Thursday, December 21, 2023

12/21 Links Pt2: The silence of the anti-racists; How Universities Instill a Conspiratorial Worldview; Sen. Blackburn calls for removal of UN Women deputy

From Ian:

The silence of the anti-racists
To say our elites have a blindspot where anti-Semitism is concerned is a grotesque understatement. Having spent years obsessing over fantasy forms of racism and fascism, having spent years soberly telling us that Boris Johnson was Eton’s answer to Hitler, the great and good look upon Jew-hating marches, attacks and even terror plots… and it barely registers.

Whether these people are ignoring anti-Semitism, making excuses for it, or participating in it, the story remains the same. Our supposedly ‘anti-racist’ betters, people who during the Black Lives Matter uprising just two years ago were taking knees and ‘doing the work’ and tweeting #SilenceIsViolence from their £4million townhouses, are so marinated in a divisive identity politics and a demented ‘anti-imperialism’ that they see Jews as ‘white’ oppressors, even when they’re being beaten up, and Israel as the aggressor, even when it is under attack.

The silence of the ‘anti-racists’ over the barbaric rise of anti-Semitism reminds us that these people were never anti-racists at all. Woke leftists and the liberal-left midwits who defer to them on these matters have just imbibed a new version of racial hierarchy, apportioning worth and solidarity not on the basis of phoney racial superiority but of questionable racial victimhood. What the new has in common with the old is that the Jews are still, at best, not to be trusted.

Rather than just shaking our heads at the moral self-immolation of the woke left, we need to do what they are so clearly incapable of doing and tackle this foul, racist scourge. We cannot allow Jew hatred to become the background noise of Western life. We cannot stand idly by while our fellow citizens are menaced for no other reason than who they are.

We need to fight this new Jew hatred with words and actions – in argument and in the streets. A society that allows anti-Semitism to become normalised is not only failing to defend its Jewish citizens, it is also a society that is deeply sick – that is overcome not only by hatred of a particular group, but by a deep-seated irrationalism and unreason, too. A society in which conspiracy theories about Jewish power – in which some people can convince themselves that 7 October didn’t happen, or wasn’t half as bad as ‘they’ are saying – is one that has become deranged and deprived of its moral bearings.

It’s high time we ignored the confected race rows that clutter public debate and confronted the very real hatred in our midst.
Former ADL, AJC leaders Abe Foxman and David Harris call for scrapping DEI
Abe Foxman and David Harris, two former longtime leaders of prominent Jewish communal organizations, called for an end to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy at colleges on Wednesday.

In separate statements, the former heads of the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee argued that DEI efforts on college campuses should be overhauled because of the major challenges it poses to the liberal understanding of societal aims.

Foxman and Harris’ stances contrast with their organizations’ current positions on how to deal with DEI. ADL and AJC leaders told JI this week their organizations are urging universities to better incorporate Jews into the DEI infrastructure, instead of calling on them to dismantle the ideology behind DEI altogether.

Foxman, who served as the Anti-Defamation League’s national director for 28 years until 2015, insisted that DEI “cannot be fixed.”

He said that part of the problem is that DEI is “based on a faulty premise — that racism is a function of oppressed and oppressors [and] that all white people are oppressors and all people of color [are] oppressed.”

The results, Foxman said, are “bias, illiberalism, reinforced, legitimized and institutionalized antisemitism in many institutions.”

Foxman added: “It has built a huge funded bureaucracy which is today difficult to change or amend. Efforts by communal Jewish organizations to include the Jewish community or soften its impact on antisemitism have failed. It cannot be fixed, it needs to be scrapped and replaced by a vigorous implementation of our civil rights laws that are color blind, and apply equally to all. If necessary some civil rights laws can be amended and strengthened. DEI was developed to eliminate bias but sadly it created bias.”

David Harris, the longtime CEO of the American Jewish Committee CEO, echoed similar criticisms of DEI.

“DEI has evolved into a mammoth, ideologically-driven presence on many campuses, some of which have literally hundreds of staff working exclusively in this space,” Harris told JI.

“Accordingly, I don’t believe that outside efforts, however well-intentioned, that nibble around the edges or simply seek to add Jews to the DEI agenda, address the heart of the problem. DEI today poses a major challenge to liberal understanding of American societal aims, so the goal of rethinking it conceptually is far more urgent than just trying to get along with it.”
Seth Mandel: How Universities Instill a Conspiratorial Worldview
Puar is a tenured professor at Rutgers University. Her rise to fame—expressing anti-Semitism is the quickest way to the top in higher education—came after a Vassar lecture she gave in 2016, which later became the book under discussion. Her main accusations are that the state of Israel engages in organ harvesting from Palestinians and that the Jewish state deliberately maims and stunts Palestinians.

As Cary Nelson has shown at length, these accusations can be definitively debunked, although it feels icky even engaging them. There is no organ-harvesting project, obviously, though a single doctor’s team 30 years ago took cornea extractions and the like almost certainly largely from Mizrachi Jews—illegal in Israel but legal in much of the West under presumed consent laws precisely because it is not “organ harvesting.” The growth of young Palestinians is monitored and studied regularly by the UN and Palestinian health bodies, all which refute the idea that there is a stunting crisis in the Palestinian territories and the that Israel was responsible by withholding nutritious food.

And the “maiming” accusation requires a special level of madness, since it is a criticism of Israeli troops shooting to injure instead of to kill in various situations. There is obviously no such thing as “shooting to maim,” a spectacularly idiotic invention that requires knowing less than nothing about all involved subjects, including basic science.

Puar is neither the first nor the last pseudoscience fanatic to incite the world against the Jews. She is, in fact, following a very old formula, hence the reference to medieval blood libels. And yet her work poses a very particular challenge to the concept of academic study, and it is one that the academy has failed.

As Nelson has pointed out, Puar announced her commitment to “an anti-Zionist hermeneutic,” which means she begins from an anti-Semitic position and interprets all information to fit that worldview. This is the opposite of honest inquiry, and it is what she teaches her students. Additionally, her accusations “represent the kinds of conspiratorial thinking that can influence faculty who are teaching about contemporary Israel.”

In other words, and this is a hugely important point, our most esteemed academic institutions are teaching students to think conspiratorially. They are rewiring the brains of generations of future leaders in public service and private industry to process information in an anti-intellectual manner.

