Friday, June 02, 2023

From Ian:

The National Antisemitism Strategy Has No Clothes
There is a Hebrew maxim that reads “ve’haikar chaser min hasefer,” which roughly translates to: “The essential point is missing from the argument.” Or, to use more popular vernacular, “the emperor has no clothes.” This, in essence, is our central critique of the recently released U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. For all its pomp and flair, the strategy misses some of the key forces driving antisemitism today and how to fight it effectively.

The lengthy, 60-page document offers a multiplicity of ways to counter the world’s oldest hatred. Many of these are quite positive, including its focus on beefing up security for Jewish institutions and the emphasis it places on education—a vital building block for any tolerant society.

But the positives it presents make the strategy all the more dangerous, as the good it espouses lends credibility to its fundamental weaknesses.

The most serious flaw is that the strategy lacks any real consideration of how anti-Zionism, the denial of the Jewish right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, almost invariably manifests as a politically correct version of antisemitism, a version that is spiraling out of control in America today.

Unfortunately, the strategy gives cover to this contemporary iteration of antisemitism. It does so by including the fringe Nexus definition as a guide for identifying Jew hatred, alongside the globally accepted IHRA working definition. While IHRA equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism, Nexus provides several caveats allowing for opposition to the Jewish right to self-determination, as well as applying double standards to Israel, by declaring that “paying disproportionate attention to Israel and treating Israel differently than other countries is not prima facie proof of antisemitism.” Here the Nexus definition opens the antisemitism loopholes that IHRA was intended to close, thereby rendering the endorsement of IHRA entirely meaningless.

The denial of the Jewish right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland almost invariably manifests as a politically correct version of antisemitism.

Throughout the centuries, antisemitism has manifested in three distinct ways. Some—like Amalek in biblical times or the Nazis in the modern era—have focused their venom on the Jewish people, based on an almost instinctive, gut-level hatred. Their goal was to annihilate us, just because we existed.

Others have directed their hatred against our religion. A prime example is the Christian persecution of Jews during the Middle Ages. The Crusaders at the time denied any intention to murder Jews based on their peoplehood per se, but rather because they rejected the Christian faith. In the end, however, it became clear that their goal to destroy our fundamental beliefs was the equivalent of destroying the Jewish people.

Nowadays, a third type of Jew-hatred has emerged in the form of anti-Zionism. In this post-Holocaust world, targeting Jews because of a perceived ethnic identity is generally unacceptable. In order to circumvent this new barrier, attacks have shifted focus and now largely target the State of Israel. What many do not understand, is that denying Jews their homeland uproots a fundamental pillar of our peoplehood.
Melanie Phillips: The Biden administration’s anti-antisemitism travesty
Last month, it emerged that Google’s head of diversity, Kamau Bob, had said in a 2007 blog post about the Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict that Jewish people had “an insatiable appetite for war and killing” and an “insensitivity” to suffering. Although Google has now removed Bob from his post (but hasn’t fired him), the remark was a graphic illustration of the symbiosis between Jew-hatred and the DEI agenda.

Kenneth L. Marcus, the founder and chairman of the Brandeis Centre for the Protection of Human Rights Under Law, has said that in the DEI programs, “we’re seeing anti-Jewish stereotypes, biases, defamations, separation of Jews from other groups and so-called ‘erasive antisemitism,’ which is to say denial of what it means to have a Jewish identity.”

Last December, a Heritage Foundation report showed that the private social-media accounts of DEI officers at university campuses displayed virulent feelings against Israel, compared to generally positive feelings towards the People’s Republic of China. The authors noted that 96% of the tweets about Israel were critical, while 62% of the tweets about China were favorable.

The word genocide was associated with Israel nine times, “ethnic cleansing” seven times, and the accusation that Israel specifically targeted children was made 27 times. The report observed that “DEI staff have an obsessive and irrational animus toward the Jewish state.”

DEI doctrine has redefined “hatred” to include mere offense, upset or insult. Yet it itself promotes hatred of Jews and Israel while also vilifying white people and Western civilization.

Shockingly, this agenda is promoted, supported and endorsed by liberal American Jews.

These Jews refuse to acknowledge the disproportionate part played in today’s antisemitism by Muslims and African-Americans. They refuse to condemn “the Squad.” They refuse to denounce Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam who embodies the nexus between black and Muslim antisemitism.

Instead, they smear anyone who does point out this nexus as Islamophobic or racist, while swooning over the Biden administration’s anti-antisemitism travesty.

Jewish community leaders in Britain similarly deny the reality of Muslim Jew-hatred and demonize those who point it out.

The doctrine of intersectionality has fueled Muslim antisemitism and helped advance the Islamist onslaught on the West, courtesy of liberal Jews.

The IHRA definition has merely given a new sheet of music to the orchestra on the Titanic to play as the ship goes down.
J’accuse: US Jewish leadership is failing to defend the community - opinion
WHAT HAPPENED to the West’s Jews? As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explained, antisemitism is a virus that morphs predictably: Whatever is any society’s worst sin, that is what the Jews are charged with. In the religious epoch, Jews were the killers of the Christian God. When race “science” – eugenics – was all the rage, Jews were racial vermin. In capitalist societies, the Jews were hated as communists; in communist societies, we were despised as capitalist exploiters. When having a nation-state was the way normal people expressed their values, Jews were cursed as rootless cosmopolites. And so today, when globalism and internationalism are the reigning virtues, Jews are cursed for their state.

