100 Days of Trump For Better or Worse

Its been a long and confusing week, both in Israel and the United States, not to mention the rest of the world. In this issue, our focus is more mixed than we would like - we too are confused. We begin this issue with a look at the 2nd Trump administration from both an Israeli and American viewpoint (we may very well fail in part two). This is followed by a report on the Hostage issue which unfortunately is still urgent and Israel’s most recent scandal involving Netanyahu’s and his attempts avoid taking responsibility for Israel’s worst disaster.

Our two newest editors each focus on different issues:

Hagay Vider focuses on how “long-term investment policies” by foreign countries with their own agendas have damaged the American higher education system. There is more than meets the eye to the Trump vs. Harvard fight and we strongly recommend that you read what Hagay has to say.

Shmuel Goldstein, in his “The Road to Pravda” series, strays from its mission of showing how mainstream media’s deterioration of journalism into propaganda on anything related to Israel. This week he analyzes what at first glance appears to a recent local tragedy in Israel to show how western cultural assumptions can be just as misleading as swimmer who treats sharks as if they were pet dogs and cats. Yes - here in Israel we have supposedly intelligent people who can be just as stupid as some of the dumbest Americans.

On Friday, the Prime Minister made a dramatic announcement that he would be making an important — albeit recorded — press conference on Saturday night, thus raising the hopes of the hostages’ families that he would finally be ending the war and returning all of their loved ones. Their hopes were quickly dashed the next night...

This week we have a number of different articles that do not necessarily reflect the opinions of all of our editors - so you may see a number of different focuses. These include:

• Editorial: Are We Being “Two-Faced” When We Tell the World Israel Is Truly Free?

• The Cost of Protecting Israel’s First Family, and the Efforts to Cover it Up

• The Road to Pravda - Rock Throwing Yutes

• Harari’s Playbook for Dictatorship: A Chilling Parallel to Netanyahu’s Actions

If you disagree with some of these - that’s a good sign and all the more reason to forward the newsletter to friends and relatives!

This Passover has been as bittersweet a holiday as it’s ever been (or at least since the Holocaust). Having family together and celebrating freedom is always sweet, but this year it almost feels like we are still waiting for sea to part because 59 of our people are still being held in conditions worse than the slaves of Egypt.

We know that you are busy and preoccupied with Passover week and for most of you, who live outside of Israel, celebrating the 2nd Seder. So we’ll keep this week’s newsletter short. And we ask you to do at least one thing each day of Passover week to keep the fate of the remaining 59 hostages in the public eye. Ideas… Tie yellow ribbons in public places, call or write a local politician or news source, call for President Trump to step in where Prime Minister fails to act (sounds terrible - but Bibi is no Moses).

Over time, the international organizations that were created in the aftermath of World War II to prevent a repeat of the Holocaust and the massive destruction of extreme nationalism became corrupted. It was a slow process at first, almost unnoticed. But alongside the creation of organizations with virtuous names and ideals, the greatest violators of these ideals hijacked and corrupted them from within.

When we look back, we can already see the seeds of hypocrisy being planted in 1949, when UNRWA was created to treat the Arab refugees of Israel’s War of Independence differently from all other refugees for whom the UNHCR was responsible. In the name of “progress and humanity,” a whole class of refugees was prevented from resettling and condemned to a generations of conflict. The truth is -- they were used as pawns simply because of their ethnicity and because most of the powers that be couldn’t really accept the idea of a Jewish State as an equal among nations. …

Other topics include:

• World Zionist Congress Elections

• How Trump’s Tariffs Will Impact Israeli Defense of America’s Biggest Industry

• The Road to Pravda - The decline of journalistic standards in coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict

The mismanagement of the war Gaza for political motives seems more like a satirical musical than real life. Israel clearly needs to get the hostages back - even if it means ending the war before Hamas is destroyed. Partial deals for a handful of hostages in return for a 50-day ceasefire is the equivalent of a death sentence to those left behind - so a full-scale military operation ramped up faster than Netanyahu is willing to do is the best option until a deal can be made - but Bibi won’t allow that either. He chooses slow death and threats over action (either making a deal or full-scale military action).

In the meantime, the government is doing everything it can to distract the Israeli public from the most important  existential issue - the hostages. He is allowing Yariv Levin to move forward with the divisive “Judicial Reforms” that are designed to subjugate the judicial branch to the whims of the politicians. Although he publicly supports ending UNRWA’s mission to perpetuate the “Palestinian conflict”, the government quietly refuses to implement the new laws to end UNRWA’s presence inside Israel’s border and prevent the government institutions from cooperating with them in any way.

The list of crisis headlines that Netanyahu’s coalition has managed to create this week is too long to list, but the most significant is the 2025 budget that the Knesset recently passed just before the deadline. It is not just because failure to pass the budget would have resulted in long overdue elections, but the budget raids the public coffers so deeply that those who serve are left behind and the sectors that refuse to serve are rewarded. The communities of the war-ravaged north and south of Israel are left to fend for themselves, the crime wave in the Arab communities that threatens to spread to nearby Jewish communities is left unchecked, the education and health systems are being starved in order to provide billions for useless ministries whose sole function is to provide patronage.

