Monday, August 21, 2023
The Oslo Disaster 30 Years On
Upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres lauded the "Oslo peace process" between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization not only as the end of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict but as the harbinger of a "New Middle East." Viewed from a 30-year vantage point, the "Oslo peace process" stands as the worst calamity to have afflicted Israelis and Palestinians since the 1948 war.One Fall Away from Oblivion: An Interview with Victor Davis Hanson
By replacing Israel's control of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians with corrupt and repressive terrorist entities that indoctrinated their subjects with burning hatred of Jews and Israelis, as well as murdered some 2,000 Israelis and rained thousands of rockets on their population centers, the Oslo process has made the prospects for peace and reconciliation ever more remote.
For Palestinians, it has brought about regimes that have reversed their hesitant advent of civil society, shattered their socioeconomic well-being, and perpetuated the conflict, as their leaders lined their pockets. For Israel, it has established ineradicable terror entities on its doorstep, denting its military and strategic posture, and weakening its international standing.
The Oslo process had one major achievement that has gone virtually unnoticed. "As of today, there is a Palestinian state," said Ahmad Tibi, Yasser Arafat's Arab-Israeli advisor, a day after the January 1996 Palestinian Council elections. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin - chief architect of the Oslo process - proclaimed the elections to have irreversibly ended Israel's occupation of Palestinian-populated areas.
In one fell swoop, Israel effectively ended its 30-year-long control of the West Bank and Gaza's populace. Since then, 99% of the Palestinians in these territories have not lived under Israeli "occupation" but under Palestinian rule.
Yet, rather than use the end of occupation as a springboard for bilateral negotiations on the future of the largely unpopulated West Bank territories still under Israel's control (Area C), the Palestinians have sought to damage their "peace partner" at every turn. This is because the PLO viewed the Oslo Accords as a "Trojan Horse" (to use the words of PLO official Faisal Husseini) designed to promote the strategic goal of "Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea" - that is, in place of Israel.
As Arafat told a skeptical associate shortly before moving to Gaza (in 1994), "I know that you are opposed to the Oslo Accords, but you must always remember what I'm going to tell you. The day will come when you will see thousands of Jews fleeing Palestine....The Oslo Accords will help bring this about."
No sooner had Arafat made his triumphant entry to Gaza than he began constructing an extensive terrorist infrastructure in flagrant violation of the accords. He refused to disarm Hamas and Islamic Jihad as required and tacitly approved the murder of hundreds of Israelis by these terror groups. As a result, terrorism in the territories spiraled.
There are few Americans better qualified to comment on current political affairs and cultural issues than Dr. Victor Davis Hanson. He does so on a regular basis. With a PhD in classics, he is a syndicated columnist and the author of many books, hundreds of articles, and the recipient of many awards.Times of Israel Bloggers Lying to Diaspora Jews about Judicial Reform
Dr. Hanson, who also grows raisin grapes on a family farm in California, is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor Emeritus at California State University, a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness, and a National Review Institute fellow. He is a Visiting Professor at several universities and, in 2007, was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush.
In conversation with Dr. Hanson, who analyzes geopolitical topics from the lens of an historian, he elucidates the ills of today’s society. In doing so, he demonstrates that there is nothing new under the sun.
You recently visited Israel. Can you talk about your impressions of the country as it is enmeshed in a conflict over judicial reform? Do you see parallels between Israeli protestors against reform and the American left?
Yes, I do. I think the Israeli left, like the American left, doesn’t believe that its agenda will achieve 51% public support necessary to ensure they have the political power to achieve that agenda. In lieu of public support for an agenda that’s often utopian or impractical, or antithetical to the foundational documents of the country, they always look at process. Here in the U.S., if the left can’t get certain legislation through then they look to the courts. If the courts are not sympathetic, they talk about packing them. Or if they don’t get the vote that they want, they want to change the electoral college or get rid of the Senate filibuster or change the voting laws.
I don’t think people in the U.S. understand what Israel’s dealing with regarding their Supreme Court and its history. It’s not anything like our Supreme Court. It’s sort of a combination of the U.S. House, Senate and Supreme Court as if they were all from one party, so it’s one ideology that can make legislation by judicial fiat. It’s not the same as it was 40 or 50 years ago, and its transformation had no legal statute.
