02/10 Links Pt1: Australia must face up to its anti-Semitism crisis; Hamas’s Boasting Indicts the West; Mamdani and the collapse of ‘liberal Zionism’; What Did You Expect, Starmer?

From Ian:

Hamas’s Boasting Indicts the West

Oct. 7, 2023, displayed something different. Far from hiding its brutality, Hamas advertised it, filming and broadcasting sadistic cruelty. It touted the torture and execution of Israeli women and children as a great moral accomplishment, using the killing as a recruitment tool.

Recall the enthusiastic tone of that young man who called his parents from the phone of an Israeli woman he had just murdered, imploring his mother and father to open up WhatsApp. “Look how many I killed with my own hands. Your son killed Jews!” he told his father. His parents were overjoyed. “My son, God bless you,“ his father said. “I wish I was with you,” his mother added.

Rather than a coverup, this was a media event.

What explains the difference between Hitler and Stalin, who denied their atrocities, and Hamas? Could it be that Hamas knew that many in its Western audience, unlike in Hitler’s and Stalin’s time, would celebrate its crimes as noble resistance? If so, Hamas’s openness indicts our own culture or, at least, its intellectuals.

Within days after Oct. 7, American campuses exploded with anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric. Almost immediately, more than 30 Harvard student groups endorsed Hamas’s actions as justified. University presidents testified that the acceptability of calling for the annihilation of the Jewish people “depends on the context.”

When New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani argues, however implausibly, that the call to “globalize the intifada” is somehow ambiguous, he is at least paying La Rochefoucauld’s tribute to decency. That wasn’t the case at a rally at the Sydney Opera House held two days after the Oct. 7 massacre, when the crowd burned Israeli flags and chanted “Where are the Jews?” On the first night of Hanukkah in 2025, they were at Bondi Beach.

Today’s mass murderers no longer need to hide their crimes from the West’s educated elites, who applaud them. Terrorist boasting testifies to our own moral decline.

Sir Michael Ellis: Israel Thrives While Its Haters Flounder

The mullahs say they have their "fingers on the trigger" and most regional states are rather nervous. Meanwhile, Israel seems to shake it all off and get on with life. One supposes there is nothing like being attacked multiple times over the decades to build resilience. Despite leading a country only the size of Wales, Prime Minister Netanyahu has pointed out that within a decade, Israel's economy will be worth $1 trillion.

While the Iranian regime has been busy murdering protestors by the thousands, haters of Israel prefer to focus their efforts on trying to introduce a boycott of Israeli avocados. At the same time, the Government under Sir Keir Starmer has indefinitely paused a UK trade deal with Israel, thereby doing itself out of business with one of the world's leading high-tech innovators.

Egypt and Israel have recently signed the biggest natural gas deal in Israel's history, worth $35 billion. The Israeli Leviathan gas field will soon supply a substantial proportion of Egypt's energy needs. The UAE has signed a defense contract with Israel worth $2.3 billion for a new, highly sophisticated defense system to protect its civilian and military aircraft. This follows the German parliament approving a $3.5 billion expansion of the Arrow 3 deal with Israel. In total, the deal was valued at $8 billion.

Israel's military, diplomatic, economic and tech strength is extraordinary. But the nation's true strength rests on the happiness, positivity and industry of its people in the face of those who hate them. Israel is one of the world's players. The future bodes well for them. For the haters - not so much.

Australia must face up to its anti-Semitism crisis

This would be a betrayal of Jewish Australians, who this week were reminded once again what a radically different place their country has become to the one in which their parents and grandparents once sought refuge. On Monday, Israeli president Isaac Herzog arrived in Australia for a four-day visit, having been invited over following the Bondi massacre. He was met with enormous counter-protests. Signs were waved depicting Herzog and New South Wales premier Chris Minns – who, with his public displays of solidarity with Jewish Australians, has been an admirable outlier in the Labor Party – as Nazis. Speaking at the Sydney Town Hall, Grace Tame – an activist and former ‘Australian of the Year’ – said Herzog had ‘signed bombs sent to kill innocent civilians’. Nine protesters have been charged for various violent offences, including one man who is alleged to have bitten an officer.

Australia is now a nation that refuses to tolerate the presence of a leader of the world’s only Jewish state, yet at the same time, publicly mourns the death of Hezbollah chief Ismail Haniyeh – a man who dedicated much of his life to killing Jews. To say Australia has a problem with anti-Semitism would be an understatement. This is a full-blown crisis. The protests offered further proof, if any more were needed, of just how necessary it is to hold a royal commission into anti-Semitism.

McCarthy’s call for the commission to also focus on anti-indigenous hatred was not just a blow for Jewish Australians. Many Australians, regardless of background, would also have found her demands curious. There are, of course, small and odious pockets of Australian society where you’ll find racist attitudes towards indigenous Australians. Yet there is no shortage of attention directed at this form of racism, as any recent visitor to Australia could testify.

Great strides have been made towards indigenous advancement. Every public event begins with a Welcome to Country ceremony. More than half of Australia has been returned to indigenous Australians through native title agreements. As McCarthy’s own ministerial title testifies, there are entire government departments dedicated to ‘closing the gap’ between the living standards of indigenous Australians and white Australians. The wrongs visited on indigenous people, from settler violence to the forced integration of the Stolen Generation, were indisputably terrible. But Australia’s recent attempts to atone for them can hardly be faulted.

The royal commission must explore one issue – and one issue only. It must be laser-focussed on the explosion of anti-Semitism in Australia since 7 October 2023. This horrific development has already cost lives. It is the very least Australia’s Jewish community deserves.

Of course, a royal commission won’t bring back Alexander Kleytman, the Holocaust survivor shot multiple times trying to protect his wife on Bondi beach. It won’t bring back 10-year-old Matilda, the youngest victim of that dreadful pogrom. But it might help to prevent a similar evil from happening again. Albanese and the Australian Labor Party must be given no opportunity to worm their way out of it.

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09/09 Links Pt2: If ‘Palestine’ is born in blood, the world will reap the whirlwind; Tunisia denies Gaza flotilla claims of ‘drone attack’; Memorial for 68 IDF soldiers who fell in 2014 Gaza war

From Ian:

Dalia Ziada: If ‘Palestine’ is born in blood, the world will reap the whirlwind

Every day seems to bring a new, deluded world leader pushing a flawed framework on the Middle East, a region they do not understand. These leaders endorse recognition of a Palestinian state without any peace negotiations with Israel, which is effectively a reward for Hamas carrying out the atrocities of Oct. 7.

Countries worldwide, even unexpected ones like Japan, Canada and Australia, continue to say they may conditionally recognize such a state in the near future. But do they realize what they are endorsing?

Recently, Germany reversed its pledge to recognize a Palestinian state in the immediate future, as it came to realize what a dangerous precedent was being enacted.

Almost two years ago, I was forced to flee my homeland of Egypt at the hands of the radical Islamists, the same chauvinist fanatics who once vowed to “sabotage Western civilization from within.” As a liberal Muslim scholar of the Middle East, who cherishes the values of classical liberal democracy, and who owes the United States my education, my professional growth, and, most recently, my very life, I feel an obligation to sound the alarm against the Muslim Brotherhood and its most dangerous offshoot: Hamas.

Hamas, the Palestinian faction of the Muslim Brotherhood—designated by the U.S. as a Foreign Terrorist Organization—has run Gaza with an iron fist after it violently seized control from the rival Fatah party in June 2007 following a series of armed clashes. It was the mastermind behind and key perpetrator of the barbaric Oct. 7 massacre in Israel in 2023.

Hamas leaders purposefully exposed innocent civilians in Gaza to war so they could use their blood to gain legitimacy for their acts of terrorism, as well as win the sympathy and approval of the international community.

These facts are crucial to recall as several world leaders, under the deception of the Gaza war narrative cleverly crafted by Hamas’s propaganda machine in Qatar, seek to reward terrorism with the premature recognition of a Palestinian state.

Such a move will not bring the peace we all wish for. It will only serve to entrench Hamas, empower the Islamic Republic of Iran, deepen the region’s most chronic geopolitical conflicts and strip the Palestinians of the only real hope they deserve: a future free from Hamas’s tyranny.

Born in blood, this offer will give rise to more blood. The particular rotten proposal being offered would end the prospects for any final settlement short of violence because it essentially demands that Israel sign its own death warrant.

Western nations push for ‘Palestine’ at UN, Israeli experts urge strong response

A coalition of countries led by France—including the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Australia and Portugal—are preparing to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the 80th United Nations General Assembly (Sept. 9–23) in New York.

