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Monday, September 13, 2021

09/13 Links Pt2: Saul Friedländer: A Fundamental Crime; Norwegian Pension Fund Boycotts Israel While Investing in Companies Linked to Chinese Slave Labor

From Ian:

Saul Friedländer : A Fundamental Crime
While anti-Semitism is rampant throughout the world, the Holocaust memory is increasingly interrogated in the name of post-colonial ideas. The latest attack is signed by the Australian historian Dirk Moses. He argues that distinguishing the Holocaust from other violent crimes in human history is nothing more than a matter of faith. And that it is time to abandon this faith in the singularity of the Holocaust and the obligations that derive from it and replace it with a new truth: the Holocaust is only one crime among others. The great historian of the Holocaust Saul Friedländer, in an article originally published in Die Zeit, counters: “‘Auschwitz’ was something completely different from the colonial atrocities of the West. And postcolonial thought is currently taking on the risk of disassociating itself from the struggle against anti-Semitism that can sometimes simmer in its ranks.”

There is one more element that Moses fails to mention, which is part of a long tradition: in 1985, forty years after the end of the war, President Richard von Weizsaecker declared German historical responsibility for the extermination. In fact, German responsibility to Jews and to Israel had already been accepted by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer when he signed the Reparations treaty with Israel and the Jewish Claims Conference in 1951. For Dirk Moses, it seems that these things only matter to the professional historian; in his eyes, in reality, this all is the past. For him, the German culture of memory, which developed over several decades after 1945, has done its job. Now it is urgent to make room for something new, for a comprehensive view of the history of violence in past centuries. And then, in his presentation of things, so-called postcolonial studies is a marginalized discipline that must be promoted in order to do historical justice to all victims of violence.

I cannot assess the importance or insignificance of postcolonial theory in Germany. In the US, post-colonial thinking, the kind represented by Dirk Moses and many others, has conquered university campuses and is well represented in Congress. Pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel movements have surged, BDS (boycott, divestments, sanctions) has become the common cause of an increasingly militant – and often violently so – coalition of “subaltern” communities, the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) and sundry academics and politicians.

Sure, not everyone who gathers under the banner of postcolonial critique is an enemy of Israel, and those who are openly anti-Semitic may be only a minority. But anti-Semitism in the U.S. has taken on disturbing proportions in the wake of recent protests, particularly in Los Angeles, where I live: Jewish neighborhoods were the primary targets of Black Lives Matter protests against police violence after the murder of George Floyd last May. In Fairfax, home of one of the oldest Jewish communities in Los Angeles, the march was led by professor Melina Abdullah, one of the main organizers of Black Lives Matter; at the protest, rioters also vandalized synagogues and Jewish businesses. “It is no coincidence,” wrote a local rabbi, “that the riots escalated here in Fairfax, the symbol of the Jewish community. I witnessed the Watts riots and the riots following the acquittal of Rodney King’s murderer, in which no synagogue or house of worship was harmed. Today’s graffitis, even before the attacks, were a sign of open anti-Semitism.”

These massive violent outbursts of Jew-hatred are relatively new to the United States. Unfortunately, they now seem to accompany Black Lives Matter protests quite often. Those who criticize the memory of the Holocaust from a postcolonial perspective and murmur about “American and Israeli elites” should take note of this fact. Antisemitism was a destructive force then, and it is still a destructive force today, no matter which direction it comes from. Does Dirk Moses wish to see this new militancy and its unavoidable and unrestrainable sequels unleashed in Germany? I can hardly imagine that.
Holocaust historian Saul Friedlander wins $815,000 Balzan Prize
An Israeli-French-American Holocaust survivor and historian and a US scientist specializing in gut bacteria were among the recipients of this year’s Balzan Prizes, recognizing scholarly and scientific achievements, announced on Monday.

Saul Friedlander, who has taught at both the University of California, Los Angeles and Tel Aviv University, was awarded the prize for Holocaust and Genocide Studies for his work broadening the perspective on the history of the Holocaust.

Friedlander, 88, was born in Prague in 1932 in a non-religious Jewish family, which fled to France after the German occupation in March 1939. His parents hid him in a Catholic boarding school near Vichy, where they were later captured and sent to Auschwitz.

