Thursday, November 21, 2019
Hen Mazzig: The Damage Done by Shouting Down Ideas
For the past several years, I’ve traveled around the United States as an advocate, speaking about my family’s story of exile from Iraq and Tunisia and its journey home to Israel. I visit schools, temples, community centers, LGBTQ groups — you name it.Why Israel's Cause is a Progressive Cause - Mark Regev
After each talk, listeners tell me that their knowledge about the Mizrahi community was limited before hearing me. Although Mizrahim make up 60% of Israel’s Jewish population today, even devoted Zionists entrenched in Israel’s policies know little about the largest demographic living there.
Leaving the story of Mizrahi Jews out of pro-Israel advocacy is a mistake. Jews from the Middle East and North Africa — and our story of survival — are the greatest threat to anti-Zionism. That’s why anti-Zionist groups are so intent on harassing and silencing us.
This proved particularly true recently when I was targeted by an anti-Semitic group of anti-Zionists at Vassar College. I was there to give a talk titled: “The Indigenous Jews of the Middle East: Forgotten Refugees.”
As soon as I arrived at the on-campus venue, I was greeted by protesters. As a staunch supporter of free speech, I invited them to join the talk and ask me the hard questions.
Instead of discussing their concerns with me, they decided to scream over me. One said she decided to oppose me telling my story because she’s a “white queer Jew.” Another claimed they were protesting me telling the story of Mizrahi refugees as a means of fighting white supremacy.
It’s ironic because I was there to speak about how my grandmother narrowly survived the Farhud, a catastrophic event in which the Iraqi government collaborated with Hitler’s white supremacist regime and killed around 280 Jews in two days. To put this in perspective, British newspaper The Guardian reported in August that more than 175 people have been killed worldwide by white nationalists in the past eight years.
Some erroneously say that Israel's cause can never be a progressive cause. Mark Regev, Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, explains why, actually, Israel's cause is an inherently progressive cause.
Anti-Israel protesters shout 'Viva Intifada' in Toronto
Protesters affiliated with the Students Against Israeli Apartheid at York University (SAIA York) in Toronto on Wednesday evening demonstrated against Herut Canada's event at the campus featuring former IDF soldiers.
The protesters chanted “Viva, Viva Intifada” and “Free, Free Palestine.”
The IDF reservists spoke to students about Israel and their experiences in the army. The reservists' visit to the university sparked a “no killers on campus” campaign organized by anti-Israel student groups.
Flyers protesting the event now cover the walls of the campus, portraying a photoshopped image of an IDF soldier who appears to be strangling a child. Anti-Israel groups have vowed to disrupt the event and are circulating a number of chants students can use to derail the event, such as “From Toronto to Gaza, Globalize the Intifada!”
Students Against Israeli Apartheid at York University organized an event on Facebook urging people to show up on Wednesday evening and tell the university’s administration that “we will not tolerate war criminals on our campus.”
According to a statement from B’nai Brith Canada, officers of the Toronto Police Service and private security personnel were on hand to enable attendees to enter the event, despite the best efforts of protesters outside to block them.
Among the protesters present was Holocaust-denying newspaper editor Nazih Khatatba, who glorified a 2014 massacre at a Jerusalem synagogue and has described Judaism as a “terrorist religion.”
At one point, police were forced to intervene to prevent physical violence and injury.
Dozens of University of Toronto Faculty Call Out ‘Antisemitic BDS Movement,’ Urge Adoption of IHRA Definition
Dozens of University of Toronto faculty members urged President Meric Gertler on Tuesday to root out antisemitism on their campus, which they warned had worsened after a student union formally backed the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign.
The faculty call came after the university’s Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) said its Executive Committee may be reluctant to support a motion to bring kosher food to campus because the initiative was being spearheaded by a “pro-Israel” group — namely Hillel, the largest Jewish club on campus.
The GSU Executive Committee has since said it was “deeply sorry for the harm” caused by its response, which has been widely decried as antisemitic.
Professor of dentistry Howard Tenenbaum and 20 other faculty co-signers dismissed this apology as “tepid at best” in their letter, which was endorsed by 30 additional faculty members since its submission to Gertler on Tuesday morning, according to B’nai Brith Canada. The Jewish civil rights group was involved in organizing the letter.
“Since 2012, when the UTGSU endorsed the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and committed student funds to this discriminatory campaign through the formation of its BDS Committee — dedicated solely to the delegitimization of the world’s only Jewish State — the situation on campus for Jewish students has continuously worsened, culminating into this most recent episode,” the faculty warned.
AG announces Netanyahu to stand trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust
In a decision that drastically shakes up Israeli politics amid already ongoing chaos, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be charged with criminal wrongdoing in three separate cases against him, including bribery in the far-reaching Bezeq corruption probe.Wikipedia’s Anti-Israel Editors Unmasked
The decision marks the first time in Israel’s history that a serving prime minister faces criminal charges, casting a heavy shadow over Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, and his ongoing attempts to remain in power.
According to the full indictment released by the Justice Ministry, Netanyahu will be charged with fraud and breach of trust in Cases 1000 and 2000, and bribery, fraud and breach of trust in Case 4000, the state prosecution said in a statement.
