Pages

▼

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

07/20 Links Pt2: To Antisemites, a Jew Is a Jew Is a Jew; Ben & Jerry’s joins long list of failed 'boycotts' of Israel; David Collier: Meet Alaa Daraghme – the BBC’s Hezbollah loving Journo

From Ian:

What are the real threats of modern antisemitism? - opinion
Jews gathered this week to fight antisemitism in two locations, and the very different results are telling.

In Jerusalem, several hundred NGO representatives convened for the tenth Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, under the auspices this year of the Israeli ministries of foreign and diaspora affairs. The discussion of strategies to turn back the current tsunami of blended antisemitic and anti-Zionist expression were deep and fruitful.

In Washington, one hundred American Jewish organizations cooperated to organize a rally near the Capitol against the same tsunami, with meager results. Only 3,000 people participated in the “No Fear” demonstration, which amounts to about 30 Jews (and non-Jews) per organization. Some hard-Left American Jewish groups refused to participate all-together, because they reject the overriding message that Jewish identity and support for Israel are inseparable.

Alas, partisanship, “progressive” politics, legal pretexts, anti-Israel sentiment, and community divisions hamper the effort to combat surging Jew hatred. Worst of all, the surging Jew-hatred seems to have sapped the confidence of American Jews, which is, perhaps, the greatest threat of all.

These disturbing trends have been analyzed in a series of recent, important intellectual articles, as follows:

• False equation
The British columnist Melanie Phillip notes that even when condemning antisemitism, politicians and intellectuals feel the compunction to condemn “Islamophobia” and “all forms of racism” at the same time and in the same sentence. This politically correct refusal to acknowledge the uniqueness of antisemitism (and the overwhelming preponderance of antisemitism, above and beyond all other hatreds including anti-Muslim hatred) demonstrates precisely that Jew-hatred.

“People can’t stand the uniqueness of antisemitism because they can’t stand the uniqueness of the Jewish people.” Worse still, many progressive Jews make the false equation of antisemitism with anti-Muslim abuse in a misguided attempt to prove that they are not claiming any special status as victims.

• Mainstreaming
Writing on Bari Weiss’s blog, Peter Savodnik reviews just who is speaking out against antisemitism and who is staying silent. While Michigan Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and some her “Squad” colleagues are using their notoriety to bring antisemitic policies and rhetoric into the mainstream, many news outlets are far too obsessed with the novelty of their identity or enamored by their “progressive” politics to care, he writes.

Even when Tlaib and Ilhan Omar regurgitate the “dual loyalty” charge against pro-Israel Senators – a classic antisemitic trope – the national Democratic leadership has found it hard to condemn them outright or explicitly, without wrapping rejection of the slur in the bland blanket of rejecting “all racist” language.

This is because the American Left has stumbled into the bottomless rage of identity politics. “They have embraced the new racial-gender taxonomy, which reimagines thousands of years of Jewish history into a wokified diorama. Today, the conflict can only be seen through this flattening prism, with Israel playing the role of the white, colonial settler and the Palestinian that of the settler’s dark-skinned, indigenous victim.
David Harris: To Antisemites, a Jew Is a Jew Is a Jew
Pro-Israel students on numerous campuses were under assault in the classroom or on the quad.

Hostile faculty members, aggressive student groups, the impact of intersectionality, and some weak-kneed administrators combined to create toxic environments in a number of places. A few Jews were even being questioned about their eligibility for student government positions based solely on their identity.

But, hey, not only was I not one of “those” victimized students, but I avidly supported the victimizers, so it didn’t really touch me.

Wait a second. The walls are starting to close in. All those “woke” movements I support seem to find more and more reasons to point the finger at Jews, to blame Jews, to label Jews, to exclude Jews, to demonize Jews.

I thought I was ultra-safe in my space. I joined in all the ritualistic denunciations of Zionism. I always put the universal, not the particular, first and foremost. I distanced myself from those “clannish” Jews, those Jews who could never let go of their own history. It was a point of pride to put other Jews last, not first, in my list of priorities. I was totally convinced the danger to everyone only came from the far-right, the neo-Nazis, the QAnon crowd. All my attention was single-mindedly focused on them.

