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Tuesday, March 07, 2023

03/07 Links Pt2: Anti-Semitism Runs Rampant at an Australian Literary Festival; NYTs ‘Deceitful’ Coverage Fuels ‘Violent Jew-Hatred,’ Puts Jews in Danger; Cori Bush's Anti-Semitic Spiritual Guru

From Ian:

Anti-Semitism Runs Rampant at an Australian Literary Festival
Writers’ Week—an annual gathering taking place in the city of Adelaide and considered one of Australia’s most prestigious literary events—has this year been marred by the withdrawal of some prominent participants and sponsors. Provoking these withdrawals, above all, is the participation in the festival of the Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa, who has vocally expressed her support for Russia in its war against Ukraine, and called the leader of the latter country “a depraved Zionist.” Colin Rubenstein comments:

The way organizers of the partly taxpayer-funded Adelaide Writers’ Week have been defending extremist invitees . . . offers a prime example of the way anti-Semitism is excused and even defended in “woke” progressive culture, as long as it is conflated with criticism of Israel—especially if the offender is Palestinian.

Abulhawa, who [was] flown in to participate in three sessions during the event in early March, has form. She keeps a picture above her desk of the Palestinian terrorist Dalal Mughrabi—one of the perpetrators of the infamous 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, which saw the slaughter of 38 Israeli civilians—and has made social-media posts both calling Israelis “worse than Nazis” and asserting that “It’s possible to be Jewish and a Nazi at the same time. It’s called Israel,” while implying all Israelis are legitimate targets for violence.

When pressed in an interview with Radio Adelaide to defend the decision to invite Abulhawa, [the] Writers’ Week director Louise Adler [Master of Philosophy, Columbia Uni under Edward Said] said, “our business is to operate not a safe space, but an open space in which ideas that might be confronting, disturbing, provocative are debated with civility.” However, this isn’t actually true. According to Adler’s own words posted in an open letter on the Writers’ Week home page, this year’s event actually seeks to shut down debate on unspecified issues.

In this year’s festival, at least ten writers listed as Palestinians are on the program—plus the Egyptian-born founder of the Palestine Festival of Literature, and several other virulent anti-Israel activists. No Jewish Israeli writers were invited, nor, to our knowledge, any author who has defended Israel in his writing or has the expertise to offer attendees anything counter to the Palestinian narrative. It would appear that the Palestinian narrative counts as something “beyond debate” to the organizers.
New York Times ‘Deceitful’ Coverage Fuels ‘Violent Jew-Hatred,’ Puts Jews in Danger, Israeli Ambassador Says
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, accused last week the New York Times of “overt anti-Israel bias,” saying that the Times’ “deceitful” coverage is endangering Jews worldwide.

In a two-page letter to the executive editor of the Times, Joseph Kahn, the ambassador cited a yearlong study of the Times conducted by Bar-Ilan University.

“Despite Israel being a globally-renowned force for good, your publication intentionally and systematically hides the truth from its readership, depicting an utterly distorted and falsified reality in which Israel is the root of all evil,” Erdan’s letter says. “The Times deliberately ignores the facts and opts to falsely brand Israel as a flagrant human rights violator.”

Erdan backed up his claims with numerical evidence that he said demonstrated the newspaper’s “hatred against the Jewish State.”

“For every article that portrayed Israel in a somewhat positive light five demonized the Jewish State. Such staggering disparity cannot be mere chance,” he wrote. “The number of opinion columns condemning Israel was nearly double those condemning Iran, one of the world’s worst human rights abusers and the number one state-sponsor of terror. Could this possibly be a coincidence?”

“The Times actively promoted anti-Israel libels,” Erdan wrote. “The Times had no problem associating an Israeli elected official, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, with terrorism a whopping 20 times in 2022. Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the murderous terror organization Hamas, that sentences Gazans to death without trial and indiscriminately fires rockets at Israeli civilians, was referenced in conjunction with terrorism only twice and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, not even once.”
Israeli ambassador reveals family got caught in pro-Palestine ‘hate convoy'
Israel’s ambassador to the UK has spoken of her family's terrifying experience during the May 2021 Israel-Hamas war when their car got caught in the pro-Palestine 'hate convoy' in north London.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Tzipi Hotevely, recalled how her husband, Or Alon, had been driving with the couple’s three daughters, aged four, six and eight, when they found themselves surrounded by cars making rape threats against Jewish girls.

