Daniel Gordis: "Surplus Jews" no longer
Eighty years ago this week, on February 24, 1942, nineteen-year-old David Stoliar was alive, alone, floating on a piece of wood in the middle of the Black Sea, surrounded by corpses, yelling all night into the dark so that he would not fall asleep and freeze to death.Israeli NGO urges extradition of terrorist who planned 2001 Sbarro bombing
He was in the Black Sea, surrounded by death, because he was a “surplus Jew,” as the British put it unabashedly. We’ll come back to David Stoliar.
Last week, the Israeli government was cooperating with relief groups to prepare for the possible evacuation to Israel of some of the 100,000 Jews in Ukraine, should the anticipated war make that necessary. Officials apparently do not expect to need a massive airlift, but they’re preparing for all eventualities, some said. Twenty-one years ago, as many of us vividly recall, Israel airlifted 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel on massive El Al jumbo jets. It was for the same reason. Ethiopian Jews, as far as Israel was concerned, were not “surplus.” Neither are the Ukrainian Jews.
And sure enough, this morning’s Israeli press announced that they had begun arriving. Dozens of olim from Ukraine arrived in Israel on Sunday as the threat of war grew ever ominous. According to the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, 75 immigrants arrived on an initial flight and another 22 were expected the same day. Said Immigrant Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata, “Our message to the Jews of Ukraine is very clear — Israel will always be their home; our gates are open to them during normal times as well as in emergencies.”
Israel’s most important function is not serving as a refuge for Jews who need it. Nine-million people do not go about their business of living here and building this country so that one day, if Jews need a place to go, we’ll be here. Still, though, refuge is part of why Israel is around; the fact that there is a Jewish state means that there are no longer “surplus Jews.”
A leading Israeli lawfare organization called on the American envoy to Israel to push for the extradition of a Jordan-based terrorist who planned a deadly suicide bombing in Jerusalem in the early 2000s, during the Second Intifada.Weaponizing Turkish teenage girls: What the Sbarro bomber did next
Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, which represents some of the victims of 2001 the Sbarro attack has called on Ambassador Thomas Nides to push the request to extradite Ahlam Tamimi from Jordan to the United States.
The Sbarro massacre took place on Aug. 9, 2001, when a suicide bomber targeted a popular pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem, killing 15 Israelis, including 7 children and a pregnant woman, and leaving 140 wounded.
The bomber was identified as Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri. The terrorist who made the suicide vest was later identified as Abdallah Barghouti, who in 2004 was convicted of aiding and abetting dozens of terrorist attacks and sentenced to 67 life sentences.
The investigation further revealed that al-Masri was escorted to the restaurant by Tamimi, then a 20-year-old university student, who had disguised herself as a Jewish tourist for the occasion.
Later in 2001, Tamimi, a Jordanian national, was convicted by an Israeli military court of planning the attack and was sentenced to 16 life sentences plus 15 years. She was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange with Hamas and was expelled to Jordan
Soon after her return, she became a media personality. She often praises the attack she orchestrated on various platforms and has a sharp anti-Israel line in her work.
American legislators have in the past demanded that Tamimi be extradited to the US, citing the role she played in the murder of American citizens in the attack. The demand was dismissed by various US administrations who expressed concern that pursuing her extradition would destabilize King Abdullah's regime.
Shurat HaDin has rejected the American position. Organization President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner appealed to Nides, writing, "The American administration has long since announced filing indictments against Tamimi, and has made an official commitment to the [victims'] families that it would demand Tamimi's extradition so she could face trial."
In the intervening years, Tamimi has appeared multiple times on Aljazeera's multiple media, on BBC Arabic, on lesser known Arabic news channels, on Jordan's commercial RoyaTV channel and on numerous additional platforms where she has been interviewed, showcased and glorified as an icon.
Her op-eds have appeared in the pages of multiple Arabic newspapers and news websites as well as on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and less-known Arabic-only social media sites. Arabic-language criticism of anything she has said, written or done is published nowhere.
Our occasional interactions with US government officials have been frustrating, sporadic, largely unproductive from our point of view and hard to arrange. Our experience with the US Embassy in Israel throughout the Trump years exemplifies the approach: as bereaved parents of a murdered US national expecting to be guided and assisted, we are mostly ignored. Not in a polite way and certainly not because we are rude. Persistent and raising an irksome issue, certainly. But never rude and not hostile.