I tried to show that this Jew could be relied on, even as I was being used, it turns out, to shield “my” own groups from charges of antisemitism. After all, if I was a part of the crowd, and often pushed to the front when convenient, how could they possibly be accused of antisemitism?

Oh my goodness, they’re now starting to question me. But, wait, there’s no one left to defend me.

Why didn’t I bother to learn the history of the Jewish people? Antisemitism is antisemitism is antisemitism. Which means a Jew is a Jew is a Jew.

So, to the antisemites, my “good” (Jewish) credentials don’t count for much, at least not for long. No exemptions, it seems.

I thought I could save myself by, in effect, selling out millions of other Jews. Instead, I sold my dignity and got nothing, absolutely nothing, in return, except a punch-in-the-gut lesson in reality.


David Collier: Exclusive: Meet Alaa Daraghme – the BBC’s Hezbollah loving Journo
So it came as no real surprise that Bateman retweeted Alaa Daraghme’s post. But the connection still interested me – and I wondered – who this journalist was that the BBC correspondent felt so comfortable promoting. It didn’t take long for me to find his timeline was awash with problems.

This is the first images Daraghme shared that caught my eye – an image calling Israelis ‘ Nazis’.

It is possible to argue that he merely shared an image of someone else being antisemitic – but he still chose to promote the Nazi analogy. Then things soon got at a lot worse. Alaa Daraghme appears to be a full on conspiracy theorist – who often shares fake news.

Daraghme was recently caught, sharing a fake news video about an Israeli ‘ramming’ Palestinians in Jerusalem. This was one of those videos that went viral during the recent violence. In reality that Israeli driver only lost control of his car – because he was attacked by a Palestinian mob.

But there is far more than one viral video in his timeline. During the ‘knifing Intifada’ of 2015, antisemitic Palestinian propagandists pushed a vile conspiracy theory that the knifing attacks were not real. Instead – they claimed that Israelis shot Palestinian freely – and then placed knifes at the scene to provide a pretext for their bloodlust.

Daraghme pushed that line consistently:
The real story was that the terrorist attacked and injured a soldier – before he was shot.

The conspiracy is a constant trend in Daraghme’s posts. Here is another example:

In that post, Daraghme changes the knife for a gun – and has two Palestinians shot – ‘just because’ with Israel using a shooting attack as an excuse. In the real world – on 14th February 2016, Palestinians opened fire on police officers in Jerusalem. The terrorists were all shot.

If only antisemitic conspiracy theories were the worst of Daraghme’s behaviour.


Seth Frantzman: Ben & Jerry’s joins long list of failed 'boycotts' of Israel
What is left of the “boycott” movement appears to be mostly some privileged activists in the West who ascribe to things such as “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” or what is called BDS. Over the years, there have been many high-profile campaigns by these groups to advance efforts toward their boycott goal. But it’s unclear if any of these efforts have succeeded.

The UN released a list in 2020 of 112 companies with “ties” to Israeli settlements, and the European Union, for instance, has sought to label goods produced over the Green Line as ostensibly goods produced in Israeli settlements.

But there are few goods produced there, because the little secret of Israel’s role in the West Bank is that it doesn’t have much of an economy.

Back in 2004, the BDS movement targeted Soda Stream for operating a plant in Mishor Adumim. But most of these boycott campaigns, including some limited divestment, have been judged a failure.

THERE MAY be an elephant in the room as well.

“The more that [term] becomes part of the mainstream, the more difficult it will be for companies and for investment review agencies to physically separate what goes on in Israel from what goes on with its activities in the Occupied Territory,” Michael Lynk, the UN’s special rapporteur for the human-rights situation in the Palestinian Territories, told Reuters recently.

Indeed, large human-rights groups have recently been pushing claims that all of the areas Israel controls are “apartheid,” not just Israel’s role in the West Bank. This is an attempt, apparently, to dovetail with the extremist Palestinian rhetoric of “from the river to the sea.” This also dovetails with activists in the West who promote the “one-state solution,” which consists of a handful of people. So what does it add up to? Israel’s GDP continues to grow, and the country, despite its small population, is doing well compared with its peers. Israeli hi-tech companies are also receiving a mass influx of investment, raising some $10 billion in just the first five months of 2021.

