Showing posts with label Varda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Varda. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 03, 2021


Oded Revivi, mayor of Efrat, has no problem participating in the annual Haaretz conference sponsored by Btselem and Breaking the Silence. That was the upshot of a shocking news piece that appeared in the Jewish Press on Sunday. That a conference by fifth column newspaper Haaretz was to be co-sponsored by fifth column NGOs Btselem and Breaking the Silence is not shocking and no surprise. All three share a common goal: undermining the State of Israel. But why on earth would Revivi grace the conference with his presence and lend credibility to these three fifth column entities bent on Israel’s destruction?

Especially since David Elhayani, head of the Council for Judea and Samaria, canceled his own scheduled talk at the conference. Elhayani announced his withdrawal from the conference after he was pressured to do so by the Choosing Life Forum of Bereaved Families and the Wounded IDF Veterans Forum. These two organizations begged Elhayani not participate in a conference sponsored by organizations that actively work to harm IDF soldiers. Elhayani did the smart thing for his political career and canceled his talk:

“I agreed to participate in the Haaretz conference in order to make the important voice of the communities [in Judea and Samaria] heard and to represent a sane voice on that day. At the same time, I can’t help recognizing the pain of bereaved families and terror victims that see these organizations as partners in activities against IDF soldiers, who suggest that my participation would add to their pain.”

Elhayani then tried to get Oded Revivi to back out along with him:

“Therefore, I announced that I am canceling my participation and ask that my friend Oded Revivi, head of the Efrat local council, who is also scheduled to participate in the conference, listen to the voices of these dear families and cancel his participation.”

Is it possible that Elhayani only grudgingly canceled his participation when pushed into a corner by bereaved families? Could the decision have been made in consultation with others? Elhayani has joined Gideon Saar’s New Hope Party, and Israel is in the midst of yet another election cycle. It sure wouldn’t look good for Elhayani to be seen hobnobbing with fifth column agents during an election cycle. Why, on the other hand, should it matter to Elhayani (or Gideon Saar) what Revivi, a free agent, does with his time?

My theory is that Elhayani withdrawing his participation from the conference meant that Revivi would become the conference’s main settler sell-out attraction, with all the attendant publicity. Revivi would have been smart enough to see this golden opportunity. That may be why Revivi then refused to withdraw from the conference. From the Jewish Press:

Revivi said he does not plan to cancel his participation in the forum. “I will go to every possible platform to give my opinion about our rights to the Land,” Revivi said in a statement.

Sure enough, Revivi went ahead and participated in filming for the conference. From Arutz 7:

Efrat Council head Oded Revivi today participated in filming for the Haaretz newspaper conference, despite many calls he received to boycott it, which was also attended by representatives of organizations that delegitimize the State of Israel and the IDF.

In his opening remarks, Revivi explained his participation, "I came despite the calls and requests for a boycott. I am unwilling to be boycotted and I am unwilling to boycott others. I came because the truth must be told."

Like Elhayani, Revivi appears to have his heart set on taking his political career in a national direction. He has managed to garner more attention than would seem proportional to his small town role as mayor of Efrat. Revivi has been cited by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Atlantic, and even wrote an op-ed for the LA Times. He has done so riding on the cachet of being a dependable settler “expert” to call on for quotable quotes.

It is worthy of note that most Efratians (as we call ourselves) would be appalled to know that Revivi took part in the Haaretz conference. Ahead of the conference, Efrat council member and Opposition head Avraham Ben-Tzvi, gave the following statement to the Jewish Press:

“Even if Mayor Revivi participates in this conference, he speaks in his name only, not in the name of Efrat residents. It’s embarrassing that the mayor chooses to not include Efrat’s name on pro-settlement petitions and statements supported by the majority of the residents of Efrat, Gush Etzion, Hebron, and other settlements, but has no problem sitting down with these anti-Zionist and anti-IDF organizations.”

How bad are these “anti-Zionist” and “anti-IDF” organizations? Bad enough that in January, Education Minister Yoav Gallant took the extraordinary measure of issuing an order banning groups that slander the IDF and call Israel an "apartheid state" from giving talks in Israeli schools. Only last month, Btselem did just that, agitating against Israel through the launching of an international campaign that libels Israel as an apartheid state. Breaking the Silence, on the other hand, is more focused on defaming the IDF, telling wild lies of cruelty by IDF soldiers to Arab civilians. Both organizations are heavily funded by private European individuals and European government sources. This too, is no surprise, Europe being the place where millions of Jews were forced into gas chambers.

Btselem

Here is a small taste of a long bulleted list hosted on the NGO Monitor website under the heading of “political activity” on the egregious anti-Israel activities of Btselem:

·         Accuses  Israel of “apartheid,” perpetrating “war crimes,” “beating and abus[ing]” Palestinians, “demolition of [Palestinian] houses as punishment,” and forced “deportations.”

·         In January 2021, B’Tselem launched a discriminatory and hateful campaign, under the banner of “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.” As part of the campaign, B’Tselem attacked Israel’s role as a haven for the Jewish people (the Law of Return) and used the phrase “from the river to the sea” – echoing long-standing Palestinian terminology for the destruction of Israel. (Read NGO Monitor’s analysis: “From the “River to the Sea”: B’Tselem’s Demonization Crosses the Line.”)