Among the crumbs of information that we have gotten in these sometimes deplorable interactions is that the US government believes Jordan - because Jordan says so - has Tamimi under control. She's not inciting any more, we're assured. Her toxic influence has been neutralized. The problems are behind us.
From what we see, such claims are untrue.
In October 2021, Tamimi spoke in Arabic via video conference to an Islamist event in Istanbul, Turkey, held under the banner of الملتقى العلمي الدولي للشباب [“Gathering4youth”]. We spotted a video clip of the seminar that was uploaded to YouTube and promptly passed it along, with selected Arabic-to-English text translation, to senior US officials. If they are doing something with it, they're not telling us.
We asked a professional translator to review Tamimi's presentation. Here's the part we think captures the essence of her message:
...Allah let me have a membership in the ‘Izz ad-Deen al-Qassam battalions and [allowed me to] participate in two jihad operations that produced, by the Lord’s virtue, the deaths of fifteen zionists with 122 zionists wounded in two Jihad operations. We ask Allah to accept this.
These two jihad operations are a crown on my head. By Allah’s virtue, I entered history by doing the finest of deeds, the finest operations, in the finest of ways, which are the ways of jihad.
Praise Allah, He has prescribed me this fate. And when I met the "suicide bomber" [the Arabic expression translates literally into "the martyrdom-seeker"] ‘Izz ad-Deen al-Masri, this was not a matter of such ease to stand next to a bomber. There are many lessons I learned. Many lessons which ‘Izz ad-Deen al-Masri taught me without talking, [just by] being a road companion from Ramallah to Jerusalem, to the center of the [Jerusalem commercial] center where the Zionist entity is found, at the Jaffa and King George Avenue [corner]. This drive which lasted about an hour, from Ramallah to Jerusalem, or 90 minutes, [during] much of it I was learning from suicide bombers.
What does it mean to be a suicide bomber? It means that your spirit, your senses, your feelings, all of you, are pending against the Lord. Which is a difficult matter for us in this life to work out. But Hamas’s suicide bomber unit was able to spiritually train these suicide bombers.
What does it mean to sit for years [with] your sole mission to prepare your soul with effort, to train your soul? How do I become a spiritual character, how do I make my soul pending against Allah? And uproot all other attachments to this world. Only then shall I be worthy of the suicide bombers unit, and put my spirit forward in Allah’s path.
This is what ‘Izz ad-Deen al-Masri taught me.
However until now I have not reached even half a degree of the character of ‘Izz ad-Deen al-Masri and all suicide bombers who decided to put their souls forward in Allah’s path.”
It's hard to predict how much lethal damage is done when an eager and evidently impressionable audience of Islamist girls and young women, some of them about the age Tamimi was when she had her great moment at Sbarro, or younger, are exposed to a charismatic celebrity-jihad preacher with copious amounts of blood on her hands.
The potential is horrific. Why has this not made headlines?
Are Jewish groups truly concerned by 'Jewish priority'?
The vast majority of Americans support equal rights for gays with the only caveat being that this shouldn't mean that the government will now support discrimination against those religious believers who disagree – something that can potentially affect portions of the Orthodox community as well as conservative Christians.
Gun control is the sort of topic that has an anodyne ring to it since no one supports gun violence. However, restrictions on the right to own guns – something that, like it or not, is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution – is inevitably a political hot potato even if the "common sense" laws supported by liberals would do nothing to stop mass shootings or the epidemic of murders in American cities. But no matter what side you come down on in that debate – and far more Jews favor more restrictive laws than worry about preserving the Second Amendment – it is impossible to claim that it is a Jewish priority as opposed to a secular political one.
As for prioritizing voting rights, that's nothing but a shameless bow to Democratic Party priorities, not Jewish ones. The idea that laws that seek to ensure the integrity of the vote, including voter ID that is supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans, is racism or "voter suppression" is nothing but a partisan talking point that amounts to gaslighting. That Jews who support the Democrats would take up this cause is understandable. But the idea that it should somehow be a cause officially embraced by the organized Jewish community is outrageous.
The controversy boils down to is this: What is the responsibility of those who purport to speak for the Jews? If it's simply to mimic the partisan biases of the majority of Jews, then the JFNA should simply dedicate itself to shameless advocacy for whatever it is that President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are interested in doing.
