יום חמישי, כ״ה חשוון תשפ״זThursday, November 5, 2026
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We would have thought that President Trump would have at least coupled his call on Israel to unilaterally allow the entry of aid into Gaza with a call on Hamas to immediately release all hostages. But he didn’t.
Over the years, courts have generally held that non-citizens, even individuals who entered the United States illegally, have due process rights. Yet the current phenomenon of several million immigrants who entered the U.S. simply by crossing its borders into the country has perforce upended all prior notions of due process rights.
She did legal somersaults in order to conjure up a patchwork of violations of law on Trump’s part in applying for loans, which virtually all experts opined were arguably accurate, at any rate harmless and victimless, and knowingly accepted by the lending institutions themselves.
Although the Supreme Court agreed that the migrants were entitled to challenge their deportations and that they were also entitled to reasonable notice of impending deportation in order to contest them.
The logic of definitively confronting Iran now is manifest. Iran is at the center of a multi-tentacled proxy terrorist network that continues to plague much of the world and which will inevitably become intolerable.
Of course, it has long been known that Hamas has regularly treated Israeli aid trucks rolling into Gaza as mobile supermarkets, making available to them, the staples necessary for their survival.
Moreover, Hamas also continues to intentionally hold and use Israeli and American hostages as bargaining chips. Yet that ongoing outrageous human trafficking is not cited by Sanders as bearing on Hamas’s responsibility for the situation in Gaza. But Israel’s inadvertent causing of collateral harm to civilians is.
Indeed, as we see it, we Jews, as the intended beneficiaries of the leveraging of federal funding, are now seen as enemies of free speech, academic freedom, and medical research.
While no one ever knows for sure about these things, we are intrigued not only by the advent of the anti-Hamas outcry, but that it was allowed to continue for several days. Plainly, something is afoot in Gaza.
It stands to reason that a good deal of today’s Washington decision-making will now come to be sifted through differing notions of separation of powers. That is, constitutionally, it matters who decides as much as what is decided.
What rankles the most in this episode is not the sheer counter-intuitiveness of it all. It is that the law flies directly in the face of explicit governing provisions of the New York State Constitution.
At this point, without any such impeachment issue yet before the high court, there should be no doubt that it was ill-advised for U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts to have intervened, as he did last week, with a public statement declaring that an impeachment would be improper...
But we seem to have been wrong about Trump and there is reason to believe that at long last an American president is really serious about doing something about the problem of antisemitism.
While Schumer’s thrust has a certain facial logic to it, it does seem hard to believe that Republicans would really enjoy unfettered power to run the government during a shutdown, unrestricted by what half of the nation may think.
Sounds plain to us that Hamas is trying to figure out how to get back into the game at some point, not leave it.
Like the notorious Trump criminal cases, the Adams variety also had the odor of creative and selective prosecutions that exploited technical and insignificant violations of law.
Elon Musk’s extraordinary deep dive into every nook and cranny of federal spending and employment reflects a desire to root out the waste and inefficiency – and possible corruption – that necessarily hobble the federal bottom line.
Israel has insisted that Hamas must acknowledge the overarching understanding that the precondition to phase two negotiations is that Hamas must disarm, cease to exist as a political or military entity and have no involvement in the post-war governance of Gaza.
Even the most cursory review of the curricula of the PA’s educational system would find pervasive demonization of Israel and Jews and support for terrorism.
The con side emphasizes that congestion pricing disproportionately impacts low-income individuals who may or may not have access to alternative transportation options and are forced to drive into congestion toll areas...
Trump’s real message to Hamas was that, as far as he was concerned, they were going deeper and deeper into the hole they have been digging for themselves which will soon lead to their demise.
Without putting too fine a point on it, then, Donald Trump seems to believe that controversial policy proposals are really offers of solutions that ideally will trigger a deliberative process which will inform debate and hopefully lead to a meeting of the minds – albeit with a changed playing field and center of gravity.
Indeed, the various past delays in turning over hostages could well be explained by Hamas’ fear of showing the world evidence of their barbarism.
What made their task easier was the fact that except, perhaps, for the Russian collusion adventure, there were some arguable issues with some of the facts of the various cases even if they were of minor significance.
Unfortunately, we have for too long acted as if open-ended profligate spending was ultimately manageable, and indulging in ideological environmental and social frolics while our adversaries realistically went about their business would not mortally wound us.
