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Friday, March 29, 2024

03/29 Links Pt2: If the West abandons Israel, we all lose; Did the KGB Invent Palestinian Nationalism?; Matisyahu Releases New Song ‘Ascent’ About Antisemitism

From Ian:

If the West abandons Israel, we all lose
In one sense, of course, the posturing by European and American politicians makes no difference to the war, since the Israeli government and people have so far shown little inclination to buckle, despite the international opprobrium. When Starmer declared that the fighting must ‘stop now’ in February, he might as well have said ‘stop the world, I want to get off’. But such political posturing does increase Israel’s isolation in a hostile world.

More immediately, the impending abandonment of Israel really does matter here in the UK, Europe and the West. It signals that our leaders are giving up on the fight to defend democracy and freedom at home, and to resist the rising tide of anti-Semitism.

In the immediate aftermath of 7 October, the British Jewish playwright Tom Stoppard issued a cautionary warning that: ‘Before we take up a position on what’s happening now, we should consider whether this is a fight over territory or a struggle between civilisation and barbarism.’

Six months later, that is even more true. This remains a fundamental struggle between civilisation and barbarism. Not a ‘fight over territory’ or any two-state solutions. It is an existential battle about the survival of the only Western-style democracy in the Middle East – and the ability of Western society to defend its values against Islamist and allied barbarians who are not only within the gates of the citadel, but also projecting their pro-genocide message on to the Palace of Westminster. The unholy alliance of Islamist and left-wing anti-Semitism, united by their hatred for Western society, is the threat we face at home.

Anybody who wants to defend our democratic civilisation, warts and all, needs to stand foursquare with the Israeli people, and to remind the world of who they are fighting against and what they are fighting for. As spineless Western leaders risk losing the life-and-death war over there, and the struggle for democratic values at home, our message needs to be: No Surrender.
Jeff Jacoby: 'Israel Alone' What The Economist unwittingly gets right about the Jewish state
Last week’s cover story of the Economist, titled “Israel Alone,” is filled with dire predictions about the country being “locked in the bleakest trajectory of its 75-year existence,” about it facing growing “isolation,” and about Israelis being “in denial” about their situation. These predictions were, of course, accompanied by little understanding of Israeli society, the Middle East, or the situation in Gaza. Jeff Jacoby observes that the Jewish state is far from being without allies. Yet for all the article’s flaws, Jacoby suggests there is some truth to its central thesis:
The pioneers of modern Zionism were convinced that only in a country of their own could Jews finally achieve the normality denied them for so long—the normality other peoples take for granted.

But they were wrong. Israel has never been regarded as a “normal” country.

What the Economist proclaims on its cover, the Biblical prophet Balaam, a non-Jew, proclaimed in the book of Numbers. Attempting to execrate the Israelites, he intoned: “Lo, it is a people that dwells alone/ And shall not be reckoned among the nations.” In that singular description—a people that dwells alone—is encapsulated an essential reality of the long, long history of the Jews. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, the Jewish people—and the reborn Jewish state—are fundamentally alone, unlike the “normal” peoples and nations with whom they share the planet. Israel can never be just another country, like Belgium or Thailand. The Jewish state is alone; and that is both its blessing and its curse.
Jonathan Chait: Does the Left Think Young Left-Wing Protesters Matter or Not? Demanding Biden heed the campus left means accepting scrutiny of its ideas.
This week, Salma Hamamy, president of the main pro-Palestinian student group at the University of Michigan, shared (and then deleted) a social-media message stating, “Until my last breath, I will utter death to every single individual who supports the Zionist state. Death and more. Death and worse.” (The University sent an email denouncing the message.)

While she may be an undergrad, Hamamy is hardly anonymous. She was one of four undergraduates to receive the University of Michigan’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award honoring students “who best exemplify the leadership and extraordinary vision of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” The Michigan Daily endorsed her campaign for student-council president. State, national, and international newspapers have quoted her warning Biden to change course and citing her as an example of the kind of progressive Democrats have to placate.

Last month, the New York Times jointly profiled her and a pro-Israel activist in a story presenting both as searching for common humanity. “As dusk neared, they walked alone to a nearby campus building and sat together on a bench. Maybe this would be a chance to recognize one another’s humanity,” the Times reported. “He needed to know why anti-Israel protesters had not forcefully condemned the deaths of Israeli civilians.”

I think that mystery has been cleared up.

No serious person is proposing that Biden go all the way to denouncing Israel as an illegitimate settler-colonist entity. There is room to debate degrees of movement within his stance. The point is that the amount of attention that’s been devoted to presenting left-wing pro-Palestinian activists as a powerful and even potentially decisive faction in national politics implies the need for a proportionate level of scrutiny of their ideas. To insist these activists only matter when you are touting their influence, and then to deny their power when they receive scrutiny, is a tactic posing as an ideal.


JPost Editorial: The greatness of American Jewry
It’s sadly ironic that as antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments are spiking in the US, two giant American Jews (one of them born in Israel) who made a lasting impact on the American landscape have died.

The lives of Joe Lieberman and Daniel Kahneman are a sterling testament to the highest level of achievement that American Jews have risen to in the last century.

Lieberman, 82, a longtime senator from Connecticut, became the first Jewish member of a major presidential ticket when Al Gore chose him to be a running mate in 2000.

Religiously observant, he became one of the most visible role models for integrating Orthodoxy into the secular American world, and he did it with grace.

In announcing that he would not be running for reelection in 2012, Lieberman described what it meant for the grandson of Jewish immigrants to be considered for a role just a heartbeat from the presidency.

“I can’t help but also think about my four grandparents and the journey they traveled more than a century ago,” he said. “Even they could not have dreamed that their grandson would end up a United States senator and, incidentally, a barrier-breaking candidate for vice president.”

Lieberman was a political peacemaker, starting as a conservative Democrat before moving over to become independent. His ability to reach out to all political colleagues defined his career. A lifelong staunch supporter of Israel, who made dozens of visits here, Lieberman fought for what he thought was right up until the end of his life. Last week, in one of his last public statements, he criticized Sen. Chuck Schumer, who recently made waves when he called for new elections in Israel.

“Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer last Thursday crossed a political redline that had never before been breached by a leader of his stature and never should be again,” Lieberman wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

Although his principles ended up complicating his relationship with both Democrats and Republicans, Lieberman stuck to his guns and his integrity rose to the top. Today’s politicians, including those running for the presidency, would fare well by taking a page out of his playbook.

Kahneman, who died Wednesday at 90, was a different example of an American Jewish success story.

The Israeli-born, Nobel Prize-winning psychologist broke new ground on the subject of how humans make decisions. His extensive research effectively launched the field of behavioral economics – which in turn has influenced several other fields.

In 2002, he won the Nobel Prize in Economics for “having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science.” Then-President Barack Obama awarded Kahneman the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, calling him a “pioneering scholar of psychology,” who “applied cognitive psychology to economic analysis, laying the foundation for a new field of research.”
Elliott Abrams: The Genial, Jewish Joseph Lieberman
Lieberman was a historic figure in American Jewish history in two senses. His nomination for the vice- presidency in 2000 was the first time a Jew had been on a major party ticket. That would simply have been unthinkable only a few decades before, when Lieberman entered public life. His nomination was an extraordinary milestone for the American Jewish community, reflecting full acceptance of what before World War II had for the most part been a fairly recent immigrant group. The assimilation of American Jews—marked by their move from urban ghettos to the suburbs, the diminution in antisemitism in the 1950 and 1960s, and by the American adoption of terms like “Judeo-Christian values”—was in good part a post-war phenomenon. Yet in only two generations, here was a Jew running for vice-president.

But Lieberman’s nomination was not about assimilation, and that was the second way in which he was so important. As an Orthodox Jew, assimilation was the last thing he had in mind. His career and his life carried an additional meaning: that an Orthodox Jew, a faithful and observant Jew, could succeed fully in America without assimilating and leaving behind his religion. Indeed many faithful Christians saw in him a reflection of their own religious commitments and viewed him as an ally: a God-fearing man working to keep his faith and to reflect its values in his life and in the life of the nation. For Orthodox Jews, Lieberman’s successes were an answer to a very old argument: that religious observance had to be dropped or compromised to “make it” in America.

