Sunday, February 13, 2022

From Ian:

David Collier: Amnesty’s problem with Israel – too many Jews
Amnesty’s definition of ‘Apartheid’ means ‘Jewish majority rule’

These are some of the problems in Israel inside Amnesty’s ‘Apartheid’ report:
The report makes clear that they have a problem with Israel’s ‘law of return’ which is the basis of the world having a refuge for Jewish people (page 82).
Amnesty has a problem with Hebrew being the dominant language (page 212).
They have a problem with Jewish majority state control (throughout the document).
Amnesty has a problem with the Jewish state ‘owning’ its own land (throughout the document).
It has a problem with urban renewal projects (throughout the document)
Amnesty has a problem with the Jewish state building towns to house Jewish refugees and immigrants (page 146)
It has a problem with a Jewish majority anywhere – referring to the impact of that majority as ”Judaization’ (example page 22)
Amnesty has a problem when the Jewish state embarks on social and economic development programs (page 153)
Amnesty has a problem with normal economic restraints (such as a state not having enough money to invest as much as it should – see investment on classrooms on page 213)
It has a problem with there being more ‘Jewish localities’ than non-Jewish ones (page 146).
Amnesty scream ‘Apartheid’ when they see a housing shortage (you know, like we have in the UK)

The bottom line is this: Amnesty International have a problem with a Jewish majority state – period.

Wanting to destroy Israel
Being in the majority comes with perks. Most people will speak the same language as you, worship the same god as you and celebrate the same holidays as you. A nation’s culture is shaped by the majority. Christmas day is a big holiday in the UK – not so much in Saudi Arabia. The UK’s flag and many of the state’s emblems carry a cross – which you won’t tend to find on the state emblems in Indonesia. Nothing of this is untoward. The UK is not an Apartheid state because Easter is celebrated with a public holiday – and Ramadan isn’t. And inside pre 1967 Israel – this is what Amnesty are calling ‘Apartheid’ – this is what they want to tear down. They want to destroy the Jewish state.

So remember, when you see Amnesty say ‘Apartheid’ – what they mean is democratic representation inside a Jewish majority state. And when they say they want to ‘end it’ be in no doubt that they are talking about the deliberate destruction of the only democratic nation in the MENA region.

Why are they doing it? – Simply because the Islamist / hard-left alliance have taken a firm grip of what was once Amnesty’s soul.
Richard Landes: Antisemitism and Amnesty International
The report denies the State of Israel’s right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people. Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonize Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism.

What the outside world heard: “Israel dismisses amnesty report as antisemitic.” For many this response offers proof of the “Livingstone formulation”: Jews use “antisemitism” to silence legitimate criticism of Israel.

What the accusers do not want, is that their audience see them spreading illegitimate anti-Jewish memes at a time when hostility to Jews is most decidedly on the rise even in Western countries formally wedded to Nie Weider. Like Freud, publishing Moses and Monotheism in German, in 1939, they throw fuel, refined fuel, on the flames of the often denied longest hatred. But don’t call them antisemitic. Freud wasn’t.

In order to frame the issue as Israeli apartheid and crimes against humanity, this report systematically projects malevolence – the racist desire to dominate – onto the Israelis, even as it conceals the patent malevolence of her enemies. As such, the report resembles the classic supersessionist projection of ill-will and dominion onto the Jews who allegedly take their “chosenness” as a warrant to dominate gentiles cruelly. This same hostile projection informed the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion; and like the denizens of the early 20th century, some in the early 21st century will take this report as a warrant for the destruction of the accused.

Indeed, an earlier draft of the report (sent to journalists to prepare for the official release) claimed that “This system of Apartheid originated with the creation of Israel in May 1948 and has been built and maintained for decades.” After much commotion (by the IHRA definition, this is antisemitism), the reference to 1948 was removed from the final English version. But the hasty and limited removal of this reference merely tried to conceal the driving force behind the report, the scaffolding upon which AI assembled it: Israel itself is a racist endeavor, an illegitimate nation. Israel delendus est. As such, like all supersessionists in pre-modern periods (Christians, Muslims), this allegedly civil-society discourse reveals itself incapable of tolerating the existence of an autonomous Jewish entity.

Is this antisemitism? You be the judge. Is it reasonable for Zionists to say that this report fans the flames of Jew-hatred? Yes. Does that mean that Jews are again suppressing legitimate criticism of Israel with the antisemitism charge? You be the judge. Does it mean that you owe it to yourself to read the devastating critiques of this malevolent report? Yes. Does it mean that if the charges against AI are accurate, this Report is a fire accelerant thrown into a combustive global community? You be the judge.

