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Wednesday, February 07, 2024

02/07 Links Pt2: Stop pursuing a Palestinian state and start pursuing peace; Without UNRWA There Would Be No Hamas; Meet the Indigenous People Who Support Israel

From Ian:

Stop pursuing a Palestinian state and start pursuing peace
A quote often attributed to Albert Einstein defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If this is true, then the American government, the British government, and the European Union are insane.

Last month, it was reported that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken ordered an examination of the possibility of America recognizing a Palestinian state following the current war between Israel and Hamas. Separately, British Foreign Secretary and former Prime Minister David Cameron stated that the UK could recognize a Palestinian state even in the absence of a negotiated agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. And Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell has been emphatic in his support for the creation of a Palestinian state ever since the Hamas massacre of October 7.

Are these supposedly intelligent people living on another planet?

The US and the entire Western world has relentlessly pursued the creation of a Palestinian state for over three decades now, without taking into account Britain’s offer to create an Arab state in most of the land of Israel in 1937 and the UN’s attempt to partition the land into a Jewish and Arab state in 1947. And all they have to show for their efforts is death and mayhem.

Any hope of a Two State Solution died when Yasser Arafat, instead of putting in the minimum effort to create the institutions necessary for a functioning state or to prepare the Arabs living under his rule for statehood or to live in peace, created a corrupt kleptocracy, stole billions in foreign aid from his own people, created an entire culture of incitement to murder, and chose terrorism and the mass murder of innocents as his modus operandi. Had he accepted the generous offers of statehood presented to him by Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton in 2000 and 2001, it is unlikely he would have been capable of effectively governing such a state.

The final nail in the coffin of the Two State Solution occurred when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2006, shortly after Israel withdrew not only its entire military forces, but all of its civilians, from the coastal enclave. Rather than make anything productive of Gaza or work for the well-being of the people living there, every action Hamas has taken for the last two decades has been in service of its genocidal intentions for the Jewish people.


Bret Stephens: Settler Colonialism: A Guide for the Sincere
Settler colonialism is often denounced in anti-Israel polemics and protests. But if settler colonialism needs to be eliminated, why not get rid of all settler colonialism? That would start with the U.S., which began as a settler-colonialist enterprise under British, Dutch and Spanish rulers, and continued as one under American rule. This also includes Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

To say that Israel alone must be eliminated on grounds of settler colonialism while giving a pass to other cases of settler colonialism is a double standard that is hard to describe as anything but antisemitic.

It's odd that the ethnic group that is today most vociferously accused of settler colonialism is the one that can unmistakably trace its language, culture and religion to the same places which it now inhabits and governs. Virtually every Israeli can read Hebrew inscriptions on Jewish coins found in archaeological sites throughout Israel dating back more than 2,000 years.

Jewish nationalism - Zionism - is the oldest continuous anticolonial movement in history, starting well before the Romans sought to de-Judaize the area by calling their colony Palestina. Hanukkah, the festival of lights, celebrates the recovery of Jerusalem from colonizing Greeks in the second century BCE.

In the final analysis, Israel is justified by being a sovereign state that commands the loyalty of its citizens. Ditto for the U.S. and every other state, whatever the nature of its origins.
Fetterman balks at two-state solution push if Hamas isn’t ‘effectively eliminated’
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on Wednesday dismissed the notion of advocating a two-state solution that involves Hamas remaining in control of Gaza.

Fetterman made the comments at a press conference at the Capitol while standing alongside members of the Israeli Knesset and families of hostages being held in Gaza. The Pennsylvania senator has been unapologetically vocal about his support for Israel since Hamas carried out its Oct. 7 attack, as well as his opposition to a ceasefire backed by progressives.

“I support a two-state solution as well,” Fetterman said at the press conference organized by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). “But that is meaningless until Hamas is effectively eliminated because Hamas disavows and rejects a two-state solution.”

The comments come two weeks after Fetterman and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) were the sole Democrats not to co-sponsor Sen. Brian Schatz’s (D-HI) resolution reiterating that U.S. policy favors a two-state solution for Israel and Gaza.


Richard Goldberg: Close Down UNRWA
Last week, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong indicated that Canberra may soon resume government funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), despite mounting evidence that the organization is a Hamas subsidizer, employer, and collaborator. The agency has long been a focus of criticism and controversy, but funding was at last suspended by Australia, the UK, the US, and other donor countries following allegations that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians last year.

However, if Australian funding of UNRWA is resumed, and if other donors follow suit, it would be a disaster—not just for Israel, but for Palestinians, too. Wong claims that only UNRWA is able to distribute humanitarian assistance to Palestinians living in Gaza, but there are many alternatives. If the Australian government wants to prevent another October 7 massacre and support the dignity of the Palestinian people, it will end its support of UNRWA for good and send money instead to the alphabet soup of agencies capable of replacing it.

Addressing the myriad challenges presented by UNRWA starts by recognizing what UNRWA is and what it is not. UNRWA is not a refugee agency. What began as a political weapon in the Arab world’s campaign to destroy the State of Israel after its founding has evolved into an internationally funded, locally staffed foreign-aid entitlement program that incites violence against Israel, subsidizes US-designated foreign terrorist organizations, denies Palestinians their basic human rights, and blocks the pathways to a sustainable peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Following Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948—authorized by the United Nations the previous year—Arab armies declared an eliminationist war on the new Jewish state, vowing to push the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea. During the ensuing violence, an estimated 700,000 Arabs fled their homes. Some were fearful of the war, some did not want to live under an Israeli flag, and others were persuaded by Arab propaganda that they would be able to return as soon as the Jews were defeated. At the same time, Arab governments expelled roughly the same number of Jews as punishment for Israel’s establishment.

No agency exists to look after the Jews who fled Arab countries in 1948 because those refugees were absorbed by Israel and Western countries as quickly as possible. But Arab refugees produced by the Arab invasion of Israel were not so fortunate. While the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established in 1949 to serve the world’s displaced persons and help them move to post-refugee status, Arab regimes sought to maintain a restive Arab refugee population in anticipation of Israel’s eventual destruction. To look after this displaced population in limbo, the UN established UNRWA in 1950. To this day, it is the only UN organization with a purported refugee mission separate from UNHCR. Embed from Getty Images

UNRWA’s mandate was and remains quite different from that of the High Commissioner. By keeping people in refugee status indefinitely, the agency is raising generation after generation to believe that their “manifest destiny” is to return to modern-day Israel. Becoming a citizen of another country like Jordan, or even the United States, does not remove the refugee label. Nor does living within jurisdictions where Palestinians have already declared a state. Refugeehood does not stop at children born in refugee camps—it has become an inherited right passed on indefinitely, growing an initial population of 700,000 to a supposed refugee pool today of 5.9 million, all of whom continue to insist on their “right of return.”

The population of Gaza is now 2.1 million, 1.7 million of whom UNRWA lists as refugees. But this absurd statistic is intended to advance a political agenda, not reflect reality. These people have lived in Gaza for generations, under Egyptian, Israeli, and then Hamas control, in what the media calls “urban refugee camps.” The term “refugee camp” evokes images of temporary tents and trailers, but these are just UN-subsidized neighborhoods in cities.

