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Monday, August 29, 2022

08/29 Links Pt2: Where it all began: The gathering that sparked Zionism; It’s Open Season on Jews in New York City; Looking beyond the NGO halo effect

From Ian:

A Zionist success 125 years later
By far, the most important accomplishment of the Zionist movement was its success in making Israel the home to the largest amount of Jews (close to a majority of Jews live in Israel) and making it ー almost from scratch ー the place where the continuation of Jewish peoplehood is guaranteed. Thanks to this enterprise, the Jews returned to their historical homeland as a functioning people, their national language was revived and their historic sovereignty was applied.

The bridgehead established by a minority with a radical vision in the Land of Israel became the vibrant center of Jewish life. What began two generations ago as a third-world, poor, and weak country that had only 6% of the Jews, transformed thanks to the dedication and talent of later generations into a regional democratic power with a thriving economy and top-notch accomplishments.

More important than the successes of the past are ensuring gains down the road. It is almost inevitable that Israel will continue to be the focus of Jewish life at the expense of the second most important Jewish concentration ー North America. The widespread assimilation in younger generations, coupled with declining birth rates, compared with almost zero mixed-marriages in Israel and a very high birth rate ensures that Israel will be the epicenter of Jewish life.

The major challenges within Israeli society are much more dangerous than the threats posed by Iran and its proxies. Israel has a successful track record of weathering through tough times, just like after the Yom Kippur War and the Second Intifadah. What should worry us is the radicalization of some Haredi groups and the continued control over millions of Palestinians. Those two trends threaten the democratic and pluralistic nature of the Zionist enterprise that have made it so successful over the past 100 years. Without them, Israel will devolve into a backward, authoritarian state that could threaten the future of the Jewish people.
Where it all began: The gathering that sparked Zionism
President Herzog will not be the only dignitary to honor the ceremony with his presence. Also among the guests are former Swiss President, Guy Parmelin, and dignitaries from Israel and abroad, including Diaspora Affairs Minister Dr. Nachman Shai, Former IDF chief of staff and former Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon, former Mossad Head Yossi Cohen, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Doron Almog, and publisher of the Israel Hayom, Dr. Miriam Adelson.

Among the hundreds of attendees at the concert hall in Basel there will also be 125 young Jewish entrepreneurs from all over the world and Jewish leaders from 38 countries. Organizers say that if they had space for 2,000 people, it would also be filled, because of the huge demand.

Guests participated yesterday in the first part of the event, which included discussions on topics such as "The Herzl Conference on Leadership," which focused on modern Zionism following in the footsteps of Herzl's vision, and a conference on socio-economic entrepreneurship.

Basel was decorated in honor of the event, which is a milestone in itself for the city's history. The Stadtcasino Basel hall is a central site that was founded in 1876 and serves, among others, as the home of the local symphony orchestra and for four years, since 2016, has been closed for a thorough renovation, "to bring it back to its days of glory."

On Monday, the main event of the conference in the renovated hall in Basel will host many Jewish men and women, who are a source of pride for the State of Israel, which in the summer of 1897 had just been put on the drawing board and was a distant dream. "When the war broke out in Ukraine, the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency and the State of Israel joined a rescue mission, which brought 18,000 Jews to Israel," Hagoel says. "I have never seen a country take action like this to save its people. This is the difference between today and 125 years ago, a time when Israel did not exist."
125 years on, this is my Zionism - opinion
This week marks the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland. In celebration of this milestone, a conference and gala are being held in the very same city and casino where the first Zionist Congress was held. While Theodore Herzl himself is not in attendance, the current chairman of the World Zionist Organization is, along with many other WZO department heads, President Isaac Herzog, Swiss officials, Israeli officials and hundreds of representatives of Israel and Diaspora Jewry are all there to discuss Zionism, Israel and celebrate this very special occasion. It seems only fitting that in honor of the 125th anniversary of the rebirth of Zionism and, of course, in recognition of the upcoming 75th Israel Independence Day that we as a nation should take the opportunity to reflect on what today’s Zionism and the state of Israel means to us.

What Zionism and Israel mean to us
When the first Zionist Congress took place, Zionism was not exactly a trendy idea. It took time, effort and years of work for the idea of Zionism to permeate the culture of the time. Interestingly, we find ourselves in a similar situation today. While there was a period in time where Zionism became a popular idea that ultimately led to the ushering in of the new State of Israel, recent years have again presented a downturn in the acceptance and popularity of the Zionist ideal. Theories as to why this is may vary but I think that the core issue remains the same. There is a lack of consistency and understanding of what Zionism means today.

