Saturday, June 15, 2024
Seth Mandel: Ghosted By Hamas
The conflict is stuck in a loop so long as Hamas refuses to give back the ball. Hamas welcomes the deaths of Palestinians as well as Israelis, and Israel’s continuing operation in Rafah arguably doesn’t pose an existential threat to Hamas unless the Biden administration shifts its stance. Until then, Israel is forced to move too slowly to finish the job.Seth Mandel: The Boats of Cherbourg, the Rockets of Lebanon, and the Value of Every Second
The U.S. is the one party to these cease-fire negotiations that can change the calculus overnight. That’s one of the benefits of being a superpower. But Biden isn’t even threatening to do so; why would Hamas make any sudden moves?
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar didn’t invent this time-freezing trick. He inherited it. When Yasser Arafat rejected the full offer of statehood presented by Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak, Arafat did not make a counteroffer. He simply walked away. And what did it cost him? Nothing. Less than a decade later, Ehud Olmert was back in front of Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, with another offer. Abbas simply ghosted him.
Of course, a half-century before Arafat’s rejection of statehood, the Arabs with whom the Jews were to divide the land did the same. Rather than negotiate over lines on a map, the decision was made to attempt to kill all the Jews and take all the land. Here we are, all these years later, and no Palestinian response has differed substantively from that basic formula.
The difference is that Arafat and Abbas learned their lines and played their parts in the theater of international diplomacy, at least to some extent. Abbas was genuinely opposed—on practical grounds—to Arafat’s launching of the second intifada. An insincere renunciation of violence is good enough to get American military figures to come to the West Bank and try to train the Palestinian security forces.
But Hamas beat Abbas’s Palestinian Authority on the battlefield. And Hamas beat Abbas’s Fatah party at the ballot box, too. What is the PA’s international legitimacy worth? Bupkis, as far as Sinwar is concerned. He’s holding American hostages and the Americans won’t even let Israel destroy Hamas once and for all.
After this, why would anyone abide by the norms of international diplomacy ever again? Why go through the motions? And why even respond definitively to the deal on the table?
After all, what are Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, and Jake Sullivan going to do about it?
The grave situation in Israel’s north gives the lie to a fantasy underpinning the West’s desperate push for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza—that there is such a thing as the “day after” for Israel. Rather than a permanent peace being on the table, Israel’s enemies—and America’s, since they are all working on behalf of Iran—merely shift their forever war to a new front each time Israel temporarily pacifies one of the conflict zones on its border.Why Does the World Hate Israel, and Not Hamas?
Israel will not get a reprieve. There may be a “day after” the Gaza conflict for Western states thousands of miles away, but there will be none for the Jewish state.
The whole situation, including a recent diplomatic tiff with France, serves as a reminder of wars past. And the most important lesson to derive from those reminders is that every second counts.
This year marks the 55th anniversary of the famous story of the boats of Cherbourg. Israel’s magnificent victory in the Six-Day War in 1967 changed the understanding of the power dynamic across the Middle East. The European powers saw Israel as needing to “take the win,” much as the international community urged Israel to do after it came out unscathed from Iran’s unprecedented missile attack in April.
But in fact the aftermath of the 1967 conflict had exposed weaknesses in Israel’s defenses that could have proved fatal. Its navy was, in effect, not a real navy at all but a glorified coast guard. It was easy to imagine Israel getting cut off from the seaways around it.
Israel needed boats with speed, maneuverability, offensive weapons, and basic defensive capabilities—at a price it could afford. The breakthrough came when Israeli engineers began studying how to make the country’s Gabriel missiles compatible for naval use. The boats themselves would be modeled on a German craft and built in France, in Cherbourg.
What happened next is famous. What happened after that is less so.
Charles de Gaulle imposed an arms embargo on Israel, halting the transfer of the last five boats despite Israel having paid for them in full. De Gaulle’s successor, Georges Pompidou, upheld the embargo.
The Israeli government accepted the French slight; the Defense Ministry’s procurement team did not. They kept up the production and testing of the boats in Cherbourg while manufacturing a misleading sale to a Norwegian front company to get around the French embargo. On Christmas eve 1969, amid stormy waters and brutal winds, and with ghost crews brought in over time under France’s nose, the boats sailed home to Israel.
But, as Abraham Rabinovich, who wrote the definitive book on the mission, explains, during that same time the Russians began supplying Israel’s Arab neighbors with naval missiles even more capable than the ones Israel was developing. Israeli engineers had to develop some kind of radar-scrambling system to effectively reduce the Soviet missiles’ range.
Rabinovich describes the nailbiting timeline before the Yom Kippur War: “The Navy now began the arduous process of fitting out the 12 vessels as missile boats and devising an operational system and tactics for a totally new kind of naval warfare — as innovative as the first use of ironclads or the first modern naval guns. Full scale maneuvers of the missile boat flotilla were held for the first time at the beginning of October, 1973. The vessels returned to Haifa on the eve of Yom Kippur. The next day war broke out.”
For Israel, the choice is stark: act decisively to save innocent lives or risk brutal violence against their citizens now and in the future. To criticize harm caused by Israel to enemy civilians without considering the context is self-serving virtue signaling, and offers little practical guidance for states forced to navigate the treacherous waters of modern conflict.
Rav Shaul Yisraeli (1909-1995), one of 20th-century Israel’s most prominent rabbinic leaders and an esteemed authority in Jewish law, discusses the concept of milchemet mitzvah (obligatory war) in his seminal work Amud HaYemini. This concept encompasses the defense of Israel and its people. A milchemet mitzvah is not only permissible but necessary, says Rav Yisraeli, even if it entails significant risks to the lives of non-combatants and involves difficult military decisions. And according to Rav Yisraeli, “war with any nation threatening Israel is a milchemet mitzvah.”
The ongoing conflict with Hamas, and particularly the rescue of hostages, undoubtedly constitutes a milchemet mitzvah, as it represents an existential struggle for Israel’s survival that is being keenly observed by all of Israel’s adversaries. This is why the cost of kidnapping Israelis must be high to deter such atrocities in the future. The misfortune of civilian deaths, as in any just war, is the tragic consequence of such a mission, undertaken to prevent far worse outcomes in the future.
In a perfect world, Hamas would not have kidnapped any Israelis, and having done so, would not have embedded them in the heart of a residential neighborhood. But we don’t live in a perfect world, where swords can be beaten into plowshares, and dealing with heartless enemies is unnecessary. This is the real world, where rescuing innocent civilian hostages from the clutches of evil terrorists is an inescapable reality.
Meanwhile, the hypocrisy of the media and international actors who criticize Israel is glaring. They refuse to acknowledge that the hostages were all innocent civilians held by Hamas collaborators in residential neighborhoods, where the likelihood of an Israeli rescue raid was, thus high making civilian casualties inevitable.
Which country wouldn’t want to rescue their citizens? Had these hostages been handed back months ago, this entire war might have long been over. Instead, Israel is blamed for fulfilling its obligation to protect its citizens and doing everything possible to save them from terrorist murderers and rapists. The criticism of Israel not only ignores the realities of the conflict but also unfairly vilifies a nation for its honorable commitment to the safety and security of its people.
Rather than hauling Israel over the coals, isn’t it time for the media and international organizations to start hounding Hamas and their lackeys for generating suffering on a scale for Palestinians not seen since 1948? That’s not on Israel. It’s on Hamas. And until Hamas is gone, the suffering will continue — and likely get worse.
Ben-Dror Yemini: Report claiming Israel commits crimes against humanity is a mark of shame for UN
A report by the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry is a disgrace to the international community, a shame to the UN, and a blot on the UN Human Rights Council. It is no coincidence that the report was released on Wednesday, a holiday and day of rest in Israel.The Anti-Semitism Money and Power Network—and How to Smash It
This report, another in a series by the "The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel," established by the UN Human Rights Council, continues its biased narrative. It accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and sexual violence and exclusively accuses Israel of crimes against humanity, including genocide and starvation.
How biased, false, and absurd is this report? Sometimes, before addressing the content, it is essential to consider the authors. UN Watch conducted a thorough investigation and found that all three commission members have a history of anti-Israel statements. The chair, Navi Pillay from South Africa, signed a 2020 petition labeling Israel as an apartheid state and another calling for sanctions against "apartheid Israel." The second member, Christopher Sidoti from Australia, is associated with a BDS-supporting organization.
The third member, Miloon Kothari from India, is the most problematic. "We are very disheartened by social media, which is controlled largely by the Jewish lobby... a lot of money is being thrown around," Kothari said in a 2022 interview. Such statements are astonishing. He also expressed opposition to Israel's membership in the UN. A long list of Western countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Canada, the US, the Netherlands, Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Brazil, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, protested Kothari's antisemitic remarks.
The European Union and UN Secretary-General António Guterres also condemned the statements. However, these condemnations led to no changes. The dark majority prevails. This is the council, and this is the commission. It is akin to appointing three Ku Klux Klan supporters to draft a report on African Americans in the US. But this isn't about African Americans; it's about the Jewish state.
The mushrooming of anti-Semitic violence and activism on campuses across the United States is not an organic or spontaneous development. Money is flowing from the Arab world to universities, nongovernmental organizations, and professional terrorist sympathizers across the country. That money is paying for, organizing, educating, publicizing, and fanning the flames not simply of Israel-bashing, but of eliminationist Jew-hatred.Capitalism Is the Real Target
It demands a major response. Congress has begun investigating. Hearings in which university presidents have been unable to articulate any kind of standard that would protect Jewish students are driving headlines and major changes in leadership at elite educational institutions. Now key committees are digging into offshore efforts to direct and support campus anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity. But things are a bit chaotic on Capitol Hill. Congress is moving in scattershot fashion, with multiple bills sponsored by a myriad of members. Little that is lasting can be accomplished in this way.