The goal is not to improve people’s lives; it is to keep them in a state of insecurity and instability for which they are encouraged to hold Israel responsible. This is the only reason UN officials and some Western political leaders falsely claim that no alternatives exist. There is no shortage of aid agencies in the world capable of triaging crisis on a moment’s notice. The United States, Australia, and many countries fund such efforts whenever the need arises. But UNRWA is the only agency with a mandate to preserve a phony narrative of Palestinian refugeehood that sustains political warfare against Israel.
Einat Wilf: Without UNRWA There Would Be No Hamas
Canada's temporary suspension of its financing of UNRWA over charges that some UNRWA staff participated in the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel should be made permanent. UNRWA has created the ideal conditions for murderous terrorist groups to emerge, from Black September, which carried out the gruesome slaughter of Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Olympics, to Hamas. Anyone who truly cares about charting a path to true peace in the Middle East should have every interest in ensuring UNRWA is dismantled.

Seven decades ago, with empires collapsing across the world and new states emerging to replace the former imperial lands, tens of millions of people became refugees as they were fleeing across newly delineated borders. Those refugees were all settled in the places to which they fled (typically new countries with similar ethnic makeup to that of the refugees) or in new places.

In Korea, the temporary UN agency UNKRA settled 3.1 million refugees from the war, at least three times the number of the Arab refugees from the Arab-Israeli war of 1947-1949, with a third of the budget allocated to UNRWA. It completed its job within a few short years and closed down.

But the Arab refugees today known as Palestinians refused any form of settlement in place because they knew that would mean the war is over and that the Jewish state would thereby be legitimized. The Arab refugees were determined, even when a ceasefire with the Arab states ended the war, to keep fighting to ensure that the Jewish state is undone. Keeping themselves as perpetual refugees became one of the main weapons in the total Arab war against the Jewish state.

After the agency failed to resettle even one Arab refugee, UNRWA's funders, the U.S. and UK, wanted to close it down, but the Arab countries would not hear of it. Since immediate relief was no longer necessary, UNRWA developed a sprawling education system run by the Arab refugees themselves in which a new Palestinian nationalism was born, uniting Arabs living in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza around the goals of revenge and "return."

40% of the refugees live in the West Bank and Gaza. By their telling they live in Palestine. They were born there and lived there. They are not refugees and have no need of resettlement. Another 40% are citizens of Jordan and were born in that country. Nowhere else in the world is a citizen of a country, born in that country, somehow a refugee of another sovereign country. The remaining 20% are registered in Syria and Lebanon. Recent data shows that most of those have long left these countries.

UNRWA and the Palestinian "refugee" issue are not marginal aspects of the conflict. They are at the core of the conflict and the reason for its perpetuation. UNRWA has been one of the most substantial forces in ensuring that the rejection of Israel never ends. As a long-term peace activist, I understand that the war cannot end if there is an organization, supported by Canada and other Western powers, that does everything possible to ensure it continues.
Biden Admin Repeatedly Praised UNRWA’s 'Essential' Work
The Biden administration repeatedly praised the United Nations’ Palestinian aid organization as "essential" in the weeks and months after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack in Israel, going so far as to defend the agency against allegations it works alongside the Iran-backed terror group. Then allegations emerged late last month that at least 12 of the organization’s employees participated in the attack that left 1,200 dead.

The State Department spent nearly three months defending U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) against allegations that the group promoted anti-Semitic educational materials and calling its humanitarian work "valuable" and "essential."

"I would reject that interpretation of UNRWA," State Department spokesman Matt Miller said in a Nov. 1 press briefing, when reporters raised questions about the aid group’s longstanding ties to Hamas and promotion of educational materials that advocate Israel’s destruction. "It is a United Nations agency that provides humanitarian assistance to innocent civilians in Gaza."

Since 2021, the Biden administration has sent more than $1 billion in taxpayer funds to UNRWA, making the United States its largest contributor. Funding for the agency was frozen during the Trump administration due to UNRWA’s ties to Hamas and promotion of anti-Israel propaganda.

Miller continued to defend UNRWA through mid-January, even after evidence emerged indicating the aid group’s employees helped Hamas hide Israeli hostages.

"UNRWA has done and continues to do valuable work to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza," Miller said at a Jan. 17 briefing.


House Foreign Affairs Committee votes to cut off U.S. aid to UNRWA
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 30-19 on Tuesday to advance a bill immediately and permanently cutting off all U.S. aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in response to allegations that some of its employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in addition to long-running issues that have plagued the Palestinian aid agency.

Democratic Reps. Kathy Manning (D-NC), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) voted in favor of the bill, although Manning and Schneider had expressed concerns about the legislation.

Republicans argued that the issues with UNRWA, including its ties to terrorism, the use of its facilities to house Hamas infrastructure and weapons and its use of antisemitic classroom materials are longstanding.

“This is a clean bill that will go a long way to solving a terrible problem. UNRWA is the most corrupt, antisemitic, terror-complicit agency perhaps ever, but certainly at the United Nations,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said. “Yes there’s humanitarian concerns, we all recognize it. But it can’t go to UNRWA. Their time is up. There needs to be a pivot, very real and very decisive.”
Joe Biden’s Sham UNRWA Funding Freeze
Just this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also appointed former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna to head an independent review group to look into whether UNRWA “is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches that have been made.”

Unfortunately, Colonna has previously revealed her predisposition. On January 12, she sent UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini her “full renewed support for your work, more useful than ever.” Two of the organizations in the review group, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Norwegian Chr. Michelsen Institute expressed support for the South African case of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

This is hardly an unbiased review.

These actions have the appearance of kabuki theatre, with the Biden administration announcing a funding pause that they know will have little if any practical financial impact in the immediate term and counting on the fact that future funding will be blessed by a UN investigation with a thumb on the scale, overseen by an individual who has already announced that funding should be restored. The purpose is to give the appearance that they are taking a tough stand against UNRWA’s unsavory terrorist ties while, in fact, doing nothing of the sort.

Hamas is designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the United States. The UNRWA has a proven record of sympathy for Hamas. It employs Hamas members and has demonstrated vulnerability to extremism, antisemitism, and politicization. Hamas has routinely misused UNRWA facilities, including schools and hospitals, to house weapons, conceal tunnels, and launch attacks. Last year, the Geneva-based nongovernmental organization UN Watch reported numerous examples of “UNRWA’s gross and systematic violations of neutrality and other UN rules in their hiring of teachers and in their use of curricula inside UNRWA schools that constitute incitement to hatred, antisemitism and terrorism.”

Now, it has been revealed that UNRWA is not only complicit with Hamas but also its employees are active participants in their terrorism. Nor were the twelve UNRWA employees who participated in the October 7 attacks and the ongoing hostage situation in Gaza a few bad apples. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Intelligence estimates shared with the U.S. conclude that around 1,200 of UNRWA’s roughly 12,000 employees in Gaza have links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”

Members of Hamas are barred from entering the United States and face asset freeze and forfeiture. Anyone who participates in their activities or provides them with material support should face significant penalties. Those who provide support—including foreign organizations—can face arrest, as was the case recently with a New Jersey man who attempted to join al-Shabab (another FTO) to wage jihad against America.

Immunities as an international organization may shelter UNRWA from some of these penalties, but at the very least, they are not entitled to more American taxpayer money.

