Tuesday, January 30, 2024

01/30 Links Pt2: Israel is the true victim of genocidal intent; Israeli ‘public relations’ will not solve the problem of the world’s moral bankruptcy

From Ian:

The Briton who joined the IDF: ‘My family died in the Holocaust – I had to defend Jewish people’
It was hearing one of my comrades praying as we crossed the border into Gaza in October 2023 that brought home what we were about to do. Just a few hours earlier, I had been in Tel Aviv with my girlfriend, when I was sent a codeword on my phone which meant we were going to be moving in and I needed to be back with my unit which had been sitting on the southern border for three weeks.

In some ways, the waiting was harder than anything else. It was frustrating, because apart from getting acquainted with the newest technology, there wasn’t much we could do. On the one hand, we weren’t in danger, which was great, but on the other, we were still reeling from the events of Oct 7 and we were poisoned with anger about the massacre of our civilians.

We wanted to go and get the hostages back and we knew we needed to fight for Israel. But we also knew that some of us may not come back.

Even on that first night, as we rolled through the border at 3am with the words of our commanding officer telling us that this was the war of our generation ringing in our ears, we saw coming in the opposite direction a wounded soldier leaving Gaza and it was chilling.

It is a shock, surreal, to actually get there. Everything seemed like a mess. I’d been told to head to a particular building but the stairs had caved in so I then had to get to another building not knowing what would be in it.

The whole time you are moving there are these crazy explosions going off, noises of gunfire, bombs. You hear more than you see in Gaza – it takes a while to get used to the intense noise.

My job is reconnaissance – I am the eyes and the ears of my unit, watching out for danger. It is a huge responsibility and I felt it keenly as my girlfriend’s cousin was among those I was tasked with keeping safe. The sun was going down at 4.45pm and then you can’t see anything apart through night vision goggles.

I hated seeing the scale of the destruction in Gaza. People have been killed and displaced on both sides and I know that Gazans are suffering too. I am not a war-mongering person and I found it quite tough knowing the human impact of what we were doing even if I knew why I was there; our war is not with the Palestinian people but with Hamas.

Going into Gaza we also saw the scale of what we were fighting. I would say that 75 per cent if not more of the homes we went into had some sort of affiliation with Hamas. Lots of weapons; we’d find RPGs and grenades on the floor. You’d go into a pink bedroom and think about the young girl who lived there and hope she was safe, feeling terrible, and then go next door and see guns or detailed maps of Israel showing the kind of thing that was happening in that house. Knowing that that stuff was there because they wanted to kill us.
Israeli ‘public relations’ will not solve the problem of the world’s moral bankruptcy
No amount of “public relations” could “explain” anything to a judicial body that is supposed to be impartial but consists of justices who lack the moral clarity to separate good from evil. Israel may have to honor the decisions of the ICJ, but that does not mean those decisions should be respected.

It is ironic that a country that was recently obsessed with issues related to the need for an independent judiciary has become the subject of a supposedly “independent” panel that issued an interim order described as a “blood libel” by Israeli President Isaac Herzog. In a ridiculous move, the ICJ accused Herzog, a consensus figure in Israel known for his moderation and mild-mannered personality, of engaging in “incitement” by using language that any rational person would consider appropriate after the type of attack perpetrated by Hamas.

We are dealing here with a distorted value system, not a lack of information. It is senseless to believe that, after experiencing the atrocities of Hamas, Israel would have to “explain” anything. It is futile to continue trying to convince people with debased moral standards that beheading, rape, kidnapping and random murder are wrong. Of course, the ICJ judges would say that those actions are terrible, but they fail to act on that belief, creating a reality in which the victim and not the oppressor is in the dock.

The ICJ farce may not mark the death of hasbara, but it proved that it is on life support. Morality is not something that can be sold like a hamburger at McDonalds. It is something that comes from one’s culture, social experiences and ability to show fortitude in the face of corrupt pressure.

Rather than investing energy and resources into convincing others, we would be better served by continuing our fight to be a “light unto the nations” and doing what is right. As for those who see Hamas as an entity deserving of protection, let their moral failings serve as a model for evil.

To anyone with a good heart and a logical mind, this is something that does not need to be explained.
Israel is the true victim of genocidal intent
Watching American Justice Joan Donoghue read the decision of the International Court of Justice, live at 2 p.m. Israel time on Friday afternoon, was surreal.

Everything about this legal proceeding is grotesque and represents a perversion of ethics and law that is beyond difficult to process. South Africa, a signatory to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide — as is Israel — brought this application to the court with the support of some rather nefarious international actors. There has been a significant uptick in activity and contact between South Africa and the Islamic Republic of Iran of late, either a coincidence or reflecting an enhanced alignment of values between the two countries. Iran, of course, is the head of the proverbial Islamist snake, openly fomenting antisemitism globally and responsible for significant acts of violence targeting Jewish civilians.

The moral inversion of all pertinent circumstances giving rise to the Israeli military action in Gaza was of secondary importance in the ICJ hearing, presided over by Justice Donoghue, the court’s chair, and with an unprecedented panel of 17 judges.

Hamas invaded Israel on Saturday Oct. 7, shortly after 6 a.m. on a quiet holiday. The stated intent of Hamas, before, during and after the well-documented savagery unleashed on that day and into the following night, was, is and remains to obliterate the state of Israel and annihilate every Jewish person living in its borders. Hamas’ hatred of Israel and Jews is so primal that any person it encountered on this particular mission was marked for murder. If the odd non-Jew got in their way they were not spared, either. It seems that the crime of merely consorting with Jews is enough to justify murder, to Hamas.

Hamas leaders and supporters worldwide have gloated over the suffering inflicted and stated their unequivocal aspiration to repeat the genocide of Oct. 7, repeatedly. All Jews, ultimately, must be murdered, according to Hamas doctrine. This will facilitate the liberation of Jerusalem and establishment of a global caliphate.

