What’s the Significance of Israel’s Raid on Al Shifa Hospital?

Israel’s initial raid on Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital in November was one of the most controversial moments in the war. Now the IDF has returned, saying that Hamas regrouped in the hospital.

The army was telling the truth when it said that Hamas’ regional brigades and battalions in the northern Strip were disbanded. But in their place, small terrorist networks are gradually re-emerging, seeking to prepare for further friction with the IDF.

The raid on Al Shifa serves as a warning to terrorists hiding in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and other hospitals in the southern Strip and central camps. More operations like this are in the works.

…war – like nature – abhors a vacuum. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has refused to discuss seriously any realistic plans for governing in Gaza after the war and is apparently content to allow swaths of the territory to slide into chaos in the weeks or months Israel achieves his stated war aim of “crushing” Hamas.

Is It Foolish for America to Try and Appease Iran?

The Biden administration has reissued a sanctions waiver to Iran that amounts to $10 billion for the Islamic Republic. Is this a wise diplomatic move? Or is he rewarding Iran at the exact moment he should be getting tough?

Two days after reissuing a $10 billion Iran sanctions waiver, the Biden Administration on Friday threatened coordinated Group of Seven sanctions against Iran if it delivers ballistic missiles to Russia. The policy signal these two moves send is incoherence.

Just six weeks after an Iran-backed drone strike killed three American soldiers in Jordan, President Biden has approved a sanctions waiver giving Tehran continued access to more than $10 billion — money it can use to import goods and repay debts, freeing up $10 billion elsewhere to spend on terrorism, missiles, nuclear weapons and the repression of Iranian women.

There is no easy answer to the dilemma facing the White House of how to prevent further militia attacks… To get Iran to rein in its proxies… diplomacy combined with a willingness to escalate will be required.

What Can We Learn from Trump’s Campaign Promises?

Should he win, Trump has lofty plans for his first day back in office. Here are three takes looking closely at what the former president is promising to do if he makes it back to the Oval Office.

Trump says pardoning Capitol attackers will be one of his first acts if elected again
In a Truth Social post, the ex-president said he will pardon ‘hostages’ convicted for their part in the Capitol attack in 2021…

The former president has also made waging “war” on drug cartels a priority for his second term. If elected, Trump said in his November 2022 campaign announcement that he would ask Congress to ensure that drug smugglers and human traffickers can receive the death penalty for their “heinous acts.”

Trump is also planning “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” for which he claims he doesn’t need congressional approval. The massive operation would be aimed at about 11 million undocumented immigrants…

What Does Judaism Say About Polyamory?

A number of recent books and articles have explored the growing trend of polyamory—being in a romantic relationship with more than one person at a time. What does Judaism have to say?

Polyamory is “not strange” to the Bible, she observes, but it in the context of patriarchal polygamy – and such households are not often happy places. Think of the tension between Hagar and Sarah or the rivalry between Rachel and Leah.

Despite its presence in mainstream culture, polyamory within the Reform Jewish community remains contentious even in progressive spaces. In an article in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2013, Rabbi Elliot Dorff, rector of American Jewish University in Los Angeles, pauses when it comes to polyamory.

Liberal Judaism should be able to deal with it. The future of marriage in our synagogues may well involve multiple-partner ceremonies. It may involve renewing discussions about what fidelity, jealousy and honesty look like in relationships. Such conversations could benefit all couples.

What Should Be Done About Kids and Smartphones?

In a new piece in the Atlantic (below), Jonathan Haidt argues that smartphones are destroying childhood. Here are three takes on what can be done about this issue:

Delaying round-the-clock internet access until ninth grade (around age 14) as a national or community norm would help to protect adolescents during the very vulnerable first few years of puberty.

If we want to start getting kids offline, we need to give them better places to go instead.

Today’s social apocalypse will be tomorrow’s droll anecdote… It’s weird that nobody ever suggests a cross-party parenting campaign for us all to maintain a sense of proportion.

What’s New & Fascinating in Jewish Literature?

Here are three page-turning takes on news from the world of Jewish literature:

Once upon a time, some 60 or 70 years ago, Jewish American writing constituted a significant genre in our national literature… Two of its pathbreaking stars were Saul Bellow and Philip Roth… However, a third Jewish American writer of major importance also emerged in the 1950s: Bernard Malamud.

“The Tattooist of Auschwitz” by Heather Morris is easily one of the most famous novels in the world about the Holocaust — and it is also one of the most problematic. Since its publication in 2017, several Holocaust institutions have called out the book for its historical inaccuracies regarding real-life events, as well the author’s success as a non-Jewish author profiting off Jewish trauma.

“The Hebrew Teacher” is [Maya Arad’s] first book translated into English, and it introduces American readers to a writer that one Israeli reviewer has called “the finest living author writing in Hebrew.” Another critic calls her “an artist of suppressed despair, small humiliations and structural restraint.”

Today’s Hot Issues

What’s the Significance of Israel’s Raid on Al Shifa Hospital? Is It Foolish for America to Try and Appease Iran? What Can We Learn from Trump’s Campaign Promises? What Does Judaism Say About Polyamory? What Should Be Done About Kids and Smartphones? What’s New & Fascinating in Jewish Literature?