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Tuesday, April 16, 2024

04/16 Links Pt2: How woke leftists became cheerleaders for Iran; The News Media Has Helped Normalize Hamas; Tucker Carlson’s Turn

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: How woke leftists became cheerleaders for Iran
The truth is that Iran has been laying violent siege to Israel for decades. Through its proxies, it has slaughtered thousands of Israelis. The fascistic pogrom of 7 October was the bloody handiwork of an anti-Semitic army backed by Iran. Two other Iran-backed militias – Hezbollah and the Houthis – have fired hundreds of missiles at Israel since 7 October. The idea that Israel’s bombing of Iranian military men in Damascus was unprovoked, out of the blue, a cunning ploy to drag poor little Iran into a war, is a grotesque inversion of reality. Iran had already declared war on Israel. And visited war on Israel. And made clear its desire to destroy Israel. It isn’t even coy. ‘Death to Israel!’, Iranians cry at regime-sponsored gatherings. The same words are emblazoned on the literal flag of the Houthis movement that does Iran’s dirty work in Yemen.

Surely, it makes more sense to see Israel’s Damascus attack as a ‘retaliatory strike’? Retaliation for the unspeakable barbarism of 7 October, for Hezbollah’s missiles, for the Houthis’ virulently anti-Semitic warmongering? Those who rage against Israel and make excuses for Iran are about as far from being anti-imperialists as you can get. Rather, they’ve thrown their lot in with Iranian imperialism, with the theocratic tyranny’s deployment of war, terror and political favour to the end of fortifying its regional influence. Whatever their placards might say, these activists are objectively pro-war, objectively pro-domination.

The Western left’s blaming of Israel for everything, and its implicit absolution of Iran, is grimly revealing. These people seem to view Israel as the only true actor in the Middle East, and everyone else as mere respondents to Israel’s actions. Israel is the author of the Middle East’s fate, while the rest of them – Hamas, the Houthis, even Iran – are mere bit-part players with the misfortune to be caught up in Israel’s vast and terrifying web. This is identitarianism, not anti-imperialism. A new generation of radicals educated into the regressive ideology that says ‘white’ people are powerful and ‘brown’ people are oppressed can only understand the Middle East in these terms, too.

The end result is that they demonise Israel and infantilise Iran. The Jewish State comes to be seen as uniquely malevolent while Iran is treated as a kind of wide-eyed child who cannot help but lash out at its ‘Zionist’ oppressor. Israel is damned as a criminal state, while Iran’s crimes against humanity are downplayed, even memory-holed. This is where wokeness leads, then: to sympathy for one of the most backward and repressive states on Earth on the deranged basis that its criminal strikes against Israel represent a blow against the arrogant West itself. In encouraging our young to hate their own societies, we’ve made them moral fodder for a far worse society.
Seth Mandel: Who, Exactly, Does the Hezbollah-Flag-Waving Dirtbag Represent?
Politicians used to chase the Soccer Mom vote. Now they appear to be chasing the Execute-the-Soccer-Mom vote.

Also among the demonstrators were those wearing Hamas headbands. Hamas is the Gaza-based version of Hezbollah and it started the current war by murdering and kidnapping Americans and Israelis. These protesters are ostentatiously anti-American: They were burning American flags and yelling “death to America.”

Again, non-rhetorical question for the politicians who cower before those who yell “death to America”: How many of your constituents do they represent? What is it you stand to lose by forfeiting their vote? What slice of your political coalition chants “death to America”? And why, pray tell, are the opinions of Lebanese terrorists so important to your assessment of the war in Gaza?

We hear a lot about the way these folks intend to deter President Biden’s reelection prospects, which is why the president sent his aides to try to placate a large group of them in Michigan. Can the president explain why he wants the vote of somebody who burns American flags on behalf of a group holding Americans hostage?

The political behavior of a fair number of Democrats has changed in accordance with the demands of these groups of protesters. That is what you do when you must be inclusive of all parts of your electoral coalition. So don’t just obliquely refer to the demonstrators; claim them. Tell us what they mean to you, and why you need them, and why U.S. policy should be shaped by them.

Or stop running from them and start standing up for yourselves.
The News Media Has Helped Normalize Hamas
As a former foreign correspondent in the Middle East, I've frequently found myself defending the industry with Israelis who charge media bias. But as I observe the cluelessness of Hamas apologists worldwide, I realize we have failed to tell the story of a jihadi outfit considered a terrorist group by the U.S.

Support for Hamas in this war is not support for the Palestinian cause of an independent state on a share of the Holy Land. That is not only not the cause of Hamas - it is precisely what Hamas has for decades been laboring to prevent. Hamas is not in power in Gaza due to elections but because of a coup. It runs a quasi-theocratic mafia state where opposition will get you killed, and it seeks eternal war till total victory. Since the 1990s, whenever there were peace talks, Hamas tried to scuttle them with terrorism.

In the case of the Gaza war, the media has largely stuck to its instincts for impartiality: "Both sides" have their narratives, and both have good and bad. One may be a terrorist group and the other a Western-leaning democracy, but in this era of progressive decolonization narratives, an association with the West will not get you very far with much of the Western media.

Hamas is a violent fundamentalist movement that seeks not just the demise of Israel but also, with its jihadi fellow travelers, of the West. Hamas and its accomplices share none of the values that drive the modern world, from respect for human rights to freedom of speech to the rule of law. Are so many Westerners too feeble-minded to get this?

Some argue that no one appointed journalists to connect the dots for people, and that the wisest approach would be to just "report the facts." But when the result is the normalization of a monstrosity like Hamas, that is malpractice.
Pro-Hamas ‘Journalists’ Blur the Line between Coverage and Propaganda
The latest high-profile Gaza-based journalist to have her terror support on full display is Hind Khoudary, who has even been profiled by the New York Times, among other papers. After briefly examining her social-media pages, I posted a thread last week on X (formerly Twitter) that highlighted some of the publicly available content from Khoudary’s social-media accounts to show that she was unfit to don a press vest, including her affiliation with the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Switzerland-based organization with deep ties to Hamas, and the fact that she has repeatedly glorified terrorists and violence. Such behavior should be completely unacceptable for any media outlet using Khoudary’s work (as well as for the United Nations World Food Programme, for which she works as a content producer).

Unsurprisingly, upon posting the findings about Khoudary, I faced the wrath of pro-Hamas activists for supposedly putting a “kill target” on her and insisting that I should be held responsible if she were to be killed. All because I simply reposted her own content.

A similar situation occurred when the founder and editor of the Free Press, Bari Weiss, brought attention to disturbing posts by Refaat Alareer, a Gazan professor, poet, writer, activist, and journalist who once tweeted, under the account “Gaza Writes Back,” “Are most Jews evil? Of course they are.” Weiss was subject to the mob’s ire for flagging a post in which Alareer mocked babies who were slaughtered by terrorists on October 7. When Alareer was later killed in an Israeli airstrike, radicals unjustly placed the blame on Weiss.

Journalists in conflict zones bear a significant responsibility. Ideally, they serve as objective sources from which the public can derive reliable information on which to base their own opinions. However, the reality often falls short of this ideal.

Given these alarming examples, perhaps the most troubling revelation is that the objectivity of a journalist, once the cornerstone of trustworthy reporting, is no longer a chief concern for many. This shift, evident in the media’s acceptance and even glorification of biased narratives during the current war, underscores a worrying trend in the dissemination of news and information.

