Friday, January 19, 2024
WSJ Editorial: Can Biden and Blinken Read the Middle East?
Liberal policy on the Middle East is like a machine with a part missing. No matter the input, its output stays the same. Hamas launches the most gruesome invasion of Israel imaginable? Create a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority glorifies the massacre, prepares to compensate the killers and pledges solidarity with Hamas? Create a Palestinian state.For Palestinian Arabs, the Problem Is Israel's Existence, Not Its Borders
Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out in Davos on Wednesday the perennially failing solution to Middle East problems. “If you take a regional approach, and if you pursue integration with security, with a Palestinian state, all of a sudden you have a region that’s come together in ways that answer the most profound questions that Israel has tried to answer for years,” he said. “Iran is suddenly isolated,” he envisioned, “and will have to make decisions about what it wants its future to be.”
Special points for Mr. Blinken’s use of “all of a sudden.” Presto, peace.
Tehran wants to erase the Jewish state from the map, but the main obstacle Mr. Blinken sees to his plan is Israel. “When in previous times we came close to resolving the Palestinian question, getting a Palestinian state,” he said, “I think the view then—Camp David, other places—was that Arab leaders, Palestinian leaders, had not done enough to prepare their own people for this profound change. I think a challenge now, a question now: Is Israeli society prepared to engage on these questions? Is it prepared to have that mind-set?”
In other words, the Oct. 7 attack and broad Palestinian support for it have demonstrated that Palestinians now want to make a deal for peaceful coexistence. Why in the world would Israel hesitate?
If this sounds bizarre, recall that it was the liberal internationalist reflex throughout the 1990s. The more Palestinian terrorism Yasser Arafat unleashed, the more Israelis had to prove they were committed to peace.
Once a land has been conquered and is "open to Islam," it is Muslim forever. In the Muslim mind, though their physical control over Spain ended in 1492, Spain still belongs to the Muslims and will never be part of the non-Muslim world. Turkish President Erdogan still talks about southeastern Europe as being "part of the Ottoman-Muslim area."‘This money will go straight to Hamas’: Penny Wong has made a ‘complete fool of herself’
In 1949, after Israel defeated five Muslim armies, at the Rhodes talks the Muslims insisted on the phrase "ceasefire lines" instead of "borders." The word "borders" implies recognition of the people living there. But a Muslim would find that unacceptable because those lands should remain Muslim forever. To the Arabs, the lines drawn in 1948-1949 do not matter. The land is completely Muslim.
From the Western point of view, we're talking about how to divide up land; this is the point of pushing for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understands that the Arabs are not talking about how to renegotiate Israel's borders. They are talking about Israel's existence. And people cannot compromise on their existence.
Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger has slammed Penny Wong for making a “complete fool of herself” as the Australian taxpayer dollars she is sending to Palestine “will go straight to Hamas”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong recently announced an additional $21.5 million in aid to support Palestinian efforts.
“Penny Wong has made a complete fool of herself,” Mr Kroger told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.
“What they’ve worked out here is if you work out how much concrete is needed for those tunnels and how much metal is needed for 500 kilometres of tunnels, it’s about $15 billion.
“The Palestinian leadership in Gaza have stolen $1 billion a year from the international community and the UN, never been accounted for, no one has ever said where are you getting all this money from.
“This money will go straight to Hamas like the other $1 billion they’ve stolen from the dunces in the international community who think this aid is going to the UN, to the Palestinian people, to the children, to the hospitals, to the schools, to the needy.”
Netanyahu Didn’t Say ‘From the River to the Sea,’ But He Did Promise Total Victory
At the start of his press conference in Tel Aviv Thursday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed a postcard he received from “Neta, the mother of the late Yinon Tamir, a soldier in the Paratroopers Brigade, who fell in the battles in Gaza.”"Poll: IDF Must Not Stop the Fighting in Exchange for the Hostages"
“She wrote to me: ‘So that we know that they did not fall in vain, destroy the evil,’” Netanyahu said, and then, after a dramatic pause, declared, “Neta, I would like to tell you and all of the bereaved families: Yinon and his heroic friends did not fall in vain. We will destroy the evil of Hamas.”
Theatrical? For sure. But theater is how great leaders communicate with their nations, especially in times of war. It was also a political campaign, which is also something great leaders do whenever possible, because in a democracy, the longer one is in power, the more brittle one’s hold on power becomes, and Benjamin Netanyahu, son of Benzion Netanyahu, the secretary of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, is convinced of two things: one, like his late father and his great mentor, the world is full of enemies who conspire every minute of every day to annihilate the Jews; and two, he, Benjamin Netanyahu, is the most qualified to protect the Jewish nation against them.
The longest-serving Israeli prime minister, much like his predecessor, the second-longest serving PM, David Ben Gurion, is not in it for the money or the power. He is driven by his conviction that no one else can navigate Israel’s ship of state better than him – and that is not the sort of message that drives ordinary people, or even ordinary politicians.
This is why I believe Netanyahu was not being cynical when he said Thursday night, “Israel under my leadership will not compromise on less than total victory over Hamas, and we will win. I say this again so that no one will be in doubt: We are striving for total victory, not just ‘to strike Hamas’ or ‘to hurt Hamas’, not ‘another round with Hamas’ but total victory over Hamas.”
HE DID NOT SAY “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA”
There was a media bruhaha over Netanyahu’s speech Thursday night, following the translation that was offered by the Israeli channel i24NEWS. They suggested Netanyahu promised that Israel would take over the entire area “from the river to the sea,” which would have been great, in light of three months of pro-Hamas demonstrators who have been drilling that line into our brains. What a pity, then, that Netanyahu said no such thing. Instead, he told the press conference something his temporary coalition partners Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, and probably Yair Lapid, too: that Israel “must maintain security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River.”
This is the full segment as translated by i24NEWS, which, by the way, I would have embraced with great joy, except for, you know, reality:
“For 30 years, I am being very consistent and I am saying something very simple: this conflict is not on the lack of a state of Palestinians, but the existence of a state, the Jewish state. Every area that we evacuate we receive terrible terror against us. It happened in South Lebanon, in Gaza, and also in Judea and Samaria. Therefore, I clarify that in any other arrangement, in the future, the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea.”
It should, and, God willing, it will, but, alas, he didn’t say it quite that way.
A Panels poll conducted for the right-wing group March of the Mothers between January 16-17, found that in response to the question, “Should Israel agree to withdraw IDF forces from the Gaza Strip to obtain the release of the abductees?” 70.5% of respondents said “No,” 18.5% said “Yes,” and 11% said “I don’t know.”Seth Mandel: Public School Districts Are Chasing Out Their Jews
March of the Mothers was founded after October 7 by Sima Hason, the mother of two Golani fighters, who took to the Gaza crossings in December to stop the “humanitarian trucks” that were being allowed in while Hamas was holding on to Israeli hostages and the International Red Cross refused to try and visit them (see video below).
Today, MoM is one of the leading players in the post-October 7 political reality in which traditional parties on the left and the right in Israel are being influenced by street warriors.
The Panels poll that was released on Thursday appears to reflect the views of the common man on the street in Israel, although I am not happy with the size of its sample, 509 age 18+, representing the Jewish population in Israel, and the high sampling error of ± 4.4%.
Interestingly, the response to the first question that was posed by the pollsters, about the priorities of the war, was split down the middle:
What is more important:
Releasing the hostages – 46.6%
Victory in the war on Hamas – 44.8%
Don’t know – 8.6%
But the above results do not at all mean that Israeli Jews prefer releasing the hostages over defeating Hamas, as was shown in the opening question and this one:
What’s the best way to attain the release of the hostages?
Apply military pressure against Hamas so it agrees to acceptable conditions for the release of the hostages – 81.5%
Stop the fighting and negotiate with Hamas – 10%
Don’t know – 8.4%
The Ann Arbor, Michigan, public school board apparently thinks their work would be easier if the Jews would just take a hint. The teachers in the famously liberal college town don’t want to have to come right out and say they’d rather have the Jewish families transfer out.Gil Troy: Confronting American Jewish Leadership
The way Oakland did, for example. On Oct. 27, three weeks after Hamas’s massacre in Israel, the Bay-area city’s teachers union decided it couldn’t hold its tongue: The Jews, it wanted parents to know, had had it coming. So the union posted an “official statement of solidarity” expressing its “unequivocal support for Palestinian liberation,” the most recent expression of which was the murder of more than a thousand people and a mass campaign of sexual violence, including underaged victims.
