Rashida Tlaib’s Lies Remind Us Why Israel Must Exist
The Zionist movement long predated Hitler, even if Palestinian leadership had aligned itself with the Nazis during the war. By the time the Holocaust was over, Jews had already gained enough power to defend themselves, and Arabs had already been launching pogroms, terrorism, and political attacks for decades.Rashida Tlaib’s Unbelievable Lies
Although some Arabs initially welcomed Jewish migration in the 1900s, they would become victim to Palestinian leadership—a number of Arab mayors, landowners, and others were assassinated for conspiring with Jews, just as they are today.
After the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a British government document that endorsed “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and pledged to “use its best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine,” there was immediate and violent anti-Semitic reaction.
This, despite the fact that Jewish migration had been exceptionally beneficial for the Arabs living in the area. Rarely mentioned in the Israeli-Palestinian debate, in fact, is that significant Arab migration into a largely empty land was spurred by Jewish economic development. Jews were not displacing Arabs, they were attracting them.
Not that it mattered. As the Peel Commission Report, a British paper recommending partition in 1936, noted, “the Arabs have benefited by the development of the country owing to Jewish immigration, this has had no conciliatory effect. On the contrary… with almost mathematical precision the betterment of the economic situation in Palestine meant the deterioration of the political situation.”
Even Palestinian “moderates” like Musa Alami told Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion “he would prefer the land to remain poor and desolate even for another hundred years” if the alternative was collaboration with Jews. Neither Alami nor Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestinian cause, nor the father of modern terrorism, Yasser Arafat, nor his protégé, Mahmoud Abbas, ever shared in their deprivations of their people. It was the opposite, in fact. Palestinian leaders have always enriched themselves on this conflict.
When Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib stated that she often gets “a calming feeling” when she thinks about the Holocaust, she made it perfectly clear that she is calmed not by the deaths of six million Jews but by the thought that her Palestinian ancestors “lost their land, . . . their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways [sic], . . . to create a safe haven for Jews.” Liel Leibovitz, rather than attempting to unpack the perverse logic of Tlaib’s words, simply notes some relevant historical examples. Among them is the case of the Polish-born Atara Abramson, who—after surviving Auschwitz, where the rest of her family was killed—came to the Land of Israel and settled in the Kfar Etzion kibbutz in 1946:Rashida Tlaib’s Monstrous Distortion of History
On May 12, 1948, two days before Israel’s declaration of independence, an Arab army consisting of Jordanian legionnaires and local Palestinian gunmen attacked Kfar Etzion with armored vehicles and heavy artillery. The Jewish defenders, armed with just a handful of rifles and mortars, did their best to fight back, but by the following day were no longer able to persist. Their leader, Avraham Fishgrund, who escaped Bratislava just a few years before Hitler’s armies marched in, stepped into the open, waving the white flag of surrender. He was shot on the spot by an armed Palestinian.
The rest of the people in Kfar Etzion, numbering 133 men and women, had no choice but to reiterate their surrender and hope for the best. Again, they stepped into the open waving a white flag and declaring their surrender. Again, they were met with gunfire. They rushed to take shelter in the basement of a nearby monastery; gathering outside, local Palestinians tossed grenades into the building and shot at anyone trying to escape. Like most of Kfar Etzion’s residents, Atara Abramson did not survive. She was twenty-one when she died, one of eighteen women who had survived the Holocaust only to be slaughtered by Palestinians that day. . . .
There were 433 more Holocaust survivors killed by Palestinians and Jordanians violently opposing the creation of a “safe haven” for Jews in the what had historically and spiritually been their homeland. To attempt and rewrite their well-documented experiences is . . . an unforgivable and deeply anti-Semitic act.
More than a radical case of historical revisionism, Tlaib's comments are part of something more sinister: an effort to separate the Jewish people from the land of Israel, in an effort to destroy Israel as the Jewish state. Tlaib grounds Israel's legitimacy, and the moral and historical reasons for its existence, in the horrors of the Holocaust. Forget about the more than 3,000 years of continuous Jewish presence in the land of Israel, and of the deeply entrenched legal, historical, and religious ties that Jews have there; certainly forget about the Jewish people yearning to return to the land throughout 2,000 years in exile, not to mention the modern Zionist movement, which began in the mid-19th century; also forget about Britain's commitments to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, including the Balfour Declaration, which, far from being a unilateral move, received the contemporary equivalent of the international community's endorsement; and, of course, forget the U.N.'s recommendation to create a Jewish state in Palestine. The Jewish people only have Israel because of the Holocaust, and the sympathy it created for them among Europeans. So the imperialist powers worked with the Jews to kick the Palestinians off of their land. At least that is the Palestinian narrative, which Tlaib seems to endorse. And still, the congresswoman has the audacity to think the Jews of Israel should be kissing the feet of the Palestinians for being so noble, so generous to sacrifice their collective wellbeing to help a people whose population has still not recovered from the six million it lost during the Holocaust.
Ignoring, hoping ultimately to erase, the Jewish people's ties to Israel is part of a campaign to destroy Israel as the Jewish state through demonization and delegitimization. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which Tlaib supports, is the leading effort of this vile campaign. That a member of Congress supports this agenda is deeply disturbing. More disturbing, however, is that her deceitful, anti-intellectual approach to issues concerning Israel is a tenet of the progressive movement, which has institutionalized the modern form of anti-Semitism in an effort to undermine Israel to the point that it submits to the mob and ceases to exist as the world has come to know it, leaving millions of Jews vulnerable to the whims of those who are at best indifferent to their fate, and at worst eager to solve the world's "Jewish problem."
