Wednesday, January 03, 2024

01/03 Links Pt2: The ‘Two-State Solution’ Echoes Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’; Abraham Accords will outlast Gaza war; Claudine Gay, We Hardly Knew Ye…

From Ian:

The ‘Two-State Solution’ Echoes Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’
Israel is fighting our fight.

For civilization.

Against the barbarians.

Yet — Biden/Harris, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Lloyd Austin, Senate/House Democrats publicly urge Israel to ramp down, even stop its military in Gaza. Imagine FDR in newspapers (read by the Nazis) — scolding Churchill — “Not victory, Winston, it’s stalemate, stupid!”

Consequently, as Israel modifies (the U.N. will condemn Israel anyway), IDF casualties mount, and the war is prolonged. IDF reservists include teachers, professors, doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, artists, musicians, chefs, store owners, and more. Should they die to placate the intellectual frauds who dominate our schools and universities? DEI ideology: its Jew-hating coalition discards reality; Iran and its proxy Hamas are hardly bastions of women’s rights, gay rights, the environment. (READ MORE from Arnold Steinberg: How Conservatives Can Start a Youth Revolution)

Palestinian genocide? Gaza’s population has grown exponentially. The Hamas playbook, not Israel, puts noncombatants in harm’s way. Note: The number of Arabs killed by Israel in all wars and conflicts since its founding in 1948 is dwarfed by the number of Arabs killed by Arabs. No outrage or demonstrations. Akin to BLM’s indifference to black-on-black murder. (Does anyone care, for example, about how many Christians have been killed by Islamists in Africa? The Vatican reported that 52,250 Christians have been murdered by Islamists over 14 years in Nigeria alone.)

Especially in the Middle East, Bad Guys respect strength. Biden, after the Afghanistan fiasco, is perceived as weak. His policies enrich Iran: higher oil prices, relaxed sanctions, billions released. Is Biden’s team of Obama holdovers arguably traitorous? (One outed so far). The good news is most are just stupid!

Biden’s patron Obama was obsessed with Muslim outreach; Obama’s deep proximity to his spiritual guru, America/white/Jew-hating Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was not incidental. Anti-Zionists claim Jews used the Holocaust to justify stealing Arab land. Obama obliged, publicly basing Israel’s existence on the Holocaust, yet Zionism predated it. In effect, Obama deprecated the historic claim of Jews to their ancestral land.

“Some say that anti-Zionism isn’t tantamount to antisemitism,” Joshua Muravchik recently wrote. “If so, it’s worse … Anti-Zionism can only mean the destruction of Israel … some seven million Jews.”

Enabled by the UN, Hamas and the so-called “moderate” Palestinian Authority (PA) nurture children in hate to exterminate Jews. Thus, a “Palestinian state” was a nonstarter, a farce absent resolving the prerequisite as told by Golda Meir: “They say we must be dead. And we say we want to live. I don’t know of a compromise.”

The “compromise” — a “two-state solution of a Palestinian state living in peace” alongside Israel — remains oxymoronic, a fallacy because too many Palestinians addicted to genocide still want Israel off the map. You don’t reform a lying alcoholic who says he’ll quit drinking by giving him a liquor store.

That’s why for decades the unrealistic expectations for a Palestinian state foster disappointment. The “Palestinian leadership” continues to groom Jew-killers from childhood. The next generation is already poisoned. To undo their indoctrination, if possible, would take generations — before any Palestinian state can exist.
Abraham Accords will outlast Gaza war
On December 4, Time magazine published the article “It’s time to scrap the Abraham Accords.” The author, Sarah Leah Whitson, a director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), argued that the Hamas attack of October 7 proved that the assumption on which the Abraham Accords were conceived – that the Palestinian issue was no longer important in Israel’s relationships in the region – was wrong.

She maintained that conditions for the Palestinian people had worsened since the accords were signed, and that the Gaza war has projected the Palestinian issue back to the forefront of global concerns. When signing the Accords, she claimed, the Arab leaders involved “hailed the agreement as a means to encourage and cajole Israel to take positive steps toward ending its occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory.”

Now, she wrote, “because continued Arab adherence to the accords signals continued support for Israel,” DAWN is calling on the Abraham Accords countries to withdraw from the agreement.

Whitson was wrong
Both her assumptions and her conclusions are incorrect. The Israel-Palestine dispute had no bearing on the negotiations leading to the Abraham Accords and is unrelated to them. The purpose of the accords is to advance regional security and stability; pursue regional economic opportunities; promote joint aid and development programs; and foster mutual understanding, respect, coexistence, and a culture of peace.

All the Arab leaders concerned have indicated that normalizing relations with Israel has not affected their support for Palestinian aspirations. There is a brief reference to this in the Bahrain agreement, while the Morocco document mentions “the unchanged position of the Kingdom of Morocco on the Palestinian question.”

Sheer logic dictates that none of the signatories perceive their support as involving the elimination of Israel. Since October 7 none of the four Abraham Accord signatory states has indicated any desire to withdraw from the accords.

Sudan is in the throes of a devastating civil war. Government forces are on the back foot, as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continues its advance. On December 19 it captured Sudan’s second largest city, Wad Madani. The future of Sudan, and with it the future of its normalization with Israel, hangs in the balance.

In the other accord countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco – public opinion undoubtedly favors Hamas, deplores the high civilian death toll in Gaza, and calls for a ceasefire. As a result, all three states have been walking a tightrope regarding their official attitude toward the Israel-Hamas conflict. All the same, the accords are holding firm.
The New York Times's Israel Problem
There was a time when liberal journalists said the New York Times was too nice to Israel. They can't make that mistake anymore.

Since Hamas attacked the Jewish state on October 7, the Times has committed to running false and demeaning coverage about Israel. Hours after terrorists began the siege that left 1,200 dead, the Times rushed to humanize the terrorists with a puff piece.