In a world increasingly fragmented by biased narratives, the role of journalism becomes even more critical. And in such a world, contrary to the claims of some vocal online activists, journalists should be subject to the highest level of scrutiny.


America, Jews, and the Ivy League
What was and remains true of college applicants writ small is true of the Jewish community writ large. We want those credentials and high-paying jobs for altruistic reasons: We can give more tzedakah and defray the costs of Jewish education; advocate for our people in every arena; develop technologies that enhance human life; access leadership roles at large organizations to steer them in the direction of the good and righteous. But we are moved by more than altruism. A chip remains on our collective shoulders and accounts for our hesitancy to give up on brand-name schools at the top of the rankings. As a people, we still seek validation. Tell us we are as good as everyone else. Please, affirm that we are a light unto this nation.

This Diaspora mentality of perpetual outsider status only grows as elite schools play hard to get. But it is not necessary. The American people—not the sliver represented in the Ivy League, but the vast millions—do not need us to prove our worth before they will treat us as equals.

Put differently, the universities are not the only ones who have changed. We Jews have changed, too. In every way but mentality, we are no longer immigrants wary of overstaying our welcome. We are, in the eyes of our countrymen, full-fledged Americans who rightly believe in George Washington’s promise that we are not merely tolerated here. We have “made it” in America, not in the sense that we have shattered all glass ceilings or no longer need access to the engines of social mobility, but in the sense that if we want to go through our lives fully Jewish and fully American without explanation or apology, there are states and institutions happy to facilitate that. In Florida, Texas, and several other states, new programs are forming a nascent constellation of genuinely elite educational institutions dedicated to learning, not finishing. Rather than doing so by profiting off Jewish success, they seek our genuine partnership.

Pivoting to non-brand-name institutions will doubtless feel like a major risk for Jewish parents who have invested so much time, money, and hope in their kids taking the elite-education route to success. It will be cold comfort to note that abandoning elite schools is a small sacrifice for the greater good of our people. It certainly pales in comparison with what 18-year-old Jews in Israel do. Perhaps more comforting is that older generations can help set these young Jews up for success by no longer treating Ivy League degrees as a golden ticket in their professional lives, and by redirecting donations from old elites to promising upstarts. Elite status is socially constructed. It currently does not reflect objective merit. We can—and should—deconstruct it.

Ditching elite schools is still a gamble, on ourselves and on a future in which civilization prevails over barbarism. But it can be self-fulfilling. Done conscientiously, our exodus can send a message to the next generation of Jews: The Ivies need us more than we need them. We don’t need the old badges of prestige to prove we are smart, or to reach the top of STEM, law, or the arts. It also signals to other Americans that we put our money on the long-term value of actual education, maintaining the long-standing Jewish faith in the power of critical thought. To join us is to express faith in the ethos of the liberal West, that producing valuable goods, services, and ideas for our fellow citizens is the path to fame and fortune. Together, we reject the prevailing view, which holds that true wisdom entails unraveling the West—and especially that the Jews should go back wherever they came from.

We Jews like to play up the centrality of education to our longevity and success. But emphasizing “education” is imprecise. We have valued a particular kind of education, one that supports moral and aesthetic formation, and knowledge that can help humanity flourish. Collecting degrees and accolades is not the essence of a Jewish education. Developing our individual talents to advance the good of our people, and the good of all decent people, is. Touting the number of Jewish Nobel Prize winners is wonderful for when we try to prove our worth as a people, but a self-confident Jewish nation needs no statistic to prove that we are equal participants in the American future.

American Jews therefore have this to answer in the final analysis: Is our goal to pursue a transient definition of prestige or to grow into virtuous men and women? Will we find meaning in a perpetual game of Jews-beat-the-odds, or in sustaining a magnificent tradition with fidelity to our people and our creed? Just as, in Maimonides’s telling, early idolaters confused the luminaries with gods, we have come to confuse the luster of the elite university with the good of Jewish excellence itself. Let a new light shine.
The anti-Israel graffiti outside my door and the chilling threat from Iran's extremists formenting terror here, writes Jewish Chronicle editor JAKE WALLIS SIMONS
Despite this, the ICEL continues to act as a proxy for the Revolutionary Guards, although last May it was obliged to suspend religious services while the inquiry launched by the Charity Commission was carried out.

It continues to operate, however. As a sign of Iranian power in Britain, earlier this month the annual Quds Day rally took place in London, a recruiting exercise for Islamists. This year's event was branded as a 'national demonstration for Palestine' and marchers carried placards calling for 'resistance by any means necessary'.

The Revolutionary Guards also advance their toxic agenda through the Islamic Student Association of Britain (ISAB), based in an Edwardian former Methodist church in Hammersmith, West London. In January 2021, for example, the ISAB organised an online lecture by Saeed Ghasemi, a former senior commander in a vigilante branch of the IRGC called the 'Lebas-shakhsi' or 'plain clothes men'.

Ghasemi, who boasts that he stood 'side by side with Al-Qaeda' before the Twin Towers attack in 2001, talks of his desire for an 'apocalyptic war' between Iran and its enemies — not only Israel, but the U.S. and Britain.

He claims this country was responsible for atrocities in Iran a century ago, while denying that the Nazi Holocaust ever took place: 'The one that the Jews say happened is fake,' he said. 'The real Holocaust happened in my country in the First World War, 1917-19, when the UK occupied Iran.'

Ghasemi, like many radical Shiite Islamists in Iran, believes that by bringing about the end of Western civilisation in a global nuclear war, Muslims can summon their saviour, the ninth century Imam Mahdi.

'This will bring an end to the life of the oppressors and occupiers, Zionists and Jews across the world,' he told British students.

To achieve this, Iran has a three-pronged war strategy. As well as its vast arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones and its atomic programme, it boasts a third and most effective state weapon. Though the least known or understood, this the Islamic Republican Guards Corp and its overseas proxy militias.

The fact that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has not been proscribed as a terrorist organisation in Britain is an open door for Iran to continue its murderous, nakedly hostile activities here.

There is a simple solution: it has to be outlawed. Every day that it is permitted to keep operating here brings us one step closer to an unimaginable atrocity.
The Shameful History of Anti-Zionist Jews
The false charge that Zionists and international Jewry had been plotting against the Soviet Union, redolent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was even then not enough to disabuse Oren of his enthusiasm for the Soviet Union. It was a position he adhered to even after he returned to Israel, attributing his travails to “decadent and rotten elements,” not anti-Semitic animus at the heart of the Communist project.

His conviction led to a split within Mapam. One segment of the party accepted the guilt of Slansky and his comrades, excusing the anti-Semitism as necessary to protect Communism from its enemies. Ultimately, this faction, led by a former commander of the Haganah, Moshe Sneh, left Mapam and joined the Israeli Communist Party.

So for some radical Jews who professed a commitment to Zionism, even overt anti-Semitism, torture, self-evident frame-ups, and judicial murder were not enough to compel them to abandon their loyalty to the progressive world and its fantasies. Even later accusations that Jewish physicians in the Kremlin had conspired to murder Soviet leaders—the so-called doctors’ plot—could not shake their faith.

Jewish Voice for Peace and its acolytes have refurbished and rerun the same tropes as their left-wing anti-Zionist forebears. When Arab rioters murdered yeshiva students and long-time Sephardic residents of Palestine in 1929, Jewish Communists suggested that the blame lay with Zionist colonialists who had started the violence both by their presence in Palestine and their provocations. JVP puts the blame for October 7 on a colonial-imperialistic Israel that caged Gazans in an open-air prison.

