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Wednesday, June 26, 2024

06/26 Links Pt2: The Squad’s Forever War; The Child Soldiers of Ethnic Studies; Liberal Jews Deluded Themselves on Palestine; Inside the war over Israel at Wikipedia

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Squad’s Forever War
This is the language of pogromism, of turning anti-Semitic incitement into an ideology all its own.

The fact that nothing in the Tlaib/Turner op-ed is truthful is beside the point. I don’t think anybody expects honesty out of either of these women. But the lies they choose to tell are still important. “If our elected leaders will stand by and allow American police to brutalize Black and brown people in our communities,” they write, “it makes sense that they also excuse the Israeli forces that train many of them.” This rhetoric was part of the belief system of the perpetrators of the deadly anti-Semitic shooting spree in Jersey City in 2019. It has become many left-wing figures’ favorite blood libel. When you want violence against Jews, you stick with what works.

Another Squad member, Missouri’s Cori Bush, has been pushing that line for years. Bush explicitly linked the racial unrest in Ferguson to Israel and suggested police brutality was an Israeli export.

The interesting thing about Bush’s competitive primary race with challenger Wesley Bell is that it isn’t specifically about Israel or Jewish voters, yet the candidates’ respective attitudes toward Jew-baiting and incitement is a key part of their political personas. Bush has Jews on the brain—like Jamaal Bowman in New York, she can only be made interested in issues local to her district if they can be connected to Israel. Bowman’s opponent George Latimer, and Bush’s opponent Wesley Bell, have structured their campaigns around serving their actual constituents. The anti-Zionist obsessives in Congress are far too busy with Israel to take care of the people they represent.

Bell was elected as a reform-minded county prosecutor in the wake of the Michael Brown riots in Ferguson. But he broke with the left on the movement to “defund the police.” He was seen as a strong Democratic contender to take on GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, and Bell jumped at the chance to do so. But in November, Bell changed course and elected to challenge Bush in the House primary instead. Bell said the district needed a representative willing to stand with our allies and stand with President Biden.

It wasn’t about Israel per se but about the district and the people of St. Louis. A progressive operative and ally of Bush’s shot back that actually it’s just like the Bowman-Latimer race because it’s all “one big fight.”

Tlaib and Turner clearly agree, as do Bowman and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others on the left. Latimer and Bell want local-focused public service. Their opponents have drafted them into the Squad’s forever war.
Seth Mandel: J Street’s Bad Romance with Jamaal Bowman
It’s worth noting here that one of the places J Street took Bowman to chip away at his belief in Israeli legitimacy was Hebron. The Jews of Hebron go back to biblical times, to Abraham purchasing land for the Cave of the Patriarchs nearly 4,000 years ago. The ancient Jewish character of the town was ended violently in 1929 when an Arab pogrom broke out and the Jews there suffered one of two fates: violent death or expulsion.

The brief interlude of Judenrein Hebron was ended in 1967, and ever since then, the Jews returning to Hebron have had to live under Israeli military protection.

All of which is to say: If you manage to use Hebron as an example of Jewish illegitimacy, you must be well-practiced in the arts of deception and propaganda. The argument over the concept of indigeneity begins and ends with Hebron. You have to really try, in other words, to make the expelled and murdered Jews of Hebron into the bad guys.

But J Street knows what it’s doing, and Bowman was convinced of Jewish villainy.

The fact that J Street is trying to drive a wedge between Democrats and Israel is important. Last night, after Bowman lost his primary to Latimer, Ben-Ami sat by the waters of Babylon and wept: “It’s a mistake to read Jamaal Bowman’s defeat as a victory for pro-Israel Americans,” he posted on X. “In fact, turning Israel into a wedge issue in Democratic Party politics is actually a major loss for those who hope to promote a bipartisan US-Israel relationship.”

As many people pointed out on social media, this is demonstrably incorrect. The result of the Latimer victory was a more bipartisan U.S.-Israel relationship, by definition. Democrats last night improved the party’s relationship with Israel and with pro-Israel voters, even if modestly, and signaled that not only can it still be safe to support Israel and be a Democrat but that there are times when it may noticeably benefit your intra-party campaigns.

Ben-Ami’s message, then, contradicts his organization’s stated mission. But it does not contradict his organization’s actual mission, which is to turn Israel into a wedge issue in Democratic Party politics.
Liberal Jews Deluded Themselves on Palestine
When reality is too frightening to contemplate, often the response is either to deny it or to assert that what’s staring at you in the face is merely a facade. Hence, it’s common to see progressive and seemingly liberal movements that endorse anti-Zionism dismissed as fringe or fleeting phenomena. The result is the further obfuscation of an increasingly obvious political reality: The Democratic Party is openly courting the most antisemitic forces in America and the world.

This mystification also helps affirm Zionism’s own authentically liberal, even progressive identity: On one side are the prestigious and glamorous Western forces of liberalism, equality, and progress, of which the liberal Jewish establishment is part; and on the other, the forces of religious fascism, exotic fanaticism, and foreign barbarism on which the anti-Israel activists live.

Young American Jews have often shied away from facing the prospect that other liberal Americans of their generation—increasingly indoctrinated into left-wing ideologies and seeking a “leftist organizing space” for the struggle against racism, colonialism, and imperialism—are much more likely to align with pro-Palestinian activism than with Jews. One of the reasons is that many young Jews go to the same schools, where they are indoctrinated into the same ideologies, and are often unlikely to critically question whether there is something inherently distorted and dangerous in them.

Cries of “intifada” and “from the river to the sea” are not bugs in the new politics; they are features. There is no “version” of “social justice” politics without them. And as long as American Jews persist in ignoring that reality, they will continue to feel shocked and alone. The American Jewish establishment’s hope that it could overlook this reality and instead impress its erstwhile friends with “allyship” and stories of its contributions to the civil rights movement, feminism, and other progressive causes was a profoundly mistaken strategy that squandered whatever communal power they might have retained within the Democratic Party. The result is that the American Jewish establishment is increasingly disposable, both to Jews and to those who hate them.


The Child Soldiers of Ethnic Studies
Shortly after the start of the organized pro-Palestinian student riots on campuses across the country last fall, the Rutgers University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) issued a set of demands that followed a standard template now evident at multiple universities. In addition to divestment from Israel, incorporating “anti-Palestinian racism“ into all mandatory DEI training and race-based curricula for faculty and staff, and the creation of an Arab Cultural Center, the students demanded that Rutgers “hire additional professors specializing in Palestine and settler-colonial studies and institute a department of Middle East studies.” Since then, Rutgers and other universities have caved to the demands of the mob.

Middle East and Islamic studies centers became avenues for foreign governments to purchase influence and prestige a long time ago. But today, these centers play a much broader role in national politics, law, scholarship, and culture. And the drivers are no longer just foreign political actors, but increasingly domestic ones, too.

In this context, student activists’ apparently spontaneous demands to establish more Middle East studies departments, to hire more Palestinian and Middle East faculty, and to integrate Palestine into DEI and ethnic and race-based curricula should be viewed instead as the intentional expansion and consolidation of leftist institutional power. This has meant the creation of jobs and patronage for a new phalanx of progressive sectarian foot soldiers under the umbrella of ethnic studies. Many of these programs aim to create a reserve of activists who cover a wide array of ethnic and identity grievances and causes that extend beyond the halls of academia, with recruitment beginning in grade school. From a young age, an increasing number of American students are being fed anti-Western and anti-Israel material funded and distributed by a constellation of dark money, left-wing groups and foreign governments. Worse, their success to date can largely be attributed to backing, financial and otherwise, from our own federal government.

The nuclei of Middle East education at American universities are the Middle East and Islamic studies centers. There are around 50 such centers distributed across the country, depending on how you count them. Columbia University alone hosts three: the Center for Palestine Studies, the Middle East Institute, and the Sakip Sabanci Center for Turkish Studies. These centers are no strangers to controversy. For at least two decades, scholars and policymakers alike have decried the centers’ whitewashing of Islamic extremism and anti-Israel bias. Yet the centers have remained mostly untouched, and a few new ones have even appeared.

Throughout their history, these centers have taken money from both the federal government and foreign governments. For instance, archived documents retrieved by the National Association of Scholars show that Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) relied heavily on foreign countries in its early days during the 1970s. Arab countries contributed two-thirds of the funding needed to help Georgetown leaders reach their $6.1 million fundraising goal for CCAS. During this same time, the foreign governments of Oman, Libya, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) contributed more than $1 million for various professorships at CCAS. Today, the center is one of about a dozen Middle East National Resource Centers (NRC) that receive more than $3 million in funding from the federal government. Harvard University’s Center for Middle East Studies started in the 1950s with funding from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations and then-American-owned oil company Aramco. Soon thereafter, it received funding from the federal government as an early NRC. Beginning in the 1980s, the center helped secure tens of millions of dollars in funds primarily from Turkey and Saudi Arabia both for its own faculty and for affiliated programs at Harvard.

The original purpose for the centers, established in the 1950s, was to produce policy-relevant information that the government could use to develop sound Middle East foreign policy. Relatively little expertise on the region existed in the United States at the time, which made getting up to speed a national security priority. But it’s hard to see that purpose in what passes through the centers and their affiliated faculty today.
Bret Stephens: Should American Jews Abandon Elite Universities?
That’s the key point. More dismaying than the fact that student protesters are fellow traveling with Hamas is that with their rhyming chants and identical talking points, they sound more like Maoist cadres than critical thinkers. As the sociologist Ilana Redstone, author of the smart and timely book “The Certainty Trap,” told me on Monday, “higher education traded humility and curiosity for conviction and advocacy — all in the name of being inclusive. Certainty yields students who are contemptuous of disagreement.”

And so the second question: What are Jewish students and alumni to do?

It’s telling that the Columbia deans were caught chortling during exactly the kind of earnest panel discussion that the university convened presumably to show alumni they are tackling campus antisemitism. They were paying more lip service than attention. My guess is that they, along with many of their colleagues, struggle to see the problem because they think it lies with a handful of extremist professors and obnoxious students.

But the real problem lies with some of the main convictions and currents of today’s academia: intersectionality, critical theory, post-colonialism, ethnic studies and other concepts that may not seem antisemitic on their face but tend to politicize classrooms and cast Jews as privileged and oppressive. If, as critical theorists argue, the world’s injustices stem from the shadowy agendas of the powerful and manipulative few against the virtuous masses, just which group is most likely to find itself villainized?

