Wednesday, January 08, 2025

01/08 Links Pt2: Report highlights JVP’s terrorist connections; Why is ‘Haaretz’ consistently anti-Israel?; NFL legends pay solidarity visit to Israel

From Ian:

Their god is not willing, Penny
How many Palestinians does it take to change a light bulb?

None! They sit in the dark forever and blame the Jews for it!

Those who follow Middle East affairs will know that ‘god willing’ is the wish – the mantra – constantly uttered by all Muslims, including radical Islamists. But god isn’t willing, judging by history. Israel has won every single war of over half a dozen started by its neighbouring enemies in the Arab world since its inception. And in 2024, Israel decimated Iran’s terror proxies in response to yet another onslaught, launched on October 7, 2023 by Hamas, followed by Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Yemen-based Houthis.

Undeterred, Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, wears the political bling that signals her allegiance to the current fashion, demonstrated by voting in favour of antisemitic UN resolutions and her regrettable statements in relation to Israel. Her Prime Minister, seemingly reliving his student activist years, added his silence to the breach of loyalty and failure of moral clarity. Their ill-informed acceptance of the illegal decision of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is proof of their animosity to Israel (and their lack of respect for the rule of law).

‘The Palestinian Arabs have wasted the past century trying to destroy the Jewish homeland while Israel has gone from strength to strength. To prevent the next 100 years of war, they must understand the Jewish state is not going anywhere. They must internalise that terrorism and massacres will not be rewarded,’ writes Robert Gregory, chief executive of the Australian Jewish Association, in The Australian (Dec. 28, 2024)

‘The West must stop infantilising the Palestinians and shielding them from the consequences of their actions. There should be no rebuilding of Gaza until the society there commits to peaceful coexistence.’

While Penny Wong agitates for a two state solution, the Palestinian leadership abhors the idea. They want a one state solution, Israel not included. Australia now stands as a University student flag bearer for what is nothing more than an impotent slogan. There are more than enough useful idiots in international affairs; Australia’s Labor and Greens parties do not need to swell their ranks.
Report highlights JVP’s ‘extremist ideology,’ terrorist connections
A new booklet from StandWithUs seeks to expose Jewish Voice for Peace and the “extremist” rhetoric, harmful alliances and antisemitic actions the group utilizes.

The opening executive summary of the 36-page report released on Tuesday stated that JVP’s “primary goal is to dismantle the State of Israel.”

“JVP and its allies slander and dehumanize Israelis as privileged, powerful and racist white European colonizers,” the report stated. “They promote dangerous conspiracy theories tying Israelis to injustices against various communities” around the world.

The report also highlights JVP’s backing of terrorist organizations and their supporters, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Samidoun, which the U.S. and Canadian governments have sanctioned for its fundraising efforts for PFLP. JVP co-hosted the rally “Shut It Down for Palestine” with Samidoun’s local branch and endorsed the organization’s “Free Ahmad Sa’adat” campaign.

StandWithUs also accuses JVP of not being financially transparent while maintaining what the report calls “questionable sources of funding,” identified as foundations with ties to Lebanon and Iran, such as The Maximum Difference Foundation, The Violet Jabara Charitable Trust and the Halaby Family Foundation.
Antisemitism is More Stupid Than Cool
The last thing I needed to see after watching a movie about the amazing Bob Dylan was a year-end review with “antisemitism is cool” in the headline. Apparently, the evidence for this coolness was the “shocking rise” of antisemitism in mainstream institutions. In other words, the more that people hated Jews in 2024, the cooler it was to hate Jews. Power to the people!

What a silly equation.

Given that I had just watched “A Complete Unknown,” about the early musical years of Bob Dylan, I couldn’t help contrast Hamas supporters screaming “no Zionists here” in front of a Jewish hospital in New York with a Jewish troubadour bringing joy to millions and offering answers that only blow in the wind.

The thousands of Jew haters and useful idiots that have marched like hysterical robots spewing primal melodies around choice lyrics like “globalize the intifada” may be a lot of things. Stupid, boring, insufferable — yes. Cool — certainly not.

Why is this even worth bringing up? Because haters make so much noise they can make us lose our minds. Their bravado makes them look triumphant. Their chutzpah gives them the aura of Che Guevaras. They come across as fearless and fearsome fighters of justice. In an era when performance is everything, they check all the boxes.

Jews can never compete with those boxes. We can make plenty of noise when we argue at a Shabbat table about Donald Trump, but to damage our vocal cords by marching in unison on some busy street to “perform” a call for justice? We’d rather go to a deli for a pastrami or meet for coffee.

Jews will never outscream the haters. We can fight them by making sure they pay a price. We can use all legal means at our disposal. We can proudly practice our Judaism. But scream? Who needs to scream?

And who likes screamers anyway?

It’s so much cooler to make people laugh. Or dance. Or think.

The pro-Hamas bullies who have tried to intimidate Jews since the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7 have attempted the ultimate switcheroo — by associating Jews with Israel, they’re hoping we will be seen as the true bullies. Sure, there are those who will get sucked in by such trickery. But let’s remember the words of a Jewish singer who was onto these tricks way back in 1983.

“Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man.

His enemies say he’s on their land.

They got him outnumbered about a million to one.

He got no place to escape to, no place to run.

He’s the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive.

He’s criticized and condemned for being alive.

He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin.


Andrew Fox: Haaretz: not telling the whole story
I am sure you may have been as disturbed as I was to read the recent report in Haaretz about the conduct of the IDF in the Netzarim corridor in Gaza. For those who have not read it, the lurid allegations certainly raised my eyebrows. In later November 2024, I went to the Netzarim Corridor with the IDF. I saw nothing in the behaviour, conversation or ethos in the many soldiers I spoke to there that resembled the accounts described in Haaretz. This inspired me to do some digging of my own into accounts of serving in the Netzarim Corridor.

