Pages

▼

Friday, May 19, 2023

05/19 Links Pt2: Christiane Amanpour and the institutionalization of media bias; The Guardian is addicted to insulting Jews; Gal Gadot: ‘Israel is My Heart and My Home’

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Soros, antisemitism and the progressive assault on language
Soros’s Open Society Foundations have given tens of millions of dollars to non-governmental organizations involved in waging political warfare and lawfare against Israel. Soros’s groups reject the Jewish state’s right to exist and its right to defend itself. They have sought to undermine its relations with foreign governments and subvert its legal system in order to prevent it from enforcing its laws against Palestinian terrorists and Arab Israelis who break the laws of their country.

Two Soros-funded organizations, Al-Haq and Al-Mezan, have been identified as fronts for the PFLP terrorist organization. The U.S., the E.U., Canada and Israel all designate the PFLP as a terror group. Israel’s Defense Ministry outed Al-Haq and Al-Mezan as PFLP fronts in Oct. 2021. Rather than abandon their support for the terrorist groups, 20 other Soros-funded organizations signed a declaration attacking the government’s move.

Soros-funded international, U.S., Israeli and Palestinian groups defame Israel and its supporters by, among other things, falsely accusing the Jewish state of “apartheid.” They wage economic and cultural warfare against Israel and its Jewish supporters around the world through boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns. Directed against Israel’s Jewish supporters abroad, particularly on college campuses, BDS campaigns aim to deny Jews their civil right to stand with the Jewish state or express support for its existence. These campaigns employ social ostracism, humiliation and harassment. Soros-funded groups were the primary engine behind the E.U.’s antisemitic labelling law, which requires Israeli exporters to place warning labels on goods produced by Jews beyond the 1949 armistice lines.

Soros has spearheaded and funds organizations whose job is to drive a wedge through the American Jewish community. In 2007, he published an article in The New York Review of Books demonizing AIPAC, which he attacked with language redolent of antisemitism. The next year, Soros founded J Street by providing a three-year grant of $750,000. The pro-Palestinian progressive Jewish group supports placing restrictions on U.S. military assistance to Israel. It backs some of the most anti-Israel members of Congress. It advocates on behalf of U.S. appeasement of the Iranian regime, including by facilitating its nuclear weapons program.

J Street U, J Street’s student group, is anti-Israel. IfNotNow is a BDS group and a spin-off of J Street U. J Street and its aligned groups routinely demonize pro-Israel groups, including AIPAC and the Jewish Federations for their support for Israel. They also seek to subvert Jewish institutions, including day schools and summer camps, by compelling their leaders to accept the dissemination of anti-Zionist curricula and propaganda to their students and campers.

Soros-funded Palestinian media routinely broadcast antisemitic propaganda.

In short, Soros funds groups that demonize the Jewish state and Jewish people worldwide who support it. He has split the American Jewish community and supports organizations that oppose the right of Jewish people in the United States to defend and support the Jewish state and its right to exist.
Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer: It Is a mitzvah to condemn George Soros
If it is not “anti-Catholic” to condemn disastrous policies advocated by such Catholics as President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, it is not anti-Semitic to condemn the pernicious Soros, who most significantly finances campaigns to elect such lawless DAs.

Yes, it would be anti-Semitic if a cartoon depicted Soros with a Jewish religious symbol like a yarmulke because Judaism as a religion and George Soros do not intersect. Even in a cartoon, a kipah of any style or size would not fit on Soros’s head.

In Israel, too, his evil and toxic hand poisons everything he touches. He has heavily funded J Street — no surprise there — an organization that works closely with boycott, divestment, sanctions advocates and that honors Israel-haters as invited guest speakers at J Street annual conferences. In Israel, Soros’s Open Society Foundation has donated to organizations accusing Israel of human rights violations and war crimes, such as “Breaking the Silence” and “Adalah.” In a 2016 leak of OSF emails, staffers said they sought to weaken ties between Israel and the EU and sow doubt about Israeli democracy. He is noxious.

