Wednesday, December 09, 2020
Natan Sharansky’s real-life Hanukkah fairy tale - opinion
Sharansky’s story counters the lie our foes – and some fellow Jews – peddle about Judaism, Israel and Zionism today. Those who claim that Judaism is “just” a religion have to acknowledge the power of peoplehood, of national pride, that courses through that story, just as those secular types who say the religion is meaningless, should admit the tale’s spiritual, theological magic.Remembering Hanukkah 1917 and the Liberation of Jerusalem
In fact, the entire holiday refutes all these false choices. Try telling the Hanukkah story without any religious dimension, or while pretending the Jews are not a people with a national consciousness, or while claiming we have no ties to the land. The fight was about our freedom of religion. The Maccabees were nationalist warriors. And the Temple that had to be purified was in Jerusalem in Eretz Israel, the land yearning to be liberated.
Similarly, try telling the Hanukkah story as an either-or fanatic, choosing only freedom or only identity, only liberalism or only nationalism. Hanukkah reminds us that we need freedom just as we need the air we breathe; it represents the world of possibilities and open doors. But we also need our own particular identity, just as we need the substantive food that sustains us, just as we need guardrails and milestones, maps and a sense of mission, in the journey of life once the doors swing open.
And through it all, we feel blessed by that sense of Jewish national consciousness, that Zionist sense of peoplehood, that reminds us that wherever we are, whatever challenges we face, when we are part of this amazing network called the Jewish people we are never alone.
NATAN TOLD his story as we filmed an episode of “Drinking with Adam” (Bellos) for Wine on the Vine. I noted how remarkable it is that despite my never having suffered, spending the 1980s studying history at Harvard, and Natan’s having spent much of the ’80s suffering in the gulag, we remain ideologically on the same page.
Natan wondered: “Who really suffered most?” He quipped: “In the gulag, I had moral clarity; at Harvard, there was moral confusion.”
How sad that our universities so often fail to stand for moral clarity – or for open, critical inquiry. And how unnerving that the problems transcend partisanship, as cancel culture on the far Left oddly parallels the bullying totalitarianism of the far Right.
But how lucky we Jews are to have this holiday of freedom, along with freedom fighters in our own lives who stand up for personal liberty, for national identity, for the constructive, creative confusion of both – and against the false choices so many wish to impose on us. Happy Hanukkah.
On December 9, 1917, British forces accepted the Turkish surrender of Jerusalem. Two days later, British forces officially entered the walls of the city.Germany sorry for snubbing Aboriginal protest at persecution of Jews
As the world was engulfed in brutal armed conflict of an unprecedented scope, fighting raged in the Holy Land between Allied troops and the Ottoman-Turks (allied with the Central Powers) who had ruled the land for most of the past 400 years. On October 30, the strategic city of Be’er Sheva fell to the allies who then drove towards Jerusalem.
A London dispatch, on November 24, reported that the mosque containing the tomb of the prophet Samuel was bombarded. The ancient site of Mitzpeh, 5,000 yards west of the Jerusalem-Nablus road, was stormed by the British. The major battle for Jerusalem was in full swing. British cavalry ferociously fought their way into Jerusalem.
On December 11, the second day of Hanukkah, British troops marched into Jerusalem. British commander General Edmund Allenby respectfully entered its walls by foot through the Jaffa Gate.
Excited crowds lined Jerusalem’s streets to welcome the city’s liberators. Their very presence signified an end to the terrible suffering the people of Jerusalem had endured during the war.
One British officer described his entry into Jerusalem and the reception by its residents this way: “Swarms of children, Arab, Jew, and Christian, ran with us as we marched along, and the populace clamored to any point of vantage, waving and clapping their hands, cheering and singing. Jews clad in European dress came running up, singled out any one of us, wrung him by the hand, and — talking excitedly in broken English — said that they, the people of Jerusalem, had been waiting for … two and a half years.”
The German government has officially apologised after its consulate in Melbourne refused 82 years ago to accept a letter of protest from the Australian Aborigines' League about the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
On Sunday Felix Klein – the Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Anti-Semitism – issued the historic apology via video link on behalf of Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.
The apology was screened at an event marking the anniversary of the 1938 delegation of the Australian Aborigines’ League – led by Aboriginal spokesman William Cooper [Yad Vashem] – to the German consulate in Melbourne.
