Thursday, September 14, 2023

09/14 Links Pt2: Missionaries in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem; SJP Neglects the Plight of Palestinians in Lebanon; Bayard Rustin Was a Man of Courage and Principle

From Ian:

'Because it's just and right'
The compelling story behind US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocating its Embassy in a remarkable book. Review.

Using the words "because it's just and right" when referring to the reasons for a governmental or political decision seems like a hallucinatory phrase or something from outer space. We, sadly, have come to expect the motivations of those making decisions or opposing them to be petty and paltry, selfish and grasping, political party fueled, power hungry, expedient, media-aimed, and often corrupt (I am sure there are more modifiers that I have forgotten) – but who even talks about "just and right?" Are there still statesmen who ponder what is just, ask themselves what is the right thing to do, and put other considerations aside?

Leonard Grunstein and Farley Weiss engaged in an astounding amount of research to write an absorbing and detailed book describing a process led by leaders who did exactly that, who were guided by their unwavering understanding that this was the "just and right" thing to do. And while I can only praise the authors' prodigious accomplishment in thoroughly and clearly describing the "Untold Back-Story of the US Recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem" (the subtitle of the book), and while there is an enormous amount of knowledge and understanding to be gained from reading it, I was mesmerized reading the words of those men who dedicated themselves to doing what is "just and right."

The authors, whose contribution to our knowledge of the long term process and politics involved in reaching the decision to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is immense, make sure to give these principled leaders their due, awakening hope that right can one day triumph. Liberally peppering their introductory words with wisdom from Ethics of the Fathers, they conclude that "sometimes, things do work out." And that is because the figures involved were not naïve novices trying to do the right thing, but political pros who knew how to get the right things done.

Chapter IV, which elucidates the fascinating dynamics of the Embassy Act's passing, quotes some of these special lawmakers at length. Read how US Senator John Kyl of Arizona, who originated the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act and chose to talk of Jerusalem in his first major foreign policy speech in Congress, later declared in a letter to Sec. of State Warren Christopher: "The United States is not neutral about Jewish rights in the ancient Jewish homeland or in Jerusalem. I believe the key to our diplomatic effectiveness is...our power and loyalty to our friends and principles." Words that should be etched in stone.
Bassem Eid: SJP Neglects the Plight of Palestinians in Lebanon
As a Palestinian human rights activist, I am often disappointed by how many purported proponents of our cause are, in fact, so blinded by animus against one of our neighbors – Israel – that they ignore the suffering our people have endured for decades elsewhere. Why do organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) blacken our cause by indulging in rank antisemitism and yet have absolutely nothing to say about the real suffering that stateless Palestinians undergo in countries like Lebanon?

This concern, which was recently in the news again, is the large Palestinian refugee population in Lebanon that cannot even be called second-class citizens because they have been totally excluded from Lebanese society. The estimated 250,000 Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon, many in permanent ‘refugee’ camps that have been kept in place since 1948, face “restrictions on their right to work, own property, or obtain Lebanese citizenship.”

The Ain el-Hilweh camp in Southern Lebanon, on the outskirts of the ancient Phoenician city of Sidon, has since July been rocked by violence between secular and Islamist factions, which led in that month to “at least 13 dead and dozens wounded, and forced hundreds to flee from their homes.” The latest round of clashes on September 11, 2023, led to the deaths of ten people and wounded dozens more, including five Lebanese Army soldiers trying to restore order. The largest Palestinian Islamist terror faction, which has not officially taken part in the fighting, has reportedly sent representatives to Beirut to try to resolve the struggles – or, more cynically, to take advantage of them.

In contrast, many Palestinians are full citizens and members of Israeli society, which leads one to question the motives of groups like SJP, which is so removed from genuine pro-Palestinian advocacy that it has gone so far as to call for the expulsion of the Jewish student group Hillel from campus. Perhaps this is because SJP is, in many ways, a front group for an antisemitic and rabidly anti-Israel organization called American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), with which it shares personnel and resources.
Bayard Rustin Was a Man of Courage and Principle, Not a Hero of Intersectionality
A close confidant of Martin Luther King, Jr., Bayard Rustin was the chief organizer of the march on Washington where King gave his “I have a dream” speech. Because he was a black leftist as well as an open homosexual, he is today often hailed from the perspective of “intersectionality”—a school of thought fixated on hierarchies of victimhood, and one that inevitably turns its adherents against the Jews. Such a tendentious use of Rustin’s legacy does little justice to his own thinking, writes James Kirchick. Instead, Kirchick focuses on Rustin’s “intellectual fearlessness” and “resistance to party dogma,” which led him to become fiercely anti-Communist while remaining a socialist, break with his youthful pacificism, perceptively criticize black radicals, and maintain a staunch commitment to Zionism:

Mr. Rustin repeatedly said that if he had been aware of the Holocaust during World War II, he most likely would not have become a conscientious objector. . . . Yet another source of antagonism between Mr. Rustin and the left was his outspoken opposition to anti-Semitism within the Black community and fervent support for the state of Israel. “So far as Negroes are concerned,” he wrote in 1967, responding to an eruption of anti-Semitic statements by radical Black activists, “one of the more unprofitable strategies we could ever adopt is now to join in history’s oldest and most shameful witch hunt, anti-Semitism.” The following year, in an address to the Anti-Defamation League, Mr. Rustin condemned “young Negroes spouting material directly from Mein Kampf.”

In 1975, as the United Nations General Assembly was preparing its infamous resolution condemning Zionism as a “form of racism,” Mr. Rustin assembled a group of African American luminaries including A. Philip Randolph, Arthur Ashe, and Ralph Ellison into the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC). “Since Israel is a democratic state surrounded by essentially undemocratic states which have sworn her destruction, those interested in democracy everywhere must support Israel’s existence,” he declared.

A descendant of slaves who was himself a victim of brutally violent racism, Mr. Rustin never let his country’s many sins overshadow his belief in its capacity for positive change. His patriotism was unfashionable among progressives while he was alive and is even more exceptional today. “I have seen much suffering in this country,” he said. “Yet despite all this, I can confidently assert that I would prefer to be a black in America than a Jew in Moscow, a Chinese in Peking, or a black in Uganda, yesterday or today.”

Asked to contribute to an anthology of Black gay men the year before his death, Mr. Rustin respectfully declined. “My activism did not spring from my being gay, or for that matter, from my being black,” he wrote. “Rather it is rooted, fundamentally, in my Quaker upbringing and the values that were instilled in me by my grandparents who reared me. Those values are based on the concept of a single human family and the belief that all members of that family are equal.”


David Collier: Missionaries in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem
A recent video on social media that received 9 million views appears to show - according to those who shared it - two Christian women being abused in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem by Orthodox Jews, mostly children.

