Friday, July 19, 2024

07/19 Links Pt2: Biden’s betrayal of Israel will jump-start nuclear proliferation; America’s Unhealthy Polarization on the Hostages; Appeasement in Essen

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: A Peacekeeping Force in Rafah Would Be Built to Fail
In 2006, as Israel and Hezbollah fought the Second Lebanon War, the UN was accused of broadcasting sensitive IDF troop movements on its website. The initial defense of UNIFIL, the UN multinational forces in Lebanon, was that the IDF broadcast troop movements too and the UN wasn’t saying anything the IDF wasn’t also publicizing.

At the time, I figured there was an easy way to figure this out: Why don’t I just call the UNIFIL commander on the ground in Lebanon and ask him? So I did. And he admitted to me, on the record, with no sense of shame or wrongdoing, that the accusations were accurate. He didn’t see a problem with it.

My story got me temporarily blacklisted by the UN media office, even though it was someone in Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s office who’d given me the commander’s mobile phone number in the first place. In other words, the UN didn’t think its intervention in a war between Israel and Hezbollah was inappropriate. But it was, and the ensuing scandal blindsided the UN and offended its sense of entitlement and impunity.

The key point is this: International forces ultimately answer to their host, and they are hosted by Israel’s mortal enemies.

I thought of this story, and the long history of failed stationing of international forces throughout the Arab-Israeli conflict, when I read that the European Union has been negotiating with Israel and the U.S. to take over responsibility for the crucial Rafah border crossing. That crossing, and the tunnels underneath it, is the main artery of support keeping Hamas alive and able to start wars every few years. When Israel moved out of Gaza, Egypt cracked down on smuggling temporarily but then turn a blind eye to it.

With the IDF currently controlling the Gaza side of the crossing, Egypt has been withholding humanitarian aid to Palestinians in protest. Now EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell has made clear that the EU, in conjunction with figures in the Palestinian Authority, wants to take over the crossing.

According to Bloomberg, Borrell wants the crossing transferred to EUBAM, an EU agency that helped run it between 2005 and 2007, but first “the fighting in Gaza needs to stop and the issue of who governs the territory must be solved, the spokesperson said.”

But as EUBAM’s own history shows, “solving the issue of who governs the territory” isn’t the point. It’s who comes out of that process actually governing the territory that matters. After all, that issue was “solved” in 2005, which led to EUBAM’s founding. Two years later, that issue was “solved” again when Hamas took power and EUBAM was sent packing.
Seth Mandel: America’s Unhealthy Polarization on the Hostages
We are nine months into a war, and it can be easy to forget what it was like on October 7 and October 8 and October 9. Though it sounds like we’re having a debate about the Israeli military’s response, we aren’t—the people who would disrupt a Democratic convention’s attempt at praying for the hostages do not believe any Israeli military response is justified, just as they don’t believe Israeli existence is justified. We have somehow let the public debate on this issue get stuck on the question of whether Israel’s response has gone too far, as if that has any relevance at all to the fate of those murdered or kidnapped on October 7.

As I detailed last month, some of the legal complaints made by pro-Palestinian students against their universities amount to objections that the schools denounced the bloodshed of October 7. As these students see it, such a statement implies a lack of justification for Hamas decapitating a child or burning a peace activist beyond recognition. You have to balance the crimes of each side, according to these students—that is, you must balance Hamas’s crime of murder with Israelis’ seemingly equal crime of existing.

In a sane world, it would be unthinkable to oppose events for American hostages at an American political convention. But because these hostages are Jews, this country has become somewhat polarized over whether they deserve their fate. (I say “somewhat” because these progressives are outnumbered among the general population and within the Democratic Party by non-sociopaths; it’s just at Democratic Party events that—though they are still a minority—they have enough sway to impose their heartlessness on everybody else in the room.)

I have no doubt the hostages will be mentioned—prominent Democrats are among some of the hostages’ greatest advocates—but the sincerity and decency and affection we saw this week is highly unlikely to be repeated. That says something about our political culture that will long outlast this war and this election.
John Ware: 7 October and the Alt-Media: a critical examination
For Jews everywhere – not just Israelis – the denial that Hamas committed atrocities on 7 October has a familiar historical ring. Yet it is a fact that Hamas and their supporters have insisted their ‘fighters’ did not massacre music festival goers, or rape women, or ill-treat hostages. Direct to camera, one Hamas Politburo member after another has flatly denied that the Qassam Brigades did any such things. Also direct to camera was the evidence that they did murder unarmed civilians, sometimes sadistically, their violence immortalised by Hamas’s own body cams. which they proudly broadcast for propaganda purposes.

Outright ‘Atrocity Denialism’ in the face of irrefutable facts is the latest civilisational clash between those of us struggling to maintain the norms of society – and a growing constituency who seem beyond reason. And this clash couldn’t be more fundamental because it is about basic facts and evidence, irrespective of what one may think about Israel or the way it is conducting the war in Gaza. The mainstream media has broadly given credence to Israeli claims that Hamas committed widespread sexual abuse on 7 October. But polling shows that most British Muslims don’t believe this. Just one in four accept that Hamas engaged in murder or rape. Over the last two decades, the mainstream media has been losing the trust of British Muslims. A majority now consider the BBC to be pro-Israel. Some of that vacuum is being filled by online alternative media outlets who typically challenge narratives they say the mainstream media don’t.

In 2019, the Community Security Trust showed how UK based alt-media accounts and networks of Labour-supporting Twitter accounts promoted, endorsed and spread the idea that allegations of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party were fake news. Now a number of UK and US based alt-media outlets have been aggressively trying to show that allegations of widespread rape by Hamas and other armed groups are also fake. Today in Fathom, our entire issue is given over to John Ware’s investigation of the journalistic scruples – or the lack of them – that these outlets have deployed in making their case.


Lee Smith: Who Normalized Political Violence in America?
It’s no surprise that the left’s investigation into the roots of our current round of political violence has carefully avoided mention of the riots that filled college campuses across the country and the streets of American cities with Palestinian terror advocates. Indeed, the fascist-fighting New Republic now employs a pro-Hamas reporter. “Good morning,” Talia Jane tweeted over a picture of Israel’s border being overrun on Oct. 7. This wasn’t terrorism, she explained, rather it was “state oppression vs rebellion against state repression.”

In an article for TNR, Jane defended: antisemitic protesters at a Manhattan exhibit commemorating the hundreds killed by Hamas at the Nova festival; vandals targeting the homes of Brooklyn Museum administrators for calling the police on violent protesters; attacks on pro-Israel Columbia University professor Shai Davidai; and terror supporters filling a subway car asking other riders to “raise your hand if you’re a Zionist.” It could have been dictated from a Doha hotel hosting Hamas leadership.

But Jane’s ideology is not that different from the message Obama pushed into the mainstream of the Democratic Party. “The occupation, and what is happening to Palestinians, is unbearable,” is how he framed the Oct. 7 massacre for his former staffers during a Pod Save America panel in November.

And this wasn’t just talk. How did 2024 Brooklyn come to look and sound like 1938 Berlin? In part, according to U.S. intelligence officials, it’s because Iran funded and incited the pro-Hamas demonstrations. Where would the regime that arms and pays for anti-American terror and embodies Jew hatred get the idea that it’s OK to participate in the American political system by creating the conditions for a nationwide pogrom?

In 2015 the Obama White House struck an agreement with the Islamic Republic, legalizing its nuclear weapons program and thereby legitimizing the tactics it employs to accomplish its strategic goals—political violence, i.e., terrorism. The Iran nuclear deal was the instrument with which Obama normalized political violence.
Biden’s betrayal of Israel will jump-start nuclear proliferation
Biden and European leaders may look at Israel in isolation, but Israel is the canary in the coal mine in the fight against broader tyrannical forces that would normalize genocide and state erasure. Make no mistake: Other democracies under existential threat observe how the West treats Israel. Wavering on Ukraine, on full display with former President Donald Trump’s selection of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate, reinforces such concern.

