Friday, June 28, 2024

06/28 Links Pt2: The global lust for Jewish blood; Don’t trust me, I’m a Gazan doctor; The Quincy Institute’s Middle East Fantasies; David Draiman: 'I needed see my people again'

From Ian:

Phyllis Chesler: The global lust for Jewish blood
Such a silence has deep roots in the politically correct academic world.

You are either a victim or a victimizer; you are oppressed or you are an oppressor; you are colonized or you are a colonizer. Israel has been designated as the world’s chief oppressor and colonizer.

Some victims are more sacred than others. Men of color are more important than white men; Muslim men of color are even more important, unless they’ve been killed by other Muslims. Then, their deaths do not matter. The murders of women of all colors matters even less.

In addition, there is the belief in multicultural relativism—that all cultures are equal; that there is no objective truth. Everything is relative, subjective; everyone is entitled to their own narrative.

Here’s one reason my views are so different:

Most Western pro-Palestinian feminists, leftists and academics have never lived in a Muslim country or moved in Muslim circles or worked with Muslim dissidents as I do.

I wrote about this in An American Bride in Kabul.

They have absolutely no knowledge of Islamic gender and religious apartheid; Islamic imperialism, Islamic colonialism, or Islamic conversion via the sword; no understanding that Muslims practiced anti-black slavery and sex slavery—and many still do.

Demonizing Israelis as “worse than the Nazis” allows Europeans to continue the Holocaust against the Jews and feel that they are rendering themselves safe from radical Islamic hostility by appeasing the Islamist Muslims who live in their midst. It is also a way of scapegoating Jews and Israel for the crimes of European and Muslim racism and colonialism.

Like so many, I had assumed that the world’s hatred and persecution of Jews had ended; that Jewish history would never again repeat itself.

I was wrong.

It was foolish to have thought that Jew-hatred would suddenly become extinct or that Israel would not remain under siege.

We must shed our illusions—permanently. We cannot expect that conditions will always improve, or that one country or another will always be a safe haven for Jews.

One cannot win a war of ideas if one refuses to fight it.

I will take a step back, take a breath or two and return to my frontline post.
Don’t trust me, I’m a Gazan doctor
Deference to doctors is perhaps the more charitable explanation for the false report by Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s international editor, in November 2023. He claimed that Gaza’s Al-Ahli hospital had been ‘flattened’ by a deadly Israeli airstrike. But, as soon became clear, the hospital was very much still standing, no one had been killed and the explosion in its parking area was the result of a misfired Hamas missile. When the same hospital was later captured by the Israel Defence Forces, soldiers found scores of Kalashnikov assault rifles and RPG rocket launchers inside. Bowen then bizarrely suggested that such weapons are a normal sight in Middle Eastern hospitals.

The unwillingness to scrutinise claims from healthcare workers in Gaza is deeply troubling. Under Hamas, Gaza is very much a one-party state, with a record of punishing perceived dissidence with severity. Its hospital directors are often military officers and many hospital staff are also members of Hamas’ military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. That Gazan medics were involved in the mass kidnapping operation that accompanied the atrocities of 7 October has been confirmed by the recent revelation that some of the hostages recently rescued by the IDF were held at the house of prominent Gazan GP Ahmad Al-Jamal.

That doesn’t mean that every statement issued by Gaza’s health ministry, hospital administrators or doctors should be assumed to be propaganda. It just means that their statements should be treated like those given out or approved by the Assad regime in Syria, the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Kim government in Pyongyang – that is, with scepticism.

The ongoing inability of Western and especially British journalists to imagine that a doctor – a middle-class person like themselves, but with even more years in higher education – might also be a fanatic, a supporter of killers, or even a killer himself requires almost wilful ignorance. And not just of Second World War monsters like Nazi Germany’s Dr Mengele or serial killers like Harold Shipman. Recent history features doctor-dictators, such as Haiti’s ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad – a UK-educated ophthalmologist. Then there are the doctor-terrorists, like Ikuo Hayashi, who carried out the deadly Sarin Attack on Tokyo Subway; and, of course, Hamas co-founder and suicide-bombing innovator Abdel al-Rantisi.

Doctors have been almost as prominent in the jihadist world as engineers. Osama bin Laden’s successor as head of al-Qaeda was Ayman al-Zawahiri, a surgeon. The head of the viciously anti-Semitic Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, is the NHS’s own Dr Wahid Asif Shaida. Scores of physicians based in the UK, Pakistan and the US joined ISIS when the so-called caliphate was enslaving Yazidi girls and burning alive Jordanian pilots.

None of this should be shocking. Many who train to be doctors do so because they desire status and wealth, not because they are intrinsically benign, or devoted to the diminution of human suffering. They are as likely as any other profession to be drawn to political extremism, and perhaps more likely to have a stomach for the results of violence. The British media’s propensity to treat doctors as if they are priestly figures, presumptively above the fray of ordinary politics and prejudice is not just naïve and ignorant, it’s also dangerous to the truth.
The Quincy Institute’s Middle East Fantasies
The positions adopted by the think tank’s scholars during the war in Gaza are illustrative of its overall Middle East agenda: appease Iran and demonise Israel. From this, it follows that Palestinians are oppressed by Israel, which is systematically denying them their legitimate national rights. Quincy scholars argue that the US must therefore press Israel to withdraw from Gaza and end its occupation of the West Bank.

This is at variance with the Quincy Institute’s stated position on Russia and Ukraine, which it dresses up as hardcore realpolitik. Quincy scholars hesitate to criticise Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine, and they treat the whole notion of Ukrainian nationalism with deep scepticism. So, while the onus is on Ukraine to reach a deal with the more powerful Russia in the interests of regional stability, powerful Israel is expected to make whatever concessions are required for peace, and the US is expected to coerce it into doing so.

Quincy scholars claim to be bullet-biting realists who believe that the US should stay out of the Middle East because its interests there are limited. But they are transformed into mawkish idealists—not to mention interventionists—when it comes to Israel, insisting that Washington take a clear stand against its wayward ally. Some of them have even begun to wonder whether the world’s only Jewish state should be allowed to exist at all, so they promote a post-Zionist one-state outcome instead. As similar experiments in bi-nationalist arrangements in Yugoslavia and elsewhere have demonstrated, this is a recipe for even greater instability and bloodshed.