When Stalin initiated an alliance with Hitler, putting millions of Jews under Nazi rule, Jewish Communists hailed their liberation. JVP and its allies demand that Israel ignore those who call for a jihad and rely on the good will of their enemies to ensure peaceful coexistence.

When a satellite of the USSR purged Jewish Communists opposed to Zionism and tortured an Israeli who supported Communism to testify against them, he and many of his Israeli comrades made excuses for them. JVP and its supporters insist that terrorists should suffer no consequences for their actions, since Israel is ultimately at fault.

JVP and its allies sometimes issue pro forma denunciations of Hamas, but insist that Israel is not justified in retaliating, since international law does not permit an occupying power the right of self-defense. The desire for self-abnegation is so intense that some anti-Zionist Jews even admit that the very people they claim to be defending would kill them if they had the power to do so, either because they are gay or lesbian or because they hate Jews. An old adage comes to mind: “You spit in his face and he thinks it’s raining.”
Jonathan Glazer, Liberal Jewish Prophet
In a few mumbly, stumbly sentences, Glazer laid out the credo shared by so many of our self-appointed intellectual and moral betters. In the beginning, goes this leftist theology, was “The Occupation,” the conflict’s cardinal sin, committed, alas, by the Jews. And The Occupation beget The Cycle of Violence, pitting the sons of Jacob against the sons of Ishmael, both righteous and both rightfully aggrieved and both, curses, capable of shedding blood. Israelis and Palestinians, in this telling, are coiled together like a big, bruised Ouroboros, with each fresh outrage prompting the snake to chomp just a bit further on its own tail. And to stop it, we need little more than for brave men and women to straighten the lapel of their tuxedos, smooth the hem of their dresses, put on a pin, and demand, politely but firmly, that the killing stop.

You could spend hours, days even, amusing yourself by tearing this worldview to shreds. You could note, for example, that the brave and noble struggle to end the Israeli occupation magically began three years before the occupation itself. For Israel took control of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip in 1967, three years after an Egyptian con man named Yasser Arafat declared himself a Palestinian and merrily busied himself killing Jews. Or you could speak at length about the three-decades-old travesty known as the Oslo Accords, a strategic blunder that left thousands of Israelis dead, set up a despotic and murderous Palestinian Authority that pays its citizens to slaughter Jews, and saw the Palestinian leadership consistently, even comically, reject any attempt to reach anything resembling reconciliation.

But don’t waste your time grousing at the Glazers of this world. Theirs isn’t a reasoned, reasonable way of seeing things. It’s an ecstatic faith, and though it loves wrapping itself in the gilded garbs of objectivity, rationality, and universalist compassion, it is, at its core, a cult.

Here are the liberal Jewish cult’s core beliefs:
- The disparate hamulas, or feuding clans, that occupy the towns and villages of Judea and Samaria secretly possess, despite all appearances to the contrary, a distinct and innate sense of peoplehood. They are the Palestinian People.
- And though they have a funny way of showing it whenever anyone makes them a concrete and binding offer, the Palestinian People want just one thing: the establishment of a sovereign nation in its indigenous homeland.
- It’s a perfect—and perfectly pleasant—idea to understand: Palestinians and Jews, Yin and Yang, their desires and frustrations intertwined, eager to find some way to share their narrow and too-promised strip of earth. And the only thing standing between them and Heaven are Very Bad Men: Bibi Netanyahu and Itamar Ben-Gvir, but also the goons of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. There are, of course, Very Bad Men on both sides, both equally contemptible.
- The solution, then, is simple: Israel withdraws from the occupied territories, the Palestinians declare a state, both sides see the benefits of peace and prosperity, the Very Bad Men go away.
- And only if and when that happens can we all be Jews again, because, otherwise, our virtuous faith will be stripped of all its pretty talk of tikkun olam and left instead with little but the gross bits about not eating shrimp or not marrying non-Jews. Therefore, we can’t really be Jews until we’ve fully embraced the Palestinians. QED.
Eli Lake: Tucker Carlson’s Turn
Tucker, meanwhile, is a Christian in America. He has the good fortune not to live under Palestinian rule and is free to say whatever he thinks. Yet he never challenged Isaac’s assertions. And he even went on to attack evangelical leaders in America who support Israel, saying, “If you wake up in the morning and decide your Christian faith requires you to support a foreign government blowing up churches and killing Christians, I think you’ve lost the thread.”

But it’s Tucker who has lost the thread. Hamas hides its munitions in places of worship and fires rockets from them, including Christian churches. The terrorist organization deliberately built a sprawling bunker of tunnels beneath Gaza’s churches, mosques, hospitals, and schools. Evangelical support for Israel is rooted in a revulsion of Hamas and its tactics that endanger the civilians it is supposed to protect.

Tucker has also kept silent after Iran’s strike on Saturday against Israel—our country’s only democratic ally in the Middle East. He has said nothing about the lunatic fringe rising up in the U.S., which is cheering on Iran. There was a time when Tucker called himself “America First.” But as author Abigail Shrier so aptly put it Sunday: “If you call yourself “America First” and have nothing to say about this, you are a fraud.”

So what the hell happened to Tucker Carlson?

The skepticism that served him well in the Trump years when much of the fourth estate behaved like an opposition political party has led him all the way around the horseshoe. His opposition to the people he hates—liberals and neocons—has turned him into Noam Chomsky in a bow tie.

Tucker was correct when he punctured the relentless speculation and anonymous reporting that led so many journalists to believe President Trump was a Russian agent. He was right when he said the real story was the Democratic Party colluding with the FBI to smear the Trump campaign. But he is wrong when he asserts that Israel and America are no better than their enemies. Once Tucker was too smart to allow his ideological rivals to determine his opinions. Now he proudly apologizes for evil and calls it the truth.

I look forward to his next dispatch, praising the gleaming shopping malls of Tehran.


Nicaragua’s Charade at the ICJ
That is how it should be, but for the international left, such a stance is intolerable. In their jaundiced eyes, Germany has atoned for the Holocaust by backing the nakba—the Arabic word for “catastrophe” used by many Palestinians to describe the creation of modern-day Israel in 1948. Germany’s position irritatingly reminds the world that Jews were once victims of nightmarish genocide themselves—hardly the sort of fact you’d want to highlight if your purpose is to turn them into victims once again. And so, Nicaragua’s lawyers (including, disgracefully, a German citizen named Daniel Muller) have trooped into the ICJ to argue that supporting the Jewish state is the wrong way to express solidarity with Jews.

The goal here, make no mistake, is to separate the Holocaust from Israel and to argue that the one entity in the world capable of preventing another Holocaust is actually sowing its seeds! It’s topsy-turvy logic, but if it works effectively as propaganda, generating meme after meme on social media, why worry about that?

Hence we arrive at a situation where the 15 ICJ judges debate a phantom genocide while turning a blind eye to genuine examples of this phenomenon, along with other related crimes. “The government of Nicaragua is perpetrating widespread violations and abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity,” the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect Project noted in a briefing back in February, but you won’t hear a peep about that in the ICJ’s corridors. Ditto for Turkey’s racist treatment of its Kurdish minority, and indeed, for the myriad other examples of government-sponsored cruelty on every continent.

This is yet another demonstration of antisemitism, insofar as antisemitism applies to standards for Jews that no other nation has to contend with. That is the ugly reality behind these fanciful appeals to “international law” that plague Israel. Germany is now receiving a glimpse of what that feels like but only because of its relationship with Israel—otherwise, this case would never have been brought to court.