Taiwanese officials realize that should they face Chinese conquest, the West might posture, but it likely would not act. Every Taiwanese person who values his freedom should understand now that if China invades, Taiwan can only rely on itself as Washington would likely betray its commitments or simply lose interest. Beijing orchestrates a 100-year marathon, while Washington tags out at 100 days.

When North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, President Harry S. Truman responded militarily, even though South Korea fell outside America’s “defensive perimeter.” Should North Korea repeat its actions 75 years later, it is not clear how much effort the U.S. would make to keep North Korean communists and cultists from overrunning their southern neighbor. Japan, meanwhile, could face threats from both China and North Korea.

The slow, unstated military boycott of Israel gives these countries one lesson: If Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan truly want to guarantee their security, they cannot rely on the U.S. Rather, they must develop their own nuclear deterrent. It may seem like a radical solution, but signaling to aggressors that they will no longer couple themselves to Washington’s whims is the best deterrent.

Of course, Israel has its own nuclear deterrent, though it would likely not use it unless it was in danger of terrorist forces overrunning it. But that only underscores the point. Diplomats may look at the decades-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime as a pillar of international security for more than 65 years, but it is on life support, transformed into an empty shell of itself by the cynicism of diplomats who prioritize image over substance and favor short-term Band-Aids over long-term solutions. Today, the liberal order depends on proliferating nuclear deterrence.
Bahrain’s national security advisor says country remains committed to the Abraham Accords
Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s national security advisor, said his country remains committed to the Abraham Accords despite regional backlash toward Israel and is “proud” to be part of U.S. and Israeli cooperative military efforts.

Asked at the Aspen Security Forum why his country remains committed to the Abraham Accords despite intense anger in the Arab world over Israel’s operations in Gaza, Al Khalifa described the normalization agreement as “one of the most important milestones that we have achieved.”

“This is why we should always keep an open door and channel with the Israelis,” he continued, adding later that the Abraham Accords have had many positive impacts for Bahrain and encouraging other countries in the region to join.

Al Khalifa added that Bahrain is “proud” to have a “vital role in the deterrence and also the stability of the region,” including the April 13 Iranian missile attack on Israel, noting his country’s proximity to Iran.

He said the attack provides an “excellent example” for why the U.S., Bahrain and other partners should draw closer together and integrate their efforts.

Al Khalifa said the kingdom is also “proud” to be part of the international effort to counter the Houthis in the Red Sea — the only Arab state that has publicly confirmed its participation in the task force — highlighting the country’s long history of supporting the U.S. in conflicts around the world.

“We fight hard alongside the United States because we believe there will be no security, there will be no harmony, there will be no stability in the region, unless we put [our] hands together and take action,” Al Khalifa said.
Morocco’s purchase of Israeli spy satellite bolsters anti-Iran bloc
On July 10, 2024, Morocco media reported plans by the North African country to acquire a spy satellite from state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries in a $1 billion deal, signaling a hugely significant transfer of Israeli capabilities to a moderate Arab ally threatened by Iran.

The deal, reportedly to be implemented over five years, involves supplying Morocco with sophisticated satellite technology, enhancing Rabat’s surveillance and intelligence capabilities. This move represents a major leap in Morocco’s military and intelligence operations, but no less important, reflects its growing strategic partnership with Israel.

By coincidence or not, the announcement comes amid escalating concerns over Iranian support for the Polisario Front, a separatist group seeking independence from Morocco for Western Sahara.

Recent reports by La Revue Afrique have detailed Iran’s provision of advanced weaponry, including mortar shells and surface-to-air missiles, to the Polisario Front. These reports also highlight Hezbollah’s role in training Polisario fighters in Algeria.

The proliferation of Iranian-made weapons among Tehran’s allies is being countered by the proliferation of Israeli-made defense technology among Jerusalem’s allies.

Morocco has long accused Iran of destabilizing the region by arming the Polisario, prompting Rabat to sever diplomatic ties with Tehran in May 2018. Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita cited Hezbollah’s military ties with the Polisario, facilitated through the Iranian embassy in Algeria, as a direct threat to Morocco’s security.
US antisemitism envoy knocks Blinken statement on AMIA bombing that condemned Islamophobia
US antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt appears to criticize the statement marking the 30th anniversary of the AMIA Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires issued by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The statement condemned the bombing but also included a line panning “Islamophobia and all forms of hate.”

Asked about the statement in a briefing with reporters, Lipstadt first says she appreciated that such a senior US official weighed in on the matter in the first place. The statement also embraced the global guidelines for combating antisemitism, which Lipstadt led with over 30 other countries.

“I’m not going to talk about the internal process… You never want to know how the sausage is made, but in terms of the statement, it may not have been the way I would have phrased it,” she says.

“The most efficacious way of addressing it is to call something out by its name.

“I think it’s most efficacious to call out the specifics and then acknowledge, as the statement does, that a specific hatred doesn’t often stop with one group.”

“That’s really how I would have addressed the issues. But I think the statement in terms of its embrace, in the name of the United States Government, and its condemnation of the bombings, was very, very strong.”
Emhoff says WH will ‘soon’ release new guidance on combating Islamophobia
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff said on Thursday that the Biden administration plans to soon release new guidance on best practices for combating Islamophobia.

Emhoff revealed the news while kicking off a roundtable on “interfaith coalition building” he convened with a group of religious leaders at the White House, after noting that many of those participating in Thursday’s meeting are “part of the interagency group that the president stood up to counter antisemitism and also Islamophobia.”

“The first deliverable, in May of 2023, was the first-ever national strategy to counter antisemitism. We are now getting into year two with additional actions. There will be an Islamophobia plan coming out soon as well, and making sure we are fighting hate wherever it exists,” Emhoff said after touting the administration’s efforts to “counter hate and restore unity.”

That deliverable was a whole-of-society approach that included more than 100 policy commitments across the executive branch and a call to action for ordinary Americans to stand together with the Jewish community in fighting antisemitism. The document does not address how precisely to define the term, following pushback by progressives to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. Opponents of the IHRA definition argued that it conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

Also at the meeting on behalf of the administration were Rashad Hussain, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, and Stephen K. Benjamin, the director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement.
Appeasement in Essen (autotrans)
When anti-Semites from all over North Rhine-Westphalia gathered in downtown Essen last Friday to demonstrate against Israel, he was the only one who stood against it: Chris, 25 years old, stood quietly a good 40 meters away with an Israeli flag in his hand.

For the police, this was reason enough to ask him to leave. When he refused, they took him into custody. A video on Tiktok shows the officers snatching the flag from him to the cheers of the Israel-haters. In a press release, the police justify their actions by saying that they have to protect the event.

Of course, this is nonsense: Chris did not threaten the demonstrators, he did not even disturb them. He stood there only with an Israeli flag, the object of hatred of all anti-Semites.

When Chris stood with his Israeli flag on the town hall square in Bochum in the fall of last year, while hundreds agitated against Israel, the police behaved differently: Several officers stood in front of him and protected him from the hostility of the anti-Semites.

It is normal for counter-protests to occur at a rally. The right to be able to express one's opinion in public includes being confronted with other views. As a rule, this is done within shouting and visual range.

Apparently, the Essen police are not aware of this. For them, it seems to be a problem when someone like Chris alone, calmly and peacefully makes it clear to anti-Semites that the city does not belong to them alone, that there are people who are in solidarity with Israel. When thousands of people in Essen demanded the introduction of a caliphate last year, officials protected their right to express their opinions. After all, there was no Israeli flag to be seen at the demonstration that could have hurt the feelings of anti-Semites.
Gaza's Health Ministry is run, funded by Hamas - Why are they seen as a reliable source?
Recently, two important events rushed by our ears, but unlike the attempted Trump assassination, did not leave a scratch. This is not an uncommon phenomenon in the media atmosphere of the modern era - the noise level is constantly high, and within it many important details are lost. Often, even the main point is lost.