·         In December 2020, B’Tselem, alongside a number of Israeli, Palestinian, and international organizations, issued a declaration headlined “Israel must provide necessary vaccines to Palestinian health care systems.” The NGOs falsely claim that Israel has “legal obligations” to “ensure that quality vaccines be provided to Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and control,” while altogether ignoring that Palestinians residing in Jerusalem are part of the Israeli health care system; that under the Oslo Accords the PA is responsible for health care of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza; and that the PA has adopted its own vaccine policy for its population.

·         In July 2020, in the context of the Black Lives Matter protests, Hagai Elad compared Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the death of George Floyd, stating that “I think about us and the Palestinians, and see the picture of George Floyd in my mind. We have our knee on their necks while holding an argument with ourselves on how we wish to continue doing so.”

·         In September 2019, B’Tselem published a report titled “Playing the Security Card: Israeli Policy in Hebron as a Means to Effect Forcible Transfer of Local Palestinian” stating that “For 25 years, Israel has been openly pursuing a policy of segregation in the center of Hebron…Some features of the regime employed in Hebron recall certain aspects of the apartheid regime in South Africa.” (The report was funded by the European Union.)

           

 Breaking the Silence

BtS Spokesman Dean Issacharoff's commander calls BS on Issacharoff's lies.

Breaking the Silence, like Btselem, has no compunction about lying to drive home its anti-Israel narrative. After Breaking the Silence Spokesman Dean Issacharoff trumpeted lies about his military service and that of others with whom he served, speaking of unspeakable (and imaginary) human rights violations against Arabs, his “brothers” in arms (including his commanders) refuted those disgusting lies with a video that really packed a wallop, if you’ll excuse the pun:

Having just celebrated Purim, it is unfathomable, not to mention reprehensible, that settler leaders would grace such a conference for any reason. The conference was not a platform for talking about Jewish land rights or spreading a different narrative and the truth. On the contrary, participating in such a conference is to pal around with Amalek, a latter day Haman, pretending that this will somehow benefit the Jewish people. And if we learn anything from Purim it is that you give such monsters no quarter because participating in their events turns you into just another pawn to be put into play by evil.

The participants and sponsors of today’s conference were not there to listen to dupes like Elhayani or Revivi. Nor were they there to learn because the truth has no meaning to them, liars to a man, every one. The purpose of the fifth column NGOs and the conference they sponsored on behalf of the most anti-Israel newspaper in Israel, was to lie and cheat and cause Jewish blood to be spilled and to steal Jewish land they openly promise to give to enemies of the Jewish people. By their actions, the evil ones name themselves among those enemies, proclaiming their hate for Israel loud and clear to the world at large. The righteous have no place among them.


Wednesday, February 24, 2021


As we approached the northern entrance to Efrat, my husband gasped. A car with Palestinian Authority license plates had run a red light, right in front of us. It was nighttime and we were returning from Jerusalem to our home in the Judean Wilderness. We’d traveled there to receive the second of our two vaccination shots against COVID-19. Watching that car speeding past, the driver ignoring the stop light, my first thought was that this wouldn’t happen if Israel exercised sovereignty here in this place, in Judea. My second thought was that people have no clue that sovereignty is about more than land rights.

As the errant driver passed the bright red traffic light, the safety of other drivers on the road in the dark of night was clearly not his concern. And since the residents of Judea and Samaria live under martial law, there was also no one to apprehend him for his misbehavior. Here is a driver who never had to take into account the niceties or legalities of risky driving behavior. Why should he? There is no one to deal with those who drive dangerously on the roads of Judea and Samaria.

According to Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, head of the International Law Department of the Kohelet Policy Forum, it’s not just a matter of no one to police the roads. Without sovereignty, there's simply no law and order. “By preventing the normal administration of law and policing, the existence of military law, and in particular the Civil Administration, prevents effective enforcement against property crime," says Kontorovich. "The military is not organised to be property police, and the Civil Administration does not see law enforcement as its primary priority.”

Crime Doesn't Care About Your Religion

Crime, by the way, is not exclusive to Jewish residents of the territories. Because crime doesn’t care about your ethnicity, religion, or nationality. Though religion does matter--along with your gender--when it comes to inheriting or purchasing property. Naomi Linder Kahn, director of the International Division of Regavim, explains:

“Both Arab and Jewish residents are suffering as a result of the legal limbo that has existed in the territories since 1967, where outmoded Jordanian and Ottoman law is still being enforced by Israeli courts. The old Jordanian legislation means that women—whether Arabs or Jews—cannot inherit or purchase land in Judea and Samaria. Worse yet, Jordanian laws still in effect prevent Jewish people of either gender from purchasing land anywhere in Judea and Samaria, in what is a clear case of Israel propping up an antisemitic policy. Finally, Israel continues to uphold outrageous Ottoman laws no longer in effect anywhere else in the world for over 100 years that allow for property theft through agricultural land use in territory over the Green Line.”

