Saturday, March 26, 2022

03/26 Links: Russia bombs Drobitsky Yar Holocaust memorial in Ukraine; Egypt’s FM to Join Summit of Arab, US Diplomats in Israel; Brandeis University Severs Ties With MESA Over BDS Vote

From Ian:

Russia bombs Drobitsky Yar Holocaust memorial in Ukraine
Russian artillery hit the menorah-shaped monument at the entrance to the Drobytsky Yar Holocaust memorial complex on Saturday, the United Jewish Community of Ukraine reported via Telegram.

According to the State Archives of the Kharkiv Region, between 16,000 and 20,000 victims of the Holocaust were shot and killed at the site, near Kharkivin northeastern Ukraine.

Earlier in Russia’s invasion, Russian missiles and shells struck close to the Babyn Yar site, where more than 33,000 Jews were massacred on September 29-30,1941.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took to Twitter to condemn the Babyn Yar attack.

“To the world: what is the point of saying ‘never again’ for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar?” Zelensky wrote. “At least 5 killed. History repeating…”

This is the second time Russia's "denazification" campaign in Ukraine seems to target memorials dedicated to those the Nazis hurt the most.
Top Zelensky adviser opens up about his Jewish roots, urges greater Israeli support
A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke at length about his own Jewish heritage during a conversation Thursday with Israeli journalists.

Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, conducted the hour-long briefing in Ukrainian, using an interpreter. Until, that is, he was asked about his Jewish heritage.

Yermak switched to English only for this response, speaking directly to the Israelis.

“My father is Jewish, he was born in Kyiv,” said the 50-year-old, dressed in the military fleece that Ukraine’s leadership has donned throughout the war with Russia.

“Some of my relatives were killed in Babyn Yar,” he stressed, referring to the ravine in Kyiv in which over 33,000 Jews were slaughtered by Nazi Germany and its local allies in September 1941.

“It was a shock when one of the first shells hit the city of Uman, and the next week, another shell killed the family with children who were visiting the Babyn Yar memorial,” Yermak continued. “The millions of people who died do not deserve for their memory to be burned.” A Jewish man looks at the buildings near the synagogue of Uman, central Ukraine, on March 9, 2022. (Daphne Rousseau / AFP)

“The slogan ‘Never Again’ is very relevant,” he stressed.

Earlier this month, Yermak wrote about the history of Ukraine’s Jews in a Times of Israel op-ed, and compared Ukrainians under attack from Russia to Jews murdered by Nazis.

“The Jewish people know all too well the threat of being eradicated,” he wrote. “Today, Ukraine is Israel.”


Biden says Putin ‘cannot remain in power’; White House: He didn’t mean regime change
US President Joe Biden said Saturday that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” dramatically escalating the rhetoric against the Russian leader after his brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Even as Biden’s words rocketed around the world, the White House attempted to clarify soon after Biden finished speaking in Poland that he was not calling for a new government in Russia.

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said at the very end of a speech in Poland’s capital that served as the capstone on a four-day trip to Europe.

A White House official asserted that Biden was “not discussing Putin’s power in Russia or regime change.” The official, who was not authorized to comment by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Biden’s point was that “Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.”

The White House declined to comment on whether Biden’s statement about Putin was part of his prepared remarks.

The Kremlin dismissed the remarks, saying it was up to Russians to choose their own president.

Asked about Biden’s comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters: “That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”

Biden has frequently talked about ensuring that the Kremlin’s invasion, now in its second month, becomes a “strategic failure” for Putin and has described the Russian leader as a “war criminal.”

But until his remarks in Warsaw, the American leader had not veered toward suggesting Putin should not run Russia. Earlier on Saturday, shortly after meeting with Ukrainian refugees, Biden called Putin a “butcher.”


Egypt’s FM to Join Summit of Arab, US Diplomats in Israel
Egypt’s foreign minister will take part in groundbreaking talks in Israel from Sunday alongside his counterparts from the US and three Arab states, an Israeli official said.

Sameh Shoukry will be joining US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the foreign ministers of the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco for a series of meetings hosted by their Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid, Israeli authorities confirmed.

The two-day event will be held against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that has sparked wider security concerns and sent oil and food prices soaring.

It also comes as the United States is close to reaching an agreement with Iran to restore the 2015 accord limiting Tehran’s nuclear activities in return for removing sanctions on the country

The United Arab Emirates forged diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020 under a series of US-brokered deals known as the Abraham Accords.

Bahrain and Morocco followed suit, while Sudan also agreed to normalize ties with Israel although it has yet to finalize a deal.

The agreements, reached under former US president Donald Trump, broke with decades of Arab consensus that there would be no relations with Israel while the Palestinian question remains unresolved.
Israeli, Palestinian women call to revive peace talks
Hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian women met by the Dead Sea on Friday to encourage their leaders to launch negotiations toward a political agreement ensuring a future of freedom, peace and security for both peoples.

The Israeli women were represented by Women Wage Peace, the largest grassroots movement in Israel with 50,000 registered members. The movement was granted special consultative status to the United Nations and works to promote political solutions with the Palestinians.

The Palestinian women were represented by a movement called Women of the Sun, founded last July. Its members come from different parts of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

They met at Neve Midbar Beach, at the northern end of the Dead Sea.