Not even the most determined university president is going to clean out the rot — at least not without getting rid of the entrenched academic departments and tenured faculty members who support it. That could take decades. In the meantime, Jews have a history of parting company with institutions that mistreated them, like white-shoe law firms and commercial banks. In so many cases, they went on to create better institutions that operated on principles of intellectual merit and fair play — including many of the universities that have since stumbled.

If you are an Ivy League megadonor wondering how to better spend the money you no longer want to give a Penn or a Columbia — or just a rising high school senior wondering where to apply — maybe it’s time to forgo the fading prestige of the old elite for the sake of something else, something new. That’s a subject for a future column.
Robert Kraft Donates $1 Million to Yeshiva University for New Program to Help Support Transferring Jewish Students
Robert Kraft, the Jewish owner of the NFL’s New England Patriots and founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS), has donated $1 million to Yeshiva University in New York City to establish a new program aimed at promoting inclusivity.

The Blue Square Scholars program will also help Yeshiva University accommodate and support Jewish college students who are transferring to the school after feeling unsafe at their previous campuses due to the recent rise in antisemitism on college campuses across the country. The program will “help provide the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the best and the brightest students who are rooted in the university’s values of compassion and respect for all,” the university announced on Tuesday. “These students will become the leaders and bridge-builders our society so desperately needs.”

The name of the Blue Square Scholars program is inspired by FCAS’s Blue Square initiative, a multimedia campaign that addresses rising antisemitism.

“I am honored to establish the Blue Square Scholars program at Yeshiva University in order to give students a welcoming place to further their education and grow into leaders who will serve as advocates for unity and respect and will push back on all hate,” Kraft said in a statement. “At a time where hate has been unleashed across our universities, Jewish students are feeling isolated and unsafe. Yeshiva is providing a safe haven for these students and I look forward to seeing them thrive in an academic environment where they could live and study free of fear for being who they are.”

Yeshiva University President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman thanked Kraft and FCAS for establishing the Blue Square Scholars program, “and for all they have done to foster a more inclusive society throughout our country.”

“Robert sets the standard for impactful leadership in this country and this program will support top tier students who will follow his example to become the leaders of tomorrow,” he added.
Israel responds to UN war crimes claim: ‘Large parts of Gaza converted to combat sites’
Israel has rejected a UN report accusing it of having “systematically violated” key principles of the laws of armed conflict during the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

The report was issued last week by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). It detailed in particular the IDF’s use of air-dropped bombs in densely populated areas, and focused on six specific incidents with high casualty counts as examples of how Israel has allegedly violated the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution in its campaign.

A response compiled by the Israeli government to the document has rejected the OHCHR’s claims, noting in particular that the agency made its claims based on the outcomes of attacks instead of assessing the decision making process behind them, as is required when assessing the legality of an attack.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7 invasion and mass atrocities has prompted numerous allegations that the IDF has violated the laws of armed conflict laid out by international law, in light of what appears to be the high number of civilian casualties and the massive destruction of civilian infrastructure.

These claims have even been taken up by the International Criminal Court, with its prosecutor Karim Khan now seeking arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for, among other alleged crimes, “willful killing” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population.”

OHCHR’s report could likely be used by the ICC and other UN agencies to bolster the legal accusations against Israel.


How the Revolutionary Ecosystem Sustains Pro-Palestinian Protesters and the BLM Movement
The infrastructure of organizations sustaining the anti-Israel protests today is virtually identical to the one that has supported the Black Lives Matter organizations since their birth in the middle 2010s. It is deceptively powerful, already having altered America in profound ways. Today, this ecosystem—which consists of activist organizations, fiscal sponsors, donors, and radical media groups—is being tapped by the anti-Israel protesters, but they aim to do much more than destroy Israel. Their goal is to dismantle Western democracies, values, and culture, and their primary target is the United States. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that regimes such as communist China, Cuba, and Venezuela are increasingly part of this ecosystem.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
The infrastructure of organizations that sustains the anti-Israel protests is virtually the same that has supported the Black Lives Matter protests.

This revolutionary ecosystem enabled BLM to change America in profound, perhaps permanent, ways and it may enable the anti-Israel groups to do the same.

Enemy regimes, such as China, Cuba, and Venezuela, are increasingly a part of this ecosystem—and their goal is to weaken America. Policymakers beware.

[W]hether it’s Black Lives Matter or Occupy, in the American political discussion, there’s a tendency to assume that people sort of arrive politically, that there are these gatherings and there’s no agenda, there’s no leadership, this [is] always an assumption of the media, then they browbeat, saying “where are the leaders, why don’t they have an agenda?” Well, actually underneath each of these…there are networks, there…is this infrastructure of confidence-building. There are organizers who are involved, many of them have been organizers for decades and have great experience in knowing how to build a movement. Vijay Prashad, executive director of the Marxist media group Tricontinental, 2016 (interview in CounterPunch)

The infrastructure that supports the pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments that have swept cities and campuses is virtually identical to the one that has sustained the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organizations since the birth of the movement. The BLM riots and protests in 2020 were the largest in U.S. history, and they transformed America in profound ways. Members of this infrastructure say they understand that the 2020 protests introduced millions of Americans to a new leftist worldview, and one key member even says that “the ability for mass struggle” now exists inside the United States.

It is in this context that one must understand what a top pro-Palestinian activist means by telling students on campus that “we are going to change this country forever,” and another when he says that the goals of the protests is “getting rid of America, getting rid of the West.” America’s most implacable enemies, including China and Cuba, are not merely cheering from the sidelines, but they are enmeshed in this protesting infrastructure and, in Cuba’s case, training members.

This infrastructure can be best understood if broken down into four interrelated components: (1) the activist organizations that plan and carry out the protests; (2) the fiscal sponsors that give these organizations legal coverage and afford them opaqueness; (3) the often deep-pocketed donors that fund the activist organizations through the fiscal sponsors; and (4) radical media groups that amplify the protests and promote them on social media, and also routinely air propaganda for U.S. adversaries such as China, Cuba, or Russia. In a clear sign that it is not concern for the oppression of Muslims that drives their pro-Palestinian efforts, these media outlets and their officials routinely ignore or even deny the genocide of Muslim Uyghurs in China’s northwestern province of Xinjiang, an ongoing outrage that has failed to capture campus attention.
Batya Ungar-Sargon: Why Americans are rejecting the Squad’s ‘anti-Zionism’
New York has handed a stinging defeat to congressman Jamaal Bowman, a member of the ‘Squad’ of young, progressive House Democrats. Tuesday’s primary election gave Bowman’s challenger, George Latimer, a 60-40 victory over the incumbent. The narrative you will hear from the left that dominates the mainstream media is that Bowman was defeated by the deep coffers of the ‘Israel lobby’ and by American Jews who opposed his unwavering support for Palestinians. According to this narrative, the Democratic Party is split over Israel. Old-school, establishment Democrats like Latimer and President Joe Biden still support Israel, but a younger generation of voters and politicians, like the Squad, include the Palestinians in their vision of a more just world.

There’s only one problem with this narrative: it’s nonsense.

Yes, it’s true that a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent a record $15million on Latimer, making his race with Bowman the most expensive House primary in American history. Yet Bowman was already trailing Latimer by 17 points back in April, before AIPAC made a single ad buy. Contrary to what the left believes, money in politics just does not correlate with victory in such a simple way (just ask Nikki Haley).

It’s also true that American Jews have been disgusted by Bowman’s commentary around Israel. But while the left portrays him as simply a warrior for Palestinians and for peace in Gaza, his ‘advocacy’ has included dismissing reports of Hamas’s mass rape of Israeli women on 7 October as ‘propaganda’, using ‘Zionist’ as a slur and referring to Israel as ‘another settler-colonial project’. He has also turned American Jews into a bogeyman – even blaming them for rising anti-Semitism. This isn’t advocacy for Palestinians. It reflects a particular kind of elite, woke mindset applied to the Middle East.

Like most of America’s cultural battles, this one is a class battle in disguise. It’s a symptom of a much larger divide in the US between an over-credentialed elite and America’s working class. And while the Squad masquerades as the champions of ‘black and brown’ working-class communities, both domestically and in the Middle East, its real national base is, in fact, rich progressives – a small, rancorous elite. These are the only Americans aside from far-right white supremacists who have a problem with Israel, and who find it hard to condemn Hamas and easier to question its rape victims.

It’s no accident that the vast majority of pro-Palestinian activism in the US has happened on college campuses. Unlike in Europe or Canada, there is no wellspring of support from average Americans for this cause. The universities aren’t the tip of some broader anti-Israel iceberg – they are the entire iceberg. Average Americans do disagree over the level of economic support that should be given to Israel, and whether that support should be unconditional – fair questions in a democracy, for sure. But they would never endorse the Iran-backed terrorists controlling the Gaza Strip. For that, you need a college degree. Indeed, the more degrees you have, the more likely you are to find yourself calling for resistance to Israel ‘by any means necessary’. Hence the college professors joining the encampments and giving students extra credit for going.


Jamaal Bowman Loses Bigly
Squad member Jamaal Bowman—who denied Hamas terrorists raped Israeli women on October 7 and has pushed 9/11 conspiracy theories—was ousted by George Latimer in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in New York’s Sixteenth Congressional District.

Latimer, the Westchester County executive backed by American Israel Public Affairs Committee—whose super PAC spent $15 million on the race, making this the priciest primary ever—held an almost twenty-point lead over Bowman, with more than 80 percent of the votes counted.

Speaking to supporters at his victory party in White Plains, New York, last night, Latimer taunted Bowman’s frequent campaign refrain that the contest was between “the many and the money” by saying of his win: “This is the many of Westchester and the Bronx.”

He now proceeds to the general election, where he is almost certain to win in the deep-blue district, which stretches from the Bronx into the northern NYC suburbs and is more than nine percent Jewish.

Latimer told The Free Press his victory is a sign that “grassroots Democrats of this district do not want identity politics; they want productive politics that get results.”

If anything, Bowman will be remembered on Capitol Hill for setting off a fire alarm, forcing the evacuation of one of the House office buildings—and apparently lying about it. His reasons for doing so are still unclear. He claimed he was in a rush to cast a vote. Republicans charged that he was actually trying to delay it. Either way, the congressman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and paid a $1,000 fine. In December 2023, his House colleagues formally censured him, mostly along party lines.

Bowman rocketed to power in July 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis and Black Lives Matter protests across the country, defeating Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, a prominent Israel supporter.

At the time, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez both supported Bowman, a former middle-school principal.

“He is exactly the kind of person that we need in Congress,” Warren said in an endorsement video, adding that, among other things, he had a plan for “rooting out systemic racism.”