What is needed now is a systematic survey of the problem, backed by the federal investigative power of agencies like the FBI, followed by a careful legislative response. That, in turn, will raise a host of complex issues that must be addressed if we are to change the game and rip out the anti-Semitism in our institutions at the root.
In our democracy, regulating or even getting to the bottom of financial flows, particularly to nongovernmental nonprofit organizations (NGOs) and educational institutions, is not easy. The constitutional guarantee of free speech rightly colors all inquiries into the nature of foreign support for any group or school.
Questions are raised that are not easily dismissed. For example: Is money from France or Australia the same as money from China or Qatar? Can foreign funding of a university department or chair that has the effect of influencing the curriculum or the nature of study be regulated? What about NGO activity on campus: Does allowing NGOs that support terrorist organizations and their aims on campus constitute material support for terrorism, which is illegal under federal law? Is there a constitutional means of regulating or banning foreign-government-sponsored hate speech? Can Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, be reasonably applied to donated dollars that seem to tilt the scales in favor of the causes of foreign actors?
First, we need to address the scope of the problem and determine its sources—apart from the frailties of human character that have driven anti-Semitic hatred for as long as there have been Jews. Where has this new anti-Semitism come from? What are the best tools to fight it? What are the roots of this 21st-century version of the world’s oldest hatred?
THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
The breadth of campus protests, the demands of impromptu encampment juntas, and the specific demands of the “students” there, have all staggered America. Those who support their cause are exhilarated by their success. Those who are appalled by not only the lawlessness but the abhorrent ugliness of their behavior and words are in shock. Even for those riveted and horrified by the spectacle, there has been too much happening on a daily basis to absorb it all. There also appears to be some confusion about what is going on, including a nostalgic sense among some that protest is an age-old rite of passage for the young, something kids always do. They are wrong. This is fresh.
In May, Hillel International—the largest Jewish campus organization in the world—reported a 700 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses since October 7, more than 1,500 separate incidents in all. The anti-Semitic wave took multiple forms that are breathtaking in the way they have broken seemingly unbreakable norms—extolling Hitler and lamenting the failure of the Holocaust; demands that Jews “go back to Poland”; omnipresent glorification of Hamas and the attacks of October 7; calls for Hamas (and Iran) to attack Tel Aviv; denial of the events of October 7; attacks on Jewish institutions like Chabad and Hillel, as well as synagogues, Jewish fraternities, and even “visibly” Jewish students. (The rise of the expression “visibly Jewish” is itself a predation that deserves more attention.)
Consistently across states and universities both public and private—though mostly at the nation’s most elite institutions—demands have gone beyond mere harassment and name-calling. Jewish students and professors have been blocked from campus solely for the “crime” of being Jewish—a violation of multiple laws justified by Jew-hater par excellence Representative Ilhan Omar. Protester demands include everything from divestment of university endowments in Israel to the banning of organizations in and around campus “associated with Zionism.” Those include Hillel and Chabad, which are explicitly Jewish service organizations designed to help young Jews practice their faith away from home and are not primarily Zionist advocacy organizations. Indeed, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California demanded a “complete academic boycott” of a list of Jewish organizations and philanthropies; it was enough, in most cases, for the organization to simply have a Jewish name to be on the list.
How pervasive was all this? Nationwide, there were almost 3,000 campus arrests.
FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, found that 60 percent of American students were on a campus this past academic year where a protest had been ongoing, though only 10 percent of students actually participated.
While student participation is shocking, it’s the involvement of their professors that represents a break from every academic norm. In addition to joining encampments themselves at dozens of schools, professors have sought to intervene when police were called in to stem violence, apprehend trespassers, and disband illegal encampments. A brief survey: Thirty-four professors at the University of Virginia signed letters condemning administrators for suspensions and arrests of students, and 77 percent of Barnard professors voted “no confidence” in their president. Faculty at the University of Texas at Austin engaged in a work stoppage. The chair of women’s studies at UCLA led a 200-faculty-strong walkout to support protesters. Staff at Rutgers University, University of Minnesota, and University of California, Riverside, came out in support of divestment from Israel. Mona Dugo, the dean of students at Northwestern University, joined a protest outside the school’s Hillel on the grounds that she needed to ensure that the demonstrators’ rights were protected. The Hillel House is not on the campus quad but on Foster Street in Evanston, shared by private homes and academic buildings.
According to today’s progressive dogma, it’s only outcomes that matter, because outcomes represent not equality but “equity.”4 Equal opportunities and equal rights are insufficient; it is equal outcomes that are truly moral. And when measured against the Israelis, the Palestinian refugees clearly don’t have such “equity.” So Israel must be an oppressor and the perma-class of “powerless” refugees (again, courtesy of their friends) must be saints and martyrs. What’s a progressive to do? Credit the Israelis for their earned success? Blame the Palestinians leaders, so clearly responsible, for their people’s open sores? Blame the countries supporting Palestine for cynically perpetuating their condition? No, clearly, what you do is blame the Israelis for their sin of prospering and then head to the barricades for barbarians because a failed society must axiomatically be a just and righteous one.Jonathan Tobin: AOC and progressives can’t hide their role in stoking antisemitism
Even outside of Israel, Jews as a people represent a huge problem to the progressive worldview. Jews are the world’s longest-lived oppressed minority. We are only four generations past the Holocaust (an actual genocide).5 We are only three generations removed from a time when Jews in the U.S. faced quotas and gentleman’s agreements explicitly and implicitly limiting our opportunities. And yet Jews are economically thriving here in oppressor America and elsewhere. This is a living, breathing assault on the progressive worldview. Surely the logic of “equity” requires that Jews must be unfairly manipulating the system to attain that success? Surely, Jews must be cheating left and right? Otherwise, how can progressives explain the success of Jews? For a time, due to the Holocaust, this was a question that progressives dared not answer as they wanted to. But time and tides change. Jews (and Israel) are now deemed guilty of imposing and benefiting from oppression based not on facts but solely on their success.
What can be done to counteract this diseased worldview? The place to start is with those who keep the gears of capitalism working. Prestige corporations need to broaden their recruiting beyond the grade-inflated radical factories that used to be our most esteemed universities. Donors need to direct their largesse toward schools that aren’t teaching that any achievement is prima facie evidence of racism, colonialism, and capitalism run amok. Programs need to be funded to teach the massive (and obvious) net good that free enterprise has done for the world, without whitewashing the occasional faults. Graduate students and professors willing to buck their Marxist madrassas need to be supported financially and otherwise.
Capitalism is what has made our amazing civilization possible (and has allowed so many useless post-modern academics to live in perpetual luxury). Rejection of free enterprise is what has caused most of the societal failures around the world—failures that would-be totalitarians attribute solely to oppression that can be cured only by more oppression (but this time from them). We now face a multigenerational challenge to teach the young to love and respect liberty as it applies everywhere, including in economics, where it would actually lead the destitute children of Gaza to a better life.
No society that worships failure and abjures success can long endure. Reverse this, even some of it, and much of the Jew-hatred will go away on its own, as it has never been the real point.
The congresswoman made clear that she was merely distancing herself from the more vulgar forms of Jew-hatred, like the rampage of “pro-Palestinian” demonstrators outside the White House, anti-Israel mobs protesting in front of a Wall Street exhibit about the Oct. 7 murders at the Nova music festival, the targeting of Jews during a “day of rage” on the New York City subway and the red-paint vandalization of the homes of officials associated with the Brooklyn Museum.New 'Never Again' documentary to counter Australian antisemitism
In essence, what she was trying to do was to separate herself from the thugs on the streets while still opposing the existence of the one Jewish state on the planet. She also essentially backs efforts to ensure that the genocidal and fascist terrorists of Hamas are allowed to escape accountability for atrocities on Oct. 7, and go back to governing Gaza and working towards their goal of destroying Israel.
“It is also important to say here in this moment and during that conversation that criticism of the Israeli government is not inherently antisemitic and criticism of Zionism is not automatically antisemitic,” AOC added.
Of course, criticism of any Israeli government is not antisemitic. But “criticism of Zionism” is indistinguishable from an effort to deny Jews rights that no one would think of denying to anyone else. This statement gave her—and by implication, other “progressives”—a pass for engaging in the worst kind of libels against Israel and demonizing its efforts to defend itself against those who see Oct. 7 as just a trailer for what they wish to do to the rest of Israel.
No responsible Jewish leader should be providing cover for a member of Congress who has done so much to advance the anti-Israel cause. But more important is the need for those who pretend to lead the Jewish community to understand that the ideological basis for the open antisemitism in the streets of America’s cities and on college campuses is to be found in the beliefs about critical race theory and intersectionality that an avowed Marxist like AOC calls “fights for liberation.” A condemnation of antisemitism that doesn’t acknowledge that the extremism and violence against Jews so ubiquitous right now can be directly linked to the promotion of these ideas is useless.
As has been abundantly clear for years but can no longer be ignored since Oct. 7, the mindset that sees the world divided into two groups of “white” oppressors and “people of color” who are their victims, locked in a perpetual race war, inevitably falsely labels Israel and Jews as the former. The fact that the JCPA and ADL have refused to renounce their endorsement of these toxic woke progressive agenda items, even as they acknowledged the spike in antisemitism from their former allies on the left, shows just how morally bankrupt these organizations and leaders like Spitalnick and Greenblatt have become.
The future of the Democrats?