According to The Argus newspaper, the delegation wanted to convey a resolution voicing "on behalf of Aborigines of Australia, a strong protest at the cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany, and ask that this persecution is brought to an end".
The Australian Aborigines' League, which used Mr Cooper's home in Footscray as its meeting place, drew a parallel between the treatment of Aboriginal people and a pogrom against Jews carried out by the paramilitary wing of the Nazis on November 9-10, 1938, that became known as Kristallnacht.
The league felt moved to protest at the violence from the other side of the world, and a delegation walked from Footscray to the German consulate in Melbourne on December 6, 1938.
But the consulate refused to admit the delegation.
"Officially, on behalf of the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, we are sorry that the 1938 Consul General in Melbourne would not accept the letter of the Australian Aborigines' League, nor forward it onto the political leadership here in Berlin as would have been the right and morally correct thing for a consulate official to do," Dr Klein said on Sunday.
Yorta Yorta activist and educator Lois Peeler said she was happy to accept the apology on behalf of her people.
"It’s a long time coming but we accept the apology," she said.
Why the Holocaust is unique to the Jewish people
The famous Holocaust scholar Elie Wiesel once stated, "The universe of concentration camps by its design lies out if not beyond history. Its vocabulary belongs to it alone." Like most young Jewish people, I grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust, always hearing about the brutal suffering that the Nazis imposed upon the Jewish people from the older people that surrounded me. My father was born in 1939 and remembered what happened then very well, as if it was yesterday, as relatives of ours fled Nazi Germany and told us what happened upon their arrival in America.Clifford D. May: The forgotten refugees of the Middle East
For this reason, I believe the Holocaust is a unique historical event and always get incredibly angry when people try to trivialize the brutality of the Holocaust by turning other historical events into a "holocaust." No, I am sorry. There is only one Holocaust and it was perpetrated against the Jewish people, and no one else. The level of the Nazi brutality was so horrific that it has no parallel in human history.
While Jews during the Spanish Inquisition could escape death through conversion, under Nazi rule, that option was closed to them. In fact, even having one Jewish grandparent was enough under Nazi rule to designate one to be slaughtered.
Throughout the history of humanity, there was no other genocide that was cruel to this level. Yes, the Rwanda Genocide was also very cruel and barbaric, as was what the American colonists did to the Native Americans and what ISIS did to the Yezidis and Christians. I have much sympathy for the victims of these horrific genocides. However, it was still no holocaust. It should be stressed that it is absolutely forbidden to call any other historical event "a holocaust." No self-respecting individual should do that. Yet unfortunately, in recent times, there are those who defile the sanctity of the memory of the Holocaust and turn other historical events into a holocaust.
In recent times, an article was published in The National Interest that argued the following related to Israel's support for Azerbaijan during the Second Karabakh War: "Many Armenians – and ordinary outside observers – focus on the moral argument: The victims of one Holocaust not only turning a blind eye toward but also selling weapons to the potential perpetrators of another."
Such arguments are a blatant insult to the Jewish people. Some could even call it anti-Semitic. What happened during the Second Karabakh War was not a "potential holocaust" in the slightest. After all, Armenians were not packed like sardines into trains, nor was their hair shaved off nor were numbers engraved into their bodies. Nobody turned Armenian body parts into soap. In fact, killing Armenian civilians was not even the strategic objective of the Azerbaijani government. Rather, they merely sought to reclaim lands.
Nov. 30 is the day Israel designates for commemorating the 850,000 Jews who fled from Arab countries and Iran following World War II. This year, like every year, the governments now ruling those lands did not mark the occasion. For what it’s worth, I’m going to do so here.From Homeless to Congress, Florida’s Kat Cammack is Ready to Stand With Israel
About 80% of Israelis are Jews. A significant minority of Israelis, close to 20%, are Arabs (or Palestinians — they may identify as they like). Most Israeli Jews are not from families that migrated from the Middle East to Europe centuries ago. Most are Mizrahim, Jews who have lived for thousands of years among Arabs, Persians and other Middle Eastern and North African peoples.
The late Charles Krauthammer observed that Israel “is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago.”
But imperialist invasions and occupations against which the Jews fought led to the dispersal of Jews to lands across the region where they were ruled by a long list of conquerors until, in the 20th century, most became subjects of the nation-states created following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The Mizrahim suffered persecution but, at some times and in some places, there was toleration, which allowed them to prosper, and make contributions to the societies in which they lived — in commerce, academia, the arts and even as government advisers. From Morocco to what became Pakistan, Jewish communities survived.
