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Wednesday, September 07, 2022

09/07 Links Pt2: Blood-Soaked Lessons of the Munich Olympics; ADL: Left-Wing Antisemitism Is On the Quad – We Must Face Reality; Rare First Temple-period document repatriated to Israel

From Ian:

Exodus vs. Birth of a Nation: Media Miss Mark on Jewish Self-Determination, Palestinian Nationalism
The founding of the modern State of Israel is a perfectly scripted, though by no means flawlessly performed, tale of triumph over extraordinary odds. The confluence of the Jewish people’s ancient link to the land, the Zionist movement’s monumental efforts to re-establish a state, and a complex array of geopolitical factors are responsible for Israel’s creation.

And while the horror of the Holocaust may have catalyzed the push for Jewish self-determination, it is quite likely that independence would have happened even had the Final Solution not been perpetrated.

The executives behind the production of the Palestinian narrative have from scene 1, act 1 told a very different origin story. Palestinian nationalism exists only in opposition to Jewish nationalism, and was only created in response to the rise of the national liberation movement of the Jewish people to return to their ancestral homeland.

Most societies venerate their nation’s contributions to humanity — their authors, artists, athletes, and other assorted trailblazers. The plot promoted by the PA and Palestinian terror groups, by contrast, is fixated almost exclusively on glorifying a national culture by encouraging and rewarding the murder of innocent civilians.

Another important part of a movie is its soundtrack, the recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture.

Indeed, a comparison of national soundtracks is revealing. Israel’s anthem, Hatikvah, literally translates into ‘The Hope.’ The song evokes the struggles faced by the Jewish people over the course of two millennia, how they prayed for the end of the exile, and eventually returned to their indigenous land.

While not without controversy since it doesn’t mention 22 percent of the citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, Hatikvah is the national anthem of a country where every citizen enjoys complete equality under the law — as stated in the country’s Declaration of Independence — regardless of race, creed, religion or national background.

Compare that to the blood-curdling Palestinian anthem, titled Fida’i (Fedayeen Warrior). It speaks of “the volcano of my vendetta” and its final words appear to embrace martyrdom:
I will live as a warrior, I will remain a warrior,
I will die as a warrior – until my country returns.”


Blood-Soaked Lessons of the Munich Olympics
European leaders know that the potential renewed Iran nuclear accord – which ignores Tehran’s support for terror and human rights abuses – will only embolden the Islamic Republic both at home and abroad, putting more lives at risk. Moreover, these same European leaders know that Iran, which under the deal will very soon have full access to conventional weapons on the open market, will only increase its efforts to spread death and terror throughout the world. And they also know that under the terms of the reported deal, all restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities would end in 2030. In other words, Europe’s leaders know full well that in this deal, they are imperiling their own people.

What we hold sacred, radical Islamists demonize. The Olympics are supposed to be perhaps the one place where countries set aside all other differences and join together as a community of nations, yet just a few decades after the Holocaust, it was at these world games, on German soil, that jihadists chose to murder innocent Israelis. And now, five decades later, Germany and the other European powers are poised to embolden the world’s foremost terrorist state.

Commemorating horrific moments in history has real value, but we dishonor the dead—from Munich to Beirut to Tel Aviv—when we forget the lessons their losses have taught us.

Modern European history lays bare the consequences of appeasing a radical regime with hegemonic ambitions or terrorists with a gun to the heads of innocents. Given Europe’s experiences with both fascism and terrorism, perhaps Berlin, London and Paris should rethink their capitulation to a fascist-terrorist regime.


Jonathan Greenblatt: ADL CEO: Left-Wing Antisemitism Is On the Quad – We Must Face Reality
Too often, university administrators do not respond to antisemitic incidents with the same thoroughness and transparency as they respond to other hateful acts. Often, that’s because they lack an understanding of when anti-Israel criticism crosses the line into antisemitism. This can embolden other radical leftist extremists to commit antisemitic acts without fear of repercussion, and it can silence Jewish students who don’t feel they’ll be protected in spaces they should feel welcome in.

This reluctance by too many college administrators to meaningfully address left-wing antisemitism on campus ultimately causes some students to hide their identities. Our survey also found that 15 percent of Jewish college students reported that they felt the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus, and 41 percent could not tell you where to report an antisemitic incident if one were to occur.

College campuses are often where the rubber meets the road when it comes to Jews experiencing antisemitism from the left, and so that is where the ADL is laser focused. Through our partnership with Hillel International and our dozens of regional offices across the country, we’re on the ground helping Jewish students manage antisemitism every day.