Orthodox in religion, Lieberman was unorthodox in politics by the time he ran for re-election to the Senate in 2006, when he was denied the Democratic nomination and won as an independent. That unorthodoxy was visible most clearly in the 2008 presidential election, when he endorsed his friend John McCain for president. Here was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee of 2000 endorsing a Republican only two elections later. Remarkable, unheard-of, disloyal? For Joe Lieberman, it was a matter of patriotism: “Being a Republican is important. Being a Democrat is important. But you know what’s more important than that? The interest and well-being of the United States of America.”

That was not just a campaign speech but a true statement of Lieberman’s approach to his role in public life. He knew he was drifting from his party when he supported the war in Iraq, but so what? Party loyalty could not outweigh what was best for America as he saw it. He knew his push for a tough position on Iran was an uphill battle but he thought it was crucial for the security of Israel. He knew his conduct would reflect on all American Jews because he was one of the most prominent Jews in America—and for many years, the most prominent. So he carried himself with pride and commitment to Judaism, but always without rancor. Look at the photos of him in the media today, and most show him with the warm and slightly self-deprecating smile that reflected his character.

There was no one in politics in his lifetime who did more to remind us of those “better angels of our nature”—of how politics could be conducted with principle and tolerance. Joseph Lieberman will be missed for many reasons, and that is not the least.
Jonathan Tobin: A politician who was also a role model
The fact that he was a man of faith and a proud Jew was part of that decency. His rise in public life to the point where he might have been only a heartbeat from the presidency reflected a sea change in American politics, in which Republicans and Democrats believed that public practice of faith was a proper reflection of both the character of the American nation and protected by the Constitution. That consensus has faded, and the role of religion in public life has unfortunately become a source of controversy.

Still, the example he provided of living a fully Jewish life while serving in the Senate is especially important now as antisemitism is on the rise, and Jews are increasingly finding themselves worried about displaying their faith and identity in public. The fact that one of Lieberman’s last public utterances was to condemn his old colleague, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s disgraceful speech condemning Israel and calling for the ouster of its government, in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal showed how he was still putting principle—support for Israel and the idea of that being a bipartisan concept—first.

Throughout my career, I’ve met many politicians and learned that they are, as a group, like most people—a mix of good, bad and indifferent. But I’ve known none who was Joe Lieberman’s equal as a human being and a model of what we ought to want in a public figure as well as a source of pride to Jews. In a time when political decency and a willingness to befriend and work with members of the other party is out of fashion, we may not soon see his like again. May his memory be for a blessing.
If Israel Is Forced to Continue War Alone, America Will Be the Loser
There are two possible explanations for this state of affairs between Israel and the US.

President Biden is facing a tough election fight, including a tidal wave of public pressure over civilian casualties in Gaza. This is a highly calculated component of Hamas’ strategy to defeat Israel through international pressure. While civilian casualties are disturbing, much of the accepted narrative is simply untrue.

Even at a risk to Israeli troops, the Jewish State has taken unprecedented measures to protect civilians, and the results speak for themselves: the civilian to combatant casualty ratio, at close to 1:1, is the lowest in history for a conflict of this type.

Furthermore, the total casualty count is orders of magnitude lower than other conflicts in the region, such as Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.

Numerous other conspiracy theories including that Israel shelled hospitals, have proven to be outright false. Nonetheless, Hamas’ war of propaganda has been effective, not just against Israel directly, but also as a factor in the US elections.

Another possibility is that the tension is personal: Prime Minister Netanyahu and Presidents Obama and Biden have long disagreed. Indeed, Monday’s resolution does seem reminiscent of the 2016 UNSC resolution 2334, widely seen in Israel as a “parting shot” by President Obama against Prime Minister Netanyahu. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer also called for Israel to hold early elections and thereby oust its prime minister (a rare statement when speaking to a close and democratic ally), which further supports the idea that tensions may be personal.

Hamas’ continued existence is an existential threat to Israel — and its leaders have promised to carry out October 7 style massacres “again and again.” Yet the White House has underestimated just how powerful an existential threat can be. No amount of pressure or leverage, even from a powerful ally, can compete with the possibility of utter destruction.

Israel may be forced to go it alone, and America will lose either way.
Netanyahu gives Shin Bet, Mossad chiefs go-ahead to resume hostage talks
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an Israeli delegation approval on Friday to resume indirect negotiations with Hamas in the coming days for a truce and hostage deal.

Israel will send Shin Bet and Mossad officials to conduct the negotiations in Cairo, an Israeli official said, clarifying that Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar are not expected to attend the talks, but may join subsequent consultations in Doha later on, an Israeli official said.

According to a statement from his office announcing the decision, Netanyahu gave the security chiefs “room to operate” in their negotiations.

On Monday, Hamas rejected compromises hammered out between Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the United States in Doha, causing Jerusalem to recall most of its negotiating team.

Several news outlets reported that a small Mossad team remained in Qatar to continue talks.

Hamas said on Monday night that it had informed mediators that it has returned to its original demands for a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a return of displaced Palestinians and a “real” exchange of “prisoners” — demands Israel has repeatedly rejected as delusional. File: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) speaks with Mossad chief David Barnea at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv on October 15, 2023. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

On Wednesday, Barnea reportedly informed the war cabinet that a hostage deal was still possible if Israel would be willing to be more lenient regarding the return of Gazans to their home in the northern part of the Strip. Israel has largely rejected the idea, as it seeks to prevent a resurgence of Hamas activity in areas that it has already cleared of the terror group.

Besides Barnea, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz and war cabinet observers Gadi Eisenkot and Ron Dermer supported the Mossad chief’s stance, according to Channel 12.
In Gaza Ceasefire Talks, A Lesson From Yemen
In 2018, a Saudi-led Arab coalition, after three years of fighting against the Houthis in Yemen, was closing in on the strategically crucial port city of Hudaydah. Rather than encouraging the coalition to take the city and come closer to ending the war, the coalition’s Western allies pressured it into accepting an agreement that left the city in Houthi hands while obtaining only symbolic gestures in return. The Biden administration, entertaining a fantasy of “ending the war,” three years later cut off arms sales to the Saudis. As a result, Yemen’s suffering continues unabated, and the Houthis can now fire ballistic missiles at Israel and stifle global commerce.

Ari Heistein and Nathaniel Rabkin fear that the U.S. is going to try to force a similar plan on Israel before it attacks Rafah, with equally catastrophic results:
The parallels with Hamas in Rafah are clear and ominous. . . . Hamas is perfectly willing to create a humanitarian catastrophe as it defends its chokehold on Gaza—but allowing it to keep control means submitting to its forever war against the existence of Israel, and its constant efforts to humiliate the West and moderate Arab states. Any agreement with Hamas to facilitate some kind of compromise over the Rafah crossing is likely to turn out like the Hudaydah agreement, a fig leaf for continued control by militants who prioritize war above all else, and treat humanitarian concerns as an opportunity for profiteering and propaganda.

Hamas and the Houthis . . . are groups that have mortgaged all of their prestige on unwinnable and extremely brutal wars. . . . Before signing on to a ceasefire with groups like these, we need to see a “ceasefire” the way they do—as a temporary pause until they can gather more forces, develop more weapons, devise new tactics, and then break the ceasefire with a surprise attack, to initiate yet another battle in their campaigns of conquest.
Jerusalem Palestinians: Would you take Israeli citizenship?
Filmed before October 2023 war


StandWithUs: Free Palestine - Ari Lesser

Israeli security chiefs advise on this year’s no-go countries for Jews and Israelis
Israel’s National Security Council on Thursday published its annual threat assessment for citizens travelling abroad. It cited Islamist elements in particular, primarily Iran – “the main source of global terrorism.”

In recent years, a “continuous trend of heightened threats” against Israelis abroad has been identified, the council said in a press statement summarising its findings.

