Saturday, June 24, 2023

06/24 Links: The Democratic Party’s anti-Zionist wing is growing. Here’s how; BDS Calls For Boycott Against UN Climate Summit in UAE Over Ties To Israel

From Ian:

Activist Org Calls For Boycott Against UN Climate Summit Over Ties To Israel
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is calling for a boycott of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to its ties with Israel, according to an Instagram post.

The group is protesting the U.N. for allowing the annual conference in November to be held by “one of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers,” and argued that the move undermines the fight for “climate justice,” according to the post. BDS’ Arab account posted on Wednesday that it would be organizing a boycott against the summit because of the UAE’s “military-security alliance with the enemy,” the enemy being the state of Israel, the group claimed.

“Our call is in line with the call issued by boycott groups, parties, unions and civil associations in the Arab region, which calls for the boycott of the authoritarian Emirates region because of its military-security alliance with the enemy and its conspiracy on the Palestinian issue, the war crimes committed in Yemen and its violent suppression of freedoms in the UAE,” the post reads.

The group argued that protesting the “apartheid” state of Israel is in line with the fight for “climate justice,” according to the post.

“The struggle against the Israeli colonialist and apartheid system in Palestine is organically and intermittently related to the struggle for political and civil rights, social, economic and climate justice in the Arab world and around the world and against all systems of oppression and persecution.”


The Democratic Party’s anti-Zionist wing is growing. Here’s how
In recent weeks the New York political scene roiled in the wake of three separate but significant controversies revolving around American support for Israel: city and state legislatures divided over two separate votes relating to antisemitic violence and charities supporting Jewish victims of terror, and a City University of New York Law School valedictorian delivered a fiery polemic against Israel, the United States, and the rule of law itself. Each of these controversies derived from a growing split within the Democrat Party between older, moderate liberals who have traditionally supported the Middle East’s strongest democracy, and an ascendant, far-left wing of younger Democrats opposed in principle to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.

New York is seen by Jews all over the world as a kind of second home and major center of Jewish life. Yet while Israelis and diaspora Jews may think of New York as a place where Jews may live safely and unapologetically both as Jews and fully invested Americans, the rise of hardline leftist in New York politics, and their views regarding Israel, challenge these assumptions and have serious implications for the future of the Democrat Party.

‘Personnel is policy’ is a familiar axiom in politics. Today’s leftist city council and state assembly members are tomorrow’s mayors, governors and members of Congress. And there are strong indications that the Democratic Party’s foot soldiers — staffers, campaign workers, and activists — who will eventually run for lower-level positions are even further left than their bosses. While the aging old guard of the Democratic Party at the national level has tamped down some (but not all) of the anti-Israel stridency of Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar and the rest of the “Squad” for the time being, their young Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) cohorts at the state and local level in New York are emboldened, with indications that their hostility to Israel extends to even liberal Jews who dare support the world’s only Jewish state.

End Jew hatred…
In the wake of antisemitic attacks in the city, the New York city council recently passed a resolution establishing April 29 as “End Jew Hatred Day,” a perfunctory, procedural gesture of support for a community alarmed by an uptick in antisemitic violence. While this might seem to be uncontroversial and worthy of unanimous support by design, it was passed in spite of direct ‘no’ votes from two council members and four ‘abstentions,’ from Democrat council members who concluded that fighting antisemitism was a controversial position unworthy of their unqualified support.

Two progressive Democrats, Shahana Hanif (co-chair of the council’s “Progressive Caucus”) and Sandra Nurse, directly opposed the bill, while four others (Rita Joseph, Charles Barron, Alexa Avilés and Jennifer Gutiérrez) in the progressive camp chose to abstain from a declaration of support for ending the hatred of Jews. All six represent districts in Brooklyn, home to almost half of the city’s Jews.

Hanif refused to support a bill that was also supported by Republicans, on the grounds that they had not done enough in support of trans issues and the BLM movement. Barron gave a meandering speech about Israel’s support for South Africa, though the legislation did not mention Israel at all. The others all made clear that their support for the notion of ending anti-semitic violence was contingent on who else was opposed to it or the actions of Israel as some sort of context.

