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Thursday, March 10, 2022

03/10 Links Pt2: From Ukraine to UNRWA: Russia foments war in Arab refugee camps; Iran played by Russia as Moscow tries to take over nuclear deal

From Ian:

From Ukraine to UNRWA: Russia foments war in Arab refugee camps
Under the guidance of the KGB, the idea of the Arab refugees as a distinct people took hold.

The KGB generated a storyline that nowadays is often taken as factual. These are its basic points, none of them true:
1. The PLO, from its start, expressed the will of the Arabs living the geographic region Palestine, rather than the will of Moscow to create divisions and overthrow democracy.
2. Palestine is not just the name for a geographic region, but the home for a distinct and indigenous people, the Palestinian Arabs. Its Jewish citizens are colonizers from some unidentified foreign country..
3. Israel practices apartheid in which the Arab citizens of Israel are prevented from advancing.
4. Arab poverty in the territories controlled by Arabs is due to Israel, rather than to the Arab rulers Hamas and the PLO

Why is the Russian PLO embrace relevant today?

Since February 24, 2022, the day when the Russian attack on the Ukraine commenced, the top brass of PLO counter intelligence has been sitting in the Kremlin, egging on Moscow. By no coincidence, the League of Arab Nations, which spawned the Palestine Liberation Organization with Russian support back in in 1964, has supported the war launched by Russia.

In that context, the time has come to pay attention to the overlooked Russian role in Middle East]
UN Watch: Justice, Justice shalt thou pursue
UN Watch's Hillel Neuer took the floor at the Human Rights Council to condemn the chair of a new commission of inquiry on Israel. Chair Navi Pillay lobbies governments to “sanction apartheid Israel.” That she was named head of a UN inquiry on Israel, due to report in June, is a travesty of justice.

Petition for Ms. Pillay's removal as inquiry chair


Seth Frantzman: Iran played by Russia as Moscow tries to take over nuclear deal
Nevertheless, the US administration wants to re-enter a deal with Iran that won’t last more than another few years, or a decade at most. Toward that end, the Biden administration coordinated with Russia. Moscow works closely with Tehran. That means Moscow was playing “good cop” during negotiations of the deal, and the US appears to have outsourced at least some of its demands via Moscow. This bizarre fact was revealed time and again by Russia’s chief envoy, Mikhail Ulyanov, who bragged about meeting the US envoy.

As the US was coordinating with Russia, Moscow was planning the invasion of Ukraine. That gave Russia a golden hand to play at the negotiating table. Once it invaded Ukraine, Moscow could present itself as holding the deal discussions hostage, by claiming that the US must agree to Russia’s terms in order to get to a new deal. Washington, meanwhile, was close to giving away the store anyway, but Russia is now trying to drive up the price.

The “Iran deal” has now become the “Russia deal,” as Russia swoops in at the end to reveal that it controls the talks, and Iran has been played by Moscow. Iran has discovered too late that Russia could sabotage the deal so that Russia can escape sanctions.

Iran is nonplussed to find that Russia is now holding Iran hostage. After all, Iran is the regime that likes to hold hostages. It’s the regime that is used to playing the West by using the “good cop” strategy of charlatan Javad Zarif against the “bad cop” of the IRGC. However, Zarif is gone, Iran is running into the arms of China, and Russia is now using Iran. Those who pushed the Iran deal are now concerned about Russia’s interference. This is the interference they enabled by always trusting Moscow.

Russia is now playing the role of mafia boss Emilio Barzini in The Godfather, revealed as being behind the whole scheme of the Iran deal in the first place. Russia wants all its trade with Iran exempt from the sanctions it is under for invading Ukraine. Russia wants to milk the Iran deal, and use Iran as a nuclear blackmail shield against the US.


Egypt's El-Sisi Has Taken a Strategic Decision to Deepen Ties with Israel
Egypt is adopting a new approach to Israel and is striving to deepen economic and commercial ties. This new approach can be attributed to the major success of the Abraham Accords, which have helped promote economic deals signed between companies from Israel and Egypt.

In his recent gesture to greet Israel's Energy Minister in Cairo, el-Sisi was showing his people and the Arab world that Egypt is prepared to open up to Israel, economically, for tourism, and in a range of other ways.

A new deal conveys gas from Israel's offshore Leviathan field through Israel to the Jordanian border and then southwards through Jordan and beneath the Red Sea to Egypt. There is an existing pipeline between Israel's Mediterranean coast and the Jordanian border near Beit Shean following a 2016 deal to supply natural gas to Jordan.

The pipelines carrying Israeli gas to Egypt via Sinai are operating at full capacity, with a bottleneck between Ashkelon and Ashdod preventing the purchase of all the gas that Egypt needed. It is hoped that the Israeli government company Israel Natural Gas Lines will complete laying a new gas pipeline to relieve the congestion by the end of 2023.