Quite simply, UNRWA is fundamentally compromised, and its activities are fundamentally at odds with its stated purpose of providing educational, health, and other services to Palestinians. In fact, UNRWA is part of the vicious cycle of violence orchestrated by Hamas.

Congress should ensure that all U.S. funding for UNRWA is ended immediately and permanently, regardless of the findings of any self-interested UN body, and should apply particular scrutiny to any funds designated for humanitarian aid in any supplemental request from the Biden administration to ensure that those funds do not go to UNRWA directly or indirectly. While the generous American people want to alleviate the suffering of Gazans, it cannot be done through providing more support for UNRWA.
Research org that UN tapped for UNRWA probe previously dismissed allegations against agency
The Bergen, Norway-based Chr. Michelsen Institute is one of two—out of three—research organizations that the United Nations tapped to probe the neutrality of one of its agencies that has applauded South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Experts told JNS that the announced investigation of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is “a farce, a desperate scheme to save UNRWA” that is “tainted from the start.”

The United Nations announced Monday that the independent review group would assess whether UNRWA “is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are made.”

The investigation comes after 12 UNRWA employees are accused of participating directly in Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel and after Israel says it has evidence that some 10% of UNRWA’s employees have ties to Palestinian terror organizations.

Not only has the Norwegian research institution praised the genocide charges against Israel at the high court in The Hague, but CMI appears to have already made up its mind on the U.N. agency it is now set to investigate.

The September 2022 CMI report “UNRWA, funding crisis and the way forward,” whose lead author is on the institute’s research staff, states in the opening summary that “skepticism and outright opposition” to UNRWA is “based on the misunderstanding that its existence helps perpetuate the refugee problem or unfounded claims that the agency instigates violence, for example, through school curricula with an anti-Israeli edge.”
Giant tunnel under UNRWA headquarters, PM tells Blinken
During the expanded meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Prime Minister Netanyahu on Wednesday, the senior American diplomat was shown photos of a giant tunnel that was exposed in recent days underneath the central headquarters of UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, Israel Hayom has learned. The meeting was attended by senior officials from both sides.

The Israeli leader showed the US diplomat proof of the misuse of the UNRWA headquarters' underground premises for apparent terrorist tunneling purposes. The tunnel that was revealed in the meeting was found in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza. According to the IDF, it is believed to be one of Hamas' strategic tunnels.

This comes amid the ongoing revelations that staff of the UN relief agency for the Palestinians were actively involved in the Oct. 7 attack against Israel and were also disseminating incitement against Israel through various platforms, including as teachers.
House Republican demands investigation into Hamas-tied UN Palestinian aid agency’s crypto wallets
A Republican lawmaker introduced a resolution Wednesday pressing for an investigation into “whether any cryptocurrencies were exchanged between Hamas and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.”

Rep. Tim Burchett’s (R-TN) resolution, which would have to be adopted by both chambers of Congress, would request the Treasury and State departments to look into how Hamas, which has joined other Palestinian terrorist factions in relying on blockchain technology, uses cryptocurrency to boost its operations. The resolution comes days after the Washington Examiner first reported that an Israeli firm called Lionsgate Network is investigating digital wallets held by the UNRWA, the since-fired staffers of which were accused by Israel of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led massacre, prompting the United States and other countries to halt aid to the UNRWA.

“We send the United Nations our taxpayer dollars,” Burchett said in a statement. “We need to be certain that not one penny ends up in the hands of terrorists, whether it’s resources or cash or crypto. This dark money needs to be exposed, and the United States also needs to permanently suspend funding for this agency.”

Since 2021, the Biden administration has delivered at least $730 million in aid to the UNRWA, an agency formed in 1949 that has long earned the ire of foreign policy experts and lawmakers over its ties to Hamas. In 2018, the Trump administration paused aid to the UNRWA, which has been under the spotlight since Oct. 7, particularly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken called allegations that the agency’s staffers participated in the attack “highly credible.”

Hamas has increasingly turned to crypto in recent years, though Lionsgate Network recently helped Israeli authorities claw back $90 million of digital funds connected to the terrorist group. The Tel Aviv-based firm is now investigating crypto donations to the UNRWA’s 501(c)(3) charity in the U.S., the Washington Examiner reported. Still, Hamas has access to some $40 million going in and out of crypto wallets, which store investors’ assets and private information, according to Lionsgate.


Only time can reveal the ICJ's true motives
When ICJ judges side with Israel, they must demonstrate tremendous willpower or cunning, especially so in this case, which took place after the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to support a ceasefire in Gaza. Judges who defy the status quo and stand with Israel potentially hurt their odds of reelection. Further, they risk jeopardizing the courts’ flailing legitimacy, characterized by its toothlessness and inability to enforce rulings.

In this case, it would make sense that the ICJ obfuscates its ruling with criticisms of Israel in order to save face with its constituents, UN member states, which, largely consisting of non-democracies, frequently scapegoat Israel to deflect from their own human rights abuses.

It is also likely that the ICJ has “tempered” its interim order that otherwise favors Israel with anti-Israel remarks and by allowing the case to proceed with the following provisional measures being granted:

These measures include that Israel: 1) take all possible measures to prevent the commission of acts constituting genocide; 2) take all possible measures “to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide;” 3) “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision” of humanitarian assistance; 4) “take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence” that could indicate the occurrence of genocide; and 5) submit a report in a month indicating it’s compliance with the above.

However damning these measures may sound, they don’t really demand specific changes to how Israel is conducting its war – a win for the IDF. Further, they in no certain terms imply guilt on Israel’s part, but rather seemingly demand of it what it is already doing.

These tactics nevertheless create confusion, which has benefited the ICJ, quieting dissent, creating a false appearance of victory for anti-Israel activists, while allowing Israel to continue its defensive war in Gaza. By the time the ICJ’s final verdict on the merits arrives – surely years from now – the war will likely have long settled.

In summary, the ICJ has seemingly sought to shroud its interim order that is otherwise favorable to Israel with language strongly critical of it, in order to create a buffer from criticism where it can otherwise apply the law. This tactic also allows it to save face with its anti-Israel landlord, the UN, which carries the keys to the judges’ future on the panel, and to boost its otherwise flailing reputation with UN member states. While time will only reveal the ICJ’s true motives in this confusing order, one ought not be surprised if its final ruling vindicates Israel, even if it is likely to come with another tongue-lashing against the Jewish state.


The Audacity of Israel's Armchair Critics
Every day since Israel entered Gaza in response to Oct. 7, major media outlets have arrogated to themselves the job of not only incessantly criticizing Israel but also picking apart its war effort. There is heavy coverage of calls for a ceasefire before Israel's military objectives are achieved. The New York Times and others have solemnly concluded that the damage to Gaza is the worst in post-World War II history.

Some supporters of Israel have expressed concern that world opinion is turning against the Jewish state. The truth is that Israel enjoyed maybe two weeks of support before the tide turned, as we all knew it would. Memories of that dreadful Saturday morning in October seemed to have drifted off into the ether.

Existential threats are called existential threats for a reason. America fought thousands of miles away in two world wars to prevent our enemies in Europe and Asia from reaching these shores. Kibbutz Nir Oz, where I had relatives, is less than 10 minutes from Gaza. For people perched continents away, it is the height of arrogance to opine on matters of existential security for Israel, especially in the aftermath of the barbaric massacre Israel just suffered.

