Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff never expected to be in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 23, 1983—the day suicide bombers drove trucks packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks, killing 241 American service members. Yet his presence at the scene, and the advocacy that followed, would provide comfort and support to generations of U.S. troops. The experience strengthened his belief that “a coincidence is just God acting anonymously,” Resnicoff told News Media.

Assigned to the U.S. Navy’s 6th Fleet, Resnicoff served on a three-chaplain team responsible for supporting service members aboard 40 ships across the Mediterranean. He reached Beirut on Friday, Oct. 21, to conduct a memorial service for Jewish Marine Staff Sgt. Allen Soifert, who had been killed in the line of duty. Navy leaders planned to send Resnicoff back to his ship the next day, but he declined because, as an observant Jew, he would not travel during the Sabbath.

Resnicoff was up early on Oct. 23, brushing his teeth at 6:22 a.m., when the building suddenly began shaking. Doors were ripped from their hinges and windows shattered. He and the others dropped to the floor for cover, initially assuming the building had been struck by rockets or mortar fire.

After the noise subsided, the men heard “these terrible, terrible screams” coming from a building about 50 yards away, where Protestant chaplain Danny Wheeler was staying with a large group of Marines.

During his visits to Beirut, Resnicoff usually alternated between staying with the Catholic chaplain, George Pucciarelli, and Wheeler. By that rotation, he should have been at Wheeler’s residence that Friday. Instead, he stayed with Pucciarelli, who wanted to discuss something with him. “Who knows what it was we talked about,” Resnicoff later recalled. “But that probably saved my life.”

As the scale of the disaster became clear, Resnicoff watched Pucciarelli place his purple stole around his neck—“probably because he knew he was going to have to say many last rites.” Pucciarelli then turned to Resnicoff and said, “Follow me.”

Outside, Resnicoff saw that “the big, four-story building was gone with the smoke.” Beneath the wreckage lay 241 American service members: 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three Army soldiers. The Navy casualties included an entire medical detachment, leaving no medically trained personnel available to care for those who had survived.

Resnicoff, Pucciarelli and other first responders picked their way through the rubble, searching for survivors. “He went to one body on the ground, I went to another,” Resnicoff said of Pucciarelli. “We just cradled these wounded men and said, ‘Help is coming.’” They tore pieces from their clothing to clear blood, dirt and dust from the injured men’s faces. After Resnicoff had ripped apart his shirt, he used his Jewish head covering, or kippah, until it became “bloody and dirty and lost.”

Ambulances and helicopters eventually reached the scene, giving the chaplains a brief chance to recover. Pucciarelli told Resnicoff that he had never seen him without a head covering. After Resnicoff explained what had happened to his kippah, Pucciarelli tore a piece from his camouflage uniform and placed it on the rabbi’s head.

Pucciarelli later explained why he wanted the makeshift covering to remain visible: “In this country where every religion is killing every other religion, I want everyone here to remember not only that you and I, the chaplains, were helping everyone regardless of whether they had a religion or what religion they had, but that you and I had different religions [and were] standing together.”

Wheeler became the last living service member rescued from the wreckage, pulled out five hours after the explosion. Resnicoff said it took four days to recover the hundreds of bodies buried beneath the rubble. “These tough Marines were crying, helping their fellow military personnel,” he recalled.

As he comforted Marines who were grieving and working through the debris, Resnicoff drew on Jewish mourning traditions. “After the death, we have a week of family gathering around and telling stories about the person who died,” he explained. “The tradition is if you visit the family during that period, you don’t initiate the conversation, just show your concern and love through your presence, and if the mourners talk to you, then you have a conversation. So, when I would go from Marine to Marine, they were digging up the bodies of their comrades, I used that Jewish approach. I didn’t start the conversation, I just stood next to them to show them I was there, and then if they wanted to talk, I talked.”

Resnicoff said the practice also echoed the teaching associated with the Catholic friar St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel everywhere. Use words only if absolutely necessary.”

The Legacy of the Camouflage Kippah

Before the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist attack in Beirut, Resnicoff said Jewish service members routinely struggled to obtain permission to wear a kippah while serving in uniform.

In the early 1980s, Congress was considering the Religious Apparel Amendment, which would have permitted Jewish troops to cover their heads. “For two years, this amendment had failed. And then, in the Congressional Record, they told the story of this priest making this head covering for me,” Resnicoff said. “The amendment passed. They understood that it was a matter of pride that we could work side by side from different religions.” Then-Vice President George H. W. Bush asked Resnicoff to prepare a report about his experience. Former President Ronald Reagan later shared the report with 20,000 Baptists, an audience Resnicoff recalled “evidently appreciated it.”

