Melanie Phillips: Getting to the bottom of a tragic 'disloyalty'
There are many reasons why the Democrats and their Jewish supporters refuse to call out the anti-Jewish bigots on their own side and instead accuse President Trump, the most pro-Israel president in American history, of antisemitism.Caroline B. Glick: BDS is Primarily an Assault on American Jews
As has also been demonstrated in Britain over the epidemic Jew-hatred within the Labour Party, there is an iron conviction on the left that they cannot be guilty of antisemitism because they are “anti-racists.” Their political identity is rooted in their belief that they are always on the side of virtue against evil-doers.
If they were ever to admit evil attitudes on their own side, their political and moral identity would collapse. So they turn reality inside out to defend the indefensible. And to protect themselves, they project their own evil onto their opponents. Thus, they falsely accuse President Trump of having the odious views of which their own side is guilty.
Nor can they admit that the Palestinian cause they support may be vile. The journalist Peter Beinart tweeted in defense of Miftah: “Frustrating to hear people who’d never heard of Miftah until today use its alleged sins to distract from deep injustice [Omar and Tlaib] were going to witness. As if an anti-white comment by SNCC (the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee which fought for black civil rights) justified segregation.”
Genocidal attitudes and attacks by Palestinians most certainly do justify the security measures Israel uses against them. Through this tweet, Beinart has not only supported a virulently antisemitic outfit, but also whitewashed the Jew-hatred and Israel-bashing of those it promotes — and promoted his own.
Such moral bankruptcy has become a pathology that is steady poisoning the Democratic Party against the Jewish people, towards which those American Jews who still support the Democrats are indeed displaying a most tragic disloyalty.
Given the context in which Trump made his remarks — that is, the Democratic Party’s open embrace of anti-Semites and anti-Semitic messaging — it is literally impossible for even a semi-literate person to misunderstand what he was saying.
Moreover, it is telling that the same people insisting that Trump’s statement was anti-Semitic are giving a pass to the Democrats for refusing to take any action to rein in their Jew hating members. It shows the disingenuousness of their sudden professed concern for anti-Jewish bigotry.
American Jews refuse to see what is happening to them while it is happening.
The likes of Tlaib and Omar are rendering them political non-entities. By attacking Trump, the main politician supporting them, while giving a free pass to the Democrats who are facilitating discrimination against them, American Jews are disenfranchising themselves. Democrats see they can abandon the Jews without consequence, and Republicans see that there is no point in sticking up for the Jews who will hate them no matter what they say and do.
This is a tragedy of epic proportions, first and foremost for the American Jewish community but really for America as a whole and for the Jewish people as a whole.
Left-wing antisemitism has had British Jews debating loyalty for years
The mainstreaming of antisemitic rhetoric within Labour’s ranks ushered in a debate within the Jewish community and beyond on whether it was ethical, sensible and — yes — loyal for Jews to continue to support Labour.Ruthie Blum: Right From Wrong: What Trump doesn’t understand about Jews
The Conservative cabinet minister Sajid Javid angered some Jews when, in a Rosh Hashanah greeting last year, wrote that when British Jews are feeling under threat from Corbyn, “all decent people” must “stand together and celebrate our Jewish community.” To critics, the implication was that Jews who support Labour aren’t decent.
Others have been more explicit. Fred Dalah, a 64-year-old Jewish businessman from Edgware in northern London, wrote in 2018 in the Jewish News of London that, “Jews who vote Labour are lambs to the slaughter.”
In addition to Sacks, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and three of the leading British Jewish newspapers have called Corbyn an existential threat to British Jewry. These warnings were designed to sound an alarm and prevent Corbyn from becoming prime minister. But they also emboldened British Jews and non-Jews to call out Jewish supporters of Corbyn as traitors.
At the same time, Corbyn’s supporters cite these loud warnings as a political attempt to weaponize antisemitism and sabotage a left-wing politician’s chances.
All this means that, in Britain, “Now you have the situation where there is good Jews, bad Jews, and good antisemites and bad antisemites,” said Dave Rich, head of policy at the Community Security Trust and author of a 2016 book, “The Left’s Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and antisemitism,” during a speech in 2018. “I don’t think this is really going to work.”
Contrary to the outcry on the part of his critics, Trump was not accusing Jews of being disloyal to America, but rather to themselves.Pierre Rehov: Palestine - The Invention of a Nation
In his bull-in-a-china-shop way, he was inadvertently repeating the aphorism coined in the 1950s by social critic Milton Himmelfarb: “Jews earn like Episcopalians, and vote like Puerto Ricans.”
In other words, Trump was expressing shock and disappointment that Jews would willingly betray their own interests. In his eyes, this means that they must be ignorant of the direction in which the party they overwhelmingly support has been going. If not, they appear to be purposely sabotaging US relations with the single state established in their ancestral homeland to protect their people and serve as America’s buffer against hostile, anti-democratic forces in the volatile, strategically important region.
THOUGH TRUMP’S disillusionment may be understandable, it indicates that he doesn’t know much about Jews. This is peculiar, considering the massive amount of time he has spent around them throughout his life as a New York real estate guy and Hollywood reality TV star.