Mandelblit addressed the press in his office in the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem at 7:30 p.m. to formally announce the charges.
He called the decision “a difficult and sad day” and said his ruling was made “with a heavy heart but also with a whole heart.
“In the prime minister’s affairs I found there was evidence pointing to grievous actions allegedly being committed, which carry a reasonable likelihood of conviction,” Mandelblit said. “For this reason it is my duty by law to indict. It is not a choice. It is an obligation. Thus it is in the case of any citizen, and thus I acted here.
“Law enforcement isn’t optional. It’s not a question of politics. It’s a duty incumbent upon us…. We were not swayed by slander from all sides, and acted only to enforce the law,” he said, referring to criticism from Netanyahu supporters who have accused prosecutors of conducting a witch hunt to unseat the prime minister.
A pro-Israel organization has exposed the identities of top Wikipedia editors who use the online encyclopedia to promote anti-Israel bias and causes, a first-of-its-kind effort that is unmasking a global online network of Israel critics.A Groundbreaking Arab Initiative to Repudiate BDS
The Israel Group, a nonprofit organization that combats anti-Israel bias, is set to launch next year a database that will expose the true identities of many leading Wikipedia editors who harbor anti-Israel bias and have implanted this viewpoint across the website through more than 325,000 edits during the past 10 years. It has already listed the identities of several of these editors.
The new effort, dubbed Wiki-Israel, seeks to provide accountability for the numerous and often anonymous editors who control all of the content that exists on Wikipedia. Leaders of the Israel Group accuse these individuals of acting as "a cabal of virulently anti-Israel anonymous editors" who are "responsible for decimating virtually the entire pro-Israel editing community." Leaders of the Israel Group view Wikipedia, with its global reach and wide readership, as a central battleground in the fight to combat the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
"Trying to teach anyone the truth and facts about Israel is a futile effort as long as Wikipedia, the number one online educational resource globally, substantiates the lies and propaganda promulgated by the BDS movement," Jack Saltzberg, founder and president of the Israel Group told the Washington Free Beacon. "Stopping Wikipedia's anti-Israel bias should be the most important battle against BDS. There is no close second."
Wikipedia editors routinely promote falsehoods about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and portray Israel in a negative light, according to the Israel Group.
The event was sponsored by the US-based Center for Peace Communications, whose board of directors is headed by Dennis Ross. The CPC describes itself as “a group of Americans who believe that security and prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa require a peace between peoples.” Joseph Braude, the convenor of the conference, is a senior fellow at the Middle East Program of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, in Washington D.C., and is CPC’s founder and president.Start listening to us Jews and Arabs who live in the 'West Bank'
No Israelis were present, because some of the delegates could have been subject to prosecution in their home countries for the “crime” of normalizing relations. It was clearly, Braude said, “a civil initiative in which no government had a hand,” but the views expressed are bound to resonate throughout the Middle East.
Former Middle East envoy and British prime minister Tony Blair made a surprise appearance by video link at the conclusion of the event to commend the conference and its aims.
In its founding statement, read by British peace activist the Marquis of Reading, the delegates said they sought “to support every effort to strengthen peace, coexistence, and reconciliation as well as integration among the countries of the region.”
To benefit their countries, they said they wanted to “break the barrier of boycotting within the region — in particular, the Arab boycott of Israelis — which hindered partnership in technology, medicine, infrastructure, business, economy, and the expanse of human aspiration.”
Pundits are saying the United States’ actions will doom peace efforts. I say that’s nonsense. I’m not one to jump to defend anything automatically, but let’s take a step back and look at things rationally.Corbyn opens door for 'never again' to become 'never say never'
From 1949 to 1967 — when there were no "settlements" at all nor even a single Jew living in that region — the Arab countries were not interested in peace at all, or in a Palestinian state, for that matter. It was only when Israel acquired territory and started building communities in the land that it suddenly became an issue.
Peace efforts have failed miserably until now. The one thing Oslo accomplished is separating the Israeli and Palestinian Arabpeople more than ever — geographically and ideologically — and generating animosity and renewed terror. President Trump didn’t doom the peace process; it was already doomed.
If you truly support peace, it helps if you don’t demonize settlers — or Palestinian Arabs. We are both the ones closest to the conflict. Don’t you think we want a solution?
Perhaps we can put the focus back where it belongs: On the people. Saying “the settlements are an obstacle to peace” is and always has been a bogus excuse for terror attacks from extremists operating out of the 'West Bank' and Gaza.
But being open to real conversations from real people — Jewish "settlers" and Palestinian Arabs — can be eye-opening and informative. Perhaps even a bit surprising. Maybe now, we can all roll up our sleeves and get some actual work done.
The definition, drawn from that formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), cites four examples of antisemitism pertaining to Israel, including “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” and “Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”
Corbyn was emphatic in his opposition to the definition. “[It] should not be considered antisemitic to describe Israel, its policies, or the circumstances around its foundation as racist because of their discriminatory impact,” he argued.
Under this rubric, almost any attack on the Jewish people are tolerable as long as it stops short of genocide, and therefore indulging in antisemitism is a perfectly acceptable, even laudable, method of furthering the socialist cause.
