Thursday, September 28, 2023
Melanie Phillips Israel’s ‘democracy’ protesters destroy their own platform
The protesters claimed they were resisting the haredim. But those who turned up to pray on Yom Kippur weren’t haredim. They were the same kind of people who pray in Orthodox synagogues everywhere—in the Diaspora as well as in Israel—which routinely separate men from women.
What this demonstrated was not just hatred and fear of the ultra-Orthodox but hatred and fear of all observant Jews. This was expressed most graphically in Haaretz by its columnist Gideon Levy.
In a commentary on the Yom Kippur disturbances, Levy blamed all “knitted kippah” wearers—in other words, the modern Orthodox—for either constituting or supporting the “settlers” in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria, all of whom he falsely characterized as violent zealots who harass and attack their Arab neighbors.
He went even further: “Yes, the knitted kippah has become a symbol that sparks resistance. The knitted kippah makes its wearer a suspect until proven otherwise. They have no right to benefit from liberalism. They are its enemies.”
So, for Levy, the modern Orthodox—who include IDF officers, judges, journalists, politicians, officials, businesspeople and many others—have no human rights and are in effect enemies of the people.
Levy is well-known for his virulently anti-Zionist views. However, bigotry and discrimination against traditional biblical believers is standard among secular liberals. In both America and Britain, Christians are discriminated against for holding conservative beliefs about sexuality that accord with their religious teaching.
Progressive Judaism, meanwhile, seeks to appropriate liberal dogma as Jewish values, even though such universalizing precepts may be inimical to Judaism.
This accords with the fixed liberal belief that religion is responsible for all bad things, such as oppression, selfishness and obscurantism, while all good things such as freedom, compassion and rationality come from secularism.
In fact, all those good things and many more come from the Hebrew Bible, while it is secularism that undermines or destroys them.
Secular Israelis spitting hatred at the ultra-Orthodox fail to grasp that if it hadn’t been for people like that, there wouldn’t still be a Jewish people. The Jews survived over the centuries despite overwhelming odds because enough of them remained faithful to their religion.
Being faithful instead to democracy, feminism or judge-made human rights is not a recipe for cultural survival. A glance at how secular and supposedly liberal, rational, Western society is currently destroying itself through rancorous division, irrationality and intolerance shows what happens when a culture renounces the biblical precepts that are the source of its most precious values.
The disgraceful scenes in Tel Aviv carry a message that resonates far beyond Israel’s internal convulsions.
Jonathan Tobin: Tel Aviv violence: The dark side of Israel’s ‘democracy’ debate
In this week’s episode of Top Story, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin speaks about events in Tel Aviv over Yom Kippur in which secular “pro-democracy” protesters disrupted a prayer service in Dizengoff Square. According to Tobin the problem is not just the intolerance it displayed but the way it illustrated the hypocrisy of Israel’s Supreme Court.
Tobin pointed out the court has intervened in the past to protect the right of non-Orthodox women to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, whether or not it conformed to the traditions of the place. But in Tel Aviv, it inexplicably upheld the legality of a municipal statute that for all intents and purposes banned Orthodox Jewish prayer in public spaces without any concerns for the rights of individuals to practice their faith.
According to Tobin, those who claim that those crying “democracy” are somehow defending a truly liberal cause must rethink their valorization of a movement that seems more intent on suppressing their opponents than in defending individual rights.
The Caroline Glick Show - In Focus: Tragedy on Yom Kippur: The Anti-Jewishness of the Left
In this week’s In Focus, Caroline discussed two seemingly disparate, but deeply interconnected events: The leftist assault on Jews attempting to pray on the Eve of Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv, and other places throughout the country, and the establishment of a pseudo academic institute in the U.S. – the Institute for the Study of Critical Zionism, whose purpose is to institutionalize Jew hatred in the U.S. and transform the Jews into the enemy of everything good and pure in the progressive ecosystem.
Jews Are Not "Stealing" Judea
Less than a century after the Holocaust, antisemitism is sweeping across America to a degree unimaginable a few decades ago. Though just 2% of the U.S. population, Jews are the most targeted religious group in America. An identifiably Jewish person is several times more likely than a member of any other minority to be a victim of a hate crime. Diversity advocates, engaging in willful blindness, have pronounced Jews, whom the Nazis massacred for being non-white, to be beneficiaries of "white privilege."
Today, society's supreme concern is respect for human rights. But this noble cause has been derailed by antipathy towards Jews. As the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks observed, "most antisemites do not think of themselves as antisemites." In other words, antisemites will define antisemitism in ways that exonerate their own bigotry.
The story of the Promised Land is part of common parlance. Everyone knows what it is, where it is, and to whom it was promised - and how central it is to the faith of Moses and the Jewish people. Yet millions of Americans, including many who claim to value both religious tolerance and human rights, have adopted a fictional narrative built upon a European colonialist term for that Jewish homeland: Palestine.
In this alternate reality, descendants of Arab marauders are "indigenous Palestinians," whose homeland, by miraculous coincidence, happens to trace the borders of modern Israel. The Jews, in other words, are "stealing" Judea. By the way, the word "Palestinians" referred to Jews for over 2,000 years. In the 1930s, the "Palestinian" soccer uniform featured the Star of David. Today, "Palestinian" is used to exclude those same Jews and to call them "colonialists" for returning home.
The Jewish link to Jericho goes back at least 3,000 years. So why can't @UNESCO see it?
