Thursday, September 19, 2024

09/19 Links Pt2: The dangerous double standards of Britain, Canada and Germany; The fundamental problem behind the BBC’s anti-Israel bias

From Ian:

Arsen Ostrovsky: From Kfar Aza to the world: A powerful portrait of Israel’s solitude
Bernard Lévy recounts his harrowing experience in Israel following the October 7th Hamas attack, capturing the deep isolation and suffering of the Jewish state and highlighting its isolation.

Though the book is titled ‘Israel Alone’, in some respects, it may as well be titled ‘The Jews Alone’. Simply put, with the exception of some heroic voices, we have been abandoned. Abandoned by world leaders, abandoned by self-righteous politicians, abandoned by civil society and abandoned by all those with whom the Jews stood with, defended and fought for.

Reflecting on this unabated unleashing of Jew-hate and abandonment after October 7th, and even downright support for Hamas in the West, Lévy comes to the painful, reluctant, yet tragically accurate realization that, “no land on this planet is a shelter for Jews.” Invoking ‘Amalek’, the Jewish people’s evil pre-cursor to Hitler and Sinwar, Lévy declares “he has come out of limbo to bang on our doors and drum in our ears.”

In short, as Lévy concludes “Yes, the Jews are more alone than they have ever been”, however, he adds an important caveat, that “tragedy is Greek, not Jewish”.

Despite taking his readers on a journey of utter despair, agony and questioning the Jews place in the world, Lévy ends with an inspiring affirmation in our faith, our history and the indispensable centrality of Zionism and Israel to our future.

Lévy understands that the Jewish people are not defined solely by heartache, loss and the pain that history’s ‘Amaleks’ seek to inflict upon us, but that our collective story is also one of unyielding hope, courage, liberation, and resilience.

Indeed, “the soul, mind, and genius of Judaism are standing firm amid tumult and torment” says Lévy, in his concluding words.
The Tradition of Jew-Hate
If the demonstrators really cared about Palestinians, as the Muslim Arab journalist Bassam Tawil points out, "they would be speaking out against the repressive measures and human rights violations perpetrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.... instead of improving the living conditions of their people, Hamas and PIJ leaders are imposing new taxes and leading comfortable lives in Qatar, Lebanon and other countries. Instead of bringing democracy and freedom of speech to their people, the terror groups are arresting and intimidating journalists, human rights activists and political opponents."

"Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people," said an eyewitness. "I saw fashionably dressed women clapping their hands and screaming with glee, while respectable middle-class mothers held up their babies to see the 'fun.'" — Eyewitness to the November 9, 1938 Kristallnacht.

Jihadist media efforts, and especially massive donations to universities from Qatar and other oil-rich Islamic countries, have been so successful that many academics and students in Western tertiary educational institutions have been captivated by the narrow ideology of Jew-hate.

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism." — Zuheir Mohsen, PLO official, Trouw, March 1977.

In the jihadist view, Islam is the one true faith and therefore Christians, Jews, Hindus, and all other "disbelievers" are following a false religion and therefore can be righteously killed as apostates.

"[T]he Crusaders conquered Eretz Israel, reaching Jerusalem in 1099. Once there, they gathered all the Jews of Jerusalem into the central synagogue and set it afire. Other Jews, who had climbed to the roof of Al-Aksa mosque on the Temple Mount, were caught and beheaded." — 'The First Crusade,' chabad.org
The dangerous double standards of Britain, Canada and Germany
Williams also recalled that in March, the former U.K. government, led by Rishi Sunak, reportedly conditioned continued arms supplies to Israel on its allowing the Red Cross or international diplomats to visit the detained terrorists of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force. The foreign secretary at the time, David Cameron, had even warned Israeli officials that Europe as a whole would impose a weapons embargo on Israel.

According to Williams, the U.K.’s arms embargo “appears to represent nothing so much as pure racist perfidy.”

Lammy “completely ignores the extreme lengths to which Israel has gone to avoid civilian casualties, as well as the huge amounts of humanitarian aid it has facilitated into the Gaza Strip,” he added.

Williams quoted the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, John Spencer, who wrote, “Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Richard Kemp, a former British Army officer and commander, has echoed these sentiments supporting Israel and the IDF.

According to Coughlin, Lammy’s “blatant anti-Israel agenda will place the U.K.’s long-standing strategic alliance with Israel under intense strain.”

Unfortunately for Israel, Britain is not alone. Sadly, Germany and Canada have also felt it is appropriate to sanction Israel by imposing an arms embargo exactly at a time when Israel is trying to fight Islamic extremism that is already rising in those countries.

Germany, under Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has delayed nearly all of Israel’s requests for arms sales since the start of the war. Sales to Israel in 2023 amounted to more than 300 million euros and, in 2024, they allegedly dropped to just 14 million.

But when juxtaposing these policies against Israel alongside other countries, the hypocrisy becomes clear.

Astonishingly, Germany has massively armed Qatar, which, alongside Iran, is the most significant backer of Hamas, and one of the main sources of evil in the world today.

“In the first half of 2024, the federal government approved arms sales worth just over 100 million euros to the rulers in Doha, who are probably the most important supporters of the terrorist organization Hamas,” Bild journalist Björn Stritzel noted.

Likewise, Canada has also decided to punish Israel over baseless and false accusations of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

For the past several months, Ottawa has not approved new arms export permits to Israel, halting about 30 such permits, including a deal between the Canadian subsidiary of American company General Dynamics and the U.S. government, according to a recent announcement by Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.

“First and foremost, our policy has been clear since Jan. 8, we and I have not accepted any form of arms export permits to be sent to Israel,” she said.

She also said that she asked her department “to look into any existing permits of arms or parts of arms that could have been sent to Israel.”