Hamas is also closely allied with and supported by Iran, which boldly proclaims its genocidal intentions with respect to Israel, constantly. Its regional proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, bolster its position and claims.

That the victim of true genocidal conduct and policy — Israel — should be put in the dock at the ICJ and charged with perpetrating the crime perpetrated against it by Hamas, is more macabre, almost, than the events of Oct. 7 themselves.
Israel to Pursue Genocide Case Against Iran’s Regime with ICJ
On Monday, an Israeli cabinet minister announced plans to begin efforts to bring charges of genocide against the Islamic Republic of Iran to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Gideon Moshe Sa’ar, an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Justice between 2021 and 2022, highlighted that the leadership of the regime in Tehran has openly called for the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, providing immense support to Hamas and other Islamic terrorist proxies in the Middle East region that were responsible for the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

“Iranian leaders have been making genocidal statements for years, with impunity,” said Eugene Kontorovich, Professor of Law at George Mason University and Director of Scalia Law School’s Center for the Middle East and International Law to The Foreign Desk.

“There are public statements by senior Iranian officials in favor of destroying Israel,” Sa’ar told the Kan public broadcaster. “Iran finances, arms, and trains all the jihadi terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which carried out Oct. 7, so in my opinion, there is an abundance of evidence which can be submitted to the court in the Hague,” he added.

Knesset member Sa’ar noted that the Jewish state is a small and persecuted nation that is fighting for its life while “fighting on the international stage for its right to self-defense.”

“It is a nation that is truly at risk of genocide given that there are enemies around it that declaredly want to destroy it,” Sa’ar told Kan.

“The State of Israel, a liberal democracy fighting against the most heinous act of mass terror perpetrated against the Jewish state, should never have been in the dock of the accused at The Hague in the first place,” said Arsen Ostrovsky, human rights attorney and CEO of the Israel-based NGO International Legal Forum, a global network of pro-Israel lawyers combating antisemitism and terror, who was also present in The Hague, for the hearings against Israel.

“If anyone ought to have been on trial at the ICJ, it was Hamas and their genocidal sponsors, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which remain open about their intentions of annihilating the Jewish state and supporting Hamas,” he said to The Foreign Desk.
South Africa's Case at the ICJ Is Built on Reports from Groups with Links to Terrorist Organizations
For years, a network of Western-funded NGOs involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been engaged in a concerted and coordinated effort to attach the "apartheid" charge to Israel.

South Africa's submission to the International Court of Justice contains 45 references to NGO publications, including several from outfits linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization.

Staff and board members of these PFLP-linked groups helped prepare South Africa's case.

The ICJ should be ashamed that it is accepting evidence from blatant propaganda groups that have proven track records of supporting hate and violence against Israel and Jews.


The International Court of Justice on Trial
When international law is applied to Israel, Shany Mor recently wrote, it doesn’t function like law at all, in the sense of general rules applied consistently to particular cases. Another basic requirement for a legal system is that judges are impartial and free to evaluate cases on their merits. But this too is something the International Court of Justice lacks, as Peter Berkowitz observes:

The court’s bylaws call for its fifteen judges to “be elected from among persons of high moral character, who possess the qualifications required in their respective countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices, or are jurisconsults of recognized competence in international law.” But the qualifications for appointment to their highest judicial offices differ from country to country. In particular, the qualifications in free and democratic nation-states differ from those in authoritarian regimes as do the qualifications in nation-states that protect religious liberty differ from those in countries that don’t.

Currently, the court includes judges from the world’s two most powerful authoritarian regimes, Russia and China. Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Xi Jinping’s China oblige judges to put the regime’s interest in the nation’s supremacy ahead of human rights and international law.

[Moreover], the neglect by the ICJ and member nations of war crimes and genocide elsewhere in the world erodes the court’s claim to administer impartial justice. Last November, the ICJ issued its first ruling against Syria, requiring it to prevent torture. Why, for example, has it taken the court and member nations twelve years after the commencement of the Syrian War – which has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced 12 million people (more than half of the country’s population), and produced 5 million refugees abroad—to address war crimes in Syria?

Israel’s attorney Tal Becker admirably used his opening statement not only to contest the charges, but also to turn the tables on the accusers. In Berkowitz’s summation, “it is the complainant South Africa that should be directed by the ICJ to take remedial action, because of its close relations over many years with [Hamas], an organization whose very reason for existence is, in defiance of the Genocide Convention, to destroy Israel.”
International Court of Justice Barely Mentioned Hamas' Crimes
Israel doesn't require moral lecturing on the extermination of a people as a national, ethnic or religious group. They've experienced it from all sides. It's the death cult that is Hamas which remains committed to perpetrating genocide on Israel, a goal repeated ad infinitum by the leadership.

Yet Hamas barely got a disapproving mention from the International Court of Justice. Not until deep into Judge Joan E. Donoghue's oral delivery of the decision did she even make passing reference to the 136 hostages believed still held in captivity by Hamas, although upwards of 30 are thought to be dead.

Seven-and-a-half decades later, "Never Again" has been contorted to mean "Well, sometimes" - when Jews and Israel, the very nation created in the shadow of the Holocaust, are the designated villains. We have seen, in footage of monstrous barbarity, of degeneracy unbearable to watch, who Hamas really are. Look up genocide and there they'll be.
Omission and misrepresentation in BBC reporting on ICJ ruling
On January 26th the BBC News website published five items of content relating to that day’s ruling by the International Court of Justice on South Africa’s request for emergency measures against Israel.