And where is the appreciation for what Israel is doing for the broader community of democracies by seeking to destroy a terrorist organization that would, if able, carry out Oct. 7-style killing sprees wherever it had the opportunity? Given all that the Jewish people have endured not only over the centuries but especially from 1933 to 1945, it is pure chutzpah for non-Jews to lecture and hector Israel as if it had the right to defend itself but only up to a point.


Debra Messing and Hen Mazzig: Pro-Israel Students, We Applaud You for Standing Strong
At the retreat, we discussed the importance of having allies who are not Jewish. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) groups across the U.S. have been allying with other minority organizations on campus and erroneously comparing their causes to that of the Palestinians, framing Israelis and Jews as white oppressors. It’s time to take back that narrative and to build our own coalitions with pro-Israel students of all different backgrounds and stand strong together.

We also urged students not to stoop to using the tactics of the other side, who hide behind masks while destroying property and shouting hateful rhetoric. Instead, we must always respect our surroundings and stick to the truth. It’s what has protected us from others who tried to destroy our people throughout history.

What’s going on on college campuses is called “progressivism,” when truly it is regressive. To us, being progressive means welcoming in and protecting people from different backgrounds – including Israelis and Jews. It means promoting free speech while swiftly shutting down hateful rhetoric, like what’s been heard on college campuses well before October 7. It means giving those who were historically discriminated against the tools and resources to move up and become more equal members of society, a social justice cause that Jews have led time and time again in America, in Israel, and around the world.

The college campus is the first place we must take back progressivism and stay true to its values. Otherwise, in 10 years, when these college graduates are making their way up in the workforce and government, we are going to have a much more serious problem on our hands. By starting with the pro-Israel students and giving them the words and strength they need to fight back, we can potentially save the entire country from this twisted ideology.

We know our campus leaders can do it. We were so inspired by their resolve; they were not afraid to stand against the hatred and lies coming their way. In the face of terrible trauma and tragedy, they have united with their clear-thinking peers and rejected campus groupthink and distorted narratives. They are not afraid to have a different opinion than many of the other students on their campuses and fight for what’s right.

These passionate leaders will continue to be a beacon to their generation on campus, through social media and beyond until the day Hamas is defeated, every last innocent captive returns home and we come out victorious – just like we’ve done over and over throughout history – once again.
Eve Barlow: No Quiet on Israel’s Northern Front
With all eyes on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah has been increasingly raising tensions along Israel’s northern border. We teamed up with Eve Barlow to take a closer look at what’s going on on Israel’s northern front.

Eve Barlow is an LA-based music and pop culture journalist. Barlow currently publishes a newsletter on Substack called Blacklisted. She previously served as Deputy Editor of the New Musical Express (NME) and currently contributes to New York Magazine, The Guardian, Billboard, LA Times, Pitchfork, and GQ, among other publications. Barlow is also an outspoken voice on Jewish identity, Zionism, and fighting antisemitism on social media, and has also shared her views in publications such as Tablet. Barlow was also named one of The Algemeiner’s Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life.




Noa Tishby, Emmanuel Acho to publish ‘Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew’ in April
Noa Tishby, Israel’s former special envoy for combating antisemitism and the author of a popular explainer on Israel, is releasing a new book in April, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew, co-written with Emmanuel Acho, a Fox Sports analyst and former NFL linebacker.

The title riffs on Acho’s digital video series, “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man,” which became the subject of two best-selling books.

Featuring a series of frank discussions on Jewish stereotypes, the nature of Judaism and the overlap between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, the book seeks to demystify and to create a space for such conversations as antisemitic incidents have risen across the U.S.

“These questions might make you squirm,” the book description reads, “but the answers outline the history, the tropes and the catalysts of antisemitism in America.”

Tishby said that Acho approached her with the idea for the book over a year ago. “Even before Oct. 7,” she told Jewish Insider on Monday, “he was sensing that there’s an unnatural rise in Jew hatred and attacks and antisemitism, and he reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to write this book together.”

“I was floored, honored and immediately said yes,” she said. “We started working together and sitting through these conversations,” which were “really uncomfortable at times.”

Following Hamas’ attacks in Israel, the discussions “became even more testy and more uncomfortable, and honestly more beautiful,” Tishby said, “because we were able to have even deeper conversations.”

Acho, for his part, said his motivation for writing the book extends from a belief that “marginalized communities are much more powerful when they fight together as opposed to fighting in silos — or worse, fighting against one another.”


‘The Green Prince’ Mosab Hassan Yousef Joins Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Effort
This week, Israel’s public diplomacy efforts received a significant boost: The Green Prince, Mosab Hassan Yousef, arrived for an interview with the Prime Minister’s Arabic Media Spokesperson, Ofir Gendelman.

Together with IDF Arabic Spokesperson Lt.-Col. Avichay Adraee, The Green Prince also toured the Western Negev and visited the kibbutzim that were attacked during the October 7 massacre, as well as the area of the party at Re’im.

In the personal interview, Mosab Hassan Yousef told about his childhood as the son of one of the founders of Hamas, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, and about his studies in an UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) high school in Judea and Samaria, where he was educated to hate.

“In the mosques, the schools, the streets and at home, everywhere you go, there is hatred of Israel and of the Jewish people,” Hassan Yousef said, noting the Hamas terrorist organization’s use of UNRWA institutions.

In referring to the Hamas Covenant, which calls for the killing of Jews, he said: “The people that wrote the Hamas Covenant are a bunch of lunatics.”

Hassan Yousef also said, “The Arab world needs to pay attention to the dangers within; Hamas does not care about people. In effect, they are sacrificing the lives of children and non-combatants in order to achieve cheap political goals.

“The concept of jihad must be stopped, and it must be stopped now.”

The interview was conducted in the National Public Diplomacy studio; clips of the conversation will be broadcast and promoted on the various digital platforms to both the Arab and international communities.
NGO Monitor: Israeli-designated PFLP-linked NGO opened offices in Brussels
In October 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense designated six Palestinian NGOs as “terror organizations,” part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf” of the EU-designated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Israel accused the NGOs with diverting humanitarian funds from European donors to the PFLP and with recruiting members for the terror group.

Two of these NGOs are Al-Haq and Bisan Center for Research and Development.

In September and December 2022 respectively, two new NGOs were registered in Belgium as non-profit associations (ASBL): Al-Haq Europe and Bisan International Center.

Mitigating the Impact of the Designations
The explicitly political objective in registering these NGOs in Belgium was articulated in Viva Salud’s 2022 annual report (published summer of 2023). The Belgian NGO, a long-standing partner of Bisan Center for Research and Development, claimed: “Labeling social organizations in Palestine as terrorists is one of Israel’s repressive strategies. This is why Bisan, with the help of Viva Salud, opened an office in Brussels. This is a mitigation measure to strengthen Bisan’s action with political decision-makers.”

Bisan International Europe
Registered officially on December 19, 2022 by the French-speaking Business Court of Brussels, under the name “Bisan International Center for research and development (Bisan International Center),” the group is headed by Fiona Ben Chekroun, a former Program and Policy Officer (2016-2021) for Viva Salud. Ben Chekroun also serves as the Europe coordinator for the BDS National Committee (BNC).