"Gaza Has Suffered Under 16-Year Blockade" aimed to educate readers about why some Gazans saw Hamas's rapes, murders, and kidnappings as a "justified response" against Israel:
The Palestinian territory of Gaza has been under a suffocating Israeli blockade, backed by Egypt, since Hamas seized control of the coastal strip in 2007. The blockade restricts the import of goods, including electronic and computer equipment, that could be used to make weapons and prevents most people from leaving the territory.

More than two million Palestinians live in Gaza. The tiny, crowded coastal enclave has a nearly 50 percent unemployment rate, and Gaza's living conditions, health system and infrastructure have all deteriorated under the blockade.

Rather than feature pictures and stories about the innocents killed and taken hostage, the front pages of the Times on October 8 and 9 featured Hamas fighters bulldozing a border fence and firing rockets into Israel.

When a hospital explosion rocked Gaza City, the Times was one of several mainstream media outlets that rushed to blame Israel for the explosion. But the Gray Lady didn't just echo the false claim: It relied on Hamas as its primary source.


Eve Barlow: Biblical
For years I thought it was an act of martyrdom to move to Israel but now I think the martyrdom might be clinging onto the West…

If and when you come to Israel to witness the atrocities, or become part of the war effort you will understand the scope of what needs to be done here, and the distortion between facts on the ground and reports in the Western world. You will see first-hand how a small but mighty people are doing everything possible to hold onto what we have -- our nation, our hearts, our collective sanity, our individual tools and the best placement for each and every one. You will see humility. You will see people wearing any and every hat they can to help, to extend themselves, to give their physical presence. There are little boundaries between us; everyone is family, everyone's tanks are running on empty, but the force of the will towards one another is keeping us afloat against a sea of hatred and intimidation and isolation from the outside world. If you prick a Jew, we bleed, and we unite in our pain. Our trauma bonds us but it does not break us. Our trauma teaches us how to love from the depths of hell; from the darkest of nights; from the hope that we have never been defeated by the same hatred, ignorance and humiliation as we are living through now. We have seen it wear many masks in many eras, dating back to the dawn of civilization. Typing these words and observations from the place where Jews walked in our footsteps and held the same fears many millennia before now is a rousing and profound experience that enables a total escape from ego. The history of the Jews is beyond any of our individual stories, but our individual stories are essential to the living, breathing narration of our enduring survival. I feel lucky to be a part of it and I know it doesn't end here.

I have decided to stay in Israel for a while longer because there’s too much to do, and I can’t do enough. Too much to document. Too many hugs to give. Too big a fight to take on. I’ll be honest that I’m also scared to return. I’m scared to go back to a diaspora that has robbed my light for the past few years. I’m scared to return to places that have turned me into a pariah. Being a Jew is like being part of a huge jigsaw. We are all individual pieces dispersed throughout the world. And without other pieces next to us our edges can be sharp and cold and highly exposed.

At the moment despite the war and the brokenness and the missing pieces of the jigsaw here in Israel, there’s far more cushioning and comfort than being a lone jigsaw piece in the place I currently call home. I didn’t realize until I was here how much my day-to-day survival in a hostile environment was robbing my spirit of light. The diasporic world is a dark, dark place for Jews now. We must unite like the Jewish people here in Israel to fight the war. Not the war in Gaza. The war in the diaspora. The war of words. The war of ideas. The war against Jew hatred. The war against Moloch whom the Jews refuse to be slaves to once more.
Claudine Gay, We Hardly Knew Ye…
Why did Claudine Gay step down yesterday as president of Harvard? In a letter announcing the bombshell decision, Gay wrote that it was in “the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.”

She also blamed racism: “It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor—two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am—and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus,” Gay wrote in her email Tuesday.

Missing from Gay’s note was some important. . . context.

In particular, there was no mention of the twin scandals that have plagued Gay and captured the attention of the country in recent weeks. The first: her handling of antisemitism and free expression on Harvard’s campus since October 7, including her appalling appearance before Congress in December.

The second: the ever-growing list of plagiarism allegations against Gay. On Monday night, the dogged journalists over at The Washington Free Beacon reported six more charges of plagiarism. That brought the number of allegations against Gay close to 50 and implicated half of her published works in the scandal. The next day, Gay was gone, making her the shortest-serving president in Harvard’s history: the Kevin McCarthy of higher ed.

Within minutes the crowing began. Major props went to Bill Ackman, the billionaire investor who has relentlessly criticized his alma mater since the attacks of October 7; to Chris Rufo, the Manhattan Institute senior fellow who was early on the story of plagiarism allegations against Gay; and to Free Beacon reporter Aaron Sibarium (more about him in a minute).

But does Gay’s resignation—and apparently she will remain on the faculty—actually change things?

Our sense—and recent events have only reinforced it—is that Claudine Gay is only the symptom of a deeper rot, both at Harvard and across higher education more generally.
White People Are Going to Colonize Mars, and Other Fears From Today’s Campuses
It was a belated awakening. For many American Jews, Oct. 7 uncovered the deep rot in the elite institutions they had invested in for decades, psychically and financially. A recent poll found that 73% of Jewish students experienced or witnessed antisemitic incidents since the beginning of this academic school year, a 22-fold increase over the year before. Jewish students have been punched, spat upon, assaulted with sticks, shouted at, and corralled by students in kaffiyehs.

But it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the DEI regime has fostered the flourishing of campus antisemitism under the Palestinian banner. Having established Jews as members of the “oppressor” class and defined “justice” as the dismantling of this class, the officially sanctioned ideology has given license to the Palestinian vanguard to demand fulfillment of the progressive promise, “by any means necessary,” while turning Jewish students into piñatas.