This was followed in May by five Democrats (all DSA endorsed) in the New York State Assembly introducing a bill, “ Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence act,” to prohibit New York nonprofits “from engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity,” violation of which would provide authorization EMPOWER? to the State Attorney General to revoke tax-exempt status. This activity could include support for victims of terror attacks occurring in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.


UN Watch: Hillel Neuer Testifies Before the U.S. Congress
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations

Hearing: Responding to Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israel Bias in the UN, Palestinian Authority, and NGO Community




Mark Regev: How will Israel-Turkey ties be impacted by Erdogan's reelection?
UNDER ERDOGAN’S leadership, Ankara’s traditional pro-Western orientation would be eclipsed by a new Middle Eastern identity. During the Arab Spring, he presented Turkey as the Islamic democratic model for the Arab world.

Touring North Africa in September 2011, Erdogan received rapturous welcomes. But being the standard bearer of Arab revolution was not conducive to maintaining good ties with Israel, and he was soon condemning Zionism as a “crime against humanity.”

In March 2013, president Barack Obama brokered a reconciliation deal: Benjamin Netanyahu expressing regret for any errors in the Mavi Marmara interception and agreeing to compensate the families of the dead Turks, and Erdogan dropping war crimes charges against the IDF personnel involved. But any détente was short-lived.

In October 2013, The Washington Post reported that Ankara helped Tehran uncover Mossad operatives in Iran. And Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in July-August 2014 saw Erdogan accuse Israel of attempting a “systematic genocide of Palestinians.”

Early 2016 saw a renewed effort to normalize ties, but any progress proved ephemeral, with Erdogan responding furiously to president Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Ankara declared a three-day period of national mourning and hosted an emergency Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit to denounce America and Israel.

Increasingly, those responsible for Israel’s domestic security became uneasy about Turkish activity on the Temple Mount and its support for local agitators.

Like Islamists elsewhere, Erdogan has espoused antisemitic prejudice, even implying that domestic opposition to his protracted rule was connected to the “seed of Israel” and the “interest-rate lobby.”

ERDOGAN’S PARTIALITY toward Hamas has been a special problem. Despite Ankara’s commitment to the contrary, Hamas cadres continued instigating terrorism from Turkish soil.

In May 2018, responding to the deaths of 60 Palestinians during Hamas-instigated riots on the Gaza perimeter fence, Ankara expelled Israel’s ambassador Eitan Na’eh. The Turks invited journalists to film the Israeli diplomat undergoing a security check as he exited the country.

An opportunity for better ties emerged with President Isaac Herzog’s March 2022 visit to Ankara. At the official welcoming ceremony, Erdogan declared that Israeli-Turkish relations are “of great value for our countries.”

That visit was followed by meetings between foreign ministers and the exchange of ambassadors – Israel’s Irit Lillian presenting her credentials to the Turkish president on December 27, 2022.

After Erdogan’s recent reelection, Herzog tweeted: “I am convinced we will continue to work together to strengthen and expand the good ties between Turkey and Israel.”

These words may be more than diplomatic niceties; the heterogenic Turkish opposition bloc unsuccessfully trying to unseat Erdogan contained both dissident Islamists as well as leftists, with neither grouping favoring rapprochement with Israel.

Paradoxically, those hoping for improved Israel-Turkey ties can welcome Erdogan’s electoral triumph. In the current Turkish political reality, perhaps he alone – despite all his anti-Israel and antisemitic baggage – has both the capacity and the motivation to deliver a healthier Ankara-Jerusalem relationship.
Israel warns citizens against Russia travel amid revolt as Netanyahu holds talks
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held consultations on Saturday night on the Wagner mercenary group's revolt against the Kremlin, as Israel urged its citizens to refrain from traveling to Russia and prepared to help both Israelis and Russian Jews who might need to leave.

There are some 60,000-70,000 Israelis in Russia and some 500,000 Jews living there who are eligible to immigrate based on the Law or Return.

Israeli diplomats and their families are remaining in Russia at present.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen spoke with Israel's ambassador to Moscow, Alex Ben-Zvi on Saturday and his office plans to send extra staff to Russia to help expedite travel documents needed by Israelis and Russian Jews.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is closely following the events in Moscow and the developments of the last day,” Cohen said.