From what I saw in Israel, whether it’s due to immigration, changing attitudes or the success of conservative policies, Israeli elites feel their message cannot persuade people as it might have in the past. So they count on the Supreme Court in a way that elites in the U.S. count on courts or bureaucracies to enact social change.
Is part of the reason Americans don’t understand judicial reform because there are those, including the media, who don’t want them to know?
Yes, I think that’s 90% of it. If you look at NPR, PBS, the network news, the New York Times, the Washington Post, or social media, the message is consistently that Netanyahu is a counter-right Trumpian figure and a revolutionary rightist. That’s all they need to know. Our media thinks that Israel is dealing in the same manner that we are dealing with Trump, and therefore all means necessary are ok.
Just as in the U.S. they weaponize the FBI, the CIA, and the DOJ to stop Trump, so it’s ok in Israel to do anything necessary to stop Netanyahu. As we have myths like Hunter Biden’s laptop is Russian collusion, or January 6th was an armed insurrection that killed an officer, so Israel has a myth that Bibi Netanyahu is trying to destroy the whole court system.
When you get one expert jurist or legal scholar debating the other and actually go over point by point what the Israeli Supreme Court is doing and what the reform suggests, it doesn’t seem very radical at all. The reform is trying in some ways to make it analogous to the U.S. Supreme Court. But when you’re on the U.S. left and don’t like the U.S. Supreme Court any longer because it doesn’t give you the result you demand then you attack the court.
To our sisters and brothers in the Diaspora:
A trinity of respected names on the Left: Matti Friedman, Yossi Klein Halevi, and Daniel Gordis, penned a blog post in the Times of Israel imploring Diaspora Jews to “support Israel” by joining the fight against the “judicial revolution” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s democratically elected government.
They invited Diaspora Jews to learn more about the far Left’s narrative against the government in a Zoom seminar hosted by a TOI deputy editor, which will host leaders of the protests.
We do not expect much critical pushback against the leftwing narrative from that unbalanced panel. Nor is this the first time this unholy trinity of the left has called on Diaspora Jews to interfere and save the Left from the results of Israel’s democratic election.
They question the legitimacy of the vote and the electoral system which didn’t yield the results they wanted.
The TOI article raises numerous dubious claims, but one falsehood about the elections stands out: the trinity’s assertion that the Netanyahu government came to power “only after concealing from the electorate the sweeping nature of its plans.”
Did Israeli voters not have a clear understanding of the government’s intentions before the November 1, 2022 elections?
An op-ed by Kobi Perez of the ZOA, published on July 3, 2022 in JewishPress.com, headlined “Israel’s First Priority: Supreme Court Reform,” clearly highlights the Israeli right’s commitment to reforming the Supreme Court following the elections. Perez wrote, “The Israeli right has promised that their first order of business after the election will be to reform Israel’s Supreme Court.”
Seems pretty clear and not concealed at all.
But what about the sweeping nature of those plans? Were they really hidden from the average Israeli citizen?
An in-depth interview with MK Simcha Rothman published on October 30, 2022, on the eve of the election, in JewishPress.com, thoroughly outlines the coalition’s plans for reforms in the judicial system and many other areas as well. if you haven’t already read it, we highly recommend you do.
The electorate was well-informed about the comprehensive reforms the coalition intended to undertake if it won.
Now, the JewishPress.com isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and so, we may need to enlist reports from the Leftwing and Progressive media to make our point, so the Diaspora Jews understand that the Israeli electorate was fully aware of who and what they were voting for.
For instance, a detailed report from the Times of Israel by Carrie Keller-Lynn on July 31, 2022, was headlined, “Likud’s judicial reform plan seeks to end ‘rule by judges’ and constrain the AG.” The reporter details Likud’s openly disclosed plans for judicial reform, well before the elections.
The article quotes Yariv Levin, who is described as “particularly close to Netanyahu,” advocating for substantial policy changes that he deems a “fundamental change.”