We have a robust suite of tools for university administrators, students, and families, and we’re continuing to roll out new updates of our research, our resources, and our trainings. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll have even more to share to help your child, my child, and all students feel respected and supported as Jews on campus.


Hamas Tells Media to Lie: What Should the Media Tell its Readers?
Sunlight on Hamas’ media rules led to their withdrawal. But the Associated Press noted that “Hamas has still signaled its expectations, which could have a chilling effect on critical coverage.” Directives from Hamas are sure to continue.

During the May 2021 Gaza war, publications used Hamas-provided images of people outlets had reported were killed in the ten-day conflict, who in fact were not. Should media outlets now conduct thorough investigations of statements, images, and statistics from Hamas-run ministries that were used in their coverage?

When a publication suspects plagiarism or other concerns, while uncomfortable, investigations are conducted. Corrections are made. Action is taken.

AP’s standards state: “When we're wrong, we must say so as soon as possible. When we make a correction, we point it out both to subscriber editors … and in ways that news consumers can see it.” Other publications have similar guidelines, some requiring an editor’s note or explanation when the entire substance of an article raises a significant ethical matter.

If outlets used Hamas’ information, should editor’s notes be added that the article relied on Hamas-supplied information whose accuracy is being reviewed for accuracy?

What new transparency systems about how news is gathered should be implemented moving forward?

In one essay reflecting on his time on staff at the Associated Press’ Jerusalem bureau, Matti Friedman, who in 2014 blew the whistle on Hamas’ media rules and tacit compliance by the media, notes: “I was informed by the bureau’s senior editors that our Palestinian reporter in Gaza couldn’t possibly provide critical coverage of Hamas because doing so would put him in danger.”

He also shared this reflection: “Hamas learned that international coverage from the territory could be molded to its needs.” Noting that most of the press work in Gaza is done by locals who would not dare cross Hamas, Friedman said it was only rarely necessary for the group to threaten a Westerner. “The press could be trusted to play its role in the Hamas script, instead of reporting that there was such a script.”

And in his prophetic 2014 piece, Friedman wrote: “Hamas understood that journalists would not only accept as fact the Hamas-reported civilian death toll—relayed through the UN or through the Gaza Health Ministry, an office controlled by Hamas—but would make those numbers the center of coverage. Hamas understood that reporters … would not report the intimidation.” And then, “the NGO-UN-media alliance could be depended upon to unleash the organs of the international community on Israel, and to leave the jihadist group alone.”

News organizations that care about their credibility, not just their clicks, should with clear eyes, examine their coverage that may have been colored by Hamas’ intimidation tactics. While too often the media has been hesitant to reform, we can hope for better, in service of greater transparency and accountability. Perhaps courageous news outlets will see the value in upholding their own high standards.
Melanie Phillips: The horrifying line about Liz Truss
Liz Truss, the UK’s new prime minister who “kissed hands” with the Queen today, does not — it is fair to say — so far enjoy the full-throated support of her Tory colleagues, nor that of assorted political commentators.

One of these latter critics is Melanie McDonagh, an Irish journalist who writes for various publications including the conservative Spectator, the Catholic Tablet and numerous others.

On the Spectator site, she has torn into Truss for the short speech she delivered outside 10 Downing Street this afternoon before going inside the prime minister’s residence to take up the reins of office.

Under the headline “The horrifying truth about Liz Truss”, McDonagh says she has no eloquence, charm, sincerity, charisma, humour or conviction. The only thing she’s got going for her, apparently, is her “iron ambition”.

Then she lists Truss’s major failings, the ones that are supposed to make us all smite our brows yet further at quite what a useless, incompetent, thorough-going menace this new prime minister is. McDonagh writes:
What she has got, of course, are a string of appointments to the highest offices in the land — Environment, Foreign Office, Lord Chancellor — all of which she occupied without distinction. Actually, so far as her time at the Environment goes, it seems that her lax approach to inspection meant that she allowed some farmers to pollute English rivers unchecked. At the Foreign Office, her ignorance of Russia (mocked by Sergei Lavrov) and her insistence that Ukraine must take back Crimea make her to my mind downright dangerous. Oh and she’s uncritically supportive of Israel. Of course she is.

Wait, what??! Supporting Israel is a “horrifying truth”? What’s horrifying about it —on a par with helping turn English rivers into sewage and stirring up world war over Crimea? What can McDonagh have meant by this?
Will Britain’s Newly Elected PM Liz Truss Be the Country’s Most Pro-Israel Prime Minister?
In 2021, Truss supported the U.K.’s designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization.

