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Tuesday, July 04, 2023

07/04 Links Pt2: American vs. Israeli Patriotism; Israel and its PA dilemma; Left-wing activists accused of ‘desecrating’ Palestinian mosque

From Ian:

American vs. Israeli Patriotism
This June, I was privileged to hear an American lieutenant-general studying at the Israel Defense College speak about American patriotism and the lack thereof. He said he was saddened that he recently read that less than a third of young Americans are proud to be citizens of the United States.

Indeed, a March poll taken by The Wall Street Journal revealed that only 23% of Americans aged 18-29 say patriotism is important to them. Of all adults, only 38% said, “Patriotism was very important, down from 70% in 1998.” Americans place “low importance on these values, many of which were central to their parents’ lives.”

In contrast, 86.2% of Israeli Jews feel a sense of belonging to the Jewish state, according to a 2022 Israel Democracy Institute poll.

As an American who advocates for American national security interests in Congress and educates young Americans at universities, I empathized with the General’s concern for our country. I worry about the long-term implications of a situation in which most of our nation’s young people have allowed policy differences to cast doubt on our nation’s founding principles.

However, this situation is unsurprising. American students from primary school through college are taught that America was born in sin—as the 1619 Project and its advocates proclaim—rather than founded on principles of liberty and justice.

America’s triumphs have greatly outweighed our failures, and the progress we have made is remarkable. Nonetheless, America is constantly disparaged by the far-left, which holds sway in academia. It is also a growing and destructive presence in our body politic.

When the lieutenant-general spoke about his time living in Israel, he expressed confidence that Israelis, despite their domestic turmoil, are more patriotic than America’s millennials or Gen Z.

Perhaps the best way to understand the striking difference between young Americans and Israelis is in the symbols they use for political protest.

American protests almost never feature an American flag, but at the Israeli protests against judicial reform, thousands of Israeli flags were proudly waved. These were patriotic protests, passionately advocating for a change in government policy. Protesters wave their flags as part of a competition over who is more patriotic and more Zionist—the current government or opposition supporters.

The Israeli right, center and left all proudly declare themselves Zionist. Young pro-Israel American progressives would never say such a thing out loud for fear of censorship or expulsion from their far-left circles.
Netanyahu hails ‘irreplaceable and indispensable’ US ally at July 4 celebration
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feted the United States on Monday night in Jerusalem at an event marking America’s 247th Independence Day.

“I wish to express my deep appreciation and gratitude for America’s enduring support for Israel. For 75 years, the United States has been our irreplaceable and indispensable ally. Irreplaceable. Indispensable,” said Netanyahu.

“Eleven minutes after our birth, and at vital junctures throughout our history, America has provided Israel with moral and political backing against those committed to wiping us out, to wiping out the one and only Jewish state. No less important, for nearly half a century, America has given generous military assistance to Israel, helping provide us with the tools, the tools we need to defend ourselves by ourselves.

“Decade after decade, our two countries have moved closer together. I’m proud to say that today, security cooperation has never been better, intelligence sharing has never been deeper and our alliance has never been stronger. I have long said that Israel has no better ally than America, and I say to you, America has no better ally than Israel,” continued the premier.

“On July 4, all democratic countries should remember that the decisive event that ensured the rise of freedom in modern times, has been the rise of the United States of America. Time and again, America defeated the forces of totalitarianism and terror. Yet we should also remember a basic truth: Freedom is precious, and it’s never free. It often requires firm and decisive action against those seeking to spread terror and imperil free societies,” said Netanyahu.

President Isaac Herzog also addressed the event, emphasizing that Israel has “no greater friend than the United States of America.

“Our nations share a profound historical legacy and a deep, enduring faith in the values of democracy, life, liberty, and justice. There is no question that the power of our alliance is unmatched: In the goodness it has brought to the world, and the promise it holds for our future,” said Herzog.

“Our collaboration, which crosses every possible sector and sphere, has been a critical anchor of security, stability and peace for both of our nations, and has brought the promise of hope and prosperity to this region,” he added.
When Israel Showed The World The Spirit of ’76 Still Exists: The Raid on Entebbe
It wasn’t supposed to be the big story of the day, after all, July 4, 1976, was the two hundredth anniversary of the United States, the nation which became a beacon of freedom for the entire world. More than anything else that happened at any gala celebration of America’s 200th anniversary, Israel’s raid on Entebbe reminded the world of the real “Spirit of 1776”—freedom is worth fighting for.

