Tuesday, March 05, 2024

03/05 Links Pt2: Dawkins: Some fears about Islam are entirely rational; The Deadly Manipulations of the Anti-Israel Mob; To the Squad, Jews Are Second-Class Constituents

From Ian:

Richard Dawkins: Some fears about Islam are entirely rational
In Britain, phobia is hardly the right word for any fear Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, might feel. Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the former secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: ‘Death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for him. His mind must be tormented for the rest of his life unless he asks for forgiveness to Almighty Allah.’ A Muslim who is losing his faith would have good reason to fear the penalty for apostasy, which is death. When I taxed Sir Iqbal with this on television, he said, ‘It’s very rarely enforced’. That’s good to hear. But a would-be apostate doesn’t have to be ‘phobic’ to still feel a reasonable fear.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia, which was published in 2018, begins with the statement that it’s a form of racism. In a new paper for the Free Speech Union, Tim Dieppe makes the obvious point that Islam is not a race, and he very well develops the inconsistencies that this remarkable solecism leads to.

I would make one further observation. A religion is something you can convert to, or opt out of. Your race isn’t like that. You can’t convert to a race or leave it. The fact that you can’t leave your race means that, if Islam is indeed a race, apostasy is literally impossible. Yet apostasy has to be possible in Islam or it couldn’t be punishable by death. So the statement that Islamophobia is a form of racism is more than just incorrect. It contradicts a fundamental, and incidentally obnoxious, tenet of Islam.

Here I have not considered the issue of freedom of speech. Tim Dieppe covers it so well that I have nothing to add, except this final thought. If ‘Islamophobia’ becomes punishable by law, will it be illegal to even state, as a matter of fact, that a woman in some Islamic countries can be stoned to death for the crime of speaking to a man other than her husband? Will I be arrested for stating the undenied fact that apostasy carries the death penalty?

If so, bring it on. I look forward to defending myself in court.
Seth Mandel: The Deadly Manipulations of the Anti-Israel Mob
Bushnell felt that complicity, a writer for n+1 magazine theorized, working for “the US Air Force, the mightiest incendiary device that humans have ever constructed.”

He desperately needed people close to him to tell him they wanted him alive not dead. But if there were any such voices, they were clearly drowned out by the activist class falsely accusing him of complicity in genocide. In that way, Bushnell is less a conscientious objector than he is like Conrad Roy, the teenager who hesitated in taking his own life and was told by his girlfriend over the phone to get back in his truck as it was filling with carbon monoxide.

Bushnell represented something evil to these activists: the United States armed forces. Thus to them he was expendable. They came to bury him first, then to praise him. But oh, did they praise him. “Let us never forget the extraordinary courage and commitment of brother Aaron Bushnell who died for truth and justice!” tweeted professor and presidential candidate Cornel West. The suicide was, according to a writer for Current Affairs, “an act of courage and honor.” A professor at Gonzaga lamented he’d never “be able to muster up the courage of someone like Aaron Bushnell.”

Yet it’s hard to escape the conclusion that what they were attracted to wasn’t Bushnell’s courage but his vulnerability. A Veterans Affairs suicide prevention psychologist found in a 2017 study that guilt “had direct effects on” suicide ideation in military veterans. A 2021 study found that “[w]hen examined concurrently, guilt—but not shame—remained significantly associated with suicidal ideation, after accounting for effects of depressive symptoms and past suicide attempt.” According to an Ohio State Medical Center researcher, “literature has consistently implicated guilt in suicidality.” Those studies focused on the U.S. and UK. In similar research in Australia, “guilt was significantly associated with PTSD severity, anger, alcohol use, attempted suicide and being a contemporary veteran.”

I mention all of those simply to show that guilt, the category of emotion into which complicity falls, is nearly a universal marker of the chances of attempting suicide among military and veterans. It is emotional cyanide. The activists disrupting everyday life with cries of “genocide!” are feeding the population a steady dose of rat poison.

Redemption politics have always been a mainstay of extreme political movements—the Soviet gulags themselves were seen as purifying by their sociopathic wardens. And that concept is clearly driving the campaign of human sacrifice that has claimed real victims and whose ringleaders seem to be taking only encouragement from that fact.
Jewish Londoners ‘make plans to flee capital’ amid huge antisemitism wave
Growing numbers of Jewish families are considering fleeing London for abroad because of rising antisemitism in the capital, campaigners warned on Tuesday as they demanded tougher action to combat intimidation and hate.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism said some Jewish residents had already left because of fears for their safety.

But it added that the number of those considering leaving London was increasing daily in response to hostility being displayed towards them.

The campaign group has exposed a series of antisemitic attacks in London amid reports of increasing nervousness among Jewish people about their safety.

Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said an earlier opinion survey had already shown that about half of Jewish people were considering moving abroad and that the trend was growing because of continuing hostility from sections of the community.

He said examples ranged from threats made to MPs and outside Parliament to antisemitism in universities and attacks on the streets, as well as

the impact of Gaza protest marches involving incidents of antisemitism and support for Hamas terrorism.

“We are aware of people now who have left the country. It’s the biggest untold story, the effect it’s having on Jewish families of mass intimidation. The cumulative effect is pretty devastating,” he said.


Biden Slams America's Conduct During WWII in Attempt To Criticize Israel
President Joe Biden slammed America's conduct during the Second World War in a conversation with Israel's war cabinet, arguing that the Allied bombings of Nazi Germany led to the "United Nations and all these rules" that preclude the use of such tactics today.

In an interview with the New Yorker's Evan Osnos, Biden criticized the Jewish state's leaders, saying they have become consumed with "rage" in their war against Hamas and have lost "the moral high ground." Biden went on to detail a conversation he had with members of Israel's war cabinet, who defended the war in Gaza by noting "that America had carpet-bombed Germany in the Second World War." Biden responded by suggesting America should not have done so.

"That's why we ended up with the United Nations and all these rules about not doing that again," he said, according to Osnos.

Biden’s criticism of the Israeli military campaign comes days after he suggested that a ceasefire deal between the Jewish state and Hamas was imminent. Several parties involved in the negotiations, however, cast doubt on Biden's comment, dismissing the president's optimism as exaggerated. Biden walked back his assessment on Thursday.

"I was on the telephone with the people in the region," Biden told reporters. "Probably not by Monday, but I’m hopeful."

Biden is facing pressure to secure a ceasefire from his party's progressive flank—as well as Hamas.

Last week, more than 100,000 Michigan Democrats voted "uncommitted" in the state's presidential primary after anti-Israel activists organized a protest vote. Days later, on Monday, a senior Hamas official said Biden must pressure Israel into a ceasefire deal.

"It is now in the hands of the Americans, if they are serious about achieving a cease-fire before Ramadan, to exercise enough pressure on the Israelis," senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu "doesn't want to reach an agreement and the ball now is in the Americans' court," he added.
Rubio, Rosen push House-passed Hamas sanctions bill in the Senate
Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) on Tuesday are set to reintroduce the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad International Terrorism Support Prevention Act in the Senate, seeking to expand the U.S.’ sanctions regime on Palestinian terrorist groups.

The bill passed the House by a strong bipartisan margin, 363-46, in November. Rubio had introduced a version of the bill last year but, at the time, it lacked Democratic co-sponsors in the Senate. Rosen’s support makes this latest version of the bill a bipartisan effort.

The legislation would implement new sanctions on individuals, entities and governments providing support for Palestinian terrorist groups. Congress passed into law a similar sanctions regime targeting Hezbollah in 2015. The Hamas-targeted bill has been introduced in the Senate multiple times, but lacked Democratic support in recent years. The legislation has floundered for years, despite some forward momentum.

Unlike the version of the bill Rubio introduced with Republican support in 2023, the new legislation contains language specifically exempting humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank from the sanctions, as long as it complies with other U.S. law.

Some opponents of the bill in the House had raised concerns that it contained insufficient carve outs for humanitarian aid.
Senate Republicans urge Red Cross not to hire ex-UNRWA head as director
Sixteen Senate Republicans on Monday urged the International Committee of the Red Cross to reconsider its decision to select former United Nations Relief and Works Agency head Pierre Krähenbühl to serve as the ICRC’s director general.

Krähenbühl led UNRWA from 2014 to 2019, resigning amid allegations of mismanagement and ethical abuses from an internal U.N. probe, although he was mostly cleared of those allegations. He’s set to take over the Red Cross in April, and spent years in various roles at the ICRC before his move to UNRWA. Both the Red Cross and UNRWA have come under intense scrutiny from the U.S. and Israel amid the war in Gaza.

