Wednesday, July 19, 2023

07/19 Links Pt2: How to Combat Anti-Semitism; The Guardian Claims Israeli Women Can’t Leave Their Homes Without a Male Guardian

From Ian:

Tevi Troy: How to Combat Anti-Semitism
Defining anti-Semitism, reasserting law and order, and giving Jewish institutions the resources and training to protect themselves will help reduce anti-Semitic attacks, but these measures will not diminish the underlying anti-Semitic sentiments that cause them.

The Biden plan relies heavily on existing government-enabled diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives — now apparently called DEIA with the "A" standing for accessibility — to address root causes and promote anti-hate education. This is a worrisome development given that some DEI offices are more likely to house anti-Semitism than to combat it. A Heritage Foundation study of the social-media patterns of 800 campus DEI officers found that they tended to reflect a level of hostility toward Israel that went far beyond policy disagreement and often descended into anti-Semitism. One DEI officer who led a University of Maryland anti-Semitism task force accused Israel of an "ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine." Establishing organizations along similar lines and expecting them to combat anti-Semitism will only worsen matters. Thus, limited-government advocates who want to reduce anti-Semitism via public policy should be wary of DEI or DEIA initiatives.

Given that the State Department envoy for anti-Semitism is not tasked with addressing anti-Semitism at home, one potential step policymakers could take is creating a position within the U.S. government to focus on the issue domestically. Former envoy Carr proposes either authorizing a role for a special envoy within the White House Domestic Policy Council or expanding the existing envoy's charge to covering domestic as well as international anti-Semitism.

If the U.S. government is going to expend significant resources to address anti-Semitism, it makes sense to have someone in government monitoring the various offices dedicated to this purpose and attempting to establish some kind of coordination among them. But putting such a position within the White House's purview means it will be subject to the political and policy whims of each successive administration. Perhaps a better idea would be to establish the position within the Justice Department and make it a career job for a former law-enforcement official that would continue regardless of the winner of our quadrennial presidential elections.

The person appointed to this role should consider expanding early intervention programs. We now have a list of indicators that can help identify potential anti-Semitic assailants; for example, those inclined to anti-Semitic violence tend to have experienced some kind of trauma within their own communities and are often isolated. Given our knowledge of these indicators, the potential for group-oriented violence can often be identified at some point before the individual harms anyone — in schools or the corrections system, for instance.

The special envoy should also lead a thorough review of areas in which the federal government enables anti-Semitism. As noted above, the American government does not intentionally target Jews, and even tries to combat anti-Semitism. Yet several government-funded programs could be subsidizing anti-Semitism anyway.

Many if not most of these funds are given to anti-Semitic individuals and programs in educational institutions, including anti-Semitic professors, extremist anti-Israel speakers invited to campus, and public universities that form hostile environments for Jewish students. Title VI of the Higher Education Act provides funds to anti-Israel Middle East Studies programs, academic departments that have issued extremist anti-Israel statements, and public institutions that pay membership dues to the virulently anti-Israel Middle Eastern Studies Association. At the K-12 level, federal funds may go to public schools that assign textbooks containing anti-Semitic materials, encourage anti-Jewish attitudes through ethnic studies or anti-Israel programs, or pay for anti-Semitic critical-race-theory training.

Jason Bedrick, an education policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, has called for a congressional review of government funding for these types of programs, which is a good idea. But such review should take place on the executive-branch side as well, with the Office of Management and Budget taking the lead so that individual agencies are not charged with protecting their own pet projects from scrutiny.

In addition to these education-related expenditures that may have the unintended impact of increasing anti-Semitism, we should also consider cutting off certain types of foreign aid that have a similarly destructive effect. These include contributions to the U.N. Human Rights Council, UNESCO, UNRWA, and any funds that go to programs that subsidize anti-Semitic textbooks or Palestinian terrorism.

Eliminating these programs would not only save taxpayers money and reduce funding to those who purvey anti-Semitism but also send the strongest possible signal that the federal government does not tolerate this animus, whatever its source may be. The Biden administration plan in general refused to confront the problem of anti-Semitism among the anti-Israel left, and it unsurprisingly did not call for any kind of internal scrub of government funding for programs that could promote or harbor anti-Semitism. Yet such a comprehensive rescission would be a useful policy proposal for a future Republican administration to consider.
The Commentary Magazine Podcast: Old Man, Old Hatreds
Tevi Troy joins the podcast to talk about what it’s like to work in a White House when the president seems infirm or out of touch or in a lot of trouble. And he discusses his important article, “How to Combat Anti-Semitism.” (starts 37:50)
Pakistan: Third Blasphemy Case in a Month, Christians Fear for Safety
Mohd Abdul Gaffar, a retired Pakistan Air Force officer from Green Town, reported that as he was returning home after morning prayers... he discovered a small pamphlet containing blasphemous content on the boundary wall of his house. The contents of the pamphlet were highly disrespectful towards Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other revered figures. The pamphlet also contained derogatory comments against the holy Quran and even praised the recent burning of a Quran in Sweden.

