Monday, November 09, 2020

11/09 Links Pt2: Rabin’s True Legacy; Joe Rogan Is the Aleph; The BBC Reports on Less Than 5% of Terror Attacks in Israel; Thousands remember Kristallnacht with March of The Living campaign

From Ian:

Professor Efraim Inbar: Rabin’s True Legacy
A close look at Rabin’s core diplomatic and defense views, above and beyond Oslo, does the late prime minister more justice. It is worth remembering that the centrality of Israeli national security in his worldview never wavered.

Rabin was ready for partition of the West Bank, which was the classic Zionist position, but he insisted on defensible borders for Israel. He never entertained a return to the 1967 borders or any territorial swaps. In his last speech to the Knesset (October 5, 1995), he outlined his preferred map. Israel’s defensible eastern border was to be the Jordan Valley (“in the widest sense”). The areas around a united Jerusalem were to be included in Israel. He spoke of a Palestinian “entity” (which he said would “be less than a state”) to run the affairs of Palestinians.

These formulations were (and remain) in sync with the Israeli consensus, and they are quoted in this year’s American administration peace plan (the “Trump Plan”). Indeed, Rabin’s cautious and skeptical attitude toward peace politics is a needed corrective for some of the euphoric thinking on display in Israel these days. Rabin often reminded audiences that Israel is in the Middle East where peace treaties generally are a temporary phenomenon at best.

Rabin also believed that Israel would have to live by its sword for many years. Therefore, he insisted that large defense outlays were mandatory even after the signing of peace treaties. According to Rabin, Israeli military power was a necessary condition in guaranteeing the preservation of treaties with neighbors in a turbulent Middle East. This view is still very relevant nowadays.

Indeed, various aspects of Rabin’s complex personality have become the foci of identification for different types of Israelis. Rabin’s personal traits were admirable! He was an Israeli patriot who unselfishly dedicated his life to the security of Jewish state. He had an impressive analytical mind. He was an honest Israeli, who spoke his mind without varnish.

Some of Rabin’s views changed over time, but the centrality of national security for Israel remained basically unchanged. This is the best prism for understanding Yitzhak Rabin. For most Israelis, Rabin represented “Mr. Security” – definitely not “Mr. Democracy” or “Mr. Peace” as some in Israel have since tried to portray him.

Rabin’s achievements in the area of national security were remarkable. As Chief of Staff he built the IDF into a mighty military machine and led it the victory of 1967, including the liberation of Jerusalem. As Prime Minister he helped rebuild the IDF in the post-1973 period. As Defense Minister he extricated Israel from the Lebanese quagmire in 1985. He managed to fight the intifada tenaciously without leaving too many scars on the IDF and in Israeli society. In 1994, he reached a peace treaty with the Kingdom of Jordan.

The assassin deprived Rabin of the opportunity of coming to come to grips with the failure of the Oslo process; a process which Rabin did not initiate but proudly backed.

The mythology on Rabin is still in the making. As time passes, we should try to remember not only his weaknesses and failures, but also his great achievements.


Joe Rogan Is the Aleph
My vote this election day was for coming to terms finally with the fact that the past is gone and never coming back, even if it’s never really past.

Only three modern candidates competed in this year’s presidential race: Futurist Social Democrat Andrew Yang, mystical love-healer Marianne Williamson, and the avant-garde Christian humanist Kanye West. None had a chance. Instead we got two men aging into their late 70s whose attachments to the past, even in the insults they use to discredit each other, obscure the kind of future they would work to bring about in America.

Joe Biden is neither a socialist nor a Democrat in the 20th-century sense, since that party no longer exists. Donald Trump is no fascist but neither is he a Republican in the same mold as Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush. The political organizations denoted by those names belong to a bygone age. Economically, we live now in a country that is globalized, dominated by finance and technology, supported by an overburdened service sector, and moving toward dependence on forms of artificial intelligence that, in the course of manufacturing goods and amusements, also remake the fabric of reality. Socially we have been cast out of the protective sphere of communal institutions and the stability of elite consensus, and into the unknowable wilds of the digital.

