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Tuesday, November 15, 2022

11/15 Links Pt2: O Ye of Little Faith: The Anti-Semitism of Kanye West; Another Palestinian BDS fail; Smearing Israel from the Ivory Tower

From Ian:

A New Legal Approach to Jew-Hatred
It’s what makes Jews one people even if they speak different languages, have different color skin, and observe Judaism with different practices. And so, the concepts and terminology that the anti-Israel left chooses to employ now actually pit anti-Israel zealotry against American anti-discrimination laws.

We counsel an updated application of Natan Sharansky’s famous Three D’s test. “Criticizing” Israeli Jews for being white colonizers does not merely aim to delegitimize Israel; it delegitimizes Jews by severing them from their constitutive national symbols, holy books, and beliefs. It demonizes Jews by casting them as “white occupiers” who exploit non-white people. And it engages in rank double standards against Jews by singling out for scrutiny, among all the nations of the world, their interrelated claims to their ancestral homeland and national unity.

Just imagine the uproar if whites on university campuses told Afro-Caribbean students that they were not really black and could not share the banner with black students from other parts of the world. The victims of such harassment would quickly and rightly have administrators in their corner. The school could lose its federal funding for allowing an out-group to tell an in-group who they are and who they are not, and which national bonds emerging from the mists of time are sufficient to confer unity. Yet that is what happens every time activists deploy the indigeneity canard to demonize Zionism as a colonialist project.

And this is how progressives tantalized by the success of the postcolonialist anti-racist movement in the United States have badly overplayed their hand. They have run headlong into the Civil Rights Act. Lawyers up to the task of defending Israel and American Jews can and should sue institutions that fail to protect Jews. The lawyers must identify and explain the horrific and patently anti-Semitic implications of calling Ashkenazi Jews “white”—not because there is anything wrong with being white, but because it is maliciously inaccurate—and calling Israel a colonialist state.

When campus activists call Israel “colonialist” or Israelis “white Europeans,” they trace Jewish history back only to Europe. But history is more than a millennium old, and Jews can trace their heritage back much further, all the way to Jerusalem and Beersheba and Yavneh, well before the Romans first renamed Judea “Palestine” to sever the Jewish connection to the land. Referring to Arabs as “indigenous” or “native” similarly rewrites history and the Jewish tradition by erasing the Jewish national and religious connection to the Land of Israel—possibly the most foundational element of Jewishness no matter how abstractly defined.

As elite institutions adopt the trendiest, crassest anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, the Jewish legal defense creates itself. Indigeneity may be a silly value to champion, but if that is the framework that progressives insist on, it will collapse under the weight of its own bankruptcy and hypocrisy. Postcolonial anti-Semitism will fall apart as soon as Israel’s defenders expose its delegitimization, double standards, and demonization for what they are: the oldest form of hatred, going by its latest name.
Antisemitism and Jew-hatred are not the same - opinion
Jew-hatred is on the rise in the US. I’m not talking about antisemitism, I’m not calling it antisemitism. I’m talking about Jew-hatred. Antisemitism and Jew-hatred are not the same.

Jew-hatred is a visceral hate. It is emotional, it is not at all rational. Other than diving into the dark corners from which it emanates, there is almost no true response or method to combat Jew-hatred.

The only way to confront Jew-hatred is to make it unacceptable in public spheres. Like other behaviors that are unacceptable in public, Jew-hatred needs to be rejected. Racism is unacceptable, and so is Jew-hatred. Xenophobia is unacceptable, and so is Jew-hatred. Homophobia is unacceptable, and so is Jew-hatred.

Decent people need to step up and say a loud and clear “no” to those promoting and professing Jew-hatred. They need to say “stop” no matter how subtle the message. They need to send out their message on social media and in person.

There is no logic to Jew-hatred. And because it is illogical, there is no reasoning with Jew-haters. A Jew-hater cannot be convinced that he/she/they are wrong. There is only shaming. Shaming – public shaming and private shaming – is the only language they understand. It is the only message they will receive and internalize.

What is the difference between Jew-hatred and antisemitism?
Plain and simple, that is the difference between Jew-hatred and antisemitism. Antisemitism is a philosophy. Antisemitism is based on principles. It is wrong – but it is not visceral. It is based on a set of ideas.

Today’s Jew-hatred is filled more and more with anger and vitriol. Today’s Jew-hatred smacks of medieval-style Jew-hatred, which was deeply seeded in religious hate.

Social media allows for and even permits the free flow of this hatred. It goes unchecked. It flourishes.
O Ye of Little Faith: The Anti-Semitism of Kanye West
In response to a series of anti-Semitic outbursts, several fashion companies severed their business dealings with the rapper Kanye West, as did the agency that represented him. Elliot Kaufman cautions against seeing this reaction as evidence of civic health:

The naïve view is that the refusal to defend West marks a sea shift in black attitudes toward Jews, transcending the impulse to defend the indefensible just because it was done by a fellow African American. The cynical view is that if West hadn’t first angered black people with his comment that slavery was “a choice,” and betrayed black leaders with his decision to put on the MAGA cap, the reaction would have been entirely different.

