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Tuesday, April 19, 2022

04/19 Links Pt2: Left-wing Jewish American orgs. blast Biden admin. for serving wine from Israeli settlement; Islamist Academics and Activists Shill for Jailed Jihadists

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Abraham Accords 2.0: Israel-Arab summit is a view into future Middle East
The U.S. has provided support to the UAE to defend itself against the Houthis, and downed two Iranian drones that were targeting Israel, as the drones flew over Iraq. However, this support may not be enough to deter Iran, leaving Israel and its partners with concerns about the emerging drone and missile threat. Iran openly threatens the Arab countries, which it accuses of collaboration with “Zionists,” and these threats could impact world oil supplies or trade and tourism in the Gulf. A meeting in mid-March between Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his counterparts from the UAE and Egypt included a focus on regional security and countering missile and drone threats.

A second process unfolding in the region is the perception that the U.S. may be drawing down its focus on the Middle East as it shifts to confront Russia or other adversaries such as China. As a result, Israel and its new partners realize they must work together. This could mean cooperation on air defense systems — a big win for Israel since its air defense systems are perceived as some of the best in the world. Not only the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco may want the systems, but Germany is reportedly interested in Israel’s Arrow system, which defends against ballistic missiles. Israel and U.S. defense companies often partner on air defense systems; for example, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in Israel partners with Raytheon, and Israel’s IAI partners with Boeing on Arrow.

The third ramification of the Negev Summit and this era of “Abraham Accords 2.0” is less tangible than air defense deals or working together against the Iran threat. There are tectonic global shifts afoot, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be the start of new global chaos, in which countries such as Israel need closer regional partnerships. That is why Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid departed for a diplomatic visit to Athens on April 5, where Israel said he met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, and then held a trilateral meeting with the Greek foreign minister and Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides.

In short, Israel is not just building an alliance of the willing with Arab states but also mapping out a new system of states that links Greece with Egypt and onward to the Gulf and India. This will be knit together with Israeli technical know-how and the shared concerns these states have about bellicose neighbors or a world in which countries such as Russia can upset the apple cart of international relations.
Left-wing Jewish American orgs. blast Biden admin. for serving wine from Israeli settlement
A number of Left-wing Jewish-American organizations criticize Vice President Kamala Harris for serving wine from an Israeli settlement at her official Passover Seder on Monday.

Americans for Peace Now sent an email to its members asking them to sign a petition against serving wine that coes from Israeli settlements.

"Like many of us, this past weekend Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff held a Passover seder at their home. Unfortunately, at their Seder they unknowingly served wine produced in a West Bank settlement. A spokesperson for Harris quickly clarified that this was 'in no way intended to be an expression of policy,'" Hadar Susskind, President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now wrote in the email.

Susskind explained: "I absolutely believe that the VP did not intend to serve wine produced in a settlement. But this mistake came about because of policy. Specifically, the Trump administration policy which erased the Green Line and allowed products made in West Bank settlements to be labeled as 'Made in Israel.'"

Susskind urged his membership to "sign this petition to urge Secretary of State Antony Blinken to reverse Trump’s embracement of West Bank settlements."

Susskind claimed that "Psagot and other Jewish settlements in the West Bank are not a part of Israel. They are constructed in occupied territory, under Israeli military occupation, and with the stated objective of preventing a two-state Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Consecutive US administrations, Democratic and Republican, have defined settlements an obstacle to peace."


Islamist Academics and Activists Shill for Jailed Jihadists
“If you are supporting our prisoners, you are supporting some of the best people on the planet,” stated Coalition for Civil Freedoms (CCF) prisoner and family support coordinator Nada Dibas during a recent webinar on “Ramadan Behind Bars.”

These “best people” — CCF’s clients — include terrorists in American prisons. Yet to Dibas and panelists like the Islamist, slavery-defending Georgetown University professor Jonathan Brown, they’re victims of America’s Islamophobia.