Once we were tainted, stripped of having the moral high ground – which, for a while, the guilt and shame from the Holocaust provided – all hell could be loosed against us. Well, the virus mutated into anti-Israelism, or Palestinianism, and Jews worldwide are tainted as oppressors. The “new antisemitism” pierced our post-Holocaust shield.

The Jewish establishment left us practically defenseless in the face of this new mutant strain, and that is why – I know it’s a serious charge – we are in this awful situation.

To make matters worse, a new “woke-progressive” ideology that is undeniably and inevitably anti-Jewish has defeated classical liberalism in many key institutions and has become an accelerant to the mounting antisemitism.

Classic liberalism believes in equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion and/or sexual orientation. It welcomed and supported Jewish life in America. The new ideology – which goes by many names: woke, progressivism, political correctness, intersectionality, etc. – insists instead on equal results. If there are fewer Black or Latino lawyers proportional to their numbers in society than there are white or Jewish lawyers, that proves that society is unjust and racist. Those who achieved success did so by exploiting the underachieving minorities. Success in life is proof that you have oppressed or have benefited by the oppression of Blacks, Latinos, women, homosexuals, etc. As Jews are among the most successful, we are by implication the biggest oppressors.

And all of this ideology is being taught in American public schools. Its principles are required in law schools, medical schools, corporate boards. Fewer and fewer Jews are getting into Ivy League schools, fewer are being hired by corporations, and fewer are sitting on boards of philanthropies.

The Jewish establishment is now fully trapped. It put all our eggs into the imploding liberal basket. It made alliances with all the minority groups, and now these very groups have turned on us and have become Palestinianists and antisemitic. Our leaders are flummoxed and confused. They need to be pressured, convinced, humiliated and shamed to do a massive rethink.

To help organize grassroots activists to challenge and change our leadership, we created The Jewish Leadership Project (www.jewishleadershipproject.org). Our book prescribes steps that our leaders must take to stem the tide of animus.

We are in danger at a watershed moment. But we are an accomplished community, with very talented individuals. We can and must find proud, brave and competent leadership to secure a better Jewish future.


Caroline Glick: Open To Debate: Is Netanyahu's Government Going In The Wrong Direction
Via Open To Debate -- Benjamin Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history. After five elections in four years, Israeli voters re-elected him in November 2022 where he established a new government while on trial for corruption charges he was indicted for in 2019.

Since then, he has introduced plans for judiciary reforms allowing Israel’s Parliament to overrule Supreme Court decisions by a one-vote majority and giving the government the power to appoint judges — which has led to large-scale public protests throughout Israel.

Supporters welcome his tough stance on Iran and argue the changes are needed to better balance the power between lawmakers and judges and bring Israel’s judiciary system closer to other Western countries. Others argue they will overturn democracy, undermine the judiciary branch’s independence, and affect the country’s relationship with the U.S. and Palestinians.

Against this backdrop, we debate the following question: Is Netanyahu’s Government Heading in the Wrong Direction?

Jeremy Ben-Ami, President of J Street and Executive Director of JStreetPac
Jeremy Ben-Ami is the President of J Street, where he has been at the center of the evolving debate around Israel and foreign policy in Washington D.C. and within the American Jewish community. He consults regularly with leading policymakers, officials, and experts on foreign policy, national security, and the US-Israel relationship. As a national commentator on foreign policy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ben-Ami has been profiled in The New York Times, Washington Post, and CQ Weekly and has headlined lectures, debates, and public discussions in communities across the United States. Ben-Ami was one of the leading advocates in the successful campaign to secure congressional approval for the Iran nuclear agreement. A veteran political staffer, he has worked on numerous campaigns and previously served in the White House as a deputy domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton.

Caroline Glick, Former Senior Contributing and Chief Columnist for the Jerusalem Post and Senior Columnist for Maariv
Caroline Glick is a writer and columnist whose work is syndicated to Jewish newspapers and web publications around the world and has written for The Jerusalem Post, Israel Hayom, Breitbart News, Maariv, and other publications. She is also the author of “The Israeli Solution: A One State Plan for Peace in the Middle East” and “Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad”, which have been endorsed by policymakers including Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For her commentary, she has received the Ben Hecht Award for Middle East reporting from the Zionist Organization of America, the Abramowitz Prize for Media Criticism by Israel Media Watch, the Guardian of Zion award by Bar Ilan University, and the Courage of Zion Prize for Zionist pioneering by the Moskowitz Foundation.


New Report Offers Framework for Action Against Anti-Zionist Manifestations of Antisemitism on US College Campuses
A new report (PDF) released by the CAM Antisemitism Research Center and the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) on Wednesday examines the “Israel Apartheid Week” phenomenon and other anti-Zionist manifestations of Jew-hatred at U.S. colleges and universities in 2023.

The study — which can be read in full here — provides an overview of the weaponization of the “apartheid” claim by anti-Zionists, its role in fueling antisemitism on campuses, and the manner in which it negatively impacts Jewish students. Rooted in the delegitimization of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, anti-Zionism is proliferating now as perhaps the most pernicious form of modern-day antisemitism, oftentimes entering mainstream political and social discourse disguised in a language of intellectualism and liberal values.