Now, it is possible that Tlaib is just unaware of all of this history and does not have malicious intent. If that is the case, then I hope she reads this piece and reconsiders her position with an open mind. That being said, I am not holding my breath.
John Podhoretz: Magnanimity, Thy Name Is Tlaib
I’ll just say this. When you say, “When I think about it, your mass murder and land expropriation were the result of how you came from a very dark place so when I think on it, at least I can be comforted by that fact and how wonderful my people were to have been so open to you,” you are only being magnanimous in the sense that you are grandiloquently patting someone you have just called evil on the head and saying, “nice boy.”Abe Greenwald: Democrats Are Excusing Anti-Semitism By Defending Rashida Tlaib
Have we fallen so far that people are to be praised for merely acknowledging the fact of the Holocaust? White supremacists often cite Jewish business acumen when they discuss the threat Jews pose to the world. Are we to thank them for their generosity?
Are we supposed to overlook the essential meaning of what people say when they intend to be nice? The whole point of what happened here with Rashida Tlaib is this: She has no idea how to say something about Jews and Israel that isn’t vile, even when she tries really, really hard.
So yes, probably she was trying to be nice.
So the hell what? (h/t IsaacStorm)
Wrong. At the time, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, was a supporter and ally of Hitler. When the two met, al-Husseini told Hitler that they shared the same enemies: “the English, the Jews, and the Communists.” The two went on to scheme about how best to set upon and destroy the Jews of the Middle East. What’s more, the Arabs regularly massacred Jews in Mandatory Palestine.Tlaib Blames ‘Racist Idiots’ for Criticizing Her Historical Illiteracy on Holocaust
Lies are the lifeblood of anti-Semitism, and there’s a purpose to Tlaib’s false history. It serves to bolster the lie that the Jews waged war on a friendly and welcoming people, stole their land, and condemned them to ruin. Anti-Semitism depends on lies because its very motive is to hide the truth of one’s own failings and lay blame on the Jews. The history of anti-Semitism is, in a sense, a history of wicked fabrications: From Jewish deicide, to the blood libel, to the claims of Jewish sorcery, to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, to the idea that Jews were tipped off about 9/11, to the claim that Jews push the U.S. into wars, to the outrage over Jews supposedly buying politicians, to lies about Israel’s founding.
Tlaib and Omar are exemplars of this tradition, peddlers of anti-Semitic folktales. In addition to spouting revisionist history, Tlaib has accused America’s Israel-supporters of dual loyalty. Omar has done that and more, claiming that Israel has hypnotized the world into not seeing the evil it perpetrates, and stating that America’s pro-Israel policies are simply purchased by those who support the Jewish state.
They’re also Democratic congresswomen with the full support of their party. “Policing my words, twisting & turning them to ignite vile attacks on me will not work,” Tlaib tweeted recently. “All of you who are trying to silence me will fail miserably.” She’s right. You can’t reverse rot. It goes in one direction and doesn’t stop until it has destroyed its host. (h/t Failexa)
NBC late-night host Seth Meyers, an open supporter of Democrats, allowed Tlaib to provide "context" for her comments in a sycophantic interview on Monday. Tlaib again said her ancestors died or gave up their "human dignity" to "provide a safe haven for Jews in our world," and she said she wanted to honor that. Her remarks were again false, but Meyers provided no pushback.
"All of us deserve human dignity, no matter our backgrounds, no matter our ethnicity, no matter even our political opinions, we all deserve that kind of equality and justice. And, you know, for me, I wanted to uplift that and bring that to light and it was unfortunate," Tlaib said. "You know, I got a text message from a friend who's like, ‘Hey, next time, you know, really clarify. Maybe talk like a fourth grader because maybe the racist idiots would understand you better.'"
The crowd laughed and applauded.
"I will continue to speak truth to power and continue to uplift my grandmother through love and that's all I can do is continue to share the human impact of what it means to be Palestinian in the occupied territories," Tlaib said.
Meyers groveled that it was good to have a Palestinian perspective, since there wasn't one in the media. The same host jumped on conservative pundit Meghan McCain last week for criticizing anti-Semitic remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), leading McCain to ask if he was the congresswoman's publicist. Meyers insisted he was trying to find "common ground," although Meyers doesn't trouble to hide his liberal politics and cried over Hillary Clinton's election loss.
Media outlets like the Washington Post focused on Republican criticism of Tlaib's use of the word "calming" regarding the Holocaust and deemed it a false smear to accuse her of anti-Semitism. Liberal New York Magazine writer Jonathan Chait complained Tlaib was being criticized for saying something "nice" about Israel, although he wrote in the same article that Tlaib "regrets the establishment of the state of Israel."
Cruz: Extreme left has a history of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel hatred
Rashida Tlaib and Her Twisted Comment About the Holocaust
Jew-hatred given a pass by Democratic Congress
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-New York) tweeted: “Totally unacceptable that @SpeakerPelosi had Omar Suleiman give the opening prayer yesterday in the House. He compares Israel to the Nazis & calls them terrorists, supports Muslim Brotherhood, incites violence calling for a Palestinian intifada & the end of Zionism, etc. Bad call.”Steny Hoyer defends Rashida Tlaib over Holocaust comments
The only reaction from the left has been to attack critics as Islamophobes. This is the standard leftist tactic: accuse your opponents of what you yourself are doing, just make your accusation louder.