And if you so judge, then speak out. Words matter, especially when the words one opposes are weapons in a cruel war.


Amnesty International’s pseudo-scholarship
Clearly, when a report such as this refers to disputed territories—areas of Judea, Samaria, and sections of Jerusalem which have had a Jewish presence and identity since biblical times—as “Occupied Palestinian Territories” it has already revealed the political bias inherent in its view of the situation about which it has written this report.

In addition to a return, the AI report calls for full reparations for any Palestinian losses of wealth and property, something they never have considered, of course, for the more than 800,000 Jews whose businesses, wealth, and property was seized when they were expelled from Arab countries upon Israel’s birth. The fate of the Jews is never of concern to human rights activists or the virtue-signaling activists on campuses calling for an intifada to “free Palestine” from the current grip of Jews.

“Israel must grant equal and full human rights to all Palestinians in Israel and the OPT in line with principles of international human rights law . . ,” the report demands. “It must also recognize the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived in Israel or the OPT. In addition, Israel must provide . . . full reparations. These should include restitution of and compensation for all properties acquired on a racial basis,” meaning what, that any properties acquired by “white” Jews who appropriated them from “brown” Arabs during the War of Independence and in 1967?

AI should know that the demand for a right of return, a notion referred to by Palestinian Arabs and their supporters as “sacred” and an “enshrined” universal human right granted by UN resolutions and international law, in fact, has no legal standing at all, and is part of the propaganda campaign that is based on the thinking that if Israel cannot be eradicated by the Arabs though war, it can effectively be destroyed by forcing it to commit demographic suicide. AI, as an international organization that professes to be an authority on human rights and international law, should know the facts and the truth, but, apparently, it does not.

In the first place, the right of return claim uses the fraud as its core notion that the Palestinians were “victimized” by the creation of Israel, that they were expelled from a fictive land of “Palestine” where they were the indigenous people. Except that when historian Joan Peters used the expression “from time immemorial,” in her book of the same name, she proved just the opposite.

As Professor Efraim Karsh, head of Mediterranean Studies at King’s College, University of London, and the author of Fabricating Israeli History: The New Historians, points out, “this claim of premeditated dispossession is itself not only baseless, but the inverse of the truth. Far from being the hapless victims of a predatory Zionist assault, the Palestinians were themselves the aggressors in the 1948-49 war, and it was they who attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to ‘cleanse’ a neighbouring [sic] ethnic community. Had the Palestinians and the Arab world accepted the United Nations resolution of November 29, 1947, calling for the establishment of two states in Palestine, and not sought to subvert it by force of arms, there would have been no refugee problem in the first place.”


Legal Expert: The Palestinian Authority Practices Apartheid, Not Israel
Kontorovich explains his conclusion in a piece published by the Wall Street Journal titled “There’s Apartheid in The Holy Land, But it’s Not in Israel.”

“Israel is a country where Arabs participate in all walks of public life, hold positions in the government,” he says. “In Israel, Arabs and Jews mingle, in cafes and on busses, in all public places. But right next door, in those areas of the Holy Land run by the Palestinian Authority, real apartheid is practiced.”

Kontorovich points out the PA has a law that calls for the death penalty if a Palestinian sells land to a Jew. Back in November, CBN News asked the Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister about that law.

“Land in Palestine is not a real estate issue. Land in Palestine is a political issue. So therefore, the Palestinian law does not allow land to be sold to non-Palestinians,” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh told CBN News.

Another controversial government policy is referred to as pay to slay. That program rewards terrorists convicted of killing Jews.

“Israel is not sponsoring a program of pay to slay against Palestinians,” Kontorovich says. “The Palestinian Authority government supported by Western governments … funds a pay to lay program to pay for the murder of Jews.”

Kontorovich says through all its laws and policies the PA has created a Jew-free zone.

“When you at the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, it’s not that there’s no separation between Jews and Arabs, there’s just no Jews. Because they have created a Jew-free state and they have enforced this through official methods.”


Antisemitism a 'massive problem' on the left of politics
Director of Whose Land? Hugh Kitson says antisemitism is more prevalent on the left of the political spectrum.

“It is a massive problem on the left unfortunately,” Mr Kitson told Sky News Australia.

