Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Melissa Landa: Fired for the Crime of Teaching While Jewish

Melissa Landa

Melissa Landa had been a popular teacher at the University of Maryland, College Park for ten years when it was decided that her contract would not be renewed. The reason? Landa had become too Jewish, too in-their-face about her Zionism and the immorality of BDS. She had organized her former classmates to fight against campus antisemitism and in particular against Professor Joy Karega, an antisemitic professor at her alma mater.

Landa’s brand of activism, in short, had U of Maryland administrators in a conjoined state of nightly bruxism. This just wasn’t the right kind of activism. It wasn’t Black Lives Matter popular or Free, Free Palestine popular. They needed to find a pretext to SHUT HER DOWN.

Then Landa traveled to Israel for Passover—just long enough that U of Maryland administrators could say she was forsaking her duties as a teacher—even though she’d received prior permission, and had arranged to fulfill her teaching obligations during the time she would be away. (Y’all have heard of Zoom, right?) That’s when the U of Maryland administrators rubbed their hands together and uttered the silent collective equivalent of “Nyuh uh uh,” and failed to renew Landa’s contract.

In other words, Melissa Landa was fired. A popular, award-winning teacher cut from the faculty and from her livelihood for the crime of teaching while Jewish. Landa took the obvious next step and sued the university for discrimination—because that’s what it was: they didn’t like that Landa was being so, well JEWISH.

Did the University of Maryland realize that Landa wasn’t going to “go silent into the night?” If not, they aren’t as smart as you’d think, considering they represent an institution of learning. Landa is good at agitating for change. She is pretty much the reason Joy Karega got cut from Oberlin. So, not smart U of Maryland, College Park. Not smart at all.

Facebook post by Joy Karega depicts PM Netanyahu as an ISIS fighter. Thanks in large part to Melissa Landa, Karega was fired from her position at Oberlin.

As for the rest of us, this story of modern antisemitism should come as a shock to every American. A popular professor fired for being a Zionist? For visiting Israel and displaying the Israeli flag? It’s unconscionable that this is what it has come to for Jews in America and in academia.

Landa, it is clear, has long been fighting for the basic religious rights of her people. It looks like it may be time for us to fight for hers. Here is what you need to know:

Varda Epstein: Can you tell us a bit about your background and family? Where did you grow up, and what is your Jewish background and experience?

Melissa Landa: I was born in Apartheid South Africa. My grandparents had fled the pogroms of Lithuania and had come to South Africa around the time of the First World War. I grew up in a traditional Jewish home with a strong Zionist ideology. My parents were also anti-Apartheid activists.

I first experienced antisemitism after immigrating to the United States and living in an area where there were few Jews. I attended Oberlin College, where I ate in the Kosher Co-op and lived in Hebrew House. At that time, Judaism and Zionism flourished on the Oberlin campus.

My husband is Israeli. He is the 13^th generation in his family who was born in the land of Israel. I have been to Israel 18 times and look forward to going again soon.

Varda Epstein: How long had you been teaching at U of Maryland, College Park prior to what was, effectively, your dismissal? When did things go wrong?

Melissa Landa: I joined the faculty in 2007, four years after completing my PhD in the same College of Education. I was dismissed 10 years later, in 2017. Things began to deteriorate at the very beginning of 2016.


This flier was found pinned to a bulletin board in the Oberlin College student union during the 2013-14 academic year.

Varda Epstein: Your troubles with U of Maryland appear to have begun just after you began to be more vocal in advocating for Israel, in 2015. Was this advocacy a kind of sudden change for you? Was there some kind of awakening, or something else that served as a catalyst to make you speak out?

Melissa Landa: Yes. I joined an Oberlin alumni Facebook group, where I shared my study abroad program in Israel. I was viciously attacked for supporting Israel. As I engaged with those who were attacking me, it became clear to me that Oberlin had become a bastion of anti-Israel antisemitism. Along with three other concerned alumni, I formed a group called Oberlin Alumni Against Antisemitism.

Almost immediately, a recent graduate contacted me and shared with me the Facebook posts of former Oberlin Professor Joy Karega. They included images of Benjamin Netanyahu as an Isis fighter; accused Israel of shooting down a Malaysian aircraft; accused Israel of orchestrating 9/11; and blamed Jacob Rothschild for instigating war. I felt that I needed to pursue these issues with the Oberlin administration on behalf of all concerned alumni.

A Facebook post by Joy Karega suggests Jacob Rothschild is responsible for instigating wars.

Varda Epstein: I’m aware that the group you founded, Oberlin Alumni Against Antisemitism, joined the Oberlin chapter of Alums for Campus Fairness after a few months. The ACF is a nonprofit that fights against anti-Zionism on campus. How many members are in the Oberlin group? What has this group achieved?

Melissa Landa: We have about 100 active members today. As a result of our work, Joy Karega was dismissed from her faculty position. She and Oberlin College settled out of court.

Varda Epstein: You took the step of displaying the Israeli flag in your office. Why? What was the response to this?

Melissa Landa: I wanted to hang an Israeli flag in my office to promote my study abroad to Israel program. My associate chair discouraged me from displaying the Israeli flag and I complied. He told me that it was offensive to many students. I displayed a map of Israel instead.

Melissa Landa with her study abroad students in Israel, a few days before she was fired.