If you think there is a predilection among the public to glom on to wild conspiracy theories, this is a major clue as to how it came into existence. Ivy League schools are teaching students to un-think. And we have only begun to see the consequences for wider society.


Richard Landes: The Failure of 21st Century Feminism: A Study in Preemptive Dhimmitude
Nothing better illustrates the Moebius strip of Y2KMind than the “feminist” reaction to Aayan Hirsi Ali, a tremendous role model, almost the dream candidate for world feminist poster child.[38] A black Sudanese woman who was genitally mutilated by her grandmother, who grew up in two deeply patriarchal and misogynist cultures, who escaped being the victim of an honor killing at the hands of her family, made it to Holland, where, quick witted as she was, she learned Dutch,[39] became a politician (where she first saw men apologizing – ! – for their errors), and fought for women’s rights, especially in the lands whence she came. Who better exemplified all the transformative power of empathy, education, civic discourse? What could hold out more hope for women around the world that they too can escape from the repressive conditions under which they live, and become emancipated full participants in a society that respects women with independent minds? Instead, when Brandeis University wanted to give her an honorary degree in 2014, the faculty – led by the women’s studies faculty – petitioned the president to disinvite her; and the president complied – a successful attack that made the front pages of the NYT.

Why? In short, because the male chauvinist pigs she criticized were Muslims, who constantly invoked their religion to justify their behavior, and she earned her success according to the fair rules of Western meritocracy. In other words, she was everything that LCEs imagined, when they spoke of moderate, peaceful Muslims who enrich the societies in which they dwell. Therefore, she had to go. As Andrew Anthony put it dryly: “she is loathed not just by Islamic fundamentalists but by many western liberals, who find her rejection of Islam almost as objectionable as her embrace of western liberalism.”

The faculty petitioners denounced her “virulently anti-Muslim public statements” that unquestionably “sent a horrible message… to Muslim and non-Muslim communities.” To document her inacceptable hostility to Islam, the petitioners found comments, all from late 2007 when her first book, Infidel came out. At that time, she had just been chased out of Holland by Muslims who, after killing her colleague Theo Van Gogh, put a price on her head, and made her 24/7 security so onerous, that both the government in which she served and her neighbors told her to leave.[40] Once in America, at the conservative think-tank, AEI (no progressive places offered her shelter),[41] she ran into other Muslim leaders who condemned her for her “poisonous and unjustified” statements about Islam, that “created dissension in the community,” and considered that her deliberate “defaming the faith,” qualified, “by the laws” of Islam, for which the “punishment is death.”[42] Reflecting this experience, she publicly voiced her conclusions – based on widespread experience of “variegated” Islam (Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Europe, USA) – that Islam is “inherently violent” (the Regensburg Lecture); that not just extremist Islam, but “mainstream Islam is fascist,” “totalitarian,” and “inspires Jihadism and terror”; and that Islam “cannot be reformed.”

Now anyone saying similar things about Christianity or Judaism or Western culture would not get such a reception. When, for example, John Carroll wrote his devastating critique of Catholicism, Constantine’s Sword, he received extensive praise for his honest self-criticism, not insistent censure for his hate-filled phobias. It’s hard to imagine the Enlightenment, had the Catholic Church managed to shut Voltaire out of the public discourse of Europe. But here, the petitioning faculty, upon reading such opinions were “filled with shame at the suggestion that the above-quoted sentiments express Brandeis's values.” So, an African woman was internationally shamed as “someone who [does not] truly meets the standards and upholds the values of this university.” The president acceded to the furor, and disinvited her.

What were the stakes here for the petitioners? Why the excited language – “virulently anti-Muslim,” “horrible message,” “filled with shame”? Why the imperious commands to rescind the invitation immediately? What was the emergency? Why the moral panic at the mere thought that Brandeis might honor this woman?
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn Leads Colleagues in Condemning the United Nations’ Response to Hamas’ Sexual Violence Against Israeli Women
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led a bipartisan group of colleagues in sending a letter to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urging he open an independent investigation into the UN’s lack of action in response to the sexual violence against Israeli committed by the terrorist group Hamas on October 7.

The UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), which, according to its website, is “dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women,” failed to immediately condemn the rape and mutilation of Israeli women committed by Hamas.

UN Women issued a statement on December 1 condemning the “brutal attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October,” adding it was “alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks.”

The UN entity also called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” between Hamas and Israeli forces.

The group of U.S. senators called UN Women’s delay in denouncing Hamas’s sexual violence and rape against Israeli women on October 7 a “moral failure.”

“We write to express our profound disappointment with the United Nations’ (UN) response to Hamas’s widespread sexual violence, including rape and mutilation, as a weapon of war against women in Israel on October 7, 2023,” the lawmakers wrote. “A growing body of evidence including the testimonies of survivors, witnesses, and first responders makes clear that as part of Hamas’s terrorist attack that killed 1,200 men, women, and children on October 7, the terrorist organization intentionally used rape and sexual assault as weapons of war.”

“Sexual violence, particularly on this scale and of this level of brutality, must be condemned unequivocally and without qualification, which is why we were shocked that it took UN Women nearly two months to speak out against these atrocities,” the senators added. “… we urge you to move swiftly to seek the establishment of an independent fact-finding effort through a separate mechanism, tasked with collecting testimonies from survivors and witnesses of Hamas’s sexual violence. An independent investigation is a necessary step to hold perpetrators accountable, support survivors, and provide justice for victims.”

A total of 33 U.S. senators signed onto the letter.


JPost Editorial: There is no comparison between Palestinian and Jewish violence in West Bank
On Monday, Mevaseret Cohen, 27, was wounded when terrorists fired on the car in which she, her husband, and their six-week-old baby were traveling near the Jewish town of Ateret in Samaria. The foreign media don't report on the hundreds of monthly attacks on Jews living in Judea and Samaria, including rocks thrown regularly at cars, ramming attacks, and drive-by shootings.

Yet since Oct. 7, world leaders, led by President Biden, have sprinkled their condemnations of Hamas with an obligatory talking point about quelling "Jewish extremist violence" in the West Bank.

By no means should Jewish extremist violence be whitewashed. It does exist and needs to be condemned and stopped. But it is also by far not the main source of violence in the West Bank. If you are a Palestinian driving in Judea and Samaria, you are concerned about being stopped at an IDF checkpoint. You are not, however, worried about being gunned down randomly in a drive-by shooting. That is the unique preserve of Jews.