According to Lord Stuart Polak, honorary president of Conservative Friends of Israel, Truss was “outstanding at the Foreign Office,” where she “challenged a lot of their positions and proved herself to be a very good friend and built a very good relationship with Lapid in a short time.”

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Truss could become the most pro-Israel prime minister that Britain has ever had:

“In her year as foreign secretary, Truss has gone out of her way to profess her staunch support for Israel and take a hard line on Iran,” Haaretz wrote. “When Yair Lapid, as foreign minister, visited London last November, she made sure not only to have a long official meeting with him but a private dinner, as well. Over the past year, the routine condemnations of Israel’s policy in the West Bank were reduced to the bare minimum, their language toned down – as well as the level of officials delivering them … it’s pretty safe to say Truss can be expected to be the most pro-Israel prime minister Britain has ever had.”

Truss’ election was greeted with enthusiasm in Israel, with the prime minister calling her “a true friend.”

“I congratulate my new friend, a true friend of Israel, Liz Truss, who was elected prime minister of Great Britain,” Lapid said on Monday. “I expect to continue working together for our countries and for our security.”

Israel’s most important security threat comes from the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has made threats to annihilate Israel and has moved steadily toward nuclear capability.

“We have to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons. That is very, very clear,” Truss said. Nevertheless, the new prime minister has communicated very little about her view on Britain’s role in such a goal.

She has not said whether she will back military operations against Iran, only saying that she will “do what it takes,” along with Britain’s allies, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.


2 years since Israel, UAE signed Abraham Accords - what's been achieved? - opinion
Creating a framework for a regional order
The fifth of these outcomes is the creation of a framework for a regional order capable of dealing with crises and threats, in which the US, which continues to speak publicly about the importance of the Middle East in US strategies, no longer plays or could play a role.

Practice on the ground indicates that US interest in maintaining security in the region and in maintaining traditional alliances and partnerships with countries that have formed strategic alliances with the US has diminished significantly. Expanding Emirati diplomacy

The sixth consequence of the Abraham agreement is that Emirati diplomacy will continue to expand its cooperation with various regional parties, especially Iran and Israel, within the framework of a flexible diplomatic approach that focuses on development, economic and trade interests, without falling into the cycle of polarization and tensions that affect international relations at the current stage.

The seventh of these results is the gradual acceptance of the culture of peace among the population and the cooling of the conflict situation and the atmosphere of violence between the Palestinians and Israel. Despite the clashes between Hamas and the IDF last year and another clash between Islamic Jihad and Israel recently, violence is decreasing, albeit slowly.

It should be noted, however, that Palestinian support for escalation with Israel, particularly in Gaza, is not as great as in earlier periods, and that there is a relative tone of calm and stability. This is favored by Israel’s incentive policy, which encourages the Palestinians to maintain an atmosphere of calm.

These are all important indicators that need enough time to turn into real steps that will advance the building of a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. All this is one of the goals of the Abraham Accords and its positive results in this short time.
Abu Dhabi delegation to Tel Aviv explores business co-operation with Israeli companies
Abu Dhabi and Israeli entities signed agreements and discussed ways to collaborate further during a visit by an official delegation from the UAE capital to Tel Aviv. This comes as the two countries seek to enhance bilateral business ties following the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in May this year.

Over two days of its visit to Israel, the delegation participated in a joint business forum co-organised by the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), in collaboration with the UAE Embassy in Israel.

On the sidelines of the event, ADGM on Tuesday signed three preliminary agreements with Israeli entities to enhance business co-operation in the areas of data protection, innovation and FinTech initiatives, a statement said.

"I hope to see the leading companies in both countries build on the strong foundations in place, including our CEPA trade agreement, to co-operate and forge business ties and create fresh ventures reaching new markets,” said Mohamed Al Khaja, the UAE's ambassador to Israel.

"This will, in turn, create jobs and drive further economic growth for the benefit of all Israelis and Emiratis."

ADGM signed one of the preliminary agreements with Start-up Nation Central, an Israeli organisation that connects the country's innovation ecosystem with global opportunities.

The agreement seeks to further develop the innovation ecosystems in both the countries through diverse initiatives. These include business partnerships and collaborations, as well as the opening of a commercial presence in Abu Dhabi and Israel. Inputs on policy and funding may also be exchanged, the statement said.
‘Just scratched the surface’: Israel, UAE celebrate growing ties and trade
“My mother sends her regards to the people of Israel,” Fahima Al Bastaki, the chief business and market development officer of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), said to laughter at a gathering of UAE and Israeli business leaders and officials on Tuesday in Tel Aviv.