Quincy’s scholars have repeatedly opposed Western intervention in Syria’s civil war or Western condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party’s treatment of China’s Muslim minorities, but they urge diplomatic détente with Iran, which is one of the world’s leading human-rights violators. And now they blame Israel for the outbreak and escalation of violence across the Middle East that an Iranian proxy started. And they demand that America condition its support for Israel on the latter’s willingness, as one Quincy scholar put it, “to actually engage in diplomacy with their neighbors to a degree they haven’t.”

It’s remarkable that any realist—or really any serious analyst of Middle Eastern affairs—would make such a statement at this late date. Decades of diplomatic efforts by the US and Israel produced durable peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, and more recently, the Abraham Accords. They also produced the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, but subsequent negotiations with the Palestinian Arabs have been exercises in futility that have been met with rejectionism and violence. And yet the Quincy realists demand that the US punish Israelis by cutting off military aid and joining the condemnation of Israel in international fora.

This makes no sense. The Quincy coterie insists that the United States do nothing to encourage the ouster of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, that it must not punish Iran for exporting terrorism across the Middle East, and that it should not lead an international campaign against China’s mistreatment of its Uyghur minority. These and other countries may be doing terrible things, they say, but it is not America’s business to interfere in the domestic affairs of other states or take action over matters that don’t threaten its core interests.

Except, that is, when it comes to Israel. Only the antipathy felt by the Institute’s scholars toward that tiny American ally explains their moralistic attempts to draw the United States into an intractable conflict, despite the high costs involved.


Daniel Greenfield: What I Saw at a Terrorist Rally Outside a Synagogue
Despite knowing that a terrorist rally was planned outside a synagogue, the LAPD had allowed the terrorist supporters to take over the entire sidewalk, leaving only a thin lane for attendees to walk through to get inside. The LAPD did little to interfere with the terrorist supporters, but did block Jewish counterprotesters from reaching their own synagogue.

Media accounts, especially from the Los Angeles Times, CNN and the JTA, falsely characterize the violence as coming from the Jewish counterprotesters rather than the terrorist supporters.

[T]he LAPD brings out the riot gear, allows the radicals free rein and waits as long as possible before taking any action.

Why is this happening? ... Mayor Karen Bass is a close political ally of BLM LA boss Melina Abdullah, who has backed the pro-terrorist campaign against Jews. When Jews were attacked at UCLA, Democrat members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion to fund legal support for the terrorist supporters. The resolution to use taxpayer money to fund legal defenses for antisemites was put forward by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath who 'represents' Council District 3 where the synagogue hate riot was taking place. After all the antisemitic violence at UCLA, the only one facing serious charges is a Jewish student.

The Democrat leadership of Los Angeles does not stand with the Jewish communities being targeted by hate, but with the antisemitic mobs surrounding synagogues.

Behind the masks, keffiyehs and the terrorist flags is the new Democratic Party.


Israeli divestment ban passes Senate
The ‘Stand with Israel Act’ passed the Senate on Thursday with broad bipartisan support, moving Pennsylvania closer to a ban on divestment from the nation by publicly funded institutions.

It’s one of many that moved through the chamber amid a flurry of votes this week intended to prevent a repeat of last year’s summer stalemate.

And now, with the Senate out of town until Monday, all eyes are on the state House – including Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who told The Center Square on Thursday she was pleased with the bill’s swift movement.

“I congratulate the Senate for passing this legislation with such a strong majority,” she said. “I urge the House of Representatives to consider it without delay and send this bill to Governor Shapiro for his signature.”

Immediate passage of the bill would theoretically prevent anyone in Garrity’s position from divesting from Israel or Israeli companies as an act of protest, even as the nation’s security rating falters in the midst of its war on Hamas.

According to the S&P, the outlook on Israel’s long-term ratings is negative. Recently Samsung closed its offices in Tel Aviv, and businesses like McDonald’s and Starbucks have been hit hard as targets of international boycotts.

The bill’s provisions do not currently articulate how divestment would be identified within the context of fund management or how it would be enforced. Its crafters say that shifts away from Israeli investments made for “purely financial reasons” would still be allowed. Critics have claimed that the bill’s lack of clarity belies a purely political motivation.

“The bill [also] declares without argument or evidence that it is in the best interest of the Commonwealth to promote trade and financial activity with Israel. However the process of actually effecting and regulating ‘trade’ is highly detailed. This bill provides not a single provision in which to do so,” said Garrity’s challenger in the November election, Democrat Erin McClelland.

Sen. Steven Santarsiero, D-Doylestown, a co-sponsor of the bill, says it is intended to create a consequence for public institutions and would not infringe on private citizens or organizations from boycotts and divestments. He insisted that the bill “does not impact or inhibit anyone’s right to free speech.”
NGOs seek Dutch ban on export of F-35 parts that could end up in hands of IDF
Lawyers for rights groups asked a Hague court on Friday to order the Dutch state to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts that might end up in Israel, including parts sent to the United States to build fighter planes destined for the Israeli army.

The court case, started by rights groups including the Dutch arm of Oxfam, flows from another district court ruling in February that the Netherlands cannot send F-35 parts to Israel over concerns the jets could be involved in breaking international humanitarian law in the war in Gaza.

According to the rights groups’ lawyers, the Dutch state stopped direct export of parts to Israel but continues to deliver fighter jet parts to the US and other countries which are then sent on or used in planes destined for Israel.

“The state must actively prevent that parts from the Netherlands reach Israel via a detour,” lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld said.

Lawyers for the Dutch state told the court on Friday that the rights groups had a flawed interpretation of the earlier court ruling, and the legal end destination of component parts was the country where production takes place, not the country where a final product may end up.

“In these deliveries the United States [is] the end destination” as understood by European regulation, lawyer Reimer Veldhuis said, adding that the Netherlands was complying with the earlier court order.

The court is set to rule in the case on July 12.
Schumer under mounting pressure to advance major antisemitism bill
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is facing mounting pressure from Jewish leaders and Democratic colleagues who have privately voiced frustrations with the continued delay in moving to advance a major bill aimed at addressing a recent surge in antisemitic activity on college campuses.