Failure of Israeli Leadership

Beyond these points of concern, there are many more problems that go unresolved as a result of the failure of Israeli leadership to implement sovereignty. But while sovereignty is currently relegated to the backburner for a variety of reasons, the sole issue of the Sovereignty Movement (Ribonut) is to keep the issue of Israeli sovereignty front and center. Asked about the implications of sovereignty beyond the issue of land, Nadia Matar, co-founder of Ribonut, along with Yehudit Katsover, reframed the issue to show how the application of Israeli law to Judea and Samaria would necessarily improve society. Matar provided a bulleted list:

·      Substantive rather than political considerations when deciding whether to build or not to build

·      Fewer road accidents

·      Economic benefits, such as a drop in housing prices, nationwide

·      Ecological benefits: Enforcement and supervision in the areas of the environment: landfills, quarries, pollution of streams and groundwater, and etc. 

·      The IDF will be free from being occupied with silly things like giving out building permits and will finally be able to deal with its real missions, fighting terrorism and protecting borders

·      Improvements in the provision of road infrastructure, electricity, water, and etc.

·      Preservation of and preventing the looting of heritage and archeological sites by official and unofficial robbers

“But above all,” says Matar, “sovereignty will be an official political and national statement that this land is ours.”

Being There

It is this last point that resonates most of all with those of us who live in Judea and Samaria. We poke along under an onerous and archaic quasi legal system--one that is woefully subpar, ignoring as it does, infractions of basic legal norms. The Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria must put up with a lot, simply for the privilege of being here: the unfairness of how we are treated compared to other Israelis; the dangers of living beyond the Green Line; and living without the standard legal rights our contemporaries have come to expect.

But we live where we live because we love the land, indigenous Jewish territory for thousands of years. And we live where we live because our presence serves to protect the holy city of Jerusalem (the enemy has to go through here to get to there). Finally, we live here because we hope that if enough of us do so, our government will come to do the right thing.

From our point of view, you see, it doesn’t matter who sits in the White House, Trump or Biden. What matters is who sits in the prime minister’s seat in Jerusalem. And we are waiting for someone who has the stones to declare our sovereignty over all our land, at last.

 


 

Wednesday, February 17, 2021


Biden has yet to phone Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though it has been a full 4 weeks since Biden assumed office as president of the United States. The more time goes by, the more speculation by the media on what, exactly, the lack of a phone call to the Israeli premier signifies, or whether it means anything at all. Is the lack of a phone call a snub, a slight? Or is Biden holding back until the results of the upcoming Israeli election are clear?

My host for this column, Elder of Ziyon, is on record as saying the no phone call to Israel is no big deal:
Some think that the symbolism of Biden not calling Netanyahu is important. I don't. Unless he calls Abbas first, this is not something to waste time on.
It’s true, as far as we know, that Biden has not yet called Mahmoud Abbas. Biden did, however, have Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr reach out to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh. So claimed Shtayyeh during an interview on France 24 Arabic TV on February 7, 2021, that was documented by MEMRI TV:

Interviewer: "Have you opened a channel of communication with the new Biden administration?"

Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh: "Yes, there has been a phone call between myself and Mr. Hady Amr – Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian affairs. Mr. Amr reaffirmed what this administration declared during the election campaign: It will restore the aid, it will reopen the PLO office in Washington, and it will open a U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem. This is an important political message. In addition, the administration intends to restore aid to UNRWA and aid to the Palestinian people. These issues, as far as we are concerned, fall under the definition of confidence-building measures between this administration and us.”

[...]

"We requested that this administration reverse all the decisions that were made by the Trump administration, including the decision [to move the] U.S. embassy [to Jerusalem]. However, we know that the new administration, might not go this way, and instead choose an alternative option, which is opening a U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem in order to deal with the Palestinians directly. I believe that it sends a [clear] political message."

How important is this exchange? It’s hard to gauge, because first of all, it’s anecdotal. We weren’t there, and we don’t know if Shtayyeh’s account is faithful to the truth. But we do need to acknowledge that while Biden hasn’t spoken to Netanyahu, there have been contacts between the Biden administration and Israel. Haaretz, in fact, said that the first official contact between the two administrations took place on January 23, when U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat.

The exchange with Ben-Shabbat, oddly enough, took place on a Saturday, when Israeli officials generally refrain from official business out of respect for the Jewish Sabbath, “Shabbat.” This phone call, like the lack of a phone call from Biden to Netanyahu, could, in theory, be seen as a slight by the Biden administration to Israel. Having his guy call Bibi’s guy on Shabbos? It’s certainly an affront to Israeli sensibilities.*

But I may be reading too much into this—it is likely that there are meetings and phone calls with Israeli officials on Shabbat all the time, they just aren’t advertised for fear of public backlash. As a result, when such meetings or phone calls take place on a Saturday, they tend to fall below the radar, and go unmentioned by the media. In this case, it may very well be that Israel wanted the media to put out the word that the phone call, in fact, took place, in order to take the sting out of the fact that Biden has yet to call Bibi.

Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, notes that Biden is the first president in 40 years to delay contact with an Israeli prime minister on taking office:

He called Xi. He called Putin. But three weeks into his presidency, Old Joe has pointedly refrained from calling the head of the government of our most reliable ally in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And so it’s clear now: Biden’s handlers intend to put immense strain on the U.S.-Israel alliance over the next four years, at a time when Israel and the rest of the free world are threatened by Iranian mullahs who are newly emboldened amid all the signs that Biden’s handlers plan to readopt Obama’s appeasement policies toward them.

