Monday, January 06, 2025

01/06 Links Pt2: No Israel, No Palestine: A Thought Experiment; Ex-Hezbollah terrorist behind Hind Rajab Foundation, doxxing IDF soldiers; How Soros Took Over Wikipedia

From Ian:

No Israel, No Palestine: A Thought Experiment
On October 5, 2005, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that Israel was a “disgraceful blot” that should be “wiped off the face of the earth.” Despite the genocidal nature of his statement, the world did not respond by isolating him or Iran. Instead, in 2011, Ahmadinejad was invited to address the United Nations, reflecting a disturbing tolerance for such rhetoric.

On October 7, 2023, just eighteen years later, or roughly one generation, Iran attempted to make good on their promise, as Hamas, their proxy, carried out the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Their explicit aim? Murdering as many Israelis as possible to eradicate the Jewish state “from the river to the sea.”

Given this continuing obsession with destroying the Jewish state, and the global obsession with a “free Palestine,” it’s worth conducting this thought experiment: Imagine if Israel is no more. We can start with the War of 1948 and the Armistice borders of 1949, which reveal much about an Israel-free Middle East. Indeed, when five Arab armies attacked the fledgling Jewish state, there was no call to “liberate” an Arab Muslim Palestine.

On the contrary, Jordan expanded and amassed Judea Samaria and Egypt annexed the entire Gaza Strip. Paramount to the lie of the “Disappearing Map of Palestine” is the certainty that from 1949 to 1967, neither Jordan nor Egypt “freed” these territories and helped to create an Arab Muslim Palestine. Indeed, variations of the phrase “from the River to the Sea” appeared only after 1967, documented in graffiti and used in protest chants. Put differently, when Jordan and Egypt “occupied” the region of Palestine, Arab Muslims did not consider themselves living under occupation.

If Israel had lost the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948, the five Arab countries would likely have further divided up the region. While we cannot be certain who would have gotten what, what is certain, as evidenced by the 1949 Armistice Lines, no Arab Muslim Palestine would have ever been created.

The result of a sovereign Jewish vacuum from the river to the sea will be fought over between Hamas and the Fatah Party, the Palestinian Authority that governs Areas A and B in Judea Samaria. The bloodbath that would ensue would be colossal but would not, of course, garner the world’s attention as Jews will no longer be part of the equation.

Just ask the Kurds, or Sudanese, or Nigerians what happens when there is actual slaughter but no Jews. The most stunning case, perhaps, is the silence of the world, especially the human rights world as Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian former dictator, gassed half a million of his own population. Mass graves are being discovered in Syria, yet the International Criminal Court (the ICC) makes no demand that Assad be tried for crimes against humanity.
Jonathan Tobin: Liberal media mainstreams a blood libel about Israeli ‘apathy’
That is why to all but a small minority of Israelis, the events on Oct. 7 and the widespread support it received from Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere remains a conclusive argument that a two-state solution is a formula for endless war and the slaughter of Jews. That is also why—whether or not they wish to replace Netanyahu as prime minister—they are fully in favor of the war against Hamas in Gaza.

In adopting such an attitude, Israelis are behaving no differently than any country that has been assaulted by a deadly foe led by extremists like the fanatics that run and fund Hamas would have done.

Yet contrary to the “apathy” argument that portrays them as indifferent to the suffering of the Palestinians sacrificed by Hamas, the Jewish state has demonstrated great humanity with respect to their foes.

From the beginning of the current war, Israel has allowed a steady stream of supplies of food, fuel and other essential goods to be shipped into Gaza, including those areas where Hamas still prevails. The difficulty in getting food to Gazans is not due to hard-hearted Israelis obstructing the flow of aid but to the fact that Hamas and criminal Palestinian gangs have stolen the majority of the aid brought in by humanitarian groups, most of which are compromised by their connections to the terrorists.

What country would be expected to feed and aid those trying to kill their citizens while those enemies were still in arms and “resisting” its existence?

Hamas could have ended this war at any point since October 2023 by releasing the hostages and accepting Israeli offers in which the terrorists would be allowed safe passage out of Gaza. They hold on because they believe that their propaganda will convince the West to turn on Israel and someday hand it to them on a silver platter. Those who participate in pro-Hamas demonstrations are not just engaging in antisemitism with their “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the intifada” chants. Like the journalists who accept the false narrative in which Israel is branded as the villain in the war that began on Oct. 7, they are helping to prolong the war.

Progressives believe that they can turn America against Israel. Through their dominance of the education system, culture and much else, they have tried to indoctrinate a generation of youth to accept the toxic myths of intersectionality and critical race theory. In doing so, they have sought to convince the country that not only was America an irredeemably racist nation but that Israel and the Jews were “white” oppressors. Those who accept this false ideology wrongly believe that Israel is a “settler-colonial” and “apartheid” state that has no right to exist. That leads them to ignore the truth about the conflict and to think that Israel is always in the wrong and the Palestinians are always right, no matter what either side actually does. That is a prime factor in enabling the slanders of Israel as well as the whitewashing of Palestinian brutality and intransigence.

Antisemites are frustrated
Israel’s foes are not only deeply frustrated by the military success of the IDF against the Iranian-sponsored terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the defeat that Tehran has suffered (largely as a result of the Jewish state’s actions against its proxies in Lebanon) in Syria. They are also unhappy about the victory of President-elect Donald Trump. The prospect of Trump and a host of other ardent supporters of the Jewish state taking office in two weeks is a decisive defeat for those who seek to isolate Israel.

