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Wednesday, October 02, 2024

10/02 Links Pt2: Kassy Akiva: Anti-Semitism Helped Make Me a Jew; The West's True Enemy Is Clear; The New York Times' Hizbullah Terrorist Worship

From Ian:

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis: What is Zionism?
Sadly, Israel’s history has been plagued by war and violence, as hostile surrounding countries sought to deny Jews the right to live peacefully in their national homeland within a vibrant democracy.

That conflict has frequently been painful, often unbearably so, and the challenge of reconciling the destinies of two peoples in the same land has become ever more intractable with each passing decade. It is important to understand that Zionism is not an obstacle to that reconciliation – indeed, the chance to realise it was offered to both Jewish and Arab inhabitants of the land by the United Nations in 1947. Whereas the Jewish population grasped the opportunity to establish a state with both hands, the Palestinian Arab leadership and neighbouring Arab states firmly rejected it, preferring to wage war. Ever since that time, it has not been Zionism that has created conflict. Israel has endured and thrived despite the repeated attempts and the enduring desire to wipe it off the map.

The fallacy that Zionism and, more specifically, the existence of Israel, is fundamentally incompatible with the well-being of the Palestinian people has become increasingly pervasive over recent years, and its prevalence serves only to harm the cause of peace. We must have no truck with the narrative that Zionism is somehow inherently prejudiced. Zionism advocates self-determination for Jews. It does not agitate against the welfare and well-being of Palestinians. Consequently, I can, at one and the same time hold Zionism at the core of my Jewish identity whilst simultaneously feeling deep pain in seeing the suffering of numerous innocent Palestinians.

Zionism transcends the politics and policies of the day. Israel is a vibrant democracy within which there is healthy and often intense debate. Indeed, the most impassioned critics of any Israeli government are found within Israel itself, but their Zionism remains undimmed. This deep religious, historic, covenantal and emotional bond between the Jewish people and Israel does not mean that every Jewish person plays a role in nor is supportive of every decision taken by any given Israeli government. That is why the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism correctly identifies “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel” as being manifestly anti-Semitic. This is not the same as acknowledging or celebrating the unarguable collective Jewish relationship with Israel – a case often made by some to suit their flawed narrative that Israel and Judaism are totally separate from one another. Diaspora Jews may be deeply connected to Israel, but they cannot be held responsible for it.

Sadly, there is an increasing tendency to single out Israel, the Jewish state, and by extension, Jewish people, for special treatment in a manner that is inconsistent with how other countries or global conflicts are viewed. In 2023 alone, the UN General Assembly voted to condemn Israel on a total of 14 occasions, while over the same period it condemned countries in the rest of the world put together just seven times . In such forums, the very legitimacy of Israel’s existence is challenged and undermined in a manner not found with respect to any other people or country. A hateful cocktail of singular scrutiny and demonisation is now being routinely used as a tool of delegitimisation. That tool has a name: anti-Zionism.

According to data from the UK’s Community Security Trust, a charity that protects British Jews, the first six months of 2024 saw the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents ever recorded in the UK. Our synagogues and schools have needed to be protected by more guards and higher walls. In May it was reported that police had thwarted a plot to attack a Jewish community in north-west England with automatic weapons. What happens in Israel has a direct impact on the everyday life of Jewish communities around the world. The simplistic thinking that underpins the knee-jerk reaction in holding all Jews to account for everything that takes place in Israel must be refuted at every turn.

It is extremely sad that the existence of a Jewish state in a land within which the Jewish people were indigenous long before the dawn of both Christianity and Islam should be seen as controversial in any way. Zionism, which upholds this right of the Jewish People to a national home in their ancestral homeland, is undoubtedly best served by a peaceful future for both Israelis and Palestinians.

I am a Zionist because I believe that alongside the world’s 157 Christian-majority countries and 49 Muslim-majority countries, there is a vital need for a single Jewish country. I am a Zionist because I am committed to the idea that even in a place where conflict has reigned for centuries, peace is achievable and worth fighting for. I am a Zionist because I have inherited a language, culture and faith from the indigenous people of Judea. I am a Zionist because over thousands of years, my ancestors recommitted daily to holding Israel at the heart of their faith. I am a Zionist because I am a Jew.
Kassy Akiva: Anti-Semitism Helped Make Me a Jew
‘If you finish your conversion to Judaism, are you prepared to deal with anti-Semitism?”

This was the question posed to me by a rabbi during my second meeting with the Rabbinical Court of Massachusetts, which was considering me as a candidate for conversion to Judaism.

The gravity of the question was not lost on me, especially as it came from a man whose early years were spent in a Nazi concentration camp, and who now had the authority to make others—and their descendants—vulnerable to evil by accepting them into the Jewish tribe.

“There is a man sitting in federal prison right now who threatened to kill me because he thought I was Jewish,” I answered. When I was just one year out of college and working as a journalist for the Daily Wire in Los Angeles, I had my first real scare from a truly disturbed person who said he wanted to rape and kill me because he believed I was a Jew. Although he was eventually sent to prison, I learned how dangerous it could be as a semipublic figure with a great love for Judaism—and I wasn’t even a Jew yet.