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 27, 2023
Let's unpack what they're missing... pic.twitter.com/066UFvySQ8
Oslo at 30: Seek Peace and Pursue It
Thirty years ago, Gidi Grinstein was “the youngest and most junior member” of the Israeli delegation at Camp David — the place where the Oslo peace process came to a dramatic climax and promptly fell apart when, seven years after the signing of the first Oslo agreement, PLO leader Yasser Arafat rejected Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s best offer.Yom Kippur War 50 years on: Egypt thinks it won but fails to exploit the peace dividend
In the years that followed, other members of the delegation would pen their memoirs of the historic peace process, each intent on answering the question on everyone’s mind: “What went wrong?”
That it has taken 30 years for Grinstein to write his own account can be attributed to two reasons. The first is stated explicitly in his book. He was young and “just” the secretary of the delegation, “neither a principal nor a major decision-maker.” As such, coming out with his own analysis could have been interpreted as overstepping boundaries.
“Frankly,” he writes, “I thought it would be bad for my career. Principals do not generally appreciate seconds who document and analyze their actions.”
There is, however, a second unstated reason, which is that he seems fundamentally ambivalent about the purpose of such a book.
Is it a memoir — a personal account of his time in the rooms where world history was being made? Is it a eulogy for a failed vision of peace? Is it an autopsy? Or is it a guidebook for future peacemakers, who will need such a resource when the conditions for negotiations again “ripen”?
The book itself is undecided on this matter. This is by design. “Beyond the historical value of documenting Gidi’s stories,” writes co-author Professor Ari Afilalo, “our book is also designed to support future negotiations.”
By design or not, however, one senses a hesitance in the writing. The book holds back from fully entering into the “narrative” aspects of Grinstein’s story, though it is neither a straightforward book on policy and principles geared towards wonks and visionaries.
In this, I’m reminded of a passage from the Talmud. In a deliberation about the ancient Yom Kippur ritual, the text pauses to ask what purpose there is in pouring over minutia from the past.
One potential solution is offered: We aren’t asking about the past but the future, when the Messiah comes and the Temple Service is restored.
The Talmud rejects this answer. Our learning isn’t for the sake of the past or the future. Rather, it is for the present — so that we, right here and now, can have better understanding and wisdom.
As I read “(In)sights,” I kept this in mind. The book was not quite a tale of the past, nor was it quite a guide for the future. It did, however, help me understand what exactly we are talking about when we talk about the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Egypt was the first Arab state to normalise and establish diplomatic relations with Israel. In 2020, Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates signed the historic peace agreements under American auspices known as the Abraham Accords.Revisionist historians strike on 50th anniversay of Yom Kippur War
Morocco later normalised relations with Israel and Sudan joined, although domestic instability in Khartoum has disrupted normalisation. Against this backdrop, new opportunities have emerged to improve regional cooperation.
In November 2022, Israel announced a three-way deal with Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in which the UAE would finance and build a solar power station in Jordan for solar energy to be exported to Israel. In exchange, Israel would export water to Jordan.
Last May, Morocco and Israel announced a partnership to establish an Artificial Intelligence and Aeronautics innovation research centre. In July, Israel official confirmed the development of a new trade corridor project that will transfer goods in trucks between Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. A land bridge will connect Israel to Saudi Arabia and will operate regardless of the kingdom’s decision to normalise ties with Israel.
To be sure, Egypt participates in a variety of agreements with Israel, notably the East Mediterranean Gas Forum, which the two countries co-founded in September 2020 with US and EU support and now includes additional members such as Cyprus, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Greece, Italy and France.
Egypt also participates in the Negev Forum, a bloc of countries created in March 2022 bound by mutual strategic interests, which include the US, Israel, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco and UAE.
And yet for some Egyptians, a psychological barrier exists that prevents the realisation of a more fruitful and prosperous bilateral relationship. Deep down, many Egyptians know that they were once the centre of the Arab universe.
Today, Cairo exerts a fraction of its former regional influence. While it is true that Egypt can be relied upon to mediate truces between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, it has been noticeably absent from effectively influencing other regional conflicts and disputes, be they in Lebanon, Libya, Ethiopia, Syria, Sudan or Yemen.
Worse yet, some Egyptians feel concerned that Israel, Bahrain, the UAE and Morocco are moving forward on lucrative regional agreements without taking into full consideration Egypt’s strategic interests, historical regional role, and support of the Palestinian cause.
Egypt should not be expected to forget the past, but it will prove difficult to enjoy the total economic and strategic dividends of a rapidly-changing Middle East without adopting a more forward-leaning vision for regional prosperity and security.
There have been numerous articles, seminars, and lectures in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Yet, somehow, they all managed to miss one of the most crucial aspects of the conflict: how Henry Kissinger prevented Israel from launching a preemptive strike.Anti-Israel U.N. official to be feted at law conference sponsored by Morningstar law firm
On Yom Kippur morning, hours before the 1973 Arab invasion, Prime Minister Golda Meir was informed by her military intelligence officials (and other sources) that Egypt and Syria were massing their troops along Israel’s borders and would attack later that day. The Israelis immediately contacted Kissinger.
Matti Golan, longtime chief diplomatic correspondent for Ha’aretz, described in his book “The Secret Conversations of Henry Kissinger” what happened next: “Till the very outbreak of the fighting, Kissinger remained more concerned with the possibility of an Israeli preemptive strike than an Egyptian-Syrian attack.”
Kissinger instructed the U.S. ambassador in Israel to personally deliver to Mrs. Meir a “presidential entreaty” —that is, a warning, in the name of President Nixon—“not to start a war.” (page 41)
Abba Eban, who was then Israel's foreign minister, confirmed in his autobiography that Israeli Army Chief of Staff David Elazar proposed a preemptive strike, but Prime Minister Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan rejected it on the grounds that “the United States would regard this as provocative.” (page 509)
Further confirmation comes from the widely acclaimed book, “The Prime Minister,” by the late Yehuda Avner, a distinguished Israeli diplomat who witnessed Kissinger’s actions up close.