Alan Baker, a former Israeli ambassador to Canada and current director of the Institute for Diplomatic Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JNS that Canada’s decision is “absurd.”

“I wouldn’t call the policy in and of itself antisemitic, but it is certainly misguided,” he said. “It is based on ignorance or naivete, and not on an understanding of the situation.”

Baker called out Joly, “who seems to be completely persuaded that Israel is involved in a genocide. She doesn’t want to understand the facts and get down to the true situation.”

Baker pointed to hostile anti-Israel organizations based in Quebec that “seem to be influencing her whole policy.”

“What’s sad about this is that she seems to be pulling the Canadian prime minister by the nose when he should be sufficiently responsible to rein her in,” Baker said.

“You expect someone who has been prime minister for so long to be somewhat more circumspect and to consult and take into consideration those who perhaps have a less politically driven point of view and a more facts-based point of view,” he added.

Baker noted that the previous Canadian premier, Stephen Harper, gave a speech before Israel’s Knesset toward the end of his term and said that Canada will always have Israel’s back. He said it is inconceivable that Canada could ever act against Israel’s interests.

“But here we are,” said Baker. “Canada is being held hostage by an irresponsible foreign minister who seems to have great influence on the prime minister, based on political assumptions that are fed by propaganda that has no relation to the truth.

“Rather than trying to ascertain the facts and being in contact with those elements, whether in the United States or Israel, that are conversant with the statistics and the truth and genuine data, she and Trudeau prefer to base themselves on the accusation of genocide. And they come to the wrong conclusions.”

Canadian aid organizations have called for a complete embargo on military exports to Israel, warning that it is impossible for them to provide basic support to Palestinians while Israel operates in Gaza.


Israel must free itself from dependency on Washington
While Israel is prepared and capable of inflicting an effective preventive strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon, that might be somewhat more complicated against Iran, due to the distance and size of the Islamic Republic. To deal with Tehran, Israel requires the active participation of the United States. It seems likely that the administration’s fear of a major war during an election season makes it equally unlikely that a Harris administration would participate or endorse a preventive attack on Iran.

Israel, in its current face-off with Hezbollah, is dealing with a different reality. Whereas, in 2006, it was Israel versus Hezbollah without the interference or participation of additional players, this time the radical Shi’ite “axis of evil” is united and coordinated, and a full-scale engagement with Hezbollah is certain to involve Iran, the Shi’ite militias in Iraq and Syria, with help from both the Assad regime and the Houthis in Yemen. Israel, nonetheless, is currently being attacked by Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, in addition to Iranian-inspired terror groups in Judea and Samaria, and Gaza.

In tying Israel’s hands and preventing it from launching a preventive attack on Iran and Hezbollah, the United States is weakening Israel’s deterrence. Some would even argue that the Biden administration’s insistence on a ceasefire in Gaza and limited Israeli actions against Hezbollah is meant to stop Israel from achieving a victory.

An IDF operation inside Lebanon that knocks out their four or five power stations will put the Land of the Cedars in darkness. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, will then have to deal with two fronts. The domestic front, in which he would have to quell the massive demonstration of more than 70% of the Lebanese population, would compel him to come to some sort of an agreement with Israel. And, with the northern Galilee emptied of its Israeli population for almost a full year due to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks, Israel cannot continue with the ping-pong exchanges with Hezbollah. The people of Israel demand a resolution that enables the evacuees to return to their homes, and that would require decisive action against Hezbollah.

Congress approved a $14.1 billion aid package for Israel earlier this year; however, the current administration is using this “carrot” to force the Netanyahu government to comply with American interests in the region. The recent approval of $3.5 billion to be released to Israel is predicated on a hostage deal and ending the war in Gaza. As Israelis see it, ending the war in Gaza without the removal of Hamas from Gaza, translates into a victory for Hamas.

A significant number of congressional Democrats are seeking to withhold arms shipments to Israel. It is meant to force the Jewish state to end the war in Gaza. This would leave Hamas in place and provide terrorists the opportunity to re-emerge as a threat to Israel’s civilian population. Israel cannot expose itself to such dictates. It must end its dependency on the United States by becoming self-sufficient in arms production. The U.S.-Israel alliance must be based on mutual respect, regardless of the composition of the Israeli government. Washington and Jerusalem are intimate allies that share democratic and human values, yet Israel must also recognize that U.S. President Joe Biden is, in his own words, probably one of the last “Zionists.” The future Democrat Party doesn’t bode well for Israel; hence, the Jewish state must become self-reliant.
This blatant discrimination against Jews is a red flag about the state of American society
They’re not pretending any more. Americans who were previously careful to claim they were “anti-Zionist, not antisemitic” have been emboldened since October 7. While they may still point at Israel or Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, they openly target Jews inside the United States.

The marginalisation of Zionists on college campuses and in left-wing spaces isn’t new, but the problem has intensified. Observe the places protested – or people attacked – and it’s clear there is an effort to stigmatise Jews playing out at synagogues, Jewish-owned businesses, in Jewish neighbourhoods and elsewhere.

For example, masked men marched through a Jewish area in Queens, New York with a Palestinian flag last December, “circling multiple Menorahs”, as FreedomNews.TV reported.

Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters gathered outside a synagogue in Teaneck, New Jersey hosting an Israeli real estate fair in March, and a SWAT team had to be dispatched. The New York Times reported that the “police had to break up a few potential fights.” The following month there was a protest at another Teaneck synagogue at a fundraiser for ZAKA, the Israeli first responders who care for victims of terrorism and other disasters. A second Israeli real estate fair at a Los Angeles synagogue turned violent in June. Political consultant Noah Pollak wrote in the Free Press: “Around 100 pro-Hamas activists attacked, bear-sprayed, harassed, and brawled with Jews” while police discouraged Jews from entering the synagogue and largely stood by. This past Sunday, about 60 Hamas supporters protested outside a synagogue in a Jewish area east of New York City.

