Caroline Glick: Time to cut JVP down to size
Jewish Voice for Peace is a marginal group, by all accounts. The Jewish-run, anti-Zionist organization has perhaps a couple of dozen employees and anywhere between a few dozen and a couple of hundred committed activists in the US. Its positions – that Israel is evil and must be destroyed and that Jews should be disenfranchised and ostracized because they support Israel – is anathema to the overwhelming majority of American Jews.
Yet despite the fact that its bigoted positions are rejected by just about everyone, this group, which the Anti-Defamation League has listed as “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the United States,” is becoming increasingly influential in the US.
As the ADL report on JVP notes, in recent years, the little group has received millions of dollars in donations and has vastly expanded its operations. It has 35 chapters across the US including at several campuses. It has nearly a half million followers on Facebook and 75,000 followers on Twitter.
JVP doesn’t only attack Jewish supporters of Israel. It also attacks Judaism. JVP’s “rabbinical council” issues resolutions and publications in the name of the Jewish religion that are inherently antisemitic.
In 2012 for instance, JVP’s “rabbinical council” published an “alternative Haggada,” which included anti-Israel themes inside the Passover story of the liberation of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. One of the four cups of wine for the Passover Seder was dedicated to the BDS movement. Readers were instructed to add an olive to the traditional Seder plate to symbolize Palestinian suffering under Israeli rule.
JVP is open about its determination to serve as a Jewish fig leaf for antisemitic groups and operations. Its website states this mission explicitly, arguing that the group’s Jewish veneer gives it a “particular legitimacy in voicing an alternative view of American and Israeli actions and policies” and the ability to distinguish “between real antisemitism and the cynical manipulation of that issue.”
Melanie Phillips: In Britain and Poland, Anti-Semitism’s Ugly History Repeats Itself
In Britain, liberals are in a similar state of denial over their anti-Semitism. This is because they view themselves as anti-fascist and anti-racist and so think it is simply impossible they could be anti-Jew.Delusions of Justice
In fact, anti-Semitism on the left has a long lineage. Marx himself, after all, was virulently anti-Jewish. There’s more to it, though, than just being anti-capitalist or even anti-Zionist. The modern left has junked Biblical morality for libertarian lifestyle choice. And the Jews represent the conscience they are at such pains to deny.
I came up against this years ago without realizing the full implications until much later. As I recount in my memoir Guardian Angel, also published recently, when in the 1990s I started writing about the undermining of the traditional family I was called an “Old Testament fundamentalist.” And when in 1982 I first questioned the double standard over Israel at the anti-racist Guardian newspaper where I then worked, I was told that since the Jews claimed moral superiority over everyone else they should be judged by higher moral standards.
Despite such attitudes, the left believes that because it stands for the betterment of the world it embodies unimpeachable virtue. Anyone not on the left is therefore not just wrong but evil. Only the right can be anti-Semitic. It is therefore impossible for the left to be so. If they were to admit it, their entire moral and political personality would fall apart.
Anti-Semitism, however, is not created by one viewpoint or another. It is a form of derangement which observes no political or cultural boundaries. Whether in London or Warsaw, if it is not recognized as such it will not merely remain a permanent stain on those societies. It will eventually destroy them.
American Jews should wake up to which side their most dangerous enemies are on.
Since the election of Donald Trump, prominent American Jews, notably in the Reform movement and among the intelligentsia, have lamented the resurgence of right-wing anti-Semitism, seeing it as the greatest threat to their community in the United States. The rise of xenophobic and often marginally anti-Jewish parties in Eastern Europe—even with fewer Jews left there to persecute—has deepened the alarm. Yet by far the greatest threat to Jews, not only here but also abroad, comes not from zombie fascist retreads, but from the Left, which is increasingly making its peace with anti-Semitism.
