Monday, December 26, 2022

12/26 Links Pt2: It’s time for Jews to say, ‘Sorry, not sorry’; The American Jewish left’s endorsement of antisemitism; Glick: Jason Greenblatt: Two State Solution is meaningless

From Ian:

It’s time for Jews to say, ‘Sorry, not sorry’
There are many Jews out there who blame Israel for antisemitism:

“If only we didn’t ‘occupy’ the ‘Palestinians,’ there would be no antisemitism.”

“If only those ultra-Orthodox Jews wouldn’t dress like that and stick to their ‘primitive ways,’ people wouldn’t hate us so much.”

But they’ll never accept our apology, so it’s time we stop apologizing.

The new government is too right-wing for you? You must have confused me for someone who cares about your opinion.

Foreign aid? Go ahead, Biden, try to pull it. Try to boycott Israel, BDS. Go for it, let’s see how that goes for you.

We don’t need you any more than you need us.

Allow me to officially declare that the era of the apologetic Jew is dead. It should rest in peace.

Now let me introduce you to a new creature: the proud Jew.

We have a lot to be proud of.

20% of all Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews. We have the most moral army in the world. We are able to balance our military power with our unwavering need to behave morally and ethically, sometimes too ethically.

We lead the world in life-changing tech: Medicine, food, you name it, we are at the forefront of it all.

We took a desert that Mark Twain famously referred to as “a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land” and transformed it into one of the most flourishing societies in the Middle East and the world, and it only took us 75 years.

So, it’s time we all declared the apologetic Jew dead and introduced the world to a new breed of Jew, the proud Jew.

If we don’t respect ourselves, how can we expect the world to?

Our new government, despite its shortcomings, represents the proud Jew. There has never been more Torah learning than there is right now. We have never been stronger physically or economically. That’s something to be proud of.

This new government will support Torah. It will support the land of Israel—all of it. It will support our needs, not the needs of our enemies.

We have always talked about and prayed for the people of Israel, with the Torah of Israel, in the land of Israel. And now, we have arrived, not yet to the final destination, but we are well on the way.

For that, we, the Jewish people, should be proud, not ashamed and apologetic.

Or, in other words: Sorry, not sorry.
The American Jewish left’s endorsement of antisemitism
Once upon a time, identifying an antisemite required the proverbial duck test. If it quacked like an antisemite, then it probably was an antisemite.

Back then, antisemites had ways to avoid responsibility, but this has changed in recent years due to the widespread adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s Working Definition of Antisemitism, which is now used by 38 countries, including the United States.

The IHRA definition, which includes examples of antisemitism directed against Israel, fits Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) perfectly.

For years, Omar has used the vocabulary of antisemitism delineated in the IHRA definition, such as tweeting “Israel has hypnotized the world” and that U.S. politicians’ support for Israel is “all about the benjamins”—a reference to hundred-dollar bills.

Even the Democratic House leadership, headed by outgoing speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that Omar “engaged in deeply offensive antisemitic tropes.”

One of the IHRA definition’s most important examples of antisemitism is “accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel.”

Omar did precisely that in Feb. 2019, when she angered fellow House Democrats Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey (both of New York) by saying in reference to Israel, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”

Omar has also repeatedly applied double standards to Israel and singled out the world’s only Jewish state for her attacks, both of which are also included in the IHRA definition. She even equated Israel and the U.S. with Hamas, Afghanistan and the Taliban.

But despite all that quacking, several left-wing groups that label themselves “Jewish” and “pro-Israel” recently had the audacity to pretend that Omar is not a duck.

Who came to Omar’s defense when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) pledged to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee?

It was J Street, Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Habonim Dror North America, the New Israel Fund, T’ruah and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.


Caroline Glick Show: Jason Greenblatt: Two State Solution is meaningless
In this week's “Caroline Glick Show," Caroline Glick and Former White House Middle East Envoy Jason Greenblatt discuss antisemitism on college campuses and the Abraham Accords.

