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Wednesday, January 15, 2025

01/15 Links Pt2: How the Left Has Come to Excuse and Embrace Political Violence; Global Anti-Semitism’s Leading Lady; Virtucrats on Parade

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Pardoning the Universities
CUNY, a public system of 25 schools with one of the worst anti-Semitism problems in the country, was ordered to remedy its sins by: investigating Jewish and Arab/Muslim complaints, telling the Education Department what CUNY found and what they’re doing about it, and training employees in nondiscrimination.

In other words, practically nothing.

Has that changed since last year? Not at all. A couple weeks ago, Rutgers University (my alma mater) followed the same path. Pro-Hamas mobs on campus threatened Jewish students and called for violence against Jews worldwide, but the school “admitted” it failed both Jewish and Palestinian students, because academia refuses to address anti-Semitism without saying “and Islamophobia.”

Rutgers, a state school with one of the largest populations of Jewish students in the country, was directed to make amends by: reviewing its policies, stating it won’t tolerate discrimination, providing training, etc. etc.

Can more be done? Mark Yudof, former president of the University of California system, told Jewish Insider that federal funding cuts should be on the table. Trump himself threatened colleges with the possibility of losing accreditation, should they ignore calls to clean up their acts.

A Trump Office of Civil Rights should also make clear that taking anti-Semitism seriously means being capable of addressing it without legitimizing the standard anti-Zionist response. The playbook is as follows: Jewish students make a civil-rights complaint and Arab/Muslim students treat that civil-rights complaint as a violation of their own civil rights. This makes a mockery of the entire concept of civil-rights protections in public institutions. It is, in fact, intended to do nothing more than torpedo the application of civil-rights law to Jews. The Hamas fanboys on campus and their supporters believe that the purpose of having a civil-rights regime is to make sure it is two-tiered.

Universities love this trick, but they are probably correct in assuming that just because Biden fell for it doesn’t mean future presidents will. Which is why they’re rushing to deliver the fatal blows to Title VI while they still can.
Noah Rothman: A Clockwork Blue: How the Left Has Come to Excuse Away and Embrace Political Violence
This intellectual environment is profoundly redolent of the one in which the violent radicals of the late 1960s and early 1970s were steeped. Terrorist groups like Weather Underground, the FALN, and the Black and Symbionese Liberation Armies—organizations that engaged in targeted assassinations and thousands of domestic bombings from the late 1960s through the late 1970s—immersed their members in revolutionary literature to help their followers think of actual people as abstractions, the better to disengage their emotions from the maiming and killing they were pursuing.

In his chronicle of the Students for a Democratic Society and its devolution into a variety of factions, Kirkpatrick Sale identified the psychological predisposition that had radicalized so many of the SDS members. “There was a primary sense, begun by no more than a reading of the morning papers and developed through the new perspectives and new analyses available to the Movement now, that the evils in America were the evils of America, inextricably a part of the total system,” he wrote. “Clearly, something drastic would be necessary to eradicate those evils and alter that system.”

This explanation is as true of today’s left as it was of the left when it was written in 1973. Just as 1960s and 1970s liberals came to echo revolutionary rhetoric that contributed to the foul atmosphere in the country rather than looking to stem the passions and cool the national temperature, so too do today’s liberals make common cause with those who believe the American system is delegitimizing itself.

If one makes a careful survey of the progressive press, there isn’t much about America in 2025 that is still worth preserving—least of all, its legal structure. In the progressive view, the courts are hopelessly corrupt, and the rot goes all the way up to the top. “The Supreme Court has now allowed Trump to carry out this agenda in a second term through literally criminal methods of repression so long as he calls them ‘official acts,’” yelped Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in 2021 after Derek Chauvin was found guilty for George Floyd’s death. (Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

Even when the courts function in ways progressives like, as they did when George Floyd’s killer was convicted, they are still viewed as tools of a corrupt system. “America has a long history of systemic racism,” Kamala Harris said in response to the conviction of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Joe Biden similarly used the occasion not to speak of justice being served but of the injustice the original crime supposedly represented. “The systemic racism is a stain on our nation’s soul,” he concurred. “The knee on the neck of justice for black Americans.” What is this but a leftward echo of the idea expressed by Donald Trump in 2015 and 2016 that America is “rigged”? Taking measures into your own hands under such conditions is a rational response.

After all this, it surely does not come as a surprise that Americans are growing increasingly comfortable with political violence, at least in theory. A 2017 poll by UCLA’s John Villasenor found that nearly one-fifth of the students he surveyed said violence was acceptable as a form of protest against speakers with whom they disagreed. By the fall of 2022, the William F. Buckley Jr. Program at Yale found more than 41 percent of students believed that physical violence to prevent the articulation of dangerous ideas is justified. In 2024, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression revealed that one-third of the 50,000 college students it surveyed believed violence might be an acceptable response to nonviolent behaviors—even if those polled would prefer that someone else take on the associated risks.

This outlook is migrating off America’s campuses and into the whole of society. A third of respondents in a 2021 Washington Post poll said violent action against the government could be justified, up from just 1 in 10 in the 1990s. A University of Chicago survey in 2024 found that 10 percent of respondents agreed that “violence is justified” to “prevent Trump from becoming president.” Does the percentage sound small? Fine, but it represents some 26 million Americans.

While the argument over the past 25 years in the mainstream media has been that political violence is primarily a threat from the right, the history I have laid out here suggests something very different. We’ve been lucky that no single act has set off a truly cataclysmic chain reaction, but the potential for a spiraling cascade of vengeance and reprisals is ever present. And one day soon—unless we grow sick of the sight of blood or become revolted by the thought of an America descending into actual political carnage, and unless the left is willing to take a long and hard look in the mirror—our luck will run out.
Documentary exposes campus protests and hateful vitriol for what they are
I recently attended a screening of “October H8TE,” a documentary film by director and executive producer Wendy Sachs, which was followed by a question-and-answer session. Later, I had a one-on-one conversation with executive producer Debra Messing, in addition to a student featured in the film.

Unlike some of the other films about the Hamas-led terrorist attacks and atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were massacred and 251 others kidnapped and dragged into the Gaza Strip, this documentary focuses on the wave of Jew-hatred that has spiraled upward in America since Oct. 8.