Varda Epstein: Help us understand this: were you a popular teacher? Was the administration happy with you? What happened?? Was your activism really such a sudden change? What is your take?

Melissa Landa: In 2013, I received the College of Education’s Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2017, I received the College of Education’s Exceptional Scholarship Award. In 2017, I also received a letter of commendation from the University’s Associate Vice President for Internal Affairs for my contributions to Study Abroad, including my efforts to raise money for first generation college students to participate in my study abroad program to Israel. And after I was fired, 17 students of color wrote a letter to UMD’s Diamondback newspaper “Letter: We’re Melissa Landa’s former students. She should still work at UMD,” expressing their dismay that I had been fired. They wrote, “Landa is our ally and was one of the best professors at this institution.”

Melissa Landa (far left) receiving the Exceptional Scholarship Award in the College of Education one month before she was fired.

Varda Epstein: Your lawsuit speaks of religious discrimination. You claim wrongful termination as a kind of retaliation for expressing your Jewish beliefs and affiliations. But this isn’t about Jewish observance, for instance, not being allowed to keep kosher, or avoid working on Shabbat, right? How do you see what has happened as an abrogation of your religious rights?

Melissa Landa: Zionism is part and parcel of my Jewish identity. While I do keep a kosher home, I also express my Judaism by supporting and defending Israel. In addition, there was also the more typical kind of religious discrimination in that I was singled out and treated very differently than my non-Jewish peers when I arranged to miss some classes in order to observe Passover.

Varda Epstein: What happens next? Do you have options? What would you like to see happen?

Melissa Landa: The University of Maryland either submits a response to our complaint or offers to settle out of court.

Modern antisemitism sounds a lot like Dark Ages antisemitism

From the Chicago Tribune, October 6, 1899:

I was struck by by the examples that the 19th century writer used to describe the "old" antisemitism.

Jews commonly believed to murder infants?

Jews poisoning the wells?

Jews bewitching cattle?

Jews embracing witchcraft and sorcery?

And it isn't just Muslims. After all, "progressive" NGOs like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch as well as the UN routinely claim that Israel targets children, that Israel dumps chemicals on Palestinian lands, and that Israeli high tech - today's equivalent to magic - is used to oppress and kill Palestinians.

It is striking to look through the 19th century lens of how modernity should have banished antisemitism - and to realize that still nothing has changed by the 21st century.

01/19 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: The real lesson of the Texas synagogue attack; Antisemitic tropes cited by the Texas synagogue hostage-taker have deep roots

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The real lesson of the Texas synagogue attack

Akram told the hostages that he chose Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas because it was the closest synagogue to the prison where Siddiqui is being held. As for the reason he chose to target a synagogue at all, that’s not hard to work out — once you know where to look.

According to a tweet by NBC News reporter Tom Winter:
The hostage-taker at the synagogue in Texas had the rabbi call a different rabbi in New York City. The purpose of the call was to again demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui.

That’s because Akram believed that the Jews control American politics. It would therefore follow, in his mind, that rabbis would form a nexus of power over governments and can tell them what to do. So, force a rabbi to call a more influential rabbi, and hey presto — Siddiqui would be released.

He would believe that because the boilerplate antisemitic delusion that the Jews control the west is a commonplace throughout the Muslim world. Indeed, every antisemitic trope under the sun — demonising the apparently all-powerful Jews as an evil conspiracy to harm the rest of the world in their own interests — is generally believed as fact in Muslim societies. To them, the west dances on the strings of its Jewish puppet-masters.

The Muslim world is therefore in the grip of an obsessional and delusional paranoia about the Jews. It is essential to understand this, and the consequences that follow. Very few people do.

Antisemitism is absolutely central to Islamic radicalisation and extremism. Aafia Siddiqui was far from alone when she came out with her deranged Jewish conspiracy theories. Numerous Islamist terrorists have made it crystal clear that, in attacking the west, their most fundamental target is the Jews. At war against modernity, they believe that behind modernity stand the Jews — who they think are behind everything in the world that the Islamists have decided is bad.

Inciting hatred against the Jews therefore acts as a recruitment tool for the jihad against the west. Painting the Jews literally as devils incites a frenzy of murderous paranoia. Which is why such a disproportionate number of Islamist attacks single out Jewish targets.

WaPo($): Antisemitic tropes cited by the Texas synagogue hostage-taker have deep roots

Malik Faisal Akram’s decision to take four hostages at a Texas synagogue left many wondering: Why Colleyville? Why the Beth Israel Congregation?

The 44-year-old British citizen chose the small, tightknit congregation, according to his hostages and those who heard him on the live stream of Saturday services, because he saw it as the closest gathering of Jewish people to a federal facility in Fort Worth where a convicted terrorist was being held.

Akram wanted the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman serving an 86-year sentence in federal prison in Fort Worth for trying to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. And he apparently thought the Jewish worshipers assembled for the Sabbath could make that happen — drawing upon centuries-old antisemitic tropes and conspiracies that Jews secretly control the moves of politicians and manipulate world events to their advantage.

Akram told the assembled that he chose to attack a synagogue because “America only cares about Jewish lives,” according to Beth Israel member Stacey Silverman, who viewed the online Shabbat service.

“He even said at one point that ‘I’m coming to you because I know President Biden will do things for the Jews. I know President Trump will do things for the Jews,’ ” Jeffrey Cohen, one of the hostages, told CNN. Akram “came here, he came to us, he terrorized us, because he believed … these antisemitic tropes that the Jews control everything, and if I go to the Jews, they can pull the strings,” Cohen said.

