Thursday, April 04, 2024

04/04 Links Pt2: The ICJ is waging lawfare on Israel; How Much Is a Dead Jew Worth?; The Appalling Tactics of the "Free Palestine" Movement

From Ian:

WSJ: The International Court of Justice is waging lawfare on Israel
The party with clear genocidal intent here is Hamas, which, because it’s not a state, is conveniently not subject to the jurisdiction of the ICJ. Just take a look at the Hamas founding charter, which outlines “our struggle against the Jews.” After the, yes, genocidal Oct. 7 attack, a senior Hamas official declared the terrorist group’s intention to repeat the murderous feat and announced that “Israel is a country that has no place on our land.”

As to Israel, yes, there are painful and difficult questions about the civilian casualties and suffering it has inflicted in Gaza — casualties that are the result of not only the Hamas attack but also the organization’s cruel and cynical decision to reap benefit from embedding its operations deep in the civilian population and using the ensuing civilian casualties in its war for public support.

But the matter of Israel’s complicity in the suffering is an issue of international humanitarian law entirely separate from the unfounded allegations of genocide. “Israel, its officials and/or agents, have acted with the intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” South Africa claimed.

No. Israel’s intent — its legitimate intent, under international law — is to defend itself and destroy Hamas. The Genocide Convention requires proof of intent “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” A country with genocidal intent does not warn the civilian population it is supposedly seeking to destroy to leave an area it plans to bomb. It does not deliver incubators and baby formula to their hospitals.

None of this stopped the International Court of Justice. Responding to another prod from South Africa, it said Israel had to do more to ensure humanitarian aid to civilians — and, alarmingly, seven judges on the 15-member court said they would order Israel to stop the fighting.

To be clear: Israel has erred, badly, on the issue of humanitarian relief, which is a moral and strategic imperative as well as a legal one. The tragic killing of seven aid workers for World Central Kitchen only adds to the understandable pressure on Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis — and to its potential legal exposure on that score. But, and here I need to make a maddeningly legalistic point, the ICJ has jurisdiction to decide only the genocide question. It doesn’t have the authority to determine whether Israel has violated the broader requirements of international humanitarian law.

Add to that the structural imbalance because of the ICJ having no power over Hamas. As Judge Aharon Barak, Israel’s representative on the ICJ, wrote, “The Court has accepted South Africa’s invitation to become the micromanager of an armed conflict,” a “dangerous endeavor” when only one party, Israel, is bound by its decisions.

What’s going on here isn’t law; it’s lawfare, an effort to hijack what should be the somber mechanisms of international justice to the political ends of tarring Israel with the calumny of genocide. South Africa, with close ties to Hamas and its sponsor, Iran, is deploying the Genocide Convention to dirty Israel in the public eye.

Years from now, when the genocide claim is ultimately resolved, it’s not likely Israel will be found to have committed this most terrible of crimes. But that’s not the goal. The goal is in the here and now, to turn public opinion even further against the Jewish state.

The ICJ is enabling it. As Barak put it, the ICJ’s “approach to this case is steadily leaving the land of law and entering the land of politics. The ideas of a judge as a human being should not determine the opinions of a human being when he or she acts as a judge.” The court’s new president, or chief justice, Nawaf Salam, is a former ambassador to the United Nations from Lebanon, where another front could erupt into war at any moment. In 2015, he wrote, “Unhappy birthday to you, 48 years of occupation.” Doesn’t exactly sound impartial.
Melanie Phillips: Lawyers for blood libels
The 600 British lawyers who have signed a letter to the Prime Minister denouncing Israel for breaking international law and potentially committing genocide deserve nothing but contempt.

Not only have they parroted the falsehoods and distortions with which Israel is being demonised and delegitimised across the world. They have also shockingly misrepresented January’s ruling by the International Court of Justice in the case brought against Israel by South Africa.

The letter, which is signed by 60 KCs and three former Supreme Court judges, says that the ICJ “concluded that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”.

This is a wicked lie. The court said nothing of the kind. Here’s what the legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg (in whom I declare an interest) has written on his Substack:
In its third paragraph, the letter says that on 26 January 2024 the International Court of Justice “concluded that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”. This error is repeated by the Guardian in its report of the letter. There are several further references in the lawyers’ letter to “the ICJ’s finding of plausible risk”.

The words “plausible risk” appear nowhere in the court’s order. They are a misrepresentation of what the court concluded in paragraph 54 of its judgment:

“In the court’s view, the facts and circumstances mentioned above are sufficient to conclude that at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible. This is the case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in article III [of the Genocide Convention], and the right of South Africa to seek Israel’s compliance with the latter’s obligations under the convention.”
Gadi Taub: How Much Is a Dead Jew Worth?
The Palestinian Authority compensates the families of terrorists in proportion to the amount of harm they inflict on Jews. Killing Jews is not just a religious calling that can grant you the status of "martyr" and guarantee you a place in heaven with 72 virgins. It is also a way to make a living. If you're sentenced to 10 years, you make four times the minimum wage and twice the average wage in the PA. The PA spends 7% of its budget on the pay-for-slay scheme.

This program is just one thread in the whole fabric of Palestinian national culture that has woven the idea of jihad against the Jews into all aspects of life. Terrorists dominate the gallery of national heroes. They are essentially the only role model for Palestinian youth. Regardless of how much well-meaning Israelis tried desperately to imagine otherwise over the years, the Palestinian national ethos is built around a genocidal war to ethnically cleanse Palestine, from the river to the sea, of Jewish presence.

Itamar Marcus, founder of Palestinian Media Watch, said Oct. 7 was not the result of Hamas indoctrination, but the product of PA indoctrination, which has been around for three decades. Both in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian children are still being instructed in books produced by the PA that ceaselessly pump into young minds the poison of the death cult - of suicide and genocide.

Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs concurs that PA indoctrination is a greater source than Hamas of this genocidal hate. The idea that the way forward in Gaza is for Hamas to be replaced by the PA is therefore a risible exercise in wishful thinking, since the PA, in reality, glorifies and incentivizes terrorism.