The corridor runs East to West from the Israel-Gaza border to the Mediterranean (see map below). It is designed to control movement between Gaza City and the South of Gaza. There are reports that checkpoints there are fitted with fiberoptic cable and facial recognition software to pick up Hamas and their allies attempting to move with civilians.

The area around this corridor is indeed flattened. As you cross the border fence from Israel into Gaza, it does not feel like a traditional entry into a kinetic war zone—it is more like entering the aftermath of a battle (which, of course, in some ways, it is). This is clearly not an area where fighting happens any more on a regular daily basis. Our escorts were more relaxed than on previous visits to the Philadelphi Corridor in July 2024. That said, I watched the vehicle in front with an experienced soldier’s eye, and I saw the level of professionalism I would expect. The top cover gunner was staying alert, rotating his machine gun barrel to the areas of likely threat I would expect, and the convoy drills were good.



I went to Gaza with Stefan Tompson from Visegrad24 and a cameraman. The visit was laid on just for us. After a ten minute drive, emphasising just how small Gaza is, we reached a base approximately midway along the corridor. It was an area of rear operations. Although in the distance we could hear operations in Nuseirat to our southwest, the base was behind large, built-up sand berms, festooned with stray dogs, and security felt relaxed. The soldiers had a Playstation, and one guy sat in a corner and strummed his guitar. Other troops were preparing a barbecue whilst their colleagues kicked around a football.

The soldiers were spoke to were all reservists from 252 Division, the reserve formation who were the focus of Haaretz’s hit piece. The atmosphere I observed was more relaxed than a British or American base would have been, but it was well maintained and free of litter and detritus. We met one of their commanders, who was intense and focused, but who spoke eloquently about their mission and the need to dismantle Hamas after 7th October.

Andrew Fox’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

As with all IDF commanders I have met, he was the opposite of vengeful against Palestinians. The IDF’s ethos and rules of engagement are always referenced early and often in every conversation with IDF front line officers. Many times now, I have observed the cold determination for the job in hand these men project. In some ways, it is more intriguing than if they were expressing rage or anger. I believe that the IDF does not care, on an institutional emotional level, about damage or death in Gaza—but to them it is very important to them to carry out such things legally. I find this whole approach appropriate. As a former soldier, I have no issue with it. War is bloody and brutal and requires controlled aggression. The blood and brutality are constrained by the law of armed conflict; but ultimately a soldier’s job is to carry out the mission within those parameters. And the mission for the IDF, after 7th October, is to conduct a war of national self-defence so that 7th October can never happen again. The ethos I have observed is the ethos I would expect.
Why is ‘Haaretz’ consistently anti-Israel?
On Dec. 27, Haaretz criticized the elimination of armed terrorists in Gaza and Judea and Samaria. The paper scolded Israeli citizens for not “raising an outcry” against the killing of armed terrorists, expressing the false Palestinian narrative that those killed were, depending on the incident, either innocent residents of the Tulkarm refugee camp or “journalists” who were killed inside a broadcast vehicle in Gaza.

This, too, was an anti-Israeli lie. The men killed in Tulkarm featured photographs showing them armed and identifying as terrorists, proudly published by the Palestinians themselves. Thorough research has shown that approximately 84% of Palestinian casualties in Judea and Samaria throughout 2024 were armed terrorists.

Similarly, regarding the five “innocent journalists” killed in a news vehicle in Gaza, the IDF said these men were Islamic Jihad terrorists operating from the vehicle. CNN stated that the TV station they worked for was affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In just one random week, Haaretz embraced a false anti-Israeli report by Human Rights Watch accusing Israel of committing genocide by denying Gaza water, a claim disproven by a brief fact check. It then proceeded to embrace another falsehood about a “settlement” in the Negev, that is, in fact, a legal neighborhood in the city of Arad.

It concluded by portraying the Israel Defense Forces’ elimination of armed and dangerous Palestinian terrorists as the murder of civilians while scolding the Israeli public for not opposing the IDF’s actions.

Haaretz also described Israel’s government as a “foreign regime” that must be fought against. Additionally, despite clear statements from the United States that it is Hamas and not Israel that is obstructing a hostage deal, Haaretz continues to harshly criticize the Israeli government, giving Hamas hope that Israel might succumb to pressure, thereby harming efforts to retrieve the hostages.

What will next week’s coverage bring? Stay tuned.
Greenblatt: How the Jewish community can address the post-10/7 ‘inferno’ of antisemitism
In a hearing before the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee on Tuesday, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt acknowledged that the Jewish community had fallen short in its efforts to combat antisemitism, resulting in what he described as an “inferno” against the Jewish community in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks and subsequent war in Gaza.

In order to tackle the challenges, Greenblatt argued, the Jewish community must “adopt new strategies to experiment with creative tactics to study the results and scale what works.”

Following his testimony in Jerusalem, Greenblatt sat with Jewish Insider for a wide-ranging interview about combating antisemitism, Meta’s move toward a “Community Notes” feature and the incoming Trump administration.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

JI: So let’s talk about the need to do things differently. Because that was the headline yesterday in our sister publication eJewishPhilanthropy, that was the thing that really stuck out to us. What we’ve been doing hasn’t been working. What is being re-evaluated?