While he remained an almost comic figure on the fringe of the party, these associations were viewed as mere idiosyncrasies. They were tolerated within political circles almost fondly, like that old biscuit tin full of sewing notions that your nan keeps at the back of the kitchen cupboard, providing a nostalgic reminder of times long past.
But in denying post-Holocaust antisemitism, Corbyn may have inadvertently laid a bare a hitherto unsuspected paradigm for all to see. After all, who among us hasn’t at some point, upon being confronted with antisemitism muttered to ourselves: ‘but at least we’re not being herded onto cattle-trucks’? So egregious were the crimes of the Nazis that the antisemitism of the modern era still pales in comparison.
For this is the great tragedy of our times: not that Corbyn and his fellow travelers could justify Jew-hatred to themselves (there have always been anti-Semites among us) but the blithe assumption held by everyone – Jews and non-Jews alike – that ‘never again’ meant ‘never again.’
So deeply ingrained was this assumption that many Jews felt entirely at home in the Labour Party even as it housed Corbyn and his far-left faction; even as he was meeting with Hamas and Hezbollah and calling them ‘friends’; even as he was laying wreaths for Jew-killing terrorists.
It may well out, therefore, that the old hatred has, in some grotesque way, left a dark door open for the new hatred to creep in.
Britain has had its anti-Semites down the years, but never before have they infiltrated a major party - a distinction that set us apart from much of Europe. That we have reached this moment now, in 2019, is utterly shameful. pic.twitter.com/vJuCPPRXA2
— Daniel Hannan (@DanielJHannan) November 20, 2019
Can you tell the difference between Hamas and the Nazis?
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) November 21, 2019
🔸 Jeremy Corbyn says he's anti-Nazi.
🔸 But he also says Hamas are dedicated to social justice.
Can you be pro-Hamas and anti-Nazi? Play along with gameshow host @leekern13 to find out. pic.twitter.com/4zPIFBudaK
Rabbi Abraham Cooper: Bernie Sanders’ criticism of Israel makes him ideal candidate for opponents of Jewish state
Israel has sought from its founding to live in peace with its Araba neighbors, but was attacked by five Arab armies that defied the United Nations and invaded the nascent Jewish state to destroy it in 1948. It was attacked again in subsequent wars and since then by terrorists, and has had no choice but to defend itself.Bernie Sanders Hits Israel in Answer About 'Brutal Dictatorships'
While Sanders now demands that U.S. military aid to Israel be leveraged to force the Jewish state to pursue policies in “the occupied Palestinian territories” to his liking, he makes no such demand on any other American allies whose human rights policies deserve far harsher criticism. Why the double standard? Expediency or ideology?
The Jewish people are today facing a tsunami of anti-Semitism around the world not seen since Nazi leader Adolf Hitler murdered 6 million Jews in the Holocaust in an effort wipe Jews off the face of the Earth.
Jewish institutions – including our synagogues here in the U.S. – are under attack, and have had to take unprecedented security measures to protect innocent men, women and children from being murdered by anti-Semites.
As the multi-headed hydra of Jew-hatred – including neo-Nazis, other white supremacists, Islamist extremists, and far-left ideologues – threaten Jews, American Jews seek leaders who will reconstruct the traditional bipartisan alliance against anti-Semitism.
Despite his own Jewish heritage and the terrible deaths of members of his own family who were among the 6 million who perished in the Holocaust, Sen. Sanders has shown us he is not ready to lead America in the fight against anti-Semitism today.
Sanders was responding to a question on foreign policy posed by MSNBC moderator Andrea Mitchell, who challenged candidates by asking whether they would pull back from U.S. support to Saudi Arabia if that meant emboldening Iran.Ilhan Omar under fire for paying alleged romantic partner nearly $150,000
Sanders answered by criticizing not only the Saudi regime, but also Israel — the region’s only real democracy — as well.
“Saudi Arabia not only murdered [journalist Jamal] Khashoggi, but this is a brutal dictatorship which does everything it can to crush democracy, [and] treats women as third-class citizens,” he said.
Sanders added, “We have got to bring Saudi Arabia and Iran together,” without explaining how he would bridge the centuries-old Sunni-Shia divide and the competing ambitions of the two regimes.
Sanders continued:
The same thing goes with Israel and the Palestinians. It is no longer good enough for us simply to be pro-Israel. I am pro-Israel. But we must treat the Palestinian people as well with the respect and dignity that they deserve.
[Applause]
What is going on in Gaza right now, where youth unemployment is 70 or 80 percent, is unsustainable. So we have to be rethinking who our allies are around the world, work with the United Nations, and not continue to support brutal dictatorships.
The “democratic socialist” senator from Vermont implied that Israel is responsible for high unemployment in Gaza, rather than the Hamas terrorist group, which rules the territory brutally.
Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) is coming under scrutiny once again regarding her alleged romantic relationship with her campaign strategist Tim Mynett - after the New York Post exclusively reported that there is evidence that the congresswoman paid his political consulting group E Street nearly $150,000.
