Thursday, April 20, 2023

04/20 Links Pt2: David Hazony: Israel at 75: The Rebirth of Israel?; Where Is the Palestinian Equivalent of Haaretz?; New Ben & Jerry’s Limited-Edition Flavor for Lab B’Omer in Israel

From Ian:

David Hazony: Israel at 75: The Rebirth of Israel?
Every nation faces the breaking point in its own way, and no outcome is predetermined. America bled and was reborn, while the USSR vanished as a living idea long before it disappeared from history.

There’s another example of this dynamic — from our own history. In ancient Israel, the golden age, the great Israelite monarchy, was founded by King David, the hungry poet-warrior who conquered Jerusalem and planned the great Temple. King Solomon, his son, followed him, building great cities and expanding and firmly establishing the empire.

Then came the third generation. Rupture and division — the kingdom split in two, Israel to the north and Judea, with Jerusalem, to the south. It took some time, but this split led, eventually, to weakness and destruction of both kingdoms, and exile.

The prospect of such a biblical collapse lurks in the back of every Israeli’s mind.

The coming months will be filled with tension, turmoil, negotiations halted and restarted, and tactical disinformation. So yes, I am scared that things could get much worse before getting better.

The coming months will be filled with tension, turmoil, negotiations halted and restarted, and tactical disinformation. Weapons will be drawn, perhaps even used, and then put back down again. Actual blood may yet, God forbid, be shed.

So yes, I am scared that things could get much worse before getting better. But I am also deeply optimistic that we will come out on the other side with a nation reborn. Not just because my analysis of the politics says it’s in everyone’s interest to pass a consensus-based constitution for Israel, but because of the incredible things I’ve learned about Israelis: The dramatic demonstrations filling the streets and highways with Israeli flags all point to an utter lack of apathy. And it’s apathy, not acrimony, that destroys nations from within.

This wild, immense Zionist spirit is the key to the nation’s success, and it’s not going anywhere.

We fight because we care. The love in this country surpasses that of any nation on earth. This wild, immense Zionist spirit is the key to the nation’s success, and it’s not going anywhere.

To me it is clear: Israel, the glorious miracle of Jewish rebirth, now celebrating its 75th Independence Day, is not nearing its end. On the contrary, it is just getting started.
New website memorializes terror victims with no Wikipedia pages
Israeli victims of terror attacks who do not have dedicated Wikipedia pages will be honored in a new collaboration memorial online platform.

The Remember project, created by Rachel Meth, and OneFamily launched the commemorative website remember.bio in advance of Remembrance Day and against the backdrop of deepening social rifts in Israeli society in order to help commemorate victims of terrorism from all corners of the political sphere.

Meth offered to commemorate Border Police St.-Sgt. Barel Hadaria Shmueli, who was killed in clashes on the Gaza border in 2021 on the platform. Meth, who initiated the memorial page project together with the OneFamily non-profit organization, contacted Nitza Shmueli, Barel's bereaved mother.

They met shortly before Israel's Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, where they agreed that this was the appropriate place to memorialize her son.

Wikipedia editors previously deleted a page dedicated to Shmueli. The editors said that the article had "no enduring historical significance." They further clarified that Wikipedia "is not here to record everyday events, even if newsworthy, or to memorialize the death of a non-notable person."

The decision to delete the page was not taken lightly with discussions between editors lasting six months, before ultimately deciding that his killing was not historically significant enough.

"We woke up one morning and simply didn't see Barel's Wikipedia page. We were so hurt and angry. I felt like my son was being murdered for the second time," said Shmueli.
Local Wine, T-Bone Steak, and the Pioneer Spirit, in the Shadow of Hizballah
During a recent trip to Israel, James Panero spent a few days touring the Golan Heights. He reports on what he saw:

Wildflowers now grow around the rusted barbed wire that crisscrosses the hillside and the numerous signs that read “danger mines!” Mustard flowers, poppies, and tall grasses provide abundant food for the mix of bees, cattle, and wild animals that now call these slopes home. Beef from the Golan is free-range, save for the minefields, and results in some of the most flavorful steak you can find—one evening I dined on a local T-bone and Golan wine at a horse ranch just north of ancient Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee.

This frontier attracts settlers with the same pioneer spirit that you might have found in Oklahoma Territory over a century ago. These are times when Israel resembles nothing less than a young and vibrant United States. Today the settlers vary in their politics. Some are old leftists, the secular holdouts of the kibbutzim. Others are religious idealists, fulfilling what they see as their own manifest destiny. What they share is a spirit for Zionism, the civic virtue that has propelled this nation, despite its conflicts and divisions, to astonishing heights in under a century.

For anyone who doubts the strategic necessity of the Golan to Israel, just visit the old Jewish settlements clinging to the hillsides to the west of the Jordan River. Before 1967, the Syrian border ran right in front of them, straight down the middle of the Hula Valley. The line split the region in two and placed Israeli villagers within sniper range of the militarized Syrian positions overshadowing their settlements from the east.

