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Sunday, April 03, 2022

04/03 Links: Ruthie Blum: Jihad by Any Other Name; David Collier: Shaima Dallali and the National Union of Shame; UNHRC approves 4 anti-Israel resolutions, calls for limited arms embargo

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Jihad by Any Other Name
In his column in Haaretz on Thursday, Gideon Levy bemoaned that terrorism “is the only way open to the Palestinians to fight for their future … the only way for them to remind Israel, the Arab states and the world of their existence. If they don’t use violence, everyone will forget about them.”

Levy was reacting to the killing spree in Israel that claimed the lives last week of 11 innocent people and left many others either physically wounded or psychologically traumatized. He failed to point out that two of the deadly attacks were committed by Arab citizens of Israel, not Palestinians, who had pledged allegiance to ISIS.

Though Levy has an extremely dim view of the Jewish state, he is well-versed in its history and current events. His failure to make the above distinction, then, was not due to ignorance or oversight.

No, the reason that he left out the identity of the perpetrators of the attacks in Beersheva and Hadera was that neither could serve as an example of the so-called ills of Israeli “occupation.” And he certainly wasn’t going to rethink his position on the Islamist angle to the story.

Instead, he was able to imply a natural affinity of Arab Israelis to their Palestinian brethren. And while at it, he — like his left-wing colleagues — could allude that Israel is at fault not only for a lack of a Palestinian state, but for abuse of its Arab citizens.

In this case, however, he also blamed the international community.

“When [the Palestinians] are quiet,” he wrote, “interest in their cause evaporates and fades from the agenda of Israel and the rest of the world.”

He went on to slam the Israel-initiated summit in the Negev, where the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt gathered early last week to strengthen the Abraham Accords. The way Levy saw it, those diplomats were sending a message of indifference to the Palestinians: that their plight was of no concern; that there were “more urgent matters and more important interests” on the agenda.
Jonathan Tobin: Violence Against Diaspora Jews Is Not Israel’s Fault
After three Arab terror attacks in a week that cost 11 lives, Israel’s government and citizens are in a heightened state of alert and worrying about the possibility of a series of individual attacks turning into a third intifada. But security officials spared a moment amid their mobilization to ramp up efforts to combat terror on the streets of Israel’s cities with another concern. According to Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the country’s leaders were also considering the possibility that Diaspora Jews might also be targeted by Palestinian radicals and/or their foreign sympathizers.

Kochavi was quoted by Israel’s Channel 13 television saying, “There is a real concern that the copycat effect could lead to efforts to hit Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.” He didn’t elaborate on this potential threat, though the report said that Israeli security agencies, including the Mossad, were going to need to step up attempts to combat such terror outside of the Jewish state.

If Kochavi is right, it will likely set off a renewed debate among some on the Jewish left about who will really be to blame for attacks on American Jews. Inevitably, some will say the fault lies with Israel for policies that its critics often claim make a terrorist response from oppressed Palestinians inevitable.

That’s the line we’ll likely hear from anti-Zionist groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, who themselves often traffic in antisemitism. After all, they already think that Israel is to blame for everything that’s wrong in the Middle East and elsewhere. Such fallacies will also likely be echoed to some degree by liberal Zionists who ignore Palestinian intransigence and believe that Israel must be saved from itself. Such people think the refusal of Israelis to adopt suicidal policies that American Jews recommend will lead to disaster for everyone.

This is deeply wrong for a number of reasons.

The first is that it reflects the internalization of antisemitism by Jews, many of whom have always reacted to hatred against them by seeing it as a product of their own behavior or mistakes. The truth is that antisemitism is always about the antisemites, not what the Jews think or do. Jews are hated for a variety of often-contradictory reasons, and those who seek to find the cure for it within themselves are always looking in the wrong place.
62% of Israelis say Jerusalem morally obligated to help Jews worldwide
A majority of Israelis, 62%, believe the country has a moral obligation to help Jews around the world facing financial difficulty or natural disasters. By contrast, just 37% of Israelis feel a sense of personal responsibility toward Diaspora Jews who have chosen not to immigrate to Israel. This according to new data published by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry Sunday in honor of Diaspora Week.