Brown’s branch of the dhimmitude industry is a family affair. Dibas noted that Brown, former director of Georgetown’s Saudi-founded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and now Alwaleed professor of Islamic civilization, is a CCF board member. Brown, in turn, observed that his sister-in-law, Leena Al-Arian, is CCF’s executive director, an unsurprising family connection, since “CCF was actually founded in our basement,” he said. Brown’s wife, Al Jazeera senior producer Laila Al-Arian, is Leena’s sister.

At CCF’s 2010 founding, the patriarch of the Al-Arian family, Brown’s father-in-law, Sami Al-Arian, lived with him while under house arrest after his conviction for providing material support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists. In 2015, the U.S. deported Al-Arian to Turkey after he pleaded guilty to supporting a terrorist organization.

CCF’s radical connections extend beyond the Brown family. Zahra Billoo, the Islamist executive director of the San Francisco chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), of which a federal judge found “ample evidence to establish” an association with Hamas, joined the panel. Islamist CCF members include CAIR’s Florida chapter, the Islamic Circle of North America, and the National Lawyers Guild, among others.

Given this radical crowd, Dibas’s claim that CCF supports “over 240 political prisoners” who are “predominately Muslim” is clearly propaganda. The federal government, she asserted, “targeted, criminally prosecuted, and imprisoned [these people] due to their political views, beliefs, cultural identity, or activism.” “We work with prisoners convicted of terrorism,” she added, while “most people don’t want to get near” this issue.

CCF board member Ashley Young’s description of her imprisoned brother, former Washington Metro system police officer Nicholas Young, showed CCF’s absurd definition of “political prisoner.” As the Counter Extremism Project has documented, in 2016 “he sent electronic gift cards worth $245 to an undercover FBI agent posing as a Syrian-based” Islamic State fighter under the pretext of funding recruiting “messaging accounts.” Earlier in 2010, Nicholas Young’s “friendship with Zachary Chesser, a Virginia man who pled guilty to attempting to provide material support to al-Shabab,” initially aroused FBI interest.
Emily Schrader: Chile's Jewish students situation grows worse by the day - opinion
FOR YEARS, Chilean students have suffered from a climate of bullying and silencing without the proper backing and attention of the global Jewish community. Jewish students, of whom there are less than a hundred, are vastly outnumbered by Palestinian students, and are routinely harassed each time tensions with Israel arise. Some former students even reported having pictures of injured Palestinians being put on their classroom desks every day.

This type of antisemitism is appalling and little reported in the pro-Israel world, unlike the virulent antisemitism in Ireland and South Africa. The problem with ignoring what’s happening in Chile, however, is that the same path Chilean campuses have followed over the last few years is the path that US campuses are now rapidly taking.

It is not too late for Chile, but it is now harder than it would have been had the Jewish community previously shown more support. The Jewish students of Chile are on the front lines of the battle for truth on campus, and they are dealing with a hostile and aggressive enemy that seeks complete silencing of alternative opinions.

For that reason exactly, it is more important than ever that the Chilean Jews respond with strength and pride in being Jewish, as well as fearlessness when it comes to supporting Israel, even in the face of hatred. And it is more important than ever for the global Jewish community to support them, as well.

An apologetic approach has never worked in the past, neither in Chile nor in the US. We must stand united with Chilean Jews in the fight against antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and we must take Chile’s situation as an example, before it gets to that point on US campuses.

The only way to deal with a bully is to refuse to back down. We must not allow those who pursue an anti-peace agenda to silence Jewish voices.


Meet Iyad Al Dajani, vile antisemitic troll and director of Reconciliation, Conflict Transformation, and Peacebuilding Studies at the University of Jena
Iyad Al Dajani isn't above fabricating events to demonize the Jewish state. He has claimed the current bout of rioting on the Temple Mount are the result of "terrorist Jews" bringing lamb blood to Al Aqsa.

He has declared that the Israelis have elected "racist fascist" people to their Parliment and that they are implementing "Nazi laws" in Israel. No, he isn't referring to the 17 Arab members of the Knesset.

