Wednesday, February 02, 2022

02/02 Links Pt2: Twenty years after Daniel Pearl's death, the fight for justice continues; Whoopi Goldberg isn’t the only one who doesn’t understand antisemitism

From Ian:

Twenty years after Daniel Pearl's death, the fight for justice continues
Twenty years after his death at the hands of terrorists, the fight for justice for journalist Daniel Pearl continues, with the United States urging Pakistan to keep his kidnappers behind bars while his killer awaits a 9/11 trial at Guantanamo Bay .

Pearl, a 38-year-old Jewish American known as “Danny” to friends and family, was in Karachi after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, investigating Pakistani terrorist groups on behalf of the Wall Street Journal. He was following leads on al Qaeda and Richard Reid, the British-born “Shoe Bomber” accused of trying to blow up an American Airlines flight in December 2001 when he was abducted. Just over a week later, Pearl was beheaded on video by al Qaeda operatives on Feb. 1, 2002.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the terrorist found guilty in Pakistan for the kidnapping-for-ransom and murder of Pearl, had his conviction overturned in 2020 by a Pakistani court, though he has remained imprisoned as legal proceedings continue.

“The United States remains deeply concerned by the developments in the case of those involved in Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder,” a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “We continue to expect the Pakistani government to ensure that justice is served and that Sheikh and his accomplices remain in government custody without relaxing current security restrictions.”

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, dubbed “KSM" and described as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks” in the 9/11 Commission Report, was a close ally of Osama bin Laden and was repeatedly waterboarded while in U.S. custody. He confessed to planning the 9/11 attacks and to being Pearl’s killer, and many experts agree he was the masked figure who beheaded the journalist in a horrifying video. Mohammed was charged in a death penalty case for 9/11 alongside four co-defendants, but that trial still hasn’t begun.

"We often wonder what Danny would say about the world in which we find ourselves today. We are still confronting the destructive ideologies of extremism and antisemitism that took his life,” Dr. Judea Pearl, Daniel’s father, told the Washington Examiner. “One thing we know for sure is that Danny lived and loved life to the fullest and would want us to do all in our power to ensure free press and meaningful steps towards a hate-free world."
Bernard-Henri Levy: A Plea to My German Friends
Given this confusion, German allies and friends, there’s only one solution.

Rekindle the spirit of Konrad Adenauer, Walter Hallstein, Wilhelm Roepke, the anti-Nazi and anti-Stalin founding fathers of the European Union.

Remind yourselves of that wall of shame, crossed under machine-gun fire, and brought down by Rostropovitch’s bow like the walls of Jericho by Joshua’s trumpets—and then remember how you grandly consecrated those lost in the Shoah with ash-colored stelae in the heart of Berlin.

Do not forget that you are the country of Kant’s categorical imperative, of Habermas’ constitutional patriotism, and also, before that, of a light Nietzschean wisdom that rejected the weight of a certain German spirit sick with power, hopeless prosperity, and satisfied conscience.

And hear those who, as I do, permit themselves to urge you: friends of science and philology, disciples of Hoelderlin and Novalis, heirs to Thomas Mann, Adorno, and the Countess Doenhoff, inhabitants of that Lorelei of thought and beauty which, as French poet Guillaume Apollinaire would have it, made all Europeans around her swoon—you deserve better than to serve as Putin’s doormat.
The Israelization of Judaism or the Judaization of Israel?
The limitation in the argument that Judaism is being Israelized is the fact that Israel itself is becoming more and more Jewish. And the Judaism of Israel is not simply a Bible and Hebraic culture-centric Judaism sought, at various moments, by David Ben-Gurion and other founders of Israel. Diaspora Judaism has struck back.

Yossi Shain is of course aware of this fact, and he is not exactly happy about it. In fact, beyond the obvious political dilemmas the country faces, one thing that could sabotage the continued development of The Israeli Century, according to Shain, would be if ever larger numbers of ever more religious Israelis decline to work.

It is easy to understand why some Israelis have been angry about welfare-receiving Haredis who do not serve in the military and who are paid to study while others risk their lives on the front lines and are called to service in thousands of other ways through their lives. But, beyond arguments about the need for the perpetuation of traditions of learning, this idea no longer captures the quickly shifting religious landscape in Israel.