“It is our belief that the publicly reported ‘credible and corroborated’ allegations of mismanagement, ethical misconduct, and abuse of authority that prompted Mr. Krähenbühl’s resignation from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in 2019 disqualify him from leading the ICRC at this pivotal moment in history,” the lawmakers, led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-ID), said in a letter to the ICRC Assembly.

In addition to the allegations leveled in the U.N. investigation, including sexual misconduct, the lawmakers raised “serious concerns about the direction UNRWA took under his leadership,” including discoveries of Hamas weapons inside UNRWA facilities and UNRWA’s use of textbooks containing antisemitic and anti-Israel material.

“The failure to address these incidents can be seen as a pre-cursor to the October 7th massacre, which we now know included direct participation by UNRWA employees,” they continued.
Seth Mandel: To the Squad, Jews Are Second-Class Constituents
It’s the catch-22 of the Jew: Either quietly accept your place as a second-class constituent of your elected representatives or stand accused of puppeteering and aggression for speaking out loud. And so it was when Rep. Summer Lee, a Pennsylvania Democrat and acolyte of the Squad with a long history of hostility to Israel, felt sufficiently pressured to drop her keynote appearance at a fundraiser alongside figures who had heaped praise on Hamas for its murder spree on October 7.

She was forgoing the event, first and foremost, “to prevent the Muslim community from being the target of any more politically motivated Islamophobia.” That is, the criticism of the anti-Semitism (and homophobia) of her fellow speakers was made in bad faith, and that criticism is something from which the Muslim community needs protection. The Jews who spoke out against the event were thus not only manipulative but dangerous.

The event was hosted by the Philly branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), whose national executive director, Nihad Awad, reacted to October 7 by saying: “I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land that they were not allowed to walk in,” because Israel “does not have that right to self-defense.” Additionally, the Jewish state’s supporters “have paid millions of dollars for corrupt members of Congress not to condemn its atrocities against Gaza. AIPAC and its affiliates have been controlling the United States government and the United States Congress … Unless we free Congress, we will not be able to free Palestine.”

These statements didn’t reflect some misunderstanding or oversensitive reaction: They were indistinguishable from the rhetoric of Hamas or neo-Nazi groups.

But that wasn’t what got Lee in hot water! One speaker at the CAIR event called Jews “demons” who must “cover their horns.” Another speaker responded to October 7 thus: “May Allah destroy them even worse than they have tried to destroy others!” A third called Zionism a “sick, sadistic cult.”

Now Jewish Insider has revealed some more bad news for Lee. Dear White Staffers is the name of a popular Instagram account acting as an anonymous clearinghouse of complaints for congressional staffers. Since October 7, however, it has—like much in the progressive activism space—rededicated itself as an obsessive anti-Israel account. It has veered into anti-Semitism and shared pro-Hamas material, and its influence on the Hill has increased hostility to Jewish staffers in Congress.
How ‘Dear White Staffers’ turned into an anti-Israel, antisemitic account
“Dear White Staffers,” the popular and closely watched Instagram page that captivated Washington by publicly sharing allegations of abusive behavior by and gossip about lawmakers and their staffers, has taken on a new tenor in the five months since Oct. 7, morphing into a prominent and vocal anti-Israel platform that some fellow Hill staffers describe as borderline or openly antisemitic.

The Instagram page’s transformation from a platform supporting Hill workers across parties, with fans even on the center-right, into a mostly single-issue anti-Israel advocacy page is reflective of broader trends in many progressive organizing spaces since October — leaning into anti-Israel stances or facing internal and external dissent over their refusal to do so.

Jewish Insider has been able to link the Dear White Staffers account to a staffer working for Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), an early opponent of Israel’s war against Hamas, who faced backlash last week for plans to appear at a gala alongside speakers who have made antisemitic and homophobic comments. Lee later pulled out of the Council on American Islamic Relations event after receiving criticism from other Pennsylvania Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Multiple sources told JI that concurrent posts on the Dear White Staffers account and a personal social media account of the Lee staffer placed the two accounts in the same place in Los Angeles at the same time. JI has seen screenshots of the posts in question. Several Democratic staffers described Dear White Staffers’ identity as an open secret among a growing number of Hill staff.

The Lee staffer appears, masked but identifiable, in a photo from a cease-fire protest on Capitol Hill, which had been promoted by the Dear White Staffers account. Dear White Staffers’ posts about the length of their tenure on Capitol Hill are consistent with that of the Lee staffer. The Dear White Staffers account has verified publicly that it’s operated by only one person. The Lee staffer is also a leader of a congressional unionization effort that was launched in part by Dear White Staffers’ sharing of allegations of mistreatment and abuse.

Neither Lee nor an email account for Dear White Staffers responded to a request for comment.

The Lee staffer previously worked for Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) — another prominent anti-Israel lawmaker who has faced accusations of antisemitism, Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Julia Brownley (D-CA).
Pittsburgh-area rabbis sign open letter denouncing Rep. Summer Lee over anti-Israel rhetoric
More than 40 rabbis and cantors in the Pittsburgh area have signed on to an open letter voicing their continued disappointment with Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) over her criticism of Israel amid its war with Hamas in Gaza, and accusing the congresswoman of using “divisive rhetoric” that the clergy members say they “have perceived as openly antisemitic.”

“Last fall we wrote to you with concerns about your rhetoric and votes in relation to the events of October 7 in Israel, the subsequent war and the rise in antisemitism in America,” the signatories write in their letter, which was first shared with Jewish Insider on Monday. “You graciously agreed to meet with us, and in that meeting you promised us that you would call out antisemitism and temper your own language.”

“Sadly, three months later, you have not followed through on those commitments,” say the authors, including Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life synagogue in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill.

The letter comes a week after Lee, a prominent Squad member who represents a sizable Jewish constituency in Pittsburgh, announced she had canceled a planned appearance at a fundraising banquet for a leading Muslim advocacy group featuring several speakers who have espoused antisemitic and homophobic views.

Her initial decision to join the event alongside speakers who had rejoiced over Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and called Israelis “demons” who lie to “cover their horns,” as JI first reported last week, had faced intense backlash from Jewish leaders and elected officials in Pennsylvania who denounced the event.


Democratic women’s club to host anti-Israel speaker who has pushed Oct. 7 conspiracies
A historic Democratic club in Washington plans to host a writer with a long history of espousing widely debunked conspiracy theories and going to bat for authoritarian leaders, including Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in an address focused on U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine and Gaza. The speaker, Max Blumenthal, frequently pushes falsehoods about the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.

Blumenthal is set to deliver remarks to the Woman’s National Democratic Club (WNDC) about “the U.S. role in the current crises in Gaza and Ukraine.” In his public writings, Blumenthal has sought to cast doubt on atrocities that have been widely documented. He has questioned in both cases whether Ukraine and Israel have been guilty of killing their own people. He has also repeatedly argued that there is no evidence that Hamas terrorists raped women on Oct. 7, calling such claims a “psy-op.”

Blumenthal delivered a similar address in January at the National Republican Club, an indication of the horseshoe theory of politics at play — when the extremes on both sides find themselves in agreement embracing radical or fringe views.

The WNDC, a membership organization founded soon after women gained the right to vote to encourage the participation of women in politics, has close ties to the Democratic Party. Over the years, it has hosted members of Congress, authors, activists and high-level officials — including President Harry S. Truman. Eleanor Roosevelt was a member.

“The same week that President Joe Biden is giving his State of the Union speech, a ‘Democratic’ club is holding a program in which his international leadership will be attacked,” Ann Lewis, a former longtime Democratic aide and the co-chair of Democratic Majority for Israel, told Jewish Insider on Monday. “The club claims to be proud that Eleanor Roosevelt was once a member. Eleanor, who was a strong supporter of the State of Israel, would be ashamed of the WNDC today.”
Democratic Socialists of America Tells Members To Oppose Biden, Accuses Israel of 'Genocide'
The Democratic Socialists of America on Sunday encouraged its members to vote "Uncommitted" in the election cycle's remaining Democratic primaries, unless President Joe Biden backs "a permanent, lasting ceasefire" in Israel.

"Until this administration ends its support for Israel's genocide in Gaza and delivers a permanent, lasting ceasefire, Joe Biden will bear the responsibility for another Trump presidency," the DSA wrote on X, formerly Twitter. The group, which says it has more than 92,000 members, has organized numerous anti-Israel protests since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state.

Lawmakers from both parties have condemned the DSA for its role in organizing these protests, where attendees have cheered for Hamas and waved Nazi imagery. In January, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the DSA faced a $2 million budget shortfall and was considering layoffs as members split over the group's anti-Israel stance.