By now, we know that PA security forces personnel are directly involved in terror attacks. The police forces Israel armed and the U.S. military trains are active participants in the terror they were supposed to stop. Using the guns we gave them to stop terror, they instead kill Jews - in the process securing the livelihoods of their families.
Bret Stephens: The Appalling Tactics of the "Free Palestine" Movement
Protest movements have an honorable place in American history. But not all of them. Not the neo-Nazis who marched in Chicago in 1978. Not the white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. And not too much of what passes for a pro-Palestinian movement but is really pro-Hamas, with its open celebration of the murder of Israel's people and its efforts to mock, minimize or deny the suffering of Israelis, which so quickly descend into antisemitism.

It wasn't a response to the human suffering in Gaza. Pro-Hamas demonstrations broke out worldwide on Oct. 8, before any Israeli response. Nor is it a matter of seeking a Palestinian state. Among the popular chants at many protests is "We don't want no two states! We want all of '48!" - all of what had been Mandatory Palestine. In other words, the central, animating sentiment behind much of the protest movement is neither humanitarian nor liberationist. It's eliminationist.

Tactics like the routine removal or defacement of posters of Israelis kidnapped to Gaza; or holding a loud and aggressive demonstration outside of New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer hospital; or shouting down Rep. Jamie Raskin at the University of Maryland for being "complicit in genocide" reveals the bullying mentality at the heart of the pro-Hamas movement.

It isn't enough for them to speak out; they must shut other voices down. They aim to instill a palpable sense of fear in their opponents. American civil libertarians once understood that inherent in the right to protest was the obligation to respect the right of people with differing views to protest as well.


Gaza policy will change if Israel doesn’t meet US conditions, Biden warns Netanyahu
U.S. President Joe Biden demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, per a White House readout of their call on Thursday.

“President Biden emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable,” the readout stated. “He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers.”

Biden also “made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps,” the statement added.

During a White House press briefing on Thursday afternoon, reporters repeatedly asked John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, if Biden had threatened Netanyahu.

Kirby declined to say what specific policy changes Washington would make if Israel failed to meet U.S. conditions. “If we don’t see changes from their side, there’ll have to be changes from our side,” Kirby said. “There has to be tangible steps. Let’s see what they announce. Let’s see what they direct. Let’s see what they do.”

The White House advisor expects Israel to announce “changes” within “hours and days,” he said. Kirby also said that the call was a direct response to airstrikes, for which Israel has taken responsibility, on a World Central Kitchen convoy on Monday night. Seven aid workers, including an American citizen, were killed. Israel has said that it is investigating the incident.

At press time, Netanyahu’s office had yet to release a statement about or a readout of his call with Biden.
Hamas official seems to reject latest hostage deal offer, demands full Israeli pullout
A senior Hamas leader said on Thursday that Egypt had put forward a new ceasefire proposal to the terror group but that it did not include anything new, and said the organization would not back down from any of its previous demands, days after an Israeli negotiating team returned from Cairo, having drawn up the updated proposal.

The unnamed official told Reuters that American and Egyptian mediators wanted to keep the ceasefire process alive despite their realization that there was a wide gap between the two warring parties. He said that nevertheless, a new round of talks may be held in Cairo next week, ahead of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.

“The Hamas leadership informed the Egyptian and Qatari mediators that what is being offered cannot be accepted, as it is a continuation of the stubborn Israeli position,” he added.

Earlier, Hamas politburo official Osama Hamdan said in a press conference from Beirut that there had been no progress in Gaza ceasefire talks despite the Palestinian group showing flexibility, according to him.

Hamdan blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the standstill, claiming he was placing obstacles that hindered both parties from reaching an agreement, and asserting he was “not interested” in releasing Israeli hostages.

As in previous attempts to reach a deal for a temporary truce and the release of hostages, Hamas is demanding the full withdrawal of Israeli forces, a permanent ceasefire, the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza and a substantial increase in the quantity of humanitarian aid that is allowed to enter the Strip.

In addition, Hamas has demanded the release of an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of the 130 hostages it has held in captivity since October 7.
Blinken airs threat to cut support for Israel in watershed moment for conflict
Secretary of State Antony Blinken aired a public threat to withdraw American support for Israel unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complies with U.S. demands for “a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps” to mitigate humanitarian suffering and civilian casualties.

“If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there’ll be changes in our own policy,” Blinken told reporters at the outset of his NATO foreign ministerial press conference in Brussels.

His comments came just as a readout of President Joe Biden’s conversation with Netanyahu was reported, in which Biden called for a ceasefire, told Israel to address humanitarian concerns in Gaza, and “made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”

Biden and Blinken’s one-two punch points to a watershed moment in U.S.-Israel relations during the war with Hamas. Biden gave Netanyahu full-throated support in the first weeks after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that ignited the conflict, but Israel’s prosecution of the conflict has given rise to a wave of Western frustration that has reached a fever pitch in the wake of a strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven aid workers.
Amid retaliation threats from Iran, IDF cancels home leave for all combat troops
With Iran vowing to retaliate for a strike earlier this week on one of its consular buildings in Damascus that it blames on Israel, the Israel Defense Forces on Thursday said it had halted home leave for all combat troops following a fresh assessment.

“The IDF is at war and the issue of the deployment of forces is constantly reviewed as needed,” the military noted in its announcement.

Possible scenarios for which the IDF is understood to be preparing include missile and drone attacks by Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen — all of which have been carried out amid the ongoing Gaza war — and ballistic missile attacks directly from Iran, a situation that Israel has not yet faced. And yet, Israeli officials believe the country’s air defense systems will be able to handle the threat.

The head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate said Thursday that Israel was facing a particularly difficult period: “I have told you more than once that it is not certain that the worst is behind us, and we have complex days ahead of us,” Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva told subordinate officers in remarks released by the IDF.

While Israel has not claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack, which killed Iran’s top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general in Syria along with his deputy and five other IRGC officers, Tehran has blamed Jerusalem and vowed revenge. The IRGC is a US-designated terror group.

On Wednesday night, the IDF said it was bolstering air defenses and calling up reservists, following an assessment.

Instructions to the public issued by the Home Front Command amid the war against Hamas in Gaza remained unchanged.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in a post on X said Israeli civilians do not need to “buy generators, stock up on food or withdraw money from ATMs.”
The UN ceasefire resolution is a reward for Hamas terror
Hillel Neuer interviewed by The Sun on the UN ceasefire resolution, UNRWA's problems, and the UN's bias against Israel.