Past incidents include those... where several people were murdered, some burned alive, while dozens of Christians are still languishing in prison, awaiting their fate. It is worth noting that all those accused of committing blasphemy (who were not murdered by lynch mobs) were eventually proven innocent in court and freed.

It is believed that, regrettably, certain individuals in Pakistan are exploiting the incident of the Quran burning in Sweden as an excuse to fuel the flames of hatred and seek revenge against local Christians, who are peaceful, believe in respect for all religions, and have no connection to the Swedish incident.

It is crucial for the Pakistani government to take necessary steps to stop the ongoing misuse of the Penal Code's blasphemy sections against Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan.
Florida’s anti-BDS law finds first potential violator
JNS got a scoop last month that Florida was investigating investment giant Morningstar. On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, currently the second-ranked Republican presidential candidate, said in a video excerpting a speech he gave to the 2023 Christians United for Israel summit taking place this week in Washington, D.C.: “We’re not letting them target Israel and get away with it.”

DeSantis announced that Florida would officially investigate Morningstar, an investment firm, for violating the new law opposing the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

The law Morningstar may have broken went into effect in May. It forbids companies doing business with the state of Florida from “taking adverse action, including changes to published commercial financial ratings, risk ratings and controversy ratings based on non-pecuniary factors, to inflict economic harm on Israel or persons or entities doing business in Israel or in Israeli controlled territories.”

Morningstar is suspected of being in violation of the law because it has been accused of using investment ratings that discriminate against Israel. The parent company has experienced a crashing fall from grace, now under investigation in 20 states.


Moroccan king invites Netanyahu for official visit after Western Sahara recognition
The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the North African nation, citing Israel’s willingness to recognize Moroccan sovereignty in Western Sahara, the Prime Minister’s Office announced Wednesday.

In a letter that the PMO described as “warm,” the monarch said that “the visit will open new opportunities to strengthen the ties between our nations.”

Should it go ahead, the visit will mark the first time Netanyahu visits one of the Arab countries that forged ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords, after previous attempts to visit the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were scuppered.

No date for the trip has been set, but National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi will hold talks with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita on the matter, the statement said.

On Monday, Morocco announced that Israel had informed Rabat of its decision to recognize its sovereignty over the contested Western Sahara region.

A statement from the Moroccan foreign ministry said that King Mohammed VI received a letter from Netanyahu affirming Israel’s decision to “recognize the sovereignty of Morocco over the territory of Western Sahara.”

Israel has been working to shore up ties with its nascent Arab ally, even as its current right-wing government has caused some consternation among its Abraham Accords partners.
High Court sets September date to hear petition demanding Netanyahu ouster
The High Court of Justice will hear a petition in mid-September calling for the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu from the Prime Minister’s Office, the court said Wednesday, drawing rebuke from an ally of the premier attempting to water down the court’s powers.

The petition claims that the premier’s efforts to advance the judicial overhaul violate a conflict of interest agreement forbidding him from working on issues connected to the legal system due to his ongoing criminal trial.

The hearing, expected to take place on September 12, will be presided over by Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, Justice Uzi Vogelman and Justice Yitzhak Amit. Last week, the court said it would hear the petition, but did not set a date or announce who would hear the case.

The court ordered Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to issue a response to the petition by August 20. In March, Baharav-Miara sent a letter informing Netanyahu that he had violated the conflict of interest agreement, and adding that any further involvement on his part in the coalition’s judicial overhaul would be “illegal and tainted by a conflict of interest.”

Netanyahu signed a conflict of interest agreement with then-Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit in 2020 that forbade the prime minister from making senior law enforcement and judicial appointments or getting involved in legislative matters that may impact his ongoing trial on corruption charges.

The petition was submitted by a group called “Mivtzar Hademokratia” (״Fortress of Democracy”) that includes members of the high-tech industry, academics and former security officials including former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon.
Israel should 'deploy planes' for Russian Jews - former minister
"In my view, Israel should have deployed a fleet of planes to facilitate the arrival of Jews from Russia eager to relocate," asserted Sofa Landver in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. Landver, 73, a former Aliyah and Integration Minister, shared her deep concern for the plight of Jewish emigrants from Russia and Ukraine amid the intensifying Russian-Ukrainian war. She emphasized that their struggle represents not just a current crisis but a reflection of the historical ties that bind these communities to Israel.

Born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia), Landver drew on her own immigration experience when she arrived in Israel in 1979. "I walked in their shoes—the uncertainty, the hope, the quiet prayers in their hearts. For me, Israel was not just a destination; it was a promise," Landver reflected.

Throughout her tenure as Aliyah and Integration Minister, Landver championed the rights of immigrants and their successful integration into Israeli society. "Our nation is a tapestry woven with the threads of immigrants from every corner. Each Jew brings a unique hue, a distinct story," Landver explained. She firmly believed that welcoming and supporting immigrants was not only a sacred duty but a vital part of Israel's identity.

Landver recounted the emotional stories she encounters daily in the past year. "Mothers crying for their children's safety, young souls desperate for a life free from the shadows of conflict—I have heard their voices," Landver shared. She stressed that their desire to come to Israel and build a future was the driving force behind her advocacy.

