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Monday, December 12, 2022

12/12 Links Pt2: The Apartheid Libel to Destroy Israel; Teaching Terror to Tots - reevaluating the Oslo Accords; Collier: An open letter to Gary Lineker

From Ian:

PMW: Teaching Terror to Tots - reevaluating the Oslo Accords
Many observers have been puzzled why the 1993 Oslo peace accords did not lead to peace but precisely the opposite. Sporadic Palestinian terror attacks prior to 1993 were replaced by repeated Palestinian terror waves murdering more than 2,000 Israelis. PMW’s report "Teaching Terror to Tots” is the key to understanding the post-Oslo terror enigma.

Palestinian Media Watch as been documenting official PA/Fatah ideologies, policies and messages disseminated through every framework they control for over 20 years and everything that PMW has exposed has raised questions about the sincerity of the PA/Fatah in the peace process. PMW recently published a report on Fatah’s Waed magazine for children ages 6 – 15, covering every issue published over the last eight years. The messages for Palestinian children spread through Waed confirm that the PA/Fatah end game was, and remains, Israel’s destruction and Israel’s replacement by “Palestine”.

The hundreds of examples in the 70 page report show that through Waed, Fatah – that has dominated and controlled the PA since its creation – has been teaching Palestinian children that:
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” after “the Zionist invaders will go to the garbage can of history” because “the period of Zionism will eventually pass.” As a last step all “the Jewish settlers in Palestine will disappear.”

Israel must be destroyed because Jews/Israelis are:
“Zionist thieves who stole our land”… “Jewish invaders”… “foreigners from all ends of the earth who did not know Palestine and did not live in it – neither them nor their forefathers.”

Since Jews have no rights, Palestinians have the “right to wage an armed struggle to take back its stolen homeland.” This is the only PA/Fatah path, because “the liberation of Palestine will only be achieved through armed struggle.”

In short, the PA/Fatah’s message to children is that Israel was created by theft, its continued existence is a crime, and its destruction via the armed struggle is justified and inevitable. The children who read Waed are taught that they have the responsibility to bring about the future world without Israel.

The PA/Fatah education that is documented in the report is the driving force behind the current Palestinian terror wave that is led by Palestinian youth who have been raised on these hate messages. If no action is taken to combat the PA/Fatah education to hate and terror, it will continue to be the driving force for Palestinian violence for generations.

PMW’s exposure of the PA/Fatah messages through Waed should have far-reaching political implications. Attitudes towards the Oslo Accords and policy towards the PA must be reassessed based on the reality of what the PA is and not the illusion of what the international community imagined it would be. If Palestinian terror is to be stopped and stability returned to Israel, the newly exposed PA/Fatah teachings must be the impetus for a new attitude towards the PA.

PMW is releasing this report at the GPO’s Christian Media Conference in Jerusalem.

To read PMW's "Teaching Terror to Tots" click here.

The following is an Executive Summary of "Teaching Terror to Tots":
Khaled Abu Toameh: The Apartheid Libel to Destroy Israel
Recently... however, with the UNHRC's persistent allegations that Israel is an apartheid state, that label is being pushed even further in an apparent effort to make it stick. The complicity of recent reports from NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch appear to be trying to ensure that their libel will be complete.

The campaign emboldens the radicals among the Palestinians, including the Iranian-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), whose declared goal is to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Islamist state.

Terrorist groups such as Hamas and PIJ are undoubtedly happy to see non-Arabs and non-Muslims -- and even ostensible human rights organizations -- join their effort to falsely depict Israel as an apartheid state.

Former UNHRC chief Navi Pillay, despite extensive evidence of massive anti-Israel bias, was recently appointed to chair the UNHRC's first and only open-ended Commission of Inquiry.

Basically, [the New York Times] is saying that although the two countries cannot be equated, the comparison is being forced and twisted into place for the sake of furthering an alternate agenda which has little to do with the facts on the ground.

Israel's founding charter pledges to safeguard the equal rights of all residents: "... It will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

Among many of South Africa's Apartheid laws, the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act effectively stripped all Blacks of their South African citizenship and of the right to vote.

