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Monday, July 22, 2024

07/22 Links Pt2: Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Post-Biden Democratic Party; Biden stands down, with Middle East in crisis; The future of Jewish students at elite universities

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Post-Biden Democratic Party
In one of Joe Biden’s final interviews before he dropped out of the presidential race, Complex Networks’ Speedy Morman asked him: “Are you a Zionist?” It is not the first time Biden has been asked the question, though it’s not exactly a common question in national politics. Biden’s answer hadn’t changed: “Yes.”

The president then said that people who love to make trouble for Zionists don’t know what the word means. Do you, the president asked his interviewer with obvious relish, know what a Zionist is? Morman then vindicated Biden’s contempt for him on the spot by weaseling out a weak “I just ask questions, I don’t answer.”

Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he will be ending his political career after one term in the White House left me wondering: How would Kamala Harris answer that question if asked tomorrow? How would anybody else in the upper echelons of the president’s party, the keys to which he is now handing over, answer it?

The Democratic Party’s changing of the guard is almost certainly a milestone in American politics, a bold notch on the timeline marking a point of departure for the party’s approach to anti-Semitism and the Jewish state. The party’s standard bearer 24 hours ago considered himself a Zionist and routinely condemned—even if his administration took no appropriate action against—Jew-baiting mobs on campus. The party’s standard bearer today fears and admires those mobs for, in her preposterous words, “showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza.”

Members of the Biden-Harris administration who resigned over the president’s support for Israel against Hamas see Harris’s succession in that light. Lily Call, a former Interior Department staffer and member of the virulently anti-Israel group IfNotNow, expressed hope that Harris might enact an arms embargo on Israel. “I’ve worked for Kamala, and I know she’ll do the right thing,” Call told Politico.

Josh Paul, who resigned as a State Department point man on weapons transfers because Biden insisted on arming our Mideast allies, told Politico that Harris will probably be better (i.e. more evenhanded in her treatment of Israel and Hamas) than Biden. As I explained in December, Paul displays a remarkably aggressive ignorance on all things Middle East, and seems to have been particularly radicalized by his misreading of a story about donkeys in Gaza. This is the other reason for concern: U.S. agencies are apparently littered with a combination of entitled but inexperienced activists and historically illiterate fame-chasers. Things can easily get out of hand without a president who knows how to say “no” to them.
Jonathan Tobin: Biden’s legacy is a world in flames
Now that President Joe Biden has finally bent to the will of his party’s leaders and donors, the praise for his presidency is nearly universal on the left. The paeans to his personal greatness and acclaim for his time in the White House accelerated once his infirmity became clear in the June 27 debate with former President Donald Trump.

Liberal corporate media spent years covering up the president’s cognitive decline, including accusing any journalists who brought up the subject of spreading “misinformation.”

But once the lies were exposed, those who were mostly likely to know the truth about Biden—like former President Barack Obama, Vice President Kamala Harris, congressional leaders and Hollywood fundraisers such as actor George Clooney—turned on him, albeit while still improbably praising him as one of our greatest presidents. Like Marc Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, they “came to bury” Biden, but thought to praise him first.

Trump’s iconic defiance after a failed assassination attempt, a Covid diagnosis and the closed purses of big Democratic donors were the final blows that appear to have forced Biden to drop out, thus rendering the process by which he had gained the nomination a sham. That Biden announced his withdrawal via a social-media post—and on Elon Musk’s X, which liberals have denounced for its free-speech policies, at that—rather than bothering to record a message telling the country himself, was perhaps a fittingly feeble end to this dispiriting drama.

This will now be followed by the extravagant and equally disingenuous choruses of praise for Harris, as she now likely becomes the focus of the Democrats’ last-ditch efforts to prevent a Trump victory. But before we begin the task of separating truth from partisan hyperbole with respect to the vice president, it is appropriate to take a moment to unpack the notion that the Biden presidency was as great as those slipping the knife between his shoulders have been telling us.
Seth Frantzman: Biden stands down, with Middle East in crisis
US President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris will have ramifications in the Middle East, a region already in crisis. While many countries in the region have been watching the last several weeks of political chaos in America and have likely prepared for this scenario, there will be bad actors seeking to take advantage of the US domestic political chaos.

On the other hand, if Biden shifts focus solely to his politics amid the presidential race, he may try to nail down his legacy in the Middle East by pushing robust policies. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats – it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” Biden wrote late Sunday night.

This will set up a chaotic process within the Democratic Party. Change can be good, bringing new leadership to the spotlight, but an orderly transition of power is what makes democracies stable. Countries in this region are already wary of the United States because of the political chaos it has endured over the last decade. Many find the US less reliable than in the past, and key American partners and allies have been drifting into the arms of Russia, China, and others.

Enlrage imageThis drift began years ago. Countries such as Turkey, a NATO member, have leaders who are openly anti-West and authoritarian. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for instance, tried to block Sweden from joining NATO and has been working closely with Russia and Iran. Meanwhile, many Gulf states are also hedging and have been open to working more closely with China, as well as the countries in the BRICS and the SCO, two economic blocks closer to China and Russia than to the West.

Qatar, a major non-NATO ally of the US, continues to openly host Hamas and work directly with Iran. It has sought to benefit from the October 7 war triggered by Hamas by serving as a mediator, but it has its own interests; it is unclear if these coincide with those of the US and the West.


Ruthie Blum: Spewing anti-Bibi vitriol while bidding Biden farewell
Which brings us to Biden. No matter how often or loudly Netanyahu expressed his gratitude for American backing in the war against Hamas—which he did on a daily basis—the NDS-ers continued to claim that he was to blame for turning Israel into a partisan issue in the United States.

This nonsense, too, is old and tired. Nevertheless, it’s a notion that lies in the NDS comfort zone, always there when needed to be dusted off and shlepped out at a moment’s notice.

Netanyahu provided his detractors with the opportunity to do just that last month, when he released a video clip in which he called it “inconceivable” that the United States had been “withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel.”

It was the first and only time that the Israeli PM dared to call out the administration in Washington. Though he was absolutely right to issue the mild reprimand, his foes at home were happy to have their false assertions vindicated.

They pounced, as well, when Netanyahu accepted an invitation to address both houses of the U.S. Congress. Naturally, they fault him for causing a rift and simultaneously for taking steps to illustrate that none exists.

NDS reactions to his trip to DC were therefore universally negative. He shouldn’t go, they said, because he hasn’t yet signed a ceasefire deal that would see the release of hostages. And anyway, they added, he was only going to signal to former President Donald Trump and the Republicans that he was counting on their victory in November.

It didn’t occur to them that his address on Capitol Hill might assist in the effort to free the captives and confront Iran, the head of the octopus behind the seven-front war being waged against Israel and the West.

The news of Biden’s retreat threw a wrench into their campaign. Still, they managed to spew some anti-Bibi vitriol on social media.

Ignoring the fact that Biden was forced by fellow Democrats to leave the race, Haaretz writer and The Economist correspondent Anshel Pfeffer tweeted, “How rare to see a leader choose his country’s interests over his own.”

Yes, we all got the point.
Biden dropping out won’t change this administration’s hostility towards Israel
The administration has empowered Iran by allowing sanctions to lapse and freeing up billions of fungible dollars, including $10 billion in the weeks after October 7. It has withheld crucial weapons from Israel in its hour of need and misled Congress that it was doing so. It has sanctioned Israeli citizens. It is working ceaselessly to give Hamas a state.

At home, the Democrats have not just presided over a wave of anti-Jewish incitement and violence without parallel in any Western state since 1945. They have encouraged it, by commission and omission. They have pushed a poisonous false history into the schools. They have looked the other way as Jews are beaten in the streets of Democratic-run cities.

Kamala Harris was the first senior administration official to demand an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza. She has falsely accused Israel of causing a “humanitarian catastrophe”. In March, she informed us that she had “looked at the maps”, and publicly warned the Israelis that “any type of military operation” in Rafah would be “a huge mistake”. She was, she said, “ruling out nothing” if Israel went ahead.