Germany Parliament Speaker Repeated Tehran ‘Propaganda’ by Blaming Israel for Iran Missile Attack, Critics, Faces Calls to Resign
The Vice-President of Germany’s parliament has faced calls to step down after she said Israel “provoked” Iran’s enormous missile attack on Sunday.

Aydan Özoğuz, a Turkish-heritage left-wing politician of Germany’s SPD (Social Democrat) party, who now serves as the nation’s Bundestag Vice-President (parliament deputy speaker) faced a barrage of criticism from politicians and Jewish groups after she wrote Israel had provoked the Iranian missile and drone strike. Critics have called for political “consequences” for the comments and its subsequent retraction and non-apology, for her to resign, with some even sardonically noting Özoğuz’s previously publicised familial links to Islamic extremism.

Writing on Sunday as the barrage of projectiles headed towards Israel from Iran, a massive strike which Israel would subsequently report had been “99 per cent” shot down, Özoğuz wrote, “Why did this situation have to be provoked? Bombing of Iran embassy further endangers the Middle East”.

Apparently noticing the outburst was generating controversy online, Özoğuz then deleted the post but stopped short of acknowledging her assertion that Israel brought the strike upon itself was at fault. Instead, she said, her tweet was causing arguments online: “That’s why I deleted my post. The war is bad enough.”

Several political and civil society figures jumped upon the messages, saying they made a mockery of Özoğuz’s senior — and constitutionally impartial — position as vice-president of the nation’s parliament. Professor Stefan Liebig, a professor at the Free University of Berlin, said Özoğuz was using an “old anti-Semitic trope” that Jewish people bring punishment upon themselves through their own actions.

This statement is “unworthy of a representative of a constitutional body” and if Özoğuz had “an ounce of decency” she would resign, the professor said.
China: Iran’s 300 Missile and Drone Barrage on Israel ‘Restrained,’ Israel Should Not Respond
The communist government of China demanded Israel “exercise calm and restraint” on Sunday following an unprecedented attack featuring over 300 drones and missiles on the Israeli homeland on Iran.

Beijing, one of Iran’s most prominent commercial partners and diplomatic allies, declared through its Foreign Ministry that “the conflict must end now” in Gaza, where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been executing a self-defense operation against the Iran-backed jihadist terror organization Hamas since October.



Using its state media arms, the Chinese government also cited Chinese regime-approved “experts” who claimed that the barrage was “restrained” on Iran’s part and suggesting Israel was responsible for the attack on itself, and thus implied Israel has no legitimate reason to respond to the attack in an attempt to prevent further escalation.

Iran launched more than300 cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and drones towards Israel on Saturday night, allegedly targeting Israeli military installations. The attack was notable in that it was the first time Iran attacked Israel directly, rather than using its terrorist proxy organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthis, or “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” groups.
Brazil Fails to Condemn Iran’s Missile Barrage on Israel, Urging ‘Restraint’ in Response
Brazilian Jewish community organizations accused the government of radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of siding with Iran following the unprecedented missile attack on Israel this past weekend, noting its failure to condemn Tehran.

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry released a statement on Saturday stating it was following Iran’s attack on Israel with “grave concern” but, unlike much of the free world, failed to issue any kind of condemnation against Iran. Instead, the Foreign Ministry urged both parties to “exercise maximum restraint” and called for efforts by the international community to avoid an escalation of the confrontation.

The Brazilian government’s statement was criticized by the Israeli Ambassador to Brazil Daniel Zonshine, who told CNN in an interview on Sunday that his government was “very disappointed” in the lack of clear condemnation of the bombing.

“I looked, but I didn’t find any kind of condemnation, unfortunately. I was very disappointed,” Zonshine said. “I think that when there is this kind of attack, and Brazil accepts it, or at least doesn’t condemn it, as I said, I was very disappointed that it didn’t happen. I hope we won’t have to continue with these kinds of messages.”

The Brazilian government’s statement drew the condemnation of the Israeli Confederation of Brazil (CONIB), the largest Brazilian Jewish community organization in the country. CONIB’s president, Claudio Lottenberg, released a statement on Sunday describing the response of Lula’s government to the attack on Israel as “regrettable” and “frustrating,” accusing the Brazilian government of siding with Iran.

“The Brazilian government’s position is once again frustrating. The democratic world and several Middle Eastern countries have joined Israel in condemning and combating Iran’s attack,” the statement read.

“Brazil’s current foreign policy, on the other hand, has chosen to side with the Iranian theocracy, once again deviating from our historic diplomatic line of condemning aggression of this kind. Regrettable,” the statement concluded.
Socialist Venezuela Accuses Israel of ‘Genocide’ in Defense of Iran Missile Assault
The socialist regime in control of Venezuela, a key Iranian ally in Latin America, blamed Israel for an unprecedented Iranian missile and drone assault on the Israeli homeland on Saturday.

Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry claimed Israel’s “irrationality,” apparently referring to the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) ongoing self-defense operations against the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hamas, forced Iran to shoot hundreds of missiles at the country.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Saturday claiming that it is following the “worrying events” in the Middle East – which, the Ministry claimed, are the result of “the genocide in Palestine and the irrationality of the Israeli regime,” as well as the “inaction of the United Nations.”

Jihadist entities and their allies refer to the IDF operation in Gaza, which is intended to neutralize Hamas after the mass murder of civilians in Israel on October 7, as a “genocide” – and by and large do not apply the same terminology to the October 7 killings.

“As most countries in the international community have warned, peace will only be guaranteed once justice and international law are reestablished, mainly concerning the Palestinian people and State [sic],” the socialist regime asserted. “Venezuela advocates the construction of peace with justice as most of the countries of the world want it”:

The socialist regime in Venezuela is a close ally of Iran’s Islamic regime, allowing Tehran to spread its nefarious influence, both directly and through terror proxies such as Hezbollah, liberally. Since the mid-2000s, both rogue regimes have progressively deepened their ideological ties through their shared anti-U.S. and anti-Israel ideology.


Hamas Supporting Craig Murray Announces Candidacy for MP
Former ambassador to Uzbekistan and conspiracy theorist Craig Murray announced his candidacy for MP for the Workers’ Party in Blackburn this morning with the stated aim of “allowing a modern country to emerge from the trappings of Imperial decay“, while attacking that “40% of Labour’s shadow cabinet, at least, are financed by the zionist lobby” . Like his friends, he has a few eyebrow raising views…

Murray tweeted his full “support” for Hamas and Hezbollah a week after the 7th October bombings, and was then swiftly arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. It wasn’t the first time he’s been arrested either, having been sentenced to eight months in prison for being found in contempt of court over blogs written during the trial of the former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond. Rehabilitation clearly didn’t work for him, though perhaps having Galloway as his new boss might…
Israel moving to close terror-linked Ra’am charities
Israel’s Justice Ministry has initiated the process to close down two nonprofits controlled by the Islamist Ra’am Party due to their alleged financing of Hamas terrorism.

Igatha 48 (“Aid 48”) and the Association for Humanitarian Actions are both fundraising arms of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, of which the Ra’am Party is the political wing. (“Ra’am” is the Hebrew acronym by which the United Arab List is commonly known.)

According to the Justice Ministry, an investigation found reason to believe that the NGOs illegally “transferred funds or cooperated with organizations outside of Israel that were declared as terrorist groups,” Kan News reported on Tuesday.