Israeli Arabs, however, have full citizenship, including the right to vote and to public demonstration. They are represented in all levels of government, including positions as members of Knesset (parliament), in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as Supreme Court justices. Israeli Arabs hold positions as high-ranking officers in the Israel Defense Forces, including that of major-general in the Central Command.


David Collier: An open letter to Gary Lineker
Last week a Palestinian tried to attacked Israelis in the car. He then stabbed a nearby border guard in the face. When he lost a struggle to steal a weapon he was shot and killed. A UN spokesperson reduced it to a ‘scuffle’. This vile rewriting of history was then repeated in the Guardian newspaper.

There is no correlation remaining whatsoever between the event (the terror attack) and the way it was reported (an innocent man was shot). It is the lie that goes viral. Raw propaganda packaged for the international virtue signallers.

Why on earth would you want to get involved in this?

Spreading myths empowers the extremists. It perpetuates the conflict and pushes peace further away. Nobody in their right mind seriously believes those people attacking Israelis want a two state solution. Nor do those putting up illegal structures. They have deliberately created a battlefield (it doesn’t actually exist unless they come out to confront Israelis).

All this ends with people on the outside, people such as yourself – making it all worse by promoting the propaganda.

So please, can you virtue signal at someone else’s expense – and leave what you do not understand alone.


Mossad reveals how spy Eli Cohen was caught by Syria
The Mossad revealed decisively for the first time on Monday how its most famous spy was caught in 1965.

Mossad Director David Barnea disclosed on Monday the content of Eli Cohen’s last cable to the agency, on January 19, 1965, as well as that the cable was intercepted.

In the cable, Cohen reported to his clandestine supervisors that then-Syrian president Amin al-Hafiz had met with the Syrian military high command at 5 p.m. – this being just shortly before Cohen was captured.

For decades, there has been a debate about whether Cohen, who gave the Mossad significant information about top Syrian officials and armaments from the early 1960s-1965, was caught because his handlers pushed him too hard or he himself took too many risks.

Barnea said releasing the last cable was part of an effort to make it clear that no one was “to blame,” and that sometimes even the best of spies – and he rated Cohen a legend for his contributions to the organization – can be caught by persistent counterintelligence by an enemy.

Who was Eli Cohen?
He said Cohen “was not captured because he sent too many transmissions, because he did not act according to protocol or because headquarters pressured him into transmitting too frequently.”

“From now on, this is an intelligence fact,” said Barnea.

Cohen trained extensively and spent time in Argentina to build a deep cover story as a businessman with strong ties to Syria, and succeeded in befriending a variety of top Syrian officials.

During his time in Syria, he threw lavish parties for wealthy Syrians, especially security officials, connecting some of them with prostitutes and sometimes lending them money.

“Eli Cohen was among our best spies. He continues to impact us through his fighting spirit, courage, values and dedication” serving as a “source of inspiration” for the full spectrum of Mossad agents, said Barnea.

There is some debate among historians, but at least some credit the intelligence he provided as playing a crucial role in Israel’s success during the Six Day War.
The Mossad’s Top 10 Operations
The Mossad, Israel’s famed spy agency, is one of the most effective tools that the Jewish state has in its defensive arsenal.

Since its founding, the State of Israel has continuously been under existential threat, surrounded by enemy nations who actively seek its destruction, targeted by international terrorist organizations, and threatened by other non-governmental actors who aim to harm the Jewish state.

Since its founding in 1949, Mossad has undertaken numerous operations around the world to protect the Jewish state from those seeking its destruction.

Known for both its daring and operational success, here are the top 10 intelligence operations undertaken by the Mossad (in chronological order):

Operation Finale: The Mossad’s Hunt for Adolf Eichmann (1960)
In 1957, Dr. Fritz Bauer, a German-Jewish Holocaust survivor who was serving as the prosecutor-general for the state of Hesse in West Germany, approached the Mossad with information that Adolf Eichmann was alive and well in Argentina.

As the SS officer in charge of the Gestapo’s Jewish department, Eichmann had been one of the key architects of the Final Solution, responsible for facilitating the transportation and murder of hundreds of thousands of European Jews during the Holocaust.