Anne Herzberg | "The UN is silent about the diversion of aid"



Jonathan Tobin: Is Trump really abandoning Israel?
We do well to wonder whether the turn against Israel on the part of some on the right, like Carlson and Owens, is having any impact on him. Carlson has been seen socializing with the Trump clan and seemed to have his ear while he was in the White House. But he also had no impact on his policies towards Israel or Iran. There is a big difference between Trump’s “America First” approach to foreign policy, and Carlson’s and Owens’s more isolationist “America only” attitude that is also inherently hostile to Israel. Carlson is still more court jester to Trump than adviser, and the toxic Owens will have no more influence on him than the equally antisemitic Kanye West, whom he foolishly invited to dinner at Mar-a-lago in 2022.

Nor do I think that his feud with Netanyahu will necessarily influence policy towards the Jewish state even if both are leading their respective countries next January.

Everything with Trump is transactional, and he wrongly interpreted the prime minister’s congratulating Biden—as he was obligated to do—on winning in 2020 as a personal insult. But Trump is always ready to forgive former foes or critics if they bend the knee to him. If he wins in November, then Netanyahu will go back to flattering Trump as he did while the former president was moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan; supporting the normalization between Israel and more moderate Muslim countries; and bypassing the Palestinians to push for peace with the Arab and Muslim world. If so, all will probably be well between the two men.

Still, friends of Israel aren’t wrong to be disappointed that Trump hasn’t done more to be supportive of the Jewish state since Oct. 7.

Even if he wants Israel to win the war, he should have been speaking out consistently on the issue. Instead, most of his comments were self-referential. His claim that if he were president—or if Biden had adopted his policies on Iran, Israel and the Palestinians—the current war would never have happened might be true. But the atrocities of Oct. 7 and the subsequent surge in antisemitism should have been a moment for him to transcend his impulse to see everything as being about himself. Again, it’s always foolish to expect Trump to be anything other than the person he’s always been.

The only way to judge the Trump-Biden matchup with respect to their Israel policies remains their records while they were in the White House. Given the current difficulties with Washington, as Biden pressures Israel to stop the war and let Hamas win, the notion that there is no difference between the two doesn’t seem sensible.
Trump Reiterates Israel Must End War Soon in New Interview, Demurs When Asked if He Stands With Jewish State ‘100%’
Former US President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated that he believes Israel must finish its war against Hamas in Gaza soon and demurred when asked whether he stands with the Jewish state “100 percent.”

While appearing on conservative host Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Trump was asked whether he stands with Israel “100 percent” and what advice he would give to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu other than finishing up the war quickly.

Trump did not respond to the part of the question about fully supporting Israel. Instead, he replied: “Well, that’s all the advice you can give. I mean, that’s the advice.”

He continued: “You’ve got to get it over with, and you have to get back to normalcy. And I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it, because you’ve got to have victory. You have to have a victory, and it’s taking a long time.”

Trump also offered criticism of what seemed to be the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), arguing they are in large part to blame for Israel’s waning international support.

“And the other thing is I hate, they put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down. They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that,” Trump said. “They’re doing, that’s why they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel is absolutely losing the PR war.”

He added, “I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough.”

Trump’s comments came after a recent interview with Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom in which he urged Israel to “finish up your war” and “get on to peace, to get on to a normal life for Israel, and for everybody else.”

In that interview, Trump argued that Israel was painting “a very bad picture for the world.”

Israel Hayom‘s senior diplomatic correspondent concluded, based on the interview, that “both US presidential candidates, [incumbent President Joe] Biden and Trump, are turning their rhetorical backs on Israel.”
Canadian Conservative leader calls Jews ‘a true indigenous people’
Pierre Poilievre, a member of the Canadian parliament and the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, recently spoke to members of the Orthodox Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec. His address on March 26 received robust applause and several standing ovations.

Poilievre proclaimed the permanence of the Jewish people, saying that “a thousand years from now, whatever is going on, on Fridays, as the sun goes down, there will be a Shabbat in Israel.”

He said, “Those songs will be sung. The Jewish people will go on.”

Poilievre also named Iran as the instigator of the Oct. 7 terror attacks on southern Israel, which he views as having masterminded the Hamas and Palestinian infiltration of the border on that Black Shabbat. “It was the fear that discord would come to an end and that hope would take root that most terrified the regime in Iran,” he said.

“They orchestrated the attack,” he said. “The Hamas leaders traveled to Tehran. They got funding and weapons from Tehran, and ultimately, coordination.”

The Canadian legislator described Jews as “the only people I know of who, in the same language, worship the same faith on the same land in the same country as they did 3,000 years ago. That is a true indigenous people.”
No, Joe Rogan: There is no comparing the Holocaust and Gaza
The entire purpose of the genocide accusation against Israel is to provide cover for Hamas to be able to commit its own genocide and to leave the Jewish people without any protection against the modern-day Hitlers.

Rogan himself seems to know this, as he said during that very podcast that “supporting Hamas is insane.” But he doesn’t seem to think Israel should actually defeat Hamas or prevent future October 7s and is willing to believe any accusation and blow up any incident he thinks happened in Gaza as the Holocaust on a “smaller scale” without evidence.

There is a world of difference between a legitimate war of self-defense Israel did not start and which it is waging against another armed force and the deliberate extermination of millions of people, who were not combatants and not armed, just because they were Jewish.

Joe Rogan is entitled to be upset by the video he saw. But by joining the ‘genocide’ chorus he has taken the side of antisemites like Francesca Albanese and all those who cheer Hamas’s efforts to embark on a second, even more successful and complete Holocaust.

As a podcaster with millions of listeners, his comparatively weak criticisms of the actually genocidal Hamas will be ignored, while his ignorant diatribes against Israel have made the world even more dangerous for Jews and given justification for all who saw October 7 as reason to declare open season on Jews.


Joe Rogan’s Troubling Anti-Israel Podcast Episodes
Joe Rogan Hosts Abby Martin

In 2017, Joe Rogan hosted independent journalist and former Russia Today host Abby Martin on his podcast, giving her a platform to spread her anti-Israel libels and misinformation.

