Monday, January 30, 2023
Silent Victims
For centuries Jews were perfect victims who harmed nobody – perfectly moral, but utterly powerless, moving from country to country as strangers in foreign lands, subjected to discrimination ranging from expulsions, pogroms, quotas in schools, clubs, the workplace and some. It may surprise many that up until the 1970’s such quotas existed in the UK and America. Eternal scapegoats for failing leaders, Jews are accused for being too rich, too poor, too foreign, too swarthy, too white.The Jewish martyrs of Iraq will not be forgotten
The Holocaust is not just one of the world’s incessant wars, not just another injustice amongst many. It is the ultimate crime specifically aimed at Jews that sets it apart, not beginning in 1939, but an historic trail of Jewish persecution over two thousand years. A persecution that involved the unimaginable savagery executed by cultured criminals, humiliating and dehumanising Jews – savagery – cutting off noses and breasts, gang rape even after death – much more too vile to contemplate.
In his poem ‘In The City of Slaughter’ Bialik wrote how Jewish women were systematically defiled, assaulted, raped, mutilated, left to bleed to death in filthy cowsheds. Often their husbands were forced after such gang rape, to have public sex with their dying wives. This happened not in third world savage jungles, but in cultured Europe – Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Ukraine – and ultimately en route to the death camps of Europe as Germany set forth to create its perfect Aryan race, not thousands of years ago, but in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, within living memory of our grandparents and parents.
That’s the fate of the silent victim, prey to the want of tyrants and savages, with a leadership that sees the solution in acquiescence. It’s the state of education about the Holocaust – teaching children about the Kindertransport only as a virtue saving children, but failing to educate why even young babies were sent by their parents into an unknown world with strangers, to be raised by foreigners speaking a different tongue, often with a different religion, never to see their parents again, parents killed, not by accident, but wilfully tortured and exterminated by the cultured savages of Europe – murderers, listening to Wagner in the comfort of their warm homes after a day’s killing, homes furnished with looted belongings of their Jewish victims, their wives adorned with Jewish jewels and furs, stuffing down sumptuous dinners as Jews slept 12 to a bunk with hardly a gangrened crust in their bellies, freezing in the midwinter snow, dying from dysentery and fear induced dementia
January 27, is a day with a painful memory for the Jews of Iraq. It is the day when nine Jews were executed fifty- four years ago. Their bodies were hanged from the gallows in al-Tahrir Square in Baghdad and Um al-Broom in Basra. There was also a 10th victim whose father was Jewish. Here we republish a summary of articles written by David Kheder Basson in the Arabic medium Elaph detailing the full horror of the hangings, and the subsequent murder of over 40 Jews:Jonathan Greenblatt: Norway's sovereign wealth fund is engaging in antisemitism
In the first five years of the Baath regime (1968-1973), the remnants of the Jews of Iraq, numbering around 3,000 people, were subjected to a vicious campaign of executions, killings, tortures, kidnapping and ad-hoc arrests, aside from discrimination and persecution.
In the autumn of 1968, a frenzied campaign against the Jews of Iraq began. Dozens of Iraqi Jews from all social classes and ages were arrested again. Some of them were accused of spying for Israel and subversion. The government carried out campaign of executions and physical liquidation in prisons. The Jews were helpless in a game whose real aim was to intimidate the Iraqi people and Baath opponents by picking the most vulnerable minority in Iraq, knowing that no one will dare to object or to voice protest.
The arrest campaign began in September 1968 when four Jews were arrested and disappeared without trace. Rumors started circulating that they were in Qasr Alnihaya (the Palace of the End) – a royal palace that was used as an infamous prison and where people were tortured and killed. Weeks later we heard that seventeen Jews from Basra had been arrested and brought to Baghdad on charges of spying for Israel; ten of them were students. The number increased over the next weeks to more than thirty people.
Most of the accused who were tried in January 1969 in a revolutionary court, headed by an army guy called Watwout, were tortured and had to confess that they were spies, except for Naji Zilkha, Charles Horesh, Zaki Zitou and Abdel-Hussain Nur Gita who refused to obey the instructions and insisted on their innocence despite the severe torture they were subjected to, according to the testimony of prisoners who were with them. The court appointed a defense lawyer who was apologetic that he had to defend spies, instead of trying to show that the accusations were false and that confessions were made under torture.
Two decades ago, I co-founded Ethos Brands based on the principle that a company can do well by doing good. We sold bottled water and used the profits to bring clean drinking water to children in need around the world. Our plan was successful: not only did we raise awareness about the world water crisis and donate funds to communities in need, but we were also acquired by Starbucks.
This same philosophy drives the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement, a significant and growing segment of the capital markets. Over the past few years, the ESG movement has encountered spirited opposition from those who argue that a company’s sole obligation is to maximize profits for shareholders – not be concerned about, for example, the needs of a broader set of stakeholders.