In order for you to understand what is happening in Israel and how Israelis view the Trump administration, you need to realize that Israelis are in Survival Mode. This doesn’t mean that our viewpoint is wrong. After all, our physical security is threatened in the worst way possible — the memory of the Holocaust is no longer recent history to learn from, but an immediate threat.

In many ways - it is still Oct. 7, 2023 here in Israel. And the world’s silence over the fate of the hostages as THE Humanitarian Crisis paints the way we view the “Rules Based Order” that former President Biden tried to defend and that current President Trump is threatening to destroy if it does change. It also paints the way we look at the rise of antisemitism in Europe and North America (not to mention Australia, S. America and everywhere else). Most of you (our readers) are concerned and possibly even feel threatened by the antisemitism of the “Free Palestine” movement, but do not appear to take it as seriously as we (Israelis) think you should.

Who’s right?

We don’t really know and only time will tell. We hope that your viewpoint is correct and that we are just a little paranoid. But the stakes are high. Over the past week or two, the attempts to deport non-citizens like Mahmoud Khalil who organized the anti-Zionist protests on university campuses and elsewhere that made Jews “uncomfortable” and “unwelcome” in the public sphere are being targeted as a First Amendment issue of Free Speech.

To Israelis, this looks ridiculous even if the power to deport could be abused in the future. The same is true of the $400 million being withheld from Columbia for failing to fulfill its duties under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under that act, universities accepting federal funding are required by law to prohibit practices that have the effect of discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The Civil Rights act was specifically designed to prevent this type “Academic Freedom”, whether it be done in the name of “Free Palestine” or for the promotion of “racial purity”.

The conclusion of the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal has many looking anxiously to the release of the remaining living hostages and the bodies of those killed in captivity. Sources in Israel believe that 24 hostages are still alive in the Gaza Strip, including 22 Israelis, one Thai and one Nepali.

In a significant escalation of protests, thousands of demonstrators have surrounded the Kirya, Israel's Ministry of Defense compound and IDF headquarters, demanding the immediate release of all hostages held by the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza. In what they named "Operation Kirya Envelope", the protesters established encampments last night next to each gate of the Kirya, following the massive nationwide demonstration in which Israelis took to the streets in a plea to bring their loved ones home without further delays, partial deals, or drawn-out negotiations.

Meanwhile #qatargate continues in full force, with Netanyahu aides reportedly suspected of recently receiving six-figure sums from Qatar. Investigators say they were surprised by the size of the payouts, amounting to hundreds of thousands allegedly paid through outside firms.

The conclusion of the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal has many looking anxiously to the release of the remaining living hostages and the bodies of those killed in captivity. Sources in Israel believe that 24 hostages are still alive in the Gaza Strip, including 22 Israelis, one Thai and one Nepali.

In a significant escalation of protests, thousands of demonstrators have surrounded the Kirya, Israel's Ministry of Defense compound and IDF headquarters, demanding the immediate release of all hostages held by the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza. In what they named "Operation Kirya Envelope", the protesters established encampments last night next to each gate of the Kirya, following the massive nationwide demonstration in which Israelis took to the streets in a plea to bring their loved ones home without further delays, partial deals, or drawn-out negotiations.

Meanwhile #qatargate continues in full force, with Netanyahu aides reportedly suspected of recently receiving six-figure sums from Qatar. Investigators say they were surprised by the size of the payouts, amounting to hundreds of thousands allegedly paid through outside firms.

42 days after it began, the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza has come to an end, with 59 hostages remaining in captivity in the Gaza Strip. Of those that remain — based on intelligence — the IDF has concluded that at least 34 of the remaining hostages are dead.

One of the stories we want to make sure you don’t miss is the interview of freed hostage Eli Sharabi, who spoke in a no holds barred interview this week. As it turns out, one of the people who watched at least some of that interview was none other than President Trump, who invited Sharabi and other former hostages to Washington to hear their stories.

Sharon Sharabi, Eli’s brother, says the US president decided to invite former hostages after being sent the interview in which the bereaved Be’eri father describes torture in captivity. Eli Sharabi, who lost his wife and daughters on Oct. 7; Omer Shem Tov, released from captivity last Saturday; Iair Horn, whose farewell with his captive brother filmed by Hamas; and Aviva and Keith Siegel, whose video shared by US president, will travel to Washington to meet with the US President.

And this week, our worst fears have been realized with the return of the remains of Shiri Bibas and her two little red-headed boys Ariel and Kfir. The return of the Bibas family dashed the hopes of anyone praying for the safe return of the Bibas family, a few weeks after her husband, Yarden Bibas, was returned to Israel as a shell of himself.

As if the occasion marking the end of hopes for the four hostages wasn’t distressful enough, on February 20 Hamas conducted a macabre ceremony in Gaza to release the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir. The event took place in Bani Suhaila, near Khan Younis, where Hamas unveiled black-draped coffins adorned with photographs of the victims and inscriptions marking their "date of arrest" as October 7, 2023 — the day they were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

The question remains: what happens now to the remaining hostages?