Less than two weeks later, the union overwhelmingly passed a motion to encourage teachers to incorporate activities in support of “freedom for Palestine” in their lesson plans. One parent of a Jewish student in the district showed up to back-to-school night only to see a “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” poster hanging in her son’s classroom.
All this had its intended effect: At least 30 Jewish families were granted transfer to a different public school over a period of about two months.
Ann Arbor surely sees Oakland’s example as a success. But it doesn’t have the heart to be so gleefully incendiary about it. So yesterday it passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire—which is to say, for Israel to stop fighting back—that equated hostages such as Kfir Bibas, who just turned one in Hamas captivity, with “political prisoners,” a euphemism for Palestinians in Israeli jails arrested on terrorism charges. The resolution also encouraged teachers to take this discourse into the classroom.
Even the New York Times noted that adding it to a public-school curriculum is dicey because “established curriculum resources on Israeli-Palestinian issues are created by advocacy groups and are themselves highly disputed.” This is the understatement of the year. The truth is that parents will be lucky if their kids don’t come home each day talking like they just spent hours at a school run by UNRWA. Or worse—a school in Oakland.
“Why did you blurb that book?” a friend who leads a major Jewish organization recently asked. He, predictably, disliked the hard-hitting anthology Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership, edited by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser. The introduction, 21 essays, and an epilogue launch 23 hit pieces targeting most establishment organizations, and the new o-so-politically-correct, self-destructive worldview hypnotizing many American Jews. True, these Jeremiads don’t mince words and don’t acknowledge many of the good leaders or their good works. But the authors demonstrate that today’s challenges are too great for our usual self-congratulatory backslapping. We need the book’s honesty — even when brutal.MEMRI: 'Wall Street Journal' Weekend Interview With MEMRI President And Executive Director – Excerpts
Still, I was happy to reread the book – and reconsider my blurb. Especially after October 7, I wondered if the book became out-of-date. I could have been reading “Hamas: Pragmatic not Apocalyptic,” by Benjamin Netanyahu – co-authored by every world leader, most American Jewish leaders, and America’s foreign policy establishment. I could have been reading “Jew-Hating at Harvard: Gone with the WASPs,” by Claudine Gay. Or, I could have been reading, “Israel: No Longer Important to American Jews,” by Peter Beinart and Yahya Sinwar.
Instead, although some chapters need updating, the problems of anti-Semitism, alienation, and anomie the book addresses have only escalated, making it easy to stand by my every word. I wrote: “If you want to believe that all is well in the Jewish world… don’t read this book. If you want to keep your faith in the Jewish legacy organizations and establishment leaders… don’t read this book. If you want to bury your head in the sand and decide that America – and especially Woke America which most Jews worship – is not changing and turning anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist, don’t read this book. If, however, you think it’s time for the American Jewish community, its organizations, and its leadership, to have an honest, challenging, vigorous debate about where we are going – and what mistakes we have made – then, indeed, read this important, illuminating, sometimes depressing, but ultimately inspiring book.”
As with any essay collection, it’s easy to find nits to pick. Some essays are stronger than others. Some overstate. And post-October 7, it would be nice to add an epilogue honoring the heroic efforts of those supposedly hidebound, anachronistic legacy organizations that embraced Israel enthusiastically, mobilized the American Jewish community impressively, lobbied the White House effectively, and raised over one billion dollars for Israel in two months.
More important, however, is to assess the argument holistically. Four historical processes seem to be menacing American Jews. Using my words not the authors’, American Jews keep being Americanized, Osloified, Aparth-lied, and Politically Corrected. Together, these trends hollow out Jewish identity, while sapping pride and power from American Jews, not just their leaders.
The "Weekend Interview" in the January 12, 2024 issue of The Wall Street Journal was with MEMRI President Yigal Carmon and MEMRI Executive Director Dr. Steven Stalinsky. The interviewer was Elliot Kaufman.Middle East needs Israel's help, former Al Jazeera journalist says
The following are excerpts from the interview (read the full interview here if you are a Wall Street Journal subscriber):
Yigal Carmon is one of the few Israelis who can claim to have predicted this war. His Aug. 31 article "Signs of Possible War in September-October" cited provocations by Hezbollah, escalating violence in the West Bank and threats from Hamas as evidence of regional coordination for something big. "Israel will likely be compelled to undertake a large-scale response," he wrote, "even at the cost of an all-out war."
Some details were off, but Mr. Carmon says anyone paying attention would have seen the writing on the wall. "They said it all. They said everything," Mr. Carmon, a former Israeli intelligence officer and counterterrorism adviser to two prime ministers, says in a phone interview from Jerusalem. As president and a co-founder of Memri, the Middle East Media Research Institute, he had publicized Hamas's videos advertising its drills for an invasion of Israel, as well as its claims that total war was coming.
But Hamas is always threatening war, and most of the time it comes to naught. "If they publish it many times, then you can ignore it?" he asks in response to the point. "I say just the opposite. If they publish it many times, it suggests they mean it and you cannot ignore it. You must take it seriously."
Unfortunately, the tendency of sophisticated observers is to play down what terrorists say they believe. In a phone interview from Washington, Steve Stalinsky, Memri's executive director, points out that in all the coverage of the war, "we have heard almost nothing about the Hamas ideology. Yeah, sure, sometimes you hear about the Hamas Covenant"— the group's charter, which spells out its genocidal intentions —"but that's it, and no one even prints it."
Memri prints it, and publishes video compilations of Hamas leaders stating their movement's goal: to build an Islamic caliphate stretching from Palestine across the region and the world. That sounds more like international jihad than Palestinian nationalism.
When asked if he understood he was being interviewed for an Israeli newspaper, Adnan Al-Ameri, a Yemeni-British journalist, wasn’t the least bit worried. “So be it. I’ll speak my mind however and wherever I need to.”PodCast: The Challenge of Covering the Most Important Story on Earth (with Matti Friedman)
The ex-journalist for Al Jazeera of southern Yemeni descent spoke to The Jerusalem Post from London, where he has lived for the past several years, working as a freelance journalist and publicist.
He was born four decades ago in Warrington, England to parents who emigrated from Yemen, or, as he put it, “from Aden, in South Arabia.” One year later the family decided to head back home to Aden, where he spent the next 14 years of his childhood.
They then moved all around the Gulf following his father’s work.
Al-Ameri studied journalism at the October 6 University in Cairo, then returned to London and worked as a producer for the Arab News Network (ANN), an Arabic-speaking channel set up by Assad regime opponent – and first cousin of Bashar Assad – Siwar al-Assad.
Following his short experience in London, Al-Ameri moved on to Doha to work for the media gargantuan and Qatari mouthpiece, Al Jazeera; more specifically, at their children and youth channel, JeemTV.
“I presented and produced shows about technology and other subjects. I didn’t even begin to grasp anything about the political aspect of the channel.”
Journalist Matti Friedman worked for the Jerusalem Bureau of the Associated Press from 2006 to 2011. Looking back at that experience, Friedman argues that little has changed in the journalism landscape. Listen as Friedman discusses with EconTalk host Russ Roberts the media's obsession with Israel and how and why the media often sidelines facts in service of ideology, and the challenge of objective reporting in wartime.A strategic failure and unethical silence
My son was one of the injured in Monday’s terror attack in Ra’anana, Israel. He and several schoolmates were waiting after school for a bus home when the terrorists struck, injuring six children along with him. There were also several adults wounded and one killed. Though stopping short of claiming responsibility, Hamas praised the attack.Breaking The Generational Curse Of Antisemitism Must Begin On College Campuses
My son will be okay, at least physically. We were released from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon and, although he is pretty banged up and in some pain, he is in good spirits. Another of his schoolmates was more seriously injured and our prayers join those of thousands of others worldwide in praying for his recovery.
Several of the wounded — I believe at least five — along with my son, are American citizens.