There should be no pass given to politicians, academics or anyone who pretends to oppose antisemitism while still opposing Israel’s existence and right to exist. And none for those, like AOC, whose main goal since Oct. 7 has been to prevent the elimination of Hamas. Those progressives who don’t want to dirty their hands in the way the masked thugs do aren’t opposing antisemitism. The mobs in the streets may have gone farther than the congresswoman and other progressives are comfortable with in expressing their hatred for Israel and the Jews. Still, their end goals are no different from hers and anyone else who is working for victory for Hamas. Her advocacy advances their cause, whether or not she or they are willing to admit it.
Those who see AOC as the future of the Democratic Party probably aren’t wrong. Most Democrats aren’t in agreement with her extreme positions on foreign policy, or even the environment and “green new deal” measures that would impoverish the nation and harm middle- and working-class Americans while elites like AOC remain untouched. But the progressives dominate the younger generation of Democratic activists and the party base.
That she is disassociating herself from the worst excesses of her allies while still engaging in antisemitic tropes about AIPAC and Zionism is no reason for Jews who purport to speak for American Jewry to back her deception. Indeed, it says more about the collapse of Jewish leadership at a time when it’s needed most. Either way, AOC’s determination to act in a matter that will allow her to advance her toxic causes and personal ambitions is a warning for those who care about not just Israel and the Jews, but the future of America. The more influential a Marxist extremist like her grows, the more dangerous a place this country will be not just for Jews but for the cause of liberty itself.
I was invited to a private screening of the documentary, “Never Again: The Fight against Antisemitism,” produced by Sky News, featuring the former deputy prime minister and treasurer, Josh Frydenberg. This film was broadcast on national TV on Tuesday, May 28.Never Again: The Fight Against Antisemitism
Josh’s family came from Hungary and moved to Australia in the 1950s after surviving the Holocaust. They rebuilt their lives like so many other Jews who survived the war and contributed much to Australia. Frydenberg is the central character throughout the film.
In the documentary, former prime ministers John Howard and Julia Gillard, together with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, former governor-general Peter Cosgrove, and former Labour senator Nova Peris, were interviewed by Frydenberg and made powerful statements condemning antisemitism.
The incumbent prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was also interviewed, and he condemned antisemitism in a correct and perfunctory manner.
Yet viewers won’t be fooled as he heads a party that is seen to be facilitating the spread of antisemitism through its portrayal of the Gaza conflict and its lack of support and sympathy towards Israel.
The documentary also relayed the events of October 7 and covered in graphic detail how antisemitism has spread in Australia since that day.
Interspersed were interviews with Holocaust survivors and victims of the current outbreaks, which enables the viewer to connect what is unfolding in Australia today to the 1930s in Germany.
The film also deals with the definition of Zionism and how it is integral to Judaism. This topic helps viewers understand that anti-Zionism is the current manifestation of antisemitism.
This powerful documentary, which is seen as a strong response to antisemitism, was well-promoted throughout the media. It is professional while displaying the right amount of empathy and concern.
The presence of former treasurer Frydenberg, who not long ago was touted as a future prime minister, lent the documentary much gravitas and credibility.
Moreover, it should serve as a template for communities throughout the world as to how to stand up and respond to the scourge of antisemitism.
More remarkable is that the documentary was produced at the initiative of Sky News.
That the Jewish community has support from sections of the media prepared to call out antisemitism comes as an antidote to the non-stop bile and incessant hatred displayed by the government-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation, whose ranks are filled with extreme, woke anti-Israel advocates who seek to delegitimize Israel at every opportunity.
The documentary will not necessarily turn the tide, but it will galvanize support from those Australians who abhor how the political Left has used the Israel-Palestine conflict to sow division and discord throughout the country.
In a powerful new documentary, Josh Frydenberg investigates the devastating impact of antisemitism on Australia.
For the former Treasurer of Australia, this issue goes beyond politics. It is about the kind of country Australia should be.
Following the devastating attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7 last year, the documentary examines the rise in hostility towards Jewish people taking place around the world at levels not seen since the Holocaust.
From the steps of the Sydney Opera House to the heartland of Melbourne's Jewish community in Caulfield, the escalation of antisemitism has been widespread and violent.
The incitement has not only been seen through violent demonstrations but in the desecration of national monuments, interruption of major events, the boycott of Jewish owned businesses, doxing of Jewish artists and harassment of community members.
Through a reflective and, at times, emotional lens Josh speaks on the rising tide of antisemitism with prominent Australians, among them Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, former prime ministers John Howard and Julia Gillard, Olympic champion and former senator Nova Peris, former governor-general Peter Cosgrove, award-winning Australian music artist Deborah Conway and survivors of the Holocaust.
Fox documentary spotlights global uptick of antisemitism after Oct. 7
Fox News Media released a special documentary through its Fox Nation platform this week on the impact of the global uptick in antisemitism following Oct. 7.Biden’s foolish plan for post-war Gaza
The 45-minute documentary, which debuted on Thursday, was hosted by Benjamin Hall and featured interviews with American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch; Israeli activist Noa Tishby; Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL); Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse; former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher; Dara Horn, author of People Love Dead Jews; Gad Saad, the evolutionary behavioral scientist and academic; and young Jewish and Israeli students and influencers.
The film explored the history of antisemitism and the broader targeting of the Jewish people in the last century. It examined how the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust prompted the creation of a Jewish state, and the subsequent antisemitism that was sparked by the establishment of Israel.
The documentary also shined a light on recent high-profile examples of antisemitism leading up to Oct. 7, including the 2017 rally in Charlottesville where white supremacists marched while chanting “Jews will not replace us,” and the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting one year later.
Delving into Oct. 7, the special focuses on the brutality of the attack and how the aftermath impacted Jews in and out of Israel.
Graham spoke of how “the stench of death was still there, you could smell it” at the kibbutzim he visited in the month after the Hamas terror attacks.
Israel has been explicit about its goal in the present conflict: the destruction of Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that launched the war by invading the Jewish state and massacring and kidnapping its citizens. Yet, at several points, the Biden administration has effectively worked to preserve the terror group, which itself is a proxy of Iran, China’s chief ally in the region. The White House has pressured Israel not to invade Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold, while simultaneously failing to pressure countries like Turkey and Qatar, both of which provide sanctuary and funds to the organization.Caroline Glick: Responding to Hezbollah’s strategic offensive
If Hamas isn’t defeated, the outlook for an interim “Palestinian Council” to govern Gaza is grim. By working to prevent the group’s destruction, the administration is foiling its own plans for Gaza’s future. Hamas is sure to target and assassinate any Palestinian who doesn’t subscribe to its twisted ideology. History says as much.
In the late 1930s, the Palestinian leader Amin al-Husseini and his henchmen murdered British officials and Jews during the so-called “Arab Revolt” in British-ruled Mandate Palestine. But Husseini also murdered more moderate Arab leaders, both there and in neighboring Transjordan. Husseini’s campaign of assassination eliminated Palestinian leaders more open to peace and compromise, most notably the Nashashibi clan. As a result, the most extreme Palestinian factions, initially led by Husseini’s distant cousin Yasser Arafat and later by Hamas, have continued to hold sway for decades on. Allowing Hamas to survive could lead to similar results for Gaza.
Giving U.S. military personnel a “major role” in security coordination will expose American troops to attacks from Iranian-backed terrorists. Indeed, Tehran’s proxies have been doing just that for years —and often without a response from the Biden administration. It would also mark a significant departure in the U.S.-Israel relationship.
For decades, Israeli governments of all stripes have resisted any suggestion that might put U.S. troops in harm’s way, fearing that any deaths or injuries could hinder American support for the Jewish state. Unlike other allies, such as South Korea or Germany, Israelis have traditionally been reluctant to have Americans based in the country and committed to fighting on their behalf.
All that Israel asks is for support to “finish the job” and destroy Hamas. That’s a better plan.
End Hezbollah’s reign of terror
Given the strategic imperative of defeating Hezbollah and preventing it from achieving operational or strategic control over northern Israel, and in light of Israel’s diplomatic weakness relative to Hezbollah (and Hamas) and its operational weaknesses, the question is how should Israel proceed?
The answer begins with the strategic imperative. Israel must end Hezbollah’s reign of terror over northern Israel. It must degrade Hezbollah’s military capacity to the point that Hezbollah is no longer able to strike Israel at will. To achieve this goal, Israel needs to take control over the Lebanese side of the border, destroy Hezbollah’s forces south of the Litani River and then remain in place in Southern Lebanon for the foreseeable future.
Such a goal is, of course, easy to declare. But it is far more difficult to achieve. Realistically, to accomplish this objective, Israel needs to vastly increase the size of its standing and reserve forces, and possess the military-industrial capacity to arm its forces independently. Israel is already working to achieve both of these objectives. However, industrial independence and the enlargement of military forces take time to achieve. And time is of the essence. The residents of the north now scattered in hotels throughout the country cannot be expected to wait years to return to their homes.
Then-prime minister Ehud Barak’s decision to surrender the security zone in Southern Lebanon to Hezbollah in May 2000 is the reason that the terror organization was able to build its forces to the point where it poses an existential threat to Israel’s survival. By committing itself to reversing his move, Jerusalem will place itself on the road to victory. The government will steel the public for the road ahead, and provide the General Staff and lower echelons of the IDF with the required guidance for developing and carrying out tactical missions that will advance Israel’s ultimate goal.
If Israel invades Lebanon with a corps-sized force, it will unify the U.S.-led international community to rally against it. But if it moves slowly, with discrete battles against specific targets, Israel can remain below the radar screens of hostile Western capitals and global institutions. On the surface, Israel can present its operations as mere responses to Hezbollah’s strikes. But just as Hezbollah uses every missile assault as a means to probe and learn how to penetrate Israel’s defenses to advance its strategic goal, so too, by attaching every action to the strategic objective of restoring the security zone in Southern Lebanon, Israel’s operations will be paving stones on the road to strategic victory.