One little-noticed reform (outside of Israel) during the early 2010s was a modest but noticeable cut in stipends for those Haredi students who opt to learn full time. And, as a result of this and other trends, many more Haredis have been joining the workforce. Along with this, there has been the continued rise of Israelis who define themselves as Hardal—a blend of Haredi and modern Orthodox who fully participate in the public life of the state.

The Judaization of Israel is, however, somewhat hard to see because very much of it is in flux. Traditions and observance are growing across the Israeli public sphere. But what forms will Jewish belief and practice take in the years ahead? Will mysticism grow still stronger? Will a more rationalistic Orthodoxy, compatible with both patriotism and liberalism, continue to grow? Will the older and newer diaspora religious movements (Conservative, Reconstructionist, etc.) finally take off in Israel even as they fade in North America? Judaism may be transformed in Israel but it will not escape the forms and practices developed in the diaspora. It may well be that the greatest role diaspora Jews can play in an Israeli century to come is to help Israelis think through the politics of religion.


Whoopi Goldberg Suspended for Two Weeks Following Holocaust Remarks
ABC News President Kim Godwin announced on February 1 that Whoopi Goldberg will be suspended for two weeks after stating that “the Holocaust isn’t about race” during a January 31 episode of “The View.”

Godwin said in a statement that Goldberg’s comments were “hurtful and wrong” and that Goldberg needed time to “reflect and learn about the impact of her comments” despite apologizing. “The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities,” she added.

Jerusalem Post Senior Contributing Editor Lahav Harkov tweeted that she wasn’t sure she supported Goldberg’s suspension. “Whoopi apologized and brought [Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt] onto the show to explain what was wrong with what she said (and I read Colbert was recorded before they talked and she apologized),” she wrote. “I don’t think she was malicious even if what she said was very ignorant.”

George Mason University Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich tweeted, “Whoopi’s comments were racist but not malicious. The notion that Jews are not treated as a race is fundamentally wrong and offensive – but so widespread in contemporary culture (‘Jews are white’; ‘Jews of color’, etc.) that you can’t blame HER for it. So yes, keep her on.”

Tablet Chief Technology Officer Noam Blum tweeted, “Don’t criticize Whoopi’s suspension because people shouldn’t be suspended for controversial comments. Criticize it because it’s the network’s way of trying to worm out of any bad publicity it might cause for THEM. Even calling it a ‘suspension’ is buying their cover story.”
Whoopi Goldberg isn’t the only one who doesn’t understand antisemitism
Both sets of comments — first on her show, and later on Colbert’s — reflect a disturbing ideology that is growing increasingly rampant: a concerted effort to rewrite the history of the Jewish people and render the nature of antisemitism as nebulous and as nonspecific to Jews as possible. It’s an ideology that tries to turn Jews into White people, that tries to erase Jewish vulnerability and oppression, to squeeze Jews who have light skin into modern American categories of race and ethnicity, and which also myopically categorizes the hatred against them into American considerations of what racism looks like. But Jews predate these categories (and America, as a nation) by thousands of years.

The result is an understanding of antisemitism that focuses not on the Jewish victims, but rather the perpetrators. In 2019, while I was still at “The View,” we covered an antisemitic Jersey City shooting that killed three people. The perpetrators were Black, but you wouldn’t have known it from watching the show. Behar blamed white nationalism. It wasn’t that she knew differently: It’s a live show, and she made a mistake. But the subtext was clear: The default assumption is that attacks on Jews come from white nationalists. Anything that suggests otherwise runs contrary to our conception of race and hierarchy and intersectionality, and it goes unnoticed.

As I watched “The View” on Monday, I found myself thinking of my Oma, my Berlin-born grandmother. What she remembers most about growing up in Berlin is just how much she wasn’t allowed to do: She wasn’t allowed to go the park, the pool or have a bicycle. She wasn’t allowed into restaurants. She couldn’t go to the theater, the movies, museum exhibits or the beach. Many institutions had signs saying, “No Jews, no Dogs.” She carries the trauma of that exclusion with her to this day. As in the American South under Jim Crow, these racial discriminations were state-sponsored. And the similarities of those legal structures is one reason Goldberg’s comments stung so deeply: On Sept. 15, 1935, Nazi Germany established the Nuremberg laws, depriving Jews of German citizenship and forbidding marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Germans. They later banned Jews from voting and occupying public office. These laws were the legal basis upon which the rest of the Nazi’s anti-Jewish policies were built.
Shapiro Reacts to Whoopi Goldberg's INSANE Holocaust Remarks