Following Germany’s surrender, Eichmann was captured three times by Allied forces but was able to escape each time.

In 1950, Eichmann was able to escape Germany with the aid of members of the Catholic Church and former Nazis and set sail for a new life in Argentina.

Bauer’s information concerning Eichmann’s whereabouts was based on the testimony of a German-Jewish man living in Argentina, whose daughter had entered into a romantic relationship with one of Eichmann’s sons.

Although Israeli intelligence initially dismissed his claims, Bauer persisted and finally prevailed upon Israel’s leadership to take the information seriously.

At the end of 1959, Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion ordered Isser Harel, the head of the Mossad, to capture Eichmann and bring him back to Israel for trial.

The Mossad initially sent the chief investigator for Israel’s internal security agency, Zvi Aharoni, to Buenos Aires to track down Eichmann.

Although Bauer’s information was dated, Aharoni was able to find Eichmann, and a 30-person Mossad team (including Harel, the head of Mossad) was soon put together to bring him back to Israel. Many of the team members were Holocaust survivors who had lost family and friends at the hands of the Nazis.

After more reconnaissance, the team devised a plan to kidnap Eichmann.
Do Not Overinterpret Qatar’s Hostility toward Israelis
In order to host the World Cup soccer championship, Qatar—a major funder of Hamas and exporter of anti-Semitism—agreed to allow Israeli fans and reporters into its borders for the duration of the tournament. Many of the roughly 4,000 citizens of the Jewish state who came to the emirate for the games were surprised at the animus they encountered from soccer fans, local businesses, and even cab drivers. Hussein Aboubakr writes:

Pro-Palestinian activists and Palestinian media picked up these stories in the most celebratory ways, making video compilations and using them to prove that the Abraham Accords never represented the true opinion of most Arabs. Many of them, including sympathetic Western observers, used them to bolster the claim that the Palestinian cause pretty much remains the unifying cause of all the Arabs.

But while a first emotional impression might indicate such a possibility, this is more of a propagandistic depiction of reality than the truth. All such incidents, including the hysterical waving of Palestinian flags by many Arab fans, were utterly ignored by Emirati, Saudi, and Bahraini media outlets. Many of the Arab Gulf social-media personalities sympathetic to the Abraham Accords even used the opportunity to deride Qatar and the hatred the Palestinian cause produces.

[T]here is little doubt such hostility would not have occurred without the official anti-Israel policy and climate that Qatar insists on maintaining and funding domestically and regionally. The . . . experience of Israelis in Qatar is a stark contrast to their experience in the UAE, where Israelis flooded Dubai only to find a welcoming and hospitable environment. . . . The intimidation and harassment of Israelis in Doha didn’t occur because of the spontaneous outbreak of love of Palestine but because everyone knows the leaders of Qatar approve of it. If this proves anything, it is not that the Abraham Accords do not work; it is that they most certainly do.


We Must Confront Antisemitism in All Forms–Even When It Comes from Minorities
On Dec. 8, the Anti-Defamation League of San Diego organized a town hall meeting at the Temple Emanu-El synagogue in San Diego featuring an all-star lineup: Mayor Todd Gloria, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Randy Grossman, Jewish community leader and activist Sheri J. Sachs, Hillel of San Diego’s Executive Director Karen Parry, and San Diego Pride Executive Director Fernando López.

In addition, the Jewish Federation of San Diego’s president, Heidi Gantwerk, and the Temple’s rabbi, Devorah Marcus, also spoke. Representatives from various Congressional offices attended along with other luminaries.

The political firepower of the speakers on the dais testified to how seriously everyone takes the alarming rise of antisemitism in the United States, and everyone spoke passionately against antisemitism and the necessity of combatting antisemitism whenever we see it. Several talked about their emotional devastation following the Poway shooting, and how alarmed they were at such an event happening in our backyard. Grossman recalled how the world changed for him when he attended an outdoor Yom Kippur service and saw armed guards on the synagogue’s roof.

All the speakers agreed that white supremacy and Christian nationalism was a cancer that needed to be removed from the body politic. Everyone felt very virtuous at how we were all fighting the good fight.

