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Friday, May 21, 2021

05/21 Links Pt2: Caroline Glick: Biden's skin-deep support for Israel; The Squad’s Noxious Anti-Semitism; Throwing Israel Under The Bus Will Not Save American Jews

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The last, overlooked but still active front of World War Two
In World War Two, the allies fought an attempt to conquer and destroy western civilisation and exterminate the Jews.

Today, the Palestinians of both Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah constantly churn out Nazi-style, murderous incitement against the Jewish people. And the Iranian regime, which funds and arms Hamas, has been at war against the west for four decades and regularly announces its genocidal intentions towards the Jews.

So today’s war against western civilisation and the Jews amounts to infernal unfinished business. But unlike the Second World War, when those in the free world on the side of the fascists were regarded as traitors, such people today march on the streets of London and elsewhere arm-in-arm with those pledged to Islamic holy war against the Jews and the rest of the “infidel” world.

In the United States, President Joe Biden told Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that America expects an immediate and “significant de-escalation” on the path to a ceasefire. This while the rockets from Gaza were still flying against Israel. The demand was as unconscionable as it would have been to tell the British to de-escalate during the Blitz.

Worse yet, after Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) confronted Biden over the Gaza war and echoed an earlier speech in which she accused Israel of “racism” and running an “apartheid system,” Biden said of Tlaib: “God thank you for being a fighter.”

The heirs to the Nazis are still intent upon the same terrible aims. The difference now is that those fighting for civilisation are being undermined by an enormous fifth column — and even the leader of the free world itself has become a useful idiot for the other side.
Caroline Glick: Biden's skin-deep support for Israel
Until Wednesday, President Joe Biden had maintained a fairly supportive posture towards Israel in the face of the Hamas terror regime in Gaza’s launch of its newest round of war against the Jewish state.

In the first week of the new war, Biden’s administration blocked the United Nations Security Council from adopting anti-Israel statements and resolutions three times.

Until Wednesday afternoon Israel time, Biden avoided publicly calling on Israel to halt its counterstrikes against Hamas and expressed his support for Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hamas’s missiles.

So it wouldn’t be surprising if some Israelis were flabbergasted when Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday afternoon that he “expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire,” effectively ordering Israel to stand down by day’s end. But Biden’s week of professions of support for Israel was hardly the last word on his administration’s positions on Israel and the war. Indeed, they weren’t even its first word.

Biden’s actual policies regarding Israel are revealed in three different ways. First, there are the policies Biden had already adopted before Hamas opened its missile offensive from Gaza and its spate of organized anti-Jewish pogroms in mixed Arab-Jewish cities throughout Israel.

Biden’s courtship of Iran through the renewal of nuclear talks in Vienna, in which he has signalled his willingness to end U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, and his administration’s persuasion of Iraq and South Korea to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenue have signalled Iran and its terror proxies, including Hamas, that the Biden administration is abandoning the U.S. alliance with Israel and the moderate Sunni states in favour of Iran and its proxies.

Likewise, Biden’s announcement that he is restoring U.S. funding to UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority despite their funding of terrorism was a tailwind for Iran and Hamas plans to attack Israel. With U.S. funding and sanctions relief, not only did they realize that the United States had their back, Iran and Hamas gained the economic wherewithal to wage war. So too, Hamas was able to use America’s abandonment of Israel as a means to persuade Israeli Arabs that they could safely participate in pogroms against their Jewish neighbours and accept Hamas as their representative.


The Tikvah Podcast: Michael Doran on America’s Strategic Realignment in the Middle East
In wake of President Biden’s inauguration, experienced foreign-policy hands argued over what could be learned about his administration’s approach to Israel and the Middle East from his early statements and appointments. They faced an unresolved question: would President Biden’s longtime instincts, which tend to be sympathetic to Israel, hold sway over the louder and more progressive voices arrayed against Israel in the Democratic party? Would he continue to support Israel in the Oval Office as he did for so long in the Senate? Or would President Biden advance the strategy pursued by the Obama administration, strengthening Israel’s main adversary, Iran?

This week’s podcast guest believes that the answer has now been revealed. Michael Doran is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a long-time Mosaic writer, and the co-author of an important new essay about the Biden administration’s developing Middle East policy. In it, he argues that instead of working with Israel and the Sunni Arab states to contain Iran, President Biden and his team want to partner with Iran to bring a different kind of order to the Middle East. In conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, Doran discusses his argument and explains why Israel and America’s Sunni allies need to prepare for the final act of America’s strategic realignment.
Victor Davis Hanson's The Classicist Podcast: The Israelis, the Palestinians, and the Future of the Middle East
Victor Davis Hanson analyzes the recent conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, how it reflects on the foreign policy of the Biden Administration, and what the consequences may be for the future of the Middle East.


Christine Rosen: The Squad’s Noxious Anti-Semitism
The Squad is engaging in what has become all too familiar a tactic on the progressive left—what Dominic Green, writing in the Spectator, called anti-Semitism as a form of “aspirational racism.” Green notes how “the glamorization of ‘resistance’, the overriding of the law, the calls for violence, the conspiracy theories, the obsession with Israel, the willingness to believe any lie about the Jews” are all hallmarks of this approach—and all clearly on display during the past week.

The Squad is also in open rebellion against the policies of the Biden Administration and of many fellow Democrats in Congress, who have been firm in their support of Israel’s right to defend itself from terror attacks (although the Biden Administration is also sending $10 million in aid to unspecified groups “in the West Bank and Gaza” to support “reconciliation” projects with Israel, according to reports yesterday).