Reports of an affair between the US congresswoman who is a supporter of the BDS movement, and Mynett surfaced three months ago. She and her husband Ahmed Hirsi divorced weeks after it was leaked that she slept and lived with Mynett in a Washington apartment. There were also reports that Omar and Mynett planned and traveled to Jamaica together for vacation.
The accusations are based on claims made in papers filed by Mynett's estranged wife as part of divorce proceedings, first reported by the Post on August 27, claiming that he told her in April that he was "romantically involved with and in love with" Omar. He was a political consultant for the freshman congresswoman at the time.
According to the report, Omar has awarded the firm over $200,000 since 2018 for "fundraising consulting, internet advertising, digital communications and travel expenses" - bringing the overall donation total to about $370,000.
Antisemites in control of political leadership in Rockland have created a dangerous new reality for Jewish residents. @ElectEdDay, Leg. elect Foley & others in leadership are guilty of incitement.
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) November 21, 2019
The national & state GOP must purge the haters immediately!
Enough is enough! pic.twitter.com/v3ZtjUOowu
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) November 21, 2019
GWU Students Pass Antisemitism Resolution, Strike Out Some Language on Israel
Student leaders at George Washington University in Washington, DC, called for action against antisemitism on their campus in a motion on Monday, though some Jewish students say the measure failed to include vital language.Exclusive IPT Video: Blind Hate Against Israel Displayed at Times Square Rally
The Student Association Senate resolution — adopted with a vote of 32 to 0, with four abstentions — was brought forward after a student was recorded earlier this month saying, “F**king bomb Israel, bro. F**k out of here, Jewish pieces of s**t.”
The legislation’s passage was preceded by some two hours of public comment, during which students spoke of their experiences with antisemitism, and debated what language to include in the resolution.
Most of the contention surrounded the resolution’s assertion that calling “the existence of a State of Israel … a racist endeavor” is antisemitic — a stance supported by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which was adopted by 31 member states in 2016 and served as the basis of the senate resolution.
Senators ultimately “voted to omit clauses that claimed the state of Israel is a ‘racist endeavor’ and that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state after students voiced concerns that the resolution did not represent all Jewish students who have differing views on Israel,” the student-run GW Hatchet reported.
Noah Shufutinsky, a junior and vice president of GW for Israel, gave an impassioned speech during the public comment period opposing amendments to the IHRA definition, urging senators to “listen to us” and not “turn a blind eye to the type of antisemitism that a vast majority of Jewish students here face.”
“We have a right to be connected to our homeland, and for you to deny that is absolutely ridiculous, I’m not going to put up with it anymore,” he said.
As the Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilian communities last week, a coalition of supposed peace groups organized a Times Square rally to make their position clear. They stand with the terrorists.
As the Investigative Project on Terrorism's exclusive video shows, hundreds attended the "Emergency Action for Gaza: International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Resistance" rally sponsored by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Within Our Lifetime and Al-Awda: The Palestine Right of Return Coalition.
They didn't call for an end to violence. Instead they endorsed it as a means to eliminate the state of Israel.
"One, two, three, four... Occupation no more," they chanted. "Five, six, seven, eight. Smash the settler Zionist state."
"We don't want two states. We want '48."
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
Both chants call for Israel's elimination, with "'48" referring to the year Israel was created, and a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea" would cover all of what today is the world's only Jewish state.
The BDS Christmas tesco campaign starts
— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) November 21, 2019
be on the lookout rip the stickers off and report to store . Take photos and upload .
Eg: Friern barnet stores usually targeted overnight lack of security on doors wouldn’t know difference between a usual sticker or not pic.twitter.com/i051BhoKc7
Neil Macdonald Tacitly Accuses Israel of War Crimes on CBC Opinion
Writing on CBC Opinion, columnist Neil Macdonald (well-known for his anti–Israel animus) penned an essay claiming President Trump is “now pardoning convicted and accused war criminals, and effectively advising the Pentagon not to prosecute American soldiers who commit atrocities in other countries.”Financial Times corrects editorial alleging ’40 year US policy’ calling settlements “illegal”
As is his modus operandi, Macdonald once again dragged Israel into a story which it had nothing to do with. Macdonald stated the following at the conclusion of his polemic:
And in the past 20 months, Israeli snipers have killed more than 200 Gazans, including women, children and medics, and wounded thousands of others, in response to protests at the border fence that surrounds that benighted territory. The Israel Defence Forces, which prides itself on its “Code of Purity of Arms,” has convicted exactly one soldier of misconduct. He got a month in the brig and a demotion for killing a 14-year-old. Which means all the other killings and woundings were done strictly in compliance with Israel’s idea of military law.”
What Macdonald did not disclose to CBC readers is that along the frontier between Israel and Gaza, thousands of Palestinians have rioted and engaged in terrorism, week in and week out, and have attempted to breach the permitter border to massacre innocents. While Palestinians have protested, others have used the protests to camouflage their acts of terror. Palestinians have fired sniper and assault rifles, thrown grenades, kite bombs and IED’s, molotov cocktails and have tried to (and some have succeeded) in entering Israeli territory in an attempt to kill innocent Israelis. In fact, Hamas has acknowledged that on one occasion, 53 of the dead were members of the Hamas terror group.
