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Tuesday, May 24, 2022

05/24 Links Pt2: Is the ADL ready to tackle left-wing antisemitism?; Can the Democrats Be Stopped from Abandoning Israel?; Eitan Pessin: We Are Many, We Are One

From Ian:

Einat Wilf: Who Does She Think She Is?
The new memoir by former Breaking the Silence director Yuli Novak is simplistic and solipsistic in equal measure.

The publication of the book Who Do You Think You Are? by Yuli Novak is evidence, once more, that the artistic bar for anti-Zionist creation is low. The book is badly written. The metaphors worn out. Descriptions of nature as stand-ins for emotional turmoil (comparing volcanic eruptions to her turmoil, geological changes to social ones, comparing getting lost and found while traveling to getting lost and found emotionally), present throughout, would barely cut it as a high school writing exercise. But because the book tells the story of how Zionism is so irredeemable that it must be scrapped altogether, the low literary value of the book is ignored. Given that the book peddles a recent incarnation of the ancient idea that no amount of reform could make the collective Jew palatable, there is a thriving and stable market for material that caters to it.

Who Do You Think You Are? is part biography, part political reflection, part coming-of-age story. Unfortunately, though, there is no coming of age. The protagonist begins and ends the story as the same petulant child whose so-called reflections lead her to realize that the world is to blame, and everyone but her is “blind, numb, fearful and angry.” A vein of irresponsibility runs through the book. The protagonist just happens to do things. By her own description, Novak became director of Breaking the Silence, an organization devoted to ending Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, on a lark. She was studying to be a lawyer but didn’t want to be one and hadn’t yet figured out what she wanted to do. She came across a job ad for director of Breaking the Silence and thought it was “something worth trying.” Why? Not clear.

Once at the job she doesn’t understand why people get angry. Israeli Jews who respond to Palestinian attacks with “hysteria” and are manipulated by politicians into “fear and hatred” are at fault. She and her colleagues merely want to highlight the “inherent immorality” of the Occupation. The fury against her is because she “stood up against the regime.” The forces that oppose her are nefarious and anti-democratic. They target Breaking the Silence to promote an “illiberal order” and “concentration of powers by the government.”

Her intentions have always been nothing but good. Oh, and the media is at fault.

Theoretically, bad writing and childish protagonists could still make smart arguments. Alas, not in this book. Even if judging only on substance, each of the author’s premises is wrong. The first is that Jewish citizens of Israel do not know what is involved in exercising military control over Palestinians in the West Bank, the Occupation. If they knew, they would end it. Therefore, there is a need to “break the silence” surrounding the Occupation. This is a tantalizing idea. It appeals to the human desire to uncover dark secrets lurking beneath the surface. It lures people with the promise that they will hear something they have not heard before. It also confers a halo of martyrdom on those willing to break the so-called silence.
A Passage to Israel
In the summer of 1965, nine Orthodox rabbis traveled to the former Soviet Union. They weren’t ordinary tourists. They had been sent by the Rabbinical Council of America with a mission: to investigate the murmurs that had begun reaching the West about Soviet mistreatment of Jews.

In those years, peering behind the Iron Curtain meant being escorted by a government guide who also worked for the KGB, and sleeping in a bugged hotel room. As one would imagine, only a small minority of intrepid tourists dared to make this trip. The rabbis’ journey proved such a novelty that The New York Times reported on it.

There were no lazy days wandering around Moscow, no independent explorations; to go off on one’s own was to risk expulsion, beating, or both. Yet one day, feigning illness, Rabbi Rafael Grossman—then the rabbi of a synagogue in Long Branch, New Jersey—left the group. He had his own private agenda: to locate a congregant’s long-lost brother. Lacking fluency in the Russian language or a sense of Moscow’s geography, and relying only on an address scrawled on the back of a 10-year-old envelope and the efficacy of his own prayers, he succeeded.

“My father had a lot of chutzpah,” recalled Grossman’s son Hillel, a New York psychiatrist. “My father also cared a great deal about the individual.”

At first, the congregant’s brother’s family wouldn’t open the door; they feared that the rabbi was a KGB dupe. Speaking in fluent Yiddish, which at that time was still Ashkenazi Jewry’s lingua franca, the rabbi eventually won their trust.

Inside their apartment, Grossman discovered another surprise: the man’s young son, whom the man and his wife had been raising inside the confines of the apartment, home-schooling him, never allowing him to play with his peers—all this to escape the sting of Soviet antisemitism. Initially, the rabbi was shocked—situations like this usually point to child abuse—but he quickly realized that these parents were acting out of love.

“This wasn’t a recommended child-rearing practice,” Hillel told me, “but it was undertaken under extraordinary circumstances for extolled purposes.”