West now simply has reason to paint himself as a victim of Jewish power. Meanwhile, Kaufman writes, the forms of anti-Semitism that have particular purchase among African Americans are not going anywhere:

Any confrontation with black anti-Semitism incurs risk for Jews, but it is necessary. First, black anti-Semitism places traditional Jews in physical danger every day on the streets of Brooklyn and not only there. Many Jews have moved to neighborhoods where they can usually avoid being mugged by such a reality, but some won’t—or can’t afford to. They are owed practical, moral, and political support, including against progressives whose policies release criminal Jew-haters to the streets, where they can attack again.

Second, black anti-Semitism has a unique ability to strike at the heart of liberalism, the older kind that has often made exile in America seem for Jews like a vacation from history. Jewish success and prominence in America—taken by some as a standing insult—have hinged on liberal principles of merit, equality before the law, pluralism, free expression, and individual rights, as opposed to group privileges. Black anti-Semitism, in denying the legitimacy of Jewish success and prominence, is also an assault on those ruling principles. Its deeper meaning is to call the American system a fraud, a manipulation, and a conspiracy.
MEMRI: Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan on Kyrie Irving, Kanye West Antisemitism Scandals
In a speech livestreamed on The Collective 9 YouTube channel on November 10, 2022, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan spoke about the accusations of antisemitism that NBA star Kyrie Irving and rapper Kanye West have been facing recently. Farrakhan said that the Anti-Defamation League should look into the “horror” that their parents have done to blacks in America and throughout the world, and he said that Jews consider 1,000 black lives to be worth less than the fingernail of one Jew. He said that the Jews have not apologized to African Americans for the transatlantic slave trade or for the killing, raping, castration, and enslavement of blacks. He also claimed that the Jews are responsible for African Americans seeing themselves as “Tarzan”, as “blackies”, and as “little black sambo”. In addition, Farrakhan said that the Nation of Islam’s views on the Jews are based entirely on quotes from Jewish rabbis, scholars, and historians.

The MEMRI Lantos Project exposes anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Middle East region and Middle Eastern communities in the West with the aim of supporting legislation and educating media and the general public.


Yemini: how propaganda triumphs over facts in the heart of Tel Aviv
The Goethe-Institut in Tel Aviv, an institute for German language and culture, was supposed to hold an event on the anniversary of Kristallnacht titled, “the Holocaust, Nakba and German cultural memory.” Following a wave of protests, including by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the event was postponed and retitled to “Understanding the pain of others”. It was then cancelled. Ben Dror Yemini writing in Ynet News says that such events are nothing more than propaganda to construct an antisemitic narrative – depicting the Palestinians as victims of the Jews – at the expense of historical accuracy.

The Goethe-Institut, Tel Aviv: pushing a false narrative
The Goethe-Institut later issued a statement: “Remembrance remains a politically controversial field. The Jews focus on the Holocaust, while the Palestinians focus on the fateful year 1948 when hundreds of thousands of them were forced to flee in what is known in Arabic as The Nakba [also known as the Palestinian Catastrophe].”

What harm comes from discussing “the pain of others”? It sounds wonderful. But, it’s a fraud. Comparing national trauma to cultural memory is legitimate, but in this case, it is done for the sake of political propaganda, aimed at altering the historical connection between the Nakba and the Holocaust.

The two events occurred due to an ideology of eradication. It was the leader of the Palestinian Arabs, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who in 1941 arrived at Berlin, calling to kill every Jew. Search them out. Allah wills it.”

It was the Secretary General of the Arab League Abdul Rahman Azzam, who was negotiating with leaders of the first Jewish settlements in Israel, while also threatening that “there will be a war of annihilation.”

It was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, who said that “if a Jewish state will be established, the Arab people will throw the Jews in it into the sea.”

And it was Fawzi al-Qawuqji, an Arab nationalist military figure in the interwar period, who aided the Nazis in their propaganda efforts, and then served as the Arab Liberation Army’s field commander during the War of Independence in 1948. Most of the Palestinian Arabs at the time, just like their leaders, also supported the Nazis.

There is a distortion of the remembrance happening, which seeks to erase any memory of the fact that the Arab uprising against the very establishment of Israel was directly influenced by Nazi ideology.

It is safe to presume, however, that none of these topics would’ve been discussed during the Goethe-Institut event, which was set to be held in Tel Aviv! This is because the goal was, and still is, to justify the legitimized narrative, according to which, the Jews were the victims of the Nazis, and now the Palestinians are the victims of the Jews.