Progressives have hammered the White House for its handling of the war in Gaza, and some Democrats fear the Left's unhappiness could spell electoral disaster for Biden come November. The congressional "Squad," which includes DSA members Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), has repeatedly called on Biden to back a ceasefire.

Tlaib helped lead a protest vote in Michigan's February primary, in which over 100,000 Michigan Democrats voted "Uncommitted." The "Listen to Michigan" campaign targeted the state's large number of Arab-American and Muslim voters, whom Biden will need to secure reelection. The DSA referenced the Michigan results in its statement, saying, "Biden is on track to lose the election to Trump unless he chooses to listen to the working class of this country and change course."

"Defeat is certain if he fails to do so," the DSA added.


Erasing Jesus from Israel
The bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church harshly condemned Israel over the Hamas War, exceeding even the usual intemperance of white progressive Mainline Protestant denominations. It accused Israel of waging “torture” against the Palestinians of Gaza followed by “murder,” with American weapons. They urged the U.S. to end all support for Israel. They accused Israel of disregarding Palestinian human dignity since 1954. And they accused the U.S. of supporting Israel’s “mass genocide.” They condemned “all violence as a means of resolving this conflict.” And they lamented the “tools of empire, colonialism, and domination,” while extolling their “solidarity with Jesus Christ of Nazareth, a Palestinian Jew.”

This statement was very unfair and very stupid. When dealing with terror strikes like October 7, what are the alternatives to “violence?” Critiques are easy. What are the constructive alternatives? If the communities of these bishops were attacked with murder, rape, and kidnapping, what would they urge? What would they expect of their government? What does historic Christian teaching offer on this topic? Surely more than platitudes.

When church leaders speak to society, they should do so soberly and constructively, reflecting the gravitas of their office. Did the bishops actually write this statement? If not, who did? Was there any serious conversation among them? And to what extent if any do AME members agree? The AME, like other historic black denominations, and like the white Mainline Protestant denominations, is declining, as more American Christians of all races gravitate towards nondenominational churches. This shift is understandable.

Meanwhile, Sojourners, a storied Religious Left journal that continues its descent into post-Christian extremism, published an article insisting Jesus was Palestinian. The author, who identifies as a Quker Palestinian in North Carolina, lamented “various fictional accounts found in the Bible, like the story of the Exodus, which some use to justify Zionism and the current apartheid.” And he claimed a “consensus among scholars that the Bible is not a history book,” but “Western Christians still refer to the Bible for ‘historical accounts’ of Palestine.” Correction: the vast majority of over two billion Christians, most of them outside the West, still heed the Bible as history, including the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt to the Promised Land.
When Christmas is Politicized to Target Israel
In a sad moment in the history of Jewish-Christian relations in the U.S., the leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) have issued a statement accusing Israel of genocide, while also condemning American support for Israel. Mark Tooley notes that, near its end, the statement declares, “We remain in solidarity with Jesus Christ of Nazareth, a Palestinian Jew, and the Prince of Peace.” This reference to Jesus as a Palestinian reflects a disturbing new trend:
Sojourners, a storied religious-left journal, . . . published an article insisting Jesus was Palestinian. The author, who identifies as a Quaker Palestinian in North Carolina, lamented “various fictional accounts found in the Bible, like the story of the Exodus, which some use to justify Zionism and the current apartheid.”

The AME bishops, echoing the Sojourners author, call Jesus a “Palestinian Jew.” Would Jesus have understood Himself in this way? He never referred to it, and Palestine is never cited in the New Testament. Roman soldiers mocked Jesus as “King of the Jews.” He was from Judea. Hebrews of His time did not refer to their land as Palestine. . . . Denying or minimizing Jesus’ Jewishness is unhistorical. It also leads to erasing the Jewish people historically and politically.

Marina Rosenberg, meanwhile, shows us where such attempts to de-Judaize Jesus naturally lead:
During Christmas last year, there was a concerted effort by some Palestinian factions and their supporters worldwide to [convince people that] the current Israel-Hamas war is in fact a Jewish-Christian issue. In the Arab press and across social media, there were invocations of the age-old anti-Semitic trope of deicide—the accusation that Jews killed Jesus—by depicting baby Jesus being targeted by the Israeli army, including when he was born. . . .

These depictions of Jesus also carry the deeper message that as a Palestinian, Jesus was not a Jew.

Such arguments have long been found in the Christian tradition, although they have been routinely rejected by the mainstream. They stretch from the heretical 2nd-century theologian Marcion—who, believing the God of the Hebrew Bible was a wicked lesser deity, wanted to expunge the Old Testament from the canon—to 19th-century German anti-Semites, who argued on pseudo-scholarly grounds that Jesus was not “racially” Jewish. It’s clear that, whatever their form, these trends have always resulted in hatred of Jews.


The silence from moderate Muslims is deafening: Vivian Bercovici | Israel-Hamas War
Visegrad24 presents an in-depth series covering the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. This comprehensive series features on-the-ground interviews, bringing firsthand insights from a diverse range of voices, including politicians, professors, journalists, experts and influencers.

Our guest today: Vivian Bercovici who served as Ambassador of Canada to Israel between 2014-2016

00:00 - Introduction
01:18 - Canadian pro-Hamas protests
04:57 - Justin Trudeau and Palestine
08:03 - A diplomat's reaction to the war
11:41 - Violent protests in Canada
14:09 - The unholy alliance
18:14 - Ignorance among the youth
20:19 - The West is under threat
22:45 - The Islamist war on Christmas
24:40 - Saving the West
27:03 - Cultural relativism
28:14 - Islamist radicalism
28:58 - Why the West should care about the West
32:25 - Islamist expansion
38:28 - US vs the Houthis


The Role of the Western Media: Help or Hindrance in Bringing Peace to the Mideast?
JCPA War Room Briefing

Featuring Tom Gross - Former Jerusalem correspondent for the London Sunday Telegraph and the New York Daily News

Also featuring: Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, Former Director of the Military Prosecution for Judea and Samaria


Australian conference cancels Israeli doctor's lecture after boycott calls
An Israeli doctor’s lecture and attendance at a Queensland mental health conference was canceled on Monday after an anti-Israel harassment campaign led organizers to believe there was a security threat.

Tel-Hai College Head of the Stress, Trauma, and Resilience Studies founder Dr. Moshe Farchi was scheduled to speak at the Gold Coast Frontline Mental Health Conference at the JW Marriott. AST Management, the company organizing the event on behalf of the Australia New Zealand Mental Health Association (ANZMHA), said that starting Friday and continuing throughout the weekend, it had received a “high volume of online abuse and telephone calls” from activists against Farchi’s attendance.

“Our security experts advised us that, based on the volume and nature of the abuse, there was insufficient time to conduct a thorough risk assessment at the hotel to ensure the safety of the 280-plus conference attendees,” AST general manager Samantha Collingridge said in a statement. “As the conference organizers our priority is the safety of all participants, including Dr. Farchi. We have a legal duty of care to provide a safe and secure conference. Based on this duty of care, and in the interests of safety only, we decided to cancel Dr. Farchi’s registration.

ANZMHA CEO Sam Stewart also said that the decision was made by AST based on security concerns, and assured that “the association has not taken a position on the current conflict between Palestinian and Israel.”

Pro-Palestinians celebrate cancellation
Pro-Palestinian groups celebrated the cancellation of the Israeli doctor’s keynote speech, saying that public pressure was a big factor in the decision.


Expert alleges he was uninvited from mental health conference because he’s Israeli
An expert who was uninvited from a mental health conference alleges it was because he’s from Israel.

Dr Moshe Farchi travelled from Israel to attend the Frontline Mental Health Conference, only to learn he was no longer welcome and that his hotel room was cancelled.

It is understood the organisers believed his appearance would pose a threat to the conference.

Zionist Federation of Australia Chief Executive Alon Casutto says the Jewish community are “outraged” by the conference organisers’ decision.

“At the end of the day, it’s pretty simple – conference organisers, they’ve allowed a bunch of racist bullies to win the day.”


Israeli comics cite anti-Semitism after Sydney and Melbourne shows cancelled
Two Israeli comics are citing anti-Semitism after theatres in Sydney and Melbourne cancelled their shows.

Multiple venues pointed to security concerns and sensitivity issues as their reasoning behind cancelling the shows.

The two performers have managed to relocate their shows after the owner of the Randwick Ritz witnessed their talents during a performance in Israel.

Palace Cinemas provided a statement to Sky News, saying they felt it was not appropriate to host events making comedy out of the conflict in Gaza.