Avner (1928-2015) was a speechwriter, secretary, or adviser to five different Israeli prime ministers, from both sides of the political spectrum—Golda Meir, Levi Eshkol, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Shimon Peres. He also served as Israel’s ambassador to various countries, as well as other senior diplomatic positions.
Avner bluntly wrote that American officials—meaning Kissinger—“tied” Golda’s hands on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, telling her “in no uncertain terms not to fire the first shot.” They even “warned” her “against full-scale mobilization” of Israel’s reserve forces.
Kissinger did not want Israel to win a decisive victory because he thought that would make it hard to wring concessions out of the Israelis after the war. The resulting high number of casualties were obviously not a consideration. Having prevented Israel from striking first, Kissinger then exploited Israel’s suffering in the early days of the war in order to advance his strategy.
The law firm commissioned by Morningstar amid controversy over the financial services firm’s sale of products found to have an anti-Israel bias is co-sponsoring an upcoming conference at which controversial former U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay will be honored.John Ware: My deep dive into Roger Waters found many disturbing claims
Pillay, who heads the open-ended Commission of Inquiry targeting Israel, which has been condemned by members of the international body over its anti-Israel bias, will receive the “Outstanding Achievement Award” at the International Law Association’s International Law Weekend, slated for Oct. 20-21, in New York City.
White & Case is one of several co-sponsors of the conference, alongside Debevoise & Plimpton and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. White & Case came under fire for its sponsorship of last year’s conference, held in Chicago, which included a panel titled “Racism and the Crime of Apartheid in International Law” and featured Omar Shakir, an activist and Human Rights Watch staffer who was expelled from Israel in 2019 over his support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The firms did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Following an outcry over the 2022 conference, White & Case condemned the session but did not withdraw its sponsorship of the conference. The law firm was also named as a co-sponsor of another anti-Israel event featuring Shakir held the same week at the University of Chicago; a spokesperson for White & Case denied that the firm was a co-sponsor.
Morningstar retained White & Case to produce a report on the company’s ratings system, which White & Case found to have no systemic anti-Israel bias but fixable cases of potential bias. Critics of the report said that the sourcing for Morningstar’s ratings constituted systemic bias. Earlier this month, the attorneys general of Kentucky, Alabama and Montana announced they were moving forward with probes into Morningstar’s ratings system, which critics say has still not been adjusted to remove anti-Israel bias.
The chair of the International Law Association, Christine Chinkin, was one of the authors of the 2009 Goldstone report into the 2008-2009 conflict between Israel and Hamas, which was denounced by Jewish groups as containing antisemitic blood libel. Richard Goldstone, who chaired the U.N. inquiry that produced the report, has walked back some of the report’s claims. Five years after the report was written, Chinkin was nominated to be the U.N. Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Are you insane?” was rock star Roger Waters’s response to persistent accusations during his summer European and UK concerts that he was an antisemite. “Why are you making this nonsense up?” he asked. Waters insists he has “never done anything antisemitic” and never “said anything antisemitic”.Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters accused of antisemitic behavior including swastika confetti, ‘Jew food’ remarks: report
So what should we make of the remarks I have uncovered in my documentary for Campaign Against Antisemitism, reported in this week’s JC? Recent years have seen Waters reveal publicly what he really thinks about Jews who are Zionists — which is the vast majority of Jews. Some of his attacks on Israel have been wreathed in the kind of classic antisemitic tropes that have Jews exercising omnipotent power.
“The Labour Movement” under Jeremy Corbyn has been “absolutely destroyed”, declaimed Waters in 2021. “It’s disgusting and it’s at the behest of the government of a foreign country. That foreign country being, Israel…”
The late American Jewish entrepreneur Sheldon Adelson was a “puppet master pulling the strings of Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo… and what’s his name… the (US) Ambassador [to Israel], Greenberg [sic] I think his name is.” (His name was Friedman.)
Waters has speculated that the “Zionist Israeli lobby in the United States” believe “they’re chosen by a “monotheistic being, a superpower superhuman being who controls everything, that he has actually decided that, that they are very very special that they’re exceptional, and that they should be served by every other human being on the planet. If they believe that then they can do anything”. It is this kind of musing about Jewish supremacy and malevolent intent that explains why the ex-Ku Klux Klan Grand Imperial Wizard David Duke has praised Waters: he’s been attacked, protests Duke, for “daring to expose Israel’s crimes and the crimes of the Jewish-controlled US government and media”.
For years Waters has dismissed allegations that he’s an antisemite as a “construction by the Israeli government” because he champions Palestinian rights. It’s an explanation that’s satisfied his most notable admirers in the UK, anti-Zionists such as the rapper Lowkey, the associate editor of the Electronic Intifada, Asa Winstanley, and Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), established in 2017 to defend Corbyn from allegations of antisemitism. Any suggestions that Waters is an antisemite have been dismissed by the JVL as part of an “unscrupulous campaign” which has a “disregard for factual accuracy” by “bad faith actors” with a “predilection for peddling falsehoods.”
Journalists are commanded to just “do basic research to check the facts…behind the allegations.”
“Basic research” is what I’ve sought to do, by talking to Jews with whom Waters has worked closely.
Pink Floyd co-founder and former frontman Roger Waters has been accused of sending an antisemitic email to his staffers proposing to write “Dirty k–e” on the inflatable pig habitually floated above his gigs.
London-based organization Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) has released disturbing emails and interviews in a documentary titled “The Dark Side of Roger Waters,” which uncovers a series of allegations of antisemitic behavior against the rocker.
In one email, the “Comfortably Numb” musician, 80, allegedly suggested “bombing” audiences with confetti in the shape of swastikas, Stars of David, and dollar signs.