Experts have long said the pervasiveness of such antisemitic beliefs in society can fuel violence against Jewish people.

“It’s a variation on a classic antisemitic theme,” said David Feldman, director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, a research institution based in London. “Whereas these ideas about Jewish conspiracy often take shape as an idea of Jews exerting power … [to] advance their own interests, this is a sort of variation on the theme — that if you can only get the Jews to work for you, then you’ll get your way.”

The idea has deep historical roots, Feldman said, from the Middle Ages — “where you get this idea that Jews are in league with the devil” — to the 1900s, when the conspiracy theory that Jews have too much power “was revivified and transformed … with the idea that the Russian Revolution, Bolshevism and communism was itself an expression of a Jewish plot for world domination.”

Feldman added that it “spread further, beyond Christian lands, to the Middle East, probably taken to the Ottoman Empire by French Catholics in the 19th century.”

WaPo($): Jewish worship in America should not involve routine fear

Modern antisemitism is a varied phenomenon. But all its forms are premised on the fear and hatred of outsiders. Islamist radicals, white supremacists and leftist activists seek to overcome the dangers of a foreign faith, held by a foreign people, possessed by a foreign agenda. In the Jewish homeland, this hostility is periodically expressed by Hamas rockets. In Crown Heights, Brooklyn, it took (and takes) the form of random, vicious assaults. In Pittsburgh in 2018, it caused so much death at the Tree of Life. In Colleyville, it arrived in an 11-hour synagogue standoff. In every case, Jews have been the entity on which non-Jews project their anger, resentments, fears and venom.

Any adequate response to antisemitism begins with the concerted response of a wounded community. This involves condemnation of antisemitism by social and religious leaders, and immediate comfort for its victims. Here Colleyville has made a start. The public cooperation and shared prayers of Muslim, Jewish, Catholic and evangelical religious figures can have an influence beyond anything they expect or intend. It is more powerful to demonstrate social healing than to call for it. It is more important to model mutual grace than to urge it. Human beings are drawn toward embodied virtues.

Confronting antisemitism is a public cause that begins in the moral and personal realm. It is our ethical duty to confront and marginalize antisemitic tropes. And this is always more effective when we police our own traditions. Liberals have more credibility when they oppose academic antisemitism. Conservatives have better standing to criticize the hard right when it enters the antisemitic fever swamps. The same is true when Christians confront antisemitism among Christians and Muslims oppose antisemitism among Muslims.

None of this is a substitute for the effective pursuit and prosecution of terrorists. And it makes perfect sense, as the Anti-Defamation League has urged, to double funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which helps bolster security at Jewish schools and houses of worship. Synagogues such as the one down my street deserve all the security that planning and preparation can provide.

But we should not accept the presence of guards and traffic barriers at synagogues as somehow normal or acceptable. It is not. It is a scandal of the first order when religious worship in America involves routine fear.

Pallywood in Sheikh Jarrah (update)

This morning, Israel demolished two homes in Sheikh Jarrah that had been illegally built in the 1990s - to build a special needs school and kindergarten for Arab residents.

People started publishing a photo from the scene, showing a forlorn schoolbag and books.

A photo was found of Arab Jerusalem activist Muhammad Abu al-Hames - with the props.

You can see him with the schoolbag,a bulletin board and bags of other materials.

Here's a closeup of the bulletin board in the debris that you can see matches what al-Hames has in pristine, clean condition.

(h/t Abu Ali Express)

UPDATE: More of the bulletin board. Note how it was cleaner with al-Hames then when it was in the rubble, so he didn't "save" it.

When Israel declared six PFLP-linked NGOs to be terrorist organizations, the media was uniformly dismissive that there was any evidence to the charges. It highlighted European skepticism about the accusation.

What hasn't been reported is that the EU has quietly restricted funding to two of the organizations while waiting for more information.

According to this December 17 European Parliament question by the Socialists & Democrats Group:

On 22 October 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defence declared six Palestinian non‑governmental organisations (NGOs) – Al‑Haq, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, the Addameer Institute, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defence for Children International and the Union of Agricultural Works Committees – as terrorist organisations under the 2016 Counterterrorism Law, based on still unsubstantiated accusations of links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The Commission has suspended EU funding to al‑Haq and has instructed Oxfam to cut funding to the Union of Agricultural Works Committees until the situation has been clarified.

It sounds like the EU has found Israel's preliminary evidence a little more compelling than has been reported.

Significantly, this all happened weeks before the Dutch government decided to stop funding the Union of Agricultural Works Committees.

These decisions might yet be reversed. There is tremendous pressure from "human rights" NGOs to paint Israel's decision as merely a means to silence criticism.

That charge is antisemitic. It tries to paint the Jewish state as a dictatorship that restricts free speech and criminalizes criticism. There are hundreds of other NGOs, not to mention Palestinian media outlets, freely criticising Israel every hour of every day. Israel would be idiotic to think that shutting down six NGOs - whose links to the PFLP are beyond question - would stop criticism.