The first was an article published in the medical journal "The Lancet" on July 5. Its title was: "Counting the dead in Gaza - difficult but essential". The article not only unequivocally supported the data of the "Gaza Health Ministry" without mentioning that Hamas is its controlling body, but proceeded to determined that the figure of 38,000 deaths is probably much lower than reality. It claimed that with indirect damage it is not implausible that the scope of death will reach 186,000 people.

It might be coincidental that two of the three authors of the article have Muslim names, and perhaps it is also coincidental that they based their determinations on UN data, as if there had never been an inherent severe anti-Israeli bias in the UN due to an automatic Arab majority. The purpose of the article seems quite clear: The imaginary number set by the researchers reflects almost 2% of the population in Gaza, and in order to claim "genocide", higher numbers are needed than those presented so far. They simply tried to deliver the goods.

As expected, this imaginary number flew on social media, and the fact that one of the authors clarified that it was merely hypothetical and not validated data, did not interest anyone. This is what happens when an issue is not addressed when it's small. It grows and grows and sometimes becomes a monster. Just like Hamas.

Hamas's statistics
The second event we missed was an article published by John Spencer, head of urban warfare at the Modern Warfare Institute at West Point, the U.S. National Military Academy. Spencer argues that the number provided by the Gaza Health Ministry is simply incorrect, and the refusal to distinguish between armed and civilian casualties is not the only reason.

Since October 7, Spencer has published numerous articles showing that the IDF made extraordinary efforts not to harm civilians in Gaza, and its achievements topped every army in the world. But Spencer's article was less viral than the one published in The Lancet. And what about the State of Israel? It seems that beyond local whining for likes on social media, it did not invest resources to systematically refute Hamas's inflated death toll figures, which were repeatedly quoted during the war in an attempt to turn them into a "fact".
Israeli Soccer Team Allowed to Compete in Paris Olympics After FIFA Postpones Decision About Ban
Soccer’s world governing body FIFA has postponed a decision on a Palestinian proposal to suspend Israel from international soccer tournaments until after the Olympic Games, giving Israel’s men’s national soccer team the opportunity to compete in the Paris Olympics.

“Following requests for an extension from both parties to submit their respective positions, duly granted by FIFA, more time is needed to conclude this process with due care and completeness,” FIFA announced on Thursday. “The assessment will be shared with the FIFA Council for any subsequent decision to be taken no later than Aug. 31, 2024.”

The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) submitted a proposal in May to suspend Israel from all international soccer matches because of its military actions in the Gaza Strip as it targets Hamas terrorists responsible for the Oct. 7 deadly attacks in Israel. FIFA responded to PFA’s proposal, which was backed by the Asian Football Confederation, by ordering an immediate legal evaluation. The FIFA Council had originally promised to address the matter and share insight from its independent legal assessment by Saturday, which is just four days before the start of the Olympic soccer tournament.

The Paris Olympics will be held from July 26 – Aug. 11 and group matches for the men’s soccer tournament start on July 24. Israel is set to play Mali, Paraguay, and Japan in the group phase. The men’s Olympic soccer final is scheduled to take place on Aug. 9.

The PFA said it received a letter from FIFA on Thursday about the postponement. The PFA said it wanted clarification from FIFA regarding its process for the legal assessment.

“FIFA’s letter did not indicate the mechanism by which the independent legal opinion will be dealt with by the Council when it is presented to it,” the PFA said in a statement on Friday, adding that it “has previously addressed the International Federation more than once asking for clarifications regarding this.”
Shira Haas’ Superhero Sabra Will Remain Israeli in Marvel’s ‘Captain America: Brave New World,’ Insiders Confirm
Marvel Studios will not erase the Israeli identity of the superhero Sabra, who will be played by Israeli actress Shira Haas in the upcoming Marvel film “Captain America: Brave New World,” two insiders with knowledge of the movie confirmed to TheWrap on Wednesday.

After Marvel Studios released a synopsis for the 2025 superhero movie last week that revealed Sabra will not be depicted as a Mossad agent, like she is in the comics, some fans expressed disappointment in changes done to the superhero’s backstory and ties to Israel. Marvel described the character in the upcoming film as a “high-ranking US government official” and former “Black Widow,” like the assassin characters played by Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh in other Marvel projects.

However, Sabra’s real name will remain Ruth Bat-Seraph in the film, as it is in the comics. She will also speak with an Israeli accent while being played by Haas in the upcoming “Captain America” film, insiders told TheWrap, clarifying that audiences will know the character is Israeli, despite other changes to the superhero. One insider explained that Sabra’s backstory for “Captain America: Brave New World” was always going to be changed from how she is portrayed in the comics, and that the decision to make her a former Black Widow instead of a Mossad agent was unrelated to recent world events or the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel.

Marvel has faced criticism regarding the inclusion of the Sabra character in “Captain America: Brave New World” since it was first announced in 2022. At the time, the studio made it clear that the character might be changed from how she is depicted in the comics. “While our characters and stories are inspired by the comics, they are always freshly imagined for the screen and today’s audience, and the filmmakers are taking a new approach with the character Sabra who was first introduced in the comics over 40 years ago,” Marvel Studios said in a statement.
Seeing antisemitism everywhere? Don’t worry, you’re not crazy
Now there’s the Adidas shoes furore. One can only imagine what was in the minds of the executives who came up with the idea of relaunching shoes from the 1972 Olympics – the one in which 11 Israeli athletes were kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian terrorist group. A sensitive subject anyway, but to do it with Bella Hadid, a model of Palestinian heritage who has called Israel a “Jewish supremacist state”? And – moreover – to do it when you are Adidas, a company founded by actual Nazis and who just a few years ago only reluctantly dropped Kanye West when he was saying what a great man Hitler was?

Then there is the swastika in the artwork about Gaza at the Royal Academy - which was taken down - and the drawing called “the mass slaughter of women and girls is not how you deradicalize Gaza” which remains up.

“Ooops!” They all say bashfully when Jews from around the world write letters and take to social media to say something is antisemitic. “We didn’t know you’d get upset about that!” The subtext is “Ooooooh you pushy Jews are so thin-skinned.” I don’t want to be a thin-skinned pushy Jew. Stop making me be one.

I know I am not alone in asking myself if the whole world became more antisemitic since October 7 or am I simply seeing things? Let’s call it antisemitism-mania. But I don’t think I am seeing things.

Antisemitism is not only mainstream but it’s now positively fashionable. Its in the water, it’s in the air. It’s in the fact that my schoolfriend’s son couldn’t even pick up his degree without having the entire service ruined by various rants about the “genocide in Palestine” by keffiyeh-wearing students.

It’s there when you want to scream that, yes, people in the UN and Amnesty and Oxfam are out and out antisemites even though they are trusted by most people. It’s in the daily examples of antisemitism I am sent; the school kids goading Jewish children by talking about how great Hitler was, the artists whose shows are closed because they said they were sad about October 7, the TV company which says it can’t do a show about antisemitism because it’s “a sensitive topic at the moment”.

It’s on the television, all over social media, within our politics and our newspapers. It’s in the fact that a memorial to those murdered in the 1972 Olympics being celebrated by Adidas ahead of the Paris Olympics has to be done in a secret place at a secret time because of the risk to attendees.

Each time stuff like this is accepted, the Overton Window moves a little and it becomes clear that antisemitism has been allowed back into our social discourse. Worst of all, it’s often being done by people who claim they are antiracists.

If you, too, are suffering from antisemitism-mania, please know you are not alone. It is not us who have gone mad – it’s the rest of the world who have forgotten what happens when you let antisemitism run rampant.
Melanie Phillips: A cynical manoeuvre
The Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer has announced that it intends to build the Holocaust memorial centre planned for London’s Victoria Tower Gardens, a small park next to the Houses of Parliament.