Both formally and informally, Israel’s response has been exceptional. From the moment we reached the emergency room, we were met by national and local officials, including social workers, law enforcement and military personnel, medical experts, clergy, school faculty and countless others. Even Ra’anana’s mayor visited. Aside from the official response, hundreds of family, friends, and community members have been there for us. We are also just learning more about the lifesaving heroics of civilians and first responders at the scene of the attack.
In contrast to this, the American response has been absolute silence. Not as much as an acknowledgement from a US official, an email, or a phone call recognizing that several American children were the victims of a brutal terrorist attack. This is despite the fact that I contacted the US embassy in Israel within a day of the attack to report what had happened.
I realize that in the context of the war that has dominated our lives in Israel since October 7th, this is a small matter. Still, I am bothered.
Initially, world sympathy was with Israel, but it did not take much time before public opinion in the West turned against them, and as Israel is the world’s only Jewish state, the Jewish people themselves. This trend is the most prevalent in younger American generations, such as Gen Z, and millennials and especially on college campuses. As found in a Harvard Caps Harris Poll, a majority of Americans between the ages of 18-24 believe Hamas murdering Israeli civilians was justified. Out of that same age group, 62% of them claim that Hamas’s actions were genocidal, meaning that an unfathomable number of college-aged Americans believe that Hamas committing an act of genocide against Jewish people is justified.The Disturbing Rise of Strategic Antisemitism
These young Americans’ abhorrent opinions regarding unspeakable atrocities committed against Israelis have clearly translated into antisemitism against their Jewish peers on campus.
For example, 21-year-old Patrick Dai of Cornell University is under fire after posting that he would “stab” and “slit the throat” of any Jewish men he saw on campus and then rape Jewish women and throw them off cliffs. At another Ivy League school, the University of Pennsylvania, there have been so many disturbing incidences of antisemitism that the FBI is investigating. Several American chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine celebrated or were immediately established after Hamas’s massacre of Israeli civilians before Israel retaliated. Columbia University recently suspended its SJP chapter for “threatening rhetoric and intimidation”. At New York City College, Jewish students had to barricade themselves in a library as a mob of protesters chanting “free Palestine” tried to break down the door. The list goes on, and obviously, this on-campus terrorism means devastating repercussions for Jewish students.
“Never again,” people said after the Holocaust. “I would have stood up against the Nazis if I were in Germany,” said others.
Unfortunately, never again is now, as there are real-life Nazis spreading their vitriolic hate on college campuses like the plague. We must fight to end it now, so that no horrors of the past are repeated.
The government in Tehran understands that many people are susceptible to the absurd belief that Israel is at the root of the world’s problems. With this in mind, the Islamic Republic has played an active role in the explosion of online anti-Semitism since October 7. Emily Blout writes:The Return of the Swastika
Iran’s leaders know the power of prejudice and likely see the war as an opportunity to color the way people around the world see the conflict, and critically, the way they see Iran. That’s why we shouldn’t pass off Iran’s anti-Semitic social- and traditional-media activities solely as an expression of Jew hatred or a denial of Israel’s right to exist. We need to look deeper and see how Tehran uses anti-Semitism to advance its strategic interests.
The Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei . . . has, for decades, used thinly veiled anti-Semitic tropes to appeal to the so-called “Arab Street” and bridge the historical and religious divides between Arabs and Persians, Sunnis and Shiites, in a larger bid to establish Iran’s predominance in the Middle East and leadership of the greater Muslim world.
And Iran isn’t the only one playing this game:
There are signs that China is using social media in a similar way: the algorithms of TikTok, for instance, which is used by 67 percent of American teens, have created echo chambers of hate and put fabricated accounts of Israeli atrocities into heavy circulation. . . . Chinese media outlets have been trafficking in anti-Semitism for years now, a practice that has drawn scrutiny during the current war. Indeed, Beijing may aim to bridge the culture gap with Arab populations and generate positive public opinion by expressing unwavering support for Palestinians and demonizing Jews.
Unless one’s mind has been altogether corrupted by a steady diet of ideological obscenities, certain words and symbols should never be used when referring to Jews. One of these, for reasons that should require no explanation, is “gas,” but within 48 hours of Hamas’ massacre of some 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, a crowd outside the opera house in Sydney was already shouting “gas the Jews.” Shamefully—and yet the people who hurl these murderous taunts feel no shame—the same obscenity and others like it are sometimes sounded by people waving Palestinian flags on campuses and in anti-Israel street demonstrations. Kaffiyeh-clad, some are young people from Middle Eastern countries studying at American colleges and universities. Others, sometimes also sporting kaffiyehs, choose to be allies with those chanting “from the river to the sea” and “intifada revolution.” They see themselves as combatants in today’s culture wars, pitting the “oppressed” against the “oppressors,” with Israel and Jews condemned as being on the “wrong side” of this simplistic but popular equation. The slide from there to an embrace of full-throated anti-Zionism and antisemitism is often quick and easy.The Hill’s online show, ‘Rising,’ falls prey to host’s anti-Israel conspiracy theories
It will take a while to sort through all these developments, but a few things are already clear. Haters need to hate, and antisemitism, always in recruitment mode, is readily available, open to all, and a common, easily accessible hatred. Those who embrace it on social media, college campuses, on the street, in the entertainment and sports worlds, and elsewhere, quickly find like-minded allies and probably believe that those they hate and are dedicated to hurting won’t hurt them back. That may have been true when Jews were set upon in the past. It is not true of Israeli Jews. When they are hit, they hit back, and hard. For that, they and Jews everywhere are hated even more.
The most potent sign of that visceral hatred is the return of the swastika. Expect to see more of them, this time not just as an antisemitic symbol but also an anti-Israel one. Just as the “swastika epidemic” of 1959-60 revived a latent Jew-hatred among people in Germany and elsewhere, something dangerously similar is occurring in the aftermath of Hamas’ savage attacks of Oct. 7. As I write, bomb threats have been made against hundreds of synagogues in 17 American states. The threats are no doubt a ruse, but they are typical of the aggressively mean-spirited passions let loose across the United States and around the world. If we do not quickly and effectively find ways to restrain this growing hatred, the future prospect for Jews and others may become more frightful than it has been since the 1930s.
Joel Rubin, a progressive activist who worked as the Jewish outreach director on Sanders’ 2020 campaign and has appeared on “Rising,” said he views Gray’s efforts to deny the atrocities committed on Oct. 7 as part of a broader pattern of antisemitic activity that has gained traction among left-wing critics of Israel since the attacks. “These words matter, and what they do is they contribute to the dehumanization of Jews,” he said in an interview with Jewish Insider last week. “We need to call it out, and we need to stand up to it.”Yisrael Medad: Non-Published Letter to the London Review of Books
“You can’t call yourself a progressive if you’re saying antisemitic things,” Rubin, who is running for Congress in Maryland, explained. “This denial of violence against women is devaluing Jewish lives.”
Even as Gray’s commentary has faced pushback from her libertarian co-host, Robby Soave, a senior editor at Reason magazine whose objections to her views on the conflict have resulted in some notable shouting matches, critics say the show has too often failed to provide a platform for dissenting opinion, leading some followers to give up on the program altogether. (Soave declined to comment.)
Vanessa Santos, who leads Renegade DC, a public relations firm in Washington, said she had long defended the show and encouraged her clients to appear on the program if they were invited. “I said time after time that what I personally like about the show is that they’re bringing together people with differing perspectives,” Santos told JI. “It’s a format that cable news networks have almost completely done away with.”
But following the Hamas attacks, Santos said she has “decided to no longer work with the show,” claiming that pro-Israel clients whom she has pitched as guests “have been cancelled on, disrespected on-air” or “ignored entirely” — experiences that she believes have shown the program “is not interested in open and honest discourse.”
“‘Rising’ used to be good, but it has become completely unserious, with its decline accelerating in the wake of Oct. 7,” Santos said, arguing that the show “has relegated substantive political and policy discussions to Briahna’s emotional outbursts and takes, and demonstrates a painfully obvious obstinacy toward fair representation of viewpoint diversity.”
Santos isn’t the only critic who has chosen to stop engaging with the show. One person who frequently appeared on the program before the Oct. 7 attacks, speaking anonymously to avoid reprisals, confided to JI that Gray’s commentary has become so toxic as to preclude any future engagement.
