Thursday, November 17, 2022
Antisemitism should test America’s conscience
The memory of the brutal Holocaust may be fast fading; yet, the evil that brought it about appears to be creeping upon us, once again. Hate speech, defamation, history revision and violence are being directed towards Jews of all ages. Perpetrators appear to be gradually “testing the waters” to see what they can get away with before upping the ante of hostilities; especially in a freedom of speech driven America.Rabbi Abraham Cooper: Is Germany ending its ‘culture of memory’ of the Holocaust?
Enemies of Jews recognize now, unlike in times gone by, that Jews no longer stand alone, and will not quietly succumb to another existential threat. This is due, in no small part, to the existing sovereign State of Israel, which now serves as a vocal advocate and refuge for Jews since its rebirth in 1948. Anti-Jewish forces recognize that Israel will not sit idly by, while the blood of our people is spilt; as was the case in its absence, during the 1930’s and 40’s; enabling the “Final Solution” Holocaust.
Indigenous Israel is and never was merely incidental to Judaism, but rather integral to the Jewish faith and its survival. Our enemies appreciate this reality. The protection afforded is so formidable that those who hate us have come to the conclusion that they must first eliminate Israel before challenging our Jewish viability. To assist in their cause and by trial and error, they came upon diversionary tactics; including cloaking their hostility towards Jews under the guise of ‘Anti-Zionism.’
This augmented with the malicious “Boycott, Divestment and Sanction terror tactics (B.D.S.),” has gained traction within the media and support from some, self-labeled progressive politicians including a number who appear to reside within the legislative branch of our government; if not covertly elsewhere, as well.
Ignoring the present day escalating antipathy towards Israel and by extension towards Jews in Israel, Europe and now in the United States, is only serving to reinforce contempt for them, in general. The ugliness manifests through opportune acts of targeted property destruction, including defacing head-stones of our dead and violence towards our living where they feel they can get away with it.
If the Israelis and Zionists are today’s Nazis, they should be attacked on the streets of Berlin, London, and Los Angeles. Germans may read that last year there was another 29% spike in antisemitic crimes in their cities – 3,027 in 2021. But why should they care? After all, they weren’t alive during World War II, let alone personally linked to Nazi Holocaust. In addition, in 2022, human rights NGOs like Amnesty International paint Israel as an apartheid state and antisemitic diplomats are given free rein to crank out one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council and General Assembly. Meanwhile, the German cultural elite, instead of rallying behind beleaguered Jewish citizens, greenlighted and defended a prestigious art exhibition rife with ugly antisemitic stereotypes.Liberal dark money network funnels cash to charity sponsoring Palestinian terror-linked group
And German Jews woke up on the anniversary of Kristallnacht to this catchy campaign on the KFC app: “Memorial Day of the Reichspogromnacht [Kristallnacht]: Treat yourself to more tender cheese with the crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!”
Any wonder why a prominent German Jewish leader just announced he can’t live in Germany anymore? He’s leaving for Israel and urging the rest of German Jewry to follow.
It’s small solace that Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, had to personally intervene with the secretary-general of the Goethe Institute to cancel the event entirely.
Before it is too late, it’s time for Germany’s political and cultural elite to denounce all those who facilitate the demonization of Israelis; time to hold antisemites accountable for their deeds and crimes, whether from far right neo Nazis, Islamists, or Jew-haters from the far left; time to end blatant antisemitic exhibitions to dress up pornographic Jew-hatred as artistic freedom; time for all German states, cities, and municipalities to fully adopt and implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism; and to endorse the Bundestag vote that labeled the anti-peace Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as antisemitic.
For decades, Germany and Israel and Jews the world over have worked hard to rebuild relations between our people in the wake of the Shoah. But where are the German voices today that rebuke those who demonize Zionists as Nazis at home, and that speak out in the face of the Iranian regime’s serial Shoah denial? Where is the public display of solidarity with Jews?
Eight decades after the Shoah, Germany must connect younger generations to the nation’s self-declared culture of memory, or it will wake up one day soon to see Hitler’s dream of a Germany that is Judenfrei, free of any Jews, become a reality.
AFGJ, which also got $210,000 from the New Venture Fund in 2020, is based in Arizona. The self-billed "progressive" and "anti-capitalist" group is an offshoot of the Nicaragua Network, a group that backed the socialist Sandinista political regime in Nicaragua.
