Thursday, February 15, 2024

02/15 Links Pt2: The antisemitism crisis is out of control; Australia’s Descent Into Jew-Baiting Chaos; Tlaib Votes ‘Present’ on Condemnation of Hamas’ Sexual Violence

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The antisemitism crisis is out of control
The Labour leader either loses the support of the Muslims or the Jews. But he can’t afford to lose either, the first on grounds of electoral math and the second on grounds of the party’s foundational claim to moral decency.

The Conservative government is also in a mess over this problem. It has expressed horror at the rise in British antisemitism and called it “utterly deplorable.” Ministers cannot begin to address it, however, unless they call out not just support for Hamas but support for the Palestinian cause itself.

They have not done so. Instead, the accepted line is that Hamas is bad but the Palestinian cause is fine.

Worse still, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, like his counterpart in the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, has repeatedly demanded the establishment of a Palestinian state after the end of the war in Gaza.

Not only would this pose an insupportable danger to Israel from Palestinian Arabs no less committed than Hamas to the genocide of the Jews, but through such rhetoric, Cameron and Blinken are tacitly endorsing the antisemitism being inescapably promoted through the Palestinian cause.

In America, under the pressure of the presidential election later this year, the Biden administration is desperately trying to pacify the Democrats’ interrelated pro-Palestinian and Muslim constituencies.

It is doing so through an increasingly harsh attitude towards embattled Israel, with Blinken ramping up demands amounting to surrender to Hamas and the State Department sanctioning four Jewish “settlers” while defaming all Jewish residents of the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria.

Last week, a delegation of senior officials was dispatched to the key Democratic stronghold of Dearborn, Mich., to grovel to the Muslim community there. The principal deputy national security director, Jon Finer, actually apologized for the White House statement marking 100 days after Oct. 7, which focused on the tragic plight of the hostages and the brutality of Hamas, and expressed contrition for “missteps” in America’s support for Israel.

In both Britain and America, the Muslim vote is increasingly distorting politics. The consequences are potentially devastating.
The UNRWA Obstacle
This current problem is the result of the original sin, the original problem. As UNRWA became entrenched, its mission was no longer to settle the refugees and their sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, great-great-grandsons, but rather to keep their dream of “going home” alive. That is, to keep a sinister and disruptive vision for the Palestinians, one in which Israel somehow ceases to exist as the millions of supposed exiled Palestinians go back to places that were resettled decades ago by other people.

Such a vision should not come as great surprise, because UNRWA is an international organization by name and funding only. It gets its allocations from a naïve, or baleful, world, it draws its legitimacy from being an agent of the international community. But in fact, it is a Palestinian organization funded by outsiders. Other than a few foreigners in managerial positions, almost all UNRWA employees are Palestinians. In Gaza, they are Gazans, and, in most cases, supporters of Hamas. They get their salaries from you — Americans, or Canadians, or Norwegians — and they work for Yahya Sinwar, a coldblooded killer and a master of violence. They work for him in two ways: as perpetrators of terrorism, or perpetrators of hate.

Note this: When UNRWA takes care of schools and medicine in Gaza, all expenses are paid by you. It’s not because there’s no money in Gaza to fund these activities; it is because Hamas takes that money and uses it for other purposes, such as arming itself, digging tunnels, firing rockets. UNRWA is an agency whose work gets Hamas off the hook of having to provide for the population of Gaza. Hamas is engaged in violence, while UNRWA keeps the people of Gaza fed, clothed and schooled. That’s a convenient arrangement for all parties involved. Hamas has free hands to do what it wants to do, UNRWA has a mission that keeps it viable. All this is well known and documented. You can read all about it in the above-mentioned book. There’s no news – except for the fact that we were suddenly made to realize that UNRWA is not a nuisance, it is a threat that must be dealt with. It is a threat that should be eliminated along with Hamas rule. There are less corrupt and less political aid agencies that can replace UNRWA, such as USAID, the World Food Program, and other groups that already have functioning operations in certain Palestinian areas.

The most eager supporters of this decision – to eliminate UNRWA – ought to be those who want to someday see a cure for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The cure will not come when the world funds an organization whose main activity is to keep a wound open, to preach the gospel of victimhood, to educate the next generation of people with no dream other than the destruction of other people’s homes and country. That this organization is also swarmed with terrorist supportive employees is not a bug, but a feature. You can’t run an army by staffing it with pacificists, you can’t run a school by staffing it with illiterates, you can’t run an orchestra by staffing it with only deaf persons – and you can’t run an UNRWA believing that its workers will be a peace-loving, solution-seeking, peace-promoting bunch.

So, as they say, don’t let a crisis go to waste. Winning the war and keeping UNRWA would be a wasteful thing to do.
Why the UN Hates this Man
The United Nations, I think it’s safe to say, has moved beyond parody to farce.

Created in the wake of the Holocaust with the primary goal of preventing future world wars and genocides, its number one target of condemnation since 1967 has been the only Jewish state.

Russia and China are permanent members of the Security Council, tasked with “the maintenance of international peace and security.” Current members of the Human Rights Council include China, Qatar, Cuba, and Sudan. The Commission on the Status of Women finally unloaded Iran, but still includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and China.

Since 2015, the General Assembly has condemned Israel 140 times; the total against all other countries combined: 65.

