This is the question to ask while following news reports this week about Israel, Gaza, Syria and the rest of the Middle East. It is clear to us (the editors of this newsletter) that Israel’s national interest demands bringing ALL of the hostages home in a deal that ends the war in Gaza. The price will be high and Hamas will continue to be a threat - but it is almost a certainty that Hamas will quickly give Israel a reason to respond and finish the job.

A partial deal like the one being discussed is NOT in Israel’s interest, even if it is better than no deal. It appears that Prime Minister Netanyahu is the one who has been insisting on partial deals in order to continue the war indefinitely, or at least until he thinks he can be reelected. President Trump on the other hand, appears to want to bring the Gaza war to an end. Like Biden, he cares more about the hostages than Netanyahu does. In other words, Trump’s is more in tune with Israel’s national interest than Netanyahu is.

Furthermore, unlike former President Biden, Trump has a short fuse (or works on a very short timeline) and Netanyahu’s political base does not want to anger Trump. This all means that it is possible that Trump can pressure Netanyahu into accepting a deal that is in Israel’s national interest, but not in Netanyahu’s political interest.

The articles in this issue all deal with different aspects of the hostage deal being discussed, especially regarding the hostages and the framework for delivery of humanitarian aid that will enter Gaza. The What Else Happened This Week section contains a few interesting events worth reading about.

After successfully assisting Israel destroy or at least seriously damage Iran’s nuclear facilities without getting bogged down in a foreign war, President Trump turned his fire on the State of Israel. His recent tweet (that he later repeated) calls for the State of Israel to end its corruption charges against the Prime Minister that led Israel to its greatest defeat against its weakest enemy ever!

Even though Prime Minister Netanyahu deserves credit for many of his decisions in the wars against Hezbollah and Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, his dismantling of Israel’s judiciary and other national institutions has left Israel divided and weak.

• The October 7 massacre could not have happened if our Prime Ministered hadn’t systematically appointed military leaders unable or unwilling to respond to warning signs that were uncomfortable for their boss.

• The internal strife and chaos caused by the current coalition’s attempts to dismantle Israel’s judicial system under the guise of “Judicial Reform” opened the door for Hamas to attack.

• By systematically replacing the heads of all of Israel’s civil service and other national institutions with unqualified patronage appointments - Netanyahu condemned us to the total chaos and failure that occurred for months on end in the wake of the attack.

• Empowering putting messianic and racist extremists like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir in charge of the Treasury and the Police simply to hold onto power threaten to return Israel from a successful state with thriving democracy with a strong and stable OECD economy to a failed or struggling Third World government (where corruption is rampant or led by an all powerful despot) with a weak economy.

Saving Bibi from criminal prosecution does not help Israel - it helps destroy it! Rather than serving as an example of a vibrant democracy for neighboring countries (and the Palestinian Authority) to copy, Netanyahu has been trying to import the political culture of Abu Mazen where elections are delayed indefinitely.

Since your news sources are already covering the bombing of the nuclear weapons facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan by the United States, we’ve decided to focus on two important topics that you won’t find much information in U.S. news sources:

• The state of bomb shelters and safe rooms in Israel

• The loss of focus on the plight of the 53 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza

This week’s focus is followed by an analysis of the Democratic Party’s response to President Trump’s decision to bomb of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. We compare the response to that of Shimon Peres’ in the immediate aftermath of Menahem Begin’s success in 1981 when Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor in Iraq. Nearly 45 years later, the Labour party has failed to recover. Regardless of which party you prefer - the lack of a reasonable alternative is a serious problem.

This is followed by an explanation why Israel had to attack Iran. Note: we also recommend that you read Why Israel Had to Attack by Amos Yadlin that appeared in the New York Times yesterday.

On June 13, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a coordinated and highly targeted military operation against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and senior Revolutionary Guard figures. It was a strategic necessity, not a political whim. Iran has made no secret of its intentions toward Israel. Its leaders have repeatedly and publicly threatened to destroy the Jewish state. Meanwhile, it has continued to enrich uranium to levels approaching weapons-grade, in clear defiance of international norms and oversight.

Just days before the strike, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran was enriching uranium up to 60 percent purity, a hair’s breadth from the 90 percent needed for a nuclear bomb. The report also stated that Iran had refused to cooperate with nuclear inspectors, hiding crucial details about its weapons program. Iran ignored repeated diplomatic efforts to return to the negotiating table and cease enrichment, including those made during the Trump administration. Instead, it escalated.

Given these developments, Israel had both the right and the obligation to act.

Waiting any longer would have risked waking up to a nuclear-armed Iran. The mission struck key nuclear sites in Natanz, Fordow, and Arak, with the clear goal of setting back Iran’s nuclear timetable and deterring further escalation.

And yet, the timing of the operation is impossible to ignore. Just one day earlier, Netanyahu’s government survived a crucial domestic challenge. His coalition passed a deeply divisive bill to maintain draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men, despite widespread public resentment and national protests.