Samidoun, which is one of up to 130 projects that AFGJ sponsors, was designated a terrorist group by Israel in February 2021 for operating as an arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. Samidoun aims to free Palestinian prisoners, who in many cases have ties to the PFLP, according to NGO Monitor, an Israeli watchdog group.
Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy found in a 2019 report that one Samidoun activist was "trained by" the Islamist terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon. That activist allegedly paid money to PFLP activists in Belgium.
On the heels of this report, Mastercard, Visa, and American Express said they would not allow their services to be used by Samidoun. Similarly, Paypal, Plaid, and Donorbox, three major global payment providers, shut down online donation portals for Samidoun in 2019 because of its PFLP ties.
In October, the Netherlands banned Samidoun's leaders from entering the European Union. Discover, the credit card company, said in 2021 it would quit processing donations to AFGJ because of its ties to Samidoun.
"If you have a mechanism that enables regular Americans to give money to a terrorist organization, that is a problem," Itai Reuveni, a spokesman for NGO Monitor, told the Washington Examiner.
Im Tirtzu: Arnold Roth in the Zionist Salon
Arnold Roth, is the bereaved father of Malki Roth who was murdered with 14 other people along with 130 people injured in the 2001 bombing of Sbarro Pizza in Jerusalem. Arnold Roth established the Malki foundation in her memory.
Ben & Jerry’s Board Denounces Ice Cream Sold Under Ben & Jerry’s Name in ‘Occupied Territories’
The independent board of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. on Tuesday disavowed any link with products sold under the Ben & Jerry’s name by the company’s Israeli distributor, Blue & White Ice Cream Ltd.Medical Professionals Fund CAIR's Gathering of Extremists in San Francisco
“Any products sold by Blue & White Ice Cream Ltd. are uniquely its own and should not be confused with products produced and distributed by Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc.” the statement said. “Ben & Jerry’s position is clear: the sale of products bearing any Ben & Jerry’s insignia in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is against our values. Such sales are inconsistent with international law, fundamental human rights, and Ben & Jerry’s social mission.”
In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s announced its intention to halt sales in the West Bank because they claimed such sales were inconsistent with the company’s values. As a result of that decision, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, sold its business interests in Ben & Jerry’s in Israel to Blue & White in June 2022, prompting an unusual court battle in which Ben & Jerry’s sued its parent company to halt the deal. A federal court rejected that bid in August, but Ben & Jerry’s in September said that they intend to pursue an amended suit.
Despite the Ben & Jerry’s board’s claim that their product in Israel was now “uniquely” the responsibility of Blue & White, Unilever on Tuesday assured ice cream eaters in Israel and the West Bank that they need not fear any change in quality. “The ownership of the brand is different, but the Ben & Jerry’s product is no different to what’s been enjoyed in Israel for many years,” the company said in a statement.
Why is a group of medical professionals in Northern California funding a gathering of extremists organized by a local Islamist organization? In particular, why is the El Camino Women's Medical Group (ECWMG) paying $5,000 to be a "Gold Sponsor" of an upcoming gala organized by the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)?The origins of the 'Jews run Hollywood' trope, echoed by Dave Chappelle
It just doesn't make any sense for a group of physicians committed to providing obstetrics, gynecology, and infertility treatment to women in the San Francisco Bay Area to fund an event featuring Linda Sarsour who, in 2011 declared, "Brigitte Gabriel= Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She's asking 4 an a$$ whippin'. I wish I could take their vaginas away – they don't deserve to be women."
If the doctors at the El Camino Women's Medical Group were to support a gala, it should be one feting Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a well-known victim of FGM and advocate of women's rights, not Sarsour.
Sarsour, who was forced to resign from the board of the Women's March in 2019 because of her ties to Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan (who spoke of "satanic Jews" at an event in 2018), simply does not merit a gala. Earlier this year, the insurance giant GEICO canceled a diversity event for its employees featuring Sarsour because of her past comments.
Sarsour isn't the only extremist speaking at the gala slated to take place this Saturday, November 19. Also attending is Ebrahim Rasool, former South African Ambassador to the United States who recently eulogized Yusef Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Prior to his recent death, Qaradawi promoted the downfall of secular democracies, incited violence against homosexuals, and lamented that Hitler didn't wipe out all the Jews during the Holocaust.