Indeed, many Jews genuinely believe that the liberal/left agenda – whether it goes under the rubric of "social justice" or the stock cliché about Tikkun Olam, or "repairing the world" (a Hebrew phrase that in traditional Jewish liturgy refers to the world accepting the will of the Creator and the Torah, but has now become a catch-all term for treating political issues as if they were religious imperatives) is interchangeable with the tenets of Judaism.
But the fact that many people think that way doesn't make it so.
Communal groups need to put aside partisan politics and focus on those issues that are integral to the survival of American Jewry. Support for the right of Israel to exist is one. And highlighting the need to oppose antisemitism and prioritize communal security is another. By changing its mind and reinstating the liberal laundry list, the JNFA is not so much being sensitive to its supporters as it is discarding any reason to take it seriously as a defender of the Jewish community.
Leading Israeli physicians and scientists in an open letter to @JustinTrudeau ????:
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) February 18, 2022
“You adopted a smear campaign portraying protesters as 'Nazi sympathizers', 'racist' and 'antisemitic'. Freedom Convoy is a legitimate civil protest which aims at restoring fundamental liberties.” pic.twitter.com/kSjnbd86SV
Government takes first historic step towards banning BDS in Britain
The government has taken the historic first step in outlawing the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in Britain.Ben & Jerry’s Ukraine Tweet Is Not Just About Russia
Amid protests from some Labour MPs, an amendment tabled by former Communities Minister Rob Jenrick has been passed with the government support to stop local authority pension funds from backing BDS sanctions against UK companies connected with Israel.
The move comes on the day Hertfordshire County Council rejected a bid to divest millions from companies linked to Israel and in advance of a BDS vote by Wirral council promoted by expelled Labour councillor Jo Bird.
Changes to the Pensions Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill will give the Local Government Secretary new powers to direct Local Government Pension Funds not to make decisions that conflict with government foreign and defence policy.
It comes after the Supreme Court, in May, 2020, overruled a previous attempt by the government to curb BDS in Britain at the end of a four-year legal battle bought by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
At the time, the government said it was committed to stopping “local boycotts” from being introduced.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Jenrick said public sector pensions, paid for by the taxpayer and underwritten by the government, were “quite clearly the preserve of the state” and it was “perfectly legitimate” for the government to have a say in how they were regulated.
He added: “For too long we have seen public pension schemes pursue pseudo foreign policies and all too often the foreign policy of these public pension schemes is I’m afraid, exclusively focused on re-writing the UK’s relationship with the world’s only Jewish state, Israel.
This month’s tweet from Ben & Jerry’s urging President Joe Biden not to send troops to eastern Europe to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine was roundly and deservedly jeered on Twitter by Russia experts, military hands, and foreign policy specialists.Peter Beinart builds Bi-National State in Minecraft & moves there (satire)
“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war,” the ice cream company stated. “We call on President Biden to de-escalate tensions and work for peace rather than prepare for war. Sending thousands more US troops to Europe in response to Russia’s threats against Ukraine only fans the flame of war.”
One critic of this naïve statement went so far as to suggest a new flavor for the occasion: Appease Mint.
But the tweet was more than an embarrassing gaffe. It was a clarifying moment. The Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) movement has lost its way. Corporate leaders with little to no experience in foreign affairs increasingly feel entitled to weigh in on complex policy challenges. If they are lucky, it only results in embarrassment. It’s time to provide ESG with some guardrails, if not all-out reform.
Ben & Jerry’s is now a cautionary tale on the dangers of ESG run amok. Last year the company, which is owned by parent company Unilever, announced it would terminate its license to distribute in Israel. In doing so, the company picked sides in a century-old clash of nationalist aspirations that has vexed even the sharpest diplomatic minds. The 2021 decision was particularly odd, given that the company failed to take such strident positions on other disputed territories.
To be fair, Unilever isn’t alone. Many corporations that advertise their commitment to ESG are rather selective in their application. Take, for example, the major sponsors of the Beijing Olympics. Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Visa, Toyota, and Panasonic all purport to adhere to ESG principles, with dedicated pages on their websites to all the good they do for the world. Yet, they have all chosen, for the sake of profit, to ignore the documented genocide destroying the lives of millions of Uighur Muslims in China.