Espenoza defeats incumbent Hernandez
Hernandez, meanwhile, received the endorsements from a number of his fellow legislators, including Reps. Julie Gonzales and Javier Mabrey of Denver, as well as Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, also of Denver. Gonzales-Gutierrez also endorsed Hernandez, as has Denver City Council President Jamie Torres.Hernandez, 27, faced a backlash last year for attending a rally advertised to be “in support of Palestinian resistance in Gaza” hours after the Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people, kidnapping 250 and sparking a war. A flyer for the event read, “resistance is justified when people are occupied,” referring to territories captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hernández later apologized. In a video posted on his account on Friday afternoon, Hernandez also condemned Hamas for attacking civilians and said he was sorry for his actions.

In November, when pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a House session, several lawmakers, including Hernandez, cheered them. Hernandez said in a post on X that he is “standing in strong solidarity with Coloradans who bravely stood up and disrupted our job this morning calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza. Over a majority of Americans now support a Ceasefire. I urge my colleagues to listen.”

He also attended a pro-Palestinian protest at the Auraria Campus in Denver several months ago.


Jonathan Tobin: Censorship stand comes back to bite the ADL on Wikipedia
Most of the organized Jewish world is as outraged as the Anti-Defamation League. The decision of Wikipedia to label the ADL as an “unreliable source” on its site with respect to anything related to Israel generated a letter of protest from 43 of the largest and most influential American Jewish organizations, including a sampling of groups on the center, left and right. The notion that the ADL—still considered the authoritative source on the subject of antisemitism by the liberal media—being shut down by the ubiquitous online encyclopedia site in such a manner is shocking.

And none are more surprised than ADL’s CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt. That’s because during his decade in charge of the venerable organization, Greenblatt and the ADL have not just switched from being liberal but nonpartisan to open advocacy for the Democrats and the political left. They’ve also been prominent supporters of efforts to do to others what Wikipedia is doing to them now: censoring those who dissent from the political orthodoxies of the left.

In other words, what’s happening to ADL isn’t merely another example of how a major online company has succumbed to anti-Israel and antisemitic prejudice. It’s that the ADL’s pro-censorship chickens have come home to roost.

Wikipedia’s reason for declaring that the ADL can’t be cited as an authority on anything to do with Israel goes to the heart of the post-Oct. 7 surge in Jew-hatred in America. Boiled down to the essentials, they object to the fact that the ADL rightly labels anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism. While they could cite no instances in which ADL had made false claims, the Wikipedia editors said that didn’t matter.

A double standard
ADL is a group that is supposed to advocate on behalf of the Jewish people, monitor antisemitism and support the right of the one Jewish state on the planet to exist. According to Wikipedia editors, this impairs its ability to accurately report facts about those, like the Hamas terrorists and their American apologists, who wish to destroy Israel and commit the genocide of its population.

Yet, as Greenblatt noted, this is not the same standard applied to organizations that advocate for the rights of other groups. No one, for example, at Wikipedia judges the NAACP by this standard when it speaks out on anti-black racism.

Nor would any reasonable person—let alone someone who controls the content on a widely used internet site—argue that African-Americans don’t have the right to define what is offensive to them or considered racist. Only Jews are lectured about what is or isn’t prejudice against Jews. And given the fact that anti-Zionists wish to deny rights to Jews, such as to live in peace and sovereignty in their ancient homeland and defend themselves, to any other people, the ADL is entirely correct to label them as Jew-haters. Indeed, if anything, the ADL has shown itself not as zealous as it should be in making this charge.
Inside the war over Israel at Wikipedia
Ivana and Samer_BHH, the two people who praised Wikipedia editors’ handling of the ADL, are active members of “Tech for Palestine,” a server on the messaging app Discord with more than 7,500 members that describes itself as a community “working towards ending tech’s support for Israel’s war on the people on Gaza, and towards a free Palestine.” Their posts appeared in a smaller channel called “Wikipedia Collaboration,” a project that aims to fight “on the Wikipedia front the information battle for truth, peace and justice.”

Since its formation in February, members have written to the group with requests to edit certain pages to reflect new developments or to use their preferred rhetoric. One user named Zionisthater shared in February that they sought to remove the word “alleged” from “alleged Palestinian genocide” in an article about Aaron Bushnell, the U.S. Air Force servicemember who died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy. (That edit was overridden, and the current language uses “alleged.”) One of the most frequent commenters in the Wikipedia Collaboration chat, who uses the handle @zei_squirrel online, is also active on X, where they regularly deny that Hamas militants engaged in sexual violence on Oct. 7.

Efforts are underway to recruit more people to the Wikipedia cause. The Discord channel recently posted a series of how-to videos on YouTube called “Wikipedia for Palestine.” All the videos are unlisted, meaning they do not show up in public searches on the site.

“Wikipedia is not just an online encyclopedia. It’s a battleground for narratives,” a narrator with an Irish accent says in one video. She describes “selective framing,” “whataboutism,” “normalization,” “victimhood narratives” and “cherry-picking facts as tools used by people promoting “anti-Palestine propaganda.”

“These tactics are not just misleading. They are harmful and contribute to the perpetuation of injustice,” the narrator says over a colorful video showing people waving Israeli flags.

The battles playing out on Wikipedia are likely to have an impact that stretches beyond the website.

“All of Wikipedia is fed into large language models and generative AI, and that’s what’s going to feed information for centuries,” said Yfat Barak-Cheney, director of international affairs at the World Jewish Congress, which released a report in March warning that biased editors are likely to have an impact on the site’s treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The report we did in March was exactly to alert that this is going on. This is going to have more consequences if we don’t deal with it better,” Barak-Cheney said. “I always can say for certain that ADL is not going to be the last on this. I’m not even sure it’s the first, but it’s definitely not going to be the last.”
Bethany Mandel: Wikipedia’s lefty slant measured in new study — but I’ve felt its bias firsthand
Last week Wikipedia’s editors declared that the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that was founded to combat antisemitism, cannot be trusted as a reliable source on the Israel-Palestine conflict — and more shockingly, that the ADL is an unreliable source on antisemitism itself.

Who do the site’s editors find reliable?

Organizations with well-documented issues of not just bias, but of ideologically-driven unreliability in their reporting.

Amnesty International and B’Tselem, for example, are two organizations with longstanding and well-documented biases against Israel — but are frequently used by Wikipedia as trusted sources.

Another reliable resource, according to Wikipedia editors: the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has taken a sharp turn against conservatives in recent decades.

“The SPLC took the program it used to bankrupt organizations associated with the Ku Klux Klan and weaponized it against conservative groups, partially to scare donors into ponying up cash and partially to silence ideological opponents,” writes Tyler O’Neil of The Daily Signal, whose upcoming book “Making Hate Pay” examines the SPLC’s overwhelming bias.

As antisemitism scholar Izabella Tabarovsky quipped on X, “What [Wikipedia’s editors] are basically telling us is that in their eyes, a source is ‘objective’ if it shares the editors’ antizionist & anti-Israel views.”

“From now on we can consider Wikipedia to be intentionally trafficking in disinformation on antisemitism and probably on much other content related to Jews — and, of course, specifically on Israel and Zionism,” she added.

Sanger deemed the site’s editors “clowns” in response to news about its war on the ADL.

He’s not wrong.
‘Zionists have no right to cultural safety’: The Australian BDS movement’s transition from racist ‘anti-Zionism’ to xenophobic anti-Semitism
Most disappointing has been the extension of these forms of anti-Semitism to the social work profession that I have worked in as a practitioner and academic since 1987. In an earlier article reflecting on poisonous debates within the British social work profession, I warned that sections of the profession were being captured by a pro-BDS perspective that privileged and validated Palestinian/Arab national rights over Israeli/Jewish national rights, and attempted to silence any effective solidarity by social work organisations concerning Jewish experiences of anti-Semitism in the Global North or Global South. I urged the mainstream social work profession to reject this evidence-free construction of an hierarchy of oppression, and instead apply its stated universalistic beliefs in social justice and human rights for all (Mendes, 2023).

In Australia, a small group called Social Workers for Palestine Australia (led by an Anglo-Australian Socialist Alliance-affiliated local councillor in Rural Victoria) has emerged which has advocated discrimination against both Israeli Jews and Jewish Australians. Initially, the SWFP and three aligned organisations – Australian Palestine Mental Health Network, Families for Palestine, and Mental Health Workers for Palestine – bullied the Australia and New Zealand Mental Health Association to rescind an invitation to Dr Moshe Farchi, Head of the Social Work Department in Tel-Hai Academic College, Israel, to be a keynote speaker at their March 2024 Frontline Mental Health conference on ‘Psychological First Aid’.

Subsequently, these four groups have also started targeting Australian Jews, arguing, for example, in a defamatory online petition that one prominent social work academic was a ‘Zionist and racist nationalist’, and hence not a suitable person to work as either a social worker or academic. They are particularly angry that the Australian Association of Social Workers has adopted what they consider to be an unreasonably neutral and dispassionate tone on the Israeli-Gaza conflict, insisting instead that all social workers should unequivocally endorse their anti-universalist support for hardline Palestinian nationalism (Young, 2024). But to date, only 882 social workers have signed their petition which uses the hierarchy of oppression discussed above to argue that only Palestinians (not Jews) experience racism and oppression and intergenerational trauma, and conversely that Palestinians are never perpetrators of racism and oppression. It remains unclear whether all those signatories are qualified social workers, or even resident in Australia. Regardless, that number is only a tiny percentage of the estimated 42,000 social workers employed in Australia which suggests optimistically that most Australian social workers don’t accept their racist assumptions (Australian Government, 2024).

The Australian BDS movement and its allies have displayed nil insight into the anti-Semitic impact of their hostile actions towards Australian Jews. Indeed, what has been most common is their sleazy determination to subvert the evidence, and instead bizarrely insist that they are the peaceful victims of so-called violence from right-wing ‘Zionists’ (Overland Editorial Team, 2024; Sparrow, 2024), rather than proudly owning their attacks on the Jewish collective.

Australian Policy makers attempting to combat this anti-Semitic intolerance will need to take a long-term approach given the entrenched nature of these racist and illiberal views within sections of academia and the wider community. Any effective anti-racist strategy to defend the Jewish community will arguably need to be informed by two key principles:
1) Only perpetrators, never victims, are responsible for anti-Semitism;
2) Anti-racist solidarity with the Jewish community must include an absolute privileging of Jewish lived experience voices of anti-Semitism.
‘In her wisdom’: Clover Moore reviews Israeli-based Hewlett-Packard contracts
Sky News host James Macpherson says Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore decided “in her wisdom” to review investments and suppliers into Israeli-based company contracts with Hewlett-Packard.