Israeli legal experts warn the move will intensify political tensions surrounding the already fraught Israel-Palestinian conflict. They recommend Israel act decisively, urging it to make clear to its allies that any attempt to impose “foreign diktats” will come at a price.

Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights attorney, CEO of the International Legal Forum and senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security, and Anne Herzberg, legal adviser at NGO Monitor, spoke with JNS about the implications of the planned recognitions.

Both agreed that Israel cannot afford to remain passive in the face of what they view as unilateral and destructive moves.

“Israel must make clear to other countries, as they have already, that they will not sit idly by in the face of unilateral recognitions of a Palestinian state,” said Ostrovsky, noting that Israel did well to reject French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent request to visit Israel, and to revoke visas for Australian representatives in Ramallah.

“These countries cannot expect it to be ‘business as usual’ as long as they conduct such actions,” Ostrovsky told JNS, adding that the Palestinian Authority, “which has been spearheading these initiatives,” must also be the subject of “punitive measures.”

He suggested holding its tax revenue and ceasing security collaboration. “You will also likely see some elements of the Israeli government calling for application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria as a response,” he said.

J Street declares war on Israel

J Street’s portrayal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as “messianic extremists” is not just inflammatory—it’s anti-democratic. Israel is a vibrant democracy, and its citizens choose its leaders. To vilify an elected government and call for punitive measures against it is to reject the legitimacy of Israeli democracy itself.

J Street’s rhetoric drives a wedge between American Jews and Israelis, sowing division at a time when unity is most needed. Ben-Ami’s organization seeks to rip apart the longstanding bipartisan support for Israel in Congress and shepherd the Democratic Party into the anti-Israel radical camp.

J Street claims to be guided by Jewish ethics, invoking the principle “do not treat others as we would not want to be treated ourselves.” Yet it fails to apply this principle to Hamas, a terrorist organization that targets civilians, uses human shields, and openly calls for Israel’s destruction. By focusing its ire almost exclusively on Israel, J Street creates a false moral equivalence between a democratic state defending itself and a terrorist regime bent on annihilation.

J Street’s vision of peace—one that hinges on pressuring Israel into concessions while ignoring Palestinian murder, incitement, corruption, and rejectionism—is a fantasy, one rejected by Israel’s citizens. Real peace requires mutual recognition, security guarantees, and an end to terrorism. By calling for restrictions on Israel’s ability to defend itself, J Street empowers those who seek to destroy it. That is not peace advocacy; it is sabotage.

Ben-Ami may claim J Street supports Israel, but its actions tell a different story. By lobbying to cut off military aid, demonizing Israel’s leadership, and promoting a one-sided narrative, it has positioned itself not as a partner for peace but as an adversary. In doing so, J Street has declared war—not on violence or extremism, but on Israel itself.

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Letter of Infamy: When Rabbis Parrot the Settler Violence Lie (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Last week I addressed the accusation of “famine” in Gaza in a letter (HERE) signed by more than 80 Open Orthodox rabbis. This week, I want to look at the second charge in that same letter: so-called “settler violence.” 

To hear the rabbis tell it, extremist settlers are raining down bloody hell on “Palestinians.” But that is exactly false. Which suggests that the signatories have not at all done their due diligence before affixing their names to what stands as a very public condemnation of Israel at a time of extreme peril for the Jewish people.

If they had done the bare minimum research before signing their John Hancocks to that statement accusing Israel of not doing enough to combat “settler violence,” they would have discovered that only four months earlier, in April 2025, Israeli NGO Regavim had released a detailed report on this very subject, “False Flags and Real Agendas, The Making of a Modern Blood Libel: The ‘Settler Violence’ Narrative as a Weapon in the Battle to Delegitimize the Jewish Presence in Judea and Samaria and the State of Israel”

Regavim, which monitors land use and policy in Judea and Samaria, examined the UN database that is perpetually cited as proof of “settler violence.” What they found was that the numbers collapse under scrutiny, reduced to dust.

“The UN incident list we obtained distinguishes between 2,047 incidents of violence against Israelis and 6,285 incidents defined as violence against Palestinians… once one delves into the list of incidents, the clear conclusion is that the vast majority do not describe violence related to settlers, and certainly do not describe violence initiated by settlers against Palestinians. Among the 6,285 incidents… 1,361 were simply Jewish ascents to the Temple Mount, every one counted as ‘settler violence.’ Another 1,613 were general complaints, such as ‘entry onto land’ during tours or hikes, which do not involve assault or harm. Ninety-six involved legal infrastructure projects carried out by the State of Israel.”

This is the extent of the UN’s “evidence” of settler violence. Temple Mount visits. Land surveys. Legal infrastructure. In other words: ordinary life contorted into charges of violence. And when those distortions are stripped away, we are left with a big pile of nothing.

“After subtracting these cases, only 833 incidents remain, which the UN classified as settler violence against Palestinians in the Judea and Samaria, allegedly resulting in bodily harm and in some cases also property damage. This constitutes only ten percent of the original list, which sought to reflect alarming levels of severe violence by settlers against Palestinians in the Judea and Samaria. Not only did this review cut 90% of the events, undermining the foundation of the UN’s arguments and their consequences, but the remaining cases suffer not only from lack of credibility but also from a disgusting level of false accusation against the real victims.”

Ten percent. That’s all that survived the first cut. Yet these reports, too, are riddled with distortions. Almost half of the reported cases were clashes with both sides involved. Of the rest, some cases of "settler violence" were attributed to Israeli security forces, while others were Arab terror attacks against Jews—recast as ‘settler violence.' Blood libels dressed up as data.

As Regavim concludes:

“…examination of these cases revealed that in many of them, it is not settler violence of one kind or another, but rather the opposite: these are terror attacks by Arabs against settlers that ended with the injury or elimination of the attacker.”

Had the rabbis taken five minutes to investigate, they would have found this information—current, comprehensive, and devastating to their claim. Instead, they affixed their names to a letter built on entries in a database programmed to tell lies. Even the name of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik is invoked, as if to give the letter's distortions a veneer of authority. But the Rav, as he is known to those who revere him, would never have put his name on something so harmful to the Jewish people.

Which brings us to the names of the rabbis, themselves.

As my friend Julie P. on seeing the list of names helpfully pointed out, "Not one is Sephardi or Mizrachi."

Look down the list of 80 signatories. It’s tragic really. You’ll see Schudrich, Greenberg, Yanklowitz, Dolinger, Chernick, Feigelson, Schlesinger—names that could have come straight from an early, 20th century Lower East Side synagogue membership roster.

 

With one half-exception—a single hyphenated surname suggesting a mixed background—the entire coalition is Ashkenazi.

And this is telling. Sephardim, even those who are not religious in practice, are deeply respectful of rabbinic authority and tradition. Watching how they comport themselves in the presence of a sage is instructive. I have seen secular Sephardi women cover their arms and heads with a shawl when a rabbi entered the room. Nobody asked them to. They simply revere the rabbis who have guided their people according to the same traditions for generations. Perhaps it is that steadfastness that inoculates Sephardim against the hubris of lecturing Israel on “moral clarity” while parroting Hamas propaganda without looking deeper at the actual facts.

List of signatories

Rabbi Yosef Blau

Rabbi David Bigman

Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich

Chief Rabbi Michael Melchior

Chief Rabbi Jair Melchior

Rabbi Joav Melchior

Chief Rabbi David Rosen (former CR)