Schumer, who has been outspoken against rising antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, had endorsed prior versions of the legislation, called the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which first passed the Senate in 2016 under unanimous consent.

But after an initial effort to unanimously fast-track the bill failed last month in the Senate, Schumer has since delayed for weeks in bringing the bill up for a floor vote, even as it is expected to pass comfortably with bipartisan support and has won backing from a large number of Jewish groups.

In a brief interview with Jewish Insider on Thursday afternoon, Schumer, who has rarely addressed the matter publicly, stressed that he is now “looking at every single option to try and get strong, bipartisan legislation passed,” but he did not share a timeline for approving the bill.

“The crusade against antisemitism is in my bones, has been for my whole life,” he said, describing “the goals and aspirations of” the bill as “so important in this fight and to the future.”

Still, the holdup has angered supporters of the bill who allege that Schumer — the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the country — is now slow-walking a floor vote because he is fearful that it will highlight divisions within his caucus while garnering a larger share of Republican backers.

“He is avoiding this at all costs,” said a person familiar with the matter who spoke with JI on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive topic. “The reason why he hates this is because Schumer knows there’s going to be 40 to 45 Republicans who are going to vote for this bill, but there’s only going to be 30 Democrats.”

The bill would enshrine a definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance into federal law and direct the Department of Education to consider the definition — which, among other things, identifies some criticism of Israel as antisemitic — in evaluating complaints of anti-Jewish discrimination on college campuses. That policy has been in place since 2019 under an executive order signed by former President Donald Trump.


Daniel Greenfield: Schumer’s Jewish Support Crashed After Attacking Israel
Two years ago, Senator Chuck Schumer enjoyed an 82% approval among New York Jews. In contrast to the 40% unfavorable rating among New Yorkers, only 18% of Jews disapproved.

Now he’s tied as 45% of New York Jews have come to hate Chuck.

What happened in the last two years to send his approval rating crashing from 82% to 48%?

This spring, Schumer agreed to become the public face of the Biden administration’s campaign to bring down the Israeli government, save Hamas and end the war. In a high-profile Senate speech, the lifelong politician who had spent his career pretending to be pro-Israel, equated the Israeli government with Hamas, forbade Israel to go into Rafah to pursue the terror group, claimed that “the Israeli war campaign has killed so many innocent Palestinians” and warned that the Biden administration would use its “leverage” to create a terrorist state inside Israel.

While many pro-Israel figures excoriated Schumer, he trotted out his ‘rabbi’, Rachel Timoner, a radical leftist anti-Israel activist who had taken part in anti-Israel rallies, to defend his betrayal.

According to Timoner, Schumer said “what most of us think” and “what the overwhelming majority of American Jews are saying to each other”. However what Timoner was saying, according to T’ruah, one of the anti-Israel groups she was allied with, could be summed up as, “American Jews must tell our govt we oppose this war and want an end to the occupation.”

Was Schumer saying what most American Jews were really thinking?

Schumer’s latest Siena poll numbers in New York are in. And while his total unfavorable rating in the state is only up a few percent, his numbers among Jewish New Yorkers are catastrophic. With a 48% approval rating among New York Jews, his is only 3% higher than Trump’s at 45%. And his disapproval rating is higher than that of any other statewide figure in the poll. He now has a higher disapproval rating among Jews than among blacks, Latinos or protestants.

Those are stunning numbers and they show a sharp reversal of political fortune. They also help explain why the same poll shows that 46% of New York Jews would now vote for Trump.
House Dem To Speak at Anti-Israel Conference With Holocaust Denier and Ex-Hamas Member
Rep. André Carson (D., Ind.) will speak at the annual convention of an Islamic group linked to Hamas, along with one imam convicted in Israel of serving in terrorist groups and another who has denied the Holocaust, praised Adolf Hitler, and more recently said he doesn't care about the October 7 attack.

Carson, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, is slated to speak at the Islamic Society of North America's convention in Dallas on a Sept. 1 panel with Mehdi Hasan, a journalist formerly with MSNBC and the Qatar-funded network Al Jazeera.

Many of Carson's fellow speakers at the events have preached anti-Israel rhetoric for years. Yasir Qadhi, who will appear on a panel with Hasan and socialist presidential candidate Cornel West, once claimed that "Hitler never intended to mass-destroy the Jews" and has called the Holocaust a "hoax." He expressed ambivalence about the October 7 attack at a campus rally last month, telling students, "I don't care about that one particular day."

Mohammad Qatanani, who will speak on the panel "Standing in Solidarity with the Victims in Gaza & Palestine," reportedly faced deportation proceedings in the United States for failing to disclose that an Israeli court convicted him for providing material support to Hamas, "as well as his membership in the terror organization," according to Canary Mission.

The imams' appearance at the conference is perhaps no surprise given the Islamic Society of North America's longstanding ties to Hamas. Federal prosecutors in a 2007 terrorism finance investigation labeled the organization an "unindicted co-conspirator" of Hamas.

Carson's appearance at the event comes as some House Democrats have faced blowback for affiliations with anti-Israel extremists. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), a member of the far-left "Squad," lost his primary this week amid scrutiny for downplaying Hamas's attack and for his intense hostility to Israel.

Rep. Summer Lee (D., Pa.), another "Squad" member, in March pulled out of an event for the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) after several speakers were found to have made anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks.

Carson spoke at a January rally in Washington, D.C., alongside CAIR director Nihad Awad, who has said he was "happy to see" Hamas attack Israel on October 7. Carson's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Bowman lost because of his unhinged radicalism, not AIPAC
The myth of the ‘lobby’
The talk of excessive spending is also pure hypocrisy since Democrats think there’s nothing wrong with pro-abortion rights groups like Emily’s List pouring money into a district or when billionaire pro-gun-control donors like former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg get involved. And that’s not even mentioning the efforts of leftist billionaire philanthropist George Soros. He has targeted district attorney races around the nation for massive spending to elect prosecutors soft on crime, such as Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg, who recently added the pro-Hamas rioters and destroyers of private property at Columbia University to the long list of criminals against whom he refused to press charges.