We Jews are no longer the same wandering, constantly persecuted and beaten people we once were. Of course, we have our challenges – antisemitism is on the rise, Iran is creeping ever closer to obtaining nuclear weapons, etc. But all in all we are a flourishing, successful and strong nation with a mighty country to call our own. And yet, we still continue to find ourselves faced constantly with the question of the relevance of Zionism and the need for the Jews to have their own state.

Imagine if all of us took the time to think about the answers. It is at times easy to take Israel for granted – especially for those of us who were born well after the early days and wars of the state. If the Zionist mission is to continue, we must each recommit ourselves to its values. Really think about the question: What does Zionism actually mean to me and why is it still important?

Most of us know what the core mission of Zionism is: The right of the Jewish people to our own state in our ancient homeland, Israel. But this mission should also account for the global realities of our time.
Basel 125 years later: Our biggest challenge is anti-Zionism -opinion
AS JEWISH leaders return to Basel, antisemitism continues to be a grave issue with worrying manifestations that would have been familiar to people living in 1897. We also have seen new forms – like online hate and harassment, or the blaming and scapegoating of Jewish individuals and organizations for the actions of the Jewish state.

Last year, the Anti-Defamation League recorded the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the US since the 1970s. One major spike came during the conflict between Israel and the terror group Hamas in May 2021, when we tracked a 150% increase in incidents, including 15 assaults and grotesque displays of anti-Israel hate.

Jews were brazenly attacked in public places in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles simply for the crime of their faith and identity.

Likewise, in the US and around the world we have seen political leaders and candidates on the far-right parrot antisemitic talking points, and those on the far-left using anti-Zionist rhetoric that is antisemitism at its core.

In Boston, an antisemitic group created a “Mapping Project,” claiming to expose a sinister Jewish conspiracy with interconnected nodes of “Zionism, Policing and Empire.” They invoked classic antisemitic tropes and endangered the entire Jewish community, accusing houses of worship and service-oriented nonprofits of the libel of dual-loyalty.

At ADL, we are doing our best to combat antisemitism from all sides and fighting those who would seek to undermine Israel’s legitimacy. But the fact that such virulent antisemitism is aimed at “Zionists” – i.e., Jews – writ large is perhaps one of the biggest challenges of our time.

As I have said before, anti-Zionism is antisemitism. At this moment, there is a need for the entire Jewish world to stand together against this new and dangerous form of antisemitism.

We cannot guarantee a secure Jewish future without strong efforts to push back against the extreme anti-Zionism rampant in many countries and seeping into international forums and places like legislatures and college campuses.

Despite these obstacles, the Basel anniversary is a moment to celebrate. The Jewish people are much stronger now than we were in 1897. In the same ways that the First Zionist Congress offered strength to Jews around the world and redefined our narrative, we must endeavor to draw strength from that moment and let it nourish us to meet the challenges ahead.


It’s Open Season on Jews in New York City
The attack that sent 31-year-old Yossi Hershkop to the hospital was an unmysterious crime, the opposite of a stone-cold whodunnit. Security cameras recorded clear video of a group of four men approaching Hershkop’s car, with two of them repeatedly punching him through the driver’s side window while his 5-year-old child sat in the back seat. Another camera recorded the license plate and model of the attackers’ getaway vehicle. The assault took place around 3:40 p.m. on July 13, 2022, on a busy street in Crown Heights. Hershkop believes his assailants were identified later that evening.

In an ideal world, a victim’s personal background would be irrelevant to whether their attackers are arrested and prosecuted. But at least in theory, Hershkop is someone with enough of a profile to keep the police and prosecutors focused on his case. The young Chabad Hasid is an energetic yet shrewdly understated local political activist—the kind of person who knows the total number of newly registered voters in Crown Heights off the top of his head, or who you might WhatsApp when you need to reach a particular City Council member later that afternoon. He also manages a large urgent care center in Crown Heights, a position of real civic significance during New York’s COVID nightmare. Hershkop is also a personal friend of mine, although even people I am not friends with should expect the police to move quickly when they’re able to easily identify the people who bloodied them on camera in broad daylight in front of their child.