JG: It’s funny you say that. So there were two interesting stories yesterday. In a way, they’re related. So one was the coverage of my comments on the need to do things differently. Then I don’t know if you saw the story in JTA, and I think it was totally coincidental, there’s a story about this guy, Matt Williams, who works for ADL, and he’s running our Center on Antisemitism Research. Interestingly, we created this back in 2022 so it’s not new, but my thinking then was we need to do a much better job of measuring the effectiveness of our programs, we need to do a much better job of understanding the efficacy of different kinds of interventions. ADL has always been very data-driven, grounding the work in evidence. If you look at our policy recommendations, our advocacy activities, our engagement with law enforcement, our monitoring of extremism — all of that, in many ways, is predicated on this systematic approach to trying to understand the problem as in, what are the attitudes like, what are the incidents like? We’ve been doing the attitudinal research since the 1960s and we have better longitudinal data on attitudes than any other organization, at least vis-à-vis the U.S. market. We’ve been doing the systematic track of incidents since the 1970s, before there were hate crimes laws. So this is all to say we aspire to have, and I believe we do, a very data-driven approach, and yet, whereas we’re thinking about it on the front end, I don’t think we’re doing a sufficiently effective approach on the back end. So you have law enforcement training resulting in more reporting of hate crimes, so you have attitudinal analyses and education programs to engage the younger generation. Is it resulting in a reduction in antisemitic attitudes over time and so on? So the idea behind this evidence in research was, how do we actually drill down multiple levels to get more visibility into causality, and again, to assess performance.

This was the thesis, and then Oct. 7 happened, and antisemitism had already been intensifying and had already been expanding. I think if you’re not stepping back and rethinking, considering the facts, just the facts — how so many allies fled, or at least didn’t stand by us in the way you would have thought — just the fact that in the younger demographic there’s a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes than in the older segments of the population. If you start to think about the fact that the Jewish community has been very supportive of diversity initiatives, and yet these initiatives, which are supposed to promote inclusion, actually result in the exclusion of Jews. So all of this, and the moment we’re in, leads me to say we have to step back and rethink and reconsider and have the humility to acknowledge it all wasn’t working the way that we hoped. Now the funny thing is that we put the CAR in place more than two years ago, three years ago. So we’re already down that path. I can’t speak to other organizations in the sector. I can’t speak to any other entities. But that’s what I was talking about. And you know, by the same token, I think the State of Israel has done this very effectively. I think the State of Israel historically has done the equivalent of after-action reports, learned from the 2006 Lebanon engagement, learned from Guardian of the Walls in 2021 and you saw that in the way that they approached this conflict. And that’s what I talked about in my remarks. We need to do the same.
Lipstadt to visit Israel in last overseas trip as US special envoy
Deborah Lipstadt, the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the U.S. State Department will visit Israel from Jan. 8 to 9, Foggy Bottom said on Tuesday.

The trip, on which she is scheduled to meet with Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, and with others at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, will be her fourth visit to Israel and fifth to the Middle East, per the State Department.

It will also be her last overseas trip as special envoy, it said.


Johns Hopkins Off the Hook for Anti-Semitism in Latest Biden Ed Department Settlement
President Joe Biden's Department of Education reached an agreement with Johns Hopkins University to settle civil rights complaints that alleged widespread campus anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack. The agreement will see Hopkins, which did not admit wrongdoing, implement underwhelming reforms like general anti-discrimination training.

Hopkins agreed to "provide annual training to all employees and staff responsible for investigating complaints and other reports of discrimination" as well as general training "addressing discrimination based on race, color, and national origin" to all staff and students. The university will also conduct a survey "to evaluate the climate with respect to shared ancestry and the extent to which students and/or staff are subjected to, or witness discrimination." Hopkins will then report the survey results to the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.

Anti-Semitism at Hopkins especially reared its head in May when an Israeli Ph.D. student said she was "hit by a girl holding a Palestinian flag, right at the campus entrance." The girl "shouted at me to go back to Europe and hurled insults at me and Israelis," the Israeli student said in a recent interview about Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

In another example, a campus protester held a sign that read, "Go Hamas, from the river to the sea, finish the job" and featured a swastika, according to the Department of Education's investigation. On the anonymous campus social media platform Sidechat, one user described a Jewish student as a "witch," and another user described Jews as "people with more pointy noses." The Hopkins investigation, launched in February, found that the university did not adequately respond to those and other anti-Semitic incidents.

The Hopkins settlement closely resembles other anti-Semitism settlements the department reached in the last month with both Rutgers University and the University of California system. Both schools refused to admit wrongdoing and agreed to provide training to employees engaged in discrimination oversight.
Dept. of Education opens Title VI antisemitism investigation at Sarah Lawrence College
The federal Department of Education is opening a Title VI antisemitism investigation into Sarah Lawrence College in response to a complaint from the campus Hillel chapter that the school fostered a hostile environment for Jewish students.

The private liberal arts college in Westchester, New York, failed to properly respond to harassment of Jewish students in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, Hillels of Westchester alleged in its formal complaint, which a lawyer for the group filed in March 2024.

In a December 23, 2024, letter viewed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the department’s Office of Civil Rights, which oversees Title VI investigations, confirmed it would investigate “whether the College failed to respond to alleged harassment of students on the basis of national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) in a manner consistent with the requirements of Title VI.”

“We hope this investigation initiates a meaningful culture shift at SLC to improve the campus environment,” Rachel Klein, executive director of Hillels of Westchester, said in a statement. Klein and various Hillel board members added that the school had not engaged its Hillel in any efforts to address campus antisemitism but that they hoped the school would do so now.

After this story’s publication, a representative for the college told JTA, “We are in the process of reviewing OCR’s request for data in connection with its investigation, and the College remains committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful campus community.” They added that they considered Hillels of Westchester to be “an outside organization not affiliated with the College.”

