Seinfeld roasts anti-Israel heckler at comedy show in Australia
Intro
"We're all on your side now because you've made your point so well, and in the right venue," said the comedian as the heckler was escorted out of the Sydney venue.
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An Australian audience on Sunday cheered comedian Jerry Seinfeld's response to a heckler who interrupted his stand-up show with shouts of "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
"We have a genius, ladies and gentlemen. He's solved the Middle East. He's solved it," Seinfeld told a packed house at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
"It's the Jewish comedians, that's who we have to get. They're the ones doing everything," he said, before adding that "it's a comedy show, you moron."
Later, he quipped, "Tomorrow, we'll read in the paper: Middle East, 100% solved thanks to man at the Qudos arena stopping Jew comedian."
As the man was escorted out by security, Seinfeld said: "We're all on your side now because you've made your point so well and in the right venue. You've come to the right place."
Two days after Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre, Seinfeld posted, “I Stand With Israel,” on his Instagram account. He also paid a solidarity visit to the Jewish state.
As a result, he has been targeted by anti-Israel protesters.
During a Duke University commencement in May when he received an honorary degree and spoke to the audience, some anti-Israel protesters marched out, chanting “Free, free Palestine.” Many students booed the protesters.
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last Shah of Iran, urged the country's security forces and state employees to rise up against the Islamic regime, whose "fall has begun" in an "address to the Iranian nation" on Tuesday.
"My fellow countrymen, the Islamic Republic has reached its end and is in the process of collapsing," Pahlavi said in remarks in Farsi that were posted on his social-media channels. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, "like a frightened rat, has gone into hiding underground and has lost control," he stated.
According to the crown prince, "the end of the Islamic Republic is the end of its 46-year war against the Iranian nation" that started in 1979.
"All it takes now is a nationwide uprising to put an end to this nightmare once and for all," he continued. "Now is the time to rise and reclaim Iran."
Pahlavi noted that he prepared a 100-day transition plan for establishing democratic rule, "by the Iranian people and for the Iranian people."
Addressing security forces and state employees, Pahlavi urged them to "not stand against the Iranian people for the sake of a regime whose fall has begun and is inevitable."
"By standing with the people, you can save your lives," he stated. "Play a historic role in the transition from the Islamic Republic and take part in building the future of Iran."
"A free and flourishing Iran lies ahead of us. May we be together soon. Long live Iran. Long live the Iranian nation," his remarks concluded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evL7zHzFHdQ
‘Your hour of freedom is near’
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told the London-based Iran International opposition outlet that the regime’s days were numbered, saying Tehran could be made "great again."
"I believe in you. I respect you. I admire you. I know your achievements. I know your potential. I know that Iran can be great again. It was a great civilization, and this theological thuggery that has kidnapped your country will not stand for long, and you are the future, not them," Netanyahu said in a conversation with anchor Pouria Zeraati.
"A light has been lit—carry it to freedom," the longtime Israeli leader declared. "Your hour of freedom is near; it's happening now."
"These dictators in Iran, sure they fear us—but they fear you, the people of Iran, even more," Netanyahu said. "They understand that 80 percent of Iranians despise them."
In a separate interview with Fox News on Sunday, Netanyahu said that regime change "could certainly be the result" of the campaign in Iran.
"The Persian people and the Jewish people have had an ancient friendship that goes back to the times of Cyrus the Great; that could happen again," Netanyahu told Fox, while saying that "the decision to act, to rise up, at this time is the decision of the Iranian people."
Jerusalem launched "Operation Rising Lion" against the Iranian regime because intelligence indicated that Tehran had amassed enough highly enriched uranium for nine bombs, the premier said in the interview.
Dorothy Shea, the acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Tuesday that the Syrian government, as a first order of business, ought to “begin discussions with Israel on a non-aggression agreement and subsequently begin border dispute resolution discussions.”
Addressing a U.N. Security Council meeting on the political and humanitarian situations in Syria, Shea said the Trump administration’s process for lifting sanctions on Damascus has already had a noticeable impact, including a $7 billion power-sector investment deal inked among U.S., Qatari and Turkish firms.
“We encourage other member states to provide similar sanctions relief and to support recovery and reconstruction,” Shea told the council.
She noted the actions that Ahmed al-Sharaa’s new government in Syria has taken on “critical files like the search for missing persons and the destruction of chemical weapons.” That progress should set expectations for what comes next, including a peace and border demarcation agreement with Israel, she said.
