Wednesday, July 10, 2024

07/10 Links Pt2: The Normalization of Terrorism and Jew-Hate; The Vindication of a Jewish Professor; What would a two-state solution solve?

From Ian:

The Normalization of Terrorism and Jew-Hate
It apparently never occurred to either the heads of the UN or the EU to consider that if you are a terrorist organization that commits war crimes, you do not get to choose how a war that you started is waged against you.

If you do not want a "bloodbath," do not take hostages, hide them among civilians, try to prevent a rescue, then if they are rescued, profess shock at the fallout that you yourself have teed up.

BBC news asked with a straight face if, to spare the lives of the Gazan "civilians" who were keeping the hostages locked up in their homes, Israel had given prior warning before launching its rescue operation. The Israeli spokesman, also keeping a straight face, politely answered that a warning might have endangered the hostages and made the rescue more difficult.

The irony of all this seems completely lost on the political and media elites, who kept insisting that the Israeli rescue operation was somehow immoral. By condemning Israel's rescue operation, they suggest that massacring and kidnapping 240 people is moral, and an act that should not require a military response.

The new purported Hamas agreement to a ceasefire apparently comes with "a major hurdle: The Iran-backed terror group is now demanding 'written guarantees' that mediators will continue to negotiate a permanent truce, once the first phase of the plan goes into effect, the Hamas rep said."

Essentially, this demand means that Hamas and its handlers, Iran and Qatar, would like to start wars and then have someone else stop them when they do not like how they are going.

In contravention of the Geneva conventions, Hamas has refused to allow the Red Cross to check on the welfare of the hostages. One can imagine why.

To this day, there seems little-to-no interest in the fate or condition of the hostages still in Gaza. Instead, there is denial that the October 7 atrocities even took place, compared to an almost obsessive regard for the safety of, and humanitarian aid for Gazans. When the UN is unable to deliver the aid, Israel, not the UN, is blamed.

The Hamas murders, rapes, burning alive of babies and abductions – all the reasons why Israel was forced to go to war with Hamas to begin with -- have retreated into the background.

What seems to matter instead to those who set the political and media agendas is to use the Hamas war once again to demonize the Jews as the world's most inhuman people for wanting to live peacefully on their historical land without daily massacres from Iran and its proxies -- Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Houthis -- which apparently plan to encircle them in a "Ring of Fire" -- "six fronts of aggression against Israel" -- as part of Iran's attempt at hegemony in the Middle East.

Western elites seem happy to assist them in that fight.
Seth Mandel: The Vindication of a Jewish Professor
Hamas’s brutal attacks on October 7 were the spark that lit up college campuses, but the powder keg already in place can best be understood from a lawsuit filed nearly two years earlier. That suit has now been resolved, and it provides an important lens through which to see the long-brewing anti-Semitism crisis in American higher education.

The story ended on Tuesday with the vindication of a Jewish professor who lost her job due to anti-Jewish bias. But it began back in 2005.

As was noted by the American Center for Law and Justice, which represented Melissa Landa in her battle against discrimination, Landa became a graduate assistant at the University of Maryland in ’05 and was hired two years later for a full-time teaching position in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. After an award-and-accolade-filled eight years there, she formed a group to speak out against anti-Semitism at her alma mater, Oberlin College. Then she took an affiliate professorship at the University of Haifa in defiance of the growing BDS movement on campus.

Her employers at the University of Maryland made their discomfort with her pro-Jewish affiliations clear, and started freezing Landa out of the department. When she objected, she was let go. Landa filed a religious-discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which investigated and determined that Landa had provided enough evidence to sue.

Maryland declined to settle, and ACLJ filed suit on behalf of Landa in 2022. Maryland’s attempts to have the case dismissed failed, and the school has now agreed to pay Landa damages and attorney fees.

Stories like this matter for the obvious reasons—religious discrimination is vile and illegal. But they also help clarify the chicken-or-egg coverage of campus anti-Semitism, which treats it as a phenomenon that began with the current conflict and therefore may simply end when the conflict ends.

Stories like Landa’s also put the focus where it should be: on the schools and their administrators, and the atmosphere on university campuses dating back decades.

On Monday, Gallup released its latest polling on higher education and public opinion. The results aren’t surprising: “Americans are now nearly equally divided among those who have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence (36%), some confidence (32%), or little or no confidence (32%) in higher education. When Gallup first measured confidence in higher education in 2015, 57% had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence and 10% had little or none.”
A Walk With the Ghosts of Jerusalem's Old City
But even as the Old City stands empty, new tourist destinations have appeared in the south of Israel, where all there is to see is raw sadness and horror. People—so far mostly in small groups—are making a modern pilgrimage to kibbutzim near Gaza, and to Re'im, the Tribe of Nova festival site. They come as an act of remembrance of the people who were murdered, tortured, raped or taken to Gaza on Oct. 7—or, in a more cynical assessment, to gawk at the evidence of evil.

Shachar Gal of Hands on Israel will take you to see the aftermath of the horror, but he's not in any way eager to go. Visiting these sites makes it Oct. 7 all over again, he said.

"I wouldn't have come, because of the trauma," Gal said on the road south from Tel Aviv. "This was a minute ago."

Still, he is a knowledgeable and faithful guide, showing a small group the "sites," which included the Kissufim military base that was overrun by murderers and the overlook of an Israeli Navy base. There was also a stop in the town of Sderot, where an Israeli tank eventually blew up a police station that had been occupied by terrorists.

At the Nova site, Israeli soldiers in their late teens and early twenties climbed down from buses to walk among the memorials to individuals–many their age– killed or captured, grim looks on their faces, guns slung over their shoulders.

Most surprising to me, there was a regular tourist bus, too. Sweaty, middle-aged American men and women walked behind a guide who was explaining the inexplicable. She painted a picture so terrible that it sounded like she must have witnessed the brutality for herself.

Listening just a few seconds more, I realized that she had. She had lived through it all. She had survived and now dealt with her trauma by sharing her experience with others.

My hope is that these new sites won't permanently take the place of Jerusalem's Old City, and that tourists will pulse through its stone heart again soon.


Theodor Herzl Knew More about Early Christian Zionism Than Anyone Realized
In 1891, an American evangelical lay leader named William Blackstone wrote a memorandum (or “memorial”) calling for the U.S. to take an active role in working toward the restoration of the Jewish people in their ancient homeland, collected the signatures of 413 of America’s most prominent people, and delivered it to then-President Benjamin Harrison. This was a full five years before Theodor Herzl published The Jewish State. Historians have generally assumed that Blackstone’s efforts were little known in Europe, and that Herzl only found out about them later on. Philip Earl Steele has found evidence to the contrary. Of equal importance, he notes the influence on Blackstone of the pre-Herzlian Zionist movement that began in Russia in the 1880s:
In 1888 Blackstone sailed to England to attend a missionary conference, after which he and his daughter Flora journeyed to the Holy Land, where they travelled about on horseback, visiting not only the Christian pilgrimage sites, but also many of the new moshavot (settlements) established earlier in the decade during the First Aliyah. . . . Hence, once back in Chicago in 1889, Blackstone began to reach out to both Jewish and Christian leaders and was soon laying plans for the famous conference [that gave birth to the Blackstone memorial]. Among the several rabbis it featured was the prime mover behind Chicago’s Reform Sinai Temple, Bernhard Felsenthal, who at the opening session delivered the bluntly titled address, “Why Israelites do not accept Jesus as their messiah.”

These facts certainly belie widespread claims that evangelical Zionism has been indifferent to the fate of Jews themselves, or is simply an engine for their conversion. As for Herzl:
One of the first German-language newspapers to cover the Blackstone Memorial was the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung. Herzl deemed his literary career to have begun with that Viennese paper when he won first prize in its competition for best feuilleton in May 1885. Over the next five years he wrote for the [paper] in various capacities, and continued reading it thereafter. On March 22, 1891, the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung ran an approximately 650-word piece titled, “The Re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel.” It begins with an account of a recent local lecture on scriptural prophecies, . . . then pivots to the United States and gives [a] report on the Blackstone Memorial.

To Steele, there can be “no valid doubts” that Herzl was unaware of this and similar reports. Moreover, Steele has discovered actual correspondence between the two following the First Zionist Congress.
MEMRI: Nationalism for Me And Not For Thee
Reading the mainstream media, you would think that the danger is from those who are too much in favor of America or specific European countries. And some of those who raise the alarm about Christian Nationalism seem to be actually talking about any Christian presence in the public square that differs from elite liberal opinion.[3] The "good" kind of nationalism seems to be that which comes from non-Western countries, often bitterly opposed to the West, and transmitted through the rapid growth of diaspora immigrant, often Muslim, populations in the West. The West is awash in nationalism today, but the one that is coddled and treated with a collective shrug is the nationalism of the "anti-West."[4]

Not all nationalisms seem to be created equal. In Europe today, citizens or residents with ties to resolutely chauvinistic states in Turkey, Algeria, Pakistan, and Egypt can be seen to be proudly waving their national symbols at not only sporting events but political ones. Sometimes the two are combined. In early July 2024, Turkish soccer fans not only waved the Turkish flag and made the nationalist Grey Wolf sign at a game in Berlin, they also chanted against (mostly Syrian Arab Muslim) asylum seekers in... Turkey.[5] Leftist political rallies during the most recent French electoral period in June and July of 2024 were awash in foreign flags from Muslim states with a scattering of communist banners; the Tricolour of the French Republic was nowhere to be seen.

