world will demand that Israel move into phase 2 of the ceasefire even though Hamas failed to live up to phase 1 of the cease fire. The world can kiss my a**. This is when I am glad that Bibi is the Prime Minister and Trump is the President. They don’t live in a delusional world when it comes to Hamas. The proof of this is right after Hamas announced they will break the ceasefire agreement, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) issued a decree revoking the payment system to families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prison or to families of Palestinian terrorists. This “Pay for Slay” program has been an abomination that UNRWA has been funding for years. Abu Mazen didn’t just announce it, he made sure to inform the Trump administration in advance. This is what happens when you stand up to bullies. They stop their awful behavior. Hamas is a bully and while the media and the Western nations will support their lies and hatred, there is a growing population that will not do so any longer.

An example of this is that over the past few months, I have seen more and more people standing up for Israel and the Jewish community. More people willing to be public in calling out the lies and the Jew hatred. Douglas Murray, comedian Michael Rappaport, Senator John Fetterman and Representative Ritchie Torres along with newscaster Erin Molan seemed to be alone for a long time. Today, I read this post on X that warmed my heart. Not just the post but the comments by others stating that they are not Jewish and why they speak up for the Jewish community. People quoting her with their own reason along with those commenting below. It appears that we are finally seeing the type of support that has been missing for the past 16 months. Read the entire post. Look at the comments of those sharing why they support the Jewish community. You can find those who quoted her post and their reasons. It is heartwarming. It is hopeful.

With Hamas ending the ceasefire, we are going into another phase of Jew hatred on the public stage. At least this time we have a President who understands the evil of Hamas. We have many more people speaking out in support of the Jewish community and of Israel. Perhaps we are moving closer to a resolution where Hamas will be ended, where we will get as many hostages as possible home alive, and where Israel can return to peace and a chance to recover and heal.

For all of those in Israel, they desperately need it. And for those of us in the diaspora for which every day since October 7th has been October 7th, we need it as well. As President Trump said, I don’t know how much longer we can take this. Perhaps Hamas showing who they really are once again will finally be noticed. I doubt it but I can hope.

As I finish writing this, I learned that my friend Mahmoud, the owner of the Educational Bookstore in East Jerusalem and at the American Colony hotel was arrested by Ben Gvir’s police for basically selling books. I met Mahmoud in 2019 as he took us around East Jerusalem and talked to us about his experience living there as a Palestinian. We went to his big bookstore for lunch and talked some more. That afternoon, we went to him home where we dug even deeper. He said something there that I will never forget and that gave me great hope. He said, “If Zionism means the Jews have a right to the land and that we have a right to land as well, then I am fine with Zionism.” It was a profound and huge statement for a different future. In May when I was in Israel, a friend and I walked through East Jerusalem to his bookstore at the American Colony hotel where we spent 90 minutes engaged in a deep conversation. Mahmoud was devastated that Hamas took hostages and wanted them returned on October 8th. We covered many challenging topics and disagreed about many things but the one thing we agreed on was the hope for peace and a desire to live in peace with each other. There are many people who advocate for violence, for murdering the Jews, for eliminating Israel, and who actually engage in violence. They should be arrested. Somebody like Mahmoud who actively wants peace should be supported, not arrested. I am angry. I am hurt. It has been bad enough when it is Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, Syria, and others doing it. It is horrible when it is the US media and our supposed Western allies that are doing it. Yet it is far worse when it is Israeli leadership doing things.

Mahmoud and me at this American Colony Hotel bookstore in May 2024

If we truly want peace, if we truly want to heal, we have to build relationships with our potential partners, not arrest them. There are plenty of people to arrest for their criminal behavior. It’s time Israel gets rid of those bigots in her government. Bibi can do better. Israel can do better. The Jewish people deserve better.

Goebbels died but his teachings are living on

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Joseph Goebbels

I remember learning about the Nazi propaganda as I grew up.  What a masterful job they did spreading lies and breeding hatred.  Cartoons.  Videos.  Posters.  Slogans.  They kept at it, repeating the hate towards Jews until people believed it was true.  When I walk through Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum, they do an incredible job highlighting just how the Nazi’s did it.  With all the documentation available to us, I was sure the world wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice.  As the old saying goes, fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

I was wrong.  Very wrong.  So wrong that it scares me.  I watched what happened on the campus of Columbia University and also at Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Michigan, and many others.  These ‘students’ who are supposed to be learning and challenging themselves were instead lemmings.  They were so strong in their chants yet so empty in their knowledge.  Most didn’t know what river or what sea.  Most didn’t even know what protesting was like or was about.  They expected catered meals.  Finals cancelled with everybody getting an A.  No consequences for their actions.  They weren’t protesting for things they believed in but rather for things they were told that aren’t true.  It was horrifying.  It was embarrassing. 