The police did not move quickly. No arrests were made during the two weeks after the attack, a span in which the getaway car got ticketed in a totally unrelated incident, Hershkop says. On July 27, an exasperated Hershkop tweeted: “No arrests have been made, despite the assailants’ vehicle having been seen all over the neighborhood. My son still has a lot of trauma from the incident & we now Uber instead of walk whenever we need to go out.” Perhaps not coincidentally, the first arrest in the case was made the day after that tweet, some two weeks after the attack. The first suspect was released on bail after the judge ordered a bond of $10,000, significantly less than the district attorney had requested, according to Hershkop. Hershkop is confident that after a long period of delay, the NYPD is now making efforts toward arresting the second individual who physically attacked him.

“This was a perfect opportunity for them to do the right thing,” Hershkop told me. “Nobody was saying this isn’t a big deal and we shouldn’t make an arrest. Everybody was on the same page here.” As he explained, “it was an assault on a 5-year-old caught on camera. I didn’t think I’d have to fight for justice.”

Perhaps the attack, which stemmed from a seemingly innocuous dispute over a parking space—a common enough occurrence in a densely populated place like Crown Heights, and one that almost never ends with anyone in the hospital—was just too fraught of an event for the police to want to handle too aggressively. Maybe someone feared that drawing additional attention to a group of young Black men attacking a prominent Orthodox Jew would threaten to inflame tensions in a neighborhood with a long but mostly improving (and generally misunderstood) history of racial division.

Maybe, but maybe not: Overload in the New York court system, increasingly lenient prosecutors and judges, and a police department in which officers are quitting at a growing clip, all make it easier for even open-and-shut cases to languish, and for people at every level of the system to find excuses not to resolve them.

The dysfunctional handling of public order takes different forms across the city, and across the country: Philadelphia is experiencing record murder rates; San Francisco experimented with decriminalizing certain forms of property crime, at least until its pro-reform district attorney lost a recent recall election. As with various other recent American traumas, the ambient disorder has its own distinct characteristics as far as Jews are concerned. In a study released this past July, the New York-based group Americans Against Antisemitism found that of the 118 adults arrested for anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York City since 2018, only one has been convicted and sent to prison.
Gerald Steinberg: Looking beyond the NGO halo effect
Recently, Israel acted against Palestinian NGOs linked to terrorists. The world media invariably presented the leaders of these organizations as selfless campaigners for human rights, unfairly targeted by Israel. Yet in these accounts, the considerable evidence of hard-core terror involvement is omitted.

These organizations are fronts for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group, a Marxist organization known for airline hijacking and banned from operating in the U.S., UK, and EU. Open-source information shows that 70 individuals occupy dual positions in NGOs and the PFLP, and there are probably more. A publicly available video depicts numerous officials from these NGOs attending a PFLP event.

In July 2020, the Dutch government froze funding for one of the NGOs after an internal investigation confirmed that Dutch funds were used to pay the salaries of two NGO employees accused of the murder of Israeli teenager Rina Schnerb in August 2019. There are many more details on arrests, trials, plea bargains and convictions of officials from other members of the PFLP's NGO network.

In the last decade, Western governments funneled more than $220 million for the PFLP-linked NGO network alone. The evidence of extensive terror links to these NGOs is too blatant to be erased or hidden.
Morningstar CEO: Morningstar does not support BDS - opinion
For example, one Sustainalytics product, Human Rights Radar, was found to have biased outcomes by over-representing firms linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Our response: We discontinued the product. Indeed, we are adopting every one of the report’s recommendations. We have pledged to practice greater transparency in our research and rating methodology, monitor our processes to ensure greater consistency, adopt a style guide to guard against anti-Israel terminology like the phrase “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” and stop doing bespoke research for clients.

Our work in implementing the reforms is ongoing. We recently began working with the Jewish Federations of North America and other major Jewish organizations to reexamine our methodologies and processes to ensure that any possibility of anti-Israel bias is removed. We value our dialogue with these organizations and look forward to continuing to work with them.

Morningstar does not support the anti-Israel BDS movement, and we are proud of our ESG products. Notably, under Sustainalytics’ Country Risk Rating, Israel is rated “Low Risk.” And if you look at our flagship ESG Risk Rating – which measures a company’s exposure to and management of financially material ESG risk – you will see that in aggregate Israeli companies fall in the middle.

