Wednesday, November 03, 2021
The ‘indigenous Palestinians’ lie
The latest outrage was committed by the Washington, D.C., branch of a national climate action group, Sunrise DC, which bowed out of a voting rights rally because a “number of Zionist organizations” would be taking part. “Given our commitment to racial justice, self-governance and indigenous sovereignty, we oppose Zionism and any state that enforces its ideology,” Sunrise DC said in a statement.Vic Rosenthal: Understanding Israel-Hatred
You may want to read that statement again to fully comprehend its absurdity. Sunrise DC opposes Zionism, the nationalist movement for the reestablishment and support of the Jewish people’s ancestral homeland, because of the group’s commitment to “self-governance and indigenous sovereignty.”
Zionism is the ultimate act of self-governance and indigenous sovereignty. Only the Jewish people can make such a claim about their connection to their homeland in the Middle East.
In other words, all peoples—including ethnic successors of colonizers—are welcome to self-governance and indigenous sovereignty … except Jews.
• According to Amnesty International, an indigenous people has (among other things):
• A historical link with those who inhabited a region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived;
• Distinct social, economic or political systems;
• Distinct language, culture and beliefs;
• Been marginalized and discriminated against by newcomers;
• Maintained and developed their ancestral environments as distinct people.
The Jews of Israel possess all of these characteristics. The Palestinians have none.
The Jewish people are the oldest surviving civilization—by thousands of years—with ties to the land of Israel. Jews have their own laws, religion, language and culture. The Palestinian Arabs do not have any of those.
The Jewish people held sovereignty in the Land of Israel on multiple occasions in history, only to be conquered, occupied, oppressed and then violently expelled—or to be more precise, ethnically cleansed. Whether in Christian Europe or Muslim Asia and Africa, and even in their own homeland, Jews were a subjugated people, constantly harassed and reminded that they did not belong.
Yet even during the darkest moments of their exile, they never lost hope in a return to their homeland, and kept alive their distinct language and culture—firmly rooted in the territory that is today the State of Israel.
By all rights, such a people, who seized the opportunity to return home, liberated the territory from those who had occupied it with foreign settlers—buttressed and supported by imperial and colonial powers like the Arabs, Ottomans and Great Britain—should be the darlings of all who support “self-governance and indigenous sovereignty.”
The state of Israel has been in existence only for 73 years. The Zionist project has been around for somewhat longer, beginning in the 19th century. Since 1860, some 116,000 Jews and Arabs have lost their lives in wars, terrorism, and pogroms related to Arab-Jewish conflict in Eretz Yisrael. In the annals of recent human bloodshed, this doesn’t move the needle; in the Congo Wars of 1996-2001 and the genocides that immediately preceded and followed them, as many as 5.4 million were killed. The Syrian Civil War, still under way, has claimed 500-600,000 victims. And yet, more concentrated diplomatic and media activity surrounds our conflict than any other since the Cold War. Why are we special?Richard Kemp: 'From the River to the Sea': Hamas Explains What British Students Want
Israel is regularly accused of genocide. According to the UN, her alleged victims, the Arabs of Judea/Samaria/Gaza and eastern Jerusalem, who were about 1.1 million in 1970, now number at 5.2 million. Genocide? Even if this figure is exaggerated, the accusation is simply crazy. Advertisement
Israel is regularly accused of apartheid, although Israeli Arab and Jewish citizens have equal rights, both de jure and de facto. There are no segregated facilities, no separate beaches, restrooms, or lunch counters (although Jews are forbidden to drink from water faucets on the Temple Mount). The Arabs in the disputed territories, by internationally recognized agreements, are citizens of the Palestinian Authority, and insofar as the PA holds elections, can vote in them. The historical phenomenon of apartheid bears no resemblance to anything found in Israel or the territories, despite the attempts of anti-Israel groups to torture definitions to make it so.
In the few decades of her existence the modern State of Israel has been attacked by soldiers of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia; other belligerents include Hezbollah, Hamas, the PLO and numerous other terrorist groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). She has been bombarded by missiles, rockets, mortar shells, balloons, and drones from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and Iraq. She has been infiltrated by terrorists countless times, including by means of rubber boats and hang gliders. She is currently the target of threats to annihilate her from Iran, which has provided large amounts of money and weapons to proxies in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, and which is developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. Iranian leaders have referred to Israel as a “cancer” that must be eliminated from the world. I don’t think there is any other nation in recent history that has its very existence questioned in a similar way.
Hamas, which took control of Gaza in a coup against the Palestinian Authority in 2007, two years after every last Israeli soldier or civilian left the strip, precipitates periodic wars against Israel while waging a continuous terror campaign against residents of southern Israel. Gaza receives millions in aid from the UN and the EU, along with large amounts of cash from Qatar, supposedly for humanitarian purposes. Hamas uses it to prepare for the next war, and to make its kleptocratic leaders fabulously rich, while the rest of the population suffers. But Israel is blamed for “occupying” Gaza and impoverishing its people.
This conference flies in the face of the gullible optimists who have suggested the terror group has somehow softened its stance on Israel. That narrative has been especially prevalent since the issuance of a political statement in 2017 that was designed to improve Hamas's image by hoodwinking Westerners into thinking that the organization had reformed. While some pretend otherwise, this document did not supersede or amend Hamas's 1988 charter which is explicit: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.".