The story of the 20th century was individuals living within the institutions of mass society. The 21st, so far, has identities rather than individuals, connected by digital networks that periodically effloresce into large collectives like “The Resistance” and MAGA. Our ability to comprehend reality is strained to the breaking point by the pace of technological change. And yet our political leadership is divided between postwar boomers and modernizers who are still fighting the Cold War. It’s time to update our political maps to understand what the world really looks like now, once the clutter of outdated relics is removed. To do that, let us clear a space, if we can, from our election-addled minds to spare a thought for the powerful podcaster and political harbinger, Joe Rogan.

Recently, one of the key architects of the creaking post-2001 political framework that updated the Cold War as the War on Terror turned his attention to Rogan. Former Bush speechwriter David Frum almost acknowledged reality when he gestured disapprovingly at the podcast host. "Wanted,” Frum tweeted: “Smart, non-polemical assessment of emergence of Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Glenn Greenwald, Donald Trump Jr., Matt Taibbi, the Federalist group of writers etc. as a coherent and cohesive faction in American politics. They share more than just the same dislikes.”

To appreciate the meaning of the Rogan phenomenon, it’s best to leave Frum and turn to the work of the Argentine writer Jorge Louis Borges. In Borges’ short story The Aleph a character discovers that an acquaintance’s basement contains a portal into infinity called ‘the aleph.’ In this single point located on a cellar stair, all of space-time has been compressed and is revealed to the observer who stumbles into just the right position to peer through the keyhole into existence:
Modest Funeral Under Covid Regulations Pays Tribute to Influence of Late UK Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks
The former British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was buried on Sunday at a modest funeral that was conducted in accordance with coronavirus social-distancing guidelines.

Only 30 mourners — the maximum allowed under the UK government’s rules — attended a service that would ordinarily have attracted a presence of several hundred, among them senior politicians, Jewish leaders and representatives of other faiths.

Among the absentees was Sack’s successor as chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who was unable to take part due to being in quarantine.

The hesped, or eulogy, composed by Rabbi Mirvis was instead delivered by Rabbi Mordechai Ginsbury of Hendon United Synagogue in London.

Mirvis reflected in his eulogy that it was “difficult if not impossible to think of Rabbi Sacks” — whose passing from cancer was announced on Saturday — “in the past tense.”

An emotional eulogy was delivered by Gila Sacks, a daughter of Rabbi Lord Sacks.

“That single belief — that nothing was inevitable, that no problems were too big for people to try to solve, that things could always be changed and people can always change them — that belief shaped everything else,” she recalled in describing her father’s influence.
StandWithUs: Remembering Lord Jonathan Sacks
So many are reeling from the news that a towering figure in the Jewish world has passed away. Just prior to Passover, former British Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, joined StandWithUs for a program titled "Emerging from Crisis, Stronger". Rabbi Lord Sacks was, as ever, full of wisdom, energetic and eloquent as he navigated viewers through issues relating to the pandemic, bereavement, antisemitism, the centrality of Israel in Jewish life and much more. We are making the video available for you to watch as we remember the life and legacy of Rabbi Sacks, which will last for generations to come. May the memory of HaRav Ya’akov Zvi ben David Arieh z’l, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, be a blessing.


Jewish Single Mom Cited For Opening Her NYC Store While Thousands Party In the Street Over Biden Win 5 Miles Away
Cell phone video shows the moment a New York City law enforcement officer entered a Jewish woman’s store, which fell in a government-designated “red zone” and was therefore ordered to remain closed because of COVID, and handed her a citation for violating the shutdown mandate – despite the fact that only a few blocks away, thousands of people had gathered in the streets to celebrate Joe Biden’s presumptive win over President Donald Trump.