Then somebody asked a question about Jews and the Black community, and there was silence. You could have heard a pin drop. Nobody wanted to talk about the San Diego Community College inviting Alice Walker, who wrote a poisonous “poem” about Judaism to speak at the chancellor’s investiture. Or Kanye West’s ongoing tirades against Jews. Or Kyrie Irving’s promoting an antisemitic film. Nobody wanted to confront Lewis Farrakhan’s blaming Jews for slavery, or the Black Hebrew march in early November, 2022, and their chant, “We are the real Jews.” Or Dave Chappelle’s antisemitic Saturday Night Live monologue.

It’s easy to denounce white supremacy and xenophobia. The notion that white people are superior and threatened with extinction by Jews and foreigners with darker skin has led to numerous atrocities and mass murders. But while lethal, it’s hardly mainstream.

But calling out antisemitism among your historical allies, that’s much harder. It’s certainly very strange to see some members of the Black community making common cause with white supremacists, people who, to put it mildly, have no particular love for Black people. Nick Fuentes, for example, said that Jim Crow segregation was a good thing, “And even if it was bad, who cares?…it was better for them, it’s better for us.”

So to see Kanye West and Fuentes breaking bread together, or a group of neo-Nazis hanging a banner over a Los Angeles Freeway proclaiming “Kanye Was Right,” well, the head spins. Until you realize that the two are united in the hatred of Jews.
There Are Lots of Jews in Hollywood. Let a Rabbi Explain Why
HERE’S SOMETHING WE’RE not allowed to say about Ye/Kanye West’s recent series of antisemitic tirades: there’s a small grain of truth in them.

No, obviously not the conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, or downright fascistic claims that people who don’t believe in Christ shouldn’t hold public office. Ye has clearly crossed over into either profound mental illness, or hatred, or both.

But it is true that Hollywood has a lot of Jewish people in it, right?

It should not be controversial to admit this. After all, Adam Sandler sang in 1994 that “so many Jews are in showbiz.” And, speaking here as someone who’s worked as a rabbi, queer activist, and journalist for the last twenty years, I don’t think it’s helpful for us to deny this reality, or refuse to discuss it. Doing so just shoves people’s questions underground, where they often ferment into doubts or misgivings, aided by the shit-filled fertilizer of online conspiracy mongers.

So I’m going to talk about it.

Not to defend Kanye, because that’s impossible. But because, again speaking as a rabbi here, I understand that reasonable, non-bigoted people might wonder about why there are so many Jews in the entertainment industry, and I want to answer that question. Especially because, as it turns out, the real story of why there are so many Jews in Hollywood is, itself, largely about America’s long history of racism and antisemitism.

For centuries in Europe and America, Jews were shut out of most avenues to wealth. Until the 1800s, we were forbidden from owning land in most of Europe and barred from most guilds, industries, and professions. As a result, European Jews seeking upward mobility turned to urban, cosmopolitan occupations like trade, the lending of money (which was often forbidden to Christians), and, when they could, to emerging professions like law. Many also turned to theatrical entertainment, which was often regarded as too indecent (and, for men, “effeminate”) for respectable Christians.

This continued in the United States, but with more opportunity for entrepreneurship. The elite “white-shoe” law firms all banned Jews, so Jews started their own (often with a non-Jewish partner as the first name on the door). The elite hospitals refused to hire Jewish doctors, so Jews started their own (often with Jewishly resonant names like Mount Sinai). The elite theaters refused to employ Jews, so Jews came to dominate vaudeville — and, eventually, the nascent film industry, which, like vaudeville, was seen as too vulgar, too working-class, too low-brow for good Christians to be involved with.
TMZ: KANYE WEST NAMED 'ANTISEMITE OF THE YEAR' By Watchdog Group
Kanye West may never win another music-related award again, but there's one group that's honoring him with a not-so-flattering title ... "Antisemite of the Year."

After several weeks and nearly 10,000 votes from members online, watchdog group StopAntisemitism has named Ye the most problematic person of 2022 when it comes to the group's mission.

Liora Rez, SA's Executive Director, tells TMZ, "Kanye uses his celebrity platform to push dangerous antisemitic tropes about Jews and power and he refuses to stop. His continuous onslaught of bigoted statements has resulted in horrific antisemitic acts perpetrated by white supremacists, Black Hebrew Israelites, and other fringe groups looking to cause Jews harm."