The administration might want to spend more time discussing its policies with its own members. As people like Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib and Omar and Bush invoke the rhetoric of religious war, falsely accusing Israel of “attacking” al-Aqsa during Ramadan and using progressive buzzwords like “colonialism” and “apartheid” to describe the only democracy in the Middle East, they spread lies and misinformation about an American ally. In their incendiary rhetoric and attacks on Israel, they echo the violent and hateful talking points of the terrorists whose stated purpose is the destruction of the Jewish people. Here’s a senior Hamas official on television this week telling Palestinians in Jerusalem to behead Jews: “With your hand, cut their artery from here. A knife costs five shekels. Buy a knife, sharpen it, put it there, and just cut off [their heads]. It costs just five shekels.”

If woke Democrats really believe that words are violence, they might spare a few for a long-overdue condemnation of the members of their own party who continue to spread anti-Semitism.


The Revolution Comes for Israel
The Squad shares an all-encompassing woke mindset that collapses individuals and events into a reductive binary of oppressor and oppressed. When the Squad looks at Israel and Hamas, it cannot see anything other than Critical Race Theory. And so this emboldened left draws disgustingly false equivalences between American racial minorities and Palestinians. It slanders Israel as an apartheid state. It demands America stop a planned weapons sale to Israel in the middle of our ally’s offensive against terrorists supplied by Iran. It says President Biden is "taking orders" from the Jewish prime minister.

What the Squad lacks in numbers it makes up for in noise. Its members exploit social media, show up on MSNBC, and amplify the hostility to Israel already thick on college campuses and in progressive enclaves. Its allies fill the op-ed pages with similar dreck, catering to the audience for politically correct, left-wing clickbait. The polemical onslaught is false and obnoxious. But it gets results, driving an Israel-shaped wedge into the Democratic Party and forcing Biden to step up his calls for a ceasefire.

This unappeasable hostility is a problem for Israel, for America, and for the Democratic Party. It makes me wonder if the head of the DNC has checked in lately with his British counterpart. There hasn’t been a Labour prime minister since 2010 and Labour just experienced another drubbing in local elections. Labour’s current leader has been trying to salvage his party’s reputation from the wreckage of his far-left anti-Semitic predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. It’s a struggle.

Explanation? Under Corbyn, Labour went hard left, abandoning its traditional working-class constituency for progressive social and cultural issues that appeal to the university crowd and the Very Online but turn off everyone else. Corbyn opposed Brexit, supported high levels of immigration, embraced political correctness, and tolerated the worst sort of anti-Semitism in his campaigns against Israel. The Socialist International became the Socialist Intersectional (Jews excluded).

The same process is well underway here. Not content with tearing down America, and energized by the cultural revolution of 2020, the Jackal Bins turn their gaze on the Jewish State. Anti-Semitism dogged the anti-Trump Women’s March. Black Lives Matter, which recently tweeted its advocacy for "Palestinian liberation"—no mention of Hamas’ genocidal intent—supports the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib require no introduction. Comedian Trevor Noah irresponsibly likens Hamas to a powerless four-year-old. The haters can’t believe their success.

Someone needs to disappoint them. As long as Hamas remains in power, Israel will be forced to defend itself. The Jewish State’s position in American politics can’t be allowed to deteriorate further. Not just for Israel’s sake. For ours.
Throwing Israel Under The Bus Will Not Save American Jews
It takes a special kind of blindness to dismiss the fact that Hamas is a terrorist organization calling for the genocide of all Jews, not just Israelis. It takes closing one’s eyes not to notice that Hamas is performing a double war crime by firing over 3,500 rockets from within its own civilian population onto Israel’s civilian population. It is prejudiced to dismiss Israel’s right to defend her citizens and not acknowledge her efforts to take outmost care to preserve Palestinian lives, forewarning civilians of upcoming strikes. And where is the genocide exactly when thousands of Israeli strikes on military installations have resulted in a very unfortunate death toll of 50 Palestinian civilians, while 500 Hamas rockets falling short have killed as many as 20 of their own people inside the Gaza strip?

Or maybe it’s a defense mechanism. With race relations and oppression narratives becoming the focal point of American social discourse, many American Jews are anxious to be on the “right” side of political trends. They think that by distancing themselves from their Israeli brothers and vocally embracing the Palestinian racial narrative, they will affirm their allegiance to social justice. With Jewishness now classified as “hyper whiteness,” denouncing fellow Jews has become the ticket into the antiracist club.

This is a mirage. Antisemites on the right and the left do not distinguish between Jews. Denouncing Israel for genocide and apartheid will only strengthen the anti-Jewish sentiment in America. The attackers at the Los Angeles sushi restaurant the other day chanted “Free Palestine” and “Death to Jews” all at once. They didn’t ask the patrons about their political opinions. They punched Jews indiscriminately.

My shock and anger have given way to sadness and fear. The sadness for so many of my brothers and sisters, who are cutting themselves off from our mutual relationship, and fear for the hate they are bringing onto themselves in the process.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” said Abraham Lincoln. I hope more American Jews remember this before they throw their Israeli brethren under the bus.
How Many Jews Need to Be Attacked in America Before Progressives Speak Up?
And AOC is not the only one struck blind by partisanship. Sen. Bernie Sanders published his own dangerous anti-Israel harangue in an Op-Ed which began, "No one is arguing that Israel... does not have the right to self-defense or to protect its people," even as his own supporters were arguing just that on social media.