This shift was first made clear to me about 15 years ago when, along with my wife Mandy, whose mother is a Holocaust survivor from France, I visited the legendary Nazi-hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld. They predicted that the primary threat to Jews in Europe increasingly would come not from the centuries-old French Right, some of whom had supported the Nazis, but from the Left, in alliance with a growing Muslim population. Time has proved their assertion to be, for the most part, on target. In Sweden, for instance, never known for its persecution of Jews, only 5 percent of all anti-Semitic incidents, notes the New York Times, involved the far Right, while Muslims and leftists accounted for the rest. Germany’s recent rash of anti-Semitic incidents has coincided with the mass migration of people from regions where hostility to both Jews and Israel is commonplace. At European universities, where pro-Nazi sentiments were once widely shared, anti-Israel sentiments are increasingly de rigueur. The growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, aimed at cutting all ties with Israel, often allies itself with anti-Jewish Islamist groups, some with eliminationist agendas for Palestine’s Jews.
Of course, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are not identical. One can criticize some Israeli policies—as many American Jews do, for example, on the expansion of settlements—without being an anti-Semite. But, as the liberal French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy argues, targeting the Jewish state while ignoring far more brutal, homophobic, and profoundly misogynist Muslim states represents a double standard characteristic of anti-Semitic prejudice. European progressives increasingly embrace this double standard. Generally speaking, the further left the European politician, the closer his ties to Islamist groups who seek the destruction of Jews in Palestine. Many left-wing parties—the French socialists, for example—depend more and more on Arab and Muslim voters, who come from countries where more than 80 percent of the public holds strongly anti-Jewish views. The Left’s animus toward Jewish causes has spread to Great Britain, where Labour Party head Jeremy Corbyn counts the leaders of openly anti-Semitic groups like Hamas and Hezbollah as allies. If Corbyn becomes Britain’s next prime minister—no longer inconceivable, given his strong showing in the last election—the consequences for Israel, and for Britain’s dwindling Jewish community, could be troubling.
Some, like Barcelona’s chief rabbi, think that it’s time for Europe’s Jews to move away, and many, particularly in France, are already doing so. Europe’s Jewish population (roughly 1.4 million) is less than half what it was in 1960, and a mere fraction of its pre-Holocaust size (9.5 million). (h/t MtTB)
Sohrab Ahmari: The ADL Smears Mike Pompeo
When the Anti-Defamation League tapped Jonathan Greenblatt to serve as its CEO in 2015, there were concerns that the Obama White House alumnus would turn the venerable civil-rights group into an arm of the Democratic Party. Alas, those concerns have proved well-founded. Witness Greenblatt’s letter this week opposing Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s choice for America’s next secretary of state, for the flimsiest of reasons.How a Jewish civil rights group became a villain on the far-left
Running to more than 5,000 words, the letter accuses the CIA director of fanning bigotry with irresponsible statements about radical Islam. Greenblatt goes so far as to suggest that Pompeo’s attitudes are redolent of classic anti-Semitism. That’s a serious charge. It is also utterly baseless. If Pompeo is “Islamophobic,” then so is the ADL. As it turns out, the secretary of state-designate and the ADL have remarkably similar views on the nature of the Islamist threat.
Let’s compare Pompeo’s allegedly culpable statements with the ADL’s long record of public advocacy on radical Islam, the homegrown Islamist threat, and Islamist ideologues and networks operating in the U.S. homeland.
The Silence of American Muslim Organizations
The ADL fulminates against Pompeo for suggesting that some American Muslim organizations don’t go far enough in condemning terrorism and the ideologies that inspire it.
The ADL declined to comment for this article, but the positions it has taken in recent years make it an unlikely target of some left-wing organizations. The group has been an outspoken Jewish voice against right-wing racism and bigotry. It has released reports and statements on far-right extremist activity and filed an amicus brief against the Trump administration’s travel ban. It has convened mayors to fight hate and opened a center in Silicon Valley to combat cyberhate.David Collier: Attacking Jews, the whole antisemitism crisis, will ‘be positive for Labour’
Its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, who came to the ADL in 2015 after a stint at the Obama White House, has not been shy about criticizing US President Donald Trump for statements targeting Muslims or praising far-right demonstrators. This week, Greenblatt urged scrutiny of his pick for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, for his anti-Muslim activities.
