Monday, December 23, 2024

12/23 Links Pt2: America's Electoral Moment of Clarity in the Shadow of Israel’s Black Sabbath; New film on ’72 Munich Olympics captures the truth about terror

From Ian:

America's Electoral Moment of Clarity in the Shadow of Israel’s Black Sabbath
By 2023, anti-Zionism and antisemitism had become synonymous, particularly in academia, the former having become the new “honorable antisemitism.”Footnote14 Though both parties made room for bigots who did not like Jews, the big story that was being missed by too many, notably American Jews, was the growing antisemitic anti-Zionism on the left. One reason was its relative rarity in the US until quite recently: “Up to the tenure of President Barack Obama,” observes the Italian-Israeli journalist Fiamma Nirenstein, “left-leaning American Jews and Democrats were not anti-Israeli like the European left.”Footnote15

The situation worsened with breathtaking rapidity. By 2020, she detected “a new reality in which one is not a Democrat if one does not criticize Israel and will be criticized oneself for not criticizing it.” Psychologically and ideologically unprepared for being ostracized by fellow progressives, most Jews chose inertia. They simply hadn’t seen all this coming.

Nor, indeed, had most Americans. Little did they know that even before October 7, the same neo-Marxist cancer that had infected Western academic institutions and the establishment media also engulfed the publishing industry. Politically incorrect (read: not leftist) and Jewish-authored book proposals were being rejected at a more rapid pace than ever.

Writer, scholar, and publisher Adam Bellow told Tablet’s editor-at-large Liel Leibovitz that his harrowing experiences in mainstream publishing have left him deeply pessimistic.Footnote16 Classics are not reprinted, and potentially brilliant works fail to see the light of day. The loss is incalculable. Since the publishing industry keeps alive the treasures of our common heritage, its atrophy and politicization bode ill for the entire culture.

The fate of democracy, after all, is intertwined with its culture, specifically its books. As the great sociologist Irving Louis Horowitz, Hannah Arendt Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Political Science at Rutgers University and founder of Transaction Publishers in 1962, wrote shortly before his death in 2012: “Publishing flourishes best in a democratic society … . [It] also enhances democracy when decisions are made on the basis of literary merit rather than top-down legislation.” But it is a precarious balance. He worried deeply about “the delicate interaction between publishing and politics.”Footnote17 For when politically motivated censorship creeps into editorial decisions, democracy is in peril.

He knew the history. The son of poor Jewish immigrants from a Russian shtetl growing up in Harlem during the 1930s, the notoriously outspoken Horowitz would have vigorously denounced the unprecedented rise of antisemitism among publishers today. For his part, at Transaction and in his own writings, he was devoted to the preservation of Judaism. He considered it indispensable to civilization, arguing that erasing the first People of the Book from human memory amounts to humanity’s intellectual and spiritual suicide. For while a civilization that cancels the Jews might somehow survive, without liberty it is doomed.

Back in 1969, he had warned that “for the [classical] liberal society, the attitude toward Jews has become a test case of whether liberalism is possible. Insofar as Nazism, Communism, or any totalistic system is unqualifiedly victorious, Judaism will be finished.” So, too, will adherents of other faiths. “Judaism has become, perhaps against its own theological predilections, a cardinal expression of liberalism.”Footnote18

His words resonate even more powerfully today. The Jew, declared Horowitz, has historically been the one who provides “global society with an operational set of liberal values and who in turn fares best in a global society that has a vested, legitimated interest in precisely fostering open-ended values for its own thoroughly non-Jewish reasons.”Footnote19

“Revelation” seems to be a singularly apt word with which to describe what happened on October 7. The biblical root of this English word reflects the Hebrew hitgalut, meaning “to uncover something that was hidden.” In America, this was due either to the wishful thinking that enemies can be appeased if shown goodwill, or to willful ignorance and ideological myopia—often, all of the above. These all-too-human predilections, so prevalent among Western European elites, were also shared by some Israelis—until that fateful day in October. Then November 5, 2024, proved that most Americans also experienced a profound revelation. That may well be the right word to express its spiritual significance. But it is its Greek counterpart, apokalupsis, that captures the full drama. As history has demonstrated, apocalypses tend to have monumental consequences.
Part of the Western Left is now a clear and present danger to Jews and the West
Didier Fassin’s orations at Princeton, like Judith Butler’s article ‘The Compass of Mourning’, continue a tradition of the American left that was initiated by Susan Sontag, who in response to accusations that Bin Laden’s terrorists were cowardly, defended their aggression, calling it the consequence of ‘specific American alliances and actions’.[lv] In Sontag’s eyes, America itself was guilty, just as Israel was, according to Butler, and French journalists in Fassin’s perspective. Until recently, it seemed that there were limits to blaming the victim. This all changed though with the left’s reaction to the rapes committed by Palestinians on 7 October.

The first pointer was a photograph of a dead woman, taken the day after the attack on Route 232, a country road near Gaza. The victim was wearing a black dress and she had a charred face.[lvi] Gal Abdush had attended the Nova Festival, and it turned out that she had been raped and then shot. The last message she sent to her family was ‘You don’t understand.’

A two-month investigation by journalists from the New York Times, making use of GPS data from the mobile phones of over 150 people, as well as interviews with victims, therapists and soldiers, revealed that this was not an isolated rape, but ‘part of a broader pattern’.[lvii] A report released by the UN in March stated that ‘there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations across Gaza periphery’, against both women and men, ‘including rape and gang rape,’ and that there was ‘clear and convincing information’ concerning ‘rape and sexualised torture’ of hostages.’[lviii]

How did the left react to these findings? More or less like the Catholic Church did to the Kielce Pogrom of 1946: violence was condemned per se, but without going into specifics. Voices that were usually forthright, such as Human Rights Watch, #MeToo and Amnesty International, chose to remain silent, and it took the UN’s organisation for women’s rights eight months to express its concern.[lix] The film Bearing Witness, which was made by Israelis using clips of drastic scenes, as well as Sheryl Sandberg documentary, [lx] was received with incredulity, and one of the more sensitive journalists who watched it claimed that he had been unnecessarily traumatised. A hundred and forty American feminist scholars, including Angela Davis, an iconic figure during the Vietnam War, spoke out against the manipulation of sexual violence (1800 people from other countries signed this letter too[lxi]), and one of them claimed that the descriptions of the rapes were not trustworthy, as they were extremely fetishistic – as if that was not the case with normal rape. The slogans ‘Believe Women’ and ‘Silence is Violence’ had suddenly ceased to be valid.