Harris must now pick a running mate. Donald Trump’s selection of Ohio senator JD Vance will further handicap the Democrats in the Rust Belt swing states. That makes Pennsylvania’s governor Josh Shapiro, a centrist Democrat, an ideal partner for Harris. There’s just one problem. “He’s Jewish, there could be some risk in putting him on the ticket,” John King of CNN told Anderson Cooper on Sunday night. This wasn’t King’s personal opinion. He was reporting a fact about today’s Democratic Party. Perhaps that explains why Anderson Cooper, normally an avid policeman of the pieties, didn’t even blink.

The same media that lied to you about Joe Biden’s health will now insist that Donald Trump is bad for the Jews and Israel, that the Republicans are raving Jew-haters and that Trump’s vice-presidential nominee JD Vance is “far-right” and “isolationist”. They will even imply that Vance’s Catholicism represents a danger to democracy.

The facts are that Vance accuses Biden of having “surrendered the war on terrorism” and “prolonged” Israel’s war with Hamas while “making it harder and harder” for Israel to defend itself. Vance has called for Israel to win its war against Hamas “as quickly as possible”, and for Israel and the Sunni Arab states to ally against Iran and build up the Abraham Accords. But the facts have never counted for less in American politics.
Anti-Israel Radicals Are 'Hopeful' Kamala Will Cast Aside the Jewish State. They Have Plenty of Reasons To Be.
Anti-Israel radicals who resigned their government posts over President Joe Biden's support for Israel are betting on Vice President Kamala Harris to adopt more hardline policies toward the Jewish state. It's a good bet: Harris throughout her vice presidency touted her public opposition to Israel's war on Hamas and praised campus protesters who have violently harassed Jews.

Harris, who is on track to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee following Joe Biden's departure from the race, was among the first administration officials to chastise Israel for its conduct during the war. In December, just two months after Hamas slaughtered more than 1,200 Jews, Harris publicly broke with Biden's support for Israel, saying the Jewish state had killed "too many innocent Palestinians" and "must do more to protect innocent civilians."

Since that time, the vice president has repeatedly thrown her support behind anti-Israel protesters in America, saying they show "exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza." Such comments are driving "optimism" among anti-Israel elements in the Democratic Party, according to reports, with several administration officials who resigned over Biden's support for Israel expressing hope that a Harris presidency will bring about a break in U.S. relations with the Jewish state.

"I've worked for Kamala, and I know she'll do the right thing," Lily Greenberg Call, an Interior Department appointee who resigned her post earlier this year, told Politico on Sunday. "Harris must listen to the majority of American voters and use all of the administration's leverage—including by halting offensive weapons transfers—to push for a lasting ceasefire and hostage exchange."

Josh Paul, a former State Department employee who resigned over opposition to the Biden administration's arms shipments to Israel, described Biden as "fixed and intransigent" on the issue. By contrast, he said, Harris can be swayed into severing America's historically close alliance with Israel.

"I would say I have cautious and limited optimism—but also a deep sense of relief that the Democratic Party will not be nominating for the presidency of the United States a man who has made us all complicit in so much and such unnecessary harm," Paul told Politico.

Harris has repeatedly drawn headlines for her public criticism of Israel's war effort and support for anti-Israel demonstrators, stances that cut against Biden's repeated condemnations of growing anti-Semitism in America.

Anti-Israel college students, Harris said in July, "are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza."

"There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don't mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it," she said, adding that "I understand the emotion behind it."
'Progressive fringe' Kamala Harris drives Jews to Trump, says former US ambassador to Israel
The sudden withdrawal of US President Joe Biden from the 2024 presidential race has left the Democratic Party scrambling to regain its footing. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman predicted a significant shift of American Jewish voters towards the Republican Party and Donald Trump due to Kamala Harris's ascension as the Democratic candidate.

Friedman was not surprised by Biden’s decision to step down, citing the president’s deteriorating physical and cognitive abilities. “The entire weight of the Democratic Party fell on him, and he simply didn’t have the physical capabilities to continue,” Friedman stated. He emphasized that it was the right outcome for both the Democratic Party and the country, as Biden could no longer handle the responsibilities of the presidency.

However, Friedman reserved his harshest criticism for Biden’s advisors, accusing them of covering up the president’s health issues for years. “This is an 'emperor has no clothes' scenario,” he said. “Friends on the inside told me back in 2021 that Biden lacked the energy and mental acuity for the job. Many who now insist he step down were the same people covering for him in the past.” Friedman speaks of concerns over Kamala Harris as presidential candidate

Friedman expressed concern over the Democratic Party’s decision to push Kamala Harris as the presidential candidate without a proper vetting process. “Harris didn’t go through any aspect of the primary process and didn’t get a single vote in any primary,” he noted. “This puts the party and the country at a disadvantage because she hasn’t been seriously considered for the presidency.”

From an Israeli perspective, Friedman warned that Biden’s departure and Harris’s potential presidency could pose significant risks. He described Biden as a “lame duck” who could no longer drive meaningful negotiations and doubted Harris’s ability to handle international affairs effectively. “Biden made many mistakes regarding Israel, but he is miles ahead of Harris in terms of support for Israel,” Friedman asserted. “She is on the fringe of the progressive wing of the party, which sympathizes more with the Palestinian cause.”

Friedman believes Harris’s nomination could lead to a historic shift of Jewish voters to the Republican side. “Biden traditionally supported Israel, but Harris does not pass the ‘kishkes test’ of genuinely supporting Israel,” he said. “Combine that with the Republican Convention being historically pro-Israel and the Democratic Convention likely to be pro-Palestine, and you have a significant shift.”

Friedman further criticized Harris’s stance on Israel, stating, “Kamala Harris has shown through her actions and associations that she aligns more with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which has increasingly taken a hostile stance towards Israel. Her support for policies and figures that are openly critical of Israel is alarming for those who value the US-Israel relationship.”
Potential Harris presidency could turn the screws on Israel
The Washington Post reported in March that Harris had warned White House advisers that young voters see the Israeli-Arab conflict differently than older ones.

Also, immediately after the Oct. 7 attack, Harris lobbied the president to include a line about Islamophobia in his speech promising unconditional support for Israel, the Post reported.

That decision recalls another Harris made as California attorney general to convene interfaith, community and law enforcement leaders to condemn the rise of Islamophobia after a husband-and-wife Islamist terror team killed 14 and wounded 22 others at a Christmas party in San Bernardino in 2015.

“She is on the fringe of the progressive wing of the party, which sympathizes more with the Palestinian cause,” David Friedman, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel under Donald Trump, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, predicting that U.S. Jewish voters would move to the Republican Party due to Harris’s rise.

Prominent pro-Israel lawmakers, however, defended Harris’s record on Israel and antisemitism, telling The Jewish Insider that she is a “staunch ally” of Jewish people.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) told the Insider that “people were serving different roles,” in the administration, suggesting that Harris was reaching out to the Democratic Party’s progressive base, and that she would shift to a more centrist position as president.

“Soon-to-be President Harris [will] support Israel, our No. 1 ally in the region,” he said.

However, Friedman insisted that Harris didn’t pass the “kishkes test.”

“Combine that with the Republican Convention being historically pro-Israel and the Democratic Convention likely to be pro-Palestine, and you have a significant shift,” he added.
Kamala Harris’ record on Israel to the left of President Biden
While Vice President Kamala Harris has not yet earned the backing of Democratic leaders in Congress, now that President Joe Biden has stepped aside she looks like the presidential candidate to beat ahead of the party’s convention next month — bringing renewed attention to her record on issues of concern to the Jewish community, including her views on Israel and her record on speaking out against antisemitism.

In recent months, Harris has been a tougher critic of Israel than President Joe Biden, who frequently describes himself as a Zionist, and as a voice more sympathetic to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

“She’ll certainly be making it clear, as we’ve said many times before, that we believe that Palestinian people need a vote and a voice in their future, and that they need governance in Gaza that will look after their aspirations and their needs,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said in December, describing the role Harris would play pertaining to the war in Gaza.

Three days after the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel, she sat with Biden as he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

She was also present — virtually — for a meeting with the White House national security team after Israel responded to a barrage of missiles fired from Iran in April.

“Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad, and we stand with the people of Israel in defense against these attacks,” she tweeted at the time.

Harris is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he is in Washington this week. She also hosted an event at the White House last month highlighting conflict-related sexual violence, with a particular focus on Hamas’ sexual abuse of hostages and on Oct. 7.

