Friday, December 15, 2023

12/15 Links Pt2: Atrocity denial in real-time; How Terrorists Exploit Humanitarian Organizations; The Problem Isn’t Hypocrisy, It’s Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Atrocity denial in real-time
It was a wake-up call for many, especially those of us in the global Jewish community. Overnight, the illusion of safety shattered, much like the dreams of anyone who's binge-watched a horror series alone at night. But now we were all collectively trapped in that nightmare, and couldn’t wake up no matter how hard with pitched.

The history of the Holocaust is taught in many schools around the world. “Never forget” and “never again” are sentiments that are echoed within that curriculum. Yet, while some might scoff at the persistent advocacy for Holocaust education, insisting that it’s hitting them over the head, a nationwide survey in 2020 reveals that the under-40 crowd seems to have missed the memo. Shockingly, one in ten respondents haven’t even heard of the word “Holocaust,” let alone being aware that as many as 6 million Jews perished in it.

Further, nearly a quarter of those questioned said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, had been exaggerated or that they weren’t sure. Meanwhile in Canada, one in five young people (under 34) either hasn't heard of the Holocaust or isn't sure what it is. And in Britain, one in twenty adults flat-out deny that it ever took place. Ah, the privilege of blissful ignorance.

But it's not just ignorance; there's an entire industry that has been propped up and dedicated to Holocaust denial, complete with books, “movies,” and groups. To make matters worse, alarmingly, fewer Holocaust survivors are around to share their firsthand accounts and counteract the flames of denialism.

Nearly half of the 1000 people surveyed had stated that they’ve seen Holocaust denial or distortion posts on social media or elsewhere online.

I’ve always thought that denials of genocide—such as the Holocaust —were something that happened over time, with history slipping away and being re-written.

However, I never expected to be observing this in real time.

While initially the so-called “resistance” was celebrated by a subset of society, this soon turned into full-fledged denials of Hamas’ actions on Oct 7. Despite overwhelming evidence in the form of videos captured and shared by Hamas themselves and shared on Telegram channels and elsewhere, I would read and hear people claiming that they had only targeted Israeli military. Absurd claims emerged using supposedly ‘leaked’ footage where an Israeli helicopter shoots at Nova music festival goers. That video was viewed over 30 million times on X alone. The video, which was actually originally shared by the IDF on Oct 9, was showing their attacks on specific Gazan targets—certainly NOT indiscriminate bombings of music festival attendees in Israel.

I’ve heard countless denials of the rapes of women (and men), despite overwhelming evidence in the form of physical evidence, forensics, and a number of witness testimonies. Women’s rights groups, meanwhile, remained silent—thus offering a vacuum for denialists to fill. Proponents of “me too” also stayed silent. Worse, the University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre’s director signed an open letter calling Hamas perpetrating “sexual violence” an “unverified accusation.” It took UN Women nearly two months to issue a lukewarm condemnation of the brutal attacks. “We are alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks,” they wrote, following a letter writing campaign urging them to speak up. Better late than never though, right?
John Podhoretz: The Hostage Tragedy Deepens
The news today that the IDF, working to free hostages in Gaza, instead shot and killed three of them in a tragic battlefield calamity is so horrible it’s hard even to think about. But the truth is that scholars of war have thought about such matters before, and have come to an unambiguous conclusion. The Geneva Conventions require combatants in war to wear insignias or clothing that clearly identify them as combatants. Hamas does not do so, and in failing to do so, it was impossible for IDF forces to know the difference between captive and captor.

Article 44: “In order to promote the protection of the civilian population from the effects of hostilities, combatants are obliged to distinguish themselves from the civilian population while they are engaged in an attack or in a military operation preparatory to an attack.”

This language is mirrored in other places in the Geneva conventions to protect combatants should they be captured by the enemy—they need to be in uniform or wearing insignias indicating their status as combatants so that their opponents will know who they are and grant them prisoner-of-war status, which obliges humanitarian treatment.

