Politics

The issue of the chareidi draft has, once again, risen to the top of Israel’s “to-do list.” Politicians from all sides of the spectrum are banging their fists on the table – some demanding that it must happen, while others are vowing that it will never happen. Regular citizens have begun taking this fight to the streets with protests, both pro and con, and Israel’s media has been more than happy to stir the pot of Jew vs. Jew. Recently, Lt. General Eyal Zamir, the newly appointed Chief of Staff of the IDF, made his position known with the clearest statement possible: “Everyone will serve…and when I say Everyone, I mean Everyone.”

October 7 will never be forgotten.

Within a month after the beginning of the war in Gaza, many voices around the world started screaming that there was no food for the people in Gaza. Hypocritical liberals begged Israel to send food and supplies as part of humanitarian assistance so “innocent” civilians wouldn’t die of starvation. The government of Israel held strong for a few days but quickly buckled and succumbed to world pressure. Food was sent in by the truckload. Most of the food, however, did not reach the people. It was seized by Hamas for their personal use or sold on the black market for loads of cash, so the starvation continued, and so did the world pressure, as if it was Israel’s fault that Hamas was letting its own people starve.

Over the last few years, there has been a growing movement and trend called “Thank You, Hashem.” I applaud the work they have done; but, sadly, there has been a major part that has been forgotten. It’s called thanking Hashem on the national level. Allow me to explain what this means.

I told everyone I knew living in the United States to vote for Trump, and I’m very happy he won. I believe that he will be good for America as well as a strong ally for Israel. His Cabinet picks have been amazing, and there’s no need to explain how pleased we are with his choice of Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel. That said, and contrary to the feelings of many of my fellow Israelis, the Mashiach will not been riding into Washington on January 20.

This past Shabbos, my shul in Herzliya was all over the news – but not for anything we did. We were on the receiving side of anti-government demonstrators breaking illegally into our locked building to distribute their hate-filled propaganda. Let me explain what happened.