Suleiman is the racist, not those who quote his statements.
The silence of congressional Democrats is telling, and of course, none of the Democratic presidential candidates criticized the choice of this imam, either.
This is consistent with their outrageous silence about the hundreds of rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip last week. Every single one of the Democratic frontrunners – former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg – remained silent about the attacks.
How can you claim to support Israel if you do not condemn Hamas for shooting rockets at Israeli civilians? The silence of these candidates suggests their polling tells them that supporting Israel is no longer a winning position in the Democratic Party. Think about that.
Vice President Mike Pence last Friday again called for freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) to be removed from the prestigious House Foreign Affairs Committee for making anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments while in Congress. But there she remains, along with her aggressive supporter and fellow Jew-hater, freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan).
But just because Democrats in Congress have concurred in elevating Omar to the Foreign Affairs Committee does not mean that we, the voters, have to be silent.
Steny Hoyer, a pro-Israel stalwart in Congress and the House majority leader, came to the defense of fellow Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who has come under attack because of her remarks on the Holocaust.Shapiro Blasts Tlaib's Anti-Semitic Remarks: The ‘Precise Reverse Of History’
“If you read Rep. @RashidaTlaib’s comments, it is clear that President Trump and Congressional Republicans are taking them out of context,” Hoyer, a longtime Maryland congressman who leads a biennial pro-Israel trip of House colleagues to the country, said on Twitter. “They must stop, and they owe her an apology.”
Hoyer’s defense is significant because he leads the pro-Israel faction in the Democratic Party. He and Tlaib, a Palestinian American, have clashed because she wants to launch a pro-Palestinian tour of the West Bank to compete with the tour he leads, which is sponsored by an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Appearing on Fox News’ “The Story” with host Martha MacCullum on Monday, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro explained why the remarks of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib about the Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel were anti-Semitic, noting, “She creates this utterly fictional account where Palestinian Arabs were welcoming Jews into the British Palestine. That, of course, is not only untrue; it is the precise reverse of history.” He continued, “She, along with Ilhan Omar, is part of an anti-Semitic Democratic Party now being protected by the Democratic leadership.”
When MacCullum asked about Tlaib’s further remarks in which she pushed for a one-state solution and seemingly pushed for a non-religious state in which Palestinians and Jews could live together, Shapiro asserted, “Very odd that she doesn't seem to care about the 50-odd Muslim states that exist on planet Earth if she’s so interested in the separation of church and state and disestablishment of any official religion.”
MacCullum began by playing a clip of Tlaib saying, “There’s always kind of a calming feeling, I tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports. And just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews …”
MacCullum stated, "Those comments from Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib have set up a wave of backlash tonight, the president tweeting this: 'Democrat Rep. Tlaib is being slammed for her horrible and highly insensitive statement on the Holocaust. She obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?'" MacCullum asked Shapiro for his reaction to what Tlaib said.
Shapiro responded:
There’s the stuff that she said that’s anti-Semitic and then there is the stuff that she said that is not anti-Semitic. The stuff that she said that is not anti-Semitic is the stuff where she actually laments the Holocaust and so people are getting that wrong; the stuff that she said that is actually anti-Semitic is the part where she talks about, effectively, Israel being created post-Holocaust as a sop to to the Jews. That is historically inaccurate and wipes away the entire Jewish history of the land, which is 3,000 years old. The Balfour declaration, signed in 1917, already started establishing a Jewish Israel.
And then she creates this utterly fictional account where Palestinian Arabs were welcoming Jews into the British Palestine. That, of course, is not only untrue; it is the precise reverse of history. The leader of the Palestinian Arabs at the time, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini: he was an ally of Hitler; he was calling for the Final Solution to be implemented in the Middle East; he was stumping for genocide against the Jews throughout his entire career. Palestinian Arab resistance to Jews living in British Palestine ended with the British actually refusing Jewish refugees from Europe in the midst of the Holocaust. So she is rewriting history to anti-Semitic effect here.
Apparently a lot of people seem ignorant of basic Middle East history so here is a quick summary to explain why Tlaib's comments were so offensive: pic.twitter.com/efgXwiVQc7— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) May 13, 2019
Yisrael Medad: Rashida Tlaib wants to rob Jews of their history
The simple truth is that Arabs were constantly, consistently and continually violent in their relations with Jews. Before the Balfour Declaration and after. Before the Six-Day War and after. Arab terror was a principle (“Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine,” Article 9 PLO Covenant). The object was to kill Jews. The object still is to kill Jews. There is no differentiation between soldier and civilian or “settler.” All Jewish residential locations are “colonies” and “settlements” within Green Line or in Judea and Samaria.The myth that Palestinian Arabs helped Jews in WW2.
What Tlaib is pushing is not only a cover-up of the historical record, which I will summarize shortly; she is fashioning an old message into a new narrative form. It is that thanks to the Arabs that Jews have a home. And that message can work, Tlaib believes, not only because she will hammer away at it – bolstered by a sophisticated support apparatus and the nigh-ignorant young Jewish demographic that could and should take her on but doesn’t – but because simply she leaves out all the unhelpful aspects of that period.
Murderous Arabs riots in which Jews lost their lives and property, during which Jews were injured and women raped, took place, initiated by Muslim and Christian Arab communal and religious leaders in 1920, 1921, 1929 and for almost three full years during 1936-39. After 1933, that violence was increasingly funded by both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was purposefully in support of a racial anti-Jewish ideology adopted by local Arab leaders.
