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Monday, June 08, 2020

06/08 Links Pt2: Hen Mazzig: No, Israel Isn't a Country of Privileged and Powerful White Europeans; Jonathan Tobin: Defunding police will sacrifice Jewish security

From Ian:
Hen Mazzig (Los Angeles Times): No, Israel Isn't a Country of Privileged and Powerful White Europeans
There is a growing inclination to frame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of race. According to this narrative, Israel was established as a refuge for oppressed white European Jews who in turn became oppressors of people of color, the Palestinians. As an Israeli, and the son of an Iraqi Jewish mother and North African Jewish father, it's gut-wrenching to witness this shift.

The majority of Jews in Israel today are of Middle Eastern and North African descent. I am baffled as to why mainstream media and politicians around the world ignore or misrepresent these facts. Israel was established for all Jews from every part of the world - the Middle East, North Africa, Ethiopia, Asia and, yes, Europe. No matter where Jews physically reside, they maintain a connection to the Land of Israel, where our story started and where today we continue to craft it.

Those who misrepresent Israel try to position it as a colonialist aggressor rather than a haven for those fleeing oppression. That all but erases the story of my family. In Iraq, my family experienced ongoing persecution. My great-grandfather was falsely accused of being a Zionist spy and executed in Baghdad in 1951.

Any erasure of the Mizrahi experience negates the lives of 850,000 Jewish refugees. They would also deny the existence of almost 200,000 descendants of Ethiopian Jews who were airlifted to Israel in the early 1990s in a daring rescue operation.

Israel is a place where an indigenous people have reclaimed their land and revived their ancient language, despite being surrounded by hostile neighbors and hounded by radicalized Arab nationalists who cannot tolerate any political entity in the region other than their own. Jews that were expelled from nations across the Middle East, who sacrificed all they had, have been crucial in building and defending the Jewish state since its outset.
Hetz Webinars: Modern Blood Libels
Tuvia Tenenbom, Ricki Hollander (CAMERA), Prof. Richard Landes (h/t Arie)





Jonathan Tobin: Defunding police will sacrifice Jewish security
Sensible people know that we don't have to choose between justice and preserving the rule of law. And if anyone ought to know that, it is a Jewish community and other minority groups that depend on both in order to feel safe.

While the ideologues are successfully promoting the slogans about abolishing and defunding the police, polls show that both black and white Americans, including those who think the cops are prejudiced, want more police protection, not less.

Indeed, the problem in many poor urban areas with minority populations is that high crime rates and violence there are in part caused by neglect of these neighborhoods by law enforcement, rather than systemic racism and police violence.

The police are not perfect. Some can be bullies or corrupt. And as we saw in Minneapolis, some are capable of murder. But the overwhelming majority of officers are brave individuals who do a difficult and dangerous job with a far greater chance of suffering injury or death in the line of duty than their critics want to admit. And if you're in trouble, then they're likely to be your best bet for survival – no matter your race or religion.

The impulse to demonize law enforcement or to treat all efforts to maintain public order – and to defend the safety and the property of citizens at risk from rioters – as illegitimate or evidence of fascist oppression is madness.

Fashionable liberal opinion has been hijacked by extremists who teach contempt for American ideals, and who see the country and our police as irredeemably racist. But it's also particularly foolish for a community that has endured a surge of anti-Semitic attacks in the last year to join with those who wish to abolish or defund to the point of irrelevance the only group that can deter or adequately respond to such incidents. Any Jewish group that wants to defund the police isn't just wrong. Those who succumb to this delusion will have on their hands the blood of future victims of violence that only the cops could stop.




As Chaos Erupted During George Floyd Protests in Los Angeles, Local Jewish Security Group Mobilized to Protect Fearful Community
As unrest, violence, and rampant looting flared up in Los Angeles last weekend in the wake of the death of the unarmed George Floyd in police custody, one organization had its eyes trained upon the safety of the local Jewish community. Magen Am, a licensed security group, worked to quickly fill the void left by the slow-to-respond and heavily bogged down Los Angeles Police Department.

“We protect people,” said Yossi Eilfort, a co-founder of Magen Am (“nation’s shield”), a nonprofit whose mission began as one of self-defense, but has matured into community security. “Our main goal is the protection of life and that includes everybody,” he said.

Magen Am has partially focused on threats or aggression in or around homes. Eilfort said, “Fortunately, we have not been engaged in any violence, but we have deescalated and deterred potential threats, at times politely escorting some people out of the neighborhood.”