Protesters gather outside a Starbucks in Philadelphia, Sunday, April 15, 2018, where two black men were arrested Thursday after Starbucks employees called police to say the men were trespassing. (AP Photo/Ron Todt)
Next month, the ADL will take part in the Starbucks training, which comes in response to the outcry over the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia branch of the coffee giant who were waiting to start a meeting. Along with the ADL, the training will also be led by the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, the liberal think tank Demos and the Equal Justice Initiative, a civil rights group.
But along with its work on bias, the ADL engages in pro-Israel activism that has pit it against groups that share its domestic agenda. In 2016, the ADL called out the Movement for Black Lives after it published a platform accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide. It has sparred with Linda Sarsour, the Palestinian-American liberal activist and an organizer of the Women’s March, over her anti-Zionism. It welcomed the adoption by Congress of the Taylor Force Act, which conditions certain American aid to the Palestinian Authority on ending the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s practice of paying families of jailed and deceased terrorists.
And as opposition to Israel has become increasingly common in leftist activist circles, the ADL’s talking points supporting Israel have made it a target. IfNotNow, a grassroots group opposing Israel’s occupation, has staged sit-ins in the lobby of the ADL’s office building. Last month, after the ADL criticized Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and his backers, IfNotNow accused it of downplaying the threat of white supremacy.
The left-wing attacks on the ADL gained a wider audience Tuesday when Women’s March co-organizer Tamika Mallory, who recently came under fire for supporting Farrakhan, a virulent anti-Semite, denounced Starbucks for cooperating with the Jewish group.
It is a sickening thread. Many of the threats and dangers are contained within the single thread. The threat of deselection. There is the idea that the entire antisemitism issue is part of a hidden agenda. Then the notion that the Zionists are a cancer and it is ‘time to get’ them. Of course the ‘foreign agent’ of ‘paid’ performance is referenced.
The most troubling of them all is the point made by Alan Maddison. Maddison was for a while (and may still be) a strategist for the Jewish Voice for Labour group. He is the man behind many of the distorted claims over antisemitic statistics. In this thread he is actually suggesting the entire crisis may bring about a nett gain in votes for Labour. The claim that if Labour is seen as the party taking on the ‘elite’ (the ruling Zionists), Labour’s chances may be improved rather than damaged in an election.
This is the mindset of the people behind Corbyn’s defense. The idea that between the classic Jew-hate in parts of the ‘white British’ population and the anti-Jewish racism in sections of the BAME community there will be enough power to take this party all the way to Downing Street. Attacking Jews becomes a vote winner. If that thought doesn’t scare you – little will.
It backed Israel before Balfour: Corbyn stance is stark shift from early Labour
Avi Gabbay’s decision last week to break links with Jeremy Corbyn may have little practical effect – the British Labour leader’s contemptuous brush off indicates how little he cares about the relationship – but it has huge symbolic value.University of Winchester Academic Who Defended Corbyn Now Being Investigated for Antisemitism
As Gabbay correctly noted, Labor and its British sister party have “a long history of friendship” based on the latter’s close ties to the Jewish community and traditionally strong support for the state of Israel.
But his warm references to the former British prime ministers Harold Wilson, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown both diplomatically skated over some awkward history and failed to capture the length and depth of Labour’s Zionist credentials.
By the time the British government formally committed itself to the cause of a Jewish homeland in Palestine in November 1917, the fledgling Labour party had already stolen a march on it.
Three months prior to the publication of the Balfour Declaration, the party issued the first draft of the War Aims Memorandum, its vision for the post-war world. Written by Arthur Henderson, the Labour leader, and Sydney Webb, the party’s intellectual driving force, it declared: “The British Labour Movement expresses the opinion that Palestine should be set free from the harsh and oppressive government of the Turk, in order that the country may form a free state, under international guarantee, to which such of the Jewish People as desired to do so may return, and may work out their salvation.”
An academic at the University of Winchester in the United Kingdom is being investigated after making disparaging comments on Jews and Israel on social media.CORBYN FORGETS ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE DAY
Jane Dipple, a lecturer in media and communication, was found to have shared an article by the neo-Nazi website “The Daily Stormer,” with the headline, “BBC to Replace Male Jew Political Editor with Female Jew,” HuffPost UK reported on Tuesday.