Still, the U.N.’s treatment of Israel remains its most barbaric affectation. In 1975, the U.N. declared that Zionism is racism. Since 2006, more than half of all condemnatory resolutions in the Human Rights Council have targeted Israel. Since 2015, the General Assembly has condemned Israel 140 times; the total against all other countries combined: 65. Israel has been made to face the International Criminal Court, because in the morally corrupt human rights industry, Israel’s self-defense amounts to a war crime.

And then there’s UNRWA, whose tight alliance with Hamas no doubt makes ISIS jealous.

Much of the above came to light when in 2004 a Canadian named Hillel Neuer became executive director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO in Geneva, Switzerland. Under his leadership, UN Watch has become the leading force against what he calls the “U.N.’s pathological discrimination and delegitimization of Israel.” He regularly calls out countries and their leaders on human rights abuses, which is what the U.N. would be doing if its mission hadn’t become politicized.

None of this makes him very popular at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. “When I walk into the room at the U.N., if looks could kill, I’d be dead by a thousand blows,” Neuer told the Jerusalem Post.

On Feb. 7, a bipartisan group of 12 U.S. legislators sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him to demand that U.N. Secretary General António Guterres and the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, resign over the revelation that a dozen members of UNRWA staff were involved in the Oct. 7th massacre: seven staffers infiltrated Israel; five helped to kidnap Israelis and provide ammunition. In addition, the IDF found that Hamas stored weapons in UNRWA buildings; used UNRWA resources for terrorist activities; and built tunnels under UNRWA facilities. And a recent Wall Street Journal report estimates that roughly 10% of UNRWA employees — 1,200 — are linked to Hamas.

Who initiated this call for their resignations? Hillel Neuer.




Seth Mandel: An Alarming Lesson in Anti-Jewish Resentment
When it comes to DEI programs and other race-focused bureaucracies, it can be easy to forget the underlying ideology and focus on the diversity offices and officers themselves. But in Maryland, we just got a chilling reminder that the worldview that nourishes such fads—whether DEI or intersectionality or race theory or “privilege” discourse—has spread far and wide and holds up the Jew as the ultimate public enemy.

At issue is a Maryland House bill that would establish a grant program for Holocaust education in schools throughout the state. The grant money would go to fund teacher training and class materials.

State education grant programs aren’t terribly oppressive. But they do cost money. And that is money poorly spent, according to opponents of the bill who spoke at a recent committee hearing. One parent objecting to the legislation is worth quoting at length, as an example of the raw anti-Semitism at the heart of the competitive victimhood that governs progressive-minded institutions.

He started off addressing “the black members of this board,” and launched into a tirade we have all heard before and will hear again, though we’re hearing it a bit more often these days. “It would be absolute treason, after 250 years of the Holocaust, of what we went through in chattel slavery, to allow people to come and take our suffering, put a few shekels on it, and benefit off of what we went through,” said the man, himself African-American. “This is the United States of America. We were the ones who went through the Holocaust. There was no Jewish suffering in this place—in fact, they helped to bring us over here, to the native Americans and the Hispanics.… It is treason to your ancestors to let someone take your suffering, and to do this to benefit them to tell a story that is ahistorical.”
Head of Major Jewish Organization: After Oct. 7th, American Jews were besieged | JLMinute
JNS CEO Alex Traimain sits down with CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations William Daroff to discuss his experiences being both in Israel and the US since Oct. 7th. Who has stood behind the Jewish community and who has not? What can US Jews do for Israel at this time? What is the future of the US/Israel relationship?

All this and more on JLMinute - the place where you get all the news and analysis in one place!


Seth Mandel: Australia’s Descent Into Jew-Baiting Chaos
When I was younger and my family would playfully debate where we’d go if Jews suddenly needed to flee America, Australia was always one of the top answers. We could hide in the Outback maybe, plus Australians were laid back. The comic Shane Gillis does a bit about how nothing sounds sinister when it’s said in the Oz accent.

I seem to have misjudged the land down under. It does, in fact, sound quite sinister when a protest leader shouts into a microphone that, because Israel is a “colonialist” state, it “will only be overcome by greater violence.” Even the accent couldn’t soften that one.

The comment was made in a demonstration in front of the Sydney Opera House just days after Hamas’s October 7 massacre. The demonstration was, of course, in support of the attacks.

That rally has been back in the news recently after police investigated allegations that the crowd could be heard chanting “gas the Jews!” But don’t worry, an “expert review had concluded the phrase uttered was ‘where’s the Jews’, although other antisemitic phrases had been chanted.” Don’t you feel silly now.

Hysterical mass incitement has become quite common at these pro-Hamas rallies, which have proliferated ever since the attacks. But the situation devolved further last week when the feminist activist Clementine Ford made public the personal details of members of a WhatsApp group for Jewish creatives. Mob harassment immediately followed. Jewish members of the group have had to move out of their homes, their businesses have been vandalized, and they are getting flooded with threats. One couple “received a photograph of their 5-year-old child with the note reading, ‘We know where you live.’”


Antisemitism in Britain Hits All-Time High
Antisemitism hit an all-time high last year in an explosion of hatred against the Jewish community following the Hamas terror attacks on Israel, official figures by the Community Security Trust (CST) show.

CST - a charity which protects Jews against racism - said the surge in anti-Jewish attacks, threats and abuse amounted to a "celebration" by antisemites of Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre.

Its annual report said there were 4,103 antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2023, nearly double the previous record of 2,261 incidents in 2021. 2/3 of the antisemitism reports occurred after Oct. 7.