In the Netherlands, it’s 'Civilized' to Empower Terrorists
Her name is Soumaya Sahla. Born in The Hague in 1983 to Moroccan immigrants (her father was the founder of a mosque in that city), she joined a jihadist terror organization, the Hofstad group, at a young age, and along with another member of the group, Noureddine el Fahtni, to whom she’d been married in an Islamic ceremony, acquired an Agram 2000 submachine gun, which they were reportedly planning to use, at the direction of the leaders of the Hofstad group, to kill various politicians. Among their intended victims were Geert Wilders, then a relatively new member of the Dutch lower house, the Tweede Kamer, who’d made a name for himself as a critic of the Islamization of the Netherlands, and the Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who’d rejected her Muslim faith after 9/11 and been elected to the Tweede Kamer in 2002.

The year was 2005. The previous few years had been a busy time for assassination and assassination plots. On May 6, 2002, nine days before a general election from which he was expected to emerge as prime minister of the Netherlands, Pim Fortuyn had been murdered by an activist named Volkert van der Graaf who was appalled by his criticisms of Islam. In the summer of 2004, Sahla’s husband, Fahtni, had been arrested in Portugal on suspicion of planning to kill that country’s then prime minister, José Manuel Durão Barroso, but there had not been sufficient evidence to hold him. A few months later, on the morning of November 2, 2004, a fellow member of the Hofstad group, Mohammed Bouyeri, had slaughtered the celebrated writer and filmmaker Theo van Gogh - perhaps the Netherlands’ most prominent critic of Islam - on a busy street in Amsterdam.

Sahla and Fahtni’s plans, however, did not prove as successful as Bouyeri’s. On June 22, 2005, they were both arrested by Amsterdam police.

Fahtni ended up serving six months. Sahla spent nine years in and out of court. First, she was convicted by a Rotterdam court of illegally possessing weapons and of membership in a terrorist organization with the intent to commit murder. Later, the Court of Appeal in The Hague found her guilty, in addition, of planning to murder Wilders and others. In 2011, however, the Supreme Court annulled that ruling and transferred the case to the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, which in 2014 found Sahla guilty of membership in a terrorist organization and possession of firearms but not of intention to kill anybody. Although sentenced to three years, she didn’t have to spend any time in prison because of the time she’d already served in detention.
Faculty Group Urges Middle East Studies Association to Support Dialogue on ‘Discriminatory’ BDS Resolution
An academic group representing more than 800 faculty members urged the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) on Monday to foster open dialogue on a controversial resolution supporting a boycott of Israel.

Voting on the referendum, which endorses the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign, began for MESA’s 2,800 members on Monday and will conclude on March 22. The initiative has prompted questions about the legality of a possible academic boycott of Israel, should it be conducted at public universities in states that passed laws against using taxpayer funds to support BDS.

The Academic Engagement Network (AEN), which warned MESA in December that endorsing BDS will “discriminate against, exclude, and isolate Israeli scholars,” reiterated in a letter to the association’s leadership this week that the resolution’s passage would “significantly damage MESA’s reputation and credibility as an academic association ostensibly committed to open intellectual inquiry.”

AEN also called on MESA to create an online forum where members can view arguments supporting and opposing the resolution — including its “possible legal liabilities and financial costs.”

“Such a discussion forum is all the more necessary as it will enable the thirty-six MESA members who proposed the resolution to elaborate on its key claims and to provide evidentiary material for them,” wrote AEN Executive Director Miriam Elman. It will further “help to ensure that the vote is fair since members would have received information, both pro and con, about it and will have had the opportunity to share their views and perspectives.”

In December, a group of progressive academics, including several MESA members, warned that boycotting Israel would undermine academic freedom, preventing “free exchanges between faculty members and students worldwide.”
NGO Monitor: EU-funded NGO hosts PFLP memorial event saluting terror group founder
On January 29, 2022, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an EU-designated terrorist group, organized a memorial ceremony honoring PFLP founder (Badran Jaber; see also video), which took place at the hall of the Abdel Shafi Community Health Association (ACHA; formerly Red Crescent Society for the Gaza Strip [RCS4GS]) in Gaza. ACHA is also linked to the PLFP.