However, Landver acknowledged the bureaucratic challenges faced by these Jewish refugees. "Our system is not agile enough," she admitted. "They are fleeing for their lives, yet they must navigate paperwork and protocol. The delays and red tape only prolong their anguish."
Video of Jews performing Priestly Blessing on Temple Mount sparks Palestinian outrage
A video of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount performing the Priestly Blessing ("Birkat Kohanim") was published on social media on Tuesday, sparking outrage from Palestinian movements.

The video, dated Sunday, was posted by the Palestinian al-Qastal news site. The source of the footage is unclear, as is the reason for waiting two days to publish it.

In the video, five Jewish visitors, presumably Kohanim, can be seen reciting the Priestly Blessing on the Temple Mount across from the Dome of the Rock.

Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount are informed upon entry that prayer and religious items such as prayer books or prayer shawls are forbidden in the complex, although, since late 2019, Jewish visitors have been able to pray quietly, including the Priestly Blessing, in certain parts of the site, relatively undisturbed.

Since early last year, there have been occasions on which Jewish visitors have succeeded in praying and singing out loud and even managed to raise Israeli flags, although many of these individuals were subsequently arrested.

While the High Court of Justice has ruled in the past that Jews do have the legal right to pray on the Temple Mount, police have cited security concerns to impose a blanket prohibition on Jewish prayer, although they have decreased the enforcement of that prohibition since 2019.
Catholic abbot told to cover cross at Western Wall
The abbot of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem, Nikodemus Schnabel, was asked by workers at the Western Wall to cover the cross he was wearing around his neck on Wednesday morning, according to a video shared by Der Spiegel reporter Christopher Schult.

The video shared by Schult on Twitter showed a worker at the Western Wall telling the abbot that the cross was "really big and inappropriate for this place. It's a Jewish place, you need to respect that."

Schnabel responded that the request was "very harsh," with the worker insisting that she respected that he is religious and asking people nearby to stop filming the incident.

"This is not a provocation. I'm an abbot. This is my dress," said Schnabel. "The cross is part of my dress code, I'm a Roman Catholic abbot. You want me to not dress as my faith tells me I should dress."

Schult tweeted that the worker told the abbot that the requirement to remove the cross "is a new regulation."

Schnabel responded to the incident on Twitter on Wednesday, writing "The unfortunately not so nice end of a nice tour of the Old City through the morning #Jerusalem. It is painful to see how the climate in this wonderful city is changing more and more for the worse under the new government. Jerusalem is big enough for everyone!"

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation apologized for the incident on Wednesday afternoon, stating "The Western Wall is open to all. It should be emphasized that there are no regulations regarding this matter at the Western Wall Plaza. The usher approached and politely asked if it would be possible to cover the cross to prevent any discomfort, as has recently occurred in the Old City, out of a desire to respect both the visitor and the site. When he refused, entry was obviously not denied, and the usher respected the decision and continued on her way."


UN World Food Programme cuts aid to Syrians in Jordan, citing funding shortfall
The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) has announced it will reduce cash assistance to nearly 120,000 Syrian refugees in Jordanian camps, saying the move is “unavoidable as funds run precariously low.”

The UN logs about 650,000 Syrians in Jordan who fled their native country since war broke out there in 2011, but Amman estimates their number at 1.3 million.

The WFP said in a statement late Tuesday that “further reductions in food assistance for refugees in Jordan have become unavoidable as funds run precariously low.”

The statement added it was “compelled to reduce by one-third the monthly cash assistance for all 119,000 Syrian refugees in Zaatari and Azraq camps.”

As of next month, the Syrian refugees in the two camps will receive “a reduced cash allowance of $21 per month per person,” down from the current $32.

“Syrian refugees living in both camps have limited income sources with only 30 percent of adults working -– mainly in temporary or seasonal jobs -– while 57% of camp residents say cash assistance is their only source of income,” the WFP said.

The agency’s representative in Jordan, Alberto Correia Mendes, warned of “increased negative coping strategies” including child labor, child marriage and debt accumulation as a result of the aid cuts.
MEMRI TV Videos: Egyptians File Lawsuit against Travis Scott’s Concert at the Pyramids
Egyptian lawyer Amr Abdelsalam said in a July 16, 2023 interview with Al-Araby TV (Qatar) that American rapper Travis Scott, who was scheduled to perform amid the Giza Pyramids on July 28, should not be allowed to perform in Egypt because he performs Satanic rituals during his shows, supports Freemasonry, and supports an “Afrocentric organization that opposes Egyptian identity and heritage." Abdelsalam said that the well-being of Egyptian citizens is more important than holding a Travis Scott show and that Scott has been banned from performing in the United States people have been killed at his shows, a reference to a 2021 Travis Scott concert at which 10 people were killed and hundreds were injured. Abdelsalem also said: “The type of music he was playing gave off negative energy, and bizarre things happened to people who attended the show.” Travis Scott’s Egypt show was canceled on July 17.




