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Friday, March 08, 2024

03/08 Links Pt2: The Hostage President; Biden's Push for Two-State Solution Rewards Terrorism; Hamas terror attack exposes Al Jazeera for what it really is

From Ian:

European Jew-hatred too deep to identify ‘even after years of therapy,’ Douglas Murray says
Traveling in the Arab world, the British journalist Douglas Murray has found “fanatical obsessives” who know something about Israel but still criticize the Jewish state. And then there are those who peddle “counterfactual history,” he told JNS.

“For instance, Egyptians think they won the war in 1973. Smart, Egyptian, young professionals will think that they won the war in 1973,” Murray told JNS, of the Yom Kippur War, during an interview in Toronto on Feb. 28 prior to his remarks at a Tafsik event.

“I had to break it to a friend in Cairo once that they lost badly. He said, ‘Really. I thought we whipped their ass?’” Murray said. “I said, ‘No, they whipped your ass. Seriously.’”

Since Oct. 7, Murray, 44, a best-selling author and associate editor of The Spectator, has done a lot of explaining about Israel on television—often on Piers Morgan’s show—and at speaking engagements. The Anglican-turned atheist’s largest social-media following includes many pro-Israel accounts that regularly share video footage of him denouncing Hamas, defending Israel and debating antisemitic guests.

Knesset member Danny Danon, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, has called Murray a “great friend of Israel and of the Jewish people.”

“We need a special designation for those bravely standing with Jews and Israel in facing the greatest surge of Jew-hatred in decades. Let’s call them ‘Heroic Friends of the Jewish People,’” wrote former American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris, now vice chair of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. “My first candidate is Douglas Murray.”

Murray told JNS that many people aim to distance themselves from the Jewish state “because they don’t want Israel to be their problem.”

“Maybe if we come up with a perfect argument,” he said. “Maybe if we inform people about the history, and broadly speaking, you’re talking about trying to educate or inform people who are not educated or informed.”

Most anti-Israel people aren’t informed about the Peel Commission or the Balfour Declaration, according to Murray. “You’re talking about people who have never heard of any of these things,” he said.

“Among non-Muslims in the West, there’s a lot of ignorance, too. They fall into this psychopathy, in which they knowingly or unknowingly, usually unknowingly, desperately want to be able to accuse Jews of something,” Murray added. “That motivates them, and, of course, it makes them think that they’re good people.”
Bethany Mandel: Hamas terror attack exposes Al Jazeera for what it really is
In the wake of the attacks on Israel October 7, the role that the media network Al Jazeera has played cannot be understated. It is an arm of the regime in Qatar, which serves as a safe haven and benefactor for Hamas, which perpetrated the largest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust.

In a new report from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Yigal Carmon outlines how the Qatari-owned media empire promotes Islamist terror worldwide. That cooperation between Hamas and Al Jazeera is no more clearly evident than how it covered the attacks of October 7.

The network aired "exclusive" clips of the attacks, and Carmon explains, "This footage could only have been obtained from Hamas itself. The Al Jazeera reporter abandoned any pretense of neutrality, proclaiming gleefully that "the settler walls… collapsed… along with the iron image of the arrogant occupation army."

Within the rules and regulations to obtain press credentials at the United States House of Representatives, it is said, "they will not act as an agent for, or be employed by the Federal, or any State, local or foreign government or representatives thereof." These are generally the rules for any press credentials across government, in the U.S. Senate, White House, etc.

And yet, Al Jazeera retains this access, and in 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice required that the media network register as a foreign agent in accordance with Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) laws.

Former Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen outlined why in a report prepared for Congress, explaining that the network "repeatedly undermines U.S. interests in the region by supporting extremist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and [the] Al-Nusrah [Front]. […] Moreover, Qatar uses its state-owned, state-funded, state-directed and state-controlled Al Jazeera Media Network to project this vision to the U.S. public."

Since October 7, and the ensuing conflict, Al Jazeera has plainly been operating as an official mouthpiece for Hamas. In his report for MEMRI, Carmon explains, "Since October 7, Al-Jazeera has been airing official military announcements and threats by Hamas spokesmen – as well as by other terror organizations – on an almost daily basis, serving as a semi-official amplifier of Hamas messaging, often featuring outlandish claims of military successes by the group."
Seth Mandel: The Hostage President
Biden also made sure to remind the chamber and those watching at home that Americans reject bigotry, “give hate no safe harbor.” Indeed, he said, “Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back.”

It all sounded like a prelude to a discussion about the specific and undeniable prejudice dominating American institutions and the public square. But, as my colleague Abe Greenwald noted on today’s Commentary podcast, there was no mention of the tidal wave of anti-Semitism currently washing away the credibility and legitimacy of mainstream institutions—not even in the typical formulation in which it is balanced with Islamophobia, though there is no chilling epidemic of the latter. It is surely relevant to the state of our union that Jewish college students are subject to a more openly aggressive version of the bigotry they would have faced a century ago at those same universities, that street violence against Jews has become a regular occurrence, that the Jewish singer Matisyahu has had to hire extra staff and security to perform after two of his recent shows were canceled over venue workers’ discomfort with Jews, and that in the America of 2024 a bar in Salt Lake City can hang a sign that says “No Zionists Allowed”—as have campus shops and other establishments.

The president succeeded last night in showing vigor and emotional range and improvisational aplomb. So we can only conclude that all of the above didn’t make it into his speech for the sole reason that he and his staff didn’t want to talk about it.

Just like his brief drive from the White House to the Capitol before the speech, Joe Biden had to take a detour around the traditional route he might have taken had he been permitted to do so by his party’s considerable anti-Zionist freakshow contingent. The president is engaged in an ongoing hostage negotiation with his own party, and he is the hostage. Mr. President, blink twice if no one’s bringing you ice cream.


Israeli Policy Expert Says Talk of a Two-State Solution Is Dangerously Premature
Former deputy director general and head of the Palestinian division in Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), said in an interview that the Palestinian people are not yet ready to accept the idea of a nation state of the Jewish people. Nor does he think the Palestinian Authority under the leadership of 88-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas has the will, capability, or credibility to govern effectively in Gaza, let alone the West Bank.

"There is a big difference between the Israeli approach to the two-state solution and the Palestinian approach. In Israeli eyes it means a nation state of the Jewish people, and Palestine is the nation state of the Palestinian people."

"This is not the Palestinian perspective, where Palestine is the nation state of the Palestinian people and Israel is the state of citizens without any religious, ethnic or national characteristics. This is the core problem of the conflict: the Palestinian refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish people for self-determination. They regard Judaism only as a religion. If there is no Jewish people, there is no right for self-determination....So the idea of a two-state solution is a very illusionary idea, at least for the time being under the current circumstances."