The Diaspora Index, which Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai was set to present to President Isaac Herzog, Sunday, reflects Israeli Jews' knowledge of Diaspora Jewry and Israeli views on Diaspora Jews, assimilation, and Israel-Diaspora ties. The index is the result of a survey carried out in February 2022 of 1,001 Israelis aged 17 to 70 and over representing a sample of the Jewish population with a margin of error of 3.2%.

Forty-nine percent of Israelis surveyed believe Israeli society needs to take the opinions and interests of Diaspora Jews into account on matters of religion and state. In addition, a majority of Israelis, 57%, believe Israel should take Jewish communities in the Diaspora into account when making decisions on foreign and defense policy that could impact Jews overseas.

The vast majority of Israelis surveyed, 85%, said Israel should take significant action to eradicate antisemitic and anti-Israel discourse on social media. Furthermore, 73% of Israelis said their Jewishness was very significant to them, a 4% decrease seen largely among secular and traditional Jews over the last year.

"In recent years, we are witness to a lively discussion on the nature of the relationship between world Jewry and Israeli Jews and the State of Israel and between world Jewry and itself. In a world in which anyone can abandon their identity and become a citizen of the world, and the culture emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual at the expense of society, the family, and the people as a Jew, many Jews ask themselves, 'what is the significance of my existence as a Jew?'" Herzog said.


David Collier: Shaima Dallali and the National Union of Shame
At the beginning of last week, Shaima Dallali was elected President of the National Union of Students for a two-year term, She had been the President of City University of London Students’ Union. The problem? In short, the NUS has just voted in an antisemitic Islamist extremist as its President.

There has been a fair amount of noise over Shaima Dallali’s appointment. To some degree her extremist positions and antisemitism have been covered in the Telegraph, Times, Mail, (twice), and of course the Jewish press. But none of these tell the whole story.

Below I set out what we know – and disappointingly (or perhaps as a tragic sign of the times), important facts have gone unreported.

Khaybar Khaybar
I start with the image most people have seen because it can be used to frame everything else that follows. It is a tweet from Shaima Dallali that reference the antisemitic Khaybar chant – a classic Islamic battle cry. It refers to a Muslim massacre of the Jews of the town of that name (Khaybar) in 628 CE – and carries an ominous threat that massacres of Jews will soon occur – led by the army of Mohammed.
There is no doubting that this tweet is antisemitic and pushes an extreme and violent Islamist ideology. After this historical tweet was found by researchers from Labour Against Antisemitism, and just a few days before the election, Dallali published an apology. But apologies about historical mistakes only hold weight if the behaviour afterwards is different from the behaviour before. In Dallali’s case I have absolutely no idea why she apologised. Everything she has done since suggests that her core ‘values’ have not changed at all.

Shaima Dallali and the Muslim Brotherhood
Dallali’s other response was more telling. She swiftly deactivated her Facebook account (took it offline) and deleted thousands of tweets; There was clearly a lot she wanted to hide. But these ‘hide the evidence’ practices rarely hide everything, and some of what turned up was beyond awful. The respected Westminster think-tank ‘Policy Exchange‘, found a historical link to Dallali’s old Twitter profile. This provided a window into what Dallali had tried to hide – and in the profile was part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s motto. The section in Arabic reads ‘death for the sake of Allah is our most exalted wish’. It is part of a Jihadi ideology.

Following Policy Exchange’s discovery, the Mail report on the story was disappointing. For example, they mentioned that in the profile – as if to soften its meaning- the motto was placed next to the word ‘Tunisia’ (the nationality of her father’s family). But they neglected to point out that it was also placed directly before a reference to her praying in Al-Aqsa (Jerusalem). That is far more relevant to the phrase, as the meaning is clear – she will pray in a ‘free’ and ‘liberated’ Jerusalem. The Mail also gave voice to nonsensical anonymous ‘experts’ who seemed to suggest that the phrase is some type of modern progressive ‘justice’ nonsense. That is not what this is at all. It is a motto from an extremist group and symbolic of a death cult. What is the message if even the Mail cannot report properly on an extremist taking the reins of the NUS?