Joni Ernst Blasts Biden Admin's 'Appeasement' of Iran, Outlines Plan To Fight Tehran With Arab Allies
Amid a surge in Iranian attacks on commercial oil tankers, one senator is readying legislation that will enlist Israel and its Arab allies in the fight against Tehran’s terrorism.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) told the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday that she is leading efforts to forge a coalition between the United States, Israel, and other Arab signatories to the Abraham Accords. The military coalition would specifically seek to thwart a massive uptick in Iranian attacks on commercial ships traversing through the region. In an unprecedented move, the countries would also link their missile detection systems together to greatly increase reconnaissance on Iran’s missile and drone programs.

Since President Joe Biden took office, Iran has tried to seize nearly 20 oil tankers as they make their way through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping route. The administration also has avoided enforcing sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil trade, helping the regime rake in record profits. Tehran’s terrorism has become so problematic that the Biden administration announced on Monday it will send additional war planes into the region to help deter attacks.

Ernst blamed Biden’s "strategy of appeasement" for emboldening Iran’s hardline regime, saying the only solution is to build a coalition that can "start pushing back on these tanker seizures." The senator’s plan would significantly increase military cooperation between the United States, Israel, and Arab allies in the region at a time when the Jewish state is facing unprecedented criticism from far-left Democrats in Congress.

Republicans like Ernst, on the other hand, say they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish state, even as the Biden administration works to undermine the conservative Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.


Minister slams German government for publicly funded 'antisemitic' event
Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli who is responsible for the fight against antisemitism condemned the German government's involvement in an event that compared the suffering in the Holocaust to that of the Palestinian Nakba.

In a letter addressed to Germany's Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, who is tasked with combatting antisemitism in her country, Chikli condemned a conference held last week in Potsdam in which author Charlotte Wiedemann, presented her book Understanding the Pain of Other, described as promoting solidarity instead of competition among victims and compares the victims of the Holocaust to those of the Nakba.

The conference titled Understanding the Pain of Others: The Holocaust and the Nakba, was held by The Einstein Forum, a foundation of the German federal state of Brandenburg, and was one in a number of events held in Germany in recent months that enjoyed German public funding.

Chikli said that the "loathsome attempts" to accuse Israel by employing the horrible massacre of six million Jews, for political reasons and compare the systematic murders of the Nazi regime during the Holocaust to events taking place during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are reprehensible and are a perversion of the sacred memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

The minister called on the German government to immediately investigate the events in question and refrain from funding Holocaust denial events or events that pervert the memory of the Holocaust in future. He also asked that severe action be taken against those who attempt to use German public funds for such purposes.
Ethnic Studies Group Is Teaching Anti-Israel Hatred; Some School Districts Are Saying Yes
In June 2023, the Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) in Northern California signed a contract worth over $90,000, with a group called the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMCC).

The LESMCC is tasked with training HUSD teachers and helping create curriculum materials for ethnic studies courses, which are a graduation requirement in the district. On the surface, none of this screams “antisemitism,” but it is contracts like this one that could lead to bigotry against Jews becoming institutionalized in K-12 public schools.

Numerous states and school districts have begun offering or requiring ethnic studies for students in high school, and even earlier. Their broad goal is to educate about groups that have been left out or misrepresented in traditional US history. Ethnic studies courses are seen as a solution, because they center Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American communities, and sometimes cover Jews or others.

While empowering students to understand America’s diverse society, fight racism, and build a better future is vital, HUSD’s embrace of LESMCC shows how such efforts can go off the rails.

The LESMCC was formed in 2020 by writers of the first draft of California’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC), which was rejected by state officials in 2019.

That draft was widely criticized for promoting antisemitism, anti-Israel narratives, and other forms of bias. However, the LESMCC insisted that this curriculum represented the only authentic way to teach ethnic studies. Since then, they have been marketing their services directly to California school districts.

Many Jewish groups have sounded alarm bells about LESMCC’s record. Its leadership has smeared the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as a “white supremacist” group, and its website promoted false claims that erase 3,000 years of the Jewish people’s history in their ancestral homeland.


CUNY urged to let feds probe antisemitism on its 25 campuses
A group combatting campus antisemitism is demanding the City University of New York allow federal civil rights investigators to probe accusations of anti-Israel bias on its 25 campuses.

Alums for Campus Fairness made the appeal while launching a six-figure digital and print campaign urging Gov. Kathy Hochul and CUNY Chairman Bill Thompson to “protect CUNY’s Jewish Students.”

“In the wake of repeated antisemitic incidents and the complete indifference of CUNY leaders, alumni and students will not sit idly by,” said ACF Executive Director Avi Gordon.

“New York’s leaders must bring in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office or Civil Rights to investigate antisemitism on CUNY campuses,” the ad says.

Gordon praised Gov. Kathy Hochul for recently approving a new law that requires any college or university that receives state funding to investigate and publicize campus hate crime statistics online.

“Now is the time for CUNY leadership, especially Chair Thompson, to correct course and take immediate action to create a safer environment for our community. This campaign continues our efforts to hold them accountable,” added Gordon.
Leading activist in group behind GB News ad boycott ‘shares anti-Semitic views’
A senior staff member of Stop Funding Hate, the organisation behind the advertising boycott of GB News, has defended Hamas and been accused of sharing “anti-Semitic” content online.

