Mike Wasserman

We got through another long night under missile alerts. One blast around midnight was terrifying, with massive explosions nearby. Our neighborhood was hit. Several homes were damaged, thankfully not ours. What’s especially shocking is Iran’s use of cluster munitions, breaking into dozens of explosives over civilian areas. This video shows one passing above us last night. This morning, my 6-year-old son Ari came from the safe room and asked: “When will the war end? And when will the Iranian people be free?” I told him I hope the threats against us will be over in a few weeks. For the Iranian people, it may take longer. He answered: “After the war, we should make peace with Iran. They should be kind to their people.” Proud of him for choosing hope and peace, even in moments like this.

🚨 Sheriff Michael Bouchard on the Michigan synagogue attack: “There’s no justification for trying to kill kids… You don’t walk into a house of worship and target children ages 0–5 because of something happening somewhere else in the world.” No excuses. No justification.

Medical student experience of an encounter with a patient with delirium - "Mrs. P was 83. She was in a bay of 4 patients on a medical ward. Two of them were noisy - one was calling out repeatedly, another had a loud TV. Mrs. P was quiet. Eyes open, staring at the ceiling. Looked unhappy and puzzled. Not eating the lunch tray in front of her. Not pressing her call bell. Not moving much. In a busy ward, quiet patients are 'settled' patients. Nobody seemed worried about Mrs. P. I was taking histories as part of my clinical attachment. I sat down next to her and said hello and introduced myself. She looked at me briefly but didn't answer. She looked away. I asked her name. She did not answer. I asked her again and she gave her name. I asked where she was. She looked surprised by the question then said, 'at home'. She had no idea she was in hospital. I mentioned this to the ward doctor. He came and assessed her. She was profoundly inattentive, disoriented in time and place, and had been like this for at least two days based on the nursing observations - which had documented 'settled' and 'comfortable' because she wasn't causing any problems, though two entries also mentioned 'confused' ? baseline - though no additional mental status assessments had been done. She had pneumonia and constipation that were already being treated, but nobody had formally recognised that her quietness was delirium. Hypoactive delirium. The subtype where patients don't shout, don't climb out of bed, don't pull out their lines. They just... go quiet. And going quiet, in a hospital, can make you less visible. Hypoactive delirium is more common than the hyperactive form, and it carries a worse prognosis. Patients with hypoactive delirium have higher mortality rates, and longer hospital stays. Yet it's detected even less often, because it doesn't trigger alarms. It doesn't create workload. It doesn't disrupt the ward. The noisiest patients get the most attention but the quietest patients may be sicker. Since that day, I make a point of doing a delirium assessment on the quiet ones."

@A_MacLullich This is way too common!

Why do we give older people drugs that make their mental functioning worse? Ms Davies, 80, came in with pneumonia. Within a day she was lethargic, not eating, barely responding. The team put it down to the infection. The term 'delirium' was never mentioned. But somebody had also started her on a benzodiazepine overnight for "mild anxiety." Nobody connected the two. On the ward round I noticed her responsiveness kept shifting - partly alert one moment, not responding the next. Both the drowsiness and the fluctuation suggested delirium. Screening test positive. We stopped the benzodiazepine, and continued the treatment for the pneumonia with antibiotics, fluids, and oxygen. The next day she later she was sitting up in her chair eating. She was able to participate in physiotherapy. The lesson here isn't complicated. If you start a sedative in an older person and they get more confused, stop the sedative. Don't add another drug on top. Check your prescribing before you check anything else. #delirium #medicationsafety

@CoreyBBrooks 🙏🙏🙏🙏

The truth nobody wants to say: Jews are being scapegoated by BOTH the left and the right. And too many leaders are silent. I won’t be. You need to read this 👇 foxnews.com/opinion/why-i-…