Since I converted to Judaism in April 2023, the months have been packed with the joy of finally joining the Jewish people and falling in love with my now-husband, contrasted with the tragedy of October 7 and the work I’ve done documenting the massacre sites and anti-Israel protests in its aftermath. Though this is not how I expected my first year as part of Am Yisrael to be, I was oddly well equipped and prepared to encounter the anti-Semitism visible in America’s cities. In fact, anti-Semitism deserves partial credit for leading me to God, His Torah, His land, and His people.

During college, I also encountered hateful trolls who harassed me and questioned whether I was Jewish because of my pointy nose, despite having Irish, English, and French lineage. When I began traveling to Israel on both secular and Christian group trips, I received Jew-hating messages and tweets, complete with images of Hitler and concentration camps. However, things escalated significantly when I started working for Ben Shapiro at the Daily Wire. A well-known white supremacist even labeled me “Ben’s philosemitic flying monkey.”

It was as though the anti-Semites had sensed something Jewish about me, but they were confused by my identity—and so was I. The truth is, I was just beginning my journey to understand who I was and my relationship with God. The more anti-Semitic hate mail filled my inbox, the more I became interested in learning about what drove these correspondents to attack Jewish people, and me.


Jordan Peterson: The West's True Enemy Is Clear
When your enemies publicly declare that they want to kill you, it might be a good idea to listen. The Islamic Republic of Iran and its terrorist proxies have unequivocally declared themselves devoted to the destruction of the West. Their intentions have been clearly stated: first to destroy Israel and then to move against their true enemy, America, and the rest of the West. The Islamic Republic is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, distributing massive sums of money to Hamas, Hizbullah, the Houthis, and more.

Americans along with other inhabitants of the free democracies need to understand what Arab and Muslim nations have been trying to tell us for years: the Islamic Republic will stop at nothing to attain their goals of disruption, subversion, and domination.

It is clear that the Western pro-Palestinian movement's messaging apparatus - and much of its momentum - has been fomented, supported, and echoed by the Islamic Republic, not least through cyberwarfare, funding, and PSYOPs campaigns. The slogans being shouted by those who barricade and blockade universities, bridges, and streets are those of the Islamic Republic and its terror proxies. Mass rape and hostage torture are alternately denied and celebrated. Acts of self-immolation and "revolutionary suicide" are depathologized and glorified as political tactics.

No foreign nation should be granted the opportunity to infiltrate the West through nefarious means to destabilize and destroy us. Nonetheless: the Islamic Republic continues to do precisely that. We have unassailable evidence of the truth right in front of us: the Islamic Regime has declared itself an enemy of the West. It is high time we take them at their word.


Bret Stephens: Actually, We Absolutely Do Need to Escalate in Iran
This year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Iran was within a week or two of being able to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb. Now's the time for someone to do something about it. That someone will probably be Israel, which has spent two decades successfully delaying, but not stopping, Iran's nuclear program.

Iran presents an utterly intolerable threat not only to Israel but also to the U.S. There needs to be a direct and unmistakable American response. Iran currently produces many of its missiles at the Isfahan missile complex. At a minimum, Biden should order it destroyed, as a direct and proportionate response to its aggressions. There is a uranium enrichment site near Isfahan, too.

Iran's economy relies overwhelmingly on a vast and vulnerable network of pipelines, refineries and oil terminals, particularly on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. The administration can put the regime on notice that the only way it will save this infrastructure from immediate destruction is by ordering Hizbullah and the Houthis to stand down and to pressure Hamas to release its Israeli hostages. We can't simply go on trying to thwart Iran by defensive means only.

For nearly four years, the administration's diplomatic outreach to Tehran, along with its finely calibrated responses to Iranian aggression, has done nothing to deter it from striking us and our allies.

Moreover, Israel has demonstrated again that its investment in missile-defense technologies that critics said would never work has paid off, chiefly in hundreds or thousands of lives saved.
Seth Mandel: Time for Abbas to Put Saudi Money Where His Mouth Is
The Saudis have been quite active in doing this two-step of late.

In late September, Israeli tourism minister Haim Katz led an official delegation to a tourism expo in Riyadh. “Tourism is a bridge between nations,” Katz said. “Cooperation in the field of tourism has the potential to bring hearts together, and economic progress.”

Simultaneously, a Saudi diplomatic delegation traveled through an Israeli checkpoint into the West Bank, eventually meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas. The head of the delegation, Nayef al-Sudayri, has been made a “nonresident” ambassador to the Palestinians. Sudayri presented his credentials to Abbas to show Riyadh’s recognition of the PA as the legitimate national government of the Palestinians while acknowledging Israel’s authority—all while an Israeli minister was in Riyadh.

Yet the most important unspoken commitment in all of this was to a Hamas-free Gaza and, by implication, a clear weakening of Iran’s proxies wherever they could turn Riyadh’s investment into dust. The impending Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon is part of this.