Not much of a secret there.
The Times of Israel even reported on the reforms back in June 2022, in an article headlined “Opposition previews plans to remake composition of the Supreme Court.”
While it’s true that many Times of Israel articles exhibit a clear bias against judicial reform, such as the October 22, 2022 article, “Smotrich launches bid to neuter judiciary, potentially halt ally Netanyahu’s trial,” they nevertheless dealt openly and well ahead of the vote with the right-wing’s plan to reform the judicial system. For a blogger in the TOI, which is on the record with several reports on the coming reform, to claim that Israeli voters were uninformed about the government’s plans is simply a lie.
Matti Friedman, Yossi Klein Halevi, and Daniel Gordis are making claims that are not supported even by their own publication.
JPost Editorial: Sale of Arrow 3 symbolizes Israel's 75-year growth to defense powerhouse
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “The US government’s approval of the delivery of the Arrow-3 missile-defense system [to Germany] is an expression of confidence in the excellent capabilities of Israel’s defense industries. This is a significant decision, which will contribute to Israel’s force buildup and economy. It is also particularly meaningful to every Jewish person that Germany is acquiring Israeli defense capabilities.”Ron Prosor: Unsung diplomats secured a landmark deal with Germany
Several senior Israeli officials involved in the deal noted that it reflected the strength of Israel’s defense ties with the US as well as Germany. It is also clear that, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Europe today is more aware of security threats and the need for modern defense systems.
The Arrow sale is the third recent mega-sale to a European country. Earlier this month, the US gave the go-ahead for a purchase by the Finnish Defense Ministry of the Rafael-made David’s Sling air-defense system, and in May, Israel sold Elbit’s PULS artillery rocket launcher to the Netherlands.
According to Defense Ministry statistics released in June, Israel’s defense exports soared to a record $12.5b. in 2022, a 400% increase from the sales at the start of the 2000s and up some 120% over the last 15 years.
While 29% of the 2022 weapons sales went to Europe, an impressive 24% went to Abraham Accords countries – the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco.
This, too, marks an astonishing shift. As the Abraham Accords this month enter their fourth year, we have grown used to seeing major deals in various fields with Arab countries in the region, but we should never take these for granted or underestimate their significance.
Israel was forced to develop sophisticated defense systems because of the constant threats and attacks it has faced over the years. There is a certain irony to the fact that this has had a turning-lemons-into-lemonade effect. Indeed, the country’s initial needs and isolation also led to major developments in non-military spheres and has helped the Start-Up Nation become a powerhouse in hi-tech, agritech, health, the environment, and other areas. Israel’s standing in the world is strengthened through the export of its products and expertise.
Of course, we would prefer to be in a situation in which we could fulfill the biblical prophecy of turning swords to plowshares, without the need for arms deals of any kind. But since this remains a dream at present, we can at least celebrate the way Israel can defend itself and help protect its allies.
The diplomatic dividend is what gives Israel a line of diplomatic credit abroad. Our ability to get support in international forums, in mega deals, in obtaining legitimacy, in cooperation, and in scientific collaboration. All these do not happen with countries that the world shuns.A rabbi answers her congregants’ question: Why do they hate us?
The security-related benefits of the deal are no less important. Alongside the Defense Ministry, the Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure, and IMDO – Israel Missile Defense Organization, the Foreign Ministry led the diplomatic effort in a way that could on the one hand increase Germany's motivation to seal the deal and provide impetus for the US to give a green light. The war in Ukraine and the shifting security paradigm in Germany swayed the balance in favor of the decision to go ahead with the deal, but it was Israeli diplomats in Washington, Berlin, and Jerusalem who talked with their counterparts through all available channels and pressured to have it completed.
Finally, there is also an economic boon for Israelis, who feel the economic pinch of the rising cost of living. This deal, which has been pursued by Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, will automatically translate into a boost of energy for the Israeli economy. An injection of 14 billion shekels is a lot of money and all of it could pay for a pay hike to all of Israel's teachers over the next three years. This sum can provide food security and a decent lifestyle to all the Holocaust survivors in Israel for the rest of their life. Every shekel that is invested in foreign relations will see a return on investment in many more multiples.