While I disagree with much of ESG’s critics, I hope we all – ESG proponents and opponents – can agree that ESG should not be a Trojan horse for antisemitism and hate. Yet, that is precisely what is at risk with an expected decision by Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, one of the world’s largest investors, to divest its holding in Israeli banks in the coming days.
Norway's sovereign wealth fund is engaging in economic warfare
Attacking the banks of a country is a form of economic warfare. It is next level – a drastic measure normally reserved for the most virulent actors on the world stage. Such a move by Norway will invigorate the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a radical campaign that aims to delegitimize and isolate Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, including by manipulating ESG.
There was a time in recent memory when Norway was an honest broker in the region. Through its sponsorship and facilitation of the ground-breaking “Oslo process” in the early 1990s – which led to the first Israeli-Palestinian agreement; the establishment of Palestinian self-governance through the Palestinian Authority; and broad acceptance for the importance of working towards a two-state solution – Norway was a creative and constructive force for Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation.
Divesting from Israeli banks because they offer services in the West Bank is antithetical to this legacy. It is an act that punishes both Israeli and Palestinian businesses and consumers. Moreover, this ill-conceived and counterproductive investment decision does nothing to promote positive initiatives that could ameliorate the conflict, or improve the situation on the ground.
We do not know the personal motivations of the so-called Council of Ethics at the fund that is making this recommendation, but what we do know, is that singling out companies that happen to be located in the Jewish state is as prejudicial as singling out people who happen to be Jewish.
Darkest tragedy, unrealized dreams: ‘Whispered in Gaza,’ the final interviews
This article, the last in a series of three, presents eight short, animated interviews with residents of the Gaza Strip.Whispered in Gaza - They Call Themselves Muslims
Produced by the Center for Peace Communications, a New York nonprofit, they are being published by The Times of Israel because they represent a rare opportunity for ordinary, courageous Gazans to tell the world what life is like under the rule of Hamas.
Since the series’ debut, the videos have accrued two million views via CPC’s platforms, and approximately one million more through a combination of partnering outlets with separate platforms, reposts on social media, and WhatsApp and Telegram transmissions. According to analytics, the largest audience resides in the Arab world, followed by English-speaking countries.
There have been several hacking attempts, presumably by Hamas in a failed attempt to block distribution of the material. The unsuccessful hacks included bot assaults on CPC’s distribution mechanism. CPC had previously disclosed one of those attempts. We have also been made aware that Hamas produced counterfeit clips with voiceovers to twist the Gazan testimonies evidently in order to sabotage the reach and audience of “Whispered in Gaza”.
All interviews were conducted over the course of 2022. The speakers all currently reside in Gaza.
Over the first and second installments, Gazan men and women shared their experience of Hamas repression, corruption, brutality, brainwashing, and warmongering. Several also described their participation in a homegrown attempt to confront Hamas rule through street demonstrations in 2019, which Hamas quashed with an iron fist.
This final installment, released amid a new wave of Hamas terror in Israel and Israeli military responses in Gaza, aims to enhance the new discussion of Gaza’s future which this series has now sparked. As CPC president Joseph Braude writes in an accompanying opinion piece, the first 17 clips have already been viewed several million times. Among their audience in the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas, some in the Arab world who had long perceived Hamas as a legitimate “resistance” movement are reacting with dismay at the group’s actual behavior, while some Western policymakers have called for creative thinking about a new approach to the coastal Strip.
The first of this installment’s eight clips narrates the darkest individual tragedy in the entire “Whispered in Gaza” series. Two others relay seldom-heard Gazan perspectives on Israeli citizens and a clash with the IDF. As to the remaining five, they platform Gazans wishing to address an international audience directly. The interviewees respond to questions about their hopes and dreams for Gaza’s future, as well as potential roles for outside powers in supporting their goals.
“Samir’s” brother once served in the PA security forces in Gaza. When Hamas conquered the Strip in 2007, he was among the wounded. His friends rushed him to the emergency room, only for Hamas security forces to shut off the power, forbidding doctors to treat him. “These people profess Islam and claim to be religious,” Samir says, “but they slaughtered people.”
Whispered in Gaza - Not Much Different Than an Occupation
“Majed” recalls how Gaza’s youth protests began. “It started with peaceful protest camps,” he says, “but Hamas decided to exploit them.” Gazans were told that they would “break the blockade” if they marched on the border, “Majed” remembers, “but the people were broken instead.”
Whispered in Gaza - All of Us Are Patriots
“Bassam” was part of the “We Want to Live” Movement. “All we wanted was a government that knows how to run the country.” But he saw how it was “brutally suppressed” by Hamas and “found no international support.” If a new movement is to be successful, he says, it must have “coordination” with the international community.
Whispered in Gaza - We Used to Celebrate Together
“Khalil’s” grandparents raised him on stories of a better time. In their generation, “we used to attend [Israelis’] celebrations, and they would come to ours.” Palestinians were free to travel from Gaza to Jaffa or Jerusalem, and work alongside Israelis. ”When you work with Israelis, and they trust you,” his grandparents told him, “you can live the life you’ve always wished for.”