America needed a big celebration as we were recovering from the scandal which forced a president to resign for the first and (hopefully) only time in its history.

Three years earlier, Israel came the closest it had ever come to being destroyed when their Prime Minister obeyed Henry Kissinger’s orders and did not strike first despite that they had a few hours notice that they were about to be attacked on Yom Kippur. One year before the raid, United Nations passed a resolution saying that Zionism, the movement declaring that Jews have the right to a homeland was the same as racism. On this July 4th, both Israel and America needed some good news.

America got its good news but from an unexpected place. On America’s two-hundredth birthday, the tiny nation Israel, boosted the morale of America and much of the Western world, with a daring raid.

On June 27, 1976, Air France Flight 139, carrying 248 passengers and a crew of twelve, took off from Athens, heading for Paris. Soon after the 12:30 p.m. takeoff, the flight was hijacked by two Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and members of the German “Revolutionary Cells (RZ)” (Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann) The terrorists commandeered the flight, diverting it to Benghazi, Libya. The plane left Benghazi, and at 3:15 it arrived at Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

At Entebbe, the four hijackers were joined by three “friends” supported by the pro-Palestinian forces of Uganda’s despotic president, Idi Amin. The hijackers were led by the German, Böse. They demanded the release of 40 Palestinian terrorists held in Israel and 13 other detainees imprisoned in Kenya, France, Switzerland, and Germany–and if these demands were not met, they threatened to begin killing hostages on July 1, 1976. Eventually, that deadline was extended to July 4th.

The hijackers held the passengers hostage in the transit hall of Entebbe Airport and released all the hostages except for Israelis and Jews whom they threatened to kill if Israel did not comply with their demands.

Upon the announcement by the hijackers that the airline crew and non-Israeli/non-Jewish passengers would be released and put on another Air France plane that had been brought to Entebbe for that purpose, Flight 139’s Captain Michel Bacos told the hijackers that all passengers, including the remaining ones, were his responsibility, and that he would not leave them behind. Bacos’ entire crew followed suit.

A French nun also refused to leave, insisting that one of the remaining hostages take her place, but she was forced into the awaiting Air France plane by Ugandan soldiers. A total of 83 Israeli and/or Jewish hostages remained, as well as 20 others, most of whom included the crew of the Air France plane.

Early in the morning of July 4th came one of the most daring, spectacular rescues of modern times.


Israel and its PA dilemma - opinion
Over the past three decades, the Palestinian Authority has posed a political and security challenge to the State of Israel. Currently, it seems that the PA, under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, finds itself in its most severe situation since the days of the Second Intifada and on a path of ongoing decline that may end in its collapse. Three reasons illustrate this well.

First, from a security point of view, the PA and its security apparatuses do not control parts of the territory under their responsibility. Meanwhile, local organizations, alongside known terrorist organizations, manage to expand their ranks and terrorist infrastructures for the purpose of launching terrorist attacks against the IDF and Israeli civilians in the West Bank and in Israel.

Second, the legitimacy of the PA under the leadership of Abbas is at a low point in Palestinian public opinion. His continued resistance to terrorism and support for security cooperation is seen as irrelevant, not serving or promoting the Palestinian interest, and therefore illegitimate.

A June 2023 Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll indicates that the majority of the Palestinian public believes that the PA is a burden on the Palestinian people (63% v. 33%), and is dissatisfied with Abu Mazen’s performance (80% v. 17%. Furthermore, a majority of the Palestinian public believes that the PA’s dissolution is in the interest of the Palestinian people (50% v. 46%) and that its survival is in Israel’s interest (63% v. 34%). In addition, the Palestinian public supports the establishment of groups such as Lion’s Den that are not under the control of the PA (71% v. 23%) and opposes the PA’s call for their disarmament (80% v. 16%).

These results illustrate that the Palestinian public spurns the PA and sees it as an Israeli instrument to perpetuate the occupation. In turn, it perceives the armed organizations and the armed struggle – and not the PA and the process of negotiations – as an instrument to continue the struggle against the occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Third, while a political process is not on the horizon, the Palestinian public has radicalized its positions and moved away from concepts related to the two-state solution and a political process with Israel (and here, too, a mirror effect can be identified among the Israeli public).

The June PCPSR poll indicates that the majority of the Palestinian public opposes the two-state solution (70% v. 28%) and believes it is not achievable (71% v. 28%). Moreover, 52% of the Palestinian public believes that armed resistance is the preferred course of action to fulfill Palestinian national aspirations, compared to only 21% which asserts that action should be taken through political negotiations. The corollary is that the majority of the Palestinian public supports terrorist attacks inside Israel against civilians (57% v. 38%).