For me, the symbolic aspects are of great personal value. Germany's impact on Israeli history is well-known and substantial. My personal life story has been intertwined in the bilateral relations. My father Ulrich Proskauer left Berlin in 1936; my first diplomatic posting was in Bonn, then West Germany's capital, and my current assignment as Israel's ambassador to Germany is a dream come true professionally. The fact that the Jewish nation-state, some 75 years after its foundation, has been helping Germany defend itself, is not just a source of national pride but also a generator of real and tangible benefits to Israel on various levels. This is how effective diplomacy is done.
When I asked Rabbi Diana Fersko why she decided to add to the growing list of recent books written about antisemitism, she referred to Passover.Dissecting the George Soros agenda
On the holiday, Jews tell and retell the familiar story of the Exodus, she explained, and often add to it. The reasons for and solutions to antisemitism must also be told again and again, in ways, she said, that “connect to the past, and talk about what’s happening now.”
Her new book, We Need to Talk About Antisemitism, also has a Passover motif. So much of contemporary antisemitism, she writes, is about “narrowing” – the same way that the Israelites’ identity in Egypt (Mitzrayim, or “The Narrows,” in Hebrew) was restricted to a “specific, inflexible, and incomplete Jewish stereotype.” She sees such narrowing in the way even well-meaning people expect Jews to look or behave. “Narrowing” is what leads the far right to assign Jews to a conspiracy to undermine the West. And the left “narrows” Jews when they slot members of a diverse, complex community as white people who are leveraging their privilege to oppress others, especially Palestinians, and who themselves have no claim on victimhood.
Fersko is the senior rabbi, since 2020, at the Village Temple, a Reform congregation in Manhattan. She began at the start of the coronavirus epidemic, and her efforts to engage congregants despite the lockdown were the subject of a piece in The New Yorker.
Her 10 years in the rabbinate have also coincided with a rise in reports of antisemitic incidents, from vile social media campaigns to the killing of 11 Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018. She wrote the book in part as a response to the questions she has gotten from members of her congregation.
“I’ve been having to preach about antisemitism for the decade or so that I’ve been a rabbi,” she told me. “Congregants started telling me their stories, and asking me their everyday questions. I felt like my congregants were asking amazing questions that I couldn’t answer on the fly. They deserved more serious answers, longer answers, and they deserve a book that hopefully helps them with the everyday antisemitism that they faced.”
In a conversation last Monday, we spoke about the climate for Jews on American college campuses, why one editor turned down the book and why physical violence from the right is the greatest threat facing Jews.
It is difficult to completely understand Soros’s motivations, Ehrenfeld says, in part because the “bottom line is what we really know about Soros is what he tells us. There isn’t anyone around to say, ‘I remember him from the neighborhood.’ It’s a little bit strange. Those who worked with him refuse to talk. They’re intimidated.”Anti-Israel activist breaks nose of Brazilian university rector
What is clear is that Soros turned against the laissez-faire capitalism that made him rich. “It is exactly because I have been successful in the marketplace that I can afford to advocate these values,” Soros said of himself. “I am the classic limousine liberal.”
“The Soros Agenda” dissects Soros’s strategy, focusing mainly on his actions in America; how he went about influencing the political and social landscape by funneling an enormous amount of money through an “intricate, multilayered web” of foundations. Ehrenfeld notes that Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) has been rated the “least transparent” out of 200 think tanks in 47 countries.
She also looks at the impact of his activities, which she says have fomented “violence and division in the country, weakening it from within while decreasing its influence in the world.”
Ehrenfeld is founder and president of the New York-based American Center for Democracy and its Economic Warfare Institute.
She recently spoke with JNS.
Q: Do you agree with comments by people like attorney Alan Dershowitz, who has said that George Soros has done more than anyone to turn Americans against Israel?
A: [Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel] David Friedman also has said that nobody has done more damage to Israel than George Soros. He’s funded the New Israel Fund, the Palestinians, Birzeit University, anti-Israel organizations in Israel. I quote Soros saying tribalism is not for him. So he doesn’t live in Israel. But he did everything in order to destabilize the place.