The owner of Brooklyn-based “Pottery and Glass Land,” which offers classes and sells kits for various kids’ crafts, tried to explain that she was a single mom just trying to pay her bills, and that it wasn’t fair for her store to remain shut down while others are permitted to at least partially reopen.

“I have five children. I am a single mother, and I have zero income coming in right now. And everybody else is open, and I’m not allowed to be open,” she explained.

The officer told her that’s something she could take up with the city.

“Well that’s very nice. When I stop paying my bills, you wont do anything for us,” she said.

“Have you made a complaint?” the officer asked.

“Of course! We’re always making complaints,” she answered.


Dems Plan to Win Back Muslim Vote by Using Term ‘Muslimx’ (satire)
With exit polls showing US President Donald Trump making gains among Muslim voters, Democratic leaders have announced plans to rename the religion ‘Islamx’ and its followers ‘Muslimx’ in an effort to be more inclusive.

“It is clear that our messaging was not reaching Muslim communities as we expected, and we believe using colonialist heteronormative patriarchal terms like ‘Muslim’ and ‘Islam’ may have hurt us,” said DNC chair Tom Perez. “If we want Muslim voters to support us, we must anglicize the terminology surrounding them through the lens of a gender studies major, just like we did with the Latinxes.”

Progressive activists have also noted that Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is never recorded to have revealed his preferred gender pronouns. A group of House Democrats, led by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have begun referring to Muhammad as ‘Monique’ while tweeting out images of the prophet in a dress and a rainbow turban.

“The Democratic establishment is losing the trust of Muslimx voters by failing to recognize the possibility that the prophet, Peace be Upon Zim, may very likely have been gender non-binary,” Ocasio-Cortez explained. “No wonder Americans think our party is out of touch.”


Claims That U. Toronto Succumbed To Zionists In Denying Human Rights Position To Valentina Azarova Fall Flat
When asserted “human rights scholar” (and anti-Israel polemicist) Valentina Azarova was denied a position leading the prestigious International Human Rights Program (IHRP) at the University of Toronto, media and anti-Zionists alike painted a picture of Zionist Cancel Culture at work.

A Case of Zionist Cancel Culture?

The intial narrative that emerged in this case is one in which a Jewish Tax Court judge, reportedly furious about Valentina Azarova’s critiques of “Israeli human rights abuses” against Palestinians, may have used his status as a “major donor” to pressure the university to rescind its job offer.

Shree Paradkar, The Toronto Star‘s “race and gender columnist” first broke the story in mid-September. Since then, she has covered the controversy extensively; she’s written at least eight articles about it since September 17th.

But, as is usual in cases of controversy over academic anti-Israel demagoguery (see our write-up of BDS-activist-turned-professor Ilana Feldman‘s appointment as interim dean of the Eliot School at George Washington University), there may be more to the story than The Star’s Paradkar (among others) would have you believe.

Alleged Donor Judgment
According to The Toronto Star, the controversy began during the University of Toronto’s summer search for a new International Human Rights Program (IHRP) director. During the hiring process, a Tax Court judge, reportedly also a “major donor” to the university, apparently complained privately to a member of the university’s law school fundraising team about Azarova’s candidacy. (How the judge would have heard about her application in the first place remains unclear.)

The first public reports of this judge’s alleged interference in the hiring process came from a September 12 letter to the university’s law school dean, Edward Iacobucci, from two former directors of the IHRP program—Carmen Cheung and new official with Human Rights Watch (HRW), Samer Muscati. Their letter claimed that “Faculty was contacted by a judge…[and] shortly thereafter, Dr. Azarova’s offer was rescinded by the Faculty.” The letter also stated that Audrey Macklin, chair of the law school’s faculty advisory and selection committees, had resigned from these posts in protest.
SWC and CAA 'disappointed' Zionism slur ruled 'not antisemitism'
Britain's Campaign Against Antisemitism and the Simon Weisenthal Center have criticized a decision by Britain's General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), after it ruled that comments by a London-based chemist in which he accused Zionists of financially supporting the Conservative Party were "grossly offensive," but didn't constitute antisemitism.