Glick says that the plight of Jews on campus is becoming the plight of Jews everywhere in the U.S. For this reason, Jews need to strengthen their identity.

In a far-reaching interview, Jason Greenblatt and Caroline discuss:
- the fallacy of the two-state solution
- the secret as to why the Abraham Accords worked
- antisemitism on college campuses and in America
- the possibility of peace with Saudi Arabia
- Trump's meeting with Kanye West


Daniel Greenfield: How to Write a Whole Article About the Muslim Brotherhood Corrupting Europe.. without ever mentioning the Brotherhood
The Qatar corruption scandal has shaken the European Union. The revelation that the Islamic terror state was suborning European politicians has led to arrests and angry denials from Qatar.

Qatar can’t be criticized at all in the United States. It’s simply not allowed. And while you can question Qatar in Europe, the Muslim Brotherhood is off-limits.

Take this Politico deep dive which carefully avoids addressing the obvious.

A Moroccan secret service agent, identified as Mohamed Belahrech, has emerged as one of the key operators in the Qatar corruption scandal that has shaken the foundations of the European Parliament. His codename is M118, and he’s been running circles around European spy agencies for years.

Belahrech seems at the center of an intricate web that extends from Qatar and Morocco to Italy, Poland and Belgium.

Come on, is Morroco really known for its high-end secret agents?

What might Morroco and Qatar have in common?

The Arab Spring allowed the Muslim Brotherhood and assorted allies to come to power. Some of these takeovers were undone. But, backed by Qatar, it’s been a rough fight ousting them and in some places, the Islamists remained in power.

The Justice and Development Party, took over Morocco in 2011 and has clung to power until very recently.

And the Muslim Brotherhood is closely backed by Qatar.


Students for Justice in Palestine lies in order to memorialize terrorists
While cities like Jerusalem, Hebron and Jenin are well-known as frontlines of the Arab-Israeli conflict, North American college campuses are a theater of another type of war.

Anti-Zionist student groups and faculty members routinely use the language of “social justice,” “liberation” and “resistance” to whitewash the heinous actions of Palestinian terror groups that vow to destroy the State of Israel and take the lives of Israelis in and out of uniform.

On Nov. 23, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Georgetown University posted a carousel on Instagram that featured the profiles of 16 “young Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.”

Derived from posts by the anti-Zionist propaganda group Palestinian Youth Movement, the carousel listed names, photos and a brief “description” that presented the individuals as innocent victims of the IDF.

Cursory research, however, reveals a likely reason for Georgetown SJP’s omission of certain details regarding the deaths of these individuals: Of the 16 people listed, 12 were directly involved in acts of terror:
Morningstar slow to implement promised anti-bias measures, observers say
Nearly two months have passed since U.S. investment firm Morningstar reached an agreement with pro-Israel organizations to alter its methodology in assigning risk ratings to companies doing business in and with Israel.

Yet none of the ratings have changed, even as Morningstar and a leading American Jewish interlocutor say the company is working towards its stated pledges, including the hiring of an independent expert to advise Morningstar on its assumptions and processes.

Even so, some are not convinced Morningstar is serious about changing its ways after coming under fire for its risk ratings methodology and the inherently biased sources it uses when dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

“The same process just gets reinvented every few months with no changes made. They had pressure, so they hired [independent law firm] White & Case and came back with a few tweaks. They thought it would pacify people. No one was fooled by it,” Rich Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Morningstar critic, told JNS.

“They went into a multi-month engagement with leading Jewish experts, leading foreign policy experts, BDS experts, ESG [environmental, social and governance movement] experts. And they came out of that process with a series of commitments, with no changes made. Now they’re digging in to have an independent consultant,” he said.