In chaplain school, Resnicoff said that chaplains were trained to attend to severely wounded personnel from different religious backgrounds than their own. “But it turned out none of the people I comforted in Beirut asked me a religious question. It was just ‘if I die, tell my mother I love her.’ Most of those Marines were too young to have their own children.” He says that “I was reminded that the role of the chaplain is so much broader and bigger than just being a religious representative.”

“I always used to believe that the military was ahead of the civilian world when it came to understanding and working together. And when you’re in a foxhole or a bunker, you don’t really care if the guy next to you is a Democrat or Republican or independent, you don’t really care what their religion is. You just care that they’re going to protect you like you’re going to protect them and we’re all in this together.”

Resnicoff says that the Beirut bombing showed him that “if the world had more interfaith foxholes, we would have less need for foxholes and more room for faith.”

Abdul El-Sayed repeatedly interrupted Fox News host Bret Baier on Friday as Baier tried to question the Michigan Senate hopeful about the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Democrat became defensive during an interview on “Special Report” when Baier pressed him about a 2012 letter addressed to Mohamed Morsi, then Egypt’s president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader, that El-Sayed had signed.

“Bret, Bret … no, no, no … let me just stop there,” El-Sayed interjected before Baier could finish the question.

“You are asking this question to raise the question about whether or not I have dual loyalty,” the former public health official said.

Baier responded, “I’m not, this is specific.”

“My loyalty will be to the Constitution of the United States, and as every senator who’s ever served, I will swear an oath to that Constitution,” El-Sayed said, interrupting the host again.

Baier tried once more to ask about the letter, but El-Sayed again spoke over him.

“I’m not interested in anything you’re going to pull out from a 2012 statement, a letter, you’re going to pull that out of context, you’re going to ask questions about my allegiance,” El-Sayed said.

“Don’t be Rogers’ campaign. Be a journalist,” El-Sayed snapped.

“So as a journalist,” he told Baier, “if you’re asking the question about my allegiance to the Constitution: I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I never will be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I am interested in serving the United States. I’m interested in swearing an oath to the Constitution that every senator has sworn oath to.”

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The 2012 letter, signed by El-Sayed and more than 30 others, urged Morsi to “purge” Egypt’s media and police, the Washington Free Beacon first reported last month.

The letter was published by the Egyptian news site Al-Ahram Gate and was followed by a harsh crackdown on journalists by Morsi’s government.

In a separate interview with Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, the former congressman argued that El-Sayed had not “disavowed” the Muslim Brotherhood during his contentious exchange with Baier.

“He’s been dancing around this issue for a while,” Rogers said.

“When you support an organization and say you’re going to purge the press and purge the police, not to say it, encourage them to do it … he has adopted the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Rogers argued.

The Muslim Brotherhood is designated a terrorist organization by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but not by the United States.

The group remains controversial, in part because of radical offshoots such as Hamas.

El-Sayed’s parents were Egyptian immigrants, and his half-sister highlighted the family’s ties to the Brotherhood in resurfaced 2012 tweets.

El-Sayed has accused Rogers of making his Muslim faith a campaign issue, an allegation Rogers has denied.

“It is not how he prays; it’s how he thinks,” Rogers told Baier.

Valentina Pinault, the student daughter of Salma Hayek, has spoken about her enthusiasm for London’s pub scene, vodka and Ikea after landing the top spot on Tatler’s list of Britain’s 200 most eligible young people.

The 19-year-old shares first place in this year’s Little Black Book with England rugby prospect Henry Pollock.

Valentina is the daughter of Oscar-nominated actress Salma Hayek, 60, and François-Henri Pinault, 64, chairman of the board at luxury conglomerate Kering, whose portfolio includes Gucci, Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen.

Together, her parents are estimated to have a staggering net worth of $7.2 billion.

Even so, Valentina appears more interested in an ordinary student experience than in Chelsea’s upscale bars and exclusive members’ clubs while studying digital media and culture at King’s College London.

She is more likely to be found at Fabric or Lost, the underground, phone-free club night, than among London’s most polished social set.

Discussing her affection for British life, she told Tatler: “I think the culture in London is my favourite thing in the world. I love pub culture.”

She added that British humour appealed to her because of the “little things” that are difficult to find anywhere else.

Asked whether she preferred martinis or champagne, Valentina answered “vodka” and said she was more of a “chugger” when it came to drinking.

Growing up in the spotlight has also shaped Pinault’s approach to sharing her life online.