“Clover Moore has decided, in her wisdom to review the council’s printing contracts with Israeli-based company Hewlett-Packard,” Mr Macpherson said.

“In a push to boycott Israeli companies, she believes this may well be the crucial piece that finally brings a resolution.”


Misunderstanding Islam
Foucault and the Left-Islamist Alliance
Perhaps more than any other academic with the exception of Edward Said, Michel Foucault is responsible for today's alliance between Leftists and Islamists.

In his book Orientalism (1978), Said acknowledges his debt to Foucault's discourse theories and writings on the penal system as inspiration for his framing Western interpretations of Middle East culture (i.e., "Orientalism") as a kind of thought prison. Together, so goes one view, the two men created the entire field of postcolonial studies.

They also made it acceptable and popular for academics to overlook the realities of Islamism. As Reza Parchizadeh put it, "the legacy of Foucault's advocacy of Islamism remains with us to this day. His favor made it much easier for the Islamists to justify their positions to Western audiences despite their tyranny and violence in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia."

Whereas Foucault went silent on Iran and Islamism after Khomeini proved to the world that he was no saint, Said would go on to exert his malign influence for another 25 years after the Iranian Revolution. I interpret Foucault's silence as a tacit acknowledgment that he had gotten many things wrong – something unimaginable in Said.

What Foucault Got Right
In spite of everything Foucault got wrong about Iran – bad predictions, misrepresentations of Islam, hagiographies of Khomeini – he did get one thing right. In "A Powder Keg Called Islam," published on February 13, 1979 in Corriere della sera, Foucault warned that Islam "has a good chance to become a giant powder keg, at the level of hundreds of millions of men" (241).

The warning was prescient. So too was his fear that, since the Iranian Revolution had shown that "any Muslim state can be revolutionized from the inside" (241), it might lead to a Palestinian Islamic Revolution.

Today, Foucault's notion of "biopolitics" is used as a weapon against Israel, sometimes to ridiculous ends. But Foucault was neither an antisemite nor an anti-Zionist. In fact, as the French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut pointed out in 2019, "Foucault was very attached to Israel." He referred to the UN resolution equating Zionism with racism as "ignominious," and his life partner Daniel Defert claimed he was "profoundly philo-Semitic."

Writing at a time before there was a Hamas or Hezbollah, when the Palestinian Arab movement was framed in ethno-nationalist terms and funded by Communists, Foucault wondered, "What would happen if this cause experienced the dynamism of an Islamic movement, something much stronger than the effect of giving it a Marxist, Leninist, or Maoist character?" (241). Further demonstrating his insight, he asked, "Additionally, how strong would Khomeini's 'religious' movement become, if it were to put forward the liberation of Palestine as its objective?" (241).

Forty years after Foucault's death, the Palestinian Arab movement has become a murderously violent Islamic one, and the Islamic Republic he championed has become its global patron and primary arms dealer.
The Problem with Legislating Against Islamophobia
As the United Kingdom prepares for its next election, the Labor leader (and likely next prime minister) Keir Starmer released a campaign video in which he talks at length about the problem of Islamophobia, and alludes to using the legal system to combat it. Meanwhile, in the U.S., politicians and public institutions have gotten themselves in the habit of responding to every outburst of hostility to Jews with condemnations of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Ed Husain argues that these two things are not alike:

Islamophobia is a fear of ideas, beliefs, and attitudes. Violence or discrimination against adherents of any religion is obviously indefensible, but it should also go without saying that in a free society people should be at liberty to criticize or mock any organized religion. No intelligent Muslim should place the word “Islam” and the word “phobia” together in a single phrase. This is why the word did not exist until relatively recently. [The term] Islamophobia has been largely promoted by Islamists and jihadists, to protect them from scrutiny.

Legislating against “Islamophobia” would have disastrous consequences. The German judge who refused to grant a Muslim woman a divorce from her abusive husband in 2007 did so on the grounds that the abuse was culturally acceptable and sanctioned by the Quran. Such incidents would become normal for fear of accusations of “Islamophobia.” Let’s remember that the i-word has been used not only against politicians but also against Muslims who confront jihadists.
Trudeau's lack of support for the Jewish community is a purely political calculation
How can one explain the fact that a Canadian government that has been so quick to apologize for every blemish in our nation’s history has been so adverse to speaking out against the growing tide of antisemitism on display from coast to coast?

By now, the litany of incidents should be well known — Jewish schools shot at, Jewish religious institutions desecrated with racist graffiti, Jewish students being bullied and harassed. The list goes on. When these incidents began shortly after Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, one could reasonably claim that they were isolated. They have now become increasingly routine.

At the same time, the response of our politicians has been shockingly insufficient. In fact, I can easily highlight the few who have called out the problem and the country’s (non) response. It’s a regrettably short list.

At the top of it would be Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who has publicly called on his government to do more and considered leaving the party in the spring, after an NDP motion on the Israel-Hamas war passed with overwhelming Liberal support.

Others who deserve mention include independent MP Kevin Vuong and Ontario MPPs Goldie Ghamari (an Iranian dissident and vocal supporter of Israel) and Stephen Lecce. Former prime ministers Brian Mulroney (since deceased) and Stephen Harper have also been passionate defenders of the Jewish state for years.

But these voices have been few and far between. The larger political silence has been deafening, in particular the response from the federal government, and especially from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Even the government’s special envoy on combating antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, has, somewhat amazingly, had virtually nothing to say.

Indeed, the standard response of the Liberal government to each incident has been to issue a statement that such cases do “not reflect who we are.” It’s an easy (non) response that requires little thought and even less commitment to actually doing something. Worse, it’s a meaningless phrase, and suggests a government that is not seriously engaged on the issue.

As a result, the country’s Jewish community feels abandoned by their government. They have watched in horror as both ugly rhetoric and physical displays of violence have been directed toward them, and yet the federal government apparently sees no cause for alarm, nor a reason to take the issue more seriously. It’s a turn of events that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.
New head of Canadian Human Rights Commission investigated over allegations of anti-Israel activity
The federal government announced it is opening up an investigation of Birju Dattani, the newly appointed head of the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), after allegations of anti-Israel activism.

“We have become aware of potentially troubling statements attributed to Mr. Dattani as well as events he participated in while he was a graduate student in London, England a decade ago,” Chantalle Aubertin, a spokesperson for federal Attorney General and Justice Minister Arif Virani, told National Post in a statement. “It is critical for the Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission to maintain the confidence of all Canadians and to be seen as an impartial and fair judge of matters before them.”

“We are carefully reviewing these statements and discussing them with Mr. Dattani, as well as relevant stakeholders.”

Shortly after Dattani was appointed to lead the CHRC in mid-June, National Post learned that in 2015 he had shared the stage with a member of an Islamic fundamentalist group and repeatedly lectured during “Israel Apartheid Week” at British universities about the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. According to a Government of Canada factsheet, attempts to boycott and sanction Israel are one of its six core examples of antisemitism.

Shimon Fogel, the long-standing president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), told the Post that the organization is “deeply concerned” about Dattani’s appointment given that he “has directly associated with individuals and groups affiliated with listed terror entities and has a history of making highly troubling antisemitic statements.” Fogel saw Dattani’s ascension to head the CHRC as underscoring “a crisis of confidence” with the body that “undermines our confidence in the Commission’s ability to adjudicate issues of hate and discrimination.”

Fogel said the controversy calls into question the justice ministry’s vetting process.

“CIJA has been in discussions with the Federal government not only about the revelations about Dattani but also about the failures in the vetting process. The government has expressed concerns and has committed to continuing that consultation over the coming days.”


The Israel Guys: Candace Owens's EXPOSED | Antisemite or Just Ignorant?
Since Candace Owens returned with her new brand and show a couple of weeks ago, she has wasted no time in making her anti-Israel, anti-Jewish positions known far and wide. From hosting people on her show who tout outrageous lies and blood libels, to claiming that the Jewish people claim Jewish supremacy, it is clear that she is anti-Israel.

The question is, does this make her an anti-semite? To be clear, anti-semitism is Jew-hatred. Anti-Zionism also equals anti-semitism, since by definition, Zionism is the idea that the Jewish people should be able to live and thrive in their historic homeland. If you don’t believe the Jewish people have a right to their homeland, that makes you anti-semite. .

In today's video, we’re going to take a deep dive into the position that is becoming increasingly popular amongst so-called conservative Americans. They claim they are simply asking questions, or that they are America first, that they love the Jewish people, and are pro-Israel. Deep down however, this rhetoric is leading us down an all too familiar road, one that the Jewish people have seen for thousands of years. We’ll get into all of this on today’s episode.


On tokenism and the denial of antisemitism
Appointed in November, Columbia University’s task force on anti-Semitism has found no small number of serious, institution-wide problems. In an all-too-typical attempt to undermine its work, a group of four self-described “Jews against Zionism” wrote an article for the school newspaper attacking the task force as “part of a political project to stoke fear on campus by alleging anti-Semitism against anyone opposing Zionism.” Elisha Baker, a fellow student, responds:
The four authors have made their choice clear: they reject their people’s right to a state and self-determination in their historic homeland. They have paid what the task force calls “the price of acceptance,” effectively assuring . . . the Columbia community at large that they, in fact, are not Zionists. Therefore, when they claim not to have felt ostracized on campus, I believe them. That is because they fit the pro-Palestinian movement’s mold of what kind of Jew belongs.

[The four] equate anti-Zionism with criticism of the Israeli government. They ask, “If even close to 42 percent of Jewish students on this campus hold critical views of the Israeli government’s actions, and are expressing them, would the task force call us all anti-Semitic?”’ The answer to this question is simple: no.

But of course, chanting “Death to Israel!” or calling for the country’s destruction isn’t criticism at all; nor is harassing pro-Israel students. Baker continues:
In their article, the four authors accuse the task force on anti-Semitism of excluding their voices from the conversation about campus anti-Semitism because of their anti-Zionism. They write that “it seems that the price of acceptance for the task force is that Jews be Zionists.” They are wrong. In reality, it seems that the price of acceptance for the task force is simply that one refrains from discriminating against Jews for their Zionism. On a campus that supposedly prides itself on diversity, equity, and inclusion, is this really too much to ask?
Germany to advance bill to deport foreigners who glorify terrorism
The German government agreed to measures on Wednesday making it easier to deport foreigners who glorify acts of terror after a surge in online hate posts during the Gaza war.

Under the new rules foreigners could face deportation for “even a single comment that glorifies and condones a terrorist offense on social media,” the interior ministry said after the cabinet agreed on a draft law.