Q: Soros always cries antisemitism when he’s attacked. What’s the best way to undermine such a defense?
A: When people like Benjamin Netanyahu, David Friedman, Dershowitz and myself keep telling people this is not antisemitism. Unless you say that he’s Jewish and this is why he’s doing it. The religion he was born into has nothing to do with it. Soros says he’s agnostic.
Since the book came out, several Jewish publications have refused to publish either excerpts from the book or review the book. I’ve received hate mail following interviews, many from Jews. It’s worrisome.
Q: Are you worried for Israel given that his son, Alexander, who’s slated to take over, has expressed more interest in Israel and Judaism than his father?
A: Alex is a big supporter of Jewish causes if by Jewish causes you mean anti-Israeli organizations.
It was interesting to see in the Wall Street Journal announcement with Alex Soros in June—I wouldn’t call it an interview, it was more a glorified PR ad—it showed a picture of Alex with his father at his bar mitzvah. I saw that as really a threat: “You criticize what I do, you will be accused of antisemitism.”
Alex has been trying to increase the division between the observant Orthodox and the … secular in Israel. He’s said that Jews in America are still conveying their support to Israel no matter what, and they don’t understand when they are supporting Israel, they are supporting apartheid. Soros, his father, was the first one to support the apartheid conference in South Africa.
Why they are so bent on hating Israel and trying to destabilize the Jewish state is beyond me. They are not the first self-hating Jews. Unfortunately, they have a lot of influence.
Andreas Lajst, director of the Brazil chapter of StandWithUs, was to deliver a talk on Aug. 10 at the Federal University of Amazonas about the capacity of Israeli technology to aid isolated Brazilian populations.
When the Arab-Palestinian Federation of Brazil got wind of the event, it wrote online that “the university cannot be a stage to defend an apartheid regime.”
The university’s student union also called Lajst—the grandson of Holocaust survivors—a Nazi.
The university did not cancel the event, and protests that began peacefully turned violent. One anti-Israel activist hit the university rector in the face, fracturing her nose. (This occurred despite the presence of security guards.)
“These days, you must be heroic to voice your opinion if pro-Israel,” wrote Roz Rothstein, founder and CEO of StandWithUs. “Shout-out to the police who helped!”
“X Blue users will need to send selfie, data to 😡 Israeli 😡 software company | Al Jazeera”
— Qunts News Network (@QuntsNews) August 21, 2023
We advise all QUNTS to delete their X accounts immediately, as well as Uber, PayPal and Google who already use this malevolent Zionist spyware.
🇵🇸✌🏾 https://t.co/Y9ocnywvyl
X briefly allows anti-Leo Frank ‘community note’ as antisemitism flares on the platform
A “community note” saying falsely that Leo Frank, the victim of an antisemitic lynching in 1915, was guilty of raping and murdering a young girl appeared and disappeared several times over the weekend on X, the platform known until recently as Twitter.National Geographic Covers for Palestinian Rioters & Hamas-Linked Activist in Dome of The Rock Feature
Community notes, which allow users to contribute additional context about tweets, were expanded in late 2022 as new owner Elon Musk’s favored tool for battling misinformation on the platform. But the community note about Frank offers the latest indication that the technology can be misused.
The note was appended to tweets by the Anti-Defamation League and its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, marking the anniversary of Frank’s lynching. The Jewish civil rights group was founded in the wake of the case.
“Readers added context: He raped and murdered a 13 year old white girl and tried to frame the illiterate black janitor,” the note said. “His pardon, 73 years after his death, does not clear him of the accused crime and was likely politically-motivated.” The note then offered two links, both to white supremacist websites, purporting to offer evidence.
There is in fact a widespread consensus that Frank was innocent of the crime and that his arrest and prosecution were driven by antisemitism. Frank has long been a hobbyhorse for neo-Nazis who reject that consensus and see the advocacy on his behalf as evidence of Jewish control of the media, a longstanding antisemitic trope.
Frank’s profile — and the simmering neo-Nazi preoccupation with him — grew this year with the success of “Parade,” the Broadway musical that tells Frank’s story. Neo-Nazis rallied outside the show on its opening night.