According to the agreement signed in February in Cairo, the amount of gas that will be conveyed to Egypt via the Jordanian pipeline will reach 2 billion cubic meters (BCM) annually, while 3.5 BCM will eventually be conveyed from Ashkelon to El Arish in Egypt. In other words, Israel will be selling Egypt 5.5 BCM annually.

Thus the walls are continuing to fall between Israel and its neighbors. Israeli, UAE and Jordanian trucks travel between Israel and the UAE via Saudi Arabia filled with Israeli goods. Israeli water irrigates fields in Jordan.
Visiting U.S. Lawmakers Find PA Officials Engaged in "Revisionist History"
Visiting a kibbutz on the Gaza border in February, Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) spoke to a grandmother who pulled out several missiles and incendiary balloons that had landed on her property, near where her grandchildren were playing. He said, "It's a scary life over there - to see what they have to deal with day in and day out - it was scary. You think about what would happen if something like that was happening in America....I think it would change a lot of [people's] minds."

"The love of the Israeli people for Israel and the passion that they feel for their nation - it's so evident - it was amazing," offering as an example a 22-year-old officer manning an Iron Dome missile defense battery. "To have that responsibility at 22, they just take it - they love it, they accept that responsibility....You don't see that everywhere, not at all, and not with everyone."

Garbarino said that in a meeting with PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, the Palestinian Authority leader dismissed Hamas rocket attacks against Israel - more than 4,000 in May 2021 - as "fireworks." The attacks killed 10 people. Garbarino said Shtayyeh's remark "really annoyed people" in the congressional delegation and reinforced a view that "[the Palestinians] are not ready to have an adult conversation."

Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) said that PA officials engaged in "revisionist history." She added that she saw "firsthand the Palestinians and Israelis living peacefully as neighbors for the most part." Rice said that anti-Israel rhetoric from far-left Democrats is a "huge concern," adding, "It's really hard to engage in anti-Israel rhetoric when you go there and you actually see on the ground what's going on there. My hope is that people understand how important it is to stand by Israel and maintain this alliance that we have with them."
Mufti slams Pence for ‘storming’ Tomb of the Patriarchs
The Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, condemned the visit by former US vice president Mike Pence to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

Pence took a tour of the city on Wednesday, visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the second-holiest place in Judaism after the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The site includes a mosque called al-Haram al-Ibrahimi.

Accusing Pence of “storming” the site, the mufti said in a statement on Thursday that the Ibrahimi Mosque is a place of prayer and worship for Muslims alone.

The Palestinians regularly use the word “storm” to describe visits by Jews to the Temple Mount, the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus.

“What the US vice president did is a provocative and dangerous act for which the [Israeli] occupation authorities bear the consequences,” Hussein said.

He also condemned the excavation and construction work carried out by the Israeli authorities in the courtyards of the Ibrahimi Mosque, which he said aims to build an elevator “to facilitate the extremist settlers’ incursions into the mosque, in addition to changing the mosque’s features.”
Jonathan Tobin: Democrats don't want to save bipartisan support for Israel
Should Jews welcome the support of both Democrats and Republicans for the cause of Israel? That used to be a bedrock principle of American Jewry. But that isn't true anymore for many on the left. Instead of seeking to promote bipartisanship on this issue, they are now doing their best to kill it on the altar of a partisan tribal culture war. It remains to be seen how successful they will be.

That's ironic because for the past generation, Jewish Democrats have been decrying what they've called a Republican assault on the principle of building a bipartisan coalition to support Israel.

Their complaints were disingenuous. The GOP wasn't arguing against the idea of having members of both major political parties join together to back the Jewish state. Reacting to the seismic shift in the way both parties regarded Israel over the last half-century, what they were doing was pointing out that a lot of Democrats were becoming increasingly unfriendly to Zionism, while Republicans had become far more supportive of it than they had been in the past.

As far as the Democrats were concerned, saying aloud something that everyone knew was true but preferred to ignore was not playing fair. They claimed that the only way to ensure bipartisan support for Israel was to treat both positive GOP attitudes towards Israel and the way Democrats were turning on it as irrelevant. That this was a formula that was leading to the disintegration of a coalition that they supposedly cared so much about didn't matter. If treating support for Israel and its security, which involves not just voting for military aid but opposing measures that endangered it – like former President Barack Obama's disastrous nuclear deal with Iran – was a priority for Jewish voters, then it would involve holding both the parties and lawmakers accountable for their actions and stands. That was something that Jewish Democrats simply couldn't accept since doing so would call into question their stranglehold on the votes of American Jews.

This dispute has persisted since it first became a major issue in 2004 when Republicans highlighted former President George W. Bush's record on Israel. It continued through the Obama presidency when Democrats either downplayed that president's often hostile attitude towards the Jewish state or attempted to rationalize it as "tough love" aimed at "saving Israel from itself." And it became a source of cognitive dissonance for Democrats who care about Israel when former President Donald Trump – someone they despised – recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and facilitated the Abraham Accords, actions that made him the most pro-Israel president in history.