Meanwhile, the six NGOs hired a lawyer to write to the Israeli government to request the evidence gathered against them. They published the response that was sent on January 2:

Subject: Request to Receive Materials of the Declaration of Unlawful Associations
Your letter dated 16 December 2021

1. I would hereby like to respond to your request made in the letter dated 16 December 2021.

2. Following your request, I would like to inform you that the unclassified information underlying the decision to declare your clients as unlawful associations can be found in office of the Legal Advisor to the Region of Judea and Samaria located in the Judea and Samaria Division near the town of Beit El. You may coordinate contact with the undersigned on the telephone number: 02-9977711.

3. Needless to say, this is only the unclassified information underlying the declarations. The core of the declarations is based on classified, crosschecked and reliable intelligence that indicates that your clients operate on behalf of the terrorist organization, the "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine" and are essentially arms of the terrorist organization, which cannot be revealed for fear of threatening national security.

4. As for your request for an extension of time for filing an objection against the said declarations, and for your request for an extension received already on 11 November 2021, I would like to inform you that the IDF Commander in the Judea and Samaria agreed to extend the deadline for filing an objection against the declarations until 18 January 2022.

I do not know if these objections were filed by yesterday.

(h/t Gerald)

Palestinian media quote Israel's Kan network saying that an Israeli bus driver was injured on Tuesday evening when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at her near the village of Al-Tur in Jerusalem.

There are an average of three such Molotov cocktail attacks every day in Israel, but since most of them do not result in serious injury, no one seems to care.

Even though they are firebombs.

According to the Shin Bet, there were 124 firebombs in October, 94 in November and 107 in December.

Also in December were 11 pipe bombs, 6 cases of small arms fire, 2 car rammings and 5 stabbings.

Palestinians try to kill Jews every single day. Just because Israel has gotten better at minimizing casualties doesn't mean that the terrorists aren't still trying.

01/18 Links Pt2: Emily Schrader: BDS is a colonialist movement; It's Time for Palestinians to Embrace Dr. King's Nonviolent Resistance; AP reporter admits covering up for Arafat

From Ian:

Emily Schrader: BDS is a colonialist movement

It’s no news that the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement is deeply problematic. To its very foundations, it is enormously hypocritical and largely ineffective. In the few instances it actually was successful, it was deeply damaging to the livelihoods of Palestinians and the targets of the campaigns, such as the musicians and artists participating in the recent Sydney Festival.

While the movement self-identifies as a progressive human rights cause which is non-violent, in fact, its goals, as stated by co-founder Omar Barghouti, are to destroy the State of Israel. The movement has also given cover to terrorist organizations to carry out their activities and fundraising under the name of a non-violent social movement.

In interviews over the years, Barghouti has admitted increasingly more of what both he and the BDS actually stand for – and it’s nothing progressive.

In an interview this month with French network Paroles D’Honneur, Barghouti reiterated that BDS is unequivocally against any form of “normalization” – meaning it is against the existence of the State of Israel altogether. “We will not accept it [Israel] as a normal part of the region, of Arab culture,” he explained.

More interestingly, however, Barghouti explained at length how BDS has been successful in unifying Palestinians against colonialism and demanding the right of return – adding that this has also become consensus among progressive groups and activists abroad as well. The irony, of course, is that his movement is promoting colonialism that erases the heritage of millions of people in the Middle East.

Barghouti stated explicitly that Arab culture is diverse and includes Imazighen, Kurds, Armenians, Jews and others. “Jewish culture is part of Arab culture,” he claims, but he seems to have forgotten that it includes those groups because Arabs colonized them, and in many cases brutally oppressed them, erasing their history, language and culture. Barghouti speaks with the language of a colonizer while decrying colonialism and accusing others of doing what he does.

Bassem Eid: It's Time for Palestinians to Embrace Dr. King's Nonviolent Resistance

Meanwhile, the feckless Palestinian leadership has rejected this vision for decades, to the detriment of our people. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is currently led by a president who just celebrated the 17th anniversary of his election to a four-year term. Rather than use his position to improve life for ordinary Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas has spent his nearly two decades in office enriching his cronies. He has blocked fair elections, hindered peace with Israel, and done nothing to create jobs and opportunity in the West Bank. Things are even worse in Gaza, where a terrorist group runs the show and economic opportunity is nonexistent.

Nobody wants to see change in the West Bank and Gaza more than I do. Back when I started the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group in 1996, I sought to follow Dr. King's example by shining a light on the inequities faced by Palestinians. And there is no doubt that Israel bears some of the fault for those inequities.

But Palestinian leaders like Abbas have made clear that their politics come far before any efforts to build bridges between Israelis in Palestinians. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the PA withdrew from a deal with Israel that would have put safe, effective vaccines in the arms of thousands of West Bank residents. Sadly, this is just one example of the PA placing its hatred for Israel before the needs of our people.

In his "Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend," Dr. King referred to Israel as "one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy." If Palestinian leaders truly seek to make life better for our people, they should follow the example of Dr. Martin Luther King and build a society rooted in diversity, equality, freedom, and opportunity—as Israel has done.

Jews, Muslims can walk a common path – Martin Luther King showed us how

In 1957, at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered words whose wisdom continues to resound today: “For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.”

When a weekend meant to commemorate Dr. King was shattered by the hostage-taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, we called upon each other as longtime friends and colleagues to find a better path forward for our respective communities. We feared that hate could disrupt the relationship that we had long shared and held dear.