This decision is as bad as it was entirely predictable.

The plan for this Holocaust centre has been mired in bitter controversy for years over its unsuitability on both environmental and ideological grounds. I wrote about it here, here, here and here.

In brief, the issue is this. The park a small, green oasis in Westminster, is entirely unsuitable for a project on the scale of the proposed centre whose design sports 23 tall bronze fins.

It would be an eyesore that would dominate the park, bring a huge amount of traffic, public activity and disruption into the area and destroy a precious local amenity. As Lord Carlile, the government’s former reviewer of terrorism legislation, also told the planning inquiry, its location would turn it into a terrorist target. And that was before the terrorist-supporting, anti-Israel hate marches and epidemic antisemitism erupted to become such a grim feature of British life.

The centre was first proposed by the Conservative government under David Cameron in 2015. It was aggressively promoted by ministers and prominent members of the Jewish community, including major donors to the Conservative party, but opposed by many other distinguished and involved members of the community including Holocaust survivors.

The planning authority, Westminster council, opposed the project. But the matter was taken out of its hands by the government which rode roughshod over all objections. It set in train a planning inquiry, which resulted in a recommendation that the memorial go ahead.

In April 2022, however, the High Court in London quashed the government decision to proceed with the project. The ruling followed the discovery by a member of the public of a legal obstacle to the memorial which the government had ignored. This was the London County Council (Improvements) Act 1900 which imposed an “enduring obligation to retain Victoria Tower Gardens for use as a public garden”.
An ‘abject, squalid, shameless’ debate at the Oxford Union
Regarding “apartheid,” Steinberg correctly reminded the debate organizers that this term originally appeared in relation to Israel as a result of intensive Soviet propaganda efforts during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to strip the Jewish state of its legitimacy, with Moscow lobbing words like “Nazi” and “racist” into the brew as well.

On the invocation of genocide, Steinberg noted that this term—applicable to the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians during World War I, the Holocaust of six million Jews during World War II and more recent events of mass killing and systemic abuse in Cambodia, Rwanda and Myanmar/Burma—was now being distorted to “delegitimize responses to military aggression, asymmetric warfare and atrocities directed at civilian populations, such as committed by Hamas and its allies.”

Part of the problem here is that while the team at the Oxford Union is gushingly proud of the debate topics covered during that institution’s long existence, they appear to be less familiar with the underlying substance.

Had they examined the examples of genocide cited above, they might have noticed a common pattern: In every case, regimes targeted minorities simply based on their identity. In Pol Pot’s Cambodia, even wearing glasses marked one out as a candidate for death, because a pair of specs was seen as evidence of a bourgeois education. These regimes then used killing methods like mass executions and concentration camps to eliminate those they targeted.

Both before and during the killings, the victim groups were dehumanized in regime propaganda. The Nazis depicted Jews as “rats” and the Hutu killing mobs in Rwanda referred to Tutsis as “cockroaches.” Victim groups were at best poorly armed, at worst utterly defenseless, in the face of their killers.

Similarly, those who invoke the word “apartheid” in the context of Israel have little idea of what that system involved or the discredited racist ideology it was based upon. For most of the 20th century in South Africa, the Black population that comprises 90% of the country was subjected to humiliating restrictions in every aspect of their lives, along with the denial of suffrage.

While South African apartheid was unique, there are some ironic parallels visible in the Middle East—but not in Israel. In Syria and Bahrain, to take just two examples, unelected, heavily armed minorities engage in brutal rule over the majorities, as was the case in South Africa. In Qatar, less than 10% of the population are full citizens. Everyone else, including the vast reservoir of migrant labor toiling in conditions of slavery, is seen as a lesser being, deemed unfit to even enter the gleaming shopping malls and hotels built with their own sweat. In Iran, women and religious minorities suffer from discrimination rooted in the Islamic Republic’s interpretation of the Quran and other religious texts.

All of this is ignored because it contradicts the dogma that Israel lies at the root of all the conflicts in the Middle East and, in increasing numbers of fevered minds, the world. The Oxford Union is no less guilty of sacralizing this dogma than is some idiot on Instagram posting an Israeli flag juxtaposed with a Nazi swastika.

As Steinberg suggested at the end of his reply, if the Oxford Union is really serious about upholding its tradition of bold debates that pull no punches, it should consider the motion: “This house recognizes that its own history of Jew-hatred in different forms is fundamentally immoral and offers its apologies.”
‘No one with a moral conscience’ should take part in Oxford Union debate on ‘Israeli apartheid’, academic says
The original letter of invitation to the Israeli academic from Ebrahim Osman-Mowafy, the society’s president, said: “In 1962 the Oxford Union asked whether ‘The Creation of the State of Israel is One of the Mistakes of the Century’. Sixty-two years on, war continues to plague the lives of Palestinians and Israelis, and meanwhile, illegal settlements multiply and barriers proliferate.

"Critics would argue that little has changed since that debate and that Israel's military tactics and policies towards Palestinians deliberately target civilians and infrastructure to instil fear, control, and enact a planned ethnic cleansing.

“Others, however, maintain that Israel’s military actions are legitimate self-defence measures against threats from violent militant groups such as Hamas.”

The debating society insists it is committed to “inclusive dialogue” and has framed the discussion around language used by global human rights bodies.

Speaking to the JC, Steinberg said: "No one with a moral conscience should participate [in the Oxford Union debate], and the topic must be replaced with a ‘debate' centring on the OU's history of hypocrisy that promotes hate and immorality.”

Since the October 7 attack, universities across Britain have witnessed a spike in antisemitism on campus.

Speaking on LBC last month, a Jewish student said anti-Israel protests had left him feeling “uncomfortable” wearing a kippah in Oxford.

Harry Hatwell, who is studying for a Masters in law at St John’s, said he felt “especially” insecure when near the university’s Palestine encampment.

He had heard protesters chanting that they would shut the university down were their demands not met, he claimed, and had heard one non-student demonstrator insist that “Zionists” should go back to America.
Since no one else will act, Jewish students are turning to the courts
Considering an Ivy League education? Approximately £70,000 a year will cover the tuition fees and housing expenses, granting access to a diverse network of students and faculties.

What that sum won’t necessarily guarantee, however, is protection from Jew-hatred. Since October 7, incidents of antisemitism on US college campuses have skyrocketed to previously unthinkable heights – increasing year-by-year by a staggering 700 per cent across more than 125 American institutions.

Jewish students have been spat on, cursed at, pinned up against walls, called Nazis while also – conversely – being told to “go back to Poland”, threatened as targets in mass shootings and advised to stay away from kosher dining halls – and from campuses in general after school administrators said they couldn’t protect them.

American Jewish students say university leaders hardly do enough to tackle antisemitism. Complaints by Jewish students to their administrators or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices fall on deaf ears. Worse, some have themselves described the massacre on October 7 as “exhilarating”, or are spreading “ancient antisemitic tropes”, as was the case at Columbia University where three deans exchanged private texts mocking the concerns of Jewish students on campus. As a result, more Jewish students are now reaching for the courts for protection and suing their universities for failing to properly address antisemitism, violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which is designed to protect students from discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, colour or national origin. A 2019 executive order signed by former President Donald Trump ensured that Title VI was broadened to also apply to discrimination based on antisemitism.

Since October, at least 50 colleges and universities have been subject to investigations by the Department of Education and civil lawsuits, including Columbia, Harvard, MIT, New York University, UC Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania.

Valerie Gerstein, a mother of two teenage daughters, returned to graduate school at Columbia to build her skills in charitable work and complete a master’s in non-profit management. She did not expect that her time at New York City’s only Ivy League university would culminate in her joining a federal lawsuit, along with 46 other Jewish students, against the university for failing to protect Jewish students from verbal and physical abuse.
Adidas relaunches shoe from Munich Olympics, where Israeli athletes were killed in attack
'We apologize for any upset or distress caused. As a result we are revising the remainder of the campaign,' a spokesperson from Adidas told the National Post

Sportswear company Adidas has drawn criticism for releasing a shoe that was first launched at the 1972 Munich Olympics, where Israeli athletes and coaches were killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists, and using a model accused of antisemitism in its ad campaign.