The intention of this video was to make people believe innocent Christian tourists are being abused in Israel.

In fact, they were not tourists at all, but part of an extremist Christian mission to "spread the truth" to Jews and Muslims in Israel.

Another video shows one of the women calling Mohammed a liar and telling Jews the Talmud was a "wicked book."

Why wouldn't religious people get angry if someone comes to their doorstep to insult them?

If this were taking place anywhere else, these people would immediately be called out for their insensitive provocations.


PMW: The UN must recognize the 1000's of Israelis murdered by Palestinians as victims of religious violence
As the world this week remembered the Islamist Al-Qaeda terror attack on the US on Sept. 11, 2001, it is important to remember that one of the longest ongoing terror campaigns in history - the PLO/PA’s terror against Israel - is likewise a religious war for Allah against Jews and Israel.

The world finds it significant to highlight the danger of religious wars and the UN has designated August 22 as the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. While the Palestinian Authority tells the international community that it kills Israelis on nationalistic grounds, it tells its own people that killing Israelis and Jews is for Allah, it is therefore critical that the UN recognize Palestinian terror as terror based on religion and condemn it as it condemns religious violence worldwide.

Some recent announcements by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party make it clear that not only the Muslim Brotherhood’s terror organization Hamas but even the so-called moderate Fatah see the murder of Israelis as a religious act.

After an Israeli kindergarten teacher and mother of three, Batsheva Nagari was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist while driving in a car with her daughter, Fatah publicized on one of its official Telegram channels, that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades of Fatah took credit for the killing as an Islamic religious act, opening the declaration with a quote from the Quran:
“‘Fight them; Allah will punish them by your hands and will disgrace them’ [Quran 9:14, Sahih International translation] With Almighty Allah’s help, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – Palestine, the military wing of the [Palestinian] National Liberation Movement ‘Fatah,’ announces its responsibility for carrying out the self-sacrificing operation in Hebron… Aug. 21, 2023, in which a female Zionist settler was killed and another was seriously wounded.”

[Fatah Movement – Bethlehem Branch, Telegram channel, Aug. 21, 2023]

Two days later, the terrorist who committed the lethal attack was captured and turned out to be a Hamas member. Hamas posted a video of the murderer Muhammad Al-Shantir speaking with his relatives just before being arrested. In the video the terrorist gave a final message making clear that his murder of civilians was for Allah:
Terrorist Muhammad Al-Shantir: “Raise your heads, by Allah they will retreat from our land… Allahu Akbar (i.e., “Allah is greatest”), victory for Islam and the Muslims. Those who have come to arrest me, by Allah they will be defeated, Allah willing they will retreat from this land, because we are the people of truth and they are the people of lies… Allah willing, they will be defeated.”

[Quds News Network, Telegram channel, Aug. 23, 2023]
UN Holds Panel Slamming Western Sanctions, Empowering Russia, Iran, Syria
Today the UN Human Rights Council devotes a two-hour session to bashing the West for imposing sanctions on dictatorships like Russia, Syria, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, in its biennial panel on “unilateral coercive measures.”

The event is part of a larger initiative at the council, transparently selective and politicized, which includes a full-time Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures, a thinly-veiled mechanism to attack the West and portray gross abusers as victims.

Those pretending to oppose coercive economic measures are silent about the Arab countries who still boycott Israel and those who do business with Israel.

The panel on September 14th was mandated by the Non-Aligned Movement, the main sponsor of UNHRC resolution 52/13, titled The negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights. NAM’s members include the very dictatorships — Cuba, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela — that will be described as victims of human-rights abusing Western sanctions.

Opening statements are to be delivered by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk and Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan, who has a record of acting as a propagandist for brutal dictatorships.

Prior to being selected for her post, she appeared on the 2017 biennial panel on unilateral coercive measures — dubbed the Mother of all Rogues’ Galleries — alongside other longtime UN apologists for dictators like Jean Ziegler, Idris Jazairy and Alfred de Zayas.
Politicians, diplomats reflect on 3-year-old Abraham Accords
The United Arab Emirates has so far signed 120 Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) with Israel, and a million Israelis have visited the UAE on 150 weekly flights between the two nations since Abu Dhabi and Jerusalem normalized relations on Sept. 15, 2020.

That’s according to Yousef Al Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador to the United States, who spoke during a program about the regional impact and future of the Abraham Accords on Wednesday at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.

The event, which ran about four hours, was part of the N7 Initiative, a partnership of the think tank Atlantic Council and the private, eponymous foundation of hedge-fund billionaire Jeffrey Talpins.

“The Abraham Accords launched a new era for the Middle East and beyond,” Oren Eisner, president of the foundation and of Talpins’ family office, said. “One that embodies a promise of a brighter future for all.”

‘Buy more space for diplomacy’

In June 2020, Al Otaiba wrote in an “unprecedented” Hebrew op-ed that Israel would significantly harm its warming ties with certain Arab countries if it continues to apply sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria.

On Wednesday, the Emirati diplomat said that the next steps for the Abraham Accords need to be regional integration and a focus on economic investment.

Shira Efron, senior director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum who moderated the panel, asked Al Otaiba to what extent Israeli normalization with the Arab world could improve the Palestinian economy and if the success of the Abraham Accords could be leveraged to find a political solution with the Palestinians.
3 years since the historic signing of the Abraham Accords
The signing of the Abraham Accords was a moment many people in the Middle East never thought possible. The normalization of ties between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain. These historic deals led to new forms of cooperation and regional integration in the Middle East and beyond. Former Senior Staffer at the U.S. Congress Dr. Fadi Essmaeel joins to unpack it's impact.


Unpacked: Will THIS End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?
The 2020 Abraham Accords opened up Israel and Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco, and Sudan to massive economic, educational, and cultural exchange. But what if normalizing ties with Israel could benefit Palestinians as well? Though many Palestinians feel abandoned by Arab governments who are supporting peace with Israel, some see the Accords as a path to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:40 Israeli peace with Egypt and Jordan
01:18 2020 Abraham Accords
01:46 Cultural, academic, and economic exchange
01:25 Arab support for relations with Israel
02:15 Potential for Israel-Saudi Arabia relations
02:45 Arab opposition to relations with Israel
04:25 Benefits of having relations with Israel
04:53 Potential catalyst for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
05:41 Building interpersonal relationships
08:30 Economic benefits to Palestinians




Now, The World Recognizes Palestinian Hatred….But For How Long?
The President of the Palestinian Authority, who is in the 18th year of his four-year term, has never displayed a moderate attitude toward Israel or Jews in general. Last month, he made a speech that exposed his Jew-hatred to the world. A hatred that is being criticized by much of the Western world, at least for now.