Each move will make the north safer. And each move will undermine Hezbollah’s goals. By acting slowly and deliberately, Israel can learn as it goes, adapting its operations to the conditions that it discovers on the ground, expanding them when political realities allow and constraining them when those realities are more daunting.
To date, most of Israel’s actions in Lebanon have involved killing Hezbollah military commanders like Abdullah. Yet as the Alma Research and Education Center, which specializes in Hezbollah’s operations and capabilities, noted in an analysis of the operation and others like it: “Everyone has a successor.”
“An attempt to remove top officials can only be a supporting endeavor. It is vital and right, but ultimately it is a tactical endeavor with no strategic significance.”
A slowly escalating operation in Lebanon directed towards the strategic aim of ending Hezbollah’s assault on northern Israel and securing Israel’s sovereignty will enable Israel to gradually escalate its operations as its forces are readied and military-industrial independence expanded. It will provide a means to avoid the worst of the international calumny that Israel will surely suffer in a mass invasion while moving Israel steadily towards a strategic goal capable of securing Israel’s vital interests—and survival.
Israel’s actions in Gaza will be studied by many militaries. The lessons learned by Israel in Gaza - from dealing with the information warfare in the age of social media, facing an enemy in an urban defense they prepared for 15 years, facing an enemy using lawfare, human shields,…
— John Spencer (@SpencerGuard) June 15, 2024
PragerU: Are Israel's Actions in Gaza Justified? | Real Talk
Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus served in the Israel Defense Forces for 24 years as a combat commander in Lebanon and Gaza. He is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies focused on the Middle East. PragerU CEO Marissa Streit challenges Jonathan about Israel's military response to Hamas and its humanitarian efforts in Gaza following the attacks of October 7. If Israel is victorious, what would that mean for the future of Gaza?
Eight troops killed in Rafah explosion, in deadliest incident for IDF in 6 months
Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a blast in southern the Gaza Strip’s Rafah on Saturday morning, the military announced, in what marked the deadliest incident for the Israel Defense Forces in the enclave since January.
Only one of the soldiers was named as of Saturday afternoon: Cpt. Wassem Mahmoud, 23, a deputy company commander in the Combat Engineering Corps’ 601st Battalion, from the northern Druze-majority town of Beit Jann.
The families of the other seven slain soldiers were notified, and their names were due to be released later on Saturday, the military said.
According to an initial IDF probe, the troops were all killed inside a Namer armored combat engineering vehicle (CEV). There were no survivors.
The soldiers had been driving in a convoy at around 5 a.m. on Saturday following an overnight offensive against Hamas in the northwestern areas of Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, during which troops under the 401st Armored Brigade killed some 50 gunmen, according to the IDF.
The convoy was heading to buildings captured by the army, for the troops to rest following the overnight operation. Cpt. Wassem Mahmoud, 23, a deputy company commander in the Combat Engineering Corps’ 601st Battalion from Beit Jann, who was killed fighting in Gaza on June 15, 2024. (Courtesy)
The Namer CEV was the fifth or sixth vehicle in the convoy, and at some point, it was hit by a major explosion.
It was not immediately clear if it was a bomb planted ahead of time or if Hamas operatives had approached the vehicle with an explosive device and directly placed it on the CEV, the probe found.
StopAntisemitism is heartbroken to learn eight IDF soldiers have fallen in Rafah.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 15, 2024
Only one currently has been identified - Wassem Mahmoud. May his memory always be a blessing to the family, community, and nation he left behind. pic.twitter.com/95E0n6pPyL
Sgt. Yair Roitman succumbs to wounds from Monday Rafah incident - IDF
The IDF announced Saturday night Sergeant Yair Roitman succumbed to his injuries after being wounded in the explosion of a booby-trapped building on June 10, 2024, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Roitman, 19, from Karnei Shomron, was initially injured along with a total of six other soldiers in the incident, which also killed four more. Incident took the lives of four more
Maj. Tal Pshebilski Shaulov, 24, from Gedera, St.-Sgt. Eitan Karlsbrun, 20, from Modi'in, Sgt. Yair Levin, 20, from Givat Harel, and Sgt. Almog Shalom, 19, from Kibbutz Hamadia were also killed in the same incident.
In the incident, there were five additional soldiers who were moderately injured.
All of the soldiers involved in the incident were from the Givati Brigade.
Roitman was promoted from the rank of corporal to the rank of sergeant after his death.
Terrorist organizations in Gaza have once again embeded themselves inside of humanitarian infrastructure.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 15, 2024
Yesterday, five projectiles were launched toward Israel from a humanitarian aid area in central Gaza. Two of them crossed into Israeli territory and three fell within Gaza. pic.twitter.com/cNpsMSEzEe
Footage, released by Hamas, of a Hamas terrorist using a civilian area as a launching point.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 15, 2024
Here is the criteria for Hamas’ rocket launching points: Anywhere. Areas with civilians preferred. pic.twitter.com/qK718i7qBB
Any mention of Hamas? Who runs these areas? Were gunmen present? Does Hamas or others control access to humanitarian aid once it reaches these areas?
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) June 15, 2024
Can you provide photos of the emaciated Gazans, half or 1.1 million in Phase 5 famine who should be wasting away and close to death per the definition of Phase 5 famine. 200+ people should be dying daily? Your photos show Gazans who are fed. https://t.co/J06d0NGZhU
— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) June 15, 2024
Hey James
— David Collier (@mishtal) June 15, 2024
Why don't you knock on the door of the nearest Hamas terrorist and ask them to hand back all the hostages?
But then I checked your timeline - you really do not like mentioning the hostages do you?https://t.co/bnowYrlo6y
Maybe @PowerUSAID can ask her "humanitarian partners" if they know why this meat, that was supposed to be distributed to the poor in Gaza, is being sold instead?
— Mark Zlochin - מארק זלוצ'ין༝ (@MarkZlochin) June 15, 2024
You know - like the lion share of ALL the aid coming into Gaza? pic.twitter.com/fkFv85vorI
Gaza pier again being removed, ahead of ‘expected high seas’
The pier anchored to the Gaza coast for purposes of aid delivery will again be relocated temporarily, U.S. Central Command said on Friday evening.
“Today, due to expected high seas, the temporary pier will be removed from its anchored position in Gaza and towed back to Ashdod, Israel,” CENTCOM stated. “The safety of our service members is a top priority and temporarily relocating the pier will prevent structural damage caused by the heightened sea state.”
“The decision to temporarily relocate the pier is not made lightly but is necessary to ensure the temporary pier can continue to deliver aid in the future,” it said. “After the period of expected high seas, the pier will be rapidly re-anchored to the coast of Gaza and resume delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Some 7.7 million pounds of aid have arrived via the pier since May 17, CENTCOM said.
The pier was removed after it broke, and pieces reportedly floated to shore. After its repair, it was re-anchored to the shore.
NEW Lifespan of Biden’s $320 million pier:
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) June 14, 2024
May 17: Biden’s pier opens
May 21: “No aid from pier has been delivered to broader population”
May 28: Pier ops suspended after piece breaks off
June 8: U.S. resumes pier deliveries
TODAY: Pier to be torn down due to rough seas pic.twitter.com/Y9ATqyUOLU
Exclusive video of Biden’s shoddy Gaza Pier (before it broke into pieces): pic.twitter.com/Xqyqjt7Ru4
— Kristina Wong 🇺🇸 (@kristina_wong) June 14, 2024
In the line of fire Volunteer Israeli medics reveal never-before-told stories of battling Hamas, rushing to save lives on Oct. 7: ‘Like a scene out of the Walking Dead’
Israeli medics were the first responders to the Oct. 7 attacks, arriving at the scene of the carnage well before IDF troops. They recalled to The Post never-before-told stories of how they were forced to battle the terrorists in a desperate bid to “save Israeli lives.”New details on hostage rescue indicate operation was nearly canceled at the last minute
United Hatzalah, an Israeli all-volunteer medical force, received so many emergency calls starting at 6 am that day — from people “screaming, not talking” — that the organization first thought they were getting hacked.
“On a normal day, we have 2,000 calls,” said Eli Beer, 50, president of the volunteer service who was running dispatch that day at headquarters. “On October 7th we had 12,500. . . . The command center looked like chaos.”
Here are their stories:
Isaac
Isaac, an active duty IDF soldier and volunteer for United Hatzalah who did not wish to use his real name, recalled a pickup truck full of 10 Hamas terrorists firing at his ambulance as he feverishly made the 50 mile-trip south.
“I became white. I thought I would be killed before I could save one life.”
Isaac floored it and navigated his ambulance through the hail of bullets unscathed. He high-tailed it to the Nova festival after a frantic father begged him to save his daughter.
On his way to the rave, Isaac was greeted by a Shin Bet agent (Israel’s FBI) who told him not to go in because terrorists outnumbered the IDF troops inside.
“He said,’You’re crazy, you don’t know what you’re getting into, don’t go.’
“I said, ‘I don’t care, we’re going to save some Jewish people.'”
When Isaac, 36, arrived at the scene it was a wasteland. Dead bodies were everywhere. He screamed that if anybody was still alive they needed to come out now or he’d drive his ambulance somewhere else.
At that point dozens of people emerged from trash cans and other hiding spots. They told Isaac they didn’t emerge at first because earlier a Hamas terrorist had pretended to be a soldier and killed everyone who came out of their hiding place.
Isaac packed as many wounded people into his standing-room-only ambulance as he could and rushed them back to safety.
Hamas terrorists opened fire on Isaac’s packed ambulance as he drove along Road 232 toward Ashkelon.
Isaac, who was armed, fired blindly out of his ambulance window as he weaved around flaming cars and corpses along the highway.
Isaac believes he saved 100 people that day, as he drove up and down Road 232 for 16 hours.