“The Registrar of Associations Unit has decided to refuse the requests of the associations to be granted a certificate of proper management for 2024,” the ministry’s Corporations Authority said.

“The associations were given the opportunity to respond to the findings detailed in the report and to the notice given in their case by May 6. If they fail to do so, the Registrar will apply to the court for an order to dissolve the associations,” the statement continued.

According to an investigation published in February, Igatha 48 transferred large sums to and carried out joint activities with a Turkish organization called Khir Ummah, which serves as a Hamas front group.

Between 2020 and 2023, Igatha 48 transferred more than $580,000 to Khir Ummah, and the two organizations hosted pro-terrorism summer programs for children in Turkey, the HaKol HaYehudi outlet revealed.


European Parliament votes on reform to remove hatred, violence from Palestinian education
The European Parliament voted for a resolution Thursday last week that included financial assistance for education in Palestinian territories. The resolution also included reform measures to prevent Palestinian education from promoting violence or using violent imagery.

The vote also ensured that no EU funds are allocated to the use of violent or antisemitic material taught to young students. The parliament overwhelmingly adopted this resolution, with 412 in favor, 172 against, with 22 abstentions.

The reform, according to the parliament, was passed so that the violent imagery taught in Palestinian textbooks prior would cease and no longer be an obstacle to peaceful solutions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The European Parliament's vote for this reform was within the confines of a budgetary discharge of the European Commission. The parliament controls the use of funds by EU institutions, which gave the parliament the right to question the content of the Palestinian curriculum and its textbooks—all developed by the EU-financed Palestinian Authority.

MEPs have denounced the content found in Palestinian textbooks, claiming that it teaches young Palestinians that Jews are "liars and corrupt" and encourages violence against them.
They criticized Israel. This Twitter Account Upended Their Lives.
Reprint of WaPo's hit piece on StopAntisemitism
Marzouca, 32, is one of nearly three dozen people who have been fired or suspended from their jobs after being featured by StopAntisemitism, according to the group’s X feed, part of a wave of digital activism related to the Israel-Gaza war. Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel responded by attacking Gaza, groups have poured resources into identifying people with opposing political beliefs, sometimes deploying aggressive publicity campaigns that have resulted in profound real-world consequences.

Within weeks of Oct. 7, “doxing trucks” prowled the campuses of Harvard, Columbia and Princeton, displaying the names and photos of students and professors who had signed statements declaring solidarity with Palestinians.In January, a Rutgers Law School student sued the university, alleging that he had faced discriminatory disciplinary action after sharing what he deemed “pro-Hamas” messages from his classmates with school administrators.

Six months into the war, the strategy has spread well beyond academia — and become especially potent among pro-Israel groups determined to call out any statement they believe to be antisemitic.

Among a bevy of small social media accounts, StopAntisemitism has become one of the most prominent — and widely followed. Though some groups are dedicated to surfacing anti-Palestinian speech, none has StopAntisemitism’s reach or impact. Founded in 2018 as a “response to increasing antisemitic violence,” StopAntisemitism has dialed up its activity on X since the war, and often provides its more than 300,000 followers with personal social media profiles and employer details for people it identifies as antisemitic.

“By publicly exposing antisemites, StopAntisemitism has created an environment where those who propagate hatred against the Jewish people are met with real-world consequences including but not limited to job loss and school expulsions,” StopAntisemitism’s website reads.

“StopAntisemitism gets results,” Liora Rez, the group’s executive director, boasted in a LinkedIn post in November.

“This is just a small sampling of the bigots StopAntisemitism has gotten fired or suspended in the past week,” she wrote next to photos of people featured by the account. “Sick of the legacy orgs doing nothing with your donations? DM me!”


UCSD students hold 'Vigil for Palestine' to 'Honor Our Martyrs'
The University of California, San Diego Students for Justice in Palestine chapter announced it would host a Monday “Vigil for Palestine” in order to “Honor Our Martyrs.”

The event, scheduled for 12pm PT, was to be held in front of the university’s Geisel Library as a part of a “Global Strike for Palestine.” The protest also comes only a few days after Iran launched airstrikes against Israel.

A promotion for the protest, found on the SJP’s Instagram account, states: “BISAN AND PALESTINIANS ACROSS THE WORLD ARE CALLING FOR A GLOBAL STRIKE.”

The group adds, “NO BUSINESS AS USUAL DURING A GENOCIDE WE CALL ON YOU! UCSD STUDENTS TO COMMEMORATE AND HONOR THE 33,000+ INNOCENT PALESTINIAN LIVES LOST.”

The post continues: “NO SHOPPING NO SCHOOL AS USUAL FILL UP GAS BEFORE.”

UCSD SJP’s Instagram message also outlines a comment from an Instagram user “wizard_bisan1.”

The shared message from the account states: “The terrorist Israeli occupation, after half a year, is still insisting on entering Rafah, which is the last city that still contains most of the population of the Gaza Strip.”

The post continues: “The terrorist occupation is committing these crimes in front of the world, and is trying to have more time to destroy the hopes of the displaced to return and kill them with hunger and disease, and make the world get used to what is happening in Gaza and reduce media coverage and solidarity with Palestine, in addition to causing more destruction and strengthening the presence of the Israeli terrorists in Gaza in preparation for stealing the land.”

“Be smarter than them, and do not leave us to be killed and forgotten,” the Instagram statement adds. “*April 15 is a day of global strike*.. No schools, no movement, no work, no electronic payment, no gas stations. Make more noise and disturb the peace of terrorist politicians in America and IsraHell.”
Assorted Thoughts on the Chemerinsky Incident
Last week, Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley law school and a distinguished constitutional lawyer, hosted members of the school’s graduating class for a dinner at his house. Anti-Israel activists had already put up posters with grotesque caricatures of a cannibalistic Chemerinsky reading “No dinner with Zionist Chem while Gaza starves.” At the dinner itself, some of the guests stood up (with a microphone) and began ranting about the evils of Israel. The professor and his wife asked them to leave, and the students have since accused her of Islamophobia and of violating their First Amendment rights.

David Schraub comments on the incident:
Protests like this are exploitations of trust, they rely on and take advantage of the host’s unguarded openness and welcoming. . . . To take advantage of that, to extract costs on that openness, invariably leads to more closedness, more guardedness, and more cloisteredness—a loss for everyone, and one that can and should be mourned.

Schraub then takes a closer look at why the protesters picked Chemerinsky as a target:
The most specific thing I’ve seen people point to in justification of “why Chemerinsky” is an editorial he wrote this past October—just a few weeks after 10/7—recounting the anti-Semitism he’s experienced as a Jew at Berkeley in the wake of the Hamas attack. The usual suspects make the usual claims in response: that Chemerinsky’s claims about anti-Semitism are wrong, unfair, smears, [and] conflations of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, and those sins justify what might otherwise seem an obviously abusive overreach of a protest. On that point, one thing I haven’t seen commented on much is the deep and dangerous chilling effect this sort of position has (and is intended to have) on Jewish faculty speaking on the subject of anti-Semitism.

Schraub, a law professor himself, also explains why the protesters’ complaints about their freedom of speech being violated have no merit. If only there were some institution where they could have studied such things.
USC is forced to BAN its valedictorian from speaking at commencement ceremony for 'safety' reasons after she was accused of anti-Semitism - as the entitled student blasts the college for 'abandoning' her
USC's valedictorian has been banned from making a speech during the university's commencement ceremony after she allegedly made antisemitic posts on social media calling for the 'complete abolition' of Israel.

