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Saturday, August 14, 2021

08/14 Links: The American Jewish Establishment Has Failed, It’s Time to Replace It; Israel recalls envoy to protest signing of Poland's anti-restitution law

From Ian:

The American Jewish Establishment Has Failed, It’s Time to Replace It
Over the last few months, American Jews have been the target of a pogrom. Beatings, intimidation, and the stabbing of a rabbi have been only the most prominent atrocities in a frenzy of racist violence, mostly committed by Muslim antisemites backed by members of the far-left, who used Israel’s recent conflict with Hamas as an excuse. An excuse by and large accepted and endorsed by the non-Jewish establishment.

One of the most astonishing things about this pogrom, however, was the fact that it took the American Jewish establishment almost entirely by surprise. Indeed, they were so shocked that their reaction was almost non-existent during the pogrom and its immediate aftermath.

Recently, I saw one of the most prominent leaders of the American Jewish establishment acknowledge, at long last, that antisemitism on the left actually exists, and something probably ought to be done about it. My immediate reaction to reading this missive was twofold. The first was the intense desire to say, “if you’d done your job, we wouldn’t be in this mess!” The second was to wonder, “where have you been for the past 20 years?”

Regarding the latter, it is a simple fact that, for some of us, the recent pogrom came as neither a shock nor a surprise. We have been aware — and shouting at the top of our lungs — that since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, antisemitism had become not simply a part but an essential part of far-left ideology. We knew, because we saw with our own eyes, that this metastization was rapid and aggressive, and would inevitably end in violence. And for that entire time, in an act of willful denial that must have required extraordinary energy to sustain, the American Jewish establishment simply pretended it wasn’t happening.

This points to perhaps the most important lesson of the recent violence: the American Jewish establishment is not simply ineffective at stemming the rise of antisemitism on the far-left and in the American Muslim community. It is incompetent.

This has immense implications, because the American Jewish establishment is, of course, meant to represent and serve the American Jewish community. And perhaps the most important service they can render is to effectively combat and prevent antisemitic violence. It has now been conclusively proven that it either cannot or will not do so. That some of its more prominent figures may have finally acknowledged what is happening is not so much a positive sign as a confession of guilt. If they had done their job, after all, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

Put bluntly, what this dereliction has demonstrated is that the American Jewish establishment is not a vigorous leader and guardian of the community, but a decadent and impotent aristocracy that must be overthrown in favor of a new, passionate, and effective generation.

This is an absolute imperative, because the Jewish people cannot and have never been able to afford incompetent and ineffective leadership. We know, after all, what happened during the Holocaust when an earlier American Jewish establishment proved itself incompetent and ineffective. And in any other situation, the solution would be obvious: replace them with those who aren’t incompetent and ineffective.
Israel Furious as Poland’s President Signs Bill to Limit Property Claims
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett condemned the law and said Israel would not simply stand by at its approval. “It is a shameful decision and a disgraceful contempt for the memory of the Holocaust,” he said in a statement.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said: “Poland today, for the first time, approved an antisemitic and immoral law.” In response, the head of Israel’s embassy in Warsaw was being called back immediately, he said.

“Poland has tonight become an anti-democratic, non-liberal country that does not honor the greatest tragedy in human history,” Lapid said in a statement.

A new ambassador to Warsaw will not be sent at this stage, Lapid said. He also suggested Poland’s ambassador to Israel extend his vacation and not return to the country.

“He should use the time he has on his hands to explain to the Poles what the Holocaust means to Israel’s citizens and the extent to which we will not tolerate contempt for the memory of those who perished and for the memory of the Holocaust. It will not stop here,” Lapid said.

Israel was discussing further steps with the United States, he added.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said Washington was deeply concerned that the Polish parliament had passed the bill, and urged Duda not to sign it into law.

Washington is one of Warsaw’s most important allies, but relations between the two countries have been strained by the property issue, as well as other issues such as plans to introduce changes that the opposition says aim to silence a US-owned news channel critical of the government.