"I think at the end of the day Israel will become much stronger after this war. And I think that the vast majority of Israeli society is much more sober with regard to the Palestinians and the reality that we live in. I think that the Israeli consensus is much broader now. The resilience is very impressive, and I think that the Jewish people and the State of Israel will be able to repair itself and prosper and to live in security for the next eight decades."
Elliott Abrams: Biden's Push for Two-State Solution Rewards Terrorism
Why are the American foreign policy establishment and the Biden administration still peddling old, discredited ideas like the “two-state solution” that purport to be the formula to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians?

In this week’s episode of Top Story, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin is joined by veteran diplomat and Tikvah Fund chairman Elliott Abrams to discuss where the push for Palestinian statehood is coming from and why Biden's Middle East policy is "so completely off base it's bizarre".


Seth Mandel: Yes, the Palestinians Need (Some) Democracy
Of course, there is the elephant in the room. Elections are, in a way, responsible for the territorial split between the PA and Hamas and the subsequent emergence of Gaza as an impacted wisdom tooth in the peace process. Palestinian elections in 2006 led to a surprise Hamas victory, which was followed in 2007 by Hamas’s armed takeover of the Strip.

But there haven’t been elections since. Instead, Abbas has only become more authoritarian and consolidated more governmental power even in territory he controls. Late last month, Abbas accepted the resignation of his entire cabinet in a move intended to show Western backers that change was coming. But that was interpreted as, if anything, moving the PA in the opposite direction of reform. As the Times of Israel explained: “The PA’s move to announce a new government was ostensibly designed to neuter calls by Abbas’s critics for him to empower an independent government, with a mission and a timetable for carrying it out.”

Abbas “preempted everyone.” It was a stalling tactic, sowing chaos among those jockeying for a chance to replace the outgoing cabinet in order to keep Abbas’s position as “the indispensable man” firmly intact.

No one expects Abbas (or anyone in his orbit) to suddenly morph into Thomas Jefferson or make the West Bank a libertarian island in the sun. But the problem of the security forces highlights how much Abbas’s increasingly paranoid authoritarianism undermines his chances to one day be president of an actual Palestinian state. The PA’s forces lost the 2007 battle with Hamas for Gaza and there’s no reason that it wouldn’t lose again next time to whatever Iran-backed militia plants Tehran’s flag in the ground.

You can’t have politics without security. And there’s no security without the legitimacy that comes with some kind of representation and accountability. Mahmoud Abbas is still standing in the way.
Unilateral Recognition of a Palestinian State Would Reverse Longstanding U.S. Policy
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pressed for "a concrete, time-bound and irreversible path" toward a Palestinian state. This amounts to saying that it doesn't matter how corrupt and incompetent the Palestinian leadership remains, if they continue to incite their people to hate Jews, or if their ultimate goal remains Israel's destruction. What matters is that the Palestinians will be rewarded with a state after Hamas committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

It's not an overstatement to say this is lunacy and disastrous for U.S. interests. It rewards terror. It will just perpetuate instability, anti-Israel terror, and pro-Hamas sentiment. It reverses longstanding U.S. policy, enshrined in the 1993 Oslo Accords, that Israelis and Palestinians must negotiate all final status issues, including the possible establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israel will never agree, and America will achieve nothing except a breach in U.S.-Israeli relations and American diplomatic failure. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a man of the left, told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month: "If you ask an average Israeli now about his or her mental state, nobody in his right mind is willing now to think about what will be the solution of the peace agreements because everybody wants to know: Can we be promised real safety in the future?"

To underscore the point, 99 out of 120 members of the Israeli Knesset recently voted against any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. As one senior Israeli official said, "not even Moses could get that many votes."

It is impossible to convince Israelis that a Palestinian state in the West Bank - just a few miles from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv - would not pose a mortal threat to them. What lessons would other prospective partners of America draw about aligning with Washington if the U.S. is willing to throw one of its closest partners, Israel, under the bus? And the big winner would be Iran.
Bassam Tawil: 'Ramadan - Month of Jihad' : Ramadan Will Not Stop Hamas From Killing Jews
On March 5, Biden warned of potential problems without a ceasefire deal by Ramadan. "There's got to be a ceasefire because Ramadan – if we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous," he told reporters in Washington.

Such statements are undoubtedly based on the extremely false assumption that Muslims do not engage in wars and armed conflicts during the month of fasting. In fact, the opposite is true. As the New York Times reported "It is widely believed that the rewards earned for noble acts are greater during Ramadan...."

Hamas... even published an article entitled, "Ramadan – The Month of Jihad, Fighting, and Victory over the Enemies."

Throughout history, Muslims have taken advantage of Ramadan to wage war against their enemies. Five historic Islamic battles were fought in the month of Ramadan: Battle of Badr, Conquest of Mecca, Battle of Tabuk, Battle of Amin Jalut, and Battle of Hattin.

Those who believe that Hamas seeks a ceasefire ahead of Ramadan are deluding themselves. Those who are concerned about the sanctity of the holy month ought to listen to what the terrorists themselves are saying: Ramadan actually increases their desire for Jewish blood.


Jonathan Tobin: Why liberals failed in the fight against antisemitism
What has happened since Oct. 7 is merely a confirmation of so many other trends in which traditional liberals have proven unable or unwilling to defend the Western canon in academia, the institution of the family against gender indoctrination as well as the principle of equal opportunity against the DEI doctrine that mandates its destruction. So, it is no surprise that they have similarly either abandoned the Jews against those attacking them or shown themselves too weak to oppose them. President Joe Biden’s willingness to pander to antisemitic voters in America’s “jihad capital” in Dearborn, Mich., is merely the most prominent example of this.

Foer also fails to grasp that as dire as the situation may be for Jews, it is not a foregone conclusion that a defense of that “golden age”—or at least the widespread acceptance of Jews—is doomed to failure. Granted, rolling back the intersectional and woke racist doctrines that have taken hold of so many American institutions and sectors of society, will be a daunting task. But it’s not impossible.

The progressives’ long march through U.S. institutions by which they promoted their doctrines was never voted on by the American people, and most oppose it. And the power of the government that enabled it can prohibit it just as easily. In this fight, Jews are not alone. The political right is committed to defeating woke ideology primarily because it is a threat to America and the West. Actions like the banning of DEI in Florida illustrate how the tide can be turned.

Only by winning the fight for the West and American values that liberals have punted on can exceptionalism be restored. But if liberal Jews are to play a role in stopping a movement that is targeting them, then they’ll have to overcome their abhorrence of conservatives and finally join the fight opposing the woke left.