Eleni Moustaklem serves as Administrator for Bisan International Center. According to her Linkedin account, Moustaklem is Board Secretary and a former Board Member (March 2019-July 2021) of the Palestinian entity.
Antisemitism Down Under Is Turning Vicious
Lattouf was also a signatory on a controversial journalists' letter—signed also by staff at the ABC and the newspapers that ran the Jewish chat group story—that demanded journalists be allowed to "apply as much professional skepticism when prioritizing or relying on uncorroborated Israeli government and military sources to shape coverage as applied to Hamas."

The demand goes against journalistic best practice as it requires reporters give the same credence to the information provided by a democracy with courts, oversight, a free press, and other checks and balances as to a terrorist group whose spokesmen hide in the tunnels of Gaza. A case in point being Hamas's now disproven claims that Israel bombed Gaza's al-Ahli Hospital on Oct. 17 when it was a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket that hit the hospital parking lot. There's no record of any media organization confronting Hamas about its falsehood, which sparked violent protests across the Middle East. Perhaps that's because the Hamas spokesman is incommunicado in a tunnel deep underground somewhere in the Gaza Strip.

The Age has provided little coverage of the rise in antisemitism in Melbourne. Instead, it's issued a series of articles positing whether Israel should exist or become a binational state as was Lebanon before the civil war ended that experiment for good, resulting in the exile of the bulk of the Maronite Christian community and Lebanon's takeover by the Iranian-proxy Hezbollah.

Home to the survivors whose stories featured in The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Schindler's List, the Australian city of Melbourne has the largest community of Holocaust survivors and their descendants in the world outside of Israel. The community thrived until Oct. 7. Since then, Melbourne's Jews, like the rest of Australia's Jewish community, have been hounded by calls to boycott Jewish businesses, vilification of Jewish philanthropists who donated wings to hospitals and collections to art galleries, as well as daily acts of vandalism and threats and occasional violence.

For many Australian Jews, post Oct. 7 Australia has shades of 1930s Germany in which Jewish artists and academics were shunned by their peers, newspapers treated Jews as "Other," and Jewish businesses were boycotted and attacked in what turned out to be a prelude to the Holocaust. While few think it will ever get that bad, Jews have never felt so unsafe and unwelcome in the land Down Under.
Australia needs to act ‘a lot tougher’ on anti-Semitism
Former Labor Minister Graham Richardson says Australia must act “a lot tougher” on anti-Semitism.

Mr Richardson told Sky News host Sharri Markson that we’ve got to do something about people going on a “anti-Jewish tirade”.

“We got to do something about it, we just got to put you away for a while.

“And that’s what we don’t do.

“What we do is we talk big, but we don’t do much.”


US Restricts Visas to Spyware Makers, Lumping Israeli Hi-Tech with ‘Violent Settlers’

Bernie Sanders Accuses Israel of War Crimes and Slams AIPAC Financial Influence on Congress

Education Secretary Cardona declines to say if ‘from river to sea’ chant is antisemitic

MEMRI: MEMRI Executive Director Stalinsky's Response To Media Inquiries Following Wall Street Journal's Publication Of His Op-Ed 'Welcome To Dearborn, America's Jihad Capital' – And New MEMRI TV Compilation Of Clips From Dearborn And The Surrounding Area

They Endorsed Hamas Terrorism. Then They Hosted a Big-Ticket Fundraiser for Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.

Summer Lee Praises Carnegie Mellon Professor Who Likened Israel to Nazi Germany

Expelled Labour activist to help union worker fight ‘false antisemitism’ allegations

Selina Robinson's ouster shows NDP has no place for Jews who don't submit

Emily Schrader: Same antisemitic hate taking place oceans apart
While it is said that only two things are certain in life - death and taxes – there is something else that has existed for virtually all of human history and continues to pop up in every generation: antisemitism. Truthfully, as someone who’s experienced it firsthand from “pro-Palestinian” groups in the United States, as well as from Palestinian terrorists this month in Israel, it won’t go away. But we can take action to limit its impact in the Western world before it’s too late.

My journey with the Free Palestine movement began back at the University of Southern California (USC) in 2010. Just as they do today, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) campus group held an Israel Apartheid Week where they protested Jewish student events and put on borderline antisemitic programming that demonized both Jews and Israelis.

If that wasn’t enough, they also constructed a mock “apartheid wall” (intended to replicate the West Bank security barrier of which less than 5% is actually concrete) and decorated it with slanderous claims about Israel and Jewish history that are demonstrably false, yet difficult for the average student to fact-check without a depth of knowledge about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Much like on other campuses, if Jewish or pro-Israel students interacted with the pro-Palestinian groups about their claims, we were met with cursing, screaming and, in some cases, even physical assault from the pro-Palestinian activists. During my time at USC, Jewish students and community members were harassed and bullied so severely that the SJP chapter on campus received a two-year suspension.

Yet this campus phenomenon has only gotten worse since then – including at USC, which has had more than its fair share of scandals since I graduated. In 2020, the student government vice president, Rose Ritch, was forced to resign because she was a “Zionist.” In 2021, a student leader in Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Yasmeen Mashayekh, proudly tweeted: “I want to kill every m*****f***ing Zionist.” Even after pressure from donors and international media, the university refused to disclose if they took action to hold Mashayekh accountable. Mashayekh, in response, doubled down on defending support for violence as “resistance.”
Cary Nelson: Antizionism at the Modern Language Association
After nearly two decades of trying, on 6 January the Modern Language Association’s annual meeting finally succeeded in putting this diminished but still substantial academic group on record opposing Israel. The MLA represents about twenty thousand North American literature and foreign language faculty and graduate students, down from a high of well over 30,000 in the 1970s. This time they were riding a wave of anti-Zionist hostility that has swept the academy since Hamas wantonly slaughtered over 1,200 Israelis and foreign visitors in the largest antisemitic murder spree since the Holocaust.

The unsettling fact that hostility toward Israel itself and Jews worldwide escalated almost immediately after the Hamas assault, substantially before Israel launched a military response, has not been lost on any Jewish community. The academy has been at the forefront of this effort to hold Israel responsible for Hamas’s brutality. Some faculty members apparently believe Israelis got what they deserved. When unwilling to say so, they tell us such ‘revolutionary violence’ is the price of liberation. After voicing that conviction more bluntly that most, George Washington University psychology professor and Hamas enthusiast Lara Sheehi resigned her US position to join her allies and teach in Qatar.

Something very close to that sentiment surfaced during the MLA debates. At an open meeting on 5 December, when a member from Haifa referenced Hamas’s sexual violence there was reportedly audible hissing among the anti-Zionist members attending. Was it unacceptable to impugn the character of Hamas terrorists? Were some MLA members on board with Hamas denials? Or are only anti-Zionist facts allowable in academic political debates?

We have reached the point when anti-Zionism has substantially crossed the line into antisemitism. Criticism of Israel’s conduct of the current war with Hamas does not necessarily qualify as antisemitism. Military strategy and tactics are routinely debated worldwide. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism expressly states that criticism of Israel comparable to that levied against other nations does not qualify as antisemitism. But claims that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza—whether ill-informed, hyperbolic, or malicious—do circulate with antisemitic effect, and should be denounced by university officials.
George Washington University to Discipline Anti-Zionist Group for Violating Suspension

Jewish student at Columbia attacked while leaving a pro-Israel demonstration

Harvard Obstructs Congressional Probe Into Widespread Anti-Semitism
Harvard University is obstructing a congressional probe into campus-wide anti-Semitism, leading lawmakers to warn the Ivy League school that it will face a deluge of subpoenas if it continues to stonewall the investigation.