“Hey Guys, Who’s going to make pig? Would it work to go out on the stuka truss? I imagine it black with crossed hammers logo as 1980, but covered with symbols from Good by blue sky,’crosses, stars of david( that’s king david not david gilmour) crescent and star, dollar signs, shell oil shell, etc and epithets,’my pig right or wrong’ ‘f–k you’ ‘no,f–k you’ ‘dirty k–e’ ‘follow the money’ ‘Scum?’ etc. Roger,” one alleged email, dated March 25, 2010, read.
“Dirty kyke”
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) September 27, 2023
“Jew food”
“Fucking Jew”
Is Roger Waters antisemitic?
Watch The Dark Side of Roger Waters now and decide for yourself.
Then add your voice at https://t.co/7F6c6M3nk1. pic.twitter.com/eh9n15DLsn
Fellow Pink Floyd member @davidgilmour knows… pic.twitter.com/ZfG8ds2xh7
— Nicole Lampert (@nicolelampert) September 28, 2023
Elon Musk's antisemitism controversy: Jewish leaders showdown live on X
Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest individual and the mind behind X (formerly Twitter) and Tesla, is set to engage in a discussion with prominent Jewish figures on Thursday, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The gathering arises from escalating tensions between Musk and the organized Jewish community, stemming from the surge in antisemitism on his social media platform. The conversation is scheduled to go live at 7 p.m. (9 a.m. PST) on X Spaces, the platform's audio medium
Among the participants expected to join Musk are conservative media figure Ben Shapiro; Rabbi Ari Lamm, CEO of Bnai Zion; Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Natan Sharansky, former chairman of the Jewish Agency, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, an author and social media influencer; Adv. Alan Dershowitz; Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman and founder of the European Jewish Association; Rabbi Manis Friedman, co-founder of Bais Chana Institute of Jewish Studies; and potentially Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin, former president of Israel.
Notably, all the participants are men, and the majority of them lean toward the conservative side of the political and social spectrums. While other heads of Jewish organizations were initially invited to participate, it remains unclear whether the final invitations were withheld due to a lack of interest or a strategic decision by Musk's team to maintain a small and intimate gathering.
This meeting comes on the heels of a series of controversial incidents involving Musk. Earlier this month, he threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for billions of dollars and publicly endorsed a hashtag popularized by white supremacists. Musk's actions sparked outrage, as he engaged with a white supremacist on X and endorsed the hashtag #BanTheADL, which gained traction among antisemitic users. The ADL later reported that neo-Nazi marchers in Florida were chanting “Ban the ADL.”
Last week, Musk's meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised questions about whether it was an attempt to salvage his public image. However, sources close to Musk clarified that this meeting had been planned months in advance, predating the dispute between ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and Musk. Greenblatt expressed his appreciation for Prime Minister Netanyahu “raising concerns about the proliferation of antisemitism” during their conversation at Tesla’s offices in California last Tuesday. He voiced his hope that Musk would take these concerns seriously, making the platform safer and more inclusive for all users, particularly its Jewish community.
Antisemitism has spiked on X since Musk took the wheel
Research conducted by CASM Technology and ISD in March unveiled a significant and sustained spike in antisemitic posts on X since Musk's acquisition of the company on October 27, 2022. Analysts identified a total of 325,739 English-language antisemitic Tweets within the nine months from June 2022 to February 2023, with the weekly average of such Tweets surging by 106%—from 6,204 to 12,762—when comparing the periods before and after Musk's takeover.
We will be joined by: @NatanSharansky@Simonwiesenthal@AlanDersh@Margolinrabbi@RabbiShmuley@ManisFriedman@GoldPRIL@PresidentRuvi
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 27, 2023
The antisemitic comments and Shoah denial on this thread is off the scale. Perhaps @elonmusk might like to peruse this thread and see first hand the antisemitism on his platform. https://t.co/EHWi2NGmgI
— Insp A E Pessimal ✡️ #BearWitnessForBucha (@jc4P45) September 27, 2023
More on E. Michael Jones here: https://t.co/ZDlsazwHuC
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 28, 2023
Others notable white supremacists and Holocaust deniers Musk unsuspended include:
- Ryan Dawson: https://t.co/MOwydqKTe8
- Angelo John Gage: https://t.co/hl8qoD6xqZ pic.twitter.com/7ZjzW0LWiZ
Why Is a Leading Think Tank Promoting Misleading Opinion Polls About Israel?
Since 2016, when he established the University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll, Professor Shibley Telhami and his colleagues have published a series of studies about the perspective of Americans on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other political issues. Their work has been covered by the Washington Post, CNN and NPR, and appeared in academic journals such as Middle East Journal, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Political Science Quarterly. The polls are also promoted by the Brookings Institution, a powerful thinktank where Professor Telhami is a fellow. Given their widespread influence, it is important to analyse how reliable these studies are, starting with the most recent one conducted in June, 2023.PayPal becomes third payment processor to stop working with Palestinian terror-tied group
There are some key factors to consider when looking into whether or not a poll is accurate. For starters, a reliable poll is not something that any layperson can conduct. It needs to be done by a trained researcher. This is because even seemingly simple tasks like asking neutral questions and performing data analytics are nuanced and complicated. Additionally, having verifiable credentials and the skills to perform quality research does not eliminate bias, because even experts are not entirely objective. It is important to look into what the researcher’s angle(s) may be before reading the research. Finally, it is crucial to understand the methodology of every study. If the methods are flawed, the research is flawed.