The World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) on Saturday urged the Polish government to work on resolving the issue of property seized in the past.

“Democracy & justice hits new low in Poland, as President Duda signs a law making it virtually impossible for all former Polish property owners to secure redress for property illegally seized during the Communist era,” Gideon Taylor, chair of operations of the WJRO said in a statement sent to Reuters.
Israel recalls envoy to protest signing of Poland's anti-restitution law
Israel recalled its envoy from Poland to protest a new law that limits the ability of Jews to recover property seized by Nazis during the Holocaust and retained by post-war communist rulers.

“Poland today approved – not for the first time – an immoral, antisemitic law,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in video message he issued on Saturday night.

“This evening I instructed the charge d’affaires at our embassy in Warsaw [Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon] to return immediately to Israel for consultations, for an indefinite period of time,” Lapid said. The newly appointed ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, has been asked to remain in Israel “for the time being.” In addition, Lapid asked Poland’s Ambassador Marek Magierowski, who is out of the country, not to return. “He should use the time he has on his hands to explain to the Poles what the Holocaust means to Israel’s citizens and the extent to which we will not tolerate contempt for the memory of those who perished and for the memory of the Holocaust. It will not stop here,” Lapid said.


Trust and partnership – Israel, UAE celebrate first year of normalization
On August 13, 2020, an extraordinary event transformed the Middle East: Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a joint statement of intent to normalize diplomatic relations.

Formalized at the White House in September, the historic Abraham Accords opened wide a door that seemed hopelessly shut between the two countries.

True, discreet business had been conducted between Israelis and Emiratis for years, and Israelis holding foreign passports had quietly entered Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

But the Abraham Accords changed the game, with direct flights and direct phone calls linking businesspeople, government officials and ordinary citizens who’d long been curious about one another.

Every day brought another “first” between Israel and the UAE.

In October, Etihad Airlines launched a Hebrew-language website to help Israeli travelers book reservations. Thousands of Israeli tourists flooded the UAE until Covid-19 put a temporary stop to that.

The flurry of activity following the Abraham Accords spanned everything from an Israeli lingerie ad shoot in Dubai to ambitious collaborations in agricultural and medical research.

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported that between September 2020 and June 2021, Israel exported $197 million worth of goods to the UAE and imported $372 million worth of goods from the UAE.

Groups formed quickly to foster connections. Among them are the Abu Dhabi-Israel Business Hub, UAE-Israel Business Council, Israeli-Emirati Forum, UAE-IL Tech Zone, Gulf-Israel Women’s Forum, Gulf-Israel Green Ventures and UAE Israel Innovation Office.

$10b investment fund.

“We are very happy to see the collaboration between our nations continuing to bud and prosper,” says UAE-IL Tech Zone advisory board member Ahmed Nasser Al Nowais, founder & CEO of Abu Dhabi-based Annex Investments.


This disgraceful mocking of the Holocaust needs to stop now
If there was ever a clear case of antisemitism and self-hatred – especially by those Jewish historians who have allowed the history of Holocaust to become hijacked for what is basically a Balkan territorial dispute – this was it.

It goes without saying that the growing legions of Holocaust-deniers around the world would love nothing more than to be helped in their quest to dent the veracity of the most tragic and evil event of the 20th century.

Historians have long commented how to the West, Serbia promotes Jasenovac as part of the Jewish Holocaust, but in the Balkans, Jews have been removed from the Holocaust altogether and replaced with Serbs.

As Dr. Lea David, professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa noted, “The Serbian political elite then hijacked the images and symbols of the Holocaust in order to equate Serbian victims with Jewish victims, and promote Serbian righteous victimhood as enduring throughout the 1990s wars.

“Having established Serbs as victims of the Holocaust, the Serbian government then moved to sideline the roles of Serbian Communist partisan fighters and to rehabilitate quisling Chetnik members and other right-wing figures,” she says.