Jews are not waking up in the morning thinking about how to go out and murder innocent Palestinian civilians. But the terrorist who shot Mevaseret Cohen was thinking exactly about how to go out and murder innocent Jews.

Hallel and Yagel Yaniv; Elan Ganeles; Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee; Meir Tamari; Ofer Fayerman; Harel Masood; Elisha Anteman; Shmuel Mordoff; Aviad Nir; Shai Migreker; Batshvea Nagari; and Elhanan Klein are all Jews who have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists on West Bank roads since the beginning of the year. Yet that type of violence doesn't rile up the world.

There is no comparison between the level of Palestinian-perpetrated violence in Judea and Samaria and that carried out by Jews there. None whatsoever. Not even close. To suggest otherwise not only betrays the truth but also creates a perverted moral equivalence.
Bassam Tawil The Biden Administration, Palestinians and Inconvenient Truths
The results of the poll also showed that, unlike the Biden administration, most Palestinians do not trust the Palestinian Authority and prefer Hamas's terrorism to a peaceful settlement with Israel.

The PA might say that it is ready to change, but this will be in order to deceive the Biden administration and the rest of the international community into continuing to pour billions of dollars on Abbas and his cohorts...

Despite whatever commitments might be signed in blood, in the eyes of Palestinian leaders, they are just Western fantasies. After the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995 , then PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat assured his people -- in Arabic -- that Oslo was no more binding than the Treaty of Al-Hudaibiyya, when the Islamic prophet Mohammad agreed not to attack for ten years, then, with his opponents safely neutralized, he assembled an army and attacked after two years.

[S]upport for Abbas and his ruling Fatah faction has dropped significantly. The same is true for trust in the Palestinian Authority as a whole, as demand for its dissolution has risen to nearly 60%, the highest percentage ever recorded in PSR polls. Demand for Abbas's resignation has increased to around 90%... 63% are now in favor of "armed struggle".

According to the poll, most Palestinians justify Hamas's October 7 massacre, including murder, decapitation, rape and burning people alive. These are the same people that the Biden administration wants to give a state next to Israel.

If new presidential elections were held today with only two candidates, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would receive 78% of the vote as opposed to 16% for Abbas. The poll also showed that 54% of Palestinians think that Hamas is the most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people today....

It is enough for Biden administration officials to look at the results of the poll of PSR and talk to ordinary Palestinians to understand that the White House's policies, such as promoting the creation of an Iran-sponsored Palestinian terror state, are not wanted by anyone but Iran and them.
Canadian police enabling antisemitic hate — someone's going to get killed

Vice Senior Staffer Helped Mobilize for Protest That Included Harassment of Hostage’s Mother
According to her LinkedIn profile, Harron Walker is a senior staff writer at VICE, focusing on “health, sex, dating, and other lifestyle matters.” Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and a slew of independent news outlets.

When she’s not writing about the nuances of 21st-century life, Walker is, as of late, helping to organize for Writers Against the War on Gaza, and sharing social media posts that support the boycott of Israel, spread anti-Israel conspiracies, and accuse the Jewish state of committing a genocide.

For her latest stand against the Jewish state, Walker helped mobilize a protest against a pro-Israel event being hosted by Donna Karan, the creator of the DKNY fashion label.

According to the group Stop Antisemitism, Walker posted a call-to-action on her Instagram page, which read “Donna Karan is hosting a fundraiser for the IDF tonight at her West Village shop. Are we going to let these assholes fund a genocide without shame?”

Aliza Licht, who attended the event, claims that the details of the event were not made public until Harron Walker shared her call to action on social media.

The event featured three speakers, including Ayelet Levy Shachar, the mother of Naama Levy, one of the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. The video of a bloodied Naama Levy being manhandled into a Jeep by a Palestinian terrorist became one of the defining images of Hamas’ October 7 atrocities.

According to reports, as the event got underway, anti-Israel demonstrators harassed people entering and leaving the fundraiser, banged on doors for 20 minutes as Ayelet Levy Shachar spoke, and chanted slogans that compared the IDF to the KKK and referred to attendees as “baby killers.”

At the end of the event, attendees were only able to leave the scene via a police escort.


Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace ‘fooled by Hamas’, say military chiefs
Leading military figures have lined up to accuse former defence secretary Ben Wallace of being “fooled by Hamas” after he claimed that Israel was being driven by an indiscriminate “killing rage” in its war in Gaza.

Writing in The Telegraph, the Conservative backbencher said: “We are entering a dangerous period now where Israel’s original legal authority of self-defence is being undermined by its own actions.”

He said that if Netanyahu “thinks a killing rage will rectify matters, then he is very wrong”, adding that Israel needed to “stop this crude and indiscriminate method of attack.” The lesson of Northern Ireland, he wrote, was that a “disproportionate response” can strengthen the enemy.

Senior commanders with decades of combat experience between them attacked what they described as a “careless” and “sensational” article.

Brigadier Ian Liles, who served in operations for 13 tours of Northern Ireland as well as in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo, said: “Mr Wallace has shown a distinct lack of knowledge and judgement in equating Gaza to Northern Ireland. Hamas needs no encouragement from ex-government ministers.”

In 2015, Wallace admitted that he was “often accused by some of being too pro-Iran” after a visit to Tehran with Jeremy Corbyn, during which he met Hassan Rouhani, then-president of the country. After the trip he praised the future Labour leader, calling him “an honest left winger who genuinely likes people.”

Rear Admiral Chris Parry, the former Director of Operational Capability at the Ministry of Defence and the former commander of the UK’s Amphibious Task Group, said that Wallace had fallen for Hamas propaganda.
RAdm. Chris Parry: Wallace has damaged his reputation for statesmanship with a cheap shot at Israel
The cynical, blatant propaganda campaign by Hamas appears to have claimed another scalp.

This time, it is the former secretary of state for defence Ben Wallace, who on the whole has been respected for his robust common sense and sound judgment.

His recent emotionally charged outburst in response to the relentless barrage of pseudo-facts and falsehoods emerging from Gaza, however, demonstrates how very quickly, once out of office, without access to reliable intelligence, one can lose touch with reality.

It is fair to say that Mr Wallace’s intemperate language and view of the conflict are not supported or reflected by those who know about the demands of urban warfare against heavily armed and securely established terrorists hiding among a civilian population.

Those of us at senior level who have commanded significant combat forces understand all too clearly that Israel is facing an unprecedented battlefield challenge, involving subterranean warfare and the use of civilian human shields on a scale with which the world is only now coming to terms.