Mr Kitson also rubbished claims from Amnesty International that Israel was an apartheid state.

“Apartheid is just a plain and simple lie,” he said.




Seth Frantzman: Could Ukraine crisis lead to new world order that impacts Israel?
Meanwhile, the US is largely beset by domestic squabbles, and polling on backing Ukraine in the US shows that Americans are divided. They don’t really want involvement in another foreign war. Russia can read the polls too.

This means the Ukraine crisis could serve as a turning point, at least symbolically, of how the world order is changing. However, it could also serve to show that Russian threats and even an invasion won’t go as Moscow planned.

If Russia fumbles, then this could fuel the US desire to move to near-peer rivalry, and it could fuel massive defense spending for new systems and platforms to confront Moscow. That could lead to the US seemingly awakening from a slumber of domestic chaos and pandemic-induced malaise.

This matters for the Middle East. The US is a key partner of countries in the region and an ally of Israel and others. The US, however, has wanted to withdraw from the region and reduce its footprint. Whenever the US signals withdrawal, this unleashes chaos and also invites Iran and others into the region.

These are usually outcomes that can harm Israel because Iran leads proxies that are anti-Israel. Iranian proxies also target Israel’s new peace partners in the Gulf. Thus, the Ukraine crisis could have ramifications that affect Israel.

Russia is not necessarily the major problem, and it generally gets along with Israel. China has also had trade with Israel. But there are major questions about how it might fuel Iranian aggression in the region. If Russia is seen to have gotten a green light for an invasion, then Iran may think it can increase its attacks.
The Israeli Left’s Antisemitism Blind Spot
A great scholar of antisemitism once told me that there was one country that frustrated him when it came to its understanding of the extent and depth of Jew-hatred: Israel.

While this might sound like the kernel of a classic Jewish joke, my interlocutor was actually being deadly serious. And his point was well-observed: Having grown up in a Jewish state, Israelis were familiar with antisemitism only through history lessons and from the vile propaganda broadcast in their direction from the Arab and Muslim worlds. But very few Israelis had the experience of being assaulted for wearing a kipah or arriving at a Jewish school to find swastikas daubed on the walls, or being insulted as a Yid in the street. Even as Israelis understood that antisemitism elsewhere was a real phenomenon, in terms of daily routine in Israel, it was one that existed in imagination and interpretation, rather than lived experience.

Still, most Israelis these days grasp and respect that antisemitism is once again a towering challenge facing Jewish communities in the Diaspora. Most, but not all. Particularly on the Israeli left, there is a cavalier, impatient attitude towards antisemitism, which is perceived as an irritating distraction from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories — the issue that really matters.

A recent op-ed published in the daily Haaretz by the Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar perfectly captured this attitude. Its title was hopelessly puerile and offensive — “If Speaking Out Against Injustice is Antisemitic, Then I’m an Antisemite” — but insofar as it pulled no punches in depicting antisemitism as a ruse to shut down advocacy for Palestinian rights, it was a pithy summary of the article that followed.

According to Eldar, “no accusation has a more powerful effect than the accusation of antisemitism,” and Israeli politicians have milked this fact for all it is worth. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “invariably transformed any document that dared to be critical of the occupation into a new edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” wrote Eldar, adding that this was a tactic now embraced by Netanyahu’s rival, current Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
Jared Kushner is nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for Abraham Accords between Israel and Middle Eastern neighbors
Former presidential son-in-law and ex-White House adviser Jared Kushner has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for a second straight year.

Kushner, 41, who worked on foreign policy for the Trump administration, was put up for the award for his work on the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements that normalized relations between Israel and several Middle Eastern nations.

Congressman and Republican candidate for governor of New York Lee Zeldin nominated both Kushner and the former White House adviser's deputy Avi Berkowitz, according to the New York Post.

'The Abraham Accords, signed in 2020, represent the most significant diplomatic breakthrough between Israel and Arab nations in decades,' Zeldin wrote in his nomination.

The accords normalize relations between Israel and the UAE, Sudan, Morocco and Bahrain.
Mossad helped foil 12 attack plots on Israelis in Turkey over past 2 years – report
The Mossad spy agency has helped foil 12 plots to carry out terror attacks on Israelis in Turkey over the past two years, Channel 12 news reported Saturday.

The network, which did not cite a source, credited the Mossad’s ties with Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which it said have strengthened in recent years despite the strained diplomatic relations between the countries.