But there is still more evidence to suggest Shaima Dallali had a Muslim Brotherhood mindset. I found that she personally retweeted the official Muslim Brotherhood Twitter account:Muslim Brotherhood

The statement from the Brotherhood calls on ‘revolutionary forces’ to unify. It is about the different revolutionary Islamic factions uniting to turn Egypt into an orthodox Islamic Republic. This is what Dallali chose to retweet.
UNHRC approves 4 anti-Israel resolutions, calls for limited arms embargo
The United Nations Human Rights Council approved four anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian resolutions, including a call for a limited arms embargo against the Jewish state, as it wrapped up its 49th session.

Israel was the only country the UNHRC censured multiple times. Russia, which is a UNHRC member, was censured only once for its invasion of Ukraine, with a resolution that passed 32-2, with 13 abstentions.

Other countries — North Korea, Iran, Belarus, Myanmar, Nicaragua, and Syria — were taken to task for human rights abuses with only one resolution per country.

Israel is not a voting member of the UNHRC, but spoke multiple times about UNHRC bias during the voting process on Friday and Thursday.

When it comes to Israel, Ambassador Meirav Eilon-Shahar said, the council was an "echo chamber of fantasy and hatred against Israel.

"The problem with this echo chamber is that no reality comes in but certainly the hatred seeps out," she said.

Out of the four resolution text, the "accountability" resolution which spoke of the arms embargo is considered to be the most contentious. It was approved by the UNHRC in a 37-3 vote, with seven abstentions.

The three countries that stood with Israel were: Brazil, Malawi, and the United States, which rejoined the council as a voting member this year.
Ukraine accuses Russia of deliberate massacre of civilians
Corpses found in Bucha near Kyiv, drawing international condemnation

Dozens of corpses were found in the streets of Bucha, outside of Kyiv, shortly after Ukraine retook the town from Russian forces, AFP News Agency reported Saturday night.

Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk told AFP in a phone call that the streets of Bucha were "littered with corpses" and that 280 bodies have been collected and buried in mass graves since the location was retaken by the Ukrainian military.

Human Rights Watch cited a witness saying that Russian troops rounded up five men and shot each of them in the back of the head.

Photos released of the incident show that Russian forces organized the killing of civilians in Bucha by a gunshot with their hands tied behind their backs, according to a report by Kyiv Independent. They were also murdering people in the city of Irpin, the report added.

Ukrainian prosecutors found 410 bodies altogether in towns near Kyiv and 140 of them had been examined, Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova said on television on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of carrying out a genocide in his country, in an interview on Sunday with CBS's "Face the Nation" news program.

"Indeed, this is genocide. The elimination of the whole nation and the people," Zelensky said, speaking through a translator.

"We are the citizens of Ukraine and we don't want to be subdued to the policy of Russian Federation. This is the reason we are being destroyed and exterminated."


Israeli Navy, US Fifth Fleet Hold Largest Exercise to Date
The Israeli Navy and the US Fifth Fleet kicked off their largest-ever joint exercise this week, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Tuesday.

The Intrinsic Defender naval exercise is slated to last 10 days and is simultaneously taking place in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, said the Israel Defense Forces in a statement.

“Participating in the exercise from the Israeli Navy will be approximately 300 regular service members and commanders, two missile ships, a team from the Underwater Mission Unit, a team from the Snapir Unit (Visit Board Search and Seizure Unit) and a medical team. Participating from the US Fifth Fleet will be approximately 300 soldiers and commanders,” said the statement.

“The exercise began with a joint briefing on the Red Sea region. The briefing was led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Israeli Navy, Vice Adm. David Saar Salama, and the Commander of US Naval Forces Central Command, the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper … [his] fourth visit to the Israeli Navy in his current position,” the statement continued.