As it is, the region can still be besieged by rocket fire from Lebanon and was under heavy bombardment as recently as 2006. At the time, Hizballah was firebombing Israel with over 200 rockets a day. Israel’s aerial fire brigade flew out of Maḥanayim airfield, just down the hill from our bed-and-breakfast in Rosh Pina.


New Ben & Jerry’s Limited-Edition Flavor for Lab B’Omer in Israel
Israeli ice cream lovers, rejoice!

Ben & Jerry’s Israel has announced it will offer a brand-new flavor – in a limited edition – for the upcoming Lag B’Omer holiday.

The new flavor, “S’mores” will reprise the long-beloved sweet, created annually by countless children at summer campfires, using sweet crackers, chocolate bars and gooey, roasted marshmallows.

The name “s’mores” is an abbreviation of the phrase “some more.”

The Ben & Jerry’s version – only in Israel and only for the Lag B’Omer holiday, will feature ice cream that combines marshmallow with cookie crumbs, chocolate cookie crumbs and pieces of fudge.

The new flavor will be available in all the Israeli food chains, convenience stores and supermarkets where Ben & Jerry’s is sold.


Islamist Antisemitism in the U.S.
Over the past decade, American Islamist groups, such as those affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, have developed "red-green" alliances with American progressives to recast themselves as advocates of human and minority rights. While Islamists in the U.S. frequently purport to be the "voice" of the Muslim community, Islamists do not represent the majority of American Muslims. A 2017 Pew study revealed that the majority of American Muslims do not attend mosque weekly, 64% believe there is more than one way to interpret Islam, and 52% believe that traditional understandings of Islam must be reinterpreted.

In 2019, four violent followers of al-Qaeda, Hamas, and ISIS were arrested for plotting four separate terror attacks, including plans to bomb and shoot at two synagogues, bomb an area targeting Jews, and to shoot at Jewish and pro-Israel demonstrators. In January 2022 a terrorist incident at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, was carried out by Malik Faisal Akram, a British Islamist. In November 2022, the FBI arrested Omar Alkattoul, a young radicalized Muslim, for threatening to attack a synagogue and Jewish people.

The mainstreaming of Islamist-oriented groups, political figures, and like-minded extremists who promote antisemitism poses an emerging political and societal challenge. These groups have energized the use of blatant antisemitism directed at American Jews among their political allies. They have increasingly sought to reject the participation of mainstream American Jewish organizations in the public discourse.
How Some Americans Support Terrorism Against Israel
[F]ourteen Democratic members of the US Congress have joined the Jihad (holy war) against Israelis by urging the Biden administration to reconsider US military aid to Israel.

The Congressmen's letter ignores the dramatic increase in terror attacks against Israelis and makes no reference to the scores of innocent civilians murdered over the past year by Palestinian terrorists. The letter further ignores that Israel's counterterrorism measures, which aim to save the lives of Israelis and Palestinians alike, are a legitimate act of self-defense.

The Israeli measures, including raids on the homes of terrorists and confiscation of weapons and ammunition, are the direct result of a 300% increase in terror attacks over the past year... When there is no terrorism, there is no need for Israel to launch counterterrorism operations.

By stating that the US should halt military aid to Israel, the signatories of the letter signatories of the letter are in fact saying that Israel has no right to defend itself against those who are openly calling for the elimination of Israel and engaged in daily attempts to murder Jews.

When Israel uses weapons, it is with the purpose of combating terrorism and protecting the lives of its people. When Palestinians use weapons, it is always with the aim of murdering Jews.

As far as the Palestinians are concerned, all Israeli Jews are "settlers" living in one big illegitimate settlement, Israel, which needs to be replaced by a 57th Muslim state...

They outspokenly consider construction everywhere in Israel a "settlement project" and all Israeli Jews "settlers."

Hamas and its patrons in Iran are openly opposed to Jews building homes not only in the West Bank and Jerusalem, but anywhere in Israel. The reason? The mullahs in Tehran -- and their proxies in Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah -- believe that the entire country of Israel has no right to exist and state that Israel should be eradicated, primarily through Jihad (holy war).
US court rejects challenge to Texas anti-BDS law over lack of standing
An appeal for a challenge to the constitutionality of a Texas anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions was rejected due to lack of standing by the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Tuesday.

Paxton claimed the ruling as a victory in the defense of the law, which prohibits state investment in companies that boycott Israel.

“Texas’s anti-boycott law is both constitutional and, unfortunately, increasingly necessary as the radical left becomes increasingly hostile and antagonistic toward Israel,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Though some wish to get rid of the law and see Israel fail, the State of Texas will remain firm in our commitment to stand with Israel by refusing to do business with companies that boycott the only democratic nation in the Middle East. In this case, I’m pleased to see the court recognize that the plaintiff lacked any standing to bring this challenge. Thus, our important law remains in effect, and I will continue to defend it relentlessly.”