The note was deleted then added back several times on multiple accounts before finally disappearing permanently, as X’s moderation team played a game of whack-a-mole with neo-Nazi trolls.
The note was one of several instances in recent days when X’s new features seemed to reward antisemites. Last week, Media Matters reported that X was placing advertising on an account that was openly pro-Nazi; CNN later verified the reporting. The account was suspended after the report and several of the brands that had their ads placed there said they would no long pay for advertising on the platform. Some said they had not paid for the ads in the first place.
The problem — subtle but significant — is in the linguistic framing of the two religions’ competing beliefs about what lies below the cave. The Muslim assertion that there are magical paradise waters flowing beneath is a longstanding “tradition,” compared to “some” Muslims and Christians who have merely “imagined” there might be artifacts underneath the ancient structure.1️⃣ This framing creates an uncomfortable narrative. Playing the religions against each other using the words “assert” versus “imagine,” implies to the audience that one religious claim to the site is more weighty than others’. pic.twitter.com/ULAzJQTKfE
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 17, 2023
In another passage, Lawler notes that the dome has become a “symbol of the Palestinian cause for independence,” which he claims is “on par with Jewish attachment to the nearby Western Wall.”
First, comparing the Palestinian political struggle to Judaism’s most ancient and venerated of places is, frankly, insulting.
Second, the Jewish connection is not, as Lawler contends, to the Western Wall. Jews merely pray at the Western Wall because it is the last remaining outer wall of the Second Temple.
Meanwhile, a photo caption beneath an image of two ultra-Orthodox Jews looking out over the Western Wall plaza casts further doubt on the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount by stating that Jews and Christians “believe” the dome was built on the site of the ancient temple.
But as our readers will know, Jews and Christians need not simply “believe” in the existence of the temple ruins beneath the dome considering numerous archeological examinations have produced definitive proof of their existence.
Unfortunately, these are not the only issues with the piece.
Another passage refers to the unrest that frequently roils the Temple Mount complex, which Lawler calls the setting for “violent confrontations between Palestinian worshippers and Israeli police,” including in April when Israeli police “stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque twice during Ramadan, smashing doors and windows, firing rubber bullets, and injuring 12 people.”
While Lawler notes that Israeli police say they were compelled to enter the mosque to quell rioters who had stockpiled fireworks inside, he fails to make any reference to the consistent threat of mob violence at the site thanks to incitement by the Palestinian leadership.
Indeed, consider how differently this passage might have read if Lawler had noted that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas once told Palestinians to protect holy sites in Jerusalem on the grounds that Jews were “defiling them with their filthy feet.” His remarks came just days before intense rioting by Palestinians who hurled rocks and firebombs at Israeli police on the Temple Mount.
Later in the piece, Lawler interviews Hanady Halawani, who is part of a movement to make the Dome of the Rock a hub for teaching the Quran to Palestinian women. These campaigning efforts, Lawler contends, prompted suspicion on the part of Israeli officials who have “repeatedly banned her from entering the sacred site.”
Lawler observes that as they speak, Halawani, who claims to have been arrested 67 times, “glances nervously at the armed Israeli police officers who pass by.”
Perhaps Lawler should have probed Halawani’s risible presentation of herself as a Quran-teaching activist given that a quick search of her name reveals she previously campaigned against allowing Jews to step foot on the Temple Mount and has active ties with the proscribed terrorist organization Hamas.
The sad fact of the matter is that Lawler’s feature is informative and engaging. It is just a shame he allowed such obvious, partisan errors to creep into his work.
We flagged the article this linked to at the time of publication for its misleading and inaccurate headline.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 21, 2023
It's a shame they refused to correct it then, and shame they have republished the same inaccurate wording now.https://t.co/zNMJFfOoRk
For decades the Guardian's malevolent focus on Israel incited the virulent anti-Zionism that permeated the left. This article by @Haroon_Siddique, who describes the current Israeli government as "anti Arab", shows that old habits die hard. HT/@GnasherJew https://t.co/4EDU24thPL
— Never Again (@Never_Again2020) August 21, 2023
Credit Suisse hid Nazi-linked accounts as recently as 2020
As recently as 2020, investment banking and financial services giant Credit Suisse maintained accounts linked to Nazis.Jewish groups criticise 'hugely disrespectful' auction of Nazi memorabilia
“Credit Suisse’s internal investigation into its historical Nazi ties was hampered by scoping restrictions and resulted in incomplete findings,” according to a release from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.
