Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Racist Arabs pretending to be against racism, ridiculed by an Arab

Malik Athamena, writing in Al-Hurra, is disdainful of Arabs who are jumping on the George Floyd bandwagon while they remain racist and sexist in their own countries.

Among the hypocrites he calls out are:

- Palestinians, who discriminate against Christians
- Egyptians, who oppress Copts – and women
- Lebanon, where African domestic workers are treated like slaves
- Gulf countries, where domestic workers from India, the Philippines and elsewhere are treated like dirt
- The entire Muslim world where Shiites and Sunnis hate each other
- North Africa where the Berbers are oppressed, and there is still actual slavery – and some 19 Arab countries have some form of slavery or human trafficking, today
- All Arabs, who live in police states but pretend to care about US police brutality

He admits that the US has a racism problem, but at least it discusses it openly and makes efforts to change it, unlike Arab states.

Being an Ally Works Both Ways (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column

In a recent column, Hen Mazzig takes some Jews to task for failing to support “Black Lives Matter.” Just because a few “fringe activists” have tried to inject the Palestinian issue into the justified cause of black people being disproportionately the targets of police violence, he thinks, is not a reason for us to become unsympathetic to it:

The black community in America needs and deserves our voice and support. We must not allow the few activists trying to turn this important cause into an anti-Israel campaign to succeed. The way to do this is simple. Our ancestors already did it. When he saw the injustice the black community faced, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. He put his life on the line for the cause, and in turn, King became an unapologetic advocate against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Instead of worrying about minority groups turning against Jews, we should be asking how can we show we haven’t turned our backs on them.

Hen Mazzig doesn’t have to prove that he’s a Zionist who has dedicated himself to the Jewish people and the Jewish state. He is an effective voice, especially to young people. But I think he misses the mark here.

I feel compelled to say that BLM’s primary cause is just. I don’t know if proportionately more blacks are killed by law enforcement than whites, because there are persuasive statistical arguments made on both sides. But every black American that I’ve ever talked to about this – and they have been primarily well-educated, middle-class black people – can recount numerous anecdotes about harassment, humiliation, and fear at the hands of police officers.

I grew up in a lower middle-class white family which improved its status to middle-middle by the time I left. Only once in my life did I fear the police, and that was in 1970 when I participated in an antiwar demonstration, and the club-swinging Pittsburgh police tac squad charged the demonstrators. Much later, two of my own kids were stopped by police for “engaging in a speed contest” on a public street. The cop brought them home and was more worried that my wife would kill them than anything else. This is more or less the experience of most members of the white middle class. The black experience is different.

But these aren’t the days of Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel. These days visibly Jewish pedestrians in New York City are beaten for looking Jewish, primarily by blacks. And there aren’t just a few “fringe activists” that are responsible for adding the Palestinian issue to the mix of intersectional issues that all progressives are required to sign onto. Sure, the people who added accusations of Israeli apartheid and genocide to the BLM platform were anti-Israel activists, but who else would they pick to write that section of the document? The whole document was approved by the leadership. And for a long time, this view of Israel has been prevalent among the rank and file of the broader Left. It isn’t just BLM. Remember the “Occupy” movement?

The black Left is, if possible, even more extreme. Anti-Zionism became part of the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and 70s, as militants distinguished themselves from more moderate (and pro-Israel) leaders like King, seeing themselves as part of a worldwide revolutionary struggle against colonialism and imperialism. Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) was strongly anti-Zionist and considered Arab terrorism against what he called a “settler colony” justified. Huey Newton of the Black Panther Party met with Arafat in 1972, and wrote an essay “On the Middle East” in which he argued that Israel was an outpost of American imperialism that persecuted Palestinians. Angela Davis also met Arafat, has always taken the Palestinian side, and today supports BDS. Now we have Marc Lamont Hill and Cornel West, the “intellectual” voices of Israel-hatred. All this is added to the antisemitism that has been rife in the black community since the 60s, and which is fed by those like Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Jeremiah Wright, and others.

As was famously said about a different group, the black Left “imbibed Jew-hatred with their mothers’ milk.” It’s not accidental that accusations of Israeli apartheid and genocide were included in the BLM platform; it is essential.

So how are we to respond? Mazzig thinks that we must support BLM despite its anti-Israel position:

Attacking Black Lives Matter only fuels anti-Semitism, making it easier to paint Jews as racists willing to reject the modern civil rights movement just to defend Israel.

“Just to defend Israel?” Did he actually write that? I would argue that a Jew is obligated to defend our homeland, and that takes priority over concern for other peoples. Even if it were necessary to “reject the modern civil rights movement” to do it, it would be so. But of course nobody is rejecting it. An overwhelming majority of Jews strongly oppose anti-black racism.

What we are rejecting – what we must reject – is the hijacking of every social justice cause on behalf of some of the least just people on the planet, the misogynist, homophobic, antidemocratic, terrorist-paying, murder-inciting, child-soldier-abusing, corrupt leaders of the PLO and Hamas. You’d think social justice activists would have noticed.

Worrying that our antisemitic enemies might call us “racists” is a symptom of severe Oslo Syndrome. Nothing is more Sisyphean than to try to obtain the approval of those who hate us for being Jewish by modifying our behavior. Indeed, the more abject our apologies, the more we kneel in recognition of our guilt over white and/or Jewish privilege, the more we will be held in contempt. It’s not what we do, it’s who we are that they have a problem with.

What we are required to do as Jews is to stand unequivocally against those that libel the Jewish state. It doesn’t matter how good the rest of their cause is, they deserve zero support from us if part of their program is the destruction of our homeland and the death or dispersal of its Jewish population. That is precisely what supporting BDS and the “liberation movements” in “Palestine” means.

The sight of Jews abasing themselves before a movement that wishes to return them to the time that there was no Jewish state is embarrassing, but more importantly, demonstrates that there is no downside to joining the anti-Israel parade.

“If you want to change Black Lives Matter Israel agenda, you need to show up for them,” says Mazzig. He has it backwards. If they want our help, they need to stop supporting those who want to kill us. We understand that American blacks have a legitimate problem with racism. They want “allies.” But being an ally works both ways.

PLAIN TALK ABOUT HATRED AND VIOLENCE by John W. Gardner (Reader’s Digest, 1968)

This article, written during the worst part of the 1960s racial tensions, is very interesting to read today. I could not find it online in text format (it was entered in the Congressional Record) so I am publishing it here.

____________________________

Most white people are neither haters nor practitioners of violence. Nor are most Negroes. The majority of each race earnestly wishes that constructive, non-violent solutions could be found to the racial problems that rack—and may yet wreck—the nation.