In terms of credentials, Professor Telhami is an academic with the qualifications needed to conduct reliable research. However, he has a strong opinion on matters related to Israel. In April 2023 he published an article accusing Israel of choosing Jewish identity over democracy. He also urged the U.S. government to dramatically reduce its support for Israel and stop advocating for peace deals between Israel and Arab states. Additionally, he may have ties to the government of Qatar as an academic advisory board member of the Arab Center Washington DC. This thinktank is affiliated with the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, which according to the AP is, ‘funded by the Qatari government.’ Its offices are in City Centre DC, a building owned by the Qatari government.
Professor Telhami’s biases are evident in the latest ‘American Public Attitudes on Israel/ Palestine’ study published by the Critical Issues Poll. One of the critical tasks of a researcher creating surveys is ensuring that questions are not worded in a way that is leading. For example, to ask about the condition of a glass bowl after it was dropped on a marble floor, a question might be phrased: ‘What was the condition of the glass bowl after it was dropped on the marble floor?’. However, it could also be phrased: ‘How badly did the glass bowl shatter into endless shards of glass after it was dropped on the marble floor?’
The first option is more neutral, allowing people to come to their own conclusion before answering. In contrast, the second option is a leading question because it paints a vivid image of the glass bowl’s condition after being dropped, pushing people towards certain answers.
The centerpiece of Professor Telhami’s recent survey is also clearly a leading question. It asks:If a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians were not possible, meaning the West Bank and Gaza had to be under Israeli control indefinitely, which of the following would be closer to your view?
1. I would favor Israel’s democracy over its Jewishness: I would support a single democratic state in which Jews and non-Jews would be equal, even if that meant Israel would no longer be a politically Jewish state.
2. I would favor the Jewishness of Israel over its democracy: I would support preserving Israel as a politically Jewish state, even if that meant that millions of indigenous non-Jews living under its authority would not have citizenship and equal rights.
Notice the stark difference between the first and second options.
PayPal has become the third major payment processor to cut ties with an anti-Israel group as a direct result of a Washington Examiner series on its Palestinian terror connections.Exclusive: German Jewish leader condemns violent BDS attack on pro-Israel activist
Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), earlier this month called on PayPal to stop handling donations for the Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice, a charity that has come under legal pressure for its ties to Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terror group. Now, PayPal has jumped ship from boosting the nonprofit organization, following the companies Stripe and Salsa Labs doing the same earlier this year, the Washington Examiner has learned.
"My team recently had an in-depth discussion with PayPal, during which we expressed our serious concern about its partnership with Alliance for Global Justice," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) told the Washington Examiner.
"I’m pleased to announce that today PayPal committed to me that it no longer services this entity," he said. "For American companies, national security should be more important than the bottom line. Doing business with fiscal sponsors of Palestinian terrorists is not acceptable."
The revelation is the latest blow to Alliance for Global Justice's ability to rake in cash for itself and the 140 organizations it fiscally sponsors, including Samidoun, which has shared staffers with the Popular Front, according to Zachor Legal Institute, a think tank that contacted the Treasury Department and IRS about companies working with the Arizona group. Alliance for Global Justice also sponsors the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, a coalition accused of having terror ties that the Democratic fundraising giant ActBlue recently booted off its platform.
AFGJ had to move its fundraising operation to PayPal after Stripe, the Irish-American payment processor that handled $817 billion transactions in 2022, parted ways with it in early September. Salsa Labs stopped working with AFGJ in February, prompting the Arizona charity to put out a 1,000-word statement urging donors to send paper checks. Watchdogs, including Israel's NGO Monitor, have also zoned in on how AFGJ has sponsored Collectif Palestine Vaincra, which it says has coordinated with the Popular Front for a child "indoctrination" camp in the Gaza Strip.
The chairwoman of Munich’s Jewish community, Charlotte Knobloch, sent a letter of support to young German Zionist Gerald Hetzel, who campaigned against BDS, after he was attacked by activists and left bloodied in a street in the Bavarian capital.Rice University Pride Group Cuts Ties With Houston Hillel, Cites Concerns by Arab, Palestinian Students
The Jerusalem Post obtained a copy of Knobloch’s September letter and can first reveal that the Holocaust survivor wrote she was “horrified to learn of the attack on you after a lecture event in Munich. I would like to wish you all the best and a speedy recovery.”
Knobloch, who heads the largest regional Jewish community in Germany, covering Munich and Upper Bavaria with its roughly 9,500 members, added that “the frightening incident shows once again: Democratic society thrives on debate, discussion, and also on heated arguments between different positions, but never on violence. I wish you all the best and very much hope that your next stay in Munich is more enjoyable.”
Hetzel, who is the chairman of the German-Israel friendship society in Passau, Bavaria, told the Post he attended a public lecture on September 1 in the Barrio Olga Benario center, known for its “left-wing extremism,” according to Hetzel. He documented the agitation against Israel at the lecture.
“After the lecture, I was thrown out by force. Three to four people followed me and I was beaten up on the street, 50 meters away. My bag was thrown across the street and my laptop was badly damaged. I went straight to the police and filed a report,” said Hetzel.
Oliver Platzer, a spokesman for the Bavarian State Interior Ministry, told the Post that “every crime is one too many. The police station is responsible for classifying a crime as a politically motivated crime. To our knowledge, the act has not currently been assessed as an antisemitic crime. However, due to the ongoing investigation, no conclusive statement can be made here.”
Critics want the Bavarian police and Interior Ministry to modernize their definition of antisemitism to include targeting of Israel.
Rice Pride, the leading LGBTQ+ student group at Rice University in Houston, Texas, announced that it is ending its partnership with Houston Hillel, citing concerns among Arab and Palestinian students about participating in events with the Jewish campus organization.
“Hillel’s ‘Standards of Partnership’ are incompatible with Rice Pride’s mission to create an accessible and equitable space for queer students of all backgrounds,” Rice Pride said in a statement released last week during the Jewish High Holidays. “Historically, these ‘Standards of Partnership’ have been used by Hillel International to cut ties and spark conflicts with any organization that seeks to engage in spaces that validate Palestinian and Arab experiences, including but not limited to opposing student groups doing fundraisers for humanitarian aid in Palestine.”