In New York City public colleges, a kippa-wearing, red-headed leprechaun named Ilya Bratman—former U.S. Army tankist, applied linguist, long-distance runner, and immigrant from the former Soviet Union—has witnessed up close the socialization of young Americans into this toxic worldview. A teacher of English composition at Baruch and John Jay colleges who holds a Ph.D. in education from the Jewish Theological Seminary, he also serves as executive director of Hillel at eight CUNY and SUNY colleges.

On the day we met, Bratman was hosting dinner for 200 Jewish students at a synagogue on 23rd Street near Lexington Avenue. After passing a phalanx of security guards into a social room, they began filling their plates with grilled meat and salads prepared by Bratman’s favorite Georgian caterer.

After the students use cookie cutters to shape chocolate chip cookie dough into Stars of David, Bratman grabbed a microphone and stepped forward. “Last week, everybody was already seated in my 8:00 a.m. class, and a student comes in and she says to me, “Wow, I can’t believe you bombed that hospital last night and killed all those people.”

The social room, for the first time, went dead quiet.

The student of course was referring to deaths and injuries at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, whose courtyard was hit on Oct. 17 by a rocket misfired from inside Gaza by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but which was widely misreported as having been the result of an Israeli missile.

Bratman’s reaction, as a teacher, was to affirm the importance of sound reasoning and argumentation—and, of course, language. “I told her, ‘Wow, I can’t believe you forgot completely everything I taught you about the accusative voice and the proper use of the pronoun ‘you,’ because you just said that ‘I’ did this,” he recounted. “‘I’ bombed the hospital. What hospital? Where? Who?’”

He went on. “Did you hear that Hamas said they did it?” Bratman said he asked the student, referring to a conversation Israel had recorded between two terrorists apparently acknowledging the bombing was an own goal.

The student’s response was emblematic of the sectarian worldview into which young Americans are regimented, whereby the value, even the truthfulness, of an argument or action is assessed based on the identity of its author, rather than on its own merits. “I will never believe that,” she told him, “even if they came to my face and say, ‘Hamas, we did it.’ I will never believe it.”
The Hasidic Knesset member from Brooklyn speaking out against U.S. antisemitism
In late December, a Knesset member from the Ashkenazi-Haredi United Torah Judaism bloc, approached the podium in his usual Hasidic garb, a long black coat and a black kippah, and asked for permission to address the parliament “in a foreign language” — something usually reserved for when foreign leaders address the legislature.

MK Moshe Roth proceeded to address “my fellow Jews” in English inflected with the part-New York, part-Yiddish accent that would be familiar to anyone who has spent time in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where Roth grew up.

“On the other end of the world, there is another war raging, an onslaught of blind hatred…this hatred known as antisemitism is shamefully running rampant in the civilized streets of other countries…[and] voiced in universities which used to be prestigious.

“We know you carry the burden of this terrible phenomenon,” Roth added. “I call upon you from our eternal holy city of Jerusalem: Stand strong…Now is the time to stand together and look out for each other.”

Roth, a Bnei Brak resident who marks a year in the Knesset this month, spoke with Jewish Insider last week fresh off of another speech, this time in Hebrew. He criticized the government, despite being a member of the ruling coalition, because the law does not grant families of injured soldiers any benefits as long as those soldiers are hospitalized, even if the hospital stays are lengthy and require relatives to miss many days of work.The MK called the situation “shameful” from the plenum.

Diaspora Jews, IDF soldiers – these are not the typical constituencies of a lawmaker who was the first ever to be appointed to the UTJ list to represent Sanz Hasids.


JPost Editorial: Let's finish our enemies before returning to judicial reform debate
It is not our place to decide on the reasonableness doctrine at this time. The court has issued its ruling, and it should be respected. We are also in the midst of war and it is important that this not lead to a domestic political crisis. There will be time in the future to consider the ruling and the legislation.

As a democracy it is important that discussions be had about how much leeway the court has to use the reasonableness doctrine to strike down laws, and also whether it can rule that its own power cannot be curtailed. The court’s ruling is narrow, as was the vote for the curtailment of the its power by the Knesset in the summer of 2023.

What this tells us is that our society is not only a strong democracy but that it is also a balanced society, with views on both sides. We do not cave in to populism and authoritarianism.

There are those who will praise this decision. The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, for instance, has said that this is “a historic verdict. A government and ministers who sought to exempt themselves from the rule of law were informed that there are judges in Jerusalem. There is democracy. There is a separation of powers. That the fortress – as former prime minister Menachem Begin called it – is still standing.”

There are surely those who will think the court has once against overstepped its power and that it is trying to prevent our democracy from legislating its role.

All of these debates will be had in good time; there is no urgency now. We must defeat our enemies, including Hamas as well as the other parts of the Iranian-backed terror nexus that shrouds the region in darkness. As that task is completed – and it may take months or even years – the country will need to revisit the judicial reform. These are healthy debates to be had, and we will have them.
EU: Must impose an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
European Union foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell on Wednesday demanded the international community impose a “solution” to the conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

“What we have learned over the last 30 years, and what we are learning now with the tragedy experienced in Gaza, is that the solution must be imposed from outside,” Borrell said.

“Peace will only be achieved in a lasting manner if the international community gets involved intensely to achieve it and imposes a solution,” he added, referring to the United States, Europe and Arab countries.

Borrell also described Israel’s alleged targeted killing of Hamas arch-terrorist Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut on Tuesday night as “an additional factor that can cause an escalation of the conflict.”

In October, Borrell, the E.U.’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, slammed Jerusalem’s actions against Hamas and appeared to call for a ceasefire, leading to criticism from Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg for disregarding the wording of an E.U. statement from Oct. 26.

E.U. leaders had gathered in Brussels for a two-day meeting, during which they condemned Hamas in the strongest terms and called for “pauses for humanitarian needs.”

However, Borrell appeared to twist the statement’s wording into a condemnation of Israel, tweeting, “Far too many civilians, including children, have been killed. This is against International Humanitarian Law.”