AIPAC won in the NY-16 race and might win in Missouri. Yet as the pressure that was exerted on President Joe Biden to step back from supporting Israel from within his own party showed, Democrats are deeply divided on the Jewish state and the loss of a couple of radicals won’t change that. There are still plenty of pro-Israel Democrats like Latimer, but their numbers get fewer with each election cycle. The notion of the bipartisan pro-Israel consensus while always aspirational, is, like it or not, now more myth than reality, regardless of campaign spending totals.

Even more troubling is the ease with which much of the left-wing media segued straight from Bowman’s defeat to cycling the talk about the ominous impact of “dark” Jewish money. Pro-Israel campaign spending can have an impact on specific races, but it is a pittance when put in the context of overall national spending totals on all races. Business lobbies like those that represent the oil and pharmaceutical industries make the “Israel lobby” look like small change. But that doesn’t stop those who think there is something unwholesome about Jews who wish to defend their interests and beliefs by exercising their democratic right to take part in elections via speech, spending and voting.

At this point, no one in the pro-Israel community should have the least reticence about mobilizing efforts to defeat candidates like Bowman and Bush, or their “Squad” colleagues Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). They have long since crossed the line that separates “criticism” of Israel’s policies to the opposition of Israel’s right to exist and straight-out antisemitism. Such words and actions should be opposed by all decent Americans, regardless of political affiliation.

Neither should Jews labor under the delusion that picking off a couple of “Squad” members is enough to cope with a sea change of opinion on the left. The rise of woke ideology, intersectionality and critical race theory have made it inevitable that left-wing Democrats would start mimicking old Soviet-era propaganda about Zionism and the Jews. As long as the U.S. educational system—and much of the media and popular culture—is controlled by those who believe in these toxic lies, the anti-Israel left will continue to grow in influence inside the Democratic Party. In that sense, The Guardian’s evaluation of the Bowman race may be sadly correct. That victory, however welcome it might be, is nothing more than a successful rear-guard action—not a sign that the Democratic Party as a whole is coming to its senses about the woke left’s anti-Israel bigotry.
JPost Editorial: Congressman Bowman's defeat reveals divisions in Democratic party over Israel policy
In 2022, Bowman withdrew sponsorship for a bill strengthening the Abraham Accords. Then he co-sponsored a bill that would have had the US recognize the so-called Nakba Day, voted against a House resolution saying that Israel was not a “racist state,” and boycotted President Isaac Herzog’s Congress address.

Bowman was bad news for Israel even before he recently indicated that he would support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against the Jewish state and said that Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza. No wonder, then, that the AIPAC-affiliated super PAC pumped record amounts of money into the campaign to defeat him.

The loud and attention-grabbing screeching made by a small group of anti-Israel voices in Congress, the anti-Israel demonstrations on campuses during the spring, and a disproportionate amount of time given to anti-Zionist Jewish voices in the media, created the impression that the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party – a wing identified with a radical, woke Left – is in the ascendancy.

The results in New York’s suburban 16th district demonstrated that it is not.

Bowman trotted out the far-Left marquee names to boost his campaign, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who gave her own manic performance at the Bowman rally on Sunday) – to no avail. The idea that their momentum was unstoppable, that they and their anti-Israel positions – which often drift into antisemitism – were the inevitable future of the Democratic Party, was heavily rained upon on Tuesday.

This is the first time since the “Squad” burst onto the scene in 2018 with Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley being elected that one of the members of this progressive, anti-Israel group was defeated. It may not be the last in this election cycle, either. Omar, for one, is facing significant primary challenges in August.

Bowman’s defeat also sends a message to other anti-Israel candidates and those running on an anti-Israel platform: It is not a recipe for success.

This race was widely seen as a referendum between the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic Party, and the results are part of a national trend that has been favoring the moderate Democrats over the divisive, far-Left representatives in the party.

So, not only is Bowman’s defeat good for Israel – and, make no mistake, the trouncing of a congressman who was hostile toward Israel and who was working to undermine the US-Israel relationship is good for the state – it is also a good sign for the Democratic Party and for America as a whole.


The enemies within our community
The newly formed Jewish Council joined the attacks, targeting the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), The Australian Jewish News and others. Their smears against the Never Again Is Now (NAIN) rallies, which combat antisemitism, fell flat, when committee deputy chair, Senator Paul Scarr, revealed that he had proudly attended one.

Turning an inquiry into right-wing extremism into an attack on the Jewish community is a repugnant inversion of history. If these attacks were coming from gentiles, they would be labelled antisemitism. Our community should tolerate diverse views but must draw the line at those endangering the community’s safety.

Within their first sentence, the AJDS claimed undeserved legitimacy by noting their affiliation with the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV). The JCCV should immediately expel them.

The far-left Jewish Council is rejected and ignored by the Jewish community, but their social media has attracted a healthy following among antisemites. Those hostile to us frequently cite the Jewish Council’s positions to justify their own smears.

The voice of this absolute minority of Jews is amplified by left-wing, anti-Israel media, like the taxpayer-funded ABC and SBS. In a recent SBS television interview, I was asked to comment on some ridiculous statement from the Jewish Council. I explained that it was a tiny group formed a few weeks prior, supported by fewer than one per cent of the Jewish community. Predictably, my answer was excluded.

While ABC recycles the same handful of Jews to attack their own community, I can’t recall them ever promoting an Australian Muslim who rejects that community’s anti-Israel demonisation.

The phenomenon of Jews turning against their own community is not new.

Historically, informers denounced sacred Jewish texts, causing countless Jews to be burned at the stake. People like Theobald of Cambridge, who invented the first blood libel, or Johannes Pfefferkorn, who left Judaism after committing a burglary and called to enslave and expel his brethren.

In the Soviet Union, the Yevsektsiya turned in their fellow Jews and destroyed synagogues. It didn’t save many of them from Stalin’s purges.

The sickness of anti-Zionism is so great that there was even an anti-Zionist, pro-Nazi group in 1930s Germany, The Verband nationaldeutscher Juden. The Gestapo imprisoned its leader anyway.

Jewish chess master Bobby Fischer hated his people so much that he wrote to Encyclopaedia Judaica, demanding they remove his name.