“As [conspiracy theorist David] Icke said… it’s the rampant zionism across the media that is actually damaging the Jews,” she wrote under the article.
Dipple also accused Zionists of attempting to create a “pure race” and questioned the need for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, an intergovernmental Holocaust education group. “How about a Palestinian f***ing wall alliance and a being starved and bombed alliance and having our country stolen form [sic] us alliance.. for f***’s sake,” she exclaimed.
A supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, Dipple was also a member of the controversial Facebook group Palestine Live, which included posts featuring Holocaust denial and peddling conspiracy theories about Israel’s alleged involvement with the Islamic State and in the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist attacks.
Jeremy Corbyn has declined to congratulate the state of Israel on the 70th anniversary of its foundation. Corbyn tweeted last year about the 70th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence, yet yesterday his social media accounts were silent on Israel’s big day.
PRODUCER OF LABOUR’S RACE ROW ELECTION BROADCAST TWEETED ABOUT “JEWISH KAPOS”
This morning’s Mail reveals that the man who stars in Labour’s new election broadcast rather unfortunately previously referred to “evil Jews“. Turns out it’s not just the people who appear in Labour PPBs that have dodgy views, it’s the people that make them as well…D.C. City Council Member Who Blamed Snow on Jews Visits Holocaust Museum, Leaves Early
The film in question was produced by filmmaker Jake Bowers. A look through his tweets finds that, in a discussion with a UKIP MEP about gypsies who voted for Brexit, Bowers wrote “I suppose even the Nazis required Jewish Kapos to sell the idea of walled ghettos”.
Bowers also shared approvingly a Facebook video of the notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan:
City Council member Trayon White Sr. (D.) did not appear during the visit to have a working knowledge of the Holocaust, the Washington Post reports.D.C. Legislator Who Said Jews Control The Weather Allegedly Donated To Anti-Semite Farrakhan's Event
Though the visit was meant to rehabilitate his image, his lack of knowledge and desire to learn about the Holocaust confused his tour guides.
At one point during his visit on Wednesday, White was looking at a photo of a woman shuffling down a street in Norden, Germany. She had a sign hanging from her neck that read, "I am a German girl and allowed myself to be defiled by a Jew," and she was surrounded by Nazi stormtroopers.
White asked, "Are they protecting her?"
White's tour guide, Lynn Williams, said, "No. They're marching her through."
"Marching through is protecting," White said.
"I think they're humiliating her," Williams replied.
After seeing photos of German troops executing Catholic clergy in Poland by firing squad, White asked, "Were they actually manufacturing these weapons?"
He subsequently disappeared from the tour, which was only half over. Members of White's staff stayed on.
Rabbi Batya Glazer, who accompanied White on the tour, explained the walling in of Polish Jews at an exhibit on the Warsaw Ghetto.
One aide asked if it was similar to "a gated community."
"Yeah, I wouldn't call it a gated community," Glazer said. "More like a prison."
At the completion of the tour, White was found standing alone on a sidewalk outside the museum.
"I’ll be coming back to see more of the museum. I didn’t get a chance to see the whole thing," he said.
Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) has been asked for details of the $500 donation he made to the Nation of Islam’s Saviours’ Day Event in Chicago, where Farrakhan declared “powerful Jews are my enemy,” and stated Jews “were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out turning men into women and women into men.”IsraellyCool: My Days on Twitter May Be Numbered
White’s January 29 donation is particularly egregious because it came from his constituent services account, which is comprised of funds of private money raised by lawmakers for community causes. As The Washington Post reports, “The funds must benefit D.C. residents, according to campaign finance law. They are often used for things such as helping a constituent in a bind pay a utility bill or to send flowers to someone in mourning.”
White said he was unaware of the $500 donation but the fund’s treasurer, Darryl Ross, contested that, saying, “He said to me, ‘I want you to make a payment to the Nation of Islam for Saviours’ Day.’ So I went on the website to get the information I needed in order to make the payment.”