It escalated to potential violence many times until eventually there was violence.  The violence against Jewish students got minimal attention.  A woman stabbed in the eye at Yale.  Physically assaulted at Columbia.  Beaten unconscious at UCLA.  When it became clear that the University and the police were going to do nothing to protect them, the Jewish students and community tried to dismantle the tents themselves which resulted in more violence.  That violence did get media attention because it could be blamed on the Jews. 

I watch as ‘celebrities’ like Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, John Oliver, and John Cusack spew hate and lies.  Because of their celebrity status, they have a platform to spread their antisemitism and misinformation.  Key words like genocide, apartheid, famine, ceasefire are used to demonize Israel, regardless of any facts to back them up.  People believe what they hear, especially when it’s in bite size pieces and as Goebbels said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Chants are common now to ‘Globalize the intifada’ while most of those chanting it have no idea what the intifada was or what an intifada is.  Violent uprising.  Suicide bombers.  Innocent civilians murdered.  So, to stop innocent civilians from being killed during a war, we are going to murder innocent civilians.  Civilians killed in war at a ratio 9 times less than the UN and Red Cross accepted numbers is a genocide but calling for the murder of civilians because they are Jewish is acceptable?  This is the world we live in where Jew hatred is so strong that the obvious hypocrisy is allowed.

The use of the world genocide is right out of Goebbels playbook.  Genocide is a hot button word and is a horrific thing.  In Syria over 300,000 civilians were murdered by Assad.  Close to 200,000 people were killed in the Iraq war.  In 2022 more than 100,000 people were killed in the Ethiopian civil war.  Since 1996, more than 6 million people have been killed in the Congo war.  These are not called genocides despite the numbers being far more than the people killed in Gaza.  Yet despite not meeting the definition of genocide and the facts showing this war is anything but genocidal, the word keeps getting used over and over and over again.  There are people who now believe it because they have heard it so often.  What Hamas did on October 7th was genocidal.  They wanted to eliminate every Jew and Israeli just because they were Jewish or Israeli.  They publicly admit to genocidal wishes and yet people excuse it.  This is the power of constant repetition until people believe it’s true even when it is not.

Apartheid is another word inappropriately used to delegitimize the State of Israel and Jews in general.  Israel is not an apartheid state.  Citizens have equal rights regardless of their status as Arab, Christian, Druze, Baha’i, Bedouin, or Jew.  Those who are not citizens, like in any country, don’t have the same benefits as those who are citizens. That isn’t apartheid.  There are Arab members of the Supreme Court, the Knesset, in universities, serving in the military, and in every part of Israeli society.  There is apartheid happening in the middle east – in the Arab countries that won’t allow Jews.  Gaza was an apartheid state where Jews were not allowed.  I remember going through the Rafah crossing in 1989 as I took the bus from Jerusalem to Cairo.  That wouldn’t have been possible in 2023. 

The other word that gets used improperly and often is genocide.  Genocide is defined as, “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.”  So, if you want to say Israel is committing genocide against Hamas, you might be correct.  They are a terrorist organization who had their own genocidal intentions on October 7th and continues to say they will do what they did on October 7th over and over and over again.  To say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is simply false.  If they wanted to commit genocide, then on October 8th they would have carpet bombed Gaza and nobody would be left alive.  Instead, Israel has been tactical.  They have done all they can to avoid civilian deaths.  This is shown in the ratio of combatants to civilians killed in this war.  According to the UN and Red Cross, the normal ratio is 9 civilians for every 1 combatant.  Depending on what Hamas numbers you believe, Israel is somewhere between 0.6 civilians to 1 combatant to 1.2 civilians to 1 combatant.  Well below the normally accepted ratio for every other country and every other war in the world.  Genocide is used to inflame people.  It’s used to inspire hate and physical attacks on Jews.  It is a bold-faced lie that gets repeated, especially by those celebrities, over and over and over again.

Occupation is the fourth word that gets used regularly.   Israel withdrew from Gaza and removed its citizens by force in 2005.  That’s the fact.  Since 2005, there has been no occupation of Gaza.  So, saying it is because of the occupation is simple another lie.  People may then talk about the blockade.  The blockade was put in place when Hamas took over and started firing rockets at Israel and building tunnels to kidnap Israelis.  It exists by both Egypt and Israel to do their best to limit rockets and missiles and guns from getting into Gaza.  It doesn’t limit food or medicine.  Saying occupation or blockade is merely a way for uneducated people to attempt to place the blame on Israel and the Jews.

The newest lie, which occurred tonight, is that Hamas accepted the ceasefire offered by Israel and Israel still attacked Rafah.  The reality is more like this:


Israel: Here is our ceasefire offer.