Since he took over from Yassir Arafat, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) has been labeled a moderate. That’s like labeling Dr. Fauci as honest about COVID. Abbas has never been a moderate and has always promoted hatred:

His doctoral thesis was written for Moscow’s Oriental College. In his thesis, Abbas raised doubts that gas chambers were used to exterminate Jews and claimed that the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust might be “even less than a million.” Abu Mazen claimed that the Zionist movement had a stake in convincing world public opinion that the number of victims was high; thus, it would achieve “greater gains” after the war when the time came to “distribute the spoils. Also, in his college paper, Abbas claimed that Zionists prevented the Jews from being saved from Hitler. This was who the entire Western world considered him a moderate.

But once he became President, the “moderate’ leader put his Antisemitic thesis into action:
When 14 Israelis were murdered in what was later known as the “Knife Intifada” – a Palestinian terror wave in which 40 people were murdered exposed, P.A. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas defined this deadly Palestinian terror as a “Peaceful popular uprising.” And “it is important to escalate the peaceful popular resistance to defend our people and our land.”

Ah, the peaceful words and actions of a “moderate.”
- In 2022, there was a substantial increase in what the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) refers to as “peaceful popular resistance” [widespread terrorism]. Most of the attacks were carried out by lone terrorists or local networks. The attacks included throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, shootings, stabbings, vehicular rammings, and combinations of two or more. The Palestinian leadership, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, encouraged the “popular resistance,” did not condemn or criticize it, and praised the terrorists, including when Israeli civilians were killed and wounded.
- On the last day of August 2023, an Israeli soldier was murdered, and five other Israelis were wounded in a ramming attack by a Palestinian terrorist in a truck on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv rt. 443 highway. In several different announcements, the gentle Mahmoud Abbas celebrated the murder and announced that the killer was a member of Fatah.

This week, it finally happened, well, at least for at least a few days, America and the E.U. admitted that Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian murder squad who encouraged and praised the murderous actions of the Fatah murder squad he controlled, was criticized by most Western nations.

Last month, in August 2023, he made a speech to the Fatah party’s Revolutionary Council that revealed his hatred of the Jews and embrace of the Holocaust.


UK Paper Prints Dubious Anti-Abbas Letter with Israel Libel
The Guardian was the only international media outlet to cover the publication of an open letter that was recently signed by a number of “Palestinian intellectuals, artists and other public figures” in condemnation of the antisemitic remarks made by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas at an August session of the Fatah Revolutionary Council.

However, unable to simply unequivocally denounce Abbas’ repugnant speech, the 96 signatories also used the letter to attack so-called “Israeli settler colonialism,” and to spread the well-worn apartheid libel.

As reported by The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan, the signees include individuals such as “Rashid Khalidi, the historian, Dana el-Kurd, the political scientist, and Sam Bahour, the prominent businessman,” who all apparently “condemn the morally and politically reprehensible comments” made by the octogenarian PA leader.

Yet, as is par the course for the publication’s longtime Jerusalem correspondent, McKernan was selective about what information she included in the piece.

A quick examination of the missive reveals the signatories comprise a who’s who of Palestinian antisemites, including writer Refaat Alareer, who has repeatedly compared Israel to Nazi Germany and once posted online that Zionism and Nazism “are two cheeks of the same dirty arse,” US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), whose hatred of the Jewish state has frequently crossed the line into antisemitism, and Ubai Aboudi, a convicted member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.
Ramaswamy defends New Hampshire co-chair’s right to call Israel ‘apartheid’
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is defending the co-chair of his campaign in New Hampshire, who posted that “Israel is an apartheid state.”

“This is such a dumb game the media and shallow career politicians play,” Ramaswamy, a technology entrepreneur, wrote. “Guess what? I have volunteers on my campaign whom I don’t agree with on everything. Bruce Fenton is right on fed policy, bitcoin, individual liberty and dismantling the administrative state. Turns out he’s dead wrong on calling Israel an ‘apartheid state.’

“It’s a wildly wrong thing to say about the only pluralistic, thriving democracy in the Middle East. But you know what? He’s entitled to that view,” Ramaswamy wrote.

The candidate added that he doesn’t seek Fenton’s advice on Israel, but instead turns to “people like my longtime friend Rabbi Shmully Hecht to policy experts ranging from [Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman] Simcha Rothman to Major General [and former Israeli National Security Adivser] Yaakov Amidror to countless others.”

“The guilt-by-association games that hired-gun operatives like to play are boring and old,” Ramaswamy added. “They don’t work anymore. I’m not going to toss someone to the wolves and cancel them. That’s not how my campaign works, because it’s not how real life works and it’s not how our country works.”
Why tolerate such behavior from the left?
The truth is, most elected Democrats agree with “Squad” members. Yes, their hostility towards Israel is partly rooted in a general disdain for concepts like nations and borders, but it goes much further than that. They believe that Israel is, in fact, a deeply racist state (though Jews are not a race); as such, it has no right to exist as a Jewish homeland. This is why their antisemitism often masquerades as criticism of Israel.

Not all Democrats are antisemites, but antisemites, especially high-visibility antisemites, are tolerated in only one major party in America: the Democratic Party.

When it comes to combating antisemitism, the left displays a stunning lack of urgency and commitment. It is incredibly hypocritical for a party that bills itself as the party of “social justice” to constantly turn a blind eye every time its elected members spew antisemitic vitriol. The selective outrage and hand-waving excuses are not only a slap in the face to Jewish communities; they reveal a more sinister truth about the left, which is that it has become deeply racist in its own way.

Yes, the left still loves to post “Black Lives Matter” signs on their well-manicured front lawns. But at the same time, they champion the BDS movement that seeks to punish innocent Israeli citizens for the imagined crimes of the Israeli government. They defend racially discriminatory college admissions processes that penalize white (some of whom are Jewish) and Asian students.

The left needs to grapple with a simple truth: Either discrimination is wrong—at all times and against all peoples—or it’s not. The left has no moral standing to condemn racism against blacks and Hispanics on one hand, while on the other promoting and defending discrimination against Jews, Asians and other out-groups.

The left’s failure to address antisemitism taints its entire ideological framework. It showcases a fundamental lack of moral integrity and a willingness to compromise its principles when it suits its narrative. How can a movement that claims to stand against all forms of hate justify its silence in the face of such a pervasive and dangerous prejudice?

The responsibility of confronting left-wing antisemitism lies squarely on the shoulders of its leaders. Antisemitism has found a comfortable home on the left, and that must end fast. Lip service won’t suffice; action is imperative. A genuine reckoning with the problem means unflinchingly identifying and denouncing instances of antisemitism within their own ranks.