Once again leading the way in the field of Performative As-A-Jewdaism, Peter Beinart spent the past six months designing a Bi-National Palestinian/Jewish State in the Minecraft Multiverse! That’s right, Peter painstakingly built a Virtual One State Solution, thus fulfilling all of the great ideas he’s been trying to sell us for the last couple years. The work was hard, but Mr. Beinart is a builder. Today Peter took the bold step of moving there to live permanently.The Palestinian Textbook Revision That Never Was
This is a bit of a turnabout for Mr. Beinart, who was still considered somewhat of a Liberal Zionist until a few years ago. However, as time went on and actual Israelis continued to disappoint him, Mr. Beinart slowly moved away from Zionism. He finally broke with Zionism after he read a book by the guy who founded Electric Intifada. (He. Really. Said. This.) Peter now refers to himself as a “Cultural Zionist who believes in the Right of Return“, which appears to be the last Rest Area on Peter’s personal Road Trip to his very own virtual Shtetl. The Daily Freier saw it all coming a mile away and actually ran a betting pool on this very topic. Think of us as the Moe Greenes of Anglo-Infused Israeli satire. Or not.*
The Palestinian Authority had simply taken all of the 2020 textbooks, replaced the date stamp with 2021, and reprinted thousands of copies. This was done without telling the European Union, throwing the roadmap to the wind. The European Commission was not even aware this had happened until IMPACT-se presented them with its report.Hateful Antisemitic Posts About Jewish Greek Life Members Denounced at Indiana University
But this was just the beginning. Even as the PA agreed to a roadmap for textbook change with the EU, its Ministry of Education was writing thousands of pages of new material — study cards — roughly equivalent in size to all the textbooks in the curriculum. The material, in some places, contained content even worse than the current Palestinian textbooks, with a greater number of lessons that directly incite violence and propagate overt antisemitism.
These study cards contain additional justifications for violence not found in the textbooks, and antisemitic descriptions of Jews as devious, treacherous, and hostile. Students are taught that Jews control global events through financial power, manipulative behavior, and encouragement of others to fight in wars. Students are directly incited to violence and instructed to commit jihad against Israelis, and die as “martyrs” liberating the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israel is demonized; it is literally described as Satanic. One of the rules of jihad included in the texts explains that those who die as martyrs while killing infidels — Christians, Jews, and polytheists — will receive God’s grace and be greatly rewarded. In fact, jihad for the liberation of Palestine is described as a “private obligation for every Muslim,” and students are encouraged to sacrifice themselves for their homeland and “redeem it with blood.”
The EU should not have been surprised.
PA Prime Minister Shtayyeh made it clear that there would be no changes to the textbooks at a PA Cabinet meeting in September 2021. Shtayyeh stated that “everything mentioned in the textbooks is an accurate and honest description of the suffering our people have been going through for more than seven decades.”
It is this uncompromising rejection of any plan to offer Palestinian children some hope for an education conducive to peace and tolerance — and the total unwillingness to finally jettison the teaching of hate — that the European Commission now needs to digest and address.
Indiana University officials and the Jewish community have denounced an antisemitic tirade posted on a Greek life website, as local police attempt to reveal its author, a campus newspaper reported Tuesday.
Written on GreekRank.com, a website where students comment on and rank their fraternities and sororities at university, the post accused men in Jewish fraternities of being “east coast Jews” with an appetite for “money, greed, and sexually assaulting women.”
“The truth is that their huge noses, afros, and smelliness prevent them from being attractive so they rape and justify it with their sick way of looking at the world,” it said, according to screenshots shared by the group Jewish on Campus. “Their families are in positions of power therefore they get away with everything and are not scared.”
On Monday, Indiana University Hillel (IU Hillel) said it is aware of the post and is committed to fighting antisemitism and supporting Jewish students on campus.
“Please know that you can reach out to us at any time for support. Your Jewish Home Away From Home is always here for you,” IU Hillel said in a statement issued on Instagram. “We are working with the University and IU Student Leaders to combat this horrible antisemitism. We are stronger together.”
Indiana University Provost and Executive Vice President Rahul Shrivastav, Indiana Daily Student reported, condemned the incident and confirmed that an investigation is ongoing.