The chemist, Nazim Ali, made the remarks during a pro-Hezbollah "Al-Quds Day" rally in 2017.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism had filed a complaint against Ali with the GPhC, citing offensive remarks he made during the rally he led, accusing the "Zionists" of financially supporting the Conservatives, and following his claims with the chant: "Free, free Palestine. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The rally was filmed by members of the CAA's Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit.

At the rally, Ali reportedly also blamed the Grenfell Tower tragedy on "Zionists." On June 14, 2017, a fire swept through the Grenfell Tower in West London, killing 72 and injuring more.

The Council's ruling came at the conclusion of a two-week long hearing, which found Ali to have "brought the pharmaceutical profession into disrepute," and that his "fitness to practice... impaired," as his remarks were "grossly offensive." However, the council ruled that they were not antisemitic.


The BBC Reports on Less Than 5% of Terror Attacks in Israel
The Israel Security Agency’s report on terror attacks (Hebrew) during October 2020 shows that throughout the month, a total of 124 incidents took place: 82 in Judea and Samaria, 35 in Jerusalem and inside the “Green Line,” and seven in the Gaza Strip sector.

In Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem, the agency recorded 95 attacks with petrol bombs, 14 attacks using pipe bombs, six arson attacks, one stabbing, and one shooting attack. In the Gaza Strip sector, there were two attacks with petrol bombs, one grenade attack, and four separate incidents of rocket attacks (during which five missiles were launched).

Two members of the security forces were wounded in a pipe bomb attack on October 14. Neither that — nor any of the other incidents that took place throughout the month — were reported on the BBC News website.

Rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip on October 5, October 16, October 20, and October 22 did not receive any coverage whatsoever, and the discovery of a Hamas cross-border tunnel near Kibbutz Kissufim was also not reported.

Since the beginning of the year, visitors to the BBC News website have seen coverage of 4.8% of the terror attacks against Israelis that actually took place, and reporting of 50% of the resulting fatalities. Seven of the first 10 months of 2020 saw no BBC reporting on Palestinian terrorism at all.
Cartoonists take a stance against anti-Semitism
German cartoonist Miriam Wurster immediately picked up on the mood after the October 2019 far-right attack on a synagogue in the East German city of Halle.

Her cartoon shows a couple sitting on a couch in their living room, watching TV. Since a bloodbath was prevented in the crowded place of worship thanks to a massive wooden door, the woman says: "It took a special door to stop the murderer of Halle!" The man, beer bottle in hand, says: "They have money for things like that!"

With black humor, Miriam Wurster's cartoon refers to the anti-Semitic stereotype linking Jews to wealth.

Satire against anti-Semitism
Wurster's cartoon is just one of about 60 caricatures in a new book titled #Antisemitismus für Anfänger (#Anti-Semitism for Beginners).

Top illustrators from the legendary New Yorker magazine and from France, Germany and the Netherlands contributed to the unusual comic book that also features 17 satirical texts.

"What percentage of anti-Semitism is currently okay, do you think?" asks this reporter in Dirk Meissner's cartoon

In one of them, the journalist Alan Posener, born in London in 1949 the son of a British mother and a German Jewish father, describes the moment before he started school, when his mother tried to explain to him that his father was a German Jew. "My mother is moody, and this will fade, too," he remembers thinking. "I decided to simply ignore the matter. German Jew! Ridiculous."

When cartoons become dangerous
Caricatures, cartoons and satire about Jews and other religions have a long tradition — but these days, they can be dangerous.

In January 2015, 11 people at the editorial office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were murdered by Islamists in revenge for cartoons about their religion.

Just last month, also in France, a teacher was murdered after he discussed the so-called Mohammed cartoons in class.
Vice Video Glorifies Palestinian Terrorists, Ignores Israeli Victims
“Capturing the Devastation of the Israel-Palestine Conflict” is a wonderful title for a video about a photojournalist’s time spent in the Holy Land documenting the situation.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of British-based Mexican Antonio Olmos, the only devastation worth detailing seems to be related to the Palestinians.