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

Rabbi Dr. Yitz Greenberg

Rabbi Hyim Shafner

Rabbi Daniel Landes

Rabbi Herzl Hefter

Rabbi Shua Mermelstein

Rabbi Yoni Zolty

Rabbanit Mindy Schwartz Zolty

Rabbi Frederick L Klein

Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky

Rabbi Michael Whitman

Rabbi Dr. Jeremiah Unterman

Rabbi Barry Dolinger

Rabbi David Silber

Rabbi Yonatan Neril

Rabbi Ysoscher Katz

Rabbi Isaac Landes

Rabbi David Polsky

Rabbi Baruch Plotkin

Rabbi Mikey Stein

Rabbi Elliot Kaplowitz

Rabbi Ariel Goldberg

Rabbi Ben Birkeland

Rabbi Ralph Genende

Rabbi David Glicksman

Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman

Rabbi Dr. Martin Lockshin

Rabbi Dr. Pinchas Giller

Rabbi Avidan Freedman

Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein

Rabbi Dr. Shalom Schlagman

Rabbi Dr. Daniel Ross Goodman

Rabbi Aaron Levy

Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller

Rabbi Dr. Mel Gottlieb

Rabbi Dr. Joshua Feigelson

Rabbi Jonah Winer

Rabbi Dr. Michael Chernick

Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn

Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger

Rabbi Elhanan Miller

Rabbi Joel Hecker

Rabbi Michael Gordan

R. Sofia Freudenstein

Rabbi David Levin-Kruss

Rabbanit Myriam Ackermann-Sommer

Rabba Ramie Smith

R. Shayna Abramson

Rabbi Zachary Truboff

Rabbi David A. Schwartz

Rabbi David Jaffe

Rabbi Steve Greenberg

Rabbi Gabriel Kretzmer Seed

Rabbanit Rachel Keren

Rabbi Benyamin Vineburg

Rabba Dr. Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz

Rabbanit Leah Sarna

Rabbi Dr. Wendy Zierler

Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz

Rabbi Shimon Brand

Rabba Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez

R. Emily Goldberg Winer

R. Dr. Erin Leib Smokler

Rabba Adina Roth

R. Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy

Rabbi Drew Kaplan

Rabbi Dina Najman

Rabbi Emile Ackermann

Rabbi Daniel Geretz

Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz

Rabbanit Tali Schaum Broder

Rabbi Max Davis

Rabbi Tyson Herberger

Rabba Aliza Libman Baronofsky

At first, I wondered whether one surname on the list—Neril—might break the pattern. I had never heard that one before and thought perhaps it was Sephardi. But no. Rabbi Yonatan Neril is Ashkenazi, and best known for founding the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, an organization that promotes environmental action across faith communities. His presence on the list highlights the broader orientation of many of the signatories toward progressive and ecumenical causes, rather than toward Israel’s defense in its hour of need.

 
The rabbis who signed this letter of betrayal may have meant no harm to their own, but intentions matter little here; the effect is the same. That letter was like piling logs onto a raging fire—then dousing it with gasoline. 

History will not remember the rabbis' statement kindly. At best, the signatories will be judged naïve or misguided. Sad, but with tragic consequences for the Jewish people and in particular for Israel’s hostages and soldiers. The rabbis' missive jeopardizes Israel’s ability to free the hostages by emboldening the enemy, who now see that even Jewish clergy can be turned into weapons against the Jewish state.

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Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

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08/19 Links Pt2: Soviet twins: Anti-Israelism and anti-Judaism; Subliminal Blood Libels: The Hamas Campaign to Destroy Christian Zionism; ‘The Green Prince’ and the truth about Hamas

From Ian:

Soviet twins: Anti-Israelism and anti-Judaism

Modern anti-Judaism and anti-Israelism are twins. The womb from which they awakened to life was Soviet, which soon denied Jewish and Israeli individuals and groups even the smallest merit and strength of their reasons. Even today, Soviet-inspired political societies do not value an Israeli winner or a traditional Jew with a synagogue, culture, science, business and so forth. They are silenced; when they cannot be, lies are fabricated about everything they do. The focus falls on an alleged standard of living. The flag of privilege and injustice toward others is held aloft. Which others? Everyone.

Unquestionably, each nation-state can choose its elites and philosophies through its internal struggles, as a rule made up of betrayals and not of love for the people. But with such a reddish light, Israel makes no sense and nor do the Jews. There is no other example in history of a people returning home after two millennia, much less when this had long been predicted by their prophets. In that sand, where a few decades ago poor people rode on camels, there is now a scientific power that drinks from the sea, thrives in agriculture and exports food, medicine, security and technology.

Surrounded by enemies since its foundation, trampled by noisy majorities on the stages of supranational political organizations, the permanent target of delegitimization, dehumanization and application of double standards, condemned by celebrities and boycotted in all forms, this small nation without natural resources continues on its way without fearing anything or anyone. Many empires have disappeared before their eyes; Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans and all those that history has recorded up to the Nazis and the Soviets.

This is something that does not make sense, according to materialistic philosophies. Perhaps there is a people with an existence that makes sense. Influence, settlements and bellicism cannot explain everything. Israel and the individual and collective Jew should have disappeared if only matter counted. But no. The Jew exists, lives, suffers, dies and rises, sustained in tradition and bringing their dead back to life—in memory, in identity, in strength, in prosperity and courage.

The same is true of Israeli Jews. If the current logic prevailed, the nation would not be as strong as it is—nor would it be able to blow up enemy missiles in midair, monitor in real time the security of the Jewish Diaspora, create the most unbelievable devices or seek out Nazis thousands of miles away to bring them to justice. It does all this, and is still evaluating producing legislation with extraterritorial application to combat global antisemitism, which is practiced freely, and often in the most blatant way by the elites themselves.

The main cause of the Jewish and Israeli question was always spiritual. The very symbolism of the State of Israel reveals the shield of David’s kingship and the candelabra that once stood in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. The materialist may think well and write better, but his bases are all wrong. He dreams of the boulders in space and attributes no logic or meaning to them. The materialist denies the rationality that surrounds the universe, its meaning and its destiny. Everything is reduced to weak assumptions about energy, history, ego, power and justice. This is the creeping intelligentsia in which we live. This is the moral compass that tries to define reality in its own way. This is the amorphous mass that meditates on national interest in multiple countries. At no time does divinity cease to be a myth, and Jewish success escapes indifference.

The Kabbalistic sap of the Hebrew alphabet leaves bold marks in all civilizations. Emet, the Hebrew word for “truth,” stands upright, since it is written with two-legged Hebrew letters, and it is enough to exist. Sheker, the Hebrew word for “lie,” loses its balance because it is composed of letters with only one leg and requires constant balance and maintenance, obsessive insistence, theatricality, unfolding in the emotion of hatred; and matará, the word “intention,” reveals how and to whom the last fruit will be served.

Other societies come and go, but the Jews remain with Israel as their homeland.

How popular culture erases the Jews from the Holocaust

Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas combines Keneally’s and Styron’s elisions – non-Jewish rescuer, non-Jewish victim – to invent a non-Jewish rescuer and victim in the form of one child: Bruno, the son of the commandant of Auschwitz. It is a novel of stunning omission.

Boyne writes about two nine-year-old boys, German Bruno and Jewish Shmuel. At Auschwitz, Bruno meets Shmuel, the most un-Jewish Jewish child in fiction, and a prisoner. They realise they have the same birthday: “We’re like twins,” says Bruno. Shmuel agrees: “A little bit.” Boyne’s conceit is this: their fates might have been reversed. The German child could have been the victim; perhaps the Jew could have been the perpetrator. (When I am cynical, I wonder if this is a cautionary tale about being friends with a Jew. When I am yet more cynical, I wonder if Shmuel planned the whole thing.) In any case, they are the same boy. Bruno climbs under the fence to help Shmuel find his (presumably dead) father, puts on a pair of striped pyjamas, and is gassed to death with Shmuel.

The reader accepts Shmuel’s fate: he is already dead. (Another Jewish inmate mirrors this: when Bruno asks how long he has lived in Auschwitz, he says, “I think I’ve always been here.” He is one of Spielberg’s fated dead.) But we cannot accept Bruno’s death, because Boyne has used his skill to make us love him. You feel grief for him, because his fate is awry: he is not meant to be dead.

Shmuel is alive to nothing. He feels no anger, just placidity, and the reader feels no sadness, or guilt. Speech itself has been removed from Shmuel: his description of living in Auschwitz is: “It’s not very nice.” When Bruno causes him to be beaten, he says, “It’s alright, I don’t feel it anymore, I don’t feel anything anymore.” Bruno thinks the name Shmuel “sounds like the wind blowing”. I gagged at this: dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.

The novel – and the story of popular Shoah culture - can be told in one scene. “I came home one day,” Shmuel says, “and Mama said we couldn’t live in our house anymore.” “That happened to me too!” shouts Bruno.

The more contemporary novels treat Auschwitz as a painted curtain, or Oz. Little Dorothy could always go home, she just didn’t know it. They are mindless.

John Donoghue’s The Death’s Head Chess Club (2015) has a Jewish chess player in Auschwitz play for his life. At the end, he says Kaddish for the SS because – well, they suffered too. Sophie’s Choice, the film The Zone of Interest (2023), and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas all discuss the anguish of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss. It wasn’t easy being in Auschwitz in 1942 – for anyone! Heather Morris’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz (2018) should have been a musical comedy. “I’m just a number,” the tattooist’s lover tells him. “You should know that. You gave it to me.” It is also, entirely accidentally, funny. At one point someone says: “Where is everybody?” Well, quite. Morris wonders why a Sonderkommando elects to live: “He too has chosen to stay alive for as long as he can, by performing an act of defilement on people of his own faith.” As in – one less life?

