Monday, September 16, 2024

09/16 Links Pt2: Britain and the BBC are partners in terror and antisemitism; The transparent mob attack on theJC; Greta Thunberg named ‘Antisemite of the Week’

From Ian:

Britain and the BBC are partners in terror and antisemitism
Why, at a time when Israel is engaged in a war with Hamas, and while terrorists are committing war crimes and continue to hold hostages, is British Prime Minister Keir Starmer abandoning Israel?

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson directed this pointed question at Starmer in light of the suspension of 30 licenses for arms exports to Israel, including essential equipment such as components for helicopters, fighter jets, and drones.

A partial answer to Johnson's question can be found in the words of Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who stated that Britain saw a "clear risk" that the military equipment might violate international humanitarian law.

Lammy is considered a controversial politician. Many believe he was wrongly appointed, given a series of past statements and misdemeanors.

When he was shadow foreign minister, Lammy claimed that the International Criminal Court's (ICC) request for an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated war crimes had been committed.

The current British government has changed its stance, relying on left-wing parties that are, to say the least, not as supportive of Israel as the conservative governments of Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

Without the votes of Muslims, who make up about 7% of British citizens, Starmer’s party would not have been elected.

Mr. Starmer needs to understand that he must continue to support Israel, which is fighting a terrorist organization that, alongside Iran, threatens not only the sole democracy in the Middle East but also the free world of which Britain forms an important part.

Just as Britain waged a heroic battle against Nazi Germany in World War II, it must prevent terrorist organizations from carrying out their plans to destroy the Jewish state.
Are U.S. Airlines Effectively Boycotting Israel?
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, defines his campaign against Israel as being won as much through economics and psychological coercion as through victories on the battlefield. And nearly a year into the Jewish state’s war with Hamas, Iran’s military proxy in the Gaza Strip, Khamenei’s strategy appears to be advancing—with an assist from the U.S. airline industry.

For most of the past year, none of the three major American carriers—United Airlines, American Airlines, or Delta—have flown to Israel, citing the Gaza war and the security threats posed by Tehran and its military allies. And none of these airlines have offered definitive time frames for when their flights might resume. This has left Israel’s national carrier, El Al, as the only direct connection between the country and its closest ally and economic partner on the other side of the world, and has sent airfares between the U.S. and Israel skyrocketing.

In recent days, the cost of a round trip economy flight to Tel Aviv from New York on El Al is around $2,500, according to Israeli travel agencies, up from around $899 before October 7, 2023. United, American, and Delta previously all had at least one daily flight to Israel from New York or Newark, and together served Israel three times a week from Boston, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, and Washington D.C.

The suspension of the American flights is feeding into the economic and diplomatic isolation that Iran’s leaders are seeking, according to Israeli political and business leaders. “The American carriers are playing into Iran’s game,” said Eyal Hulata, who served as national security adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, from 2021–2023.

Jerusalem’s allies in Washington are urgently seeking to establish clearer U.S. government guidelines for when U.S. airlines should halt traffic to Israel, and when it can resume. If not, they warn, American carriers risk bolstering, even unwittingly, the economic coercion that Iran and Israel’s critics in the West are pursuing, often under the banner of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, or BDS.

“In my view, unless there’s an objective process put in place to prevent the politicization of air travel, I predict that in the future the BDS movement will try to weaponize air travel as a new means of boycotting Israel,” U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-New York) told The Free Press. “And a travel ban has the potential to be the most potent weapon in BDS’s war against the Jewish state.”

Torres wrote the presidents of American, Delta, and United in August asking them to map out the guidelines they followed in deciding to suspend their routes to Israel. None of the three airlines issued an official response to Torres’ letter, and his staff says they have communicated with the U.S. carriers’ government affairs teams, but didn’t disclose the result of these discussions.

Current and former Israeli officials told The Free Press they’re particularly confused by the U.S. airlines’ decisions as a number of Middle Eastern, African, and European carriers are currently flying to Tel Aviv despite these security threats. That includes three airlines from the United Arab Emirates—Etihad Airways, FlyDubai, and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi—whose government only normalized diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 as part of the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords. These pacts seek to integrate Israel economically and diplomatically into the wider Arab world.
Bari Weiss bullish on Jewish allies: ‘Our job is to show up for them, so they can show up for us’
When the world saw a swell of support for Hamas after the terror organization attacked Jewish communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, it was a “secondary catastrophe,” the journalist Bari Weiss, founder of the Free Press, told about 3,000 people at an event in Toronto.

“You’ll see some of the most educated, prestigious, elite members of our society standing on the side of the terrorists,” Weiss, 40, a Jewish native of Pittsburgh, said at the Sept. 11 event, during which the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto launched its 2024 annual fundraising campaign.

The elite siding with terrorists has been “the major transformation to understand that we’re living in an age of just unbelievable moral confusion,” Weiss told attendees. “The most basic case for our civilization—and its fundamental goodness—has to be made.”

Weiss added that one could never imagine something “so morally depraved” as people supporting Al-Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

“The gift of the darkness of this year has been the clarity of that—the absolute clarity of this moment,” said Weiss, who hosts the podcast Honestly, and who formerly was an opinion editor at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times who caused a national stir after she resigned from the Times in 2020, claiming an antisemitic backlash in the workplace. “Clarity about what it requires from us and a sense of purposefulness in the fight that we’re in.”

Rabbi David Wolpe, rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple, a Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles and a former member of the antisemitism advisory group at Harvard University; and Israeli actress Shira Haas, of the popular three-season series Shtisel and four-part docudrama Unorthodox, also spoke at the event.

“The year made me much more binary,” Wolpe told attendees. “It’s like, if you’re a non-Zionist or an anti-Zionist, you’re in a different category in my Marvel kingdom.”

“The year was, in fact, both painful and clarifying, which are two things that often go together,” the rabbi added.

It is essential for Jews and for Israel to have allies in the battle between good and evil, he said.

“We have more friends than we think, and when you see any public figure standing up for Israel or standing up for Jews, all I can tell you is try to find out how to send them a note of appreciation,” he said. “We have a lot of building to do with other people who really are well-disposed towards us, and it’s incredibly important.”


David Collier: The transparent mob attack on the Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle relied on a journalist named Elon Perry. He had been taken on as a freelancer over the summer. Earlier this month Perry produced what seemed like a major scoop about a plot to smuggle Hamas leaders and hostages out of Gaza. This was a loaded claim – with political implications about long term IDF and Israeli presence along the Philadelphi Corridoor (the Gaza /Egyptian border that Hamas has used for smuggling).

This news story spread back to Israel – elements in the intelligence services scratched their heads – and the IDF began to investigate the claims. And here it gets really messy. There are plenty of major divisions between opposing sides in how to continue (or end) this conflict. And as this story contained nuggets of possible propaganda (fake news) coming out of the Netanyahu camp – lots of sources eagerly began to investigate Elon Perry and his past claims – some of which clearly appeared to have been exaggerated (because nobody else ever exaggerated their CV).

From this moment the actual truth no longer mattered. Perry had been caught fabricating something – possibly even news stories (it is also still possible he himself was duped by a source) – and it became an instant liability to stand by him (for those who think I should be with the mob holding torches burning down Perry’s house – that is not my style – I know how this game works and the actual depth of deception here is still completely unknown).

Whatever the truth, this story carries significant errors on the part of the JC – in trusting someone (and their sources) that they should not have. The Jewish Chronicle carried out an internal investigation – and to its credit, the JC then swiftly deleted all of Perry’s contributions – and apologised.

