Abbas must face real consequences for his antisemitic remarks
Abbas’s spokesman also dismissed all criticism of his antisemitic tirade: “We express our strong condemnation and outrage at this frenzied campaign for just quoting academic and historical quotations,” Abu Rudeineh said in Abbas’s name.How did the BBC report Mahmoud Abbas’ latest antisemitic speech?
There’s a Hebrew expression that translates as “I’ve seen this movie already.” Every once in a while, one of Abbas’s antisemitic rants leaks to the Western press; officials and organizations condemn him and demand an apology; he refuses to apologize; and there are no consequences – so of course he does it again.
In May 2018, Abbas gave the opening address at a conference of the PLO’s Palestine National Council. He said, among other things, that Jews living in Europe had suffered since the 11th century “not because of their religion, [but] it was because of their social profession – so the Jewish issue that had spread against the Jews across Europe was not because of their religion, it was because of usury and banks.”
J Street “strongly condemned” Abbas for his “absurd antisemitic tropes and deeply offensive comments.” Yet Abbas’s antisemitism did not change J Street’s policies one iota. J Street kept lobbying for the creation of a “State of Palestine” headed by that purveyor of “absurd antisemitic tropes and deeply offensive comments.”
Indeed, J Street’s main problem with Abbas’s antisemitic statements, to judge by its press release, was that they “distract from the need for international action” to “advance the two-state solution.” In other words, his pesky antisemitism keeps getting in the way of giving him a state.
During a visit to Berlin in August 2022, Abbas publicly accused Israel of carrying out “50 Holocausts against Palestinians.”
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt called that statement “unacceptable” and warned that it could “have dangerous consequences and fuels antisemitism.” And she was right – antisemitic statements by the head of the Palestinian Authority encourage antisemitism among the Palestinian Arab masses. And sometimes that antisemitism is expressed through violence against Jews.
J Street not only “strongly condemned” Abbas’s statement in Berlin, but it also called for “an immediate and unreserved apology.” Of course, no such apology was forthcoming. And once again, the lack of an apology did not diminish J Street’s fervent lobbying for Abbas’s cause.
If US officials, Jewish organizations, or the mayor of Paris, are serious about combating Palestinian antisemitism, they need to impose genuine sanctions, not just revoke a medal or demand an apology that will never be given.
Instead, steps like these should be taken :
• American Jewish and Zionist organizations should announce that they will no longer meet with any representatives of the Palestinian Authority.
• Mayors of European cities that have partnerships with PA cities should suspend those partnerships.
• The Biden administration should stop paying the PA’s bills. The US is giving the Palestinian Arabs $650 million this year. US law prevents the money from going directly to the PA (so long as the PA pays salaries to terrorists), so the funds are sent to non-government projects that the PA would otherwise pay for – in effect, the Biden administration is paying the PA’s bills. That should stop.
Until there are meaningful sanctions such as these, Abbas will have no incentive to halt his antisemitic rantings.
However, as we have all too often had cause to document on these pages, previous BBC reporting on offensive statements and ahistorical claims made by Mahmoud Abbas has often been less than satisfactory:
BBC REPORTS THE PARTS OF ABBAS’ OIC SPEECH THAT FIT ITS NARRATIVE
BBC CENSORS PARTS OF MAHMOUD ABBAS SPEECH ONCE AGAIN
ANOTHER BBC MAKEOVER ON A SPEECH BY MAHMOUD ABBAS
ANOTHER ABBAS SPEECH AND MORE SELECTIVE BBC REPORTING
BBC WEBSITE TELLS PART OF THE STORY ON ABBAS’ LATEST HOLOCAUST REMARKS
Moreover, at least one complaint concerning the lack of BBC coverage of Abbas’ distortions of history has been rejected:
BBC CLAIMS ABBAS’ HISTORICAL DISTORTIONS AND SMEARS NOT ‘RELEVANT’
While Knell did report some of the many condemnations of Abbas’ remarks, her report does not inform BBC audiences of contrasting statements made in support of his claims – including by contributors to BBC content.
PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeinah – who is often quoted in BBC reports – put out a statement which included the following:
‘“We express our strong condemnation and outrage at this frenzied campaign [against President Mahmoud Abbas] for just quoting academic and historical quotations,” Abu Rudeineh said, giving no further details.’
The PA prime minister – another regular contributor to BBC content – came up with an antisemitic conspiracy theory of his own:
Former BBC regular Abdel Bari Atwan similarly promoted the notion of “a fierce campaign” against Abbas run by “[t]he Zionist Jewish lobbies and their allies in Europe”.
While there is nothing novel about Abbas’ latest outburst, it remains to be seen whether that topic – and the wider issue of PA officials leaping to defend his antisemitism – will now finally find its way into the BBC’s Palestinian territories profile or its coverage of future stories such as his upcoming speech at the United Nations.
Martin, you haven't read the confession of Haim Shur (Leader of Israel's peace camp) who said [Maariv, June 6, 2001]: "the Palestinians deceived me personally and the entire Israeli Left as well. They lied to us, they scammed us, maneuvered and manipulated us. Personally, I…
— Judea Pearl (@yudapearl) September 12, 2023
His doctoral thesis was an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Were you drunk for those entire three decades? https://t.co/E7xUD23trl
— Noam Blum 🚡 (@neontaster) September 11, 2023
Ali, of Electronic QUNTifada, is correct. It is not the job of Palestinians to apologise for their elected leaders.
— Qunts News Network (@QuntsNews) September 11, 2023
However, this QUNT rightly expects all Jews, wherever they live, to repent for every historical Isr*eli leader, or face accusations of slaughtering babies.
✌🏾🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/SvfQ8zy0Bl
Mohammed El-Kurd is refusing to sign a letter condemning PA Pres Mahmoud Abbas' Holocaust denial. Why? He can't "distinguish w/surgical precision between Zionists & Jews." There is no need to explain, Mohammed. We know when you say you hate Zionists, you mean Jews. WATCH https://t.co/jELlOCaszq pic.twitter.com/6sYQ9dwSDC
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) September 11, 2023
This is how Congress can protect US Jews in the coming New Year
Ahead of the new Jewish New Year, the Orthodox Union is partnering with the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and the ADL for a Capitol Hill briefing alerting our leaders to the threats faced by the Jewish community and the importance of security funding.At least 49 synagogues have been evacuated due to bomb threats in the last 2 months. Next up, the High Holidays.
The briefing aims to alert lawmakers to the threat our community faces daily. Whether it’s children on their way to school, fathers coming home from synagogue on a Friday night, or young adults on America’s college campuses, none of these groups should face the constant threats and attacks targeted at them.
