Tag: lies

The Jewish Problem of people like Bernie Sanders

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

US Senator Bernie Sanders likes to use his Jewish heritage as a way to defend himself as he attacks Jews and Israel. He uses his personal hatred of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a way to batter Israel and put Jews in the US and around the world in danger. He chooses to tell half truths and outright lies in his frantic, yelling style in an attempt to make them true.

Earlier this week, on December 16, 2025, he chose not to sign onto a joint statement issued Monday December 15, 2025, by Jewish Senate Democrats condemning the Sydney attack with a weak excuse about an earlier statement about antisemitism. This is the essence of Bernie Sanders. Lie, yell, deflect, and spew hatred against those you dislike, all while becoming wealthy while pretending to be one of the people.

This week he issued a very troubling statement, criticizing Netanyahu who linked the terror attack in Sydney, Australia, to Australian PM Canberra’s recognition for a Palestinian state. In the statement, he made four critical claims that need to be addressed. I’m sharing my thoughts on each of them.

DISCLAIMER: I am not going down the rabbit hole of ‘is there a Palestine or Palestinian people’? That is not a helpful or useful dialogue as the people exist and that’s how they are choosing to identify. That debate only creates division and doesn’t move us towards any hope for a better future.

Claim number 1: “No, Mr. Netanyahu. Speaking out on behalf of the Palestinian people is not antisemitic.

Here his claim in correct. Speaking out on behalf of the Palestinian people is certainly not antisemitic. Ignoring how they are damaged by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas while putting all the blame on Israel is 100% antisemitic. When I visited and met with leaders of Palestinian civil society in 2019, there were a number of things that were very clear. First, they had some major issues with the Israeli government and government policies. Many of their issues I agree with. Secondly, they had no use for the PA. The corruption of the PA, the lack of elections had the people I met with who were not on the PA’s payroll united that they were useless and harmful to the Palestinian people. Endorsing a Palestinian state that wants to eliminate Israel, that doesn’t hold elections, that has a government that rewards violence and the murder of Jews, is problematic. There is a very big difference between speaking out on behalf of the Palestinian people and blaming Israel for everything. Senator Sanders blames Israel for everything.

When I ran Hillel at UF, I used to publicly wonder why I was more pro-Palestinian than those in Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). I wanted there to be a Palestinian state with free elections. A place with a thriving Palestinian economy, Palestinian universities staffed with Palestinian professors, meeting in buildings built by Palestinian construction companies. Places that turned out Palestinian doctors and nurses that worked in Palestinian hospitals that were built by those Palestinian construction companies. And most importantly, one that lived in peace with their neighbor, Israel. People like Bernie Sanders simply want no Israel. They don’t care when Hamas murders the civilians in Gaza. They don’t care when Hamas starves the people of Gaza. They only want to blame Israel. So yes, Senator Sanders, speaking out on behalf of the Palestinian people is not antisemitic but when you do so only to blame and vilify Israel, it certainly is.

Claim Number 2: Opposing the disgraceful policies of your extremist government is not antisemitic.

Senator Sanders claims that opposing the policies of a government is not antisemitic. He is 100% correct. There is nothing wrong with opposing the policies of a government. Even in thinking and staying that they are ‘disgraceful’ or calling the government ‘extremist’. That’s the beauty of a democracy. The protests in Israel against the current government have been massive. I was able to watch one outside my hotel in Jerusalem last year. It was amazing to see. The protests were non-violent. There is absolutely nothing wrong with opposing the policies of a duly elected, democratic government. The problem is that Senator Sanders doesn’t oppose the brutal government of Hamas in Gaza. He doesn’t speak out against the government of the Palestinian Authority, elected to a 4-year term on January 9, 2005! For all of Senator Sanders outspoken worries about President Trump not leaving after his term, he supports and doesn’t criticize Mahmoud Abbas, now finishing year 20 of a 4-year term! What hypocrisy!

People like Bernie Sanders hide behind their claims of criticizing the government while actually criticizing the legitimacy of the State of Israel. All they have to do is watch as hundreds of thousands of Israelis protest against the government, peacefully. They can watch disagreements in the Knesset, read the Israeli papers that criticize the government. Instead, they allow their hatred of Bibi Netanyahu to put all Jews around the world at risk.

Claim Number 3: Condemning your genocidal war, which has killed more than 70,000 people — mostly women and children — is not antisemitic.

The facts prove that there is no genocide in Gaza. According to a recent report by President Trump, there have been 67,000 deaths in Gaza with 58,000 of them being Hamas fighters. The 67,000 number comes directly from the Gaza Ministry of Health (Hamas). This means that the civilian to combatant ratio is 0.16 to 1. Israel has consistently reported the ratio in the 1:1 or 1.5:1 ratio. The UN average, or what is permissible in every war that doesn’t involve Israel, is 9 to 1. Facts matter except when it comes to Bernie Sanders and Israel. The data also shows that most of those killed in Gaza are not women and children but are men. Once again, Bernie lies.

Hamas uses women and children as human shields. They use the sick and the elderly as human shields. None of that matters to Bernie Sanders. His hatred for Netanyahu and his hatred of Israel means that he spreads the lies about genocide, putting all Jews at risk. That is antisemitic. Spreading the genocide libel is antisemitic.

Ignoring the actual genocides ongoing in the world while lying about a fake one is antisemitic. Christians are being massacred in Nigeria for the crime of being Christian. Sudan is experiencing the world’s worst displacement crisis and one of the world’s worst hunger crises with nearly 25 million people in need of assistance. No Jews, No News.

As for the fake genocide, the population in Gaza has actually INCREASED since the start of the war. If this was a genocide, it would make it the worst attempt at genocide in history.

Claim Number 4: Demanding that your government stop bombing hospitals and starving children is not antisemitic.”

Allowing Hamas to use hospitals as military bases while condemning Israel for attacking the sites that are firing rockets and missiles at them is antisemitic. The demand should be that Hamas stop using hospitals as military sites. Their use of hospitals as military sites is a war crime. No questions about it. Except that they are doing it against Jews, which is always the exception to a crime. Bernie and his crew totally miss the target here. Hamas digs tunnels under hospitals to use them as military sites. That’s the outrage. Hamas hid hostages in hospitals, that’s the outrage. Claiming Israel and the Jews are randomly bombing hospitals is not only wrong, it puts Jews at risk around the world.

The claim of starving children is yet another lie. There are plenty of images of literal tons of food and aid being delivered to Gaza and sitting there, being undelivered, by UNRWA and the Red Cross. They refused Israel’s support in delivering the food, demanding that Hamas help them deliver the food and aid. The same Hamas that was stealing the food. The same Hamas that was selling the food on the black market. When the complaint from the people of Gaza is that the free food is too expensive, the problem is easy to see. Yet Bernie and his crew ignore the facts to once again blame the Jews.

Earlier this month, it was discovered that Hamas hid tons of baby formula to damage Israel with starvation claims. The images are damning. Yet the media ignores the truth and runs with the lies. People like Bernie run with the lies because it gets them time on TV, headlines in the paper, and helps make them rich. They don’t care about the people in Gaza, those in the hospitals being used as military bases, or the mothers who can’t feed their babies. They only care about blaming the Jews. The facts bear this out.

This isn’t to claim that Israel is blameless or perfect. This isn’t to say that criticism of Israel is automatically antisemitism. When it’s clear that Israel is being singled out, held to a different standard, the lies are getting the headlines while the truth gets buried, that is antisemitism.

People like Bernie Sanders put my life and my family’s life at risk. What happened at Bondi Beach on the first night of Hanukkah could have happened at any Hanukkah celebration around the world. It could happen at one that my family is attending. If you doubt that, read these accountings from the past WEEK in New York, published in this NY Post article.

In just the last few days, multiple alarming episodes of open Jew-hatred have shocked New York City.