With his parents’ agreement, Friedlander was baptized as a Catholic and later, out of his own conviction, considered becoming a priest. After he learned in 1946 that his parents had been killed at Auschwitz, Friedlander reclaimed his Jewish identity. He later said, “for the first time, I felt Jewish.”

Friedlander received the Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction in 2008 for “The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945,” the second volume in his history of Jews in Hitler’s Germany. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1999, after the publication of the first volume covering the period from 1933-39 and has also been awarded the Dan David Prize recognizing outstanding achievement in interdisciplinary research.

Friedlander was recognized for examining the persecution of all Jews in Europe, going beyond country-focused studies that had preceded him, and for making personal documents accepted in scholarly practice.
A Writer Reckons With the Fact That ‘People Love Dead Jews’
PEOPLE LOVE DEAD JEWS Reports From a Haunted Present By Dara Horn

In three other essays, Horn deals with the upswell of anti-Semitism in the United States. Here it becomes clear that her concern about the ways we remember is inextricable from the way we relate to what is happening today. Horn claims that setting the Holocaust as the bar for anti-Semitism means that “anything short of the Holocaust is, well, not the Holocaust. The bar is rather high.” According to Horn, this might explain the limited shelf life, so to speak, of current events like the gunning down of Jews in Pittsburgh, in San Diego, in New Jersey.

And then there’s the moment of relief that Jews feel when we arrive at the famous questions in Act III of “The Merchant of Venice”: “If you prick us, do we not bleed? … If you poison us, do we not die?” So Shakespeare was not really an antisemite, but rather, more benignly, a satirist when he limned Shylock’s stereotypical Jewish character. After all, he is Shakespeare, and we want him on our side.

Or how we recognize the Chinese government’s investment of $30 million to restore “Jewish heritage sites” in Harbin, a city that was built by Russian Jewish entrepreneurs, who flourished there until they were no longer required.

“People Love Dead Jews” is an outstanding book with a bold mission. It criticizes people, artworks and public institutions that few others dare to challenge. Reading this book, I started to find the words I should have said to that woman in Motal. I should have responded that maybe Eastern Europe has been left with a void, but I have been left with hardly any family.

But there is a rare moment in Horn’s book in which she admits the austerity of her own perspective. It’s in “Legends of Dead Jews.” The common family story that so many American Jews have heard about their surnames being changed at Ellis Island is a myth, she writes. The names weren’t changed by mistake. American Jews preferred to change their names to be able to fit in, to blend in, to assimilate.

I expected Horn to criticize the purveyors of this legend. After all, they distorted the past to avoid the discomfort of its truth. But she writes: “Our ancestors could have dwelled on the sordid facts, and passed down that psychological damage. Instead, they created a story that ennobled us, and made us confident in our role in this great country.” Perhaps revision of this sort does not always have to be about self-blinding. Perhaps, as Horn suggests, it is “an act of bravery and love.” Some things are just too painful to say.

Reading Horn’s beautiful words, I thought that maybe, after all, what this woman in Motal wanted, and needed, was a simple thank you, a handshake and a humble nod.


Is Zionism Part of Judaism?
True, the attempt to set boundaries is sometimes clumsy, intolerant, and ignorant. Bad actors appoint themselves as ultimate judges of right and wrong. But two wrongs don’t make a right: The fact that limits are not always set in the right way doesn’t mean that limits shouldn’t exist. The fact that the wrong people act as “enforcers” doesn’t mean that “enforcement” is, in itself, negative. The setting of boundaries should be organic, informed, responsible, and respectful. It should, above all, represent the views and ideas of the majority of Jews. The acrimony of the communal debate around Israel and the general polarization of society make these conversations incredibly difficult, but paradoxically, more necessary. Historically, “anything goes” has never been the Jewish answer.

The truth is, Zionism has become key to the Judaism of a very large number of Jews. On the one hand, close to 50 percent of the world’s Jews live in Israel itself, and the Zionist enterprise is inextricably linked to their lives. Denying Zionism implies disregarding and denying a critical piece of their lived experiences. On the other hand, most diaspora Jews (surveys place the percentage in the high 80s) recognize the connection with Israel as a central part of their Jewish identities. Supporting the Zionist enterprise has become normative for most and a matter of life and death for millions. In that context, claiming that support for anti-Zionism puts one, in some important way, outside of the Jewish people is less a point of debate than a literal description of reality. The difficulties that any boundary-setting exercise entails shouldn’t make us lose sight of this obvious fact.

