Israel News Today

In a stroke of simple genius, Ayn Rand laid the cornerstone of her philosophy at the feet of a master builder. 1943’s The Fountainhead introduced the world to a laconic architect named Howard Roark. A beta version of the Objectivist alpha — Rand would formalize her philosophy in the years after the novel’s publication — Roark is a man with no stomach for compromise. He designs great modernist structures and would sooner toil in a quarry or explode his own buildings than cave to the popular taste of the committees funding him. (He’s also a rapist.) In thuddingly didactic dialogue, Roark, as played by Gary Cooper in the 1949 King Vidor film, makes a case for radical selfishness.  Related Ayn Rand, Worst Jewish Aunt — Ever  “Everything we have, every great achievement, has come from the independent work of some independent mind,” Roark says, in his much-publicized trial . “The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing,” Roark  is the prototype for ...

Former president of Iran tells CNN Turk that the man who headed the Islamic Republic's division meant to thwart Mossad operations was found in 2021 to be an Israeli spy, and 'another 20 members were Mossad agents'; They stole Iran's nuclear documents  from ynet - News https://ift.tt/CR5glSX

The man who shot two Jewish men walking home from prayer services in Los Angeles last year was sentenced Monday to 35 years in federal prison, a term one of the victims told the judge was “lenient.” Jaime Tran shot the men, from his car, on consecutive mornings in February 2023 in Pico-Robertson, a largely Orthodox enclave on the city’s Westside. Both victims sustained minor injuries and were released from the hospital the same day. Tran told authorities after his arrest that he had stalked Pico-Robertson for targets after looking up the location of kosher markets on Yelp. He chose his victims by their yarmulkes, according to court documents.  The shootings were the highest profile incident of antisemitic violence in decades in Los Angeles, which is home to the country’s second-largest Jewish community. Authorities downplayed the possibility of an antisemitic motive in the first drive-by shooting. Related Drive-by shooter of two LA Jewish men to plead guilty to hate crimes ...

Despite criticism and occasional mocking of Palestinian Authority, PA leaders not celebrating Hezbollah chief's assassination by IDF;’ We are confident that Hezbollah will continue his path and uphold the banner of resistance until Jerusalem is liberated’ from ynet - News https://ift.tt/6TSWUam

( JTA ) — Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, in an airstrike in Beirut Friday, the latest Israeli assassination of a terror group leader and a pivotal development in the escalating conflict on Israel’s northern border. For three decades, Nasrallah was one of the most powerful leaders in the Middle East: As the head of Hezbollah, he led the best-equipped terror group threatening Israel and the region’s largest Iranian proxy, with control of southern Lebanon and a reach that spanned the globe. In a statement on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Nasrallah was “not just another terrorist, he was the terrorist.” Netanyahu added that the assassination, reportedly carried out as the prime minister gave a speech in New York to the United Nations General Assembly, could presage more conflict in the days ahead. On Saturday, a Hezbollah missile hit the outskirts of Jerusalem, and the group has vowed to keep fighting. “The elimination of Nasrallah is a...

IDF says alarms set off by single surface-to-surface missile launched from Lebanon; multiple alerts stemmed from concerns over possible interception debris falling in various areas across north from ynet - News https://ift.tt/qe6A8Mx

In a conflict-ridden region where ethical clarity is often elusive, Israel doesn’t frequently find itself holding an obvious moral high ground. Today is different. By assassinating Hezbollah ’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, it has done the world, and in particular the Lebanese people, an unequivocal favor. However problematic assassinations may be as a tool, Nasrallah’s death isn’t just a critical strategic accomplishment for Israel: It marks a major move forward in helping to free Lebanon of Hezbollah’s reign of terror. Let there be no doubt: there are celebrations right now all over Lebanon. I have many friends there, after overseeing the Associated Press’s coverage of the country for years. I know for a fact that no matter how the Lebanese may feel about Israel, this is one development that the majority of them are happily welcoming. Hezbollah arose in the 1980s as a tool of Iran to create mayhem in the already brittle landscape of Lebanon, a multi-ethnic society that had been brutall...

'Settled accounts with those responsible for the murder of countless Israelis and many citizens of other countries, including hundreds of Americans,' Netanyahu says in address to the nation  from ynet - News https://ift.tt/QeFXU2m

Military says it aims to prevent arms being brought in to replenish Hezbollah's depleted arsenal after Israel attacked missile storage facilities  from ynet - News https://ift.tt/zZm76ls

( New York Jewish Week ) — The uptown Manhattan district office of New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat and the surrounding area was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti on Thursday night. According to security footage police viewed at the scene the following morning, the vandalism took place at around 11 p.m., on a night when pro-Palestinian protests took place around the city, on the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly. The district office is in a heavily Jewish area, close to several synagogues and Jewish schools. The graffiti covered a window that, for much of the past year, has displayed fliers with the faces of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The office, which was closed Friday morning as police investigated, is regularly picketed by small groups of pro-Palestinian protesters. By Friday morning, the graffiti had been partially scratched off, but the vandalism appeared to say, “F— Israel,” “40k dead,” “genocide lov...

