Thursday, March 31, 2022
Biden Administration Failing to Reform U.N.’s Palestinian Refugee Agency
The Trump administration cut off all U.S. funding for UNRWA in 2018, concluding that UNRWA needed to be reformed completely, if not dismantled. With a mandate to care for refugees, providing basic services like health care and education, but not resettle them, UNRWA has perpetuated the problem it exists to deal with. By conferring refugee status on multiple generations of Palestinians—a departure from U.N. practice in other conflicts—an initial refugee population of approximately 750,000 in 1948 has ballooned to 5.7 million. This expansive definition of who is a refugee, coupled with UNRWA’s support for the “right of return,” the Palestinian claim that all these millions of Palestinians have a right to resettle inside Israel, makes the agency a vehicle for prolonging the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To boot, UNRWA has also had serious issues of waste, fraud, and abuse.Honest Reporting: EXCLUSIVE: How European Union Funding of West Bank Activities Breaches Int’l Law & Undermines Peace
When the Trump administration zeroed out aid to the U.N. agency in August 2018 after it resisted making changes, a State Department spokesperson announced, “The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation.”
The Biden administration opted to restore funding to the agency before securing structural changes in UNRWA’s mandate or operations—all but ensuring no change would occur. When announcing the decision last April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed U.S. taxpayer money would promote “neutrality, accountability, and transparency.” Since then, the United States has donated or pledged some $416.8 million to UNRWA, including more than $32 million contributed in the wake of the May 2021 Hamas-Israel war.
The Biden administration would likely defend its decision by pointing to the framework for cooperation with the State Department that UNRWA signed on July 14, 2021, in which it committed to stopping incitement against Jews and Israel in its education system and ensuring it does not support or provide assistance to terrorist groups. Days later, the United States announced another $135.8 million for the cash-strapped agency. On December 30, 2021, the State Department pledged an additional $99 million, again stressing the need for UNRWA to focus on “accountability, transparency, neutrality, and stability.”
But America’s return on investment appears to be negative. A report published in January 2022 by the Jerusalem- and London-based watchdog group IMPACT-se shows that UNRWA has continued to distribute teaching materials that glorify and promote violence. (Previous reports from the group, which pre-date the agreement with the Biden State Department, showed the same thing, as did an EU-funded report released in June 2021. Even the UNRWA commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, admitted last September that textbooks distributed by his agency promote anti-Semitism, hatred, and violence.)
UNRWA has frequently hidden behind a claim that it merely uses the curriculum of its “host country.” With this approach, UNRWA has deflected accusations that the Palestinian Authority textbooks it uses in the West Bank and Gaza incite Palestinians to violence, even though UNRWA is under no obligation to use these materials.
The ongoing relevance of the Oslo Accords was more recently reiterated by longtime diplomat Dennis Ross, who served as former US president Bill Clinton’s Middle East envoy when the deals were signed. “These agreements, endorsed by the international community, form the cornerstone of the bilateral peace process until this day and continue to govern the relations between the parties,” Ross wrote in a submission to the International Criminal Court in 2020 [emphasis added].Israel: A Tale of 2 Parallel Universes
But the illegal PA-EU land seizure effort taking place in Area C is, by contrast, making the actualization of the Oslo Accords more difficult as the subversive initiative seeks to, according to the Israeli intelligence report, establish “irreversible facts […] on the ground which have far-reaching implications on a future political agreement.”
The report also stresses that the land takeover is already endangering the lives of Israelis and Palestinians alike:
[…] This Palestinian activity has created a significant constraint on the freedom of movement along the main traffic arteries in the region, while transforming ‘traffic corridors’ from the Oslo era into ‘lanes,’ which are overseen and have come under threat, which might impact the security of the traffic along sections of some of the most important routes […]
For nearly three decades, the European Union has championed a “two-state solution based on the Oslo Accords and on international law,” often warning against perceived Israeli “unilateral departure[s] from the Oslo Accords.” As recently as last year, the European envoy to the United Nations Security Council explicitly invoked the agreements in an attack against alleged unilateral Israeli moves in the West Bank.
And while Europe has paid lip service to the need for direct talks between the two parties based on past agreements, with then-German foreign minister Heiko Maas in May 2021 saying that there is “no alternative to direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians,” Brussels is clearly abetting unilateral steps by the Palestinian Authority.
This, as part of an illegal campaign in Area C of the West Bank that is being funded by European taxpayers and effectively reducing the prospects for a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
UNFORTUNATELY, Israel seems to exist in two parallel, contradictory worlds.
One universe has been constructed – a false, hackneyed, out-of-date, and threatening universe – that extends from Ramallah to New York, Geneva, and other unfriendly places.
This universe, dominated by so-called Western “progressives” in cahoots with Arab/Islamic radicals, disses rather than embraces the Abraham Accords and is stuck in a time warp where Israel is an evil actor. It is a malign universe where recalcitrant and violent Palestinian leaders are venerated, and admirable Israeli leaders are criminalized. It is a tragic, forlorn universe.