As noted by the UK-based Israel Advocacy Movement in its takedown of Martin’s untruths following her appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, these are the most egregious claims that Rogan allowed Abby Martin to make without any pushback:

The claim that Palestinian political parties are illegal in the West Bank.
That Palestinians who share incitement to violence against Israelis and Jews on social media are punished based on how popular their posts are.
Her claim that someone she had interviewed had been shot in her vagina during a “peaceful protest” even though the woman admitted in her original interview with Martin that she had been shot in the leg while attempting to slingshot Israeli forces during a violent riot.
The absurd claim that 200 Palestinians had been shot during this violent riot even though there are no reports that it ever occurred.
The claim that Israel has a policy called “shooting to cripple,” where Israeli forces shoot men in their genitalia.
That barely any Palestinians are allowed to pray at the Dome of the Rock, “the most holy site in Jerusalem” (which also goes to show her general ignorance about the region in general).
The baseless claim that Arabs and Jews have different license plates (as opposed to different license plates in Israel and the Palestinian Authority).
The claim that Israel is a “white nationalist ethno-supremacist state.”
The claim that the UN “partitioned a country on top of another country” even though there was no independent state in the area during the 1947 UN vote.
That Israel has been the “crux of so many problems in the world.”

Despite the above examples, there have been other occasions where Joe Rogan has interviewed pro-Israel voices or made positive comments about Israel and the Jewish people on his podcast.

Unlike some of his guests, Rogan does not appear to have an inherent animus against the Jewish state. However, his apparent lack of understanding of the topic has allowed for the spreading of extreme and absurd claims about Israel and the Jewish people without any resistance.

As someone with an audience of millions of followers around the world, Joe Rogan has a responsibility to do better and not to allow his podcast to serve as a jump-off point for the proliferation of such baseless and dangerous claims.


The Hamas Networks in America
Internal Hamas documents and FBI wiretaps introduced as evidence in various U.S. federal criminal cases clearly show the existence of a nationwide Hamas network engaged in fundraising, lobbying, education, and propaganda dissemination dating back to the 1980s.

The network was formalized in 1988, when it created the Palestine Committee in the U.S. The Palestine Committee spawned several public-facing organizations, including the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) and the think tank United Association for Studies and Research (UASR).

Over the years, U.S. authorities have conducted several activities to clamp down on the network.

Yet, U.S.-based Hamas networks and individuals have displayed a remarkable resilience and many of the core activists of the Palestine Committee are still engaged in various forms of support for Hamas.
Anti-Israel Director Jonathan Glazer Donates to Aid Group Accused of Antisemitism
Oscar-winning director Jonathan Glazer, who used his acceptance speech last month to trash Israel, is donating posters to an aid group for Palestinians that was accused in 2018 of radical propaganda and antisemitism.

As Breitbart News reported, Glazer told the Academy Awards that he and his fellow filmmakers “refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being used to justify an occupation” [sic]. Israel called his statement “despicable.”

The Hollywood Reporter noted Wednesday that Glazer is donating posters for his Oscar-winning film, Zone of Interest, “to the Cinema for Gaza auction that is raising funds for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).”

Medical Aid for Palestinians was investigated by authorities in the United Kingdom in 2018 for abusing funds for propaganda purposes after UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) and the pro-Israel Lawfare Project submitted a formal complaint.

The complaint said that Medical Aid for Palestinians had “links with” and funded groups “linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a terrorist organization by the UK, US, EU, Canada, Israel, and others.”

It added that the Medical Aid for Palestinians website included “material promoting racist hatred,” and that the group’s “founder and patron, Dr. Swee Ang” had disseminated “anti-Semitic propaganda, including a video by former KKK leader David Duke.”
He Hailed Hamas as a 'Liberation Organization.' Harvard Invited Him To Speak on Campus
Harvard University invited a Hamas apologist, who has described the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack as "anti-colonial violence" that was "inevitable" and motivated by "oppression," to speak on its campus.

The event, slated to take place on April 18, is hosted by Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and will feature Tareq Baconi, a Hamas scholar and the president of the board of Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank. Baconi is the author of Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance, in which he claims that Hamas is not "a terrorist group" but instead "a multifaceted liberation organization."

Just three days after Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis and abducted hundreds more, Baconi argued that Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, which he calls "the Al-Aqsa Flood operation," wasn't "driven by hatred and bloodlust" but rather brought upon by Israel's "regime of oppression."

A month later, in November, he labeled Hamas's Oct. 7 attack "an unprecedented display of anti-colonial violence" and wrote that "the Al-Aqsa Flood operation was an inevitable response to Israel's relentless and interminable provocation."

"What is clear is that Western leaders are willfully refusing to acknowledge Hamas's attack for what it was: an unprecedented display of anti-colonial violence," wrote Baconi. "The Al-Aqsa Flood operation was an inevitable response to Israel's relentless and interminable provocation through land theft, military occupation, blockage and siege, and the denial of the fundamental right to return to one's homeland for more than 75 years."

Harvard's decision to host Baconi comes as the Ivy League institution faces criticism over its response to campus anti-Semitism. The university risks losing more than half a billion dollars in federal funding as it obstructs a congressional investigation into widespread anti-Semitism, according to the top lawmaker handling the probe.

Baconi's Apr. 18 talk is titled "Gaza as Epicenter: An Alternative Reading" and is open only to Harvard ID holders. Baconi and Harvard did not respond to requests for comment.
Backlash follows UC Berkeley student group posting blood-libel cartoon
The University of California, Berkeley’s chapter of Law Students for Justice in Palestine posted an antisemitic caricature on its Instagram page on Monday.

The political cartoon depicts Erwin Chemerinsky, the Jewish dean of UC Berkeley School of Law, holding a bloodied knife and fork with the caption “No Dinner with Zionist Chem While Gaza Starves.” Critics say the graphic invokes the medieval blood libel against Jews.

The cause of the offensive image was associated with Chemerinsky’s recent dinner invitation for third-year law students.

Within a half-hour of the image’s posting, the group replaced it with a similar one, minus blood on the utensils.

The caption to the post read: “This dinner is the prime example of a normalization PR event that hopes to distract students from Dean Chem’s complicity and support for the genocide of the Palestinian peoples. While Dean Chem wants to wine and dine his students, he continues to approve of UC investments into weapons companies like Blackrock, Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop and more.”
Teachers’ union votes to blame Israel’s ‘racist government’ for Gaza war
Britain’s largest teaching union has voted to condemn “Israeli apartheid” and blame the Jewish state’s “hard-right, racist government” for being the main force behind violence in Gaza.