Judith Butler reacted to the whole situation like a typical 1950s policeman who had been confronted with claims of rape – she demanded proof. This led Israeli sociologist and feminist Eva Illouz to comment: ‘Judith Butler built their career off of challenging notions of objectivity, essence, and reality. Judith Butler was able to circulate a letter supporting someone accused of harassment without evidence [this concerns Avital Ronell, a professor at New York University, who was suspended after a PhD student accused her of harrassment in 2017[lxii]]. But now, they seem (for the time being) to have changed their mind. (…) They declare that were this evidence provided, they would “deplore” these rapes. The indecency of Butler’s words desecrates the blessed memory of those women who were tortured, raped, shot, or stabbed and disqualify them from being considered a feminist.’[lxiii]

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a historian from The New School in New York, theorises that the left’s negation of the rapes is connected with the failure of the previously described anti-discrimination programmes in the US: here too the problem hinges on the unacceptable whiteness of the victims.[lxiv] In the past, sexual violence against white women was a tool used by racists to carry out lynchings, yet today’s defenders of Hamas compare the terrorists[lxv] to Emmett Till, a black 14-year-old who was murdered in 1955 in Mississippi because he whistled at a white married woman.[lxvi] However, the problem is that these two events are fundamentally different, and we, weakened by relativism à la Judith Butler, have ever fewer tools to illuminate this difference. The dehumanisation of an antisemite

Will left-wing antisemitism become a new fashion, which will ultimately enable the progressive elite to fraternise with the masses? It cannot be ruled out, all the more so given that it is supported by a historical mechanism that has led us by the nose for a couple of thousand years. In keeping with the best definition of antisemitism that I know, proposed by David Nirenberg in his book Anti-Judaism (2015), antisemitism does not depend on one or other way of thinking about Jews, but on thinking ‘by means of Jews.’

Since ancient times, various cultures, including religions such as Christianity and Islam, have defined themselves via opposition to how they viewed Judaism. This had nothing to do with what Judaism was, and everything to do with wanting to avoid the evil which it was perceived to be.

In the age of piety, Israel was a blasphemer and an unbeliever. When secularism became fashionable, Jews were loathed as ‘dark reactionaries’. Under capitalism, they were persecuted as communists, and under communism, as capitalist exploiters. Nationalist movements were not indifferent to them either, labelling them cosmopolitans, whereas ebbing nationalism allows Jews to be stigmatised as crazed chauvinists.

We can also observe the functioning of these principles in today’s world. In a time when human rights are so highly valued, Israel has once again been cast as the villain, and we unstintingly strive to convince ourselves that we are on the right side.

Day after day, progressive newspapers – The New York Times, Gazeta Wyborcza or Oko Press – exacerbate the crisis in the Middle East, by contrasting omnipotent Israel with Palestinians who are deprived of agency. Hamas and Hezbollah are not dehumanised by Jews, who, even if they hate them, have to deal with the everyday, life-and-death consequences of their actions – but by those who treat them like non-human factors, like an element, or a natural disaster, things which cannot be asked to take responsibility for themselves.

For left-wing politics today, support for the Palestinian cause has become as important as anti-capitalism, vegetarianism, opposition to coal mining and support for the right to abortion. The left craves a simple way of looking at the world, and it needs some groups which it can hate with impunity, and others which it can bombard with love.

Jews do not need the left, for in spite of what antisemites say about them, they are a collective of anti-victims: following the greatest catastrophe in history, they took advantage of a historical opportunity to build a collective life. That is why we will never forgive them for what we did to them.
Two former sr. US officials from Biden, Trump admins call for return of hostages in joint op-ed
Two former senior American officials from both the Trump and Biden administrations wrote a joint op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Monday that called for the return of the hostages held by Hamas, specifically the seven American citizens held hostage.

Robert C. O'Brien served as national security advisor under President-elect Donald Trump's first administration, and Tom Nides is the former US ambassador to Israel, who served in President Joe Biden's administration.

O'Brien and Nides wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "Excluding 9/11, this [October 7] was the largest single-day attack on American citizens by a foreign terror organization since the 1980s."

They condemned Hamas's use of hostages as bargaining chips and human shields and condemned the murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin at the hands of Hamas terrorists before the IDF could reach him.

The two officials wrote in the op-ed, "We, like the presidents we served, don't always agree on how to serve them. But we are united in our belief that the seven US hostages still in Gaza, along with the other 93 hostages, must come home now."

They spoke of both Biden and his team's work to make a deal happen and Trump's statements that say there will be "hell to pay" if they are not returned before he returns to office. Senior officials urge hostage deal

Nides and O'Brien also wrote of the timing of a deal in The Wall Street Journal after several of Iran's proxies, including Hezbollah and Hamas, had been weakened, and Assad's regime topped in Syria.

"All parties to these negotiations must know that any agreement must include the immediate release of the American Seven. They aren’t a bargaining chip. They are our fellow citizens with names and family members who await them with unbearable pain. This Hanukkah and Christmas, these families will be forced again to sit at their holiday dinner with an empty chair at the table."

"Hamas and their backers must hear the message loud and clear: Release the Americans in the first phase of the deal. All of them. Release the American Seven and remember their names at your holiday celebrations this week: Edan Alexander, Itay Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Gadi Haggai, Judi Weinstein Haggai, Omer Neutra, and Keith Siegel."


'An atmosphere of holiness': How the IDF's Camp Shura handles the bodies of the fallen
“It was organized, it wasn’t chaos,” recalls Pvt. Shari Mendes.

She is speaking about the days after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre as victims of the Hamas mega-atrocity were brought to Camp Shura, an IDF base near Ramle in central Israel.

We are sitting in a side room that has an industrial look but has been converted into a temporary place to sit, with a small table and a couch. “There was such respect, even though there was such a heavy load,” Mendes says.

From the room, we can see out to a larger open area resembling a kind of hangar, with a side open facing east. “There were trucks – more than the eye could see,” she recalls. “Bodies lined the halls.”

At that time, more than 1,000 people had been killed in the Hamas attack, and the bodies were brought to Camp Shura for identification and to be cleansed and shown to families before burial.

“There was an orderly process. It was our job to accompany the women victims. We are not doctors, but a woman’s body should be accompanied. We did all non-medical touching, we protected their modesty. There was a feeling of such respect. You had doctors, dentists, photographers [at Camp Shura]; they gave such respect to these women…

“It was an atmosphere of holiness,” she says.

Dealing with angels
I drove to Camp Shura in early December. The war in Gaza has been on for a year and two months.