Gray did not respond to a request for comment from JI on Thursday.
Sent on November 20th:
Manal A. Jamal, writing in her blog post, "On Non-Violent Resistance" (LRB, 17 Nov 2023), asserts that "from the beginning, non-violent resistance has been central to the Palestinians’ struggle for freedom.". Unlike clinging to the truth in Orwell's "1984", Professor Jamal would rather we go mad, adopt the process of continuous alteration and cling to the untruth. She purports a fantasy as history.
In 1851, after having purchased property in Jerusalem's Old City so as to rebuild the Hurva Synagogue , which Arab creditors burned down in 1721, Rabbi Avraham Tzoref was axed by an Arab and died three months afterwards on September 16. In August 1890, Yisrael Rozeman was shot and killed while on guard duty in Gedera. Another over two dozen Jews were killed by Arabs on the background of their "resistance" to Jewish settlement all prior to the Balfour Declaration.
During the three decades of British Mandate rule, Arabs violently and murderously rioted against Jews in April 1920, May and November 1921, August 1929 and then April 1936 until May 1939 killing almost 900 Jews in additionn to pillaging, burning homes and agricultural produce as well as raping. More instances of individual murders occurred in between those outbursts. Many instances of mutilation are recorded. Arabs seeking an alternative route of opposition to Zionism were eliminated in dozens of internal assassinations on the orders of the Mufti Amin Al-Husseini.
Mubarak Awad aside, who I met and discussed his politics, there has been no significant non-violent campaign of resistance by any influential Arab personality or organization, official or civil society based in over a century and a half.
Yisrael Medad
Shiloh
Israel
Rashid Khalidi is the most prominent Palestinian-American. He is friends with Barak Obama and teaches history at Columbia. I've read all his writings since I was in college. I used to subscribe to his position, until I grew up. I'd be happy to debate Khalidi one day, if he thinks…
— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) January 18, 2024
Bernie Sanders Abandons the Jews. Again.
Bernie Sanders says his new bill to restrict aid to Israel is a response to the deaths of civilians in Gaza. Yet he also proposed cutting aid to Israel more than four years ago. The current war, it seems, is just a convenient excuse for Sanders to slam the Jewish state again.
In the immediate aftermath of the mass slaughter, torture and gang-rapes of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas on October 7, Sanders briefly took Israel’s side. He called Hamas “barbaric” and rejected the demands by his political allies that Israel cease firing at the terrorists. That enraged friends such as his ex-press secretary, Briahna Joy Gray, who claimed there’s no evidence that Hamas raped Israeli women and called Sanders “the biggest political disappointment of our generation” for not agreeing with her.
It didn’t take long for Sanders to succumb to the criticism. He’s now the author of legislation to put restrictions on the supply of U.S. weapons that Israel needs to fight the gang-rapists.
But Sanders cannot pretend his motive is the current casualty toll in Gaza. In October 2019, addressing the annual conference of J Street, Sanders proposed reducing U.S. military aid to Israel—and he said a portion of the Israel aid should be diverted, “right now,” to Gaza.
Sanders said he was proposing that the funds to Gaza consist of “humanitarian aid.” But it has been well known for years that “humanitarian aid” such as concrete, ostensibly to build houses, was being used by Hamas to build tunnels. That is, the hundreds of miles of tunnels, underneath Gaza, where Israeli rape victims and other hostages are still being held to this day.
So it appears the new Sanders legislation represents nothing more than a political calculation. Impressing Briahna Gray and other rape-deniers is more important to Sen. Sanders than standing by Israel. And it’s not the first time that he chose to abandon Jews in their hour of need.
On May 17, 1988, then-U.S. Representative—today Senate Majority Leader—Chuck Schumer led a delegation of eight Democratic congress members to the Soviet Embassy in Washington to protest the Soviet regime’s persecution of Soviet Jews.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal (to US administration): “We reject the two-state solution because we don’t recognize the legitimacy of the other state, the Zionist entity.”
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) January 19, 2024
This reminds me of Rush Limbaugh’s view on this who two state solution scam.
— Charles Weber (@CWBOCA) January 18, 2024
He has always maintained that it will never happen because Palestinians never wanted it to happen.
He goes a step further, arguing that western nations haven’t wanted either.pic.twitter.com/MLiiexgZoS
Watch: “Abu Mazen on 9 December 2018 made an address to PLO and admitted the Nakba was a consequence of Arab directives which they didn’t have a say in. They left and were told that they would return a week later. They lost the war.” - @AI77985500 pic.twitter.com/fVGmXISaTp
— Corrected Media (@correctedmedia) May 11, 2023
Palestinian refugee from 1948 agrees with the Israeli narrative exactly: We were told us to leave our homes for two weeks while they destroy the Jews. We thought that was a long time. That was 50 years ago.
— Zionwarrior6 - Israel with Iran! (@ZionWarrior6) January 6, 2022
Watch and SHARE with your favorite #Israel hater! pic.twitter.com/zJcnyih5Qf
'South Africa is a Hamas proxy,' Israeli expert says on ICJ genocide case
AS TO WHAT the whole farce at the ICJ says about the world and Israel’s place in it, Rubinstein said this is “a very good question, a very sad question. It seems – this time stronger than ever, maybe – that the existence of a Jewish state for certain countries, definitely for certain Arab countries, is kind of a question mark.South Africa's hypocrisy was loud at ICJ Gaza genocide hearing
“In 1987, I was the cabinet secretary under Yitzhak Shamir, and for over a decade I was following material on antisemitism popping up. I wrote a memo to Shamir in which I said that whoever thought that antisemitism would be in the gutter and that anyone would be ashamed to utter antisemitic language and so on was mistaken. I suggested that we should follow what was going on because there was no organized follow-up – the Mossad was doing some, Nativ was doing some – and he agreed. We established an inter-agency group under my chairmanship, and for six years we reported to the government every year what was going on. It was continued by my successors.
“I remember when I started, I spoke to [Shimon] Peres, who was the foreign minister – I was friendly with him; he was at our wedding many, many years ago – and I said, ‘Give me a [Foreign Ministry] representative [for the inter-agency group],’ and he said, ‘Ely, governments have to deal with the present and the future. Antisemitism is the past; why should we deal with it?’ He was always optimistic. He later changed his mind, but that is not the point.”
Rubinstein stressed that nothing should or can be compared to the Holocaust. Nevertheless, “I do hear [Nazi propagandist Joseph] Goebbels in the arguments made against us. If you repeat a lie time and time again, it sticks and becomes fact.”
Rubinstein said he doesn’t believe it will be possible to uproot antisemitism, which goes back to the Book of Exodus, which is currently being read in synagogues worldwide on Shabbat, and the Book of Esther, which will be read in two months on Purim.
“I don’t say we should despair of fighting it. I don’t think we can uproot it totally,” he said. “It goes back to Pharaoh and Haman. I can’t believe it will be uprooted. But we should not shy away from fighting it – diplomatically, through public diplomacy, and legally.”
Which is precisely what Israel did last week at The Hague.
THOSE WHO think that the cause of democracy and freedom could be served by placing the Palestinian Authority in charge of Gaza should think again. Think about this: PA head Mahmoud Abbas is celebrating the start of the 19th year of his four-year term. He has refrained from criticizing the Hamas assault and continues the “Pay-for-slay” program, compensating terrorists and their families.
(This week, Israel buried Edna Bluestein, the 79-year-old victim of a combined car-ramming and stabbing attack in Ra’anana perpetrated by two Palestinians from a village near Hebron. The country also buried a mother and adult son killed in their home by Hezbollah anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon.)
Meanwhile, Iran continues to finance the terror in all its forms – including the ongoing Houthi attacks from Yemen.
One of the most outrageous cases of hypocrisy was the presence of CodePink – the self-styled “Women for Peace” movement – at a pro-Palestinian rally in Washington last Saturday. Forget pink, they should be red-faced with shame. No mention of the Hamas atrocities perpetrated in particular against Jewish women and children in Israel: the gang rapes and genital mutilation that accompanied the mass murder.
