A Nablus-born billionaire by the name of Bashar Masri, part of Harvard University’s dean’s council, has been named in a lawsuit brought by American-Israeli families of hostages in Gaza. Since the lawsuit, Masri has been removed from his post at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.
Captured from Jerusalem Post, 14 Apr 2025.
The lawsuit accuses Masri of constructing terror tunnels as well as Hamas military structures in Gaza.
Both sides claim the talks were constructive and positive, without giving any details.
The sides disagree about whether the talks are “direct” or “indirect,” but the talks involve Trump’s Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff, U.S. Ambassador to Oman Ana Escrogima and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, with Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi acting as the go-between.
Both sides admit that more talks are set for next coming Shabbat, this time in Rome.
During the Oman talks, the US and Iran delegations were in separate rooms, with the Omani delegation shuttling messages and responses back and forth. After 2 1/2 hours of this, the Witkoff team met briefly with the Araqchi team.
I suppose this is how one side could call this “indirect” while the other side names it “direct;” yet, both sides are partially correct.
As to the topics, an Omani source listed a summary of the meeting, which was vaguely denied by the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, without giving any specifics as to which parts he denied.
And yes, in Gaza, a 13-year old boy is in fact a military-aged man. In practice, even younger boys are taught to operate weapons systems.
As to this correction from Hamas, of course it comes too late, as the damage has already been done. Eighteen months of portraying Israel as child killers will not be undone now by a quiet notification which the UN, BBC, and CNN will happily ignore.
Captured at Jerusalem Post on 14 Apr 2025.
Previously, Hamas said that 70% of the deaths were women and children. So it turns out their lies were an exact inversion of the truth.
We all know that leaven is not eaten during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in Hebrew known as the Festival of Matzas (Hag haMatzot). Homes have all the leavened food removed from them. But here’s what happens in the supermarkets:
Hametz (leavened products) are sealed and unavailable for sale starting during the final days leading up to Passover.
Midweek TV comedy “Eretz Nehederet” appeared this week with a pyramid backdrop, remembering Pessach, and Israel’s exit from Egypt long ago.
Left to Right: Actors wearing silicon masks with makeup portray Sarah Netanyahu, The Cleaning Lady, and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hijinks continued during the episode as comedians portrayed politicians at a Passover Seder feast table with the Matza bread and the cups of wine. “Sarah Netanyahu” picks up her cellphone to call “The Cleaning Lady” to come in with a bucket and rags to remove “The Mark of Cain” from “Bibi’s” forehead, which the left-wing show claimed has appeared for Netanyahu’s mishandling of the war, or alternatively, since his office interns are accused of accepting bribe money from Qatar in return for pushing Qatar to the center of hostage negotiations instead of Egypt. As is expected, the left-wing comedy show revels in hilarious skits to portray right-wing politicians in the worst possible light.
This Shabbat, which is the start of Passover, the USA has stated that Iran will have direct talks with the USA regarding its nuclear program. The USA seeks to apply the Libya 2003 model in which international forces destroyed its military nuclear facilities while allowing Libya’s civilian nuclear sites.
In the current case, Iran has tried to stick with “indirect” talks, but USA has insisted on direct talks. Most experts do not anticipate that Iran would accept a Libya-style deal willingly, as Libya did.
Jerusalem Post, 11 Apr 2025 pg 1.
We can see that Israel has serious concerns.
Our prayer should be that this Shabbat, leaders of USA and Iran would fulfill YAH’s program and .
What a novel idea! Learn from experience! The USA let Libya keep their civilian nuclear facilities, but went into Libya to physically destroy all the military nuclear sites. No playing around.
Jerusalem Post, 9 Apr 2025 pg 1.
It seems as if whenever obvious tactics are not used, it’s as if–all along–they actually wanted Iran to nuke Israel. Libya wasn’t that committed to harming Israel per se, Libya was simply an economic and military threat to the global system at large. But Iran is hyper-focused on Israel. So was that the strategy? Let Iran nuke Israel and then–after that’s accomplished–step in to prevent Iran from nuking Europe and the USA.
This is only natural for an honor-based culture such as Islam.
Screenshot captured from Mehr News Agency on 8 Apr 2025.
The “culture of honor” is the only way to comprehend why Iran would so arrogantly seek to demand equal footing during negotiations with the USA. In contrast, from the perspective of a culture of merit and a culture of justice, it would be important to “know one’s place” in the hierarchy.
Sad situation of a lady running a daycare in the southern city of Eilat, now found guilty and held to account for harsh treatment of twenty-six children.
Jerusalem Post, 2 Apr 2025 pg 2.
Pray for the children and their parents and families, that they would recover their health.