But as another Times article recently noted, Palestinians and their foreign cheerleaders have not lost hope. This doesn’t mean that they are ready to live in peace with Israel or reject a vision of their national identity that is firmly linked to endless war on the Jews. Rather, they believe that sooner or later their victories in a propaganda war in which Israel is delegitimized will ultimately allow them to fulfill their fantasy of extinguishing the one Jewish state on the planet.

Corporate media and other outlets that spread the claim that Israelis are immoral for supporting their country’s defensive war against genocidal terrorists are engaging in antisemitism. But they are also helping to perpetuate a self-destructive mindset that means more bloodshed and suffering for both Jews and Arabs.
Commemorate Auschwitz liberation at Western Wall if Poland honors ICC blood libel
The United States should boycott the upcoming international ceremony on Jan. 27 marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp unless Poland renounces its support of the International Criminal Court’s warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and guarantees his safe transit. Poland’s threat to arrest Israel’s leader if he attends the memorial labels the Jewish state as today’s Nazi regime, mocking the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, along with the victims of Oct. 7, 2023.

Poland’s stance is also a direct threat to America’s national security, as the ICC threatens to use the same lawless playbook to have countries seize American service members on trumped-up charges.

The ICC criminal charges are a blood libel demanding that Jews not defend themselves and attempting to erase a key lesson of the Holocaust: Never again will Jews be defenseless against genocidal enemies.

“Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, was perpetrated by Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip (from where Israel completely withdrew in 2005), which is governed by Hamas and whose charter calls for genocide against the Jewish people. Fatah, which controls the Palestinian National Authority (P.A.), joined the attack, as did ordinary Gazans. The vast majority of Gaza residents and Arabs living in Judea and Samaria supported the Oct. 7 invasion and resulting atrocities.

The name Al-Aqsa Flood emphasizes the goal of destroying Israel, not creating a state alongside it. Al-Aqsa is the Muslim name for Jerusalem and derives from the Jewish Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple). Islamists recognize the historic Jewish link to Jerusalem but are determined to supplant that connection. Yasser Arafat—the chief of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the founder of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority—hailed Nazi collaborator Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini as his role model and similarly styled his five-year war against Israel that began in September 2000 as the “Al-Aqsa Intifada.”

On Oct. 7, in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, the invaders murdered more than 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, mostly civilians, and also dragged as many as 251 men, women and children back into Gaza. The attack was also reminiscent of the Holocaust because of the unspeakable atrocities motivated by blind hatred of Jews.


The ex-Hezbollah terrorist behind Hind Rajab Foundation, doxxing IDF soldiers
Supported killing of soldiers
ABOU JAHJAH had previously supported the killing of American, British, and Dutch soldiers for their involvement in the war in Iraq. Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reported he had said “I consider every death of an American, British or Dutch soldier as a victory.”

The Hind Rajab Foundation head claimed that he had been misrepresented in a 2015 blog post, explaining that he did not rejoice in any death, but that “Rejoicing the victory of people’s resistance against occupation is another matter.“Every soldier taking part in an illegal occupation is a legitimate target for resistance,” said Abou Jahjah.

The AEL condemned American forces for their battle in Fallujah in 2004, and saluted the “Iraqi resistance.”

The Guardian reported in 2015 that while he called the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks criminals, Abou Jahjah said the terrorist attack left him with a “sweet revenge feeling.”

“It was very difficult for us to realize that we are able of experiencing [sic] a feeling of satisfaction after such atrocity,” he continued, according to The Guardian.

In 2005, he issued support for the removal of Israelis from Israel to move them to Germany, as suggested by then-Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Those responsible for solving a problem are those who created it,” said Abou Jahjah.

Abou Jahjah and Lebanon-born Hind Rajab Foundation co-founder Karim Hassoun both signed a 2009 appeal calling for the removal of Hamas and other Palestinian groups from the European list of proscribed terrorist organizations.

This call echoed 2002 AEL statements demanding that “all Palestinian resistance groups would be taken off the terrorist list.

“The decision of Europe to extend its so-called terrorist list to include Palestinian resistance organizations is totally unfair and unacceptable,” the league said.

“It is unfair because it is criminalizing the struggle of a people that is under siege and under attack by one of the mightiest armies on earth, a people fighting for its freedom with the limited possibilities it has. If you want the Palestinian people to stop using suicide-bombings, give it the possibility to destroy the tanks that are blowing Palestinian children into pieces.

“AEL will keep on supporting the legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people until the total defeat of Zionism and the total liberation of Palestine, and the establishing of a democratic Palestinian state with Jerusalem (Al Quds) as its capital and the return of all Palestinian refugees to their homes.”

Supporter of Hezbollah
CHIKLI ALSO noted on Sunday that Hassoun was also a supporter of Hezbollah, having been photographed wearing a Hezbollah hat and issuing praise of Samir Kuntar, who led the murders of members of an Israeli family in 1979.

“During his tenure as head of the AEL, the organization was convicted in a Dutch court for disseminating Holocaust denial content,” the Diaspora affairs minister said.

Reuters reported in 2010 that the league had published Holocaust denial cartoons, including one in which characters counted non-Jewish Auschwitz corpses so that they could reach a figure of six million Jewish Holocaust victims. A Dutch court fined the group €2,500.

Abou Jahjah asserted in a 2015 blog post that the cartoon was made in response to Dutch cartoons that mocked the Prophet Mohammed, in an effort to expose double standards in freedom of speech.

Hassoun asserted on Facebook on October 8 that Palestinians did not invade Israel on October 7, but were “simply returning home and reclaiming their properties.” On December 9, he said Hamas should have taken more hostages.

