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Thursday, February 03, 2022

02/03 Links Pt2: Why Palestinians Dream of a Genocidal Victory; When Israel Can’t Be Blamed, No One Cares About ‘Human Rights’; Drop the Goldberg Name You Co-opted, Whoopi — You Don’t Deserve It

From Ian:

The Jewish people alone created Israel, not the Holocaust and not the UN
In the course of a few days in January 1942—80 years ago—Hitler’s henchmen, including SS chieftain Reinhard Heydrich, as well as Adolf Eichmann and other top members of the Third Reich, conferred at a villa in Wannsee, Germany to engineer the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish problem.”

The notorious Wannsee Conference succeeded in creating an efficient, industrial-scale approach to the Holocaust. Its extensive chain of death camps and gas chambers accomplished ultimately—unimaginably—the murder of 6 million Jews.

But this horror neither prevented the birth of the Jewish state nor did it—contrary to the narrative of many Israel haters—provide an excuse for Israel’s formation.

Ironically, many of those who oppose the State of Israel today blame its existence on the success of the murderous plans drawn up at Wannsee. Israel’s enemies minimize the righteousness of its birth in 1948 by attributing the Zionists’ achievement to global sympathy over the loss of Europe’s Jews, as if the most devastating genocide in world history would not justify the formation of the first Jewish state.

This objection to Israel conjures up the image of the United Nations and a few Western nations imposing a Jewish nation on native Arabs living in Palestine. This version has Israel created in a fit of guilt by the world’s nations because they stood by as the Holocaust unfolded. Israel is, according to the myth, a guilt-offering to compensate for the world’s indifference to the slaughter.

Indeed, one of the most pernicious lies about Israel’s creation is that it was born due to the Holocaust, a result of the United Nations Partition Plan of 1947.

The truth is, Israel was created by the Jews themselves as a result of more than a half-century of organizing.
Why Palestinians Dream of a Genocidal Victory
These are not mere fighting words; they express an intention and a fantasy that need to come to fruition. Every attack against the Jewish state should be seen through the prism of this fantasy, whether n the form of rockets from Gaza or terrorists from Judea and Samaria.

These violent actions are not just part of an ongoing conflict; they are integral to a war against the Jews, in the hope that the State of Israel can be destroyed by the death of 1,000 cuts.

The appropriation of history is a vital weapon in this battle, because, like the Nazis, the Palestinian paint their war as good and righteous and the Jews as undeserving of safety or protection. Victory will be theirs, they contend, because history has shown that they will ultimately win, regardless of time and the strength of the opponent.

This conflict will not be won by Israel, because it barely knows it is fighting such a battle, and because it does not appear to have the same capacity to imagine ultimate victory. Imagination and ultimate military aims are significant tools for the victorious.

Israel has no conceptualization of what its own version of ultimate victory looks like.

While Israel has the firepower and the might, it has no clear plan or strategy to end the conflict through the defeat of its enemies. While its enemies might lack the weaponry, they possess the motivation to continue fighting.

The Palestinians hold their collective gaze on ultimate victory through a deconstruction and appropriation of history, which means the end of the Jewish state, whereas Israel has no conceptualization of what its own version of ultimate victory looks like.

This is one of the central reasons why the conflict continues.
Brooke Goldstein: A Holocaust reenactment in a D.C. school should remind us that antisemitism is a severe threat
The history of modern Jew-hatred is littered with photographs of children, including Jewish children, forced to march to death camps and Hitler Youth being indoctrinated in the arts of terror, bullying, violence and death. Captured for posterity, these abused children remain a lasting image of what those so filled with ugliness and hate are capable of in their black hearts.

Add to that collection a photograph of the third-graders of Watkins Elementary School in D.C.

An educator entrusted by D.C. Public Schools with hundreds of innocent minds instructed a class of 8-year-olds at Watkins to reenact scenes from the Holocaust — digging mass graves, shooting victims, riding a train to a concentration camp, playacting gas chamber deaths and even assigning one Jewish student to play the role of Adolf Hitler, complete with a simulated suicide at the end of the lesson.

The instructor, library media specialist Kimberlynn Jurkowski, was placed on paid administrative leave for what the school’s principal called a “poor instructional decision.” Jurkowski had taught her class that the Holocaust and its atrocities happened “because the Jews ruined Christmas.”