The couple swore Grossman to secrecy; they were terrified that the communist authorities could take away their son and send them to Siberia. But the rabbi felt compelled to violate his oath. From his home in the U.S., he mounted a private lobbying campaign. With the help of several prominent members of Congress, he secured exit visas and the family moved to Israel. But he never shared their names publicly.
Eitan Pessin: We Are Many, We Are One
I’m currently wrapping up the second half of my sophomore year of high school studying in Israel on the Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim (TRY) program. The program is amazing in every way, and it was difficult to decide just one thing to write about for now, but I’ve settled on this particular experience—which despite being so different from the rest of the program in a way captured its essence.

We spent four days at Gadna, learning a little about what it’s like to train, and be, in the Israel Defense Force. ... I could see where this was going. As the Samal spoke, I looked over at the beautiful view in front of us, felt the warm air on my skin, and absorbed as much of the sun as possible.

“Sean and his fellow tzevet members were traveling in an armored vehicle. Soon, when Hamas was shooting at them, Sean, being the person he was, poked his head out first to return the fire. Sadly, the instant his head popped out of the vehicle, a bullet hit him square in the forehead killing him on the spot. Sean was the type of person to put himself first, not to let his tzevet go into a mission without him. He’s a model of the type of person you should all strive to be. And though Sean was a lone soldier, over ten thousand people showed up to his funeral, because Sean is a role model for everyone.”

There was a beat of silence, during which I focused solely on the endless expanse of aquamarine, and then the Samal silently turned and started running back the way we’d come. We all silently followed, and as I ran I was consumed with the story of Sean. Sean had been an average person, but had felt such commitment and love towards this country and its people he’d gone into Gaza with a twisted ankle- it hit me hard because I feel as if that could be me in ten years.

This Masa marked the end of our Gadna experience. We got back and had some basic cleaning and packing to do, but about two hours later we boarded the bus and headed back home. The bus ride back was silent; we were bruised, beaten, and tired and nearly everybody slept the entire drive. It felt as if we’d been through hell in some respects - but it was a hell that had created unbreakable bonds between us and left us irreversibly changed. Gadna marked a turning point in my TRY experience; it was the moment it became not only about touring Israel, or school, but truly about us. It etched into our souls an important lesson about being part of something bigger, a lesson that can apply to our group on TRY, each of our camps, our synagogues, the Diasporic Jewish community, and most importantly of all, Israel. At Gadna, each of us were individuals with our own histories and lives, yes, but we operated as one team, as one brigade, one base. We were unique parts of a whole, and in the end, that’s what Gadna, and Israel, is about.


Can the Democrats Be Stopped from Abandoning Israel?
First, it’s essential to break the mental and rhetorical grip of “intersectionality” as it now applies to Israel — the idea that if one is against the oppression of black people in America, one must also be anti-Israel, on the view that Israelis are white Jews oppressing colored Palestinians. Not only is that mistaken on factual grounds (Jews aren’t “white,” and a plurality of Jewish Israelis are of Middle Eastern descent), but it is also neocolonialist in its assumption that America’s racial categories can be grafted on to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Fighting lazy and invidious stereotypes used to be a liberal priority; pro-Israel Democrats should make it one again.

Second, pro-Israel Democrats must fight the accusation that they are using “dark money” from reactionary (or Republican) sources. In her concession speech, Nina Turner said, “We didn’t lose this race, evil money manipulated and maligned the election.” The charge is itself reminiscent of the infamous statement made by Representative Ilhan Omar that American support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins” — that is, Jewish money. It also echoes some Republicans’ habit of blaming every liberal activist they dislike for taking money from George Soros, who everyone knows is Jewish.

Third, the distance between expressions of anti-Zionism and antisemitism is often short or nonexistent, and liberal Democrats need to be encouraged (or shamed) into understanding that fact and denouncing the behavior. Whenever Omar has made blatantly anti-semitic statements (for which she usually apologizes and backtracks, before doing it again), Democratic condemnation has been far from full-throated. When she remarked that she saw nothing wrong when she criticized people who pushed for “allegiance to a foreign country” — meaning Jews who lobbied on behalf of Israel — Democrats responded with a statement that did not mention her by name, left out what she had said that was objectionable, and balanced opposition to antisemitism by stressing opposition to “Islamophobia.” At a time when Jews have become the leading target of religiously motivated hate crimes, the diffidence in criticizing Omar is unworthy of a Democratic Party that otherwise shows no tolerance for bigotry.

Finally, centrist Democrats and pro-Israel groups must develop educational programs showing that support for Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, along with its status as the only true democracy in the region, corresponds with the other policies most Democrats hold in common — a commitment to democracy at home and abroad, a foreign policy based on morality and the defense of humane values, and economic growth that benefits regular people throughout America and the world.