And it was successful, politically, in that it convinced the British Mandatory to severely restrict Jewish immigration into the country thus causing Jews to be stranded in Europe, prey to Hitler’s genocidal program.
Arabs were actively involved in the Holocaust. The Mufti planned crematoria in the Dothan Valley.
BDS propagandists love spreading the false story that goes along these lines: “Palestinian Arabs welcomed Jewish World War II refugees into their land while the rest of the world shunned them. But those Jews took advantage of their hospitality and took over Palestine.”.Ilhan Omar Viciously Attacks Liz Cheney For Calling Out Tlaib's Anti-Semitism
This is a popular theme in Arab, Muslim and BDS circles, is being shared thousands of times on social media, and seems to be influencing members of the US Congress so it deserves debunking.
Propaganda full of falsehood that distorts history is dangerous, especially on social media.
- It’s not their land. Before 1918, the land was part of the Turkish Ottoman empire. Jews and Arabs lived there. Arabs were not sovereign.
- Palestine wasn’t a sovereign country. It was a British Mandate set up by the League of Nations for the purpose of constituting a Jewish National Home.The legally-binding Mandate of Palestine (Article 6) required the British Administration to facilitate Jewish immigration. Jews had (and still have) a legal right to immigrate to Palestine, no-one was doing them a favor.
- 1936–1939 Arab revolt. credit: Wikipedia commons.
- Palestinian Arabs didn’t welcome Jewish refugees. In fact, they violently opposed Jewish immigration. During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt, Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine rebelled against the British administration of the Palestine Mandate, demanding the end of Jewish immigration. The revolt included a wave of terrorism in which 300 Jews were murdered as well as 260 members of the British Security Forces.
- As a result of Arab violence, the British government published the White Paper of 1939, a policy which severely restricted Jewish immigration to 75,000 for 5 years, compared to 164,000 Jewish immigrants arrived in Palestine in the 4 years between 1933 and 1936. This meant that during World War II, which erupted just 4 months after the White Paper was published, only a small fraction of the Jews trying to escape from Europe were able to legally immigrate to Palestine. Millions were forced to remain in Europe and were later murdered by the Nazis.
- The Jews resorted to limited clandestine immigration (Aliyah Bet) and were often stopped by the British on the way to Palestine. The British held tens of thousands of Jews in detention camps in Cyprus and other locations. Over 1,600 drowned at sea.
- The main Palestinian Arab leader of the period, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was a close ally of Hitler. The Mufti opposed all immigration of Jews into Palestine, and during the war he campaigned against the transfer of Jewish refugees to Palestine. The Mufti’s numerous letters appealing to various governmental authorities to prevent Jewish refugees from emigrating to Palestine have been republished and widely cited as documentary evidence of his participative support for the Nazi genocide.
- Husseini intervened on 13 May 1943 with the German Foreign Office and successfully blocked transfers of Jews from Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania to Palestine.
- In June 1943 the Mufti recommended to the Hungarian minister that it would be better to send Jews in Hungary to concentration camps in Poland rather than let them find asylum in Palestine.
- In September 1943, intense negotiations to rescue 500 Jewish children from the Arbe concentration camp collapsed due to the objection of al-Husseini who blocked the children’s departure to Turkey because they would end up in Palestine.
- On 25 July 1944 Husseini wrote to the Hungarian foreign minister to register his objection to the release of certificates for 900 Jewish children and 100 adults for transfer to Palestine and recommended sending them to Poland instead.
It spreads very quickly and apparently influences decision makers, like Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
It’s our duty to correct and debunk these lies.
On Monday, after Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) (who is fearless in calling out anti-Semitism) had properly called out Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) for her latest display of it, Tlaib’s good friend Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) attacked Cheney with a tweet that was both vicious and self-pitying, ranting, “Give it up, we all know you never met a Muslim you didn’t want to vilify! Your deep seeded hate and Islamophobia might be a tool to rally your base, but won’t get rid your colleagues. You just have to deal.”Liz Cheney Responds After Tlaib Doubles Down On Inaccurate Holocaust Claim: ‘Most Fourth Graders Know What The Holocaust Was’
In response to Tlaib’s anti-Semitic remarks about the Holocaust, Cheney had tweeted, “Surely now @SpeakerPelosi & @LeaderHoyer will finally take action against vile anti-Semitism in their ranks. This must cross the line, even for them. Rashida Tlaib says thinking of the Holocaust provides her a ‘calming feeling.’”
Tlaib had stated:
There’s always kind of a calming feeling, I tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports. And just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, and it was forced on them.
Cheney has been relentless in criticizing Omar for her anti-Semitism; in March, after Omar’s series of anti-Semitic remarks in early 2019, Democrats could not even condemn them specifically, but put forth a resolution condemning all forms of hate, including Islamophobia. Cheney stated, "Today’s resolution vote was a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile anti-Semitism. While I stand whole heartedly against discrimination outlined in this resolution, the language before the House today did not address the issue that is front and center."
Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney fired back on Tuesday after Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib defended her false Holocaust claims and questioned the intelligence of her critics.Washington Post Defends Rashida Tlaib's Holocaust Comments, Attacks Republicans
“I think most fourth graders know what the Holocaust was and she apparently doesn’t,” Cheney replied while appearing on “Fox and Friends.” “We have a situation today where those of us who are elected officials, in particularly elected officials in the House of Representatives where this anti-Semitism is rising within our body, have an obligation to stand up and stop it.”