Israel will mourn, and Israelis will rage and weep, and will demand to know how such a thing could have happened. The one thing they can be sure of is that the blame resides entirely with Hamas.
Seth Mandel: The False Narrative of ‘Indiscriminate Bombing’
CNN has been excitedly promoting an “exclusive” story that about 40 percent of Israel’s airdropped munitions in Gaza have been “unguided,” due to the use of “dumb” bombs. This, the piece suggests, is what the White House was referring to when it accused Israel of “indiscriminate” attacks. A Washington Post story picking up on the CNN piece repeats the word “indiscriminate” like a mantra.

“Unguided munitions,” CNN tells us, “are typically less precise and can pose a greater threat to civilians, especially in such a densely populated area like Gaza.”

“Typically,” you say? So there are ways to use these bombs that are not, in fact, “less precise,” yes? What might be an example of such a case?

Twelve paragraphs later we find out—plot twist!—that Israel’s current war in Gaza is one such case. Which is to say, the subject of the story is a prime example of when the thesis of the story isn’t true.

The CNN piece thus reveals itself to be a “dumb bomb.”

Here is CNN debunking itself: “A US official told CNN that the US believes that the Israeli military is using the dumb bombs in conjunction with a tactic called ‘dive bombing,’ or dropping a bomb while diving steeply in a fighter jet, which the official said makes the bombs more precise because it gets it closer to its target. The official said the US believes that an unguided munition dropped via dive-bombing is similarly precise to a guided munition.”

Ah. Well, glad we settled that. Unfortunately, other outlets picked up the story before they read that paragraph. It’s almost as if, instead of educating its readers, CNN was preying on their lack of knowledge.

When asked about the president’s own comment that some Israeli attacks were “indiscriminate,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said Biden was referring to “global opinion, which also matters.” Indeed it does, and this story itself is a great example of the feedback loop that manufactures such “global opinion.”
Aiding Terror: How Terrorists Exploit Humanitarian Organizations
More evidence that military force deters terrorism comes from a recent statement of Hamas’s second-in-command Moussa Abu Marzouk, who recently told the Washington, DC-based news outlet Al-Monitor that his organization would consider subsuming itself under the Palestinian Authority (PA) and seeking a two-state solution. Although he can hardly be taken at his word, this sudden embrace of what Hamas has long considered anathema must be chalked up to the success of the IDF’s campaign in Gaza—which hasn’t caused Abu Marzouk to radicalize his rhetoric, but to moderate it.

This same Abu Marzouk stated in an October 23 interview that it is the responsibility of the United Nations, not Hamas, to provide for and protect Gazan civilians. This surprisingly frank admission gets to the heart of how the group has used the massive international aid—from the UN, from NGOs, and from Western and Muslim countries—that flows into the strip. Ari Heistein and Nathaniel Rabkin explain:

Over the fifteen years during which it has controlled the Gaza Strip, Hamas has honed exploitation of aid into a science. The group does not generally expropriate aid items directly, but rather uses its control of the government apparatus in Gaza to ensure that donor funds are siphoned off, either directly to Hamas or to entities it controls. For example, the strip’s private security companies are all licensed by the Hamas Ministry of Interior, and their staff must be approved and trained by the ministry. UN and other aid-group facilities therefore end up paying Hamas to guard them.

Hamas also imposes high taxes on goods in the strip, including food staples, meaning that a substantial portion of the salaries paid to local aid-agency employees winds up in Hamas’s coffers. Given the enormous role played by the UN and other international groups in Gaza, taxes paid by their employees likely account for a substantial fraction of Hamas’s revenues. . . . Hamas also tries to directly involve itself in the work of UN agencies in Gaza.

A similar strategy, write Heistein and Rabkin, is employed by another Iran-backed terrorist group, the Houthis, who have plunged Yemen into a disastrous humanitarian crisis and are now profiting from the aid meant to alleviate it. “In Syria,” Heistein and Rabkin add, “a government that operates more like a terrorist organization provides a hint of what Hamas and the Houthis could become, if they win international recognition.”