“I condemn them for not having taken 500 or 1,000 hostages instead of just 200,” said Hassoun. “These hostages could have been treated so well and returned safe and sound to their families, all while trading them for Palestinian hostages, freeing them from Zionist Israeli dungeons.”


'My country': This Arab fights for Israel
Yoseph Haddad, an Israeli Arab, has become an outspoken defender of Israel.

Born in Haifa in northern Israel, he grew up in Nazareth, which is populated primarily by Arab citizens of Israel, who are largely Christian and Muslim.

“I grew up with a mixed society, where I have Jewish friends, Muslim friends, Christian friends,” Haddad said. “I used to play football — soccer — and that was the thing that actually sort of connected all of us. And we didn’t care that this person is a Jew, this person is an Arab. We just wanted to play soccer together.”

Arab Israelis are exempted from mandatory military service, but Haddad joined the Israel Defense Forces in 2003, serving with the Golani Brigade and attaining the rank of commander, until he was injured in the Second Lebanon War.

“People are absolutely amazed by the situation where an Arab can be a commander over Jewish soldiers in the IDF in Israel,” said Haddad.

Since then, Haddad founded Together – Vouch for Each Other U.S., an organization intended to build bridges between Israeli Arabs and Jews.

In early December, he was met with protests at Concordia University in Montreal, where he was scheduled to speak. Haddad spoke to National Post the following week. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What was it like growing up as an Arab in Israel?

I’ve always found myself travelling between Nazareth and Haifa since the rest of my family, cousins and friends were there. And because Haifa is a mixed city, I grew up with a mixed society, where I have Jewish friends, Muslim friends, Christian friends.

When it was Christmas, then the Christian friends would invite the Jewish and the Muslim and the Druze to come and see the customs of the holidays.

It actually helped us to bridge gaps and to understand better the culture and the traditions of each community. And that’s how I grew up. At the age of 18, I saw that my Jewish friends and my Druze friends are starting their way into the IDF. And I asked some sort of, we can say, rhetorical question, why don’t I have to serve?

This is my country. This is where I live. The enemies, the terrorists, do not differentiate between Arabs and Jews.

I always talk about the fact that I, as an Arab, was a commander over Jewish soldiers in the IDF. A lot of them even question if it’s possible, but that’s the reality that they don’t know about Israel, because there are people who are pushing narratives that do not even exist. And so being in battle, seeing what I saw, seeing how we as IDF soldiers are trying to do our best in the worst circumstances in terms of fighting, and at the same time being one of the most moral armies in the world, including — including —what’s going on today in Gaza. Because I promise you, if the war of Hamas was (against) any different army in the world, you would have seen absolutely different results and different numbers. What we’re seeing today is only because of the fact they’re fighting the IDF.


A Rabbi and an Arab Join Together to Fight Antisemitism | Quad Interviews
Award-winning producer and author of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Jew, Rabbi Raphael Shore, and Arab activist and recovered antisemite Rawan Osman talk about their new movie, "Tragic Awakening: A New Look at the World’s Oldest Hatred."

The movie follows Lebanese-born Osman on her journey away from Jew hatred and takes a new and non-conventional look at what motivates antisemitism.




Taboo no more: One in five Golan Druze now holds Israeli citizenship
Against the backdrop of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime, and the tragic death of 12 Druze children in Majdal Shams in a Hezbollah rocket attack, the number of Druze residents applying for Israeli citizenship in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights might be a reflection of local sentiment — and perhaps also of attitudes on the nearby Syrian side of the volatile border.

Data obtained by Shomrim reveals that the number of citizenship applications in the Israeli Golan Heights remains at a historic high. Over 20 percent of Golan Druze hold Israeli citizenship, more than double than at the turn of the millennium.

The statistics were obtained from the Population and Immigration Authority thanks to a request filed through the Movement for Freedom of Information, an Israeli NGO that works to promote governmental transparency.

Israel captured much of the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six Day War; the post-war borders zig-zagged between Druze villages, cutting families and communities off from one another. When Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, it offered all residents Israeli citizenship, though only a small minority took it up. Recently, though, that number has grown. The stats

Druze naturalizations peaked in 2022, when 438 citizenship requests were submitted, of which 419 were approved. In 2023, applications dipped slightly to 406, of which 389 were granted, and in the first 11 months of 2024, there were 352 requests, of which 318 were approved. Assuming the trend continued through the end of the year, 2024 likely ended with a similar number of requests as 2023.

Looking at the broader picture, over the past three years (2022-2024), Israel approved 1,126 citizenship requests from Druze in the Israeli Golan Heights, compared to just 539 in the five-year period between 2017 and 2021.

Based on data from the Population and Immigration Authority, approximately 6,000 of the over 29,000 Druze residents in the Golan Heights — about 20.45% — currently hold Israeli citizenship. Compared to 2022, this is an increase of around 3.6% of the total Druze community in the area. Part of this increase is the result of more applications being submitted and part is the result of couples with Israeli citizenship having children.
Claudine Keane asks for Mary Lou McDonald meeting over Sinn Féin ‘attacks’ on Robbie Keane’s Israeli job
Claudine Keane, the wife of football coach Robbie Keane, has written to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald to seek a meeting to discuss an alleged smear campaign she says has put her family at risk.

Ms Keane, a former model and mother of two children, has been active on social media defending her husband from criticism and online attacks for managing Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv during the Israeli-Hamas conflict.

Fears over impact of Occupied Territories Bill on US companies in Ireland ahead of renewed government-formation talks

Both online and in her letter to the Sinn Féin leader she complained about social media posts from Chris Andrews, a former Sinn Féin TD who lost his Dáil seat last month but who is now running for the Seanad, and posts from a Sinn Féin press officer. She complained that posts about her husband “incited hate” against the Keanes and made it “unsafe” for them to live in Ireland.