The E.U. statement did not say that Israel had acted against international law, but rather that Israel had the right to defend itself in accordance with international law.
Italy opposes Israeli ‘settlers’ even though it has its own
Italy reportedly has complained about the choice of Benny Kashriel as Israel’s next ambassador to Rome, because he has served as mayor of Ma’aleh Adumim, which the Italians consider an illegal “settlement.”

Ma’aleh Adumim, with its 40,000 residents, is just seven kilometers from the municipal boundary of Jerusalem. It is widely assumed that it will be physically connected to the capital in the near future. For most Israelis, the idea of characterizing Ma’aleh Adumim as a “settlement,” conjuring up images of trailers on a remote hilltop, is laughable.

And yet, some of Italy’s own territorial acquisitions could be described that way.

Rome occupies territory
The islands of Lampedusa and Lampione, which are closer to North Africa than to Italy, are nonetheless occupied by Rome. Over the centuries, various imperialists have ruled the two islands, including the Barbary pirates, the Spanish, the British, and, most recently, the Italians. They have no particular right to the territory, other than the “right” of might.

In recent years, the 6,000 residents of Lampedusa have been joined by tens of thousands of African migrants. Does the local population want Lampedusa, which is arguably an African island, to continue to be part of Italy? Should they have the right to vote on whether their majority-Black island should be governed by white Europeans? The Italian occupation regime, which points an accusing finger at Israel, does not appear to be interested in granting the Lampedusans self-determination.

There are also Italian “settlements” in a number of other countries. Within the borders of Switzerland, for example, there is an Italian enclave, Campione d’Italia. Historically it was just called “Campione,” but fascist dictator Benito Mussolini added “d’Italia” to assert his imperialist claim to the territory. Several thousand Italian citizens currently reside there.

Not all the Swiss are happy about the Italian “settlers” in their midst. When Campione’s casino went bankrupt in 2018, Swiss creditors were left with millions of dollars in unpaid debts.
Israel slams Qatar for UN exhibit rejecting Jewish State’s existence
Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva blasted the Qatari regime on Sunday for sponsoring a UN exhibit that denies the existence of the territory of the Jewish state, including Jerusalem as the capital.

The Swiss news outlet Blick first reported on the latest antisemitism scandal involving Qatar’s regime. The exhibit claims that the Israeli cities Jerusalem, Beersheba, and Jaffa are Palestinian cities, it said.

A blatant erasure of Jewish history
“This is a denial of Israel’s territorial integrity and our right to exist,” Eilon Shahar said, adding that the UN is “spreading propaganda and false information.” The ambassador sent a formal letter of complaint to the UN’s Director General in Geneva, Tatiana Walowaja, Blick reported.

Qatar sponsored the anti-Israel exhibit that shows six cities, including cities within Israel, as Palestinian territory. Eilon Shahar said the Qatari exhibit strips the “Jewish people of their historical connection to Jerusalem” by declaring it a Palestinian city.

Egregious spreading of antisemitic tropes
She also took the UN in Geneva to task for allowing an antisemitic brochure to circulate in the UN building titled “The Story of Fire and Blood.”

The ambassador said the brochure “glorifies terrorism and portrays Jews with big noses and propagates antisemitic conspiracies” and called on the UN to investigate it. The UN told Blick regarding Eilon Shahar’s criticism that “We are aware of this matter.”
Bob Menendez Helped Businessman Seek Qatari Investment, Prosecutors Say
Sen. Bob Menendez helped a New Jersey businessman seek an investment from a Qatari company with ties to the Middle Eastern country's government, prosecutors said on Tuesday in a new indictment against the Democratic lawmaker.

Menendez in October pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent for the Egyptian government and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from New Jersey businessmen in exchange for interfering with law enforcement probes into them.

In Tuesday's superseding indictment, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Menendez introduced the businessman, Fred Daibes, to a member of the Qatari royal family to negotiate a multimillion-dollar investment into a real estate project. Daibes was indicted alongside Menendez and has pleaded not guilty.

Menendez also made statements in support of the Qatari government as the company considered the investment, prosectors alleged, according to CNN.

"Menendez provided Daibes with these statements so that Daibes could share them with the Qatari Investor and Qatari government officials associated with the Qatari Investment Company," prosecutors said.
Bernie Sanders pushes to end Israel aid, calling Gaza war 'illegal and immoral'
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called on Congress to reject the $10.1 billion in military aid to Israel that lawmakers are currently negotiating as part of a national security spending bill, calling Israel’s military operations in Gaza a “brutal war against the Palestinian people.”

The Vermont senator emphasized that the war began as a result of “Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attack” but said the military response from Israel has been “grossly disproportionate, immoral, and in violation of international law.”

“Most importantly for Americans, we must understand that Israel’s war against the Palestinian people has been significantly waged with U.S. bombs, artillery shells, and other forms of weaponry. And the results have been catastrophic,” Sanders said in a press release on Tuesday that decried Israel's "illegal and immoral war."

The statement comes after Democrats had sharp criticism for the Biden administration on Friday when the State Department approved the sale of nearly 14,000 tank shells worth roughly $106 million to Israel, bypassing Congress.

The Defense Department said Friday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had notified Congress about its second emergency determination to cover over $147.5 million in equipment sales, including new fuses and chargers for the 155 mm shells already purchased by the Israeli military.

Earlier last month, Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, announced a proposal intended to force a debate under the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits assistance to any government engaging in a consistent pattern of “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

If the resolution is passed, the administration has to submit a report on the country’s human rights practices within 30 days, or all security assistance to the country automatically stops.

Sanders, who is Jewish, continues to escalate his rhetoric. Last month, he also sent a letter to Biden on Tuesday urging the administration to withhold the funding, calling Israel’s military operations in Gaza a “mass atrocity.”