The appellant, Haseeb Abdullah, contended that the law violated the First Amendment on free speech.

Like the lower court, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Haseeb Abdullah's challenge lacked standing because he wasn't injured by the law.

As a former state and current county employee, Abdullah is entitled to two government retirement plans, and he argued that the divestment would damage these plans.


Poisoning the American Mind: AJ+ Reimagines Violent Gaza Riot in Twitter Propaganda Film
A video recently posted by Al Jazeera’s US-based social media arm AJ+ on Twitter posed what it presumably thought was a challenging and provocative question: “If Palestinians protested for democracy and human rights in Tel Aviv, what would happen?”

Aside from the sheer inanity of the question (why would Palestinians be protesting for their rights in Tel Aviv and not, say, Palestinian cities such as Ramallah or Gaza City?), AJ+ ludicrously attempts to equate the recent judicial reform protests in Israel to the infamous Palestinian “Great March of Return” demonstrations in 2018.

AJ+ interviews “human rights campaigner” Fadi Qurun, who claims that if Palestinians did protest, then “thousands, if not hundreds of Palestinians, would’ve been murdered by now.”

“We’ve already seen that when Palestinians protested in Gaza with the March of Return,” he continues. “We’ve seen that as well when Palestinians protested in the First Intifada seeking self-determination.”

First, the reimagining of the Great March of Return as a nonviolent protest in support of human rights takes considerable mental gymnastics. After all, this was a Hamas-orchestrated riot on the Gaza border in which armed terrorist combatants embedded themselves within civilian demonstrators to incite violence.

Second, it is interesting that Qurun, who has worked for the terror-linked Palestinian NGO Al-Haq, only references the First Intifada, which despite seeing countless Palestinian attacks on innocent Israeli civilians, was still a far cry from the Second Intifada and the campaign of gruesome suicide bombings and shootings for which it is associated, as well as more recent waves of terror perpetrated by Palestinians.

Compare this to the scenes of tens of thousands of Israelis — brandishing homemade signs rather than rocks — marching peacefully through the streets in opposition to the proposed judicial overhaul.


Katz’s final edition: Outgoing Jerusalem Post editor shares his views on Israel's future
For seven years, he has held down a cynic’s job in a country that is known for its pessimists and is being upended by civil strife. Happily, Yaakoz Katz, the outgoing editor of the Jerusalem Post, is good at confounding expectations.

Although he’s “not overly optimistic about our political class,” he says, he remains “hopeful about Israel’s overall future”.

Katz, familiar to many as the editor — now former editor — of Israel’s oldest English newspaper, says his confidence is based on his view that Israel no longer faces the existential threats that all but defined its first 50 years.

“When you’re fighting for survival, you don’t have the luxury of worrying too much about the judicial appointments and the scope of judicial review,” he points out.

But his good cheer is also because of Israel’s strong economy and the energy independence it enjoys thanks to its offshore gas fields. In conjunction with its military security it means, he says, that the country has the space to concentrate on internal reform.

That process, he readily admits, is not going too well. “It’s the eve of our 75th birthday. We’re grown up. But what disappoints me about Israel is our hesitancy, the fact that we don’t take the big decisions that we need — even when they’re sorely needed.”

Chicago-born Katz’s arrival in Israel in 1996 at the age of 16 — he finished his high school education in Jerusalem, after which he read law at Bar Ilan University — was also an early lesson in looking at the bigger picture.
Where Is the Palestinian Equivalent of Haaretz?
In “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor,” Yossi Klein Halevi, an American-Israeli, tries to break the impasse between Israelis and Palestinians by setting out his narrative (the Jewish/Israeli narrative, including the long and continuous connection to the land of Israel and the history of modern Zionism) while acknowledging that each side has a narrative. “To you we are colonialists, Crusaders. And to us you are the latest genocidal enemy seeking to destroy the Jewish people.”

Yet, Halevi also notes that while the Israeli writer AB Yehoshua has called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a struggle between right and right, he (Halevi) doesn’t see equivalent sentiments expressed by Palestinians. While thousands of op-eds have appeared in the Israeli media over the years, arguing that Israelis need to face the Palestinian reality, he hasn’t seen an op-ed or editorial acknowledging the Israeli narrative in the Palestinian media.

Halevi may be right when speaking of the Palestinian media, but there are a growing number of Palestinian writers, such as Mosab Hassan Yousef, who are willing to write about the Israeli side of the story.

In “Son of Hamas” (first published in 2010 and written with Ron Brackin), Mosab, the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding member and popular leader of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, describes how and why he switched sides and served for 10 years as a valuable informant for Israel’s internal security service. The turning point came when Mosab spent some time in an Israeli prison and witnessed how Hamas terrorized Hamas-affiliated inmates, accusing them of collaboration, often on the basis of hearsay, with little or no evidence.