Here is what he doesn’t grasp: Only a handful of non-Orthodox Jews vote Republican; the rest pray at the altar of the Democratic Party, no matter what, even when the party turns against Israel.
This apparent oddity spurred my father, Norman Podhoretz – a lifelong liberal Democrat who became a conservative Republican – to write an entire book examining the phenomenon.
Was there a country called "Palestine" before 1948? Who really are the Palestinians? What was the connection between Nazism, communism, and Palestinian nationalism? Why do media always take Palestinians side against Israel? And so much more. Everything in this film is factual and can be checked. (h/t vwVwwVwv)
Lost in Trump Translation
Donald Trump communicates in unfinished thoughts, and this week’s inchoate pronouncement was a disaster. “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat,” he told reporters on Tuesday, “I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”Trump’s Right: Jews Who Vote Democrat Show ‘Lack Of Knowledge Or Great Disloyalty’ To Fellow Jews
No one quite knew what to make of it. Was Trump saying that Jews who would vote for a Democrat are disloyal to Israel, to their Jewishness, to the Republican Party, or to him? On Wednesday, he explained that he was referring to Jews and Israel.
But this only left additional confusions: Does Trump believe that Jews are loyal to Israel above all else? Or that they aren’t but should be? Was his statement anti-Semitic? Was it, in its twisted way, a refutation of the anti-Semitic charge of dual loyalty? Or was he simply stating what he saw as common sense—that there’s a rising tide of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment in the Democratic Party, and it’s bad for the Jews—without giving any consideration to the vexed issues around Jewish politics in America?
I’m certain the last interpretation is the correct one. For Trump, the only logic is transactional logic, and all games are zero-sum. He said what he said while criticizing the absurdity of those who suggest that the United States should punish Israel for banning Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country. Whatever Trump’s skills as a businessman and president, he’s talentless as an anti-Semite.
Answering press questions on Tuesday President Trump commented “Any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat — I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” While the Democrats, media, and liberal Jewish organizations (which covers most of them) are generating so much anger at what the President said they might lose their bowels. The Dems are even spinning his words. Trump wasn’t talking about disloyalty to America, he was talking about disloyalty to the Jewish people, and President Trump is 100% correct.How an Australian sheepshearer’s al-Aqsa arson nearly torched Middle East peace
Over thirty years ago Secretary of State James Baker said: “F**k the Jews they won’t vote for us anyway.” But because most American Jews’ Blind Democratic Party Loyalty no matter what, today, the Democratic Party attitude is “F**k the Jews they will vote for us whatever we do!” So to please their far liberal base, they’ve drifted toward Antisemitism, and they know they won’t lose many votes and that hatred goes way beyond the BDS of Omar and Tlaib, and has been happening for years
My first article warning that the Democratic party was becoming anti-Semitic was posted on January 29, 2007. Eleven years later the party’s Antisemitism had metastasized and infected much of the party. In 2003 former Congressman James Moran (D-VA.) made the false charge that the leaders of America’s Jewish community sent America into war in Iraq to benefit Israel, a charge that Democratic Party President Barack Obama repeated in 2015
Louis Farrakhan was justifiably criticized for calling Jews termites, but before Farrakhan, Hank Johnson (D-GA) used that phrase. At an event at the 2016 Democratic Convention Johnson, who once worried that too many people on the island of Guam might tip it over, called Jewish people who live in disputed territories to “termites” that destroy homes. Johnson said it during an event sponsored by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, an anti-Israel organization that galvanizes supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS. After his comment caused an uproar, Johnson gave a half-hearted apology. He was sorry about offending but wasn’t sorry for saying it or even or recognized that it was anti-Semitic.
What did the Democratic Party say about Johnson’s Antisemitism? Nothing.
One of the first stories I was assigned as a young journalist in Israel in 1969 was the trial of an Australian sheepshearer who set fire to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, an act that threatened to unhinge the Middle East. It remains for me the most vivid story I covered during my 25 years with The Jerusalem Post, a period that included several wars.Honest Reporting: 90 Years Ago: The Hebron Massacre of 1929
August 23 marks the 50th anniversary of the event. The Muslim world assumed that Israel was responsible for the arson and Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal ordered his armed forces to prepare for a holy war. The Arab League met in emergency session, and from distant India came reports of rioting in Muslim areas, with many casualties.
As cries of jihad rose with the plumes of smoke over the Temple Mount and international condemnation loomed, the Israeli government gave top priority to apprehension of the arsonist. In annexing East Jerusalem after the Six Day War two years before, Israel had declared itself guardian of the holy places of all religions; its claim to sovereignty in Jerusalem rested on that pledge.
Within 24 hours police tracked a suspect, Denis Rohan, 28, to a kibbutz where he worked as a volunteer. He immediately confessed to the arson with an enthusiasm that startled his interrogators.
The trial was for Rohan the high point of his life. To stand “before the judges of Israel,” as he put it, confirmed the chosen status that had only recently been revealed to him by a voice. The journalists and diplomats packing the courtroom would, he knew, pass on that revelation to the world. He would build a temple in Jerusalem, the voice had said, on the ruins of the biblical Temple, and there be anointed king of Judea. His torching of the mosque was intended to clear space for the new structure.