While there have been dozens of Title VI investigations into allegations of post-October 7 campus antisemitism, it is rare for a Hillel chapter to have filed the instigating complaint. Title VI antisemitism complaints have typically originated from students, community members, Jewish organizations, or activists unconnected to the university.

But Hillels of Westchester, which also serves five other campuses in the area, has long been outspoken about what the group sees as an unsafe environment for Sarah Lawrence’s Jewish students. In November 2023, weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks, the Forward reported that the Hillel organization sent a letter to Sarah Lawrence’s president saying that “Jewish students are harassed, intimidated, bullied, and ‘canceled’ for simply expressing themselves as Jews, or discussing or identifying with Israel.”
Palm Beach County School District faces federal review of potential bias
A federal investigation into potential discrimination involving shared ancestry at Palm Beach County School District opened on Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Education will review the case to determine if the district violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

JNS reached out to district representatives for details about the alleged discrimination.

According to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2023 audit, Palm Beach County led the state in antisemitic incidents, documenting 84 cases—an increase from 20 in 2022. As recently as 2023, officials have estimated that about 12% of Palm Beach County’s population is Jewish, the ADL report stated.

“In Palm Beach County specifically, there were 15 bomb threats. That was versus zero the year before,” Sarah Emmons, regional director of ADL Florida, said.

The School District of Palm Beach County is the 10th-largest school district in the country and the fifth-largest in Florida.


Petition urges ‘The Jerusalem Post’ to nix ‘West Bank’ in reporting on biblical heartland
A group of conservative Jewish and Christian leaders has launched a public petition urging The Jerusalem Post to stop using the term West Bank in reporting on Israel’s biblical heartland and to call it by its historic name of Judea and Samaria.

“As Israel’s oldest English newspaper when it was called ‘The Palestine Post,’ The Jerusalem Post holds significant influence in shaping public opinion, influencing policies and defining global narratives,” the petition addressed to Eli Azur, the media outlet’s owner, and Zvika Klein, its editor-in-chief, stated. “Your words and your headlines matter as Israel fights on the front lines and the front pages of media outlets around the globe.”

The appeal was launched following a tweet against the newspaper by a right-wing Israeli parliamentarian in the wake of Monday’s shooting attack by the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq near Kedumim.

“It’s heartbreaking enough that Jewish blood is flowing needlessly in our biblical heartland,” MK Ohad Tal from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s party wrote on X. “It’s time for you to join hundreds of media outlets in calling our homeland by its correct name, ‘Judea and Samaria.’ Only the truth will help us overcome our enemies’ murders and lies.”

The attack killed three Israelis, including two women in their 70s and an Israeli police officer who was gunned down in his car in front of his young son.

The petition to The Jerusalem Post further stated that by “referring to today’s attack in Kedumim, which killed three and injured eight as occurring in the ‘West Bank,’ your headline leads credence to those delegitimizing Israel.”


Gaza clans, dignitaries call for PA’s return
Family leaders, clan chiefs, and community dignitaries from Gaza issued urgent calls for PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA to reassert control over Gaza, marking a significant development in the territory’s internal politics amid the ongoing conflict.

The appeals, made public earlier this week on the PA’s official state-run news agency, Wafa, may represent a potential shift in local support for the governance of the territory. The calls, made on two different occasions, came through a dialogue meeting organized by the General Union of Palestinian Farmers and a formal declaration signed by mukhtars (community leaders) and dignitaries from the Gaza and North Gaza governorates.

During the farmers’ union meeting, the dignitaries of Palestinian families and clans in the enclave were quoted as confirming “their support for the initiative of Mahmoud Abbas to enter the Gaza Strip,” calling on the PA to assume duties there, “to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.”

During the meeting, Fatah Central Committee member and presidential adviser Ismail Jabr discussed the PA’s ongoing efforts to halt what the participants described as “the genocide” in Gaza, lauding Mahmoud Abbas’s recent diplomatic initiatives, including sending a delegation to Egypt to address the crisis.

In a parallel and related development, community leaders from the Gaza and North Gaza governorates issued a more formal declaration, emphasizing their perceived urgent need for the Palestinian Authority to resume its pre-2007 role in the territory.

The declaration specifically appointed Abbas, on behalf of over 100 signers, to “take all necessary measures and procedures to save our people in the Gaza Strip governorates and confront the forced displacement project planned by the occupation.”

The community leaders emphasized that their support for the PA’s return stems from the current crisis’s severity, painting a dramatic picture of Gaza as “a mass grave for children, women, and the elderly, with the aim of eliminating the manifestations of political, economic, and social life, thus making Gaza and all its governorates an uninhabitable place.”


How Did Hezbollah Take Over Lebanon? | Explained
Hezbollah has turned Lebanon, a country once known as the "Switzerland of the Middle East," into a battleground for Iran’s ambitions, infiltrating its government and devastating the region.

Once a militia, now an occupying force, Hezbollah’s loyalty lies with the Islamic Republic of Iran, not the Lebanese people. Yet, brave citizens are risking everything to expose its corruption and reclaim their country.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:38 The Islamic Revolution in Iran
01:41 Factions in the Lebanese Civil War
03:02 The rise of Hezbollah
05:43 Voices from Lebanon
08:59 Coordination with Syria
10:00 2nd Lebanon War
10:43 Syrian Civil War & human trafficking
13:26 Syrian drug trafficking
14:43 Hezbollah payoffs from Iran
15:32 Lebanon's October Revolution
18:06 Covid Pandemic
18:15 2024 Israeli attacks on Hezbollah
21:38 The truth about Hezbollah




Khamenei’s paper tiger is soaked and on the verge of collapse
Children often fold paper boats and float them in water, where they remain afloat until disturbed by waves. Similarly, Khamenei has kept his regime afloat for years through bluffing, grandstanding, and a facade of sanctity.