Nevertheless, we know bias can occur in less-than-obvious ways. That is why we are committed to remaining transparent in our methods and continuing to engage with the Jewish Federation of North America and other major Jewish organizations – and indeed with anyone who can show us how better to fulfill our mission of getting investors the information they need.
Peter Beinart in New York Times: Fighting Antisemitism Strengthens ‘Apartheid’ Israel
Confused Beinart: Israel’s Survival Is a ‘Conquest’
According to Beinart, American Jewish attitudes towards Israel, which at one point were more critical of the Jewish state, “…began to change after the 1967 war. Israel’s conquest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip made it master over roughly a million stateless Palestinians.”

In fact, Beinart’s “conquest” was a preemptive war of survival. In 1967, Arab armies massed on Israel’s borders with the intent to attack and destroy the Jewish state. Egypt had closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping; an act of war.

Only then did Israel launch a successful strike on Egypt, which led to an all-out war with Egypt and Syria. While Israel appealed to Jordan to not join the fighting from the east, the country nevertheless attacked, expecting a swift Arab victory.

More Beinart Confusion: Erasing Israel Is ‘Equal Citizenship’
Another linguistic sleight of hand is Beinart’s description of a parliamentary motion to erase the Jewish character of Israel as an attempt by Palestinian members of the Knesset to obtain “equal citizenship” for their constituents. Beinart doubles down on his assertion, backing it up with the thoroughly debunked findings of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch:
Most Palestinians exist as second-class citizens in Israel proper or as stateless noncitizens in the territories Israel occupied in 1967 or live beyond Israel’s borders. But under the definition of antisemitism promoted by the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the State Department, Palestinians become antisemites if they call for replacing a state that favors Jews with one that does not discriminate based on ethnicity or religion.”

With regards to Palestinian citizens, Israel is a country where Arabs serve as Supreme Court justices, fighter pilots, Members of Knesset, artists, athletes. Everything that Israelis do, Arab Israelis do.

This is because Israel’s Basic Laws and independent judiciary form the basis of a democratic state for all groups, including ethnic minorities.

So when Palestinians call for “replacing a state,” as Beinart writes, they are in reality advocating for the liquidation of a country whose legislation and court system have combatted any manifestation of discrimination — with the goal of guaranteeing equal rights for all.

Indeed, Israel is a country ranked above Italy, Spain, and the United States in a respected global index of democratic values.


Progressive Democrats Openly Mock Winners Goldman & Dinowitz for Having Jewish Names
State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, 67, represents District 81 in the New York State Assembly, which comprises Kingsbridge, Marble Hill, Norwood, Riverdale, Van Cortlandt Village, Wakefield, and Woodlawn Heights. Dinowitz, who has served in the New York State Assembly since 1994, has won last week’s Democratic primary and will most likely continue to serve his constituents in Albany.

Dan Goldman has won NY’s 10th congressional district and will also likely go on to win in November to represent Morningside Heights, the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the west side of Midtown Manhattan, the west side of Lower Manhattan, including Greenwich Village, Tribeca, and the Financial District, and Borough Park, Midwood, and parts of Bensonhurst.

Goldman was the decisive winner in a crowded primary field that included progressive and pro-BDS Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, New York City Councilmember Carlina Rivera, Representative Mondaire Jones, and many others.

It’s that win that stuck in the craw of an influential group of progressive Democrats calling itself No IDC NY. The name is a rejection of a group of Democratic public officials known as the IDC – Independent Democratic Conference. It was a group of New York State Senators who were elected as Democrats but formed a coalition to give the Republicans the majority in the chamber. The IDC included State Senators Jeffrey Klein, Marisol Alcantara, Tony Avella, David Carlucci, Jesse Hamilton, Jose Peralta, Diane Savino, and David Valesky. In 2018, the newly formed No IDC NY ran challenges to all eight IDC incumbents, defeating six.

All of the above is fair play. The IDC folks had good reason to support the Republicans in the state senate, and NO IDC NY was perfectly justified in launching the effort to unseat them. All’s fair in love and war.

Last Saturday, though, an ugly side of the progressive bunch came out, in a nasty tweet on its official account that was later removed, but, you know, the Internet doesn’t forget.

“The jerk buying a House seat with inherited money is ‘Goldman’ … the IDC-adjacent Assembly member is ‘DINOwitz.’ Who came up with these names, Dickens?”