The comics were originally set to perform their shows in November but postponed due to the terrorist attacks on October 7 in their home country.


Kassy Dillon: Anti-Israel College Students Label Themselves ‘Militants’, Say ‘Armed Struggle’ Is The Way To ‘Liberate Palestine’
Mount Holyoke College’s anti-Israel student group posted various pro-violence graphics to social media, referring to themselves as militants and stating that “armed struggle” is the only way to “liberate Palestine.”

Last week, the 1837SJP club at the Massachusetts college posted a graphic with five points to its Instagram, one of which called for the destruction of Israel by stating that “Palestine” must be Arab and that “armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.”

The Mount Holyoke SJP group posted a graphic claiming “armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.”

The group claims to be the official Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Mount Holyoke on its social media page. The group, which uses “1837” in its name to refer to the year the college was founded, is not a registered student organization, according to the student paper.

Schools around the country have been embroiled in controversy over their handling of anti-Israel demonstrations and many documented anti-Semitic incidents since the October 7 Hamas massacre of Israeli citizens. The students at Mount Holyoke, like radical student groups at other American universities, appear to be embracing terrorism against Jews.

In a January post, the Mount Holyoke group called itself a “militant community 4 good.” It also advocated for students to let them know if they are “down for arrest” and encouraged students to “not be a cop” with the text “oink,” referring to police officers as pigs. The group has referred to the U.S.-designated terror group Hamas as “Palestinian resistance brigades.”

On Christmas, the group shared a graphic of a masked man with the text “May Israel fall Inshallah.”


Harvard turns over stack of requested documents to House Ed Committee
Harvard University has complied with the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, turning over a variety of materials on Monday related to the school’s efforts to counter campus antisemitism.

Administrators provided the committee with a four-page overview of the information contained in thousands of pages. This included summaries of boosts to campus security; new means for students to report incidents; more counseling opportunities; and increasing moderation for the school’s anonymous social-media account.

A statement from Harvard spokesman Jason Newton said the school would focus on safety in a concerted effort to make sure Jewish students feel welcome in the community. He stated that the university seeks to ensure that all students are “protected, embraced and valued, and can thrive at Harvard.”

JNS contacted Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), education committee chair, for comment on the documents received and did not receive a response. As of Monday night, the committee was reportedly reviewing the files. Harvard has now supplied the committee with 4,900 pages, including the 1,500 received on March 4.
Inaugural Columbia task force report confirms Jewish students’ claims of antisemitism
An inaugural report published Monday by Columbia University’s Task Force on Antisemitism confirmed claims by Jewish students of an antisemitic and hostile environment, and focused on delineating new proposed regulations on demonstrations on campus.

The task force was formed in November 2023 by Columbia University president Minouche Shafik, Barnard College president Laura Rosenbury and Teachers College president Thomas Bailey “as part of a commitment to ensuring that our campuses are safe, welcoming, and inclusive for Jewish students, faculty, and staff, and all of us.”

Members of the task force’s working group include the report’s main author, Law School Prof. David M. Schizer, and Business School Prof. R. Glenn Hubbard, Magda Schaler-Haynes from the Mailman School of Public Health, Law Prof. Matthew C. Waxman and Gil Zussman from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. More input was provided by 10 staff members from Columbia colleges.

While researching the status of antisemitism on campus, “the task force has heard of the isolation and pain many Jewish and Israeli Columbia affiliates have experienced in recent months,” the report reads. “While mourning Hamas’s unspeakable atrocities on October 7, some Jewish and Israeli Columbia affiliates have been the object of racist epithets and graffiti, antisemitic tropes, and confrontational and unwelcome questions, while others have found their participation in some student groups that have nothing to do with politics to be increasingly uncomfortable.”

The report notes that there have been “repeated violations of the rules on protests,” noting that protesters “have disrupted classes and events, taken over spaces in academic buildings, held unauthorized demonstrations, and used ugly language to berate individuals who were filming these protests or just walking by.” There have also been reports of physical harm to students.

The report’s introduction states that “Jews and Israelis are not the only ones targeted in this difficult time. Heartbreak, fear, and loss are widely shared experiences both on and off campus. Although our report focuses on antisemitism, our recommendations can also bolster efforts to combat Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism, and other types of bigotry.”
Dept. of Ed investigates anti-Semitism at Swarthmore College
The Department of Education is investigating Swarthmore College over its response to anti-Semitism on campus since October 7, 2023.

The complaint, filed by Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Dr. Zachary Marschall, states that pro-Palestine student groups have created a hostile campus climate for Jewish students, and accuses Swarthmore of doing little to address it.

An investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights was opened into the Pennsylvania college was opened on Monday.

The complaint cites multiple incidents, including one where the Swarthmore Students for Justice in Palestine chapter called Hamas terrorists “martyrs” and affirmed the “right of Palestinian people to resist,” as Campus Reform reported on Oct. 11.

In response, Swarthmore College President Val Smith wrote in a campus email that the statement is an example of the “free exchange of diverse ideas and perspectives” that “we embrace” as a “liberal arts institution.”
Berkeley Opens Hate Crime Probe After Violent Protest Forces Israeli Speaker To Evacuate
The University of California, Berkeley, launched a hate crime probe in connection with a violent protest that saw demonstrators shut down an Israeli lawyer's speech to campus Jewish groups, the school announced.

The event, which was organized by two pro-Israel student groups and scheduled to take place last week, was abruptly canceled after an anti-Semitic mob rushed the venue where Israeli lawyer Ran Bar-Yoshafat was waiting to speak. Violent protesters choked a female student attendee, spit in another's face, and shouted "Jew, Jew, Jew."

Now, Berkeley is investigating the ordeal as a hate crime. In a Monday statement, the school cited "two alleged incidents" of "overly antisemitic expression," as well as "allegations of physical battery."

"After we sent last week’s message, UCPD and OPHD received reports that two of the Jewish students who organized the event, as well as some of the attendees, were subjected to overtly antisemitic expression," said the school's chancellor, Carol Christ. "UCPD is investigating these two alleged incidents, which also included allegations of physical battery, as hate crimes."

The probe comes days after Berkeley released its original statement on the ordeal, in which the school pledged "to do everything possible to preclude a repeat of what happened." But the statement did not mention the words "Jewish" or "anti-Semitism," and Bar-Yoshafat later told the Washington Free Beacon that no Berkeley administrators reached out to him to apologize or discuss the event.

"I've had no apology," he said. "No one from Berkeley has contacted me since, or tried to contact me, even." Bar-Yoshafat's speech was meant to "address Israel’s international legal challenges," including whether Israel "violates international law, the rules of wartime conduct, and how the [Israel Defense Forces] can better protect civilians."
Harvard in antisemitism storm over ‘genocide’ talk by professor who appeared with Hamas leader
A professor who appeared beside a top Hamas leader was due to speak on “genocide” at Harvard Monday — the same day as a deadline for the university to finally comply with a congressional subpoena demanding answers on antisemitism.

Noura Erakat, an associate professor of Africana studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, was scheduled to speak on “We Charge Genocide; The Potential and Limits of International Law,” at the school’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies — after months of making anti-Israeli speeches.

The lecture by the controversial academic, who is also a human rights attorney, came amid mounting accusations that Harvard has failed to tackle antisemitism on its campus in the wake of the Hamas massacre of hundreds of innocent Israelis on October 7.

And the speech was scheduled just as Harvard hits a deadline to hand over documents demanded by the House Education Committee as it probes antisemitism on campus.

Harvard had already been granted an extension to cooperate with the probe, formally launched after a December hearing in which its then-president Claudine Gay said that whether calling for the genocide of Israelis broke Harvard’s policies depended on “context.”

But Erakat’s speech appears likely to inflame tensions. From the beginning of the Hamas atrocities committed against Israelis, Erakat has blamed Israel alone for the violence.

“Any condemnation of violence is vapid if it does not begin & end with a condemnation of Israeli apartheid, settler colonialism, and occupation,” Erakat posted on X to her more than 176,000 followers on Oct. 7.

A few days later, on Oct. 16, she tweeted to President Biden “…@POTUS repeated the lie about beheaded [Israeli] babies [by Hamas], directed US diplomatic corps to avoid calls for ceasefire [between Israel and Hamas], & backs Israel’s genocidal warfare [in Gaza]…”
Texas Tech University Suspends Professor for ‘Hateful, Antisemitic, and Unacceptable’ Social Media Posts
A professor at Texas Tech University who publicly posted antisemitic remarks has been suspended.