But in 2022, the Democratic argument has shifted away from preserving bipartisan support for Israel to outright spurning it. That's the only reasonable interpretation of a recent attack by J Street and other Jewish Democratic groups on AIPAC's list of endorsements of candidates for Congress. As the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported, Democrats are demanding that the pro-Israel lobby and everyone else shun most Republicans, no matter how ardent they are about backing Israel and opposing its foes.
$1B Aid for Iron Dome Interceptors Approved by US Congress, Again
A $1 billion emergency aid bill to replenish Israel’s supply of Tamir interception missiles for its acclaimed Iron Dome anti-missile defense system has passed a bipartisan vote by the US House of Representatives for a fifth time — but this time it’s likely it will also pass the Senate.

The Iron Dome assistance was folded into more than 2,700 pages of a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending package that also included $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine. The package now goes to the Senate, where it must be passed by Friday at midnight to avoid an impending government shutdown this weekend.

Congress members were given just a few hours to review the bill before it was presented for the vote.

In addition, $3.8 billion in annual military aid to Israel, promised in a 2016 Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Israel, was also approved. But this is only the first stage in approving the aid budget for Israel.

The approved aid includes half a billion dollars for US-Israel missile defense cooperation on the Iron Dome and David’s Sling and Arrow systems, which “keeps Americans and Israelis safe, supports our economy, and creates American jobs,” AIPAC noted.

As part of the package, $47.5 million was approved for US-Israel anti-tunnel technology cooperation. “Israeli expertise in anti-tunnel technology protects US forces deployed across the globe, keeps Israelis safe, and provides important homeland security benefits,” AIPAC pointed out.

Another $25 million is designated for US-Israel counter-unmanned aerial systems (UAS) cooperation. “Israeli innovation in counter-drone technology helps secure Americans at home and prevent attacks against our citizens abroad,” said AIPAC.
Israel-Turkey Detente Shadowed by Ankara's Ties with Hamas
Turkey continues to host Hamas leaders, and it has been widely reported that past attacks in Israel have been planned on Turkish soil. Turkish President Erdogan has long been a Hamas-embracer.

Erdogan has engaged in strident anti-Israel rhetoric over the last 15 years that often crossed the line into anti-Semitism. Not that long ago, Erdogan accused the Israeli people of genocide, called Zionism a "crime against humanity," and said "we view the Holocaust in the same way we view those besieging Gaza and carrying out massacres in it." Make no mistake, Erdogan has not had a change of heart, has not become a Zionist, and has not parked his Muslim Brotherhood sympathies at the door.

It's not that Erdogan wants Israel, it's that he needs Israel. Last fall, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed visited Turkey and pledged $10 billion in investments, along with a $5 billion currency swap to bolster Turkey's floundering foreign currency. With this, the UAE bought a move by Turkish foreign policy toward the Abraham Accords, which means toward Israel. Secondly, Turkey wants Israeli natural gas for its own domestic needs and for export to Europe. Finally, Erdogan hopes that a photograph with Israeli President Herzog, and improved relations with Israel, will convince the U.S. and the West that he is sincere about wanting to return to the fold.

But Israel needs to make it clear to Erdogan that it has expectations and demands of its own. It wants Erdogan to stop his strident anti-Israel posturing, stop financially backing those agitating on the Temple Mount, stop blocking Israeli cooperation with NATO, and stop trying to torpedo Israel's burgeoning ties with other countries in the Muslim world. First and foremost, Israel wants Turkey to kick Hamas out of the country, instead of it playing host to an organization hell-bent on killing Israelis.
Herzog Concludes Historic Turkey Trip With Stop at Istanbul Synagogue
Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with Istanbul’s Jewish community on the second and final day of his brief but historic diplomatic visit to Turkey.

On Thursday morning, Herzog spoke at the Neve Shalom Synagogue, where he was greeted with joyful clapping and shofar blasts.

The largest Sephardic synagogue in Istanbul has suffered from three terrorist attacks, most recently in 2003 with a car bomb attack.

The president asked those assembled at the house of worship to pray for “our Jewish brothers and sisters of the Jewish community in Ukraine.”

He said Turkish Jews “have had a huge role in writing the history of the Jewish people,” with “a long line of rabbis, poets, wise men, traders, entrepreneurs and leaders” coming from the country.

The rabbi of the synagogue delivered welcoming remarks, calling Herzog’s visit “a symbol of strengthening ties for peace.”

Rabbi Yitzchak Haliva said that Turkey and Israel “have contributed much to humanity for peace.”

Herzog is the first Israeli leader to visit Turkey since 2008 and the first president since 2003.


Israel-Turkey detente won’t damage ties with Ankara - PA
The Palestinian Authority does not believe that President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Turkey will affect its strong relations with Ankara, a Palestinian official said on Thursday.