The 2017 document re-affirmed: "Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea", to be achieved by "armed resistance".
The 1988 charter also calls for the murder of Jews across the world, naked Jew-hate that was conveniently dropped from the 2017 statement. But in 2019, senior Hamas politburo member Fathi Hammad reiterated: "You have Jews everywhere and we must attack every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing."
Those arguing that the Palestinian Authority has a different agenda from Hamas are wrong. Despite extensive subterfuge for the consumption of the international community, including implausible claims of support for a two-state solution, the PA shares the same "river to the sea" doctrine for the destruction of Israel that British university students find so attractive.
[W]hen students and others call for "Palestine" to be free "from the river to the sea", it is this fantasy that they embrace: Jews massacred, expelled, enslaved, hunted down or allowed a precarious subsistence as second class citizens in a repressive Islamic state.
Most recently, last week, more than 500 academics signed a petition attacking Glasgow University in Scotland for apologising over an antisemitic article published in a journal on the university website. Their concern was not the blatant antisemitism in the article but the fact that the university apologised for it.
In an era where opposition to racism and discrimination against all other peoples is rightly at the top of university authorities' and students unions' priorities, why does this not apply to Jews? Why are Jews the exception? Calls for the violent erasure of the one and only Jewish state is not only tolerated, it is actively encouraged by some professors, faculty bodies and students' union leaders. This causes many Jewish students to apply only to the few universities which are known to be less intolerant. It is time for university authorities to put a stop to these vicious demonstrations of antisemitic hate, and if they fail to do so, for the government to start cutting their funds
Jewish Jussie Smolletts Foul Virginia Election
Not since Jussie Smollett has anyone attempted these vile political theatrics on such a grand scale. And you’d think that since the cosplay perpetrators this time involved not generic MAGA bros—in Smollett’s prank, for which he now stands trial, they hilariously turned out to be two brothers from Nigeria—but downright Hitlerites, American Jews would take notice. With a whopping 60% of all religiously motivated hate crimes in America now directed against Jews, who make up roughly 2.4% of the overall adult population, it isn’t just a stupid trick when people dress up as neo-Nazis to score cheap partisan points; it’s a dangerous one, too, blurring the line between real hate and fake news. The next time some crop-topped Aryan goes parading down the street, after all, how are we to know if he’s there to roast the nearest shul or merely score a photo-op on Twitter and embarrass some conservative politico?Daniel Gordis: Continuity Requires Content
This sort of messing with the reality principle is bad, bad news for Jews. You don’t need more than the Reader’s Digest version of our history to know that our survival—literally, not metaphorically—often depended on our ability to spot very real dangers and take action before the beast pounced at our doorsteps. Take away our ability to tell apart the SS from the Smolletts, and you are putting us in danger. Which is precisely what the low-level Democratic operatives did last week in their desperation to keep from losing a very tight race.
As did the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which on the same day as the tiki torch hoax proudly admitted on social media to partnering with the Lincoln Project. And then, in a Jussie-sized blunder, the JDCA published a tweet (since deleted) calling on Youngkin to denounce the tiki torchbearers dispatched by their own partners, or else risk being called a Jew-hater. “Unless you denounce this gross behavior,” read the tweet, “it’s an implicit endorsement of the antisemitism and hatred it represents.”
How did mainstream organized American Jewry respond to such revolting manipulations? When contacted by Tablet, Laura Frank, a spokeswoman for the Union for Reform Judaism, said, “There is simply no place for Nazi imagery or antisemitic symbols of any kind in American life. These symbols are hateful, hurtful, and harmful in all contexts. We would hope any candidate would distance themselves from this kind of imagery whether it was used this week or four years ago.” Jason Isaacson, the American Jewish Committee’s chief policy and political affairs officer, concurred. “Campaigners against antisemitism and racism don’t need dirty tricks to make their point,” he said in a statement. “In fact, they discredit themselves—and undermine the cause of washing hate out of the political bloodstream.”
But among those you’d expect to be most engaged, there was silence. The Anti-Defamation League, which took great care to remind you to please refrain from cultural appropriation or perpetuating gender norms when selecting a Halloween costume, had nothing to say about this far more troubling instance of appropriation, and did not return Tablet’s request for comment. The same goes for the American Jewish Congress and the Conservative movement.
A self-respecting imperiled minority with healthy survival instincts and a solid sense of self would’ve demanded more, much more, of its self-professed leadership. It would’ve demanded that the soulless clowns who orchestrated this gag be held accountable, and that the story receive as much national prominence as that of a fading actor fabricating a late-night lynching in Chicago. It would’ve used whatever real political levers it had to make sure the candidates it supports come out strongly against such perilous partisan hackery. None of the above has happened. No matter who wins tonight in Virginia, the Jews have already lost.
American Jewish leaders never made the claim publicly, nor in all likelihood did they ever articulate it to themselves. Yet in retrospect, the wager they made has become clear: American Jewish leadership believed that it could fashion a variety of Judaism that would be both meaningful and sustainable with virtually no content at its core.Adventures with Dead Jews Podcast: Disposable Jews
How many American Jews today know, when they visit the Metropolitan Museum or the New York Public Library and encounter the grandeur of the Western tradition, that they are the heirs to not one, but two grand civilizations, each with its canon of great, world-changing books, its array of pathbreaking thinkers, its cluster of ideas and questions that have shaped the way many people experience the universe? Do they have any sense, when they encounter the profundity of Western thought in universities or elsewhere — Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Locke, Hobbes, Rawls — that Jewish civilization is just as rich? Do they know anything about the biblical mindset, the rabbinic revolution, Ibn Gabirol, Maimonides, Mendelssohn, Kaplan, Soloveitchik?