According to campaign finance officials, White has until May 3 to explain the donation.
Yesterday, I was greeted on Twitter with this message:
The offending tweet? A retweet of an antisemite from 2014, in which I mocked them!
German LGBT group closes bank account to protest BDS activity
The prominent Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation - named after a gay German-Jewish scientist who was persecuted by the Nazis - terminated its account with the Bank for Social Economy over the financial institution's enabling of organizations that support a boycott of the Jewish state.Natalie Portman Embraces Boycott of Israel, Refuses ‘Israel’s Nobel Prize’
Sources from the Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation told The Jerusalem Post on Friday that the "the foundation closed its account" with the bank.
The closure of the account was immediately praised by leading Jewish human rights organizations. Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post on Friday that "I am happy that the organization [Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation] did the right thing from a Jewish perspective."
Zuroff, the Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter, said that that the Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation is "showing Jewish solidarity and made the right steps to close the account and we hope other Jewish organizations that have accounts with the Bank for Social Economy will follow suit."
The Bank for Social Economy holds numerous accounts that wage boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) activity against Israel. In February,Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan urged the Bank for Social Economy (Bank für Sozialwirtschaft) to shut down an account for the anti-Israel BDS group Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East.
Natalie Portman, the Israeli-born Oscar-winning actress, has informed a prominent pro-Israel foundation that she will not attend their event and claim its most coveted prize due to Israel’s recent efforts to prevent Hamas terrorists from killing Jewish citizens, according to an announcement.Ronn Torossian: Shame on Natalie Portman
The Genesis Prize Foundation, which awards internationally renowned individuals for their commitment to Jewish values, announced late Thursday that Portman would "not to travel to Israel for the June 28 Ceremony organized in her honor," according to a statement from the organization.
Portman’s camp appears to believe that Israel’s recent efforts to combat attacks on its border from Hamas terrorists and affiliated militants have created an environment that is not compatible with her appearance in the Jewish state for the award.
"A representative of Ms. Portman notified our Foundation that: ‘Recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her and she does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel’ and that ‘she cannot in good conscience move forward with the ceremony,’" according to a press statement. "After a number of conversations with Ms. Portman and her representatives, we have been advised that Ms. Portman’s decision is firm and will not be changed."
While Portman, perhaps best known for her work alongside Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace, has positioned herself as a proud supporter of Israel, it appears she will not step foot in the country as a result of recent efforts by Israel to secure its borders against unlawful intruders, who have been met with a violent response in recent weeks after they stormed the Israeli border and took aim at Jewish forces.
Representatives for Portman did not respond to a request for comment.
Israeli born Actress Natalie Portman today announced she would not take part in the prize ceremony for the Genesis Prize, slated to be held in Israel in June 2018. The Genesis Prize Foundation, which awards what it calls the “Jewish Nobel,” had previously named Ms. Portman this year’s awardee, until she notified Genesis that“ [r]ecent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her and she does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel” and that “she cannot in good conscience move forward with the ceremony.”MEMRI: French Activist Henda Ayari On Her Salafi Past, Alleged Rape By Tariq Ramadan, And Struggle To Help Women Who Fell Prey To Extremists
The Genesis Prize Foundation cancelled the prize ceremony, saying that its organizers “fear that Ms. Portman’s decision will cause our philanthropic initiative to be politicized, something we have worked hard for the past five years to avoid.”
Shame on Natalie Portman for bowing to those who boycott Israel.
Israel’s Culture Minister Miri Regev hit it right on the head noting that,“ …Natalie Portman fell into the hands of the BDS supporters. Portman, a Jewish actress born in Israel, joins those who tell the successful, wondrous founding of the State of Israel as 'a tale of darkness and darkness.'
Sane people must agree with Hillel Neuer of UN Watch who told Portman that “If 30,000 rioters were at your borders & approaching your family in Los Feliz, and they were orchestrated by a terror group that advocates the murder of all Jews, I believe you would 'in good consicience' support officers doing their best to protect you.”
Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East, where all religions are protected, where women have equal rights. Israel is a beacon of light.