Dore Gold: The battle over UNESCO - opinion
True, going back to 1990, during the Reagan administration, the US was critical of the organization. But what intensified the American clash with UNESCO was the steady politicization of its resolutions on Israel. Now, however, a new factor is influencing the US approach: China is picking up some of the slack left by the US financial cutoff, especially in Africa.

All the talk about UNESCO comes without any effort made to revise resolutions that the body adopted in the recent past. Will the resolutions to which Israel strenuously objected still stand?

In the past, UNESCO characterized Hebron as “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Should Israel allow that to stand as a goodwill gesture to the UN? These questions are highly contentious, but there have been no suggestions that they should be canceled or at least modified

If you accept the definition of the Temple Mount as a purely Islamic site, as does UNESCO, then how can Israeli diplomats defend Israeli interests that have been recognized by the international community at other times?

There are the hills of Battir – southwest of Jerusalem – where the ruins of ancient Beitar are located at a site known as Khirbet al-Yahud. It is a location that the famous Judean commander, Bar Kochba, is believed to have employed as his last stronghold against the Roman Empire in 135 CE.

Battir was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List as a Palestinian site. Thus irresponsible nomenclature with respect to Israel at UNESCO is an instrument for waging political warfare against the Jewish State and establishing a fait accompli concerning the claims each side is asserting regarding their historical rights.

Israel must not acquiesce to this Palestinian effort.
It’s time to shut down UNRWA - opinion
The continued existence of UNRWA poses significant challenges to the national security of Israel, given its alignment with Palestinian interests and the Palestinian demand for refugee “return.” Hence, it is imperative for Israel to pursue the closure of UNRWA.

While the agency enjoys an international and UN facade, it is important to acknowledge its inherent Palestinian orientation, evident through its organizational structure, objectives, and a substantial number of Palestinian employees. This Palestinian affiliation creates a hostile environment toward Israel.

Additionally, UNRWA has effectively masked its political activities under the guise of humanitarian efforts, which hampers Israel’s ability to expose the Palestinians’ unwavering commitment to a complete “return” to Palestine and the elimination of Jewish sovereignty over the land.

However, for a considerable period, Israel has chosen to provide protection to the organization, shielding it from any attempts to disrupt or reform its operations. This safeguarding has granted UNRWA a form of immunity, particularly evident in the international arena. This protection holds significant weight due to UNRWA’s unique funding structure, as it relies on annual contributions from countries rather than having a dedicated budget like many other UN agencies.

Countries sympathetic to Israel finance UNRWA
Consequently, members of Congress and parliamentarians worldwide, sympathetic to Israel’s cause, often question why their respective countries continue to finance an organization whose primary objective perpetuates the conflict and ultimately seeks the destruction of Israel.

These concerned individuals frequently encounter obstacles in their attempts to challenge their country’s support for UNRWA, as Israel intervenes to impede such actions. It is imperative that this situation undergoes a transformation.

The foundation of the new Israeli policy should center around the separation of the political dimension from welfare services. Israel should not oppose the international community’s provision of financial aid to Palestinian society, as it is practiced in numerous other regions worldwide. However, Israel must strongly object to the linking of these welfare services with the fictitious “refugee status” and the promotion of the destructive narrative surrounding the Palestinian “return” myth.
UN and Arabs Whitewash Atrocities of Bashar Assad, Instead Blame – Guess Who?
The League of Arab States (LAS), which represents 22 member countries, has spent several decades issuing statements of condemnation against Israel. Each time Israel launches a counterterrorism operation in response to Palestinian terrorism, including rockets fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel and shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks, it is denounced.

The same League of Arab States, however, has no problem embracing an Arab president whose regime has killed hundreds of thousands of Arabs, including Palestinians and Syrians, since the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011.

The LAS... has effectively whitewashed Syrian President Bashar Assad's atrocities against his own people and Palestinians.

Assad, in his speech before the Arab heads of state, ironically expressed hope that the summit would mark "the beginning of a new phase of Arab action for solidarity among us, for peace in our region, development and prosperity instead of war and destruction."

Here is an Arab leader, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Arabs and the displacement of millions more, preaching about "peace, development and prosperity."