Ellie Midwood’s The Girl in the Striped Dress (2021) is “mostly based on a true story”: how the Slovakian Jew Helena Citrónová was beloved by the Waffen-SS soldier, Franz Wunsch, who protected her. In the novel the leading villain is a Jewish Sonderkommando, and Midwood has Helena marry Franz. In reality, Helena refused to speak to him after the war, moved to Israel, and married an IDF soldier.

This is only a small part of it, of course: it is an overwhelming glut, and it mirrors Primo Levi’s dream in Auschwitz, “varied in its detail but uniform in its substance: they [survivors] had returned home and with passion and relief were describing their past sufferings, addressing themselves to a loved person, and were not believed, indeed were not even listened to”.

The dreams were true. The glut exists because it is easy: in the end I think people are just too afraid to hear the truth. But you cannot love Jews if you refuse to understand what happened to them, and why; if you write myths around them and call it art. Still, it is what happened. We are everywhere and nowhere; we are fictional and real.

This is an extract from Shameless: Exploiting the Holocaust, Tanya Gold’s essay for the Jewish Quarterly, out August 22.

Subliminal Blood Libels: The Hamas Campaign to Destroy Christian Zionism

Since Israel’s latest war began, Hamas and the global forces of anti-Semitism have engaged in a three-pronged propaganda campaign to cripple the Jews and Israel: (1) fool gullible leftists into supporting the victims of “genocide”; (2) rally Muslims throughout the West to terrorize Jews while pressuring supine governments; and (3) encourage Christians to withdraw their support for Zionism.

While many secularists have long ago discarded any sympathy for Jews or Israel—partly thanks to disinformation from the KGB in the last century and from the legacy media today—Hamas’s propagandists and their allies at The New York Times are well aware that the last major bastion of Western philo-Semitism is Christian Zionism. Therefore, they have embarked on a campaign to convince Christians that the Jews are the aggressors—even the persecutors of Christians themselves—in the cause of breaking the Christian-Jewish alliance.

In order to accomplish this rupture, Hamas propagandists and their mainstream media messengers have weaponized historical Christian prejudices, iconographic motifs, and sensitivities, some nearly 2,000-years-old. With many Western Christians on high alert against leftist assaults on their faith, especially since 2020, there has never been a more opportune time for Hamas-affiliated anti-Semites to plant seeds of doubt about Christian sympathy for Jews. And the enemies of Jews and Israel have had decades of practice, and success, on which to bank.

Pallywood
Nearly 25 years ago, arguably the most famous child on the planet was Muhammad al-Durah, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy reportedly shot to death by a hail of Israeli bullets in a cross-street gun battle on September 30, 2000. The riveting video, narrated by Charles Enderlin of France2, depicted a firefight near Netzarim Junction in Gaza, culminating in the child’s death, huddled behind his father Jamal. “Here Jamal and his son Muhammad are targets of gunfire from the Israeli position,” narrated Enderlin. “Muhammad is dead, and his father grievously wounded.”

The result was a rabid, international wildfire of anti-Semitism, producing some of the first riots in which “Death to the Jews!” could be heard shouted in the streets of post-war Europe—all with Muhammad al-Durah as their sacrilegious saint. Only 12 days after the incident, two Israeli reservists who had accidentally wandered into Ramallah were brutally lynched and ripped into pieces to chants of “Revenge for the blood of Muhammad al-Durah!” Usamah bin Laden even produced a recruiting video calling Muslims worldwide to jihad on behalf of the boy who “died at the hands of the Jews.” The infamous (staged) image of Muhammad al-Durah. (Talal Abu Rahma / France2 via Al Jazeera)

Only later was it revealed that the video of Muhammad and his father, indeed much of the footage shot that day, was fake. Meticulous analysis of the raw tapes showed instance after instance of men spontaneously falling down “wounded” and then being hurled into waiting ambulances; likely uninjured youths dripping in fake blood; nonchalant bystanders watching the action—even a “dead” man lying in the gutter talking on his cellphone—just yards from where Muhammad was “killed.”

Historian Richard Landes, then a professor of medieval history at Boston University, coined the term “Pallywood” as a result of his groundbreaking investigations. His 2005 short film Muhammad al-Durah: Birth of an Icon makes clear what was again confirmed years later in a French court: that the tape not included in the France2 broadcast was indeed staged and showed a living child pretending to be dead. Landes later called the contrived image “the first blood(less) libel of the 21st century.”

“Israel is losing me”
The al-Durah hoax was probably the most successful single piece of international war-time disinformation in history; but, outside the Muslim world and its immigrant enclaves abroad, especially in Europe, it mostly evoked anti-Jewish hatred from Western socialists keen on erasing generational shame over the Holocaust by replacing the Nazis with the Jews. It did not engender comparable Christian fury, and American Christian Zionism largely held steady throughout the first decade of the new century.

This war, however—the longest in Israel’s history, and with Arab Christian communities constantly in danger from Hamas using them as human shields during Israeli incursions—has proven different. On multiple occasions, Hamas operating in areas of Gaza containing churches has resulted in structural damage and the accidental deaths of Christian bystanders, beckoning medieval blood libel archetypes back into the open.

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07/24 Links Pt2: Holocaust Miseducation and the Nakba Narrative; Trump’s Columbia Deal; 50 well-behaved Jewish kids were kicked off a flight by a bigoted pilot

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Holocaust Miseducation and the Nakba Narrative

Yet the word “Jews” is noticeably absent from the NEA’s bullet point. This is deliberate: the NEA’s members don’t want to secretly slip Holocaust revisionism into lesson plans and quietly appropriate Jewish suffering for their own demented political purposes. They want their intentions to be made clear and public from the start. This is a fight they want to have, because it will force wavering members to announce and to demonstrate their loyalty to the union’s mission of miseducating America’s children.

And why might that be? Why would the NEA “want” the Holocaust for themselves, so to speak?

Well, under the heading “New Business Referred to the Board” we have a couple items that might answer that question.

One of these items is called “Palestine Nakba Education.” The guide claims that “[e]ducating about the Nakba is essential for understanding the Palestinian diaspora narrative and experience, including the ongoing trauma of our Palestinian American students today,” however, the NEA clearly wants to go all-in on the revisionism:

“The Nakba, meaning ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic, refers to the forced, violent displacement and dispossession of at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 during the establishment of the state of Israel.”

In fact, the Nakba was coined by Arab intellectuals to refer to the failure of the combined Arab armies to destroy the nascent Jewish state. In other words, Nakba literally is the mourning of a failed ethnic cleansing of the Jewish people three years after the liberation of Auschwitz.

Additionally, 750,000 Arabs in Palestine were not victims of “forced, violent displacement and dispossession.” Many of those who fled were forced to do so at gun point, no doubt. But many fled because the Arab leaders told them to get out of the way while the Jews were routed, and many others fled because of debunked stories of Zionist atrocities that were spread by Arab leaders in an attempt to rile up the Arab street but which often had the opposite effect.

No doubt those displaced experienced a catastrophe, and usually that catastrophe was at the hands of others. The catastrophe was real, but it wasn’t what “Nakba” was coined to describe, and it isn’t what is described by the NEA either.

Finally, the handbook has an item explaining that “NEA will use existing digital communication tools to educate members about the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.”

Such a program will no doubt go well with the Holocaust revisionism and delegitimizing of Israel planned by the NEA.

“Teaching anti-Semitism” used to be a phrase one used to refer to teaching about anti-Semitism. The NEA clearly means it to be taken literally.

What the Prime Minister should be saying on anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism is being normalised in the UK. Stamping it out requires leadership at the highest level. This is the speech to the nation Prime Minister Keir Starmer should deliver:

I speak to you today on a matter I now consider to be a national emergency.

It is said that the greatest test of a democracy is not the experience of the majority but the way in which it protects the rights and wellbeing of the minority.

In the UK today, there are under 300,000 Jews. Jewish people make up just 0.5 per cent of our population. They are a tiny group who contribute a great deal to public life and communities across the nation.

I must tell you today that Britain is failing its Jewish community.

I also tell you that I am drawing a line in the sand. The Jew-hate we are seeing in our country must end now – and as the Prime Minister I am personally going to lead the fight against anti-Semitism.

For those who would like to pretend that racial hatred of Jews is not a very serious problem in our society today, let me put you straight.

We are seeing it on the streets of Britain on a weekly basis. Just last weekend, large numbers of protestors in London chanted “F--- your Jewish State”. Note the language here. Not opposition to the war Israel is fighting but a direct attack on Jews. An open display of racism.

The war between Israel and Hamas has divided opinion. I know that. But it should never be an excuse for the Jew-hate that is creeping its way into the fabric of our society and our national institutions.