“First unveiled in 1972, the introduction of the SL 72 sneaker was the spark plug that initiated a paradigm shift in the realm of running shoes,” the company said in a press release on July 15.

In a post on X, Dazed & Confused Magazine wrote about the launch, saying the shoe was “first introduced as a runners’ shoe for the 1972 Olympic games in Munich.” After seeing the campaign online, social media users were quick to point out their concern, especially due to the person chosen to lead the campaign.

American-Palestinian supermodel Bella Hadid — who has been speaking out about Palestinian rights since October 7, when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel — is the face of the campaign. She has been accused of antisemitism by Jewish advocacy groups like Stand With Us, and has shared Instagram posts with misinformation about the Israel-Hamas War.

After four hostages were rescued from Gaza, Hadid shared a since-deleted post that hostage Almog Meir Jan was given a cake by his captors to celebrate his birthday. The information was taken out of context, as Jan explained the cake was only a “cynical” gesture, the Times of Israel reported. Officials later confirmed that Jan and the other hostages were abused and malnourished, per the Times.

Hadid has more than 60 million followers on Instagram.

Many people on X questioned Adidas’ choices when it came to relaunching the SL 72 sneaker. Comments flooded the company’s post about the campaign on Thursday.

“How can a company say they hate Jews without saying they hate Jews I wonder…,” wrote one person on X.

“First Kanye and now another antisemite to celebrate the Munich Massacre? You hate Jews and learned nothing,” another person wrote, referring to Adidas’ partnership with U.S. rapper Kanye West, who notoriously went on antisemitic rants in interviews and on social media.

Adidas eventually terminated the partnership with West after much public outcry.


Pro-Israel groups steering clear of Ilhan Omar, to her rival’s frustration
Following Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY) landslide defeat last month, leading pro-Israel groups that spent heavily to help unseat him have now turned their focus to the next vulnerable Squad member on the primary calendar, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who is also seeking to fend off a well-funded challenger.

The super PAC affiliated with AIPAC has already invested more than $4.6 million in the Aug. 6 primary to boost Bush’s formidable opponent, Wesley Bell, while Democratic Majority for Israel’s political arm dropped its first TV ad last week, spending around $250,000 on behalf of Bell, who is the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County.

Some pro-Israel activists, however, are also wondering why those groups haven’t engaged in what has so far remained a more low-profile House race in Minneapolis, where Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is preparing for a rematch against Don Samuels, a former city councilman who almost pulled off a surprise upset last election cycle against one of the most outspoken Israel critics in the House.

With early voting already underway in the Aug. 13 primary, a week after Bush’s race concludes, the matchup has yet to draw outside spending from national pro-Israel groups, which at this stage have announced plans to target only a small handful of Democratic incumbents in the current election cycle.

After he came within just 2,500 votes of unseating Omar in 2022, Samuels, a pro-Israel Democrat, notably expressed frustration that AIPAC and other groups had not rallied behind his campaign, even as it was later disclosed in federal filings that United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s super PAC, had quietly contributed $350,000 to a separate group created to boost his candidacy in the final days of the race.

Despite that lone investment, Samuels now suggests that if pro-Israel groups that largely sat the last race out choose not to engage more actively before next month’s primary, then they will be missing out on a key opportunity, claiming that his rematch remains competitive amid what he characterized as continued and growing dissatisfaction with Omar’s representation.

“I think it’s a mistake for anybody who sees the direction the country is going in, who sees Ilhan’s role in it in terms of the divisiveness in general and, in this specific case, the challenges in the Middle East that are so fraught,” Samuels, now 75, said in an interview with Jewish Insider last week, accusing Omar’s rhetoric toward Israel of “exacerbating those tensions.”
Inside Wesley Bell’s Jewish turnout operation
In the race for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, where St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell is challenging Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary, the margin of victory is expected to be small. And the Jewish community’s support could prove critical to a potential Bell victory.

Not only is Bell the beneficiary of close to $5 million in outside support to date from AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC, but there’s also grassroots Jewish community momentum in his favor — motivated by Bush’s positions on Israel and antisemitism. Bell’s campaign is aiming to capitalize on that energy with an aggressive Jewish voter operation.

Stacey Newman, a former state representative who has been backing Bell in a personal capacity since the beginning of his campaign, formally joined his campaign in June as his coalitions director running Jewish outreach.

Newman told Jewish Insider that she and others in the Jewish community were, particularly after Oct. 7, working behind the scenes to recruit a candidate to challenge Bush, before Bell, independently, made the decision to enter the race. Newman said she, Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham — who has brought together local rabbis in support of Bell — and Lisa Baron, a local nonprofit leader, came together to build a Jewish outreach program for Bell.

“Our world changed in October completely, and we had to basically come up with what could be a viable plan to basically engage the Jewish community in the 1st Congressional District,” she explained.

Newman added that anti-Israel protests at Washington University in St. Louis have further catalyzed interest from the local community.

Newman told JI that Jewish outreach has been a priority for the campaign — ”basically taking over half of the campaign office; we’ve got Jewish volunteers in here every single day” conducting phone calls and knocking on doors. The Jewish outreach program has produced tailored campaign literature for the community laying out Bell’s support for Israel and the Jewish community.

The campaign has a network of both local Jewish interns and volunteers that are knocking on doors, as well as supporter groups in synagogues across the country whose members are making calls for the campaign.

Barron said she’s also organizing get-out-the vote activities, particularly targeting Orthodox Jews.
Linda Sarsour and Marc Lamont Hill speak at ‘Jews for Cori’ Bush fundraiser
Linda Sarsour and Marc Lamont Hill, two controversial far-left activists with histories of antisemitism and strident anti-Israel stances, headlined a virtual fundraiser on Wednesday night for Rep. Cori Bush’s (D-MO) reelection campaign convened by far-left groups including Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow.

Other organizers and speakers on the call, organized by a group calling itself “Jews for Cori,” included Beth Miller, political director of JVP Action; INN spokesperson Eva Borgwardt; Abbas Alawieh, Bush’s former congressional chief of staff and a spokesperson for the Uncommitted campaign; and anti-Zionist Jewish activist Naomi Klein, a longtime member of JVP.

Sarsour is a Palestinian-American activist who has been repeatedly accused of antisemitism by Jewish groups, including praising a convicted terrorist, comparing Zionism to white supremacy, seeking to exclude Zionists from progressive and feminist movements, invoking dual loyalty tropes, supporting a one-state solution and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

Hill was fired as a CNN commentator after a speech in which he said that “justice requires… a free Palestine from the river to the sea,” language Jewish groups say amounts to a call for the elimination of Israel.

Bush’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. She is facing St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary.

Sarsour said on the call, a recording of which was obtained by Jewish Insider, that, “when you talk to people directly [in the district]… people understand that there is something sinister that is happening here in this district. And we all know that AIPAC and their affiliated PACs are putting big money.”

Hill said that Bush is “not kicking an imaginary two-state solution down the field.”

He said that AIPAC and other groups opposing Bush are “nervous because of what it would mean for us to have a visionary political agenda that encompasses Black folk, brown folk, Christians, Muslims, Jews.”


Lib Dems call on government to recognise Palestinian State ‘immediately’
The Liberal Democrats have called on the government to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.

Responding to the Internation Court of Justice’s (ICJ) advisory ruling that Israel’s settlement regime in the West Bank is illegal under international law, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson Layla Moran MP said: "This decision is a wake-up call. Liberal Democrats have always championed international law and the independence of the courts.”

She added: “The only way to give Palestinians and Israelis the security and dignity they deserve is through a peace process and a two-state solution.”