The film starts and ends in Israel, but the story is told through an American lens. “I am an American Jew,” says Sachs, the filmmaker and mother of a college student. “So, I’m telling it through my experience and what’s happening here in America.”

“This is not a film about the Republican Party or the Democratic Party,” says Sachs. “But at the same time—what is shocking to me, and, I think, to many of us—is what is happening in the progressive left of the Democratic Party—the not just refusal to call out the antisemitism but a hostility toward Israel and even the term ‘Zionism’.”

Anti-Israel bias and loathing have become rampant on many campuses. Clips of angry student protests with their calls for Israel’s destruction weave throughout the film. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, a recent Harvard-Harris poll found that 52% of Generation Z, those between the ages of 18 and 24, said they side more with Hamas than Israel.

I asked Messing, who appears in the film, what she would say to them.

“I would say you’re sympathizing with terrorists,” she told me. “Then I would ask: What kind of civilization do you want? One in which women can’t show their hair, speak in public, sing, learn? Where gay people are hung in the town square or pushed off buildings to their deaths? Where there is no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, no freedom of movement? If this is not what you want, then you have to stop marching with people carrying Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS flags.”


Meir Y. Soloveichik: Unimaginable
This is eloquent, concise, and largely correct; singing “Imagine” at a Christian funeral, in an edifice that is known as a “National Cathedral,” is akin to a cantor singing an anti-Semitic song on Yom Kippur. But, alas, contra Bishop Barron, an insult to the memory of Jimmy Carter it was not. For when, in 2007, the former president was asked to name his favorite song by the Beatles, he responded by citing not a selection from the diverse catalogue of that impactful band, but rather with one sung after it disbanded. “My favorite is ‘Imagine,’” he replied. “When I go to a strange country, Cuba and other places, in some of those nations, ‘Imagine’ has become a national anthem. If you go to Havana, for instance, you’ll see a statue of John Lennon.”

It is a creepy quote, linking the love of a song to hearing it sung not in America, but rather in a regime that was its foe. But the quote is also apt, for it reminds us of who would actually share in the song’s utopian vision of an age in which all religious and national difference disappeared. “Throughout history,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once wrote, “utopian thinkers have dreamed of a perfect world in which all individual striving is abolished, its place taken by harmony. That dream has led to some of the worst bloodshed in history.” The playing of “Imagine” at the funeral of the 39th president reminds us that the most enduring image of Carter’s years after the White House will not be his advocacy for Habitats for Humanity, but rather his embrace of, and praise for, tyrants as if they were legitimate leaders. When, in 2008, Carter was asked what he thought of the fact that political leaders in Israel refused to meet with him after he accused Israel of apartheid, he responded with a striking statement: “In a democracy, I realize you don’t need to talk to the top leader to know how the country feels. When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that’s the dictator, because he speaks for all the people.”

The tragedy of Jimmy Carter’s life is that a man who placed his faith at the center of his political persona sought to legitimize enemies of the Western world who hated and sought to undermine that very faith and indeed the very Christendom in which it was nurtured. And they hated the Jews, for it is the mysterious endurance of the Jewish people that, more than any other, proves the existence of Heaven, of a God beyond the world, and of the truth of the Hebrew Bible that they bequeathed to the world. When Carter, during the negotiation over the Camp David accords, warned Menachem Begin that this was Israel’s last chance for peace, the Israeli prime minister replied, “Our people lived thousands of years before Camp David and shall continue to exist thousands of years after. . . . There are no last opportunities or chances. There is always new opportunity.” The stubborn refusal of the Jewish people to die and disappear, and the resurrection of the Jewish state, stuck in the craw of those who dreamt of a world with no free countries—and no freedom of religion too.

It is easy to understand why Bishop Barron was so upset at what he saw and heard. Any serious Christian—indeed any person of faith—ought to be aghast that “Imagine” was paired with hymns celebrating the grace and glory of God. But in a certain sense, the song that Carter lovingly recalled hearing sung in Communist Cuba was not really out of place. The Israeli scholar Ze’ev Maghen, who wrote an entire book refuting the ethos of “Imagine,” once reflected that John Lennon’s most famous composition is indeed a song for a funeral, only of a very different kind:
John’s beautiful ballad is a death march, a requiem mass for the human race. His seemingly lovely lyrics constitute in truth the single most hideous and most unfortunate combination of syllables ever to be put to music. The realization of his dream, or even just a large part of it, would perforce entail the wholesale and irreversible destruction of the dreams, hopes, happinesses and very reason for living of yourself and every single person you know. If we, who for so long have unthinkingly admired and warbled Lennon’s words, were to live to see his wish come true, the result would be more staggeringly horrific and more devastatingly ruinous than you could ever possibly—imagine.

Maghen is, of course, correct. That Jimmy Carter did not understand this tells us more about his post-presidency than any eulogy ever could.
Virtucrats on Parade
Believe Nothing Until It Is Officially Denied takes up in detail three main events in Claud Cockburn’s journalistic career: the rise of fascism in Germany under Hitler, the stock market crash and the Depression that came in its wake, and the Spanish Civil War. Cockburn got one of the three right. Commendably, he early sensed the threat of fascism and the monstrousness of Hitler, and through his one-man journalism fought off the strong movement toward appeasement in England and Europe and America. The stock market crash and the Depression that followed it he greeted, ideologically, as good news, for it confirmed him in his belief that capitalism was defunct. As for the Spanish Civil War, which Cockburn was confident the Republican side would win, his views were without the complex subtleties of George Orwell’s in the latter’s Homage to Catalonia. Orwell in fact accused Cockburn of being under the control of the Stalinists in Spain and of falsely reporting many aspects of the war. Later writers also viewed Cockburn as functioning as a Communist propagandist in Spain.

In 1934, Claud Cockburn joined the Communist Party. “If there were things to disagree with the Communists about,” he wrote in his memoir I, Claud, “what I felt at the time was that they were a lot nearer being a creative force in British politics than any other that I could see. Also they were a force that was small, poor and adventurous, and the distance between their thoughts and their actions appeared to me to be a lot shorter than it was when you came to the Labour people, the ‘progressive intellectuals.’” Claud Cockburn eventually departed the Communist Party, but he left three sons—Alexander, Andrew, and Patrick—to perpetuate in books and journalism their father’s virtucratic ideas. Alexander became a mouthpiece for Palestinian terrorists. Andrew became a documentary filmmaker cataloguing the supposed evils of American foreign policy and its intelligence services. Patrick wrote this book. Claud Cockburn left quite the legacy.