Ms Keane complained that Sinn Féin posts about her husband have led to the family receiving threatening messages, including from people saying they know where the Keanes live and where their children go to school.

Robbie Keane quit the Israeli club side one year into a two-year deal last summer after winning the Israeli premier league title, league cup and guiding the team into the last 16 of the Europa Conference League. Mr Keane, who took on the job in June 2023, said he had remained manager until the end of the season despite criticism from some Irish sources as he had a “duty of care” to players and his management team who moved to Israel to work with him.

Criticism of Keane’s time in Israel was renewed last November when he was invited by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to present caps to the Irish squad ahead of games against Finland and England.

Mr Andrews responded to an FAI post on X about the caps presentation calling it “extremely disappointing”. He accused Robbie Keane of having a role in “sportswashing apartheid and genocidal Israel”.

Chris Andrews’s post on X was reposted by Luke O’Riordan, a Sinn Féin press officer who is also a media officer for League of Ireland club Bohemian FC. The Dublin club has been a strong supporter of Palestinian causes and held a friendly against the Palestinian women’s team last year in Dalymount Park.
Eve Barlow: Golden Globes or Golden Glibs
I don’t know how long Adrien Brody’s speech was tonight because I didn’t time it but it felt like 1,000 years long. It felt like watching a kettle boil - how is this still going? How is the man still speaking? He spoke for so long about his film The Brutalist, for which he won an award, with his two parents in the audience, his gorgeous wife, and the whole of Hollywood. And during the entire time he spoke, he managed to avoid saying the word “Holocaust”. The film is about a Holocaust survivor who flees to America. I have never seen someone give a speech so painfully while fearing every word that was about to escape his lips in the event it wasn’t carefully chosen enough. The word “war” escaped. The word “immigrant”. But never the word Jew or Holocaust. Brody was so desperate not to offend anyone with the words that have become taboo in the Hollywood that apparently the Jews run. It is now taboo to say Holocaust in Hollywood.

Gal Gadot was the presenter on the podium for the category and as Brody emerged to receive his accolade, you can see her mouth “Mazel Tov” at him because Brody is a patrilineal Jew, and Gadot is a Jew, and this was kind of a Jewish win. But oh there was to be no acknolwedgment of Jewish survival or grit. This was now about a universal immigrant, I guess? We are losing the specificity of our own stories when our storytellers are not brave enough to mention us. Brody is famous because of the Holocaust; because of his depiction in The Pianist of one man’s survival in Warsaw. But tonight he was scared to say it. The Pianist was afraid of the word Holocaust.

Earlier today, Gadot became the only A-lister in Hollywood to make a public statement about the hostages, specifically 19-year-old Liri Albag, whose proof of life video was released by Hamas this weekend, and has left anyone with a soul feeling utterly sick at the sight of what these terrorists have done to a young woman for 457 days. Despite Gadot’s efforts, however, (and her efforts so unique, standalone and commendable must be acknowledged) she still did not wear a yellow ribbon upon her outfit tonight. And you can imagine as a fly on the wall that there had to be a debate about it. Wearing a yellow ribbon shouldn’t be dangerous. Acknolwedging Jews shouldn’t be dangerous.

What is happening.


How Soros-Backed Operatives Took Over Key Roles at Wikipedia
In 2017, Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, implemented the most profound shift in its history. The Movement Strategy, as this effort is called, would vastly expand Wikipedia’s mission. From its humble roots as a user-contributed encyclopedia, Wikipedia would now set out to become “an influencer in shaping world policy in access to knowledge.” (My in-depth explainer on the Movement Strategy, “How the Regime Captured Wikipedia,” is here.)

In her keynote at the Movement Strategy launch, Wikimedia Foundation’s then-executive director Katherine Maher revealed the motivations behind this shift. “We have always wanted content to be open, as Wikimedia, but we want the world to be open too,” she said. “And we’re going to do our best to convince [people around the world], cajole them, and advocate and push to make the world a more open place.”

Maher’s emphasis of a single, endlessly repeated word — “open” — was loaded with ideological import. This wasn’t about open source software or collaboration. It was about making “the world” an open place.

Since the 1970s, George Soros has built a global political machine, anchored by his biggest NGO, the Open Society Foundations, on the concept of openness. Taken from the work of philosopher Karl Popper, the idea of an open society opposes any creed or system that might privilege one group over another.

Getting to this point of openness requires continuous political, social and economic disruption, even subversion, of the structures — borders, courts, currencies, armies, religions, police — that keep society tilting toward closedness. Openness, Soros believes, is a global equilibrium, not a national one. The world is one place; our job, Soros believes, is to advance toward this fundamental tenet of reality.

Soros has spent more than $22 billion attempting to move the world closer to this vision. In the 1990s, in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of globalism, he advocated for the internationalization of state economies, arguing in The Alchemy of Finance for the creation of an international central bank, an international currency and, later, for an international regulator of state credit. (It’s not a coincidence that Soros’ signature trade, shorting the British pound, took place in the realm of currency disruption.)

In the early 2000s, as the locus of change shifted to geopolitical conflict, Soros worked towards ending American dominance, or, in his terms, “puncturing the bubble of American supremacy.” So deep was his loathing for George W. Bush and the War on Terror — which, he argued, had turned Americas into “perpetrators” of terrorism — that he called for regime change in America.