Naval scenarios in the exercise include sea combat, firing exercises, vessel protection, sabotage, the neutralization of naval mines, search-and-rescue scenarios and the provision of medical aid at sea.


Esther Horgen’s Killer Receives Life Sentence
Muhammad Kabha, the Palestinian man who killed Esther Horgen in a December 2020 terror attack, was sentenced to life in prison and three additional years on Sunday.

Kabha was also ordered by the court to pay a fine of over $1 million in compensation.

The man was convicted in October 2021 by a military court for murdering Horgen when she went on a morning jog in the West Bank’s Reihan forest.

Kabha previously served three sentences in Israeli prisons for “terror-related offenses,” according to Haaretz — including for making improvised explosives and involvement in a shooting.

Israel’s security service, the Shin Bet, said that Kabha planned his attack in order to avenge Kamal Abu Wae’r — a Palestinian detainee who died from an illness while imprisoned.

After spotting Horgen on her run, Kabha chased her down, pushed her to the ground, and killed her by striking her in the head a number of times with a large rock, according to the indictment.
Bnei Brak weighs historic move to honor Christian Arab hero
The Bnei Brak city council is slated to discuss a proposal to name a street after the late Staff Sgt. Maj. Amir Khoury, who was fatally shot in last week's terrorist attack.

Khoury, a motorcycle patrolman, was the first person on the scene of the terrorist shooting on the evening of March 29. He immediately engaged the shooter, discharging his own weapon. Khoury was shot and evacuated to Beilinson Medical Center in critical condition, where doctors were forced to declare his death.

If the council adopts the proposal from councilman Yaakov Wieder, it will be the first time that the predominantly Haredi Jewish city names a street after a non-Jew. Khoury, 32 at the time of his death, was a Christian Arab who lived in Nof HaGalil.

Wieder said, "We have an obligation to commemorate his courage and memory, and express all the city's residents' deep appreciation for his heroism."

"Anyone who saves one life, it as if they save an entire universe. The Israeli hero Staff Sgt. Major Khouri sacrificed his life bravely, while determinedly trying to engage the terrorist and bodily preventing the murder of many others. We must commemorate his courage and his memory," Wieder said.
Condition of police commando seriously wounded in West Bank raid improves
The condition of a senior police commando seriously wounded in a gunbattle with members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group over the weekend has improved, Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center said Sunday.

The hospital said Chief Superintendent S. was communicating with his family and able to breathe on his own, but still being aided by a ventilator, roughly a day and a half after he arrived.

“The medical staff is optimistic about his condition, with hopes to release him from intensive care in the coming days,” Rambam said in a statement.

Chief Superintendent S. — who can only be identified by his rank and the first letter of his name — was hurt in the predawn hours Saturday when his unit attempted to arrest a cell of Islamic Jihad members in the northern West Bank village of Arraba, near Jenin, as they were allegedly en route to commit an attack in Israel.

The gunmen opened fire at the troops, seriously wounding S. and lightly hurting four others. He underwent surgery and was hospitalized in intensive care at Rambam Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.
BBC News website reporting on an incident in Jenin
The BBC’s reporting does not include any mention of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation despite its considerable presence in the Jenin refugee camp and the appearance of that organisation’s flag in photographs of the deceased.

The BBC’s report mentions a stabbing attack that took place on March 31st on a bus in Gush Etzion which was not given any stand-alone coverage on the BBC News website. Unsurprisingly, the words terror or terrorist do not appear in the BBC’s account of the incident.

In an insert of analysis from the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Yolande Knell, readers are also told that:
“Recent weeks have seen high-level talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials about how to bring calm during this sensitive period, when religious holidays will overlap for Muslims, Jews and Christians.

None of them want a repetition of the full-scale conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan last year. However, co-operation has failed to prevent a rush of attacks and the latest clashes.”