There are no words to describe this horrific incident.

There are also no words to describe the irreparable damage Jurkowski has done to her students.


Ben Shapiro: Whoopi Goldberg Says Holocaust Wasn’t About Targeting Jews. Here’s Why That Matters.
Jews are disproportionately successful; thus, they are white. And, intersectional theory posits, racism is not defined as a belief that any other race is superior or inferior to another; instead, racism means—as the Anti-Defamation League recently defined it—“the marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.”

These two concepts, taken in tandem, mean that Jews cannot be considered victims of antisemitism. They are highly successful; they are white. Thus, they cannot be members of a victimized minority.

This is why the mainstream left is so reluctant to recognize the antisemitism of Hamas. (Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., for example, condemned Israel for defending itself against rocket attacks by Hamas by decrying “Black and brown bodies being brutalized and murdered.”)

It is why the mainstream left is complicit in the lie that the only true antisemitism springs from white supremacists, ignoring actual acts of Jew-hatred by members of minority populations. The intersectional left’s conspiracy theory—that a cabal of white victimizers (including Jews, and now, Asians) control society for its own benefit—inherently crosses streams with antisemitism.

Goldberg’s comments aren’t an aberration. They’re merely the latest iteration of a pernicious and perverse theory of power in politics—a conspiracy theory about groups that succeed and the systems in which they succeed.
Whoopi Goldberg Suspension Reveals Egregious Double Standard

British Comedian Dismantles Whoopi Goldberg Over Anti-Semitic Remarks
When one of the show’s co-hosts pointed out that his remarks suggested that there are people who exist who think that “racism is only about the color of your skin,” Baddiel responded, “Yeah, no, that’s true.”

“And there’s a specific thing that I think is going on here, which is, you know, Jews and the whiteness of Jews is a very complex thing. I use this phrase in the book, it’s a bit early for this, but anyway, called ‘Schrodinger’s white,’” he continued. “So, what I mean by that is, Jews are seen as white or non-white depending on the politics of the observer, right? So, far-right groups, and for years and years, centuries, have seen Jews as not part of the white races; absolutely part of Hitler’s project to say Jews are not part of the Aryan white races. But meanwhile, on the other side, on the far-left, the association of Jews, which is a racist thing, with power and privilege, makes them kind of super white.”

He noted that Goldberg’s comments effectively watered down the horror of the Holocaust and that what happened was “actually a very particular type of genocide.”

“She talked on Stephen Colbert’s show about two sides fighting. This was not two sides fighting. This was an ethnic group being marked out to be destroyed by a military industrial machine.”


John Podhoretz: Drop the Goldberg Name You Co-opted, Whoopi — You Don’t Deserve It
Decades ago, when the performer Caryn Johnson decided her name wasn’t interesting enough and dubbed herself Whoopi Goldberg instead, it wasn’t because Goldberg signified “whiteness.”

Through the years, she’s offered many weird and contradictory explanations for her change in moniker, but it might have seemed at the time that a black person sporting the surname Goldberg would be especially eye-catching and noteworthy (especially in conjunction with that wild first name) because it would represent the proud ownership of her outsider status. She wasn’t trying to blend in. She was doubling down — on race.

Note, please, that Caryn Johnson didn’t become Whoopi Rockefeller. No. She knew that by becoming Whoopi Goldberg, she would be choosing to flaunt in every way possible the fact that she was a minority person in a majority-white country. The “Goldberg” was the cherry on top.

You see, in the early 1980s, when Johnson became Goldberg, it was still commonly understood that Jews were a people apart. We were apart due to facts of history, due to discrimination and hatred based on our very being and — for those who practiced the faith rigorously — due to the way we ate, dressed, celebrated the Sabbath and prayed.

And we were apart because we were the only people in history to be targeted for mass extermination by one of the most powerful countries in the history of the Earth — something that had happened in the living memory of half the people on the planet at the time.
Ruthie Blum: ‘Amnesty’ for Whoopi Goldberg - opinion
If Goldberg hadn’t been a moron of monumental proportions and so beloved by the wokerati that she fancies herself to possess far more profundity than any old Hollywood actress with knee-jerk politics, she would either have been better informed or capable of keeping her trap shut under certain circumstances.