The other universe – real, promising, forward-looking, and stabilizing! – is marked by a peace dynamic that runs from Jerusalem to Dubai, Manama, Rabat, Cairo, and Amman; and from Jerusalem to the most important leaders in the world.
In short, the discourse about Israel in corrupt international institutions and in some aspersive Western campuses and capitals couldn’t be more different than the discourse in Arab capitals and other calm and considered decision-making centers. It’s confrontation versus cooperation, demonization versus solidarity.
It is time for more Western leaders and democratic activists to discover the true, new Middle East, and the real Israel: a force for peace, progress, security, and stability.
Creative Community For Peace: The Jew Among the Nations -- Israel and the UN with Hillel Neuer
Creative Community For Peace Presents Dispelling the Myths
A series of conversations with thought leaders in the Jewish and Israeli world.
In conversation with CCFP Director Ari Ingel this week is Hillel Neuer, who is the Executive Director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO in Geneva, Switzerland.
Hillel is the leading Jewish advocate speaking out against the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias at the United Nations.
Since 2009, he has has headed a coalition of 25 human rights groups as chair of the annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, a renowned international gathering that provides a global platform to courageous pro-democracy dissidents from around the world who put their lives on the line to demand fundamental freedoms in oppressive regimes.
In the New Geopolitics Emerging in the Middle East, America Is No Longer Dominant even among Its Allies
Israelis and key Arab states are forming a security pact against the common threat of terrorism, much of it sponsored, all of it applauded, by Iran, and Tehran's own growing military power.Israel Summit Spurs Closer Cooperation with Mideast Allies on Iranian Drones
Despite the presence of U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the Negev Desert summit, the deal between Israel, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain was the first major breakthrough in Arab-Israeli relations not actively brought about by Washington.
Blinken was present as an observer, not the key player. Israel and its new partners were cooperating despite the Biden administration rather than because of its sponsorship. Blinken's attendance was a walk-on part made worse by his failure to "read the room" by talking at length about issues which the Israelis and Arabs present regarded as peripheral.
The essence of the new geopolitics emerging in the Middle East is that America is no longer dominant even among its allies. The fiasco in Afghanistan made brutally clear the folly of relying on Biden's America in a crisis which required American military power to act quickly whatever the risks.
Now with cruel clarity, in the Middle East many key long-term American partners are looking to themselves for their security and discounting Washington as a guarantor.
The Biden administration's obsession with bringing Iran in from the cold is increasing tensions in a strategically vital region. The dual threat of Sunni jihadi extremism and Iranian power-projection have pushed Israel, Egypt and the Emiratis to act together - without America.
The foreign ministers who attended the Negev Summit in Israel this week reached understandings on defending their airspace from Iranian threats, Israeli defense officials said.A New Regional Role for Israel, as Washington Steps Back
Recent attacks by Iran and its proxies against Saudi infrastructure have prompted Israel and a number of Arab countries to develop a joint mechanism for detecting and intercepting missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Since Israel's partner countries are geographically closer to Iran and Iraq - where a number of Iran-backed militias operate - this enables the Israeli Air Force to detect imminent threats earlier.
Senior defense officials have said that coordinated air defense has in fact already occurred.
In another step in Israel's integration in the region, four Arab foreign ministers are convening with their Israeli counterpart in the Negev. Arabs notice that it is Israel that is willing to be kinetic against Iran, whether it is pushing back against Iran and proxies in Syria, in Iraq, and even inside Iran itself. In contrast, the U.S. does not retaliate against Iranian strikes at the U.S.Negev Summit Displays the New Architecture of the Middle East
It is hard to escape the view that, unless U.S. lives are lost, the U.S. does not want any retaliation. During a recent visit to Israel, I heard several Israeli military officials say that Iran seems more fearful of Israel than it is of the U.S. Arab states have noticed this.
Israel does not have the same relationship with Saudi Arabia that the U.S. does, yet it does have significant contacts, and one must imagine that Israel is sharing intelligence with the kingdom against the Houthis.
The Israeli-Arab-American Negev Summit took place on Sunday, attended by four Arab ministers, plus U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Israeli analyst Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yosef Kuperwasser said: "The historic significance of the meeting of the 6 foreign ministers lies in the clear message that the new architecture of the Middle East is a fait accompli. The location and the wide participation prove the central role of Israel as a main regional player that can compensate for the void created by the American decision to pivot away from the Middle East."The U.S. Can't Just Quit the Middle East
Israeli analyst Dr. Nir Boms said: "This...summit [is] a first of its kind, that cements this new relationship, this new regional alliance. The presence of Secretary Blinken means that the United States in still IN and it embraces and supports the Abraham Accords....All the parties are engaged with each other and with Israel. I think parties in the region...realize that they must assert leadership and work together facing the challenges that we all have."