Jairo Funez-Flores is an assistant professor at Texas Tech’s College of Education. He specializes in decolonial studies, ethnography, and activist research. Texas Tech recognized him in the 2022-2023 academic year with the “Hemphill-Wells New Professor Excellence in Teaching Award.”

As first reported by Texas Scorecard, Funez-Flores had a history of antisemitic social media posts in which he publicly cursed Israel and the United States, along with heavy use of profanity.

On October 7, 2023, the day of the terrorist attacks against Israel, he posted the following quote on X from Palestinian poet Darren Tatour: “Resist, my people, resist them. In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and breathed my sorrows and carried the soul in my palm for an Arab Palestine. I will not succumb to the ‘peaceful solution,’ never lower my flags until I evict them from my land.”

That same day, he also shared a post justifying the October 7 attacks as “self-determination,” “resisting dehumanization,” and “justice.”

Now the University has suspended the professor due to the posts, which leadership has characterized as “hateful, antisemitic, and unacceptable.”


Mideast Starbucks franchisee firing 2,000 employees due to Gaza war boycott
The Middle East franchisee of Starbucks said Tuesday it has begun firing around 2,000 workers at its coffee shops across the region after the brand found itself targeted by activists during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

The Kuwait-based Alshaya Group, a private family firm holding franchise rights for a variety of Western companies including The Cheesecake Factory, H&M and Shake Shack, issued a statement acknowledging the firings at its Middle Eastern and North African locations.

“As a result of the continually challenging trading conditions over the last six months, we have taken the sad and very difficult decision to reduce the number of colleagues in our Starbucks MENA stores,” the statement read.

Alshaya later confirmed it was firing about 2,000 employees, as first reported by Reuters. Many of its employees in the Gulf Arab states are foreign workers hailing from Asian nations.

Alshaya runs about 1,900 Starbucks branches in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. It had employed more than 19,000 staff, according to the Seattle-based company. The layoffs represent just over 10 percent of its staff.


““It’s like them versus us” Six Jewish members resign from National Union of Journalists citing intimidation and anti-Israel bias
Campaign Against Antisemitism has spoken to Jewish members who have resigned from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), one of the largest trade unions for journalists in Britain, in recent months owing to its alleged anti-Israel bias.

We are aware of at least six Jewish members who have handed in their NUJ cards since 7th October. Those who spoke to us have told us that there is an anti-Israel bias in the Union, leading to a culture that leaves its Jewish members feeling ostracised.

Jewish former NUJ members have told us that the environment at the Union is influenced by rhetoric in official e-mails from the Union to its members, the nature of events held by the Union, and comments from other members.

In an e-mail sent to members on 20th November, the Union urged members to donate to a campaign to help journalists in Gaza, fronted by Nasser Abu Bakr, President of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. This came to the dismay of Rebecca (the names of those who spoke to us have been changed to protect their anonymity), a Jewish former NUJ member, owing to the fact that Mr Abu Bakr was fired by the French press agency Agence France-Presse due to a conflict of interest arising from his work as an activist for the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah Party. The Party has reportedly bragged about taking part in the 7th October terrorist atrocities, but there is no indication that Mr Abu Bakr backed the atrocities.

Mr Abu Bakr is also reported to have made comparisons between the Nazis to the State of Israel. In an interview, he said: “We asked Arab media people to intensify their effort to expose the Nazi and racist crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people and to bring back the Palestinian cause to the center [sic] of the Arab media’s attention.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.
BBC uses account of journalist working for Iran-backed news agency in Palestine deaths article
The BBC used an anti-Israel journalist bankrolled by Iran as a key source in its reporting on the Gaza conflict, it has emerged.

In a report over the weekend, the BBC analysed video and eyewitness accounts of a rush on an aid convoy in Gaza that led to the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians.

The report cited an eyewitness account from Mahmoud Awadeyah, who was described as a journalist on the scene.

But it has emerged that Mr Awadeyah works for Tansim News Agency, an Iranian outlet with links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has vowed to destroy the Israeli state.

In social media posts, the activist praised violence against Israelis and posted photos of himself dining with militant leaders.

Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, accused the corporation of “failing in the most basic of journalistic practices” by not checking one of its key sources.

Writing in The Telegraph, he said: “The BBC has a habit of accepting at face value what they are told by people who present as Palestinian civilians or officials from civic authorities and either don’t understand or don’t care that they are representatives of terrorist organisations.

“Our publicly-funded broadcaster seems to believe that ‘balance’ and objectivity means treating a genocidal terrorist group and a democratically-elected government in the same way.”

Mr Cohen said the failure to verify the source was further evidence of inherent bias in the BBC’s coverage of the conflict.
‘BBC Arabic treats Israeli guests disgracefully, spreads misinformation,’ interviewees say
Failing to provide full disclosures, purposefully misusing names of Israeli governmental functions or locations, lauding the October 7 massacre and other terror attacks, general lack of impartiality, and constant interruptions are only some of the issues Israeli guests and experts describe they face when invited to speak at BBC Arabic, the Arabic-language version of the British state-owned news network.

BBC Arabic has been under scrutiny for the past several weeks. Earlier this week, the Telegraph published an exposé revealing that BBC journalists who were being investigated for expressing support for Hamas’s October 7 massacre – returned to cover the war once again.

Additionally, last week, Sir Michael Ellis, former attorney-general for England and Wales, warned in Parliament about the harmful effect of the BBC’s coverage of the war, blaming the outlet of “failing the British public” and accusing the network of flaming the rise in antisemitism in the UK. Media Bias and Controversy

One of the main protagonists of these trends is anchor Noureddine Zorgui, who insinuated that Jewish students in the UK were instructed by Israel to “pursue a campaign of censorship,” said he was broadcasting “from Palestine” while visiting Nazareth, and defended the comparison between Palestinian criminals serving time in Israeli prisons and Israeli children and elderly taken hostage by Hamas.

Yet a short survey of Arabic-speaking Israeli interviewees brought to speak on the channel, Jews and Arabs alike, shows that it’s not one specific anchor but rather a recurring phenomenon.

A BBC spokesperson said, “As we said at the time, we take allegations of breaches of our social media guidance very seriously and we took urgent action to investigate each case in detail. We do not comment on individual staff matters, however, if we find breaches we take the appropriate action.”

In another instance, regarding the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization, the BBC commented: “The BBC, along with many other UK and global news organizations, does use the word ‘terrorist,’ but attributes it. We have made clear to our audiences that Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organization by the UK and other governments. The use of attribution is required by our Editorial Guidelines.”
The CEO of BBC News answers a question
In the Gaza Strip, however, not all “journalists are civilians”. Some – like the two whose terror links the BBC tried to downplay in January – are active members of terrorist organisations. Others are employees of the media arms of terrorist organisations. Obfuscating that fact clearly does nothing “for the protection of press freedom”.

Nevertheless, one of the people who chose to sign the CPJ’s “open letter” is Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News. Readers may recall that in October of last year, Turness attempted to do damage control following criticism of BBC coverage of the war initiated by Hamas on October 7th.

However, as we see, Turness’ commitment to providing BBC audiences with “trusted journalism” does not include recognition of the fact that her profession is being abused by people who function both as journalists and terror operatives.

The BBC’s participation in this CPJ campaign, which whitewashes the issue of the terror affiliations of some journalists in the Gaza Strip, is particularly relevant given that – as noted by Jeremy Bowen in a recent Radio 4 item – the corporation is currently using local freelancers to produce content.

Bowen: “The only journalists in Gaza at the moment are Palestinians who were there on the 7th of October and haven’t left. Many Palestinian journalists have been killed. Many others, including my colleagues from our BBC office in Gaza, have got out with their families. The ones left behind, whether by choice or because they haven’t had permission to cross into Egypt, are extremely courageous. We work with freelancers inside Gaza who liaise with a talented young Palestinian producer in our office in Jerusalem. […] We would be precisely nowhere without them.”

Indeed, BBC audiences have seen reports from the Gaza Strip that are credited to journalists who are not present on the ground but fail to clarify who actually did the filming and interviewing.

With the BBC now having made it clear by means of Turness’ endorsement of this CPJ letter that the issue of journalists engaging in terrorism is not one of its concerns, some difficult questions obviously arise regarding Turness’ claim to provide “trusted journalism” to the corporation’s funding public.
BBC Verify has become a tool for promoting anti-Israel bias
It was claimed by staffers that BBC Verify would be a “new team of investigative journalists with years of experience in verification work and forensic journalism”. The reality appears to be that this new brand is instead a major contributor to the damage being done to the BBC’s reputation and its commitments to impartiality and accuracy. The most recent example of this is perhaps the most damning.