Comedians John Oliver and Trevor Noah made the same case into their media megaphones, arguing that Israel was wrong to attack the terrorists aiming for Israeli civilians because Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system can prevent most (but not all) civilian deaths from Hamas rockets.

There's more: Rep. Mark Pocan and Rep. Betty McCollum are laser-focused on spreading the contemporary blood libel that Israel indiscriminately murders children. And in the same week that the Pew Research Center found that 80 percent of Jews believe caring about Israel to be an "important" or "essential" part of being Jewish, Rep. Ilhan Omar called support for Israel "disgusting and immoral."

I have always been vocal about calling out anti-Semitism when it comes from the political right wing. But now I'm seeing it surge on the American left and I have to ask: Where is the outrage?

People like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Sanders (and too many other progressive members of Congress, unfortunately) are greatly concerned about whether Israel's response to Palestinian terror meets a standard of acceptable "proportionality." But what are the acceptable numbers in America of Jews assaulted and synagogues vandalized? How many Jewish victims before these progressive leaders see the error of their incitement and speak up against anti-Jewish hate?

And why is it that now, every time I hear loud noises from the street outside my apartment on Manhattan's extremely Jewish Upper West Side, I have to wonder whether there's an anti-Semitic mob gathered below, attacking my neighbors?

Happy Jewish American Heritage Month, I guess.
WFB Editorial: The Jews vs. The World
As a weak and sclerotic Democratic leadership cowers before the anti-Israel zealotry of the Squad and its acolytes in the House of Representatives, American Jews are getting a glimpse of what the future may hold: a return to a not-so-distant past in which Jews stood alone to face either slaughter or survival.

There are differences between now and then, of course. The Jews now have a state and an army, facts that provide the fig leaf for the new anti-Semitism now exhibited by left-wing Democrats, academics, and Jewish radicals. The old hatred has found new life in characterizing Jews as oppressors and the genocidal Hamas as victim.

In a kind of provincial stupidity the left would abhor in almost any other context, the liberal elite has conflated caricatures of the Palestinian experience with that of the minority experience in the United States.

The left-wing congressman Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), his anti-Semitism cloaked in the argot of the social justice warrior, has called on Israel to stop brutalizing and murdering "Black and brown bodies."

Members of the Princeton University faculty on Tuesday released a similar statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people that rejects what they call "Jewish supremacy"—an inartful attempt to liken Jews to their tormentors in the Ku Klux Klan.

The faculty statement will have no impact on world events, but it sends a clear message to Jewish students at the university. It will be familiar to any Jew who managed to sneak into Princeton between its founding in 1746 and the infamous "dirty bicker" of 1958, in which Jews were systematically excluded from the school's social clubs. University-sanctioned anti-Semitism has been the rule, not the exception, at Princeton.

Finally, there are the Jews who will give cover for this Jew-hatred. Many signed the Princeton letter. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), who made a name for herself arguing that congressional support for Israel is "all about the Benjamins," has a Jewish spokesman. Hamas has retained a Jewish lawyer, too.
Removing Facts, Inserting Lies: Vice News Airs Palestinian Propaganda Masquerading as Documentary
Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, Vice News on Wednesday released Inside the Battle for Jerusalem, a documentary that purportedly portrays the events in eastern Jerusalem over the last three weeks. Within 24 hours, the video garnered over a million views on YouTube. While Vice promoted it as “one of the most comprehensive reports from [the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of] Sheikh Jarrah and Al Aqsa,” this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Almost every other sentence uttered by Vice‘s reporter on the ground, Hind Hassan (formerly of Al Jazeera), is missing crucial facts and context or contains falsehoods. Below, HonestReporting dissects Vice‘s three most blatant breaches of journalistic standards:
1. Turning a Blind Eye to Palestinian Violence
Who’s to blame for the escalation in Jerusalem? After watching the Vice documentary, an uninformed viewer could be forgiven for thinking that Israeli police on May 8 attacked innocent Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Without providing any context, Vice opens the documentary with claims like: “The Israeli police has been arresting loads of Palestinian children. Palestinians are retaliating because so many young men have been taken away by the police.”

In reality, the tensions in the city had already intensified around the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, and Israel was not the instigator. On April 15, a Palestinian man attacked two ultra-orthodox Israeli boys on the Jerusalem light rail. The footage of the unprovoked attack went viral on the video-sharing app TikTok. In the days that followed, more and more clips of attacks on unsuspecting Israeli civilians started appearing on the platform.

Simultaneously, young Palestinians staged violent protests at the Old City’s Damascus Gate. Hundreds of rioters, some of them hurling fireworks, rocks, and petrol bombs, clashed with Israeli police for nights on end. The riots left dozens of police officers and innocent Israeli civilians injured. On April 23 and 24, Gaza-based terrorists further fanned the flames of conflict by firing dozens of rockets into the Jewish state.

Tensions in Jerusalem culminated during the last days of Ramadan. The Al-Aqsa compound on the Temple Mount saw thousands of Palestinians chanting battle cries like “Ya Qassam, Ya Habib, bomb, bomb, Tel Aviv,” while waving Hamas flags. Yet even though Vice‘s Hind Hassan was present at the Al-Aqsa compound when mobs attacked Israeli riot police with large stones, fireworks, glass bottles, and other weapons, wounding 17 officers, her “comprehensive report” fails to include this significant development.