But over most of the past year, one nationalism has reigned supreme on the streets of the West, from Los Angeles to Berlin. Its symbols are the Palestinian flag and the Arab keffiyeh headscarf, both symbols of Arab and Palestinian nationalism par excellence. The same symbols which once meant revolution and war in the streets of Amman and Beirut in the 1970s now have a wider appeal. Palestinian nationalism, what one writer has dubbed "the Global Empire of Palestine," is having its moment.[6] Activists in New York City and Philadelphia, carrying the Palestinian banner and with faces hidden by the keffiyeh or a KN95 mask, even burned the American flag on Independence Day. They were "flooding Manhattan," recalling the Hamas terror operation of October 7, the "Al-Aqsa Flood."[7] Wherever they are, pro-Palestine protests are awash in violent antisemitic rhetoric, often coupled with anti-host country (anti-U.S., anti-France, etc.) and anti-police narratives. The rallies have even featured activists for North Korea.[8] And the violence is not limited to words, but often spills over into deeds.[9] Palestine is only one constituent part of that promised Revolution.[10]

If manifestations of Palestinian nationalism are prominent, its rival in Jewish or Israeli nationalism, also known as Zionism, is under unprecedented assault in the West. The irony is rich. In the U.S., pro-Israel demonstrations often feature both the Israeli and American flags. The pro-Palestinian rallies only have American flags in order to burn them. In Britain, the ancient Cross of Saint George is derided as a provocative nationalist symbol regarded with suspicion, while an American flag created by Washington in 1775 receives similar opprobrium.[11] Flags from Hamas or Hezbollah get a pass.

Today it seems that actually everyone is a type of nationalist or ideologue – just not the usual suspect with a Western flag or a Christian or Jewish religious symbol. The fifth column nationalism and religious chauvinism of the anti-West, inside the West, has become routinized and protected. The questions for the rest of us are: Will we stand up for ourselves and our own symbols? And: Do we even know who "we" are?
Clifford D May: What would a two-state solution solve?
Iran’s rulers believe the world is divided into Dar al-Islam, the countries ruled by Muslims, and Dar al-Harb, the countries ruled by non-believers who must be fought and conquered. Israel is the only slice of land between Morocco and Pakistan not ruled by Muslims. To an Islamist, such diversity is intolerable.

The various “peace processes” have ignored these inconvenient truths. The Oslo Accords of the 1990s—agreements between Israel and the PLO—set up the Palestinian Authority to govern parts of Gaza, Judea and Samaria. Its main problem has not been that Israel and the United States have refrained from granting it formal recognition as a nation-state.

Hamas violently ousted the P.A. from Gaza in 2007, two years after the Israelis withdrew from that territory.

Since then, what attributes of statehood has Gaza lacked? Huge amounts of aid have streamed in from the “international donor community.” Health care, education and other social services have been provided by U.N. agencies that became Hamas’s handmaidens. These agencies have employed Hamas members, some of whom took part in the atrocities of Oct. 7.

Israel has supplied Gaza with electricity and water and, before Oct. 7, permitted thousands of Gazans to enter Israel to work at higher salaries than they could command in Gaza. For decades, Israeli hospitals have opened their doors to Gazans in need.

Media reports have often called Gaza an “open-air prison.” But we now know that Gazans were always able to leave and return over their border with Egypt. Some did so for terrorist training. Hamas constructed an elaborate subterranean fortress. Do prisons generally allow inmates to dig tunnels?

Through highways under the Egyptian border, an enormous supply of weapons and munitions poured into Gaza over the years.

Hamas’s goal has not been nation-building. Its goal has been, and still is, to create an emirate “from the river to the sea” to be included in a new caliphate and empire.

This is why any solution to the multiple conflicts now underway in the Middle East must begin with the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.

More challenging but essential: Neutralizing the neo-imperialist and openly genocidal regime in Tehran that, you should note, is now firmly allied with Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang.

The day after that, progress can perhaps be made towards establishing an independent Palestinian state with leaders willing, however reluctantly, to peacefully coexist alongside Israel.

To sum up: Belief in a two-state solution does not make it a realistic option, any more than belief in Tinker Bell can bring the little fairy to life.
David Singer: UN can no longer ignore Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution
President Biden has ended the Security Council’s failed eight-year pursuit to achieve a nebulous two-state solution embodied in Resolution 2334 (2016) - replacing it with his own specific two-state solution contained in United States of America Draft Resolution S/2024/448 - adopted by the Security Council 14-0 as Resolution 2735 on 10 June.

Biden’s two-state solution is clear and unambiguous:
“The Security Council reiterates its unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognised borders, consistent with international law and relevant UN resolutions, and in this regard stresses the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority”.

The Security Council accepted this Biden solution without objection or amendment. After eight years going up a dead end road it was more than time for the Security Council to abandon Resolution 2334.

However there is a problem with Biden’s solution: It has no chance of ever being accepted by Israel because, as opposed to the Oslo Accord, it denies the Jewish people the right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in any part of the 'West Bank' – the biblical and historic heartland of the Jewish people – recognized and authorized by articles 6 and 25 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and preserved by article 80 of the United Nations Charter.

Any solution which does not acknowledge these vested rights in the Jewish people will end up in the dustbin of history. Biden’s proposal is dead in the water. Its endorsement by the Security Council in Resolution 2735 now leaves the Security Council exposed as an Emperor without clothes.

Another very different two-state solution that could satisfy Israel’s justifiable objection is the revolutionary Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) - first published in the Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya News on 8 June 2022 - which asserts:
“The Palestinian problem can only be solved today if it is redefined. The issue in this day and age for people should be not so much the ownership of ancestral land but more the critical need to have a legal identity—a globally respected citizenship that allows a person to operate in the modern world.”

HKOPS calls for the unification of Jordan, Gaza and part ofthe West Bank into one new territorial entity to be governed by Jordan’s current Hashemite rulers – noting:


Biden report to Congress under Elie Wiesel Act seems to use Hamas stats, blame Israel for war deaths
An official U.S. government report, filed under a federal law named for the late Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, appears to cite official Hamas statistics and to blame Israel—and not the U.S.-designated terror group—for deaths in Gaza since Oct. 7.

The State Department filed the report, which was publicized on Wednesday, on behalf of U.S. President Joe Biden under a section of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018, P.L. 115-441.

“The United States is committed to promoting respect for human rights globally and reaffirms atrocity prevention as a core national security interest,” per the report, which “highlights illustrative examples of U.S. efforts during the reporting period of May 2023 to April 2024, unless otherwise noted.”

The president’s report to Congress states that Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror organization, “is a brutal terrorist organization that has vowed to annihilate Israel and repeat the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, during which it murdered almost 1,200 Israelis, took more than 240 people hostage, and committed horrific acts of sexual violence.”

The report then appears to blame the Jewish state, and not Hamas, for the subsequent deaths.

“In response, Israel has engaged in military actions in Gaza with the stated intent of defending itself against future Hamas attacks,” per the report. “By the end of the reporting period, tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and over a million displaced as a result of Israel’s military actions.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on May 13 that there was roughly a one-to-one ratio of Gazan terrorists to noncombatants killed and that “we’re facing 35,000 Hamas terrorists. We’ve killed already about 14,000, wounded many others.”

On the same day, Avi Hyman, a spokesman for the Israeli government, said Israel had killed more than 14,000 terrorists and that some 16,000 civilians had been killed since Oct. 7 as a result of the ensuing war.

Official Israeli statistics appear to record—given the one-to-one ratio—roughly 14,000 to 16,000 civilian deaths in Gaza between Oct. 7 and May 13. (JNS sought comment from the Israeli embassy in Washington.)
Anti-Israel Groups Planning New York City Protest of Real Estate Sale Akin to Recent Swarming of LA Synagogue
Anti-Israel groups are planning to protest a sale of Israeli real estate in the Queens borough of New York City on Sunday in a demonstration that appears to have the same hallmarks as last month’s widely condemned violent demonstration outside of a synagogue in Los Angeles.

The Palestinian Assembly for Liberation and Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition publicized the protest on social media.

“Every time these illegal sales take place, we will give them no peace and a protest will follow each time, until liberation and return,” reads the caption of the post announcing the demonstration. “Across the US and Canada realtors continue to sell stolen PALESTINIAN [sic] property on settlements that are illegal under International law.”

The post then includes an inverted red triangle followed by the message: “As the genocide on Palestinians continues, we call for a complete end to the settler-colonial project of Israel and its goal of expansion.”

The inverted red triangle has become a common symbol at pro-Hamas rallies and anti-Israel protests that ravaged Western university campuses in recent months. Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that rules Gaza, has used inverted red triangles in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets about to be attacked. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “the red triangle is now used to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence.”

