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Thursday, December 15, 2022

12/15 Links Pt2: Herzog: Comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa is a ‘blood libel’; Melanie Phillips: How the White House attempt to counter Jew-hatred undermines itself

From Ian:

Herzog: Comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa is a ‘blood libel’
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday slammed as a “blood libel” comparisons of the Jewish state’s policies towards the Palestinians to South African apartheid.

“The comparison between the State of Israel and the apartheid regime is not a legitimate criticism—it is a blood libel,” Herzog said in a video address to the World Zionist Organization’s annual conference in Tel Aviv.

“It is a dangerous and intensifying terrorism, since the legitimacy of the State of Israel and the justification of its existence is directly related to its ability to protect itself and hence they are trying to undermine this ability,” he added.

Herzog also described the BDS movement as a “brutal campaign” spearheaded by organizations “spreading lies and false facts and seeking to build a long-term policy that will undermine the existence of the state.”

He continued: “Let’s make no mistake, this is not a peace-seeking campaign, it is a campaign promoting hatred and incitement.”

For his part, WZO chairman Yaakov Hagoel warned of a resurgence in antisemitism, which he called a “malignant cancer” that required “major medical surgery to remove… at its roots.”
Melanie Phillips: How the White House attempt to counter Jew-hatred undermines itself
Then there’s Hady Amr, who was recently made deputy assistant secretary of state for “Israel-Palestine” in order to promote the Palestinian Arab cause. One year after the 9/11 attacks, Amr wrote about his work as the national coordinator of the anti-Israel Middle East Justice Network: “I was inspired by the Palestinian intifada,” the murderous terror campaign against Israelis from 1987 to 1993.

Or how about Maher Bitar, the senior director of intelligence at the National Security Council, who spent years promoting the boycott of Israel and was on the executive board of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Students for Justice in Palestine, which hounds Jewish students on campus and disseminates antisemitic propaganda.

Then there’s Reema Odin, deputy director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, who justified Palestinian suicide bombings of Israelis in 2002—when hundreds of Israelis were being blown up in buses and pizza parlors during the second intifada—as “the last resort of a desperate people.”

And let’s not overlook Uzra Zeya, the under-secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights. As Alana Goodman reported in the Washington Free Beacon last year, during Zeya’s time working for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs she compiled research for a book arguing that “the Israel lobby has subverted the American political process to take control of U.S. Middle East policy” by establishing a secret network of “dirty money” PACs that allegedly bribe and extort congressional candidates into taking pro-Israel positions.

In a section entitled “Jewish Power in the Formulation of U.S. Middle East Policy,” the book claimed that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee gave American Jews secret marching orders on how to vote and which candidates to support financially.

It further argued that “non-Jewish Americans increasingly perceive their Jewish fellow citizens as members of a single-issue voting bloc which, at best, divides its loyalties between an increasingly exploitative Israel and an increasingly exploited United States.”

“The more strident lobbyists for Israel must also accept a major share of the blame for whatever changes have taken place in American public perceptions of the loyalties of America’s Jews,” it continued. “The inevitable public perception is that such ardent supporters of Israel have no real interest in making the United States a better place for all of its citizens, but only in making Israel a more secure and prosperous place for Jews.”

In other words, the book blamed Jews for antisemitism.

The chances of the new White House group calling out the bigotry of all these officials are clearly zero.

The likelihood is that this new strategy will as ever pin antisemitism on the “far-right” while ignoring it where it is most ubiquitous and powerful: In black and Muslim communities, the Democratic party—and the Biden administration.

The White House statement said the new strategy will “raise understanding about antisemitism and the threat it poses to the Jewish community and all Americans.” It would seem that the White House itself needs someone to teach it just what antisemitism is.


Benjamin Netanyahu: The Biggest Lie in the Palestine vs. Israel Debate - Jordan B Peterson
Benjamin Netanyahu was recently reelected as Prime Minister of Israel, having previously served in the office from 1996–1999 and 2009­–2021. From 1967–1972 he served as a soldier and commander in Sayeret Matkal, an elite special forces unit of the Israeli Defense Forces. A graduate of MIT, he served as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations from 1984–1988, before being elected to the Israeli parliament as a member of the Likud party in 1988. He has published five previous books on terrorism and Israel’s quest for peace and security. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Sara. In his newest book "Bibi: My Story" the newly reelected prime minister of Israel tells the story of his family, the story of his people, his path to leadership, and his unceasing commitment to defending his country and securing its future.


Why is J Street defending Ilhan Omar? And why did the Reform Movement join in?
J Street, a far-left organization that has done more to turn Israel into a partisan issue than any other, has joined other anti-Israel Jewish groups (Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Habonim Dror North America, J Street, New Israel Fund, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and T’ruah - note that the Reform Movementisout in the open) in an attempt to browbeat Kevin McCarthy—likely to be the next speaker of the House—into not kicking virulent antisemite Rep. Ilhan Omar off the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

This is in keeping with J Street’s plan to make Israel less safe and turn it into a wedge issue.