“While my husband was driving with my daughters they were surrounded by these cars," Hotevely said. "They were saying horrible things about raping the daughters of the Jewish community, which is really outrageous.

"For him, listening to those megaphones, it was really worrying that it happened in the middle of Finchley Road in London in broad daylight.”

To date, no-one has been successfully prosecuted from the convoy.

Hotovely, a former settlements minister and deputy foreign minister in Israel, has also received extensive personal abuse during her time in London, encountering hostile demonstrators who have tried to break up meetings she has addressed. Two years ago she had to be escorted by police out of a debate at LSE as demonstrators surrounded her official car.


Meet the Anti-Semitic Spiritual Guru on Cori Bush's Payroll
He claims he can summon tornadoes at will, cause earthquakes with his hate, and conduct blood rituals to bring ruin upon his enemies. An intergalactic master of psychic self-defense born 109 trillion years ago, his days, he says, are now spent tending to his crops and spreading anti-Semitic conspiracies.

Nathaniel Davis III also happens to be Rep. Cori Bush’s (D., Mo.) close friend and her highest-paid private security guard.

Davis has earned over $137,000 providing "security services" for Bush since 2020, according to FEC filings, the latest of which showed disbursements of $5,000 in Dec. 2022. Using dozens of social media posts, including photos and videos that show Davis with Bush, the Washington Free Beacon has confirmed that Davis is in fact a St. Louis, Missouri, spiritual guru known as Aha Sen Piankhy who teaches classes on how to read minds, summon mythical beings, and maintain urban gardens—to avoid having to buy food from the Jews.

Davis, a former member of the vehemently anti-Semitic New Black Panther Party, is a natural fit for Bush, who has a history of associating with anti-Semites. She spent years working with anti-Israel activist Neveen Ayesh, who has said she wants to burn Jews alive. A vocal supporter of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, Bush is a close ally of her fellow Squad member, anti-Semitic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.).

Similarly, Bush spent years working as a faith healer for a religious sect that claims the power to resurrect the dead and cure deadly maladies through prayer. The head pastor of Bush’s church told the Free Beacon in 2021 that he cured Bush’s severe case of COVID-19 with a phone call. Nor is Davis the only eyebrow-raising security guard on Bush’s payroll: The congresswoman last week announced that she had married another of her handsomely compensated protectors.

When Davis, who did not return requests for comment, is not protecting the congresswoman, he spends his time teaching St. Louis’s black community to grow their own food—so they can liberate themselves from a genocidal Jewish cabal that runs the world.

"I’m going come teach the people how to survive. It’s what I came to this planet for in this lifetime," Davis said in a July 17, 2020, Facebook live stream. "I’m 109 trillion years old in this galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy."


She said Israeli apartheid but doesn't know what apartheid means unbelievable! Epic Video??



US Census should let Jews identify as Middle Eastern by descent
A new ‘Israeli’ tick box under the category ‘Middle Eastern’ is not enough in the 2030 US Census. American Jews need a separate tick box of their own, argues Dani Ishai Behan in the Times of Israel:

But why categorize ethnic Jews as a Middle Eastern-American subgroup? Why is it imperative that we be so categorized? What are the benefits – political, socio-economic, or otherwise – that come with it?

Jews Are A Levantine-Middle Eastern Ethnic Group: The Jewish ethnicity is autochthonous to Israel, which located in the Middle East. Ergo, Jews are a Levantine-Middle Eastern ethnic group. Every aspect of our peoplehood – from our national language to our core culture to our folklore, holidays, alphabet, and spirituality – are specific to the land of Israel.