Amanda Morris, the community organiser for Stop Funding Hate (SFH), has been criticised for several social media posts, including one from 2021 promoting the phrase “#FromTheRiverToTheSea”, a well-known chant used by Hamas to call for the destruction of Israel.

A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It is hard to square Amanda Morris’ history of comments, posts and associations with Stop Funding Hate’s philosophy of ‘open, inclusive and participatory campaigning’.”

“Promoting anti-Semitic phrases like ‘From the River to the Sea’, which calls for the destruction of Israel; urging the media to give a platform to spokespeople from Hamas, an anti-Semitic genocidal terrorist group banned by the UK, are all red flags.”

“How could Jewish people possibly feel included in any of SFH’s campaigning led by such an individual? And how on earth SFH could work with her?”

SFH has led campaigns urging advertisers to sever ties with conservative-leaning media organisations, including GB News, the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph. Last week the coffee company Grind said it had stopped advertising with GB News in response to a tweet from SFH.

Avoidance of Israeli-produced goods
The Telegraph can also reveal SFH is heavily reliant on a group called Ethical Consumer for its campaign strategy and materials. Ethical Consumer is a leading advocate of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the UK, which pushes for the avoidance of Israeli-produced goods and services.

Michael Gove, the Communities Secretary, introduced a Bill last month to clamp down on BDS campaigns which he claimed “lead to appalling anti-Semitic rhetoric and abuse”.
The Brands that Backed Antisemitism-Linked Stop Funding Hate's GB News Boycott
A leading organiser of Stop Funding Hate, the group who arranged an advertising boycott of GB News, has a history of sharing “anti-Semitic” content online. According to The Telegraph, Amanda Morris, a community organiser for Stop Funding Hate, expressed sympathy for Hamas and repeated the controversial slogan “From the River to the Sea”. The Campaign Against Antisemitism said it was hard to square these anti-Semitic “red flags” with Stop Funding Hate’s aims. In this context, it’s worth taking a look at all the corporations that publicly backed the bogus GB News boycott:

Kopparberg
Nivea
Grolsch
The Open University
Ikea
OVO Energy
Liverpool Victoria
Vodafone
Bosch
Indeed
Pinterest
Octopus Energy
Specsavers

Will they distance themselves from the ironically-named Stop Funding Hate as quickly as they did from GB News…


Libels and Justifying Palestinian Terrorism: MSNBC Misinforms in Beinart Interview
In a recent interview with Peter Beinart, MSNBC’s Joy Reid and her anti-Zionist guest were able to pack a 7-minute segment full of false and misleading statements about Israel, the West Bank and the Palestinians.

Throughout, Reid and Beinart demonize the Jewish state, misrepresent the reality in the West Bank & Gaza and whitewash Palestinian terrorism.

Apartheid, Jim Crow & Other Anti-Israel Libels
From start to finish, Beinart continuously misrepresents the nature of Israel’s presence in the West Bank by terming it “Apartheid” and comparing it to Jim Crow America.

In order to make his case, Beinart points to the fact that Israelis in the West Bank enjoy the rights that come with Israeli citizenship while Palestinians in the West Bank do not share those same rights.

However, Beinart conveniently leaves out the fact that the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank are governed by the Palestinian Authority and their rights are therefore derived from the PA.

Thus, in order to make his comparisons to Apartheid South Africa and Jim Crow America seem realistic, Beinart is forced to misrepresent the truth about the administration of the West Bank.


The Guardian Claims Israeli Women Can’t Leave Their Homes Without a Male Guardian
According to The Guardian’s website, its mission since its founding has been to deliver “fearless, investigative journalism” that is “free from political and commercial influence.”

Unfortunately, there was little in the way of fearless and objective journalism displayed when the outlet published an article that falsely claimed Israel has “rules restricting a woman’s freedom to live, work and study.”

The piece is based on a report by Human Rights Watch that includes Israel in a list of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait that impose restrictions on women “preventing them from moving freely in their own country and from traveling abroad without the permission of their male guardians.”

Sadly, the international media’s tendency to treat HRW’s word as gospel means outlets like The Guardian all too often ignore the organization’s nakedly anti-Israel agenda and uncritically reprint its most outrageous and verifiably-false claims.

And this is apparently the reason why the Guardian journalists who wrote the piece failed to do a modicum of fact-checking, which might have helped them realize that Israel has no business being mentioned in the same sentence as Saudi Arabia and Jordan when it comes to women’s rights.

The Guardian even went as far as to republish a faulty HRW map that jaw-droppingly included Israel as one of the “15 countries where women can face sanction if they leave the home without male guardian permission.”

The Guardian might also have included the succinct statement that the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry gave to HRW when approached: “Israel is a modern democracy and therefore the questions are not relevant at all regarding it and its population.”

Of course, Human Rights Watch has never made any effort to disguise its utter contempt for Israel.


Smoke & Mirrors PBS’ Two-Part Deflection On Palestinian Violence
At first glance, PBS’ two-part series on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict appears to be the picture of balance: The July 10 broadcast sets out to capture the Palestinian experience in the West Bank city of Nablus (“Cycle of violence and economic turmoil pushes young Palestinians to take up arms“), while the July 13 episode ostensibly approaches the conflict from the Israeli viewpoint (“Israelis describe living with the threat of violent attacks“).