First, let’s examine why and under what precedent McCarthy will make this decision. The precedent was set by outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who removed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments due to comments Greene made years before she was elected. At the time, this was unprecedented. Pelosi went even further by barring Jim Jordan and Jim Banks from the January 6th Committee. Traditionally, each party chooses who is on what committee, and approval to sit on those committees is rubber-stamped by the majority.

McCarthy is well within his rights to play the same game with the Democrats. In fact, it is his duty to do so. If he does not, it sends a strong message to the opposition that they can get away with the nuclear option without consequences.

Next, let’s examine Omar herself. She has had a long history of antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred even after her election to the House. This goes beyond her “all about the benjamins” comment accusing Jews of buying control of Congress and her reference to Israel as an “apartheid state.” Omar has also been a vocal proponent of the economic destruction of Israel via the BDS movement; so vocal that she was banned from visiting the Jewish state. In addition, Omar compared Israel (and the U.S.) to Hamas and the Taliban.
Did Ohio Just Elect The Next Ilhan Omar?
As the first Somali Muslim woman elected to the Ohio state legislature, Munira Abdullahi is expected to bring "diversity" and "new perspectives" to the Ohio House of Representatives, according to her supporters. What they don't tell you is that the 26-year-old belongs to a radical Sunni Islamist organization that uses youth indoctrination, charity, and social work to grow its political power and spread theocratic, often illiberal views.

Based on her background and career trajectory, Abdullahi could feasibly become the next Ilhan Omar — Minnesota's far-left congresswoman known for expressing radical, antisemitic opinions and consorting with various Islamist groups. Indeed, the Ohio legislator shares striking similarities with Omar, the first Somali Muslim elected to her state's legislature in 2016 and the first Muslim woman elected to Congress.

Both women fled their country in times of war and lived at refugee camps in Kenya before settling in the United States. Omar and Abdullahi each began careers as community activists before moving on to their state legislatures. They both represent districts that have transformed in recent years into Somali enclaves, where poverty, crime, and terrorist recruitment have stifled integration and development.

The pair were photographed meeting for the first time in September. Abdullahi referred to her role model as the "legendary" Ilhan Omar.
There is a way to counter Jews who are pro-BDS
This is the most difficult chapter in the ongoing campaign for Israel's position and good reputation worldwide. This challenge is so painful that most affiliated with it look away, avoid, or circumvent it – so as not to know of it or see it. This is understandable. The most terrible quarrels occur within the family, and in our case – the Jewish family.

The alarming reality is that a significant number of the calls to boycott Israel, punish and denounce it, impose sanctions on it, define it as an apartheid state, and so on, come from Jews. It is difficult to estimate the number of these people, but it is significant.

In fact, it is doubly significant. First, there are many Jews in radical organizations. Second, their very participation in this movement validates the non-Jews participating in this delegitimization campaign.

The "Jewish component" of the boycott movement has two main groups: the first is the leaders, from politicians such as Bernie Sanders to intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky; the second is the activists, ordinarily young people, who operate out in the field.

These college students sometimes come from a background of heavy criticism of Israel. They grew up in houses, communities, or schools where every possible accusation and claim was hurled at our country without the opportunity for them to hear the answers to these accusations or that the answers supplied were not satisfactory in their eyes.
Office of Civil Rights opens investigation into UC Berkeley Law for anti-Zionism
The Office of Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Education (OCR) has launched a formal investigation into UC Berkeley Law School over a controversial anti-Zionist bylaw adopted by some of its student groups in August.

The investigation comes in response to a Nov. 18 complaint filed by Gabriel Groisman, a Florida-based attorney and partner at LSN Law, P.A., and Arsen Ostrovsky, an Israel-based attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum.

The attorneys argued that the bylaw violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964), which prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating on the basis of “race, color, and national origin.”

It requested that the Office of Civil Rights “open an investigation against UC Berkeley Law, to direct it to immediately invalidate the bylaw in question.”

On Tuesday, the Office of Civil Rights agreed to investigate the “following issue”:
“Whether the University failed to respond appropriately in the fall 2022 semester to notice from Jewish law students, faculty, and staff that they experienced a hostile environment at the law school based on their shared Jewish ancestry when University-recognized student organizations passed a bylaw against inviting speakers who support ‘Zionism, the state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.'”

In response, Groisman and Ostrovsky stated, “We initiated this claim because we said ‘enough is enough’ and decided that we must stand up for the Jewish students at UC Berkeley, who have been facing an unprecedent wave of discrimination and antisemitism on campus.
Jewish Students Not Protected by Anti-Discrimination and Harassment Polices on College Campuses, New Report Says
University policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment seldom protect Zionist and pro-Israel students, according to a study by antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative.