Hamas: No

Israel: Here is option 2 for a ceasefire.

Hamas: No

Hamas then bombs the reopened humanitarian corridor.

Israel: Fine, we will attack Rafah.

Israel begins to attack Rafah.

Hamas: We will take option 3 which you didn’t offer.  We accept the ceasefire that we negotiated with ourselves. 

The World:  Israel rejected the ceasefire offer that they offered, and Hamas accepted.

Once again, the truth doesn’t matter, and the lie gets repeated over and over and over again.  The media covers the lie.  The New York Times covers the lie.  Papers in Europe cover the lie. 

As we move into the next phase of the war, not just between Hamas and Israel but between those who hate Jews and Jewish people, we need to be vigilant with these lies.  We need to be loud and repetitive in combatting them and telling the truth.  We need to keep it simple and not give a lecture.  I recommend something like this:

Response to lie:  You are lying.

Response to lie:  That’s not true.

Response to lie:  False!!!

Response to lie:  You don’t know what’s true.

Response to lie:  Learn something before you lie about it.

Keep it brief.  Keep it simple.  If they want to know the truth, and most don’t, then they will ask, and you can tell them. 

This next phase will be the most challenging.  We see the violence occurring at UCLA and around the country.  We see it happening in Europe.  I’m afraid that the next phase will involve larger scale attacks against Jewish people, homes, and businesses.  Protect yourself.  Learn the law.  Take self-defense classes.  If you feel the need to be armed, make sure you both follow the laws of your state/country and get trained on how to use it.  The decision to be armed is not one to take lightly and it’s not a joke and guns are not toys. 

If Israel goes into Rafah and ends the war between Hamas and Israel, it will not end the war against the Jewish people.  It will not mean that we are safe in our countries.  It will not mean Israel is safe with Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran still attacking.  We are preparing to move into a new stage that we only saw a glimpse of with the protests on campuses.  Be prepared.  Never again isn’t just a slogan, it means we are going to take action and do what we have to ensure that it never happens again. 

The 2 state delusion?

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

As the hostages begin day 123, the war between Israel and Hamas continues with hand to hand combat inside the tunnels, things get more heated in the north with Hezbollah, and the US-England partnership is bombing the Houthis and Syria in retribution for the 3 soldiers murdered by Iran and 40+ injured, I find myself in disbelief at the world stage and what’s going on in the United States.

Montana Tucker at the Grammy’s highlighting the hostages and urging to ‘Bring them home’. Very different than Annie Lennox asking for a cease fire that only benefits Hamas and that Hamas rejected.

Calls for a ceasefire continue to grow even though Hamas has publicly stated that there will be no ceasefire nor any peace as long as Israel exists.  Not as long as Israel has soldiers in Gaza, but as long as Israel exists.  Today, Hamas rejected another ceasefire offer yet the pressure remains on Israel to simply stop defending herself. Israel has basically stopped the bombing and is engaged in hand-to-hand combat in the tunnels, trying to free the hostages.  These calls for a ceasefire are unilateral for Israel, not forcing Hamas to release the hostages and surrender.  It’s as if October 7th never happened. 

The newest twist has been the call to require a 2 state solution as part of the end to hostilities.  Not only are Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) committed to there being no Israel, both have no interest in a 2 state solution.  Yet the US and Europe are obsessed with this currently impossible solution.  Can you imagine if after 9/11 the US was required to have the Taliban as a new state on the northern AND southern border?  Instead of dividing Germany after WWII can you imagine allowing the Nazi’s to remain in power of a demilitarized state in the same location with evil countries feeding them weapons and bombs despite the demilitarized requirement?

It’s not that a 2-state solution is never possible.  It’s not possible now.  In 2019, when I spent time with leaders of Palestinian civil society, I was amazed when some of the brightest people around told me that if there were elections, they would probably vote for Hamas because the PA did nothing and while Hamas probably would also do nothing, there was at least a chance they might do something to benefit them.  New leadership is needed for the Palestinians.  Leadership that wants to live in peace with their neighbor Israel.  My friend Ali Abu Awwad, founder of the Taghyeer movement, focuses on Palestinian non-violence, change, and living in peace with their neighbor Israel.  He speaks openly, stating, “peace will not come through Jewish blood.  It will come from Jewish hearts.”  That’s the type of leadership needed for peace and a functional Palestinian state. 

My friend Ali Abu Awwad is the voice for the future. Click on the link above with his name and read about a new way forward through Palestinian non-violence and trust. 