She continues, "Jew hatred is already out of control in the United States and the last thing we need is a celebrity like Kanye to add fuel to that fire.”

It's not hard to find the evidence backing Kanye's "Antisemite of the Year" victory.

As we reported, it was shortly after he declared he was, "going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE" when a group was spotted hanging a "Kanye is right about the Jews" sign over an L.A. freeway.

Just a few days after that, Kanye told Piers Morgan he only wished harm on Jewish people who did him wrong in music and business deals.

Finally, it was last week on Alex Jones "Infowars" when Kanye declared he loved Hitler, denied parts of the Holocaust and demanded Nazis get hated on less when things really ramped up.

We know Adidas, Balenciaga and some of Kanye's closest friends have all cut ties ... he even lost an honorary degree.

Hard to imagine his "Antisemite of the Year" honor will disappear any time soon.
Kanye ‘Ye’ West Suspended From Clubhouse After Spewing Antisemitic Remarks During Live Q&A
Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, was suspended from Clubhouse after spewing antisemitic remarks at a private online event Saturday, TheWrap has confirmed.

Ye and Wack100 were hosting a private Q&A on Clubhouse — entrance was $20 — that extended to about 50 minutes before the session was abruptly ended and Ye was suspended from the social media platform after making multiple antisemitic comments during the event.

When asked to confirm West was suspended from Clubhouse as a result of what was said at the live event, a spokesperson for the company responded with the following statement.

“We took action to shut down a conversation yesterday because it violated our policies,” the statement reads. “We also suspended those who violated the policies. There’s absolutely no place for bullying, hate speech or abuse on our platform as explicitly stated in our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service.”

TheWrap was unable to reach West for comment and Wack100 didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.

During the almost 56-minute conversation, Ye and Wack100 discussed some of the latest controversy surrounding the artist, including Adidas ending its partnership with Ye.

Ye also continued his ongoing rampage against Endeavor CEO Ari Emmanuel — against whom he previously wrote a long, antisemitic screed alongside a graphic post-lynching photo of civil rights icon Emmett Til on Instagram — by taunting Emmanuel for “being at the lowest level of the power structure.”

Though Ye made comments regarding Jewish people throughout the session, the event was ended by Clubhouse after Ye spouted a conspiracy theory suggesting that Jewish people “are used by the Chinese” to control Black people, adding that Jewish people “are just middlemen.”
Study: Four in five Israeli teens have experienced antisemitism online
Eighty-one percent of Israeli teens reports having encountered antisemitism online, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, found that 71% of Israeli teens had encountered antisemitism on social networks, 66% were exposed to web pages displaying antisemitic content, 65% were exposed to songs or videos with antisemitic content and 30% have come across entire websites dedicated to antisemitic content, according to Ynet.

Only 14% of the respondents reported never encountering any antisemitism online.

The study also found that an “overwhelming majority” of respondents could distinguish between criticism of the State of Israel or government policies and other antisemitic statements, according to the report.

Eighty-four percent stated that imposing a boycott on Israel constitutes antisemitism, 88% said that denying the existence of the State of Israel constitutes antisemitism and 88% said that publishing conspiracy theories about Israel and the “Zios” ruling the world constitutes antisemitism.

Only 29% of respondents stated that criticizing Israeli policies equates to antisemitism.
German Anti-Zionist-NGO Supporter Helps ADL Examine Exposure to Antisemitism in Israel
Back in 2013, NGO Monitor listed the Konrad Adenauer Foundation among the funders of the vehemently antisemitic NGO MIFTAH, founded in 1998 by Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. On March 27, 2013, MIFTAH posted an article, in Arabic, by Nawaf al-Zaru, who wrote, “Does Obama in fact know the relationship, for example, between ‘Passover’ and ‘Christian blood’…?! Or ‘Passover’ and ‘Jewish blood rituals…?! Much of the historical stories and tales about Jewish blood rituals in Europe are based on real rituals and are not false as they claim; ‘the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover’…”

The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, which receives its funding from the German government, has since been funding 972 Magazine, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), according to the NGO Monitor. Other German government-supported funds such as the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, have been paying the bill for equally despicable NGOs that blend antisemitic and anti-Israel messages.