Iranian opposition member to Knesset: ‘Do not fear to strike Iran’
Iranian opposition leader Vahid Beheshti told the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus on Tuesday that Israel shouldn’t be afraid to attack the Islamic Republic, saying “this is the only language they understand.”

“Soon you will have to deal with the elephant in the room, which is the Iranian government,” Beheshti told the caucus, made up of Knesset members and security, diplomatic and political leaders.

“The good news is that you have an army of 80 million Iranians who are thirsty for freedom and democracy, who since 2009 have been trying to overthrow the government but have not yet succeeded because of the barbaric violence of the Iranian regime,” he said.

“If you support the Iranian people, you will see how they will lower the head of the octopus and we will all experience peace,” he added. “Help us overthrow the government. Try to imagine what the Middle East would look like without the Iranian government.”

Beheshti, who is based in London, rose to prominence after a 72-day hunger strike followed by a sit-in last month, calling on the British government to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terror organization.

“The Iranian government is at its greatest weakness in 44 years. They were aware of the attack on the 7th of October in advance. They thought that after the terrible attack they would achieve a total ceasefire within two months, but it did not happen,” he said.


Fears of Violence between Jews and Arabs inside Israel in Wake of Gaza War Proved False
Two weeks after the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, 90% of the Jewish public in Israel and 70% of the Arab public estimated there would be severe violence between Jews and Arabs within days, as there was during the Israel-Hamas clash in May 2021. This fear proved false.

Most of the Israeli Arab public condemned the terror attack and expressed in words and deeds their shared fate with the Jewish majority.

An Israel Democracy Institute survey found that 66% of Muslim citizens and 84% of Christians and Druze feel part of the state.


A century before Claudine Gay, Harvard helped Nazi Germany improve its image in the West
Ninety years ago at Harvard University, campus administrators had what some historians call “friendly” relations with Nazi Germany.

Whether Harvard president Claudine Gay’s resignation was catalyzed by a plagiarism scandal or her much-criticized lack of response to calls for the genocide of Jewish students, the university already has a century-old history of repressed antisemitism, historian Rafael Medoff told The Times of Israel.

“What today’s Harvard administration has in common with its predecessor in the 1930s is its reluctance to reject an evil regime and its supporters,” said Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

“In her recent congressional testimony, Gay’s instinctive response was to equivocate when asked about restricting those who advocate genocide of the Jews,” said Medoff.

“Now pro-Hamas non-university groups are being allowed to march on the Harvard campus,” said Medoff, whose center has researched the ties of American university leaders to Nazi Germany for two decades.

In the past few years, Harvard made efforts to atone for its history regarding slavery, including renaming buildings and erecting historical plaques. However, the university maintains a fellowship and professorship named for Alfried Krupp, a top Nazi industrialist.

According to some critics, including the Institute for the Global Study of Antisemitism and Policy, Harvard’s response to antisemitism cannot be disconnected from billions of dollars that Mideast regimes — some of them totalitarian — have donated to Harvard in recent decades. Top donors include Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar, where Hamas leaders are said to be hiding.

On December 27, a prominent international partner of the school — the Lauder Business School in Vienna, Austria — severed ties with Harvard “in solidarity with the Jewish student community,” according to a statement.
Hen Mazzig: Harvard’s President’s Resignation Will Not End Antisemitism
With the news of Harvard’s president, Dr. Claudine Gay, resigning, I’ve been left in an awkward position. While many of my Jewish friends are celebrating, this “victory” feels hollow to me, if one can even call it a victory.

I first learned about Dr. Gay in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7th attack. It was one of the darkest days of my life, and learning that student groups at Harvard had released a letter condemning Israel and claiming that the murders and rapes were entirely Israel’s fault was like putting salt in the wound. Many American Jews reached out to me at that time, terrified that colleges were no longer safe for their children or that they didn’t feel safe on campuses. Dr. Gay’s inaction most certainly fed into this fear, and I was far from the only person who had issues with how she handled things.

The backlash to her inaction prompted Congress to hold a hearing where they questioned Dr. Gay and other college presidents about how they were handling antisemitism on campus. This hearing resulted in Dr. Gay famously saying that calls for the genocide of Jewish people did not automatically violate Harvard’s code of conduct and that “It depends on the context.” She issued an apology for these remarks, but the damage was already done.

Her job was to protect all of her students, and she failed at every turn to stand up for her Jewish ones. One would assume that I, an outspoken voice for Jewish civil rights, would be thrilled that she lost her job. Yet, here I am, writing out my complicated feelings in an effort to work through them.

I think that, at my core, I’m simply too much of an idealist to be happy with this result. Dr. Gay was more than her opinions on the conflict or the way that she dealt with the incredible tensions that mounted afterward. She is Harvard’s first black president and the second female president in the college’s extensive history.

Even though I obviously disagreed with a lot of what Dr. Gay did, I didn’t want her to lose her job over her reaction to antisemitism. I wanted her to start a dialogue with the Jewish community and find a way to make Jewish students feel safe without stepping on anyone’s right to free speech. I wanted her to understand the pain of her students and make changes to ease that pain. I honestly believe she would have been happy with that too. Unfortunately, that’s not a possibility anymore.

At the core of this fiasco, however, there is one fact we cannot overlook— the main motivation behind the resignation has nothing to do with antisemitism, but plagiarism.