This may be another one of those historical moments that call for a redefinition of the boundaries of belonging. Because this is an important conversation, we need to wrestle it away from the extremists and the merchants of hate. We need to educate the community to have these conversations intelligently and respectfully, grounded in the sources and historical experiences of Judaism. We need a broad community dialogue that is as empathetic as it is learned. Ultimately, limits are going to be drawn. They always are; but how that happens is largely our choice.


Atlanta Jewish Times Kills Pro-Jewish Op-Ed by Black Republican – Read What They Cancelled
An op-ed piece in the Atlanta Jewish Times by Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones that was titled “How one Jewish family shaped my views: Vernon Jones recalls the family that inspired him to speak up for Jewish Americans” was removed on Wednesday night from the newspaper’s website after Marisa Pyle, a Jewish aide to Democrat Stacey Abrams, tweeted that it was “disgusting.”

Kaylene Ladinsky, Editor and Managing Publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, issued a follow-up statement saying:
“Rep. Jones’ essay was published by mistake. It is our policy not to publish politically driven opinion pieces such as this one, especially from anyone this controversial. As of 7:05 PM, the article has been taken down from our site. It would have been done sooner, but we had to wait until the Holy Day was complete. The ATJ is a bi-partisan news source and we do not support white supremacists, nor extremists. We apologize for any confusion this mistake may have caused our readers.”

Before we continue with this tale of Cancel Culture, it’s only fair that you, our readers, will get a chance to see for yourselves what raised the repugnance of Stacey Abrams’ staff member and publisher Ladinsky. I fished it out of the Internet cache that doesn’t forget anything, and are running it here under the fair use doctrine—but I also contacted the Jones campaign for approval – and received the enthusiastic approval of the campaign’s Heather Wallace to run the piece as it had appeared for four hours on the AJT’s website. You’re also welcome to read a variation of the same article that was published on NewsMax (and Arutz Sheva).

How One Jewish Family Shaped My Views
Vernon Jones recalls the family that inspired him to speak up for Jewish Americans.
By Vernon Jones September 7, 2021, 9:33 PM
The American Jewish community’s strong support of Israel has always helped steer a strong United States-Israel alliance. Unfortunately, as Zionist loyalties have started to dissolve among newer generations, politicians are starting to consider support for Israel detrimental to their political careers. This is shameful. These politicians are afraid to take a stand against anti-Semitism, while other politicians fully embrace it. Ignorance of the importance of a strong relationship with Israel is reaching its boiling point and the onus to speak out against this downward spiral is on public servants like me.

Jewish communities have positively impacted my life for as long as I can remember. It started when I was just a child. I was raised with my siblings in the small town of Laurinburg, North Carolina. My parents were farmers who did their best to provide for us. We never had the best luxuries in life, but they ensured that we had food in our bellies and shirts on our backs. Laurinburg was also home to the Risks, a kind Jewish family that settled down near us. The Risk family owned a merchant store in town, which was common for small rural communities at the time.
Nicola Sturgeon under growing pressure over SNP deal with Scottish Greens, who oppose International Definition of Antisemitism, after CAA revelations
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is under growing pressure over the SNP’s deal with the Scottish Greens due to the Party’s opposition to the International Definition of Antisemitism and other controversial policies revealed by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others.

In 2015, the Scottish Greens adopted a motion, which has never been rescinded, condemning “Israel’s claim to be ‘the Jewish State’” and “Zionism as a racist ideology.” According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is an example of antisemitism.

The motion also committed the Party to opposing “Aliyah” (Jewish immigration to Israel, including by British Jews) and Israel’s Law of Return, the Jewish state’s answer to centuries of persecution of Diaspora Jewry. The motion further called for the removal of Hamas, an antisemitic genocidal terrorist organisation, from its designation by the British Government as a terrorist organisation, and supported the BDS movement—the campaign to boycott the Jewish state—the tactics of which an overwhelming majority of British Jews find intimidating.