Saturday night in a tony West Village eatery, a Jewish woman asked a bigot to cool it with his noisy antisemitic language. He screamed filthy slurs at her, calling her an “ugly f–king Zionist,” insisting, “we will rid this country of f–king you.”

Monday night in Brooklyn, a pair of nasty bigots harassed Hanukkah celebrants, and yelled “F–k the Jews” on a subway platform.

Once on the train, one thug grabbed a visibly Jewish man by the throat and threatened to kill him.

Then, Tuesday afternoon in Crown Heights, an unhinged pedestrian shouted antisemitic remarks at passersby and stabbed one in the chest.

This is New York. The United States of America. 2025. I’m afraid of what 2026 will bring with people like Bernie Sanders making outlandish and false claims against Israel and the Jews. We must stop the lies now. We must hold the liars accountable for their lies that incite violence. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. Inciting violence is a crime and that’s what Bernie Sanders continues to do. He can hate Benjamin Netanyahu all he wants. He can hate Israel all he wants. He can even hate his Jewish heritage if he wants. He isn’t entitled to incite violence against people like me and my family.

It’s time to put an end to the hate. It’s time to demand more from people like Bernie Sanders.

Lessons from Peter Beinart and the Jews in Name Only (JINO)

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

In 2014, Peter Beinart came to speak at the University of Washington Hillel. At the time, I was the President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seatle and we were supportive of him coming to campus. While controversial at the time, his talk about the challenge of Israel being both a Jewish and Democratic state while millions of Palestinian Arabs are living in the West Bank was informative and thoughtful. There was much to discuss and while I (and many others) didn’t agree with Peter’s solutions to the challenge and found his presentation to be missing many factors that needed to be discussed, as you will see in the article at that time in “The Mike Report”, a well known, pro-Israel, very Zionistic blog in Seattle, there was a lot to the conversation. While we disagreed with Peter’s recommendations, the challenge facing Israel was clear and a reasonable discussion occurred. In 2014 you could love Israel, agree on the challenges she faced, and discuss differing ways to address the challenges in a respectful manner. While Jew haters would do it, very few Jews at that time were spreading lies about Israel and attempting to delegitimize the country, those who supported Israel, or defend those who publicly called for or celebrated the murder of Jews.

Peter Beinart; Correct Diagnosis, Bad Prescription

My how times have changed. In the 11 years since that speech, Peter Beinart has become one of the most anti-Israel Jews around. He no longer advocates for Israel but instead villifies her. He no longer cares about the challenge and the solution, only in being anti-Israel and fighting for the end of Israel as a Jewish state. The question of Jewish and Democratic is no longer an issue for him. It’s now about how to make Israel not exist, make it Palestine “from the river to the sea”, and how to villify Jews. He has joined the likes of Bernie Sanders who are Jews in Name Only (JINO) – only to help eliminate Israel and to bad mouth the Jewish community. He joins with and supports those who chant things like “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the intifade”. This week was a new low, even for him.

Beinart accepted the offer to speak at Tel Aviv University and share his lies, accusing Israel of both apartheid and genocide. It is only in a free society like Israel that he would be invited and feel safe to spread these lies. Can you imagine somebody speaking publicly in Iran about the evils of the Ayatolleh? We’ve seen what happens to those who merely criticize the Iranian regime – they are quickly arrested and murdered. We see what happens when people oppose Hamas in Gaza – they are quickly and publicly murdered. Those who oppose Putin in Russia quickly disappear. Yet in Israel, you are invited to publicly share your opinions, even when they are blatent lies, and you have no worries about your safety. You can even publicize on social media what lies you are going to tell and still be invited and safe.

Then, just when you think it can’t get worse than regular Peter Beinart, somehow he goes even lower. He manages to embarrass himself and the lies he tells even more. How does he do this? He apologizes to those who want to kill every Jew in the world, those who actively support the genocide of Jews and who celebrated the massacre on October 7th. He says he was wrong to even speak to Israelis. It’s no longer enough to lie about them. It’s no longer enough to support those who tell the lies and who want there to be no Israel and no Jews. Now, it’s not even ok to speak to them. To share your lies with them and try to convince them that they are racists, murderers, and the worst people on the face of the earth. Now, you simply have to pretend they are not even human, are not even worthy of being talked with.

I think back to the Peter Beinart that I met in 2014. A person that I agreed with on the challenge ahead and disagreed with on the solution to the challenge. Somebody who wanted to engage in dialogue. This week he proved, in a very public fashion, that Peter Beinart no longer exists. I am now a person he would never speak with. Somebody he wouldn’t even lower himself to speak with. Somebody who isn’t worthy of being graced by his presence nor worthy of hearing him share his lies. It makes me wonder how much longer it will take for him to change the word “Israeli” or “Jew” to simply “vermin” like the Nazis did.

Peter Beinart taught us all a very important lesson this week. There will always be Jews who are embarrassed to be Jewish and as a result, will do all they can to tear us down. We have seen it througout history. Especially throughout our own history. We continue to survive and to thrive despite these efforts because we continue to invest in Judaism. We continue to celebrate being Jewish. So we survive. I was shocked when I learned that not all the Jews left Egypt with Moses. The great Jewish commentator Rashi said that only 20% actually left with Moses. The rest stayed and faded away. Those like Peter Beinart and Bernie Sanders have existed throughout history. They are the 80% of the Jews who stayed in Egypt and didn’t leave with Moses.

Peter Beinart this week showed us the importance of investing in being Jewish. As I prepare to head to Israel on Wednesday with a group of 30-45 year olds for an intense, one week Jewish leadership experience, this lesson couldn’t have come at a better time. Whatever you think being Jewish means, it can mean more. It can be a part of your daily life no matter how religiously observant you may or may not be. Embrace it, because history has shown us that the world will certainly define you as Jewish no matter how much you define yourself. So learn and define yourself in a meaningfully Jewish way. You won’t regret it.

2014 with Peter Beinart. I will never let people like him define being Jewish or defame Israel

Our world and our country is lost

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

I think today is when I finally acknowledge the reality we are all seeing and none of us want to admit. Our world is lost. We have reached the tipping point from which I am no longer sure we can recover. Today we had both a school shooting outside of Denver as well as the assasination of Charlie Kirk. I was no fan of Charlie Kirk. I didn’t agree with much of anything that Charlie Kirk said. Yet his assasination is the type of behavior that shows our country has no moral conscience. It shows how lost we are. We don’t shoot people we don’t agree with or don’t like. We don’t condone murder. This isn’t a left/right issue. If you haven’t seen the video of his murder, here it is. It’s something that is unforgettable once you see it.

We have already seen the efforts to blame him for his own murder. The media isn’t holding themselves accountable for promoting hate and divisiveness. They aren’t blaming the person who murdered him. They are blaming him. Matthew Dowd says it publicly on MSNBC. He won’t hold people like Francesca Albanese accountable for her lies about Israel. He won’t hold Hamas accountable for their actual genocide. But he will blame somebody he disagrees with their own murder.

We are seeing things like this all over the place. No outrage at murder. No outrage at the taking of a life. Because they disagree with Charlie Kirk, they celebrate his death and his murdered. We saw this with the shooting and murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024 by Luigi Mangione (who has not yet been officially convicted) and the way Magnione has been celebrated and become a hero to many. With Charlie Kirk is now dropping to a new low.

Charlie Kirk’s murder has overshadowed the school shooting in Evergreen, Colorado. Think about how insane a statement that is. A person took a gun and shot up a school and it’s not the lead story. It’s not even the lead story related to gun violence. It’s not even the lead story about a shooting that occurred at an educational facility.

Three high school students were shot in Evergreen, one of them the suspected shooter. They are in critical condition. A fourth is also in the hospital. Students went to high school today to learn. Instead four are in the hospital, three in critical condition (including the suspected shooter). A community is traumatized. The country? Not so much. Only three, including the shooter, were shot. In today’s world, that’s barely noticable. Insanity. School shootings should NEVER occur let alone not be newsworthy. It’s far beyond reasonable gun laws. We have a crisis on our hands. A crisis of the soul.