It’s high time for the left to rise to the occasion, purge the poison of antisemitism from at least its visible leaders and mouthpieces, and prove that it truly stands for the values it claims to champion. Anything less is an abdication of moral responsibility and a betrayal of the very principles the left purports to uphold.
Miss Iraq defends Zionism in latest X post
Sarah Idan, known for her title as Miss Iraq, has turned to the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) to defend Zionism.

Following a recent thread calling X owner Elon Musk out for increased antisemitism on the social media platform, the international pageant queen responded to social media criticism defending her support of Zionism.

One social media user criticized Idan's Iraqi heritage and her support for Israel, questioning why she supported the Zionist movement. She provided a passionate response:

"It was my own people & religion that made me want to support Zionists," she wrote. "I grew up with, & still deal with ugly antisemitism by my community. The more they open their mouth about how much they hate the Jews, slander & threaten me. The more I want to fight back. End of story."

This followed a series of posts on X in which she noted credible threats against her safety and well-being posed by members of her community for showing her support for Israel and the Jewish community.

In her earlier tweet she wrote:
“I’m not Jewish & it’s damn scary how much antisemitism spreading on X I can’t imagine if I were Jewish and saw this how I’d react,” she wrote. “@elonmusk I thought you said you won’t allow hate speech. I’m looking at literally neo-Nazis organizing events to 'combat Jews' Why [is] X allowing it?”
Noa's Arc: How Noa Tishby went from actress to Israel activist
It’s not surprising that actress Noa Tishby has become Hollywood’s most outspoken advocate for Israel. Love of the Jewish state is etched deep into her family history.

Her great-grandfather, Nachum Tisch, was the founder of the country’s Ministry of Industry and Trade. Her grandfather, Hanan Yavor, was Israel’s first ambassador in West Africa and served as a member of the Israeli delegation to the UN.

Her grandmother, Fania Artzi, was one of the founders of Israel’s first kibbutz, Degania in Galilee. Her mother, Yael, was head of the food department at the Israeli Export Centre. Advocating for Israel was something that Noa took for granted: “Being Israeli, being Jewish, having the family that I have. Coming from the background that I came from…”

Tishby is the proud author of a book that attempts to debunk the myths about Israel, and she has been an activist for nearly two decades. In April 2022, the then prime minister Yair Lapid appointed her the first special envoy for combating antisemitism and the delegitimisation of Israel. But this year Benjamin Netanyahu rescinded that role, when Tishby spoke out against his judicial reforms.

Today, she’s philosophical: “I said from the beginning that I have been doing this work without the title and then with the title and now without the title again. So to me, the title was a moment in time in which I was able to represent the state of Israel on the national and international stages. It was a huge privilege and a huge honour but not something that changed my day-to-day activities because I was already doing it and will continue doing it, regardless.
Noa Tishby: What Part of Antisemitism Does the UPenn Administration Not Get?
The Middle East may be complicated, but what part of antisemitism is so hard for the UPenn administration to understand? Is there any limit to defamatory, bigoted, and downright violent speech directed at those of Jewish and Israeli extraction that would be sufficient to get the administration to condemn the laundry list of antisemitic speakers scheduled to attend an on-campus event titled the “Palestine Writes” festival from September 22-24, 2023?

While I appreciate the administration’s attempt to condemn antisemitism in their statement yesterday, the administration must do more to condemn this hate fest. Otherwise, it brings into question whether there is a double standard when it comes to Jew hatred. The Jewish community writ large supports free speech but that is not what this is about. This is about protecting Jewish students on campus from a ripple effect of antisemitism that will inevitably occur from this hate festival. The administration knows full well that they can do more to stop antisemites like Roger Waters from speaking on campus, contrary to their statement.

The administration had no problem stopping hate speech in the past, as they did with Amy Wax when she brought a known white supremacist to campus. And as FIRE wrote in their 2024 College Free Speech Rankings blue paper, this administration also delayed approving the Hunting, Archery, and Shooting Club as a registered student organization, “claiming that due to the ‘nature of the group’s mission’ it could not make an approval decision until campus returned to normal operations post COVID-19. However, other groups intending to meet in person were approved during the pandemic.”

But when it comes to the Jews, it seems as if everything goes, or at least, every speaker is welcome, hate speech or not.

Speakers like musician Roger Waters, who infamously alleged in an interview that “particularly where I live in the United States of America[, t]he Jewish lobby is extraordinar[il]y powerful here and particularly in the industry that I work in…” Not much subtlety there, but this is the same artist who recently performed wearing a mock-SS uniform and projected Anne Frank’s name on stage at a Berlin concert. Is it any shock that Waters is also a prominent supporter of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), a political campaign for the destruction of the State of Israel?

Or Randa Abdel-Fattah, who has written that “Israel is a demonic, sick project and I can’t wait for the day we commemorate its end,” as well as the equally charming observation that “Israel is an abomination. Every single act of violence is calculated & a logical manifestation of its core identity as a racist, Jewish supremacist, settler colonial apartheid regime of hell.”


Emily Schrader: UPenn holds anti-Israel festival during Jewish holidays
The festival occurring on a U.S. campus is even more concerning given the fact that UPenn, which is a private institution, has received public funds to the tune of $582.3 million in research funding from the U.S. Department of Health's National Institutes of Health.

Under U.S. law, UPenn is obligated to protect Jewish students on campus, including antisemitic activity carried out in the name of anti-Zionism – as per the executive order that is still in effect from former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Brooke Goldstein, founder of the End Jew Hatred movement and author of End Jew Hatred: A Manual for Mobilization, told Ynet, “Everyone should be alarmed at the Nazi-like hate fest that will be happening at UPenn. To think this is only a problem for the Jews is a big mistake. American students are being indoctrinated by radical parties with anti-American, anti-Jewish ideology. This will have a devastating effect on the development of our country at large.”

Goldstein, who is also the founder of the Lawfare Project, also added that Upenn itself has highly suspicious funding sources from governments such as Qatar, and also reportedly received over one billion dollars in funding since 2018. “I call for an investigation to be opened into whether the school is working with this terror-sponsoring foreign government to promote extremism,” she said.

In response to pushback, the administration at UPenn issued a statement clarifying the event is “not organized by the university” and claimed, “We unequivocally — and emphatically — condemn antisemitism as antithetical to our institutional values… As a university, we also fiercely support the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission. This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.”

However, given the fact the event is being hosted on UPenn’s campus with their knowledge and permission, as well as the absence of counter-opinions, it is unclear how they can condemn antisemitism while also undoubtedly giving some of its biggest proponents a platform.