After an occasionally fractious debate held at their annual conference on Thursday, National Education Union (NEU) delegates overwhelmingly backed a motion that Education Secretary Gillian Keegan had claimed would cause hurt to Jewish children and parents.

The text adopted began by noting, “the eruption of deadly violence between the Israeli state and Hamas in October 2023” and efforts by the UK government to, “criminalise peaceful tactics of boycott, divestment and sanctions… and to stigmatise solidarity with Palestinians.”

Conference believes, it continued, “the siege of Gaza, and the collective punishment of its people, must end immediately” adding: “Israel’s hard-right, racist government is the main driver of conflict, violence and war”

Justice and freedom for Palestinians, it claimed, was the only long-term guarantee of peace.

Having adopted the motion, the union will now “reaffirm support” for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and circulate educational resources to “increase understanding” of Palestine and Israel.

Arguing against an amendment that referenced the International Court of Justice’s ruling that Israel must take measures to prevent genocide, Peter Block said there had been an “avalanche of hatred directed against Jews”.

He drew shouts of “shame” after telling delegates that the conference, “has taken on the character of an anti-Zionist rally not quite of Nuremberg proportions but approaching it.”


UK Paper Attempts to Understand the ‘Real Hamas’
“What is the real Hamas?” is the question that journalist Joshua Leifer seeks to answer in a 6,000-word Guardian feature that examines the evolution of Hamas and explores the capacity in which the terror group could have a hand in governing the Gaza Strip after the war.

The piece opens with Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin — described as an “architect” of the deal to free kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011 — who until the October 7 Hamas massacre had kept in almost constant contact with Hamas leadership, including senior official Ghazi Hamad.

Readers could be forgiven for thinking that Baskin is an influential figure in Israeli politics, a perception that contrasts sharply with reality. His view that Hamas could have been a potential partner for peace was not widely shared.

Glossing over the opinions of counter-terrorism experts and US and Israeli security analysts, all of whom see Hamas as a group “defined by its violent hostility to Israel’s existence,” Leifer quickly turns to an “opposing, more heterogeneous camp, comprised of academics and thinktankers, many of them Palestinian” who view Hamas as a “multifarious, complex political actor, divided between radical and moderating tendencies.”

These heterogeneous, Palestinian viewpoints comprise the bulk of the piece.
BBC News whitewashes ‘UN rights expert’ behind genocide accusations
On March 26th the BBC News website published a report by the corporation’s Geneva correspondent Imogen Foulkes headlined “Gaza war: UN rights expert accuses Israel of acts of genocide”.

Given Foulkes’ uncritical promotion of UN talking points on social media in recent months, it is hardly surprising to find that her report tells BBC audiences precisely nothing about the record of the UN special rapporteur who seeks to persuade the international community that Israel is committing ‘genocide’ in the Gaza Strip.

Foulkes’ account of the report presented by Francesca Albanese to the UNHRC fails to tell BBC audiences that, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, it does not confine those allegations to the current conflict:
“In the report, the UN special rapporteur says that genocide has always been “an inevitable part of the forming of Israel,” claiming that “practices leading to the mass ethnic cleansing of Palestine’s non-Jewish population occurred in 1947–1949,” as well as in 1967. The report does not mention either of the wars fought during those respective periods.”

Foulkes does tell her readers that:
“Since Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel on 7 October, Ms Albanese has called for the release of the hostages, and does so again in this report. In it she “firmly condemns the crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Israel on 7 October”.”

Foulkes does not, however, inform readers that two days after Hamas’ unprecedented attack, Albanese told Al Jazeera viewers that the massacre should be viewed within the “context of decades of oppression imposed on the Palestinians” or that on October 11th 2023 she cautioned against “divulging unverified information” concerning the atrocities.

Neither does Foulkes tell readers that in February, Albanese was called out by France and Germany for claiming that “[t]he victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression” or that in the same month she described Israelis as “colonialists” who have “fake identities”.

Foulkes fails to mention the fact that Albanese is on record as having defended Palestinians’ “right to resist” or that she has equated the displacement of Palestinians in 1948 with the Holocaust and claimed that “the Jewish lobby” subjugates the United States of America and the BBC.

Albanese’s long record of antisemitic and anti-Israel statements prompted members of the US Congress to call for her removal in January and February 2023.
A BBC journalist promotes a Lebanese terror group's claims as ‘news’
In other words, the strike in Habbariyeh was a pre-emptive operation against the military wing of an Islamist terror group planning an attack on Israel rather than a “massacre” of “rescuers” involved in “humanitarian work” as reported by Greenall.

The BBC’s practice of publishing banal ‘he said-she said’ accounts – which are all too often based on unverified claims from highly dubious sources and unconfirmed reports from other media outlets – clearly does not ensure audience understanding of a specific story or its wider context.

However, over the past six months it has become even more clear that, rather than making the effort to find out what actually happened and report stories accurately and impartially, the BBC is quite content to opt for speed and quantity over quality journalism.


Tories investigate party veteran who called for pro-Israel politicians to be 'flushed out' of government
Accusations of antisemitism have been levelled at a senior Tory who called for supporters of Israel to be removed from government.

The Conservative Party are investigating former Tory MP Sir Alan Duncan after he said pro-Israel members of government should be “flushed out” of parliament and accused several British politicians of dual loyalties to Israel. The investigation is expected to take several weeks. If it is found that Sir Alan has breached the Conservatives’ Code of Conduct he could face expulsion from the party.

In an attack on pro-Israel politicians, Alan said several government figures had been “exercising the interests of another country” and should be “pushed out.”

Speaking on LBC on Thursday morning, the former Tory MP for Rutland and Melton took aim at the Conservative Friends of Israel and said the group “has been doing the bidding of Netanyahu, bypassing all proper processes of government to exercise undue influence at the top of government.”

Conservative MP Andrew Percy warned that Alan’s comments played “into antisemitic tropes and risk fuelling further Jew hate on our streets.”

Lord Pickles said: "Sir Alan's views are odd and unwise in equal measure"

The Jewish Leadership Council accused Alan of sharing “antisemitic tropes” and the Board of Deputies called his comments “disgraceful”.