One of the speakers at the event was supposed to be Prof. Amos Goldberg. He was supposed to give a lecture, titled, “The reality of conflict, occupation and apartheid.” Just like false narratives once were perpetuated against the Jewish people, they are now being perpetuated against the Jewish state.
PMW: Another Palestinian BDS fail
For many years, the Palestinian Authority and other sundry actors have been actively trying to promote a Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) campaign against Israel. While calling on the rest of the world to boycott Israel, the Palestinians themselves maintain substantial levels of trade with Israel.

Speaking at an exhibition of Palestinian products in Ramallah, Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub commented:
“This activity is significant, and we hope that it will be part of a heightened and comprehensive effort – geographically and socially among all the Palestinians – to develop their understanding and create an awareness for distancing and boycotting the Israeli products.”
[Official PA TV News, Oct. 31, 2022]

While Rajoub calls to boycott Israel and Israeli products, monthly trade reports published by the PA Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), prove that without trade with Israel, the Palestinian economy would completely collapse.

According to the reports analyzed by Palestinian Media Watch that cover the last 5 years, goods purchased by Palestinians from Israel constituted more than half of all the goods imported to the Palestinian market.

In August 2022, for example, all Palestinian imports totaled USD 729.6 million, of which 56% came from Israel. “Imports increased in August, 2022 by 7% compared to July, 2022. It also increased by 30% compared to August, 2021 and reached USD 729.6 million.

Imports from Israel increased by 4% in August, 2022 compared to July, 2022 and it represented 56% of total imports in August, 2022.”
[PCBS, The Preliminary Results of the Palestinian Registered External Trade In Goods for August, 08/2022]
NGO Monitor: The Global Samidoun Network: Mapping Branches in Europe and North America
Founded in 2012, and designated by Israel as a terror entity in 2021, Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network promotes the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization through an international network of activists. Samidoun branches, including in Western countries, publicly support and celebrate the PFLP, its actions and its leaders; campaign for the release of jailed PFLP members; and promote anti-Israel campaigns. Moreover, Samidoun advocates for Palestinians’ “natural right to armed resistance.”

Samidoun does not publish financial information, including funding sources and annual income. In the US, according to its website, “Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is a fiscally sponsored project of the Alliance for Global Justice, a 501(c)(3) Organization.” Samidoun is also a registered not-for-profit in Canada (since March 2021).

The February 2021 designation of Samidoun by the Israeli Ministry of Defense identifies the organization as an arm of the PFLP. A press statement accompanying the designation added that Samidoun was founded by “members of the PFLP in 2012,” and that it “plays a leading and significant role in the PFLP’s anti-Israel propaganda efforts, fundraising, and recruiting activists,” serving as a “front for the PFLP abroad.”

This report provides representative examples of the activities of major Samidoun chapters and key activists in Europe and North America. This includes supporting the PFLP and its members, justifying the use of violence, and incitement against the state of Israel.1

While the network operates on several continents, and has a notable presence in Iran, this document addresses Samidoun activities in Canada, France, the Netherlands, the US, Germany, and Belgium.2
NGO Monitor: Terror-linked NGOs Highlight NGO Monitor Impact at UN Hearings
On November 7-11, 2022, the UN Human Rights Council’s permanent “Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel” (COI) held public hearings to “focus on the closure orders and terrorism designation of a number of Palestinian human rights organizations, and on the incident surrounding the killing of the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.”

During the first three days, the discussion focused on the Israeli government designation (October 2021) of seven Palestinian NGOs as terror organizations, based on their links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In contrast to a credible investigation, the only groups chosen to participate were those that would support the COI’s predetermined conclusions and would deny the overwhelming evidence of links between the NGOs and the PFLP. Those with dissenting viewpoints or concrete evidence (such as NGO Monitor) were unwelcome and not invited to appear.

Three out of the seven NGOs who appeared at the hearings used them as a platform to defame NGO Monitor in retaliation for its role in exposing the aforementioned terror links. In particular, Addameer, Health Work Committees, and a lawyer representing Al-Haq (Michael Sfard) – as well as Commission members – accused NGO Monitor of being behind a “smear campaign” against these organizations and of fabricating evidence. They also attributed to NGO Monitor major reductions in funding from European governments.

To be sure, clear evidence of the links between the PFLP terror organization and the NGO network are readily available through open sources. Attempts to discredit and divert attention from NGO Monitor’s detailed research and analysis cannot erase this evidence.
I stand for the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism at Princeton
On the evening of Nov. 13, 2022, the treasurer of Princeton’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG), Adam Hoffman, proposed that the USG Senate sponsor a referendum supporting the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.

That proposal, which needed nine votes to become a Senate-sponsored referendum and appear before the student body for a vote, failed after public opposition from USG U-Councilor Judah Guggenheim, a Jewish undergraduate.