Kew Garden Hills, where the protest is scheduled to take place, is a densely Jewish neighborhood of Queens. In the immediate vicinity of the protest there are over a dozen, mainly Orthodox, synagogues.

The planned protest will come three weeks after the violent anti-Israel demonstration outside of Adas Torah synagogue in the heavily-Jewish Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles.
Jewish student vets denied freedom they fought to protect, congressman says
Eight decades after the G.I. Bill passed in 1944, veterans are “being denied the very religious freedoms on college campuses they fought to protect,” Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.), chair for the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, wrote to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the governors of California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan and North Carolina.

The protections against bias in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “ensure that the G.I. Bill is available to all veterans, including religious and racial minorities, to ensure that every veteran has access to the education they have earned, on a college campus that is a welcoming place for all,” Bost wrote to the secretary, Denis McDonough.

“Protests and rioting on campuses against the State of Israel and the Jewish race have spiraled out of control on many campuses that are receiving millions of dollars in federal funding through the G.I. Bill,” he added. “Please tell me what V.A. is doing to ensure that schools that are approved to participate in the G.I. Bill are protecting the rights of Jewish veterans to attend classes and enjoy campus life in a safe environment, free from harassment and discrimination.”
Kassy Akiva: ‘The Law Has Failed Me’: Union Anti-Semitism Causes New Wave Of Support For Right To Work Laws
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology student testified before Congress on Tuesday, detailing that current labor laws failed to protect him from pervasive antisemitism inside his union, which he is required to be a member of.

“I’ve tried to use the law as it exists and at every turn, the law has failed me,” MIT graduate student William Sussman said. The computer science doctoral candidate cited numerous examples of MIT Graduate Student Union (GSU) staffers occupying buildings, being arrested, and passing a “ceasefire resolution” that did not mention the words “hostages,” “Hamas,” or “peace.”

“The blood had not yet dried when my colleagues at MIT declared ‘Victory is Ours,’”’ Sussman said, referring to a student group sharing an advertisement of an anti-Israel rally one day after Hamas’s massacre of more than 1,000 Israelis on October 7.

The “Confronting Union Antisemitism: Protecting Workers from Big Labor Abuses,” hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions comes amid unions across the country engaging in anti-Israel political activism including passing one-sided resolutions, organizing protests, and persecuting Zionist members.

According to Sussman, he was denied a request to have a religious accommodation that would use his compulsory union dues to fund a charity instead of the union’s political activity.

“The union denied my request, telling me in a letter that ‘no principles, teachings or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees to a labor union,’” he said, adding that the union “thinks it understands my faith better than I do.”

Sussman is not the only union member who recently grew disenchanted with their union, according to Glenn Taubman, a staff attorney at the National Right to Work Foundation who also testified.

“The phones are ringing off the hook like never before,” Taubman told The Daily Wire. “I am being called every day by lifelong liberals, lifelong union people, who were mugged by reality.”

He said he is working full time on cases accusing the union of anti-Semitism.

“I’ve been fighting union compulsion for more than 40 years, but we’ve never fought anti-Semitic union compulsion,” Taubman added. “This is a whole new beast that basically did not exist until all of these unions decided they were going to be pro-Hamas and pro-terror after October 7.”
Canada and the decline of Western civilization
Is the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire unfolding before our eyes in all Western democracies? Are the barbarians within and without our gates? All the symptoms and signs are evident and in full view. Let the facts speak. Any student of ancient, medieval or modern history will see the obvious decay in all Western institutions across the world.

Canada is a nation of immigrants. After World War II the West was inundated with waves of immigrants fleeing because their homelands had not provided safe physical, economic or living space to raise their families—the most intense form of physical need.

An extreme sliver of these immigrants, rather than being transformed by Western ideas of the “Enlightenment.” brought extremist views from their troubled homelands. Modern “pogroms” in Western institutions are now instigated by rabble-rousers and abetted by teachers lacking historic perspectives and replete with ancient antisemitic tropes. Synagogues and Jewish schools are now routinely vandalized. Jewish students are ostracized and bullied in high school and university classrooms, campuses and libraries. Why is this state of affairs permitted throughout Western democracies?

Most so-called thinkers in the West are influenced by the likes of Herbert Marcuse, a leftist Marxist teacher in California; Noam Chomsky, an extreme leftist ideologue; and Edward Said, a Palestinian immigrant who taught at Columbia University. Each injected waves of students, especially from elite universities, with a belief structure that concentrated on the venality of fake “colonialism” and the joy of revolution for its own sake. These thinkers and their followers took advantage of the fervor surrounding the Vietnam War and sought to channel it through revolutionary rhetoric. Academia is still reverberating with these false and misleading ideas. Only Community colleges and trade schools are not as infected with these ideas because those students are struggling to learn their trades to earn a living.

Canadians mimic Americans. So, Canadian professors imitate their leftist American colleagues out of lust to be “relevant.” It was ever thus.

Now, these false beliefs have infiltrated all our Western institutions: politics, unions, schools, academia and the private sector. Examples abound. The tech sector is led by ill-tutored agnostic youth, who choose not to correct patent falsehoods under the false rubric of the “free press” and seem fixated on avaricious gains, making fortunes never before imagined.
The Jewish community of Porto will sue the European Jewish Congress
The title of this article may seem surprising. A European Jewish community, defined by The European Jewish Press as the strongest Jewish organization in the world in cultural terms, threatens to sue the European Jewish Congress if it does not receive a retraction.

The story behind this is bizarre. It involves the recently appointed President of the European Council António Costa and I will try to tell it briefly in this article.

A few days ago, the Jewish Community of Porto published the book The Plan!: Jewish Life Threatened in Europe for free on Amazon, which should be read by all those who don’t know or have forgotten Soviet-inspired political antisemitism. This antisemitism involves acknowledging and even praising weak Jewish communities while totally destroying strong ones.

The strong are attacked in a simple way: The press is used to destroy the reputation of target institutions and then unjust police actions are taken against them. A JNS article by Vivian Groisman describes this phenomenon quite well.

The story outlined in The Plan! involves government and media corruption; as well as an organized propaganda campaign. This campaign sought to unite Portuguese institutions to promote hatred and discrimination against the Jewish community of Oporto. Also targeted was legislation that restored the right of citizenship to Jews of Portuguese origin.

The persecution involved thieves, saboteurs and other criminal elements. It resulted in tens of thousands of hateful messages directed against the Oporto Jewish community. Jewish landlords were slandered at a demonstration for better housing. Their names and businesses were published in the newspapers. Vandalism was committed against Jewish buildings.

The Lisbon Jewish community is smaller in numerical, religious and cultural terms than that of Oporto. It was supported by the government during the attempt to destroy the Porto community and the citizenship law. This week, it issued a statement denying that former Prime Minister António Costa engaged in any type of antisemitism. It did so without even having read The Plan! Worse, the Lisbon community claimed that Costa’s government only decided to change the citizenship law due to reports that it was being abused. This is completely false.

The European Jewish Congress, with which the Lisbon community is affiliated, also came to Costa’s defense. It repeated the same falsehoods, deceiving the always very divided Jewish media.
Australian Jews grapple with mass doxxing, question future in their country
The shaming of hundreds of Australian Jewish creatives played out very much in public, with names and photos and threats, at least one targeting a child.

Now, months later, it lingers in silences — friends unfollowed, musicians quieted, colleagues ducked.

In February, a number of prominent Jews who had expressed anguish over Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre had their personal information outed by pro-Palestinian activists in a doxxing incident that stunned the country. The “Zio600” list was meant to isolate “Zionists,” ostensibly in retribution for threats to the careers of Israel’s critics.

The subsequent harassment and isolation of those on the list transformed Australian Jews. It changed how the community, known for its disproportionate number of descendants of Holocaust survivors, views the land they love — a place they thought was far removed from the hatreds that plagued their forebears.

“This happened in Australia, lovely, innocent, innocent, bloody innocent Australia,” said Geoff Sirmai, a writer, actor and PR professional — and a child of a Hungarian survivor — who was on the doxxing list. He spoke as he watched winter harbor waters rustle seacraft, cradled by the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge.

Once a safe haven, Australian Jewry struggle with new antisemitic reality
The doxxing happened in “the country that our parents chose because it was so far away,” said Estelle Rozinski, an artist and the daughter of Polish survivors who was also on the list.

Some of the most prominent targets of the doxxing described the fallout to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, along with their sense of having been betrayed not just by ostensible colleagues, not just by harsh critics of Israel, but by the country they call home.
Mélenchon will exploit and leverage France’s large Muslim vote
Pierre Arditti, 79, one of France's best theatre actors, has always been a champion of the left and the far-left. Memories of the Holocaust had a lot to do in this respect. Like many French Jews of his generation, Arditti tended to see the left as the ultimate rampart against racism and antisemitism.

He is now a broken man. “The left is my home”, he confided a week ago. “But I can no longer bear what is happening there.” Clearly, he was referring to the rise of an extremist far-left party, La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), led by a former socialist minister turned demagogue, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Some observers have described Mélenchon as a Corbyn on steroids. The editor of L’Express, the centrist weekly magazine, recently offered another comparison: Mélenchon is today what Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right agitator, used to be for about 20 years, from the early Eighties to the early Noughties.