The debate on this motion was held on a Saturday, when observant Jews would be unable to participate, and it passed easily. It became Party policy and remains so even as the Scottish Greens recently joined the Scottish devolved Government for the first time. Indeed, it is the first time that a Green Party has joined any Government in the United Kingdom. The two leaders of the Scottish Greens—Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater—are now ministers in Ms Sturgeon’s Government.

Although the agreement between the SNP and the Scottish Greens excludes international relations, as one journalist has pointed out this is the worst of both worlds, as it means that the two parties and their politicians can speak freely on the subject, allowing the Scottish Greens to promote their Party’s positions without the hindrance of collective responsibility.

Prior to inviting the Scottish Greens into her administration, Ms Sturgeon sought to reassure the Jewish community that she is “committed to tackling” antisemitism after the recent surge in racism against Jews in the UK.


Canadian Parliamentary Candidate Apologizes for Antisemitic Claim That Israel Is Stealing US Coronavirus Vaccines
A Canadian parliamentary candidate apologized on Sunday after tweets emerged showing that she had claimed Israel was stealing coronavirus vaccines from the US.

Sidney Coles, a candidate for the left-wing New Democratic Party, made the comments in a reply to a Jan. 29 tweet saying that “millions of vaccines in America” were missing.

“Uh, I think Israel might be able to help you solve the mystery,” Coles replied.

In reply to another post on the subject, she said of the allegedly missing vaccines, “They went to Israel. I keep saying this.”

After the tweets surfaced on Sunday, the Canadian Jewish organization Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center called them “outrageous.”

“A retraction & apology for these false & offensive remarks, which have hurt members of the Jewish community, are in order,” said the FSWC.

“Coles’ comments are particularly concerning given the global rise in antisemitism — including ongoing efforts to blame Israel & Jewish people for creating, exploiting or worsening the coronavirus pandemic — & escalating incidences of Jew-hate in her Toronto-St. Paul’s riding,” the group added.

Shortly after, Coles apologized, saying, “In the past I posted unsubstantiated theories about vaccine supply linked to Israel. These comments weren’t based on evidence. I recognize this frame is a common antisemitic trope, though that was never my intent.”


Norwegian Pension Fund Boycotts Israel While Investing in Companies Linked to Chinese Slave Labor
A Norwegian pension fund that recently announced it planned to blacklist Israeli companies in the West Bank has poured hundreds of millions into Chinese companies linked to slave labor and Russian entities on the U.S. sanctions list.

Norges Bank's Government Pension Fund Global, Norway's largest pension fund, placed several Israeli companies in the West Bank on its "excluded companies" list earlier this month, citing "serious infringements of the rights of the individual in situations of war or conflict in connection with the construction of roads linked to Israeli settlements in the West Bank."

At the same time, Norges held over $150 million in investments in at least seven companies that operated in or are suspected of using forced labor from the Xinjiang province of China, where Uyghur Muslims face human rights abuses, according to the fund's most recent financial disclosures from last December. And the fund also held $1.8 billion in shares in at least six Russian energy companies and banks that are under U.S. financial restrictions or sanctions.

The fund's investments raise questions about its decision-making process for divestments. While Norges Bank cut ties with Israeli companies, it has yet to bar controversial Russian and Chinese companies from future investments. Anti-Israel boycotts are growing more common in progressive circles. Earlier this year, Ben & Jerry's announced it was ending its operations in the West Bank, prompting a wave of public backlash and the threat of financial penalties against the ice cream company from several U.S. states.

"The decisions made by the Executive Board of Norges Bank, announced last week, were made based on recommendations from the Council on Ethics," said Line Aaltvedt, a spokesman for Norges Bank. "The Ministry of Finance has established the independent Council on Ethics to evaluate whether or not the fund's investments in specified companies is consistent with its Ethical Guidelines."

Norges Bank did not indicate whether it still holds shares in Chinese companies linked to slave labor or Russian firms under U.S. sanctions. The fund said last year that it would be reviewing its investments in companies that are linked to forced labor in Xinjiang, but the entities are not included on the fund's list of "excluded companies," which was updated earlier this month.
PreOccupiedTerritory: NGO Hopes To Bring Israel To ICC On Charges Of Mass Non-Rape (satire)
Activists on behalf of Palestinian rights continue their efforts to seek justice, with one group organizing around the goal of getting Israeli officials in the dock of the International Criminal Court here in this Dutch city for overseeing Israel Defense Forces operations that resulted in millions of Palestinian women and girls not getting sexually assaulted by Israeli troops, which only underscores the racist ideology behind the Zionist enterprise, a spokeswoman for the group announced today.