As a proud member of Princeton’s Jewish community, I put pen to paper today to vigorously oppose Guggenheim’s efforts and affirm the necessity of adopting the IHRA definition at Princeton, a definition that has been affirmed by a growing list of countries around the world.

The definition states that “antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

After the formal definition, it lays out a long litany of examples of antisemitism, ranging from Holocaust denial and charges of dual loyalty aimed at Diaspora Jews to the denial of the Jewish “right to self-determination.”

Guggenheim said that he would support the IHRA definition without the provision that labels “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” as antisemitism.

“I wouldn’t say that arguing against that right is antisemitic,” he told listeners at Sunday’s USG meeting.
MEMRI: Canada-Based Islamist Imam Younus Kathrada: Using Terms Like 'Radical Islam' Amounts To Unbelief; All Commands Of Islam, Including Jihad, Are Moderate Acts
On October 16, 2022, the official YouTube channel of the Muslim Youth of Victoria published a video of a Friday sermon delivered by the South Africa-born Vancouver-based jihadi Islamist imam Younus Kathrada in which he denied that there are such things as radical or moderate Islam and argued that these terms are only used by the enemies of Islam and ignorant and hypocritical people. He stated that those who believe that Islam can be extreme have accused Allah of being extreme and therefore committed acts of unbelief. According to Kathrada, all the commands of Islam, including waging jihad for the sake of Allah are moderate acts.

Following are excerpts from the sermon.

"The Only Ones Who Use These Terminologies Are Either Enemies And Opponent Of Islam, Or Those Who Are Ignorant And Have No Understanding Whatsoever Of What Islam Is"

In the sermon, titled "Radical Islam vs Moderate Islam," Kathrada started by saying: "Let me say from the outset, we hear this terminology a great deal. Islamic extremism, radical Islam and moderate Islam as opposed to radical Islam. We hear these terminologies very often and we read about them but I want to tell you from the beginning that the only ones who use these terminologies are either enemies and opponent of Islam, or those who are ignorant and have no understanding whatsoever of what Islam is or hypocrites who are out to distort the image of Islam."[1]

Elaborating on his argument, Kathrada noted that Islam's position and stance on extremism is that "we say in no uncertain terms that extremism in religion, exaggeration in religion and going beyond the bonds and being excessive in religion is blameworthy and denounced. Islam denounces it whether that extremism be in the form of exaggeration or negligence. When we talk about extremism, people only want to talk about one side where people exaggerate and go beyond certain limits, but they do not realize that there is another limit as well the bare minimum. When one goes below that, this is also a form of extremism."

He further stated that "Islam is the religion of Allah that he has chosen for his creation and that he has approved of for his creation so, if someone were to say that Islam contains extremism or there is such a thing as radical Islam or there is such a thing as extremism in Islam, then they have now accused Allah of extremism of being radical and this is an act of unbelief. This actually will lead a person outside Islam. It is disbelief to say there is such a thing as radical Islam or Islamic extremism because it would be accusing Allah of being extreme and radical."


Report: Chappelle Hid his Real SNL Monologue from Lorne Michaels
According to Page Six, comedian Dave Chappelle did not reveal to Saturday Night Live creator/producer Lorne Michaels, who is Jewish, the opening monologue he was about to deliver last Saturday, and delivered a fake version during the dress rehearsal (See: New Poll: Dave Chappelle’s SNL Monologue was…).

A source inside the show told Page Six: “Dave does a fake monologue during the dress rehearsal because he doesn’t want Lorne Michaels, or anyone else, to know what his real monologue is.”

According to the source, Chappelle’s fake monologue was about a writer who refused to work with him on the show because of the comedian’s homophobic material.

Lorne David Lipowitz, a.k.a. Lorne Michaels, 78, was born either in Toronto, Canada or on a kibbutz in British Palestine and his parents uprooted him in infancy and took him to Canada––depending on which biography you read.

Jewish-Israeli rights activist Rudy Rochman tweeted that “Dave Chappelle’s SNL skit was a meticulous and calculated move to desensitize the population from antisemitism, getting society to laugh at Jewish traumas/struggles, and normalizing historic tropes by manipulating the average person’s pain and redirecting their reactions onto Jews.”

He added in a string of tweets: “This is one of the earlier steps, but once this stage is complete the attacks evolve from verbal to physical, then from individual to institutional, and because most will already be desensitized, the world will watch and do nothing. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.
On Kanye West: Ehr Iz Meshiggeh
Our Jewish history teaches us that the best revenge is to live the good and successful life and even to find humor in it all. We attempt to counter anti-Semitism by joking about it and succeeding despite it. No Government will protect us when the chips are down if we do not take the lead in protecting ourselves; that is the synergy of what we have learned from Nazi Germany, Franklin Roosevelt, Lord Moyne, the U.N., and the State of Israel. Don’t rely on Government and don’t rely on handouts.

