THREAD on my USMNT thoughts from this window. Overall it was incredibly successful and I cannot wait to watch this team evolve and grow over the next four years
USMNT takeaways by position post Sept/October camp
GK: Kochen is our 1, Schwake is our 2, we still need a 3. Kochen looked great out there, and I felt much more comfortable with Schwake in net than I did with the other two. A commanding clean sheet against Canada is no joke
Leftists like to portray Shapiro as some Hasbara nut but the reality is if he became president he would be far more confrontational with Bibi and he would have more license to from American Jews because he's trusted to do it right.
This is a reprehensible statement on the anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack by a Palestinian terrorist organization against innocent Israelis.
In the guise of “grieving” with those mourning that day, Mayor Mamdani asserts as fact hotly disputed allegations that he knows full well will offend and further upset those same people he pretends to grieve with.
On this day of all days, the Mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel embraces extreme activism instead of balanced leadership.
This is a reprehensible statement on the anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack by a Palestinian terrorist organization against innocent Israelis.
In the guise of “grieving” with those mourning that day, Mayor Mamdani asserts as fact hotly disputed allegations that he knows full well will offend and further upset those same people he pretends to grieve with.
On this day of all days, the Mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel embraces extreme activism instead of balanced leadership.
Mayor Mamdani devoted only 49 words of a 211-word statement to commemorate the worst single day attack on Jews since the Holocaust, in a city that is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel. He avoided any real description of what happened on October 7, including mass murder, burnings, beheadings, executions, and sadism toward Jews, Arabs, and foreign workers, including women, children, teenagers, and the elderly. He refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization or acknowledge that none of this would have happened had the group honored the ceasefire it unilaterally broke. There was no assignment of agency or responsibility to any Palestinian actor.
Yet he used the remaining 162 words to describe in detail what happened in Gaza after the attack. He showed full capacity to recognize Palestinian suffering, which is real and must be acknowledged, but his statement was tone deaf, inconsiderate, and antagonizing to millions who deserve their trauma recognized on its own terms. He has spoken endlessly about his anti-Israel views and will continue to do so, but this was the one day in which he could have offered unconditional compassion to the victims and survivors of October 7 and their loved ones, many of whom have deep roots in New York.
This type of statement ignores basic logical principles like cause and effect, choices and consequences, actions and reactions, priorities and implications, further infantilizing the Palestinians and ignoring the failures of Hamas and Palestinian leadership that have harmed their own people. It hardens attitudes toward Gazans and reduces empathy for the vast and unspeakable suffering in the coastal enclave, rather than increasing it.
@NYCMayor: sometimes less is better. You should have stayed with your first 49 words, especially as unhinged “pro-Palestine activists” are celebrating October 7 today across the country. Stand up to your base, Mr. Mamdani. You have already won and do not need to appease radicals at the expense of Jewish New Yorkers. And please stop pretending that this is about helping Palestinians or caring for Gazans.
Over the past week, I have been rewatching gut-wrenching videos taken by Hamas terrorists of their own massacre of Israeli families, grandparents and children three years ago today, reading about new accounts of hostages in brutal captivity, and thinking back to my own experience taking my young children back and forth to a bomb shelter as rockets rained down from Gaza. I think often about how the Iron Dome may very well have saved my family’s lives that day, along with thousands of other innocent civilians in Israel.
Since 2007 when Israel withdrew from Gaza and turned control over to Hamas, neither Israel nor Gazan civilians have been in charge. Instead, it has been governed by a globally-designated terrorist group whose stated mission and sole focus is to wipe out Israel, which they tried to do three years ago and then carried on for years by holding hundreds of Israeli hostages in brutal conditions in their terror tunnel network. That terrorist group remains armed and dangerous in Gaza today, still fully committed to wiping out Israel, the world’s only safe haven for Jews and the only democracy in the region.
If you are someone — like me — who wants peace in the region and self-determination for all people there, then Hamas represents a complete and total obstacle to that goal. As we remember the devastation inflicted by them on this day three years ago, we must also recognize that Iranian-backed terrorist groups such as Hamas remain an existential threat not only to peace in the region but also to democracy around the world.
Today is a day of mourning and remembrance of all those innocent lives lost, those who were wounded both physically and mentally, the hostages who survived through unspeakable conditions, and a country shaken to its core by the genocidal attack three years ago. Tomorrow, I will continue working towards a path to peace, security and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Three years ago today, Hamas terrorists crossed into Israel from Gaza and brutally murdered more than 1,200 innocent souls, committing unspeakable acts of sexual violence and taking over 250 innocents hostage — including American citizens.
As we mark the third anniversary of October 7th, Lori and I are thinking of all those who lost loved ones on that horrific day, and we are praying for healing, comfort, and peace.
This was Kfar Aza as I witnessed it, twelve days after the pogroms of October 7, 2023, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Not a day has gone by in the last three years that I have not thought about the lives lost to Hamas’s murderous rampage, the horrors faced by their hostages, the terror that the attacks struck into the heart of Israel, and the rise in antisemitism that Jews worldwide have experienced.
And in that time, I have tried to mark the tragedy by mourning with my community on each anniversary of 10/7, as I will do today; by giving voice, as best as I can, to the concerns and aspirations of the Jewish community; and by taking action to combat antisemitic violence and hate in all of its many forms.
As I look back on this photograph, I am struck by the rays of sunlight breaking through the trees in the distance. It is hard, so much of the time, to see light through the darkness. We must keep trying. I will keep trying.
I pray for comfort for the bereaved and for a future of safety and peace for all.
Lastly, ST:
Ellis and Hall are immediately competing to be anywhere from 2-4 in the pecking order. What stood out was their creativity, timing, and of course scoring. Both were outstanding this window and will play a ton for the senior team this cycle. Pepi and Haji, watch out.
USMNT takeaways by position post Sept/October camp
GK: Kochen is our 1, Schwake is our 2, we still need a 3. Kochen looked great out there, and I felt much more comfortable with Schwake in net than I did with the other two. A commanding clean sheet against Canada is no joke
Now for the “vets” I thought both Gio and Tillman looked great. I have always loved Gio and am so happy to see him starting and in such great form again. (Poch never again play him in a pivot!!!). Tillman had moments of class but needs to get better at trusting teammates at times