Just in the last few months, dozens of attacks against Israeli targets worldwide have been foiled, it said, rating the potential for terrorist threats against Israelis and Jews as “extremely high.”

Those threats have only increased since the start on October 7 of “Operation Swords of Iron,” Israel’s current war against Hamas.

The National Security Council listed the following countries to be avoided: Turkey, Morocco, Egypt (including Sinai) and Jordan. It noted that travel warnings don’t normally apply to a stay in the country for connecting flights, though they do in countries with a high threat level, ie Syria or Yemen.

Tehran stands out as the greatest promoter of terrorism. “In recent years, Iran has expanded its activities to harm Israeli citizens and Jews around the world, both directly and through its agents (proxies) and helpers,” the council said.

It cited several instances, including Iran’s attempt in 2021 to kill Israeli businessmen in Cyprus, and similar events in Colombia, Turkey, Georgia and Greece. (The NSC noted that there were still more examples not cleared for publication.)

Hamas is also looking to kill Israelis and Jews abroad. In December 2023, Hamas terrorist infrastructure was discovered in several countries in northern Europe.

Joining Hamas is a collection of lesser-known global jihadist organisations energised by the Gaza war to attack Jews. Their activity is focused on Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
Isis calls on ‘lone wolves’ to attack Christians and Jews during Ramadan
Isis has called on followers to attack Christians and Jews across America Europe and Israel this Ramadan.

Delivering the message on Thursday through the Telegram messaging app, Isis spokesperson Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari called on “lone wolves” to murder Jews and proclaimed that Ramadan marks the month of jihad.

The Mirror reported that Hudhayfah al-Ansari delivered a 41 minute address in which he also celebrated the deadly Moscow terror attack that killed 140 people in Russia last week.

Russia said that 139 people were killed in the deadly attack on Friday, which Isis has claimed responsibility for. The jihadi terror group released a video of the atrocity.

In the latest address Al-Ansari also said that the presence of American troops in Iraq would "lead to more attacks".

The message, which coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the terror group’s declaration of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria, was titled “By Allah, this matter will be made possible.”

Al-Ansari called on “members” in Mozambique to "double attacks" and appealed to militants in the Philippines to "move operations into major cities.”

According to The Mirror, Al-Ansari replaced spokesperson Abu Omar al-Muhajir following his arrest in Tahrir al-Sham.
Joe Rogan to Israel: ‘You went through the Holocaust and now you’re willing to do it?’
Addressing video footage on social media purporting to show Palestinians being killed by Israeli bombs, Joe Rogan told the millions who listen to his podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” on Tuesday that Israel was committing genocide.

“If you can’t talk about that, if you can’t say that’s real, then you’re saying that genocide is okay as long as we’re doing it,” he said.

Then he brought the Holocaust into the discussion.

“You’re saying that from the perspective of someone who literally went through the Holocaust or your people, your tribe. You went through the Holocaust and now you’re willing to do it?” he said, apparently directing his statement at Israel.

Democratic Majority for Israel called the prominent podcaster’s statement “wholly false and dangerous.”

“Joe Rogan accuses Israel of genocide. Compares the war in Gaza to the Holocaust. He’s just plain wrong, and he really ought to have someone on his podcast who disagrees with him for some enlightening, informative conversation,” wrote Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman from Illinois. “Instead of just tossing that ugly charge out there.”
Bassam Tawil: Qatar and Its Al-Jazeera Network: 'Voice for Terrorists'
The long-term agenda looks as if the US and Qatar intend to try to elbow Israel out of any say in what "humanitarian aid" is eventually be brought into Gaza.

The US seems to believe that Qatar is aligned with it; the US has its major Middle Eastern airbase there, without which Qatar would be a vulnerable target. However, the report reveals Qatar as aligned with countries such as Iran, Russia, and China, and groups such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban, which seek to replace the West. Qatar supported the Taliban until Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani fled in his plane. Then Qatar offered to mediate.

It is the same act -- "first the arsonist then the firefighter" -- that Qatar is putting over on the Biden administration with Hamas. First, Qatar funds Hamas to the gills, hosts Hamas's billionaire leaders in its capital, Doha, and allows Deif to declare war on Qatar's megaphone, Al Jazeera. Then, the Qataris pretend to be impartial mediators, and the Biden administration pretends to buy their act.

It is no secret that Qatar and its news organization Al-Jazeera have long been serving as champions, protectors and lifelines for Hamas and other terrorist groups, such as Al Qaeda affiliates and the Taliban.

"There are many channels who are biased, but this is past bias. Now Al-Jazeera is a voice for terrorists." — Mohammed Fahmy, the former Cairo bureau chief of Al-Jazeera, reported by Eli Lake, aawsat.com, June 25, 2017.

In light of the new damning evidence of Al-Jazeera's employing terrorists and its close connections to Hamas and other terrorist organizations, perhaps it is time for Israel and Western countries to learn from the Arabs, who understood many years ago that Qatar and its Al-Jazeera are not platforms for peace or news, but rather perpetuators of terrorism.
America’s censors have committed their Guernica The culture war was won years ago
In truth, the most interesting thing about Guernica‘s collapse is how familiar its contours seem. The substance of the controversy changes, but its shape remains the same. There was the cherry-picking of one allegedly offensive line — in this case, Chen grimacing as a friend tried to comfort her children by describing the sounds of rocket fire as “good booms” — which was then repeated ad nauseam, like a magic password that allowed critics to condemn the essay while bypassing any actual engagement with its content. A search for the phrase “good booms” on X is an illuminating, if depressing, reminder that what you cannot bring yourself to read charitably you will also inevitably struggle to comprehend — and that even the most literate among us are not above pretending, for the sake of tribal signalling, to have the intellectual capacity of a turnip.

But of course, this was just step one; eventually, and particularly if a backlash has begun to brew, the censors will pivot to a litany of secondary indictments: a lack of oversight by the editor (“A rigorous editorial process might have produced something worth reading!”), an error in the publication process (“Only one editor saw it!”), the quality of the censored work (“It’s not even good!”).

For those of us who come to these debates based on a sincere and principled commitment to free expression, this rhetorical barrage is disorienting; it’s like being invited to a scrimmage only to find your opponent repeatedly picking up the goalposts and carrying them all over the field, jeering at you over their shoulders for wanting to play in the first place. It would be almost hilariously bewildering, if it weren’t so damned bleak. The journal editors who are supposed to be the custodians of the literature that allows us to know ourselves, our world, and each other — people who spend their lives bewailing the dangers of book bans from the Right — become a pack of sneering authoritarian bullies when confronted by work that dares to empathise with anyone but their chosen side. The artists who are supposed to be our truth-tellers, our rule-breakers, whine that a story wasn’t subject to proper editorial process, like a snotty bureaucrat sending you to the back of the line because you didn’t properly fill out Section 320A of Form 981 at the DMV.

It doesn’t matter if the story was good; it doesn’t even matter what the story was about. Anyone who cares about art, and especially the ones who care about it enough to make it, knows this for the cringing, callow conformity it is. It is — or at least, it should be — utterly beneath us.

A common criticism of Israel is that, in its treatment of the Palestinians, the country has become the thing it once hated. This seems too facile to adequately describe the complexities of a conflict thousands of years old, in which all parties involved have suffered, and struggled, and spilled the blood of others as surely as others have spilled their own. But it could perhaps describe the current state of the arts in America, in this moment of absolute hegemony by the Left in every place where culture is produced — and in which the flag of the progressive cause can be found literally flying over everything from corporate headquarters to the White House.
‘Most evangelical Christians intimidated into silence’ on Israel-Hamas war, pastor says
Most evangelical Christians around the world are being intimidated into silence by a vociferous “social justice” camp that is fanning a false narrative on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and being presented by the global media, the head of a Jerusalem-based evangelical organization said this week ahead of Easter Sunday.

Rev. Peter Fast’s remarks during the Christian Holy Week come as public opinion polls have shown a drop in support for Israel, including among young evangelicals as the war in Gaza grinds on, and as the oldest Black Protestant Church in the United States has gone so far as to call for a halt to American aid to the Jewish State.