If the Big Law white-shoe firms won’t hire Jews, then make ourselves indispensable by excelling at some niche of law that no one else will touch — say, bankruptcy law. In time, the Big Firms will hire us for that because their corporate clients need experts in the area, but it is too sordid for them to touch directly. Or move to the California desert and create a new industry that no one ever heard of — motion pictures, and later talkies — and, if we build it, they will come. Build your own Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow before your “friends” share the news that they have decided not to sell you their weapons. If France will not send you the five missile boats you paid them for, then snatch them and baguette.

When you find an industry in which Jews proliferate, even Catskills-style stand-up comedy, you will find that the back story stems from anti-Semitism that forced us into that field. For example, they kept us out of their hotels, so we built our own and created our own entertainment industry to attract and amuse the patrons. We abandoned agriculture and went into diamonds because, when a medieval European country would expel us from their borders, we could not bring our farms with us (often we were not allowed to buy land anyway) but could smuggle out stones. We went into medicine, law, education, international banking and investing, and science because we could take that with us on the way into the next diaspora. Kidneys and hearts work the same everywhere. So do stock exchanges. If one country closed its borders to Jews, the Rothschilds could move their banking operations elsewhere — in laser speed. And, en route, we could pick up a Nobel Prize or two.

Kanye West has been described as a pioneer in “introspective, melodic rap music” and has a net worth of approximately $1.8 billion. Less, now that Adidas bid him adios. He has 18.2 million followers on Instagram and 31.5 million on Twitter. In 2015, he topped TIME Magazine’s List of 100 Most Influential People. And yet, the vast majority of my universe never have heard a single “song” he ever recorded. We never bought any of his designer clothes. Is that what has sent him to “Death Con 3”? For us, he is as irrelevant as a failed American Vice Presidential candidate from the Nineteenth Century or Number 8 on this year’s Meretz list. And yet he is an “influencer,” itself a commentary on the society in which we live. Think: Hadar Muchtar and the 8,800 fools (0.16 percent) who voted for her.

Social media has made “influencers” out of so many fools who barely can string together a single sensible thought. It is what it is. Death Con 3.

Kanye West is a reminder that Jew-hatred is not the provenance of haters who are White. When it comes to Jew-hate, Ilhan Omar, Louis Farrakhan, and Kanye West stand as proud exhibits of anti-Semitism’s rich diversity, equity, and inclusion. Sometimes including even smart people like those white-shoe law-firm partners who kept us out, and the Nicholas Murray Butlers of Columbia University and Avery Brundages of Olympics fame.

And oftimes merely a nut, a Meshiggener, a Meshuggener.
Kanye West’s antisemitism is bad for business. Now how about Henry Ford?
Amid a spike in reports of antisemitic incidents nationwide, two developments in recent weeks were especially conspicuous. One was the anti-Jewish statements made on social media and in interviews by Ye, the musician and fashion designer formerly known as Kanye West. He was promptly dropped by Adidas, Gap and other business partners. Then, on Nov. 3, National Basketball Association star Kyrie Irving was suspended by the Brooklyn Nets after promoting an antisemitic film on social media. Nike backed away from its relationship with him. (Irving eventually apologized. He remained suspended as of Monday.)

For the moment, it seems, antisemitism is bad business in the United States. And yet, to drive around my hometown of Detroit is to wonder whether this news has arrived.

Henry Ford, the most prominent, virulent antisemite the nation has ever known, is omnipresent in Detroit. Yes, Ford is famous for implementing the moving assembly line and founding the automaking business that put the Motor City on the map. But Ford was also a powerful driver of anti-Jewish hatred, using his wealth and influence to promote antisemitism in the interwar era, before World War II and the Holocaust.

Ford, a friend wrote in his diary in 1919, “attributes all evil to Jews or to the Jewish capitalists.”

To advance his views, Ford had purchased the Dearborn Independent newspaper in 1918, which soon began publishing a weekly front-page column, “The International Jew: The World’s Problem.” It ran for 91 issues of a paper that, at its peak in the mid-1920s, claimed a circulation of 700,000 to 900,000, distributed across the country at Ford auto dealerships.

In that period, Ford also paid for the printing and distribution of 500,000 copies of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a stubbornly persistent forgery that purports to describe a Jewish plot for world domination.

For these efforts, Adolf Hitler praised Ford by name in “Mein Kampf” and in 1938 awarded him the highest Nazi honor bestowed upon a non-German. Although Ford had apologized for his antisemitic campaign in 1927 amid mounting public criticism — his remorse was met with much skepticism — he gladly accepted the honor.

Today, how is it that Ford’s malevolence toward Jews is dwarfed in Detroit by the urge to celebrate his automotive achievements?