Released on Wednesday, the report, titled “Falling Through the Cracks: How School Policies Deny Jewish Students Equal Protection from Campus Antisemitism,” found that Jewish students who report being victims of anti-Zionist harassment and discrimination have to rely on administrators judging alleged offenders’ actions based on a general student code of conduct, which often lack the same protections as discrimination and harassment policies aimed at keeping schools in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

“Despite the fact that anti-Zionist motivated attacks often meet the threshold for harassment articulated in schools’ harassment policies, the unfair discrepancy between these two policies means the exact same harmful behavior will be addressed promptly and vigorously for some students, but ignored or downplayed when it comes to Jewish students,” said report co-author and AMCHA executive director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin.

Rossman-Benjamin added that the “normalizing of antisemitism” in every facet of life obligates universities to ensure that anti-Zionist discrimination is explicitly prohibited on the campus.

According to the report, inconsistent definitions of wrongdoing are another problem. 25 percent of universities surveyed, for example, included verbal abuse as a form of harassment but left the category out of codes of conduct, and less than 40% of codes of conduct defined as harassment as “conduct that limited, interfered with, or impaired a student’s ability to participate in campus life,” while every harassment policy did.

“60% of schools most popular with Jewish students do not recognize this crucial impact of the harassing behavior, and are therefore less likely to treat such behavior as seriously as they do when directed at members of ‘protected’ identity groups,” it said.
American Jews Are a Threatened Group
Recently, I spoke before a group of officers and cadets at West Point on behalf of the MirYam Institute on the topic: "We American Jews are a threatened group." History should not have worked out this way. Jews are proud Americans. We've been here since the 16th century. Our tradition profoundly impacted the U.S. The seals of Columbia, Dartmouth and Yale have Hebrew words, and the Liberty Bell quotes from Leviticus: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land." Jews have fought in all our wars since the Revolutionary War. There are 17 Jewish recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

I grew up privileged, being born in the U.S. Real antisemitism was elsewhere. We were safe here. My understanding of the Jewish-American paradigm changed when my daughter decided to serve in the military. She wanted to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). My daughter made me aware that there is a generation of American Jews who wonder whether the U.S. will continue to be their home. While you may think this is an exaggeration, there is a generation of Jews emigrating to Israel from France because they are no longer welcome in their homeland.

Israel remains central to the identity and safety of American Jews. Understanding Israel is fundamental to understanding the Jewish people, not just because of religion, but because each time Israel needs to defend itself, the rest of the world convulses in hatred. The marches and the protests against Israel lead to physical assault, injury and even death.
When will US universities put a stop to skyrocketing attacks on Jewish identity?
A disturbing new report by the AMCHA Initiative reveals that threats to students’ Jewish identity doubled in the 2021-2022 academic year.

Many radical professors, students and even some Jewish organizations are trying to rip Zionism from the fabric of Judaism, using cancellation, shame and blame as their weapons.

These “progressives” reject the globally accepted definition of antisemitism, which holds that attempts to demonize or delegitimize Israel are clear signs of hate against the Jewish people. The radicals’ rejection of this definition is based on the falsehood that Zionism is not an integral value of Judaism—therefore their anti-Zionism does not constitute antisemitism.

But according to a Pew survey conducted last year, most Jews regard Israel as a fundamental part of their Jewish identity. Increasingly, however, if Jewish students express support for the Jewish state, they run the risk of being mocked, ostracized or punished by their peers and professors.

Worst of all, administrators and governing regents responsible for student safety and civil rights on campus have neglected or refused to clamp down on the tyranny of antisemitic radicals. Their failure to respond to such discrimination puts Jewish students—as well as academic freedom–at perilous risk.

The AMCHA Initiative’s recent report, “A Looming Crisis for the American Jewish Community: Campus Antisemitism and the Assault on Jewish Identity,” reveals disturbing trends across university campuses nationwide. AMCHA cites these developments as among the most egregious:
• Bullying and intimidation of Jewish students tripled.
• Attempts to disconnect Zionism from Judaism and from progressive causes nearly tripled.
• Promotion of anti-Zionist Jews as more authentic than Zionist Jews doubled.
• Calls to rid the campus of Zionism increased more than six-fold, and attempts to cancel Israel-related events, programs, classes and trips increased nearly five-fold.
• Calls for Jewish students to reject Birthright or other Jewish identity trips increased nearly 20-fold.

In total, the AMCHA Initiative’s report documented 254 attacks on Jewish identity on 63 campuses across the United States during the 2021-2022 academic year. This is in addition to skyrocketing attacks on Jews off campus in the past year.

Not surprisingly, the AMCHA report implicated pro-Palestinian groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), as being responsible for targeting Jewish students. Indeed, the report found that anti-Zionist groups like SJP were the largest overall contributors to attacks on Jewish identity.
Wales holds 4 pro-Palestinian vandals without bail for targeting defense facility
Four pro-Palestinian activists have been arrested and charged after breaking in and vandalizing a factory in rural Wales.

The activists were associated with the group Palestine Action, which claims that the Teledyne Labtech factory in Presteigne, Wales, manufactures “military radars for Israel’s high precision targeting of Palestinians.”

Identified in local media as Susan Bagshaw, 65; Morwenna Grey, 41; Ruth Hogg, 39; and Tristan Dixon, 34, the four activists were remanded into custody without bail on Monday and will next appear before the court on January 6 — meaning they will spend Christmas and New Year’s behind bars.