But there are whites that hate, and whites who advocate violence. There are Negroes who do the same. And, unfortunately, the whites and Negroes who do not hate and destroy too often quietly tolerate those who do.

Those who hate and those who resort to violence—whether they are white or black— cannot resolve the problems that divide this nation. They can only intensify the senseless spasms of emotion and savage action.

There are many levels at which we must seek solutions to the problems which are tearing the nation apart. We must attack hard-core poverty with renewed vigor— through education, job-training, employment, housing and other measures. We must attack discrimination in every form. We must take steps to ensure civil order.

But, at the same time that we are working on such basic problems, we must cope with the upward spiral of mutual fear and corrosive hostility between white and Negro communities.

Hatred and violence used to be chiefly the stock-in-trade of the white racist. Then they became the stock-in-trade of the Negro extremist. Both justified their malevolence with cogent arguments.

But today there is a curious contrast between the two. Negro hatred of whites is often expressed openly. It is frankly defended and widely discussed. In contrast, white hatred of Negroes has gone underground. It is rarely discussed publicly, rarely debated candidly. Indeed, when the President's Commission on Civil Disorders spoke of it openly, many people thought the authors of the report had done an unseemly thing.

Yet the white hatred is there. And everyone who reads this article knows it. The long tradition of white brutality and mistreatment of the Negro has diminished but has not come to an end.

It still excludes Negroes from white neighborhoods, and bars them from many job opportunities. No Negro reaches adulthood without having been through many experiences with whites that bruise his self-respect and diminish his confidence. That is hard for him to understand, living as he does in a society that bases its moral claims on the worth and dignity of the individual.

Such attitudes on the part of whites must come to an end if this nation is to survive as a free society. Each one who adds his bit to the storm of hatred does his share to move us toward a final reckoning that no free American will like.

Negro extremists who advocate violence assert that non-violence did not work. It is untrue. The greatest gains for the American Negro came in response to the non-violent campaigns of Martin Luther King, Jr., and (before it turned violent) the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

It is the fashion now to belittle those gains, but they were great and undeniable. They were registered in historic civil-rights legislation and even more emphatically in social practice. Compare Negro voting patterns today with those prevailing as little as three years ago; or southern school desegregation today with practices of four years ago; or patterns of restaurant and hotel desegregation over the same period; or employment opportunities now and then.

The gains are not enough. They cannot satisfy our conscience. But they were substantial. And they came in response to non-violence.

The violent tactics of the past two years have brought nothing but deepened hostility between the two races and a slowing down of progress in the necessary drive toward social justice.

Many white liberals have now allied themselves with the Negro extremists in the sanctioning of violence. They speak approvingly of past riots as having “dramatized” the problem. They never speak of the negative consequences of the riots, but everyone who observed the session of Congress that followed the riots of 1967 knows that the negative reactions were reality, and diminished the possibility of constructive solutions.

Nor do those who condone violence ever speak of the legacy of bitterness and division that will be left by increasingly harsh outbursts of destructive interaction. What good will it do to dramatize the problem if, in the process, hatreds burn themselves so deep that the wounds permanently cripple our society? Nor do those who condone violence ever face up to the likelihood that the paroxysms of public disorder will lead ultimately to authoritarian countermeasures.

One of the difficulties in halting the interplay of fear and violence is the tendency toward indiscriminate indictment of one race or the Other. One man killed Martin Luther King—and Stokely Carmichael indicts the whole white race. A small minority of Negroes loot and burn, and many whites indict the whole Negro race.

Where will it lead? Negro extremists shout slogans of hate. White racists whisper their rage. Each justifies himself by pointing to acts of members of the other race. Hatred triggers violence, violence stirs further hatred, savage acts bring savage responses, hostility begets hostility, and the storm rages on. At some point, the terrifying interplay must have an end.

We must break through the terrible symmetry of action and reaction, assault and counterassault, hatred and responsive hatred. And the only way to do that is to ask the moderates on each side to cope with the haters and the doers of violence within their own ranks.

There is no way for the Negro moderate to curb the white extremist, or the white moderate to curb the Negro extremist. If they try, they just give further impetus to the interplay of hostility. That is why moderate Whites must curb the haters within their own ranks, and moderate Negroes must curb their own extremists.

To date, the moderates—both Negro and white—have been all too silent. It was predictable. Moderates are alike, whatever their race. They don't want to become involved. They don't want to appear controversial. They don't like trouble.

But, increasingly, the extremists of both races are giving them trouble, whether they like it or not. And it will get worse before it gets better. It's time for the moderates to speak up and assert their strength.

This “revolt of the moderates” must go on day in and day out—in offices, factories, homes and clubs. Those who promote hatred must be called to account. Those who commit or condone destructive acts must feel the full weight of disapproval by their friends and neighbors. Each contributes his little bit to the destruction of this society.

In a curious way, the whites who hate and destroy and the Negroes who hate and destroy are allies moving the rest of us toward a terrible climax. Martin Luther King understood that, and fought against both all his life, by word and deed. And so must all of us who care about the future of this society.

06/10 Links Pt2: Co-opting Black Lives Matter to target Israel; Where there's Antifa there is antisemitism; 'Post' inquiry leads to closure of French BDS terrorism group's PayPal

From Ian:

Co-opting Black Lives Matter to target Israel

Groups on the far-Right and far-Left, including pro-Palestinian organizations with links to terrorism, have been engaged in a campaign to co-opt the Black Lives Matter movement to target and delegitimize Israel.

"The cynical use of the Black Lives Matter by groups backed and controlled by foreign terror movements is nothing less than a repeat of the many other times that terror groups have used human shields to push their violence and hate," Mark Greendorfer, president of the Zachor Legal Group, told JNS.

A "civil-rights movement (Black Lives Matter) has been hijacked by extremists to push an agenda focused on promoting hate, in the form of anti-Semitism, rather than seeking justice," he said.

Last week, it was widely reported when several Jewish institutions were targeted during protests in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, which included vandalism to Jewish businesses and synagogues, such as Congregation Beth El, which was vandalized with graffiti stating "Free Palestine" and "F*** Israel."
While these incidents drew headlines and condemnations, several far-Left anti-Israel groups have been engaged in a campaign on social media and in protests blaming Israel for police violence and linking the Black Lives Matter movement to Palestinian uprisings.

In particular, anti-Israel groups have been using the protests over the public murder of 46-year-old George Floyd in Minnesota by a police officer to target the Jewish state over past training programs set up between the United States and Israeli police departments.

"This is where the Minneapolis Police Department learned their police brutality tactics from. Israeli occupation terrorist soldiers (on the Left) murder Palestinians on a daily basis. We must stop training our American police officers to be gestapo units. #GeorgeFloyd #Palestine." tweeted Abbas Hamideh of the group Al-Awda, a pro-Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions group.