The Spanish Prime Minister says that unfortunately Spain doesn’t have nuclear weapons to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Nothing about the hostages. Nothing about October 7th. Instead, he regrets they don’t have nuclear weapons to stop Israel fighting the terrorists. There is a reason they don’t and shoudn’t ever have nuclear weapons.

A European elected leaders expresses remorse for his inability to use a nuclear weapon on Israel to stop them from fighting an existential threat to their own survival. Fighting an enemy that tried actual genocide on October 7, 2023, that celebrated their horrific actions by recording and publishing them for the world to see. Yet no outrage is shown by the media or the world. Imagine a world leader saying that about any other country and what would happen. But nuking the Jewish state? Totally ok.

Canada continues to sink into its antisemitism and Jew hatred. Israel has provided more humanitarian aid to the enemy than any country in history. They do all they can to notify civilians ahead of time to evacuate an area before they attack. They target the leaders and put their own soldiers at risk. This isn’t about whether you like or hate Bibi Netanyahu. This isn’t about whether Israel is fighting a perfect war (not so subtle hint – they are not). This is about the existence of Jews and of the State of Israel.

These same people applauded when the US invaded Pakistan to eliminate Osama Bin-Laden. They are pure hypocrites and Jew haters. As Hen Mazzig points out in the post below, President Macron of France, who criticized Israel for their action to target Hamas leadership, ignores the fact that France has bombed FIVE countries because of terrorism. What type of world do we live in when this is not only happening but encouraged.

What used to infuriate me the most, until today when a school shooting wasn’t really news and the murder of somebody was celebrated by many who disagree with his views, was the way the world leaders don’t care about the truth and continue their lies. Their demand that Israel make peace, when Israel accepted the most recent plan to end the war and it was Hamas who rejected it, is beyond insanity. Their demand for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza when it’s documented that approximately 700 trucks of aid are coming into Gaza DAILY is beyond ignoring the truth. The following was the announcement and report from September 9, 2025 from the IDF and COGAT:

Humanitarian Aid Data and Efforts on September 9:

Over the past day, more than 280 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings.

Additionally, 400 trucks were collected and distributed by the UN and international organizations, while the contents of several hundred more remain on the Gazan side of the crossings, awaiting collection.

We have facilitated the entry of tankers of UN fuel for the operation of essential humanitarian systems.

In addition, a rotation coordination of humanitarian personnel has been successful completed.

We will continue expanding our efforts to facilitate humanitarian aid for the civilian population of Gaza.

There is no criticism of the United Nations who doesn’t deliver the aid when it comes into Gaza. There is no celebrating the efforts of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that is getting food directly to the people. There is only the lie that food and aid isn’t getting into Gaza. It is getting in. The UN makes sure it doesn’t get to the people, only to Hamas or that it sits out in the sun. It is Hamas that is starving the people with the assistance of the United Nations. Our world leaders don’t even attempt to pretend they are telling the truth. They just out and out lie because the world hates the Jews and is willing to believe anything they are told. The media helps them.

Our world is broken. I’m not sure that it can be fixed. For the first time in my life, I understand the story of Noah, the ark, and the flood in a way I never have before. I understand the story of Sodom and Gemorrah like I never have before. Tikkun Olam means something different that it ever has before. Today, I question if our world is even worth saving. Yet despite my questions and my misgivings, I won’t give up the fight. I won’t stop trying to do my part to make it a world filled with kindness, love, and care for each other. I don’t have another choice. None of us do. The future of the world literally depends on us to confront the evil, the lies, and the hate. We can’t sit by idly. We can’t bury our heads in the sand. We can’t stand by quietly.

At times like this I find myself thinking back to the three times that I had the opportunity to meet and talk with the great Elie Weisel. I think of the last time, when I brought my children, then both young, and what he said. How it was our responsibility to build the world we want. How much our actions mattered and that it was up to us to build the world we wanted for them. The world we have today is NOT the world i want for my children. So I fight the evil. I speak out. I write. I have tattoos to commorate October 7th. I proudly wear my Star of David with Israel in the middle of it. I have a Florida Stands with Israel license plate on my car. I have a big mezzuzah on my front door. I won’t hide. I won’t be silent. And I won’t accept evil.

As Elie Weisel said, we need to be held accountable. God will always do God’s part but we must do ours. Will you join me in the fight against evil?

They no longer even try to hide their Jew hatred

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

It is official. AP has gone into business with Hezbollah and the terrorists. They have quietly defended the terrorists through inaccurate reporting and lies but no longer feel the need to do it under any pretense. They just released what used to be considered an unpublishable and unforgiveable article about how life has been difficult for terrorists who were targeted in a strategic and surgical attack to eliminate them or at least stop them from being able to be active terrorists. To AP, they are now tragic figures who’s only crime was that they wanted to murder, rape, decapitate, and ensure the genocide of the Jews. And honestly, they are only Jews so to AP, they don’t really count. After all, what is thousands of dead Jews compared to a terrorist who can’t be a terrorist to kill more Jews with his buddies or one who can’t play football any longer.  

Here was this incredible report by the Associated Press. The didn’t even try to hide their support of the terrorists.

So AP wants us to have sympathy for people like the terrorist Mahdi Sheri, who can’t play football and can’t fight for Hezbollah anymore, but writes nothing about what should have been Ariel Bibas (z’l) 6th birthday on August 6th. Somebody dedicated to murder, rape, torture, kidnapping, and real genocide gets a sympatheic piece while the brutal kidnapping and murder of a 4 year old child is ignored. Pathetic. Horrific. The American media no longer needs to hide its antisemitism and Jew hatred.

In the article, it cites that Human rights and United Nations reports say the attack may have violated international law, calling it indiscriminate. Using the pagers assigned by a terrorists group to their terrorist members to stop the terrorists is called ‘indiscriminate’. You couldn’t make this type of stuff up. It’s time to close the UN, no longer anything close to what it was designed to be. If we, as a country, want to really believe in our ideals of humanity, we have no place for the Jew hating UN.

Then there is Mahmoud Khalil, a terrorist who led the Columbia antisemistism and Jew hatred efforts. Amazingly he says publicly that October 7th was necessary because Israel was making peace with other Arab countries and the Palestinians were being ‘left behind’. If being left behind means their rejection of every peace offer since 1948, then yes, they were left behind. Accepting a deal that acknowledges the right of Israel to exist that would create a Palestinian state isn’t acceptable so instead, their decision is to murder, rape, kidnap, and decapitate as many Jews as they possibly can. Khalil all but says that publicly and yet the world stays silent. It’s beyond obscene.

Then there is Linda Sarsour, one of the most vile antisemites around. She completely ignores the oppression of Hamas, completely ignores the freedoms of muslims who are Israeli citizens, and instead, chooses to to advocate that all Muslims must hate all Jews. According to her, the official position of the entire muslim community needs to be Jew hatred. Once again, the world stays silent. Their silence is their tacit approval of what she advocates. It’s their way to encourage Jew hatred without having to directly say it.

It’s hard to find things that go beyond those, however in today’s world, that is not only possible but probably. Amazingly, an Austrian heiress to the industrial dynasty whose company manufactured Zyklon B—the chemical used to gas Jews during the Holocaust—is set to sail on a “Freedom Flotilla” to Gaza. Her family wasn’t able to eliminate all the Jews so she is going to do her part in carrying on the family tradition of demonizing and attempting to murder the Jews. The world sees no irony. The world sees nothing wrong with this.

The UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) came out with an incredible report that explains the food shortages in Gaza. They found that between May 19 and August 5, 2025, 88% of aid trucks collected by the UN in Gaza did not reach their intended destinations. This means that of the 2,604 trucks with food and humanitarian aid that entered Gaza, 2,309 of them were intercepted and didn’t reach the people of Gaza. In some months, the percentage of stolen aid was even higher, reaching 94% in July 2025. The report is even more damning of the UN and Hamas. Data shows that 85% of aid pallets sent to Gaza did not reach their intended recipients, with 28,000 out of 33,000 pallets looted. The more food and aid given to the UN to distribute, the more food and aid ends up with Hamas for them to feed their terrorist agenda and for them to sell on the black market to fund their terror operations.