Saudi Arabia played a significant role in welcoming the Assad regime back to the League of Arab States. The Saudis have shown that they prefer to make peace with Assad than normalize their relations with Israel. Drastically cooling years of diplomatic efforts, the Saudis insist that until a Palestinian state has been established, the kingdom will not normalize ties with Israel. If the Saudis are so concerned about the Palestinians, why are they rushing to embrace an Arab dictator whose regime has killed thousands of Palestinians?

With no apparent preconditions for Assad, the League of Arab States is turning its back on more than 500,000 dead Syrians, nearly seven million Syrian refugees, and 13 million displaced Syrians.
Liberia to open embassy in Israel
Liberia on Tuesday announced its intention to establish an embassy in Israel.

The West African country’s President George Weah told Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen of the plan during a meeting in Jerusalem.

“I welcome Liberia’s intention to open an embassy in Israel, which will deepen the ties of friendship between the countries. Liberia is one of Israel’s great friends on the African continent,” Cohen said. Liberian President George Weah (left) with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Jerusalem, July 7, 2023. Source: Twitter.

“I thanked the president of Liberia, George Weah, for their support for Israel in the international institutions and we agreed that we will work together to deepen economic cooperation in the fields of energy, agriculture and water, using Israeli knowledge and experience and promoting commercial delegations in Israel and Liberia,” Cohen continued.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that “Liberia is one of Israel’s great friends on the African continent and stands by it in votes in international organizations. Promoting economic, energetic and agricultural cooperation.”

Last year, Liberia announced the opening of a trade office in Jerusalem, which it said would eventually become the country’s first embassy in Israel.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog earlier on Tuesday met in Jerusalem with Weah, who headed a delegation including several ministers from the African country.

Herzog emphasized that it was important for Liberia to open a permanent embassy in Israel, as it would greatly increase the opportunities for cooperation.
Antisemitism controversy surrounds CAIR's claims against Israel in Jenin
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a self declared Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned “war crimes” being committed against Palestinian civilians in Jenin refugee camp on Monday and called on the United States to take "concrete action to stop the Israeli government’s escalating human rights abuses."

CAIR, an organization which was mentioned as one that would implement the Joe Biden administration's combatting antisemitism strategy, also said that the Israeli government is "racist," and that Israel is an "apartheid state." According to this rethotic, CAIRs statements could be seen as antisemitism according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition.

According to CAIR's statement, "Israeli occupation forces carried out drone strikes and troops in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, injuring numerous civilians, killing at least nine Palestinians, including children, cutting off water and electricity across the camp, and reportedly bombing near a mosque." CAIR's condemnations of the Israeli government

In a statement, CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad said that he "strongly condemn the war crimes that Benjamin Netanyahu’s racist government is committing against Palestinian civilians in the Jenin refugee camp using American taxpayer dollars, and we call on the State Department to do the same.

“Between these ongoing attacks on refugees, violent settler rampages, illegal settlement expansion, the murder of dozens of Palestinian children this year alone, and the refusal to hold anyone accountable for the brazen assassination of American citizen and journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the Israeli government is completely out of control because it does not expect to face any consequences from the Biden administration. This must change.”
Media blindsiding, rampant anti-Israel bias in the media - opinion
In another case, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was interviewed by Richard Hass of the Council on Foreign Relations on June 26. The media widely, and even prominently, highlighted his words that he had told both Israel’s prime minister and foreign minister that, basically, “if there’s a fire burning in their backyard, it’s going to be a lot tougher, if not impossible, to actually both deepen” potential diplomatic agreements with Arab countries as well as existing ones. Many media outlets played those words as bashing for Israel.

Since June 29, I have been searching the media for a report on whether Blinken spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the fires burning in his backyard; or reports on why he hasn’t made that call. In the context of international diplomacy, it would be nice to know whether Israel is treated as an equal to other American allies, or whether Israel is subjected to a negative extraordinary treatment. If readers are not provided with all possible angles, the media are not only channeling the news for its consumers but blindsiding them as well.

A June 20 Voice of America radio report dealing with “Palestinian refugees” misleadingly informed that “almost 900,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank are classified as refugees, meaning they were displaced from their homes in... 1948.” In truth, as the CAMERA organization pointed out, perhaps there are maybe 10,000 Palestinians living there who were displaced from their homes in 1948. Numbers aside, do the media ever note the numbers of Jews who were displaced, even ethnically cleansed, from their homes at that time?