In order of publication, those items are:
1 Gaza war: ICJ to rule on call for Israel to stop military action by Raffi Berg and Anna Holligan
2 Live page
3 ICJ orders Israel to take all measures to prevent genocidal acts
4 ICJ says Israel must prevent genocide in Gaza by Raffi Berg and Anna Holligan
5 Israel reined in by ICJ rulings on Gaza – but will it obey? by Paul Adams

Both the live page and the second report by Berg and Holligan include reactions to the court’s ruling from various sources.

On the live page readers find comment from Palestinian Authority officials, South African officials, Israeli officials, Hamas, Egypt, the US State Department, the political NGO Human Rights Watch and vox pops from Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The October 7th pogrom as a non-event on the Western left
For most leftist academics and intellectuals there was no event to contemplate and to comprehend on October 7: nothing happened and there was nothing to see or discuss. In this totally ahistorical, conceptually-driven, and morally fundamentalist perspective, the notion of an “event” is rendered non-existent. The portrayal of the animosity, once termed the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict”—possibly a remnant from more tempered times—is now predominantly or solely framed on the “left” in relation only to the overwhelming power, violence and cruelty of Israel. If Israel is a colonial-settler state practicing apartheid and even genocide (but, as we saw, according to “theoreticians” of settler colonialism even in times of peace!), then there cannot be any act committed against it, be it the most horrendous, which could not be justified or simply overlooked. All those phrases that we heard from the UN secretary general, human rights NGOs, echoed also by university statements express just that: “It didn’t happen in a vacuum”, “we have to examine the root causes”, “the massacre has to be put into context”. But the “context”, and “causes” invariably refer to the framework of understanding, conveying no empirical information whatsoever. Genocidal acts committed against the Israeli population in the material world are already conceptually excluded. Genocide-denial necessarily follows.

Even a genocidal act against Israelis becomes a (morally insignificant) non-issue, and worse, an (imperceptible) non-event, and not because it went unexposed in the way that happens in relation to South Sudan, the Kurds, the Uyghurs, and others in an ever-recurring cycle and also with many other oppressed peoples. Nothing could have been more exposed than the October 7 massacres, because the genocidal murderers documented and publicized the acts themselves. But the facts documented don’t amount to an event in its own right for contemporary leftists.

Israel being perceived as an oppressive settler-colonial state automatically means that – no matter the genocidal intent and genocidal practice – all actions taken against it will be portrayed and seen as legitimate, even Holocaust-like acts of brutality never seen before. By definition, no atrocities committed against Israelis and Jews, let them be the most extreme and gruesome, will be taken as such, or if they are they will be given automatic justification. It has been proven: even the most defenseless Israelis, beheaded babies, families burnt alive, kidnapped children as “hostages” cannot be perceived as real victims, because they are always associated with some essential guilt related to Israeli “power”, “domination”, “oppression”, and even “genocide” in close connection with genuine antisemitic imagery; in contrast, Palestinians will always be victims, even when enacting a Nazi-like mass murder. The conceptual sources are the same as in the denial of antisemitism: there can be no meaningful animosity against a “powerful” and “privileged” group deemed “white”. Antisemitism denial works with antisemitic presuppositions, just as the denial of the October 7 atrocities. In such a mindset the horrific massacre is a total non-issue. It is at most something that provides Israel the “pretext” to wage its unjust war on the eternally oppressed Palestinian people. Thus, leftist propagandists including “intellectuals” are keen to spread the already very old “news” without knowing or wanting to know what is going on on the ground.: “Israel is committing genocide”.

This non-recognition of the victim status of Israelis and Jews is doubly antisemitic: it not only rests on antisemitic presuppositions but also potentially yields the most extreme antisemitic consequences. This perspective essentially strips Jews of their humanity, portraying them as being incapable of becoming victims. Consequently, it rationalizes any harm inflicted upon them, given that the concepts of “Jew” and “victim” are seen as mutually exclusive. This viewpoint also paves the way for justifying and potentially endorsing all future acts of violence against them. In contrast, this thinking automatically absolves even its most inhumane and barbarian enemies who in any other context would be considered as the enemy of humanity as a whole. This is worse than Holocaust denial: this is the outright justification of all potential Holocausts.
French chefs who served in the IDF face a new battle – keeping their restaurants open
It’s been horrible, but they say there is a time to fight and a time to cry, and this is the time to fight,” says Dan Yosha, a Michelin-starred Israeli chef, who has just returned to Paris in after spending several weeks fighting for the IDF on the ground in Gaza.

He’s now back in his chef whites at Shabour — the Michelin-starred restaurant described as a “bridge between Paris and Jerusalem.” He’s one of a number of chefs in Paris’s burgeoning Israeli restaurant scene that have returned from war, to find a less than warm welcome.

Hes says custom took a hit after the events of October 7.

“We’ve always drawn a big Israeli crowd, and Israelis barely flew anywhere for several weeks [after October 7]. But both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities of Paris showed us big support.”

His partner, the celebrity chef Assaf Granit opted to return to Israel immediately after the attacks, volunteering for two months in the army. “Going back into uniform within weeks of the excitement of opening Boubale was something I never expected at 45, but I had to do it to set an example for my son and our employees,” explains Granit by phone from Tel Aviv.

“We closed the restaurants in Israel and used the facilities to cook for the troops. The restaurants in Europe never closed, although in Berlin you could feel the tension on the streets.”

While Yosha has now returned to Paris, Granit is still in Israel to supervise the gradual reopening of the domestic restaurants. He said: “Israelis are starting to eat out more and more – they are embracing the opportunity with relish as they did after Covid.”

Another place that felt the strain after October 7, was the Parisian branch of Eyal Shani’s Miznon, the pitta palace with branches all over the globe.