Soros is working to destroy foundational principles and democratic institutions in both America and Israel. I am a rabbi with a lifelong career of Jewish commitment and devotion, and I cannot be more clear: It is not only patriotic but a mitzvah to stand up and condemn this enemy of all we as Jews hold dear.
Jonathan Tobin: Christiane Amanpour and the institutionalization of media bias
In the early days of Amanpour’s long career, few, if any, journalists openly boasted of their partisanship in the way that she now does. That changed in the wake of the rise of former President Donald Trump and the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020 in which a press corps that everyone knew was overwhelmingly liberal shucked off any pretense that they were not partisans.

That made itself felt in the coverage of the 2016 presidential election and subsequent promotion of the Russia collusion hoax that dogged Trump during his first three years in office. It was shown in the willingness of almost every mainstream outlet—with the active cooperation of Big Tech companies and social-media platforms—to shut down coverage of the New York Post’s scoop about Hunter Biden’s laptop and its damning evidence about the corrupt business dealings of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate’s family in the waning days of that campaign.

And, most recently, it was manifest in the coverage of the report by special counsel John Durham about the origins of the Russia collusion hoax by corporate outlets like CNN and The New York Times, in which they ignored the findings that the entire investigation was the work of the Hillary Clinton campaign and then initiated by the FBI without any actual evidence.

Of course, bias exists on the right, too. But the monolithic nature of so much of the mainstream media makes it particularly problematic.

We are now at the point where anyone who gets their news solely from those supposedly reliable sources, like CNN and the Times, are among the least informed people on the planet. That is nothing less than a tragedy since democracy is imperiled if there isn’t a mainstream press that can be relied upon to at least try to tell the truth.

Anti-Israel media bias was always terrible, but it was long thought of as an aberration caused by particular factors, such as ignorance of the history of the Middle East conflict by editors and reporters, as well as the failure of the Jewish state to make its case in an easily digested and compelling manner.

We are now at the point when the sort of bias exhibited by the likes of Amanpour against Israel is routine in just about everything that is produced by corporate liberal outlets. Biased journalism has become not so much a lamentable exception to the rule as it has been institutionalized.

Israel is particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon, and the consequences are deeply troubling. The unfair treatment of the Jewish state such as that committed by Amanpour is a factor in the rising tide of antisemitism that masquerades as mere criticism of Israel. The fact that such lies and distortions are now routine occurrences in the mainstream press is a symptom of a sickness in journalism that goes beyond the way her conduct is abetting Jew-hatred.
How CNN Continues to Promote Anti-Israel Views
The passive voice, however, was used for the deliberate murders of Lucy Dee and her two daughters: “There was a shooting incident.” Not a “killing.” A “shooting incident.” And “a car received a bullet shot.”What a bizarre construction. And then that car that “received a [presumably single] bullet shot” just happened to have “the [Dee] family in it.” The way the account was phrased leaves one with the impression that the mother emerged unscathed, because she is not mentioned as a victim; Pleitgen says only that “the two daughters were killed in that crash.” Nor were the daughters “killed” in a car crash. Their car crashed after they had been shot to to death by a Palestinian terrorist, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle. After the crash, he kept firing; the victims were reportedly shot a total of 22 times. That does justice, unflinchingly, to the event. Pleitgen’s account was a travesty of the truth.

Here is how CNN”s Frederik Pleitgen ought to have reported the story: “A Palestinian terrorist with a Kalashnikov shot and killed an Israeli mother, Lucy Dee, and two of her daughters, Maina and Rina, as they drove through the West Bank on April 7.”

Christine Amanpour has quite a history of anti-Israel animus. This past January, she interviewed an Israeli documentary film maker, Dror Moreh. Toward the end, Amanpour asked Moreh:

“You are an Israeli. I don’t know whether you were in Israel at the time, but you said that this red line in the neighboring country of Syria, where all these atrocities were being committed really, really made you angry and upset. Many will want to know, you know, do you feel equally angry about the horrible situation that’s going on in your own country, and the human rights attacks, killings of Palestinians. Obviously, we know Israelis are also attacked, but what is your perspective, as an Israeli, given the whole “never again” paradigm in which you place this investigation?”


JPost Editorial: All embassies should be moved to Jerusalem
The modern State of Israel made its capital very clear from its inception, moving the Constituent Assembly, later renamed the Knesset, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 1949. Since then, Jerusalem has been the seat of government, housing the Supreme Court, Knesset, President’s Residence, Prime Minister’s Office and most other government ministries.