The Civil Rights Movement as we know it would have died in the cradle without Jewish Americans. Fact: Jews co-founded the NAACP in 1909. Fact: Jewish money kept the lights on (sometimes over 50% of the budget). Fact: Jewish lawyers stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Black lawyers in every major case, from Brown v. Board to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. They didn’t just “help.” They bled, marched, got arrested, and wrote the checks when most white America wanted us both gone. So when I see people online spewing “Jews are the enemy,” I remember who had our back when literally nobody else did. As a Black conservative, I will NEVER forget that debt. I stand with Israel. I stand with the Jewish people. History didn’t stutter, and neither will I. 🇺🇸✡️🖤

At 14, in a cramped Milwaukee apartment in 1912, young Golda Mabovitch faced an impossible choice: quit school and marry a much older man her parents had chosen, or fight for her dream of learning. She chose defiance. Heart pounding, she packed a suitcase, left a simple note—“I am going to live with Sheyna so I can study”—and boarded a train to Denver alone. No goodbye. No permission. Just raw determination. Her parents were outraged. Golda felt the sting of breaking their hearts—but she couldn’t bear to lose her future more. That fierce, unbreakable will carried her forward. Born in 1898 in Kiev amid the terror of pogroms—hiding behind boarded doors as mobs hunted Jews—she fled with her family to America at eight, discovering safety for the first time. In Milwaukee, she excelled at school, organized fundraisers for classmates, protested antisemitism. At 14, she was already a leader. After Denver, she finished high school, trained as a teacher, embraced Labor Zionism, married Morris Meyerson, and in 1921 sailed to Palestine. There, she toiled on a scorching kibbutz—picking almonds, tending chickens—while rising as a powerful voice: mediating, negotiating, inspiring. In 1948, she signed Israel’s Declaration of Independence—one of only two women. She raised $50 million in America to arm the newborn state against invasion. Became ambassador, minister, and in 1969, at 70, Prime Minister—the “Iron Lady” before Thatcher stole the name. Blunt, cigarette in hand, she never softened for anyone. “Don’t be humble,” she snapped. “You’re not that great.” Her hardest hour came on Yom Kippur 1973: surprise attack, nation reeling, soldiers torn from prayer to die by the thousands. She led through sleepless nights, secured desperate aid, held Israel together. It survived—but the grief and blame crushed her. She resigned in 1974, shoulders bowed by the unbearable weight. Golda died in 1978, mourned by the world. From a terrified child in Kiev, to a runaway teen clutching her education like life itself, to the woman who steered a nation through fire—she proved one girl’s stubborn refusal to surrender her dreams could illuminate history. She ran away at 14 for school. She became one of the 20th century’s most formidable leaders. And the world still feels her fire.

Even in Nazi Germany, there were Germans who risked everything to help Jews by hiding them, feeding them, or helping them to escape. We call them Righteous Among the Nations. In Gaza, during the captivity of our hostages, not a single man or woman stepped forward to help them, to give them food, or provide medical care, to hide them from their captors, or ease their suffering. Not one righteous soul among them

This video still hits hard every time I watch it. Never forget the children of the Bibas family. May their memory be blessed.💔

Mother writes: My daughter Adar Ben Simon, 20, was a commander and fighter in a rescue and search unit. On October 7, she heard that terrorists had infiltrated the Zikim base. Adar immediately jumped in and protected 120 new soldiers. She put all the recruits in the protected room and went out to fight the terrorists. She strove for contact and fought with all her might! After a hard fight, she fell in battle. I ask that you share in her memory!