Yet it is Israel that is blamed. Hamas is absolved of any responsibility. The UN, charged with delivering the food and aid to the people are given a free pass from their role in the lack of food for the people of Gaza. Israel, who sent the food in, who turned it over to the UN, is the who the world blames for the lack of food. It’s beyond absurd.

What makes it even worse? The Jews who side with the UN and Hamas. The Jews who use terms like genocide and war crimes when talking about Israel. The Jews who will be shocked when the Jew haters come for them because they were on the side of Hamas. This image and post on X (Twitter) puts it best, using Bernie Sanders, the ultimate Jewish Jew hater (Peter Beinart is a very close second) as the example.

If Jew haters like Bernie Sanders really cared about starving children in Gaza they would hold Hamas and the UN accountable for allowing the food and aid to be stolen and looted and not given to the people. They would hold Egypt accountable for not allowing ANY aid through their border and for not allowing the civilians (i.e. not Hamas) of Gaza to move into the Sinai where they could be safe, have plenty of food, water, medicine, and a life while Israel eliminates Hamas. The reality is they don’t care about anything other than hating Jews.

No longer can we allow this blatent Jew hatred to go unchallenged. No longer can we excuse it, especially when it comes from other Jews. It’s bad enough when the rest of the world hates us but when we decide to hate ourselves, thinking the world will love us because we helped rid the world of Jews, we are delusional. At times like this, we need to listen to Winston Churchill.

Don’t be an appeaser. Don’t allow those you know to be appeasers. When you do, in the end, we all get eaten.

Free Palestine

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

We have heard this chant for years. Since October 7th, the cries have come more frequently, louder, and in many places. It has become the calling card for antisemitism and Jew hatred. “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.” A chant that is saying, “From the River to the Sea, the middle east will be Jew free.” It is cute, clever, rhymes and is easy to say. It’s also racist and bigoted. But because it’s a chant against the Jews, it’s accepted and defended.

Since October 7th, it has caught on like wildfire. It’s an easy way to terrorize Jews and attack Jews in a now socially accepted manner. Jewish passengers on an Iberia flight had to deal with it. What will be the consequences for this blatent Jew hatred? Nothing.

As Jews, we have allowed this to happen. We have tolerated it, excused it, minimized it, and allowed the Jew hatred to grow. Even today, we continue to find ways to excuse Jew hatred and do things to make the Jewish community responsible for others behavior. The claims that Israel is committing genocide is a perfect example. They are fighting a war. Innocent people are dying. They are not fighting a perfect war and have made many mistakes. Just like every other country in the history of war. It doesn’t matter that the data doesn’t support this claim. It doesn’t matter that it clearly doesn’t meet the definition of genocide while Hamas’s attack on October 7th fully does. It doesn’t matter that just a few weeks ago, in Syria, the Syrian army were ordered to kill every Druze and to eliminate the entire population, a clear genocidal intent, which the world didn’t care about. Every time I see a Jewish person make the claim of genocide my stomache turns. When it is a Jewish leader, especially a Rabbi, my heart breaks. Once again, we are helping our abusers destroy us. Once again we are complicit. In his article in the Free Press, Coleman Hughes addresses the simple truth about the war.

Yahyah Sinwar knew this about the world and about the Jews. In his article, The Wisdom of Yahyah Sinwar, Oren states clearly that, “The leader of Hamas bet that the West’s oldest hatred would obscure Hamas’s atrocities. He was right.” The world hates Jews. We are th oldest scapegoat, easy to blame for anything and everything. Easy to hate because we help those who hate us. Oren points out the many lies that have been told, the way the truth has been proven and yet it is the lies that remain what the public remembers and believes. And we help them.

There are many people who have been very critical of our major Jewish organizations and our Rabbinic leadership for their failure to speak out fast enough, powerfully enough, clearly enough, and with a strong moral clarity. It is easy to miss those who speak out clearly and powerfully, with moral clarity and no ambiguity. My friend Rabbi Jeremy Barras is one of them. Rabbi of one of the largest reform synagogue in Miami, Temple Beth Am, Rabbi Barras is an unabashed Zionist and speaks with incredible passion and moral clarity. His comments below are powerful, clear, and come with moral clarity. Listen to what he says and understand.

It is time for us to stop helping those who want to kill us to succeed. It is time for us to stand up for who we are and what we believe. It is time to call the world out on their Jew hatred and not allow it. The NY Times knowingly ran a picture that was altered and of a child with Cerebral Palsy and lied about it, staying it was starvation. There are rumors that Irael is going to sue the NY Times for $10 billion dollars for this. I hope they do. They must be held accountable. It isn’t just the NY Times. Today it came out that TIme Magazine staged a photo of people in Gaza starving. They did this for the cover of their magazine!

It doesn’t matter to the world that the pictures are altered or staged. It doesn’t matter to the world that these ‘news’ organizations knowingly lie about the story. It fits the narrative that the world wants of the Jews. Michael Oren wrote in his article about how the world holds, “the 2,000-year belief that Jews were inherently vengeful, greedy, and lustful for the blood of innocents and children.”

This is the reality that we face today. Hamas lies. The media intentionally believes the lies and helps facilitate the lies to generate Jew hatred. People believe it. Jew hatred grows. A good example of how this happens and the impact is Sam Rasoul of the Virginia House of Delegates. He is a Democrat who chairs the Education Committee in the state’s House of Delegates and has used his social media accounts to attack Israel and America’s support for Israel. Recently, he has gone even more offensive in his posting, slandering Zionism and putting Jews in danger. On July 26, 2025, he posted on Instagram that Zionism is a “supremist ideology created to destroy and conquer everything and everyone in its way.”. He then accused Zionists of “making the world less safe for my Jewish friends.”

He starts with a lie about Zionism – simply the belief that Jews should have their own homeland. A homeland that continues to offer peace to the Palestinians that they have continued to reject. If there is any supremist ideology, it is the Palestinian leadership that demands everything and rejects peace. But the truth doesn’ tmatter. He then accuses Zionists of making the world less safe for Jews, another lie, as it is people like him who are making it less safe. Maybe he has some Jewish friends but I doubt they more than tokens designed to provide some cover to his Jew hatred.

This is the person who chairs the Education Committee in the Virginia legislature. Is it reasonable to assume he’ll provide real information and educational guidance about Jews and Israel? Should we expect that he will do everything required to protect Jewish students, especially if they are Zionists? Will a student wearing a Jewish star or any visible support of Israel be deemed a fair target for abuse under his leadership? All good questions and concerns yet the silence of the leadership of the House of Delegates is frightening.

We can’t be silent especially when leadership is silent in the face of Jew hatred. We cannot allow the lies to grow. When we hear the words, “Free Palestine” we must ensure that it includes “From Hamas”.

Are you going to be part of the silence and the problem or be vocal and part of the solution? Our silence allows the lies to grow unchallenged. That is no longer an option. Be like Rabbi Barras and speak out. Be like John Spencer, Michael Oren, Coleman Hughes, Erin Moran, Michael Rappaport, Brianna Wu, and the others who are willing to speak out, to take risks, and fight the lies. Otherwise the effort to make the work Juden-frei (Jew free) will grow and one day, it may succeed.

The horrors of the media

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

I have written a lot about the media and the problems that they create. It is no longer about the news or about facts. It is about agendas, clicks, advertising dollars, and being first with a story even when it is wrong. The media has created and continues to create incredible division and hatred. The NY Times running the lies about the child from Gaza who has Cerebral Palsy is a perfect example from just this week. The lie has gone around the world while their pathetic small appending of the article is missed by most. The lame correction wasn’t put on the front page, like the lie. It wasn’t put on their big social media accounts.