Shame on Natalie Portman for standing against Israel.
French women's rights activist Henda Ayari, a Salafi-turned-liberal Muslim, accused Swiss Muslim thinker Tariq Ramadan of raping her at a Paris hotel in 2012. In an interview on the Egyptian Dream TV channel on April 7, Ayari, who has founded an NGO to help, among others, women subjugated by Islamic extremists, told her life story and recounted what had happened when Ramadan allegedly lured her to a hotel room and raped her. Ayari, who describes herself as a "secular feminist who defends women's rights," said that she wrote her book, "J'ai Choisi D'être Libre," describing her path from Salafism to liberalism, after the 2015 Bataclan terror attack, when she realized the danger inherent in political Islam and the Salafis. The book included a chapter on "Zubair," whom she later identified as Ramadan. She admired and trusted him "like a big brother or an imam," she said, describing the alleged encounter. "All of a sudden, his behavior changed. He became very violent toward me." Ayari further said: "I thought I was going to die that night because he choked me and slapped me," alleging that Ramadan had said to her: "This is what you are asking for because you don't wear the hijab." Ramadan is currently being detained in France on charges of raping two women. Several other women have made similar accusations against him.Iqra Khalid story goes from bad to worse
"I Wrote That I Had Used To Be An Imprisoned, Oppressed Woman – Today, I Am A Free Woman"
Henda Ayari: "I decided to write my book following the [2015] Bataclan terrorist attack. I was shocked when I saw the victims, the killings, and the blood on TV. I realized that political Islam and the Salafis constitute a danger. I was coerced into marriage when I was 20. I went to Tunisia on vacation, and within a day, I was married to a Salafi man I did not know.
Liberal MP Iqra Khalid, who was under fire last year for her advocacy of the controversial motion 103, is now facing similar questions.Michael Lumish: This Week on Nothing Left
Conservative politicians are demanding answers as to why she introduced Palestinian Greek Orthodox Archbishop Atallah Hanna, who is a supporter and apologist for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at an event in Mississauga over the weekend.
“A week after the gassing of Syrian children, Liberal MP Iqra Khalid brought greetings to one of Assad’s worst apologists on behalf of Justin Trudeau. Canada needs an answer why this happened,” Conservative Senator Linda Frum posted to social media, leading a charge that was later echoed by MPs in Question Period.
Khalid’s response? “Like any MP, I engage with a diverse array of individuals, stakeholders and groups in my community – many of them I don’t agree with,” she posted online, adding “I’m proud that our government has forcefully condemned the Assad regime and I too condemn in the strongest of terms the recent chemical attacks. I’ve worked hard on these issues in my subcommittee on international human rights.”
The blowback was heavy – with critics noting that it’s a bit much to hide behind the cloak of “diverse” stakeholders as justification for posing in smiling photos with questionable individuals.
And while Hanna is the one getting all of the attention, it was the man he and Khalid had gathered to honour who deserves a bit more coverage as well. It was at that same event that Khalid gave out an award to Amin El-Maoued, who does public relations for the group Palestine House, which lost federal funding in 2012 due to its “pattern of support for extremism,” as the federal government put it.
“I met brother Amin about three years ago,” Khalid says in a video of last weekend’s event that was removed from online but reposted by my colleague Candice Malcolm.
If she’s known him for a while, does she know about his less than flattering activities? El-Maoued appears to have played a leading role in a protest last summer that was investigated by Peel Regional police for anti-Semitic chants.
This week Michael Burd and Alan Freedman speak with Rev Fred Nile about conservative politics and his participation in a joint Jewish-Christian event in Sydney to mark Israel’s 70th birthday, and then hear an interview Michael conducted with ‘Robert’, a Gaza supporter at the recent rally in Melbourne and the holder of some very strange views.German neo-Nazis mass for festival on Hitler’s birthday
The guys then follow up on the situation of Jeremy Corbyn and UK Jewry with British blogger Richard Millett and academic Frank Furedi.
And while Isi Leibler is taking some time off, Michael and Alan catch up on the latest in Israel with Arnold Roth.