Instead, Inside the Battle for Jerusalem chose to turn its camera on only when Israeli security forces tried to restore order. “It’s nighttime prayers for Palestinian Muslims, and this year, Israeli forces showed up unannounced,” Hassan falsely claims. “There is Israeli police actually inside, in the grounds of Al-Aqsa. That’s what triggered the protest and the anger today.”
The Fighting Between Arabs and Jews Reminds Us We're Still a Minority in the Region
And this experience is something Arabs just do not have, at least not in the Middle East. Ever since the Arab conquests turned the region and North Africa into Muslim and Arab, Arabs and Muslims have been the dominant and even exclusive majority across the region. And while there have been conflicts between the Sunni and Shiite sects, these are a far cry from a tiny minority living amongst another alien religion.

This makes Israel unique, in that it's a country where Arabs live as a minority. It thus represents the "natural" order of things upended, and so it does not matter that Arabs are full citizens of Israel in a country that meets the European Union standards for the equal treatment of national minorities (language, education, holidays); the natural order must be restored. But Israel is unique in another way: It remains one of the few countries in the world that is home to a national minority that belongs to a regional majority at war with the country in which they live.

Just consider how Western countries treated their citizens of Japanese and German descent during WWII, or how they treated Communists during the Cold War, to get a sense of what it means for Israel's Jews to live with a substantial Arab minority over decades of never-ending war and conflict with the Arab world.

Understanding this minority-majority inversion is critical to grasping the paradox that stumps many observers of Israel, even the sympathetic ones, of what appears like a massive gap between Israel's military and economic power and the overwhelming sense of vulnerability that pervades Israeli Jewish thinking. Zooming out resolves this tension: It is our numerical vulnerability in the region that we feel so deeply, that demands we build our military and economic might to prevent the overwhelming majority in the region from successfully acting on its numerical dominance, as it has on multiple occasions.

In recent months, The Trump-brokered Abraham Accords, the quiet on all fronts and the prospect of Arab-Jewish political cooperation created a palpable sense that Israel's Jews might finally be emerging from decades of siege and could finally live in the region while maintaining sovereignty, rather than as a minority at the mercy of others. But the events of the past few weeks have pierced that sense that Israeli Jews could leave behind their existence as a besieged minority in a hostile region. Israeli Jews were forced to confront the reality that it is still possible to unite large parts of the Arab and Islamic world (and their allies) against the fundamental grievance of Jewish power and self-determination, of which all other stated grievances are but symptoms.

Perhaps with time and with exhaustion, Arab acceptance of Jewish self-determination in the region will finally enable Jews in Israel to exhibit the confidence and openness of a comfortable majority in their own state and free Arabs to become a truly integrated minority in a Jewish state. Until that time, we may ponder the particular majority-minority aspects of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel and the region and marvel that the situation is not far far worse.


Is the Biden Administration an Enemy of Israel and the Free World?
Biden made no distinction between a democratic ally of the United States and a terrorist organization he did not even name. He spoke as if he did not know that the calm was broken by a terrorist organization and by no one else, and that what prevents Palestinians from having freedom, prosperity and democracy is precisely that they are ruled by terrorists and people who supports terrorism.

On April 7, a US Department of State press statement said that the Biden administration had decided to restore US financial "aid to Palestinians", without requiring that American money not be used for terrorist purposes....

The appointment to the post of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs of Hady Amr, a man who has accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and "apartheid", and said that he was "inspired by intifada", seemed to confirm that the Biden administration would not be particularly "pro-Israel".... Amr met Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Ishtayya in Ramallah to negotiate the use of US financial aid to the PA while Israel was under missile fire....

In a PBS interview on April 2, one of the American negotiators, Robert Malley, announced that he wants "to remove those sanctions that are inconsistent with the deal", "so that Iran enjoys the benefits that it was supposed to enjoy". Nothing shows that the Biden administration has changed that position.

There were no threats to stop the new funding he had promised the Palestinians until they stopped firing rockets. He did not threaten to withdraw his promise of an office in Washington DC for them.

Most unsettling of all, while Iran's proxy, Hamas, was raining nearly 4,000 rockets and missiles into a country the size of New Jersey, the US was engaged in talks in Vienna to discuss how much money the US was prepared to give Iran – to buy more weapons to batter Israel again?

Seemingly to destabilize Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the US administration made public a report accusing the him of being responsible for the murder of the anti-Saudi writer, Jamal Khashoggi, without specifying that Khashoggi was an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood, an arch-enemy of the House of Saud.

A recent article by Michael Doran and Tony Badran on Tablet explains why Israel needs to stay on guard and be ready to act decisively. A project designed during the Obama presidency and aiming to "create a new Middle Eastern order" seems to be underway. It would place the interests of Iran over those of US allies in the Middle East, thereby leading to the hegemony in the region of Iran. The project would erode new the Abraham Accords, push Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to come to an agreement with Iran and involve "forcing Israel into a more passive posture in the face of Iran's rising power". Is this project that the Biden administration is now implementing?

"[I]n war and conflict, one side wins and one side loses.... Israel must do what all nations... are doing to achieve victory: beating its enemy...." — Daniel Pipes, historian, Commentary, January 2017.

The Biden administration acts as if it does not see that it puts Israel and other longtime American allies in danger; it acts as if it does not see that behind Iran and the mullahs, China is on the move.

Is the Biden administration about to seriously diminish the status of the United States and the Free World to herald in a new world order that is radical and monstrous?
Dangerous Incitement From the South Florida Muslim Federation
The South Florida Muslim Federation and its Executive Director, Nezar Hamze, have some decisions to make.