The history of Jews in HollywoodJerry Seinfeld on Dave Chappelle ‘SNL’ Monologue: “I Think the Subject Matter Calls for a Conversation”
Nearly every major movie studio was founded in the early 20th century by a group of first-generation secular Jews who immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe. Carl Laemmle (Universal), Adolph Zukor (Paramount), William Fox (Fox), Louis B. Mayer (MGM), and Benjamin Warner (Warner) were all Jewish silver-screen pioneers, laying the groundwork for the size and scale of the industry to follow.
But the industry has diversified greatly in the century since, with studios largely swallowed up by corporate behemoths. And while individual Jews may be overrepresented in an industry that has long welcomed and rewarded them, the rhetorical danger, Nadell said, comes in conflating a large Jewish presence in an industry with ownership and control of that industry.
“Jews remain active in Hollywood in a variety of roles, but it would be impossible to say that they run Hollywood, that they own Hollywood,” she said.
“Whenever the Jews enter into any kind of position where they might have influence over people who are not Jewish, then all of a sudden it’s seen as some kind of conspiracy.”
Conspiracy theories dogged Jews in Hollywood from the industry’s beginning. Because so many Jews were in control in Hollywood in its early years, Joseph Breen, who for decades ran the industry’s Production Code office and tried to make movies palatable to Catholic morality groups, blamed “the Jews” for sneaking sex, violence and moral depravity into the movies.
But their rise to the top of the still-young motion picture industry wasn’t because they were a part of some secretive cabal; it’s because, historians say, Hollywood provided a low barrier to entry for enterprising businessmen, and was lacking the antisemitic guardrails of more established industries.
“There were no social barriers in a business as new and faintly disreputable as the movies were in the early years of [the 20th] century,” historian Neal Gabler writes in his landmark 1988 book “An Empire Of Their Own: How The Jews Invented Hollywood.”
In the book, Gabler notes that the movie business, which evolved out of other professions like vaudeville and the garment industry where Jews had already found a toehold, lacked “the impediments imposed by loftier professions and more firmly entrenched businesses to keep Jews and other undesirables out.”
As such, Jews (particularly recent immigrants) were able to thrive in show business in a way they couldn’t in most other industries. Once they were in, family ties or the general phenomenon of affinity groups often led to them elevating other Jews in the industry: For example, prolific Jewish producer David O. Selznick, whose credits include “Gone With The Wind,” “Rebecca” and a huge string of other hits in the 1930s and ’40s, spent many years at MGM, run by his father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer.
Areas like the film, garment and publishing industries were attractive to Jews, Nadell said, “because there were so many other sectors of the economy where they were barred from.”
But in exchange, Hollywood’s prominent Jews had to effectively extinguish their Jewishness.
I was just watching Jon Stewart and Colbert, two of my favorite comedians, debate the Dave Chappelle SNL monologue. And I’m just curious where you fall on it. Did you find it funny?Influencer Lizzy Savetsky exits ‘Real Housewives of New York,’ citing antisemitism
I did think the comedy was well-executed, but I think the subject matter calls for a conversation that I don’t think I’d want to have in this venue.
But it made you uncomfortable.
It provokes a conversation which hopefully is productive.
And is that the kind of conversation you would have with Dave? Because you seem to have a close relationship with him.
I don’t have a close relationship with him. We’re friends and it’s not a close relationship.
One of two Jewish women tapped for the next season of a popular reality TV show has backed out, citing “a torrent of antisemitism” that she said she had received since the cast was announced.First Jewish star of ‘Love is Blind’ says antisemitic threats only make her stronger
Lizzy Savetsky, 37, had been set to appear in the 14th season of “Real Housewives of New York,” a show that broadcasts the glitzy lives of New York City socialites. (Last year, the show featured a drama-filled Shabbat dinner.) But she announced on Instagram on Wednesday that she had reconsidered because of the response that her inclusion received.
“As a proud orthodox Jewish woman, I thought participating in this series would be a great chance to represent people like me and share my experience,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, from the time of my announcement in the cast, I was on the receiving end of a torrent of antisemitism. As this continued, I realized that this path was no longer right me and my family.”
In the initial aftermath of the announcement, Savetsky was cheered by her many Jewish followers on social media, who said she could play an important role by representing Jews positively on the show. But her Instagram handle proclaiming her as a “proud Zionist” drew criticism from pro-Palestinian activists, while some Jews on social media also criticized her for not dressing modestly despite being part of a Modern Orthodox Jewish community.
Alexa Alfia isn’t afraid to let the world know she’s a proud Jewish woman.Antisemitism on college campus on the rise
In the first episode of the latest season of the wildly popular Netflix dating show “Love is Blind,” Alfia told a prospective husband that her Jewish identity was nonnegotiable.