Whispered in Gaza - My Struggle is Through Communication
“There’s a false stereotype that Palestinians in Gaza love rockets and wars,” says “Zainab”. While pro-Hamas media works to “instill a thirst for blood” in the youth, she struggles to convey a simple message to the outside world: “We don’t want war; we want a decent life.”
Citing exclusion, Jewish faculty boycott Virginia university Holocaust commemoration
An event that took place at a Virginia university Thursday night to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day was scheduled to feature lectures about the legacies of Auschwitz and the intersection between white supremacy and antisemitism. There was also a planned recitation of a poem and a musical performance.Why American Jewish politicians have rushed to defend Ilhan Omar
Not on the docket at James Madison University: support for the event from the school’s Jewish faculty and staff.
Dozens of them announced in an open letter that they would boycott the event, titled “An Evening Conversation on the History and Legacy of the Holocaust,” citing concerns about its appropriateness. Of particular concern, according to multiple people familiar with the situation, was a planned performance by the university’s provost, a pianist, during a segment titled “Music as Refuge in the Holocaust.”
“There was no refuge for those targeted by the ‘Final Solution,’” said the open letter, which was unsigned but said it had the support of “24 of Jewish JMU Faculty, Faculty Emeriti, and Staff.”
The letter, which the school’s student newspaper The Breeze published Thursday morning, said the planning of the Holocaust event had “disrespected and disparaged Jewish individuals, dismissed Jewish participation and failed to reflect the inclusive values that JMU purports to foster.” The letter criticized the university’s decision not to solicit input from Jewish faculty in planning its event, as well as the decision to invite the rabbi of a neighboring community to give a community address, rather than centering the local rabbi.
That rabbi, Jeffrey Kurtz-Lendner of Beth El Congregation of Harrisonburg, said the event had been planned with little to no input from Jews, and that three Jews who were added to the planning committee late in the process later resigned en masse. More than a dozen Jews had been involved in planning the previous year’s event, one signer of the letter told JTA.
In an interview, Kurtz-Lendner compared the event to “a Martin Luther King observance planned by an entire committee of white people.” He said he was joining the boycott and not encouraging his congregants, who include James Madison professors, to attend. He said the rabbi listed on the original program, from a Reform synagogue about 30 miles away in Staunton, would not attend, either.
“The program looks wholly insensitive,” he said. “Instead of being a commemoration of the Holocaust, it looks like it’s turning into an opportunity for celebration.”
Among the forces rallying to the antisemite’s side are the Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus, with the latter’s chair Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) saying, “We support Rep. Omar. She’s an effective legislator who deserves to maintain her seat and we’re gonna continue to represent her.” He called the effort to remove her “ridiculous.”Ilhan Omar Gaslights Jewish Community on National TV
It should not be surprising that far-left congressional factions are rallying behind Omar. What is more disturbing is that prominent Jewish members of Congress have joined them.
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), for example, proclaimed to Politico that Omar “will be the first to tell you that we both disagree on a lot of things. I love Israel, and I will defend it wholeheartedly. She’s deeply troubled by the Israeli government. But that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be a voice on the Foreign Affairs Committee, even if it is painful for me.”
Phillips added, “I don’t think she’s antisemitic, I think she’s made some mistakes. … I believe that she’s learned from it, and I mean that sincerely.”
The congressman, unfortunately, is talking nonsense. One does not “disagree” with antisemitism, because to grant it the dignity of “disagreeing” is to collaborate in its legitimization.
Moreover, Omar is not “troubled” by Israel’s government. She is not even “troubled” by Israel. She hates Israel and indeed the Jews. Nor, from her point of view, has she made any “mistakes,” let alone “learned” from them. She has done precisely what she intended to do and largely succeeded.
Even worse than Phillips is the high-ranking Jewish Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who at least had the courage to criticize Omar in the past. Now she has happily capitulated, saying, “There’s no reason to remove Congresswoman Omar from her committees except revenge. … We removed Congressman [Paul] Gosar and [Marjorie] Taylor Greene because they threatened violence against other members, including death. That is not anything that Congresswoman Omar did.”
There is, in fact, every reason to remove an antisemite from any position of power. Moreover, had leaders like Wasserman Schultz faced down Omar’s supporters in the past, Omar might have long since been censured and marginalized. Perhaps Wasserman Schultz’s apologetics stem from the need to deny this craven lack of courage.
In a recent interview with Ilhan Omar on CNN’s State of the Union, co-host Dana Bash questioned the Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota on her invocation of an antisemitic stereotype in a 2019 tweet (“all about the Benjamins”) and what she has learned following her public apology for the statement.In implied rebuke to Trump, GOP slams Kanye West and Nick Fuentes for antisemitism
In response, Omar claimed that she “certainly…was not aware that the word ‘hypnotized’ was a trope. I wasn’t aware of the fact that there are tropes about Jews and money. That has been a very enlightening part of this journey.”