“The Evangelical Church is at a crossroads now,” Fast, who heads the Bridges for Peace Ministry in Jerusalem, told JNS in a pre-Easter interview. “The Church is being tested.”

The evangelical leader said that it was critical for Christians to make their voices heard at a time of darkness when the world is minimizing the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, which triggered the nearly six-month-old war against the Islamist terror group, and denying the Biblical roots of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland.

“The world is forgetting the events of Oct. 7 and minimizing them,” he said. “We must pass this test. We must speak up.”

The evangelical pastor said that an unrelenting “social justice” campaign hijacked by radical anti-Israel elements and both public and online antisemitic activists coupled with a toxic mix of growing bible illiteracy in the West has permeated the mainstream into silence or indifference.

“Most evangelical Christians are being intimidated into silence, and we have to encourage them to speak out,” he said, decrying that “the biblical worldview is being twisted and shattered.”

Fast said that he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the anti-Israel moves of other Christian denominations, including the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which advocated the ban on U.S. aid, which he said was epitomized by their longstanding adherence to replacement theology and questioning the authority of the bible.
Jews ‘under siege’ in Trudeau's Canada amid soaring antisemitism
Antisemitism in Canada has reached soaring levels as the country’s Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces intense criticism for capitulating to anti-Israel activists and abandoning the Jewish state.

A survey of some statistics of outbreaks of antisemitism shows what is expected to be an unprecedented spike in Jew-hatred in Canada when the full data is released in the summer. A March 18 report from the police in Canada’s largest city, Toronto, showed that of the 84 registered hate crimes in 2024, a startling 56% of the crimes were animated by antisemitism. Jews make up approximately 1.4% of the country's population.

In February, Toronto experienced the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the last three years.

In November, a Montreal synagogue and Jewish center were firebombed. Shots were also fired at two Jewish schools in Montreal in the same month as the arson attack. A suspected arson attack on a Jewish-owned grocery store in Toronto took place in January. The antisemitic slogan "Free Palestine" was scrawled on the rear doors of the business. Assaults targeting Jews have also unfolded across Canada.

Richard Marceau, Vice President, External Affairs and General Counsel, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Canada, told Fox News Digital, "Canada’s Jewish community has not only been grieving the horrific October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas, but we are also worried — for good reason," he said.

"For the past six months, the community has been under siege, confronting levels of antisemitism unseen since the Holocaust that has manifested in firebombings of synagogues, community centers and Jewish-owned businesses; shootings and bomb scares at Jewish schools; harassment of community members; intimidation of Jewish students and faculty on campus; cheerleading of Hamas by unions; and many other hateful iterations."

Marceau continued that "antisemitism isn’t solely a Jewish problem, and we need everyone to stand against this toxic hate. Governments need to implement safe access zones around Jewish institutions and introduce online hate legislation; law enforcement needs to protect Jewish community members and institutions and manage rowdy anti-Israel protest crowds that spew hate-filled vitriol and glorify terrorists; schools and businesses need to better tackle antisemitism as soon as it manifests."
Biden judicial nominee tied to Hamas ‘mouthpiece’ appears likely to fail
U.S. President Joe Biden’s pick for a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals appeared to be in jeopardy on Thursday after a third Democratic senator said that she would vote against his nomination.

Adeel Mangi, a partner at Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, would be the first Muslim-American federal appellate judge. However, his confirmation has faced heated opposition over his advisory board memberships at a pair of controversial legal advocacy groups, including a Rutgers University center that one Republican senator called a “mouthpiece for Hamas.”

On Wednesday, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) said that “given the concerns I’ve heard from law enforcement in Nevada, I am not planning to vote to confirm this nominee.”

Opponents of Mangi’s nomination and judicial experts told JNS on Wednesday that the attorney’s confirmation would likely have been impossible even before Rosen’s announcement, given that Democrats hold a two-seat majority of 51-49 in the Senate.

Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project, a group that opposes Mangi’s nomination, laid out the case for why Mangi’s associations were disqualifying.

“Mangi recently served on the advisory board of a shadowy Rutgers law-school group called the Center for Security, Race and Rights,” Davis told JNS. “This group held events featuring pro-Islamist, anti-Israel propaganda and brought in anti-Israel speakers, including Sami Al-Arian, a former professor and convicted felon who pleaded guilty in federal courts to funding the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”

The center posted on Oct. 31, less than a month after Hamas’s terror attack, that “to assess Hamas’s Oct. 7 operation and the Israeli regime’s subsequent response in isolation is to ignore over 75 years of colonial violence and the horrific consequences born out of these decades of oppression and attempted erasure.”

“That, to me, proves that Mangi has horrific judgments that he would be associated in a leadership role with this group,” Davis said.
Dissent Rips through State Dept. as Extreme Israel Haters Battle Ordinary Anti-Israel Staff
Annelle Sheline, 38, a foreign affairs officer in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor with almost one year of service under her belt, on Wednesday, resigned in protest of US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, The Washington Post reported.

In October 2023, Josh Paul, who served as director of congressional and public affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, handling arms transfers, announced his resignation because the Biden administration continued to send weapons and ammunition to Israel even though it refuses to allow Hamas Nazi agents to go on terrorizing its citizens but hammers them instead with US-made warplanes (State Department Official Resigns Saying the US Is Ignoring the Needs of Arab Nazis).

Paul praised Sheline for her brave move, telling the Post: “When the staff of that bureau feels that there is no more they can do, it speaks volumes about the Biden administration’s disregard for the laws, policies, and basic humanity of American foreign policy that the bureau exists to advance.”

So far, familiar stuff. The extreme anti-Israel staff at the State Dept. does not approve of the Jewish State’s existential war against an enemy sworn to destroy it, especially if said enemy happens to die as a result.

What baffled me was the sub-headline of the WP’s Hannah Allam and John Hudson article, which went: “The protest resignation is the latest sign of dissent brewing in some quarters of government.”

Webster’s basic definition of dissent is, “to differ in opinion.” This would suggest that in Josh Paul’s and Annelle Sheline’s work environment at the State Dept. they ran frequently against extreme, or even moderate pro-Israel voices from which they dissented.

But, of course, no such voices exist at Foggy Bottoms, home to the most Arabist contingency inside the American government since May 14, 1948, and probably earlier, too.

The dissent these two extremely anti-Israel bureaucrats encountered was that of the Biden administration insisting on supplying the Jewish State with the weapons and ammunitions it so desperately needed to conduct a lawful war against Hamas in Gaza.

Because, let’s face it, had Israel decided not to obey international law in Gaza, the war could have ended on October 8, in the late afternoon or early evening.
DHS Official Worked With Anti-Israel Group Tied to Embattled Biden Judicial Nominee
A top Department of Homeland Security civil rights official has previously unreported ties to a Rutgers University think tank that congressional investigators are calling a "hotbed of radical antisemitic, anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-terrorist activity."

Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia served as a faculty affiliate of the Rutgers Law School Center for Security, Race, and Rights until she joined the Department of Homeland Security last year as officer for civil rights and civil liberties. In her current role, Wadhia advises DHS leadership on the civil rights ramifications of agency policies and leads investigations into civil rights and civil liberties complaints from members of the public.

But Wadhia's affiliation with the Rutgers center could call her fitness for the job into question. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce launched an investigation this week into Rutgers's failure to address anti-Semitic activities on campus. The investigation focuses on the Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights, which has come under scrutiny amid the confirmation process for Biden judicial nominee Adeel Mangi, who served on the center's advisory board until last year.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said Wadhia's "ties to pro-terrorist groups should be completely disqualifying."

"Either the Administration isn't vetting its employees and nominees, or it simply doesn't care about their anti-Israel connections," he told the Washington Free Beacon.

Months before Wadhia joined the center, it hosted an event, marking the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, that featured Sami al-Arian, who was convicted of providing material support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group.