The report offers three recommendations for college administrations — pursue university-wide adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism; deny funding to student groups that promote antisemitic ideologies through their rhetoric and activities; and ensure Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices take into account rising campus Jew-hatred and prioritize antisemitism training programs for students, faculty, and administrators.
Two Jewish conservatives launch ‘Jews Against Soros’ website
The recent incident featuring Twitter owner Elon Musk comparing nonagenarian financier and philanthropist George Soros to the supervillain Magneto again opened debate about where legitimate ideological criticism of the prolific political funder ends and antisemitic hate begins.

Now, two Jewish conservatives have launched a grassroots initiative to clarify.

Newsweek senior editor-at-large Josh Hammer and Missouri Attorney General candidate Will Scharf have launched “Jews Against Soros.”

Their new website says: “There is nothing antisemitic about identifying the many ways that George Soros and his network of organizations fund the radical left. Leftism isn’t Judaism, and being anti-leftist is not the same as being Antisemitic. Period.”

The site then lays out the 92-year-old Hungarian Holocaust survivor’s history of funding political activism, including support of the anti-Israel BDS movement.

Hammer tweeted: “Soros has dedicated his life to fomenting American anarchism, undermining Israel’s territorial integrity, and destabilizing Western nation-states more generally.”

Scharf told The Daily Caller, “We plan to build a grassroots army of Jews committed to standing up against Soros and his brand of leftism.”
Biden’s antisemitism strategy faces early test amid CUNY controversy
Just a week after the Biden administration unveiled a sweeping national strategy for combating antisemitism, its proposed plan for handling alleged incidents of anti-Jewish prejudice on college campuses is facing a key early test.

The City University of New York drew an outcry this week when its law school released video of an incendiary address in which a student-selected speaker, Fatima Mohammed, accused Israel of “indiscriminate” killings and called for a “fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism and Zionism around the world.” Mohammed also claimed that CUNY was “committed to its donors, not to its students,” among other statements echoing anti-Jewish tropes.

The speech, which was widely condemned as antisemitic, marked the second instance in two years that a CUNY Law School commencement speaker had singled out the Jewish state for condemnation. Meanwhile, CUNY officials have drawn scrutiny from critics who believe that the university system — long viewed as a haven for Jewish students — has failed to address a broader uptick in anti-Israel activity across its campuses, making Jewish students and faculty members feel unwelcome.

In recent interviews with a range of Jewish leaders, elected officials, academics and other experts, one major refrain was that the CUNY incident presents a timely opportunity for the Biden administration to put its new White House strategy to work, even if it remains unclear how it would translate words into action.

The policies laid out in the strategy are “directly relevant here,” William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told Jewish Insider on Wednesday, citing language from the plan stating that “too many” Jewish students and educators feel insecure “because of their actual or perceived views on Israel.”

“CUNY Law’s graduation created just the sense of insecurity that the Biden plan seeks to address,” Daroff said. The Biden administration “is serious about tackling antisemitism,” he added. “The CUNY situation is a perfect place for his administration to make a difference.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, echoed that view, noting that “the situation at CUNY Law” is just the latest example of “why the commitment to protect Jewish students is such a critical part of” the White House strategy. “We shouldn’t need to file a complaint to show that Jewish students are under attack at CUNY Law,” he argued in a statement to JI. “CUNY, New York City and the U.S. Department of Education need to act, and act now.”


Jonathan Todin: The answer to campus radicalism and antisemitism? Defunding
Though some New York politicians condemned Mohammed’s hate speech, such defunding is, alas, impossible in deep-blue New York. Notwithstanding this controversy, the political and media establishment in New York doesn’t really have a problem with continuing to subsidize a bastion of antisemitism like CUNY.

The irony was that initially, it was not Mohammed’s slander-filled ideological rant that drew attention to this ceremony. At first, it was the reaction of students to the appearance of New York City Mayor Eric Adams at the graduation ceremony. Students booed and raised their middle figures at Adams, while most of the graduating class turned their backs when he spoke. That was a reaction to his so-far inadequate attempts to rein in the crime wave started by his predecessor Bill de Blasio’s policies and exacerbated by the Black Lives Matter riots that undermined the police.

That incident generated an article in The New York Times that didn’t even mention Mohammed’s antisemitic speech, though it also noted that such leftist dogmatism was to be expected at CUNY. Indeed, as of this writing, the Times has not printed a single word about Mohammed’s speech. Though it made the front page of the tabloid New York Post (the Post’s typically witty headline about Mohammed read “Stark Raving Grad”), it was apparently not considered newsworthy by the liberal “newspaper of record.”

Mohammed was not without her defenders. Anti-Zionist Times contributor and CUNY journalism professor Peter Beinart claimed that her lies about Israel were true, illustrating once again that some Jews are supporters of antisemitism. He was joined in this by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was founded as a political front for the same Holy Land Foundation Mohammed defended, who described the anger her antisemitism generated as an attempt to suppress “free speech.” (And, yes, that’s the same CAIR that was consulted by the Biden administration while preparing its strategy for combating antisemitism.)

The time has passed for Jewish groups to content themselves with statements complaining about such incidents. If they are to be taken seriously as opponents of antisemitism, then they must demand the defunding of all schools that engage in DEI indoctrination that helps generate this sort of open hatred. DeSantis and those who support his much-needed counterattack on the forces seeking to impose radicalism on students are accused of fighting a “culture war,” though it is the left that started the war on Western culture. But anyone who is interested in combating antisemitism must join this war. The only way to make a difference is to insist on defunding institutions that foster hatred.
At Jewish Heritage Month event, mayor rails against antisemitic CUNY speech
New York City Mayor Eric Adams made the controversy surrounding a law student’s antisemitic remarks in a May 12 CUNY commencement speech his first order of business in his remarks at Gracie Mansion on May 31.