“That’s like a fundamental part of me,” she said. “I’m not super religious by any means, but I am Jewish and I’m proud to be Jewish, and I’m proud to have an Israeli family and I love that.”
The proclamation is a rare one on mainstream US reality TV shows – and touched a nerve with many female Jewish viewers, especially at a time when antisemitism is once again in the headlines.
“I got more praise for it than I ever expected,” Alfia, 29, told The Times of Israel in a recent phone interview from her home in Dallas. “It really broke my heart though… I had so many people just send me paragraphs about how they were very cautious to say the fact that they’re Jewish, so they were just praising me for being so brave and outspoken.”
Before going on the show, Alfia said, she never imagined how much reaction her declaration of her Jewish identity would provoke, “but I’m so glad that I did, and that it’s really the first representation of that that you see on a show like this.”
For Alfia, her unapologetic honesty and sarcastic humor made her a fan favorite – and [spoiler alert] landed her a husband: Brennon Lemieux. The pair got hitched on the show, and 18 months later – after the show finally hit the streaming platform last month – are still happily married.
The latest report by the Stop Antisemitism monitoring group on the state of antisemitism on US university campuses paints a dark picture. Fifty-five percent of students surveyed report being a victim of campus antisemitism, 72% report that university administrations fail to take antisemitism and personal safety seriously, 55% of students reported needing to hide their support for Israel, while 73% report hiding their Jewish identity on campus.Harvard University Had Most Campus Antisemitic Incidents Last Year: Report
Even with a generously overstated standard deviation, this is a problematic report card on the state of Jew-hatred on US university campuses. Of equal concern, the situation in the Ivy League academia, who represent higher education’s intellectual elites, fares no better.
The 2022 report on campus antisemitism reflects a new intensity and pathological metastasis of Jew-hatred, laser-focused on Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people, and the world’s largest and central Jewish collective. The Israel-centeredness of the new antisemitism has been both woefully underestimated, and willfully overlooked by college and university administrators. Even worse, it has been intentionally exploited by faculties and “pro-Palestinian” student groups on campus.
This new virulent and virally transmitted mutation of what can be called “apartheid antisemitism” has been largely neglected by university administrations because it has masked itself as “legitimate political critique.” It is an untenable argument. Graffiti at Queen's University. (credit: Courtesy)
Harvard University had the most antisemitic incidents on college campuses during the 2021-2022 academic year, according to a new report investigating previously unexamined ways that anti-Israel activists attack and undermine Jewish identity.
Released on Wednesday by higher education antisemitism monitor AMCHA Initiative, the report, titled “Campus Antisemitism & the Assault on Jewish Identity,” claims that while previous studies have explored whether Jewish students are “safe” on campus, focus must be expanded to look at the ways in which Zionists are becoming increasingly excluded from campus life through classical “tropes of Jewish evil.”
“No other campus identity group is routinely subject to the kinds of well-orchestrated campaigns of identity assault that Zionist and pro-Israel students have had to endure for the last several years across the country,” the report said. “The threats to Jewish student identity come from their peers, professors, and even school administrators, and reach every corner of campus life — the quad, classrooms, dorm rooms, student newspapers, social media platforms, student government, and more.”
The report cited dozens of antisemitic incidents falling under its categories, including the expulsion of two Jewish women from a support group for sexual assault survivors at SUNY New Paltz, Harvard University’s campus newspaper endorsing the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement and its claim that “Zionism is Racism,” and a campaign against so-called “S***** Zionist Classes” organized by the University of Chicago’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter.
Often prompted by ideas spread by college faculty, antisemitic incidents were likeliest to occur at colleges with large Jewish student populations and increased 100% to 200% percent after Israel’s 2021 conflict with Hamas. Harvard University had the most, 25, scoring the worst in each category of antisemitism examined by the report.
Swarthmore College (@swarthmore) - a banner filled with falsities, vilifying the world's only Jewish state, was flown on campus this week.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 16, 2022
Who are the 32 you ask? Terrorists that were neutralized trying to murder Jews
1. Mahmoud Omar Sadiq Kamil
2. Kemal Abu Waar
(cont. thread) pic.twitter.com/tjV2jWlXIq
5 Cal student senators sit out antisemitism vote in protest
A UC Berkeley student government resolution denouncing antisemitism failed to earn unanimous support at a meeting of the student senate last week.