“My trial is the most important event for the world since the trial of Jesus Christ,” Rohan told a psychiatrist who interviewed him.
In the eyes of many, the Hebron massacre of 1929 is the defining event of the 1929 Arab riots in Palestine.PMW: The PA connection to the 1929 murder of 130 Jews
For centuries, the small Jewish community of Hebron coexisted alongside a much larger Muslim community. Although Jews were never accorded full equality and often faced rampant discrimination and even extreme violence, at times relations were cordial.
All that changed exactly ninety years ago, as violent Arab riots against Jewish immigration swept through Palestine, which was then administered by the British.
Triggered by a baseless rumor that Jews were planning to march to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and claim ownership of their holiest place, thousands of Arab villagers streamed into Jerusalem to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, many armed with sticks and knives. The crowds worked themselves into a frenzy, with some 20-30 gunshots reported fired in the vicinity of the Temple Mount by rabble-rousers. A British report on the events describes the excited Arab crowds as intent on mischief and possibly murder. Fed by rumors that two Arabs had been killed by Jews elsewhere in Jerusalem, Arabs in the Old City went on the rampage, attacking and murdering Jews.
The rumors, and the violence they prompted, spread swiftly across the land – most notably to Hebron, where a massacre unfolded.
Today marks 90 years since the Hebron Massacre of 67 Jews. Rampaging Arabs also murdered Jews in Jerusalem and Tzefat. In total, in the course of just one week, Arabs murdered 130 Jews.
While the massacre took place in 1929, over 60 years before its creation, the Palestinian Authority has wholeheartedly adopted the event, glorifying three of its participants and perpetuating the spark that ignited the massacre.
In the aftermath of the massacres, British mandate forces arrested and prosecuted dozens of Arabs. While most of the death sentences handed down were commuted to life imprisonment, three Arabs who, according to a report by the British government to the League of Nations, "committed particularly brutal murders at Safad and Hebron" were put to death on June 17, 1930.
Every year the PA marks the execusion of these three murderers - Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ataa Al-Zir.
In June this year, on the 89th anniversary of their execution, PA TV marked the execution of "the three heroes" and used the opportunity to add that they have become "a legend of self-sacrifice for the homeland" and that "souls that have been sacrificed for their country will not die." In this manner, the PA constantly reinforces its message that dying while carrying out an act of terrorism is an outcome that guarantees that the souls of the terrorists do not die.
Why Israeli Jews Mistrust Arabs: The Hebron Massacre
One event in recent history explains what so many Israelis feel deep inside about their Arab neighbors.90 Years Later, Last-Known Jewish Survivor Recalls Hebron Massacre
It took place 90 years ago this week, on August 24, 1929, when a bloodthirsty Arab mob in Hebron raped, tortured, stabbed, hanged, burned, and sexually mutilated 67 of their Jewish neighbors.
That bloody day paled in comparison with the horrors that would decimate European Jewry ten years and one week later, but in the small and relatively peaceful confines of the British-run mandate of Palestine, it left a terrifying and indelible impression.
On that day, which fell on Shabbat, an Arab woman knocked on the door of the local pharmacist, Gershon Ben-Zion, who had served Jews and Arabs for decades. She was crying for help, but when Ben-Zion rushed to open his door to her, an angry Arab mob of locals and area villagers rushed in. They raped and murdered 20-year-old Esther, then cut off the hands of her mother, Zehava, and let her die in agony. And all the while they tortured Gershon who was watching this horror until he, too, died.
The baker, Rabbi Noach Immerman, was burned alive inside his own oven.
When the rioters broke into Shlomo and Nechama Unger’s home, they thought the couple were Christian tourists, so they asked, and Shlomo stood up and answered: I am a Jew. He and his wife were slaughtered on the spot.
Time has not dimmed the powerful memories that Avraham Kiryati, 98, has of the moment his grandfather, Eliyahu Capilouto, was stabbed during the Hebron massacre on August 24, 1929. "My grandfather was dressed just like the Arabs," said Kiryati. "He went out to see what was going on. They [the rioters] pushed him inside and stabbed him on the side of his body."Remembering the 1929 Hebron Massacre, and a Tennessean Jew Who Was among the Dead
Kiryati escaped out the back door of his grandparents' home and made his way to the family chicken coup where he hid until it was safe. When he returned, he found Eliyahu lying on the floor in a pool of blood as his grandmother Rivka blocked the wound with coffee grounds. In the following months, his grandfather died of his wounds.
Kiryati is a descendant of Jews who escaped the Spanish Inquisition, settling first in Safed and then in Hebron. He said all of the survivors were taken to Jerusalem. In the early 1930s, his grandmother Rivka was among a small number of families who returned to the city and attempted to resurrect the Jewish community, but the British insisted that they leave during the Arab uprising of 1936.
Kiryati was in the British army and in 1942 he returned to Hebron with the British and took a photograph of the Jewish cemetery, which was later used to locate the graves of the massacre victims. During the 1967 Six-Day War he was part of the unit that liberated Gush Etzion and Hebron from the Jordanians. He went to Hebron to look for the Jewish cemetery, but instead of graves he found a tomato garden. Kiryati is a firm believer that today, as then, the Palestinians want to drive the Jews into the sea. "We do not have any choice but to remain strong," he said.