“The university statement is hot air. They can easily deny this event and stop it from taking place. The excuse of ‘it’s not our event – we have nothing to do with it, we’re just allowing it to happen on our campus’ is pathetic,” said Goldstein, who added, “UPenn has a duty, at the very least, to host an event promoting alternative viewpoints…I challenge UPenn to put on an event celebrating Jewish indigeneity in Judea in Samaria. They have a duty to provide a learning environment that promotes well-rounded, unbiased, and healthy education. They are failing in this duty and they will be held accountable.”


Petition: Urge UPenn to Condemn Antisemitic Conference
Holding such a conference on this storied campus will make Jewish and Israeli students feel unsafe. Jewish members of the student body, as well as faculty, staff, and visitors, will feel uncomfortable wearing Jewish symbols such as kippot/yarmulkas, jewelry featuring the Star of David, or clothing with Hebrew lettering in public while the conference is taking place.

UPenn previously sanctioned tenured law school professor Amy Wax, over her bigoted and exclusionary comments about Asians. There are billions of Asians in the world, and only 15 million Jews, who have historically been the top target of hateful forces of all striped; even today, while Jews are less than 2% of the U.S. population, antisemitic hate crimes represent over 50% of all religiously-motivated hate crimes in the country. Now, the Administration must avoid any appearance of a double standard and speak out against antisemitism.

UPenn must clearly signal to the student body that antisemitism is not welcome on campus and that bigotry and incitement against Jews and Israelis is not acceptable. We call on the Administration to release a public statement distancing itself from the hatred that is the “Palestine Writes Festival” and condemn the antisemitic and terror-linked featured speakers.


Ex-Rep. McKinney calls to defeat ‘enemy’ Jews
Former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney on Tuesday accused Israelis and Jews of suppressing free speech after an event titled “Can Black People and White People Work Together to Defeat Our Common Enemy,” namely the Jews, was canceled on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The poster for the event, which McKinney shared to social media, features a Star of David under the word “Enemy” in the title and a picture of a book titled “Jews Are the Problem.”

The event, which the former Georgia congresswoman said she would be watching, was set to feature former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke, among others, on the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11 Islamic terrorist attacks.

“Interesting how the very same people championing ‘democracy’ in Israel (except for non-Jewish Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, of course) are the very same people canceling our First Amendment rights in the U.S.,” McKinney wrote, adding a link to a Haaretz article on the anti-government protests in the Jewish state over judicial reform.

In a follow-up tweet, McKinney implied that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency conspired with the CIA to perpetrate the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.


Netanyahu, Musk meeting confirmed, said part of push to end antisemitism controversy
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Elon Musk when he travels to San Francisco next week, the premier’s office confirmed Thursday.

Netanyahu will visit Silicon Valley before his trip to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly and meet with US President Joe Biden on its sidelines.

The meeting with Musk comes with the latter facing accusations of amplifying antisemitism on his X social media platform, and as he is embroiled in a feud with the Anti-Defamation League.

The Washington Post, citing five people familiar with the situation, said that the planned meeting was part of “a campaign by Musk’s Jewish friends and allies, and executives of his social media company, to stave off the mounting controversy.”

In response, Musk tweeted: “This discussion was planned several weeks ago and is about AI, not the Defamation League (they dropped the ‘A’).”

Israelis in San Francisco said they intended to protest the meeting.

“It’s deeply disturbing that Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the world’s only Jewish state, is flying across America to seek the counsel and support from a notorious enabler of anti-Jewish hate speech,” Offir Gutelzon, an Israeli tech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, told The Washington Post.

Netanyahu is also likely to face protests during his visit to the US by Israelis opposed to his government’s judicial overhaul.
When Demonization Became Respectable
In 5783, Klal Yisrael found itself under repeated assault by the New York Times. Whereas in the past, anti-Semitic tropes and bigotry were relegated to the darkest corners of society, this year saw demonization of Orthodox Jews unapologetically showcased on the front page of the world’s most prestigious newspaper.

When the Times attacked the yeshivah system, gone was any of the normal cultural sensitivity that it routinely extends to minority communities. But instead of apologizing for its egregious discrimination, the Times systematically weaponized its coverage to heap embarrassment on Orthodox institutions and individuals.

This incessant bullying by the 800-pound media gorilla was foisted upon our community in the form of 17 articles in the “paper of record.” In tandem, the reporters responsible embarked on an unprecedented speaking tour to promote their misleading and activist-driven hit pieces, with nary a word of protest even from our elected “friends.” As the saying goes, with friends like these....

Further demonstrating the lengths to which these journalists went, emails recently disclosed by the Breitbart news site point to apparent collusion between Times reporters and state education officials to produce these articles. This was apparently done with the intent to impinge on the independence of yeshivos while capturing a Pulitzer Prize for Team Sulzberger’s anti-Orthodox crusade. Thanks in great part to the herculean efforts of the Agudah’s groundbreaking “KnowUs” multi-media push-back campaign, their malpractice was exposed, and they were denied American journalism’s ultimate prize.

But severe damage to our reputation was done nonetheless, and the sound of crickets from the establishment, aside from a few heroic journalists, and even fewer elected officials, was nearly impossible to overcome. Significantly, this reign of editorial terror coincided with a historic rise in anti-Semitic incidents, according to the annual ADL Hate Crimes report. The correlation between the two — which, as they say, does not prove causation — is hard to miss.

So, on the cusp of a new year, we need a change in strategy from our previous reliance on fair-weather political connections. Along with faith in the Almighty, our community needs to make a serious, sustained commitment to fighting back against the new bigotry stemming from media conglomerates and well-funded adversaries.
Omissions and distortions of history in BBC report on Palestinian demands
Bateman’s framing of the story quotes one sole named contributor: former PLO legal advisor Diana Buttu, who appears fairly frequently in BBC content despite her long record of promoting falsehoods in the media.

One particularly notable claim from Buttu is uncritically amplified by Bateman:
‘”The Palestinian Authority is now questioning: should we instead be trying to get our demands heard and realised, or should we do what we did in 2020 which was to ignore it? And again it’s a bind – no matter what the Palestinian Authority does on this, it is doomed to fail,” Ms Buttu told the BBC.’

The notion that the Palestinian Authority ‘ignored’ the Abraham Accords erases the incendiary statements made at the time by various Palestinian officials and the PA’s promotion of the long-running ‘betrayal’ narrative to which Bateman himself enthusiastically conscripted and which he repeats in this report in a paragraph relating to the Abraham Accords:
“At the time, the PA was frozen out of discussions as it boycotted diplomatic ties with the US in response to President Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian “deal of the century” – a peace plan heavily weighted towards Israel – and his move of the US embassy to Jerusalem. The PA saw the normalisation deals as a “betrayal” of Arab solidarity.”