Five of the 20 student senators — elected to the ASUC, or the Associated Students of the University of California — protested the vote by not appearing at the Nov. 9 meeting where the resolution was considered and approved, according to Shay Cohen, the senator who introduced the measure.
The students who opposed the bill said it “penalizes” senators, “forcing them” to approve a resolution that “equates supporting Palestine with being antisemitic,” according to the Daily Cal student newspaper, quoting a student government official who spoke on behalf of the dissenting senators at the meeting.
In addition to decrying antisemitism, the resolution encourages students to learn more about anti-Jewish hate by visiting a webpage of the university’s Center for Jewish Studies that lists educational resources.
One of those resources is “Antisemitism in Our Midst,” a video at the heart of the dissenting students’ complaints. The 11-minute, animated instructional guide for students and staff was created by UC Berkeley professors, the director of the campus Hillel, an animator and a video producer. Released last year, it charts the history of antisemitism from early Christian blood libels to the present day.
While most of the video centers on the drumbeat of anti-Jewish bigotry in the Western world, from expulsions in medieval Europe to the race-based antisemitism that took hold in the 1800s culminating in the Holocaust, it also includes a section defining when criticism of Israel “crosses a line” into antisemitism.
The resolution, which had 17 co-sponsors and is titled “Denouncing Hatred Towards the Jewish Community,” does not mention Israel or Palestine. It cites a litany of recent hate crimes targeting Jews at U.S. universities; a recent incident in Davis in which white supremacists hung antisemitic banners; and statements by Kanye West, who has “regularly used his platform to antagonize, vilify, and target Jewish people.”
Palestinian-American Activist @NerdeenKiswani on Iran TV: Fighting, Resistance Are Beautiful and Should Be Celebrated; That’s the Only Way to Liberate Palestine; Lion’s Den, Jenin Brigade Are Involved in Active Resistance, Not Just Self-Defense #Palestinians #Iran @WOLPalestine pic.twitter.com/esTEgjEBHL
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 17, 2022
PreOccupiedTerritory: Jewish Refusal To Just Die Called ‘Failing To Learn Lessons Of Holocaust’ (satire)
More than seventy years’ worth of Jews defending themselves against Arab violence, and acting to prevent or punish such violence, took on, in some depictions today, the characterization of those Jews ignoring what their own experiences at the receiving end of genocide should have taught them: let it happen.Rabbi Abraham Cooper: Mr. Musk: Help us fight back against surging Antisemitism
Critics of Israel’s investment in military personnel, equipment, and technology called the Jewish State’s reliance on such tools a failure to learn the lessons of the Holocaust, implying that the proper response to having one third of one’s nation exterminated involves taking careful steps to avoid stepping on anyone else’s toes in the pursuit of self-defense, and where conflict emerges between self-preservation and not curtailing the rights of those who threaten Jewish self-preservation, the experience of the Holocaust dictates that Jews must err on the side of not curtailing the rights of those who seek to do Jews harm.
“It’s regrettable that Jews haven’t learn the lesson of the Holocaust,” lamented former UK Labour Party chief Jeremy Corbyn. “If there’s a lesson to be learned from the world standing idly by as Jews were shot, gassed, starved, worked, and otherwise abused to death in horrific numbers, it’s that Jews must be very, very wary of defending themselves if that might impinge on the freedom of those doing the attacking.”
This month we commemorated the 84th anniversary of the tragedy of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass), the night in 1938 when Nazis unleashed an organized pogrom destroying Germany's synagogues and rounding up 30,000 Jews to send to concentration camps.
It marked the beginning of the end of German Jewry and the precursor of the Holocaust that would soon destroy European Jewry and lead to the mass murder of 6 million Jews.
In 2022, it is clear much of the world has remembered to forget the lessons of the Shoah. We are confronted with surging antisemitism on both sides of the Atlantic, with violence against religious Jews in New York City almost a daily occurrence, with Jews shunning any outward display of their religion in world capitals, with calls for French and German Jews to get out, and with Jewish students subject to intimidation and worse on elite campuses.
And in recent days, it has been impossible to ignore the poison of antisemitism spreading across social media, with celebrities like Kanye "Ye" West and Kyrie Irving sharing conspiracy theories and antisemitic posts, blaming the "Jewish underground media mafia" for numerous alleged wrongdoings and alleging that "Jewish people have owned the Black voice."