“We cannot look away and we will not be silent. My heart breaks for all these survivors and their families, and for all the pain and suffering from the past eight months in Israel and Gaza,” she said after meeting with Amit Soussana, a former hostage who has described being sexually assaulted while in captivity.

But Harris is the only senior member of the Biden administration’s foreign policy not to have traveled to Israel after Oct. 7, making her an outlier alongside Biden, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Harris first traveled to Israel in 2004 as the San Francisco district attorney on a trip organized by the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council.

In March, Harris said she had not ruled out whether there would be consequences for Israel if Israel moved ahead with an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Several weeks later, Biden echoed this point — by announcing on CNN that he would withhold transfers of large-payload weapons if Israel mounted a major invasion of Rafah.


Jewish Democratic lawmakers defend Harris’ record on Israel and antisemitism
Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), who chairs the House antisemitism task force, told JI that Harris “has shown strong support for Israel since her time in the U.S. Senate, when she voted for unprecedented support for Israel’s security needs.”

“She has continued that strong support as our vice president. As she stated in her remarks on Israel’s 75th anniversary: ‘At the core of the U.S.-Israel relationship is America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel. This commitment endures not only because it is in America’s strategic interest, but because it is the right thing to do,’” Manning continued.

She also said she’d been “honored to work with [Harris’] husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, on the fight against antisemitism,” and tied the vice president to the administration’s national strategy on antisemitism.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), in an appearance on Fox News, sought to tie Biden’s policy on the issue to Harris.

“It’s the Biden-Harris administration, the Biden-Harris record on Israel,” he said. “If you listen to progressives, they hate the Biden-Harris record on Israel… And so as a supporter, I know they’ve gotten a lot of criticism, but their record on Israel and antisemitism has been pretty good.”

When pressed on the differences between Harris’ public comments and Biden’s, including stronger criticism of Israel, Moskowitz said, “people were serving different roles, obviously. I think you’re going to see Democrats be support[ive] and soon-to-be President Harris support Israel, our No. 1 ally in the region.”
Vice President Harris Threatened Israel — and Democrats Must Respond
The Vice President’s speech proceeds her repugnant behavior at George Mason University back in 2021, after a student falsely claimed that Israel is guilty of “ethnic genocide and displacement of people.” Lacking the sophistication or wisdom once expected of a sitting Vice President, Harris answered by nodding along agreeably, while proclaiming that “your truth cannot be suppressed.”

And the problem doesn’t seem limited to Harris herself. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — who previously served as Harris’ chief of staff — has made troubling comments about Israel, and also downplayed antisemitism in the United States.

The administration’s abstention from Monday’s United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza is evidence that Harris’ admonishments of Israel align with the administration’s intensification of creating more daylight between the US and the Jewish state. For their part, Jewish organizations and Democrats have stayed largely quiet on the government’s dangerous pivot against Israel. At a time when the Jewish nation is fighting for its very survival, and with the majority of the anti-Israel animus emanating from the political left, it will soon be increasingly difficult for groups claiming to uphold Jewish interests to ignore the damaging and hostile anti-Israel hits such as those espoused by Harris. Legacy Jewish institutions have preferred to remain on the sidelines when faced with hostility from the left, choosing to buffer any disappointment in Democrats’ Israel stance with a passionate defense of past pro-Israel policies.

To date, Harris’ targeting of Israel during her ABC interview appears to have gone unnoticed by Congressional Democrats. Yet, in fairness, if Jewish Americans expect statements of solidarity from lawmakers, our Jewish leaders must start by acting far less charitably towards politicians like Harris, and begin governing with the moral clarity that our current climate warrants.

The tenor of August’s Democratic National Convention will grant Americans an opportunity to determine whether Harris, whose term has been punctuated with an expanding proclivity for showmanship over a deepening appreciation for knowledge, will use the platform to smear Israel further, or if Democrats outside the White House will finally find the courage and blunt the Vice President’s criticism of Israel.
J street backs Harris, disapproves of Netanyahu's invite to address congress
J Street’s president Jeremy Ben-Ami began a press call Monday morning, previewing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Congressional address by announcing the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” organization’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and thanking President Joe Biden for his “incredible statesmanship” and for dedicating his life to public service.

J Street was proud to endorse Biden’s campaign and support his efforts to try to bring the Israeli-Hamas war to a close, Ben-Ami said.

He called Harris a “longtime friend of J Street” and a leading voice in the administration for the kind of approach to Israel and Palestine that the group supports.

“She’s not in favor of what she called a ‘binary approach’ to the conflict,” he said. “She appreciates the nuances and the complexities, and that is exactly why she aligned so closely with J Street.”

Ben-Ami said Harris has consistently supported a two-state solution while being clear on Israel’s right to defend itself.

She has also been a powerful voice calling for greater protection of Palestinian civilians in the wake of October 7, speaking out about the humanitarian crisis, and pressing for an urgent ceasefire to free the hostages and end the devastation, Ben-Ami added.

“We are very excited about this turn of events, and we’ll be throwing our full weight behind her candidacy over the course of the next 100-plus days,” he said.


2021: VP Harris to student who accused Israel of 'genocide': Your truth must be heard
During a discussion with students about National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, US Vice President Kamala Harris did not challenge a comment by a student at George Mason University in Virginia who accused Israel of “ethnic genocide” and defended her right to say it.

The student, who identified herself as part-Yemeni, part-Iranian and “not an American,” also expressed outrage at US funding of the Iron Dome.

She said America affects her life “every day” due to military funding it gives to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

“You brought up how the power of the people and demonstrations and organizing is very valuable in America,” she said. “But I see that over the summer there have been protests and demonstrations in astronomical numbers standing with Palestine. But then just a few days ago, there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because it’s ethnic genocide and displacement of people, the same that happened in America, and I’m sure you’re aware of this.”

The student questioned why money was going to Israel and Saudi Arabia instead of to social issues in America.

“The people have spoken very often of what they do need, and I feel like there’s a lack of listening, and I just feel like I need to bring this up because it affects my life and people I really care about’s [sic] life,” she said.

In response, Harris said she was “glad” the student spoke up.

“Your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard,” she said.

Harris said democracy is strongest when everyone participates and is weakest when anyone is left out.

“That’s not only about being physically present but that your voice is present,” she said. “Our goal should be unity, but not uniformity. Unity should never be at the expense of telling any one person, ‘For the sake of unity, oh you be quiet about that thing.’ That’s not unity. Then we see where that ends up in a healthy debate about the issue.”




CNN slammed after John King says Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Jewish faith makes him a risky VP pick
Critics slammed CNN after anchor John King said there were “risks” in putting forward Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as the Democratic vice presidential nominee because “he’s Jewish.”

“He’s certainly under consideration,” King said on CNN Sunday night, referencing discussions with allies of Vice President Kamala Harris.

“He’s a first-term governor, he’s Jewish, there could be some risks in putting him on the ticket, but certainly some of our voters here in Pennsylvania said, ‘Hey, we like Gov. Shapiro, give him a look,'” he added.


Jpost Editorial: Come what may, and despite all odds, Israel is home for the Jewish people
It’s as much a part of Israel as sweltering hot summers, bamba, and the Kinneret: newspaper articles and polls every few months indicating that, given a chance, Israelis would leave the country in a flash.

The most recent example is a Jewish People Policy Institute poll published on Wednesday that found that almost a quarter of Jewish Israelis completely agree (11%) or somewhat agree (13%) with the statement, “If I had a practical possibility to emigrate, I would.”

A first glance at those figures elicits an “oy” response and a wringing of the hands, for there is little more demoralizing in a time of crisis like the one the country faces today than to think that a quarter of one’s brethren would emigrate if just given a chance. The numbers among Israeli Arabs are substantially higher, with 25% completely agreeing with the sentiment and 15% somewhat agreeing.

But some historical perspective is needed before fretting that the cream of the Israeli crop is lining up looking for better opportunities in places like Lisbon, Berlin, Ottawa, and Los Angeles.

Consider this: On the eve of the Yom Kippur War, Israel’s population stood at 3.2 million, of whom 2.8 million were Jews. This year, as the country celebrated its 76th anniversary, and following hundreds of articles about mass emigration and the specter of a debilitating brain drain, the country’s population stood at 9.9 million people, of whom 7.4 million were Jews.