Ambassadors of all countries make their way to Jerusalem to present their credentials to the president and to meet with diplomats in the Foreign Ministry. Yet they pretend Tel Aviv is the capital.

They may argue that Jerusalem is a city in dispute and that they don’t want to move embassies there until the border between Israel and the Palestinians is finalized. Yet at the same time, they make a distinction between the eastern and western parts of the city, with the east being predominantly Arab. Nine countries have consulates general in Jerusalem, which – despite being located in a theoretical “corpus separatum,” ostensibly not part of any country – functionally serve a Palestinian population.

They don’t seem to see the contradiction between arguing that Israel’s capital cannot be Jerusalem until there is a final settlement with the Palestinians and treating the city as though it already contains the Palestinian capital. Somehow, in their thinking, Israel doesn’t currently deserve any part of the city.

Our friends around the world should come to terms with reality. No country has the right to tell another where its capital is. Israel’s capital is not Tel Aviv. It is and has always been Jerusalem, and we have the literal receipts to prove it.

All embassies should be in Jerusalem.
Tzipi Hotovely: 'Israel is on the front line against the world's challenges'
Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s ambassador to Britain, offers me coffee and cake in one of the airy reception rooms at her official London residence. She doesn’t shirk discussion of the political crisis that has roiled her country in recent months, but as the Jewish state approaches its 75th birthday, she projects optimism and pride.

"My parents didn’t come from a very advanced country. They came from Georgia in the Soviet Union, but when they made aliyah in the seventies, they discovered that many things in Georgia were better than they were in Israel. They’d had a colour TV and other electrical appliances, and life in Israel seemed behind.

“Imagine that when you consider how Israel is today. Everyone knows that Israel has extraordinary abilities in many fields, especially those that everyone is passionate to make progress in: health, computing, green tech, alternative solutions to energy. Israel is on the front line against all the challenges the world is facing — and that’s why we’re more relevant than ever.”

In the past 30 years, she tells the JC, Israel has become “a regional superpower”. To be sure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform package is still bringing thousands of protestors out on to the streets, as it has done for months. But according to Hotovely, “Israeli society is very resilient and very strong.

Even though there is something polarising us at the moment, we still are one nation.” Hotovely accepts that the debate over curbing the power of the Supreme Court reflects real divisions in Israeli society: between religious and secular Jews, or liberal Tel Aviv and some of those who live in West Bank settlements. But deep as they are, Hotovely rejects any suggestion that they pose a fundamental threat to Israel’s future cohesion.
Lee Zeldin: BDS Can No Longer Hide Behind International Organizations
Since 1979, it has been illegal for companies or individuals in the United States to participate in foreign countries' boycotts of countries "friendly to the United States" or to be compelled to provide information to facilitate those boycotts. But with one fashionable boycott organized by enemies of the U.S. against its closest ally, there seems to be little interest on the part of the Justice Department in enforcing that ban.

According to a recent report by the National Association of Scholars, "a deep financial system of progressively oriented businesses and nonprofit foundations devoted to a broad array of social justice causes"—the very same deep pockets responsible for funding destructive woke Left causes from Black Lives Matter to Antifa—have funded the anti-Israel "boycott, divestment, and sanctions" (BDS) movement that has caught fire as a radical chic cause célèbre on college campuses across the nation.

Contrary to many characterizations in the mainstream media, the BDS movement isn't simply about legitimate criticism of Israel. A report from the Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry found more than 100 links between U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, like Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and non-governmental organizations promoting the BDS movement. In addition, more than 30 members of Hamas and PFLP hold senior positions in international governmental organizations (IGOs) that promote and orchestrate anti-Israel BDS activity on U.S. university campuses. Most of these members of Hamas and PFLP behind the BDS movement have been in prison for terrorism-related crimes, including murder, and continue to maintain active ties with the terrorist groups. Make no mistake, the endgame of BDS is the same as that of the terrorists: the total destruction of the state of Israel. In the words of BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti, "the current phase has all the emblematic properties of what may be considered the final chapter of the Zionist project. We are witnessing the rapid demise of Zionism, and nothing can be done to save it, for Zionism is intent on killing itself. I, for one, support euthanasia."