Antisemitism may be history's oldest hate, but when it's coupled with the unprecedented marketing power of social media, it spawns devastating consequences for the Jewish people and institutions.
We are fighting back, but the first step in combatting any cancer is the need to define its parameters.
180 NGOs have urged #Twitter's @elonmusk to fight Anti-semitism on the platform @Ostrov_A explains why he believes #Musk needs to act now as the threat to Jewish people grows larger in the United States and other Western countries #TheRundown | With @calev_i24 pic.twitter.com/ZxpfxkDkqt
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) November 16, 2022
CNN Silent on Producer Who Declared Himself Supporter of ‘#TeamHitler’
Association of Foreign Press Correspondents Denounces Ibrahim’s HateBBC News yet again avoids the word terror in Ariel attack report
Following the publication of our initial article on November 13, the Berkeley-educated reporter took down his publicly accessible Twitter account, in addition to removing mentions of his employment at CNN (see here).
Meanwhile, the prestigious Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the USA (AFPC) was quick to denounce Ibrahim’s hate. In 2021, the then-student received the AFPC’s Scholarship Award, a prize that carries a cash prize of up to $10,000. “If these allegations are accurate, his purported comments would be unacceptable to us,” the AFPC board said in response to an inquiry by HonestReporting.
The statement continued: “The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the USA was unaware of Mr. Ibrahim’s alleged 2014 discriminatory public comments. Assuredly, the scholarship awarded does not in any way imply approval of Mr. Ibrahim’s reported public comments, as he bears sole responsibility for his public opinion.”
Why does CNN continue to employ a producer who declared himself part of #TeamHitler, even giving him a byline on a piece about Israel?
“In a world so jaded by fake news, it is the good old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting that is still reigning,” Ibrahim told the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents’ award ceremony in December 2021. Yet his profound hatred of the Jewish people and their state calls into question his ability to impartially report on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
On the afternoon of November 15th the BBC News website published a report about a terror attack which had taken place earlier that day in and around Ariel.In Contextualizing Palestinian Terrorism, Media Miss the Big Picture
Titled ‘Three Israelis killed by Palestinian in West Bank knife and car attack’ and credited to Raffi Berg, that report’s 322 words do not include the terms terror, terrorism or terrorist, in line with the selectively applied BBC editorial policy concerning ‘use of language’.
The report opens with signposting regarding the location of the attack:
“Three Israelis have been killed by a Palestinian in a knife and car-ramming attack near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, the military says.”
Although the information was available at the time of publication, the BBC’s report (despite having been subsequently updated) does not identify the three victims of the attack and no mention is made of the three additional people who were wounded:
“Two men in their 40s died from stab wounds and a third, in his 50s, died after being rammed by the attacker, medics said.”
The victims were in fact aged 59, 50 and 36.
The report makes no mention of the praise for the attack put out by various Palestinian terror factions and was not updated to include mention of Fatah’s lauding of the terrorist or a rally organised by Hamas.
Incitement to Violence: The Media’s Missing ContextGuardian erases the Jewish history of Hebron
When attempting to provide the context for Palestinian terrorism, one area that many mainstream media organizations seemingly ignored entirely was the ongoing violent incitement against Israel by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestinian terror groups.
In the weeks before the attack outside Ariel, the 18-year-old Palestinian terrorist would have had the opportunity to be exposed to the following instances of incitement to violence and terror:
- A November 6 article in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official daily newspaper of the PA, which claimed “there is nothing more precious” than being a “Martyr for the homeland.”
- Sirhan Yousef, a Fatah official, exclaiming on the Al-Alam network on November 6 that “Resistance is the only (way), in all its forms: armed struggle, popular Intifada, knives, and vehicle-ramming attacks.”
- A representative of Hamas on Al-Aqsa TV encouraging viewers to use YouTube and social media to learn how to use weapons in order to attack Israelis (November 5 2022).
- Video from a November 14 rally in memory of Yasser Arafat at Birzeit University. The rally included the display of automatic weapons, posters of terrorists who died in battle with Israeli security forces and people dressed up as suicide bombers.
From the above, it is clear that there is an issue with continuous incitement to violence against Israelis emanating from the official organs of the Palestinian Authority and the terror groups that are allowed to thrive under the PA’s rule.
When the media turns a blind eye to this growing problem and instead seeks to contextualize Palestinian terror by solely focusing on Israeli actions, this not only does a disservice to those who rely on them for accurate reporting but also serves to embolden those who thrive on violence within the region.