Goldberg questioned how much effort it takes “to say these few dozen Israeli companies will no longer have ‘controversy’ ratings attached to them related to this issue. That doesn’t seem like it’s that hard.”
HonestReporting Recap: Our Top 10 Most Popular Content of 2022
As 2022 draws to a close, HonestReporting looks back on a busy year in which we published some 180 long-form news critiques, over 110 in-depth educational articles, and 45 videos. In addition to effecting tangible change, our viral content reached hundreds and thousands of readers around the globe, in part due to our increased efforts in the social media realm.

Without further ado, here’s a recap of what our readers were buzzing about during the past 12 months:


WaPo connects the dots between measles outbreak in Ohio and — you guessed it! — Orthodox Jews in N.Y.
Apparently anti-vaccine sentiment is on the rise in America, and it’s causing a resurgence in cases of vaccine-preventable diseases in children such as measles and chickenpox. The Washington Post has a new story about the issue today: Notice anything about that tweet? Here’s a screenshot:
The caption below the photo in the Washington Post’s piece reads, “An Orthodox Jewish man walks with his children in Brooklyn during large measles outbreaks in 2019 that spread rapidly among hundreds of unvaccinated people in these New York communities.”

This photo of a Brooklyn Orthodox Jewish woman appears in the article as well:
The entire article contains three photos (as well as a tweet from the Alaska Department of Health), yet two of the photos are of Brooklyn Jews. In 2019, which, last time we checked, is not 2022.

And if you actually read the article, the 2019 measles outbreak is discussed in just one paragraph, and that’s the only paragraph where New York Orthodox Jewish communities are mentioned:
In recent years, many of the measles cases reported to the CDC have occurred in underimmunized, close-knit communities, where anti-vaccine misinformation has gained a foothold. In 2019, the United States reported the highest annual number of measles cases — 1,294 — in more than 25 years; three-fourths of those cases occurred among New York’s Orthodox Jewish communities. Outbreaks have also occurred among the Amish in Ohio and Eastern European groups in the Pacific Northwest.

The article is not mainly concerned with anti-vaccine sentiment in New York, but in states around the country. So why use an image of Orthodox Jews to grab people’s attention?
Partial framing compromises BBC report on Israeli politics
On December 22nd the BBC News website published a report by Raffi Berg titled “Israel’s most right-wing government agreed under Benjamin Netanyahu” which promotes some by no means novel framing.

Readers are told that:
“Mr Netanyahu’s coalition partners reject the idea of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict – the internationally backed formula for peace which envisages an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank alongside Israel, with Jerusalem as their shared capital.”

Berg’s portrayal of the two-state solution as envisaging “an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank” – but apparently not in the Gaza Strip – is curious to say the least. Even more so is his claim that that “formula” pre-empts negotiations between the parties concerned by pre-determining a “shared capital” in Jerusalem.

As we have noted on previous occasions when the BBC has published misleading portrayals of the two-state solution based on the PLO’s interpretation of that concept:
“…the UN, the EU, Russia and the US in their ‘Quartet’ capacity support “an agreement that […] resolves all permanent status issues as previously defined by the parties; and fulfils the aspirations of both parties for independent homelands through two States for two peoples”. Those “permanent status issues” defined in the Oslo Accords of course include borders and Jerusalem.”

Berg’s portrayal is entirely one-dimensional: as has been the case in the past, he avoids informing readers that “the internationally backed formula for peace” is not only rejected by “Mr Netanyahu’s coalition partners” but also by Hamas and additional Palestinian factions, as well as much of the Palestinian public.

Moreover, Berg’s portrayal of the two-state solution erases the all-important phrase “two states for two peoples”, which would require Palestinian recognition of Israel as the Jewish state. As we have documented here repeatedly over the years, the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to make that recognition is a topic usually avoided by the BBC.
“Leopoldstadt” and the bombing of Auschwitz
In his hit Broadway play “Leopoldstadt,” Tom Stoppard chronicles a fictional family of self-described “Austrians of Jewish descent” as they are confronted by the rise of interwar antisemitism and, eventually, the Holocaust. The chief drama critic of The New York Times has described the play as “harrowing.”