Within the Palestinian body politic, the idea that unending war against Israel is a legitimate and effective strategy has to be buried far below the tunnels of Rafah. So, too, must the dream of Israel’s destruction by a confluence of forces, which is why it is imperative for Hezbollah to be brought low. There can be no alternative to peace with Israel on the menu.

If there is a functioning Palestinian national movement, now is the time for it to put Saudi money where Abbas’s mouth is. All the Palestinians must do is drive down the road paved by Riyadh.

And yet, it’s worth asking: The Saudi money is coming now, long before the PA is actually being asked to do anything, so where will that money go? One answer is “salaries,” but in practice that usually just means “corruption.” The PA has enacted no meaningful reform at all, and it has not ended so-called “pay to slay,” in which the greatest financial incentive Abbas provides is to those who kill Jews (or to their families if the terrorist is in jail or dead). The PA is not cash-poor because some of the donor money has dried up; some of the donor money has dried up because it is pocketed and misused by Abbas and his cronies. The Palestinians actually in need of foreign assistance don’t see the money either way.

Meanwhile, when Abbas steps in front of the world at the UN General Assembly, does he even make a superficial show of statesmanship? Of course not. While his rivals are being neutralized for him, whether it’s Israel crushing Hamas or the Gulf states freezing out would-be challengers to his rule, he wallows in incitement and self-pity with his hand out. He denounced Israel’s “genocide” and its “war of aggression” against Palestinians “in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank and in Jerusalem,” bathing in victimhood by pretending the war on Hamas is a war on him. Even beyond any superficial attempts at expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, he continued to push anti-Semitic talking points about the “Judaizing” of Jerusalem, by which he means Jews living there at all.

The world is trying to drag the Palestinians over the finish line. But ultimately, when the blood and treasure are spent clearing Gaza of Hamas’s control and filling the PA’s coffers, there are certain things the world simply cannot do for Abbas. They can’t make him desire peace, or eschew corruption and violence. They cannot turn him into a worthy leader of a national movement. And one suspects they know in their hearts that in the end, they won’t be able to convince him to do the one thing neither he nor any other Palestinian leader has ever been willing to do: Say yes to a Palestinian state, because it means saying yes to peace.
John Aziz: With Iran and its proxies defeated, we Palestinians will have a chance of peace
In other words, it is becoming clearer and clearer that Hezbollah — even with the backing of Khamenei and his generals in Iran — blow for blow cannot compete with the strength of Israel. "Islamic resistance", as defined by Hamas and Hezbollah, is ultimately and above all else a contest of physical, mental, and material strength. The notion simply is that the "Islamic resistance" is stronger than Israel and will eventually defeat Israel in combat, conquer the land and force the Jewish people to either accept Islamic-theocratic rule or leave.

But if Hamas and Hezbollah are unable to defeat Israel then what is their purpose? They are flailing, and to me, it looks like they are doing nothing but bringing misery, defeat, and suffering down onto the heads of the innocent Palestinian and Lebanese people who are suffering greatly in this war in Gaza and Southern Lebanon.

The collapse of Hezbollah has been a failure of intelligence. The information required to strike Nasrallah and other top Hezbollah military figures required major leaks and breaches. Who are the moles leaking sensitive information to Israel? The new Hezbollah leadership, as well as the leadership in Iran, will be terrified of these questions. And these fears will only grow if more leaders go the way of Hassan Nasrallah, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh.

In the end, there are other and better options for Palestinians and Lebanese. How about coexistence with Israel? How about working together towards building a new regional system around cooperation, trade, and mutual benefit? We already have a basis for this in the Abraham Accords, and we can expand these to include more countries, including Lebanon, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia.

It is high time for a better living situation for Palestinians and Lebanese, and for the region. The national aspirations of Palestinians and freedom and prosperity of Lebanese people should not be tied to the fate of a corrupt, theocratic regime like the Islamic Republic of Iranian. Nor should they be tied to the fate of a sectarian militia like Hezbollah who on the one hand may provide social services to ordinary Lebanese, but also continue to drag them into a conflict with Israel. Palestinian and Lebanese civilians deserve to have a good and normal life, just like people in Israel, Europe, America, or anywhere.

After the storm of war will come a calm. It is crucial for the peaceful voices in the region who dream of modernisation and a normal life for Muslims, Jews, and Christians and all indigenous peoples to take the lead and build a brighter future.


Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp: The New York Times' Hizbullah Terrorist Worship
Hassan Nasrallah was a vicious, murderous terrorist with the blood of many thousands on his hands. But you may not have known that had you read the New York Times' hero-worshipping eulogy of the dead Hizbullah leader, in which they labelled him a "beloved" and "powerful orator," who supposedly championed equality among Muslims, Christians and Jews.

AP joined in the applause, calling him "charismatic and shrewd," an astute strategist, idolized by his Lebanese Shiite followers, and respected by millions across the Arab and Islamic world.