From the perspective of the Biden administration and its Obama holdovers, the sooner the Middle East tends to its own knitting the better. However, America has enduring interests in the Middle East. Some are economic interests, like the energy supply. Others relate directly to the safety and security of the American people, including the likely proliferation of nuclear weapons, the growth and flourishing of Sunni and Shiite Islamist terrorism, and the security of Europe (in case some had forgotten the refugee masses that poured from Syria into Europe in 2015). There is no confronting China without secure oil supplies, no guaranteeing Israel's security from the Pacific, and no pretending that freedom of navigation through Suez or the Bab el Mandab is without value.Daniel Greenfield: Ukraine Shows Hating Israel Isn’t About the Palestinians
It's high time to acknowledge that the terrorist threats that crisscross the region are real. Lebanon has been taken over by the world's most potent terror group, Hizbullah. Syria is a hub for Iranian weapons proliferation and a training ground for Islamist terrorists. Egypt is under the gun from ISIS and al-Qaeda. Yemen is an ongoing threat to its neighbors, and a training ground for terrorists targeting the U.S.
Back home, the propaganda campaign against Israel is offset with weapons-grade hypocrisy as bad actors tied to totalitarian regimes berate Israel over Russia and Ukraine.
William Cohen, Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Defense, went on CNN to rant to Christiane Amanpour that he was “deeply disappointed” with Israel. Cohen (despite his last name, he’s a Unitarian) and Amanpour both have a long history of hating Israel. And of taking cheap shots at it.
“Are you with the Russians or are you with the United States and the West? They do have to make a decision here,” Cohen railed.
Amanpour neglected to mention that the Cohen Group has an office in Beijing, that Cohen serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S.-China Business Council and that his group includes “Chinese nationals with extensive experience in Chinese government ministries.”
The Cohen Group also boasts of “decades of experience working with officials in Moscow,” and “building relationships with government decision makers.”
Two years ago, Cohen was claiming that “President Putin is going to try and step in and be the peacemaker here” between America and Iran.
“I’m a bit more optimistic that the Russians will come in as a peacemaker,” he told CNBC.
This exciting new hatred of Israel is not about Ukraine, any more than the old variety was about the “Palestinians.” Hating Israel is in the end always about one thing and one thing alone.
Hating Jews.
This is an ideology in which Ukrainians, being subjected to a Russian war of annihilation, who suffered a policy of mass killing by Russian Communist starvation in the 30s, Nazi genocide in the 40s, poisoned by radiation due to Communist corruption in the 80s, are 'privileged'. https://t.co/aTzFQT5q7O
— David Hirsh (@DavidHirsh) March 30, 2022
Col Kemp: The Russian army has run out of time
Reaching a strategic culminating point does not mean Russia cannot continue local tactical manoeuvre. Russian air operations, surprisingly limited so far given their massive superiority, have been intensifying in recent days. Russia will continue to tie down Ukrainian forces, including by threatening amphibious assault against Odessa and feints towards Kyiv.Ukrainian Jews Rebut Russian Defense Ministry Claim That Synagogue in Historic City of Uman Was Used as Weapons Storage Site
We will see continued efforts to seize Mariupol, a vital objective for Putin, completing his land corridor between annexed Crimea and the Russian border. Gaining Mariupol would be a major element of his claim of victory should the conflict end with some form of peace deal.
Entering a stage of consolidation and siege warfare is not without hazard for Russia, with Ukrainian hit and run attacks and local counter attacks against their logistic chains. Defending against such actions, which have already proved successful, will tie down large numbers of troops.
As sanctions continue to bite, sustaining even a stalemated campaign will be increasingly difficult for Russia. The West must continue to pressure China against stepping into the breach with finance and munitions. Despite Putin’s efforts at intimidation, including nuclear threats, it is essential that Nato escalates its financial and military support so that Ukrainian forces can inflict maximum damage against Russia to give Volodymyr Zelenskiy the greatest possible leverage in any negotiations and also to deter Putin from future aggression.
Paradoxically, Zelenskiy’s best course of action now might be to draw the Russian army beyond its culminating point, luring it into street fighting in the cities where defending forces can inflict disproportionate attrition against the attackers. Russia is adept at hammer-blow destruction using artillery and air strikes but incompetent in ground tactics, and such a move could be less damaging for Ukraine than suffering months of stand-off bombardment. For Russia, attacking beyond its culminating point risks over-extension, counter-attack and – ultimately – defeat.
Ukraine’s Jewish community has angrily refuted Russian claims that a synagogue in the historic city of Uman — site of the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the revered founder of the Breslover Hasidim — is being used as a weapons storage and transportation site by Ukrainian armed forces.Why the West's Astounding Mobilization for Ukraine Won't Happen Against Israel
In a statement published on its Telegram channel on Tuesday, the United Jewish Community of Ukraine (UJCU) pushed back against allegations from the Russian Ministry of Defense that the synagogue had been taken over by “Ukrainian nationalists.”
“Information about the use of synagogues in Uman by the military is not true,” the statement declared. “The United Jewish Community of Ukraine states that all synagogues and Jewish sites in Ukraine are used exclusively for their intended purpose, to carry out religious activities or to help members of Jewish communities and the local population.”
At a Russian military briefing on Tuesday, Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov — the chief spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense — displayed images of uniformed men gathered in the vicinity of one of Uman’s several synagogues.
Konashenkov claimed that “a member of the Jewish community of Uman” had alerted the Russians to the presence of the troops.