After the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which triggered the Gaza war, there was a surge in hate posts on social media in Germany, with officials saying Islamists in particular were responsible.

The fatal stabbing last month of a police officer by an Afghan asylum seeker in Mannheim also triggered a surge of such posts, fueling the debate on deportations.

“We are taking tough action against Islamist and antisemitic hate crimes on the internet,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, after ministers agreed on the measures.
Elite university's 'disturbing' Hamas connections probed by lawmakers
Utah Republican Rep. Burgess Owens is demanding the president of Northwestern University sever school ties with news outlet Al Jazeera following repeated reports of its connection to terrorist group Hamas, Fox News Digital has learned.

"Turns out that Al Jazeera is not just a platform for anti-Israel, pro-terrorist propaganda; it is also a safe haven for Hamas supporters," Owens said in comment to Fox News Digital.

"It is unacceptable for any American university that receives hundreds of millions of dollars in annual federal funding to partner with organizations whose members are terrorists or whose reporting incites terror on behalf of Hamas. President Schill testified before Congress that Northwestern was looking into its formal partnership with Al Jazeera, and in light of disturbing reports, I'm calling for immediate answers and action to ensure this corruption is nowhere near American students."

Owens – alongside Republican Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York, Andy Ogles of Tennessee and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey – sent a letter Friday to Northwestern University President Michael Schill demanding answers on the school’s ties to outlet Al Jazeera, which is funded by the Qatari government. Northwestern has a satellite campus in Qatar, which includes a partnership with Al Jazeera that allows its students "to engage regularly with leading media industry professionals," according to Northwestern’s website.

Earlier this month, reports surfaced that a journalist who previously wrote for Al Jazeera held three Jewish hostages in his home before he was killed by the Israeli military. The journalist was never an official employee of the outlet, the New York Post reported, but had a byline with the publication and other outlets in Gaza.

Owens’ letter cited the journalist while demanding answers regarding the school’s ties to the Qatari-backed outlet.

"On Saturday, June 8, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a daring raid on Hamas to rescue Israeli hostages abducted during the horrific events of October 7. During the raid, the IDF discovered that three of the rescued hostages were held at Abdallah Aljamal’s home in Nuseirat. Aljamal, who was killed during the rescue, was a journalist who had published an article on Al Jazeera and whose information can be found on the Al Jazeera website," the letter to Schill reads.


Andrew Pessin: A Nine-Day Roundup
As some of you know I spent way too much time monitoring the situation for Jews, especially concerning Israel, on campuses. In case you want to get a sense of how the world looks from my perspective, here are some of the stories I’m tracking just over the past nine days. Some non-campus stories get in there if they catch my attention, but it’s mostly campus-focused. Occasional bits of good news (from the pro-Israel perspective), but a lot of bad news. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, stories that happened to cross my radar. Lots more stuff going on, I’m sure, that I miss. This might give you a sense of what it feels like to be a Jewish student or professor who does not hate Israel on a campus that mostly does (esp if you follow any of the links and get the details).
The letter that tore the TMU law school apart was antisemitic, whatever the intent of the students who signed or the findings of a retired justice
Less than two weeks after the Oct. 7 massacre, 74 law students at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) signed an open letter that denied the very existence and legitimacy of the State of Israel. It claimed that “‘Israel’ is not a country, it is the brand of a settler colony.” It maintained that “So-called Israel has been illegally occupying and ethnically cleansing Palestine since 1948” and declared solidarity with “all forms of Palestinian resistance and efforts toward liberation.”

In November, the school appointed J. Michael MacDonald, retired Nova Scotia chief justice, to report on whether the students breached the school’s code of conduct, and if so, what sanctions should be imposed. Sadly, MacDonald’s report is deeply flawed in a number of ways.

MacDonald concluded that the students came close, but did not breach, the code of conduct. MacDonald said the letter’s language “could be seen as justifying the Oct. 7 attacks.” One section could “reasonably be read” as minimizing Hamas’s role in the terror attacks, making it particularly concerning and, “at the very least, … misguided.” He found that many of the school’s Jewish students experienced an “intimidating, hostile, and offensive” study environment “for a variety of reasons of which the letter was a significant one.”

Nonetheless, he said the letter was not antisemitic, largely because the harm it caused was unintended. A number of signatories acknowledged the harm to their Jewish colleagues who “did feel threatened, offended, or unsafe” as a result of the letter’s content. Some drafted an apology, though it was never circulated. They acknowledged that Hamas’s actions constituted war crimes, although admitted the letter could have made this clearer.

MacDonald was legally entitled to conclude that some students lacked any antisemitic intent. This was relevant to whether they breached the code of conduct or should be sanctioned. However, he was not legally entitled to conclude that the letter was not antisemitic. The law has long recognized that statements may be (and often are) antisemitic or racist or homophobic in their effect, despite being unintended. Equally problematic, more than half of the involved students refused to speak to MacDonald or even identify themselves confidentially. He was in a poor position to evaluate their intentions or role. We simply don’t know what they intended. We only know what they signed.

MacDonald accepted that the letter “left itself open” to the misinterpretation that it was calling for the eradication of Israel as a homeland for Jewish people. Frankly, I have great difficulty seeing how Israel’s characterization as a “so-called” state and the denial of its nationhood can reasonably be interpreted as anything other than a call for its eradication.


Guardian wants you to fear 'Israeli influence' over the US
Two Guardian journalists devoted 2,600 words of text to impute something dark and sinister the fact that, following Hamas’s Oct. 7th massacre, an Israeli ministry spent some money to fight antisemitism and promote Israel’s cause in the US. We’re not oversimplifying this. That’s really the bottom line of the ‘revelations‘ by the outlet (“Exclusive: Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war“, June 24) written by Lee Fang and Jack Poulson.

For starters, the piece opens with a risible characterisation of the protests that broke out in the US in the opening sentence as g “anti-war protests from young people across the United States, especially at elite universities”.

We’ve devoted a lot of space on our site, and on X, documenting the protests both in the UK and the US, and to describe the fanatical outbursts of hate against Israel and Jews, which has often included explicit support for terrorism, that began immediately following the worst antisemitic attack since the Holocaust, as ‘anti-war protests’ evokes Soviet-level propaganda.

The Guardian then ‘reveals’ that Chikli relaunched a partnership with an organisation called Voices of Israel, which, as you can see on their website, is transparent about their partnership with the Israeli ministry. Readers are told that Voices of Israel “previously worked with groups spearheading a campaign to pass…“anti-BDS” state laws that penalize Americans for engaging in boycotts or other non-violent protests of Israel. This is a lie. The anti-BDS laws which have passed in 38 US states do not limit free speech about Israel by individuals, as to do so would run afoul of the robust free speech guarantees in the US Constitution.

These state bills, almost all of which have withstood legal challenge, narrowly prohibit economic decisions that discriminate against Israel or Israelis. Indeed, by way of comparison, many states bar contracts with companies who engage in-other forms of discrimination. As a federal appeals court wrote in a 2022 decision upholding Arkansas’ law requiring state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel, which found that the restriction is not an unconstitutional violation of free speech “Because [such] commercial decisions are invisible to observers unless explained, they are not inherently expressive and do not implicate the First Amendment.”

One of the other revealing aspects of the Guardian ‘scoop’ is that, by the article’s own admission, the amount spent by the Israeli ministry to combat antisemitism and disinformation abroad, which the authors frame as ‘sharping opinion’, is “32m shekels, or about $8.6m “- an amount so small that it could represent a rounding error in the country’s overall budget.
How the rumours of Israeli rape dogs spread
In recent days, rumours have been swirling online about Israel’s alleged use of trained dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners, with the allegations entering the mainstream when progressive commentator Briahna Joy Gray shared them on X.

“I might have missed it, but has the Times or any other major US paper covered these reports of Israel training dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners?” she wrote.

The rumour can be traced back to an Instagram reel from Al Jazeera Mubasher posted 19 June, which was quickly shared by pro-Palestine influencers with English subtitles. It featured audio of the head of the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas, describing multiple prisoners’ accounts of being raped by trained dogs while in IDF custody.

An anonymous account called “Suppressed News” shared the video to X the same day, receiving two million views, and it quickly spread across Instagram, Reddit and other platforms.

The following day, an anti-Israel X account called “AIPAC Tracker” wrote: “Israel is using trained dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners. Read that again”, receiving four million views. An anonymous account quote-tweeted the post with another video purporting to show a prisoner’s eyewitness account of IDF dogs raping a prisoner, and this post was shared by Briahna Joy Gray.


CBC Radio Shares Baseless Propaganda Alleging Israel Has Kidnapped Palestinian Children & Brought Them Out Of Gaza
On June 24, the CBC Radio program The World This Hour aired a brief, minute-long segment so packed-full with wild, unsubstantiated and uncontextualized claims that it could be used as a case study for irresponsible journalism (with the term journalism here being used in the absolute loosest sense).

The report cited claims made by the charity Save The Children that an estimated 21,000 children are currently missing in Gaza due to the Hamas-Israel war, and that 4,000 are thought to be buried under rubble. Of course, CBC and Save The Children didn’t tell listeners where those numbers come from, or how they arrived at that estimate. Presumably they are taken from flawed and dishonest Hamas Health Ministry numbers, which even the United Nations admitted were inflated by nearly 100 percent recently. If even half that many children are missing it would be a tragedy. But rather than questioning why thousands of children were put in harm’s way and not taken to safety despite Israeli forces providing significant advanced notice of operations, the host uncritically moved on, clearly laying blame at the feet of the Jewish state.

In the clip, Alexandra Seiah, a representative from Save The Children, went on to make the shocking claim that “an unknown number of children have been detained by Israeli forces, have been forcibly transferred out of Gaza and are buried in unmarked graves.” The host did not unpack any of these wild accusations, leaving them to sit with the listener as-is and without challenge or context.

Of course, no mention was made of the fact that if “children” were “detained” and “transferred” out of Gaza, it is likely because they were fighting with Hamas or another terrorist group. The use of child soldiers is a well-known strategy employed by Hamas and other jihadist groups, and for a news agency to report that these are simply ‘children’ without context is wildly irresponsible.

Further, claims of children being found in unmarked graves have circulated for some time, but unbiased sources have shown that they were not put there by Israeli soldiers. Rather, satellite reports have shown that it was Palestinians themselves that created these mass graves. To present it as connected somehow to Israeli operations is incendiary and outrageous.

Finally, the report ended by offering an offhand comment that Save The Children also cited 33 Israeli children having been killed since the start of the conflict and an unconfirmed number are currently being held in Gaza.