The Democratic Party remains, however equivocally, a supporter of the Jewish state, particularly when it comes to current leaders such as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Some may be tempted to write off that support, either because they think it can’t last, or that it shouldn’t. They’re mistaken. A party that supports Israel — even as it recognizes its faults — is a party that is true to its best traditions. And a party that supports Israel helps itself by demonstrating to voters that it won’t be held hostage to the radicals and antisemitic bigots in its midst. It’s a case of the right thing to do in politics also being the smart thing.

As for Israel, maintaining American support from both major political parties must remain a strategic priority for any Israeli government. The old ties that once held between Israel and the Democrats might be frayed, but they aren’t yet broken, and they remain very much worth mending.
The emergence of the Congressional Pogrom Caucus
This caucus is the result of a years-long campaign by anti-Semitic activists and organizations to burrow deep into the American establishment. Hate groups like CAIR, IfNotNow, Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine and numerous others have been on a long march of slander, defamation and demonization directed at Israel, its American supporters and indeed all American Jews. It seeks to break their spirits, intimidate them into silence and exile them to the apartheid margins of American life.

But it also seeks to break their very bodies. This was conclusively proven last May, when Muslim-Americans across the U.S. committed horrific acts of violence and intimidation against Jews from New York to Los Angeles, largely without condemnation. My own father’s business in a Jewish suburb of Boston was vandalized multiple times because he sells Israeli products. In a display of epic hypocrisy, the long marchers—and “The Squad” itself—so quick to accuse anyone and everyone of racism on the slightest pretext, remained all but completely silent throughout.

This pogrom did not erupt merely because Israel was involved in a conflict with Hamas at the time. It was the product of years, decades of work by these activists and organizations. The idea that their incitement and defamation did not poison the Muslim-American community against not only Israel but all Jews is absurd. And that it resulted in mob violence—a pogrom—should be no surprise. For this alone, the Muslim-American establishment, the anti-Israel progressive left, the numerous activists who support them and the Squad itself stand condemned.

Tlaib’s resolution should not be seen, then, as mere anti-Israel politics, nor as a simple expression of pogromist ideology. It is the pogrom. It seeks to further the pogrom on another level. It attempts to institutionalize the pogrom, to enshrine it in American law and, through it, American society. We have seen, in other words, the emergence of the Congressional Pogrom Caucus.

This is all quite monstrous, of course, but it also reveals an important truth: The pogromists know that they cannot break the State of Israel without also breaking the Jews. Especially American Jews, who they see as the true source of what they genuinely believe to be Israel’s omnipotent power. They are prepared to do almost anything in service of this goal, and will not stop unless they are stopped by any and all legal means necessary.

This means, above all, that American Jews must wake up. Often sympathetic to progressive politics, they do not want to believe that such a thing could happen among those they view as admirable allies. But denial never works, and now it represents an existential danger. American Jews may be in sympathy with the ideology of “The Squad,” but they must understand that these people hate you. And however progressive, compassionate, empathetic and idealistic they may seem, when the chips are down, they will eat you alive.

So, remember their names: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Betty McCollum, Marie Newman, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. They are not finished. They will be back. And you must be ready for them.


Rep. Tlaib attends ‘nakba’ rally where activist calls for use of guns, stones, rockets
Osama Siblani, the publisher of The Arab American News, said in a “Nakba Day” rally on May 15 in Dearborn, Mich., that despite Israel thinking that its 1948 borders are safe, Palestinians have carried out successful attacks with knives and their bare hands.

According to a report by the Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) attended the rally.

Siblani also said that Arabs would triumph wherever they fought, using stones, guns, planes, drones, rockets, hands and voices.

“We are the Arabs who are going to lift Palestinians all the way to victory, whether we are in Michigan and whether we are in Jenin. Believe me, everyone should fight within his means,” said Siblani.




Is the ADL ready to tackle left-wing antisemitism?
Mr. Greenblatt, please stop your attempts to "balance" condemnations of the left with put-downs of right-wingers. It suggests the ADL is not serious about critiquing the left. After all, how many ADL exposés of right-wing antisemitism "balance" themselves with criticisms of left-wingers?

Don't be tepid or slow on denunciations of left-wing antisemitism. We're encouraged that you criticized The Harvard Crimson's publication of a pro-BDS editorial, but a tweet that it is "deeply disturbing" and cheers for faculty members and students who spoke out against it isn't enough. The ADL exists to take point in controversies like this.