As the University of Otago’s David McDonald also noted in Globalizing the Holocaust: A Jewish “Useable Past” in Serbian Nationalism: “Holocaust imagery pushed the envelope, allowing Serbian nationalist goals to gain wider, more universal appeal. It could resonate with domestic Serbs and those in the Diaspora, as well as with Jews and non-Jews... where myths of Serbian and Jewish suffering were interwoven, providing a new series of national myths.”

As for the US Holocaust Museum, on its website, it admits “Determining the number of victims… for Jasenovac is highly problematic, due to the destruction of many relevant documents, the long-term inaccessibility to independent scholars of those documents that survived…”

So why quote figures if they are “highly problematic,” especially considering the museum is aware Yad Vashem throughout the 1990s repeatedly tried obtaining the original Jasenovac documents from Serbia but has been flat-out refused to this day? Just as puzzling was Yugoslavia’s decades-old assertion that more victims’ remains are “to be discovered,” yet during its 47-year rule of the site, it never bothered once to try and locate these mysterious “missing” remains.

Those who have conflated the only wartime concentration camp without any verifiable data with scientifically proven Holocaust facts have done immeasurable harm to Jewish history.

In this era of hyper-antisemitism and a world of increasing hatred of all things Jewish, it’s high time that everyone – especially Jews – stopped collaborating with malign actors to mock the Holocaust.


Mediators in bid to avert Hamas-Israel face-off
Egypt, Qatar, the United Nations and other international parties are making significant efforts to prevent another military confrontation between Israel and the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, Israel announced for the first time in 18 months that it will allow merchants and businessmen from the Gaza Strip to enter through the Erez crossing. The announcement came after the relative calm on the Gaza-Israel border during which no balloons or incendiary devices were launched toward Israel.

Hamas sources said that the mediation efforts were being made due to Israel’s insistence on linking reconstruction of the Gaza Strip to a prisoner exchange.

Hamas has been holding the bodies of IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, and is holding Israeli citizens Avner Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who entered the Gaza Strip on their own in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

The sources told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds that mediators from Egypt, Qatar, the UN and the European Union are working to avoid another flare-up of hostilities between the Gaza-based factions and Israel.

Several factions warned over the weekend that failure to move forward with reconstruction would lead to another military confrontation with Israel.

According to the sources, the factions met in recent days and discussed setting an ultimatum to Israel in the event that there is no breakthrough in the reconstruction issue, as well as the easing of restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip.

“The coming days will be decisive in this regard, and the resistance factions will not accept anything less than the fulfillment of their demands,” the sources said. “The mediators asked Hamas and the other factions to give them more time to achieve a breakthrough on these issues, including a possible prisoner exchange and a long-term truce with Israel.”
Palestinians protest illegal outpost with flaming Star of David and swastika
Palestinians protesting against an illegal Israeli outpost in the West Bank on Saturday evening set fire to a Star of David combined with a swastika.

Images posted on Palestinian media showed the makeshift construction and dozens of torches being prepared for nightly demonstrations near the West Bank town of Beita. Later, footage showed the structure set on fire.

The protests against the outpost, known as Evyatar, built on a hilltop overlooking Beita, have continued despite settlers leaving the hilltop.

Israeli authorities cut a deal with the settlers last month. In exchange for them leaving the area, the makeshift buildings they installed will remain in place, and the IDF will turn the area into a makeshift base. Over the next several months, the Defense Ministry will survey the land to determine its status and see if it can be legally transformed into a formal settlement.

In recent months, at least seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops during violent clashes near the outpost.

After dark, Palestinian “night confusion units” would shine lasers, chant slogans, burn tires and set off makeshift explosive devices in an attempt to irritate the hilltop’s residents.

The tactic was borrowed from a similar strategy used by Gaza-based terror groups along the border fence with Israel.

The protests on Saturday marked 100 days of demonstrations against the outpost.