Similarly, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and a student leader in Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) also blamed Israel for the police tactics.

The anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which in 2017 launched its "Deadly Exchange" campaign, has long blamed Israel for helping to train U.S. police in "extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill, police murders, racial profiling, massive spying and surveillance, deportation and detention."

Over the past week, JVP's campaign has spread and become a popular conspiracy theory among anti-Israel activists, according to the Canary Mission, an anti-Semitism watchdog group.

"Anti-Israel activists have claimed that Israel and American Jewish organizations are responsible for police brutality resulting in the deaths of black people, such as George Floyd," said the Canary Mission. "They state that US police forces are trained by Israel to deliberately use brutal methods of policing. They further claim that this training is organized and sponsored by the American Jewish community."

Where there's Antifa there is antisemitism

Several demonstrations in Germany against restrictions of freedom due to the Corona pandemic included antisemitic incidents. The infiltration of Jew-hatred not related to anything Jewish or Israeli has been a frequent occurrence in Western mass protests in past decades. Now, an even worse illustration of this phenomenon has emerged: the violent expression of antisemitism during the anti-racist protests in the United States after the murder of George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis.

Many of these were not demonstrations but sprees of lawless burning and looting. Some of the worst violence took place in Los Angeles. Various Jewish shops were destroyed in the Fairfax district. A variety of Jewish institutions were damaged including synagogues and a school. A statue of Raoul Wallenberg was smeared with anti-Semitic slogans. In Richmond, Virginia a Reform congregation, Beit Ahaba, had its windows smashed by rioters. Attacking synagogues is an act of antisemitism.

Commentators highlighted aspects of antisemitism in the demonstrations. In the British daily, Telegraph, Zoe Strimpel wrote: “Yet alongside those peacefully protesting are those criminally marauding in the name of social justice. Some of these do it in the name of anti-racism – as seen above – and some in the name of anti-fascism. The ring-leaders of the anti-fascists are the loathsome group, Antifa.

"While Antifa goes beyond Jews it seems that people purporting to be 'antifascist or antiracist' will sooner or later begin to behave like the lowest of criminals and bullies using a cause as an excuse for vandalism and destruction.…It is a notable irony that where there's Antifa there is antisemitism.”

Melanie Phillips pointed out the strange attitude of many Jewish organizations. She wrote that in a statement by the Jewish Council of Public Affairs, 130 organizations said that they were "outraged by the killing of Floyd, declared 'solidarity' with the Black community and called for 'an end' to 'systemic racism.'" Phillips remarked: "They make no protest against the specifically targeted attacks on synagogues and Jewish businesses." Phillips called Black Lives Matter, an "anti-white, anti-capitalist and anti-Jewish hate group."

The American Black Lives Matter movement aims to rectify the wrongs perpetrated against African American citizens in the past and present. Its 40,000 word manifesto accuses Israel of perpetrating genocide against Palestinians, labels Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ and joined with the BDS movement in calling for the total academic, cultural and economic boycott of the country. No such demands are made for any other state.

In a blog posted by the Zionist Organization of America, Daniel Greenfield also addressed the attitude of the Jewish organizations writing: “One would think that the hateful vandalism of 8 Jewish institutions and a mob screaming slurs after trashing Jewish businesses would lead to some sort of meaningful response. But, that would be the optimistic perspective of people who haven’t experienced the unmitigated level of cowardice and appeasement that comprises Jewish institutional life at virtually every level.

Israel Advocacy Movement: Is Ice Cube antisemitic?

We Must Re-Think Identity, Privilege and Oppression in the Middle East

Conversations on identity in the U.S. are strongly connected to the notion of privilege, which is understandably based on history, imperialism, conquest and oppression. MENA Jews, because of their wider regional and historic experience, sometimes see an Arab Muslim privilege in a somewhat similar way that a person of color might see a white person in the U.S.

This is what possibly shapes the fact that on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, MENA Jews remain on average more hawkish than their European Jewish counterparts. The Arab culture, language and mentality is instantly more familiar to them because it was one forced on their community for the last 1,300 years.

However, the culture, language and tradition of MENA Jews is sadly less familiar to people in the U.S., who judge Israel according to what they see through the lens of a supposed European semi-colonial implant—thus erasing Israel's indigenous identity and culture.

In fact, there are arguably even hints of racism when some figures in the U.S., predominantly among those highly critical of Israel, simply do not see or recognize what Israel is or has become. Frequently, their conception of Israel is through a Westernized prism that just erases MENA Jews.

They want to see Israel as a European invention and extension—as a privileged nation in a sea of local and indigenous people. The presence of a majoritarian MENA Jewish culture disturbs this worldview and its privilege. Which is all the more reason that there needs to be a greater understanding and respect for what it means to be a MENA Jew.

Unfortunately, we see debates, conferences and commentators on the Israel-Palestinian conflict ultimately using narrow prisms of understanding that reflect the debate they seek—rarely including any MENA Jews, and certainly not taking their community's position and historic narrative into account. Including MENA Jews would disrupt this distorted reflection, even if it would be morally and intellectually more honest to include them.

This blind spot, whether intentional or because of ignorance, must be ended once and for all.

The current debate in the U.S. is an opportune time to talk about identity, oppression, colonization and privilege in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Understanding the historical context of Israel and the Jewish people in the region would break the racist and false paradigm surrounding the conflict's current narrative—and allow for the possibility for a realistic peaceful solution, based on historic justice.

"Dreams never Dreamed" offers an inside look at how a child’s devastating injury from a tainted vaccine, led to the founding of Shalva, the Israel Association for the Care and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities and home of the famous Shalva Band. As author Kalman Samuels, founder and CEO of Shalva would have it, Shalva’s accomplishments are all due to his wife Malki’s vision. Malki Samuels has a keen sense of what needs to be done, and how it should be accomplished.

Like many young people of the 70s, Kalman, a Canadian national, grew up in a secular Jewish home, and ended up religiously observant in Israel. It’s always interesting to read how people get from point A to point B in their personal journeys, but that’s not the reason to buy this book. You want to read “Dreams never Dreamed” to learn how people turn tragedy into hope and hope into tremendous accomplishments, as Kalman and Malki Samuels have done. You want to know how people keep dreaming dreams and beyond when life throws a curve ball. How you get up the next day and make things happen.

There are other reasons to read “Dreams never Dreamed.” You’ll want to know more about Yossi Samuels, his life today, and how the Shalva Band made a splash on the national stage. I spoke to Kalman (full disclosure, we have a family connection) to find out more about the book and his story:

Varda Epstein: Tell us about the name of your book: “Dreams never Dreamed.” What are some of the dreams you never dreamed that came about? To what do you attribute these successes?