Unfortunately, for the darling of the Left, she didn’t merely open her mouth wide at the wrong moment; she shoved her foot in it for all to witness. Her apology on social media, accompanied by another one at the opening of the following day’s broadcast, turned out to be insufficient for her bosses at the network.

“Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments,” ABC News president Kim Godwin said in a statement. “While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time and reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”

Goldberg was incensed. Since that announcement, she has threatened to resign.

That’s her choice, of course, just as it’s ABC’s aim not to lose viewers and advertising revenue that enable it to pay Goldberg millions of dollars per year. Angry calls for her to be fired and the show to be canceled are thus entirely unnecessary.

Political conservatives who oppose the “cancel culture” instigated by the Left ought to keep this in mind. The best way to punish Goldberg – whose made-up name is as false as her premises – is simply to stop watching The View. The rest will take care of itself.
AOC says Whoopi Goldberg suspension over Holocaust flap was unnecessary
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said ABC’s suspension of Whoopi Goldberg over her comments about the Holocaust wasn’t necessary, arguing that Goldberg has already been forgiven by a key Jewish organization.

Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) noted that the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, “accepted her apology.”

“I think whenever there’s a learning moment like this, what’s super important is the relationship between that person and the community they’re making amends with,” the New York congresswoman told TMZ.

Greenblatt appeared on “The View” on Tuesday after Goldberg came under fire for saying that the Holocaust “wasn’t about race” during the show’s Monday broadcast.

The ADL head told Goldberg and her co-hosts on Tuesday that the Holocaust was a “singular catastrophe” that was motivated by a “racialized anti-Semitism.”

Greenblatt also tweeted that Goldberg was a “long-time ally of the Jewish community” and that her apology “is very much welcome.”

Ocasio-Cortez told TMZ that forgiveness from Greenblatt should suffice.
Whoopi Goldberg's gaffe proves that woke 'anti-racism' can all too easily slip into anti-Semitism
Throughout history, belief structures have been erected that turn Jews into the enemy and, crucially, legitimise making them the enemy. Critical Race Theory and ardent anti-racism is one of those belief structures. Of course nice people don’t want to be horrible about a minority, and nice people hate racism. They are anti-racist! But thanks to the way “anti-racism” is rigged up today, its insistence on seeing the world as a contest between white oppressors and their victims, they end up being racist anyway.

This is because if you have a system that casts one type of person as a structural baddie – namely white people – there is then a tendency to include Jews in that (never mind that many Jews do not have white skin). And if that same system sees white people as bad because they are oppressive, with power vested in a cruel history of domination over people of colour, then, hey presto, you also get to include Jews in that, too. This is because you’ve already designated Israel a colonial power with, as Amnesty International concluded erroneously yet again this week, an apartheid system in place. And if whiteness and privilege are equated, then Jews can be slotted into that idea too: one of the most enduring anti-Semitic tropes about Jews is that we are all nefariously rich.

Critical Race Theory, therefore, is constructed so that it can only ever end up landing Jews in the role of the despised and this is why, time and again, its ardently anti-racist adherents come out with vicious anti-Semitic comments, whether they’re members of Corbyn’s Labour party or right-on celebrities and popstars.

Anti-Semitism used to plague the Left much less than the Right. But anti-Semitic ways of thinking are shape-shifting. At the moment, its logics are on particularly clear display on the Left in which the urge to insult and malign Jews is not in opposition to its zeal for virtue, but directly fuelled by it. Indeed, in the world of Critical Race Theory, insulting Jews is a kind of virtue, and it will keep happening as long as woke anti-racism remains our culture’s religion.
Whoopi Goldberg suspended from 'The View' over Holocaust comment



Dexter Van Zile: When Israel Can’t Be Blamed, No One Cares About ‘Human Rights’
The way that anti-Israel activists describe Palestinians, you’d think that the people who live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are the most peaceful, kind, hospitable, folks you’ve ever met.

The people who launch rockets, stab and try to run over Israeli civilians with their cars? That’s all fine — because attacking Jews to obtain what has repeatedly been offered at the negotiating table (statehood) is a human right.

But Jewish self-determination, by way of comparison, is a crime against humanity.

As a result, Palestinians can do terrible things to Jews without much damage to their reputation among “human rights” activists.

But when Palestinians do bad things to each other? Well, that scares people in ways that attacking Jews does not.