The Problem Isn’t Hypocrisy, It’s Anti-Semitism

American Jews Need to Stop Being Stupid About Politics

George F. Will: Cheering Hamas on Campus, Too Uneducated to Grasp How Grotesque That Is
The year 2023 marks the West's awakening from the grand illusion that large-scale, high-intensity warfare ignited by barbarians is a thing of the past.

Today, the desire of Hamas to complete the Holocaust is applauded by moral cretins in academic cocoons, too uneducated to understand the grotesque pedigree of their enthusiasm.

Today, academic ethicists at a safe distance are instructing Israel to be "proportionate" in its response to what was done on Oct. 7.

Perhaps the students and faculty exhilarated by Hamas need to see pictures of what was done.

So, give every U.S. college and university the 46-minute video that Israel compiled from Hamas cameras and other sources, showing the sadists inflicting their carnage.

Challenge the schools to screen it. This would be disturbingly educational, but the schools, many of them uneasy about such things, should do it anyway.
Dr. Jordan Peterson: Pro-Hamas Protesters Are Sanctimonious Psychopaths
We are now exposed to the truly appalling spectacle of widespread demonstrations across the West supporting - explicitly or implicitly - the terrorists of Hamas. The main reason why Hamas has acquired so much support is the careless naivete and sheer blind heedlessness of the West in dealing with one of its most deadly national foes - Iran.

We like to believe that differences in metaphysical and religious outlook can simply be overlooked in favor of the humanity we all hypothetically share. In consequence, we fail to seriously consider the very real differences that still exist. We believe we can wave the magic wand of goodwill, and have all such variance in opinion and outlook vanish at the borders. We also foolishly underestimate the persistence, strength and cunning of those who regard our virtues and freedoms as vices and historical accidents.

Few would disagree that Israel is a highly successful nation. It is a society that hyper-values intellectual accomplishment and success. Does this make it admirable? Not to those for whom any sign of success whatsoever indicates the dynamic of victimizer and victim. Not to those who would rather assume that such success must be a consequence of some behind-the-scenes conspiracy.

The descendants of the ancient Israelites are the universal canaries in the coal mine. If we allow those who are envious of their success to rule, or even to move among us unimpeded in their actions, we are most truly laying our necks, as well as theirs, on the line. The barbarians are no longer at the gate. They are inside - inside our cities, our civilization.
Students for terror have no place on campus
Student organizations provide college freshmen with invaluable opportunities to broaden their outlook, forge meaningful connections, and integrate into the rich tapestry of campus life.

Unfortunately, more than 200 college campuses host chapters of an organization dedicated to praising antisemitic terrorism in pursuit of its extreme political goals. The guise that glorifies terrorism

This club calls itself Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), though it may go by names like SAFE (University of Michigan), Palestine Solidarity Committee (Harvard University), or Students for Palestinian Equal Rights (Stanford University). Its stated mission is to “develop a connected, disciplined movement that is equipped with the tools necessary to contribute to the fight for Palestinian liberation.”

In reality, the club glorifies terrorists, intimidates Jewish students, and rejects peace-stances since its 1993 founding at Berkeley.

Early SJP organizers came together over their opposition to the Oslo Accords, a peace deal that laid the groundwork for an eventual Palestinian state. Those activists rejected Oslo’s incrementalism, instead agitating for an immediate end to Israeli statehood.

Amid the Second Intifada – a terrorist campaign that killed and wounded thousands of Israeli civilians – SJP founder Hatem Bazian called for “an intifada in this country” at a 2004 rally in San Francisco. Bazian has called the US Congress “Israeli-occupied territory,” repeatedly compared Israelis to Nazis, and praised terrorists – from supermarket bomber Rasmea Odeh to mass murderer Marwan Barghouti.