Kalman Samuels: The name of my book reflects the nature of the miraculous series of events that led to my son Yossi's breakthrough and the establishment of the Shalva organization, which serves thousands of children with disabilities and their families. These were not my childhood dreams or particular goals that I set out to achieve from a young age. They are dreams that I could have never imagined, and as such they are dreams which I never dreamed.

One of the dreams that I never dreamed would come about is Yossi's remarkable breakthrough to communication. It changed all of our lives forever. Yossi became blind and deaf during infancy, and after eight long years of silence and darkness, he learned to spell sign language in the palm of his hand. Yossi was able to communicate with us and learn about the world. Everyone in the family learned how to speak sign language and we helped Yossi learn new words. He was like a sponge and he soaked up the whole world around him instantly. We could have never imagined this miraculous turnaround.

You can't hold a good man down. Yossi Samuels, at work.

Varda Epstein: Can you tell us a bit about your family roots? Your wife’s?

Kalman Samuels: I was born in Vancouver, Canada to a very loving and supportive family. Although not religiously practicing Jews, my parents were very proud of their Jewish roots and celebrated Jewish holidays. My siblings and I grew up with all of the luxuries of a middle-class, North American lifestyle.

Malki's family came from Europe and survived the Holocaust. Malki grew up with a pure faith in G-d and was raised in an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle, went to good schools, and enjoyed belonging to a growing community.

Kalman Samuels' high school graduation photo, back when he was "Kerry."

Varda Epstein: Your book is very interesting in that it’s a first person account, but your wife is a central figure in your story. You take her guidance, and somehow it always works out, better than you had expected. Malki seems to be equal parts intuition and wisdom. How does she know what she knows? How did you come to trust her? Can you give us an example of a counterintuitive directive from Malki that followed this successful formula?

Kalman Samuels: Malki always had a very profound understanding of the human spirit. Whether it was something related to Yossi, our family's general wellbeing, or Shalva's growth, I always trusted Malki every step of the way—and I still always do.

Malki insisted on Yossi wearing glasses, even though he was confirmed blind. She explained that they were the one thing he didn't take apart and that he insisted on having his glasses with him at all times. It must mean that the glasses are helpful to him in some way—and they were.

Also when it came to things beyond Malki's motherly instincts—like navigating my job in computer programming, or the architecture of the Shalva center—Malki's direction was always spot on. Successful counterintuitive directives from Malki is definitely a theme of our story and the inspiration behind how our lives and Shalva have progressed and developed over the years.

A young Yossi Samuels, learning about the world.

Varda Epstein: Yossi was the victim of a tainted vaccination. How do you see him today? How do you see the issue of vaccination? What about the Israeli legal system? Is it possible to get justice?

Kalman Samuels: Yossi is not the victim of a vaccination; rather, he is a victim of medical malpractice in that they knew they had a tainted batch of vaccine and continued using it for six months injuring hundreds including Yossi. Unfortunately, there are many people around the world who are victims of this sort and I believe that many can relate to the helplessness that may transpire as a result of lacking transparency within large, bureaucratic systems.

Yossi Samuels was a beautiful healthy baby. Until he received a tainted vaccine.

Varda Epstein: How many families have you helped as a result of the organization you and Malki founded, Shalva?

Kalman Samuels: Every day, about 1,000 individuals with disabilities walk throughout our doors, and when including our additional programs that take place on a weekly or period-specific basis there are over 2,000. Their families also participate in support groups, events, and programs; and as such, our Shalva family is very large. Going back thirty years, I know that tens of thousands of families have been helped by the Shalva organization.

Kalman Samuels with son Yossi Samuels

Varda Epstein: Can you give us an overview of Shalva’s services and programs?

Kalman Samuels: Shalva provides a range of services to guide children with disabilities and their families throughout the lifecycle, from infancy through to adulthood. From a mere few weeks post birth, Shalva has personal early intervention therapy sessions for infants and their parents. We also have a day care and preschool for toddlers and an after school program for children in grade school. They come to Shalva for an afternoon full of activities- swimming, music, art, baking, and more. We also have a respite program that allows children to sleep over at Shalva once a week. We have summer camps and sports teams for our children as well. In recent years, Shalva branched out into adult services as well. Today we also provide programs for vocational training, employment, military service, and independent living in the community.

Rabbi Kalman Samuels, today.

Varda Epstein: The thing about Shalva is that it’s stunning. Why is this important?

Kalman Samuels: Many people who come to Shalva are taken by the colorful and welcoming interior design. Coupled with high standards of cleanliness, these physical elements of the building embody Shalva's emphasis on human dignity. Our children and parents feel welcome here and enjoy spending time here with their families and friends. It sends a message that people with disabilities are no less deserving of respect and high standards of quality than anyone else in society.

The Shalva Center is stunning, and situated in the heart of Jerusalem.

Varda Epstein: Everyone is in love with the Shalva band. How did they end up getting the gig to play for the president?

Kalman Samuels: The Shalva Band was invited to perform at the IAC Summit in 2019 and were notified just minutes before the performance that they would be introduced to the stage by United States President Trump. They performed a very moving rendition of "God Bless America" which was concluded by a surprising group hug with the President. Their performance made the front page of the newspapers in Israel and was tweeted by both President Trump and the White House. It was a very special moment for the band and the President.

Varda Epstein: What skills does it take to open a nonprofit like Shalva? Would you have jumped in if you had realized the extent of the undertaking?

Kalman Samuels: It takes a great deal of organizational, management, and fundraising skills to run an organization on Shalva's scale. We have thousands of beneficiaries, hundreds of employees and volunteers, and a 220,000 sq. meter building that runs around the clock. What I jumped into in 1990 was far from this. We had six children in a local garden apartment—and even then, we were overwhelmed. We could have never imagined that Shalva would become the organization that it is today and we feel blessed to be able to facilitate all of our programs to help so many children and families.

The very famous Shalva Band, which bears witness to the fact that dreams can be realized, even with disabilities.

Varda Epstein: Can you give us an update on Yossi’s life, today?

Kalman Samuels: Today Yossi is just as full of dreams and aspirations as ever. His daily routine is comprised of gainful employment at Israel’s Highway Six, which he finds personally meaningful. In recent years, Yossi has also channeled his keen sense of smell and taste to become certified as a sommelier and to produce two of his own wines. Outside of work, Yossi enjoys exercising and riding horses and his life is rich with family and friends.

Yossi Samuels meets President Bush in 2006.

"Dreams never Dreamed" is currently available on Amazon, Kindle, and the Koren website (https://korenpub.co.il/products/dreams-never-dreamed).

***

· Read more Judean Rose interviews:

· Arnold Roth: Ahlam Tamimi is Not in Hiding. Why is She Free?