“We anticipate that many Israelis in Russia will need consular treatment, so we will increase the consular staff in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

“Even in such moments, the Foreign Ministry envoys will continue to be at the disposal of Israeli citizens who need assistance.’" Israel preparing for immigration of Russian Jews

Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer, chairman of the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, will convene with a committee to discuss immigration from Russia to Israel in light of the recent conflict.

"The government must recalculate a course regarding immigration from Russia and not miss the opportunity for a large wave of immigration," Forer said.

The discussion will deal with the government's preparation for the crisis and its influence on the Jewish community and immigration to Israel.


Head of US military cancels trip to Israel amid Russia crisis
The top military officer in the United States canceled a trip to the Middle East on Saturday as the crisis in Russia intensified, a spokesman said.

Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been due to travel to Israel and Jordan. That trip was postponed “due to the situation in Russia,” a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs told AFP.

Jake Sullivan, US President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, also canceled a trip Saturday, instead accompanying the president to Camp David. Sullivan had been scheduled to attend a conference on Ukraine in Denmark.

Milley had been due to leave for the Middle East on Saturday.

Shortly after Milley’s trip was canceled, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin ordered his troops to halt their advance and return to their bases. It was not immediately clear whether this would affect the decision.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin faced the biggest threat to his rule yet when rebel mercenaries advanced toward the Russian capital after seizing a key military base.

But by evening, Prigozhin said he had ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and retreat to their field camps in Ukraine to avoid shedding Russian blood.
Israeli Forces Neutralize Terrorist at West Bank Crossing, After Attack
Israel’s Police spokesperson stated that a terrorist arrived at the Qalandiya crossing, between Jerusalem and the West Bank, and opened fire at the security forces operating there. Two wounded were reported.

The MDA paramedic organization’s spokesperson informed the press that two people were evacuated to the Ein Kerem hospital from the scene of the Attack in Qalandiya. A young man, about 22-year-old, had minor wounds to his hand. Another 24-year-old man was in a serious condition, after being wounded by gunfire.

The suspect arrived on foot from the West Bank and shot at the Israeli security forces who were operating there. The Police spokesperson stated that the wounded civilian guard was referred to medical treatment at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, and that the terrorist was neutralized.

The death of the terrorist was later determined at the scene and the weapon with which he carried out the shooting (M-16 rifle) was seized by the police. Jerusalem district police forces, Border Police, and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were called to the scene.

The Jerusalem District Commander, Deputy Commissioner Doron Turgeman, arrived at the crossing to hold a situational assessment with the commanders, after receiving an overview of the attack and the neutralization of the terrorist.

This follows a counter-terror operation on Monday, in which seven soldiers were lightly and moderately wounded, and another was lightly hit by shrapnel. And the next day a brutal Palestinian terror attack on a restaurant and gas station killed four Israeli civilians.
Israel's security chiefs say settler violence is terror, US demands action
Settler violence runs counter to every Jewish value and is an act of national terrorism, the heads of the IDF, Shin Bet and Police said in a sternly worded statement on Saturday as US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called his Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi to demand accountability.

“These attacks are against every moral and Jewish value and are also nationalist terrorism in every sense, and we are obliged to fight them,” said IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi, Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar and Police Chief Kobi Shabtai.

They spoke out after a series of settler attacks against Palestinian villages in the West Bank sparked by a terror attack in which a Palestinian gunman killed four Israelis at a gas station outside of the Eli settlement in the Binyamin region of the West Bank.

On Saturday, settlers torched homes and cars in the Palestinian village Umm Safa near Ramallah. The IDF said one Israeli suspect had been arrested and that its forces used anti-riot measures to break up violent clashes between the settlers and the Palestinians. One IDF soldier was hit by a stone and lightly injured.

Among the most serious attacks, this week was against the village of Turmas Aya, in which settlers fired guns on the streets and torched homes and vehicles. A Palestinian man was killed attempting to help wounded Palestinians.
IDF Arrests Suspect in Torching of Palestinian Homes
Israeli settlers torched two houses in the Palestinian village Umm Safa near Ramallah in the West Bank, the Israeli military said on Saturday. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said one Israeli suspect had been arrested, adding that Israeli security forces used anti-riot measures to break up Palestinian stone throwing that erupted at the village.