At the very moment when there is a need more than ever to stand up for Western values, decades of indoctrination in moral relativism, where no one is objectively right or wrong, have weakened our resolve to the extent that a notorious terrorist leader can effectively be exalted by the media. Too many political leaders reacted to the killing of Nasrallah by calling on Israel to "de-escalate" its defensive war in a situation where de-escalation can lead only to defeat.

The Guardian called Nasrallah a "political leader" rather than an arch-terrorist. He was indeed a politician, who succeeded in bringing Lebanon to its knees. His political agenda was not prosperity for his country. It was the destruction of Israel, the ejection of the U.S. from the Middle East, and the fight for supremacy of Shia over Sunni Islam, at the behest of his masters in Tehran.

Hizbullah's violence cannot be ended by de-escalation and negotiation, but only by military defeat. We in the West don't any longer understand that, believing that there is a reasonable political solution to every problem. Fortunately, Israel does understand it and should be fully supported by us in its war to eradicate the enemies that are set on its own annihilation.
Cold shoulder Israel killed murderers of Steve Kerr’s dad, but don’t expect a thanks from progressive coach: columnist
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr owes Israel a debt of gratitude for taking out the terrorists responsible for his father’s assassination in Lebanon four decades ago, but don’t expect the progressive former NBA star to say thank you, an Israeli columnist said.

Kerr’s father, Malcolm Kerr, was gunned down in 1984 while serving as the president of American University in Beirut by two members of an Islamic jihadist group that is believed to have had ties to Hezbollah.

Over the past months, two senior Hezbollah figures — Ibrahim Aqil and Fuad Shukr — were killed after Israel bombed Lebanon and its capital Beirut in response to the Iran-backed terror group’s rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

Ze’ev Avrahami, columnist for the Hebrew-language news site Ynet, said that Aqil and Shukr were members of a Hezbollah-affiliated jihadist group during the Lebanese civil war that raged from 1975 until 1990.

“Israel cut off the heads of the snake Aqil and Shukr, closing a 40-year-old chapter for the Kerr family,” Avrahami wrote Monday

“But don’t expect a thank you. It’s not in his progressive lexicon.”

Aqil has also been implicated in the planning of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing that killed 241 American troops in Beirut.

Steve Kerr, who was born in Beirut, was 18 years old and a freshman basketball star at the University of Arizona when he found out that his dad was killed.

He has not commented publicly on the Israeli military’s bombardments in Lebanon, which also eliminated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week.

Avrahami noted that while Kerr has been vocal about his support for gun control as well as his backing of Black Lives Matter, he had little to say about the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, which claimed the lives of some 1,400 people.

When Hamas terrorists committed “the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Kerr “wasn’t as compelled to respond,” Avrahami wrote.

Avrahami pointed out that Kerr has instead lamented that “so many innocent people are being killed” in Gaza.
Seth Mandel: You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Celebrate the Mass Murder of Jews
A federal judge has reversed the University of Maryland’s attempt to sideline a pro-Hamas rally on the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 massacre. That’s not surprising. Having first approved the Students for Justice in Palestine event, the school left itself open to the accusation that the cancellation was viewpoint-based, not rules-based—and since the event is taking place at a public university, constitutional free-speech protections come into play in a way they would not at a private institution.

Ironically, the judge, Peter Messitte, did everyone a favor in his written decision simply by describing the plans of Students for Justice in Palestine and its supporters. They come off as despicable gremlins.

Messitte wrote that “even if pro-Israel groups see October 7 as somehow sacrosanct, it is at least fair argument for pro-Palestine groups to see the date as sacrosanct as well, symbolic of what they believe is Palestine’s longstanding fight for the liberation of Gaza.”

Indeed: Oct. 7 was the day of the pogrom-style barbarism against Israelis—and that is why it has become an important marker for anti-Zionists. They want to commemorate, indeed celebrate, the Palestinian attack on Israel (“fight for the liberation”).

The University of Maryland had initially tried to clear that day of all student rallies and said the Klan-like march could take place any other day. But the judge agreed with SJP’s argument that Oct. 7 was the only appropriate date for the specific message SJP wanted to deliver: “No other date, as SJP sees it, can make the point of their mission quite as forcefully as October 7.”

The judge also acknowledges that the date chosen “is in effect, in the view of many, a deliberate misappropriation of a date of deep tragedy for Israel.” To that end, he bolsters his ruling in favor of SJP with an appropriate precedent: the Westboro Baptist Church.
Honestly with Bari Weiss: Douglas Murray: A Time of War
When we planned the conversation you’re going to hear today—a live conversation with Douglas Murray—we thought it would be a searching conversation that we’d release on the anniversary of October 7th, looking back at a year of war from a slightly quieter moment. You’ll hear some of that today. But the moment is anything but quiet.

