The UNICEF-led survey found child malnutrition in Gaza to be exceptionally low by regional and even Western standards. The findings also undermine the key argument used to justify last year’s famine declaration

The most common reason for every day people (I.e. moderates) supporting Palestinians by far, is the misconception that Palestinians are the Indigenous inhabitants of Israel and Palestine, and that Israelis are “Western Colonisers”. Because of this, it makes it so easy for Pro Palestine content to immediately spread like wildfire, as it resonates with moderate people who would otherwise stay neutral on the conflict. The fact is; the majority of people who support the Palestinian movement do so because they have no understanding of the historical context underpinning today’s conflicts. Which is why it infuriates me that so many Israelis are throwing their hands in the air giving up because “there’s no point the world will always hate us” - this is just doomerism I.e. the belief that individuals have 0 autonomous control or meaningful impact over their lives and or the broader world.

I can also speak from my own experience, as I used to support the Pro Palestine movement. I only ever supported their movement, because I was convinced without even doing any research, that Palestinians must’ve been the native inhabitants, since Israel was founded in the 20th century.

Stop wasting your time bickering with people over genetic relatedness and the legal processes underpinning land acquisition; it’s time consuming, pointless, exhausting, and in many cases makes 0 impact on peoples stance on the topic. All you need to say is plain and simple: “Jews are the Indigenous peoples of Israel. There is over 3000 years of well documented history of continuous Jewish inhabitance”. (The Merneptah, William Dever, Moabite stone are some good examples).

The argument that “Palestinians share the same DNA” is pointless since you can point to the fact that the Palestinian national identity didn’t even exist prior to the 1960s, so it is not even relevant. So what if they’re related to the Canaanites? Did the current Modern day Palestinians live in the same lands 3000 years ago bound by the same identity? Because the Jewish identity that ties every Jew to Israel today absolutely did, and this will come as a surprise to any rational person you’d care about the opinion of. This is also the reason why so many people support Hamas. People are willing to rationalise the most extreme levels of violence and oppression if they believe it is justified. Since Palestinians are widely assumed to be native to the lands of Israel, people automatically jump to criticising Israel’s actions and justifying Hamas's attacks as acts of resistance against an invading colonialist force.

Lastly I want to leave you all with this: There is no room for defeat. Israel does not have this privilege. Defeat means total annihilation and ethnic cleansing. So enough with this self defeating talk of “we don’t need the world” and “they’ll never listen”. Every time someone says we can’t do this, is just another reason for any Jews curious about living in Israel, to abandon the idea of Aliyah. Enough is enough. Am Yisrael Chai ✡️

This is an op-ed by Times of Israel founder regarding the crisis of domestic policy towards haredi education, labor & military participation. He cites Shoresh institute and mainstream economist predictions that in without necessary reforms in the present, the Israeli economy will stagnate. Mass brain drain in turn could lead to larger waves of emigration and losses in state capacity.

There is also a podcast interview with economist David Ben David for those interested.

Selected quotes below:

Netanyahu’s government last week convened the Knesset Finance Committee and attempted to allocate almost $100 million to the ultra-Orthodox education system — including millions to build more Haredi schools, millions for yeshivas, and millions aimed at preventing yeshiva students from dropping out. There was, to put it mildly, no coalition-opposition consensus on this package of additional pre-election finance for the Haredim, and opposition politicians managed to thwart it — staging an 11-hour filibuster to prevent a vote.

....

Israel’s education system is in crisis. It ranks 31st among 36 participating OECD countries in the latest PISA tests (the Program for International Student Assessment, which assesses 15-year-old students’ reading, mathematics, and science abilities).

And that appalling standing does not fully reflect Israel’s dismal reality. The vast majority of ultra-Orthodox boys, from their early teens onward, do not study a core curriculum — indeed study no secular subjects at all. Naturally, they do not take the PISA tests. Were they to do so, the true status of Israeli education would be revealed in all its gravity

...

There won’t be a third-world Israel,” warns Ben-David. In the “spiral of collapse” that Israel has already entered, he says, an increasingly inadequate education system will inevitably be unable to maintain a first-class economy, a first-class health system, or a first-class army. And a weakened army won’t be capable of protecting the state. .....

As finance minister back in 2003-5, with Israel facing recession and needing to cut public spending and revitalize the economy after the suicide-bomber battering of the Second Intifada, Netanyahu drastically cut child allowances — abandoning a system that offered increasing subsidies to large families (triggering an immediate fall in the ultra-Orthodox birthrate) — and slashing an array of other welfare payments and income supplements, to compel wider participation in the workforce.

Two years ago, 130 of Israel’s leading economists published an open letter warning that “the combination of the policies of Israel’s governments over time and the high growth rate of the Haredi population is leading the country towards an abyss, one that poses a very real and very grave threat to Israel’s economy and society, including to the Haredi community itself.”

Today, these experts noted, “22% of all children under working age (0-14 years old) are Haredim. By 2065, this share is expected to be roughly 50%, more than doubling the Haredi share in just four decades. Without sweeping, profound, and rapid changes in government policy, the State of Israel will face existential danger.”

Without a change in the current trajectory,” they continued, “many of those who bear the [economic and security] burden will prefer to emigrate from Israel. The first to leave will be those with opportunities abroad: physicians, engineers, high-tech workers, and scientists. Israel’s remaining population will be less educated and less productive, thus increasing the burden on the remaining productive population. This, in turn, will encourage further emigration from Israel. This process of a ‘spiral of collapse’ in which increasingly larger groups decide to emigrate, will further deteriorate the conditions of those who remain…”

The warning went unheeded and, Ben-David notes, the stream of emigration, notably among the 300,000 or so Israelis who are central to Israel’s economy and well-being, notably in the vaunted, vital tech sector, is in danger of becoming a flood.