This helps explain why the “peace” and “justice” crowd has responded so energetically to a January 28 attack on Daoud and Daher Nasser, the proprietors of the “Tent of Nations” in the West Bank.

The attack, perpetrated by Arabs from the nearby village of Nahalin, is a public relations disaster for the “human rights” crowd because the Tent of Nations has, through the years, served as a theme park of anti-Israel propaganda.

For example, a few years ago, folks at the Tent of Nations planted trees on nearby land, which had been uncultivated for decades, to prove it was theirs. When Israelis cut the trees down, attorney Jonathan Kuttab — who, in 1989, defended a Palestinian terrorist who drove a bus filled with passengers into a ravine, killing 16 Israelis — sent out a statement to churches in Europe and North America alerting them to the mean things Israelis were doing to poor farmers at the Tent of Nations.
Five Palestinian NGOs to IDF: Reverse terror declaration
Five Palestinian NGOs, with support from a group of Israeli human rights NGOs, requested that the IDF legal adviser for the West Bank reverse a declaration made in October that they were “unlawful associations.”

Though these groups have struggled against the declaration in the diplomatic and public relations arenas for several months, Thursday’s action was the first formal legal move within the Israeli system to overturn it.

The five groups are Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International – Palestine, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.

A sixth group that was listed in the October declaration, the Union of Agricultural Workers’ Committee, is not part of the latest legal effort. The other five NGOs said it had been “declared unlawful prior to these designations, and is not a part of this particular process.”

Removing the sixth NGO seemed to be a strategic maneuver as well, since much of the alleged evidence against the other five could be traced to it.

As part of the request filed by Adalah as well as top human rights lawyers Michael Sfard and Jawad Boulus, the groups said that an outside body must hear their request to reverse the declaration.

They also attacked IDF legal adviser Col. Asem Hamid for offering them to review only some of the evidence against them.
New Twist in Dem Rep’s Bribery Scandal: Negotiating Anti-Israel Positions
Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) is facing an onslaught of criticism for a contract she signed with a political rival, in which—according to congressional investigators—she likely agreed to hand Professor Iymen Chehade a six-figure salary in exchange for him not running against her in a Democratic primary. But documents appear to show that a cozy job and big title weren’t the only things Newman negotiated.

In an Oct. 2018 email to Newman, Chehade memorialized that he and Newman had met earlier in the week and discussed a proposal where Newman would not only pledge to hiring Chehade, but would also “commit” to a number of anti-Israel policy positions.

Among the positions Chehade laid out were “opposing any legislation that entails ADDITIONAL military sales or aid to Israel,” supporting legislation that achieves “justice and self-determination” for Palestinians, and organizing “fact-finding” delegations to Palestine and other Middle East countries. Chehade even said he wanted “complete discretion” over the itinerary for such a trip.

“At no point will Newman accept partial or complete funding for congressional delegations from the [Jewish National Fund], any organization affiliated with the Israeli government, or any organization that embraces Israeli’s Zionist or colonial project,” Chehade said.

In total, Chehade’s section on the positions that “Newman commits to” was 277 words and included four bullet points with multiple sub-sections.

After receiving these demands on Oct. 27, 2018, Newman agreed later that day that it was a “very good discussion” and asked to “think through” Chehade’s proposal after she had more closely reviewed his conditions. Less than a week later, Newman responded to Chehade’s proposals not with outrage that someone would try to dictate her policy positions or seemingly extort her for a job paid for by the American taxpayers. Instead, Newman wrote this: “Most of it looks good. Couple of concerns -mostly phraseology.”
Federal Civil-Rights Officials Open Investigation into Antisemitism at Brooklyn College
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has announced that it has opened a formal investigation into a complaint alleging Jewish students at Brooklyn College have been subjected to severe and persistent anti-Semitic harassment from both professors and peers.

The complaint—submitted by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of Jewish students in the school’s Mental Health Counseling master’s program—alleges that Brooklyn College has allowed a hostile environment to proliferate on its campus in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It outlines how professors have maligned Jews on the basis of race and ethnic identity, advancing age-old anti-Semitic tropes concerning Jewish power, conspiracy and control, and endorsing the narrative that Jews are “white” and privileged, and therefore contribute to the systemic oppression of people of color.