The crowds have only recently returned admits David Moyal, the first to expand the now worldwide franchise outside Israel. “After October 7, many Jews hesitated to be seen in an obviously Jewish neighbourhood, while others did not have the heart to eat out, and there were some customers who boycotted us,”
Israeli shipping company’s stock price soars after Houthi attacks
Continued attacks by Houthi rebels on shipping vessels in the Red Sea have changed the financial fortunes of an unprofitable Israeli shipping company, turning them into a “money-making machine”.

Following the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the Haifa-based shipping company Zim, which was operating with massive losses, saw its stock price slide to around $7 in November. The company had been expecting a 2023 loss of more than $2 billion.

But the targeting of vessels by Houthi rebels has now forced other companies boats to go around Africa rather than through the Red Sea, meaning they will now be at sea longer and be more susceptible to dangerous weather and raids from pirates.

This, combined with Zim’s ability to increase capacity through the Red Sea and other companies’ hesitance to dock in Israeli ports has meant they have been able to quickly increase their cashflow. At the time of writing, the stock price had doubled from its November lows.

Zim, whose name is a biblical word meaning “fleet of ships”, went from “cash burning” to a “cash machine”, according to US equity research institution Jefferies.

They added, “Red Sea diversions are likely to continue for an extended period, tightening capacity for longer, and Zim is set to capitalise.”

The attacks and seizures by Yemen’s Houthi pirates, which were ostensibly carried out in support of the Palestinian cause and to damage the Jewish State’s economy, have unintentionally greatly assisted the Israeli company, which previously was in dire financial straits.

The Houthi movement, aligned with Hamas and funded by Iran, initiated a series of attacks on October 19 targeting southern Israel and ships in the Red Sea it claimed were linked to Israel, though ships with no links to Israel were also targeted.
TikTok’s top lobbyist in Israel quits over antisemitism on platform
Barak Herscowitz, TikTok’s leading government relations figure in Israel, resigned amid criticism of the Chinese-owned video app for allowing anti-Israel and antisemitic content to proliferate on its platform.

Herscowitz, a former adviser to then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett whose title at TikTok was vertical lead in the government and public sector, was behind an internal memo highlighting the platform’s discrimination against Israelis last year, according to a source at TikTok.

“I resigned from TikTok,” he wrote, announcing his resignation via X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. “We are living in a time in which our existence as Jews and Israelis is under attack and in danger.”

“In such an unstable era, people’s priorities become sharper. Am Yisrael Chai,” he added, with an Israeli flag and flexing muscle emojis.

Asked on X if he could have stayed to try to influence TikTok from the inside, Herscowitz responded: “I did my best as long as I was there. There are wonderful people at TikTok Israel who are doing their best.”

Herscowitz declined to comment further to Jewish Insider at this time.

A TikTok source said that Herscowitz was the senior employee in Israel who wrote a memo to higher management highlighting discrimination against Israeli hostages. TikTok declined to allow the families of the hostages to advertise on the platform, calling their videos “too political,” while allowing pro-Palestinian groups to advertise.

“Labeling kidnapped babies, women, children, and elderly citizens who were taken from their beds by Hamas-ISIS as a ‘political issue’ is, at the very least, one-sided,” Herscowitz wrote. “This way, American users are BOMBARDED with paid ads that present the misery of children in Gaza (not mentioning, of course, the massive humanitarian aid entering Gaza and stolen by Hamas as indicated by the U.N.), some with a high budget (according to our own company’s top ads creative center) while ads that show the humanitarian tragedy of Israeli hostages cannot be presented to these audiences.”


David Cameron Says UK Considering Recognising Palestinian State
The moment when the UK formally recognises a Palestinian state at the end of Israel’s war with Hamas might be drawing nearer, the Foreign Secretary David Cameron suggested Monday.

The diplomatic initiative would come despite the fact doing so would reward Hamas for the terror attack of October 7 and defy Israel’s opposition to any such move.

Cameron, speaking ahead of his fourth visit to the region since being appointed Britain’s top diplomat in November, claimed Palestinians had to be given a political horizon to encourage peace in the Middle East.

The UK has a responsibility to set out what a Palestinian state would look like, the former Conservative prime minister told a Westminster reception.

The Palestinian people would have to be shown “irreversible progress” towards a two-state solution, he further explained, according to the BBC.

“As that happens, we – with allies – will look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations,” he told the Conservative Middle East Council.

“That could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible.”

He also held Israel responsible for the slow movement of aid into Gaza, claiming it was “ludicrous” that vital British and other aid was being sent back at the border.

Husam Zomlot, Palestinian ambassador to the UK, applauded Cameron’s remarks about recognising a Palestinian state as “historic.”

“It is the first time a UK foreign secretary considers recognising the State of Palestine, bilaterally and in the U.N., as a contribution to a peaceful solution rather than an outcome,” Zomlot told the Financial Times on Tuesday.

“If implemented, the Cameron declaration would remove Israel’s veto power over Palestinian statehood [and] would boost efforts towards a two-state outcome.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously dismissed any moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state or working with the western-backed Palestinian Authority, which administers limited parts of the West Bank.


Qatar PM Al Thani claims Doha has no leverage over Hamas
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, asserted on Monday that his country has no practical leverage over Hamas, amid growing calls for Doha to put more pressure on the terrorist group to release the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Al Thani, speaking during an Atlantic Council event, claimed that the only leverage the country has is as a mediator — “by words, by meetings, by commitments, by addressing the issues with some solutions” — and said that Qatar’s hosting of Hamas’ leadership does not give the Gulf nation any ability to influence Hamas. Qatar has also provided significant funding to Hamas for years.

“Our role needs to be understood clearly in this context, our role is mediator, we try to bring the parties to bridge gaps between them,” Al Thani said. “We don’t see that Qatar is a superpower that can impose something on this party or the other party to bring them to that place.”’