Successive Israeli governments have made clear that they have no intention of surrendering the Israeli Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the defensive 1967 Six-Day War.
As the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad fell apart late last year, Israeli troops moved further into Syrian territory, fearful of possible chaos breaking out at the border and of the intentions of al-Sharaa, who remains on the U.S.-designated terrorist list.
An Israeli military presence has remained several miles deep into Syria.
Shea stressed that al-Sharaa’s government “should take necessary steps to ban and deport Palestinian terror groups,” as well as cooperate with relevant agencies on chemical and nuclear-weapons issues.
With American backing and to Israel’s chagrin, Turkey has assumed a prominent role in Syria with Assad’s fall, but al-Sharaa’s government has appeared open to peace with Israel. At the same time, it has taken heat from some Arab governments for allowing the Jewish state to use its skies to attack Iran and for opting not to criticize that operation or other Israeli military activity within Syria’s borders.
“Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity must be respected,” Najat Rochdi, U.N. deputy special envoy for Syria, told the Security Council. “Diplomacy is possible and must be prioritized.”
"There are no more cities of refuge in the Middle East," Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin declared on Tuesday night, revealing that dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets were "continuously" striking ballistic missile launchers in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.
"We continue to deepen our strikes," the spokesman said in his briefing on the fifth day of "Operation Rising Lion" in Iran. "A few hours ago, around 60 aircraft from the IAF launched a broad wave of attacks in the heart of Iran, targeting Iranian missile launch sites."
After the IDF achieved aerial superiority over the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, regime forces were "pushed into central Iran," he said, adding that most missile fire now originates from the Isfahan region.
Dozens of Air Force aircraft are "continuously flying over Isfahan, locating enemy activity in real time and attacking operators as well as launchers," the spokesperson revealed. "There are no more cities of refuge in the Middle East. This isn't just a slogan; it's the reality."
"What applied to Hamas leaders in Gaza and to Hezbollah leaders in Dahiyeh [in Beirut], now applies to Iranian regime leaders and launch operators in Isfahan who try to fire missiles at Israeli civilians," he said.
Alongside attacks on missile systems, the IAF continues to strike terror targets across Tehran, including regime offices and assets used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including its Quds Force, he said.
"We will not allow an existential threat—whether nuclear or missile—to persist over Israel. We are mission-driven, not time-driven, and will operate until our goals are fully achieved," according to Defrin.
Early on June 13, more than 200 Israeli fighter jets attacked dozens of enemy targets, including military and nuclear sites, in a "preemptive, precise, combined" opening strike against Tehran's nuclear program.
Since the start of the war on Friday, Iranian attacks on Israel's civilian population centers have killed 24 people in the Jewish state. Three were killed on Friday, 13 overnight on Saturday, and eight early on Monday.
Channel 12 said on Tuesday that Iran launched 17 waves of attacks using more than 400 ballistic missiles, in addition to suicide drones.
The Israeli Air Force, in response, attacked and destroyed more than 70 missile batteries across Iran, it said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the operation would "continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat," vowing to end the Iranian threat to the Jewish state's "very survival."
The U.N. Security Council convened an emergency session last week to review Israel’s ongoing military attack targeting Iran’s nuclear-weapon facilities and related leaders. Israel’s traditional U.N. adversaries said it committed an unprovoked breach of international law. In actuality, Israel’s actions constitute justifiable self-defense under two lines of international law.
U.N. Charter Article 51 and customary international law give states the right to use military force in two situations: self-defense against an actual armed attack and “anticipatory self-defense” against an imminent armed attack.
Assessing Israel’s military operation requires a look at both legal rights.
Through a decades-old alliance of jihadist terror groups called the “Axis of Resistance,” Iran has been orchestrating a campaign of armed attacks on Israel. The axis members serve as Iran’s proxies and pursue Tehran’s well-publicized strategic goal to destroy Israel, and ultimately, to replace Western civilization with Islamic rule. To that end, these terror proxies have been striking Israel under an umbrella of Iranian funding, weapon smuggling, military training and intelligence sharing. Iranian leaders promote the cause with chants of “Death to America, Death to Israel.”
The Iranian-sponsored aggression ignited a full-scale war on Oct. 7, 2023, with the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel. During and after the slaughter and atrocities, Israel came under attack from multiple directions: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza; Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, in Lebanon; terrorist militias in Syria; Houthi rebels in Yemen; Shi’ite militias in Iraq; and Palestinian terror cells in Judea and Samaria. Iran itself fired two waves of missiles and drones at Israel in 2024.