“It is the Kyiv regime, in violation of international humanitarian law and simply morality, that uses such facilities as points for collecting and transporting weapons and Nazis to participate in hostilities,” Konashenkov said, invoking the Kremlin’s propaganda line that the invasion of Ukraine is a “denazification” operation.
While Palestinians compare themselves to Ukrainians and question why the West's newfound militancy seems to overlook them, it wasn't moral outrage or passionate devotion to international law that drove the West's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was self-interest - the fact that Russia had suddenly become an immediate hard-power threat to Europe.
No moral indignation is driving three dozen NATO and EU states to suddenly spend hundreds of billions of previously unbudgeted dollars and euros on growing their militaries in the coming years, or to risk the loss of hundreds of billions more by cutting Russia out of the global economy. Russia is now under an international sanctions regime with more actual restrictions than those imposed on either North Korea or Iran because it is a close and more immediate threat - the sort of threat that Israel cannot pose.
Funds sent to the Ukrainian government are very likely to be used to defend the country or alleviate the war's humanitarian fallout. But as the EU has discovered countless times over the past three decades, money sent to Gaza or the West Bank often bolsters terrorist infrastructures or disappears altogether.
Democratic Ukraine's advocates in the West are demanding something simple: an end to the military invasion. Pro-Palestinian activists demand something much more complex: the dismantling of Jewish statehood.
I see #Ukraine just abstained in this anti-#Israel resolution at @UN_HRC. So Kyiv, which side will it be? https://t.co/bUSt5ygWLF
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) March 31, 2022
Senate confirms Deborah Lipstadt to serve as next antisemitism envoy
The US Senate voted on Wednesday night to confirm Deborah Lipstadt’s nomination as the next special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. The nomination was confirmed without objection.Turkey Says Gas Pipeline With Israel Not Possible in Short Term
“It is time for the Senate, at long last, to confirm this nominee to fight antisemitism around the world on behalf of the United States, standing up for those values,” said Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia), who presented the nomination on the Senate floor.
“This isn’t ancient history, this is recent history,” he said. “And, right now, as we speak, the scourge of antisemitism is rising again in this country and around the world. If we mean the words ‘never again,’ then at long last, let’s confirm Deborah Lipstadt to fight antisemitism on behalf of the United States.”
Lipstadt, a professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, was the founding director of the Institute for Jewish Studies.
She is an author of eight books, including The Eichmann Trial; Holocaust: An American Understanding; Antisemitism: Here and Now; and Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933–1945.
British writer and Holocaust-denier David Irving sued her for libel in London in 2000. The famous trial resulted in a victory for Lipstadt, who in 2005 wrote her memoir, History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier.
A potential gas pipeline project between Turkey and Israel is not possible in the short-term and building an alternative system to cut dependence on Russia will not happen quickly, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.US sanctions target Iran's ballistic missile program
Turkey and Israel have in recent weeks been working to mend their long-strained ties, and energy has emerged as a potential area of cooperation.
Turkish media on Thursday reported President Tayyip Erdogan as saying he was “very, very hopeful” for energy cooperation with Israel, and he hoped to discuss the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
“If we discuss this subject with Bennett after Ramadan and we take steps immediately, the process will accelerate for Israel-Turkey cooperation, east Mediterranean crude oil and natural gas,” he told reporters on his plane returning from a trip to Uzbekistan.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins on April 2.
The regional rivals expelled ambassadors in 2018 and have often traded barbs over the Palestinian conflict, Turkish support of the Hamas militant group, which runs Gaza, and other issues.
Washington on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a procurement agent in Iran and his companies and accused them of helping to support Tehran's ballistic missile program following missile attacks by suspected Iran-backed proxies against countries in the region.Calls to ban Iran from World Cup for tear-gassing women to bar access at match
In a statement issued as talks stalled on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the US Treasury Department cited Iran's March 13 missile attack on Erbil in Iraq and an "Iranian enabled" Houthi missile attack on Friday against a Saudi Aramco facility as well as other missile attacks by Iranian proxies against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It accused the agent Mohammad Ali Hosseini and his network of companies of procuring ballistic missile propellant-related materials for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unit responsible for research and development of ballistic missiles. Iran's IRGC is subject to US sanctions.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the sanctions were unrelated to efforts to revive the nuclear deal under which Iran had limited its nuclear program to make it harder to develop a nuclear bomb – an ambition it denies – in return for relief from global economic sanctions.
The sanctions freeze any US assets belonging to the targeted entities and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions, the Treasury said.
The network of companies includes Iran-based Jestar Sanat Delijan and Sina Composite Delijan Co. Also sanctioned was P.B. Sadr Co, which the Treasury accused of acting on behalf of Parchin Chemical Industries, an element of Iran's Defense Industries Organization also under US sanctions.
Iranian regime security forces on Tuesday used tear gas and pepper spray on women who sought to watch a soccer game between Lebanon and Iran, sparking urgent calls to ban the clerical regime’s soccer team from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Iran’s regime once again defied FIFA, the world soccer federation, after it ordered the regime in Tehran to allow women into stadiums in 2019.