The organization reflects its founder’s extreme attitudes. Where SJP goes, antisemitism, and often violence, follows. Studies have repeatedly shown that the presence of SJP is one of the strongest predictors of campus antisemitism.
Podcast: Alexandra Orbuch, Gabriel Diamond, and Zach Kessel
This week, Mosaic’s editor and podcast host Jonathan Silver steps into the arena of campus conflict. Alexandra Orbuch is a junior at Princeton, while Gabriel Diamond is a senior at Yale and the coauthor of an essay in the New York Times titled “What is Happening on College Campuses is Not Free Speech.” Zach Kessel recently graduated from Northwestern and is a fellow at National Review as well as at Tikvah. The three come from different places in the country, have different kinds of religious practices, study different subjects, and none intended to become college activists. Yet all three have found themselves caught up in what they see as a deteriorating climate for young American Jews.

Do arguments over messages scribbled in chalk on the sidewalk or the presence or absence of posters on message boards matter? These three think they do, and ably explain why. The attitudes that are crystalizing in American universities, particularly elite ones, have a disproportionately large impact on American culture by virtue of the disproportionately large power of their graduates. In other words, questions of chalk messages and posters become proxy expressions of power.
Melanie Phillips: The persistent "two-state" delusion
Ever since then, Britain, America and the Europeans have continued to incentivise and reward the Palestinian Arabs for their exterminatory agenda by bestowing upon them global status, funding and support.

Western leaders have never acknowledged the bogus nature of Palestinian identity that writes the Jews out of their own history. Nor have they acknowledged the PA’s gross Jew-hatred; nor the way the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, funded by the west, weaponised equally bogus Palestinian refugee status to turn the world against Israel.

As for the Oslo Accords, midwifed by the Clinton administration, they unleashed three decades of terrorism causing thousands of Israelis to be murdered and injured. Former PLO leader Yasser Arafat bragged that he had signed the accords as a ruse to bring back terrorism to Israel from Tunis, where he had been exiled, and that the “two-state solution” was a “first stage” in Israel’s destruction.

Whether through their dependence on the Arab world, anti-Jewish prejudice or the liberal fantasy that all conflict can be ended through compromise, western governments told themselves that the Arab war against Israel was no more than a fight over land boundaries. Since it was actually a genocidal cause, successive Israeli governments — other than at Oslo — have balked at concessions that would have signed the death warrant of the Jewish state.

Netanyahu’s overriding concern has always been to prevent a Palestinian state because of the mortal threat it would pose to Israel. That’s why he tolerated the rule of Hamas in Gaza: to divide the Palestinians, and thus forestall the establishment of another terrorist entity.

The October 7 pogrom exposed this as a catastrophic error of judgment for which he should deservedly pay a high political price.

But people must look beyond their loathing of Netanyahu to where Israel’s interests lie. Is it in its interests for the PA to run Gaza? No. Is it in its interests for Israel to run Gaza? No. Is a “two-state solution” in Israel’s interests? No.

So who should run Gaza?

That question cannot be answered in a way that protects Israel’s interests unless the whole paradigm shifts, and the western world stops supporting the Palestinians’ agenda of extermination and starts treating them as the pariahs they should be. At a stroke, their cause would collapse.

That won’t happen unless the world finally decides to accept — as it did in 1922, but then chose to forget — that the Jews are the only people, as a people, who are legally and morally entitled to inhabit Israel, their own ancestral homeland.
Israel urging US not to talk publicly about two-state solution — officials Itamar Marcus lecture at UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, 071223

U.S. Abandons Israel at the World Health Organization
The United States on December 10 supported a resolution at a special session of the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Executive Board that blamed Israel for a “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza and inaccurately declared parts of Jerusalem to be “occupied Palestinian territory.”

Notably, the resolution failed to condemn: the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel; Hamas’s detention of hostages and denial of medical visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); Hamas’s use of healthcare facilities within Gaza as bases of terror operations; Hamas’s use of ambulances to move terrorists and weapons; and Hamas’s widespread use of human shields.

The U.S. permanent representative highlighted the Biden administration’s “significant reservations” but allowed the resolution to be adopted by consensus. In contrast, the vote came just two days after Washington vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, explaining that the Security Council resolution was missing key elements, including: condemnation of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack; insistence that the ICRC gain access to and provide medical treatment for the hostages held by Hamas; and the Biden administration’s preferred policy of linking humanitarian pauses with the release of hostages in place of calls for a general ceasefire.