Legally speaking, Iran’s “substantial involvement” in the proxy war against Israel permits the Jewish state to launch counteroffensives against Iran and its proxies, based on a 1986 ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. In short, the collective war against Israel justifies Israel’s strike on Iran as an act of self-defense.
Israel’s actions are also justified by the international law right of anticipatory self-defense. The classic example of anticipatory self-defense was the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel pre-empted an imminent armed attack by Syria, Egypt and Jordan. Israel took similar steps when it pre-emptively bombed the Osirak Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, as well as when it pre-emptively hit a Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007.
The concept of an imminent armed attack is not explicitly defined. But in 2012, the United States and other democracies interpreted the term by devising the Bethlehem Principles. Applying those criteria to the Iran-Israel showdown reveals there was ample evidence as of June 13, or earlier, that an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel was imminent.
The first criterion examines the “nature and immediacy of the threat,” disregarding whether the defending state knows the exact time, place and means of attack. The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency discovered Iran’s undeclared nuclear enrichment activities and announced, in 2003, the regime’s violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Subsequently, the United Nations engaged Iran in protracted diplomacy to cure the noncompliance, but Iran deceptively continued its nuclear progress.
The IAEA said on June 12 that Iran breached its nuclear obligations, having enriched so much uranium to near-weapons grade purity that it could produce several nuclear bombs. Israeli intelligence predicted that a nuclear weapon could be made within weeks. That fact, in light of Iran’s anti-Israel proxy war, confronted Israel with an immediate existential threat.
The next Bethlehem criterion studies whether any third parties support the anticipated aggressor. In this case, the third-party support comes from Iran’s Axis of Resistance.
The analysis also asks whether the anticipated attack is part of “a pattern of continuing armed activity.” In this case, the proxy war on Israel has convulsed the region for 20 months.
Another factor estimates the scale of potential damage from an anticipated attack. A single Iranian nuclear missile detonated over a tiny country like Israel could not only destroy it but complete an antisemitic genocide greater than the Holocaust.
Finally, the Bethlehem inquiry considers any attempts to pursue defensive alternatives, ones less drastic than the use of military force. Many attempts were made to restrain Iran nonviolently. Most significant among them was a nuclear limitation agreement, the 2015 nuclear deal titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was signed by Iran and six world powers in 2015. The contract was structured to delay, but not stop, Iran from producing nuclear weapons, and, therefore, the United States withdrew from the arrangement in 2018.
Earlier this year, the United States offered Iran a 60-day period in which to negotiate a new nuclear limitation deal. Unfortunately, the U.S.-Iranian talks reached an impasse. Iran faced economic sanctions from the U.N. Security Council, the European Union, the United States and other major democracies. None of these peaceful measures convinced the fundamentalist regime to stop its nuclear enrichment. Israel waited out the 60 days before taking action.
For decades, Iran’s leaders have obsessively vowed to eliminate the “Zionist entity.” But as the Bethlehem Principles recognize, a nation need not stand still as its enemy prepares to attack, especially when the attack threatens nuclear annihilation.
Israel’s attack on Iran flows from two rights of self-defense: one to repel actual attacks from the Axis of Resistance and the other to defuse an anticipated nuclear attack from Iran. Neither of these lawful imperatives satisfies Israel’s opponents. It’s a familiar story. Everyone recognizes the right of self-defense ... until Israel invokes it.
Brad Lander, comptroller of New York City and a Democratic mayoral candidate, was detained by federal immigration officers on Tuesday at immigration court in Lower Manhattan.
Dora Pekec, communications director for Lander’s mayoral campaign, told JNS that the city comptroller was arrested while “escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza.”
“Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE,” she said. “This is still developing, and we are monitoring the situation closely.”
Lander, who is Jewish, can be seen being detained by several immigration officers in a post shared on the comptroller’s X account by his wife.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is also running in the Democratic primary set for June 24, condemned Lander’s detention in a statement shared with JNS.
“This is the latest example of the extreme thuggery of Trump’s ICE out of control,” he said. “One can only imagine the fear families across our country feel when confronted with ICE. Fear of separation, fear of being taken from their schools, fear of being detained without just cause.”
ICE raids across New York City must stop immediately, according to Cuomo.