Because the hostage-taker was a Muslim man apparently intent on freeing a Muslim woman convicted on terrorism charges, opportunists are already hard at work exploiting our trauma in order to pit Muslims and Jews against each other. In the spirit of Dr. King, equally embodied in the tireless bridge-building of Rabbi Charles Cytron-Walker of Congregation Beth Israel, we feel called to explore a new blueprint for how we can resist the temptation to allow hate to beget hate. This is but an initial sketch, no doubt with much input needed from lay leaders and clergy from across the Muslim and Jewish communities.

First, we need to change the story. Extremists are of no faith tradition but their own: extremism. We need to stop framing the conversation as a community against community, so much as Muslims and Jews together against a common enemy. We need to call out and sideline extremists, leaving them isolated in their own camp. To that end, we suggest reflecting on the hostage-taker at Beth Israel as an extremist from the United Kingdom with heinous goals unbefitting any faith.

Second, we need to tirelessly build bridges among the rest of us. We are all feeling isolated after two years of the pandemic. We need to go out of our way to call friends, neighbors and relatives across lines of faith just to reaffirm the significance of relationships. Today, in the wake of Saturday’s trauma, Muslims should call their Jewish friends. Tomorrow, unfortunately, in a world brimming with hate, it may need to be the other way around. The rest of the time, both should call — and call upon — each other.

By Daled Amos

Raisi said the general [Qassem Soleimani] never feared the US even as he was fully aware of its military power, “and believed from the depths of his soul that America can’t do a damn thing against us.”
Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi, quoted in Aljazeera

Soleimani's admitted underestimation of the ability, and willingness, of the US to terminate him might be matched by the overestimation of just how popular Soleimani himself was during his life -- and now that he is dead.

Iran, of course, insists that the general was a hero beloved by his country and has declared its commitment to seeing Trump and others in his former administration brought to justice. Back in 2020 and then each year on the anniversary of Soleimani's death on January 3, Iran turns to Interpol with a request to issue a "red notice" that would make it possible for local law enforcement in the US to arrest Trump on Iran's behalf. Red notices, however, cannot force an arrest nor an extradition -- and besides, according to their policy Interpol does not get involved in issues of a political or military nature.

Iran has not stopped there. It has also called on both the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to issue resolutions against the US.

But looking at the reaction to Soleimani's death demonstrates just how hated Soleimani -- and Iran -- are in the Arab world.

An article on the website of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace notes that though Soleimani was killed at 1 o'clock in the morning in Baghdad, by 4:30am there was already a group of Iraqis running through the streets there celebrating his death. He was considered responsible for the 500 deaths of protestors against Iranian involvement in Iraqi corruption and mismanagement.

The celebrations went beyond Iraq, extending to the Persian Gulf, and parts of Syria and Lebanon where

People danced in the streets, handed out sweets, and bought cakes to celebrate the death of the man who was, to all intents and purposes, the long arm of the Iranian revolutionary regime.

According to the Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad, Soleimani was not all that loved by the Iranian people either:

One indication that she is right is that one of the statues that was erected to honor Soleimani in Shahre-Kord in Iran was set on fire hours later:

Nor was that an isolated incident:

In September 2021, police arrested a man for torching another statue of Soleimani in the southwestern city of Yasuj, not very far from Shahrekord.

A few months before that, three young men in the city of Baneh were sentenced to a total of 16 years and seven months in prison for setting fire to a banner of Soleimani.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad attended various memorials for Soleimani and praised him for his support -- and put up some banners and posters of their own. Considering the ties between Hamas and Iran, this is to be expected.

On the other hand...

Among the fierce critics of these ties is Majdi Al-Mughrabi, a Salafi sheikh from Rafah. Like last year, he defied Hamas by calling on the people of Gaza to tear down the posters of Soleimani.

Last year, some Gazans actually did tear down some poster of Soleimani, and Al-Mughrabi responded:

Praise Allah, some Muslim youths, clean of hands and pure of heart, tore down several pictures of the dead warmonger and criminal Soleimani, after biased mercenaries put them up in some of Gaza's squares…

Here is Al-Mughrabi responding to Muhammad Al-Buraim, a spokesperson for the Popular Resistance Committees, who praised Soleimani:

What resistance are these mercenaries speaking about?! Resistance [carried out] by smuggling and by expelling, murdering and imprisoning the Syrian people? Or by destroying homes over the heads of unarmed women, children and elders? When he could no longer [continue these actions in Syria, Soleimani] brought the Russian infidels into [the country]. Or perhaps they are talking about similar actions carried out in Iraq, which has been butchered, in Yemen, which has been plundered and destroyed, or in Lebanon?!

Nor did opposition in Gaza to Soleimani only spring up after his death. In 2017, in reaction to Hamas leader Yahya Al Sinwar praising Soleimani, Dr. Ibrahim Hamami, a Palestinian journalist residing in London responded:

Does Mr. Al-Sinwar, who claims that Soleimani loves Palestine, know how many Muslims and Arabs this criminal has murdered since 2012 in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon? Palestine will never be liberated by people like the criminal Soleimani. We say: Palestine loathes, hates, and curses Soleimani, and may we earn the right to see Allah do justice unto him. [Oh Al-Sinwar], if only you would shut up!