The Jerusalem Post termed anti-Zionist Jews, “as Jewish as the Westboro Baptist Church is Christian”. Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy coined the term, “unJews”.

The deadliest day for Jews post-Holocaust was a wake-up call for the 99 per cent. An important lesson from October 7 is the importance of Jewish unity. I sometimes disagree with other Jewish organisations, but I’ve tried hard not to contribute to public conflicts. I know that I’m not alone.

I am inspired to see left-wing Jews who spent the prior year protesting Israel’s government, joining hands with right-wing Jews. The Jewish community is a broad tent with room for supporters and critics of Israel’s government and the Jewish establishment.

The line must be drawn at those who endanger our safety and make a mockery of the Holocaust. Like the Pesach seder’s wicked son, they have chosen to cut themselves off from the Jewish story. We must make it clear that they are not part of us.
SXSW Drops US Army as Sponsor After Backlash Over Israel Ties From Pro-Palestinian Supporters
Organizers of South by Southwest (SXSW) announced on Wednesday that it will cut ties with the US Army and weapons manufacturers for its 2025 festival after more than 80 musicians and bands pulled out of this year’s event in March in protest of the US Army’s sponsorship of the event and its relationship with Israel during the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.

Leaders of the annual arts and technology festival — which is held in Austin, Texas, and took place this year from March 8-16 — released a statement about the decision on its website. “After careful consideration, we are revising our sponsorship models,” they explained. “As a result, the US Army, and companies who engage in weapons manufacturing, will not be sponsors of SXSW 2025.”

Over 80 musical acts dropped out of the SXSW 2024 festival in March “in solidarity with Palestine,” according to the Austin for Palestine coalition. They boycotted the festival because of its partnership with the US military and weapons manufacturing companies that, the group claims, has supplied weapons used by Israel against Palestinians. The US Army was a “super sponsor” of SXSW 2024 while the Defense Department, and the defense contractors RTX (formerly Raytheon), Collins Aerospace, and BAE systems were all sponsors of the festival.

The performers who pulled out of SXSW 2024 included the Ireland-based rap trio Kneecap, British band Lambrini Girls, American punk band Scowl, Brooklyn-based artist Okay Shalom, North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Eliza McLamb, Chicago-based musician Squirrel Flower, Brooklyn-based emo band Proper, and the Los Angeles-based indie band Mamalarky.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reacted to the bands and musicians who decided to boycott SXSW 2024 because of the US Army’s sponsorship by telling them, “Don’t come back.”

“Austin remains the HQ for the Army Futures Command,” he wrote on social media in March. “San Antonio is Military City USA. We are proud of the US military in Texas. If you don’t like it, don’t come here.”

SXSW tried to distance itself from Abbott’s response by releasing its own statement that said, “SXSW does not agree with Governor Abbott.”
Top teachers union representatives to vote on anti-Israel measures
At the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly beginning next week in Philadelphia, which is expecting nearly 7,000 delegates, attendees will consider several new business items inspired by Israel’s war to defeat Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Controversial votes that have caught the attention of American Jewish groups include denying a connection between antisemitism and anti-Zionism; supporting the BDS movement against Israel; and affirming the nakba, or “catastrophe” that Palestinians consider to be the creation of modern-day Israel in 1948.

“As a former educator and union officer, I’m deeply concerned that the NEA is being used as a platform for extremism,” David Smokler, director of K-12 educator outreach at StandWithUs (SWU), told JNS. “Teachers across the country should not be encouraged to promote hateful agendas or misinformation in their classrooms.”

Smokler stated that “the NEA should focus on standing up for all its members, fighting antisemitism and fostering critical thinking about controversial issues.”

A spokesperson for the NEA said its members and delegates to the annual representative assembly “are committed to educating and nurturing understanding in their students of every race, faith and background. NEA has a deep history that is steeped in civil rights and advocating for racial and social justice. Over many decades, the delegates of the NEA Representative Assembly have adopted resolutions expressing our union’s condemnation of war, terrorism, hate and violence. The vast majority of NEA delegates, members and our society want to see a peaceful and lasting solution to this conflict.”

To that end, CEO Roz Rothstein said SWU works “to keep educational institutions free from hatred and bias, and encourages critical thinking and respect for diverse perspectives. We will continue to support Jewish educators and allies in teaching the truth about Israel, especially at this critical time when disinformation is rampant and antisemitism is on the rise.”
Pennsylvania Senate advances bill to bar funding for schools that divest from Israel
Pennsylvania’s state Senate approved legislation Thursday that would block state aid from going to any university that boycotts or divests from Israel, following anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country that included demands for divestment.

The measure, which passed by a vote of 41 to 7, also would bar the state treasurer and public pension systems from boycotting or divesting from Israel’s government or commercial financial activity in that country.

The bill won support from most Democrats and all but one Republican. It now goes to the House.

Supporters of the legislation said it was motivated by a desire to support an ally nation in its war with Hamas, to fight a rising tide of antisemitism in the United States, and to alert state-subsidized universities that they must protect Jewish students from threats and bullying by anti-Israel protesters.

The bill was opposed by some of the Senate’s more liberal members, including Democrat Art Haywood, who said he was concerned that it would restrict free speech.

Fellow Democratic Sen. Steve Santarsiero, who was a sponsor, disputed that the bill infringes on freedom of speech and said students and faculty will still be able to protest peacefully.

The bill does not punish universities that make investment decisions to fulfill their fiduciary responsibility to maximize returns, and it has had no impact on personal college investment accounts or student loans, Santarsiero said.

Another supporter, Democratic Sen. Judy Schwank, said she hopes it sends a message to college administrators and boards of trustees that are responsible for campus safety.

“Bodily harm, death threats, go beyond just hurt feelings and they certainly stretch the limits of free speech,” Schwank said.

Pennsylvania sends more than $2 billion annually to institutions of higher education through direct appropriations and student grants. Much of it goes to the system of 10 state-owned universities, along with Penn State, Temple University, Lincoln University, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania.
ZOA sues Cherry Hill Public Schools for failing to protect Jewish student
A Jewish student who experienced assault, bullying, threats and harassment from his peers only to receive blame and intimidation from his principal has received legal support to seek restitution.