Le Pen was 76 in 2002 when, having come in first in the first round of the 2002 presidential election, he was the only candidate facing Chirac in the second round; Mélenchon is now 72 and ambitions to come first or second in the next presidential election.

Le Pen liked to play the provocateur and make scandalous remarks; so does Mélenchon. Le Pen ruled his political party, the National Front as if it was his personal property; so, again, does Mélenchon within France Unbowed. Both men have been ready to be hard-nosed rulers, Le Pen as a second Marshall Pétain and Mélenchon as a new Robespierre. Both are incredibly powerful orators, with a command of both the literary and the popular French language.

The main difference is that Jean-Marie Le Pen opposed immigration and multiculturalism (while being in friendly terms with the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein), and that Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the contrary, welcomes it, no doubt for opportunistic reasons.

The French Muslim community grew from one million in the early seventies to at least 7 million in 2024 , thanks to much higher communal birth rates than the French national average, massive legal and illegal immigration from Arab countries, West Africa, Turkey and even the former USSR (500,000 souls a year), and conversions.

Two decades ago, Pascal Boniface, an academic specialising in international relations, advised the then pro-Israel Socialist Party to embrace the Palestinian cause in order to co-opt the growing Muslim vote. This is exactly what Mélenchon is doing now, in his brutal, devastating way.

France Unbowed’s strident “anti-Zionist” hysteria is thought to be related to the rampant exclusion of Jews from higher learning institutions (such as Sciences Po, the French equivalent of LSE), the “cancellation” of “Zionist” artists or intellectuals and a 1,000 per cent rise in anti-Jewish violence (from the beating of senior citizens or teenagers to the sordid rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in the name of Palestine).

"Mélenchon is a person who is a threat against the Jews," said Yonathan Arfi, the chairman of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (Crif) in a interview with The Jerusalem Post earlier this week.


Attorney files lawsuits against New York University due to failure to stop campus antisemitism
New York University settled a lawsuit on Monday by Jewish students who accused the school of failing to stop antisemitism on campus.

Marc Kasowitz, of New York based law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres, LLP, represented the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against NYU and also brought lawsuits alleging failure to stop antisemitism on campus against the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Harvard.

In conversation with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, Kasowitz was limited in what he could discuss about the NYU settlement but said other universities need to be taking full consideration of what antisemitism really is on their campuses, and need to be measuring antisemitism by the IHRA definition.

Under the IHRA definition if pro-Hamas groups or demonstrators, made up of students or faculty on campus, are calling for the destruction of Israel, that's antisemitic under that definition, Kasowitz said.

"That's just one of the things that these antisemitic groups have been doing on campuses that has been horrible for Jewish students have has violated their rights," Kasowitz told the Post. "Which is why we brought these lawsuits, and why we are going to prosecute these lawsuits to successful conclusions."

According to Kasowitz, the goal for the lawsuits is getting court orders that will say the definition of antisemitism is according to the IHRA definition, and that schools will be required to protect students against that kind of antisemitism.
Wall Street Law Firm Adopts Hiring Policy to Weed out Antisemites
Sullivan & Cromwell, a prominent Wall Street law firm, implemented new standards for job applicants from top law schools following antisemitic protests that swept America’s universities in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

The policy, detailed in a New York Times report, dictates that individuals who participated in college protests should be held responsible for their actions, as well as the actions of those around them, Joseph C. Shenker of Sullivan & Cromwell, told the Times. The firm conducts background checks on potential first-year associates to scrutinize applicants’ involvement with pro-Palestinian groups and campus protests, looking for examples of antisemitism. Public use of the phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” will be considered disqualifying for applicants, Shenker said.

“People are taking their outrage about what’s going on in Gaza and turning it into racist antisemitism,” Shenker said.

Sullivan & Cromwell is the first firm on Wall Street to publicly discuss such a rule, although four other high-caliber firms are considering a similar policy. The firm will screen students who apply from top law schools, including Harvard University, Yale College, Columbia University, and New York University, each of which had hundreds of students participate in anti-Israel protests.

Some law firms have rescinded job offers for students who participated in campus protests, or who signed onto anti-Israel statements that blamed Israel for Hamas’s terrorism. In November, Shenker’s firm joined hundreds of other firms in encouraging law school deans to curb campus antisemitism.
Camp Ramah rejects rehiring counselor who supports anti-Israel views
Leadership at Ramah Day Camp in New England has asserted Zionist beliefs for employment, a decision that inspired nearly 150 alumni to write an open letter against that requirement.

The dispute arose following an unnamed former counselor who had posted a meme from the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace. The group accuses Israel of committing genocide in its war to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the terrorist organization infiltrated the border on Oct. 7 and killed 1,200 people, wounded thousands and kidnapped as many as 250 men, women and children. It has also been vocal against Israel in protests on college campuses since Oct. 7.

In a job interview with the camp’s CEO, Rabbi Ed Gelb, the aspiring employee asserted her agreement with the group and its views. He then reportedly responded that she would not be welcome to return.

The letter to Ramah, which is affiliated with the Conservative movement and runs day and overnight camps throughout the United States, urges hiring candidates “on their aptitude and passion for the job at hand, not their personal beliefs about Israel or Zionism.”

Gelb and Elizabeth Waksman, the president of Ramah New England’s board, replied with their own letter, stating that “if you read our statement on Israel, you will see that the range of acceptable debate is very wide. At the same time, there are limits for all sides and our families trust us to adhere to our principles.”

In a previous letter of his own, Gelb had named three “double yellow lines” he said the camp must adhere to: “Hamas’ Simchat Torah attack was pure evil, without any attached qualifications. Israel has an obligation to protect its citizens and remove the threat of further Hamas attacks. And Israel should prosecute its just war against Hamas in a way that minimizes Palestinian civilian deaths as much as possible.”
The silent Intifada in American schools
Although anti-Israel activists have been vocal post-October 7, their extreme views do not represent those of most Americans. And yet, their voices are being amplified throughout our children’s classrooms within the American K-12 educational system.

Many parents, students, and teachers are determined to get the K-12 system back on track after malicious actors have hijacked the system to indoctrinate students with false information about the United States, Israel, Jews, and society in general.

After Hamas’ October 7 massacre, many were left afraid and devastated, but what followed left others confused. It was almost unfathomable that K-12 students, teachers, and administrators would excuse terrorism, with adults encouraging children to take the side of those terrorists who committed crimes against humanity. The pro-Hamas stance taken by many, post-October 7, exposed the deep rot within the K-12 education system in the United States.

Activists use ethnic studies programs to further their ideological agenda based on a critique of settler-colonialism using an oppression binary lens.

Before October 7, this battle was being waged in the shadows, with activists organizing and pushing for academic requirements that would further their agendas, like the newly adopted ethnic studies requirement in California, Boston, and Minnesota. More reasonable people welcomed classes that were representative of the ethnic and cultural diversity of our pluralistic society and worked towards ethnic studies classes that would do what their title implies - teach about the experiences and contributions of various ethnic groups and individuals in the US.

Unfortunately, many ethnic studies academics and activists have been determined to define ethnic studies by radical activism and the oppression binary, rather than the study of communities and individuals.

California’s Ethnic Studies War
Come fall of 2025, California public and charter schools are mandated to offer an ethnic studies class for all students as part of their required high school curriculum. There is a very real war being waged in California and other states and districts that have implemented ethnic studies requirements over what students should learn. Radical ethnic studies activists are using this opportunity to justify terrorism as a legitimate form of resistance and rewrite history and current events while eroding our children’s morality.

The ethnic studies program is not the only vehicle bringing hateful ideology into K-12 classrooms. Other initiatives like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), culturally responsive education (CRE), and teacher professional development (PD) are used to further the idea that “resistance is justified when people are occupied.”

Since the October 7 Hamas massacre, the “liberated” ethnic studies radicals have staged walkouts, encouraging students to demonstrate support for Hamas, demonstrated at school boards, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza that would see Hamas remain in power and the 120 Israeli hostages remaining in captivity, developed entire curricula that distort history and current events and demonizes Jewish self-determination, and taught teachers and students materials rooted in historical erasure of Jewish indigeneity.


Report: UAE deported student who shouted ‘Free Palestine’ at NYU Abu Dhabi graduation
The United Arab Emirates deported a student who wore a Palestinian-style keffiyeh scarf and shouted “Free Palestine!” as he crossed the stage to receive his diploma while graduating from New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus in May, according to a report by Washington Square News, an NYU student newspaper.

The reported deportation comes as the UAE navigates its response to the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas terror group. Although it has offered aid to the Palestinians, the UAE, a federation of seven emirates that tightly controls speech and where political parties are illegal, has not allowed any mass demonstrations against the war of the sort that have swept the rest of the Arab world as well as much of the West.

The government’s protest policy has come into conflict with students at NYU Abu Dhabi, only about a fifth of whom originally hail from the Emirates. Students say activities over the war have been barred, and report repression at cultural events in the country’s capital, where those wearing the keffiyeh have been stopped from entering.