As we prepared yesterday afternoon for this conversation, the war that Iran has outsourced to its proxies for the last year finally became a war being waged by Iran itself, as it launched over 100 ballistic missiles towards Israel. Israel’s 9 million citizens huddled into bomb shelters, while missiles rained down on their homes, with a handful making direct impact. As of this recording, two people were injured, and one person was killed—that person was a Palestinian man in Jericho. Just before that onslaught, at least two terrorists opened fire at a train station in Jaffa, Israel, killing at least six people and injuring at least seven others.

For many people, this war has been all we can think about since October 7th. But I fear that for many Americans, it still feels like a faraway war. But it isn’t. This is also a battle for the free world. As my friend Sam Harris put it in the weeks after October 7th: “There are not many bright lines that divide good and evil in our world, but this is one of them.” It is a war between Israel and Iran, but it is also a war between civilization and barbarism. This was true a year ago, and it’s even more true today. Yet this testing moment has been met with alarming moral confusion.

To choose just a few examples from the last week: at the UN, 12 countries—including the U.S.—presented a plan for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon without mentioning the word Hezbollah. Rashida Tlaib tweeted “our country is funding this bloodbath” minutes after Israel assassinated the leader of the most fearsome terrorist army on the planet, Hassan Nasrallah, who The New York Times described as “beloved,” a “towering figure,” and a “powerful orator.” It read like a letter of recommendation. At Barnard, students chanted for an intifada moments after the Jewish community memorialized six civilian hostages murdered by Hamas. At Yale, students chanted, “From Gaza to Beirut, all our martyrs we salute.” In Ottawa, protestors shouted, “Oh Zionists, where are you?” and targeted a Jewish residential street filled with schools and senior living homes, simply because the street is filled with Jewish homes and institutions. During the UN General Assembly, U.S. taxpayer dollars provided personal security for Iranian leaders, so that they could walk the streets of New York and speak before the UN—the same Iranian leaders who are plotting to kill senior American leaders.

No one understands the moral urgency of this moment better than my friend and guest today, Douglas Murray.

Douglas Murray isn’t Jewish. He has no Israeli family members. And yet it is Douglas Murray who understands the stakes of this war and the moral clarity that it requires.

Douglas’s work as a reporter has taken him to Iraq, North Korea, northern Nigeria, Ukraine, and most recently, to Israel. Douglas remained in Israel for months as he reported back with clarity, truth, and conviction. Douglas is the best-selling author of seven books, and is a regular contributor at the New York Post, the National Review, and here at The Free Press, where he writes our beloved Sunday column: “Things Worth Remembering.”

There is no one better to talk to in this moment, as we watch in real time as the Middle East—and the world as we know it—transforms before our eyes.


The Free Press: Bari Weiss & Rep. Ritchie Torres on Israel at War, Vice-Presidential Debate Debrief & More
Today on The Free Press Live: Israel at war and VP debate debrief.

Join Michael Moynihan, Batya Ungar-Sargon, Bari Weiss, Rep. Ritchie Torres, Haviv Rettig Gur, and Elliot Ackerman to help make sense of this unprecedented moment.


Trump to participate in Oct. 7 anniversary event on Monday
Former President Donald Trump will participate in an event in Florida on Monday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, his campaign announced on Wednesday.

The event will gather Jewish community leaders at Trump’s Doral golf resort “to honor the 1,200 lives lost” in the attack and to “remember the victims of antisemitic violence that has continued to afflict communities worldwide,” according to a campaign statement.

Representatives for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for additional details on the commemoration, and an invitee told Jewish Insider that he had only been informed of the event on Tuesday.

The upcoming ceremony is among several recent gatherings concerning Israel and antisemitism that Trump has attended as his campaign seeks to court Jewish swing voters in a closely contested race with Vice President Kamala Harris.

But Trump has also faced criticism from members of both parties for his hostile rhetoric toward Jews who support Democrats as well as his lack of clarity on major developments in the Middle East — including Israel’s killing last Friday of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Trump has repeatedly said that Hamas’ attacks “would never have happened” if he were president, while accusing Harris of enabling Iran-backed proxy groups in the region, as his campaign reiterated in its statement on Wednesday.
JackCarrUSA: "I Was in Israel on October 7th: Here's What Happened" -Trey Yingst
Trey Yingst is an American journalist based in Jerusalem, Israel serving as the chief foreign correspondent for Fox News. Yingst has reported from the Gaza Strip and war zones around the world. On October 7, 2023, Yingst reported on the Hamas attack on Israel. He covered the Kfar Aza massacre, embedded with the IDF in Gaza, and reported on the tunnel system under Gaza, earning praise for his calm and poised reporting throughout the war.

His first book, BLACK SATURDAY, is available now.


Jonny Gould's Jewish State: 161: Irit Lahav, Kibbutz Nir Oz survivor on October 7th: "I love the ground, the soil, the place, the people"
Amid the IDF's push into Lebanon to eliminate Hezbollah, the thwarting of terror attacks on Israel’s streets and the hail of rockets fired into them, we must always, always keep in our minds the plight of our hostages incarcerated by the savages of Hamas and their accomplices in Gaza.

For it was on that fateful Shabbat and Simchat Torah morning of October 7th 2023, that the lives of Israeli and Jewish people around the world changed forever.