There were Jews living in Gush Etzion, the Dead Sea area, as well as the environs of Jerusalem and the city who were turned into refugees at that time, not to mention the Jewish communities of Hebron, Gaza, and Nablus who had to flee already in 1929. Residents of Nahalat Shimon and Shimon Hatzadik neighborhoods in the city’s eastern section were forced to become displaced after Arab attacks during December 1947-January 1948. That background, of course, would provide context to the ongoing Sheik Jarrah hullabaloo, a media circus in its own right.

These are but a few of the examples of the large and small media failings when reporting and commenting on the Arab conflict with Israel. They pile up and pervert the media’s consumers’ understanding and appreciation of the complexity of the issues by simply hiding, misstating, and twisting words, terms, and events.
Anti-Israel sentiment in Ireland almost indivisible from antisemitism - ex-minister
“It’s difficult to extract antisemitism from anti-Zionist and anti-Israel sentiment,” she said.

Creighton gave the example of a lawmaker from Sinn Fein named Martin Browne who said that Israel created ISIS and called for the destruction of Israeli Zionists. One of his colleagues in Sinn Fein, Reada Cronin, tweeted that Hitler was a pawn of the Rothschilds, that Israeli embassy staff are akin to monkeys, and that former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has made antisemitic statements in the past, was targeted by the Mossad. She apologized for the tweets in 2020, but said they had been “glib” and “off the cuff.”

“She apologized for the manner, as opposed to the substance, and didn’t acknowledge it was antisemitic,” Creighton said. “When these statements are made by elected officials, the substance is not really challenged, and that is a problem. That kind of comment is normalized.”

Creighton expressed hope that the EU’s efforts against antisemitism will have an impact. She cited research that there have been fewer violent antisemitic incidents in France in recent years, while it is on the rise in the US, and said that she believes that pushback from EU member state governments has helped.

As for Ireland in particular, “it’s a very uphill battle,” she said, because “there aren’t very many high profile public champions of Israel…to push back against some of the throwaway and unchallenged remarks that conflate criticism of the State of Israel and government of Israel with Jewish people generally.”

She encouraged advocates for Israel to “be persistent and keep the faith.”

Creighton argued that some of the legislation targeting Israel in Ireland, such as the settlement divestment bill, “come from a trade perspective that is very much interwoven with a particular narrative. It’s critical of Israel as a state, but the same people who are pushing those narratives are also very well documented expressing really hostile antisemitic sentiments, and that goes without comment or very little pushback.”

So far, Irish governments have blocked bills trying to institute boycotts of Israel or parts of Israel, often because it would go against EU trade policy. Generally, the bills get to a certain point, and then the attorney general or Foreign Ministry blocks or freezes them. However, Creighton warned current Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin is more critical of Israel than his predecessors.

At the same time, Creighton pointed out that most of the bills, should they pass, would have a minimal real-world impact and described them as “showboating on the part of Sinn Fein, tokenistic…virtue signaling.”

Under Creighton’s leadership, Vulcan Consulting has been looking to deepen its relationship with Israeli companies and support their access to EU institutions and understanding of EU relations.

Ireland and Israel have much in common economically, she said, “in that [they] have huge trade with the US tech ecosystem.”

Creighton hopes to help Israeli companies access EU institutions and understand EU regulations, and serve as a bridge between Israel and Ireland, as well as the EU more broadly.
Melanie Phillips: There are no good reasons to oppose the boycott bill
The aim of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) strategy, as acknowledged by its originator Omar Barghouti, is to exterminate the State of Israel altogether.

One might therefore think that, in any decent political universe, banning Israel boycotts would be axiomatic. But of course, this isn’t a decent political universe.

Ministers have criticised two councils in particular — Leicester and Lancaster — for boycotting Israeli goods. Similar boycotts have been promoted by various academic institutions.

This is part of the obsessive animus against Israel that’s the default in “progressive” circles. As a result, the anti-boycott bill was always bound to be deeply divisive.

In the second reading vote, Labour abstained, as did more than 80 Conservatives, with two Tories voting against. Labour has said that if the bill isn’t amended according to its wishes, it will finally vote against it.

The opposition to the bill is deeply disingenuous. Critics say that it’s so wide-ranging, it will prevent boycotts of places like China or Russia. Yet exemptions would permit boycotts of those countries.

Labour’s communities spokesman, Lisa Nandy, has been careful to say the party opposes BDS. But her reasoning is weaselly. BDS, she says, “offers no meaningful route to peace for Palestinians or Israelis” and provides cover “for whipping up hostility towards the Jewish people”.

But surely the main objection to BDS is that it is unconscionable to demonise Israel through libellous falsehoods with the aim of destroying it.