The purview of Magen Am has included responding to calls about suspicious persons or vehicles; being a presence when establishments or homeowners feel under threat; accompanying Hatzalah ambulances into areas that have experienced riots; and delivering drinks and refreshments to police and National Guardsmen. “We carry cold water, coffee, and energy drinks which we offer to police officers or National Guardsmen whom we see. In these riots, we thought it was important for them to hear how much we the Jewish community values them,” Eilfort told the Algemeiner.

The group has responded to about ten reports of home break-ins, fielded hundreds of WhatsApp requests from community members, and delivered dozens of cans of pepper spray, another volunteer who did not wish to be named told The Algemeiner.

Volunteers for Magen Am were also involved in protecting a synagogue last Saturday night. In a video that circulated on social media and was verified by the Algemeiner, a member of the group described fending off vandals intent on defacing the synagogue Shaarei Tefila in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles.

“They were spray-painting this whole area,” the volunteer says in the video, but were unable to damage the synagogue before “I sent them off.”

Noting that several nearby stores had been “pillaged” and the area “had tear gas galore,” the volunteer nonetheless noted, “We defended Shaarei Tefila today.”


BDS Hijacks the Murder of George Floyd
The hijacking of the protests against George Floyd's tragic death in America by anti-Israel elements is far from a new phenomenon: it's just the latest in a long line of times that events have been used to attack Jews.




Rapper Ice Cube Blasted on Social Media for Posting Antisemitic Image: ‘You Should Be Ashamed’
The caricature first appeared as a mural in London’s East End and sparked a controversy in 2018 after Britain’s Labour Party leader at the time Jeremy Corbyn voiced support for the artist Mear One (Kalen Ockerman). Corbyn later apologized and the image was subsequently scrubbed.

According to journalist Michael Segalov, the iconography mirrors “antisemitic propaganda used by Hitler and the Nazis to whip up hatred that led to the massacre of millions of Jews. This extends to the table these figures are sat at, resting on human bodies, as the Nazis also depicted.”

Twitter users were quick to call out Ice Cube for sharing the offensive image and insisted that he remove the photo. Antisemitism researcher and blogger David Collier wrote, “You know Ice, if the only thing you have to use is something that is racist and oppressive towards another minority group, it really is time to rethink your whole argument.”

Another Twitter user wrote: “This not cool. Not at all. It is antisemitic and makes an enemy out of those who continue to fight with us. Our Jewish allies don’t deserve such vile tropes. You should be ashamed, sir.”

Yet another added, “This is a racist mural. We can’t fight hate by hating on others. We gotta win this united, not divided.”

Ice Cube’s hostile attitude towards the Jewish community has an extensive history. In 1991, the Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned his album “Death Certificate” for including many racist lyrics. One song on the album even called for the murder of a Jewish music industry figure.

In 2015, he allegedly had his entourage physically attack a rabbi who he bumped into in Detroit. Ice Cube, the rabbi said, “unleashed a string of antisemitic epithets at him for wearing a yarmulke.”

Last month, the rapper offered warm birthday wishes to infamous antisemitic minister Louis Farrakhan.
Indy Mid-East correspondent tries to tie Israel to US police brutality
First, the Amnesty Report Fisk links to included absolutely no evidence that police training in Israel, sponsored by mainstream Jewish groups such as Anti-Defamation League, had any connection whatsoever with police violence in the US. In fact, it’s a smear inspired by Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), the radical anti-Zionist group that partners with terrorists and anti-Semites, which they call Deadly Exchange. Deadly Exchange dates back to 2017, after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

JVP’s “Deadly Exchange” anti-Israel campaign, CAMERA has revealed, includes the antisemitic narrative that “Jewish power and money [are] fomenting violence and racism” against African-Americans. Those advancing this charge accuse not just Jewish organisations, but American Jews who support these groups, as bearing responsibility for racist brutality against minority communities in the US – including blacks, Muslims and Mexicans.

Here’s the JVP video promoting their libel:


However, the charge is based on a total lie, and, in fact, the proponents of the Deadly Exchange smear have never given one concrete example tying police officers who received training in Israel to any actual incidents of racist-inspired police brutality or killing.

Moreover, ADL’s program is strictly focused on counter-terrorism for senior US police officials. It doesn’t train beat cops on ordinary police work, such as how to make arrests of regular suspects. Also, Americans receive training from both Israeli and Palestinian counter-terror personnel. Berlin-based lawyer and doctoral candidate Andrew Bennett (who tweeted the video shown above) has spent time analysing JVP’s Deadly Exchange, and concluded that it’s based on nothing more than “bare-faced insinuations, misrepresentations, and alleged causation that is so attenuated as to be laughable.”