In January, Levi Bolotina told JNS about the hostile educational environment he experienced at Cherry Hill High School East and how administrators blamed him for it. On Tuesday, the Zionist Organization of America filed a lawsuit on behalf of Bolotina.

In a statement, ZOA national president Morton A. Klein and Susan B. Tuchman, director of the group’s Center for Law and Justice, said that the school’s “indifference to the fear, pain and suffering” Bolotina experienced was “unconscionable, particularly after Hamas committed the worst mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.”

ZOA said that “instead of making it clear to the community that there would be zero tolerance for actions that seemingly celebrated Hamas’ massacre and made Jewish students feel unsafe, the district not only tolerated the conduct but also indulged it.”

Challenging the school’s actions in response to the bullying, ZOA said Bolotina was cast “as a wrongdoer who was asking for it. No one asks to be assaulted, threatened or harassed at their school based on their Jewish identity or for any other reason.”
Harvard antisemitism task force guidance criticized by alum as ‘slap in face’
Twin panels created to address antisemitism and anti-Muslim bigotry at one of America’s elite universities released preliminary results of their findings, with suggestions for improvements.

A six-page document, dated June 6, that focused on Jew-hatred outlined potential changes that barely skimmed the surface of longstanding anti-Jewish, anti-Israel rhetoric and incidents at the Ivy League institution. And it resulted in frustrated responses from campus Jewish voices.

While the report did note that “the situation of Israeli students at Harvard has been dire,” the task force went on to urge marking pork products in dining halls and the creation of web pages to provide information about Jewish holidays. It also suggested “anti-harassment training” for students, as well as teaching about antisemitism and anti-Israel bias for employees.

Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, the longtime director of Chabad Lubavitch of Cambridge, Mass., said the task force missed “what is exposed and visible for all to see.”

Shabbos (“Alexander”) Kestenbaum, a recent master’s degree graduate from Harvard Divinity School, told Jewish Insider that the report fails to address “the pervasive and systemic nature of antisemitism.”

He said he was “incredibly disappointed and frustrated,” and that the report amounted to “a slap in the face.”
Jonathan Tobin: Woke Education Leads to Attacks on Jews
"The liberal leftist progressive agenda that has taken over the Democratic Party is one that allows vandalism and violence."

Leftist ideology has permeated everything from mainstream culture to news, literature, entertainment and even children's education. It has also led to a huge upsurge in antisemitism and anti-Israel violence in LA and other major cities throughout the US. However, it seems a large portion of Americans are not buying it. Are ordinary Americans finally fighting back against wokeness? Is the culture and the public square being taken back by traditional values or is America lost to an intolerant ideology that inevitably leads to antisemitism?

To discuss all this and more, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin speaks with the CEO of Prager U Marissa Streit. She discusses the importance of alternative sources of information in the face of the dominant left-wing ideology, big tech censorship, the ADL and the need for the Jewish community to stand up to an agenda that ultimately leads to attacks on Jews.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction: The Rise of Left-Wing Ideology
03:38 The Violence and Hatred of the Left
13:38 The Liberal Progressive Agenda and Anti-Semitism
23:03 Rejecting Intersectionality and BLM
34:15 Taking a Stand and Pushing Back
41:17 Partnerships and Providing Alternative Education




Hamas apologism, antisemitism on a small German campus
‘We want to establish a safe environment for Jewish people on campus. That’s why we need to talk about Hamas-supporting movements on campus.”

This was a message The Jerusalem Post received from Hinenu, the Jewish Student Association of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, rural, federal states in the northern southwest of Germany. Hinenu (“here we are”) reached out to ask for the pligf Jewish students in the states to receive international attention.

Once connected, Hinenu spoke to the Post about the virulent pro-Palestine and anti-Israel groups on campus at Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) in Mainz, and sent links to various incendiary and antisemitic material published by communist groups, students for Palestine groups and others.

“People always hear something about Columbia University [in the US], or maybe even Berlin,” Hinenu said, “but nobody pays attention to smaller universities or cities.”

Especially in a country with such stringent laws on public support for terrorism, these incidents show a surprising lack of enforcement on the ground, the Jewish Student Association said.

“We do not want to forcefully expose Hamas supporters, but in order to establish safety for Jews, it’s something we must do,” they affirmed.

“We want people to be aware of what we experience.”
University students face expulsion over pro-Palestine protests
Students who joined pro-Palestine protests face suspension or expulsion after administrators from several Melbourne universities issued demonstrators notices to attend misconduct hearings.

Melbourne University on Wednesday emailed some students who took part in an occupation of a building on the Parkville campus advising them of the disciplinary action.

In an email seen by The Age, students were told they had breached the university’s code of conduct during protests at the Parkville campus last month. They were also sent individualised CCTV footage of themselves inside the Arts West building as evidence of wrongdoing.

About 20 of the protesters facing disciplinary action were meeting legal representatives on Thursday afternoon to discuss their options, said a source with close ties to the students, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals.

Several Victorian universities last month warned students of potential suspension or expulsion if their protest actions were deemed to be in serious breach of the rules.

Activist group Students for Palestine said nine students at Monash University and two each at Deakin and La Trobe universities were sent misconduct notices. A spokesperson for the group said one student had already been suspended for their part in the protests.

Monash student Madeline Curkovic said she faced suspension or expulsion for leading a peaceful protest encampment. Curkovic, who helped organise the Monash camp, said the disciplinary action was an attack on freedom of speech and the right to protest.

“Monash has already banned us from setting foot on the grass where the camp once stood,” she said. Curkovic said the university camp had been set up to protest against Monash’s links to weapons manufacturers.

“Every morning, we wake up to see that more civilians have been killed,” she said. “Our protests were an important act of moral commitment to standing on the right side of history.”

Students for Palestine is working with legal firms and community support networks to fight the disciplinary measures.


Study reveals disturbing truth about the New York Times’ coverage of the Gaza war
For the vast majority of Israelis, the foreign coverage of the war against Hamas is a huge slap in the face. How is it possible that in a war instigated by an incredibly barbaric massacre, the most criticised party has become Israel itself?

The question is usually very emotional, but the answer lies in the cold numbers of posts that defame the Jewish state – and as many Jewish people will know, we’re not just talking about bots and social media conspiracy theorists. Bias against Israel is very much present in mainstream Western media outlets.