Over the past few months, the Israeli and Palestinian women have held a series of meetings and formulated a “joint platform,” which reflects the sensitivities on both sides and respects their needs, challenges and capabilities.

The two movements say that they are not affiliated with any particular political party.

“We believe that the majority of the people of our nations share our mutual desire. Therefore, we demand that our leaders listen to our call and promptly begin peace talks and negotiations, with resolute commitment to achieving a political solution to the long and painful conflict, within a limited time frame,” the women proclaimed in their platform.


Ukrainian refugee who won Jerusalem Marathon speaks to i24NEWS



‘A bad look in his eyes’: Beersheba terror victim recounts attack from hospital bed
Hila Avisror, one of two people wounded in the fatal terror attack that occurred in Beersheba earlier this week, recounted the horrific event on Thursday as she continues to recover in the hospital.

“I did not think it would get to this,” the mother of three told Hebrew media. “We went shopping in town and I went into the store, then he came from behind and stabbed me twice.”

“I fell while he was moving towards the other girl, and as soon as he stabbed me I realized it was a terror attack. He looked me in the eyes and did not speak, he had a look of anger, a bad look in his eyes,” she said.

Avisror, who was in the area for her birthday, said she was so surprised by the attack that she did not even have the opportunity to fight him back. Laying on the ground, she attempted to get up and run back to her car, where her husband was waiting.

“When I got to the car I saw the terrorist coming out of the store. I told my husband to drive because I was afraid he would hurt us, and I was bleeding through all of this,” she said.

“I am sorry for those for whom a miracle did not happen, but a miracle happened to me and I received my life back as a gift. I share the grief of the [bereaved] families and hope we do not hear of any more such things,” she said.
Beersheba stabbing victim’s family asks that video showing her death be taken down
The family of one of the victims in the fatal terror attack in Beersheba earlier this week asked on Thursday that a video showing her death be taken down after it had circulated online.

Four people were killed and two others injured by a knifeman on Tuesday in a rampage that started at a gas station and ended at a shopping center. The terrorist — 34-year-old Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, from the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev — was eventually confronted and shot dead by two armed civilians.

The fatalities were later named as Doris Yahbas, 49, a mother of three; Laura Yitzhak, 43, another mother of three; Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, a father of four; and Menahem Yehezkel, 67.

Following the attack, a graphic video was shared online, mainly through WhatsApp, showing Yitzhak fighting off the attacker, before being stabbed and falling to the ground.

“Dear people of Israel, the news we received and the disaster that has befallen us are worse than you can understand, they simply shattered us,” her husband Tal wrote in a Facebook post.

“I have a small request for you. Me and my three daughters do not want to see the video in which she fought like a lioness against that damn terrorist. I will ask everyone to do their small part and delete it. I’m moved by and appreciate the support of all the people of Israel. Please help me rebuild from these ruins. Thank you.”
Head of Ben-Gurion University says school uncovered Islamist ‘modesty squads’
The head of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev said Saturday that an Islamist cell had been uncovered at the Beersheba school that operated “modesty patrols” and threatened students.

According to Prof. Daniel Chamovitz, the group was made up of three people who “photographed female Bedouin students and sent the pictures back to their clans if they were not modest enough.” He added that the group also photographed male Bedouin students.

He said that when the university learned about the cell, “we were startled, Jews and Arabs both.”

“How did we discover this? Because they complained,” he said during a speaking engagement in the southern city. “It’s a complicated situation societally because they can’t complain publicly.”

So-called “modesty guards” — vigilante groups that act to enforce strict lifestyle regulations of modesty and social behavior without the involvement of law officials or welfare authorities — are mainly known to operate in Israel within ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities.

Such groups also exist in extremely conservative Muslim nations, such as Iran.

Chamovitz likened the group to “modesty patrols in Mea Shearim, where if there’s a Haredi man or woman not behaving properly, they threaten them.”

“They threaten to send the photos if they don’t change their behavior,” he added.
Israel set to raise work permit quotas for Gazans to 20,000
The Israeli government is expected to raise the number of permits for Gazans to work in Israel by an additional 8,000, to a total of 20,000 permits, on Sunday, the Ministry for Regional Cooperation said.

Cabinet ministers are set to sign off on a government resolution authorizing the additional permits at their weekly meeting. The decision comes as Israel seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians before the Ramadan holiday, with some officials fearing heightened tensions.

The quota was raised to 12,000 permits just two weeks ago. An Israeli security official briefed reporters at the time that the ceiling would soon be raised to 20,000 at the initiative of Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

Qatari envoy to the Gaza Strip Mohammad al-Emadi, who regularly meets with both Israeli and Palestinian officials, told Gaza media on Thursday that Israel had pledged to eventually raise the quota to 30,000 permits.

The Gaza Strip has been blockaded by both Israel and Egypt for over 15 years in an attempt to contain the enclave’s Hamas rulers. Israel says the tight restrictions on goods and people are necessary due to the terror group’s efforts to massively arm itself for attacks against the Jewish state.