A Guardian article by Jeruslaem correspondent Bethan McKernan (“Hebron’s Jewish settlers take heart from far-right polls surge in Israel”, Nov. 12) begins thusly:
In 1968, a year after Israel’s victory in the Six Day War that marked the beginning of the occupation of the Palestinian territories, about 60 messianic Jews posing as Swiss tourists travelled to a hotel in the holy West Bank city of Hebron, where they celebrated a Passover seder.
They never left.
First, the conflict in 1967 was a defensive Israeli war necessitated by the Arab states’ effort to annihilate the Jewish state. And, the territory in question (Judea and Samaria / The West Bank) had been illegally occuped by Jordan since 1949.
Further, she gets the story of the first Israelis to re-settle in Hebron wrong.
In April of 1968, a group of Jews registered at the Park Hotel in the city, and announced they were re- establishing Hebron’s Jewish community. Prime Minister Levi Eshkol’s government decided to temporarily move the group to near-by IDF compound, while a new community (Kiryat Arba) was built adjacent to Hebron. The first 105 housing units were ready by 1972. The Jewish community in Hebron itself was only re-established permanently in April 1979, when a group of Jews from Kiryat Arba moved into Beit Hadassah and the Avraham Avinu synagogue.
Moreover, Guardian readers could believe, by reading McKernan’s article, that 1968 was the first time Jews had lived in Hebron. In fact, Hebron is one of the holiest cities in Judaism, and is the site of the world’s oldest Jewish community. Jews lived there continually for centuries until the 1929 Hebron Massacre, in which Arabs murdered sixty-seven Jews – forcing the Jewish community to leave the holy city.
Help EDUCATE not censor. We can deal with antisemitism on social media far more effectively by using the tool of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.#AdoptIHRA #DefineItToFightIt @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/DtGbXKfKsP
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? ????? ????? (@emilykschrader) November 16, 2022
'I converted to Judaism only to discover my grandmother was part of Hitler Youth'
Although the death of Queen Elizabeth II overshadowed the festivities of the event marking her platinum jubilee – organized by the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club, which is the official royal car – over a thousand guests arrived at Grosvenor House in London to mark the special date.Tory councillor who claimed he was exploring a research interest in Oswald Mosley when he posed in 'blackshirt' uniform with fascist group New British Union is suspended - but denies authoring anti-Semitic posts written under his name on his website
The hall was filled with guests wearing lavish evening gowns and Versace suits, and the smell of luxury perfumes as well as wine, served by Vered Ben-Sadon, the owner of Tura Winery in Israel. Together with her father, they poured the drink that had been prepared at home, in Judea and Samaria, in a settlement called Rehelim, which none of the guests had heard of before.
But before Vered, a now-observant 45-year-old woman, became a winemaker, she lived in Holland as Rosa Van-Koburden. She comes from a family whose ancestors were involved with the Nazis and has now become a Jewish woman raising five children and running a business from a settlement.
"We are not afraid," she said of herself and her husband, Erez. "We march forward with all our strength. We believed that if we planted vineyards – we would succeed. And I, from a young age, had the ability to set a goal and stick to it. I had no problem reaching even the queen and serving her a glass of wine. I'm really not afraid."
To understand Vered's story we need to travel back 70 years, to the city of Essen, in the province of Groningen in the Netherlands. Rivka, Vered's mother, who went by a Dutch name then, was born to Rol and Rekia Meyer, a non-Jewish couple.
"I had a beautiful childhood," Rivka recalled. "I was an only child and received a lot of warmth and love.
A Kent county councillor who had 'far-right Nazi' interests has apologised after 'potentially upsetting' images emerged of him at a rally for fascist group New British Union (NBU).Portuguese diplomat who saved thousands during Holocaust honored with plaza in Jerusalem
Cllr Andy Weatherhead took an interest in the group before joining the Conservative Party and was even photographed wearing a 'blackshirt', according to campaign group Hope not Hate.
Cllr Weatherhead has represented Hythe West on Kent County Council since last year and previously stood for election for UKIP four times.
Campaigner for Hope not Hate Gregory Davis declared Weatherhead was unfit for office and said he 'cannot be trusted'.
'It's simple,' Mr Davis said: 'His history of fascist activism and antisemitism mean he cannot be trusted to represent the people of Kent.'
In a statement shared with local media, Cllr Weatherhead said he became aware of the New British Union 'whilst undertaking research' on Oswald Mosley in 2012 or 2013.