We see the result of Jewish “education” sans content most painfully when it comes to Israel. Many of us are distraught at the antipathy a younger generation feels toward what we see as a national liberation movement, but to no small degree, it’s our fault. What have we done to show them that Zionism is not a simple and uniform ideology, but a profound and ongoing conversation? What have we done to usher them into the chavruta that was once (and in certain circles, still is) Zionist discourse? What have we taught them about the differing worldviews of the great Zionist thinkers — the anti-statehood Ahad Ha’am; Pinsker, the diagnostician of the illness of European Jewry; Gordon and his belief that redemption would come from having the earth of the Land of Israel under their fingernails; Jabotinsky, the classic liberal who opposed mainstream Zionism’s naïveté about Arabs; or Rav Kook and his unique theological stance that allowed his Orthodoxy to embrace the revolution?
Can we imagine how different — less strident, more connected — our discourse would be about Jewish life, Jewish peoplehood, and Israel if it could be rooted in familiarity with some of these people and some of these ideas? Can we imagine a Jewish world in which subtlety, sophistication, nuance — all summoned through engagement with content — were what characterized us? Would people still be fleeing? Or might they, instead, be clamoring to find their way back in?
In this episode, we explore the marvelous and terrifying life of the massively renowned Soviet Yiddish actor Solomon Mikhoels: international star of stage and screen, director of the Moscow State Yiddish Theater, and leader of the Soviet Union’s Jewish Antifascist Committee during World War Two… and later, in a rather less desirable role, the leading man in the Soviet Jewish nightmare that came to be known as the “Night of the Murdered Poets,” a group of world-class Jewish artists and leaders executed by Stalin one night in 1952.Closer Consideration Podcast: On Anti-Semitism – A Conversation With Batya Ungar-Sargon
Mikhoels wasn’t one of those Murdered Poets, but he was intimately connected to all of them-- and the unbelievable story of his valiant attempt to become a savior of the Jewish people came at a horrifying cost. What happens when being a Jewish artist and leader requires erasing yourself?
Sneak peeks at Vassili Schedrin’s work-in-progress on Mikhoels’s life and on Soviet Yiddish theater can be found here, here, here, and here. Justin Cammy’s new translation of Sutzkever’s work is From the Vilna Ghetto to Nuremberg: Memoir and Testimony by Avrom Sutzkever. More information on the Moscow State Yiddish theater can be found in The Travels of Benjamin Zuskin by Ala Zuskin Perelman and in The Moscow State Yiddish Theater by Jeffrey Veidlinger. The trial records of the Jewish Antifascist Committee can be found in Stalin’s Secret Pogrom by Joshua Rubenstein and Vladimir P. Naumov.
More information about Solomon Mikhoels’s career-long acting partner and fellow Jewish Antifascist Committee member Benjamin Zuskin can be found in the works above, and also in “Executed Jews” in People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn.
Anti-Semitism is the kind of bigotry that doesn’t always seem clear-cut. But it’s there and it is ugly as racism. The issue goes deep because Jewish people are sometimes defined by their religion. At other times, defined by race. And finally, defined by ethnicity. Batya Ungar-Sargon knows all about the ugliness of anti-Semitism and takes a deep dive into the issue, discussing the bigotry as well as what it means to be Jewish, how anti-Semitism impacts Israel and how politicians manage to get away with anti-Semitism in a way they couldn’t with other examples of bigotry. Batya is the Deputy Opinion Editor of Newsweek and is also the author of the book Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy.Sally Rooney’s Israel Boycott Fits in With Ireland’s Anti-Israel Hate
Rooney’s anti-Israel action comes against a dark backdrop in Ireland. The particular enmity of the anti-Israel movement in Ireland is infamous. Political parties, such as the Sinn Féin and People Before Profit, have a systematic issue of antisemitism in their ranks. This is not new — but unfortunately, a reliable constant of Irish politics.You can’t be an activist if you’re Jewish
A recent report by investigative journalist David Collier has documented the blight of antisemitism across Irish politics, media, and society. From Holocaust denial, to 9/11 conspiracy theories, to a Sinn Féin leader liking a “Hitler was Right” comment, the report showed that antisemitism is not only tolerated within Irish society, but has become the vernacular for those who hate Israel.
The report itself was released to the Irish media, and sent to all Oireachtas members (the Oireachtas is the legislature of Ireland). At the time of this writing, there has been negligible acknowledgement of the report in the national media. The report was largely ignored in the Oireachtas, and the harrowing findings did not get the circulation they merited.
However, all national media publications have covered (if not defended) Rooney’s BDS embrace.
Ireland has shown itself to be an outlier in its attitudes towards Israel and antisemitism. There are a great many allies of Israel and the Jewish people who still speak out in Ireland. However, they are the minority. Rooney and her ilk are the majority — and they often stray into antisemitic territory.