But in this world – Jews (and their organisations) are not allowed to make human errors – and when they do – they are treated far differently from when others make the same type of mistakes.

A Guardian episode
The Jewish Chronicle was mugged by a journalist into posting fake news. Now if only we had a benchmark to test this against?

Oh look – remember this from 2016? Joseph Mayton – who had a *SEVEN-YEAR* – working relationship with the Guardian, was caught fabricating quotes:

The episode is considered so insignificant it does not even appear on the Guardian’s Wikipedia page. You can be absolutely certain the JC’s Wiki page will forever have its own episode given major coverage:

This is how anti-Jewish bias works. Unequal treatment creating different footprints – all gathering together to sway opinion in one direction.

And even though the Guardian had carried out an investigation and knew that the journalist had fabricated some of his stories – the Guardian LEFT UP other articles that Joseph Mayton had written. They are still there today. Legitimising a journalist who apparently wrote about events he had never attended. Kudos to the JC then for having more ethically forceful policies than the Guardian.

The Guardian example is especially notable because the journalists who made the most noise about the Jewish Chronicle episode – had no problem at the time carrying on for the Guardian. Why? Because this is not about being caught with a bad journalist at all – this is about a far greater crime – the crime of not being a left wing mouthpiece that hates Israel. The left-wing attack

The first major name to stab the Jewish Chronicle in the back was the Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland. If you read his ‘resignation‘ note properly – the real reason for his stepping back is all too clear:

The irony and levels of hypocrisy necessary for a Guardian columnist to write those words about another media outlet are off the charts – but they tell you the real reason Freedland has walked away. He appears comfortable in the Guardian’s (far larger) fake news factory – but opposes anything ideologically in a different part of the spectrum. It is easy to argue then that he – rather than the JC – is the problem.


Congress moves to strip tax-exempt status of US nonprofits supporting terror
On Sept. 11—the 23rd anniversary of terror attacks—the U.S. House of Representatives received bipartisan approval for the markup of H.R. 9495, a bill that would terminate the tax-exempt status of terror-supporting organizations. The bill specifies how the Department of Treasury would evaluate a nonprofit’s material support for terrorism using legal standards outlined in 18 U.S.C. 2339B, which have been in place since 1996. Hamas has been recognized by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997. In response to this week’s bill, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which continues to present itself as a defender of civil rights, released a press release opposing the House measure. If enacted, the legislation could be used to go after CAIR and its well-documented ties to Hamas.

Hamas’s murder of 1,200 people, including at least 40 Americans, during the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 was publicly celebrated by CAIR. Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, expressed his “happiness” at witnessing the Oct. 7 attacks. Hussam Ayloush, CAIR’s executive director in the greater Los Angeles area asserted that “Israel should be attacked” and that Israel has no right to defend itself. CAIR’s San Francisco Bay Area executive director, Zahra Billoo, described Oct. 7 as “decolonization,” justifying the mass murder of civilians. As recently as July 30, Billoo praised Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, one of the orchestrators of the Oct.7 attacks, as a “hero and a martyr.” This is the same Haniyeh who was indicted on Sept. 3 by the U.S. Justice Department as a named defendant in Hamas’s conspiracy to engage in the murder of U.S. nationals on Oct. 7.

The Intelligent Advocacy Network, an organization that addresses the rise of misinformation and extremism through data collection and analysis, recently issued a report documenting CAIR’s 30-year association with Hamas. As far back as 1994, CAIR’s founder and current executive director, Awad, declared: “I am in support of the Hamas movement.” CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007-2008 Holy Land Foundation trial exposing its role in funneling money to Hamas. In 2010, Nabil Sadoun, a longtime member of CAIR’s national board, was deported for failing to disclose his ties to Hamas.

CAIR seeks to shape U.S. policy in ways that align with its pro-Hamas agenda. Since Oct. 7, CAIR has pushed extreme anti-Israel resolutions and its long-term strategic plans in city councils, universities, state governments and the federal government. Earlier this year in California, CAIR lobbied unsuccessfully against state Senate Bill 1277, which expands Holocaust and genocide education, including the Armenian, Bosnian, Cambodian, Guatemalan, Indigenous American, Rwandan and Uyghur genocides. In doing so, CAIR further revealed its willingness to disregard historical atrocities to further its pro-Hamas agenda.
Republicans criticize Senate Democrats for broadening focus of hate crimes hearing
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the rise in hate crimes this week will not focus exclusively on domestic antisemitism despite GOP efforts within the committee to secure a hearing exclusively on the topic.

Tuesday’s hearing is a first for the Senate since Oct. 7 and the proceedings are not shaping up as a bipartisan effort. Judiciary Committee Republicans have been urging Democrats for months to convene a hearing on how the uptick in antisemitism on college campuses is violating the civil rights of Jewish students — similar to their House GOP counterparts’ hearings with embattled university presidents earlier in the year.

Led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), every Republican on the panel sent a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who chairs the committee, in May to request he hold a hearing “on the civil rights violations of Jewish students” and “the proliferation of terrorist ideology — two issues that fall squarely within this Committee’s purview.”

“We are witnessing in real-time the radicalization and indoctrination of people across the country by terrorist organizations who wish to end America as we know it. This has been simmering below the surface for some time. There are several university-sanctioned centers, curricula, and other events that are anti-Semitic and espouse radical terrorist-aligned beliefs. Recent events have emboldened these radicals to now show their true colors. Our national security is at risk,” the group wrote.

Democrats instead opted to organize a hearing on the “rise in hate incidents across the country, particularly targeting the Jewish, Arab, and Muslim communities” since Oct. 7, which Republicans ultimately objected to. Both sides will not have an equal number of witnesses as a result. Democrats will have two witnesses while Republicans will have one.
Daniel Greenfield: Aysenur Ezgi Eygi Was Not An American
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish Muslim activist with a pro-terrorist group, went to Israel to support Islamic terrorists, and was killed during a violent confrontation, and was then buried in her native Turkey at a state funeral with quasi-military ceremonies, first by the PLO in its occupied territories in Israel, and then in Turkey with flags of the Islamic terror state flying everywhere. There was not a single American flag in sight.

Nothing about the funeral of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was American. And nothing about the Turkish Muslim pro-terrorist activist was American except that, like many Muslim colonists operating in America, she had U.S. citizenship.

The media constantly calls Aysenur Ezgi Eygi a “Turkish-American” in order to gin up sympathy.

There was nothing ‘American’ about her life, about her support for Islamic terrorists or about her death.

The streets of New York, D.C. and many other American cities foam with Muslim terrorist supporters who, like Eygi, hold American citizenship. Eygi did not die for America, she died for the Islamic terrorists murdering Americans.

And that was her decision.

She was a patriot of Islam, not of America. Her life and death were lived to help the Muslim terrorists killing non-Muslims in the name of Islam and by the command of her religion’s Allah and its Koran text.

And that is how she should be remembered.
State Dept. defends not launching investigation into Aysenur Eygi's death
The Biden Administration is facing mounting pressure from both domestic and international media and the family of American-Turkish citizen Aysenur Eygi on its decision to wait for the completion of Israel's investigation into Eygi's death before deciding if it will launch an independent investigation.

In its initial inquiry released last week, the IDF found it was highly likely its troops had fired the shot that killed Eygi but that her death was unintentional, and it "voiced deep regret."

Addressing reporters on Monday, State Department Spokesperson Mathew Miller reiterated the administration's position on awaiting "the full criminal investigation that the Government of Israel has launched before we make any determinations."