Free the hostages. Bring them home now.

Let’s go back to where it all started.

As chaos broke out all around her, our guest today relives the moments of sheer terror that morning, but her words are laced with a message of future hope and delivered with tremendous dignity.

This is Irit Lahav, survivor of the Kibbutz Nir Oz disaster as she revealed how she survived, while her dearest friends were murdered or taken hostage around her. Also, when and why she wants to go home and why it’s so important for the country as a whole that she does.


Andrew Pessin: Battling Divestment Campaigns
One outcome of the pro-Hamas encampments at well over 100 North American universities in the spring was that many universities agreed to consider various forms of divestment requests, targeting Israel. Thankfully most universities who have gone through the decision-making process have, so far, rejected divestment, though several have embraced it; but in my view you should take nothing for granted. So if a university you are affiliated with—as a faculty, staff, student or alum—or merely one where you live is entertaining divestment, please engage in fighting the initiative. To serve as a resource I have written a detailed paper summarizing the MANY arguments against divestment, including both general arguments based on academic norms and particular arguments based specifically on the Israeli-Palestinian-Jewish-Arab-Muslim-Iran conflict (as I think it should be called). I shared a draft of that paper to this substack several months ago, but it has now been published, and is available at an online link (pdf)


So please: if you or anyone you know is engaged in fighting divestment, please share this document, to help provide them with resources for the battle.
Cary Nelson: A Campus Guide for Ignoring Anti-Semitism
Whatever Israel does, it will no doubt be greeted with more libels, demonstrations, and the harassment of Jews. Into this situation comes the Nexus Project, a group led primarily by Jewish academics and rabbis, whose stated goal is to advocate “for full implementation of President Biden’s National Strategy to Counter Anti-Semitism and against the use of false accusations of anti-Semitism as political weapons.” In 2012, Nexus issued a set of guidelines for identifying when anti-Israel speech and activity should be considered anti-Semitic, which Ben Cohen described in Mosaic as “a wholly dissatisfying compromise” between two rival definitions of anti-Semitism.

Last month, Nexus produced a nine-page “Campus Guide to Identifying Anti-Semitism in a Time of Perplexity.” Cary Nelson comments:
Are you perplexed? I’m not. I’m horrified and very worried. But I’m not confused, puzzled, uncertain, or perplexed. Neither, really, is the Nexus group. It wants to be certain that the permissive spaces it made available to anti-Zionism with its February 2021 “Nexus Document” have not been curtailed or disqualified by the flood of anti-Semitism that engulfed the world following the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel.

Nexus promises “a nuanced and contextualized approach to thinking about anti-Semitism in this current moment.” Indeed, they call for a “judicious review” of meaning “in different contexts,” but then they abandon context in a futile search for intrinsic meaning. That may be the crux of the problem with what the Nexus group has done. . . . By asking for definitive proof of hateful intentions, Nexus inoculates much anti-Zionist agitation from the conclusion it is anti-Semitic. And that is exactly what the Nexus group has always wanted.

This new Nexus project is necessary because anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist statements and actions flooded the campuses and major cities of the West in the wake of the Hamas massacres of October 7, 2023.

Part of the problem with Nexus’s approach is that it creates endless conversation about what is and isn’t anti-Semitic. Perhaps some people accusing Israel of heinous crimes it never committed and calling for its destruction in a sea of bloodshed aren’t motivated by hatred of Jews. Does that make them any less evil?
Belgian Left’s stance calls for 'Palestine without Jews,' says Interest Party leader to 'Post'
As Belgium again experiences an internal political crisis, having no federal government for four months since the last general election, the turmoil will get bigger.

On October 13, the country heads to provincial, municipal, and district elections expected to sharpen political tensions between the two main national groups in Belgium: the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons.

One of the most interesting battles in these elections will take place in the port city of Antwerp, the capital of Flanders, where, for the first time, a Jewish candidate is included in the list of the separatist Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party.

In Belgium’s June election, Vlaams Belang became the second-largest party. However, due to a cordon sanitaire imposed by the other parties on the Flemish nationalists and separatists almost 50 years ago, Vlaams Belang is still kept out of negotiations to form a federal government.

The cordon sanitaire was created against another party, the Vlaams Blok, an extreme-right party dissolved in 2004 and to which Vlaams Belang is considered the successor.

Due to the shadow of the Vlaams Blok and the fact that some of its founders collaborated with the Nazi occupiers, the Vlaams Belang was boycotted in the past by the Jewish community of around 20,000 living in Antwerp.

However, the deteriorating security situation and growing attacks on Jews brought the community to understand that they should deal with the threats of the present instead of with the ghosts of the past.
Johannesburg set to rename U.S. consulate’s street after Palestinian terrorist
The City of Johannesburg, South Africa, plans to rename the road on which the U.S. Consulate is located after Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled.

Sandton Drive is a central artery in Johannesburg, and Sandton, the neighborhood in which the road is located, is home to many of South Africa’s 50,000 Jews. The area is also home to at least four synagogues among other Jewish institutions.