“Growing up with parents who are public figures gave me an idea of what I don’t want in my head,” she said.

“I don’t mind people seeing what I’m doing, but I don’t like the idea of people being able to comment on what I’m doing, or keeping track of [it].”

Earlier this year, Hayek made a rare public appearance with her daughter at the star-studded Serpentine Gallery summer party.

The actress turned heads in a satin blue gown and quirky sunglasses as she attended the event during a scorching heatwave.

Valentina cut a glamorous figure in a grey co-ord which she teamed with minimal accessories.

In 2022, Valentina appeared on her first ever Vogue cover for the publication’s Mexican edition, posing for a shoot alongside her famous mother Salma.

In an interview conducted in Spanish, Salma opened up about coming to motherhood later in life, and what she thinks about Valentina following in her Hollywood footsteps.

Meanwhile, Valentina revealed her dreams of becoming an actress and a director, but also stressed the importance of helping others, which she did through volunteering at a soup kitchen.

Still, she does benefit from her mother’s closet of designer clothes – furnished in part by dad François-Henri’s company.

‘We fight over clothes because she takes everything from my closet,’ Salma said.

‘Since she was little she never let me choose her clothes, and I always liked that,’ Salma added. ‘[And] she’s very good with makeup. I’m good at makeup, but now she teaches me.’

The pair have more in common than just clothes: They also both speak Spanish, and like to do so to speak privately in public.

‘When we are with more people I like it because it is like a secret because nobody speaks Spanish, because with my dad I speak French,’ Valentina Paloma said.

What’s more, Valentina Paloma wants to follow her mom into Hollywood, first as an actress and then as a director.

The teen also talked about how important it is to be passionate about fixing the world’s problems.

In particular, she is moved by the problem of homelessness, ‘because I have friends who don’t have a home.

Read Valentina’s full feature in the December issue of Tatler, available via digital download and on newsstands from November 5. 

The State Department told News Media that President Donald Trump is “spot on” in his assessment of France, after French President Emmanuel Macron condemned what he called “unacceptable and stupid comments” from foreign leaders about the unrest sweeping his country.

At a midterm election rally Monday, Trump claimed that “migrants have taken over France” and urged the country to shut its borders after a weekend of anti-government protests escalated into rioting and looting. He described France as a “once great nation” that was being “conquered, looted and burned to the ground” by migrants, jihadists and communists who, he said, oppose Christianity and Western civilization.

Macron responded Wednesday by alleging that the unrest had been accompanied by “foreign manipulation of information,” including AI-generated images depicting events that did not occur in France. He said that misinformation had fueled “unacceptable and stupid comments from many people including foreign leaders.” The French president identified Trump “among others” and rejected claims that France had been overrun by “hordes of migrants and Islamists,” calling those assertions completely false, The Associated Press reported.

Asked about Macron’s criticism, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott defended Trump, saying the president “is on point as he is consistently on point.”

“He has been clear about the dangers of mass migration for years, especially since the beginning of this administration, but certainly long beforehand as well. The president has secured the border on day one when it comes to the United States of America,” Pigott said. He added that the State Department would oppose international institutions that attempt to pressure sovereign countries into adopting policies designed to promote mass migration.

“Mass migration is inherently destabilizing. It is inherently destabilizing. It is something that we don’t believe solves problems, but actually creates problems,” Pigott said. He noted that Trump has repeatedly raised the issue, including in response to the latest protests in France.

Pigott said Trump had also addressed mass migration directly with world leaders during two consecutive U.N. General Assembly meetings, calling for an end to what he described as destructive policies involving illegal mass migration. He argued that those migration routes benefit criminal cartel networks, pointing to cartel activity along such pathways in the Western Hemisphere. “The president is spot on,” Pigott said, adding that the administration was taking concrete steps to end what it calls the era of mass migration.

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The Louvre and several other major Paris museums will close Saturday ahead of additional demonstrations planned in the French capital, according to the AP. Reuters reported that businesses in central Paris have begun boarding up windows amid fears of further violence.

French authorities said more than 3,000 stores had been looted, while approximately 2,500 people were taken into police custody in connection with the nationwide protests the previous weekend.

Pigott urged Americans traveling overseas to enroll in the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP. “That program lets you tell us which countries you’re going to so that we can provide real-time information to Americans in the country that have registered,” he told News Media.

More broadly, Pigott said State Department personnel at embassies and consulates around the world remain available around the clock to assist Americans abroad. “If you have an issue when you’re abroad, please contact the embassy or consulate,” he said, noting that officials can help with matters ranging from lost passports to security emergencies.