“If United Hatzalah wasn’t there you would have had another 1,000 people dead.”
Israel’s June 8 operation to rescue four hostages in central Gaza was nearly canceled at the last minute, Channel 12 reported Friday.'Noa, we're taking you home': Israel Police publish video of Noa Argamani's rescue from captivity
According to the network, at 10 a.m. on Saturday, the head of operations at the Shin Bet security agency informed Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi that conditions for the rescue were not optimal at one of the two locations in which the hostages were held.
This would make it more difficult to access both locations at the same moment — a critical element of the operation to prevent terror operatives from harming the hostages.
Security chiefs had a one-hour window to make a decision. After deliberations, the Shin Bet’s Operations Directorate recommended to move forward. Halevi and Bar approved and at 10:55 a.m. the order was given to launch the operation.
The report did not detail the problem or what actions were taken to mitigate it.
Israel Police has published a video of their elite Yamam unit rescuing hostage Noa Argamani from captivity.Incredible footage from moment Israeli hostage Noa Argamani was rescued
Israeli forces operated under heavy fire as they broke into the houses where Argamani and the other hostages were staying.
"Noa, everything is fine, we're taking you home," one Israeli operative told Argamani after they rescued her. In the video, it appears that one of the operatives lifts her up on his back. "We are very excited that you are here and we are proud of you."
WATCH the moment Israeli forces rescued hostage Noa Argamani from Gaza captivity and told her “We’re taking you home”
Under heavy fire, forces told Noa they were proud of her and reassured her she was safe as she told them, “I’m very excited, I’m just scared of the way back”
Rescued hostage Andrey Kozlov: '120 hostages still in Gaza, I cannot be happy
Rescued hostage from "Operation Arnon," Andrey Kozlov spoke in English in a video released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Saturday night, saying, "There are still 120 hostages in Gaza, and I cannot be happy as long as they are there. I am asking you to bring them home and make a deal as soon as possible.
"Almost every Saturday, they showed us all rallies that took place in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I didn't count how many people were there, but I saw that there were many. I remember how Almog, for the first time, saw his picture, he said: 'It's me! It's me on the poster! It's me!' And for him, he started to breathe more freely, you know?"
Kozlov, 27, had recorded another video that was released the day before, where he urged the public to attend the rally in support of the hostages and their families at "Hostages Square" on Saturday.
"You spent a lot of time and a lot of power to bring us home, and that's one of the things that gave me hope. You are heroes, you are heroes!" he continued.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum organized a rally earlier on Saturday at Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, where they once again urged the government to accept any deal that would see the release of the remaining 120 hostages in Gaza as soon as possible.
Among their demands was to prepare a team that would negotiate a proposal to Hamas's answer, which also included a commitment to end the war as part of the deal to release the hostages. The family members of the remaining hostages also accused the government of abandoning their loved ones.
Every Saturday night Hamas publishes a hostage video to Al Jazeera ahead of the hostage families protest in Tel Aviv. Their goal is simple; to anger and hurt Israeli families
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 15, 2024
This video features Elad Kazir, who was executed by Hamas. He is seen getting his hair cut and eating,… pic.twitter.com/WnXwcheET0
“I was asking myself, how could someone run away without their bag? But when terrorists are shooting at you, you just leave everything behind.”
— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) June 14, 2024
Ofir Amir, Oct 7th survivor and Producer of Nova Music Festival & Exhibit takes me through the @novaexhibition in NYC.
Part 1 pic.twitter.com/63D4dExlYM
“We approached them & told them, listen, come & look for yourself, come look inside what you're protesting against...It breaks my heart that there's so much hate out there because we are exactly the opposite.”
— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) June 14, 2024
Ofir Amir responds to protests outside the @novaexhibition
Pt 2 pic.twitter.com/Njey0GtCes
“We are doing everything in our power to heal our community…I promise you that we will dance again.”
— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) June 14, 2024
Says Ofir Amir, Oct 7th survivor and Producer of the Nova Music Festival & Exhibit.
Part 3 of our conversation inside the healing room of the @novaexhibition pic.twitter.com/vyv8Ib7p5Z
Former Hamas hostage Moran Stella Yanai:
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) June 15, 2024
One of the kidnappers looked at me and said 'Welcome to Gaza.' We get to a home and they put me down on the floor and then you see eight Arab men and then he asks that we all get naked.
Translation and captions via @YaariCohen pic.twitter.com/moV1wfJnB4
Hamas are rapists.
— Andrew Fox (@Mr_Andrew_Fox) June 15, 2024
People in Western cities protest on marches organised by proxy organisations for rapists.
Students are creating encampments in support of rapists.
The UN Special Rapporteur is shilling for rapists.
Hamas are rapists. Pass it on.
pic.twitter.com/vOcmqribbl
New York Magazine Hit Piece Confuses Pro-Israel Congressman for Different Black Politician
New York magazine on Friday published an article attacking three Democratic politicians who have broken with the "progressive" movement over their support for Israel, including black congressman Ritchie Torres (N.Y.). A graphic accompanying the piece that was meant to show the three lawmakers, however, mistakenly showed a different black politician not mentioned anywhere in the article.
The article tore into the three lawmakers—Torres, Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.), and former representative Mondaire Jones (N.Y.)—accusing them of siding with "power over the powerless" as Israel "carries out a genocidal campaign in Gaza." The graphic at the top of the piece showed photos of Fetterman, Jones, and, oddly, New York lieutenant governor Antonio Delgado (D.), who was not a subject of the article.
Torres was quick to slam the magazine for apparently confusing him with Delgado. "If New York Magazine is going to publish an Anti-Israel hit piece by Sarah Jones, then at least do due diligence to get the photo right," Torres said in a post on X. "Not all Black people look the same."If New York Magazine is going to publish an Anti-Israel hit piece by Sarah Jones, then at least do enough due diligence to get the photo right. I am not Antonio Delgado.
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) June 14, 2024
Not all Black people look the same. pic.twitter.com/iBLCUlWksI
New York magazine on Friday swapped out the graphic for a new one that replaced the photo of Delgado with one of Torres, acknowledging the mistake in an editor's note.
Sarah Jones, the writer of the article, decried the lawmakers in the piece, accusing them of betraying progressives through their support for Israel following Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre. "The left must employ litmus tests" to prevent such candidates from taking power under the progressive banner, she wrote.
"The [progressive] movement didn’t leave [Torres]," Sarah Jones wrote. "He left it, if indeed he was ever fully part of it, by making a series of deliberate choices. One such choice is to support Israel despite the unbelievable brutality it has inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza."
New York magazine published the hit after the three lawmakers for months have vocally supported Israel, accusing fellow Democrats of taking the side of Hamas in its war with the Jewish state.
The loss of life in Gaza, military or civilian, is a tragedy that belongs to Hamas.
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) June 15, 2024
I grieve as a father and my thoughts are with the families who lost their brave children. pic.twitter.com/tPGlEoZ8Qr
For the past 6 months, anti-Israel protestors have come to my home just about every Sat morning at 7 am and most Fri nights until 10 or 11 pm.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 15, 2024
They scream, disturb the peace & wake the neighbors.
No matter how much these antisemites cheer Hamas, I will stand with Israel.
🇺🇸🇮🇱🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/HR7amvVKmJ
Biden -,“I made very clear to the Israelis what they have to do and what’s gonna happen if they don’t.”
— miha schwartzenberg (@mihaschw) June 15, 2024
Journalist - “What’s gonna happen ?”
Biden - “A lot”
Strange encounter.
If only he would be this …firm with the terrorists, Iran, Qatar… https://t.co/KfcroM40vG
Guy running in a district with one of the largest Jewish constituencies in America talks about AIPAC as a conspiracy and Israel as an illegitimate state. If you were to self-sabotage what would you do differently here? https://t.co/VM66POnoFC
— Alex גדעון בן װעלװל (@JewishWonk) June 14, 2024
The Times flat out lied claiming "She was among the first to call for a cease-fire and for the immediate release of all hostages"
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) June 14, 2024
She previously attempted to downplay Hamas atrocitieshttps://t.co/nvVidkkHQS
Before the Oct 7 atrocities, Jayapal called Israel a "racist state"https://t.co/RhdDh1Hq3r
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) June 14, 2024
French court bans reps of Israeli defense firms from attending Paris arms show
A French district court has ruled that organizers of the Eurosatory 2024 defense and security trade show must ban anyone working for or representing Israeli firms from participating in the event.
The French Defense Ministry last month ordered Coges Event to ban the Israeli defense industry from setting up a stand at the show, saying that “the conditions are no longer right to host Israeli companies at the Paris show, given that the French president is calling for the cessation of IDF operations in Rafah.”
Seventy-four Israeli firms had been set to be represented at the June 17 to June 21 event at fairgrounds close to Paris’s main international airport, with Coges previously saying around 10 of them were to exhibit weapons.
In a letter dated Saturday, Coges President Charles Beaudoin wrote that the organization thinks the court’s ruling “goes beyond the government’s decision taken two weeks ago,” as the latter prevented Israeli firms from exhibiting at the fair, while the former bans their representatives from entering.
In his letter, Beaudoin added that Coges is “using the quickest possible legal procedures to appeal these decisions,” but the court’s decision will be enforced for the time being.
The French government will also issue a reaction to the ruling, The Times of Israel has learned.
The ban on employees of Israeli companies will also extend to non-Israelis employed by such firms, while Israelis working for non-Israeli firms will be allowed to enter.
Yes, a Palestinian state that teaches hatred is dangerous to the Middle East. No one wants another Nazi-like regime. On TV cartoons, they teach hate, racism, and anti-Semitism against Jews. Notably, they avoid using terms like #Israel or Zionist, reserving those for Western… pic.twitter.com/TK8XhMshLx
— Amjad Taha أمجد طه (@amjadt25) June 15, 2024
Josh Hammer: How to lock up those nasty pro-Hamas and Gaza protestors
The ongoing anti-Israel riots on our university campuses and city squares have shaken American Jews — and all defenders of Western civilization — to their core.