And if we are to treat the dodgier territory of racial taxonomy as a valid criterion, it should be noted that Ashkenazi Jews (that is, Jews who recently sojourned in Central/Eastern Europe) are more proximate to non-Jewish Levantine populations than to indigenous Europeans. Genetic studies have consistently demonstrated this.

Sociologically, the same holds true. Our culture, our immigration history, and our relationship to white supremacist power structures all dovetail more strongly with that of other Middle Eastern-Americans than with European-Americans.

Middle Eastern-American/European-American Refer To Descent, Not Diaspora History: First, it is important to delineate the differences between descent and Diaspora history. Many people think these concepts refer to the same thing, but they do not.

Descent does not mean “where my family lived before they wound up here”. It refers to ethnic origins. For example, if someone of Nigerian ethnicity immigrates to the US from England or France, would they be categorized as European-American (thus, white-American)? No. Because although their recent Diaspora history occurred in Europe, their ethnic origins are West African. Thus, he/she would be considered African/black-American on the US Census.
Pro-Palestinian activist sentenced to 18 months for attacks on Jews in New York City
The sentence is notable because most hate crime charges in New York City are dropped before conviction, according to a 2022 report by The City. Recent NYPD data showed that antisemitic incidents have increased recently in the five boroughs.

In the spring of 2021 — amid a raucous public debate over conflict in Israel and Gaza, as well as a spike in antisemitic attacks — Masoud went to a pro-Israel rally in Manhattan. There, he asked a man wearing a Star of David necklace if he was Jewish, then punched him in the face. The man was walking with his wife, according to court papers.

Two weeks later, Masound alo shouted antisemitic insults at Heshy Tischler, an outspoken Orthodox activist in Brooklyn who had also railed against pandemic restrictions. After Tischler began filming, another associate of Masoud ultimately hit Tischler, who was running for City Council at the time.

Tischler addressed the court on Friday and called Masoud an “evil man” who showed up to “to see blood.”

And in 2022, Masoud was at a march hosted by the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime in Manhattan, where he assaulted a counterprotester, Matt Greenman, who had an Israeli flag draped over his body.

Masound threw Greenman to the ground, repeatedly punched him, dragged his face along the sidewalk, then ripped the Israeli flag from his neck, prosecutors said. At that same march, protestors called to ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and told the New York Jewish Week that they would not speak to the “Zionist Media.”

Prosecutors asked for the 18-month sentence, but Masoud’s lawyers argued for six months, denying that the defendant was antisemitic, and saying that he only attacked people who were supporters of Israel, according to the New York Times.


Michigan city supports Palestinian ‘right of self-determination,’ avoids mentioning Israel
The city council of Hamtramck, Mich., which is surrounded by Detroit and has a population of nearly 28,500, voted on March 2 to issue a statement on Middle East politics more than 6,000 miles away.

“The City of Hamtramck believes that the Palestinian People should enjoy the right of self-determination that comes with having a free, peaceful and secure homeland of their own,” it stated. “The City of Hamtramck stands against occupation of any country and supports the right of every occupied nation to gain freedom, sovereignty and independence.”

The council did not mention Israel “but appeared to criticize the country, drawing criticism from some residents and support from others during a council meeting,” reported the Detroit Free Press.

“It would have been better had Hamtramck not released any statement, or if the statement would have said basically, ‘We look forward to Israel and the Palestinians working together towards a peaceful and equitable solution to the challenges that they face,’ ” Asher Lopatin, an Orthodox rabbi and executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of metro Detroit/American Jewish Committee, told JNS.

“The tragedy of the Palestinian people has been their reluctance to work together with the State of Israel towards both people’s mutual benefit,” added Lopatin. “They have been plagued for decades and decades by terrible, exploitative leadership.”

Hamtramck has traditionally been a Polish enclave, but in recent years, the ethnic makeup has changed. About 25% of the city is of Arab descent, most of them Yemeni, and an additional 27% is of Asian ancestry, most of them Bangladeshi, according to 2019 census data.