The committee finally received an unredacted report from Credit Suisse after “persistent and bipartisan oversight by the Senate Budget Committee,” including a letter from Grassley and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the committee chair.
According to the report, “64,000 sets of potentially relevant records related to Nazi-linked accounts are not part of Credit Suisse’s ongoing investigation.”
“Because of the Budget Committee’s investigation, Credit Suisse has agreed to review its potential support for Nazis fleeing justice following World War II via so-called ‘Ratlines,’” the release added. “However, even after repeated requests from the committee, the bank has failed to fully explain the exact scope of its ongoing investigation.”
“Out of respect for Holocaust victims and their families, we cannot turn a blind eye to these shortcomings,” Grassley stated. “We’ll continue pushing for a full and complete investigation at Credit Suisse until all questions related to these Nazi-linked accounts are resolved.”
An auction house has come under fire for selling a collection of Nazi memorabilia including daggers and a belt buckle.Jewish Man Walking With His Son Subjected to Antisemitic Assault in Berlin
Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter will sell the collection which features swastika and eagle armbands, swords, a bronze Gothe medal and a belt buckle, all from Nazi Germany.
But antisemitism campaigners have criticised the sale, arguing the items should be withdrawn immediately.
Although it is illegal to sell Nazi memorabilia in some European countries - including France and Germany - the practice is not prohibited in the UK.
A bronze Gothe medal for Arts and Sciences presented to Dr Emil Haselhoff is on sale with an estimate of between £300 and £500.
Swastika and eagle armbands have an estimate of between £50 and £70 while a belt buckle is expected to fetch between £100 and £200.
A yellow metal Swastika brooch inset with pearls has an estimate of between £40 and £60 whilst a dagger from a serving former Luftwaffe officer has an estimate of between £300 and £400.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) has urged the Exeter-based auctioneer to withdraw the items from sale after being approached by concerned members of the Jewish community.
In a letter to the auctioneers seen by the JC, Stephen Silverman, director of investigations and enforcement at the CAA, wrote: “We have been approached by concerned members of the Jewish community regarding the sale of Nazi memorabilia at your auction house, particularly in an upcoming sale on 22nd and 23rd August.
The spate of antisemitic attacks in Berlin continued over the weekend, when a 37-year-old Jewish man walking with his son was violently assaulted at a subway station.
The attack occurred on Saturday afternoon, as the pair were walking along a main thoroughfare in the German capital’s Prenzlauer-Berg district. A 61-year-old man who was later detained by police approached the father and spoke to him in what local media outlets described as a “disrespectful manner,” but the pair ignored him and continued on their journey.
However, when the father and son returned to the same spot later in the afternoon to catch a train from the Storkower Strasse subway station, the same man approached them again. He punched the father in the neck with his fist and uttered an antisemitic insult before fleeing, according to witness reports. He was apprehended by police officers shortly afterwards. A breathalyzer test showed the man was inebriated. He now faces hate crimes charges.
Berlin has witnessed a series of antisemitic attacks in recent weeks, amid a general rise in antisemitic agitation and violence across Germany. Earlier this month, a 19-year-old Israeli man walking with his girlfriend was beaten up by three Arabic-speaking men who overheard him talking on his cellphone in Hebrew.
Separately, police last week arrested a 63-year-old man for carrying out arson attacks and vandalism targeting memorials to Jewish and LGBT victims of the Nazis and a lesbian community center in Berlin.
RIAS, a state-funded antisemitism watchdog, reported 848 antisemitic incidents in Berlin during 2022, out of nearly 2,500 nationally. A total of 21 incidents involved physical attacks with one case of “extreme violence.”