In 2015, with the rise of mass migration, he pushed Europe, in a speech to the World Economic Forum at Davos, to adopt a policy of admitting one million refugees a year “for the foreseeable future.” Soros argued that the EU should finance the biggest migration in history with state debt, while funding an additional four million refugees in Jordan and Turkey.

As the migration crisis arrived on American shores, Soros funded dozens of organizations in an effort to implement the same policy (successfully, as it were) at the southern border. And as America became engulfed in domestic crisis, he infamously spent years, and tens of millions, electing radical district attorneys with a do-not-prosecute approach to crime.

Amid this maelstrom of change, another conflagration erupted — the War on Information. In December 2016, Hillary Clinton, reeling from her devastating loss to Trump, declared a “fake news epidemic.” Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, expanding the mandate of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center from counter-terror to “counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts.” And the effort to delegitimize Trump’s presidency by falsely labelling it the product of Russian disinformation was well under way.

In this context, the Movement Strategy would leverage Wikipedia’s invaluable role as an arbiter of truth in a world where fact and fiction had blurred. The Strategy rested on three prongs. First was a total embrace of DEI, distilled into what WMF called “Knowledge Equity,” which funneled millions of dollars to activist NGOs. Second, the Strategy would seek to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, including with the launch of a university-style endowment and an Enterprise API. Third, it would fulfill its new mission of “shaping world policy” by expanding its advocacy for “open knowledge” into Africa, Central Europe and Asia.


Biden’s Medal of Freedom for George Soros: A dangerous misstep
One of the most controversial beneficiaries of Soros’s funding is Human Rights Watch (HRW). The organization, which has received significant support from OSF, published a widely criticized 2021 report accusing Israel of practising “apartheid.” Such accusations echo inflammatory rhetoric that delegitimizes Israel and emboldens its detractors. Meanwhile, HRW has been accused of turning a blind eye to blatant human rights abuses in neighbouring regimes, focusing disproportionately on Israel.

Soros has also financially backed J Street, a U.S.-based organization that markets itself as “pro-Israel” but has consistently supported policies that undermine the Jewish state’s security and legitimacy. Furthermore, Soros-funded Breaking the Silence, an Israeli NGO, has provided material seized upon by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which Soros himself has indirectly supported through funding other groups like Adalah and Al-Haq. These groups frequently accuse Israel of war crimes, further stoking anti-Israel sentiment worldwide.

In a 2010 interview with The Washington Post, Soros declared, “I don’t think you can ever overcome antisemitism if you behave like a victim. Israel, as a nation, should not respond to antisemitism by overreaching.” Such remarks reflect his controversial view of Israeli actions as overzealous responses to global criticism, a sentiment that many argue distorts the complexities of Israel’s geopolitical reality.

By awarding Soros this prestigious honour, Biden legitimizes the destructive consequences of Soros’s philanthropy, which have not only emboldened anti-Israel sentiment but also alienated the Jewish community. This decision sends a troubling signal about the administration’s priorities and its apparent disregard for the nuances of rising global antisemitism.

Biden’s embrace of Soros represents a dangerous departure from the principles of justice and freedom this award is meant to uphold. If this is the face of modern progressivism, it is no surprise that so many are questioning its commitment to truth and unity.
The Nazi roots of the German Greens
The German Green Party’s legislative action to label Israeli products from the West Bank has cast a spotlight on the role that former Nazis played in creating the party. Academic and journalistic research over the past five years shows the key role of Nazi figures in the party’s founding and development.

After strong similarities were revealed between an initiative by Germany’s neo- Nazi NPD party last year in a state parliament to demarcate Israeli products and a Green Party federal initiative in the Bundestag to impose a similar system on Israeli goods, critics pointed to the “Brown” — the color symbolizing Nazism – roots of the Green Party in an effort to explain the punitive measure directed at Jewish businesses.

The popular pro-Israel website Lizas Welt tweeted last month, “Not sure what the Greens actually have against Nazis. They even sometimes copy from them.”

Lala Süsskind, former head of Berlin’s Jewish community and chairwoman of the NGO Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism, termed the Green Party initiative hostile to Jews at an event last month.

Dr. Martin Kloke, an expert on contemporary German anti-Semitism, urged the Greens in a blog post on Die Achse des Guten (The Axis of Good) to critically examine and work through their “ambivalent role in the history of leftist German anti- Zionism and anti-Semitism.”

Dr. Clemens Heni, a leading German researcher on modern anti-Semitism, told The Jerusalem Post that Werner Vorgel, a former member of the Nazi Party and of its SA stormtroopers, “was among the first elected members of the Greens to the Bundestag in 1983.”

After the media exposed Vogel’s background, he resigned from the Bundestag.

Heni said that leading Green Party politicians at the time did not object to Vogel’s membership in the party.

Heni added that the founders of the Greens welcomed August Haussleiter, who, as co-founder of the Greens in 1979, played an important role in the party’s development. Haussleiter was active in Hitler’s Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and praised the German Wehrmacht in 1942. He stoked anti-American and anti-Semitic sentiments in post-World War II West Germany, said Heni.

Baldur Springmann, a former member of the SA, also played an important role in the nascent phase of the German Green party. He left the party in 1980.
‘No-Go Zones’ for Jews in Stuttgart
The city of Stuttgart, home to German auto giant Mercedes-Benz, has become dotted with no-go zones for Jews due to pro-Hamas events.

The executive board of the Jewish community in Württemberg, the region where Stuttgart is located, published a shocking notice on its website on Friday: “Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear community members! As usual, above you will find an overview of the anti-Israel demos in Stuttgart this weekend. We recommend avoiding these areas at the times listed.”