According to Jordanian journalist Luqman Iskandar, whose articles have been cited in Hamas-affiliated websites:

According to our ideology, in whose defense Hamas martyrs are killed, a Muslim does not forge an alliance with the murderers of Muslims to overcome other murderers. Distinguishing between [primary and secondary] enemies is one thing, but forging an alliance with the enemy and courting him is another… [But] the worst thing Al-Sinwar is doing is [inflicting] damage on the nation's consciousness and intensifying internal division. From what lair has this person emerged to court the murderer of our children?

There were other Palestinian Arab leaders and journalists who came out against Soleimani back then -- and, of course, many who defended Hamas ties both to him and to Iran. The fact that Hamas has only increased its ties to Iran speaks for itself.

Basically, the Hamas leadership is not much different than Arafat, who during the first Gulf War was one of the very few Arab leaders to publicly support Saddam Hussein.

As for the Arab world in general, Khaled Abu Toameh wrote about a recent poll:

Syrian-born TV host Faisal Al-Kasim recently asked his 5.9 million followers on Twitter the following: "Which is better, Israel's reputation or Iran's reputation in the [Middle East] region?" The result of the poll showed that 74.8% viewed Israel as having a better reputation as opposed to 25.2% in favor of Iran. [emphasis added]

Al-Kasim didn't stop there:

The next day, Al-Kasim, who hosts a popular debate show on the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera network called The Opposite Direction, conducted another survey on Twitter. This time, he asked his followers: "Do you support the Israeli bombing of Iran and its militias in Syria?"

According to the results of the poll, 77.8% said they supported the Israeli military strikes, while only 22.2% voiced opposition. [emphasis added]

For all their posters and statues, Iran cannot alter the fact that Soleimani is despised in the Arab world.
Just like they are.

01/18 Links Pt1: Watchdog Sues Biden Admin Over Funding for Palestinian Government; Deborah Lipstadt: Being Jewish Today Means Training for Active Shooters

From Ian:

Watchdog Sues Biden Admin Over Funding for Palestinian Government

A watchdog group is suing the Biden administration for refusing to turn over internal documents that could show it violated a bipartisan law banning the federal government from sending money to the Palestinian government until it stops using these funds to pay terrorists.

Protect the Public's Trust (PPT), a watchdog group comprised of former government officials, is accusing the State Department of stonewalling its Freedom of Information Act request for all internal documents and communications related to the administration's decision last year to unfreeze U.S. aid to the Palestinian government. Taxpayer funds for the Palestinian Authority were stopped under former president Donald Trump due to that government's ongoing support for terrorism.

The lawsuit, a copy of which was exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, says the State Department sat on PPT's FOIA request for more than 240 days, well past the statutory period in which federal agencies like the State Department must provide the requested information. The State Department says it will not be able to turn over the relevant information until at least Dec. 16.

The information in question could show the Biden administration resumed Palestinian aid in violation of a law known as the Taylor Force Act, a 2018 bipartisan piece of legislation that bars the federal government from providing taxpayer aid to the Palestinian government as long as it continues a policy known as "pay to slay," in which aid dollars are used to pay terrorists and their families. The Palestinian Authority continues to make these payments, generating concerns from lawmakers and watchdog groups like PPT that the Biden administration violated the law.

"The American public deserves transparency around this decision, which may not only be in violation of the law but could potentially result in increased danger for U.S. citizens and their allies," Michael Chamberlain, PPT's director, told the Free Beacon. "But the State Department has yet to even give an estimate for when we will receive records, much less provide any."

Texas Synagogue Hostage Crisis: A Case Study in Downplaying Antisemitism

So, you can’t really blame some Jews for being perturbed at the FBI, recently charged with keeping an eye on “domestic terrorists” who challenge school-board members, for initially contending that the Texas synagogue attack was “not specifically related to the Jewish community.” Or, our suddenly judicious president, who only last week was smearing anyone who refused to support his power grab as a white supremacist, for now saying, “I don’t think there is sufficient information to know about why he targeted that synagogue or why he insisted on the release of someone who’s been in prison for over 10 years, why he was engaged — why he was using antisemitic and anti-Israeli comments. I — we just don’t have enough facts.”

Being vigilant is fine. In fact, it would serve the nation better if law enforcement, media, and politicians always took their time assessing these events before placing blame. This cautious approach, however, seems reserved for certain politically inconvenient crimes. Everyone knows well what will happen the next time a white male commits anything resembling a politically motivated act. The media still seem to think every conservative is somehow culpable for January 6, while liberals will never be asked to answer for the terrorist who attempted to massacre the entire Republican leadership on June 14, 2017, or for the widespread rioting of 2020.

As Batya Ungar-Sargon pointed out today on HillTV, there is no need to get hysterical about every anti-Jewish incident, as Jews in the United States are still the luckiest Jews in history — safer, freer, and better off, than at any time. That, however, goes for everyone who lives here. As Ungar-Sargon also notes, it is unreasonable to diminish the presence of anti-Jewish behavior to protect “marginalized” groups. Antisemitism is quite popular in the Islamic world. Forget the Middle East, where Pew found near unanimity among national populations on the Jewish question; look at allegedly liberal Europe. As one recent EU study found, among the most serious incidents of antisemitism in the European Union, 31 percent include someone the victim did not know, but 30 percent were perpetrated by someone with extremist Muslim views; 21 percent with someone who held left-wing political views; 16 percent by a colleague from work or school; 15 percent by an acquaintance or friend; and 13 percent by someone with known right-wing views.