The only way that these numbers could be accurate is if we are not including October 7 as part of “the conflict” since 38 children were murdered that day, alone by Hamas terrorists. And of course, no mention was made of the fact that the only reason the death toll of Israeli children doesn’t dwarf the Palestinian numbers is because tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from their homes due to constant rocket fire, sheltering in safe zones, and with access to bomb shelters. Something that the people of Gaza could also do to protect their children, should they care to do so.
CBC Radio Program The Sunday Magazine Features Palestinian Chef Who Predictably Parrots Anti-Israel Propaganda – With No Pushback From Host
In the June 23 edition of CBC’s The Sunday Magazine radio program, host Piya Chattopadhyay interviewed Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan for a discussion ostensibly on “documenting and preserving Palestinian food culture,” according to the segment’s blurb.

However, the conversation devolved into a free forum to share anti-Israel views on the Hamas-Israel war, both overtly and covertly.

Chattopadhyay and Kattan overtly concurred on various tired and defamatory accusations against Israel, including genocide and starvation of Gazans, as well as alleging limited humanitarian access. They refused even a nod toward anything approaching editorial balance, presenting no context from the Israeli perspective.

Rather more insidious was Kattan’s deletion of Hamas’s atrocities and genocidal intent against Israel. When bemoaning the impact of the Hamas-Israel war on Bethlehem and Judea & Samaria (commonly called the “West Bank” by news media outlets), Kattan said that “for a farmer from the village of Nahalin South of Bethlehem…it used to take them 20 minutes to come to Bethlehem. Today they leave. They may face an Israeli checkpoint that is open or closed, it may take them the whole day, they may also cross in 20 minutes.” He also said that “tourism stopped literally on the night of the 7th October.”

Shockingly, at no point did Kattan or his host Chattopadhyay even reference the reason for these issues: Hamas’ invasion of Israel on October 7 that started the war. Hamas, along with willing Gazan civilians, invaded Israel, burning, raping, murdering, dismembering 1,200 Israeli innocents, and taking over 250 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Hamas captivity. Hamas has clearly stated its intent to repeat the massacre and atrocities multiple times until Israel is annihilated. Israel has therefore been forced into a fight for its very survival. But this duo conveniently left this out, insulting the victims and misinforming their audience.

Kattan continued talking about Palestinian produce, saying “the oldest commercial wine was exported by a city that you wouldn’t today associate with wine export because it’s going through a genocide: Gaza”. This bald-faced statement is a grotesque assault on the truth. While Kattan failed to provide any evidence, this allegation is usually based on the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty figures. These figures – from a Hamas-run organization – do not differentiate between combatants and civilians and include deaths due to natural causes or errant Palestinian fire that killed Palestinians.

The discussion also alleged that Israel is starving Gazan civilians. Kattan said, “I’ll put it again in the context of Gaza because it’s strange to be here talking about food and having two million people being starved. I can’t hear people say the Gazans are starving. They are not. They’re being starved. The Israeli government – they clearly said on 8th October we will not allow food into Gaza and that’s what they’ve been doing.”
Pair Of Quebec News Media Outlets Publish De Facto Free Advertising For Tiny Anti-Israel Demonstration With 15 People
The rush to legitimize even the smallest anti-Israel demonstrations continues in some corners of the Canadian news media.

In a June 19 article in Le Charlevoisien, a newspaper based in the Quebec region of Charlevoix which receives both provincial and federal funding, the publication provided a de facto free advertisement for an upcoming anti-Israel protest that was scheduled for three days later.

The article entitled: “A demonstration for Palestine in Baie-Saint-Paul,” written by Jean-Baptiste Levêque, reported that “the first public demonstration in Charlevoix in support of the Palestinian people, who have been suffering like never before,” was to take place.

While that hardly promises to be a newsworthy event, readers could be forgiven for thinking that the demonstration was likely to be large, or perhaps featuring high-profile attendees or speakers.

But any such misconceptions were quickly clarified by Levêque in the article, who wrote that the organizer, Javier Franco, “estimated that 20 to 30 people were expected.”

Even that extremely modest estimate turned out to be quite an optimistic view. Judging by photos posted of the event to social media, the crowd numbered some 15 people, and one attendee, posting on Facebook, acknowledged the “very small group.”

While it is entirely the prerogative of individuals to organize such events if they so desire, it is the decision by Le Charlevoisien to act as an unpaid promoter for such a marginal group that raises questions about the newspaper’s editorial judgment.
PM Albanese refuses to expel Muslim Senator Payman for anti-Israel extremism
It has been widely reported in the media that yesterday, Fatima Payman, a Labor senator from Western Australia, has become the first member in nearly two decades to vote against the party after crossing the floor to vote for a Greens motion to recognise Palestinian statehood. Thankfully, the motion was voted down. However, this doesn’t take away from the tidal wave of anti-Israel senitment and genuine belief that Israel is a genocidal regime, which is erupting across the Australian Labor Party in Canberra right now.

Labor’s website describes Senator Payman as “an Australian Muslim with cultural roots from Afghanistan.” Born in Kabul, she is also the first federal Labor parliamentarian to break ranks by publicly describing what is happening in Gaza as a genocide. Last month, Senator Payman described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a genocide and we need to stop pretending otherwise. The lack of clarity, the moral confusion, the indecisiveness is eating at the heart of this nation.”

Directly addressing her Labor colleague Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Senator Payman said “I ask our prime minister and our fellow parliamentarians, how many international rights laws must Israel break for us to say enough? What is the magic number? How many mass graves need to be uncovered before we say enough? How many images of bloody limbs of murdered children must we see?”

Senator Payman ended her speech by repeating the phrase: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” which the Australian Jewish Community considers to be a direct call for the destruction and obliteration of the State of Israel. This is the same goal of recognised terrorist organisation Hamas, by the way.

The federal opposition under Liberal leader Peter Dutton called for Albanese to demand the backbencher apologise for making such a statement. Of course, this never happened. Judge our Prime Minister by his concrete actions, not his wishy washy words or moral equivalence about antisemitism and islamophobia in every statement he makes on the current conflict.

In case you have some doubt about just how extreme Senator Payman’s views are when it comes to Jewish people and the State of Israel, here are some direct quotes from her social media account:
- By recognising a Palestinian state, Australia would be affirming its commitment to the universal principle of self determination and frustrate Israel’s bid to crush such aspirations of the Palestinians.
- Videos are coming out of Rafah today with beheaded babies. This is deplorable. We must demand an end to this genocide, stop all trade, divest and recognise a Palestinian state.
- Israel’s genocide of Palestinian children does not move the bigots. Speaking out against the genocide does.

Until the Prime Minister unequivocally rules out all elements of anti-Israel extremism within the Federal Labor Party, how can anyone possibly believe that he is in any way supportive of the Australian Jewish Community and the State of Israel. With friends like Albanese, who needs enemies?
Britain could soon have a new foreign secretary. What would that mean for Israel?
When David Lammy talks about growing up in North London, home of one of the city’s largest Jewish communities, he recalls with genuine fondness the way British Jews embraced his father – who arrived in the U.K. from Guyana – and his own strong relationship both personally and professionally with Jewish people.

Now those ties could be put to the test, if the Labour Party wins the upcoming July 4 general election, and the long-serving British lawmaker is appointed by party leader Keir Starmer to become the country’s next foreign secretary.

Since 2021, Lammy, 51, has been serving as the shadow foreign secretary in Starmer’s opposition cabinet and throughout his two decades in Britain’s parliament he has shown strong support for Israel through the advocacy group Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), as well as visiting the country a handful of times, most recently in early November just weeks after Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terror attacks and the start of the ensuing war in Gaza.

In a speech at the LFI’s annual lunch last November, following his return from Israel, Lammy described how his father, who arrived in the U.K. as part of the so-called Windrush Generation following World War II, found a place among the Jewish community after other rental apartments were advertised as “No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs.”

“It wasn’t easy to find somewhere to live, except in North London where the doors of Jewish homes were always open, where the landlords were generous and not racist,” Lammy described. “And that’s why, talking of that time my father would always say, ‘Thank God for the Jews.’”

Lammy used his speech to talk about his own experience with the Jewish community, highlighting that a Jewish-owned law firm provided him with the financial backing that enabled him to study at Harvard Law School and – in his words – become “the first Black Brit to study there.”

“Without you, I would never have made it to where I am today,” Lammy said, addressing the representatives of that law firm who were present at the luncheon.

“I’ve heard him talk about his study at Harvard privately, but I think that was the first time he spoke about it publicly and what was so incredible was that we had arranged for three of the partners from the law firm to be there,” Michael Rubin, director of LFI, told Jewish Insider. “You could see that it was an emotional moment for all of them, and I think he really feels gratitude towards the Jewish community very, very personally.”

While Lammy declined to be interviewed for this article, JI spoke to multiple people personally familiar with the British MP about his relationship with the Jewish community and his approach to Israel. Most highlighted the deep ties he has with British Jewry, particularly in the close-knit Haredi community that lives within his constituency of Tottenham, and his efforts, alongside Starmer, to rid the Labour party of antisemitic and other extremist voices emboldened by the party’s previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour to pave way for blacklisting Iranian state terror militia
The Labour Party is reportedly planning to change the law to make it easier to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Both David Lammy Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary and Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, are in favour of blacklisting the IRGC.

According the Daily Telegraph, they plan to bring in a “bespoke” proscription mechanism to make it easier for “state-based actors” to be formally declared as terror groups.

They also plan to update the UK government’s counter-terror strategy, called Contest, and create a new home office and foreign office “joint cell” to deal with state-based threats to the UK.

Earlier this month, Labour’s manifesto highlighted the IRGC as a hostile group, but stopped short of an explicit call for the group’s proscription.

“From the Skripal poisonings to assassination plots by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, threats from hostile states or state-sponsored groups are on the rise, but Britain lacks a comprehensive framework to protect us,” it said.

"Labour will take the approach used for dealing with non-state terrorism and adapt it to deal with state-based domestic security threats.”


Jeremy Corbyn to lose seat
Jeremy Corbyn is set to be ejected from Parliament and lose to Labour, according to a new poll.

The survey, carried out by polling company Survation in the former Labour Party leader’s north London seat of Islington North, put Labour’s candidate Praful Nargund in the lead on 43 per cent.

Corbyn, who led Labour between 2015-2020, was second on 29 per cent. He is standing as an independent after he was prevented from standing for his former party by Labour’s governing body the National Executive Committee (NEC).

Survation’s poll was carried out in Islington North specifically, fieldwork was conducted via a telephone poll of 514 adults over 18 in the seat and was carried out between 20-25 June.