If this is what a “boycott” looks like, one wonders what Israel would look like without the boycott. The reality of decisions like that of the ice-cream manufacturer appears to be that they take years to even put out a statement and then can’t even figure out how to carry out their decision.

Other corporate giants, of course, make decisions that some Israelis see as “boycotting” communities in the West Bank. McDonald’s doesn’t open branches over the Green Line. It’s not clear if this has had any effect on anything: Israeli hamburger joints can open their own shops in place of McDonald’s.
BDS & Jerry’s
The left-wing ice cream company Ben & Jerry's announced on Monday that it will stop selling its ice cream in the West Bank and East Jerusalem—or, as the company termed them, Occupied Palestinian Territory. In a move that perfectly captures how left-wing activism is increasingly bleeding into naked anti-Semitism, Ben & Jerry's said that selling ice cream in the West Bank is "inconsistent with our values."

Yikes.

We're not clear how exactly removing Ben & Jerry's ice cream from grocery stores in the West Bank will benefit the Palestinians. The move appears to be primarily an act of guerrilla theater and a demonstration of base prejudice.

The most common expression of anti-Semitism on the left is the application of double standards to Jews and the Jewish state.

Look no further than Ben & Jerry's partnership with Unilever, which acquired the ice cream company in 2000. There is no comparison between Israeli policy in the West Bank and the practices of the world's greatest human rights abusers. Unilever happily does business everywhere from occupied Northern Cyprus to occupied Tibet and Xinjiang, home to Uyghur concentration camps. We won't hold our breath for the ice cream boycott of China or Russia. But hey, there are no Jews in Xinjiang.

This sort of casual anti-Semitism is not a one-off for Ben & Jerry's or its left-wing allies. The company defended its partnership with the anti-Trump and anti-Semitic Women's March as three of its leaders, including the execrable Linda Sarsour, were pushed out thanks to their anti-Semitic remarks.

First, the social justice warriors at Ben & Jerry's assured us the Women's March had been "unequivocal" in its denunciations of anti-Semitism—even as it praised Sarsour for her "undeniably important" work. Then the company issued a mealy-mouthed statement that said little about the Women's March but declared, "Ben & Jerry's is neither anti-Semitic nor do we support anti-Semitism in any form."


Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer: Let self-haters Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield choke on their Woke
You think Jews cannot be Jew-haters?

Does any serious, open-minded non-Woke American still really believe that Jews are all “in it together”? How foolish!

Even as Ilhan Omar is the worst Jew-hater in Congress, with salutatorian going to Rashida Tlaib and honorable mentions for New York’s Antisemite Of Color (AOC) and Betty McCollum of Minnesota, their champion in the U.S. Senate is Bernie Sanders. He endorses them when they seek election, and they endorse him. They all are as one, in it together. They are the epicenter of Israel-hatred and Jew-hatred in Congress.

But Bernie Sanders is Jewish, isn’t he? How can a Jew line up in bed with outright, unashamed, uninhibited Jew-haters? Does that make any sense?

Yes, it does.

Read my “tag line” to recognize my qualifications to write this: There is a deep, intense Jewish social sickness that afflicts perhaps one quarter of all Jews in the contemporary West. Some call it “self-hate.” Some have other names for it. A good word for it is “apostasy.” These apostates share a common psychological sickness that always backfires on them: they believe that, if they turn against “the Jews,” then others in their Left universes — whether they be liberal or “progressive” or socialist or communist or just plan Woke — will welcome them as fellow travelers.

It never works for the long term. It always comes back to bite them bad.

Do you see their dilemma? To be leftist, they need to station themselves as universalists, globalists. No national identity suits them — too jingoistic. No national language, no national anthem, no sense of deep-rooted patriotism.