The center blamed Israel's "colonial violence" and "decades of oppression" against Palestinians for the October 7 Hamas attack, which the center called "Hamas's October 7th operation." After the group's 9/11 event with al-Arian in 2021, Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.) called to "castigate and alienate" the think tank for providing a platform to speakers "with ties to militant terrorist organizations."

That didn't deter Wadhia, who joined the center in early 2022, according to an archived version of the center's website.
George Soros pledged $1 million to ‘Hamas propaganda’ organization linked to terrorism
The philanthropy of Democratic megadonor George Soros has awarded at least $1 million combined in grants over the last decade to a group in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip with deep ties to Palestinian terrorists, financial disclosures show.

In its own telling, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights exists “to promote respect for and protection of human rights,” particularly in Palestinian territories. Public records tell another story: Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, which is accusing Israel of genocide for retaliating against Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack last year and calling on the United Nations and other bodies to investigate the Jewish state, hosts events with terrorists and is led by people with sprawling connections to Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

But to Soros, these ties do not appear to pose an issue. His $25 billion left-wing Open Society Foundations grantmaking network “is proud to be among the many international funders of Al Mezan, alongside the European Union and governments including Sweden and the Netherlands,” OSF spokesman Jonathan Kaplan told the Washington Examiner.

Kaplan, the former State Department communications director under former President Barack Obama, declined to comment on Al Mezan’s ties to terrorists when provided with examples.

The checks to Al Mezan underscore how the Soros-backed OSF has long helped keep the lights on for sympathizers and allies of terrorists attacking Israel. Soros, 93, is Jewish and a Holocaust survivor.

And after Oct. 7, a day that saw Palestinian terrorists massacre more than 1,200 Israelis, the billionaire’s grants to anti-Israel zealots domestically and overseas have come under heightened scrutiny from terrorism financing experts and Republicans: They are concerned his staggering wealth could be falling into the hands of violent factions going to war against the Jewish state.


Swiss City Councillor Condemned for ‘Child Killers’ Post
A councillor in the Swiss city of Bern faced strong criticism on Friday after she shared an Instagram post with a comment blaming Jews for rising antisemitism and defaming Israelis as “child killers.”

Judith Schenk, a socialist deputy on the Bern city council, was pushing an article from the Qatar-funded news outlet Al Jazeera which quoted an Israeli government official calling on Israeli forces to enter Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where Hamas terrorists have regrouped.

“No. You must respect the ceasefire ordered by the UN Security Council,” Schenk wrote. “Cursed child killers, you harm Jews around the world.”

Schenk’s use of language led critics to point out that the allegation that Jews kill children is an outgrowth of the medieval blood libel which falsely asserted that Jews use the blood of Christian children in their religious rituals.

Never Again is Now (NAIN) — a Swiss NGO devoted to combating antisemitism — responded with condemnation. “We would not have believed that such a statement is possible in the 21st century,” the group said in a statement.

In a statement to the Swiss news outlet 20 minutes, Schenk’s socialist colleagues on the council distanced themselves from her words.

“It is clear that antisemitism has no place in our society. We do not tolerate it, neither inside nor outside the party,” the statement said.


Unpacked: Did the KGB Invent Palestinian Nationalism?
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union spent millions funding Palestinian leaders in a proxy war between the U.S. and the USSR. But why would the USSR invest so much time and energy in backing a stateless and largely powerless group of people?

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:51 US-USSR proxy war in the Middle East
1:20 USSR support for Israel
1:51 USSR ends support for Israel
3:17 Stalin’s anti-Zionism campaign
4:07 Soviet-Arab relations
5:46 Palestinians as USSR proxy
6:16 Palestinian identity before 1948
7:45 Arab nationalism and a Palestinian state
9:36 KGB recruits Yasser Arafat
10:26 1967 Six Day War
11:00 The KGB funds of PLO terrorism
11:31 Arafat's Soviet Romanian handler
11:53 The KGB cleans up Arafat’s image


Attorney General Moody Leads Multistate Probe Into Allegations that MSCI is Embracing Anti-Israel BDS Movement
Attorney General Ashley Moody is leading a multistate coalition of state attorneys general in probing whether MSCI, Inc., a large investment company, is embracing the boycott, divestment and sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel. At least 38 states in the U.S. have taken actions to oppose the BDS movement.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “Israel is our greatest ally in the middle east, and in Florida, we unequivocally support their right to exist. The BDS movement has one goal, the complete elimination of Israel as a Jewish state. The allegations against MSCI are deeply disturbing and we have called for a quick response from the company’s leadership directly addressing our concerns.”

In August 2022, Attorney General Moody and 16 other state attorneys general sent a letter to Morningstar expressing “serious concerns related to reports that Morningstar—through its wholly owned subsidiary, Sustainalytics—may be furthering the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.” The Morningstar letter resulted in an internal investigation and eventual commitment to make changes to its business practices.

As reported by the Jewish News Syndicate, “Like Morningstar, which allegedly assigned damaging ratings to a dozen companies that it said committed ‘human rights violations’ simply for conducting business in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, MSCI’s environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) ratings appear to downgrade companies for the same reason.”
Morningstar drops service at libraries after landing on Florida’s anti-Israel list
Retiree MaryAnn Kaesberg went to her library in Seminole County recently to research stocks and mutual funds like she usually does, only to find the popular Morningstar Sustainalytics research website was blocked.

A librarian told her it was because the state had added Morningstar to a list of companies prohibited from doing business with Florida because of policies that boycott Israel or list companies doing business in the West Bank as high-risk.

“Morningstar cannot continue its service with our library as they have been placed on Florida’s ‘Scrutinized Companies that boycott Israel’ list by the state of Florida,” library officials told Kaesberg in an email.

Library officials confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel that Morningstar told them it made the decision to cancel the district’s $10,400-a-year subscription when it was up for renewal in January because of the decision to place it on the “scrutinized companies” list.

“I have never heard of this list. We cannot imagine why the publication is being scrutinized. Are they censoring adults as well as children in Florida?” Kaesberg told the Sentinel. “I am not sure if their other products are causing them to be scrutinized. This is an expensive publication, which has been offered for years by the library. I miss having access to it.”

Morningstar said its services had been cut off in Florida.

“It is true that we could not renew contracts for Morningstar Sustainalytics clients that are Florida government entities,” said company spokesperson Sarah Wirth.
Kassy Dillon: Harvard Law Students Amend Bylaws To Enact Secret Ballot Ahead Of Vote To Boycott Israel
Harvard Law School’s student government is actively voting on a resolution to boycott Israel through a secretive online ballot, a departure from bylaws that required an in-person recorded vote.

The resolution, which can only be voted on through an anonymous Google survey by members by Friday at 8:00 a.m., calls on all Harvard institutions to divest from entities that have a hand in the “occupation of Palestine,” without defining if “Palestine” includes only the West Bank and Gaza or Israel proper as well.

“Harvard Law School Government calls upon all institutions and organizations within the Harvard community to divest from institutions, weapons manufacturers, firms, academic programs, corporations, and all other institutions that aid the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine and the genocide of Palestinians,” the resolution states.

In an emergency meeting, the bylaws for the student government were amended earlier this week to permit the secretive vote rather than complying with the usual requirement of voting by roll call or acclamation.

“Our body decided to proceed via voting by Google form to address concerns regarding doxxing and harassment,” the student government’s co-president Swap Agrawal wrote in an email to the assistant dean of students obtained by The Daily Wire. “The Student Council voted at the outset of Tuesday’s meeting to amend the bylaws to allow the Student Council to consider and vote on this resolution via a closed and anonymous Google form rather than a public list and in-person roll call.”

The amendment met the two-thirds threshold for approval by a 12 out of 14 vote.

The Executive Board of Harvard Law School’s Alliance for Israel (AFI) slammed the student government for holding the unannounced emergency meeting, and failing to give them notice so they could voice opposition.
Biden DOJ asked to prosecute anti-Israel college group over harassment of Jewish students
A coalition of organizations supporting Israel is requesting the Justice Department prosecute an influential college campus group over its “nationwide campaign of violently harassing, intimidating and silencing” Jewish students, according to a letter.