Mosab, nicknamed the Green Prince for the color of the Hamas flag and his pedigree, describes his journey; from being a young terrorist wannabee, to someone who learns that the enemy is not the enemy he imagined, to making the decision to betray his family and friends. Ultimately, he converted to Christianity and sought asylum in the United States, where he now lives.

Bassam Eid, another Palestinian writer, is a human rights activist who worked for B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights monitoring group that reports on abuses by Israelis in the “Occupied Territories.” Later, Eid founded a group that monitored human rights abuses by Palestinians.
Emily Schrader: Twitter responds to rampant antisemitism with hate speech policy change
On the eve of Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day, Twitter announced they are unveiling a new policy to fight hate speech on the platform titled “Freedom of Speech Not Freedom of Reach.”

The policy will reduce the organic reach of tweets that violate or may violate Twitter’s existing hate speech standards, and advertisements will not be displayed next to such content.

“Starting soon, we will add publicly visible labels to tweets identified as potentially violating our policies letting you know we’ve limited their visibility,” said Twitter.

The policy change comes in the aftermath of a sharp increase in antisemitism on Twitter according to multiple recent reports analyzing online hate speech. Data reported by the organization Fighting Online Antisemitism (FOA) revealed that there was an increase of 180% in online antisemitism in 2022, and furthermore that Twitter’s removal rate of hate speech has actually decreased by 50% since Elon Musk took over. In their statement, Twitter outlined several specific examples of what this new policy would look like and what constitutes hate speech, specifically mentioning the Holocaust as an example of genocide.

Twitter further added that harassing victims of the Holocaust, using Nazi symbols, and adding yellow stars to photos to co-opt the Holocaust would all be examples of content that would have diminished exposure as well as a warning label.
Back to Work Leila Odeh Returns. As Does France24 Arabic’s Anti-Israel Animus
On April 5, it was back to work for Laila Odeh, France24 Arabic’s veteran Jerusalem correspondent after sitting at home briefly in the wake of a devastating CAMERA Arabic exposé detailing her social media posts celebrating terrorists as “martyrs” who “ascended to the highest heavens.” Odeh’s return also signaled a return to business as usual — in this case, egregious anti-Israel coverage — for her colleagues at the Arabic service of the publicly-funded French network.

Though the network last month confirmed CAMERA Arabic’s findings about Odeh’s hateful, unprofessional activity, France24 executives in Paris inexplicably permitted her to return to her position without even requiring retractions, let alone an apology. CAMERA previously warned that this move is not only offensive towards Jews and Israelis, but also broadcasts a clear and dangerous message to the cadre of France24 Arabic journalists for whom professional practices of ethical journalism are subordinate to an extreme anti-Israel agenda: the Jewish people and state are fair game.

As Odeh joyfully settled back into work during a particularly volatile time of increased violence — just two days before two Arab terror attacks which claimed four more innocent civilians, British-Israeli sisters Maia (20) and Rina Dee (16), their mother Lucy, and Italian tourist Alessandro Parini — CAMERA Arabic’s prediction of troubled coverage has proven to be well founded.

Within the 48 hour period between Odeh’s return and the West Bank terror attack targeting the Dee family, France24 Arabic reporters repeatedly rehashed a favorite libel from last Ramadan. In their distorted telling, Jewish civilians visiting (and, occasionally, praying) outdoors on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site and the third most sacred site in Islam, are “settlers storming al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Days before her suspension in early March, Odeh cited “settlers storming al-Aqsa Mosque.” Immediately upon her return, she was nominally more guardedly replaced “settlers” with “observant Jews” and “al-Aqsa Mosque” with “al-Aqsa Mosque compound.” But, in repeated instances, she persisted using the term “storming” in reference to their visit.
Redundant linkage and false equivalence on BBC Radio 4
Bowen of course refrained from mentioning that over the past three-quarters of a century, Palestinians have repeatedly rejected initiatives that would have given them independence. He continued, promoting second hand claims supposedly made by “some analysts” whom he did not name, thereby denying listeners the ability to judge the relevance of their claims.

Bowen: “Now inside Israel itself there’ve been these protests at this very hard Right government led by Mr Netanyahu and analysts are now saying…some analysts are saying that there’s a blowback from Israel’s repressive policies in the occupied territories which over the years has empowered the hard Right inside Israel and that has led to this atomisation and this radicalisation on the Right. But in terms of, you know, the personal tragedies that happen, the attack on that family…ah…another young Palestinian teenager killed, I mean that doesn’t make it any better or more understandable for them. I mean the thing is that these awful conflicts and wars going on for generations are made up of hundreds of thousands…well actually thousands of acts of individual terrible cruelty.”

Husain went on to again promote false linkage between the security situation and the protests:
Husain: “But the…but those Israelis who were protesting against the Netanyahu government – and I know that there was that compromise when he put some of his plans on hold but then also there was to be a new national guard formed – do these protests go on in the face of…of the latest that has happened in East Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank?”