These are the Jewish apostates, the self-haters of anything Jewish, who have been a blight on all other Jews these past two thousand years since Rome burned the Second Holy Temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and thereafter banished the Jewish citizens of Israel into two millennia of diaspora. They have emerged in each and every Jewish generation of Exile: the Nicholas Donins of Spain, Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky and the Yevesekzia (Hebrew Section) of the Communist Party of Russia, Max Naumann and his Verband nationaldeutscher Juden (Association of German National Jews) who supported Hitler until they went up in smoke. Jews who support anything aimed at tearing down Judaism and its core values.

The phenomenon of the “Self-Hating Jew” is so sick and widespread that it merits its own separate Wikipedia entry of nearly 4,000 words. It is about winning acceptance in an environment that otherwise excludes Jews because the Left does not want them.
Cowardice in the guise of 'values'
We should remind Ben & Jerry's that Judea and Samaria were under illegal Jordanian occupation that was never recognized by the world. Before that, they were under the British Mandate established after World War I on the basis of the Balfour Declaration, the purpose of which was to establish a national home for the Jewish people in the entire Land of Israel. So if anyone has historical and legal ties to this good and sweet land, which will remain such even without hostile ice cream, it's the Jewish people.

To my great dismay, the decision by Ben & Jerry's can be considered antisemitism. It is the result of an antisemitic internet campaign waged against them during Operation Guardian of the Walls. The campaign and all the claims it makes are delusional – for example, that the chain sells freezers to Israel to store the bodies of Palestinian children. The ice cream chain froze in the face of the horrifying campaign, lowered its profile, and stopped posting on social media. Now it has officially caved to the campaign against it. Giving it to antisemitism is another form of antisemitism.

Now the government of Israel needs to respond harshly. It needs to announce that the anti-boycott law will be enacted against any importer who tries to bring this ice cream into the country in place of the current franchisee, who opposes stopping sales in Judea and Samaria. The law makes it possible to prevent importers who cooperate with boycotts of Judea and Samaria from competing for government tenders. The authority to act under the law lies with the finance and justice ministers. Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman's freezer is somewhere beyond the Green Line, too, and he must have a few grandkids who have a weakness for Ben & Jerry's. Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar's freezer might be located in the settlement of Tel Aviv, but his national Zionist worldview is well-known. This is the time for them to prove that values don't melt away easily.


Ben & Jerry's board wanted to boycott all of Israel
Ben & Jerry's Independent Board of Directors wanted to boycott Israel in its entirety, but was stopped from doing so by the ice-cream maker's CEO and the British-based parent company Unilever.

"The statement released by Ben & Jerry's regarding its operation in Israel and the Occupied Palestine Territory does not reflect the position of the Independent Board nor was it approved by the Independent Board," read a statement by Ben & Jerry's Independent Board of Directors. It was posted on social media, including on the Twitter page of board chairwoman Anuradha Mittal.

The famous ice cream company that originated in the US state of Vermont made headlines on Monday when it announced plans to boycott "the Occupied Palestinian Territory," generally presumed in this context to mean West Bank settlements and Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. To achieve this goal, it plans to end its contract in December 2022 with the local Israeli franchise of Ben & Jerry's, which has operated in the Jewish state for close to 35 years.

Unilever has clarified that it plans to continue sales to areas of Israel within the pre-1967 lines, but would do so with a different local company.

Avi Zinger, owner of the Israeli Ben & Jerry's franchise, who always sold his ice cream on both sides of the Green Line, has for years resisted pressure by the parent company to boycott West Bank settlements.

But he ultimately has no control over the decision by Unilever, which has owned the global ice cream company since 2000.


Ben & Jerry’s Israel: We Refused to Obey their Boycott, So They Won’t Renew our Franchise
Ben & Jerry’s CEO in Israel, Avi Singer, tweeted Monday night asking Israeli consumers to continue to purchase his ice cream until the end of the term of his franchise from Ben & Jerry’s at the end of 2022. According to Singer, the reason he is losing his franchise has to do with his adamant refusal to boycott Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria.

“We continue to sell throughout Israel, and will not succumb to the pressure and boycott of Unilever (a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in London – DI) and Ben & Jerry’s Global,” Singer clarified, adding, “Ice cream is not part of politics. We call on Israelis to continue to buy the Israeli products that support hundreds of workers in the south.”