Lopatin thinks it is significant that the city council did not mention Israel explicitly. “That must’ve been disappointing to various anti-Israel and antisemitic folks who are pushing these resolutions,” he said.

Many Israelis, and perhaps most U.S. Jews, support a two-state solution with national rights for Palestinians, “which was the key Palestinian point of the statement,” said the rabbi. “The vast majority of Israeli and American Jews are also against repressive regimes.”

“If the pro-Israel side, which, of course, includes my organization, would emphasize that for the benefit of both Palestinians and Israel, Jews and Palestinians need to work together towards building bridges and shared society, we might be able to outflank some of these negative anti-Israel, Israel-obsessive and frequently antisemitic voices that are even more harmful for Palestinians than for the State of Israel,” he explained.
Op-ed: The time has come to confront antisemitism at GW
Systemic ignorance of Judaism, Zionism and antisemitism at GW [George Washington University] has enabled discrimination against Jews in the classroom and created fertile grounds for antisemitism at GW over the past few years. Bigoted notes and drawings of swastikas have appeared in residence halls. Holocaust revisionism and denial have been disseminated in classes. Mezuzot have been removed and damaged. A Torah scroll at the TKE house was desecrated last year. This fall, the GW Hillel building was vandalized and the site of an aggressive protest and it has been alleged that psychology professor Lara Sheehi was hostile toward Israeli-Jewish students.

The time has come to confront our campus’ cultural problem head on. The Student Association issued an executive order last month to create “The Presidential Task Force to Combat Antisemitism,” and, with the SA Senate’s vote next Monday, I will become commissioner. To ensure the protection of every student – including Jewish students – the task force will first propose an anti-bullying resolution drafted by the AMCHA Initiative – a nonprofit dedicated to documenting, investigating and combating antisemitism on U.S. college campuses. The “redefinition, denigration and suppression” of Jewish identity on campus violates GW’s policies and requires attention.

I plan to recruit 10 students to the task force by March 7 regardless of faith or ethnicity. The task force’s members will help create a comprehensive report about antisemitism at GW, research root causes of anti-Jewish bigotry, organize events and implement Jewish history and antisemitism as part of GW’s diversity, equity and inclusion trainings. Discussions between task force members and outside experts will help us understand how we can engage in civil discourse about these topics on campus.

As an Israeli-American and Jewish student myself, I’m grateful for campus organizations like GW Hillel, Chabad and Meor that hold weekly Shabbat dinners and other events where Jews can engage in cultural practices and conversations about our shared identities. But our Jewish peers hesitate to display their identities publicly on campus as a result of vitriolic attacks on their identity. Several of my Jewish friends have told me they conceal their Jewish symbols, like Star of David necklaces or kippot, when walking around campus past other students, some of whom have heckled and spit on them in class or in Kogan Plaza.


The Antisemitic Social Media Divas of France24 Arabic
“They asked Hitler ‘what did you do with the Jews?’ He said ‘nothing extraordinary, [just having] barbecue with the guys.” This abhorrent antisemitic “joke” likening the mass annihilation of six million Jews (in which countless victims were gassed and then burned) to a ho-hum “barbecue” would be at home at the most vile neo-Nazi site. Yet, this particular “humor” was lifted from a Twitter account of a journalist working for French public broadcaster France24. (Original Arabic tweet at left.)

CAMERA has recently documented highly problematic terminology and content in France24’s Arabic service, including factual errors which the Arabic subsidiary persistently refused to correct. Our new investigation of the social media accounts of some of the journalists responsible for the egregiously flawed news content reveal outright hatred and deep ignorance, raising serious concerns about the journalists who draw their salaries from French taxpayers. Among these taxpayers are hundreds of thousands of French Jews, arguably the largest Jewish community in western Europe and one of the biggest in the world.

‘If Only Hitler Was Lebanese’

Lebanese journalist Joelle Maroun, who posted the Hitler barbeque “quip,” has been serving as France24’s regular Beirut correspondent since August 2021. Had her employers bothered to review her extensive social media record before hiring, they would have found numerous tweets expressing strong admiration for Adolf Hitler, support for the murder of innocent Jewish civilians and other displays of vile speech.