Any casualties among the population are too high, whatever the number. But in this case, they have been both exacerbated and exaggerated by have Hamas, which seeks both physical and information advantages. Israel has very little alternative to hunting down and eradicating Hamas if Israelis themselves are not to be repeat victims of the sort of barbarism inflicted on their citizens and other nationalities on October 7.


Jewish orgs. urge Governor Newsom to adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism amid growing

Gil Troy: Our Failed Colleges: Time to Get Radical
They are now the smirks seen ‘round the world. Three leading university presidents arrogantly, dismissively, explained that Harvard, MIT and UPenn students could freely call “for the genocide of Jews” and it wouldn’t even be a microaggression, “depending on the context.”

Outsiders think these leaders let their institutions down. Even if you agree that freedom of speech allows people to say awful things, and even if you understand that context matters, their academic callousness and hypocrisy were unforgivable. It was bad enough that the presidents showed no empathy for the many Jewish students who feel threatened by calls for Jewish genocide. But all three institutions have cancelled professors and students for far milder transgressions. In short, this precious presidential “context” actually persecutes speakers when a favored “oppressed” group endures even microaggressions, while suddenly protecting wild speech when targeting those deemed “oppressors,” especially the “privileged” Jews, absorbing their deserved daily quotas of nano-aggressions.

In fact, these ambitious academic pols knew their haughtiness would play well on campus. The “smirks” revealed that they were appealing to their key constituents, to the anti-colonial professors and Poisoned Ivy bureaucrats who risk turning these centers of learning into moral cesspools of totalitarian indoctrination, especially in the humanities and social sciences.

The smirks were the smirks that helped elect Donald Trump, sure that Representative Elise Stefanik, a mere “deplorable,” could never outsmart them, just like a buffoonish Trump would never win. They were the smirks of those who, as soon as Trump and Ron DeSantis attacked “wokeness,” defined being woke far-too-benignly, as just wanting to treat everyone equally, while simultaneously denying it existed.

And they were the smirks of the academic racketeers, these gatekeepers guarding access to America’s most cherished credentials, who have executed the greatest bait-and-switch in educational history. Decades ago, it was corrupt enough: Parents paid thousands, thinking they were buying the best teachers for their kids, while we professors were hired based on research skills not classroom effectiveness. Today, parents pay hundreds of thousands, while donors fork over tens of millions, thinking they are buying the best liberal education for their kids, fostering critical thought. However, many professors now are hired based on fealty to one particular ideology, which they impose in the classroom. How odd. Millions of parents collectively pay billions so their children can be bullied into buying an anti-American, Marxist-infused ideology demeaning those who can afford the insane tuition bills these very institutions charge. No wonder this scam’s beneficiaries keep smirking.
Yale enables ‘climate of hostility’ to Jews, Zionists, more than 1,500 alumni, faculty and parents say

Qatar’s Role in Undermining Israel’s Legitimacy on U.S. University Campuses

At Georgetown Med, the Doctors of Tomorrow Aren't Hiding Their Support for Terrorism

Northwestern targeted by ad campaign criticizing response to antisemitism, Hamas attack on Israel

Susan Sarandon Promotes Support for Hamas, Calls to ‘Globalize the Intifada’ After Apologizing for Remarks About Jews
Actress Susan Sarandon has continued to share messages on social media bashing Israel and even seemingly supporting Hamas terrorists just weeks after she was dropped by her talent agency and lost a potential acting job for making offensive remarks about Jews and Israel.

On Sunday, the Thelma & Louise star retweeted a video from a pro-Palestinian rally in Boston where protesters were chanting to “globalize the intifada,” referring to an armed uprising against Israel. Demonstrators at the rally also held signs that read “End All US Aid to Israel” and “Free Palestine,” and accused the Jewish state of genocide. The post was first highlighted by the blog Israellycool.

Sarandon has recently reposted several messages that falsely accuse Israel of genocide and war crimes — such as the accusation that Israel is “assassinating Palestinian journalists.” Another post said, “The world has a right for Israel not to exist.”

On Monday, the actress shared a video in which a man talks about Israel’s “violent approach to colonialism.” A day earlier, she shared a tweet criticizing the US for giving aid to “apartheid Israel.”

On Dec. 12, the actress retweeted a post that described Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” and attempted to justify their attacks. The post claimed that the “right to armed struggle is a guaranteed right under international law, for every single Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese person living under illegal Israeli occupation.”


NYC HS principal reassigned weeks after ‘radicalized’ students rioted over Jewish teacher attending pro-Israel rally

UPenn Faculty Warn of ‘Hostile Takeover’ as Trustees and Donors Take Action Over Anti-Semitism on Campus

Amazon Suspends Employee Who Slipped Note Saying ‘Death to Zionists’ in Customer’s Order
Amazon has suspended an employee who put a note that read “Death to Zionists” inside a book about Israel before it was sent to a customer.

“We have taken this issue very seriously and an employee has been suspended pending the outcome of our investigation,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Jewish Chronicle. “We have apologized to the impacted customer and author.”

Michael Sharp ordered a copy of Israelophobia: The Newest Version of the Oldest Hatred & What to Do About It, by Jake Wallis Simons, editor of The Jewish Chronicle, on Dec. 15 and received the book the next day.

“I took the book out of the packaging, and I think the edge of the note might have been protruding slightly and so the book naturally fell open on that page,” he told the Chronicle, adding that the note had the word “Zionists” misspelled. “It was a tiny scrap of paper, just a few centimeters long, ripped off from a larger piece, and inserted about halfway through the book.”

“I was just shocked, really,” Sharp said. “I never felt threatened or in danger, just surprised, and disappointed. A sad reflection of the situation we find ourselves living in.”

Sharp reported the incident to Amazon and the e-commerce giant offered him a £100 gift card, in addition to apologizing for the incident, the Chronicle reported.


Lawmakers criticize Associated Press for declining to classify Hamas as a terrorist group
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers sent a letter on Friday criticizing the Associated Press and its style guide for guidance that advises against using the terms “terrorist” and “terrorism” to describe Hamas and its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Guidance from the news service’s style guide about the war states, “The terms terrorism and terrorist have become politicized, and often are applied inconsistently. Because they can be used to label such a wide range of actions and events, and because the debate around them is so intense, detailing what happened is more precise and better serves audiences.”