The PA has refrained from publicly commenting on the rapprochement between Israel and Turkey, while Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and other groups condemned Herzog’s visit.

“We don’t expect Turkey to change its longstanding policies of supporting the Palestinians,” the official told The Jerusalem Post. “We have strong relations with Turkey in several fields, including economic and security issues. Turkey is unlikely to change its stance toward the Palestinians and the Palestinian issue as a result of the visit of the Israeli president.”

Unlike Hamas and PIJ, the PA leadership has stopped attacking Arab countries for hosting Israeli leaders. The decision is seen in the context of the PA’s desire to avoid causing further damage to its relations with these countries, especially the Gulf states.

The PA had strongly denounced the normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, a move that drew sharp condemnations from many Arabs in the Gulf.

Scenes of Palestinians burning flags and photos of the leaders of the two Gulf states triggered widespread anger and accusations that the Palestinians are being ungrateful to those Arabs who helped them over the past few decades.
The Israel Guys: WE CAUGHT PALESTINIANS Sneaking Into Israel
We heard that there were gaps in the security fence that separates Judea and Samaria (AKA the West Bank) from Israel. We took our cameras and went to check it out. We were not prepared for what we discovered. Not only were Arabs crossing into Israel-proper at all times, but they didn’t care that we were filming them, and some of them were even willing to be interviewed!

Today’s adventure show is eye-opening. You don’t want to miss it.




PMW: Abbas arrests Christian man and closes institution he heads because he hosted a Jew – “extremist settler Yehuda Glick”
Recently, PA Chairman Abbas stressed the successful and harmonious coexistence between Palestinian Christians and Muslims, stressing that “Christians and Muslims fight together against their enemy (i.e., Jews/Israelis), because we have been the owners of this land since this land’s existence.”

But the mutual love and understanding only go as far as Abbas allows. If you are a Christian and stray from the path of “fighting the enemy” Israel, you will be punished.

That is what happened to a Christian organization in Bethlehem a few days ago when it “dared to welcome” an “extremist settler” Jew. Following a visit by former Israeli MP Yehuda Glick who heads the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation and the HaLiba initiative – groups that advocate for Jewish rights to pray on the Temple Mount – the PA closed the Christian institution Beit Al-Liqa’ for a week and arrested the Christian head of the association while an “investigation” is being carried out:
“The PA decided to close the Beit Al-Liqa’ [Christian] institution in Beit Jala, following a visit by leader of the extremist settlement organization ‘HaLiba’ [former Israeli Parliament Member] Yehuda Glick, who is known for his recurring break-ins (i.e., visits, see note below) to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. An official [PA] source said: ‘It was decided to close the Beit Al-Liqa’ association in Beit Jala for a week, until the completion of an investigation of the incident and the implementation of the required measures. The [PA] Security Forces must immediately implement the required measures.’

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 3, 2022]

Johnny Shahwan, who chairs the Christian Beit Al-Liqa’ association, is guilty of having simply met with Glick. The PA Supreme Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine claims that Shahwan’s “behavior harms the honor of the members of our Palestinian people” who is “fighting” to “defend” the Islamic and Christian holy sites from the “desecration” by visiting Jews:
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: US Weakness Facilitates the Rise of Jihad and Fundamentalism
"America is unable to decide on war against Russia, and therefore the US will not be a decision-maker in international politics." — Musa Abu Marzouk, member of the Hamas "politburo," Twitter, February 26, 2022.

As far as Hamas is concerned, the weaker the US the greater are their chances of fulfilling their goal of replacing Israel with an Islamic state.

Articles 13 of the Hamas Charter states "There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad."

Washington's image in the Arab world has been battered to the point at which even its allies are beginning to challenge its policies and decisions, Atallah said.

"Biden [in his State of the Union speech] ignored the Afghanistan issue, especially in light of the confused [US] withdrawal. He was also cautious not to talk about relations with China so as not to provoke it. Biden's speech confirms with full clarity the loss of a consistent strategic vision with regard to central issues globally. This is a sign of the loss of the prestige of the great country [the US]. Biden's speech was a message of a historical recognition of the upcoming political defeat and the beginning of the birth of a new international order." — Hassan Asfour, former Palestinian Authority minister, Khbrpress.ps, March 2, 2022.

"When two Gulf countries refuse to support the US, this means the image of America in the region is deeply tarnished, and that there is a changing mood." — Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas official, Khbrpress.ps, March 4, 2022.

The Americans need to understand that no matter how many gifts they give to the Palestinians, that will not stop Hamas and many others from continuing to hate the US and look at it as an enemy.
Eight Palestinian Leaders Have Left Gaza
Eight prominent Palestinian leaders from Hamas and Islamic Jihad have left Gaza.

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh left his home in the Al-Shati refugee camp with his wife and children for an extravagant hotel in Doha, Qatar.

Khalil al-Hayya, who until recently served as deputy to Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, has also moved with his family to Qatar.