That’s something that will be impossible for people like Foer, as well as the legacy organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee, which are too committed to their traditional political allies to do what is necessary to defend Jews. What they don’t realize is that if they continue to refuse to treat the battle against woke ideology as an existential struggle that should take precedence over every other domestic concern, they’re not just guaranteeing an illiberal future for this country where antisemitism will continue to be mainstreamed. They are also effectively ensuring that the days of America as a safe haven for Jews really are over.
Melanie Phillips: When we appease antisemitism, this is shameful result
Given the disproportionate levels of Jew-hatred in the Muslim community and the genocidal euphoria that erupted immediately after the October 7 massacre — an excitement over the defeat of the “Zionists” which Galloway’s election, and his likely deployment of the parliamentary megaphone, will galvanise still further — it’s hardly surprising that the security service is already warning of a hugely increased threat of Islamist terrorism. To talk about the real cause of such dangers is, of course, to provoke the charge of “Islamophobia”, the sinister term that silences as delusional and bigoted anyone who condemns any aspect of the Islamic world.

Which is why it’s so unfortunate that Britain’s Jewish community leaders themselves equate “Islamophobia” with antisemitism, and have correspondingly failed to conduct a vigorous public campaign against Muslim Jew-hatred.

The second important lesson from Rochdale is that the Labour Party is still not a safe place for Jews.

Despite Sir Keir Starmer’s attempts to erase the stain of Jew-hatred from the party, it still selected as its candidate in Rochdale a man who spouted grotesque Jewish conspiracy theories.

Furthermore, had Starmer not put forward his “humanitarian ceasefire” compromise motion in the Commons, an estimated 100 Labour MPs would have voted instead for an “immediate ceasefire” that effectively supported the survival of Hamas and the likelihood of more October 7-style pogroms.

And after Galloway’s election, senior Labour MPs told Starmer to harden his position against Israel because they said an “opening” had been left in Rochdale by failing to speak to “the anguish that millions of people feel about what is happening in Gaza”.

So in order to appease hatred of Israel, these Labour MPs advocate throwing it to the genocidal wolves.

Now Galloway’s Workers’ Party of Britain, which promises to field candidates in dozens of general election seats, says it has recently amassed a “huge number of new members”.

Chickens are coming home to roost.
British-Jewish Comedian Explains Why Antisemitism Has Become Trendy
For years, British Jewish comedian David Baddiel, 59, has been analyzing modern antisemitism, especially how it has taken root in progressive circles, becoming a status symbol and a distinctive characteristic of those who fiercely defend anyone else who is treated insensitively because of their race or ethnicity. But "anti-Jewish racism isn't considered racism by a lot of people," he writes in his 2021 book Jews Don't Count.

"Antisemitism is a form of racism that has been around for generations and generations, long before the establishment of Israel," he said in an interview. "It is truly perverse to think that Jews around the world are responsible for what is happening in the Middle East, that they are to blame for what happens. This isn't the case for Britons of Chinese descent when China behaves unacceptably. It isn't the case for British Indians when India does something, and it isn't the case with any other minority. It's just Israel's actions that are blamed on all Jews, wherever they may be."

"Israel has become...the thing you have to hate. In the past, South Africa played this role, and I'm afraid now it's Israel. Part of the identity of these people is to hate Israel. People for whom politics is their identity are not interested in complexity....And if the good guys, which for them is the Palestinians, do something as terrible as October 7, those people can't fit it into their worldview. They say, 'That can't be true! It has to be the Jews, the Israelis created this themselves.'"
Muslim leaders meet in Toronto to declare support for Jews and combat antisemitism
A global network of Muslim thought leaders convened in Toronto on Sunday afternoon to discuss ways to combat antisemitism coming from within their community.

Over 400 people packed into a midtown venue to hear speakers assembled by the non-profit Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism (CMAA), including author Raheel Raza, political commentator Zuhdi Jasser, and an appearance by Conservative Member of Parliament Melissa Lantsman.

The group released a “Call to Action” featuring six planks, including a demand that Hamas release all hostages in Gaza, the Canadian defunding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), as well as designating the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist entity.

The event was sponsored by Secure Canada, an organization founded by victims of 9/11 committed to combatting terrorism and extremism. The group’s chief executive, Sheryl Saperia, hailed its partnership with CMAA and affirmed its continued mission “to raise our voices against those who seek to deny, justify, excuse, or laud the genocidal antisemitism of Hamas and the sexual atrocities perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7.

“The failure of many institutions to take an unequivocal stand against the incontestable sexual violence perpetrated against women, children, and men by Hamas on Oct. 7, or the recasting of this violence as resistance, is a marker of a growing and insidious malaise within our society.”
Extremist Acts Have Been Normalized in Britain
Robin Simcox, the British Home Office's independent Commissioner for Countering Extremism, wrote on March 7: Not since 9/11 have extremist networks been as emboldened. Antisemitism skyrocketing. Inflammatory and borderline criminal rhetoric widely shared on social media. A sense that the terrorism threat is rising. Protests becoming ever more vociferous, with "from the river to the sea" beamed onto the side of Big Ben during a vote on Gaza. MPs more fearful for their safety than ever.

Evidence that the state works with or funds extremists has appeared in independent reviews or government strategies dating back over a decade. This needs fixing. Government has more power to tackle extremism than it sometimes thinks.

The Iranian government does not have an inalienable right to run schools and mosques in our capital city. It is not an unalterable democratic principle that Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood must be allowed to run a multitude of charities. We have not betrayed democracy if extremists are no longer able to operate television channels. And we will not have become an authoritarian state if London is no longer permitted to be turned into a no-go zone for Jews every weekend.

Government should move faster, be bolder, and be willing to accept higher legal risk if it means implementing policies that keep us safer. This is particularly pertinent when it comes to disrupting the activities of those groups who propagate extremist narratives but who lurk just below the terrorism threshold. These groups have gone unchallenged for too long.
Amanpour criticized for saying intifadas head a terrorist to Israelis, ‘Mandela’ to Palestinians
Christiane Amanpour, CNN chief international anchor, is being denounced and mocked widely for a recent social media post about Marwan Barghouti.

“To many Israelis, he’s a terrorist. To many Palestinians, he’s their Mandela,” she wrote of the convicted murderer, widely believed to have directed the first and second intifadas, which killed and wounded thousands of Israeli civilians.

Amanpour has previously apologized for comments about Jews and Israel. She said live on air that she “misspoke” 12 days after she said that Rabbi Leo Dee’s unarmed wife and two daughters were killed in a “shootout.”

“To many Jews, he’s a genocidal maniac. To many others, he’s a bohemian artist with a chic mustache, a love of animals, and a penchant for energetic speeches. Adolf Hitler’s story,” wrote David May, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights attorney and CEO of the International Legal Forum, wrote that Amanpour would never run such a segment about Osama bin Laden or Hitler. “But when it comes to Jewish lives, of course the standard is different,” he wrote.
Public Schoolers Are Paid $1,400 a Pop to Become Social Justice Warriors
Founded in 1996 in San José by two California activists, CFJ started out as a policy advocacy organization, but pivoted into working with schools in the mid-2000s. The registered nonprofit has nearly $16 million in total assets, according to their most recent tax filing.