The statement linked to a list of “no-go” areas for Jews in Stuttgart.

The acknowledgment of no-go zones in European cities should not jolt serious observers of mushrooming Palestinian, Islamist, and left-wing antisemitism. After all, in March, Robin Simcox, the counter-extremism commissioner for Britain’s then-Tory government, said London has become a “no-go zone for Jews” during weekend pro-Palestinian (and pro-Hamas) marches.

While there is some level of intellectual honesty within conservative British discourse about the collapse of security for Jews, denial remains the order of the day about the lack of freedom for the dwindling Jewish community in Germany.

Both the United Kingdom and Federal Republic have engaged in soggy appeasement toward the mass movements of Islamism and high-intensity antisemitism that pepper their cities and towns.

German journalist and author Henryk M. Broder first drew attention to the scandal in Stuttgart in his January 4 article, titled “Stuttgart: No-go areas for Jews,” published on his The Axis of Good website. Broder mocked anti-Israel bureaucrat Michael Blume, tasked with fighting Jew-hatred in the southwestern German state where the city is located. “In itself, that would be a case for the antisemitism commissioner of Baden-Württemberg, a man with many virtues, especially that of praising himself. If he took his job seriously, he could wrap himself in an Israeli flag and take part in the rallies. … And hold up a sign that reads: ‘Release the hostages!’”

Two German courts in Hamburg held that Blume can be termed antisemitic because of his slashing attacks on German Jews and Israeli national hero Orde Wingate. Blume goes to great lengths to make political Islam socially and politically accepted in Germany.

Barbara Traub, chairwoman of the Jewish community in Württemberg, told her members to not allow themselves to be “provoked” by the anti-Israel demonstrations. Sadly, Traub and many other community leaders and members have embraced a mindset of crude servility toward the modern German state.
'The fall of the Oxford Union': The debased debate on Israel and apartheid
Sacerdoti described the audience as a “baying mob, openly hostile and emboldened by the president’s refusal to enforce the most basic rules of decorum.” One of his team, Yoseph Haddad, an activist pro-Israeli Arab, was ejected from the chamber after dismissing audience members as “terrorist supporters.” At one point Miko Peled, a relentless anti-Israel activist, called the atrocities of October 7 acts of “heroism.”

It was this, on top of the clearly disgraceful proceedings generally, that led 300 senior academics to write an open letter to Oxford’s newly elected chancellor, Lord Hague, on December 4 condemning the “inflammatory rhetoric, aggressive behavior, and intimidation” witnessed during the event. Referring to Peled’s “heroism” comment, the signatories said: “We unequivocally condemn the incendiary remarks made by some speakers in support of Hamas and terrorist violence. Such statements are not only morally reprehensible but also in clear violation of the law.”

They should have been pushing at an open door. There has recently been a series of attempts by Oxford students to bar figures with right-wing and gender-critical views from speaking. Hague was elected Oxford University’s new chancellor on November 27. Within a day, he declared that he would end so-called “no-platforming.”

In a radio interview, he was asked how he would deal with concerns about a “tendency among students not to accept points of view with which they disagree.” He responded: “Cancellation culture towards speakers that we disagree with is absolutely wrong. I would encourage the government to bring forward into law the act that was passed under the previous government reinforcing freedom of speech in higher education, or if they think it is deficient, to come up with proposals of their own.”

What, if anything, he proposes to do about the Oxford Union debate, which occurred after he had won the election for the chancellorship, remains to be seen. As for the debate itself, it is likely to be counted among the more notorious episodes in the records of the Oxford Union – not quite on a par, perhaps, with the debate held on February 9, 1933, on the motion “That this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country.” That debate, which was won by 428 against 275, polarized opinion across the country. Next day, the Daily Telegraph ran an article headlined “Disloyalty at Oxford.” The debased debate on November 28, 2024, attracted, from the audience present in the chamber, 278 ayes as against 59 noes. Sacerdoti described the evening as “the fall of the Oxford Union.”
Israel vs the World: Jonathan Sacerdoti and Einat Wilf on the battle of lies and hate against Israel
At a salon event in Tel Aviv, Einat Wilf and Jonathan Sacerdoti delve into their personal experiences debating anti-Israel motions in hostile environments like the Oxford Union. They explore the emotional and intellectual challenges of facing audiences and opponents driven by deep prejudice, the pervasive narratives surrounding Israel and Zionism, and the broader implications of misinformation and antisemitic ideologies in global discourse.

0:00: Introduction - the emotional impact of hostile debates
1:27: Jonathan's oxford union experience
2:39: Einat's 2019 intelligence squared debate
3:48: The glee of anti-israel crowds
5:04: Oxford union debate setup and biases
7:13: The significance of Arab voices on the pro-israel side
10:15: The strategy behind anti-israel motions
13:05: The visceral reaction to facts at oxford union
15:30: The long-term value of making a public case
16:29: Debating anti-Israel speakers at Oxford Union
18:10: Hostile tactics by debate opponents
22:25: Reflections on Israel vs. the world
24:22: Balancing despair and hope post-October 7th
26:44: The placard strategy and its impact on perception
30:08: The rise of Islamist politics in the uk
32:01: Addressing the role of islam in anti-israel ideologies
35:02: The importance of interpretation in religious texts
38:46: Letting extremists reveal themselves
40:54: Countering the spread of anti-Israel rhetoric
45:01: Ignorance versus malice in anti-Israel narratives
46:26: Why Israel will endure despite challenges
47:05: Why non-Jews should care about supporting Israel
49:12: "Palestinianism" and what it represents
51:01: The challenge of combating ideological narratives
54:02: The struggle for truth in media coverage
57:03: Hamas’s manipulation of journalists and narratives
1:00:12: Defining victory in the information war
1:03:09: Closing remarks — pushing anti-Israel narratives to the margins


At Paris institute for oriental languages, students of Hebrew are hiding
Students at Inalco, the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris, have been the victims of antisemitism.