The simple words perhaps best reflect the excitement, enthusiasm, and — still — awe that surround the growing ties between Israelis and Emiratis since the signing of the Abraham Accords on the White House lawn two years ago, holding the promise of opening up new cultural, tourism and economic worlds for citizens of both regions.

“It is surreal” to be in Tel Aviv, said an attendee at a conference held at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), which on Tuesday hosted Abu Dhabi’s largest business delegation to Israel.

“Who would have thought this could happen in our lifetime,” he added, words that were repeated over and over during the conference organized by the TASE for the delegation, which included representatives from the finance center Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the Abu Dhabi Fund of Development, Mubadala Investment Company, the national oil company ADNOC and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange among others.

“Who would have thought, two years ago, that this would have happened,” said TASE CEO Ittai Ben Zeev at the event, where he and UAE ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja and the chairman of ADGM, Ahmed Al Zaabi, rang the opening bell amid a flurry of confetti and wide smiles.

Israelis typically look West for their business, Ben Zeev said. “It is time to go East” for opportunities in trade, investments, and finance.
Seychelles and Israel agree to expand flight frequency to 28 flights per week
Seychelles and Israel on Tuesday signed a bilateral air service agreement catering for an increased frequency of flights between the two countries, creating more opportunities for tourism and business exchanges.

The agreement was signed by the Principal Secretary for Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine, Alan Renaud, and the newly accredited Israeli Ambassador to Seychelles, Michael Lotem.

Renaud said that such agreements are important ones as they talk about the rules for air services between countries when it comes to passengers, cargo and mail.

"We have agreed with our partners in Israel to expand the number of frequencies from 14 flights per week to 28 flights per week and this will take immediate effect after the next exchanges of letters," said Renaud.

The agreement was initiated in October 2015 following which visitor arrival numbers from Israel started increasing. According to the latest figures from Seychelles' National Bureau of Statistics, a total of 9,069 Israeli visitors have landed in Seychelles since the start of 2022, ranking among the top ten markets of the island nation.

Direct flights to Tel Aviv, Israel are currently being operated by Seychelles' national airline, Air Seychelles. Renaud outlined that at the moment Air Seychelles' capacities for export are already full as the island nation exports fish to Israel.

Lotem shared that "the agreement aims at ensuring that both sides get reciprocal conditions and to regulate the aerial connection between Israel and Seychelles."

"The companies will discuss the details, and frequency of the flight and so on. Arriving here easily is a good start for business. I do not believe that without a direct flight, businessmen do not come. They do but in lower numbers as there is always an easier alternative" said Lotem. (h/t Zvi)
Israel to establish a trade mission in Morocco
Israel will launch a commercial mission in Morocco in 2023, according to Israeli Economy and Industry Minister Orna Barbivai.

Barbivai said on Tuesday that the potential for economic cooperation between the two countries is “tremendous.”

The move comes as ties have grown stronger since Morocco signed the Abraham Accords normalization deal with Israel in the fall of 2020.

The recent advancement has been hampered by the recall of Israel’s ambassador to Morocco, David Govrin, following allegations of financial and sexual misconduct.

Govrin recently signed a construction contract for building a headquarters for a permanent Israeli embassy in Morocco.
An academic mission not entirely impossible
Pitching a narrative to fit in with campus campaigns for social and racial ,justice also compelled activists to churn up their rhetoric to charge Israel with every imaginable war crime no matter how baseless or ridiculous. Of all the catchwords hijacked by social justice warriors in their formal accusation of the Jewish state, none turned taboos inside out more than genocide. It planted in susceptible minds powerful and misleading ideas about the purported savagery of Israel. Despite lack of credible evidence, nothing short-circuited its deployment. At least one well-known scholar of genocide—A. Dirk Moses–recently deconstructed the classic definition contending that it was primarily invented to legitimize the founding of a Jewish state. To restore the term’s credibility, he now insists, it must account for Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians. Rather than defined as the mass murder of an ethnic or religious population, genocide has been reconfigured to mark out the force depriving a people of independent political agency.

The social justice discourse throws the Middle East Conflict back into the moldering inevitabilities of ancient tragedy, where grievances once made can never be rescinded and where hybrid conceptions seduce students into believing that they can know the past by looking at it directly through a mirror. To be sure, while the social justice discourse depicts how the conflict is imagined by many who live distant from its borders, it is reasonable to ask how well it reflects what is happening on the ground — where Israelis and Palestinians interact and confront one another every day. Indeed, the vexed conflict between Arabs and Israel, Palestinians and Israelis, Muslims and Jews has also generated ways in which the populations have interacted and engaged with one another. The paradigm of conflict rests on a set of narratives, but it offers a striking contrast to the many accounts of peaceful and productive interactions that have been sustained and despite a vindictive polemics, become deeply anchored. Where all this will take the Israel-Palestinian conflict is difficult to say, but that it will take it in new directions is a certainty.