Not once, though, did any of these critics acknowledge the malevolent use of such falsehoods against Israel, nor the BDS strategy of annihilation.

Instead, several echoed the claim made by Richard Hermer KC, the Labour party’s adviser on the bill, that it “effectively equates the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories) with Israel itself” and was “very difficult to reconcile” with Britain’s support for a “two-state solution”.

This was nonsensical. The bill makes no such equation. It merely outlaws boycotts of Israel for any reason, including its activities in the disputed territories or on the Golan Heights.

It therefore seems that Labour opposes boycotts of Israel only over its activities inside what Labour has decided is legitimate Israeli territory. Since the boycotters’ principal target is Israel’s activities in the disputed territories, Labour’s professed opposition to BDS is worthless.

Last May, Hermer was a signatory to a letter to the Foreign Secretary from Lawyers for Human Rights in Palestine. This claimed that, since 1967, Israel had worked to thwart a Palestinian state by “altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of discriminatory legislation and measures”.

It also suggested that the Israeli government was working towards a situation which would “amount to apartheid”. These venomously distorted and untrue claims were straight out of the BDS playbook.
Labour’s BDS-bill adviser accused of having 'political' record on Israel
A top lawyer used by Labour for legal advice on the BDS bill has a “record” of taking “political” positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, MPs have heard.

Richard Hermer KC, a high-profile human rights lawyer, advised Labour that the Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill would have “a profoundly detrimental impact on the United Kingdom’s ability to protect and promote human rights overseas”.

Hermer, of Matrix Chambers, warned the bill “will stifle free speech at home” and was “in certain respects inconsistent with our obligations under international law” in legal advice to the party.

But speaking in the House of Commons on Monday during a second reading of the BDS bill, Conservative MP Simon Clarke pointed out that Hermer had previously co-authored a chapter in a book edited by some controversial figures.

Addressing Communities Secretary Michael Gove, Clarke said: “I wonder if he could clarify his thoughts on Richard Hermer KC who is providing advice to the shadow front bench on this legislation.

“Mr Hermer has previously authored a chapter in a book called ‘Corporate Complicity in Israel's Occupation: Evidence from the London Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine’ which is edited by some extremely interesting people, interesting I fear in the most negative sense.

“Is this really the calibre of individual he believes should be advising the official opposition?”

Responding, Gove said: “My right honourable friend raises an important question because the opposition have brought forward a reasoned amendment and I believe they have brought that amendment forward of course in good faith.

“But as my right honourable friend pointed out, there are some lawyers who take a different view and one of those lawyers was commissioned by the Labour Party in order to produce a legal opinion.

“But the gentlemen concerned, a distinguished KC, has a record in this area and a record of political commitments which everyone can see clearly predisposes him towards a political and particular view on this question.

“I’m merely pointing out what is in the public domain.”


Left-wing activists accused of ‘desecrating’ Palestinian mosque
A group of left-wing Israeli activists was kicked out of a mosque in Urif in northern Samaria on Sunday, and the imam who hosted them was fired.

A delegation from the Israeli NGO Tag Meir visited the hometown of the two Hamas members who killed four Israeli civilians near Eli on June 20, after residents reported that Jewish vigilantes had damaged the mosque in revenge for the shooting, the Hebrew-language Jewish Voice newspaper reported.

According to the report, a video and photos of the activists inside the mosque caused an uproar in the village because of the activists’ immodest clothing, and in particular that of Shira Ben-Sasson Furstenberg, associate director in Israel of the U.S.-based, far-left New Israel Fund.

Residents of the village said that Furstenberg had “blasphemed” the mosque and demanded that the imam, Sheikh Kerem Shahada, be fired over the incident. The mosque leader published a video apologizing for the event and said that he had been misled by the village council, which had informed him that it would be a group of journalists.


The British town where the antisemitic blood libel theory was born could get a Jewish heritage center
When the mayor of the British city of Norwich apologized last spring for the historic assault on local Jews that took place nearly 900 years ago, it was hailed as a major step. Now the city could go even farther — by handing its oldest non-church building over to its local Jewish community.

Norwich is encouraging local Jewish leaders to apply for the lease on Jurnet’s House, the 12th-century structure that was originally the home of Isaac Jurnet, a Jewish moneylender. The house was closed in 2020 because of mold but had previously been used by the city as an education space with a bar in the medieval vault; its lease will become available again next year.

Assuming management of the building could be costly because it has undergone water damage, said Marian Prinsely, a leader in both the town and its synagogue, in an interview with the Jewish Chronicle. “It’s the oldest secular building in Norwich,” she said. “It’s going to need a lot of renovation.”