Critics lament the blockade’s impact on ordinary Gazans, around 50 percent of whom are unemployed, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The sky-high poverty rates make employment in Israel a highly attractive option for those lucky enough to receive permits.
Iranian Foreign Minister Insists Tehran Won’t Budge on ‘Red Lines’ at Vienna Talks on Revived Nuclear Deal
Iran’s foreign minister continued his tour of Tehran’s regional allies on Thursday, arriving in Beirut from the Syrian capital Damascus, where he reiterated that any progress at talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement depended on US willingness to compromise.

“Instead of wasting time by playing with words, the United States should take the right path and act pragmatically,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian declared. “We are ready for a good, strong and stable agreement, but not at the price of our red lines.”

Amirabdollahian did not specify what these “red lines” involved, but there has been widespread speculation in recent weeks that Iran is insisting on the removal of the Tehran regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the US list of proscribed foreign terrorist organizations. Iranian negotiators have also demanded the removal of the robust sanctions put in place when former US President Donald Trump announced that the US was withdrawing its support from the nuclear deal in 2018.

Meeting with Nabih Berri, the Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, on Thursday afternoon, Amirabdollahian again raised his objection to sanctions through a reference to the measures taken against Moscow by the international community in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

“We are against war whether it is in Afghanistan, Yemen, or Ukraine,” he said. “At the same time, the imposition of unilateral sanctions by Western states is also unacceptable to us. The Islamic Republic of Iran encourages a resolution of the developments in Ukraine through political dialogue.”
Biden Administration's Nuclear Deal: "This Isn't Obama's Iran Deal. It's Much, Much Worse."
"By every indication, the Biden Administration appears to have given away the store.... What is more, the deal appears likely to deepen Iran's financial and security relationship with Moscow and Beijing, including through arms sales." — Statement from 49 US Republican Senators, March 14, 2022.

With the increased flow of funds to the ruling mullahs, do expect an increase across Iran in human rights violations and domestic crackdowns on those who oppose the regime's policies, as hardliners tend to be the ones gaining more power as a result of any lifting of sanctions. Iran's hardliners already control three branches of the government: the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary.

Regionally speaking, a nuclear deal will undoubtedly escalate Iran's interference in the domestic affairs of other countries, despite what the advocates of the nuclear deal argue -- just as when then US President Barack Obama predicted that with a nuclear deal, "attitudes will change." They did. For the worse.

Sanctions relief, as a consequence of a nuclear accord, will most likely finance Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Quds Force (the IRGC branch for extraterritorial operations) and buttress Iran's terrorist proxies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis, Iraq's Shiite militias, and Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The worst parts of the new deal are, of course, that it will enable the Iranian regime, repeatedly listed by the US as a state sponsor of terrorism, to have full nuclear weapons capability, an unlimited number of nuclear warheads, and the intercontinental ballistic missile systems with which to deliver them. In addition, as a separate deal, the US will reportedly release the IRGC from the US List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, "in return for a public commitment from Iran to de-escalation in the region" and a promise "not to attack Americans."

Iran's leaders, for a start, never honored their earlier "commitment," so why would anyone think they would honor this one? In a burst of honesty, though -- and a pretty explicit tip-off -- they stated that they "didn't agree to the U.S. demand and suggested giving the U.S. a private side letter instead."

Then there is that revealingly narcissistic condition, "not to attack Americans"? Oh, then attacking Saudis, Emiratis, Israelis, Europeans, South Americans and everyone else is just fine? Thanks, Biden.

Worse, the Iranians were complicit with al-Qaeda in attacking the US on 9/11/2001. So we are rewarding them?

To top it off, the US State Department just confirmed that Russia and its war-criminal President Vladimir Putin could keep Iran's "excess uranium." (Excess of what?) Seriously? So Putin can use Iran's uranium to threaten bombing his next "Ukraine"?

One can only assume that just as the region has become relatively more peaceful and stable, the Biden administration would like to destabilize it. After surrendering to the Taliban in Afghanistan and failing to deter Putin from invading Ukraine, has the Biden administration not created enough destabilization? Why would a US president want a legacy of three major destabilizations unless someone was interested in bringing down the West?

The US proposals -- negotiated for the Americans by Russia of all unimpeachable, trustworthy, above-board advocates -- have been described as: "This Isn't Obama's Iran Deal. It's Much, Much Worse." That sounds about right.
New York Times Hypes Iran Deal Hopes, Complaining Biden Was Too Slow to Woo Tehran
A routine news article about an Egypt-Israel-United Arab Emirates summit meeting is the latest example of inaccurate and tendentious New York Times journalism about Israel and the Middle East.

The Times writes that the meeting happened “as the United States pursues a renewed nuclear deal with Iran, a rival of both Israel and the UAE, that would lift international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. The Emirates and another important American ally in the region, Saudi Arabia, have complained about what they see as a lack of American support after attacks that were linked to Iran.”

Notice the double standard. The Times claims that a renewed nuclear deal would bring “limits” on the Iranian nuclear program, rather than merely unverifiable short-term promises of limits. The “what they see as” language gets applied to the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, but not to the “limits” of the Iran nuclear deal. Even the word “complained” has a slightly whiny connotation. Saudi Arabia is described as an “important American ally in the region,” though the country is not on the list of major non-NATO allies.