Asna Tabassum, from Chino Hill, California, who is a Muslim, had been selected as this year's valedictorian but questions arose over her suitability after she publicly raised questions about the current Israel-Gaza conflict and included links that promoted antisemitism.

In an unprecedented move, the college removed Tabassum from its undergraduate lineup stating 'tradition must give way to safety' - but in doing so USC has failed to tackle her comments head-on.

Tabassum, who is majoring biomedical engineering with a minoring in resistance to genocide, would have addressed 65,000 people at the ceremony. USC officials chose her from nearly 100 student applicants who had GPAs of 3.98 or higher.

In letters sent to USC administrators, critics accused her of posting on a social media a link to a website that 'takes a swinging bat at over 10% of the USC student body and mudslings by calling Zionists 'racist-settlers.'

Tabassum has shared pro-Palestinian views and 'likes' expressed through her Instagram account which she has since made private and removed her postings.

Tabassum's current Instagram bio links to a landing page that says 'learn about what's happening in Palestine, and how to help.'

'Ms. Tabassum unabashedly and openly endorses the link's calls for 'the complete abolishment of the state of israel (sic),' according to a letter circulated for critics to submit to administrators.

'As if the unqualified command for abolition of the State of Israel was unclear in any way, Ms. Tabassum's link reinforces racism with another link, urging readers to 'reject the hegemonic efforts to demand that Palestinians accept that Israel has a right to exist as a . . . Jewish state.'

But the university has so far sidestepped any mention of Tabassum's alleged views and instead describing the reasoning to no longer have her speak as being due to 'security concerns', the school's provost announced.

'While this is disappointing, tradition must give way to safety,' Provost Andrew Guzman wrote in a letter to the university community.


Antisemitism at Michigan Colleges Has Reached Frightening Levels
In the past six months, violent antisemitic attacks have grown more common in higher education.

Jewish students at Columbia were attacked by individuals “wielding sticks” outside of their library; students at UC Berkeley were berated for attending an on-campus speaker event; and at Tulane, a student’s nose was broken while he was trying to stop protesters from burning an Israeli flag. Universities across the United States have found themselves in a serious predicament, and if they don’t figure out how to stop this blatant Jew hatred on campus, they will soon find their Jewish student populations dwindling.

A study published by the ADL at the end of November 2023, found that of the 700 college campuses and more than 3,000 students surveyed, students from nearly half of these schools reported at least one antisemitic incident on campus — and seven out of every 10 Jewish students had either experienced or witnessed antisemitism since the beginning of the Fall semester. And the numbers have only grown worse since.

This is a dramatic leap from before the atrocities of October 7, but antisemitism had been rising on campus before that. Jewish students feel scared, abandoned, and unwelcome on campus — and the problem is not getting better.

Perhaps no higher education system has been more affected by this problem than public universities in Michigan, a fact recently highlighted on the national television show Dr. Phil, where a senior at the University of Michigan blamed Israel for Hamas’ actions on October 7, and accused Dr. Phil of Islamophobia for asking whether they condemn the mass murder of Jews.

Just this past week, a student leader at Michigan posted to his Instagram story, “Until my last breath, I will utter death to every single individual who supports the Zionist state. Death and more. Death and worse.”
Activist groups seek to show admitted students ‘real’ NU with protests across campus for divestment, support for Palestinians
Newly admitted Northwestern students visiting the University for Wildcat Days experienced a different dining experience at Sargent Hall and Allison Hall midday Monday. Though the lines to enter each poured out of the front doors as usual, signs declaring that “NU loves colonizers” and that its “tuition bills fund genocide” lined the dining halls.

NU chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, Educators for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, Fossil Free Northwestern and Students Organizing for Labor Rights co-hosted the daylong protest. During it, they advocated for the University’s divestment from fossil fuel contributors, the removal of John Evans’ colonial legacy on campus, increased labor rights for campus workers and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrators outside Sargent and Allison handed out flyers that welcomed admitted students to what they called the “real Northwestern” around noon. It alleged that the University exploits its workers, abuses the environment and remains complicit in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and continued presence in Gaza.

“NU, NU, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” several protesters chanted as early as 10:50 a.m. by University Hall. “Shame, shame board of trustees, funding Zionist companies.”

Some University trustees have served as executives at companies that supply arms to Israel, including Boeing and General Dynamics.

SJP organizers advocated for the U.S. government and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss to call for a ceasefire in Palestine.


Another Toronto Star Column Accuses Israel Of Genocide, Calls On Trudeau Government To Reward Hamas With Statehood Recognition
In an April 14 opinion column in The Toronto which demonstrated open hostility for factual accuracy entitled: “Canada must sanction Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet,” Taha Ghayyur and Alex Neve made manifold groundless accusations against Israel, all while effectively playing interference for Hamas as it seeks to perpetuate its jihadist war on Israel.

In their commentary, Ghayyur, the executive director of Justice for All Canada, a Mississauga, Ontario-based non-profit “human rights organization” whose website displays a fanatical fixation on Israel, and Neve, a former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada’s English Branch, referred to the tragic death of an American aid worker in Gaza as “murder” by Israel, a defamatory claim for which there is no evidence.

Preferring hyperbole to facts, Ghayyur and Neve referred to the “unfolding genocide” in Gaza, representing not only an irresponsible claim, but a morally bankrupt accusation.

Even while fighting Hamas, a genocidal Islamic terrorist organization dedicated to the wholesale violent destruction of Israel, which uses its own people as human shields, Israel has taken extraordinary steps to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, such as providing warning in advance of military strikes.

As a result, the civilian death toll in Gaza is likely far lower than in virtually any other modern armed conflict, though news media outlets have rarely informed the public of such details.
In another blunder BBC play 'Oh, what a night' heard during report on Iranian missile attack
BBC executives apologized on Monday after a BBC radio station played "Kool and The Gang's" hit song "Ladies Night," which contains the lyrics "Oh, What a Night," during a report on an attack Iran's missiles on Israel, British media reported.

During the technical malfunction, if you can call it that, the intro to the 1979 hit song played on Radio 2's news broadcast at 5 p.m. on Sunday while the IDF spokesman's segment about the attack was being broadcast.

Following the malfunction, one of the listeners wondered: "Is this amateur hour on the BBC?"

Listeners told The Sun: "I just thought, 'wow, someone must be having a wind-up here".

"I was gobsmacked, I couldn't believe they could have played that."

"Surely, at a time when everyone is fearing World War 3, we didn't need to hear that."

A BBC spokesperson told MailOnline: "The introduction of the first song to be played on Judi Love's show was played within a part of the Radio 2 news bulletin at 5 p.m. by mistake, and we apologize for the error."
CBC Radio Program As It Happens Features Three Anti-Israel Interviews In Two Days
Anti-Israel media bias doesn’t always manifest with the spreading of indefensible lies. Sometimes, bias takes place when a news media outlet simply chooses to focus its coverage overwhelmingly or exclusively with a very particular lens critical of Israel.

The CBC radio program As It Happens has done exactly that, with three anti-Israel interviews in two days.

On April 9, hosts Chris Howden and Nil Köksal spoke with Tal Mitnick, an Israeli 18-year old “conscientious objector” who has refused to participate in mandatory military service, citing the alleged “apartheid, the system of occupation” of which he accuses Israel.