The real history of the Jews in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt district and other Jewish communities in that region is equally harrowing. The Jewish experience in the Austro-Hungarian empire through the centuries veered from relative tolerance and assimilation to blood libels and deportations—as well as a surprising connection to the U.S. government’s refusal to bomb the railways leading to Auschwitz.

Vienna’s Leopoldstadt district was given its name by antisemitic residents in gratitude to Emperor Leopold I for his mass expulsion of the Jews from that neighborhood in 1670. St. Leopold’s Church was built on the ruins of the main synagogue.

There is another city named after Leopold I, sixty-five miles to the east of Vienna. Same namesake, different backstory. In the 1660s, the emperor established a fortress there which later became the largest prison in that part of the country. The town built around it came to be known in Czech as Leopoldov, and then in German as Leopoldstadt during the Nazi occupation.

The latter Leopoldstadt is part of the Trnava region, an area rich in Czech Jewish history and tragedy. In 1899, the year that Tom Stoppard’s play begins, there was a major blood libel case in the Austro-Hungarian town of Polna. A young Jew named Leopold Hilsner was accused of murdering two Christian women in connection with Passover rituals.

Among Hilsner’s supporters was a little-known philosophy professor named Tomas Masaryk. He rose not merely to defend Hilsner but, as he put it, “to defend the Christians against superstition.” Angry demonstrations by antisemitic students forced the cancellation of Masaryk’s lectures at Charles-Ferdinand University, but that did not stop him from speaking out in the later blood libel case of Menachem Mendel Beilis in Russia.

After his election as president of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Masaryk became a strong supporter of Zionism and visited Palestine. He received honorary citizenship from the city of Tel Aviv in 1935, a forest was planted in his honor and Czech Jewish immigrants established a kibbutz named Kfar Masaryk near Haifa in 1938.

Both Leopoldstadts—the one in Vienna and the one in Czechoslovakia—have a place in the history of the Holocaust, although in very different ways.
North Carolina Police Investigating Second Neo-Nazi Banner Hung on Highway Overpass
Police in North Carolina have launched an investigation after a banner bearing antisemitic and neo-Nazi messages was hung above a highway overpass on Sunday, one week after a similar banner was discovered at an overpass in the same area.

The banner was spotted early on Christmas Day and then removed from the Pineywood Church Road overpass overlooking the US 1 highway in the Cameron area. It carried the slogan “A touch of death time” and was signed by the “NS [National Socialist] Resistance Front,” a previously-unknown neo-Nazi group that may be an offshoot of existing white supremacist organizations. At the base of the banner were two swastikas and the numerals “1488” — neo-Nazi code for the “14 words,” a white supremacist mantra invoked by far-right groups, along with the Nazi slogan “Heil Hitler.”

Exactly one week earlier, a similar banner was removed by police officers from the James Street overpass in Vass, about five miles south of the latest sign, hours before the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah commenced. That banner declared “Bring it all Down” along with the “1488” signature.

Chief Deputy Richard Maness of the Moore County Sheriff’s Office told local news outlet The Pilot that his department was “going to investigate fully” whether the banner found on Sunday was connected to the previous week’s outrage.

“We’re going to give it everything we’ve got,” Maness said.


Israel ranked 4th-best-performing economy among OECD countries in 2022
Israel is the fourth-best-performing economy in 2022 among a list of OECD countries, according to a ranking compiled by The Economist.

The British weekly cited Israel’s well-performing economy as one of the “pleasant surprises” in 2022 “despite political chaos” wrought by the government’s collapse, which took Israelis to the polls for a fifth time in less than four years.

The Economist’s ranking is based on an overall score measured by five economic and financial indicators: gross domestic debt (GDP), inflation, inflation breadth, stock market performance and government debt.