We continue to allow the media to say whatever they want, regardless of the truth. They provide no context. A friend at lunch told me he listened to NPR talk about the food crisis in Gaza is a fifteen minute segment. Not once, in the entire segment, did they mention Hamas. Not once did they address the hoarding of food by Hamas and their selling of food on the black market. Not once did they address the complaints of the Gazan people that the food was too expensive. Free food was too expensive. Not to NPR who chose to make it an anti-Israel narrative.

The media loves to show anything that makes Israel look bad. Even when it’s not true. Especially when it’s not true. Anthony Aguilar is a perfect example. As you will see in the video below, it didn’t take much effort to understand that he is lying. What his motivation to lie was and plenty of documentation to back it up. Yet the media is making him a star. Why? Because his lies make Israel look bad. Because his lies paint a picture that they want to sell. It creates and reinforces the narrative that makes them money and makes those who hate Jews love them. Eventually there may be a retraction or an apology. But like the NY Times, it’ll be buried where nobody will see it or care about it.

Getting real information isn’t always easy. It’s also time consuming. I was recently introduced to Triggernometry, a podcast that takes its time to delve deep into issues. I was sent this one as my introduction and the interview of Andrew Fox, a British military veteran is spectacular. When he says, “There have been more bombs dropped in Gaza than people have been killed so either the IDF are the worst shots in history or they are actually taken care of civilian lives,” you hear a clear statement about the war in Gaza. In this 1 hour and 15 minute interview, they delve deep into various, difficult topics. The answers aren’t always pretty. They don’t whitewash Israel’s decisions and actions in the war. They are honest. They are based on facts. They paint a very different picture than the mass media. They make countries like Canada, the UK, and France, ready to recognize a Palestinian State that doesn’t meet any of the requirements to be a State, look like Jew hating fools. The conversation you will listen to gives the information that makes what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says about recognizing a Palestinian State clear and obvious.

To be educated and to know what you are talking about takes time and effort. Listen to this – you will be armed with information and facts so that you can speak intelligently about what’s happening.

I like listening to Chris Cuomo on his podcast. He will have anybody on his podcast and he will ask any question. He will push hard and not let people off the hook. This week, he spent 12 minutes discussing “What is the truth about aid in Gaza? The answer people don’t seem to want to accept:” He doesn’t let Israel off the hook for stopping the aid when they did. He does hold Hamas accountable. He demands the return of the ‘people that they stole‘, powerful words that I wish the mass media would use. Take 12 minutes and listen to him.

While the media will show and publicize the lies about the child from Gaza, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, promote the lies of Anthony Aguilar, what they won’t do is put any focus on the hostages, still held captive in inhuman conditions in Gaza. This week, Hamas publicized a video of Rom Braslavski, a hostage taken on October 7th and held in captivity until today. Look at the image on the left, released this week, and you see somebody who has been tortured, starved, and abused. They feed him one-half a piece of pita to eat each day and give him dirty water to drink. Enough to keep him barely alive. Look at the picture on the right – of Rom before being taken hostage. It is one of the most haunting images I have seen – my heart breaks every time that I look at it.

The day after they released the video and images of Rom, Hamas released images of Evyatar David, another person taken hostage by Hamas and kept in brutal conditions in the tunnels under Gaza. Evyatar looks happy and filled with life and a bright future in the image on the right. The image on the left is skin and bones, barely alive, with no spark or spirit.

This is what war crimes look like. This is Hamas. This is what our media and countries like Canada, the UK, and France are defending. Imagine either one of these two people were your child, your grandchild, your sibling, your friend. I have been outraged by Hamas even before October 7th and even more since then. As I look at the media coverage of Gaza, I am disgusted by their failure to report on the hostages. Failure to report on their captivity of almost 2 years. Their failure to keep them in the news and their failure to prioritize their health. Where is the media outrage at the UN and the Red Cross for not visiting a single hostage in captivity for nearly 2 years? All they have been is a glorified taxis service. Where is the outrage from the media when these pictures are shared? This is what starvation and captivity looks like. This is what war crimes look like. Don’t turn away. Share the images. Force people to see the reality.

Rom Bravlasvski starved as a hostage
Rom Bravlavski before October 7th
Evyatar David – still held hostage in Gaza by Hamas. This is what starvation and war crimes look like.

It gets worse. Hamas released this video of a captive, starving, Evyatar David being forced to dig his own grave. They don’t hide their war crimes, their crimes against humanity, they celebrate them. The world allows them to celebrate them because they don’t hold them accountable. Our US policiticans scream to flood Gaza with food but they neglect the starving hostages. They willingly ignore the 2 million meals per day being provided by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and the UN’s failure to deliver food and to ensure the food goes to the people instead of Hamas. They willingly ignore the images of starving hostages and the video of one being forced to dig his own grave.

I refuse to stand by idly and allow this to continue. I reach out to elected officials. I write and speak out. I educate friends and others. People must see the reality. We can’t give up and we can’t surrender. We can’t accept the reality being pushed on us because of the lies. It doesn’t matter who we are talking to, the facts matter. The truth matters. I won’t be silenced because the cost of silence is the cost of our lives. Canada, the UK, France, elected officials, the media – they may all be against us and support Jew hatred and the lies but they won’t do it without me fighting back. Will you join me or will you be part of the problem? The choice is yours.

The Genocide Libel

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

For more than two decades, I have made one simple claim. American’s are dumb. It’s simple. It’s clear. I don’t think it is even debatable at this point. This doesn’t mean I don’t love America or that I hate the American people. It does mean that we are so self-righteous and have such a small attention span that we believe whatever we are told. It means that the Big Lie theory, popularized by Adolph Hitler, is right when the theory says, “if a lie is sufficiently enormous and repeated frequently enough, people will eventually believe it.” We see it all the time. Our news media does it all the time. Our leaders do it all the time.

I have lunch every Friday afternoon with a group of 80 year old men. It’s a fabulous group and I’m thrilled that they invited me over a year ago, 20 to 30 years younger than them, to join. When working, they were titans of their industries. Lawyers, Doctors, Judges, Newspaper editors, and much more. Their wisdom infuses the conversations each week into something rare in today’s world. For the past few months I have been bringing up the subject of the media and their agenda with everything that they do. No longer is it the about getting the facts and the truth out into the public arena. No longer is it about verifying stories before you go to press because truth and integrity matters. Today’s media is about money. It’s about clicks and views and being the fastest out with something because that’s how you monitize it. I often make the comment that there is a reason why the news is now in the entertainment division. My friend who was the newspaper editor always takes umbrage when I say this because he recalls a different day. A day when the media had an obligation to truth and independence. A day when you could count on the media almost all the time to get it right, even if they didn’t get it fast. I long for those days but am realistic about where we are.

The media lies because it sells papers, gets ratings, and gets clicks. They don’t even try to hide it. Take the NY Times. In order to blame Israel, they used a photo of Mohammed al-Mutawaaq, a child with a muscular disorder, as the face of famine in Gaza.

This isn’t the first time they have lied about Israel nor will it be the last. Earlier in the week they ran a terrible piece, based on no facts, stating that there is no proof that Hamas is stealing the food from the UN. The day after, a piece in the Jerusalem post showed just how wrong the Times was once again and how they and Reuters ignored a mountain of evidence to print their narrative and lies. The NY Times and the media simply don’t get held accountable. I’m stunned by the number of Jews who continu to read the NY Times and view it as a source of respectible journalism. Then again, I am stunned by the number of Jews who support those who would kill us all if they had the opportunity. This isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s been going on for thousands of years. In our effort to build a better world, we have done harm to ourselves going back thousands of years. It is our history. The question is when will we learn from our history – or maybe better stated, will we ever learn from our history.