Take schools. More than half of Jewish teachers have reported anti-Semitic abuse since the war in Gaza began. They are finding swastika graffiti in the classroom and facing chants of “F--- the Jews”. Some teachers are even fearful of disclosing their religion at work. This is entirely unacceptable. It should shame us all.

Then there’s the NHS. Jewish patients have been abused and left in fear, Jewish doctors and nurses have faced discrimination. In one case a nurse was confronted with the anti-Semitic trope of Jews “drinking blood”. It is hard to believe this is happening in our caring professions. Institutional blindness to anti-Semitism must end now.

The question we must all ask ourselves is: how do we stop this hate in its tracks? It requires leadership, courage and conviction and I am prepared to show it.

‘The shock is gone’: All too used to antisemitism, Parisian Jews weather post-Oct. 7 storm with aplomb

Walking through the bustling cobblestone streets of Le Marais, the historic heart of Jewish Paris, it’s easy not to think about antisemitism.

Once the center of Jewish life in the capital of France, Rue des Rosiers still pulses with trendy kosher and kosher-style restaurants, Judaica shops, and Hebrew signs. On a Friday afternoon in July, hordes of visitors buy challah for Shabbat and eat falafel on the street, chatting in French, Hebrew, English, and countless other tongues.

“People walk around freely in their kippot here,” a local Jew, Levi, mentioned in passing. “Parisian Jews don’t live in fear.”

Others would differ on that point.

Antisemitism in the city of more than 300,000 Jews — the sixth-largest Jewish community in the world and the largest in Europe — has reached historic highs in recent years, particularly since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the ongoing war in Gaza.

That year, the number of antisemitic incidents around the country quadrupled to 1,676, according to the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF), the representative organization of French Jewish groups. In 2024, that number dropped by six percent to 1,570, but remains alarmingly high.

Those figures don’t include countless cases that went unreported, particularly within the educational system, CRIF has noted.

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05/21 Links Pt1: Israel is still the world’s scapegoat; How the UN Invented a Blood Libel — and the Media Ran With It; Kneecap charged with terrorism over Hezbollah flag

From Ian:

Israel is still the world’s scapegoat

So why has Israel been singled out by the ICC and the ICJ, as it battles to cripple the terrorist Hamas regime in Gaza? For starters, Israel is seen as an easy target for these international bodies – a kind of ‘low-hanging fruit’. This is largely because Western opinion has already cast it in the role of the villain in its conflict with Hamas. In the broader international arena, Israel is seen as the archetypal wrongdoer.

Of course, the reality is very different. Israel is the only democracy in the turbulent Middle East. It is also the only Jewish state in the world. It is currently engaged in a war against an anti-Semitic enemy that wishes to wipe it off the map. Israel is not a ‘colonial’ or genocidal oppressor, as is so often claimed, but a country marked by its own tragic history of invasion, violence and suffering. Yet with few sympathisers left on the world stage, Israel ends up being the convenient focal point for global indignation.

That is not the end of the story. The ICC’s aggressive stance against Israel is also a sign of deeper troubles among international institutions. In the era following the Second World War, a network of progressive lawyers, non-governmental organisations and activists – often working through the UN – set out to champion universal rules of warfare. Their goal was to dismantle the traditional notion of state sovereignty in favour of global accountability. However, that postwar consensus is now unravelling. Even the US, once a pillar of that world order, has resorted to sanctioning the ICC, claiming it plays favourites against both the US and Israel.

In fact, from the beginning, the ICC has struggled to earn universal support. While it was established as a guardian of international justice, major powers such as the US, China, India and Russia never signed up to it. Hungary has also recently signalled its discontent by removing itself from the ICC after a visit from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At their core, projects like the ICC and ICJ are a globalist challenge to national sovereignty and are deeply undemocratic. Laws gain moral authority from being passed by elected representatives of the people – something that international tribunals simply cannot replicate. Without democratic backing, these institutions too often fall prey to political agendas, rather than serving as unbiased arbiters of justice.

Against this backdrop, the prosecution of Israel has transformed into a high-stakes test for the credibility of bodies like the ICC and ICJ. This could be seen playing out at the ICJ hearing against Israel in The Hague last month. While lambasting Israel’s actions against Gaza and the UN, Palestinian counsel Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh urged the court to reassert the moral compass of the UN Charter. She warned that the international order was crumbling and expressed the ‘continuing desperate hope that international law might finally prevail’.

We should hope that these organisations continue to lose their clout. Then they will no longer be able to unjustly target a sovereign state like Israel for exercising its right to self-defence. The collapse of these hollow institutions cannot come soon enough.

Melanie Phillips: Keir Starmer's new admirers

Israel is stepping up the war in order to force Hamas finally to release the remaining hostages. Starmer, Macron and Carney complain this is “disproportionate”. What’s disproportionate about this when Hamas is refusing to release the hostages unless Israel totally capitulates? What’s disproportionate about continuously moving the Gazan civilians to relative safety — and food aid — in order to trap and target the remaining Hamas battalions? What’s disproportionate about controlling territory to prevent any more thousands of rockets and depraved attacks against Israeli civilians? What’s disproportionate about an overwhelmingly just war against genocide?

The statement threatens “further concrete actions in response” if Israel doesn’t halt “settlements which are illegal and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state”. The much-repeated claim of illegality is a lie. The Jews alone are legally entitled to live in the disputed “West Bank” territories of Judea and Samaria. And why are these residents said to undermine the “viability of a Palestinian state”? Israel’s population is 20 per cent Arab. Yet Britain France and Canada are in effect demanding the ethnic cleansing of Jews from a future state of Palestine.

And since the vast majority of Arabs living within Gaza and these disputed territories say repeatedly they support the October 7 attacks and want to destroy Israel and murder Jews; and since the Palestinian Authority declares its intention to wipe out Israel, pays terrorists and their families for the murder of Israelis and teaches the children in its schools to murder Jews and steal their land, the insistence by Britain, France and Canada on a Palestinian state means they have become the allies of genocidal fanatics against innocent victims. That’s quite an achievement.

The statement threatens to suspend trade negotiations with Israel. Really? Britain depends upon Israeli intelligence and its military know-how to fight its own battles against the same kind of fanatics that Israel is fighting. Is the Starmer government’s hatred of Israel so unhinged that it’s really intending to damage Britain by denying a trade deal — which Israel says wasn’t even on the agenda anyway?

At the same time as it issued this statement, Britain imposed sanctions on two illegal Israeli settlement outposts and three Israeli “settlers”. The UK Foreign Office accused the three of being involved in “threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals.” Where’s the evidence of unprovoked attacks? Why is Britain arrogantly interfering in the internal affairs of another sovereign country?

Britain has sanctioned no Palestinian Arabs for the murderous daily attacks against Jewish residents of these areas. A few days ago one such resident, Tzeela Gez, was murdered as she was being driven to hospital for the birth of her fourth child.

The Starmer government ignored this latest atrocity against one of the “settlers” it has thus dehumanised and singled out for vilification. Instead it condemns the Israelis for trying to end such slaughter. “History will judge them,” said the Foreign Secretary David Lammy in a sickening Commons debate yesterday. “Blocking aid, expanding the war and dismissing the concerns of their friends and partners is indefensible and it must stop.”

Who on earth does he think he is? How dare he say Israel must stop defending its people. And this from a country that has so much Jewish blood on its own hands, going back to when British officials were the land’s colonial overlords — whose imperial disdain can be so clearly heard in Lammy’s tone — and who created the whole Middle East mess in the 1930s, when they tore up the UK’s treaty obligation to settle the Jews throughout what is now Israel, the “West Bank” and Gaza and offered instead to reward genocidal aggression by giving away part of the Jews’ entitlement to their aggressors, a murderous betrayal that Britain attempts to repeat to this very day.

JPost Editorial: When Hamas applauds you, it's time to rethink your stance

However, from Israel’s allies, there is no creativity, and no pressure on the real culprit: Hamas. Instead, they threaten sanctions on the country trying to get back its citizens.

Is this truly the smartest way to act towards an ally that has promoted and fought for Western values? Where, in that joint statement, was the equally weighted warning to the terrorist groups that birthed this entire operation: Hamas, its allies, and its parent backer, Iran?

As the Trump administration says it is closing in on a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime, where is the weight levied against Tehran to pressure Hamas? Why is Israel being singled out here?

An appeal to help Gazans, who are indeed suffering, is warranted. But by ignoring the larger context and who is to blame for the carnage in Gaza, the UK, Canada, and France are simply going for the easy target: Israel.