By all logic, with the creation of UNHCR, UNWRA became redundant and should have been dissolved. But it wasn’t. And in retrospect, there was method to the madness.
As the most powerful person in American government besides President Biden, he surely realized that his words would be taken by Israel’s enemies that a rupture in U.S. relations was coming. Did he think that would be a good thing for him to safeguard for Israel?
We got to wondering whether he was threatening that if Democrats were unsuccessful in the legislatures and the courts, they would resort to violence in the streets to get their way?
And while the plan might seem pie in the sky, never forget that it was Trump’s out of the box vision that led to the Abraham Accords and the peaceful relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In fact, AOC even trashed the ADL which had said that, at worst, Musk’s gesture was an awkward gesture in moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute.
We suspect that much of it has been occasioned by Mr. Trump’s now famous threat that all hell will break out in the Middle East if the hostages were not released by the time of his inauguration.
In the light of the self-evident, almost decades long Democrat campaign of conjuring up legal cases against Donald Trump, several of his family members and colleagues, that concern seems rather rich.
Israel has earned the right to defensible borders and non-threatening neighbors, having been forced over the years to defend itself in wars of survival with its predatory neighbors precisely because of its defensive inadequacies. In a very real sense Israel has more than paid its dues.
The court’s ruling did not touch on Mr. Trump’s substantive presidential immunity or lawfare defenses. Nor did it appear to follow any heated debates over them.
We in the Jewish community also had special concerns with Mr. Carter both during and after his one term in office that went beyond those we necessarily shared with our fellow Americans – centering around his feelings about Jews and the Jewish State of Israel.
Palestinians claim UNWRA is a vital lifeline for the needy, while Israel has determined that it is a dangerous cover for Hamas with several of its employees having taken part in the October 7 massacre and cannot be allowed to continue in operation.
While the list of companies and institutions abandoning their voluntary DEI programs continues to grow, there are many that have not wavered and show no signs of doing so.
Paradoxically, even as the Pope was delivering his calumnies, the Palestinian Authority, which of late has begun a crackdown on terrorists in the West Bank in order to present itself as an alternative to Hamas control of Gaza, confirmed Israel’s position.
In terms of military action taking out Iran’s nuclear development sites, Israel has clearly demonstrated that the sites are well within reach of Israeli air power – and certainly that of the United States.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez made a lot of progressive noises from the moment she entered Congress in 2019 as its youngest female member... She quickly became the face of disruptive progressivism in Congress and seemed destined to ride to future fame and prominence on the crest of a wave of progressive inevitability.
Most analysts of Middle East geopolitics agree that Israel’s recent degrading of the military capacities of Iran and Hezbollah, the primary supporters of the Assad regime, convinced the rebels that there was an opportunity to topple it. Yet their background and current warnings to Israel suggest that they will not be an improvement over Assad.
Can anyone forget his legal gymnastics to conjure up a case against Donald Trump in the so-called hush money case?
Hopefully, the amputation of its longest, most powerful tentacle will, at least temporarily, hamper Tehran’s ability to keep the terrorists on Israel’s Lebanese border fortified with arms and manpower.
The turning point for many Americans was the foiled assassination attempt on Donald Trump this past summer. It was a turning point for Mr. Trump as well. He proclaimed that he felt the hand of G-d saving him.
To be sure there is a lot to be upset about here. President Biden offered the same selective prosecution argument as the reason for the pardon that Donald Trump made against his prosecutions but which was roundly debunked by the President and his amen corner.
By way of context, on top of these developments, The Jerusalem Post reports that over the past year Israel has reportedly carried out some 70 air strikes in Syria to prevent Iran from bolstering Hezbollah in Lebanon. Yet Assad, loath to take on Israel alone, received no help against them from its erstwhile supporters.
Why didn’t the U.S. cite the resolution’s refusal to call on Hamas, as the perpetrator of October 7, to unilaterally lay down their arms.
While we get the fact that J Street may disagree with this or that Trump policy, the fact is that Israelis preferred Trump over Harris 66% to 17% in surveys taken in the run-up to November 5.
There can be no uncertainty about the message that President-elect Trump’s appointments to his Middle East-related team has sent to Israel’s friends and foes alike.
At all events New Yorkers should not be fooled. And they must remember all of this political legerdemain, and hold the offending officeholders to account should they again run for office.