Apologists for the BDS movement have tried to shift attention from these terrorist links by pointing to support for BDS from IGOs such as the United Nations and European Union. But the fact is, these corrupt organizations have a long and shameful history of working to isolate, delegitimize, and demonize the Jewish state. It's clear that bad actors are seeking to embargo Israel by hiding behind this IGO support of BDS, which somehow supposedly legitimizes a movement aimed at Israel's destruction.
Protest Against Antisemitism Planned for Roger Waters Concert in Munich
Hundreds of protestors carrying signs opposing antisemitism are expected to gather in Munich on Sunday to greet fans arriving for a concert by the former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters.

Waters is currently on a tour of five German cities amid a furor over his support for a comprehensive boycott of the State of Israel, as well as his use of antisemitic tropes in both his concerts and media appearances.

Munich is Colorful! (MiC) — an anti-racist NGO that tackles right-wing extremism through local initiatives — said it was calling for a protest against Waters outside the city’s Olympiahalle venue.

“Roger Waters has repeatedly expressed antisemitic, Putin-friendly and conspiracy ideology in the past,” MiC said in a statement that also referenced the singer’s frequently voiced opposition to western support for Ukraine’s democratic government as it combats the ongoing Russian invasion. “Unfortunately, the city of Munich has no legal recourse to prevent Roger Waters from appearing in the Olympiahalle.”

In March, Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter called the prospect of Waters performing in the city “unspeakable” and “unbearable,” expressing the fear that “antisemitic slogans will be thrown around.” A privately-run venue, the Olympiahalle would have faced breach of contract proceedings had it canceled the concert.

Waters last played at the Olympiahalle in 2018. On that occasion, Reiter commented, “I don’t want him here, but we have to endure it for now.”
Mohammed El-Kurd Awarded Calgary Peace Prize; Award Presentation Features A Litany Of Anti-Israel Disinformation, Including Calls For Israel’s Dismantlement And Justifications Of Violence
It was noteworthy that Mount Royal University wasn’t mentioned once by Ayyash, El-Kurd or any of the panelists. This begs the question, were they instructed by the administration not to refer to Mount Royal University?

During the Zoom presentation, it didn’t take long for anti-Israel disinformation to be spread.

In his remarks, El-Kurd acknowledged the “great optics” he received for being awarded this prize and said: “I can’t believe I’m already getting a peace prize, I thought you need to bomb the shit out of some place to get those, alas, I’m an over-achiever.”

In his address, El-Kurd referred to Israel as one of the key forces “that have displaced us, that have taken our homes, that have stolen our lands, that have killed our parents and our grandparents.”

But El-Kurd did more than simply wade into the same tired anti-Israel talking points. He also excused and even defended the actions of Palestinians who commit violence against Israeli civilians, describing them in Orwellian terms.

“If you come to Palestine, and you see people burning tires on the ground, people throwing rocks at illegal checkpoints and settlements…these are people who are anxious and eager for peace,” El-Kurd said in his remarks.

There is simply no logic, nor moral defense to the claim that Palestinians who attack “settlements” are somehow “eager for peace.” Settlements, or more accurately Israeli communities in Judea & Samaria, ancient lands of the Jewish People (often called the “West Bank” by the news media), are homes where people live – civilians.

And while El-Kurd portrayed rock throwing as a courageous act against an overwhelming military presence, this intentionally ignores the Israeli civilians who have died as a result of Palestinian rock throwing.

To cite one such example, in 2015, 4-year-old Adele Bitton died after suffering from long-term complications after a rock was thrown at the car her mother was driving two years earlier, causing it to crash into a nearby truck. Similarly, Jonathan Palmer never reached his second birthday; he was killed with his father when stones were hurled at their car.
British historian under fire for saying left to ‘replace’ Holocaust with slavery
“The reason the left has such ire for the Jews is jealousy. They want to replace the Holocaust with slavery in order to wield its legacy as a weapon against Western culture,” said David Starkey, a British historian and television presenter, in a talk this week at the National Conservatism Conference in London.

Starkey, a specialist in Tudor history who is not new to controversy, was part of a panel titled “History and Heritage.”

