By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
INTERNATIONAL
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that his country fired $100 million worth of defensive missiles Monday night and early Tuesday morning to defend against the latest Russian onslaught targeting Ukraine’s power grid on a cold winter’s night. He pleaded for more defensive weapons to ward off future Russian attacks. Ukraine’s government estimated that 4,000 apartment blocks in Kyiv have no heating following the attack.
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Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum told her daily press conference on Tuesday that it will cost the government 3.5 billion pesos to register every Mexican and foreign resident for new health care cards that will electronically link to their medical records. In this way, she said, every registrant will be able to receive treatment at any medical facility in the country. Now, Mexico’s public health system is too fragmented.
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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disputed the intent of a 10-year-old text message sent by Channel 12 commentator Amit Segal to the Walla internet news site in response to an unfavorable posting about him. Walla was then owned by the Bezeq telecommunications company and Netanyahu was then Israel’s Minister of Communications. Segal wrote to Walla, that he might as well “call the Netanyahu family to have the item remove, as was customary on your site.” Prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh said Segal unmasked a pattern of political interference in Walla’s news coverage. But Netanyahu parried that Segal, known for his ironic tone, just made a sarcastic remark.
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NATIONAL
Historian Rafael Medoff has urged Sen. Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) to resign from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. Medoff, citing a report in the New York Post, said Sanders failed to attend the 18 meetings of the Council since he was appointed in 2007 by his colleagues in the Senate.
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Deborah Lipstadt, a former special envoy to counter antisemitism in Joe Biden’s administration, and Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, were offended by reports that Kamala Harris’ vetting team for her potential vice presidential running mates asked Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro if he had ever been a double agent for Israel. Advance reviews of Shapiro’s memoir, Where We Keep the Light, had disclosed the incident. “These questions were classic antisemitism,” Lipstadt said on social media. Greenblatt called the questioning “one of the oldest canards in politics: the smear of dual loyalty.”
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Zach Shemer, president of the firebombed Beth Israel Congregation of Jackson, Mississippi, commented “The silver lining of all this is Jews who weren’t members or necessarily active before are coming in and saying they want to be members.” Congregants, along with Jackson’s Mayor John Horhn, celebrated their first Shabbat after the arson attack at Northminster Baptist Church.
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Nathan Diament, Executive Director of Orthodox Union Advocacy (OUA), welcomed an amendment in the House version of the U.S. budget for Fiscal Year 2026 that increased an appropriation from this fiscal year’s $274.5 million to $300 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. Diament stated: “While sadly even more funding is needed for Jewish community security, this increased level of funding will surely help. This will be all the more true in 2026, as it will be alongside a new policy OU Advocacy worked for under which the Justice Department will provide a minimum of $5 million in grants to local police to protect synagogues, Jewish schools, and other at-risk nonprofits.”
STATE & LOCAL
Mindi Frankel, celebrating her fifth year as Executive Director of Hebrew Free Loan San Diego, said “When I was approached about taking the position as Executive Director of this new nonprofit called Hebrew Free Loan of San Diego, I had never heard of such a thing. I was one of those people that thought ‘there must be a catch!’ I called my brother, who is younger than me and lives in the Bay Area, and shared that I was considering working for this organization, and the first thing he said was that he took a loan from a free loan for college, and it was the best thing he did!’” Now she is collecting stories from people who were benefitted by a Jewish free loan. If you would like to share your family’s story, please fill out this form by Feb. 13.
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San Diego City Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera participated in a news conference at Torrey Pines Elementary School, saying that as rents go up in areas around universities, students in search of less expensive accommodations move farther and farther from their campuses. He said: “Students shouldn’t be pushed out of the city where they study, work, and plan their futures. When homes are turned into vacation rentals or sit empty as second homes, students pay the price through higher rents, longer commutes, and fewer options. The Empty Second Home and Vacation Rental Tax is a common-sense way to return housing to San Diegans and make sure those taking homes off the market contribute to the city we all share.” Kyle Weinberg, president of the San Diego Education Association, said: “Students shouldn’t have to choose between pursuing an education and being able to afford a place to live. If we want strong schools and a strong workforce, we need housing policies that keep homes available for the people who learn, work, and serve in this city.”
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US Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both California Democrats, on Tuesday toured the California City detention facility in Kern County where they were informed it now holds 1,450 detained individuals. The CoreCivic managed facility has a capacity of 2,560 beds. Schiff issued this statement: “I’ve been aghast at what we’re seeing around the country and in California, with indiscriminate immigration raids and with the brutality that’s being used against people who have no criminal record. And one year in, things may just get worse, with the President threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, further militarize the streets and use the military against their own people. Much of the trauma people are experiencing in our communities is out in the open, often captured on video. The pain people experience after their arrest is hidden from view, and that is why we are here today. To conduct necessary oversight, and see firsthand what the conditions are like, and to make sure that people are treated humanely and have their rights observed.”
Padilla stated: “One year into Donald Trump’s campaign of terror against immigrant communities, we must hold this Administration accountable for its cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda. We saw firsthand today at California’s largest detention center the inhumane conditions that detained individuals are facing, violating basic standards for access to health care, food, water, and legal counsel. ICE and CBP continue to detain immigrants with no criminal record, all while wasting billions in taxpayer funds and doing little to increase public safety. With more and more people dying in ICE custody as detentions reach record levels, I won’t stop fighting to ensure basic protections for detained individuals and end the egregious abuses of power by this out-of-control Administration.”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World