Houston Hillel is a local affiliate of Hillel International, which operates roughly 850 chapters around the world and was built to enhance the experiences of Jewish students in college.
“Houston Hillel regrets Rice Pride’s decision to no longer partner with Houston Hillel, the only egalitarian, pluralistic, and inclusive Jewish campus ministry at Rice University,” Houston Hillel said in a statement responding to the announcement. “This decision by Rice Pride not only alienates queer Jewish students and leaves them unsure of their own acceptance in Rice Pride spaces, but also damages the campus climate for all Jewish students.”
Rice University’s campus newspaper, The Rice Thresher, quoted an anonymous LGBTQ+ Jewish student who said Rice Pride’s decision was poorly timed.
“This is certainly a decision that could have waited a single week,” the student said. “To make an announcement of this kind during the High Holy Days places a lot of extra stress on Jewish people, and shows there isn’t the level of cultural fluency I would like to see from Pride leadership.”
Where does contemporary antizionist ideology come from? And how has it infested our campuses? Dr. @EinatWilf explains it all.
— Jewish Leadership Project (@_TheJLP) September 27, 2023
Our Jewish leaders need to wake up and realize that antizionism is equaly a threat to Jews as white supremacy. #jewish #antizionism #antisemitism… pic.twitter.com/bDCCoQQZXA
The City University of New York has been accused of Antisemitism following a commencement speech full of Jew hatred
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) September 26, 2023
'At the end of the day it's become so systemic within this school, and many other schools in the United States, due to the lack of consequences' Project manager… pic.twitter.com/ymUSEXm0dX
In his latest lie-filled article, @m7mdkurd says Palestinians shouldn't have to distinguish between "Zionists" and "Jews" because there's a Jew living in his childhood home (which, MEK conveniently omitted, was stolen from its Jewish owners when Jordan kicked them out in 1948). https://t.co/BRvUoOyCKP
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) September 27, 2023
MORE antisemitism out of Penn as the Chabad sukkah is vandalized with graffiti.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 27, 2023
This follows a swastika found on campus (Meyerson Hall), the school’s Hillel being vandalized, and the “Palestine Writes” festival filled with antisemitic panelists. pic.twitter.com/DTtslEA0t8
Julia Hishmeh teaches at a Jersey City HS. Hishmeh is also “Laila Boutros,” the coordinator of the NYC area chapter of Samidoun, an arm of the PFLP. Re: Palestinian terrorists, Hishmeh says, "Glory to the martyrs of Jenin and the martyrs of Palestine!" https://t.co/koeIIQSX8g pic.twitter.com/oV27XAD9Ty
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) September 28, 2023
5 of Kanye West’s Antisemitic Remarks, Explained
Rapper Kanye West, now also known as Ye, has posted antisemitic tropes on his social media accounts, shared antisemitic conspiracy theories with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and on social media, threatened violence against Jews.BBC WS radio's 'Witness History' does Oslo Accords week
West has also targeted Jewish people on podcasts and traveling with an entourage of known antisemites. Meanwhile, in an interview, late last year on the InfoWars talk show hosted by provocateur Alex Jones, West, alongside white supremacist Nick Fuentes, said people should “stop dissing the Nazis” and exalted Adolf Hitler. Everything You Need to Know about the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism and AJC's Task Force
Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist who has been ordered to pay parents more than a billion dollars for insisting the massacre of their children in one of America’s deadliest school shootings was a “hoax,” pushed back on West’s praise, but made references to the “Jewish mafia."
Later, West posted to Twitter the image of a swastika fused with a Star of David. AJC called out the blatant Jew hatred on social media.
Tragically, West's antisemitic rhetoric has had real-world repercussions, inspiring antisemitic behavior that has increasingly crept into mainstream American discourse from celebrities to politicians.
While antisemitism comes from a variety of sources including white supremacists, Black supremacists, and religious extremists, the rapper’s antisemitic slurs seem to run the gamut. With a social media following of more than 31 million, his statements have become more acute, more delusional, and more dangerous. West has acknowledged he suffers from bipolar disorder, but mental illness is no excuse for antisemitism.
“Although some have tried, there is no rationale, no explaining away Kanye West’s rants on social media for anything else than what they are: vicious antisemitic statements that pose a clear and present danger to every Jewish person,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch.
Between September 11th and 15th the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Witness History’ aired five editions primarily based on archive material. The explanation given to listeners for the recycling of programmes broadcast in previous years – which will now be available once again “for over a year” – is presented as follows in all those broadcasts:HRC Prompts Global National On-Air Correction After Falsely Accusing Israel Of Occupying Gaza & Repressing Israeli Arabs & Palestinians
“It’s 30 years since the Oslo Accords were signed. This agreement in 1993 aimed to bring about peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This week we’re bringing you stories from Israeli and Palestinian history.” ... As we see, only one of the programmes chosen by the BBC World Service to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Oslo Accords actually relates to that topic and its sole interviewee was a Norwegian. Of the additional seven interviewees in the selected programmes, two were American, three Palestinian and two Israeli.
Notably, the BBC World Service radio’s choice of “stories from Israeli and Palestinian history” did not include any accounts of the Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis in the years immediately following the signing of the Oslo Accords and during the second Intifada or the repeated Palestinian refusals of peace offers.