In yet another Orwellian distortion, thousands of pro-Palestinians participated in the event marking 100 days of the Hamas attack – but focused entirely on the Israeli response. The genocidal call “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” was ubiquitous. There were also acts of violence, including an attempt to tear down a fence outside the White House.
Contrast this with the self-control and order of the pro-Israel rallies, like the well-attended solidarity event held in London on Sunday.
The world ignores the Palestinian violence at its peril. There is nothing that the terrorists want more than to make people scared of them – too scared to respond and too scared to openly back Israel.
Fortunately, the leaders of Germany, the UK, the US, and the Czech Republic, among others, are not being fooled or silenced. They have voiced support for Israel, dismissed Hamas’s allegations, and condemned the atrocity it carried out on October 7. German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement last week: “We stand firmly against a political instrumentalization” of the UN 1948 Genocide Convention.”
South Africa, acting on behalf of Hamas, has turned the ICJ into a circus. Beware the terrorists dressed up as clowns.Whatever the ICJ’s final verdict might be, when the world succumbs to terrorist threats, everyone loses.
More and more countries reject South Africa's accusation at The Hague.
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) January 19, 2024
France 🇫🇷 To accuse the Jewish state of genocide is to cross a moral threshold. The notion of genocide cannot be exploited for political ends.
Britain 🇬🇧 South Africa's case was completely unjustified and…
Aren’t you just saying the quiet part out loud. The ICJ doesn’t think that Hamas has to ceasefire, just israel. https://t.co/gXaMEomzFc
— organic compliance and hemp quality pro (@jmlipp) January 19, 2024
In Ramallah, Palestinians protested against Germany's support for Israel. pic.twitter.com/p0IO0ZDoxa
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) January 18, 2024
Scandal-Plagued Iran Envoy To Teach Yale Course on Israel-Palestinian Conflict
Biden administration Iran envoy Robert Malley, who is on leave from his post amid an FBI investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified information, is slated to teach a course at Yale this year on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Harvard Anti-Semitism Task Force Member Called Israel a ‘Regime of Apartheid’
Malley—who has accepted two plum Ivy League gigs at Yale and Princeton since being suspended from the State Department and having his security clearance yanked last year—will share his knowledge on the Middle East with students as part of a course titled "Contending with Israel-Palestine," according to the Yale Daily News. The semester-long course will take "an in-depth look at important questions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," the school paper reported.
The Iran envoy has long been involved in the Middle East conflict both from inside and outside government. As an adviser to former president Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, Malley held unauthorized talks with the Hamas terror group, leading him to be fired from the job. Hamas is now waging war on Israel. As the Biden administration's Iran envoy, Malley worked to relax economic sanctions on the hardline regime, providing it with cash windfalls that have enriched Hamas and other Tehran-backed terrorist proxies that are attacking Israel.
Malley told the Yale Daily News that he intends to foster "thoughtful, respectful conversations" about the conflict. The course comes amid a historic wave of anti-Semitic violence and Israel-bashing on college campuses, including at Yale, which recently sponsored an event that denied Hamas's mass war crimes and justified the group's attacks on Jewish civilians.
"In the wake of Oct. 7, I questioned whether it still made sense or whether it would be best to wait," Malley told the school paper. "Ultimately, I concluded, in coordination with the school, that it had become even more important to try to create an environment where students could learn more about this topic and engage with others in thoughtful, respectful conversations."
Malley's gigs at Yale and Princeton attracted blowback in Congress last year due to an ongoing FBI investigation into the diplomat's potential abuse of classified information. Yale, however, touted Malley as one of the "leading practitioners" in the field of foreign affairs.
Harvard University’s newest appointee to its anti-Semitism task force has called Israel an "apartheid regime" and defended disgraced former Harvard president Claudine Gay amid calls that she be fired for her failure to condemn anti-Semitic protesters at the school.California School Districts Under Federal Investigation Amid Anti-Semitism Accusations
Interim Harvard president Alan Garber tapped Derek Penslar, a professor of Jewish history, to serve on the Presidential Task Force on Combating Anti-Semitism, created to identify "the root causes" of anti-Semitism at the Ivy League school.
Garber also announced a task force to address Islamophobia, though there appear to be far fewer cases of anti-Muslim bias at the university. In one case, the wife of a Harvard professor referred to a keffiyeh—a black-and-white checkered scarf embraced by pro-Palestinian protesters—as a "terrorist scarf."
The Department of Education in November opened a civil rights probe into anti-Semitic incidents at the school, which included students calling for genocide against Jews. A day after Hamas’s terrorist attack, dozens of anti-Israel campus groups accused the Jewish state of provoking the violence. A group of Jewish students sued Harvard this month, claiming the school enables "Jew-bashing." Two students said the school has allowed protesters chanting "glory to the martyrs" to protest inside the law school student lounge.
The task force is launching amid criticism of Gay for her refusal at a congressional hearing in November to condemn protesters who called for a Holocaust against Jews. Gay resigned this month following Washington Free Beacon reports that she plagiarized much of her academic research.
Penslar, who organized other Harvard faculty members to defend Gay, may not be the best fit for the task force. While he has criticized anti-Israel initiatives like the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, Penslar has made other claims about the Jewish state that anti-Semites have used to call for the annihilation of Israel.
In August, he signed an open letter alongside hundreds of academics that called Israel "a regime of apartheid."
"There cannot be democracy for Jews in Israel as long as Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid," the letter states.
Two California school districts are under federal investigation amid accusations against the districts of anti-Semitism.Anti-Israel Student Group Threatens 'No Business as Usual at MIT' Until Jewish State is Eradicated
Although it is unclear whether the inquiries are specifically about anti-Semitism, the Department of Education in the past week opened probes into the San Francisco Unified School District and the Oakland Unified School District, both of which have received criticism from Jewish groups, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The investigations are in response to complaints of discrimination based on "shared ancestry," which Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits, the Bay Area's Jewish Community Relations Council said on X, formerly Twitter.
Last week, the San Francisco Unified School District made headlines after National Review revealed that it suggested teachers use a resource that promoted an article arguing that "Israeli terrorism has been morally worse than that of the Palestinians."
Supported by teachers, high school students in the district staged an October walkout for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, in which city supervisor Hillary Ronen, who is Jewish, said she saw "the Israeli military commit genocide in our name."
The Oakland district in October also received backlash after its teachers' union published a since-deleted Instagram post that expressed "unequivocal support for Palestinian liberation and self-determination." In demanding a ceasefire and an end to American military aid to Israel, it called on "labor siblings and elected officials to act in unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people."
Jewish students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are set to return to the classroom next month, where they will be greeted by an anti-Israel student group that is threatening to shut down "business as usual at MIT" until the Jewish state is no more.
The group, MIT Coalition Against Apartheid, made its threat in a December Instagram post. "When we return next semester," the group said, "we will be even stronger and even bigger to make sure that there is no business as usual at MIT until Palestine is free! From the river to the sea." While it's unclear exactly how the group plans to escalate its advocacy against the Jewish state, its members are already in hot water with the university over demonstrations that violated school policy and left Jewish students fearful.
In early November, for example, Coalition Against Apartheid organized an infamous protest in which members occupied MIT Lobby 7, a campus hub located inside of the school's main entrance that leads to classrooms and faculty offices. The group moved forward with the protest despite a school policy prohibiting demonstrations in Lobby 7 and other areas of campus where protesters would disrupt classes. The protest included calls for "Intifada" and saw participants occupy the lobby from 7:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. MIT leaders used an emergency notification system to tell students to avoid the area, and the school's Jewish attendees said the protest made them "feel MIT is not safe for Jews."
Coalition Against Apartheid's pledge to take "even stronger and even bigger" action will test MIT's resolve as the school faces criticism over its response to campus anti-Semitism. MIT president Sally Kornbluth faced calls to resign after her participation in a disastrous December congressional hearing, during which she argued that "calling for the genocide of Jews" may not violate the school's code of conduct. Days later, House Republicans launched an investigation into MIT and other elite universities.
While Kornbluth has since pledged to reassess the school's policies on "harassment, bullying, intimidation and discrimination," her administration has gone easy on Coalition Against Apartheid members in the past.