"Even if you accept the initial findings, they don't present an acceptable outcome, right?" Miller said, addressing a question on whether witness testimony and footage discrediting Israel's initial findings. "You look at the initial findings, and they already tell you that something went tragically wrong, and you had the killing of an American citizen that never should have occurred."

Before calling on any further steps it's appropriate to let the first investigation play out before going to other steps, Miller said.

The US will "of course" look at whether any other measures are appropriate if the administration is unsatisfied with Israel's results at the end of the investigation and will "certainly be happy to look at how the investigation was conducted, what it produced, if there are any deficiencies, and if we don't find that it meets our standards, we'll have more to say at the time."

Miller added, no one should draw conclusions about the investigation while it's ongoing.

The State Dept. "cannot" give a timetable for when it expects Israel to complete its investigation.

Turkey opened an investigation into Eygi's death on Thursday and said it will request international arrest warrants, The Post reported last week.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Eygi “was deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians. We will make every effort to ensure that this crime does not go unpunished.”

Separately, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office is investigating “those responsible for the martyrdom and murder of our sister Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.”

He told reporters that Turkey had evidence regarding the killing and would make international arrest requests.
Diving into the 'wokeness' of the political Right
Serious historians are weighing in on the hateful drivel served up by Tucker Carlson along with his latest controversial guest Darryl Cooper, whom Carlson billed as “the best and most honest popular historian working in the United States today.” By revealing the so-called hidden truth of history, he frames Cooper, podcaster and substacker, not only as worthy but somehow courageous, because he swims against the norms of the post-World War II Western order. As if the belief that Churchill was a hero of the Second World War is a neo-Marxist postmodern narrative perpetrated to deny the true events of 1933-1945.

The irony that postmodern ultra-critical thinking is now being employed by the Right to scuttle some of our most sacred historic truths should not be lost, as this has been largely a project of the Left up until now. The problem at hand is not the malicious anti-history presented. Nor is it the rise of the Barbarian Right, as conservative commentator and author Sohrab Ahmari has called it, or even the Holocaust denial and fake history served up as “revealing the truth” hidden by those unnamed and dark forces controlling the matrix.

The problem is that anti-history is now weaponized by Carlson and others to attack expert historians and history itself, in order to undermine our faith in the fundamental beliefs of our society. This is not intellectual pursuit to further truth or better our society, but the exact opposite. It is an attack on Western democracy.

It’s a form of reactionary Right wokeness designed to unhinge the West and influence millions of people to be cynical about democracy itself. It is no less poisonous than the radical-left ideology designed to deconstruct society or its own poisonous antisemitism with its seeming embrace of the jihadist Hamas terrorists. It should be a surprise to nobody of all these wokeists meet and converge on Jews, antisemitism, and the Shoah. Decent society is under attack from multiple directions.

It doesn’t really matter if serious professors like Niall Ferguson, Victor Hanson or a hundred other historians and experts on 20th-century history, World War II or the Holocaust write how utterly terrible Cooper and Carlson’s so-called history is, unpicking with ease their charlatan claims. The arc of their influence and impact is minuscule in real time compared to Carlson. Versus the network of influencers, podcasters, and social media hate-mongers (protected by the right-woke free-speech absolutists) they are virtually powerless. This interview has been watched and listened to by tens of millions of people.

In the case of Carlson, in addition to his online influence, his ecosystem and influence is turbo-charged by his standing within presidential candidate Donald Trump’s inner circle. Carlson was a prominent speaker at the Republican National Convention, was seated next to Trump during the conference, and is reported to have been among the most influential figures on Trump as he picked JD Vance as running mate, who will cohost him as part of Carlson’s own national tour. Trump likes Carlson for the influence and reach he brings him, and Carlson receives influence and normalization from his closeness with the former president.
Ben Shapiro: WHO Was The Bad Guy In WWII? | Niall Ferguson
Recently, a narrative was introduced to the public conversation that Adolf Hitler wasn’t really interested in continuing WWII, that he offered peace to Britain and France, and that Winston Churchill, driven by some mysterious personal vendetta, refused and kept the war going for his own perverse purposes. This is a gross misreading of history, and conveniently omits key facts about Hitler’s true intentions; anyone suggesting otherwise is engaging in dangerous revisionism. On this episode of the Sunday Special, Niall Ferguson leads us through these untruths. Ferguson is a Scottish historian who is best known for his in-depth analysis of economic history, empire, and global conflicts like WWI and WWII. He doesn’t just recite history—he tells you why it happened, what could have been different, and how the war reshaped our global order.


Greta Thunberg named ‘Antisemite of the Week’ by Jewish advocacy group after latest arrest at anti-Israel protest
Climate activist Greta Thunberg was named “Antisemite of the Week” by a Jewish group following her arrest at a recent anti-Israel rally.

Thunberg “has joined the ranks of keffiyeh-clad protesters, brazenly voicing her disdain for the Jewish state,” the watchdog group StopAntisemitism said Friday, days after Thunberg was among those hauled off by Danish police during a demonstration at Copenhagen University.

“She has sadly transformed her activism into a platform for vile Jew-hatred,” the organization added.

The 21-year-old was arrested on Sept. 4 while protesting with the group Students Against the Occupation, which called on the university to cease all connections with Israel, including putting an end to several cross-university student programs.

Among the programs between Copenhagen University and Israel is even a student exchange program dedicated to Thunberg’s flagship cause — fighting climate change, according to StopAntisemitism.

“Sadly, Greta’s hatred of the world’s only Jewish nation eclipses her love of the environment. Despite Israel being a global leader in tackling climate disasters and rushing to aid in crises worldwide, Greta sides with their homicidal terrorist enemies,” founder Liora Rez said in a statement.

“Her actions speak louder than her words. She claims to care about the future of humanity but Greta’s hypocrisy is on full display as she’s been active in championing Hamas leaders who openly call for genocide.”

Thunberg’s arrest at Copenhagen University was just her latest appearance at an anti-Israel demonstration, a cause she’s taken up in full force since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

“We demand that the Stockholm University administration cut all ties, agreements and collaborations with the genocidal, apartheid state of Israel,” she wrote after attending a demonstration at Stockholm University in May, where she was also carried away by police.


Liberal Democrat Tayab Ali blames Israeli policies for Oct. 7 Massacre at party fringe event
Liberal Democrat Tayab Ali argued that Israel’s right-wing policies in the West Bank “led directly” to the October 7 Massacre, the Telegraph reported on Sunday.

During a fringe party event, Ali, who is a lawyer and International Center of Justice for Palestinians Director, recalled to the audience a past speech he made following Hamas’s invasion on October 7, emphasizing “how Israel’s decades-long belligerent occupation, combined with this new far-Right dogma, led directly to the explosion of violence on October 7.”

He further explained that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “not complicated,” neither before nor after Hamas’s invasion which triggered the Israel-Hamas War, and that “it’s not complicated going forward.”

Ali then stressed that the conflict becomes “complicated” once “Israel’s powerful lobbying machine,” is taken into consideration, the Telegraph noted in their report. 'Historic responsibility' to recognize Palestine

He then accused Israel of systematic segregation against Arabs in Israel, citing previous rulings made by the International Court of Justice, stating Israel has illegally annexed lands considered to be owned by Palestinians. He then emphasized that one cannot safely accuse Israel of apartheid, as, “you’re automatically accused of being antisemitic.”

In addition to Ali, Head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK Husam Zomlot accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “genocidal aggression and violence” against the Palestinian people.