On Sunday, Ynet reported about a survey that was conducted on behalf of the Anti-Defamation League and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, according to which “81% of Israeli youth have encountered antisemitism on the Internet, either in general or private, and 27% have personally experienced curses online for being Jewish.”

Had the prophet Elijah read about this collaboration between the ADL and the KAF, he would have surely repeated his famous accusation: Did you murder and inherit your victim? (I Kings 29:19)

Or, as the Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Israel, Dr. Beatrice Gorawantschy, put it: “The results of the survey are shocking and cause great concern. This is a wake-up call for all of us. We see these data as a warning sign, which will only increase our determination to fight even more strongly against antisemitism, and all forms of expressions of hatred and violence.”

She added: “In our collaboration with the ADL we seek to inform, expose, explain, shock, show solidarity, and stimulate awareness and constant thought on this important issue.”
Three years after Corbyn’s defeat, UK’s Labour fights to purge lurking antisemitism
Three years ago today, Jeremy Corbyn, the far-left leader of Britain’s Labour party, suffered a devastating defeat in the country’s general election.

With his leadership dogged by allegations of antisemitism, the Jewish community had viewed the prospect of a Corbyn premiership with fear and trepidation.

Today, Labour’s political prospects have been transformed. Under Keir Starmer, a moderate who has dragged the party back to the center ground, it holds a steady, 20-point lead in the polls.

Likewise, relations with the Jewish community are being painstakingly rebuilt — even if some fear that the ghost of Corbynism has not yet been fully laid to rest.

“The Labour Party under Starmer’s leadership is a different one from that under his predecessor,” says Claudia Mendoza, co-chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council. “From day one, he has acted in good faith and with actions to match his words. He has been unequivocal in his stance against antisemitism because he knows that for the party to be taken seriously again, it needed this issue to be dealt with.”

But, reflecting the sense that Starmer’s task isn’t yet complete, Mendoza adds: “There is still work to do, especially with respect to rebuilding the relationship with the community. There does now seem to be an understanding that anti-Zionism often strays into antisemitism on the left and there is still work needed to deal with this.”


Pro-Palestinian activists break into Israel-affiliated weapons factory in Wales
Pro-Palestinian activists broke into an American-owned weapons factory in Wales this week, local media reported. Members of Palestine Action used sledgehammers to smash their way into Teledyne Labtech on Dec. 9 where they destroyed computers, while also splashing red paint on the outside of the building.

PA representatives said the action was carried out to protest the firm's reported involvement in supplying military hardware to Israel used in its occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

A local police statement said a "large number" of officers were called to the site to respond to the protest, adding that two people were arrested.

"Palestine Action vow to continue this action for as long as possible to stop the manufacture or shipment of Israel's drone technologies and military gear," PA said in a statement issued on its website.


Powys Residents Condemn Palestine Protestors
Protestors who caused extensive damage on Friday to Teledyne Labtech Ltd., an American-owned weapons plant, have been condemned by locals. One man who lives near the factory said: "It's ridiculous and pathetic. How will this help them?"

Another man told us: "I know the company makes circuit boards, but it's stupid, I don't agree with what they're doing at all....The Israelis need the radar to spot the rockets they keep launching into Israel, so I'd say it's a worthy cause (the work done at Labtech)....It's local people that are worst affected, the number of good employers around here is few and far between."

A woman who lives nearby said: "I don't believe in what they're doing. It's a free country and I believe in protesting but there's no need for causing damage. It's the local workers who will be worst affected."
Guardian incites the mob
Though most major outlets were careful and factual in their reporting of the incident, videos and pictures of his death were circulated on Palestinian social media, and by the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, referring to the killing as a cold-blooded “execution”.