Oness Hamoni of the NGO New York Movement for Palestinian Hysterics and Outlandishness (NYMPHO) told reporters today that her group has come to the ICC specifically to petition the body to expand its investigation into allege Israeli war crimes to include wanton engagement of refusal to rape Palestinians en masse, a policy that departs dramatically from virtually the entire history of warfare and raises disturbing questions about Israeli soldiers’ view of Palestinian women.

“There’s something wrong with that,” charged Ms. Hamoni, herself of Palestinian and Syrian extraction. “Only a deeply bigoted society could order its soldiers not to rape the women and girls – or men and and boys, for that matter – of areas under its control, especially in the bloodlust during and right after combat, and have those soldiers, every last one, obey those orders. It can only mean that the IDF, and Zionist culture in general, see Palestinians, probably all Arabs, as subhuman and therefore unworthy of lust.”

Hamoni warned against falling into the trap of accepting Israeli explanations for events at face value. “We already know about pinkwashing and other phenomena,” she admonished, referring to Israel as an island of tolerance and freedom for homosexuals in a region where that population faces torture and execution. “Whenever and wherever Israel appears to be doing something positive, look for a sinister ulterior motive. That’s where the truth lies.”
POLITICO Hides RFK Assassin’s Hatred for Israel
A recent POLITICO report omitted the motivation behind the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: the late Senator’s support for Israel. The Aug. 28, 2021 dispatch, by correspondent Shia Kapos, noted that six of the Senator’s eleven children “expressed outrage” over a recent California parole board vote for the release of convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan. The report briefly profiled the family’s anger over Sirhan’s possible release—but omitted the motive that drove him to murder the then-presidential candidate more than five decades ago.

Kennedy was gunned down on June 6, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after delivering a victory speech. Sirhan, a Palestinian Christian from Jordan, was convicted of the assassination and sentenced to death—a punishment that was commuted when the state of California briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972. While he has previously acknowledged shooting Kennedy, he has also claimed not to remember the assassination.

But Sirhan has, in years past, admitted that Kennedy’s support for Israel motivated him to murder the Senator.

Indeed, in the moments after Sirhan murdered Kennedy and wounded five others, the assassin exclaimed, “Let me explain! I did it for my country.” Similarly, in a 1989 interview with David Frost for NBC’s Inside Edition, Sirhan said that he had supported Kennedy until he heard that the Senator supported sending arms to Israel. As Sirhan told Frost: “To hear him say that he was going to send fifty Phantom Jets to Israel, to deliver nothing but death and destruction on my countrymen, that seemed like it was a betrayal.”


BBC’s Bateman avoids the word terror in report on escaped prisoners
Listeners heard a confused response to that question from Bateman, with the terror offences of which most of the escaped prisoners were convicted described merely as something that “Israelis say” is the case.

Bateman: “Well they’re all…or five of the six are…have been…ehrm…were serving life sentences…ehm…err…the Israelis…ehm…err…say that each case linked to deadly attacks against Israelis.”

Continuing to avoid the word terrorism, Bateman continued:
Bateman: “But the most high-profile; Zakaria Zubeidi – a former leader of one of the Palestinian militant groups, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Now he’s very well-known to Israelis and Palestinians alike…ahm…first…during the first Intifada was…ahm…known for masterminding attacks and had been on Israel’s radar for many years. He was actually granted an amnesty…ahm…in 2007 but later went on the run and later jailed again. So he’s been in and out of prison.”

Zubeidi was born in 1976 and was therefore around 11 years old when the first Intifada began. His planning and carrying out of terror attacks on behalf of Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades actually took place during the second Intifada. Bateman failed to clarify that the amnesty given to Zubeidi and others was revoked due to his return to terrorism and that his ongoing trial relates to multiple offences, including two shooting attacks on buses in 2018 and 2019 which the BBC failed to report.