Tomorrow marks the 90th anniversary of the murder of 67 Jews by an Arab mob in the city of Hebron. Many of its victims were students of the city’s famed yeshiva, which had been relocated there from Lithuania in 1924. Among them was Aharon Dovid Shainberg, a native of Memphis, Tennessee—one of several American Jews who came there to study. Akiva Males discovered Shainberg’s letters to his family, and has published some excerpts. Signed “Dave,” and addressed to “Dearest Dad,” “Dearest Mother,” or “Dear Folks,” they end on August 20, 1929—just four days before the massacre.Hebron 1929, Tlaib-Omar 2019, a Jew-hating, Jihadist-Marxist alliance
On his visit to the Western Wall, and the British police presence there, Shainberg wrote:
So think of it! That the holiest & most sacred spot of the Jewish people is controlled by the heartless and brazen Esau! For the few feet remaining of our holy Temple we must regard the English soldiers as the “Baale Battim” [owners or bosses]—Oh! I tell you it is heart rending!
On his fellow students:
The Yeshiva itself is a revelation to me. The boys surely fall far short of the popular conception of what a “Yeshiva Bacher” [student] is. They, for the most part, are neatly and modernly dressed—although a bit shabby, of course. In manners and deportment they are perfect—the Yeshiva is insistent upon a high standard of etiquette within the Yeshiva and outside as well. The character of each of the 200 students is of the highest imaginable. Even I was surprised at what I have found. The student body is composed of the purest type of idealists.
Christopher Steele—now infamous for his false, concocted Anti-Trump “dossier”—was a Cambridge University Marxist/Socialist, who headed its Union “debating society,” in the mid-1980s. The Jewish Post of Indianapolis, reported March 12, 1986 on Steele’s invitation to the Palestine Liberation Organization—then a U.S. and Israel designated [Marxist-jihadist] terrorist organization—to a Cambridge University “debate” on Israel’s existence as Jewish state (amidst 20+ Arab Muslim states). Geula Cohen, the Israeli Knesset member invited, replied,
"To the Union President Christopher Steele: The sole dialogue to which I would be a partner with an official representative of the PLO, an organization I consider neo-Nazi in character in that it slaughters Jews merely for being Jews, would be one in which he stood in the dock of an Israeli courtroom."
Current U.S. Muslim Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are Steele’s ideological heirs on the Left (here; here), whose words and actions are much more blatantly pro-jihadist (here; here) and Antisemitic (here; here).
The BDS movement which both women aggressively support is a toxic amalgam of annihilationist Jew-haters, which includes operatives from the Marxist terror organization PFLP, and two major, overt jihad terror organizations, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Collectively, these terrorist organizations have a bloody 50-year legacy (ongoing) of murderous attacks on Jews. Upon the cancellation of their slated visit to “Palestine,” the Congresswomen re-tweeted a cartoon by the Marxist-Jihadist (here; here) sympathizer (at minimum) Carlos Latuff, whose oeuvre includes a second place “award winning” 2006 cartoon from Iran’s odious “International Holocaust Cartoon Contest”.
Nine decades after the 1929 Hebron jihad carnage of Jews—celebrated then by the Soviet Communist movement and its regional tentacles—the annihilationist Jew-hatred of the Jihadist/Green-Marxist/Red alliance lives on, embodied now, by the somehow more “acceptable” Tlaib and Omar. Their true mental and moral ugliness, however, was captured by the unabashed May, 13, 2011 interview of a 92-year-old Palestinian Arab woman who witnessed the murderous 1929 anti-Jewish ethnic cleansing pogrom in Hebron. She openly celebrated the slaughter of the Jews of Hebron as an appropriate paradigm for the present:
[Interviewer]: So you remember May 15, 1948, the day of the Nakba.
[Sara Jaber]: Why wouldn’t I remember? May Allah support us. I hope we forget those days. Allah willing, you will bury [Israel], and massacre the Jews with your own hands. Allah willing, you will massacre them like we massacred them in Hebron.
[Interviewer]: What does this day mean to you? You have lived 63 years since the Nakba. You have experienced the entire Nakba…
[Sara Jaber]: 92 years. That’s 92. I lived through the British era, and I lived through the massacre of the Jews in Hebron. We, the people of Hebron, massacred the Jews. My father massacred them, and brought back some stuff…
[Interviewer]: Thank you very much.
Michael Lumish: Rashida Tlaib’s ‘Calming Feeling’
It should be noted, nonetheless, that Tlaib’s “calming feeling” is not coming from gratification at Jewish loss, but in her belief that her grandparents relinquished their freedom to help Jews directly after the Shoah.Bill Maher Calls BS on BDS
I cannot know if Tlaib is deceiving herself, or if she is outright lying. But the historical record does not reflect the notion that the Arabs in the British Mandate struggled to “create a safe haven for Jews” at great cost to their own well-being during World War II. The very idea of it is laughable. This is a falsehood so gross in its distortions that it is amazing that Tlaib could utter these words.