Israel’s economy shared the fourth place with Spain and was ranked after Ireland among the 34 wealthy OECD countries cited in the survey. Greece scored the top spot followed by Portugal in second place, while Latvia and Estonia came at the bottom of the list. Japan, France, and Italy made it into the top 10. Meanwhile, the US economy, which grew at a rate of 0.2%, ranked 20th, and Germany, “despite poitical stability,” is in 30th place, according to the Economist.

Countries, including Spain and Israel, that are not dependent on oil and gas delivery from Russia fared better than average, the survey found.

“Those reliant on Vladimir Putin for fuel have truly suffered,” the Economist noted. “In Latvia average consumer prices have risen by a fifth.” The port in Haifa with anchor ships, cranes and cargo containers. (MagioreStock via iStock by Getty Images)

Israel’s economy is projected to have grown at a rate of 6.3% in 2022, according to Finance Ministry estimates, following its even faster expansion of 8.1% in 2021, the year of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. That compares with projected GDP growth of 3% among world economies for this year, according to an OECD outlook.
Israeli Exports Set to Hit Record $160 Billion in 2022
Israeli exports of goods and services are expected to total at least 160 billion dollars in 2022, the country’s Foreign Trade Administration announced Sunday, citing a “conservative” estimate.

It is the second year in a row in which Israeli exports reached a new high, and marks a 10% increase from the previous record of $144 billion in 2021.

Services — led by programming and followed by research and development — are expected to make up 51% of all Israeli exports in 2022, while goods will account for the remaining 49%.

Significant growth was particularly seen in the export of goods including chemicals and chemical industry products (55%+), diamonds (41%+), and electronic and mechanical equipment (18%+).

Exports mainly headed to the European, American, and Asian markets, with the former accounting for 38% of the total, and the latter two for 35% and 24%, respectively.

Increases in exports were recorded to various markets, including the United States (19%+), the United Kingdom (113%+), Ireland (115%+), Brazil (90%+), India (39%+), Canada (95%+), Singapore (85%+), Hong Kong (24%+), Turkey (17%+), France (22%+), and the Philippines (181%+).
Israel’s Elbit Systems to Supply Poland With F-16 Mission Simulators
Israeli defense company Elbit Systems has won a contract to deliver four F-16 full mission simulators to the Polish Air Force.

The contract is worth an estimated $36 million, Air Force Technology reported on Friday.

The simulators will be designed to allow the Polish Air Force’s pilots to upgrade a wide range of operational skills.

“It will offer both basic familiarity lessons with the aircraft as well as the advanced combat flight training in highly contested operational environments,” the report said.

Elbit Systems Aerospace General Manager Yoram Shmuely said his company is proud to supply “high-quality training solutions for military pilots, and we are proud to provide the Polish Armed Forces with advanced solutions to support their missions.”

The systems include a 360-degree display and interconnected simulators as well as immersive flight training experiences.

The latest contract comes amid heightened tensions between Poland, a NATO member, and Russia, which invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 24.

In 2018, Elbit won a contract to deliver full mission simulators to the Polish Air Force for M-346 training aircraft.
A Buchris story: The rise, fall, and comeback of an Israeli hero
It's hard not to marvel at the sight of the Buchris family's new home in Ramat Hasharon: entire walls made of glass through which the light that penetrates floods the interior spaces, a pool in the yard, meticulous vegetation, luxurious armchairs, works of art on the walls and unique design details scattered in the living room and guest room.

It can be assumed that this is the good life that Pinhas Buchris (66) aspired towards, after decades of life as a combat fighter, as the commander of the cyber units of the IDF and as the director general of the Ministry of Defense. And yet, a simple job he did at home - at the previous one actually - almost led to his death. The retired IDF Brigadier general, who participated in the rescue operation in Entebbe and the elimination of Abu Jihad in Tunis and in numerous operations in hostile countries, came very close to death because of a fall from a ladder.

"It happened exactly a year ago," Buchris recalls, "I climbed a ladder to fix something in the yard and I didn't stabilize it well. A moment later I flew off it headfirst, straight into a concrete surface, and lost consciousness. Idan (son of Yodafat Harel-Buchris , his partner) heard the fall, ran to me, lifted my head and saw that my jaw was crushed and that I wasn't breathing. He pulled my jaw forward and basically released my trachea so I could breathe. That's how he saved my life."