Alan, who previously served as vice-chair of the Conservative Party, directed a pointed attack towards CFI’s honorary president, Lord Polak, who is Jewish, and its parliamentary chair, Lord Pickles, who is not Jewish. Alan called the pair “the Laurel and Hardy who should be pushed out together.”


PMW: US President Biden is a “Zionist from birth,” who supports Israel’s “Nazi tendency,” says Fatah official
While the US has been pressuring Israel for months to accept a Palestinian Authority “revitalized” government to rule in Gaza, top Fatah official Abbas Zaki has continued to accuse the US of not being even-handed. He posted an attack on the US calling US President Joe Biden “a Zionist from birth” and accusing him of defending and supporting what Zaki terms Israel’s “crimes of genocide and the Nazi tendency” in the Gaza Strip:

Posted text: “The status of the US:

It is managed by a Democratic administration led by Zionist from birth [US President Joe] Biden, who is providing unlimited support to the occupation state (i.e., Israel), whose downfall represented the fall of the US. Therefore, he mobilized all his fleets and aircraft carriers and joined as a member of the Zionist entity’s war government through an air and land bridge with the most modern weapons to defend the extremist Israeli government, after their absence on the ground on Oct. 7 [2023] (i.e., Hamas’ invasion and massacre to launch its terror war on Israel; see note below). He also pressured the official government through normalization and imposing more than one veto at the UN Security Council to defend the crimes of genocide and the Nazi tendency against our people in the Gaza Strip.”

[Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki, Facebook page, March 21, 2024]
Israelis “are destined for the Burning Fire” in Hell – Sheikh on official PA TV
Sheikh Hamed Daraghmeh: “Thus says Allah, you [Israelis] have murdered, burned, slaughtered many, destroyed, caused [us] to flee in every direction, expelled, distanced the people from their homeland, but at the same time, ‘they (i.e., Israelis) will have the punishment of the Burning Fire [in Hell]’ [Quran 85:10]… The message that our Almighty Master of the Universe wants to convey to us- Apparently the victory is theirs... In our balance, we as global humanity say that they have won, murdered, they are the victors. But in the true balance they are the losers because they are destined for the Burning Fire.”
[Official PA TV, Gate to Paradise, March 13, 2024]


PMW: Outrageous lie: Israeli hostages in Gaza “left happy and laughing” – they received “generous treatment” – PA TV interview
Recently, an Israeli woman aged 40 who was held hostage by Hamas revealed that she was sexually assaulted by her captor. And she is not the only one. Other hostages have also testified about sexual abuse, torture, and beatings while being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

As more testimonies from Israeli hostages who were freed last November after almost two months in Hamas captivity are being published, the war of narratives has become urgent.

The Palestinian and Arab narrative is entirely fictitious and is intended to humanize Hamas and deny its atrocities. One example is this outrageous claim made to official PA TV by a lecturer at Cairo University that the Israeli hostages received “generous treatment” and left captivity “happy and laughing”:
Head of Radio and TV Department at Cairo University’s Faculty of Mass Communications Ashraf Jalal: “The generous treatment Palestine gave the Israeli prisoners (i.e., kidnapped women and children) caused an enormous positive response, because after [the Israelis] lied and said that [Hamas] is abusing them, the [Israeli] people left [Gaza] happy and laughing… What is required is that we redirect the media spotlight to this issue.”

[Official PA TV, From Cairo, Feb. 12, 2024]

This brazen lie follows those made by senior PA officials, which have been documented by Palestinian Media Watch. In November 2023, Minister Qadura Fares, who is the director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs, said that Israel "made up this story and said: They [the Palestinians] raped, killed, and burned" [Official PA TV, Nov. 20, 2023]. In December 2023, PLO Executive Committee member and PLF Secretary-General Wasel Abu Yusuf said: “Since October 7, there has been a Zionist version that [Israel] has attempted to spread worldwide out of tendentious propaganda, [claiming] that there was murder of children, rape of women, crimes, and the like” [Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Dec. 3, 2023].

Freed Israeli hostages have reported that they were sexually abused, tortured, beaten, and starved. The question is: why is it so important for the PA, Hamas, and their supporters to deny the sexual abuse? Certainly, kidnapping and holding civilians as hostages is by itself a horrific crime, but these they are not denying.

According to the values of the world’s antisemites and Israel haters, however, had Hamas “only” kidnapped and not sexually abused civilians, the events of October 7 would easily have been hailed as a successful “resistance operation.” It is only the sexual abuse, which in 2024 in some circles is a crime worse than murder, that makes it difficult for them to publicly support the kidnappings. By denying the sexual abuse and claiming the hostages left their prison “happy and laughing,” the antisemites around the world can celebrate Hamas’ atrocities without being looked down upon by many of their contemporaries and colleagues who welcome the murder and kidnapping of Israelis as legitimate but have trouble accepting the rape of women.


Misunderstanding Iran
Periodically, the U.S. or Israel makes a concession to an adversary, planning - or hoping - for reciprocity. The underlying assumption is that, as the stronger party, they can afford to be generous. This is a fundamental misreading of how the Muslim world will understand the concession. In the Muslim world, only weak people make concessions. An offer to compromise is a sign of weakness, encouraging those receiving one not only not to reciprocate, but to increase the pressure against their adversaries.

The idea of bringing Iran into a balanced relationship with its adversaries is not how things work in the Middle East. (Shiite) Iran doesn't want a "balanced" policy with its neighbors, nor with us. It is pursuing a policy aimed at defeating and humiliating its Sunni Arab neighbors. What concerns Iran most of all is to prove that its version of Islam - Shi'ism - is the correct one and to eviscerate Sunnism.

The Western concept of compromise does not exist in the Middle East. Giving in on issues before defeating one's enemy means the person offering the compromise is humiliating-shaming himself. For those rooted in this culture, humiliation is worse than death. The Western concept of "let bygones be bygones" is alien to the Middle East, a region where people have long memories.
GOP Senators Demand White House Explain 'Unfathomable' Decision to Waive Iran Sanctions
A group of Republican senators on Wednesday opened a probe into the Biden administration’s decision to unlock upwards of $10 billion in frozen funds for the Iranian government, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

The 13 lawmakers, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.), are pressing the State and Treasury Departments to detail exactly how much money Iran will be permitted to access in the next several months under a sanctions exemption that permits Iraq to transfer electricity payments to Iran via third-party countries. The White House renewed the waiver in March, days before it was set to expire.