On July 25, Global National broadcast a report covering the ongoing controversy surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned judicial overhaul, following an important piece of the legislation being passed by Israel’s Knesset, or parliament.CBC Radio Show Guest Tells Interviewer: Israel Has Occupied Palestinians For 75 Years, Denying Israel’s Right to Exist, Host Fails To Challenge Offensive Comment
The broadcast, filed by Global News’ Europe Bureau Chief, Crystal Goomansingh, also shed light on the widespread demonstrations throughout Israel in protest of the judicial reforms, which have attracted hundreds of thousands of Israelis on a weekly basis in cities across the country.
And while the topic of Israel’s judicial overhaul is worthy of coverage from the Canadian news media, it was a throwaway comment near the end of the broadcast that caught the attention of HonestReporting Canada.
In her report, Goomansingh told viewers that “With Israel’s far-right government, that means Palestinians could suffer even more. Nearly seven million are repressed living under Israeli military occupation in Palestinian territories, including the West Bank.”
Not only was the statement a non sequitur as part of the broadcast, it also spread wildly inaccurate information.
As HonestReporting Canada pointed out in a subsequent alert, the seven million figure presumably counts eastern Jerusalem and Judea & Samaria (often called the “West Bank” by news media outlets), with a population of around 3 million, and even Israeli Arabs, with a population of two million. It also includes the Gaza Strip, with an estimated population of around two million people.
Even aside from the necessary context that Israel possesses extensive legal and historical rights to the land in question, the most notable errors in Goomansingh’s comment were that Israeli Arabs suffer military repression, and that Gaza Strip is under Israeli occupation. In reality, Israel notably withdrew the entirety of its population – nearly 10,000 people, both civilian and military – from the Gaza Strip in 2005 in what became known as the Gaza Disengagement.
On September 22, Robyn Bresnahan, host of the Ottawa Morning radio show on CBC Radio One, featured Anton Abu Akleh as her guest.Toronto Star Article Of “Palestine Film Festival” Quotes Anti-Israel Filmmaker Claiming Israel Is A “Settler Colonial” State
Abu Akleh is the brother of the deceased Al Jazeera news reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed while covering a gunfight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian terrorists in the Palestinian city of Jenin in May, 2022.
Abi Akleh was interviewed to mark Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication naming an award after his sister, The Shireen Abu Akleh Emerging Reporter Award in Social Justice Journalism.
While the full findings related to Shireen Abu Akleh’s death have not been made public, Israel has publicly apologized to the Abu Akleh family, and acknowledged that there was a “high possibility” that she was shot by an Israeli soldier. However, despite the attempts by anti-Israel detractors to accuse Israel of intentionally targeting the journalist, no such conclusion has ever been established; rather, an extensive Israeli investigation in 2022 found that Abu Akleh was likely killed by unintentional Israeli fire.
Following her death, Israel reached out to the Palestinian Authority (PA), offering to partner on a joint investigation to help uncover the details surrounding her shooting, but was rebuffed by the PA.
Nevertheless, during the interview, Abu Akleh repeatedly accused Israel of intentionally murdering his sister, telling Bresnahan that his sister “was clearly targeted by this Israeli sniper who aimed to kill her.”
In an article in the September 27 edition of the Toronto Star entitled: “Toronto Palestine Film Festival: How a scrappy, student-led film fest evolved into a broad-ranging celebration of Palestinian culture,” author Richie Assaly introduced readers to the “Toronto Palestine Film Festival”, and a number of its films and filmmakers.
One of the filmmakers introduced by Assaly is Rana Nazzal Hamadeh, and her film, which connects its main story of a Palestinian woman in Ramallah and a Mohawk woman in Quebec through the sumac spice.
In the piece, Assaly quoted Hamadeh saying that her goal in the film is to “reflect on the parallels that exist in these two settler colonial contexts,” Israel and Canada.
While art is subjective, truth is not, and while anti-Israel detractors have frequently made the claim that Israel is a “settler colonial” state, nothing could be further from the truth.
Unlike a settler colonial state, which imports its people to another land for the purpose of conquering it, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People, who have three thousand years of continual habitation in their ancestral homeland. To call Israel a “setter colonial” state is not a political opinion or an expression of opposition to Israeli government policies; rather, it is an attempt to rewrite history and erase three millennia of Jewish presence.
Hamadeh’s words are far from anomalous; she has frequently attempted to twist the truth in pursuit of an anti-Israel agenda. In a recent column in Briarpatch Magazine, a Regina, Saskatchewan-based publication, Hamadeh outlandishly alleged that Israel carried out ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
O'Connor's piece also casts doubt on the antisemitism of Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, and all but laments the failure of the Palestinian "armed struggle." pic.twitter.com/B5mhJJ5AhP
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 28, 2023
"Target" & "spy on" don't cut it,@AP.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 28, 2023
Iran wanted to carry out attacks against Israeli politicians. Don't minimize the facts.
As a wire service, millions of readers see AP's reporting but when it comes to Israel, they consistently get it wrong.https://t.co/B7wkPKnucl pic.twitter.com/GxU4FFUrye
Biden Administration to Take New Actions Against Antisemitism
The Biden administration will take a new step on Thursday aimed at countering discrimination based on shared ancestry, with plans by eight federal agencies to use the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit certain forms of antisemitism.Israel to Host UEFA Under-19 Soccer Championship in 2027
Biden warned earlier this month that he felt antisemitism has “risen to record levels” and was a big challenge for the entire country.
The White House said that as part of Biden’s national strategy to counter antisemitism, eight federal agencies clarified for the first time that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits certain forms of antisemitic, Islamophobic, and related forms of discrimination in federally funded programs and activities.
Title VI provides that no one in the United States can be excluded, on the basis of race, color or national origin, from benefiting from any program that receives federal funding.
The eight agencies are: The Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Treasury, and Transportation.