The Times article reports that “For decades, Israel was ostracized by all but two Arab countries, Jordan and Egypt. For most Arab governments, Israel’s occupation of territories claimed by the Palestinians precluded any diplomatic entente and even in those capitals, Amman and Cairo, leaders sought to keep their relationships with Israel below the radar.” The claim that it was “Israel’s occupation of territories claimed by the Palestinians” that “precluded any diplomatic entente” is humorous, because it was actually Israel’s very existence that the Arabs objected to. The Arab nations declined to recognize Israel between 1948 and 1967, during a period when “occupation of territories” was not the sort of grievance that it became after 1967. Nor is it accurate that the Jordanian and Egyptian leaders “sought to keep their relationships with Israel below the radar.”
Biden Bid To Waive Sanctions on Iranian Terrorists Could Derail Nuclear Deal
Republican opponents of a new Iran deal are increasingly convinced the agreement is vulnerable and are focusing on a concession that could see sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reversed, according to sources familiar with the Republicans' thinking.

The removal of IRGC sanctions has reportedly stalled talks in Vienna and is threatening to derail the accord at home. In the aftermath of a classified Senate briefing on the deal held last week that left members of both parties fuming, Republican staffers on Capitol Hill are circulating declassified U.S. military information detailing how IRGC-backed militias are responsible for killing more than 600 Americans in Iraq, according to a copy of that document obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

With the Biden administration facing increasing pressure to waive IRGC sanctions so that a deal can be finalized, the extent of Iran’s bloodshed in Iraq is taking on renewed significance, congressional sources and former U.S. officials who reviewed the declassified intelligence told the Free Beacon.

The focus on IRGC sanctions comes alongside a growing list of vulnerabilities that Republican leaders see derailing the agreement in Congress, including carveouts that will let Russia cash in on a multibillion-dollar contract to build up portions of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. Republican congressional leaders in both chambers told the Free Beacon in recent days that some Democrats are privately concerned about the new deal, jeopardizing support for the agreement before it is announced.

"The United States possesses overwhelming evidence that the IRGC is and was involved in terrorist activities, prior to and following the signing of the 2015 JCPOA," one senior congressional aide told the Free Beacon, speaking only on background to discuss internal Republican deliberations. "The thought of the Biden administration lifting terrorism sanctions on the IRGC as a concession for them to join a new nuclear deal is not only shameful, but downright foolish. It would undermine U.S. credibility and pose an incredible risk to Americans and our allies around the globe. This would be another disgraceful capitulation by this administration to Iran and no deal is worth endangering our national security."


Houthis Launch Third “Siege Breaking” Operation in Saudi Arabia
For a third week in a row, the Iran-backed Houthis attacked an Aramco oil storage facility in the port city of Jeddah and other energy facilities in the kingdom.

Footage of the attacks shared on social media show a section of the Aramco oil facility in Jeddah set ablaze. Others show the aftermath of a strike against a water facility in Najran.

Following the assaults, Houthi spokesperson Yahya Sare’e acknowledged the third “Siege Breaking” operation was launched against various targets inside Saudi Arabia using drones, ballistic and winged missiles.

“In response to the continuation of the unjust siege on our country and our people, and the inauguration of the eighth year of steadfastness the Yemeni armed forces carried out the third Siege Breaking operation with batches of ballistic & Winged missiles and drones,” Sare’e tweeted.

A statement by the official spokesperson of the Saudi-led coalition, Brigadier General Turki al-Malki, stated that the Aramco attack in Jeddah was likely conducted by the Houthis and noted the goal of the assault was to “undermine energy security” of the global economy.

“A fire erupted in (2) tanks in the oil facility; the fire was controlled, and no injuries or loss of life were recorded. This hostile escalation targets oil facilities, and aims to undermine energy security and the backbone of global economy. These hostile attacks had no impact or repercussions in any way, shape or form on public life in Jeddah City,” al-Malki stated.

Friday’s strikes are a part of a broad and extensive operation primarily targeting Saudi oil facilities. Houthi statements have blamed Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Yemen, specifically the prohibition of fuel imports as the reason for launching operations against the kingdom.
Seth Frantzman: Major attack on Saudi Aramco is Iran’s message of worse to come
The Houthis have called the latest attacks “Operation Breaking the Siege.” Iran says it targeted the Aramco facility with nine drones. A Houthi spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Sari, “announced last Sunday that a number of vital Saudi Aramco facilities in Riyadh, Yanbu and other parts of the country have been targeted with several ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and UAVs.

Also, as soon as the first phase of the operation was successful, the Yemeni forces attacked a number of vital and important targets in Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jizan, Samta, South Dhahran with missiles and UAVs,” the Tasnim report says.

“The important point is that this operation is not short-term and cross-sectional, but the Yemeni army’s intelligence and reconnaissance circle will identify the sensitive and strategic areas of Saudi Arabia, and the next rounds of the operation will be carried out,” Tasnim says.

Clearly, this is just the beginning and Saudi Arabia is right to call on the international community to help more. Iran may be launching a new wave of attacks this spring designed to destabilize the Gulf.

This comes as delegations from the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt will gather with the US in Israel this week for an unprecedented summit.