There are other steps Congress must take to combat today’s antisemitism. On American university campuses, antisemitic incidents continue and make Jewish students feel unsafe and marginalized.
The House and Senate Committees on Education should hold hearings and shine a spotlight on university campus administrations that are responding properly, and on those who are failing to do so. And, Congress should pass the Stop Anti-Semitism on College Campuses Act, sponsored by Congressman Lawler (R-NY) and Congressman Gottheimer (D-NJ).
Antisemitism has been around for centuries and is never going to be fully erased. But American Jews are blessed to live in a country where the national leadership is committed to combating antisemitism and ensuring, in the words of president George Washington, that every American Jew will be able to “sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall make him afraid.”
On Rosh Hashanah, the start of a fresh new year, we have the custom of eating round challah bread as a symbol of the cyclical nature of the calendar. There is both continuation and renewed hope.
Today, a united Jewish community is calling on Congress to take action to make this promise more real.
We pray that they will and that the New Year will be one of safety and blessing for all.
At least two more synagogues in the United States evacuated their congregants over the weekend following bomb threats, the latest in a series of such calls that have put dozens of congregations on high alert heading into the High Holidays.UNESCO Vote Highlights Continued UN Bias Against Israel
One of the synagogues was threatened during the pre-Rosh Hashanah Selichot services on Saturday night, in a sign that the perpetrators of the wave of attacks are paying careful attention to when synagogues are holding events before calling in their threats.
Since mid-July, at least 49 synagogues in 13 states have received the threatening calls, none of which have been linked to credible bomb threats, according to the Anti-Defamation League. That was up from 26 congregations four weeks ago —and the ADL expects the threats to continue when the High Holidays begin with the start of Rosh Hashanah on Friday evening.
“Every weekend this network of swatters continues to identify targets and are calling in fake bomb threats,” Oren Segal, vice president of the ADL’s Center on Extremism, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, using a term referring to pranks that draw out a large number of police officers. “So that number is increasing and will potentially keep increasing.”
Segal said the calls are part of a coordinated campaign orchestrated by antisemitic trolls and focused on synagogues that livestream their services, so the perpetrators can watch reactions to the threats in real time. But he noted that some institutions have been targeted even though they don’t livestream their events, and that the culprits are also developing a growing interest in non-Jewish institutions such as mosques and Black churches.
The synagogues that received bomb threats this weekend were Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, California, in the Bay Area, and Congregation B’nai Israel in St. Petersburg, Florida. In both cases, the synagogues emptied out as police conducted full safety sweeps of the premises.
In one of the latest examples [of anti-Israel bias], UNESCO recently announced it will vote on whether to designate the city of Jericho as a "Palestinian" heritage site.Jericho is NOT a Palestinian Heritage Site
This is a clear attack on Christians and Jews, who also view the city as an important part of their cultural and religious history. The Biden administration should object to this designation and protest UNESCO's clear bias strongly.
[A]s former U.S. Ambassador to the UN and former National Security Advisor John Bolton advised in his strong article, "Biden's foolish rush to rejoin UNESCO has nothing to do with China": "Congress should firmly block any UNESCO funding, as it has consistently done."
Rather than building a culture of peace, UNESCO is perpetuating a culture of anger and division.
By exiting UNESCO again, the U.S. would send a clear message that it will not tolerate the organization's anti-Israel bias and that it will stand up to other racist and anti-Semitic actions at the UN.
The deeply corrupt, highly politicized United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will vote later this week on declaring Jericho, an ancient Jewish city, a "World Heritage Site in Palestine."NGO Monitor: EU NGO Funding for the West Bank and Gaza in 2022
The Palestinian Authority submitted a nomination of Jericho, which it wants to rename Tell es-Sultan.
UNESCO's purpose is to promote "international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication and information" which it is supposed to do through "knowledge sharing and the free flow of ideas." Nowhere does it say that UNESCO has the least right to meddle in ongoing conflicts and create make-believe "facts" on the ground.
This illegitimate imposition is not the first time that UNESCO is putting on display its anti-Israel bias, penchant for faking history and an impressive tradition of lying.
In 2010, UNESCO renamed the Jewish site of Rachel's Tomb the "Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque," stating that it was part of "occupied Palestine."" ... At the time, only the US voted against these straight-faced falsifications of Jewish history.
In 2016, UNESCO declared Jerusalem's Temple Mount – site of the two biblical Jewish temples – "a Muslim holy site of worship" and mentioned it only by its Islamic names, the "Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif." It also renamed the Western Wall -- a retaining wall which is all that remains of the Jewish Second Temple that was destroyed by the Roman Legions in 70 CE -- "Al-Buraq Plaza".
PFLP Ties, Glorification of Violence, the “Apartheid” Libel, and anti-Israel CampaignsInternal EU paper contains antisemitic tropes, Jewish group claims
Analysis of grants to Palestinian and international organizations operating in the West Bank and Gaza in 2022 highlights the EU’s continued funding for NGOs linked to the EU-designated terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and/or that glorify violence.
Additionally, the EU funded NGOs that delegitimize Israel, accuse it of “apartheid,” campaign to discredit the IHRA working definition on antisemitism, and promote discriminatory BDS campaigns. In particular, the EU is a major supporter of UN agencies and associated NGOs that lead a concerted effort to generate international sanctions against the IDF.
This report analyzes 17 grants, totaling approximately €18.7 million.
As noted in this report, many/most of the grantees have been supported by the EU for a number of years, under different project titles and objectives and provide input to EU policy makers.
This funding contrasts directly with repeated EU statements and policy declarations that, ostensibly, deny funding to terror-linked groups, and to those advancing hate-speech and antisemitism. For example:
A June 2020 letter from the Office of the President of the European Commission to NGO Monitor states, “[EU] rules make the participation of entities, individuals or groups affiliated linked or supporting terrorist organisations incompatible with any EU funding.”
Similarly, a June 2020 letter from Josep Borrell, Vice President of the European Commission to a number of MEPs reaffirms that “specific clauses have been introduced in individual grant agreements, obliging every beneficiary managing EU funds to refrain from engaging in incitement to violence or hatred. These rules make the participation of entities, individuals or groups affiliated, linked to or supporting terrorist organisations incompatible with any EU funding.”
In May 2023, the European Parliament adopted a budgetary resolution calling on the European Commission to create a “public blacklist of NGOs, excluded from access to EU funds and institutions” if they “engaged in activities such as hate speech, incitement to terrorism, religious extremism or misused EU funds.”
In 2019, the European Commission introduced an additional anti-terror regulation in its contracts with NGOs.
In January 2021, the EC published a Handbook for the practical use of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, urging institutions to “ensure that funding does not go to entities and projects that promote antisemitism or other forms of hate.”