When you report a tweet for harassing, 'Holocaust denial' is explicitly mentioned as a reason for reporting.
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) August 21, 2023
And yet @X @Support responds that such antisemitic, hateful, Holocaust denial post does not break their safety policies. @elonmusk @lindayaX pic.twitter.com/IOzXXV6mg2
Mattel’s Israeli CEO to Receive Leadership Award at Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles
The 36th annual Israel Film Festival (IFF), set to take place in Los Angeles, is giving its 2023 Industry Leadership Award to Ynon Kreiz, the Israeli-American chairman and CEO of the toy giant Mattel.Guatemala elects progressive Arévalo, who studied in Israel, as president
Kreiz will receive the award, which honors individuals with outstanding leadership skills who have achieved notable success while inspiring others, at IFF’s opening night gala at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills on November 1.
Kreiz joined Mattel in 2018. During his time with the global toy and entertainment company, Mattel Films has announced 14 live-action motion pictures in active development with major studio partners. Mattel Television has also expanded its content and now reaches audiences in 191 countries in 37 languages.
Mattel’s first major theatrical movie, Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in the lead roles, was released last month and broke records for Warner Bros. Pictures and filmmaker Greta Gerwig. Barbie became the highest-grossing female-directed film at the domestic box office in its opening weekend after making a staggering $162,022,044.
The film exceeded the billion-dollar mark globally just 17 days after its release and is currently the highest-grossing movie of the year in Israel. It also recently surpassed the Batman movie The Dark Knight to become the highest-grossing domestic release in Warner Bros. history.
IFF Founder and Executive Director Meir Fenigstein said in a statement that Kreiz’s “visionary leadership and incredible achievements at Mattel” are “exciting beyond imagination,” noting most recently Barbie‘s success at the box office.
“In just over five years, Ynon has transformed Mattel into an IP powerhouse, with its first theatrical release shattering records and becoming a showcase for the expertise of the Mattel Films division he created,” Fenigstein added. “On a personal note, I fondly recall Ynon as a UCLA Anderson MBA student volunteering at the Israel Film Festival. Now, 30 years later, I am proud to be recognizing and honoring him at the festival for his own amazing accomplishments.”
A progressive from outside Guatemala’s power structure was resoundingly elected the country’s next president Sunday in a reprimand to the governing elite over widespread allegations of corruption.
Despite preliminary results showing a potential landslide for anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo, the attention immediately turned to whether he would be allowed to assume power as the current administration attempts to suspend his party’s legal status.
With more than 99 percent of votes counted, preliminary results gave Arévalo 58% of the vote to 37% for former first lady Sandra Torres in her third bid for the presidency. The official results will still have to be certified.
Arévalo is the son of former president Juan José Arévalo, who in 1948 recognized the State of Israel and later served as ambassador to the country. During the latter appointment, Bernardo studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Bernardo Arévalo has also been active in Guatemala’s foreign service, including serving as a minister counselor in Israel.
“We know that there is a political persecution underway that is being carried out through the institutions and prosecutor’s offices and judges that have been corruptly co-opted,” Arévalo said Sunday night. “We want to think that the force of this victory is going to make it clear that there is no place for the attempts to derail the electoral process. The Guatemalan people have spoken forcefully.”
Arévalo said outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei congratulated him and told him that they would begin planning the transition the day after the results were certified.
But Guatemalans still remember that an hour before the results from the first round of voting were certified last month, the Attorney General’s Office announced it was investigating the signatures gathered by Arévalo’s Seed Movement party to register years earlier. A judge briefly suspended the party’s legal status before a higher court intervened.
Eduardo Núñez, the Guatemala resident senior director for the National Democratic Institute, expected two trends to continue and intensify in the coming days: the country’s polarization and the judicialization of the electoral process.
Um, has a meeting ever left you totally speechless?
— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) August 21, 2023
Just finished sitting with Sonja Kohn, a 75 year old ultra orthodox woman with over 30 grandkids and three dozen great grandkids. So why did we meet?
Because Sonja just founded a tech startup. The company is called BestFit… pic.twitter.com/aLmQtbPAaY
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