Harvard President Claudine Gay’s resignation ‘just the beginning of reckoning’ amid House antisemitism probe : Stefanik

'This Isn't About Plagiarism or Anti-Semitism': Jamaal Bowman Cries Racism Over Claudine Gay Resignation

Civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton says he'll PICKET billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman's office, after tycoon helped boot Claudine Gay from job as Harvard president

Dershowitz: Gay Got What She Deserved Under Standards She Used Against Another Black Professor

Banned SJP chapters at two Florida universities sue schools, state officials

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Gideon Levy admits having no source for his incendiary claim on Sky News
Earlier in the week, we posted about a Dec. 30 Sky News interview in which presenter Samantha Washington failed to challenge Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy’s incendiary charge (3:20 into this clip) that, one day last week, the IDF killed 162 infants in Gaza. This accusation, we noted, appears to be based on Levy’s own column published two days earlier, which included this:
The horrifying October 7 events have not been forgotten by anyone, but they cannot justify the spectacles in Gaza. The propagandist who could explain killing 162 infants in one day – a figure reported by social media this week – is yet to be born, not to mention killing some 10,000 children in two months.

The Sky presenter not only was credulous in face of Levy’s extraordinary claim, but, later in the interview, she praised him for the rare ‘nuance’ he provided about the war.

We scoured social media, as well as pro-Palestinian sites, and couldn’t find anyone else who leveled this accusation. So, it seemed that he had no source for this claim.

However, to be thorough, our office reached out to Levy to ask if he had a source that he didn’t mention in his column. The exchange (in Hebrew) between our colleague from CAMERA’s Hebrew department, Shlomi Ben Meir, and Levy (along with our English translation) makes it clear that he indeed had no source. We also asked him to back up another claim he made during the interview that Israelis can be jailed for merely expressing support for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
New Year Gaza framing from BBC News
Only in the final paragraphs of Wright’s report do readers discover that the sky in Israel was also “filled with” missiles on the night of December 31st when Hamas chose to attack southern and central Israel. Wright’s second-hand account fails to inform BBC audiences how many rockets were launched or that the attacks on central Israel did not only target Tel Aviv:
“Air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and southern Israel as it saw in the new year, with Israeli missile defence systems intercepting rockets fired from Gaza, AFP reported.

One man who was in Tel Aviv celebrating the new year with friends said: “I was terrified, like it was the first time I saw missiles, it’s terrifying.””

The Times of Israel reported as follows:
“The Hamas terror group fired at least 27 rockets at the south and center of the country in a barrage timed for midnight as Israelis tried to celebrate the start of the new year.

Air defense systems intercepted 18 rockets and nine fell in open areas.

Sirens sounded in various locations in the center of the country including Rehovot, Ness Ziona, Holon, Lod, and Modiin, as well as Ashdod, Sderot, and other southern towns.

Loud explosions from the intercepts boomed through the sky over Tel Aviv.”

Wright chose to end his report with uncritical promotion of more Hamas propaganda:
“Hamas’s military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for both attacks in a video posted on social media.

They said they used M90 rockets in “response to the massacres of civilians” perpetrated by Israel.”

While the BBC promotes deliberately-timed videos of Gazans ‘hoping for peace’ in the new year, it is all too obvious that its continued over-reliance on the very terrorist organisation that started the war as a source of information, together with the now standard practice of uncritical amplification of that organisation’s unverified claims, fails to provide BBC audiences with the type of accurate and impartial information necessary for understanding of the events that are the topic of its reporting.
AFP Posthumously Demotes Hamas Commanders to Bodyguards

Hamas Says It Wants Oct. 7 Massacre Again and Again… Why Won’t the Media Believe Them?

CNN’s Investigations Omitting Exculpatory Information
Good investigative journalism is journalism at its best. In an era in which many media outlets simply serve as amplifiers of social media posts, press releases, and partisan cliches, curious and professional journalists truly devoted to uncovering the truth are all the more important.

Unfortunately, that kind of good journalism is rare at CNN. Rather than producing impartial, professional investigations, many of the network’s journalists are acting as one-sided prosecutors when it comes to Israel.

CAMERA has raised some of these issues in regard to past CNN “investigations,” including those relating to the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, the February violence in Huwara, and the IDF’s presentation of terrorist weapons at al-Shifa Hospital. More recently, the network has put out two more deeply flawed investigations of Israel, including one regarding the munitions the IDF is using in Gaza and one regarding IDF operations at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

The consistent bias and flaws found in these investigations fall into five general categories: (1) omitting exculpatory evidence; (2) ignoring questions of credibility; (3) presenting one-sided and dubious “expert” analysis; (4) excessively using skewed context and language to mask shortage of evidence; and (5) demonstrating a partisan agenda.

Below is an analysis of the first flaw. There will be analyses of how each of the other four categories plague CNN’s investigations in forthcoming articles, as well.

Ignoring or Omitting Exculpatory Evidence and Context
The most glaring problem with CNN’s investigations is the disinterest shown toward evidence that contradicts the central allegations. Such behavior is to be expected of prosecutors or spokespersons, who seek to present a certain narrative. It is not appropriate for anyone trusted to impartially present the information necessary for the public to understand the issues for themselves.


JCPA: Does the World Hate Gaza and the Gazans?
Over the last 500 years, at least, the Gaza Strip has been a backwater. For the last 100 years, Gazans have increasingly been used as pawns, by both the Arabs and the international community, in their efforts to vilify Israel and the Jews. Paradoxically, Israel did more for the Gazans than any other of its changing rulers.

For 400 years (1517-1917), when the area was part of the Ottoman Empire, it was never recognized as linked to Judea and Samaria. From 1948 to 1967, Gaza remained under Egyptian control. Yet Egypt merely administered the Strip under perpetual military law, never granting its residents Egyptian citizenship.

At the same time, no UN resolution ever called on Egypt to end its illegal occupation of the Strip and withdraw or to recognize the new Arab state envisaged by the UN Partition Plan. The areas that are now so often referred to as the "Occupied Palestinian Territories" do not appear to have been "Palestinian territories" until they were liberated by Israel in 1967.

Despite Israel's "disengagement" from Gaza in 2005 and its redeployment to the Armistice Line of 1949, the international community invented the claim that Israel remained an "occupier" of Gaza. In no other situation in the world is a country considered an "occupier" of another region without "boots on the ground" and without exercising effective control.