And now, a recent video by Vice News gave Olmos a platform to express his deep-seated sympathy for the Palestinians and his prejudice against Israel.

“People Who Had Died in the Past”

The video begins by showing Olmos describing one photograph, which features a gun-toting Palestinian terrorist. Evidently, his picture was taken at some kind of event — a protest, possibly — in which Olmos describes “soldiers, the militants” as “marching around, holding banners of people who had died in the past.”

Without any additional information, it’s impossible to say with any certainty who those being venerated were. But given the Palestinian propensity for glorifying terrorists, an ethical journalist would be expected to determine the identity of those depicted on the signs being waved in the air, and convey this information to viewers. Instead, all Vice viewers are told about is that these “people had died in the past.”

Olmos continues his dramatic tale, telling the camera:
The whole group was being defiant because they knew the Israelis could come at any moment and attack them”

Anyone who has served in the IDF knows what a biased narrative this is. Israel doesn’t randomly attack peaceful Palestinian demonstrators. Far more likely is that one or a number of the protesters initiated hostilities by approaching soldiers tasked with keeping the peace, and throwing rocks or firebombs at the Israelis, who might then be required to use force to protect themselves.


Shoddy Israel Reporting By CNN, BBC, CBS Leads to Accusations of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’
Global news organizations have near-uniformly reported on the international community’s condemnation of Israel’s demolition of “a large portion of a Palestinian community in the West Bank that left 73 people, including 41 children, homeless.”

By co-opting the Palestinian narrative, the likes of CNN, BBC, CBS and other media outlets have disseminated a seemingly agenda-driven story devoid of context that effectively serves to delegitimize the Jewish state.

The Road to Two States Runs Through Oslo

On November 3, CNN reported that the European Union had “slammed” Israel’s move:
“Such developments constitute an impediment towards the two-state solution,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “The EU reiterates its call on Israel to halt all such demolitions, including of EU-funded structures.”

What is strange about the quote is that it fails to identify the precise location of this “Palestinian community in the West Bank.” In fact, Khirbet Humsa is situated in the Jordan Valley. This is significant because in the 1990s, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo Accords, envisioning a peaceful two-state solution. Under the agreement, the West Bank was divided into three separate zones: Areas A, B and C.

The Jordan Valley is in Area C, under full Israeli security and civilian control. Jerusalem is thus responsible for planning and approving construction therein for both Jews and Arabs. Israeli authorities regularly demolish structures in Area C deemed to have been built illegally.

With regards to Khirbet Husma, specifically, Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians communicated clearly that the structures destroyed were erected in a live-fire zone. Indeed, Israel declared the area to be out of bounds in 1972. Humsa’s Bedouin residents previously appealed to Israel’s High Court to cancel what was at the time an impending demolition. In 2019, the court rejected the petition and ruled that the residents could not stay.
CBS Falsely Alleges Demolition of Palestinian ‘Village’
Indeed, that the site has regularly been used for military training, and residents have been required to temporarily vacate the area during these exercises, is consistent with a series of B’Tselem posts documenting the temporary evacuation (lasting for several hours at a time) of residents over recent years. Those B’Tselem updates dismiss the military training as “alleged” or a “pretext” for the evacuations.

National Public Radio’s story on the demolitions reported that resident Yasser “Abu al-Kbash said the area is used for agriculture and is only rarely used by Israel for military exercises,” a claim that holds up neither to the court’s findings nor to B’Tselem’s records indicating ongoing military use.

A 2011 High Court ruling referred to aerial photographs which the court said showed that the structures on the site appeared to indicate temporary, seasonal residences and not permanent full-time homes.

In an aerial photograph (at left, from Regavim) just three years prior to that ruling, even those apparently part-time structures cannot be seen. The photographic evidence, along with the court findings, indicate that 48-year-old shepherd Yasser Abu al-Kabash, Estrin’s interviewee in the NPR article, could not have possibly been telling the truth when he “said he had lived there all his life.”