Cheney’s comments were in response to Tlaib’s appearance on the “Skullduggery” podcast where she revealed that when she envisions the Holocaust, she gets a “calming feeling” because her Palestinian ancestors provided a “safe haven” for Jewish people.
The Washington Post has addressed inflammatory comments by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) about the Holocaust by focusing on the Republican response to her statements, rather than on Tlaib’s own remarks.Commentary Magazine Podcast: When the Holocaust Is ‘Calming’
The Post‘s tactic reflects an increasingly common approach by mainstream media outlets when forced to cover the latest extreme remark by a member of the Democratic caucus: paint the Republicans as the extremists by casting their reactions as overzealous.
Tlaib made the flagrantly false claim in a recent Skulduggery podcast (at 28:11 in the audio) that Palestinians had offered Jews a “safe haven” after the Holocaust.
In reality, the major Palestinian leadership figure of the time, Hajj Muhammad Amin al-Husseini, collaborated with Nazi Germany, and Palestinians violently opposed Jewish immigration — before, during, and after the Second World War.
Tlaib also made the awkward remark that “[t]here’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust,” meaning that she felt reassured about the “fact” [sic] that Palestinians had helped Jews (they did not).
Tlaib brought up the Holocaust on her own, by way of defending her call for the destruction of Israel through the creation of a single Palestinian state.
The Post described the controversy in an article headlined, “House Republicans criticize Rep. Tlaib over remarks on Holocaust, Israel.” The newspaper did not cover Tlaib’s remarks on their own.
Today’s podcast features an effort to parse just what it was Rep. Rashida Tlaib was trying to say in a bizarre interview about Palestinians and Jews that has once again opened up the question of why there is an anti-Semitism explosion and why the mainstream media and Democrats are refusing to confront it.
Hey, @RashidaTlaib, here is testimony from the Nuremberg Trials about your 'hero' Haj Amin al-Husseini. Makes ya proud, eh? pic.twitter.com/pQzLyrIG87— TheNatSecRoundtable (@NSRoundtable) May 13, 2019
Rashida Tlaib Plans Relaxing Spa Week at Auschwitz (satire)
Noting that she really needs some pampering after a stressful week in Congress, Representative Rashida Tlaib has booked a trip to Poland for a week of spa treatment at Auschwitz.PreOccupiedTerritory: Iran Insists Arming Hamas, Islamic Jihad To Create Safe Haven For Jews (satire)
“Dealing with all this nagging from Republicans and Jews has really been terrible for my skin,” said Tlaib, referring to criticism over recent comments about the Holocaust. “I need to go someplace quiet and relaxing, and no place gives me a calming feeling quite like Auschwitz.”
Already, news of her trip has led to blowback from Republicans and some Jewish organizations. The congresswoman was also informed that the concentration camp, which is now a memorial and museum, does not in fact have a spa. Tlaib, however, attributed the criticism to misogyny and Islamophobia, and said the denial that there is a spa at Auschwitz was simply a negotiating tactic.
“These Jews will do anything for an extra buck,” she said.
Leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps voiced frustration today with widespread misunderstanding of its role in arming, training, and funding Islamist militant groups throughout the Middle East, arguing that their chief aim in supplying the terrorists with weapons and other assistance is to accomplish what US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) described as creating a “safe haven” for Jews in the region, as she described Palestinian Arabs doing before and during the Holocaust.Coverage Of Valerie Plame’s Run For Congress Ignores Her Anti-Semitism
Qassem Solemeini, chief of the IRGC, released a statement Tuesday lambasting Western media and diplomatic depictions of the organization’s activities as malign, calling on them to clarify that the arming, training, advising, and otherwise assisting of Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and other violent Islamist groups forms part of Iran’s benevolent strategy to welcome the Jews to a place of security, much as they enjoyed under the British Mandate for Palestine, when the Mufti of Jerusalem allied himself openly with Hitler and fomented violent uprisings to prevent the British from allowing Jews to reach Palestine from Nazi genocide and persecution.
“It’s irresponsible to ignore the purpose of our activities,” insisted Solemeini in the statement. “Casting IRGC operations and policies in a negative light only serves the forces of instability and colonialism. In fact we harbor a tremendous concern for Jews, who without the assistance of Hamas and the like would have forgotten their historic role as dhimmi. Hamas is just trying to protect them from the horrific alternative.”
After exploiting her story in a book and movie, Plame joined the board of the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-nuclear nonprofit group. Ploughshares had already stirred controversy by funding the “echo chamber” organized by President Obama’s aide Ben Rhodes to push a nuclear deal with Iran. These efforts included $100,000 to NPR in an apparent pay-to-play scandal, as well as $500,000 to J Street, which assisted the White House in pressuring Jewish groups to support the pact.David Collier: A Jewish life: assaulted in the street, insulted by the BBC
While on the Ploughshares board, Plame used her Twitter account to promote an article by another former CIA officer titled “America’s Jews Are Driving America’s Wars.” When decent people objected, she did not apologize, but responded that retweets are not an endorsement, although it was not a retweet.
Plame added: “very provocative, but thoughtful. Many neocon hawks ARE Jewish . . . Read the entire article and try, just for a moment, to put aside your biases and think clearly.” The “thoughtful” article at issue asserted that Jews “own the media,” Jews should wear labels while on national television, and their beliefs are as dangerous as “a bottle of rat poison.”