A recent internal European Union paper denigrates Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, referring to his Jewish background and employing derogatory antisemitic themes, according to the European Jewish Association.Honoring distorters of FDR's response to the Holocaust
The European External Action Service (EEAS), the E.U.’s diplomatic service, sent out an Aug. 16 working paper titled “Ukraine territorial integrity—additional information.” According to the EJA, the paper identifies Abramovich’s faith, though it’s unrelated to the issues discussed, then belittles his attachment to that faith and finally claims he took orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin to undermine the Russian Jewish Congress.
The EJA sent a letter of protest to the European Commission Coordinator on combating antisemitism Katharina von Schnurbein, pointing out the offending passages.
Perhaps the most controversial section states:
“Abramovich, as the main shareholder of Omsk Bacon, found nothing wrong to benefit from the annual slaughter of 300,000 pigs. Yet he also followed Yeltsin’s and later Putin’s instructions to finance a Chadissic [sic] counter-organization against the Russian Jewish Congress, which … had in their view become too powerful as an internationally well-connected lobby.”
In the letter of complaint, EJA Vice Chairman Alexander Benjamin wrote: “A Jewish background, already mentioned needlessly, is slurred even further by calling into question his very faith because of his business interests in pig slaughtering.
This week’s mail brought two particularly interesting items. One was an announcement that a Jewish organization plans to honor two filmmakers for their recent Holocaust documentary. The other was a scholarly Holocaust journal that includes information which shatters one of the major claims of that very film.
The honorees, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, co-directed the recent Ken Burns documentary, “The U.S. and the Holocaust.” In the opening minutes of the film, the narrator asserts that from 1933 to 1945, the Roosevelt administration admitted “some 225,000 refugees from Nazi terror, more than any other sovereign nation took in.”
Burns, Novick and Botstein have repeated that claim, word for word, in numerous interviews during the past year. It’s not just a statistic. It’s an attempt to defend FDR’s reputation. It’s a way of saying “Sure, President Roosevelt didn’t save everybody, but he didn’t abandon the Jews—he took in more than anybody else.”
Even if that statement were true, it’s a strange argument to make. Roosevelt’s response to the Holocaust should not be minimized or excused just because other world leaders also did much less than they could have. It’s not exactly impressive if the president of a country claiming to represent high ideals of humanitarianism had been slightly more generous in admitting refugees than various despots and dictators around the world.
But what makes the Burns-Novick-Botstein claim about FDR and refugees all the more troubling is that it’s not even true.
The first clue that there’s something suspicious about the Burns-Novick-Bostein claim is its awkward wording. The phrase “any other sovereign nation” sticks out like a sore thumb. Ordinarily, one would say, “any other country.” Why insert the word “sovereign”?
In an interview with The Daily Beast last year, Burns explained the strange choice of words. Responding to criticism of his handling of the immigration statistics, Burns admitted he uses the term “sovereign nation” in order to distinguish Jewish refugee immigration to America from the fact that “people escaped to other places, like Palestine.”
But why would Burns want to disqualify Palestine from the conversation? Why resort to a technicality about sovereignty, in order to push Palestine out of the discussion? Why does sovereignty matter?
Part 2:https://t.co/mXbZSmS66j
— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) September 12, 2023
The media won’t tell you why there are no Jews in Arab countries
The re-opening of the renovated Ben Ezra synagogue in Old Cairo was reported in the international press, but Michael Berenhaus, writing in American Thinker, notes that the media never mention why there are no Jews left in Arab countries (there are three in Egypt). He takes aim at CNN for omitting the reason: ethnic cleansing. Professor Yoram Meital of Ben Gurion University, an expert on Egyptian-Jewish heritage, has also criticised CNN for inaccuracies in its report (Facebook, 4 September). The Egyptian authorities failed to invite Magda Haroun, the nominal head of the ‘community’, to the opening ceremony (he claims), and declined to report her response. (With thanks: Boruch)As Musk and the ADL duke it out, critics within both camps settle old scores
Berenhaus writes:
In CNN’s “One of the world’s oldest synagogues reopens in Egypt” (9/6/23), the article gives background information on the synagogue, stating that it was “home to the most significant single trove of Jewish manuscripts.”
In addition, the article states that “Egypt’s Jewish population exceeded 80,000 people in 1948, but only about a dozen Jews remain in the country today.” But the article doesn’t answer the next logical question: why are so few Jews left? If CNN is going to report the staggering reduction, why not report why that occurred? Similar stories of an emptying of indigenous Jews exist for virtually every northern African country, and similarly, major new sources omit the reason. There were tens of thousands of Jews throughout each northern African country. And then they were gone!
They didn’t just magically disappear; they were ethnically cleansed! The millennia-long world hatred of Jews occurred in northern Africa, as it did everywhere else — but the media fail to report it.
Several Jewish pundits with critical attitudes toward the ADL have seized on the Greenblatt-Musk fight as an opportunity to air their grievances about the nonprofit.Ramaswamy Campaign Chairman, a 9/11 Truther, Welcomed Candidate to Granite State on Eve of Sept. 11 Anniversary
“Let’s be clear about the ADL, it’s a progressive interest group that proclaims that it’s speaking in the name of Jewish causes, which is untrue,” conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who is an Orthodox Jew, said on September 6 on his podcast “The Ben Shapiro Show” on his Daily Wire media platform.
Ron Coleman, an Orthodox Jewish lawyer from New York and an anti-censorship advocate, called the ADL under Greenblatt “merely a tax-exempt cadre of the national Democratic Party,” in a September 5 op-ed in Newsweek about the feud with Musk.
Coleman, who had volunteered with the ADL in the 1980s and 1990s, told The Times of Israel that the ADL was “as nonpartisan as could reasonably be” under Abe Foxman, the organization’s former director, whom Greenblatt succeeded in 2015. “Foxman took great pride in this relative nonpartisanship,” Coleman said.
That changed, Coleman said, with the 2016 election of Donald Trump as US president. The ADL, which called for Trump to be removed from office and condemned him repeatedly for alleged racism, “jumped on Trump in a manner that was entirely consistent with what a Democratic proxy would be expected to do,” Coleman said.
But whereas Trump is a right-wing politician with some appeal among ultranationalists, “it was with Raichik that the ADL really showed its hand,” Coleman said. “This showed how the ADL’s mission creep has merged with the identity politics of the left, such that someone who treads on these perceived interests like Chaya is punished not because it has any effect on anything.”