Most of the reported attack plots were linked to the Islamic State jihadist terror group and targeted businesspeople and other Israelis in Turkey.

The report came a day after Turkish media and a Turkish-based Israeli businessman announced the uncovering of an Iranian plot to assassinate him. It also followed recent reports in Turkey of the indictment of 16 alleged Mossad spies.

Channel 12 cited Turkish media reports that a delegation of senior Israeli officials traveled to Turkey in the past few days.

The network speculated that one of those who participated was Mossad chief David Barnea who, the report said, personally oversees intelligence ties with Turkey.
Two Injured in Clashes in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood
At least two people were injured and six others arrested after clashes in east Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood early Sunday morning.

Clashes erupted between police and protesters, as well as between Jews and Palestinians, after a suspected firebomb attack on a Jewish home, and far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir’s announcement that he will set up his office in the neighborhood, which has been plagued by tensions for several months.

A Jewish man was moderately injured by an Arab driver in the neighborhood around midnight. Police arrested the driver, who claimed he was sprayed with pepper spray before the collision, apparently by Jewish protesters.

Magen David Adom emergency services said the injured man was treated at the scene and then transported to Hadassah Hospital.

Another man, about 20 years old, suffered minor head injuries in the same area after being hit by a stone. The Ynet site reported that a Palestinian was also injured.

In a statement, police said riots broke out in Sheikh Jarrah and participants were throwing stones.

Jews and Arabs also clashed in the neighborhood, including throwing stones and other objects at each other, Army Radio reported.

The incidents come as on Friday night a firebomb was reportedly thrown at the home of a Jewish family in a part of Sheikh Jarrah called Shimon HaTzadik.
Sheikh Jarrah clashes: 'Israel playing with fire,' Hamas warns
Violent clashes broke out between Arabs and Jews on Sunday as Otzma Yehudit head MK Itamar Ben-Gvir set up an office in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem to decry the lack of police protection for Jewish residents.

Israel Police arrested at least eight suspects on Sunday during the riots, saying "Israel Police will continue to act with determination and zero tolerance for violence of any kind, violation of public order and attempts to harm police officers or civilians in violation of the law."

Police used sound grenades, rubber bullets and water cannons, among other riot dispersal methods, to disperse the crowds gathered in the neighborhood throughout the day, according to Palestinian reports.

Palestinian factions warned that the violence would cause the situation to explode and called on Palestinians and Arabs to come to the neighborhood to clash with Jews. The Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV reported that Hamas had told Egyptian mediators that the situation was a "dangerous escalation that cannot be tolerated," saying that Israel is "playing with fire again."

Hamas spokesman Muhammad Hamadeh warned that the factions "will not hesitate defend Sheikh Jarrah if the aggression of the occupation and its settlers continues."

"Our message to the whole world...Jerusalem is a red line and we are ready to offer the most precious in order to repel the occupation’s aggression against our people," said Hamadeh.


Palestinian professionals banned from work in Lebanon for second time
Lebanon's State Shura Council decided this month to reverse an order issued in December allowing Palestinian refugees to work in trade-union regulated professions, after complaints that the order would encroach on the rights of Lebanese professionals and claims that the order was trying to pave the way for naturalizing Palestinian refugees.

The reversal was made after the council accepted an appeal by the Maronite League, the head of the league, Neamatallah Abi Nasr, announced on Thursday, according to Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA).

In December, amended regulations published by the country's Labor Ministry stated that Palestinians who were born in Lebanon and officially registered in the records of the Lebanese Interior Ministry will be allowed to work in professions that are in general limited to Lebanese citizens only, such as law, engineering and medicine, among others.

The appeal filed by the Maronite League claimed that the labor minister had overstepped his authority when he issued a decision allowing Palestinians to access previously barred professions. The appeal had claimed that the decision violated the country's constitution, adding that the league was blocking attempts to "change the modern and historic face of Lebanon and attempting to impose a new demographic status quo," according to L'Orient Le'Jour.

The Hamas movement in Lebanon condemned the decision to reverse the order on Saturday, saying that it "raises fundamental questions related to its background and timing, and harms Lebanese-Palestinian relations.”


PMW: Abbas openly calls on Palestinians to murder Israelis
After Israel killed three terrorists who had already carried out a number of terror attacks and were planning another imminent attack, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called on Palestinians to “dish out to them twice as much as we’ve received.”