This was a war Hamas started due to its brutal attack – the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. It was among one of the worst massacres of people on a single day. On Oct. 7, Camp Shura had to deal with a massive number of incoming corpses – people who had suffered many different types of wounds – and process the fallen for burial.

This IDF unit performs functions that have religious as well as medical significance when identifying the fallen and preparing them for burial. St.-Sgt. Bentzi Mann is a member of the team here. He has a smile and cheerfulness that is important in a somber place like this.

Mann was born to American parents. He is also a trained rabbi and served in the UK before the war. He left the IDF in 2011 and has only done several days as a reservist over the last few years. On Oct. 7., he was in Rehovot.

By October 8, he was asked to come to Shura. “We began the identification process here. This is the IDF Rabbinate morgue,” he says, describing the surrounding area.

Israel had never faced this many dead at one time. There was no ability to separate the civilian dead from those of the IDF, police, and other security forces. Since there were so many bodies, including those of terrorists and Gazans who were intermixed with Israelis, the fallen were brought to Shura.

Mann refers to his work with the dead as “dealing with angels.” This is the only way he could deal with the mass of death that came through these gates – the gates of heaven. “Those who died [did so] sanctifying God’s name; that was the motivating factor, that’s what kept me going.”
10-year-old former hostage shares hardships of returning to routine since release from captivity
Ohad Munder, 10, shares with Channel 12 some of his struggles returning to routine since his release from captivity last November.

Munder says that he typically has to stay home from school at least one day a week due to anxiety.

Throughout the interview, he holds his cat — a therapy pet brought to him from the US.

Asked how the cat helps him, Munder says, “by providing love.”


TikTok places ‘sensitive content’ warning on viral dance video urging release of Israeli hostages
TikTok recently flagged a dance video by American singer, actress and social-media influencer Montana Tucker, labeling it “sensitive content” and obscuring it from users’ feeds.

The warning, “Some people may find this video to be disturbing,” appears ahead of the music video, which includes released hostages Moran Stella Yanai, Raz Ben Ami and Hila Rotem Shoshani, as well as family members of Ohad Ben Ami, Shlomo Manzur, and Yossi and Eli Sharabi, hostages still being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.

The TikTok content warning offers viewers the option to skip the video before watching it.

The video, produced by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (and the second collaboration between the organization and the performer), shows Tucker and 35 members of the Sol Dance Academy performing an interpretive dance as hostages in a tunnel.

“This tribute is a celebration of survival and a plea for freedom. Every hostage deserves to become a survivor,” Tucker wrote in the video’s caption.

Sacha Roytman, CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, posted on X saying that “shadow banning is a reality well-known to all activists defending Israel. Now, TikTok is making it official by covering videos to prevent them from being seen. The latest dance by Montana Tucker, calling for the immediate release of the hostages, has been censored and blocked from reaching TikTok’s largest audience.”


Tsunami of Antisemitism | Israel’s Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism Michal Cotler-Wunsh
The Jewish world, both in Israel and globally, has encountered a surge of antisemitism. Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel's special envoy for combating antisemitism, is uniquely positioned to shed light on this pressing issue. She assumed this role just weeks before the tragic October 7 Hamas attack.

A former Knesset member with the Blue and White party, Cotler-Wunsh is an authority in international human rights law, specializing in freedom of speech, civil liberties, and multiculturalism. Before stepping into her current diplomatic position, she served as a research fellow at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism and was involved in high-profile advocacy efforts, including campaigns for the return of fallen Israeli soldiers.

In her role, Cotler-Wunsh travels extensively, engaging with global antisemitism envoys, policymakers, and Jewish leaders to advocate for robust international strategies against rising antisemitism. Guided by her personal experience and insights from her father, former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, she underscores the intrinsic connection between Israel’s security and the well-being of Jewish communities worldwide. Deeply committed to preserving the continuity of the Jewish people, she views this moment as a pivotal opportunity to address the challenges faced by Jewish communities in an increasingly divided world.

0:00 - Coming up
0:30 - Monologue
1:30 - Welcome - Attack on Irwin Cotler
4:20 - Threat of Iranian regime
7:07 - Extremism in Canada
11:50 - Israel Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism
19:35 - Oct. 7 and the failure of "never again"
21:50 - IHRA Definition of antisemitism
30:37 - Alternative definitions of antisemitism
35:00 - Hostage advocacy
42:25 - Conclusion of the war and Israeli security
45:25 - Refugees and UNRWA
50:05 - Conclusion


New film on ’72 Munich Olympics captures the truth about terror
It’s not cozy Christmas fare, but if you want to see a movie that gets the past half-century of Palestinian terror right, go to a movie theater and see “September 5.”

This compact Paramount release, covering the 1972 Summer Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes in Munich, has a refreshingly simple — but not simplistic — take: Kidnapping and murdering civilians is bad, and there is no context in which to justify it.

Swiss-born Tim Fehlbaum, the director, isn’t known for ideology; his previous features were science fiction and horror.

It’s the absence of ideology here that works.

We see the Munich terror attack unfold through the eyes of journalists at ABC Sports — people who are competent at their job, covering the pre-attack Games, but who aren’t foreign-policy “experts.”

So when the ABC team, guided by rookie producer Geoffrey Mason (actor John Magaro), hears gunshots from the athletes’ housing compound that September dawn, the reaction is natural, in an era before reporters came to associate global events with terror risk: shock and perplexity.

When the terrorists reveal themselves as they peer out of the Israeli athletes’ apartment they’ve taken over, the American journalists reflexively see them as bad people.

There is no backstory to explain why the terrorists are doing what they are doing, no tales of supposed Israeli oppression.

The terrorists are fully masked. They brandish guns that they have already used, to kill wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano. They are silent and scary.

They don’t get to tell their “side” in the film, because they have no “side.”


JPost Editorial: 'Something's rotten in the state of Canada,' as antisemitism skyrockets
Something is rotten in Canada, not just the crumbling coalition government.

Some 400,000 Jews – the fourth-largest Jewish population center in the world after Israel, the US, and France – live in the beautiful, spacious country that takes pride in its heritage of tolerance and pluralism.

Now, this population is under attack. B’nai Brith Canada (BBC) saw a record high of 5,791 antisemitic incidents in 2023, a 109% increase from years prior.

Shimon Koffler Fogel, the outgoing CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the leading Canadian Jewish community advocacy agency, recently gave testimony before the Canadian Senate’s Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

As Post columnist David Weinberg wrote on Friday, Fogel told the committee that since Hamas’s October 7 massacre and Israel’s retaliation in Gaza, there has been a 93% rise in hate crimes in Toronto, nearly half of them directed at the Jewish community.