For instance, following 2014 riots in Lebanon’s Roumieh prison, she tweeted: “Roumieh is on fire; For sure, they should have had Hitler in charge!” On more than one occasion, Maroun has lamented Hitler’s present-day absence, tweeting, for instance, “Rise, sir Hitler, rise, there are a few people that need to be burned.”

Maroun also liked the following comment post to her tweet: “He should have been cloned for a time of need.”

Maroun’s passion for genocide of the Jews isn’t restricted to the historical context. Her practical advice for Palestinians is: “It is upon every Palestinian to kill one Jew and the case is closed.”
Economist decides that the PA supports only 'non-violent' resistance
An article in the Economist (“A new type of Palestinian militia is emerging”, March 2), on the Lion’s Den terror group, included the following:
Unlike other militias, the group claims no link to any Palestinian party. It has emerged amid dissatisfaction with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which calls for non-violent resistance in the face of increasingly deadly Israeli raids, and infighting between Palestinian factions.

It’s unclear what the Economist writer is referring to. What calls for strictly “non-violent” resistance have been issued by the PA or Mahmoud Abbas?

Every now and then, usually under pressure from the US, Abbas will issue mealy-mouthed criticism of ‘terrorism’. But, while the PA argues that “popular resistance” is “peaceful” and non-violent, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has shown that the terms “popular uprising/resistance” and “peaceful uprising/resistance” are used by PA leaders to refer to deadly terror attacks – and not merely peaceful resistance.

For instance, Abbas defined as “peaceful popular” resistance the 2015-2016 ‎terror wave (“The Knife Intifada”), in which 40 people were killed.

And, often Abbas and Fatah will expresses outright support for violent ‘resistance’.

Examples abound.

As documented by PMW, in Feb. 2022, after the IDF killed three terrorists who previously carried out multiple terror attacks, and were planning another one, Abbas called on Palestinians to “dish out to them twice as much as we’ve received”, meaning that six Israelis should be killed to avenge the terrorists’ deaths.

Here’s Abbas last year praising Nasser Abu Hmeid – Palestinian terrorist and a commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – who murdered seven Israelis in a 2000 shooting attack on Route 443 in central Israel.


Vienna’s UK embassy honours diplomats and clergy who saved Jews from Nazis
A plaque honouring the memory of British officials and Anglican clergy who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis was unveiled at the British embassy in Vienna.

The ceremony was led by Lord Pickles, the government’s special envoy for post-Holocaust issues and co-chair of Britain’s Holocaust Memorial Foundation, and the president of the Austrian parliament Wolfgang Sobotka.

The diplomats and clergy went into action after the Anschluss of March 1938 when Hitler’s troops annexed Austria.

It was an emotional morning at the embassy for Britain’s ambassador to Austria, Lindsay Skoll, who told attendees she had often found herself close to tears reading the accounts of those whom British diplomats and clergymen had tried to save.

Ms Skoll discovered only recently that she herself was the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor. Her grandmother, born in Germany, found sanctuary in Vienna as a child before making it out on one of the last Kindertransport trains, settling in the north-east of England. Her grandmother kept this a secret until almost the very end of her life.

“I have great sadness in my heart that so much of that really important part of her life was suppressed and never talked about,” Ms Skoll told the JC, adding that her own family history made the decision to mount the plaque a personal one. “It’s an incredible story of moral bravery and individual courage, but yes, it has a special layer of meaning for me.”

Standing in the ambassador’s residence, she reflected: “So many of us in the house today would not be here were it not for their efforts.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger on Antisemitism: ‘It’s Easier to Hate Than It is to Learn’
Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke about hatred and antisemitism on Monday while visiting New Jersey’s Stockton University, which presented him with a honorary Doctor of Public Service degree.

“It is easier to hate than it is to learn. Easier isn’t better,” the former body builder, 75, said in his speech to more than 600 students, faculty, staff and invited guests, including Holocaust survivors and their families, who gathered to hear him speak at the university.