Zomlot expanded on his accusations, claiming it was the UK’s “historic responsibility” to immediately recognize the Palestinian state since “it was the British Empire that started this entire issue in the first place, giving away our land without even consulting us,” according to the Telegraph.

Fringe events, such as the one in which both Ali and Zomlot spoke, at political party conferences occur independently of the main agenda. Although party leaders approve these meetings, they do not oversee their content.
UKLFI: London Design Festival removes references to Genocide in RCA Pal Soc exhibit
The London Design Festival has removed references to genocide in advertising an exhibit by the Royal College of Art Palestine Society.

This follows a letter from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to the Director of the London Design Festival, pointing out that there is no genocide in Gaza, and there has been no legal judgment saying that there has been such a genocide or even that there is a plausible case that there is genocide in Gaza.

This was made clear by the former president of the International Court of Justice Judge Joan Donoghue, who was President of the ICJ when it made its original Provisional Measures Order (“the Order”) in the case brought by South Africa against Israel.

She explained the meaning of the Order on BBC’s Hardtalk programme, broadcast on 25 April 2024. She clarified that the court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the court. It did not decide that the claim of genocide was plausible.

Caroline Turner, Director of UKLFI commented: “It is extremely upsetting and offensive to members of the Jewish Community, Israelis, and other fair-minded people, for there to be a false accusation of genocide against Israelis bandied about freely. It scratches deep wounds by invoking the painful collective memory of the Holocaust”.

UKLFI’s letter also explained that the references to a genocide in Gaza were an example of Holocaust Inversion, which is an attempt to portray Israelis as “the new Nazis” and the Gazans as “the new Jews”. Holocaust inversion is potentially the most significant component in the incitement of racial hatred against Jews, because Nazism is considered to be the epitome of evil.
UKLFI: Waltham Forest Council warned against divesting from all arms companies
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to Waltham Forest Council’s Pensions Committee, warning it that a blanket policy of divestment from all companies involved in the arms trade would be illegal.

The Committee agreed on 22 July 2024 to seek to update the Council’s ethical policy to divest from all companies involved in the arms trade. This followed a presentation by Waltham Forest for a Free Palestine (WF4FP), an anti-Israel political campaign group, which sought divestment from companies operating in Israel.

The agenda for the Committee’s meeting on 17 September 2024 includes a discussion of progress in implementing the decision of 22 July.

UKLFI’s letter warns the Committee that a blanket policy of divestment from all companies involved in the arms trade would be contrary to the fiduciary obligations of Members of the Pension Committee to beneficiaries and other stakeholders of the Local Government Pension Scheme (“LGPS”).

However, a policy of divestment from companies making particularly problematic weapons could be compliant with applicable legal obligations if there is a consensus that these weapons should not be used in any circumstances and the divestment would not involve a risk of significant financial detriment to the fund.

UKLFI’s letter reminded Waltham Forest Council of the fiduciary duties of pension fund trustees and managers to maximise the return on investments consistently with prudence. The 2014 Law Commission Report, which has been endorsed by the UK Supreme Court on this issue, states:
The real students for justice in Palestine
And the elephant in the room: the use of the word “Palestine” in SJP’s name.

This may throw off some pro-Israel readers. In some pro-Israel circles, Palestine is not preferred. Palestinian solidarity advocates, for their part, refuse to say “Israel” or “Israeli” at all—instead referring to the state as “the Zionist entity” and to its citizens simply as “colonizers.” Yes, Palestine was a retronym applied to Judea by the Romans.

Yes, Palestine invokes the ancient and long-extinct Philistines (to whom present-day Palestinians bear no connection). Yes, Israel is a state that must be recognized and deserves to be called by its chosen name. But like it or not, old place names die hard. Mumbai and Bombay. Myanmar and Burma. Istanbul and Constantinople (there’s a song or two about that one). Many well-meaning, reasonable, intelligent people call the region, the whole region, comprising Israel and the Palestinian areas, Palestine. For a long while, so did the early Zionists. Palestine is often used as a primarily geographic, not political, descriptor.

Differing names for the same area ought not obfuscate the reality: that pro-Israel students seek justice for all those in the region be they Arab or Ethiopian, Israeli or Palestinian, Christian, Muslim, Bahai, Druze or Jew.

Were pro-Israel groups on campus to start self-identifying as “The Real Students for Justice in Palestine,” I’m certain that SJP wouldn’t appreciate it. There might well be some Old West-style, “There’s no room in this town for the both of us” type showdown—such a showdown pro-Israel students should embrace.

Any open debate between “The Real Students for Justice in Palestine” and SJP would readily expose which group is composed of students, which group possesses a legitimate conception of justice and which group seeks the well-being of all people in the region some know as Palestine.
ADL records 477% increase in anti-Israel activity on campus
The 2,087 anti-Israel incidents of assault, vandalism, harassment, protests and divestment resolutions that the Anti-Defamation League recorded on U.S. campuses between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024 represent a 477% increase over the prior academic year, per a report the nonprofit released on Monday.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO and national director, stated that the level of antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment on campus in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks is unprecedented.

“Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the anti-Israel movement’s relentless harassment, vandalism, intimidations and violent physical assaults go way beyond the peaceful voicing of a political opinion,” he stated.

“Administrators and faculty need to do much better this year to ensure a safe and truly inclusive environment for all students, regardless of religion, nationality or political views,” he added. “They need to start now.”

The ADL report notes that campus activism frequently includes expressions of support for U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

“One emblematic incident occurred on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University, when protesters chanted, ‘Al-Qassam you make us proud, kill another soldier now!’” the report states, referring to a pro-Hamas chant.

“Activists also chanted ‘we are Hamas’ and ‘we will never let up and we will never let down until Palestine is free, Zionism is destroyed, and Zionists start to hide like the Nazis,’” it added.

The media and Congress have largely focused on anti-Israel protests at elite institutions like Columbia University, the ADL identified 1,418 protests in 46 states and the District of Columbia at some 360 schools.

That included more than 150 “encampment” protests with students attempting to occupy buildings or grounds.
Colleges should fire profs who preach hate of Jews, says Texas lieutenant governor
The United States should halt federal funding to universities that back antisemitism and incitement against Jewish students, and professors who voice such hate in their classrooms should be ousted from campus, the lieutenant governor of Texas says.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick spoke as the academic year opened in the United States after months of often violent and antisemitic anti-Israel demonstrations on campuses the previous year that stunned the American Jewish community in ways not seen since World War II.

“There is no room for terrorizing Jewish students on our campuses and professors that preach hate should be gone,” Patrick told JNS on Thursday. “If you behave like that you will not be in class anymore.”

He said that he was both “shocked and disgusted” at the antisemitic protests that erupted across America since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, which, although originating from a minority of people, were being amplified by American professors in the classroom.

‘God is on your side’

“We are the Lone Star State, and you are the Lone Star Country,” Patrick said in an address at the Israel Allies Foundation annual U.S. gala in Dallas on Thursday night. “You will win this fight because God is on your side and Texas is on your side.”

Patrick was baptized in the Jordan River, near the Sea of Galilee, during a trip to Israel in 2016.

The gathering of philo-Semites honoring the evangelical community for their support for Israel also comes at a time when the Jewish state is facing international opprobrium over the 11-month-old war against the Hamas terrorist organization.

“We are so used to being on the short end of history,״ said former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, recounting the Jewish people’s centuries of persecution since the time of Babylon. “We have been running and running and we were looking for salvation. Now we have this incredible bond with this wonderful Christian community that we never had before.”
4 years after complaint, Illinois university bans harassment of students for Zionist views
It’s now as much against the rules at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to ostracize a Jewish student from a school club for identifying as a Zionist as it is to rip a Star of David chain off someone’s neck.