As the blog Legal Insurrection (LI) argued, “the intellectual rubric is “intersectionality,” by which “anti-Israel activists try to forge links with minority (particularly black) activists by holding out Israel as the key link to oppression around the globe”. Their strategy, LI added, is to “provoke racial tension against Israel and its supporters….to blame Israel [and, by extension, American Jews] for minority deaths in the U.S.”.

So, what’s motivating Fisk to exploit international anger over the police killing of George Floyd, and racism by some police against American blacks in general, by suggesting Israel is somehow to blame?

Well, first, we should note that we’re often asked if we think that journalists who consistently show bias against Israel are personally antisemitic. The answer we give is that most aren’t, and that, in lieu of any real evidence, such accusations about the personal motivations of reporters and correspondents should be avoided.

However, with Fisk, it’s a different matter entirely.

Our coverage over many years has demonstrated that Fisk has a malign obsession with Israel – an animosity which has at times crossed the line to antisemitism. Fisk has suggested that US Jewish groups engage in moral “blackmail” by hurling ‘false’ charges of antisemitism. He’s also evoked the dual loyalty charge: the accusation that American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to their own country. And, in one especially odious piece duly published by Indy editors, he even charged that the Western media “grovels” and are “in thrall” to Israel, which, he charged has “annexed America”.

At the end of the day, it’s simply impossible to avoid the conclusion that Fisk’s hatred of Israel is at least partly motivated by antisemitism.
Guido Fawkes: More Problematic Sculptures for the Left to Tear Down
With the craze for mobs tearing down monuments spreading from the US to the UK this weekend, Guido has compiled a handy list of other non-woke sculptures to smash for not befitting modern morality. Jumping on the left wing trend of posting pictures of statues you want the mob to go after next, here’s a list of more problematic sculptures…

- Cleopatra’s Needle, Victoria Embankment – not only did Cleopatra head up a slave-owning and trading society, her obelisk was actually constructed more than a thousand years before her reign by imperialist Thutmose III, who was behind the largest empire Egypt had ever seen. He led 17 campaigns, conquering lands from Sudan to northern Syria. Should we really be honouring this slaveholding, imperialist society?

- Tomb of Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery – a giant memorial honouring a notorious antisemite, who repeatedly wrote of Jewish people as selfish creed, asking “What is the worldly basis of Judaism? Practical necessity, selfishness. What is the worldly culture of the Jew? Commerce. What is his worldly God? Money. All right! The emancipation from commerce and from money, from the practical real Judaism, would be the self-emancipation of our age.” Honouring ideas like this has no place in 21 Century Britain.

- Nelson’s Column, Trafalgar Square – Nelson was not an abolitionist. The Guardian has slated him as a “friend to slaveowners and plantation interests”.

- The Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens – Albert served as Field Marshall of the imperialist British Army, and President of the “Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and for the Civilization of Africa”. Which promoted British intervention in African countries to end the slave trade globally…

- Tomb of William Wilberforce, Westminster Abbey – Wilberforce disapproved of female campaigners and opposed Catholic emancipation. As an evangelical Christian, Guido is pretty sure he wasn’t particularly progressive on LGBT rights either…

- Gandhi Statue, Parliament Square – Gandhi campaigned in favour of racial segregation, arguing that Indians as a race were superior to “savages or the Natives of Africa”. He used the racial slur ‘Kaffirs’ to refer to black Africans…

Statue-toppling is a hard door to close once opened…




MEMRI: Syrian Regime Press: The George Floyd Incident Is Proof Of America's Racist, Terrorist Character
The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer received much attention in the state press of the Syrian regime, a regime that is widely accused of committing crimes against humanity, as evident, inter alia, in the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 2019, that sanctions the Syrian regime and anyone aiding it. The Syrian government dailies, and especially Al-Thawra, stated that the George Floyd affair is proof of the hypocrisy of the U.S., which purports to champion democracy and freedom yet employs racism and terror against its own citizens and against other countries. The articles also slammed the Western countries that are members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), saying that they purport to respect human rights yet turn a blind eye to America's war crimes in the world and to its racism against its own citizens.