The legendary Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company was founded in 1978 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield and sold to Unilever in 2000. The company announced Monday that its management believes “it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). We also hear and recognize the concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners. (Ben & Jerry’s Joins BDS Boycott of Israel).”

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett responded to Ben & Jerry’s statement with a statement of his own, saying: “There are many ice cream brands, but only one Jewish state. Ben & Jerry’s has decided to brand itself as the anti-Israel ice cream. This decision is morally wrong and I believe that it will become clear that it is also commercially wrong. The boycott against Israel – a democracy surrounded by islands of terrorism – reflects a total loss of way. The boycott does not work and will not work, and we will fight it with full force.”

And former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted: “Now we Israelis know which ice cream NOT to buy.”

But according to Singer, sales in the liberated territories will continue for as long as he owns the franchise in Israel and employs hundreds of Israelis in his Kiryat Malachi plant in the northern Negev, which he started in 1982.
Morton Williams cracks down on Ben & Jerry’s over Israel controversy
Big Apple supermarket chain Morton Williams has decided to severely curb its sales and marketing of Ben & Jerry ice cream after the popular brand took sides in a long-running Middle East controversy.

Following a board meeting on Monday, Morton Williams Supermarkets resolved to reduce the Ben & Jerry’s products it sells in its 16 stores by 70 percent, The Post has learned.

The supermarket’s board also agreed to stop promoting the ice cream in its weekly circulars, and to demote Ben & Jerry’s to the “least desirable locations” of its freeze aisles, co-owner Avi Kaner, told The Post.

“You’ll be able to find the product, but you’ll have to look for it,” Kaner said.

Morton Williams, which boasts 15 stores in NYC and one in New Jersey, made the move after the maker of Chunky Monkey ice cream on Monday announced that it was freezing sales to “the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” a term that has been used for years to describe the areas occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
New York supermarket chains pull Ben & Jerry’s over Israel boycott
Others outraged at the anti-Israel message are also thinking in broader terms. In a move that would automatically remove B&J from the shelves of all stores that serve a high percentage of Orthodox clientele, social activists have begun calling KOF-K Kosher to ask that the organization pull its kashruth certification from the ice cream. They are also requesting that other certifications refuse to service Ben and Jerry’s as substitutes.

Two popular big groceries, Aron’s Kissena Farms in Queens, and Glatt Express Supermarket in Teaneck, N.J., aren’t waiting and announced that they have already removed the ice cream from their shelves in support of the Jewish state.

A number of other stores in the New York region that carry Ben & Jerry’s have followed suit as well as Kosher Kingdom in Melbourne, Australia.

The heaviest guns may be laws that are already on the books in many American states, as noted by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

“Ben and Jerry’s decision is a shameful surrender to anti-Semitism, to BDS, to all the evil in the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish discourse,” he said.

“We will not keep quiet. More than 30 states in the United States have laws against surrendering to BDS that have passed in recent years. I plan to go one by one and demand that they enforce these laws against Ben & Jerry’s because they will not treat us in this way without encountering a response.”


In US, Campaign Ignited to Revoke Ben & Jerry’s KOF-K Kosher Certification
Nachman Mostofsky, the executive director of the Brooklyn-based, pro-Israel Amariah group, tweeted Monday night that he had been on the phone with KOF-K Kosher Certification who informed him that “they are getting calls all morning. Keep calling. Be polite!”

The calls are, of course, regarding the campaign to remove Ben & Jerry’s KOF-K’s kashrut certification over the company’s joining the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). In Israel, the local Ben & Jerry’s, which is opposed to the boycott, carries the kosher certificate of the Badatz Belz and the Kiriat Malachi Rabbanut.

Mostofsky urged US Jews to call KOF-K at 201-837-0500 and tell them to pull their certification. He said people at the kashrut certification service suggested Jews and other Israel lovers should also call Ben & Jerry’s at (802) 846-1500.

Iched69news tweeted in response: “With all respect, can you explain why should they take it off? What is the kosher issue with them? If you want to boycott them the way the BDS does sounds fair, but why take off the supervision if it’s kosher?”