The proof in the pudding that the warnings by the three countries were misguided and damaging was the immediate reaction by the terrorist group, which “welcomed the joint statement issued by the leaders of Britain, France, and Canada, rejecting the policy of siege and starvation pursued by the occupation government against our people in the Gaza Strip, and the Zionist plans aimed at genocide and displacement.

“This position is an important step toward restoring respect for the principles of international law, which the terrorist Netanyahu government has sought to undermine and overturn,” it added.

Perhaps when terrorists who committed the worst massacre of the century agree with you, it is time to recalibrate your beliefs.

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05/16 Links Pt1: Trump's Middle East doctrine on display; The DoJ’s long-awaited reckoning for UNRWA has arrived; The ‘nakba’ is not our problem; ICC Prosecutor on Leave Amid SA Charges

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Politics of the personal: Trump's Middle East doctrine on display

Trump compassion
Part of the Trump doctrine is compassion for hostages and a desire to bring them home. Individuals are a priority for the American president, just as freeing Pastor Andrew Brunson was a priority in his first term. Trump blends the personal with the strength of a leader with a regional purpose.

There is a lot on Trump’s plate. He wants to open up opportunities, such as economic and defense cooperation in Saudi Arabia. “Our doors and hearts are open to you,” affirmed Prince Turki al-Faisal in Saudi Arabia.

Salman al-Ansari, a geopolitical analyst, also wrote in Arab News: “Trump now has a chance to deliver one of the most historic achievements of the 21st century: finally ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – not by endless negotiations that lead nowhere but by pushing both sides toward a lasting peace. Such a breakthrough would not only strengthen US interests and regional stability, but it would also deal a devastating blow to the extremists and radicals who have always thrived on chaos and hatred.”

In Saudi Arabia, Princess Reema bint Bandar “highlighted the enduring relationship between Saudi Arabia and the US as the president arrives in the Kingdom on Tuesday, his first state visit during his second stint in the White House,” Arab News noted.

“It is a moment pivotal for global peace, security, and prosperity,” Princess Reema wrote in the Washington Times on May 12. “Today, as the world navigates new challenges and conflicts, that partnership is more critical than ever.”

Trump’s visit is expected to hit all the high points of US policy in the Gulf.

Bulwark against extremism
Saudi Arabia has been an anchor of US policy since the 1920s. There were challenges and hurdles, such as during the 1990s and early 2000s when Riyadh was critiqued for ties to extremists. Things changed in the kingdom. The country has become a bulwark against extremism and has also done outreach to China and other countries. It is seen as a broker that can speak to Washington and Moscow.

The Saudis have also reconciled with Iran in a deal backed by China. And it reconciled with Qatar after years of crisis from 2017 to 2020.

Over the years, there has been a lot of talk of normalization with Israel. However, Riyadh wants to see Israel make changes and also move in a direction that leads to regional stability.

Wars in Gaza, West Bank fighting, and the bombing of Syria are not stabilizing elements. It wants Jerusalem to integrate into the region rather than be seen as a problematic player, surrounded by chaos.

The era of chaos in the Middle East is ending, and Israel should move toward security and stability. That is the view from Riyadh.

There are opportunities. The new president of Syria is offering to transform his country and become an ally of the West; a friend of the US. He is a young man and has shown his resolve. He may shed his past and could become a major player in the region. This requires some risk-taking in Washington.

Trump’s doctrine enables risk-taking, just as it pioneered the Abraham Accords.

Politics of the personal
Trump believes in the politics of the personal. He makes exaggerated statements sometimes, such as plans for Gaza. He also wants to empower local leaders.

If Israel won’t get things done in Gaza, then team Trump is always ready to make the next moves. He has shown this in Gaza and regarding a humanitarian initiative.

He also illustrated how he can quickly change course when needed regarding the Houthis.

Trump is flexible and not tethered to sacred cows or mantras.

The Middle East is where things are possible because, unlike dealing with some parts of the world, this area has personal leaders ready to take chances. All that is required is the will to take them.

Douglas Murray: Qatar’s ‘gestures’ to Trump raise suspicions on both ends of the political spectrum

The government of Qatar had a surprise for President Trump on his recent visit to the Middle East.

That was the release of the last American-born hostage being held in Gaza.

Edan Alexander, 21, was freed by the Qatari-funded group Hamas as a gesture to Trump.

Two questions obviously arise from that “gesture.”

The first: If Hamas can just release hostages like this why won’t they release all of them, whether they were born in America or not?

The answer to that is clear: It is because the Qataris and Hamas don’t want to release all the hostages.

They want to keep hold of them for as long as possible to exert as much leverage as possible.

The second question is less easy to answer.

If Qatar is so close with Hamas, how on earth can they be regarded as an ally of the United States?

It is that second question that has hovered over the president’s trip this week.

FDD: The Department of Justice’s long-awaited reckoning for UNRWA has arrived

In an April 24 filing connected to a lawsuit brought against UNRWA by terror victims, the Justice Department asserted that UNRWA does not qualify for the immunities afforded to the United Nations under international agreements and federal statutes. The lawsuit is currently before a federal judge in the Southern District of New York.

According to the DOJ filing in the case, UNRWA is “a mere ‘affiliate or instrumentality’ of the UN,” not an organ of the UN itself, and has never been granted immunity by any American president under the International Organizations Immunities Act.

This is a reversal from the Biden administration’s 2024 position that UNRWA was immune to prosecutions and lawsuits in the United States. The Biden administration took this position even as incontrovertible evidence mounted that UNRWA employees were directly involved in the kidnapping of Israelis, that UNRWA employees themselves held Israelis captive in Gaza, and that UNRWA facilities were used for storing weapons, harboring hostages, and other military purposes.

DOJ’s April 24 filing challenges UNRWA’s assertion that it is immune from the lawsuit. That complaint was filed by over 100 victims of the October 7 attacks, alleging that UNRWA bears legal responsibility for those attacks. And while that complaint was a civil suit, the DOJ filing indicates that UNRWA could be held to account in other ways — including U.S. sanctions.

Ample evidence exists to substantiate UNRWA’s longstanding partnership with Hamas. A strong case could be built rather quickly by the Treasury Department to impose terrorism sanctions on UNRWA.

Treasury sanctions could be a death knell for UNRWA. No country that wishes to do business with the United States would be willing to financially support the agency. No bank would be willing to processes a transaction on UNRWA’s behalf for fear of being subject to U.S. sanctions.

An end to UNRWA would by no means cutting aid to over a million Gazans. For many months now, amidst Israel’s war against Hamas, UNRWA has only supplied a fraction of the aid that goes into Gaza. Jerusalem has worked with a multitude of foreign governments and other aid agencies to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Whereas UNRWA once ran a monopoly on a host of services provided in Gaza, dozens of UN organizations and NGOs now provide those services.

When the war is over and the massive task of rebuilding Gaza gets underway, some of these organizations — those that do not partner with Hamas in any way — should remain in Gaza to continue providing support for needy Gazans.

The United Nations should have shut down UNRWA’s mandate long ago. However, that would only happen through a General Assembly vote, which is highly unlikely due to the UN’s anti-Israeli, anti-Western, and anti-democratic bias. But the DOJ may have just forged an alternative path.

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02/08 Links: We swore ‘never again,’ yet Israeli hostages return skeletal and tortured; The Historical Case for Trump’s Riviera; USAID Sent Over $18 Billion to Islamic Terror States

From Ian:

We swore ‘never again,’ yet Israeli hostages return skeletal and tortured

Hamas’s brutal spectacle
Hamas paraded our hostages before their release, forcing them to stand on a stage in front of a crowd of jubilant Gazans. The cruelty was calculated. Hamas terrorists made sure the world saw Israeli suffering as a spectacle before begrudgingly handing them over to the Red Cross.

And speaking of the Red Cross, they are allowed to visit Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, while not one Israeli hostage met with them throughout their entire time in captivity. And yet, some in the international community still buy into Hamas’s narrative of victimhood, of “humanitarian suffering” in Gaza, as if those holding hostages in cages and underground tunnels can ever be cast as the oppressed.

Where are the human rights organizations? Where are the protests by the same voices that, at one time or another, joined in rapid succession to loudly condemn Israel? They are mute, unconcerned with Israeli victims unless the tragedy can somehow be contorted to become part of a Jewish state condemnation.

The return of Or, Eli, and Ohad should ring as a kind of wake-up call. There are still 76 hostages left in Gaza, some of them dead, all of them subjected to inhumane conditions. The haunting images of these released captives make one thing clear: Every moment they remain in Hamas’s grip is another moment of irreversible physical and psychological damage.

