Israel News Today

The swearing-in of a new president is one of the most treasured rituals in American politics. And it’s one that, a little-known history shows, has been meaningfully shaped by Christian nationalism — and with it, covert antisemitism. Everyone knows the presidential oath of office ends with the phrase “so help me God,” theoretically because George Washington ad libbed it during the very first inauguration in American history. But as I wrote recently in a piece for The Conversation , there’s no contemporary evidence that Washington said any such thing. Claims that he did first emerged in the 1850s, a time of surging social pressures to reshape the United States as an explicitly Christian country. As we prepare for Monday’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, a modern iteration of that Christian nationalism, closely allied with Trump, is once more ascendant. When Trump becomes president with the words “so help me God” next week, he will be invoking a past era’s intense bel...

Ahead of cease-fire deal and hostage release, Yemeni rebels pledge continued support for Palestinians, vowing to 'expel the Israeli enemy'; departing from past statements on Gaza, spokesperson declares, 'The goal is to liberate every inch of Palestine' from ynet - News https://ift.tt/zNyd8C1

It may be song of the year — but is it also an antisemitic dig? Drake’s lawsuit against Universal Music, alleging defamation and harassment over Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-nominated diss track “Not Like Us,” notes in its complaint that the song “alludes to Drake’s Jewish heritage” when it states that the rapper is “not a colleague” but “a f–kin’ colonizer.” The suit , filed Wednesday, goes on to say that posters responding to the song on YouTube and X “turned to racial and religious slurs against Drake, who is mixed race and Jewish.” One comment cited said that Drake was a “pedojewboy” and has a “jew protection pedo team” that will defend him. (The filing alleges the track, which refers to Drake and his circle as “certified pedophiles,” “accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him.”) Other posters claimed Jews are colonizers and that Drake is a “Kazarian [sic] Jew,” a reference to a conspiracy theory that Jews are descended from a Turkic people tha...

The Gaîté Lyrique Theatre in Paris faces bankruptcy as 300 migrants continue a forced occupation, halting operations and causing financial losses; Local authorities appeal to President Macron for intervention, with no housing solutions yet found for the stranded migrants  from ynet - News https://ift.tt/PY5pfo8

 16-year-old resident of southern Israel charged with security offenses after an investigation by Shin Bet and police revealed he planned to join the Islamic State and was planning to prepare explosive devices for terror attacks. Indictment says he planned to 'establish a terror cell in Israel that would carry out attacks against Jews' from ynet - News https://ift.tt/yDcqRHC

Mati Kochavi has touched hearts worldwide with Eva.Stories, conducted business in the Gulf long before the Abraham Accords, connected with key Middle Eastern leaders and became a billionaire; now he tackles Israel’s child mental health crisis and his AI-based pediatric care project aims to deliver early intervention, blending technology with human therapists for critical support from ynet - News https://ift.tt/74dA3El

( JTA ) — This is a developing story.  Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to a deal that will cease more than a year of fighting in Gaza and Israel, bring dozens of Israeli hostages home and free hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners. The agreement was reportedly confirmed by multiple parties to the negotiation on Wednesday. If it holds, it will mark an end to the longest and bloodiest war in Israel’s history. And it comes after months of efforts by President Joe Biden — redoubled ahead of the inauguration of his successor, Donald Trump — to end a war that has killed tens of thousands, transformed the Middle East, sparked a global spike in antisemitism and consumed the world’s attention and activism. Now, the eyes of the world will continue to be on Israel and Gaza to see if the sides honor the terms of the agreement and if a tenuous pause in the fighting turns into a longer-term peace that will free all of the 98 hostages Hamas holds and allow the region and its peop...

When Show Boat opened on Broadway in 1927, it was an instant hit. Now, as co-music director and orchestrator of Show/Boat: A River Dan Schlosberg said, “People don’t want to touch it.” Show/Boat: A River, directed by David Herskovits, founding artistic director of Target Margin Theater, reexamines Show Boat as a deeply flawed piece of Americana. For much of the 20th century, Show Boat endured as a beloved classic, thanks to a lush, romantic score by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. In recent years, the show’s dated treatment of race has made revivals all but untenable . Show/Boat: A River , now running in the experimental theater festival Under the Radar , marks the show’s return to New York after 30 years. Herskovits’s adapation seeks to celebrate the material’s beauty while dissecting its ugliness and holding it up to light. Although I am a person with an alarmingly robust knowledge of musical theater, I barely knew Show Boat before I started reporting on it. I knew song...