In Vancouver, reports of antisemitism increased by 62% in 2023 over 2022, marking a 70% rise after October 7. In Montreal, antisemitic incidents rose by 250%.

As for Toronto, shots have been fired on three different occasions at Bais Chaya, a Jewish girls’ school, with the most recent incident occurring on Friday night.

In Montreal, assailants last week firebombed Congregation Beth Tikvah, a modern Orthodox synagogue in the Montreal suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, for the second time in just over a year.“This is a terrifying reminder that Montreal is increasingly unsafe for Jewish people,” the synagogue’s cantor, Henry Topas, said in a statement.
Canada in crisis: Gov't to convene national forum after Jewish school shooting, synagogue arson
In the wake of the shooting of a Toronto Jewish school and the firebombing of a Montréal synagogue, the Canadian government announced on Friday that it would hold a forum to combat rising levels of antisemitism in the country.

The National Forum on Combating Antisemitism, according to Canada’s Justice Department, to be held in Ottawa in February, is set to bring together political, federal, provincial, and municipal bodies along with law enforcement and prosecutorial leaders to discuss short and long-term actions to address antisemitism in the country.

“Canada has seen a troubling rise in antisemitic incidents, threats, and hate crimes. The Government of Canada recognizes the urgent need for national leadership to ensure Jewish Canadians feel safe in their synagogues, schools, and communities,” the Justice Department said in a press release.

“This forum reflects the Government of Canada’s commitment to protecting everyone in Canada and addressing hate in all its forms,” it added.

Canada’s Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks (Liberal Party) said on social media on Friday that she and her colleagues advocated for the forum because it was their duty to ensure that every Canadian community felt safe.

“Tackling the scourge of antisemitism requires ‘the whole of society approach,’” the York Centre MP said on X/Twitter.

Canada’s Conservative Party’s MP Melissa Lantsman issued scathing criticism in response to Saks, arguing that the Liberal-led government had been unresponsive for 14 months as hate crimes had skyrocketed.

Canadian Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism Deborah Lyons also said on Friday that the forum was a long time coming but that antisemitism should be a bipartisan issue. She welcomed leaders from all parties to attend it.

“Jews are the number one targets of reported hate crimes in Canada despite making up just over 1% of the population,” Lyons said on X. “Antisemitism shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), which in November had called for the convening of a forum for combating hate crime, terrorism, and antisemitism, called on leaders to seize the opportunity to drive urgent change.

Calling for urgent change
“Police need more resources and specialized training. Laws need to be enforced, charges need to be laid, and perpetrators must be fully prosecuted to end the domination of our streets by extremists.“The glorification of terrorism must finally be made a criminal offense in this country,” Richard Marceau, the CIJA’s vice president, said in a press release.“Through the Forum, we will push for these and other concrete measures. But what we won’t accept are photo ops and platitudes,” he added.
Toronto synagogue vandalized for 8th time, hostage sign defaced
A Toronto synagogue on Friday morning was vandalized for the eighth time since the October 7 massacre, the institution’s administration told The Jerusalem Post, amid a spate of attacks on Jewish sites in the Canadian city.

Two signs in front of the Kehillat Shaarei Torah – one of which called for the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas – were defaced, Michael Gilmore, the synagogue’s executive director, said on Sunday.

Graffiti was sprayed over the slogan in such a way that the “Bring them home now” sign read: “Take their [sic] homes now” instead.

A sticker was placed over the word “standing” on the second sign so that it instead read: “Genocide with Israelis, it’s what we do."

“If a sign asking for the return of hostages is triggering to you, then you need to take a long look in the mirror and ask yourself why,” said Gilmore.

He shared a photo of a suspected vandal, who appears to be an older bearded man. The synagogue filed a police report, and Gilmore said that the Toronto Police Service was making every effort to make arrests in such incidents but that he also felt that law enforcement hadn’t been “empowered or supported” enough to do so.

This was the second time that the signs in front of the synagogue had been vandalized this month, with similar “genocide” decals being placed on the Jewish National Fund and the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Federation of Greater Toronto signs on December 1.

Kehillat Shaarei Torah’s windows and doors were smashed with hammers on April 19 and May 17. On June 30, a motorcyclist threw rocks through the synagogue’s windows. Its signs were vandalized, and then on July 31, they were set ablaze, Gilmore previously detailed to the Post.
David Collier: Sky News turn a family of terrorists into innocent victims
Sky News turns causality on its head
In promoting this fiction Sky News have allowed the terrorist family to turn causality on its head. We hear from both children about how they have no choice but to resist – and we know this because 80 year old grandmothers are shot 6 times just for going shopping.

This is raw pro-terrorist propaganda. Delivered to the homes of British viewers who simply will not have the ability to see through it. Why should they question it? Surely the Sky News journalists would not have been so naive and stupid.

Is it possible that the terrorist links of this family – the weapons and fighters they certainly have linked to their home – are the reason the grandmother may have been caught in the crossfire? And can we ask – if this was actually an innocent family, who rejected violence and kept terrorists away from their homes – whether Halima would still be alive?

At what point did the Sky News article EVER suggest that the death of the grandmother (and we have no witnesses to know what actually happened outside of the testimony of the terrorist family) – may actually be down to the militant nature of the family themselves? It didn’t. The only thing they do is tell us that the family are ‘loyal to growing militancy’ – completely hiding the violent and physical level of that ‘loyalty’ from the audience.

Sky News ignores the second victim
You would not know it from the Sky News piece but there was a second victim in the exchange of fire that morning. His name was Qusai Sarouji. I found his picture as well. On the left is the image being shared of him for gullible foreigners. On the right is the one his family are sharing on FB amongst friends:

But this raises another issue. It is odd that two people were killed, and yet Sky News only reports on one of them – the civilian. Both the Hamas terror group and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, claimed that the second person killed, Qusai Sarouji, was one of theirs. Surely the Sky News journos knew that an affiliated terrorist had been killed at the same time in Balata? So why not mention it? And why treat the Israeli claims of terrorist activity as dubious – if terrorist factions were publicly claiming a fighter had died? Did Sky choose not to discuss the second person because it would spoil the story they wanted to tell?

An additional point. Sarouji had posted on his own timeline about the death of Ahmad in January 2023. Did the families know each other? Could he have been in the vicinity of Halima at the time she was ‘shopping’. I have no idea – but then again, nor do the Sky News journalists.

Live by the sword, fear not – Sky News has you covered
Given all the above what is far more likely than some random shooting in the street, is that this family of terrorists brought the IDF’s terrorist hunters into or around their homes. Which made what happened next – all on them.