Even as Köksal mentioned in passing that only three Israeli teenagers have thus far publicly refused to participate in military service in opposition to the Hamas-Israel war, the radio program’s decision to platform a tiny minority reflected a clear editorial direction.

While there are widespread disagreements within Israeli society about the best course of action in the war ­­– prioritizing defeating Hamas versus freeing the hostages kidnapped in Gaza – Mitnick expressed views which can only be described as out of touch with reality, and certainly, within Israeli society.

He told the hosts that “the only thing that will bring us security is demilitarization,” or the complete disassemblement of the Israeli military, a position which would leave Israel entirely unable to defend itself against the genocidal attempts by terrorist groups like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hezbollah to massacre Israeli civilians.

In contrast to Mitnick’s views, almost 90 percent of Israelis recently polled say they have high trust in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

While the decision to platform Mitnick could perhaps be seen most charitably as a “man bites dog” decision for As It Happens, meaning he was interviewed simply because he was so fringe and unusual, the ongoing anti-Israel agenda becomes clearer with the rest of the week’s interviews.

In the same broadcast, Howden and Köksal interviewed Carlos José Argüello Gómez, the ambassador of Nicaragua to the Netherlands. Nicaragua has taken Germany to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague because of Germany’s military aid to Israel, in a further weaponization of the world court by anti-Israel actors.

During the interview, Gómez accused Israel of carrying out a genocide “against the Palestinians,” a reckless and groundless statement that was not challenged by either of the radio program’s hosts, neither of whom mentioned the extensive and unparalleled steps Israel is taking to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza.

Even after two anti-Israel interviews in a single day, on April 10, As It Happens was back with another segment, speaking with Hisham Mehanna, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross.


ADL: Reported antisemitic incidents up 140% in 2023, shattering records
In part due to the unleashing of Jew-hatred in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, antisemitism in the United States spiked by a record 140%, according to figures released by the Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday.

Nearly 9,000 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism—including more than 5,000 in the post-Oct. 7 period—were reported across America last year. The figure not only blew away the totals from 2022—itself a record year—but outpaced the marks from the previous three years combined. The ADL began tracking relevant data in 1979.

The numbers in the ADL Audit of Antisemitic Incidents bear out a staggering 24 incidents of Jew-hatred per day in the United States.

That only includes examples that are reported. According to the American Jewish Committee, nearly four in five Jews who experience antisemitic harassment don’t report it to law enforcement or the media, mainly for fear of ongoing harassment.

“Antisemitism is nothing short of a national emergency, a five-alarm fire that is still raging across the country and in our local communities and campuses,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and national president. “Jewish Americans are being targeted for who they are at school, at work, on the street, in Jewish institutions and even at home.”

The rise was particularly felt on college campuses, where reported antisemitic activity increased by 321% from 2022. Hamas supporters have turned out for demonstrations across the country on campuses after Oct. 7, often calling for violence against Jews and reveling in the massacre.

That particular phenomenon has led to congressional hearings and the subsequent ouster of the presidents of both Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania for failure to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews, despite many opportunities to do so.

The tide appears to be turning, though, at least on some campuses. This week, the University of Southern California canceled the planned commencement speech of its valedictorian. While the official reason given was to maintain campus security and safety, critics pointed to the student’s antisemitic social media postings, including the labeling of Zionism as a “racist-settler colonial ideology.”
Highest amount of Antisemitic incidents reported since ADL began tracking hate crimes against Jews
CEO and National Director of the Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt goes over the report that shows Antisemitic incidents have more than doubled in 2024.


Former Marine, who bombed abortion clinic and planned to attack Jews, sentenced to nine years
A 24-year-old man from Orange County, Calif., who bombed a Planned Parenthood and planned other attacks, including on Jewish homes, was sentenced to nine years in federal prison on Monday, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

“This defendant’s deep-seated hatred led him to commit a firebombing and plan many other acts of violence, including starting a race war,” stated Martin Estrada, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. “This prosecution sends a message that we will act decisively to protect all members of our community from acts of violence and that we will remain united against hate.”

Chance Brannon planned to attack the power grid in Orange County “in furtherance of a race war,” Dodger Stadium “during an LGBTQ+ pride night celebration” and “home invasions of Jewish homes in Los Angeles,” per the U.S. Department of Justice.

Brannon, who was an active-duty U.S. Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton during the time of the firebombing, has been in federal custody since June 2023. In November, he pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy, malicious destruction of property by fire and explosives, possession of an unregistered destructive device and intentionally damaging a reproductive health services facility in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

Judge Cormac Carney said that Brannon “engaged in cruel and indefensible domestic terrorism.” The judge also ordered Brannon to pay $1,000 in restitution.

Brannon and two co-defendants—Tibet Ergul, 22, of Irvine, Calif. and Xavier Batten, 21, of Brooksville, Fla.—considered targeting the San Diego office of the Anti-Defamation League before opting instead to bomb a Planned Parenthood building in early 2022.

“Brannon was motivated by an extremist neo-Nazi ideology, prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum. Brannon frequently greeted his friends using ‘88,’ which is coded language for ‘Heil Hitler,’ and he called Adolf Hitler ‘a great man who loved his people and tried to save us all from the Jews,’ according to the sentencing memorandum,” per the Justice Department. “Brannon possessed antisemitic writings, drawings and literature in his bedroom at the time of his arrest and made comments to his fellow Marines including ‘All Jews deserve to die.’”
Knife attack at Sydney church a terror incident, Australia police say
Australia police said on Tuesday a knife attack during a service at a church in Sydney that injured at least four people, including a bishop with a global online following, would be considered as a terror incident.

Police arrested a male teenager at the scene on Monday and were forced to hold him at the church in Wakeley, a suburb about 30 km (18 miles) west of downtown Sydney, triggering clashes between angry residents and police.

It was the second major stabbing attack in just three days after six people were killed in a knife attack at a beachside mall in the Bondi area.

Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church was speaking during an evening service on Monday when a man walked towards him and lunged with a knife, according to video of the event captured from a livestream on the church's social media page.

Horrified members of the congregation scream as the unidentified man stabs the priest several times in the head and chest, the videos show. Authorities disclosed no motive for the attack.

Police said they arrested a 15-year-old man at the scene and were forced to hold him at the church in Wakeley, a suburb about 30 km (18 miles) west of downtown Sydney, for his own safety after an angry crowd gathered outside and demanded the attacker be brought out.

Two witnesses told Reuters the crowd threw rocks at police. More than 100 police officers were ultimately called in to deal with the unrest, and two were taken to hospital with injuries, police said. Reuters saw two men pepper sprayed.


Hen Mazzig: At last we can see true Arab solidarity with Israel
As nearly nine million Israelis — including my own family — were sheltering in bunkers on Saturday evening in anticipation of an impending military offensive by the Islamic Republic in Iran, a somewhat surprising development was unfolding behind the scenes.

Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have historically been antagonistic toward the Jewish state, were in the process of feeding Israeli officials vital intelligence about Iran’s forthcoming attack. These actions proved critical in helping Israel thwart the massive assault, which included over 300 missiles and drones.

While this intel undoubtedly saved the lives of thousands of Israelis, a different revelation was finally confirmed in the wake of this weekend’s attack that may signal the end of Hamas’ stranglehold on the narrative. According to a source connected to the Saudi Royal family, the true aim of Hamas’ barbaric attack against innocent Israelis on October 7 was to curtail Saudi Arabia’s long-awaited normalisation with Israel.