Others include senior Hamas member Salah al-Bardawil, spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri, and top official Fathi Hamad, who is now in Turkey.

Islamic Jihad leader Nafaz Azzam has left Gaza for Syria, while Muhammad al-Hindi is now in Istanbul.


The U.S. Is Poised to Make a Nuclear Deal with Iran that Expires in Twenty Months
While news reports of a likely breakthrough in Vienna negotiations for a renewed Iran nuclear deal may trigger sighs of relief, sadly, that sense of relief is almost surely misplaced. We are likely to see a deal that leaves Iran closer to a nuclear weapons capability than even the original 2015 agreement.

The new administration promised that a renewed deal would be the basis for a "longer, stronger" agreement that addressed two key deficiencies in the original JCPOA: its lifting of all restrictions on Iran's ballistic missile program and its silence on Iran's destabilizing regional activities, including support for terrorist groups and radical militias in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. But months ago, U.S. officials dropped this formulation as even an aspirational goal.

Moreover, U.S. negotiators have admitted that the deal will leave America and its allies with, at most, six months' warning of a potential nuclear breakout. Moreover, the date by which all sanctions temporarily suspended by the agreement are legally terminated is just twenty months away, in October 2023. So it will be President Biden's distasteful task to ask Congress for permanent sanctions relief on Iran next year, which promises to be an uphill battle.

Instead of penalizing Tehran for revving up its centrifuges and speeding toward bomb-level enrichment, an updated agreement is expected to affirm the original timetable of sanctions relief and easing of nuclear restrictions.
The Limits of a New Iran Nuclear Deal
Negotiators appear close to an agreement to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, rolling back parts of Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from severe U.S. sanctions. In its likely form, the deal will provide significant near-term economic benefits to Iran - allowing it to sell oil freely and reconnect to the global financial system. But any agreement will also suffer from the same shortfalls as its predecessor did six years ago.

A new agreement will provide Iran with billions of dollars of additional revenue per month. Tehran will also be able to access more of its $100 billion in foreign exchange reserves held overseas. Yet the longevity of the nuclear deal is much more uncertain than it was in 2015.

Top Republicans have promised to renege on the deal as soon as they retake the White House, potentially in 2025. If Republicans win control of the House and Senate in November, they will probably aim to throw as much sand in the gears of the agreement as possible. That could include new legislation to reimpose sanctions under terrorism or human rights authorities that were otherwise lifted under the new deal.

Congressional pressure will intensify heading into the fall of 2023, when the agreement requires the U.S. to seek to repeal legislation imposing sanctions against Iran. Congress will almost certainly not fulfill this provision.
Clifford D. May: Russia Says Iran Got More than Expected in Vienna Nuclear Talks
Will the U.S. capitulate at the negotiating table in Vienna to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a regime that funds and instructs Hizbullah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthi movement in Yemen whose catchy slogan is "Allah is Greater, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam"? In Vienna, the U.S. is working hand-in-glove with Mikhail Ulyanov, Vladimir Putin's envoy. Iran's negotiators - as a matter of revolutionary Islamic principle - have refused to sit at the same table with Americans and the U.S. has meekly accepted this humiliation.

According to sources, Ulyanov is not just a go-between but "the dominant player," proposing compromises to the Americans (who are always flexible) and to the Iranians (who never are). When the talks began, President Biden vowed to produce a "longer and stronger" deal. It's now clear that a shorter and weaker variant - more economic relief in exchange for fewer verifiable restrictions - has been taking shape.

Ulyanov has said, "Realistically speaking, Iran got more than frankly I expected, others expected. This is a matter of fact." The "Iranian clerics are fighting for Iranian nuclear - national interests like lions. They fight for every comma, every word, and as a rule, quite successfully."


Poll: Only 59% of British Jews Felt They Had a Long-Term Future in the UK
A survey carried out by YouGov and King's College London for the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) found that almost 8 in 10 British Jews felt "intimidated as a Jew" by the anti-Israel protests during the 2021 Gaza conflict.

Only 59% of British Jews felt they had a long-term future in the UK - down from last year's 66%.

87% thought media bias against Israel fueled persecution of Jews in Britain.

The CAA has urged the BBC and Channel 4, where trust is lowest, to appoint independent anti-Semitism advisers to improve coverage of relevant issues.

78% felt intimidated by the boycott of businesses selling Israeli goods.
UK Trade Union Congress Opposes a Trade Deal with Israel
Britain's Trade Union Congress emailed Labour MPs to announce its opposition to new trade deals between Britain and countries they say are "systematically abusing human rights." Of course it wasn't about Putin's brutal regime in Russia, China's crimes against the Uighurs or Iranian repression. It was about Israel, the Middle East's only democracy and the only country in the region with a history of independent and vibrant trade unions. What on earth is the organization that is supposed to promote the interests of British workers doing opposing a trade deal that would create thousands of good, well-paid jobs for British, Israeli and Palestinian working people?