CFJ promotes itself as “a statewide youth-powered organization fighting for racial justice” that runs after-school programming in four of California’s largest school districts, including Fresno, Oakland, and San José in addition to Long Beach. From June 2020 to June 2023, the Fresno Unified School District paid a total of $150,000 to CFJ for leadership programs, according to public documents requested by The Free Press. No financial agreements between CFJ and the Oakland and San José school districts could be found.

A CFJ spokesman told The Free Press in a February 14 email, “Our agenda is not hidden and is simple: we want the Long Beach Unified School District to be a place where every student is represented honestly in classrooms and curricula, and where they are safe to be in critical dialogue supportive of democratic participation across differences.” The spokesperson did not respond to our question asking how students were compensated for participating in their programs.

Goldfischer, who is Jewish, said CFJ is not an inclusive group—pointing to its response to the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7. In an October 23 Instagram post—just two weeks after terrorists invaded Israel—CFJ described the plight of the Palestinian people as “ethnic cleansing and apartheid orchestrated by white supremacist settler colonialism bent on the goal of wiping out the indigenous Palestinian population.”

After Goldfischer, his colleagues, and some parents complained to the school board in meetings and emails about the antisemitic messaging in CFJ’s posts, seven students and one community activist spoke out in support of the group at a December 6 school board meeting. In their defense of the group, six of the eight speakers used almost the exact same language, stating that CFJ has “been targeted by racist and xenophobic harassment for our support for Palestinian human rights.” One high school senior gave the exact same statement defending CFJ during the December 6 board meeting that the group’s spokesman gave to The Free Press on February 14.
Kassy Dillon: Google Employees Hijack ‘International Women’s Day’ Event To Bash Israel
Hundreds of Google employees hijacked an International Women’s Day event to attack Israel and accuse Jews of victimizing themselves, screenshots provided to The Daily Wire reveal.

Google’s summit for International Women’s Day slated for Thursday was supposed to include on-topic audience questions submitted by employees through an internal platform called Dory. Instead, Google employees seized the opportunity to submit commentary bashing Israel.

Google software engineer Joelle Skaf was the first to post about Israel on the platform, encouraging Google to “avoid complicity in war crimes” and “stop taking money from the Israeli gov.” She received more than 500 upvotes from fellow employees on Dory which allows participants to up or down vote their colleague’s questions.

Google Risk and Compliance Senior Advisor, Zaynab Hararah, joined in, accusing her colleagues of being complicit in “the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” and victimizing themselves “with feelings of unsafety and anti-Semitism.”
Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, as internal dissent mounts
During a keynote speech in New York on Monday from the managing director of Google's

Israel business, an employee in the company's cloud division protested publicly, proclaiming “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide.”

The Google Cloud engineer was subsequently fired, CNBC has learned, marking another dark moment for Google, which has been thrust into an escalating number of political and cultural conflicts in recent years and has struggled to quell employee dissent.

There was more internal controversy this week, also tied to the crisis in Gaza.

Ahead of an International Women's Day Summit in Silicon Valley on Thursday, Google's employee message board was hit with an influx of staffer comments about the company's military contracts with Israel. The online forum, which was going to be used to help inform what questions were asked of executives at the event, was shut down for what a spokesperson described to CNBC as "divisive content that is disruptive to our workplace."
Microsoft AI Image Generator Erases Israel From Map of ‘Palestine’
Microsoft’s artificial intelligence image generator erases Israel from the map when asked to create a geographical image of "Palestine," according to a review of the program by the Washington Free Beacon.

When the Free Beacon prompted Microsoft’s Copilot to create a "map of Palestine," all four of the images generated by the program showed the entire state of Israel labeled as "Palestine," alongside the Palestinian flag.

But when asked to create a "map of Israel," the program showed the current map of Israel, including its borders with the West Bank.

The results could raise new questions about the politicization of artificial intelligence platforms. On Wednesday, CNBC reported on violent and controversial images generated by the platform, including an image of Elsa, the character from the Disney movie Frozen, holding a "Free Gaza" sign.

The Free Beacon was able to reproduce similar pictures with the program. When asked to create images of "Elsa in Palestine," the generator depicted her wearing a keffiyeh, a headscarf associated with Palestinian terrorists. A prompt of "Elsa in Israel," meanwhile, generates an image of Elsa holding a menorah.

A request for a picture of "Children in Palestine" produced politically charged images of Palestinian youth playing soccer while surrounded by razor wire-topped walls and murals of soldiers attacking a Palestinian child.
Michigan imam: Bushnell ‘a martyr’ who sacrificed himself for Palestinians
In terms reminiscent of those celebrating Palestinian suicide bombers, two Muslim leaders in Michigan—Sheikh Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Mich., and Mustapha Elturk, the “Ameer” of the Islamic Organization of North America—praised the U.S. airman who ended his own life to oppose Israel’s war to destroy Hamas.

The two Muslim leaders spoke at an interfaith prayer vigil held on March 3 near the Henry Ford library in Dearborn, as reported by MEMRI.

Elahi said that Aaron Bushnell “sent a mighty message to the entire world” when he burned himself alive in an “amazing” act of “self-sacrifice.”

Elahi called Bushnell “a pure martyr in this country” who opposed the “Hitlers of the 21st century” and prophesied that one day there would be statues of him in a “free Palestine.”

Elturk prayed that Bushnell’s “sacrifice” should “pierce the hearts of the callous, the heartless, guiding them to recognize the shared humanity that unites us all.”

He also called on Allah to “empower the Palestinians with your formidable strength, to overcome and triumph over their adversaries, who are not just their foes but the adversaries of all humanity.”


Terror attack against Israeli businessman thwarted in Peru
A suspect was arrested who is allegedly associated with the Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and was planning on killing an Israeli businessman in Peru, Peruvian police announced on a Friday post on X.

According to the Peruvian National Police's (PNP) post, the suspect in question is 56 year old Majid Azizi, who has Peruvian citizenship and has been living there since 1997.

The post also claimed that the police have arrested a Peruvian citizen who collaborated in the terror attack with Azizi.

The post also included quotes from a press conference in which Peru's police chief Oscar Arriola described the arrest of the two suspects.

Arriola said that the arrests were made following an investigation in cooperation with international intelligence agencies, which provided "sensitive" information about an Iranian citizen who arrived in Peru in early March.
After WWII, Dutch tram company demanded cash for transporting Anne Frank to the camps
A new archival discovery is shedding light on an oft-disregarded accomplice in the murder of Anne Frank and tens of thousands of other Dutch Jews: The GVB Amsterdam Public Transport company.