And yet, as Israeli families weep for their loved ones, as a nation wrestles with the horror of these images, politicians continue to play their games.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid seized the moment to accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to act sooner. Simultaneously, Netanyahu vowed retaliation, his government issuing vague promises of “appropriate action.” But where is the concrete plan? Where is the strategy to bring them all home, alive, before they are too far gone?

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar put it bluntly: “The pictures don’t lie: The Hamas terrorists and the Gaza residents look great. The Israeli hostages look like Holocaust survivors.”

Indeed, the contrast could not be starker. The hostages’ skeletal frames stand as a living indictment of Hamas’s barbarism, an undeniable crime against humanity. The fact that some still equivocate, still seek to “both sides” this horror, is a stain on the conscience of the world.

We must be clear: Hamas does not take hostages. It takes human lives and reduces them to bargaining chips. Never Again is now. And if Israel does not act decisively, if the international community does not finally recognize this evil for what it is, we risk failing those still trapped in the depths of Gaza.

They must be freed before it’s too late.

Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami freed from Gaza after 491 days

Three Israelis were freed on Saturday after 491 days in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of hostages redeemed in the ongoing first phase of the ceasefire agreement to 21.

Or Levy, 34, Eli Sharabi, 52, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56, were handed over by the Red Cross officials to Israel Defense Forces troops at around 11:15 a.m. local time and driven back to Israeli territory some 30 minutes later.

The IDF brought the freed hostages to a facility near the border for a preliminary physical and psychological examination, and to meet with their families.

Before their release, Hamas paraded the hostages on a stage in front of a raucous crowd of Palestinians in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah. The three men appeared frail and emaciated.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement welcoming home the captives. “The government of Israel embraces the three returnees,” it read, adding, “The shocking images that we have seen today will not go unaddressed.

“The government, together with all of the security officials, will accompany them and their families. The government of Israel is committed to returning all of the hostages and the missing,” it continued.

The PMO statement concluded with a quote from Psalms (31:15): “Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, from those who pursue me.”

“This is what a crime against humanity looks like!” Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote in a post on X.

“The whole world must look directly at Ohad, Or, and Eli—returning after 491 days of hell, starved, emaciated and pained—being exploited in a cynical and cruel spectacle by vile murderers. We take solace in the fact that they are being returned alive to the arms of their loved ones,” Herzog wrote.

“Completing the hostage deal is a humanitarian, moral, and Jewish duty. It is essential to bring back all our sisters and brothers from the hell of captivity in Gaza—every last one of them!” he added.

After the handover was broadcast live across the globe, the Israeli Health Ministry called on the public to limit its consumption of such images.

“A psychological war is being waged that can cause harm to us,” said Dr. Gilad Bodenheimer, chief of the ministry’s mental health division. “We urge the public to minimize exposure to distressing images and videos and to be mindful of what they, their children and their loved ones are seeing.”

Added the Hostage and Missing Families Forum: “The disturbing images from the release of Ohad, Eli and Or serve as yet another stark and painful evidence that leaves no room for doubt—there is no time to waste for the hostages!”

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01/22 Links Pt2: The Red Cross is humiliated as it again serves murderers of Jews; BDS: Twenty Years of Failure; Elbit systems hits record highs as global defense budgets surge

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: A Breakthrough in the Fight for Jewish Students’ Civil Rights

Good news for once out of Harvard. The university has settled two anti-Semitism-related lawsuits with agreements that will require concrete action instead of vague promises of better behavior. It will make students’ BDS demands dead-on-arrival. And it may be a model for future such settlements—an outcome that would go far toward helping American higher education finally break its intifada fever.

“It’s a terrific result and I think it’s going to be really influential,” Daniel R. Benson, of Kasowitz Benson Torres, told COMMENTARY today. The firm represented Students Against Antisemitism, one of the plaintiffs. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law represented the other. (Benson is a member of COMMENTARY’s Board of Trustees.)

Among the more significant outcomes of the case is that Harvard will be adopting the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism to govern its anti-harassment and non-discrimination rules. The definition, as worded by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, is the mainstream Jewish community’s preferred definition: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The IHRA definition is often described in the press as “controversial,” but what that really means is “misunderstood.” Along with the definition, IHRA includes examples of anti-Semitism. Among those examples are expressions of anti-Israel bias that “may” amount to anti-Semitic intent when they form the basis of discriminatory acts. The definition does not outlaw speech; it merely makes it more difficult for anti-Semites to hide their bigoted intent. This cynical excuse has been responsible for enabling universities to violate Jewish students’ civil rights at will; the Harvard settlement therefore makes it less likely that Jews will openly be treated as second-class citizens on campus.

The settlement also aims to end the broad use of obvious euphemisms to get around non-discrimination statutes, especially when it comes to the anti-Jewish loyalty oaths some university groups around the country have begun requiring from their prospective members. The university handbook will make explicit that those rules apply to both Jews and Israelis, and it will include the following explanation: “For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity. Conduct that would violate the Non-Discrimination Policy if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the policy if directed toward Zionists. Examples of such conduct include excluding Zionists from an open event, calling for the death of Zionists, applying a ‘no Zionist’ litmus test for participation in any Harvard activity, using or disseminating tropes, stereotypes, and conspiracies about Zionists (e.g., ‘Zionists control the media’), or demanding a person who is or is perceived to be Jewish or Israeli to state a position on Israel or Zionism to harass or discriminate.”

The settlement, if implemented properly, would bring Harvard into compliance with Title VI civil-rights protections. It also might encourage other universities to do the same. Having seen where the process got Harvard, other schools might save themselves the effort and expense required to fight against applying civil-rights laws to Jews.

Key to Middle East peace is accepting the past

For decades, the Palestinians and their allies have launched wars they then lose and complain to everyone about losing. It never seems to strike them that a better idea might be not to launch these wars.

In the West, the various campaigns that express solidarity to Palestinians are not, in fact, showing them any solidarity at all. They have their own agenda about their own power and status and which uses Palestinians as a rhetorical prop. And they are misleading the people they pretend to support. They are like a friend who would advise me to throw up my life, pick up a gun and go and invade Lviv by myself in the name of Marshal Pilsudski and his brigades of Polish legionnaires.

These western-based supporters provide solidarity only for the most violent rejectionists and leave bereft those people in Palestine itself who might be willing to come to terms with both reality and Israel. For as long as Palestinians hold out hope that there will be a Palestine “from the river to the sea” there will be war and death, however hard we all work to prevent such calamities, such horror.

Any protester chanting this slogan is encouraging others to go to their death, and to go and kill innocent people, while themselves promising only to write a cross message on a piece of cardboard and wave it outside the Garfunkel’s restaurant near Trafalgar Square.

This is all worth saying because what we have now is a ceasefire and not a peace. It is the duty of Israel’s supporters — people like me — to insist that Palestinians must be allowed the dignity of their own state. And we will. But our insistence will come to naught if Palestinians are not urged equally firmly to accept that they must live in peace with their Jewish neighbours. This means financial compensation and not a right of return, which is a practical impossibility.

This war is so unnecessary and so tragic. And this ceasefire is so fragile. There will not be peace until everyone makes their peace with history and reality.

The Red Cross is humiliated as it again serves murderers of Jews

It took more than a month before the American Red Cross said the ICRC was pursuing “every possible avenue to secure the release of all remaining hostages.” It would remain silent, however, because its experience—ignoring the Holocaust—was that it was most effective if it kept a low profile. Well, it succeeded in making its profile invisible while not gaining the release of a single hostage or providing them with assistance.

For the transfer, they showed up as if they were heroes when they were essentially Uber drivers taking the former hostages a few miles to an awaiting military helicopter.

First, though, they played a part in the grotesque Hamas spectacle in which heavily armed masked terrorists in freshly laundered uniforms delivered and surrounded the hostages. Hundreds of jeering civilians lined the streets celebrating the dehumanization of the women right to the end of their ordeal. Civilians, including children—frequently portrayed as innocent victims of “genocide”—actively participated in the degradation of survivors of the Hamas massacre.

The Israelis were given “goodie bags” as if they were leaving a bat mitzvah, but instead of shouts of mazel tov! they heard only blood-curdling chants of Allahu Akbar. The Red Cross literally endorsed this farce by co-signing Hamas-drafted “certificates of release” that the hostages were forced to sign before posing for photos holding the documents with their captors.

You must give Hamas credit; their skill in media manipulation has not diminished with their loss of power. The terrorists carefully stage-managed the handover with their Al Jazeera collaborators to show pictures designed to give the world the impression of widespread support and military resilience. For their supporters, Hamas wanted to pretend that thousands of fighters survived the war to pursue their goal of committing repeated massacres. Aerial photos later revealed the crowd was no more than a few hundred people crammed into a narrow street that was part of a calculated media strategy to portray Hamas as victorious despite its decimation.

