News Digest — 3/14/25
Purim Then And Now: Israel’s Fight Against Modern-Day Haman – EDITORIAL
Today the Jewish world is celebrating the delightful spectacle of Purim.
A history of conquering enemies that wish to see the destruction of Jews is an achingly bittersweet and familiar one. On the other hand, it is cause for celebration; on the other, the losses taken throughout the progress are immense.
Haman sought to destroy the Jewish people because they refused to bow before him. However, their faith taught them that they must bow only to their one true God, making such a demand an act of arrogance and defiance against their beliefs.
The story of Purim recounts how King Ahasuerus married Esther, a Jewish woman and the niece of Mordechai. Haman, a high-ranking official in the king’s court, ordered all subjects of the vast empire – from Hodu to Cush – to bow before him. When Mordechai refused, Haman launched a ruthless campaign against the Jewish people.
When October 7, 2023, came about, Hamas – ironically only one letter off from the Book of Esther villain – tried to force our people to bow and cave to their genocidal whims.
Israel, carrying its sorrow and hurt on its shoulders, fought and fought hard to both defeat the enemy and bring back our loved ones so cruelly taken from us.
The Jews of ancient Persia were targeted too. They lived in the Diaspora under a regime that saw them as secondary citizens. Much like Jews around the world and, in particular, on college campuses, they were left hiding their identities or marginalized, Queen Esther being the best example.
Indeed, Esther married Ahasuerus without revealing to him that she was Jewish. Only when her cousin Mordechai’s life hung in the balance due to Haman’s evil scheme did she reveal that she was Jewish to her husband, the king. Diaspora Jews are not unfamiliar with the fear of revealing one’s identity in their own homeland.
But that is not the only point of comparison between the story of Purim and modern-day times. Just as ancient Persia’s leadership was infected with hate and anti-Semitism, so, too, is the modern-day Iranian regime.
The regime, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has maintained a line of threatening the Jewish state at best and attacking at worst, as well as directly stating that it is in relation to its status as a Jewish-led country.
This has not been just verbalized, but also acted on and made clear, not only through Iran’s two major attacks on Israel throughout the past year, but also through its consistency in supporting terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as rejecting any notion of a Jewish state existing should the conflict end.
This is not something that can be ended with simply bringing the matter to light to a well-meaning king in love with his Jewish queen, he will not deliver freedom of self-defense to the Jewish people. The Iranian state is bound in its corrupt foundations to the destruction of an entire people: our people.
Yet, just as in the time of Esther and Mordechai, the Jewish people did not cower in the face of essential threats. Instead, they rise, fight and endure. The lessons of Purim teach us that survival is not just a passive act – it requires bravery, action, and a refusal to be silenced.
The festival reminds us that, despite the presence of evil, miracles can happen when we stand together. Today, just as then, the Jewish people and the State of Israel remain steadfast.
From the students defending their identities on campuses to the soldiers on the front lines, the spirit of Esther lives on in every Jew who refuses to hide and in every defender of Israel who stands against those who seek its destruction.
Purim is not just a historical tale; it is a reminder that the Jewish people have faced hatred for millennia and have always found a way to survive and thrive. Haman’s decree failed, as will the ambitions of those who seek to wipe out the Jewish people today.
As we celebrate Purim, let us remember: the Jewish people are still here, still strong, and will never bow to those who wish to erase them.
Just as in ancient Persia, our enemies will not prevail.
IDF Strikes Alleged Islamic Jihad Nerve Center In Damascus, Said To Be Leader’s House
Israeli fighter jets on Thursday (13th) struck a residential building that the military said served as a Damascus headquarters for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to plan and carry out terror activities.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the targeted building was located in the suburb of Dummar, northwest of the capital, and was inhabited by Palestinians. It said one person was killed.
“The IDF will not allow terrorist organizations to entrench themselves in Syrian territory and operate against the State of Israel, and will respond forcefully to any such entrenchment,” the Israel Defense Forces said, It released footage of the strikes.
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad member at the scene of the airstrike in Syria told The Associated Press that the apartment that was targeted was the home of the terror organization’s leader Ziad Nakhaleh.
The PIJ member, Ismail Sindak, said the apartment had been empty for years, adding that Nakhaleh was not in Syria. Asked if anyone was killed in the strike, Sindak said, “The house was empty.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed terror group sworn to Israel’s destruction, participated alongside Hamas in the October 7, 2023 invasion of southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, in which over 5,000 terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, sparking the subsequent war.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which was part of the Gaza ceasefire negotiated in January and currently up in the air, has held a number of the hostages, and likely continues to hold some of the remaining captives, of whom 24 are still believed to be alive. The bodies of 34 dead – as well as the body of a soldier killed in 2014 – are also held in the Strip.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, confirming Thursday’s (13th) strike, said, “Wherever terror activity against Israel is organized, the extreme Islamic leader al-Julani will find Israeli Air Force aircraft flying above and striking terror targets.”
Katz was referring to Syria’s interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, by his nom de guerre, which he used as the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group, an Islamic offshoot of al-Qaeda.
“Islamic terrorism will not have immunity in Damascus nor anywhere else,” Katz added.
In the months since his coalition ousted longtime president Bashar al-Assad, al-Sharaa and his government have projected a moderate image, repeatedly declaring a commitment to protect minorities, including Jews as well as Druze and Kurds, in the country.
The interim leader has objected to Israel’s continued military presence in southern Syria and to its strikes throughout the country, but he has declined to threaten Israel itself.