And, in the historic harmony of American life, there are more anti-Jewish crimes perpetrated than all the other religiously motivated crimes combined — often at the hands of other minority groups. The habit of downplaying this kind of antisemitism, or appropriating it for partisanship, is a dangerous game.

Deborah Lipstadt: Being Jewish Today Means Training for Active Shooters

We are shaken. We are not OK. But we will bounce back. We are resilient because we cannot afford not to be. That resiliency is part of the Jewish DNA. Without it, we would have disappeared centuries ago. We refuse to go away. But we are exhausted.

Rabbi Cytron-Walker credited his survival to the active-shooter training and security courses that he and his congregants took in order to prepare for just such a moment. He knew to stay calm and knew the right moment to fling a chair at his captor and dash for the exit with the other captives. The Jewish community offers such training on a regular basis to an array of Jewish institutions, especially to our synagogues and our schools.

It is not radical to say that going to services, whether to converse with God or with the neighbors you see only once a week, should not be an act of courage. And yet this weekend we were once again reminded that it can be precisely that.

Among those morning blessings that are part of Blessings of the Dawn is one that thanks God for opening up the eyes of the blind. Jewish eyes did not need to be opened. But this week we wonder if the eyes of our non-Jewish friends and neighbors, particularly the ones who didn’t call to see if we were OK, have been opened just a bit.

There is an additional blessing during these early prayers that thanks God for allowing us to stand tall and straight. We are standing tall and we are standing straight.

But we are checking for the exits.

Just beautiful.

The (Orthodox) Rabbinical Council of America (@RCArabbinical) letter to (Reform) #Colleville Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker (@URJorg) ends with the traditional prayer of Jewish Peoplehood and Unity.

H/t my incredible (@UJAfedNY) brother @rabbicreditor! pic.twitter.com/Ms91dR8gFi
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) January 18, 2022

Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner - the Warner Brothers

Rolling Stone covers the controversy around the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures erasing Jews out of the history of Hollywood.

On Sept. 25, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures held its opening gala with a starry guest list that included Lady Gaga, Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Queen Latifah, Patty Jenkins, Tiffany Haddish, Kristen Stewart, and Jurnee Smollet. ..... Donors and influential Academy members, many of whom already had received private tours, were outraged that Hollywood’s origin story — wherein a group of mostly Jewish émigrés fled persecution in their home countries to create what would become a multibillion-dollar, American-led industry — was conspicuously absent.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, who was on hand for the gala, was immediately struck by the lapse. “I would’ve hoped that any honest historical assessment of the motion picture industry — its origins, its development, its growth — would include the role that Jews played in building the industry from the ground up,” he says. “As I walked through, I literally turned to the person I was there with and said to him, ‘Where are the Jews?’ The omission was glaring.”

That sentiment is being echoed from Hollywood’s C-suites to the halls of academia. “It’s sort of like building a museum dedicated to Renaissance painting, and ignoring the Italians,” says Hollywood historian and Brandeis University professor Thomas Doherty. “That generation of early moguls — Carl Laemmle, Jack Warner, we know all their names — is a terrific story of upward mobility, living the American dream. It’s one of the great contributions of American Jews to American culture.”

Behind the scenes, a full revolt was afoot, sources say, with some patrons threatening to pull future support for the institution. Says one prominent Academy member who declined to be named: “You left the museum with the impression that the film industry was created 10 years ago. They erased the past. And I find it appalling.”

How did this happen? The details show how "wokeism" is in fact antisemitic.

Sources say a small contingent of influential Academy members pushed hard for nonwhite cinema to be highlighted and white contributions to be de-emphasized. A review of the exhibits would seem to support this notion. Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, for example, received a retrospective, while there was no similar treatment for the genre’s godfather, Walt Disney.

The relative obscurity of others spotlighted, such as Ethiopian director Haile Gerima, who received the museum’s first Vanguard Award, left some patrons scratching their heads.

If identity was a priority in programming, Jewish identity apparently was not. There is scant mention of Jewish trailblazers.

A source who is familiar with programming decisions says it was a battle no one was willing to fight, even if that meant a skewed overview of cinema history: “A lot of people who might have fought harder for the representation of Jews were just really laying low,” says the source.

The museum will try to make up for this with a future, permanent exhibition highlighting Hollywood's history (that wasn't originally intended to be permanent.) But the damage has been done.

“By not including the founding fathers out of the gate, they were making a massive statement,” says Triller co-founder and Academy member Ryan Kavanaugh. “As the grandson of Holocaust survivors, it’s just shocking that they erased the contributions of a group who faced severe anti-Semitism — they couldn’t get bank loans, they couldn’t own homes in L.A., and yet they still created this industry that is the bedrock of the L.A. economy and touches people around the world. Instead of, ‘Look at what what they were able to do,’ it’s just wiped out. It goes against everything that our industry says they stand for.”

Hollywood was built by Jews who were marginalized by society which forced them to create an entire new industry. Now, the small but loud bullies who dominate the woke, intersectional conversation decided that Jews should be marginalized again.

It is wonderful to highlight the contributions of minorities to motion pictures. It is antisemitic to airbrush out the Jews who created the entire industry.

(h/t Brad)

I read the news today, oh boy. 4000 potential jihadists in Blackburn, Lancashire.

Malik Faisal Akram, the Texas synagogue terrorist, lived in Blackburn, England.

How many other potential jihadists might be there?