Those of us writing about Israel and the Middle East Conflict are something of expert witnesses on how radically and thoroughly a hegemonic lexicon can degrade scholarship. But placing the priority on feelings force-feeds a complex issue into a binary narrative dividing the globe into oppressor/oppressed. To say that this is unhelpful for understanding the Middle East Conflict is an understatement; to consider this an adequate approach to the study of politics is fanciful. To believe this will sustain the legitimacy of an academy that once emphasized analytic skills and the acquisition of knowledge is delusional.

To return this essay to where it began is to acknowledge that while the battles waged for a university culture embracing free discussion have encountered more losses than wins in recent years, their recurrence shows a commitment, however beleaguered, to academic freedom and integrity. For when universities donate their intellectual resources to one or another political cause, they do not bring creative and innovative thinking to an end, they merely move it off campus. Do universities really want to weaken what they once did best: that is, teach students how, not what, to think?
Kuwaiti Government Forces Shop to Close for Selling Star of David Necklaces
Kuwait’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry has ordered a shop in the city of Salmiya to close for selling Star of David necklaces that are illegal by law, The Jewish Chronicle first reported.

The ministry said in a Twitter post on Aug. 27 that an arrest had been made due to the “sale of slogans in violation of the public order of the state.” Included in the tweet was a photo of the two accessories featuring the Jewish symbol. The ministry also said that legal action was being taken against the seller.

A spokesperson for the Embassy of Israel in London slammed the ministry’s actions, telling The Jewish Chronicle: “We are not familiar with the details of the case, but if it is true that a store was closed because of the sale of a Star of David and other Judaica items, this is a clear antisemitic act. It is unacceptable that a state would so blatantly and aggressively attack freedom of religion.”

Kuwait does not formally recognize Israel and when the Abraham Accords were signed the Gulf country declared that it would “be the last” to normalize relations with the Jewish state. In May 2021, the Kuwaiti parliament passed a bill prohibiting contact and visits to Israel, and any efforts to normalize ties with the country. Violators risk facing jail time and fines.


Cleveland Cop Who Praised Hitler on Twitter Will Face No Repercussions
Cleveland’s 2019 police officer of the year will keep his award and job after a months-long investigation into his anti-Semitic social media postings concluded without any charges being filed.

Ismail Quran, who was the subject of a Cleveland police internal affairs unit investigation over "inappropriate social media content" that included praise for Adolf Hitler and the Hamas terrorist organization, will keep his job and not face any disciplinary consequences, according to information provided by the police department on Tuesday to the Washington Free Beacon.

"We are frustrated and disappointed that no charges can be filed against Officer Ismail Quran, despite extensive internal investigations by the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP), the City Prosecutor, and the Law Department," Mayor Justin M. Bibb and Chief of Police Wayne Drummond said in a joint statement. "Officer Quran’s hateful offenses were communicated years before he was hired, making it impossible to successfully enforce discipline."

Quran will not face any consequences and will keep his 2019 officer of the year award. Even though the investigation was closed with no punitive actions, Bibb and Drummond claimed in their statement that the city has "zero tolerance for hateful and dangerous rhetoric directed at our Jewish communities. This type of hate speech is a horrible example of explicit bias in our police force. We cannot emphasize strongly enough that discrimination of any kind, against anyone, simply will not be tolerated."

Jewish and pro-Israel community groups reacted with outrage to the decision, saying the city failed to combat anti-Semitic bias in its police force as violent crimes against Jews skyrocket across the country.

"The lack of any meaningful consequences for Quran sends a disturbing message—discrimination against Jews is tolerated and excused," the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Canary Mission, and StopAntisemitism.org said in a joint statement following the city’s decision. Each of the groups was instrumental in publicizing Quran’s anti-Semitic posts and alerting Cleveland city officials to them.

"While he is undoubtedly pleased that his anti-Semitism was dismissed on a ‘technicality,’ the Jewish community is left to wonder—would officer Quran still be employed if he had posted other forms of bigotry?" the groups said.


YouTube Removes Channel of UK Extremist Who Used Codewords to Attack Jews, Blacks
YouTube has shut down the channel of a right-wing extremist who has been called “Britain’s most racist YouTuber” for using codewords and euphemisms to verbally attack Jews and Blacks and bypass the video platform’s hate speech policies.