The following are translated excerpts from several of these articles in Al-Thawra:
The West, UNSC Refrain From Condemning The U.S. Since They Are Subordinate To It And Complicit In Its Crimes

Al-Thawra editor-in-chief 'Ali Nasrallah wrote an article lambasting the Western countries for what he called their silence over the George Floyd incident. He wrote: "An entire week has passed since the loathsome barbaric and racist act, but the [rest of the] 'civilized' West has not given any appropriate response to the situation, not even in the form of a minimal [assertion of] faith in the democracy that it purports to believe in…

"What is the meaning of all this fear, cowardice and yawning [indifference]? Is it because the West is similar to the U.S. in terms of its racist regime… or because the old Western continent [i.e., Europe] is afraid of the U.S.? Or because [Europe], including all its components, belongs to [the U.S.] in the first place and is one of the tools [America] uses for harming the peoples and governments of countries throughout the world?

"Why is it that the international Security Council – which the U.S. has turned into a wing of its State Department, and which [the U.S.] directs, occupies and exhausts [by] leading the political and diplomatic struggles within it, in violation of the [UN] Charter and of all [the Council's] own decisions – is still shut down and has not uttered a single word to condemn the racism and the actions of the American regime?...

"This world has to change and transform its [ruling] order, its institutions and its organizations. It is time for it to shake off the lie of democracy and freedoms that are tailored to the dimensions of America's reckless and racist behavior, [behavior] which the helpless West, subjugated to the U.S., is complicit in… It's time for the world to raise its voice against those who apply a double standard to all these situations..."[1]
Ayatollah Khamenei on Killing of George Floyd: U.S. Has Been Doing Same Thing to the World for Years
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a June 3, 2020 address that aired on Channel 1 (Iran) that the protests in the U.S. surrounding the death of George Floyd are an “eruption of truths that have always been hidden.” Describing how the policeman pressed his knee on George Floyd’s neck, Khamenei said that this is what America has done to nations in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and the entire world and he elaborated that this is in America’s nature.


To support US protesters, Iranian lawmakers chant ‘Death to America’
Iranian media reported lawmakers in parliament chanted “Death to America” during a session the previous day, allegedly in a show of support for protesters in the US over the killing of George Floyd.

The report on Monday said the chants followed a request by lawmaker Ahmad Naderi for a moment of silence over deaths of protesters.

Iran has made a point of criticizing Washington daily in the wake of the ongoing turmoil in America and protests over police killings of African Americans.

State television in Iran, which in November put down nationwide demonstrations by killing hundreds, arresting thousands and disrupting internet access to the outside world, has repeatedly aired images of the US unrest.
Gov't announces new restrictions over spike in virus infection rate
The special ministerial taskforce dealing with the coronavirus pandemic has announced a halt to the easing of restrictions due to the recent spike in cases in Israel.

At the end of the meeting on Monday, during which the ministers got a briefing from experts, the forum announced that apart from the planned opening of wedding halls and other venues for limited private events and celebrations, the remaining restrictions would stand, putting on hold the full reopening of the Israeli economy and its transit system.

Following the meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "We have sat down with experts, who showed us that that there is a very sharp increase in incidence levels, and the infection rate means cases may be doubling every 10 days. We may already be at this rate, and I hope that this is not the case," Netanyahu says.

The ministers also agreed to move forward on a watered-down version of a bill that would grant the Shin Bet security agency access to cellular location data and other information on Israeli citizens to help monitor carriers and limit community spread.

Health Ministry officials on Sunday reported 111 new confirmed cases. For the first time in five weeks, meanwhile, there has been an increase in the number of patients on ventilators -- from 21 to 23.. The overall number of deaths in Israel due to the coronavirus now stands at 298 after two more people died from the disease over the weekend.

As of Sunday the number of infected students was 277 and the number of sick teachers was 75. Altogether 78 schools have closed their doors, out of around 5,000 schools throughout the country. The number of students in quarantine is 15,489 and the number of teachers in quarantine is 2,107.
Israel cancels some sales taxes, extends unemployment benefits to rescue economy
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Israel Katz on Sunday said purchase taxes on a series of products, including electronics and clothing, would be canceled to help Israelis cope financially with the pandemic, as they extended unemployment benefits for recently laid off Israelis by another month.

The plan, announced in a joint statement, will see duties and taxes for the following products lifted: cellphones, electronics, clothing, shoes, home appliances and lighting, toys, cosmetics, baby products, and glasses.

The cost of the waiver to the state coffers is projected at NIS 1.45 billion, with taxes on most of the products hovering around 12 percent to 15%, and rising up to 30% for some entertainment equipment. The move comes after consumer spending took a steep dive as the virus spread in Israel.

The statement said the slashing of the taxes was permanent. Both Katz and Netanyahu “were presented with an effective evaluation which showed that the temporary cancellation of duties and purchase taxes led to a significant drop in the prices of consumer goods over time, also in comparison to trends in other countries,” it said.