Addressing a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the official mayoral residence, he railed against City University of New York Law School graduate Fatima Mohammed. The student’s commencement remarks, which heavily criticized the New York Police Department where Adams once served and invoked antisemitic tropes in attacking Israel, became public in recent days following pressure from media outlets.

“If I was on that stage when those comments were made, I would have stood up and denounced them immediately!” declared Adams, who left the ceremony before Mohammed took the stage.

At the commencement ceremonies, some graduates turned their backs to Adams in a form of protest when he spoke, specifically when he was introduced as having formerly been part of the NYPD. Younger New Yorkers especially have been expressing their disappointment in current crime statistics and how the police are handling matters.

“Now I know why they turned their backs on me because I would never turn my back on you,” the mayor told those assembled at Gracie Mansion.

Ari Kagan, a Jewish city councilman and an immigrant, denounced Mohammed for her comments, which were also heavily critical of the United States. If Mohammed is so unhappy, “there are other places for her to live,” he told attendees.

Kalman Yeger, another Jewish city councilman, praised Adams for speaking out against antisemitism while acknowledging that the problem is getting worse in New York City.

“What’s new is the existential crisis that we’re seeing and what it means to be a Jewish New Yorker today,” he said. “We see it in my neighborhoods, where if you walk around with a yarmulke, you’re likely to get smacked. We see it on the subways, where if somebody is sitting there minding their own business, they’re gonna get called a ‘dirty Jew.’”

“We see it at CUNY Law School,” added Yeger, “where an antisemite gets up on a lectern that looks a little bit like this, funded by tax dollars, preaches hate and gets a standing ovation.”

‘This is a city that was built by Jews’
First graduates of CUNY Law slam school’s descent into hotbed of hate after commencement speech
Some of CUNY Law school’s inaugural graduating class of 1986 have expressed their collective disgust and frustration that their alma mater has descended into a hotbed of hate in a letter sent Thursday to its dean and faculty.

“Our legacy has been disgraced and we are totally disgusted by a faculty and administration that have nurtured this toxic, intolerant, and antisemitic environment,” said the letter signed by 1986 alums Dan Elias, Jill Stone, Anna Rumberg, Ann Nowak, Karen Hochberg Tommer, Paul Goodman and Vincent Maher.

Elias, an attorney who drafted the letter, told The Post he was saddened that CUNY Law has deviated greatly from its mission. “They’re pushing a political agenda. I don’t know know how it prepares people for practicing law,” he said.

He was referring to the inflammatory May 12 commencement address by student Fatima Mousa Mohammed who alleged that “Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old, the young, attacking even funerals and graveyards… our silence is no longer acceptable.”

The grads from 37 years ago also noted that the CUNY Law faculty council approved a resolution supporting the pro-Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanction movement against Israel, as did the student government.

“The fact that CUNY has become safe haven for BDS and utilized as a regular forum for raging antisemites encouraging `lynch mobs’ and lauding resistance to `Zionism around the world,’ is an unforgivable betrayal of the values upon which this institution was founded,” the letter said.


Many in UK Academic Community Forced to Hide Jewish Identity: Report
Pervasive antisemitism and anti-Zionism at UK universities is forcing members of the Jewish academic community to conceal their identities on campus, according to a new report issued by the Parliamentary Task Force on Antisemitism in Higher Education, a committee of lawmakers and established by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022 in response to complaints of anti-Jewish racism and discrimination.

“We were told it was commonplace for Jewish students to choose not to wear certain clothing or jewelry around campus because it would make them visibly identifiable as Jewish,” the Task Force wrote in the report, titled Understanding Jewish Experience in Higher Education, noting that academic staff “also raised important comparable concerns about negativity surrounding their Jewish identity.”

The Task Force recommended that all universities adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which, it said, has not, contrary to the claims of its many opponents, diminished free speech and academic freedom. Last November, over 100 scholars from across the world said in an open letter that it has, arguing that pro-Zionist activists “hijacked” the definition to censor criticism of Israel.

“The [IHRA] definition of antisemitism has neither compromised nor chilled free speech in any of the 56 universities with which we engaged,” the report said. “The IHRA definition should be used as a reference point to understand what contemporary antisemitism is. It should also be used as a reference point for Jewish students and staff (and indeed non-Jewish complainants where relevant) to support them when dealing with issues or submitting complaints.”

Jewish students’ feeling that they have been victimized by their peers arises from the treatment they receive because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the report explains. The report describes an interview with a Jewish student who experienced a torrent of verbal abuse for four hours, as well as incessant phone calls, after being outed as a Zionist in a WhatsApp group chat. Such behavior influenced Jewish students’ choices on which courses to take, with one Newcastle University student reporting that registering for a class on the Middle East was ruled out for fear of being held “responsible for defending Israel when discussing the conflict.”

According to the report, at least one campus group for Jewish students, the Exeter Jewish Society of University of Exeter, is phasing out any programming related to Israel altogether because it sets off a viscerally negative response from their anti-Zionist peers.


‘There Need to be Consequences’: Rep. Mike Lawler Introduces Bill Cutting Funding for Colleges that Host Antisemitic Events
Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY) on Thursday introduced legislation to cut off federal loans and grants for colleges that host antisemitic events after a City University of New York (CUNY) law graduate’s 13-minute commencement speech denouncing Zionism and supporting convicted Hamas-affiliated terrorism financiers.