As we noted in a recent post, these outlets have erred in claiming that the new US position breaks with “four decades” of US policy, which, they assert, deemed Jewish communities in the West Bank “illegal”.BBC News ignores rockets on northern Israel but reports response
This is not true, as between the late 1970s and 2016, there was not one President or Secretary of State who labeled the settlements “illegal”. Rather, most – other than Ronald Reagan, who explicitly rejected the view that they were illegal – have characterised them as politically “illegitimate”, or an obstacle to peace, without taking a position on their legal status.
One of the outlets we complained to was the Financial Times, which published an editorial (Donald Trump is killing hopes for Middle East peace, Nov. 20) that included the claim that “By declaring that the US no longer views Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as illegal, Mr Pompeo has…overturned 40 years of US policy“.
Our complaint to editors was quickly upheld, and the new language now only narrowly asserts that “Mr Pompeo has…marked a shift in longstanding US policy that deemed them an obstacle to peace“.
Readers were told nothing of the list of Iranian attacks on Israel throughout the past two years.ADL survey: 25% of Europeans anti-Semitic, East European bigotry rises sharply
Later the same day the BBC News website published an additional article by its diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus titled “Israel-Iran: Risk of an all-out conflict grows after Syria strikes” and inaccurately tagged “Syrian civil war”.
The BBC News Twitter account promoted that article with the claim that “Israel’s strikes in Syria risk broad conflict with Iran”.
So there we have it: according to BBC-think it is not Iran’s funding and arming of terrorist organisations to Israel’s south and north or Iran’s support for the establishment of Hizballah infrastructure in the Syrian Golan or even Iran’s reported deployment of missiles in south-west Syria which raise the risk of “broad conflict” but Israel’s response to Iranian aggression.
Roughly one in four Europeans harbors strongly negative attitudes toward Jews, according to a worldwide 2019 poll on anti-Semitism commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League.ADL’s 2019 Survey of Global Antisemitism: 10 Things We Learned
While the report reflects little change in Western Europe, respondents from countries in Central and Eastern Europe showed a marked increase in anti-Semitic beliefs, with age-old stereotypes about Jews controlling business and finance, and being more loyal to Israel than their home country, still firmly entrenched.
The survey, which drew on 11 questions the ADL has used in global polling since 1964, queried over 9,000 adults in 18 countries in Europe, Canada, South Africa, Argentina, and Brazil between April and June of this year. It found that anti-Semitic attitudes have risen sharply in a number of countries: Argentina saw a 6 percent increase, Poland 11%, Russia 8%, Brazil and South Africa 9%, and Ukraine 14% since the last such survey, which took place in 2014 and was updated in 2015.
Roughly 25% of Europeans gave anti-Semitic responses to a majority of the 11 questions, putting them in the ADL’s highest category for anti-Semitism. In addition to negative attitudes toward Jews, when gauging overall anti-Semitism the organization takes into account factors such as violent, verbal, and destructive anti-Semitic incidents, self-reporting on anti-Semitism by Jewish communities, and government policy.
“It is deeply concerning that approximately one in four Europeans harbor the types of anti-Semitic beliefs that have endured since before the Holocaust,” said ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt. “These findings serve as a powerful wake-up call that much work remains to be done to educate broad swaths of the populations in many of these countries to reject bigotry, in addition to addressing the pressing security needs where violent incidents are rising.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s survey of antisemitic attitudes released on Thursday covers over 9,000 respondents in 18 countries across four continents. As well as probing the extent of more traditional antisemitic beliefs — Jews exercise too much financial power, Jews are more loyal to Israel than their own countries — the survey also examines new areas of concern like the BDS movement and attitudes to Jews among European Muslims.Local Holocaust survivor: 'We are disregarding history'
Here are ten ADL findings on global antisemitism in 2019 that stand out:
Antisemitism levels are stable in western Europe, but increasing in eastern Europe and parts of the southern hemisphere.
On both sides of the continent, antisemitic attitudes are pervasive. But in eastern Europe, the percentage of people who continue to believe in one of the most enduring and pernicious antisemitic myths is little short of alarming. Asked if Jews exercised too much power in the business world, 71 percent of Hungarians, 50 percent of Russians, 56 percent of Poles and 72 percent of Ukrainians answered in the affirmative. Meanwhile, 52 percent of South African respondents think that Jews exercise too much power in international financial markets, with 50 percent of Argentines and 38 percent of Brazilians believing the same.
Muslim respondents in Europe are more amenable to Holocaust denial than are non-Muslims, but less amenable than Muslims in the Middle East.
Thirty percent of the European Muslim respondents to the ADL survey said that the Nazi Holocaust was a myth or greatly exaggerated, compared with 64 percent of respondents in the Middle East and North Africa who gave the same response to an ADL survey of 2014. In terms of attitudes to Israel, the ADL survey suggests that outright enmity towards the Jewish state is not as pronounced among European Muslims as is commonly believed. Asked if they believed that Israel had the right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people, 40 percent agreed, while 30 percent said they had sympathies with “both” sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Economic antisemitism” prevails among a majority of European Muslims.