"Harvard's responses have been grossly insufficient, and the limited and dilatory nature of its productions is obstructing the Committee's efforts," Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), the chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, wrote to interim Harvard president Alan Garber on Wednesday.

Harvard has until Feb. 14 to produce documents outlining its internal response to a growing wave of anti-Semitism on campus, including records that could show the school failed to adequately protect Jewish and pro-Israel students. The committee initiated its probe in December, following then-Harvard president Claudine Gay's testimony before Congress, in which she failed to denounce violence and hateful rhetoric against Jews. Since then, "Harvard has produced only one document of significance in response to the Committee's request," according to Foxx. Gay ultimately resigned her post.

"If the above priority requests are left unfulfilled by the deadline set above, the Committee is prepared to issue a subpoena," Foxx wrote to the school.

The warning is likely to further inflame tensions between Harvard and Republican lawmakers, who have been locked in a battle with the Ivy League school over accusations that anti-Semitism on campus has spiraled out of control, threatening Jewish students' safety.

"Somehow, almost two months after the Committee first informed Harvard of its intent to request production of specific documents, and a month after the Committee provided particularized requests, Harvard provided only a single meaningful document to the Committee in its antisemitism investigation," Foxx wrote. "Harvard’s failure to produce documents requested by the Committee in a timely manner is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
Biden Admin Probes Alleged Anti-Muslim Incidents at Harvard at Behest of Pro-Terrorist Group
The Biden administration launched a civil rights investigation into anti-Muslim incidents at Harvard University based on a complaint from a Muslim legal fund that has represented convicted terrorists and pushed anti-Semitic rhetoric.

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights launched the investigation on Tuesday in response to a complaint from the Muslim Legal Fund of America, which claims that Muslim and Arab students have faced discrimination at Harvard University for taking part in anti-Israel protests at the school.

The group could prove a controversial litigant. Hatem Bazian, the Muslim Legal Fund of America's chairman, has called for "intifada" against the United States and circulated erroneous claims that the Israeli government illegally harvests Palestinians' organs. Bazian is also the founder of Students of Justice for Palestine, an anti-Israel group that has defended Hamas at campus protests across the country. Members of the group's George Washington University chapter projected the pro-Hamas phrase "glory to our martyrs" onto the school's library. The group's national chapter organized a "day of resistance" in support of Hamas a day after the terrorist attack, in which more than 1,000 Israelis were slaughtered.

The Muslim Legal Fund of America, which launched in the wake of 9/11, has raised money and provided legal defense for Islamic terrorists convicted in some of the country's biggest terrorism cases. The group raised money for and represented the "Holy Land Five," a group of officials at an Islamic relief charity who were convicted of funding Hamas.

The fund also represented Aafia Siddiqui, dubbed "Lady Al Qaeda" for her connections to the terrorist group. Siddiqui, who said at her trial that she did not want "Zionist Jews" on her jury, was sentenced in 2010 to 86 years in prison on attempted murder and other charges.
Brown University President Refuses Demands of Students Staging Hunger Strike for Palestine

David Hirsh: The David Miller ruling risks protecting antisemites against Jews
Since his sacking, David Miller has made a whole stream of antisemitic programmes for the Iranian propaganda station, Press TV. Former MP Chris Williamson plays Watson to Miller’s Holmes, as they spin conspiracy fantasies about one Jew after another, one Jewish institution after another. The independent barrister who found Miller not guilty of antisemitism in Bristol’s internal process had previously represented Williamson in his unsuccessful case against expulsion from the Labour Party.

Perhaps there is another reason that Bristol refused to make the case about the relationship between Miller’s anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Perhaps it was just too hard; perhaps they were advised by lawyers who didn’t understand the importance of it, that it was a losing strategy for Bristol; perhaps Bristol just didn’t want to stand up for Jews against antisemitism.

By determining that anti-Zionism is protected, but without considering the issue of antisemitism, the tribunal risks protecting antisemites against Jews. It risks turning the Equality Act on its head, making its effect the very opposite of what was intended.

The tribunal might have accepted that political anti-Zionism, in the abstract, was protected, but what they actually did was worse; they said that Miller’s specific anti-Zionism was protected. It is worse because Miller’s anti-Zionism is significantly more clearly antisemitic than many other more mainstream forms of antizionism.

Since October 7, British Jews, as Anthony Julius has said, have been painfully aware of “a partial failure by state institutions — the BBC, the police, the universities, the Crown Prosecution Service— to meet the challenge of this antisemitic moment”.

This week many will add to that list Bristol University and the Employment Tribunal, although those of us who remember the whitewashing of the University and College Union in 2013 in the Fraser case may already have had the Employment Tribunal on their list. If we did not already have UCU on our list, we might also add it now. My union stood by Miller and treated him as a victim of Israel and its powerful Jewish agents in Britain and on his campus.

We might also add my own discipline, sociology, which provided the anonymous peer reviews necessary to get Miller his promotions and his Chair at Bristol, his major research grants and his academic publications, even though the vacuous conspiracy fantasies that he passed off as scholarship fell far short of the standard that ought to have been required.


Miller ruling ‘may make Jewish students less safe’, says UJS
A ruling that anti-Zionist academic David Miller was unfairly dismissed by the University of Bristol and that anti-Zionism is a protected characteristic in the workplace “may ultimately make Jewish students less safe”, the Union of Jewish Students has said.

Miller was sacked by Bristol University in October 2021 after making comments about Israel which some deemed to be antisemitic.

The university said his comments did not meet its "standards of behaviour", and Jewish students said Miller made them feel “unsafe and unprotected” on campus.

Since then, Miller has described Israel as “the enemy of world peace” and has called the Jewish Society at Bristol University an “Israel lobby group” that had “manufactured hysteria” about his teaching.

Now a Bristol Employment Tribunal found that Miller’s anti-Zionist beliefs “qualified as a philosophical belief and as a protected characteristic”, protected under the 2010 Equality Act.

The Union of Jewish students said: “UJS is disappointed by the Employment Tribunal's judgment in relation to David Miller. UJS believes this may set a dangerous precedent about what can be lawfully said on campus about Jewish students and the societies at the centre of their social life, which may ultimately make Jewish students less safe.”

Jewish security group the CST said: “We are extremely concerned about what the Employment Tribunal considers is acceptable for a University Professor to say publicly about Jewish students and Jewish Societies who raised legitimate complaints about him.

“He has continued to express his obnoxious opinions on Iranian State TV, which is exactly where he belongs.”


Top Tiktok executives shown evidence of rampant antisemitism on the platform
Israeli President Isaac Herzog hosted members of social media company TikTok's global management at his official residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

The meeting took place against the background of a sharp increase in posts containing antisemitism, fake news and anti-Israel hatred on the short-form video hosting service.

Participating in the in-depth discussion were TikTok's Michael Beckerman, vice president for public policy for the Americas, and Theo Bertram, vice president for government relations and public policy for Europe.

Israeli social media researcher Tom Divon, from the Smart Family Institute of Communications at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, presented the company’s representatives with the findings of his research on antisemitism on the platform.