Likewise, why are you so silent about President Joe Biden's choice of Karine Jean-Pierre as his new press secretary, despite her track record of Israel-bashing? When a group that at least used to be the premier Jewish organization fighting hatred, discrimination and crimes against Jews is slow to recognize antisemitism and cautious about denouncing it, is it any wonder that college presidents, politicians and others are reluctant to say or do anything?

Please be clear and forceful when you denounce antisemitism from prominent, even mainstream left-wing voices. The ADL's April 2022 report that exposed left-wing political candidates' antisemitism would have been more useful had it called out people like Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.); California state candidates Laura Wells (for controller), Nathalie Hrizi (for insurance commissioner) and Mohammad Arif (for lieutenant governor); New York State Sen. Jessica Ramos; and Washington state congressional candidate Stephanie Gallardo, instead of tepid complaints about their "troubling rhetoric" on Israel.

The ADL's focus in recent years on leftist causes has detracted from its mission. When the ADL pushes woke education, slams a Supreme Court's ruling that a religious adoption agency need not endorse gay couples and other pet culture-war causes of the left, it alienates people who might help the ADL with what should be its main focus – the fight against antisemitism.

Stop your attempts to make antisemitism incidental to the ADL's mission via things like changing the ADL's definition of racism to a more woke version that condemns anti-black racism but doesn't even mention most anti-Semitic racism. The fight against antisemitism is or should be the ADL's raison d'être. That should be clear to all. If it isn't, it has failed to carry out its mission.

Mr. Greenblatt, welcome to the fight.
Response to a question from an Arab fellow student at Hebrew U.
Question: Hi, I am an Arab student who pays 400 NIS dues to the student union at the start of every year and I want to ask you something:

Why does the student union hold its biggest event, Student Day, on Jerusalem Liberation Day when it is really Jerusalem Occupation Day?

How come the union ignores the Arabs who make up a significant percentage of the student body at the Hebrew University campus, and prevents them from enjoying the event, knowing that they cannot take part in the most lavish and grandiose celebration held all year, one that should be open to all students, one that every student should be able to attend without hesitation?


Response:
Ya sahabi – My friend -

Student Day is celebrated intentionally and purposefully on the day of Jerusalem's liberation from Muslim occupation – and if there is anyone who should be celebrating on that day, it is you and your fellow Arab students at the university. Let me explain why, briefly:

Had you not been liberated from the Jordanian Occupation, it is more than probable that you would have found yourself persecuted, downtrodden, poverty stricken, uneducated and perhaps even decapitated ISIS-al Qaeda-style. You may not like hearing this, but dear fellow student, your life under Israeli "occupation" is much better than it would be under any other Middle Eastern regime.


The groups intimidating New York Jews
“Resistance by any means necessary.”

This statement, a thinly veiled expression of support for violence, has become something of a slogan for Within Our Lifetime (WOL) and the terror-linked Samidoun, two radical groups that have organized numerous protests over the last few years in New York City. On May 15, they held a march in Brooklyn commemorating “Nakba Day,” in which anti-Israel activists mourn the establishment of the State of Israel. As with prior WOL and Samidoun demonstrations, this protest was a tour de force of Israel demonization and intimidation toward Jewish New Yorkers.

Nakba Day events are notoriously charged affairs. This is doubly true for WOL and Samidoun, which have made it their raison d’être to incite crowds with chants of “death to America,” “death to Israel,” and “Globalize the Intifada,” referring to spates of widespread violent Palestinian uprisings that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 Israelis. This year’s protest continued the troubling trend.

If that wasn’t enough, the night before this year’s rally, WOL projected texts onto a massive screen in Washington Square Park that arguably dehumanized Israelis as pigs.

Given such hostile rhetoric, is it shocking that a WOL activist allegedly attacked a Jewish bystander holding an Israeli flag at a rally on April 20, while another one faces charges of hate crime assault stemming from an incident a year prior?

Likewise, Nerdeen Kiswani, the leader of WOL, threatened to set a man ablaze for simply wearing an Israel Defense Forces sweatshirt and once told a crowd, “I hope that a pop-pop is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime,” obviously referencing gunfire. At a March 30 demonstration, WOL distributed a map bearing the addresses of over a dozen Jewish nonprofits in the area, clearly encouraging direct confrontations.

But as vicious as WOL may be, the Samidoun Prisoner Solidarity Network is far more disturbing. Samidoun is an alleged international proxy of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization whose members are accused of establishing terror cells across the West. For this reason, Israel designated Samidoun a terrorist entity in February 2021.
CUNY Law School Honors Student Who Praised Terrorist and Called for ‘One Solution – Intifada’
Unsurprisingly given Kiswani’s troubling past, objections about her commencement address were raised by Jewish students and faculty, including by S.A.F.E. CUNY (Students and Faculty for Equality at CUNY), which pointed out that “honoring a Jew-hating bigot who has called for violence to Jews makes Jews at CUNY unsafe.”