Of the phone call between Hady Amr and Mohammad Shtayyeh, Spencer says:

The import of that call was as clear as the import of the snub of Netanyahu: the money will flow again, the jihad will be enabled again, the Israelis will be treated with contempt again, the peace accords that Trump enabled will be put on the back burner, if not repudiated outright. Everything is back on track now after a four-year speed bump.
The Washington Free Beacon, meanwhile, describes the lack of a phone call from President Biden to Prime Minister Netanyahu as a “diplomatic slight” and says that “congressional Republicans are piling on the White House for not speaking with Netanyahu, with multiple members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee telling the Free Beacon it is a slight that endangers the close U.S.-Israel alliance at a time when the world’s only Jewish state is facing down multiple terrorist threats.”

The Free Beacon lists a number of prominent Republicans who have spoken out against the slight:

· Rep. Michael McCaul (Texas), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee

· Rep. Lee Zeldin (N.Y.), a top HFAC Republican

· Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee

· Rep. Ronny Jackson (R., Texas), another member of HFAC member

· Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), who sits on both the HFAC and the House Judiciary Committee

· Rep. Mark Green (R., Tenn.)

· Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R., Fla.), also on the HFAC

· Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), ranking member of the House's Middle East Subcommittee

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon also spoke out against Biden’s snub in this tweet of February 10th, tacking on Netanyahu’s phone number at the end for a bit of snarky emphasis:

In an earlier piece, the Free Beacon enumerated the history of US presidents contacting Israeli leaders over the past four decades:

Upon assuming office in January 1981, Reagan made overtures to Israel, vowing to protect its interests, and sent Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to meet with Israel’s leaders to build "Israeli confidence in the administration of President-elect Ronald Reagan," according to an Associated Press report from the time.

President George H.W. Bush followed this trend. He called then-Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir on Jan. 25, 1989, five days after he entered the White House.

President Bill Clinton reached out to Israel even sooner. He called then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin on Jan. 23, 1993, three days after being sworn in.

President George W. Bush phoned former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak on Jan. 27, 2001, a week after taking the White House, to express his support for the U.S.-Israel alliance.

President Barack Obama, who faced criticism from Republicans for policies they branded anti-Israel, called the Jewish state’s leaders on his first day in office. Obama also called Palestinian leaders that day, laying the groundwork for that administration’s failed bid to foster peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

President Donald Trump not only called Netanyahu but made the historic decision to invite him to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22, 2017, two days after he took the oath of office.
From Biden, however? Crickets. Of more concern to some, however, is the inability of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s inability to confirm Israel as a US ally. Elder of Ziyon covered this story in White House press secretary cannot say that Israel is a US ally. This is very bad. Here too, Elder once again opines that the failure of Biden to call Bibi is no big deal. He does, however, see the failure of the White House press secretary to clearly state that Israel is a close US ally as an ominous and significant harbinger of doom:

I don't think that it is a big deal that Biden hasn't called Netanyahu, but the inability to say that Israel is an ally is mind-boggling. Even if she didn't want to answer the same question about Saudi Arabia so she avoided answering about Israel, it is a big deal, because this points to Biden as being the third term of Obama, and the idea that the White House believes that a tilt towards Iran and away from US allies is a good idea is a very bad harbinger for the next four years.

Note also that even President Obama had no problem saying that the US was a strong ally of Israel.

Perhaps, as Elder suggests, the absence of a phone call, in and of itself, is not very important. Or maybe that was true, up to a point. Now, however, it points to a deliberate diss, as time goes by—an entire month in which a certain phone in Israel just doesn’t ring.

People are talking about it, leaders are speaking out, calling the lack of a phone call from Biden to Bibi an insult. It means something that the phone call hasn’t happened. The delay is a statement of malignant intent.

Taking a step back and looking at the big picture only makes things look worse. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican, is stripped from her committee roles as a result of airing her despicable conspiracy theories among them some that are antisemitic. Far left antisemite Ilhan Omar, on the other hand, is elevated in status, having been appointed vice chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights.

Should someone like Ilhan Omar have a say on foreign affairs? Someone who applauds Biden for stripping the Houthis of their designation as a terrorist organization?
Someone who tweets: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and let them see the evil doings of Israel.” Someone who publicly expresses hunger for the ICC to prosecute American ally Israel for imaginary war crimes?
But then again, Jen Psaki can’t say that Israel is a US ally. And that is the new reality: Israel, apparently, is no longer America's greatest ally in the Middle East. Which just goes to show that with Jobama in office, you can lead Netanyahu to wait and wait by the phone, but you can’t make it ring.

 *On reviewing this piece, Elder pointed out the time difference between Israel and the US. It would have been Shabbos in Israel only if Sullivan called Ben-Shabbat before 11 am EST. 

UPDATE: Biden finally called Netanyahu just as this piece was coming out. But the point was made. It took Biden an entire month to call, as the whole world was watching, and talking. We got the message: this will not be an Israel-friendly administration.