Are they going to do the hard work of promoting peace and human rights in the Middle East? Or are the organization and its leaders going to foment hostility towards Israel and American Jews?

Is the organization going to increase peace between various ethnic and religious groups in the US? Or is it going to undermine the already tenuous bonds of comity in America through acts of public incitement and demonization?

Right now, things don’t look too good for the organization, headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida.

If you go to the organization’s website, you’ll find that it is linking to and promoting videos of various anti-Israel protest rallies that took place in downtown Miami this past weekend.

And not only did the South Florida Muslim Federation promote the videos of the rallies, they also promoted the rallies themselves.

One video, taken by someone who goes by the name Daniyal Hasan and posted on Facebook, shows protesters gathered at Bayfront Park on Saturday, May 15, 2021.

In the video, protesters can be heard chanting, “Netanyahu, You Can’t Hide, We Charge You With Genocide,” “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free!” and “Israel, What Do You Say? How Many Kids Have You Killed Today.”

At about eight and a half minutes into the video, which can be seen on Facebook here, a keffiyeh-wearing protester is shown displaying a sign that reads “ISRAEL = NAZI/They Are Committing Genocide.”
Labour MPs need to stop acting like students
Two hours after Hamas first suddenly started firing rockets at the Israeli capital, the party leader Keir Starmer wrote:‘Israel must respect international law and must take steps, immediately, to work with Palestinian leaders to de-escalate tensions.’ What about the rockets, Keir? The rockets headed towards the capital city of one of our democratic allies?

Lisa Nandy, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, wrote a strongly worded letter demanding action from the Government about what needs to be done to solve the situation which never once appeared to acknowledge that Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organisation which doesn’t want peace with Israel but to wipe it out.

While new Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar opined in a tweet: ‘The root cause of this is illegal occupation, illegal settlement growth, the illegal siege of Gaza and human rights violations.’ He doesn’t mention Hamas at all.

Its hard to know if this is performative politicking – are they doing this simply to appeal to their base? Or if its sheer ignorance.

I am not sure what is worse.

All I know is that this binary view of good versus bad means that people who appear to side with the evil ones – all of us Zionist Jews – means that we therefore are evil too. Because how can you be a good person if you side with the people they regard as malevolent ethnic cleansing, apartheid-loving, baby-killing colonialists?

Labour needs to see that this obsessive virtue signalling hate fest towards the one and only Jewish state in the world is not only dangerous for us Jews but – and this will count more for them – unappealing to the electorate at large.
Conservative MP Dr Matthew Offord to write to BBC’s Director-General requesting BBC not broadcast Alexei Sayle Desert Island Discs episode after comedian claimed allegations of antisemitism “amongst supporters of Jeremy Corbyn are a complete fabrication”
Matthew Offord, the Conservative MP for the heavily-Jewish constituency of Hendon in North London, has written to the BBC’s Director-General, Tim Davie, to request that the BBC not broadcast the upcoming episode of Desert Island Discs, which is set to feature Alexei Sayle this Sunday.

Mr Sayle has previously claimed that allegations of antisemitism “amongst supporters of Jeremy Corbyn are a complete fabrication.” He is also a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Research conducted by Campaign Against Antisemitism revealed widespread antisemitism amongst supporters of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

According to a statement that was released on his website, “Matthew’s request comes in response to the antisemitic incidents which occurred over the weekend following the violence in Israel.” It goes on to say that “The letter says that every broadcaster should be wary of giving a platform to anyone who is seen to be excusing antisemitism. For a person to state publicly that another who made allegations of antisemitism is a liar is not only wrong but also allows antisemitism to continue and in some cases flourish.”

The statement continued: “Matthew said: ‘ITV recently took the decision not to broadcast the final episode of a drama starring Noel Clarke after allegations were made against him. In light of Alexei Sayle’s continuing behaviour and the distress this is causing my constituents and others, the BBC should take the same action and not broadcast the next episode of Desert Island Discs which features Mr Sayle.’”

Mr Sayle claimed in 2014 that BBC presenter Emma Barnett, who is Jewish, supported the murder of children following an article and radio interview in which she had decried antisemitism amongst anti-Israel activists.
Former Shadow Chancellor and Labour MP John McDonnell approvingly tweets photo containing antisemitic sign at rally that he attended and specifically encourages his “Muslim constituents” to attend rallies in provocative and divisive tweet
Former Shadow Chancellor and Labour Party MP John McDonnell has tweeted a photo of an antisemitic sign which was featured at a rally that he himself attended.

The sign, which features an antisemitic quote falsely attributed to Albert Einstein, reads: “It would be my greatest sadness to see Zionists do to Palestinian Arabs much of what Nazis did to Jews.” According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism. Many of these rallies have featured antisemitic slogans, chants and banners. Mr McDonnell said that he was “proud” to attend the rally.

Disturbingly, Mr McDonnell also specifically encouraged his Muslim constituents to join the protests, seemingly stoking religious and communal divisions in the UK at a particularly vulnerable time for the Jewish community. He tweeted: “I urge my Muslim constituents to join me on Saturday in the demonstration in London to support the Palestinian people in their call for peace and justice.”

As antisemitism has become rampant on British streets in recent days, some of Mr McDonnell’s Parliamentary colleagues have backtracked on their unadulterated support for these protests and have condemned antisemitism. Mr McDonnell has not.


Tory councillor previously suspended over antisemitic Facebook posts diminishing impact of Holocaust is now party leader in Aberdeen
Ryan Houghton, a Tory councillor who was previously suspended over antisemitic Facebook posts which diminished the Holocaust, has now been made the Leader of the Aberdeen Conservatives.