Along with the swastika and Star of David, footage reportedly from Saturday’s demonstration also showed Palestinians setting off a large explosive device in the area. (h/t jzaik)


Hamas’ Radical Ideology Runs Into the Grind of Daily Governance
Since taking control of the Gaza Strip through a violent coup in 2007, and expelling Fatah, Hamas has tried to be many things — a governing regime, a terrorist organization, an organized army, and an Islamist hard-line ideological symbol.

These efforts have seen Hamas’ radical ideology repeatedly collide with the “grind” of daily governance, and it is Gaza’s estimated 2 million residents who have paid the price.

Beyond the four armed conflicts that Hamas has fought with Israel since 2007, a steady flow of events, including a number of recent incidents, demonstrate that Hamas is no closer to giving up any of its many identities, no matter what the cost may be for the people that it rules.

A report Tuesday by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster said that Hamas was blocking a team of United Nations experts from examining the site of a tunnel entry point which was exposed during the May conflict with Israel. The tunnel is adjacent to a UNRWA school in Gaza’s Zeitoun neighborhood in the south of the Strip.

Hamas security forces reportedly arrived on the scene and banished the bomb experts working to secure the area — demonstrating how important it is for Hamas to continue to be able to use schools, hospitals, mosques, and residential buildings as shields for its military-terrorist activity against Israel.

In a highly unusual development, UNRWA released a statement on Wednesday condemning “the existence and potential use of such underground structures, including tunnels, in the strongest possible terms,” adding that “letters of protest have been sent to the de facto authorities in Gaza,” meaning Hamas.

In the letter, UNWRA also protested “the takeover by the de facto authorities of one of these schools, which undermines the inviolability and neutrality of UNRWA premises. These actions also stand to compromise the safe return of children to their schools and scuttles the Agency efforts to open schools on time.”

Separately, at the end of July, a bomb tore through a wedding party that was held by a relative of a former Fatah security chief in Gaza, Mohammad Dahlan, who is based in the UAE.

The wedding was held Gaza’s south


Lebanese army seizes hoarded fuel at gas stations amid financial crisis
Lebanon’s army seized fuel from gas stations on Saturday to curb hoarding amid crippling shortages, as the central bank chief stood firm on his decision to scrap fuel subsidies.

Compounding the country’s crisis, a top private hospital said it may have to close due to power outages caused by shortages of diesel, warning this could cause hundreds of deaths.

Lebanon is grappling with a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the planet’s worst since the 1850s.

Foreign currency reserves are rapidly depleting, forcing the central bank to scale down funding for imports in an effort to shore up the little money Lebanon has left.

The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90 percent of its value on the black market, and 78% of the population lives below the poverty line.

On Wednesday, Lebanese central bank chief Riad Salameh said he would scrap fuel subsidies to ease pressure on fast-depleting foreign reserves.

His decision sparked panic, with huge lines forming outside bakeries and gas stations as Lebanese struggled to stock up.
‘Nothing left’: Crisis-hit Lebanon faces growing bread shortages
Michael Hamati emerged from a long line at a Beirut bakery with sweat dripping from his forehead, as Lebanon’s economic collapse sparks increasing shortages, including over basic staples such as bread.

“There’s nothing left in this country,” said the 72-year-old, as dozens of people clamored behind him in the simmering heat for their turn.

Lebanese flocked to bakeries before dawn on Friday, desperate to find affordable bread in a country where fuel and medicine are already in critically short supply.

The rush came after the central bank on Wednesday said it could no longer afford to subsidize fuel in Lebanon.

The country, struggling with political turmoil since 2019, has also been hit by the worst global economic crisis in 150 years, according to the World Bank.

At least 78 percent of the more than six-million-strong population lives below the poverty line and businesses can barely stay afloat.

The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value against the dollar on the black market in less than two years.


Bennett Seeks Common US-Israel Strategy on Iran if Nuclear Negotiations Fail: Report
During his meeting this week with CIA chief William Burns, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Jerusalem and Washington should work out a common strategy in the event Iran refuses to re-enter the 2015 nuclear deal, Axios news site revealed Thursday.