Wednesday, February 10, 2021

“American Jews voted for this,” is something I’ve taken to writing as a preface to every article I share on social media detailing the ways in which the Biden administration is bad for America, for Israel, and for the free world at large. I do this, in part, because I am angry. Angry at this betrayal of brother for brother, prioritizing hatred of the Orange Man over the welfare of the Jewish State. Angry at this very large subset of Jews who care more about criminals who enter their country illegally than they care about the Jews of far-off Israel. Most of all, I am angry at American Jews for being blind to the threat of Iran that looms over us all, choosing fluffy social justice issues over this major existential threat.

I am angry and I want them to know it. So I tell them, at every chance I get, “American Jews voted for this.”

I’ve pointed my finger and said “American Jews voted for this,” when the Biden administration announced its intention to restore aid to UNRWA, whose schools are hotbeds of incitement that teach Arab children to hate and kill Israeli Jews. UNRWA schools have even been used to house the missile launchers that fire rockets at the one million Jewish civilians of Southern Israel, which includes my children and grandchildren. UNRWA is thoroughly disreputable with serious allegations of corruption at the highest level. But that didn’t stop Biden from appointing former UNRWA official and “Palestinian-American” Maher al-Bitar to be director of the NSC intelligence service. 

American Jews voted for this.


“American Jews voted for this,” I said when Biden predictably appointed Robert Malley as US envoy for Iranian affairs. Malley wants to end the sanctions and return to the JCPOA. This wrongheaded policy of appeasement—of making funds available to the cash-strapped mullahs—only hastens Iranian nuclear breakout time.  The appointment of Malley undoes everything the Trump administration did to contain Iran. Yet American Jews voted for Biden even while he promised to reinstate this self-destructive policy—a policy that empowers an enemy sworn to the goal of first obliterating Israel and then the United States.

When the Biden administration rejoined the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), something he had promised to do during his campaign, I said it again: American Jews voted for this. The UNHRC is a body made up of representatives from some of the worst human rights-abusing countries, for instance Pakistan, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China, Indonesia, Venezuela, and Russia. The main purpose of this body of evil is to censure Israel for imaginary infractions, which was the reason President Trump pulled the US out of the council: the UNHRC is clearly antisemitic in its singular focus on and hostility toward the Jewish State.

Last year in fact, the UNHRC published a blacklist of companies it said raised “particular human rights concerns” due only to the location of these businesses in Judea and Samaria, indigenous Jewish territory for thousands of years. A vote for Biden was, in reality, a vote for a return to the UNHRC, an antisemitic body purporting to care about human rights as it looks daily for new ways to punish Israel. American Jews looked the other way, if they looked at all. American Jews voted for this.

The Matter of the Houthis

Then there’s the matter of the Houthis. While the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the Houthis, the Biden administration has already moved to suspend some of these sanctions. That’s because Iran is sending lots of sophisticated weaponry to this Yemen-based militia group and training Houthi militants in their use. And Biden, you see, is loath to upset Iran.

The Trump administration designated the Houthis a terrorist organization. Biden, on the other hand, is reviewing this designation. Antony Blinken, Biden’s secretary of state, said he has “deep concern about the designation” of the Houthis as a terrorist organization. The Biden administration's “review” is part and parcel of a return to the bad old days of the Obama administration and the JCPOA appeasement policy in which America pretends it can mollify the mullahs by funding their nuclear ambitions. American Jews voted for this and it literally makes no sense. It’s suicide.

The Biden administration is, in fact, an extension of the Obama administration’s “abnormal Middle East strategy,” in which enemies are strengthened, and friends are punished. In voting for Biden, American Jews voted for strengthening Iran and punishing Israel. Because that is how much they hate Donald Trump. For hatred of this one man, they threw the Jews of Israel under the bus. They empowered an Iran that promises to wipe out both Israel and America.


Duss is "Infected with Jew-Hatred"

When rumors emerged that Bernie Sander’s top aide, Matt Duss, was to be hired by the State Department, I said it again: “American Jews voted for this.”

“Duss,” said the Free Beacon, “will join a growing roster of Biden administration hires who have displayed a deep animus toward Israel, promoted boycotts of the Jewish state, and advocated for a Palestinian ‘right of return’ that would destroy the country’s Jewish composition.”

No less than the Simon Wiesenthal Center described Duss as "infected with Jew-hatred.” But American Jews voted for Biden, knowing that Joe would need to placate the influential, far left, Israel-hating wing of the Democratic Party. What better way to do this than to hire far left, Israel-hating hacks to serve in the Biden administration? American Jews voted for this, as well.

Iran's New Rocket: The Zuljanah

When Iran tested a new rocket on February 1, a rocket capable of hitting Britain, I gritted my teeth and thought (and said), “American Jews voted for this.” The rocket launch was an Iranian threat timed to coincide with Biden’s assumption to power. The intent was clear: Iran is telling Biden to lift the sanctions and reinstate the JCPOA. In effect, the mullahs are saying, “Give us money or we will blow some country—Britain or perhaps Israel—to smithereens.”

Iran's newest rocket, the Zuljanah

And of course, Iran knows that Biden is rehiring all the Obama appointees so intimately involved in appeasing Iran the last time around. Iran knows that Biden coming to power is the same as Obama assuming power. The mullahs have already played this game. They know the rules, and how to win—how to get more money to make more weapons. American Jews voted for this, as well.