Yet, the reality reveals that the Islamic Republic’s paper tiger is soaked and on the verge of collapse. Behind the propaganda machine of the regime and its Western-affiliated reformist lobby lies a truth contrary to its claims of strength and resilience.

The regime’s current efforts are focused on military exercises and maneuvers, designed to project an image of invincibility in the media.

Today also marks the fifth anniversary of the IRGC’s heinous crime of shooting down the Ukrainian passenger plane (January 8, 2020), an act following the death of Qasem Soleimani, the notorious Islamic terrorist commander of the Quds Force (January 3, 2020).

Iranians have come to realize that as long as the Shiite mullahs and their centers of power persist, the nation’s problems will remain unsolvable. As Persian poetry teaches, heroes break idols; similarly, this grotesque idol of the regime, which has sucked the lifeblood of Iranian society like a leech, must also be shattered. The Shiite mullahs have been a scourge on Iran’s fertile land, preventing peace, humanity, and the rule of law.


New film explores fate of Jewish children sent to remote Island following 1492 Spanish expulsion
The fate of Jewish children abducted in the fifteenth century is the subject of a new thirty minute online documentary.

‘The 2,000 Kidnapped Spanish Jewish Children’ examines the story of thousands of Jewish children forcibly relocated to the central African island of São Tomé after the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492. They were separated from their families after they fled to Portugal.

Historical accounts suggest the children were taken after their families failed to pay taxes imposed by Portuguese authorities as part of sanctions against debtors.

Around 4,660 miles from Portugal, São Tomé was sparsely inhabited with harsh living conditions. Whilst many children survived the long journey there, the ultimate fate of most remains unknown.

David Hatchwell Altaras, president of the Fundacion HispanoJudia in Madrid, said: “This film brings to light one of the most devastating moments in Jewish history when our people were kidnapped by enemies, and many never made it home.

“Sadly, we are witnessing a tragic repetition of history as the global Jewish community once again finds itself rallying for our kidnapped people. We hope this film, dedicated to the ongoing efforts to free our captives, highlights the importance of understanding our history to better navigate current events.”

Michael Rothwell, director of the Jewish and Holocaust Museums of Oporto, added: “Especially during the celebration of Chanukah, we are reminded of our responsibility as Jewish leaders to document and share our history. We are a people with a long memory, and it is essential that we learn from our past.”

The script was produced by the historical research centre of the Jewish community of Porto. Each scene is based on historical records published by Portuguese chroniclers of the time (Garcia Resende, Rui Pina, Valentim Fernandes), and also by Jewish leaders of that time (Isaac Abravanel, Samuel Usque, Shlomo Ibn Verga, Rabbi Gedalya ibn Yahia).
New memoir tells story of Jewish defiance, espionage, resistance
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks — and as antisemitism spiked worldwide in the months that followed — Gabriel Scheinmann found comfort in his grandfather’s Holocaust survival story. Now, amid the recent release of his grandfather’s memoir-like biography, I Am André: German Jew, French Resistance Fighter, British Spy, Scheinmann said he hopes an “unusual story of Jewish defiance, a real-life story of espionage, courage and resistance,” as he calls it, will resonate with Jewish and non-Jewish readers in a post-Oct. 7 world.

“It’s a story about being a fighter, being a warrior, not just merely being a victim. That is a timeless story but in particular resonates over the last 15 months,” Scheinmann, executive director of the Alexander Hamilton Society, told Jewish Insider.

The book, based on a memoir that André Joseph Scheinmann wrote in the 1990s about his experiences, was written by Diana Mara Henry, a photojournalist and friend of the family who spent three decades poring over military records and piecing together André’s story. Her research included hundreds of hours of interviews with André and other Holocaust survivors who knew him. Spanning nearly 500 pages, the book was published in London in October.

“A couple of steps in André’s story are more relevant today than ever since the conflagration of World War II,” Henry said at a book launch event. “André comes to show us what some can do under the most ambiguous circumstances to define and act on world events.”

Born in Germany in 1915, Joseph Scheinmann and his family left for France in 1933 after his father had spoken out against Adolf Hitler. With war seemingly imminent, he joined the French army and was given a pseudonym, André Peulevey, to hide both his German and Jewish identities. He fought in Belgium and escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp after the French surrender in summer 1940. Despite suffering an injury in Belgium, he went on to join the French resistance, becoming a spy and saboteur for the British and Free French, overseeing a network of 300 operatives, while working undercover as a translator and liaison with the German High Command at the Brittany headquarters of the French National Railroads (SNCF). “With the information he’d give, they’d sabotage or bomb the train tracks,” Scheinmann said of his grandfather’s work. Summoned by the British, Andre crossed the English Channel for initiation and training as an MI6 agent in England.

In his absence, he was betrayed by someone in his spy network and arrested— not as a Jew but as a resistance fighter— on his return to France. He spent over a year in Gestapo prisons outside of Paris, including 11 months in solitary confinement and 33 interrogations, followed by another 14 months in the little-known Natzweiler concentration camp in Alsace. Following the allied invasion of Normandy, he was transferred to Dachau and Allach. Even in the camps, where punishment was death, André worked to slow or sabotage Nazi operations and save his fellow campmates. He was liberated by the 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions of the U.S. Army on April 29, 1945.