Trade with Israel is already worth billions to Britain. Hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs depend on Israeli trade and investment. It provides employment in hi-tech sectors like science, technology and defense. Cars and taxis manufactured by British trade unionists are exported to Israel. Workers at Rolls Royce are building the engines for El Al's new fleet of Dreamliner aircraft. One in seven drugs dispensed by the National Health Service comes from Israel. Israeli IT and computer software are used by businesses and households across the country.

Instead of promoting trade and investment to create jobs, bringing people together and creating the foundations on which a peace process can be built, many seem to single out Israel and hold it to standards never applied to countries with truly appalling records on human rights. Too many are obsessed with this tiny country and willing to believe any half-truths, distortions and downright lies about the world's only Jewish state.
A resource for students ahead of ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’
Indeed this year’s events, beginning on March 21st, are being promoted by the ‘BDS Movement’ and the ‘Palestine Solidarity Campaign’ using precisely such language:
“Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is a tool for mobilizing grassroots support on the global level for the Palestinian struggle for justice. It is a grassroots mechanism to raise awareness about Israeli apartheid and to mobilize support for strategic BDS campaigns to help bring an end to this system of oppression.”

“Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an international week of action that has taken place for the last 16 [sic] years in over 200 universities and cities around the world. It aims to raise public awareness about Israel’s racial discrimination against all parts of the Palestinian people, which amounts to the crime of apartheid under international law. This week allows us to amplify Palestinian voices, build BDS campaigns, and show solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice.”

CAMERA on Campus has launched a new website called "Apartheid Week Exposed" providing material which will help students to counter the disinformation they are likely to encounter during IAW.


More Than 300 Jewish University of Toronto Faculty Denounce ‘Attack’ on Antisemitism Envoy Irwin Cotler
More than 300 Jewish faculty members at the University of Toronto (U of T) on Monday denounced a letter written by colleagues that “relied on antisemitic stereotypes” to accuse prominent human rights lawyer Irwin Cotler of inciting anti-Palestinian racism.

Cotler, who serves as Canada’s special envoy for Holocaust remembrance and antisemitism, spoke in January at an event hosted by the U of T Temerty Faculty of Medicine (TFOM) to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day. After his address, 45 faculty members signed a letter to TFOM criticizing Cotler for urging the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, arguing that it “reinforced anti-Palestinian racism in a way that is consistent with a broader pattern of silencing and erasure of Palestinian voices.”

The IHRA definition of antisemitism has been widely adopted internationally, including by the governments of Canada and Ontario, where U of T is located, as well as multiple universities and student governments.

The letter also described the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC), a Jewish human rights organization, as a racist “special interest group” that has “actively targeted colleagues of color.”

In a written response on Monday, 316 Jewish professors called the letter “an attack on Jewish faculty members and the Jewish community.”
Student charged with hate crime after antisemitic message at school
A Springfield High School student is facing charges after antisemitic messages were found on school grounds.

Springfield Police say the 16-year-old boy was arrested last week.

The incident happened at Springfield High School.

A school resource officer arrested the student Wednesday afternoon.

Sangamon County State's Attorney Dan Wright says formal charges were filed this week including disorderly conduct, criminal defacement, and hate crime. All charges are Class 4 felonies.

The student is still being detained at the Sangamon County Juvenile Detention Center.

Wright requested he remain there pending the completion of a psychological assessment.


Foreign Policy Sees Only Money-Grubbing Jews
In a February 21 piece at Foreign Policy, author Sophia Goodfriend paints Israel’s use of surveillance technology as part of a money-making, rights-abusing scheme at the expense of Palestinians. As she writes:
“Palestinians subjected to Israeli military rule lack basic privacy rights; often, they are entirely exposed to surveillance by Israeli soldiers. This allows companies working with the Israeli military to prototype and refine new technologies on Palestinian civilians in places like Hebron before they are exported abroad…”

There’s something particularly ugly about the accusation that the Jewish State tests technology on Palestinians to make a profit. Part of it is that the suggestion flirts with multiple antisemitic tropes: that Jews are only interested in money, or that the Jews are always engaging in grand conspiracies to manipulate the goyim for their own insidious designs.

But the other side of the coin to this libel is that it denies a basic human instinct to the Jewish people, namely that for security, and replaces it with cynical, insidious explanations. It requires ignoring the fact that since even before the state of Israel came into being, the Jews in the land of Israel have faced constant attacks and existential threats.

That Goodfriend, a former member of Students for Justice in Palestine, would diminish and demean the real security threats is unsurprising, given that she has a history of comments like mocking her grandparents who “blamed anti-Semitic terrorists, who fire ramshackle rockets at the empty deserts” in reference to the thousands of rockets that have been launched by genocidal terror organizations like Hamas at Israeli population centers, killing Jews and Arabs alike.
Framing and narrative in BBC WS radio news bulletin
Listeners to a BBC World Service radio news bulletin aired on March 8th at 13:00 GMT heard the following (from 03:47 here):
Newsreader: “European diplomats have expressed concern about a recent rise in Palestinian children being killed in clashes with Israeli forces. Two young Palestinian men have been shot dead in Jerusalem on consecutive days after attacks against the Israeli security forces. From Jerusalem, Yolande Knell reports.”