Plame later claimed she “messed up” and only “skimmed” the article before sharing it. Her claim was laughable. She previously urged people to read the whole article. Plame also had a history of sharing articles from the same source, including one claiming “Israeli-occupied Congress confronts the White House.” Plame further shared a 9/11 conspiracy theory involving “dancing Israelis.”
Her so-called apology continues to maintain she acted carelessly. And she is still spouting that line, most recently on NBC:
The BBC goes full rogueOne to watch on BBC Two
After I was assaulted, I got home to watch a programme on BBC Two called ‘one day in Gaza‘. This issue I wish to address is not one of perception, narrative or bias. We need to talk about media fraud. There is Arabic for the word ‘Jew’: ‘yehud’ ‘yehudi’ ‘al-yahud’ all cover it:
But in the programme the BBC did not translate the word ‘Yehud’ to ‘Jew’ at all, instead they mistranslated it to the word ‘Israeli’.
This is not the first time they have done this either. In 2015 BBC Watch pulled them up. I have heard the argument for doing this. I heard it in a London University during an anti-Israel event as a video was played – ‘they say Jew, but they don’t mean Jew, they mean Israeli’. Nothing but empty excuses and devoid of all reason. This is nothing but BBC Two pushing raw Hamas propaganda. I have two simple questions:
What would Hamas call me?
What would Hamas call a non-Jewish Israeli?
I would be a ‘yehud’ and the non Jewish Israeli wouldn’t be. This does not just expose the lie, but leaves the BBC guilty of pushing a blatant pro-terrorist propaganda as fact on British TV. The Arab who uses this term says ‘Jew’, he means ‘Jew’ and he knows the difference between a ‘Jew’ and a ‘non-Jew’.
Inexcusable BBC bias
There is absolutely no reason to distort the translation at all, other than to buy into false propaganda, deliberately hide raw antisemitism and push a false narrative onto viewers. What the BBC did is deliberate and deceitful. This shielding of the antisemitism pushes poison directly into British public discourse. They hide the racist hate so people cannot see it – this in turn makes any ‘Jewish’ response irrational.
The BBC have a duty to tell the viewers the truth. If they wish to, they can choose to relay to the viewers the propaganda excuse (‘they say that they don’t actually mean Jews’), but they have no right to distort the translation and deceive the viewers in the way they did. It is shameful, disgraceful reporting that misdirects viewers and places British Jews in danger. When those Arabs say ‘Jews’ they mean ‘Jews’ – and they include me in that description. The BBC lied to its viewers. They should not be allowed to get away with it. Yesterday I was assaulted in the street and saw the truth assaulted in the home. One of the attackers is as yet unknown, the other was the BBC.
Tonight – May 13th – at 9 p.m. UK time, BBC Two will air a programme titled “One Day in Gaza”.BBC slammed for mistranslating 'Yahud' as 'Israel'
“Film marking a year since one of the deadliest days of violence in the Gaza Strip for a generation. Made by award-winning documentary maker Olly Lambert, One Day in Gaza examines, moment by moment, what happened on that fateful day.
14 May 2018 started as a day of mass protest at Gaza’s border with Israel, and would end as one of the most deadly days in Gaza for a generation. For weeks, Palestinians had been protesting along the border fence, but tensions were running particularly high due to the opening of the new United States embassy to Israel in Jerusalem – the controversial step ordered by Donald Trump. As Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and other senior US officials gathered in Jerusalem to inaugurate the new embassy, tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered at sites along the Gaza border, barely 40 miles away. As the sun set that day, over 60 Palestinians were dead or dying, and over two thousand lay injured, many by live ammunition.
North West Friends of Israel in the UK expressed dismay on Tuesday after BBC Two aired a program titled One Day in Gaza and mistranslated the word “Yahud,” which means “Jew,” as “Israeli.”Israeli ‘Canary Mission’: New website fingers ‘anti-Zionist’ academics
“When Palestinians use the word ‘Yahud’ they mean ‘Jew.’ It does not mean Israeli," the NW Friends of Israel Twitter account said. “Why do you mistranslate ‘Yahud?' Are you scared of showing that Palestinians want to kill Jews?”
A section of the BBC program includes in interview with a young Palestinian man who uses the term “Yahud” in Arabic three times and in each instance it appears in in a subtitled translation as “Israeli.”
Writer David Collier also wondered about the translation, claiming that the program was “being deliberately deceptive.” He asserted that the Arab interviewee had said “Jew” in Arabic and meant “Jew.”
In 2015 a similar controversy took place where a young Gazan had used the term “Yahud” and the BBC had also translated it as “Israeli.” After an inquiry in 2015, the BBC responded that “we took advice from a number of translators in Gaza and London and were advised that the most accurate interpretation of what the contributors were saying in this context was ‘Israeli.'” But Sussex Friends of Israel pointed out at the time that the BBC had written in a separate article that “Al Yahud is Arabic for ‘the Jew.'” In that instance a council candidate in Derby had called Ed Miliband “Al Yahud” or “the Jew.”
A right-wing Israeli organization said Tuesday it had launched a new website listing Israeli university professors who are “anti-Zionist” and invited students to file complaints about lecturers who “preach anti-Israel rhetoric.”Israel-Haters at Brandeis
The Im Tirzu movement said the website, Know Your Professor, already lists 85 academics it alleges are involved in activity such as promoting boycotts against Israel or accusing the Israel Defense Forces of war crimes.