Targeting centres of Jewish religious life extends to college campuses. Hillel Jewish student centres on university campuses were the scenes of protests with violent threats at Hunter College and Baruch College, both part of the City University of New York (CUNY), earlier this month.

Jewish food and Jewish-owned businesses are also treated as fair game. Five hundred anti-Israel protesters rallied outside Philadelphia falafel shop Goldie last December, accusing the Israeli-born Jewish owner of “genocide”. A vandal graffitied “genocide supporters” across two Jewish-owned stores in a Jewish area north of New York City in January. The same month, flyers encouraged San Francisco residents to boycott six Jewish-owned restaurants. In April, anti-Israel activists added “Boycott Israeli goods: Contaminated with Apartheid & Zionism” stickers to Passover food at a DC-area grocery store. A vandal spray-painted “Stop genocide” and “Free Palestine” on a Jewish-owned bagel store in Miami in June. This month, campus hostility followed Hillel-affiliated students to dinner at a kosher restaurant in Manhattan, where protesters shouted abuse and threatened students and other nearby Jews. According to Tablet, the police merely moved the mob five feet from the restaurant’s entrance. On Twitter, @ManhattanMingle reported there are also now calls to boycott a Manhattan hotel with a kosher cafe “because the owners are Jewish and have a son in the IDF”.


UKLFI Charitable Trust: Natasha Hausdorff discusses Israel and International Law with 92NY’s Rabbi David Ingber
Natasha Hausdorff, international law attorney and UKLFI Charitable Trust Legal Director, discusses misconceptions about Israel and the law with Rabbi David Ingber of 92NY.




Triggernometry: “Tucker Has Become an Enabler of Fascists” - Sir Niall Ferguson
Sir Niall Ferguson is a Scottish-American historian who serves as the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Ferguson writes and lectures on international history, economic history, financial history and the history of the British Empire and American imperialism. He is the author of more than 16 books, including, ‘Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World’ (2003), ‘The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World’ (2008) and ‘Civilization: The West and the Rest’ (2011)


‘Fucking Jews!’: Meet Khader Hadyeh, the Anti-Semitic Donor to Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush Expelled From Tuesday’s Senate Hearing
A donor to Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.) and Cori Bush (Mo.) was forcibly removed from a Senate hearing on hate crimes Tuesday after shouting anti-Semitic slurs including "fucking Jews!" and "fuck Israelis!"

As Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) issued remarks from the dais about anti-Semitism, several protesters shouted obscenities from the audience. The most notable was a man clad in a suit whose stream of invective continued as he was escorted out of the hearing room. "Fucking Jews!" he shouted. "And the Israelis themselves. Talk about the 40,000. Talk about these people. Why it’s about anti-Semitism [sic]?"



Sources identified the man as Khader Hadyeh of Cook County, Ill. Federal Election Commission records indicate that Hadyeh made donations in the spring and summer to embattled "Squad" members Bowman and Bush for $12 and $10, respectively. Other contributions went to The Six PAC, a political action committee devoted to supporting "rural and progressive democrats running for the House of Representatives."

Hadyeh also threw $250 behind Mahnoor Ahmad, who ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for Illinois’s Sixth Congressional District against incumbent Sean Casten.

Hadyeh did not respond to a request for comment. The Capitol Police did not respond to a request for comment. Spokesmen for Bowman and Bush did not respond to requests for comment.

Both Bowman and Bush fell to pro-Israel challengers in Democratic primaries after their anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric came under fire. Bowman described the claims of Israeli women regarding the sexual abuse they endured at the hands of Hamas on Oct. 7 and after as "propaganda" before reversing course. Bush accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and called for a ceasefire less than 10 days after the Oct. 7 massacre.

A man who appears to be Hadyeh's brother celebrated his actions in a Facebook post that contains video of Hadyeh being escorted out of the hearing by a Capitol Police officer. The post includes a comment in Arabic that reads, according to Google translate, "Long live a free, pure Arab Palestine without any conditions or restrictions. The occupation is gone and the agents are consigned to the dustbin of history."
Anti-Israel 'Uncommitted' Movement Withholds Harris Endorsement, Urges Dems To Fight For Arms Embargo
The anti-Israel Uncommitted National Movement declined to endorse Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for president and called on fellow Democrats to push for an Israeli arms embargo and an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

"Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights laws has made it impossible for us to endorse her," the Michigan-based group wrote in a Thursday statement, just hours before Harris plans to campaign in the Great Lake State.

Withholding its endorsement of Harris, the Uncommitted National Movement instead urged Democrats to build "on the work of ‘Uncommitted’" to further turn the party against Israel.

"We invite stakeholders in the Democratic Party coalition—progressives, civil rights, labor, racial justice, reproductive rights, climate, immigrant rights, disability justice, people of faith, young people and more—to join us in our campaign to push our Democratic Party leadership to … support the urgent call for a stop to illegal and morally reprehensible weapons transfers."

The "uncommitted" movement began in Michigan in February as a protest of President Joe Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas terrorists. The group descended on the Democratic National Convention last month, staging a sit-in after the party denied a Palestinian American a speaking slot at the convention.

The group said that, in order to win their endorsement, Harris must "meet with Palestinian American families in Michigan" to discuss "a permanent ceasefire" by Sept. 15, which she failed to do.

The group did not endorse any other presidential candidate and cautioned its followers against voting for a third party, which could "inadvertently deliver a Trump presidency."

In its statement, the coalition also slammed Harris’s endorsement from former Republican vice president Dick Cheney.