Conservative Jews and other Jews have also accused the ADL of preferring to act tough on right-wing antisemitism while downplaying left-wing expressions of anti-Jewish racism and of ignoring the singling out of Haredi Jews, including in New York over noncompliance within that community of emergency guidelines during the COVID-19 crisis.
A spokesperson for the ADL did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the criticisms concerning Raichik.
On its website, the ADL addresses allegations that it is partisan under a section titled “Myths & Facts About ADL.” It reads: “ADL deliberately avoids partisanship. ADL calls out antisemitism on both the left and the right.”
Just as the ADL-X fight is allowing ADL’s Jewish critics an opportunity to revisit their criticisms of Greenblatt’s performance, it is doing the same for centrists and dyed-in-the-wool conservatives who have issues with Musk generally, and his approach to the ADL specifically.
“By singling out the ADL as being especially responsible for suppressing free speech, he has stirred up a hornets’ nest,” Philip Klein, the editor of the conservative National Review Online, wrote in a September 7 op-ed. “Those who see Jews as uniquely responsible for all the world’s ills are now pointing to Musk’s comments about the ADL as validation.”
After Musk accused the ADL of being “the biggest generators of anti-Semitism on this platform” by demanding that accounts be banned, the Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg, who has written critically about the ADL and about antisemitism on the left, took issue.
In a September 6 op-ed, Rosenberg accused Musk of promulgating an ancient antisemitic trope, namely the “conceit that Jews cause themselves to be persecuted.”
Ramaswamy named Fenton as his New Hampshire campaign co-chairman earlier this month. Fenton has published many Twitter posts questioning the 9/11 attacks.GOP-led states EXPAND investigation into financial investment firm Morningstar for anti-Israel bias as they focus on taking down ESG 'activists'
"The ‘official story’ for 9-11 is that a passport fell out of the hijackers pocket and was thrown free of the fireball to float to the ground and be found by an anonymous person who immediately gave it to the FBI," wrote Fenton on Monday, alongside a video of someone waving a passport in front of footage of the burning World Trade Center, which appeared to mock the claim.
"So you watch the video of the plane hitting—the massive fireball—the collapse of millions of tons of debris into a dust cloud that lasted for days—where the dust was still around blocks away for a year and still believe the passport floated to the ground?" wrote Fenton in March.
He also expressed doubts about the "official story" in August, prompting one of his followers to ask: "If it was a conspiracy, would that mean it’s one orchestrated by Republicans?"
"Probably," responded Fenton. "GW Bush was one of the worst presidents we’ve ever had."
In another post, Fenton called the limited video footage of the attack on the Pentagon "extremely suspicious" and challenged his followers to "Show me a video of plane hitting."
"Just asking a basic & very reasonable question," wrote Fenton. "Why is there no footage of the plane hitting other than a few frames from a convenience store?"
"The ‘official story’ has zero footage from the pentagon. Can you explain this?" he added.
After another Twitter user responded that "Everyone [in the building] saw the plane crash into the Pentagon," Fenton said he still wasn’t persuaded.
"Your claim is just so incredulous I’m making sure I’m understanding it," he wrote. "Got it. You claim that they took all the—likely hundreds—of cameras in a massive section of the pentagon right before this claim of it being hit by a plane. Wow. Is that the official US version of truth?"
In other posts, Fenton slammed the U.S. government’s response to 9/11.
"The reaction to 9-11 was far worse than the attacks," he wrote in 2021.
Fenton is a vocal critic of Israel, as well. He posted in July that "Israel is an apartheid state." He also objected to U.S. military aid to Israel—a contentious position that Ramaswamy also said he held before shifting his stance in late August.
"Despite U.S. politicians sending billions of U.S. taxpayer worker wages to Israel, an already rich country and despite the massively powerful AIPAC and other lobbies, most Americans have no clue what the conflict is about," wrote Fenton.
Three GOP-led states are ramping up their probe into financial services firm Morningstar over alleged anti-Israel bias.Israeli abducted in Iraq is a Mossad spy, say disgraced UK academic, former MP
Morningstar used 'deception, fraud, false promises, misrepresentations, unfair practices, and/or the concealment, suppression, or omission of material facts,' the state attorneys general of Alabama, Kentucky and Montana say.
Specifically, they accuse the company of issuing 'unfavorable controversy ratings' for six Israeli companies that do business in the West Bank.
'ESG scores are heralded to consumers as a carefully-crafted set of objective criteria used to inform profitable investing, but what we've seen is that these scores are simply an ideologically-driven tool used to deceive consumers and harm companies that display even a modicum of adherence to traditional American values, including the support of Israel,' Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall told DailyMail.com.
'My colleagues and I will continue to use the tools available to us to demand transparency for consumers when it comes to ESG investing.'
Last year, 19 states first launched an investigation into Morningstar for its controversial environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, including anti-Israel bias in its investment rating system.
The company is accused of violating anti-Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) laws. The BDS movement pushes to boycott companies and institutions that support Israel by encouraging banks not to invest there.
However, a Morningstar spokesperson told DailyMail.com that it does not support the BDS movement and has had 'substantive and productive' meetings with organizations concerned that its ESG research 'reflected biases.'
'Our research today is even stronger and more consistent for the investors we serve. Among the changes we’ve made, we have enhanced our approach to using sources, clarified the human rights guidance that underpins aspects of our research, unified oversight of our methodologies, and improved the language we use.'
The spokesperson continued to say they have received the inquiries from the GOP-led states and the company 'will address each inquiry through the appropriate procedural mechanisms.'
Kidnapped Russian-Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov is a spy, British sociologist David Miller and former MP Chris Williamson claimed in recent posts on X.Labour reaches settlement with nine whistleblowers in antisemitism legal battle
Tsurkov, who was researching in Iraq on behalf of Princeton University, was abducted by Hezbollah in March. As the Jerusalem Post reported in July, senior Israeli diplomats have denied that Tsurkov is working for Israeli intelligence.
“Did you know the father of Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Russian-Israeli missing in Iraq, was part of an Israeli intelligence plot in the Soviet Union to recruit settlers for Palestine?”, David Miller posted on September 11.Did you know the father of Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Russian-Israeli missing in Iraq, was part of an Israeli intelligence plot in the Soviet Union to recruit settlers for Palestine?
— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) September 11, 2023
They claimed a "new red anti-Semitism" as in this book from Commentary (1953).
Sound familiar? https://t.co/af8uQnTUqS pic.twitter.com/urOSSMLDA2
Miller also shared an article he wrote for PressTV claiming that “she had been in military intelligence while in the Israeli occupation forces during the 2006 Lebanon war and that she had remained in the Israeli military reserves until at least August 2011.”