The conference’s official account tweeted Starkey’s quote, removed it and then reposted it. The statement drew criticism, including from Daniel Sugarman, public affairs director of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

Sugarman tweeted that the board “supports the building of a Holocaust Memorial by Westminster and a permanent memorial to the victims of Transatlantic Slavery. If this quote is accurate, such pathetic attempts to drive a wedge between communities will not work.”
Anti-Israel Activist Arrested for Vandalizing Michigan Synagogue
A strange story turns out not to be so strange after all.

A woman accused of spray-painting antisemitic graffiti at the Woodward Avenue Shul Jewish Center in Royal Oak last week has been charged, police said.

Randi Lucille Nord was arraigned Wednesday through 44th District Court in Royal Oak, records show. She was charged with ethnic intimidation, a felony carrying a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine, and malicious destruction of a building, a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 93 days in jail and a fine three times the amount of the destruction, police said.

A swastika symbol and the letters AZOV were spray-painted on the side of the building April 27. The word “azov” means “leave” in Hebrew but the letters also are linked to a pro-Nazi Ukrainian militia.

A Twitter account with that name has the banner, “Visit the USSR” over it. And a woman by the name of “Randi Nord” was described as a “MintPress News staff writer”.

Her articles have also appeared in the Tehran Times and Iran’s Press TV.

Randi Nord’s articles fall into that category of deranged antisemitism that leftists defend as antizionist.
University of Vermont Faculty Demand Apology from President for Handling of Antisemitism Allegations
The Williams Science Hall at the University of Vermont Photo. Kaya/Flickr.

Over 170 University of Vermont faculty members have signed a letter calling on the university’s president, Suresh Garimella, to apologize for initially denying allegations of antisemitism that prompted a federal investigation by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

OCR began investigating the university in Oct. 2021 after receiving a civil rights complaint alleging that the university declined to act when Jewish students were harassed by a teaching assistant for embracing Zionism, along with other incidents of anti-Jewish harassment and discrimination.

At the time, Garimella called the allegations “false claims” and accused media outlets that reported on them of spreading disinformation. In April, OCR ruled that UVM had indeed ignored numerous complaints of antisemitism and anti-Zionist harassment and discrimination — marking the first time that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act has been applied to anti-Zionist discrimination.

The faculty letter, issued at the end of April, argues that Garimella’s denials eroded his standing in the community.

“We have serious concerns about your leadership and trustworthiness,” the letter said. “Your actions and your administration’s handling of the events surrounding the OCR investigation fall short of our common ground values: respect, openness, responsibility, integrity, and justice.”


The Guardian is addicted to insulting Jews
There’s an H L Mencken quote for everything, and that even includes the Guardian.

Mencken, a journalist with a fantastically bitter turn of phrase, wrote that “a newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.” He didn’t have Britain’s most infamous publisher of antisemitic bile in mind – I’m sorry, I don’t what came over me, I meant Britain’s finest progressive newspaper – but boy oh boy did he nonetheless hit with a bullseye.

You might think that, barely a few days after the decision of the Guardian’s editorial team to publish a cartoon that would have fitted in well on the pages of Der Sturmer, they would be on the alert for anything which might confirm the view of many that, in dealing with almost anything related to Jews, the Guardian has what one might charitably call an uncharitable agenda.

You might think that, but to be frank you’d only think that if you’re unaware of the Guardian.

Because it doesn’t just have a good line in antisemitic cartoons. When it comes antisemitism generally, the Guardian has not so much a blind spot as an unbridgeable moral vacuum. This is how, in February, it could publish in its leader column an assessment of Jeremy Corbyn’s issues with Jews that informed readers that he “has a formidable record fighting against racism and in speaking up for many persecuted peoples, but in this case he was too slow and too defensive. To show how much better he was than some of his critics allowed, he should have tried harder to engage with their criticisms.”

Poor St Jeremy, if only he had been a bit more nimble everything would have been fine. And if only those beastly Jews hadn’t pushed him around like they did.