The letter, a copy of which was first obtained by the Washington Examiner, was sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday by the pro-Israel Zachor Legal Institute and dozens of other groups, including the Middle East Forum think tank, Americans for Peace and Tolerance, Combat Antisemitism Movement, Israeli American Council, and Jewish Policy Center. The organizations told Garland that Students for Justice in Palestine, which has chapters on college campuses across the United States, is fostering “hate and discrimination.”

“The objectives of SJP’s campaign include preventing American Jews from exercising their First Amendment rights as well as their rights to participate in federally funded programs such as public education,” the groups wrote in the letter. “Their tactics include brandishing weapons on campuses, physically attacking Jews and using large crowds to physically prevent Jews from attending classes or using campus facilities. This constitutes an organized deprivation of rights of Jewish Americans.”

The prosecution request comes as numerous chapters of SJP, which is a project of the left-wing WESPAC Foundation in New York, face bans or suspensions on multiple campuses after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The letter to Garland cites how SJP members at the University of California, Los Angeles, were reportedly filmed roaming around campus with knives.

Similarly, the letter cited SJP-linked antisemitism and threats on campuses such as Cornell University, Columbia University, Harvard University, and other top-ranking colleges. The U.S. Department of Education is now investigating threats against Jewish students on campuses, including the University of Virginia.


Glasgow University says we’ll help Jewish students ‘avoid’ rector who praised terrorists
The principal of Glasgow University has made alternative arrangements for Jewish students so they do not need to be represented by a newly elected rector who has a history of praising terrorists.

Sir Anton Muscatelli has appeared to distance the university from its newly elected rector, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, a British-Palestinian doctor whose election has prompted fears for the safety of Jewish students.

In a letter to legal advocacy group UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI), Sir Anton, said the institution had “put in place channels of communication for the representation of Jewish students, so that they can avoid having to be represented by Dr Abu Sittah”.

However in a post on its website UKLFI pointed out that the job of the rector is to represent all students.

Sir Anton wrote: “We will of course be seeking to reassure both Israeli and Jewish students (indeed all students) that they are safe; that there are multiple routes (both formal and informal) to raise any concerns they have; that students seeking representation can speak to the Students’ Representative Council rather than the rector if they wish to.”

Abu-Sittah, who received 80 per cent of first preference votes, was elected by students to serve a three-year term in the highest governing body of the university.

The high-profile doctor has become known as a hero surgeon who worked in Gaza and has been treated as an expert on the situation in the Strip by the world’s biggest media outlets, including BBC, Sky and CNN.

However, a JC investigation into Abu-Sittah revealed that over the years, he has praised a terrorist murderer in a newspaper article, sat beside a notorious terrorist hijacker at a memorial and delivered a tearful eulogy to the founder of a terror group that was later involved in the October 7 atrocities.

The JC has also revealed he posted a tweet in 2019 heaping praise on members of a proscribed terror group who flew into Israel on gliders and murdered six soldiers in a chilling foreshadow of the October 7 attack.


Olly Alexander rejects calls from queer activists to withdraw from Eurovision over Israel
Pop singer Olly Alexander has rejected calls from queer activists to withdraw as the UK’s Eurovision Song Contest entrant.

More than 450 LGBTQ+ artists, individuals and organisations published an open letter calling on Alexander to pull out of this year’s competition because of the inclusion of Israel.

Responding to the mounting pressure from online activists, Alexander posted a statement saying he hoped his participation in the contest would “inspire greater compassion and empathy”.

It comes after Queers for Palestine, a group that includes the actor Maxine Peake, argued in a letter that Israel’s presence in the competition helped to normalise the conflict in Gaza.

In a letter to Alexander directly, the group said: “We share the vision of queer joy and abundance you’ve offered through your music, and share your belief in collective liberation for all. In this spirit, we ask you to heed the Palestinian call to withdraw from Eurovision... There can be no party with a state committing apartheid and genocide.”

However, in a statement Alexander said: “We want to begin by acknowledging the privilege taking part in Eurovision.

“In light of the current situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, and particularly Gaza and in Israel, we do not feel comfortable being silent.

“It is important to us to stand in solidarity with the oppressed and communicate our heartfelt wish for peace, an immediate and lasting ceasefire and the safe return of all hostages. We stand united against all forms of hate including antisemitism and Islamophobia.”

He appeared to distance himself from calls to boycott Israel, saying: “We firmly believe in the unifying power of music, enabling people to transcend differences and foster meaningful conversations and connections.”

Last year the BBC was urged to drop Alexander as the UK’s Eurovision Song Contest entrant after he signed an open letter branding Israel an “apartheid regime” and a “violent colonialist state”.


Reviewing BBC Arabic’s peace options ‘documentary’
In other words, viewers are told nothing about the Mandate for Palestine’s objective of creating a Jewish homeland or the fact that Jews accepted the proposal while Arabs – not just Palestinians – rejected it. Ikirmawi likewise erases the invasion of nascent Israel by five Arab armies in May 1948 from the picture, along with the subsequent Jordanian occupation of Judea & Samaria and parts of Jerusalem and the Egyptian occupation of the Gaza Strip. His mention of the ‘Nakba’ fails to mention the part played by Arab leaders in the “displacement of hundreds of thousands of people”.

Providing no background or context, Ikirmawi goes on to tell viewers that “Israel won another war in 1967 and occupied the remaining land”. With no mention whatsoever of the Yom Kippur war, he moves on to the topic of the Oslo Accords, inaccurately telling viewers that they “envisioned a two-state solution to bring an end to the conflict” and referencing an “early promise of an independent Palestinian state”.

As we all too often have cause to point out on these pages, the Oslo Accords in fact made no mention of the two-state solution and did not ”promise” a Palestinian state.

Ikirmawi promotes the notion that the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 “left the peace process in ruins” and goes on to bring in a commentator who believes that Israel murdered Yasser Arafat to claim that Netanyahu “killed the peace” despite the fact that Netanyahu signed the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron in 1997 and the Wye River Memorandum in 1998. The Sharm El Sheikh memorandum of 1999 likewise does not get a mention in Ikirmawi’s portrayal.

While Ikirmawi’s portrayal of the 1977 “founding charter of Netanyahu’s Likud party” is historically accurate, he fails to tell viewers that it was under the Likud party that Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Ikirmawi tells viewers that “it’s clear that Israel has seen a big political shift to the right since the Oslo Accords” while managing to completely avoid the topic of the effects of the second Intifada and the sharp rise in Palestinian terrorism from the Gaza Strip after the 2005 disengagement.

Ikirmawi presents an airbrushed account of the results of a November 2023 poll of Palestinians, failing to tell BBC audiences that in addition to 17% support for a two state solution, it revealed that 59% of the participants strongly supported and 16% supported to some extent the atrocities carried out by Hamas on October 7th.

Ignoring the support for Hamas – with its platform of rejection of any peaceful resolution to the conflict – in Palestinian society, Ikirmawi’s ‘blame Israel for the absence of a two state solution’ piece also tells viewers that:
“The bloodshed that followed the October 7th attacks has brought the elusive quest for a lasting peace to the Israeli Palestinian conflict back into sharp focus.”

Unsurprisingly, this BBC Arabic production makes no effort to document or investigate the links between Palestinian approval for Hamas’ slaughter of Israelis and the absence of “a lasting peace”. Neither does it tell BBC audiences anything about the Palestinian leadership’s multiple past rejections of peace offers.

One thing this dumbed down ‘documentary’ does do, however, is to shed light on the attitudes and journalistic integrity of those bringing BBC audiences their ‘news’, including the BBC World Service which found fit to re-promote this blatantly one-sided item, replete with highly relevant omissions that actively compromise audience understanding of the issue.