The AP’s wire service feeds coverage to news organizations worldwide, and many news outlets rely on its style guide in their own coverage. Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack has fueled renewed debate over whether journalists should refer to Hamas as “terrorists” or “militants.”

The letter, led by Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI), states that the lawmakers are “deeply disturbed by the AP’s failure to accurately label Hamas a terrorist organization.” It warns of “potential dangers that may arise” from this guidance.

The lawmakers said that the guidance ignores a definition of terrorism and description of the Hamas attacks provided in the same document.

“The decision by the AP to avoid using terms such as ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ due to their perceived politicization is deeply unsettling,” they wrote. “Mislabeling Hamas undermines journalistic integrity and confuses the public as to the nature of events transpiring in Israel and Gaza. By not accurately labeling Hamas and its continued terroristic actions, we believe the AP inadvertently provides cover for these heinous acts to be accepted.”
BBC News promotes HRW’s false ‘starvation’ allegations
Just after 7 p.m. Israeli time on December 18th the BBC News website published a report by David Gritten headlined ‘Gaza health ministry says Israeli strikes kill 110 in Jabalia’.

The last four paragraphs of that report read as follows:
“In another development on Monday, Human Rights Watch accused Israel’s military of “using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”.

“Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and fuel, while wilfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival,” it alleged.

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy called the report “a lie”.

“Israel has excess capacity to inspect more than twice as many aid trucks as are entering Gaza. We’re still pumping water into Gaza through two pipelines and have placed no restrictions on entry of food and water. Direct your anger to Hamas, which hijacks aid,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.”

The Human Rights Watch report concerned had been published earlier on the same day. Clearly Gritten and BBC News website editors made no effort whatsoever to fact check the serious allegations made by that political NGO before they chose to amplify them to its audiences worldwide.

In the week prior to that report’s publication, 1,208 trucks of supplies entered the Gaza Strip.
Hamas Propaganda by Doctors Without Borders, Courtesy of PBS Newshour
PBS is peddling Hamas propaganda via representatives from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known by its English translation, “Doctors Without Borders.” MSF bills itself as an “international, independent medical humanitarian organisation” and claims it “observes neutrality and impartiality in the name of universal medical ethics.” But, in fact, it is a pro-Hamas propaganda group that justifies Hamas’ Oct. 7th massacre and hostage-taking as a “large-scale attack” on Israel that resulted from “decades of repression and conflict, and an Israel-imposed blockade on the Gaza Strip.” Representatives from the group are making the rounds at MSM outlets to accuse Israel of war crimes and demand a ceasefire.

Even while evidence of Hamas’ cynical use of Palestinian hospitals continues to mount– the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabaliya neighborhood of northern Gaza described to Israeli interrogators how Hamas has turned hospitals into terror bases—PBS has featured two segments with MSF representatives within a week to deny Hamas’ war crimes and place an international medical stamp on Hamas propaganda.

Oct. 14, 2023: Avril Benoit
On Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023, the PBS News Hour featured a segment with MSF’s U.S. Executive Director, Avril Benoit, calling for a ceasefire and repeating Hamas propaganda lines about Israeli war crimes and indiscriminate violence. Benoit was introduced by interviewer William Brangham as the executive director of an “international humanitarian organization” that “has been operating in Gaza since the start of the war,” to lend authority to Hamas propaganda.

The MSF director implicitly placed the blame for Gazan suffering on Israel, without any mention of a Hamas role in the fighting despite the fact that she and her colleagues did not witness the battles.


Ita Buttrose's RAGE over ABC radio presenter is revealed as posts that led the public broadcaster to suddenly sack Antoinette Lattouf just three days after she started her on-air job are unmasked
Presenter Antoinette Lattouf broke her silence on Wednesday night to threaten legal action over her termination, hours after she was dropped from hosting the ABC Sydney mornings slot she had been covering for Sarah Macdonald.

ABC chair Ita Buttrose was reportedly 'furious' at Ms Lattouf's hiring for the casual role after the ABC board received a raft of complaints over her stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict which were brought up with her and other board members, an insider told The Australian newspaper.

Daily Mail Australia understands the complaints centre on social media posts Ms Lattouf made that were critical of the Jewish state in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Lattouf recently co-wrote an article that questioned the truth of claims pro-Palestine protesters had shouted 'gas the Jews' at a rally outside Sydney Opera House, which sparked backlash on social media.

Among the complaints to the broadcaster was one from a Jewish woman who raised her concerns to ABC managing director David Anderson.

She expressed concern Ms Lattouf had a biased position 'as evidence by her stance on opposing the authenticity of the 'gas the Jews' chants at the Sydney Opera House'.

'Her actions, in my opinion, contribute to a rewriting of history that is not only inaccurate but also harmful.'

Ms Lattouf had also joined other journalists in signing a petition calling on newsrooms to treat information from the Israeli government and Hamas with the same 'professional scepticism' unless verified by a third party.

That had prompted news director Justin Stevens to send out a memo reminding reporters they 'should not sign any ­petition that may bring into question your impartiality or that of the ABC's coverage'.


Fresh storm hits the ABC as broadcaster suddenly deletes a reporter's TikTok on boycotting Israeli products in second controversy in 24 hours

‘Asleep at the wheel’: ABC reporter posts one-sided Israel boycott story
The Australian’s Media Writer Sophie Elsworth says a Palestinian reporter at the ABC has talked about the Israel boycott movement.

Ms Elsworth told Sky News host Caleb Bond that the “problem” is the whole video only interviews one business owner who says he’s boycotting any businesses with links to Israel.

“There’s no refuting arguments, there’s no questioning of this boycott, the ramifications of the boycott.

“Where are her bosses, because they are asleep at the wheel.

“How did this content get onto the ABC social media platforms.”




A "Two-State Solution" Now Is a Dangerous Fiction
The massacres committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 change everything. Most obviously, they change the attitudes of Israelis. If a paramilitary organization in a neighboring territory uses that territory as the base from which to enter your country and commit rape, kidnapping and mass murder of your citizens, no government can continue as before. Everything must give way to the need to disable, disarm, and, if possible, destroy that terrorist organization.

A government that talks about a "two-state solution" would be wandering into the realms of fiction. What would a Palestinian state look like and who on earth would run it? How could the attempt to create such a state after the Hamas massacres, and after so many failures with less extreme Palestinian interlocutors in the past, not look like a capitulation to the worst actors in the region?