Politics perhaps offers an easier outlet for displays of virtue than any other realm. In politics one can register one’s deep desire for equality, great regard for minorities, immeasurable sympathy for underdogs—all at no cost to oneself. Those who have a rigid hatred of capitalism harbor it because they feel it stands in the way of universal equality. Those ready to believe that racism in America is “systemic” do so because it comports with their notion that African Americans would otherwise by now have risen out of their crime-ridden ghettoes. Those who find themselves siding with the Palestinians against Israel do so in the belief that the former are the true underdogs in the Middle East. The virtucrat not only believes all these things, but also believes anyone who doesn’t is a right-winger, a barbarian, and clearly part of the problem.

Politics are often required to counter the brutal politics of others. Such was the case in the past century, when Communism and fascism murdered millions and millions. Yet such towering intellectual figures as Nietzsche, Stendhal, Proust, Kafka, and others felt politics was not of primary or even secondary interest. In The Possessed, Dostoyevsky wrote the ultimate take-down of the virtucrat, setting out the falsity, hypocrisy, and even danger of the type. In his Pensรฉes, Pascal, anticipating the virtucrat, held that man was neither an angel nor a beast, and argued that those who pretended to be angels were soon likely to act like beasts.

The old adage has it that virtue is its own reward, yet in politics the pretense to virtue has all too often brought not reward but the severest punishment to those societies—Russian, German, Chinese—whose leaders promised that under their plans virtue would flourish as never before.
Pope Francis pillories Israel, providing a moral free pass to its existential enemies
By Nov. 17 of last year, the pope had publicly blessed the campaign to libel Israel’s defensive war as “genocide.”

He said, “according to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

Even if his words included “needs investigation,” the damage was done. Abetting the global campaign to demonize the Jewish state, the pontiff endangered the lives of Jews but got Palestinian residents of Gaza no closer to “the day after.”

Then on Dec. 7, Francis received a Nativity scene that placed the baby Jesus in a keffiyeh. While it was later removed, the pope gave life to the Palestinian rewrite of history in which the Holy Family was Palestinian, not Jewish (even though Palestinians did not exist then), while the Romans are replaced by Jews.

On the 21st of that month, he responded to the deaths of children in a targeted attack on Hamas operatives. “This is cruelty. This is not war.” He doubled down on this the next day with horrific, unfounded attacks on Israel. “I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty; of the children machine-gunned, the bombing of schools and hospitals. … So much cruelty!” The machine-gunning, of course, was imaginary; the schools and hospitals had been commandeered by Hamas terrorists, who were targeted by the IDF to minimize, not maximize, civilian casualties.

The pope is no antisemite. However, his ill-conceived, one-sided statements on Gaza and Lebanon have profoundly hurt the Jewish people. Jews wonder whether they somehow now, in their time of greatest peril, mean less to the pope than the lives of others.

“War is always a defeat,” declares Francis, but what alternative does he offer to people under attack by murderous terrorists who weaponize their own civilians?

While the sainted Pope John Paul II stood at the Western Wall—the Kotek—and called Jews the “elder brother” of the church, the present occupant of St. Peter’s throne has reverted to an older antisemitic position of the church.

Perhaps in the remaining time he sits on that throne, Pope Francis will undo some of this serious damage. But for now, Jews will remember him as part of the problem of antisemitism, not its solution.
Seth Mandel: Global Anti-Semitism’s Leading Lady
When called upon for her “expertise” and to speak with the imprimatur of the United Nations, she rattles off Israeli crimes such as, in one breath: “domicide, urbicide, scholasticide, medicide, cultural genocide and, more recently, ecocide.”

Though it may seem slightly insane that this person has been granted academic legitimacy, it’s true. She is an affiliate scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University. (Talk about scholasticide!)

Albanese’s Georgetown biography touts her years with UNRWA, the Hamas-adjacent UN agency that has been found to have numerous employees in Gaza-based terror groups and others who took part in Oct. 7 or who held Israeli hostages, as well as her other work with UN agencies.

The Georgetown bio also makes much of her co-authorship of a new and updated version of Lex Takkenberg’s 1998 book on Palestinians and international refugee law. And this is where Albanese’s influence can be seen on the development of so-called “scholarship” meant to retroactively shape international law around whatever concepts are most useful toward the cause of seeking Israel’s destruction.

UNRWA’s existence has been at the center of debate in recent weeks. Over the past 15 months of war since Oct. 7, 2023, UNRWA employees’ complicity has been revealed to be staggering. Some were recorded on video taking part in the Hamas murder spree, others were found to have held hostages, UNRWA facilities doubled as Hamas communications command spaces or weapons depots or entrances to Hamas’s underground terror-tunnel network. The UN refused to take sufficient action to clean out the rot, so in October the Israeli Knesset passed legislation greatly limiting UNRWA’s legal approval to work in Gaza and the West Bank.

UNRWA exists solely to cater to the Palestinians despite the existence of a wider UN refugee agency. This is to keep the Palestinians stateless and under a different definition of “refugee”—one that simply has no basis in law and serves solely to perpetuate the conflict. Takkenberg’s first edition of his book was careful to note that “the refugee concept, embodied in the UNRWA definition, does not necessarily coincide with the one generally employed in the context of international refugee law.” Albanese’s 2020 revision, on the other hand, spends a great deal of time and energy blurring this line and rationalizing the trend of treating the UNRWA refugee classification as a legal imperative not until the Palestinians are repatriated but rather until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself is resolved.

Albanese may appear to be a ridiculous character, but she has colonized the institutional power and reach of the UN to disfigure international law in the pursuit of the destruction of the Jewish state. So, yes, she is a “horrible person.” But shouldn’t that appellation be applied to anyone who materially enables her, Mr. Secretary-General?
Lipstadt: U.N.’s Guterres said U.N. Special Rapporteur Albanese is ‘a horrible person’
The U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, told reporters at a roundtable on Tuesday — her last before departing her role — that U.N. Secretary-General Antรณnio Guterres had condemned Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the situation on human rights in the Palestinian territories, who the U.S. has repeatedly criticized for antisemitic comments, in a one-on-one conversation with her.