Then in 1940, Nazi Germany defeated France. The French colonial possessions of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia came under the rule of Vichy, a collaborationist government that introduced “race laws” discriminating against Jews, excluding Jews from certain professions and confiscating Jewish property.
In 1941, a Fascist regime took power in Iraq. A few months later, there was the Farhud, the “violent dispossession” of the Jews of Baghdad, who then constituted as much as a third of the city’s population.
She called for a global coalition to combat extremism and terrorism in which “the United States cannot be the sole operators out there,” continually monitoring for decades to come.
Cammack also blamed the United Nations for its “efforts to undermine Israel’s role and place on the global stage, and continuing to vote against issues that are of most importance to Israel.” She said she plans to be outspoken about this in Congress.
She said that education is critical in combating the BDS movement against the Jewish state. Organizations must educate members of Congress on both sides of the aisle about how and why Israel is crucial to the United States and the rest of the world, she stressed.
Cammack cited that, coming from an agricultural state, she has worked to educate “the agricultural community about the contributions of Israel to agriculture.”
“I tell people all the time, they made the desert bloom,” she said. “It’s really important that we start every conversation from an educational standpoint, though it comes back to being willing to stand up and call out folks that are really coming from a place of ignorance.”
She expressed hope that, as a member of Congress, she’ll be able to take agricultural producers in the United States to Israel for educational tours, and “do some sharing of techniques and technology so that we can become better stewards of the resources that we have” and “really utilizing that cutting edge that Israel is famous for.”
OBAMA'S REVISIONIST HISTORY OF ISRAEL
— Dov Lipman (@DovLipman) December 8, 2020
My appearance on the @benshapiro Show to discuss my article in @JNS_org about @BarackObama's falsehoods and misleading statements about #Israel's history in his new memoir:https://t.co/blRKbj3tcW
GOP Rep Calls for Tlaib’s Removal from House Committees Over Anti-Semitism
Representative Guy Reschenthaler (R-Penn.) issued a statement on December 4 calling for Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) to be removed from all congressional committee assignments over her “disturbing pattern of anti-Semitism.”Denying anti-Israel charges, Georgia’s Warnock says he recognizes Hamas danger
The statement, which was provided to the conservative news site Breitbart News, cited Tlaib’s participation in the Americans for Muslims in Palestine (AMP) virtual conference on November 27-29. Reschenthaler called AMP “one of the nation’s most anti-Israel advocacy groups” and alleged that the conference “featured other participants with reported connections to Hamas, terrorism financiers, and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.” Reschenthaler also pointed to Tlaib’s since-deleted November 29 retweet of a tweet stating, “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” as “the latest examples of a deeply disturbing pattern of anti-Semitism that has been on display since she was elected. Yet Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and House Democrats refuse to condemn her heinous behavior.”
He added that the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh is what happens when anti-Semitism is allowed to fester.
“The day after this cowardly act of violence, I stood in solidarity with Americans of all religions, races, and ethnicities at a vigil honoring the victims of this heinous crime, and the first time I ever spoke on the House floor was to denounce hatred and bigotry in all forms,” Reschenthaler said.
The Pennsylvania congressman noted that House Republicans immediately stripped then-Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) from his committee assignments in 2019 after making “inexcusable racist remarks,” referencing when King asked The New York Times when the term white supremacist “became offensive.”
“By failing to act and hold Rep. Tlaib accountable, Pelosi is emboldening her and others to continue spreading and escalating this dangerous, hateful bigotry,” Reschenthaler said. “It is past time we show the American people that there is no place in Congress, or anywhere, for this shameful intolerance. I call on my colleagues across the aisle to join me in calling for Rep. Tlaib to immediately lose her committee assignments.”
Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock of Georgia said Tuesday that he has an “increasing recognition” of the danger Hamas poses to Israel since his harsh 2018 criticism of the Israel Defense Forces’ response to Gaza border protests, which his opponent has used to claim Warnock opposes the Jewish state.
Warnock, a reverend, made the statement during a candidates webinar organized by the Jewish Democratic Council of America ahead of the two Georgia Senate run-off elections that will be held on January 5.
Warnock is challenging Republican Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Jon Ossoff, who was also on the call, is seeking to unseat Republican Senator David Purdue.
Victories in both races would allow the Democrats to gain a majority in the Senate, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris able to cast a tie-breaking vote in the event of a deadlock. Polls show both races to be neck-and-neck.