Ilhan Omar’s response was swiftly met with both incredulity and ridicule on social media, and with good reason.
It is hard to believe that a woman who has spent the majority of her life in the United States (the 40-year-old Somalia native moved to America when she was 13 years old) and has held positions at universities, think tanks and various levels of government had never heard of any antisemitic stereotypes concerning Jews and money prior to 2019.
This is especially incredulous given that, according to a recent poll by the Anti-Defamation League, nearly a quarter of American citizens hold some sort of stereotypical belief regarding Jews, money and power.
It is also hard to believe that Omar’s professed enlightenment on the topic was a truly transformative experience, because a year-and-a-half after she apologized for her comments, Omar’s campaign released an election mailer that questioned whether voters could trust the sources of her opponent’s money – and then only named Jewish donors.
The Republican Party unanimously condemned antisemitic Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, saying their beliefs have no place in “any political discourse.”
The official resolution passed on Friday at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting represents an implied rebuke to former US president Donald Trump, who recently dined and consulted with the men, but does not mention him.
The resolution opposes “all forms of antisemitism, antisemitic statements and any antisemitic elements that seek to infiltrate the Republican Party.” It names West, the rapper, and designer now known as Ye, saying he “has repeatedly made statements that are antisemitic, shameful, wrong, offensive, bigoted, and contrary to American and Republican principles.” It also names Fuentes, noting that he is a white supremacist.
Trump dined with West and Fuentes in November, not long after West launched a barrage of antisemitic statements on social media and interviews. Fuentes has long been known as an antisemite and a Holocaust denier.
“Resolved, that the Republican National Committee affirms antisemitism has no place in our political party, American politics, or any political discourse,” the resolution said.
Trump did not apologize for the encounter, even though it drew rebukes from some of his closest Jewish associates. Trump said West was an old friend in crisis, and that West brought along Fuentes, whom Trump claimed not to know and whose antisemitism he condemned.
Politico, which first reported planning for the resolution, said it was conceived by Shawn Steel, a national committeeman for the RNC. “I want to create a standard for all political parties in America, that we don’t tolerate bigotry, and in this particular case, antisemitism,” he told Politico.
The resolution also targeted a number of Democrats that Republicans see as antisemitic, in part because of their harsh criticism of Israel and in at least three cases, their endorsement of the boycott Israel movement.
Noteworthy: while Ilhan Omar and the entire Democratic Party continue to lie and gaslight about her antisemitism and their tolerance of it — a.k.a. #BigTentAntisemitism — the Republican Party has just adopted a resolution standing against all forms of antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/LckHQpaybl
— Orbital tungsten rod sales?? (@razingarizona) January 29, 2023
Ruthie Blum: Gadi Taub should celebrate being 'cancelled' - opinion
Israel’s radical daily Haaretz is calling on the public to “join its struggle for democracy.” The self-described “newspaper for thinking people” has always aimed its content at a certain type of high-brow reader, but it long ago ceased pretending to be a professional broadsheet, opting instead to serve as a proud vehicle for left-wing activism.Left-wing Activists Pressure American Bar Association Not To Adopt Widely-Accepted IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
Its current campaign is focused on delegitimizing the new government in Jerusalem, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The slogan of its ad – “Democracy doesn’t end with elections” – is perfect for the endeavor.
It also reveals the true nature of the Saturday-night demonstrations in the streets of the country’s major cities. Though ostensibly about Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s plans to reform the judicial system, they’re actually an expression of disappointment at the loss of the November 1 Knesset elections to the Right.
The best way to obfuscate this inconvenient fact is to pull a twofer: denigrate the victors who won through a democratic process, and accuse them of posing a threat to democracy by virtue of their being in the majority. It’s a neat trick that has some fellow travelers fooled and many others intimidated.
One example of the latter is the Azrieli Group. The real estate company initially nixed the screening of the “Democracy doesn’t end with elections” message on the wall of its Tel Aviv shopping center. It subsequently backtracked due to bullying by Haaretz.
There’s nothing like suggesting that the mall owners objected to the word “democracy” to make them shudder with fear – likely over the possibility of being boycotted by customers. Judging by the outlet’s firing of weekly columnist Gadi Taub this week, their trepidation is well-founded.
All the people identified above as antisemites are politically right-of-center. It perhaps did not occur to the resolution’s authors and sponsors that the most vociferous opposition would likely come from the political left.The Bitter War between Pro-Palestinian Protesters and "Besieged" Midlands Factory Workers
On January 18, a group of left-wing, Islamist, and anti-Israel organizations wrote to the co-sponsors condemning Resolution 514’s support for the IHRA definition. The ACLU, Jewish Voice for Peace, Council on American Islamic Relations, et al., offered mealy-mouthed support for fighting antisemitism, but claimed IHRA chills free speech and is anti-Palestinian. Among other things, the letter complained that the IHRA definition was “dangerously chilling fundamental rights of free speech, freedom of assembly and protest, and academic freedom.”