After four years of intense negotiations with representatives from Hillel International, Illini Hillel and the Jewish United Fund Chicago, UIUC leadership pledged to prohibit harassment and discrimination based on “Zionist aspects” of students’ Jewish identity.

The agreement is a bright spot amidst escalating antisemitism on campuses nationwide after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas, return the hostages and prevent any security threat from the enclave going forward.

Since the October 7 Hamas onslaught, and amid the resulting devastating war, protests have roiled university campuses in the US and elsewhere. In several documented cases, demonstrators have expressed open support for Hamas and other terror groups.

“This is official recognition for Jewish students as human beings to be free to celebrate their Jewish identity. This helps take back a word [“Zionist”] that is being used in a derogatory way and sets up real, clear boundaries about what is antisemitism. It explains that Zionism is just like keeping kosher, just like keeping the Sabbath,” said Erez Cohen, executive director of the Illini Hillel, the university’s chapter of the Jewish student campus group.

Under the new policy it will now be considered a violation of the school’s conduct code to blame a student for the actions of other individuals of their actual or perceived shared identity. Likewise, one would be in violation of the code if they blamed another student for the policies of a particular government or country that the student is from or perceived to be from.
American Association of University of Professors under fire for reversing opposition to academic boycotts
Just weeks after the American Association of University Professors reversed course and dropped its longtime opposition to academic boycotts, faculty members on several campuses, days into the new academic year, have started implementing aspects of a boycott of Israel by not assigning articles written by Israeli scholars, refusing to invite Israeli academics to conferences or declining to write study abroad letters for students wishing to spend a semester in Israel.

Critics accuse the AAUP of deserting its commitment to academic freedom —- and although the policy does not mention Israel — particularly concerned are pro-Israel campus leaders who say the change will be used to promote the boycott of the Jewish state and as a result have negative consequences for Jewish and Israeli students and faculty.

The policy change is “not just speech and words,” Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, told Jewish Insider, outlining various steps she said are already being taken on some campuses. “There has been wall-to-wall condemnation from academics and organizations that aren’t even [necessarily] in the pro-Israel space, they are just in the academic freedom space,” Elman said, adding that “this is the wrong move for a storied organization.” The AAUP did not immediately respond to a request for comment from JI regarding the criticism.

Even amid widespread rebuke from campus leaders, experts say that AAUP has a history of anti-Zionism — including the group’s ties to faculty members who participate in Students for Justice in Palestine — and therefore is unlikely to revert back to its previous policy unless its leadership changes.

“When an academic boycott is approved — and we’re going to see some of them approved in the next year or two because the process is underway — then students are empowered to demonstrate against faculty members who have research relationships with Israel,” warned Cary Nelson, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor emeritus in the English department who served as the AAUP president from 2006-2012.

In response to the AAUP’s policy change, Nelson co-authored a petition against it — which has since garnered more than 3,000 signatures from professors nationwide.
Cornell prof who lauded Hamas attack as ‘exhilarating’ is back at school after dodging punishment
The radical Cornell University prof who lauded the Hamas terror attack on Israel as “exhilarating” and “energizing” dodged any punishment and is now back teaching at the upstate Ivy League school.

Shamed history Professor Russell Rickford was out for the past year on “voluntary leave” after widespread public outcry when he was recorded at an off-campus anti-Israel rally cheering Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, invasion that slaughtered 1,200 Israelis.

““It was exhilarating, it was energizing ….I was exhilarated,” Rickford said at the time — before apologizing for applauding the mass murder of innocent civilians.

Rickford is now teaching at least two courses at Cornell this semester — African Americans Vision of America and Socialism in America — and a seminar.

Cornell confirmed in a statement to The Post on Sunday that the university did not discipline Rickord for his hateful remarks.

It would not say whether Rickford was paid while on leave. see also

Rickford’s comments were condemned by the administration at the time as “reprehensible” for showing a “complete disregard for humanity” — but they are still protected by his free-speech rights, said Cornell VP of University Relations Joel Malina.

“Given that Professor Rickford’s comments were made as a private citizen in his free time, the university’s academic leadership has concluded that Professor Rickford’s conduct in relation to this incident did not meet that high bar” to warrant otherwise, Malina said in his e-mail.

Outrage was swift.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Amanda Silberstein, a 21-year-old junior who is vice president of Chabad and Cornellians for Israel.

“Letting his actions go unpunished will allow other professors to follow suit without repercussions. It allows [Rickford] and other professors to indoctrinate students in the classroom,” she said.

“Cornell’s policies are laughable at best.”


Sa’ar in advanced talks with Netanyahu to join gov’t in ‘near future’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to dismiss Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in the “near future,” a source in the Prime Minister’s Office told KAN News on Monday.

According to the source, Netanyahu’s associates are negotiating with New Hope-United Right chairman Gideon Sa’ar to replace Gallant.

The rumor made the rounds on Monday, even sparking a protest near Sa’ar’s home to push for a hostage deal. The Prime Minister’s Office said the reports were “incorrect” and gave no indication of the defense minister’s dismissal.

The Hostage Family Forum, which represents most of the families of the remaining 101 living and dead people still held by Hamas in Gaza, said that the appointment of Sa’ar “would be a clear and unequivocal admission by the prime minister that he has decided to finally abandon the hostages,” since “Sa’ar has previously expressed his clear and public opposition to the deal, calling it ‘terms of surrender.’”

Netanyahu and Gallant have disagreed on the issue of the haredi IDF draft. The prime minister has preferred to keep the haredi draft to a minimum so as not to risk a departure by the ultra-Orthodox parties from his government. Gallant, however, has demanded a broader solution that will be accepted by parts of the opposition, whereby haredi men will be drafted in larger numbers in order to meet IDF manpower needs.

According to one report, Sa’ar discussed a resolution to the issue in discussions about his possible entry into the government. Sa’ar denied the report, saying in a statement that the issue of the haredi draft had not come up in negotiations and that his position has remained unchanged. “The legislation must be based on the IDF’s needs and coordinated with the security establishment,” he said.

Ynet reported later on Monday that Netanyahu told confidants that “broadening the coalition will assist in arriving at a hostage deal if Hamas agrees to it.”

Sa’ar’s spokesperson said in response to the report that there was “nothing new on the topic.”

The New Hope-United Right party currently has four MKs: Sa’ar, Ze’ev Elkin, Sharren Haskel, and Michel Bouskila. According to a Channel 12 report, all of them will receive government positions; Elkin and Haskel will become ministers or deputy ministers, and Buskila will become the chairman of a Knesset committee.
IDF expands Judea and Samaria security guards authority
An order issued by the Israel Defense Forces this month drastically expands the authority of civilian security guards in Judea and Samaria, allowing them to conduct searches at entrances to Jewish communities even on individuals who do not arouse suspicion.

IDF Central Command head Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth signed the order earlier this month but it only became public this week.

Saying that his action is “necessary for the security of the region, good governance and public order,” Bluth amended IDF Order No. 432, which defines the role of civilian security guards in Judea and Samaria, to allow for “a search on a person’s body, vehicles, baggage and other goods at the entry point to the community,” the text reads.

Entry points were defined in this month’s updated military order as “a permanent checkpoint located at the entrance to an Israeli community.”