Labour Candidate Poses With Councillor Suspended for Antisemitic Posts
Some things never change. Among them may be the Labour Party. Election material for Chris Curtis, Labour candidate for Milton Keynes North, has the PPC stood proudly alongside… a councillor suspended for antisemitic posts according to the Jewish Chronicle. Starmer’s “changed Labour” in action…

Stood next to Curtis is Ansar Hussain. Previously a mayor in Wolverton, he was suspended from Labour in 2022 for conspiracy theory posts including an unhinged list called “30 Little-Known Facts About Israel” alongside claims that “ISIS is Israeli secret intelligence service.” He also received a formal reprimand in his role as a magistrate and quickly “undertook diversity and inclusivity training.”That’ll be sure to solve it…

Guido is surprised to see Chris keeping this company seeing as he is such an ardent moral crusader. In January he went around a bar telling staff that fellow drinker Laurence Fox was a “racist” and, when confronted, ran away. He can’t do the same now it’s printed on a leaflet…


MEMRI: Islamic State (ISIS) Supporters Eulogize Gazan Who Swore Allegiance To ISIS, Participated In October 7 Invasion Of Israel, Before Being Killed In Clashes With IDF Near Al-Shifa Hospital
Supporters of the Islamic State (ISIS) have alleged that a supporter, 'Izz Al-Din Ba'lushah, was killed on March 25 while clashing with Israeli forces near the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza city. While a statement in the name of ISIS circulated claiming the operation, it appears not to be authentic.

Reports Of Ba'lushah's Death In Clashes With Israeli Forces Near Al-Shifa Hospital

On March 25, 2024, pro-ISIS Telegram channel "Al-Muqsiteen" [Those Who Act Justly] posted: "The transaction was profitable. Ba'lushah and his companions, who made the Jews taste sorrow near the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, announced to them the beginning of a new chapter in the battle which they had not known since the era of the [Prophet Muhammad's] Companions. It has begun…"[1]

On the same day, X (formely Twitter) user 'Ali Husayn Al-Bajiri posted a a one-minute, 38-second video[2] with the text: "The inghimasi [commando-style fighter who carries out an operation likely to lead to his death] 'Izz Al-Din Ba'lushah, who raided the Jewish army in the vicinity of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza city." The video contains several still images of an armed Ba'lushah, some with him posing in front of black ISIS flags. One image shows a rocket in front of an ISIS banner, with the caption "the terrorizer of Sderot," an Israeli town bordering Gaza. Another shows two men with their faces blurred – described as "soldiers of the caliphate" from "Al-Aqsa Palestine" – swearing allegiance to ISIS' slain fourth leader Abu Al-Husayn Al-Husayni Al-Qurashi on January 8, 2023, while a section of video shows a man with his face blurred and voice distorted swearing allegiance to the current ISIS caliph, Abu Hafs Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi. Another image shows Ba'lushah holding a T-4 assault rifle, with the caption "spoils from the battle," while another shows him with an M-16 rifle, with the caption "captured on October 7 … covered with the blood of the soldiers, after he killed some of them and took spoils." While Ba'lushah's face cannot be seen clearly in all the images, the video implies that he swore allegiance to the current and previous ISIS leaders, fired rockets at Sderot, and killed Israeli soldiers while participating in the October 7 invasion of Israel.

X user 'Abd Qazzaz posted the same video the following day, writing: "My brother and the spirit of my life, the monotheist martyr, son of the Islamic State, 'Izz Al-Din Ibrahim Ba'lushah (Abu Ibrahim), was martyred while waging jihad, in clashes in Gaza, while inflicting losses on the enemies of Allah, seizing spoils, fighting under the banner 'there is no God but Allah,' going forward and not turning his back."[3]

Another X account, "Palestine The Flash," posted images of Ba'lushah, adding that the slain fighter "swore allegiance to the Islamic State" and "appeared in videos and photos from 2011."[4]

Fake ISIS Claim Of Operation
On March 26, X user Sayf Al-Din Al-Iraqi posted[5] a claim issued in the name of ISIS in "Palestine," dated March 25, reporting "casualties among the ranks of the unbelieving Jewish forces in an inghimasi attack perpetrated by a fighter from the Islamic State in Palestine." The claim identifies the attacker as "'Izz Al-Din Ba'lushah, may Allah accept him [as a martyr]," reporting that he "set out … toward forces of the unbelieving Jewish police in the city of Gaza, in northern [sic] Palestine, and clashed with them using his machine gun, causing members of the Jewish police to incur injuries of various severity, praise to Allah." The claim continues: "Let the unbelieving Jews know that our war with them continues and that what is coming will be more calamitous and bitter, Allah willing."

The account also posted a photo of Ba'lushah allegedly by ISIS' A'maq News Agency.

The claim and photo do not appear on any of the Telegram channels that routinely forward official ISIS media content, and the wording of the claim is inconsistent with ISIS' usual style.

Responding to a post reporting that ISIS claimed an attack by Ba'lushah, X user "Al-Khilafah Qademah" [The Caliphate Is Coming] described him as an ISIS operative and claimed he perpetrated the attack "to avenge the chaste sisters who were raped by the Jewish forces."[6]
For third straight week, Ramadan prayers at Temple Mount pass without incident
Afternoon prayers on the third Friday of Ramadan ended at the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Jerusalem Old City Temple Mount, with the Israel Police reporting they passed without incident.

The Islamic Waqf, which administers the mosque compound, said 125,000 people took part in the prayers, slightly up from last week. But police put turnout in the tens of thousands and the Foreign Ministry said “over 50,000” attended.

Along with the Ramadan prayers, hundreds of Christians participated in a customary Good Friday procession through the limestone walls of the Old City, commemorating one of the faith’s most sacred days with noticeably thinner crowds amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Police say they arrested 11 people in the Old City throughout the day, including several suspects for chants of “incitement and support for terrorism” following morning prayers at the Temple Mount.

Nevertheless, this marked the third consecutive Friday of the Muslim holy month during which mass prayers took place largely peacefully, despite fears of disturbances after the Hamas terror group had called on Palestinian worshipers to barricade themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

At the beginning of the holy month, Hamas called on followers to “participate urgently in defending Al-Aqsa Mosque against the aggression that lurks in these critical times.”


Lebanese nun’s call for students to pray for Hezbollah sparks furor, shows schisms
The nun stood in front of a group of young students at a Lebanese Christian school and asked them to pray for the “men of the resistance” in southern Lebanon who she said were defending the country.

The men to whom nun Maya Ziadeh was referring are members of the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, which has been clashing with Israel across a volatile border for nearly six months, becoming a critical regional player as the Israel-Hamas war persists in Gaza.

A video capturing Ziadeh’s comments was widely circulated online earlier this month, outraging some who accused her of brainwashing the children and imposing her political views. Others rallied to her support, commending her stance as courageous and honorable.

The war of words that unfolded highlighted larger, longstanding schisms in Lebanon over Hezbollah, now amplified by the Lebanon-Israel border clashes and by fears that an already crisis-hit Lebanon could be dragged into an all-out war.

“There are sharp (political) divisions over Hezbollah’s weapons,” said Sami Nader, director of the Institute of Political Science at Saint Joseph University of Beirut. And while there’s wide support for the Palestinian cause, he said, there are “differences over the degree of such support and how to provide it.”

Lebanon is home to multiple religious groups. Politically, the presidency is given to a Maronite Christian, the parliament speaker post to a Shiite Muslim, and the prime minister’s post to a Sunni Muslim.
Taliban leader vows to start stoning and flogging Afghan women again: report
The Taliban’s reclusive leader signaled the hardline Islamist group would begin stoning and flogging women in public again, according to a report.

Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada delivered the message meant for Western countries over the weekend in a voice message on state television.

“You say it’s a violation of women’s rights when we stone them to death,” he told state media, according to the Telegraph.

“But we will soon implement the punishment for adultery. We will flog women in public. We will stone them to death in public.”

The Taliban seized control after the United States’ disastrous withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country in August 2021.

At the time of the chaotic exit, fears immediately grew that women’s rights there would quickly crumble.

“These are all against your democracy but we will continue doing it. We both say we defend human rights – we do it as God’s representative and you as the devil’s,” Akhundzada said.

He also assailed the international community for pushing for women’s rights that are in contrast with the Sharia.

“I told the Mujahedin that we tell the Westerners that we fought against you for 20 years and we will fight 20 and even more years against you,” he said.