The Terminator star was born in Austria two years after the end of World War II to a father who was a member of the Nazi party. He toured the Auschwitz concentration camp in Germany in September 2022 and also talked at Stockton University about the power of hate and ways to prevent the Holocaust from ever happening again.

“After a visit to Auschwitz, you will never question why ‘never again’ is a valid cry of the people who fight to prevent another Holocaust,” he said. “Today, I don’t want to preach to the choir. I want to talk to the people out there who may have stumbled on their path. … I want to talk to you if you found yourself thinking anyone is inferior or out to get them because of their religion or color of skin.”

He added, “I’ve seen people throw away their future because of hateful beliefs,” before calling his father, who was a former Nazi soldier, “a broken man who had to drink to numb the pain.”

He then addressed people who might choose to live a life based on hatred and said to them, “If you find yourself at a crossroads wondering if the path of hate may make sense to you for one reason or another, I want you to know where that path ends. You will not find success on that road. You will not find fulfillment or happiness.” He encouraged them to instead “live a life of strength.”


Navy vet with plans to ‘wipe out’ US Jews found guilty in capitol insurrection
A military veteran accused of telling an undercover FBI agent about a plan to “wipe out” the nation’s Jewish population was convicted on Tuesday of storming the United States Capitol to stop Congress from certifying US President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

A federal judge heard trial testimony without a jury before convicting Virginia resident Hatchet Speed, a former US Naval reservist who was assigned to an agency that operates spy satellites. US District Judge Trevor McFadden is scheduled to sentence Speed on May 8 for his role in a mob’s attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

McFadden convicted Speed of all five charges in his indictment, including a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding, the January 6 joint session of Congress for certifying the Electoral College vote. The judge also convicted Speed of four misdemeanors.

The FBI recorded Speed’s conversations with the undercover agent more than a year after the riot. Speed told the agent that he marched to the Capitol with members of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group, authorities said.

Speed also spewed antisemitic rhetoric linked to his dislike for the government, according to prosecutors. They argued that Speed’s hateful ideology helps explain why he joined the Capitol attack.

Speed was “deeply worried about a Biden presidency” and believed false claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent, prosecutors wrote in a court filing. They said Speed expressed his admiration for Adolf Hitler and told the undercover agent that he believes Jewish people control Biden, a Democrat.

“Speed saw the Jews as ‘everywhere,’ fighting to destroy Christians, and he was not willing to sit by,” prosecutors wrote.


PreOccupiedTerritory: Ancient Scroll Chronicling Thwarted Genocide Of Jews Adduced As Evidence Of ‘Jewish Supremacy’ (satire)
Anti-Israel activists cited the sacred Hebrew text at the heart of today’s observance of the Purim holiday, which commemorates a planned massacre of an ethnic minority in the Achaemenid Empire of the sixth century BCE that in the end resulted in that minority massacring its oppressors instead, as proof that the same minority views itself as elevated above all other peoples, who presumably would have done the normal thing and allowed themselves to be exterminated.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators picketed outside a local synagogue this morning as worshipers inside listened to a reading from the Scroll of Esther – the Megillah – a narrative set during the decades-long exile of Jews from their homeland following the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE. The protesters argued that the book’s main plot point – a palace-backed initiative to perpetrate genocide of all the Jews in the empire and despoil their property, but which, through the machinations of secretly-Jewish Queen Esther and her cousin/adoptive father Mordechai, backfired – indicates that Jews view themselves as superior to others, similar to the way that Israel defends itself from Arab terrorism because it upholds Jewish supremacy.

“This is a racist holiday!” yelled one demonstrator, characterizing Jews as a race, when just last week she insisted Judaism was merely a religion and Jewish peoplehood, the basis of modern political Zionism, does not exist. “You think you’re so special that you can massacre Persians who never got a chance to kill you! From the River to the Sea, Persia and Palestine will be Free! Free from Jewish supremacism!”
Israel's CRAZIEST Festival (Purim)





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