The TikTok executives were presented with examples of hate-filled conspiracy theories and false information uploaded to the platform, among other things regarding Hamas's barbaric Oct. 7 massacre, as well as examples of Holocaust denial and more. The research noted that some content had been removed from the platform, however only after an extended period, while some had not been removed.

The TikTok representatives told Herzog that upwards of 160 million fake accounts that were active in spreading anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric had been identified. They said they were deeply disturbed by the findings of the research and evidence presented during the meeting and pledged to continue working with Israeli officials to do everything in their power to eradicate this phenomenon from the platform.

"We must fight lies and hatred wherever we find them, on the streets and online on social networks in order to prevent the manipulation of and negative impact on public opinion among the next generation around the world, said Herzog.

“I thank the executives from TikTok for this honest and open conversation, and for their willingness to face this vital challenge,” he added.

Last week, Barak Herscowitz, who previously worked as an adviser to then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, announced his resignation as TikTok’s “vertical lead in the government and public sector."

“I resigned from TikTok,” he wrote. “We live in a time when our very existence as Jews and Israelis is under attack and in danger. In such an unstable era, people’s priorities are sharpened. Am Yisrael Chai.”
Watchdog group exposes the founder of three antisemitic websites
Research by Canary Mission has revealed the man behind a group of websites and social-media accounts spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and misinformation.

A video put out by the antisemitism watchdog group shows the use of voice-matching from a since-deleted personal Rumble account and an X-spaces appearance to link Abdullah Hassan with the Stop Zionist Hate site and its sister organizations, Raven Mission and Tru Wire. Stop Zionist Hate utilizes a similar approach and style as StopAntisemitism while Raven Mission draws inspiration from Canary Mission.

Stop Zionist Hate currently has 126,998 followers while its Instagram account has 32,300.

A meta tag with Hassan’s name also connects him to Stop Zionist Hate. According to his LinkedIn profile, Hassan is a law student at George Washington University School of Law and graduated in 2021 from Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y.

Raven Mission denies Hassan’s involvement.

The groups have promoted such false ideas as claiming Zionist control of Hollywood; that a genocide “allegedly” occurred at Auschwitz; and that the systemic rapes Hamas terrorists perpetrated on Oct. 7 are “debunked claims.”

Hassan has associated with prominent neo-Nazis Lucas Gage and Nick Fuentes.
‘The Washington Post’ isn’t sure Hamas engaged in mass rape
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and other Iranian proxies invaded Israel and carried out the largest massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust. But it was more than just mass murder. It was also mass rape.

Hamas, the New York Times reported, “weaponized sexual violence,” its terrorists brutally raping and mutilating women. The mass rape was, the Associated Press stated, “widespread.”

But the Washington Post has some doubts.

A Jan. 31 dispatch by reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb, while ostensibly about U.S. domestic political fallout from the Israel-Hamas war, engaged in soft rape denial.

Shewrote: “Supporters of Israel also cite the bloodiness of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, when elderly people and children were killed or taken hostage and, according to some reports, some women were sexually assaulted” (emphasis added).

Abutaleb’s “some reports” remark is monstrous. The evidence of the mass rape of Israeli women on Oct. 7 is overwhelming, as even outlets normally hostile to Israel like The New York Times were forced to admit. The sexual violence is a well-documented fact and ought to be reported as such.

The evidence of this was abundant and in the public domain long before Abutaleb’s report.

For example, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Dec. 10, 2023 that the sexual violence that took place on Oct. 7 was “worse than anything I’ve ever seen.”

On Dec. 12, 2023, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators passed a resolution condemning the United Nations for its inaction on Hamas’s wanton sexual violence, which they called “widespread.”


Khaled Gharabli’s Apparent Departure Is A Step in the Right Direction For France24 Arabic
Khaled Gharabli, the France 24 Arabic international affairs analyst notorious for routinely misplacing all semblance of impartiality and accuracy when it comes to Israel, has been notably absent from the French public broadcaster for the last two months. His disappearance, together with the unusual removal of his author page, indicate that he no longer works for the French public broadcaster. (The unceremonious deletion of his author page stands in stark contrast to the still available pages of past contributors, including some whose most recent material dates back years.)

His last studio appearance in Paris most likely was Dec. 8. By early January he had returned to Doha resuming his old position as presenter in the Qatari channel al-Araby TV, founded by former Israeli Member of Knesset Azmi Bishara.

Gharabli’s propensity for grotesquely skewed anti-Israel commentary became even more pronounced following Hamas’ Oct. 7 brutal attacks targeting mostly civilians. The France 24 personality referred to the civilians Hamas kidnapped as “settlers,” though all except a tiny minority are either residents of the Gaza envelope area or other regions in Israel internationally recognized as part of the Jewish state, not disputed territory. Gharabli also argued US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s “here as a Jew” remarks would pose a problem for the American administration to “present itself as a neutral mediator between the two sides.” He subsequently denied any antisemitic motive in Hamas’s actions.


NPR Covers Up U.S. Intelligence on Hamas Command Center at Shifa Hospital
National Public Radio, with the founding mission “to create a more informed public,” for months has kept from its 44 million weekly listeners the U.S. intelligence assessment that Hamas did indeed operate a command center in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.

Most recently, in her Feb. 2 article, “Why this neurosurgeon chose to stay in his beloved Gaza – and why he left,” Farah Yousry falsely depicted the existence of a Hamas command center in Shifa as nothing more than a dubious Israeli claim:
Israeli forces were encircling Al-Shifa Hospital, cutting supplies to the medical complex as they were looking for what they believed to be a Hamas command center underneath. (On the edge of the hospital compound, they found a tunnel shaft leading to several underground rooms, part of the larger tunnel network in Gaza. The Israelis also said they found weapons in the hospital. But the evidence presented by the Israelis did not show evidence of a command center.)

The mangaging editor of the NPR-affiliated Side Effects Public Media, Yousry neglected to report that American intelligence services, based on independently collected intelligence, have concluded that Hamas ran a command center under the hospital. As The New York Times reported (“Hamas Used Gaza Hospital as a Command Center, U.S. Intelligence Says“) over a month ago:


Columnist: Education About Hamas’ Sexual Crimes Is “Exploitation Of Women’s Bodies”

Column in Kingston Whig Standard Misrepresents Zionism & Downplays Jewish Connections To Israel

CBC News Article Gives Credence To Claims That Palestinians Have Been Around For “Tens of Thousands of Years”

MEMRI: Palestinian Writer: Hamas Invested All Its Resources In A Hopeless War Against Israel And Brought Destruction Upon Gaza; The International Community And Arab World Must Act To Eliminate The Palestinian Organizations And Their Activity

MEMRI: Lebanese Daily 'Al-Akhbar': Egyptian Regime Profiteering From Gaza War And Gazans' Suffering – Imposing High Taxes And Taking Bribes At Gaza Border Crossings

PMW: Bible teaches that only Jews are human - all others not human, PA TV broadcasts father of a terrorist Father of terrorist: Only Jews are human; the rest of humanity is not human
Brother of Terrorist Bassel Shahada: “Bassel (i.e., terrorist), along with his accomplices, friends and brothers, participated in an operation (i.e., terror attack) in the Eli settlement at a gas station, directed by [Hamas’] Al-Qassam Brigades” …

Father of Terrorist Bassel Shahada: “This [destroying his house] is revenge. Love of revenge is innate for them [Jews]. They learned it in the Talmud and the Bible. Their biblical belief is that God created non-human beings in the form of humans. Only they are human, only Jews are human; the rest of humanity is not human. This is how they [Jews] think and this is how they behave. We ask Allah to send someone who will torture them like Hitler did, and before him Nebuchadnezzar [Babylonian king who destroyed the Temple] and before him Pharaoh [who enslaved them].”