Lipstadt also spoke about her hopes for the Trump administration’s efforts to fight antisemitism, internal issues among some State Department staff relating to her office’s mission, China’s role as a driver of global antisemitism and her most important accomplishments in office.

The outgoing envoy said that, during an event at a synagogue during the Munich Security Conference, she had spoken to Guterres about the U.S. government’s concerns with Albanese. In Lipstadt’s retelling, Guterres responded, twice, “She’s a horrible person.”

U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly pressed Guterres and the U.N. to dismiss Albanese, whose position is unpaid, but those calls have gone unanswered.
GOP-Led House To Take Up Bill Slashing More Than $35 Mil in UN Human Rights Council Funding
The House is taking up legislation that would slash more than $35 million in annual taxpayer funding to the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and its supporting institutions, according to a copy of the bill obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas), a member of the powerful House Budget Committee, introduced the bill on Monday with the backing of six Republican colleagues. It marks the latest effort by the newly installed House to crack down on foreign institutions known for pushing an anti-Israel and anti-American agenda.

Roy is also the architect of newly passed legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court, another U.N.-aligned entity that is seeking to arrest Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes. That legislation overwhelmingly passed the House last week, signaling that Speaker Mike Johnson's (R., La.) GOP majority is working swiftly to counter the global anti-Israel movement, a priority shared by the incoming Trump administration.

The No Taxpayer Funding for United Nations Human Rights Council Act would immediately prohibit the United States from sending millions in taxpayer cash to the international body. The United States provided roughly $36 million to the UNHRC and affiliates in 2024, according to funding documents, making America the organization's top patron amid a global campaign to demonize Israel's war effort. The bill additionally bans the federal government from making "voluntary contributions" to the UNHRC, effectively stopping a future administration from skirting the law by allocating funds in a more informal fashion.


Canadian conference to create Islamic caliphate cancelled
A radical Islamic group's Canadian conference for the establishment of a caliphate across much of Europe, Africa and the Middle East was cancelled on Tuesday, according to an announcement by organizers.

"Hizb ut Tahrir Canada hereby announces, with regret, the cancellation of the Khilafah Conference 2025," the Canadian branch of the political party said on Facebook. "This decision was necessitated by circumstances that were beyond our reasonable control."

Advertisements and registration links were removed from the Hizb ut Tahrir Canada website and social media.

The January 18 conference, originally set to be held in Hamilton but moved to Mississauga, was met with opposition by local and federal politicians and religious leaders since its announcement.

Associate Public Safety Minister Rachel Bendayan said on X Tuesday that she was "pleased to see this conference was cancelled."

In a Monday statement the Canadian government called for the cancellation of the Saturday event, which would have included lectures on how nation-states are the enemies of Islam, how the US and colonial powers fear a restored Caliphate and how it could defeat America, and how only a caliphate would be able to "liberate Palestine."

Public Safety Minister David McGuinty and Bendayan said in the statement that law enforcement agencies would monitor the event for violations of the law, including those related to hate speech, as they asserted Hizb ut Tahrir had a documented history of glorifying violence, promoting antisemitism, and advancing extremist ideology.

"Our government is resolute in its efforts to fight antisemitism and extremism in all its forms," said McGuinty and Bendayan.


How Radical Activists Are Indoctrinating Children...
Our schools have become battlegrounds for anti-western sentiment.

A concerted attempt by political activists and activist teachers to turn children as young as 5 into radical activists.

Here is how activists are doing it....


Australian Open slammed over pro-Palestine double standards
Jewish organisations have criticised the Australian Open for allowing pro-Palestine slogans to appear in the crowd, calling it a breach of tournament rules designed to prohibit political messaging.

Images surfaced this week showing spectators wearing T-shirts featuring pro-Palestine statements at the Melbourne Park event, prompting backlash from groups who argue such displays violate the competition’s guidelines.

Australian Jewish Association (AJA) chief executive Robert Gregory expressed disappointment over what he described as inconsistent enforcement of rules. “The rules should be applied equally to everyone,” Gregory said. “There should not be an exception for Palestinian activists. Australians have been confronted by anti-Israel protests and disruptions to our cities for over a year. The last place Australians want to see this is at the tennis.”

Tournament director Craig Tiley had previously warned that protesters or individuals displaying banned flags would face removal or police intervention. Tennis Australia reiterated its stance in a statement on Tuesday, asserting: “Anyone seeking to disrupt the event – or who is displaying material intended to disrupt, offend, vilify or that is political in nature – will be managed in line with the AO25 ticket terms and conditions. And may be asked to put away the material, or leave.”

The AJA accused Tennis Australia of hypocrisy, referencing its strict handling of a similar incident during the 2022 Australian Open. At the time, fans were initially barred from wearing “Where is Peng Shuai?” T-shirts in support of the Chinese player who had disappeared, though the ban was later reversed following public outcry.

“The Australian Open apparently has a rule, banning political slogans. They even enforced that against fans who were supporting Chinese player, Peng Shuai. Not so when it comes to the ‘Free Palestine’ crowd,” the AJA said in a statement.

In efforts to maintain a neutral and “happy slam” environment, Tennis Australia has prohibited Russian and Belarusian flags, while allowing national emblems, including the Israeli flag, only on days when players from those nations compete. Israeli wheelchair singles player Guy Sasson is set to participate from January 21.


We will defy the police, say organisers of Saturday’s Gaza march
A key organiser of Saturday’s controversial Gaza march has reportedly said he will defy police orders not to take the protest towards the BBC’s Broadcasting House, which is located near a central London synagogue.

According to left-wing website Novara Media, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal said his group would go ahead with its planned march from Whitehall to the BBC on Saturday – even if the police disperse the crowd en route.

It comes after Ismail Patel, Chairman of Friends of Al-Aqsa – one of the coalition partners organising the march – pledged to go on the march “if it means me going in the prison”.

In a defiant statement, Patel said: “The British government and the British police, unfortunately as well, now are putting on us that they want to cancel the next national demonstration in London.

"We will make sure that we turn up in our 1000s, in our hundreds of 1000s, and I give you my pledge here, my friends, I will be there, even if they ban us, and if it means me going in the prison, because I think that is worth it for freeing the people of Palestine and freeing humanity.”