It’s not just some Christians who believe that Jews exercise disproportionate power over the global economy. Asked if Jews exercised too much power in the business world, an overall 56 percent of European Muslims agreed that they did. In France — where deadly antisemitic violence has been motivated by the belief that Jews are wealthy — 61 percent of Muslim respondents concurred that Jews were too powerful in the economy. And whereas the hoary trope about Jews controlling the US government is declining among European non-Muslims, among Muslims in five out of the seven western European nations surveyed, 50 percent or more believed that stereotype to be true.
There's an important lesson being lost, and a Brighton man is working to make sure it is taught.Israeli Ambassador Dermer: Anti-Semitism Has Become Acceptable Again
A recent survey found 66 percent of millennials do not know what the Auschwitz concentration camp was. In addition, incidents of anti-Semitism are on the rise, particularly on college campuses.
For Sam Rind, an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor, the news is disheartening - but not surprising.
“I’m surprised it’s only 66 percent of millennials”, said Rind. “I thought it would be closer to 80 percent."
Rind, who moved to Brighton in the 1960s, said he feels “terrible” when we he hears people don’t remember the Holocaust.
Rind was two when his family fled their home in Poland to escape the Nazis. Of his immediate family, only he and his mother survived ghettos and concentration camps. Rind is very aware survivors like him are dwindling and the number of doubters is growing.
Those stark realities are what brought Rind to speak to a standing room-only crowd Tuesday afternoon in the College of Brockport Student Union where he urged students to study history and current events.
“It makes me feel worried the world doesn’t care and makes me realize Germany of the 30s is happening in the U.S in the 21st century," Rind said.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington on Tuesday hosted a symposium titled “Anti-Zionism and antisemitism.” The American Zionist Movement (AZM) and the World Zionist Organization (WZO) spearheaded the event. Prominent members of major Jewish organizations were in attendance and shared their views.The ‘Old-New’ Kind of anti-Semitism in New York City
Israel’s Ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer said that Israel as a sovereign nation has the power to fight back against antisemitism.
“In 120 years, since the days of the First Zionist Congress, we have come full circle,” he said. “Then, people thought the reason for antisemitism is that the Jews did not have a state. Now, many people think the reason for antisemitism is that the Jews do have a state.
“Then, the enemies of the Jewish people said, ‘Jews, go to Palestine.’ Now, the enemies of the Jewish people say ‘Jews, get out of Palestine,’” the ambassador continued. “Israel is neither of the cause nor the cure for antisemitism. But Israel has given the Jewish people something that we did not have in all those centuries of antisemitism, and that is the power to fight back. And that was given to us when we restored our sovereignty and our capability in defending ourselves, not just on the battlefield, but also in the battle of ideas.”
The ambassador addressed modern antisemitism as well.
“Many people believe that the Holocaust had created a new norm, and this was a mistake in believing. What the Holocaust did, it made it politically incorrect in Western society to go after Jews for about a half-century. And that half-century is over,” Dermer said. “It’s been over for about two decades. I see the turning point in the conference in Durban. That was the point where I believe antisemitism became acceptable in polite society again.”
Anyone who has read Deborah Lipstadt’s Anti-Semitism: Here and Now or Bari Weiss’s How To Fight Anti-Semitism is aware of three primary strains of the modern anti-Semitism virus: far-Right, far-Left, and radical Islamist.Teenager who planned to bomb synagogues and other targets is youngest person ever to be convicted in UK for planning terrorist attack
Each strain has its own particular qualities, modes of expression, reasoning, history, and adherents. Anti-Semitism from the far-Right tends to be the province of white supremacists who buy wholesale into racial replacement theory, and charge the Jew with being a racially inferior caste, “rootless cosmopolitans” bent on world domination through global financial manipulation.
Anti-Semitism from the far-Left tends to be the province of (largely white, but also minorities who are) ultra-progressives who demonize Jews as colonialists and oppressors who shapeshift just enough out of their fair Jewish skin to benefit from white privilege.
Radical Islamism is a combination of both far-Right and far-Left anti-Semitic ideologies with the added sprinklings of age-old Hadiths that refer to Jews as “descendants of apes and pigs” and a modern-day blood libel of being “baby killers” who have no historical connection to the Land of Israel. In most parts of the world, when a Jew is attacked for being Jewish, one of these strains can easily be discerned. Except ... for New York City. Suddenly, here, these neat definitions no longer adequately define the hatred that’s motivating mostly young minorities to attack Jews in broad daylight. Why is anti-Semitism in New York City any different?
A sixteen-year-old neo-Nazi teenager from Durham has been found guilty of preparation of terrorist acts between October 2017 and March 2019.British climate activist leader engulfed in row after downplaying Holocaust
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, becomes the youngest person ever to be convicted in the UK for planning a terrorist attack.
Reportedly a follower of far-right ideology since the age of thirteen, the boy had hoped to follow in Adolf Hitler’s footsteps and listed numerous targets “worth attacking” with Molotov cocktails, including synagogues. He had also begun drafting a manifesto titled “A Manual for practical and sensible guerrilla warfare against the kike system in the Durham City area, Sieg Heil”. Other items seized from his home included a copy of Mein Kampf and material on explosives and firearms.