As evidence of his claims, Miller draws attention to the fact that Tsurkov entered Iraq using her Russian passport and did not draw attention to her Israeli citizenship. He does not mention it is illegal for Israelis to enter Iraq, which would have been a reason Tsurkov did not reveal her citizenship.
Miller went on to state that her visit to Lebanon is more evidence that Tsurkov was not entering Iraq for academic reasons.
“Tsurkov engaged in research and advocacy in support of regime change in Syria, working directly with organizations known to be Western intelligence cutouts or proxies including Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and an apparent CIA cut out, New Lines,” Miller wrote
Williamson, the former Member of Parliament for Derby in the United Kingdom, shared Miller’s article and added the text “Was Elizabeth Tsurkov an innocent Princeton University PhD student doing field research in Iraq, or was she spying for Mossad, MI6 or the CIA?”
Labour have reached a settlement with nine whistleblowers who sued the party after their names appeared in a leaked antisemitism report.Silence of the Lambs: Dissecting the Failure of Jewish Studies Programs
The case involves nine individuals whose details were leaked in an 850-page report intended for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) which was investigating Labour in 2020.
The JC understands the nine whistleblowers and Labour have reached an out of court settlement. A notice of discontinuance has been filed with the High Court.
The 850-page report, which was never submitted to the watchdog, was leaked shortly after Sir Keir Starmer replaced Jeremy Corbyn as leader in April 2020.
The whistleblowers, who were all members of Labour Against Antisemitism, claimed the party breached their data protection rights and left them open to vicious online attacks including chilling “calls to action” from neo-Nazi groups.
In a separate case, 21 claimants are suing the party for breaching their data protection rights and for defamation.
The JC previously reported that Labour had called in an independent mediator to try and find a way of ending the litigation.
Legal experts have said the series of cases could cost millions in costs and payouts were it to lose them.
Mediation sessions with the groups of claimants were understood to have taken place over the next few weeks in the hope of reaching a settlement.
In August 2017, after the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, and in October 2018, after the Tree of Life mass shooting, there was an outpouring of anger and grief from Jewish studies faculty across U.S. colleges.
This suddenly changed in May 2021, during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, when Israel’s alleged crimes prompted threats and violence in the United States and Europe against Jews. This time, the response from Jewish faculty was a collective letter from over two hundred self-professed Jewish studies experts blaming Israel for all that had transpired.
This harsh reaction raised an alarming question: To what extent are Jewish studies professors propagating anti-Israel narratives for political purposes in their classroom, given that they do so in public? Many in the wider Jewish community have come to believe that this is now a widespread phenomenon.
But is it true? Are Jewish studies professors imposing their politics in the classroom? It’s impossible to know for sure. Until recently, most anti-Zionist indoctrination came from outside of Jewish studies, from courses in ethnic studies, Middle Eastern studies, disability studies, women’s and gender studies, and other such programs—programs that have all become trendy in recent years because they are grounded in identity politics and a commitment to advocate for social justice at the expense of critical inquiry.
What we do know is that in refusing to push back against this perversion of education emanating from virtually every corner of the humanities, Jewish studies faculty have failed.
Whenever events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict heat up and the academy singles out Israel, Jewish studies faculty either remain silent or publicly side with the anti-Zionists, much as they did in May 2021, when they issued a statement unilaterally condemning Israel, ignoring Hamas terrorism, and offering nothing but a rather anodyne rejection of all “expressions of antisemitism or Islamophobia.”
But denouncing Islamophobia in the same breath that you condemn antisemitism, at a time when Hamas apologists were harassing and attacking Jews in the streets of America, then you are saying “All Lives Matter” to the Jews. You are siding with the antisemites. As an insider who saw earlier drafts of this statement, I know that the condemnation of antisemitism was an eleventh-hour insertion because its authors had received pushback on social media, including from me.
ACTION ALERT🚨- antisemites are being given a stage at UPenn during the holiest time of the year for the Jewish people and YOUR help is needed!
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 12, 2023
The 'Palestine Writes Literature' Festival is an annual event claiming it's "dedicated to celebrating and promoting cultural… pic.twitter.com/dRW7KDwtLr
‘Jews Are The Problem’: Former US Congresswoman Promotes Antisemitic-Black Nationalist Crossover Event
Cynthia McKinney, a former US congresswoman and 2008 presidential nominee for the Green Party, on Monday promoted a livestream event featuring notorious white supremacist David Duke and the black nationalist author of a book called Jews Are The Problem.
“I know where I’ll be and what I’ll be watching at 6:00 pm EASTERN time today!” McKinney posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Her post included a promotional image of an event with the question “Can Black people and White people work together to defeat our common enemy?” written above a large Star of David and a photo of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the US.
Duke is a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who has been described by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as “perhaps America’s most well-known racist and antisemite.”
The other co-host of the event, Ayo Kimathi, has been described by the ADL as an “antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ Black nationalist extremist” who makes appearances on podcasts and other media forums with white supremacists, often finding common ground over a shared hatred of Jews. His 2022 book, Jews Are The Problem, blames Jews for COVID-19, feminism, pornography, and a host of other real or imagined societal problems.
McKinney — who served in the US House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003 and again from 2005 to 2007 as a Georgia Democrat before running for president in 2008 as the Green Party candidate — has a long and prodigious history of promoting antisemitic and other conspiracies, including Holocaust denial.
In recent days, McKinney has also waded into the campaign backed by some white supremacists to “ban the ADL” from X, which has been bolstered by X’s billionaire owner Elon Musk.
More on this antisemitic bigot here👇 https://t.co/NmyOVb9bJi
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 11, 2023
No, we’re not surprised our former ‘Antisemite of the Week’ Anna Rajagopal is blaming the 9/11 terror attacks on America.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 11, 2023
More on Rajagopal: https://t.co/8DtyltRP28 pic.twitter.com/MjghZVlkMl
We regret to inform you that Jezza has, yet again, accidentally palled around with a sympathiser of antisemitism.
— verycentrist (@verycentrist) September 11, 2023
Why does this keep accidentally happening to him?https://t.co/Ui10HIJnHv pic.twitter.com/TJvOtCPPfE
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict According to AP
Sometimes, anti-Israel bias in the media runs so deep that it necessitates a surgical exposure of the underlying twisted assumptions that fuel it. Unfortunately, the distorted patterns of thought emerging from the Associated Press’s recent coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict merit such scrutiny.‘Settler Terrorists’: Academic Smears South African Jewish Community
These patterns fall under the general framing of the victim (Palestinians) vs. aggressor (Israel), which can also be seen through the rather infantile categories of those who are idealized vs. those who are demonized.
The idealization category includes the basic premise that Palestinians can’t be held responsible for any evil or violence, while the demonization category is based on the belief that Israel is a foreign element in their territory and therefore carries most of the blame in the conflict.