Shocking video footage on social media showed women gassed and pepper-sprayed by security forces.
The Voice of America journalist and women’s rights campaigner, Masih Alinejad, posted a video. She wrote: “A young man who took this video asked me to pass his message to @FIFAcom : My friend & I, bought the ticket to go to stadium but see how she got attacked with pepper spray for the crime of being a girl. I refused to go to stadium but shame on you if you ignore this barbaric act.”
The news organization France 24 cited a tweet from Shahram Bozorgi (@shahramart7) who wrote:
“It’s sad but I hope that FIFA, in reaction to this scandalous event in Mashhad and bullying by the government, bans Iran from participating in the Doha World Cup. In this situation, there’s no more fun in attending the football matches nor watching them on TV."
Female football fans attacked by security forces in Iran today. They had valid tickets bought through football federation's website but were denied entry into Mashhad's Emam Reza Stadium to watch Iran vs Lebanon match, and were attacked with pepper spray and suffered eye injuries https://t.co/YdnyFlFaKh pic.twitter.com/TNx4ZELdX8
— AVA TODAY (@ava_today) March 29, 2022
UK opening task force to combat campus antisemitism
Russian President Vladimir Putin has engaged in Holocaust distortion, a form of antisemitism, US Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Aaron Keyak said Thursday during a panel discussion at The Jerusalem Post London Conference.NUS president-elect praised Jew-hating cleric
Putin has said Russia’s war in Ukraine is meant to “denazify” the country.
“Holocaust distortion can be a form of antisemitism,” Keyak said. “When you distort the Holocaust, you are distorting the memory of six million Jews.”
“It seems clear to [many] that this is a lie,” he said. “But it is actually gaining steam on social media and elsewhere. That has ramifications for the conflict in Ukraine and for what it means for understanding the Holocaust and what Nazis really are.”
The Ukraine-Russia war is “not going to turn out well for the Jews of any of those countries,” he added.
German Government Commissioner for Antisemitism Felix Klein said Holocaust distortion is a crime in Germany. The comparisons of COVID-19 vaccine mandates to the Holocaust are a “terrible trivialization,” he said.
Germany is experiencing a post-war high rate of antisemitic crimes, many of which are committed online, Klein said.
At the same time, he said it was heartening that “75 years after the Holocaust, Jews seek refuge in Germany” from the war in Ukraine.
“Pressure is the only thing we have,” he added.
The newly elected President of the National Union of Students has sung the praises of a Jew-hating cleric and raised money for a Muslim advocacy group widely accused of having sympathised with terrorists.Jewish UConn Student Expelled From A Cappella Group After Facing ‘Antisemitic Harassment’
Shaima Dallali has also labelled a cleric critical of Hamas a “dirty Zionist” and posted a video of anti-Israel protesters calling for an intifada.
The Union of Jewish Students has called for an urgent meeting with Ms Dallali while Labour Against Antisemitism warned that “anti-Jewish racism in the NUS is spiralling out of control”, adding that public funding should be cut unless there was profound change.
She will take over from outgoing president Larissa Kennedy, who is herself facing calls to quit her two year term early over her suggestion Jewish students could segregate themselves to avoid watching anti-Zionist performer Lowkey at an NUS concert.
Ms Dallali was elected by NUS delegates on Monday despite the revelation last week that she tweeted in 2012: “Khaybar Khaybar O Jews … Muhammed’s army will return #Gaza”, in a reference to a massacre of Jews in the year 628CE.
However, since then Ms Dallali has continued to post incendiary messages.
In April, 2020, Ms Dallali wrote that for Ramadan she was raising money for Cage, a Muslim advocacy group which drew outrage in 2015 when its research director hailed notorious Isis terrorist Jihadi John as a “beautiful young man” who was “extremely kind and gentle”. Last year, the Commission for Countering Extremism last year urged the government to crack down on Cage.
The University of Connecticut has responded to an incident in which a Jewish student was called antisemitic slurs for removing anti-Zionist flyers posted at a school library.Canary Mission Report Highlights Antisemitism Among Supporters of USC Student Who Tweeted “I Want to Kill Every Motherf—ing Zionist”
On February 28, Natalie Shclover entered the Homer Babbidge Library, where she saw, tacked on the walls and scattered all over the floors, hundreds of flyers showing a map of Israel juxtaposed with an image of a child being strangled and a picture of university president Radenka Maric.
Anti-Zionism was already a noxious theme spreading through University of Connecticut’s social media circuit, Shclover told The Algemeiner on Wednesday. Days earlier, when President Maric announced that she, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, and other local officials would visit Israel in support of the state’s partnerships with Israeli higher education, an Instagram post about the trip was swamped with comments describing Israelis as “greedy” and demanding “another intifada.”
The flyers that met Shclover at the UConn Library continued the social media criticisms of Maric, prompting her to call student services and ask whether they were posted in violation of university rules. After learning that they were and that any left on the ground are considered “public property,” she and her boyfriend, Zacharia El-Tayyeb, who is Muslim and of Jordanian descent, returned to the library later that day to remove “or even discard them.” But when El-Tayyeb proceeded to remove them, an argument with four other students ensued.