The Foreign Ministry has called this the “Negev Summit” which will take place from March 27-28. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will host the summit at Sde Boker, the Ministry said. “Six foreign ministers will participate in this historic meeting: Lapid, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, UAE's foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, and ministers from Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt,” Israel says.

Considering the growing threat by Iran to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf this summit has important ramifications.

The Saudi-backed coalition will now carry out increasing strikes on the Houthis. These will target Hodeidah, Sanaa and other locations, reports say. Al-Arabiya said the coalition stopped explosive-laden boats in Hodeidah over the weekend.

Iran is showing total support for the Houthis in this battle with Riyadh. It has projected the faces of Houthi leaders on the Azadi monument in Tehran, according to photos seen online.


Professors Who Teach Courses on Israel Endorse Academic Boycott of Israel
The Middle East Studies Association (MESA), which represents hundreds of professors who teach Middle Eastern studies on dozens of American college campuses, passed a resolution endorsing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

The Middle East-centered learning society closed its 50-day voting period for the BDS resolution on Wednesday. More than 80 percent of the organization's voting members, many of whom teach about Israel at U.S. universities, cast ballots supporting the resolution, which accuses the Jewish state of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians and calls on MESA members to boycott Israeli universities.

Left-leaning students and faculty at American universities have in recent years sided with Palestinian activists in their efforts to boycott Israel. While Hamas fired thousands of rockets in May at the Jewish state, student leaders at the University of Michigan endorsed the BDS movement, claiming that Israel commits "apartheid." That same month, the University of Chicago's Undergraduate Student Government released a statement that included an anti-Semitic trope that calls for the elimination of Israel. AMCHA, a nonprofit that documents anti-Semitism on college campuses, documented similar anti-Israel statements from 160 departments at 120 universities released amid the conflict between Hamas and Israel last year.

MESA's resolution targets Israeli universities "for their complicity in Israel's violations of human rights and international law through their provision of direct assistance to the military and intelligence establishments." Israel's alleged human rights abuses include "right to education violations," according to the resolution, such as "restricting freedom of movement for Palestinians," "attacking Palestinian educational institutions," and "harassing Palestinian professors, teachers, and students."

MESA's board of directors, which includes nine professors at American universities such as New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, and George Washington University, are now tasked with finding ways to implement the academic boycott while upholding the group's "commitment to the free exchange of ideas and scholarship," MESA president Eve Troutt Powell said in a statement.

"Our members have cast a clear vote to answer the call for solidarity from Palestinian scholars and students experiencing violations of their right to education and other human rights," Powell said in a statement. "MESA's board [of directors] will work to honor the will of its members and ensure that the call for an academic boycott is upheld without undermining our commitment to the free exchange of ideas and scholarship."
MESA's Israel boycott encapsulates everything wrong with academia - opinion
MESA is thus out of step with the region it purports to study. Its politics resemble – not coincidentally – those of Iran, but also the ‘Democratic Socialists of America’ and progressive groups that have recently vowed to oppose the Abraham Accords.

Various US states have noted this contradiction between the reality on the ground, and MESA’s political desire to ostracize and punish Israel. A number of US states, such as Florida, have expressed dismay over the MESA-proposed boycott and the manner in which it contravenes local anti-BDS legislation, founded in opposition to discrimination on the basis of religious, ethnic and national origins (and which MESA offers help local academics to circumvent).

It may be for this reason that a number of public universities have quietly declined to renew their institutional memberships in MESA. But, the problem extends far beyond schools. Institutions that receive Federal funds – meaning virtually all colleges and universities – suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of MESA’s proposed discrimination. Academic freedom for individuals does not include the right for institutions to countenance discrimination by organizations they support. Administrators, trustees, and alums should take note, along with George Washington University, which hosts MESA’s office.

Moreover, the Federal Government, which employs or consults with Middle East specialists in the intelligence community, military and diplomatic fields, finds itself in a bind. The question of discrimination is bad enough but the quality of analyses must become suspect. MESA ideologues so opposed to the existence of one and only one state in the region are hardly impartial or even informative specialists to advise the US Government. Personal aversions compromise scholarship and policy. Support for boycotting Israel should be an immediate disqualifying mark.

But that is part of the point of the academic boycott of Israel, to twist official opinion in the manner that has already been done in academia. American interests and the interests of peace are barely considerations. Neither is fairness a consideration. Academic ideologues in Middle East studies who routinely champion Hamas and Hezbollah, who savage the US as an evil empire and Israel as its lackey, in terms eerily similar to that of the Iranian regime, and who busily export 21st century American obsessions regarding race and whiteness to the rest of the world (including Israel) defy basic notions of fairness.

It is probably too late to dissuade MESA members from this self-destructive boycott. But, in a period when American academia is discrediting itself on a daily basis by embracing various racist formulae, which Israel boycotts certainly are, consumers of information and supporters academia should ask what comes next.
Brandeis University Affirms Support for ‘Academic Freedom,’ Severs Ties With Middle East Studies Association Over BDS Vote
Brandeis University has become the latest institution to sever ties with the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) over its passing a resolution to academically boycott Israel, while a leading civil liberties group has added to mounting criticisms of the vote.