His parents, Max and Regina, were murdered in Auschwitz.
Colombian president: Zionism partially owns international financial capital
Zionism has prevented peace in the Levant through its control of international finance, according to Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

“Zionism, strongly supported by international financial capital that it partially controls, prevents peace and unleashes horror on Palestine, leading its most radical factions into the trap set by terrorism,” he said Monday in response to criticism of his positions on the Israel-Hamas War.

In 1948, Palestinians opened their cities and territories to Jews who fled the Nazis with the intention of coexisting, supposedly as they had done with the Jews that had already lived in the Levant,” Petro wrote on X/Twitter.

“Just a few months later, the nationalist influx forged a political current under the newly created State of Israel that led to the violent expulsion of Palestinians from their own homes and villages,” he added. “There was never any justice for the Palestinian people; they were segregated in their own homeland, and factions within them had to resort to armed struggle for national liberation.”

All the progressive peace-oriented actors, including Yasser Arafat, were dead and had been replaced by religious radical leadership in Israel and Gaza, Petro said.

“Peace is a human priority,” he said. “The progressive movements that still exist in the Arab world, Israel, and the United States should seek to meet. Perhaps progressive dialogue in the Middle East could find the paths to peace. Colombia must be ready to help whenever it is asked. Colombia’s path inside and outside the country is peace.”

Classical antisemitism
In response, Marina Rosenberg, a former Israeli ambassador to Chile and Anti-Defamation League international affairs senior vice president, said Petro was resorting to a classical antisemitic trope about Jewish control of international finance.

“Anti-Israel obsession and constant distortion of history fuel hatred and perpetuate dangerous myths,” she said.
OPINION: Why is antisemitism filling London’s theatres?
Antisemitism is quite the attraction in London’s theatres right now. At the Trafalgar Theatre, Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Merchant of Venice 1936, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s original that places the story’s antisemitic themes centre-stage, is playing to packed houses. Just up the road, the box office at the Harold Pinter Theatre is doing a roaring trade in advance ticket sales for Giant, a play that focuses on the hateful personal rantings of celebrated children’s author Roald Dahl.

Meanwhile, five minutes away from the Trafalgar on London’s Embankment, the Kit Kat Club (formerly the Playhouse Theatre) is ushering its star-billed take on Cabaret into its fourth year, and taking a look across the Thames to the Menier Chocolate Factory, the run of Mel Brooks’ musical The Producers is entirely sold out. And that shortlist does not even include the National Theatre’s award-winning The Lehman Trilogy that has just finished its fourth London run and which, it has been argued, is itself an antisemitic trope hiding in plain sight.

Cabaret, of course, is an inspired collaboration by Kander & Ebb that takes Christopher Isherwood’s essays on the collapse of Germany’s Weimar Republic, and transforms them into a show in which the increasingly parlous and doomed existence of Berlin’s Jews provides the mood music to the Kit Kat Club’s decadent decline. Giant, albeit brilliantly performed with John Lithgow turning in an Olivier-worthy turn as Dahl, offers little more than a platform for some of the author’s most hateful utterances.

Around the turn of this century, the Monty Python troupe famously wrote the lyric: “You won’t succeed on Broadway if you don’t have any Jews”. That lyric, it appears, could easily be amended and with some justification, to “you won’t succeed in theatre if you don’t hate any Jews”, for aside from Brooks’ brilliant and merciless send-up of Nazi Germany, the other three productions have at their hearts strong themes of contempt, with tickets selling fast.

So, what is it about witnessing hatred aimed at Jews that makes for such a box office draw? I discussed this question with a number of leading theatre makers.

Henry Goodman, an Olivier-winning Shylock in Trevor Nunn’s 2020 Merchant of Venice at the National, commented to me that in our predominantly rational and progressive society, audiences really enjoy and are released of deep tension by participating in a thought dialogue (ie not simply just watching the play) while at the theatre.

Goodman notes that antisemitism is a very deeply rooted tectonic plate in social life. He suggests that there is a sense in theatre-going people that may seem them think to themselves: “I’m not like that but I keep being swayed by emotions I have no control over – thank heavens that this play is an intellectual or emotional valve that may even be funny, releasing pressures in my head to open myself to its argument or to resist its temptations.”
No charges to be laid over alleged Nazi salute made by officer at Victoria Police academy
A criminal investigation into allegations a Victoria Police officer made a Nazi salute has ended, with no charges laid over the alleged incident.

A 65-year-old female sergeant was suspended and questioned by detectives in October, after she allegedly performed the gesture at the Victoria Police Academy in Melbourne.

It wass alleged the sergeant approached two colleagues on October 8, performed the gesture and said a common Nazi greeting, before repeating those actions the following afternoon in front of recruits and an instructor.

The Nazi salute is illegal in Victoria and carries a maximum penalty of $23,000 or 12 months' jail.

Victoria Police said detectives from Professional Standards Command compiled a brief of evidence in relation to two charges of public performance of a Nazi gesture.

The brief of evidence was then sent to the Office of Public Prosecutions for assessment, who determined that "based on the circumstances, there is no reasonable prospect of conviction", according to police.

"This ends the criminal component of the investigation, and the sergeant will now be subject to an internal discipline investigation," a Victoria Police spokesperson said.

"The police officer continues to be suspended while the internal discipline investigation process proceeds."
Rouen synagogue vandalized months after arson, knife attack
A French synagogue, which was in recent months attacked by a knife-wielding arsonist, has been vandalized, the Rouen Synagogue announced on Tuesday.

Those who drew Nazi swastikas on the synagogue wall were “cowards,” the synagogue said on Facebook.

Le Monde reported that the synagogue had decided to alert the public to antisemitic graffiti that had been discovered on the synagogue, the rabbi’s residence, and a law office between last Sunday and early January.