I am Jewish, but I am an avid reader, and so the New Testament writings are familiar to me. The words of warning from Matthew 26:52 have been reshaped into a well-known proverb – ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’. The meaning of the proverb is clear and highly relevant to this story, but after 1950 years or so, it appears Sky News want to reshape it once more. Their latest offering suggests that if you live by the sword – fear not – and just let Sky News pretend you are an innocent victim if your family members get hurt.

The real tragedy here is that this whitewashing of terrorist clans in order to demonise Israel – is not good for anyone. This shoddy reporting only ends up glorifying and strengthening the very people that are destroying Palestinian society from within. These are not good guys. These are the people making sure that yet another generation of Palestinians in Nablus will grow up without hope. Why on earth would anyone want to make them look as if they are innocent victims who have been forced to defend themselves?

That is a question only the journalists at Sky News can answer.
Doc who called Hamas leader a ‘legend’ suspended pending investigation
A doctor who praised Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “legend” has been suspended by the General Medical Council after Jewish News revealed a stream of unhinged antisemitic posts and conspiracy theories on her social media account.

Responding to questions over her endorsement of the former Hamas leader behind the 7 October massacre, consultant neurologist Dr Rehiana Ali asked a Jewish News reporter: “What is the nature of your readership? Are they normal human beings or are they extremist in their outlook? Do you/Jewish News endorse extremist views against non-Jews [in the Talmud]?”

Jewish News contacted the GMC to share further examples of Ali’s posts, including:
- Responding to Tweets detailing injuries sustained by Sinwar: “Many will view him as a superhero” having had “no food for 3 days….and still fighting.” She also reposted tweets stating “these facts only steel-reinforce Sinwar’s stature as a martyr who fought and starved with his people” and another claiming “it just makes him seen like more of a legend”.
- Reposting claims by Palestine Action that Israelis are “dripping in the blood of Palestinians”.
- Reposting a Tweet praising Hassan Nasrallah, former leader of terror group Hezbollah: “The heroic and resilient children of Seyed Hassan Nasrallah are humiliating the Zionist enemy on the battlefield”.
- Reposting conspiracy theories claiming “4,000 Jews did not show up to work” on 9/11.


Ali has also speculated about Israel harvesting human organs.

A spokesperson from the GMC told JN: “Dr Rehiana Ali has been interim suspended pending the conclusion of a full GMC investigation. An interim orders tribunal of the Medical Practitioners tribunal service imposed the interim suspension on her practice on Friday 20 December.

“We are acutely aware of the concerns that have been raised regarding Dr Ali, and we will take action where concerns suggest patient safety or the public’s confidence in doctors may be at risk.”

Ali has worked for the NHS for 21 years and spent a decade at London’s Imperial College. She is also a former Parliamentary candidate, standing in Bradford South as an independent earlier this year. She received 3,345 votes, placing fifth out of nine candidates.
Young victim in terror attack at German Christmas market ID’d as Andre Gleissner
The little boy killed Friday when an extremist madman plowed through a crowded German Christmas market has been identified — as his mom paid heartbreaking tribute online to her “little teddy bear.”

Andre Gleissner, who was just 9 years old, is one of five people who died when 50-year-old Saudi doctor Taleb al-Abdulmohsen allegedly tore through a bustling collection of shopping stalls that night in the city of Magdeburg in what authorities said was a terror attack.

In a Facebook post, grief-stricken mom Desiree Gleissner wrote that she wanted to “let my little teddy bear fly around the world again,” according to Sky News.

“Andre didn’t do anything to anyone,” she said. “He was only with us on earth for nine years … why you … why. I don’t understand.

“Now you are with grandma and grandpa in heaven. They missed you very much as we miss you here now.

“You will always live on in our hearts … I promise you that.”

Al-Abdulmohsen — a far-right extremist who spewed anti-German and anti-Muslim rhetoric online for years — was arrested at gunpoint after the vile attack and has been charged with five counts of murder and several counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm.

Al-Abdulmohsen’s alleged attack began around 7 p.m. when he drove his BMW between two safety bollards and raced down one of the packed market’s lanes.


Royal College of Art accused of allowing intimidation of Jewish, Israeli students
London's Royal College of Art (RCA) has been accused of allowing its Jewish and Israeli students to suffer intimidation following an incident in which an Israeli flag was torn down while a Palestinian flag was left on display, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.

RCA students said that an Israeli flag was removed from a studio and thrown to the floor despite the fact that Palestinian flags and symbols were displayed nearby.

Jewish and Israeli students stated that when they tried to express their feelings, they were “shouted down, told to shut up, and threatened.”

“The RCA must stop discrimination against and harassment of its Jewish and Israeli students," Jonathan Turner, the chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), told The Telegraph. “Hostility of other students is no excuse, especially when that hostility has been promoted by extremely biased anti-Israel lectures, which have very little, if any, connection with the RCA’s objects."

“Freedom of expression should be protected at universities – and it is unless it supports Israel, in which case it is increasingly suppressed," Turner continued. "We have seen this development in disciplines ranging from international law to politics, history, and even to sciences and arts."

“For visual arts students, images are particularly important. So at the Royal College of Art, emblems of Palestine are sacrosanct, while flags of Israel are torn down and Jewish students are told to shut up.”

UKLFI wrote a letter to the RCA president and vice-chancellor, Professor Christoph Linder, asking him to address the issue.

The letter referenced an incident where a staff member insisted that a student explain his ethnicity and how he qualified as an Israeli.

The staff member reportedly said it was questionable that the student’s mother was Jewish.

UKFLI reported that many students complained about a number of lectures in which Israel was accused of committing genocide in Gaza.

“Lectures such as this promote an extremely hostile atmosphere for Jewish and Israeli students, contributing to events such as those described above," UKLFI said.
24 Israeli colleges to adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism
Two dozen Israeli colleges and institutes of higher education intend to adopt the globally recognized definition of antisemitism put forth by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) as Israel takes over the presidency of the organization, Israeli officials said this week.

The move follows a burst of antisemitism around the world that came in the wake of last year’s Hamas infiltration and attack in southern Israel and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip.

The non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism was adopted in 2016 by IHRA, an intergovernmental organization made up of more than 40 countries that seeks to promote Holocaust education and awareness worldwide.

The organization defines antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

More than 1,200 entities worldwide, including the U.S. State Department, have officially recognized the definition.

To date, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva is the only Israeli university that has adopted the definition.