Expert Analysis
“It is time for new leadership at the World Health Organization. The WHO amplified China’s obstruction and obfuscation in the critical early days of the COVID-19 pandemic that killed more than a million Americans, welcomes dictators to its board, embraces terrorists, and singles out Israel for scrutiny.” — Anthony Ruggiero, Senior Director of FDD’s

Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program
“The administration needs to explain why it would veto an inherently antisemitic resolution at the Security Council and then support it inside the World Health Organization two days later. Given the WHO’s enablement of Hamas war crimes in Gaza, and with an executive board composed of North Korea, Syria, China, Qatar, and Belarus, it’s time to recognize the failure of an engagement-only strategy to reform this broken agency.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor


Netherlands to Rule Whether it Will Block Export of F-35 Parts to Israel

‘Historic’ Biden Judicial Nominee Sits on Board of Group Founded by Cop-Killing Domestic Terrorist
While Mangi was not asked Wednesday about his affiliation with the Alliance of Families for Justice, he would have a harder time pleading ignorance about the group’s affinity for domestic terrorist cop killers.

Boudin, the mother of former San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin, became a national figure thanks to the notoriety of the Weather Underground and the Brinks truck robbery murders for which she was convicted. She pleaded guilty to felony murder for the killing of two Nyack, N.Y., police officers and a security guard. Her 2003 parole drew widespread national attention.

The Alliance of Families for Justice has campaigned to release one of Boudin’s accomplices, Mutulu Shakur. In 2021, the group organized an event to urge the release of Shakur and five other black nationalists convicted of murdering police officers: Sundiata Acoli, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Russell Maroon Shoatz, H. Rap Brown, and Kamau Sadiki.

Acoli, a member of the Black Liberation Army, a black nationalist militant group, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1974 murder of a New Jersey state trooper. Shoatz, a member of the Black Panther party and Black Liberation Army, served a life sentence for the 1970 murder of a Philadelphia police officer. H. Rap Brown, a prominent Black Panther party leader, was sentenced to life in prison for the 2000 murder of a Georgia sheriff’s deputy.

The Alliance of Families for Justice filed an amicus brief on behalf of Acoli last year, seeking his release from prison because of his health issues.

The Alliance of Families for Justice has touted other left-wing activists during Mangi’s tenure and embraced radical positions on the criminal justice system. Marxist activist Angela Davis, a former FBI "Most Wanted" fugitive, was the keynote speaker this year for the Alliance of Families for Justice’s inaugural lecture series in honor of Boudin.

The organization has hosted events in support of the "prison abolition movement," which seeks to shut down all prisons.

Mangi and the Alliance of Families for Justice did not respond to requests for comment.


Merkava Tank’s Trophy Protection System Showcased In Hamas Video
Trophy is primarily intended to defend against anti-tank guided missiles and other kinds of infantry anti-armor weapons, such as shoulder-fired rockets and rocket-propelled grenades. Standard installations are designed to provide "360° protection in azimuth as well as extensive elevation coverage," not total 360-degree coverage in all directions, according to Rafael.

The clip that Hamas has released underscores the value of active protection systems like Trophy, especially for tanks and other vehicles operating in dense urban environments. Urban landscapes offer hostile forces a ready supply of vantage points and hard cover from which they can mount ambushes on passing vehicles at very close range.

The Merkava seen in the video is also moving at speed and with its crew buttoned up inside, all of which can limit situational awareness. The tank also appears to be by itself with no other vehicles or accompanying dismounted infantry to help provide overwatch. Why this is the case is unclear, but it is worth noting that Trophy does present some risks to infantry, especially if they are working very close to the vehicle it is mounted on, as would be the case in an urban environment. Rafael does say that Trophy is designed to provide "pre-defined safety zone for friendly troops" and present "minimal risk to dismounts, crews, or civilians." Whatever the circumstances, the video does show Trophy helping to fill in some of those gaps.