AP’s War on Truthful Coverage Remaking Islamic Jihad’s Salama Abed
UPDATE 7:41 am EST:
AP Adds: Salama Abed Was an Islamic Jihad Member

After sustained communication from CAMERA, AP has amended the caption to include the fact that Salama Abed belonged to Islamic Jihad. It still does not acknowledge that PIJ mourned him as one of their commanders. See below for a detailed update.

In an Aug. 25 Associated Press photograph, adorable young girls in the Gaza Strip clasp a photograph of their dear relative killed "during the last war on Gaza," as the caption stated. It read:
Children hold photos of their relative, Salama Abed, who was killed during the last war on Gaza, during an anti-Israel rally called, 'the way to Jerusalem, the battle of the unity of areas,' on the main road of the Shijaiyah neighborhood in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022. Arabic reads, "I'm the son of the silencer and the keeper of the will, with your martyr you raised our heads." (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

It's a powerful image of innocent youth longing for the slain Salama Abed. About the purported victim, the caption reveals only two points. First, that he was killed "during the last war on Gaza," and second, that he was a relative of the charming girls.

What the caption does not reveal is Salama Abed's standing in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terror organization. Islamic Jihad's official Jerusalem Brigades martyr page twice identifies Abed as one of their commanders. (Of the 12 Palestinians killed in the Aug. 5 Israeli airstrike targeting Tayseer al-Jabari, Islamic Jihad's leader in the Gaza Strip, the terror organization's martyr page identified three as senior commanders, three as commanders, and seven as jihad warriors, the lowest ranking epithet.)

Islamic Jihad's martyr graphic for Salama Abed (at left) also identifies him as a "commander" (القائد).
HRC Rebuttal Dyer’s Column Looking At Israel’s Attempts To Defend Itself Inaccurate
On August 27, The Telegram published HRC’s rebuttal to columnist Gwynne Dyer’s column which claimed without foundation that Israel escalated its recent conflict with Islamic Jihad purposefully to invite a confrontation with Iran.


Village Media Chain Publishes Interviews With Noted Anti-Israel Activists Who Spew Disinformation
In early August, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an Islamist terrorist group based in the Gaza Strip, fired more than a thousand rockets into Israeli population centers, attempting to kill and injure as many Israelis as possible.

Although the rockets have quieted as a result of an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire, Israel continues to face a barrage of disinformation, seemingly without respite.

One notable recent example is an August 24 article, originally produced by New Canadian Media, and then published by Village Media, which syndicated the story to its local publications across Canada.
My newest piece at @NewCdnMedia on Israeli brutality in Palestine.
Canada is silent on Israeli aggression in Palestine yet it’s quick to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine.https://t.co/I8EDIkyD6y

— Diary Khalid Marif (@diary_khalid) August 24, 2022 The article entitled: “Palestinians accuse Canada of having a double standard on Israel,” by reporter Diary Marif, was replete with statements from interviewees alleging falsehoods against Israel, with no context or critique provided by Marif, who also repeated deeply problematic phraseology referring to Israeli counter-terrorism actions. This is not at all surprising given that Marif alleged on Twitter that Israel commits “brutality in Palestine” and that “Canada is silent on Israeli aggression in Palestine yet it’s quick to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine.”

For example, throughout the article, Marif serves to subtly challenge Israel’s rationale for defending itself against PIJ assaults, but fails to offer such challenges to Palestinian interviewees.

Marif writes that with Israel’s activities against PIJ, “it claimed thwarted alleged planned rocket attacks,” casting doubt on Israel’s claims, and neglecting to interview any Israeli subject for the article. However, when describing Israeli counter-terrorism operations, Marif uses terms to describe them such as “brutality,” “assaults” or “bombardments,” and never puts context to problematic claims made by Palestinian interviewees.
Guardian narrative on Israeli traffic deaths contradicted by the data
A Guardian article by Bethan McKernan and Maria Rashed (“Israel grapples with ‘systemic problem’ of fatal road crashes”, Aug. 28) opened by noting recent road deaths in Israel, which, it argued, illustrated the country’s poor record in the area of road fatalties.

In most of the world, increasing vehicle use has led to more crashes, but a decrease in serious injuries and deaths, as car and road safety continuously improves. In Israel, however, according to a recent European Transport Safety Council report, there has been only a 4.7% drop in fatalities in the last decade, compared to 31% on average.