“In the State of Israel, where the average Israeli living in a Jewish state has not experienced antisemitism in its traditional sense, the understanding that antisemitism remains a challenge was almost nonexistent before Oct. 7,” Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism, told JNS on Sunday.

“The Oct. 7 massacre and responses to it, including silence, denial and justification of the attacks, removed many masks revealing that they are fueled by the very same antisemitism.

“This includes the U.N. Relief and Works Agency’s (UNWRA) curriculum, which indoctrinated the thousands who perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that continues to indoctrinate Palestinian kids with ‘traditional’ antisemitism, alongside a new strain which denies Israel’s right to exist that fuels the majority of terror against Jews and Israelis around the world,” Cotler-Wunsh said.
University of Cincinnati ‘repeatedly misapplied’ law addressing campus bigotry
The U.S. Department of Education announced on Dec. 20 that the University of Cincinnati had agreed to resolve a complaint that the school had failed to follow its obligations under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

An investigation by the department’s Office for Civil Rights reviewed approximately two dozen reports and found that the public research university did not properly respond to alleged harassment based on shared Jewish ancestry, as well as Palestinian ancestry, during the 2023-24 academic year.

“It appears that the university repeatedly misapplied applicable law when responding, or more routinely declining to respond, to reports of shared ancestry harassment it received,” the Education Department stated.

One example reviewed included a registered student organization’s social media advertisement of a “Spooky Zionist”-themed meeting. The university chose not to take action on the grounds of a free speech policy.

“While the university may not discipline speakers for protected speech, Title VI requires that recipients take other steps as necessary to ensure that no hostile environment based on shared ancestry persists,” the department stated.

The review also found that the university received multiple vandalism reports targeted at a Jewish student, who told authorities that his door had been “defaced because of his Jewish faith and identity”; his home egged; and feces smeared around the home.
University of California enters Title VI agreement for five campuses
The U.S. Department of Education announced on Dec. 20 that the University of California had agreed to a plan to resolve nine complaints of bigotry and discrimination in five of its schools.

The Department of Education investigated incidents at the University of California campuses in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Davis and Santa Cruz.

Students said that administrators failed to effectively address their reports of violent protest chants, vandalism, unwanted filming, checkpoints at encampments and failures to provide police protection. The complaints also alleged that some universities treated their students differently regarding access to campus or university programs.

The Education Department’s investigation found that the campuses failed to respond effectively when the harassment claims involved speech protected by the First Amendment.

“The universities appear not to have evaluated if the conduct nevertheless created a hostile environment based on shared ancestry for affected students,” the department stated.

Additionally, the department found that some of the universities that did respond failed to remedy potential or apparent hostile environments or prevent future harassment.

The University of California agreed to numerous actions to resolve the complaints, including reviewing claims of harassment and other discrimination in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years; and collecting the universities’ responses to the incidents.

The college system will also implement anti-bias training for staff and a climate assessment for university students and employees to evaluate the extent to which they are subjected to or witness harassment and other discrimination.

Based on the findings of these reviews, the University of California also agreed to submit a plan to “identify responsive steps” for the Education Department’s approval.
Hunter College ‘silenced Jewish expression,’ blocked Chanukah menorah-lighting, lawsuit alleges
The Lawfare Project announced on Saturday that it filed a lawsuit against Hunter College, which is part of the public City University of New York system, “for failing to take meaningful action to address the rampant antisemitism on campus.”

“CUNY Hunter failed to protect Jewish students, faculty and staff by allowing antisemitism to flourish on campus,” stated Brooke Goldstein, founder and executive director of the Lawfare Project. “Our lawsuit not only seeks justice for our plaintiff but aims to hold CUNY Hunter responsible for their lack of action to address bigotry and intimidation.”

The plaintiff in the suit, Leah Garrett, Jewish studies chair and director of Hebrew and Jewish studies at Hunter, alleges in the suit that “an independent investigation dating back to 2016 revealed that CUNY Hunter demonstrators openly chanted slogans such as ‘Jews out of CUNY’ and ‘Death to Jews’ without facing consequences,” Campus Reform reported.

Hunter “silenced Jewish expression by refusing to allow the menorah lighting on Chanukah, while enabling anti-Jewish expression on campus, including the screening of the antisemitic film ‘Israelism,’” per Lawfare Project.

Gina Vergel, director of communications and college relations at Hunter, told JNS that “Hunter College has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate of any kind, and we’re committed to fostering a safe and welcoming campus environment for everyone.”

“We cannot comment on pending litigation,” Vergel added.


UKLFI: Natasha Hausdorff discusses the Oxford Union debate with Ollie Anisfeld on J-TV
Natasha Hausdorff, barrister and UKLFI Charitable Trust Legal Director, answers Ollie Anisfeld's questions on the Oxford Union Debate, the history of lawfare against Israel, the misinformation about Israel, and her own experiences of the reality on the ground in Israel and in Gaza over the last few months.




Responding to Indiana University Professor Benjamin Robinson’s Attack on a Jewish Student
More than ever, Americans are skeptical of the value of higher education. One need look no further than a recent article by Benjamin Robinson, an associate professor in the Department of Germanic Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, to understand why such doubts exist. Instead of engaging in reasoned debate on issues raised by a Jewish student, Robinson resorted to straw man arguments and ad hominem attacks. If Robinson is representative of academic faculty in the United States today, then society’s skepticism is warranted.

Earlier this month, Rachel Applefield, a student at Indiana University, penned an op-ed at The Herald Times. Applefield carefully laid out her concerns about the antisemitic and pro-Hamas propaganda that had spread across campus. Concrete examples were provided, as were her reasoned and sourced explanations as to why the rhetoric and symbolism being used was extreme and hateful.

Applefield’s article demonstrated what society expects from a university education: the ability to intellectually engage on contentious issues in a respectful and reasoned manner.

But while Applefield modeled academic integrity, Robinson exhibited all the anti-intellectual behaviors universities once stood as bastions against.

A week after Applefield’s op-ed, The Herald-Times published a response from Robinson. The problems begin with the headline itself: “Addressing Rachel Applefield’s apology for Israel’s genocide.” Robinson didn’t take issue with, or even address, the substance of any of the young student’s actual arguments. Instead, he attacked her on a personal level, making baseless accusations about Applefield’s motives and opinions, claiming she is “heartless” and “feels no empathy” toward Gazans.

Robinson’s malicious ad hominem attacks are beneath that of any self-respecting newspaper, let alone of a serious academic institution.

But the problems with Robinson’s op-ed go beyond his schoolyard bullying tactics.