Leading Israeli physicians and scientists in an open letter to @JustinTrudeau 🇨🇦:
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) February 18, 2022
“You adopted a smear campaign portraying protesters as 'Nazi sympathizers', 'racist' and 'antisemitic'. Freedom Convoy is a legitimate civil protest which aims at restoring fundamental liberties.” pic.twitter.com/kSjnbd86SV
Boston area college in turmoil after string of antisemitic incidents
For nearly a month, a small liberal arts college just miles outside of Boston has been roiled by a spate of hate incidents, including antisemitic graffiti and threatening racist language, prompting the school to offer a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved.Toronto middle school students give a Jewish teacher the Hitler salute
The incidents at Curry College, located in Milton, a suburb south of Boston, began on Jan. 27, when International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed worldwide, with reports of drawings of swastikas and discriminatory and hateful language.
Numerous other similar incidents were reported over the next few weeks. After threats against the school’s Black community that mentioned a specific date, Feb. 22, Curry temporarily shifted its classes online last week.
Some 200 people participated in two separate rallies and a march at the end of last week in support of Curry’s Jewish and Black students, according to the student newspaper.
“We will get through this. We will not bend to those who threaten or, by their actions, cause fear in our community,” the school’s longtime president, Kenneth K. Quigley, Jr., wrote in a message to the Curry College community last week.
Peggy Shukur, deputy director of the New England Anti-Defamation League, said it was unusual to see such a large reward offered for information in relation to a hate crime. (The ADL frequently offers rewards itself.)
“It underscores the seriousness with which the college is taking this,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The Milton Police Department is also investigating the incidents and is providing additional security and patrols on the campus, which is open only to faculty, staff and students until Wednesday.
The most recent incidents were discovered on Feb. 14 and 15, in the restroom and laundry room of a residence hall, according to the email from Quigley that was first reported by the Boston Globe. A copy of the communications was obtained by the JTA.
Police and school authorities are investigating an incident in which Toronto middle school students gave the Hitler salute to a teacher who is the daughter of Holocaust survivors.New York Times News Coverage Cheerleads for Renewed Iran Deal
The incident is the third such display of Nazi symbology at middle schools in North York, a Toronto district, in recent weeks.
“One of our teachers, a French teacher, a Jewish teacher walked out of the room,” Shari Schwartz-Maltz, a spokeswoman for the Toronto District School Board, told City News, a local TV news outlet, on Tuesday. “When she came back into the room, several students surrounded her and gave her the Heil Hitler salute. This particular incident was very hateful, very hurtful, very upsetting to the teacher who happens to be Jewish, and she’s just allowed me to share with you that she’s also the child of Holocaust survivors. So this is something that hits her in the heart.”
Schwartz-Maltz, who chairs the school board’s Jewish Heritage Committee, said there would be “consequences” for the children involved, and that there would be expanded Holocaust education. “This has come from the top that we are committed to proactively bringing more Holocaust education into our schools for middle school up,” she said.
City News quoted Schwartz-Maltz as saying police were investigating, but would not add details. It said the teacher taught grade 8 at Valley Park Middle School, which bills itself as Canada’s largest middle school.
Schwartz-Maltz confirmed reports earlier this month that students at another middle school in North York, Charles H. Best, constructed a swastika in class in one incident and, in another, gave a Jewish student the Hitler salute.
Ben-Ami’s claim, thoughtlessly parroted by the Times without performing the basic journalistic responsibility of a fact-check, isn’t even accurate with respect to the congressional elections. The claim that “no Democrats who voted to support the 2015 deal lost elections in congressional midterm elections a year later” is an outright falsehood not only in respect to the elections not being midterms, but also in respect to the outcome that is described. Actually, Mike Honda, a California Democrat who backed the deal, was defeated in 2016. It’s also worth noting that some senators who did support the Iran deal chose to retire in 2016 rather than face voters.Revisiting BBC News promotion of unevidenced third party claims
The sloppy portrayal of the politics isn’t the only problem with this Times Iran deal article.
It claims, “The Biden administration does not have to seek congressional authority to recommit to the deal.” That’s highly debatable. The Treaty Clause of the Constitution provides the president “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.”
Whether Biden has power to commit the United States without two thirds of the Senate is a constitutional issue that has yet to be tested. If a Senate supermajority were determined to test the matter, it’d be an interesting case. The Senate might get backing from a conservative Supreme Court majority if it crafted its assault on any deal carefully enough—say, by using Congress’s spending power to prevent the executive branch spending of any money on implementing any “deal” not ratified under the treaty clause.