That analysis does not however include any mention of Palestinian factions which do seek to escalate violence, as described in a statement put out by Hamas on the day this report was published which specifically mentioned Ramadan:
“The terror group said Thursday it welcomed “the blessed month of Ramadan, the month of struggle and martyrdom and victories” by “embracing the hands of our revolutionary heroes.”
230 feet down: Elite IDF unit reveals deepest Hamas tunnel ever found
An Israel Defense Forces unit specializing in underground warfare revealed the Hamas terror group’s deepest known tunnel to Israeli television in a report broadcast on Friday.

Members of the military’s Yahalom unit said the tunnel from the southern part of the Gaza Strip descends to 70 meters (230 feet) beneath the earth’s surface.

Israeli forces found the tunnel in October 2020 after Israel’s anti-tunnel barrier detected anomalous underground activity, in the first operational success for the barrier, before it was completed along the entire border with Gaza.

The soldiers said Hamas had likely worked on the tunnel for years. The anti-tunnel barrier was completed a year ago after four years of construction, meaning the two projects had apparently been going on at the same time.

The tunnel’s discovery was reported at the time, but Friday’s report was the first time the media viewed the underground passageway and heard details about its discovery and dimensions.

The Yahalom troops told Channel 12 they were dispatched to the tunnel immediately after its discovery.


PMW: PA sides with terror organizations – rejects Israel’s right to stop terror
It only took only two days for Palestinian Media Watch’s assessment to be proven correct - that Mahmoud Abbas’ condemnation of the recent Palestinian terror was “insincere,” and not an honest statement rejecting terror.

On Saturday morning, Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinian terrorists who were on their way to an Israeli city to commit a major terror attack. One of the terrorists Seif Abu Libdeh wrote a long farewell letter - which he read in front of a camera and then placed in their car, assuming it would be found by the Israeli army after their attack. The Islamic Jihad terror organization publicized the video after the terrorists were killed.

In the note he wrote of his motivation to commit a terror attack and die as a Martyr:
“I, the humble servant of Allah… Seif Hifzi Abu Libdeh... I surrender my soul easily for the sake of Allah, for the liberation of Muslim Palestine, from the defilement of the attacking Jews.”

[QUDS NET, April 2, 2022]

In spite of this clear evidence that these men were terrorists with intention to murder Israelis, the two top PA leaders, Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (via his spokesman) and Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh both joined Islamic Jihad and Hamas in condemning Israel’s prevention of the terror attack, as a “premeditated attack,” an “extrajudicial murder,” a “horrific crime” and a “flagrant challenge to… international law”:
“Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, strongly condemned today the recent Israeli escalation which coincided with the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, warning that this escalation could lead to an explosion of the situation.

Last night, a special unit of the Israeli occupation army shot and killed three Palestinian young men near the town of Arraba, to the south of Jenin city in the north of the West Bank… ‘Israel carries out this premeditated attack, which led to the killing of three civilians at predawn today in Jenin,’ said Abu Rudeineh.

He continued, ‘This Israeli policy constitutes a threat and a flagrant challenge to international legitimacy and international law.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, April 2, 2022]


Seth Frantzman: Iran is beginning to understand the Abraham Accords
NOW IRAN wonders if this new era will mean these countries will work successfully with Israel. “Will the Zionist regime be large enough to lead this coalition against Iran or any other country? The leaders of small Arab countries do not seem to have thought enough about this question….Can an alliance with the Zionists, who are far weaker in all aspects of power than the United States, be able to bring security to those who are willing to impose such a cost on their country in foreign policy?” This shows that Iran predicts more security risks for the Gulf.

Iran is now examining how strong this new alliance might be. “The United States and the Zionist regime, by intimidating the leaders of rich Arab countries and making Iran look bigger, intend to throw the Arab countries into a big trap that they themselves have been avoiding entering for two decades.”

Tehran says it will not turn a blind eye to this coalition. That could mean new Houthi attacks on the Gulf. Iran also points to Hamas having waged war against Israel in May 2021. “the Islamic Resistance [Hamas] fired more than 12,000 rockets at the occupied territories.”