While Shclover explained that El-Tayyeb was, in her view, allowed to take down the flyers, one of the students began filming the exchange with her cellphone and allegedly said, “Even though you’re a Jew, you still have to respect us.” The students, Shclover said, also called her a “f***king b**ch,” a “white supremacist,” and a “f***king Zionist.”
The Canary Mission watchdog released a new report on March 28 detailing antisemitic social posts from various supporters of former USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Viterbi Graduate Student Association Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Student Senator Yasmeen Mashayekh, who had previously been under fire for past social media posts.Revealed: The incendiary reports ignored by YouTube
As the Journal has previously reported, Mashayekh’s social media posts have included “I want to kill every motherf—ing Zionist,” “Curse the Jews [in Arabic],” “Zionists are going to f—ing pay,” “LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA” and “I f—ing love [H]amas.” The university responded by saying that “the antisemitic behavior we are witnessing is deeply troubling” and announced a series of measures to combat antisemitism on campus; however, they said her tweets are protected speech under the First Amendment.
The Canary Mission report states the watchdog conducted an investigation into the social media posts of supporters of Mashayekh and found that 35 Mashayekh supporters had more than 1000 posts “calling for death and violence, spreading classic antisemitism, declaring support for terrorism, hatred of Israel, Zionists, America and Canada and promoting [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement].” Some of these posts included:
Saying that “Zionists aren’t humans.”
Calling Palestinian terror victim David Eliyahu Kaye “a devil just like all the zios.”
Saying “I think it’s about time someone drops an atomic bomb on Israel.”
Saying “Long live Palestinian violent resistance.”
Overall, Canary Mission found that Mashayekh supporters had 290 posts promoting “hatred of Israel & Zionism,” 181 supporting terrorism, 170 promoting “hatred of Israelis & Zionists” and 137 “calls for death and violence.” Additionally, 57% of Mashayekh’s supporters were affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
YouTube ignored damning reports flagging the Jew-hatred and incitement of two notorious hate preachers with a combined total of more than 3.5 million subscribers, the JC can reveal.CAMERA Prompts The Hill to Correct Tel Aviv Isn’t Israel’s Capital
Whistleblower Khaled Hassan submitted his report on Wagdy Ghoneim, an Egyptian jihadist and Muslim Brotherhood leader, on 26 August, shortly after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
The report said that Ghoneim “celebrated” the event in four separate videos, describing supporters of the previous, democratic Afghan government as “infidels” who should be “punished”.
Ghoneim, Mr Hassan pointed out, “has been on the list of extremists banned from entering the UK for inciting terrorism since 2009”. He was wanted on terrorism charges in America since 2004, and an Egyptian court had convicted him for leading a terrorist cell in 2014.
Mr Hassan’s report said that Ghoneim had falsely claimed that Egypt’s President Sisi “is secretly a Jewish person working on advancing the interests of Israel while causing harm to Egypt’s economy and national security”. Moreover, in 2017, YouTube had been forced to apologise to advertisers including mobile phone firm Verizon when it emerged that Ghoneim was “monetising” his channel and running its adverts.
Failing to remove Ghoneim’s videos amounted to “promoting radical ideologies and enabling radical / terrorist groups to recruit members into their ranks”, the report warned.
Following contact from CAMERA, The Hill has corrected a May 29, 2022, report that referred to Tel Aviv as Israel’s “capital” (“Gunman kills 5 in Tel Aviv suburb”).'Concerning' levels of antisemitism found in NZers' views
Initially the report stated that “A gunman shot and killed at least five people on Tuesday in a suburb outside of Israel’s capital of Tel Aviv.” CAMERA contacted the appropriate Hill staff and the wording was quickly changed to read “A gunman shot and killed at least five people on Tuesday in a suburb outside the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.”
Additionally, an editor’s note was appended to the bottom of the story noting:
“This story was updated at 8:24 a.m. to remove a reference to Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital. Jerusalem is recognized as the capital city of Israel by that country’s government. The Trump administration formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017.”
CAMERA commends The Hill for its prompt correction and commitment to accuracy.
The Survey of Antisemitism in New Zealand 2021, released on Wednesday, involved 1017 people. Of those people, the survey found that 63 per cent of them held at least one antisemitic view.German Jewish Singer Gil Ofarim Facing Defamation Charges Over Allegations of Antisemitic Discrimination at Leipzig Hotel
New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Juliet Moses said that this shows that some New Zealanders still believe in stubborn and dangerous myths or tropes about Jewish people.
“There are many different forms and sources of antisemitism but if you boil it down to the most basic, it has remained this - it’s the idea that Jewish people have too much control and too much power,” Moses said.
According to Statistics New Zealand, in 2018, around 5265 people identified themselves as Jewish.
People’s ages, gender, ethnicity, religion, location, education level, how long they have lived in New Zealand and the political party they voted for were included in the survey, which was conducted by Curia Research.
“One of the most fundamental questions that can be easily asked about the Holocaust to gauge actual knowledge of it is how many Jews were murdered in Europe in the Holocaust,” the survey said.