Here are just a few examples showing how AP systematically twists the facts to match those premises:
Palestinians not held responsible
When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently justified the mass extermination of Jews during the Holocaust, various officials and media outlets had no issue seeing his remarks for what they really were: gross antisemitism.
Yet AP absolved him with the following headline, suggesting he was merely (or even wrongfully) “accused” of such despicable rhetoric:No @AP, these are not "accusations" of antisemitism. Mahmoud Abbas justified the mass extermination of Jews during the Holocaust.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 10, 2023
That IS antisemitic.
No other media outlets had an issue calling his remarks antisemitic. Just you. Why is that?https://t.co/z77qV09ISq pic.twitter.com/YBbuKVLQ3F
Consciously or not, the journalist/editor who came up with this distortion couldn’t hold Palestinians responsible for any wrongdoing.
It’s even more blatant when it comes to the reporting of actual bloodshed.
In the following example of a report on an Israeli army raid, idealization and demonization join hands. AP cannot properly answer the 5 W’s of journalism (who, what, when, where, and why), because when it comes to Palestinians the ‘WHO’ is obscured: The headline doesn’t say that the Israeli forces killed Palestinian GUNMEN who fired at them. However, in a later version (which failed to correct the headline), AP easily identified a Jewish settler as responsible for “a shooting death” (in a completely separate incident):It's rare that the updates @AP make to articles leave the story less accurate than before. 🧵
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 15, 2023
1️⃣ The headline still ignores that these Palestinians were gunmen and this fact has been moved from the lede to 5 paragraphs in.
2️⃣ Headline misses this was an arrest raid. https://t.co/MCtYvEG2eM pic.twitter.com/QFclcXG1ut
Writing in the South African Daily Maverick, Alexander O’Riordan makes some bizarre and unfounded claims concerning the relationship between the South African Jewish community and violence perpetrated by settlers in the West Bank.
According to his bio, O’Riordan is a freelance political analyst and associate faculty of Royal Roads University, Canada who “works on a freelance basis largely advising the US Government, European Union and UN institutions on development cooperation. O’Riordan has also been advising on the development of joint cooperation activities in Palestine intermittently since 2010.”
‘Settler Terrorists’
O’Riordan describes “settler terrorists.” But who are they? He refers to a UK Channel 4 video clip that features West Bank residents like these:
Hardly “terrorists,” particularly given the very same Channel 4 clip includes plenty of footage of balaclava-clad Palestinians armed with assault rifles.
And where does this movement of “settler terrorists” come from according to O’Riordan?
In South Africa, France, Russia and the US, the birthplace of many of these new settler terrorists, Israel is no longer supported on university campuses and has no factory floors to recruit from. Thus the logical solution is to recruit through religious institutions.
In South Africa, this was done by Israel and its political elites through the Jewish youth movements, namely Netzer Maginim, Habonim-Dror, Betar and to a different extent Bnei Akiva (more of a religious rather than Zionist youth movement).
O’Riordan demonstrates a serious lack of background knowledge about the aforementioned Jewish youth movements that he claims, without evidence, are producing a new generation of “settler terrorists.” Netzer is the movement of Progressive Judaism and is as ideologically far from Israel’s settlement movement as is possible to be on the Zionist spectrum. Habonim-Dror‘s ideology draws on Socialist Zionism, again far removed from active support for settling the disputed territories.
While Betar is a proudly right-wing movement, O’Riordan claims Bnei Akiva to be “more of a religious rather than Zionist youth movement.” BA describes itself, however, as a “pioneering Religious Zionist youth movement.”
‘Infiltrating’ South African Synagogues
According to O’Riordan’s bizarre analysis of South African Jewry, “largely secular Zionist youth movements were able to infiltrate the synagogues and temples and recruit youth activists and organisers in support of Israel.”
Jewish youth movements “infiltrating” synagogues? Rather than a conspiracy as O’Riordan suggests, the reality is far more mundane. In most diaspora Jewish communities around the world, synagogues operate as centers of Jewish community beyond just prayer. Hardly surprising that youth movements may hold their activities in or around synagogues and that the very same Jewish children and teens whose families are members of those synagogues would look to become members of the various youth movements on offer.
Here we go again... @BBC is available to apologize for @antisemitic outbursts - after the fact. Isn’t it time for some corporate introspection inside the BBC to tackle anti-Semites in their midst?https://t.co/rcMPLGaIFT
— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) September 11, 2023
Dutch display ‘plundered art,’ including items Nazis looted from Jews
A Balinese dagger, a Rembrandt self-portrait, and Jewish silver are among artworks looted by Nazis, French revolutionaries and Dutch colonialists on display in a new exhibition in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague.Member of Goyim Defense League extradited to Netherlands after allegedly projecting antisemitic message onto Anne Frank House
The show “Loot — 10 stories” opens from Thursday, with the Mauritshuis director telling AFP it is part of Dutch efforts to come to terms with its colonial past.
“We want to make up for the injustices of the past,” said Martine Gosselink.
Visitors can see the self-portrait of Rembrandt that was one of thousands of pieces of art Adolf Hitler stole from Jewish families and hid in a huge salt mine in Austria.
The traditional dagger, or ‘Kris’, was taken as part of Dutch military campaigns in Bali in the mid-19th century.
The Netherlands has been wrestling with the legacy of its colonial past in recent years, with King Willem-Alexander issuing a historic royal apology in July for the Netherlands’ involvement in colonial-era slavery.
Also in July, the Netherlands said it would hand back nearly 500 colonial-era pieces to Indonesia and Sri Lanka, a move recommended by a government-appointed commission looking into illegal Dutch colonial “acquisitions.”
A prominent member of an American neo-Nazi group has been extradited to the Netherlands, where he will stand trial for projecting an antisemitic message onto the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
Robert Wilson is accused of being behind a February incident in which a message was laser-projected onto the house where Anne Frank hid during the Holocaust. The message read “inventor of the ballpoint pen,” a reference to a widely-debunked antisemitic conspiracy theory alleging that Frank’s famous diary is a forgery because it was originally written with a ballpoint pen, which was invented only after World War II.
Frank was discovered by the Nazis in 1944 and died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp the following year. The house where she hid is now a museum.
Wilson is scheduled to make his first court appearance in early October. Originally from Canada, he is a member of the Goyim Defense League, a prominent neo-Nazi group now based in Florida.
Wilson lived in Chula Vista, California, a suburb of San Diego, from 2016 to 2021, when he was accused of assaulting a neighbor and targeting them with homophobic slurs. Soon after the alleged assault, Wilson was accused of hanging an antisemitic banner over a San Diego freeway overpass. He fled the country before he could be prosecuted for a hate crime in the assault.
