Washington DC Briefings and Conference Amir Avivi, Brigadier General (res.

Dear Valdas,

I have spent the last three days in Washington DC talking about Israel’s security needs with government officials.  The focus has been talking about the aftermath of Operation Shield and Arrow and what Israel is doing to prepare for the next conflict.  We are also speaking about China as a force in the region and the growing absence of the US.  Likewise, US Afghanistan weapons are frequently ending up in Palestinian terror attacks, and Jordan’s involvement in this.

The need for a US led coalition supporting Israel’s actions against Iran was a major talking point. We explained how a war with Iran would differ from the war in Iraq.

Meeting with US decision makers and talking about Israel is very important.  I commend everyone who does this and thank everyone who support IDSF’s work in Washington DC.

I am also happy to share that large sections of our Security Conference are now available with English subtitles.  More details can be found below.

Thank you for supporting Israel,

Brigadier General (res.) Amir Avivi
Founder and Chairman of IDSF Habithonistim

“Reality is Stronger” Says Rothman on Judicial Reforms

Monday – May 22, 2023
“Reality is Stronger” Says Rothman on Judicial Reforms
The chairman of the Knesset Constitution and Law Committee, MK Simcha Rothman, believes that the judicial reforms he and Justice Minister Yariv Levin proposed has not been completely dropped from the government’s agenda. This is despite the ongoing negotiations to pass a different version of the reforms at the President’s Residence.
“I believe that the reform is not finished, it will be implemented, and also that the coalition and its leaders do not plan to allow endless time wasting in negotiations that lead nowhere,” Rothman said in an interview with Israel National News – Arutz Sheva.
When asked about the source of his confidence, Rothman said that, beyond his faith in G-d, he knows that the problem is that “the reforms are real problems that every coalition, and certainly this coalition, will encounter every day. I know that the majority of the public wants reform. Reality is stronger than any theoretical argument.”
“The positions are clear. The entire public, in an almost complete consensus, knows that there is no legitimacy for a court elected in this way with a veto for judges to overturn laws. It seems that there are parties who are interested in ensuing that the negotiations are extended indefinitely. This is not good for the country, the justice system and the coalition.”
Rothman said that he is one of the people who believe that the negotiations are on their way to “blowing up.” Rothman is right and if the opposition continues to abuse the right to sit and negotiate peacefully and rationally, they will certainly lose.
(MK Rothman and Professor Alan Dershowitz will debate at the June 4 Arutz Sheva conference. We are still waiting for a registration link for this event.)
AFSI CHIZUK MISSION CONCLUDES
Group photo in Oz v’Gaon with Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, the Women in Green
In Oz v’Gaon with Nadia Matar (L) at the Helen Freedman Pergola. Holding the Israeli flag L-R: Ann Stacy,
Judy Kadish, Henry Jentes
Parking lot in Sderot. In the back right corner are 3 cubes that serve as shelter from rocket attacks
At The Temple Mount
Goodbye group dinner this evening at Pinati Restaurant in Kfar Etzion
Implement Smotrich Proposal Now!
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has begun intensive talks with various government ministries with the aim of doubling the number Jews in Judea and Samaria.
Smotrich has drawn up a comprehensive proposal that calls not only for a rapid increase in the amount of housing available in Judea and Samaria, but also all the necessary infrastructure expansion needed to support another 500,000 residents in the region, including roads, public transportation, employment opportunities, and educational facilities. The sources said that Smotrich demanded that the plan should be implemented within the next two years.
Smotrich’s key demands call for the building of proper infrastructure for all existing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria to further this goal, whether their legal status has been finalized or not.
It’s high time to implement Smotrich’s plans so that these communities can have the dignity they righfully deserve knowing that the necessary infrastructures for daily living are in place. Just do it!!
Ben-Gvir Breaks Status Quo – Again
On Sunday, Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the Temple Mount for the second time since taking his post and said: “We are the owners of Jerusalem and the entire Land of Israel.” Jordan condemned the visit, calling it a “flagrant violation” of the status quo.
The status quo, established by the Jordanian Wakf agency in the summer of 1967, after the then-Defense Minister gave it the keys to the Temple Mount, prohibits Jews from praying on the Temple Mount. However, in recent years the police have stopped enforcing the prohibition and refrain from arresting Jews who pray in the eastern corner of the compound. Waqf guards who tried to interfere with the prayers were arrested and removed from the compound.

Talking Memory – The Battle of Warsaw’s Jews: The Afterlife of the Revolt Inbox

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Ghetto Fighters’ House invites you to a special
Talking Memory program marking
the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Sunday, May 21st, 2023
Opening Remarks
Yigal Cohen, CEO Ghetto Fighters’ House
Julia Mackiewicz, Polish Institute in Tel Aviv

Round Table:  Remembering the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Israel

Guest Speakers:

Tamar Herzberg – Yad Mordechai
Noam Leibman – Moreshet
Anat Bratman-Elhalel – Ghetto Fighters’ House