3 min Editorial: Israel’s right to exist
11 min Rev Fred Nile, Christian support for Israel
36 min Discussion and then Gaza supporter ‘Robert’ at Melbourne rally
50 min Richard Millet, UK blogger on Corbyn and UK Jewry
1 hr 10 Frank Furedi, UK academic on Corbyn and UK Jewry
1 hr 28 Arnold Roth in Israel
Hundreds of neo-Nazis were expected to congregate Friday, which marks Adolf Hitler’s birthday, for a two-day festival in a small eastern German town where anti-fascist groups have vowed counter-protests.Fury as replicas of Nazi gas canisters used to murder millions of Jews during the Holocaust are sold at Australian gun show
A major police deployment aims to prevent violence during the “Schild und Schwert” (Shield and Sword, or SS) festival near the Polish and Czech borders that is expected to also attract eastern European extremists.
“You will see police on every corner,” the local police chief told a regional newspaper, with hundreds of officers to brought in from other states, while Polish authorities across the Neisse river border also said they would step up patrols.
Some 1,100 police will be backed by water cannon and with boats patrolling the Neisse border river, on the bank of which the festival is held, reported the local Saechsische Zeitung.
A Melbourne gun show has come under fire for selling replica gas canisters of the same type used in Nazi concentration camps.California man charged with hate crimes over threats to Jews
A father and son, who requested to remain anonymous, were visiting the show over the weekend have told how they had to leave the venue in a 'badly shaken state.'
'Seeing replica canisters of Zyklon B for sale was one of the most confronting, traumatising and shocking sights that I have ever seen,' the father told the Herald Sun.
The replica canisters were displayed over the weekend at the Melbourne Arms and Militia Fair, a gathering held annually in the city.
The event organiser Jeffrey Pannan said that while Nazi collectables are legal they are distasteful.
He explained that as long as what is displayed by exhibitors at the show is legal he doesn't have a problem.
He added, however, that he would remind future exhibitors at the show to refrain from displaying such items.
A Southern California man pleaded not guilty Thursday to hate crimes after prosecutors said he threatened prominent members of the Jewish community and had a “kill list” that included the names of people in the entertainment industry.Syracuse University suspends engineering frat after 'racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic' videos
Nicholas Rose of Irvine pleaded not guilty to making criminal threats and violating civil rights, with sentencing enhancements for hate crimes.
It’s unclear whether the 26-year-old has an attorney. He has a court appearance set for April 27.
A family member called the Orange Police Department on Monday and reported that Rose said he wanted to kill people and specifically threatened the Jewish community, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Police arrested Rose at his home Tuesday after saying they found “kill lists” of prominent Jewish community members, steps titled “killing my first Jew,” as well as references to churches and a synagogue in the area.
He also had .22-caliber ammunition, prosecutors said.
Syracuse University has suspended an engineering fraternity after videos surfaced showed members engaged in "racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic [and] sexist" acts and using slurs.Sri Lanka beefs up tourist hotspot security after Israelis beaten up
The independent student newspaper The Daily Orange obtained the videos filmed at the Theta Tau house after they were posted on a secret Facebook group.
On Wednesday, school Chancellor Kent Syverud denounced the videos as “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and hostile to people with disabilities.”
The graphic video shows a person forced to his knees while he repeats “an oath” that uses several racial slurs to describe African-Americans, Hispanics and Jews.
“I solemnly swear to always have hatred in my heart for n-----s, s---s and most importantly the f--king k---s,” the person on his knees says. He then makes a sexual gesture.
In another recording, a person uses anti-Semitic language while yelling at other people, making a reference to the gas chambers of the Holocaust.
“You f--king k---s, get in the f--king showers,” he said, according to The Daily Orange.
Sri Lanka announced Friday it would establish new police posts and step up patrols at popular resorts after a spate of sexual attacks and violence targeting foreign tourists.Artists return German music award over rappers’ Holocaust lyrics
Police chief Pujith Jayasundara said 20 new stations would be established at vacation hotspots to protect visitors from scalpers and criminals, despite concerns his force was already overstretched.