He refers to the Ukrainian refugees fleeing genocidal atrocities as "settlers". (Are the Ukrainians in Poland also "settlers", I can't help but wonder?)

Iyad lies frequently, and is unhinged in his hyperbolic demonization of all things Israeli.

Iyad Al Dajani has blamed Israel after a misfired Hamas rocket took the life of Gaza fisherman. Yet even Reuters got it right

Iyad has acussed the IDF of being in the real estate business.

What makes Iyad Al Dajani any different from the mass of Internet trolls we see online? Iyad AL Dajani is a professional.

Check out his linked in profile
(Dr.Phil.) Iyad AlDajani is the director of the doctoral school for Reconciliation, Conflict Transformation, and Peacebuilding Studies at the University of Jena. He the executive director for the Academic Alliance for Reconciliation in the Middle East and North Africa. He is a very innovative and creative researcher in the field of overcoming violence, religious peacemaking, and reconciliation through applied Internet communication technologies applied to Scientific Computing and Digital Research. He researches how to conduct digital scientific research with all its innovative methods and techniques in mostly concerned with applied Ethics in Digital Humanities. He has also become one of the essential activists working on that field.

The director of the doctoral school for Reconciliation, Conflict Transformation, and Peacebuilding Studies at the University of Jena is a vile hatemongering internet troll. The lying, ignorant dealer in antisemitic tropes markets himself as an "innovative and creative researcher in the field of overcoming violence, religious peacemaking".

Is there any wonder there is no peace?


London Centre Study of Contemporary Antisemitism: The hostile environment in academia and what we need to do
An impassioned statement by David Hirsh, the director of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

He describes the antisemitic hostile environment in academia. And he shows why he thinks we need the new Centre: because it is becoming impossible to operate in the way that we have just about been able to operate so far.


Jewish Shakespeare Scholar Wrongly Fired, National Academic Group Finds
A new report by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) found that Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon, wrongly fired Shakespeare scholar Daniel Pollack-Pelzner after he exposed sexual misconduct allegations against university trustees and reported antisemitic harassment.

According to a civil complaint filed last July, Pollack-Pelzner was dismissed from his tenured position after urging his colleagues to address reports of sexual harassment by implementing new training programs and other measures. The proposal was rejected by Linfield University President Miles Davis, who asked Pollack-Pelzner to withdraw a faculty report detailing the allegations, one of which prompted a trustee accused of abusing four students to resign.

The complaint also said that Davis made antisemitic remarks about “Jewish noses” during a discussion of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

On Thursday, the AAUP said Linfield University violated the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure “and the institution’s own regulations, which incorporate AAUP dismissal standards, when it dismissed Pollack-Pelzner without demonstrating adequate cause for its actions before an elected hearing body.”

“The investigating committee also found that the administration violated Pollack-Pelzner’s academic freedom to participate in institutional governance without retaliation,” the report continued, arguing that that “general conditions for academic freedom and shared governance at Linfield University are deplorable.”

Speaking to Inside Higher Ed, Linfield University spokesperson Scott Nelson disputed the faculty association’s account of the events that led to Pollack-Pelzner’s termination, arguing that the school has complied evidence that “substantially discredits much of the AAUP report.”
Progressives rescinding endorsement of NC congressional candidate over AIPAC donations
The Progressive Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party is revoking its endorsement of a U.S. House candidate due to donations she accepted from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

In a statement on Sunday, the caucus said it will no longer support North Carolina state Sen. Valerie Foushee in her bid for the House because she accepted donations from AIPAC, which has endorsed Republican candidates who objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

The caucus said it contacted Foushee’s campaign and encouraged the candidate to reject AIPAC’s support, but the candidate refused, saying the campaign’s commitment to the group is strong and unyielding.

As a result, the caucus said it is pulling its support.

“We stand by our progressive American values of democracy and human rights for all. AIPAC’s support of insurrectionists and Senator Foushee’s strong embrace of AIPAC runs contrary to our values,” the group wrote in a statement.