"Now, the Vice President’s campaign is courting Dick Cheney while sidelining disillusioned anti-war voices, pushing them to consider third-party options or to sit this important election out," the statement reads.
Muslim Americans moving to anti-Israel Jill Stein in potential blow to Kamala Harris
Arab-American and Muslim voters angry at US support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza are shunning Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race to back third-party candidate Jill Stein in numbers that could deny Harris victories in battleground states that will decide the November 5 election.

A Council on American-Islamic Relations poll released this month showed that in Michigan, home to a large Arab American community, 40 percent of Muslim voters backed the Green Party’s Stein. Republican candidate Donald Trump got 18% with Harris, who is US President Joe Biden’s vice president, trailing at 12%.

Stein, a Jewish anti-Israel activist, also leads Harris among Muslims in Arizona and Wisconsin, battleground states with sizable Muslim populations where Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by slim margins.

Harris was the leading pick of Muslim voters in Georgia and Pennsylvania, while Trump prevailed in Nevada with 27%, just ahead of Harris’s 26%, according to the CAIR poll of 1,155 Muslim voters nationwide. All are battleground states that have swung on narrow margins in recent elections.

Biden won the 2020 Muslim vote, credited in some exit polls with more than 80% of their support, but Muslim backing of Democrats has fallen sharply since Israel’s nearly year-long war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip that began with the Palestinian terror group’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel.

About 3.5 million Americans reported being of Middle Eastern descent in the 2020 US Census, the first year such data was recorded. Although they make up about 1% of the total US population of 335 million, their voters may prove crucial in a race that opinion polls show to be close.
Scott Hayes: A hero, like Israel, who was assaulted and wrongfully blamed
Scott Hayes was attacked on Sept. 12 by Caleb Gannon, a terrorist supporter, while he peacefully participated in a pro-Israel rally on a street corner in Newton, Mass. Yet, it is Hayes, an Iraq war veteran, who was arrested.

A long-standing ally and friend to the Jewish community, Hayes was holding American and Israeli flags. In video footage shared widely, Gannon is seen running across the street, charging at and attacking Hayes. At one point, Gannon allegedly had his arms around Hayes’s neck, appearing to choke him. Hayes, in self-defense, allegedly shot Gannon with a legal weapon. Wrongfully, Hayes has been arrested and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, in addition to a violation of a constitutional right causing injury. After many hours in jail, he was released and must now wear a GPS monitoring device.

Much like the State of Israel, Hayes was viciously assaulted and is being blamed for defending himself.

Hayes is an American hero—a patriot Zionist, who left his home to speak up peacefully and was attacked. The only thing people should be saying to Hayes is thank you for serving America, and for standing with the Jewish and pro-Israel community. It is shameful that Hayes, whose weapon is legal and his actions self-defense, was charged with a crime. Shame on Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan for charging him. Would it have been better if he was choked to death?


The fundamental problem behind the BBC’s anti-Israel bias
Asserson Law Offices senior partner Trevor Asserson has exposed the “fundamental problem” behind the BBC’s anti-Israel bias.

Mr Asserson led a review into the British public broadcaster’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war which found the BBC breached its own editorial guidelines 1,553 times during the four-month period beginning October 7, 2023.

The report also found Israel was associated with genocide 14 times more (283 versus 19) than the terrorist group Hamas.

“I think what is really behind these breaches, and they are systemic breaches, is a total management failure to control their journalists at the BBC,” Mr Asserson told Sky News host Rita Panahi.


The Quad: How Jewish Students Are Being Terrorized on Campus w/ Shai Davidai
Students are back on U.S. college campuses, but does that mean a return to the antisemitism witnessed during the last academic year?

"The Quad" is here to discuss it all with special guests, including Columbia University professor Shai Davidai, Arab Zionist Rawan Osman and Alyza D. Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights and the person responsible for suing Ben and Jerry’s over its Israel boycott.

And, of course, they reveal the Scumbags and Heroes of the Week!

Chapters:
00:00 Beginning of the fall semester
9:00 Documenting hatred
13:00 Miseducation
20:00 Interview: Shai Davidai
44:00 Scumbags and Heroes of the Week


Why Pro-Israel Hollywood Stars Like Debra Messing and Ginnifer Goodwin Turn to Hen Mazzig for Advice
Amid the cacophony of debate surrounding the Israel-Hamas War, it’s grown virtually impossible to avoid the thoughts of Hen Mazzig.

As the face of the Israeli cause, one might argue that he’s an unlikely candidate: The 34-year-old influencer is gay (he was out throughout his tour of service in the IDF) and spends his time between Tel Aviv and London. It’s in the latter city, where anti-Israel sentiment has swelled to all-time highs — alongside incidents of antisemitism — that Mazzig is regularly targeted in the streets for his views.

Still, his consistency, stridency and level-headedness in advocating for his country have turned him into one of the most recognizable pro-Israel activists on the planet. Mazzig was already a thought-leader in the space before the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas and Israel’s brutal retaliatory war in Gaza. Since then, his profile has only skyrocketed, with his content being shared over 100 million times and his face appearing regularly on cable news, particularly in the U.K.

It’s no surprise, then, that Hollywood has turned to Mazzig for advice on how to navigate the highly fraught topic of the war. Through his Tel Aviv Institute, Mazzig leads seminars advising on best practices for celebrities when speaking out in defense of Israel. Among the entertainment figures to attend Mazzig’s Jews Talk Justice Laboratories are Debra Messing, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Drew Brown of the band One Republic, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jonah Platt and Mandana Dayani, the former president of Prince Harry and Meghan’s media company, Archewell.

Mazzig spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his path to Israeli advocacy, his work advising Hollywood and his thoughts on the proliferation of Jewish WhatsApp groups in Hollywood that have gotten some members in trouble.

Hi, Hen. I’ve seen people say you work for the Israeli government. Is that true?