The answer is (although I’m not a rabbi, and I urge the reader to consult their halachic authority) that kosher certification deals with the entire context of the business in question. This is why most rabbis would withhold the kashrut certification of a Jewish-owned business which passes the technical kashrut laws but is open on Shabbat. Likewise, if Ben & Jerry’s ice cream passes the kashrut test but joins the enemies of the Jewish State, its kashrut status must be reevaluated in that light.


Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian Authority hails Ben & Jerry’s boycott as ‘moral and legal’
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday praised as “legal” and “moral” the decision by Ben & dfJerry’s to stop selling its ice cream products over the 1967 Green Line.

Several Palestinians hailed the decision as a “great gift to the Palestinian people on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.” They expressed hope that other companies and countries would follow suit and halt all dealings with the settlements.

“This decision is consistent with the rules of international law, and the company respects human rights, principles and ethics by refusing to deal with the illegal and immoral colonization system that Israel entrenches in the land of the occupied state of Palestine, through racist policies and complex crimes, such as the seizure of land, theft of Palestinian resources, arrests, field executions, and forced displacement,” the PA Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The PA called on companies working directly or indirectly with settlements to take similar positions and “stop their dealings and businesses immediately and not to engage in any business with illegal entities such as Israeli settlements.”

The PA called on all countries to ensure that their companies respect international law and do not do any business with settlements. The PA expressed its appreciation to the companies that “took courageous, moral, and legal positions and stopped their dealings with the Israeli colonial system.”


Trying to Repair Ties to Jewish Community, Ben & Jerry’s Releases ‘Christian Blood Crunch’ (satire)
In an effort to win back Jewish customers peeved over its decision to stop selling its products in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem, Ben & Jerry’s announced that it will release a new flavor called ‘Christian Blood Crunch’ to be sold in Jewish communities worldwide.

The flavor will contain real chunks of Christian children, company CEO Matthew McCarthy explained, an historical favorite of Jews both in Israel and in the diaspora.

“I really wanted to do something special for the Jews after all this hubbub about the settlements, so we decided to create a new flavor the Jews will love,” McCarthy told The Mideast Beast. “We asked our advisors on Jewish affairs – Linda Sarsour, Rashida Tlaib, David Duke, and Mel Gibson – what Jews liked. It was between Christian blood and money, and the latter wouldn’t have been cost-effective.”


United Church of Christ Accuses Israel of Using ‘Imperialistic Theology’ Against Palestinians
The leadership of the United Church of Christ adopted a resolution at its General Synod slamming Israel by accusing it of using “imperialistic theology” as justification of its policies towards the Palestinians.

The 3,500-word document, adopted by a vote of 462-78, titled “Declaration for a Just Peace between Palestine and Israel,” pronounced “Israel’s continued oppression of the Palestinian people a sin, incompatible with the Gospel” and that it “rejects a future imposed by military power, illegal occupation and dispossession, or unilateral annexation of land and the use of an imperialistic theology as justification.”

The UCC further urged member churches and associations to adopt the resolution to guide their advocacy with the US government.

The American Jewish Committee panned the resolution, saying it “demonizes Israel, fails to offer a credible path to Israeli-Palestinian peace and undermines advances in Christian-Jewish relations.”

The group added that it also “ignores inconvenient truths in the history and context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; innumerable peace proposals and initiatives rejected by Palestinians with violence and ongoing security threats to Israel.”


Teen Vogue’s Israel Problem
With the recent armed clashes between Israel and Hamas coming to an end, the pro-Israel world has been at the forefront in battling misinformation, baseless claims, and lies that have been leveled against the Jewish state. While there seems to be relative calm for now, it is essential to point out the wave of false accusations which have plagued Israel for the last two months — and for years before that.

One of the most blatant examples of this anti-Israel slander being spread online is the Teen Vogue article, The Violence in Jerusalem Over the Pending Evictions of Palestinians Horrifies Me by Blair Nodelman.

Nodelman’s article, which is rife with inaccuracies, inflammatory statements, and convenient omissions of fact, is a regular occurrence that supporters of Israel have to confront daily.