The significance of the Saudi official’s admission is twofold. First, it confirms what many of us with personal ties to and a deep understanding of the conflict have long known: Hamas’s objective has never been to achieve a peaceful solution to this conflict, to resist oppression or to obtain equal rights for Palestinians.

Rather, its mission — parallel with its charter commitment to destroy and dissolve the state of Israel — was to force the Palestinian issue back onto the centre stage in an effort to convince people across the Arab world that they could not support normalisation with Israel, at least not while Palestinians are under attack. Further, Hamas’s efforts were backed by the Islamic Republic in Iran to the tune of over a quarter of a billion dollars.

Until this latest Saudi soundbite, Hamas appeared to have read the political room quite well. By provoking a response from Israel to the October 7 attack, Hamas had awakened international pro-Palestinian sentiment and fuelled global antisemitism, gaining newfound support for a cause that so many are ignorant of at best, or ambivalent to at worst.

Second, Saudi participation in the defence of Israel demonstrates that Arab nations are no longer willing to prioritise their concern for the Palestinian cause and allegiance to Iran over the safety of their own people. Even Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, which rules the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank, confirmed as much in a recent statement. Referring to the meddling by Iran, the statement read: “This external interference, particularly by Iran, has no other objective than to sow chaos in the Palestinian internal arena, which will only benefit the Israeli occupation and the enemies of our people.” The statement continued, “We will not allow our sacred cause and the blood of our people to be exploited for suspicious plots that have nothing to do with them.”
Christian, Jewish leaders call for Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria
Christian and Jewish leaders gathered in Washington on Monday evening to call for Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and to oppose proposals for the creation of a Palestinian state in the wake of Oct. 7.

David Friedman, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and one of the leaders of the Keep God’s Land movement that organized the event, told JNS that the group proposes to extend Israeli sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria.

“Some of the most important parts of biblical Israel—whether it’s the Old City of Jerusalem, the city of Hebron, the city of Bethel, the city of Shiloh, the Tomb of Rachel, the city of Bethlehem—these are all places over which the world does not consider Israel to have sovereignty,” Friedman said. “Some of the most important biblical sites in the world are places whose status remains up in the air.”

Friedman presented his proposal for Israel to extend “sovereignty” over Judea and Samaria during the launch of Keep God’s Land in February.

JNS asked Friedman what that sort of extension would mean practically.

“Sovereignty means that Israel is dealing with this territory. Israel is taking the responsibility for this territory, not just as a military power,” he said. “You’re taking responsibility for the health and welfare and the dignity and the education of everybody who lives there, which is a huge responsibility for Israel to take. A lot of people don’t want to do it.”

Friedman told JNS that there are both biblical and practical cases for absorbing Judea and Samaria into Israel proper, rather than as part of a future Palestinian state.
Seth Mandel: The Changing Portrayal of the Jew-in-Hiding
Gut is played by the excellent Sophie Nelisse, one of the stars of the Showtime series Yellowjackets. It’s an intense role that requires Nelisse to “act with her eyes,” and she does so deftly. She’s no superspy; she’s a good Catholic in over her head and living moment to moment. Nelisse portrays Gut’s exploits without showing a hint of self-confidence, which raises the tension for the audience and serves as a constant reminder of her relative youth (Gut was about 20 when she went to work for Rügemer).

Near the beginning of Irena’s Vow, which is in theaters today and tomorrow as part of a Fathom event, a German employee of Rügemer’s gives Gut some advice: “Do you know how one survives this sort of change in destiny? You look down. You look neither to the left nor to the right nor up. Not even straight ahead. You look at your own two feet taking one step at a time. What I mean is, you worry about you. You take care of you.”

Gut doesn’t take this advice, which is why she’s listed on the Yad Vashem roster of the Righteous Among the Nations. And her compromises weren’t only of the earthly. When Rügemer discovers that Gut’s been hiding Jews in his own house, he agrees to keep her secret if she’ll agree to become his mistress. That decision eventually costs Rügemer his career, his home, and his family. He, too, is listed among the Righteous. Though the film doesn’t dwell on it, Rügemer did more to help Jews before and after the events at the villa.

Yet refreshingly, as in the Hulu series We Were the Lucky Ones, which is also based on a true story, of a family’s struggle to survive occupied Poland, the Jews in this movie aren’t used as mere props for the heroism of others. In both productions, the Jews in hiding do not stay in one place but neither can they flee the war theater. They survive only in ways that enable others to survive as well, with courage and ingenuity on par with that of their rescuers. The portrayal of the hidden Jew is changing, and not a moment too soon.


Seth Mandel: The Jews Who Fought Back
About fifteen minutes into the new documentary Resistance, the late Professor Richard Freund approaches a glass case with a century-old milk jug inside. The jug is corroded and rusted and the color of the dark stone walls around it. Inside the unremarkable container was hidden something remarkable: a large part of the contemporaneously written account of life in the Warsaw Ghetto. “It’s the equivalent of, for the first time, seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Freund says. “The difference is this is so close to our own era, and to know that Jews have been documenting and preserved it, like a message in a bottle, for future generations.”

Resistance: They Fought Back, directed by Paula Apsell and Kirk Wolfinger and written by Apsell and Jay Owens, spends a lot of time on the written word. It’s the story of Jews who fought the Nazi murder machine, and while there is a section dedicated to the much-heralded armed partisans in the forests of Belarus, made famous in movies like Defiance, the lesson of the film is that spiritual and intellectual resistance are prerequisites to effective armed rebellion—and that the Jews of Europe excelled across all three. “People have this myth stuck in their heads that the Jews went to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter.” A myth is exactly what it was.

There are moments in Resistance, which premiers in New York today and in Los Angeles on May 10, when the connections between the head and the heart and the hand is shown in literal terms. In Vilna, Lithuania, the Nazis sought to confiscate all Jewish books and artifacts for the museum they would build about the Jews once all Jews were exterminated. Some members of the ghetto who were forced to transport the materials saved books and manuscripts and other items. One day, the Paper Brigade, as they were known, recovered a Finnish bombmaking manual. They took it to resistance leader Abba Kovner, who built a primitive bomb. Vitka Kempner took that bomb and planted it well outside the ghetto under the railroad tracks. In the middle of the night, a German train rolled over it and exploded. Thus begins their training for the Vilna Ghetto uprising.

Kempner’s diary notes are read by the stage actress Julie Benko. Kovner’s are voiced by Corey Stoll. Maggie Siff and Dianna Agron are among other actors who give voice to the Jewish heroes in the film. This is a surprisingly effective device, pairing familiar voices with familiar names (even though those voices and names belong to different people).

Agron voices the most compelling figure in the entire documentary: Bela Hazan. Many Jewish ghettos revolted against the Nazis, but they were mostly cut off from the world, and certainly each other. Couriers, then, were the only way to communicate. The job required courage: They were spies, Jewish women living as Christians and moving weapons and contraband into Jewish towns under Nazi occupation and sometimes smuggling people out of the ghettos. The brave and beautiful Hazan, at age 19, takes a job as a Gestapo interpreter and uses her access to steal documents and stamps that are then used in Vilna to create false papers for Jews. One Christmas Eve, a Gestapo officer invites her and her two friends (both fellow undercover couriers) to a Christmas party. Likely smitten with Hazan, he takes the girls’ picture. One of them later would be caught with the photo on her way to deliver guns and information to the Warsaw underground from Bialystok. When she didn’t return, Hazan followed after her—and the Germans were waiting for her, too.




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