According to the BBC, the individuals are suspected of causing more than £500,000 in damage to the facility. The activists came armed with hammers, smoke bombs, an angle grinder and a fire extinguisher containing red paint, a Welsh prosecutor told the Welshpool Magistrates’ Court, as reported by The Hereford Times.

Arriving at the factory on Friday, the vandals broke more than 25 windows as well as computers and monitors and other machinery, after using the angle grinder to cut through the roof, prosecutors said. They also threw red paint all over the exterior of the factory.

Palestine Action claimed that the court decision to hold the four individuals without bail “shows the desperation of the British state to protect Israeli weapons.”
The Stephen Sizer verdict - some initial reflections
In May 2022, Rev Dr Stephen Sizer appeared before a Church of England Disciplinary Tribunal, following a complaint made by the Board of Deputies of British Jews in 2018. The verdict was handed down on Tuesday 6 December 2022. This post is an initial explainer of the decision and its wider significance.

Background
From 1997-2017, Stephen Sizer was the vicar, or parish priest, of Christ Church Virginia Water, an Anglican church in Surrey. During this period, he wrote two books on Christian Zionism, taking a highly critical view of Christian support for the state of Israel. During the same period, he developed a national reputation for antisemitism, leading to two previous complaints by the Board of Deputies. The first, made in 2012, was resolved by a conciliation agreement, under which he agreed to have his online activity monitored. The second was made in early 2015, after he posted a link to an article suggesting Israel was behind 9/11, following which he was banned from using social media for six months and from saying or writing on anything connected with the Middle East. A (non-exhaustive) list of Dr Sizer’s activities is set out in this article in the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism.

In 2017, Dr Sizer retired from parish ministry. He relocated to the Southampton area and set up a new charity called Peacemaker Trust. However, like all retired Anglican vicars, he remained subject to the discipline of a bishop – now, the Bishop of Winchester.

The 2018 Complaint
In 2018, the Board of Deputies made a further complaint about Dr Sizer to the Bishop of Winchester, who suspended Dr Sizer’s Permission to Officiate (a license to preach and lead services in the Church of England). This led to the convening of a disciplinary tribunal, which, at Dr Sizer’s request, was held in public in May 2022.

The Tribunal consisted of a judge (who acted as chair), three clergy and one lay member. Evidence against Dr Sizer was given by Marie van der Zyl and Jonathan Arkush, respectively the current and past Presidents of the Board of Deputies. Dr Sizer gave evidence on his own account, as did various witnesses on his behalf.

The specific complaint was that between 2005 and August 2018, Dr Sizer’s “conduct was unbecoming or inappropriate to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders… in that he provoked and offended the Jewish community and/or engaged in antisemitic activity”.

The complaint was based on eleven separate allegations. Whilst Dr Sizer admitted the factual basis of each one, he contested what was implied about his conduct. The allegations are listed below, along with a summary of the Tribunal’s decision regarding each one. Numbers in square brackets refer to numbered paragraphs of the verdict.
John Ware: NION: How Jeremy Corbyn’s cantankerous cronies failed to rewrite history
John Ware took Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, the group Jewish Voice for Labour and a pro-Corbynite journalist to court for defamation over his 2019 BBC Panorama exposé on antisemitism. In the second of two articles, he reveals how Al Jazeera failed to understand issues highlighted in the Panorama report and did not give those it accused a proper right of reply. You can read part one HERE

Finding themselves on the margins of political life, the Corbynites seem determined to show that their version of Labour’s antisemitism crisis is the historically accurate one.

They insist that the recent report by Martin Forde KC validates their claim that the crisis was largely the fault of Labour’s factional “civil service” – Panorama’s whistle-blowers who handled antisemitism complaints and fellow officials at Labour HQ.

Forde does find that the complaints system was unfit for purpose, and unable to cope with the “explosion in complaints” that followed Corbyn’s election as leader.

Yet no system could have coped.

But while the Corbynites blame factionalism by Labour HQ, Forde concludes that “responsibility for this rests not wholly with one side”.

As for HQ officials –including a Panorama whistleblower – trying to sabotage the 2017 election, Forde finds no evidence for that. John Ware in Jerusalem.

He also gives short shrift to Corbyn’s key claim, which cost him the whip and propelled him back to backbench obscurity: that antisemitism was exaggerated to smear him.

The metric Corbyn uses to evidence his claim is an unreliable proxy for the scale of anti-Jewish sentiment in Labour. While he correctly states that upheld complaints to date represent a small fraction of members (about 0.33 percent) , this no more reflects the actual number of Jews who felt barely tolerated in their branches and constituency Labour parties (CLPs) (despite near-universal disdain for Benjamin Netanyahu) than recorded crime reflects the actual level of crime; many chose not to complain for several reasons.

Nor does it include CLP motions that breached the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance [definition of antisemitism], cheerfully voting and campaigning for the likes of Pete Willsman, recently expelled for smearing rabbis as “Trump fanatics” and ranting about antisemitism allegations being “whipped up” by the Israeli embassy.