During the trial, the prosecution claimed that the defendant had become “an adherent of neo-Nazism – the most extreme of right-wing ideology”, noting that he had written in his diary on the occasion of Hitler’s birthday that the Nazi leader was “a brave man to say the least. Although maybe having written proof that I admire their number one enemy isn’t such a wise idea. I will however say that I one day hope to follow in his footsteps.”
Sentencing is expected to take place in January.
The British co-founder of Extinction Rebellion sparked outrage in Germany on Wednesday by referring to the Holocaust as “just another fuckery in human history” in an interview with Die Zeit newspaper.Researchers at Holocaust Denial Conference: Jews Were Not Systematically Murdered in Holocaust
Roger Hallam, 53, compared the murder of six million Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis to other historical massacres and claimed that memory of the Shoah was holding Germany back.
“The extremity of a trauma … can create a paralysis in actually learning the lessons from it,” he told Die Zeit in an English-language interview.
“The fact of the matter is, millions of people have been killed in vicious circumstances on a regular basis throughout history.”
He cited the Belgian colonialists who “went to the Congo in the late 19th century and decimated it.”
Extinction Rebellion groups in Germany were quick to condemn the remarks.
“We distance ourselves from Roger Hallam’s trivializing and relativizing comments about the Holocaust,” tweeted Extinction Rebellion Germany.
A conference titled "The Holocaust – the Biggest Lie in Modern History" was held in Jordan and broadcasted by Al-Finiq TV (Jordan) on October 14, 2019. At the conference, Jordanian researcher and journalist Muwaffaq Muhadin expressed doubt that Jews were burned in furnaces during WWII, and he claimed that more Roma had been killed by the Nazis than Jews, who he said had been killed just the same as Germans and other non-Jews had been killed. Jordanian researcher Mahmoud Awad said that the Nazis' Final Solution had actually been to drive the Jews out of Germany in order to get rid of the Jewish influence that had ruined German and Western culture. He said that Zyklon B had been used to purify clothes, including the uniforms of prisoners, from insects and diseases and that it was only the bodies of deceased prisoners that had been burned in furnaces. Awad said that no more than 400,000 Jews had been killed by the Nazis and that the absence of ashes, bodies, bones, and other types of evidence demonstrate that it was implausible that the Nazis killed Jews in furnaces. He added: "[Goebbels] used to say: Lie and lie again until the people believe you. The Jews say: Lie and lie again until you believe yourself."
Church of England urges Anglicans and other Christians to repent for the “sins of the past” towards Jews
The Church of England has produced a landmark document urging Anglicans and other Christians not only to repent for the “sins of the past” towards their Jewish neighbours but to be alert to and actively challenge the continuation of such attitudes or stereotypes.Hitler’s top hat sells at auction in Munich for $55,000
Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes the release of this historic document which demonstrates the Church of England’s solidarity with the Jewish community at this worrying time.
The 121-page teaching document, which was three years in the making, was released today by the Church of England’s Faith and Order Commission.
Titled G-d’s Unfailing Word, it encourages Christians to rediscover the relationship of “unique significance” between the two faiths, worshipping one God, with scriptures shared in common. It makes clear that the Christian-Jewish relationship should be viewed as a “gift of G-d to the Church” to be received with care, respect and gratitude.
It also speaks to the attitudes towards Judaism over many centuries as providing a “fertile seed-bed for murderous antisemitism.”
Hitler’s top hat sold for more than $55,000 at a controversial auction of Nazi memorabilia in Germany.Georgia Church Vandalized With Antisemitic Graffiti Plans to Keep It a While
The auction at Hermann Historica began Wednesday in Munich and continues on Thursday.
Other items that sold on the first day were a silver-plated copy of “Mein Kampf” that once belonged to senior Nazi Hermann Goering for about $145,000 and a cocktail dress belonging to Hitler’s paramour Eva Braun for $5,000, double the expected price, Deutcshe Welle reported.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association, had appealed to the auction house to cancel the sale, saying that it would “send a message that some things particularly when so metaphorically blood soaked, should not and must not be traded.”
“The Nazis’ crimes are being trivialized here,” the German government’s anti-Semitism commissioner Felix Klein told Funke newspaper group. “They’re acting as if they’re trading in perfectly normal historical art objects,” he also said, adding that “there is a danger that Nazi relics become cult objects.”
A Georgia church was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti over the weekend.London Stock Exchange Group to Hold 4th Annual Capital Markets Conference in Tel Aviv-Israel
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Augusta, Ga., said the vandalism—consisting of a line striking a Star of David inside a circle on a window with the words “God will NOT BE Mocked” written on the walls next to it—will be intentionally left up for a week to prompt a dialogue about compassion and acceptance, reported local CBS affiliate WRDW.
“It’s important for the people of our community to know that this exists, to take a stand,” said the church’s president, Andy Reese.
Georgia is one of four US states without a hate-crime law.
“By not having that, we are tacitly saying that hate crimes are not particularly serious,” said Reese.
Still, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the graffiti.
US Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) condemned the vandalism, stating that he believes “there is no place for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind in our community.”
Connecting companies from around the globe to capital is what makes London the world’s most international market. Twenty-six Israeli companies are currently listed in London, having raised over $17.1 billion in equity capital through IPOs and follow-on offerings across our Main Market and on AIM. More broadly, London Stock Exchange accounted for 35 percent of cross-border IPOs in the first nine months of the year by value, more than any other exchange. London is a leading international financial center for tech companies. There are over 170 technology companies from 24 countries listed in London, representing an aggregate capitalization of approximately $260 billion.Michigan eyes Israeli tech to tackle water, mobility, cybersecurity challenges
And it’s not just equity capital. London is also home to Israel’s largest ever Euro denominated sovereign bond, underlining the strength of business ties between Israel and the UK. The 2017 €2.25 billion issuance was more than four times oversubscribed with the combined order books’ total exceeding €9.5 billion.
Following the success of last year’s event where we welcomed over 200 participants, London Stock Exchange Group will hold its 4th annual Israel Capital Markets Conference on December 5. At the event in Tel Aviv, Israel’s business community will hear from delegates from the UK government, global advisory firms, as well as investors, advisors and Israeli listed companies in presentations and panel discussions. They will be joined by representatives from across LSEG’s businesses to share their insights on London’s capital markets, preparing to be a public company, IPO myths, secondary markets and FTSE Russell indexes.
State of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday signed an agreement with Start Up-Nation Central (SNC), a nonprofit that connects the Israeli tech with interested parties abroad, to collaborate on pinpointing technology solutions that “have the potential to improve opportunities and quality of life for Michigan citizens.”British Airways crowns Tel Aviv as a top vacation destination for 2020
As part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the parties, the state of Michigan and SNC will work to connect their respective innovation ecosystems and identify Israeli-based companies than can expand their operations to Michigan. Start-Up Nation Central acts as a gateway to Israeli innovation.
These companies will carry on Michigan’s tradition of setting up public-private partnerships to test, pilot and deploy new technologies in the state.
“This MOU can offer a blueprint for connecting the innovation ecosystems strategically,” Whitmer said in a statement. “An example might be how to optimize mobility to improve transportation options for citizens who may not be looking for a self-driving car, but who do need an affordable, reliable way to go to the bank, get to an appointment or meet friends for coffee.”
The city of Tel Aviv was crowned one of the most popular vacation destinations for 2020 by British Airways, an honor shard by the Seychelles islands, the Maldives, South Africa’s Durban, and Morocco’s Marrakesh, Andrew Brem, the airline’s global commercial manager, said on Thursday.Israeli documentary may knock Golda Meir off her pedestal — and into your heart
Brem was in Israel for the inauguration of a new aircraft, the Airbus a350-1000, on the Tel Aviv-London route. The craft was put into service on British Airways flights in recent months, and the Tel-Aviv London route is one of the first in to use the craft on a daily basis, British Airways said in a statement.
The new Business Suite of the plane offers Club Suite seats, which are designed as personal business suites, each with a sliding door and seats that become fully flat beds, touch screens, a dining table and an entertainment system, the statement said.
British Airways’ decision to add the new aircraft to the Israel route “is an expression of the company’s confidence in Israel, and demonstrates British Airways’ longstanding commitment to this important market,” Brem said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
It has been just a little over 45 years since Golda Meir resigned as prime minister of Israel. She was Israel’s fourth prime minister, and one of the first female heads of a modern government. And depending on if you are reading this from Israel or outside of Israel, you probably have a very different opinion about her.
When I was growing up in the United States (and too young to “know” her while she was in power) she was an adored figure. A grandmotherly figure originally from Ukraine (like my actual maternal grandmother!) she immigrated to the United States, lived in Milwaukee, grew to become one of the more important Zionists, and eventually became a key figure in government. David Ben-Gurion famously called her the “only man in her cabinet,” which he probably thought was cute. In our left-leaning Zionist household, this capable and caring Jewish bubby fit our idealized vision of the Land of Milk and Honey far better than the bellicose Uzi Narkiss or Moshe Dayan. She seemed nice.
In Israel, as I’ve discovered, the dominant sentiment is quite the opposite. Her legacy is greatly tarnished for, as many believe, botching opportunities for peace, exacerbating problems between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews, and failing to prevent the costly Yom Kippur war.
This schism between domestic and Diaspora opinion is at the center of a new documentary called “Golda,” which premiered November 10 at New York’s prestigious Doc NYC festival. It will continue a run of upcoming Jewish film festivals in Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Richmond, Philadelphia, Denver and elsewhere before an eventual, general release.
The documentary is informative and intelligent in contextualizing Golda’s political life from a current perspective. It is a mix of talking head interviews from people who knew her as well as archival clips, the crown jewel of which is a lengthy chat recorded in 1978.
People don't know the level of discrimination against Jews in the Holy Land pre-1948. Here's a document from the US State Department about 2 American Jews who were kicked out of Safed in 1885 by the Ottomans for the crime of being "Hebrews". They called the US consulate for help. pic.twitter.com/SwbsoO588C
— AZ (@americanzionism) November 21, 2019
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