CBS’s false depiction of Israel’s demolition of a handful of illegally tents and pens dangerously built in a long-established military firing zone as the destruction of an entire Palestinian village is one small step away from Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s vitriolic charge of a crime no less than “ethnic cleansing.”
BBC reports erase foreign funding of illegal structures in Area C
The Palestinian Authority of course has complete control (rather than “limited self-rule”) over Area A and civilian control over Area B. The Bedouin encampment of Khirbet Humsa is located in Area C which, under the terms of the internationally recognised Oslo Accords signed by the PLO, is under Israeli control pending final status negotiations.

The BBC’s report makes no effort to inform readers that the encampment has been the subject of several court cases throughout the past decade. In 2019 the Supreme Court ruled that its residents have no property rights in the location (i.e. the land does not belong to them), which was declared an army training zone in 1972. The court further stated that the Bedouin are infiltrators on the land and that building there is unauthorised and illegal.

The BBC’s claim that “Palestinian communities in Israeli-administered areas complain that trying to obtain building permits there is often futile” is hence totally irrelevant to this story because – like anywhere else in the world – building permits are not granted to people who take over land illegally.

Interestingly, the BBC’s report makes no mention of the fact that some of the structures illegally erected in Khirbet Humsa were apparently constructed with European funding – including from the British Consulate in Jerusalem.
Guardian story on evicted Bedouins omits info even Al Jazeera included
Additionally, the claim that the Bedouins in question are now “homeless” is most likely not accurate. Indeed, the BBC’s Yolande Knell acknowledged, in a recent report on Radio 4, that at least some of the Bedouin families in question are now living in donated tents north of the Jordan Valley.

Though the current status of the remainder of these tent-dwelling Bedouin displaced by the eviction is unclear, the Guardian’s use of the evocative word “homeless” is likely inspired by the highly politicised NGO B’tselem, which seems to lazily use the word without verification as to the actual status of the Palestinians in question.

At the very least, readers should view with great skepticism the Guardian’s use of the term “homeless” in this context.

Further, though Holmes quotes COGAT noting that authorities had carried out an “enforcement activity… against seven tents and eight pens which were illegally constructed in a firing range located in the Jordan Valley”, he fails to note that Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that its residents have no property rights in the location (i.e. the land does not belong to them).

Moreover, previous Israeli court cases on the same issue were heard in 2011 and 2014, and the petitioners lost in all cases.

The Guardian reporter clearly made no effort to research the legal history of the Bedouin claims – information that helps put the story in proper context. Nor did he bother to note that at least some of the structures in the illegal encampment were built via foreign funding – including from the EU and UK:
Start-Up Nation: Israel spends most money in the world on R&D - WEF
Israel is the #1 country in a list of the top five countries in the world who spend the most money on research and development, the World Economic Forum (WEF) reported on Thursday.

Israel spends 4.95% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on research and technology in 2018, according to the World Bank, most of which went into computer systems, cybersecurity, AI and medical research. GDP is the measure of market value of goods and services throughout a certain period of time in a country.

Israel is also a leader in drone technology, according to the WEF report, and so some funds in development went to that sector, too.

South Korea comes in second place with 4.81% of its GDP spent on research and innovation. The country is a leader in pursuing new scientific knowledge, according to the WEF, and allows small businesses to share state equipment in order to achieve breakthroughs in science and technology.
The Biggest IPO in Israeli History? Israeli Tech Giant Sets Sights on $8 Billion Offering
One of Israeli tech’s giants, IronSource, is gearing up for an IPO in the first half of 2021. According to a source who spoke to Calcalist under condition of anonymity, the formal decision to embark on the IPO is set to be approved by the board of directors in the very near future. Goldman Sachs is expected to be the underwriter of the IPO, which is likely to become the largest ever by an Israeli company on Nasdaq.