Listeners heard only in passing that the other five escaped prisoners are also members of what Bateman refrained from clarifying is a terrorist organisation.
Indy story on Gaza's woes plays word games to avoid mentioning Hamas
A report in the Independent by Middle East correspondent Bel Trew about the impact of Hamas’s wars with Israel on pollution in Gaza did what British media reports about the conflict typically do: avoid imputing agency to the terrorists controlling the coast strip. In fact, the word Hamas was only used once in the 1125 word piece.

In certain passages of the article (“Gaza is battling to tackle deadly pollution levels as efforts are hampered by continued conflict”, Sept. 3), it almost seems that the journalist went out of her way to avoid referencing the Islamic Resistance Movement, whose actions have incited four wars since 2008, particularly when referencing the most recent conflict.

Here’s one example:
A week later, a devastating 11-day war between Palestinian militants and Israel’s army erupted, and that notion quite literally blew up.

The war didn’t just “erupt” like some sort of act of nature. It started when Hamas launched an unprovoked rocket attack on Jerusalem, a decision, Palestinian Media Watch has persuasively argued, that was likely spurred almost entirely by the rivalry between Fatah and Hamas.

Trew continues:
However, international and local projects have over the years seen the construction of new desalination and sewage plants and other infrastructure despite the tight restrictions on bringing materials into the strip.

Israeli restrictions only apply to goods which have, or could have, a military dimension. Indy readers wouldn’t know that, in the case of water infrastructure, any such restrictions are a response to Hamas’s consistent diversion of putatively ‘humanitarian’ items (used to build and maintain water infrastructure) for military use. For instance, as CAMERA reported in June, Hamas routinely digs up water pipes and converts them into rockets – a fact that Hamas leaders have acknowledged.


Pope Francis to visit Holocaust memorial in Bratislava
Pope Francis opened his first full day in Slovakia on Monday by meeting with church and state leaders ahead of an encounter with the country’s Jewish community to honor its Holocaust dead and atone for Catholic complicity in World War II-era racial laws and crimes.

Francis arrived at the presidential palace, and later at the capital’s St. Martin cathedral, looking well and rested on the second day of his four-day pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia which marks his first international outing since undergoing intestinal surgery in July.

“I’m still alive!” Francis quipped when asked by an Italian journalist how he was feeling as he walked up a ramp into the cathedral for a meeting with Slovak priests and nuns, where he cracked a series of jokes in a sign he was in good spirits, too.

Francis, 84, has been recovering after having 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed for what the Vatican said was a severe narrowing of the large intestine. He has seemed in good form, though he used a golf cart buggy indoors on Sunday during a rigorous day in Budapest to limit a long walk, and has been delivering some speeches sitting down.
Crudely Antisemitic Books Sold Outside Warsaw Church as Top Polish Leaders Attend Beatification Ceremony of Revered Catholic Figures
In his Gazeta Wyborcza piece, Karpieszuk listed several of the titles of the books that were neatly stacked on tables outside the church. Pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories, especially the latest fabrication of Jewish responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic, the titles included “Coronavirus Vaccine — a Threat to Humanity?”, “Judeopolonia II — Anatomy of Enslaving Poland,” “Scum and the Jews in Today’s Poland,” “Homoterror” and “5G — the Birth of a Mega Totalitarianism.”

Karpieszuk said that while he had seen these and similar titles on sale at meetings organized by ultranationalist groups, he had “never thought that something like that could be sold during a beatification Mass attended by the highest state authorities, church leaders, and thousands of the faithful.”

The journalist said that he had spent about 40 minutes observing customers at the book stalls right after the ceremony concluded.

“During those 40 minutes I didn’t see a single reaction of indignation. Nothing,” Karpieszuk wrote. “I didn’t see anyone draw the attention of the sellers. Many clergy, and even one bishop among them, passed by the stands indifferently. They saw the books, but they didn’t react. It was as if nothing had happened.”

Karpieszuk said he was struck by the offense caused to Poland’s Catholic clergy by the rainbow symbol — which represents the LGBTQ+ community, itself the target of discriminatory measures — but not the sight of “antisemitic books sold on the occasion of the beatification Mass.”