Loeffler throughout the campaign has highlighted Warnock’s sermon about Gaza, which he delivered days after Israeli troops fired on Palestinians during violent protests at the Gaza border against the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
“We saw the government of Israel shoot down unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey,” Warnock said in the speech.
A Hamas official later said that 50 of 62 Gazans killed in the days of riots and clashes were its members; another three were members of Islamic Jihad.
Fact-check: Jesus was Jewish. https://t.co/3ygG6xflPg
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) December 7, 2020
He was not fired for speaking out in favor of Palestinian human rights, @marclamonthill was fired from CNN because he called for the destruction of the Jewish state.
— Yoni Michanie (@YoniMichanie) December 9, 2020
Big difference. https://t.co/wkFdxSpekq
By adopting IHRA, universities would show leadership on tackling antisemitism
Universities are leaders in their local communities. At some universities, 50 per cent of the student body comes from the local area. They are large employers and contribute through civic engagement, with over 50 institutions having signed the Civic University Agreement. Academically, socially and morally, years spent at university help shape students’ values and outlooks.European Democrat Students adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism
In taking steps to reject antisemitism and antisemitic views in society, universities have a clear role to play. The Union of Jewish Students reported earlier this year that just a fifth of UK universities had adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Seventeen planned to discuss adoption at a formal meeting – and some have since adopted the definition – but a further 80 reported no plans to take action. This needs to change.
Universities gave several reasons for not adopting the definition, the most frequently discussed being protection of academic free speech. I understand the importance of freedom of speech and thought in our universities. However, freedom of expression does not mean freedom to abuse. Any university with concerns should look to their peers, world-leading institutions which have adopted the definition, recognising it is not a barrier to free speech but a framework in which to recognise and react promptly to antisemitism, in any form, whenever it may occur.
I am pleased to say that this is a cross-party issue. The Office for Students – the regulatory body for UK universities – has announced that it will explore what practical steps can be taken to ensure wider adoption of the IHRA definition across universities. This includes the possibility of placing further conditions on funding. I sincerely hope such unwelcome action is not needed, and that universities recognise that failing to adopt the definition is letting down their students, staff and the wider communities that they serve.
Adopting the IHRA definition and all of its examples is a first step, but universities should also review practices to ensure that all students are able to participate fully. Teaching or lecturing on Saturdays and hosting of university events on Friday nights creates unnecessary barriers to participation for Jewish students.
The European Democrat Students (EDS) has passed a motion to tackle antisemitism through the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism.
The pan-European official student organisation of the European People’s Party (EPP) announced the decision at the EDS Council meeting on 22nd November. The EDS represents over 1 million students and young people from 40 member organisations across 35 countries, and is currently one of the largest youth organisations operating in Europe.
Other youth parties and organisations across Europe are being called upon to follow the example of the EDS to reflect a zero tolerance for antisemitism.
Actually, 1st Intifada was a brutal and violent Palestinian uprising. But trust @jvplive to stand up and glorify the terrorists. https://t.co/rsemzCfxhr
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) December 9, 2020
NYT Digs Up Months-Old Story to Trash Israel
Any student of journalism knows that there are certain values to consider when judging whether a story is newsworthy. Is it significant? Is it of interest? Is it timely? And is it relevant to the audience?Financial Times fails to recognise antisemitic blood libel and refuses to apologise for providing no clarification in the article
These are all questions with which decent journalists grapple regularly. But at The New York Times, it seems that these concepts often don’t apply to reporting on Israel’s alleged misdeeds.
A recent article by David Halbfinger and Adam Rasgon serves to underline the extent of the ongoing bias against Israel at the “newspaper of record.”
Entitled, “An Autistic Man Is Killed, Exposing Israel’s Festering Police Brutality Problem,” the authors depict Israeli authorities as having “failed to rein in the use of excessive force, which has a long history.”
Throughout, the over 2000 words long piece fails to acknowledge that Jerusalem is a city that has been plagued by terrorism and remains at the heart of a territorial conflict. Israeli police and military, as well as civilians, have over the years been victims of shooting, stabbing and car ramming attacks.
Only in the twelfth paragraph do the writers make reference to this reality and even then in a roundabout way, describing Jerusalem’s Old City as one of the “most volatile hot spots” where “deadly errors” can arise. And only a few paragraphs later do they mention that this is all taking place against the backdrop of “the front lines of a national conflict.”