On Wednesday 29 MPs, including 16 from Labour, backed a parliamentary motion calling on the police to drop restrictions on a planned pro-Palestine protest near the synagogue.

The MPs say they are “alarmed by attempts by the Metropolitan Police to prevent an agreed march for Palestine from protesting at the BBC on 18 January 2025” and call “on the government to urge the Metropolitan Police to drop these repressive restrictions and allow the planned protest to take place at the BBC”.

They appear to dismiss the concerns of Jewish communal organisations about the march taking place so close to Central Synagogue at Portland Place, a short walk away from the BBC’s Broadcasting House headquarters.

The MPs say they rejected “the Metropolitan Police’s claim the march could cause disruption to a nearby synagogue noting that the nearest synagogue to the BBC is not even on the march route”.


Virginia asks court to force anti-Israel nonprofit, accused of supporting terror, to disclose funding
Jason Miyares, the Virginia attorney general, filed a petition against American Muslims for Palestine, amid allegations that the group has raised money for terror groups. The anti-Israel nonprofit has refused to comply with a Civil Investigative Demand, which the state filed on Oct. 27, 2023, Miyares stated on Jan. 14.

The demand “requested records relating to AMP’s noncompliance with the state’s charitable solicitation law and an investigation into allegations that the organization may have used raised funds for impermissible purposes, such as benefiting or providing support to terrorist organizations,” Miyares’s office said. (JNS sought comment from the Virginia attorney general’s office.)

“Despite the court denying AMP’s previous efforts to halt my investigation, they continue refusing to comply,” he stated. “This action is necessary to ensure accountability and uphold the law.”

The Falls Church, Va.-based nonprofit describes itself as a “grassroots organization” that is “dedicated to advancing the movement for justice in Palestine.”

The Anti-Defamation League describes the group as “the leading organization providing anti-Zionist training and education to students and Muslim community organizations in the country.”

Miyares has previously told JNS that he was “pleased” with a Richmond, Va. circuit court’s decision that the group must disclose its funders.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, sought funding documents from National Students for Justice in Palestine in late May.

He stated at the time that SJP “is founded and controlled by American Muslims for Palestine,” a nonprofit that has “substantial ties to Hamas via its financial sponsor, Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation.”
George Mason’s Hamas cheerleader: Bassam Haddad
After a freshman at George Mason University was arrested on Dec. 17 for plotting to attack the Israeli consulate in New York City, Robert Spencer asked rhetorically at Jihad Watch: “Could it have something to do with what is being taught there?”

The student in question, Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, was arrested just weeks after a police raid at the home of sisters Jena and Noor Chanaa, GMU students and leaders of its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, who were suspected of vandalism on campus. Police in Fairfax County, Va., seized weapons, jihadi materials and antisemitic literature, as well as Hamas and Hezbollah flags.

Spencer answered his question by pointing out that GMU has received more than $63 million from Saudi Arabia in just one 7-year period from 2011-2018. While money from Muslim nations is part of the jihad problem on American college campuses, a bigger problem is the faculty who teach there. At GMU, the top anti-Zionist, pro-Hamas ideologue is Bassam Haddad.

Why George Mason University?
George Mason University, the least prestigious of the three D.C.-area “George” universities (behind George Washington and Georgetown Universities), is rife with problems. Islamism is a thriving force on campus. Take for instance the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies, founded in 2009 with a donation from Turkish businessman Ali Vural Ak. The center claims to “advance a sound and nuanced understanding of Muslim societies and the Islamic faith, its role in world history and its current patterns of globalization.” It also “recognizes that Islam is a universal faith and a world civilization with a global community.” This sounds more like a press release from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) than an academic project’s mission statement. It sounds like proselytizing, rather than educating.

In 2022, the Mirza Family Foundation, headed by former International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT) board member Yaqub Mirza, gave a $3 million gift to rename the center after notorious Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Abdul Hamid AbuSulayman, whose book titled Violence, published in 2001, referred to Israel as a “foreign usurper” and called for it to be fought with “fear, terror and lack of security.”
Rutgers students say school’s Title VI resolution ‘falls far short’
Students at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, say recent agreements with the U.S. Department of Education to resolve a discrimination complaint against the school “falls far short” of what is needed to combat the rise in campus antisemitism, according to Fox News.

The Education Department announced on Jan. 2 that it had agreed on a resolution with Rutgers regarding a Title VI complaint, which included nearly 300 reports of Jew-hatred filed between July 2023 and June 2024.

The university must take certain actions to comply with the federal resolution, including issuing a statement declaring that discrimination is not tolerated on campus and reviewing past reports to determine whether further action is needed.

“The university is being let off the hook,” said Camilla Vaynberg, vice president of Rutgers Students Supporting Israel. “It’s a promise that we had before.”

She added that the measures are unlikely to result in meaningful change and may not even be enforced after Jonathan Holloway, president of Rutgers, steps down. (Holloway announced in September his intent to resign at the end of the current academic year.)

“This settlement falls miles short of what needs to happen to address the issues of antisemitism at Rutgers,” said Ben Stern, a sophomore who is majoring in political science. “A lot of what Rutgers agreed to involves ‘statements’ and ‘reviews,’ but they have been stating and reviewing things right and left since Oct. 7, and yet the rate of antisemitic incidents at Rutgers continues to rise.”

In one incident reported to the university, a social-media post encouraged violence against an Israeli student and provided information on how to find them. In another report, a Jewish student’s dorm room was vandalized with a swastika drawn outside their door and their mezuzah defaced.

“The Biden administration has proven once again that it doesn’t give a damn about antisemitism in America,” said former Rutgers Hillel director Andrew Getraer, adding that “it’s not a coincidence” that the administration released the university agreements two weeks before leaving office.


Strong Words, Feeble Reporting_ “60 Minutes” on U.S. Support For Israel
“You believe that this has put a target on America’s back,” Cecilia Vega of “60 Minutes” prompted her guest, former State Department official Hala Rharrit. They were discussing the notion that unbridled U.S. support for alleged Israeli genocide and war crimes in the Gaza Strip have increased threats of terrorism on American soil.

“A hundred percent,” Rharrit replied on CBS’ widely–panned Jan. 12 broadcast (“Biden policy on Israel, Gaza sparks warnings, dissents, resignations“).