The veteran left-winger, who has represented the north London seat in Parliament since 1983, had the Labour whip removed from him in October 2020 after he refused to accept the conclusions of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) report on antisemitism in the Labour Party under his leadership. In a Facebook post, Corbyn said that the scale of antisemitism in the party had been “dramatically overstated” for political reasons by his rivals and the media.

Under Corbyn, the Labour Party was called “institutionally antisemitic” by Jewish MP Luciana Berger who resigned from the party in protest. She since rejoined Labour under Starmer.


Bill to expand 'Al Jazeera Law' passes Knesset preliminary vote
In a preliminary vote on Wednesday, the Knesset approved a bill proposal to extend and permanently establish the “Al Jazeera Law,” which grants the government the authority to shut down a foreign media outlet if deemed a threat to national security.

In April, the Knesset passed a temporary bill that empowered the government to block the foreign media outlet’s cable television broadcast in Israel, shut down its offices, seize equipment used for its broadcasts, and block its website under certain conditions. The bill mandated a District Court judge’s review and government reapproval of the decision every 45 days, with an expiration date of July 31.

Both satellite and cable broadcasts can be blocked
The bill, introduced by Likud MK Ariel Kalner, canceled the July 31 expiration date on Wednesday and was made permanent. It also extended the need for government reapproval from every 45 days to every 90 days and added a provision, saying that the communications minister could “direct government agencies responsible for the issue to stop the channel’s broadcast.” A spokesperson for Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi explained that this would enable the government to block not just cable but also satellite broadcasts.

In May, the government voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s broadcasts in Israel, and soon after, inspectors raided the Qatari news outlet’s offices and confiscated equipment. The decision was ratified by a judge in early June. Later in May, inspectors confiscated equipment used by AP, claiming it was being used by Al Jazeera. The move drew widespread criticism, and Karhi eventually reversed it.

The bill has raised concerns that it disproportionally violates freedom of the press and that the real intention behind it is to silence voices that are critical of Israel, such as that of Al Jazeera.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) appealed to the High Court against the constitutionality of the bill that passed in April. ACRI argued during a hearing in early June that the bill violated freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the right to information. According to ACRI, these freedoms and rights are especially important during wartime, when governments tend to curtail freedoms.
Female IDF soldier smuggles Schalit deal prisoner, other Palestinians, into Israel
The police prosecution unit submitted on Tuesday to the Petah Tikva Magistrate Court an indictment against a 21-year-old resident of Karnei Shomron and his 19-year-old partner, a resident of Ramle, a soldier in regular service, for smuggling illegal Palestinian residents into Israel.

According to the indictment, this occurred in the past few months and in some cases, while the accused wore an IDF uniform.

The indictment further stated that following the onset of Operation Iron Swords, a state of emergency was declared in Israel as part of which a blockade was imposed on the West Bank.

The accused, who, in parallel to serving in the military, worked as a waitress at a restaurant in Rishon Lezion, was in contact with an illegal Palestinian resident who worked at the restaurant,

She began driving him back and forth from his home in a village in the West Bank. After they had become friends, the Palestinian offered the female soldier to smuggle illegal residents into Israel in exchange for monetary payment. On thirty different occasions, the accused, along with her partner, drove illegal Palestinian residents from the Beit Horon gas station on Route 443 through the Maccabim crossing into central Israel.

Upon her arrival at the checkpoint, her partner would place his hand on the driver's seat and hide the passengers in the back seat. On one of the trips to smuggle illegal residents, she did so while wearing an IDF uniform.

The person who mediated between the accused and the Palestinians and organized the smuggling was the Palestinian worker, an illegal resident himself, who transferred to the two a payment ranging between NIS 200-300 for each illegal resident.


MEMRI: PFLP-Linked Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Leads 250 International Pro-Jihadi, Anti-Israel Organizations In Statement Of Support For Yemeni Attacks On U.S. And UK Targets, Solidarity With Iran-Lead 'Axis Of Resistance'; Samidoun YouTube Channels Subsequently Blocked
One June 5, 2024, over 250 international jihadi and anti-Israel organizations issued a statement of support for Yemen's attacks on U.S. and UK targets.[1] The petition was lead and distributed by Masar Badil – the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, Alkarama Palestinian Women's Mobilization, and the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which is linked to the U.S.-designated terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).[2]

Masar Badil, or the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement is an Anti-Israel, pro- Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) NGO lead by Khaled Barakat, a Canada-based former PFLP official.[3] Samidoun's international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, who is married to Barakat, stated that the "war of siege and aggression against Yemen has been waged by the United States, Britain, and the Zionist regime for years, with the participation of regimes such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and others, and they are the same forces that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza since October 7."

In May 2024, Kates was arrested by Canadian police after she delivered a speech at a rally in Vancouver, British Columbia, during which she expressed support for Hamas, the PFLP, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Lebanese Hizbullah, and demanded that they be removed from Canada's terror list.[4]

Petition Endorsed By Organizations Worldwide, Including The U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, Brazil, Netherlands, Sweden, And Greece

The following organizations from around the world are among the 250 that endorsed the statement: Al-Quds Toronto; Amsterdam for BDS; Anti Imperialist Action Ireland; Anti-Imperialism Alliance; BDS Greece Kifissia Initiative for Solidarity with Palestine; BDS Tokyo; BDS Vancouver/Coast Salish Territories; Black Alliance for Peace – Solidarity Network; Canada Palestine Association; Canadian BDS Coalition and International BDS Allies; Canadian Islamic Congress; Code Pink River Valley; CODEPINK (South Florida Chapter); Communist Party of Lancashire UK; CUNYforPalestine; Feministisk Initiativ, Sweden; Free Gaza Movement; Free Palestine Canada; Free Palestine Melbourne; Gender Justice LA; Jewish Anti-Zionist Collective Toronto (JAZCto); Jewish Network for Palestine; Justice for Palestine; Lutherans for Justice in the Holy Land; Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada; Montreal4Palestine; Nederlands Palestina Komitee; Palestine Liberation Centre; Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU); Party of Communists USA; Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism; Samidoun Albuquerque; Samidoun Brasil; Samidoun Goteborg; Samidoun Manchester; Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network; Samidoun Stockholm; Samidoun Toronto; Stand with Palestine Halifax; Veterans for Peace; Workers World Party.


Explosion of hate: State Department report details global rise in antisemitism
The State Department’s 2023 report on International Religious Freedom released Wednesday documented a widespread uptick in antisemitism in every corner of the globe with a significant increase in reported incidents after October 7.

From the United Kingdom to Canada and Brazil to Italy and France, hate crimes between October 7 and the year’s end increased significantly from the same time period in 2022.

French officials reported the total number of antisemitic acts during 2023 nearly quadrupled to 1,676, up from 436 in 2022, according to report, and antisemitic acts increased by 1,000 % since the October 7 Hamas attacks, with 1,242 acts reported after that date equaling that of the previous three years combined.

In Canada prior to October 7, it was reported that instances of physical violence, vandalism, hate speech, and harassment directed at religious groups, particularly Jews and Muslims, were on a downward trend, the report said. However, law enforcement in Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal all reported rises in antisemitic incidents and hate crimes.

Ottawa police reported 128 hate incidents and hate crimes between October 7 and the year’s end, an increase compared to 2022. Police there said antisemitic incidents comprised 27% of all reported hate incidents in 2023. Montreal police reported that since October 7, the city experienced 131 antisemitic hate incidents including gunfire that targeted Jewish schools and Molotov cocktails that were thrown at Jewish synagogues, the report said.

A rabbi in the UK said the Jewish community there was more fearful for its safety than at any time since World War II.

Over 4000 antisemitic incidents
An NGO reported 4,103 antisemitic incidents during 2023 – two-thirds of which occurred after October 7 – the highest total since the NGO began recording such incidents in 1984, according to the State Department’s reporting.
Emhoff blasts ‘crisis of antisemitism’ at groundbreaking for Tree of Life synagogue
Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro were among the dignitaries in Pittsburgh marking the groundbreaking Sunday of a new structure to replace the Tree of Life synagogue, where 11 worshipers were murdered in 2018 in the deadliest act of antisemitism in American history.

The public figures joined family members of those killed, as well as survivors of the massacre, to memorialize those murdered and to dedicate a new center to the fight against antisemitism and hate.

“Today we announce, loudly and clearly, to the entire world that evil did not win — that it did not chase us from our home, and it never, ever will,” said Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who survived the shooting.

Carole Zawatsky, the inaugural CEO of Tree of Life, described the new center to be built on the site as a “locally grounded institution with a national impact, dedicated to uprooting antisemitism and identity-based hate.”

Plans for the new complex include a cultural center, sanctuary, educational center and museum along with a memorial to the worshipers murdered in the 2018 attack.

“In the face of dramatically rising antisemitism, it is our turn to pick up the baton,” Zawatsky added. Antisemitic hate crimes have surged worldwide over the last eight months, in the wake of the Hamas terror group’s October 7 attack on Israel last year and the subsequent war between the country and the terror group, which continues to hold hostages.

Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice president, was the only speaker to refer explicitly to the October 7 attack, or the State of Israel, though others made oblique references to it and some wore dog tags representing the plight of the hostages in Gaza.

The first gentleman spoke about his visit to the Tree of Life site in the aftermath of October 7, and said, “It is a crisis of antisemitism we are undergoing right now in America and the world.
Euro 2024 organizers turn blind eye to Palestinian flag in stadiums
Euro 2024 regulations stipulate that flags of non-participating countries and political propaganda are prohibited in stadiums. However, it quickly became apparent that organizers are turning a blind eye and not strictly enforcing these rules.

Turkish supporters initially exploited this leniency by waving scarves featuring the Palestinian flag. Upon realizing there was no intervention, they began hanging Palestinian flags in the stands without hindrance.

Israel is not participating in Euro 2024, which may explain its lack of protest against these displays. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian advocacy continues to operate and capture the hearts and minds of various national team supporters who have traveled to Germany.

In recent days, anti-Israel activists, seemingly of Turkish origin, have found a new way to promote their agenda. The trend began in Stuttgart, where, en route to matches, many fans received free white hats printed with watermelon designs from these activists.

"This is our way to increase solidarity with the Palestinian people," the activists said, explaining that the colors of the watermelon match those of the Palestinian flag.

Scottish, German, Ukrainian, French, and many other fans are accepting and proudly wearing these hats without questioning their significance. In doing so, they unknowingly become vehicles for pro-Palestinian propaganda that spreads across social media, disseminating an anti-Israel message.
Father Coughlin’s Detroit-area church will now teach visitors about his antisemitism
During his Depression-era run as one of the country’s most popular radio personalities, Father Charles Coughlin spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, praised fascists and suggested Jews deserved the horrors of Nazi persecution.