In addition, Netanyahu and Katz agreed to extend the eligibility of Israelis placed on unpaid leave to receive state unemployment benefits for another 35 days, to account for the nationwide lockdown imposed by the government for around that amount of time.

“The goal here is to propel the economy, to get the wheels moving, to make it easier for you, citizens of Israel,” said Netanyahu in a statement.
Russian chief rabbi Berel Lazar diagnosed with COVID-19
Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and is under medical supervision, according to local media reports on Sunday.

“Rabbi Lazar has been diagnosed with the coronavirus infection. He is under medical supervision. His health is out of danger,” the TASS news agency reported, citing a press statement from the rabbi.

Lazar, 56, a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, has been chief rabbi for two decades and is noted for his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

His diagnosis came as Russia recorded nearly 9,000 new coronavirus infections over the past day. The number is roughly in line with those reported over the past week as the spread of the virus may be reaching a plateau in Russia.

The Russian national task force for the pandemic said 8,984 new cases were recorded in a day, and 134 people died of the virus. New cases of the virus have hovered around 9,000 per day since the middle of May.

As the worldwide coronavirus death count surpasses 400,000, Russia has tallied 5,859 deaths overall, a number that health experts question as being much too low. Russian authorities say it’s due to their efficient work at handling the pandemic and method of counting the virus-linked dead that differs from other countries. Top officials in Russia, including the prime minister, have been infected.

Russia’s chief rabbi has been credited with a fast response to quash the spread of the virus in the Jewish community.
Controversial filmmaker and and Corbyn enthusiast Ken Loach describes BAFTA nomination for Panorama’s expose of Labour antisemitism a “disgrace”
Ken Loach, the controversial filmmaker and and Jeremy Corbyn enthusiast, has described the BAFTA Television Award nomination for Panorama’s programme titled “Is Labour Antisemitic?” as a “disgrace”.

Mr Loach called the programme a “crude polemic, without balance or objectivity, intended to undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership,” and claimed that “BAFTA’s choice is a blatant attempt to rehabilitate a discredited piece of propaganda. It should fool no-one.”

The filmmaker made the comments to The Canary, a controversial hard-left blog under investigation by the Government’s Independent Advisor on Antisemitism. Mr Loach has received several BAFTA awards over the course of his career.

The programme, which was televised in July 2019, showed former Labour Party employees speaking out publicly to reveal Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s personal meddling in disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism. The programme explained how senior Labour Party staffers, some of whom Campaign Against Antisemitism has known for years, used to run Labour’s disciplinary process independently, but soon after Mr Corbyn’s election as Party leader found themselves contending with his most senior aides, who were brazen in their efforts to subvert due process.

During the programme Labour’s press team made claims that the staffers featured had political axes to grind and lacked credibility, and it is understood that they and John Ware, the maker of the programme, commenced libel proceedings against the Labour Party. The libel cases are being brought by Mark Lewis, a highly esteemed media lawyer who is also an honorary patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The Labour Party also submitted a 28-page complaint to the BBC, claiming the programme failed to meet the BBC’s standards, but the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit, which is the top level of the broadcaster’s internal complaints process, decided to back the makers of the episode. Labour then took its complaint to Ofcom but withdrew it earlier this year.


NGO Monitor: NGO-Terror Links Case Study: EU Funding to UAWC in 2011-2017
In 2011-2017, the EU provided €18.3 million to projects involving Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a non-governmental organization (NGO) linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).1 It appears that €12.1 million went to projects where UAWC was the only implementer.

Two UAWC employees, who worked with the organization’s finances, were arrested in 2019 and are currently standing trial for being part of a PFLP terror cell that perpetrated the August 2019 murder of a 17-year-old Israeli.

- Samer Arbid: UAWC’s accountant and previously UAWC “financial officer.” Arbid is on trial for commanding the PFLP terror cell that carried out the bombing, murdering the teenager, and injuring her father and brother. According to the indictment against him (on file), Arbid prepared and detonated the explosive device.
- Abdel Razeq Farraj: UAWC’s “Finance and Administration Director.” According to his indictment (on file), Razeq Farraj held a senior PFLP post and authorized the August 2019 bombing. He is currently standing trial.

EU Funding to UAWC

EU Financial Transparency System (FTS) reports that from 2012 – 2014, the EU provided €12.1 million to UAWC for five projects where UAWC is listed as the sole implementing partner:
Norway to Cut Palestinian Authority Funding Over Textbook Incitement




Republican Senator Writes New York Times Op-Ed. Zionist Jews Get Blamed.
Anti-Israel groups are pouncing on a controversy over an opinion piece by a Republican senator in the New York Times, scapegoating two openly Zionist editors there.

