Frontlines

National Security Adviser John Bolton was wont to point out that the BDS movement was just a continuation of the United Nations resolution equating “Zionism with racism.” One of John Bolton’s greatest achievements was striking down that despicable and blatantly anti-Semitic canard that had lasted 19 years before Bolton came to town. We are still waiting for the day that the BDS movement is finally laid to rest. I know Bolton and the president are doing everything they can to make that happen. Unfortunately, there are universities and colleges like Swarthmore that keep propping it up. In March, the Swarthmore College student leaders voted to support the BDS movement. A pro-BDS dean was almost chosen at Dartmouth.

It is an honor and a privilege to write about great individuals, especially those who’ve tremendously impacted my own life and politics. Joe Mermelstein was one such individual. It is not a coincidence that his third yahrtzeit takes place on the very same day that his friend, his colleague, and his prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is up for re-election on April 9. Joe, if he were still alive, would be the first to pay for 747s to fly Israeli citizens living in America to Israel to make sure to vote in the election (of course, he would not tell them who to vote for, but they would know). He was a man of action. He was not a talker. He was a doer. He made me president of American Friends of Ateret Cohanim, and for that I am forever grateful. His life spanned most of the 20th century and was devoted to the Jewish people, his family, and his business. His story is truly an impressive history lesson.