The truth is that the Arabs in the Mandate did everything they could to keep Jews out of the Jewish ancestral homeland even as the Holocaust was happening. Between 1936 and 1939, the Arabs launched the “Arab Revolt.” These ongoing Arab riots concluded with the British issuing its infamous “White Paper,” agreeing to Arab demands and thus keeping hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Jews trapped in Europe.
And who among us can possibly forget the participation of Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem during World War II, who went to Berlin to strategize with Adolf Hitler on how best to bring the Holocaust to the Holy Land.
So, Representative Tlaib, please do not deceive yourself into thinking that the Arabs of the Mandate helped the Jews during the Holocaust. You are spreading what can be fairly described as a self-serving historical falsehood for the purpose of creating sympathy for the Palestinian-Arabs at the expense of the indigenous Jewish population. And if you are not aware of this, perhaps your time would be better spent tending to the needs of your constituency rather than making life even more difficult for Israelis.
In his brief but passionate attack on BDS morality, Maher touched on motive, racial bias, selective reporting, lack of context, lack of historical perspective, and antisemitism.Tlaib’s trip down selective memory lane
Highlighting the unfair racial bias of BDS proponents, Maher noted: “BDS is predicated on the very shallow thinking that since the Israelis who are Jewish are mostly white, and the Palestinians are mostly browner, the Palestinians must be innocent and correct, and the Jews must be wrong.”
A provocative and brave statement from someone on the progressive left, but no one ever accused Bill Maher of being shy or politically correct.
Regarding historical context, an exasperated Maher challenged the stunned panel: “As if the occupation came right out of the blue. As if this totally peaceful people suddenly found themselves occupied. Forget about the intifadas, suicide bombings, and rockets … and how many wars?”
Both Rick Wilson and Carl Hulse agreed that discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were often ahistorical. Hulse, however, claimed that the Times did provide historical context for its readers. This, of course, is a ridiculous assertion — which Maher failed to challenge — given the Times’ consistent lack of political and historical context in its biased coverage of Israel.
Touching on selective reporting and lack of balance, Maher pointed out that even today, Jews are not allowed into Saudi Arabia, and wanted to know why no one talks about that: “Isn’t that something?”
The momentarily-humbled panel just sort of dithered as Maher went on to talk about statistics of the Jewish victims of ethnic cleansing in Arab and Middle Eastern countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Eritrea and Iran. “Why doesn’t anyone mention that in the media?” he asked the group. “It’s not exactly a one-way street here, is it?”
THE PALESTINIAN plight is self-perpetuating. I don’t know about the curriculum in Detroit, but I do know what is taught in Palestinian schools: hatred and antisemitism. This ensures that no matter what, peace – true peace – is not attainable in the near future. A generation raised on the cult of martyrdom is doomed.WaPo’s Marc Thiessen on Omar, Tlaib: It’s Not a Muslim Ban; It’s an Antisemite Ban
The attack last week in which an Israeli policeman was stabbed by Palestinians age 17 and 14 is just one recent example. The two were fueled on the rhetoric of “free al-Aqsa.” That’s the Temple Mount where Jews are not currently allowed to pray. Only Muslims.
Speaking of which: As others have noted, Israeli passport holders are banned – permanently – from entering more than a dozen Muslim and Arab countries. Many of those countries won’t let in anyone whose passport contains – the horror – an Israeli visa. This is not just a denial of rights, it’s a denial of existence.
Unlike Tlaib and Omar, I decided to review history rather than revise it. This month two anniversaries stand out in particular. In August 2005, Israel disbanded all the Jewish communities in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip and four in Samaria. Somehow the more than 8,000 Jews who lost their homes, livelihoods and community support systems in the disengagement 14 years ago were never considered refugees. That is a status reserved for Palestinians, in perpetuity. Thousands of rockets have been launched on Israel from Gaza since the disengagement, including 600 in May this year and several last weekend while the Tlaib-related tweet war was being waged in the virtual world. Whatever the conflict is about, it’s clearly not “the settlements.”
A Washington Post columnist slammed Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar for falsely accusing Israel of denying them entry because they are Muslim and “implementing Trump’s Muslim ban,” saying instead that the two women were barred from visiting because they are antisemites.Brazil university cancels lecture after alleged threats by pro-Palestinian group
“If Omar and Tlaib can boycott Israel, why can’t Israel boycott them?” Marc Thiessen asked in an oped published Tuesday.
“There is nothing outrageous about Israel’s decision to bar entry to politicians who advocate its destruction,” he added.
“Sorry, it’s not a Muslim ban; it’s an antisemite ban,” Thiessen said.
The two lawmakers on Monday released a statement saying they were barred from entering Israel because they are “the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress.” On Twitter, Omar accused Israel of implementing “Trump’s Muslim ban.” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who Thiessen calls a “supposedly responsible” Democrat, tweeted “PM Netanyahu — Drop your Muslim ban.”
According to Thiessen, the problem is not — as Omar claims — that Israel barred entry to a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, but rather that there is an antisemite sitting on that committee in the first place.