“I think the government and the laws of the country don’t necessarily align with wanting to create an environment that appeals to the West as well, if we’re talking about freedom of speech and so on,” said one student, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Responding to questions from AP, NYU Abu Dhabi said it has been “guaranteed academic authority” on campus but that “in none of our locations… are members of the NYU community immune from local law.”
University of Florida Hands Down Years-Long Suspensions to Pro-Hamas Rioters
The University of Florida (UF) has handed down severe and potentially life-altering punishments to seven pro-Hamas rioters who participated in occupying the campus in an attempt to intimidate officials into boycotting and divesting from Israel, according to Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the university’s College of Journalism and Communications.

UF’s disciplinary body was set on slapping the students’ wrists, sentencing most to probation only based on recommendations from “hearing bodies,” until its new dean, Chris Summerlin, intervened and issued full suspensions for as many as four years. The harshest suspensions — including four years for Allan Hektor Frasheri, 21, and three years for other students — while not being formal expulsions, are long enough to make it unlikely that the students serving them will return to the University of Florida.

The seven students have reportedly submitted appeals to overturn their punishments that are pending.

Summerlin’s suspensions may not be the only consequences that the students will face.

According to Fresh Take Florida, the students were part of a group of nine that were arrested by local law enforcement for trespassing and resisting arrest, charges that are being prosecuted by the Alachua County State Attorney’s Office. They are taking their chances at trial, the news service added, noting that all nine have rejected “deferred prosecution,” an agreement that would require them to plead guilty, or no contest, in exchange for the state’s expunging the convictions from their records in the future so long as they abstain from committing more criminal acts.

One of the nine, computer science student Parker Stanely Hovis, 26, — who was suspended for three years — proclaimed on Tuesday that they will contest the state’s cases.

“We did not resist arrest, and we are prepared to fight our charges,” Hovis said in a statement. “We’re standing in solidarity with each other, and collectively demanding that the state drop the charges against us.”

The University of Texas at Austin has also meted out lengthy suspensions to pro-Hamas protesters who violated school rules, a course of action that experts believe is a deterrent against similar behavior in the future.

Three students have been sentenced to deferred suspensions, a form of probation which allows them to continue their studies so long as they comply with school rules going forward, according KUT News, a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate. As part of their punishment, they must pass an exam testing their knowledge of school policies on free speech and protests and formally declare their awareness of the harsher, full suspensions they will receive should they violate school rules again.

One student, KUT added, was given a “full” two-year suspension during which he is banned from campus. The suspension effectively disenrolled him from the university, but he can reapply for readmission in 2026.
A Tale of Two Universities
Harvard and the University of Florida take divergent paths in dealing with lawbreaking students

At Harvard, meanwhile, the school’s administrative board reversed its decision to suspend five students for participating in an unlawful encampment. Now, the Harvard Crimson reports, "the most severe probation charge will last for just one semester, a remarkable change from the initial punishments which required one student to withdraw from the College for three semesters."

It doesn’t take a genius to see the writing on the wall and, indeed, the Crimson notes, "Harvard may have further emboldened pro-Palestine student groups ahead of the return to campus in September."

Indeed, the school’s anti-Israel radicals declared victory in a series of Instagram posts: "Harvard has caved in, showing that student intifada will always prevail," they wrote. "This reversal speaks to the power of our movement, both on campus and worldwide."

We disagree. This reversal speaks to the fecklessness of administrators at elite universities, the rampant anti-Semitism and radical politics that dominate their ranks, and the case for serious students, parents, and faculty to flee these campuses. And of the student movement itself, its chief accomplishment is likely to be the further destruction of the institutions who abide its lawbreaking. Their prestige evaporates by the hour.


‘Outrageous’: Pro-Palestine protests chant for ‘Intifada’ outside Melbourne University
Sky News Senior Reporter Caroline Marcus says it is “outrageous” pro-Palestine protesters were chanting for “Intifada” outside the University of Melbourne on Wednesday.

Dozens of pro-Palestine supporters converged on the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus to protest as the university began disciplinary hearings for students who occupied a building for ten days in June.

“Intifada, as we know, refers to the two waves of terror that Palestinian terrorists carried out on Israelis,” Ms Marcus told Sky News host James Macpherson.

“To have people openly chanting that on the streets is outrageous.”




EXPOSED: AP Photographer in Gaza Taught Media Courses Supervised by Hamas-run Information Ministry
A staff photographer working for the Associated Press in Gaza has instructed media training courses supervised by the Hamas-run Information Ministry, an HonestReporting investigation revealed.

In 2016 and 2017, Adel Hana shared photos of himself online showing he had taught photography courses run by the Media Training Department at the Ministry of Information in Gaza, which is de-facto controlled by Hamas.

The revelation that Hana, an award-winning news photographer who has been on AP’s payroll for over three decades, has also provided work for a body run by a proscribed terror group raises alarming questions regarding his journalistic objectivity and AP’s due diligence.

Media Instructor for Hamas-run Body
On January 30, 2017, Hana shared the following post on his personal Facebook page:
The post shows pictures of Gazan photography students listening to Hana as he stands below the official emblem of the Palestinian Ministry of Information, a body that’s officially under the Palestinian Authority but in Gaza is de-facto run by Hamas.

The post caption reads in Arabic:
With the grace and favor of Allah, the first session of the basics of photography courses has been opened in the headquarters of the Ministry of Information in Gaza. Approximately thirty male and female students, both current and graduates of media studies from various universities in the Gaza Strip, are participating in the session. It is worth mentioning that these courses are under the supervision of the Media Training Department at the Ministry of Information in Gaza and the Journalistic Photographer Committee of the Arab Photographers’ Union, Palestine branch.

Some of the pictures were also posted on the official Facebook page of the Media Training Department at the Ministry of Information, with a caption that read in Arabic: “Opening of the first batch of the Photography course in cooperation with the Union of Arab Photographers – Palestine Branch. With photojournalist Adel Hana.”

It’s unclear why the professional body mentioned in the post — the Arab Photographers’ Union — had no problem cooperating with a Hamas-run government agency.

And it seems that Hana wasn’t just a guest speaker in the Ministry’s course. A February 2017 post on the official Media Training Department page showed him granting graduation certificates to the course participants — potentially indicating a larger role in the course’s program.

It also wasn’t a one-off. A year earlier, in a post on his professional Facebook page, Hana is pictured instructing another photography course with a caption reading in Arabic:
We are back again in 2016.

The first meeting of the first cycle of the fourth plan for the courses and training sessions of the “Journalists for Excellence” team with Mr. Adel Hana (Photographer at AP News Agency) in cooperation with the Ministry of Information.

Interestingly, Hana didn’t share any of the posts on his X account, where he mainly shares content in English.

According to this account, he is currently located in Cairo, Egypt. He has relocated from Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war, after providing AP with typical photos of destruction, bodies and hospital scenes — which happen to serve the agenda of the Information Ministry where he served as an instructor.
CBC’s As It Happens Program Promotes False Doomsday Humanitarian Picture Of Gaza
On the July 6 episode of As It Happens, a CBC radio program, a news article and accompanying radio segment was produced, entitled: “Why it’s so hard to get humanitarian aid to Gazans”. It was authored by Keena Alwahaidi, a reporter and associate producer for CBC.

During the radio segment, Alwahaidi interviewed Jeremy Konyndyk, President of Refugees International, on the situation in Gaza, who was previously interviewed on March 1 on the same program, and who drew a highly misleading picture for listeners.

In the interview, Konyndyk blamed Israel for what he deemed insufficient aid coming into Gaza. Commenting on northern Gaza now being in “worse shape” than the south, he said, “The turning point there was the beginning of the Rafah offensive by the Israeli military and the seizure of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza by the Israeli military.”

Konyndyk is consistent in his finger-pointing at Israel, and towards the end of his interview he finally alluded to problems other than Israel: “I spoke to one aid agency this morning that said they’re seeing well over half of incoming convoys being looted by gangs.” He failed to mention who is responsible for much of the looting: Hamas and other Gaza-based groups.

Alwahaidi’s sole mention of Hamas is when she called them, “Hamas-led militants”, instead of terrorists, despite Hamas being a recognized terror organization in Canada, part of CBC’s policy of not calling Hamas terrorists. Of Hamas’s October 7 massacre, she merely wrote that they, “killed about 1,200 people and abducted 250 others, 37,900 people in Gaza have been killed during retaliatory Israeli bombardments…” She used Hamas’s Gaza Health Ministry’s unreliable casualty figures, which include combatant deaths and deaths due to natural causes, and are likely significantly inflated and fabricated. Doing so distracts her readers and listeners from the bestial brutalities Hamas committed, including beheading, raping, and burning their innocent victims. Instead, it focused on what appears to be a significant numerical imbalance, to accuse Israel.

Alwahaidi’s accompanying article largely relied on the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), and an article from Human Rights Watch for her depiction of a humanitarian crisis. She wrote that: “A UN-backed report said 96 percent of the population are facing profound levels of food insecurity, and Human Rights Watch says Israel is using starvation tactics as a weapon of warfare.”