A plaza in Jerusalem’s Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood has been named after Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who saved thousands of lives during the Holocaust but spent the rest of his life as a social pariah."Israeli Doctors to Correct Gaza Boy’s Heart Defect"
“This small corner of Jerusalem, the eternal city, now carries the name of a hero,” Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion announced at a ceremony last week. “Think of the many thousands who will pass by here every day. Many of them, perhaps, Jews who were saved because of the bravery of ambassador Sousa Mendes.”
Sousa Mendes served as consul in Bordeaux in 1940 and gave visas to an estimated 10,000 Jewish refugees as the Nazis rose to power in Europe. Risking danger to himself and his family, Sousa Mendes saved an estimated 30,000 people total despite the “circular 14” decree issued by Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar, which banned Portuguese diplomats from supplying Jews with visas.
Mendes was recognized with a monument in Lisbon in 2020 and had an airplane named after him in 2014, but his actions were not widely acknowledged during his life. He was recalled back to Lisbon during the war, blacklisted and subsequently fell into poverty. Lisbon’s Jewish community fed him and his family in their community soup kitchen.
“He lost everything,” Olivia Mattis, president of the Sousa Mendes Foundation and a descendant of one of those he saved, told The Times of Israel.
Five-year-old Amir Yichya Mabchuch, a resident of Jabaliya, will arrive in Israel from Gaza on Friday with his grandmother to undergo open heart surgery, courtesy of the Save a Child’s Heart organization.Robert Clary, Corporal LeBeau on ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ Dies at 96
The surgery is scheduled to take place Sunday at Israel’s Wolfson Medical Center.
Amir, who lives with his parents and younger sister, caught a virus at the age of two months. His mother Maha took him to the local family doctor — Dr. Youssef Alaf — who checked the infant and identified a heart defect resulting from a blockage in one of his coronary arteries.
“Already at that age we understood that Amir would require an operation to fix the defect,” his mother said.
Young Amir’s condition has a significant impact on his quality of life. He is unable to perform simple actions like other children of his age and must always be careful when exerting himself; he is not allowed to run for any length of time and even walks can place a potentially life-threatening strain on his heart.
Amir has grown up under constant medical supervision. During one of his visits to his doctor, the family was told about the Israeli NGO, Save a Child’s Heart, that brings children to Israel from the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria for life-saving operations.
Robert Clary, the French actor, singer and Holocaust survivor who portrayed Corporal LeBeau on the World War II-set sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, has died. He was 96.Tom Gross: Adele Levitova’s Dreamlers: Russian and Ukrainian artists come together in Tel Aviv
Clary, who was mentored by famed entertainer Eddie Cantor and married one of his five daughters, died Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles, his granddaughter Kim Wright told The Hollywood Reporter.
CBS’ Hogan’s Heroes, which aired over six seasons from September 1965 to April 1971, starred Bob Crane as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, an American who led an international group of Allied prisoners of war in a covert operation to defeat the Nazis from inside the Luft Stalag 13 camp.
As the patriotic Cpl. Louis LeBeau, the 5-foot-1 Clary hid in small spaces, dreamed about girls, got along great with the guard dogs and used his expert culinary skills to help the befuddled Nazi Colonel Wilhelm Klink (Werner Klemperer) get out of trouble with his superiors.
Clary was the last surviving member of the show’s original principal cast.
Born Robert Max Widerman in Paris on March 1, 1926, Clary was the youngest of 14 children in a strict Orthodox Jewish family. At age 12, he began singing and performing; one day when he was 16, he and his family were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz.
“My mother said the most remarkable thing,” Clary told The Hollywood Reporter’s Peter Flax in late 2015. “She said, ‘Behave.’ She probably knew me as a brat. She said, ‘Behave. Do what they tell you to do.'”
Clary’s parents were murdered in the gas chamber that day.
At Buchenwald, Clary sang with an accordionist every other Sunday to an audience of SS soldiers. “Singing, entertaining and being in kind of good health at my age, that’s why I survived,” he told Flax.
Clary was incarcerated for 31 months (he worked in a factory making 4,000 wooden shoe heels each day) and tattooed with the identification “A-5714” on his left forearm. He was the only one of his captured family to make it out alive.
A short informal video taken on my phone. Tom Gross tours Adele Levitova’s art opening at the Creator’s Gallery on Mazal Dagim street 15, in Old Jaffa, in the southern part of Tel Aviv.
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