Thiessen goes on to list Omar’s antisemitic remarks:
Omar has said that when she hears people call Israel a democracy, “I almost chuckle.” She has said “Israel has hypnotized the world“; has declared her hope that Allah will “awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel”; supports a boycott of Israel, a country she has compared to Nazi Germany; accused her House colleagues who support Israel of pushing “for allegiance to a foreign country”; and declared that support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins.” (She later apologized for the last comment, but not all the others, before or since that one.)
Thiessen then asks how it is that Omar, after making virulently antisemitic comments, is not stripped of her role on the very committee that aids the U.S. in shaping policy towards Israel. “When Rep. Steve King defended white-supremacist views, the GOP leadership in the House stripped him of his committee assignments and voted 424 to 1 on a resolution condemning the Iowa Republican,” Thiessen notes.
The Post columnist also blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for defending Omar’s “allegiance to a foreign country” remark when Pelosi said, “I don’t believe it was intended in an antisemitic way.”
Thiessen asks: “I’m sorry, what other way could she have intended it? Can you imagine if Republicans had defended King, saying, ‘I don’t believe it was intended in a white-supremacist way?'”
A Brazilian public university canceled a lecture about the Middle East peace process after what the moderator said were threats by a pro-Palestinian group.BDS hides behind free speech to dodge accountability
The University of Pernambuco called off the lecture by Jewish political scientist Andre Lajst hours before it was scheduled to take place at its campus on Thursday afternoon in Recife, the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper reported.
“I had to cancel the event for security reasons. Since 8 a.m. the Pro Palestine Muslim Association of Recife called me and threatened myself, the speaker and the university in a tough and harsh way,” said a statement addressed to university staff from Karl Schurster, a history professor and the event moderator.
On Tuesday, the pro-Palestinian group released a statement calling for a boycott, objecting that the program lacked a Palestinian speaker. Lajst answered with a public post and video on social media.
“While they preach boycott and academic censorship, we make room for them and invite: appoint a representative to discuss with me in a peaceful, democratic and respectful dialogue,” said Lajst, who heads the Brazilian branch of StandWithUs, a pro-Israel group.
Lajst lamented the university’s decision to cancel the event.
The House of Representatives recently voted 398-17 to reject the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions effort against Israel. Against this lopsided vote, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar offered a resolution defending BDS as an exercise of free speech by Americans. We strongly support free speech, but BDS supporters often use free speech talk to try to dodge accountability for their misbehavior.Peter Beinart converts to As-A-Jewdaism (satire)
Case in point: The American Studies Association’s Israel boycott. In 2013, the ASA’s leadership, known as the National Council, endorsed a resolution to cut ties with Israeli universities. The proposal was put to member vote. Turnout was low; only 20 percent voted in support. But the National Council declared victory anyway and, ever since, claims the resolution was adopted.
The boycott flies in the face of important academic principles, such as freedom and neutrality. It was immediately criticized by the distinguished 62-member Association of American Universities. And its exclusive focus on the Jewish state smacks of anti-Semitism. The ASA has never boycotted any other country, either before or since.
Four distinguished ASA members subsequently sued, claiming the small turnout invalidated the vote’s result under the ASA’s bylaws and corporate law. The members also claimed the boycott violated laws barring the nonprofit from acting outside its chartered purpose to “promote the development and dissemination of interdisciplinary research on U.S. culture and history in a global context.”
After litigation commenced, plaintiffs’ lawyers found disturbing evidence that BDS activists had schemed to take over ASA and plunder its resources to push BDS.
Excitement was in the air today as a leading As-A-Jewish pundit took the plunge and embraced the religion of As-A-Jewdaism. Noted critic of Israeli policies Peter Beinart dipped into the mikvah at Brooklyn’s Congregration Gates of Self-Righteousness and became a part of the As-A-Jewish people. The Daily Freier was on the scene to share in the simchas.
As the Congregation waited for the ceremony to begin, machers from the various denominations of As-A-Jewdaism milled about in the Jewish Lobby: Bundists, Julia Carmel Bat Dolezal, IfNotNow, Jew-ish Voice for Peace, and some writers for the Forward. Then a hush fell on the crowd as Rabbi Ari L. Gold and Mr. Beinart walked into the room. Rabbi Gold welcomed the audience. “This is an amazing day for me As A Jew as we welcome Peter to the religion of As-A-Jewdaism. As a Jew I feel that Peter will be a great addition to our movement.”
The crowd remained silent as they waited for Mr. Beinart’s response.
“As a Jew I agree with you!” exclaimed Peter to wild applause.
We wanted to thank you for bringing to our awareness of the issue. We did not expect the possible misinterpretation that removing some of the countries (30+) would cause, but do now.
— Wrist Candy (@wristcandywc) August 22, 2019
Oh hi Marc! @marclamonthill https://t.co/fTcEmGC7KL
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) August 23, 2019
Al Jazeera anchor promotes antisemitic conspiracy theory on Twitter
An Al Jazeera anchor promoted an antisemitic conspiracy theory on Twitter on Thursday.London musical about Jewish family censured for allegedly casting only non-Jews
“This Holy Land belongs to Palestinians Because Palestinians are Semitic unlike the Israeli Khazars who are occupiers !!” tweeted Ghada Oueiss, a Qatar-based news presenter.