When calling to “dish out to them twice as much as we’ve received,” Abbas is literally calling for the murder of at least 6 Israelis! Openly calling for the murder of Israelis in response to Israel neutralizing three terrorists, is something Abbas reserves for his Arabic speaking audience.

In a speech broadcast during a memorial event for the three terrorists, Abbas rewrote history, whitewashing the terrorists and their actions, claiming that the call for revenge was justified because “We are the ones who were attacked. We didn’t attack anyone”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas via phone: “This is an act of premeditated murder that the oppressive Zionist occupier committed against our sons, our young people, and our people. These events will not pass by in silence under any circumstances, and we won’t let them repeat themselves, because these are crimes that we can’t be silent about under any circumstances. We’ve been very patient. We’ve been patient for 73 years (i.e., since Israel's establishment.) We won’t continue to wait patiently any longer. We must dish out to them twice as much as we’ve received, because we are the ones who were attacked. We didn’t attack anyone, and we don’t call on people to carry out acts of murder and the like. They (i.e., Israelis) are the ones who do that.”

[Sawa, independent Palestinian news agency, Feb. 10, 2022]


The three neutralized terrorists, Adham Mabrouka Al-Shishani, Muhammad Al-Dakhil, and Ashraf Mubaslat, were all members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the internationally designated terror wing of Fatah, headed by Abbas.

Official Fatah Spokesman Hussein Hamayel reiterated that the killing of the terrorists would “not pass in silence” and called to carry out popular resistance - a term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror:




Ex-Tehran police chief linked to rights abuses spotted working out at Toronto-area gym
Iranian ex-patriates and human-rights groups are voicing outrage after evidence emerged that Canada had issued a visitor visa to a former Tehran police chief linked to various human-rights abuses.

Morteza Talaei also headed the capital city’s police force when Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested and tortured to death in a Tehran prison.

The ex-chief was photographed at a gym in Richmond Hill, Ont., near Toronto, and later told a European-based Iranian journalist the visit to see his daughter was a private matter and no one else’s business.

Talaei is best known for launching a special unit to crack down on women wearing supposedly un-Islamic dress, aggressively quelling protests and spearheading an operation to seize TV satellite dishes used to bring in Western programming.

Before becoming police chief, he was an officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the politicized military force that shot down an airliner packed with Canadians in 2020 – accidentally according to Iran.

Canada should not be offering a safe haven and “impunity abroad” to individuals like Talaei, said a coalition of Iranian rights groups in an open letter to the federal government last week. The organizations urged Ottawa instead to impose sanctions on such officials under its “Magnitsky” law for punishing foreign rights violators.

“Allowing Morteza Talaei to freely enter Canada sends a dangerous message, a message that is an affront to Iranians who have themselves sought refuge in Canada,” the letter said. “Human rights violators must not be included in the Prime Minister’s ‘everyone is welcome’ campaign.”


Unilever can't side-step country's anti-boycott law - Israeli Ben & Jerry's
Any Unilever Global plan to restrict Ben & Jerry's ice cream sales solely within the pre-1967 law would run afoul of the county's anti-boycott law, declared Avi Zinger the CEO of the Israeli franchise of the famous Vermont based global ice cream company declared on Sunday.

“There is no legal possibility to continue selling in Israel without selling in Judea and Samaria,” Zinger stated.

He spoke in response to a declaration last Thursday by Alan Jope the CEO of Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever.

He told reporters that the board of Ben & Jerry’s aims to work out a “new arrangement” for sales within sovereign Israel before the end of the year.

“Our absolute focus right now is to figure out what the new arrangement will be for Ben & Jerry’s,” Jope said on a conference call with journalists after the company announced its earnings.

Jope's comments were the most specific he has given about the decision made last July by Ben & Jerry's independent board to end its contract with its Israeli franchise by the end of 2022.

The decision came after Zinger – whose ice cream factory is located in southern Israel – refused to halt sales of the ice cream to areas of the country. Israeli products – including others connected to Unilever – such as the competitor ice cream brand Strauss, are all sold on both sides of the pre-1967 lines.


Zahra Billoo removed as keynote speaker at San Mateo women’s conference
Zahra Billoo, a Muslim civil rights attorney and activist in the Bay Area who came under fire recently for controversial remarks attacking mainstream Jewish organizations, has been removed as a keynote speaker from San Mateo County’s RISE 2022 women’s leadership conference.