It seems that, for some time, Israel had been operating in the belief that Hamas might be moving quietly towards a more peaceful path. The policy that began with Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 was based on an idea which now seems to have been almost literally shot to pieces. Although the surrounding Arab states loudly condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza, most of them want Hamas defeated.

The "two-state solution" at this juncture perpetuates the idea that ground must be given "on both sides." This might ultimately be true of a settlement in the region one day. But to suggest that Israel must concede something because more than 1,000 of its civilians have been murdered in cold blood is the inversion of morality and an incentive to further Islamist atrocities.
Forget a Two-State Solution for Palestinians; Three or Four Is More Realistic
Even if Palestinian society embraced religious tolerance, neither Palestinians nor any Arab state, besides perhaps increasingly Iraq, have any culture of democracy. While Israel is multiethnic and upholds religious freedom, not only Hamas but also the Palestinian Authority demands their territory be Judenrein. Apartheid exists in the region but in Gaza and Ramallah, not Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

If a one-state solution is tantamount to genocide and a two-state solution is unworkable, are there other alternatives?

Yes, it is time both Israelis and the international community consider a three- or four-state solution. Insistence on a single Palestinian state is as arbitrary as Palestinian nationalism. After all, there are two Romanias (one called Moldova), two Albanias (one called Kosovo) and two Turkeys (one called Azerbaijan). Just a century ago, most Palestinians considered themselves Syrian. Palestinian nationalism rose alongside and in reaction to Zionism. Gaza and the West Bank never shared the same political culture, especially as Egypt occupied the former and Jordan the latter. The 2007 Hamas coup and its indoctrination of a generation have made the division irreversible.

While the 88-year-old Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has prioritized personal power over preparing Palestinians for independence, it is conceivable that portions of the West Bank might be both ready and willing to trade independence in exchange for disarmament. In such a case, why should those in Bethlehem or Jericho have their dreams denied by militancy in Nablus or Gaza?

Throughout the current crisis, Jordan has behaved badly, condemning Israeli counterterrorism even as Jordanian King Abdullah II seeks to eradicate Hamas inside his own kingdom. Just as Turkey learns treaty revisions can go both ways, so too should Abdullah II understand that upending Oslo might lead to reconsideration of whether Jordan itself is Palestine occupied by Hashemite interlopers.

The Abraham Accords succeeded by discarding conventional wisdom. It is time to do likewise with the Palestinians.


Misrepresenting Jewish Attitudes toward a Ceasefire in Gaza
According to NBC News, "Hundreds of Jewish organization staffers call for White House to back Gaza ceasefire." The sub headline was, "Most signed anonymously for fear of their jobs." Which is it? Is there broad support for a ceasefire, or is this view so radical that espousing it would cost someone their job?

The letter was used as evidence that there is popular support in the American Jewish community against Israel defeating Hamas. In fact, these individuals do not represent these organizations and do not claim to do so.

In reality, calls to leave Hamas in power and demand an Israeli ceasefire are outside the mainstream of Jewish opinion. Not one of the 50 diverse organization that make up the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations are calling for a ceasefire. Instead, their CEO, William Daroff, has reposted comments against a ceasefire, such as those by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

A recent poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute found that 74% of Jewish voters approve of President Biden's handling of the war between Israel and Hamas. By a margin of nearly 2-1, American Jews support the U.S. vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.

As rabbis spanning the Jewish denominational spectrum, we wanted to add clarity, which is why we organized an open letter signed by nearly 700 rabbis that explicitly rejects the letter covered by NBC News. Unlike the pro-ceasefire letter, these rabbis all include their full names. Put simply, the position that requires anonymity to espouse isn't mainstream. The position that you can attach your name to is. Why are some in the media continuing to present fringe positions as mainstream?


Porter’s call for cease-fire clears pro-Israel lane in California primary for Schiff
Rep. Katie Porter’s (D-CA) announcement this week of her support for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas likely opens a lane for Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to lock down California’s pro-Israel vote in the three-way Senate primary between Porter, Schiff and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA).

Porter released a statement earlier this week calling for a “lasting bilateral ceasefire,” in part citing concerns about comments from Israeli leaders rejecting the U.S.’ post-war vision for Gaza.

Porter said a cease-fire must involve the return of hostages and remove Hamas from “operational control” of Gaza, while also criticizing Hamas’ long-standing deprivation of innocent Palestinians.

The statement brings Porter closer in line with the growing consensus among progressives, although it’s less sweeping than the calls for an immediate and unilateral Israeli ceasefire endorsed by some on the far left. Porter’s shift comes amid growing hostility toward Israel among progressive Democrats, a sizable constituency in deep-blue California.

Earlier in the current war, Porter had taken a more hawkish approach, blaming the Hamas attack partially on the U.S. for taking too soft a line on Iran; Porter has established a record as more of an Iran hardliner than many of her progressive counterparts.
Anti-Israel Democrat says bid to unseat her is ‘textbook racism’
An anti-Israel Democrat has called a bid to unseat her “textbook racism” and “an existential threat to the black community”.

Congresswoman Summer Lee made the comments in a private Facebook group about Aipac (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) that is seeking to remove her as representative in Pennsylvania.

Lee was one of just ten who voted against a bill that asserted the House “stands with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists.”

She also supported a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza that did not mention Hamas terrorism.

One of her followers on Facebook told her that Aipac was not supporting her over her “blatant anti-Israel positions.”

Responding, Lee wrote: “I understand that faces don’t always matter to you and the black community’s needs definitely don’t matter to you ... but what Aipac does to me is textbook anti-blackness.”

In another post she wrote: “Aipac is not supporting those black candidates to be supportive of their community’s needs if the only issue it cares about is their own. That’s textbook racism actually.”

And in another she wrote: “Since no one else will say it, I will: Aipac is an existential threat to the black community and its right to self [determination].”

Aipac spokesperson Marshall Wittmann called Lee’s statements “slanderous” and a “transparent attempt to hide her strident anti-Israel record.”

He pointed out that Aipac has supported candidates of all races.
Rep. Jahana Hayes met with Connecticut CAIR chapter earlier this month
Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT) met with affiliates of the Council on American Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Connecticut chapter in early December, according to a Facebook post from the group.

CAIR has come under recent scrutiny over its supportive rhetoric regarding Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Days after Hayes’ meeting, CAIR’s founder and executive director Nihad Awad was revealed to have praised the Hamas attack and invoked antisemitic tropes. The group has a long record of extreme anti-Israel rhetoric, including a statement on Oct. 7 that condemned Israel while making no mention of the Hamas attack.