The Times article also claims “Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the pact, in 2018, was followed by hundreds of American sanctions imposed against Iran, devastating the country’s economy and prompting its leaders to swiftly rebuild its nuclear program.” It wasn’t only the sanctions that devastated the Iranian economy but the coronavirus pandemic, regime corruption, and the Iranian government’s decision to spend its sanctions relief money and other revenues subsidizing foreign militias rather than helping the Iranian people. Likewise, the decision to “rebuild” the nuclear program may not be entirely attributable to Trump’s withdrawal from the deal, but rather to Iran’s ideological and strategic interest in attaining a nuclear weapon.
The Times’ inaccurate, skewed coverage here is non-trivial. If the newspaper provided more accurate coverage, policymakers like Biden might be less likely to rush to return to the flawed Iran deal. It’s only the latest example in a series showing that the New York Times can’t be trusted on the topic of Iran.
The source of the BBC’s story swiftly put out a statement:Guardian sticks to 'passive victim' narrative in story on Arab crime
“In response to the investigation, a statement from Calcalist said that the findings “require serious consideration and reexamination of the findings and allegations we published.” Such an investigation, the newspaper said, is underway, and “when we finish it, we will not hesitate to correct as much as necessary.””
The day after the findings of that interim investigation were made public (February 22nd), the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page published a report titled “Israeli inquiry finds no indication police used spyware unlawfully”.
That article once again promotes a link to the English language version of the Calcalist report.
However at the time of writing the BBC News website has not bothered to append a footnote to its February 7th article – which is still available online in its original form – to advise readers that the information the BBC reproduced from an unevidenced third-party newspaper report has been shown to be untrue. Some may call that promotion of fake news.
Further, the blanket claim that the crime wave is the result of “schools, jobs [and] opportunities” for Arab Israelis are being “withheld” by Israel, is not only counter-factual, and inconsistent with of the views and experiences of most Arab citizens, but suggests an almost conspiratorial-like thinking incompatible with real progress.Following contact from CAA, BBC Sounds agrees to add context to Lady Mosley interview containing Holocaust denial
A more helpful approach to the problem of crime in predominantly Arab cities in Israel would involve the assumption of Arab agency.
For example, McKernan writes that “Organised crime networks are deeply embedded in Arab society, who turn to mob bosses for loans when Israeli banks refuse their applications”. The inference Guardian readers would likely make is that Arabs are turned down for loans due to discrimination by Jewish bankers.
Yet, one of the reasons cited for many Arabs being turned down for loans is that the community has traditionally shied away” from using credit cards, relying instead on cash. This means that Arabs are less likely to have the credit histories used by banks to help determine loan eligibility. So, one Arab agency based solution to this particular problem – one that dismisses ‘the system is rigged’ fatalism represented by the woman McKernan chose to quote – could be to incentivise and promote the use of credit cards in these communities.
Of course, none of this is to suggest that Israel’s government shouldn’t be aggressively purusing policy solutions to the crime wave plaguing the state’s Arab citizens, only that, per the quote we cited in the opening of this post, treating Arab-Israelis as perpetual, passive victims of Israeli racism, devoid of any agency, is not only misguided, but extremely counter-productive.
BBC Sounds, an online streaming platform that contains live and archived radio broadcasts, has agreed to include additional background information about the content of an interview containing Holocaust denial, after contact from Campaign Against Antisemitism.French Jewish Leader Calls for ‘Targeted Strategy’ to Combat Antisemitism, Criticizes Existing Government Efforts
The interview in question is between interviewee, Lady Diana Mosley, and interviewer, Sue Lawley, and was first broadcast in November 1989 as part of the BBC’s Desert Island Discs series. Lady Mosley was the wife of Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the antisemitic British Union of Fascists. The two wedded in Joseph Goebbels’ house in the presence of Adolf Hitler.
During the interview, Lady Mosley, who died in 2003, reportedly says of her late husband: “He didn’t know a Jew from a gentile…as the Jews were so anti him and attacked him, he, as it were, picked up the challenge.”
When Ms Lawley asked Lady Mosley whether she believed that six million Jews had died in the Holocaust, Lady Mosley replies: “I don’t really, I’m afraid…believe that six million people were…I just think it’s not conceivable, it’s too many.”
“But whether it’s six million or one really makes no difference morally, it’s equally wrong,” Lady Mosley adds. “I think it was a dreadfully wicked thing.”