“Those are strong words,” the “60 Minutes” correspondent retorted, functioning as a seamless tag team with Rharrit.

Indeed, the program was packed with strong words standing in for strong arguments.

Blaming Arab terrorism targeting Americans on U.S. support for Israel is hardly an innovative thought conceived post-Oct. 7 by sidelined State Department analysts. It’s been an anti-Western canard for decades. In 2001, for instance, following the 9/11 attacks on America, CNN ignored U.S. President George Bush, diplomats Dennis Ross, Robert Satloff, and even Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who all denied that the anti-American terror attacks were in any way connected with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Not only did CNN reject their opinions, but the network expanded the list of accusations to implicate Israel as being at the root of all terror attacks perpetrated against the U.S.:
It is impossible now to separate the taking of hostages in Iran, the bombing of barracks in Lebanon, the war with Iraq or even the current conflict in Afghanistan, from the question of Israel.

The anti-Western accusation, shifting responsibility for Islamic terrorism onto U.S. and Israel, was baseless then, and it’s just as false now. At the time, in the wake of CAMERA’s criticism, CNN acknowledged that its segment had not been subjected to the required editing procedures. Editors revised the item before rebroadcasting, with the amended narration attributing the anti-Israel sentiment to “Arab extremists.”

This week, leveling emotive libels devoid of both factual underpinnings and journalistic rigor, CBS’s Vega, along with Rharrit and other disgruntled former State Department officials, contributed to the Arab extremists’ long-running cacophony of excuses for targeting Americans with terror.

Vega herself accordingly set the scene for the “60 Minutes” segment with a strong word stripped of meaning: genocide. “The war has led to charges of genocide against Israel and has been fueled by American weapons and billions of taxpayer dollars.”

In the 13-minute long broadcast, Vega neglected to inform viewers that the U.S. government, including the U.S. State Department, has repeatedly rejected the genocide charge.


BBC promotes The Lancet report on Gaza casualty figures
Berg does not inform his readers that the paper published by The Lancet specifically thanks a Hamas employee for providing “essential” data or that it includes “acknowledgement” of “support” provided by a blatantly political organisation called ‘Marsad Shireen’:
“We acknowledge the Marsad Shireen team for their support in social media data collection. Additionally, we thank Zaher Al-Wahidi, Head of the Palestinian Information Center at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, for providing hospital and survey lists essential to this study.”

Neither does Berg have anything to tell his readers about the authors of this paper. The fact that they have previously produced (FCDO funded) speculations concerning casualties in the Gaza Strip is not noted. Neither is the fact that two of them – Francesco Checchi and Zeina Jamaluddine (who promoted ‘genocide’ claims nine days after Hamas’ massacre) – previously produced a problematic report on ‘Wartime food availability’ which was used for promotion of claims of famine in collaboration with a political NGO.

The fact that the paper cites a tweet promoting the notion of ‘genocide’ (Note 11) from the Hamas-linked NGO Euro-Med Monitor (which has been featured in BBC content) is particularly notable given that one of the paper’s authors, Hanan Abukmail, has produced content for that NGO’s ‘We Are Not Numbers’ project in the past.

The paper even recycles that July 2024 speculative letter to The Lancet, as seen in Note 14, promoting the 186,000 number which one of the authors of the letter described at the time as a “purely illustrative” figure.

“Although these numbers are understood to refer to deaths due to traumatic injury, others have speculated that the indirect effects of the military operations against Gaza could push all-cause excess mortality to 186 000.”

Berg closes his report with the standard BBC statement which fails to inform audiences that terrorists are still holding 98 hostages in the Gaza Strip while uncritically promoting unconfirmed Hamas-supplied casualty figures and breakdowns:

“The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s attack in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military offensive on Gaza in response.

The health ministry says 46,006 people, most of them civilians, have been killed by the Israeli campaign.”


BBC under fire for hiring ex-CBC boss who advised against calling Hamas ‘terrorists’
The British broadcaster has appointed George Achi as Head of Editorial Quality and Compliance at its World Service. Achi, previously the director of journalistic standards at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), is best known for advising CBC reporters not to refer to Hamas as "terrorists."



During his time at CBC, Achi instructed journalists to use neutral terms such as "militants" or "fighters" when referring to Hamas, a designated terror group by Public Safety Canada.



In leaked emails, Achi cautioned journalists to not say Israel ended its occupation of Gaza in 2005.

Hamas has been on the outlawed terror organization list since 2002 and is responsible for the October 7, 2023 terror attacks which left approximately 1,200 Israelis dead and another 240 kidnapped.


Spanish party leader attempts to prevent Israeli team and fans from entering Madrid
Spanish Podemos party leader Ione Belarra asked the government to prevent the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv and sports fans from entering Madrid, Spanish media El Pais reported on Monday.

The request was sent soon before Maccabi Tel Aviv was scheduled to play in a Euroleague basketball game against Real Madrid on Tuesday.

Belarra sent the letter to the Spanish Foreign Minister, Josรฉ Manuel Albares, and the Spanish Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

“We do not want the fans to glorify genocide,” said Organization Secretary Pablo Fernรกndez in a press conference, El Pais quoted.

In the letter, Belarra referred to the war in Gaza and stated that she didn’t want to maintain relations with a country that commits ‘genocide’, El Pais reported.

She also claimed that her request was based on past violent attacks at sports games where Israeli teams were present, such as the pogrom that took place in Amsterdam in November of last year.

“In order to ensure respect for human rights and avoid incidents, we request that, in the exercise of their respective powers, they adopt appropriate security measures to prevent the entry into the country of entities and persons who support and provide cover for genocide and to cease any relationship with those who perpetrate it,” she wrote, according to El Pais.

Although attempts to cancel the Euroleague game were unsuccessful, a pro-Palestinian demonstration was planned for Tuesday in Madrid, coinciding with the basketball matchup between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Real Madrid, according to a recent article from The Jerusalem Post.
Meet the pro-Russia, anti-Israel populist that wants to remake German politics
Following the German federal election on February 23, a new party could officially enter the German parliament, the Bundestag: the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, named after its firebrand founder, who split from the Left Party in 2023.

Her eclectic mix of left-leaning economic policies, anti-migrant rhetoric, and a foreign policy that is pro-Russia, anti-Israel, and deeply distrustful of NATO has enabled the party to amass votes in recent elections.