While many think that Teen Vogue is a place for young people to get the most up-to-date information on fashion and social trends, its shift towards being a source of news worldwide on complex social issues like the Israel-Palestinian conflict is problematic. Sadly, its authors do not have the ability to discuss complex issues in any terms besides simple “black and white” narratives.

First, let’s discuss how Nodelmen conveniently leaves out that the “militant group that controls Gaza” is none other than Hamas, a US Department of State designated terror group that many other countries have also recognized as a terrorist organization, such as Canada, the European Union, and Japan.

This failure to call out Hamas for what it truly is — a genocidal organization bent on the destruction of not just the Jewish State but the elimination of Jews as a whole — severely downplays the threat that Israel faces at the hands of this group. The author also ignores Palestinian terror attacks, incitement, and hate education, where children are taught from the earliest ages to murder Jews.
‘Hate Is More Engaging’: Researchers Make Headway Measuring Antisemitic Propaganda on Social Media
The year-long lockdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 cemented the place of social media as the main channel for the spread of antisemitic messages, often of the crudest and most violent kind.

As the virus enveloped the world, a set of coronavirus-related antisemitic memes rapidly took shape. Some online trolls asserted that, just like the Black Death in the 14th Century, COVID-19 was a Jewish creation, while others urged that the disease — dubbed the “Holocough” — be used to kill Jews en masse.

Another innovation during this period was the phenomenon of “Zoom bombing.” As social distancing measures compelled Jewish institutions to move real-world events onto online platforms like Zoom, dozens of virtual meetings were hijacked by antisemitic rabble-rousers, pushing what one German research institute described as an “overlap of Nazi-glorifying and anti-Israel content” to a bewildered and often distressed audience.

In tandem with those outrages, established social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter were flooded with antisemitic posts. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), between May 7 and May 14 alone this year, more than 17,000 posts on Twitter used some variation of the phrase “Hitler was right.”

Quantifying these antisemitic conversations on social media and distilling their content has become a key task for academic researchers monitoring the spread of antisemitism through a range of social and professional networks. At Indiana University, Bloomington, scholars at the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) — which today launched a major conference on antisemitism in the US, to continue through next week — are working with colleagues from other departments such as computer science to sift through thousands of antisemitic tweets, some of which are written in strongly coded language, and with others expressing their hatred of Jews in candid terms.
The Sunday Times removes reference to Orthodox Jews in article about “vultures preying” on shopping centres after CAA complaint
The Sunday Times has removed a reference to Orthodox Jews in an article about “vultures preying” on shopping centres after a complaint from Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The article, titled “Vultures prey on bombed-out shopping centres”, focussed on investors who are purchasing the now-derelict shopping centres in Britain, with particular emphasis on vultures, which are a type of investor. However, the publication initially included a gratuitous reference to Orthodox Jews and thereby implied comparisons between Jews and vultures.

The article, brought to our attention by CAMERA UK, an organisation promoting fair coverage of Israel in British media, read: “Mark Garmon-Jones, head of shopping centre investing at Savills, said over a quarter of the buyers were backed by Israeli money, often invested via the UK’s Orthodox Jewish community.”

After Campaign Against Antisemitism contacted The Sunday Times to raise our concerns that the reference to Orthodox Jews was gratuitous and may promote the stereotype of Jewish greed or predatory behaviour, the publication advised us that it was removing the reference from the article.
Former Nazi Concentration Camp Secretary, 96, to Stand Trial in Juvenile Court in Germany for WW2 Crimes
A 96-year old former concentration camp secretary will stand trial in a German juvenile court, accused of having aided the murder and attempted murder of more than 11,000 prisoners at the Stutthof death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.

On Friday, a German court in the town of Itzehoe, near Hamburg, ruled in favor of starting the main proceedings in the case of Irmgard Furchner, who was employed as a typist to camp commander Paul-Werner Hoppe in Stutthof, when she was 18 or 19. The first main hearing of the trial is scheduled for September. About 65,000 people died during the Holocaust at the Stutthof camp.

According to the indictment of the Itzehoe public prosecutor’s office, as reported in Germany’s Bild Zeitung, Furchner is charged “in her role as a typist and stenotypist in the camp commander’s office of the former Stutthof concentration camp between June 1943 and April 1945 to have helped those responsible at the camp with the systematic killing of those imprisoned there.”