A friend of mine from Jewish summer camp many years ago just wrote a piece accusing Israel of Genocide. I won’t post it. He is a University Professor in Canada so it didn’t surprise me. It did sadden me. As I read it, I was even more disappointed as so many facts were simply wrong. When educated, smart Jews who I know have a strong Jewish identity believe the lies, it is clear that we have failed. It is clear that what we have done up until now has not worked and that if we don’t take a hard look at ourselves, our organizations, and our communities and understand where we went wrong, where we missed, and devise a new path, we have a very troubled and scary future in front of us.

We had a detailed interaction and conversation on Facebook about it. It was very civil and reasonable. Topics were discussed, information shared, and no minds were changed. I think what was the saddest part for me, other than seeing the lack of real information being used by him was his final statement. I had asked him to read a piece written by John Spencer, the chair of Urban Warfare studies at the Madison Policy Forum. Spencer is one of the world experts on war and specifically Urban war like in Gaza. He is not just an academic, as he served 25 years in the U.S. Army, to included two combat tours in Iraq. The piece, titled I’m a War Scholar. There Is No Genocide in Gaza, is filled with facts and information from somebody who is world renown in the field and has no skin in the game. He isn’t Jewish or Israeli and is completely independent. My friend’s reply was “Thank you, but I think I’ve read enough.”

That’s a major part of the problem. People read things that confirm their bias. They watch the news that is clearly far left or clearly far right. They never read things that challenge their beliefs or their world view. It goes back to the saying “my truth”. There isn’t ‘my truth’. There is only ‘the truth’. As the late, great Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.” In today’s world, people are choosing their own facts.

I read a piece in the Free Press today about the greatness of Billy Joel. In it, they quoted two verses from his classic song, “Prelude/Angry Young Man”. It’s one of my favorite songs and the lyrics hit me different this time.

The first verse quoted reflects the attitude of the young. It reads: 

There’s a place in the world for the angry young man
With his working-class ties and his radical plans
He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl,
And he’s always at home with his back to the wall.
And he’s proud of his scars and the battles he’s lost,
And he struggles and bleeds as he hangs on his cross
And he likes to be known as the angry young man.

Billy Joel

When I was young, I related to that verse. It spoke to me as who I was at that time. Then I got older. I got more mature. I got married, had a family, built a life within society. The second verse of the song that they wrote about reflects that version of me.

I believe I’ve passed the age
Of consciousness and righteous rage
I found that just surviving was a noble fight.
I once believed in causes too,
I had my pointless point of view,
And life went on no matter who was wrong or right.

Billy Joel

Until October 7th, that was more of who I was. I no longer had that ‘righteous rage’ and understood that there was a nobleness in surviving the challenges of life. Everything didn’t have to be perfect and there were certain things that no matter how wrong I thought they were, they were not going to change. My point of view was mine and the world didn’t need to conform to my worldview. I respected my scars and the battles I’ve lost but I didn’t need to obtain new ones or lose new battles. October 7th changed that for me.

Since October 7th, I’m no longer that person passed the age of conciousness and righteous rage. I’m also not the angry young man. The person I am has more of the angry young man than the older version. I know that we can’t sit by idly and I need to be part of the group that will have radical plans because what has been done up to now has epically failed. I can’t bend and I can’t crawl. I have to fight because now it really is about survival.

So despite my inability to change the mind of my camp friend, I won’t stop speaking the truth. I won’t stop calling out the Jew hatred all around us. I won’t stop naming those who are vile antisemites or those who blatently lie because of their Jew hatred. Will there be consequences? Probably. Will I get new scars? Definitely. Will I be proud of the battles I’ve lost? Not a chance. Because losing a battle isn’t success. There are no moral victories when it comes to my life and the lives of my fellow Jews. I may be known as the angry ‘not so young’ man, but I don’t care. Because if we don’t stand up and fight now, by the time we may be ready, it will be too late. I’m not willing to take that chance. Are you?

Oh what a strange world we live in

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

I remember learning about the ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” When I heard it, I didn’t quite understand why it was a curse. Who wouldn’t want to live in interesting times? The opposite was boring times and that didn’t sound like much fun. The older I got, the more I understood why this was a curse. Today, we certainly living in interesting times. Challenging times. Frustrating times. Sometimes it feels like hopeless times.

People have always interested me. How they think, why they make the choices that they make, and often times, how self-destructive they can be. Over the past decade, I have seen and written about the rise of antisemitism, of Jew hatred. When I began writing about and calling it Jew hatred, it was a controversial term. It no longer is controversial. Since October 7, 2023, the amount of public Jew hatred has been astounding. I always knew there were people who simply hated Jews and I met plenty of them. They always kept it quiet though. Nobody came out publicly with their Jew hatred, it was kept behind closed doors. Today, they wear it publicly like a badge of honor.

I just learned about a former employee, somebody that most of us who worked with not only liked but thought liked us, posted on social media, “zionist unfriend me silently challenge (impossible).” It was shocking to see, in part because I knew her differently that this post and also because I only saw it when a friend shared it with me because this person had unfriended me, likely because of my pro-Israel posts and advocacy. I was forwarded some of the interaction and it was sad to read. This person that I had known was clearly not the same. Her Jew hatred was clear and public. When asked about what happened to make her like this, her reply was that she had always felt this way, she just had to keep quiet “for a paycheck.” This made me even sadder, because if true, she sold out her integrity for a paycheck, lied and pretended to be friends with people she despised.

I’m not sure why it amazes me that people just believe what they are told. The amount of lies that get retold, over and over again as truth, just because somebody said it on social media or on TV is shocking. It doesn’t even take much investigation to find out that they are lies, yet people today can’t be bothered with that. They’d rather believe the lies. They’d rather feed the hate. Unlike the far right, which allows all hate, the one hate that is allowed by the progressive far left movement is Jew hatred. The rest is not permitted – say it about any group other than the Jews and you get cancelled. You become a pariah. But say it about the Jews and they make you a hero. A righteous fighter for the underdog no matter how heinous their behavior. It disgusts me.

For about a five (5) year period, from approximately 2018 – 2023, I was often interviewed on the TV news, public radio, or for the newspaper about the rise of antisemitism. I would always start by saying that we must speak out against ALL HATE. I would say how whatever group was facing the hatred today, it would eventually move on to another group and one day it would be your group facing the hate. That’s why we needed to stand up and speak out against all hate. I still believe that today, despite the fact that when it comes to Jew hatred, we often stand alone.

I am so appreciative of my non-Jewish friends and those in public positions who speak out against Jew hatred. They take a big risk and do so proudly and with honor. I am appreciative of my friends, Jewish and not-Jewish, who don’t know things and ask, begin conversations, and are willing to dig deep. Often they will apologize when asking a question and I stop them, thank them for asking, and encourage them to never fear a true and honest question. This past weekend, I was hanging out with a bunch of friends. I was engaged in a great conversation with one of them who told me that he never really knew anything about Israel, never really paid attention to anything, until he learned about my connection and my passion. He’d follow me on social media when I travel to Israel, began reading things to learn more, and asked some great questions. We had a really positive conversation where he opened up and asked questions he may have been afraid to ask before. I answered honestly, even when the answer was that Israel had done something wrong. It made me wonder what might have been different with the other person if she had been willing to engage in dialogue, learn, listen, and ask the hard questions instead of posting her offensive comment. I’ll never know the answer but I also know that I will never stop trying to have those real conversations. No matter how difficult or challenging they may be.

People don’t understand the difference between Israel attacking Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, or Iranian military targets and military leaders and how Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran attack civilians. They don’t understand the difference between Israel doing all they can to protect the civilians and how the others do all they can to attack and kill civilians.

Video of ballastic missile landing in Ramat Gan – clearly not a military target

I’m tired of the Americans (and others but mainly the Americans) who believe the lies. Who spread the lies. Who use them to express their Jew hatred. The true civilians in Gaza thank Israel and want freedom from Hamas. The Iranian people support Israel and want freedom from the Iranian regime. The lies only make it more difficult for them and help keep them living under tyranny. These ‘people’ who say they want to help by bashing Israel are doing exactly the opposite of helping. They are the ones who despite seeing the emperor having no clothes, rave out the outfit. They are the monkeys who ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.’ They are the ones who embolden and empower evil.