During the ceremony, a PFLP central committee member praised Badran Jaber, declaring that “he drew the weapons of Palestine very early on since he knew that the way to Palestine starts and ends with the rifle…May his pure spirit rest in great peace and we promise to stay on the same path which he and the rest of our comrade [PFLP] founders have paved.” (emphasis added).

Two weeks earlier, on January 15, 2022, ACHA used the same hall to conclude an EU-funded five-day training on the subject of gender-based violence and case management. The workshop was part of a €648,000 project1 funded by the European Commission (EC).

Abdel Shafi Community Health Association links to the PFLP
The Gaza event is not the first time that the PFLP has organized events in the ACHA hall. For example, on September 29, 2021, ACHA hosted a PFLP-organized ceremony celebrating the release from prison of PFLP leader Khalida Jarrar. In 2019, Jarrar was arrested, together with tens of other PFLP members, and convicted of membership in the terror group. The arrests took place following an August 2019 bombing by PFLP members in which a 17-year-old Israeli civilian, Rina Shnerb, was murdered.

On July 12, 2020, the PFLP held an event in ACHA’s hall commemorating “the 48th anniversary of the martyrdom of the fighter writer PFLP Political Bureau member comrade Ghassan Kanafani.” Several PFLP senior officials – including Mariam Abu Daqa, Jamil Mazhar, and Iktimal Hamd – attended.
Antisemitic CAIR Official Billoo Talks ‘Racial Justice’ At Court-Sponsored Event in California
As part of California’s Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution, which honors a man who fought for racial equity, social justice and human rights, the Superior Court of California County of Santa Clara co-sponsored a January 30 online panel discussion.

Among those offered a seat to air their views on the “fight for racial justice” was none other than Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group that was another of the event’s sponsors.

As documented by HonestReporting, Billoo is an antisemite.

In December, footage emerged of Billoo’s speech at the 14th Annual Convention for Palestine in the US in which she blamed “Zionists” for Islamophobia and police violence in the United States and urged CAIR’s supporters to “pay attention to the Zionist synagogues.”

Such incendiary remarks, which came just weeks before a terrorist held four people hostage at a synagogue in Texas, somehow did not disqualify her from being asked to weigh in on the issue of racism.

Amid backlash following her comments, Billoo announced that she would be taking a “sabbatical” from her position at CAIR.

However, given her appearance at a CAIR-sponsored event this week, it would seem her leave of absence was a very short one.

Billoo’s December remarks were largely reported on by Israeli and Jewish news sites, which is ironic – even suspicious – considering CAIR is something of a go-to organization for journalists seeking commentary on all things pertaining to religious affairs.

Case in point, CAIR’s countless media mentions in stories about the January synagogue attack, which one might find paradoxical given Billoo’s overt positions on the Jewish people.
Pro-Israel Group in Complaint: Virginia School District Fails to Act Against Anti-Jewish Issues
The Zionist Organization of America filed a civil rights complaint against one of the largest school districts in the United States, claiming it has failed to address its “hostile antisemitic environment.”

The complaint against Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia was filed last week with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. In the complaint, ZOA listed several antisemitic incidents at FCPS that officials allegedly knew about but did not respond to “appropriately and effectively.”

The incidents include repeated swastika vandalism at FCPS schools that received no condemnation by school district officials; Jewish students being targeted with ethnic slurs, antisemitic “jokes” and “Heil Hitler” salutes from their peers; and a lack of accommodations for Jewish students and staff who observe Jewish holidays.

“As this complaint shows, there is a longstanding practice and pattern of harassment and discrimination against Jewish students (and staff) in FCPS, which FCPS officials have refused to address,” said the ZOA. The Jewish organization claimed that FCPS’s refusal to take action is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

The organization noted that it filed the complaint after trying to resolve the issues directly with FCPS, but to no avail.

“The ZOA’s complaint describes in horrifying detail what Jewish students and staff have been enduring for many years in a school district that touts its diversity and claims to value a safe and respectful learning environment,” said ZOA National President Morton A. Klein and Director of ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice Susan B. Tuchman.
Sydney Festival director condemns online ‘intimidation’
Sydney Festival director Olivia Ansell has accused activists of “intimidating” artists into boycotting the festival over funding that the event accepted from the Israeli embassy.

“Some artists felt pressured to the extent they had no option but to withdraw, or else they would be publicly shamed online, whilst other artists had a very strong opinion, and one respects those strong opinions. That’s why we live in a democracy,” Ansell said. Olivia Ansell, artistic director of the Sydney Festival, is proud of what the event has achieved this year.