The Khazar theory claims that European Jews are the descendants of Khazars, a Turkic people who lived in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, rather than from Jews who originated in the Middle East. The theory has been used by antisemites and anti-Zionists to discount Jewish claims to the land of Israel. Scholars have discounted the theory.
Oueiss sparred with critics and defended her comment, sharing a photo of a book that supported the hypothesis.
In May, the Qatari news channel suspended two journalists for making a video in which they said the Holocaust is “different from how the Jews tell it.”
A London production of “Falsettos,” a musical about a Jewish family, is being criticized for allegedly only casting non-Jews.Pro-Israel Jewish Leaders Slam New York Times over Political Editor's Antisemitism
Among the artists who signed an open letter criticizing the West End production were British-Jewish actors Miriam Margolyes and Maureen Lipman, the Jewish Chronicle reported. The letter says that “to the best of our knowledge” no one in the cast is Jewish.
“In 2019, in London — a city famed for and proud of its tolerant and multicultural identity — it seems impossible that a production of a show as obviously concerned with Jewish religion and culture as Falsettos could announce a cast with no Jewish representation whatsoever,” the letter reads.
The production, which premiered in 1992 and recently had a revival on Broadway, tells the story of a Jewish man who tries to navigate his relationship with his ex-wife and son after he has come out as gay and started dating a man. The second act of the play centers on the son’s bar mitzvah.
The producers behind the London show told the Evening Standard that they were “hugely disappointed” to read the complaint. They said they could not confirm whether there were any Jews in the cast because it would have been discriminatory to ask people about their backgrounds.
Pro-Israel Jewish leaders slammed the New York Times on Thursday in the wake of a Breitbart News report that detailed how a senior political editor, Tom Wright-Piersanti, had a history of racist and antisemitic tweets.
Breitbart News’ Matt Boyle noted that Wright-Piersanti had tweeted “Crappy Jew Year” on Jan. 1, 2010, among other antisemitic statements; and had also made fun of Indian-Americans repeatedly. Ironically, the Times had printed an editorial Thursday accusing President Donald Trump of antisemitism for saying that Jews who voted for a Democratic Party that protected antisemitic officials were “disloyal” (to themselves, not to the United States).
On Thursday, Wright-Piersanti erased tweets, locked his account, and tweeted: “I have deleted tweets from a decade ago that are offensive. I am deeply sorry.” Former New York state assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat who has occasionally campaigned for pro-Israel Republicans , tweeted: “Apology not accepted. Deleting tweets doesn’t equal a change in ideology. Go ahead and write a full length mea culpa, explain the errors of your thinking and how/why it changed, and maybe then we’ll believe you’re not the Antisemite reflected in your previous tweets!”
The Republican Jewish Coalition dinged the Times for its hypocrisy, noting that while it was attempting to frame Trump as a racist and antisemite, it had racism and antisemitism in its midst:
Turkey arrests 7 journalists throughout the country this week for their critical reporting.
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) August 23, 2019
Why is Turkey — the world's top jailer of journalists— sitting on the UN committee overseeing human rights NGOs? https://t.co/zLBizpQNzX
Terror assessment report warns of attack risk at planned Holocaust memorial
A report released by a senior counter-terrorism expert has exposed serious risks in the Government’s plans to build a Holocaust Center Victoria Tower Gardens.Canadian editor sentenced to prison for promoting Holocaust denial, rape
In the report, dubbed the Tudway Report, former detective chief superintendent Adrian Tudway, who was the Association of Chief Police Officers national co-coordinator for domestic extremism, has said that the proposal to site the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Center within Victoria Tower Gardens would create a “perfect storm” of terrorism risks.
The report explains that the high-profile Jewish focused building would be a “high value” target for attacks because of its proximity both to Parliament and MI5, and because it lacks the same security measures it would be a “softer target.”
“The adjacent Parliamentary estate is protected by armed police patrols and significant security measures; Victoria Tower Gardens is not and will not be,” Tudway explains in the report explains. “This makes Victoria Tower Gardens a softer target for extremists than the Parliamentary estate or the Security Service building to the immediate South of Victoria Tower Gardens.”
This report also highlights how the attractiveness to extremists “is exacerbated by the world’s media having a front row seat through the TV facilities” as it would be opposite the BBC, ITV and Sky News TV studios, “which would guarantee terrorists the coverage they crave.”
The building is expected to attract up to 10,000 visitors a day, and “although it will not be a place of worship, it would be seen as a high value target because of its clear links to the Jewish faith.”
A Canadian editor was handed a one-year prison sentence for promoting hatred against Jews and women in his publication.New Jersey state employee fired over anti-Semitic social media posts
James Sears, editor of the quarterly newspaper Your Ward News in Toronto, was sentenced Thursday to two six-month terms by Judge Richard Blouin of the Ontario Court of Justice.
The publication promoted Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic blood libel claims and published columns justifying rape. It also contained racist, Islamophobic and homophobic messages.
In 2016, the minister in charge of Canada’s postal service banned Your Ward News from being distributed by mail.
Noah Shack, vice president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, hailed the conviction as a “moment of justice for the thousands of women and Jewish community members … who have been impacted by the toxic hate-mongering of Your Ward News.”