So much for emigrating out of existence.

Nevertheless, we still read constantly about people leaving, wanting to leave, or threatening to leave if things do not change. In recent weeks, there has been a flood of these posts on social media. Reasons range from a loss of faith in the country to security concerns to the country’s leadership crisis.
I’m sick of antisemitism
I don’t like the word antisemitism. Not its overuse; nor its blatantly anti-Jewish derivation.

The word was coined by Wilhelm Marr, a German journalist, in 1879. Marr used the term to give a pseudoscientific veneer to the age-old hatred of Jews, differentiating it from religious-based hatred (anti-Judaism).

Marr intended to frame this animosity as a racial rather than religious issue, reflecting the racial theories and pseudo-scientific ideas prevalent in Europe at the time. Similar to the use of the word anti-Zionist in our times, it was a way of linguistically cloaking one’s hatred of the Jewish people.

I prefer the more straightforward term: Jew-hatred. Yet I’m beginning to develop an overall aversion to talking overmuch about Jew-hatred’s steep rise.

Instead, I have become a staunch promoter of Jewish empowerment. Fighting Jew-hatred is like draining the ocean with an eye-dropper. I’m fed up with wrestling a senseless, shape-shifting, multi-millennia-old virus. My answer to the scourge of Jew-hatred lies in every Jew becoming more actively and proudly Jewish.

When fear of Jew-hatred becomes the centerpiece of our connection to Judaism, we are placing ourselves in the hands of our enemies. We are using our strength and our unity not to achieve empowerment, but to engage in a Sisyphean endeavor wherein we create little more than an exhausting sense of despair.

Yes, we as Jews need to defend ourselves and to call out specific acts of hatred against Israel and Jews. But our best resource is woefully underused. It is a turn towards the inherent power that lies in immersing ourselves in our beautiful, timelessly relevant and unifying heritage.

Rather than expending energy on those who hate us, why not become more involved in the things that have sustained us as a nation for over 3,000 years, such as Shabbat observance, Kashrut, Torah study, prayer, the donning of tefillin for men and the lighting of Shabbat candles for women?

For those of us deeply invested in Jewish strength and survival, we need to shift our focus from merely protecting ourselves to enriching ourselves and our communities.

By far the most crucial and often overlooked question is: How do we ensure that our children marry Jews? Let’s start by identifying what actions we should avoid.

When Jew-hatred becomes the focal point of our Jewish life, such as when we donate more frequently to Holocaust remembrance (which is, of course, important) than to synagogues and institutions of Jewish learning, we fail to ensure Jewish continuity. Transgenerational Judaism requires that our children experience more joy and relevance than fear and powerlessness.
Iranian Suicide Drones Used in Tel Aviv Attack Constructed With American Components, Cruz Says
The suicide drones used by Iran’s Houthi militants to conduct a deadly and unprecedented attack on Tel Aviv last week were constructed primarily with American components, highlighting severe gaps in U.S. sanctions on Tehran, according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas).

Yemen’s Houthi militants, who are funded and directed by Iran, significantly escalated their attacks on Israel last week when they launched a long-range drone strike on Israel’s second largest city, killing one person and wounding several others. The advanced military equipment was supplied by Iran, constructed using American parts, and funded by more than $100 billion in sanctions relief that has been granted to the hardline regime during President Joe Biden’s tenure in office, Cruz said in an investigatory letter sent to the White House on Monday.

"The construction of the drones is enabled by the regime’s access to American components, and indeed the drones are built almost entirely from components produced by U.S. companies," Cruz wrote before asking White House officials to immediately brief Congress on the matter.

"Military production of the drones is financed by funds available to the Iranian regime, including roughly 100 billion dollars that the Biden administration has allowed to flow to the Ayatollah."

The letter comes just days after the Biden administration renewed a sanctions waiver that unlocks upwards of $10 billion for Iran via cash payment from Iraq. These funds, Cruz and other Republicans say, are funding Iran’s production of deadly drones, which have been exported to terror groups across the region, as well as Russia for use in its war on Ukraine. Iran has been accessing key American electronic components for years, allowing it to build up a fleet of advanced drones that comprise about 80 percent of its total arsenal, according to congressional sources briefed on the issue.

"These drones are made almost entirely of American components, including ones cannibalized from other machines or transferred through third or fourth-party distributors using convoluted routes to move tiny electronics," Cruz said. "U.S. export and trade restrictions are aimed in part to prevent the acquisition of such components by rogue regimes such as Iran; their failure suggests either a lack of will or ability by the Biden administration."

U.S. officials claim they are "working to restrict access to such components" but have provided little evidence to show the efforts are effective.
PM describes ‘malign’ influence of Iran, calls Gaza situation ‘intolerable’
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has spoken out about the disruptive role Iran is playing in the Middle East.

In a statement to Parliament on Monday on the Nato and European leaders’ summit earlier this month, Starmer said he had “discussed with world leaders how to deal with the malign influence of Iran, address their nuclear programme, manage the threat from the Houthis, ease tensions on Israel’s northern border and work with all partners to uphold regional security.”

In opposition, Labour had called for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be proscribed.

Although the party’s election manifesto did not include a pledge to ban the group, it has been reported that Labour plans to bring in a “bespoke” proscription mechanism in order to make it easier for “state-based actors” to be formally declared as terror groups.

The Prime Minister also repeated calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

He told MPs, “I’ve spoken to the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. I’ve been clear that I fully support Israel’s right to security. The desperate need to see the hostages returned. I’ve also been clear that the situation in Gaza is intolerable.

"The world will not look away as innocent civilians including women and children continue to face death, disease and displacement. It cannot go on. We need an immediate ceasefire.”

He went on to defend his government’s resumption of funding to controversial UN Palestinian Agency Unrwa, which was announced last Friday.

The decision has been criticised by some groups, with pro-Israel campaigners StandWithUs UK expressing “profound concern and disappointment” at the restoration of funding and the Campaign Against Antisemitism calling it a “deeply regressive and dangerous step”.
The view from AMIA 30 years later
Last week, I led a Conference of Presidents leadership mission that represented the American Jewish community at the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the bombing of AMIA, the Jewish center in Buenos Aires. On that dreadful day in July 1994, 85 people were murdered and 300 more injured, a wound that still feels fresh for global Jewry.

I flew to Argentina from Israel, my fourth visit there since Oct. 7, during which I was in the Old City of Jerusalem. With each visit, I prayed we would be celebrating the release of the hostages, but more than a hundred of our brothers and sisters are still being held in the dungeons of Hamas—including American and Argentinian citizens.

As my friends Orna and Ronen Neutra so movingly asked at the Republican National Convention last week: “Where is the outrage?”

Israel has evacuated dozens of communities near the northern border, displacing over 60,000 citizens. As the war against Hamas grinds on and another against Hezbollah looms, Iran—the puppet master of these terror groups and others—fired ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones directly at the Jewish state for the first time in history.

Even the most determined optimist’s resolve has been tested by the events of the last nine months.

The two bloody days on our minds—Oct. 7 and the AMIA bombing—do not exist in a vacuum. Our history as a Jewish people has been marred by tragedy after tragedy, century after century.

From the exiles we endured from the Land of Israel to the pogroms of the shtetl, the Shoah, the AMIA bombing, the Sbarro bombing of the second intifada, Oct. 7 and many other dreadful days, we are bound to each other and our ancestors by the tragedies we face and the resolve we display as we endure.
Israeli envoy marks ‘tragic’ 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Israeli Ambassador to Cyprus Oren Anolik this week commemorated the 1974 Turkish invasion of the Mediterranean island nation.

“We join the people and government of Cyprus in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the tragic events that unfolded in 1974,” he posted to X on Saturday. “This day serves as a poignant reminder of the loss, and enduring pain, experienced by countless Cypriots. Israel stands with Cyprus as we reflect on the resilience and strength of its people.”

He added, “While we honor the memory of those who suffered and lost their lives, we also acknowledge the continued efforts toward peace and reconciliation. I extend my deepest sympathies to the families affected by the events of 1974 and reaffirm Israel’s commitment to stand by Cyprus. May this day serve as a beacon for unity and for the pursuit of peace.”