Seventeen per cent of the people surveyed said they knew “virtually nothing” about the Holocaust.
The survey also found that older people, between the ages of 61 to 75, were 4.1 times more likely to say they knew a great deal about the Holocaust compared to 18 to 30-year-olds.
Only 42 per cent knew that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.
Gil Ofarim, the German Jewish singer who accused a hotel in the city of Leipzig of antisemitic discrimination in an incident that electrified the German media last October, is himself facing charges of defamation and libel as a consequence of his allegations.
In an announcement on Thursday, the public prosecutor’s office in Leipzig deemed that on the basis of an extensive investigation into Ofarim’s allegations, the singer had presented a false account of his experience at the check-in desk at the city’s Westin Hotel on Oct. 5.
In an emotional video that quickly went viral, Ofarim shared details of his encounter with hotel staff, which he said left him “speechless,” while sitting outside the hotel’s entrance. He recounted that he was waiting in a long line at the hotel reception because computers at the check-in counter were down.
“I was standing in the queue wearing my necklace which is my right and which I have worn all my life,” he said, holding up his Star of David pendant. Ofarim went onto claim that guests standing behind him in the line were served before him, and that when he asked why, a member of staff told him, “pack up your star and then you can check in.”
Ofarim’s allegations were widely believed, with hundreds of protestors descending on the hotel the following evening for a spontaneous protest against antisemitism. Germany’s Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (FADA) denounced the Westin hotel’s “incredible case of antisemitism,” then Interior Minister Heiko Maas called on Germans to stand “shoulder to shoulder” against antisemitism — while Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of German Jews, remarked that Ofarim’s alleged ordeal was typical of the “everyday antisemitism to which Jews are repeatedly exposed.”
However, holes in Ofarim’s account of the incident appeared two weeks later, when the German tabloid Bild published CCTV footage of the singer standing in the hotel lobby wearing his trademark open-necked shirt, but without his Star of David necklace on display.
#HateCrime #Antisemitism
— Shomrim (Stamford Hill) (@Shomrim) March 29, 2022
Racist teens targeting #Jewish homes
Throwing stones at #Jewish homes & young children in their gardens from garage roofs on Knightland Road #E5@MPSHackney Ref 4608254/22 pic.twitter.com/uQd3mZJ7Hn
Controversy Over Nazi-Looted Items on Display at Reopened Scotland Museum
An art museum in Glasgow, Scotland, reopened its doors on Tuesday for the first time in six years amid new accusations about Nazi-stolen items on display there, The Scotsman reported Monday.Rob Rinder and his mother receive MBEs for services to Holocaust education
The book “A Collector’s Life: William Burrell” claims that artworks in The Burrell Collection, which just completed a nearly $91 million refurbishment, were obtained through “forced sales” during Adolf Hitler’s reign in Nazi Germany, according to the outlet.
The news comes after the museum’s collection, which was created by the late Scottish shipping magnate William Burrell and his wife, made headlines after two of its artworks were reported to be stolen from Jewish owners in Germany in the 1930s. The Glasgow City Council was forced to compensate descendants of the original owners.
“Research by the current curatorial team has indicated that there are other works in Burrell’s Collection that may have been acquired as a result of forced sales,” stated the book co-authored by Martin Bellamy, the research and curatorial manager at Glasgow Museums, and Dr. Isobel MacDonald, a specialist in 19th and 20th century British collecting history. MacDonald’s PhD was on Burrell as a collector.
The book, which will be released on May 5, also revealed that in small notebooks he kept, Burrell was forthcoming about the provenance, description and price he paid for some of the items he collected. Bellamy and MacDonald wrote that “some of the practices that were employed would not be viewed as ethical today.”
TV personality Rob Rinder and his mother Angela Cohen were celebrating on Wednesday after being awarded MBEs at Windsor Castle for their services to Holocaust education.
Rinder rose to fame on the ITV show Judge Rinder before becoming a contestant on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.
In November 2020, he and his mother Angela took part in a programme called My Family, the Holocaust and Me, where they travelled to the Nazi death camp Treblinka to visit the area where Cohen’s father’s family were murdered.
The programme garnered huge media coverage and helped promote Holocaust awareness.
Rinder has since spent time supporting charities such as Shelter and Buttle UK.
Over the last few weeks he has been commended for his efforts traveling to Poland’s border with Ukraine to help his Strictly Come Dancing partner’s family flee the war-torn country.
Cohen has been Chairman of the ’45 Aid Society since 2015.
The ’45 Aid Society was formed in 1963 by a group of over 700 orphaned child survivors who came to Britain in 1945 after losing all of their families in the Holocaust of which, Cohen’s father Moishe Malenicky, was one of.
The charity was created to help and support other Holocaust survivors, give back to the community and the country that had welcomed them and teach the lessons of the Holocaust through an extensive education programme.