Smearing Israel from the Ivory Tower
Temple University Professor Marc Lamont Hill holds that the United States and Israel are kingpins of an authoritarian “global system that we have to dismantle.”15 He boasts about his tattoo lionizing Palestinian violence against Jews and laments Israel’s ability to defend itself against the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas, saying, for instance, that Israel’s Iron Dome (which neutralizes Hamas’s rockets in the air) “takes away all of Hamas’s military leverage.”16

Hill hosts UpFront for Al Jazeera, which, in the words of Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League, is a “major exporter of hateful content against the Jewish people, Israel, and the United States.” Al Jazeera is owned by the Qatari government, which, as the Counter Extremism Project observes, “has a long history of supporting the [Muslim] Brotherhood and its offshoots,” including having provided substantial “political and economic support to Hamas.”17 Like other Sharia-based countries, Qatar, a tiny but wealthy Islamic sheikhdom, has an atrocious record of violating individual rights. Since it was awarded the honor of hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, more than six thousand migrant workers have died, and tens of thousands more have suffered under an abusive system in which Qatari employers, supported by the Qatari government, have refused to fully pay migrant workers or honor promised benefits, despite requiring those workers to pay hefty recruitment fees.18 According to one human rights advocacy group, “Qatar recently arrested at least 60 foreign workers who protested going months without pay and deported some of them . . . just three months before Doha hosts the 2022 FIFA World Cup.”19

In sum, many Western professors attack Israel, the only substantially rights-respecting state in the Middle East, while supporting, and in some cases working for, rights-violating dictatorships. Although Israel certainly is not perfect (what nation is?), its detractors magnify any wrongdoing on Israel’s part (or the part of other Western countries) and downplay or ignore malicious attacks against Israel and its citizens. They show more empathy for the actions of terrorists than they do for the people trying to uphold fair and free societies. They applaud the war against Israel that Islamic armies initiated in 1948, and they advocate its annihilation. Perhaps worst of all, they impart these anti-Israel ideas to today’s students, tomorrow’s leaders.

The ideological war against Israel—seeking to replace the most rights-respecting, freest country in the Middle East with another rights-denying Islamic regime—is unjust, anti-civilization, antilife. The leaders of Iran and Qatar restrict speech, criminalize apostasy and homosexuality, and put dissenters to death, among other atrocities.20 No one can rationally support these regimes. When professors do, those who care about freedom and human flourishing should expose their evil and condemn them and the institutions that lend them credibility.
Pro-Jewish op-ed turned into pro-Palestinian poster at Northwestern University
Northwestern University's (NU) Jewish community was shocked to see on Monday that an op-ed about Jewish pride was turned into a big sign painted with the words "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." The perpetrator has printed out copies of an op-ed titled "I am more proud of my Jewish identity than anyone can ever hate me for it," written by Lily Cohen, a student at the university in The Daily Northwestern, a student news source.

"On Monday morning, copies of the op-ed entitled 'I am proud of my Jewish identity more than anyone can ever hate me for it' were taped together and painted over with the words 'from the river to the sea Palestine will be free,'" Hillel Northwestern wrote in response on social media. They added that "the banner was displayed outside Deering Meadow on Sheridan Road in the heart of campus, on a major thoroughfare for all to see. We condemn the use of hateful rhetoric and the public, targeted attack on Jewish identity."

"In response to Lily Cohen’s thoughtful op-ed about her Jewish pride, this was put up on the fence facing Sheridan Road, the background to the [sign] is multiple copies of Lily’s op-ed," executive director at Northwestern University Hillel Michael Simon wrote on Facebook. "There are times when the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism is blurry. This is not one of them. This is antisemitism, it is public bullying and it is shameful," he wrote.

"The Israeli Consulate has been in close contact with the student body and with Northwestern faculty and administration," Consul General of Israel to the Midwest Yinam Cohen told The Jerusalem Post. He added that "university campuses must be a safe space for all students, including Jewish students."


PreOccupiedTerritory: ‘Israel Doesn’t Represent Jews!’ Cries Man Accosting Random Jews About Israel (satire)
A pro-Palestinian activist who insists that Zionists have created a false link between their movement and the religion that follows the Torah, and who claims that any such link exists only in the tendentious imaginations of Zionists, also finds it appropriate to arbitrarily select from among the adherents of that religion to harass them about Zionism and their assumed support for its aims.

Jamal Henderson, 23, has cultivated a practice in the last year or two of reacting to the presence of visibly-Jewish people and demanding that they either answer for or denounce Israel, according to observers, even as he argues that any connection between Israel and Judaism or Jews is a product of false Zionist propaganda.

“You support genocide and ethnic cleansing!” Henderson yelled at a Hasidic woman pushing a stroller in Brooklyn. The woman tried to ignore the provocation and to move away, prompting Henderson to block her path on the sidewalk and harangue her about how Zionists have “hijacked” Judaism to include support for a Jewish sovereign presence in the ancestral Jewish homeland. The confrontation ended when the woman managed to evade him and enter a store that had not previously appeared in her itinerary.