“Because of the actions of AIPAC and Senator Foushee’s refusal to reject their support, the Progressive Caucus leadership voted and overwhelmingly decided to withdraw our support of Senator Foushee’s candidacy for Congress,” the group added.

The caucus said it came to its decision despite Foushee having a “sterling reputation and years of service.”
Hell hath no fury like a leftist constrained
Sometimes seemingly insignificant events open up a world of understanding to the true state of things. This is the story of one of those events and its aftermath.

Recently, the art department at Sapir College in Sderot, the single-most attacked city in Israel, decided to display an art exhibit. Now, the reason that Sderot has been the most-attacked city in Israel is because of its close proximity to the Gaza border, which has made a tempting target over the years for Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives seeking to terrorize Israel.

The exhibit, titled “At the End of the Sky,” was intended to focus on religious verses from the Torah and other sources. One prominent painting featured a prominent verse from the Koran, “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Messenger.”

Fair enough. The problem is that the calligraphy for presenting the verse is exactly how it is printed on the Hamas flag. In fact, the painting was indistinguishable from the Hamas flag, except that the background color was not Fatimid green, but ISIS black.

While the exhibit was being prepared for opening, several art students saw the work and were very upset by the flag painting. They uploaded the picture to Facebook and many others started to react.

Why might such a work engender such a reaction? Perhaps because it was not hard to identify the painting as the Hamas flag, and it was galling to extol that flag of a group that has so terrorized so many in the college and its community.

Soon thereafter, Im Tirtzu activists from our Sapir branch saw the painting and did what it does uniquely well: complain to the college administration about anti-Zionist propaganda and plan a demonstration against it.


Utah Governor Signs Resolution Condemning Antisemitism
Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox on Monday signed a resolution pledging to combat antisemitism, months after a prominent tech executive in the state resigned for a disturbing antisemitic email rant.

“It’s not enough to condemn antisemitism and racism,” Cox tweeted after a ceremony in which several other bills became law. “We need to teach our children about our history so we don’t repeat it. HCR15 condemns antisemitic acts and hate speech, while also highlighting Utah’s Jewish history and culture.”

The resolution pointed to Fanny and Julius Brooks, Utah’s first Jewish family, who settled there in 1853; and Simon Bamberger, the state’s Jewish governor elected in 1917.

“The state of Utah wishes to affirm its commitment to the well-being and safety of its Jewish community members and ensure they know they are not alone and that the state of Utah is committed to ending the spread of all forms of hate and bigotry,” HCR15 says.

The measure was prompted by revelations in January that David Bateman — founder of the software firm Entrata and a prominent Republican Party donor in Utah — sent an email from his company account accusing of Jews of conspiring to use the COVID-19 vaccine as an agent of mass genocide.

“For 300 years the Jews have been trying to infiltrate the Catholic Church and places a Jew covertly at the top,” Bateman wrote in the email. “It happened in 2013 with Pope Francis. I believe the pandemic and the systematic extermination of billions of people will lead to an effort to consolidate all the countries in the world under a single flag with totalitarian rule.”
'I survived Hitler and Stalin…I will survive this ar**hole Putin too!': Holocaust survivor, 96, who was at Auschwitz condemns Russian leader after she is forced to flee Ukraine
A 96-year-old Holocaust survivor who was at Auschwitz with Anne Frank has condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's 'genocide' after she was forced to flee her home in Ukraine.

Anastasia Gulej, who fled to Germany after Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February, said after surviving dictators Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin she would survive 'this ar**hole Putin too'.

Gulej, who was speaking at a memorial service for Holocaust survivors, compared the Russians to the Nazis and said: 'I have no words for what the Hitler admirers from the Kremlin did in Bucha and Mariupol.'

She spoke of a 'genocide against the Ukrainians', adding: 'I survived Hitler, survived Stalin and I will survive this ar**hole Putin too!'

Gulej was moved from Auschwitz to the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and was speaking at an event to mark the 77th anniversary of its liberation by British and Canadian troops.