This supposed concern for free speech and academic freedom is rich, coming from a collection of organizations that have hounded pro-Israel voices out of universities. The ACLU, in particular, has given up what used to be its main mission in favor of agitating only for leftist political causes it favors, and keeping mum about suppression of voices it disfavors. For example, it refused to support those who drew or published cartoons of Muhammad, or to condemn Islamist attempts to silence criticism of Islam (so-called “defamation of religion”). Ayaan Hirsi Ali considers both the ACLU and the SPLC as what Lenin called “useful idiots,” which have been or are being infiltrated by Islamists. The once-celebrated ACLU has now become another anti-Israel, so-called “progressive” partisan.
Hopefully, the ABA will present the resolution despite last-minute efforts to derail it. But don’t be surprised if it’s pulled from consideration.
Why do the objecting organizations oppose condemning antisemitism? Why do they particularly oppose adopting IHRA’s definition of antisemitism, which (among other things) condemns obsessively criticizing Israel and delegitimizing its right to exist?
Occam’s Razor says, the simplest solution that answers the question is the best solution. Here’s a possibility – these groups oppose adopting IHRA’s well-vetted definition of antisemitism because they are antisemitic.
Since 2014, protests have been taking place outside of a Staffordshire factory making repurposed motorbike engines for drones.
While the business is Israeli-owned, it says it is "fully compliant with all the UK export license laws" and does not send military parts to Israel for use.
Recent protests have been carried out by the activist group Palestine Action, which has vandalized the premises.
Jody, who is head of security at the factory, said: "This narrative that they communicate to their people is completely false.... Everybody has got the right to protest. But when they cross that line and start smashing the bejeesus out of our building, intimidating our people, it ain't on."
"We live in a democratic society; if they have got an issue, take it to the Government or stand for election, do it that way."
The Barcelona City Council was on the verge of approving a resolution that would end longstanding relations between the Catalonian capital and Israel’s cultural center.
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) January 26, 2023
Help us petition the city to preserve twin city ties and reject BDS pressure ?? https://t.co/o46QNgVIVP pic.twitter.com/vgnr2pmHi2
And like clockwork, the anti-Israel movement & BDS claims that Israel was responsible for Tyre Nichols death. They co-opt every cause, every incident, and every movement. pic.twitter.com/p07czicsGk
— Ari Ingel (@OGAride) January 29, 2023
My sister in South Africa recorded this for me today. It shows the new mayor of Johannesburg with a "Palestinian" flag around his neck.
— Documenting Israel (@israelmuse) January 30, 2023
His name is Thapelo Amad and he is also an Imaam and clearly a big terrorist supporter. Johannesburg has many many Jews living there. pic.twitter.com/rzrdTxLoiO
“If you heckle me, you will get shot” - Mohammed El Kurd
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 30, 2023
Jewish students deserve to feel safe on you campus! Why is this known antisemite being allowed to incite hatred and violence against Jews @UMichPrezOno? https://t.co/pl6FtCDHRr pic.twitter.com/KqD2T0UVRM
Wonder if @LMUtweets MED STUDENT Sumar Beauti will apply the same bigoted course of treatment to her patients: “ain’t no way my medicine made in isra*l” and “let’s pray there’s a generic”https://t.co/9OThYu7AHc pic.twitter.com/NuqTrc9asP
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) January 29, 2023
All hail King George V ???? https://t.co/C4oVAnQ8Bk
— The Mossad: ?????? (@TheMossadIL) January 30, 2023
Two Released Israeli Arab Terrorists, One Murder (Not in the Golan), and Plenty of News Errors
The recent release of Israeli Arab cousins Karim and Maher Younis, convicted in 1983 for the 1980 kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg, unleashed a wave of news media misinformation ranging from the terrorists’ nationality to the location of their crime and their legal treatment. CAMERA and its Arabic department prompted a series of corrections, including Arabic corrections at Agence France Presse, France24 and Reuters, alongside correction of an English-language Reuters article. Only The Jerusalem Post has remained impervious to requests to set the record straight.CAMERA Op-Ed The Washington Post Gets By With a Little Help From Its Friends
Reuters’ Jan. 5 article, “Israel frees one of longest serving Palestinian prisoners after 40 years,” had erred: “Karim Younis, 60, was convicted of kidnapping and killing Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg in 1983 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.” Younis kidnapped and killed Bromberg in central Israel, by Junction Pal-Yam, south of Ceasarea, as detailed in this Walla article — not in the Golan Heights. Second, the murder took place in 1980, and not 1983.
In addition, the reference to Younis as a “Palestinian prisoner” in both the headline and first paragraph is extremely misleading. Younis is an Israeli citizen, born and raised within Israel’s internationally-recognized boundaries, and it is precisely this citizenship which elements within the Israeli government and the public seek to revoke given his nationalist murder of a fellow Israeli citizen.