Since then Wilson has been largely based in Poland, where he holds citizenship, and where he has documented himself committing various antisemitic acts, including displaying vulgar signs directed at the Anti-Defamation League while outside the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 2022. Goyim Defense League founder Jon Minadeo Jr. also posed in the same photo, which Minadeo said led to his arrest by Polish authorities.
Wilson reportedly traveled to Amsterdam several months later, at the time of the Anne Frank House incident. His presence there was discovered by a group of Dutch citizen sleuths devoted to rooting out terrorist activities.
North Carolina - Wake County Sheriff Department arrests Robert Bernard Smith, 64, in connection with distribution of antisemitic Goyim Defense League (GDL) flyers this past weekend.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 11, 2023
These hate filled flyers targeting the Jewish people are being scattered from coast to coast. pic.twitter.com/ty3UaGSY6U
Kanye West impersonator wears ‘Jewish Lives Matter’ T-shirt at NY Fashion Week https://t.co/D3RGqX0BL8
— The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) September 12, 2023
Japan’s Sompo taps Israeli telehealth startup for medical diagnosis of the elderly
Japan’s commercial insurance provider, Sompo, has teamed up with TytoCare to deploy the Israeli telehealth startup’s artificial intelligence-based remote medical device for nursing care services of the elderly.IDF Reveals New Lifesaving Fireproof Uniform
Founded in 2012, the Netanya, Israel-based startup co-founded by CEO Dedi Gilad and COO Ofer Tzadik, has developed an FDA-cleared handheld remote medical examination device which it says can replicate the doctor’s office in the home. TytoCare’s home smart clinic device has attachments that can examine heart, lungs, skin, ears, throat and abdomen, as well as measure body temperature, allowing users to perform comprehensive physical exams.
TytoCare on Tuesday signed a commercial collaboration agreement with Sompo’s digital arm Light Vortex to install and incorporate the startup’s remote medical examination products in nursing homes and the elderly care market throughout Japan. The agreement comes after the companies recently received regulatory approval for TytoCare’s products from the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA).
Sompo’s nursing care business operates the largest chain of nursing homes for the elderly in Japan, in terms of the number of rooms. It includes 301 nursing homes with 28,500 rooms, as well as 58 day centers for the elderly and 505 centers which provide various services for the aging population.
Japan has one of the fastest-growing aging populations in the world, while birth rates are declining. About 30 percent of the population are 65 or older, and the country is faced with a shortage of nursing care professionals.
“The collaboration combines our advanced telemedicine solutions with Sompo’s commitment to making healthcare services accessible to the Japanese market, and thereby enabling a significant leap forward in the experience and quality of healthcare services for older patients,” said Gilad. “We believe that in the end we can together improve the well-being of the community and set new standards for the quality and convenience of medicine in Japan in general.”
IDF Special Forces suffered only minor burns last week during a Palestinian Authority terrorist ambush while escorting Jews on a pilgrimage to the Tomb of Joseph in Shechem. The terrorists detonated an explosive that injured several of the advance forces who were securing the route to the Tomb.How Israel became a cyber and technology superpower
But the explosive failed to severely injure the soldiers, because they were wearing new fireproof uniforms, according to an announcement Monday by the IDF.
The soldiers were also wearing special goggles that protected their eyes from flying shrapnel.
“As soon as sparks or live fire come into contact with the fabric, the fire-retardant mechanism within the fabric absorbs and extinguishes the fire, creating small holes in the uniform in a way that prevents direct contact with the skin,” says Marina Hitrik, an engineer from the technology division of the IDF.
Hitrik is the driving force behind the development of the uniforms. “I felt an immense sense of pride knowing I helped avert a disaster,” she said. “For me, every soldier is like my own child.”
The fireproof uniforms, which contain special flame retardant fibers in the fabric, are intended for use by Israel’s elite forces, the reconnaissance and special forces units who face constant attacks.
As recently released economic data confirm, high-tech in its various forms continues to play a critical role in Israel’s economic success. Gabi Siboni traces how this came about—looking especially to the role of the IDF—and examines the risks as well as benefits of the current situation:The killer edge? IDF unveils new 'Spark' drone to boost Air Force
The basic concept of security formulated by David Ben-Gurion in the early years of the state rested on three pillars: deterrence, early warning, and decisive victory. Maintaining a sizeable regular military was practically impossible, so early warning was required to gather the reserve units. This constraint obliged the IDF to establish a sophisticated intelligence system to provide early warning. The intelligence units of the IDF were required to develop diverse capabilities. The information revolution and the development of technology caused intelligence to be based more and more on technological capabilities in cyberspace.
In addition, conscription for the IDF is an essential element in developing the technological environment in Israel. The specialized units in the IDF begin the selection process at very early stages and enjoy access to the highest-quality personnel resources of the state of Israel. . . . However, there’s a catch: the youth’s pursuit of the technological units does contribute to the skills of Israeli intelligence and the state’s economy, but it harms the motivation to recruit into the fighting units.
According to an internal survey conducted in the IDF, the motivation for combat service for men in 2022 was the lowest in recent years—66 percent compared with 73 percent in 2020. For women, it was 48 percent in 2022, compared with 60 percent in 2018. The continuation of this trend is very disturbing.
A senior commander in the IDF previously stated that the decrease in motivation to serve in the field units is a result of the shift to the technological units of the best youth when the center of gravity of the service moves from the fighting field units to the special units and to those serving in the intelligence and technological units. As a result, the combat units must make do with those who failed or could not integrate into the personnel selection processes for the special units, the prestigious courses, and the technological and intelligence array.
The IDF received a new UAV during a ceremony on Sunday, the IDF announced in a release that day.
The new UAV, dubbed “Spark” comes as part of the latest “Storm Clouds” UAV array and was received by the 144th UAV Squadron at the Hatzor Air Force Base.
The 144th Squadron, upon its establishment in 1972, was originally an Israeli Air Force (IAF) combat squadron that operated aircraft such as the "Nesher", "Kfir" and "Netz."
The history of the 144th Squadron
The squadron quickly made a name for itself when, during the Yom Kippur War the year following the squadron’s establishment, it downed more than 40 enemy aircraft.
Last year, however, the IAF converted the 144th into a UAV squadron. It currently operates out of Hatzor Air Force Base in central Israel.
The “Spark” is set to take the 144th’s operational capability to the next level. According to the release, it will significantly advance the ability of IDF personnel to take effective, offensive action. Further, the IDF boasts the UAV marks “the gateway to the fifth generation of the [Storm Clouds UAV] array.”