Last week the BBC published a Verify-branded report on the tragic circumstances that surrounded the deaths of Palestinians at an aid convoy in Gaza. The reporting was based partially on the account of Mahmoud Awadeyah, described by the BBC as a “journalist”.

Thanks to the work of researcher David Collier, we know a lot more about the source that the BBC relied on for its supposedly forensic reporting. Awadeyah reportedly works for the Tasnim News Agency, which is associated with Iranian Revolutionary Guard. In other words, it appears that the BBC’s source is on the payroll of a country committed to the genocidal destruction of the Jewish State, one that uses its media proxies to promote its murderous ambitions.

Unfortunately, it gets worse. Mahmoud Awadeyah’s social-media timeline is filled with pro-terrorist and anti-Semitic material. BBC Verify’s source appears to be a man who celebrates the deaths of Jews. Last year, as seven lay dead after a terror attack on a synagogue in East Jerusalem, Awadeyah took to Facebook to describe his feelings: “A state of rejoicing, exuberance and mosques filled with exuberance. Revenge for the fetus”. And this apparent glee at the violent deaths of Jewish people was not an isolated occurrence.

In the summer of 2023, he posed in front of a mural depicting what seemed to be an Islamic Jihad rocket strike on an Israeli apartment building. Eighty year-old Inga Avramayan, who had been trying to assist her paralysed husband to a shelter, was killed in that attack. Yet as well as posing in front of the mural, Awadeyah promised more, writing: “Always rest assured that what is coming is more beautiful. God willing”.

Awadeyah’s social-media posts are publicly available for any journalist to see. Yet BBC Verify appears to have failed in the most basic of journalistic practices: checking one of their key sources. How could this have possibly happened?

The BBC has developed an apparent habit of accepting at face value what it is told by people presenting as Palestinian civilians or civic officials. It either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care that in too many cases these people turn out to be representatives of, or sympathetic towards, terrorist organisations.
CBC Spotlights Anti-Israel Song As Part Of Its “Songs You Need To Hear” Series
CBC News has been the subject of multiple HonestReporting Canada alerts in recent weeks, highlighting repeated instances of sloppy reporting, a failure to hold interview subjects accountable for their anti-Israel statements, and for the overwhelming propensity to cover anti-Israel topics.

But not all problematic coverage from the national broadcaster is limited to news.

On February 28, CBC published a written piece under its ‘Music’ category entitled: “Chromeo’s funky groove, and 8 more songs you need to hear this week,” as part of its “Songs you need to hear” weekly compilation of “hot new Canadian tracks.”

Among the musical numbers shown to the public by CBC was, ‘Hello Everyone (Ceasefire Now),’ by singer Jenn Grant.

The song’s lyrics included phrases such as “I’ve got the answer here, Join together, Sing it loud and clear: Ceasefire now.”

At no point during the song’s nearly three minutes of running time did Grant mention Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic terrorist group’s hostages, instead proffering a simplistic message, devoid of any context in the slightest.

The song’s music video, released February 23, also includes the words “by the tens and the millions, we are also Palestinians,” a favourite chant at anti-Israel demonstrations held around the world, and ended with the words “never forget to say, free Palestine.”

In CBC’s description of the song, it quoted Grant’s press release, which falsely claimed that “Palestinians…are being displaced and killed in a genocide before our eyes,” and saying that her song was “an anthem for us to unite in our demands for an immediate and permanent ceasefire now,” and once again repeating her groundless genocide accusation.
CBC As It Happens Radio Program Features “Humanitarian” Guests Who Falsely Accuse Israel Of Preventing Aid To Gaza
The March 1 broadcast of As It Happens, a CBC radio program, featured two separate guests discussing the state of humanitarian aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip, and in both cases, drew a highly misleading picture.

In the first interview, host Nil Köksal spoke with Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, an American humanitarian organization based in Washington, DC.

Konyndyk told Köksal that “the Israeli government is blocking humanitarians from moving goods overland through the border” into the Gaza Strip, a comment which went unchallenged by his host.

However, the truth is significantly different. Since the beginning of the Hamas-instigated war in October, more than 14,000 trucks filled with humanitarian aid have entered Gaza, in addition to a growing number of air drops.

The amount of aid that is entering Gaza is also growing. On March 3, 277 trucks with humanitarian aid entered Gaza, the largest shipment in a single day since the start of the war. And even that may not be the peak; Israeli officials have repeatedly said there is “no limit” to the amount of aid that can enter Gaza.

But that’s far from the impression listeners of As It Happens would have been given; instead, they were told the exact opposite: that Israel is intentionally starving Gaza, when such a statement is demonstrably false.

In a second interview during the same broadcast, Köksal spoke with Rachel Cummings, from Save the Children, another humanitarian organization.

During the conversation, Cummings told her host that “there are restrictions on the number of trucks that are able to pass” into Gaza, but did not elaborate. While there are no limits to the numbers of trucks that can enter Gaza, given Hamas’ continued presence in the coastal territory, Israel ensures that deliveries are subject to inspection so that Hamas cannot smuggle deadly weapons under the guise of food and medicine.

Hamas terrorists have used civilian infrastructure for their efforts before, including hospitals and ambulances.


MEMRI: Qatar's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Majed Al-Ansari In 2021 Article: Praise For Firing Of Thousands Of Rockets Into Israel; Gaza Is 'The First Palestinian Territory Liberated From The Occupier'; Israel Is 'The Entity,' 'The Zionist Enemy'
Dr. Majed Muhammad Al-Ansari, the spokesman of Qatar's Foreign Ministry and an adviser to the Qatari prime minister, was until quite recently a journalist and a columnist for the Qatari state daily Al-Sharq. Echoing Qatar's policy of supporting Hamas both politically and economically, Al-Ansari has expressed total support for armed struggle against Israel and for massive rocket attacks on it. One example of this is a column he published in Al-Sharq on May 24, 2021, just a few days after the end of the round of fighting between Israel and Hamas that began on May 10, 2021,[1] during which Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions fired thousands of rockets into Israel. In his article Al-Ansari praised Hamas' "victory" over Israel, which he called "the Zionist enemy" or "the entity," and celebrated the "the launching of 3,000 rockets in 10 days" into Israeli cities, which he said placed "the entire entity under the threat of the Palestinian rockets." This round of fighting, he stated, was just "one battle in an ongoing conflict." But it nevertheless marked "the beginning of the victory," because "historical victories" are the result of decades of ongoing activity. As examples of this he mentioned the First Intifada, which he said eventually led to the Israeli withdrawals as part of the Oslo Accords; the "martyrdom operations" during the Al-Aqsa Intifada; the "organized guerilla warfare" that, according to him, led to the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza – "the first Palestinian territory to be liberated from the occupier" – and the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel. Al-Ansari asserted that the struggle against Israel continues to develop towards the ultimate goal of "the disappearance of the occupation," and expressed hope that Allah would allow him to live long enough to see the Muslim victory and "the liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque and all the blessed land."

The following are translated excerpts from Al-Ansari's 2021 article:
"…What happened in the latest confrontation with the Zionist enemy [the May 2021 round of fighting between Hamas and Israel] was ultimately the result of [just] one battle in an ongoing conflict. This is a fact we should all keep in mind when we come to assess the changes in [Palestinian] issue every year – because historical victories are not realized suddenly. They are a result of years and decades of activity aimed at dismantling weakness and its causes and building and reinforcing strength. The important point is the approach [we take] to the confrontation. An optimistic [approach] today does not mean that this battle is the end of the conflict, but that it is the beginning of the victory. It nudged the confrontation in the direction of strengthening those who are in the right [i.e. the Palestinians] and halting the slide toward defeat.
Hamas-Sheltering Qatar Cashes In on Biden Natural Gas Pause
President Joe Biden’s pause on liquefied natural gas production is already turning into a major financial windfall for Qatar, even as the Gulf regime undercuts the United States and its allies by funding terrorists and sheltering fugitive Hamas leaders.

Qatar, which is the third largest LNG exporter after the United States and Australia, announced last week that it is expanding its natural gas production by 85 percent. The news came weeks after the Biden administration announced that it would freeze new domestic LNG export permits, a policy that many political observers viewed as a concession to climate activists ahead of the presidential election.

Brenda Shaffer, a senior adviser for energy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Qatar’s liquefied natural gas expansion was likely spurred by Biden’s policy announcement, adding that Doha will "benefit financially" from the pause.