A review of Anolik’s X account shows that the Israeli envoy did not issue any similar statements since taking up the post in Nicosia in Aug. 2021.

In May, at an event in Nicosia marking Israel’s 76th Independence Day, the Israeli ambassador drew parallels between the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terrorist invasion in southern Israel and atrocities committed by Turkish soldiers on Cypriot soil 50 years ago.

An Israeli official told JNS that Anolik’s post did not reflect a change of policy. “This is a gesture on an emotional level, same as one would expect Cyprus to come out and express heartfelt emotions about October 7 on the commemoration day of Hamas’s atrocities,” the official said.

“It’s been 50 years since the atrocities of 1974. It’s a very important day for the Cypriots and we feel their pain,” the official said, stressing that Jerusalem continues to “sympathize and hope for a peaceful solution.”
Pro-Hamas group plans to 'celebrate' Oct. 7 anniversary
Spain's Jewish community has expressed outcry after a Madrid-based radical anti-Israel group announced it would hold a conference on Oct. 7, 2024, "celebrating" the one-year anniversary of the brutal Hamas massacre in southern Israel, in which over a thousand civilians were murdered, including women and children.

Masar Badil (Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement) plans to hold the conference in support of the Hamas terrorist organization and the "Palestinian struggle" under the antisemitic slogan "From the river to the sea," generally interpreted as a call for the destruction of Israel.

Organizers said the conference signals "a new phase of struggle against the Zionist entity," urging people to "celebrate the dawn of the glorious Oct. 7 and the sacrifices of our people in the Gaza Strip."

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain told Israel Hayom, "We are deeply concerned about the possibility of Madrid hosting an international meeting of an organization that supports terrorism on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre. The slogan chosen for the conference has been declared antisemitic by many countries and organizations because it calls for the elimination of Israel.

"We trust that the Spanish authorities will realize this and not allow such an event, which could not be held in other European countries like Germany, for example. We believe that Madrid and other Spanish cities should continue to be places of peace and interfaith dialogue."

Founded in Spain in 2021, Masar Badil activities have gained significant momentum since Oct. 7. On the day of the onslaught, the group issued a statement supporting Hamas' actions, "All Palestinian forces, at home and abroad, stand today behind the leaders of our brave armed resistance in Palestine and with our people in occupied Palestine, until Operation Al-Aqsa Flood achieves its goals."
Sydney Labor councillor calls for BDS
A Labor Councillor will move a motion at tomorrow’s Canterbury-Bankstown Council meeting calling a review of links to any company “complicit human rights violations on the Palestinian people”.

“That the CEO undertakes a review of Council’s investments and links to companies, if any, that are complicit in human rights violations on the Palestinian people, including the illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian

Territories and the supply of weapons.

This review should include both suppliers used by Council and the City’s investment and contractual obligations.”

Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory said: “Boycotts against the Jewish State are just the latest manifestation of anti-Jewish boycotts which have a long and ugly history.

Local councils should take care of collecting the rubbish and providing services to residents, not involve themselves in conflicts on the other side of the world.

Even if this motion is lawful, it will likely cost ratepayers millions of dollars and could result in legal action. There is a Jewish or Israeli connection in many products and services and the cost to remove that will be enormous. I find it hard to believe that the hard-working people of Canterbury-Bankstown want their money to be wasted so frivolously.


The future of Jewish students at elite universities
Should Jewish students abandon Ivy League universities and other elite schools where antisemitism has exploded since Oct. 7?

This question, which would have previously been unthinkable given the Jewish community’s allegiance to prestigious higher education for the past 80 years, is now quite common.

Bret Stephens has written that, for the rising high school senior, “maybe it’s time to forgo the fading prestige of the old elite for the sake of something else, something new.”

William Daroff, former CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said, “If they don’t want us, we should go elsewhere.”

I graduated from Princeton and have three advanced degrees from Yale. I taught at Princeton for 18 years and am currently president of American Jewish University (AJU) in Los Angeles. I am therefore particularly animated by these questions.

The animus faced by Jewish students at some universities should certainly not be underestimated. Rabbi David Wolpe’s hair-raising account of his year at Harvard described the university as “an institution rife with antisemitism and anti-Zionism.” This affirms that parents’ concerns about sending their children to certain campuses are real.

Some schools have stepped up and offered Jewish students a safe alternative, including Brandeis and Yeshiva Universities. We may also see new entrants, like the University of Austin, that promise to avoid the ideological ruts that institutions have fallen into.
Dallas district allegedly retaliated against Jewish student after Title VI probe
A Jewish student in Dallas was subjected to retaliation by a teacher over a U.S. Department of Education probe of the Dallas Independent School District for alleged Title VI violations, according to the nonprofit StandWithUS.

When the student, one of the co-complainants in what became the U.S. Department of Education probe, was in the classroom, a teacher “specifically mentioned the complaint, insinuated it had something to do with him and then launched into an off-color, one-sided discussion about Islam and Israel,” StandWithUs wrote to the district.

The Dallas Independent School District has been the subject of a federal investigation since at least mid-April for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students at Hillcrest High School.

“In light of both the original claims included in our Title VI complaint, and the subsequent reports of retaliation at Hillcrest, we request a meeting with your team to discuss best practices that DISD can put in place proactively to ensure that the upcoming 2024-2025 school year be successful and safe for all students,” the letter states.

“When students are repeatedly etching and spray-painting swastikas around a school, that is either a sign of pure ignorance or something more malicious,” it continues. “Either way, it should be a wake-up call to administrators and teachers to act, to educate, to engage the students in a discussion about hate speech and symbols of hate. Merely painting over swastikas will never address the underlying issues.”
Why is a teacher’s union butting into the war with Hamas?
When it meets this week at its annual convention, the American Federation of Teachers will not be focusing on the need to improve teaching in American schools. Sadly, instead of figuring out ways to raise student scores in language, math and science so our public school graduates can enter college, technical schools and the workplace, the AFT is weighing in on Israel and its war with Hamas.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre and given Israel’s need to defend its citizens, I find myself shaking my head in disbelief more frequently than ever before. Pro-Hamas college students rioting and making life difficult for Jewish students on campuses, Jews being harassed and attacked on American city streets, the vandalizing of synagogues and Jewish schools, and hostage posters being torn down make my head spin. Now comes the AFT.

Those attending the convention in Houston will be treated to several anti-Israel resolutions, such as “Opposing the Weaponization of Antisemitism,” “For an End to the War in Gaza and Lasting Peace, Security and Self-Determination for Israel and Palestine,” “Sell State of Israel Bonds,” “AFT Divestment from State of Israel Bonds” and “Stop Enabling Genocide: Halt U.S. Military Aid to Israel.”

While you’ll find mention of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack in a resolution, there’s no mention of the corruption of Palestinian schools that use children’s education as a weapon against Israel. Nor will you find a condemnation of the Palestinian school system’s glorification of terrorism and martyrdom.

Maybe the AFT has to be shown the reports about textbooks used in Palestinian classrooms. According to Palestinian Media Watch, it’s the Palestinian Authority and Hamas who are “pulling the strings” and “putting the content in the schoolbooks” glorifying terrorists and inculcating students in Jew-hatred.
Thousands of campus protesters arrested, but many charges dropped
Police arrested more than 3,100 protesters during the wave of anti-Israel encampments this spring, but many of the charges have since been dropped, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Mass arrests began in April at Columbia University when police arrested more than 100 on April 18. A few thousand more were subsequently arrested at campuses around the country. Most were hit with charges of trespassing and disturbing the peace.

While some college administrators chose to negotiate with the demonstrators, promising scholarships to Gazans and other inducements, others hoped to quickly restore calm by calling in the police.

Police arrested demonstrators at more than 70 schools in at least 30 states, according to the Times.

“But in the months since, many of the charges have been dropped, even as some students are facing additional consequences, like being barred from their campuses or having their diplomas withheld,” the paper said.

Prosecutor Delia Garza in Travis County dropped criminal trespassing charges against more than 100 people arrested at the University of Texas at Austin. She said that jurors would have likely decided that students were exercising free-speech rights.

The university was disappointed by the decision. “Actions that violate laws and institutional rules should be met with consequences,” said University of Texas at Austin spokesman Mike Rosen.