Billoo, the executive director of the local branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was slated to be one of three keynote speakers at a two-day virtual conference organized by the San Mateo County Commission on the Status of Women, scheduled for March.

She was meant to join Sallie Krawcheck, the CEO and co-founder of robo-advisor investment platform Ellevest; and Haleema Bharoocha, a Muslim social impact consultant. According to conference organizer and county employee, Tanya Beat, Billoo was dropped due to remarks she made on Nov. 27, 2021, in a speech at an annual conference of American Muslims for Palestine in Chicago.

In that speech, Billoo urged her audience to oppose not only extreme right-wing forces, but also “polite Zionists,” including the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federations, Hillel and “Zionist synagogues.”

“They are not your friends,” she said.

“Ms. Billoo is no longer scheduled as the keynote speaker,” Beat wrote in a Feb. 7 email to J. “The San Mateo County Women’s Leadership Conference seeks to provide an inclusive space for women and girls from all backgrounds to connect freely and engage in open dialogue. Ms. Billoo’s remarks from November 2021 do not align with those goals or the core values of the Commission on the Status of Women or the County of San Mateo.”

Responding to a Twitter message from J., Billoo sharply criticized the women’s leadership conference decision.


UK boxer stirs controversy for Valentine's Day trip to Auschwitz 2-time world bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell, in since-deleted posts, shared pictures of him and his girlfriend smiling and seemingly happy visiting the infamous Nazi death camp.
Former world champion boxer Jamie McDonnell sparked controversy on social media when he shared pictures of himself and his girlfriend taking smiling, happy-seeming pictures together on vacation in Auschwitz.

McDonnell, who is a boxer from the UK who held the IBF and WBA world bantamweight championships and who retired in 2019, shared posts on social media, nearly all of which he has since deleted, of him and his girlfriend at the infamous Nazi concentration camp in Poland, seemingly during a Valentine's Day trip.

"Here we go, was an eye opener today at Auschwitz," he wrote.

The backlash was quick, with many calling out the boxer for his posts and seemingly treating the site as a tourist attraction.

McDonnell responded to many allegations, though these responses have also mostly been deleted, including sharing one photo of a website with information on tours of Auschwitz, as if to imply it was, in fact, a tourist attraction.

"Making me feel like I did something wrong, only come away for a weekend for Valentine's," he tweeted with a shrug emoji in one response.
Jewish teenager assaulted in Flatbush, Brooklyn
The New York Police Department (NYPD) is investigating a seemingly antisemitic assault that occurred in Flatbush, Brooklyn on Friday night when a visibly Jewish teenager and another passerby were assaulted out of nowhere.

The first incident happened at around 10:30 p.m. EST when an unidentified man got out of a van and punched the teenager in the face while someone else inside the van reportedly filmed the encounter, according to Yeshiva World News, citing the Flatbush Shomrim.

A second victim has since come forward as well and was able to escape, according to YNW.

The report was confirmed by the NYPD, with the Hate Crimes Task Force announcing that they were actively investigating the incident.

This was further supported by New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

"Make no mistake," he said on Twitter, "an attack on our Jewish community is an attack on every New Yorker. We will catch the perpetrators of this assault."


Tottenham Hotspur Fans Have Long Called Themselves ‘Yids.’ The British Soccer Team Has Asked Them to Stop.
A British soccer team that had previously defended its fans’ self-designation as “yids” has for the first time asked they stop.

Tottenham Hotspur, a prominent London team with a sizable Jewish fanbase and a reputation of being Jewish among fans of rival teams, made the request in a statement on its website Thursday.

“It is time to move on from associating this term with our club,” the club wrote in the statement, which reflected the outcome of an inquiry that the team launched

In the statement, the club described the use of “yid army” and “yiddo” by its fans as a way of deflecting the antisemitic chants of fans of rival teams, by owning the slur and turning it on its head.

“Among the reasons some fans choose to continue to chant the term now is to show unity and support for the team, as well as each other, as a defense mechanism against antisemitic abuse that still exists and also as a way to identify as a Spurs fan,” the statement read.

The statement said the team seeks “to create a welcoming environment that embraces all our fans” but the nickname increasingly stood in the way.

“It is clear the use of this term does not always make this possible, regardless of context and intention,” the statement said.


Archaeology proves Jews are indigenous to the Land of Israel
Next, Eilat Mazar, the granddaughter of a leading Israeli archeologist, Benjamin Mazar, uncovered a wall that connected to King David’s Palace. Mazar was raised on the belief that the Bible can provide a roadmap to understanding the land of Israel. Following her family tradition, and after studying the Book of Samuel, Mazar believed that she knew the location of King David’s palace.