[In honor of Martin Luther King Day, we bring you a story about the renowned African-American singer and political activist Paul Robeson who played an important, yet tragic, role in Yiddish literary history. In 2018, Jordan Kutzik wrote about the time that the Soviet government invited Robeson to perform at a great hall in Moscow, and the bold action that Robeson took on stage. Below, Igor Mazin describes how his own mother, a Soviet citizen in Moscow listening to the live concert on the radio, reacted to Robeson’s actions.] The year was 1949. A year before, the well-known Russian-Jewish actor and chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee , Solomon Mikhoels , was murdered by Stalin in a staged car accident, and many prominent Jewish cultural figures were arrested. At the same time, Stalin had begun his virulent antisemitic campaign that culminated in the Night of the Murdered Poets in 1952 and the so-called “ Doctors’ Plot ”  in 1953. Soviet Jews were bracing for hard ti...

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, avowed that he is a Christian who “robustly supports” Israel and its war against Hamas in Gaza. Hegseth, 44, a former Fox News host, provided favorable coverage of Israel on the network and said that his time in the U.S. Army turned him into a supporter of the Jewish state. Trump’s nominee for the top Pentagon job was introduced by Norman Coleman, a former senator from Minnesota and national chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition. “Please don’t give into the cynical notion that people can’t change,” Coleman urged members of the committee. “We need the ones who can change to lead us — to be beacons of hope and to remind us that grace can lead us home.” In his confirmation hearing at the Senate Arms Services Committtee Tuesday, Hegseth’s opening remarks were interrupted by protestors, one of whom called him a misogynist and a “Christian Zionist” before being escorted out of the gallery by Capitol police. During his que...

Annual report reveals 16,300 rockets fired at Israel, causing 55 deaths and 699 injuries; 399 hostile aircraft incursions and 132 shooting attacks documented from ynet - News https://ift.tt/Q3pvjhd

Rev. Hayley Ace is in Israel on a solidarity mission. She says: ‘If Israel fails, the West will fail’ from ynet - News https://ift.tt/SJHkK2R

Glued to fire-tracking apps, watching red skies from bed and hearing firefighting helicopters overhead—the city braces for another wave of fires fueled by strong winds from ynet - News https://ift.tt/UzsDSMx

Eight days before leaving office, US president urges PM to secure hostage deal before Trump’s inauguration; Netanyahu updates Biden on Israel’s Doha delegation, as VP-elect JD Vance projects progress soon from ynet - News https://ift.tt/86Ml1BK

Drills are part of two-months-long exercises in which the elite Revolutionary Guards defended key nuclear installations in the country from ynet - News https://ift.tt/iWZxOVv

Sergeant Major (res.) Alexander Fedorenko, Staff Sergeant Danila Diakov, Sergeant Yahav Maayan and Sergeant Eliav Astuker were killed after a remote explosive detonated in Beit Hanoun; five additional soldiers injured, two in serious condition from ynet - News https://ift.tt/DT59pEm

Troops operating in Jabaliya and Tulkarm encounter terrorists exploiting mosques for cover, weapons storage and mounting attacks against forces from ynet - News https://ift.tt/9Bb6i1A

Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs will lead delegation alongside military officials; decision comes following prime minister's meetings with U.S. officials from ynet - News https://ift.tt/KB9Y07S

( JTA ) — A planned pro-Palestinian march in London is rebuffing police orders to move its starting point after complaints that it will disrupt a nearby synagogue’s Shabbat services. The rally by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign is due to begin at the headquarters of the BBC on Saturday, Jan. 18, at noon, and then move toward Whitehall, the British government district. The gathering point is around the corner from the Central Synagogue, an Orthodox congregation founded more than 150 years ago. Leading up to the march, dozens of British lawmakers, including Jewish officials, wrote a letter to police protesting the route of the rally and saying frequent pro-Palestinian marches on Saturdays interfered with Jewish religious practice. “Members of the congregation at Central and other London synagogues have suffered massive disruption to their Shabbat services from marches taking place on Saturdays for more than a year,” the letter said, according to The Times . “The effect has been that...