The article by Senator Tom Cotton, headlined “Send in the Troops,” called for the deployment of the US military to quell what the article called an “orgy of violence,” and “rioters and looters” in American cities following the death in police custody of George Floyd. It was published June 3 and immediately promoted protest within the Times. A news article in the Times reported that “more than 800 staff members signed a letter protesting its publication.” The same news article reported that “the Op-Ed was edited by Adam Rubenstein, according to staff members in the editorial department.” (The news article originally used the verb “handled,” but the verb was stealth-edited post-publication to “edited.”) More than two dozen New York Times employees called in sick to protest the article.

Anti-Israel groups are seizing on the flap to target the few openly Zionist editors at the Times, including Rubenstein and Bari Weiss.

“The New York Times opinion desk has a neoconservative problem,” was the headline over an article published by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “The Cotton article —brimming with bloodlust for black people and their allies, and riddled with factual inaccuracies — was edited by Adam Rubenstein, a young editor who joined the Times’ opinion section last year,” the Quincy Institute article said, using the classical antisemitic trope of depicting Jews as bloodthirsty. “Before joining the news industry, Rubenstein participated in discussions on the Iraq War and Jewish thought and politics at the Hertog Foundation — the foundation of neoconservative funder Roger Hertog — and the Tikvah Fund, which has seeded an array of right-wing publications devoted to defending Israel and neoconservative thought.”

The Quincy Institute article ties Rubenstein in with Bari Weiss and with columnist Bret Stephens, reporting that Weiss “has gone after critics of Israeli government policies” and that Stephens “has used his platform to continue to call for military action against Iran and extol the virtues of ‘Jewish genius.’”

The Electronic Intifada, an anti-Israel website, covered the flap with an article headlined “NY Times editor who ran Tom Cotton op-ed is anti-Palestinian activist.” The article reports: “Four years ago as a student at Kenyon College in Ohio, Rubenstein attacked Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and guest speaker Remi Kanazi.” The Electronic Intifada also moved on to attack Weiss, too: “Now this anti-Palestinian bigot and crusader against academic freedom and freedom of thought is preening as a defender of free speech – but primarily for far-right-wing speakers, including a senator who wants to unleash the might of the US army on people protesting racialized police brutality.”

“Name the problem: Zionist repression,” a former professor quoted in the Electronic Intifada article, Steven Salaita, said in response to Tweets criticizing Weiss, who had weighed in with a Twitter thread about the oped.
Taliban Leader Pissed his Op-Ed Didn’t Trigger Collapse of NYT (satire)
With staff at The New York Times in revolt and the editorial page editor leaving his position over the decision to publish an op-ed by a Republican senator, Taliban deputy leader Sirajuddin Haqqani said he is deeply offended that his own column just months earlier engendered no such response.

“We helped Osama bin Laden carry out 9/11, then spent 20 years fighting America and killing young girls who wanted to go to school, and no one cares that newspaper of record gives us a platform,” Haqqani griped. “But a member of the US Senate suggests that President Trump invoke the same act as George HW Bush did thirty years ago, and everyone lights their head on fire? We get no respect!”

Staffers at the Times lashed out on Twitter after the paper published the op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton calling on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to end looting, arson and violence that has broken out in response to the death of George Floyd. The paper’s publisher quickly backed down, saying the column should not have been published.

Haqqani is not the only former columnist to complain.

“It is really insulting,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “I literally banned homosexuality and none of these social justice warriors said a peep when the Times published my byline, but Cotton triggers a total meltdown? What is wrong with these people?”
Financial Review slammed over ‘antisemitic’ cartoon
A CARTOON published by The Australian Financial Review this weekend – depicting Treasurer Josh Frydenberg with a hook nose – has sparked claims of antisemitism, despite the artist responsible denying the allegations.

The cartoon by David Rowe, which is based on the E Phillips Fox painting Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay, portrays Prime Minister Scott Morrison as Cook and Frydenberg as a sailor, sporting a head covering, a hook nose and holding a dollar sign.

Social media users have blasted the cartoon, describing it as “disgusting”, “shameful” and an “antisemitic piece of garbage”.

“This makes me sick to my stomach. HOW is this even possible?” one user said.

“Hitler would love this! AFR continuing the propaganda of the Third Reich,” wrote another.