According to the site, Israeli officials sensed that the US intelligence chief was also skeptical that Tehran would fully return to the deal, with the new ultra-conservative president Ebrahim Raisi in power.

“It was important for the Prime Minister to clarify that when we say that we think it is a mistake to revert to the 2015 nuclear deal, it is not an automatic continuation of the Netanyahu government’s policy and that we have a different approach,” a senior Israeli official told Axios.

William Burns played a key role in bringing the United States closer to Iran that led to the 2015 agreement between Tehran and the Western powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

US President Joe Biden sought to re-enter the pact after former president Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018. For its part, Israel is fiercely opposed to the deal and is trying to convince the Biden administration to change strategy with regard to Iran.

According to the New York Times, US officials are increasingly pessimistic about the prospects of Tehran returning to the deal with the new Iranian power.
State Dept. Refuses To Meet With Iranian-American Regime Opponents
The State Department is refusing to meet with Iranian-American activists who oppose the hardline regime in Tehran and want the Biden administration to help Iran's population gain access to coronavirus vaccinations.

The National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI), a coalition of Iranian Americans who champion democracy, petitioned President Joe Biden on Friday to use frozen Iranian assets to pay for a supply of coronavirus vaccinations that could be sent to the Iranian people. Iran has been hard hit by the pandemic, and the ruling regime refuses to accept Western medical aid, including American-made vaccines.

NUFDI says that it has tried to meet with the Biden State Department about issues of importance to Iranian Americans, but that its requests have been ignored. As the Biden administration engages in negotiations with the Iranian regime about rejoining the 2015 nuclear accord, NUFDI and other anti-regime organizations have been vocal about their opposition to widescale sanctions relief. They maintain this money will solidify the hardline regime's grip on power and help it crack down on pro-democracy reformers inside and outside the country. Iran has been increasingly aggressive in its crackdown on democratic reformers and has even attempted kidnapping journalists in the United States to silence these voices.

"We have written to State Department staff multiple times to request they meet with members of the Iranian-American community," NUFDI wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. "This has been to no avail. We now take our request directly to you, Mr. President, and urge you to direct your staff to investigate the use of frozen Iranian assets for this humanitarian intervention. The regime is perpetrating a crime against humanity, America can help stop it."

The Biden administration has walked a diplomatic tightrope as it engages in talks with the Iranian government amid a growing protest movement in Iran. While the State Department has offered rhetorical support to regime opponents, it has made clear that negotiations will continue until a deal is complete.

Cameron Khansarinia, NUFDI's policy director, told the Free Beacon the Biden administration "should meet with Iranian Americans just like it has met with Cuban Americans and other dissident communities. It's a simple ask. As of now, they've refused."

NUFDI proposes that the administration use Iranian funds frozen in international bank accounts because of sanctions to pay for a batch of coronavirus vaccines. They could then be distributed to the Iranian population by aid organizations such as UNICEF and the World Health Organization. While the proposal may enrage the hardline regime in Iran and lead it to abandon negotiations, NUFDI says its proposal should be reviewed by the Biden administration.


Canadian Jewish Group Asks Government to Intervene in University of Toronto Hiring Controversy Over Anti-Israel Academic
B’nai Brith Canada implored several Canadian government agencies on Thursday to deny a work permit to Valentina Azarova, a pro-Palestinian activist who was last year denied a job at the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program, blaming what the group termed “an antisemitic fantasy” for the decision.

Azarova — a German law professor who had previously drawn criticism for her work with the al-Haq organization, which has links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group — was considered last year to serve as the program’s director, but was rejected.

Despite an independent review of Azarova’s hiring decision in March determining that the university had made its decision because she was ineligible for a work visa, “many opponents continue to fantasize about reality and charge that the real reason for refusal of the recommendation of the search committee was an antisemitic conspiracy: Jewish power, influence and money,” B’nai Brith said.

“Should Ms. Azarova request a work permit for the position of director of the International Human Rights Program at U of T, the government should deny that request,” said Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada. “Our federal government simply cannot aid abet the University of Toronto in a distorted and unfair hiring process that discriminates against Canadian applicants.”