The find, unearthed recently by filmmakers Willy Lindwer and Guus Luijters, includes an invoice for 80 guldens (the equivalent of about $4,500 today) that GVB had issued to the German occupation forces — and later to authorities in West Germany — to obtain payment for the tram ride that took Frank, her family and dozens of other Jews to train stations en route to being murdered in death camps.

GVB’s involvement in the deportation of some 48,000 Jews in Amsterdam has been known for decades. However, the discoveries added information about the scale and characteristics of this collaboration.

GVB earned at least $66,000 for transporting Jews to dispatch or internment locations, according to the new discoveries. After World War II, GVB accounting workers tried to obtain payment from Bonn for the final transports in a move that reflects “an inconceivable degree of indifference” to the tragedy, filmmaker Lindwer told The Times of Israel.

The discovery concerning Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager whose diary about hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam became an international bestseller after she died in 1945, “makes the active and already poignant collaboration of the GVB in the deportation of the Jews more palpable for large audiences because Anne Frank is an icon of the Holocaust,” wrote Lindwer and Luijters in a new Dutch-language book they published on their findings, titled “Lost City.”


‘A Month of Crying Every Day’: Canadian Jewish Politician Resigns From Left-Wing Party Over Antisemitism
A Jewish politician who was forced to resign from her cabinet post in the government of British Columbia over remarks she made that were deemed offensive to Palestinians has announced her decision to quit the caucus of the ruling New Democratic Party (NDP) in the Canadian province, telling her colleagues that “you broke my heart” in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel.

Selina Robinson, who served as minister of post-secondary education until last month, told local news outlets that she could no longer support the government, citing its indifference to antisemitism, including among her colleagues in the left-wing NDP.

“That’s been my experience,” Robinson told CTV when asked about antisemitism in the NDP caucus. “There’s been history of that. I’m aware of people who have said or done antisemitic things over time. They’ve apologized or not.”

Robinson added that she could not “continue to be the only voice speaking up against antisemitism and Jew hatred.” She said she had raised her concerns with British Columbia premier David Eby, but that “I continue to be the only one who is saying we have to do something differently.”

“All of this has made Jewish people feel unsafe,” Robinson said.

Robinson was compelled to tender her resignation from the cabinet following objections from the increasingly influential pro-Hamas lobby in Canada to a speech she made on Jan. 30, in which she pointed out that in the years prior to the creation of the State of Israel, the land was considered a relatively undeveloped backwater in the Middle East.
Canadian lawmaker slams own party for Antisemitism



Is 'Globalize the Intifada' an Incitement to Violence? Columbia's Anti-Semitism Task Force Won't Say
In a new report on Columbia University's protest policies, the Ivy League school's Task Force on Antisemitism declined to say whether calls for "intifada" violate school rules, saying that while some students "feel strongly" that the chant invokes genocide, others feel strongly that it does not.

The report, released Monday, is the task force's first attempt to provide recommendations to Columbia's leaders regarding their response to rising campus anti-Semitism. Student protesters at Columbia have advocated for terror against Israelis. During a pair of January rallies, students cheered on the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and chanted, "From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada," and "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be Arab."

The term "intifada" references violent Palestinian uprisings in Israel that featured terror attacks on civilians, including suicide bombings at bus stations and night clubs. Columbia's rules bar students from inciting violence "against members of our community." Still, Columbia's Task Force on Antisemitism said it would not provide guidance on whether phrases such as "Globalize the Intifada" violate those rules, instead encouraging the university's "legal team" to provide "more guidance on this issue."

"Many have heard chants at protests like 'Globalize the Intifada' and 'Death to the Zionist State' as calls for violence against them and their families," the task force wrote in its report. "The University also has said that calls for genocide, like other incitement to violence, violate the rules."

"While we agree with this principle, the application of it should be clarified," the task force continued. "Many of the chants at recent Columbia protests are viewed differently by different members of the Columbia community: some feel strongly that these are calls to genocide, while others feel strongly that they are not. … Since this ultimately is a matter of legal compliance, we do not offer a detailed analysis here."

The report comes months after debate around campus calls for "intifada" rocked the Ivy League.
Columbia University Opens Investigation Into Israeli Prof Who Criticized Response to Anti-Semitism
Columbia University opened an investigation into an Israeli professor who has been critical of the university's response to anti-Semitism on campus, the professor said Friday.

"I am Jewish and Israeli," wrote Prof. Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School, in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter. "I spoke up against the university. And now the university is weaponizing an internal investigation to silence me. In so doing, Columbia reveals the depths of its hostility toward its Jewish community: 'How dare a Jewish professor speak up on behalf of Jewish students who are under siege!'"

Davidai added that "every person" to whom he has spoken has agreed with his assessment that the investigation is a retaliation. He said he could not reveal specifics of the probe.

"I would like to make one thing clear," Davidai wrote. "I view this as a clear attempt to silence me. I will not stop demanding that the university enforce its own rules and policies. I will not stop fighting Columbia's attempts to sideline me, fire me, or make my life even more unbearable."

A university spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon that Columbia does not comment on personnel matters, adding that, "as a general matter, if the University receives a formal complaint, it will review and consider the complaint under established processes."
Israeli Columbia professor under investigation after slamming school’s response to Antisemitism

Jewish leaders denounce Yale Women’s Center scheduled conference for ‘libelous portrayal of Israel’
Jewish leaders at Yale University denounced an upcoming conference being hosted by Yale Women’s Center for its “exclusion of Jewish women’s voices and its libelous portrayal of Israel and Israelis.” The conference is dedicating its annual event on the New Haven, Conn., campus to the theme of “Pinkwashing and Feminism(s) in Palestine,” the group announced on Thursday.

“To the extent the Center is organizing this event, it betrays its obligations to Yale’s Jewish and Israeli women in particular, and to its mission,” Uriel Cohen, executive director of the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, and the center’s rabbi, Jason Rubenstein, told Jewish Insider in a joint statement.

The event is slated for April 5-7 and is co-sponsored by Yale Faculty for Justice in Palestine. It is also sponsored by academic departments — American studies and gender studies — and the Center for Study of Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration. It will feature a number of discussions that, based on their titles, accuse Israel of committing war crimes in its current conflict against Hamas. These include “Gendered, Racialized, and Sexualized Torture by the Israeli Military in Gaza” and “Pinkwashing Genocide.”

The keynote address will be delivered by Sa’ed Atshan, an associate professor of peace and conflict studies and anthropology at Swarthmore College, who has participated in multiple National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) conferences and is a proponent of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. He said in 2014 at SJP’s conference, “We all know Israel is an apartheid state and should be boycotted.”