At this point, the least the Red Cross can do is to ensure that it does not participate in another terrorist photo op to promote the Hamas narrative. The organization, backed by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, must ensure that future transfers occur in neutral, secure locations with no armed personnel or civilian onlookers. Hamas has managed to keep the location of the hostages secret for this long; let them maintain that secrecy for the point of exchange.

The Red Cross should not allow its reputation to be dragged further through the mud by being a party to the disgraceful abuse of innocent Israelis who miraculously survived months of torture and abuse without its medical or any other assistance.

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11/01 Links Pt2: The Freedom to Be Sharansky; Chuck Schumer’s Ultimate Betrayal; Thom Yorke vs the anti-Israel bigots; Sally Rooney’s anti-Israel intolerance

From Ian:

Gil Troy: The Freedom to Be Sharansky

Historians rarely write in collaboration with those who make history. A few years ago, I was fortunate to do just that.

Natan Sharansky at 76 starts his workdays at 5:30 a.m. He has been married to Avital for 50 years, although she adds “minus 12” because she refuses to count the ones during which the Soviet authorities forcibly kept them apart as they dared to defy the Communist system and seek emigration to Israel. Those years of separation include the nine from 1977 to 1986 when he was trapped inside the Soviet prison system, including stays in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo jail and Perm 35 in the Gulag archipelago.

In 2018, as he completed another nine years—his near-decade leading the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Jewish world’s largest nongovernmental organization—Sharansky felt compelled to recount some key episodes and lessons of his life in his effort to balance the twin goods of freedom and identity, thoughtful patriotism and civil dialogue. He asked me to co-author that book.

We made an odd couple. I was raised with my name, “Gil Troy,” to fit in as an American while being a proud Jew, living in one of the most Jew-friendly countries; he was forced to stand out despite his perfectly Russian original name, “Anatoly,” because he was a Jew living in one of the most Judeophobic countries. I spent most of the 1980s at Harvard, learning to be an American historian. He spent most of the 1980s in the Gulag, fighting to stay alive as a political prisoner. When I first noted our Harvard-Gulag ’80s gap, without skipping a beat, Natan quipped, “That means I have moral clarity, and you don’t.”

Miraculously, Avital’s unlikely but determined campaign of persuasion—during which she crisscrossed the globe and lobbied Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterrand, and many others for years seeking their assistance in securing the freedom of her husband—finally paid off. In 1986, many of us watched Sharansky zigzag across the Glienicke Bridge connecting East and West Berlin after a KGB agent had told him to “walk straight” to freedom, a final act of defiance.

But that’s not actually what we saw. In fact, after landing in East Berlin, it was on the airport tarmac that the then-named Anatoly Shcharansky (note the Russian letter “shch” he bore as the opening sound of his surname rather than the softer Hebrew “shin”) zigzagged away from his Communist captors into a waiting car. In a 1988 speech, Ronald Reagan said of that moment, “It was one of those moments when laughter and tears commingle, and one does not know when the first leaves off and the second begins. It was a vision of the purest freedom known to man, the freedom of a man whose cause is just and whose faith is his guiding light.”

By the time he had reached the bridge, he was already free and no longer had Communist masters to disobey. Nevertheless, people keep telling him, and me, how they are still inspired by that moment, which I’m sure they are, only it wasn’t on the bridge!

Although we wrote the book collaboratively, the most pressing question I was trained to ask as a biographer stayed with me: What made this man tick? There were 250 million Soviet citizens, including 2 million Jews. Why did he become not just a refusenik—a Jew who sought and was then refused permission to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel—but one of the few Jewish activists who also worked as a dissident with Andrei Sakharov and the Soviet human-rights movement? That synthesis made him the regime’s most famous political prisoner. And how did he endure nine years of solitary confinement, punishment cells, hunger strikes and forced feeding, yet then emerge with a ready smile and quick wit?

Sharansky explains, matter-of-factly, that in 1967, when he was 19, the anti-Semitic jibes he had grown up enduring suddenly changed form. After Israel won the Six-Day War, even close friends started joking about his being a bully and not a coward. Fascinated that something that happened in a country he had never visited could change people’s impressions of him, he started learning more about the Jewish state and his Jewish identity.

“Once I discovered my identity, I then discovered my freedom,” he explains. Still, discovering your freedom is not the same as fighting for it.

Editor's Notes: The dilemma of raising children during the war is almost like 'Life is Beautiful'

Beyond the tragedy, we also witness the incredible resilience of our people – thousands of initiatives aimed at bringing light into these dark days.

People reach out with stories of kindness, courage, and unity, hoping we can give them a platform, a voice in this storm. And while we long to honor each one, the hard truth is that we can’t.

We don’t have enough time, enough staff, or enough space on our pages to truly do justice to every single story. It’s a painful compromise, one that eats at us, but it’s the reality we’re up against.

In the end, though, we keep going because that’s what we’ve always done. In a way, being Jewish has always meant living on, pushing forward, and finding light amid the darkness.

We may be shaken, but we are not broken. We have no time to fall into despair because our purpose keeps us grounded.

Getting the news to you – truthful, fast, and clear – is our mission, even as our own hearts are sometimes weighed down by it all.

There’s an unbreakable resolve in us. We won’t allow ourselves the luxury of crumbling.

We keep going, keep telling the stories, keep bearing witness, because it’s our role.

As a father, as a journalist, and as a Jew, I look at these challenges, these daily battles, and realize they are woven into who we are. And, as always, we’ll endure.

When Jews Lived Under Muslim Rule

The Land of Israel is Different
As we mentioned, yes, there were golden eras in the history of Arab-Jewish relations. However, a claim put forward by some ardent anti-Zionists is that things were actually better for Jews in the land of Israel under Islam and before Zionism came on the scene. It is saying that Zionism changed the dynamic. And in that sense, they are correct, but only insofar as it introduced a Jew who fought back – not in terms of antisemitic attacks and persecution.

First, let’s begin with the basic fact that the Muslim Arab conquest of the land of Israel in 636-37 was a settler-colonial enterprise. And they are proud of it, calling it the “Palestine Conquest” - Fatah Filastin (yes, the same word Fatah, “Conquest”, is used as the name of the movement currently in charge of the Palestinian Authority). After the occupation, the majority of Christians in the land of Israel adopted Islam and Arabized and the building of new synagogues was banned.

With the construction of the Dome of the Rock in 691 and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 705, the Muslims established the Temple Mount as an Islamic holy site. Jews were banned from it for the next 1,000 years. Periodic social and economic discrimination in the following centuries caused substantial Jewish emigration from the land of Israel.

Other notable events under Muslim rule include:
- The expulsion of the Gaonate – the main Jewish academy of learning and religious authority – in 1071, after Jerusalem was conquered by the Seljuq Turks.
- The imposition of a dhimmi tax on Jews and Christians and the curtailment of their rights, with more intense enforcement in the 10th and 11th centuries. In the Mamluk period (13th-16th centuries), the dhimmi laws were cranked up to include additional discriminatory practices intended for humiliation. Jewish and Christian communities declined precipitously.
- The Mamluks also banned Jews (and Christians) from the Cave of Our Patriarchs in Hebron. To this day, you can still see where Jews had to stop for about 700 years, on the seventh step leading into the building, until Israel put an end to the ban after the Six Day War in 1967.
- In the 18th century, Jewish communities throughout Israel were extorted and oppressed by local tribal and regional chiefs. In Jerusalem, Ottoman authorities restricted the number of Jews allowed to live there and expelled all Ashkenazi Jews from the city due to a debt some of them owed to Muslims.
- In 1831, Muhammad Ali of Egypt took over the land of Israel. In 1834, there were 33 days of looting and murder targeting Jews in Tzfat (Safed) and Hebron. More than 500 Jews were murdered, unknown numbers of women were raped, property was ransacked and looted, and synagogues were set on fire.

That’s all before the Zionist movement as we know it was a thing.

Then there’s this inconvenient fact, which is worth noting even though it does relate to a time after the Zionist movement was already well established: there are more than a dozen Jewish communities in the land of Israel that were destroyed by Arabs before 1947. But not a single such Arab community.

This partial review is a corrective to manipulative misinformation promoted by anti-Israel terror-apologists on US campuses, in European streets, and in the international media. It is admittedly far from comprehensive. However, an honest and open-eyed review of Arab-Jewish relations can provide a new perspective on our history as Jews, on the Middle East generally, and on the State of Israel’s struggle for survival.

Of course, this does not mean that Israel is always right. Just a reminder that views on current events should be grounded in reality – however complex it may be.

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