IronSource is targeting a valuation of between $7 billion and $8 billion. Viola Ventures, which owns 10% of the company, is leading the push to go public and is expected to sell a large stake of its holdings in the offering.

Another option that is being considered by IronSource is entering the market via a SPAC, which stands for Special Purpose Acquisition Companies. However, the chances of that happening are very low. In such a scenario, the company that is acquired is merged into the SPAC and essentially receives the funds raised by the SPAC and a backdoor entry into the stock market without having to go through a public due diligence.

The high valuation of IronSource is surprising as it was just last October that Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners agreed to pay $450 million for a 25.7% stake in IronSource, valuing the company at $1.75 billion.
Israeli TV Hit Shines Light on Only Female Soldier Killed in Yom Kippur War
“Valley of Tears,” a 10-part Israeli TV series on the Yom Kippur War, has generated renewed interest in the 1973 national trauma. HBO Max acquired world rights for the series, which focuses on the stories of four soldiers, was created by the Israel network Kan, and began airing on Oct. 19.

Despite the buzz, some viewers have lamented that the show, titled “Sha’at Ne’ila” in Hebrew, all but ignores the role of women during the war.

One such woman was Niva Shaul, who was among the 2,673 Israeli troops killed during the fighting.

Shaul was born in Mishmar Hanegev, a kibbutz in southern Israel that her parents helped found. “She was a quiet girl that always got her way, but did so quietly,” her mother said after the war in a special memorial film. “She loved to dance and sing, her friends loved her and she knew how to listen and dispense advice,” her mother continued.

In 1968, Shaul started serving in the Israel Defense Forces as a stenographer. During her service, she also met her partner, Benny, who was an aircraft maintenance technician, and following her discharge, they moved to central Israel. She would later start working at a travel agency that catered to tourists in Israel. “They were looking to move into a new apartment, but then the war broke out,” her mother said.
Pottery juglet containing 1,000-year-old gold coins unearthed in Jerusalem
A small pottery jar containing four pure gold coins dating back to the Early Islamic period, more than 1,000 years ago, was unearthed during archaeological excavations in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday.

The work was performed as part of the Jewish Quarter Development Corporation's plan to build an elevator designed and make the Western Wall Plaza more accessible to visitors.

The juglet was found by IAA inspector Yevgenia Kapil during preliminary digging at the site last month. Some weeks later, as excavation director David Gellman was examining the finds, he emptied the contents of the juglet.

"To my great surprise, along with the soil, four shiny gold coins fell into my hand. This is the first time in my career as an archaeologist that I have discovered gold, and it is tremendously exciting," Gellman said,

According to Israel Antiquities Authority's coin expert Dr. Robert Kool, "The coins were beautifully preserved and were immediately identifiable even without cleaning. The coins date from a relatively brief period, from the late 940s to the 970s CE. This was a time of radical political change, when control over the Land of Israel passed from the Sunni Abbasid caliphate, whose capital was Baghdad, Iraq, into the hands of its Shiite rivals, the Fatimid dynasty of North Africa, which conquered Egypt, Syria and the Land of Israel.


Online course seeks to set Holocaust record straight
Anyone who still believes that ignorance is bliss hasn't seen how easily it can be turned into hate.

Nov. 9 will mark 82 years since Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass." A night when authorities looked away or even aided the anti-Semitic mobs fanning out across Germany and Austria. Twenty-four hours later, hundreds of Jews were dead, thousands more had been beaten and tens of thousands arrested. And thousands of Jewish schools, hospitals and businesses had been destroyed and 267 synagogues burnt to the ground, their Torah scrolls and other ritual items stolen and prayer books were thrown into bonfires or strewn over the streets.

As destructive as it was, few could have predicted where this one terrifying 24 hours in 1938 would lead. It was a night and day that historians say planted the seeds of the Nazi's Final Solution, which would take 6 million Jewish lives across Europe and North Africa between 1939 and 1945.