Johannesburg acted on a proposal adopted by the City Council in November 2018 to rename the road, publishing a notice of the change and inviting the public to send in any comments by Oct. 15.

The motion to change Sandton Drive’s name to Leila Khaled Drive was proposed by then-City Council member Thapelo Amad, who on Oct. 7 of last year posted online: “We stand with Hamas, Hamas stands with us, together we are Palestine and Palestine will be free. With our souls, with our blood, we will conquer Al Aqsa.”

Khaled is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who became infamous as the world’s first female hijacker after taking part in two plane hijackings in 1969.

The State Department declined to comment on the name change.

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies, however, said that it is “reprehensible” for Johannesburg to rename the road on which a U.S. Consulate is located after a terrorist.

“This is a hostile and antagonistic gesture at a time when our government is trying to rebuild and repair fragile relations with the United States and encourage investment from them,” the SAJBD wrote in its submission opposing the change. “Renaming the street where the consulate is situated after a woman on their proscribed terror list is a damaging move. This is not in the interests of our city and our country where our economy is desperate for foreign investment.”

South African Zionist Federation spokesperson Rolene Marks said that “this change appears deliberately provocative towards the U.S. Consulate located on Sandton Drive, potentially discouraging American investment in Johannesburg. It’s particularly concerning given that the U.S. government has officially designated the PFLP as a terrorist organization.”

The head of Johannesburg’s municipal transport committee, Kenny Kunene, spoke out against the name change, calling it an attempt to “humiliate the U.S. by making their diplomats and officials carry business cards with Leila Khaled’s name on them. The American consulate’s website will bear Leila Khaled’s name.”

Kunene warned that the U.S. is South Africa’s second-largest export partner and the African Growth and Opportunity Act that allows many of those exports to enter the U.S. duty-free will be up for a renewal vote in Congress next year.
Antisemitism stains the art world
In an industry where being trendy is the most precious commodity, galleries have been equally nervous about taking on Jewish artists. “It’s a big risk for any gallery to take on a Jewish artist right now,” says Sarah, a Jewish artist with gallery representation in London and also speaking to UnHerd anonymously. “As fucked up as it is to say, I feel lucky. It could be much worse.”

Even with Sarah, her Jewishness was a cause for concern. When she joined the gallery, she was asked if she planned “on becoming an online activist”, despite the fact that another artist on their roster is an active pro-Palestine protestor online. At one point during her induction to the gallery, she was told: “We’re going to downplay the fact that you are Jewish.” “We’re going to downplay the fact that you are Jewish.”

In such a climate, it’s perhaps not surprising that many Jews in the arts feel the need to hide their identity. It is striking, after all, that everyone I spoke to for this article insisted on remaining anonymous; all of them fearing the negative impact that speaking freely might have on their careers. One artist told me: “I would love to be open and use my name for your piece, but I can’t risk being dropped by my gallery.”

For some, like Maya, an emerging curator, seeing this has not only been heart-breaking but also discouraging. The pseudonymous artist decided to leave London and move back to Israel. “I miss my friends and family a lot,” she told me. She’d found it exhausting to deal with the relentless anti-Jewish sentiment during her MA in London over the past year.

I understand this. October 7 marked a change in my life, too: I was no longer able to live in a world with so many painful barriers in front of me, so I took several months out, returned home to Madrid, and focused on building myself in other ways. After overhearing artists in my studio talk about how the “Jews control the media”, I wanted to make sure I had skills beyond the art world. I needed to be prepared, just in case, like countless other Jews this past year and throughout history, I am forced to pack up and leave.

There is a broader tragedy here, too. Art dies when there is only one right way to understand and react to the world. It comes alive, however, when it touches on something we can’t quite understand, or something which remains unspeakable. And so, I am reminded once more of Bartana’s work. Standing in that dark room with pounding techno reverberating through the walls and inside my chest, with the plumes of gaseous CO2 unfurling onto the floor, I craned my head towards the light.


Mishal Husain failed to sufficiently challenge guest over anti-semitic conspiracies, BBC admits
The BBC has admitted that it failed to sufficiently challenge an Iranian guest who accused Israel of being an “ethno-supremacist” state that is committing a “holocaust” in Gaza.

Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran, appeared on Radio 4’s flagship show on Tuesday to comment on how Iran would respond to Israel’s “limited” ground invasion inside Lebanon.

In what Jewish organisations called a “disgraceful” move, Mishal Husain, the BBC presenter, permitted Mr Marandi to speak at length, unchallenged, as he called Israel a “genocidal regime” that believed its citizens were the “chosen people”.

A BBC spokesman said: “The Today programme covered the latest developments in Lebanon and the Middle East and interviewed a range of people including IDF spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner, US Diplomat Dennis Ross and Iranian academic Mohammad Marandi to get a broad perspective on the complex politics of the region.

“Mohammed Marandi was interviewed to gain an understanding of the view from Iran, and what their response is likely to be.