At the EU elections in June, it collected 6% of the vote. And in regional elections in three eastern states in autumn, it became the third-strongest party, earning it a spot in the ruling coalitions in Brandenburg and Thuringia.

The Alliance, called by its German acronym BSW, was officially formed in January 2024. Technically, it already has ten seats in the Bundestag after Wagenknecht – a former co-leader of the Left Party and sitting member since 2009 – took nine defectors with her.

Now, BSW will, for the first time, contest a national election, currently polling at between 4% and 6% (a 5% minimum is needed to enter the Bundestag). The Left Party, meanwhile, is trailing at just 3%-4%.

The rise of BSW
The BSW’s rise has been meteoric; its speed is unprecedented in German politics, and its politics are hard to define. But who is the woman behind it? And will Wagenknecht succeed in remaking Germany’s political landscape?

Wagenknecht is perhaps best described as an old-school leftist. She was born in 1969 in Jena under the state-socialist regime of East Germany, where she was a member of the youth organization Free German Youth as a teenager.

She joined the ruling party, SED, in the final months before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. And, in 1991, she became a member of the party executive committee of PDS, the SED’s democratic-socialist successor, which fused with another party in 2007 to create the Left Party.

After the wall fell, Wagenknecht idolized East Germany’s past, fellow party members have said. In 2002, she voted against a PDS resolution that stated, “There is no justification for the dead at the [Berlin] Wall” – referring to the state’s policy of shooting those trying to flee to the West.

Until 2010, she was a member of the Communist Platform within the PDS and later the Left Party, a group of orthodox Marxists who saw Stalinism in favorable terms.


Iran claims Israel rigged uranium centrifuges with explosives
Iranian Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed in a recent interview that Israel had planted explosives in equipment purchased for Tehran’s nuclear program.

According to a translation of the interview published by Iran International on Wednesday, “Our colleagues had purchased a centrifuge platform for the Atomic Energy Organization, and it was discovered that explosives had been embedded inside it, which they managed to detect.”

The timeline of the alleged incident remains unclear, according to the outlet, which is associated with the Iranian opposition. The revelation follows a series of security incidents involving Iran’s nuclear facilities, including a power failure at the Natanz uranium enrichment site in April 2021.

According to Iran International, Zarif detailed how international sanctions have forced Iran and its allies to rely on intermediaries for equipment purchases, creating security vulnerabilities. “Instead of being able to order equipment directly from the manufacturer, sanctions force you to rely on multiple intermediaries for such purchases,” he said, according to the report.

“If the Zionist regime infiltrates even one of the intermediaries, they can do anything and embed anything they want, which is exactly what happened,” he added.

The Iranian official linked these vulnerabilities the September 2024 pager and walkie-talkie detonations that decimated the command structure of Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.


Torres calls out New York governor for failing to address Jew-hatred in state
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is failing to acknowledge the rise of antisemitism in the state, according to Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).

“Antisemitic hate crimes have risen to historic highs in New York,” Torres wrote on X, noting that his search for the word “antisemitism” in the Democratic governor’s transcript of her upcoming State of the State turned up nothing.

“Not one mention of ‘antisemitism’ in a 140-page document. Not one mention of ‘antisemitism’ in an hour-long speech,” he wrote. “The scandal is not that Kathy Hochul is failing to combat antisemitism. The scandal is that she is not even trying.”

The ADL reported that antisemitic hate crimes increased by 110% overall in New York in 2023, reaching 1,218 total incidents—the highest number ever recorded by ADL in the state and the second-highest number recorded in any state across the country last year.

Additionally, a report released by law enforcement in New York City found that 26 of the 32 additional incidents investigated by NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force in June 2024 were “anti-Jewish in motivation,” reflecting a 137% increase compared to June 2023.

“The erasure of antisemitism—in particular, the modern mainstream strain that unleashed a tsunami of hate in response to the worst attack of Jews since the Holocaust and a raging multi-front war intent to annihilate the Jewish nation-state—mirrors the erasure of the attack of October 7,” wrote Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism, in response to Torres’ post.
Bill targeting anti-Israel vandalism introduced in New York State Senate
The New York Antisemitism Act, which was introduced in the New York State Senate on Jan. 8, aims to criminalize destroying pro-Israel public materials.

Anyone who damages or removes a “banner, poster, flyer or billboard” in a public space, “where the intent or purpose of such banner, poster, flyer or billboard is to bring awareness for Israeli individuals who have been victims of a crime, or to positively support the country or citizens of Israel in any way,” would be guilty of a class A misdemeanor, according to Senate Bill S531.

Class A misdemeanors are “the most serious type of misdemeanor” and are punishable with up to a year in jail, according to New York State. Misdemeanors are the lowest level of crime—more serious than violations but less so than felonies, according to the state.

“We were trying to propose legislation that was geared toward specific acts of antisemitism and ensure that this is something that we are protecting,” Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, a state senator who co-sponsored the bill, told JNS. “We have classes of crimes that are considered hate crimes when you are targeting individuals, and we are trying to put this in the same type of category.”

Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, a Republican whose district includes a part of Long Island, told JNS that the legislation came out of hearings of the New York State Senate Republican Antisemitism Working Group.

“There are posters put up all the time that feature the names and photographs of hostages held in Gaza, constantly reminding us that we need to bring these hostages home and get them released,” she said. “That is the goal of those posters, and we have seen many of them vandalized, torn down. Even at local railroad stations, they’ve been taken down.”

“We are trying to say that we are allowed to speak out in favor of pro-Israel concepts and bringing these hostages home, and that should be protected as our freedom of speech,” she added.


Huckabee Tells Jews to Take Antisemitism “As a Badge of Honor
There is a famous Yiddish saying, “Der dreydl dreyt zikh”, which literally translates into “the dreidel turns”. It is an age-old and apt adage, especially now, for the alternating rise and fall of people’s fortunes.

There can be no better illustration of this than President Trump’s triumph over his political nemeses in Washington, the media, corporations, universities and pretty much everywhere else. The victory of common sense in the 2024 U.S. elections ushered in a new guard to fill positions on local, state and national levels.