Other comments described the cartoon as a “beyond despicable portrayal of our treasurer using racist stereotypes” while federal MP Josh Burns said, “The line has clearly been crossed here.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-CEO Alex Ryvchin wrote to the cartoonist on Twitter, asking, “Is that the treasurer depicted with a head covering, hook nose and a dollar sign? A better way?”

Rowe responded, “It is Josh but he’s wearing a sailor’s cap as per the E Phillips Fox painting of Cook’s landing. And yes he’s carrying a dollar harpoon because he’s the treasurer. As for the nose it’s just a quick sketch.

“Apologies if you thought I was suggesting something else.”




The Herald retracts historical lie about Israeli 'rape and torture' in '48
It took nearly two weeks of effort, but we – with considerable help from our supporters – finally convinced The Herald (of Scotland) to retract a historical lie that the flight of 700,000 Palestinians in 1948 was caused by “Israeli aggression, including rape and torture”.

The sentence served as background in a May 25th article, by Political Editor Tom Gordon, about a Scottish politician who had referred to the Palestinian refugee issue as a “self-inflicted” tragedy.

As we noted at the time, an article at The Times (of London) on May 26th on the row included the exact same claim – which we convinced editors to remove a few days later. There are no serious, non-propagandistic scholars who’ve made such a claim – and in fact, when pressed, editors at both publications couldn’t provide the name of even one historian who holds this view.

Though we commend The Herald for removing the sentence from the article, unfortunately there’s no editor’s note acknowledging the error.
Tom Gross: Conversations with my friends about their lives: Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff (Jerusalem)


How a Holocaust Museum scholar denounces Zionism
A scholar at the U.S. Holocaust Museum has denounced Israel in so many words as racist, colonialist, and a killer of innocents. Is this an appropriate use of American taxpayer dollars?

This attack on Zionism and Israel comes from the pen of an Israel-born historian, Amos Goldberg, who last year served as a Senior Scholar-in-Residence at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington, DC., which is funded in part by U.S. taxpayers.

Goldberg’s denunciation of Israel, which appeared in early June on “+972 Magazine” website (and was co-authored by Alon Confino), was titled “To Understand Zionism, We Must Listen to the Voices of its Victims.” The article was published, interestingly, just after several synagogues were graffitied with anti-Israel hate messages during the George Floyd riots.

According to Goldberg, Zionism is “a settler colonial movement.” The State of Israel is “based on segregation and discrimination.” Israel is “a wrongdoer, and an occupier” which carries out “crimes against the Palestinians” including “the plunder of land” and “the killing of innocents.” He also claims that the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who fled from Israel during the 1948 war “were in fact expelled.”

In another paragraph that reveals Goldberg's anti-Zionism but also his view of history, he writes that “Arab resistance to the Zionist movement”—is that a euphemism for Arab terrorist massacres of Jewish women and children?—“and later Israel, did not derive from antisemitism but rather from their opposition to the colonization of Palestine.”
Argentina adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism
Argentina joined a number of countries in adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, in an official decision by its Foreign Ministry on Sunday night.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry called the definition a guide to determining what behaviors can be considered antisemitic, so that they can be prevented, sanctioned and eliminated.

The resolution called on all branches of government to use the definition “to contribute to the fight of the Argentine Republic against antisemitism in all its forms, collaborate in the construction of a culture of prevention of hostility and violence to which prejudice and intolerance lead, promote education for plurality and reinforce the task of guaranteeing the fulfillment of the objective of education, memory and investigation of the Holocaust and its lessons for us and future generations.”

Argentine Foreign Minister Felipe Solá also invited public and private institutions of Argentina to begin using the working definition.

The IHRA working definition of antisemitism states: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The IHRA definition’s examples of antisemitism, which are not mentioned in the Argentine resolution, include calling Israel a racist endeavor or comparing Israel to Nazis.
Penn State condemns student for posting photo of girls with swastikas
A photo of smiling young women with swastikas drawn on their shoulders has drawn condemnation from Penn State University, where the woman who posted it is reportedly a student, and a petition calling for her expulsion.

The student, identified in reports as Ryann Milligan, reportedly posted a photo to Twitter last week in which two women are seen with black swastikas on their shoulders. The account from which the tweet reportedly came has since been restricted.

In a tweet, the university called the post “deeply disturbing and sickening” and said it would be contacting the person involved. Meanwhile, a petition on the website Change.org calling for the student’s expulsion from the university had over 134,000 signatures as of Sunday.

“This photo is terrifying and extremely threatening, and it is not to be taken lightly,” the petition reads. “Ryann Milligan does not even begin to uphold the values of Penn State. Allowing her to remain a student of Penn State is a disservice to all Jewish people, living or dead. It sends the message that antisemitic actions and ideals are accepted by the university, and that Penn State doesn’t care about protecting its Jewish students, as well as other oppressed and underrepresented minorities.”