Mark Gardner, the CST chief executive, said: "We condemn the stony silence from those sections of society that eagerly call out racism in every other case, except when it comes to Jew-hate."
Last year’s astonishing wave of antisemitism was driven by a deep hatred of the West
The surge in antisemitism that flew around our country after the Hamas terror attack on Israel was shocking in its speed and scale, but it was no surprise to CST. Indeed, it was exactly the reason why we have built CST over the last 30 years of its existence.

You can track the current anti-Jewish hatred back to the start of the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, when Britain saw well over 1,000,000 people demonstrating on a joint ticket of “Free Palestine” and “Don’t Attack Iraq”. This was the alliance between the far left and Islamists, demonstrations when people literally dressed up as suicide bombers and openly supported Hamas and Hezbollah.

The hatred bubbled and boiled away, through successive Middle East conflicts, in our universities, on our streets and in the radicalising echo chambers of social media. The Hamas terror attack on October 7 blew the lid off the pressure cooker.

At CST we were prepared. We already had a security operation in place on October 7, for Shabbat and Yomtov, and we quickly strengthened it. This has continued ever since, with extra security at schools, synagogues, communal events and shopping areas, and more staff and volunteers brought into CST’s offices.

Every part of CST’s work has risen dramatically. Today’s report shows the increase in the number of anti-Jewish hate incidents that qualify to be included in our statistics. What it doesn’t show is the number of calls and emails we took from across the community, from parents worried about sending their children to school or people unsure whether it was safe to go into central London at the weekend. At one point our phone system handled 17,000 calls in a single day – a truly astonishing number that shows the scale of the challenge.
The Good People of Great Britain Must Stand Against Antisemitism
Appalling antisemitic incidents in Britain are now more commonplace than at any time in recent history.

The trigger was not Israel's military response to the Hamas attacks, but the massacre of Jews itself.

Celebrations of the murder of Jewish women, children and the elderly took place on Britain's streets. Rape and killing became a source of pride, not shame. For the first time, antisemitic incidents were recorded in every police region.

Many British Jews are feeling a sense of threat, prejudice and distress that they have not experienced in their lifetimes.

Too many people in our country now think it acceptable to participate in racist acts against Jews. And they will feel more emboldened as they see there are no real consequences for displays of antisemitic hate.

We need the good people of this country, the silent majority, to speak loudly on our behalf. And we need all of our institutions, the government, the police, the courts, our universities and schools, to do more.

There must be zero tolerance for racism against Jews in this country.
Eve Barlow: What's love got to do with it?
Well. Everything.

Today, four newspapers in the UK including two that contributed to the status quo will print that the UK's antisemitism is worse than it's been in 40 years.

Today, a policeman in Scotland told a Jew to hide his Star of David to prevent any trouble, instead of dealing with the people promoting antisemitism and making it unsafe for this man to be outside.

Also today, in the US, congresswoman Rashida Tlaib voted against condemning rape by Hamas on the floor.

Today in Australia, the front cover of The Australian names a group of influential antisemites, including – finally – Clementine Ford, who have doxxed 600 Jewish people, and ruined their livelihoods. Some of these targeted Jewish people have abandoned their homes.

I guess tonight I'm supposed to write something about how people are now being targeted in Northern Israel by rocket fire from Hezbollah, and I truly want to do this because I visited the most dangerous parts of Israel two weekends ago and narrowly missed a barrage of rocket fire on both days. But I just can't do it right now. The heels of my feet are screaming. The lids of my eyes are burning. I cannot remember which number of head cold I’m currently fighting off. I feel guilty saying all this while thinking of the freezing IDF troops I met a few weekends ago on the Lebanon border, who can't afford to be tired or hungry or cold. But I’m saying it because I am a human.


Britain’s two-tier justice system
How was an anti-Israel judge allowed to preside over the case of the ‘paraglider girls’?

The case of the ‘paraglider girls’ just got even more disturbing.

Earlier this week, a judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court decided not to punish three women who had been convicted of ‘glorifying’ Hamas at a ‘pro-Palestine’ march last year. This struck many as odd. After all, the British authorities are usually keen to throw the book at anyone caught expressing anything offensive. And it is hard to think of anything more offensive than what these women were celebrating.

On 14 October last year, they attended an anti-Israel demo with pictures of paragliders taped to their backs – widely understood to be a reference to the paragliding Hamas terrorists who had slaughtered and raped their way through a music festival in southern Israel just seven days before.

Now there is evidence to suggest that Judge Tan Ikram might not have been an impartial choice to hear this case. Three weeks ago, he liked a post on LinkedIn that described Israel as a ‘terrorist’ country and called for a ‘Free Palestine’. (Ikram claims that he liked the post in error.)

What’s more, the post was written by a man who, according to The Times, has previously shared the conspiracy theory that Israel allowed the 7 October attacks to happen as a pretext for invading Gaza.


Brendan O'Neill: The arbitrary tyranny of woke censorship
So in Britain in the 2020s, you can be sentenced to jail for making a racist joke about Meghan Markle in private, but you’ll only get a slap on the wrist if you publicly celebrate the racist monsters of Hamas.

That’s the takeaway from yesterday’s judgement in the case of the three young women charged with celebrating Hamas’s barbarism by wearing images of paragliders on a demo shortly after the 7 October pogrom. I have ‘decided not to punish’ you, said Judge Tan Ikram as he handed the women a 12-month conditional discharge. This is the same judge who just a few weeks ago decided he would punish – severely – six retired police officers who had shared racist gags about Markle and others in a private WhatsApp group. He gave them prison sentences, mercifully suspended.