Violence surged this week in the West Bank, where for over a year the military has conducted regular sweeps targeting Palestinian terrorists amid a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

The past few days saw deadly clashes in the city of Jenin; a Palestinian terrorist massacre at a gas station where four Israelis lost their lives; attacks on Palestinian villages by settlers and a rare Israeli air strike in the West Bank targeting jihadist terrorists.
US, EU officials pay solidarity visit to Palestinian town ransacked by settlers
US officials and European dignitaries visited the Palestinian town of Turmus Ayya Friday to show solidarity with residents attacked by settlers in a deadly rampage earlier this week following a terror attack nearby.

Omar Jabara Qattin, a 27-year-old Palestinian killed during the settler attack, had permanent residency status in the US and members of his family have American citizenship, two US officials told The Times of Israel.

The town has a significant population of dual Palestinian-American nationals. Many of them live abroad but pay visits to the central West Bank town during the summers, including individuals who were targeted by settlers on Wednesday.

“US officials visited Turmus Ayya today to hear directly from Palestinian civilians, including some US citizens and lawful permanent residents after Wednesday’s violence,” the US Office of Palestinian Affairs, or OPA, tweeted.

“Both Palestinian and Israeli communities should be able to live free from fear and intimidation,” said the office, which is housed in the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

The US foreign service officers visited Turmus Ayya together with a group of European diplomats led by EU Ambassador to the Palestinians Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, whose office called for “a thorough investigation must be undertaken to bring the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to justice.”


Biden Administration Empowering Iran's Deadly Regime
Since the Biden Administration assumed office, the Iranian regime has been steadily gaining more power, funds, and becoming more emboldened to export weapons, advance its nuclear program, deepen its presence in Latin America, and spread its radical Islamist ideology around the globe.

Iran has also become key exporter of weapons to Russia. Last week it was reported that the Biden Administration is also planning to release $17 billion in frozen assets to Iran, a country that the US Department of State has called the top state sponsor of terrorism. The mullahs will likely use this windfall to fund terror groups abroad, suppress opposition at home, enrich even more uranium, enlarge its military, export more weapons, and arm Russia even further against Ukraine.

Thanks to the Biden Administration's policy of reviving the rancid nuclear deal enabling the mullahs to have as many nuclear weapons as they like -- and bribing them with $17 billion, most likely not to use these weapons on the Biden Administration's watch -- the regime is at its peak.
Foreign Intel Agencies Say Iran On Cusp of Testing First Nuke
Iran continues to pursue illicit nuclear weapons technology across Europe and is on the cusp of testing its first nuclear warhead, according to intelligence estimates from three separate countries.

"The Iranian regime has consistently sought to obtain technology for its illegal nuclear program and ballistic missile apparatus," according to a summary of separate intelligence products published by the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden during the first half of this year.

The Netherlands General and Intelligence Security Service disclosed in April that it had "succeeded a number of times in preventing Russia and Iran from acquiring Dutch knowledge or technology for their nuclear weapons programs," according to a translation of the report published earlier this week by the Middle East Media Research Institute. The country’s intelligence service also determined that Tehran’s advancements, including the enrichment of uranium to levels needed to power a bomb, "brings the option of a possible [Iranian] first nuclear test closer."

The findings come as the Biden administration engages in secret negotiations with Iran aimed at securing an altered version of the 2015 nuclear accord. Reports indicate the administration is promising Tehran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for minor restrictions on its contested nuclear program. Republicans in Congress are already warning that the administration plans on violating the law to secure a deal, which would likely not be authorized by the legislative branch. These plans could result in senior White House and State Department officials being subpoenaed on the matter, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Thursday.

The Netherlands’ intelligence community determined that Iran is "ignoring the agreements" it made as part of the original nuclear deal, including by "deploying increasingly more sophisticated uranium enrichment centrifuges [and] enlarging its enrichment capacity."
US said it won't topple Iran's Islamic regime, top Iranian official claims
The United States will not attempt a change of regime in Iran, Islamic Revolutionary Guards official Hossein Taeb claimed on Friday, as per Iranian media.

Taeb, an advisor of the IRGC chief commander Hossein Salami, claimed that Washington sent the message through Iraq, Qatar and Oman, nations that Iranian diplomats and leaders have been reaching out to in recent weeks.