Having opened with signposting about “Palestinian children”, the newsreader went on to mention two people who were not children at the time of their deaths and failed to adequately clarify that they were the ones who carried out the “attacks against the Israeli security forces”.

On March 6th two members of the police force were injured in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City carried out by nineteen year-old Karim Jamal al-Qawasmi from at-Tur.

On March 7th two police officers were moderately wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City carried out by 22-year-old Abd al-Rahman Jamal Qasim, a resident of the Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah, who was claimed by Hamas as a member of that terrorist organisation.

In other words, those two incidents “on consecutive days” have no connection to the earlier framing of “Palestinian children”.


Israeli Tourist Attacked in Berlin: ‘It Was Aimed at Hurting Israelis or Jews’
An Israeli tourist was attacked on Monday in Berlin, Germany, in what she described as an incident of antisemitic violence.

The victim, named only as “Osnat,” was with her husband in a heavily-trafficked area near the Berlin Zoological Garden on the final day of their trip to the German capital, Israeli news site Walla reported.

The pair, who have since returned to Israel, were looking for a specific store and took a shortcut down a side street. When Osnat fell a few paces behind her husband while checking a map on her phone, a random stranger punched her in the face.

“My face filled with blood, my temple split, blood dripped from my nose, which I felt had broken,” she recalled.

She chose not to take an ambulance to the hospital, after the attendants would not allow her husband to accompany her because of his lack of English or German language skills. The police were called when the pair returned to their hotel and a complaint was lodged, but the couple has not heard anything further from authorities.

Osnat said that she is convinced the incident “was unequivocally an antisemitic attack. It was aimed at hurting Israelis or Jews.”
Idaho Lt.-Gov. McGeachin spoke to white nationalists after asking if she could fight antisemitism
When Rabbi Dan Fink saw that the lieutenant governor of his state had just spoken to a white nationalist group helmed by a Holocaust denier, he was shocked.

After all, he had just gotten a letter from Janice McGeachin, Idaho’s Republican lieutenant governor, asking him to join her in working on a task force to combat antisemitism.

The invitation had surprised Fink, too, because he thought McGeachin’s far-right politics and militia bedfellows presented the most urgent threat to Idaho’s Jews. But he had taken her at her word and was considering her offer — before seeing McGeachin take the stage at the America First Political Action Conference, convened by Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who peddles antisemitic tropes.

“The tone-deafness of it is just stunning,” Fink told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tuesday. “I don’t know whether I want to laugh or cry. I kind of want to do both.”

Now, Fink, who leads Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel in Boise, is among 31 clergy members in Idaho to have called on McGeachin to resign. Their public call is the latest of a growing number of other Republicans have come under fire for speaking to the conference. It also highlights the challenges Jews face in navigating the melding of the far right with the Republican establishment, where antisemitism can become a divisive issue.

Fink became Idaho’s first full-time rabbi when he was hired at his synagogue in 1994 and is one of just three rabbis working in the state.
Alleged attacker of Jewish shop owners moved to psychiatric ward, avoiding court date
A man accused of carrying out a vicious attack on two Jewish shop owners in Stamford Hill has been sent to a hospital psychiatric ward instead of appearing at a London court.

Malachi Thorpe, 18, allegedly assaulted Israel Grossman and Erwin Ginsberg as they closed their shop on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day this year.

The two men, described in Wood Green Crown Court as “visibly Orthodox Jewish,” ended up in hospital being treated for a variety of injuries after the 27 January incident.

Thorpe was facing two charges of racially or religiously aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of possessing an offensive weapon.

Shomrim had released video footage of the incident at Cadoxton Avenue, Stamford Hill, which went viral and was condemned by both Boris Johnson and Priti Patel.

Thorpe was due to enter pleas at the court on Thursday last week. But his defence lawyer said that once he was in custody his behaviour had spurred the prison authorities to transfer him to a hospital’s wing for psychiatric assessment.

David Lyons said: “It appears from the prison that the defendant is a very unwell man at the moment”.

Cathryn Evans, prosecuting, described the alleged attack as “unprovoked”.
Intel’s Mobileye files for proposed Wall Street IPO at estimated $50b valuation
Mobileye, Intel’s Jerusalem-headquartered autonomous driving subsidiary, has confidentially filed for a proposed IPO on Wall Street with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Intel said Mobileye submitted Form S-1 on Monday, a draft registration statement to be listed on a national stock exchange.

The number of Mobileye shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined, Intel said.

