If President Trump wants the rump regime in Iran to stop shooting at our warriors and our allies, he should make their teeth rattle tonight. This isnโt the rocket science. โChicago Rulesโ as Sean Connery/David Mamet so memorably described them in 1987โs The Untouchables.
This is an astonishing turnaround in public opinion, one of the legacies of Bibi Netanyahu. And because it is most evident among younger Americans, it is not yet fully felt in the political system.
In September of 2007 I was working an NSA watch floor. During the โhand downโ brief (shift change) some folks working a MENA shop informed us that Israel had destroyed a covert nuke site in Syria. Theyโd used electronic jammers to fly silent and destroy the site in the dead of night. The Syrians had the site bulldozed over before the sun came because they did not want to acknowledge their violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel allowed it to stay silent because they wanted to avoid conflict from spreading in the region or possibly further. This is now all declassified. Google it.
Israel does stuff like thatโฆ.A LOT. Now, 20 years later, they have become a technological superpower that punches further above its weight than any country its size in human history. To reject Israel as an ally would be the height of stupidity. China sure hopes we view them as an enemy, that I can tell you.
Opinion: Three decades after Oslo, regional turmoil, terrorism, and international pressure challenge its negotiation-based model.
https://t.co/qrPOgZk4Ct
She ate lunch alone for 730 days straight. What this 16-year-old built from that pain now protects millions of kids worldwide.
Seventh grade. Natalie Hampton carried her tray through a packed cafeteria and felt it โ that specific, suffocating dread of not knowing where to go.
She'd already learned what happened when you approached the wrong table. The silence. The turned backs. The whispered laughter that followed you all the way to the empty table by the wall.
The one everyone could see.
The one that said: nobody wants her.
For two full years โ 730 consecutive lunches โ that table was hers. Alone.
The bullying went further than whispers. She was shoved into lockers. Four physical attacks in two weeks. She came home with scratches and bruises. When she finally reported it, school administrators sent her to counseling โ to find out what she was doing wrong.
The isolation grew so heavy she was hospitalized for anxiety.
Then ninth grade came. A new school. And almost overnight โ everything changed. Students welcomed her. She made friends within weeks. She finally knew what safe felt like.
But she couldn't stop thinking about the kids still sitting at the wall table. Right now. Today.
She remembered what she'd needed most during all those lunches. Not a teacher. Not a pamphlet. Just one person saying: "You can sit with us."
So at 16 โ with zero coding experience and "a lot of enthusiasm," as she put it โ Natalie built exactly that.
She called it Sit With Us.
The idea was simple and genius: students sign up as "ambassadors," keeping their table open. Other kids privately browse available tables on their phones before ever walking into the cafeteria โ and show up knowing they're already welcome.
No public rejection. No moment of judgment. Just a guaranteed seat.
Within 7 days of launching: 10,000 downloads.
Then the world found her. NPR. The Washington Post. CBS News. Messages from Morocco, Australia, the Philippines, France โ kids who'd been eating alone for years, finally finding a place to belong.
Sit With Us now operates in 30 countries.
"Even if it helps one person," Natalie said quietly, "it was worth building."
She turned 730 lunches of loneliness into a lifeline for millions.
That's not just survival. That's transformation.
Today, thousands of New Yorkers will march in celebration of Israel.
Not because they agree with every policy or every government, but because Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, the worldโs only Jewish state, and a source of pride, refuge, and belonging for millions of Jews.
This year, that pride matters more than ever.
At a time when Jews are being harassed, attacked in the streets, and told to hide or apologize for who they are, choosing to march is an act of courage. It is a declaration that Jews will not be intimidated and that the Jewish state will not disappear because others wish it would.
The mayor of New York City has cowardly chosen not to attend, and that sends a message. To him, I would say: leadership means showing up for all New Yorkers, including the Jews who call this city home.
To every Jewish New Yorker marching today, and to every ally standing beside them: thank you.
Your support is felt in Israel. Am Yisrael Chai.
๐จ#BREAKING: Hundreds of people have just shown up to the funeral of 98-year old John Bernard Arnold III, a WW2 veteran with no known relatives.
The public was invited to attend to ensure the veteran was honored and not laid to rest alone.
Hundreds came. Absolutely beautiful.
I find it insane that people proudly declare, "I support Israel's right to exist," as though existence itself is a privilege that must be debated or granted.
Do you ever hear anyone say they support France's right to exist? Japan's? America's? Any other nation on Earth?
No. Because no country besides @Israel is forced to justify its existence to the world.
When politicians make this statement, people applaud them like they just made some brave moral statement. They didn't. They stated something so basic it should never have to be said in the first place.
@realDonaldTrump@POTUS@DAGToddBlanche@ASGWoodward@TheJusticeDept@marcorubio@SecRubio@StateDept@yechielleiter@IsraelinUSA@Israel@netanyahu
Implied here is that because he assesses the Iranians wonโt relent on Uranium, that means the U.S. should relent, because the most important thing is that there be โa dealโ.
Surrender of the Islamic Regime would be good. Keep forcing it until they have no choice.
โI do not think there can be a deal if the United States holds to the line that Iran has to completely surrender in perpetuity its right and capacity to enrich uranium,โ says Jake Sullivan. โI think the Iranians will regard that as surrender and they will not do it.โ
https://t.co/tLdpak3fuw
Astonishing levels of moral depravity here. Their fellow American citizen - a civilian - was taken by terrorists and held hostage in brutal captivity for 505 days.
They object to him telling his story on their campus. Absurd.
INSANE: The undergraduate student government at @UCLA CONDEMNED an event featuring freed hostage Omer Shem Tov, saying the event reflects a "troubling disregard for Palestinian life."
REMINDER: Omer Shem Tov is an Israeli civilian who was kidnapped by terrorists from a music festival during the violent Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023.
Talk about "atrocities" and "a troubling disregard for life."
@LeoTerrellDOJ@UofCalifornia@EDSecMcMahon@usedgov@EdWorkforceCmte@EdWorkforceDems