“Jewish pedophile rapists to be gassed,” was scrawled in pink under a swastika in one photograph shared by the synagogue. Another swastika was accompanied by the words “Hitler actor.”

Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol condemned the antisemitic vandalism on Tuesday, saying on Facebook that such action had no place in the city or republic.
Israel overtakes USA as centre of largest Jewish population for the first time
New population statistics released by Israel should settle one question: “Which country has the largest Jewish community?”

Israel’s 7.7 million Jews — according to the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics — have overtaken the 7.5 million Jews estimated to be in the USA in the 2020 Pew survey.

Although some would argue that Israel reached number 1 some time ago, believing that the Pew survey figure was over-generous.

The Jewish Agency’s total for the global Jewish population this year — 15.8 million — includes a “core” Jewish population of 6.3 million for the USA. (If this is correct, world Jewry has yet to recover to the 16.6 million recorded on the eve of the Second World War).

But there is no universally agreed definition of who counts as a Jew. In addition to the 7.5 million Americans cited by Pew, another 1.4 million were said to consider themselves at least partly Jewish in some way. And then there are probably more than 250,000 people in Israel, mostly from the former Soviet Union, who act as secular Jews in pretty much every way but are not officially recorded as Jewish by the rabbinical authorities.

It is a measure of Israel’s success that since the birth of the state, its Jewish population has grown 11-fold.

It is astonishing to think — on the basis of the Jewish Agency figures - that nearly 90 per cent of world Jewry lives either in Israel or the USA. Barely one in ten Jews now live in other diaspora countries.
Pasadena synagogue burns down as fires rage across California
A synagogue with more than 100 years of history in Pasadena, California, burned down overnight as fires swept across parts of Southern California.

The fate of a Chabad centre about 40 miles away near the coast was unclear as a major fire flared in the Pacific Palisades, one of three different blazes destroying structures and threatening lives in multiple pockets of the greater Los Angeles area.

The Pasadena Jewish Center and Temple burned for hours as fire spilled out of the Eaton Canyon, fueled by strong winds. The 434-family congregation had operated from the Mission-style building, which had a wooden Torah ark carved by the Jewish artist Peter Krasnow, and three outbuildings since the 1940s.

“It’s a massive centre, it’s just crumbling with the intensity of the heat,” a KTLA reporter said while broadcasting from the scene. She added, as flames shot through the synagogue’s roof, “It looks like the concrete and the metal is just melting. … It’s just a total loss.”

Added a neighbourhood man whom the newscaster said used to go to the synagogue, “I feel numb to this. It’s like a bad bad horrific dream. To see that it’s not going to be here tomorrow … ” His voice broke.

The newscaster, Tracy Leong, showed fire trucks driving past the synagogue but said she had not seen any attempt to quell its burning while she was on the scene. “It’s really hard to get a handle on this fire,” she said. “There are so many structures burning and they’re doing what they can, and there’s just not enough of them right now.”


‘We love and support you’: NFL legends pay solidarity visit to Israel
NFL legends Nick Lowery and Tony Richardson touched down in Israel last week on a solidarity visit. Their itinerary included visits to the Nova Festival memorial, kibbutzim affected by the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, and the Druze village of Majdal Shams, where 12 children lost their lives on a soccer pitch to Hezbollah attacks.

Lowery, who played 18 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets, and Richardson, who played 17 seasons for the Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, and New York Jets, are both ambassadors of Project Max.

Bringing together professional athletes from around the world, Project Max is committed to combating intolerance through sports. The trip was made possible with the support of Athletes for Israel, an organization committed to combating antisemitism and racism while promoting a positive narrative about Israel.

The two spent time with family members of hostages currently held in Gaza, including Yoni and Amit Levy, the father and brother of Na’ama Levy. They also met with IDF soldiers and Israeli officials, including President Isaac Herzog.

Lowery told the president about his experience meeting with hostage families, saying, “We’re here to say we love and support you—no matter what.”

Richardson emphasized the importance of being a voice for those who do not have one. During a meeting with Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana the delegation discussed the importance of Israeli resilience and of the visitors’ steadfast support for Israel.

Eric Rubin, a member of the Athletes for Israel advisory board and the CEO of Project Max, told JNS about the importance of the visit to Majdal Shams.

“During former NBA Champion Josh Powell’s visit to Israel, we met some of the survivors of the Majdal Shams attack in Ichilov hospital. During that visit, we heard the horror stories, but also saw the resilience of the children and their families. I committed to them that I would do what I could to make sure the world didn’t forget what happened to the 12 angels and all the survivors,” he said.
Israel economy: A rebound in farming could lead to a decrease in food prices
As Israel gradually emerges from its most prolonged conflict since its Independence War in 1948, the country’s economy is showing signs of recovery, albeit still limited. With the country closer than ever to the end of the war, its citizens are eager to return to their everyday lives and experience the economic revival reserved for victorious countries.

Considered pillars of the Israeli economy, the high-tech, med-tech, aviation, and defense industries grew during the war and are expected to continue this trend even after the end of the hostilities that started on Oct. 7, 2023. For example, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' stocks surged 26% following the announcement of impressive remission rates results for a new drug that treats colitis and Crohn's disease. Teva's market position reflected the resilience and potential upswing of Israel's broader economic landscape in the post-war period.

According to Dr. Yannay Spitzer, an assistant professor specializing in economic history and applied microeconomics in the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “The labor market is at full employment right now. In part, this is an artifact of the war itself, but there could be no better-starting point for quick recovery,” he told The Media Line.