The refusal of an Irish author to translate her novel into the language of the Jewish people — or allow it to be sold in Israel — should not be seen as an isolated incident. Rather, this act serves to further darken the ever-growing cloud of antisemitism hanging over Ireland.
Months later, as protests and sit-ins continued on campus and we became accustomed to visits from news outlets, the media coverage of the Israel/Palestine conflict came to its peak. I had never spoken about my faith in activism circles before.UK Paper: IHRA Antisemitism Definition ‘Silences Palestinians’
I’m a reform Jew, but not particularly religious.
What I did know, and what I experienced, was a staggering increase in levels of antisemitism as a result. Knowing better, I declined to present my opinion on social media without doing further research.
Instead, I reposted a statistic about antisemitic crimes going up several hundred percent on my Instagram story, and a story about a Jewish woman being attacked, and went to sleep. I woke up in the morning to hordes of messages from my friends, particularly those I had met through activism. “Your recent story posts have made me feel like we should distance ourselves from our friendship.”
“If she is Israeli they’re going to abuse her naturally.”
“I feel like Israel should get what’s coming to them.”
“It is best we disengage from any personal relationship we may have.”
These were some of the less racist messages I received. I called my mother late at night, stressed and scared. She didn’t sound shocked, just exhausted, and told me off for being so vocal. One of my Jewish friends told me of other Jewish students being harassed and attacked on campus. I went home that weekend.
The most important thing to note is that this all came from extremely well-educated activists. They were all very left-wing and inclusive. The friends that I had made in the activism community disappeared. I stopped attending protests. I went from being the person marching at the front of the crowd with the megaphone to watching the livestream from my room. My follow count on Instagram started declining.
In an opinion piece for The Guardian, a group of “Palestinian university students from campuses across Australia” have warned that adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism in higher education institutions will “pose a dangerous threat to academic freedom.”Cornell Professor’s Threat to Fail Maskless ‘Hook-Nosed’ Student Causes Backlash
The writers, who claim they must remain anonymous because of a supposed “threat to [their] academic positions and future careers,” have seemingly crafted a response to the announcement last month by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that his government will formally endorse this widely-adopted working definition of hatred against Jewish people.
In the article, the authors write:
Fundamentally, the IHRA definition will not protect Jews from antisemitism, but will censure legitimate critique of Israel. The IHRA definition and its guiding examples conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism, which not only silences Palestinians but falsely conflates Judaism with Zionism. There is already discrimination against Palestinian students and scholarship on Palestine on university campuses in North America, the UK and Europe.
So, where is this supposed discrimination of Palestinian students taking place?
A hyperlink provided within the piece directs readers to the website palestinelegal.org, which has collated purported accounts of censorship of pro-Palestinian actors on campuses.
It is illuminating to consider one such incident, which we can assume is indicative of the alleged censorship at higher education establishments:
At a large public university, two professors received complaints after their program signed onto a student-led Palestine solidarity statement that used the word ‘genocide.’ The complaints, from pro-Israel colleagues in their department, included false accusations of antisemitism.
Unfortunately, there is no way of probing the veracity of this apparent occurrence, because Palestine Legal has offered no details on when and where it happened, other than that it occurred at a “large public university.”
Even so, the incident in question pertains to a staff-led complaint about two academics that supported a statement accusing Israel of perpetrating genocide.
One climate-obsessed professor is finding himself in hot water after an email he wrote surfaced online.After Calls to Boycott Israeli Festival, Dazed Magazine Celebrates ‘Queer Cinema for Palestine’ Confab… Being Held Nowhere Near West Bank, Gaza Strip
But it’s not the ocean levels that are causing him the most agita: It’s maskless students.
Bruce Monger, a Cornell University professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, apparently sent out a mass email in an attempt to ID two students in a recent Introductory Oceanography class who weren’t wearing their masks — so he can fail them.
“I wanted to ask you for your help in identifying two ocean students who were photographed with their masks off during the ocean class last Friday,” Monger wrote in the memo that was first obtained by the Twitter handle “Libs of TikTok.” “They were sitting next to each other in the balcony’s front row of seating.”
The professor, a 20-year veteran of Cornell and a senior lecturer in oceanography, continued with vivid physical descriptions of the students.
“One student is a male with red hair and a fairly prominent hooked nose,” wrote Monger. “His hair was pretty long (just below the bottom of his ears) and is pretty thick and wavy. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt and was eating something at the time.”
He then proceeded to physically size up student offender No. 2.
“The other student is a male who was sitting to the left of the red head. He has short brown hair maybe 1 – 1/2 to 2 inches in length and small [sic] a nose. He wore a grey hoodie sweatshirt. He spent the whole lecture with his mask down around his chin.”
Monger closed the rant hoping someone will out the students so he can punish their infractions.
British arts and culture magazine Dazed has run a gushing piece about an upcoming movie festival, ‘Queer Cinema for Palestine,’ which will reportedly celebrate “global queer realities and standing in solidarity with Palestinians.”CAMERA Op-Ed Who is Trying to Mainstream Holocaust Denial and How?
The November screenings have been timed to coincide with the Tel Aviv International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, known as TLVFest, after organizers of the former accused the latter of “pinkwashing.”
As HonestReporting highlighted last week, attempts to encourage a boycott of the Israeli event prompted the release of a letter signed by more than 200 Hollywood celebrities denouncing the BDS-led campaign.