Since the start of the month, seven Israelis have been murdered in attacks throughout Judea and Samaria. Many other soldiers and civilians have been wounded, with the IDF now classifying the region as a “combat zone” in light of the recent uptick in acts of terrorism.

In one incident, a terrorist rammed his car through the gate to Karmei Tzur in Judea. A guard drove after the terrorist and crashed into his car, before getting out and shooting and killing him. The vehicle then exploded, and the guard was lightly injured.
97 civilian defense squads in north re-equipped
In a joint operation, the Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces have re-equipped 97 civilian emergency standby squads in communities along the Lebanese border.

As part of the initiative to arm rapid response teams nationwide, more than 9,000 Israeli-made Arad assault rifles were purchased at a cost of 50 million shekels ($13.5 million), the ministry said on Monday.

The rifles, which are developed and manufactured by Israel Weapon Industries (IWI), are in addition to 5,000 Arad rifles purchased for the civilian defense units since the current war began nearly one year ago.

Defense Ministry Director General Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir signed the order for the weapons procurement, saying that it is part of efforts to “strengthen civilian defense squads that fought heroically on October 7.”

The rearming of the northern units comes after rapid rescue teams on the Gaza border were given the rifles to protect their communities.

“This initiative is part of our policy to bolster border defense while enhancing self-reliant production capabilities,” Zamir said. “The Israel Ministry of Defense and the IDF will continue strengthening, equipping, and training these units.”

According to the ministry, the first phase of the operation equipped units in regional councils, cities and local councils across the northern front, with each unit receiving combat and rescue gear, medical supplies, uniforms and protective equipment.
Courts: Judea and Samaria towns cannot bar Palestinian workers
Elected local officials in Israeli communities throughout Judea and Samaria do not have the legal right to block Palestinian laborers from entering their communities if the military allows their employment, Israeli courts have confirmed in a series of recent cases, Israel Hayom reported on Sunday.

In a case brought by a group of Arab workers against the city of Efrat in Judea’s Gush Etzion region, a judge ruled that the municipality’s blanket ban on the entry of Palestinian Authority residents was illegal.

“Starting next Tuesday, in accordance with the army’s decision and the court ruling, construction workers will resume their activities within Efrat,” Mayor Dovi Shefler said in a message to residents last week.

In a conversation with Israel Hayom on Monday, Shefler noted that the court ruled that local officials in Judea and Samaria “do not have the authority to make the military’s instructions stricter.”

Srugim, an Israeli news site catering to the religious Zionist community, reported that at least three other towns received similar rulings in recent months.

A settlement reached in a Jerusalem court some five months ago following litigation between the town of Ma’ale Efrayim in the Jordan Valley and four construction companies likewise stated that the IDF would have the final say regarding the admission of P.A. laborers.

While the military banned Palestinians from working in Jewish towns throughout Judea and Samaria in the initial months following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, the then head of the IDF Central Command, in late 2023 lifted the access restrictions for industrial zones.

During the court proceedings, attorneys representing four development companies argued that Ma’ale Efrayim should allow P.A. workers to enter again, claiming that the IDF decision regarding industrial zones should also apply to construction sites in the town’s new neighborhood.


Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury, who praised Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught, dies at 76
Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury, an outspoken supporter of the Palestinians who celebrated the Hamas terror group’s October 7 massacre last year, has died. He was 76.

Khoury, a leading voice of Arab literature, taught at universities around the world, making him one of Lebanon’s most prominent intellectuals. He had been ill for months and was admitted and discharged from hospital several times over the past year until his death early Sunday, Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily which he worked for said.

The Lebanese writer, born and raised in Beirut, wrote articles in different Arab media outlets over the past five decades in addition to his novels, making him well known throughout the Arab world.

Two days after Hamas’s murderous onslaught of October 7 — when thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 in Israel, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages — Khoury wrote an article in Al-Quds A-Arab daily titled “It’s Palestine.”

Khoury wrote then that “the biggest open-air prison, the besieged Ghetto of Gaza, has launched a war against Israel, occupied settlements and forced settlers to flee.”

Born in Beirut on July 12, 1948, Khoury had been known for his political stances from his support of Palestinians to his harsh criticism of Israel and what he called its “brutal” settling policy in the West Bank and Gaza. He studied at the Lebanese University and later at the University of Paris, where he received a PhD in social history.

“The Catastrophe began in 1948 and it is still going on,” he once wrote, referring to the Jewish state’s settlement policies. The “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” is a term used by many Arabs to describe the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians when Arab countries attacked the newly established State of Israel in 1948 — a period that was also marked by the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Jews from neighboring Mideast countries.

Khoury was an outspoken supporter of Arab uprisings that broke out in the region starting in 2011 and toppled several governments.


Why Russia Is Supporting the Houthis
It is thanks to Iran that Yemen’s Houthi rebels possess, and have the ability to deploy, powerful missiles like the one that exploded over central Israel yesterday morning. Iran is also supplying rockets and drones to Russia, which is using them in Ukraine. These aren’t mere arms deals; Moscow has over the past several years become ever more closely aligned with both Tehran and its network of Arab proxies. Ruslan Suleymanov describes how the Kremlin came to be a patron of the Houthis:
In the past two-and-a-half years, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has met with Houthi representatives at least four times: more than with any other participant in the conflict in Yemen. Now quantity is gradually translating into quality.

Advisers from Russia’s foreign military-intelligence agency, the GRU, are now working in Sanaa under the guise of humanitarian aid workers. . . . Iranian military instructors and other specialists have been operating in Yemen for many years under a similar scheme.

In addition, in the summer of 2024, several U.S. media outlets reported that the Kremlin had been preparing to supply the Houthis with weapons, but was forced to abandon the idea under pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia. However, UN experts have repeatedly reported attempts to smuggle 9M133 Kornet anti-tank guided missiles, AKS-20U assault rifles, and other weapons to Yemen: i.e., weapons with the same technical specifications and markings as those produced in Russia. Iran also appears to have been involved in this scheme.

Moscow’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is indicative [of its closeness with Iran]. The Russian authorities have never publicly condemned the aggression of Hamas militants against Israel on October 7 last year, despite the presence of Russian nationals among the hostages taken by Hamas.

Lebanon’s Hizballah even supplies Russia with men to fight in Ukraine in exchange for Russian weapons.
Yemen's Al-Hodeida port still inactive, two months after IDF strike
Almost two months have passed since July 19, when a Houthi explosive drone breached Israeli air defenses, murdering 50-year-old Yevgeny Ferder and injuring eight others. The next day, the Israel Air Force launched a retaliatory attack against the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah, dubbed “Operation Outstretched Arm.”

Despite Houthi promises of retaliation and targeting of the Tel Aviv area, no such action came – until Sunday, when they launched a ballistic missile attack at central Israel. There were no injuries.

In this context, a few experts have noted that almost two months after Israel’s retaliatory attack in Hodeidah, the notable port is still essentially disabled. “After Israel’s attack, some claimed that the damage will take only a week to fix,” Eran Efrat told The Jerusalem Post.

Efrat, an entrepreneur, owns several companies in the biomass sector. He imports raw materials for the green energy industry and, as part of his job, tracks shipping routes and cargo ships.

“Already back then I claimed that following a bombardment of a fuel terminal, assuming that pipelines and fuel tanks were damaged as well, a long time would be needed to fix everything,” he explained, adding that his companies also boast port terminals and that establishing such infrastructure is not a simple task.

According to Efrat, rebuilding this infrastructure is very difficult; oil and gas terminals are not easy to operate.