A New Jersey state employee who is also head of a local NAACP chapter was fired over several anti-Semitic and racist social media posts.Jewish leader: Nazi camp memorials should offer Arabic tours
Jeffrey Dye, president of the Passaic NAACP chapter, was fired Tuesday from his job as a state Labor Relations representative. He was hired in February by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration.
In one Facebook post Dye said that “the Jewish news media don’t want to show us black news,” and that he believes elections in Passaic are being stolen “with Jewish votes coming from Brooklyn,” according to Politico New Jersey.
Other posts, all removed after they came to light, criticized US aid to Israel, calling it “a damn shame” and a “disgrace,” according to reports. He also wrote: “Jews at it again divide & conquering us.”
Dye has praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite, and minimized the Holocaust in comparison to the suffering of black people, according to Politico. “The black holocaust has been & continues to be the worst of them all even though white media wants to make you think it’s the Jews,” he said, according to a report about the now-deleted post.
Europe
Concentration camp memorials in Germany should offer tours in Arabic, Germany’s main Jewish leader urged.Georgia and U.S. to renovate ancient Jewish cemetery in Akhaltsikhe
Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the Welt am Sonntag weekly newspaper that the former concentration camp in Flossenbürg is already considering adding tours in Arabic. “This should be expanded to all such memorials,” Schuster said.
Germany has seen an influx of some one million Arabic-speaking refugees in the past 4 years.
Schuster also warned against any political deals with the right-wing Alternative for Germany party, which is expected to gain parliamentary seats in local elections in former East German states next month.
With only a few weeks to go before elections in some former east German states, Schuster said that mainstream political parties should shun any parliamentary coalitions with the anti-immigrant, anti-minority AfD party, some of whose representatives have also relativized the Holocaust. He warned that the AfD is “closely connected to far-right extremism” but manages to present another image to the public by stirring and feeding off legitimate fears. Any political pact with the AfD would force other participating parties to“always look to the right.”
The United States and Georgia will partner to renovate the ancient Jewish cemetery of Akhaltsikhe, which houses tombs dating back to the 17th century.Study: Hotels in Israel enjoying record demand, increased revenues
This was decided during a meeting this past week between Georgian Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Mikheil Batiashvili, and Paul Packer, Chairman of the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. The two signed a Memorandum of Understanding which envisages the launch of a mechanism for further collaboration in the cultural field.
During the meeting, Batiashvili highlighted that the US as one of Georgia’s key strategic partners and noted that the two countries have close partnerships when it comes to education.
Some of the tombs in the Akhaltsikhe cemetery have inscriptions in Ladino, leading scholars to believe that some of the Jews of the city arrived from the Ottoman Empire and originally came from the Iberian Peninsula.
Hotels in Israel enjoyed another record year in 2018, driven by unprecedented incoming tourism and increased geo-political stability, according to a new report by hospitality consulting firm HVS.Baseball Star Puig Visits Jewish Camp for Kids With Cancer, Other Illnesses
Revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the country increased by 6% in 2018, driven by an increase in average hotel rates across all major destinations. Eilat and Dead Sea hotels, the report stated, witnessed a "slight reduction" in occupancy levels last year.
"Thanks to the continued lull in the turbulence of the geo-political situation in the area, the Israeli tourism industry is flourishing with an ever-growing number of tourists visiting the country," said report authors Lionel Schauder and Russell Kett. "However, it is important to remember that the 'sword of Damocles' remains suspended and that any incidents may halt this positive development."
More than 4.1 million tourists visited Israel in 2018, an increase of 14% from 2017 and 42% from 2016, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Direct revenues from tourism exceeded NIS 24 billion ($6.83b.).
Total demand growth for hotel rooms has outpaced supply growth in recent years, with demand increasing over the last three years by 6.7% year-on-year and rooms supply growing by 2.9%. Additional accommodation is needed, the report stated, especially at the budget end of the spectrum.
Cleveland Indians outfielder Yasiel Puig had what he said was “one of the best days of his life” by visiting Camp Simcha, a Jewish camp for kids battling cancer and other terminal diseases in Glen Spry, NY.
On a day off in the series between the Indians and the New York Mets, the baseball star rented a helicopter to visit campers on Monday in the Catskill Mountains.
“It’s a little bit sad to see young kids that have been sick from a young age, like 7-14 years old,” he said. “But when you see them smile, and them hanging out and jumping to the music, you forget and everyone forgets that the kids are sick.”
Puig continued, “I never expected it to be this way. I said, ‘Oh, I’m going to visit sick kids. It’s gonna be more slowed down, sitting in the room, explaining about life, keep going, fight. I only said like two or three words because these kids never stopped. They were excited.”
He visited the camp after meeting Irv Bauman at a Los Angeles Lakers game in 2013 when Puig played for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Today was one of the best days of my life. I want to thank so many people, starting with all of my new friends at @campsimcha. Thank you for welcoming me and giving me your smiles today. You are my inspiration and when I do good things on the field I will do it for you. pic.twitter.com/uSSrYX2ibW
— Yasiel Puig (@YasielPuig) 20 August 2019