· Shai Glick and Btsalmo: Unmasking the Disguise and Fighting for the Real Human Rights

· Betina Thorball to BDS: Herbalists Have a Right to Professional Neutrality

· David Collier’s Report on Amnesty International Reveals Its Toxicity and Hate

· Richard Landes: The Man Who Gave Pallywood a Name

· Genie Milgrom: “I Could Just Feel my Grandmothers Through the Papers”

· Phyllis Chesler: The Radical Feminist Who Refuses Your Intersectional Anti-Israel Slot

· Otzma Yehudit’s Dr Adva Biton: Finding Strength to Fight for Others

· Ryan Bellerose: Indigenous Has Nothing to Do with Time and Everything to Do with Connection

· Akiva Fuld: “I’m Doing This For Me”

· A Father Speaks Out: The Murder of Malki Roth and the Refusal of Jordan to Extradite the Beast Ahlam Tamimi (Arnold Roth)

· Israel's Jewish Indigenous Land Rights: A Conversation with Nan Greer, Part 1

· Israel's Jewish Indigenous Land Rights: A Conversation with Nan Greer, Part 2

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Spain self-righteously stops selling handcuffs to Israel–but it sells them to Syria

JPost reports:

The Spanish government vetoed the selling of 2,000 handcuffs to the Israel Police, valued at 17,000 Euros, fearing they will be used in "violation of human rights," according to the Spanish El País.

As far as I can tell, there is only one manufacturer of handcuffs in Spain – Alcyon.

This appears to be the company that is selling to Israel, as Israel is listed as one of the countries it sells its products to.

Guess who else they sell handcuffs to?

Oh, just Syria and Venezuela and Saudi Arabia and Iran and other champions of human rights who could not possibly ever use the handcuffs for anything bad.

Spain knows it can get brownie points by pretending to be against both Israel and police brutality by announcing the ending of a tiny contract with the Jewish state, while not changing its policy of selling to the most brutal violators of human rights on the planet.

Hypocritical much?

(h/t iTi)

06/10 Links Pt1: Mark Regev: Pre-1967 Lines Brought Israel Neither Peace Nor Security; The Gaza They Do Not Want You to See

From Ian:

Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev: Pre-1967 Lines Brought Israel Neither Peace Nor Security

Israeli Ambassador to the UK Mark Regev responded on June 8 to a letter by prominent members of the British Jewish community expressing concern at the prospect of extending Israeli law to parts of the West Bank. Regev said: "The policy of consecutive Israeli governments has in fact always been that Israeli law must be extended to parts of the West Bank as part of any final status reality."

"The pre-1967 lines brought Israel neither peace nor security, and it was for this reason that, in the immediate aftermath of the Six-Day War, the Labor governments of Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir rejected returning to those frontiers. Eshkol extended Israeli law into formerly Jordanian-controlled territory, and under Meir's government, the Allon Plan was developed, which recognized the particular strategic significance of the Jordan Valley and Golan Heights. Menachem Begin applied Israeli sovereignty to the latter some three decades ago."

"Yitzhak Rabin, who...as prime minister signed the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, firmly believed that any sustainable peace would have to be built on robust security arrangements. In his final speech before the Knesset...Rabin outlined his vision of a final status peace, which he said would demand Israeli control over the Jordan Valley 'in the broadest meaning of that term'."

"Israel's friends in the international community have long understood secure borders to be a cornerstone of any durable peace." Regev said the U.S. peace plan builds on the "core principles" of Israel's security being protected by "control over the Jordan Valley."

It was "regrettable but unsurprising that this plan was immediately rejected outright by the Palestinian leadership, who dogmatically cling to one-sided UN and EU 'peace plans' that consistently ignore Israel's vital concerns."

Rejecting suggestions that Israel's "international standing" will be undermined, Regev said, "In moving forward, Israel's new unity government will remain cognizant of our steadily improving relations across the Arab and Muslim world, and our critically important partnership with Jordan."

"We will continue to engage with Washington about how best to seize the historic opportunities inherent in the American initiative, which offers the hope of a more peaceful and secure future. It is high time for the Palestinians to come to the table and constructively do the same."

Palestinian threats aren't the real danger

That same year, the United Nations passed a resolution to upgrade the PA's status from non-state "observer" to non-member state. Something along those lines. Many countries around the world circuitously recognize the PA as a state in such a way that it isn't always clear what they mean when they say "recognition." It appears the only development of substance and of potential concern to Israel – in the future – is American recognition of a Palestinian state.

The fact that the leaders of the Yamina party, Yesha Council Director David Elhayani, and former Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich are rushing to recognize a Palestinian state by declaring it a foregone conclusion of Israel's sovereignty initiative doesn't mean they are the deciding factor. The PA prime minister said what he said. So what? Why is Shtayyeh, and not PA President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking out? Regardless, we cannot ignore that he views the future Israeli measure as a serious blow to the Palestinians.

The purpose of Shtayyeh's comment to foreign journalists on Tuesday was to deter Israel from following through with the sovereignty initiative, which has become a burning issue both locally and internationally. Hence the Palestinians have joined various elements inside Israel that oppose the move – each for their own reasons – while the media is doing its best to present the dilemma through an apocalyptic lens.

The right thing, however, is to view the Israeli move more simply: a unilateral step to significantly expand Israel's sovereignty in the country's west. A unilateral step by the Palestinians to declare an independent state already puts them in a position of violating US President Donald Trump's peace plan. This will certainly absolve Israel of the more problematic aspects of the plan, such as transferring lands in the Negev to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinians and their helpers already view Israel as an invader of Judea and Samaria lands. "Taking steps" to establish a Palestinian state will do little to bolster opposition to the Israeli presence.

The only danger from Israel's perspective in this context, as stated, is the rise of a Democratic administration that will recognize a Palestinian state. And even then, Israel's answer will be: We're ready to negotiate peace with the Palestinians – and the Americans will accept it.

Black and Palestinian issues have nothing in common (Daled Amos)

Yesterday, Elder of Ziyon described what Palestinians hijacking George Floyd look like, when they claim there is an equality between the current protests in the US in response to the police killing of George Floyd and the Palestinian cause. Dumisani Washington, National Diversity Outreach Coordinator for Christians United for Israel (CUFI), wrote about the differences he saw between these two causes. Six years ago. Washington listed 7 reasons why the Palestinian crisis and the Black struggle for freedom are absolutely nothing alike.

1. While the Palestinian Arabs have UNRWA --

Black Americans from slavery to Jim Crow to the civil rights era never had anything that vaguely resembled UNRWA or any type of international relief agency.