But a closer look at special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen’s broadcasts unmasks a skewed account obscuring the driving forces behind Palestinian terrorism, along with a faux balance encapsulated by what she misleadingly terms a “cycle of violence.”

Like her 2020 debacle of coverage deflecting UNRWA’s responsibility for its own failures, Molana-Allen’s twin broadcasts redirect, turning the lens on domestic Israeli matters as the culprit for escalating Palestinian violence while completely overlooking Iran’s role and downplaying Palestinian Authority responsibility.

Thus, the segment purportedly focusing on the threat of Palestinian terrorism facing Israelis is a rather bizarre and clumsy melding of largely unrelated topics: namely Israel’s domestic upheaval around the government’s highly controversial judicial overhaul, and to a lesser degree, plans to extend Israeli settlements, with growing Palestinian violence. The broadcast opens with her muddled analysis:
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in protest on Tuesday after a bill which would allow the government to pass any law it likes, unimpeded by Supreme Court oversight, passed its first parliamentary vote. Once it has free reign to pass law, the new government in the agreement that brought it to power says it plans to extend Israeli settlements.

Netanyahu and his ministers frequently speak of increasing security measures in Palestinian areas. As divisions grow over the potential impact of these policies, army veteran Ronen Olshever fears for his family’s future.

Olshever then states: “I am very worried about the violence. I am very worried about my kids.”


How did the BBC explain the Jenin counter-terror operation?
As we see, the BBC’s various reporters largely refrained from portraying the reasons for the operation in their own words and instead relied mostly on generously punctuated quotes from IDF officials in which even the term counter-terrorism operation was placed in inverted commas – and hence qualified.

With regard to the broader context, BBC audiences were once again told of ‘frustration’, ‘anger, despair and poverty’ and rejection of the PA leadership by the younger generation. Notably, both Jeremy Bowen and Tom Bateman shoehorned the Israeli government that has only been in power since late December 2022 into their portrayals of violence that began to rise two years ago. Bateman’s portrayal of the violence as a “sign of collapse of political horizons” airbrushes the fact that neither of the two main terror groups currently active in Jenin and elsewhere in Judea & Samaria has any interest whatsoever in a political solution and both aspire to eradicate Israel.

Also notable is the use by the same two BBC journalists of the terms resistance and armed resistance – interestingly, without any qualifying punctuation. While Bowen and Bateman are certainly not the only writers to have portrayed lethal terrorism in that romanticised and euphemistic fashion in recent weeks, the fact that the BBC published four items using that term in just over a week is remarkable, especially in light of its claim to eschew terminology with “significant political overtones” and its purported avoidance of “other people’s language”.

As we see, just one of those seven BBC reports tells audiences that the Palestinian Authority “lost control” over Jenin and other areas but without providing any additional information. None of those seven articles provides an explanation of the outside factors that have contributed to the rise in terrorism emanating from Jenin and elsewhere such as external financing and weapons supply. The level of BBC commitment to providing its audiences with the full range of background information needed to understand this heavily reported story is demonstrated by the fact that the word Iran does not appear in any of these seven reports.
Guardian promotes exhibit featuring 'Intifada dresses'
A Guardian article reports on an exhibition at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, titled “Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery”, which is described as “the first major exhibition of Palestinian embroidery in the UK for over three decades”.

The piece (“Rebellious robes and stitches from the civil war: the radical story of Palestinian embroidery”, July 16), written by Safi Bugel, includes the following:
As much as the history of Levantine embroidery is one of female resistance and labour, the exhibition includes embroidered objects made by men held as political detainees in Israeli prisons, who use the medium to express both national pride and affection for their family members.

The term “political detainees” is an extraordinarily propagandistic euphemism for Palestinians convicted of violent, terrorist offences being held in Israeli prisons, one that obscures the often vicious crimes of the inmates. It suggests that the Palestinians in question are akin to ‘political prisoners’. Tellingly, the exhibit itself (as a YouTube video interview with the curator, Rachel Dedman, on the Kettle’s Yard website, demonstrates) similarly glorifies violence. At one point, Dedman speaks of a collection of “Intifada dresses“, which you can see in these images from the video:


Anti-Semitism Takes Root in China
Unlike Christian or Muslim societies, China doesn’t have a centuries-old tradition of hostility to Jews deeply intertwined with ancient religious anxieties. But that hasn’t stopped European-style anti-Semitism, often framed in Communist terms, from taking hold in the People’s Republic. A baroque conspiracy theory involving a never-executed World War II-era Japanese scheme called the Fugu Plan—itself inspired by the Japanese elite’s own anti-Semitic obsessions—has of late achieved viral popularity. Jordyn Haime and Tuvia Gering write:

At the time of writing, the Fugu Plan is featured in the top search result for the word “Jew” on Douyin, ByteDance’s Chinese equivalent of TikTok. The video is the first in a three-part series about the historical “mistakes” of the Jews. In less than eight minutes, the video’s narrator blames the Holocaust on Jewish greed, accuses Jews of starting China’s “century of humiliation” by financing the Opium Wars, and describes their cunning Fugu Plan with the Japanese.