The letter followed the reposting of the job for which Azarova was considered without its previous preference for Canadian citizens, the group said, claiming that the search committee had changed the rules to fast track her through a second hiring process.

“It has been reported that the U of T Faculty of Law Dean has reached out to Azarova to let her know the application is open, but there is no public indication that the U of T has similarly reached out to Canadians who have previously applied for the position,” wrote David Matas, the Jewish advocacy group’s Senior Legal Counsel, to the Canadian government.
Neo-Nazi Beauty Pageant ‘Miss Hitler 2021’ Attracts U.S. Contestant
A neo-Nazi beauty pageant that takes place online has attracted top contestants from the United States and Europe, even though the online competition has been banned by an array of social media platforms.

The online pageant, advertised as "Miss Hitler 2021," was launched several years ago and is being promoted on the Russian social media site Vkontakte, even though the online platform banned the organization behind the pageant in the past. Several contestants who participated "were arrested on charges related to extremism," according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, a watchdog group that recently codified a dossier on the contest and its participants.

Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime killed anywhere from 15 to 17 million Russian civilians during World War II.

The pageant is scheduled to run from Aug. 8 through Sept. 3, when online voting ends. Organizers said photos of the white supremacist women will be posted across unnamed social media sites to facilitate voting.

While Vkontakte has tried to stop the pageant's organizers from promoting their hate fest, the contest still advertises on the platform, highlighting the ongoing problems these types of platforms face when trying to crack down on extremist material. This year's pageant is taking place amid a historic rise in anti-Semitism and hate crimes across the globe.

A recent posting from the pageant's organizers displayed five contestants, including one from the United States.

"I entered this pageant because not only do I believe in National Socialism, but I am a dreamer, much like the Führer was," the unnamed contestant wrote in her biography, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute. "I believe in traditional families and their roles. Unfortunately, in today's society it's becoming increasingly difficult for a woman to keep her place as a hausfrau."

Other contestants are from Britain, France, and Hungary. (h/t jzaik)
Porn sites are not removing antisemitic content, watchdog group says
Antisemitic porn videos are trending on adult content websites, which ignore calls to remove them, an Israel-based watchdog group said.

The nonprofit group, Fighting Online Antisemitism, or FOA, has identified dozens of videos on major adult content sites. Some feature actors dressed as Nazi officers acting out rape scenes of actresses portraying Jewish women.

Attempts to flag the videos and have them removed have gone unanswered, FOA told the news site Ice.co.il last week.

Videos featuring underage subjects or revenge porn are pulled off quickly, Tomer Aldubi, the founder of FOA, told Ice. But when it comes to antisemitism about Jews, he said, “the porn giants seem to not want to address it.”

In some of the videos in question, the hateful content is in the title alone, advertising videos whose actual content does not reference ethnicity as depicting a “Palestinian raping a Jew,” as one video title states. The number of videos involving Jews on porn sites has proliferated in recent years, according to the article.
French vaccination centers vandalized with swastikas
Vandals have attacked more than 20 vaccination centers and other health facilities, daubing some with Nazi-themed slogans, as the French government steps up its COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Anger has been fueled by the introduction of a health pass showing proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test which is now mandatory for entering restaurants, trains and other public places.

Over the past four weekends protesters have marched against the health pass, saying it restricts individual freedom.

Since July 12, a total of 22 health facilities have been have attacked defaced, including 15 vaccination centers, five COVID-19 test centers and one medical lab, an interior ministry official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Across the country, vaccination centers and outdoor testing facilities at pharmacies have been tagged with swastikas and graffiti such as "collaborator", "Nazi" and "genocide".

The same slogans have also been seen at some of the demonstrations against the health passes.


Chinese Regime’s Mouthpiece Slammed for ‘Despicable’ Antisemitic Caricature of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
A caricature of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken published by the state-owned Xinhua news agency, which serves as the Chinese regime’s mouthpiece, has been slammed for its explicit use of antisemitic stereotypes.