There is nothing here even close to the insinuated quid pro quo that Mr. Trump got their message and determined to act in accordance with it.
By most accounts, the cases brought against the now President-elect were conjured up, do not pass the smell test, and were designed only to bankrupt him, discredit him with voters, and distract him from engaging in effective campaigning.
We can only speculate, but we cannot imagine that there was perfect harmony between Kelly and the, at least equally hard driving Trump, also used to giving orders.
We have no illusions that the president-elect will be able to simply pick up from where he left off four years ago. But we are convinced that he is determined to, at the least, provide an off-ramp from the calamitous direction in which the Biden Administration was taking us.
While the Biden administration never misses an opportunity to state that it will not allow Iran to become a nuclear power and that a preventative military option is on the table, it has long been apparent that imposing economic sanctions is as far as they are prepared to go.
This year’s election cycle promises to be very close and yet very pivotal, especially in regards to the presidency and the choices of which party will control the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
What the absence of an incumbent meant was that any accounting for Biden’s policies – and any possible course corrections – would come only as a result of how effectively the Trump campaign would be able to tie VP Harris to failed Biden decision-making.
Nowhere is there an acknowledgement by the Biden team that what is driving the Hamas-Hezbollah problem is an Iran that is bent on Israel’s destruction and which uses both terror organizations as local surrogates.
According to the report, this has led to tension between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterparts over the scope, magnitude and characteristic “close to the vest” approach of the Israeli operations against Iran and its proxies.
It should not be lost on the threatened Arab Gulf states that Iran is flexing its military muscles against them in exactly the way that prompted their openness to the formation of the Abraham Accords to serve as a counterweight to a predatory Iran in the first place.
Chief among the questions, of course, were why she would attach herself to a president who has had historically low approval rating and whose policies on such things as inflation, Afghanistan withdrawal, illegal immigration, the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, etc., has drawn near universal criticism.
It would seem that our side should be thinking about how to exploit Iranian weakness and not how to rescue them. Nor can there be any doubt that this is a period of serious exposure for Iran.
Interestingly, The New York Times reports that four Iranian officials told them in telephone interviews that news of Mr. Nasrallah’s death cast a pall of shock and anxiety over senior officials who wondered in private calls and during emergency meetings if Israel would strike Iran next, and if Mr. Khamenei would be its next target.
Some of the judges also focused on the enormity of the penalties, noting that since there was no harm to anyone, it was hard to reconcile the size of the penalties which are typically tied to the size of the harm claimed.
Most are unaware that candidate access to voters is so basic to our system, that for more than a hundred years, we have had a provision in federal law colloquially referred to as the equal-time rule.
A continuing Biden administration refrain has been that while it supports Israel in its conflict with Hezbollah, it does not believe a ground invasion is the way to go.
Is the threat posed by pro-terrorist, anti-Israel “protestors” not clear enough at this point to warrant more considered response by law enforcement agencies?
We do not presume to take a position on the underlying issue of the hostage tragedy. The dilemma presented is heartbreaking.
Indeed, how could Iranian support have been arranged without Iran being a co-conspirator with the named defendants?
When her agreement to meet was touted by the group as indicating that she was open to the idea of an embargo the Harris camp said no, she was merely reiterating her general intention to engage with all communities.
Regardless, the Ayatollah had ample reason to change course and try to engage with the U.S. and avoid possible punitive U.S. actions, military and or economic. But it may be too late.
Significant also is the lesson the Saudis and Abraham Accord states – that are in mortal fear of Iran and Hezbollah – should have come away with.
It’s hard to reconcile all of this with objective, unbiased reporting. In fact, it seems to us as pure editorializing in the guise of reporting.
Basic to the scheme is a compliant mainstream media that will not obsess over covering a presidential candidate who is, well, a virtual automaton – even though reporters and journalists would rather have the opportunity to verbally engage him (or her).
Goldenberg has also been a leading proponent of deepening diplomatic relations with Iran and an ardent supporter of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – which most Israelis believe presented an existential threat to their country by providing a pathway for Iran to develop nuclear weapons and achieve hegemony in the Persian Gulf.
It wasn’t the he said-she said exchanges that were most troubling, although we think Ms. Harris was more forthcoming on the embargo issue than she is now willing to let on.