He also claimed that Qatar’s hosting of Hamas leadership had been “taken out of context,” noting that the Hamas office in Qatar had been established in coordination with the U.S.

“It doesn’t mean that being there, hosting them is a leverage that we have over them,” Al Thani said. “We don’t see that this is a point of leverage. We see this as a point, as a channel of communication that we are using, always for good causes.”

Neither Al Thani nor the event’s moderators — NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius — directly raised the issue of Qatari financing provided to Hamas. His responses are unlikely to satisfy the increasingly vocal critics of Qatar in Israel, Congress and the broader Jewish community.

Al Thani also repeatedly sidestepped questions critical of Hamas, including whether peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestinians is possible while the eliminationist terrorist group remains in power, whether Hamas has a role in the future governance of the West Bank and whether Hamas must accept Israel’s right to exist and a two-state solution.


Dept. of Ed. civil rights chief ‘astounded’ by antisemitic incidents at U.S. schools, universities
Catherine Lhamon, the top civil rights official at the U.S. Department of Education, said on Monday she is “astounded” by the antisemitic incidents she has seen since Oct. 7.

“I’m a longtime, lifelong civil rights attorney, and I and my staff know hate intimately because of what we do, and I am astounded by the kinds of allegations that we are seeing now in this country,” Lhamon, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, told Jewish Insider in an interview. “I’m devastated that it’s true, and devastated for the students who are experiencing those kinds of incidents.”

Lhamon oversees the department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which investigates schools and universities that are alleged to have violated students’ civil rights. A team of 600 civil rights lawyers investigates whether the alleged harassment or discriminatory conduct “limits or denies a student’s access to education, and if so, whether the school’s response was prompt and effective.”

In other words, her team is not just examining whether antisemitism or racism occurred — they are determining whether it impeded the student’s education, based in large part on the school’s handling of the incident.

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and touched off a wave of antisemitism worldwide, Lhamon’s team has opened a record number of investigations into discrimination at U.S. schools based on “shared ancestry.” This language comes from Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on people’s “actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.” For two decades, the Education Department has interpreted this phrase to extend to religious minorities including Jews, Muslims and Sikhs.

The department’s civil rights office received 183 complaints of “shared ancestry” discrimination in the four months since the beginning of October. In the entire previous fiscal year, from Oct. 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2023, the office received just 62 complaints. More shared ancestry investigations — 58 in total — have been opened in the past four months than in the previous seven years combined, according to publicly available data. Two-thirds of the complaints received since October have been related to allegations of antisemitism, a department spokesperson said.
Anti-Israel protesters threaten Stanford students attending forum for combating antisemitism
“We’re going to find out where you live.”

“Zionist, Zionist, you can’t hide.”

“Go back to Brooklyn.”

“Our next generation will ensure Israel falls, and America too, the other terrorists.”

Those were some of the antisemitic slogans hurled at Ari Arias and other Jewish students at Stanford University last Wednesday night outside an on-campus forum — meant to combat antisemitism.

“We were trying to leave the event and the entrance and exit were both packed with them yelling that we can’t hide,” Arias, a premed student in his junior year, told Jewish Insider. “As we finally exited the venue, they continued following us… They started yelling super-threatening things at us, like, ‘We know your names, we know where you work and soon we’re going to find out where you live.’”

The forum was organized by Kevin Feigelis, a doctoral student in the physics department. Speakers included the Stanford President Richard Saller, Provost Jenny Martinez and Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism.

Dee Mostofi, a university spokesperson, told JI that the school is “aware of the protest that took place on Wednesday outside an event to discuss antisemitism attended by Stanford leadership.” It is not clear whether the protesters were university students.

“While we respect the right to peaceful protest, hateful language such as ‘Go back to Brooklyn,’ which is a personal attack based on identity and stereotypes, is beneath all of us, and it harms the ability to have the reasoned exchange of ideas and debate that is central to the university. Stanford remains focused on supporting civil discourse and the well-being of all members of our community,” Mostofi said.

Asked whether the threatening statements violate Stanford’s speech policies and if punitive actions were taken, Mostofi did not respond.


House committee pushes Harvard to provide more materials on antisemitism

Former Harvard President Larry Summers gives vote of no-confidence in school leadership

Princeton University Revises Policy That Censored Pro-Israel Journalists
People walk past Princeton University’s Nassau Hall in Princeton, New Jersey, November 20, 2015. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter

Following a letter from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Princeton University has revised a policy under which it issued, without due process, no-contact orders (NCO) to pro-Israel student journalists who covered anti-Zionist demonstrations on campus.

FIRE announced the changes on Tuesday, noting that it had addressed the main concerns raised in its letter.

“The new policy allows university administrators to issue no-contact orders as part of the penalty if they find a student responsible for misconduct,” the group said. “It also allows administrators to issue an emergency short-term no-communication order — typically for one day — until proper review or adjudication of the matter, or during the misconduct investigation when there is concern for an individual’s safety.”

At Princeton, an NCO, issued by the school’s Title IX office, is mostly aimed at protecting a sexual assault complainant against their alleged abuser. Issued upon request and before a thorough investigation of the claim that prompted it, the order prohibits the accused from contacting the complainant in any form, including by email or phone, and from being near them on campus —in a cafeteria or library, for example.

“No-contact orders are an important tool to ensure the safety of victims of physical violence, sexual misconduct, true threats, or discriminatory harassment,” ADL and FIRE said in their letter to Princeton University president Christopher L. Eisgruber last Thursday. “But Princeton is allowing students with ideological disagreements to transform no-contact orders into cudgels to silence the ‘lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation’ that Princeton promises all students.”