In a post on a martial arts forum eight years ago, Mr Houghton wrote under the username, Razgriz, that there was “no credible evidence to suggest the Holocaust did not happen” but revealed that “I do find some of the events fabricated, and exegarated [sic] in some cases.” He continued: “As history is written by the victors there is always going to be a bit of re-writing.” He also praised the “interesting” research of the antisemitic Holocaust-denier, David Irving. However, in a later post he said that he was “not defending David’s Irving’s views” and that he does not agree with “some of the stuff he says.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)” is an example of antisemitism.

Mr Houghton is also accused of having made homophobic and anti-Muslim statements online. In a statement at the time, he said: “I apologise unreservedly for any hurt now caused by these comments and have been in contact with members of the Jewish community in Aberdeen.” Mr Houghton also said that he was a member of the Holocaust Education Trust, had visited Auschwitz-Birkenau and has “never held antisemitic or intolerant views.”

The Conservatives in Scotland readmitted him last year, but apparently there was no further sanction or expectation for him to undertake antisemitism training.
Muslim outreach project receives £130,000 in taxpayers’ cash despite CEO’s backing for ‘toxic’ Cage
A Muslim outreach group has received £130,000 of taxpayers’ money despite the controversial views of its leader.

The JC can reveal the Ramadan Tent Project was awarded the money through a government fund set up to support cultural organisations through the pandemic.

Arts Council England, which made the award, defended its decision saying “extremely tight criteria” had been followed.

Ramadan Tent Project describes its mission as “bringing communities together to better understand each other”.

However its chief executive officer Omar Salha has supported controversial Muslim advocacy group Cage, an organisation branded “toxic” by the Board of Deputies.

In its report this year, the Commission for Countering Extremism urged the government to crack down on Cage which hit the headlines in 2015 after its research director hailed the notorious Isis terrorist known as Jihadi John as a “beautiful young man”

And the organisation’s own official Twitter count has praised another Muslim advocacy group, Mend, which the Board of Deputies will not work with.
Police were wrong to block Muslim preacher Louis Farrakhan who once called Jews ‘termites’ from giving speech at event organised by Nation of Islam in London because it was a breach of human rights, High Court rules
Police were wrong to block prominent preacher Louis Farrakhan who once called Jews 'termites' from giving a speech at an event in a London park because they breached his human rights, a High Court has ruled.

Members of the Nation of Islam had applied to Lambeth Council for a permit to hold an event in Kennington Park, south London in August 2017.

As part of the event, called the 4th Africa International Day of Action, organisers had planned for the head of the group Louis Farrakhan to make a remote broadcast from the US.

But when concerns were raised by the council's community safety team and the Metropolitan Police, conditions were placed on the permit preventing Mr Farrakhan from addressing the event in any way.

Abdul Hakeem Muhammad, the UK representative of the Nation of Islam, and 33 other attendees brought a claim against the force and council due to the restrictions.

On Monday, Martin Forde QC for the claimants, told the court: 'Those objections were purportedly based on concerns relating to public order, specifically disorder by those not associated with the event seeking to disrupt it.'

Mr Forde outlined Mr Farrakhan's speech was going to be about reparations, adding: 'This discourse has been ongoing and it was thought that he could contribute to it.'
1,000 Californians Petition Jewish Caucus to Oppose Ethnic Studies Mandate
More than 1,000 Californians, including nearly 70 rabbis, signed a petition on Thursday that calls on the California Legislative Jewish Caucus to oppose a bill that would make ethnic studies courses a high school graduation requirement.

The bill, AB 101, recommends that school districts use the ethnic studies model curriculum (ESMC) recently approved by California’s board of education, though it also allows for the use of any curriculum approved by local school boards, such as the rejected, “inflammatory and overtly antisemitic” first draft of ESMC, the petition explained.

The first draft was opposed by 20,000 Californians, the majority of which were Jewish organizations and the Jewish Caucus. The draft stated that it would “marginalize Jewish students, and fuel hatred and discrimination against the Jewish community.”

According to the petition, the authors of the original curriculum have “launched a massive campaign” that urges individual school districts to adopt their rejected draft, which includes antisemitic, anti-Zionist and BDS-promoting lesson plans. So far, at least 20 school districts have adopted their draft.

The petitioners are urging members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus “to take the lead once again in opposing this dangerous bill,” saying “the safety and well-being of our children and our community depends on it.”

“We believe that if AB 101 becomes law, many if not most school districts in the state will choose to adopt the discredited first ESMC draft—or an even more extreme version of it—in implementing the law, thereby forcing all public and charter high school students to take a course that will incite tremendous ethnic and racial division, bigotry and harm, especially for Jewish students.”


The ICC's folly also hurts the Palestinians
Unfortunately, it is not the Hamas terrorists the ICC wants to investigate. The start date of another probe Bensouda launched – into Israeli conduct in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip – begins with the day after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in 2014. It is clear they are not interested in investigating Hamas, but Israel alone.

The same is true of the current Israel-Gaza conflict. The only thing that leaves room for hope is Bensouda's successor, British lawyer Karim Khan, who might reexamine this march of folly – which has undermined the ICC's own authority and turned it into a political circus.

Bensouda's latest investigation into Israel is not only an insult to the Israel Defense Forces, which uses phone calls and roof-knock munitions to evacuate Gazans ahead of airstrikes, but also a message to the terrorists that the ICC is on their side. They can now go ahead and double down on their aggression.