The rebel group is transformed into an army with weapons training and assistance provided by other members of Iran's axis despite a de facto UN embargo on arms since 2015  from ynet - News https://ift.tt/ZnyPkMl

( JTA ) — Over the past two weeks, with their poll numbers sinking and desperation setting in, MAGA Republicans launched a brazenly racist campaign targeting Haitian immigrant communities in Springfield, Ohio . Their propaganda has lit a match under white supremacist forces in the small town and beyond, resulting in Proud Boys marching through its streets, children staying home after bomb threats targeted their school and local Haitian businesses shutting down due to threats. I bring a unique perspective to this issue as the child of both Haitian and Jewish parents who worked tirelessly for community safety and democracy here in the United States. These horrific scenes recall some of the darkest chapters of my Jewish history. It’s no accident that some labeled what was happening in Springfield as a “pogrom,” the term originating from mob violence against Jews in the Russian Empire. That’s why it was so disturbing to read the words of Cary Kozberg, Springfield’s only rabbi, last week...

Two people were slightly injured in the attack; Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims responsibility; Cable cars at Mount Hermon site hit by Hezbollah rockets 'There will be a need for massive and rapid rehabilitation' from ynet - News https://ift.tt/tVgfQ65

Whenever Israelis detect the New York accent beneath my Hebrew, they abruptly halt our conversation to ask me how long I have lived in Israel. My answer: since August, 2023. “Wow,” they respond every time. “You picked quite a time to come.” When I moved to Israel, I couldn’t have foreseen the horror that would unfold less than two months later, when Hamas terrorists stormed the southern border, massacred almost 1,200 citizens, and took 251 others hostage on Oct. 7 . In all the years I spent dreaming of my aliyah — the return to the homeland described with mystical grandeur in Jewish texts — I never accounted for the country being thrust into national disarray.  I thought Israel’s existential vulnerabilities were a relic of its past. As Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the grandfather of religious Zionism, wrote at the beginning of the 20th century, “the entire nation believes that there will be no further exile after the current redemption unfurling before us.”  And yet, Shim...

( JTA ) — Brandeis University President Ronald Liebowitz announced his resignation Wednesday morning after he lost a vote of no confidence from faculty. Liebowitz’s resignation, which takes effect Nov. 1, comes amid steep financial challenges for the historically Jewish university. Brandeis announced in May that it would lay off 60 employees and restructure several programs to cut costs. The motion calling for a no-confidence vote, which was non-binding, cited both the budget crisis and Liebowitz’s handling of student protests over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. At particular issue was a November 2023 protest against the school’s decision to ban its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine at which seven people, including students, were arrested by police . In an email to the university community, Lisa Kranc, the chair of Brandeis’ Board of Trustees, said Liebowitz would “continue to advocate for Brandeis and its values” as president emeritus and praised “the role President Lie...

IDF spokesperson Hagari reveals footage showing truck loaded with rockets concealed inside southern Lebanon house, accusing Hezbollah of hiding many more in similar locations  from ynet - News https://ift.tt/lfFJ2oT

The shocking recent media treatment of Rep. Rashida Tlaib — in the form of a widely condemned comic that ran in the National Review and false accusations that she used antisemitic rhetoric against Michigan’s attorney general — concisely reflects everything that is wrong with our poisonous public discourse around the Israel-Hamas war . In the months since Hamas terrorists brutally attacked Israel, triggering a war that has left tens of thousands dead and almost the entire infrastructure of Gaza eradicated, the world has seen a massive surge in antisemitism, Islamophobia, and both anti-Israeli and anti-Palestinian bigotry. There has been so much hate casually tossed around that it is difficult to single out any one comment or headline or speech as uniquely horrific.  Well, until now. In the comic, drawn by Detroit News staffer Henry Payne and published after last week’s pager attack on Hezbollah, Tlaib is depicted sitting at her desk, staring in confusion at a smoking bee...

Actress Patricia Heaton is encouraging non-Jews to hang a mezuzah on the front doors of their homes. The Catholic sitcom star — most famous for her roles on Malcolm in the Middle and Everybody Loves Raymond in the 1990s and 2000s — launched a campaign, called #MyzuzahYourzuzah, with a post Monday to her more than one million followers across social media. “Show solidarity with your Jewish friends and neighbors,” she wrote. “Fight antisemitism and bless your household.” Heaton is the founder of the Oct. 7 Coalition , a network of Christians who speak out against rising antisemitism in the U.S. After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Heaton said she “was outraged” and created the group to counter the pro-Palestinian protests she was seeing across college campuses. Jewish college students have had mezuzahs that were “ripped off and vandalized and smashed,” she said. “We have to stand up for the Jewish people and their right to exist.” As we head toward the one year anniversary of Octobe...

Before Oct. 7, Sharon Segev’s house had a thriving garden. A stone path flanked with vibrant greens ran alongside a cozy porch. She loved sitting outside to watch the sun set, seeing flowers bloom, walking through fields nearby, and picking lemons. She and her family and the tight-knit community of Be’eri cherished traditions. As was tradition, they spent the evening of Oct. 6 together, celebrating the kibbutz’s birthday with songs and stories.  On Oct. 7, Sharon hid in the house’s safe room with her husband Doron and their three teenaged children. Hamas terrorists entered the house and tried to get into the room, unsuccessfully attempting to force the door and explode the window. Then, they set the house on fire, engulfing the family in heat and smoke. Segev’s son, the oldest of the kids, asked multiple times if he could jump out the window, but they said no. Finally, he didn’t ask. He opened the window and jumped out. They didn’t close it after him, desperate for some air to b...