“CUNY bears responsibility if someone gets hurt in the wake of Kiswani’s violence-inciting antisemitic rhetoric,” the group’s statement added.

CUNY law administrators ignored these objections.

And this is not the first time that the school has dismissed the concerns raised by Jewish students about their safety.

For example, the dean of CUNY Law School, Mary Bilek, actually defended Kiswani after the aforementioned IDF sweatshirt incident, claiming Kiswani was simply using “her First Amendment right to express her opinion,” which was her “opposition to Israel’s armed forces (or Israel’s policies toward Palestine).”

And faculty at CUNY Law faculty officially endorsed the BDS campaign this month, in a resolution that demanded the university sever ties with Israel, while accusing the Jewish state of being guilty of “apartheid, genocide, and war crimes.”

And all this occurs as antisemitism in New York is surging. In 2020, there was a 325% increase in antisemitic assaults on the city’s streets compared to the year before. Nationally, the rising levels of hatred and violence toward Jews have reached such an alarming level that just days ago, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution denouncing rising antisemitism.

When Kiswani, who said at a 2021 rally that she hopes a “pop-pop is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime,” is awarded the honor of addressing graduating students, CUNY Law School is seemingly giving a green light to violence against Jews.

And this hatred will have real-life consequences.
Rabbis receive anti-terror training after sacked professor repeats ‘extremism’ slur
Chabad rabbis have been given security training in the wake of “disgraceful slurs” republished online by former Bristol university professor David Miller.

The political sociology professor, who was sacked from Bristol University amid claims he incited hatred against Jewish students, has republished on Twitter segments of a show aired on Iranian Press TV that calls Chabad a “supremacist organisation at the extreme end of the settler movement”.

The segment also claimed that Russian Chabadniks in 1777 were the original Zionist settlers.

The programme, Palestine Declassified, was launched in February and exists to “investigate the Israeli regime’s global war against solidarity with the illegally occupied people of Palestine”.

Miller works as a producer on the show, and has featured on the programme alongside its host, the former Labour MP Chris Williamson who was suspended from the party over accusations of antisemitism, and Electronic Intifada blogger Asa Winstanley.

In an early Palestine Declassified episode, it was claimed Chabad runs a children’s group called the Army Of Hashem, which “is dedicated to waging war against non-Judaism”.
PreOccupiedTerritory: Jewish Separation Of Meat/Dairy Proves Israel Is Apartheid by Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International Director-General (satire)
Agnes CallamardLondon, May 24 – An increasing number of international organizations have concluded that Israel’s unequal treatment of Palestinians under its jurisdiction qualifies as the same race-based system of oppression that characterized South Africa for so many decades and led that country to ostracism from the community of civilized nations. So far that conclusion has had limited impact in the policy realm of nations and international governing bodies, for various reasons. In the meantime, human rights advocates have not rested, nor have they relied on their proven avenues to further expose the profound reality of Apartheid under the Israeli regime. New evidence comes to light each day to bolster the Apartheid characterization, including deep-seated aspects of Israeli culture that facilitate, condone, or even support such race-based discrimination, among them an ancient insistence that meat products and dairy products remain segregated in the Jewish kitchen and diet.

While ancient Jewish leaders already distinguished between mere consumption of meat and dairy together – with varying interpretations of what flesh from which creatures qualifies as “meat” – and the cooking together of those foods, or eating such foods already cooked together, in modern practice Jewish culture, which underlies much of Israeli culture and the racist Zionist ideology, strict separation obtains between not only meat and dairy foodstuffs, but between the dishes and implements used with those respective types of foodstuffs. Such insistence translates all too easily in human affairs to racist segregation and discrimination against those who, by accident of birth, differ from the hegemonic culture.

The kitchen is hardly the only realm in which the underlying culture that spawned Zionism endorses segregation: Jewish agricultural law mandates separation between differing species of cultivated crops, whether vegetables from one another or grain from grapes vines. It even bars grafting one kind of tree with another! Such racial purity sensibilities cannot help but become absorbed into the culture at large in the form of race-based segregation.
BBC WS radio’s ‘The Real Story’ shy on antisemitic conspiracy theory
Both at the beginning of the programme and later at 07:23, listeners heard an explanation of that conspiracy theory from Professor Cas Mudde in which they were told that it:
“…argues that there is a specific elite that uses mass immigration to replace the original populations of particularly Europe – but it can be extended – by immigrants which will then become the new electorate of these parties. So generally, the elites are either the Left or social democratic parties or big business or the Jews. It’s not just your average racist theory of having waves of immigration or Islamisation of Europe or something. It is specifically this plan, this conniving plan of a small cabal that tries to achieve something political with it, so the idea is that they’re trying to sustain power.”