In response to communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, Reuters corrected the article to take into account the correct location and year of Bromberg’s murder. The corrected report now states: “Karim Younis, 65, began serving his sentence in 1983 after being convicted of killing Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg, who had been making his way home from his base in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.” In addition, Reuters added a note to the top of the article alerting readers to the change: “This Jan. 5 story has been refiled to correct Younis’s age and conviction details.”
Despite the fact that The Jerusalem Post had based its story off the Reuters article, the Israeli publication failed to correct after even Reuters had corrected.
Farha a film, now available on Netflix, purports to tell the story of the Palestinian “nakba,” that is, the “catastrophe” that resulted from the failed attempt to prevent the Jews from establishing a state of their own. The film is fiction masquerading as fact. Naturally, the Washington Post loves it.Revisiting a topic serially avoided by the BBC
In a 1200-word review, the Post—like the film itself—misleads about the recreation of the Jewish state. Worse still, the newspaper relies on a motley crew of antisemites, apologists for terrorist groups, and discredited academics to buttress the review. Unsurprisingly, they hail the film.
Farha, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) has noted, is “ahistorical fiction passing for fact.” At times, filmmaker Darin Sallam has purported that the film depicts real events. Yet as CAMERA’s Karen Bekker has pointed out, Sallam has also said otherwise.
During a Q&A at the Toronto Palestine Film Festival in September 2022, Sallam admitted that the film is in a “fiction format.” Sallam also makes clear that the only thing that, according to her, is true about the story in Farha is that decades ago, her mother, as a child, met another girl who told her that she had been locked in a room during the 1948 war. As Bekker observes, this claim is unverifiable.
What is clear, however, is Sallam’s intent. The Jordanian director told the audience at the Toronto Palestine Film Festival that she intentionally depicted Israeli soldiers in a negative light. The film features a 15-minute scene of Israeli soldiers massacring an entire Palestinian family, including a one-year-old baby. Sallam told the audience that she chose to show the soldier abandoning the baby to die a slow death because it was “an uglier way of dying … [and] I’m sure that in the next house, right after, he must have killed another baby.”
Depicting Jews as willful murderers of children is a staple of antisemitism that stretches back centuries. Sallam is keen to promote this antisemitic canard. And the Washington Post, in turn, is keen to promote Sallam.
Throughout the past five and a half years we have repeatedly had cause to note that the BBC – which maintains an office in Beirut – has serially avoided stories concerning a Lebanese organisation called ‘Green Without Borders’ which is linked to the terrorist organisation Hizballah.Latin American legislators pledge support for Israel, urge adoption of IHRA definition of antisemitism
In 2020 the Washington Institute for Near East Policy published a study of that ‘environmental’ organisation in which it was described as “a Hezbollah front, providing the militant group cover for operational activities prohibited under UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701—from conducting preoperational surveillance to firing rockets at Israel”.
This week the AP news agency published a report in which residents of a village in south Lebanon spoke about their experiences with that NGO.
A group of pro-Israel legislators from across Latin America on Sunday urged countries in the region to the adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism and promote faith-based support for Israel in their countries.Borough president: NY must stop honoring Nazi collaborators
The meeting took on added significance as it came immediately after a pair of terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, one of which coincided with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The lawmakers from 10 countries, including Guatemala, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Brazil and the Dominican Republic, chair their countries’ respective parliamentary Israel Allies Caucuses, a network of over 50 such alliances across the world under the aegis of the Israel Allies Foundation.
“Jews and Christians working together to promote support for Israel and Judeo-Christian values can make a real impact across the globe,” said Guatemalan Foreign Minister Mario Bucaro. “Our presence is a representation of solidarity, support and peace for the State of Israel,” he told JNS.
Guatemala was the second country in the world to move their embassy to Jerusalem after the United States inaugurated its embassy in the capital under President Donald Trump in 2018. It also has historic roots of friendship with Israel dating back to the historic United Nations vote for Israel’s independence in 1948, when it became the first country in Latin America to recognize the newfound Jewish state.
Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval—who led the Vichy government during the Nazi occupation of France, and under whom 75,000 French Jews were deported to concentration camps—were convicted of treason after the war and sentenced to death. Some 80 years later, New York still has not gotten that memo.Museum in Spain Returns to Poland Two Paintings Stolen by Nazis During World War II
Granite inscriptions bear both men’s names on Broadway in Manhattan, in the so-called Canyon of Heroes, the site of ticker-tape parades in which confetti rained down upon honorees. Parades hosted both Laval and Pétain in 1931, prior to their alignment with the Nazis, and they are honored on the pavement along with Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and others.
At a press conference on Friday, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine called for being better late than never.
“We must act swiftly to remove commemorations of people who allied with the Third Reich and perpetuated genocide against Jews and other marginalized groups in Europe,” he said, alongside members of the city council’s Jewish Caucus, descendants of Holocaust survivors and Jewish advocates.