The Jews With Trembling Knees A friend called me the other day, frustrated. Not angry, not shouting, just confused by something that should not be confusing. Some American Jews say Israel is overreacting to Iran, but those same Jews say they are too afraid to attend Jewish events in America. Too afraid to go to synagogue, too afraid to wear a Magen David, too afraid to attend a Jewish cultural festival. That contradiction deserves a closer look. My friend could not wrap his head around it. If the danger is serious enough that you are afraid to be visibly Jewish in your own city, then clearly the threat against Jews is real. But if the threat is real, why criticize Israel for taking it seriously? You cannot argue both things at the same time. You cannot say the danger is everywhere and nowhere. And yet that is exactly the argument some people are making. On one hand they say Iran is not an imminent threat. On the other hand they say antisemitism in America is serious enough that Jews should hide their identity. Those two positions cannot comfortably live together. One of them eventually collapses under its own logic. This contradiction deepens when we consider history. For most of Jewish history, we did not have the luxury of debating whether threats were “imminent enough.” When someone shouted “Death to the Jews,” Jews tended to believe them. Not because we were paranoid, but because we were experienced. When someone tells you they want you dead, you take them seriously. But the irony here goes even deeper. Some of the loudest critics of Israel’s self defense are the same people who say they feel unsafe being openly Jewish in America. They acknowledge antisemitism exists and that some people around them genuinely hate Jews. They admit the atmosphere has become hostile enough that Jewish visibility feels risky. Yet when Israel treats threats against Jews as real, suddenly we are told everyone should calm down. It is a strange contradiction. Fear at home and denial abroad. Some Jews have become comfortable being brave online while remaining fearful in real life. They will argue passionately about geopolitics and lecture Israelis about restraint, but hesitate to attend a Jewish event down the street. Courage on Facebook is easy. Courage at synagogue requires a spine. To be clear, fear itself is not the problem. Fear is human, and fear has always been part of Jewish life. But Jewish history is not simply a story of fear. It is a story of refusing to disappear. In fact, Judaism may be the only civilization that turned anxiety into a holiday schedule. Passover, Purim, Hanukkah. Every few months we gather around a table and retell the same basic story. They tried to kill us. We survived. Let's eat! It sounds like a joke, but it also happens to be the story of Jewish resilience. We did not survive because the world suddenly became safe. We survived because we refused to stop living Jewish lives even when doing so carried risk. That stubborn insistence on continuing Jewish life has carried the Jewish people through centuries of hostility. Which brings me to Menachem Begin. Begin once said something that still echoes across Jewish history. “I am not a Jew with trembling knees.” The line was not a denial of fear. It was a declaration about posture. Fear may exist, but fear does not get to decide who we are or whether Jews live openly as Jews. No one is suggesting Jews should be reckless. Being cautious is wise. Paying attention to your surroundings is wise. Strengthening security at Jewish institutions is wise. Jews have practiced situational awareness for thousands of years. But hiding is not the same as safety. Hiding is surrender, and history has shown that surrender rarely satisfies those who hate Jews. Appeasement has never worked particularly well for our people, because you cannot negotiate with someone whose goal is your disappearance. Which brings us back to courage. One of my favorite quotes, often attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, says it perfectly. “Courage means being afraid of something but doing it anyway.” Jews have never been fearless. We have simply refused to stop living Jewish lives. Today courage might look simple. Going to synagogue. Attending a Jewish festival. Wearing a Magen David. Supporting the only Jewish homeland, Israel. Teaching your children who they are. Living Jewishly without apology. Yes, be cautious. Yes, be aware. Yes, strengthen security and protect your community. But live your life and live your Jewish life. Am Yisrael Chai.

@thewebbie @thewebbie Thank you for comprehensively describing exactly how I feel!

@GovMikeHuckabee Thank you Ambassador!