Kira Berman, president of Yale Friends of Israel, told JI that Yale Women’s Center has not released any statement regarding the sexual violence committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, despite her prodding — and even in light of a U.N. report, released this week, which found “clear and convincing” evidence of Hamas’ sexual violence in Israel.
House Presses MIT To Provide Records on Its Response to Campus Anti-Semitism
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is pressing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to provide internal documents regarding its response to campus anti-Semitism, which committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) panned as dangerously inadequate.

Foxx's letter, sent Friday to MIT president Sally Kornbluth and MIT corporation chair Mark Gorenberg, marks an escalation in the committee's investigation into the university. While the committee announced that investigation in December, this is the first time it has asked MIT leaders to turn over documents. Foxx is seeking internal communications between MIT leaders on the school's disciplinary decisions, documents that show MIT's foreign funding, and other records.

"We have grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of MIT's response to antisemitism on its campus," Foxx wrote. "MIT's hypocrisy and selective enforcement of Institute rules … exposes the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of its leadership's rationalizations for their inaction towards antisemitism on campus."

Foxx went on to outline high-profile examples of anti-Semitism seen on MIT's campus, using a number of Washington Free Beacon reports to do so.

In November, for example, anti-Israel students at MIT held an unsanctioned protest in a popular campus building that leads to classrooms and other faculty offices. When MIT staff warned participants they would be suspended if they remained in the area, they refused. After the demonstration, Kornbluth watered down her threat, with the student protesters receiving a "non-academic suspension" that allowed them to keep attending class. Kornbluth said she was concerned that a harsher punishment could have prompted the deportation of foreign students.

MIT went on to launch a "Standing Together Against Hate" speaker series aimed at addressing "real tension between some groups and individuals." One of the school's hand-picked speakers, Boston University antibigotry fellow Dalia Mogahed, endorsed Hamas terrorism as an act of lawful "resistance," the Free Beacon reported in February.


MEMRI: UAE-Based Lebanese Journalist Layal Alekhtiar, Wanted By Lebanese Military Court For Interviewing Israeli Military Official: The 'Culture Of Death' Has Destroyed Half Of Lebanon And Other Arab Countries – I Have Chosen The 'Culture Of Life'

WSJ Editorial: Brushing Off an Alarming IAEA Report on the Iranian Nuclear Program
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Monday: "The Agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to [Iran's] production and inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and uranium ore concentrate." In plainer English, the world is in the dark, raising the risk that Iran is accumulating a secret stock of advanced centrifuges to pursue a quiet nuclear breakout.

The Institute for Science and International Security says Iran can enrich enough uranium for 13 nuclear weapons, seven in the first month of a breakout. Tehran won't allow key monitoring equipment into the country, and it has excluded some of the IAEA's most experienced inspectors. Under such conditions, the world can hardly rely on the IAEA to detect diversion of nuclear materials to new and undeclared facilities.

Reuters reports that Britain, France and Germany were pushing for a resolution of censure from the IAEA board, but "the United States did not want to risk further diplomatic escalation with Iran." When a mild move such as censure is considered a bridge too far, you know the incentive structure for Iran is all wrong.
Seth Frantzman: New threats from Iran’s IRGC Quds Force chief
IRGC Quds Force Commander Esmail Qaani threatened Israel on March 7. It is the latest threat by the Iranian regime and follows messaging from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad that threaten to try to inflame tensions in the region in the next weeks.

Qaani directed his threats at Israel and other countries linked to Israel, a reference to the US apparently.

The IRGC Quds Force commander “stressed that the resistance front has yet to exhibit the maximum of its capabilities in terms of military and deterrent power,” Iranian pre-government Fars News media said.

Qaani also openly bragged that this is already a regional war in which the “regional resistance” is threatening Israel as a “front.” Iran has operationalized numerous fronts, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. He spoke about an “integrated set that has a lot of capabilities and capacities”.

This is vague, but it clearly refers to the goal of Iran to unite the “arenas” against Israel. This refers to Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and other places. Qaani hinted at “surprises.” This appears timed to coincide with the Ramadan holiday.
UN: Iran committed crimes against humanity during protest crackdown, caused death of Mahsa Amini
The violent repression of peaceful protests and pervasive institutional discrimination against women and girls led to serious human rights violations by the Iranian regime, many amounting to crimes against humanity, concluded the UN fact-finding mission on Iran in its first report today. The panel also found Iran responsible for the “physical violence” that led to the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.

The report to the Human Rights Council said violations and crimes under international law committed in the context of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that began on 16 September 2022 include extra-judicial and unlawful killings and murder, unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and gender persecution.

Human rights violations have disproportionately impacted women, children and members of ethnic and religious minorities. The mission found that gender persecution intersected with discrimination on the basis of ethnicity and religion.

“These acts form part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Iran, namely against women, girls, boys and men who have demanded freedom, equality, dignity and accountability,” said Sara Hossain, chair of the UN inquiry. “We urge the Government to immediately halt the repression of those who have engaged in peaceful protests, in particular women and girls.”

The protests in Iran were triggered by the death in the custody of the so-called morality police, in September 2022, of Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman, after her arrest for alleged non-observance of Iran’s laws on mandatory hijab. The Mission found that physical violence in custody led to Ms. Amini’s unlawful death. Rather than investigating this unlawful death promptly, effectively, and thoroughly – as required under international human rights law – the Government actively obfuscated the truth, and denied justice.

Authorities then mobilized the entire security apparatus of the State to repress the protesters who took to the streets after Ms. Amini’s death. Credible figures suggest that as many as 551 protesters were killed by the security forces, among them at least 49 women and 68 children. Most deaths were caused by firearms, including assault rifles.
Iran's IRGC Quds Force Commander Vows Gaza Reconstruction
Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran's IRGC Quds Force, has pledged to oversee the reconstruction efforts in Gaza amid the strip's worst conflict since Iran-backed Hamas took over almost 20 years ago.

Qaani added that “physical infrastructure would be rebuilt", yet "Israel's credibility and honor would remain irreparable.”

"The resistance front is a cohesive entity with significant capabilities, although it has not yet utilized all of its capabilities," he added as the war which broke out in October after the terror group invaded Israel, continues without an end in sight. Negotiations this week seem to have failed with Hamas refusing to release names of surviving hostages taken on October 7 and Israel refusing to cease its offensive until Hamas disarms.

Iran has long provided financial support to various Palestinian groups, including Hamas. Despite varying estimates, a 2020 US State Department report indicated Iran's annual provision of approximately $100 million to Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas.

However, Iran's involvement in the Gaza conflict poses economic challenges, exacerbating existing issues such as currency devaluation, reduced government revenues, and high inflation. Despite Iranian officials' assurances to avoid broader regional conflict, proxy armed groups' involvement risks escalating tensions with Israel and the United States, potentially impacting global oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz as the Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis continues its blockade on the key maritime route.