Moran, who is of Palestinian heritage, also said that “The UK should lead that push by immediately recognising the independent state of Palestine.”

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz described the ICJ’s ruling as “fundamentally warped, one-sided, and wrong.”

He added that, “The opinion ignores the past: the historical rights of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. It is detached from the present: from the reality on the ground; from the security threats to Israel; from the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust; from the attacks by Hamas, Iran, and other terrorist elements on seven fronts; and from the need for Israel to defend its territory and its citizens.

"It is also dangerous to the future: it plays into the hands of the extremists and it encourages the Palestinian Authority to continue on the path of defamation and baseless mud-slinging.”
Green Party co-leader calls for halt of arms sales to Israel in maiden speech
The Green Party’s co-leader Carla Denyer has used her maiden speech in Parliament to call on the UK government to stop arms sales to Israel.

Denyer said that Britain’s international reputation “has been compromised by our government’s refusal to clearly condemn the Israeli government’s disproportionate response to the horrific terrorist attacks of 7 October.”

The new MP for Bristol Central said that “the UK’s continuing arms sales for use against Palestinians” which she claimed was “in persistent breach of international law … must stop, and I am clear too that demanding it should not be controversial.”

She, along with Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay and MP Ellie Chowns, also backed an amendment to the King’s Speech, submitted by left-wing Labour MP Zarah Sultana, that calls on the government to ban arms sales to Israel and “support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and release of all hostages, to immediately recognise the state of Palestine, to restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, to drop the challenge to the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction in Gaza.”
Bournemouth’s Jewish community ‘finds its voice’ as de-twinning motion is dismissed
The Jewish former mayor of Bournemouth has said the coastal town’s Jewish community has “found its voice” after a motion to de-twin the town with the Israeli city of Netanya was dismissed this week.

The Green-led motion was due to be debated on Wednesday during a meeting between Bournemouth Charter Trustees in Bournemouth’s Civic Centre, attracting support from local pro-Palestinian groups and sparking outrage from the city’s sizeable Jewish community.

Councillor Anne Filer, who was the Dorset town’s mayor last year and is now Deputy Mayor, would have been the main responder to the motion and, had it been discussed, would have had to justify the twinning.

A tense standoff took place outside the town hall while the council session was underway as hundreds of pro-Israel objectors to the motion staged a counterdemonstration directly across the parking lot from a large pro-Palestinian gathering.

Following legal advice and consultation with the Standing Orders, the Bournemouth Charter Trustees, a group of councillors, ruled that the motion would not be heard as it fell outside the rules governing the meeting.


Just Stop Oil are accused of deploying 'antisemitic tropes' after comparing oil executives to the Nazi architects of the Holocaust
Just Stop Oil have been accused of deploying 'antisemitic tropes' after comparing oil executives to the Nazi architects of the Holocaust.

The environmental group said it has been gathering evidence on those it deemed complicit in committing 'climate genocide'.

It suggested that 'those in charge' were as culpable for deaths caused by climate change as Nazi leaders were for the murders committed in concentration camps.

In a statement, the group said: 'Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi, at his trial in Jerusalem, sought to defend himself by saying that he never killed any Jews as he was only in charge of transporting them to the death camps.

'The judges overruled this obscene defence and he was hanged. Similarly, when those in charge today go to court, the judgment will be the same.'

Eichmann, who was hanged in 1962, was one of the masterminds and central organisers behind the Nazis' final solution policy, which resulted in the death of up to six million Jewish people.

A spokesman for the group - who claimed they had 'Jewish heritage' - doubled-down on the offensive comparison, likening the climate emergency to 'a giant gas chamber'.

The spokesman said: 'I understand that comparing oil executives to Nazis may seem outrageous to some people.

'But if this isn't evil I don't know what is.


Anti-Israel group target NY subway turnstiles alleging they’re a Zionist ‘ploy’
An anti-Israel group calling themselves the Transit Liberation Front have attacked multiple subway turnstiles in New York causing “$40,000 in damage.”

According to a thread on Twitter posted by a New York writer called Ash Agony the group has targeted 10 contactless fare payment systems being use on public transport in New York over the system’s alleged tenuous links to Israel.

The Transit Liberation Front said they targeted the OMNY machines after a different group called Black revolutionaries, based in Atlanta, called for a “summer of resistance” against the US and Israel.

They encouraged others to do the same in a statement suggesting “disabling these machines is just one small act of resistance, one that requires no more than a good, heavy hammer (16 oz. or more, no wooden handles), some safety equipment (goggles and protective gloves), and a solid plan for concealing your identity.

“Bring a friend to watch your back and go to town.”

Ash Agony said he had been sent pictures of the damage caused by the Transit Liberation Front along with a statement about their action.

The statement said: "Recently, Black Revolutionaries in Atlanta sent out a call for a Summer of Resistance, a sustained, militant, and decentralised campaign targeting the multitude of appendages of the settler-colonial so-called United States, its Zionist client government, and their many accomplices in promoting a genocidal agenda in Palestine that is killing tens of thousands."


Jewish group implores US Justice Department to apply ‘KKK Laws’ against Columbia University pro-Palestine demonstrators
A Jewish group is demanding that the US federal government take stronger action against Palestine protesters, including using laws designed to combat the Ku Klux Klan.

StandWithUs (SWU), a Jewish educational organisation dedicated to combatting antisemitism, is demanding that the US Justice Department invoke the “KKK Laws” in response to the coordinated actions of five anti-Israel campus groups at Columbia University, where Jewish students have been harassed and assaulted by pro-Palestine demonstrators.

The Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871, known colloquially as the KKK Laws, allow the federal government to crack down on those who violate the civil rights of protected groups. The acts were ratified to combat the systematic political violence and intimidation of Black Americans by the Ku Klux Klan and has since been cited in rare instances to sue neo-Nazis, among other such radical groups.

And now the California-based SWU is dusting off the KKK Laws to file a suit against five anti-Zionist groups for "violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, breach of contract, and a conspiracy to deny Jewish students’ civil rights under the civil components of the KKK laws,” according to an SWU press release.

In a letter sent to US Attorney General Merrick Garland and the DOJ on Wednesday, SWU accused the activist group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) of being the coordinator of a campaign “to deprive Jewish students of their constitutional and federally protected rights” on campuses across the US. Other groups accused include Columbia/Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia School of Social Work for Palestine, and Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine.

“It is hard to differentiate the tactics of the Columbia student groups from those of Nazis in the early days of the Holocaust, Hezbollah in Beirut in the 21st century or, of course, the KKK in the American south after Reconstruction,” the letter said.


A third of Facebook, Instagram posts about ‘martyrs’ praise terror
Of more than 28,000 posts and comments from more than 20,000 accounts on Facebook and Instagram that mentioned “martyrs,” some 32% of the 1.2 billion views—or an audience of 372.5 million—could have seen posts praising terrorism.

That’s according to a Combat Antisemitism Movement analysis, which demonstrates that “by permitting the use of the word ‘martyr,’ social media networks legitimize terror and bloodshed, the glorification of murder and the incitement of violence and antisemitism, which is already at record levels worldwide,” according to Sacha Roytman, the group’s CEO.

“This term is used to honor those who have killed, maimed and brutalized people across the globe, there is no other interpretation,” Roytman said. “Social media platforms, which have become recruiting nexuses for terrorist organizations in recent years, should act to prevent terror, not encourage it.”

He called on Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to “ban the use of the word ‘martyr’ before even more damage is done.”

On Tuesday, Meta agreed to restore a post removed from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Instagram account featuring previously unseen images of five female hostages abducted from the Israel Defense Forces’ Nahal Oz base on Oct. 7.

Meta had removed the post, citing “dangerous individuals and organizations” as the reason.

In response to the removal, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum shared Meta’s notice with a single-word comment: “Really?”