Those who are studying Hebrew are hiding. Amid slogans of “Israel the murderer” and applause, students in the Hebrew department are keeping a low profile. In the corridors, pro-Palestinian posters, placards and graffiti abound.

According to the reports, several posters call for a boycott of a student list described as “genocidal.” Parents and students denounce discrimination, pressure and intimidation.

“Many students learning Hebrew today are hiding, simply because they know that there will be far-left or pro-Palestinian organizations after them to exert pressure,” Yvenn Le Coz, a students association delegate, told the CNEWS channel.

Jewish students are assailed with slurs such as “Terrorist Israel” and leaflets are distributed supporting the unfounded theory that all Jews of Ashkenazi origin are descended from the Khazar people.

Several complaints have been lodged, but none of the students wished to comment on the situation. Le Coz denounced a “real system of censorship, a system of terror, a totalitarian system that has been established at Inalco, but not only there.”

“They make students feel excluded. My son is scared and wants to concentrate on his studies without being dragged into the controversy of the conflict. But with them, all that becomes impossible,’’ one student’s mother said.


Congratulations, Mr. Dictator: PA chief starts his 21st year
On Jan. 9, 2025, Mahmoud Abbas will start the twenty-first year of his first four-year term as leader of the Palestinian Authority.

As does U.S. law, P.A. law stipulates that the leader of the government be elected for a four-year term, which can be extended, subject to re-election, for one additional four-year term.

Abbas was elected to the position of chairman (ra’is) in the last P.A. elections, held in 2005.

The international community embraced him, hoping that Abbas would be different from Yasser Arafat, his terrorist predecessor. But Abbas was never the popular Palestinian choice.

Of the 1,760,481 potential voters in 2005, only 802,077 actually cast their vote. Of them, only 501,448 voted for Abbas. That is, he was elected by only 35% of the electorate over 20 years ago.

Since the P.A. was established more than 30 years ago, the United States and the European Union have donated billions of dollars to build a functioning democratic Palestinian society. While the donations kept flowing, everyone was content to turn a blind eye to the bleak reality.

In 2017, the European Union adopted a multi-year plan for E.U.-P.A. collaboration. The plan stipulated that P.A. democracy was “non-negotiable.” At the time, Abbas was only in the twelfth year of his first four-year term.

While the reality of his dictatorship is clear, Abbas continues to enjoy international recognition.

Recently, Abbas, 89 years old, tapped Rawhi Fattouh to succeed him should he become temporarily or permanently incapable of performing his duties. Fattouh, according to the P.A. announcement, would hold the position until new Palestinian elections are held.

In Judaism, there is a tenet according to which “actions of the fathers are a sign to the children.”

Arafat, who first led the P.A., stayed in his position for 10 years after being elected only once. Abbas has now stayed in his position, also having been elected once, for over 20. Based on this poor record, it is possible that the international community will have to start getting used to the name Rawhi Fattouh. He may be with us for the coming decades.
16 PA security personnel killed while attacking Israelis
Israeli NGO Regavim, dedicated to the protection of the country’s national lands and resources, released an extensive report on Jan. 2 highlighting the involvement of members of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) in terrorism targeting Israelis.

No fewer than 16 PASF members were killed while attacking Israeli civilians and soldiers, the report, titled “Officers by Day—Terrorists by Night,” reveals. More than 80 were killed, injured or arrested between 2021 and 2023 while engaging in comparable acts of terrorism.

“The Palestinian Authority’s involvement in encouraging and promoting terrorism goes beyond direct acts of violence, as the P.A. publicly celebrates terrorists who are not on the PASF payroll by providing military-style honor guards and funerals, particularly for those affiliated with Hamas,” Regavim added.

While the PASF are cracking down on Islamist terrorists in P.A.-controlled cities, especially Jenin, Regavim’s researchers concluded that such confrontations are actually “a means of consolidating the Palestinian Authority’s power and legitimacy as the best alternative for ‘the day after’ the ongoing war—in Judea and Samaria, as well as in Gaza.”

Moshe Shmueli, director of Regavim’s Field Division and a high-ranking officer in the IDF reserves intimately familiar with the issue, said, “These operations can best be described as window dressing—too little and far too late to be taken seriously. The P.A. is not part of the solution, it has been neck-deep in terrorism for decades, and recent theatrics have not changed the DNA of PASF.”

The Regavim report shared that “the P.A. honors fallen terrorists from the very same groups that are now ostensibly being targeted by [its] enforcement activities, naming streets, public squares, and even schools and educational programs after them, embedding their legacy into the community’s daily life.

“This glorification extends into cultural and educational domains, where terrorists are extolled through music, poetry and school curricula, influencing the next generation.

“Additionally, the P.A.’s ‘pay-for-slay’ program offers financial incentives to terrorists and their families, thereby economically rewarding acts of terrorism.

“This pattern of behavior remains unchanged. The Palestinian Authority not only fails to oppose terrorism, it actively endorses it,” the researchers concluded.


Trump will support strike on Iran’s nuke program, sources say
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump would “either support an Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities … or even order a U.S. strike,” said two sources who spoke with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer after his meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 10.

Dermer left the meeting with the impression there was a high likelihood Trump would take one of those two options, the two sources shared with Axios.