On October 7, 2023, over 3,000 terrorists led by Hamas infiltrated Israel from Gaza and murdered more than 1,200 Israelis. Israel responded by declaring all-out war on the Gazan terrorists. In normal circumstances, a war situation almost always results in the creation of refugees forced to flee the fighting. But the war in Gaza created no new refugees. Instead of welcoming their Arab brothers, Egypt refused to allow Gazans to cross into the Sinai Peninsula, lining up tanks and armored vehicles along the border to prevent the Gazans from fleeing.

The international community may not actually hate the Gazans. Rather, the international community hates Israel and is willing to do its utmost to vilify and condemn the Jewish state. To serve this goal, the international community uses the Gazans as pawns and cannon fodder. Gazans' lives don't matter to the international community unless they can be weaponized against the Jews and the Jewish state.
PMW: Fatah’s Rajoub: Hamas’ al-Arouri “was and extraordinary leader… I am among the believers in his ideology, his way, and his activity.” Fatah’s Rajoub: Hamas’ al-Arouri “was and extraordinary leader



Hamas explains using civilians as human shields:"We desire death as you desire life"



PreOccupiedTerritory: Hamas Rejects Israel Offer To Trade Politicians For Hostages; ‘Collective Punishment’ (satire)
The Islamist terrorist organization that officially runs the Gaza Strip turned down a proposal today in which the group would free the Israelis and foreign nationals it abducted on October 7 in exchange for high-ranking elected officials, fewer in number than the current captives but of greater prominence – a proposal that the movement decried as an unjust infliction of misery on all the inhabitants of the coastal territory.

A Hamas spokesman rejected the Israeli offer to trade more than a hundred hostages for more than a dozen Israeli politicians, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu included in at least one version of the proposal leaked to reporters. Fawzi Barhoum called the offer an expression of intention to perpetrate a “horrific collective crime against Palestine and the people of Gaza.”

“We’ll take the continued bombing and artillery strikes, thanks,” said Barhoum, communicating from an undisclosed location. “The international community must step in at once to prevent the Zionist enemy from committing the atrocity of foisting their politicians on us.”

Human rights groups issued similar, scathing criticism of the Israeli offer, which was conveyed to Hamas by Qatari mediators. “Disproportionate, disproportionate in the most egregious sense of the word!” spat Agnes Callamard of Amnesty International. “Even by the ugly standards we have long associated with Israel, this is a heinous proposal. Politicians, indeed. And we thought deploying white phosphorus was as cruel an example that could be found of IDF inhumanity. I’m going to be sick.”
This is Hezbollah
Iranian-proxy terrorist organization Hezbollah:

🔴 is responsible for dozens attacks against Israel since October 7th.
🔴 has perpetrated multiple terrorist attacks targeting Jewish and Israeli sites around the world
🔴 supported the brutal Al Assad regime

Hezbollah is a threat to Israel, Lebanon and the entire region.


Qatar University Inaugurates Garden Shaped Like Map Of Palestine From River To Sea, Including Cities Inside Israel, Such As Jaffa, Acre, Beersheba

We built CAA to defend British Jewry
It is with a mix of pride and sadness that I look back on 2023: pride that our charity has risen to the challenge facing our community, but sadness that we had to.

It feels like an eternity ago, but there was a time before October 7.

The day before our world changed, we could look back on a string of legal successes. On campuses, there was the finding that NUS had tolerated a “hostile environment” for Jewish students, the departure of an academic we exposed at Birkbeck, and more.

We continued to assist victims like the young Jewish employee who was unfairly dismissed and the teacher whom we helped reach a settlement with their school. Our policy advocacy secured the retention of a key criminal offence in the draft online harms bill.There was the first-ever national billboard campaign raising awareness of antisemitism and our documentary exposing Roger Waters was watched by hundreds of thousands.

But all of that seems like an age ago. Since October 7, our team has been working around the clock: multitudes of cases reported to the police, regulatory authorities, universities, employers, broadcasters, social media companies and others; letters to the leaders of political parties, meetings with politicians and public bodies, giving evidence to Parliamentary committees; media appearances;polling; video exposés from within anti-Israel demonstrations; full page newspaper ads; podcasts; a billboard and digital van campaign to raise awareness of the hostages; educational sessions; a first-ever event with BBC executives with the Jewish community; numerous rallies and, of course, the national March Against Antisemitism, the largest gathering against antisemitism in a century.

We built CAA to defend British Jewry. Much of that work takes years, but it was designed to spring into action ferociously in response to events. I am deeply proud of our volunteers and staff. As 2024 dawns, our activity will only intensify. Our dedicated team will always do whatever it takes to defend British Jews. Perhaps you will make your new year’s resolution to join us?
Berlin Jews Facing ‘Extremely Tense’ Situation, City’s Top Antisemitism Official Warns

Far Left French MP Hit With Complaint Over Tweet Suggesting Global Jewish Conspiracy

Anti-Semitic Incidents in Ireland Are Rare, but for the First Time I Am Concerned about My Security
The Oct. 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas and the subsequent assault on Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces has seen a rise in anti-Semitism globally, including in Ireland. Many Jews in Ireland have been shaken to the core, concerned about personal safety and asking the kind of questions about their long-term future that belong to the nightmare of European Jewry in the 1930s. I can scarcely believe I am having to write these words in Ireland in 2023.

Many Jews tell me they are keeping their heads down or even that they want to hide. When I tell them that my mother and grandmother were forced into hiding their identities during the Nazi occupation of Poland, and that I absolutely refuse to hide, they look at me with both admiration and concern.

During my almost 40 years here, I have never hidden my Jewish identity; there have been anti-Semitic incidents, but they are rare. For the first time, however, I am concerned about my security. Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin are now campuses where Jewish students and members of staff do not feel safe.