“This kind of conduct is the direct result of Mayor Eric Adams handing the keys of our great city over to Donald Trump,” he said. “Comptroller Brad Lander was doing absolutely nothing wrong when he was illegally detained, and he must be released now.”
U.S. President Donald Trump posted on social media on Tuesday that the United States knows “exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” indicating that U.S. intelligence knows the whereabouts of Iran’s cleric ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“He is an easy target, but he is safe there—we are not going to take him out (kill!) at least for now,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Shortly after, CNNreported that Trump met with his national security cabinet in the Situation Room at the White House.
Trump separately announced an intelligence and military update, stating, “We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American-made, conceived and manufactured ‘stuff.’ Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA.”
It was unclear whether Trump meant that Israel had aerial control with U.S. weaponry or if the United States had officially entered the conflict. JNS sought comment from the White House.
Palestinian terrorists launched two rockets at Israel from the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed.
"A short while ago, two launches were identified crossing from the southern Gaza Strip into Israeli territory and landing in open areas. There were no casualties," the Israeli military stated in Hebrew.
Air-raid alerts were activated to warn civilians present in the border area "in accordance with policy," shortly after an Iranian ballistic-missile attack had also triggered sirens in Israel's south, the IDF added.
On Sunday evening, Gaza terrorists launched one projectile at Israel. The aerial attack triggered air-raid sirens in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Moshav Ein HaBesor and Kibbutz Magen, the Home Front Command announced.
The day prior, four rockets were shot into southern Israel in two separate attacks. They impacted in open areas, and no casualties were reported.
As of February, some 85% of the 64,000 residents in the Gaza Envelope were back home, with 11,000 still living in temporary, state-funded accommodations elsewhere. Almost all had been evacuated following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The rocket attacks came amid continued IDF ground operations across the Strip as part of "Gideon's Chariots," a campaign with the stated goal of dismantling Hamas's remaining military capabilities, taking control of key areas in Gaza, and securing the release of the remaining 53 captives.
Col. Nathan McCormack, the Levant and Egypt branch chief at the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate, has referred publicly to “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies,” to Washington having “overwhelmingly” enabled Israel’s “bad behavior” and pro-Israel activists in the United States prioritizing “support for Israel over our actual foreign interests.”
JNS has learned that McCormack, who according to his LinkedIn account has held his current role since June 2024, has also bashed Israel as a “death cult” that is America’s “worst ally” on a semi-anonymous social-media handle, where he has written hundreds of posts since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks about Jews and Israel.
“The Western states go to great lengths to avoid criticism of Israel, much out of Holocaust guilt,” McCormack wrote on social media in April. “Israel’s actions over decades have prompted the accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.”
“Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies are determined to prolong the conflict for their own goals: either to remain in power or to annex the land,” he wrote on social media in May.
“I’ve lately been considering whether we might be Israel’s proxy and not realized it yet,” he wrote in April 2024. “Our worst ‘ally.’ We get literally nothing out of the ‘partnership’ other than the enmity of millions of people in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”
“The U.S. has not been an honest broker,” he wrote in June 2024. “We have overwhelmingly enabled Israel’s bad behavior.”
In one post replying to the idea of Gazans potentially finding refuge outside the Gaza Strip, McCormack wrote that Israel wants “to expel them and cleanse ‘Eretz Israel’ of ethnic Palestinians.”
On Oct. 11, 2023, five days after Hamas’s terror attack, McCormack wrote that “Israel has an absolute right to respond militarily” and “civilians may legally be caught in the crossfire” but that “Israel’s responses always (always—not hyperbole) disproportionately target Palestinian civilians.”
Despite some attempts to anonymize his account, McCormack has repeatedly revealed his name and job title on the platform and has posted photos of himself that match his LinkedIn profile and that include his uniform name tag. (JNS sought comment from the Pentagon and McCormack.)
“How so? What data? This is literally what I do at work every day,” he wrote to someone in May. “I’m the Joint Staff J5 Israel branch chief.” His LinkedIn profile indicates that he is also responsible for Egypt and the wider Levant.
On Aug. 3, 2024, he posted a photo of a meritorious service medal certificate issued to “Lt. Col. Nathan E. McCormack” on June 1, 2022. He has since been promoted to full colonel.
Other posts include descriptions of his conversations with generals in the Israel Defense Forces, briefings from Israel’s coordinator for humanitarian aid into Gaza and aborted plans to send emails over the Pentagon’s Secret Internet Protocol Router Network for sharing classified information.