So there you have it. Slur a duchess and you get jail. Big up Hamas and you get a telling off. Rarely has the arbitrary rule of woke censorship been so starkly revealed.

The three women were convicted under the Terrorism Act at Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday. They were found to have displayed articles that might arouse suspicion that they are supporters of a proscribed organisation – Hamas. The articles were printouts of stock images of paragliders. On a ‘pro-Palestine’ march in London on 14 October, just a week after Hamas carried out its anti-Semitic rampage, two of the women had paraglider pics taped to their backs and the other had one stuck to her placard.

It wasn’t hard to work out what the pics were a nod to – the Hamas pogromists who got into Israel by air, on paragliders, on 7 October. The Crown Prosecution Service said the display of such images amounted to a ‘glorification of the actions’ of Hamas. The women were found guilty, but Judge Ikram seemed in a forgiving mood. ‘You crossed the line, but it would have been fair to say that emotions ran very high on this issue’, he said. Hence, he ‘decided not to punish’ them. Their conditional discharge means they’ll receive no sentence.

How different it was when six former cops, all in their 60s, appeared before Ikram in December. They were charged with sending each other ‘racist, homophobic and sexist messages’ in a WhatsApp group called ‘Old Boys Beer Meet’. Their targets included Markle, Rishi Sunak and even the late Queen. They were convicted of ‘improper use of a public electronic communications network’. All were given suspended prison sentences and ordered to carry out unpaid work.
There’s nothing funny about Jew-baiting
Soho Theatre put out an initial apology of sorts on Monday, saying that it was ‘sorry and saddened’ by the incident. Last night, it put out a considerably stronger statement, denouncing Currie’s ‘intimidation of audience members’ as ‘appalling’ and ‘unacceptable’. Soho Theatre says he will not be invited back to perform.

This is a delicate issue for a comedian to write on. It concerns one of the things I find it hardest to be funny about – namely, comedy. And also, you know, Jew-baiting.

If this controversy were only about Currie’s act, then the core principle at stake would be free speech. Comedians should feel licenced to offend. They should be at liberty to express their ideas – whether those are sincerely held, or just propositions worth exploring through art. But that’s not quite what we’re dealing with here.

If Currie had communicated to the audience via puppetry, mask or three-foot-high letters, painted on a winding sheet in pig’s blood, that he thinks the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir or even the rank and file of the IDF are genocidal maniacs, no better than Heydrich, Himmler and Eichmann, then I would defend his right to do so.

I would also defend the right of Jews, Israelis or anyone else to protest at the door in response. And the right of fellow comedians to let their feelings be known on social media, however dispiriting those might be.

But demanding that a paying audience member, who is not being disruptive or even especially disrespectful, get out – screaming at them that they should do so – is a different matter entirely. It crosses a line.


Rashida Tlaib Votes ‘Present’ on US House Condemnation of Hamas’ Use of Sexual Violence
The US House of Representatives passed a resolution on Wednesday condemning Hamas’s use of sexual assault as a weapon of war during its October 7 terrorist attack in which it killed 1,200 Israelis and took almost 250 more hostage in a near-unanimous vote, with a single exception.

The one “present” vote came from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who argued that she could not vote in favor of the resolution because it does not also accuse the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of using sexual assault as a weapon of war.

By a vote of 418-0-1, the House passed a resolution that “condemns all rape and forms of sexual violence as weapons of war, including those acts committed by Hamas terrorists on and since October 7th.” It also “calls on all international bodies to unequivocally condemn” Hamas’s actions.

Tlaib has emerged as the most outspoken anti-Israel member of the House in recent months. She has accused Israel of committing genocide and has appeared at events with people who celebrated Hamas’s October 7 attack.

Michael Dickson, Executive Director of the pro-Israel group StandWithUs, reacted to her vote, saying “Rashida Tlaib is so racist she cannot bring herself to condemn the brutal rape of women used by Hamas as a weapon of war… because the women that were raped were Jewish Israelis. A new low. Most American women – and men – will recoil in horror at her vote.”

The former U.S. Deputy Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Ellie Cohanim, said wrote that Tlaib “is the ONLY member of Congress who refuses to condemn Hamas’ rape. What an absolute sicko.”


US Rep. Tlaib accuses IDF of sexual violence against Palestinian children
US Representative Rashida Tlaib refuses to support a congressional resolution denouncing Hamas’s utilization of rape and sexual violence during and after the October 7 massacre.

The bill, introduced by Democrat Lois Frankel of Florida, was approved by a 418 to 0 vote, with Tlaib opting to vote “present.”

Tlaib explained her refusal to support the resolution, stating that it “completely ignores and erases any sexual violence and abuse committed by the Israeli forces against Palestinians, especially children.” She presented no examples of Israeli sexual violence.

Tlaib's statements
In a speech to Congress on Wednesday, she spoke of the alleged sexual violence against Palestinians by the IDF but didn’t mention the sexual violence perpetrated against Israelis during the October 7 massacre.

Tlaib delivered the speech in response to the roundtable discussion hosted by Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Shultz on Wednesday.

Tlaib’s history of antisemitism and denial

The discussions were aimed to raise awareness of Hamas’s crimes, including sexual and gender-based violence the terrorist group committed on October 7.