Members of MESA, which promotes scholarly study of the Middle East, adopted a BDS resolution on Tuesday after a 50-day voting period that concluded with 768 votes in favor and 167 against.

“The resolution attacks the fundamental principles of academic freedom and association to which MESA specifically refers in its mission statement, and to which Brandeis is committed,” the Boston-area university said in a statement. “As a matter of principle, Brandeis University opposes academic boycotts of universities in any country. In light of this vote and the boycott, Brandeis dissociates from MESA and reaffirms our support for academic freedom.”

The decision adds Brandeis to the list of schools, including Florida State University and the University of Arizona, that have ended partnerships with MESA since the association first voted in December to weigh an endorsement of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) — a leading advocate for the liberties of students and faculty that has previously defended proponents of an Israel boycott against legal restrictions — voiced concerns about the MESA resolution on Friday.

“Organizations like MESA are free to support and campaign for the BDS movement, and as a general matter students and faculty must remain free to join organizations that endorse BDS,” FIRE’s VP of Programs Peter Bonilla told The Algemeiner, arguing that states cannot legally constrain such activity.

“With that being said, however, FIRE has also repeatedly argued that the BDS movement’s goals are in sharp tension with key tenets of academic freedom,” Bonilla continued. “Discouraging or prohibiting faculty from engaging their Israeli counterparts, for example, restricts the free exchange of ideas, critical inquiry, and academic dialogue.”


BDS Fails, Great and Small
Shhhh. Its a clip show, er, post.

Where are we after 21 years of BDS?

Well, there's this. According to a Gallup poll released this week as part of its annual World Affairs poll, Israel ranks seventh on list of countries rated favorably by Americans.

After multiple attempts to rid our port cities from the scurge of the Israel-affiliated Zim Shipping line, whats the net result of Block the Boat, and Block the Boat, the sequel?
* ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd stock has risen 226.06% over the last 12 months, and the average rating from Wall Street analysts is a Buy.
* ZIM generated $10.7 billion in revenue and $4.64 billion in net profit, also growing shareholders' equity to $4.6 billion.
* For 2021, Zim saw a 787% profit rise.

Maybe that celebration party was a bit premature, eh, Lara?

But, But, But you say, Ben & Jerrys! Thats was a BDS victory. Right? Right?

Maybe its a Pyrrhic victory at best. Since the Unilever owned business made the decision to stop selling ice cream over the Green line, seven states have taken action against the company. Most recently, Colorado has joined New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Arizona divesting state pension funds from the company. Florida and Texas have also taken action against Ben & Jerry’s. Other states are likely to take action as well.

Unilever’s stock has plunged in the six months. Its been estimated that the boycott has led to a $26 billion loss.

Unilever- this is your stock on BDS.


The Press Covers Antisemites—But Omits the Antisemitism
Major U.S. news outlets are, once again, giving antisemites the benefit of the doubt. Two recent reports offer more troubling evidence that many in the media treat antisemitism differently from other types of racial and ethnic hatred.

Take, for example, a March 17, 2022 article by the Philadelphia Inquirer, entitled “Former athletic trainer says Agnes Irwin School illegally fired her for social media posts critical of Israel.”

Reporter Maddie Hanna details allegations by Natalie Abulhawa, a twenty-four-year-old Palestinian-American, who claims that she was she was “unlawfully fired” from her position as an athletic trainer at Anges Irwin “after parents complained about years-old social media posts criticizing Israel.”

The Inquirer notes that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has filed charges on Abulhawa’s behalf, arguing that her dismissal from the private school violates the federal civil rights act of 1964, and the Pennsylvania Human Rights Act.

To its credit, the newspaper does briefly note some of Abulhawa’s disturbing tweets:

“’Israel doesn’t have the right to exist,’ one tweet reads — a 2016 post that still appears on Abulhawa’s Twitter account. Many of the other posts compiled by the site, all of which date to 2016 or earlier, appear to have been deleted; among them are posts referring to ‘stocking up on rocks’ while mentioning the presence of Israeli soldiers, and calling for Zionists to ‘rot in fking hell.’”

Later the Inquirer says that Abulhawa participated “in an anti-Israel protest with her mother, a Palestinian author.” Without additional details, this can sound rather innocuous. Indeed, the news report is set up in a manner to give Abulhawa the benefit of the doubt, assisting her claims that she’s not antisemitic.

But the Inquirer omits that that protest which Abulhawa and her mother attended featured signs asserting that “Jews control the U.S. Senate.” Similarly, the newspaper also fails to mention that calling to end the Jewish state of Israel meets the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has been widely adopted by numerous governments, as well as the U.S. State Department. Further, the overwhelming majority of American Jews support Jewish self-determination, or Zionism, and it seems reasonable to think that someone calling for them to “rot in fking hell” should not be teaching children.
Grandchildren of German Jewish Businessman Sue Leading Houston Art Museum Over Nazi-Looted Painting
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) and the grandchildren of a German Jewish art collector were heard in federal court on Thursday over an 18th-century painting stolen by the Nazis before World War II.