"Nature doesn't allow a vacuum. The United States is the biggest producer of natural gas in the world. To say that it’s going to put a pause or freeze for a few years, obviously [other countries] are going to pick up that market," she said.

Energy experts told the Washington Free Beacon that Biden’s LNG announcement is already pushing buyers away from the U.S. market and toward adversarial competitors.


PMW: Israeli radio interviews PMW about PA Security Services terror involvement
Following PMW's release of its report “Terrorists in Uniform” documenting the widespread involvement of PA security services in terrorism, Israeli Radio’s main Hebrew station (KAN Reshet B) and it's KAN English language news both interviewed PMW director Itamar Marcus.

The following is the transcript of the English language interview:
PMW Director Itamar Marcus: “PMW has been following the PA security services’ involvement in terrorism for a number of years. What is significant is not only that the security service members are involved in terrorism, but that neither the PA nor Fatah [both headed by Mahmoud Abbas] try to hide it. In fact, just the opposite is true – they glorify it. They’ll say things on TV like ‘They are PA Security Forces officers by day, but they’re self-sacrificing fighters at night.’ In other words, they openly talk about the fact that the PA police have this double role. Fatah recently published a poster with the pictures of 23 PA security service officers, and the headline was ‘The Martyrs of the PA Security Services.’ All 23 were involved in fighting Israel. They didn’t hide it. Instead, they made a poster about it. The Western funded PA police who are supposed to fight terrorism are actively involved in terrorism.”

Kan English News Host Mark Weiss: “How widespread is this phenomenon?”

Itamar Marcus: “According to the PA and Fatah’s statistics, it’s absolutely central to the terrorism in Judea and Samaria. For example, the PA reported last year– this was before Oct. 7 [2023] – that 65% of the ‘Martyrs of the West Bank’ are from Fatah, and most of them are from the members of the Security Forces. Another statement on Fatah TV was that there were 1,500 ‘military operations’ last year led by Fatah and the security services. And in January 2024, Israel killed five terrorists because we knew that they were planning a terror attack. The PA published a poster with the pictures of the 5 terrorists, and one of them they titled ‘Capt. Abdallah Abu Shalal, member of the PA General Intelligence.’ The next day the [Israeli] army and Shabak (i.e., Israeli Security Agency) came out with a statement that he was considered one of the central terror leaders of Judea and Samaria. So, you have a central leader involved in terrorism all throughout Judea and Samaria, and he was a captain in the PA intelligence. The centrality of the PA security services to terrorism is absolutely clear from everything that the PA is publicizing and everything that the Israeli army is discovering.”

Mark Weiss: “And the most recent example of course was last week’s shooting at the gas station close to the settlement of Eli, where the perpetrator was a member of the Palestinian police force.”

Itamar Marcus: “Exactly, and again the PA media and newspaper were very proud to mention that he was a member of the security services. Nobody is trying to hide it. The PA population has been so radicalized by the PA, which has created great support for Hamas, and the support for terrorists is virtually 100%, so whenever a terrorist is a member of the security services, they rush to point out that they’re a member of the PA security services because this they hope will raise their stature amongst the Palestinian population.”


Abbas Advisor: If you love Allah be ready to pay with your blood
Official PA TV Live, broadcast of Friday prayers and sermon by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash at a mosque in Ramallah

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: You love Allah and His Messenger [Muhammad]? If so, be prepared. There are prices you must pay, prices with your blood, your money, your honor, your reputation. Be prepared!

[Official PA TV Live, Dec. 8, 2023]

Mahmoud Al-Habbash also serves as Supreme Shari’ah Judge and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice.


Rajoub: Gaza “genocide” worse than World War II
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub posted a video on his Facebook page

Video: Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “The scope of the aggression against the Gaza Strip is unprecedented in history. In other words, there has been no precedent to the scope of the victims, the scope of the destruction, and the scope of the killing and genocide, even in World War II.”

[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Feb. 3, 2024]

Jibril Rajoub also serves as Head of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, and Chairman of the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA).


PA libel: Israeli doctors want to kill wounded Palestinians
Jordanian Medical Association member Mothafer Al-Jalamdeh: “Recently we saw a lot of doctors in the Zionist entity [Israel] who demanded that the occupation (i.e., Israeli) army kill even the wounded in the hospitals and we had an important role in noting the names of these doctors, and we contacted the international medical institutions on stopping contact with this group of doctors.”

[Official PA TV, Jan. 30, 2024]

Libel on Baptist Hospital Bombing in Gaza City, October 2023 - A failed rocket launch by Islamic Jihad terrorists fell short of Israel and hit the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 17, 2023, during Hamas’ terror war on Israel. The PA and Hamas rushed to libel Israel as being responsible for the bombing and claimed approximately 500 people had been killed, and global media outlets including Reuters and the BBC picked up the Palestinian libel without confirming it. Israel proved with video evidence, including from Al-Jazeera TV, that it was an errant Islamic Jihad rocket that fell on the hospital during a barrage of rocket fire. Israel further published audio recording of a phone conversation between two Hamas terrorists intercepted by Israel on Oct. 17, 2023, in which the terrorists discussed how an Islamic Jihad rocket caused the damage and the shrapnel was "local shrapnel" and not Israeli. Having seen the Israeli evidence, the US later confirmed the Israeli assessment that an Islamic Jihad rocket had caused the damage. A senior European intelligence source estimated that the true death count from the bombing was no more than 50 people.




Iran executed at least 834 people last year, in ‘staggering’ jump, rights groups say
Iran executed a “staggering” total of at least 834 people last year, the highest number since 2015 as capital punishment surged in the Islamic republic, two rights groups say in a new report.

The number of executions, which Iran has carried out by hanging in recent years, was up some 43 percent over 2022.

It marked only the second time in two decades that over 800 executions were recorded in a year, after 972 executions in 2015, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty say in the joint report.

The groups accuse Iran of using the death penalty to spread fear throughout society in the wake of the protests sparked by the September 2022 death in police custody of Mahsa Amini that shook the authorities.

“Instilling societal fear is the regime’s only way to hold on to power, and the death penalty is its most important instrument,” says IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam in the report, which describes the figure of 834 as a “staggering total.”

Iran has executed nine men in cases linked to attacks on security forces during the 2022 protests –- two in 2022, six in 2023 and one so far in 2024 -– according to the rights groups.

But executions have been stepped up on other charges, notably in drug-related cases, which had until recent years seen a fall.

ECPM director Raphael Chenuil-Hazan says the “lack of reaction” by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is sending “the wrong signal to the Iranian authorities”.


New ADL research reveals 24% of Americans embrace antisemitism
When the Anti-Defamation League released its previous research into the depth of Jew-hatred in the United States in January 2023, the group revealed that one in five Americans embraced antisemitism. That number has since risen to nearly one in four.

The ADL announced the results of a new poll with a 1.5% margin of error for 4,000 adults in the United States conducted from Jan. 5-18.

Researchers found that 24%, up from 20% in 2022, answered agreement with at least six out of 11 antisemitic tropes the organization has polled on for decades.

Data shows millennials to be the most antisemitic generation in the United States, embracing 5.37 tropes on average. In contrast, TikTok-enthusiast Gen Z believes 5.01 bigotries, Gen X a total of 4.19 and baby boomers 3.06.

The survey found a correlation between antisemitism and the belief in an “oppressor vs. oppressed” ideology, asking for levels of agreement in the statement, “When we think about the problems of the world, it comes down to the oppressor vs the oppressed.” Those who strongly agreed endorsed six antisemitic tropes on average, whereas those who disagreed believed in 2.4.

“The ‘oppressed vs. oppressor’ correlation with increased antisemitic beliefs is most interesting to me. Having been brought up in the Soviet Union where that same Marxist-Leninist ideology and ideologues were very much responsible for Soviet antisemitism and anti-Zionism,” Misha Galperin, president and CEO of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, told JNS. “I’ve been to that movie and did not like the plot.”
John Lithgow to star in Royal Court play about Roald Dahl’s antisemitism
His bestselling children’s books are regularly turned into hit plays and musicals but now Roald Dahl’s personal life has inspired a new drama. John Lithgow, best known for the TV comedy 3rd Rock from the Sun, will star as the author in Giant, written by Mark Rosenblatt and directed by Nicholas Hytner at the Royal Court theatre in London this autumn.

“I’m thrilled to be performing at the Royal Court where I’ve seen so much great work, stretching all the way back to the late 1960s,” said Lithgow. “There’s no better place to unveil Mark Rosenblatt’s stunning new play.”