“I wish we had more men and resources for this job, but we are making adjustments to our deployments to ensure better productivity,” Jayasundara said.
He added the measures were decided after a Dutch tourist was sexually harassed and several other tourists were assaulted by a gang at a hotel in the southern resort town of Mirissa last week.
Five Israeli tourists were beaten up in the same area this week and 14 men have been arrested over the two incidents, police said.
Several artists have returned their Echo Awards in Germany to protest the award won by two rappers whose lyrics boasted of having “bodies more defined than Auschwitz inmates.”Fox Adapting Israeli TV Show; Two Other Series Win Awards at Cannes
In response to the award controversy, BMG, which distributes releases by Kollegah and Farid Bang, has announced a campaign against anti-Semitism.
At the awards ceremony on April 12, a speaker condemning the rappers received a standing ovation.
The award recognizes sales, not the content of the album, but the awards committee has pledged to rethink how it will choose winners, according to Variety.
Kollegah and Farid Bang won the Echo Award for having 2017’s best-selling hip-hop album.
In their lyrics, along with the boast about their physiques, they call for “another Holocaust; let’s grab the Molotov” cocktails.
The BMG campaign is focused on teaching schoolchildren about anti-Semitism. The distributor has pledged 100,000 euros, about $123,000, to the campaign.
The latest in a long string of Israeli TV formats picked up by Hollywood studios is “Nevsu,” a primetime series about an Israeli family headed by an Ethiopian father and Ashkenazi mother.19 must-see concerts in Israel this summer
For American viewers, the Fox TV network is renaming the show “Culture Clash” as a pilot focusing on a blended family created by an Ethiopian refugee (played by Biniam Bizuneh) and a white Midwestern woman (Beth Behrs) in Minnesota.
“Nevsu” creators Yosi Vasa, Shai Ben-Atar and Liat Shavi have a hand in producing “Culture Clash” along with “Empire” and “Monster’s Ball” producer Lee Daniels and “Modern Family” executive producer Vali Chandrasekaran.
Meanwhile, earlier this week Israeli TV shows won two of the five awards at the inaugural Canneseries festival in France: “When Heroes Fly” (best series) and “Miguel” (best special performance).
Pop sensations, heavy metal icons, indie dance duos, Latin music stars, a legendary reggae master and many more world-famous musical artists are on Israel’s impressive spring-summer concert lineup. As the weather begins to heat up, Israel’s music calendar is following suit, with highly anticipated performances from April to September.Gal Gadot makes 'Time 100' list
1. Backstreet Boys (April 22, Live Park, Rishon LeZion)
The Backstreet Boys are returning to Israel with their 25th anniversary world tour, “Larger Than Life,” based on their Las Vegas residency. The last time the band performed in Israel was in 2015, when they sold out three consecutive shows. This year, they will perform their ’90s hits on one night only.
Backstreet Boys performing in Las Vegas. Photo via Facebook
2. Jamiroquai (May 2, Live Park, Rishon LeZion)
For the first time, British funk and jazz band Jamiroquai will be performing in Israel. Though the band is best known for its Grammy-winning hit “Virtual Insanity,” the play list will include songs from its first new album in seven years, “Automaton,” released in March 2017 to favorable reviews.
Israeli actress and icon Gal Gadot was named on Thursday as one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2018.
Gadot, who rocketed to stardom playing Wonder Woman, was written about in the magazine by Lynda Carter, who played the same character in the 1970s TV series.
"Gal Gadot brought Wonder Woman to millions of new fans," Carter wrote. "Her portrayal was magnificent and powerful, capturing everything that Wonder Woman represents."
Carter said beyond being a talented actress, Gadot is a wonderful person, and even referenced her IDF service.
"She is a wife and mother; she has served her country, traveled the world, and is hardworking, loving, wise, goofy and full of humanity."
In response, Gadot posted a message of gratitude on social media.
"What a great honor to be on this list with all these incredible people," she wrote. "And thank you to my mama bear @RealLyndaCarter for the love and moving words. You're the queen."
On Wednesday, Gadot was also named to People's 'most beautiful' issue - which hits newsstands on Friday.