A DoD contractor who has interacted with McCormack described the postings as “dangerous.”
“This is the kind of bitter oversharing I’d expect from someone who doesn’t know better,” the contractor said. “But at his level and under his own name and likeness? It’s mind-boggling. We have enough opsec and public perception problems as is.” (Opsec refers to operations security.)
The contractor raised the question whether McCormack’s personal politics influence the advice his team provides to senior leaders.
“If this is what he’s publicly sharing, who knows what he’s saying behind closed doors,” the contractor said.
“Who else has seen this? He’s an easy mark for foreign intelligence agencies,” the contractor said. “Publicly expressing such radical views that undermine the president’s policy opens the door for bad actors to exploit.”
“Posting discussions he’s having with colleagues and details about conversations with foreign partners? I’m gobsmacked,” the contractor said.
An aerial view of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on May 15, 2023. Credit: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Alexander Kubitza/U.S. Department of Defense.
‘Rants seem out of place’
Blake Johnson, director of communications at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, described the tweets as “disappointing.”
“There should be lots of room in the U.S. decision-making process for vigorous and honest debate, but these anti-Israel rants seem out of place in a Pentagon that has such a strong working relationship with Israel’s Ministry of Defense,” Johnson told JNS.
That’s particularly the case for “someone entrusted with the role of chief of the Levant and Egypt branch of the Joint Staff’s Strategy, Policy and Plans Directorate,” he said.
One theme of McCormack’s posts is that U.S. support for Israel undermines the United States.
In August, McCormack wrote on social media that “the problem with pro-Israel political activism in the United States is that it prioritizes support for Israel over our actual foreign interests.”
Instead, he has called John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s 2007 book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which the Anti-Defamation League called “a classical conspiratorial antisemitic analysis invoking the canards of Jewish power and Jewish control,” a “very good” book.
“The argument, that the pro-Israel lobby in the United States has shaped U.S. foreign relations to support Israel in ways that are strategically harmful to both the United States and Israel still holds, even though the book was published in 2007,” he wrote.
“I also particularly like the attention they pay to efforts to silence criticism of Israel’s policy through claims of antisemitism, but also acknowledge actual antisemitism and condemn it,” he said.
Close-up of a ceremony with Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in which a retired U.S. soldier received a Silver Star, the nation's third-highest military award, Jan. 28, 2014. Credit: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Hinton/U.S. Defense Department.
Military code
The J5 directorate of the Joint Staff is tasked with providing assessments and recommendations directly to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, per the Joint Chiefs of Staff website. “The Joint Staff J5 proposes strategies, plans and policy recommendations to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to support his provision of military advice across the full spectrum of national security concerns to the president and other national leaders,” it says.
McCormack’s profile includes a disclaimer noting that his tweets “do not represent the position of the Department of Defense or any of its components,” in line with the Army’s online personal conduct guide.
Elizabeth Robbins, a retired Army officer now at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that McCormack’s social-media activity remains alarming despite the disclaimer.
“The issue here is his X account is quickly traceable to a senior U.S. Army officer who works at the Pentagon focused on the Middle East,” Robbins said. “A member of the military can hold whatever positions they want on U.S. national security and foreign policy, but they should refrain from publicizing those opinions.”
That’s the case “particularly when they are a member of the Joint Staff and they are commenting on an American ally at war,” she told JNS.
“I was surprised that McCormack also shared his own movements and activities on X, to include Pentagon gatherings and a cancelled trip to Jordan,” she said. “This X account shows a lack of circumspection and professionalism, and the contents could be pieced together by adversaries to infer classified insights, such as dissension in the ranks regarding U.S. support for Israel.”
The Army’s social-media guide is mostly focused on steering soldiers away from posting domestic partisan political content, but also bars “showing contempt for public officials, releasing sensitive information or posting unprofessional material that is prejudicial to good order and discipline under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
An aerial view of the Pentagon on May 15, 2023. Credit: U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. John Wright/U.S. Department of Defense.
In April, McCormack wrote a reply to Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) mocking his use of military metaphors in support of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plan to “put the warfighter first.” (JNS sought comment from the senator’s office.)
“Grok, create an image of a plumber leading the breach, laying down cover fire, taking the high ground, exposing himself to enemy fire to communicate and bringing back integrity, focus and putting the warfighter first inside DoD,” he wrote, addressing his reply to X’s artificial intelligence image generator.