A recent study collected and analysed all the main headlines in the New York Times relating to the war in its first seven months. A troubling picture emerged.

Out of a total of 1,398 headlines, 647 expressed sympathy towards Palestinians, and only 147 expressed sympathy towards Israelis, including the hostages.

Even more troubling was that out of the 647 headlines that expressed sympathy towards Palestinians, only two adopted a critical tone towards Hamas. Thirty three expressed criticism of both Israel and Hamas, and a whopping 479 expressed criticism exclusively of Israel (the rest were not critical of anyone).

This skewed reporting was particularly concerning when it appeared in the “Top News” section, which gives maximum exposure to the three articles considered the most important of the day.

Out of 276 Top News headlines posted in the first seven months of the war, 55 per cent showed sympathy towards Palestinians, and only 5.8 per cent to Israelis. In addition, 60 per cent of the 276 top headlines criticised Israel, while only 3 per cent criticised Hamas, and 5 per cent criticised Iran. Does that sound logical?

The sympathy towards Israelis, including the brutally kidnapped hostages, lasted for about one week following October 7. While the charred remains of the massacre victims were still being counted and identified, the coverage in the New York Times was more or less balanced between criticism of Israel and criticism of Hamas. After that first week, the gap started to grow, as the newsroom lost interest in news criticising Hamas or empathising with Israelis. The truly important topic became the state of the Palestinians, which was covered obsessively from every possible angle, as well as the relentless criticism of Israel.


Labour to delay recognition of Palestinian state
Labour will reportedly delay recognising a Palestinian state if elected despite a manifesto pledge to do so.

Allies of Sir Keir Starmer have counselled him to avoid rushing into any early acknowledgement over fears it could undermine Britain’s relationship with America, The Times reported.

Such a move could drive a wedge between his government and President Biden’s administration.

Sir Keir’s advisors are said to have reccomended instead that Britain recognise Palestinian in coordination with other western nations.

A source close to Starmer told The Times that British recognition of Palestine was “a process” that would “have the most impact” if done in “co-ordination with allies”.

They denied that the American position would influence the timing of any announcement, however.

In recent months several countries, including Spain, Denmark and Ireland have said that they will recognise a Palestinian state.

Last month the White House insisted that President Biden still believes a two state solution must be delivered via negotiations, rather than unilateral recognition.

"President Biden believes that a two-state solution that guarantees Israel's security and also a future of dignity and security for the Palestinian people is the best way to bring about long-term security and stability for everyone in the region," his national security adviser said.

Labour’s manifesto, released earlier in the campaign, commits the party to recognising a Palestinian state as a “contribution” to a renewed peace process if elected to government – irrespective of Israel’s position.

The policy document appears to commit the party to backing Palestinian statehood during – rather than at the culmination of – a peace process.


"Cabinet Approves Smotrich’s Sanctions Against Palestinian Authority, Legalizing New Settlements"
In response to the anti-Israel activity of the Palestinian Authority in the ICC, ICJ, and the UN – most recently pushing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders and soliciting the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian State by several countries, the Israeli government has decided on response measures proposed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, including:

A basket of measures that includes canceling permits and benefits for PA officials; restricting the movement of PA officials to leave the country; punishing their incitement offenses; expelling PA senior officials; withdrawing legal powers from the PA in the Judean desert preservation and blocking the rampant illegal construction in the area; enforcement in area B against damage to heritage sites and environmental hazards, and more.

REGULATING FIVE OUTPOSTS AS “YOUNG SETTLEMENTS”
- Evyatar in Samaria
- Sde Ephraim in Binyamin
- Givat Assaf in in Binyamin
- Heletz in Gush Etzion
- Adoraim in Mount Hebron

MASSIVE CONSTRUCTION IN THE SETTLEMENTS
Publication of construction tenders and the convening of the Planning Council (MTA) to approve plans for thousands of housing units to be built in Judea and Samaria’s Jewish settlements.

Security Cabinet member Bezalel Smotrich stated: “After weeks of discussions, the Israeli government promotes an appropriate response to the anti-Israeli measures led by the Palestinian Authority. The sanctions against the Palestinian Authority and the promotion of settlements in all parts of our country are a clear message. We are establishing a new settlement for every country that unilaterally recognizes the Palestinian Authority as a state.

The Palestinian Authority joined Hamas in trying to harm Israel at home and abroad, and we will fight it.

And for those who needed proof, we got it on October 7: a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel would constitute an existential danger, and I for one will not allow such a catastrophe to be brought upon the State of Israel.


Iran installs half of planned new centrifuges at Fordow, IAEA report says
Iran has installed half the advanced uranium-enriching machines it said earlier this month it would quickly add to its Fordow site dug into a mountain but has not yet brought them online, the UN nuclear watchdog said in a report seen by Reuters.

Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency two weeks ago it would rapidly expand its enrichment capacity at Fordow by adding eight cascades, or clusters, of IR-6 centrifuges at Fordow within three to four weeks.

Within two days the IAEA had verified that two of the cascades had been installed. In a confidential report to member states on Friday the agency said that number had now doubled.

“The Agency has verified that Iran has installed four of the aforementioned eight IR-6 cascades in Unit 1 at FFEP (Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant),” the report said, adding that the verification happened on Sunday.

“Iran has not specified to the Agency when it would start feeding any of the cascades in Unit 1 with UF6 or the planned enrichment level,” it added, referring to uranium hexafluoride gas, the feedstock for centrifuges.

Diplomats say the addition of the IR-6 machines was a response to a resolution against Iran by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors on June 5 calling on Tehran to step up cooperation with the watchdog and reverse its recent barring of inspectors. Iran tends to bristle at such resolutions.

The United States announced new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil trade on Thursday, saying it was acting in response to “steps (by Iran) to further expand its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose.”
As Iran Votes for President, New Report Exposes How Regime ‘Rigs’ Elections Through Shadowy Group
As Iranians headed to the polls on Friday to vote for a new president, an explosive new report exposed how the regime in Tehran has used a “shadowy arm” of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an internationally designated terrorist organization, to routinely “rig” Iran’s elections.