“In relation to the intimidation and pressure online: everyone has the right to feel safe, whether that’s physically, mentally or culturally. And I couldn’t say that everybody felt safe out there online during the height of the boycott.”

Activists called for the boycott after Sydney Festival accepted $20,000 in funding from the Embassy of Israel to stage a dance work made by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin and performed by the Sydney Dance Company.

More than 30 performers withdrew from the festival, which ended on Sunday, including high-profile comedians Tom Ballard and Judith Lucy.
BDS fails, Jan. 2022 Stories you likely didn't see in the British media
Unilever ‘may be unable to offload ice cream’, lawyers warn
Unilever faces an uphill battle to sell Ben & Jerry’s, with lawyers warning that the ice-cream brand’s Left-wing political activism could pose problems for any prospective buyer.

The consumer goods giant unveiled ambitions last week to offload parts of its business, including lower-growth food brands, in an effort to supercharge a push into health and hygiene

Lawyers claim the stance by the ice cream brand puts Unilever at risk of sanctions and penalties over potential breaches of US and Israeli law, including anti-boycott laws in the US and discrimination legislation in Israel.

British-Israeli relations have entered a golden era
In recent weeks, London has warmly received official visits from the Israeli President Isaac Herzog, the foreign minister Yair Lapid and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who enjoys an exceptionally strong bromance with Boris Johnson via WhatsApp.

These trips have been supported by substantial policy announcements. In November, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss signed a wide-ranging Memorandum of Understanding with Mr Lapid, enhancing cooperation in the realms of cyber, tech, trade and defence. A number of joint military exercises have taken place over the last couple of years.

In November, Parliament voted to proscribe Hamas in its entirety, rather than just its military wing. This means that those inviting support for the terror group could face up to 14 years in prison. That is something for which Israeli governments have been lobbying for decades.
PreOccupiedTerritory: Biggest Celebrity Local BDS Rally Can Find Is Ned Ryerson (satire)
Pittsburgh, February 2 – An joint event with several pro-Palestinian activist groups has managed to secure the participation of a figure of at least some renown, organizers disclosed today, in this case a Punxsutawney-area insurance salesman who they hope will wow attendees and inspire them to action with his whistling belly-button trick.

Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine, and several other organizations teamed up for a demonstration this evening at the University of Pittsburgh to protest Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, and to encourage a boycott of Israeli institutions, companies, and figures. SJP chapter president Mustafa Fadiha acknowledged to journalists that he encountered some difficulty lining up any big names for the event, a development that he attributed to both the unseasonable cold expected for an outdoor demonstration, plus a suspicion that nefarious Zionist agents have compromised all the potential celebrities who might have considered endorsing the protest. In the end, he reported, they managed to arrange with Ned Ryerson, who grew up in the city, to grace the rally with his unique talent.

“It’s always more successful when you have someone famous up on stage,” explained Fadiha. “Ideally, that would have been someone of the caliber of, say, Roger Waters or Emma Watson, who we know are sympathetic to our cause, but I’ve had trouble getting their attention. They’re very busy, as I understand. We had to set our ambitions a little lower to find someone both available and willing, and, thank goodness, Mr. Ryerson was prepared to drive all the way here from Punxsutawney even though they’ve got the whole annual festival going on there now. He really lit up when I described our program as ‘a doozy.’ I hope he’s everything we’ve been led to expect.”

A call to Mr. Ryerson’s listed number in Punxsutawney had yet to yield contact as of press time.
CBC The Current Features Speaker Peddling Anti-Israel Misinformation
CBC gave the last word to Yara Hawari, a Palestinian writer and senior analyst at Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network, and host of the podcast “Rethinking Palestine”, who told the host that “our material and archival history has been systematically destroyed and looted by the Israeli regime for decades.” This comment is especially perplexing, since it is the Israeli government which helped fund the development of this documentary, and Israeli television stations who are broadcasting it. Those are not the actions of a government and society attempting to stifle information, or censor the truth, but the complete opposite.

Hawari didn’t stop there. Rather than addressing the film itself, or the incident of Tantura, she launched into an anti-Israel tirade.

“What Israel continues to do…it’s very much a continuous part of our lived reality. Last year in May, the Israeli regime massacred Palestinians in Gaza,” Hawari told Galloway, who did not attempt to challenge or correct her.