Bateman fails to clarify that the Palestinian Authority itself had refused to engage with the US administration long before the 2020 publication of the ‘Peace to Prosperity’ plan, including a boycott of the 2019 economic conference in Bahrain. Neither does he provide evidence to support his amplification of the Palestinian claim that the US proposal was “heavily weighted towards Israel”. He does however erase the PA’s refusal to engage with the current US administration on the topic of the Abraham Accords.

Interestingly, Bateman’s framing of the topic makes no mention whatsoever of the Palestinian factions such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad which totally reject any negotiations or agreements with Israel and are currently challenging PA control of the territory which still remains under its administration.

Unsurprisingly, Bateman’s omissions and distortions of history have the usual – but unhelpful – effect of framing the Palestinian Authority as victims lacking agency rather than a body which has repeatedly and consciously refused to engage both in negotiations with Israel and in wider regional processes.


Australia: Bullied Jewish students win apology, $400k from state
Five former Victorian students have successfully sued the state for failing to protect them against anti-Semitic discrimination, bullying and racism they experienced in high school.

The state was on Thursday ordered to apologise to ex-Brighton Secondary College students Joel and Matt Kaplan, Liam Arnold-Levy, Guy Cohen and Zack Snelling, and pay them more than $400,000.

The court erupted in applause after the hearing, and dozens of the students' supporters began singing Israel's national anthem Hatikvah and hugging each other in celebration.

The students took the state, school, two teachers and principal Richard Minack to the Federal Court for a months-long trial last year.

Each of them left Brighton Secondary College prematurely, and four out of five departed the school due to anti-Semitic bullying.

Chief Justice Debra Mortimer on Thursday found Jewish students were not protected from bullying, discrimination and negligence when they attended the school between 2015 and 2020.

She said Mr Minack, as principal, failed to take action to address "a high level of anti-Semitic bullying and harassment of Jewish students" and swastika graffiti at the school.
Argentina police shut down Nazi and antisemitic bookseller
Argentine authorities raided and closed a bookstore selling publications with Nazi and antisemitic content online, police in the capital Buenos Aires said on Wednesday, following a two-year investigation promoted by a Jewish group.

The Libreria Argentina establishment sold books with images of swastikas, iron crosses, and the imperial eagle of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, commonly known as the Nazi Party, as well as Nazi propaganda texts.

"We are shocked by how profuse the material is," said Marcos Cohen from the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations, the Jewish group acting as plaintiff in the process. "I don't remember anything like this being found before."

Displaying Nazi symbols is a crime under Argentine law. Police arrested one person during the raids in the San Isidro district, located on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Antisemitism in Argentina
Argentina has the largest Jewish population in Latin America, with many immigrating after the expulsion from Spain and pogroms in Eastern Europe and ahead of the Second World War, during which the Nazis killed six million European Jews.

After the war, many Nazi officials including death camp supervisor Adolf Eichmann also emigrated to Argentina to avoid trials for war crimes.
Three Artworks Looted By Nazis From Jewish Holocaust Victim Seized From US Museums
New York investigators on Wednesday seized artwork by 1900s Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele from three museums after it was discovered that they were Nazi-looted items once owned by a Jewish art collector who was murdered in the Holocaust, according to a new report.

Russian War Prisoner (1916), a watercolor and pencil on paper piece, was taken from the Art Institute of Chicago; Portrait of a Man (1917), a pencil on paper drawing, was seized from the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh; and Girl With Black Hair (1911), a watercolor and pencil on paper work, was seized from the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio, the New York Times reported. Each art piece is reportedly valued at over $1 million.

Warrants issued by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said “there is reasonable cause to believe” the works were stolen property. The office told the New York Times that it is currently investigating about a dozen works by Schiele believed to be looted by the Nazis. Prosecutors said the works rightfully belong to three living heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian-born Jewish art collector and cabaret artist who died in the Dachau concentration camp during the Holocaust in Germany in 1941.

Grünbaum’s heirs said their ancestor was forced by the Nazis to sign an illegal power of attorney while at Dachau in 1938, and that he never intended to give up ownership of his art collection. They filed civil claims against other museums as well, seeking the restitution of roughly a dozen Scheiele artworks once owned by Grünbaum. They have made claims against the Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California, and others.
Netherlands Identifies More Than 30 Pieces of Nazi-Looted Property Owned by the Government
A special committee assembled by the Netherlands to examine if the Dutch government owns Nazi-looted property in its national collections said it has identified dozens of items that will be returned to its rightful owners — mostly Jewish families — if possible.

“The results have already exceeded all expectations,” Dolf Muller, of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, told the Dutch publication RTL Nieuws. “We had thought that we would eventually be able to return a handful of works to the original owners, but we have now already found more than 30 pieces for which this can happen. Almost all of them are Jewish families. And the research will continue until the end of 2025.”

So far, Dutch investigators have examined roughly 800 objects — including paintings, furniture and tableware — but they are not able to trace back the origins of all items. All of the property is being checked to see if it was stolen by Nazis and whether the objects can be returned to their original owners.

“We will never be able to undo that suffering, but we can do as much as possible about it,” said researcher Simone van Wijk, who is also part of the Cultural Heritage Agency. “By returning as many objects as possible to these people. A piece of family history.”

The team from the Cultural Heritage Agency — which is an executive body of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science — has been for the last year examining hundreds of pieces in the Netherlands Art Property Collection that were taken by the Nazis during World War II and given by Germany to the Netherlands after the war. Some of these items have hung in the country’s national museums, embassies, the Senate, House of Representatives and other government buildings.

“We will never know who the owner or heirs are of many objects,” van Wijk added. “If you think you are on the right track, but an archive document is missing, you have to leave it at that. That is sometimes quite difficult. You want as many pieces as possible put back where they belong.”


IAI Offers Intelligence Analysis Suite to Predict Surprise Attacks
Russia's use of drones is boosting European interest in an intelligence analysis system made by Israel Aerospace Industries that could help predict such attacks.

Gideon Fostick of IAI's Elta Systems said the Starlight cloud-based, multi-intelligence analysis system analyzes a broad set of data, ranging from enemy troop movements to social media posts, searching for anomalies in behavior to detect threats. The system's algorithms constantly improve themselves through machine learning.

"Humans need minutes or hours to analyze data. Starlight needs seconds, and is capable of identifying land-based, airborne and naval targets, including large numbers of unmanned targets."

"We have sold Starlight to two foreign customers, one Middle Eastern and one Asian country. It has been successfully used in combat operations."
New Israeli UAV Sparks a Revolution in Air-Ground Cooperation
The Israel Air Force's new Spark drone, announced on Monday, is specifically designed to enhance air-ground combat coordination.

It aims to provide precise intelligence to air and ground units and enable targets to be quickly struck upon their detection.