After raising the necessary funds to conduct such an excavation, Mazar uncovered a massive wall structure that was dated to the same time-period as King David and was in the exact location as described by the Book of Samuel. This wall is also connected to what is known as the “Stepped Stone Structure,” which Mazar believed to be an ancient royal palace that was used by the Israelites. Like her grandfather, Mazar became a leading Israeli archeologist and has proven that the Jewish presence in Jerusalem today is as alive as it was almost three thousand years ago.

Finally, countless other Jewish artifacts have been uncovered dating to both the First and Second Temple, and to the centuries that followed. In 2016, the New York Times reported that the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered a rare piece of Papyrus that dated to 2,700 years ago, which stated the Hebrew word for “Jerusalem.” Additionally, Theo Siebenberg began excavating underneath his home in the Old City of Jerusalem in the 1970’s and uncovered a Mikvah, an ancient aqueduct, pottery, ancient coins, and a burial vault. The Siebenberg House is now a world-renowned museum that can be seen by the public and highlights the ancient connection of the Jewish People to the land of Israel.

The historical connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is undeniable, as seen from the countless artifacts which have recently been discovered. From Charles Warren in the 19th century, to Eilat Mazar and the Siebenberg House today, the more one searches for the truth underground, the more one will discover that the Jews have been rooted in the land for almost three thousand years. Whenever the Jewish connection to the State of Israel is questioned, we must never forget that simply looking down at our feet, and wondering what lies below, may contain the answers that we have searched for all along
Is there new evidence of Jewish Temple treasures in the Vatican?
Pretend for a moment that the Vatican has in its possession some sacred and precious relics that were originally in the Herodian Jewish Temple located in Jerusalem 1,950 years ago.

If you were the pope living in the 14th century and could verify this fact, would you not ask yourself how indeed such Jewish artifacts had come to your residence in the first place?

After some digging around (no pun intended), you would have found that your new Vatican residence was actually built over sections of Caesar’s Palace – the Vatican, including St. Peter’s Basilica, was constructed over Emperor Vespasian’s Roman palace approximately 200 years after the sacking of Rome in 455 AD. Indeed, there are excavations going on there right now, even as you read this magazine.

What this means is that the vandals and the Visigoths passed over, or simply didn’t find, the select treasures secreted away in that palace, and instead took with them the many items on public display in the Temple, located not far away.

It says in the Talmud that the famous Jewish sage and author of the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, went to Rome with his colleagues to nullify harsh decrees placed on Judea, and while there, saw the exact items mentioned in this article. They ended up being royal guests at Vespasian’s palace after being asked to attend to his ailing daughter. When they miraculously did heal her, the sages were afforded the chance to see these extremely holy items, proving that they were kept in that place.

In fact, historian Josephus Flavius records the event in which Vespasian took for himself these items specifically as his special treasures for safekeeping, including an ancient Torah scroll.
Statue of Jewish Englishwoman Licoricia unveiled in UK
A statue of prominent English Jewish woman Licoricia of Winchester, who lived during the 13th century, was unveiled in the city last week, attracting a large crowd and drawing the support of local community leaders.

The bronze, life-size statue depicts Licoricia, who ran a successful business and raised four children in Winchester until her murder in 1277. She is depicted with her youngest son, Asser, who is seen holding a dreidel.

Licoricia “has real resonance for today,” acclaimed historian and best-selling author Simon Sebag Montefiore told The Jewish Chronicle.

“She was a woman in a man’s world, an ethnic minority at a time of great racism and prejudice and persecution.

“She was a very successful person,” he added. “She must have been a great character. She was also an outsider in a time ruled by aristocrats and kings so on so many levels she’s got real resonance especially since there’s a tendency now to deny antisemitism, to deny there was racism against Jewish people and the fact of the matter is she proves that.”

A moneylender, Licoricia had a roster of clients that included King Henry III and Queen Eleanor. Living in times of virulent antisemitism — her death preceded the 1290 total expulsion of Jews from England by only 13 years — she was jailed repeatedly before being murdered in a mysterious attack in Winchester. She was also widowed twice.

Prince Charles was originally slated to participate in Friday’s unveiling, but was forced to cancel his participation in the event after testing positive for COVID.











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