The Pentagon’s social-media guide also tells soldiers to “avoid use of Department of Defense titles, insignia, uniforms or symbols in a way that could imply DoD sanction or endorsement of content on your personal page.”
“Also avoid misrepresenting yourself as an official DoD spokesperson on your personal account,” it adds.
On Monday afternoon, McCormack wrote about himself as part of the official defense community to endorse the casualty numbers put forward by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
“Along with the World Health Organization and United Nations, we (Department of Defense, Department of State and the U.S. Intelligence Community) consider the Gaza Health Ministry figures to be generally reliable (though not precise),” he wrote, “but probably less so now than they were originally due to the general destruction and chaos in Gaza.”
U.S. officials during the Biden administration sometimes cited Hamas’s casualty figures from Gaza, but also cast doubt on their accuracy.
“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” former President Joe Biden said in late October 2023. “I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.” He cited Hamas figures in a State of the Union address several months later, however.
The DoD contractor expressed surprise to JNS that McCormack had so much free time to post so many comments, given the extent of regional turmoil after Oct. 7.
“Two-and-a-half years into a new war, I’d hope he’d have something more productive to do during the day,” the contractor said.
It was never my plan to be in Israel when it attacked Iran.
About a year ago, my wife and I learned that a close relative of ours had decided to volunteer for the Israel Defense Forces as a lone soldier. This was a longtime goal. He’s 19.
We knew that we had to be there when he received his rifle and Tanach (Bible) at the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem, during what is often translated as a swearing-in ceremony. For nearly two millennia, Jews were unable to defend the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. Now, we live in a time when that is possible. If a Jew is not moved by this simple fact, I’m at a loss to understand it.
We stood at the wall on the night of June 11, not knowing that less than 30 hours later, Israeli forces would stun the world with their successes within Iran.
What is truly shocking, though, is that most American Jews (and many Israelis) have little understanding of what these incredibly moving ceremonies are really like.
The leadership of each brigade decides when their soldiers will receive their Bible and weapon. It can happen anywhere—from several weeks into their training to many weeks after that, and there’s an additional six months of training after the “swearing-in” ceremony for most.
This, to me, speaks to the genius of the Israeli army. Young men and women are forged into cohesive, effective fighting units, bonded through shared experiences of training and ceremonies that blend spirituality and patriotism. These units will serve together long after training ends.
At this particular ceremony, we witnessed hundreds of young men swearing—or affirming—that they would sacrifice their lives to defend Israel. They came from religious homes (including Haredi ones), and secular ones, were born in Israel and abroad, and represented a full spectrum of racial backgrounds—white, black and brown.
The unity on display was powerful, offering clear evidence against the idea that Israeli society is fractured to the point of civil war.
The Western Wall Plaza was packed—standing room only. Thousands of emotional and proud family members surrounded us. The remarks from the various officers who addressed the soldiers and their families were inspiring and worthy of repetition, but space here doesn’t allow for that.
What I can share is this: The officers began by remembering their fallen heroes. The speakers who followed quoted Torah, acknowledged the hostages in Gaza, and reflected on Zionist history and the biblical prophets, weaving an authentic and moving tapestry of the Jewish People. Chazak v’amatz is a Hebrew phrase meaning “Be strong and courageous,” from Devarim (Deuteronomy). These ancient words that Moses directed to Joshua were quoted to the soldiers.
The young fighters, filled with pride and excitement, hoisted their comrades on their shoulders, dancing and chanting slogans.
Families and fellow recruits cheered as the new soldiers received their Bibles and their rifles. It was a moment of pure connection.
The evening ended with everyone—soldiers, commanders, families and onlookers—united in song. We sang “Hatikvah,” and later, “Ani Ma’amin” (“I Believe”). The words of the Rambam (Maimonides), written in the 1100s, resonated deeply: “I believe with complete faith in the coming of Moshiach (Messiah), and although he may tarry, nevertheless, I wait every day for him to come.”
The perceived divisions within Israeli society have been overstated. In reality, Israel is a nation bound together by shared concern, care and solidarity. Israelis support one another, deeply and unwaveringly.
As I write this, Iranian and Houthi missiles continue to target Israeli neighborhoods across the land. We’ve witnessed these attacks up close and personal, just as we have seen time and again that Israelis are one people.
And to you, dear reader—whether you’ve never visited Israel, haven’t been there in years or have visited more recently—I urge you to go again. You owe it to yourself and to the people of the Jewish state to experience the unity and resilience firsthand.