No, I never worked for the government. I had a social media company and I had one contract with an Israeli governmental body on very small project for $5,000.

And where is home base?

London and Tel Aviv. I spent 50 percent of my time in both places. I was born and raised in Israel, in Petah Tikva, about 30 minutes out of Tel Aviv.

When did you begin advocating for Israel?

I served for five years in the Israeli army as a humanitarian officer. I worked with Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and in Gaza for a little while, helping them with building hospitals and infrastructure. After my military service, I moved to Seattle. And I ran into this anti-Israel movement on college campuses in progressive spaces. I was shocked. I thought as a gay man I would be accepted. I checked all the boxes: My family is from Iraq and Tunisia, I’m the son of refugee Indigenous people in North Africa. But I was the wrong kind of Jewish — that Jewish person that is not willing to condemn Israel all the time, or to say that Israel has no right to exist.

This all predates Oct. 7, but since then you’ve become a key figure in advocating for Israel amid its war with Hamas. How do you cope with being a lightning rod for so much anti-Israel energy?

It’s a lot when it’s online, but also in person — people attack me in the street, in London, in America. Antisemitism is politically correct here [in the U.K.]. And just because you’re speaking about Israel, it’s OK. Synagogues are being torched. Jewish people are being attacked in the street. A 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped in Paris a few months ago because of Palestine — that’s what the rapist said. Horrible things are happening to Jews around the world.


David Gilmour On Roger Waters Rift: “I have no regrets about it whatsoever”
In spring 2022, Gilmour and Mason revived the Pink Floyd name for a single, Hey, Hey, Rise Up!, recorded with singer and military reservist Andriy Khlyvnyuk in protest at the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Speaking in an interview with the German newspaper, Berliner Zeitung in 2023, Waters dismissed the song as “content-less… flag waving”

Gilmour’s wife and co-writer Polly Samson responded with a post on Twitter condemning Waters as a “Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy megalomaniac.” “Every word demonstrably true,” stated Gilmour in a follow-up tweet.

“That tweet was boiling up,” Gilmour tells Mark Blake in the latest issue of MOJO. “It had to come out – and I have no regrets about it. No regrets whatsoever.”

In June this year, Waters denied he was antisemitic during an interview with Piers Morgan on Talk TV and replied, “No comment, it’s private,” when asked to elaborate on his thoughts about the tweet.

Speaking to MOJO, Gilmour states that he didn’t watch Waters’ interview with Morgan, nor has he listened to his former bandmate's recent, semi-spoken word remake of Pink Floyd classic 1973 album, The Dark Side Of The Moon, and finds being asked about his relationship with Waters “wearisome”.

“Do you know what decade of my life I was in when Roger left our pop group? My thirties. I am now 78,” says the guitarist. “Where’s the relevance?”
JetBlue issues apology after calling Israel 'Palestinian Territories' on map
American airline JetBlue on Sunday announced it is changing its onboard maps on all carriers, to comply with U.S. guidelines for the Middle East, after Israel was labeled there as "Palestinian Territories."

In a message to Ynet, the company said its mission and values are that customers feel welcome and safe onboard. "We’re sorry for the concern this has caused. We can assure you that no one on the JetBlue team was involved with drawing or labeling the map of the region and we were not previously aware of the issue."

After the public outrage expressed over the maps displayed on board JetBlue flights, the company said that the map app was provided to the airline by a third-party company, which they license from a specialty technology company.

"After a careful review, we have decided to switch to a new map vendor. While our content provider works on making this transition, we have also asked the current vendor to adjust our onboard map so that it aligns with the U.S. government’s map guidance for the region. We are making these changes as quickly as the technology allows."

The removal of Israel from the map angered a Jewish passenger who called out the airline but that was not the first time JetBlue was called out for possible anti-Israel bias. In April, a Jewish passenger was ousted from a flight after complaining about a flight attendant wearing a "Free Palestine" pin on his uniform.

JetBlue apologized to the passenger and announced that it would change its policy.

"We hope with these actions we can welcome him back onto a JetBlue flight in the future," the company said, at the time.
The dilemma of handling campus protesters
TODAY, HONOR is often tied to real or imagined accolades from actions rather than the actions themselves. Administrators can reclaim their eroded dignity by guiding students who violate conduct codes to pursue true honor via virtuous actions. These students should be assigned a non-negotiable research project that challenges them to question their beliefs about their actions on campus and their misinformed perspective on Israel.

Since dignity is inseparable from truth, students must confront the reality of Israel’s actions and intentions in Gaza and acknowledge that it is not Israel committing genocide but rather Hamas terrorists who seek such destruction. They should learn that divestment from Israeli companies only hurts Palestinians and thwarts their collective prosperity.

Students should undergo intensive antisemitism training through the lens of Jewish history to understand the origins and implications of phrases like “Go back to Europe” and “From the river to the sea.” They should study the roots of antisemitism and the rise of Nazism, Soviet anti-Zionism, and Islamic and Arab anti-Zionism, illustrating the convergence of right-wing and left-wing antisemitism.

Additionally, they should explore the diversity and evolution of Zionist thought by reading primary source texts from figures such as Ahad Ha’am, Simon Dubnow, and Theodor Herzl. The film series Zionism and Anti-Zionism: The History of Two Opposing Ideas featuring Einat Wilf and recent Georgetown graduate Zoe Zeigherman is an excellent resource for these topics.

As part of their consequence, rule-breaking students must offer sincere apologies to their Jewish and Zionist peers. Moving forward, these students should also participate in programs that bring Arabs/Palestinians and Jewish Israelis together for meaningful dialogue. Administrators who create educational opportunities for students who break the rules help restore dignity for all students and themselves.