PreOccupiedTerritory: Attacker Of Random Jews Glad He Lives When Israel Exists For Pundits To Invoke In His Defense (satire)
A man arrested today for multiple assaults of Hasidim in Brooklyn voiced his relief that his actions took place in the historical period during that features a sovereign Jewish state, without which the people “explaining” his behavior might be forced to resort to naked antisemitic tropes to justify his behavior, not having available the excuse of objections to the policies of said Jewish state, which somehow mitigates the evil of his assaults.

Jamaal Henderson, 26, spoke in his holding cell Thursday afternoon of his appreciation for the existence of the State of Israel not because of the haven it offers history’s most persecuted people, but because he knows that pundits, activists, and other apologists will invoke Israel’s real or imagined behavior toward Palestinian Arabs when they attempt to offer “context” for his eleven verbal and physical attacks on Jews in Crown Heights, Williamsburg, and Midwood.

“If not for Israel, I would look like just another hateful bigot,” he acknowledged. “I’m happy I live when Israel exists, because now I know hundreds, perhaps thousands, of folks will come to my defense and paint me as frustrated over injustice, a seeker of resolution, a defender of the downtrodden. Otherwise they’d have to fall back on more classical rhetorical lines, talking about insularity, landlords, inbreeding, those kinds of things. They’ll invoke those anyway, but not as the first line of defense.”
For The New York Times and The Washington Post, even the World Cup is about the Palestinians
The anti-Israel online magazine +972 has hailed “The First Palestinian World Cup.” The New York Times called the Palestinians “the World Cup’s Unofficial Team.” The Washington Post declared, “At the World Cup, the Arab world rallies to Palestinian cause.” Much of the rest of the media has played along.

Given the media’s obsession with the Palestinian cause and need to cover it out of all proportion to its importance in world affairs, it was not surprising the two major papers would find a way to make the World Cup about the Palestinians, even though it wasn’t.

Yes, the Moroccan team unfurled a Palestinian flag, and there have been examples of support for the Palestinian cause among fans. But did this merit a story? Maybe, but if you’re going to report it, shouldn’t journalists at least place the activities in context and admit that it was pre-planned and supported by the Qatari government?

Alas, that is always too much to expect from the Times and the Post.

The papers briefly mentioned the double standard employed by the Qataris and FIFA, the governing body of the World Cup, which banned all other political displays, such as Iran’s revolutionary flag and symbols of the LBGTQ community. The Palestinians, as they always do, got a free pass. Given the much-publicized corruption involved in FIFA’s decision to award the Cup to Qatar, it is not surprising that the soccer federation kowtowed to the Qataris rather than uphold its commitment to keep politics out of the tournament.
Criticism of Qatar's Sharia law is racist, ‘Qatarophobia,’ MSNBC host claims - opinion
My love for soccer started when I was five. In fact, I still play on an adult co-ed team in Tucson and love the sport. It’s been great to see so many people supporting and watching the sport I love.

However, it’s important to note that the 2022 World Cup has led many of us to speak out against the shabby human rights record of the host nation of Qatar, an absolute dictatorship run by Emir Tamim and the al-Thani family. Others have attempted to deflect all criticism of Qatar as what MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan calls “Qatarophobia.”

He alleges that all criticism of Qatar’s strict Sharia law is racist, so we must ignore the fact that in Qatar, unmarried women are banned from receiving sexual health and prenatal care. This would also ignore that in Qatar, sex between people of the same gender is illegal and can include a maximum penalty of death by stoning.

MSNBC host, the anti-Zionist
What a stark contrast between Hasan’s bodyguarding of Qatar, with his constant attack-dog stance versus the sole Jewish-majority country, the State of Israel. Hasan stated in 2021 that he considers himself “an anti-Zionist and critic of the Israeli state and its ongoing ethnic cleansing project,” and calls Israel “a government that practices apartheid.”

Hasan also called it a “very dangerous idea that says being pro-Jewish means you have to be pro-Israeli.” This forced Dani Dayan, former consul-general of Israel in New York City, to respond that when Hasan “‘only’ denies Jews the right of self-determination in any part of their homeland… Call it what you like, but that’s blatant bigotry.”

Hasan’s vicious attacks on Israel compare to his hefty protection of Qatar, for whose state media he was a longtime spokesman as a presenter on Al Jazeera. As the official mouthpiece of the emirate of Qatar, Al Jazeera gives Qatar outsized heft in regional diplomacy, which it uses to promote the Islamist terrorist group Hamas, which it physically hosts and funds by millions annually.
BBC mainstreaming of the ‘apartheid’ smear continues
CAMERA UK submitted a complaint to the BBC on that issue (and others), noting that it is entirely inappropriate for the BBC to provide uncritical amplification for such falsehoods from politically motivated actors.

In the response we received the BBC stated:
“Amnesty International is an internationally-recognised human rights group and the quotes reflect its position.”