As the world prepares to remember the horrors of Kristallnacht, the number of people who know anything about this day of destruction – and its aftermath – is on the decline. Indeed a recent survey by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany reported that 63 percent of American millennials (born 1981-1996) and Gen Z'ers (born 1997-2012) surveyed did not know that Nazis and their accomplices murdered 6 million Jews during years of World War II and the Holocaust.

At the same time that knowledge of such Holocaust experiences is dropping, anti-Semitism, and Holocaust denial around the world are sharply up. Last year, the United States saw the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in the 40 years since tracking began, totaling more than 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment, according to the Anti-Defamation League. This includes the Passover shooting at Chabad of Poway in Southern California. An attack and shooting in a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, NJ; and a Chanukah machete attack in Monsey, N.Y., plus a string of violence in Brooklyn, NY.

The folks at Yad Vashem don't think this is a coincidence, and they decided that doing something about this level of ignorance – and the Holocaust-denying and anti-Semitism it feeds – is a whole lot better than wringing their institutional hands over it.
Dutch Protestant Church Apologizes for Failure to Protect Jews During the Holocaust
The Dutch Protestant Church has officially admitted to its failure to protect Jews during the Holocaust, and accepted guilt for its role in perpetuating and promoting antisemitism.

According to the Associated Press, the church’s message came during a ceremony over the weekend marking the anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom.

René de Reuver delivered the message on behalf of the General Synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, saying, “For centuries a rift was maintained that could later isolate the Jews in society in such a way that they could be taken away and murdered.”

“Also, in the war years, the ecclesiastical authorities often lacked the courage to choose a position for the Jewish citizens of our country,” which eventually helped lead to the murder of over 100,000 Dutch Jews.

In a statement directed specifically to the Dutch Jewish community, de Reuver said “we hope it is not too late” to make amends and “the church recognizes faults and feels a present responsibility.”

“Antisemitism is a sin against God and against people,” he added. “The Protestant Church is also part of this sinful history.”

Some 75% of the Dutch Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust — over 100,000 people — which is considered an abnormally high percentage, a topic still debated by historians.
Thousands remember Kristallnacht with March of The Living campaign
Thousands of people around the world are taking part today in March of the Living’s global interfaith campaign “Let There Be Light”, to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht. The initiative took place in partnership with the Jewish Community Frankfurt am Main and the Miller Center at Rutgers University. Participants in the campaign sent messages against anti-Semitism, hatred and intolerance and included world leaders, Kristallnacht and Holocaust survivors, public figures, celebrities, global organizations, Rabbis, Imams and Priests.

On November 9, 1938, a two-day pogrom began during which the Nazis burned more than 1,400 Synagogues and Jewish institutions in Germany and Austria on ‘Kristallnacht’ (The Night of Broken Glass), a critical moment in the chain of events that led to the Holocaust.

Participants in the “Let There Be Light” campaign wrote personal messages of hope on the campaign website: www.motl.org/let-there-be-light. Many of these messages were projected this evening (Monday) onto the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and the UK’s famous Coventry Cathedral, which was severely damaged by Nazi bombing during World War II.

In addition, hundreds of Synagogues, Churches and Mosques from over fifty countries pledged to keep their lights on tonight, as a unified symbol of light and hope against the backdrop of rising antisemitism, racism and hatred. Participating Houses of Worship include the Great Choral Synagogue in Kiev and dozens of Ukrainian Synagogues, the Westend Synagogue in Frankfurt (one of the few not destroyed on Kristallnacht), Synagogues in Bahrain and Dubai, and Synagogues and Churches across the United States, UK and Japan, as well as a mosque in New York. https://kristallnacht.motl.org/he/houses-of-worship-institutions/

Prominent individuals who participated by submitting prayers and messages of hope included UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, human rights icon and Chair of the Supervisory Board at Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center Natan Sharansky, Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Yaakov Dov Bleich, MPs from UK and Australia, plus celebrities including Josh Malina.



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