"Friends and foes have understood that they need to interact with the Islamic Republic," Taeb was quoted by London-based opposition media Iran International as saying. The US is not looking to overthrow the regime, "so let's negotiate and reach an understanding," he reportedly added.

Taeb is an Iranian cleric and former head of the IRGC's intelligence organization.

United States determined to reach informal nuclear deal with Iran
As per previous Jerusalem Post reports, Washington is determined to reach an informal deal to stop Iran from advancing toward a nuclear breakout.


Jonathan Freedland: Boycotting Israel is wrong but this anti BDS bill is not the answer
No one likes a party pooper. No one cheers for the guy who insists on putting the champagne back in the fridge and the glasses back in the cupboard. So apologies for being that guy.

There will be plenty of JC readers, and certainly a good number of our communal leaders, who think this week has provided a rare cause for celebration. On Monday, the government introduced a bill that would, at last, make a move long sought by the official voices of the British Jewish community. The Economic Activity and Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill promises to make it illegal for local authorities — or any public body — to implement a policy of BDS. Put simply, they will be banned from imposing a boycott, divestment or sanctions on Israel. You can see why, for the likes of the Board of Deputies or the Jewish Leadership Council, that looks like a cue to uncork the bubbly.

Except it’s nothing of the kind. On the contrary, and as if to remind us that you should be careful what you wish for, this is a bad bill — bad for Britain and bad especially for British Jews, including those who adamantly oppose BDS and its campaign to ostracise Israel.

Start with why the bill is bad policy.

Early proof came with a letter from Uighur leaders, warning that it’s not just Israel-related BDS that is targeted by the legislation: the bill seeks to prevent local councils being “influenced by political or moral disapproval of foreign states when taking certain economic decisions”. If a local council wanted to take a stance on the detention of more than a million Uighur Muslims — and to refuse to buy a product that might profit the Chinese regime — they would be barred by law from doing so. As those Uighur exiles put it in a letter to Rishi Sunak, the anti-boycott law “risks undermining efforts to hold the Chinese government to account for their crimes”.

Remember, the Jewish community has been rightly vocal in its condemnation of Beijing’s treatment of the Uighurs, with Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis among those who have eloquently denounced the brutality of “re-education centres”, reportedly systematic sexual abuse and forced sterilisation. It would be bitterly ironic if this sledgehammer of a bill, supposedly designed to crack the nut of anti-Israel BDS, ends up hurting those who so many Jews have sought to help.

There is another irony too. Those of us who made the case against BDS always did so by arguing that the best way to bring change is through engagement and debate: don’t shun your opponents, talk to them. This bill takes the opposite approach, not seeking to persuade local authorities to abandon BDS through the power of argument but forcing them to do so, under threat of hefty fines. As the leaders of several committedly Zionist youth movements put it in a letter to the JLC and the Board, “Non-violent protest can be debated and opposed; it should not be banned.”


Northumberland outlet corrects egregiously misleading article
The Hexham Courant – a weekly newspaper serving Tynedale in Northumberland, in Northeast England – upheld our complaint and corrected an egregiously biased and misleading article (“Hexham holds ‘eye-opening’ Israel/Palestine talk at centre”, June 22). Specifically, the article conflated opinions with facts, which is inconsistent with the Accuracy clause of the Editors’ Code, which states “the Press, while free to editorialise and campaign, must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact.” The article began:
Mike Reed of Amnesty International took time out of his holiday in Northumberland to visit St Mary’s Centre on Saturday, June 17 and give a talk on the Israel/Palestine situation.

The conflict between the two Middle Eastern countries is one of the world’s most enduring and continues to spark debate across the planet.

The UK, among many other nations, doesn’t recognise Palestine as a “country”, nor does it enjoy full membership at the UN.

The article continued:
Reed presented Amnesty International’s report from 2022 regarding the conflict and gave a rigorous explanation of the facts and effects of apartheid on the Palestinian people.

The fallacious report by Amnesty International alleging that Israel is an “apartheid” state, which is strongly refuted by many of the leading democracies, including the UK, is presented as a fact.


Swiss museum launches probe over 'king of clowns' link with Hitler and Nazi's
A Swiss entertainer who made the world laugh is now under the microscope over his connections with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi’s.