Guess what Israeli technology is being used in #Gaza to provide clean drinking water? Introducing @Watergen_Inc — making water ?? literally out of thin air. pic.twitter.com/VdsNsl0Hwp
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) March 31, 2022
2022 Demographic Update: A Solid Jewish Majority West of the Jordan River
Israel's Jewish fertility rate exceeds its Muslim fertility rate. In 2020, the Jewish fertility rate (number of births per woman) was 3.00, while the overall Arab fertility rate was 2.82. In 2021, Jewish births were 76% of total births. The unique growth in Israel's Jewish fertility rate is attributed to optimism, patriotism, attachment to Jewish roots, communal solidarity, the positive Jewish attitude toward raising children, and a frontier mentality. Israel's Arab life expectancy (78 for men and 82 for women) is similar to the U.S. life expectancy and higher than that of any Arab or Muslim country.Intel to Acquire Israel’s Granulate for $650 Million
Moreover, Palestinian census figures are inflated. Half a million Palestinians who have lived overseas for over a year are included in the population census, in violation of internationally accepted rules. 350,000 Jerusalem Arabs, who possess Israeli ID cards, are double-counted - included in the Israeli census and the Palestinian census. 150,000 Arabs from Gaza and the West Bank who married Israeli Arabs and received Israeli ID cards are also double-counted.
The PA census ignores the annual net emigration of mostly young Arabs from the West Bank (28,000 in 2021). The number of Arab deaths in the West Bank has been systematically under-reported. For example, a recent Palestinian population census included Arabs who were born in 1845.
In 2021, there was a 68% Jewish majority in the combined area of pre-1967 Israel and the West Bank (7.5 million Jews, 2 million Israeli Arabs and 1.5 million West Bank Arabs). Despite conventional wisdom, there is no Arab demographic time bomb. There is, however, an unprecedented Jewish demographic tailwind.
Intel announced on Thursday that it has reached an agreement to acquire Granulate Cloud Solutions, an Israel-based developer of real-time continuous optimization software. Granulate helps cloud and data center customers maximize compute workload performance and reduce infrastructure and cloud costs. Deal terms were not disclosed, but it is believed that Intel paid $650 million for the Israeli company.Israeli-Produced Film About African Child Abducted Into Slavery Screens at UN
Granulate. founded in 2018 by Asaf Ezra (CEO) and Tal Saiag (CTO), raised $30 million in a Series B round led by Red Dot Capital Partners last February. All of the company’s existing backers including Hetz Ventures, TLV Partners, Insight Partners, and Dawn Capital participated in the round. The total amount of investments in the company stands at $45 million. The Series B came a little over ten months after Granulate raised a $12 million Series A led by Insight Partners.
This is the second Israeli company Intel is acquiring in as many months after buying Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion last month.
“Together with Intel, we believe we can help customers achieve meaningful cost reductions and five times the throughput across workloads,” said Asaf Ezra, co-founder and CEO of Granulate. “As a part of Intel, Granulate will be able to deliver autonomous optimization capabilities to even more customers globally and rapidly expand its offering with the help of Intel’s 19,000 software engineers.”
An excerpt from an Israeli-produced film about the life of an African man who was sold into slavery as a child in the 18th century was featured at the United Nations on Tuesday, to commemorate the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.Noam Shalit, the Israeli father whose campaign led to the release of his captive son, dies at 68
“Equiano.Stories” is based on the true story of Olaudah Equiano, who was abducted at the age of 11 in a West African village in 1756. Equiano eventually bought his freedom after decades of slavery, worked to end the slave trade in Great Britain, and wrote about his experiences in the book, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African.”
The film explores what would have happened if Equiano had social media during his youth and could document life in his village before he was abducted. It was shot as a self-recorded, first-person account within the format of Instagram Stories. The media production company behind the project, Stelo Stories, also created Eva.Stories, which similarly reimagined the life of a Jewish teenager during the Holocaust through Instagram Stories.
The UN screening was hosted by General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid, at the initiative of Israel’s ambassador to Turtle Bay, Gilad Erdan. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in his first visit to the UN since taking office in January, spoke at the event alongside ambassadors from African and Caribbean countries, as well as the producer of the film, Mati Kochavi.
When Noam Shalit first learned that his son, Gilad, had disappeared, his thoughts turned to his own father.
Noam’s twin brother, Yoel, went missing in the Golan Heights in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. Their father immediately set off for the war battered plateau to search for Yoel, who was 19, the same age as Gilad when Hamas militants kidnapped him in in 2006 a cross-border raid.
Yoel was eventually identified among the dead. The fear that Gilad, an introverted basketball fan, might share the same fate drove Noam Shalit to shed his natural inclination for privacy, and to become the face of a campaign to reclaim his son, culminating in a prisoner exchange in 2011.
“It was like being thrown over 30 years backward,” Noam Shalit told The New York Times just months after he launched the campaign to free Gilad.
Noam Shalit died Wednesday, at age 68, exactly 13 years after moving with his wife into a tent outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem to call attention to his son’s captivity. He was suffering from leukemia, Ynet, the Israeli news site, reported.
Benny Gantz, the defense minister, who was military chief in 2011 and helped negotiate Gilad Shalit’s release, said in his condolences that “he never once gave up the hope that he would see his son again.”
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