New preprint:
— Retsef Levi (@RetsefL) January 18, 2024
Dramatic increase in reported personal exposure to antisemitic hate speech & conduct among Israeli & Jewish members of universities in North America & Canada post Oct 7!
Based on randomized retrospective survey of 3 time periods (pre and post Oct 7 & recently).… pic.twitter.com/cywIJrwTBt
In the month following the Oct 7 massacre by Hamas, antisemitic incidents against Jewish students on college campuses increased by 700% over the previous year.
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) January 19, 2024
If you or a student you know experienced an antisemitic incident on campus, report it at https://t.co/97C4EVbai0. pic.twitter.com/d4zUPN4lrZ
Rutgers reinstates Students for Justice in Palestine chapter
The Rutgers University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has regained its status as a sanctioned campus group, though received punishment for what the school described as “protesting in nonpublic forums, causing disruption to classes and university functioning, which are violations of university policy.”
One of many chapters that have led pro-Hamas demonstrations across the country, it received an interim suspension due to multiple conduct complaints, which is a standard procedure at Rutgers.
University spokesperson Megan Schumann Florance announced the findings of a review of SJP’s activities. “The conduct case involving the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Rutgers-New Brunswick has been resolved, and the interim suspension of organizational activity is over,” she said, noting that the group would receive a year’s probation and educational sanctions.
Protest actions that led to the interim suspension included unapproved protests at the business school and library.
“For weeks, the Rutgers Students for Justice in Palestine New Brunswick chapter disrupted classes, intimidated Jewish students, failed to comply with authorities, and inappropriately used university spaces,” wrote Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.). “I’m dismayed by Rutgers’s decision to lift their suspension and remind them—as they face a federal Department of Education ethnic discrimination investigation—of their responsibility under Title VI to protect all of their students and the severe consequences if they fail to do so.”
This is not Gaza, this is New Jersey, 2024.
— Olia (@oliaklein) January 18, 2024
Three masked members of the "Students for Justice in Palestine" branch at Rutgers University made a public statement after the branch's month-long suspension was lifted.
Among other things, they demanded that the university… pic.twitter.com/3SMk3GRQ4t
Harvard University - as schools across America ban/suspend the antisemitic 'Students for Justice in Palestine' (SJP) hate group, some Harvard faculty decide to form a 'Faculty for SJP'.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 18, 2024
Which Professors and Staff signed on? Take a look - https://t.co/kk0kSg0vIp pic.twitter.com/u6SilevYrI
A complaint with the IRS/Department of Treasury was filed yesterday against 'The People's Forum', a 501c3 not-for-profit.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 18, 2024
The complaint alleges the organization has been advocating in support of Hamas, a U.S. designated terror organization, in its war on Israel. pic.twitter.com/79P05vQU9N
@BarnardCollege and @Columbia invited Hatem Bazian to lead a "day of dialogue".
— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) January 19, 2024
This is like inviting David Duke to teach about racial tolerance.
This man is the most antisemitic professor in the U.S.
He founded the pro-terror SJP and runs the Hamas-linked AMP.
Bazian’s violent antisemitic rhetoric has been known to the University of California system and @UCBerkeley
— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) January 19, 2024
for at least six years, and they have chosen to do nothing about it
This is the person that @Columbia invited to lead a "day of dialogue" pic.twitter.com/CYH8XLYTUP
Dr. Osama Abuirshaid - the Executive Director at Bazian's current organization (which is under investigation for its terror links) has contributed to the website of Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas. pic.twitter.com/5npcTf0KyA
— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) January 19, 2024
Is this man the best that @Columbia and @BarnardCollege can do? https://t.co/mB2KPs8JDh
— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) January 19, 2024
This bumper sticker was spotted in downtown Manhattan. One of many anti-Israel signs lining the streets these days. But this one stood out to me for its insidiousness.
— Jonathan Harounoff (@JonathanHaroun1) January 18, 2024
Why condemn influential voices for displaying moral clarity and severing ties with their alma maters, when… pic.twitter.com/L69CkGBD7W
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) January 19, 2024
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) January 18, 2024
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) January 18, 2024
Shekeba Morrad, a @DeptVetAffairs lawyer, who mocked Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, was required to undergo counseling & harassment prevention training. VA leaders said they support inclusion in the workforce. Q: Does this include antisemites? https://t.co/iWD96u207P https://t.co/6FKSkBeo8n
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) January 18, 2024
Gaza photojournalists accused of Oct. 7 war crimes
Two Gaza-based Palestinian photojournalists who infiltrated Israel during Hamas’s massacres on Oct. 7 committed war crimes, experts say.
“I believe that this is clearly an incidence that would come under and be covered by both the convention that we talked about in the [International Criminal Court], of the [Convention on the] Prevention and Punishment of [the Crime of] Genocide, and under the Israeli law regarding the commission of and the prevention of genocide, and its prosecution,” Maurice Hirsch said.
Hirsch, the former chief military prosecutor for Judea and Samaria, is now director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform in the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
He was commenting on a recent report by HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog, which found that freelance photographers Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa and Ashraf Amra infiltrated Israel to photograph the attacks. They then returned to Khan Yunis in Gaza, went on Amra’s Instagram Live account and excitedly shared a video of a mob pulling an Israeli soldier out of a tank and urged Palestinians to join the attack.
“You can go to Khuza’a [an area of southern Gaza near the border]. You park your motorbike there, OK. Or your jeep. And you enter inside. You will return back with a jeep, motorbike or bicycle, or anything,” Mostafa says in the video. Later, he adds, “Advice: Whoever can go—go. It is a one-time event that will not happen again.”
Amra affirms: “Really, it will not repeat itself.”
Mostafa is a freelance photographer associated with Reuters, which published his photos of the soldier being lynched.
Amra is also a freelancer whose photo of a bulldozer breaking down a section of the Gaza border fence was published with the credit: “Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.”
All hands on deck at the Washington Post. In this one, a journalist who writes about religion takes sides with genocidal terrorists who pretend to be journalists, which inter alia undermines and indeed physically endangers all real journalists. https://t.co/N6daadQxc8
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) January 19, 2024
2. Yaacoub al Barash, hamas terrorist pic.twitter.com/FGM64sbVLM
— Shira🎗️שירה שירים (@theotherShira) January 18, 2024
4. Mustafa al Naqib, PIJ terrorist pic.twitter.com/7HqKm1tcb9
— Shira🎗️שירה שירים (@theotherShira) January 18, 2024
6. At least 9 worked for Hamas' Quds pic.twitter.com/edZDdJmxHY
— Shira🎗️שירה שירים (@theotherShira) January 18, 2024
8. Montasar AlSawaf, Hamas. pic.twitter.com/00yw2QHkpF
— Shira🎗️שירה שירים (@theotherShira) January 19, 2024
10. Ahmed Bdeir, PFLP media pic.twitter.com/6MeILXUwPC
— Shira🎗️שירה שירים (@theotherShira) January 19, 2024
12. Mohamed Mouin Ayyash, Hamas. pic.twitter.com/HvniHKQXML
— Shira🎗️שירה שירים (@theotherShira) January 19, 2024
14. These 6 are part of PIJ propaganda networks pic.twitter.com/cpCHnqXtWa
— Shira🎗️שירה שירים (@theotherShira) January 19, 2024
15. Haitham Hararra, Hamas Government employee🤡🤡 pic.twitter.com/HKKGC5qku8
— Shira🎗️שירה שירים (@theotherShira) January 19, 2024
Omissions in BBC News report on Israeli footballer in Turkey
The link in that paragraph takes readers to an article published on January 2nd which, like this latest report, makes no mention of the history of Erdogan’s relations with the Muslim Brotherhood or Turkey’s related hosting of groups such the IHH. Both those BBC reports completely avoid the fact that since 2011 Hamas has maintained a presence in Turkey from where it has directed operations against both Israel and the Palestinian Authority and run financial affairs.
Also absent from the BBC’s report is the context of domestic politics in Turkey and in particular, Erdogan’s vilification of Israel in order to advance his own interests.
Once again the BBC has failed to meet its obligation to “offer a range and depth of analysis and content not widely available from other United Kingdom news providers”.
