Jewish Virtual Library - JVL

❌ Myth: Iran’s use of cluster munitions against Israel is a lawful exercise of self-defense.

✅ Fact: Cluster munitions are not automatically illegal. The decisive legal question is how they are used. When directed at civilian populations, their use becomes a war crime.

Iran’s conduct leaves no ambiguity. Since February 28, the IRGC has fired cluster warhead missiles into Israel’s most densely populated areas on a “nearly daily basis,” with approximately half of all ballistic missiles carrying cluster payloads. Self-defense does not permit indiscriminate force. It does not authorize the deliberate targeting of civilians. And it does not transform a war crime into a legitimate act of resistance.

⬇️ Let us know what other myths you’d like the Jewish Virtual Library - JVL to bust.

This Jewish American Heritage Month, the Jewish Virtual Library - JVL is excited to highlight iconic Jewish Americans all throughout May.

This week, we’re spotlighting Bob Dylan. Dylan was born in Minnesota in 1941, and attended the Zionist Herzl Camp where he played guitar, piano, and harmonica with other campers. His career first began to take off in the 1960s, and he soon became a key figure in folk and rock-n-roll. Many of his songs, from “Highway 61 Revisited" to “Not Dark Yet” to “Neighborhood Bully” allude to Judaism and Israel.

For more about Bob Dylan, visit https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bob-dylan.

“Some readers may remember that U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North testified at televised congressional hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal in 1987. At one point, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) suggested that North speak for himself, admonishing his lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, for constantly objecting to questions posed to the colonel. ‘Well, sir,’ Sullivan responded, ‘I’m not a potted plant. I’m here as the lawyer. That’s my job.’ The line has endured because it captures something fundamental: People in positions of power are not decorative—they act, decide and bear responsibility.”

This week in JNS.org, Dr. Mitchell Bard looks at how both sides of the political spectrum have come to view Trump as a “potted plant.”

Read more at https://www.jns.org/opinion/column/mitchell-bard/trump-is-not-a-potted-plant.