This is a long post but a reflection of life during the first week of the war from my seat on the front row right in the bullseye. It's 7:30am in Jerusalem. It's Shabbat. Quiet except for the missile alert siren at 5am this morning. Been exactly a week since war with Iran began. @janethuckabee & I & our 2 little dogs have been living in the Command Center, sleeping on cots to be able to deal with the moment by moment situation. Janet and the dogs are adjusting but they don't like the painfully loud sirens warning of incoming missiles, rockets & drones. It's a 24 hr a day schedule. When sirens aren't forcing everyone to shelter to dodge incoming ballistic missiles, the phone rings day and through the night w/ updates on everything from military activities to managing the embassy duties while our team is sheltering in place and working from home. Some in our mission, especially those with small children have evacuated on "authorized departure" which allows gov't staff to return to the US during a war or crisis. We are working around the clock to help evacuate American citizens trying to get back home. In the first days of the war, it was both difficult & dangerous to move people with all airspace closed & overland routes to Egypt or Jordan more risky than "sheltering in place." Totally fake news stories said "nothing was being done" to help Americans. Total lie. In the early hours and first days of war, the safest decision & what we urged our own Embassy personnel to do was stay close to shelter. Slowly, as the "battle rhythm" developed, we started physical evacuation first via buses to Egypt. There has been constant coordination with State Dept in DC to evacuate Americans SAFELY & promptly. 2 days ago, very limited flights started coming IN to Israel to bring Israelis home. We worked with El Al Airlines, the Israeli gov't & w/ State Dept Task Force in DC to get as many people on outbound planes as possible on the limited number of flights. It has been a 24 hr a day operation. Seeing utterly false news stories that US wasn't "doing anything" was a shock to embassy staff who have been busting their backsides, functioning with little or no sleep & themselves having to rush to bomb shelters repeatedly during the day and night & only having 90 seconds to take cover. We have now successfully evacuated thousands of people using every means possible, but focusing on helping people get home SAFELY. I'm proud of our team here. If you are an American citizen & taxpayer, you should be as well. I was amused to read comments online that I had returned to the US. Hardly. The Ambassador is the last one to leave. It's how it works. First duty is to America citizens. They are our real bosses. All of us here at the mission work for them. We know that & we work with that in mind. My other duty is to care for our team here. To insure the well-being of their families & to encourage our staff to take care of their physical and mental health as ballastic missiles the size of 18 wheel trucks come hurling toward us. I tried to get my wife to evacuate, but not surprisingly she would have none of it. She has weathered it with me even though there is no paycheck for her to sleep on a cot & endure days of making meals from PBJ sandwiches & things we had in the freezer at the residence we brought with us. No complaints though. It's a privilege to serve our country and its people & we are proud to serve @POTUS who courageous decision to stop the Iranian Regime's determined 47 year campaign to kill Americans & build a nuclear weapon to attack the US is something that should have happened long before. This war probably seems so far from those of you who live 6000 miles or more away from it, but rest assured the President wants to keep it that far away & end the threat completely. Had the fanatical religious zealots obtained a nuclear warhead and finalized long-range ballistic capability (and they were getting close to both) they would have used it on America. This is not a "war for Israel" as some of the very uninformed media voices and podcasters crow about. They are "often wrong, but never in doubt." I'm amazed at how lacking in facts some of them are but filled with an arrogant confidence that what they say is true. But they are far removed from the eyewitness intel & the front row seat I have. While they enjoy hefty paychecks from the "clicks" by being provocative, just know that halfway around the globe you have dedicated men & women who work for you for paychecks far less than they should be. They are on duty in war conditions & will continue at the task of serving Americans caught in the middle of a war. God Bless America, our courageous men & women in our military, & God Bless the men & women of YOUR Embassy in Israel!

Those who hate Israel have no idea what this country is — or who these people are. The first time I brought my son to Israel, he was shocked by almost everything. Young men and women his age — sometimes smaller than him — walking around with enormous guns. The noise. The familiarity. The way people drive, honk, argue, shout. And perhaps most confusing of all: the way strangers in Jerusalem would suddenly come up to me, crying, and hug me. He would be startled and whisper, “Tell them not to touch you.” He couldn’t understand why people we had never met would embrace me like family. Now he’s slowly beginning to understand. Random people who have never heard of me — and who have no idea Adam is my son — treat him with a warmth he still finds hard to believe. In Germany, people are polite. Here, people are family. He doesn’t speak Hebrew. One day, on his way to the gym, a siren went off. He asked a stranger where the nearest shelter was. The man didn’t just point — he walked him there and ended up becoming his friend. Another day he went boxing with a group of Russian guys. We had been warned about how tough they were. They adopted him instantly and asked when he wanted to compete. Wherever I take him, people spoil him. On his first visit, I made sure he saw every side of Israeli society. He spent time on a left-wing kibbutz. With a religious family with five children. With yeshiva students. With soldiers. At a Shabbaton with modern Orthodox friends. Around Shabbat tables with religious Jews, and with atheists. Young people, old people — every shade of Israeli life. And then I asked my old mentor, Yossi Klein Halevi to take Adam out for lunch and answer his long list of questions. I have my own answers to many of those questions. But I don’t have Yossi’s patience — or his wisdom. Adam asked why security here can sometimes feel so intense. After narrowly missing three terror attacks — by a single day — at the Allenby Crossing, in Jerusalem, and in Jaffa, he no longer needed much explanation for why Israelis carry guns. And after speaking to Israeli Arabs, he began to understand how complex life here really is — and how simplistic and ignorant the slogans of Israel’s haters often are. So thank you, Israel, for looking after my son. The same son whom much of our extended family decided to punish because of my political choices — because of my support for Israel. Now he understands why Israel is worth this. And more. Shabbat shalom 🤍 #israel