James Owens, 37, from the village of Hixon in Staffordshire, England, escaped censorship by YouTube’s artificial intelligence that monitors hate speech by using expressions such as “people who look white but aren’t” to refer to Jews, the term “negrophilia” when condemning the Black community, and referring to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as “our uncle,” The Times reported. Owens rarely mentioned ethnic minorities by name on his channel called “Tollahvision,” where he referred to himself as the “ayatollah” and hosted discussions featuring antisemitism, racism and conspiracy theories. He also used a fake profile picture and disguised his voice with a fake accent.

“After review, we quickly terminated the ‘Tollahvision’ channel for repeated violations of our hate speech policy, which strictly prohibits content that promotes violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on certain attributes,” said a YouTube spokesperson. “We enforce this policy rigorously and removed over 95,000 videos for violating our hate speech policy in the first three months of 2022.”

Red Flare, an anti-far right group that exposes extremists in Britain, had been tracking content posted by Owens since 2020. The organization released a photo of the white supremacist in late August and revealed that he is also a key figure in the British far-right white nationalist group called Patriotic Alternative (PA).

Owens is a former host of “The Absolute State of Britain” (TASOB) podcast, which is published by the US-based Neo-Nazi outlet The Right Stuff. TASOB previously described itself as “Britain’s most racist podcast” and in one episode of the podcast Owens said, “We’re still fighting Hitler’s war, it’s just a guerrilla war now,” according to Red Flare.
CNN omits 'massive gunfire' from report on IDF raid in Jenin
During the evening of June 5, the Israel Defense Forces carried out an operation in the town of Jenin in Judea and Samaria during which "massive gunfire" was directed at IDF soldiers.

The CNN report on the operation, coauthored by Abeer Salman and Kareem Damanhoury, serves as an illustration of journalistic malpractice by selectively quoting IDF statements in such a way as to hide the fact that a gun battle was underway.

The CNN piece describes the operation this way: "The IDF said 'a violent riot was instigated' during the operation and that 'the rioters burned tires, hurled rocks, Molotov cocktails and explosive devices at the forces, who responded with riot dispersal means.' The 16 wounded Palestinians were injured by bullets and shrapnel, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and all were transferred to the hospital in Jenin."

This description omits another key statement made by the IDF. As reported by The Times of Israel: "The IDF said clashes broke out, including 'massive gunfire directed at troops,' amid the demolition operation. According to Palestinian media reports, a man was killed and several others were injured in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli troops. The military said troops had returned fire at gunmen and rioters who hurled explosives at them".

Were one to read only the CNN report, one would come away with no clue that the IDF soldiers were engaged in a gun battle, rather than simply a riot.

Notably, the IDF was not the only source CNN could have relied on for this information. As reported by The Jerusalem Post, "Video published by Palestinian media showed Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers." Some of those videos can be found on social media.
Poland keeps dodging Holocaust property restitution to Jews - opinion
Poland demands reparations from Germany and offers Israel to join in, thus refraining from restituting Jewish property, and Germany still owes Israel a third of the 1952 reparations agreement. Poland, which intends to demand $1.3 trillion (NIS 4.4 t.) in reparations from Germany for the damage that Germany caused it during World War II, expects Israel to join its claim because a significant part of the murdered were Jewish Poles.

This indirect proposal is another Polish attempt to continue to evade the restitution of the remaining Jewish property in Poland. Jewish property in Poland was estimated at $3 billion (NIS 10.2 b.) in 1938 prices. About 49% of it, over a billion dollars (NIS 3.4 b.) at the prices of that time, is Jewish real estate property, such as land, residences, businesses and agricultural lands that have nothing to do with Germany, and that Poland should have restituted long ago.

Instead, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki responded to Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s rightful insistence that new Polish legislation would not jeopardize the chances of restitution by saying that he would not pay Polish Jews and their descendants, “not a zloty, not a euro, nor a dollar.” The Polish attempt at legislation that undermines the restitution of Jewish property has even caused diplomatic relations between Israel and Poland to freeze for a certain period.

Why has Germany not paid a third of reparations?
As for Germany’s responsibility toward Israel, Germany has not yet paid a third of the reparation agreement signed between the two countries, in 1952. The agreement was signed with the West German government, which refused to pay for East Germany, so it was determined that it would bear about two-thirds of the total sum agreed upon, according to the ratio of the population and territory of each of the two Germanys at the time.

The missing third, as it is called, is estimated today to be at least $18 billion (NIS 61.3 b.), when updated according to interest on a 30-year US government bond. The new estimate was made by the American economist, Sydney Zabludoff, who has been employed by the White House, the US Treasury and the CIA.
Jewish group slams Greece Supreme Court vice president for backing Holocaust denier
The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) is criticizing the appointment of the Greek Supreme Court’s new vice president for her previous support of an anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.