Why are Jews around the world held to account for the actions of the Israeli government when this correlation does not apply to any other country? Christians are not attacked for the predations of the U.S., nor are Muslims abused for the transgressions of Iran.
JetBlue accused of ‘antisemitism’ after orthodox Jews kicked off plane
Three Orthodox Jewish passengers were removed from a flight from California to New York, in what one passenger called a case of clear “antisemitism”.

The Jewish passengers were told by the pilot: “If you don’t get off the airplane we will deplane the rest of the airplane and leave you three on”. In a recording of the confrontation, the pilot said the in-flight crew were “uncomfortable” with the Jewish passengers’ presence on the plane.

One of the passengers – a Jewish woman – can be heard telling the pilot that she had children waiting for her at home. She asked him: “What did we do? Did we touch anybody? Do we look dangerous?”

The conflict began when one of the passengers – an elderly Orthodox man – requested to move to a vacant seat for religious reasons, presumably because he had been sitting next to two Orthodox women.

Another passenger, Ron Passaro, offered to switch seats, and the issue was resolved. Rachel Sklar – whose boyfriend had switched seats with the Orthodox man – told the pilot that it was all “fine” and “everybody was good” but the pilot still made the three Jewish passengers leave the flight.

The pilot reportedly told passengers the issue was a weight imbalance, which made changing seats a “violation”. Passaro told The Forward that the weight imbalance issue made no sense, because the passengers were, “if anything, svelte”.
Algerian soccer player handed suspended prison sentence over antisemitic post

What I saw in Israel in the 1980s: A Christian woman's memories
It was 1980 and hundreds of Christian Arabs were leaving Lebanon to escape the growing encroachment of Muslim influence over the country. The southern part of Lebanon was under the control of a Christian militia that assisted Israel in securing the border between their two countries. Shelling of kibbutzim in the north of Israel was a regular occurrence from Muslim forces further north in Lebanon.

The United Nations, as well as many other western countries, resisted Israel’s attempts to defend herself against the attacks. I had friends who lived on the kibbutzim in the north who spent many days in shelters for protection. Since I had recently arrived in Jerusalem from Seattle, I considered the UN’s stance unjust. If we in Seattle were being shelled from British Columbia, Canada, I knew the United States would retaliate and no one would question it!

I witnessed this double standard over and over again in the two plus years I spent in Israel. The Israelis generally treated their citizens, residents, and neighbors fairly, but outside countries always seemed to find fault with them! Granted, I came to Israel as a supportive Christian and I agreed with Prime Minister Begin’s declaration of Jerusalem as the Eternal Capital of the Jews. When he made that statement, all embassies pulled out of Jerusalem and moved to Tel Aviv in protest. But there were Christians from around the world celebrating in Israel during the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, and they wanted to show their support of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by opening their own embassy. I was soon on staff with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) housed in the former Chilean embassy building.

Although I already supported Israel, I was open to seeing all sides of the issues facing the country’s relationship with its Arab residents and neighbors. I was grateful that our embassy took a peacemaking stance and performed actions that benefitted all who lived in the country.
7 Unique Sephardic vs. Ashkenazi Wedding Customs
While Ashkenazi and Sephardic weddings share the same basic framework, customs among the two groups vary widely. From the Shabbat Chatan to the mikvah (ritual immersion), and from henna parties to chuppah styles, each community celebrates this auspicious occasion with its own unique style.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:32 The Ashkenazi aufruf vs. the Sephardic Shabbat chatan
01:35 The mikvah
02:32 The Sephardic henna celebration
03:56 Ashkenazi fasting vs. Sephardic feasting
05:27 When to veil
06:27 The chuppah
07:02 Alone time in the yichud room
07:56 Varying Jewish wedding customs across the world


The fascinating story of a wounded soldier who ended up being treated by his father's hospital
Dr. Roni Eichel, the head of neurology at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, has two sons serving in elite combat units in the IDF. One of them, in a special forces unit, was seriously wounded fighting in Gaza last month and is now being treated at the hospital where his father works.

Dr. Eichel immigrated to Israel from Germany 26 years ago. He is an ardent Zionist who established an international medical advocacy project in Germany at the outbreak of the war and recruited hundreds of leading doctors in Germany to advocate for Israel. Eichel, who did his military service as a battalion doctor, treated many soldiers who were wounded in the field and performed command duties in the medical corps. When his son went into Gaza, he went through what he describes as a nerve-wracking period.

"Like all families in Israel whose children are fighting in Gaza, I was in an ongoing nightmare and constantly worried," Dr. Eichel says candidly. "The whole time, I kept trying to get information from there about my son." I woke up anxiously every morning at 5:30 a.m. to read the names [of the dead soldiers] that, God forbid, had been permitted for publication. Any unidentified phone number startled me – I thought it might be a casualty officer. The only thing that kept me sane was my work and commitment to providing service and care to my patients.

"I had really bad feelings and I was in a state of constant alert. One day my wife received a phone call from our son, who told her that he had been hurt in the back and that he was hospitalized at Soroka in Beersheba. We immediately drove there. The two-hour ride stuck in traffic jams was the longest I've ever experienced. I went crazy with worry, even though I knew he was in good hands. He suffered a chest wound. It isn't clear if the injury resulted from RPG shrapnel or from a bullet that twisted and tore his ceramic vest, but in any case, the vest prevented penetration into the thorax."

"The force with which he was caused rib fractures and extensive bleeding in the lungs. My son arrived at the hospital in serious condition, and it turned out that the skill of the medics in the field, together with his quick evacuation and treatment at Soroka, saved his life. A day later, his condition stabilized, and I was able to transfer him for further treatment to the cardiothoracic department at Shaare Zedek, run by Dr. Daniel Fink. The doctor from my son's unit also came; he treated him in the field and was the one who stabilized his condition there and saved his life. It was a very moving meeting."




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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 20 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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