Former PA Prime Minister says Hamas should be brought into the PLO
Salam Fayyad, a former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority seen as a reformist, argued on Thursday that Hamas should be brought into the Palestine Liberation Organization and that the U.S. should support a United Nations Security Council resolution backing Palestinians’ right to statehood.

Fayyad said at the Aspen Security Forum that a weakness in the cease-fire proposal laid out by the Biden administration is the lack of consideration and specificity about the post-war period in Gaza.

He argued that Hamas cannot be eliminated as an influential force in Gaza, and that the only way forward is to bring it formally into the PLO and make it part of the future governing process.

“Hamas is a political movement and ideology,” Fayyad said. “The bottom line is that this is a political movement you cannot destroy. The only way you can deal with the political ideology is to have a competitive ideology that is seen as competitive by the people.”

Fayyad said that Hamas remains the dominant political force in Gaza, and that the PLO will have to make it a part of its coalition in order to preserve its standing and legitimacy with the Palestinian people. He noted that Hamas rose to prominence because of perceived failures of the PLO and Palestinian Authority.

The former PA leader laid out the same proposal in a recent op-ed.

He argued that the post-war path forward for the West Bank and Gaza requires a “consensus government, one that is not of the factions or by the factions,” and other reforms to the Palestinian Authority so that it can provide better governance. He said that plan must be ready to be implemented as soon as a cease-fire is reached.

Without such consensus, he said that Gaza will likely return to its pre-war status quo.


JPost Editorial: Hezbollah's fantastic PR: Framing hateful attacks as 'Palestine solidarity'
This week, during an interview BBC conducted with our own former editor-in-chief, Yaakov Katz, BBC News presenter Martine Croxall said that Hezbollah is only attacking Israel out of sympathy with Palestinian suffering.

“We know that Hezbollah is acting out in this way. [It] said so. Because [Hezbollah is] so concerned about the sheer number of Palestinian civilians who have died as a result of Israel’s actions,” she proclaimed.

There are several issues with this claim. First, yes, this is true; Hezbollah has said that it acts out of empathy with the Palestinians. However, it has also declared that the “continued struggle against the Israeli enemy” is one of its two most basic principles.

Its founding charter emphasizes resistance against Israel as a core tenet, aiming to eliminate the Israeli state and establish an Islamic one in Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel predate the current Israel-Hamas war, lest we forget. These attacks are part of a longstanding enmity. They are not just reacting in solidarity with Palestinian measures. Once again, Palestinians are being used as an excuse for a terrorist organization to justify its actions against Israel.

Yet more fundamentally, Croxall’s words are illogical. According to her, terrorists are firing rockets at Israel’s North, killing a young Israeli couple last week for instance, as a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people. How do those two things align?

This argument holds no water, although it does reflect a more significant issue at hand: The international community has no idea what Israel is facing.

While solidarity with Palestinians may be part of Hezbollah’s rhetoric, its attacks on Israel are driven by purely hateful interests.

You have to hand it to Hezbollah – they are doing fantastic PR work. By framing attacks as solidarity with Palestinians, they can garner broader support while simultaneously advancing Iranian strategic interests.
How deterred is Tehran?
Learning the right lessons
Taking a broader perspective, Rubin pointed to Soleimani’s assassination as an example of a lesson that should have been learned and that Israel should have taken into account.

In direct response to Soleimani’s assassination in 2020, Iran launched a series of ballistic missile strikes a week later targeting Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops in Central and Northern Iraq. These strikes, named “Operation Shahid Soleimani,” were seen as a direct retaliation and escalation in the conflict between Tehran and Washington.

According to Rubin, Iran engaged in this retaliation knowing it risked a full-scale war with the U.S.

The Iranians’ reaction demonstrated that, despite their typically measured approach, the killing of senior officers and generals represents a significant red line for them, prompting a robust and decisive response.

According to Rubin, Iran’s risk-taking “could be explained by its perception that the killing of such high-ranking regime insiders is an unacceptable humiliation.”

He suggested that Jerusalem must take into account that Tehran’s hitherto moderate responses to Israel’s attacks on its interests in Syria “could become extreme in cases where the Iranian regime would perceive a strike as a humiliation.”

When Zahedi was assassinated, analysts speculated on the Islamic Republic’s likely response to the elimination of such a high-ranking military figure. It was anticipated that Iran might opt for a restrained retaliation, possibly through its proxy networks or with a limited direct military strike.

This assessment, as described by Rubin “with some sorrow,” underscores a failure in Israeli governmental circles to heed the lessons from the killing of Soleimani and the subsequent Iranian response.

“I’m sure the elimination of the general [Zahedi] did a lot of good for our cause, but we had to pay a price for it,” Rubin said.

Victory and deterrence
Israel’s defensive victory, as Rubin called it, may have been a success on one level, but from a larger perspective, the question must still be asked: Is Iran deterred from again attacking Israel?

Deterrence “is something you cannot measure. It is something that happens in the enemy’s mind,” he told JNS.

However, he said, deterrence “can be measurable when you’re talking about nuclear threats, because it is the ultimate threat.”

But with regard to conventional threats, he isn’t sure.

“Obviously, the Iranians have also learned a lot from this operation and the military generals were probably somewhat disappointed that the performance was not as good as they expected,” Rubin said. “Are they deterred? Maybe.”

“But most impressive here is that some Arab countries showed themselves to be more afraid of Iran than hostile to Israel.

“I think they have to internalize this message,” Rubin said of the Iranians.
Iran’s New President, Praised as a 'Reformist' Seeking 'Social Justice,' Spends First Weeks After Election Pledging Allegiance to Terrorists
Pezeshkian’s message to Israel also was clear: The Jewish state "remains an apartheid regime to this day, now adding ‘genocide’ to a record already marred by occupation, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, settlement-building, nuclear weapons possession, illegal annexation, and aggression against its neighbors."

He also praised the "many young people in Western countries have recognized the validity of our decades-long stance on the Israeli regime." Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence officials disclosed last week that Iran’s regime is running a multi-pronged foreign influence operation that includes paying anti-Israel protesters based in America.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a July 10 speech, said he is confident Pezeshkian will serve as a reliable ally.

"The message of the elected president of Iran was clear and definite, and that the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on its own ideology, religion, and principles, supports the oppressed and oppressed nations and the resistance front," the Hezbollah leader said.

Earlier this week, Pezeshkian held talks with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, signaling that support for Hamas remains at the top of his presidential agenda.

"Our government will put the Palestinian issue at the top of its priorities as it is the crucial issue of the Islamic world," Pezeshkian reportedly told Haniyeh. "We are doing our best to work to stop the war and stop the genocide, and the long-term step required is to end the occupation, and for the Palestinian people to obtain their full rights."

Haniyeh and other top Hamas leaders are currently sheltered in Qatar, a chief Iran ally that also has been enlisted by the Biden administration to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

On Wednesday, Pezeshkian held a diplomatic call with Qatar’s leadership to further bolster relations between the countries.

"Cooperation between Iran and Qatar comes with many mutual benefits for both sides, and the path to enhancing the level of ties will be followed with seriousness," Pezeshkian reportedly said to Qatar’s emir.
Prosecutor vows to ‘press on’ after split verdicts in trial of Samantha Woll’s alleged killer
A Wayne County, Mich., jury returned a mixed verdict on Thursday in the trial of a man accused of murdering Samantha Woll, a Jewish leader and well-connected Democratic Party activist, in Detroit on Oct. 21.

The jurors found Michael Jackson-Bolanos innocent of first-degree murder but were deadlocked on charges of felony murder and of home invasion, and found the defendant not guilty of lying to police officers, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“We were hopeful that a decision could be reached today, but we will press on for justice for the Wolls and will determine our next course of action at the pre-trial hearing,” said Kym Worthy, the county prosecutor.