The rest of us need to speak out and speak out loudly. We cannot sit back and be quiet and think they are showing how stupid they are, how bigoted they are. The longer we stay silent, the more they spread the lies and hate. I urge you to speak up. The cost of being quiet is too high.

A love for life – we will survive

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

The world seems to get crazier and crazier. The stock market plummets and then returns. Tariffs are high and then are gone, delayed, or small. The only constant seems to be Jew hatred, lies, and the hostages being ignored by the UN, Red Cross, and the world.

May 15th is the day of Israel Independence on the secular calendar. 77 years ago, David Ben Gurion stood in Tel Aviv, in what is now Independence Hall, and declared Israel to be a State. Every time I stand in Independence Hall, look at the seats set up as they were that day, and listen to Ben Gurion’s voice declaring the State, I get chills.

That declaration by Ben Gurion was a statement about the Jewish love of life. Of how we never forget. Of how we place life ahead of everything. This week, there were two examples of this. It was recently announced that Israel had recovered a number of documents and items from Syria that belonged to Eli Cohen. Captured as a spy by Syria and hung as punishment, Cohen is one of the great stories of Israel. I knew about what he did long before I knew his story. The actor Sasha Baron-Cohen played him brillantly in the Netflix mini-series, The Spy.

Top row, center: Cohen’s final will, handwritten in Arabic just hours before his death on May 18, 1965. Addressed to his wife Nadia and children, the letter is a heartfelt farewell filled with guidance, dignity, and emotional clarity.

Top row, right: A forged Argentine passport issued under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet, the identity Cohen used to infiltrate the highest levels of the Syrian regime.

Middle row, right: The official death sentence, signed by Syrian military judges, condemning Cohen for espionage.

Bottom row, center: Scotch-brand audio tapes, used by Syrian intelligence to record Cohen’s interrogations and radio transmissions

While we have now retrieved more than 2,500 documents and artifacts related to Eli Cohen, we still don’t have his body back. Executed in 1965, 60 years ago, we have never forgotten him or the desire to get his body back.

This past week, the IDF and Mossad were able to recover and return the body of Sergeant First Class Tzvika Feldman. 43 years after he was killed in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub during the First Lebanon War. Syrian soldiers transferring his body to Syria until this past week when his body was returned to Israel. We love and treasure life. We don’t ever forget.

This week, Tzeela Gez and her husband Hananel, left their home in the northern West Bank community of Bruchin to head to the hospital so she could give birth to their fourth (4th) child. A terrorist shot at their car, wounding them both. A few hours later, after an emergency C-section to deliver their newborn son, Tzeela died.

The media barely covered this brutal attack. They don’t cover the violence against Israelis in the West Bank. They don’t cover the rockets that are launched at the citizens of Israel. They don’t address or condemn the ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis from Yemen targeting civilians. It is up to us to remember, to never forget. It is up to us to ensure that the souls of Eli Cohen, Tzvika Feldman, and Tzeela Gez are never forgotten. It is up to us to ensure that future Hersh, Carmel, Alex, Eden, Or, and Almog’s know who they are named for and what their obligation is to honor those they are named for.

The message below from Tzeel’s husband Hananel is the essence of Judaism. We have never and will never let them break us. We will fight for our people no matter how sad or downhearted we are. We will survive, succeed, and thrive under any and all circumstances.

Our effort to survive, succeed, and thrive means that we fight for truth. Even when it is inconvenient. Even when it is difficult. Even when the world doesn’t want to see, hear, or recognize it when it’s right in front of their face.

A friend of mine shared this piece about the history of the term Nakba that was written by Adam Louis Klein. It is a fascinating history that shows the power of the media and of repeating a lie long enough and loud enough that people think it is the truth

The term Nakba, now central to Palestinian national memory, was coined by Constantin Zureiq, a Christian Arab nationalist and key figure in shaping modern Arab nationalist ideology. As detailed in a recent article in Fathom Journal by David Szeftel, Zureiq was part of an intellectual movement in the 1930s and 40s that openly admired fascist and even Nazi models of anti-Western power, seeing them as templates for Arab revival.

When he introduced Nakba in his 1948 book Ma’na al-Nakba (The Meaning of the Disaster), it did not refer to Palestinian suffering or displacement. It referred to the Arab League’s failure to destroy the newly declared State of Israel and the humiliation of Arab armies. It was a political lament over defeat, not a humanitarian reflection on refugees.

Only later was it linked to the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees, a policy heavily promoted by the Arab League and eventually formalized through the United Nations. But this “right of return” wasn’t about refugee welfare—it became a political tool designed to prevent Israel from continuing to exist as a Jewish state by flooding it demographically.

This strategy also led to the unprecedented perpetuation of refugee status across multiple generations (see Einat Wilf’s work on this). Unlike any other refugee situation in history, Palestinians were deliberately kept in a state of statelessness by Arab regimes, denied full citizenship rights even in places like Egypt and Jordan, which directly controlled Gaza and the West Bank after 1948. In effect, the Arab League actively denied Palestinians the right to rebuild their lives in order to weaponize their suffering and make Israel appear impermanent and illegitimate.

Over time, the meaning of the Nakba shifted. It became less about the Arab world’s military failure and more about constructing a permanent Palestinian grievance narrative. The historical record was rewritten to erase the Arab invasion and rejection of the UN’s two-state partition plan, portraying the events of 1948 instead as unprovoked Israeli aggression. This narrative also conveniently erased Jordan’s displacement of Jewish communities from the West Bank, the appropriation of their land and property, and suppressed the mass dispossession of Jewish communities across Iran and Arab countries after 1948.

Eventually, the displacement of Palestinians was rebranded as a case of “ethnic cleansing” and “settler colonialism,” rather than what it historically was: the tragic outcome of a war of independence triggered by the Arab world’s invasion of the newly declared Jewish state—though it’s important to acknowledge that some forced expulsions of Palestinians did occur amidst that war.

In short, Nakba has evolved from a term describing the Arab world’s military failure to a political myth that erases historical complexity in favor of a one-sided narrative of perpetual grievance.” 

I’ve been the Aida ‘refugee camp’ in Bethlehem. It is a city. They live in apartments, not tents. They have schools and community centers. Their schools and community centers teach them hate. In 2019, I met with and talked to the head of their community center. He bragged about the suicide bomber that he helped raise and create. Openly. Publicly. The world loves their Jew hatred and they will continue to use whatever and whoever they can in their effort to eliminate us. From the Assyrians to the Babylonians to the Persian to the Greeks to the Romans to the Byzantine empire to the Spanish Inquisition to the pogroms in Russia to the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s, to today, whatever it takes to attack us is free reign.

The difference is that today we fight back. Today we don’t cower in fear. We don’t allow others to determine our fate. The world can hate us and we will still fight. The world can lie about us and we will still fight. Survival isn’t an option and we won’t allow survival to be under the control of anybody else. Today we have the IDF. Today we have Israel. Today we won’t stay silent and we will fight back.

Am Yisrael Chai.

Leslie Stahl, CBS, and the media should be embarrassed and ashamed

Posted on by Keith Dvorchik

On their website, CBS states, “One of America’s most recognized and experienced broadcast journalists, Lesley Stahl has been a “60 Minutes” correspondent since 1991.” She should be embarrassed for her lead in to the interview she just did with Yarden Bibas for 60 minutes. Planting a false narrative to blame Israel, stating that Israel broke a ceasefire that expired when Hamas refused to move into phase 2 of the ceasefire, and holding Israel accountable for hostages being scared while kept in captivity, she showed herself to be a stooge for the media and their anti-Israel narrative.