Later on presenter Ritula Shah asked guest Jacob Davey:
Shah: “Jacob, it’s been around for a long time but it’s interesting because depending on who you read or which version of it is bandied about – and there are a number of versions – sometimes it’s antisemitic, sometimes it’s anti-Islam, at least in the European versions. Is there any pattern to that or is it something that just changes depending on who the other happens to be at any given time?”

Davey replied:
Davey: “[…] But the antisemitic component does crop up time and time again. So similarly, if you look to Great Replacement Theory in the US, which focuses on African Americans or migrants from Latin America as well, and that idea that Jewish people are orchestrating it seems to be a cornerstone when you look at the elites who are running it. But again, not all the time. It changes, it adapts to fit the context in which it is being used by extremists.”

At 14:46 Shah referred to a 2017 ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville and the chants of far-Right protesters:
Shah: “They say ‘you will not replace us’ and also ‘Jews will not replace us.’”

However, BBC audiences around the world did not hear any further explanation of why Jews are a big component of that conspiracy theory and how its antisemitism is different to its other racist aspects. No representative from any of the major Jewish organisations which have been tracking the rise and effects of that conspiracy theory in recent years appeared on the programme. Likewise, no effort was made to explain how the Great Replacement Theory notions of Jews as “elites” trying to “sustain power” are linked to antisemitic tropes with which listeners may be more familiar, such as the ‘Jewish lobby’ trope that the BBC has itself promoted in the past.
Guardian grossly misleads on Masafer Yatta evictions
Clearly, Sharon said the purpose is to prevent the spread of Arab villages towards the desert. He didn’t say anything about “forcing local Palestinians from their homes” as the Guardian claims. Further, the court found that, prior to 1980, there were no permanent residents in the area.

Later, McKernan writes:
In Jinba, a community that has lived in the cool hillside caves since the days of the Ottoman empire, the Bakar family is regularly harassed by Israeli settlers and the army.

This is egregiously misleading. Jinba is one of the villages within Masafer Yatta – part of the firing zone that the Surpeme Court determined was not inhabited by Palestinians permanently until the 1990s. To the degree that Jinba has been a “community” since Ottoman times, it hasn’t been a commuity for the Palestinians, such as the Bakar family, in question.

Also omitted by the Guardian, per the court decision:
- Some of the complainants have permanent homes in the nearby village of Yaata.
- The Palestinian petitioners did NOT provide any documentation of ownership of the land.
- The Palestinian petitioners breached orders not to build while the matter was under discussion in court, and they built illegal structures without permission.
- The army, on the other hand, did respect the court order intended to maintain the status quo and did not evacuate people nor use the area for training during that time.

These are just the outright errors and omissions in a one-sided and extremely tendentious piece by McKernan, a Guardian correspondent who, we continue to show, is among those coverinig ther region who believe their job – inconsistent with the demands of ethical journalism – is to promote the ‘voice of Palestine’, rather than provide readers with an accurate and impartial account of the relevant facts.
City on the Brink
Germany is now known as the site of the most horrific anti-Semitic slaughter in history, the Holocaust. But well before Hitler's rise, as Michael Brenner shows in his new book, In Hitler's Munich, there was a long history of Jewish communal life in Germany, as well as a long history of anti-Semitism. There was even a Jewish premier of Bavaria in the years after World War I, the journalist and revolutionary Kurt Eisner. Eisner was assassinated by an anti-Semite, Count Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley. Arco-Valley, as he is more commonly known, had Jewish ancestry—a reminder of the complicated nature of German-Jewish relationships even before the rise of Nazism.

German Jews were not only heavily involved in politics. They were also prominent in business, academia, and German literature. Brenner also makes the interesting counterfactual claim that if somehow Eisner had not been assassinated and had helped navigate Germany to a successful post-World War I democratic status, the history books of today might have seen Germany in a similar light as France, which also had Jewish politicians involved in its post-World War I journey to a relatively secure democratic state.

And yet, as Brenner explains, the Eisner assassination was far from the only anti-Semitic flashpoint of those years. He also explores Germany's equivalent of the Dreyfus trial: the accusation and unjust conviction of the German-Jewish journalist Felix Fechenbach for treason. As in the Dreyfus affair, the case against Fechenbach had anti-Semitic origins and ended with a pardon. Another warning sign was Adolf Hitler's beer hall putsch, in which Hitler and his goons briefly tried to take control of the government. The revolt was put down in short order, but Hitler got a laughably short sentence from a Bavarian court that was notoriously lenient toward Aryan and anti-Semitic malefactors.