"He broke every possible bone in the skull, none of them remained intact," says Yodfat (50). "When the doctors saw him, some said he wouldn't last 24 hours, others gave him 72 hours. The estimates were that there was no chance that he would wake up, that he wouldn't remember anything from his past, that he wouldn't speak, that he would be disabled. He was supposed to undergo ten surgeries, but in the end he recovered by himself. After he was released, seven therapists came to our house every day, and some still come, because he had to learn everything all over again. Even to walk. But this is Buchris, this is the man. He is stubborn, he doesn't give up."

"I didn't have a brain," Buchris continues in an almost emotionless description, "the doctors didn't give me a chance to live. No one believed I would get out of it. When I woke up from the coma, reality was distorted, mainly my long-term and short-term memory got mixed up. My body betrayed me, it was very unpleasant, but I had an inner belief that I would overcome it. It was difficult for me to return to startups, but when I went back to meet with them and saw that my mind was working - I realized that I was fine. All in all, it was a random incident. I wanted to fix something completely routine, but I did not follow safety instructions and I found myself planted in the concrete. I was injured due to personal negligence, and for that I paid a price. What's more, it happened a little after Yodfat and I found the new house - so I basically said 'bye' to Yodfat, I went into a coma for two months, and when I came back the house was ready."

"I am one of the founders of Israel's cyber capabilities"

Buchris’ military resume includes, among other things, the position of deputy commander of the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal); commander of Unit 81, the technological unit of the Intelligence Corps; commander of the special operations array of the Intelligence Corps; and commander of Unit 8200. When he was released from the army in 2002, the business chapter of his life began, but looking from the side it seems that he has not yet fully found his place. He first joined the Apex Partners investment fund as an independent partner and was a partner in the team that led its investment in Bezeq. At the same time, he served as the representative in Israel of the businessman Poju Zabludowicz, co-founder, president and CEO of the Tamares Group. In 2007, he was appointed CEO of the Ministry of Defense, until 2010. Then he was CEO of the Bazan Group, a position he held for only two years. (h/t L_King)
Longtime Israeli basketball star Willie Sims dies at 64
Willie Sims, the American-Israeli, who was the sixth man on the 1981 LSU basketball team’s run to the Final Four, died on Friday in Israel.

Sims was known as “Super Sub” as he was usually the first player off the bench for the team that won a school-record 26 consecutive games and finished the season with a 31-5 record.

The 64-year-old Sims had been hospitalized in Israel, where he lived for years after a decorated 16-year pro career there, since suffering a heart attack in August.

Sims grew up in New York and was predominantly raised by his grandmother, who converted to Judaism after marrying Sims’s grandfather.

An affable 6-foot-3 guard, Sims perfectly played the role he accepted during his four-year career with the Tigers from 1977-81. When did Sims move to Israel?

After being chosen in the fifth round of the 1981 NBA draft by the Denver Nuggets, Sims opted to play pro ball in Israel and became a beloved player there.

A two-time gold medalist in the Maccabiah Games while playing for the USA in 1977 and ’81, Sims played in 309 pro games and scored 3,761 points to rank 47th on the Israeli scoring list.

Sims played in Israel for Maccabi Haifa (1981-83), Hapoel Tel Aviv (1983-85), Elitzur Netanya (1985-87) and Maccabi Tel Aviv (1987-92), where he won the Israeli Basketball Super League five times and won three Israeli State Cups. He then played for Hapoel Eilat from 1992 to 1996.
Merry Christmas: Israel's Christian population thriving, new data shows
With Christmas just around the corner, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics released updated data regarding Christians living in Israel, updated to 2021.

As of the end of 2021, the Christian population in Israel numbered approximately 183,000 residents, which is 1.9% of Israel's population.