Lawler told The Algemeiner in an interview that he first started considering the bill during his election campaign in response to UC Berkeley’s ban on Zionist speakers, but was further spurred to action after the CUNY commencement speech.

“I am of the mindset that people certainly have the right to say what they want to say, but you don’t have the right to hate speech,” Lawler said. “And the federal government should not be using taxpayer dollars to support it… But this most recent incident at CUNY really just made it all the more important to get this legislation filed. Taxpayer money should not be used to support this type of rhetoric or conduct — people who support the BDS movement, which is antisemitic.”

Lawler added that his legislation would strip universities and college institutions of “any federal dollars that support what they’re doing.”

CUNY’s chancellor and board of trustees in a statement on Tuesday condemned Fatima Mohammed’s commencement address as hate speech.

“The remarks by a student-selected speaker at the CUNY Law School graduation, unfortunately, fall into the category of hate speech as they were a public expression of hate toward people and communities based on their religion, race or political affiliation,” their statement said. “The Board of Trustees of the City University of New York condemns such hate speech.”


Pressure builds on O2 to drop Roger Waters after Sadiq Khan meets with venue bosses
London mayor Sadiq Khan has met with O2 bosses to raise concerns from the Jewish community over Roger Waters’ use of “antisemitic imagery”.

The Pink Floyd singer is set to perform at the iconic London venue on June 6 and 7 on a global tour dogged by controversy over his history of inflammatory anti-Zionist statements.

Waters has attacked the “Jewish lobby”, compared Israel to Nazi Germany, and, in 2013, flown a pig-shaped balloon emblazoned with a Star of David.

In Germany, the 79-year-old musician overcame protests and, in Frankfurt, a legal challenge to be allowed to perform.

Waters remains under investigation by German authorities for wearing an SS-style uniform on stage in Berlin, where displaying Nazi symbols is illegal.

In a statement released on Friday, a spokesperson for Khan said: “The mayor fully understands the significant concerns from within the Jewish community regarding this tour.

“The mayor condemns the use of any antisemitic imagery and his team has recently met with AEG Europe, the O2 Arena venue operator responsible for programming, to express concerns and the issues raised by the Jewish community.”

Jewish community leaders have raised concerns over the possibility that Waters will incite community tensions.

Speaking to LBC, Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet of Mill Hill Synagogue said: "When you have magistrates in Germany trying to cancel his concert, you have to wonder why on earth The O2 are trying to entertain him here in the UK".

He added: "if one Jew somewhere, on the streets of London, gets smacked, cursed at, spat at, on account of Roger Waters’ performance... then that's on him, that's on the O2 and it's on the UK government."


After backlash and under German probe, Roger Waters drops Nazi costume at UK concert
Roger Waters did not sport a costume resembling an SS officer and omitted a controversial comparison between Israel and the Nazis at his Birmingham concert Wednesday, after attracting criticism and sparking a German police probe for such acts during previous legs of the tour.

Ahead of the concert — the first in his tour of the United Kingdom — the Lord Mayor of Birmingham Chaman Lal passed on concerns raised by the National Jewish Assembly over content at the former Pink Floyd frontman’s shows to owners of the city’s Utilita Arena. He also informed “relevant cabinet ministers.”

Waters appeared to dress as a Nazi during a concert in Berlin in late May. At concerts in Berlin and Munich, he projected Anne Frank’s name alongside that of Palestinian-American Shireen Abu Akleh — an Al Jazeera journalist killed on an assignment in the West Bank last year — to draw comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.

The NJA on Friday thanked Lal after the stunts were not included in the Birmingham show. Anne Frank’s image was displayed at the gig, alongside bombed-out buildings and images of US presidents labeled as “war criminals.”

Waters complained at the Wednesday concert he was “pissed off” about the recent “antisemitism bullshit” that has followed him since his Berlin show.

“They’re trying to cancel me like they canceled Jeremy Corbyn and Julian Assange,” he said, comparing himself to the far-left former Labour leader who was accused of ignoring antisemitism in party ranks, and the jailed WikiLeaks founder.


Conspiracy-Mongering Prof Blames the 'Israel Lobby' for His Troubles
Former University of Denver Center for Middle East Studies (CMES) director Nader Hashemi discussed the "Israel lobby's campaigns to purge critical scholars from U.S. universities" in a May 10 webinar. Although he tried to exculpate himself from outrage over his past inflammatory rhetoric concerning Israel, he instead deepened suspicions about his antisemitic sentiments.

Long known for Israel-hatred, Hashemi examined "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Academia" with Mouin Rabbani, the coeditor of the Arab Studies Institute's (ASI) online magazine Jadiliyya and moderator of its Connections webinar series. This lobby's campaign targets "pro-Palestinian voices," the former analyst with the Qatar-funded, anti-Israel International Crisis Group noted. ASI's viciously anti-Israel stance shines clear in ASI board members, who include Rutgers University law professor Noura Erakat. Her late uncle, Saeb Erekat, was secretary general of the PLO, while her cousin Ahmad Erekat, was killed after he rammed Israeli guards with his car.