“Compared to Europe, or other developed countries, we are in very bad shape. What we have seen this week isn’t just bad luck, it’s a systemic problem,” [Avi Naor, chair of Israel’s National Road Safety Authority] said.

In fact, the Guardian’s selective statistics, and the one quote by Avi Naor, obscure the fact that, in contrast to the desired narrative, Israel’s road fatality figures compared favorably to those of Europe. The organisation the Guardian cites, the European Transport Safety Council, published data for 2020 showing that, in analysing road deaths per one million residents, Israel, at 32.8, ranks 10th best among 32 EU countries ranked, and is considerably better than the EU average of 42.3.


80 years ago, Nazis almost knocked Britain out of WWII to take the entire Mideast
By leaving Europe for Mandatory Palestine, pre-World War II Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi regime hoped to put a safe distance between themselves and Hitler. Yet in 1942, the menace of the Reich crept uncomfortably close to the biblical Jewish homeland when German Gen. Erwin Rommel captured the Libyan port of Tobruk and advanced into Egypt.

It was one of many disasters suffered that year by the government of British prime minister Winston Churchill, making 1942 an annus horribilis for the premier, worse than many people realize today. Eighty years later, a new book spotlights this forgotten wartime chapter — “1942: Britain at the Brink” by celebrated historian Taylor Downing.

“Certainly that Gary Oldman movie [‘Darkest Hour‘] depicted 1940 as the real crisis year for Churchill — the Fall of France, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz,” Downing told The Times of Israel in a Zoom interview. “And of course, it was a wretched year for Britain.”

However, he added, “my argument is that the real crisis for Britain was not in that year, but two years later, in 1942. There was a long series of military defeats that nearly pushed Britain out of the war.”

For Churchill, the worst catastrophe of 1942 was the fall of Singapore to Japan in February, with nearly 100,000 captured.

“Churchill called it the greatest disaster to British arms,” Downing said, adding, “It was not only a military humiliation but an imperial humiliation. Britain never really quite recovered from this unparalleled disaster.”
Swastika Mountain in Oregon to be renamed at year’s end
A mountain south of Eugene, Ore., that bears the same name as the swastika symbol of the Nazi Party will soon be renamed, the Oregon Geographic Names Board confirmed last week.

A final decision on the new name for Swastika Mountain will be made on Dec. 6, reported KOIN-TV. Two proposals—Umpqua Mountain and Mount Halo—have so far been submitted to the Oregon Geographic Names Board.

The mountain was originally named before the rise of the Nazi Party for the now-extinct nearby town Swastika, home to a farmer who branded his cattle with the symbol, reported CNN.

Lane County resident Joyce McClain put in a request to the board to change the name of the mountain after reading about it in a local newspaper, according to Willamette Week. She suggested the new name Umpqua Mountain, and in her proposal included an email from Jeremy Johnson, the cultural resources program manager for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, in which he voiced support for the name change.

The proposed name Mount Halo refers to Chief Halito, the leader of the Yoncalla Kalapuya tribe, whose name was frequently shortened to “Chief Halo.”

Swastika Mountain, which is more than 4,000 feet tall, is located in the Umpqua National Forest.
French Jewish organization: Jewish man killed by Muslim roommate
A 34-year-old Jewish man was allegedly killed by his Muslim roommate in Longperrier, a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. The National Bureau of Vigilance against Antisemitism (BNVCA) provided the identity of the man: Eliahou Haddad.

“The BNVCA received requests of many correspondents who see information circulating [online] about the murder of a man of Jewish faith, from Djerba in Tunisia and whose family lives in Beer Sheva in Israel," reads a press release form the BNVCA.

"The assassination was committed by a suspect of [the] Muslim faith. The concern is heightened by the silence surrounding this case," the organization added, likely referring to the murder so other Jews like Sarah Halimi.

“The Crif expresses its full solidarity with the family of Eliahou Haddad, killed on August 19 in Longperrier,” Yonathan Arfi, president of the Crif Jewish umbrella organization in France, tweeted. He added that “we hope for information quickly [about the murder] and ask that all possibilities be examined at this stage, including the possibility of the aggravating factor of antisemitism.” Some of the reports suggest that he was murdered on August 20, not the 19th.

What do we know so far?

According to i24NEWS, the suspect allegedly said that the victim, who possibly lived in the same flat, owed him 100 euros and had not returned them, then confessed that he killed him because he was Jewish.