These attacks against Israeli women have been well-documented, including eyewitness accounts and raw footage of Hamas atrocities.

In her speech, Tlaib began by stating, “All acts of sexual violence are horrific. We should all be fighting to end it here at home and all around the world.”


‘Squad’ Member Summer Lee To Fundraise for Anti-Israel Group Whose Leader Celebrated Hamas Attack
Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee (D.), whose congressional district was the site of the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history, will raise money next month for a Muslim advocacy group whose leader said he was "happy" that Hamas invaded Israel.

The Pennsylvania Democrat, a member of the progressive "Squad," will speak on March 2 at the annual fundraising banquet of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Philadelphia chapter, the group announced. CAIR praised Lee as a "leading advocate" for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Tickets for the event range from $75 for individuals to $5,000 for corporate sponsors.

Lee’s appearance at the event could lend fuel to her Democratic primary opponents, who have criticized her stance on Israel. Forty Jewish leaders in Lee’s suburban Pittsburgh district—the site of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting—called on Lee to "exercise better leadership" by supporting Israel’s right "to protect its citizens against Hamas."

CAIR is known for its anti-Israel views and was labeled an "unindicted co-conspirator" of Hamas front groups during the Holy Land Foundation terrorism investigation in 2007. CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said in November that he was "happy" that Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. He also said that Israel "does not have that right to self-defense." The White House condemned Awad’s remarks as anti-Semitic. Awad, whose real name is Nehad Hammad, contributed $1,000 to Lee’s primary campaign on Dec. 29, according to campaign finance records.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is targeting Lee’s seat as part of a $100 million campaign spending spree to unseat anti-Israel lawmakers. That spending threat prompted House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) to endorse Lee and other progressives who have criticized Israel.


Dem Rep. Moore: Israel Shouldn’t Do ‘Carpet Bombing’ and We Don’t Like Their Ground Offensive
On Wednesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) stated that “it’s very clear to some of us that there could be more targeting of capturing and killing active Hamas leaders and not this carpet bombing that we have seen happening” And that “We’re very concerned now that the people in Rafah absolutely have nowhere to go” as Israel prepares for a ground offensive in Rafah.

Moore said, “Well, just let me say, I think that our president has really said the quiet part out loud. A lot of us are very concerned about Israel taking our friendship and our relationship for granted and that Netanyahu continues to brag about the fact that he’s not listening to us. And it’s very clear to some of us that there could be more targeting of capturing and killing active Hamas leaders and not this carpet bombing that we have seen happening. We’re very concerned now that the people in Rafah absolutely have nowhere to go. But again, Israel is our ally, and the opportunity to provide those conditions has not emerged. It sort of will be an up-or-down vote, and I don’t think a lot of people think that having that conversation in the middle of this conflict is appropriate.”
Connecticut City Employee Harasses Jewish Family Over Pro-Israel Yard Sign, Encourages Others To Join
A New Haven, Connecticut city official with an anti-Semitic social media history chanted ethnic cleansing slogans with a megaphone outside a Jewish family’s home, and encouraged others to return with her, according to video obtained by The Daily Wire.

Thabisa Rich, New Haven’s Community Outreach Coordinator for the Department Arts, Cultural and Tourism, set up outside the home of local rabbi with a megaphone after spotting a “stand with Israel” yard sign, causing a scene in a residential neighborhood of the Connecticut city. Rabbi Elchanan Poupko said he was alerted of the woman’s demonstration by his concerned wife, and went out to confront her.

“This Sunday, my wife informed me that someone was outside our house with a megaphone screaming pro-Palestinian chants,” Poupko told The Daily Wire. “I went outside and confronted her for protesting outside a private Jewish house when a car stopped and a masked man joined her.”

A representative for New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said Rich’s comments only represent herself and that they are “actively collecting information and reviewing the matter.”

“While people have very different and strongly held views on the war between Israel and Hamas, the mayor believes there is an appropriate time, place, and manner in which to express them,” the spokesperson told The Daily Wire. “Mayor Elicker believes Ms. Rich exercised very poor judgement in this regard and finds several of her personal social media posts to be concerning and offensive.”


Chicago Muslim umbrella group usurps Holocaust in anti-Israel ‘Tribune’ ad
An advertisement that the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago ran on page seven of the Chicago Tribune on Feb. 11 shared a blood libel with the paper’s 2.2 million Sunday edition readers. Appropriately, the ad was surrounded by a bright red box.

The more than 30-year-old group, which represents 70 organizations and 400,000 Muslims, commended Brandon Johnson, the Chicago mayor, and the rest of the City Council for putting “innocent human life above politics” by voting for a ceasefire.

The group alleged that Israel has “massacred” 27,840 Palestinian civilians, “including 8,000 women and 11,500 children,” and that “139 children are murdered on average every day that we are silent.”

CIOGC’s ad stated that it was “deeply disappointing” that Debra Silverstein, an alderman, sought to delay the vote for a month “in the name of preparations for Holocaust commemoration of all things.”

“We believe that the best way to honor the memory of the Holocaust is to ensure that we never sit by silently again while innocent civilians are mass murdered, whatever the warped justification offered might be,” the group added.


Khan Brands Labour Antisemitic In Freudian Gaffe
Khan’s made a bit of a slip-up this morning when being asked by Sky News about the infamous Ali/Jones Labour meeting. The mayor made clear that the language used in that meeting wasn’t acceptable, especially not in “a party like mine that is proud to be both anti-racist and antisemitic“. He did correct himself soon after – an unfortunate gaffe to make. Freudian slip?