Israel did not, contrary to Hawari’s assertions, commit “massacres”, “war crimes” and “atrocities” in Gaza during the 2021 war with Hamas in Gaza. The armed conflict began with violent Arab riots against Jewish targets in Jerusalem, which were cheered on by Hamas, who later fired an estimated four thousand rockets against Israeli targets, both civilian and military, killing not only innocent Israelis, but also one Indian and two Thai nationals who were working in Israel.

In the face of such overt terrorism, all countries, Israel included, have the right of self-defense. Despite Hamas’ proclivity to embed its terrorists within densely populated areas, Israel’s targeted focus was laudable.
Times of Israel Clarifies on Khan Al-Ahmar History
Times of Israel last week commendably clarified multiple reports which had stated as fact that residents of the the small Palestinian hamlet of Khan Al-Ahmar east of Jerusalem have lived there since the 1950s. In fact, aerial photographs reveal that the site was desolate in those times, with settlement beginning in the 1980s and growing in earnest within the last 15 years.

The Jan. 26 article, “Israel to destroy Khan Al-Ahmar hamlet, rebuild it 300 meters away,” many previous ToI stories (for example, see here, here and here), had erroneously report that Khan Al-Ahmar was settled in the 1950s. The articles state that the villagers “have lived at the site, then controlled by Jordan, since the 1950s, after the state evicted them from their Negev homes.”

Regavim’s aerial photographs of the site over several decades reveal this was not the case. Indeed, a photograph of the site in 1967 shows that Khan Al Ahmar was virtually empty. It appears that there were approximately four or five buildings there in 1980. By 1999, there were approximately up to two dozen structures at the site. The aerial images reveal that the encampment grew significantly between 2006 and 2012. While residents now claim residency since the 1950s, the photographic evidence does not support this claim.
SUMMARY OF BBC NEWS WEBSITE PORTRAYAL OF ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS – JANUARY 2022
As we see, the BBC News website continues its practice of reporting Israeli affairs far more extensively than it does internal Palestinian affairs. Topics ignored by the BBC throughout January 2022 include the imprisonment of a journalist, reports of torture in a PA prison, continuing Palestinian Authority glorification of terrorism, municipal elections, a new delivery of Corona vaccines to the Gaza Strip, an agreement to supply natural gas to the Gaza Strip, the escape of a Hamas commander from a Hamas prison and attacks on Christians by Palestinians.
Catholic Outlet in England Omits Crucial Fact from Tent of Nations Story
Independent Catholic News (ICN) is a media outlet headquartered in England that “aims to provide speedy and accurate news coverage of all subjects of interest to Catholics and the wider Christian community.”

Recently the publication reprinted, almost verbatim, a press release issued by Churches for Middle East Peace about an attack on the Tent of Nations, a farm located in the West Bank that has been used to indoctrinate Westerners into the anti-Israel narrative promoted by Palestinian Christians from Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Interestingly enough, when republishing the press statement, ICN omitted a crucial sentence that revealed the attack against Daoud and Daher Nassar, the farm’s proprietors, was likely perpetrated by Arabs living next to the Tent of Nations.

It’s a crucial omission because numerous other articles, including those published by ICN, portray the property as being under constant siege by Israeli Jews living nearby.

Because of ICN’s egregious omission, readers who had been exposed to these previously published articles about the Tent of Nations, which has been a persistent source of anti-Israel propaganda over the years, would likely conclude that the attack was perpetrated by Jews living in the West Bank.


Majority of French Jews have been the victims of antisemitic acts - survey
A wide majority of France's Jewish population agrees that antisemitism is widespread in France and on the rise, with most Jews and the general public agreeing that antisemitism is a major concern in French society, according to a new study by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

In total, 85% of French Jews said antisemitism is a widespread issue in France, with 73% saying it has increased in France today. Further, nearly three-quarters (74%) of French Jews say that they had been the victims of an antisemitic act during their lives.

Many Jews in France have also taken measures to appear less visibly Jewish as well. According to the study, which was composed of three surveys conducted by leading polling firm IFOP and French think tank Fondapol.

This includes over half (55%) of parents asking their children not to wear kippot or Stars of David, and nearly half (45%) telling their children to hide their Jewish identity completely.