The webinar focused on the fallout from Hashemi's baseless speculation in an August 20, 2022, podcast that Israel was behind the attempted assassination of writer Salman Rushdie eight days earlier. In the podcast, after considering the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a possible culprit, Hashemi proffered another possibility "which I think actually think is much more likely." "This young kid Hadi Matar was in communication with someone online who claimed to be an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps supporter" but was a "Mossad operative" who "lured" Matar into his attack, Hashemi said. Grievously wounded in the attack, Rushdie has been subject to an Islamic Republic of Iran death sentence since the 1989 appearance of his novel The Satanic Verses, which Muslims worldwide condemned as blasphemous.

In the webinar, Hashemi repeated his theory that "Israel might be a beneficiary" from the Rushdie assassination attempt. International outrage over an attack on Rushdie could have fueled a backlash against the Islamic Republic and thereby scuttled American-led negotiations for an agreement over Iran's nuclear weapons program, long opposed by Israel. Since the controversy erupted, Hashemi has elaborated upon his views at Jadiliyya, noting Israel's well-documented record of using secret services to kill those who work to destroy the Jewish state.
Reversing course, Arkansas pays $500 to Jewish doctor who refused to pledge not to boycott Israel
The state of Arkansas has paid $500 it had promised to a Jewish doctor, after withholding the payment for months because of the doctor’s refusal to sign a pledge promising not to boycott Israel.

The payment came after public pressure on the state to process the payment. The doctor, a longtime pro-Palestinian activist, plans to donate the money to the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace.

Steve Feldman, a dermatologist at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, was entitled to the honorarium from the state after delivering a Zoom lecture in February to the University of Arkansas, Little Rock medical school. But Arkansas state law requires all public contractors to sign a pledge acknowledging they will not boycott Israel, which Feldman said conflicted with his religious and moral values.

The legality of Arkansas' actions
The Arkansas law applies only to public contractors earning more than $1,000 in payments from the state, but officials had initially told Feldman that the mere act of adding him to the state’s vendor system would make him eligible for possible future payments that could bring his total beyond that number.

But in May, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said he believed Feldman was entitled to the payment.

“The law does not apply to Mr. Feldman as this was an honorarium, not a contract, and it doesn’t meet the $1,000 threshold even if it were a contract,” he said in a statement to Newsweek. “In any event, he should be paid.”

Feldman told JTA he believes Griffin’s position on the issue helped expedite his payment, as he received an invitation to join the state’s vendor system shortly afterward. “Shortly after the news about it came out, they must have figured out that what they were doing was illegal,” Feldman said.


Replace Westminster memorial with new Jewish Museum says Simon Schama
A coalition of survivors, historians and politicians has called on the Government to scrap the proposed £102 million Westminster Holocaust memorial and use the funds to establish a new Jewish Museum in central London, the JC can reveal.

Dozens of prominent figures including historian Sir Simon Schama, cross-bench peer Baroness Deech and veteran Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley have signed an open letter urging the Government to “combine the two” in one “splendid” centre after it emerged this week that the Jewish Museum in London is shutting its doors indefinitely.

Actress Dame Maureen Lipman, broadcaster Gavin Esler and architect Barbara Weiss have also signed their names to the letter.

London's Jewish Museum, Britain’s leading showcase of the community’s culture and heritage recently announced plans to sell its Camden premises and said it is seeking a more suitable location in the centre of the city.

The announcement prompted fresh calls from Jewish and non-Jewish figures alike for the Government to mothball its controversial Westminster memorial project.

In the letter, the group states: “It is reported that the Jewish Museum in Camden is to close indefinitely for lack of funds. At the same time, the Government is forging ahead with its controversial plan to spend over £102m on a memorial and a small ‘learning centre’ in Westminster to illustrate Britain's action and inaction in relation to the Holocaust.

“What is the better use of funds - to present the tragedies and triumphs of continuing Jewish life in Britain over the centuries, as the Museum does? Or on a politicised perspective on our worst tragedy set in isolation from our survival, which is the theme of the ‘learning centre’?”

It continued: “An obvious solution is to combine the two in one splendid Jewish Museum in central London dealing with Jewish history and the Shoah in context.
Rabbi recounts fear and heroism during deadliest antisemitic attack in US history
Rabbi Jonathan Perlman took the witness stand Thursday wearing the yarmulke he had on the day a gunman burst into his Pittsburgh synagogue during Sabbath services and began shooting anyone he could find.

The skullcap Jews wear as a reminder of God’s presence fell off during the Oct. 27, 2018, attack on the Tree of Life synagogue, which was the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history. Authorities kept it as evidence for years, and Perlman, the rabbi for one of the three congregations who shared the building, only recently got it back.

As he recalled the terrifying events of that day, Perlman, 59, also assumed his role as a teacher to explain the stitched Hebrew lettering on his yarmulke, which read, “There is nothing aside from Him.”

“This is a God who is present to all aspects of creation,” he told the federal jury.

It was one of several moments during the trial over a brutal act of violence against Jews in which survivors used the opportunity to educate the jury about their faith — a show of defiance before the man who tried to destroy them and who has expressed little emotion while seated at the defense table.

Robert Bowers, a 50-year-old truck driver from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin, faces 63 federal charges related to the killings of 11 worshippers, who came from all three of the congregations who used the synagogue — New Light, Dor Hadash and the Tree of Life. If convicted of certain charges, which include 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, Bowers could face the death penalty.