It also harms the Palestinians themselves, a nation whose terrorists claim to "protect" its values and interests. The ICC's encouragement will only promote the cycle of violence.

Lastly, the ICC's decision to define Palestinian territory based on the June 4, 1967 lines will only harm the Palestinian people, which is not the case for their leaders, who benefit from the conflict. It sets unrealistic expectations about what the permanent peace accord would look like, essentially blocking the prospects of any agreement, and therefore, further perpetuating the conflict.
Caroline Glick: Israel's political pathologies strike presidential race
It is extremely frustrating for voters from the nationalist camp to watch the political wrangling over the upcoming elections to Israel's presidency. The president of Israel is elected by members of Knesset and the next president will be elected on June 2. Presently, representatives of the nationalist camp have 65 representatives in the 120-member Knesset. Yet despite their commanding majority, the camp presented no candidate of its own to serve as Israel's next head of state.

The leading contender for the post, Jewish Agency Chairman and former Labor Party leader Yitzhak Herzog is a man of the Left. The second contender, Israel Prize winner Miriam Peretz, a twice bereaved mother of IDF combat officers is much admired. But politically, she is a black box.

The nationalist camp's failure to produce a presidential candidate isn't an innocent failure. It is a symptom of the political and bureaucratic pathologies that have trapped Israel in political limbo for two years.

Israel's president has three main powers. First, he has the power to grant pardons. This power has become vitally important in recent years as the police and the state prosecution have undergone a process of radical politicization. While the president lacks the power to order the police to open investigations against Arab rioters and pogromists in Lod and Acre, he has the power to pardon the Jews that shot pogromists in self-defense only to find themselves arrested and indicted for manslaughter.

The second presidential power is his post-Knesset election authority to decide which political leader will receive the mandate to form a government. While this power was long viewed as ceremonial, in recent years, presidents Shimon Peres and Reuven Rivlin have leveraged this authority to transform themselves into powerful political actors. Given this new reality, it's clear the president's political identity will greatly influence the identity of the prime minister and the political configuration of his government.
And then there were 2: Isaac Herzog and Miriam Peretz to compete for presidency
The race for Israel’s next president will be a head-to-head matchup between Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog and Israel Prize-winning educator Miriam Peretz, after three other contenders dropped out shortly before the Wednesday midnight deadline.

The parliamentary vote for the next president will be held in a secret ballot among the 120 members of Knesset on June 2, just over a month before President Reuven Rivlin’s seven-year term ends on July 9.

Candidates were required to receive signatures from at least 10 lawmakers by the end of Wednesday in order to run. Herzog filed with 27 signatures, and Peretz filed with 11.

Herzog, who is also a former chairman of the Labor party and the son of Israel’s 6th president Chaim Herzog, is seen as a frontrunner. However, the secret nature of the voting process could well leave an opening for Peretz to become the first woman ever elected to the position.

Singer and actor Yehoram Gaon, former Labor MK Michael Bar-Zohar and former Likud MK Yehudah Glick, who had launched early candidacies of their own, each announced their decision to bow out shortly before the filing deadline, apparently admitting that they lacked the necessary support.


PMW: PA hijacks Nazi terminology to demonize Israel and Jews
As part of the Palestinian Authority’s relentless demonizing of Israel and Jews, it often invokes Nazi era terminology to try to conjure a parallel between the actions of the Nazi’s and the actions of Israel or Jews.

Rewriting the story of the wide scale riots of Israeli Arabs that started on May 10 in the Israeli city of Lod, regular columnist Bassem Bahoum commented:
“Before the eyes of the world Israel has repeated Kristallnacht, the night on which members of the Nazi party in Germany burned and destroyed the Jews’ stores and property, and this was when it let fascist extremist groups destroy the property of Palestinians in Lod, Jaffa, Haifa, and Acre.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 17, 2021]

Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, was a pogrom against Jews carried out by Nazi forces and civilians throughout Germany on the night of November 9-10, 1938. Jewish homes, hospitals and schools were ransacked and demolished. In the curse of the riots, 267 synagogues were destroyed and over 7,000 Jewish businesses were damaged or destroyed.

The PA comparison between Kristallnacht and the alleged actions of Israel and Jews, implies that hundreds of mosques or shops belonging to Israeli Arabs were destroyed, ransacked and burned to the ground.

The real statistics, from the start of the Israeli Arab riots on May 10 through May 16, show the opposite. While there were some acts of violence carried out by Israeli-Jews, all of which was condemned by the Israeli government and police, the reality was wide scale violence carried out by Arab Israelis, focused on attacking their Jewish neighbors and their property. Here are some of the statistics:
10 Synagogues were wholly or partly burnt. 0 mosques that were burnt;
While Arab rioters used 28 mosques to stockpile rocks and Molotov cocktails, no such similar use was made of Synagogues.
While the Arab rioters used 22 mosques to direct the violence and the rioters, no such similar use was made of Synagogues.
Arab rioters set fire to 112 Jewish homes compared to 1 Arab home that was set ablaze by an Israeli Arab who mistook the target for a Jewish house.
386 Jewish homes were plundered. No Arab homes were plundered.
673 Jewish homes were damaged, compare to 13 Arab homes that were damaged.
849 cars belonging to Jews were set ablaze compared to 13 Arab owned cars.
In 5,018 events Jews were attacked by Arab rioters throwing stones compared to 41 events in which Arabs were attacked with stones.