Anti-Israel UPenn Faculty Group Blocks Access to Campus Building During ‘Die-In’ Protest

Pro-Palestinian protesters cause chaos at Kamala Harris' event with Sophia Bush: Demonstrators scuffle with police and interrupt speech on abortion rights in San Jose

CNN Errs on UNRWA’s Refugee Definition, Downplays Scandals
JANUARY 29, 2024 UPDATE:
CNN Corrects

After CAMERA informed CNN of the erroneous claim the UNRWA definition and the number of people who fit it, CNN corrected its piece so that it now clarifies that the figure includes the original refugees and their descendants. See below for a detailed update.
CNN’s article is also misleading in another way. It fails to capture the extent of the scandals plaguing UNRWA. The authors commendably report the most recent development, namely the revelation that at least twelve UNRWA staffers were involved in the October 7 massacre in southern Israel.

They omit, however, an even more important revelation: that approximately 10% of the agency’s 12,000-plus employees are linked with internationally designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Similarly, CNN’s website appears devoid of any mention of the UNRWA staff Telegram channel, documented and exposed by UN Watch, rife with incitement and glorification of terrorism by UNRWA employees, including celebrating the October 7 massacre. Notably, rather than take the issue seriously, the United Nations responded by trying to insult the organization that produced the evidence.

Nor does CNN mention the many documented instances in which terrorist infrastructure and weaponry have been found inside or underneath UNRWA institutions, a fact which the United Nations has lied about as recently as earlier this month. There is no mention of the fact that a former UNRWA union head was fired only after it was publicly exposed that he was a Hamas political leader, and that the former UNRWA Gaza director was removed from his position simply because he admitted Israeli strikes were precise during the May 2021 Israel-Hamas war. During the current war, there have also been documented instances of terrorists firing from UNRWA facilities.


Toronto Star Columnist Linda McQuaig Falsely Blames Israel -Not Hamas – For The War

CBC Whitewashes Vancouver Restaurant That Glorified Hamas’ October 7 Massacre

Toronto Star Columnist Rick Salutin Says South Africa’s Genocide Accusation Valuable For “The Discussion It Evokes”

University of Toronto Student Newspaper Falsely Claims Canada’s Military Arm Sales To Israel Shows “Indifference” To International Law

National Republican Club Speakers Call for ‘Dismantling’ Jewish State and Deny Hamas Atrocities
Two anti-Israel activists denied that Hamas raped women or killed babies and called for dismantling the Jewish state during speeches to the national Republican club in Washington, D.C., this month.

The speakers, author Max Blumenthal and Israeli-American activist Miko Peled, were invited to speak on Jan. 16 at the Capitol Hill Club (CHC), a private GOP club whose membership roster includes nearly every Republican in Congress. The event was organized by the Committee for the Republic, whose board includes anti-Israel former Republican officials such as ex-ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman.

The event has privately drawn criticism from many Jewish Republicans, who say the club shouldn’t have allowed its space to be used to host the Israel-bashing speakers.

Blumenthal and Peled are "among the most notorious traffickers of anti-Semitic blood libels posing as Israel criticism," one Republican who frequents the club told the Washington Free Beacon. The event "runs completely counter to the Republicans' official plank on Israel, is a betrayal of the GOP, and a political win for the enemies of both Israel and America—precisely why CHC was targeted as a place to host this event," he added.

The Capitol Hill Club's general manager, Stan Lawson, told the Free Beacon that the event does "not reflect the views of the great majority of our members." The event was sponsored by an individual CHC member, John Henry, an investment banker who also cofounded the Committee for the Republic.

"Management was alerted to the speakers of this event just hours ahead of time," said Lawson. "Obviously, the speakers and their message do not reflect the views of the great majority of our members. We are dealing with the matter internally."

During the event, the activists claimed that the "Israel lobby" hacked the brains of politicians and gushed that Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack exposed Israel as a "paper tiger."

Blumenthal, the son of Clinton hatchet man Sidney Blumenthal, dismissed evidence of women being raped by Hamas on Oct. 7 as a "psy-op" invented by Israel to justify its military response.


‘Hamas Members, Like All Palestinians, Just Want Freedom’: Rashida Tlaib Appears with Speaker Who Defended Hamas
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaks at a rally calling on Congress to censure President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, April 30, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Aaron P. Bernstein.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib participated in an event late last week with an anti-Israel activist who has defended Hamas, doubted that it engaged in sexual and gender-based violence during its October 7 terrorist attack, and compared Gaza to Auschwitz.

Tlaib appeared with the speaker, Huwaida Arraf, at a Zoom event last Thursday to launch the new political wing of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, whose goal is to end military aid to Israel.

Arraf, who is a civil and human rights attorney, founder of the International Solidarity Movement, and former staffer at Seeds of Peace, posted a graphic on October 7 suggesting that Hamas’s attack was not terrorism.

The image of the hang glider became synonymous with the idea of “Palestinian resistance” in the days following October 7. However, it was Hamas operatives on hang gliders who massacred more than 250 young people at a music festival that was taking place in southern Israel.

Two days later, on October 9, Arraf wrote: “No matter how much Israel bombs, starves and kills Palestinians, they will never be able to extinguish the Palestinian desire to LIVE FREE. Support for Israel’s brutal aggression will only fuel more resistance. #Gaza”

In a statement to The Algemeiner, Democratic Majority for Israel wrote: “It’s reprehensible that Congresswoman Tlaib would associate herself with those who deny or even celebrate the terrorist group Hamas’ horrific attacks of October 7 that resulted in 1,200 deaths and included raping, burning, mutilating and executing women and children.”

In November, after disclaiming that she does not support Hamas in part due to its religious ideology, Arraf wrote that “Hamas members, like all Palestinians, just want freedom. They have always warmly welcomed people, irrespective of religion and nationality, including Jewish Israelis, who come in solidarity, not as occupiers.”