“Pinkwashing” is a frequent charge that accuses the Jewish state of exploiting its progressive stance on LGBTQ+ rights to divert attention from what Dazed describes as the “violent occupation of Palestine.”
The article states:
Hosting both online and in-person events across five continents, the [Queer Cinema for Palestine, or QPC,] film festival will also provide a platform for filmmakers who previously pulled their films from the TLVFest lineup, in opposition to its partnership with Israeli institutions and acceptance of state funding. One special programme, in particular, will honour eight Brazilian filmmakers who withdrew their short films in 2020.” [Note: British spelling]
Except for rather unhelpfully telling readers that the event will be held “across five continents,” the article is strikingly scant on details about the specific locations.
However, a visit to the festival website informs us that QCP will host viewings in at least 13 cities, including Seoul, Bilbao, Tunis, Beirut, Belfast, Prishtina, Paris, Montreal, Turin, Sofia and London, Ontario.
And what do all these places have in common?
Not one of them is located in “Palestine.”
Who then is responsible for subverting these platforms to mainstream antisemitic propaganda?New York Times Magazine Offers Look ‘Inside the Unraveling of American Zionism’
It seems quite likely that CODOH and CHP are the main drivers, along with other smaller Holocaust denial, anti-Semitic outfits and self-publishers. It is relatively easy to market books on such platforms as AbeBooks, Alibris, Thriftbooks, Ebay and similar less popular sites. You simply fill out an application, pay a subscription fee and commission and market your books however you please. It is no wonder that Holocaust deniers and antisemites find these platforms a haven for selling their pernicious wares. But connecting themselves to the good name and sales opportunities of mainstream brands like Target and Amazon should presumably be much more difficult.
Despite the prompt action by Target to disassociate itself from Holocaust denial publications, the company has not been transparent about its book marketing process. Questions remain.
- Are books marketed on Target’s website vetted, and, if so, whose role is it to vet them?
- What criteria are used to determine whether a controversial book should or should not be marketed on Target’s website, or at least labelled appropriately?
- What safeguards have Target and other mainstream book vendors put in place to prevent such objectionable material as Holocaust denial from being mainstreamed by the Target brand?
At a time of rising antisemitism, dissemination of the evil lies of Holocaust deniers should be a concern of all people of good will, including those who head powerful corporations capable of either accelerating or diminishing anti-Jewish hatred. Holocaust deniers and Nazi propagandists may reach relatively few customers if relegated to their own websites, but latching onto respectable brand names is a strategy to reach beyond that audience. Respectable corporations that guard their brand names meticulously in many ways need to beware as well of being exploited and tainted by the ugliest of associations – with those who deny the Holocaust.
An upcoming issue of the New York Times magazine will feature an article headlined “Inside the Unraveling of American Zionism.”
The headline is preposterous, as, despite the perfervid fantasies of generations of New York Times editors, “American Zionism” has not unraveled. It turns out to be in fine health. The House of Representatives just approved $1 billion in added funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense by a lopsided vote of 420 to 9. Christians United for Israel, which didn’t even exist 20 years ago, now claims 15 million members. Birthright Israel, which didn’t exist 25 years ago, has brought 750,000 young people on free educational trips to Israel, sharply increasing the percentage of American Jews who have visited Israel. Other new pro-Israel groups, like StandWithUs, have grown to meet new challenges. Immigration to Israel from America is also soaring, with preliminary statistics for 2021 showing a 41% increase over 2020. If American Zionism is “unraveling,” how is it possible that tens of thousands of American Jews — including those, like Timberland founder Jeff Swartz, who can afford to live quite comfortably in the United States — are choosing the Zionist dream of returning to the land of Israel?
The conceit of the Times headline is built upon the further falsehoods of the article itself. The magazine feature claims, “at no recent time has there seemed less of a chance that Israelis and Palestinians will reach a peace agreement that might establish a Palestinian state on land presently occupied or annexed by Israel. Israeli politics are so sclerotic that it required four elections in two years to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu, an unpopular prime minister facing corruption charges, with a coalition that, despite the historic presence of an Arab party, is unlikely to significantly alter the country’s approach to Palestinian issues.”
Yet the Times’ own news pages recently reported, under the headline, “In Reversal, Israel’s New Government Engages With Palestinian Authority,” that the new government’s approach is “a major shift from the recent Netanyahu years.” The Times may want to consider publishing a correction of either the magazine article or the news article, because they contradict each other so thoroughly that they can’t both be accurate.
It’s a story about the unraveling of the fringe left of the Jewish community and the collapse of non-Orthodox institutional Judaism in America. And it’s not the whole story. It’s actually only a chapter of it.
— Jonathan Greenberg (@JGreenbergSez) November 2, 2021
Cheeky protest: Israelis mock NYT on social media for article with negative portrayal of country
People in Israel have started a social media campaign against 'The New York Times' that portrayed them as 'angry' and displeased.'
They are posting pictures with the hashtag 'sad, sad Israel' to mock the article by the New York-based American daily newspaper.
Calling Israel a ''divided'' land, the article that provoked many Israelis talks about ''incompatible factions'' and grievances of the people living in the country.
The article had also highlighted how many Arab Israelis were increasingly asserting their Palestinian identity.
Israelis have criticised the negative outlook of NYT and have lambasted its preconceptions. They have also highlighted that Israel was ranked the 12th happiest country in the world.