The Spark was produced by the aeronautics subsidiary of the Israeli defense company, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and was designed to be effective in a variety of different roles such as intelligence, escort, and enemy engagement missions among others.
The IDF did not mention the specific capabilities of the new aircraft, however, it has been touted as an enormous advancement by the most senior Air Force staff.
This is a big deal for the IDF, one of several new types of systems being rolled out recently modernizing the forces for the future battlefield with unique capabilities and defense systems. pic.twitter.com/SQW5RmNx0m
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) September 12, 2023
Shimon Peres honored in Portugal
The Portugal-based International Observatory of Human Rights (Observatório Internacional de Direitos Humanos, OIDH) on Sunday honored the legacy of Israel’s former prime minister and president Shimon Peres.List names 3,000-plus Jews protected by Catholics in Rome during World War II
Peres’s family joined the Israeli ambassador to Lisbon, Jewish leaders and politicians during a ceremony in the coastal city of Porto, where OIDH President Luis Andrade presented a “certificate of homage” to the late Israeli statesman.
“Peres was an elite statesman who represents the best of Israel: Resilience, imagination, brilliance, bravery and courage,” said Andrade. “A devoted Zionist, he dedicated his life to seeing Israel born, grow, survive and shine. He is an example for the new generations of Israel in an increasingly unstable and dangerous world.”
Michael Freilich, a member of Belgium’s parliament, called Israel’s ninth president a “man whose legacy of peace and human rights continues to inspire us.”
“Having met him in 2013, I can attest to his profound impact on statesmanship and moral leadership. As we navigate today’s complex challenges, let us remember his enduring principles as a guide for building a more just and fraternal world,” he added.
For his part, Dor Shapira, Jerusalem’s ambassador in Portugal, lauded Peres’s “tireless efforts to achieve peace, his significant contributions to Israel’s security, and his role in promoting the country as a leader in innovation.”
The event was held at the local headquarters of B’nai B’rith International, one of the world’s oldest Jewish organizations.
The Lisbon-based International Observatory of Human Rights seeks to contribute to “a better world for humanity” by supporting causes that seek to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, support the sick, promote universal peace and facilitate reconciliation between peoples.”
From September 1943 through June 1944 during the Second World War, more than 150 women’s and men’s religious orders, as well as other Catholic groups, protected 4,300 people. Information has now revealed the names of those offered shelter, with the majority of them identified as Jews.The winners write the history books
Compiled by Italian Jesuit Gozzolino Birolo, the list uncovered in the archives of the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome names 3,600 people. Through comparing the names with the archives of the city’s Jewish community, researchers say at least 3,200 are Jews.
The International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem participated in the analysis. Findings were released on Sept. 7 at the Museum of the Shoah in Rome.
Estimates place Rome’s Jewish population during World War II between 10,000 to 15,000, with at least 2,000 murdered during the Nazis’ occupation of the city.
Names from the list have not yet been released; family members and descendants will likely receive notification first.
Ironically, a book that just might hold one of the most important messages of our time is least likely to be read.
“The Great Revolt” by Dr. Michael Ben Ari tells of one of the most dramatic times in Jewish history: the Jewish revolt against Rome that ultimately led to the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE), exile, and the loss of the Jewish homeland until it’s reestablishment almost two thousand years later (1948).
This pivotal moment in history has been discussed by many people. Interestingly, the story is always told a certain way, from a very specific perspective.
Dr. Ben Ari tells the story differently and therein lies the importance of this book.
Standard discussions about the Great Revolt are based on the accounting of Josephus Flavius. The explanation of what led to the destruction of the Temple and the shattering of Jewish life, culture, and sovereignty is repeated without question, so much so that it has become a trope: “baseless hatred between brothers [between Jews] led to the destruction.”
Dr. Ben Ari, a historian with a Ph.D. in Land of Israel and Archaeology studies, a rabbi and teacher brings the perspective of the Jewish rebels while raising many questions about the “history” we thought we knew: Why did the Jews revolt against Rome? Did they not understand that they had no chance against the all-powerful empire? Why did the Romans feel it necessary to obliterate the culture of our tiny nation? Who were the rebels? Did baseless hatred cause the revolt to fail? Whose baseless hatred?
As I read the book, I felt horror growing inside me.
By bringing alternative historical sources Dr. Ben Ari tells a story of Jewish rebellion that most of us have never heard. Most importantly he explains the sources of rebellion and the connection between rebellion and sovereignty – a message of utmost importance and obvious parallels to current events in Israel (which echo in America as well).
The Nation of Israel is a nation divided. In ancient times there were those who wanted to belong to the greater empire, placing individual comfort over traditions that root us in this Land. Today we also have those who prefer individual comforts, wishing to be part of the “family of Nations,” unconcerned (or even feeling repelled) by the ancient and tribal traditions that make our family a Nation, separate and unique. Today, like the ancient story of the Revolt, we are receiving our “knowledge” about who we are as a People, our past, and even our future through the filter of other people who have a vested interest in fostering certain beliefs about who we are, what we are capable of and what we deserve.
56 years later: Mystery IDF soldier of iconic shofar photo identified
In the aftermath of the Six Day War, a resonating image made its way across the nation: a snapshot of an unidentified soldier sounding a shofar at the Western Wall. This touching scene was immortalized as a Rosh Hashanah card, reaching countless households.
Yet for 56 years, the identity of the soldier remained enigmatic. Now, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the tale unwinds with the revelation of 81-year-old Ya’acov Cohen.
The shofar’s deep call at the Western Wall became an emblematic moment of the war. Captured in a multitude of photos, one particularly stood out – a soldier, visibly moved, blowing the shofar. This photo, showcased in the IDF’s Bamahaneh magazine and international outlets, also inspired a Rosh Hashanah card. The artistic rendition even adorned the soldier with a red beret.
Who was this mysterious IDF soldier? Untangling a mystery since the Six Day War
The mystery began to unravel during a recent tour at the Ammunition Hill National Heritage Site in Jerusalem, where Cohen reminisced about his past, recounting his time as a reserve soldier and a heartfelt journey to deliver a Torah scroll to the Western Wall. En route, an elder handed him a shofar. Cohen made a promise to honor his wishes. Days later, to his surprise, his image was everywhere, including on the treasured Rosh Hashanah card.
“It deeply moved me,” he said.
Ammunition Hill National Heritage Site CEO Ketri Ma’oz said: “The tale of the shofar at the Western Wall has remained a captivating narrative. It stands as a symbol of the Six Day War. With Ya’acov’s story, we not only unveil a mystery but also enrich our historical understanding for future generations.”
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. Read all about it here! |
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