Bowen: “Yes, I think the likelihood is that they will be. One thing will be next Saturday when we’ll see just how many protests go on. Netanyahu’s a canny political operator and he was really threatened by the opposition to his plans to change the way…various judicial reforms which caused a great deal of controversy and these big demonstrations. And the way that he’s actually put those plans on hold for a while, having made this agreement with the hard Right parties that sustain him in office, that make up his coalition, you know, you could say that he’s…it’s a gambit by him. He might be hoping to try and split the opposition against him, to take the momentum out of it. So it will be interesting to see whether they’re able to sustain the levels of commitment to these demonstrations that they have…that they’ve had now for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks.”

Husain: “And it does seem as if the period since the beginning of the year, since this government came into power, has been especially tense but – I don’t mean the protests, I mean as far as Israeli-Palestinian violence is concerned – but then again, there was also an uptick last year.”

Husain’s mention of “last year” apparently refers to the Hamas incited violent rioting that took place on Temple Mount during Ramadan in April 2022. However, both she and Bowen carefully avoided the highly relevant topic of Hamas’ role in encouraging and facilitating the rise in terrorism that actually began in 2021.

Bowen: “Yeah there was. So I mean these things don’t come out of nowhere but certainly in this year you’re seeing in terms of just the casualty levels, the death toll, it’s higher than it normally is and that’s a sign, the depths of this long-term crisis. And also I think that the Israelis are using pretty tough tactics in the West Bank and as well as that, there are people who are out for revenge and reprisals on the Palestinian side, which is why you saw an innocent family driving down the road attacked and the car machine-gunned and that awful situation, those killings that happened.”

The perpetrator of the terror attack on the Dee family has not yet been apprehended and so nothing is known as yet about his identity and motives. Nevertheless, the BBC’s Middle East editor is obviously quite happy to have British audiences believe that the fatal point blank shooting of three female civilians was a “reprisal” for Israeli actions: in other words, that Israel is responsible for terror attacks against its citizens.

Throughout this four-and-a-half-minute item Husain and Bowen misinformed listeners by promoting redundant linkage between the security situation and the public protests in Israel and by suggesting false equivalence between victims of terrorism and rioters attacking troops carrying out a counter-terrorism operation. They did not however provide listeners with any information concerning Hamas’ ongoing efforts to destabilise the Palestinian Authority and its role in aggravating the current wave of violence.
NBC News Misleads About IDF Draft Refusal
Since its founding in 1948, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been a conscription army, drafting its members from within the general Israeli population. And as long as the IDF has been drafting Israeli citizens for service, there has been a tiny minority that refuses to serve.

However, for NBC News, the decades-old phenomenon of some Israelis refusing to serve in the IDF for ideological reasons is newsworthy if it can be somehow attributed to the current Israeli government.

In a recent report from Israel, NBC News contributor Josh Lederman describes how mandatory service in the IDF is a “rite of passage in Israeli society” but notes that “for some young Jewish Israelis, something is changing.”

Claiming that this small number of Israeli youth are “part of an unprecedented movement to refuse to join the army,” Lederman explains why these Israeli youth are refusing to serve in the IDF: “The spark that lit this fire? A proposal by the most right-wing government in Israel’s history to weaken the nation’s courts, giving politicians far more power.”

However, this characterization of Israeli draft dodgers and the reason for their refusal to serve is misleading and deceptive.

Related Reading: Media Hijack Israel’s Democratic Demonstrations

By claiming that this is “part of an unprecedented movement,” Lederman mischaracterizes the history of Israeli draft refusal.

Refusal to serve is as old as the IDF (Joseph Abileah, the first Israeli to refuse to serve in the IDF, did so in 1948).

And far from being “unprecedented,” the movement of some Israeli youth refusing to draft into the IDF has gained traction at various moments in Israel’s history, beginning in 1970. Nevertheless, it is estimated that, on average, only approximately 0.07% of eligible teens refuse to be drafted into the IDF for ideological reasons.

In fact, it should have been clear to both NBC News and Josh Leiderman that Israeli draft refusal is not a new phenomenon linked to the current Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu since one of the draft dodgers interviewed for this piece, Evyatar Rubin, first refused to join the IDF in September 2022, during the tenure of the previous Israeli government that Yair Lapid headed.
CBC Describes Brutal Murder Of Four Civilians In Israel As Mere “Incidents”
Subsequent to recent violence between Palestinian rioters and Israeli Police at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during Ramadan, a pro-Palestinian rally was held in Windsor, Ontario.

In covering the rally and the violent altercations that took place at the mosque, CBC News Windsor published an article by reporter TJ Dihr on April 11 entitled: “Windsor Muslims rally to help following violence at Jerusalem mosque,” which stated the following (emphasis added):
“Reuters reported Israeli police raided the al-Aqsa Mosque last Wednesday and Thursday during prayers. Police said worshippers were barricaded inside, leading to clashes. Cross-border fire with Gaza and Lebanon and incidents in Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank have added to an atmosphere of heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.”