2. While the Palestinian Authority continues to receive enormous amounts of money in international aid every year, money that is used on racial programming and propaganda --

Black Americans received no international aid during centuries of slavery and Jim Crow segregation. Neither did we receive domestic aid...Money to help fund our quest for freedom came almost exclusively from private donors including Black businesses and families, White abolitionists, churches, synagogues and other Jewish organizations and individuals.

3. There are many Arab states in the Middle East who have the potential to help the Palestinian Arabs, not with money, but by offering to accept them as full citizens. The Arab states refuse to do this, and the few states that do have Palestinian Arab -- Like Lebanon and Syria -- treat them as second-class citizens. Black Americans are in a different situation --

Black Americans had no Black nations to which we could turn for help or shelter. While we were enslaved in America, our continent had been colonized by the Europeans. Further, all of North Africa is currently being occupied by Arabs, who stole it from our people. But that’s another list.

4. Washington notes that another difference between Black Americans and the Palestinian Arabs is with regard to terrorism:

Other than Nat Turner and a few rebellious slaves whom history has forgotten, Black victims of oppression never possessed the means to offer armed resistance to our oppressors during slavery. After slavery (and due to the legal right to purchase guns), Black Americans were able to arm themselves, but had no access to rockets, rocket launchers, IEDs or other explosives.

Even so, he adds another point:

If Black Americans had been able to fight with weapons, you can be certain that blowing up our sons and daughters would not have been a strategic option. Ever. Under any circumstances. [emphasis added]

In a post this month, Dumisani Washington's son, Joshua Washington -- Director of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI) -- continues on this theme of the use of terrorism in the context of the current protests -- and riots -- which Palestinian Arabs claim as similar to their cause. In The Palestinian appropriation of black pain, he writes:

...our struggle could not be any more different. One of the biggest differences is terrorism. The Palestinian Authority encourages and incentivizes Palestinians to kill Jews. Palestinians who successfully kill Jews are awarded with a monthly stipend from the PA. Palestinians who commit suicide while killing Jews have a monthly stipend sent to their families. Palestinian children are trained to kill Jews by any means, including suicide bombing, and they are taught this through terrorist traning camps and Hamas TV shows. Streets are named after Palestinians who commit suicide bombings if they kill enough Jews. As heightened as the black community has ever been, never have we as a people resorted to killing white people everywhere just because they are white. Never have we encouraged the death of our own children for our cause. Never have we ever produced television shows to teach our children how to kill white people. What the Palestinian Authority is engaged in is not a struggle against oppression; it is pure and simple Jew hatred, and Palestinian leaders will do anything they can to legitimize it including exploiting black pain to do so. [emphasis added]

5. Noting that his grandmother would have called Arabs throwing rocks at motorists "hoodlums," Washington writes

During the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s our ‘weapon’ was non-violent resistance. This was by choice and by necessity, as we were vastly outnumbered and outgunned by the White majority.

6. He notes how the UNHRC has consistently made Israel its number one target for condemnation. However, he is unimpressed by that UN body --

Not only did Black Americans ever have something like a League of Nations to condemn our enemies, the UNHRC further insults us by largely ignoring the suffering of African people in places like Sudan, Eritrea or Congo; or Egypt/Sinai where African slavery and organ harvesting is taking place.

7. In his final point, Washington points out the Arab representation in the Israeli Knesset and Supreme Court, noting that some continue to be anti-Israel, under protected free speech. Again, contrast with that the situation of Blacks --

Black Americans did not become a part of the legislative system until after slavery during Reconstruction. We were exclusively Republican by default, as the Democrats were the party of slavery, Jim Crow and the KKK. We never called for the destruction of America. We have a long, proud tradition of working within the American legal system to address violations of civil and human rights — for everyone.

Yet with all the differences that separate the Black struggle for equal rights with the situation of Arabs in Israel, Washington recognizes their need for justice -- and offers to point them in right direction:

Lastly, I do not spurn the Palestinian fight for self-determination. Every fight for justice is a righteous struggle. I would just say that, what made the Black historic struggle effective was our remembering who our enemy was — and who it was not. In the interest of defending Palestinian human rights, one may want to start with the main perpetrators: The Palestinian Authority and Hamas. [emphasis added]

The Jewish community is very fortunate to have Black leaders who are outspoken in defense of Jews and Israel and, just as importantly, who defend the history of help and cooperation that they share. As much as Jews may have helped the Black community in the past, the Jewish community is now in need of the aid of such strong Black leaders in the face of the riots and antisemitic attacks on synagogues that are taking advantage of peaceful protests.

The latest poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows contradictory results of how much discrimination Palestinian Christians feel from their Muslim neighbors and the Muslim-majority Palestinian Authority

While the 70% say they feel fully integrated into Palestinian society, when they answer more detailed questions this high number is not supported by facts.

For example, 44% say that discrimination exists against Christians applying for private sector jobs, 29% feel “hated” by Muslim citizens, and 70% have heard Muslims say that Christians will all go to Hellfire. 27% say they or their families have been cursed by Muslims (called “crusader” or “infidel”) in only the past year.

Only 16% are satisfied with how the PA educational system teaches about Christianity and 76% are dissatisfied. 77% are concerned about religious Salafist Muslims, and two thirds are concerned that Palestinian law incorporates Islamic law as a basis of legislation. A similar number are concerned over Islamist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Some 36% of Christians consider emigrating, a much higher number than Muslims who want to emigrate. They say that economic reasons are the major driver, but Palestinian Muslims have identical economic issues, so there is more going on. The percentage of Christians has gone down from 11% in the beginning of the British Mandate to about 1% under Palestinian rule today.

77% have relatives who have emigrated already, and 12% have relatives who emigrated in only the past year.

Most tellingly, more than half of those who answered think that Christians will disappear altogether from Palestine within 20 years. People who feel fully integrated into Palestinian society would not feel that way.

Which means that their acceptance of being second class citizens – dhimmis - is so much a part of their mindset that they are unwilling to admit, even to themselves, how unhappy they are living with the Muslim majority.

A Zionist, philo-semitic poem from 1843: “Lines to a Fair Jewess”

I came across this poem in an American Jewish newspaper published in 1850, but I found that it was written by a sub-editor of the London Globe, Edward Raleigh Moran, in 1843.

Lines to a Fair Jewess

Yes, daughter of Judah, thy God is supreme
Even what thou art now is but part of His scheme.
The world may revile thee, I look on thy face,
And there thy great ancestry easily trace.
Thrones have perished, and nations have vanished away,
Whilst thou still art the same as in Abraham's day,
His cherished, his fated,—yes, both still thou art,
Like thy David, for ever one after his heart,

Aye, daughter of Judah, all else we see fade,
New faiths will decay as the old have decayed
But still I can trace, as I gaze on thee now,
Sarah's beauty and faith, each alive on thy brow.
We vainly endeavour to change thy belief,—
We torture, torment thee, through woe and through grief,
But still thou art true to the creed that was given
To Moses, thy teacher, directly from Heaven.