At Indiana University Bloomington, the local prosecutor’s office dropped trespassing charges against nearly 60 people.

At the University of Virginia, police broke up an encampment on May 4. They arrested 27 people. The local prosecutor dropped charges against seven and offered a deal to the rest. Charges would be dismissed in August if they didn’t have outstanding criminal charges against them at that time.


Hamas university students in West Bank arrested for planning ‘significant terror attack’
An attempt by Hamas to carry out a shooting attack in the West Bank directed by members of the terror group in Turkey was foiled recently, the Shin Bet announced on Sunday.

According to the security agency, the cell was made up of Hamas representatives on the student council at Birzeit University in the West Bank

The Shin Bet said the cell was given instructions and funding by Hamas’s branch in Turkey.

The suspected leader of the cell was identified as Mahmoud Anjatz, a resident of Kharbatha Bani Harith who the IDF said recruited the four others who were arrested with him.

Members of the cell were recently arrested by police’s elite Gideonim unit, and an assault rifle and thousands of dollars in cash provided by Hamas were also seized, the agency said.

The evidence gathered during the investigation and arrest were handed over to the military’s prosecution teams, and indictments are expected to be filed, the statement said.

It added that it had arrested many students from West Bank universities in recent weeks who were suspected of terrorist activity.

“The Shin Bet will continue to work diligently to thwart any attempt by terrorist organizations to advance terrorist activity against the State of Israel, its citizens, and its residents and to bring those involved in such activities to justice,” the agency wrote.


Three University Student Newspapers Spend Summer Break Promoting Anti-Israel Hate Mobs
Student newspapers at the University of Manitoba, Carleton University, and Concordia University published problematic articles in recent days that effectively promoted anti-Israel hate mobs.

On July 11, author Maria Cholakova, a serial subject of HonestReporting Canada alerts identifying her anti-Israel articles, penned a report for McGill University student newspaper The Link entitled: “McGill contracts private security firm to dismantle pro-Palestinian encampment,” on July 18, University of Manitoba student newspaper The Manitoban published Misha Stone’s piece entitled: “U of M promises legal action if pro-Palestinian encampment not dismantled,” and on July 20, Carleton’s The Charlatan published an article by Cassandra Bellefeuille entitled: “Pro-Palestine coalition sends open letter to Carleton administration over censorship and over-policing concerns.”

Cholakova, Stone and Bellefeuille each tried to evoke a sympathetic interpretation for the groups who held public campus spaces hostage for the past several months. Pointing out that McGill University contracted a private security firm to dismantle the illegal protest, Cholakova quoted “Sam, a camper who preferred to use a pseudonym for safety reasons,” and who “alleged they were forcefully escorted from the encampment with no warning by the private security firm.” Similarly, Stone quoted a University of Manitoba student who claimed that “when it comes to students standing up for the Palestinian cause, we are treated as if we’re not humans.” Not to be outdone, The Charlatan acted as an unofficial spokesperson for local anti-Israel groups, repeating their comical accusations of “censorship” toward university administrators.

The facts do not support these heavy-handed interpretations.

At McGill, a private security firm was, indeed, contracted to dismantle and remove the encampment, as well as ensure that all participants vacated the area. McGill made this decision in response to the dangerous conditions prevailing in the encampment, with drug use, and even overdoses reported, as well as sanitary conditions that could no longer be overlooked by authorities.

Cholakova reported these concerns in her article, but she also included comments from the group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill, who “denied claims about the presence of illegal drugs at the encampment, claiming that the university is leading a defamation campaign against its own students.”


New Yorker Columnist: Israelis Are ‘Weaponizing’ Oct. 7 Sexual Violence and ‘Demonizing’ Hamas
Gessen casts her own doubt on whether there is evidence of “widespread, systematic and, particularly brutal” sexual violence, noting in a later paragraph that “most of the women who had been subjected to sexual violence on October 7th were dead. They weren’t coming forward with evidence.” She claims it is the Israeli government that is amplifying the sexual violence narrative.

There is something deeply ironic in Gessen’s argument that Israel has politicized sexual violence when she uses the deaths of Israeli women and girls, whose testimonies of the horrors they endured cannot be heard, to criticize the Israeli government.

To bolster her argument, Gessen picks at a February report by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers of Israel, which laid bare the horrific extent to which Hamas brutalized Israeli women.

She states that the “report relied on media articles, television stories, and confidential information that had come through member organizations of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers.” The report’s “weakness,” she concludes, is that “much of the evidence was third- and fourth-hand, as in the case of media accounts that quoted other media accounts that quoted people who said they had witnessed attacks.”

However, Gessen immediately contradicts herself, noting that Hila Tov, a prominent multimedia journalist and activist, conducted the research for the report and that Tov said that “most of the evidence, in the end, came from dead bodies, or, rather, from the recollections and interpretations of volunteers who had gathered the bodies, and from doctors who interviewed survivors.”

The report was based on evidence collected from the scene, testimonies from those who collected bodies, and from doctors who interviewed survivors — the only possible sources of evidence. As a side note, Gessen ignores another piece of compelling evidence that further proves the events of October 7, which is the interrogation videos of Hamas terrorists and Gazan civilians in which they admit to raping Israeli women and girls.

Gessen also invites skepticism about the findings of the investigation by Pramila Patten, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, released in March. In addition to the challenges that are typical of any attempt to document sexual violence, Gessen argues that Israel and October 7 are unique because the victims’ bodies were gathered by “volunteers untrained in forensics” who prioritized a speedy burial as per the Jewish tradition of interring the dead within 24 hours. She adds that “nonetheless,” the report concluded there are grounds to believe that a number of instances of rape and gang rape took place.

Another report that documented October 7 sexual violence by the New York Times in March is branded “controversial” by Gessen. This account, she asserts, included the “sweeping claim” that Hamas commanders had ordered their subordinates to use rape as a weapon of war. She suggests this “raised the bar for any researcher who tried to document the crimes, changing the question from ‘Did it happen?’ to ‘Was it systematic?’”

Gessen cynically suggests that all subsequent reports about October 7 — those she deems “better researched and more comprehensive” — have been “met with disappointment by those who were expecting evidence of systematic crimes.”

Ultimately, we see why Gessen is so determined to undermine the overwhelming evidence of October 7: She believes “Israeli authorities have strategic reasons for claiming that the sexual violence was systematic.”

One reason, she contends, is that Israel is trying to highlight that “however inhumane the Israeli ways of waging war are, the message is, Hamas’s are even worse.” She describes this as a “campaign of demonization” that prompted Palestinian activists and pro-Palestinian media to try to “debunk claims that sexual violence occurred on October 7th.”

Aside from the fact that a campaign of demonization against Hamas is probably not a bad thing, given it is a proscribed Islamist terror group committed to killing Jews and destroying Israel, it is absurd that Gessen manages to find a way to absolve pro-Palestinian activists of what she terms their “equal and opposite campaign of denialism.” The message is clear: even when pro-Palestinians engage in the most revolting denialism of atrocities, it’s still somehow Israel’s fault.

Gessen closes the piece by juxtaposing what she states are uncorroborated stories of October 7 — “eviscerated pregnant woman; the woman who supposedly had a number of nails driven into her vagina; the claims that eyewitnesses saw Hamas fighters cut off women’s breasts while raping them” — with what she asserts is mounting “evidence of sexual torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli facilities.”

First, the accounts she referenced are not unsubstantiated. Numerous first responders reported finding bodies whose genitals had been mutilated, and these accounts have not been recanted.

It is utterly nauseating to suggest that the horrifying October 7 testimonies are because “rape is common in war and in peace” and that to “convey the trauma of sexual violence, victims and witnesses may feel the need to embellish.” Even more repugnant is the false equivalence between Hamas and the IDF. Testimonies of sexual abuse in Israeli prisons have been propagated by the likes of Euro-Med, which absurdly alleged Israel had trained dogs to rape detainees.

Without directly denying that sexual violence took place on October 7, Gessen suggests the extent of the rapes has been overblown and casts doubt on the severity of the attacks on the victims.

The article is nothing more than an exercise in rape apologism.