Iran notes that none of the countries that are now working with Israel have been historically against the Jewish state. “Normalizing relations with these countries will not bring much for the Zionists, especially since [Israel]’s neighboring countries are not willing to normalize relations with the Zionists.” This refers to Lebanon and Syria where Iran has influence.

The Islamic Republic praises the recent terror attacks on Israel in Beersheba and Hadera, claiming that “five Zionists” were killed in one of the attacks. “These operations have shocked and confused the Israeli security services.”

Iran concludes that “if the calculations take into account Hezbollah in Lebanon and the advanced missiles, as well as the drones that the resistance group has, the exact weight of the Arab-Zionist NATO that is likely to be formed will be determined.” Tehran is hinting here that it will seek to use proxies to attack Israel in the coming months.
Iran says parties ‘close’ to agreement in Vienna nuclear talks
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Sunday an agreement is “close” in paused negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

Iran has been engaged in negotiations to revive the deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with France, Germany, Britain, Russia, and China directly, and the United States indirectly.

“We are close to an agreement in the negotiations,” Amir-Abdollahian said during a phone conversation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, according to a statement by the ministry.

Iranian and US delegations in Vienna do not communicate directly, but messages are passed through other participants and the European Union, the talks’ coordinator.

“We have passed on our proposals on the remaining issues to the American side through the EU senior negotiator, and now the ball is in US court,” Iran’s top diplomat added.

According to the Iranian statement, Guterres stressed the importance of the Vienna talks and expressed hope that the parties would reach an agreement as soon as possible.
16 Questions: “We the People” Demand Transparency on the Iran Nuclear Deal
Up until now, the opposition to President Joe Biden’s efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA, has revolved around criticizing the deal. That’s been my approach as well. I’ve written several columns arguing that this new deal is a lot worse than the flawed original and endangers not just Israel but also the world.

In recent weeks, however, a twist has been added: People are demanding to see the details.

“Lawmakers in both parties say they have been left largely in the dark about what a new agreement with Iran might look like,” The Hill reported on March 21, “and they fear it will be significantly weaker than the deal former President Obama cut in 2015 because the United States has lost time and leverage.”

In a memo dated March 22, AIPAC called on Congress to “review any Iran agreement,” asserting that “Congress has the responsibility to conduct rigorous oversight of any agreement and assess its impact on the United States and Israel.”

The memo added: “Based on reports out of Vienna, the new agreement with Iran will inevitably strengthen the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies, which will exacerbate the unprecedented magnitude and variety of threats to Israel. Congress must conduct rigorous oversight and review of the deal and assess its full impact on U.S. interests and those of our regional allies.”

On March 25, StandWithUs (SWU) launched a campaign entitled, “Let Congress & The American People Review the Iran Nuclear Deal,” asking supporters to “Email the President, the Secretary of State, and your Representatives supporting the right of Congress to review all nuclear deals with Iran’s regime.”


Israel’s indie game devs are poised for greatness - but can they admit they’re Israeli?
It’s no surprise that Japan and the United States dominate a majority of discussions about video games around the world, as the two countries make up a huge percentage of the industry’s revenue and output. Even still, there are many game developers in other countries that have made a name for themselves — and as more opportunities for growth present themselves to video game makers in Israel, the country's indie game development could join the conversation - but they may be better off not acknowledging their nationality.

Israel is already responsible for a significant portion of the world’s most successful casual mobile game devs, such as Playtika (which has a net worth of $7.5 billion) and Moon Active ($5B); but in terms of so-called “premium games” like you might find on gaming platforms such as Playstation, Nintendo, Xbox or Steam, Israel-made projects have garnered little attention - though this may be subject to change in the near future.

“You don't just have an industry crop up out of nowhere,” said Yonatan Tepperberg, technical artist at Haifa-based game studio Clover Bite (and one-third of its dev team). “We have a very successful casual industry here, with lots of professionals that are extremely knowledgeable and experienced.”