The point is this: don’t look to the Guardian for serious treatment of Jew-related issues. Look only for poison.
The Economist needs a new Mid-East correspondent
An Economist article (“The Palestinians need new leaders”, May 11) begins with context-free and misleading description of an Israeli checkpoint:
Few experiences are more humiliating for Palestinians than plodding through the Israeli checkpoint at Qalandiya, where the West Bank’s administrative headquarters at Ramallah are separated from the Palestinians’ would-be capital in east Jerusalem. Young Israeli conscripts bark orders at middle-aged labourers queuing to cross.

First, readers aren’t told why there’s a checkpoint at that location. It was a response to the countless terror attacks, including suicide bombings, emanating from that part of the West Bank beginning in the 2nd Intifada, rather than some arbitrary decision by authorities to make Palestinians lives miserable.

Further, in 2019 the original Qalandiya checkpoint, which was, by all accounts, inadequate, closed down and was replaced by a technically advanced and larger facility with 27 automatic gates that electronically read biometric permits – similar to those used at airports. “It used to take about an hour to pass through the old one”, said a Palestinian worker quoted in a Times of Israel story about the new checkpoint. “Now”, he added, “it only takes a few minutes, which means that I get about an extra hour of sleep.”

It’s also unclear if the Economist journalist actually witnessed “young Israeli conscripts bark[ing] orders at middle-aged labourers”, as the Times of Israel story reported that, in the new facility, IDF soldiers and private security guards now merely observe the Palestinians from a distance.
Success! Canadian Press Corrects Article Which Claimed That Tel Aviv Is Israel’s Seat Of Government
On May 17, the Canadian Press published a wire report that contained several errors and omissions which rendered the report unfair and inaccurate.

CP’s report entitled: “MPs debate how to challenge Israel’s judicial reform and push for regional peace” was republished by scores of Canadian media outlets and the report falsely claimed the following:
1. Israel has “expand(ed) illegal settlements on Palestinian land” and that there are “illegal (Israeli) settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.”
2. Referred to Tel Aviv as being the seat of Israel’s government. Not only is Jerusalem the Jewish state’s eternal and undivided capital city, it’s where the Israeli Knesset (parliament) is located. Tel Aviv is merely a highly populated Israeli city.
3. The report referred to the “forced displacement” of Palestinians in 1948, however, the conventional way of reporting on the Palestinian-Arab refugees at the time is to note that they fled or were forced. In fact, marauding Arab armies and the Arab world’s leadership encouraged Arab-Palestinians to leave their homes for fear that they’d get caught up in hostilities they initiated and be collateral damage in their war of annihilation of the nascent Jewish state.

Contrary to what CP reported, Israel contends that it’s building of homes in areas it regards as Judea and Samaria are consistent with international law as Israel had pre-existing legal and historical rights to the lands in question and as Israel acquired these lands in a war of self-defense against pan-Arab belligerents seeking the Jewish state’s destruction. Furthermore, the Palestinians never had sovereignty over lands and therefore, Israel disputes that it’s an “illegal occupier.” Palestinians may claim this land as their own, but that does not negate Israel’s legitimate claims. This is why the BBC, for example, reports that: “Israel has built more than 140 settlements on land the Palestinians claim for a future state.”

As Israel asserts claims to these lands, for CP to regard these lands outright as constituting “occupied Palestinian territory” predetermines the outcome of a final status issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hence, why these lands should be regarded as the disputed territories in Israel’s view.

The use of the aforementioned language saw CP take sides on a matter of dispute, instead of being neutral and judicious. In response to our complaint, CP conveyed that the final version of the story now includes a contextualizing paragraph to specify that Canada views these settlements as illegal under international law and that Israel disputes this characterization. Regrettably, CP’s report still refers to “illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.”
Pittsburgh synagogue shooter faces death penalty in trial set to start May 30
The trial of the alleged shooter in the Pittsburgh synagogue attack is slated to begin May 30.

Jury selection for the federal trial began last month and is expected to end next week, according to the Pittsburgh Union Progress, a local publication, and the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, which are jointly covering the trial. The defendant, Robert Bowers, is accused of killing 11 worshippers from three congregations who were praying together on Oct. 27. 2018. He faces the death penalty.

Most observers expect the defendant to be convicted, which would result in a third phase of the trial focused on sentencing during which victims’ family members and other community leaders would testify. Some relatives of the massacre’s victims have pushed for Bowers to be executed, while leaders of two of the three congregations have previously advocated against the death penalty.