During the election campaign, Biden promised he would open the PLO mission in Washington. Already, the PA is in talks with the State Department on how to make that happen without the PA having to pay the $650 million it owes after being found guilty in 2015 by a New York jury, for no less than seven terror attacks. A survivor of one of these attacks, Alan Joseph Bauer, described his personal connection to the lawsuit, “In March of 2002, a Palestinian policeman, Muhammed Hasheikah, detonated himself on King George Street in downtown Jerusalem. I had two screws pass through my left arm, and our son, then aged 7, had the head of a Philips screw pass fully through his right brain.”

Biden intends to empower the terrorists responsible for this and countless other abhorrent antisemitic attacks, by reopening the PLO mission. He is, moreover, trying to find a way to do so without making the PLO pay the monies it owes to its victims. American Jews voted for this.

"Amcha"

When I met first Dr. Elana Heideman, of the Israel Forever Foundation, she talked to me about the possibility of writing a story for her website. She mentioned that she didn't care whether I was religious, or what my politics might be, all she cared about was whether I had something positive to say about Israel. It was such a simple concept, so sweet and clean. 

She explained that the one thing we all shared was a love of Israel. And she told me that once upon a time, Jews in the Old Country had a way of identifying each other. They'd come up to a person and whisper, "Amcha."*

Amcha. A hidden way of asking: "I'm Jewish. Are you? Is it safe to speak?"

By asking, you were declaring your Judaism. And that was a bit of a risk. But it was a good feeling to find others like you in a world that hated your people. You felt warm and safe in the knowledge of that.

What happened to that simple way of showing up for each other, of caring for each other in a world that hates and wants to kill Jews, just because they are Jewish? When did we stop being a part of each others' lives, each others' worlds?

This is what angers me most of all about the American Jewish vote. This lack of connection, the lack of being there for their own kind in a time of crisis. It makes me think that maybe they aren't really Jewish after all, for all their talk about "tikkun olam."

Did Hatred Overrule Their Common Sense?

There is much more to say on this subject than can be contained in a single article. But there is enough here to ask the obvious questions: Did American Jews know the full import of what they were voting for, when they voted for Joe Biden? Did they care? Or did their hatred for the Orange Man and his difficult personality overrule their common sense?

Where did that feeling of connection to their people go? What happened to the concept that we are your people, and you are ours? What happened to common cause?

Did American Jews know, when they voted for Biden, that they were prioritizing animus for a single person over being actually complicit in the institutionalized hatred of an entire people: their own, "amcha?" Were they the victims of a media colluding with the left to hide the truth of what all of what a Biden administration would mean to Israel and the Jewish people? I don't see it, because ultimately I believe that every voter is responsible for learning all the facts--for digging deep and discerning the truth. Especially when it affects your people, "amcha."

And so, in order to make things entirely clear to them, I will say it often, and I will say it aloud, “American Jews voted for this. You threw us under the bus, and with us, yourselves."

I couldn’t make them see it then, and I couldn’t make them see it back when they voted for Obama, twice. I couldn’t make them see the wrongness of their vote, how it hurts us, how it hurts them and divorces them from their own people, their nation, and the world.

But maybe I can make them see it now, after the fact. Which is why I will keep saying this mantra and writing these words. “American Jews voted for this."

And I promise you, I will not stop.

*Lit. "Your Nation" as in: "I'm part of your nation, I'm Jewish."



Tuesday, February 02, 2021


Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski (Z”L) died this week, age 90, one more in a long line of important rabbis to succumb to COVID-19. The loss of Rabbi Twerski to the Jewish people is, of course, enormous. But for those of us from Pittsburgh, the loss is more personal, more poignant. Rabbi Twerski was a local celebrity, someone who made us proud, and it didn’t matter whether or not you were Jewish.

He was a symbol of tolerance, because everyone knew this scion of several Hassidic dynasties worked at St. Francis Hospital, alongside the nuns. And he was a symbol of sweetness to all who suffered from addiction. Because he understood you, and cared about you. He had compassion.

Rabbi Twerski became an authority on the subject of addiction. He was known to pop into local AA meetings and to him, it was probably no big deal. But everyone in those meetings knew it was an honor to have him there. They felt it, and they loved him for just being there alongside and among them, as if he were one of them. More importantly, I think they felt he loved them. Their religion didn’t matter. They were people who were suffering, and he cared. He wanted to help.

Rabbi Twerski was real. He retained his Milwaukee accent to the end. And he didn’t mind using secular culture to make important points. Among the more than 60 books he authored were two books (see HERE and HERE) illustrated with Charles Schultz’s Peanut comic strips, intended to serve as commentary to the Twelve Steps. These books with their comic strips made the steps more accessible and somehow more possible, to just plain folks.

Rabbi Twerski had a face that shone like an angel. When I would see him, in person, or in a photo or  video—it didn’t matter which—I always thought of the verse from Ethics of the Fathers (1:15) that describes sever panim yafot: a pleasant countenance.

Shammai says, "Make your Torah study regular; say little and do much; and greet every person with a pleasant countenance."