Instead of seeking the empty honor of performative negotiation, students must embark on a journey to develop character and consciousness that exposes them to their flaws, confronts the truth, and helps restore trust in themselves and their community.
Australia’s wake-up call
The violence and lawlessness that made headlines last week from Melbourne was “a wake-up call to every Australian”, Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Cassuto said this week.

Around 1200 anti-Israel and anti-war demonstrators clashed with police outside the Land Forces International Land Defence Expo, as protesters pelted police and their horses with rocks and manure, even spraying acid. At least 24 police officers required medical treatment and 39 people were arrested.

Cassuto said Australians “have caught a glimpse of the vitriol and violence that has concerned the Jewish community for nearly twelve months”.

The leading protest organisers were Students for Palestine, Extinction Rebellion and Disrupt Wars.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry Co-CEO Alex Ryvchin criticised the hypocrisy, writing on X “The word you never hear from ‘anti-war’ protesters is ‘peace’. They use violence and the threat of violence to advance their agenda.”

Jewish Community Council of Victoria president (JCCV) Philip Zajac noted his organisation had warned leaders for months “about violent, antisemitic extremists masquerading as ‘peaceful protesters’ in Melbourne”.

He added, “The thugs who threw rocks at police, set fire to public property and trashed local businesses are the same thugs who have been terrorising Jewish students at universities and spreading antisemitic hate week after week in the CBD.

“We continue to back suggestions by Opposition Leader John Pesutto that police be equipped with move-on laws.”

Inside the defence expo, there were around 1000 exhibiting organisations from around 45 counties, including Israel. The AJN spoke with a Jewish attendee, who said he was called a “baby killer” by a protester but felt safe due to the large police presence.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the violence: “You don’t say you’re opposed to defence equipment by throwing things at police,” he said.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said, “They came with the intent – some – to cause violence and that is utterly unacceptable.”

Victorian Opposition leader Pesutto criticised the Premier, stating that “a normalisation of protest violence” cannot continue and that the Coalition was considering implementing a permit system for protests.

Federal Member for Berowra Julian Leeser told Parliament, “The violence involved in Melbourne’s protest yesterday is shocking and all too often, governments aren’t throwing the book at people who thumb their nose at the law and show no respect for their fellow Australians.”
Palestinian student group sues University of Maryland over decision to cancel Oct. 7 vigil
The University of Maryland’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine filed a federal lawsuit against the school Tuesday after the organization’s approval to hold a vigil on October 7 was revoked.

Palestine Legal and the Council on American-Islamic Relations sued on behalf of the student group in U.S. District Court against the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents, the University of Maryland, College Park, and UMD President Darryll Pines.

“Even though I’m glad we took this action, my preference would have been that we didn’t have to do that at all, that we could have planned our event and executed it to its greatest effect so that we can have the most awareness about our mission,” said Abel Amene, a member of the SJP executive board and a fourth-year student at UMD.

The lawsuit alleges that the student group’s First Amendment rights were violated after it was no longer allowed to hold an “interfaith vigil” on October 7, a year after an attack by the terrorist organization Hamas on Israel sparked the war in Gaza. The attack killed around 1,200 people, and about 250 were taken hostage. Since then, the war between Israel and Hamas has killed more than 40,000 in Gaza, according to August numbers from Gaza’s Health Ministry as reported by The Associated Press.

“The First Amendment does not allow campus officials to establish free expression-black-out days, even on occasions that may be emotional or politically polarizing,” the lawsuit argues.
Philadelphia-area school-board president apologizes for ‘damaging’ meeting
An argument at a school-board meeting about a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program descended into shouts after one member suggested that Jews had “decided” to become white and thus should not qualify to participate alongside other historically oppressed groups.

The Lower Merion Board of School Directors outside Philadelphia gathered on Sept. 16 for a forum that grew contentious between Jewish member Abby Lerner Rubin and black member Kimberly Garrison.

Rubin raised the issue of growing antisemitism and whether DEI policies would protect Jews. As reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer, she noted, “I understand why we need to acknowledge historic discriminations” and that “the idea that it’s not for all is where I get a little bit uncomfortable.”

Garrison responded that she disagreed with Rubin, expressing her view that “there was a time before Jewish people decided that they were going to join the group of white people.” This prompted Rubin to ask Garrison to take back the statement, which she called not true.

An argument followed in which Garrison pointed to a Pew poll to back up her claim that most American Jews identify as white.

Board president Kerry Sautner sent a follow-up letter acknowledging that “the conversation took a turn, becoming unhealthy and damaging with antisemitic statements and racist implications.”

She wrote “since that meeting, on social media and in correspondence, we have seen continued insults and harmful behavior among neighbors. This ongoing pain underscores the need for us all to engage in conversations with greater humility, understanding and respect.”
Kassy Akiva: Georgetown Qatar Conference Will Feature Terrorist-Linked Speakers
An upcoming conference at Georgetown University’s Qatar campus will feature several speakers linked to terrorist groups, and others with terrorist sympathies.

The “Reimagining Palestine” conference is set to take place on Sept 20 to 24, part of the university’s Hiwaraat Series of conferences on contemporary political issues. Several of the speakers have ties to Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), both of which are U.S.-designated terrorist organizations. Many others have a history of making anti-Semitic comments, including praising Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

The event will be moderated by former MSNBC host Mehdi Hassan, who left the network after his show was canceled, following months of criticism over his anti-Israel coverage.

Qatar is the biggest foreign donor to U.S. universities, giving $4.7 billion to academic institutions between 2001 and 2021, according to a 2022 study. Georgetown University alone reportedly received $870 million in gifts and contracts from Qatar since 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Critics have raised concerns that the Qatar funding is directly linked to the unprecedented rise of antisemitism.