Prior to contextualizing matters, though, Halbfinger and Rasgon claim that, “lethal force, while rare, is wielded almost exclusively against Arabs and other minorities.” Accordingly, many readers are unlikely to grasp that Arabs killed by Israeli police are beforehand perceived as clear threats. They do not mention decades of rampant Palestinian terrorism, which has placed the Jewish state on perpetual high alert.
Moreover, police brutality is a problem in nearly every country, nowhere more so than in illiberal “democracies” and authoritarian states such Russia, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and Venezuela. Yet for some reason, despite this particular story not being highly relevant to American readers, and despite the episode ending months ago, the NYT is now reviving it.
The Financial Times has failed to recognise an antisemitic blood libel that it printed and has refused to apologise or provide any clarification in the article.Medieval Antisemitic Carvings on German Churches Should Be Explained, Not Removed, Expert Panel Recommends
In an article published on 19th November about a visit by the U.S. Secretary of State to a winery in Psagot, the reporter wrote: “The fate of the Palestinian project has often been prey to the vicissitudes of US domestic politics. Barack Obama, during a 2013 visit to the Holy Land, visited the other side of the fence from the Psagot winery, meeting Palestinian leaders at a youth centre in the Arab community of al-Bireh. ‘We want to tell our fellow Americans, that when you drink [Psagot’s] wine, you are drinking the blood of the Palestinian people,’ said Abdel Jawad Saleh, an American citizen who has served as Mayor of al-Bireh.”
The quotation from the Mayor is highly inflammatory and invokes the centuries-old antisemitic blood libel which falsely accuses Jews of killing non-Jews for nefarious or ritualistic purposes and drinking their blood, in particular associating the victims with the blood of Jesus, whom the Jews were for millennia also accused of having killed. The blood libel has been the basis for the persecution and murder of Jews for centuries and, in new iterations, remains popular in certain parts of the world and even in some pockets of British society.
It also contravenes the International Definition of Antisemitism which states that “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is antisemitic.
It is regrettable that the Mayor chose to express his political views in racist terms, but it is disgraceful that the Financial Times to have printed the statement without clarification that it is antisemitic.
Gruesome antisemitic statues and carvings on churches in the German state of Bavaria dating from the medieval period should not be removed, but “visibly and easily” explained by accompanying information, a panel of Jewish representatives, church officials and members of the government examining the problem concluded this week.Dutch government criticizes country’s Holocaust art restitution policy
The panel’s findings regarding what it deemed to be “particularly disgusting phenomena” were presented on Tuesday by Ludwig Spaenle, the Bavarian state’s commissioner tasked with combating antisemitism.
At the center of the debate is the ongoing presence of the so-called “Judensau” — a medieval anti-Jewish trope that mocked the Jewish prohibition on pork by showing Jews on their knees while suckling a pig.
A dozen examples of “Judensau” sculptures are still visible on the outer edifices of churches in Bavaria, including one emblazoned on the south side of the famous cathedral in the city of Regensburg.
An information board at the cathedral was criticized by the panel for not emphasizing the anti-Jewish nature of the sculpture. The text currently on display describes the “Judensau” as a “mockery in stone” from a “bygone” era, commenting only that the sculpture’s “anti-Jewish content is strange to today’s observer.”
The panel recommended against the physical removal of the statues, arguing instead for clearly-marked, visually-strong explanations of the display to be written by experts on antisemitism. They emphasized that such explanations would also serve as a valuable tool for combating modern-day antisemitism.
In the Netherlands, proving that the Nazis stole artwork from your family isn’t always enough to claim it back.Farmers desecrate Jewish cemetery in Ukraine
Departing from norms across Europe, the kingdom’s policy is to weigh the interest of established heirs of looted art against those of the museums that hold them. In some cases the government has ruled in favor of museums, concluding that Jews should not get back the purloined art. The Dutch policy has faced legal fights and international pressure. Now a government commission charged with evaluating the country’s record on the restitution of stolen art is adding to the criticism.
The commission, led by a former lawmaker named Jacob Kohnstamm, released its final report on Monday, a week before a ruling is expected in an Amsterdam court over a Dutch museum’s bid to keep a stolen Wassily Kandinsky valued at $22 million.
The 86-page report, titled “Striving toward Justice,” concludes that the Netherlands was an early leader in addressing the issue of stolen art, but “its reputation in recent years has been damaged by a limited number of refusals.”