A distinct brand of localized anti-Semitic conspiracies is thriving on Chinese media platforms. A quick search for “Jews” on WeChat, Douyin, BiliBili, Weibo, or Zhihu, reveals that negative, anti-Jewish content and conspiracies take up significant real estate among the top results. [But] anti-Semitism is not just a social media phenomenon. Despite Beijing’s tight control of the information space, it can also be found among leading academics, party-state journalists, and military strategists.

The enduring legacy of ultra-leftist “enemy studies” abounds in the works of the Beihang University military strategist Zhang Wenmu. In a series of articles for a peer-reviewed socialist journal under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Zhang describes COVID-19 as a usurious American-Jewish bioweapon aimed at China and humanity as a whole. In keeping with the teachings of Mao Zedong and Karl Marx, Zhang says that “what Jews require most is an environment conducive to borrowing, which includes things like financial crises, pandemics, disasters, and, preferably, war.”


TAU team produces 'green' hydrogen with over 90% efficiency
A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University has produced "green" hydrogen – hydrogen that is produced without polluting carbon dioxide emissions but is still highly efficient, the university said.

Their research was published in a study in the peer-reviewed Carbon Energy journal.

Today, hydrogen is used in various industrial processes to generate electricity, power vehicles, produce fertilizers, and more. However, 95% of hydrogen is produced from coal or natural gas, emitting nine to 12 tons of CO2 for every ton of hydrogen.

How did Tel Aviv University produce green hydrogen?
The TAU team produced hydrogen using a water-based gel to attach the enzyme to the electrode and a biocatalyst. Over 90% of the electrons introduced into the system were deposited in the hydrogen without any secondary processes.

"Hydrogen is very rare in the atmosphere, although it is produced by enzymes in microscopic organisms, which receive the energy from photosynthesis processes," explained Itzhak Grinberg, a doctoral student who helped lead the project. "In the lab, we 'electrify' those enzymes. That is, an electrode provides the energy instead of the Sun."

However, the challenge is that the enzyme generally "runs away" from the electric charge when making hydrogen in a lab. The hydrogel holds the enzyme in place.
French firm Nexans to build Greece-Cyprus-Israel subsea power cable
Cyprus firm EuroAsia Interconnector said Wednesday it had awarded French company Nexans a 1.43 billion euro contract for a submarine electricity cable to connect the grids of Cyprus, Greece and Israel.

The EU-backed high-voltage “electricity highway” is set to run for 1,208 kilometers (751 miles) along the Mediterranean sea floor at depth of more than 3,000 meters (9,850 feet).

Billed as the world’s longest and deepest interconnector project, it aims to “end the energy isolation” of Cyprus and Israel and connect both to the European mainland via the Greek island of Crete.

It will have the capacity to supply over three million homes with electricity.

Cyprus, located in the eastern Mediterranean, now relies heavily on fossil fuel imports for energy but has vast potential to step up solar power production for eventual export.

EuroAsia said the 525kV high voltage direct current cable will be manufactured in Nexans’ facilities of Halden, in Norway and Futtsu in Japan.

The interconnector will eventually deliver up to 2,000 MW of energy to Europe, it said.

The ambitious project is expected to be completed in 2029.
Israeli water experts, regional municipal leaders meet in South Africa
An Israeli delegation was in South Africa recently to meet with municipal officials from the City of Tshwane (formerly Pretoria) and the Kwa-Zulu Natal and Cape Town municipalities and share Israel’s world-leading experience in water technology and management.

South Africa is experiencing significant water challenges, including broken infrastructure, shortages and even an outbreak of cholera in the province of Gauteng, where Tshwane is located.

Israel is recognized as a world leader in water technology, and produces 20% more water than it needs. Israel recycles over 90% of its wastewater.

Israeli experts were delighted to share their experience, knowledge and technology at a seminar at Tshwane House. The delegation was coordinated through a strategic partnership between the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), Jewish National Fund of South Africa (JNF SA), the Israeli Embassy in South Africa, and supported by Keren Kayemet Le Israel (KKL- JNF).

The Israeli delegation included Yehezkel Lifshitz, the director of Israel’s Water Authority, who recently signed a memorandum of understanding on innovation and the development of water resources with Morocco as part of the historic Abraham Accords, and Yehonatan Bar-Yosef, project manager of Water Quality Management & Ecology at KKL-JNF.

Michael Kransdorf, chairman of JNF-SA, observed that “the Israeli water delegation’s visit to South Africa reaffirms the need for South Africa to strengthen its ties to Israel, which remains a dedicated partner for development in our country and across the continent. To date, Israeli technology and innovation has provided over half a million South Africans with access to clean water.”
In first, pro wrestling stars coming to Israel for summit
For the first time, world’s top professional wrestlers are coming to Israel for a performance-filled summit in Jerusalem on September 14.

Among the international talent scheduled to attend are US pro wrestling stars Sting, Rob Van Dam, Rikishi and Mexico’s El Hijo del Vikingo.