“It did not finish [when you left]. It does not mean we would now just sit and drink tea. We will bring Sharia to this land,” the depraved leader also said, per the Telegraph.


In reversal, Senate Foreign Relations to take up MAHSA Act Iran sanctions
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced on Thursday that it plans to take up the MAHSA Act alongside other measures to sanction Iran, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a reversal from previous plans by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the committee’s chair.

Cardin’s office had told Iranian-American activists who had been advocating aggressively for the MAHSA Act, a sanctions bill targeting Iranian leadership, that he did not plan to take up the bill. He suggested to reporters that the committee would be putting together its own package of Iran sanctions legislation rather than taking up any of the various House-passed bills.

But the Foreign Relations Committee announced an April 16 business meeting during which the committee will consider a slew of sanctions measures including the MAHSA Act; the SHIP Act, which places new sanctions on those purchasing and processing Iranian oil, targeting China; the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad International Terrorism Support Prevention Act, which sanctions foreign supporters of the Palestinian terrorist groups; and the MISSILES Act, which aims to respond to the sunset of U.N. sanctions on Iran’s missile and drone programs by codifying the sanctions in U.S. law and demands an administration strategy on preventing proliferation.

The MAHSA Act and SHIP Act have both been passed by the House, as has a version of the Hamas and PIJ bill. A bill similar to the MISSILES Act, the FIGHT CRIME Act, has also passed the House.

The committee is also set to consider a resolution condemning Hamas’ use of sexual violence and a resolution calling for the immediate release of Evan Gershkovich, the Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter who has been detained in Russia for a year.

An Iranian-American activist who has been vocal on the MAHSA Act, who uses the X username @HopeIranian and the pseudonym Hope, told JI that she’s “truly honored and grateful” that Cardin scheduled the markup.


Israel Gains More Billionaires, Breaking Into Top 20 Countries for Ultra-Rich Despite Gaza War
Despite concerns about the Israeli economy amid the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, Israel added nine billionaires to its population over the last year, according to a new ranking.

The Hurun Report, a Shanghai- and Mumbai-based research firm, this week released its Global Rich List 2024, a ranking of the billionaires in the world in terms of US dollars. According to the findings, Israel broke into the top 20 countries for the ultra-rich with its new additions over the last year, which bring the Jewish state’s total number of billionaires to 29.

Interestingly, Israel ranked 18th on the list — Chai, the Hebrew word for “life,” is associated with the number 18, which is considered a lucky number in Judaism.

The next highest amount for Middle Eastern countries were Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, ranked 20 and 22, respectively, making the Jewish state the home of the region’s most billionaires.

The richest Israeli was Miriam Adelson, widow of the late Sheldon Adelson, a casino mogul and pro-Israel philanthropist who passed away in 2021. Her net worth was $35 billion, making her the 36th richest person in the world. Members of the Ofer family, real estate and shipping magnates, were also on the list of wealthiest Israelis.

The new ranking came at a time when Israel’s economy, though suffering through a war, has seen some levels of growth. For example, Israeli startups raised nearly $2 billion in the past 90 days, according to Startup Nation Center. Some investors have remarked that the funding activity in the country is the highest they have seen in years.

On the economic level, GDP dropped by nearly 20 percent in the final quarter of 2023, though economists have not warned of any serious recession risks — barring a massive flareup in Israel’s north — due to the fact that historically Israel’s economy has bounced back quickly following wars and disasters. Additionally, the country has a low debt ratio, meaning that the Bank of Israel can issue bonds to print more currency without inflicting serious long-term damage to the economy, experts say.
The Miracle of ‘Ben-Hur,’ Hollywood’s Tastiest Christo-Zionist Epic
In the American Masters documentary Directed by William Wyler (1986), Charlton Heston tells the kind of story that gives actors night terrors. He is starring in the title role of MGM’s $15 million epic Ben-Hur. The dailies are coming back and director William Wyler is not happy. Heston can take criticism, he can work with a director, he appreciates guidance. What do you need? he asks.

“Better,” snaps Wyler.

Heston got better of course. Ben-Hur went on to win 11 Academy Awards, save MGM from insolvency, and imprint itself on the popular imagination. A successful roadshow reissue in 1969 solidified its status and television made it a yearly ritual beginning on Feb. 14, 1971, when CBS devoted a long Sunday night to the first telecast, with a pan-and-scanned version interrupted, lamented one critic, by an “unmerciful number of commercials.” (No matter: It drew an estimated 86 million viewers, more than any film yet broadcast on television.) In a line-up of bloated and overlong biblical epics (see Demetrius and the Gladiators [1954], The Ten Commandments [1956], and The Bible: In the Beginning [1966]), it remains a compulsively watchable exception in a genre that has dated badly. New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, usually the scourge of grandiose Hollywood religiosity, called Ben-Hur “by far the most stirring and respectable of the Bible-fiction pictures ever made ... grippingly conveyed in some of the most forceful personal conflicts ever played in costume on a giant screen.” (Spartacus [1960] is not a biblical epic.)

Before its definitive rendering, however, Ben-Hur had already passed through a series of hugely popular iterations on what were not yet called media platforms: a bestselling book, a hit stage play, a one-reel short from the dawn of cinema, and an equally spectacular feature film from the silent era. Each version reflected its distinct cultural milieu and media moment, with the two major film versions serving as convenient bookends for the rise and fall of classical Hollywood cinema. The first version in 1925 launched Hollywood into its vaunted “golden age,” when the machine works of the studio system proved that the art of cinema could depict most any landscape conjured by a writer’s imagination; the second arrived when the studio system was on a downward slide but not yet out for the count.

Filmed on location in Italy, the first major film version of ‘Ben-Hur’ was a notorious runaway production and money pit that served forever after as a cautionary tale that kept the major studios close to the backlot.

The origin story of Ben-Hur begins not in Hollywood or Rome but in Santa Fe, in the territory of New Mexico, where territorial Governor General Lew Wallace—lawyer, Civil War hero, and diplomat—wanted to add novelist to his list of accomplishments. In 1876, he began work on the one he would be remembered for, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, published in 1880. Teleporting readers back to Judea and Rome at the time of Christ, the book caught the retro zeitgeist of a nation transformed by industrialization (the essential skill set in the novel, horsemanship, was already something of a throwback). Within a decade, the novel had sold 250,000 copies. Ben-Hur has been called “the most influential Christian book written in the nineteenth century”—that’s wrong, the correct answer is Uncle Tom’s Cabin—but it ranks a close second.
Matisyahu Releases New Song ‘Ascent’ About Antisemitism With Music Video Filmed in Israel
Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu debuted on Friday a new song about antisemitism and the track’s music video was filmed in Israel following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in the Jewish state.

The music video for Ascent features survivors of the Nova Music Festival massacre and was filmed at the site of the festival, which was invaded on Oct. 7 by Hamas terrorists who killed 370 people before taking 44 others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip. Matisyahu also filmed the music video in the neighborhoods in southern Israel where Hamas infiltrated and killed residents before kidnapping others and taking them to Gaza. In total, over 1,200 people were murdered and more than 250 abducted.

The music video additionally features archival footage showcasing various moments in Jewish history.

In the song, Matisyahu raps about the “nation that could never be erased” and fighting “waves of deniers … liars [who] start fires that blaze, but truth is the water that stands in its way.” Ascent is included on Matisyahu’s new EP, titled Hold the Fire.

The musician, who began his music career as a Hassidic Jew and has since left that ultra-Orthodox lifestyle, talked about the inspiration behind Ascent in an interview with Billboard News earlier in March. The One Day singer said the track’s title is a nod to the Hebrew prayer “Song of Ascents,” also known in Hebrew as Shir Hamaalot, and was written in response to a historic surge in antisemitic hate crimes around the world since Oct. 7.

In Ascent, Matisyahu is “calling people out on antisemitic thinking,” he said, adding that he believes the track is going to be “empowering.” He explained that his visit to Israel for the song’s music video gave him hope for the future of the Jewish people.




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