The chip giant announced in December that it intends to take Mobileye, a world leader in self-driving technologies, public this year at a valuation of approximately $50 billion. Intel bought Israel’s Mobileye in 2017 for over $15 billion, a transaction that remains the largest exit for an Israeli tech company to date.

Intel said making Mobileye a public company would “unlock the value of Mobileye for Intel shareholders by creating a separate publicly traded company and will build on Mobileye’s successful track record and serve its expanded market.”

The multinational said it will remain the majority owner of Mobileye, and the two companies will continue working together as they “pursue the growth of computing in the automotive sector.”

The Mobileye executive team will remain in place, with co-founder Amnon Shashua continuing as the company’s CEO.
Emmy Award-winning actress Glenn Close joins cast of 'Tehran'
nternationally-acclaimed Israeli espionage drama Theran is set to hit the ground running for a second time, with its new season set to premiere on Apple TV+ on May 6. The second season will feature familiar faces, as well as a new character played by a member of the Holywood elite: actress Glenn Close.

Tehran debuted on Kan 11, Israel's public television channel in June 2020 and became an instant hit. The buzz surrounding the show made Apple TV executives take notice, and in September 2020, Tehran became the first non-English language series to be released on Apple's streaming service.

The first season received critical acclaim and picked up the award for Best Drama at the International Emmy Awards in 2021.

Created by Moshe Zonder, Dana Eden and Maor Kohn, Tehran follows "Tamar" (actress Niv Sultan), Mossad computer hacker-agent undertaking her very first mission in Iran's capital to help the Israel Defense Forces conduct an airstrike on one of the regime's nuclear reactors. When the mission goes wrong, the agent has to survive by her wits.

The second season will see Close play "Marjan Montazeri," a British woman living in Iran, who appears to be working with Tamar.


Jewish Non-Profit Launches ‘Hollywood Bureau’ for More Accurate Portrayal of Jews on Screen
A Jewish non-profit based in New York will open later this month a new “Hollywood Bureau,” with a focus on promoting better representation of Jews in the media, the organization announced on Wednesday.

Launched in 2007, Jew in the City (JITC) is the only non-profit “dedicated to changing negative perceptions of religious Jews and making engaging and meaningful Orthodox Judaism known and accessible,” according to its website.

JITC’s new bureau will provide consultants to work directly on TV and film productions, sponsor impact studies, build a “writers’ lab,” and give out awards for positive Jewish representation in the media, the non-profit said. JITC’s first Media Awards on March 21 also mark the bureau’s launch.

“We recently learned that virtually every other minority group has a mechanism for authentic and fair depictions in Hollywood,” JITC’s founder and executive director Allison Josephs told The Algemeiner on Wednesday. “We’d been relying on social media and news articles all these years because we didn’t know that there was something more official. Once we discovered that this whole space exists, it was the rational next step for our organization.”

She added, “While we were founded to combat negative perceptions of Orthodox Jews, many non-Orthodox Jews have asked us to make the fight broader, to ensure that antisemitic stereotypes and cartoonish depictions of Jews have no place in modern media. As antisemitic attacks are up in recent years, how we are shown in media is an angle we must not ignore.”
550 Bnei Menashe From India Visit Western Wall With Israel’s Chief Rabbi
Some 550 new immigrants from the Bnei Menashe community who recently immigrated to Israel and now live in the Galilee visited the Western Wall on Wednesday for the first time, together with the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi David Lau.

The Bnei Menashe prayed for the aliyah to Israel of the 5,000 members of their community who remain in India.

Shmuel Manlun, 40, said, “it was like a dream come true. I couldn’t hold back my tears. It feels like we are part of a prophecy being fulfilled.”

The festivities at the Kotel were organized by the Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel organization, which has been promoting the aliyah of the Bnei Menashe to Israel for two decades. Attendees included Michael Freund, chairman of Shavei Israel; Sar-Shalom Jerby, director of the JNF Education Division; and Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan, head of the Religious Council in Jerusalem.

“Seeing and touching the stones of the Western Wall was an extremely emotional experience for the Bnei Menashe. For them, it was not only a symbolic and historic event signifying a people returning to their land but also a powerful spiritual moment, unlike any they have experienced before,” said Freund.

“You are a success story, and we are very happy to accept you as part of the Jewish people,” said Lau. “I’m very excited to be here with you today. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is happy to assist you with your very successful conversion process, which is the ideal example for anyone who wants to convert and become part of the Jewish people.”
Unpacked: Modern Zionism: 2000 years in the making | The Jewish Story
While the State of Israel is barely 75 years old, the origins of Zionism actually go back a lot further than one might think. In fact, Zionism was born at three distinct moments in history that all contributed to Zionism as the world knows it today.

The first story of Zionism dates back thousands of years ago starting with Abraham in biblical times. This paved the way for the modern movements of 200 years ago during the Enlightenment and 125 years ago when the first political Zionist movement was created.

Each of these occurrences shared the same dream for the Jewish people to be recognized as a sovereign nation in their homeland, Israel.






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