The start of the trial, more than four years after the attack took place, has surfaced a mix of emotions for residents of Squirrel Hill, the heavily Jewish neighborhood where it occurred. While many hope conviction will bring a sense of closure, there are concerns that the trial will re-traumatize survivors, families of victims, and the broader community. In the lead-up to the trial, Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, has tracked an “uptick in hate speech” online, according to the Associated Press.

The alleged shooter is just the fourth person in Western Pennsylvania to ever face a federal death penalty. None of the other three were executed.
Jews subject to more hate crimes than any other group in Toronto in 2022
The Toronto Police Service (TPS) has published its 2022 hate crimes report revealing that hate targeting Jewish, Black, and LGBTQ+ populations remained the most commonly reported to police, representing 26%, 19%, and 16% of all hate crimes, respectively. The report, published on Thursday, counts 242 reported hate crimes in 2022, which reflects a six% decrease compared to 2021, a level still well above the ten-year average of 173.

Toronto’s Jewish community was targeted in 63 reported hate crime incidents in 2022. Although comprising only 3.4% of the population of Toronto, the Jewish community was victimized in approximately 26% of all hate crimes. Anti-Jewish hate crime has increased by 50% over the last three years.

In response to the report, Noah Shack, Vice President, GTA at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), released a comment: “We are concerned to see how severely hate crime is impacting Toronto’s Jewish, Black, and LGBTQ2S communities. Hate doesn’t just affect its targeted victims; it is corrosive to our entire society. A single hate crime targeting any group in our city is too many. Antisemitism is on the rise in Canada and around the world. The Jewish community is only 3.4% of Toronto’s population but was disproportionately targeted by 26% of reported hate crimes. It’s alarming that while hate crimes in Toronto declined overall, incidents of Jew-hatred increased by 14%”.


Nazi memorabilia for sale in online New York auction
Nazi memorabilia has been offered for sale in an online auction in Brooklyn, New York.

Items available for purchase in the “estate liquidation auction” held by Antique Arena include Nazi propaganda posters, Ghetto Police armbands, the yellow Star of David badges that Jewish people were forced to wear by the Nazis, and a canister of Zyklon B, a toxic gas used to murder millions of Jewish people in Nazi death camps.

Separately the British auction house Christie’s has recently been condemned by Jewish groups for announcing the sale in New York of Nazi-linked jewellery, originally purchased with money made at the expense of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The sale, which is estimated to be worth equivalent to £118 million, is for charity.
German Teenagers appear to give Nazi salute in Auschwitz
German Teenagers appeared to give Nazi salutes whilst visiting Auschwitz in a photograph recently disseminated on social media.

The group from Leipzig visited the notorious former death camp, in which more than a million people are estimated to have perished, as part of an educational trip.

The now-removed image reportedly displayed four teenagers, two of whom were performing a pose synonymous with the Nazi salute.


Mutual Jewish-Muslim scholarly influence explored at Dubai conference
Scholars from New York’s Yeshiva University and Abu Dhabi’s Mohamed Bin Zayed University for Humanities held an academic conference at the Crossroads of Civilization Museum in Dubai in early May, the first such conference to be held between the two universities.

Titled “Interacting Philosophies, Shared Friendships,” the conference discussed how medieval Muslim and Jewish scholars had influenced each other, focusing especially on the impact of 12th-century Muslim scholar Ibn Rushd on Jewish sage Moses Maimonides.

“Academic collaboration is a zone that can and should be apolitical,” said Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern, senior advisor to the provost at Yeshiva University and deputy director of the university’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center of Torah and Western Thought.

The golden age between Jews and Muslims
He said the Middle Ages are considered a Golden Age between Jews and Muslims, and “we want to show how scholarship uncovered, through history, our shared values.”

The conference brought faculty members and students from both universities together in the United Arab Emirates. The Yeshiva University students flew in “to learn about the culture that exists here, one of tolerance, and to be exposed to the possibility of what the future holds,” Halpern said.
'Fauda’ creators debut ‘Ghosts of Beirut,’ Showtime series about Mossad’s killing of master terrorist
A new Showtime series from the creators of “Fauda” chronicles the exploits of one of the Middle East’s most infamous terrorists and the joint CIA-Mossad operation that eventually led to his death.