Some folks, like @PatrickKingsley of @nytimes, choose to see only the negative in #Israel. They come here with set preconceptions and refuse to take off their blinkers. Suggest open your eyes, talk to people, get out of your comfort zone. #SadSadIsrael pic.twitter.com/SgjDzyJqMn
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) November 2, 2021
Dexter Van Zile: Catholic News Outlet Misinforms Readers on the Middle East
Since when do Hezbollah fighters armed with machine guns and rocket launchers trying to intimidate Christians in Beirut qualify as “Shiite demonstrators?”
Apparently, since October 27, 2021.
That’s when Fides News Agency described a group of Hezbollah gunmen who entered the Christian neighborhood of Tayyouneh-Ain al Remmaneh in Beirut — and beat up a few Christians — as “Shiite demonstrators.” The outlet used this innocent moniker in an article highlighting the efforts of Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, Patriarch of the Maronite Church, to calm tensions in Lebanon.
Yes, it’s absolutely necessary to highlight the work of the Patriarch to promote peace in Lebanon, especially after Christian gunmen killed seven of these so-called protesters. But it’s also absolutely necessary to give an honest description of what happened before these “protesters” were fired upon in the first place.
The Fides News Agency left two important facts out of its summary of the incident. First, the protesters it discusses were actually armed gunmen from Hezbollah. Second, the gunmen entered Tayyouneh-Ain al Remmaneh as part of a larger effort to stymie the investigation into the 2020 blast in Beirut that killed more than 200 people, injuring another 7,000. This explosion caused more than $10 billion in damages, according to Zvi Mazel writing for Geopolitical Intelligence Services in July. It’s pretty clear that Hezbollah does not want an honest and independent investigation into the blast, telling the judge in charge of the inquiry, “we will remove you,” as Reuters reported in September.
My jaw actually hit the floor. https://t.co/7qKeMci7Hl
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) November 2, 2021
Israeli Court Halts Auction of Tattoo Kit Said to Have Been Used at Auschwitz
An Israeli court suspended on Wednesday the auction of a partial tattoo kit billed as having been used on inmates at the Auschwitz death camp, following outcry from Holocaust survivors.Accused Killers of French Holocaust Survivor Mireille Knoll Set Out to Murder a ‘Y*d,’ Son Tells Court in Ongoing Trial
Obtained from a private collector, the eight fingernail-sized steel dies, each lined with pins to form numerals, would have been pressed into prisoners’ flesh with ink to brand their serial numbers, according to auctioneer Meir Tzolman.
His website had deemed it “the most shocking of Holocaust items,” with a projected sale value of $30,000 to $40,000.
Bidding reached $3,400 by Wednesday, when Tel Aviv District Court granted a request by survivors to order the auction halted pending a Nov. 16 hearing on whether it should proceed. Tzolman’s website was amended to show the sale had been suspended.
More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were killed at Auschwitz, among a number of camps run by Nazi Germany on occupied Polish soil during World War Two. It was the only facility that tattooed inmates.
Israel has no law against private sales of Holocaust relics. A court spokesman’s statement did not specify the legal basis for Wednesday’s injunction.
As the trial of the two men charged with the killing of French Jewish Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll entered its fifth day, the court heard her son Alain explain how his mother’s brutal murder had been aggravated by “pure hatred” directed at an 85-year-old woman derided as a “youpine” — French pejorative slang for “yid.”Antisemitism in France constant reality for Jews says French Jewish leader
Lawyers at the trial in Paris of the two accused men, 32-year-old Yacine Mihoub and 25-year-old Alex Carrimbacus, attempted to raise doubts that Knoll — who was stabbed eleven times before her body was badly charred in a fire deliberately started in her apartment — was murdered because she was Jewish.
Asked by Charles Consigny, the lead defense lawyer for Mihoub, why he insisted that his mother’s murder was antisemitic in character, Alain Knoll said that realization had dawned on his family as they learned more details of her killing.
“At first, my brother and I didn’t see the antisemitic aspect, we thought it was a crime of villainy,” Alain Knoll told the court.
Controlling his anger, he continued: “But in view of the violence behind the stab wounds, an obvious expression of pure hatred, I conclude that they targeted a ‘yid,’ and they slaughtered her.”
In emotional testimony, Alain Knoll recalled that he had visited his mother only hours before her murder on March 23, 2018, arriving at her apartment in a Paris public housing project to prepare her lunch. Entering the building, he encountered Mihoub, a career petty criminal whose family lived in the same building, and who had known Mireille Knoll since the age of eight.
Antisemitism has become a chronic and recurring problem for many French Jews and has damaged the fabric of the Jewish community in certain parts of France, according to Francis Kalifat, president of CRIF, the umbrella organization for Jewish organizations in France.French court fines 7 people for antisemitic abuse of Miss France runner-up
A central concern of French Jews is antisemitism from all sides of the political map, he said Tuesday in an interview in Jerusalem during a CRIF mission to Israel. Antisemitism from the Muslim community has had an especially malign effect on Jewish communities, he added. Nevertheless, Jewish life in France is flourishing, Kalifat said, adding that Jewish communities are growing and expanding their institutions and activities.
Kalifat is in Israel together with other French Jewish officials on CRIF’s first mission here since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group is set to meet with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and has already met with Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai.