Ireland orders Israeli firm Wix to compensate employee fired over anti-Israel posts
Israeli software company Wix has reportedly been ordered to pay €35,000 ($38,000) to a former employee in its Dublin branch after she was fired in October for sharing posts on social media in which she called Israel a terrorist state, among other inflammatory statements.

According to The Irish Sun, Wix has acknowledged that its firing of 27-year-old Courtney Carey was “procedurally unfair.”

Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission imposed the compensation, which is lower than what Carey demanded, citing what she described as being “blacklisted” from the tech sector following her public dismissal.

In a post shared on her LinkedIn profile just weeks after Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel, which started the war, Carey wrote that she was proud to be Irish and to “stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people against the Israeli apartheid.”

Without acknowledging the onslaught — in which 1,200 people in Israel were killed and 251 kidnapped — as the catalyst, Carey attributed the “root cause” of the Israel-Hamas war to “Zionist ideology which promotes an exclusivist state which denies Palestinian identity.

“It is also an expansionary ideology, promoting illegal settlements on Palestinian land,” she claimed. “Do not be fooled by establishment propaganda. You can oppose Zionism as a political ideology while standing firm against antisemitism which is also a form of racism.”
BBC News continues to mainstream lies about Gaza casualty figures
None of the remaining 182 words of that report bother to inform BBC audiences that the claim that 180,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip is deliberately inaccurate disinformation.

One of the people who could benefit from some accurate and impartial reporting on this topic by Britain’s national broadcaster is the spokesperson for the student group which carried out the agitprop that is the subject of BBC London’s report. As reported by the Jewish Chronicle:

“Daniel Knorris, a spokesman for the group – whose recent actions have included blockading Oxford Circus and daubing both the Labour Party headquarters and the Ministry of Defence with red paint – warned the JC there would now be an “escalation”. […]

Citing a recent article letter from three academics – Rasha Khatib, Martin McKee, and Salim Yusuf — published in The Lancet, Knorris he claimed the true number of dead caused by “the IDF’s assault on Palestine” during the ongoing war in Gaza was 186,000, not the 38,000 claimed by the Hamas-controlled Gaza ministry of health. […]

Knorris confirmed that Youth Demand was formed several months ago from what had been the student wing of the anti-climate change campaign Just Stop Oil (JSO), a cause he also had supported.”

It is of course bad enough that for the past nine months the BBC has been uncritically quoting and promoting unverified casualty figures provided by the terrorist organisation which began the current war. Now the BBC – which, ironically, employs a dedicated ‘disinformation correspondent’ – apparently also thinks it appropriate to mainstream entirely fictional numbers touted by political activists, without alerting its audiences to that disinformation.
Media Twists Israeli Retaliatory Strike on Houthi Targets, Call it an ‘Attack’
There is a problem with how Israel’s retaliation for the Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv is being covered. It is eerily similar to how reports on Gaza are covered – by legitimizing a terror group and leaving out important context.

Some publications, like the unashamed UPI, chose to headline their Sunday article by calling Israel’s retaliatory strike on a Houthi military target in the city of Hodeidah that is used to smuggle Iranian weapons an “attack.” This wasn’t a random attack, obviously.

UPI reporter Adam Schrader’s article covers a plethora of Houthi responses and propaganda such as this:

Why did he fail to include information on more than 220 missiles and drones that the Houthis have attempted to blast Israel’s way over the last nine months? Or how about the blocking and pirating of cargo ships in the peninsula? The UK and US strikes on the Houthis over the last several months?

Or how about the latest and most obvious piece of information to include: that the Houthis struck a civilian apartment building in central Tel Aviv, killed one person and injured 10 others? Not to mention, giving context and clarity on Israel’s response, not random attack, on the Yemeni port infrastructure where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that Houthis receive and store weapons from Iran.

No. None of that. Just the stroking of Houthi and Hamas ego.

Others, like the Associated Press, are doing lazy man-on-the-street reporting in Sanaa, Yemen, by interviewing only one person about their reaction to Israel’s strike on the Houthi-controlled port target, and then claiming Sanaa residents as a whole denounce the strike on the rebel group which has brought the entire country anguish for years.


PMW: Palestinians approve paying terrorists more than civil servants – PA official
The Palestinian Authority is going through a major financial crisis and cannot afford to pay its employees their full salaries. Nonetheless, according to a PA official, Palestinian civil servants are happy that the PA prioritizes paying terrorists in prison 100% of their terror reward salaries while the civil servants themselves receive only 50% of their monthly salary.

Muhammad Hamida, Economy Ministry Director in Bethlehem: “While we as [public] employees received a salary at a rate of 50%, before the [Gaza] war, the families of the prisoners and Martyrs (i.e., terrorists) received a full salary. The Palestinian leadership remains committed to this. It deducted amounts from regular employees and gave a full salary to the families of the prisoners and Martyrs. Today, everyone is equal. The salaries that the families of the Martyrs and prisoners receive are also received by the employees. We are proud of the prisoners and their families as well as of the Martyrs and their families... This is a national question, a very important one, and it is a priority. No one in Palestine complains about why the families of the prisoners and the Martyrs get full salary and we get half.”

[Official PA TV, July 16, 2024]

This shows how well the Palestinian Authority has succeeded in brainwashing its population to believe that terrorists deserve more money than Palestinian government employees, even though they do not work and have no expenses. PA TV has broadcast Mahmoud Abbas’ well-known proclamation dozens of times that even if the PA has one penny left, it will continue to pay prisoners and Martyrs before anyone else.

Another PA official recently stressed yet again that terrorists should be paid before all other Palestinians:


Before the war: Life under Hamas oppression
In the claustrophobic enclave of Gaza, life for its two million inhabitants became a protracted ordeal under the suffocating rule of Hamas.

Ever since it seized power in 2007, the terrorist organization exerted its despotic influence over the territory, deploying an arsenal of coercion and relentless indoctrination to crush dissent and mold minds.

The streets of Gaza echoed with the silent cries of oppression. The air was thick with unspoken fear, as every corner, every alley and every home fell under the vigilant eyes of Hamas operatives. This was not merely a political regime; it was an omnipresent force that pervaded every aspect of existence, transforming a once lively community into a cage of submission.

Young children in Gaza were ensnared in the Hamas web. Schools were factories of propaganda. The curriculum is not designed to educate but to indoctrinate. Textbooks are filled with vitriol, glorifying “martyrdom” and breeding hatred against Israel and the Judeo-Christian world.

Playgrounds were tainted with the seeds of radicalism. Children were taught to aspire to become pawns in a deadly game of jihad.

This indoctrination was not confined to the classroom. It seeped into the very fabric of society through media, religious teachings and community activities. Television programs and radio broadcasts spewed the same dogma, creating an inescapable echo chamber that reinforced the regime’s narratives. Mosques were used as platforms for political agitation. Community events served as stages for entrenching the Islamist narrative.

The economic landscape was equally bleak. With unemployment soaring and poverty rampant, Hamas tightened its grip by controlling access to jobs and resources. Loyalty to the regime was rewarded with employment and aid, while dissent was punished with economic ostracization.


MEMRI: In Letters To Leaders Of Hamas, Hizbullah And Syria, Iran's New President, Masoud Pezeshkian, Pledges: The Policy Of Supporting The Resistance Against Israel Will Continue 'Full Force'
Although Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, is presented as a pragmatist and is supported by Iran's reformist camp, his election does not herald a shift in the policy and strategy of the Iranian Revolution regime, which are formulated by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. In fact, Pezeshkian clarified even before his election that, if he became president, he would follow Khamenei's directives.[1]

Immediately after his win, he conveyed messages to the leaders of the resistance axis, including Hamas leader Isma'il Haniya, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, that, under his presidency, Iran's policy of supporting the resistance will continue "full force." In addition, immediately after his election Pezeshkian published an article in Arabic in which he called on Iran's Arab neighbors to tighten their cooperation with it and stressed the need for comprehensive resistance against Israel.

This report reviews the messages conveyed by Pezeshkian upon his election regarding the resistance axis and the need to continue confronting Israel.