“There is no parallel in the world to this phenomenon of hypocrisy and ungratefulness, in which these professors earn their living at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer yet at the same time work to boycott and slander them,” Im Tirtzu CEO Matan Peleg said in an emailed statement.
Im Tirzu says it is active on 20 Israeli campuses to “protect Zionism when it comes under attack within Israel.” The group has gained notoriety over the past several years for, among other things, posting ads accusing prominent left-wing activists of being foreign “moles” in Israel and supporters of terror.
It’s no surprise to read about college students calling for the destruction of Israel. But there’s something particularly painful when they are students at a university named after one of the foremost advocates of the Jewish state.
Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, was established in 1948, because young American Jews were being excluded from many American universities. Hostility towards Jews was what brought Brandeis into existence. And now, hostility towards Jews has reared its ugly head at Brandeis itself.
In recent weeks, Israel-haters twice attacked a pro-Israel art exhibit on the Brandeis campus called “Art Over Hate,” created by the group “Artists 4 Israel.”
In the first assault, they painted the words “FREE PALESTINE” in huge letters over one of the exhibit panels. Let’s be clear: “Free Palestine” means destroy Israel. Today, 100 percent of the Arabs in Gaza are ruled by Hamas, and 98 percent of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria are ruled by the Palestinian Authority. The only thing left to “free,” therefore, is Israel itself.
According to the definition of antisemitism used by the US government and the European Union, “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” — that is, calling for the destruction of the Jewish state — is antisemitic.
The hosts of the “Art Over Hate” exhibit painted over the antisemitic “FREE PALESTINE” defacement. But the antisemites quickly returned, pasting a similar sign over the artwork.
Such ugliness from a family famous for its so-called "beauty" https://t.co/vuti0jYxLO— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) May 14, 2019
MTL Blog Wrongly Portrays Israel Independence Day Celebrations as “Protests” and “Demonstrations”
In what can only be described as an effort politicize an a-political event and to turn a celebration into a controversy, on May 10, MTL Blog wrongly portrayed Israel Independence Day celebrations in Montreal as “protests” and “demonstrations”.An “Unmissable” Exhibit on Auschwitz Falls into the Familiar Trap of Universalizing the Holocaust
The Mtl Blog “article” was written by staff writer Alexandra Toutant and the article featured the following headlines:
The article also said that: “Streets have been closed to allow the demonstrators to move through the streets.”
It’s false and terribly misleading a to characterize a pro-Israel rally to celebrate Israel’s 71st birthday and its independence day as a “demonstration” and “protest”. This was click-bait journalism at its worst.
To Edward Rothstein, Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away, which recently opened at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, is “unmissable,” thanks primarily to the hundreds of photographs and artifacts on display. But it also falls prey to the all-too-familiar tendency to turn the Holocaust into a “warning beacon”:Jewish woman stabbed, seriously injured in Sweden
Here is an event scarred by singularity—the attempt to eradicate a people that numbered in the millions, living in more than a dozen countries in the world’s most politically sophisticated continent, who were executed with meticulous, obsessive brutality in the midst of a world war. After three- quarters of a century, it still stymies efforts at understanding.
Somehow, though, that singularity inspires insistence on the opposite, as if the Holocaust were simply the result of fascism or racism or intolerance. The Holocaust’s presumed repeatability—if not imminence—strips it of particularity and diminishes it by turning it into an ever-ready analogy. . . .
In the [exhibit’s] introductory section, Jews seem like afterthoughts, secondary to more fundamental political hatreds. . . . But from the very beginning, as Hitler made clear in 1925’s Mein Kampf (we see Heinrich Himmler’s annotated copy), Jews were at the center of Nazi obsessions. The exhibition acknowledges that Jews were a “special target,” but it seems intent on minimizing that issue. The result is that Germany’s expulsion of the Jews and then the Final Solution seem to erupt without context. . . .
A Jewish woman was critically injured when she was stabbed Tuesday in the city of Helsingborg in Sweden, Swedish media reported.German officials say anti-Semitic incidents up 20% in past year
It was not immediately clear whether a hate crime was suspected.
The woman, a member of the Jewish community in her 60s, was attacked in the street by an unknown assailant who fled, according to Swedish daily Aftonbladet.
Police said they were treating the case as an attempted murder and launched a manhunt for the suspect.
The newspaper quoted a witness to the stabbing saying the woman cried out in English, “Help me! Help me!”
Northwestern Scania police spokesperson Eva-Lotta Hermansson said the assailant was believed to be a man and that he escaped on foot.
German security officials said Tuesday that the number of anti-Semitic and anti-foreigner incidents rose in the country last year, despite an overall fall in politically motivated crimes.Israel Sign Defaced With Palestinian Slogans at UC San Diego Amid Reported Rise in ‘Hate Vandalism’
Anti-Semitic incidents rose by 19.6 percent to 1,799 in 2018, with 89.1% of them involving far-right perpetrators.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas commented on the figures, noting at a conference inaugurating a European network to combat anti-Semitism that hatred of Jews in Germany was “not an imported product,” German news agency dpa reported.
However, Maas said that in the fight against anti-Semitism, crimes by immigrants should also be looked at “just as decisively.”
The report did not give exact numbers for attacks committed by radical Islamists, only saying the government recorded a decline in 2018. It said a possible reason cited by the Interior Ministry was the Islamic State terror group losing significant ground in Syria and Iraq.