“Fighting bigotry should not be a competition between minority groups; it’s not a zero-sum game,” said Denise Katz-Prober, director of legal initiatives at the Brandeis Center. “Yet, once again, in a university program for mental-health professionals, Jews are told they must identify as white, are called privileged and are accused of being oppressors. This runs completely counter to Jewish history.”

According to the complaint, “by advancing the racist and ethnic stereotype that all Jews are ‘white’ and ‘privileged’—and therefore oppress people of color—faculty members, students and course assignments in the [Mental Health Counseling] program invoke the classical anti-Semitic trope that Jews possess disproportionate power and influence in society, which they use for nefarious purposes against non-Jews, while also subjecting them to racial stereotypes about ‘whites.’”
Sheffield Hallam UCU passed a second antisemitic motion yesterday
Last November, Sheffield Hallam University UCU passed an antisemitic motion in support of David Miller. The UCU branch rejected a motion that outlined in detail what may be antisemitic about Miller’s work and instead declared that it was not antisemitic. The branch blamed ‘external pressure’ and it said that the allegations made against his work, by his own Jewish students, by many scholars of antisemitism, by the institutions of the Jewish community and by the Parliamentary All Party Group against Antisemitism, were ‘malicious’. For more on that motion, follow this link. To see what Jewish students in Sheffield said about this motion, follow this link.

Yesterday, SHU UCU passed a second antisemitic motion, this time in support of Shahd Absulama, a PhD student and Special Visiting Lecturer who is currently being investigated by the University for antisemitic Facebook posts and tweets.

About using the word “Holocaust”, she wrote that she wouldn’t “use such a politicized word often used to justify the racist state of Israel” and that use of the word Holocaust “distracts attention from the Zionist practices of settler-colonialism and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians”.

Another Tweet, since deleted, urged followers to watch a YouTube video entitled, “Truth About Zionist Jews.” This video reportedly presented numerous antisemitic myths about the Talmud.

Yesterday’s motion blamed the “Zionist press”, words used by Absulama herself who was present at the meeting, for targeting her because she is “critical of Israeli policy.” This seems to have been a reference to recent articles in the Jewish News and on the Campaign Against Antisemitism website.
University of Arizona Took a Meaningful Stand for Jewish Students. Others Should, Too
The University of Arizona's Center for Middle Eastern Studies demonstrated real leadership in protecting its Jewish community and supporting free academic exchange by ending its membership in the problematic Middle East Studies Association (MESA).

Last month MESA advanced a BDS resolution against Israel, ignoring the fact that Israeli colleges and universities are the most diverse in the Middle East.

Jews, Muslims and Christians study and teach together in a collaborative environment that would be unimaginable in most neighboring countries.
Oxfam Stops Funding Palestinian NGO Three Years after Being Warned about Terror Links
The British-founded charity Oxfam has finally stopped handing over millions of euros to the Palestinian NGO Union of Agricultural Work Committees after a 300,000 euro payment in November 2021 - three years after being warned about its terror links by the advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel.

The UAWC has received over two million euros from Oxfam since 2017.

Investigators from Proximities Risk Consultancy, commissioned by the Dutch government to probe UAWC, said the terrorist connections involved 34 people between 2007 and 2020.

28 UAWC board members had links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and, for a period, 12 had leading positions in the UAWC and the PFLP simultaneously.


UK, Jewish Groups Demand YouTube Remove Sermons Inciting Antisemitism
YouTube is being urged to remove from its platform antisemitic hate sermons in the language Urdu, including those posted by clerics idolized by the gunman who took hostages at a Texas synagogue on Jan. 15.

According to a report in The Jewish Chronicle, Malik Faisal Akram, 44—who took four hostages, including the rabbi, at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville before being killed by the FBI—was an avid follower of two Pakistani clerics who posted videos on YouTube.

Israr Ahmed, who has 2.7 million YouTube subscribers, has called Jews “akin to pigs,” as well as “the ultimate source of evil [and] the biggest agents of Satan.” He also said that Jews “control the banking system of the world,” among other antisemitic claims against Jewish people.

Cleric Tariq Jamil, leader of the Islamic movement Tablighi Jamaat, claimed in a video to his nearly 6 million subscribers during the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas last May: “The whole world’s occupier is targeting us, the world oppressors joke about us, they dance on our dead bodies, they put our houses on fire. … Oh Allah, the oppressor is challenging us.”