The mainstream media, always in the tank for vogue causes, sanitized this naked harassment under the label of “pro-Palestinian protests.”
In true extremist form, one “protestor” at George Washington University held up a sign advocating for Hitler’s “final solution” in late April.
This week, anti-Israel protestors were back at UCLA, with a new illegal encampment — the second in as many months.
Jews have been terrified; one Jewish parent at Columbia, withdrawing his freshman daughter in April, analogized his experience to evacuating a refugee from a war zone.
Perhaps colleges and city centers will see a brief respite, as would-be revolutionaries jet off for summertime gigs at tony investment banks or do-goody nonprofits.
Such a respite would be nice.
But one would still be forgiven for asking the obvious question — which I’ve pondered often as a former law clerk on the US Court of Appeals and a frequent law school speaker: Why are none of these “protesters” in jail?
It is not as if legal remedies, both civil and criminal, do not exist. The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky has helpfully explained some leading options for meting out justice.
First, it’s constitutional law that aliens — legal or illegal — do not possess a First Amendment right to free speech that would prevent them from being deported for vocally supporting a US State Department-recognized Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
Each and every pro-Hamas protestor who’s not a US citizen thus can, and should, be sent packing, as 8 U.S.C. § 1201 clearly permits.
Second, much of the protestors’ behavior likely violates Section 2 of the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act (42 U.S.C. § 1985), which creates a civil cause of action to sue those who “conspire or go in disguise on the highway or on the premises of another, for the purpose of depriving . . . any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws.”
Such a successful class-action civil suit — now gaining traction among Jewish leaders — wouldn’t result in jail time, but it could punish the bank accounts of thugs who went “in disguise” to advocate for Jewish genocide.
.@JakeTapper for @CNN on the disturbing antisemitic protests and vandalism sweeping across NYC. pic.twitter.com/o28uSuD51h
— Embassy of Israel to the USA (@IsraelinUSA) June 15, 2024
Bill Maher unloads: 'How come it's okay for the left to hate the Jews?'
"Real Time" host Bill Maher put a spotlight on the lack of condemnation of the growing antisemitism that has erupted on the left in comparison to the country's response to the infamous 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
"I got a question. How come it's okay for the left to hate the Jews?" Maher asked on Friday night. "Because, obviously, if this was the people at Charlottesville doing this, wouldn't there be a bigger outcry?"
CNN contributor Ana Navarro responded by saying it's not an "apples to apples" comparison, saying that the "images" of dead children in Gaza are a major factor in the left's activism. But writer Joel Stein insisted the college students currently protesting have "more power" than the "tiki torch IT guys" that were marching in Charlottesville.
"If the people in Charlottesville who were chanting ‘Jews won't replace us,’ I mean, that's bad. It's not as bad as ‘Death to.' That's not deplorable?" Maher exclaimed.
"It's absolutely terrible," Navarro responded.
"Okay, well, if one side is deplorables and the other side does something that's- I mean, if I was a Holocaust survivor, and I guess there's not many of those left, but if I was, I would choose ‘Jews will not replace us’ over 'Death to Zionists," Maher said.
"There's no condemnation like there was with Charlottesville," he later added.
Make no mistake. These fascists support masks for the same reason as the Klan. They want to evade accountability for trying to intimidate fellow American citizens. Stand up to these cry bullies. Don’t let them be anonymous. https://t.co/uzY0XvwG7u
— Eli Lake (@EliLake) June 15, 2024
This is in Long Island.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) June 14, 2024
Not satisfied with defacing Jewish homes, Synagogues, JCC’s, American statues, and college buildings, the terror supporters are now targeting random businesses. A reminder that there are 0 Starbucks in Israel. pic.twitter.com/zzWKG1izLU
Don’t f*ck with bamba… pic.twitter.com/GWvHi1RzU7
— Lyle Culpepper (@ShutupLyle) June 14, 2024
UKLFI: Edinburgh University exposed to liabilities after bowing to encampment demands
The University of Edinburgh has been accused of acting unlawfully and warned that it could be exposed to substantial liabilities as a result of its response to demands made by the organisers of an anti-Israel “encampment”.Experts urge House committee to go after university pocketbooks over Jew-hatred
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) have written to Professor Peter Mathieson, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, pointing out that part of the University’s response to the encampment’s demands is unlawful. It also gives rise to governance and regulatory concerns that should be reported to the Scottish Charity Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority.
The encampment organisers have demanded that the University “divest entirely from companies tied to Israel”. In response the University has set up a “Working Group” to “work in parallel to the Responsible Investment Policy Consultation”.
Significantly, the University has instructed its fund manager to make no new purchase of shares in Amazon or Alphabet (Google’s parent company) for at least three months, while the Responsible Investment Policy Consultation is running.
This decision evidently follows demands by the organisers of the encampment and does not appear to have been taken in accordance with investment advice. It improperly fetters the University’s discretion by binding it in advance to exercise a fiduciary power in a particular way. It also fails to satisfy the conditions for taking non-financial factors into account, namely:
(1) there is good reason to think that beneficiaries and stakeholders would share the concern; and
(2) the decision does not involve a risk of significant financial detriment to the fund.
Both Amazon and Alphabet shares have risen substantially in the year to date and have even risen since the University’s response to the encampment demands. There is plainly a risk of significant financial detriment going forward.
UKLFI’s letter points out that if the exclusion instruction affects pension funds, there could be claims, or even a class action, for compensation for losses resulting from the breaches of fiduciary and other duties against the University and staff who have participated in them. He observes that insurers (including D&O insurers) and auditors ought to be notified of the possibility of claims.
Experts told the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday that Congress ought to use its power of the purse to combat antisemitism on college campuses.‘It Feels Hopeless’: Jewish Students at Columbia Say Disparaging Texts Reflect Administration’s Indifference Toward Anti-Semitism
“We are seeing a kind of perfect storm of student violent extremism, professorial politicization, undisclosed foreign funding and often feckless and weak administration,” said Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
“Most of these institutions are tax-exempt and need to be held accountable if they do not meet the requirements of their tax-exempt status,” Marcus told the committee. “That’s true of the universities and also some of the organizations that have been fomenting hatred.”
The Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for taxation, is one of six House committees investigating the wave of antisemitism on college campuses in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
Thursday’s hearing also included testimony from recent Cornell University graduate Talia Dror, Columbia University professor Shai Davidai, American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch and Jonathan Pidluzny, a director at the America First Policy Institute.
Thursday’s hearing was less explosive than the grillings that university presidents have received in recent months that led to the resignation of the president of Columbia and contributed to the resignation of the president of Harvard University.
The sharpest exchanges Thursday included partisan disagreements about the extent to which “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives contribute to Jew-hatred.
“DEI teaches that the world is made up of oppressors and the oppressed, victims and those with privilege,” Pidluzny said. “Jews are coded as the oppressors by virtue of their political and economic success.”
“This is what creates a kind of permission structure for students to join in with the true radicals cheering for Hamas terrorists who deliberately kill children and rape hostages,” he added.
One month after Columbia University's scaled-down graduation ceremonies, most students are away from the school's Manhattan campus. Still, news of the disparaging text messages a group of Columbia administrators exchanged amid a panel on campus anti-Semitism spread quickly among Jewish students.
For five Jewish students at Columbia, the texts were both astonishing, given their vitriol, and unsurprising, given the administration's track record in the wake of Oct. 7. The texts, those students say, reflect an administrative indifference toward anti-Semitism that has fostered a hostile campus climate for Jewish students.
"They're all cut from the same cloth," said Alon Levin, a third-year Ph.D. student. "They have a fake sweetness, like, 'Yeah, we're listening to you and you're so brave for coming to us, but we're not going to do anything.'"
Levin and four other Jewish students at Columbia—as well as one recent graduate—spoke with the Washington Free Beacon and shared their reaction to the messages, in which senior Columbia administrators sneered at the panelists and, in one case, used vomit emojis to describe a campus rabbi’s op-ed on anti-Semitism. Some of the students asked to be referred to by their initials to speak candidly.
Dennis Goldenberg, a masters student in actuarial science, said the texts provide "more and more evidence" that Columbia administrators are hostile to Jewish students. In one of the messages, Columbia vice dean Susan Chang-Kim told the dean of Columbia College, Josef Sorett, she was "trying to keep an open mind to learn about this point of view," but the panel was "difficult to listen to." Sorett responded, "Yup."
"Instead of doing their job, which is protecting students on campus, they seem to be giving more and more evidence that they care about certain narratives," Goldenberg said.
My answer to the question:
— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) June 14, 2024
What are the main factors that led students to feel emboldened to essentially take over @Columbia's campus? pic.twitter.com/LsYHZ08Qgp
You can also hear my five-minute opening remarks, where I name the administrators and professors at @Columbia and @Columbia_Biz who are responsible for everything that's been happening on campus and who have openly supported Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.https://t.co/gjIVZ83qTY
— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) June 14, 2024
The faculty are worse than the students.
— LAWYERGONEROGUE (@lawyergonerogue) June 15, 2024
Faculty member, Jamilah Malika Abu-Bakare of Rutgers University is a faculty member who supports the Rutgers pro-Hamas encampments and is demanding the fast track of 10 housing vouchers from the Newark Housing Authority for “unhoused… pic.twitter.com/N3zxnXU3bo
.@ColumbiaSJP should get a gold star in mental gymnastics.
— Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus (@CampusJewHate) June 15, 2024
In this clip shared by this “student group,” the speaker attempts to justify why it is inappropriate to expect individuals to condemn Hamas, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.… pic.twitter.com/waeR4LTy59
Meet Zeina Ismail, a moderator for TikTok.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 15, 2024
Zeina refuses to condemn the 10/7 massacre & thinks it should be a holiday.
She also makes bracelets that call for the death of Zionists (ie - 95+% of Jews globally).
How can you employee such a monster @TikTokComms pic.twitter.com/ybbqN7qTZi
Nadine Gallagher is a middle school ELA educator with Crooked Oak Schools in Oklahoma City, OK.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 15, 2024
Nadine Gallagher:
- states the 10/7 atrocities are simply "Hamas is resisting" & spreads claims of false genocide.
- posts hell is too good for "Israeli Zionists" - over half of the… pic.twitter.com/i2LVKcDuzF
Update: Morgan Arnett has been fired. https://t.co/PYJEzlJx1h
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 14, 2024
Cortese is heading to @BryantUniv in the fall and will be playing football with the school.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 14, 2024
Imagine being a Jewish teammate of his with grandparents who were Holocaust survivors. pic.twitter.com/3NxyjzDiab
Iranian College Graduation: when you don’t know the difference between Ayatollah and Ayahuasca.
— The Persian Jewess (@persianjewess) June 14, 2024
🎥 Zach.Sage on IG pic.twitter.com/1n0hFjor9b
Will Hostage-Taking Journalist Abdallah Aljamal Be Added to CPJ ‘Casualty’ List?
One day after Israeli security forces rescued four Israeli hostages from their Gazan captivity, both the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security agency) confirmed that three of the hostages had been held captive in the family home of Abdallah Aljamal.
Aljamal, who was killed during the raid that freed the hostages, had previously served as a spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza Labor Ministry and, as a journalist, had contributed to Al Jazeera, and served as a correspondent for The Palestine Chronicle.
His last article was published by the Chronicle one day before the Israeli rescue operation.
With Abdallah Aljamal’s death as part of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, it begs the question whether he will be added to the running list of “journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war” compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Since the start of the war, the CPJ’s list of journalist casualties has been used by a variety of news outlets, activists, pundits, and politicians to highlight the seemingly disproportionate number of Gaza-based journalists killed during Israel’s counter-terrorism campaign, and to question whether Israel is purposefully targeting reporters and other media workers.
However, as noted earlier by HonestReporting, a significant number of the journalists who appear on the CPJ’s list were in some way affiliated with Hamas and other anti-Israel terror organizations.
As of this writing (June 10, 2024), close to 50% of the 103 Palestinian journalists listed by the CPJ either worked for news outlets affiliated with terror organizations, or were active members in these organizations themselves.
If Abdallah Aljamal is added to the CPJ’s list, this will only highlight the problematic nature of the list by including terrorists and kidnappers among the ranks of killed Palestinian media workers, and will serve to further debunk the libel that Israel is targeting journalists in order to stifle their reporting capabilities.
If Aljamal is not included on the CPJ’s list of killed Gaza-based journalists, it will ultimately need to be asked what separates him from the likes of Hamza Al Dahdouh, Mustafa Thuraya, and Mohammad Jarghoun — all three of whom are accused of being active members of terrorist organizations and who appear on the list.
So on their behalf and for the victims of sexual assault at the hands of Hamas, here are 10 points that refute the report in The Times:
— Alex Hearn (@hearnimator) June 13, 2024
1) 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌: ‘The political establishment has opened a fresh battle with the UN over what the Patten report didn’t say: that sexual violence…
3) 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌: ‘Talk of rape began circulating almost before the massacres themselves were over. Much of it came from what Patten would later call ‘non-professionals’ who supplied ‘inaccurate and unreliable forensic interpretations’ of what they found, creating an instant but…
— Alex Hearn (@hearnimator) June 13, 2024
Almost a routine now. Go to @bbcnews website. Read skewed article about Israel. Check out journalist. Find out Journo has anti-Israel history.
— David Collier (@mishtal) June 15, 2024
Today - the example the BBC gave us is Ali Abbas Ahmadi. He literally has Visualising Palestine (hard core propaganda site) in his bio pic.twitter.com/CeUPJSz9OL
435k views for a Slovakian photo shoot that Owen Jones is pretending is from Gaza. A proper journalist would check before posting and correct once his mistake has been pointed out. pic.twitter.com/qgzDrJXZQ0
— Dave Rich (@daverich1) June 15, 2024
Here's How 12 Different News Outlets Covered Israel's Hostage Rescue (satire)
Everyone knows that the media is either fake and biased or completely 100% factual and correct, depending on how your political orientation lines up with any given news source.Bassam Tawil: Palestinians' Heroes: Murderers, Rapists and Kidnappers of Babies
With that in mind, The Babylon Bee conducted an investigation into how different media outlets covered Israel's hostage rescue operation:
- The Babylon Bee: Breaking: Gaza Health Ministry Confirms 8 Billion Dead In Israeli Hostage Rescue
- New York Times: Breaking: Gaza Health Ministry Confirms 8 Billion Dead In Israeli Hostage Rescue
- CNN: GENOCIDE: Israel Mass Murders More Palestinian Citizens Also Please Pay Attention To Us We're Broke
- Rolling Stone: Palestinians Recount Horror Of Living With 4 Jews For 247 Days
- NotTheBee: Israel Just Pulled Off One Of The Most EPIC Rescues In History And Libz Are Big Mad. Let Me Break It Down For You. 🤣🤣🤣
- BBC News: Israel Genocidally Commits Genocide By Shooting Back At Innocent Civilian People Shooting At Them In Horrible Genocide
- Buzzfeed: Check Out These 32 Recipes From Child-Free Trans Women That You Need In Your Life
- Deadspin: Here's a Video of a Racist Israeli Hostage in Blackface Oh Wait Those Are Ashes From His Friend's Incinerated Body And Oops We Just Lost Another $500 Million Defamation Lawsuit
- Washington Post: Hi, I'm Raul, The Janitor, Nobody Here Today
- HuffPost: Israel Brutally Murders Civilians Innocently Holding AK-47s, Hostages
- TMZ: POOLSIDE PICS! You'll Never Believe How These Seven Celebs Responded to Israel's Slaughter of Innocent Palestinians
- Al Jazeera: Wait! Don't Shoot! I Can Exp —
The list above will help you determine if other news outlets covered the Israeli hostage rescue as accurately as The Babylon Bee.
Support for Hamas also coincides with the Biden administration's and some European nations' ongoing promotion of creating a Palestinian state right next to Israel. This move would not only open the door for more atrocities against Israelis, but would also put Israel in grave danger because the Palestinian state, even under the supposedly watchful eye of a chaperone, would essentially be ruled by the same murderers and rapists who took part in the October 7 carnage.
These European nations — Ireland, Norway, and Spain — have sent a message to the Palestinians that the only way they can get international recognition for their state is by murdering Jews.
In a similar vein, the Biden administration has communicated to the Palestinians that the October 7 atrocities have heightened their likelihood of creating a terror state ruled by the Iranian regime and its Palestinian proxies, which would be used as a launchpad to murder more Jews and destroy Israel. This is evident in the administration's continued support for a "two-state solution."
Most Palestinians know what the Biden administration does not want to know: that the PA leadership cannot be trusted to implement any reforms or combat financial and administrative corruption.
In addition, 54% of Palestinians polled support an "armed struggle" against Israel, an 8-point rise from the previous poll three months ago.
The results of the poll also confirm what a Palestinian state would look like: it will be a terror state funded and armed by Qatar and Iran.
This tenacity is exactly why there is no substitute to destroying Hamas.
[Hamas official Ghazi] Hamad also said that Egypt and Qatar have exerted no pressure on Hamas whatsoever to accept Biden's proposed ceasefire, and that media reports about threats to expel Hamas leaders from Qatar are false.
Or is it possible that this is why they want Hamas to win? To see the Jews finally get their comeuppance for having had the gall not to accept their role as crushed victims after World War II, but instead to work hard and transform a land of malaria-infested swamps, sand dunes and deserts into a successful modern state?
Look, it’s @MustafaBarghou1 being an idiot trying to get more Jews and Palestinians killed.
— Jacob Ben-David Linker 🪬🕎✡️🕎🪬 (@JacobALinker) June 15, 2024
Also, notice how in Arabic he says Jews and not Zionists. https://t.co/2B6zFmqL2f
Majed Abu Maraheel was also a member of the terrorist group "Force 17" which took part in numerous terrorist attacks, including the 1972 Olympic massacre. https://t.co/m1mZWga2py pic.twitter.com/CKfuWgN0Ek
— Adin - עדין (@AdinHaykin1) June 14, 2024
Mr.FAFO is taking Pallywood to new heights pic.twitter.com/sZMyQGs1oF
— GAZAWOOD - the PALLYWOOD saga 🇮🇱 VS 🇵🇸 (@GAZAWOOD1) June 15, 2024
🚨 The Houthis have attacked a Ukrainian ship - the MV Verbana.
— Kosher🎗🧡 (@KosherCockney) June 15, 2024
This is the damage done to the hull.
The crew has abandoned ship and 1 sailor is seriously wounded.pic.twitter.com/lNjWN8jojP
Sweden releases convicted war criminal in swap with Iran
Iran and Sweden carried out a prisoner swap Saturday that saw Tehran release a European Union diplomat and another man in exchange for an Iranian convicted in Stockholm of committing war crimes over his part in 1988 mass executions in the Islamic Republic.
The arrest of Hamid Noury by Sweden in 2019 as he traveled there as a tourist likely sparked the detentions of the two Swedes, part of a long-running strategy by Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution to use those with ties abroad as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.