The Jewish group said on Sept. 2 regarding Marianthi Pagouteli’s position that it “expresses the strong resentment of the Greek Jewry for the appointment at the high level of the Greek Justice of a person who cannot defend the declared position of the Greek State against anti-Semitism, even more so in the capacity of the vice president of the Supreme Court of our country.”

During the infamous trial in Greece of right-wing extremist author Konstantinos Plevris regarding his anti-Semitic book Jews, the Whole Truth, Pagouteli, who was a judge of appeals at the time, joined the minority vote in support of his acquittal. In a 32-page report explaining her vote, she justified Plevris’s views.

She reportedly noted that Plevris “did not designate a subhuman Jew as a Jew in general, but as a war criminal Jew” and that the author adopts “the Nazi view that the white race does not want Semites in Europe without intent to offend or provoke acts of violence.”

She added that Plevris “rightly points out” how Jews who follow the teachings of the Talmud are “manifestly lacking in humanism.”

In the first edition of his book, Plevris, who was eventually convicted in the case, described himself as a “Nazi, fascist, anti-democrat, racist and anti-Semite,” and the “high priest” of Greek neo-Nazism.


Scientists find COVID-19 antibodies that can make boosters unnecessary
In a major breakthrough in the battle with the COVID-19 pandemic, Tel Aviv University researchers have isolated two antibodies that neutralize all known strains of COVID-19 – including Omicron – with up to 95% efficiency and will strengthen the immune systems of people at risk.

Targeted treatment with antibodies and their delivery to the body in high concentrations may serve as an effective substitute for vaccines, especially for at-risk populations and those with weakened immune systems, according to the researchers. By using antibody treatment, there is a possibility that the need to provide repeated booster shots to the entire population every time a new variant emerges will be eliminated.

The research was led by Dr. Natalia Freund and doctoral students Michael Mor and Ruofan Lee of the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine. The study was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Ben Croker of the University of California at San Diego. Also taking part in the study were Prof. Ye Xiang of Tsinghua University in Beijing, Prof. Meital Gal-Tanamy and Dr. Moshe Dessau of Bar-Ilan University.

The study was published in the journal Communications Biology under the title “Conformational flexibility in neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 by naturally elicited anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.”

The new research is a continuation of a preliminary study conducted in October 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, Freund and her colleagues sequenced all the B immune system cells from the blood of Israelis who had recovered from the original COVID strain and isolated nine antibodies that the patients produced. The researchers now found that some of these antibodies are very effective in neutralizing the new coronavirus variants, Delta and Omicron.
Teacher posthumously honored in UK for saving children from Nazis in Prague
A bronze statue was unveiled in England in tribute to a British schoolteacher who helped 669 children in Prague escape Nazi persecution.

Trevor Chadwick from Swanage, England, assisted Sir Nicholas Winton in arranging for the children to travel safely to Britain in 1939 before and after the capital of the Czech Republic was occupied by Nazi German forces, according to the Trevor Chadwick Memorial Trust. He was later nicknamed the “Purbeck Schindler” for his efforts. He died in 1979 at the age of 72.

Winton, who has also since died, previously called Chadwick “the real hero,” saying “he did the more difficult and dangerous work after the Nazis invaded … he deserves all praise. He managed things at the Prague end, organizing the children and the trains, and dealing with the SS and Gestapo.”

The statue unveiled in Chadwick’s hometown of Swanage on Aug. 29 features a child sleeping on his shoulder while the teacher holds the hand of another youngster who looks up at him. It overlooks the recently renamed Trevor Chadwick Park and the Swanage Lifeboat Station, where he served as a crew member for several years.

The unveiling ceremony was attended by hundreds of guests, including Chadwick’s grandchildren and Winton’s son, Nick Winton.
Serbian president reveals grandfather was murdered in Holocaust - exclusive
For the first time, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic revealed to an international news outlet his personal story about how his grandfather was killed during the Holocaust. “During the Second World War… Croatians joined the Nazis with at the very beginning,” Vucic told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive Zoom interview.

“The Nazis bombed Belgrade, but they entered Zagreb and they were greeted by the people and they formed the new state, a new Nazi puppet state, an Independent State of Croatia, which was encompassing an entire Bosnia and Herzegovina and big parts of today's Serbia as well. The main task for them was to exterminate all the Serbs.”

Vucic continued: “My father was born here in Serbia because the Croats killed his father,” he said painfully. He shared that it is still unknown exactly where his grandfather was killed. “There are some lists, which say that he was killed in the Jasenovac camp [in Croatia], but other [documents] say that he was killed in a different place. Anyway, he was killed by Ustase forces.”