Pezeshkian to Nasrallah: Iran's Staunch Support For The Resistance Will Continue
In a July 6, 2024 letter to Pezeshkian congratulating him on his win, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah stressed that "Hizbullah and the resistance movements see Iran as a strong and steady supporter of the oppressed resistance fighters," and added: "Together with you, we will continue on the way to divine victory, and the Islamic and powerful Iran will be the central pillar [of that victory]."[2] In his answering letter, Pezeshkian stressed Iran's commitment to supporting the resistance and promised that this policy, which is part of Iran's core ideology, will continue full force: "…The Islamic Republic of Iran has always supported the resistance of the people of the region against the illegitimate Zionist regime. Supporting the resistance is rooted in the fundamental policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the ideals of [its founder], Imam [Khomeini], and in the directives of the Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei], and it will continue full force. I am confident that the resistance movements in the region will not allow this [Zionist] regime to continue its criminal war against the oppressed people of Palestine and against other countries in the region. I thank you for your sincere prayers on my behalf, and beseech Almighty God to grant honor and glory to you, prosperity and progress to the people of Lebanon and divine support to the heroic fighters of the resistance."[3]

Pezeshkian's statement in which pledged to continue supporting the resistance and described this as a key element of Iran's policy was also quoted on the cover of Vitrin, the magazine of Iran's Tasnim news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). In addition to the quote, the cover featured a picture of Pezeshkian and Nasrallah under the headline "Strategic Depth."

Pezeshkian To Haniya: Iran Is Committed To Supporting The Palestinians In Their Struggle Against Israel
Hamas political bureau head Isma'il Haniya likewise sent a letter on congratulations to Pezeshkian upon his victory, in which he wrote: "I send you this congratulatory letter while our Palestinian people and its resistance are waging one of the most honorable historic campaigns, with courage and steadfastness: the Al-Aqsa Flood campaign… I and my people are confident that you will serve Iran [well], overcome all the challenges and difficulties, and continue to follow the Islamic nation's united path via-a-vis its enemy [Israel], to promote the central cause of the [Islamic] nation [i.e., the Palestinian cause] and to support the Palestinian people, who are accustomed to being nobly treated by Iran."[4]
Assuming he was Jewish, three individuals in Greece assault Israeli Arab-Christian
Fahad Qubati, a 24-year-old former IDF soldier from Nazareth, was targeted by three individuals in Greece on Wednesday, Ynet reported on Saturday. He is suffering wounds to his jaw and head.

The Greek Embassy responded to the attack. "Greece strongly condemns the violent assault on an Israeli citizen last Wednesday. Competent authorities are conducting a thorough investigation. Acts of violence are unacceptable. All Israelis are welcome in Greece, which is a totally safe tourist destination," the embassy stated.

According to the report, Qubati, who is an Arab Christian, was traveling with relatives in Greece when the three attacked. His mother, Jacqueline Qubati, said the attackers stopped only when Qubati showed them the cross which he wore.

"Nothing could persuade them until a Tunisian citizen intervened and helped my son prove he was Arab. Only then did they apologize and flee. It could have ended in murder," Qubati's mother said.


Greece condemns attack on Israeli tourist mistaken for Jew
The Greek Embassy in Israel on Monday strongly condemned a brutal attack in Crete on an Israeli Arab tourist who was mistaken for a Jew and said that a “thorough investigation” was underway by local authorities.

The violent assault on the 24-year-old Christian tourist from Nazareth, Fahad Qubati, who was vacationing in the coastal town of Malia last week, left him hospitalized with injuries to his jaw and head.

The attack, which took place last Wednesday, was first reported by Israel’s Ynet news website.

The assailants, who heard the victim playing Hebrew music in his car after he gave some Jewish tourists a ride, began beating him ruthlessly until he showed them the cross he was wearing. The Christian tourist is reportedly a recently discharged IDF soldier.

“This was not just an attack, it was an attempted murder,” the victim’s mother Jacqueline Qubati told Ynet. “I pray for my son’s recovery and will pursue this case until the attackers are punished,” she said.

After the news on the attack broke in Israel, the Greek Embassy in Tel Aviv issued a statement strongly condemning the attack.

“Greece strongly condemns the violent assault on an Israeli citizen last Wednesday … and authorities are conducting a thorough investigation,” read a statement sent to JNS on Monday.

“Acts of violence are unacceptable. All Israelis are welcome in Greece, which is a totally safe tourist destination.”


Israeli hi tech resilient despite war
Foreign investment in Israeli startups rose 31% to more than $5 billion in the first half of the year, even as the war against Hamas raged in Gaza, a report released this week finds.

The figures show the resilience of the Israeli hi tech sector, about 10% of whose workforce served military reserve duty during the war triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, confounding forecasts of major damage to the industry.

“One would have expected the war and the perception of uncertainty would have [negatively] impacted the data, but the data shows a very different picture,” Avi Hasson, CEO of Startup Nation Central, a nonprofit that promotes Israeli hi tech and authored the report, told JNS on Sunday.

“We see that the fundamentals of the Israeli ecosystem, talent, business opportunities and cutting-edge technology are causing investors to double down on Israel.”

The figures in the report, which are compared to the second half of 2023, show that hi tech investments remained “robust and dynamic” even as travel to Israel was vastly curtailed with most foreign airlines suspending flights to the Jewish state.

“The cumulative aggregate data is super strong,” Hasson said.

Hi tech is Israel’s most productive sector. It employs about 12% of the workforce, and it accounts for nearly a fifth of gross domestic product and half of the country’s exports, according to the Israel Innovation Authority, a government agency that supports the industry’s development.
Einstein letter on saving Jewish refugees to be auctioned
A 1939 letter by Albert Einstein on rescuing Jewish refugees from the clutches of the Nazis is being auctioned this week in Los Angeles.

The typed letter, which is dated June 10, 1939—less than three months before the outbreak of World War Two—on Einstein’s personal blind-embossed letterhead from Princeton, New Jersey, is addressed to Miss Sadye Klein of the Veteran Relief Division, who worked on behalf of the refugees at the Department of Welfare in New York.

“The power of resistance which has enabled the Jewish people to survive for thousands of years has been based to a large extent on traditions of mutual helpfulness,” the letter reads. “In these years of affliction our readiness to help one another is being put to an especially severe test. May we stand this test as well as did our fathers before us.”

The internationally renowned German-born physicist, best known for developing the theory of relativity, had taken up a position in 1933 as a resident scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, noted for having become a refuge for Jewish scientists fleeing Nazi Germany. At the time, most American Ivy League universities, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton, had minimal or no Jewish faculty or students, as a result of their Jewish quotas.

“We have no other means of self-defense than our solidarity and our knowledge that the cause for which we are suffering is a momentous and sacred cause,” the letter continues.

“It must be a source of deep gratification to you to be making so important a contribution toward rescuing our persecuted fellow-Jews from their calamitous peril and leading them toward a better future,” the letter concludes, followed by Einstein’s signature.

The 85-year-old letter, along with the original June 12, 1939 postmarked envelope, will be auctioned Thursday by Nate D. Sanders Auctions, with a minimum bid listed at $20,000. A similar Einstein letter was auctioned five years ago for nearly $135,000.
Israeli Olympic delegation departs for Paris Games with ‘a national mission’
Amid a spate of threats and an expected hostile welcome, most of Israel’s Olympic delegation departed Monday afternoon for Paris ahead of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Games on Friday.

“We feel like emissaries of the State of Israel — our athletes, every one of them are here to achieve their dreams, but there is another layer, of a national mission,” Yael Arad, the president of the Olympic Committee of Israel, said during a press conference at Ben Gurion Airport ahead of the flight.

Arad said the delegation is obviously hoping to return to Israel with medals, “but our first victory is that we’re here, that we didn’t give up, that since October 7 we’ve taken part in hundreds of competitions… What is leading us is the flag of Israel.”

Placing her hostages’ dog tag necklace inside her shirt, Arad — who won Israel’s first Olympic medal in 1992 in judo — noted that while Israel’s athletes will outwardly adhere to Olympic rules against political statements during competitions and ceremonies, each member of the delegation is carrying the message within them.

“This is what will lead us throughout this entire period,” she said. “In our internal, secret drawer, every one of us is taking all the strength of the Israeli people. We’re bringing with us the hostages, the fallen, the families, everything surrounding October 7 will be with us in our hearts.”

The Israeli delegation is departing with a highly enhanced security presence due to tensions and threats surrounding Israel’s participation in the 2024 Olympics amid its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.




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