US facilities in Iraq and Syria have also been targeted since October, the US under fire for supporting Israel's right to defend itself.


Iranians Campaign To Oust Princeton Professor For Alleged Terror Ties
Princeton University controversial academic, Hossein Mousavian, who is currently being investigated by the US Congress for his pro-Iran regime activities, now faces a grassroots Iranian-American campaign to secure his dismissal.

The campaign Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA) wrote in its Wednesday statement that “In the seven years Mousavian served as IRI’s ambassador in Germany, more than 23 Iranians were killed in terrorist attacks on European soil orchestrated by IRI...These heinous acts underscore the direct involvement of the IRI embassy in Bonn and Mousavian’s role in Iran's state-sponsored terrorism and orchestrating violence against innocent civilians.”

AAIRIA presented statements from a witness of the Mykonos restaurant assassination in Berlin in 1992 and victims of the Iranian regime’s persecution of dissidents.

Parviz Dastamalchi, who witnessed the assassination, said Mr. Abolghasem Mesbahi, known as 'Witness C,' was one of the founders of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In February 1997, Misbahi, under oath, testified, before the German court regarding the role of Seyed Hossein Mousavian in the assassination of Kurdish leaders at the Mykonos restaurant.

Mesbahi stated, "Mr. Mousavian has participated in most of the assassinations committed in Europe." His statements were widely reported in the German media during the trial."


New Jersey shul braces for anti-Israeli protesters at real estate event
The Bergen County Jewish Action Committee has sounded the alarm over an impending protest to take place this weekend at a synagogue in northern New Jersey.

Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck, N.J., plans to hold an event on March 10 focusing on Israeli real estate. In response, anti-Israel activists have made public calls for protests in the bedroom community that has a large Jewish population, including a significant Orthodox presence.

“It is no coincidence that this random, quiet New Jersey town has become such a flashpoint for pro-Palestinian activism. These protesters are here because we are here,” committee spokesman Yigal Gross said. “They are seeking out and targeting Teaneck’s Jews.”

Gross said the group supported freedom of speech, “but the right to worship is equally sacrosanct, which we worry they are now seeking to limit. Targeting religious institutions, particularly during times when families and children are gathering, represents an increased threat and creates a situation that could easily escalate and get out of hand.”

He disputed that the protesters were representative of Teaneck. “We believe there are bad actors trying to drive a wedge between Teaneck’s residents, and to isolate and intimidate its Jewish community. Thankfully, they are failing in their efforts. Our community continues to stand strong and proud,” he said.
Israeli winger Liel Abada left Celtic FC over ‘disgusting’ treatment by pro-Palestine fans
Israeli footballer Liel Abada has left Celtic FC after being treated "disgustingly” by pro-Palestine fans of the team, according to a statement by his former manager earlier this week.

Avi Luzon, chief of Israeli club Maccabi Petah Tikvah where Abada rose to fame before transferring to Celtic in 2021, said on Sport 5 that the fans “left him no choice” but to leave the Glasgow-based football club.

“On a personal level, Liel Abada felt very bad with everything that was happening, including the indignation of the fans on the street towards him — more than once,” Luzon said during an interview with the Israeli sports channel.

“Liel felt unwelcome where he was – there were hostile looks and it's not nice to feel that.”

The 22-year-old international winger cut short his five-year contract with Celtic and has been acquired by Charlotte FC for a reported £8 million, announced by the American club on Thursday.


Master of metal David Draiman shows Israel some heavy support
It was a bracelet with the words ‘Am Israeli Chai’ given to him by a young fan that prompted American heavy metal star David Draiman to almost break down on stage and speak to his fans about October 7 for the first time.

The lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Disturbed, who has family in Israel, is an active advocate for Israel online but until the concert last week in Florida, the Jewish New Yorker has deliberately stayed away from speaking about the Jewish state on stage.

But when he saw a young girl who he’d met before at one of his concerts had a placard saying, ‘I have a present for you’, he brought her on stage — and promptly unravelled.

“We try and keep politics separate from our music but when I was given that bracelet I felt like someone was trying to tell me something,” he tells me during a quick phone call before his flight to his latest concert venue. “The shows are an escape for people but it all feels very personal; I lost friends at the Nova Festival. So many were slaughtered. Even after all of these months I can’t shake the state of shock.”

The video of his outburst went viral as he huskily told his audience: “I miss people who were slaughtered like animals at the Nova Festival. Rape is not resistance. Slaughtering innocents at a music festival that brings together people from all walks of life is not resistance.

“I genuinely feel empathy for the Palestinian people. There is not a single Jew on this planet that does not celebrate life. We celebrate life. Hamas celebrates death and they need to be eradicated; not the Palestinians, Hamas. We need to save Gaza from Hamas.”

As I’m sure you can imagine, reaction to David has been mixed. Even before October 7, he had to take on extra security thanks to almost daily death threats.

“It is mainly keyboard warriors saying things like, ‘we know where you are’ and ‘we’re going to find you and your family’,” he says. “But when you report messages like these to the social media companies, they do nothing about it.”
Rishi Sunak: A global beacon of hope for the Jewish people
It has been a difficult time for Jewish communities around the world since the tragic events of the 7th of October. Unlike the one-sided, sympathetic pro-Palestinian narrative being peddled by the federal political leadership of the Australian Labor Party and Australian Greens in Canberra, we are witnessing a global beacon of hope for the Jewish people in the United Kingdom. Sometimes, a world leader makes a speech that is so unequivocally supportive of the Jewish people that it makes you pause and feel a sense of badly needed optimism about our place as Jews in the world. The light shines through for a brief moment, and it feels comforting and peaceful. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did just that, in a speech on the 28th of February.

In an unprecedented rallying cry of support for a frightened and alienated British Jewish Community, Sunak confirmed that the British Government will bring in a “new robust framework” for policing protests in a bid to crackdown on pro-Palestine marches, including revoking visas. How this will play out in practical reality is yet to be seen given the freshness of his words. However, Sunak’s re-balancing of the political narrative to call out such hatred in such a powerful way is encouraging and welcomed.

Sunak is calling out this pro-Palestinian “activism” for what it is, blatant and abhorrent antisemitism challenging the very fabric of western democratic society. In his speech, Sunak was clear and unapologetic in his choice of wording. Specifically, Sunak said the following:
“The Hamas attack of October 7th was the most abhorrent act of terrorism against Israel that any of us have ever known. And it’s been followed by record levels of antisemitism in this country that are utterly, utterly sickening. Don’t let anyone try and tell you this is just a reaction to the response of the Israeli government as unacceptable as that would be. The highest weekly total of antisemitic incidents came before Israel responded. It is hatred pure and simple.”