“Zionism isn’t Judaism!” he screamed after her. “If you support Israel you support colonialism!”
More flotilla agitprop on the horizon?
Of course none of the above is new: information concerning the activities of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood linked organisations in the UK has been in the public domain for years. What has changed however since the last failed flotilla agitprop in 2018 is that Hamas in its entirety was proscribed as a terrorist group by the UK government in November 2021.

As was noted here ahead of the commencement of the 2018 ‘Great Return March’, the BBC showed no interest in informing its audiences of the British connections to the events under that banner which it reported copiously. The corporation has likewise ignored the topic of UK-based organisers of the various flotillas over the years.

In 2017 Zaher Birawi gave an interview to a Hamas newspaper in which he admitted that the purpose of the flotillas is to generate media coverage:
“Birawi added that despite the difficulties, the main objective of dispatching ships to the Gaza Strip is for their propaganda value, to keep the issues of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and breaking the “siege” alive in public discourse, and to continue to defame Israel (the “occupying entity,” according to Birawi). He claimed that the true test of the success of the flotillas is not whether or not they reach the Gaza Strip, but the coverage of the political and media campaigns accompanying them.”

If a 2023 flotilla does set sail, any British media outlet choosing to cover that story – including of course the nation’s national broadcaster – should be obliged to ensure that the connections of the UK based organisers to a terrorist group now proscribed by the UK government are made perfectly clear to the British public, including lawmakers.


Current, former US ambassadors to lead March of the Living in bipartisan statement against antisemitism
The current and immediate past U.S. ambassadors to Israel, Tom Nides and David Friedman, will lead the 2023 International March of the Living in what the organization described as a bipartisan commitment to combating antisemitism.

Since 1988, March of the Living has brought students, Holocaust survivors, educators and leaders from around the world to Poland to study the history of the Holocaust, including participants’ march from the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp to the Birkenau extermination camp on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day).

Given that Friedman was part of Donald Trump’s Republican presidential administration and Nides serves in President Joe Biden’s current Democratic administration, their co-leadership of this year’s trip “highlights America’s bipartisan solidarity with Israel and its commitment to combat antisemitism in all its forms, a commitment which transcends politics and partisan agendas,” International March of the Living stated.

Former ambassador Friedman said the march will demonstrate “in the strongest terms that antisemitism will not be tolerated in any sector of America.”

“Tom and I have very different political views, but we fully agree that antisemitism is a vile scourge which we must defeat,” he said in a statement.

Nides said, “There can be no gap in the American political system when it comes to standing up against antisemitism and intolerance and defending Israel. David and I represent different sides of the political spectrum, but we are on the same side—the correct side—when it comes to standing with Israel and against prejudice and hate of any kind.”
i24NEWS speaks to ADL CEO amid surge of anti-semitism

German army accidentally issues uniforms with 'SS' labels
German army uniforms have been mistakenly issued with "SS" size labels after a "production problem" reportedly occurred when the initials were thought to be an acronym for the size: “small, short."

As reported by The Jewish Chronicle, The German Federal Ministry of Defense has since ordered removal of the labeled combat equipment, which includes helmets, sleeping bags and waterproof jackets to its troops.

The ministry reportedly chalked the incident up to a "production problem."

Forbidden initials
The initials "SS" are often associated with the Schutzstaffel, Adolph Hitler's agency of surveillance and terror in Nazi Germany who orchestrated the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

German law bans the display of any Nazi iconography, with the combination of “S” and “S” even being forbidden from car number plates in all of the country's states.
NYPD Investigating Antisemitic and Racist Notes Sent to Bronx Businesses
The New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating a series of antisemitic and racist notes sent to several restaurants in the City Island neighborhood of the Bronx.

According to several New York-based news outlets, Caliente’s, Archie’s Tap, which is Jewish-owned, and Seafood Kingz, the only black-owned business in the Bronx, received them.

One of the notes said, “N****** and Jews are bad news,” while another, containing a swastika, declared that the Nazi party is again active with Adolf Hitler as its leader, according to a report from PIX11 News.

NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force did not respond to request for more details from The Algemeiner.

On Saturday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has represented City Island in the US House of Representatives since 2019, attended a rally held in support of the businesses and called on locals to “come together as a community and very loudly proclaim that the community is together and on the same page, and that there is absolutely no place on City Island or the country for antisemitism or anti-Black racism.”

More antisemitic incidents were recorded in New York than in any other state, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported in April, noting that it tallied 416, which “accounted for an astounding 15 percent of the total reported antisemitic incidents across the country.”
Man Sentenced to 30 Months for Threatening to Blow Up St. Louis Synagogue
A St. Louis, Missouri, man was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison last week after pleading guilty to threatening to blow up St. Louis’s Central Reform Congregation synagogue in 2021.

Cody Steven Rush, 30, was convicted on November 8 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri of using a telephone and instrument of interstate commerce to make a threat.

