The Jews are a famously fractious people, not to mention, according to the Bible’s testimony, a “stiff-necked” one. And American Jewry in particular is deeply divided along political, religious, and other lines, and has always rejected the sorts of central institutions that exist in France, Britain, and elsewhere. Yet somehow, 300,000 Jews from as broad a spectrum as one can imagine came together in the rally at the National Mall last month, with virtually no rancor. In conversation with Dovid Bashevkin, Eric Fingerhut, one of the organizers, describes how the event took shape, and the decisions and logistical efforts that went into it.

In the second half of the podcast, Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff discusses the movement for Soviet Jewry, why some rabbis at the time opposed public demonstration for the cause, and his own role working clandestinely with the Mossad on behalf of refuseniks. (Audio, 95 minutes. Fingerhut begins speaking at 7:26 and Rakeffet-Rothkoff at 56:31. A transcript is available at the link below.)

As we mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, Israeli special forces carried out a daring boots-on-the-ground raid on September 8 targeting the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) in northwestern Syria. The site was used for producing and storing missiles which are then transferred to Hizballah in Lebanon. Jonathan Spyer notes that the raid was accompanied by extensive airstrikes in Syira,and followed a few days later by extensive attacks on Hizballah in Lebanon, one of which killed Mohammad Qassem al-Shaer, a senior officer in the terrorist group’s Radwan force, an elite infantry group. And yesterday, the IDF destroyed a weapons depot, an observation post, and other Hizballah positions. Spyer puts these attacks in context:

The direct purpose of the raid, of course, was the destruction of the facilities and materials targeted. But Israel also appeared to be delivering a message to the Syrian regime that it should not imagine itself to be immune should it choose to continue its involvement with the Iran-led axis’s current campaign against Israel.

Similarly, the killing of al-Shaer indicated that Israel is no longer limiting its response to Hizballah attacks to the border area. Rather, Hizballah operatives in Israel’s crosshairs are now considered fair game wherever they may be located in Lebanon.

The SSRC raid and the killing of al-Shaer are unlikely to have been one-off events. Rather, they represent the systematic broadening of the parameters of the conflict in the north. Hizballah commenced the current round of fighting on October 8, in support of Hamas in Gaza. It has vowed to stop firing only when a ceasefire is reached in the south—a prospect which currently seems distant.