Israeli defense contractors have been pioneers in active vehicle defenses and continue to be leaders in this space. The Israel Defense Forces first began fielding Merkava tanks with Trophy, specifically, in 2009. This was a decision that was driven in no small part by lessons learned from Israel's conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in that country in 2006.


Why a West Bank Front Has Not Opened So Far
Since October 7, Palestinians in Judea and Samaria have carried out 128 terrorist attacks that the Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security agency) judges “significant.” These include 112 shootings and two rocket launches, but not the many gunfights that have taken place between Israeli forces and local militants. Nevertheless, Hamas has not managed to carry out its plan to spark a mass uprising in the West Bank and draw the Jewish state into a two-front war. Neomi Neumann explains why:

Despite the ongoing violence, the numbers reveal a significant decline in terrorist attacks over the past three weeks compared to the huge spike seen in the first three weeks after October 7, which was three times the average recorded during the same period in 2022. The IDF’s daily operations in the West Bank are having an impact on the frequency and intensity of such incidents—indeed, the killing of senior terrorists, the seizure of arms caches, the introduction of new combat patterns (e.g., aerial fire), and extensive arrests all show that Israel has “taken off the gloves” post-October.

[Meanwhile], the Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas and senior Fatah figures have been careful to condemn Israel publicly and to call on the international community to protect Palestinians. . . . Yet beneath this implied support for groups that actively oppose Israeli occupation, many PA officials privately hope that the IDF succeeds in smashing Hamas and killing its leaders—the only scenario in which the PA would be able to return to Gaza.

The best explanation for the relative passivity of most West Bank Palestinians is . . . the traumatic memory of the second intifada, when they paid a huge price but failed to secure significant political achievements after four years of violence.

In other words, contrary to oft-heard assertions that fighting terrorism only creates more terrorists, Israel’s measured application of force has prevented attacks in the both the short and long run.


Zoom Rockman | Podcast Against Antisemitism | Bonus episode
Zoom Rockman is a 23-year-old award-winning political cartoonist, illustrator, and puppet animator. At the age of twelve, Zoom became the youngest cartoonist in history to work for The Beano, with his monthly comic strip, ‘Skanky Pigeon’. This ran for four years until he left at age sixteen to become a regular contributor at Private Eye Magazine. For his cartoon on the subject of antisemitism, he was one of the winners at the Political Cartoon Awards 2023.

In this special bonus episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism, Zoom opens up about his decision to quit Private Eye over its incendiary cartoon about Israel and for failing to take proper action after he had received a death threat.

Video contents:
00:00 - Intro
01:20 - Private Eye’s incendiary cartoon
03:10 - Death threat against Zoom
04:42 - Quitting Private Eye
08:20 - Zoom’s other projects
11:48 - Zoom’s career
13:29 - Antisemitism in cartoons
18:39 - Attitudes among young Jews
20:45 - Cartoon about hostages taken by Hamas
22:28 - How can people who are not Jewish help tackle antisemitism?
24:05 - Final words


Dept. of Education to investigate antisemitism on at least 5 more campuses including Rutgers and Tulane

Qatar is responsible for the decline, antisemitism of US universities

Jewish environmentalist on Oakland City Council disinvited from speaking to UC Berkeley class

Seth Mandel: The Rabbi’s Lesson for Claudine Gay
Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, who was been with the Harvard Jewish community for a quarter-century, began by pointing out that the last time President Gay came to a Chabad event, she made sure to tell those in attendance that Harvard had their back. “We didn’t feel it last night,” Zarchi then said.

The rabbi explained that they held a screening of war footage from Israel. “The Harvard police called our family, advising us that we should get security for the night to protect our family, my wife and children and our students because we’re being accused of hosting a war criminal. I don’t feel that they had the back of me and my family and our community.”

The previous morning Zarchi was in a Harvard chaplains’ meeting where, he said, the other chaplains talked about wanting more relevance, more of a presence, more of a voice on campus. Zarchi had some constructive criticism for them. “The Harvard chaplains want to be more relevant? You had your time, you had your moment when the faculty failed us,” Zarchi said. “When leadership wasn’t speaking in a way that it should have, the chaplains could have made themselves relevant and been the moral voice.” Instead, regarding the calls for genocide that Jews constantly hear on campus, “not a word from the Harvard chaplains till this day.”