This isn’t about partisanship. It’s about recognizing patterns. You can’t fight what you refuse to name.

@AGSJournal Yet another example of the importance of reforming GME to require competencies in #Geriatrics amongst ALL physicians caring for older adults!

Practice Variability in the SHARING Choices Pragmatic Trial of Primary Care Advance Care Planning. #geriatrics agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jg…

@AGSJournal Once again, why competence in #Geriatrics is critical to quality NH care!

What's in a Number: Do Transfer Rates Reflect Nursing Home Quality? #geriatrics agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jg…

@thewebbie 🙏 Totally with you on this! Am Israel Chai

My Evolution I used to be a quiet Jew. Proud, yes. I lit candles. I hosted Seders. I corrected people gently when they said “Happy Hanukkah” in July. I donated. I voted blue. I supported all the right causes. Justice. Equality. Coexistence. Tikkun Olam. Repair the world. I believed in a coalition of the decent. I believed that if you showed up for others, they would show up for you. Then came October 7th. And everything changed. That day was horrific enough. The massacre of Israeli civilians. Families butchered in their homes. Young people hunted at a music festival. Hostages dragged into tunnels. It was the kind of evil that should have frozen the world mid-sentence. But what broke me wasn’t only what happened that day. It was what happened the day after. The world shrugged. My allies were silent. Some even cheered. I waited for the outrage. I refreshed my feed like a man checking hospital updates. Surely the statements were coming. The solidarity posts. The “This is unacceptable.” The moral clarity. Instead, I saw “context.” I saw moral relativism wrapped in academic language. I saw people twisting themselves into philosophical pretzels to justify horror. I saw “Yes, but…” Yes, but occupation. Yes, but resistance. Yes, but history. It was then I heard the message loud and clear: Jewish lives are conditional. Conditional on politics. Conditional on optics. Conditional on whether our dead fit the narrative. For years I had believed antisemitism was a fringe phenomenon. A few idiots with tiki torches. A handful of conspiracy theorists yelling about space lasers. I was wrong. It wasn’t fringe. It was dormant. And antizionism was the socially acceptable packaging. Criticize Israeli policy? Of course. Israelis do it daily. That’s democracy. Call for the elimination of the only Jewish state? That’s not policy critique. That’s erasure. And when mobs chant for intifada “globalized,” they are not debating zoning laws in Tel Aviv. They are reminding Jews everywhere that history has a long memory. On October 7th, I stopped being quiet. I stopped whispering my identity like it was a hobby. Now I say it plainly: I am a Jew. I am a Zionist. And I will fight for my people. Online, offline, and everywhere in between. Since that day, my evolution has not been abstract. I have taken firearms safety courses. I have trained at the range. Yes, that surprised me too. A lifelong Democrat who once rolled his eyes at gun culture now sitting through safety briefings and learning proper grip and trigger discipline. Life comes at you fast. But here is the uncomfortable truth: Jews have learned, painfully, that depending solely on the goodwill of others is not a security strategy. “Never again” is not a slogan. It is a policy. I have reconsidered my politics. Not because I became radical overnight, but because I realized that party loyalty means very little when your own community is told to sit down and be quiet while it is slandered. I have cut ties with “allies” who abandoned us. Some quietly. Some loudly. It turns out solidarity that evaporates when it becomes inconvenient was never solidarity to begin with. And I have found a new voice. A louder one. One that does not apologize for Jewish survival. Zionism is not a hashtag. It is not a bumper sticker. It is not a personality trait. It is the belief that Jews, like every other people, have the right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. It is the lesson of exile, distilled. It is what ensures that Jews never again have to beg the world to notice our blood on the ground. Never again means now. I am done asking for permission to exist. I will not debate whether Jews deserve safety in Jerusalem any more than I would debate whether the French deserve Paris. I will not entertain historical revisionism that erases 3,000 years of Jewish presence in our homeland while pretending Jews materialized in 1948 like a startup nation experiment. We are an ancient people with a modern state. Both are real. Both are legitimate. Both are worth defending. To those who stood with us in our darkest hours: thank you. We see you. We remember. History remembers too. To those who stood silent, or worse, who found their voice only to condemn Jews for defending themselves: We see you as well. And we will not forget. This is not about left or right anymore. It is about survival. It is about memory. It is about truth. Jewish history is not a museum exhibit. It is a living inheritance. Our grandparents whispered prayers in lands that wanted them gone. Our ancestors survived empires that no longer exist. We are still here. Am Yisrael Chai. The people of Israel live. Not because the world was kind. But because we refused to disappear. I used to be a quiet Jew. Now I am something else. I am a Jew who understands that silence is a luxury our history does not afford. I am a Zionist who understands that sovereignty is not extremism. It is dignity. And I am just getting started.