Giant is set in 1983, shortly before the publication of Dahl’s novel The Witches, as he comes under fire for his antisemitic views expressed in the media. In an interview with the New Statesman that year, Dahl said: “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity … Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.” In 2020, the Dahl family and the Roald Dahl Story Company issued an apology for the “lasting and understandable hurt” caused by such statements.

Rosenblatt’s play unfolds across an afternoon at Dahl’s family home. It offers, according to publicity material, “a complicated portrait of a fiendishly charismatic icon” and “explores with dark humour the difference between considered opinion and dangerous rhetoric”. Giant is the debut play by Rosenblatt, a writer-director whose short films have included Ganef, exploring the impact of trauma and inspired by stories from the aftermath of his family’s Holocaust survival.
MEMRI: In Video Uploaded To Internet, Teenage Stabber Of Jew In Zürich Swears Allegiance To Islamic State (ISIS), Calls On Muslims To Target Jews And Christians Everywhere
At about 10:00 P.M. on Saturday evening, March 2, 2024, a 15-year-old assailant stabbed and seriously wounded a 50-year-old Orthodox Jew, Meir Zvi Jung, in the Selnau area of Zürich, Switzerland. The unnamed perpetrator reportedly shouted "death to the Jews" or "death to Israel" during the attack, and laughed when he was arrested at the scene.[1]

On March 3, 2024, a user of the Islamic State (ISIS)-operated Rocket.Chat server, "Smidgesrev," posted:[2] "A supporter of the Khilafa [caliphate] stabbed a Jew in Zürich, Switzerland, today Alhamdulillah [praise to Allah]." He added a link to the mediafire file-sharing website,[3] to which a four-minute video was uploaded showing the attacker swearing allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Hafs Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi, declaring the attack was perpetrated in response to ISIS spokesman Abu Hudhayfah Al-Ansari's call to target Jews and Christians,[4] and calling on others to follow his example and attack Jews and Christians.

The video was uploaded to the site from Switzerland at 2:11 P.M., several hours before the stabbing. Noting that "kuffar [infidel] news sources" reported the attack, the user posted a screenshot of an article by the Jerusalem Post. He did not specify how he had received the video or discovered its location.

Swearing Allegiance To ISIS Caliph, Responding To Call To Attack Jews And Christians

The video, which appears to have been filmed with a cellphone, shows a teenage boy wearing a coat over a sweatshirt, reciting the Arabic text of the bay'ah [oath of allegiance] to the current ISIS leader. The youth appears to be standing outside in daylight and reading his message from a written source. The video appears to have been cut in several places.
Italian soccer fan held for Nazi salute at beer hall where Hitler founded Nazi party
One Italian fan among about 100 Lazio soccer supporters who sang fascist songs in the beer hall where Adolf Hitler founded the Nazi party has been arrested and fined for giving a Hitler salute.

Munich police spokesman Michael Marienwald told The Associated Press on Tuesday that an 18-year-old from Italy was issued a four-figure fine after police were called to the Hofbräuhaus beer hall late Monday.

Marienwald said the police were looking at further action against more individuals after a large group of Lazio fans were filmed in the beer hall singing about the Blackshirts, the paramilitary wing of Italy’s National Fascist Party.

In a video published by the La Repubblica newspaper, the fans finished the song by chanting “Duce! Duce! Duce!” in reference to former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, an ally of Hitler. The fans appeared to be giving fascist salutes.

Hitler founded the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as the Nazi Party, with a speech in the same beer hall in 1920.
Wycombe Wanderers captain Joe Jacobson reveals he needed security escort as data shows spike in antisemitism
Being one of the only British Jews playing professional football has only become more challenging for Joe Jacobson this season - and made the Wycombe Wanderers captain a target of hatred.

The 37-year-old has revealed to Sky News how - in the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas atrocities and Israel's war on Gaza - he needed a security escort into the stadium and the League One club resisted demands to cut ties with him.

Jacobson has avoided commenting publicly about the attacks on the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust or the aftermath, but he did express concern about protesters he believed were "celebrating mass murder" in the streets.

Middle East latest: Houthis vow to sink British ships

There was a hostile reaction that Jacobson is discussing for the first time, amid concerns about the spike in antisemitism in football this season, according to data Sky News has obtained from Kick It Out.

Jacobson told Sky News: "I had a lot of messages on social media, the club got sent some emails and letters demanding I apologise, demanding that, if I didn't, they would barricade the gates at Adams Park on a match day a few days later."

When he arrived at the stadium, where he has played for a decade, there was a rush to shield him as he walked in.

"I got ushered in. I later found out that they were worried that someone was going to be there," Jacobson said. "So there were some plain-clothed security that were watching out and looking for anything.

"And fortunately nothing happened. But I'm just going to a place of work and there's people worried about something that might happen - and that that can't be right."
Appeal for witnesses after Jewish man reports assault at children’s football game
On Sunday afternoon, a Jewish man was allegedly physically assaulted at a children’s football game.

The match, between Norsemen and HGS Python, took place at Edmonton Sports and Social Club as part of the Watford Friendly League. HGS Python is an under-tens team which is known to have a predominantly Jewish membership.

At the end of the match, a woman, wearing a keffiyeh and a badge that said “Free Palestine”, and her partner allegedly approached the victim, whom they had overheard speaking Hebrew.

We have been told that the woman began to scream and swear at the Jewish man, before her partner punched him in the jaw.

It is understood that at one point, the woman slipped over in the mud and grabbed onto the victim’s legs.

The pair also allegedly took photos of the man, his children and his car.

The woman is described as White with long blue hair. The man accompanying her is described as White and wore the same “Free Palestine” badge as his partner during the game.

The incident has been reported to the police and is currently under investigation.
Backed by Microsoft and Cisco, Israel’s Team8 raises $500m to help build startups
Israel’s Team8, a venture capital group that develops and spins out tech companies, has raised $500 million for new funds that will invest in about 30 cyber, data infrastructure, fintech, digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) startups.

The new funds bring Team8’s total assets under management to well over $1 billion, the venture group said on Tuesday.

Out of the fresh capital, $235 million was raised for Team8’s second venture capital fund, which invests in seed and Series A rounds of startups. Another $110 million was raised for its third venture creation enterprise fund, in which Team8 collaborates with serial founders to jointly build and invest in 1 to 2 new startups a year in the fields of cyber, data infrastructure and AI.

An additional $70 million was raised for the launch of a new digital health fund, which strives to partner with entrepreneurs to invest in seed financing rounds of 1 to 2 new startups a year.

Nadav Zafrir, a former commander of the Israeli army’s tech and intelligence Unit 8200, founded the Team8 venture group in 2014 with 8200 veterans Israel Grimberg and Liran Grinberg. Its investors include Walmart, Microsoft, Cisco, Temasek and Moody’s.

The fundraising comes as Israel is almost five months into a war with the Hamas terror group and many local startups are struggling to attract essential funding. That’s after local political uncertainty around the government-led judicial overhaul at the start of 2023 pushed foreign investors into a wait-and-see position about deal-making and led to a sharp slowdown in investments.


Richard Lewis: A True Mensch
Known for wearing black, Lewis was born in Brooklyn on June 29, 1947. He went to Hebrew school, and his father Bill was a co-owner of a catering company in Teaneck, New Jersey. He would graduate from Ohio State University, and was discovered by comedian David Brenner while he did standup in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Lewis’ first big role was as Jewish comedian Billy Gondolstein in Diary of a Young Comic, a TV movie that aired on NBC. In 1985, he gained acclaim for his Showtime special I’m in Pain. He also appeared on the Howard Stern Show numerous times, including when he spoke about how he met Larry David when he was 12, hated him, and they had fistfights, but later became friends.

Lewis battled depression and alcoholism in his life.

Like so many others, I loved watching Lewis in Curb over the years. My favorite moment is when Lewis, after realizing he has called his girlfriend “honey” too early in the relationship, calls a waitress “honey” ten times, so it seems normal and his girlfriend doesn’t think he was trying to fast-track things.

Modi Rosenfeld, another comedian, said it was a pleasure to work with Lewis.

“We worked together at a few different events,” he said. “He’s one of the few comedians who is the same person both on and off stage. Always very friendly and supportive to younger comedians — which I was at the time.”

Comic Eli Lebowicz told me that Lewis stood out as someone with a neurotic nervous energy “and was proud of being a Jew.”

On Sunday night’s episode of Curb, people came up to Lewis to compliment him on his act, including a joke about “the bartender from hell.”

In his book, The Other Great Depression, Lewis wrote: “I figured out while writing my autobiography that I chose applause over tears and booze over fears.”




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