Brenner's book is not for beginners. In fact, he tells the reader multiple times that incidents he discusses, including Hitler's rise, are told in greater detail elsewhere, allowing him to gloss over some well-known events while focusing on the specifics of his thesis. This could potentially be off-putting to the general interest reader, who may not have the depth of knowledge about the subject that Brenner has or assumes his readers have.
Disciplinary Tribunal for Church of England Vicar Accused of Antisemitism Opens in London
A Church of England cleric is facing expulsion after an internal tribunal heard of his involvement in pushing Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories related to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist atrocities and similar content rooted in antisemitic prejudice.

The Rev. Stephen Sizer, who was ordained in 1984, is the subject of a clergy disciplinary hearing examining 11 separate cases of antisemitic agitation between 2005 and 2018. The case, which is being heard in the courtroom of St Andrew’s Church in central London, is the first of its kind to be held in public.

The hearing was told on Monday that throughout the period under examination, Sizer had appeared on platforms alongside Holocaust deniers and shared antisemitic material on social media, including posting a link to an article titled “The Mother of All Coincidences,” which sought to blame Israel for the 9/11 attacks carried out by Al Qaeda in New York and Washington, DC, as well as another piece with the headline, “9-11: Israel did it.”

In 2014, The Algemeiner reported on Sizer’s presence at the so-called “New Horizons” conference hosted in Tehran by the Iranian regime. Also attending the same event were the French-Cameroonian provocateur and comedian, Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, the originator of the antisemitic “quenelle” gesture; Thierry Meyssan, the French author of a book claiming that the 9/11 atrocities were carried out not by Al Qaeda, but by the US government; Ahmed Rami, a former Moroccan army officer who set up the violently antisemitic “Radio Islam” website based in Sweden; and Manuel Ochsenreiter, a German far-right activist.
Vicar ‘shared articles suggesting Israel was behind 9/11 attacks’
A vicar allegedly shared “sickening” articles suggesting Israel was responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks, the tearful president of a group representing British Jews has told a tribunal.

The Rev. Dr Stephen Sizer is fighting 11 allegations from the Board of Deputies in a Church of England tribunal at St Andrew’s Court Room in Holborn, London.

Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies, appeared emotional as she gave evidence at Dr Sizer’s tribunal, which started on Monday.

It is alleged Dr Sizer’s conduct between 2005 and 2018 was “unbecoming or inappropriate” in that he “provoked and/or engaged in antisemitic activity”, claims he denies.

He allegedly posted a link to an article entitled “The mother of all coincidences” in 2010 “promoting the idea” Israel was behind terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, the tribunal heard.

Dr Sizer is also accused of posting a link to another article in January 2015, entitled “9/11/ Israel did it”, again allegedly suggesting Israel was to blame for the attacks.

Other allegations include that Dr Sizer, former vicar of the parish of Christ Church in Virginia Walter, Surrey, met Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a “senior commander of Hezbollah forces”, in about 2006.
NYPD Searches for Woman Seen Tossing Lit Book at Synagogue
The New York City Police Department is offering a reward of up to $3,500 for information leading to the arrest of a woman seen on video lighting a book and piece of cloth on fire before tossing them both at the entrance of a Manhattan synagogue at about 1 am on May 19.

The suspect threw the flammable items through the front gate of the Brotherhood Synagogue on Gramercy Park, said police.

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime, according to reports.

A Crime Stoppers video of the suspect that was released over the weekend shows the woman walking down a sidewalk in all-black attire, wearing a white baseball cap and carrying a green bag.


A Rothschild is writing the book about Jewish space lasers conspiracy theory
To a conspiracy theorist, last week seemed to offer evidence that the Rothschild family is plotting to undermine Elon Musk.

It started when the Tesla tycoon bashed the Democratic Party and said in a tweet that he would switch to voting Republican. A user named David Rothschild responded, mocking Musk and portraying him as an entitled whiner because Musk comes from a rich white family that benefitted from apartheid in South Africa.

Then, Rothschild himself became the target of ridicule as other users, predictably, pounced on his last name to assert that the scion of the Jewish banking family had no standing to criticize someone over issues of social privilege. “A Rothschild complaining about other people’s privileges. The joke tells itself,” one user wrote.

As if on cue, another Rothschild soon chimed in to defend the Musk mocker. “David M. Rothschild is an NYC-based economist,” tweeted a user named Mike Rothschild. “He is not related to the banking family. People might be thinking of David M. de Rothschild, an adventurer and environmentalist, 5x great-grandson of Mayer Amschel. Not all Jews are related.”

That the last names are purely coincidental is exactly the kind of lie a Rothschild would try to peddle — that is, if you’re a conspiracy theorist.