This is a real quote in the New York Times pic.twitter.com/DddGaJB5Zj
— Isaac de Castro (@isaacdecastrog) January 19, 2024
Barcelona mayor cancels meeting with Israeli official sans explanation
Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, was slated to meet in Madrid with the Spanish capital’s mayor on Wednesday. The mayor ended up being sick, so she met with deputy mayor Inma Sanz.
In Madrid, Hassan-Nahoum and Rodica Radian-Gordon, the Israeli ambassador to Spain, were told that the Spanish and Israeli capital cities have a “permanent relationship,” according to Spanish media.
“We have, of course, shown them the support and affection of the people of Madrid in the face of the terrible attack they suffered on Oct. 7, with so many people killed, with so many wounded, up to 9,000 wounded,” Sanz told reporters in Spanish.
Hassan-Nahoum was supposed to meet on Thursday with Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona, and with his deputy, but the two canceled without explanation and, per Spanish media, “without giving space for future collaborations between cities in the midst of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.”
“Collboni’s stance with Israel has been fuzzy in recent times,” the Spanish daily Vozpópuli added.
Last February, Barcelona suspended all ties with Israel. The next day, Madrid offered to replace Barcelona in a “twinning” relationship with Tel Aviv. Barcelona’s then-mayor was sued over the Israel boycott and subsequently lost her seat. Last September, Barcelona reversed its decision to boycott Israel.
Friday Sermon by Sheikh Riyadh Walls in Cape Town, South Africa: Only the Muslim Armies Can Put an End to the Fascism of Zionism, Like the End of Nazism in WWII; If you Leave Jihad, Allah Will Bring Upon You Humiliation #SouthAfrica #Jihad pic.twitter.com/7bDwzw15or
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 19, 2024
She complains about "IDF bombings" when firing of Hamas rockets can be seen behind her... pic.twitter.com/tdKKmF30VT
— Adin - עדין (@AdinHaykin1) January 18, 2024
Why did Mohammed el-Kurd cut ties with the Palestinian LGBTQ+ 🏳️🌈community organization?
— 🇮🇱Jonathan Elkhoury- جوناثان الخوري🇮🇱 (@Jonathan_Elk) January 18, 2024
Mohammed el-Kurd, a “Palestinian rockstar leader” as some refer to him, took part in many queer events done by the Palestinian LGBTQ organization El-Qaws, that operates in East Jerusalem.… pic.twitter.com/x5uTH4TlTt
US Should Sanction Lebanon’s pro-Iran ‘Resistance TV’
On December 27, an Israeli missile hit a home in the Southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, killing brothers Ali and Ibrahim Bazzi and Ibrahim’s wife. Within hours, Al Manar, Hezbollah’s official media outlet, published a military portrait of Ali Bazzi, revealing his nom-de-guerre, Qassem, and eulogizing him as a martyr “on the road to Jerusalem.” The three were given a Hezbollah military-style funeral, with their coffins draped in Hezbollah's yellow flag. But you would not have known that, had you been watching Al Mayadeen, a Beirut-based international news channel — because while Hezbollah’s officialdom exalted the martial qualities of Ali the martyr, Al Mayadeen omitted them, painting the Bazzis as innocent civilian victims of Israel’s wonton brutality.45 years after the Shah: A threat that did not have to be
Unlike Al Manar, the official Hezbollah channel already under U.S. sanctions, Al Mayadeen is ostensibly independent; nevertheless, it is uncannily aligned with Iran’s “resistance” axis — the regional front of Iran’s proxies that Tehran uses to advance its goals — by editorial choice. Al Mayadeen’s coverage regurgitates Hezbollah’s propaganda, and the network seems to see itself as part of a global front fighting against Western arrogance.
Al Mayadeen is the brainchild of Ghassan Bin Jiddo, a Tunisian-born former Al Jazeera anchorman. He established Al Mayadeen in 2012, after leaving Al Jazeera in protest over the Qatari network’s support, at the time, for the Syrian uprising and what he considered to be skewed coverage of the Arab Spring. Bin Jiddo launched Al Mayadeen vowing to support the “resistance,” making Al Mayadeen a competitor to Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya in the Arab media space and an ally to Iran’s “anti-imperialist” global struggle, cheerleading Tehran’s hegemonic ambitions and assorted anti-American authoritarians.
Within a decade of its launch, Al Mayadeen has become something of a media powerhouse, focused on advancing not just the agendas of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, but also those of other global “anti-imperialist” causes. It broadcasts in Arabic, English, and Spanish. It has a presence on all main social media platforms, with 2 million followers on Twitter and 7.3 million on Facebook, and is available through multiple satellite services. It is not a niche phenomenon. During October 2023, Al Mayadeen’s main website scored 14.1 million unique visits (double its previous month’s traffic), with more than 20% of its visitors from the United States, Canada, and Germany. Its Spanish website gets more than 12 million visitors per month. Its YouTube channel has almost 1.2 million subscribers, with more than 200,000 added just in the last three months, and with 436.5 million videos viewed since it launched.
In the 1400-year history of Islamic caliphates, it's evident that the foundational principles of Islam were firmly based on “power and loot,” leaving little room for ethics, spirituality, or justice. Power was relentlessly pursued, maintained at any cost, and exploited for profit. Furthermore, Islamic leaders boldly, yet deceitfully, claimed to be the Prophet's successors and representatives of God on Earth. The concept of "pure Mohammedan Islam" often served as a tool for power struggles and profiteering, devoid of genuine religious sanctity.
The end of the Ottoman Islamic Caliphate in 1924 might have suggested that Islamic caliphates were a thing of the past. However, the events of 1979 in Iran brought forth a bitter reality. The Marxist-Islamic participants in Ayatollah Khomeini's revolt unleashed a demon that wrought misery and destruction in Iran and the region, introducing the world to the specter of Islamic terrorism.
The history of Islamic caliphs, including the Rashidun (4 individuals), the Umayyad Caliphate (14 individuals), the Abbasid of Baghdad (37 individuals), the Abbasid of Cairo (22 individuals), the Umayyad of al-Andalus (16 individuals), the Fatimid of Africa (17 individuals), and the Ottoman Empire (34 individuals), amounts to a total of 144 Emirs or 'Commanders of the Faithful.' This history reveals rulers who were often corrupt, degenerate, charlatans, and bloodthirsty. Amir al-Mu'minin, a Muslim title signifying 'Commander of the Faithful' or 'Prince of the Believers,' designates the supreme leader of an Islamic community.
In contrast, the Christian world has seen 263 Popes over 2000 years, each claiming to be the successor to Jesus. However, the struggle to represent God and succeed Muhammad in Islam takes a different course. Remarkably, not a single caliph in this tumultuous history has been killed by non-Muslims.
Throughout these centuries, the sword remained in the hands of Muslim caliphs, with mosques serving as their centers of influence. They employed various means, even under the guise of charities, economic centers, healthcare, education, and lobbying, to advance their interests.
No Joke: the U.N. just announced the Islamic Republic of Iran will take the Presidency of the Conference on Disarmament, starting March 18th.
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 19, 2024
Having Ayatollah Khamenei preside over global nuclear weapons disarmament is like putting a serial rapist in charge of a women’s shelter. pic.twitter.com/kFuSBNh1KQ
Iraqis launched a campaign on socials to boycott Iranian products.
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) January 19, 2024
😁🤭
It comes after Iran struck targets in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq, on Tuesday evening.
The campaign, called "Let Them Rot," urges Iraqis not to eat food produced in Iran.… pic.twitter.com/fAVlrAgGZp
Elon Musk to visit Auschwitz, lead panel on antisemitism and Holocaust
Tesla and X owner Elon Musk is expected to participate in a conference next week in Poland, focusing on combating antisemitism as well as honoring the remembrance of the Holocaust. Musk is expected to speak on stage with conservative American Journalist Ben Shapiro.
Musk will be the guest speaker at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, organized by the EJA, the Association of Jewish Organizations in Europe, during its annual delegation of European leaders to Auschwitz on January 22-23.
Among the prominent figures who have confirmed their participation this year are UN representative Miguel Moratinos, ministers and parliamentarians from the European Union, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland, Greece, Austria, and others.
Other key speakers on the panel
The conference will also feature Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, Yad Vashem Dani Dayan Chairman, and others. During the conference, an announcement will be made regarding establishing a Leaders' Forum to Combat Antisemitism, led by the tenth President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin. Joining him in this announcement at the conference will be former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and others.