Ustase was a Croatian fascist organization, formally known as the Croatian Revolutionary Movement. Its members murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Roma during the Holocaust.

Vucic’s grandmother, and a few others who were arrested in Bosnia, were expelled from their threshold and they arrived as refugees to Serbia, yet 25 people were killed together with his grandfather. “She gave birth to my father, three, four months afterward,” Vucic recalls his family history and added that “there were relatives that were killed during the Second World War. But it's like everybody wants to forget it.”
Inseparable to the last: Sisters who survived Holocaust, moved to US die days apart
Two sisters who survived the Holocaust as girls and moved to the United States afterward died just days apart in their adopted home of Alabama.

The Alabama Holocaust Education Center said Ruth Scheuer Siegler died Saturday at the age of 95. Her sister, Ilse Scheuer Nathan, died 10 days earlier at the age of 98.

The women were born in Germany and were girls when Adolf Hitler rose to power in the 1930s. After losing their parents and older brother in the Holocaust but surviving Nazi death camps themselves, the two women were inseparable, the center said in an announcement.

“They were always together,” Ann Mollengarden, education director for the Alabama Holocaust Education Center, told Al.com. “When Ilse died, I think Ruth was ready.”

In early 1944, the girls were selected as workers at the Birkenau camp and separated from their mother, who they never saw again, according to a biography of the women. They last saw their father at the camp, and their brother died at a camp in Germany.

“The girls worked carrying bricks from one end of the compound to the other for hours at a time. Ilse sewed gun covers and uniforms as well. Working close to the crematory ovens, they saw the mountains of shoes. For the first time, they realized that their fellow prisoners were being killed and cremated,” the biography said.

Both women married fellow Holocaust survivors in 1949. Ruth and Walter Siegler moved to Birmingham in 1960 to be with Ilse and Walter Nathan, who already lived in the area.
Iraqi Jewish archives need to be returned to Iraqi Jews
For more than 2,500 years, Baghdad was home to one of the most vibrant and historically significant Jewish communities in the world. This ancient Jewish community is now extinct – ethnically cleansed, persecuted and expelled from the country in the 20th century, when they were stripped of their citizenship, property and possessions.

The Jewish cultural treasures of this community – which have been preserved in the Iraqi Jewish Archive, an invaluable collection of tens of thousands of books, artifacts and documents that have not been fully or properly inventoried or digitized – are now at grave risk at the hands of an Iraqi government that has criminalized relations with Jewish people.

The US government acquired the Iraqi Jewish Archive days after coalition forces took over Baghdad in May 2003. American soldiers entered the flooded building of Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat. In the basement, under four feet of water, they found tens of thousands of confiscated Jewish books, artifacts and documents – materials that had been seized from synagogues, schools and other Jewish institutions.

On August 20, 2003, the US Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which was dissolved in 2004, signed an agreement with the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that the items would be restored by NARA, but it left open their ultimate future. No Iraqis or Iraqi Jews were consulted when agreements determining the future of the archive were made. This collection has not even been fully examined by a rabbinical scholar and could contain highly important Jewish manuscripts like the Aleppo Codex.
Rare First Temple-period document repatriated to Israel
The Israel Antiquities Authority has successfully repatriated a rare First Temple-period document from the United States, the IAA announced on Wednesday.

The papyrus document is written in ancient Hebrew script and is believed to have been found in a cave in the Judean Desert, according to the IAA.

The item consists of four torn lines that begin with the words, “To Ishmael send,” suggesting the fragment is part of a letter containing instructions to the recipient. It therefore likely dates back to the sixth or seventh centuries BCE, joining only two other documents from this period in the IAA’s Dead Sea Scrolls collection.

All three papyri come from the Judean Desert, where the dry climate enabled their preservation.

The story began when Ada Yardeni, Ph.D., a scholar of ancient Hebrew script, died in June 2018. Israel Prize laureate in Biblical Studies Shmuel Ahituv, the former head of the Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, was asked to complete the publication of her work.

He was surprised to find a photograph of a then-unknown document, together with Yardeni’s preliminary decipherment.

This led to a campaign by Ahituv and the IAA’s Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit to locate the papyrus in question.

It was eventually tracked to a resident of Montana in the United States, who explained that his mother had acquired the papyrus when she visited Jerusalem in 1965. It was given to her by Joseph Sa’ad, curator of the city’s Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, and Halil Iskander Kandu, a well-known antiquities dealer from Bethlehem, who many years ago sold thousands of Dead Sea scroll fragments.




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