“Ship tracking tools are as accurate as aircraft tracking, and they are free to use as well, except for some premium features. Every ship is registered, and its route is well documented, along with sailing times, documents, and any information that doesn’t qualify as a commercial secret,” he said.
Hamas, Houthis open offices in Baghdad
Hamas and the Houthis have recently established offices in Iraq. The offices, which opened in June, testify to Iraq’s shift towards the Iranian camp in Tehran’s conflict with Israel and the United States.

Since the U.S. military invasion to remove Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein 21 years ago, the country has maintained an “uneasy balance” between its Iranian neighbor and America, The New York Times reported on Sunday. That balance has increasingly turned in Iran’s favor as Tehran has funded sympathetic forces inside Iraq as part of its effort to build an unbroken arc of Shi’ite power stretching west to Lebanon and south to Yemen.

The Hamas representative in Baghdad is Mohammed al-Hafi, a member of the terrorist group’s bureau for Arab and Islamic Relations. The Houthi representative in Iraq is Abu Idris al-Sharafi. He has received an especially warm reception in Iraq, the Times said.

The two offices are a concrete indication of the transformation of Iraqi politics since Hussein’s ouster. He suppressed Islamic movements, whether Sunni or Shi’ite, viewing them as a threat to his power. Shi’ites were exiled, imprisoned or executed.

Today, Shi’ite parties dominate Iraqi politics, and Iran has pushed Iraq’s government to recognize Shi’ite militias. (The Hamas representative’s security detail is provided by one such militia, Kata’ib Hezbollah, the Times noted.) Shi’ite forces have formed political parties, gaining enough seats in the 2021 election to select the prime minister.

Faced with the Shi’ite’s rise, Iraq’s leadership could do little but agree when Hamas and the Houthis requested to open offices.
US Trade With Iran Jumped Last Year as Tehran Wreaked Havoc Across Middle East, State Department Report Shows
American trade with Iran jumped 43 percent last year, reaching more than $81 million at a time when Tehran’s hardline regime ramped up its terrorist efforts and wreaked havoc across the Middle East, according to a non-public State Department report provided to Congress and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The significant jump in trade relations suggests the Biden-Harris administration is bypassing tough American sanctions on Tehran in order to stimulate its flagging economy and provide the hardline regime with a financial lifeline.

The United States imported $22.3 million in goods from Iran in 2023 and exported $59 million, accounting for $81.3 million in total trade between the countries, according to the State Department report, which was submitted to Congress earlier this week. Overall trade between the United States and Iran rose by more than $24 million from 2022 to 2023, marking a 43 percent increase, according to figures published in the report.

At the same time, Iranian trade with China, one of its closest allies, fell by 7 percent over the same period, indicating the Biden-Harris administration is picking up some of the slack. The report also omitted statistics on Russia’s trade with Iran, with the State Department saying these figures could not be produced.

The report, which is unclassified but not disseminated publicly, is driving concerns on Capitol Hill, with GOP critics seeing it as further evidence of the Biden-Harris administration’s bid to boost diplomacy with Tehran as it wages a multi-front war on Israel. The United States has repeatedly bypassed sanctions to help Iran access upwards of $100 billion in cash resources, money that lawmakers say is fueling Tehran’s aggression in the Middle East, including Iran-backed terror group Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state.

"It’s no surprise that the Iranian regime was able to engage and pay for increased trade with the U.S., and to bolster their economy more broadly," Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Free Beacon. "Indeed, regime outlets have been bragging that trade with the U.S. has doubled again in the first quarter of 2024. Iran then uses their financial and economic strength to conduct terrorism around the world, including terrorism directly targeting Americans."

U.S. trade with Iran primarily consists of "agricultural goods, medicine, and medical devices," according to a footnote in the State Department’s report. These exports are facilitated through licenses granted under the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, which eased trade restrictions on humanitarian goods. Imports from Iran are allowed by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which has the power to waive certain sanctions for national security reasons.
Why isn’t Biden enforcing his own sanctions against Iran?
The Biden administration periodically promulgates new sanctions against Iran and its proxies. That is a sound policy. But sanctions without enforcement are easy to circumvent.

Case in point: Last Tuesday, the Biden administration announced new sanctions against Iran Air, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s flagship airline, and its 67 aircraft. The reason: Iran Air transported weapons to Russia, including long-range missiles, in support of Moscow’s murderous aggression against Ukraine. European allies have also suspended bilateral air service agreements.

Iran Air will now likely lose all its eight current routes to Europe. It is an important step, but it will only affect Iran’s malign behavior if the Biden administration now implements these sanctions by seizing aircraft at any international airport. Washington must also punish ground service providers and intermediaries with sanctions for providing material support to Iran’s aircraft.

Yet a key precedent in U.S. sanctions enforcement is not encouraging.

Consider the case of Mahan Air. In the past, the regime in Iran has relied on Mahan aircraft, in addition to Iran Air’s fleet, to transport military personnel to war-torn Syria in support of the regime of Bashar Assad. That was one of the reasons Mahan Air could not benefit from the sanctions relief the Obama administration offered Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran Air, in contrast, was delisted under the agreement, and was able to buy brand-new Airbus aircraft before the Trump administration left the nuclear deal in 2018.

Mahan has been heavily sanctioned in the past — mostly under the Obama and Trump administrations. Washington put most (but not all) Mahan aircraft on its Office of Foreign Assets Control blacklist. The U.S. also repeatedly sanctioned general service agencies representing Mahan and providing it assistance around the world.

However, Mahan just didn’t care, as Washington largely failed to enforce the sanctions.

Mahan flies among the largest fleet of Airbus A340s in the world. Earlier this year, Mahan arranged for the transfer of three widebody long-haul Airbus A340 that were registered with a Gambian leasing company and were stored in Lithuania. Two of the three planes took off, ostensibly heading to Sri Lanka and the Philippines, but eventually landed in Iran. Local authorities managed to ground the third plane, reportedly loaded with aircraft spare parts, before it could take off.

According to open-source data, the two planes Mahan has successfully procured through Lithuania in 2024 to date were not the only ones it managed to acquire since President Biden took office. In 2023, two more A340, formerly owned by Turkish Airlines, joined the Mahan Air fleet. These were likely acquired to replace three A340s that, in 2021, Mahan agreed to transfer to the Venezuelan, U.S.-sanctioned airline Conviasa through a Dubai-based broker, alongside an old Boeing 747 cargo plane. The planes duly reached Caracas, and while the U.S. Department of Justice was able to seize the Boeing 747 in Argentina, the others are operational, regularly flying to both Moscow and Tehran.
Albania saved Jews from Nazis. Now educators teach the Holocaust to a new generation
Isaac Herzog’s visit to Albania last week marked the first time an Israeli leader set foot in the only European country that ended World War II with more Jews than it started with.

Albania’s role in saving Jews during the Holocaust was a key theme of the Israeli president’s brief visit, which included a ceremony at the Holocaust memorial in Tirana as well as meetings with descendants of some of the 75 Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians listed by Israel’s Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles — those who risked their lives to save Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps following Germany’s occupation of Albania in September 1943.

“Albanians hid Jews without regard to where they came from, or whether they were rich or poor,” Petrit Zorba, head of the Albanian-Israeli Friendship Association, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in Elbasan, a small city about one hour’s drive south of the capital Tirana.

Zorba estimated that up to 3,000 foreign Jews found refuge in Albania during World War II. “Only 100 meters from here lived the Kurmaku family, one of the families that protected Jewish people,” he said. “These houses have lately become tourist attractions visited by Israelis and others.”