The Neues Museum Biel is researching links between the performer, who was considered to be the greatest musical clown of his time, and the Nazi Germany dictator.

Grock - whose real name was Adrien Wettach - became known as the "king of clowns" and his success once rivalled that of Charlie Chaplin.

The museum in Biel has now taken possession of around 1,000 items from Grock's collection. Wettach’s 74-year-old great-nephew Raymond Naef donated items including sound recordings from shows, letters, photographs and musical scores.

Grock's stage costumes and musical instruments were also donated by Switzerland's Knie family circus dynasty via Naef.

Museum bosses said they were exploring the showman’s life off-stage before putting on any exhibition about him.

Speaking to AFP, director Bernadette Walter said: “It's the museum's responsibility. It's absolutely necessary.”

Walter went on to say: “Grock says in his autobiography that Hitler came to his dressing room, and that Hitler saw his shows 13 times.” However, the museum has not yet verified the claim.
Nazi-smuggling submarine found in Argentina causes international stir
After a suspected World War II submarine was discovered in Argentinian waters in 2022, confidential government documents secured by MercoPress present the possibility of a Nazi smuggling route created by the United States in partnership with Argentina, according to a May report.

The sub, which was found near the beaches of Costa Bonita and Arenas Verdes, has the potential to confirm theories that Nazis escaped to Argentina toward the end of the war.

However, MercoPress state that the Argentinian government has failed to provide any transparency in their investigative attempts to identify the sub. Rather, according to MercoPress, the Argentine has refused to publicly identify the ship which cost the government $300,000 to investigate.

The investigation was meant to identify the sub’s origin, the date that it sank and whether there were any passengers of significant military interest aboard at the time of sinking.

Argentina's security ministry reportedly halted all investigations after receiving an independent report of the wreck, despite the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea legally requiring that the wreck be returned to the country of origin.
'Charlie Big Potatoes': Neo-Nazi arrested for encouraging violence on Jews
A neo-Nazi known online as "Charlie Big Potatoes" was recently arrested for encouraging violence against Jewish and Muslim people, reports by BBC and The Independent stated on Friday.

His real name is Kristofer Kearney, a Liverpool resident in his late thirties, reports say. He was also arrested for promoting white supremacy.

Kearney ran a channel called "Fascist Fitness," where he shared material that is considered to be extremely offensive in addition to fitness tips. BBC reported that he claimed Adolf Hitler "showed people the way" and that "he did nothing wrong." He was also said to be part of a group called the Patriotic Alternative, and that he was the first member to be convicted of terror offenses from the group.

He was quoted by The Independent as saying that he wants fanatics and a cult, as well as "people who are willing to die for this cause.” Kearney was referring to a race war that he "was training white nationalists" for.

He was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison, recent reports said. This was in relation to Telegram posts more than two years prior, where Kearney encouraged far-right terror attacks. That same year in 2021, he shared links and lists of nearly 90 right-wing documents.
Following action from CAA, former barrister Ian Millard appears in court over five offences contrary to Communications Act
Following action from Campaign Against Antisemitism, the former barrister Ian Millard appeared at Southampton Magistrates’ Court today as he is set to be prosecuted for five offences contrary to section 127 (1)(a) Communications Act 2003 in relation to the posting of grossly offensive material relating to his assertions regarding the Jewish race on his blog.

The charges relate to five blog entries dated between May 2021 to April 2022. Mr Millard is said to have posted the entries to his website. The comments he is alleged to have made include:
“Where Jews exist in any but very small numbers, non-Jews will always be exploited, and can never be free. That is as true in Europe (and including the UK) as it is in the Middle East.”

“Wherever Jews have power, non-Jews eventually become victims or slaves.”

In October 2016, the Bar Standards Board found Mr Millard to be guilty of professional misconduct due to his extensive use of Twitter as a vehicle to publicise his antisemitic and extreme right-wing views, leading to him being banned from the profession.

In April 2021, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Director of Investigations and Enforcement handed a dossier of evidence collected from Mr Millard’s blog to Hampshire Police.

Nine months later, we were informed that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) would be taking no further action. This decision was challenged via the Victims’ Right to Review scheme.
’10 minutes from Auschwitz’: Israel’s artistic swimmers win gold at European Games
Israel’s artistic swimmers won a gold medal Friday at the European Games being held in Poland, in a victory hailed as being even more poignant, occurring “just 10 minutes from Auschwitz.”