Asked what is on the agenda for French Jewry, Kalifat said the main concern is ongoing and persistent antisemitism.
Anti-Jewish hatred continues to emanate from the far Right and the extreme Left, which is often masked behind anti-Zionism, he said. But antisemitism from radical parts of the Muslim community is what concerns French Jews the most, Kalifat said, adding that 12 French Jews have been killed in France over the past 15 years by extremist Muslims.
A French court on Wednesday fined seven people for a torrent of antisemitic abuse on social media aimed at the runner-up of the latest Miss France contest.Small Fire at Texas Synagogue Follows Spate of Antisemitic Incidents, Leaders Respond
April Benayoum, who competed for the Miss France title in December, became the subject of hate messages after saying at the event that her father is of Israeli origin.
The insults — such as “Hitler forgot about this one” and “Don’t vote for a Jew” — were posted mainly on Twitter and drew condemnation from politicians and associations.
On Wednesday, a Paris court ordered seven defendants, four women and three men, to each pay fines ranging from 300 to 800 euros ($350-$930).
An eighth suspect was acquitted, with the court finding that his tweet did not target Benayoum directly.
During the trial, the suspects all admitted to publishing the messages, but denied they were antisemitic, with some arguing they were making a political statement defending the cause of the Palestinians.
But the court found that the posts expressed “a rejection of a person because of their origins” or “because of their presumed religion” and that they targeted Benayoum directly.
Arson investigators in Austin, Texas, are looking into the cause of a late-night fire at the city’s Congregation Beth Israel on Sunday evening.'Emily in Paris' actress calls on Instagram followers to play 'Secret Hitler'
According to the Austin Fire Department, it was a “small, exterior fire” that caused no injuries.
The Jewish community in Austin has been rocked in the last 10 days with several cases of antisemitism, including the antisemitic Goyim Defense League hanging a banner saying “Vax the Jews” over a major highway—the MoPac Expressway on the city’s west side—just a few blocks away from the Dell Jewish Community Center and several synagogues.
The group, headed by Jon Minadeo II, is a “small network of virulently antisemitic provocateurs,” according to the Anti-Defamation League. It raised the banner on two separate occasions, the first on Oct. 23, a Shabbat afternoon.
Liora Raz, executive director of the group StopAntisemitism.org, told JNS: “We stand in solidarity with the Austin Jewish community as they continue to be terrorized by white supremacist Jon Minadeo II and his ilk. Hate-filled words often manifest into hate-filled actions; we hope whoever is found responsible for Sunday’s synagogue fire will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Actress Ashley Park, who co-stars in the hit Netflix series Emily in Paris, published a post on Instagram recently in which she encouraged 755,000 followers to play the game "Secret Hitler."Ramona Singer endorses video likening COVID mandates to ‘Nazi territory’
The aim of the game is to simulate a fascist regime during which one of the players is required to dress up as Hitler, when he has a small group of supporters around him who are supposed to help him.
Secrethitler.com, the website that sells the game, describes it as a social deduction game for 5-10 people about finding and stopping the Secret Hitler.
Each player is secretly and randomly assigned to a liberal or fascist role, and one player is a secret Hitler. The fascists adapt to sow distrust and install their cold-blooded leader, while the liberals must find and stop the secret Hitler before it's too late.
Each round, players choose a president and chancellor to work together to enact a random fictional law.
If the government passes a fascist law, the players must try to understand whether they are the traitors and who the secret Hitler is.
This is not the first time that the box game has made headlines. Shipping giant Amazon came under fire for allowing the game and other antisemitic products to be sold on its site.
Gadi Gronich, chief executive of the Conference of European Rabbis, said: "I call on the captains of Netflix to conduct a home inspection and strongly condemn the post of actress Ashley Park, who stars in one of the network's flagship series.
Ramona Singer endorsed a video on Twitter that likened COVID-19 vaccine mandates to living under a Nazi regime.‘Heil Hitler’ Sign Outside San Antonio Automotive Repair Shop Causes Distress in Local Community
In the video, Robert F. Kennedy pleads to stop the vaccine mandates, claiming the jab is the result of a “pharmaceutical driven, biosecurity agenda” that is reminiscent of Nazi medical experiments during World War II.
“The Nazis did that in the camps in World War II. The Nazis tested vaccines on the gypsies and Jews, and the world was so horrified after the war, we signed the Nuremberg charter,” he says in the video. “We all pledged when we do that, we would never again impose unwanted medical interventions on human beings without informed consent — and yet in two years, all of that conviction has sudden disappeared.”
Singer, 64, was apparently so moved by the video that she responded, “So true.”
Fans immediately called Singer out for her response and compared it to her “vile” behavior at Eboni K. Williams’ black Shabbat dinner, where she claimed Jewish people hated her and also claimed she was a victim of racism because a black nurse allegedly refused to give her pain meds while she was in labor.
Residents of south side of San Antonio, Texas, have expressed distress over a bizarre sign outside a local garage that includes the words “Heil Hitler” and the Nazi swastika.Intel Ignite Names 10 Startups Selected for Fifth Tel Aviv Cohort
The sign, in large red letters on a white banner, has been on display at the entrance to the Budget Automotive Repair shop on Quintana Road.
Annette Orta, a local resident who grew up in the neighborhood, told the local CBS station that the banner had left her with a feeling of deep unease.