This is in line with other statistics, which show 41% of Jews not having religious symbols like mezuzot visible, 35% avoiding any style of dress that could be recognized as Jewish and 37% saying they have been feeling threatened just for being Jewish.
Senate committee to hold confirmation hearing on Lipstadt's nomination
Six months after US President Joe Biden named Deborah Lipstadt to be the next special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing to consider her nomination.

Lipstadt tweeted on Tuesday that the hearing will take place next week, adding: “I am grateful and pleased.

The announcement came following a letter from 96 Jewish Federations and Community Relations Councils that urged the committee to consider the nomination.

The Jewish Federations of North America praised the committee for its decision.

“We are grateful to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for moving ahead with this important confirmation hearing,” said JFNA senior vice president of public affairs Elana Broitman. “Jewish communities at home and around the world need an advocate and watchdog at the State Department to take action against the rising tide of antisemitism, and we look forward to a speedy confirmation.”

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) tweeted, “Pleased to see next steps in the confirmation of Deborah Lipstadt, a longtime fighter of antisemitism & Holocaust denial, who has been nominated to serve as Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, the first time this position will have the rank of Ambassador.”
Scarred by attacks, Jewish communities in US consider enhancing security measures
A year before the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, a security director from the city’s Jewish federation came to the house of worship to train its religious school staff and rabbi on how to respond to violent situations. At the time, Stephen Weiss thought it was unnecessary.

But Weiss, then a teacher at the synagogue’s religious school, attended the training, where he was taught to avoid being easily seen by an active shooter and strategies to get away from dangerous areas. Both lessons proved useful in 2018 when a gunman entered the synagogue and killed 11 people in the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack.

“That training is what saved my life,” he said. As the shots rang out, Weiss, 63, said he was able to sneak away, alert another congregation that met in the building and eventually escape outside through a side door.

Currently, the Jewish Federations of North America, or JFNA, is aiming to give Jewish communities across the country similar training and know-how to help them respond to security threats. The organization has embarked on an initiative, called LiveSecure, to bolster security in Jewish communities by launching new security programs or enhancing ones they already have.

The push comes amid heightened fears about the vulnerability of Jewish institutions and antisemitic incidents. The Anti-Defamation League counted 2,024 cases of harassment, vandalism and assault in the US in 2020, the third highest on record since the Jewish civil rights group began tracking incidents in 1979.
'Whites and Jews shall die'- Man arrested after UCLA mass shooting threat
A former philosophy lecturer who made mass shooting threats against the University of California Los Angeles and released an 803-page manifesto full of antisemitic, racist and misogynist rants was arrested in Colorado on Monday.

Boulder police confirmed his identity as Matthew Harris, a former staff member of UCLA.

"Upon reviewing parts of the manifesto, we identified thousands of references to violence, stating things such as killing, death, murder, shootings, bombs, schoolyard massacre in Boulder, and phrases like 'burn and attack Boulder,'" said Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold. He revealed that Harris had "attempted to buy an unknown handgun at a store located in Jefferson County on November 2; he was denied this purchase."

"We are greatly relieved to share that law enforcement officers in Colorado have taken into custody the individual who made threats against some members of our UCLA community yesterday," the university said in a statement on Monday. "The threats made yesterday were frightening for many of us and caused our community to feel vulnerable at an already challenging time."

While the police and university did not name the man arrested, a leaked faculty email named Matthew Harris, a former postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at UCLA, as the person that emailed a series of threats to staff and his former philosophy department. Included in some of the emails were his manifesto and a series of videos, including one called "UCLA Philosophy Mass Shooting." (h/t MtTB)
Israeli Tech Unicorns Are Coming to the Super Bowl
Israeli high-tech company Gong.io has tripled its advertising budget compared to last year and plans on broadcasting a commercial during the upcoming NFL Super Bowl, investing some $1.5 million. Monday.com will also advertise for the first time ever during the Super Bowl, at an estimated cost of $2.5 million. In addition to the cost of screen time, each company will invest $5 million in ads.

The NFL’s Super Bowl LVI 2022 will take place on Sunday, February 13, with the Cincinnati Bengals facing off against the Los Angeles Rams. Many watch the televised event for another highlight of the evening: the numerous quirky ads. The event has turned into a show of strength for huge companies, which spend millions of dollars on airtime. The cost of this year’s Super Bowl ad spot sales averaged $6.5 million per half a minute. This year, the event plans on broadcasting between 80-90 commercials during breaks.