Clover Bite’s sole release is the action platformer GRIME. The game, which takes heavy inspiration from games like Dark Souls and Salt and Sanctuary, has achieved relative success in the indie game arena: it currently stands at 81% on MetaCritic, and it has accumulated over 2,000 “very positive” reviews on game publishing platform Steam.

“This is our first ever game, and it was not really intended to be something this big,” said Clover Bite’s director and producer Yarden Weissbrot. He and his team began developing the game at the Tiltan School of Design and Visual Communications. “We were starting here in a studio inside of Tiltan that was mostly doing [casual] games for customers: simple match-four stuff, things like that. The one that was in charge of the studio left, and then we kind of took the opportunity to try and do something on our own. That's how it started.”
A worrying trend: Antisemitism in Britain is on the rise
Just how bad is antisemitism in Britain? How widespread are antisemitic attitudes, and how are Britain’s Jews reacting? These are questions we can finally answer following a year of doubt. The answers are provided by our Antisemitism Barometer polling conducted with help from King’s College London.The results are stark.

We found that almost 8 in 10 British Jews say the various demonstrations, processions, and convoys in Britain during the conflict between Hamas and Israel in May 2021 caused them to feel “intimidated as a Jew.”Indeed, for several weeks in the spring of 2021, during operation “Guardian of the Walls,” which took place thousands of miles away, antisemitism surged on British streets and campuses, online, in workplaces, schools and even hospitals — everywhere.

These events weighed on British Jews.

The consequence is a reversal in the optimism of just a year ago. In 2020, British Jews sighed with relief after the antisemite Jeremy Corbyn failed to become Prime Minister. Suddenly they felt more positively about their community’s future in the UK again. But by 2021, this confidence is again on the retreat. Even fewer British Jews now believe our community has a long-term future in the UK.

A record number — nearing half — admit that they avoid displaying outward signs of their Judaism in public due to antisemitism.

It is not just the perpetrators of antisemitism and their fellow travelers — who seemed so numerous during the weeks of conflict — who give the Jewish community cause for concern.

For British Jews, the criminal justice system, tasked with holding antisemites to account, is also to blame. The Crown Prosecution Service has always performed poorly in our polling, given its record of failure to prosecute antisemitic criminals. But, for the first time ever, a majority of British Jews also do not believe that the police and the courts do enough to protect them.
Teen arrested for alleged role in gang attack on Hasidic man in Brooklyn
A 16-year-old was arrested Saturday for his part in a random gang attack on a Hasidic man on a Brooklyn street, cops said.

The group of bullies descended on the 21-year-old victim in front of 5 Gerry St. in Williamsburg, punching and kicking the man without any “prior words or provocation,” the NYPD said.

The man was forced to the ground as the attackers ran off, police said. The victim was treated by an ambulance on the scene of the Friday evening attack, for minor injuries to his mouth, cops said.

The teenager, who was not identified by name, was slapped with charges of gang assault and hate-crime assault, the NYPD said.


Sweden's Malmo says fighting back against antisemitism

Coronavirus transmission rate dips below 1 as pandemic in retreat again
For the first time in two weeks, Israel’s coronavirus transmission rate dipped below 1 on Sunday, according to new Health Ministry figures, signaling that the pandemic was once again in retreat.

The R number, currently at 0.98, represents how many people each coronavirus carrier infects on average. It is used to gauge the spread of the virus: Any reading above 1 means it is accelerating, and any below 1 means it’s slowing.

During late January and February, the number had been below 1, but it rose in early March and reached a high of 1.43 before beginning to dip again more recently.

The ministry also reported that of the 32,209 people who were tested for the virus on Saturday, 22.78 percent received a positive result — 7,338 cases. Daily cases have also been on the decline in recent days.

There were 58,749 active infections, including 277 hospital patients in serious condition, of whom 102 were on ventilators. Both severe and ventilated cases have continued to decline despite the recent uptick in infections.

The death toll stood at 10,518.

Health officials have in part attributed the recent rise in cases to the BA.2 variant, a subvariant of Omicron that is believed to be more infectious than the original.


Henry Winkler brings "Happy Days" to the holy land



 

 

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