"The United States should be restricting Iran’s access to currency abroad," the senators wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Free Beacon. "Instead, your administration is expanding it, all while continuing to share limited information on a strategy to restore deterrence in the Middle East with Congress or the American people."

The letter follows a bevy of congressional action on the Biden administration’s dealings with Tehran, including an August 2023 effort led by Scott to unearth details of a $6 billion hostage deal with Iran. Scott also championed the Revoke Iranian Funding Act, a bipartisan bill to freeze the $6 billion released by the Biden administration as part of last year’s deal with Tehran.

The sanctions waiver, which has drawn fierce Republican opposition on Capitol Hill, allows Iraq to bypass tough American sanctions by converting dinars into euros and transferring payments into Iranian bank accounts in Oman and several European nations.

Though Iran is technically only allowed to access the funds for humanitarian purposes, Scott and his colleagues note that the waiver nonetheless "makes restricted Iranian funds more accessible to the Ayatollah’s regime, at a time when Iranian-backed aggression in the region is at a peak."

Since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, Iranian proxy groups have stepped up their attacks on American positions in the region, including a January missile strike by Yemen’s Houthi rebels that killed three American service members.
Iran Runs War Drills in Support of 'Palestinian Intifada'
Iran and its military forces in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon held a series of joint war drills on Thursday aimed at supporting "Palestinian Intifada" and sending a warning signal to Israel in the wake of a major strike this week on Tehran's consulate in Damascus.

A more-than-3,000-ship convoy, composed of Iran's volunteer Basij forces, is being led by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) throughout the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, according to Tehran's state-controlled media. The ships are said to be operating "in support of the Palestinian Intifada."

The war force will conduct naval drills "simultaneously in the four other countries in the region including Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon to mark the occasion of the International Quds Day," a pro-Palestinian annual event that advocates Israel's destruction.

The military demonstration comes just a day after Israel killed two top Iranian commanders in a strike in Damascus that left a total of seven IRGC operatives dead. The CIA is reportedly warning Israel that Tehran will conduct a retaliatory strike within 48 hours. Thursday's naval drills could serve as a prelude to an attack and demonstrate that Iran is mobilizing its regional allies against the Jewish state as the Middle East sits on the cusp of a broader conflict that could entangle U.S. forces.

The Biden administration reportedly sent a message to Iran this week, warning the country against attacking U.S. forces in the region as part of an anticipated strike on Israel.

"I will just say that we made very clear to the Iranians that we had no involvement in this strike, we didn't know about it at the time, and we warned them not to use this attack as a pretext to attack U.S. facilities or personnel," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Wednesday afternoon, after Israel's strike on Damascus.

Iran says its war convoy will include two warships and will be helmed by IRGC Navy commander Adm. Alireza Tangsiri.

In remarks on Thursday, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi said that peace between Israel and Hamas is impossible.


Jewish group launches Holocaust survivor speakers bureau to fight increasing antisemitism worldwide
More than 250 Holocaust survivors have joined an international initiative to share their stories of loss and survival with students around the world during a time of rising antisemitism following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

The Survivor Speakers Bureau was launched Thursday by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference.

“A Holocaust survivor speakers bureau of this scale and reach is unprecedented,” said Gideon Taylor, the president of the Claims Conference. “At a moment of dramatically rising antisemitism, this program tells the history and educates for the future.”

Six million European Jews and people from other minorities were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.

The speakers bureau connects Holocaust survivors with students both virtually and in person.

In the United States and Germany, educational institutions can invite survivors to personally speak in classrooms and university lecture halls. Educators in other countries can request video conferences to ensure firsthand testimony is accessible.

The Claims Conference hopes to soon add more countries where young people can meet survivors in person.

“Holocaust education is crucial, especially given the current events happening around the world," said Holocaust survivor Eva Szepesi, who lives in Germany.

“My goal in sharing my own story of survival is and has always been to show the human impact, not just of the Holocaust, but of all the racist and hateful actions being taken in the world,” the 91-year-old survivor of the Auschwitz death camp added.


‌SXSW proves what sets the Israel-Texas relationship apart
With everything going on in Israel these days, it is hard to escape reality, even in an immersive experience such as SXSW — South by Southwest, the annual fusion of innovation, culture and entrepreneurship every March in Austin, Texas.

Since October 7 and the subsequent war, every event has felt the impact of the war in Gaza and that includes attendees having to deal with protestors and hostility. This has been especially true in the arts and in film, which make up a large part of the SXSW experience.

But many SXSW festivalgoers did express pro-Israel sentiments. And while there were fewer Israeli startups than in years past, the entrepreneurs and investors who did attend made the best of the experience.

The Startup Nation is still prominent on the international stage, exemplifying what other countries seek to emulate from an economic development perspective when they attend SXSW. Moreover, Texas is one of the states that has been highly supportive of Israel since October 7.

Despite the rise in antisemitism across most of the United States, Texas is not just talking about keeping Jews safe, but actually doing it. That means collaborating with Israel, embracing Israelis, and partnering with Israeli tech at SXSW.

Supportive, friendly environment
SXSW Interactive was a more welcoming place than the controversy around the protests may have indicated, when a number of bands pulled out of the music part of the festival due to one of the sponsor’s connection to Israel. There was no sense of worry from the attendees, and as everything is in Texas, it was big. Many Jewish attendees proudly wore Stars of David around their necks.

Programing at the festival featured Friday evening happy hour into Shabbat hosted by Austin local Shawn Ullman and the TLV-ATX Founders Club, which brought together the SXSW tech community, Israeli entrepreneurs, and supporters of Israel.

Right after that event was the annual #openShabbat meal hosted by Tech Tribe, which fosters cultural exchange amidst hummus and challah.

Managing Partner of Texas Venture Partners and one of the founders of the Tel Aviv-ATX Founders Club, Tal Shmueli reflected on the support the local Israeli community has received in Texas: “After October 7th and the fallout, it was clear that Texas is a safe place for Jews. You are welcome, and you are appreciated. You don’t have to hide who you are; it’s a good place to be Jewish or Israeli, as an individual or when raising a family.”