The IPC’s conclusions are suspect. Firstly, they have had to walk back their March prediction of imminent famine in Gaza, which didn’t occur by any stretch of the imagination.


Democrats debate approach to Israel ahead of drafting party platform
While national Democratic figures fret about whether President Joe Biden should remain the party’s nominee, the standard, bureaucratic business of the presidential campaign ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention is proceeding as normal. On Tuesday, the party activists tasked with drafting the Democratic Party’s platform met virtually to hear testimony from advocates on issues ranging from gun violence prevention to abortion.

The 30-minute segment of the meeting that focused on Israel and the war in Gaza featured dueling testimonies from both the pro-Israel and anti-Israel wings of the party, hinting at lingering discontent within the party over how Israel — long a key pillar of the Democrats’ platform — could be treated in the policy document.

Dana Stroul, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East in the first three years of the Biden administration, spoke first, offering a resounding endorsement of the U.S.-Israel relationship and Biden’s broader vision for regional integration, including between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“After the horrific October 7 attack by Hamas against Israeli civilians, the administration implemented an unprecedented effort that combined diplomacy, military equipment to support Israel’s self defense, increased U.S. military presence to deter Iran and its proxies and support for the recovery of hostages still held by Hamas,” said Stroul, now the director of research at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. She also touted Biden’s support for human rights in the region and in Gaza.

“The president consistently promoted respect for human rights and adherence to international humanitarian law. Recently this focus has prioritized expanding humanitarian access and assistance in Gaza, and improving the protection of civilians during Israeli military operations to dismantle Hamas,” Stroul added.

Her testimony was followed by remarks from Elianne Farhat, executive director at the progressive advocacy group TakeAction Minnesota. Farhat introduced herself as a leader of the “Uncommitted” movement, which urged Democrats to vote against Biden in their states’ primaries to signal disapproval of his support for Israel. The movement garnered over 600,000 votes and earned more than two dozen delegates to the DNC. Farhat called for an “arms embargo” on Israel.

“From my Native to my Arab ancestry, I know what it is like when our country uses our immense power to promote good, as well as when it misuses that power to spread pain, suffering and genocide,” said Farhat, who is part Lebanese. “Today I implore you to include language that unequivocally supports a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel’s war and occupation against Palestinians.”

In her testimony, Farhat was questioned by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who sits on the drafting committee and asked her to elaborate on why her perspective should be considered by the platform committee. She warned that failing to incorporate the perspective of voters aligned with the Uncommitted movement could spell victory for former President Donald Trump.
‘Completely abandoned,’ Jewish Dems voting for GOP tell ‘NY Post’
With recent polling suggesting that U.S. President Joe Biden’s support among Jewish voters is slipping, the New York Post spoke with four Jewish lifelong Democrats who plan to vote Republican for the first time in November.

Melissa Chapman, 50, of Staten Island, N.Y., told the paper that she thought the Democrats would protect her, but “then Oct. 7 happened, and I was completely abandoned.” Now, “even on my vegan Facebook communities, all the recipes became about freeing Palestine, somehow,” Chapman, whose late father was a Holocaust survivor, told the Post.

“I was told to go back to Poland,” she added. “One person told me they hope that I burn in the ovens.”

“My number one priority is overall safety and security for myself as a Jewish person,” Marin Faiella, of Manhattan, told the Post. “I’m not anti-Democrat, but I’m definitely anti-extreme Democrats.”
House Hopeful Josh Riley Invests in DC Distillery That Hosted Pro-Hamas Trans Palestinian Chef
A Democrat running for Congress in upstate New York, Josh Riley, invests in a Washington, D.C., distillery that hosted a Hamas-sympathizing trans Palestinian chef, his latest financial disclosure shows.

Riley—who is again running in New York's 19th Congressional District after narrowly losing against Republican incumbent Marc Molinaro in 2022—holds up to $15,000 worth of private shares in Republic Restoratives, a left-wing distillery in the nation's capital. In 2023, the distillery hosted a pride event complete with food from Marcelle Afram, a trans Palestinian chef who rallied behind Hamas in the wake of the terror group's Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

In November, for example, Afram accused anyone who condemns Hamas of being an "accomplice" to "colonial genocide." Months later, in April, Afram issued three demands for the Biden administration: "a permanent ceasefire, ending U.S. aid to Israel, and [the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement], because we have to hit them where their money is."

"This colonial genocide has existed for 75 years," Afram wrote in a November Instagram post. "If the first thing that's still coming out of your mouth is, 'But, Hamas…,' you are an accomplice, resorting to justifying genocide, and history will remember you as such."

Riley's affiliation with the distillery is a curious one, given that the Democrat portrays himself as a blue-collar Democrat with "deep roots in upstate New York." Republic Restoratives offers a different vibe—in addition to its event with Afram, which featured a drag story hour for children, the distillery sells a variety of spirits marketed toward D.C.'s liberal class.

A "Dissent Gin," for example, is inspired by late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A "Madam" whiskey honors Vice President Kamala Harris, while a "Rodham Rye" pays homage to failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Riley did not respond to a request for comment.
Campaigner for new ‘pro-Gaza’ independent MP charged with terrorism offences
A supporter of Shockat Adam, the new independent anti-Israel MP for Leicester South, has been charged with terrorism offences.

A statement by Leicestershire Police confirmed that “Majid Novsarka, also known as Majid Freeman … has been charged with encouragement of terrorism and supporting a proscribed organisation.

“He has been released on bail and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 24 July.”

Jonathan Ashworth, formerly a key member of Sir Keir Starmer’s top team who was defeated by Shockat Adam in Leicester South, tweeted: “this is deeply disturbing & alarming. It’s said this individual is a key campaigner for Leic South’s new MP Shockat Adam Patel.”

He added that his successor “must now condemn this individual & condemn those organising demonstrations defending him. The safety of people must always come first.”

Lord Walney, a government adviser on political violence and disruption, said the incident was disturbing, adding: “The conduct of new MP Shockat Adam Patel and apparent supporters during the Leicester South campaign leaves him with serious questions to answer.”

Freeman was an active participant of the campaign to defeat Ashworth in Leicester South during the general election. He posted on Twitter that “A Vote For Labour Is A Vote For Genocide – Enough is Enough!” He also posted a video of himself confronting Ashworth over his voting record in Parliament on the conflict in Gaza. Freeman said Ashworth had the “blood of Palestinian men, women and children” on his hands.
Jonathan Ashworth calls on new Leicester South MP to explain 'dealings' with man charged with terror offences
A former senior Labour MP has called on the man who took his seat to "provide a full account of all his dealings" with one of his vocal supporters who is now facing terrorism charges.

Leicestershire Police confirmed on Wednesday that Majid Novsarka - known as Majid Freeman - was facing allegations of encouragement of terrorism and supporting a proscribed organisation, and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later this month.

Novsarka, who is from Leicester, was a staunch advocate for Shockat Adam, who won the seat of Leicester South in last week's general election, ousting Labour's then shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth from the constituency by 979 votes.

Novsarka has posted numerous messages in support of the new MP, including saying "the best man won" after the vote.


US resumes arms shipments to Israel, including 500-pound bombs - WSJ report
The United States will soon ship weapons and arms that the Biden administration suspended, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Wednesday.

The new shipments ends a two-month pause in weapons deliveries.

Weapons include 500-pound bombs that the Biden administration previously suspended, with the administration citing civilian casualties in Gaza, WSJ noted in their report.

The WSJ report stated that according to estimates, the bombs "are in the process of being shipped" and will arrive in Israel in coming weeks.

However, according to reports, heavier bombs, including 2,000-pound bombs are still on hold, US officials stated.

The 500-pound bombs a US official said were "co-mingled" with the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs withheld from Israel are "moving forward as part of the usual process," according to a statement to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday night.

Officials confirm shipment released to Israel as 'part of usual process'
"We’ve been clear that our concern has been on the end-use of the 2,000-lb bombs, particularly in advance of Israel’s Rafah campaign which they have announced they are concluding," the US official said in a statement to The Post. "Because of how these shipments are put together, other munitions may sometimes be co-mingled."
IDF says it shelled Syrian Army sites that violated 1974 disengagement agreement
The IDF says tanks and artillery shelled Syrian Army sites in southern Syria that had violated a 1974 disengagement agreement.

According to the IDF, the structures erected in the Syrian Golan Heights were a violation of the Agreement on Disengagement signed in 1974 between Israel and Syria, which concluded the Yom Kippur War.

“The IDF considers the Syrian Army responsible for everything that happens in its territory and will not allow attempts to violate the disengagement agreement,” the military adds.


PMW: From the river to the sea is “a call for peace” – Palestinian Authority lie
The slogan “from the river to the sea – Palestine will be free,” which is currently popular around the world at anti-Israel demonstrations, is an explicit call to destroy the State of Israel and ethically cleanse its territory of Jews.

“From the river to the sea” refers to the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. That area covers the State of Israel, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, which is divided into Areas A, B, and C—Area A under PA control, Area B under joint Israeli and PA control, and Area C under Israeli control, according to the Oslo Accords (1993).