“Ghosts of Beirut,” a four-episode series that begins streaming for Showtime subscribers on Friday but premieres on air Sunday night, dramatizes the rise and impact of Imad Mughniyeh but also includes “documentary elements.” The former Hezbollah leader is accused of planning international attacks starting in the 1980s that killed hundreds if not thousands, including the 1992 Israeli embassy bombing in Buenos Aires. Mughniyeh was also central in the rise of the number of suicide bombings around the world.

The agencies that tracked him, such as the CIA and Israel’s Mossad, nicknamed him “Ghost” because of his ability to elude capture. He was killed by a car bomb in Syria in 2008.

“Fauda” creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff created the series, which also lists Daniel Dreifuss — a Jewish producer who talked to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about his recent remake of “All Quiet on the Western Front” — as an executive producer. It stars Dermot Mulroney and Dina Shihabi, known for a starring role in the action series “Jack Ryan.”


Actress Debra Messing Talks About Facing Antisemitism, Hiding Her Jewish Identity Until Learning to Be a ‘Loud and Proud’ Jew
Jewish actress Debra Messing spoke openly about her Jewish heritage and the antisemitism she and her family faced living in Rhode Island during a recent event in New York City co-hosted by Israeli activist and entrepreneur Noa Tishby and Forward Party Co-Chairman Andrew Yang.

Tishby, who until very recently was Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel, and Yang, a former presidential candidate, met in March when they both participated in a discussion on HBO’s talk series Real Time With Bill Maher during the “overtime” segment of the show. Together they organized an intimate sit-down dinner and conversation in New York City on May 9 with influential Jewish Americans and Asian American Pacific Islanders to discuss their shared experiences and celebrate each other’s heritages. The evening started off with Messing talking about an unfortunate experience she had as a child.

The Will & Grace star was born in Brooklyn but moved to Rhode Island with her family as a youngster.

“We moved to Rhone Island, next to a farm, and I was one of three Jewish kids in the entire community. And in second grade, I was getting in line, we were all lining up to go to gym, and this little kid came up [to me] and said, ‘get to the back of the line k__ke,'” Messing recalled. She added that the child was then sent to the principal’s office and Messing’s parents were called to the school.

“A couple of years later, my grandfather was visiting during Halloween and the next day his car had a swastika painted on it,” she said. “And so things happened regularly in this tiny little New England town and I learned that I was an other. And I learned that it was dangerous to be an other.”
‘Israel is My Heart and My Home’: Gal Gadot Receives Award at LA Event Celebrating Israel’s 75th Independence Day
Israeli actress Gal Gadot and other Israeli-Americans were honored at Los Angeles’ official celebration of Israel’s 75th Independence Day on Wednesday night hosted by the Israeli-American Council (IAC) and the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles Hillel Newman.

The “Wonder Woman” actress was a surprise guest at the event and received the Los Angeles Israel Award for Entertainment at the reception held in the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. Upon accepting her award on stage, Gadot admitted that her heart was racing before she spoke about being “incredibly honored and deeply humbled” to receive the recognition. “This is a moment I will cherish forever,” she told the audience. She then continued to talk about Israel, calling it “a land of rich heritage and vibrant history” and saying that the Jewish state “has achieved an astonishing amount in its relatively short history.”

“And as I always say, Israel is where—ha’lev sha’li nem’sa —Israel is my heart and my home,” she added. “And we all here are deeply proud of our Jewish homeland. And this celebration, this recognition is a testament to our unity, our strength, and our shared vision.”

The actress also noted that as an Israeli living in the US, she is “very aware of the importance of enhancing and maintaining strong connections; of building bridges between the Americans and the Israeli people.” She told the crowd: “our backgrounds might be different, our journeys unique, but our collective goal is shared: to create a future that’s rich in understanding, mutual respect and collaboration. You should all thank me for not starting to sing Imagine here right now. So you’re welcome.”

She concluded by telling the audience about the importance of “building bridges” between Israel and America, and how it is “not just a matter of diplomatic ties or shared interests.”




Holy Jerusalem Virtual Tour



Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!
 

 

at