MFAH maintained its legitimate claim to “The Marketplace at Pirna” by Bernardo Bellotto last year and denied that Dr. Max James Emden sold the item through a “forced sale,” according to a Houston Chronicle report. The museum hired a world renowned provenance researcher, Laurie Stein, who determined that Emden’s 1938 sale of the painting to the German government was voluntary, and that the he sold the painting through his longtime dealer and “openly pursued and received his asking price.”

“No new information has come to light that alters the voluntary character of the 1938 sale that Emden initiated,” a museum spokesperson told the outlet on Thursday.

Emden’s grandchildren believe they are the “rightful owners” of the landscape painting, arguing that Emden was forced to sell the painting to Adolf Hitler’s art dealer Karl Haberstock, and that the artwork should be returned to the family. The Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art has sided with the family in the case, saying that the painting was sold under duress and that MFAH “has an urgent duty … to promptly return the Bellotto painting to its rightful heirs.”

Thursday’s court hearing was to determine if the case should proceed to trial. The museum asked US District Judge Keith Ellison to dismiss the case, but Ellison indicated that he would announce his decision at a later date, according to The Houston Chronicle.

Bellotto’s original painting of “The Marketplace at Pirna” was commissioned for King Augustus III of Poland. The artwork depicts a city in Germany and shows a busy marketplace with the Sonnenstein Castle in the background.
Nazi billionaire dynasties built on Jewish blood explored in new book
On September 30, 2007, Germany’s primary public broadcasting station aired a program entitled The Silence of the Quandts. The documentary revealed that in the 1930s and ’40s Germany’s wealthiest family produced weapons for the Nazis, seized the property of Jews, and exploited the labor of prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates.

The Quandts were by no means the only titans of industry and finance who collaborated with Adolf Hitler. In Nazi Billionaires, David De Jong, a native of Amsterdam who now resides in Tel Aviv, builds on articles he wrote for Bloomberg News between 2012 and 2018 to provide a detailed, compelling and bone-chilling account of the patriarchs of five industrial dynasties: Günther Quandt; Friedrich Flick; August von Finck, Sr.; Ferdinand Porsche; and Richard Kaselowsky.

All of them, he demonstrates, were “calculating, unscrupulous opportunists,” who joined the Nazi Party, the SS or both. When World War II ended, they suffered little or not at all. Their descendants continued to own or dominate iconic brands, including BMW, Daimler-Benz, Volkswagen, and Allianz. Still worth billions of euros and dollars, they have, with few exceptions, failed to acknowledge, let alone atone for, their actions.

Günther Quandt’s relationship to the Nazis was complicated. Magda, his former wife, mother of his son Harald, married Joseph Goebbels and became unofficial First Lady of the Third Reich. Nonetheless, by 1933 Quandt’s companies received lucrative off-budget contracts to facilitate Germany’s rearmament (which had been forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles), including light weapons and battery production, ammunition innovation,and the construction Luftwaffe fighter jets. “While people thought we were making cooking pots,” Quandt quipped, “we were already preparing for the Führer’s war in 1934.”

And Friedrich Flick’s steel factories (including companies “sold” to him by Jews at a fraction of their value) received a continuous flow of big orders from the army.

Flick’s “Aryanized” conglomerates of Julius and Ignatz Petschek, Czech Jews who controlled 65% of the brown coal reserves in eastern and central Germany, De Jong indicates, after Nazi bureaucrats imposed a gigantic back tax of 670 million reichsmarks, three times higher than the Petschek cousins’ total assets.
Controversial councillor who joked about “Jew process” and was expelled from Labour Party now joins Greens
A controversial councillor infamous for joking about “Jew process” and who was expelled from the Labour Party has now been welcomed to the Green Party.

Jo Bird, who re-joined the Labour Party in 2015 when Jeremy Corbyn was running for the Party’s leadership, has a long history of controversy relating to Jews, including renaming ‘due process’ in the Labour Party as “Jew process”, for which she was suspended; supporting the expelled Labour activist Marc Wadsworth, who was thrown out of the Party after a confrontation with Jewish then-MP Ruth Smeeth; and worrying about the “privileging of racism against Jews, over and above — as more worthy of resources than other forms of racism.”

Elected to Wirral Council in August 2018, Cllr Bird is a member of Jewish Voice for Labour, the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation, and she has described Labour’s institutional antisemitism as based on mere “accusations, witch-huntery and allegations without evidence”.

Cllr Bird appears to have been expelled from the Labour Party for her association with the proscribed antisemitism-denial group, Labour Against the Witchhunt. Cllr Bird said on Facebook: “I’m delighted to say that the Labour Party have expelled me today. They say its [sic] for speaking at a meeting (more than three years ago) and signing a petition (early 2020) – organised by Labour Against the Witchthunt, which they banned only four months ago. I’m not free from the Labour Party’s hostile environment, where Jewish people like me are 31 times more likely to be investigated for talking about the racism we face.” She concluded by stating that “this racist Labour party is so different to the Party I joined in 2015. The Labour Party is dying as a vehicle for social justice.”

Cllr Pat Cleary, who leads the now six-strong contingent of Green councillors on Wirral Council, said in a statement this week that “hardworking people like Jo are very welcome in the Green Party.”

The move comes just after Campaign Against Antisemitism published new polling that shows that a majority of British Jews believe that the Green Party is too tolerant of antisemitism, making it only the second party, after Labour, to cross that threshold.