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Avinoam Patt

The Battle of Warsaw’s Jews: The Afterlife of the Revolt

On April 23, 1943, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency delivered the news of the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt, relaying a report received in Stockholm the day before with the headline “Nazis Start Mass-Execution of Warsaw Jews on Passover; Victims Broadcast S.O.S.” The timing of the revolt, taking place as it did in the spring of 1943, the deadliest year of WWII for European Jewry, influenced the manner in which it was reported, interpreted, and understood. Through an examination of the ways in which the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was reported in April and May of 1943, we can begin to understand how and why the event was transformed into both a symbol of Jewish resistance, Jewish sacrifice, and Jewish martyrdom during and after World War II. Soon after the revolt was suppressed in May 1943, representatives from the Jewish Labor Bund in New York and the Zionist movement in the Yishuv began to dispute both the heroes of the revolt and its true political and ideological significance. While historians have generally seen the politicization of the revolt occurring after the war, with the first encounter of the survivors with their new homes, the polemics of 1944 between the Bund and the Labor Zionists (with the role of the Revisionists left out of early narratives) makes clear that within one year of the revolt, the battle for credit in Jewish public opinion meant the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was too great a symbol to relinquish to the political enemy. By the first anniversary after the Uprising (April 19, 1944) Jewish communities organized solemn commemorations in New York, London, Tel Aviv and elsewhere to recall Warsaw as a “fortress of freedom” and as the “Masada of Warsaw.” Responding to this politicization during the war, it was the surviving ghetto fighters themselves who would play a critical role in writing their own “three lines in history.”

This program is in partnership with the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv, Moreshet Holocaust & Research Center, Yad Mordechai Museum,
Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.

Register here

2 PM EST | 7 PM GMT | 8 PM SAST | 9 PM Israel
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Muslim Antisemitism—CAEF Bulletin, May 15, 2023

Click here to view online


On May 14, 1948 Prime Minister Of Israel David Ben Gurion rose before the Jewish People’s Council to declare the establishment of the State of Israel. Listen here

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Are We Ignoring a Major Source of Antisemitism?

Matthew Hausman, published an article in Israel National News (online) in November 2013, which well describes what we are seeing today, so why is antisemitism being ignored? Titled, “All Hatreds are Evil, But One is More Evil than Others,” Hausman points out “The alarming incidence of violence against Jews in Europe, of hate-speech on college campuses across North America, and of “death to Israel” chants from around the Islamic world shows that anti-Semitism is flourishing in the twenty-first century.  Often called the “Oldest Hatred,” anti-Semitism (sic) is perhaps the only prejudice that is acceptable in polite company.”

“It is enabled by a United Nations that heaps scorn on Israel for imagined offenses while ignoring real human rights abuses that occur throughout the Arab world, including the slaughter of non-Muslims in Africa, the persecution of Copts in Egypt, and the waging of jihad against Christians in the Mideast.  It is also fostered by progressives who belittle Israel’s right to exist, politicians who seek rapprochement with Islamist regimes, and journalists who employ historical revisionism to blame victims instead of perpetrators.”

Read the full article.

Matthew M. Hausman is a trial attorney and writer who lives and works in Connecticut. A former journalist, Mr. Hausman continues to write on a variety of topics, including science, health and medicine, Jewish issues, and foreign affairs, and has been a legal affairs columnist for a number of publications.

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Twitter Knows

Here are few recent tweets to help one understand the ‘misery’ of the Nabka that the Palestinian Arabs claim they experienced.

Gary Katz tells us that, “‘Nakba’ was coined by Constantin Zureiq, a Lebanese professor of history at American University in Beirut, in ’48. He used it in the context of Arabs bringing disaster upon THEMSELVES, by starting a war with Israel. It’s been misused to malign Israel, ever since.”

One Twitter respondent, Tesla Doc, noted:

Not exactly. The disaster wasn’t STARTING a war— that was worthy of praise and pride. The disaster was LOSING the war—failing to annihilate an opponent they deemed not even worthy of fighting: the Jews. Today, it’s been whitewashed to make them seem the victims. Detail here:   

Islamo-supremacism remains prevalent, even amongst the defeated “Palestinian” population & other Arabs, evidenced by their squawking at having to submit to checkpoints manned by formerly dhimmi Jews. Or their objections to Jews visiting the Temple Mount, as if that harms them somehow.

Read about a new plan to arm Arabs that could lead to more tragedies for Israel: Rewarding Terrorism, the Latest Anti-Israel US Plan- A Cruel Idea

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The Imam of Peace Has a Message, Especially for Muslims

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What was the Real Nakba? Ask the Elder of Ziyon

Since Israel won the War of Independence, initiated by 5 Arab Armies, wishing to destroy the fledgling country and kill its Jewish inhabitants, prevent Jewish immigration, and conquer the territory which collectively they did not own, had not developed and largely ignored until Jews started to arrive post WWII. Much has been exaggerated and mis-stated by Arab leaders, particularly the Palestinian Arab leaders, and today it is unfortunately, contaminated history and propagating lies, especially among pro-Palestinian NGOs, and apologists, left wing organizations, and lazy journalists. Consider some facts, presented below in an article by the Elder of Ziyon on May 10th. We highly recommend his blog.

There were 65,000 Arabs in Haifa before the Battle for Haifa in 1948. After the Haganah won, the Arab leaders fled and the remainder were pressured to leave by the Arab Higher Committee.

It wasn’t the Jews who forced them out. In fact, the Jews pleaded with the Arabs to stay in Haifa. Nearly all of the Arabs left anyway, leaving no infrastructure for those who remained. The flight was during Passover, but the Haifa rabbinical leaders gave permission for Jews to bake bread for the Arabs since they had no bakeries left of their own. (If you know Jewish law and how strict it is against owning any leavened products on Passover, let alone baking them in your own shop, this is an incredible and unprecedented dispensation.)

Only 4,000 Arabs remained in Haifa after the breakdown of their community.  Read the full article.

OpEd on our latest research results on Twitter

Dear friends and colleagues,
Please find an OpEd on our latest research results on Twitter in the link below.
Feel free to share.
Kind regards,

Gunther