He also shared a photograph of one of the book stalls on Twitter, causing an angry reaction among several Polish readers. “You are awarded three rainbow badges and two medals of merit from the ‘chosen people’ for this propaganda,” one responded sarcastically.
Suspect in Murder of El Paso Lawyer Reveals Antisemitic Motive: ‘Jewish Satan Worshippers’
A shooting that killed a Texas lawyer and severely wounded her husband has been revealed to be an antisemitic hate crime, with the shooter calling the couple “Jewish Satan worshippers.”

The El Paso Times reported Saturday that lawyer Georgette Kaufmann, 50, and her husband Daniel, 47, were shot on Nov. 14, 2020 at their residence.

Georgette was shot as she was returning home and was killed outright. Daniel went to the backdoor in response to the sound of the attack and was shot several times, but survived. He then crawled to a neighbor’s house and the police were called.

El Paso police announced last week that they had arrested Joseph Angel Alvarez, 38, in connection with the shooting. The killer apparently stated that he was motivated by antisemitism and a bizarre conspiracy theory involving Satanism and far-right ideology.

Court documents, the El Paso Times reported, show that Alvarez said he was “executing and exterminating the pro-choice Jewish Satan worshippers” he believed were located at the Kaufmanns’ and three other houses in the area of Memorial Park.

A police officer stated in an affidavit that “The defendant’s belief was ‘to end the Satanic activity’ near the crime scene (Memorial Park) and acted out his manifesto by killing and shooting the Kaufmanns and by mentally fabricating the connection he believed the four corner houses on Raynor and Copper to have been involved in ‘satanic activity,’ because of their relative geographic location to the park.”
Man accused of punching pregnant Jewish woman is mentally ill, court hears
The man accused of punching a pregnant Jewish woman in Stamford Hill earlier this year is mentally ill, a court has heard.

Keith Gowers, 59, allegedly tracked Beilla Reis down an alleyway, pulled a black bag over her head and punched her several times before running away.

Ms Reis, 20, was 27 weeks’ pregnant at the time but was fortunate to escape with only minor injuries.

The alleged incident, which took place on 18 March, was initially investigated as a possible antisemitic hate crime, but Gowers has been sectioned after investigators found he is mentally ill.

Speaking outside the court, Gowers’ solicitor Jose Grayson said: “Although people at the time thought it was an antisemitic attack, it has been accepted by the Crown it was not racially motivated.”
Israeli all-electric plane maker readies for 1st flight, new ‘age of aviation’
Two years after unveiling, to much fanfare, a prototype for the first known all-electric airplane at the Paris Air Show in 2019, Israeli-American company Eviation Aircraft is preparing for the plane’s first test flight to usher in a “new age of aviation,” according to founder and CEO Omer Bar-Yohay.

The test flight for the aircraft, dubbed the Alice, was expected “before the end of the year” with the plane — now in its fifth iteration — in final assembly at Eviation headquarters in Arlington, Washington, just north of Seattle.

Bar-Yohay told The Times of Israel in a Zoom-facilitated interview from Arlington this month that the company was “excited” for the flight, which puts the Alice on a path toward approval by regulators and then, hopefully, service entry in 2024. “We are making three more planes for a total of four aircraft to accelerate certification over the next few years,” he said.

The Alice was originally conceived as a small, nine-passenger, fully electric commuter aircraft manned by a single pilot that would make regional trips as accessible as a train ride, but at a lower cost and with better service, according to the company. With a payload of 2,500 pounds (1.1 tons) and a range of 440 nautical miles (815 kilometers), the Alice would be available for passengers to book a ride by app for popular short-haul routes — say, San Jose to San Diego, London to Prague, and Paris to Toulouse. It’s a potential experience Bar-Yohay has coined an “Uber in the sky.”

The aircraft’s lithium-ion battery would require 30 minutes or less to charge per flight hour, Eviation says, as its mission is to make electric, zero-emission aviation a “competitive, sustainable answer to on-demand mobility.”
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may reverse dementia development
A research team in Israel has succeeded in reversing brain trauma using hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). This is the first time in the scientific world that non-drug therapy has been proven effective in preventing the core biological processes responsible for the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

HBOT involves having patients sit in a special chamber where the atmospheric pressure is much higher than normal, breathing air composed of 100 percent oxygen. This form of therapy is considered safe for treating many medical conditions, and can induce the repair of damaged brain tissue and renewed growth of blood vessels and nerve cells in the brain.