Walter Russell Mead: Make Iran Fear America Again
From Iraq to Lebanon and Gaza to the Red Sea, Iran and its proxies can create an instant crisis anywhere, forcing the U.S. to respond on Iran's timetable. If the U.S. can't seize the political and military initiative from Tehran, America will keep dancing to Tehran's tune.

The newly energized and rallying forces of radical jihadist ideology and international terror are aligned with Iranian state power. Unless they are definitively defeated, they will boil out across the region and the world, endangering Americans at home and further diverting resources and attention from our struggles against the growing ambitions and capabilities of great-power rivals like Russia and China.

Great powers, lesser powers and terror groups are watching America's response to the escalating series of aggressive moves by Iran and its "axis of resistance." If stability is ever to return, it must begin with a psychological revolution in the Middle East. Iran must learn to fear President Biden more than he fears Iran.

This is the standard by which we should measure the success of the president's retaliatory strikes in the Middle East. Did the strikes restore America's power to deter? Have they changed the balance of fear in the Middle East?


Bill Maher reveals he conducted a two-hour interview with Kanye West that will NEVER air - because the rapper is a 'very charming anti-Semite'
Comedian Bill Maher claims that he recorded an episode of his podcast interviewing Kanye West but will never release it because he doesn't want to expose young people to his 'anti-Semitic' views.

West, 46, apologized in December his various anti-Semitic outbursts, which saw him express support for Adolf Hitler and resulted in him losing a string of lucrative endorsement deals and being dropped by his talent agency.

Maher, who hosts the Club Random podcast in addition to his HBO show, says he will likely never put out the two-hour conversation.

'I thought it was going to be a learning moment. We were here for two hours. By the way, we had an amazing, fun time,' he said.

However, the liberal comic, 68, left believing the rapper to be a 'charming anti-Semite'.
ADL Urges Chicago Cops to Apprehend Culprits Behind Antisemitic Flyer Campaign
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called on the Chicago Police Department to step up efforts to apprehend the culprits behind a series of antisemitic flyers distributed in the the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, which is home to a large Jewish population.

“For the 4th time in over 5 weeks, residents of Chicago‘s Lincoln Park neighborhood woke up today to antisemitic & white supremacist flyers on their cars,” the Jewish civil rights organization’s office for the Midwest stated in a post on X/Twitter. “We spoke with Chicago police & urged them to do what’s necessary to find & hold accountable those responsible for these hateful acts.”

At least 50 vehicles parked in Lincoln Park were targeted with flyers bearing handwritten messages attacking Jews and their alleged influence. “I saw on my dashboard a piece of paper with an antisemitic, very antisemitic markings on it that said that Jews own the media, the Jews started COVID,” local resident Aaron Snyder told ABC News. Local media outlets blurred the text written on the flyers in their reports of the latest incident.

At a community neighborhood meeting on Tuesday night, attendees voiced a mix of fear and anger over the repeated incidents. Similar flyers were discovered in Lincoln Park last week.

“Clearly, this is targeted antisemitic hate material, and the fact that it’s being placed intentionally in residential neighborhoods where Jewish families live, it seems designed to sow fear and unrest in the hearts of our Jewish residents,” Second Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins told local media outlets.
Despite War, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Earn Spots as Safe Cities in Global Report
Despite the war, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv rank higher in terms of safety than most American cities, including places like New York City and Los Angeles, according to a just-released report

According to Numbeo’s Crime Index 2024, Tel Aviv is the 41st most safe city in the world and Jerusalem sits at number 114. This is as New York City ranks in 204th place and Los Angeles 230. Per Numbeo’s measurements, the Crime Index takes into factor things such as perception of crime rate, actual crimes – such as property related or violent crimes, and discrimination. On the flip side, the Safety Index, which runs opposite of the Crime Index, tells how safe a city is to live.

Topping the list of safest cities are Abu Dhabi, Taipei, Doha, Ajman in the United Arab Emirates, and Dubai. Abu Dhabi has topped the list for years, as the UAE has invested extensively into keep their cities crime free in hopes to continue attracting foreign talent. To demonstrate this, per current census data 88% of the country’s population – roughly 9 million people – are expats. This compares to just over one million natives living in the country.

The least safe place in the world, according to Numbeo, is Caracas, Venezuela, with a Crime Index of 82.2. Quite ironically, South Africa, which has taken one of the most vocal stances against Israel in the current war against Hamas, accusing the Jewish state of “genocide,” has four of its cities in the top 10 least safe cities, three of which are in the top five. This includes the nation’s capital, Pretoria, as well as Durban and Johannesburg.
Meet the Indigenous People Who Support Israel
During pro-Palestinian marches in the Western world, we have seen several minority groups, including “indigenous” people, who identify with the Palestinians and their claim to be the displaced natives in Israel.

But there are other indigenous people who view things differently.

The Indigenous Coalition For Israel (ICFI) is one organization that aims to change the narrative, consisting of individuals from the Americas, Australia, Asia, and Africa. The ICFI has just launched an office that will be housed within the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem.

Native Americans
Ryan Bellerose, a native Canadian of the Metis mixed-race community, told me that “the false narrative concerning the Israel-Palestinian conflict has easily taken hold amongst many indigenous peoples.”

He feels that many have misunderstood what the term “indigeneity” means. He spoke about how the Jewish people’s ethnogenesis took place in the Levant, just like the Native Americans’ took root in the Americas. He noted that even if Jews lived in the Diaspora at times, their cultural identity “evolved” in the Middle East.


Milei vows to move embassy to Jerusalem, blacklist Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Wednesday at his office in Jerusalem with Argentine President Javier Milei, who has promised to move his country’s embassy to the capital and designate Hamas a terrorist group.

“I’m delighted to welcome you, President Milei, and your delegation, to Israel. You’re a great friend of the Jewish state. We are delighted with your decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move your diplomatic post there, and also, of course, an embassy,” began Netanyahu.

“We share the desire for prosperity, security and peace. We know that the greatest challenge to peace in our area, but also in yours, is Iran. And we appreciate the cooperation that we are doing with you in security and diplomacy.

“Your stalwart support for Israel in so many forms is deeply, deeply appreciated. Welcome to Jerusalem. Welcome, friend,” added the premier.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog hosted Milei at his official residence on Tuesday evening and presented him with a Hebrew Bible in appreciation of his firm support for the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

“The people of Israel have immense warmth and friendship with Argentina, and your visit here exemplifies the unique relationship that we have with Argentina, and the fact that we have so many Israelis whose family originated from Argentina,” said Herzog.

“You have shown your love and affection, both for the Jewish people and the nation-state of the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and we thank you wholeheartedly for this,” he added.


Argentina president makes solidarity visit to Israel, promises embassy move
Owen Alterman discusses why the Argentinian president's visit to Israel doesn't signal a shift in perceptions of Israel in Latin America – or even in his own home country




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