The Spark UAV, described as a fifth-generation of drone technology, is said by the IAF to be "worth 10 different UAVs in its intelligence capabilities."

It seems like the Spark is designed to provide ground units with a new level of advanced UAV capabilities and access to the latest high-quality aerial intelligence in their sector, free of delays.
Israel Aerospace Industries Unveils New Anti-Tank Loitering Munition
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has unveiled its Rotem Alpha antitank, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), tactical loitering munition at the Defense & Security Equipment International (DSEI) trade show in London.

The Rotem Alpha has the ability to operate for extended periods in both aerial and perched modes. The system can fly and hover at low altitudes to establish situational awareness and can execute attacks in various weather conditions.

The sensor array can autonomously detect and locate sources of hostile fire, such as artillery and missile launchers, and engage them using its electro-optical sensor day and night.

The Rotem Alpha can be carried in a backpack or deployed from a vehicle and is ready for takeoff in less than two minutes.

Its VTOL capabilities allow it to be launched and landed from between trees and structures.
Israel Beats Belarus to Stay in Running for 2024 UEFA European Football Championship
Israel won 1-0 at a home game against Belarus on Tuesday night on matchday six of group I of the qualifiers for the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship.

The goal was scored by Maccabi Tel Aviv midfielder Gavriel “Gabi” Kanikovski in the 93rd minute, during extra time in the second half of the game at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv. The score was Kanikovski’s first for Israel’s national soccer team led by coach Alon Hazan, which is now in third place — right behind Romania in Group I. The Jewish state and Romania played to a 1-1 tie in Bucharest on Saturday evening.

Israel’s 1-0 victory on Tuesday gives it 11 points in the qualifiers, just one point behind Romania. Switzerland leads the group with 14 points after its 3-0 victory over last-place Andorra. Romania is two points behind in second place after beating Kosovo 2-0. The top two teams from the group of six will qualify for the Euros in Germany next year.

Israel will next play against Switzerland in the qualifiers on Oct. 12.


Zelensky meets Chabad rabbis ahead of Rosh Hashanah, calls for more Israeli support
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky met with dozens of Chabad rabbis in the country Thursday ahead of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, while calling for greater support from Israel.

According to rabbis who were at the meeting, Zelensky said he expected stronger backing from the Jewish state, noting it would have made it easier for the country to host the thousands of pilgrims heading to Uman.

“I will try to take care of Israelis on their way to Uman,” Israel’s Channel 12 reported Zelensky as saying, citing two people who were present. “But if Israel were to agree to send Iron Dome, there would be a way to protect those Israelis. The responsibility to protect them is also the Israeli government’s but it doesn’t do so.”

The Ynet news site also reported the remarks, without citing sources.

Zelensky, who is Jewish himself, handed out decorations to 15 Jewish soldiers at the event.

Turning to the community leaders from cities across the country, Zelensky said: “Because of you, the glorious Jewish community continues to flourish here, and you continue to do your part both within Ukraine and abroad, for the Jews here and for the general population.”

The event was organized by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine and its head, Rabbi Meir Stambler.

Israel has been working with Ukraine on deploying a civilian aerial warning system to alert the population to an incoming attack, but without the interceptor component that destroys incoming rockets.
22,000 pilgrims arrive in Uman ahead of Rosh Hashanah
More than 20,000 Jews have arrived in the central Ukrainian city of Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashanah amid tightened security due to the war with Russia, local authorities said on Thursday.

Tens of thousands of primarily Chassidic Jews from Israel and other countries make the trek to Uman every year ahead of the Jewish New Year to visit the burial site of an 18th-century rabbi, Nachman of Breslov, the founder of the Breslov Chassidic sect.

The predominantly male pilgrimages to Uman, located about 125 miles south of the capital Kyiv, have continued despite travel warnings issued by the Israeli government and the pleas of Ukrainian officials who had asked them to stay away because of the war.

“As of the morning of September 14, around 22,000 Chassidic pilgrims have already arrived in Uman, mostly from Israel, the United States and a number of European countries,” Cherkasy Regional Military Administration head Ihor Taburets announced in a post on Telegram.

“Currently, the situation in Uman is stable and under control. Our security and defense forces are working in enhanced mode,” added Taburets. In addition to Ukrainian police officers, Israeli security officials have been dispatched to the pilgrimage site, the statement said.

“Around 1,000 law-enforcement officers will ensure security during the celebrations. We prepared an additional 24 [bomb] shelters. In particular, [we] installed concrete mobile shelters,” concluded Taburets, while calling on the faithful to “be as vigilant as possible, respond appropriately to air raid sirens and observe safety rules.”
Ukrainian intelligence warns Jewish pilgrims Russia poised to strike holy site
Ukrainian intelligence issued a strong warning over a potential Russian attack on the city of Uman, where many Jews visit during this time of year to pray at the gravesite of a famous rabbi.

The concerns arose after intelligence sources in Kyiv noted that Russia began disseminating disinformation about supposed Ukrainian plans to harm Hassidic pilgrims visiting Rebbe Nachman's grave during Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), which begins this weekend.

The Center for Countering Disinformation in Kyiv issued guidelines stating that official Russian media outlets have started publishing reports accusing Ukraine of planning to harm the pilgrims in order to "blame Russia." Ukrainian officials suspect that these reports might be a precursor to a Russian "false flag" operation.

"The Center for Countering Disinformation urges the public not to fall for foreign manipulations, to heed air raid warnings, to follow security regulations, and to rely only on verified and reliable sources," reads the Ukrainian announcement.
The execution that marked the end of Iraqi Jewry
Seventy-five years ago this week, a military trial opened in Iraq. It lasted just three days. The defendant was given no opportunity to plead his case. Iraq’s most prominent lawyers were appointed, but all resigned when the presiding judge, a known pro-Nazi nationalist, refused to allow them to bring witnesses. Shafiq Ades, Iraq’s wealthiest and best-connected Jew, remained alone to face trumped-up charges that he had sold surplus military equipment to the Zionists.

Iraq was then among seven Arab League member states fighting the fledgling State of Israel. But Ades had never shown any interest or support for the Jewish state, and was not even involved in Jewish community affairs. He had donated large sums to the Palestinian cause. Ades numbered among his close friends the regent, the emir Abdul Ila. He even had Muslim business partners.

On the third day, the unanimous verdict was read out: the defendant, who was accused of an improbable cocktail of misdeeds – from Zionism to Communism to sowing anarchy – was sentenced to death by hanging for treason and ordered to pay five million dinars in compensation.

Ades’s wife Aliza went to prostrate herself at the feet of the regent, who alone had the power to commute the death sentence. To no avail. Abdul Ila’s advisers told him that public feeling was so hostile to Ades that if he were not executed, the regent’s own head would be on the block.