Lady Mosley also referred to historians’ reporting of Hitler as “nonsense”, adding that “if you don’t like someone, you attack them.”
Ms Lawley reportedly told Lady Mosley that “It’s almost as if you’re rewriting history.” She also said, in response to Lady Mosley’s denial of her husband’s antisemitism, “But did he not call them [the Jews] ‘an alien force which rises to rob us of our heritage’?”
At first, a BBC spokesperson said: “This episode of Desert Island Discs is part of the most complete possible archive resource of programmes from the past 80 years and is not something that is being newly transmitted. The programme page indicates that Lady Diana Mosley was married to Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, and clearly shows the date of broadcast. Radio 4’s audience is likely to be aware of the controversial views that Lady Diana Mosley held if they choose to explore the archive.”
France’s Jewish community will call later this week for a “targeted strategy” to combat antisemitism that will emphasize the unique features of anti-Jewish bigotry along with the importance of victims filing criminal complaints with the police.Rising number of anti-Semitic incidents in Notts
In an interview with the AFP news agency on Tuesday, Francis Kalifat — the president of Crif, the umbrella body representing French Jews — stated plainly that the three-year plans to fight racism and antisemitism launched by the French government in 2012, 2015 and 2018 had failed to tackle the problem.
“The strategy, through comprehensive plans to fight different hatreds, is not the right one,” Kalifat said. “We have to move on to a targeted strategy, because each of the hatreds responds to different triggers.”
The French Jewish leader also asserted that efforts to define anti-Zionism as antisemitism — a proposal enthusiastically supported by President Emmanuel Macron in his speech to the 2019 Crif annual dinner — had petered out. A non-binding resolution adopted by the French parliament in 2019 included opposition to the existence of a Jewish state as a form of antisemitism; however, said Kalifat, “we have the impression that these are statements with no consequences.”
Kalifat pointed out that the French interior ministry’s own data showed that there was a 74 percent increase in complaints to the police regarding antisemitic acts, from 339 in 2020 to 559 in 2021.
The Community Security Trust said record levels of anti-Jewish sentiment nationally shows how difficult last year was for Jewish people in Britain.Charity Commission allows organisation to pursue charitable registration even after it publishes antisemitic “enemies of Allah” post
In Nottinghamshire, 12 anti-Semitic incidents towards Jewish people, organisations or property were reported to the CST in 2021.
This was up from nine the year before, and more than the eight recorded in 2019.
Last year, all incidents recorded were reports of abusive behaviour.
The charity defines an incident as any malicious act which has anti-Semitic motivation or content, or the targeting of a victim because they are – or are believed to be – Jewish.
The CST said a record 2,255 such incidents occurred across the UK in 2021 – up 34 per cent from 1,684 the previous year.
Reports peaked during a time of heightened conflict between Israel and Palestine, with 661 in May alone – a record monthly total.
There were 502 incidents that used far right or Nazi themes, including 90 where the Holocaust was celebrated.
Meanwhile, 182 hate incidents happened at schools or involved school pupils or staff last year – up from 54 in 2020, and the most ever.
The Charity Commission has told Campaign Against Antisemitism that it will permit an organisation to continue to pursue charitable registration even after we alerted the regulator to an antisemitic social media post published by the group.Maroon 5 to move like Jagger in Tel Aviv
Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust appeared in a December social media post to describe Jews and Christians as “enemies of Allah” and warn its followers to stay away from them.
The organisation, which functions as a bookshop and was promoted by Brent Council, shared a post reading: “Keep away from the enemies of Allaah [sic] the Jews & Christians on their day of gathering during their festivities, for verily the anger (of Allaah) descends upon them and I fear that you will (also) be afflicted with it.”
The quotation is attributed to Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, the second Rashidun Caliph, and is featured in Al-Bayhaqi Fi Shu’ab Al-Emaan, a collection of Hadiths compiled by Imam Al-Bayhaqi.
The image in the tweet was captioned: “Be warned of having any sort of involvement in the celebrations of the unbelievers, let alone Christmas whereby it is claimed that Allaah has begotten a son! Lest you may be afflicted with the anger of Allaah along with them!”
Cricklewood Muslim Youth Trust describes itself as “a charitable trust based in North West London who work for the benefit and enlightenment of the local community.”