Meanwhile, a TV report by journalist TJ Dihr on CBC Windsor on April 12 at 6:09 pm made these same statements, while the CBC’s anchor referred to “two attacks on a popular mosque last week in Jerusalem.” For his part, Reporter Dihr said that Reuters reported that “Israeli police attacked worshippers at the Mosque during Ramadan prayers with footage being shared on social media. Israeli police said worshippers were barricaded inside, leading to clashes and casualties. The raid led to cross-border fire with Gaza and Lebanon, as well as incidents in Tel Aviv and the occupied west bank.”

In actuality, in early April, midway through the holiday of Ramadan, and just before the onset of the Passover and Easter holidays, as many as 400 Palestinians holed themselves up in the Al Aqsa Mosque, built atop the ancient Temple Mount, where they stockpiled weapons for a showdown with Israeli police. When police officers attempted to remove the Palestinians from the Mosque (per previous agreements with Jordan’s Islamic Waqf about no overnight stays) and to make arrests, they were met with an outburst of Palestinian violence that saw the Israeli Police attacked with metal bars, rocks, fireworks and explosive devices.


Mural dedicated to Holocaust victims in Milan, vandalized after Holocaust Memorial Day
A mural dedicated to Holocaust victims in Milan was vandalized on Wednesday, a day after Yom HaShoah.

As part of the "Track 21, The Simpsons deported to Auschwitz" series by artist AleXsandro Palombo, the mural had been displayed on the walls of the Memorial of the Shoah since January 27th, International Day of Remembrance.

The artwork, which portrays the Simpson family in Nazi concentration camps, aims to raise awareness of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust and the importance of remembering them.

Defaced with black marks
The vandalized mural was defaced with black marks and the yellow Stars of David, representing the Auschwitz uniforms worn by the characters, were painted over.
12-year-old arrested in connection to antisemitic attacks in NY
A 12-year-old boy was arrested in Queens, New York on Tuesday in connection to an antisemitic attack on April 7, the third day of Passover.

The boy was part of a trio - two boys and one girl - who allegedly shouted antisemitic slurs at a person outside a synagogue in Far Rockaway, New York and threw rocks at him, according to ABC 7 news.

The police are still looking for the other two people who were involved in attacking the man. The girl had allegedly threatened the 49-year-old man with a razor before a passerby intervened and the trio ran off.

The incident occurred the same day as another antisemitic incident in Queens. According to the police, a trio physically assaulted a man after he confronted them about antisemitic slurs.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is helping the police locate the other two, but the police believe that the 12-year-old that was arrested is only connected to the first incident.

A 12-year-old boy was arrested in Queens, New York on Tuesday in connection to an antisemitic attack on April 7, the third day of Passover.

The boy was part of a trio - two boys and one girl - who allegedly shouted antisemitic slurs at a person outside a synagogue in Far Rockaway, New York and threw rocks at him, according to ABC 7 news.
Credit Suisse served Nazi clients as recently as 2020
JNS) Banking giant Credit Suisse had dealings with and held accounts linked to Nazis from World War II until as recently as 2020, according to reports the U.S. Senate Budget Committee reports released on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The reports released on Tuesday document an internal investigation conducted by a forensic research firm the Zurich-based bank hired in response to Nazi Asset findings made by investigators for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

The dealings included 70 Argentine accounts with links to Argentina-based Nazis that were opened with Credit Suisse after 1945. They also included 21 accounts of high-level Nazis, provided by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, including those that belonged to a Nazi commander sentenced at Nuremberg, an SS commander who was convicted of war crimes, a Nazi scientist imprisoned throughout the Nuremberg trials, a senior SS officer and a representative of Deutsche Wirthschaftsbetriebe GmbH (DWB), as well as other accounts not previously identified.

The aim of Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe (“German Economic Enterprises”), organized and managed by the Allgemeine SS, was to profit from concentration camp inmates’ slave labor.

While the sentenced commander’s account stayed open until 2002, the bank has yet to provide asset information from it and 80 other identified accounts.

While the reports are incomplete due to limitations on their scope, they uncover close to 100 previously undisclosed accounts linked to Nazis, along with associated details, including the refusal to review whether Nazi heirs had received access to these bank accounts, raising concerns about the bank’s possible assistance to Nazis seeking to evade justice post-WWII.
FBI investigates: Jewish teen attacked, swastika carved on his back
The FBI has opened an investigation into an incident in which a 17-year-old autistic and visibly Jewish boy from Las Vegas, Nevada returned home from public school early last month with a swastika carved into his back.

The Israeli-American Council's (IAC's) School Watch brought this incident to the FBI's attention as a potential federal hate crime, after the local school called the attack a case of bullying.