Israel has been chosen to host the Union of European Football Associations’ (UEFA) Under-19 Championship in 2027, the UEFA’s executive committee announced on Tuesday following its meeting in Limassol, Cyprus.‘Fauda’ Creators Team Up With Israeli Actress Rotem Sela on New Netflix Docuseries
The finals will feature eight teams, including Israel, and will also conclude the first edition of a new three-stage qualifying format announced this week by UEFA, the governing body of soccer in Europe.
Moshe Shino Zuares, chairman of the Israeli Football Association, said that the UEFA’s decision to give hosting duties to Israel in 2027 “is yet another heartwarming testament to the immense respect we command within UEFA,” according to Israeli media outlets. “Every time we have been entrusted with the privilege of hosting a significant tournament, we have set high standards and consistently raised the bar.”
“A significant part of this success is owed to the Israeli audience and its profound love for football,” Zuares added. “They turn out in great numbers to support our national team, creating unforgettable experiences for all involved. We have diligently worked to secure this hosting opportunity.”
Tuesday’s announcement follows recent strong performances by Israel’s youth soccer teams.
Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz, the creators of the popular Israeli television series Fauda, have partnered with Israeli actress Rotem Sela to create a documentary series for Netflix that will be broadcast worldwide on the streaming service.Israeli TV Series About Kids Visiting Nazi Concentration Camps Gets Emmy Award Nomination
The upcoming series is titled Third Person and will feature Sela and Raz as they journey through Israel and different countries around the world, tackling a variety of challenges along the way. Few details have been publicized about the project, which was first reported by Ynet.
Third Person will be filmed in Israel. A release date has yet to be announced.
Raz and Sela are hardly strangers to working together. They costarred in the Israeli drama series A Body That Works, which aired in Israel earlier this year.
Third Person will be Sela’s debut on Netflix, while Raz has previous experience working with the streaming giant, co-creating and starring in the Hebrew- and English-language series Hit and Run.
The deal with Netflix for Third Person was closed by the entertainment company Faraway Road Productions, which was founded by Raz and Issacharoff. Sela will produce the series alongside Raz and Issacharoff, who is also an award-winning journalist. The show will be directed by Gal Raz.
A television miniseries produced in Israel about Israeli teens taking a school trip to Nazi concentration camps in Poland has been nominated for this year’s International Emmy Awards in the kids live action category.Israel OKs budget to collect Shoah survivors’ visual testimonies
Memory Forest, called Kol Od Balevav in Hebrew, was created by Chen Kleiman and directed by Roman Shumunov. It was produced by the Kan Public Broadcast channel.
The series is competing in the kids live action category against Gudetama: An Eggscellent Adventure, a show from Japan; Heartbreak High, a show from Australia; and Tierra Incógnita, a show from Argentina.
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on Tuesday revealed the nominees for this year’s awards. The 56 nominees across 14 categories span 20 countries and six continents. The winners will be announced at the 51st International Emmy Awards Gala in New York City on Nov. 20.
Memory Forest is not the only Israeli production up for an International Emmy. In the news and documentary category, Israeli journalist Itai Anghel‘s film about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, titled Last Stop Before Kyiv, has also been nominated.
Israel’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Diaspora Affairs and Social Equality Minister Amichai Chikli’s proposal to budget 7 million shekels ($1.8 million) to collect visual testimony of Holocaust survivors.Rare Psalm inscription uncovered in Judean Desert
The ministers also approved their proposal to broaden the parameters of the initiative and place special emphasis on making the testimony accessible to the general public in various languages, as well as allowing the material to be used for educational purposes and in the fight against antisemitism.
Last year, the government approved a plan to collect visual testimony from Holocaust survivors in Israel and overseas. On Wednesday, the Cabinet set the initiative’s budget.
“Against phenomena of Holocaust denial and displays of antisemitism around the world, we have passed a decision today that will assist in preserving the memory of the Holocaust,” said Netanyahu.
“We are expanding the important initiative of collecting firsthand testimony from Holocaust survivors, those who heroically succeeded in surviving the horrors of the Nazis, who tried to destroy our people in Europe. They did not succeed, and those who survived the Holocaust continued the marvelous heritage of the Jewish people and established families in the Land of Israel and around the world,” the prime minister continued.
“We are committed to looking after the rights and the well-being of Holocaust survivors. We will pass their memories on to coming generations and we will always take care to ensure our future,” he said.
A unique inscription written in Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament, was unearthed by Hebrew University archaeologists during excavations at the Hyrcania Fortress, about three miles west of Qumran in the Judean Desert.
Paraphrasing Psalm 86, the inscription reads, “Jesus Christ, guard me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am faithful to you.” The first section of the original psalm reads “Lord” instead of “Jesus Christ.”
It was found on the side of a large building stone painted in red under a cross, most likely created by a monk from the Kastellion, a small Byzantine monastery that was built on the ruins of the Hasmonean fortress at the end of the 5th century CE.
Oren Gutfeld and Michal Haber of the Hebrew University directed the excavation in cooperation with Tennessee’s Carson-Newman University and the American Veterans Archaeological Recovery that helps veterans transition back to civilian life through archaeology.
Avner Ecker of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, who helped to decipher the inscription, said, “This is one of the most common psalms used in the ancient Christian liturgy. It appears that one of the monks drew a graffito of the cross on the wall and underneath it, he penned a prayer he knew well. Based on the style of the script, the inscription dates back to the first half of the 6th century CE.
“Several grammatical errors in the transcription suggest that the writer did not speak Greek as his native tongue, but rather, he might have been a local, perhaps even a native of the region, and spoke Aramaic or another local language,” Ecker said.
Love this! Via @wzo_official, which of these 4 historic figures would you invite to your Succah? pic.twitter.com/eBvA4X5ZnA
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) September 28, 2023
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