In other words, the BBC apparently rejects any obligation to validate – or even qualify – that politically motivated smear before promoting it to millions of readers around the world.

Another recent example appeared in the December 10th edition of the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Weekend’. Presenter Celia Hatton asked one of her guests – Dr Hisham Hellyer of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace – to describe his “new project examining US foreign policy towards Israel”.

During that nearly four-minute-long conversation (from 04:09 here) listeners around the world heard the following:
Hellyer: “When it comes to the Democrats, it’s very hard to push a progressive – quote, unquote – woke agenda domestically on rights and fundamental freedoms and so on and respect for minorities and at the same time kind of ignore that the United States’ major ally within the region is guilty of what many rights organisations internationally and including within Israel itself…ahm…the crime of apartheid…”
Hatton: “Hmm…”
Hellyer: “…with regards to the occupation of the Palestinians.”
Hatton: “Hmm.”

Listeners heard no challenge to that not unpredictable claim from Hellyer before Hatton moved on to her next question.

The fact that the world’s largest broadcaster is quite happy to regularly publish and broadcast such demonisation of Israel by third parties without question or challenge is cause for great concern, not least because the end result is the mainstreaming of a politically motivated and deliberately delegitimising smear.

While the BBC would not dream of normalising hate speech or racism against other national or ethnic groups, in this case it turns a blind eye to the pernicious effects of its repeated amplification of what at its root is the allegation that ‘the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour’.
Ahistorical Fiction Passing for Fact at TIME
Yet, a December 7 article in the “World” section of TIME by Armani Syed calls this fictional film that depicts Israelis as “bloodthirsty monsters” a “true” story: “Set in an unnamed Palestinian village, Farha tells the true story of a 14-year-old girl during the creation of Israel in 1948.” (“Why the Director of Netflix’s Farha Depicted the Murder of a Palestinian Family.”)

This sentence is part of the introduction to an interview by Syed of Sallam. During the interview, Sallam makes clear that even the title character’s name, “Farha,” is made up. So why does TIME call it a “true story”?

There are journalistic missteps in the interview as well. For example, Sallam makes the claim that there was an “invasion” by Israel in 1948. This is an ahistorical claim that Syed fails to correct – it was, of course, Sallam’s native Jordan, along with Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, that invaded. (How Israel – or the Haganah – could “invade” a territory they were already in is unclear.)

Sallam also tells Syed, “The Nakba is part of who we are and our identity as Palestinians. Again, I’m not a politician. I’m an artist. But what I can say is that my grandparents were forced into exile in 1948; my father was six months old then. They heard about a massacre near them so they took their stuff and left.”

It’s unclear precisely where or when this massacre is alleged to have occurred. But it’s been documented that stories about massacres by the Jewish forces were at best exaggerated. As CAMERA has noted before, in 1998, one resident of Deir Yassin (the site of one of the most famous of the alleged 1948 massacres) told the British Daily Telegraph,
The Arab radio talked of women being killed and raped, but this is not true… I believe that most of those who were killed were among the fighters and the women and children who helped the fighters. The Arab leaders committed a big mistake. By exaggerating the atrocities they thought they would encourage people to fight back harder. Instead they created panic and people ran away.

The same year (the 50th anniversary year of the event), a BBC documentary interviewed a Palestinian news editor who wrote a contemporaneous press release about Deir Yassin, and who admitted in the documentary that his 1948 report of the event had been falsified at the request of the Arab Higher Committee, “so the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews.’”

The TIME interviewer, however, did not seek any details from Sallam, or push back in any way on her claims.
Channel 4 News narrative collides with extremist reality
At 3:40, Kermani tells an Israeli MK from the Religous Zionist party: “You say you want better security. But, there’s more Palestinians killed in this conflict than Israelis. It’s the Palestinians who need better security“.

This, to put it simply, is an absurd argument.

The mere ‘disproportionality’ in the numbers of Israelis and Palestinians killed – a common anti-Zionist line of attack when Israel engages in conflicts with Hamas – is completely irrelevant when analysing the moral dimensions of any given conflagration. Israelis are being killed by terrorists who reject the state’s right to exist and (as we’ll see below) consider all Israelis fair game, which is why the overwhelming majority of the 31 Israelis killed this year have been civilians. Most of the Palestinains killed in 2022, on the other hand, have either been active members of terror groups, engaged in hostilities or, at the least, killed in the context of Israeli operations to arrest wanted Palestinian terrorists or thwart planned attacks.

At 6:20, Kermani argues that “Anger at the killings, and the repressive occupation is driving support for a new generation of Palestinian militants“.

Yet, at 7:25, when speaking to a (masked) Palestinian terrorist, Kermani asks, “When an Israeli civilian is killed, doesn’t that undermind your cause?”, to which the terrorist replies, “we don’t recognize any Israeli on this land as a civilian“.