The IAC School Watch aims to "contribute to a safe school environment and reduce incidents of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, national origin discrimination and hate bias," a spokesperson for the IAC said.

According to the Jewish Press, the teen, who is nonverbal and wears a kippah daily, attends regular classes at his local public school, accompanied by his service dog and an assistant.

On March 9, 2023, the teen returned home from school with his service dog's equipment bag torn up, and a swastika carved into the skin of his back.

"My son is the only student I know of who wears a Kippah at the school," the boy's mother told Jewish news outlet CoLLive.com.

She told the news outlet that although she had notified the school about what she had found on her son's back, the school, and her son's shadow assistant, insisted that nothing out of the ordinary had occurred that day.


Shake Shack to launch in Israel next year
Israelis can now relish another burger chain as fast food giant Shake Shack is set to launch in Tel Aviv next year.

According to the company, there are plans to open at least 15 branches across the country over the next decade.

Shake Shack said it will “create one-of-a-kind Shack experience unique for the Israeli community,” by collaborating with local purveyors and producers.

Late-night cravings will be satisfied by the Shack’s signature items, including the ShackBurger, classic crinkle-cut fries, frozen custard ice cream, and alcoholic drinks.

The Shake Shack partners did not disclose whether the Israeli branches will meet kosher dietary requirements.

The first Shack opened in 2004 in New York City. Since then, the company has expanded to over 450 locations globally, including over 295 in the US and more than 150 international locations including London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Istanbul and Dubai.

The expansion is a partnership between the CEO of Fox Group, Harel Wizel, a fashion and lifestyle retail group with thousands of worldwide stores, and Yarzin Sella Group, which owns over 30 restaurants and high-end corporate dining services in seven countries.
Israeli Firm Uses Artificial Intelligence to Match Drugs to Patients
Dr. Talia Cohen Solal, a neuroscientist, is the co-founder and chief executive of Israeli health-tech firm Genetika+. Established in 2018, the company's technology can best match antidepressants to patients, to avoid unwanted side effects and make sure that the prescribed drug works as well as possible. "We can characterize the right medication for each patient the first time" by combining the latest in stem cell technology - the growing of specific human cells - with artificial intelligence (AI) software, says Dr. Cohen Solal. While the technology is currently still in the development stage, Genetika+ intends to launch commercially next year.
Israel Museum acquires rare 18th-century ‘shiviti’ Jewish amulet
Among the new acquisitions that the Israel Museum announced earlier this month are a “rare” 18th-century decorated shiviti booklet and an “extremely rare” 1828 wall map of the Holy Land with important Jewish and Christian narrative illustrations.

The two items, plus the other recent acquisitions, span “multiple continents and many centuries, marking significant growth for the museum’s encyclopedic collection over the past year,” stated the museum.

The central European booklet is a shiviti, which takes its name from Psalm 16:8, “I have placed God before me always, for when He is at my right hand, I will not fall.” The first word, shiviti, comes from a root, whose meanings include “to place.”

The new acquisition is “the most lavish example of shiviti represented in the collection,” the Israel Museum stated. (The Jewish Museum has 10 shiviti works, which can also be found at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of International Folk Art and Jewish Museum of Greece.)

“Wrestling with ways to externalize the presence of God,” shiviti objects “center upon the graphic representation of God’s ineffable four-letter Hebrew name, the Tetragrammaton,” writes Francesco Spagnolo, curator of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, which contains several dozen shiviti objects, dating at least as far back as an 1844 German amulet.

“Deciphering the content of a shiviti, or simply classifying it within the realm of cultural production, is a fascinating puzzle for today’s scholars. Research on these documents encompasses the analysis of biblical and prayer texts, magical formulae, visual motifs and material culture across the world,” added Spagnolo. “The persistence of these documents into the present, including the Internet, attests to the ongoing beliefs in the power and efficacy of magic and meditation that accompany the more normative aspects of Judaism as we know them.”


StandWithUs: Sumaiiah - The 1st Emirati woman to study in Israel
Meet Sumaiiah Almheiri, the 1st Emirati woman to study in Israel. This is her story:


Small Bedouin Community Flies Israeli Flag with Pride -
Al-Sayed is a small Bedouin tribal community of about 6,000 people nestled between Arad and Beersheba in Israel's Negev desert.

Ibrahim al-Sayed, principal of the Amal al-Sayed Multidisciplinary School in the al-Qasum Regional Council, sees no conflict between the Bedouin and Israeli identities.

Ibrahim worked with his students to hang Israeli flags throughout their village in honor of Israel's upcoming 75th anniversary.

"We all live for this country, we must integrate and not get stuck in the past. I refuse to feel ashamed for displaying the Israeli flag on my watch," he said.

Ibrahim explains that he upholds the tradition that his father passed down to him by hanging the national flag at the entryway to the settlement every year.
New Trailer for Showtime Drama ‘Ghost of Beirut’ Recounts CIA, Mossad Manhunt for Hezbollah Mastermind
A trailer was released on Thursday for Showtime’s new four-part limited series Ghosts of Beirut that is based on the true story of the CIA and Mossad manhunt for Lebanese terrorist and senior Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh, who managed to elude the two spy agencies for over two decades.