[Walla, Independent Israeli news site, May 16,2021]
Report: Hamas Has Become Rich Through Massive Taxation of Beleaguered Gaza Population
Hamas is the third-richest terrorist group in the world, a dubious distinction achieved through various means — including, according to a May 12 report, by milking the population of the Gaza Strip for as much tax revenue as possible, despite the enclave’s dire economic situation.

A report by Forbes Israel found that one major source of Hamas’ funding is Iran, but another is a relentless campaign of harsh taxation directed against the people of Gaza themselves.

As the sole de facto authority of the Strip, Hamas squeezes tens of millions of dollars a year out of its subjects by various taxes, levies, and tariffs on consumer goods that enter the territory, as well as licensing fees on all manner of vehicles.

One major object of taxation is cigarettes, on which Hamas has placed a customs duty of up to 50%, which alone yields $10 million a month.

On average, Importers are further charged the equivalent of about $15 for every electronic device, $30 for every ton of fruits and vegetables, and up to $90 for importing toys.

In addition, every truck that drives on Salah AlDin Street — the major highway and transportation artery in the Strip — is taxed about $30.

Also heavily taxed are the smuggling tunnels active on the Egypt-Gaza border, in which moving a single suitcase can result in charges of about $90. Furniture imported from Israel requires a payment of over $200.

Hamas also taxes real estate transactions, charging a 17% tax for each one.
Iran’s Downing of Ukrainian Passenger Plane Was Deliberate Act of Terrorism, Canadian Court Rules
The shooting-down of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January 2020 that killed all 176 people aboard was a deliberate act of terrorism by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Ontario Superior Court ruled in a decision released on Thursday.

Justice Edward Belobaba found “on a balance of probabilities that the missile attacks on Flight 752 were intentional.”

“The plaintiffs have established that the shooting down of Flight 752 by the defendants was an act of terrorism and constitutes ‘terrorist activity,’” the judge added.

One of the experts on whom the judge relied in the trial said the IRGC “knew Flight PS 752 was a civilian airplane and purposefully shot it down with the intent to destroy it.”

Iran’s IRGC shot two TOR M-1 surface-to-air missiles at the plane on January 8, 2020, shortly after it left Tehran’s airport.

The judge wrote that the Iran’s IRGC “intentional and directly caused the deaths of all onboard” by firing missiles at the plane.


ADL data reveals uptick in antisemitic incidents in US linked to Gaza violence
The Anti-Defamation League releases preliminary data revealing an increase in online and real-world incidents of antisemitism in the United States since the most recent outbreak of violence between Israel and Hamas.

“As the violence between Israel and Hamas continues to escalate, we are witnessing a dangerous and drastic surge in anti-Jewish hate right here at home,” says ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in a statement released shortly before the ceasefire was reached. “It’s happening around the world— from London to Los Angeles, from France to Florida, in big cities like New York and in small towns, and across every social media platform.”

The ADL says it has documented antisemitism on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram, with messages including explicit praise for Hitler, promoting tropes about Jewish control and demonizing all Jews.

The group says extreme antisemitic and anti-Zionist content can be found across a wide variety of channels calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, including posts that state: “GAS THE KIKES RACE WAR NOW.”

The ADL says it found more than 17,000 tweets using variations of the phrase, “Hitler was right” between May 7 and May 14, 2021.
Pro Soccer Player Details Horrifying Anti-Semitic Threat: They Asked Me If I Was Jewish, ‘Then I Saw Them Withdrawing Knives’
Professional soccer player Luca Lewis said he was the victim of a terrifying anti-Semitic threat in New York on Thursday night.

The New York Red Bulls goalkeeper described the scene on his personal Instagram page, writing that the incident occurred while he was walking with a friend.

“A group of 6-8 Palestinian men walk up to me and asked me where I was from,” Lewis wrote. “I responded and said ‘New York.’ Than one guy asks me if I was Jewish. I pause for a moment in confusion and thought about it, then I saw them withdrawing knives.”

Lewis then answered, “no.”

“The guy looked at me with such disgust in his eyes and said ‘Good.’ As I started walking away, I got extremely angry and felt like I had to say something,” Lewis continued. “So I turned back around and said ‘what if I was Jewish?’”

Lewis then writes the group of men walked up to him and the person who asked the original question threatened the soccer player, “I’ll beat the f*ckin sh*t out of you and kill you.’”

According to Lewis, a few women who were with the men yelled at them to let it go. Lewis and his friend escaped without physical injury.


Technion research finds method to harvest renewable energy
New research out of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has found a way to produce clean energy in a more cost-efficient manner.

Technion M.Sc. student Lihi Amit has found a way to lower the cost of replacing the membrane of rechargeable batteries by finding an alternative method to do so.

While renewable resources promise unlimited and clean energy production, that promise can't always be fulfilled. Varying factors, such as wind and sunlight, are not always in constant supply, making energy storage a necessity in energy harvesting. In addition, the rechargeable batteries used to store such energy production are quite costly.

The 'flow batteries' that are ordinarily used consist of two electrolyte liquids with opposite charges that are pumped through the battery. A 'selective membrane' keeps the battery from self-discharging so that the chemicals interacting on the two electrode conductors can create a current.

The downside to the flow battery is that its membrane is expensive and requires constant repair, amounting to 40% of the battery's cost.

Amit used bromine and zinc – both cheap materials – and coupled them with a generic complexing agent to trap bromine in droplets, mimicking an oil-and-water effect in the battery, to prevent the electrolytes from flowing together, mixing and self-discharging, the same way the membrane does.







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