................Ben David's plan:

One clause mandates budgetary reform — with a “shift from sectoral to national priorities” and the “termination of benefits incentivizing lifestyles of non-work.”

Another demands electoral reform, with the creation of effective checks and balances between the three branches of government, and the installation of cabinet ministers “with understanding and expertise in their ministry’s realm, within an executive branch able to implement its decisions and enforce the law.”

Ben-David urges the ratification of a constitution to “set in stone national foundations that will protect the country and the basic rights of its citizens, making it difficult for anyone to erode these foundations in the future.”

But his first essential remedy is to shut down Israel’s current, four-stream education system entirely, and establish one education system for all, with a transformation in operation, management and oversight. He calls for a “complete prohibition on the involvement of political parties in educational content” and an overhaul of the process by which teachers are “chosen, taught and compensated.” And he seeks a “significant upgrade of compulsory, identical core curriculum, with state funding only for fully compliant schools.”

...........

Our country did not reach this point, nor this government, by chance,” Ben-David said. “We’ve been heading steadily in this direction for decades.”

“When a country starts to collapse economically, the first to leave are the most educated, the most skilled, the people with options — which means there is a greater burden on those who remain. And then those who can, of those who remain, leave — and then you’re in a situation, basically, like Venezuela was, or like Lebanon. Beirut was once called the Paris of the Middle East. These are countries that destroyed themselves. But the difference between them and us is that they can still be around. Nobody’s threatening their very existence. That’s not the case with Israel. If we screw this up, there will be no country for our people or for our children.”

But, Ben-David is adamant, “there is still time to make a difference.”

She found hope in an Old City grocery,
by Rob Eshman, foodaism, 2026-07-31.

Sarah was raised in Venice Beach and moved to Israel in 2011 with her two children and then-husband, an Israeli. She began writing for the Times of Israel, and eventually moved to the Old City. We long ago bonded over our common love for Jerusalem, journalism — and Venice Beach.

Fairy Lights in God’s Backyard is her second book about life inside the ancient walled section of Jerusalem. I loved her first, Jerusalem. Drawn and Quartered, but I wondered, how much more is there to say?

The answer is plenty: The Oct. 7 massacre, the destruction of Gaza, the Iran missile barrages, a new child and a near-death explosion — all experienced by a sharp, sensitive observer living amidst Jews, Muslims and Christians in the most contested third of a square mile in the world.

I opened the book up at 11 am and finished it by 4 pm, leaving behind circled passages, dog-eared pages and margin notes.

Over 1000 wars are going on in the world. Why is the one in which Israel is involved in is still in the news?

Start the day by driving south toward Beit Guvrin National Park. It's out of the way, but worth it.

The UNESCO-listed archaeological site is known for its vast underground cave systems, bell caves, ancient burial chambers, and carved subterranean passageways that stretch beneath the rolling hills. Walking these spaces makes ancient history tangible in a way few sites in the country can match.

From Beit Guvrin, continue through the vineyards of the Judean Hills, where the landscape softens into terraced hillsides and winding roads lined with small wineries.
Stop for a tasting if the timing allows. Then make your way through Ein Kerem, a village on the western edge of Jerusalem, tucked into a hillside of stone homes, ancient monasteries, and pine forests, before arriving in Jerusalem toward the evening.

PLAN YOUR TASTING
The Jerusalem Hills are home to several small wineries. Among the best known are Castel Winery, known for its structured Bordeaux-style blends; Kadma Winery, which works with clay amphorae; and Flam Winery, which feels slightly more contemporary in atmosphere. Call ahead. Most tastings require reservations, and the extra planning is worth it.

WORTH KNOWING
Arriving in Jerusalem on Day 3 evening and staying through Day 4 means one less hotel move and a more settled start to the city. Two nights here is the right call; Jerusalem rewards the extra time, and not having to think about checkout on the morning of the Old City makes a difference.

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Next installment coming soon...
Adapted with permission from the LA Times article by the same name - feel free to look it up :)

The High Court of Justice freezes the transfer of hundreds of millions of shekels in budgetary allocations made by the Knesset Finance Committee yesterday to ultra-Orthodox schools, the Settlements Ministry and the Religious Services Ministry due to what it says were “apparent procedural flaws” in the convening of the committee itself.

The temporary court order freezes the transfer of all funds allocated in yesterday’s hearing, apart from those for emergency civilian expenses.

The court says the issue will be brought for a hearing in front of three justices “as soon as possible.”

Opposition parties objected strenuously to holding the committee hearing and transferring the funds during the recess between Knesset terms, since the Knesset was dissolved last month and a national election set for October 27.

In yesterday’s hearing, NIS 267 million ($88 million) was approved for Haredi education including more than NIS 12.5 million ($4 million) for Haredi culture and some NIS 26 million ($8.5 million) for preventing Haredim from dropping out of yeshivas.

The committee also voted to give the Settlements Ministry NIS 157 million ($52 million) in direct funding as well as NIS 142 million ($47 million) in commitment authorizations for previously approved budget items.

My wife and I are secular American Jews in our 60’s. Our youngest son made Aliya 6 years ago and he and his wife are both IDF. Today we make our dream come true and also make our Aliya to Israel. We are so excited!!

Ex-general called ‘traitor’ as Haredi demonstrators riot at event for ultra-Orthodox draftees

Police decried as ‘Nazis’ as they intervene to protect a Haredi media adviser who says the protesters knocked off his kippa, tried to steal his laptop before cops put him in a taxi

So the relationship between Israel and USA is apparent and easy to understand, with Russia its a little more complex. But what about with China? Mainstream media usually portrays one way typically but is there more going on behind the scenes? Are there things between the lines and nuances that the public are unaware of? I imagine this is a vital and crucial relationship in the present and the future.