It bears repeating: a small group of political operators arbitrarily chose someone who had never gotten even one vote in support of her being president from Democrats over someone who was twice the overwhelming choice of Democratic presidential primary voters.
Iran now knows that its nuclear facilities are vulnerable should Israel be determined to finally take them out now that Iran is reportedly close to building a nuclear weapon, with President Biden’s promise to not let that happen no longer operative.
If the policies fairly reek of success, why are the Democrats and their media amen corner doing somersaults to discredit the notion that Ms. Harris was the appointed“border czar, that is, in charge of the Biden Administrations’ efforts to control our borders?
Rather, for every women’s sport, every school will be forced to demonstrate, in each case, the risk of a ‘sports-related injury’ in order to prevent the participation of males. Plainly, the mountain of resulting bureaucratic paperwork for each and every school undermined the possibility of the overall winnowing plan working.
It’s time for those who run for political office to realize that there is a price to be paid for their actions and that our community is serious about promoting support for the only Jewish state in the world and the closest U.S. ally in the world.
While we are not unmindful that a New York State Supreme Court Justice has ruled against Mr. Trump in a civil fraud case brought by Ms. James, we have also been told by legal experts that the coming appeal of the verdict will be a defense lawyer’s dream.
With Democrats apoplectic over recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, particularly on abortion and presidential immunity, President Biden has proposed measures that would weaken the Court’s independence and role as a co-equal branch of the federal government together with the Congress and the President.
We will leave it to our readers to decide which side has the better of the argument. But, with our tongues planted firmly in our cheeks, we suggest that Ms. Harris and the anti-czar, pro-Harris side just calm down.
The bottom line for the U.S. thus became a Hamas-manipulated limit on how Israel could fight its war with Hamas, thereby encouraging Hamas’s recalcitrance and terrorism. But the problem didn’t end there.
A person of his sadly apparent diminished capacity should certainly not be entrusted with the responsibilities of so high an office as President of the United States.
In fact, the ICJ is hardly a court. Its judges are merely political appointees acting upon instructions from their respective governments, presided over by a Lebanese judge with a record of hostile, anti-Israel political statements.
We had rather thought that Secret Service protocol required a sweep of areas surrounding where the person to be protected was scheduled to be and from where he or she would be in sniper range. Yet the Trump shooter was armed with a rifle and perched on a roof top within 300 feet of the former president.
Vance has also said that Israel is key to the economic development of the Middle East and to the creation of a military bulwark against Iran. He emphasized his belief that the best vehicle for bringing all of this about are the Abraham Accords.
In truth, reasonable arguments can be made for both positions which is why appeals court were created – to choose between and among different approaches. And thereby hangs a tale.
From the beginning, the case was treated by most legal commentators as a transparently political hit job. For one thing, combining a business records law with an election law in order to come up with a basis for a prosecution was as novel an approach as you can find.
The announcement of new Jewish housing in the West Bank introduces a new element into the current mix. It declares to Hamas that they and their fellow Palestinians do not have the luxury of sitting back and relying on President Biden to have their backs.
As far as Israel is concerned, the new president reaffirmed Iran’s anti-Israel stance saying that “resistance movements across the region will not allow Israel’s criminal policies towards the Palestinians and other nations in the region to continue.”
President Biden has much to address in the run up to November 5. But if he is replaced because of his infirmities, does he take all that baggage with him, allowing the new designee to skate on the aforementioned issues?
According to the Court’s opinion, the case must now go back to the lower courts to flesh out how the language will be applied so it is premature to wax eloquent at this point about how the language will be applied.
Bowman also reportedly spread talking points provided by the Hamas-led Gaza Ministry of Health but denied or ignored the trauma endured by Israelis.
We were encouraged as well by a decision handed down by the Supreme Court last Thursday which suggests that the standards for proving retaliatory action by an official appearing to merely be doing his or her duty are in the process of being scaled downward.
In these divisive and highly partisan times, with hateful anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric on the rise in the halls of government and misbegotten values on the ascendancy, it is more important than ever that members of our community come out and vote.
Why would President Biden now be amenable to a change in attitude? Why would he be at long last ready to acknowledge that civilian casualties are an unfortunate but unavoidable feature of war as Israel claimed all along?
Sounds to us like a plan for Hamas to survive as a negotiating, enduring presence in Gaza, instead of disappearing as a terrorist group.
November 6, 2026 