But she and others in the Jewish community, along with historians at the University of East Anglia, located in Norwich, say the expense associated with transforming Jurnet’s House into a “Jewish heritage center” is justified because of Norwich’s history of antisemitism.

It was in Norwich, in 1144, that the first known case of the blood libel took place. The antisemitic lie — that local Jews killed Christian children to use their blood for ritual purposes — has endured since, spurring massacres and pogroms in Europe and infusing contemporary conspiracy theories including QAnon.

Norwich was also the site of an 1190 massacre of local Jews that received renewed attention in recent decades after the bones of 17 victims were unearthed during a construction project. In 2013, the bones received a Jewish burial, and last year, analysis of DNA extracted from them offered new insights about Jewish genetic variation.
Citing antisemitism, the CEO of Kars4Kids is challenging New York’s concealed carry law in court
The CEO of Kars4Kids, the Jewish charity with a catchy advertising jingle, is challenging New York state’s concealed carry law in court — claiming that it leaves children vulnerable to antisemitic attacks.

Eliohu Mintz, who heads Kars4Kids, is also the CEO of Oorah, a Jewish outreach nonprofit funded by Kars4Kids that runs a summer camp in upstate New York. In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, Mintz and a camp administrator, Eric Schwartz, say the law exposes the camp to antisemitic attack because it bans private citizens from carrying guns in places where religious activities are conducted.

“The violent attacks on Jewish people targeting places of worship and places where children are — the most vulnerable of the population — are random and provide the victims with no notice or advance warning,” Mintz said in a declaration attached to the lawsuit. “I cannot be left unprepared and unarmed in the event that an evildoer decides to attack one or both of the [camp’s] campuses, nor can the other licensed staff members.”

The suit is one of several challenging the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, which was passed last year after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier firearms ban. The act limits where New Yorkers can carry firearms, including a ban on carrying in “sensitive locations” such as schools, medical facilities or houses of worship, among others. Another lawsuit has been brought by two pastors seeking to carry weapons in church, and in May, lawmakers amended the act to allow pastors and designated security personnel to carry weapons in houses of worship.

The lawyer who filed the lawsuit for Mintz and Schwartz, Amy Bellatoni, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an email that the amendment would not apply to her clients.

“The plaintiffs are staffers who have carried for personal protection and want to continue carrying,” she said. “They are not designated security personnel and, therefore, not part of the exemption.”
Neo-Nazis’ demonstration backfired: a novel response to hate
For over 20 years, my community and I have gathered every Saturday morning to celebrate Shabbat services with singing, prayer, dancing and meaningful conversation. This past week was different. It was as I walked to Chabad for prayers that I first saw the horrific sight of the massive swastika flags. Instead of having a peaceful time to pray, we were disturbed by a group of agitators shouting antisemitic taunts and holding signs that promoted nasty anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.

I cannot begin to describe the feelings of anger and outrage that this vile antisemitic hate evoked within me. Many of my relatives were gassed and burned in the Nazi death camps and seeing this despicable group rally outside a Jewish house of worship in 2023 was extremely disturbing. Thankfully, I was familiar with this particular group – which came from out of town – and their tactics of provoking the Jewish community into being their unwitting megaphone. I was able to compose myself and instead focused on leading the Shabbat prayers and Torah class.

In the hours after the protest, I began to formulate a response. I am aware of the traditional response of expressing outrage, condemnation and hand-wringing statements about rising antisemitism. However I am also aware that these statements leave the Jewish community feeling scared, vulnerable and in dread of the future. Experience has taught me that there is a better approach - one I had experimented with previously.

My teacher and mentor was the Rebbe – Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. He taught that the most effective response to darkness is to transform it into light. To use the experiences of hatred and negativity as opportunities to inspire more positivity.

Last March, photos circulated of East Cobb middle school students wearing swastika armbands and giving the Nazi salute. There was plenty of condemnation and hand-wringing, but after the initial outrage I wanted to transform this dark incident to a teachable moment which could spread light.
Israel plans to build undersea electricity cable linking to grids in Europe and Gulf
Israel is advancing plans for the construction of an underwater electricity cable project to meet growing energy needs in the center and north of the country and to link the country’s electricity network to power grids in Europe and countries in the Gulf region.