Naturally, the Guardian – in an official editorial – decided to completely ignore the facts and, instead, further incite the Israel-hating mob. The Dec. 7th editorial was ostensibly about the dangers posed by the incoming Israeli government, but it also added this for ‘context’:
The crisis in the Holy Land is once again at “boiling point”, with blood being spilled on both sides. Tor Wennesland, the UN’s peace envoy, did not mince his words to the security council this week. The rising death toll in the West Bank, the worst since 2006, is roiling the waters. Since January, about 140 Palestinians have been killed in this territory, nearly all by Israeli forces. Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have left 30 dead.

Days earlier, Mr Wennesland had been “horrified” by the fatal shooting of an unarmed Palestinian man during a scuffle with an Israeli border police officer. The macabre video of the killing revealed he was right to be alarmed. Yet rather than upbraiding the officer for a public execution, the incoming national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, from the far-right Jewish Power party, hailed him as a hero.

First, it’s quite telling that the BBC article the editorial links to (what editors refer to as the “macabre” video) focuses on a completely different incident – the death of another Palestinian during clashes in the village of al-Mughayyir which occurred several days prior to the incident in Hawara. Yet, nothing in the video described in that BBC article evokes an “execution”.

Further, the UN’s Wennesland was clearly expressing his “horror” about the incident in Hawara, the same incident Ben-Gvir referred to when describing the soldier as a “hero”.

So, the Guardian conflated two different incidents.

However, even if editors were clear about which incident they were referring to, their use of the term “public execution” represents a deliberate decision to use the most incendiary and morally reckless rhetoric possible in order to impute maximum malice to Israel and infinite victimhood to Palestinians – thus reinforcing the narrative fancied by the most belligerent and extremist Palestinian voices.

We’ve complained to Guardian editors, but – surprising nobody – they’ve failed to respond.


‘Run Jews, get out of here!’: Assailants with tasers chase Jews in Brooklyn
A group of Jewish boys was chased by attackers firing a taser gun and shouting “Run Jews! Get out of here!” in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, the local chapter of Shmira, a Jewish public safety group, reported on Sunday.

The incident took place on Avenue J and East 16 Street, right near the Flatbush Yeshiva and Touro College’s Lander College of Arts and Sciences. The area is home to a large Jewish community and many Jewish schools and businesses.

Surveillance camera footage from the scene shows a group of Jewish boys running down the street as a group of assailants runs after them shouting. The flash of the taser can be seen in the footage as well.

The antisemitic attack is under investigation by the New York Police Department’s 70th Precinct and the Flatbush Shmira chapter. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call 911 or 718-871-4444.

The Anti-Defamation League in New York and New Jersey tweeted that it has taken note of the incident and is reaching out to partners and law enforcement for more information.

Antisemitism on the rise in the Big Apple
NYPD data revealed last week that antisemitic hate crimes across New York City's five boroughs more than doubled in November 2022 compared to November 2021.

There were 45 hate crimes motivated by antisemitism in November compared to 20 in November 2021, according to the NYPD data.

Antisemitic hate crimes have skyrocketed in the Big Apple throughout the year. The worst spike so far occurred in February, which saw 56 anti-Jewish hate crimes, compared to 11 in February 2021.


Man who snatched boy's yarmulke aboard Brooklyn subway train sought
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating after a man ripped a boy's yarmulke on a Brooklyn subway train last week, authorities said.

It happened aboard the northbound 3 train at the Franklin Avenue station near Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights on Monday, November 28, at 7:45 p.m., police said.

According to officials, the suspect approached a 10-year-old boy and snatched his Kippah off his head and fled.

The boy was not injured as a result of this incident.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). Related
CAA writes to online gift shop discovered selling Adolf Hitler pocket watches and cufflinks
Campaign Against Antisemitism will be writing to an online gift shop after it has been found to be selling paraphernalia emblazoned with the image of Adolf Hitler.

The online retailer Giftshop UK has been discovered selling, among other items, pocket watches, keyrings, badges, cufflinks and mirrors, all featuring the Nazi dictator’s likeness.

Additionally, it appears that the descriptions for the products omit any mention of Hitler’s name.