Some translate “pleasant countenance” as a smile. But it’s that and something more: it’s the thing that shines from a face of goodness and kindness. An extra-special something that emanates from beyond what we see on a face or in a facial expression. I can recall numerous articles in local Pittsburgh papers describing Rabbi Twerski as “saintly.” But what he had was sever panim yafot. Rather than the face of a saint, he had the face of an angel.

One of the most striking things about Rabbi Twerski is that he was balanced. He stressed self-esteem while projecting modesty and humility. In 2019, I included a clip of Rabbi Twerski speaking at the Mayanei HaYeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak, in my Rosh Hashana roundup. He spoke about the right way to raise a child: not to punish, but to increase self-esteem. Rabbi Twerski illustrated the concept with several stories, including a personal anecdote of a minor misdeed as a young boy, and how his father handled the matter. The story hit all the right notes for me as a mother, and as a person, though I’d heard it before. These precious Rabbi Twerski stories were all a part of growing up in Pittsburgh.

Rabbi Twerski’s stories were a joy to hear and always left you with a little shock of recognition: "Yes! That’s the thing. The right way to respond, to behave, in response to a sticky situation." 

And the stories were also just plain funny. They changed depending upon who was doing the retelling. But also because sometimes Rabbi Twerski told you a little bit more of the story. So you never minded hearing a well-loved Rabbi Twerski tale, retold. It was all part of the lore, and yet there was no mystique. He was a completely open book, a very beautiful, humorous, light-hearted, yet meaningful and impactful book. 

I was curious to see what the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette would write about this favorite son, but I hadn’t counted on learning something new: Danny Thomas was instrumental in enabling Rabbi Twerski to complete his medical studies.

Married and ordained by age 21, he worked as an assistant rabbi in the Milwaukee congregation of his father, Rabbi Jacob Twerski.

But with psychiatry and psychology on the rise in the 1950s, “I noticed that people weren’t flocking to me for counseling the way they had to my father,” he later recalled in Pittsburgh Quarterly. “I decided that if I wanted to be the kind of rabbi my father was, I had to become a professional. So I went for broke, going to medical school to become a psychiatrist.”

He was going for broke almost literally.

He and his wife, Golda, already had a growing family. Even with help from members of his congregation, he fell behind on tuition. Then a gift of $4,000 arrived from an unexpected source, he wrote — the actor Danny Thomas, who had read a newspaper article about the young rabbi struggling to get through medical school at Marquette University. (Time magazine, too, caught interest early, profiling the “Rabbi in White” in 1959.) 

But back to Pittsburgh, St. Francis, and the nuns. Rabbi Twerski led the psychiatry unit at St. Francis Hospital for 20 years, and then founded Gateway Rehabilitation Center. In a 1991 Post-Gazette article, Rabbi Twerski estimated he had worked with some 30,000 alcoholics, and he was far from finished with his work. It was an awesome source of pride to Pittsburghers that an august rabbi could work together with nuns day in and day out with no awkwardness, but a great deal of goodwill and harmony. The rabbi chronicled this story of coexistence in The Rabbi & the Nuns. In the days that followed his death, fellow Pittsburghers were scanning and sharing vignettes from the book.



Aside from the unexpected discovery that Danny Thomas helped Rabbi Twerski go to med school, there was a second surprise: Rabbi Twerski was the composer of the popular Jewish tune Hoshea et Amecha. “Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance; and tend them, and carry them forever.” Psalms 28:9.

Everyone knows this song. It’s sung everywhere, for every occasion. But I’d never known the song originated with Rabbi Twerski. And now I’ll always think of him when I hear this song.

 

It was all part of Rabbi Twerski’s perfect balance of humility, modesty, and self-esteem that he asked that there be no eulogies at his funeral. He requested only that mourners sing the melody he composed. It was like he was saying: "This is how I want to be remembered. I want to be remembered as the guy who made a holy song acknowledging that salvation and sustenance come from God alone."

The song he’d written some 60 years ago, said Rabbi Twerski, had made many Jews happy, and that is what he wanted to take with him to the world of truth.

 




Wednesday, January 27, 2021


Jews are everywhere in the Biden administration. If you are Jewish, you may see this as a source of pride or shame, depending upon whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. Non-Jews, in particular antisemites, may, on the other hand, see the preponderance of Jews surrounding Biden as demonstrating his supposed affinity for Israel/Zionists, perhaps even proof that the Jews are well on their way in their quest for world domination as per the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. A Turkish social media site, for example, referred to Jews as being “overrepresented in [the] Biden cabinet.” This, according to the Jerusalem Post, is “part of a rising crescendo of antisemitism and anti-Biden media coverage in Turkey.”

The Suspicious Jew

Then there are the suspicious Jews like this author, who think about what impression we are meant to form on seeing so many Jews appointed to positions of power at once. No doubt we are supposed to look at all those Jews and think: “Joe Biden cannot possibly be an antisemite. Look how many Jews are in his cabinet! Look how many Jews he has appointed to positions of power!”

This is important, because of Jewish concern over antisemitism by such malevolent far-left forces that Biden must appease, for instance The Squad. Being surrounded by so many Jews, we are meant to understand that far from being an antisemite, Biden is actually a philosemite. Furthermore, with so many Jews surrounding him, Biden must be good for the Jews and for Israel—or those Jews would not be onboard with his administration. The Jewish appointees, are themselves, proof of Joe Biden’s goodwill to the Jewish people and to Israel at large.