Sunak is putting his money where his mouth is, allocating a total of £72m to Jewish schools, synagogues, and other community centres to help them beef up security. This will go to the Community Security Trust (CST) – a charity protecting Jewish communities in the UK – to provide security measures until 2028. Where is such support for the Jewish community in Australia? It’s nowhere to be seen.

Sunak is not even Jewish, which makes his support so much more meaningful and powerful. The eery silence from Attorney General Mark Dreyfus KC, MP, and Josh Burns MP, as our lone Jewish representatives in Canberra, is sad and disappointing. Are they towing the party line behind a leader who was a founding member of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine? We will never know. However, one thing is for sure: both Dreyfus and Burns should refer to the Sunak playbook for what unequivocal, authentic support for the Jewish community looks like.
Isaac Herzog: Women must have influence at all levels of decision-making
This year's International Women's Day is an opportunity to say that which should be said not only on International Women's Day, but every day of the year: women must, simply must, have impact and influence at all levels of decision-making. This must be a national goal for us.

The war has proved once again: Israeli heroines are everywhere.

And this is an opportunity to thank them. Thank you to the tank commanders, the squadron leaders, thank you to the soldiers in the field.

Thank you to our heroines
Thank you to the heroines who returned from Hamas captivity, who are leading the fight to bring the hostages home, giving a voice to those who have yet to return. Thank you to the women who struggle to make heard the voices of those whose bodies were mutilated by human monsters. Thank you to those who are fighting on the world stage on our behalf.

Thank you to the women who have for many months, been anxiously praying for those on the frontline. To the women who have lost those most dear to their hearts. Indeed, the wives of the fighters - of servicemen and reservists - are lionesses on the home front, who keep their homes and families together through it all. The women that the fighters on the frontline so often tell me “are the real heroes”.

As President of the State of Israel, I would like to salute all of you, and say to you, to all of you, thank you. Together we will overcome.
Seth Frantzman: Meet the IDF women on the front lines of the Gaza war
Women have played an unprecedented role in the war against Hamas. They have also suffered grievously at the hands of Hamas. These twin narratives, of how Hamas targeted Israeli women and also kidnapped female IDF soldiers, and how women have been fighting Hamas in Gaza and in numerous other roles in the IDF, is part of this conflict.

During five months covering the war, I came across many inspiring stories of women in combat and in other roles in the IDF. For instance, on December 11, I drove down to Kibbutz Alumim to meet with the Israeli Skyriders unit that uses drones to help the IDF fight terrorists. One of the soldiers I met was named Romi, a female member of the unit. She described how she had been studying in Italy before the war began. She was back in Israel on Oct. 7 and was awakened like millions of others to the news of the attack. “We knew we had to go back to the army and serve,” she recalled. She had originally joined the army in 2018; now she returned to this unique unit.

The Skyriders use a small drone called the Skylark. It is launched with a kind of catapult by a soldier on the ground. The drone, around the size of a person, can fly over Gaza and monitor the situation on the ground. Then it brings back information that can be used by artillery units, such as the 215th Artillery Unit, which uses M109 howitzers to target enemies in Gaza. This is the new way of war, knitting together the latest intelligence from real-time feeds, closing the loop on enemies. In short, if an enemy pops up, the drones can see them and help call in strikes.

Romi’s unit includes men and women. She is a combat soldier and is proud of it. “I think women can serve in every unit in the army, and a girl that can pass those standards in any unit can be a great soldier,” she told me in December.

“I am so glad I got to go to this training and become a combat soldier; I think it’s the best fit for me.” She referenced news in December that women have been accepted to Israel’s elite search and rescue unit 669. “If I was able to go to a special unit like that, I would have sought to go to it,” she said. “A lot of women would do better than the guys,” she said with a smile. It is estimated that 130 women will eventually be integrated into the elite 669 unit and also the elite Yahalom unit.
Honoring the heroic women of Israel
This war is being fought by every sector of Israeli society. We take immense pride in the empowerment of women in this country. A checkpoint near my home, Gush Etzion, is routinely staffed by young Ethiopian women.

Every time I pass the checkpoint, I well up with tears of pride – much to the derision of my children. Unfortunately, throughout the world, people face routine discrimination, but in our country they are empowered, and it is I who must answer security questions to them.

Thankfully, women in Israel have been granted equal opportunities in all sectors of the army, and they proved their abilities and their mettle on Oct. 7. Sadly, many female soldiers, particularly those stationed at military lookout sites, were murdered on that tragic day.

While we applaud women on the battlefield of Gaza, let us not forget the less public heroes whose bravery unfolds every day, right in our own backyards.

Every component of the Mishkan (the desert Tabernacle) was symbolic of a fundamental religious value. The Mishkan wasn’t merely a Temple for ritual sacrifices but served as a metaphor for overall religious identity. The copper water basin, or kiyor, situated at the entry to the Mishkan was used to wash the hands and feet of the priests before religious ceremonies. Obviously, as it cleansed the priests from their impurities, the washing station symbolized human purity.

Where did the Jewish people acquire copper in the desert? Gold was used for ornaments, and silver was employed as currency, and presumably they had been acquired from the Egyptians. How, though, did the desert travelers secure enough copper to fashion a water basin?
The Jerusalem marathon was not just a race, it was a mass-painkiller
Usually when you see people bobbing up and down, stretching their legs before a race, they’re stretching to avoid pulling something. But at the Jerusalem marathon, they’re also davening.

On a sunny Friday morning, nearly 40,000 Israelis, Jewish and Muslim, took to the streets of the capital for the annual race - this year given additional poignancy by the long shadow of war. Signs lined the route, practically shouting their message, to bring the hostages home. “Pain is temporary, 153 days is unbearable” read one memorable example placed near the finish, where runners were at their most tired. As the race started in the grounds of the Knesset, representatives of hostage families told their stories, demanding that their government work harder to return their loved ones after more than 150 days in Hamas captivity.

Like everything in Israel in the last few months, all efforts at the race were focused towards the hostages. Hundreds of runners wore the faces of those in Gaza, the first hostage posters that I’d seen not torn down in months. It seemed like there was not a person running who didn’t have some connection to the traumas of the last five months. Entire army units ran in memory of those killed in Gaza, warming up with their service rifles slung around their neck, kibbutzniks ran for those missing and massacred and the pre-race DJ was the last to play at the Nova festival before the chaos erupted.

Hostage families spoke as the race got underway, their pain and resilience evident as a ceasefire, and the return of their loved ones remains elusive. A stage was erected just metres away from where, just a few days earlier, thousands of marchers ended their trek from Kibbutz Re’im to the Knesset to mark 150 days of captivity, imploring with an unpopular government to reach any compromise necessary to free the hostages from the tunnels of Gaza. In contrast with their silent protest, the marathon made so much noise that if Netanyahu were to simply open the window of his Knesset office, he would hear an almighty chorus calling on him to act.




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