Akram, who lived in Blackburn in the United Kingdom, joined Tablighi Jamaat in 2003 and was a devoted follower of Jamil’s, his family has said. Akram was later banned from the Tablighi mosque in Blackburn after he called for jihad against Israel and United States.
Reuters Confused About Own Ties to Journalism Institution That Awarded Fellowship to Terrorist-glorifying Palestinian Writer
Inexplicably rebranding as “protests” a series of violent Palestinian riots in the West Bank; “contextualizing” the stabbing of an Israeli by tacitly offering a rationale for the attack in the headline; quoting an Islamic charity that has been dogged by accusations of antisemitism about the recent Texas synagogue attack; and uncritically parroting a palpably untrue narrative about an alleged Israeli campaign to force Palestinians out of a Jerusalem neighborhood.

These are a handful of examples of journalistic blunders Reuters has made in its reportage on Israel and, more generally, about Jews over just the last two months.

They are all the more egregious given that Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world, with more than 2,000 clients spread across 128 countries.

Just this week, HonestReporting questioned whether Reuters has a habit of associating with individuals who have casually disseminated disinformation about the Jewish state, including the agency’s Henriette Chacar.

Chacar has, among other slanderous remarks, accused Israel of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing” and “Jewish supremacy.”

We also pointed to how the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ), which receives its core funding from the charitable arm of the wire service, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, had awarded Palestinian writer Haya Abushkhaidem a place in its 2022 Journalist Fellow Programme, which is based at the UK’s prestigious Oxford University.

Like Chacar, Abushkhaidem has promoted the demonstrably false claim that Israel is upholding a system of apartheid, as well as “lynching” Palestinians.

In one particularly disturbing Instagram post, Abushkhaidem uploaded a picture celebrating Palestinian “women for freedom” that included images of terrorists Leila Khaled and Dalal Mughrabi.
Winnipeg-Based Feminist Magazine Publishes Book Review Accusing Israel of 'Ethnic Cleansing Operation' of Palestinians
Herizons describes itself as a Winnipeg-based feminist magazine, published quarterly, which according to its website, “covers gender justice, the activists and artists making it happen, and the global feminist movement.” Herizons acknowledges that it receives funding both from the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Government of Canada.

In its Fall 2021 issue, Herizons published a review by Nuzhat Abbas of “A White Lie,” a book by Barbara Bill and Ghada Adeel, published by the University of Alberta Press, which purports to share stories about women’s experiences during the Nakba, an Arabic term meaning “catastrophe,” referring to when Israel successfully achieved independence in 1948 from the United Kingdom. (As the review is not online, it can be read in full at the bottom of this alert).

The book’s forward is sympathetically described by Abbas as “moving” and refers to Israel’s independence as “the largest, longest, most continuous ethnic cleansing operation in the history of Palestine.”

Abbas later makes reference to how, in 1948, “Indigenous Palestinians fled to Gaza to escape Israeli massacres and the mass destruction of their villages.”


Florida Gov. DeSantis calls Nazi rally participants ‘jackasses,’ fires back at those calling on him to condemn the event
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis described participants in a Nazi rally that took place in Orlando over the weekend as “jackasses,” and said those criticizing him for not condemning the event were trying to “smear” him.

A video of the Orlando rally that spread on social media Monday showed protesters standing on a highway overpass in front of banners of swastikas. The Orlando Sentinel reported that the group shouted antisemitic slurs, and an array of bipartisan Florida politicians, including Republican Sen. Rick Scott and Democratic House Rep. Val Demings, condemned the gathering.

But DeSantis claimed those asking him to condemn the Nazis tried to “use this as some type of political issue,” according to CNN. “We’re not playing their game,” he added. The governor said that those at the rally would and should face “consequences” from state law enforcement for their behavior on the overpass.

Among those calling on DeSantis to condemn the Nazi rally was the Anti-Defamation League’s Florida office.

“We expect any public official, especially a voice for @GovRonDeSantis, to address the fears of the Jewish community thoughtfully – not with this troubling and careless approach,” the branch said in a tweet Monday.