Saying “Palestine will be free” in this region means that anything Israeli will cease to exist, which is consistent with PA ideology that nullifies Israel’s right to exist in any borders and considers everything Israeli to be part of “the occupation.”

As Palestinians and those who seek Israel's destruction, together with ignorant and naïve supporters, have been screaming the “from the river to the sea” slogan at demonstrations around the world, others have criticized it for what it is: a call for Israel’s destruction.

To combat the criticism, a regular columnist of the official PA daily tried to whitewash the slogan as “an ambitious call for freedom, human rights, and coexistence in peace”!

In his column, Ammar Jamhour complained that the slogan is being defined by some as one that “encourages hatred and is antisemitic.” Instead, he defended it as:
“A spontaneous expression, whose goal is not to kill Jews or throw them into the sea, as the Zionist lobbies that oppose the Palestinian national rights claim. The truth is that it expresses the Palestinians’ suffering and the desire to achieve freedom and independence…”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, May 22, 2024]

Speaking in the name of all “those who sound this slogan,” Jamhour continued to whitewash the call for Israel’s elimination as “an ambitious call for coexistence”:
“The sounding of this slogan by Palestinians does not mean eliminating and negating the Jewish presence. Those who sound this slogan think that it is tantamount to an ambitious call for freedom, human rights, and coexistence in peace, and not for death, destruction, or hatred…”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, May 22, 2024]


MEMRI: Iranian Officials Acknowledge Iran's Role In Planning And Executing October 7 Hamas Invasion And Massacres In Southern Israel
On several occasions, Iranian officials have revealed that the Iranian regime was involved in the planning and execution of Hamas's "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood," the October 7, 2023 invasion and massacres in southern Israel in which over 1,200 Israelis were killed and over 240 were taken hostage. Statements by these officials contradict the regime's official stance, as expressed by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on October 10, 2023, that Iran was not involved in the attack.[1]

Below are recent statements by Iranian regime officials and mouthpieces acknowledging the Iranian regime's involvement in the October 7 attacks.

Coalition Council Of Islamic Revolution Forces: Zahedi "Played A Strategic Role" In "The Planning And Execution Of Al-Aqsa Flood"

On April 3, 2024, the Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces, which is affiliated with the conservative ideological faction in Iran, published a notice of mourning and appreciation for Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the IRGC Qods Force commander in Syria and Lebanon, along with his deputy Mohammad Hadi Rahimi and five other senior Qods Force officials, who were all killed in the April 1 airstrike in the Iranian consulate complex in Damascus that has been attributed to Israel.

The Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces is headed by Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, who is advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as well as the father-in-law of Khamenei's son Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei. He is also a member of the Expediency Council, and a former Majlis speaker.

The April 3 announcement clearly indicates that Gen. Zahedi was involved in the planning and execution of the October 7 attack. It stated: "The strategic role of the martyr Zahedi in consolidating and strengthening the resistance front, and in the planning and execution of Al-Aqsa Flood, are part of the great pride that will transform the quiet efforts of this great commander into the eternal history of the struggle against the occupation by the Zionist regime."[2]

The seven IRGC Qods Force officers killed in the April 1, 2024 airstrike against the Iranian consulate complex in Damascus. Source: Mashregh News (Iran), April 3, 2024.

For more details, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 11264, Close Associate Of Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei: The IRGC Qods Force Commander For Syria And Lebanon Who Was Killed In Damascus Was Involved In Planning And Execution Of October 7 Hamas Attack, April 9, 2024.

IRGC Qods Force Deputy Operations Chief Gen. Mohsen Chizari On Qods Force Deputy Commander In Syria And Lebanon Hajj Rahimi, Killed In Damascus Iranian Consulate Compound Airstrike: Under Khamenei's Command, The Resistance Axis Commanders – Including Hajj Rahimi – Successfully "Advanced The Resistance Front To A Certain Place, The Result Of Which Was Operation Al-Aqsa Flood"
She was the target of an Iranian assassination plot. She now lives in its shadow
Masih Alinejad is lucky to be alive.

In late July 2022, a hitman was standing on the front porch of her home in Brooklyn, N.Y. The man, bearded and wearing a black T-shirt and baggy black shorts, had allegedly been hired as part of a plot hatched in Iran to assassinate Alinejad, a dissident and outspoken critic of the Iranian regime.

The only thing separating him from Alinejad was her front door.

Alinejad was home at the time, on a Zoom call with the Russian chess champion and political activist Gary Kasparov and the Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez.

“I was in a very deep conversation. It was very tense, and we were talking about initiating a new organization, so that’s why I didn’t want to leave the meeting,” Alinejad said. “So when I heard someone knocking at the door, I was like, OK, after the meeting, so I didn’t open the door.”

That Zoom call likely saved her life.

When she didn’t answer the door, the suspect returned to his car and drove off, running a stop sign near her house. The police pulled him over and found an AK-47-style rifle in the back seat of his car. He was arrested, and from there the FBI unraveled what prosecutors say was a murder-for-hire scheme directed from Iran to assassinate Alinejad.

“I actually asked the FBI what happened that I’m alive now,” Alinejad told NPR. “They said 'You were lucky.' "

She was lucky, in part, because the FBI was aware Iran was targeting her, but the bureau didn’t know that the man on her porch was part of the alleged assassination plot or that he was armed with a gun, she said.

The murder-for-hire scheme to kill Alinejad is one of at least four state-sponsored plots that the Justice Department says it has foiled in the past several years. It is part of a growing trend in which foreign governments look to silence critics overseas.


Germans alone responsible for Holocaust, no Polish involvement - Former Polish PM says
Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has re-asserted that Germans alone were responsible for the Holocaust, urging correction of any claims of Polish involvement. In a strongly worded tweet, Morawiecki addressed ongoing controversies regarding Poland’s role in the Holocaust.

His statement, posted on his official X account, criticized what he called “nonsense” published by a historian in the English-language press, and emphasized Poland’s stance on Holocaust responsibility.

“When more nonsense from a historical dilettante with (unfortunately) an academic title appeared in the English-language Jewish Quarterly, it was the duty of every decent Pole to correct these falsehoods,” Morawiecki tweeted.

He further called on the Polish government and its leaders, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk, to address and refute claims about Poland’s co-responsibility for the Holocaust. “As a historian, I cannot remain indifferent to the continuous false claims of Mr. Grabowski,” he added, referring to the historian whose work sparked the controversy.

The Jewish Quarterly is an independent publication that has been cultivating high-standard literary journalism for nearly 70 years. Originally founded in the UK in 1953 by Jacob Sonntag, it focuses on exploring Jewish issues and broader cultural and political topics from a Jewish perspective. In 2021, the publication was relaunched by Australian publisher Morry Schwartz, making it accessible worldwide.

This tweet came in the wake of renewed debates over Poland’s controversial Holocaust law, which was passed in 2018. The law criminalized the attribution of Nazi crimes to the Polish nation, sparking an international outcry and straining Poland’s relations with Israel and Jewish organizations globally.

Although the penal provisions of the law were later removed, the debate over historical narratives continued to provoke strong reactions.
Israel’s Yes TV Announces New Spy Drama Series About Hunt for Infamous Nazi Doctor Josef Mengele
Israel’s Yes TV will begin filming in the coming days in Israel a new period drama series about the hunt for infamous Nazi doctor and war criminal Josef Mengele, it was announced on Tuesday.

The series, which does not yet have a title, will be broadcast on Yes TV and is being produced by Assaf Gil with his company Gil Formats. He is creating the series alongside Moshe Zonder (“Tehran”) and Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz (“The Girl from Oslo”), both of whom are also the scriptwriters. Gabriel Bibliowicz (“Night Therapy”) will direct and the American production company Lionsgate will co-produce the series.

The series is set in 1970 and takes place in both a kibbutz in the Jordan Valley and Germany. German actor Oliver Masucci — who played Ulrich Nielsen in the Netflix show “Dark” and Adolf Hitler in the 2015 film “Look Who’s Back” — will star as Uri, an “alpha male” figure on a kibbutz and one of the pioneers of the state of Israel. He and his wife Anna, played by Ania Bukstein, moved from Eastern Europe to Israel to start a new life after surviving the Holocaust. They stay silent about experiences in the Holocaust for 25 years, until Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, forces Uri to return to Germany and infiltrate a cell of Nazi SS veterans with the goal of finding Mengele, who escaped at the end of World War II.

The series will also star Naya Bienstock, Ido Tako, Rotem Keinan, and Sarit Vino-Elad.

Mengele conducted gruesome and deadly medical experiments on Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during the Holocaust. He also carried out torturous experiments on twins and was nicknamed the “Angel of Death.” He fled to Brazil after World War II and eluded capture until he died in 1979 under a false name.
Candace Owens calls Mengele experiments 'bizarre propaganda'
Candace Owens, a prominent conservative media personality, has ignited controversy with recent remarks about World War II and the Holocaust, prompting swift backlash online.

In a YouTube episode titled, "Literally Hitler. Why Can't We Talk About Him?", Owens appeared to downplay the atrocities of Nazi Germany while criticizing the Allies' post-war actions. She questioned the taboo surrounding Hitler discussions, stating, "We have been indoctrinated and we actually know nothing about the person other than the fact that we must fear him."

