By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
We encourage our readers to follow the links below to the stories that attract their interest.
INTERNATIONAL
The Jerusalem Post – Senior Hamas commander Ra’ad Sa’ad left the Gaza tunnel in which he was hiding Saturday and soon thereafter the IDF blew up the car in which he was riding. In a joint statement, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “instead of working toward demilitarization, (Ra’ad) dealt in rearming for terror purposes.”
*
Ukrainska Pravda – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that “in the coming days” he will go to Berlin to meet with U.S. and European representatives. He said: “We are working to ensure that peace for Ukraine is dignified. That there is a guarantee, primarily a guarantee that Russia will not return to Ukraine with a third invasion. Thanks to all the partners who help us – who help Ukraine….”
*
The New York Times — In a recent column, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas L. Friedman inveighed against President Trump entrusting two real estate developers, Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to negotiate a Ukraine deal with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Instead, he should send tough seasoned diplomats in the mold of the late Henry Kissinger or James Baker (now 95) to deal with Putin and disabuse him of his expansionist aspirations.
*
NATIONAL
Independent – Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Friday released more than 70 undated photos of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein meeting and partying with such well-known figures as Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and the UK’s Prince Andrew (now, after being stripped of his royal title, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor). Members of the Jewish community whose images appeared in the photos included comedian Woody Allen, former Secretary of the Treasury and Harvard University president Larry Summers (who earlier had resigned from his teaching position), attorney Alan Dershowitz, and author Michael Wolff. None of the released photos depicts anything illicit. A photograph of a package of condoms with Trump’s cartoon image on it and the caption “I’m huuuugee!” is sexually suggestive.
*
Jewish Telegraphic Agency – A scorching resignation letter was sent to the Anti-Defamation League by Joe Berman, an attorney who chaired the Anti-Defamation League’s National Legal Affairs Committee from 2018 to 2022 and who has been active for the ADL in other capacities since. The ADL, in its fight against antisemitism, recently has deemphasized fights for other causes including civil rights for other groups. In the letter, Berman wrote that the Trump administration has used the pretext of fighting antisemitism to impose penalties on universities and arrest non-citizens. “Make no mistake” this will not end well, especially for Jewish Americans,” Berman wrote.
STATE & LOCAL
CalMatters – Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley’s law school, predicts that an appeal will go to the same appellate panel that overturned U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer’s previous decision that the California National Guard, federalized by President Donald J. Trump for service in Los Angeles, must be returned to the control of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Only this time, Chemerinsky said, “it goes back to them in a very different context. Because the issue now really is, even if the president had the authority in June, does that really last forever?”
*
Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World