The description for a product labelled “Adolf Hitler Flip Top Lighter”, for example, reads: “Our Chrome Flip Top Lighter is the perfect smokers gift, that is practical, functional and looks good.”
What I Saw as a Jewish Teen Visiting Poland
During Thanksgiving break, I had the privilege of taking a trip to Poland with my father. We visited Krakow, Warsaw, Lublin, and Łódź. As someone with large swaths of Polish heritage and a family history with the Holocaust, I felt very moved by the prospect of spending a week in Poland. As soon as my dad made the decision, he entered into a mode of heavy research to find out more about our heritage and history. I did my part, and began to self-study and learn Polish on the Internet.

Upon arriving in Warsaw, our first outing was to Polin, the museum of the Jewish people in Poland. Coupled with the Jewish cemetery and a comprehensive ghetto tour, we got our fair share of Warsaw’s Jewish history over the course of the next two days.

On the third day, we took a trip to Łódź. I had heard about the ghetto there, and was shocked at what I found. The remnants of the ghetto were a plethora of abandoned buildings, all crumbling apart, with a small and hidden memorial inside a public park. The sight broke my heart. A demolition team was actively taking down two buildings from the ghetto time period when I visited, meaning history was being destroyed before my very eyes.

The remnants of the Warsaw Ghetto were not very different. Save for a few fragments of the ghetto wall (hidden inside a school, apartment building, and near an electrical closet), there were close to no remnants of the once expansive ghetto. Polish people walked to and fro as if nothing ever existed there, and besides the occasional Israeli tour group, no one acknowledged the history, behind the spaces we were in. My dad did, however. The center of the Jewish ghetto resistance (which ended with a mass suicide compared often to Masada) occurred at 18 Miła street in Warsaw. Incredibly enough, my family lived on 15 Miła street.

People in Poland seemed to understand the history. Not a single one of my tour guides were Jewish, yet all of them were not only well versed on the Holocaust, but also on contemporary antisemitism. They cared, and genuinely showed concern for the Jewish people and the preservation of these sites. There was one very stark exception, however. I am a coin collector, so my dad decided to take me to a coin seller. I walked into the store, eager to buy, and greeted the owner with “Dzien dobry” (good morning in Polish). His eyes widened and he immediately yelled out “nie Żydów” (“No Jew”). I was stunned. My dad kept asking me to translate, but I was too stunned to process it. Simply because of my kippah, this man refused to sell to me. Once I translated, my dad immediately grabbed me and we walked out of the store. We walked to the hotel in silence. It hurt to know that even through everything the Jewish people suffered through in Poland, there is still antisemitism rampant there today.
The Jewish banker who put his faith at the heart of his business
Aleph, Emunah. Beit, berakhah.”

The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is the first word of the Hebrew word for belief or faith; the second letter is the first of the Hebrew word for blessing.

This was a phrase — among many in Hebrew, Arabic, and English — that Edmond Safra used with regularity in his lifetime. And to a large degree, he was a man of faith who was blessed.

Safra, who lived from 1932 to 1999, had an unparalleled career in banking in the second half of the 20th century. Born in 1932 in Beirut into a banking family, he went to Milan at the age of 15 and started trading gold. In his early 20s he moved the family to Brazil and instantly set up a series of successful trading operations. In the late 1950s, he started a bank in Geneva: Trade Development Bank. Republic, the US bank he founded as a start-up in 1964, grew into the 11th largest bank in America. As the stocks of his banks notched remarkable returns, he became a billionaire several times over.

Along the way, he was the protector and often the saviour of the Jewish communities and diasporas of Beirut and Aleppo, offering jobs and moral support as they strove to recreate their shattered kehillot around the world.

Safra was a child of Beirut’s Jewish quarter, Wadi Abu Jamil, and a Halabi (as Jews from Aleppo called themselves). My years of research into Safra’s life — enabled by exclusive access to his family and corporate archives, and to transcripts of interviews with hundreds of people who knew him at every stage of his life — led me to reconstruct his remarkable life story. More so than any other figure I’ve encountered, I found a remarkable connection between who Edmond Safra was as a Jew (and the particular type of Jew he was) and how he approached banking, what he saw as his purpose, and what he did with his earnings.

On his grave in the Jewish cemetery outside Geneva, one of the two Hebrew inscriptions reads: “The pious man lives by his faith” (it’s from Habbakuk). While he operated at the highest levels of finance and society, Judaism dictated the habits and routines of his life.




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