The 96-year-old was sent by the Nazis to the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, in January 1945, at the age of 19.

Gulej was there at the same time as Anne Frank, who later died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15, in February 1945.

Gulej was taken to the Bergen-Belsen camp, where she remained until it was liberated four months later, on 15th April 1945. At the memorial service, she said: 'I can't forget a single minute that I spent here waiting for death.'

Speaking about the moment the camp was liberated, she said: 'I didn't even have enough strength to feel joy.'
Neo-Nazi Provocateurs Target Historically Jewish Neighborhood in Pittsburgh During Passover Flyer Campaign
Neo-Nazi provocateurs from the so-called “Goyim Defense League (GDL)” were active on both coasts of the US over the weekend as the Jewish community marked the Passover holiday.

Among the neighborhoods targeted for a blitz of leaflets blaming the Russian invasion of Ukraine on a Jewish conspiracy was the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh. The neighborhood is home to a sizable Jewish community and is also the location of the Tree of Life synagogue, where 11 worshipers were murdered by a white supremacist gunman in Oct. 2018.

Local resident Jennifer Poller told broadcaster WPIX that the antisemitic GDL leaflets were discovered by her 17-year-old son inside a bag filled with rice to prevent the contents from being blown away. The family had just returned home from celebrating the Passover Seder with friends on Friday night.

“It was hard to process all at once because, here it is, a Friday night, our Sabbath, the start of the Passover holiday,” Poller said. “Then we’re also dealing with our own emotions, but then also having our 17-year-old son see that.”

A report in March by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on white supremacist propaganda efforts in the US noted that the GDL was a neo-Nazi group that has staged demonstrations in cities around the US blaming Jews for the COVID-19 pandemic and denying the Holocaust.
Volvo invests in Israeli maker of fast-charging battery tech StoreDot
Swedish carmaker Volvo has made a strategic investment in StoreDot, an Israeli developer of extreme fast-charging (XFC) battery technology for electric vehicles (EVs), according to a joint announcement Tuesday.

The amount was not disclosed but comes less than a month since a major Indian electric scooter maker and ride-hailing service, Ola Electric, made a multi-million-dollar investment in the Israeli company as part of its Series D investment round of some $80 million.

StoreDot has been working with strategic investors such as BP Ventures, the venture arm of the British multinational oil and gas firm BP plc, Daimler AG, the maker of the Mercedes Benz cars, Japanese electronic multinational TDK, and South Korea’s Samsung Ventures, to move ahead with its technologies.

The Israeli company announced the Series D round in January, led by Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer VinFast, a unit of Vietnamese conglomerate VinGroup.

StoreDot said the funding will be used for research and development and to reach mass production for its silicon-dominant anode XFC lithium-ion cells, which it says will be capable of delivering 100 miles (160 kilometers) of driving range in five minutes of charging by 2024.

The Volvo investment was made through the Volvo Cars Tech Fund, the carmaker’s venture capital arm. Volvo announced last year that it plans to become a fully electric car company by 2030 and a leader in the electric vehicle market.
Jewish Federations of North America Surpass $50 Million Mark for Ukrainian Aid
The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) announced on Monday that it has surpassed its fundraising goal of $50 million for aid to Ukraine.

According to a news release, the funds have been allocated to 35 NGOs operating on the ground in Ukraine and neighboring countries.

Some of these groups include the Jewish Agency for Israel, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and World ORT, which the release called its core partner groups.

The funds are being used to provide housing, clothing, cash assistance, medical attention, mental health services, life-saving rescue operations, and security and transportation for refugees, including those making aliyah to Israel.

The funds also went to host thousands of Ukrainian Jewish refugees for Passover seders on Friday, hosted by the Jewish Agency and JDC in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and Israel, with special Haggadot in Russian and Hebrew. JDC also organized 15 online seders for Jews in Ukraine who were unable to leave.