Part of a Jewish cemetery in Ukraine was desecrated by farmers who added it to their adjacent fields, a local television station reported.Anti-mask protests in Vancouver linked to Holocaust denial and antisemitism
The desecration happened three years ago in Hulyaipole, a town situated about 300 miles southeast of Kyiv, according to the TCN report Tuesday. About half an acre from the Jewish cemetery of Hulyaipole, where today no Jews live, was desecrated.
Although desecrating a burial site is a criminal offense in Ukraine, authorities ignored complaints about the farmers and refrained from intervening for three years, according to the report.
The earthwork brought to the surface multiple bone fragments, which some locals saved out of respect for the dead for a future reburial, the report said.
Antisemitism and Holocaust denial has become a regular feature of anti-lockdown protests in the Canadian West Coast city of Vancouver.Neo-Nazi Linked to Violent Racist Group ‘The Base’ Sentenced to Five Years Imprisonment by Maryland Judge
An anti-mask Twitter feed recently posted a video of prominent local anti-lockdown activist Marco Pietro denying the use of gas chambers in the Holocaust and claiming that the number of Jews murdered had been inflated, while a speaker at a recent rally referred to the Jews as “Satanic, Talmudic” people. Mr Pietro also organised a previous rally in Vancouver in May.
An earlier video shows Mr Pietro alleging that “a bunch of Zionist Jews” were responsible for “setting up” the Nazi leader and claiming that Mein Kampf did not contain “one racist dictate or anything of the sort”
“Oh, I’m a Holocaust disbeliever,” Mr Pietro boasted on the video. “You’re f**kin’ right I am.”
He then stated that he had done “the research” before claiming that the Holocaust never happened and that there were no gas chambers and accusing Holocaust survivors of having made “millions of dollars” by lying about their ordeal.
A neo-Nazi activist has been sentenced to five years in prison by a court in Maryland for plotting violent actions against the US government.Australian Police Arrest 18-Year-Old Over Alleged Far-Right Terror Plot
20-year-old William Garfield Bilbrough IV was convicted of conspiracy to transport and harbor Patrik Mathews, a white supremacist and former soldier in the Canadian military who illegally entered the US in 2019.
Both Mathews and another extremist — Brian Mark Lemley Jr., a US Army veteran — are on trial in Delaware, where they shared a house, for allegedly planning a gun massacre of civilians.
The case against Bilbrough formed part of a larger investigation of “The Base,” a violent neo-Nazi organization that first emerged on the US scene in 2018. In January, authorities in Georgia and Wisconsin arrested four other men linked to the group.
According to research by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), members of “The Base” portray themselves as “vigilante soldiers defending the ‘European race’ against a broken ‘system’ that has been infected by Jewish values.”
The group’s founder is American-born Rinaldo Nazzaro, who now lives in Russia.
Sentencing Bilbrough on Tuesday, US District Judge Theodore Chuang said that his punishment was for his actions, not his extremist ideology.
Australian police arrested on Wednesday an 18-year man who had allegedly expressed interest in committing a mass causality attack, motivated by right-wing ideology.3 Argentina rugby players suspended for anti-Semitic tweets, then reinstated
Police said they expect to lay charges on Wednesday against the unidentified man from Albury, a small town 553 kilometers (344 miles) southwest of Sydney.
“The male we’ve arrested has an extremely right-wing ideology and is focused on neo-Nazi, white supremacist and anti-Semitic material,” Australian Federal Police Assistant Commission Scott Lee told reporters in Sydney.
“A couple of days ago what we observed was an escalation in the tone which went to a support of a mass casualty event, and potentially his involvement in that event.”
Australia has been on heightened alert against the threat of home-grown radicals after several “lone-wolf” attacks in recent years.
Three players from Argentina’s national rugby team were suspended after anti-Semitic and other hateful messages from a decade ago were discovered on Twitter and spread on social media.Israel launches second bid to put a lander on the moon; UAE may join
Two days later, however, following pressure from members of the national team and other Argentine rugby clubs, the Argentina Rugby Union reinstated the players, who were allowed to play in the squad’s next match on Saturday.
The messages, also against Black people and immigrants from neighboring countries, were made in 2011-12 by Pablo Matera, the team’s captain, as well as Guido Petti and Santiago Socino, and discovered last week.