Perhaps one of the most consequential new nominations is that of former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee as the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel. As a longtime and vocal supporter of the State of Israel, Huckabee is an obvious pick for Trump. He is a fierce advocate for Israel’s sovereignty and security, championing the historic right of Jerusalem as its eternal capital and the right of Jews to live in all parts of their Jewish ancestral homeland.

Huckabee is a frequent visitor to the Jewish state, having travelled there close to 100 times, starting as a teenager in 1973. He has led dozens of delegations to Israel and has participated in many missions to Israel with organizations, notably the Israel Heritage Foundation (IHF).

IHF hosted a dinner in Huckabee’s honor this past Sunday in recognition of the governor’s support for the Jewish state and in anticipation of future backing in his role of ambassador. Held at the UN Plaza Grill, more than 80 participants came to congratulate Huckabee, including Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.


Hours after hostage deal confirmed, Arsenal and Spurs fans unite in support of Gaza captives
Spurs and Arsenal fans supporting Emily Damari.

In a rare and moving display of solidarity, Arsenal and Tottenham fans joined forces tonight during the North London Derby to call for Hamas to release Emily Damari, a British-Israeli citizen and Spurs fan, who has been held hostage in Gaza for 467 days.

It comes as Israel and Hamas finally agreed to a deal to bring about the phased release of hostages, along with a pause to 15 months of deadly fighting.

Emily, 28, was shot and kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on the morning of 7th October 2023. Her mother Mandy Damari, who was born and raised in Surrey, has spoken about how Emily was a dedicated Tottenham supporter who loved to attend their matches on family visits to the UK. Mandy has been campaigning tirelessly for her daughter’s release, and has repeatedly called on the British government to do more to bring her home.

Fans from both sides posed for a joint photograph outside the stadium before kick-off and the area surrounding the ground has been covered with yellow ribbons, a symbol that signifies support for the hostages. On the 7th minute of the match, yellow balloons will be released by fans in both the home and away ends in support of Emily and her family, while others hold posters calling to bring her home.

This symbolic gesture has become a regular occurrence at Tottenham’s home matches, with Spurs fans creating a chant in support of their fellow fan: “She’s one of our own, she’s one of our own, Emily Damari, bring her home”. Tonight’s game marks the first time that another team’s fans have joined in with the grassroots campaign. Fan action has been organised by Stop the Hate UK.

Mandy Damari praised Arsenal and Spurs fans for their support ahead of the match, saying: “I am overwhelmed by the support that Arsenal and Tottenham fans want to show for Emily tonight. I always say that anyone who helps to share Emily’s story and do what they can in the campaign to bring her home is a part of our family. My dear husband, Emily’s father, was a football coach on our kibbutz, and he always said that football can bring the world together. He’s certainly been proven right today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I hope that Emily can be with you all at the next derby.”
Why I stayed on to coach Israel even after my son was killed in Gaza
It was a moment that brought the Jewish world to tears. Immediately after winning his bronze medal fight at last summer’s Paris Olympics, Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik fell to his knees and bowed to the floor in front his head coach, Oren Smadja, who in turn began to cry.

A video of the pair embracing went viral. Smadja had learnt just a month before the Games had begun that his son, Omer, had been killed in Gaza.

“When I hugged Peter, he told me: ‘This is for Omer,’” Smadja told the JC.

In many ways, Smadja’s achievement – a rollercoaster success story against the odds, and a deep personal tragedy – is Israel’s story.

His father, having fled Nazi persecution in Tunisia, worked hard to turn him into a champion judoka – and that is what he became, winning Israel’s first men’s Olympic medal in 1992, aged just 22. Today, Smadja, 54, is dubbed by Israeli media as the country’s “double hero” – not just for his sporting achievements but for his display of incredible resilience and determination.

One month before the 2024 Olympics, Smadja was in Japan preparing with the Israeli judo team. On June 20, he celebrated his birthday with his wife, friends and the Israeli judo team. He managed to exchange text messages with Omer later in the day, after several hours of trying to reach him.

Just a few hours later, around 11pm, he and his wife were told that Omer had been killed in a Hamas mortar strike in central Gaza.

Speaking to the JC ahead of a UK speaking tour later this month, Smadja said: “There is life before and after losing Omer. He was a beautiful guy, and he was different. He lived in the moment and in his way.


Melanie Phillips: Judaism taught the West to think – now it must teach it how to survive
Unlike other cultures, the Jews have remained a distinctive people who kept their identity despite the twin pressures of assimilation and persecution. It is often said that they were kept together through antisemitism. But that doesn’t explain why the vast majority didn’t just take the easier path of assimilation, with the result that this highly particular set of people would eventually die out.

Many, of course, did take precisely that path. Others kept themselves together by remaining self-consciously separated from the wider community though restrictive religious dietary laws, strict observance of the Sabbath and festivals, and confining their marriages to Jewish spouses. But that still doesn’t explain why so many thought this was worth all the bother. After all, the observance of Judaism is highly demanding, with a large number of moral and practical rules that require a terrific effort to observe. So why didn’t most of them just give it all up and have an easy life instead?

In an era that has declared God dead and buried, and in which the forces of secularism and atheism have cut an increasingly deep swathe through all religions, why have so many Jews held fast to a body of observance and tradition that is not only based on belief in the Almighty but takes the form of observance that often seems anachronistic and peculiar? Why do so many Jews who have stopped observing the religious commandments, whether through inertia or active repudiation, nevertheless feel impelled to continue to identify with the Jewish people? And how come the Jews haven’t merely survived as a people but have become so extraordinarily successful, despite centuries of persecution, harassment, and economic privation?

Before trying to explain this singular achievement and what may be learnt from it, it’s necessary to acknowledge a stark and instructive contrast within today’s Jewish world itself. This is the contrast between the Jews of the State of Israel and the Jews in the rest of the world, or the Jewish diaspora. This contrast contains crucial lessons for the West.

Israel, where some 6.9 million of the world’s 15 million identifying Jews currently live, is an astounding success story that appears to defy all the rules of probability. Despite the shattering war that started in October 2023 after the Hamas pogrom, which took young Israelis away from their lives as high-performing professionals to fight on the front lines and which proceeded to paralyse much of the economy, the currency astonishingly remained strong.

The reason was the belief that Israel possessed such innate strength that once the war was over, it would bounce back – for the scale of its achievements within a mere few decades after the creation of the state had the rest of the world rubbing its eyes.




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