A volunteer hub has been created to recruit and place hundreds of skilled volunteers over the coming months to provide essential services on the ground through partnering organizations, with 30 already having been deployed in Budapest, Warsaw, and the Poland-Ukraine border.

“Jewish Federations are unique in the key role we are playing both in providing tremendous amounts of aid to refugees as well as advocating for refugee resettlement,” said JFNA President and CEO Eric Fingerhut in the release. “This crisis will unfold in ways which nobody can predict, but what is sure is that Jewish Federations will continue to play a frontline role in the response and long-term strategy development in order to alleviate suffering and help refugees rebuild their lives.”
Ukrainian boy suffering from mysterious illness treated at Israeli hospital
In a small room at Sourasky Medical Center's Dana-Dwek Children's Hospital in Tel Aviv, the world's next superhero, Arseny Malavsky, waits. Despite writhing in pain, he smiles from ear to ear when asked what he wants to be when he grows up. "Superman!" he replies.

Arseny has been dealing with a disease doctors in his home country of Ukraine have been unable to decipher.

He suffers from terrible stomach pains and serious cramping. He also has neurological issues that cause his head to droop and for him to experience tics.

Having landed in Israel 10 days ago, the Malavskys are now staying at a hotel in Tel Aviv. At the Dana-Dwek Children's Hospital, where Arseny was immediately received, doctors are performing a series of exams to appraise his condition.

Around a month and a half ago, Arseny's superpowers were put to the test when Russian forces invading Ukraine reached the suburbs of Odessa, where his family lived. Arseny's father is a captain for Israeli business tycoon Idan Ofer's international shipping firm. It was thanks to Ofer that Arseny and his family, along with 600 other Ukrainians, were able to flee Ukraine.

When the war broke out, Ofer resolved to save the lives of his employees and their relatives.

"We needed to escape in a complicated operation," Arseny's mother Svetlana says. "One of our neighbors drove us to the border with Belarus, which we crossed on foot. Afterward, we got on a bus that took us to the border with Romania. Another bus to the border with Bulgaria, and then we arrived at Varna, to safe harbor."
Passover in UAE: 1,000 People Take Part in History-Making Seder
More than a thousand people gathered in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on April 15 to celebrate the Passover seder, the largest one to ever take place in the UAE.

“Our community continues to grow and prosper here in the UAE, coupled with the renewed flow of Israelis and Jews from all over the world to Dubai and Abu Dhabi,” said Rabbi to the UAE Levi Duchman.

“The warm welcome our community has received from the local leadership is a true testament to coexistence and tolerance. How striking it is to be able to celebrate Passover, the Festival of Freedom, here in the Emirates together,” he added.

The seder, which was attended by ambassadors, government officials and community members, was conducted in several languages, including Hebrew, English, French and Russian.

The chief rabbis of Israel sent filmed greetings to Duchman and the Emirati Jewish community.

Duchman first arrived in the Emirates in 2014 and established an organization “Jewish UAE,” through which he founded places of worship and Jewish education.


On This Day: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Begins
On this day in 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began. The revolt would last a few days short of a month.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in September of 1939, more than 400,000 of the Jews who lived in Warsaw were confined to the ghetto, which was the largest in Poland. In November of 1940, the ghetto was sealed off, and anyone caught leaving was shot on sight.

The lack of food and the overcrowding killed thousands of people each month.

In the middle of 1942, Heinrich Himmler ordered to have the Jews "resettled" to extermination camps. The Jews were told that they were going to work camps, but word reached them that deportation meant they were going to die.

By September 1942, more than 280,000 Jews were deported to Treblinka or forced labor camps, and many were killed during the deportation process.

Approximately 60,000 Jews were left in the ghetto, and they formed groups such as the Jewish Combat Organization and the ZOB. These groups aimed to fight back and managed to have weapons smuggled into the ghetto by anti-Nazi Poles and the Jewish Military Union.

In mid-January of 1943, the Nazis entered the ghetto to prepare a new group for deportation but were ambushed by the ZOB. The fighting lasted a few days, after which deportations were suspended for a few months.






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