In response they accused him of misrepresenting the calls to “globalize the intifada,” as if there was a benign interpretation of expanding a campaign to murder any Jew where we are found.

Zarchi had previously supported the removal of a proctor who had called for “the beast of Zionism to be slain.” In response, there was a mass faculty open letter denouncing Zarchi.

The rabbi noted that after the menorah lighting, just like every night of Hanukkah this or any year at Harvard Yard, the menorah will be taken down and stored in a secure place because the university believes leaving it up overnight invites vandalism. Students say they check their reflections before leaving their dorm rooms to make sure no sign of their Judaism is showing.
Harvard forces Jewish student group to 'hide' menorah at night for fear of vandalism, rabbi says

House GOP Demanding Harvard be Stripped of Billions in Federal Funding Over Anti-Semitism

Carnegie Mellon accused of 'cruel campaign of antisemitism,' accepting millions from Qatar: lawsuit

THE WASHINGTON POST COVERS FOR CAIR, AGAIN

MEMRI: Islamic Scholar Waseem Abdullah In New York Friday Sermon: The Sons Of Zion Are Not Jews, They Came From Different Parts Of The World To Destroy The Al-Aqsa Mosque And Drive The Palestinians From Their Land

MEMRI: Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani Responds To Proposed U.S.-Backed Red Sea Force: 'If Americans Make Such A Foolish Move, They Will Be Faced With Extraordinary Problems'; 'This Region Is Ours'

Latest Attack on Jews in Beverly Hills Proves We Can’t Trust Others With Our Safety

Los Angeles Hate Crime Suspect Was Arrested and Released on Cashless Bail Hours Before Anti-Semitic Attack

Man who vandalized California synagogue charged with hate crimes

Shocking footage shows man threatening to 'kill' Orthodox Jews in north London as Hanukkah candelabra is smashed up amid rising wave of anti-Semitic attacks

Unpacked: Why Did American Jews Smuggle Guns Into Palestine?
Following the 1948 U.S. arms embargo on Israel leading up to the Israeli War of Independence, Harry Levine and 18 other American Jews accepted David Ben-Gurion’s plea and began a secret and extremely complicated operation to smuggle weapons overseas to the Hagana. This operation was possibly the most organized global joint effort the Jewish people had ever made.

00:00 Intro
00:49 UN Palestine Partition Plan
01:15 Israel War of Independence
01:52 British rule over Palestine
02:17 Jewish defiance of British law
02:35 Illegal immigration of Holocaust refugees to Palestine
03:15 The 3 Jewish underground militias
03:36 State of the Hagana's weaponry
04:04 David Ben Gurion appeals to American Jews
04:35 Who was Harry Levine?
05:27 19 American Jews agree to help
05:48 US arms embargo on Israel
06:37 How they obtained and smuggled the weapons
09:19 How to build an illegal army
09:58 How does the story end?




Delegation of US senior tech execs to visit Israel in show of support
In a show of solidarity and support with the Israeli people and business community during this time of war, 65 investors, CEOs, and senior executives of US-based technology, venture capital, and private equity firms will land in Tel Aviv next week for a three-day series of economic planning sessions, solidarity discussions, and support meetings.

The group includes leaders from Bain Capital, Meetup.com, Apollo, Houzz, TPG, Susquehanna Growth Equity, and many others. It represents the first and largest group of its kind to visit Israel since October 7.

The group will meet with prominent politicians, members of the Knesset, technology business leaders, and senior members of the IDF, including Israel President Isaac Herzog, Minister Benny Gantz, Economic Minister Nir Barkat, Mellanox CEO Eyal Waldman, Head of Blackstone Israel Yifat Oron, and former Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz, among others.