The pretrial hearing is slated for July 25, and prosecutors have to decide by next week whether to retry the case on the two remaining counts.
French police arrest man for knife attack in name of Hamas, days before Olympics
French police arrested a man Friday on terrorism charges, accusing him of trying to murder a taxi driver with a knife while expressing support for the Hamas terror group, a source at the terrorism prosecutor’s office said.

The arrest came just one week before the start of the Paris Olympic Games.

The suspected terrorist, already known by authorities as someone who had been radicalized, stopped a taxi on Tuesday night while brandishing a gun in the city of Le Mans, and asked to be taken to an isolated area near Ferte-Bernard.

He then forced the driver out of the car, bound him and attacked his neck with the blade, the source said.

The driver managed to escape to a local resident’s home, where he was eventually treated by emergency services. The assailant was arrested early on Friday morning in Yvelines, west of Paris, the source said.

He is being investigated on terrorism, attempted murder and kidnapping charges, the source said.
Keffiyeh clad man screams at Kosher deli staff during altercation with customer
A man in a keffiyeh swore at staff and customers in a kosher deli in Edgeware.

On Thursday afternoon, a man in his twenties wearing the traditional headdress associated with Palestinian nationalism entered Yakov’s Kitchen and proceeded to shout at a customer.

He called the deli staff “F***ing d*** heads” and said the customer was “f***ing rude.”

Witnesses reported that the argument started on the street. The man followed the woman, a regular at Yakov's, into the deli and proceeded to shout at her. He claimed he had been polite to her outside but that she called him a derogatory name.

He said outside the shop he was “nice” to the woman, but alleged she called him a “twerp.”

In a video circulating on social media, the keffiyeh clad man can be seen filming and approaching the deli counter. Two staff intervened, urging him to leave. One staff member told the man: “Outside, [you can] do whatever you want.”

He responded, “You don’t have to shout, I can shout too. I can shout too, you like it? No, you don’t.”

He then said to the customer: “Shut the f*** up f***ing b*tch, I'm going to wait for her outside.” He said he had come into the shop to “embarrass her in front of all these people, that’s my f***ing point.”

After the brief altercation, which lasted only a few minutes, the man left the shop.

Yakov’s Kitchen told the JC, “Baruch Hashem (thank god) nothing like this has ever happened before.”
Rapper Famouss Richard Arrested In Bayonne
On Thursday, July 4, Richard Sharp a.k.a. Famouss Richard, pointed a handgun at two people during an argument in the parking lot at QuickChek on 22nd Street, Bayonne police said in a release. He then fled the scene in his vehicle, police said.

Sharp has 231,000 followers on Instagram where he interviews people on the street, shares photos of cash, and posts his music.

Sharp was arrested at his home on Isabella Avenue, where a defaced firearm with a large capacity magazine were recovered, police said.

He was charged with aggravated assault with a weapon, possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a handgun and possessing a defaced firearm, among other charges, police said.

Following his arrest, he was transported to the Hudson County Corrections and Rehabilitation Center.


Georgia police executives learn from leadership training in Israel
During a recent intensive two-week leadership training program in Israel, 17 Georgia police chiefs, sheriffs and other public safety officials, as well as the deputy director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, participated in the 31st annual Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange.

“We expose our delegates to policing systems under different cultures, different legal systems and different structures to help enhance their professional leadership development,” said Col. (ret.) Brent Cummings, director of the exchange.

“Leadership dilemmas faced by Israel Police executives are relevant to leadership dilemmas our delegates face at home. They learn to recognize challenges and how to better deal with them while forming their own thoughts on how to be better leaders,” he added. “Our delegates learn important lessons from their peers on how to better serve their own communities.”

The exchange, a joint project of Georgia State University of local, state, federal and international law enforcement and public safety agencies, has trained more than 45,000 law enforcement executives over the past 33 years.
Andorra’s 73 Jews worship from a community center they are barred by law from calling a synagogue
To the south, in Spain, raucous protesters emboldened by their government’s recent recognition of Palestine are urging Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to go even farther and cut diplomatic relations with Israel.

And to the north, in France, Jews fear an escalation of antisemitism following elections that saw a far-left party grab the biggest share of votes.

Wedged between these two big countries, however, is a tiny one where anti-Israel rallies are unheard of, ties with Israel remain strong, and the Jews enjoy prosperous, quiet lives — as long as they don’t officially call their subterranean cultural center a synagogue.

Welcome to Andorra, a mountainous microstate of 82,000 nestled in the eastern Pyrenees. Just 181 square miles in size — about three times bigger than Washington, D.C. — this principality is a skiing and duty-free shopping paradise. Andorra is also the world’s only self-declared Catalán-speaking nation, and since its founding in 1278, its state religion has been Roman Catholicism.

That doesn’t seem to be a problem for the local Jewish community, estimated by its members to number just 73.

“I don’t hide the fact that I’m Jewish. I’m proud of it,” said Andorra-born Mercedes Abitbol, 52, an official of the MoraBanc financial group who on a recent afternoon was sporting a small silver “chai” necklace while sitting an outdoor café in this picturesque city, which at 3,042 feet above sea level is Europe’s highest capital. The Jewish history of Andorra

Unlike France and Spain, Andorra has no history of antisemitism. Maybe it’s because for most of its existence, not a single Jew lived here. In fact, there’s no record of a Jewish presence in this landlocked nation until World War II, when it became a temporary haven for French Jews and others fleeing the Nazis — a historical footnote alluded to in the 2023 Netflix miniseries “Transatlantic.”

Between 2,000 and 3,000 French Jews and others escaped Vichy France through neutral Andorra under incredibly harsh circumstances, according to mountaineer and local historian Joan Janer Rossell.

“Guides would take these people — including Poles, Germans and Hungarians — on foot to cross over the Pyrenees into Spain,” he said. “These mountain people were very poor, and the conditions were very bad. Some took advantage of the refugees, stole their money and even killed them. Many made it to Spain, but others died along the way.”
Herzog marks 65 years since death of grandfather, state’s first chief rabbi
President Isaac Herzog on Thursday hosted an event in Jerusalem marking 65 years since the death of Ireland and Israel Chief Rabbi Dr. Yitzhak (Isaac) Halevi Herzog, his grandfather and namesake.

The event also marked the selection of the late chief rabbi as a symbolic role model for the upcoming academic year by the Hemed state religious education system, as well as the launch of his republished works.

Born in Poland in 1888 before moving to the United Kingdom and later to Israel, Herzog served as the first chief rabbi of Ireland from 1921 to 1936, when he became chief rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine, and then the State of Israel’s first Ashkenazi chief rabbi from 1948 until his death in 1959.

He is credited with authoring the prayer for the well-being of the state and for the soldiers of the IDF and the members of the security forces. President Isaac Herzog speaks at the event in Jerusalem honoring his grandfather Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak (Isaac) Halevi Herzog, July 18, 2024. Photo by Koby Gideon/GPO.

“I wish to begin with a prayer from here—for the healing in body and soul, for the wounded in the current conflict. I pray for the safe return home of the communities and families uprooted from their homes for many long months, for the swift return of the hostages—our sisters and brothers held captive by Hamas murderers,” Herzog said at the event.

“It is our duty to bring all the hostages home; this is an obligation above all others. It is a human, Israeli and Jewish duty. As Maimonides said: ‘There is no greater commandment than the redemption of captives,'” he added.

The president continued, “On behalf of all of us, I wish and pray for the success of the IDF soldiers and the security forces, and their speedy return home safe and sound. In this difficult campaign—our very best sons and daughters, servicemen and women, and reservists. They make up the tremendous Israeli mosaic of various beliefs and ways of life. With dedication, a sense of mission, and faith, they leave behind their homes, family, workplaces and studies to defend Israel from our enemies.”

Former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said: “We need to build on the legacy of Rabbi Herzog, who founded all that we have in the Chief Rabbinate.

“We pray for the success of the soldiers and the healing of the wounded. We must act urgently for an immediate hostage deal; there is a life-threatening situation here that overrides everything. We must not delay,” he said.




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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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