Using insider documents from the IRGC, the report by the advocacy organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) detailed how Iran’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, established a new entity known as the Baqiatallah Headquarters to ensure election outcomes — including for the presidency — that match his Islamist, authoritarian agenda of removing any traces of Western influence from Iranian society.

Khamenei tasked the hardline former commander of the IRGC, Mohammad Ali Jafari, to lead the little-known department at the center of the regime’s “election engineering” and broader efforts to usher in a messianic “new Islamic civilization.” Before overseeing the Baqiatallah Headquarters, Jafari was responsible for expanding the IRGC’s “security and military capabilities, consolidating the IRGC’s asymmetric warfare capabilities to deter the likelihood of US military strikes, and brutally suppressing anti-regime protests,” according to the report.

The IRGC’s Baqiatallah Headquarters is so valued by Khamenei, the authors note, that it reports directly to him and “has the authority to demand the full use of other agencies’ capacities and resources.”

More importantly, however, according to the report, is the office’s “unique overarching strategy,” known as the “Middle Ring” strategy, of selecting and organizing members of the Iranian youth into local small groups tasked with executing “political and cultural operations” on behalf of the regime’s elite. Members of these small groups receive unparalleled access to the “upper echelons of power” in Iran such as the Office of the Supreme Leader.

“In essence, this entire [Middle Ring] strategy seeks to organize, mobilize, and empower the small but radical support base of the regime across Iran to control the masses,” at the local level and without involvement from the clunky Iranian bureaucracy, the report warns.


Conference of European Rabbis recognizes German official for fighting antisemitism
One of Germany’s top leaders in the fight to protect the Jewish people from hate accepted an award in recognition of his efforts.

On Monday, the Conference of European Rabbis presented Felix Klein, the German federal government commissioner for Jewish life and combating antisemitism, with the Rabbi Moshe Rosen Prize.

Klein said he was “deeply honored” to receive the award, praising the rabbinic group for its “work to ensure that Jewish life in Europe continues to flourish. The CER’s recent move from London to Munich demonstrates their confidence in Germany, a source of pride for us all.”

Nancy Faeser, the German interior minister, said that Klein “has steadfastly fought against hatred of Jews, reflecting our state’s dedication to strengthening Jewish life. The European Rabbinical Conference’s decision to honor him with the Moshe Rosen Prize is well-deserved.”

Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the rabbinic group and former Moscow chief rabbi, said that few at such government levels “speak out as consistently as Dr. Klein, analyzing, identifying and combating antisemitism and hatred of Jews in all its forms. His efforts are invaluable for Jews in Germany and beyond.”
Swastikas painted in front of Baltimore Jewish home
Swastikas were spray-painted in front of a Baltimore Jewish home on Thursday, said local politicians and Jewish neighborhood watch groups.

Yellow and black swastikas, many improperly drawn, were painted onto the sidewalk along with the word "b****," according to photographs published on Facebook by Baltimore City Councilman Isaac Yitzy Schleifer.

"This hate has no place in Baltimore or anywhere else," Schleifer said. "I am calling on Baltimore Police Department to fully investigate this incident and hold those who did this accountable."

The Shomrim of Baltimore said on Instagram on Thursday that it was in touch with law enforcement to document the incident and ensure its prompt removal.

"We stand united in our resolve that Baltimore will not be intimidated by hate," said the Shomrim. "Together, we stand vigilant against antisemitism and all forms of discrimination."

Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement on Friday that such incidents couldn't be tolerated in Baltimore, and that the city's Jewish community had endured violence, vandalism, and threats.

"We stand with those victims who have endured these acts and with the broader Jewish community who are deeply impacted by the concerning rise in these types of incidents," said Scott. "I have confidence that through BPD’s investigations, the perpetrators will be found and held responsible for their hateful actions.”
Message calling for an ‘attack’ on ‘Zionists’ found in Jewish area of London
A terrifying message calling for an “attack” on “Zionists” has been seen in a heavily Jewish part of north London.

The sticker – whose precise location is being withheld for security reasons – said “Zionists F*** Off” and featured a woman’s face masked by a keffiyeh along with the statements “solidarity means attack” and “Free Palestine”.

A reporter for the JC discovered the sticker on a traffic sign in the parliamentary constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington, where an estimated 12 per cent of voters are Jewish.

The seat contains parts of Stamford Hill, home to Europe’s largest Charedi community.

The sticker was removed by the JC’s reporter and the incident was reported to CST.

A spokesperson for CST told the JC: "This kind of extremist incitement intimidates and harasses communities and the implicit support for violence seems deliberately designed to frighten. It should be roundly condemned, and the police should investigate who is putting these stickers up."

Earlier this week, the JC reported that CST’s chief executive Mark Gardiner said that since the October 7 massacre committed by Hamas in Israel, antisemitic incidents in the UK had been “running at record levels”, and that CST had dealt with 4,500 complaints of antisemitism in the past nine months.


David Draiman to 'Post' on Israel visit: 'I needed see my people again'
David Draiman glides self-assuredly through the lobby of Tel Aviv’s swanky Kempinsky Hotel. With his trademark black garb, bald pate, cut-off shirt accenting his buff upper arms, and Bring Them Home dog tags around his neck, he seems unaware or just used to the sidelong glances of other guests, shrugging it off as just another accessory of celebrity, for good or ill.

These days, the 51-year-old vocalist for veteran American hard rock band Disturbed is using that celebrity for good. Long before Oct. 7 – but especially since then – Draiman has become a familiar figure in the pro-Israel community on social media as one of the most vocal and passionate advocates of Israel within the US entertainment community.

With Disturbed having just completed the most successful tour of their career, their haunting 2015 version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” enjoying a resurgence on the international charts and passing over a billion (yes, a billion) views on YouTube, Draiman should be sitting back in his palatial Florida home basking in the sunshine.

Instead, soon after the tour ended, he made a beeline for Israel for his first visit since Oct. 7, accompanied by his partner, Sarah, on her first visit to the country. Ostensibly arriving to see a huge contingent of family who live here, including his 93-year-old grandmother, Tziona, who unfortunately died 10 days before his arrival (see box on pg. 14), Draiman decided to also offer his services and presence to the country’s war effort – “to do whatever I can to help.”




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