The world Jewish press and Jewish organizations mobilized in Ades’s favor. According to the journalist Adi Schwartz, who is writing a book on the case, they presented Ades as a kind of Iraqi Dreyfus. Abba Hillel Silver and Stephen Wise, leaders of US Jewry, sent telegrams to US secretary of state George Marshall, warning that Ades’s execution would lead to looting of Jewish property and pogroms in Iraq.

Ades was hanged on September 23, 1948, in the square outside his house in Basra. He took 20 minutes to die. Some 15,000 spectators celebrated as Ades’s body swung from the gallows for several hours.

The execution stunned Iraq’s Jewish community, which had been settled in the country for 2,500 years. Any hope that the 150,000 Jews might be integrated as equal citizens into newly independent Iraq was dashed. If Iraq’s most powerful and richest Jew, who had hosted the regent in his home and had no links to Israel or Zionism, could be indicted in a show trial and hanged, what future would there be for them?
Partnership in disagreement: The complex US-Israel alliance during the Yom Kippur War
At first glance, a review of American-Israeli relations during the traumatic days and weeks that befell Israel following the surprise attack of October 6, 1973, reveals a beam of light shining in the darkness alongside a distilled expression of the resilience and strength of the alliance between Washington and Jerusalem.

In the face of the existential challenge that Golda Meir's government was suddenly faced with, it was Nixon's government that provided her with significant military support in the form of the Operation Nickel Grass airlift, and a diplomatic security network in the face of the Egyptian and Syrian assault and the Kremlin's escalating threats.

However, after 50 years, a deeper look at relations between the countries after the tectonic shock that Israel received on 6th October 1973, reveals a far more complex and antagonistic picture. The key to understanding this picture can be found in the appointment, on 22 August 1973, of Henry Kissinger to the role of secretary of state following the resignation of William Rogers, in addition to his role as national security adviser.

And indeed, it was the new secretary of state and national security adviser, Kissinger, who led the diplomatic efforts during the war and following its conclusion, with the aim of excluding the Soviet Union (who led a hostile, nationalist, and - during the War of Attrition – even aggressive line towards Israel) from any involvement in the region. The main significance of this appointment, especially after the outbreak of fighting, was the entry of a new secretary (who, apart from Black September in 1970, had until then avoided getting involved too closely with the Arab-Israeli conflict) who was now focusing on the Middle East with all his prestige, status, and power. The fact that President Nixon was then up to his neck in the Watergate scandal allowed Kissinger wide margins of maneuver and freedom of action, almost totally free of any presidential or congressional constraints.

In this way, in one fell swoop, the new secretary became the exclusive architect of American strategy. The dramatic events that took place on Yom Kippur were for him a catalyst for the practical implementation of his political, global, and regional worldviews.
The Remarkable Rosh Hashanah Rescue of Denmark’s Jews
On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, September 29, 1943, the Danish resistance carried out one of World War II’s most notable acts of heroism.

Throughout the fearful years of the Holocaust, millions of ordinary European citizens stood by as they watched Jews being taken away to their deaths. Many of these bystanders were too frightened to risk their own lives to save others. Most managed to convinced themselves that these fearful sights did not concern them and looked away. Some even cruelly cheered, applauded or assisted the Nazis.

Yet, despite the danger, a small number of incredibly brave people refused to witness the murder of their innocent fellow citizens. They had the courage to provide endangered Jews with food, forged documents, safe hiding places, and escape routes.

Denmark has the rare distinction of being the only occupied country in Europe which courageously defied the Nazi regime’s attempt to deport its Jewish citizens, saving 99% of them.

In September, 1943, Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, a German diplomat in Copenhagen grown disillusioned by the Nazis, was informed of their plans to deport the Danish Jews. The Danes, viewing the action as a test of their national independence against the Nazis, sprang into action. King Christian strongly voiced his objections and Danish clergymen encouraged their members to help the Jews. The Danish resistance immediately started to prepare hiding places for the Jews and arranged with fishermen to transport them to nearby Sweden in their small boats.

The universities in Denmark closed down for a week to enable the students to assist in the rescue operation. Not only did the Danish police refuse to cooperate with the Nazis, they actually assisted in saving Jewish lives.

Then Duckwitz informed the shocked Danish Jewish community leaders of the plan.

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began on September 29, 1943, the Danish resistance carried out one of World War II’s most notable acts of heroism. When Copenhagen’s Jews gathered to observe the significant holiday, Chief Rabbi Marcus Melchior canceled the religious services in the synagogue, instructing all Jews to leave their homes and flee for their lives.

By car, train, bicycle or on foot, they left Copenhagen, the capital city where most of them lived. Assisted by sympathetic Danish people, they found shelter in private homes, hospitals and churches in towns and villages along the coast.

Within a period of only three weeks, Danish fishermen succeeded in evacuating over 7,000 Jews across the narrow sea separating Denmark from Sweden. The Danish rescue effort was nationwide, with Jews and Danes jointly financing the successful operation.
The Yiddish Newspaper Column That Reunited Families after the Holocaust
When the death camps were liberated, thousands of Jewish survivors had no notion about whether their family members were still alive. Many others were eager to contact relations in the U.S., but had no records of their relatives’ addresses. When families managed to reunite, it was often thanks to a column in the Yiddish-language Forverts (or Forward)—then America’s leading Jewish newspaper—which had been involved in such efforts since its founding in 1897. Andrew Silverstein writes:

By World War I, the family-search inquiries evolved into their own column, Seeking Relatives, which ran until the late 1970s. For decades, the Forward did not charge to publish the items; it was a public service. Thousands of lives were forever changed by the column: individuals rescued, families reunited, borders crossed, history shaped.

Letters poured into the Forward building on 175 East Broadway from every continent except Antarctica. They were written in Yiddish, English, German, French, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Hungarian, and Ladino. Some are multi-page outpourings of tremendous suffering, with photos enclosed. Others are the briefest of notes to loved ones.

I discovered that thousands of original, hand-scrawled Seeking Relatives letters sent to the Forward had found their way to the archives of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem. Isaac Metzker, a Yiddish novelist and longtime Forward editor who left Europe in the 1920s, had donated them along with other Holocaust-related clippings and testimonies in 1951. “Every ghastly story he receives can be found in his desk drawer,” [the publication’s celebrated] editor Ab Cahan wrote of Metzker in 1947.

The Forward received communiqués from German Jews held by the British in the Mauritius Islands after being denied entry into Palestine; malnourished families in Soviet camps in Uzbekistan; penniless refugees marooned in Morocco; and Jews who had been evacuated from Gibraltar to Jamaica.




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