The inmates were Jewish prisoners, Polish partisans and Soviet prisoners of war.

Furchner, who currently lives in in a nursing home near the city of Hamburg, has already testified twice as a witness regarding her role in Stutthof, in 1954 and 1962. In 1954, she stated that she handled all correspondence with the SS economic administration main office, and that Hoppe had dictated daily letters to her and ordered radio messages. Furchner stated that at the time she knew nothing about the killing machinery that exterminated tens of thousands in the immediate vicinity while she was on duty.


Miss Universe competition coming to Israel
For the first time ever, the Miss Universe competition is set to take place in Israel in December, the Tourism Ministry announced on Tuesday, in a joint statement with Miss Universe Organization (MUO).

The beauty pageant, which marks its 70th anniversary this year, will be hosted in Israel's southernmost city of Eilat, for three weeks of television events, which include the semi-finals and finals of the competition, as well as the national costume show, galas, charity events and more.

In the statement, MUO noted Israel's attractiveness, rich history, vast amount of tourist and resort sites and experience at hosting international events, such as the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, as key in choosing Israel as the host country for this year's event, which will be presented by American TV personality and entertainer Steve Harvey.

With the live show being viewed by 500 million people worldwide annually, according to the Hollywood Reporter, and over 1.3 billion people following the pageant by either broadcast, print or social media, an event of international proportions such as the Miss Universe pageant will establish Eilat and Israel as a prominent tourist destination. The show will be broadcast to close to 160 countries all over the world.

"Israel has been on our shortlist of host countries for a number of years due to its rich history, beautiful landscapes, myriad of cultures and appeal as a global tourist destination," said President of the MUO Paula M. Shugart. "It became clear...that Israel has the best resources to host Miss Universe. We look forward to deepening our commitment to creating meaningful cultural conversation, connection and understanding through this partnership," Shugart added.

"We in Israel are delighted to host the 70th anniversary celebrations of the iconic Miss Universe pageant," commented Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov. We have successfully faced the COVID-19 crisis head on, therefore, today we are among the first countries to host an international event," he added.

Razvozov also said Miss Universe is "an event celebrating women’s empowerment, optimism, tolerance and desire for excellence, that crosses every geographical and national border."


Jewish Royal Air Force Hero Remembered for ‘Outstanding Contribution’ Against Nazi Targets in World War II
One of the last surviving British pilots from a Royal Air Force (RAF) squadron that carried out 30 operations against German enemy targets during World War II died on Sunday at the age of 100, The Telegraph reported.

Jewish squadron leader Lawrence “Benny” Goodman volunteered to join the RAF at age 18 at the outbreak of war, in September 1939. He began training as a pilot in June 1941 and then as a bomber pilot, before joining the No. 617 Squadron, the RAF’s precision bombing unit known as the “Dambusters.”

He was involved in the attack against the German battleship Tirpitz in late 1944, and in the final weeks of the war, during March of 1945, he helped demolish Germany’s Arnsberg railway viaduct with a 22,000-pound “Grand Slam” — the biggest bomb ever dropped by the RAF.

In April 1945, Goodman was part of the team that dropped a Tallboy bomb on Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest” retreat in Bavaria, Germany. His career with the RAF spanned 24 years and in 2017 he was awarded France’s highest honor, the Légion d’Honneur. Goodman was also honored in March 2020 at an exhibition for Jewish war veterans at the RAF Museum.

Maggie Appleton, CEO of the RAF Museum, paid tribute to Goodman, saying, “So many of us will be mourning Benny while celebrating his outstanding contribution during the Second World War and his faultless RAF Service. The RAF Museum has been fortunate to call Benny a friend.”

“He supported us in sharing the incredible story of Jewish servicemen and women during the war and the brave airmen who were in a particularly perilous situation should they have been captured,” Appleton added. “Benny was a special man who lived a long and fruitful life and brought joy and inspiration to many. He will be sadly missed by his friends at the RAF Museum, but we will ensure that his stories live on to inspire generations to come.”







at