Muslim council cancels meeting with Trudeau over Liberal stance on hate crimes, Gaza

Walter Russell Mead: The U.S. Bid for Detente with Iran Has Utterly Failed
From Gaza to the Red Sea and from Jordan to Iraq, there has been a stream of unprovoked attacks by Iran and its proxies. In January 2021, Team Biden anticipated a quick agreement with Iran that would put Middle East tensions on ice while the U.S. focused on countering China's rising power. But Iran, not the U.S., has controlled the pace and direction of Middle East politics since President Biden took office.

As 10 successive American presidents repeatedly learned, the Middle East can't be ignored. What happens in the Middle East often doesn't stay there. The region's dominant role in global energy markets means that even countries like the U.S. that don't depend on Middle Eastern oil can't escape the consequences if regional instability disrupts the flow of oil and gas to places like Europe, India, China and Japan. We can neither "fix" the Middle East nor ignore it.

Given the limits on American resources and the range of our global interests, America's Middle East policies must focus on essentials. We need to prevent aspiring hegemons like Iran, Russia and China from acquiring the power to dominate the region or interrupt the flow of energy to key economies. We also need to limit the effect of the Middle East's regional conflicts, terrorist movements, and radical ideologies on the wider world.

The Middle East is on fire today because the Biden administration's core regional strategy to reach some kind of detente with Iran has failed. Iran is closer every day to nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the Taliban's humiliation of the U.S. in Afghanistan, the shock of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and the success of jihadist movements across much of Africa have combined to breathe new energy into global terror networks.
US ‘committed’ to deal releasing $6 billion, Iran claims

Iranians Enlisted Hells Angels Biker To Assassinate Dissident in US, Feds Say
Federal prosecutors on Monday announced the indictment of members of an Iranian network, one of them a Canadian member of a biker gang, on charges that they planned to assassinate a dissident who had fled the country for the United States.

Naji Sharifi Zindashti, an Iranian national, allegedly coordinated with two Canadian nationals—Damion Patrick John Ryan and Adam Richard Pearson—between December 2020 and March 2021 to kill two people then living in Maryland, one of whom had fled the Islamic Republic, the Justice Department said in a release.

Ryan is a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, a biker gang that participates in organized crime, according to the federal indictment.

The department claimed that Zindashti enlisted Ryan to organize a team to kill the two victims. Ryan then told Pearson to recruit others for the job, the latter encouraging them to "shoot [the victim] in the head a lot [to] make example" and telling them to "erase his head from his torso," authorities said.

Zindashti and another Iranian whom prosecutors identified as Co-Conspirator 1 allegedly agreed with Ryan on a $350,000 payment for the conspiracy, as well as $20,000 to cover expenses.

Zindashti and the Canadians face charges of conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, and authorities charged Pearson with possession of a firearm both as a fugitive from justice and as an illegal alien.


Iran spies sanctioned by UK over plot to kill journalists in London
The UK has sanctioned a network of Iranian spies who plotted to assassinate two Persian-language journalists on the streets of London.

The two news presenters worked for Iran International, a TV channel based in west London that has fallen foul of the regime in Tehran.

A people-smuggler turned informant was offered $200,000 to carry out the killings, an investigation by ITV revealed last year, which found the plot had been orchestrated by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The two journalists, Fardad Farahzad, a former BBC News reporter, and Sima Sabet, a prime-time talk show host, were nicknamed “the bride and the groom” by their would-be assassins. Iran International, which strives to produce impartial journalism in Farsi, was temporarily forced to relocate to the US as a result of the threats. The assassins initially planned to plant a car bomb outside the journalists’ TV studio before they resolved to stab the presenters to death instead.

MI5 has warned of 15 Iranian plots to murder British nationals or critics of the regime based in the UK since January 2022.

Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton announced sanctions on eight people involved in Tehran’s plots to kill in the UK with a warning that Iranian spies were using criminals to carry out assassinations.

“The Iranian regime has tried to undermine our democracy through repression — we will continue to take action when necessary to protect our country, values and freedom of speech,” he said.

“We cannot allow foreign regimes to collaborate with criminals to threaten us. Sanctioning these criminal networks working for the Iranian regime will remind them that we will fight back.”
Iran Executes Four Kurdish Political Prisoners Charged as ‘Zionist Spies’

Shameful Podcast Host Praises Guest Who Claims US Gov’t Controlled by 457 Jews
Of all the vile antisemitic conspiracy theories I’ve heard, there is a bizarre one that may take the cake.

On his 600th episode, “Fearless” podcast host Jason Whitlock hosted E. Michael Jones, who claimed President Joe Biden is not in control, and that America is run by Jews. But wait! He has an exact number.

“First of all, Joe Biden is not in charge of the government,” he said. “…There are 457 Jews who are running the Biden administration. They’re the people in charge…”

The context was that Jones said that Jews have “spent their entire time in this country” undermining the moral fabric of America, such as being responsible for pornography and other things. He also said Jews have hurt Black people the most.

Whitlock answered that he didn’t disagree, but asked why Jones was letting Biden off the hook. He also praised his guest as being “fearless.” Spreading lies doesn’t make you fearless.

I followed Whitlock when he was covering sports, and I have watched many episodes of his podcast. His political takes are sometimes articulate and intelligent, but other times, he delves into conspiracy theories. He often has a good sense of humor.

He has 427,000 followers. I criticized him before in The Algemeiner for insinuating that the backlash against NBA player Kyrie Irving, who tweeted an antisemitic film, was not due to the film, but for his refusal to take the Covid vaccine. Whitlock inquired in an online message if I would come on his show, and I replied that I would via e-mail, but perhaps he never got the message.
Man charged in Golders Green knife incident
A man has been charged with affray and possession of a knife after an incident in Golders Green yesterday.