“After October 7th, we feel it is critical for venture capital and technology business leaders to stand with Israel. That means more than donating, but also being present to say that we have always been and will always be there to support Israel’s flourishing tech ecosystem. We will invest and continue to stand with 'Start-Up Nation',” said David Siegel, CEO of Meetup.com and co-organizer of the Israeli Tech Mission. “Our trip was oversubscribed for attendees. The technology community recognizes the heightened need for support as many Israeli entrepreneurs and their workforces are on the front lines as reservists.”
Israeli Judoka Sagi Muki: ‘Be Brave’ and Condemn Hamas, or You’re ‘Speaking Against Peace’
In the clip, Muki began by talking about his friendship with Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei, who was ordered by Iranian officials to forfeit a match at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo to avoid competing against Muki simply because he was Israeli.

Iran, which backs the Hamas terrorist organization, has a longstanding policy of banning its athletes from going head-to-head against competitors from the Jewish state.

Ignoring orders to drop out of the match against Muki, Mollaei reached the semi-final in Tokyo. He subsequently fled Iran and gained refugee status in Germany before becoming a citizen of Mongolia, for which he now competes.

“The bright side of the story is that we became friends and have been close ever since,” Muki said in the video. “Saeid and I are proof that the Iranian people and the Israeli people are not enemies, despite the Iranian regime pushing that destruction narrative.”

The Israeli athlete added that following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, “I believe that the friendship story between myself and Saeid is all the more important to tell, especially as I see students and protesters around the world spewing hatred against Israel while ignoring, or sometimes even celebrating, Hamas atrocities.”

“When you refuse to speak out against Hamas, you are actually speaking against peace,” Muki noted. “If we do not recognize evil for what it is, we are throwing away any hope for good. For my sake, for Saeid’s sake, and for the sake of everyone, everywhere, who wants good to thrive in the face of evil, speak out. Be brave like Saeid. There is always hope for a peaceful future.”

When Mollaei won his first Olympic medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, he dedicated his win to Israel. The judoka also traveled to Israel in 2021 to compete in the International Judo Federation’s Tel Aviv Grand Slam, where he won the silver medal.
Seth Mandel: GOP Puts Its Hope in a Former IDF Paratrooper
Israel has a funny habit of ending up at the center of American political campaigns. Long Island Republicans, desperately needing a candidate who can unify the party for an open seat, found themselves with two IDF veterans among their potential nominees. Yesterday, they chose one of them to represent the GOP in a special election to the seat vacated by the disgraced George Santos.

The party’s pick possesses one of the most interesting biographies of any candidate for Congress. And it’s also a biography that appears to be accurate—which is important in replacing Santos, who boasted a background that was quite literally too good to be true. Among the debunked claims made by the expelled Republican were that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors, that he was Jewish (later adjusted to “Jew-ish”), that his mother’s death was a result of 9/11, that he was a star volleyball player for Baruch College, and that he worked on Wall Street. He is facing federal fraud charges and was expelled from Congress after an ethics investigation into his use of campaign funds.

On Friday morning, the Long Island GOP introduced Mazi Melesa Pilip, the woman that the party hopes will take his place. Pilip, whose competitors for the nomination included IDF vet Daniel Norber, was born in Ethiopia and brought to Israel as a child as part of the famed Operation Solomon airlifts. She is an Orthodox mother of seven who served as an IDF paratrooper and as vice president of her Long Island synagogue, the former presumably a training run for the latter.

The war in Gaza will likely hover in the background of the Feb. 13 election. Pilip’s primary rival was in Israel when Hamas attacked on Oct. 7—Norber was born there and his parents still live there. IDF paratroopers, meanwhile, have been leading the offensive in Khan Younis, so Pilip’s specific military experience will be of interest. This morning on Fox, Pilip was asked how her experience in the IDF shaped her as a person. And although her Democratic opponent, Tom Suozzi, has a reputation as a moderate and has supported Israel in the past (he has previously held the seat), Pilip criticized Suozzi for supposedly approaching Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a request to “join the Squad.” She didn’t mention Israel in that comment, but she didn’t have to.

Pilip also entered politics in large part because of rising anti-Semitism, which her son had encountered in school. That subject is everywhere at the moment.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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