When Yarden told her that the Hamas terrorists wouldn’t give them much food, she took the side of terrorists, trying to blame Israel by stating that perhaps they just didn’t have any food. Yarden corrected her that they did have food and would eat it front of her. That Hamas terrorists would tell them that they were giving them just enough food to keep them alive for 5 years in horrible conditions. He further told her that they learned that one of the terrorists liked massages so they would give him massages for extra food. Her response? Silence. No condemnation.

Watch the 60 minutes piece in which Yarden Bibas is interviewed.

Yarden tells her that they told him he would find a better wife and have better children after telling him that Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir were dead. Her response was “did they really say that?” and nothing more. It’s disgusting. As I watched the interview, I found her repugnant and the CBS angle an attempt to take the barbaric actions of Hamas and make them Israel’s fault.

The pain of the stories told in the piece were clear. The horrific actions of Hamas were clear. Yet Stahl and the editors at CBS were unmoved. There was no condemnation. No shock and awe at this inhumane treatment. As I watched it, I got the feeling that both Stahl and the bigwhigs at CBS believed that they deserved what they got. They seemed only sad that they had to cover it at all and shed any light on the proof of Hamas being evil and terrorists.

The piece ended and they transferred to 60 minutes Overtime, and additional online peace to extend the “conversation.” In 60 Minutes Overtime, Stahl talks with Keith and Aviva Siegel, the “Hamas militants” according to Stahl. She can’t even call them terrorists. Once again, she begins the interview and piece by framing Hamas as simply “militants”. She talks about Kibbutz Kfar Aza and shows a little bit of video from the Kibbutz but nothing that comes close to what it really looks like. I’ve been to Kfar Aza twice since October 7th and the things I saw there will never leave my mind. The brutality that occurred there is something I will never forget. The stories I heard from the IDF and from residents who lived there and had just returned are beyond horrific. Yet Stahl and CBS show none of these images. They minimize what happened that day.

The roof in one of the young people’s apartments, destroyed by grenades while she was there.
Listen to the description of what happened at this house in Kfar Aza. CBS and Lesley Stahl won’t tell you

When she reports on Keith’s release from captivity, she calls it a ‘bizarre ceremony’, quite an understatement for what it really was. Ongoing terrorism. Brutal treatment of a hostage.

The emotion from the hostages and the videos was clear. How anybody can watch and listen and not be horrified, not be offended, not believe that what happened is not just criminal but also not want to outwardly speak out against it is beyond my comprehension. Stahl and CBS show their bias throughout.

The CBS Overtime interview with Keith and Aviva Siegel

It goes beyond just CBS and Lesley Stahl. This week, Tal Shoham testified at the UN in Vienna. The UN has showed itself to hate Jews and hate Israel. There are decades of proof that they treat Israel and the Jews differently than any other group or country in the world. Read Shoham’s testimony – it’s difficult to get through. After reading it, try to defend Hamas in any way. Try to defend Hezbollah, the Houthis or Iran. It’s pure evil that must be eradicated.

Tal Shoham testifying at the UN in Viennna

“During these 50 days in isolation, shackled and starved, it was not ordinary hunger, but survival hunger, where a crumb becomes your entire world. When your body aches constantly from hunger pains.

On day 34 two human skeletons entered my room. Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal. They told me they were beaten daily, forced to sit facing the wall, with bags over their heads, unable to move. If I thought my hunger was extreme, their was even worse. Their thirst was so intense that they would drink foul smelling salty toilet water contaminated with metals and filth.

In an act of deliberate cruelty, the terrorists forced Guy and Evyatar to watch me being released. Why, I ask you. Why would any human go to such length to inflict such torment.

During 505 days in captivity we were rarely not starving. There were many times we received just one pita bread for an entire day. We begged our captors, flattered them, even agreed to give them massages. Anything for another crumb of food. Traumatized by hunger, we collected crumb after crumb, dividing any grain of food after careful counting. Guy would sometimes spend an hour, ensuring fair distribution of every ounce.

You might assume this is the situation throughout Gaza. But the terrorists holding us always had abundant food, including fresh vegetables and fruits.

For the final 8 months of my captivity, we were held in a dungeon dozen of meter underground, with only a hole serving as a toilet. The humidity left our clothes and matrasses perpetually wet. We sweated and choked from lack of oxygen. In conditions so deplorable, no animal has ever been kept this way. We were constantly hungry and thirsty. Severe vitamin C deficiency caused Evyatar and me develop muscle inflammation.

Sadistic guards tortured us daily physically and mentally. Sometimes we were in darkness so profound, we could not see our hands in front of our faces. Meanwhile next door Hamas terrorists enjoyed a well-lit air conditioned room with plenty of food.

Hamas most dangerous weapon is not their rockets or their cruelty. It’s the fundamentalist education used to raise the next generation of terrorists. This education rejects the possibility of any state or people not governed by extreme Islamic law. In Hamas value system human life holds no worth. If we don’t recognize this, we live in illusion that will first doom Israel and then threaten the entire world. The International community must reject beliefs that foster terrorism.”

This is the reality of Hamas. They are not freedom fighters They are terrorists and pure evil. Those defending them are fools, bigots, and evil as well. Imagine being so thirsty that you would want to drink contaminated toilet water. Imagine being forced to humiliate yourself and give terrorists torturing and starving you massages for crumbs of food. Imagine living with constant hunger pains, choking from lack of oxygen…

Then imagine you are Leslie Stahl, hearing this firsthand. Talking to the parents of a current hostage who is being beaten, starved, and abused. Watch how she reacts with a flat affect. Watch and listen to how she responds. It’s as if she is a robot. No empathy. No compassion. As I watch her, I find myself thinking that she is trying to find a way to defend them, as she did earlier in the interview, and is upset that she can’t.

Watch and listen to Lesley Stahl and her lack of empathy, flat affect, and inability to condemn Hamas.

I am disgusted by Leslie Stahl and 60 minutes. How does she sleep at night? How do the higher ups at CBS keep their jobs? How do these people live with themselves?

How can the main stream media not make a major story as Hamas reduces their reported death toll by 3,400 names? They actually removed people’s names from the most recent death reports in Gaza, admitting they lied about people being killed who weren’t. For those who pay attention, this raises new concerns of inflated figures by Hamas.

This change included removing 1,000 children that had previously been reported killed in the war. Andrew Fox, associate fellow at the UK-based think tank Henry Jackson Society, was quoted stating, “If you were seeing indiscriminate killing, you would expect roughly 26% adult male deaths.” He continued, “In the 13 to 55 age group, which is Hamas’ fighter range because we know they use child soldiers, it’s 72% male in that age group.” 

“So all these things clearly point towards combatants being targeted rather than just indiscriminate killing.”

Yet the media remains silent. CBS, 60 minutes and Lesley Stahl make sure to tell their story based on lies. You won’t see this in the NY Times or Washington Post. None of the other major networks will cover this. They prefer the lies.

I know that October 7th and the aftermath has become a part of who I am. I spoke out against all hatred before October 7th. Now, I will never stop speaking out against evil and hate. There may be consequences as a result. It may impact my business and who will work with me. I don’t care. The fight against evil and hate is too important. If people like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Anwar Sadat, and Yitzak Rabin can risk, and lose, it all, then who am I to not be willing?

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Anwar Sadat, and Yitzhak Rabin (A.I. generated picture).

At the end of the day, we all have to live with ourselves and our decisions. When I close my eyes at night, I must live with my decisions and actions. How I sleep is determined by my decisions and actions. I want to be an example of morals, ethics, and values to my children and eventually my grandchildren. My children know what I have done, said, and written since October 7th. They can answer the questions my future grandchildren may ask with stories of my visits to Israel, volunteering there, and show them what I have written to stand up to hate and evil. What about yours? What do you stand for? Will you be one of those people that your grandchildren look back upon and ask where you were? What you did? Why you were silent? Only you can answer that question. Know that it is NOT too late to start now. The fight against evil and hate is nowhere close to being over. Join in the fight. Stand for something that is based on morals, ethics, and values.

Or don’t, and let the future generation judge your inaction.