Prosecutors say Bowers expressed hatred of Jews online and at the synagogue on the day of the attack. One of his attorneys acknowledged during opening statements Tuesday that Bowers carried out the attack but tried to cast doubt on whether the hate crimes charges were applicable. His defense team’s legal maneuverings have focused not so much on preventing his conviction as on preventing his execution.
Twitter Hosted Over 90 Percent of Online Antisemitism About Eurovision, Israeli Singer Noa Kirel
Among the five major social media platforms, Twitter was a “clear leader” in hosting the most antisemitic content surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest and Israeli pop singer Noa Kirel’s participation in the singing competition, the founder and executive director of the world’s first live database of online antisemitism told The Algemeiner in a recent interview.

The Israeli non-profit organization CyberWell uses artificial intelligence as well as open source intelligence tools that are catered to tracking online antisemitism on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Youtube and Instagram. Its interactive database that reports and monitors online antisemitism, which is available for public viewing on its website, focuses on English and Arabic content.

CyberWell examined social media posts from the start of the Eurovision semi-finals in Liverpool, England, last month through the finals on May 13, where Kirel came in third place. It scouted independent posts as well as comments on non-antisemitic posts that talked about the Eurovision or showed support for Israel in the competition.

On May 17, CyberWell released an analysis report with its findings, which revealed that Twitter hosted the most antisemitic rhetoric — over 90 percent — about Kirel and the Eurovision competition in comparison to the other major social media platforms. Kirel was not only targeted with antisemitic hate speech, but many of the online posts includes antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes about Jewish control of Eurovision as well as the demonization of Jews.

On one post about Eurovision uploaded by the official Arabic Twitter of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commentators repeated the Houthi slogan: “God is the greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.” In another Twitter post, Kirel was called a “neo Nazi” and the user also wrote, “#israhell has NO place where civilised [sic] people gather #shameful #StandWithPalestine.”
Vice-President of German Youth Soccer Team Sanctioned for Antisemitism Banned for Two Years
The vice-president of a Berlin soccer team whose players were disciplined after they proffered Nazi salutes and antisemitic invective towards a rival Jewish team has been subjected to a two-year ban.

The Berlin Football Association (BFV) announced the ban against Ergün Cakir — vice-president of the club CFC Hertha 06 — on Thursday. Cakir will also be required to pay a 1,000 Euro fine.

Players from CFC Hertha 06 assailed their visiting opponents from the German-Jewish club TuS Makkabi Berlin after the match referee blew the final whistle in contest between the two sides on Nov. 13 last year, which Makkabi won 7-4.

In extraordinary scenes that were documented in a special report by the referee, Ender Apaydin, the Makkabi players were threatened with “cremation” — a reference to the Nazi gas chambers — while Apaydin himself was told that he had been “bought by the Jews,” the Berliner Zeitung news outlet reported on Monday.

According to Apaydin, trouble began when the Makkabi players, who are drawn from many nationalities and ethnicities in the Berlin league’s 17-19 age group, attempted take a team photo while standing on the Hertha pitch in front of an Israeli flag. Cakir’s son, who plays for Hertha, approached the group, screaming, “I’ll f*** your country and your flag, you sons of b*****. Take down the flag or I’ll cremate you and your dirty flag, you b******, like the Germans did to you.”

Cakir was interviewed about the incident in a subsequent television documentary about antisemitism in sport.

“My son will hate the Jews for the rest of his life – I know that 100 percent,” he declared.
Champions League finals referee apologizes for ties to far-right Polish leader
Polish soccer referee Szymon Marciniak apologized Friday for speaking at a business event tied to a far-right politician and was confirmed by UEFA to officiate next week’s Champions League final.

Marciniak’s appointment for the game between Manchester City and Inter Milan on June 10, months after he refereed the World Cup final in Qatar, was at risk Thursday after a Warsaw-based anti-racism group alerted UEFA to his conference appearance this week.

UEFA said Friday it accepted Marciniak’s “profound apologies and clarification” and that anti-racism group Never Again had also then asked for the referee to be retained.

“I want to express my deepest apologies for my involvement and any distress or harm it may have caused,” Marciniak wrote in a statement published by UEFA, adding he was “gravely misled and completely unaware” of the links to Slawomir Mentzen, a leader of the far-right Confederation party.

“I had no knowledge that (the conference) was associated a Polish extreme-right movement. Had I been aware of this fact, I would have categorically declined the invitation,” the referee wrote. “I am committed to learning from this experience and ensuring that such lapses in judgment do not occur in the future.”

UEFA noted Never Again’s acceptance of the Marciniak apology and by “firmly asserting that removing him would undermine the promotion of anti-discrimination.”

“Based on the information provided, UEFA confirms that Mr. Marciniak will fulfill his role as the referee for the 2023 UEFA Champions League final,” the European soccer body said.


Robbie Williams: 'I'm raising my kids Jewish and I'm grateful for the Jewish people'
Robbie Williams has said he is ‘grateful for the Jewish people’ as he performed a long-awaited show in Tel Aviv.

The star took to the stage for his first show in eight years in Yarkon Park on Thursday night.

He was dressed in gold with a slinky scarf wrapped around his neck as he made a bold entrance.

Opening his 90-minute show, he shouted out: “My name is Robbie f*cking Williams, yalla balagan!”. Yalla Balagan loosely means “let’s do this” or “let’s go” in Hebrew.

The 49-year-old then made repeated jokes about his older years and looked back on his past as a teenage icon in Take That. He joked: “Tonight will be therapy for me.”

Williams also joked with the audience, asking for words in Hebrew before shouting them out.