Yet youths in this once-Marxist nation of 2.6 million know nearly nothing of that unique legacy, according to Florenca Stafa, director of the Albanian and Balkan Research Center at the University of Elbasan, Albania’s largest and oldest teaching college.

“During communism, nobody spoke about the Holocaust. The topic was never taught in school,” said Stafa, 41, whose father was jailed for two years in the late 1960s simply for complaining there was no bread to eat. “Even after the regime collapsed, in the 1990s, it was still an unknown concept. So for me, as a professor, it’s important for us to do something about this.”

To that end, Stafa helped organize a conference for 25 teachers last week in Elbasan. The five-day event was co-sponsored by the Albanian History Teachers Association and The Olga Lengyel Institute, or TOLI, a New York-based nonprofit that promotes Holocaust education throughout the United States and Europe.

Oana Nestian-Sandu, TOLI’s international program director, said Albania is the 14th country outside the US to host a TOLI seminar for teachers since 2012, and the only one among the 14 where antisemitism — rampant across much of Eastern Europe — has hardly been an issue.

“Because we are educators, we have to study what’s the best way to present this immense topic to our students,” she explained. “For them, it’s something that happened almost 100 years ago. But research has shown that through diaries, students can connect, and they become not only interested in it but committed to learning more — even in their free time — and be inspired by it.”
‘We miss you’: TikTok sees resurrection of Hitler support, Sky News investigation finds
Adolf Hitler is the latest historical mass murderer to undergo a revival on TikTok, a Sky News investigation published on Friday found, with many of his Nazi speeches featuring as soundtracks across 72,534 videos.

In November, Al Qaeda terrorist Osama Bin Laden, responsible for the September 11 attacks on New York, was commended by the short-form video hosting service's users, as reported by The Jerusalem Post.

The videos featuring speeches by Hitler and other Nazi figures reportedly garnered high levels of engagement, sometimes receiving millions of likes from users.

One such post listed in the investigation blamed Jews for the “Islamisation of Europe.”

Between September 2 and 3 alone, the investigation found 50,023 posts with sound clips from Hitler and Nazi chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

Using music to spread Nazi ideology
The speech's reach is reportedly maximized by setting it with a popular music Drift Phonk - without the creators' permission or knowledge.

"I was not previously aware that my music was being used in this way, and I find it shocking and deplorable,” Vivian Moon, professionally known as Pastel Ghost, told Sky News after the site made the musician aware of the videos. "My team and I are actively scouring TikTok and other platforms to take down all instances like this where my work is being used to promote hateful ideology."

One post, which gained over 56,700 likes, featured an image of a Nuremberg Rally accompanied by a Hitler speech.

A comment on the post, receiving 1,695 likes, read "modern society absolutely needs him."

Another comment on the Nuremberg post read "We miss you".

A TikTok spokesperson told Sky News, "This content was immediately removed for breaching our strict policies against hate speech. We regularly train our safety professionals and update our safeguards to detect hateful behaviour on an ongoing basis, and we remove 91% of this type of content before it is reported to us."

Assessing the popularity of Nazi posts, Sky News said it monitored the five most used sounds made from Nazi speeches and recorded the engagement on the 10 most popular posts using each one.

The 50 posts gained a combined total of over 13.7 million likes.
Australian aliyah numbers surge
Recent data from the Israel Aliyah Centre in Melbourne shows a dramatic 170 per cent increase in aliyah inquiries since October 7 compared to the same period last year.

“From October 7 until now, 154 people opened aliyah files and 225 made contact regarding making aliyah and wanting information,” reports Becky Kiper-Fox from the ZFA Israel Aliyah Centre.

“That’s compared to 92 opening files and 130 making contact in the same period the previous year.”

This surge in interest comes as no surprise to Rabbi James Kennard, former principal of Mount Scopus College, who recently made aliyah himself.

“Israel is where Jewish destiny is being forged,” Rabbi Kennard asserts.

“It’s very important that there’s a community serving Jews everywhere in the Diaspora, but ultimately, these places will be footnotes in a history of the Jews and Jerusalem and Tel Aviv will be the chapter headings,” he said.

The pull of Zionism vs. the push of antisemitism.

While rising antisemitism globally has contributed to the increased interest in aliyah, Kiper-Fox emphasises that for most Australian Jews, the primary motivation remains the positive pull of Israeli life rather than fleeing negative circumstances.

“Up until October 7, we had a lot of olim who were going simply because they wanted the vibrant life that Israel offers to young people, joining the new high-tech nation,” she explains.

“That pull factor is definitely still the main reason [but] antisemitism has had an effect … in Australia, definitely it’s making people think now’s the time to go.”
Israel Bonds ‘very reliable,’ a ‘great investment in democracy,’ Pennsylvania treasurer says
In early February, nearly 100 protesters who called for Pennsylvania to divest from Israel bonds were arrested at the state Capitol. “Israel is our greatest ally in the Middle East, and I will always stand with them,” Stacy Garrity, the state treasurer, said at the time. “Israel bonds are a smart, dependable investment with a proven track record, and it’s especially important to show our support at a time when the people of Israel are facing horrific terrorism.”

Pennsylvania invests some $56 million in Israel Bonds, including a $20 million investment since Oct. 7, according to an Oct. 12 press release from the state treasurer. That investment has been a frequent area in which Erin McClelland, Garrity’s Democratic challenger, has criticized the state treasurer.

McClelland, an Allegheny County Department of Human Services policy adviser, and a former substance abuse and mental-health counselor, has described Israel Bonds often as risky investments.

“Moody’s downgraded Israel’s credit rating citing concerns of foreign political instability, governance, debt/GDP ratio since March 2023,” she wrote in February. “The increasing risk in economic indicators is not a smart, stable investment for workers’ pensions or the Pennsylvania Treasury.”

“Hyper-polarization of economic data makes for bad policy. The downgrade of Israel’s credit rating is a setback,” she wrote in another February post, sharing a quote from Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said that Israel doesn’t judge its economic strength based on how the world evaluates it.

“This disproportionate and inflammatory response from their finance minister is very alarming,” she added. “This is not where we should invest workers’ pensions and Pennsylvania tax dollars.” (JNS sought comment from McClelland several times.)
Gal Gadot: Unity critical to victory
The Jewish people will prevail over its enemies and overcome the rising tide of antisemitism worldwide, but only through unity, Israeli actress Gal Gadot said on Sunday.

“I feel like there is life before October 7 and life after it. No one thought something so horrific could happen in 2023,” Gadot said during a virtual symposium along with President Isaac Herzog. “But through all the horror, there is something amazing about our people—no revenge, just hope, light and love. We will prevail, but the only way is by being united.”

The 39-year-old actress and model, best known for playing Wonder Woman, has been unabashed in speaking up for her country.

Herzog, who has long pressed for a unity government, concurred.

“We know we are a small nation, but in unity there is strength. We have always overcome when we stand together,” he said.

“This is a time of great trial for Jews everywhere,” Herzog said, speaking of unprecedented antisemitic attacks following the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, “but out of this crisis, there will be opportunity.”

The discussion was part of an initiative that seeks to unite the Jewish communities across the globe in confronting the rising tide of hatred.

Shirel Dagan-Levy, CEO of the Voice of the People initiative, said, “This is a bold step forward in fostering unity, strengthening security and empowering Jewish leaders. In this time of unprecedented challenge, we are calling on Jewish leaders worldwide to join us in securing our collective future.”

“We must remember that Israel is the insurance policy for Jewish people around the world,” Gadot 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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