Trailblazing Canadian cyclist removed from Ottawa International Women’s Day event over past IDF service
Leah Goldstein seemed like a natural fit to be the keynote speaker at an International Women’s Day event in Ontario, Canada, next month. A Canadian cyclist, she made history as the first woman to win a grueling 3,000-mile bike race across the United States.

But in January, five months after accepting the invitation, Goldstein was told she was no longer invited to speak.

The cause, the event organizers said, was “a small but growing and extremely vocal group” that took issue with Goldstein’s service three decades ago in the Israeli army.

“Our focus at INSPIRE has been and will always be to create safe spaces to honour, share, and celebrate the remarkable stories of women and non-binary individuals,” the women’s empowerment group said in a statement. “In recognition of the current situation and the sensitivity of the conflict in the Middle East, the Board of INSPIRE will be changing our keynote speaker.”

The revoked invitation comes amid widespread turmoil over the Israel-Hamas war, including in local communities far from the Middle East.

Marina Rosenberg, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior vice president of international affairs, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Goldstein’s case reflects a troubling trend.

“We’re seeing more and more instances of Israeli speakers being disinvited simply because of their nationality or IDF service,” Rosenberg said. “Let’s be clear: Boycotting Israeli speakers is hurtful, antithetical to free speech and ultimately counterproductive. It fails to recognize the complexities of the situation.”
WA school teaches kids ‘antisemitic chants, holds anti-Israel protests’
Syre Elementary School, a highly ranked public school in Shoreline, Wash., near Seattle, taught children as young as 7 years old to chant “Free Palestine” and “From the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea,” and instructed them to hold mock anti-Israel protests.

That’s according to the pro-Israel nonprofit StandWithUs, which says that Syre engaged in “indoctrination, promoted hatred and created a hostile classroom environment towards the Israeli and Jewish communities.”

“We are dealing with a far more insidious problem that has crept into the educational system at much lower levels, with teachers indoctrinating young minds with anti-Israel propaganda and misinformation that incites violence and undermines and denies 3,000 years of Jewish history in the Land of Israel,” said Carly Gammill, who directs the nonprofit’s Center for Combating Antisemitism.

Randy Kessler, northwest regional director for StandWithUs, added that the anti-Israel teaching “​threatens to solidify antisemitic thoughts and carries the potential of encouraging further violent actions.”

StandWithUS, which sent a letter to the school’s principal and the superintendent of the district, released a video it said the school played for children. “Even kids join!” an onscreen graphic states, as a young man with his face wrapped in a keffiyeh lifts his hand, and a very young boy yells through his cupped hands. The latter wears a sweatshirt that appears to suggest all of Israel is unified as a Palestinian state.

“They use their voices,” another chyron states, as young children yell, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The video further suggests that indigenous peoples support Palestinians and ends with a man holding a microphone up to toddlers in strollers. He says “Free” and they say “Palestine” before the video ends with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.
MIT Suspends Anti-Israel Student Group Over Unsanctioned Protests
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology suspended an anti-Israel student group that has held unsanctioned demonstrations on campus in the wake of Oct. 7, with university president Sally Kornbluth saying the group disrupted and endangered students.

MIT Coalition Against Apartheid "once again conducted a demonstration on campus without going through the normal permission processes that apply to every student group at MIT," Kornbluth said in a Tuesday video. As a result, the group cannot use MIT facilities or "organize any further protests or demonstrations anywhere on our campus" until the school's discipline committee "makes a formal determination" regarding Coalition Against Apartheid's conduct.

"We have clear [and] reasonable time, place, and manner policies in place for good reason. The point of these policies is to make sure that members of the MIT community can work, learn, and do their work on campus without disruption," Kornbluth said. "We also need to keep the community safe, and we can't do that without enough advance notice to organize staff and police resources. That's why we have the rules."

The move comes one day after Coalition Against Apartheid held a Monday evening "emergency speakout" protesting an Israel Defense Forces mission that led to the rescue of two Hamas-held hostages. The unsanctioned demonstration, which coincided with an MIT-organized panel on anti-Semitism, saw Coalition Against Apartheid members accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing, a video obtained by the Washington Free Beacon shows.

Such demonstrations are par for the course for Coalition Against Apartheid. In November, for example, the group's members occupied Lobby 7—a campus hub that leads to classrooms and other faculty offices—for roughly 14 hours, violating school policy in the process.

MIT staff warned participants they would be suspended if they remained in the area, but after the protesters refused, Kornbluth watered down her disciplinary threat. Instead of a full suspension, students involved in the protest received a "non-academic suspension" that allowed them to continue attending class.
Death threats to rabbi trigger crackdown on universities
The government is taking action to stop universities “appeasing” antisemites in response to a tidal wave of hatred being faced by Jewish students across the country, the JC can reveal.

In an exclusive interview, higher education minister Robert Halfon has said that the government now plans to introduce a “seal of quality” awarded only to universities that adhere to “the highest standards in dealing with antisemitism”. In addition, there will be a new government post of Expert Adviser on Antisemitism in Higher Education.

It comes as the JC has uncovered shocking new levels of aggression towards Jewish students, including death and rape threats that have forced them to meet under police protection.

Last week, two days before it emerged that Leeds University’s Jewish chaplain had gone into hiding on police advice, pro-Palestinian protesters at Birmingham University were heard to call for Zionists to “burn”.