Elliot Abrams wrote a beautiful and powerful article about The Two State Delusion on February 5th that should be required reading by all of our elected officials.  We cannot want peace more than the PA, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran do.  Until there is a modern-day Sadat and a modern day Begin, there simply isn’t a path to peace or a 2 state solution. 

Sadat and Begin – great leaders who risked everything for peace. It cost Sadat his life yet the peace holds 44 years later.

I try to imagine or find any other country that is told by their allies and the world that they don’t have the right to defend themselves.  A single country that is told they can’t keep their citizens safe.  Imagine rockets were being fired at the US from Canada and Mexico.  How long would it take for us to level the country?   Three US deaths and 40+ injured on January 28 by terrorists has resulted in the reported deaths of between174 to 225 civilians due to U.S. drone strikes in Yemen.  There is no outrage as we understand that when attacked, the accidental death of civilians occurs.  It is one of the horrors of war and why war should be a last resort, not a first action.  The terrorists of Hamas view it just the opposite.  For them, civilian deaths should be high because it helps their cause.  They do what they can to ensure that civilians are used as human shields and are put in harm’s way.  If you doubt that, ask yourself how many rocket launchers, grenades, bombs, and rifles are kept in your child’s school.  As yourself when you go to the hospital, if there are rooms there where rocket launchers, grenades, bombs, and rifles are kept.  When you go to worship, ask the religious leader to see the rocket launchers and armory they keep. 

I wear my dog tags every day.  One says “bring them home now” and the other says “we will dance again”.  Along with my Magen David (star of David), this guy who only wore an apple watch for years wears these proudly displayed outside my shirt.  I have masking tape I have begun to wear counting the days the hostages have been kept.  Today I will sadly write 123 on the masking tape and put it on my shirt.  Yesterday I wore my “I stand with Israel” sweatshirt with the blue ribbon attached for the hostages.  At the grocery store a number of people asked about my sweatshirt and commented.  No comments were negative, which surprised me. At the bank today, the teller asked me about 123 and when I told her, she shared empathy and said she’d pray for the hostages.

We are truly in a battle for our lives.  There are many in the Jewish community who want to downplay this.  They want to say it’s about Israel and Zionism or the Netanyahu government.  I spoke with my US representative yesterday and we discussed the difference between the government and some of the elected officials in Israel and compared them to members of our US government.  They are people who are held accountable to the electorate.  Just as the current US administration will be held accountable in November with elections where they job performance is evaluated by voters, so too will the Israeli government either at the end of their terms or earlier if the government falls (the difference between the US and Israel’s parliamentary system).  This is very unlike in Gaza where there have not been elections since 2007.  Or the PA where Mahmoud Abbas was elected on January 9, 2005, to serve as President of the Palestinian National Authority for a 4-year term.  He is now 19 years into his 4-year term.  Where is the outrage? 

We are seeing the world once again blame the Jews.  We are held collectively responsible for the hatred against us.  Just as 9/11 was labeled a Jewish conspiracy by many, today it’s Covid-19.  We are accused of blood libels, controlling the banks and the media.  The 2021 book by Dara Horn, People Love Dead Jews, calls back to the words of former Prime Minister Golda Meir, who famously was quoted stating, “If we have to have a choice between being dead and pitied, and being alive with a bad image, we’d rather be alive and have the bad image.” Israel gets this.  Many in the diaspora get this.  Unfortunately, we still have many, such as Peter Beinart and Norman Finkelstein, who don’t get it yet have the public stage.  And the media loves to give attention to those who hate us and want us dead.

A powerful book – they love us when we are dead

I heard Peter Beinart speak in Seattle and met him afterwards. He will excuse Jew hatred and make it our fault until we are all dead.

Norman Finkelstein is the son of Holocaust survivors and one of the worst at excusing Jew hatred and blaming Jews for everything. He is vile.

The current situation reminds me of both The Emperor’s New Clothes and something that happened when I was in High School.  We all know the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes.  When I was in High School, we had a kid in my homeroom who had many issues.  One day he stood in front of a bulletin board in the hallway with a cigarette lighter in his hand as he lit the paper on the bulletin board on fire.  When somebody asked him why he was lighting the bulletin board on fire, he looked right at them and said, “I’m not lighting the bulletin board on fire.”  The worldwide Jewish community is under attack and no matter how much we want to pretend we have beautiful clothes; we are naked.  And no matter what is said, the bulletin board is being lit on fire.  We can either wake up, speak up, speak out, and counter the lies and blood libel being spread or we can whimper away and revisit the horrors of the past.  I agree with Golda and would rather be alive.  I will continue to call out the nakedness and the bulletin board being lit on fire.  Pretending otherwise only ensures our destruction.  I hope you decide to join me.

Golda Meir understood that unless we stand up for ourselves, nobody else will.

Am Yisrael Chai.