A specific HBOT protocol devised by Tel Aviv University and Shamir Medical Center researchers Prof. Shai Efrati, Prof. Uri Ashery, Dr. Ronit Shapira, Dr. Pablo Blinder and Dr. Amir Hadanny resulted in cerebral blood flow improving in elderly patients by 16-23%, alleviating vascular dysfunction, reducing the volume of pre-existing amyloid plaques and slowing the formation of new ones. These protein plaques are linked to severe degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s.

Their findings were published in the journal Aging.

The study, part of a comprehensive research program that looks at aging and accompanying ailments as a reversible disease, could lead to a new strategic approach to preventing Alzheimer’s.
Israel ranks 4th in world for digital quality of life
Israel has significantly improved its internet quality but remains iffy on infrastructure, according to the annual Digital Quality of Life Index 2021, which ranked 110 countries worldwide on digital wellbeing based on factors such as internet affordability and quality, infrastructure, and digital government services.

The survey, compiled by the virtual private network provider Surfshark, was released last week with Israel ranking fourth overall, up four spots from the 2020 index, which examined 85 countries. Israel’s 2021 rating surpassed that of the US, which ranked fifth, Switzerland, 8th, and the UK, 10th.

Denmark took the top spot in the index, followed by South Korea and Finland. The bottom five countries were Ethiopia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Guatemala, and Angola.

The annual survey, now in its third year, evaluates countries based on a set of five “pillars” — internet affordability, internet quality, e-infrastructure, e-security, and e-government — and 14 indicators such as internet speed, GDP per capita, mobile internet price and broadband internet price. The study is based on open-source information provided by the United Nations, the World Bank, Freedom House, the International Communications Union, and other sources.

According to the 2021 survey, Israel dropped down from the top spot for internet affordability (mobile and broadband) last year to second place overall, but did rank first for broadband internet affordability. The index looked at the number of hours people had to work per month to afford the cheapest broadband internet package for this pillar. In Israel, it was only 19 minutes, four minutes less than 2020, whereas globally, the figure stood at around six hours of work.
Israel's Tnuva to help Emirates Food Industries expand dairy products
Emirates Food Industries (EFI) has enlisted the help of Israel's largest food maker, Tnuva, to expand its range of dairy products, starting with a new facility to produce the popular Mediterranean cheese Labneh, Tnuva said on Sunday.

Under a licensing agreement, Tnuva will help build a production line in Dubai in return for royalties. It is the first such deal between food companies in Israel and the United Arab Emirates since the countries normalized ties a year ago, Tnuva said.

Labneh is a tart, creamy cheese often made locally across the Middle East.

Tnuva said its formula is unique since it is able to mass-produce while using a traditional 'drip bag' method and that EFI found its product to be better than anything available in the UAE.

"Later on the activity will include support in the development and production of additional products," Tnuva said.

The was no immediate comment from EFI.

The licensing agreement is for 10 years with an option to extend and Tnuva said it potentially will bring "millions of dollars of revenue in the coming years."

Tnuva has been controlled by Chinese food conglomerate Bright Food since 2015.


Iconic Jerusalem mosaic reconstructed in largest such operation in Israel
An iconic modern Jerusalem mosaic has been reconstructed after the building it graced was demolished, in the largest such operation in Israel, the Haaretz daily reported.

“The Rainbow,” by Russian-Israeli artist Lev Syrkin, was created between 1973 and 1974 on the Bezeq telephone exchange building on Hebron Road, commissioned by then-communications minister Shimon Peres to decorate the large windowless building that housed the analog exchanges.

The 5 by 15 meter (16 by 50 foot) work depicts the biblical account of the rainbow God showed to Noah after the flood and is inscribed with the passage: “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Genesis 9:13).

However, when the telephone exchange became obsolete, the building was ordered demolished to make way for apartment buildings in 2009.

Syrkin led a series of protests to save the mural, the first major work he created after moving to Israel, saying at the time that he was “offended to the bottom of his heart” by the decision to destroy it.

Following the protests, Jerusalem authorities authorized a plan to save the work.

Syrkin died in 2012. “He knew that he saved it and went in peace,” his daughter Stella Syrkin told Haaretz.

“He created it in a burst of creativity after the Yom Kippur War in the hopes of peace,” she said.







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