“Georgetown has long been under the sway of Arab state influence,” FDD Senior Vice President for Research, Jonathan Schanzer, told The Daily Wire. “The terror-sponsoring government of Qatar is a major funder, but it’s certainly not the only one. The university is reportedly one of top recipients of Arab funding in the country.”


ADL calls out columnist hinting Harvard hired Jewish administrators to protect funding
According to a commentary published by The Boston Globe, unnamed professors at Harvard University think that donor criticism for the school’s handling of campus antisemitism since Oct. 7 may have influenced the decisions to hire Jewish leaders this year.

Shirley Leung, a business columnist, associate editor and podcast host, wrote an article on Monday titled “ ‘Where DEI went to die’: With Claudine Gay gone, Harvard leadership is so white,” counts four Jews the school has hired into leadership positions since January.

“Some faculty have suggested that the elevation of Jewish leaders is a way to appease vocal donors and alumni—many who have been upset and stopped writing checks over what they consider the administration’s tepid response to campus antisemitism,” Leung wrote.

While acknowledging such pressure as a possibility in hiring decisions, she said “Jewish leadership is not uncommon at Harvard’s highest levels. The school’s top three administrators (president, provost, executive vice president) are currently Jewish—a similar structure when Larry Bacow, who preceded Gay, was president.”

The article prompted a response from the Anti-Defamation League.

“The suggestion that Harvard has made leadership decisions based on religion and as a means of appeasing Jewish donors is deeply offensive as it invokes some of the oldest and most sinister tropes about Jewish money and control,” the ADL’s New England branch stated on social media. “Counting the number of Jewish leaders at Harvard or any university is misguided and insulting.”


Palestinian Authority fails to meet minimum fiscal transparency - US State
The Palestinian Authority did not meet the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency and made no significant progress, the US State Department revealed in its 2024 Fiscal Transparency Report on Thursday.

Of the 139 governments studied, 68 did not meet the minimum fiscal transparency requirements. Israel met the requirements.

While the report says that the PA did make its enacted budget public, the data was incomplete and not approved by the legislature. It also did not make public its executive budget proposal or end of year report by the deadline.

According to the report, the PA provided incomplete information on debt obligations, including for PA-owned businesses.

However, the State Department said the PA did provide a mostly full picture of revenues and expenditures.


Bipartisan resolution calls on countries to embrace global ‘best practices’ on Jew-hatred
Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the co-chairs of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, introduced a resolution earlier this week that calls on other countries and international bodies to sign onto the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism.

Manning, who is Jewish, called the guidelines “a comprehensive framework that provides essential ‘best practices’ to combat antisemitism effectively.” According to the U.S. State Department, the guidelines represent “a landmark, international framework” that “was initially launched in Buenos Aires, Argentina in July 2024, and endorsed by dozens of countries and multilateral organizations.”

“The alarming rise in antisemitism in recent years, particularly in the aftermath of Oct. 7, poses a grave danger to Jewish communities around the world,” Manning stated. “Governments can and should do more to counter this hate.

“Antisemitic hate has risen to a level never seen before around the globe,” Smith stated.

The guidelines “will help countries confront this pernicious evil by providing them with best practices, effective guidelines and the IHRA working definition of antisemitism,” he added. “These essential tools will empower legislators and policymakers to more effectively expose antisemitism in its many manifestations and combat the alarming surge in bigotry, intolerance and prejudice against Jews.”

IHRA is the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

The resolution, per Manning’s office, condemns the global rise of Jew-hatred, calls on states and international bodies to “endorse” and “embrace” the global guidelines, and “encourages greater action and international cooperation to counter antisemitism.”
'They called me a dirty Jew' says victims of antisemitic attack in Oklahoma
A Jew man was the victim of a severe attack in Oklahoma by a man who called him a "dirty Jew." The victim was taken to the hospital suffering from bruises and a cerebral hemorrhage. The apparent antisemitic incident happened in Norman, Oklahoma when Harrison Hipp and his girlfriend passed by a pizza shop. A stranger approached Hipp and askedif he could try on his cowboy hat for a moment. “I said, ‘No, this is my hat, you know, sorry,’ and I was polite about it," Hipp told local media. According to him, at this point the man and his friends became aggressive. “I take off the hat and yarmulke and I start running and then he chases me and he says, ‘I’m going to get you, you dirty Jew.’ and I’m like panicking at this point because I know I’m going to get jumped,” said Hipp.

He added that the attackers stole his hat and kippa and slammed his head against the concrete multiple times.

The woman who was with him tried to prevent the attack. “I start trying to pull the original guy off of him and then I get thrown off of him and then a guy, grabs my arms and is like holding my arms, so I can’t do anything,” said Emily Rodriguez, Hipp’s girlfriend.

Hipp said the attackers left him bleeding in the street. According to him, his next memory was when he woke up in the hospital. He now has a long road to recovery, having been diagnosed with a concussion and brain bleed.

“I’m real messed up, I can’t go to work, I can’t function and for what? You know, I don’t know, just because I’m Jewish? It’s ridiculous,” said Hipp.

The victim believes that this is a hate crime and that he was attacked because he is Jewish. "Everybody that attacked me called me a dirty Jew, so I would like them all to be charged with hate crime,” said Hipp.

Officers from the Norman Police Department met Hipp at the hospital. The police said that so far no arrests have been made, though a possible suspect has been identified and all facts including allegations of a possible hate crime are part of the ongoing investigation.
New Christian Conference of Presidents aims to support Israel
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations was formed in response to the Eisenhower administration’s request for a unified, consensus, coherent agenda for American Jewry.

This week, the Conference of Presidents of Christian Organizations in Support of Israel launched, and its founders say they’re modeling it after the Jewish umbrella.