Both Shas and UTJ, sought to preserve long-standing exemptions from mandatory service enjoyed by the Haredi community, had threatened to back the dissolution bill over the enlistment issue, which would have left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu without a majority needed to stay in power.

For many Israelis, this was a deeply cynical political deal. Netanyahu gave the religious parties what they wanted to hold his coalition together – no military service for now, no serious sanctions and the right to keep all the money he poured on them to get them into and keep them in the coalition.

Then, less than 24 hours later, came the most dramatic military strike Israel has launched in years.

The sudden pivot from internal political firestorm to global military engagement struck many observers as too perfect. This pattern isn’t new: Netanyahu has often shifted focus to national security at moments when his political survival was under threat.

Critics argue that the Iran strike served not only military objectives, but also political ones by resetting the domestic conversation and reframing Netanyahu as a wartime leader.

The Torah Scholars Council of the Agudat Israel branch of the Haredi (ultra-orthodox) Torah Judaism party has instructed its parliament members to leave Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government. Agudat Israel is the Chassidic branch of the Torah Judaism party. The other branch, Degel HaTorah generally represent the Lithuanian branch of Ashkenazi Haredi Jews.

This comes after the current government has so far failed to pass a law that would exempt religious Yeshiva students from some military service, or offer a military service for very religious Jewish men. The leading rabbis who oversee the ultra-orthodox parties have complained that military service for religious men would pull them away from a religious life. Skeptics and opponents of the power that the ultra-religious parties have wielded over Israeli governments over the past decades. Both the Ashkenazi Torah Judaism Party, and the Mizrachi Shas party have applied pressure on governments to continue exempting men who study at Yeshivas from mandatory military service.

A recently recorded telephone conversation was released, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to convince a high ranking rabbi of from the Lithuanian branch of the Haredi community of his efforts to appease their political demands. He spoke on the phone with Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsh, a leading member of the Torah Leaders Council of the Degel Hatorah branch. In the recorded conversation, Netanyahu mentioned his tactics and plans to establish a special military program specifically for Heradi men who are not full-time Yeshiva students.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered to appoint Major General David Zini to replace Ronen Bar as head of Israel’s General Security Services. Netanyahu has been seeking to fire Bar for several months over various political disputes. He has tentatively offered the post to Zini (behind the back of the Chief of Staff, no less); however, Israel’s Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, and the High Court of Justice have rejected both the firing of the existing Security Services head and the appointment of his replacement.

The world is leaving Israel out in the cold, at least diplomatically, and the current Israeli government is more insular and distant than the State of Israel has been since its founding. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and with recent developments in the Middle East, the decision-making process has not included Israel, including decisions by Israel’s allies that affect Israel.

US president Donald Trump’s recent tour of Arab monarchies around the Persian Gulf has give Israel a rude awakening of its limited influence and ability to affect political decisions in the region. Even Israel’s strongest ally in the world can bypass the Israeli government, the personal egos of its leaders, and even its national and security interests, for a bit of political expedience. Trump succeeded in convincing the Emir of Qatar to pressure Hamas to release one hostage it was holding, Israeli soldier and US citizen Edan Alexander, without negotiating a ceasefire or prisoner exchange. This concession from both Qatar and Hamas was done with no official Israeli participation. Israel was completely kept out of the decision process.

Israel woke up, or rather Israeli politicians and government officials woke up to another reality check that they were all unprepared for the decisions of other influential parties in the region, even to decisions by, again, Israel’s most powerful ally.

The news that Trump is fed up with Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu is bittersweet. On the one hand, Bibi is actively harming Israel’s national interests in order to keep it in a perpetual state of war on multiple fronts rather than doing what is necessary to free the hostages and protect our borders. On the other hand, Trump’s decisions over the past week also harm Israel - not just Bibi.

Last Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke at the World Bible Quiz for Jewish Youth and said that the primary goal of Israel’s ongoing war was not the return of the hostages but to defeat Hamas and Israel’s enemies.

The comments prompted a strong backlash from the families of captives. Meanwhile, military plans to expand operations in Gaza move forward amid diminishing hopes for a hostage deal.

Responding to Netanyahu, the mother of the kidnapped Matan Tsengaukar, Einav Tsengaukar, harshly attacked Netanyahu and his government. “I'm tired of being silent and I'm tired of being diplomatic. I've decided that from today on, my ultimate goal, as Matan's mother, is to overthrow the prime minister and to oust him and his bloody government, and send them home” (note that the link for this quote is in Hebrew).

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).

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

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?

This week marks 500 days since the October 7 attack by Hamas. 500 days during which Israel has been at war. 500 days that hostages remain in the hands of Hamas, starved, tortured, chained, beaten, in constant fear that today will be their last day.

So far, in the tortuous reality show staged by Hamas, 19 Israelis (and five Thai hostages not part of the 33) have walked to freedom, handed over in ceremonies designed to further humiliate the women and men being held by these non-humans.

What will this week bring next for the hostages and the country? We also don't want to forget the shameful displays of antisemitism on display in Australia and elsewhere, but also to highlight and thank today's "The Righteous Among the Nations" for their continued and dedicated towards Israel and Jews throughout the world.