According to the CAIR Connecticut Facebook post, Hayes met with Muslim leaders from her district to discuss the conflict and her policies toward Israel and the Palestinians.

Hayes spokesperson Sidney Johnson told Jewish Insider, “The Congresswoman has held several meetings with all constituents who have deep concerns about the ongoing war. Her statements make her position clear. She has a responsibility to listen to all of her constituents, even if they disagree on serious issues.”

She did not address whether Hayes or her staff were aware of CAIR’s comments on the Oct. 7 attack before the meeting, did not offer any direct response to such comments and did not respond to a question about whether Hayes would still have met with the group if she had been aware of its director’s remarks.

Hayes represents a competitive Connecticut district that the Cook Political Report rates as “Lean Democrat.”

Several Democrats who have met or worked with CAIR in the past have distanced themselves from the group in the wake of Awad’s comments. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) condemned Awad’s comments to Fox News, and said she would not be associating with CAIR ever again.
Anti-Israel activists claim US is ‘puppet controlled by the zionist lobby’ at ceasefire meeting
Anti-Israel California residents told a council meeting that elected officials are “puppets controlled by the zionist lobby” and that Israeli children were not massacred by Hamas.

Nearly 200 locals lined up to address the Long Beach City Council meeting on Tuesday before it passed a ceasefire motion.

One woman wearing a headscarf said that elected officials are “puppets controlled by the zionist lobby”.

A woman wearing a keffiyeh said "Israel is a known safe haven for child sex offenders and paedophiles all over the word including Ghislaine Maxwell’. A white man said “black jews have been given forced sterilisation”.

Another man said “the 40 children were not massacred. They were not burned. The real terrorism is from Israel who are controlling our media right here”.

A woman wearing a keffiyeh as a headscarf said, ‘if you are Jewish and want to claim the effects of the Holocaust, how dare you”.

Long Beach became the latest in a growing list of cities across the state that have formally approved a proclamation calling on the U.S. government to support a ceasefire in Gaza.

The council voted 5-2 in favour of the motion.


Stuttgart Mayor defies Lapid’s demand to end Hamas funding
Stuttgart mayor Frank Nopper rebuffed Yesh Atid head MK Yair Lapid’s demand on Tuesday that German authorities pull the plug on Hamas funding streams in Germany.

Lapid told German news organization Die Welt’s TV program that “there are people in Germany who have bank accounts, there are people who perhaps also personally support Hamas activists. And they are working on transferring money to Hamas.”

He added that Hamas’ financial network is “very complicated” and exists across Europe, in Istanbul, and in Qatar. One of the main reasons for Lapid’s visit to Germany was to urge Germany’s finance minister, Christian Lindner, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s security adviser, Jens Plötner, to crackdown on Hamas terror finance in the Federal Republic.

Financing terror
A major hub of terror finance for Hamas and Samidoun is via information on the website of the southern German city of Stuttgart in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

German citizen Shani Louk, who was murdered by Hamas on October 7, has family from Baden-Württemberg.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, a lawyer who leads Israeli legal aid organization Shurat HaDin, told The Jerusalem Post that “Shurat HaDin will be investigating whether allowing the Stuttgart Palestine Committee on its official website would constitute aiding and abetting murderous Hamas and whether Stuttgart and its elected officials can be sued under anti-terrorism laws. It’s shocking that only two months after the brutal murder of Louk by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, that Stuttgart’s mayor is so resistant to shutting down this source of funding to her murderers.”

Lapid told the German outlet about donations to Hamas: “This financing always finances terror.”


MEMRI: Large Banners In Cities Across Turkey Support Hamas: 'A Thousand Greetings... To The Mujahideen!'

PMW: Israel wanted Hamas attack to happen just as the US wanted Sept. 11, 2001 attacks - Fatah official libels Israel and the US

Jordanian newspaper publishes cartoon of Netanyahu drinking blood

Shin Bet says it thwarted Iranian attempt to recruit Israeli spies via social media
The Shin Bet security agency said Thursday that it had uncovered new attempts by Iranian operatives to recruit Israelis over social media to carry out spying missions for them, including an assassination, in exchange for money.

The agency said that individuals affiliated with Iranian security services have contacted Israelis on various platforms in recent months, including X (formerly Twitter), Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, and sparked an initial conversation using various deceptions.

It said the operatives posed as real estate brokers, people interested in the marketing of drones, people requesting photo shoots, people interested in online dating, people looking for private investigators or courier services, and other false pretexts.

The operatives would then ask the Israelis to carry out various missions in exchange for money, which the Shin Bet said were “seen as apparently not relating to security aspects, but are definitely intended to serve the Iranians and enrich the intelligence in their possession.”

It said the Israelis were asked to photograph various sites and verify addresses.

According to the Shin Bet, some of the Israelis did not carry out the tasks and instead notified authorities.

The attempts to recruit the Israelis are a “well-known method of operation of the Iranian security agencies,” the Shin Bet explained.

It added that since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip in October, the agency has identified that “the activity efforts of Iranian security forces have greatly intensified, while using digital space for the purposes of intimidation, conveying messages or advancing terror activity.”

“Its purpose is to assist Hamas in its war and to damage Israel’s national resilience and war effort, sowing demoralization and deepening social divisions,” the agency said.
MEMRI: Lebanese Journalist: Iran Exploiting The War In Gaza To Undermine Stability Of Jordan

Fourth Assailant Sentenced to Prison for Brutal Antisemitic Beating of Joseph Borgen
Mohammed Othman, one of a gang of men who in 2021 brutally attacked and pepper-sprayed Joseph Borgen in New York City as he was on his way to a pro-Israel rally, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in state prison and five additional years of post-release supervision in a Manhattan criminal court on Wednesday.

Borgen, who is Jewish, was wearing a kippah while walking in Manhattan when Othman, along with four other men, ambushed him without being provoked. They also shouted antisemitic slurs at the pro-Israel advocate, who suffered a concussion, wrist injury, black eye, and bruises all over his body.

As seen in footage of the incident, Othman pepper-sprayed Borgen three times and also pepper-sprayed a bystander who attempted to stop the assault. Othman, 26, pleaded guilty in October to second degree assault as a hate crime. The Algemeiner has reached out to his attorney for comment for this story.