Any serious observer who’s followed the ebb and flow of Palestinian terror over the past decades would know what the Palestinian terrorist interviewed by the Channel 4 News journalist implicitly acknowledged: that it is extremism and antisemitism which drives Palestinian terror, not the actions and decisions of Israel’s army and government in response to such terror. Though this is most certainly not the message Kermani set out to communicate, it is nonetheless one unavoidable take-away in his predictable, tendentious and facile take on the ‘root causes’ of increased violence and extremism in the region.


Putin’s Russia Returning to Soviet-Era Antisemitism, Former Chief Rabbi of Moscow Asserts
Russia is returning to the days of the former Soviet Union when it comes to antisemitism, fired by the need for a “scapegoat,” the former Chief Rabbi of Moscow asserted in an interview published on Thursday.

“Russia is returning to the Soviet Union, not in terms of communism, but in terms of its isolation from the rest of the world, antisemitism, general mobilization, repression of dissidents, and economic hardship,” Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt said in an interview with the Spanish Catholic news outlet Alfa & Omega. “It has become a very unpleasant place to live.”

Goldchmidt said that 50,000 Jews had left Russia for Israel since President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, a process he emphasized he had “encouraged.”

“Russia has a very difficult history of government antisemitism,” Goldschmidt observed. “When things go wrong, they look for a scapegoat.”

In July, Goldschmidt resigned from his post, declaring that he “could not remain silent” in the face of the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine and claiming that the Jewish community in the Russian capital would have been “endangered” had he stayed in the position.

Goldschmidt is reported to have left Russia just two weeks into the invasion, moving first to Hungary and then to Israel. At the time, Goldschmidt cited the illness of his father, who lives in Jerusalem, as the reason for his absence.
Vanderbilt University Coach’s Pro Kanye West Post Violated School Polices, Chancellor Says
Vanderbilt University has determined that a football coach violated school policies when he posted on social media comments supporting Kanye West.

“Kanye is two steps ahead of everyone. He’s not crazy. People try to silence him because he thinks for himself,” defensive backs coach Dan Jackson said on Facebook in November, replying to someone else’s post. “People don’t want that. Rappers and athletes are taught they need to think the same as the media/politicians. If they have an opinion that is opposite the mainstream, they’re called crazy. More people need to wake up and speak their mind.”

An internal investigation found that Jackson’s comments, which went viral after being shared by StopAntisemitism and were widely covered by media outlets across the country,”were not discriminatory” but had violated the university’s electronic communications policies, according to a statement issued by athletics chancellor Candice Lee. He has since apologized for making them, claiming that he was unaware that of Kanye West’s antisemitic tirades.

“After being made aware of discriminatory statement made by West, I was sickened to know that my words could be interpreted as hurtful,” Jackson said in a statement shared by the university. “For this I am saddened and apologetic. In no way do I support antisemitism or any form of discrimination, nor do I condone any form of bias.”


Elbit to supply Skylark I LEX surveillance UAS to Australia
Elbit Systems of Australia, a subsidiary of Israel’s Elbit Systems, said it was selected to supply unmanned aerial systems including the Skylark I LEX to the Australian Army.

The system will be equipped with electro optical and an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system, which enables an aircraft or vehicle to broadcast its position and altitude and other data which can then be received by air traffic control or other stations.

“With a certified ADS-B system, Elbit Systems of Australia will support the Australian Army achieve wider use cases outside of traditional Army UAS employment including integration into more classes of airspace,” the company said in a statement. “This will enable Australian Defence Force support to civilian operations for disaster and humanitarian relief.”

The electric-propelled Skylark I LEX has a range of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and can fly for three hours with a maximum payload of 1.2 kilograms (2.6 pounds). The Skylark 3, by contrast, can fly for 6 hours at a range of 100km with a takeoff weight that is five times greater. The Skylark 3 Hybrid, which Elbit showcased for the first time in Singapore in February, is similar in size to the Skylark 3 but can fly longer, with a hybrid combustion and electric engine.

Elbit calls Skylark I LEX “the latest evolution of the battle-proven, high-performance Skylark I system, which has been delivered to over 30 different users worldwide.” The LEX is used by the Israel Defense Forces at the battalion level and is also used in NATO countries. For instance a report in a Czech army and defense magazine in 2021 said the country was using Skylarks. The Skylark LEX was one of many types of drones included in a large deal signed in 2019 with a unnamed country in southeast Asia.
Israeli Scientists Blast Tumors with Bubbles in the Bloodstream
Scientists from Tel Aviv University have developed a noninvasive, targeted way to destroy cancerous tumors by combining ultrasound and the injection of nanobubbles into the bloodstream.

"Our new technology makes it possible, in a relatively simple way, to inject nanobubbles into the bloodstream, which then congregate in the area of the cancerous tumor. After that, using low-frequency ultrasound, we explode the nanobubbles, and thereby the tumor," explains Dr. Tali Ilovitsh.

"The combination of nanobubbles and low-frequency ultrasound waves provides a more specific targeting of the area of the tumor and reduces off-target toxicity."
The Only Country in the Middle East that Has a Growing Christian Community Is Israel
The Middle East is being cleansed of Christians after two millennia of faithful presence.