Even we who declares that our God has come down
Already, and borne the death-giving crown,
And who say that from thee and thy people He met
The martyr's sole glory, unknowingly, yet,
While we look full of hope to his throne in the sky,
Tempting and proscribing thee, we cannot deny.
Whatever He was we derive but from you,
For He whom we worship was child of a Jew.

I see thee quite scattered, and fallen the crown,
God-given, that formerly was all thine own,
Like the stones of the temple, alas! now downcast
No arch to declare the bright splendor long past:
Yet still when His thunders we hear in the sky,
We look out in expectance, but not with thine eye,
For thine eye as it longs for the opening day,
•Sees hope in each glimpse of Jehovah's bright ray.

Then, daughter of Judah, be't our's to implore
For thee and thy nation the God we adore
That thy strength may return, that thy hope may come back
As the day-beam succeeds to the stormiest rack—
That thou may'st in Israel thy home find once more.
Thy temptings, thy trials, thy miseries o'er:
And as eve's latest glimpse is so often its best.
Be brightest of all the calm eve of thy rest.

This is what Palestinians hijacking George Floyd look like

This small demonstration in Bethlehem has all the hallmarks of what Palestinians always do: try to hijack any trendy cause and make it about them.

While protesters worldwide are trying to understand the pain that black Americans feel, Palestinians are confidently declaring that they know all about oppression.

First of all, they try to equate the killing of George Floyd with the (admittedly horrible) killing of Eyad al-Halaq. That already waters down any sympathy they might have for George Floyd.

They chant “Black Lives Matter. Palestinian Lives Matter.”

Listen to the interviews. Every Palestinian says that they know about oppression more than black Americans do.

There is no empathy. Instead, there is a game of “we are more oppressed so we are qualified to talk about police brutality.”

06/09 Links Pt2: Health minister: Coronavirus spike 'alarming and dramatic'; Israeli Arab Singer Mira Awad Slams Rogers Waters for BDS Support

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: To put Israel's points, first learn about the Brits

Is the Israeli government reverting to its bad old ways by selecting the Likud politician Tzipi Hotovely as its ambassador to the United Kingdom?

On a number of occasions, Israel has seemed to treat the UK with contempt by appointing as its ambassador someone with poor English and even less diplomatic prowess.

In recent years, it seemed to have got the message with the appointments of the British-born, former foreign ministry lawyer Daniel Taub and the Australian-born diplomat Mark Regev. The British Jewish community sighed in relief at their diplomatic skills and perfect English.

The ambassador who preceded Taub, Ron Prosor, was in turn a diplomatic heavyweight who had previously run Israel’s foreign ministry and afterwards became its ambassador to the UN.

In addition to the acumen and polish of these three, the crucial point was that they effaced their own political opinions. The only viewpoint with which they were associated was that of the Israeli government.

Despite her intelligence and fluent English, Hotovely — who has yet to accept this post —would be laden with divisive political baggage.

A former deputy foreign minister, she was recently appointed settlements minister and will serve as such unless she goes to London.

A religious Zionist who opposes marriage between Jews and Arabs, she rejects the idea of a Palestinian state and dismisses criticism of the Israeli “settlements”, saying: “This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologise for that”.

Already, she has attracted criticism on account of her “ultra right-wing” views. Whether one agrees or disagrees with those views, however, is beside the point.

Ambassadors should be viewed in person as politically neutral. They are appointed to deliver their country’s story. They should not become the story themselves.

This isn’t the only reason to be concerned about Hotovely’s appointment. Her previous attempt to put Israel’s case to a hostile British public was a train-wreck.

April 27, 2020: One to listen out for on BBC World Service radio

BBC World Service radio is currently promoting what it describes as “an epic podcast drama about the momentous events leading up to the creation of Israel – seen through the eyes of two people, one a Jew, the other an Arab”.

The ten-part series – written by British playwright Steve Waters and titled ‘Miriam and Youssef’ – will be aired weekly commencing on April 29th, Israel’s Independence Day. A promo was released on April 22nd.

Podcast: BBC World Service - Miriam and Youssef

A 10-part drama about the founding of Israel. Miriam is a Jewish immigrant to Palestine, and Youssef is an Arab inhabitant driven into exile. At the heart of it all is the city of Jerusalem. (h/t Yerushalimey)

Health minister: Coronavirus spike 'alarming and dramatic'

The country will be doing more to enforce the Health Ministry’s primary coronavirus regulations as the number of people infected with COVID-19 surges throughout Israel.

At the urgent request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the National Security Council, Meir Ben-Shabbat, held a meeting to formulate immediate and practical steps for tightening enforcement against the spread of coronavirus. In attendance were top officials, including the health minister and chief of police, as well as the heads of local authorities.

A decision was made to activate the police, local authority inspectors and even population and immigration inspectors – each according to his strengths – to enforce regulations in four areas: wearing masks, congregating in groups that are too large or too close together, complying with the “Purple Ribbon” standard for businesses, and enforcing isolation of patients and people who have come in contact with them.

Local authorities are expected to complete a training program by Monday to prepare their inspectors for the task. The Justice Department is working on completing legislative procedures to empower the inspectors, and the Public Security Ministry has been tasked with taking responsibility for the project.

The meeting piggybacked on remarks made earlier in the day by Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, who said that the government did not yet have intention to “go backwards” and begin reinstating closures. Rather, he said, that strict enforcement of the regulations would be instated.
Edelstein compared violating regulations to breaking traffic laws.

“Anyone who walks around without a mask is like someone who drove at 160 kilometers per hour,” he said. “In 2019, 349 people were killed in traffic accidents.”

Some Arab incitement from 90 years ago

The Palestine Bulletin, the precursor to the Palestine Post/Jerusalem Post, used to have a column where they would translate Arab articles.

After the British White Paper of 1930, Jews demonstrated and rallied against the reduction of immigration that would be allowed. In this context, Arab newspapers responded with direct incitement against Jews. (They weren’t woke enough in those days to say “Zionists.”)

Felesteen, published on June 5, 1930:

Al Jamia, June 6, 1930:

Mohammed owned slaves. Why won’t anyone “cancel” Mohammed?

The cancel culture is very selective.

Jimmy Fallon thought imitating Chris Rock in blackface on national TV was OK, and people accepted his apology.

In 2011, Fred Armisen defended his use of blackface (or “honeyface”) to portray Barack Obama and Prince on Saturday Night Live, no one seems to mind and he’s still steadily working.