“This was a live interview and he was challenged during the course of the interview, and the Israeli position was reflected.

“However, we accept we should have continued to challenge his language throughout the interview.”

The BBC is facing a wave of criticism for allowing what commentators have called “offensive” anti-Semitic tropes to be broadcast on its airwaves largely interrupted.

Husain only appeared to interrupt him once to ask what he meant by Iran will do “whatever it takes” to stop Israel. Mr Marandi skirted around the question, saying: “I’m not part of the Iranian government.”

The Iranian-American academic, who is the son of the former Iranian health minister, has previously been called a “propagandist” and “mouthpiece” for the Iranian regime by HonestReporting, an organisation that works to combat prejudices in the media.

The BBC, which “must remain duly impartial” according to its own guidelines, allowed Mr Marandi to continue uninterrupted as he claimed that the “UK supports this Holocaust in Gaza, just as it supports the slaughter of the Lebanese”.

“We have no doubt that [the UK] will be with the Israelis until the very last Palestinian,” he said, adding that the only way forward was “resistance” by Iran’s proxy forces.


Turkish Educational Institutions Are Raising a Generation to Hate Israel
Addressing the United Nations yesterday, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the General Assembly to recommend the use of force to stop Israel from fighting back against Hamas, Hizballah, and other terrorist groups. This, however, is mere rhetoric, unlikely to translate into real action. Perhaps more consequential are Erdogan’s educational reforms, which could poison future reconciliation between Jerusalem and Ankara with their powerful strain of anti-Israel indoctrination. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak observes how this curriculum evokes the Ottoman victory over British forces at Gallipoli during World War I:

[I]n its quest to create its own ideal pan-Islamist Turkish citizen, Erdoğan’s Ministry of National Education had no problem associating Gallipoli with Gaza. By referencing the Gallipoli War Monument, which features the symbolic war helmets of soldiers who joined the Ottoman army from Jerusalem and Gaza, the ministry sought to emphasize the brotherly relations between Turks and Palestinians. This was done while completely disregarding their betrayal and collaboration with British forces during the Arab Revolt of 1916–1918, which led to Ottoman-Turkish casualties and the loss of the entire Middle East.

In addition, by drawing this parallel between Gallipoli and Gaza, the ministry reiterated President Erdoğan’s April 17 speech in the parliament that equated Hamas with the Turkish independence-war fighters. This comparison implicitly seeks to delegitimize Israel.


Pro bono legal helpline launched for reporting incidents of antisemitism at K-12 schools
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the Anti-Defamation League and StandWithUs announced a helpline to provide free legal guidance for families of Jewish students experiencing hatred at K-12 schools in Massachusetts and New York.

“The barrage of antisemitic harassment, intimidation and attacks against Jewish students is unfortunately not contained within the campus gates,” said Rachel Lerman, Brandeis Center vice chair and general counsel, on Monday. “Administrations cannot be allowed to turn a blind eye to the intimidation, bullying and antisemitic rhetoric their students endure within their schools.”

Lerman said that the group’s lawyers “stand ready to use the law to hold schools accountable to enforce their own rules as Jewish students are subjected to a virulently hostile environment. This must stop.”

Peggy Shukur, ADL vice president for the East Division, said: “Particularly in situations where responses to antisemitism are inadequate or worse, access to high-quality legal assistance is a crucial tool to ensure a safe learning environment. By providing these legal efforts, this helpline will empower Jewish students, teachers and parents to take action to fight against antisemitic harassment and bigotry.”

Carly Gammill, director of legal policy at the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department, said that the helpline “comes at a time when antisemitism continues to plague students in our nation’s schools and will help ensure broader access to legal resources for students seeking to address attacks against their Jewish identity.”
Antisemitic attacker who targeted two Jewish men in NYC is indicted, cut loose: prosecutors
An anti-Semitic attacker who allegedly targeted two Jewish men back-to-back on the Upper West Side over the summer was indicted for the crimes — and then promptly cut loose in court, prosecutors said.

Myles Utz, 31, is accused of attacking the pair at West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on June 16, all while yelling, “Free Palestine!” the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.

He first threw two glass bottles at a 25-year-old man and hurled anti-Semitic slurs at West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, the DA’s office said.

The victim, who wore a yarmulke, managed to back away and the bottles shattered on the ground.

A crowd formed, including a 74-year-old yarmulke-wearing man, who Utz then targeted — spitting on him, officials said.

Sickening video of the latter part of the confrontation, posted on the StopAntisemitism page on X, captures the man charging toward the senior.

The Jewish man tells the aggressor to “get the hell away from me” as a bystander puts his arm out between the pair and tells him to walk away.

But Utz, who has a bandage on his right hand, walks around the bystander and spits at the older man, the video shows.

The group of New Yorkers surround the alleged anti-Semite and shout at him to leave while one man places his hand on the victim’s shoulder.

“How [are] you free[ing] Palestine right now?” said one of the bystanders confronted Utz, according to the clip. “All you’re doing is harassing people.”




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