The only country in the region that has a growing Christian community is Israel, where the Christian population grew by 1.4% in 2020 and where their religious freedom is guaranteed.

In a December 2021 report by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, 84% of Christians surveyed indicated they were satisfied with life in Israel.

In Syria in 2011, there were 1.7 million Christians. Today there are fewer than 450,000. In Aleppo alone, the Christian population has shrunk from 360,000 in 2012 to 25,000 today.

In Iraq in 2003, there were 1.5 million Christians. Today there are under 120,000.

In the past 100 years, the town of Bethlehem saw its Christian percentage fall from 84% to 28% in 2007.

In the West Bank and Gaza, the Christian percentage has plummeted from 11% in 1922 to 1% in 2017.
Christian Media Summit brings Israel allies to Jerusalem
The group stood in prayer for the State of Israel. An American evangelical bishop took the stage to lead in the singing of Israel’s national anthem at the culmination of a gala opening evening at a Jerusalem banquet hall.

It certainly was not your standard international conference or foreign press association gathering in Israel.

Welcome to the 2022 Christian Media Summit in the Holy Land.

At a time of rising global antisemitism and deep divisions among Israelis spilling out into growing tensions with Diaspora Jewry over the makeup of Israel’s incoming government, this gathering of global philo-Semites—a colorful mix of 150 Christian news executives, journalists and Christian supporters of Israel from 28 countries around the globe—spoke volumes both about the budding relations between Israel and the diverse Christian world, and the importance the Jewish state places on nourishing these ties.

“We are living in the golden age of Jewish-Christian relations with some serious flaws and challenges,” said Rabbi David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee. “We have never had a relationship with the Christian world as good as the one we have now.”
Israel prepares for over 100000 Christian tourists during the week of Christmas
Business is bouncing back in Bethlehem after two years in the doldrums during the coronavirus pandemic, lifting spirits in the traditional birthplace of Jesus ahead of the Christmas holiday.

Streets are bustling with tour groups. Hotels are fully booked, and months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian fighting appears to be having little effect on the vital tourism industry.

Elias Arja, head of the Bethlehem hotel association, said that tourists are hungry to visit the Holy Land's religious sites after suffering through lockdowns and travel restrictions in recent years. He expects the rebound to continue into next year.

"We expect that 2023 will be booming and business will be excellent because the whole world, and Christian religious tourists especially, they all want to return to the Holy Land," said Arja, who owns the Bethlehem Hotel.

On a recent day, dozens of groups from virtually every continent posed for selfies in front of the Church of the Nativity, built on the grotto where Christians believe Jesus was born. A giant Christmas tree sparkled in the adjacent Manger Square, and tourists packed into shops to buy olive wood crosses and other souvenirs.
Why are these Swedish students singing a Hanukkah song during a Christian holiday?
A video of Christian Swedish children singing "Maoz Tzur" on Saint Lucy's Day went viral on social media over the last few days.

These children are students at a public school in Stockholm (that has asked the Jerusalem Post to not publicize its name), a unique school that offers about 100 of its 900 students Jewish studies including the learning of Hebrew.

Every year, on December 13th, during Saint Lucy's Day, which is a Christian feast day, the students in the school sing Christmas carols but also devote one of the songs to the Jewish students and Hanukkah which falls in around the same time. The observance commemorates Lucia of Syracuse, an early-fourth-century virgin martyr under the Diocletianic Persecution, who according to legend, brought food and aid to Christians hiding in the Roman catacombs, wearing a candle-lit wreath on her head to light her way and leave her hands free to carry as much food as possible. "Lucia is a cultural tradition in Sweden that is connected to Christmas," Talli David, a teacher at the school, told the Post. "A part of learning about Lucia is to have a Lucia show where people sing and dress in white gowns, holding a light. There is always one person chosen as Lucia and she wears a crown with candlelights. This holiday is to show lightness in the dark."

Students singing Maoz Tzur during a Saint Lucy's Day celebration
She explained that "the school where I work has a Jewish profile with students learning Hebrew, and Jewish studies and they have the ability to eat in a kosher dining hall. At the same time, they are integrated into our public school."
UK Parliament marks 80 years since it was told of the Holocaust
UK Parliament stood together for a moment of silence on Thursday afternoon to mark 80 years since the House of Commons was first officially made aware of the Holocaust.

On December 17, 1942, then-foreign secretary Anthony Eden confirmed in a speech to the House of Commons that European Jews were being exterminated by Nazi Germany.

The moment was received with great emotion and the House of Commons stood together in an impromptu, emotional moment of silence.

On Thursday, 80 years later almost to the day, Hoyle led a one-minute moment of silence to mark the historic occasion. Holocaust survivors were in attendance, standing among UK Parliament in the Speakers Gallery.

UK Prime Minister shared photos of the moment of silence
"80 years ago, Parliament listened in stunned silence as the truth of the Holocaust was spoken in the House of Commons for the very first time," said UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, sharing photographs of the moment of silence on social media. "Today, in the presence of survivors, we stand together to remember and to reaffirm that truth."




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