In the drama series from Fauda creators Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz, Mughniyeh, also known as “The Ghost,” is played by Hisham Suleiman. The show, which has some documentary elements to it, is executive produced by Emmy winner Greg Barker (Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden), who also directs all four episodes, and Daniel Dreifuss (All Quiet on the Western Front). It will begin streaming for Showtime subscribers on May 19 before making its on-air debut on May 21.

Mughniyeh killed more Americans than any other terrorist before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was considered the world’s most dangerous terrorist. Told from the American, Israeli and Lebanese perspectives, Ghosts of Beirut follows Mughniyeh’s origins from the Shiite slums in southern Beirut to his rise as a terrorist and how he masterminded the deadly concept of suicide bombers. “Based on extensive research of still-classified events, the drama spans decades and weaves in first-hand, real-life interviews with prominent officials from the CIA and Mossad, connecting the turmoil of 1980s Beirut with the spy games of the modern Middle East,” Showtime explained in a press release about the show.

“This is the same guy from 25 years ago, the same guy who has out-played us ever since,” actress Dina Shihabi tells a CIA operative in the show’s trailer.


Ben Ferencz Prosecuted the Einsatzgruppen in the Largest Murder Case in History
Ben Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, died April 7 at 103. In 1947 he prosecuted what would be called the largest murder case in history against 22 authorities of the mobile Nazi killing units, called Einsatzgruppen, that operated in Eastern Europe during World War II. All the defendants were convicted. Four were executed. If not for Ferencz, a former Army investigator who personally tallied the million deaths using sequestered German war documents and brought the case to his superiors, the men might never have been tried.

Ferencz graduated from Harvard Law School, where he studied war crimes before joining the Army midway through World War II. He was detailed to an investigations unit collecting evidence of Nazi crimes, and visited Nazi concentration camps, including Buchenwald, Mauthausen and Dachau. "Even today, when I close my eyes, I witness a deadly vision I can never forget - the crematoria aglow with the fire of burning flesh, the mounds of emaciated corpses stacked like cordwood waiting to be burned," he once said. "I had peered into hell."

Ferencz recalled that one defendant had ordered his troops: "If the mother is holding an infant to her breast, don't shoot the mother, shoot the infant because the bullet will go through both of them, and you'll save ammunition." Ferencz called no witnesses; the copious Nazi documentation was sufficient to obtain convictions. He argued that the defendants had acted not according to "military necessity, but by that supreme perversion of thought: the Nazi theory of the master race."
Six Essential Facts about the Holocaust
I share the following facts every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, courtesy of Prof. Yosef Ben-Shlomo; six historical facts that we need to internalize in order to understand why the Holocaust was such an extraordinarily unique event:

Judenrein. For the first time in history (other than Haman's plot against the Jews in ancient Persia), one nation sought the complete elimination of another, despite the fact that the vast majority of the nation targeted for extermination lived outside the territory of the aggressor nation. The goal was not to just put the other nation into exile but to erase it from the face of the earth.

Absence of opposition. In the Wannsee Conference of January 1942, the "final solution" was unanimously approved by the 15 attendees, all of whom held high-ranking ministerial positions in the German government, and 8 of whom held doctorate degrees.

The Germans worked against their own interests in World War II. Even as Germany was losing the war, they behaved irrationally. Instead of investing in fighting enemy forces, the Germans continued "to waste" energy on their Jewish extermination project.

They were not crazy. Among the murderers were family men and women, professionals, and intellectuals. They were perfectly sane. Millions of ordinary, regular folks did not see any problem with taking part in this giant extermination project.

The concentration camps were not bombed. The death factories continued to operate without interference by the Western allied nations or their armies, even while the allies regularly bombed Nazi munitions factories.

There was no way out. Unlike their ability to cope with other horrendous decrees and persecutions throughout history, the Jews of Europe had no way out. There was no possibility of saving themselves through cooperation with the enemy, or by being exiled or by conversion to another faith. Death was their only option.

Today we face Holocaust denial, ignorance, and forgetfulness, as well as claims that the Holocaust was not a unique or particularly anti-Jewish event. It is therefore more important than ever to remember what happened and never to forget.
Unpacked: Why did this Iranian Muslim save Jews in the Holocaust?
When people think of heroes of the Holocaust, they may think of Oskar Schindler, the German businessman who rescued over 1,200 Jews from the gas chambers. But while Schindler was saving Jews in Poland, Abdol Hossein Sardari, was saving hundreds of Iranian Jews. As the Consul General for Iran in Paris, Sardari strategically used his connections with Nazi officers to deceive them. This allowed him to issue hundreds of Iranian passports to Jewish refugees, enabling them to escape persecution and certain death.






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