A report about a meeting in Kuwait between Blinken and World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the end of July was accompanied by a lurid cartoon depicting the Secretary of State as devil-horned and clutching a report about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The illustration depicted Blinken towering over Ghebreyesus and wearing a long cape decorated with a US flag, his face distinguished by the outsized “Jewish” nose favored by antisemitic caricaturists down the centuries. Two large horns were shown sticking out of his head, invoking an anti-Jewish stereotype from the medieval period.

In a posting on Twitter on Friday, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) denounced the “despicable … antisemitic tweet from Chinese state media.”

Pointing out that Blinken is “a Jew and stepson of a Holocaust survivor,” the AJC said that the Xinhua cartoon “utilizes overt tropes of antisemitism, including a large nose, devil horns, and accusations of global control.”

“Throughout history, antisemites have used ‘Jewish’ features, like enlarged noses, in cartoons or propaganda to sway the public against the Jewish people,” the AJC explained.


Israeli Cloud Startup Epsagon to Be Acquired by Cisco for $500 Million
Technology conglomerate Cisco Systems is acquiring Israeli startup Epsagon for $500 million, Calcalist has learned. This will be Cisco’s second-largest acquisition of an Israeli company after the purchase of NDS for $5 billion in 2012.

Epsagon develops software-as-a-service (SaaS) automated end-to-end monitoring technologies for serverless cloud-based systems, specializing in monitoring and tracing for microservices and cloud-based applications.

Epsagon has raised just $30 million to date over three funding rounds from backers including DTCP, Lightspeed Venture Partners, USVP and StageOne Ventures.

Epsagon was founded in 2017 by Nitzan Shapira and Ran Ribenzaft, both Israeli military intelligence veterans. The company is developing automated end-to-end monitoring technologies for serverless cloud-based systems that are highly decentralized and event-driven, making it difficult to identify potential performance issues. Epsagon’s software uses artificial intelligence to predict and troubleshoot such issues.

The company currently employs 60 people, 35 of them in Israel and the rest in its New York offices. Epsagon serves hundreds of clients, including giant companies like Deloitte and Toyota. The company’s R&D center in Israel is expected to expand significantly following the acquisition.

This will be Cisco’s second acquisition in Israel within three months after it purchased Sedona for an estimated $100 million in May.
Uri Buri and Efendi Hotel named Best of the Best by TripAdvisor
We’ve long known that Acre’s Uri Buri seafood restaurant and the Efendi Hotel are a must on any foodie or traveler’s list, and now it seems that so does the rest of the world – the two landmarks recently landed top spots on TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best list.

The two establishments are owned by Uri Jeremias, who’s been serving visitors to the mixed Arab-Israeli city his signature fish and seafood dishes for decades, and, more recently, offering them a stay in a beautifully renovated luxury hotel.

Both the restaurant and the hotel made headlines this spring for less celebratory reasons when they were torched during the wave of violence that struck Israel during the latest military round with Hamas in Gaza.

Jeremias has since vowed to rebuild what was destroyed and continue to serve as a model of coexistence in the city.

The Efendi Hotel came in No. 1 in the Top 10 Small Hotels – Middle East category , with TripAdvisor recommendations noting that the “perfect weekend getaway” “makes you feel like Ottoman royalty.”

It boasts 12 rooms with views either to the sea or the Old City, as well as an authentic 400-year-old Ottoman hammam and a wine bar located in a Crusader cellar. Israeli hotels made it to the top five spots on the list: Following Efendi were Gordonia Private Hotel in Ma’aleh Hamisha, Rothschild 71 in Tel Aviv, Cnaan Village Boutique Hotel & Spa in the Golan Heights and The Rothschild in Tel Aviv.

Uri Buri came in 19th in the “Best Fine Dining Restaurants – World” category. TripAdvisor recommended its “great seafood with clever and tasty combinations” and urged visitors to “get the tasting menu and just enjoy the dishes as they come.”







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