“In a city home to more than 1 million Jews–many of whose ancestors fled countries ruled by Nazi collaborators–it is painful and shameful for these plaques to exist,” Levine said. His announcement came on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Spain’s Museum of Pontevedra said it has turned over two 15th century paintings to Polish authorities after it was discovered that they had been looted by the Nazis during World War II.Anti-vaccine activism melded with US antisemitism - study
Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows) and Ecce Homo were handed over to Poland after César Mosquera, vice president of the Pontevedra Provincial Council, and a representative of the Polish government formally signed a restitution agreement on Jan. 25.
“We’re helping to restore an injustice, helping to restore plundered art, helping in whatever way we can to make the world a better place,” said Mosquera.
The two paintings are part of 700 pieces that Nazi forces stole from the Czartoryski collection in the Polish village of Gołuchów during World War II. So far the Polish government has only been able to recover one other piece from this same collection, according to the museum.
Mater Dolorosa and Ecce Homo were originally thought to be painted by renowned Flemish painter Dieric Bouts, who was born in 1420, but it was later revealed that they were created by a member of his school or group. It is believed that the artworks left Warsaw in 1944 and found its way to Madrid in 1973. The Museum of Pontevedra has maintained ownership of the two paintings since 1994 following the purchase of an art collection owned by Spanish collector José Fernández López.
The Polish government contacted the Museum of Pontevedra in 2020 and made them aware of the fact that the two paintings were looted by the Nazis. The museum agreed to return the artwork to Poland, but the legal process, which included official permits for the transaction, delayed the transfer until now.
AS THE COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, the health-freedom language used to oppose childhood immunizations was repurposed to galvanize opposition to COVID vaccines… Extremist members of the US House of Representatives disparaged vaccines, as did several US Senators and governors. On Twitter, one House Member compared vaccinators to “medical brown shirts.” Tragically, anti-COVID vaccine rhetoric and sentiments were amplified nightly in 2021 by the conservative media. In time, the Proud Boys, a group described as having members and who “regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists,” began marching at antivaccine rallies.‘Get him for Kanye’: Man wearing Star of David necklace beaten at DC-area grocery
“The consequences were devastating – health analyst Charles Gaba as well as multiple news outlets analyzed data to find a sharp partisan political divide in vaccination rates, with overwhelmingly high rates of COVID deaths in Republican-majority states, the so-called Red States, and counties where COVID vaccination rates were the lowest.”
Hotez disclosed that he was “stalked at a Houston shul during a High Holiday service. Increasingly, antisemitism converged with a growing anti-science ecosystem. "Despite such distractions, I co-lead a team of scientists at the Texas Medical Center that develops new vaccines for orphaned or neglected diseases. A decade ago, we began developing coronavirus vaccines for SARS and MERS because at that time there was little commercial interest in such vaccines. However, when the COVID virus sequence became available in January 2020 we were able to pivot our program to developing a low-cost COVID vaccine technology.”
Past approaches that focused on providing timely and accurate vaccine information remain essential, he concluded, “but increasingly, they are inadequate to overcome this powerful new force now firmly embedded in the politics of the US and authoritarian governments worldwide. The same is true for its antisemitic leanings. Because antivaccine activism is now firmly embedded in national political infrastructures and has moved beyond the health sector, we must recognize how traditional public health approaches will not be adequate for a counter-response. Therefore, we must look beyond the health sector to experts in modern socioeconomics and geopolitics. The stakes are high, given that antivaccine activism is rapidly expanding and taking on an increasingly dark and sinister element.”
A man who was beaten at a supermarket in a Washington, DC, suburb says his attacker used antisemitic epithets and was encouraged by others who invoked Kanye West, the antisemitic celebrity.Bloomfield, NJ Synagogue Attacked by Molotov Cocktail
The police in Montgomery County, Maryland, said in a press release that the victim said he had approached a group of people tossing fruit at other customers and stealing doughnuts last week at a Giant supermarket in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and rebuked them.
“I went up to one of them and I said, ‘There are people starving in Ukraine and yet you are having a food fight and you know what you just did right there, you know what it’s called? It’s called elder abuse,'” the victim, who declined to provide his name, told NBC’s Washington affiliate. “They started yelling obscenities at me, saying… ‘Fight him, fight him!'”
“I unzipped my jacket and prepared to defend myself, and that’s when he saw my Star of David and said, ‘Let’s go, Jew,'” the victim said.
The man was quickly overpowered by the suspects. His glasses fell off after he sustained a first punch and he subsequently lost his vision as his attackers pinned him down and repeatedly struck him.
“They ganged up on me and they said, ‘Get him for Kanye.’ And I had one person sitting on my legs, two people covering my torso, and one person covering my head and upper shoulders,” the victim told NBC.