Gabriel Abdullah, 34, appeared at Willesden Green Magistrates’ Court today, where he was charged with affray and possession of bladed article in public place.

Chief Superintendent Sara Leach, responsible for policing in north-west London, said: "Yesterday's incident in Golders Green has understandably caused significant concern and left our Jewish communities shaken. I want to be clear, this matter is being treated as a hate crime and we are dedicating significant resources to the investigation.

"Our officers responded quickly and were on the scene within six minutes and able to arrest the suspect within ten minutes of being called. I want to pay tribute to the members of the public who bravely intervened before police arrived.

"This is being investigated as a hate crime by specialist detectives from our Community Safety Unit. I want to offer my reassurance that officers from the Met's Counter Terrorism Command have carried out a full assessment of the incident and remain in contact with local officers as the investigation continues. While this is not a terror investigation, that in no way detracts from how seriously we are taking this incident.

"Myself and my senior team spoke with community leaders and other partners over the course of yesterday afternoon to update them on the investigation and keep them informed. This will continue into today and the days ahead. We have been carrying out additional patrols in Golders Green over recent months and these will now increase in light of this incident.”
The Holocaust did not start with gas chambers
We mark Holocaust Memorial Day this year against a backdrop none of us could have envisioned. On October 7 our understanding of “Never Again” was turned on its head.

For years, we had hoped — and indeed believed — that after the world saw where antisemitism could lead, after the world had heard about the ghettos and the concentration camps, Auschwitz and Sobibor and Treblinka — that antisemitism, as a mainstream phenomena, had been, on the whole, eroded.

That faith has been shaken many times since the liberation of the camps — not least when antisemitism seeped into mainstream politics here in the UK only a few years ago — but for most of us, the central idea has not wavered. Antisemitism has been exposed, the world will never again stand silent as Jews are taunted, abused and massacred. That’s what we thought.

And then on October 7 we saw 1,300 Jews massacred. We saw 240 kidnapped. We saw raped, brutalised and traumatised survivors. We heard stories we can never unhear and I saw footage I can never unsee.

And we saw the response. The claims of a righteous uprising; the hopes for victory for Hamas in the name of “resistance”.

We saw the protests here in London, week in week out with signs calling for an intifada or the destruction of Israel, comparing the world’s only Jewish State to the Nazis.

We saw Jewish schools here in London, advising their pupils not to wear their uniform, some people taking the step of removing their Kippot, and we all sent messages to family advising them not to go into town on a Saturday. Just this week we saw a group attacked on our streets for the ‘crime’ of speaking Hebrew.

And so, we mark Holocaust Memorial Day with the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust in recent, painful, vivid memory. We mark it with antisemitism at the highest levels most of us have ever seen in our lifetime.

But of course, not the highest that all of our community have ever seen.
Australian Jewish Association: The Disturbing Rise in Anti-Semitism
00:00 - Intro
00:18 - AJA
01:12 - October 7th Impact
02:21 - Anti-Semitism
04:10 - Tackling it
07:00 - Why does Anti-Semitism Continue?
09:25 - Israel, a Colonial Outpost?
11:23 - Anti-Semitism on the Left
13:42 - The UN and Support for Israel
16:58 - Why not a Ceasfire?
19:01 - Islamic Extremism
21:36 - How to Support the Jewish Community
23:01 - Supporting the AJA


Widespread Acts of Resistance to the Nazis by Jewish Individuals
In his new book, Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler's Germany, German historian Wolf Gruner illustrates how Jews fought back during Hitler's first six years of power and paid for it with prison sentences, fines and public humiliation.

"My research demonstrates with many examples that women and men of all ages, from 16-year-olds to over 70-year-olds, resisted the Nazi regime and their anti-Jewish persecution in different ways."

The day after the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom in Germany and Austria in 1938, teenager Daisy Gronowski was ordered to run through a gauntlet of German teens while they beat her friends with clubs. Instead, Gronowski, 16, chose to walk.

For her impudence, she was taken aside by a young Nazi armed with a rusty pocket knife.

As the German attempted to cut into her arm, she recalled a "little trick" from training she'd undergone with the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement in Berlin.

Daisy moved forward and pushed her head hard into his stomach. Taking advantage of the assailant's surprise, she twisted the knife out of his hand and stabbed him, then fled the scene.
Israeli hockey wins gold at U20 tourney after ban reversed
Israel’s Under-20 men’s national ice-hockey team skated to a gold medal with a perfect record at the world championship tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria, that concluded on Jan. 27.

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) initially banned the Blue and White’s participation in the U20 Division III Group A tournament due to supposed security concerns after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel and the ensuing war in the Gaza Strip.

This decision was reversed on Jan. 17, seven days after it was announced, after mounting criticism of the move, including a statement of concern from the National Hockey League in North America.

The gold medal was given to the Israel team on a day with symbolic meaning—Saturday being International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In the final game of the tournament, Israel defeated Mexico 6-3 with two goals by Guy Aharonovich just 26 seconds apart in the third period. The team also notched wins against host Bulgaria, New Zealand, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.

Israel scored 41 goals in the tournament while only allowing 14.

With the gold medal, the Israelis have been promoted to Division II Group B for the 2025 championship where they will face off against Australia, Belgium, Iceland, Serbia and Spain, which will be held in Ottawa, Canada, from Dec. 26, 2024 to Jan. 5, 2025.
Israeli theater is helps stage festival-themed children's play in Hebrew and Englis across the UK
Despite rising waves of anti-semitism in Europe, an Israeli theater is helping stage a festival-themed children's play in Hebrew and English to be performed across schools, synagogues and daycares in the UK

Actors, Hashaa Israeli Children's Theatre Harel Morad and Bar Choen Morad talk about the project






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

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