@ArisenEmber Thank you for sharing.

🙋‍♀️Hello - Iranian here. For those fixated on 'legality' to excuse the regime in Iran - F*ck You. No, I will not let you be my voice. You don't get to narrate my story, you don't get to claim moral superiority. You don't get to tell me my feelings are wrong. Is it legal to throw women in prison for strands of hair? Is it legal to mass execute people? Is it legal to turn a fertile land into a parched desert? Is it legal to rape? Is it legal to shoot innocent people? Is it legal to kill children? Is it legal to torture people to death? Is it legal to spread terrorism? Is it legal to deprive people of a livelihood? Is it legal to shoot people in the eye to blind them? Is it legal to silence people and take away all of their human rights? Is it legal to shoot down a passenger plane? Is it legal to drive millions to leave their country? Is it legal to jail women for singing and dancing? Is it legal to disappear people including children? You will never experience anything like Iranians have experienced for the last 47 years. Iranians have fought barehanded and they've paid a price. All up to 1,000,000 (one million) Iranians have been murdered since the regime came to power. Your books on 'civil disobedience' and 'collective protest' are useless against an armed opposition that is ideologically driven and will kill all that stand in its way. You want legality? The world has a duty to protect innocent lives. It's enshrined in R2P. Some people seem to think Iranians aren't humans. The murder, genocide and massacre of Iranians receives scant media attention - hence scant sympathy. Those who proclaim to care about 'human rights' must think Iranians are animals and not worthy. Their hatred of Israel and US is so great they've lost all perspective. Yes, Iranians are happy. They're happy someone took out Ali Khamenei and many others directly responsible for so much pain and agony. And you know what? We're unashamedly hopeful that with the help of the world's superpower, we can reclaim our country and build a better tomorrow. We know there's a long way to go, but give us this brief moment of reprieve, because daily we sit and try to tell the story of the lives lost, those at risk of execution, those under torture. We've seen the pictures and videos of massacres taking place. Our dance and happiness comes with a heavy weight. We do so, in knowledge of the many who never lived to see this day. The day of freedom will come to Iran, it's glorious - and we're not sorry if some outside help contributed to making that happen. So don't speak on my behalf and stop excusing this regime on grounds of 'anti-colonialism'. and 'anti-Zionism'. #Iran