Netanyahu Wants the NAZA Soldiers Probed

Netanyahu wants a criminal probe of the soldiers in NAZA. On Sunday he asked Israel's attorney general, army chief and Shin Bet head to identify the 24 masked people in the Guardian documentary (soldiers, the filmmakers say) and investigate them for security breaches and defamation. The IDF has called the film, which alleges AI-assisted mass killing in Gaza, "based on substantial factual errors." ¹

One in five Israelis is "still struggling to function" since Oct. 7. So says the National Mental Health Barometer from Clalit, the JDC and Myers-JDC-Brookdale. Women under 35 fared worst. Of those who felt they needed treatment, about half never sought it. ²

Archaeologists uncovered 300 meters of Jerusalem's ancient water supply. The Hasmoneans built the Lower Aqueduct to carry spring water from south of Bethlehem to the Temple Mount on gravity alone. Excavator Benyamin Storchan says its plain design outlasted the fancier Upper Aqueduct by about 1,000 years. The neighborhood planned there has drawn international objections for blocking East Jerusalem's expansion toward Bethlehem. ³

Abdul El-Sayed got one question right Sunday and one wrong. On Meet the Press, Kristen Welker asked the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee whether he or his family has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, as Republican Mike Rogers charged in their Oct. 8 debate. He said "No." Part of Rogers's case was El-Sayed's mother's old employer and his sister-in-law's lawsuit. Rogers should drop it. Judging a candidate by his relatives is an old move, and Jews have been on the wrong end of it plenty.

Asked if he regrets saying "hurt people hurt people" after the terror attack on Temple Israel, he said he regrets it "if I step on somebody's grief." In our view the comment explained away a Hezbollah sympathizer's attack on a synagogue, and that is the part he should regret. ⁴

Monday is Columbus Day. Columbus's first voyage carried an interpreter, Luis de Torres, who spoke Hebrew and, by some accounts, was a converso baptized before sailing. He was reportedly among 39 men left on Hispaniola in 1493, and none survived. This week's parsha is Noach, the Torah's other famous boat trip. ⁵⁶⁷