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).

Also in this issue: Our new editor, Hagay Vider provides the details and facts that clearly answer the question that the "Free Palestine" crowd keeps asking: "Is Israel an Apartheid State?"

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