The national planning and building council on Tuesday decided to commence with the planning and construction of the proposed 150-kilometer (93-mile) subsea electricity cable that will run along Israel’s Mediterranean coast from Ashkelon in the south to Haifa in the north, the Energy Ministry said in a statement. The underwater power cable will transmit electricity mainly generated from renewable solar energy fields in Israel’s south to areas of demand in cities in the center and the north.

According to the subsea cable project plan, the possibility of connecting Israel’s electricity network to power grids in Europe via Cyprus and Greece will be advanced, as well as the option of connecting to Gulf countries through Jordan and Egypt, the ministry said.

Connecting the underwater cable to regional countries such as Egypt would open the possibility to have a backup for the local grid in case of power shortages and allow for exports of green electricity produced in Israel, the ministry said.

The project is part of a broader vision by Energy and Infrastructure Minister Israel Katz to turn Israel into an energy power and an energy bridge connecting East and West while strengthening its international status.

“I welcome the first step on the way to establishing an undersea electricity cable along Israel’s coast – a groundbreaking cross-border project that will move the Israeli electricity grid forward and help Israel become an energy power,” Katz said. “The cable is a significant part of the national plan for energy and infrastructure that I will present in the coming weeks, to improve the reliability of the electricity system, accelerate the deployment of renewable energies, and link Israel’s electricity grid to Europe, Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf states — a step that will contribute to regional stability.”
Ed Asner plays a Holocaust survivor in film being released 2 years after his death
The prolific Jewish actor Ed Asner died nearly two years ago, but his final film will hit select theaters on Friday.

In “Tiger Within,” he plays a Holocaust survivor who becomes the unlikely friend of a homeless teenager who was raised by a Holocaust denier. The movie was filmed in the summer of 2018, and Asner, the Emmy award-winning actor best known for his roles as Lou Grant on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and Carl in the Pixar animated film “Up,” died in 2021 at the age of 91.

“Tiger Within” follows Casey, played by newcomer Margot Josefsohn, as a troubled 14-year-old living in Los Angeles. After running away from her neglectful mother and failing to find support from her father, Casey takes shelter in a cemetery, where she meets Samuel (Asner), an elderly man visiting his wife’s grave. Samuel, a Holocaust survivor, notices the swastika on Casey’s signature leather jacket and begins a conversation, eventually offering Casey some food and a safe place to sleep. Over the course of their friendship, she learns about the realities of the Holocaust and Samuel fulfills the promise he made to his deceased wife to learn to forgive.

As part of the preparation for the film, director Rafal Zielinski researched forgiveness by interviewing religious leaders and hundreds of young people on the streets of Los Angeles about what forgiveness means to them. The answers were varied, ranging from unconditional forgiveness to measured or transactional.

“It shows how divided we really are,” Zielenski said in a statement. “We all really want to forgive and unburden ourselves, but our human nature and upbringing intercepts us.”

The film does not explain what type of forgiveness, exactly, Samuel is referring to. But the filmmaker felt that the focus on friendship between these two generations was important given that nearly two-thirds of American young adults do not know that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Almost a quarter of respondents to that study, who were between ages 18 to 39, said they believed the Holocaust was a myth. Another 18% said they had definitely not heard, or did not think they had heard, about the Holocaust.
KISS lead singer discovers his Jewish mother fled Nazi Germany
The lead singer of the legendary rock band KISS often saw what he thought were phone numbers tattooed on the arms of his parents’ New York friends.

Now retracing his Jewish family history, musician Paul Stanley, 71, has discovered that at the age of 12, his mother was forced to flee Germany to escape Nazi persecution.

When she and her parents made it to the US, they lived in a community where their friends were fellow Jews who had not made it out of Germany in time and had instead endured the horrors of Hitler’s concentration camps, although somehow surviving.

Speaking to Germany’s Bild newspaper, Stanley said: “As a small boy, I always wondered why there were numbers written on the arms of friends and acquaintances of my parents. They told us children that they were phone numbers.”

Though born in Manhattan, Stanley, who was born Stanley Bert Eisen, had a German mother, Eva, who was born in Berlin in 1923.

And after a concert in Leipzig, Stanley approached journalists from Bild and asked them for their help in finding out more about his mother’s life when she was a child in Berlin.

After years of research, Bild came up with some surprising information.

This included identifying the grave of Stanley’s great-grandfather, Bernhard Kasket, who is buried in Europe's largest Jewish cemetery in Berlin.

Kastet’s grave reads: “Here rests in peace my dearest husband, our kind-hearted, faithful father and grandfather. You are not dead. Close your eyes too, in our hearts you live forever."




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