Studies have shown that Muslims in Britain are far more antisemitic than the larger population. Only 32% of British Muslims have a positive view towards Jews, as opposed to 74% of the entire British population.

What about extremist antisemitic attitudes? A 2017 study shows that 8% of British Muslims believe the Holocaust is a myth, as opposed to about 2% of the general British population.

Akram identified as a Deobandi Muslim, one of the most extreme Islamist groups in Britain. He is also a member of Tablighi Jamaat, an extremist Muslim movement popular in Pakistan.

11% of all British Muslims identify as Salafis, Barelvi or Deobandi Muslims, the three most extreme groups there. This roughly tracks with the percentage of British Muslims, 13%, who said that in at least some circumstances, Muslims who leave the religion should get the death penalty.

As of 2017, 30.9% of all residents in Blackburn were Muslim - about 46,000. Blackburn has the second highest population of Muslims in England, second only to London, and from all indications it is far more extremist than the larger Muslim population. White men fear entering sections of town they call "no-go" areas, and extremist literature is easily found in bookstores there. Blackburn is considered the global hub for Deobandis and members of the Tablighi Jamaat. The Central Masjid of Blackburn is openly associated with Tablighi Jamaat. It has a booklet discouraging women from praying in mosques. The Blackburn Markaz mosque attracts over a thousand people every Thursday night.

Remember the convoy of cars in London last May where they shouted out, "'Fuck the Jews... Fuck all of them. Fuck their mothers, fuck their daughters and show your support for Palestine. Rape their daughters and we have to send a message like that. Please do it for the poor children in Gaza."? The four arrested for that incident are from Blackburn.

From all indications, Blackburn's Muslims are more extremist than those in Britain as a whole. If 20% of them are extremists (and it seems that in Blackburn, that is a conservative estimate) that would be about 10,000 in Blackburn alone. This includes women, children and the elderly, so while the number of extremists who could become jihadists in Blackburn might not quite reach the number of holes counted in the Beatles' song, it might be close to that figure of 4000.

This week is the third annual #ShukranDruze week, when we thank the Druze community in Israel for their outstanding and essential contributions to society.

The Druze community is said to descend from the Biblical Yitro (Jethro) and the annual thanksgiving coincides with then Jews read his story in the weekly Torah portion.

The DruzeVets website summarizes how important the Druze community has been to Israel:

Valiant. Loyal. Fearless. They defend Israel daily – they deserve our thanks.

The Druze of Israel are a tiny yet fiercely loyal minority who serve with pride and dignity and have sacrificed 505 of their brethren in the defense of Israel – with over 1,500 wounded. Out of a community of just 120,000 those are huge, unfortunate, and very telling numbers.

Most of Israel’s friends around the globe do not know about the Druze community and its special relationship with the State of Israel. This recognition is long overdue, and it is the reason for the creation of the Global Week of Hakarat Hatov – #ShukranDruze.

Since even before the modern State of Israel was established, members of the Druze community have been serving proudly alongside Jews as soldiers, as first responders, and in all of the other arms of Israel’s security establishment.

In 2014, when Jews were being massacred during their prayers at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood, it was an off-duty Druze police officer who ran in to stop the terrorist.
When Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in 2014 to curb terrorism from Gaza, a Druze commander led the ground battle.
In 2017, two Israeli police officers were killed while defending tourists on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Both officers were Druze.
Israel’s Presidential Military Liaison is Druze.
The commander responsible for cross-border goodwill with Gaza is Druze.
The Surgeon General of the Israel Defense Forces is Druze.
Many other senior leaders in Israel’s security and judiciary infrastructure, past and present, are Druze.

Shukran means "thank you" in Arabic, the Druze language. "Hakarat HaTov" is the Jewish attribute of recognizing those who help us and to thank them.

The pro-Druze community asks you to post to social media this week, ask your rabbi to craft a sermon around this theme, request a school assembly on the theme of Hakarat HaTov with the Druze as an example, or do other simple things to show our appreciation for the Druze community in Israel that has contributed so much.

The State Department didn't deny Israeli natural gas will go to Lebanon

Israeli media reported:

Israel has signed an agreement to indirectly pump natural gas to Lebanon to aid the crisis-hit nation, an unsourced television report claimed on Saturday.

Channel 12 news reported that the deal was brokered by Amos Hochstein, Washington’s special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs, and signed in secret over the weekend.

It will see Israel transfer gas from the offshore Leviathan field to Jordan, the report said. From there it will be transferred to Syria and on to Lebanon.

However, the network said, the move will require repairing and extending a gas line that flows from Syria to Lebanon, which could take several years.

The agreement was approved by the United States and was also coordinated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the report.

Since this sort of thing makes Arabs who hate Israel go crazy, the US State Department tweeted a denial - that wasn't a denial.

Naharnet adds:

The Lebanese Ministry of Energy affirmed, for its part, that the natural gas is Egyptian, denying the media reports as well.

The natural gas from Egypt will be used to generate electrical power to the Lebanese who are currently living with only few hours of state electricity a day and are obliged to pay increasing hefty bills to private generator operators, which also depend on diesel fuel.

The deal would not have been between Israel and Lebanon - it would have been between Israel and Jordan (or Egypt) and then between Jordan (or Egypt) and Lebanon.

Israel already sells natural gas to both Egypt and Jordan. Does no one believe that some of the gas that goes to Egypt will end up in Lebanon?