Opinion

The world’s democracies think they cannot defend themselves;
Israel is proving them wrong.

(April 9, 2024 / JNS) Six months after Oct. 7, no one is the same. The Israel-Hamas war has made everyone participating in it, both soldiers and witnesses, more aware of the preciousness of life. They are determined not to allow it to be taken. They are saddened by the vicious hatred of Israel’s enemies and those enemies’ willingness to commit horrendous atrocities. They are determined to fight those enemies more intensely than ever.

By sheer force of will, the tragic murder of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller has been brought into the national spotlight.  This is not because the death of an officer in the line of duty is anything that the media wants to talk about - especially in New York - but rather because former President Donald Trump attended the wake.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has been making national headlines lately.  In 2024, being a normal Executive in a deep-blue state like New York apparently garners a lot of attention.  He drove Democrats crazy when he decided to protect women’s sports and locker rooms by banning men from participating in women’s activities.  Now he’s being called a Nazi because he wants to prepare for emergencies that may come up in the future. 

In mathematics, two lines are orthogonal if they intersect at right angles.  More generally, two concepts or situations are orthogonal if they do not substantially overlap.  In Israel today, many worlds seem to be orthogonal, either existing separately from each other or having cross purposes.  This is true of the relationship between much of the media and the government, the attempt of Israelis to maintain normality in daily life, and the view of Israelis and most of the World about the hostages and Hamas.

New Reduced Tuition for Inaugural Cohort

YU in Israel combines the rich Yeshiva University beis medrash environment and advanced Torah studies taught by Roshei Yeshiva, with a specially designed academic curriculum between YU and Tel Aviv University (TAU) or Bar-Ilan University (BIU). It offers talmidim an opportunity to learn in Israel while earning one of two YU degrees that prepare them to enter an ever-more-competitive global job market. 

Since October 7, the question was when - not if - Joe Biden would cave to his leftist base on Israel.  This did not happen overnight, but it was always inevitable.  Biden has spent his entire career blowing in the direction of the prevailing political winds, and Democrats around the country are openly signaling that they want to dump Israel by the side of the road in favor of the Hamas terrorists who committed the greatest terror attack on a Western nation since 9/11.