Nikki Fried, Florida’s Jewish agriculture commissioner running for governor as a Democrat, said she was “horrified but not surprised” at DeSantis’ lack of condemnation. She recently compared DeSantis to Hitler.
Jewish community slam decision by Labour to readmit councillor
A JEWISH group claim they were not consulted over a councillor being readmitted to the Labour Party following a suspension for anti-Semitism.

The Brighton and Hove Labour group announced that councillor Anne Pissaridou would be readmitted after she "made conscious and sustained efforts to educate herself on issues around anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic tropes", and that she has begun "rebuilding trust with members of the local Jewish community".

However, a spokeswoman for the Sussex Jewish Representative Council said that they have made no contact with her and said they not aware of any attempts by her to contact any of the city's recognised Jewish organisations.

She said: "In order to sincerely learn and address issues of anti-Jewish racism, it is vital to speak directly with those impacted and those who are chosen to represent the broadcast sway of our community.

"Cllr Pissaridou shared anti-Jewish tropes and conspiracies which caused great offence and upset to our local community. It is for us to decide whether she has done enough to make up for those insults, not the local Labour Party.

"If they had engaged with the local Jewish community and sought our input, they would have been aware of our feelings on this matter."
Manhattan school cancels Shakespeare play after parents raise anti-Semitism concerns
The bard got the boot.

A popular Manhattan middle school nixed a production of Shakespeare’s “A Merchant of Venice” last month after some parents expressed concern about anti-Semitic themes, The Post has learned.

In collaboration with a theater group, the vaunted 75 Morton school in Greenwich Village had planned a unit on the play for seventh grade drama students.

But that plan was met with unease from some Jewish parents who asked administrators — including first-year principal Valerie Leak — if the material was appropriate for middle schoolers.

The 16th-century play features a Jewish money lender named Shylock — a term that has come to be considered an anti-Semitic slur.

Parents told The Post that they’re not flatly opposed to the production, which remains a theater company staple, but were concerned that it wasn’t appropriate for young students.

“The way that anti-Semitism is shown in this play, if you don’t have a minimum of knowledge and context you can’t understand how bad and dangerous it is you,” a member of the school community told The Post.

School sources said Leak pledged to hold meetings on the matter with parents, drama teachers and members of the Theater for a New Audience, the organization charged with collaborating with students on the play.
Man who drew Union Station swastikas is twice-deported criminal
A man arrested last week for vandalizing Washington's Union Station with swastika symbols is a Mexican citizen with a 15-year criminal history who has been deported twice but still does not meet Biden administration standards for arrest or removal.

Geraldo Pando, 34, was arrested on Jan. 28 and charged with the display of certain emblems and defacing private/public property for drawing the Nazi symbol on the exterior walls of the train station, just blocks from the U.S. Capitol. The incident happened one day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day and is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Arrest records obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner reveal that Pando had an extensive, 35-page criminal history in Colorado before he arrived in the District of Columbia recently. Despite his record, Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not attempt to take him into federal custody after his Union Station arrest so that he could face deportation proceedings in court, instead allowing him to remain in the United States.

Pando had also been detained and arrested a week prior to the Union Station incident for vandalizing the U.S. Capitol Police headquarters, according to a senior Senate aide familiar with Pando’s run-ins with federal, state, and local law enforcement. Capitol Police released him because ICE did not ask that he be detained until he could be transferred into federal custody. Capitol Police and ICE did not respond to requests for comment.
Past Holocaust comments surface, Brian Kendrick pulled from AEW debut Kendrick, who has been a known name in wrestling circles since 1999, has since apologized for the comments.
Past claims that the Holocaust didn't happen resurfaced this week, leading to the withdrawal on Wednesday of 42-year-old ex-WWE wrestler Brian Kendrick from his expected debut at the All Elite Wrestling (AEW) Dynamite.

Kendrick, who has been a known name in wrestling circles since 1999, has since apologized for the comments.

"I apologize for all the hurt and embarassment I have caused with my words. These are not my beliefs and never were beliefs of mine, and I crossed the line," he tweeted.

Up until about an hour before his Dynamite match against Jon Moxley began, AEW president Tony Khan confirmed that the match was canceled. Moxley will fight Wheeler Yuta instead, the New York Post noted.

AEW Dynamite is a televised professional wrestling competition and has been on air since 2019.