HJS analysis of Gaza casualties highlights a decade of BBC failure
It is of course worth noting that even when the BBC did have free access to the Gaza Strip – for example during the 2014 conflict – it did not “verify figures” but rather, like “the UN” which it cites in order to imply credibility, it relied on Hamas supplied data:

In other words, there is nothing new about the BBC’s promotion of unsubstantiated Hamas claims on the topic of casualty figures. That editorial policy has been employed for at least a decade and it continues to this day, despite the establishment of the dedicated ‘fact checking’ department BBC Verify and despite multiple analysts having cautioned – both during the current conflict and previous ones – that the information provided by a terrorist organisation which exploits the issue for propaganda purposes is not reliable.

Just hours after the appearance of the HJS report, the BBC News website published an article which closes as follows:
“So far, at least 44,875 people have been killed and more than 100,000 injured – mostly civilians, the Hamas-run health ministry says. The UN regards these figures as reliable.”

Apparently the BBC has no intention of addressing the issue of its decade-long failure to report Gaza Strip casualty figures accurately and the damage done to its credibility by the serial, uncritical promotion of a terrorist organisation’s unverified claims.
BBC’s Abualouf promotes disinformation about hostage deaths
With that highlighted statement Abualouf promoted and mainstreamed the long-standing Hamas propaganda whereby any deceased hostages were killed as a result of Israeli actions.

In August we saw that when such claims were shown to be false, the BBC failed to adequately inform its audiences:

Among the civilian hostages known to be deceased are those who were murdered during the October 7th onslaught and their bodies then abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip. They include Idan Shtivi, Judith Weinstein Haggai, Gadi Haggai, Dror Or, Yair Yaakov, Manny Godard, Ilan Weiss, Eitan Levy, Ofra Keidar and two Thai nationals. Additional hostages were kidnapped alive and subsequently died or were murdered while in captivity.

Rushdi Abualouf not only promoted disinformation by claiming that the deceased civilian hostages were “killed in the airstrikes”. He deliberately misled BBC audiences by means of brazen promotion of the Hamas which is narrative intended to erase its responsibility for the deaths of hostages and place the blame on Israel.


Israeli forces arrest nine, seize weapons in Judea and Samaria
Israeli security forces arrested nine wanted Palestinians during counter-terror activities in Judea and Samaria overnight Sunday, the IDF said.

During the operations, forces confiscated an M16 rifle, a “Carlo” submachine gun, ammunition, weapons parts, explosive components, and additional military equipment.

There were no casualties among the Israeli forces.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority security forces seized a vehicle loaded with locally-made explosives, as it was heading towards the Jenin camp in northern Samaria, Ynet reported on Monday.

P.A. security forces also apprehended three Jenin residents wanted for two years over gunfire incidents.

Against the backdrop of Ramallah’s offensive over the past two weeks, Kan News shared a video purportedly of Jenin-based terrorists threatening suicide bombing attacks on P.A. security forces.

“You will never enter the Jenin camp, over our bodies,” the terrorists said in the video.
Knife-wielding assailant neutralized at Jerusalem checkpoint
An Israeli security officer and armed civilians neutralized a knife-wielding assailant at the Hizme checkpoint in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood on Monday afternoon, according to the Israel Police.

“According to initial details, a terrorist exited a vehicle and brandished a knife at a passing security officer. In response, shots were fired at him, with civilians at the scene joining in, neutralizing the assailant,” police said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, according to the United Hatzalah emergency medical service.


Christian population declined 90% under Palestinian Authority and Hamas - study
Violence and coercion has resulted in up to a 90% decline in the Christian population in areas under Hamas or Palestinian Authority control, according to a new study by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA).

In 1922, Christians constituted 11% of the population. Today, in 2024, they are just 1%.

The JCFA research, led by Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch and Attorney Tirza Shorr, discovered mass emigration of Christians, particularly from historically significant cities like Bethlehem.

"Demographics don’t lie. We are witnessing a significant 80-90% decline in the Christian population in major cities," the researchers emphasized.

The Christian population in Gaza shrank from 5,000 before Hamas took over the area to only 1,000 in October 2023, the report found.

JCFA explained that religious and legal discrimination, desecration of holy sites, and social exclusion were behind the decline in the Christian population.

The city of Bethlehem is used as an illustration of what JCFA calls "Christian demographic erasure."

In 1950, Bethlehem and the surrounding villages were 86% Christian.

However, this has dwindled since 1994, when the PA took control of the city. The last census in 2017 showed Bethlehem was 10% Christian families, but many have left, or are leaving, due to systemic socio-economic hardships and instability, discrimination, and harassment, including of Christian clergy, by Muslim Palestinians and the Islam-dominated Palestinian Authority.

Bethlehem also serves as an example of Christians undergoing forced conversion to Islam, a phenomenon that Gaza’s Bishop Alexios, warned of in 2016. "Christians who converted to Islam did so under threats and violence," Alexios said at the time.

"The mass exodus of the Christians risks undermining the survival of Christianity in its birthplace," the report added.

The report also collected testimonies regarding violence and harassment against Christians, especially of girls, since the PA took over.


Palestinian Authority bans Al Jazeera in West Bank over terror crackdown coverage
The Fatah movement on Monday barred the Qatari Al Jazeera television network from operating in the West Bank, citing its coverage of Palestinian Authority security forces’ actions in Jenin refugee camp, according to Palestinian officials.

The ban includes prohibiting the network’s crew from covering the funeral of a security officer killed in Jenin, where tensions between PA forces and local terrorist factions have escalated.


Seth Frantzman: Jordan outreach to new Syria government is turning point
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi met with the new Syrian leadership on Monday.

He spoke to Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that took over Damascus on December 8, whereby the former Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and his regime fell.

Since then, Sharaa has been hosting a plethora of delegations from abroad, including Turkey, Qatar, the UK, France, Germany, and the US. The meeting with the Jordanians is important because Jordan is a neighbor, and it has a long history of complex ties to Syria.

Al-Ain media in the United Arab Emirates wrote about the meeting between Safadi and Sharaa. This illustrates how closely the Gulf is watching developments in Damascus.

It should be noted that the Gulf states and Amman were ready to reach out to the Assad regime in the last several years. The goal was to enable it to return to the Arab League. Now that Assad is gone, these same countries have to shuffle the deck.


Many Biden death-penalty commutations, but no clemency for Tree of Life shooter
U.S. President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 federal death row prisoners to life in prison without parole on Monday, saying that he cannot allow the incoming Trump administration to resume executions, which Biden paused when he took office in 2021.

Biden did not commute the sentence of Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshippers, most of them elderly, in 2018 at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber, and Dylann Roof, who killed nine parishioners at a black church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015, will also remain on death row.