"According to our information, the assassin smashed his victim's skull with an ax, then he burned his face and even began to bury the body. He turned himself into the police,” the BNVCA statement said.
New Hampshire Libertarian Party mocks Holocaust in now-deleted antisemitic tweet
The Libertarian Party of the State of New Hampshire made an antisemitic tweet mocking the Holocaust on Thursday.

"6 million dollar minimum wage or you're antisemitic," the party tweeted. The money refers to the six million Jews that were murdered in the Holocaust.

The tweet was met with condemnation amongst Twitter users and Jewish organizations. The tweet was deleted following the criticism.


My Post-Graduation Plan? I’m Immigrating to Israel.
“Hello Ms. Weiss, Please excuse any typos, I’m writing this half asleep on a train…”

Thus began a cold email I received in September 2019 from a young man named Blake Flayton. He was a student at George Washington University, he told me. He had just read my book, How to Fight Antisemitism, and he wanted to tell me more about the atmosphere he was facing as a pro-Israel, gay, progressive on campus.

I remember forwarding the email to my editor and saying: This is exactly who I wrote my book for.

A few months later, Blake’s email resulted in an op-ed for the New York Times entitled On the Front Lines of Progressive Antisemitism, which offered a picture of the choice facing young American Jews like him: disavow Israel or be cast out from the right-side-of-history crowd.

Most choose the former. Blake chose the latter, and with the kind of social consequences you can imagine. I wish I could tell you that the situation on campus has changed in the three years since we first started corresponding. Alas, the opposite is true.

What inspires me about Blake and his circle of young American Jews is that they aren’t waiting for the grown-ups to make things right. They’re building a new future all by themselves. For some, that means doing something they never imagined they would do: leaving America to start new lives in Israel. Blake is moving a few weeks from now. In the essay below, he explains why.
Duo commemorate Munich Massacre by running 550 kilometrers

Moroccan wrestlers compete in Israel, mark Munich massacre

Noah’s Ark mosaic puts ancient Jordan synagogue on tourist map
When archeologists first excavated the remnants of a sixth-century church in the ancient city of Jerash in 1929, they uncovered a mosaic floor filled with images of gazelles, horses, birds, rabbits, snakes and other creatures that tell the biblical story of Noah’s Ark.

Also revealed by the American-British research team were a seven-branched menorah, a ram’s horn, a palm frond and other Jewish icons that indicated the Byzantine church had been built on the foundations of what was once a synagogue.

The “Synagogue-Church,” as it’s labeled on tourist maps, is located near the Temple of Artemis in the northwest quarter of Jordan’s vast Greco-Roman archeological park in Jerash, about 40 kilometers (28 miles) north of the capital city of Amman. It is one of several historical attractions in Jordan that are popular with Jewish and Christian visitors because of their biblical connections. Others include the town of Madaba, with its mosaic map at St. George’s Church that depicts the Holy Land and ancient Jerusalem; and nearby Mount Nebo, revered as the place where Moses looked out over the land of Canaan before his death.

As Arab countries from Egypt and Morocco to Bahrain reconnect with their Jewish pasts, the subject is still very sensitive in Jordan, where more than half the population has Palestinian roots. Three decades since the Hashemite Kingdom made peace with Israel, efforts to normalize those relations in the style of the Abraham Accords, signed two years ago, are opposed by most Jordanians.

Still, the Jordan-Israel peace treaty that was signed in 1994 has enabled hundreds of thousands of tourists to cross easily between the two countries and visit historical sites such as Jerash, once known as Gerasa. Amid the ruins, visitors can see the agglomeration of ethnicities, customs and faiths that have characterized the region throughout the centuries.

As part of a Hellenistic coalition of cities called the Decapolis, Gerasa was established in the mid-second century BC, during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Greek Seleucid king, according to historical evidence. The site’s magnificent colonnaded streets, bathhouses, amphitheaters and hippodrome attest to its development under centuries Greek and Roman rule. The city also bears the influence of the Hasmonean Jewish state to the west, whose King Alexander Jannaeus captured Gerasa in 85 BC, leading to an influx of Jews. Gerasa, which later came under Roman rule in the greater Syrian region, appears in an account by Flavius Josephus, the Roman-Jewish historian, of an attack on the city by Jewish rebels from the kingdom of Judea.




Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!
 

 

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