Rikishi is credited with kickstarting the career of wrestler-turned-actor John Cena, while Van Dam is the only pro wrestler to have won the Extreme Championship Wrestling, the Impact World Championship and the WWE Championship.

Canadian female wrestler Seleziya Sparx is also scheduled to appear. Sparx, whose real name is Seleziya Esho, is the world’s first female pro wrestler of Iraqi descent.

The event, set to be staged at Pais Arena, will feature talent from 10 countries along with an Israeli wrestling duo, Shay Blanco and Idan Boulder.
Marine excavations offer glimpse into ancient history preserved under the sea
The drone of a massive underwater vacuum cleaner pierces the silence at one of Israel’s most picturesque locations, a calm lagoon at Dor Beach where small, sandy islands poke out of clear Mediterranean waters.

Just two meters below the surface, a dozen archaeologists, students, and volunteers in full scuba gear are crawling around the sea bottom like ants, meticulously combing through sand using an underwater dredger. With their giant vacuum, they carefully uncover pieces of pottery and wood from a ship that sank here more than 3,000 years ago.

“After 120 years of scientific archaeology on land, maybe 130 years, we’re in a situation where we know a lot about what happened on land, but we know very little about what’s under the sea,” said Prof. Assaf Yasur-Landau, the director of the University of Haifa’s Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies.

The University of Haifa’s School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures is Israel’s only underwater archaeology certification program. Since 2012, it’s been offered in English to international students, and around 20 students are graduating this summer.

“Every single thing that we excavate provides so much new information,” Yasur-Landau enthused. “Every ship is a time capsule. It’s a capsule of our material culture, what was traded and the different commercial connections, and also what the environment was like back then.”

In May, Yasur-Landau oversaw the first excavations of two shipwrecks in the Dor Beach lagoon, one from the Persian period, from around 550 BCE, and one from the Iron Age, around 1000 BCE. During the three-week dive season, they uncovered pieces of pottery from 3,000 years ago and are trying to determine if they’ve discovered the infrastructure for an early port or just the detritus of old shipwrecks, Yasur-Landau said. In the fall, they will dive again for another three-week season to try to explore the ruins further.
New 3D software sheds light on ancient engraving techniques
Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed software, called ArchCUT3-D, to extract and analyze ancient engravings that could lead to a better understanding of the engravers’ background and skills.

The software extracts thin, three-dimensional slices of man-made engravings, and uses micromorphological incision recognition to closely examine size, shape and color for precision analysis.

In the study, published in “Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications,” researchers scanned two ancient engravings (Ibex and Chariot), as well as contemporary graffiti (Gigi) from Timna Park (Site 25) in the Arava Desert near Eilat, Israel. The findings show that engravings were created using distinct techniques, stroking and “peeling,” enabling researchers to potentially distinguish an engraver’s level of skill and previous experience.

The team hopes their findings will lead to further research and inspire interdisciplinary collaborations to unravel the mysteries surrounding these ancient artworks.

“Our research provides a fresh perspective on ancient rock engravings by delving into the intricacies of their production processes,” said professor Leore Grosman, head of the Hebrew University Computational Archaeology Laboratory. “By unlocking the technological secrets behind these engravings, we gain valuable insights into the craftsmanship, artistic expression and cultural context of our ancestors─even the background of each engraver.”
Blacks and Jews must stand together for democracy
IN THE STORY of 20th century America’s struggle for civil rights, Blacks and Jews have had success combating bigotry when standing together as allies. With the rise of white supremacy, it’s essential that we reinvigorate that alliance.

Historically, the Black and Jewish communities have affirmatively reached out to one another, finding solidarity together when facing hostilities from those who felt it was advantageous to attack us.

In the lead up to World War II, for example, as Jews fled Nazi Germany, many Jewish educators found refuge teaching at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States. And, in the Freedom Summer of 1964, Black and Jewish civil rights activists worked to register Black voters in Mississippi, horrified at the inequality and voter suppression they were witnessing.

But, just as Blacks and Jews have stood together, so have the hateful forces of white supremacy which sought to attack this bond. And those forces are growing stronger in our country right now.

Historically, the figurative and literal closeness of Blacks and Jews was witnessed in fighting against restrictive housing covenants, and employment and higher education discrimination. We watched the Ku Klux Klan murder three voting rights activists during that Freedom Summer: James Chaney, who was Black, and Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, who were Jewish. The same white supremacist hatred that motivated the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church shooter in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015, also motivated the Tree of Life Jewish synagogue shooter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 27, 2018.

We are seeing this yet again, this time in the promotion of book bans around the country. It is no coincidence that bigoted authoritarian actions have removed from circulation in some places literature that illuminates both Black and Jewish experiences, from the “1619 Project” to “The Hate U Give,” from Chik Chak Shabbat to The Purim Superhero. The poetry of Amanda Gorman and an adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary have both endured removal from access.

Blacks and Jews have also found similar methods for navigating around hate, both figuratively and literally. As The Green-Book served as a guide for Black motorists during the Jim Crow era to avoid areas where the perils of racism were most virulent, so too did Jewish motorists have The Jewish Vacation Guide to evade anti-Semitism as much as possible.




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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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