Israel won gold in the Team Free Routine Combination with Germany grabbing the silver medal and Turkey getting Bronze.

Israeli Olympic Association Chairperson Yael Arad hailed the victory.

“An emotional morning with a first medal for the delegation to the games,” Arad told Channel 13.

“There is nothing more symbolic than standing with your head held high and singing [the Israeli national anthem] Hatikvah just 10 minutes from Auschwitz,” She said, adding that the whole team had “tears in our eyes.”

“We promised to carry the memory of our Jewish brethren and that is what were are doing,” she said.

The games are being hosted in the Polish city of Krakow, some 37 miles (60 kilometers) from the site of the Nazi death camp.
In Vienna, updated Freud Museum slips in an exhibition space and Holocaust memorial
For about half a century, the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna has operated at the famed 19 Bergasse address where Freud practiced and lived with his family from September 1891 until September 1938, when they fled from the Nazis who had annexed Austria in the Anschluss earlier that year.

In this middle-class five-story residential and business structure located near university buildings and the Danube Canal was Freud’s study, where he produced his extensive body of writings — from the landmark “The Interpretation of Dreams” of 1899 up through “Moses and Monotheism,” his richly debated contemplation on religious origins that he was working on before escaping the Nazis.

In another room, Freud offered psychoanalytic treatment to patients as they lay on the famous couch and made free associations or struggled to understand their dreams, with the father of psychoanalysis all the while sitting in a nearby chair.

And on Wednesday nights, Freud hosted in yet another room his practitioner colleagues and proteges who helped develop his new discipline into a distinctive and impactful branch within psychiatry and psychology.

Like other museums throughout the world, the Freud Museum faced major disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic. A long-planned renovation launched in 2019 became something of an uncanny experience, with a muted celebration marking its reopening in August 2020 after an 18-month closure.

“It was a very complicated situation,” says Peter Nömaier, the museum’s business director. “You have to imagine the construction slowed down because the workers could not go on the construction site at the same time, and the prices were going up. We were expecting to open the museum and have a full visitor income, which then did not happen for one and a half years.”
Sheldon Harnick, the lyricist who made Jewish longing universal in ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ dies at 99
The moment when Sheldon Harnick realized that his new musical might be something special came when he sang the lyrics he had just composed for a new song: “Sunrise, Sunset.”

He was sitting in the basement studio of his friend and collaborator, the composer Jerry Bock, in New Rochelle, New York. It was 1961, and they were in the throes of writing “Fiddler on the Roof.” Bock had originally meant for the melody to be used for one of the flirtations between Tevye’s three older daughters and their male interests, according to “Wonder of Wonders,” a book about “Fiddler” by Alisa Solomon.

Harnick went a different direction — writing lyrics about the agony of unleashing a child into adulthood that would eventually be sung in the musical’s pivotal wedding scene. When he was finished singing, Bock’s wife Patty was weeping.

“We hoped with any luck that it might run a year,” Harnick said in 1981 on “The Songwriters,” a PBS showcase series. “We were totally unprepared for the impact the show would have literally around the world.”

Harnick — whose paeans to Jewish tradition have become internationally appreciated as a reflection of cultural loss — died Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 99, and was the last surviving creator of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Harnick was born in Chicago in 1924, and was in his teens when he first encountered the stories of Sholem Aleichem, which later formed the basis for the musical. But at the time, he “wrote them off,” Solomon quotes him as saying.

Twenty or so years later, a friend gave him Sholem Aleichem’s novel, “Wandering Stars,” about a decades-long show business romance, and Harnick was enchanted. As an adult, Harnick found that Sholom Aleichem’s writing was “wonderfully human and moving and funny,” Solomon quotes him as saying. He had started working with Bock in the late 1950s, and told him and another partner — Joe Stein, who wrote books for musicals — that it could be good material to adapt for the stage.

Stein said “Wandering Stars” was too vast and complex to adapt. But what about Sholom Aleichem’s short stories, which Stein’s father would read to him as a child, in Yiddish? The trio searched Manhattan for an extant English copy of the stories, and found a second-hand copy at a bookshop on Park Avenue South.




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2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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