“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden stated. “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts and ache for all the families, who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss.”

“But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” he added. “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”

In July 2021, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a moratorium on federal executions. None have been carried out during Biden’s term.

That stands in contrast to the first Trump administration, which carried out 13 of the 16 executions that the federal government has performed since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the death penalty after a four-year ban.

Biden’s decision on Monday highlights the evolving position he and many other Democrats have taken on the death penalty in recent decades. As a senator, Biden drafted the 1994 crime bill, which greatly expanded the federal death penalty.

“Let me define the liberal wing of the Democratic Party,” Biden said in a speech on the Senate floor on Aug. 24, 1994. “The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is now for 60 new death penalties. That is what is in this bill.”

By 2019, however, Biden was campaigning on abolishing the death penalty.

“Because we can’t ensure that we get these cases right every time, we must eliminate the death penalty,” he wrote on July 25, 2019.

Republicans slammed Biden on Monday for commuting the sentences of mass murderers and rapists and described some of the crimes of the men, who will now serve life without the possibility of parole.


Council increases resources for Holocaust Memorial Day after ‘racist’ boycott call
A council has said it will increase resources to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day after rejecting an attempt by the British-based Islamic Human Rights Commission to persuade councils and universities to boycott the event in January.

Earlier this week the chair of the IHRC, Massoud Shadjareh, sent out a statement saying he had written to 460 councils and universities across the UK, after having unsuccessfully lobbied the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) to include Gaza in its list of places where genocide had taken place.

Shadjareh said: “In view of the overwhelming evidence pointing to the crime of genocide being perpetrated in Gaza it is imperative that if HMD is to retain any credibility as a commemoration, it must be universal in scope and inclusive and recognise the genocide currently unfolding in Gaza. It is also imperative that if we are to remain faithful to the aim of stopping current and preventing future genocides that we include the genocide that is unfolding in our time.

“Our request to the HMD Trust to include Gaza has been met with silence. We feel this is morally unacceptable”.

As a result, he said, “the failure of the HMD Trust to respect such an axiomatic principle speaks to the racial exclusivism that has come to characterise the official commemoration. For these reasons, we would request that you boycott the official HMD Trust commemoration and replace it with alternatives that recognise the horrific genocide taking place in front of our very eyes”.

But he was given short shrift by Councillor Jeremy Newmark, leader of Hertsmere Borough Council. He said he found the request “appalling, objectionable and racist. This thinly veiled attempt to redefine Holocaust Memorial Day as a vehicle to attack the state of Israel will receive no traction in this borough whilst I am Leader of the Council”.

He added: “In fact, your email has convinced me that here in Hertsmere, our council should increase the amount of resource and effort that we put into marking National Holocaust Memorial Day in the context of the official HMDT guidelines and protocols.
60 Minutes Archive: Ritchie Boys
The Ritchie Boys were a secret U.S. intelligence unit who fought in World War II. Many were German-born Jews who fled their homeland before being sent back to Europe to fight Nazism. Jon Wertheim shared their little-known story in 2022.


A Special Hanukkah Message for AOC & Ilhan Omar

Event at Capitol pushes for US to mint Golda Meir memorial coin
Some 150 people gathered on Dec. 18 at the Cannon House Office Building to discuss ongoing efforts to convince the U.S. government to mint a commemorative Gold Meir commemorative coin.

Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) introduced H.R. 987, known as the Prime Minister Golda Meir Commemorative Coin Act, on Feb. 10, 2023. The bill, which has drawn another 221 co-sponsors, calls on the U.S. Mint to create up to 50,000 gold $5 coins, up to 400,000 silver $1 coins and up to 750,000 half-dollar coins honoring the former Israeli prime minister.

Surcharges—which would run $35 per gold, $10 per silver and $5 per half-dollar coin—would go to the American Friends of Kiryat Sanz Laniado Hospital.

Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) introduced a companion Senate bill, S.1300, on April 26, 2023. To pass, the bill would need two-thirds approval each in the Senate and the House.

“We got very close to the 290 co-sponsors that you need to bring it to the floor,” Wasserman Schultz told JNS at the event. “There was not as much energy behind the effort in the Senate, so we’re just going to push the reset button and try again.”

Bobby Rechnitz, a philanthropist with close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is chairing and funding the coin initiative privately. (Ezra Friedlander, who runs an eponymous consultancy, is helping coordinate the effort.)

Another 100 or so signatures are needed to pass the bill, according to Rechnitz. “It actually should have been a very smooth process,” he told JNS. “There’s only one reason that we’re not at the finish line.”


Eurovision 2025: Bereaved survivor and Arab Israeli singer perform moving duet
On Sunday night, in this second wartime edition of the televised talent contest The Next Star (HaKochav Haba), the winner of which will represent Israel in Eurovision, Daniel Weiss, a survivor of the Hamas massacre, teamed up with an Arab Israeli singer, Valerie Hamaty, for an especially moving rendition of “Hurricane,” the song Eden Golan performed in the international song contest last year.

The song references the over 360 murdered at the Nova festival on October 7, and Golan gave a luminous, dignified performance, despite boos and calls to boycott, finishing second in the audience voting and fifth all-around in 2024. Audiences loved the song, with the video of Golan’s live performance garnering 5.5 million views on YouTube, and her official music video receiving almost 10 million views.

Golan’s version of the song is a tough act to follow, but Hamaty and Weiss, on a night in which the competitors were paired off to perform duets, proved that they were up to the task. Their emotional performance of the song received a score of 95%, the highest of the night, from the judges.

Survivor from Kibbutz Be’eri
Weiss is from Kibbutz Be’eri, and he proved he has not abandoned his kibbutznik ways even though he has been unable to live in his home since the war started as he performed barefoot. Weiss survived the massacre on the kibbutz, while his father, Shmulik, was killed and his mother, Yehudit, was abducted into Gaza and murdered there.

Just this past week, his parents were moved from temporary graves to their final resting place at the kibbutz cemetery, which is now deemed a safe enough location to hold a funeral, and he said that this had given him a feeling of closure. “I feel that now we can raise our glances upwards and look at the beautiful life we are creating here,” he said.

He recalled that he had been in a talent competition that Hamaty also appeared in before the war and that his father, who was present in the audience there, had told him that he had to find a way to perform with her someday. When he realized he would be performing a duet with her on The Next Star, “I got goosebumps,” he said.

Hamaty, an established singer who has taken part in The Next Star in the past, received some online hate following her previous performance this season, from people who feel she should not participate in a competition with Jewish Israelis.




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