Kendrick's comments weren't limited to Holocaust denial. They included references to 9/11 and the Sandy Hook shooting.


UK takes first steps towards new trade deal with Israel
- International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan launches consultation today (2 February) for a new UK-Israel trade deal, during a 3-day visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
- 8-week consultation will seek the views of the public and business on an enhanced trade deal
- UK confirms plans for a UK-Israel Innovation Summit this spring, with Israeli PM and a trade delegation set to attend

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan will today meet with Israel Minister of Economy Orna Barbivai to kickstart preparations for a new trade deal that will deepen economic ties between long-standing allies.

The UK government will launch an eight-week consultation to seek the views of business and the public, ahead of negotiations starting later this year, as is standard. The UK is Israel’s third largest trading partner, with £2.7 billion worth of British exports going there in 2020 and an overall trade relationship worth £4.8 billion.

Last year, Israeli investment into the UK was worth over £200m and secured hundreds of jobs across the UK. A new agreement will aim to play to our strengths as fellow tech superpowers, boosting our strong trade and investment relationship in industries of the future like digital, services and life sciences and creating high-paying jobs across the country.

While services account for 70% of both our economies, they currently only represent 35% of our bilateral trade. An updated trade agreement could address this imbalance by cutting red tape and overhauling the very limited provisions on services and innovation in the current agreement inherited from the EU.

During her three-day visit, the Secretary of State will encourage greater collaboration between UK and Israeli tech industries. She will meet key Israeli investors in the UK, host a reception of leading technology businesses and visit Tel Aviv’s new light rail metro project to identify opportunities for UK firms to be involved in the project.
‘Our trip created a stronger bond’: Kraft shares memories of Tom Brady in Israel
On Tuesday, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady announced his retirement after 22 seasons in the National Football League.

Widely regarded as the greatest quarterback in NFL history, Brady’s resume includes 10 Super Bowl appearances, seven Super Bowl wins — all but one of them with the New England Patriots — five Super Bowl MVPs, and records for most wins, passing completions, touchdowns, yards, and much more.

His exploits and decades of elite performance on the field are well-known.

Brady’s connections to Israel and Judaism, however, have remained a footnote in his celebrated career and life.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a proud Zionist and close friend of Brady, recounted to The Times of Israel on Wednesday his week in Israel with the GOAT.

“My first visit to Israel was on my honeymoon in 1963, and I fell in love with it,” said Kraft. “I have been taking people on mission trips to the Holy Land to share its spirituality and splendor ever since. I have sponsored more than 100 mission trips, giving first-time visitors a cultural and spiritual experience of a lifetime.”

Among those mission trips, Kraft and his late wife Myra regularly took Patriots players and NFL Hall of Famers to Israel.
Esther Pollard managed to rally a nation
For many years, the name Jonathan Pollard was a household name for every girl and boy in Israel. Pollard was mentioned in prayers and in other instances as part of the campaign to secure the release of the convicted Israeli spy.

But this was not always the case: During the first years after his capture, the vast majority of Israelis wanted nothing to do with him. The unprecedented diplomatic rift between Israel and the US, and the efforts to deescalate things vis-a-vis the US administrations had the Israeli government and intelligence community disown him. Apart from private initiatives by various MKs, Pollard was left to his own devices for many years.

Pollard also divorced his first wife just after she was released from prison. But instead of then disappearing into oblivion, a new woman entered his life, which led to a dramatic shift in how Israeli governments and Israelis viewed him. Elaine Zeitz, who later became Esther Pollard, took it upon herself to make his release her life's mission, knowing full-well how much of a burden this could be on her narrow shoulders.

Their first interaction was through lengthy mail correspondence. In 1993 they married, with Esther knowing that this meant a very extraordinary marriage and that his release date was anything but certain. From the moment she took on this mission, she would meet with senior rabbis, influencers and activists and became an army of one, totally devoted to her cause.

Her campaign made Pollard a household name, and a prayer calling for his release became part of many services at synagogues. His release was also a topic of discussion whenever prime ministers met with their US counterparts.

Whenever I met the couple I could see the smitten Pollard looking with adoring eyes at his wife, feeling the gratitude he felt toward her. Esther, whom I got to know first hand, was a powerful woman with unbelievable strengths that was determined to bring him home. Without her, there was a real risk of no one pursuing his cause.







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