A man wearing a ski mask threw a Molotov cocktail at the front door of a Bloomfield, NJ, synagogue, January 29, 2023. Bloomfield Police Department
A masked man threw a Molotov cocktail at the front door of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, NJ, at 3:19 AM Sunday, Bloomfield Police announced Sunday afternoon. According to the police, The device did not explode and there were no injuries and only minimal damage to the temple.
According to a statement issued by Temple Ner Tamid, the fire went out on impact and the door remained secure.
Police are not clear on whether the suspect fled the scene in a vehicle or on foot.
New Jersey Synagogue arson attempt - at approx. 3 a.m. this morning, a man wearing a ski mask ignited and threw a Molotov cocktail at the front door of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, NJ.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 29, 2023
Thankfully the device did not work and minimal damage was caused. pic.twitter.com/cB89iUGleH
Sale of Nazi-themed Valentine’s Day merchandise halted in Australia after outrage
An Australian company offered Valentine’s Day merchandise for sale featuring the face of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, drawing harsh criticism from a Jewish watchdog group.Israel's Sheba Medical Center has active role in Bahrain's new hospital
Spicy Baboon in Queensland offered customers mugs, stickers, hoodies, Valentine’s Day cards, crop tops, and T-shirts emblazoned with Hitler’s image — a rose in his mouth and little hearts surrounding him — alongside the caption: “Be mein.”
A statement accompanying the items on the company’s website read: “Nothing says ‘I love you’ more than Time Magazine’s Man of the Year (1938) clasping a rose.”
Following pushback from Australia’s Anti-Defamation Commission, the company removed the items from its website.
According to a statement issued by the ADC, Spicy Baboon owner Scott Mackenroth said the company meant no harm, thinking the products would be seen as cheeky fun “between couples.”
ADC chairman Dvir Abramovich rejected the company’s “non-apology” and urged Mackenroth to visit Holocaust survivors to better understand the issue.
The King Hamad American Mission Hospital (KHAMH) has been inaugurated in Manama, Bahrain that will benefit from an active role by Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.American Jews Have Ceased to Be Cool, and They Should Stop Trying
It was unveiled last week by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the crown prince and prime minister, on behalf of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. Prince Salman is the eldest son of King Hamad. The unveiling of the new facility also marks the 120th anniversary of the first modern hospital – the American Mission Hospital (AMH) – not just in Bahrain, but in all of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which opened in 1903.
Sheba Medical Center said it will have an active involvement in this now-futuristic hospital, as it will be the first facility in Bahrain to undergo ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) medical start-up innovations into KHAMH, which will enable doctors to offer the most advanced care in the region.
Israel helps boost innovation in Bahrain's medical sector
ARC aims to develop, pilot and roll out game-changing solutions. It prioritizes innovations in digital health as its main change vehicle and fosters an open innovation environment. Its goal is to have a meaningful, measurable impact on healthcare by 2030. To this end, it links leading academic medical centers with innovative start-ups and strategic industry partners to promote accelerated development and implementation through the sharing of data and streamlined collaborations.
The prince commended the efforts to broaden accessibility and advancing medical services available to citizens and residents. In turn, this has contributed to improving the efficiency of Bahrain’s healthcare sector, and the Kingdom’s wider development goals, the prince said.
Between 1956 and 1961, three of America’s biggest celebrities—Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Sammy Davis, Jr.—converted to Judaism. In 2022, one of America’s biggest celebrities, Kanye West, became one the country’s most prominent anti-Semites. John Podhoretz reflects on what this says about the changing place of Jews in the United States, and suggests that they might no longer be, in Davis’s words, “a swinging bunch of people.”
We may not have our Christmas mornings booked, and we may not paint Easter eggs, but we are not on the sidelines any longer. In fact, as shown in the disgraceful lack of Jewish participation in the lawsuits targeting the new Ivy League discrimination against Asians—a recapitulation in almost every respect of the barriers put up against us once upon a time—many Jews are themselves now beneficiaries of the ancillary boons that come from generations of elite education and professional networking, boons that they do not wish to sacrifice.
Therefore, whatever we are and whatever we can be, we cannot be cool. Cool has a transgressive aspect, and Jews are the ultimate A students who want to please the teacher and get in good with the administration. Nor can we hope to win over the likes of West with efforts to convince him that Jews also have a history of oppression, and that Jews today are under a new kind of threat—a threat that he himself represents in part. Indeed, West’s own conduct shows how potentially double-edged the undeniable Jewish success in non-Jewish America might be in the long term. Throughout history, Jews who have made their mark in Diaspora societies have seen their unexpected prominence used as a weapon against them.
There is a strange but alluring temptation, therefore, to lean into the victimization of Jews over the past few years as a means of producing a more favorable atmosphere, the sort that might cause a West to consider conversion rather than becoming a modern-day mouthpiece for the ideas in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
But this would be exactly the wrong tack to take. For one thing, it would be a disgraceful way to respond to the violence being done to Jews today, and an intellectually indefensible way to instruct young Jews on how to respond to attacks on their identities as Jews.
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