During the symposium, European leaders will discuss more effective ways to combat rising antisemitism in light of the war in Gaza.
BREAKING: Next week @elonmusk and @benshapiro will be visiting Auschwitz death camp and other Holocaust camps, in the recent wake of rampant antisemitism prevalent across the world. pic.twitter.com/ZiJ5Jo7TVB
— Yaakov Langer (@jacklanger) January 19, 2024
Good to be back at the Indiana State House this morning to support @INHouseGOP bill defining and prohibiting Antisemitism under Indiana law. More Important Than Ever. Proud of Indiana!🇺🇸🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/ppWDQ07ex1
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) January 18, 2024
Kanye West to release 40-minute ‘apology video’ before new album launch
“Ye” (Kanye West), the Grammy-winning musician-turned-neo-Nazi-advocate, will reportedly attempt another effort to offer forgiveness for the antisemitic invective he made on social-media platforms in 2022.
Sources told the entertainment journalism site TMZ that weeks ago, he had filmed a 40-minute apology video described as “rambling” and at parts “impossible to decode.” It’s planned to go public before the release of his delayed new album “Vultures,” now scheduled for Feb. 9.
TMZ analyzed Ye’s previous attempt at making amends (an Instagram post in Hebrew of an anodyne apology message), finding an 85% chance that it was written by artificial intelligence.
Some of the statements Ye made include “Hitler has a lot of redeeming qualities” and “the thing about it being Adidas is like, I can literally say antisemitic s**t and they cannot drop me.”
On Oct. 24, 2022, Ye lost his partnership with the shoe giant, leading to the loss of more than $1.5 billion of his net wealth.
Far-right, anti-Semitic white supremacist Nick Fuentes' account was suspended. pic.twitter.com/r8nHeW3UIX
— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) January 19, 2024
Jason Whitlock, who hosts a podcast for Glenn Beck’s media outlet The Blaze, hosted a notorious antisemite on his program, calling the guy a “prolific author and Catholic authority.” This is how hate gets mainstreamed. It’s the culmination of stuff like this. pic.twitter.com/iNljECfLMc
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) January 19, 2024
Ambiguous Italian court ruling on fascist salute delights extreme right
Performing a stiff-armed fascist salute is not a crime in Italy unless it risks sparking violence or is aimed at reviving the fascist party, the Supreme Court has ruled in a verdict that delighted extreme-right groups.Alabama English teacher wins award for excellence in Holocaust education
In a decision released on Thursday, the court said fascist salutes during commemorative events should not be considered criminal, but it left open the possibility of prosecution depending on the context of the incident.
Legal experts said the ruling would not resolve an issue that has long dogged Italy, which has never fully confronted the legacy of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
The court sentence came just 10 days after a video emerged of hundreds of men making fascist salutes during a gathering in Rome, sparking fury amongst left-wing parties, which demanded a police crackdown on extremist groups.
One such organization, CasaPound, hailed Thursday's verdict as "an historic victory" which vindicated their participation at countless rallies that celebrate Italy's fascist past.
"The Roman salute will be considered an offense only if there is an actual concrete danger of the reconstitution of the fascist party, which is absolutely excluded in the case of commemorations," it said in a statement.
The Supreme Court was called to review the issue following a 2016 event in Milan where eight militants were arrested for making fascist salutes. Acquitted in an initial trial, they were subsequently found guilty when prosecutors appealed the verdict.
Logan Greene, who teaches eighth-grade English in Hoover, Ala.—smack-dab in the center of the state (population 92,606, according to the 2020 U.S. Census)—has been honored for what the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous calls “his outstanding commitment to teaching the Holocaust in his school.”When Neighbors Turn Against Neighbors
Greene received the Robert I. Goldman Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education on Jan. 15.
“We are privileged to honor exceptional educators each year and especially proud to present this year’s award to Logan Greene for his outstanding work in teaching the Holocaust at Berry Middle School,” said Stanlee Stahl, JFR’s executive vice president.
“It is extremely humbling to have been chosen as 2023’s Goldman Award from among so many of my incredible fellow Holocaust educators who participate in the JFR’s national program,” said Greene. “At a time when antisemitism, misinformation and disinformation are on the rise globally, we must teach the lessons of the Holocaust to our students, who will become our future leaders.”
Our Class debuted in England almost 15 years ago, but some would say there has never been a more fitting moment for this play to reemerge—now, for the first time, on a stage in New York.
Inspired by real life events surrounding a horrific 1941 pogrom in the small village of Jedwabne, Poland, Our Class follows the lives of 10 classmates—five Jewish and five Catholic—from childhood through eight decades of their lives. The play, which opened this week at the BAM Fisher Theater in Brooklyn, begins with kids playing, and as their friendships evolve as WWII progresses, viewers watch as friendship turns into antisemitism, hatred, and acts of violence, rape, and killing.
Our Class comes to the stage at a time when audiences may find it difficult to engage with art inspired by dismal events, but may need it most. Planned over a year ago, this new production is the brainchild of director Igor Golyak, who is originally from Kyiv, and considers himself a Jewish refugee. “I grew up in the Soviet Union, and one day when I was 7 years old, my father was shaving in the bathroom and popped his head out into the hallway and said, ‘By the way, we’re Jewish,’” said Golyak. “I had no idea what that meant, and I’m still trying to figure it out.”
For Golyak, figuring out his Jewish identity had a lot to do with unpacking antisemitism. “At that point, I really didn’t understand what anyone meant by antisemitism. It seemed like it was part of the Old World, but with time, I realized it didn’t only mean Nazis—it existed for centuries since the beginning of time,” Golyak told me. “For Our Class, I want viewers to understand this isn’t a play about what happened in the past. It’s a play about what’s happening in the world right now, and what’s perpetually going to happen again and again.”
Golyak wants the play to inspire deep internal reflection, especially at this time during the war in Ukraine, and the conflict in the Middle East: “Be it Jews, or others, we will continue to burn our neighbors in a barn, literally or metaphorically, and how do we behave, knowing that this is what we’re capable of?” Sitting with these characters for three hours, watching as they move from friends to killers and victims, is troubling. But Golyak wants viewers to move past the difficulty and discomfort, and try to put themselves in their shoes. “I’m hoping viewers don’t see these as mystical, ephemeral characters from the past, but can actually relate to them,” he said. “I want people to understand that this could be them, and the monsters that live with us don’t only live overseas, they live in us.”
🪦Yesterday was the 9th anniversary of the murder of Argentine federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was investigating the 1994 AMIA Hezbollah terror attack. Nisman's assassination was revealed by @DamianPachter despite the best efforts of thenPres Kirshner to paint it a suicide https://t.co/31axnlsxME
— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي💙 (@NTarnopolsky) January 19, 2024
American fashion designer, entrepreneur, author, & star of ‘My Unorthodox Life’ @JuliaHaart sat with StandWithUs during her family's visit to #Israel to share insights about the war against #Hamas & #antisemitism.
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) January 18, 2024
For the full interview, visit our YouTube channel.@miriamhaart pic.twitter.com/RO6cxqAGoA
Influencer @MiriamHaart, daughter of fashion designer, entrepreneur, author, & ‘My Unorthodox Life’ star @JuliaHaart, sat with SWU during her family's #Israel visit to speak about Gen Z's reaction to the war against #Hamas. For the full interview, visit our YouTube channel. pic.twitter.com/rsQM0FReQa
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) January 19, 2024
Tal Maman, a father and a farmer, was murdered by terrorists on October 7 in Moshav Mivtahim near Gaza.
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) January 19, 2024
Tal’s friends have come together to help run the family farm and support his wife and three children.
To keep Tal’s memory alive, they also started making his favorite drink… pic.twitter.com/0J7uVTYiIC
Please honor Eitan Mor by donating to build a new synagogue in Kiryat Arba. Eitan is a hero. He saved many lives at the Nova festival before the Islamonazis kidnapped him.
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) January 19, 2024
May G-d swiftly return Eitan and the rest of our hostages.https://t.co/XLUSyzbLbfhttps://t.co/5OpUOy3Do1
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