Israeli, Moroccan companies ink MOUs on tech, agriculture, climate
Israeli and Moroccan officials on Monday signed a series of agreements on technology, agriculture, climate, and other fields that "could benefit both countries" at a forum hosted by Start-Up Nation Central, which promotes Israeli innovation worldwide.

No fewer than 13 memorandums of understanding were inked on the opening day of the conference, titled "Connect to Innovate," which took place in Casablanca, Morocco.

Endorsed by President Isaac Herzog, the event was attended by dozens of Israeli businessmen, entrepreneurs, investors, opinion leaders, and lawmakers, including Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen and Israeli Ambassador to Morocco David Govrin.

The Moroccan delegation included senior adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco Andre Azoulay, Digital Transition and Administration Reform Minister Ghita Mezzour, and Industry and Trade Minister Ryad Mezzour.

Participants also discussed the possibility of employment of Moroccans in Israeli high-tech companies through remote work. Hasson explained that the solution would benefit both Israel and Morocco, as Rabat is concerned about the human capital leaving the country Jerusalem with the lack of manpower in the field.

The three-day conference will include professional workshops, lectures, business panels, pitch sessions, and roundtable discussions dedicated to each one of the four main focus topics: agrifood-tech, water-tech, energy, climate-tech, and supply chain logistics.

Hasson said, "For the last few decades innovation has been the driving force of the Israeli economy, leading to consistent growth, raising its standard of living, and opening new opportunities on the diplomatic front. As the world moved from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based one, we invite our regional and global partners to take part in the journey and benefit from the lessons we learned on the path to becoming the Start-Up Nation.
Brazilian artist's 'Golda Meir' bust on display in Israel
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Rodrigo Castro Artilheiro exhibited post-traumatic stress symptoms following the passing of his father.

His goal is to help others with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression and autism to discover the positive impacts of sculpting.

His work is highlighted in museums and other places around the world.

Artilheiro recently visited Israel to unveil a bust of legendary Israeli prime minister Golda Meir at Ben Gurion University Plaza in Beersheba.

The sculptor sat down at the i24NEWS studios at Jaffa Port for an interview to discuss his connections with Israel.

"I'm a big fan of this country. I love this country and especially Golda Meir. Everything that she did for the country."


Veteran Jerusalem artist paints small city moments in new exhibit
Jerusalem-based artist Marek Yanai offers an ode to his city with a collection of oils and watercolors currently exhibited at Beit Avi Chai in “On the Threshold: Jerusalem in Oil and Watercolor.”

There are, of course, paintings offering views of the Old City, as well as works displaying the golden hue of Jerusalem stone, but they are relatively scarce in this exhibit.

Instead, Yanai, 76, a longtime senior lecturer at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, portrays his personal Jerusalem, which includes apartment building entrances, tables set for breakfast, and lone pine trees.

The paintings of “On the Threshold” are divided into three sections; Beit Avi Chai’s first-floor main gallery displays Yanai’s oils, moving onto his watercolors on the second floor. One gallery is devoted solely to his portraits, also in watercolor.

The entire exhibit starts with a colorful abstract work from his studies at Bezalel in the 1960s, “which is how he started,” said curator Amichai Chasson.

It was only a few years later, while studying in Europe, that Yanai rediscovered realism and the works of the Old Masters, recognizing how much he identified with that form of expression.


Tens of thousands march in New York’s Israel parade in major show of solidarity
Tens of thousands marched in New York City’s Celebrate Israel parade on Sunday, in a significant and long-delayed affirmation for the area’s Jewish communities and Israel supporters.

Hundreds of groups representing a broad swath of American Jewry — from yeshiva students to bikers — marched and rode down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, along with top American and Israeli government officials.

The parade, billed as the largest expression of solidarity with Israel outside of its borders, is normally held annually but had not taken place in three years due to the pandemic. It is meant to be both a public show of support for Israel, including at the political level, and a chance for New York Jews to get together.

The march came during a fraught period. Since the last parade in 2019, antisemitism has surged in New York, the partisan climate has continued to stoke tensions between Jewish groups and fray political support for Israel, and sizable anti-Israel marches have taken place in the city. Yet the parade passed without incident, and a protest against the event was sparsely attended.

In light of the return of the event, the theme of this year’s parade was “Together again.” Ahead of the event, the organizers estimated 40,000 people would march from over 250 groups.

Thousands of students from Jewish schools in the New York region streamed through central Manhattan, waving Israeli and American flags, dancing and singing in Hebrew. Many of the students wore coordinated shirts with the parade’s slogan emblazoned on them in Hebrew and English. Some of the students chanted in Hebrew, “Israel is my home,” and “The people of Israel live.”




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