“These days, any criticism of Israel is deemed ‘antisemitic’,” says inflammatory columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in her latest use of Livingstone Formulation
The controversial columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, has deployed the Livingstone Formulation yet again, asserting that “These days, any criticism of Israel is deemed ‘antisemitic’.”

Ms Brown made the claim in a column this week for the i newspaper on Israel’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The “Livingstone Formulation”, named by sociologist David Hirsch after the controversial former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, is used to describe how allegations of antisemitism are dismissed as malevolent and baseless attempts to silence criticism of Israel. In its report on antisemitism in the Labour Party, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that suggestions of this nature were part of the unlawful victimisation of Jewish people in the Party.

Late last year, Ms Brown made a similar claim, arguing in an article that “any criticism of the state [of Israel] is deemed antisemitic by apologists and diehard allies, and suggesting that this is motivating a “purge” of Labour Party members. In the article titled “The UN is warning of spiralling violence, yet the West has forgotten the Palestinians” for the i newspaper, Ms Alibhai-Brown also wrote that “a report from Jewish Voice for Labour accused Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party of purging Jewish members who call Israel to account.”

That was not Ms Alibhai-Brown’s first offence of this nature either. The year before, she replied to journalist Stephen Bush’s reaction to being appointed to lead a Jewish charity’s review of racial inclusivity in the Jewish community by tweeting: “maybe ask them about the Palestinians.” The review was concerned with British Jews and was unrelated to Israel, a distinction that Ms Alibhai-Brown is apparently incapable of apprehending.

Previously Ms Alibhai-Brown also expressed her opposition to the Labour Party’s adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism, describing the fringe minority of Jewish individuals who agreed with her as “good Jews”.
PayPal’s venture arm invests in Israeli e-commerce platform Cymbio
US fintech giant Paypal has invested in Israeli company Cymbio, a developer of a digital commerce platform, through its venture arm PayPal Ventures, the firms said on Thursday.

The investment amount was not disclosed, and came four months after Cymbio raised $20 million in a funding round led by Palo Alto-based firm Corner Ventures (formerly DAG Ventures), which has invested in companies like GrubHub and Nextdoor, as well as a number of Israeli companies like Healthy.io, a medical tech outfit, and Melio, a fintech startup that recently hit a valuation of $4 billion.

Cymbio’s existing investors like Israeli businessman Udi Angel and Yuval Tal, co-founder of payments platform Payoneer, also participated in the Series B round in November, as did new investors Chris North, former managing director of Amazon UK, and Jeff Weiser, former CMO at Shopify.

Cymbio was founded in 2014, developing a marketplace and dropship automation platform that it says helps brands reach local retailers and grow their sales revenue. Through the platform, brands can manage digital channels and support their sales operations, the company says, automating processes for day-to-day management activity between brands and retailers

The company says its platform allows for retail connections to over 800 marketplaces and retailers. The company works with brands such as New Balance and Steve Madden, and retailers such as Macy’s, Dillard’s, Saks, Urban Outfitters, and Walmart. Cymbio has offices in Tel Aviv and New York.

Cymbio CEO Roy Avidor said in a statement that the PayPal investment “reflects the important role that Cymbio plays in enabling brands to shift to a multi-channel commerce model.


HBO Reveals Trailer for Film Based on True Story of Holocaust Survivor, Boxer Harry Haft
HBO debuted on Wednesday the official trailer for its original biographical film about Auschwitz concentration camp inmate and boxer Harry Haft, who was forced to fight fellow prisoners for the amusement of Nazi officers.

“The Survivor,” which stars Ben Foster in the lead role, is based on the true story of Haft’s experience at Auschwitz, where a Nazi officer forced him to participate in boxing matches against other prisoners to entertain his captors. While the winner of the bout survived to fight again, the loser was shot by Nazis or sent to the gas chamber.

“Unbeknownst to those who try to destroy him, Haft’s will to survive is driven by his quest to reunite with the woman he loves,” WarnerMedia said in its description of the film. The network added that the movie is “an examination of one man’s journey from unspeakable horrors to freedom, forgiveness and redemption.”

Set after World War II, the film shows how Haft, after surviving Auschwitz, moves to New York and “attempts to use high-profile fights against boxing legends like Rocky Marciano as a way to find his first love again,” said BRON Studios, one of the film’s producers.

“The Survivor” is based on the book “Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano” by Alan Haft and will premiere on HBO and HBO Max on April 27 in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. It also stars Vicky Krieps, Billy Magnussen, Peter Sarsgaard, Saro Emirze, Dar Zuzovsky, Danny DeVito and John Leguizamo.

It was directed by Jewish Academy Award-winner Barry Levinson, who cast Foster in his first film “Liberty Heights,” and written by Justine Juel Gillmer. A team at the USC Shoah Foundation helped with production by providing historical consultations and access to testimony by Haft that was filmed before he died in 2007 and preserved in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive.

“At a time when hatred based on race and belief is escalating, Harry’s story is a reminder of overcoming adversity against all odds,” the film’s producers Matti Leshem and Aaron L. Gilbert said in a statement when the project was first announced.






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