“I hope not,” deadpanned David Friedman, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, knowing how unwieldy the Jewish Conference of Presidents, with its 52 national Jewish organizations spanning the political spectrum, can be.

Friedman was among those in attendance on Tuesday for the launch reception in Arlington, Virginia, to which 100 presidents of top Christian organizations and Christian influencers were invited.

The effort is being led by Rev. Tony Perkins, Family Research Council president; Michele Bachmann, dean of the school of government at Regent University and former U.S. congresswoman; Mario Bramnick, Latino Coalition for Israel president; and Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project.

Moon told JNS that since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, “there have been a lot of moments where I really wish that I did not have to go to every organization I know individually and say, ‘Let’s do this thing together.’”

He said the new organization presents “an opportunity to have one place where everybody, all the leaders, are there, and we can really speak with not only one voice but also mobilize our networks and our members and our people to be more involved.”

Bramnick said he has gone on a few missions to Israel with longtime Jewish Conference of Presidents executive Malcolm Hoenlein, and that’s where the idea for the newly launched group sprung.

“I was so impressed just by what they were able to accomplish in terms of their influence abroad and in the United States,” Bramnick told JNS. “And I started thinking, if the Jewish community represents about 2% of the American public, the Christian community represents around 30%. The potential of an organization like this to strongly support a secure, safe and sovereign nation of Israel is huge.”
Evangelical leader donates 28 armored ambulances, including in memory of Hersh
The head of Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical aid organization, has committed to donating 28 additional armored ambulances to Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s emergency services, on Thursday. This brings the total number of ambulances donated since last October’s terror attacks to 42, alongside the establishment of two new ambulance stations near conflict zones.

President of Samaritan’s Purse, Reverend Franklin Graham, announced a dedication ceremony in Avshalom, near the Gaza border. During the event, Graham honored the memory of American-Israelis Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Roi Idan, and Smadar Mor-Idan, who Hamas killed. Goldberg-Polin was abducted from the Nova Festival and murdered in Gaza 11 months later, while Idan and Mor-Idan were killed in their home, with their daughter Avigail later taken hostage.

“We are here to dedicate the two armored ambulances that have just arrived, as well as a new ambulance center near the Gaza border, where there has not been one before,” Graham said. “The need is so great that we have committed to providing 28 more armored ambulances. The MDA team are heroes, saving lives every day, and it is an honor to stand with them.”

In addition to the ambulances, Graham participated in laying the cornerstone for a new MDA station in Avshalom, which aims to improve emergency response times along the Gaza border. The Avshalom and Shlomi stations are part of a broader donation that includes 28 armored vehicles, enhancing the safety of first responders in high-risk areas.

MDA thanks donor
“The generosity of Reverend Franklin Graham and his organization Samaritan’s Purse knows no bounds,” said Eli Bin, Director General of Magen David Adom. “As he dedicated eight additional armored ambulances and two new MDA stations, he told me he would donate another 28, taking the total to 42 life-saving vehicles. The people of Israel are indebted to this great man and organization.”
South African Christians donate emergency vehicles to Israel
South African Christians are donating two emergency rapid response vehicles for use in Israeli communities near the border with Gaza, in a repudiation of their government’s policies towards the Jewish state.

The faith-based move comes at a time when South Africa has emerged as one of the most active opponents of Israel around the globe, having taken it to the U.N.’s International Court of Justice on genocide charges over the nearly year-old war against Hamas in Gaza and squarely allied itself with Iran and its terrorist proxies.

The vehicles will be donated to the Magen David Adom rescue service next month for use in communities that came under ground attack during the Oct. 7 invasion in which Hamas-led terrorist killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, wounded thousands of others, and triggered the war.

“The name of South Africa has been tarnished by the ANC government over a protracted period, particularly after the October 7 attacks, but there is a lot of support for and admiration of Israel in South Africa based on Judeo-Christian values,” Chris Edens, the head of the South African office of the evangelical organization Bridges for Peace, which is behind the initiative, told JNS on Thursday.

He noted that the decision to donate the vehicles, which cost $80,000 each including personnel training, was a direct response from Christians to the South African government’s anti-Israel policies.

“Funds for Israel were flying off the charts post October 7 and it is quite gratifying that financial support is consistently higher than we have ever experienced,” Edens said.
Eden Golan to perform on UN stage on Oct. 7 with song rejected by Eurovision
Israel's former representative to Eurovision Eden Golan is slated to perform "October Rain" at the United Nations this coming October 7, the one-year anniversary since the Hamas attacks on Israel, Ynet reported on Wednesday. The song was initially rejected by the European Broadcasting Union.

Golan, who came in fifth place overall in the televised event, will arrive to the UN alongside an Israeli delegation headed by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, according to the report.

The EBU had initially rejected "October Rain," as they said the song violated their rules by containing political statements, which led to some of the lyrics being rewritten and the title changed to "Hurricane" for the singing competition.

The memorial event will reportedly have families of hostages still in Hamas captivity in attendance, as well as families of those murdered on that dark Saturday nearly a year ago. Additional attendees will reportedly include the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and ambassadors from other countries. Major figures in the Jewish community in the United States are also supposed to take part in the memorial service, the Ynet report said.

Oct. 7 anniversary will be acknowledged at Israeli embassies worldwide
Ynet also reported that the Foreign Affairs Ministry will hold commemorative events to mark the anniversary of the massacre at various Israeli embassies around the world.

Golan had first performed "October Rain" back in May at the Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, only six days after she won fifth place in Eurovision, while at a large rally demanding the government to do more to accept a hostage deal. She told the crowd that it was her first time performing since returning from the competition.

"I wanted to sing "October Rain" tonight. This is my prayer to bring everyone back home. I will not stop making our voice heard in Israel and worldwide until everyone returns home," she said.




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