“It’s scary to know that we have some people that feel that way in the community,” she said. “That’s all it is, it’s discrimination and hating.”
The owner of the garage, Frank Pena, told the same station that it was his right to display the sign under the terms of the First Amendment.
Local media chose to obscure the sign’s wording — “Heil Hitler and Dr. Porshe (sic) How Many Poisoned Jews Does it Take to Make An Audi?” with the “e” in “Heil” rendered as a swastika — in their reports of the controversy.
The Algemeiner was unable to reach Pena on Tuesday for an explanation of the meaning of the sign, which references two world-famous German automobile manufacturers, Porsche and Audi, that are known for having retained ties to the Nazi regime during the World War II era.
Intel Ignite, Intel’s startup growth program, announced on Wednesday the 10 startups that were selected for its fifth Tel Aviv cohort, which will begin on November 7.Christians from Africa to gather at Foreign Ministry in support of Israel
From 220 applicants, 14 made it to selection day, and 10 made the final cut and will participate in the 12-week program. This batch is greatly focused on deep tech innovation that impacts both industries and day to day life. Each of the startups will be paired with an experienced mentor, and will receive a personalized program tailored to their specific business needs. The program includes expert sessions on go-to market and sales, how to deal with building and growing a business, improving founders’ relationships and mental health, and more.
The selected startups come from various tech industries, including FinOps, DevOps, Edge AI, digital health, and security, and to date have raised an average of $5 million each.
CADY Solutions utilizes AI technology to perform automatic inspection and verification of electrical schematics.
ClairLabs revolutionizes remote patient monitoring with its novel contactless pulse oximetry technology.
DeepAI’s breakthrough technology enables deep learning at a fraction of the cost and power of GPU systems for fast, secure, and scalable AI at the edge.
Echo3D is a cloud platform for 3D/AR/VR apps, games, and content.
Exodigo performs non-intrusive subsurface mapping.
Finout is the first self-service cloud cost observability platform that combines business metrics with cost, slicing it up to customers, features, and unit metrics for healthier business decision-making.
Helios is a production readiness platform for cloud-native and distributed applications.
HyperSpace’s high-performance ML algorithms empower real-time predictions.
Illumex’s active data catalog helps companies use their data assets smarter and faster.
Oxeye performs cloud-native application security testing.
A group of pro-Israel Christians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will host an event next week in support of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and his decision to open a trade office in Israel and to accept Israel into the African Union with observer status.Emily Schrader: JNF Go North: Unboxing Israeli Products
The event, which will be held at the Foreign Ministry, is a project of DR Congo Benit Israel – the local branch of Africa Bless Israel – in collaboration with the Congolese Parliamentary Israel Allies Caucus and Christian churches and ministries.
Word of the event comes a week after Tshisekedi visited Israel and met with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, during which he made an announcement that his country would open a diplomatic and trade office in Jerusalem. The two leaders also discussed strengthening collaboration in agriculture, communications and trade.
“This is a major victory for faith-based diplomacy and shows why it is essential to continue strengthening Israel’s ties with Bible-believing Christians worldwide,” Israel Allies Foundation president Josh Reinstein said of Tshisekedi’s commitment to open the office in Jerusalem. Tshisekedi, who also serves as chairman of the African Union, was one of the key proponents of granting Israel observer status in the AU.
Unboxing amazing Israeli products from JNF’s Mitzvah Marketplace! Check out all the products from small businesses across Israel and order before November 11 for guaranteed delivery!
Israeli-made Covid vaccine pill to begin phase I trials
Wow stunning ?? Israeli singer Narkis, a religious Jew, performs in #UAE adorned with an Emirati and Israeli flag ???? ???? at the World Fashion Festival Awards where Israeli designer Ilanit Mizrahi won best designer! pic.twitter.com/BQBz6snnSG
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) November 2, 2021
Prominent Holocaust survivor and rights activist Dora Roth dies at 92
Dora Roth, a well-known Holocaust survivor and rights activist, died in Israel on Tuesday at the age of 92.
Roth was a prominent activist in Israel, known for fighting for better rights and conditions for Holocaust survivors.
In 2013, Roth shocked members of the Knesset’s Health and Welfare Committee into silence when she lost patience with their proceedings and blasted the government for wasting time on endless debates while abandoning survivors to die in poverty.
“What you’re doing to the survivors is a crime and a disgrace. [Former prime minister David] Ben-Gurion made a pact, promising we would receive money for the rest of our lives,” said Roth, a resident of Tivon who immigrated to Israel in 1952 after losing her family and enduring WWII-Europe as a child.
“What have you done with the money?” demanded Roth, pointing her finger at the attending politicians. “Seeing a Holocaust survivor who can’t afford to heat his home in the winter and can’t afford to buy food or medicine is your disgrace. I don’t care about your committees. They mean nothing to us. I came all the way here to ask you one thing: Let us die in dignity.”
A month and a half after the Knesset meeting, Roth met with then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to argue for better treatment of Holocaust survivors. Netanyahu told her, “I was very impressed by what you said, by your passion and your truth.”
Roth said her parents were killed during the Holocaust and she was imprisoned in the Warsaw and Vilnius ghettoes for six years. German soldiers shot her twice in the back and she contracted tuberculosis during the war, she said.
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