Borgen, who was 29 at the time of the attack, told The Algemeiner on Wednesday that he is pleased with the outcome of the case but also worried that the group with which his attackers were allegedly affiliated, the extreme anti-Zionist organization Within Our Lifetime (WOL), is still engaging in antisemitic activity that could lead to more hate crimes.

Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, WOL has posted (and deleted) a map, titled “Know Your Enemies,” showing the addresses of Jewish organizations in New York City, and staged numerous disruptive protests. The group is led by Nerdeen Kiswani, a former City University of New York (CUNY) student who once threatened to set on fire someone’s Israel Defense Forces (IDF) hoodie while he was wearing it.

“I was a lot more content and satisfied with the outcome of this case before I saw a lot of recent events. The same group that these attackers are affiliated with are still taking over the city,” Borgen said. “They’re still causing havoc; they’re forcing Jewish attendees of a fundraiser to speak at the backdoor of a police van, and they’re bombarding the mother of a hostage with horrible antisemitic chants.”

He continued: “It’s hard for me to say that I’m happy with the outcome when I look and around and see that not much has changed in two-and-a-half years. While I’m happy that I got a positive result in my case, I’m still disturbed that this same group is still going around causing issues for Jewish people, attacking restaurants, and putting people in danger.”


Leo Dee: Christians everywhere should protest persecution in Middle East, Asia, Africa
Churches in Bethlehem will be empty this year. The violent attack by Hamas in Gaza, and their barrage of missiles, have caused most airlines to cancel flights since the October 7 massacre. Palestinian Christians have announced that there will be muted Christmas celebrations in the Church of the Nativity this December.

With the war raging between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, tourism for the last quarter of 2023 has taken a huge hit, as it did during the COVID pandemic. In the winter months, this particularly hurts the Christian communities in Bethlehem, Nazareth, Haifa, and other Arab Israeli towns. In a regular year, over 50% of tourists visiting Israel are Christians coming to view their holy sites and boost the local economy. Suffering of Christians in Bethlehem because of Arab aggression is not new

The suffering of the Christian population of Bethlehem due to Arab aggression is not new. The Palestinian Authority has always shown contempt for Christian holy sites, violently evicting monks and nuns from the Holy Trinity Monastery in Hebron in 1997, and using Christian churches, schools, and homes as military bases during the Intifada. In April 2002, PA forces took over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and held 40 Christian clergy and nuns as hostages for 39 days.

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs reports that the Palestinian Authority has been Islamizing Bethlehem since they assumed control in 1995. The city’s municipal boundaries were changed to incorporate 30,000 Muslims from three neighboring refugee camps, severely tipping the demography.

The city also added a few thousand Bedouins of the Ta’amra tribe, located east of Bethlehem, and encouraged Muslim immigration from Hebron to Bethlehem. As a result, the area’s 23,000 Christians were reduced from a 60% majority in 1990 to a 20% minority by 2001, when Yasser Arafat appointed a Muslim from Hebron, Muhammed Rashad A-Jabari, as governor of Bethlehem.

Similarly, since Hamas took over in Gaza, the Christian population has declined from 5,000 Christians in 2006 to 1,100 Christians today. Palestinian Christians have generally chosen to emigrate to Argentina, Chile, Australia, Canada, and the USA.

Writing in Maariv in 2001, journalist Hanan Shlein explained why Palestinian Christians do not speak out about their situation. “Out of fear for their safety, Christian spokesmen aren’t happy to be identified by name when they complain about the Muslims’ treatment of them... off the record they talk of harassment and terror tactics, mainly from the gangs of thugs who looted and plundered Christians and their property, under the protection of Palestinian security personnel.”
Bishop Mulinge calls for African nations to move embassies to Jerusalem
Bishop Joshua Mulinge reverently closed his eyes, gazing upward at the Dome of the Rock.

“May the nations of Africa unite and relocate their embassies to Jerusalem,” he whispered with folded arms in prayer.

As he slowly opened his eyes, he contemplated the sacred site, where tradition holds that Adam was created, Abraham endeavored to sacrifice his son, and Jesus imparted many of his teachings.

Walking through the holy land
An Evangelical Christian from Kenya and the president of the Africa-Israel Initiative, Mulinge ascended the Temple Mount at 7 a.m. on Tuesday alongside Reverend Dennis Nthumbi, also from Kenya and the Africa director of the Israel Allies Foundation; former Knesset Member Rabbi Yehudah Glick, who led a private tour; Pastor Erik Selle from Norway, the founder and former president of the initiative; and Tor Arne Gard, one of its representatives.

The Christians were on a solidarity mission, journeying through southern Israel and meeting with families of hostages and survivors of the Hamas October 7 massacre. Additionally, they engaged in discussions with members of the Knesset, exploring avenues for mutual support between Africa and Israel.

The Israel-Hamas war has exposed deep divisions in Africa, with many state governments staunchly supporting the Palestinians, while others, primarily those led by Christians, standing for Israel. In addition, it has highlighted the disconnect between these anti-Israel leaders in Africa and their swelling Bible-believing populations.

According to a 2022 report published in the Journal of Religion and Demography, nearly half (49%) of the citizens of Africa are Christian.


Debra Messing calls IDF soldiers 'heroes' during Gaza visit
Actress Debra Messing embraced her support for Israel by visiting Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Gaza alongside journalists.

Hollywood screenwriter Lee Kern, who was in attendance at the visit, praised Messing for bravely joining him on the trip.

"@therealdebramessing is a badass. Not only has she been speaking out when others have been silent, she came into a war zone today to see one of the terror tunnels built by Hamas," he said in a social media post.

He added, "She is a Queen of our people and she deserves all the love."

In various social media posts shared by Kern, Messing is seen greeting soldiers and thanking them.

"Thank you for everything, for what you’re doing. You are heroes. I want you to know that everyone in the United States is – they’re thinking of you, and thanking you and standing by you, and praying for you. Stay safe," she said to an IDF soldier.

New York Post columnist Douglas Murray, one of the journalists on the trip, praised the actress as "amazing."

Messing is one of several Hollywood stars coming out in support of Israel amid its war against Hamas.
IDF soldier wounded in Gaza receives get-well visit from Bar Refaeli and Scooter Braun
First Sergeant Mordechai Schenwald recounts how he was severely wounded in battle in Gaza and reveals Hamas tactics for luring IDF soldiers into deadly ambushes — meanwhile, celebrities pay him a get-well visit and fulfill one of the music lover's biggest wishes.




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