Addressing the crowd, he said: “As an outsider coming in, you have something incredibly f*cking special here. I went for a walk the other night.

“I noticed a peace here, there is a peace here that I don’t feel in London, that I don’t feel in Los Angeles.

“Considering as a people you have so much going on, there is a calm, and a sincerity… Just by this walk, I felt you, I know who you are, I know how you are, and you mean an awful lot to me. It’s always really special coming out.”

Williams also mentioned his Jewish wife Ayda Field and four children and stressed the importance of keeping Jewish traditions alive.
Robbie Williams in Israel
Heartfelt words from Robbie Williams to his Israeli audience at his concert in Tel Aviv last night. The people of Israel love you too, Robbie!??????


Pew: More than 120% jump in Hebrew speakers in America since 1980
Arabic speakers in the United States increased from 215,000 in 1980 to 1.4 million in 2021, while Hebrew speakers more than doubled in that span from 100,000 to 220,000. That’s according to a new analysis from the Pew Research Center.

Arabic is now the nation’s seventh most common, non-English language spoken at home, according to Pew, which analyzed Census Bureau data on those aged 5 and older who speak non-English languages at home.

Jeffrey S. Passel, a senior demographer at Pew, told JNS that the growth of Hebrew speakers in the United States “is largely a function of immigration, mainly from Israel.”

“Around half of Hebrew speakers in both years were foreign-born,” he said “The slower growth of the Hebrew-speaking population than the Arabic-speaking population is principally due to differences in immigration levels.”

Hebrew was the 24th most-spoken non-English language in American homes in 2021, according to Pew’s analysis. Related Articles

In 1980, the foreign-born share of Hebrew speakers stateside was 53%, dropping to 47% in 2021, according to Pew data. In that same period, English-proficient Hebrew speakers rose from 73% to 86%.

The largest share of Hebrew speakers by age is between 18 and 64, which is 65% of Hebrew speakers. Sixteen percent are over 65 and 19% under 18.
Gal Gadot Talks About Having ‘Full Circle’ Moment With Her Holocaust Survivor Grandfather
Israeli actress Gal Gadot talked in a new interview with L’OFFICIEL magazine about the meaningful experience she had narrating a short film for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, which is built on the site of the former Nazi concentration camp that her grandfather survived.

The Heart of Stone star, 38, has previously posted photos on social media of her grandfather Abraham Weiss, who was born Adolf Weiss in 1928 in what was then Czechoslovakia. He was 13 when Nazis invaded his native country. Weiss’ father was drafted in the army, where he died, while he, his mother and brother were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. His mother and brother were murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz and after World War II, Weiss traveled alone to Israel. He died in 2013.

In the cover story for L’OFFICIEL‘s summer 2023 issue, Gadot said Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation contacted her asking if she would narrate a short film and the decision was a “no-brainer,” even though she did not know the video would be played for visitors at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.

“I didn’t even know what I was about to narrate. I didn’t know they were gonna play it [at Auschwitz],” said the actress, producer, entrepreneur and mother-of-three. “My grandfather lost his entire family there. When he was 14 or so, if someone would have whispered into his ear that his granddaughter would tell the story of what happened in this hellish place in just a few decades…it really struck me.”

The Wonder Woman actress added that for years her grandfather never talked about his experiences during the Holocaust because “it was too painful,” but that changed after her grandmother died.

“I think he realized that life is too short, that it’s gonna end one day. He completely opened up about everything and told us the entire story,” she explained. “It was very traumatic for obvious reasons. The way he overcame it was with love, with forgiveness, with teaching people to be good people so this never happens again, and with compassion. He was like the loveliest teddy bear of a grandfather, with a smile in his eyes and not a gram of anger or frustration. I feel very lucky that I had the opportunity to do this [narration] and come full circle with my grandfather.”
Mark Regev: In a man's world, a woman prevailed: Golda Meir, Israel's 'Iron Lady'
As prime minister her popularity soared. In the Knesset elections of October 1969, her Labor Alignment won a record 56 seats. And even in the elections of December 1973, held following the calamitous October 1973 Yom Kippur War, Labor was reelected with 51 MKs.

Nonetheless, her legacy as prime minister is not without blemish. Meir was blamed for fermenting the diplomatic stagnation that led to the outbreak of war in 1973 and for failing to understand the Mizrahi “Black Panther” social protestors – whom she dismissed as “not nice people.”

But while criticized for being an “obstinate grandmother” lacking empathy for those from a different background or with a divergent perspective, Meir unquestionably provided powerful and resolute leadership.

After the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic games, she ordered Mossad to hunt down and assassinate all the terrorists involved in the massacre. In the sexist language of that period, she was praised for being “the only member of the cabinet with balls.”

And Meir knew how to negotiate with hard-nosed interlocutors. Her relationship with the ever-Machiavellian US president Richard Nixon was a textbook example of international politics at the highest level.

Despite accusations of intransigence, it was Meir’s government that agreed to the August 1970 American ceasefire proposal that ended the War of Attrition along the Suez Canal. And following the Yom Kippur War, she negotiated disengagement agreements with Egypt (January 1974) and Syria (March 1974) – the former being the embryo of Egypt-Israel peace, the latter providing stability on the Golan Heights for decades to come.

Undoubtedly, Meir’s toughness served Israel well during times of crisis, of which there were many. She was renown internationally as the “Iron Lady” – years before Britain’s Margaret Thatcher was to receive the same epithet from the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev.






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