A sign celebrating Israel at the University of California–San Diego (UCSD) was vandalized last week, shortly after similar artwork at Brandeis University was defaced.Holocaust survivor has emotional meeting with US veteran who liberated her camp
Located at the UCSD’s Graffiti Art Park, a space for student expression, the artwork was put up by the campus club Tritons For Israel with the help of Artists 4 Israel, which engages in advocacy through art. It featured the word Israel, on a background with a Star of David and the words “peace,” “coexistence,” and “love.”
The piece stood beside another artwork that featured a Palestinian flag and the words, “Justice in Palestine.”
“Our students wanted a conversation between the artwork and to share their viewpoint but to, deliberately, not do so in a way that would infringe on the right and the creation of those with whom they disagreed,” Artists 4 Israel said.
In a statement on Thursday, which coincided with Israel’s Independence Day, Tritons For Israel said many of its members had woken up to news that their artwork was vandalized.
Messages including “Free Palestine,” “F*ck settlers,” “No settlers,” “Palestine, not the settler state,” were written across the piece.
A Holocaust survivor welcomed a US Army veteran to her suburban Detroit home on Monday and thanked him for taking part in the 1945 liberation of the German concentration camp where she was being held.US Mayors Visit ‘Startup Nation,’ Seeking Bilateral Business Cooperation
Sophie Tajch Klisman, 89, greeted Doug Harvey with a hug and thanked the 95-year-old for taking part in the liberation of the Salzwedel camp, telling him: “You gave me my life.”
Harvey said he “can’t take credit for the entire 15,000 guys in” his 84th Infantry Division, to which Klisman replied: “But you were one of them … and I’m very fortunate to meet you.”
The two then went inside Klisman’s house in Commerce Township, sat on the living room couch and chatted with reporters about their experiences during World War II.
“They rolled in with tanks and came and opened the gates. And they were telling us: ‘The war is over. You are free. You survived,'” Klisman said. “So, that kind of feeling. We were barely alive. I mean, we were all like skeletons. A lot of the soldiers that looked at us, they cried.”
Harvey, of nearby Sterling Heights, learned about Klisman while reading a recent story in The Detroit News about her plan to return to Poland and Israel as part of the “From Holocaust to Independence” mission of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF).
A bipartisan delegation of American mayors is visiting Israel for the week with the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange for intensive dialogue and briefings in order to seek opportunities between their city and the Jewish state.In 2018, a Quarter of the Companies Samsung Catalyst Invested In Were Israeli Startups
The educational seminar marks the first delegation under the auspices of a Memorandum of Understanding between the US Conference of Mayors and AJC, the highlight of which is an annual mayors’ delegation to Israel.
The delegation is chaired by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
The seminar is intended to provide these policymakers with a firsthand understanding of Israel, dubbed the “Startup Nation” for its economic, technological and social innovation and entrepreneurship. The mayors will learn about Israel’s democracy, diverse society and regional challenges.
They will meet with political and social figures, including Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, high-ranking government officials, leaders of Israel’s minority communities, and Jewish and Arab civil society leaders.
Samsung Catalyst, the evergreen multi-stage fund of Samsung Electronics, had invested $300 million throughout 2018, according to its head Shankar Chandran. A quarter of the companies it invested in, Chandran said, were Israeli startups. Speaking at the annual Samsung Innovation Summit held Monday in Tel Aviv, Chandran said Samsung has been picking up the pace of its investment in Israel in recent years.You know you’re a Zionist when...
Among Samsung Catalyst’s portfolio companies are Israel-based LiDAR startup Innoviz Technologies and vehicle-to-vehicle communications chips developer Autotalks. In 2018, the fund invested in AI Development Tools Company Allegro.AI and 3D imaging company Mantis Vision.
Samsung has two additional investment arms that operate in Israel: Samsung Ventures, which sources technologies and investments for the company’s business units, and Samsung Next, which focuses on early stage software companies. The company also operates a local innovation center.
You know you’re a Zionist when you cheer for the Israeli chef during Food Network competitions. You know you’re a Zionist when you’ve never gone to a Marvel Comics movie but you’re on line for Wonder Woman the day it opens because it stars Gal Gadot.10 Places To StandWithUs in Tel Aviv
And when you buy a SodaStream machine, even though seltzer gives you a stomachache, you know for sure you’re a Zionist.
Zionists in America have, traditionally, bought Israeli products whenever and wherever they happened upon them. But until recently, the choice was limited. Jaffa oranges might as well have had Israeli flags pasted on them. They were the quintessential Israeli product and American Zionists took great pride each time they were displayed in markets or served at their dinner tables. Same reaction for Carmel wines. Even the sweet syrupy varieties were exciting for a Zionist.
Today, choices abound. A Zionist today sees “Made in Israel” on products on store shelves, on clothing labels, and sees television programs modeled after original Israeli programming. They see and read and hear about Israeli technology and inventions in the news: Israeli inventions, Israeli start-ups bought up by international corporations for millions and billions of dollars, and nobody leaves home without Waze on their phone.
The almost month-long period between Independence Day and Jerusalem Day is a time that naturally encourages pride in Israel’s accomplishments, and American Zionists embrace that feeling of pride.
But the sad fact is that with each passing year, there are fewer and fewer American Zionists. Fewer and fewer Zionists are living in the goldeneh medina – literally “the golden country,” but euphemistically, the land of opportunity.