Suspicious Jews, however, see these intended takeaways and impressions as a smokescreen. Whenever Joe Biden does something that is bad for Israel, we will be told that on the contrary, it can’t be bad for Israel: look at all the Jews who are directly involved in helping the Biden administration form these policies. Why would Jews do something that harms their own? Ergo: any policy harmful to Israel, for instance reinstating the JCPOA, must instead be deemed as beneficial—a total inversion of the truth.

As a suspicious Jew, I also believe a closer look at the Jews populating Biden’s court is warranted. No doubt, the Jewish Biden appointees are largely progressive, as are most Jewish Americans, among them the Jews who overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden. Progressive Jews do not place Israeli security above such issues as, for instance, gun control, abortion, the LGBTQ community, climate control, and illegal immigration. Jewish progressives don’t put “Jewish” issues first. Instead they place all their most important issues—whether sanctioned by the Torah or not—under the rubric of “Tikkun Olam.” In this manner, progressive Jews make issues “Jewish.”

Jew "ish" Values

Being pro-choice or supporting illegal immigration is therefore “Jewish” because these are positions that are in synch with the sensibilities of the society that Jewish progressives inhabit. Supporting these issues makes them feel good. Supporting Israel, on the other hand, makes them feel uneasy. That’s because of the very loud voices telling them that Israel oppresses Arabs and occupies their land. They should know better, and they would if they would read beyond the news they are spoon-fed by CNN and MSNBC. Instead, however, they feel they have to work double-time to show they do not support Israeli “occupation.” They do this through initiating and supporting legislation that is harmful to Israel.

That means that while Biden is working hard to give the impression of a philosemitic, pro-Israel government, what he actually has is a cabinet and administration that will work extra hard to show they do not favor either Israel or the Jews.  They want to be seen as having the right sort of politics. This, they call “Jewish.”

One or Two Good Eggs?

I don’t know enough about the Jews in Biden’s court to tar them all with the same brush. There may be one or two good eggs in the bunch. If there are decent, honest Jews among the appointees, they may be a smokescreen for the others. 

I may not know all the Jews in Biden’s court. But I do know enough about Joe Biden, his appointees, and his intended actions, to know that so many members of the tribe in his administration is not a portent for good. This is in contradistinction to the Trump administration which had Jews aplenty, but enacted a great deal of philosemitic, pro-Israel policy. The differences are stark:

Trump starved the Iranian nuclear machine, Biden wants to feed it cash by reinstating the JCPOA.

Trump made warm peace with the Abraham Accords, Biden wants to revive the dead two-state solution and invigorate and empower the corrupt, terror-inciting Palestinian Authority.

Trump made the settlement- and sovereignty-supporting David Friedman, his ambassador to Israel. Biden renamed the ambassadorial position (though he later changed it back) from U.S. ambassador to Israel, to “U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.” Biden did this to suggest he doesn’t accept Israel’s hegemony in the region. He did it to suggest he supports the creation of an Arab state on Jewish land.

Trump pulled support to the corrupt UNRWA, which perpetuates the Arab refugee problem, and inculcates Arab children with violent Jew-hatred through UNRWA schools, so these children grow up with a lust for killing Jews. Biden appointed former UNRWA official and “Palestinian-American” Maher al-Bitar to be director of the NSC intelligence service.

Who exactly, are the Jews in Biden’s “court?” Here is a list of Biden appointees and nominees (in no particular order), with some yet to come (for instance, Jews are in the running for ambassador to Israel, and Robert Malley is shortlisted to be appointed special envoy to the Iran nuclear negotiations):

·         Tony Blinken, secretary of state

·         Ron Klain, chief of staff

·         Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of homeland security

·         Avrail Haines, director of national intelligence

·         Janet Yellen, treasury secretary

·         Merrick Garland, attorney general

·         David Cohen, CIA deputy director

·         Eric Lander, Office of Science and Technology policy director

·         Rachel Levine, deputy health secretary

·         Anne Neuberger, National Security Agency cybersecurity director

·         Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state

·         Stephanie Pollack, deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration

·         Jared Bernstein, Council of Economic Advisers

·         Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

·         Jeffrey Zients, COVID-19 response coordinator

·         Jennifer Klein, co-chair Council on Gender Policy

·         Jessica Rosenworcel, chair of the Federal Communications Commission

·         David Kessler, co-chair of the COVID-19 Advisory Board and head of Operation Warp Speed

·         Polly Trottenberg, deputy secretary of transportation

·         Isabel Guzman, administrator of the Small Business Administration (claims to be of Mexican, Jewish, German and possibly Chinese descent)

Special mention of those married to Jews:

·        Vice President Kamala Harris, married to Doug Emhoff

·        Samantha Power, director of United States Agency for International Development, married to Cass Sunstein

By way of offering balance, we end this column with one more special mention: that of non-Jewish Biden appointee Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Rouse is married to Ford Morrison, son of Toni Morrison, who denounced Israel’s right to self-defense and claimed that Israel’s sole aim is the “liquidation of the Palestinian nation.” I don’t know anything at all about Rouse or her husband, but the latter’s genealogical “inheritance” does not bode well for Israel. 





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