75.8% of the Christian population in Israel are Arab Christians - numbering some 138,000 citizens. Arab Christians are 6.9% of the total Arab population in Israel.

24.2% of the Christian population in Israel are non-Arab Christians, which accounts for some 44,400 people, most of them immigrants who came to Israel with Jewish family members under the Law of Return (including their children born in Israel) since the nineties.

Where do Christians prefer to live?
Most Arab Christians choose to live in Israel's northern (70.2%) and Haifa (13.6%) districts. 36.3% of non-Arab Christians similarly reside in Israel's more northern parts, 39% however, prefer to live in the Tel Aviv and central districts.

The cities with the largest Arab Christian population are: Nazareth (21,000), Haifa (16,700), Jerusalem (12,900) and Shfaram (10,500). Non-Arab Christians, quite similarly, prefer to reside in large metropolis cities like Haifa (3,900), Tel Aviv-Yafo (3,800) and Jerusalem (3,400).

In 2021, the growth rate of the Christian population was 2%. For comparison, the growth rate of the Jewish population was 1.6%, and of the Muslim population - 2.2%.
How Hanukkah & Christmas Affirm the Jewish People’s Connection to the Land of Israel
Following these victories, the Maccabees successfully liberated the city of Jerusalem and re-sanctified the Holy Temple. This liberation and re-sanctification are the key events of the Hanukkah story.

Therefore, when Jews celebrate Hanukkah by lighting candles, playing dreidel, and eating oil-based foods, they are not only commemorating the miracle of the jug of oil or a remarkable military victory, but also affirming the ancient ties that bind the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, all the way through to the present day.

Just like the story of Hanukkah, the Christmas story also highlights the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel for thousands of years.

The story of the birth of Jesus, which Christmas celebrates, is based upon the words of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, and details the lives of a Jewish family in the Land of Israel at the turn of the first century CE.

The narratives in both Luke and Matthew describe the birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph, a Jewish couple, in the Judean city of Bethlehem. At the time, Bethlehem was thought to be a major source of agriculture for the nearby metropolis of Jerusalem, especially for produce and livestock that were brought as offerings to the Holy Temple.

Following the birth of Jesus, the narratives of Luke and Matthew diverge, with the Gospel of Matthew having Jesus’ family escape to Egypt before returning to the Land of Israel and migrating to the Galilean city of Nazareth, while the Gospel of Luke has Jesus’ family ascend to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem before venturing on to Nazareth.

In any event, the story of Jesus’ birth and the early years of his life appears within the context of a vibrant and semi-independent Jewish community existing within the Land of Israel, more than 2,000 years ago.

Thus, Christmas commemorates the birth of a Jewish child in Bethlehem, and also positively affirms the Jewish people’s connection to the Land of Israel for thousands of years.
Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl lights up Hanukkah with musical stars
Dave Grohl, best known as the leader of the 12-time Grammy-winning band Foo Fighters, celebrated Hanukkah this year with his own personal tradition of bringing in fellow stars to perform covers of songs with a Jewish connection.

It is the third year in a row that Grohl has produced his so-called Hanukkah Sessions, a series of eight videos published on social media, one for each night of the holiday. Grohl, who isn’t Jewish, collaborates with the Grammy-winning Jewish producer Greg Kurstin on the project.

Unlike previous years, when the videos were made at Kurstin’s home studio, this year a secretive concert was held for just 250 people on December 5 at Los Angeles’s Largo nightclub, with various artists taking the stage to sing live.

The pair began publishing the videos on December 18, the first night of Hanukkah, with Judd Apatow doing a cover of Blood Sweat & Tears’s “Spinning Wheel.”

Since then there have been efforts by Jewish pop star P!nk with her hit “Get this party started” (second night) and Grohl’s own daughter Violet singing Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen” (fourth night).

The final night of Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, celebrated Sunday, was marked with a video showing Dave Grohl singing Randy Newman’s classic “I Love L.A.”






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