“What a mess Villa Crespo could be in if Hitler were alive,” Socino wrote, referring to the Jewish-backed soccer team Atlanta from the Jewish neighborhood of Villa Crespo. A hashtag used a slang expression that refers to the idea of killing Jews to make soap.
In another tweet, Socino mocked circumcision and made reference to the stereotype of Jews being cheap.
Matera spoke of “running over blacks” with his car and disparaged Bolivians and Paraguayans.
Israel announced plans on Wednesday to send a second spacecraft — Beresheet 2 — to the moon, following the crash landing of the original Beresheet probe last year.New streaming service launches aiming to connect Jews with ‘hidden gems’
Unveiling the project with President Reuven Rivlin at his residence in Jerusalem, the Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL, in cooperation with Israel Aerospace Industries and the Israeli Space Agency at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that it aims to launch the probe in 2024.
Having said soon after last year’s attempt that a repeat moon landing effort was “not challenging enough,” SpaceIL said Tuesday that the new probe will be a significant advancement on the first and will actually comprise three spacecraft – one orbiter and two landers. Specific plans for the scientific research set to be carried out were not revealed.
Beresheet 1, the world’s first privately funded moon lander, collided with the lunar surface in April 2019 during an attempted landing, due to technical failure.
“Just a year and a half ago, we were here together, when Israel held its breath and looked to the stars. We anxiously watched the Beresheet spacecraft on its historic journey to the moon. We watched its long journey, were in wonder at the researchers and were filled with pride at the Israeli daring and ability that flourished right here and at the groundbreaking work of Space IL.
“We were disappointed, and realized that we had to start once again from the beginning,” Rivlin said at the announcement.
A Jewish group based in London has launched Europe’s first Jewish streaming service, with the goal of “connecting all sorts of Jews to their culture and history.”‘Tehran’ Star Liraz Charhi Performs Favorite Iranian Song for Virtual Event
JEWZY.tv, which is currently available only in the United States — or to a computer connecting via a US-based server — on Friday announced its launch as “chicken soup for the eyes,” The Jewish Chronicle reported.
The new service follows the launch of two other Jewish streaming services: ChaiFlicks and Izzy. Its editorial focus is on “hidden gems,” Jeremy Wootliff, Jewzy’s founder, told the Chronicle. “We go out and find the wonderful movies and TV programs that have been forgotten over time,” or may not have enjoyed the exposure they deserved when made, he said.
An annual subscription costs $59.99 and offers 100 titles a month, including “Dark Horse” starring Mia Farrow; “The Double” with Jesse Eisenberg and “Defiant Requiem,” a feature documentary about the Theresienstadt concentration camps. Many of the titles are about Israel or made there.
Jewzy’s agenda goes beyond providing entertainment to subscribers. Its goals also include promoting positive images of Jews and Israel and countering anti-Semitism and bigotry. But its lineup is nonpartisan, Wootliff told the Chronicle.
“We want to bring Israel and the diaspora all together and under one roof,” he said.
Iranian-Israeli singer and actress Liraz Charhi, who stars in the thriller series “Tehran,” talked about relating to her on-screen character, her dual heritage and why she chose to sing in Farsi at a virtual event on Sunday night.
Charhi performed at the Iranian American Jewish Federation (IAJF) 2020 Virtual Gala from a venue in Jaffa. She sang one of her favorite Iranian songs, titled “Mahtab,” and said she once sang the same song on the set of “Tehran” with her Iranian co-stars, who were exiled from Iran.
Charhi’s parents were born in Iran and emigrated to Israel in 1970, when the two countries had strong relations before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Charhi, who recently released an album that she made in secret with Iranian musicians, said, “Iran is neither mine nor my parents’ anymore” and called the country “the home that I have never seen.” She also explained that she sings in Farsi as “a symbol of struggle against the suppression” women face in the Islamic Republic.
“I sing because of my muted grandmothers; because of muted women in Iran. With them and for them,” she said. “I will never lose hope and patience about Iran, and will always sing my heritage to the Iranian woman who should be free to sing, dance and rejoice.”
Charhi plays Iranian-Israeli Mossad agent Yael Kadosh in “Tehran,” which Apple TV+ is currently streaming. Talking about her “very complex character,” who must tap into both her Iranian and Israeli roots at various moments in the show, Charhi said, “We both grew up confused, being raised in two cultures with one big question I was always obsessed with: ‘Who am I? Am I Iranian or am I Israeli?” She added that the role “brought me even closer to my Iranian roots.”