One Jewish student at Brunel University, who did not wish to be named, said a Palestinian woman told her: “I’m an extremist, I’m proud of it, I don’t think your people should be alive.”

Halfon said he had listened to recordings of the threats faced by the Leeds rabbi that made him “weep”, and hit out at universities for “at best the turning of a blind eye to antisemitism, and at worst appeasing it”.


Anti-Israel protesters hold student ‘die-in’ at Harvard’s main library
Nearly 200 student activists rallied on Monday on the steps of Harvard University’s Widener Library, advocating for the destruction of the Jewish state.

“The vitriol coming out of America’s most famous university is intolerable,” freshman Charlie Covit, who is Jewish, told JNS about the Feb. 12 rally. “On the same day that Harvard hosted Francesca Albanese, a U.N. special rapporteur banned from Israel for her justification of Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, hundreds of students, mostly masked, gathered on the iconic Widener Library steps to chant in Arabic, ‘from water to water, Palestine will be Arab.’”

Video from the event captured the Arabic chant, which was a more extreme version of the now well-known call for the destruction of Israel, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The protest, organized by Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP) in response to Sunday airstrikes on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, also featured a “die-in.” Participants called for a divestment of Harvard funds from companies they called “complicit in genocide.”

Sophomore Violet T.M. Barron, a member of Harvard Jews for Palestine, called the demonstration “a testament to the power of student organizing and protests on campus.”


'I was pissed': Florida student explains to cops why he threatened to shoot Jewish peers: EXCLUSIVE BODYCAM
Body camera video obtained by Campus Reform shows a University of Central Florida student telling police that he threatened members of a pro-Israel group on campus.

Seif Asi (pictured), 21, was arrested on Jan. 23 at the University of Central Florida’s John T. Washington Center after threatening members of the school’s Students Supporting Israel chapter, which held a demonstration featuring Israeli flags.

”Because they were killing my people, I was like, ‘Oh, I would rather kill you guys,’” Asi told the police officer when asked what he said to the pro-Israel students.

”I mean the last three weeks I come on. I see it every day,” Asi said, referring to the pro-Israel demonstrations.

”I have my own family over there that actually gets killed,” Asi said. “ It’s insulting for them to support the other side.”

Asi allegedly told police that he saw a group of students setting up the pro-Israel demonstration organized by Students Supporting Israel, which made him upset, police wrote in an arrest affidavit, as Campus Reform previously reported.




Why I had to come out against the BBC, former corporation boss reveals
For years after he left the BBC in 2015 — having served as Controller of BBC1 and director of television — Danny Cohen made a point of not criticising it in public. Like others who have occupied senior corporation posts, he tells the JC, he shared “the prevailing feeling that it’s vital to protect the institution”.

Occasionally, he has felt uneasy about the way it has dealt with complaints involving Israel or antisemitism. He picks out the infamous incident during Chanukah 2021 when a bus carrying Jewish children was attacked in London’s Oxford Street and the BBC wrongly reported that someone inside had voiced an “anti-Muslim slur”.

But it wasn’t the fact that the BBC made a mistake that concerned him, he says, “but the awful intransigence about the way it dealt with it”. It continued, he says, to defend the erroneous report in the face of evidence that eventually prompted Ofcom to conclude there had been “a significant failure to observe editorial guidelines”.

During his own BBC career, he says, he did not encounter prejudice — though, he adds, “when you do a very senior job at the BBC, everyone is nice to you. There were times when I found out that someone I considered to be a nice person was actually a bully,” he says.
BBC News website coverage of Rafah hostage rescue

Musk’s X sold checkmarks to Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, report says

Another CNN Report on Gaza Based on Little Evidence, No Context, But Lots of Insinuation

IDF exposes another Al Jazeera reporter as a Hamas terrorist
For the second time in a week, the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday exposed a Palestinian reporter working for Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip as a Hamas terrorist operative.

Ismail Abu Omar, an Al Jazeera journalist wounded in an Israeli strike near the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Tuesday, serves as a deputy company commander in Hamas’s Khan Yunis Battalion, according to the IDF.

Qatar-owned Al Jazeera claimed that an IDF drone “targeted two journalists in Muraj, north of Rafah,” including Ismail Abu Omar, who allegedly underwent an amputation and remained in critical condition.

However, Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab media division in the Spokesperson’s Unit of the Israeli military, revealed on Wednesday night that “Ismail Abu Omar holds two roles.”

“How do we know this? Abu Omar is a deputy company commander in Hamas’ Eastern Battalion of Khan Yunis who filmed himself in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 massacre,” the spokesperson added.


La Presse Commentator Quotes Two Experts On War In Gaza: One Who Compares Gaza To A Genocide, And One Who Accuses Israel Of Randomly Bombing Civilians

MEMRI: The Hadith Of The Stones And The Trees – About The Muslims Killing The Jews Ahead Of The End of Days – In The Hamas Charter And In A Publication Of The Hamas-Affiliated Palestine Scholars Association

Swedish foreign minister confronts Iran over murder plot against Jews in his country
Sweden’s foreign minister said Thursday he had confronted his Iranian counterpart after reports Tehran’s intelligence service sent an undercover couple to murder Jews in the country.

Last week, Swedish Radio (SR) reported that a couple, Mahdi Ramezani and Fereshteh Sanaeifarid, had been suspected of planning to kill Jewish representatives in Sweden in 2021.