Dr. Roby Nathanson, Macro Center for Political Economics director, justified this optimism to The Media Line. “Historically, Israel has experienced many short-term conflicts, such as those in the Gaza Strip, which usually lasted a few days, with the longest being Operation Protective Edge, which spanned 50 days. Our last prolonged war was in 2006 during the Second Lebanon War, which lasted about three months. On all occasions, Israel recovered very quickly, and the economic growth of the labor market and other components of the economy showed even better performance shortly after the war than even before the war,” Dr. Nathanson added.

Despite the duration of the current war, Israel’s economic indicators show resilience. “While the shekel did depreciate during the war, it has since strengthened. The budget deficit rose significantly to about 8% of GDP but hasn’t continued to increase. Some sectors, like tourism and restaurants, suffered significantly, especially in the north and south,” explained Dr. Nathanson. “However, others, such as military industries, high-tech sectors linked to defense, cyber technologies, optical technologies, and even aviation, experienced notable growth. Gas and other energy-related industries are performing well and continue to perform during the year. The key challenge for Israel is reviving sectors and regions that were heavily impacted, particularly the north, where around 100,000 businesses were affected. Remember that Israel has around 700,000 businesses,” he added.

Moderately optimistic, Joseph Gitler, the founder of Leket Israel, the country’s leading food security organization working extensively with farmers in areas affected by the war, explained to The Media Line that “in the short term, we'll see a minimal impact, but in the medium term, three to six months, especially the holidays such as Passover and the summer, we’ll see something. I think Hanukkah will be a test already, mostly local tourism. If things remain quiet, farming in areas hurt by the war will greatly recover,” he argued.


War Songs
Israel is a nation of many wars and many war songs. Each war is accompanied by songs—period hits written in real time, folk or pop songs that capture the zeitgeist and the ethos of a particular war. If they are eventually admitted into the cultural canon, they will forever remind us of that war—like Naomi Shemer’s “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav,” for example, which will always be connected in our minds to the Six-Day War. Whether they’re pro-war, anti-war, memorial songs, or descriptions of life during wartime or on the battlefield, war songs are an integral part of Israel’s music, in every genre of popular music.

The Oct. 7 war, of course, is no different. YouTube is filled with playlists dedicated to it: songs about lives lost, fighting songs, songs longing for the hostages’ return. Over a year has passed since its beginning, and the songs just keep piling up. Here are 10 examples.

EZ, ‘October 7’
This shocking song was written less than 24 hours after the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, and released just days later on Oct. 11. Rapper EZ (Erez Sharon) states in the intro: “When I don’t know what to say, I just open a microphone and pour out everything that’s inside me.”

The lyrics are angry and ooze with vengeance. “My Jewish blood is burning,” EZ freestyles, speaking against those who criticize during wartime, telling the radical left, BDS, and the organization Breaking the Silence: “not now, not a word, shut up and let the IDF win.”

The main sentiment here is “let’s go get ’em” and “no more mister nice guy,” as he raps: “I want to raise this glass to the soldiers of the IDF. No more ‘the most moral army in the world.’ Moral my ass. Moral soldiers come back in a coffin.”

Ness ve Stilla, ‘Charbu Darbu’
Similar sentiments were expressed in the first huge chart hit to emerge from this tragedy, released five weeks after Oct. 7. Hip-hop war anthem “Charbu Darbu” cheered on the IDF on its mission to obliterate Hamas. This aggressive and vitriolic cry for vengeance, including threats peppered with violent slang like “Get your asses ready for the Israeli Air Force,” placed over an extremely catchy beat, dominated the charts and the airwaves for months in the early stages of this war.

For its many fans, the song was an energy boost. For others, its message and the way it was expressed was horrifying and made for extremely un-easy listening.
Meet the Arab Christian leading the race to represent Israel at Eurovision
A frontrunner on the latest season of “Rising Star,” the Israeli talent show, has advanced on the basis of her renditions of an iconic Israeli song that includes words from the Shema, one of Judaism’s central prayers, and “Hurricane,” the country’s post-Oct. 7 anthem that she performed alongside a survivor of the Hamas massacre that day.

Those might be unsurprising selections in a Jewish country that has lately been defined by its response to Oct. 7. But it’s not just her voice that sets Valerie Hamaty apart: She’s also an Arab Christian, the only such contestant on a show whose winner becomes Israel’s entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest. And her success is sparking debate at a time when Israel’s war in Gaza has tested relations between Jewish and Arab Israelis.

“That an Arab should represent Israel on an international stage is a huge source of pride,” said Zohurha Abonar. “And the fact that she’s from right here? That makes it even more special.”

Abonar is a Muslim resident of Jaffa, the city adjacent to Tel Aviv that is a heart of Arab Israel and Hamaty’s hometown. She was speaking at a Christmas market where Hamaty’s recent advance added to the seasonal cheer.

One teenage girl, who said she was Hamaty’s cousin but asked not to be named, said the singer’s growing success resonated deeply within her Christian community. “She’s inspiring so many of us,” she said.

But Hamaty’s rise hasn’t been welcomed by everyone.

“She’s always pandering to Jews,” said one young woman from a group standing nearby, who declined to give her name.

“My generation in the Muslim community will never stand behind her,” she added, pointing to Hamaty’s decision to wear a yellow pin in support of the hostages, and what she viewed as the singer’s public alignment with Israeli Jews during the ongoing war. Hamaty has made regular visits to hospitals to cheer soldiers wounded in Gaza, sung at the funerals of victims of the Oct. 7 attack, and toured battered kibbutzim and communities.

On various Arabic forums, discussions about Hamaty reflect this divide. Some praise her for breaking cultural barriers and serving as a role model for young Arab artists. Others express discomfort with her association with Israeli national events.





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