Owens suggested that education about Nazi Germany is a form of indoctrination, comparing it to "Soviet tactics of introducing really heavy concepts to kids while their brains are developing because you want to traumatize them." She further claimed this was done to ensure compliance with a narrative portraying Hitler as "the greatest evil that's ever happened on earth, even though factually and statistically it is not. Why is he the most evil?"

She then made controversial assertions about Allied actions after World War II, claiming they "ethnically cleansed 12 million Germans... in the exact same [concentration] camps that we then transferred the Germans into so that we could mass kill them." She described the Holocaust as "an ethnic cleansing [that] almost took place," while asserting that the Allies "actually did [an ethnic cleansing]."

These statements drew sharp criticism from various public figures. Adam Milstein, a philanthropist, responded on X, saying, "Candace Owens has completely lost her mind. Blinded by Jew hatred, she's now resorted to defending Hitler." International human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky went further, accusing Owens of having "gone full-blown Neo-Nazi."

Owens also cast doubt on the well-documented medical experiments conducted by Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, describing them as sounding like "bizarre propaganda." She said, "The idea that they just cut a human up and then sewed them back together. Why would you do that? Even if you're the most evil person in the world, that's a tremendous waste of time and supplies."

The Combat Antisemitism Movement responded to these comments on X, stating, "It is an established fact that SS officer Josef Mengele performed deadly experiments on Jewish twins during the Holocaust. Not 80 years later, Candace Owens tries to rewrite history by denying these depraved acts ever happened. Utterly repugnant." Adam Goldman, chief editor of the NYU Review, summed up the sentiment of many critics, saying it was "Hard to go much lower than this."


Victorian MPs’ ‘life-changing’ visit to Israel
“Life-changing”, “moving” and “enlightening” were some of the ways six Victorian State Liberal MPs recent participants in AIJAC’s Rambam Fellowship Program described their recent visit to Israel at a luncheon for AIJAC supporters in Melbourne on June 27.

Member for Caulfield David Southwick spearheaded the group, which included David Davis, Member for Southern Metropolitan Region, Trung Luu, Member for Western Metropolitan Region, James Newbury, Member for Brighton, Renee Heath, Member for Eastern Victoria Region and Chris Crewther, Member for Mornington. The AIJAC liaison was Jamie Hyams OAM.

AIJAC’s Executive Director Dr Colin Rubenstein AM introduced the speakers, calling attention to the grave uncertainty that Israel finds itself in, and how the importance of the Rambam program is especially during wartime.

Since Hamas’ attack on October 7 of last year, Rambam participants have had the opportunity to pay their respects and see firsthand the devastation in Gaza border kibbutzim. They were also given the opportunity to view the 47-minute uncensored video “Bearing Witness” which was assembled from body cameras of Hamas terrorists who carried out the attacks and some security camera footage – the memory of which brought one participant, and all the AIJAC supporters in attendance, to the brink of tears.

The group spoke of the remarkable resilience they saw in the Israeli people during their trip, the strength of the families of the hostages they met in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, and how much they learned about Israel generally and the Jews and non-Jews that make it their home.

As with every Rambam group, they also had a chance to spend time in Jerusalem and visit the Dead Sea, as well as have a meeting with Palestinian Authority officials in the West Bank, and survey the situation there.

Speaking along with the Victorian MPs was National Weekend Political Editor for News Ltd James Campbell, who had himself just returned from a journalists’ Rambam group led by AIJAC’s Executive Manager Joel Burnie.

For Campbell, it was his second time to Israel as a Rambam participant – the first time over a decade ago – and he spoke of the difference of seeing the country mobilized during wartime and how the war being waged on Israel’s borders is related to a much bigger challenge to the West at play by actors like Iran, Russia, and to an extent China and North Korea as well.

Burnie’s vote of thanks saluted the participants as well as Rambam’s donors, who make the success of the program possible.


Eden Golan receives standing ovation in London for October Rain performance
Israeli Eurovision contestant Eden Golan received a lengthy standing ovation from UK Jewry after performing her original song October Rain in a West End London venue on Sunday night, her first performance of the song outside Israel since taking part in the popular televised competition in May.

About 830 people from across the Jewish community and outside of it, including comedian Jimmy Carr, attended the ‘Letters Light and Love’ fundraising event, which sought to raise money for the purpose of rebuilding Kibbutz Be’eri, specifically the reconstruction of the kindergartens shattered by Hamas terrorists on October 7.

Kibbutz Be’eri was one of the hardest hit communities on October 7 during Hamas’s murderous rampage through southern Israel. About one tenth of the community’s population, more than 120 people, were massacred by terrorists on the day and a further 26 residents taken hostage. The kibbutz kindergarten was used by dozens of Hamas terrorists as a base during the invasion, destroying it in the process and effectively crippling the kibbutz even eight months on after the attack. While some residents have now started to return to the town, the kibbutz requires families in order to thrive again and so must now reconstruct these education centres.

Sunday evening’s script consisted almost entirely of stirring letters from various eras written by notable figures Caesar to Maimonides, Golda Meir to Montefiore, Einstein to Churchill – all highlighting the historic link between Jewish people and the land of Israel spanning thousands of years.

Accompanied by live music and songs performed by a professional ensemble, the epistolary homages to Israel were read by numerous public figures and outspoken defenders of the country, ranging from screen and stage actors, musicians, activists, and journalists, each wearing a yellow ribbon to remember the hostages still held in Gaza.

Performers included world-famous Israeli model Bar Rafaeli, actress Dame Maureen Lipman, Will & Grace actress Debra Messing, television mathematician Rachel Riley MBE, Olivier award-winning actor Elliot Levey, celebrated Ethiopian Israeli singer Ester Rada, and veteran stage actor Allan Corduner.
New center at Yad Vashem showcases millions of artifacts
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, earlier this week inaugurated a new home for the world’s largest collection of Shoah-related materials.

Donors, dignitaries, Yad Vashem staff and survivors gathered to mark the opening of the Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus, which includes the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections Center. The Legacy Campus brings together under one roof a state-of-the-art facility for the collection, conservation and preservation of tens of thousands of Holocaust-related items gathered over decades from survivors and their families.

Along with the artifacts, more than 230 million pages of testimony and documents, and half a million photographs, will now be stored and preserved in optimal conditions in the new six-story building at the center of the Mount of Remembrance where Yad Vashem is located.

“These are our crown jewels,” Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan told the audience at a concert commemorating the opening. “They are a living testament to Jewish history. We have a moral imperative to safeguard our heritage.”

By the end of the 1960s, around half a million survivors of the Holocaust had immigrated to Israel. In the 1990s, they were joined by tens of thousands of Jews from the Former Soviet Union who survived the Shoah. Among the treasured possessions many of these people managed to bring to Israel were diaries, photos, art depicting their experiences, documents illustrating Jewish life before and during the Holocaust, items of Judaica, prayer books, musical instruments and toys that had provided comfort during their ordeal.
2,800 years of Jerusalem history on display at Tower of David
In the excavation site of a former barracks/prison known as the Kishle (Turkish for prison), the Tower of David Jerusalem Museum opened a unique art exhibition on Tuesday evening .

The impressive space, part of the Tower of David complex just inside the Jaffa Gate to the capital’s Old City, was created following the extensive archaeological excavation in 1999-2000 led by Dr. Amit Re’em, Jerusalem District archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Kishle was built by the Ottoman Turks as a jail in the 1800s and used by the British in the 1940s to hold captured Jewish militia members. The former prison cells containing graffiti inscriptions by Irgun members held during the British Mandate were found on the stone walls during the excavations. In this narrow, arched structure, 450 meters long, one experiences the colorful and complex history of Jerusalem.

Proceeding along the newly improved walkways, the exposed history of thousands of years is now a carefully curated art exhibition along with the archaeologists’ markings. For the first time, the vast space, with the history of Jerusalem of 2,800 years on its walls, has been the backdrop for a contemporary art exhibition.

The layers of history rest one on top of the other. Under the remains of the Mandatory prison and graffiti of Irgun prisoners, they include a Jewish dyeing factory from the Middle Ages mentioned in the writings of Benjamin of Tudela (12 century C.E.), walls of Herod the Great’s royal palace including a drainage and escape channel cut into the bedrock, impressive Hasmonean fortifications, and the earliest remains in the complex, an impressive wall resting on bedrock and dated to the days of Hezekiah, King of Judah, and the First Temple period.

The Kishle building, part of the Tower of David complex, is in the midst of a planning process in its preservation and renovation project. Before the completion of the archaeological excavation, with the sandbags, scaffolding and archaeological markings, the site was chosen to host the exhibition “Umbilicus” by curators Dr. Adina Kamien and Malu Zayon.

Eilat Lieber, director and chief curator, is excited to see the Kishle come alive and to recognize its potential to tell different stories of Jerusalem, the connection between old and new.

The modern works of artists Hannan Abu-Hussein, Sharon Balaban, Matan Daskal, Yehudit Sasportas, Merav Shinn Ben-Alon and Lihi Turjeman blend brilliantly into the stone setting.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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