Now, nine decades later, his church is officially declaring him an antisemite - and educating visitors about his legacy of hate.

Following renewed interest in Coughlin and two years of discussions with local Jewish figures, the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan, has changed the way it memorializes its founder, whose large national following helped pay for its construction.

Previously, official histories at the Catholic parish seat stated that Coughlin’s “political involvement and passionate rhetoric opened him up to accusations of antisemitism.” The new version, posted on both the church’s website and on an updated plaque on the Shrine grounds, is far more direct, stating clearly that Coughlin himself propagated antisemitism.

“His political involvement and passionate rhetoric gradually became overtly antisemitic,” the new passage reads, with the updated plaque in the church now including a QR code to a page on the Shrine’s website. Entitled “Legacy of Antisemitism,” the page discusses Coughlin’s record of antisemitic comments in the late 1930s in more detail, including his national distribution of the notorious antisemitic forgery “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which purports to be a secret plan for Jewish world domination.

Housed in a historic Art Deco building, the Shrine will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2026. But almost 60 years after Coughlin’s retirement, many members of the church community had never heard of him or his legacy among Jews.


‘Jews in Magic’: Reviving a 1933 history book by Guenther Dammann
New York Times business reporter David Segal tells the story of Richard Hatch, a physicist-turned-magician who works to revive the writing of Guenther Dammann, author of 1933’s Jews in Magic, who died during the Holocaust in 1942.

At 23, Dammann self-published an estimated 500 copies of his 100-page book, which historians regard as the first effort to chronicle notable Jewish magicians, both living and dead at the time. Hatch has created a new translation with annotations and photographs, and notes that he is exploring options for publishing.

Hatch writes in the June 24 feature in the Times that when he first encountered the title in 1979 and noted its 1933 publication date in Germany, he suspected a work of antisemitism. However, decades later, Hatch said, “I realized that the book was about the great contributions that Jews have made to magic.”

The title includes short biographies of more than 50 Jewish magicians, including escape artist Harry Houdini and 19th-century illusionist Alexander Herrmann, who performed for President Abraham Lincoln. Dammann became interested in magic at 12 or 13 from Ernest Thorn, a family friend and retired magician who would appear in Jews in Magic. This led Dammann, at 21, to join the Magic Circle of Germany, which inspired his book.

“There’s a saying that we all die three times,” Hatch said, as reported in the Times. “The first death is the physical one, when your heart stops beating. The second is when your body is consigned to fire or the grave. And the third is the last time someone utters your name. Life was so cruel and unfair to him, I just thought, it’s a worthy cause to keep Dammann’s name alive for as long as I can.”
Israeli tourism to Azerbaijan doubles during Gaza war
The number of Israelis visiting Azerbaijan this spring has doubled even as the eight-month old war against Hamas rages on in Gaza.

The figures, which come amid rising anti-Semitism across the globe, including in both the United States and Europe, are indicative of the close ties between Israel and the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim country, which have continued unabated throughout the war.

In the two and half months since flights between Tel Aviv and Baku resumed in mid-March, more than 8,000 Israelis visited Azerbaijan, a 50% increase compared to the same period last year, according to official Azerbaijani tourism statistics.

Nearly 30,000 Israelis visited Azerbaijan in 2023 before flights to Baku were suspended following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, which triggered the war.

“Azerbaijan is a safe destination for Israelis and Jews,” Jamilya Talibzadeh, director of the Azerbaijan Tourism Bureau in Israel, told JNS. “There are almost no demonstrations against Israel or antisemitic attacks.”

“The multicultural and secular country has always accepted and appreciated the Jewish community and lived with it in peace,” she added.

At a time when some major foreign carriers, including American Airlines and Air Canada, have still not resumed flights to Tel Aviv, Azerbaijan Airlines currently operates 11 weekly flights between the countries. Israir also offers three flights a week between Tel Aviv and Baku.
Unpacked: Who were the Mossad’s Arab Spies?
As described in Matti Friedman’s "Spies of No Country,”iIn the fight for a Jewish homeland, Israel’s first spies gathered essential intelligence, laying the groundwork for the Mossad.

Among them were Gamliel Cohen and Isaac Shoshan, who showed relentless bravery, infiltrating enemy lines and blending into the Arab world in daring efforts that were crucial for Israel’s survival.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:57 Between Resolution 181 and Israeli Declaration of Independence
02:18 Pre-Mossad Israeli spies Gamliel Cohen and Isaac Shoshan
03:21 The Palmach and learning to be Arabs
04:39 The Arab Section and Mistaravim
05:26 The Tiger in Haifa
06:36 Arab suspicions and Jewish persistence
07:28 Gamliel Cohen in Beirut, Lebanon
08:57 Exploding Hitler's yacht
10:24 The Arab Section's success


Remains of Jewish WWII vet found after being MIA since 1944. Clifton genealogist tells how
The swirl of a Clifton's genealogist's mouse set off a tsunami of events in Europe that ultimately ended up repatriating a World War II veteran long presumed to be missing.

On Sunday, members of Operation Benjamin, an organization devoted to ensuring the graves of U.S. Jewish soldiers buried abroad have Stars of David headstones, will gather around the gravesite of Lt. Nathan Baskind in Normandy. The group acknowledges that it was Clifton's Eric Feinstein's curiosity that set these events in motion.

What happened?
Feinstein said he was scrolling around the German War Graves Commission website in December of 2022 when the name Nathan Baskind popped onto his screen.

"I clicked on the name and saw to my amazement that it was an American soldier buried in the Marigny German Cemetery in Northern France," Feinstein said. "This is the German Cemetery from the Normandy Campaign, 11 kilometers from Omaha Beach. Why would an American Jew be buried at a German WWII cemetery?"

A professional genealogist living in Clifton, he specializes in performing research, mostly for international law firms that specialize in citizenship work but he also works with private clients, families and individuals.

On that particular day, he had decided to look for Jewish names while performing research on the German War Graves Commission.

The commission he said administers an array of Jewish graves, Holocaust victims, World War I veterans, prisoners of war, that are in German cemeteries in Germany, Europe and all over the world. One of the names he searched for was Nathan, which only turned out a few results, including Baskind.

He delved deeper into Baskind's story and visited American Battlefield Monuments Commission site.

Bingo.

The Americans had him listed at the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville, France on the tablets of the Missing in Action.

"I said to myself, how missing in action can he be if the Germans have him as buried 10 miles away?" he asked.

A deeper dive uncovered that Baskind was from Pittsburgh, and the son of Abraham Baskind and Lena Shapiro. Since he was Jewish, he reached out to Operation Benjamin.
After Benjamin fell in Gaza, his parents made aliyah from France
Master sergeant (res.) Eliahou Benjamin Elmakayes came to Israel alone from France about 10 years ago out of his great love for the State of Israel, where he wished to build his life. On November 8, he was killed in the Gaza Strip. Now his parents are moving to Israel to live as he would have wanted, in Jerusalem.

Benjamin, who served as a reservist in the Engineering Corps, fell in battle in Gaza. He was 29 years old at the time of his death. His parents decided to follow his path, and next week they will make aliyah to Israel through the Jewish Agency and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Benjamin is the youngest son of Marlene (Shoshana) and Lucien (Israel). He is also survived by five brothers and sisters. "We were very close, perhaps because he was the youngest of my six children," his mother said.

In 2010, at the age of 15, Benjamin left his family in France and came to study in high school in Israel. After completing his matriculation exams, he returned to France, but his longing for Israel determined his path. He immigrated to the country in 2014 and volunteered for combat service in the Engineering Corps as a lone soldier.

After completing his service, he worked in a security firm in Jerusalem, and he planned to marry his partner, Yoana. When the war broke out, he was called for reserve duty in Gaza. "We were very worried," his mother said. "At the end of October, we saw him in Israel. We had a celebration and were filled with joy and excitement. We did not know that this happy moment would be our last together."

A few days after their reunion, on November 8, Benjamin fell in the Gaza Strip. After the shiva, the family returned to France, but in their hearts they had already decided to make aliyah. "His dream was that we live with him in Israel. We will build our lives in Jerusalem, the city that Benjamin loved more than anything," Marlene said.

The chairman of the Jewish Agency, Major General (Res.) Doron Almog, said: "Benjamin's legacy and the spirit of his service give us pride and inspiration." Yael Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, added: "We will continue to accompany the family in their adjustment process in the country."

Minister of Immigration and Absorption of Israel Ofir Sofer expressed happiness over the aliyah of the fallen soldier's parents.

"The parents of Benjamin Elmakayes, who immigrated alone to enlist and defend the homeland and fell in battle, continue their heroic son's path. A few months ago, I met Marlene and Lucien at an aliyah fair in Paris and was moved to tears when they told me they were about to make aliyah. I am glad this day has come. Our office will assist them in every way necessary to adjust to Israel as well as possible," he said.
Birthright Israel mega-event draws 2,000 young Jews from around world
More than 2,000 participants on Birthright Israel programs gathered on Monday for a gala evening in central Israel that marks the highlight of the organization’s summer trips to Israel.

The Birthright Israel Mega Event at Mini Israel Park in Latrun took place in solidarity with the Israel Defense Forces as soldiers continue to fight Hamas in the Gaza Strip, keeping in mind the hostages taken captive on Oct. 7 from Jewish communities in southern Israel who are still being held there. It also highlighted the organization’s efforts since that day in bridging connections between Israel and global Jewish communities, as well as strengthening the State of Israel.

Among the performing artists on stage on June 24 were 2024 Eurovision Song Contest competitor Eden Golan, who came in fifth place for her performance of “Hurricane”; Hatikva 6, an Israeli reggae band started in Ramat Hasharon; Ethiopian Israeli pop singer Hagit Yaso of Sderot; and Yuval Sharabi, daughter of Yossi Sharabi, who died in captivity in Gaza.

Gidi Mark, CEO of Birthright Israel, began his speech by requesting a moment of silence to honor the memories of the 13 Israeli alumni of the program who were killed by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival or who died fighting to save lives that Black Shabbat.

“Nearly every young Jew who has visited Israel since Oct. 7 has come with Birthright Israel,” he said. “This summer, almost 15,000 young Jews will visit Israel, and we should not overlook this opportunity. Birthright Israel aims for participants to connect with Jewish peers; take pride in Judaism; deepen their understanding of Israel and themselves; and forge lasting friendships.

Mark added that “no matter what, we will never give up on our unity and support for one another.”
Canadian comedian and influencer Daniel Ryan Spaulding advocates for Israel amid the war in Gaza



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