The university tweeted on Monday that the “reported anti-Semitic post is deeply disturbing and sickening. The Univ is contacting the individual alleged to be involved. The Penn State community can visit http://equity.psu.edu for a wide range of resources. We will continue to speak out against hatred and intolerance.”
Birthright Pushes on With Lucrative Israel Internship Program Despite COVID-19
Be pushy, take advantage of your skills, and experiment with things you think you might like, was the advice world-renowned behavioral economist and author Dan Ariely gave fellows in Birthright’s Excel’s summer internship project, which began Sunday with a celebratory Zoom call. While around the world the summer plans of students have fallen apart due to the coronavirus pandemic, Birthright decided to enable the Ivy League go-getters taking part in the program to go ahead with their scheduled lucrative internships virtually.

The program, now in its 10th year, couples Jewish university students from the top schools in the US, Canada, Mexico, Israel, and starting this year, the UK with coveted summer placements at some of the Israeli tech and finance ecosystem’s hottest companies.

Since its launch, the program was held for 10 weeks in Israel, with the students getting a chance to work out of the offices of companies the likes of Deloitte, Viola Credit, Mobileye, Lemonade, and EY, but due to the global pandemic, this year’s plans shifted to a virtual summer with both the educational and internship components of the program taking place online.

Birthright Israel, also known as Taglit, is a philanthropic mission by Jewish American donors and the Israeli government to provide free trips to Israel for young Jewish people from around the world. Established in 1999, the project’s goal is to improve relations between the State of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora by enabling participants to get to know the country and its society first hand. Since its early days, Birthright has expanded to include a variety of programs, differing in duration and focus, to accommodate people who want to deepen their relationship with the country.

Birthright Excel is the organization’s entrepreneurship and leadership program in which 54 Ivy League university students are placed in leading global biotech, consulting, cyber, finance, marketing, and venture capital firms that commit to providing substantive and educational work experience and mentorship from at least one senior manager. The program fulfills the participants’ academic requirements and creates for them a powerful, continent-spanning network of peers and alumni. For most of the participants, it would have been a return visit, all but nine having participated in prior programs geared to Jewish youth.
Israeli actor from 'Fauda' interviewed by a Kurdish TV channel
Israeli Kurdish singer and actor Idan Amedi will soon be seen on TV screens across the Middle East, from Iran to Kurdistan, thanks to a special interview he gave to the Kurdish channel Rudaw TV about his role in the Israeli TV show Fauda and his Kurdish roots.

A couple of weeks ago, Amedi received a message from the Kurdish TV channel Rudaw TV, notifying him that the show's producers would like to have a half-hour interview with him, following the success of the Israeli TV show Fauda, developed by Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff, and loosely based on their experiences during their time in the IDF.

The show has been extremely popular, both in Israel and abroad. For several weeks now, it has been standing at the very top of the most-watched TV shows list on Netflix in the Arab world and India.

Amedi joined the cast of Fauda on season 2 as Sagi Tzur, a seasoned combat soldier who was recently transferred to the Mista'arvim elite unit, a counter-terrorism unit responsible for undercover military operations in Arab populations. Amedi's character is valuable, as it offers the viewer the perspective of an outsider, exposing delicate ties between the other characters.
National Library to digitize 2,500 rare Islamic manuscripts and books
The National Library of Israel on Monday announced a new project that will allow digital access to over 2,500 rare Islamic manuscripts and books.

The institute said in a statement that the project, which is expected to be completed in three years, will allow users from around the world to search and examine high-quality images of the texts.

As well as high-resolution images, the project will include the development of a digital platform that can be operated in English, Arabic and Hebrew.

Experts will also inspect all the items to be uploaded, and carry out any conservation or preservation work that is necessary.

Dr. Raquel Ukeles, curator of the Islam and Middle East Collection, said that the library hoped the project would lead to greater global understanding of the Islamic civilization.

“We are privileged to open digital access to these treasures and hope that this project will contribute to greater understanding and shared inquiry related to Islamic civilization. It is one of a number of initiatives connecting the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem with the global community,” she said.

The digitized materials for the project, which has been funded with a grant from the UK-based Arcadia Fund, include an Iranian copy of the Persian mystical poet Nur al-Din Jami’s collection “Tuhfat al-Ahrar.” The text was produced in 1484 just a few years after its composition, during the poet’s lifetime.








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