Megyn Kelly thought kids imitating Diana Ross in blackface on Halloween was OK, and her apology was followed by her being fired.

Was the issue blackface, or that people were looking for an excuse to fire a conservative TV figure anyway?

The New York Times published op-eds by Yasir Arafat, Moammar Gaddafi, leaders of Hamas and the Taliban. They never fact-checked the op-eds by Palestinians. Suddenly, when they publish an op-ed by a Republican US senator that was not nearly as offensive by any measure compared to the others, heads roll and they announce that they will start fact-checking op-eds.

Was the issue the content of the op-eds, or whether the causes were aligned with the politics of NYT staff and readers?

Roseanne Barr dressed up as Hitler in 2009 when she was still regarded as a liberal, and shook off the controversy. But she was literally cancelled after she posted an offensive tweet – after she publicly supported Donald Trump - and no one gave her the benefit of the doubt for her explanation. (I myself had no idea Valerie Jarrett was black.) If she would have still been viewed as a liberal, is there any doubt that her apology would have been accepted and she would have kept her job?

In all three cases there was a rush to judgment – people were fired within two days of the incident.

Now people are going after monuments to people who owned slaves when it was not considered out of the ordinary. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are once again being attacked for their having had slaves. But would anyone even think for a second to “cancel” Mohammed, who bought, sold and even captured slaves – a much worse crime by any measure? And that’s hardly the worst thing he did by today’s standards.

The cancel culture has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with political intimidation. It is simply bullying. And the people who should be fighting against bullies – the media, the politicians – are too frightened to speak up because they could be the next victims.

06/09 Links Pt1: Dershowitz: Exploiting the Floyd protests to demonize Israel; Joshua Washington: The Palestinian appropriation of black pain

From Ian:

Alan Dershowitz: Exploiting the Floyd protests to demonize Israel

Historically, the Jews have always been caught between the black of Fascism and the red of Communism. This was true in the 1920’s and 1930’s in Europe, and there is a danger that it could now manifest itself during this time of extremism, when bigots on both sides are prepared to scapegoat the Jews and their nation state.

Those of us who are both Jewish and Liberal – who support Israel and oppose unjustified police violence – must be willing to participate and encourage legitimate protests against police violence, such as that caught on video in the Floyd case. We must stand up and be heard in condemnation of such violations – but we must stand up and be heard against those who would exploit tragedies to foment violence against Jews and the nation state of the Jewish people.

We should not generalize: the vast majority of protesters are focused on the injustices of police misconduct. But we cannot ignore those – even if they are relatively few in number – who would turn these protests into bigoted attacks against Israel. Bigotry unanswered grows in size and intensity.

Silence is not an option in the face of any injustice. Black lives matter greatly; so do Palestinian lives; so do Jewish and Israeli lives. We must not be afraid of being criticized for condemning bigotry on all sides. As the great sage Hillel put it 2000 years ago, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I?” He ended his statement with a call to action: “And if not now, when?”

Now is the time to protest the injustice against George Floyd and other African American men and women who have been unjustly targeted by overzealous – and often racist – police. But now is also the time to speak out against those who would hijack this tragic history to manifest the oldest continuing prejudice known to mankind, namely antisemitism.

Joshua Washington: The Palestinian appropriation of black pain

What adds insult to injury is that BLM does seek allyship from the Jewish community, so long as they are diametrically opposed to the Jewish state. Jewish people should not be expected to check their Zionism at the door in order to join arms with BLM. Jews should not be expected to do that, no more than a Kenyan should be expected to denounce Kenya, or a Brazilian be expected to denounce South America. Can black Americans even imagine joining a Filipino justice movement only to be asked to voice our denunciation of the civil rights movement in order to join? No. We would not. Imagine a justice movement for black South Africans that, despite having good people on the ground who may be unaware of the movement’s national positions, posited that slavery was voluntary, and that West Africans got on ships because they were excited to come to America and be worked to death. There is no scenario where a black American, upon finding this out, would be a part of such movement. It is mind boggling to fathom why anyone would expect anyone else to do the same.

I appreciate my Jewish brothers and sisters seeking to make inroads in the black community, as they have been making these attempts for decades, but regarding the issue of Black Lives Matter, whether the black members are aware or not, there needs to be a conversation about their national official position on Israel. Not only Israel, and not only BLM, but in any movement, it is simply a good principle to find out what the movement is about beyond the facade before committing to it. I personally have issues with many of the official M4BL stances. The vast majority of our values do not align, and so for me to join them would be for no other reason than they’re the loudest and everyone is doing it. Those are bad reasons, and the Jewish community should not fall into that trap. We have seen what happened to Jewish members of SNCC when SNCC decided to shift their stance on Israel and Jews. It would not be wise to join a movement with antisemitism already as its bedrock.

The image is just one recent examples of Palestinians continuing to equate our struggles. Another image easily found on the internet is a painting of recently murdered George Floyd in a keffiyeh with a Palestinian flag behind him, depicting him as a Palestinian martyr. This is wrong on many accounts, as our struggle could not be any more different.

One of the biggest differences is terrorism. The Palestinian Authority encourages and incentivizes Palestinians to kill Jews. Palestinians who successfully kill Jews are awarded with a monthly stipend from the PA. Palestinians who commit suicide while killing Jews have a monthly stipend sent to their families. Palestinian children are trained to kill Jews by any means, including suicide bombing, and they are taught this through terrorist traning camps and Hamas TV shows. Streets are named after Palestinians who commit suicide bombings if they kill enough Jews. As heightened as the black community has ever been, never have we as a people resorted to killing white people everywhere just because they are white. Never have we encouraged the death of our own children for our cause. Never have we ever produced television shows to teach our children how to kill white people. What the Palestinian Authority is engaged in is not a struggle against oppression; it is pure and simple Jew hatred, and Palestinian leaders will do anything they can to legitimize it including exploiting black pain to do so.

We as black Americans need to realize these attempts to deceive us. We need to stop allowing people who have no real interest in our well-being to tell us how to behave toward our Jewish cousins. Blacks and Jews have much more history that binds us than we could ever have with the likes of the PLO, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or Mahmoud Abbas. I will concede, however, that we do share a common struggle with the Palestinian people, and that is the struggle of many manipulative leaders who claim to be our saviors.

But that is a conversation for another time…

StandWithUs: Zionism & The Civil Rights Movement

What is the connection between Zionism and the civil rights movement? Join us as we chat with Joshua Washington, the director of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI), who will discuss his role in the Zionist space, unearthing how Zionism and black civil rights walked hand in hand. As a composition graduate of the University of Pacific’s Conservatory of Music, Washington will also talk about how his music and advocacy help to amplify Zionism in a unique and innovative way.