While Iranian state television claimed without evidence that Noury had been “illegally detained,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said diplomat Johan Floderus and a second Swedish citizen, Saeed Azizi, had been facing a “hell on earth.”
“Iran has made these Swedes pawns in a cynical negotiation game with the aim of getting the Iranian citizen Hamid Noury released from Sweden,” Kristersson said Saturday. “It has been clear all along that this operation would require difficult decisions; now the government has made those decisions.”
State TV aired images of Noury limping off an airplane at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport and being embraced by his family.
“I am Hamid Noury. I am in Iran,” he said. “God makes me free.”
He made a point of repeatedly referencing the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, mocking them with his release. The Iranian dissident group criticized the swap in a statement and said “it will embolden the religious fascism to step up terrorism, hostage-taking and blackmail.”
“Sweden is sending a signal to all tyrants of the Middle East who murder protesters, take hostages, and massacre their citizens, that they can rest assured if we ever arrest them and try them in a court of law in Europe, all they need to do is take a high profile EU-diplomat…
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 15, 2024
Swedish MP of Iranian descent @AlirezaAkhondi has called the @SwedishPM's government "irresponsible" for "abandoning Ahmadreza Djalali to his fate", even though Djalali, a Swedish researcher, is on death row in Iran.
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 15, 2024
"It is a cruel blow to the wife and children of Ahmadreza… https://t.co/yGwdZuNrW4
Iranian dissident activist @AlinejadMasih has slammed Sweden's release of Hamid Nouri as a "a stain on the Swedish government", saying "the extradition of a war criminal to Iran is a shocking act of complicity by the Swedish government with the Islamic Republic, aiding the escape… https://t.co/zEgwItL474
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 15, 2024
Belgian Vice-President of NATO Parliamentary Assembly @FranckenTheo: "Sweden just freed Hamid Noury who was serving life in prison for the 1988 massacre of Iran's political prisoners. EU governments' appeasement of the regime betrays the Iranian people and encourages more Iranian… https://t.co/zEgwItL474
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 15, 2024
EU Foreign Policy Chief @JosepBorrellF: “We rejoice at the news of the liberation of EU colleague & 🇸🇪 citizen Johan Floderus and his compatriot Saeed Azizi. We thank Swedish & Omani authorities. Other EU citizens are still arbitrarily detained in Iran. We’ll continue to work for… https://t.co/xcAUyJwIh3
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 15, 2024
Iran Continues Importing Drone Parts Despite Sanctions
Iran has imported at least $10 million worth of drone engine parts over the course of two months from countries including China, Turkey, the UAE, Germany, and even the US despite global sanctions.
Data from Iran's customs organization, analyzed by Iran International, showed that several items listed under a US advisory guide were imported in the first two months of the current Iranian year, which began on March 20.
Earlier this month, the US issued an advisory to alert the public about the threat posed by Iran’s procurement, development, and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Given Iran's dependence on foreign procurement for items it cannot produce domestically, specific trade product codes were identified by the US so that “exporters, manufacturers, distributors, and financial institutions” avoid unintentionally contributing to Iran’s UAV programs. Among these codes is 840710, which pertains to aircraft spark-ignition reciprocating or rotary internal combustion piston engines.
The Islamic Republic’s customs report indicated that between late March and May 2024, approximately $10 million worth of goods with this code were imported from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Germany, the UAE, Russia, Turkey, Italy, the US, Qatar, and Oman.
Following Iran's significant transfer of lethal drones to Russia starting in mid-2022, sanctions have been imposed by the US, UK, and EU against Iranian individuals and entities involved in the UAV supply chain, as a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
In February, hackers revealed that Iran was receiving gold from Russia as partial payment for the drones.
Iranian Hajj pilgrims chanted "Death to Israel" and held "Death to America" placards during the annual pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, despite Riyadh authorities warning against any political slogans, a video published by IRGC-affiliated outlets shows. pic.twitter.com/WaCHpAhPRx
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 15, 2024
DC comic book from 1988:
— 𝗡𝗶𝗼𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗴 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) June 14, 2024
The Joker meets with Ayatollah Khomeini. Because who else would embrace an evil clown, I guess. pic.twitter.com/4dp9gNOiGJ
Stephen Fry, Lena Dunham take father-daughter trip to Auschwitz in tragicomedy ‘Treasure’
On the day they filmed at Auschwitz, Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry weren’t allowed to say anything to each other except their scripted lines.Soccer fans in Germany for Euro visit Dachau, lay wreaths in memory of Nazi victims
Fry had come down with COVID, and Julia von Heinz, their director in “Treasure,” had only barely eked out permission from the memorial to film outside the Nazi concentration camp’s gates. Changing the dates, she was told, was impossible.
So the show went on, but with strict rules about conversation aimed at preventing Fry from infecting Dunham and further derailing production.
It was, Dunham said, excruciatingly difficult. The co-stars usually talked “from the minute we got in the hair and makeup chair in the morning until the minute that we got to our cars at night,” she recalled during an appearance at the Berlin film festival where “Treasure” premiered in February.
“I kept having to remind myself, because I wanted to connect with him on what we were seeing,” she added. “But Julia so wisely understood that his character was isolated in that feeling. And my character didn’t understand that feeling.”
The illness-induced separation between the on-screen odd couple — Dunham, the American actor, writer and producer known for giving voice to the angst of millennials, and Fry, a charming yet staid Brit nearly twice her age — mimicked the emotional gap between their characters, a father and daughter who take a roots trip to Poland in 1990, just after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Based on the 2000 novel “Too Many Men” by Australian writer Lilly Brett, the film tells the story of New York journalist Ruth Rothwax (Dunham) and her Holocaust survivor father, Edek (Fry) as they visit the city of his birth — Łódź — and the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, which he survived. Their trip, which follows the death of Edek’s wife and Ruth’s mother, is both a passage into a world of memories and a test of each other’s boundaries.
The story of “Treasure” will be familiar to many Ashkenazi Jews who have either made such journeys, delved into genealogical research, or seen the 2005 movie “Everything is Illuminated” — based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s surreal, eponymous 2002 road-trip novel about the search for Jewish roots in Ukraine.
Fans from Scotland, Ukraine, Germany, Israel and other nations laid wreaths at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site on Saturday to commemorate victims of the Nazis, vowing “never again” and to use soccer as a force to unite people.
The group toured the camp and heard how the Nazis had persecuted Jewish soccer players and coaches, forced prisoners to play soccer for propaganda before banning it, then allowed only some inmates to play under the camp’s hierarchy of privileges for different categories of prisoner.
Fans also heard the children of former camp victims tell their parents’ stories, walked in procession with a Scottish bagpiper.
Dachau is half an hour’s drive from Munich’s soccer stadium, where Euro 2024 began on Friday. It was one of the first concentration camps to be set up by the Nazis, weeks after Adolf Hitler took power in January, 1933.
“It is a somber place. You walk in and it is an uncomfortable feeling. But I think this sort of service is important to remember what happened, to make sure we learn from mistakes… it has opened our minds to a lot of things,” said Cole Cattanach, 21, a Scottish student from Falkirk, traveling through Germany to support the Scotland team.
Andreas Erbel, representing German soccer fans, said he came to the commemoration to help protect democracy.
“I wanted to show that there is also a counterweight to the move to the right across Europe, that there are more people… who are open to the world.
“During Euro 2024 many people will come to us in Germany and it is a chance for us to live out this togetherness.”
New antisemitic rant from @RealCandaceO: "It seems our country is being held hostage by Israel."
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 15, 2024
She then suggests that the Jews killed JFK because he wanted the American Zionist Council (AIPAC's precursor) to register as a foreign agent pic.twitter.com/DroiBT9VGp
This afternoon, as the Jewish community in Hendon prepared for the Sabbath, a young Jewish man was allegedly attacked by a group of teenagers from a local school and struck with a bottle. One member of the public told us that one of the teenagers was heard shouting “You f***ing… pic.twitter.com/ZNI29Eml3X
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) June 14, 2024
They literally tried to replace "Israel" with "Palestine" in a biblical verse. (In this context -- Numbers 24:5 -- "Israel" is more a reference to the Jewish people, not specifically the land, but antisemites vandalizing synagogues are interested in suppressing Judaism, not… https://t.co/eCxqvJc4gQ pic.twitter.com/BPkthtMaCE
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) June 14, 2024
Israel's Booming Tech-scene: Eric Reiner | 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: Eric Reiner, Founder and Managing Partner at Vine Ventures, The early-stage technology-focused VC firm with hundreds of millions of dollars under management is investing in companies across the U.S., Israel, and Latin America.
00:00 - Introduction
01:05 - Investing in the Israeli tech-scene
02:30 - What makes Israelis great at tech?
06:44 - Quality of Israeli universities
07:47 - High expectations and high demands
10:13 - Future of military tech
13:12 - The Israeli tech diaspora
15:10 - What do Israelis specialize in?
18:29 - East Asia and Israeli tech
21:46 - Quality of Israeli primary education
23:26 - Future economic growth
“This is me, Ali, an Arab Israeli, a Sunni Muslim.
— Yonatan Gonen (@GonenYonatan) June 14, 2024
And this is my friend Reuven, an Israeli Jew.
We are both reservists in the Israeli Defense Forces.
In addition to our good and honest friendship, there is a higher goal that brings us both together, a common goal and… pic.twitter.com/fVvxsCpKul
🇮🇱 A Chapter in History 🇮🇱
— Ian Ségal ✍🏻 (@segalian) June 15, 2024
In a remarkable twist of history, many Bedouin Muslims took up arms and bravely fought for Israel during the tumultuous days of the Independence War, standing against radical forces.
In this captivating photo, captured in 1949, witness the… pic.twitter.com/4FEcu4ZdF6
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