“Anything can happen. It’s a very volatile situation,” Trump had told Time magazine in November, in response to the question, “What are the chances of going to war with Iran during your next term?”

Top advisers to President Joe Biden also debated in recent weeks striking Iran’s nuclear sites before Trump takes office, according to Axios on Monday.

However, with two weeks left in Biden’s term, those discussions have ceased, the news outlet reported.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Dec. 14 that Trump’s transition team is weighing two main options to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including preventive airstrikes.

The military option was under “more serious review” in the wake of the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria and Israel’s decapitation of Hezbollah’s leadership in Lebanon, according to the report.


Two bills introduced in Tennessee state legislature aim to fight Jew-hatred
Tennessee adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of antisemitism in May 2022. On Jan. 2, Mark Pody, a Republican member of the state’s Senate, introduced a resolution that called for that definition to be used when the state makes legal determinations about bias.

“We want to go forward to have a safe place for Jews in Tennessee,” he told JNS.

“There have been things this year that have targeted the Jewish community that are not acceptable in Tennessee,” the senator added. “We wanted to codify this into law to make sure everyone feels safe and secure.”

Pody, who told JNS that he is “a very strong supporter of Israel” and Jews, joined the state legislature 14 years ago. He came out “strongly” against anti-Israel protests on campuses after the Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, he told JNS.

He added that he has met with Jewish leaders and community members in the state “every Thursday” since the summer to discuss how Tennessee can keep serving its Jewish community.

Barbara Dab, chief communications officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, told JNS that Federation “is aware and engaged with the process around this legislation.”

“We are grateful for Sen. Pody’s leadership on this issue and are looking forward to working further with local and state leaders,” Dab told JNS. She added that there has been a rise in Jew-hatred more broadly, but “most of the antisemitic actions have come from groups outside of Tennessee and Nashville.”
More records found linking Credit Suisse to Nazi accounts — US Senate panel
An investigation by a US Senate panel has found that troubled investment bank Credit Suisse concealed information during previous inquiries into Nazi-controlled bank accounts during World War II.

Tens of thousands of documents discovered during an ongoing examination have provided new proof of the existence of account holders linked to the Nazis, the Senate Budget Committee said in a statement released Saturday.

The bank did not reveal the existence of these accounts during previous investigations, notably in the 1990s, the committee said.

Credit Suisse, now a subsidiary of investment bank UBS, agreed in 1998 to take part in a $1.25 billion settlement of lawsuits brought by Holocaust survivors, but it has been accused of not being completely open about its past dealings with Nazis.

The Senate committee said Saturday that one set of newly discovered files, including 3,600 physical documents and 40,000 microfilms, was found to have a “high relevance rate” of Nazi connections.

It said the revelations stem from an interim report by former prosecutor Neil Barofsky, who was fired as an “independent ombudsperson” by the bank in 2022 after being pressed to limit his investigative work.

Barofsky was reinstated in the role in 2023 “as a result of the Committee’s investigation,” and after UBS’s takeover of Credit Suisse. Neil Barofsky, then-Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on the Financial Crisis and TARP program on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 22, 2010. (Harry Hamburg/AP)

In a letter to the panel released Saturday, Barofsky noted the “extraordinary level of cooperation that Credit Suisse, under the leadership of UBS, has provided” since he rejoined the company.

But he said Credit Suisse had yet to share all the information it held.

The Barofsky team has discovered, among other things, accounts controlled by high-ranking SS officers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In his letter, Barofsky highlighted “especially noteworthy” discoveries from a Credit Suisse research department.

“Numerous client files in the sample are marked with a stamp stating ‘Amerikanische schwarze Liste’ — meaning ‘American Black List’ — a list maintained by the Allies of individuals and companies that were directly financed by, or were known to regularly trade with, Axis powers,” he wrote.

“One file bearing this stamp relates to an entity that was involved in selling looted Jewish assets.”


Westminster Holocaust Memorial to be built in 2027, claims leading supporter
One of the leading supporters of a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre being built in Westminster has predicted the long-promised project will be built in 2027.

Lord Eric Pickles – co-chair of the advisory board overseeing the building of the memorial – told the influential American magazine The New Yorker that while work on the memorial had paused while new laws made their way through Parliament he was confident new planning would allow the memorial to go ahead.

Pickles claimed there was a campaign of misinformation being spread about the likely impact of the Memorial and Learning Centre, telling the magazine:”“We are subject to either people thinking we’re going to go super-woke, or they think we are going to go imperial, triumphant.

“And we are not. We are not going to do either.”

The Conservative peer and commentator Daniel Finkelstein said he also supported the need for a striking national monument next to the Palace of Westminster to teach and remind future generations about the horror of the Shoah.

The alternative to not building a memorial, said Finkelstein, was to do “nothing.”

But he also told the magazine it was clear there was not “unanimous support” for the memorial within the Jewish community, but this was not uncommon in relation to many issues.

In an article headlined Why Is It So Hard to Build A Holocaust Memorial in London? Baroness Ruth Deech expressed strong criticism of the project.

She said:”“Everybody loves dead Jews, the living not so much. I think that sums it up.”

Louise Hyams, a Conservative councillor in Westminster, also told how the local planning committee had unanimously rejected the memorial because it was “too large, too imposing.”

She added:” It did not really, I think, get over the message that a Holocaust memorial should.”

The article noted how in 2026 a decade would have passed since the then PM David Cameron announced that the new structure would be built in Victoria Tower Gardens, close to the Houses of Parliament.

But it noted how the project has been beset by delays, legal challenges, rocketing costs, and complicated arguments in which several Holocaust survivors have themselves expressed opposition to the project.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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