Last year, Gong.io joined the club and aired its ads during the Super Bowl, investing $1.5 million on its campaign. Gong.io, which recently raised $250 million at a $7.25 billion valuation, noted that it decided to air ads again this year, following last year’s success.

Gong.io develops an artificial intelligence-based engine that helps salespeople from high tech companies streamline their work and improve performance. The company noted that last year its ad was less amusing, but in the wake of the pandemic, it has decided to take a more lighthearted and entertaining route. As part of the commercial and in line with its name, the company created special gongs — the East Asian percussion instrument — which sales teams use to celebrate closing major deals. The advertisement’s message appears to be that sales teams can use Gong’s software to celebrate a lot of done-deals, and features several gong sounds in the background of the commercial.
Israel's laser missile defense system really is a new Star Wars - analysis
With Israel facing the growing threat posed by enemy rocket salvos as well as Iranian missiles, the Jewish state’s laser missile-defense system is the talk of the town.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the system would be deployed “within a year,” first experimentally and then operationally in the South.

“And this will enable us, as the years advance, to surround Israel with a wall of lasers that will protect us from missiles, rockets, UAVs and other threats,” he said at a conference put on by Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies.

Defense officials have said recently that the system would not be operational for the next few years, but Bennett has apparently sped up the timeline.

Israel considers Iran’s nuclear program its No. 1 concern. Though Tehran has consistently denied seeking to build a nuclear bomb, tensions have risen as the West has resumed talks in Vienna on reviving the JCPOA nuclear deal to curb the country’s nuclear program.

The Islamic Republic is also continuing to develop the capabilities to produce ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads that would take less than 15 minutes to reach Israel.

Iran has several rockets that can reach Israeli territory, including the Khoramshahr 2 with a range of up to 2,000 km. (1,243 miles) and the Shahab-3.
Scientists Date Human Bone in Israel to 1.5 Million Years Ago
Researchers in the Jordan Valley dated a bone to 1.5 billion years ago that is the oldest human remain ever discovered in Israel and the second oldest outside of Africa.

The international team of Israeli and American scientists published their findings Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports.

The vertebra from a child aged 6-12, called UB 10749, was originally found in 1966 at the early Pleistocene ‘Ubeidiya archaeological site. A reanalysis was able to date the bone to 1.5 billion years ago.

The research was led by Dr. Alon Barash from Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Ella Bin from the Ono Academic Campus, Prof. Miriam Belmaker from the University of Tulsa in the United States and Dr. Omri Barzilai from the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The study concludes that multiple waves out of Africa may have occurred

“Our conclusion that UB 10749 is a large-bodied Levantine hominin supports the occurrence of several Pleistocene dispersals that were not only separated in time but also in ecology,” the authors of the study state.

Researchers compared the vertebra from the ‘Ubeidiya excavation site in the Jordan Valley to bones of fossils from the prehistoric Dmanisi site in the Republic of Georgia — one of the most ancient human habitation sites in Eurasia — and were able to determine that the two sites were inhabited by different species of ancient humans. (h/t Samson2)
Mel Mermelstein, Holocaust survivor who won case against deniers, dies
Mel Mermelstein, a Holocaust survivor who won a court case against a group of Holocaust deniers, died on Friday at his home in Long Beach, California, aged 95, according to a report in The New York Times.

The report said he had died of complications from COVID-19, citing Mermelstein's daughter Edie.

In 1944, when Mermelstein was 17, his parents, two sisters and brother were deported with him from their Hungarian town to Auschwitz. At the concentration camp, his mother and sisters and were murdered in the gas chambers and his father and brother died from other causes, The Washington Post reported.

Before his father died, Mermelstein promised him that he would tell what had happened there.

After World War II, Mermelstein moved to the United States, where, in 1979, a group called the Institute for Historical Review offered $50,000 to anyone who could prove that the Nazis had used gas chambers to murder Jews during the war.

The organization sent entry forms to Holocaust survivors who had spoken publicly about their experiences, including Mermelstein. According to the Post, the letter he received read: "If we do not hear from you, we will be obliged to draw our own conclusions and publicize this fact to the mass media."

Although Jewish organizations, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League, insisted that Mermelstein ignore the letter in order to avoid bringing more attention to the Holocaust-denying organization, he was determined to respond to the challenge:









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