On Thursday (13th), al-Sharaa signed the country’s constitutional declaration, which will be enforced throughout a five-year transitional period.
The interim leader said he hoped the constitutional declaration would mark the start of “a new history for Syria, where we replace oppression with justice,” as he signed the document setting out the transitional period.
Israeli leaders, including Katz, have consistently stated that they do not trust Sharaa.
Jerusalem has been especially tough in its criticism in light of massacres of Alawite civilians that began last Thursday (6th), blamed on the interim government’s security forces, amid clashes with militants loyal to the old regime. Government reinforcements eventually restored order, and calm appeared to hold by late Monday (10th).
Israel Sends Humanitarian Aid To Druze In Syria
Israel has sent humanitarian aid to Druze communities in Syria over the past few weeks, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday (13th) in a further sign of Israel’s support for the minority group.
“In an operation conducted over the past few weeks, ten thousand packages of humanitarian aid were thus far delivered to the Druze community in the battle areas of Syria,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The packages included basic goods like oil, flour, salt, and sugar, and were mostly delivered to the southern province of Suwayda, the Foreign Ministry said.
The Druze, an Arab minority present in Syria, Israel, the Israeli Golan Heights and Lebanon, practice a faith that originated in Islam but which has a distinct identity.
Since the ouster of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Israeli leaders have expressed deep mistrust of the new Syrian government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, describing his Hayat Tahrir al- Sham (HTS) movement as a jihadist group. HTS was affiliated with extremist group al-Qaeda but later renounced the connection.
Israel has called for the rights of Syrian minority groups including the Druze to be protected.
Last week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Syrian Druze would be allowed to enter and work in the Golan Heights. A group of around 100 senior figures from Syria’s Druze are also expected to visit the Golan Heights on Friday (14th), members of the community said.
Gush Etzion Arab Rioters Attack Jewish Shepherd With Clubs And Flee The Scene
Six Arab rioters from the Arab outpost of Shaabin, which was built illegally on the Wye Accords Nature Reserve in Gush Etzion, attacked a Jewish shepherd from the Mikneh Avreham hilltop community on Thursday (13th) near Maaleh Amos.
The 18-year-old shepherd who took the community’s flock of goats to graze, noticed the mob approaching with clubs and rocks, and managed to call other residents as he attempted to defend himself.
He received a severe blow from one of the rioter’s clubs but managed to hold on until other residents arrived and chased off the rioters.
The residents took the shepherd to the nearby community where he received initial medical treatment and was taken to the hospital with his head bleeding. Magen David Adom reported that the 18-year-old victim was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center with head trauma.
Law enforcement began a search for the suspects. At the same time investigators from the Etzion Police station began collecting evidence from the scene and testimonies from witnesses.
The police stated that the commander of the Judea and Samaria District, Deputy Commissioner Moshe Pinchi, ordered forces to use all operational and technological means to reach the assailants and bring them to justice.
Blame Hamas For Israel Halting Aid To Gaza – Arsen Ostrovsky and Mark Goldfeder
On March 2, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would halt the entry of all goods and supplies to Gaza. This decision came after Hamas rejected a framework proposed by U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff intended to continue the hostage-ceasefire talks. Critics soon started accusing Israel of the war crime of starvation, with vague references to “international law.”
For the record, international law is very clear: Israel is not obligated to provide aid that will be used by an enemy in time of war, and anyone who argues differently is either illiterate or willfully ignorant. Britain and the U.S. were not expected to provide aid to Nazi Germany during World War II. Blockades are a lawful military tactic in the course of war.
Article 23 of the 4th Geneva Convention is very explicit in allowing the free passage of humanitarian supplies only if there are no serious reasons to believe these supplies are being diverted from their destination or used for military purposes. Both the U.S. Defense Department Law of War Manual and the UK Joint Service Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict mirror Act 23.
There has been indisputable and overwhelming evidence that Hamas systematically steals the aid, and uses it to advance their military goals. The New York Times, the Palestinian Authority, and the UN have reported on this for years.
Israel’s actions in halting aid are entirely just and legitimate under international law. Those who seek a resumption of further aid into Gaza would be well advised to direct their outrage and pressure toward Hamas.
Arsen Ostrovsky is a human rights attorney and CEO of the International Legal Forum. Mark Goldfeder is a law professor and CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center. (Newsweek)
Rubio: Revoking Columbia U. Graduate’s Green Card Is “Not About Free Speech”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday (12th), referring to Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil: “When you come to the United States… on a visitor’s visa…we can deny you that [visa]. If you tell us when you apply, ‘Hi, I’m trying to get into the United States on a student visa, I am a big supporter of Hamas, a murderous, barbaric group that kidnaps children, that rapes teenage girls, that takes hostages, that allows them to die in captivity, that returns more bodies than live hostages.’”
“If you tell us you are in favor of a group like this, and if you tell us when you apply for your visa, ‘and by the way, I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, antisemitic activities, I intend to shut down your universities’ – if you told us all these things when you applied for a visa, we would deny your visa. I hope we would,”
“If you actually end up doing that once you’re in this country on such a visa, we will revoke it. And if you end up having a green card – not citizenship, but a green card – as a result of that visa while you’re here engaged in those activities, we’re going to kick you out. It’s as simple as that.”
“This is not about free speech. This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with…being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down and being complicit in what are clearly crimes of vandalism, complicit in shutting down learning institutions…And if you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke it and kick you out.” (U.S. State Department)