We wrote to Brent Council, which observed in its reply that the organisation was no longer listed on its website since we published our article, and to the Charity Commission.
American pop/rock superstars Maroon 5 will be making their Israel debut this year, on May 9 at Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv.Israeli Genealogy Website Adds Millions of Jewish Historical Records to Collection
Led by charismatic singer Adam Levine, the Grammy-winning band is one of the world’s most popular, selling millions of albums since their 2002 major-label debut, Songs About Jane.
They emerged as household names after the success of their third album, 2010’s Hands All Over, which included the international hit “Moves like Jagger.” In 2019, the band performed at the Super Bowl halftime show.
They will be arriving in Israel from their first show in Abu Dhabi on May 6. The Jewish Levine once tweeted that he has relatives in Israel.
Promoted by Live Nation, the Maroon 5 show will be the first major concert at Park Hayarkon from an international artist since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic some two years ago.
The Israeli genealogy website MyHeritage announced on Tuesday that it added 5.8 million Jewish records to its platform.In ‘Breakthrough’ Israeli Study of IDF Veterans, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Found to Treat PTSD
The move comes as part of a new partnership with the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City and its genealogy affiliate, JewishGen.
The records, which are sorted into 28 collections, are the first installment being released by JewishGen under a licensing agreement that will ultimately make almost all of its records accessible on MyHeritage.
“The agreement between JewishGen and MyHeritage furthers our goal to expand the availability of JewishGen’s valuable collection of historical records to genealogy researchers around the world,” said Jack Kliger, CEO and president of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. “We are pleased that this agreement will also contribute to the expanding interest in Jewish genealogy.”
JewishGen features more than 30 million records relating to Jewish communities in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and North America. Records are available to search and view on its website in English only.
The first set of records added to MyHeritage span from the 18th to 21st century, and cover geographical regions including Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, and Germany. MyHeritage’s translation technology will allow individuals to review the records in other languages besides English, such as Hebrew, Russian, or Greek.
MyHeritage’s database holds 16.4 billion historical records.
Israeli scientists at the Tel Aviv University have found that oxygen therapy can significantly reduce post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, according to a study conducted among Israel Defense Force veterans.Yoram Palti awarded Israel Prize for ‘groundbreaking’ cancer treatment
During a controlled clinical trial, researchers led by Tel Aviv University and the Shamir Medical Center identified brain wounds in IDF veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD, which they relieved by using hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).
An assessment of symptoms and brain scans post-treatment showed “functional and structural improvement (…) in the non-healing brain wounds that characterize PTSD.” The peer-reviewed study was published Tuesday in the scientific journal PlosOne.
“Our results indicate that exposure to severe emotional trauma can cause organic damage to the brain,” said Prof. Shai Efrati, leading the research. “Today we understand that treatment-resistant PTSD is caused by a biological wound in brain tissues, which obstructs attempts at psychological and psychiatric treatments.”
The researchers noted that the success rate of current PTSD treatments, including trauma-focused psychotherapy and medication, is poor. Hyperbaric treatment aims to improve the supply of oxygen to the brain to activate the generation of new blood vessels and neurons. Treatments are conducted in a hyperbaric chamber, where atmospheric pressure is higher than sea-level pressure and the air is rich with oxygen.
Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Bitton announced Wednesday that the 2022 Israel Prize in the Field of Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation will be awarded to Prof. Yoram Palti.
The prize’s committee said the professor emeritus of physiology and biophysics at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology was given the award for helping develop a groundbreaking treatment that fights various types of cancers using electric pulses.
“This breakthrough required thinking outside the box… and required Prof. Palti to face and change existing beliefs and perceptions in the field,” the panel wrote.
“Prof. Palti’s achievements are a source of great pride for the State of Israel and inspiration for the younger generations,” Shasha-Bitton wrote on Twitter.
The president of the Technion, Prof. Roy Sivan, also congratulated Palti.
“We are very proud and happy of the important recognition and the prestigious award to Prof. Palti, who not only developed a new technology but also a new approach to cancer treatment — an approach that does not involve chemotherapy and other pharmacological treatments.
“Prof. Palti’s work is a wonderful example of a combination of engineering and medicine — a combination that is one of the biggest features of the Technion. Prof. Palti is an example and role model for the rare ability to translate science into applications that are beneficial to humanity, through a combination of in-depth research and entrepreneurship.”