David Yaari who is working with the Texas Association of Business on a new initiative, mirrored that sentiment.

“Since October 7th, I have seen a notable increase in interest from Israeli companies that want to do business with Texas. There’s a greater emphasis on exploring business opportunities, especially in the tech sector,” he said.
The future of warfare is software: Yaron Samid x Michael Eisenberg | Israel-Hamas War
Visegrad24 presents an in-depth series covering the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. This comprehensive series features on-the-ground interviews, bringing firsthand insights from a diverse range of voices, including politicians, professors, journalists, experts and influencers.

Our guest today: Yaron Samid

Yaron is the founder of TechAviv, the 3K-member global Israeli startup founders club, and is the managing partner of TechAviv Founder Partners, a pre-seed venture fund, backed and powered by over 100 of the world's most successful company builders.

Previously, Yaron was the founder and CEO at BillGuard (acquired by Prosper) and founder of Pando Networks (acquired by Microsoft)

Michael Eisenberg stepped in as a guest interviewer for Visegrad24.
Michael is an American-Israeli businessman and venture capitalist, co-founder and general partner of Aleph, a Tel Aviv-based venture capital firm.
Michael is also the host of the Aleph podcast Invested.

00:00 - Introduction
01:48 - AI changing online propaganda
03:31 - Elon Musk's taking over Twitter
04:52 - Narrative wars, antisemitism and Jewish excellence
08:04 - Who is the best ally for Israel?
09:02 - How does the war affect Israeli tech?
11:08 - The new AI warfare tech
13:20 - Young Americans turning against Israel
15:47 - Democracies and benevolent kings
18:10 - The future Israel
21:28 - The global war against radical Islamism
22:58 - Social media and the silent majority
24:43 - Yaron writes his U.S. Congressman
26:50 - Yaron writes the Mayor of London


Ritchie Torres to headline Jerusalem Post Annual Conference
Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY), one of Israel's staunchest congressional supporters, will address the Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York on June 3.

Torres, who represents New York's 15th Congressional District, visited Israel earlier this week with a UJA-Federation delegation. They met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and opposition head Yair Lapid, and visited communities in Israel's south that were damaged in the Hamas attacks on October 7. He first traveled to Israel in 2015 while a member of the New York City Council and was quoted as saying that his visit was one of his life's most formative and transformative experiences. Jerusalem Post Annual Conference 2024

The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference, held in the shadow of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and the turbulent events taking place throughout the Middle East, promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime event featuring significant discussions on the critical events of the day with diplomats, politicians, and business leaders from around the world, interviewed by senior reporters and editors from The Jerusalem Post.

In recent years, under the direction of CEO Inbar Ashkenazi, the Post has produced state-of-the-art events featuring fascinating speakers from Israel and the Jewish world.

"The Jerusalem Post is far more than a media group," said Ashkenazi. "We are the gateway between Israel and the world."

Join hundreds of captivating entertainers, pioneering hi-tech visionaries, and dynamic thought leaders for an impactful day at the Annual Conference. Then, enjoy dozens of strategic meetings that will present numerous opportunities for connection.

In addition to Torres, this year's conference will feature a slate of government and business luminaries from Israel and worldwide. It will also include a unique focus on the stories and heroes of October 7 and the resilience of the State of Israel.
‘Finding Your Roots’ show divulges new info on family of Michael Douglas
Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. shined a light revealing some of the mysteries behind the families of two Hollywood celebrities.

A new episode of “Finding Your Roots” debuted on PBS on April 2, showing findings demonstrating the Jewish roots of actor Michael Douglas, who won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the 1987 film “Wall Street.”

He is the son of the equally famous actor Kirk Douglas, a three-time Oscar nominee and the winner of the Honorary Award in 1996 for “50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community.” The elder Douglas died on Feb. 5, 2020, at 103.

Gates presented the show’s findings by researchers, explaining that the family could be traced back to the 1700s in Chausy, in what is now Belarus. Knowing the town, researchers could then identify Douglas’s family (originally with the surname of Danilovich), the Jewish quarter where they likely lived and the Jewish cemetery where they were most likely buried.

Douglas described the revelations as making him feel “more of a spiritual, religious connection to Judaism than I ever had before,” he said on the show.


Author Won’t Back Down After Receiving Hate for Publishing Children’s Book About Jewish Heritage Amid Gaza War
A first-time children’s book author who has been targeted with thousands of hate messages and negative comments and reviews online for publishing a book that highlights the Jewish people’s heritage amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war said he’s not letting the backlash have an effect on him.

“There’s Israeli soldiers who are putting their lives on the line to protect the land of Israel. If I take a little bit of heat online, it’s the least I can do if this is actually bringing value to people,” Roman Sandler, 34, told The Algemeiner on Wednesday. “I see the hate as kind of a corroboration that I’m on the right track because if you’re not pissing anyone off you’re not doing the right sort of thing. You’re not doing something important.”

The father of three self-published a children’s book in January titled Under the Rockets’ Glow: Shira’s Journey to Courage. It’s about a young girl named Shira and her father, who teaches her about her Jewish heritage and history, from Abraham to modern-day Israel, to help her find courage one night as rockets rain down outside her bedroom window. The story concludes with Shira falling asleep, feeling safe while dreaming about a world full of peace.

A portion of all proceeds from the book will be donated to the victims of the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel, during which the terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people and took hundreds of others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip. The book is also dedicated to victims of the massacre and soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces who are “currently risking their lives to defend Israel and subdue evil in our midst.”

Sandler, who lives in California with his family, told The Algemeiner that he was inspired to write the children’s book after having a hard time explaining the gravity of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war to his five-year-old daughter, and not being able to find any decent resources to help her understand the situation. The author, whose wife has Israeli roots, also wanted to help children understand “the first principles of who we are as a [Jewish] people, why we’re in Israel, our connection to the land, and why it’s worth fighting for,” he explained.

“I didn’t think I did anything that controversial,” Sandler added. “But I think that even the sole point that the Jews have a stake to the land of Israel is unfortunately a controversial point.”
Comedian makes pro-Israel content on TikTok
Content creator and comedian Shahar Cohen talks to i24NEWS about his pro-Israel content during the Israel-Hamas war.


Jewish celebrities honored for pro-Israel work at Jerusalem ceremony





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