Last November Rush called the FBI multiple times to say that he intended to blow up the synagogue the next day, “while they were in service,” because he hated Jews, according to a criminal complaint. “I hate them with rage,” he said in one of the calls. Rush identified himself by name and gave the FBI his location on the same street as the synagogue, allowing the FBI and local police to find and arrest him. “I am feeling suicidal and homicidal. I just feel like killing Jews,” he told the arresting officers.

“Cody Steven Rush has already proven he is capable of violence with his criminal history. He attempted to burn down his own family’s home and a neighbor’s home on separate occasions,” said Special Agent in Charge Jay Greenberg of the FBI St. Louis Division. “Today’s sentencing is a clear warning that anyone who threatens the civil rights of others stands to lose his or her own freedom.”

US District Judge Henry E. Autrey, who delivered the sentence, also ordered that Rush undergo a mental health evaluation in prison and upon his release. Rush’s lawyer claims that Rush has mental health issues, including a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.


S&P reaffirms Israel’s AA- rating, citing ‘wealthy, resilient’ economy
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has kept Israel’s favorable rating unchanged at AA- with a “stable” outlook, in its newest analysis published over the weekend.

The agency forecast that Israel’s economy will have grown by a strong six percent this year, but that global economic trends would hamper growth in 2023, and Israel’s GDP will grow by an estimated 2% next year.

In updated projections last month, the Bank of Israel said it forecasts Israel’s GDP growth at 6% in 2022, and 3% in 2023, as the country — like everywhere — continues to grapple with inflation. The bank has hiked benchmark interest rates as inflation in Israel has reached 4.6% over the past 12 months, according to October data, down from 5.2% calculated in August but still well above the bank’s upper range of 3% projected in January.

In its analysis, S&P praised Israel’s “wealthy and resilient economy” as a rationale for its favorable credit rating but said such assessments “remain constrained by significant domestic and regional political and security risks.”

The agency welcomed the results of Israel’s most recent elections on November 1, which produced a bloc right, far-right, and religious parties with 64 seats of the Knesset’s 120 but noted that “domestic political volatility could persist if the surge in support for far-right parties leads to higher tensions, including in the West Bank.”

The incoming coalition headed by the Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu includes the far-right Religious Zionism faction, and ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism. Netanyahu was given the mandate on Sunday to form the next government with these coalition partners.
French, Italian energy firms sign deal with Israel on gas field shared with Lebanon
TotalEnergies and Italian hydrocarbon concern ENI have signed a framework agreement with Israel over a gas field shared with Lebanon, the French energy giant said Tuesday.

It comes after Lebanon and Israel said in October that they had struck a “historic” deal to resolve a maritime border dispute involving offshore gas fields after years of US-mediated talks.

The same month, Lebanon asked TotalEnergies to kickstart gas exploration off its shores.

TotalEnergies said that after signing the agreement it “will initiate the exploration of an already identified prospect which might extend both in block 9 and into Israel waters south of the recently established maritime borderline.”

Lebanon divided its exclusive economic zone at sea into 10 “blocks,” and block 9 was part of the area disputed with Israel.

TotalEnergies holds a 60 percent stake in block 9, while ENI holds 40 percent.

Under the terms of the maritime border agreement between Israel and Lebanon, the latter has full rights to operate and explore the so-called Qana or Sidon reservoir in block 9, parts of which fall in Israel’s territorial waters, with the Jewish state receiving some revenues.

“By bringing our expertise in offshore exploration, we will respond to the request of both countries to assess the materiality of hydrocarbon resources and production potential in this area,” said Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of TotalEnergies.
Israeli researchers find oldest evidence yet of cooked food
Fish remains discovered by Israeli scientists at the Gesher Benot Yaakov archaeological site in northern Israel appear to show that humans were cooking their food much earlier than previously estimated.

Until now, the earliest evidence of cooking is claimed to date back about 170,000 years. However, these findings – published in Nature Ecology and Evolution – indicate that the practice is much older, dating back as far as 780,000 years.

"This study demonstrates the huge importance of fish in the life of prehistoric humans, for their diet and economic stability," one of the researchers, Dr. Irit Zohar said. "Further, by studying the fish remains found at Gesher Benot Yaakov we were able to reconstruct, for the first time, the fish population of the ancient Hula Lake and to show that the lake held fish species that became extinct over time."

Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and Bar-Ilan University collaborated with the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Oranim Academic College, the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research institution, the Natural History Museum in London and the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz on the research that produced this new theory.


Tom Gross: Tell Daddy we’re all happy under British rule! The Aden Jewish Heritage Museum, a little gem in TLV
A short informal tour (filmed on my phone) of the Aden Jewish Heritage Museum in the Neve Tzedek district of southern Tel Aviv -- Tom Gross with Sarah Ansbacher.






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