They arrived in Sweden posing as Afghan refugees in 2017, said the report.

“It is of course something extremely negative that a country is pursuing murder plots on our territory,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told the broadcaster.

The couple were arrested in April 2021 on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a terrorist crime, SR reported.

Due to a lack of evidence, they were never charged but were deported in 2022 for posing a security risk. According to SR, the Iranian couple denied the allegations.
MEMRI: IRGC Qods Force Commander On Iran's 'Harsh Vengeance' Against Its Enemies And The Enemies Of The Muslims: 'We Are Doing This Every Day – We Must Thank Our Heroes In Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, And All The Countries That Support The Oppressed Palestinian People'

Canadian academics involved in joint research with Iranian counterparts on drone research

Lakewood Church Shooter in Hijab Praised Hamas and Osama bin Laden
Now there’s every reason to believe that Genesse Moreno was nuts. The entire family situation is a bottomless well of crazy in which seemingly two schizophrenics married each other and the whole thing went up in flames. Moreno’s mother-in-law had been married to a Latino guy who cheated on her and she became a counselor and apparently a ‘rabbi’ living in France to recover from the trauma. Moreno’s husband was a sex offender. The mother-in-law was in a custody dispute with Moreno.

None of that changes the fact that she chose to align with Islamic terrorists, to discuss Allah and to pose in a hijab.

While Muslim terrorism is often blamed on mental illness, some Muslim terrorists really are crazy. So what? Hitler was out of his mind toward the end of the war. Insanity doesn’t change the reality of what happened even if it’s a limited legal defense in court.

Genesse Moreno seems to have hooked up with Islamic terrorist supporters and shared her hatred for Jews. Did they encourage her and lead her down the path? Quite possibly. It’s not as if some ISIS or Hamas supporter on Telegram is going to offer aspiring terrorists a psych exam.

And as long as Islamic terrorism is a viable proposition, it’s going to attract fans and adherents, even if some are nuts, but if Moreno had picked a target where there weren’t a bunch of armed men in attendance, the whole thing could have been another Pulse massacre horror instead of an incident that no one wants to talk about.
Indiana man arrested for antisemitic threats
Jeffrey Stevens, 41, allegedly sent messages to the CIA and to the Fort Wayne Police Department, in Indiana, threatening to murder Jews and pro-Israel government officials.

According to a complaint, filed on Feb. 12 with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana to apply for an arrest warrent, Stevens operated Facebook pages under the names “Jeffrey Stevens,” “Zayed Stevens” and the “Ishmael Report.”

On Sept. 28, someone wrote to the CIA from an IP address registered to Stevens and his partner, saying, “I am a journalist covering the Middle East with very strong connections throughout the West Bank, specifically in Jenin and Nablus, and I am starting to make reliable connections throughout Syria and Lebanon.

“I would like to be involved with anything not exactly Israel but Netanyahu’s far-right government that will only cause problems for the U.S.,” the writer continued. “I will make a lot of noise with or without you.”

On Oct. 8, the day after Hamas’s terror attack on Israel, someone posted to the CIA website from the same IP address: “I have very strong Palestinian, Hezbollah and Iranian contacts. You people had better wake up. If the U.S. strikes Palestinian resistance, you will be destroyed. I cannot wait until CIA operatives start getting eliminated. I am going to laugh.”
NYPD arrest suspect in antisemitic beating of Jewish man with metal bat
The New York Police Department on Wednesday arrested a man in the beating of a Jewish victim with a metal bat after the suspect made antisemitic comments on Monday.

Obidiah Lashley, 29, was charged with a hate crime, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, aggravated harassment, and menacing.

The 25-year-old victim suffered lacerations on the back of his head and was taken by ambulance to Staten Island University Hospital.

The suspect had fled from the scene, and on Tuesday, the NYPD sought the public’s help in finding the perpetrator.

According to Hamodia, the suspect had allegedly demanded from the victim “how do you know you’re Jewish?” and called him a “dirty Jew.”


Ohio buys $30 million in Israel Bonds
As the state has done since 1993, Ohio has acquired an Israel Bond, this one at a three-year fixed rate.

“Israel’s need for support remains as they continue their fight against terrorism,” said Ohio’s treasurer, Robert Sprague. “Not only do Israel Bonds help provide much-needed liquidity to Israel, but their solid repayment history and competitive rates also provide a sound investment for Ohio and a great fit on our bond ladder.”

Israel has never missed a payment on interest or principal since the founding of the program, according to the entity.

The bond will mature in three years at an interest rate of 4.81%. More than 115 other state and municipal agencies have similarly made such an investment. Ohio is one of the country’s largest buyers of Israel Bonds, now holding $262.5 million.

Last year, Israel Bonds set a new record, bringing in $2.7 billion worldwide, in part as a result of the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“For as long as the war lasts, and then in the peaceful days that we are all hoping and praying for, Israel Bonds will work tirelessly to ensure that the country we hold close to our hearts continues to thrive,” said Dani Naveh, president and CEO of Israel Bonds.


Oct 7 War Day 131: Hezbollah strikes, Sinwar clip released, Nate Buzz on Hollywood’s hypocrisy
When did death squads become trendy? Australian actor and founder of Rova Media Nathaniel Buzolic sits down with Eylon Levy in the second episode of the State of a Nation Podcast to discuss global media hypocrisy, why Hamas has the PR upper hand, and what lies at the root of this conflict.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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