Seeking Jerusalem
The prophets command that the Jewish People constantly seek Jerusalem. "This is Zion, whose welfare is sought by none" laments Jeremiah (30:17). "From here we learn the obligation of 'derisha', of seeking the welfare of Jerusalem," teaches the Talmud.Lahav Harkov: Poland cannot silence Noa Kirel, or any Israelis, about the Holocaust
Even today, as fortunate guardians of the restored capital of the Jewish people under Israeli sovereignty, there is a great deal of "derisha," seeking, to be done.
Firstly, Israelis and Jews everywhere must pay more attention to Jerusalem. To be more involved, to care, to build and develop, never to take for granted. To visit. An astonishingly sad fifty percent of young Israelis visit the national capital for their first time only when drafted into the IDF!
Outside of the primary schools and the Bnei Akiva Religious-Zionist youth movement not too many Israelis last week took note of Jerusalem Day, missing an opportunity to step forward and rediscover Israel's historic national lodestone.
It is time to make Jerusalem Day a formal civic holiday, like Independence Day.
"Derisha" also means imposition of a moral obligation, the requirement to live up to a certain heavenly standard that is implicit in the city of peace. "For Zion shall be redeemed in justice, and her returnees in charity – this is what God seeks of you" (Isaiah 1:27).
It must be asked: Are Israelis/Jews sensitive enough in Jerusalem to the plight of the poor, the unemployed, the orphan, the battered woman, the new immigrant, and the minority resident? Is Israel's justice system sufficiently suffused with knowledge of Jewish values alongside democratic norms?
Seeking Jerusalem also means ruling the city wisely. This involves curbing the activities of radical Islamic and hostile nationalist forces in Jerusalem, investing significantly to generously advance and integrate the eastern (mostly Arab) sectors of the city, expanding the geographical boundaries of the city to build at least 100,000 new homes for young couples, expanding the business base of the city, and cleaning it up.
Instead of confronting this complexity, that while millions of non-Jewish Poles were killed in World War II and over 7,000 Poles are recognized as saving Jews there were still Polish collaborators with the Nazis and Poles who inflicted violence upon Jews in their midst, the Polish government wants to censor anyone who talks about it. Their bullying campaign includes pop singers, historians - like Jan Grabowski, who faces legal battles in Poland - and journalists.
The suppression and elision of pertinent historic details about the Holocaust is a form of Holocaust denial, even if Jablonski is not comfortable with the assertion. In fact, he responded to that assertion, made by this reporter on Twitter, by taking his Holocaust distortion even further, claiming that talking about the role of Poles in the Holocaust is “outrageous theories that Jews are somehow self-responsible for the Holocaust - because some Jewish individuals also collaborated.” No, the argument is not that Poles killed themselves; the argument is that large numbers of them took part in killing the Jews in their midst.
Never go full Mahmoud Abbas if you don’t want to be accused of Holocaust denial.
What Warsaw doesn’t seem to realize is that, while the government may want to get diplomatic relations on track, and there is nothing wrong with that in theory, Cohen did not sign a censorship agreement.
Jablonski tweeted that he is optimistic that relations with Israel and Poland and Jews and Poland will grow stronger. That can only be the case if he does not seek to silence Israelis and Jews. Israelis are not ignorant or uneducated about the Holocaust and they’re not going to stop talking about what happened to our relatives in Poland, whether by the hand of the Nazis, which is statistically more likely to be the case, or by Poles, before, during or after Nazi occupation.
Rabbi Dee Considering $1.3 Billion Lawsuit Against CNN Over Amanpour Terror Coverage
Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and two daughters were murdered in a terror attack, is considering a $1.3 billion lawsuit against CNN over their international anchor Christiane Amanpour describing the terror attack as a “shootout.”SUCCESS: Amanpour Apologizes for ‘Shootout’ Comment after HonestReporting campaign
Dee made the announcement via video during a May 21 event at The Carlebach Shul in New York titled, “Antisemitism: Is There No Solution?” as part of the third annual Yoav Boteach Memorial Lecture series, in honor of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s late father. Dee was speaking alongside Boteach, Elisha Wiesel, chairman of the board of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, and Rabbi Naftali Citron. Media watchdog HonestReporting had reported that Amanpour had said during an April 10 interview with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, “We have a young 15-year-old Palestinian boy who’s been shot and killed by security — Israeli security forces. We also have the mother of two sisters, Israeli British sisters. They were — they were killed in a shootout, and now the mother has died of her injury — injuries.”
“A shootout is two sides firing at each other,” HonestReporting tweeted on May 11. “A mother & her two daughters were shot at close range by Palestinian terrorists. @amanpour, you owe a grieving family an apology.”
During the event, which was livestreamed on Boteach’s Facebook and Instagram pages, Dee showed attendees an email he received from Amanpour where she apologized to him, claiming she “misspoke.” Amanpour also offered her condolences and said there was no “ill intent” on her part. Dee responded with a lengthy email saying he did not accept her apology because she spread false information to millions of people and asked her to apologize publicly; he claimed to have received no reply from her.
“It’s funny, CNN will correct the misspelling of someone’s name publicly, as will The New York Times, but CNN won’t correct this,” Boteach told the Journal.
Dee then claimed to have received a call from CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Richard Allen Greene separately apologizing for Amanpour’s error. Dee asked Greene if he understood the difference between his family being murdered by Palestinian terrorists and Israeli forces neutralizing the threat of Palestinian terrorists. Dee alleged that Greene replied, “I am not in a position to make a judgment” due to his position as a journalist. Dee had previously been interviewed by CNN on-air in April, and the segment ended with CNN London Bureau Anchor Christina MacFarlane saying, “Just as we heard Rabbi Dee’s story, coming up we’ll hear similar stories from Palestinians.” Dee excoriated CNN for drawing a false “moral equivalency,” telling The Jewish Chronicle at the time: “There is no equivalent on the Israeli side. I don’t know of any Israeli terrorist who has murdered Palestinians in cold blood in almost 30 years.”
CNN’s top anchor Christiane Amanpour issued a public apology on her show on Monday for calling the murders of an Israeli mother and her daughters a “shootout,” following a 10-day campaign by HonestReporting that made waves around the world.
“On April 10, I referred to the murders of an Israeli family: Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee, the wife and daughters of Rabbi Leo Dee,” Amanpour said. “I misspoke and said they were killed in a ‘shootout’ instead of a shooting. I have written to Rabbi Leo Dee to apologize and make sure that he knows that we apologize for any further pain that may have caused him.”
On May 11, HonestReporting exposed an offensive throwaway comment by Amanpour during an interview with the Palestinian prime minister on her show the previous month.
According to Amanpour:
We have a young 15-year-old Palestinian boy who’s been shot and killed by security — Israeli security forces. We also have the mother of two sisters, Israeli British sisters. They were — they were killed in a shootout, and now the mother has died of her injury — injuries.
HonestReporting’s tweet calling for an apology, which included video footage of Amanpour saying that Lucy Dee and her daughters Maia and Rina “were killed in shootout,” has reached nearly a million views.
Upon seeing our expose, Lucy’s widower, Rabbi Leo Dee, issued a statement exclusively to HonestReporting, echoing our call for an immediate apology. That tweet has racked up a further 137,000 views, indicating significant public outrage at Amanpour and CNN.
HonestReporting contacted CNN to demand a public apology.
A spokesperson for CNN subsequently informed us that Amanpour had written privately to Rabbi Dee, who confirmed to us that he had, indeed, received an email expressing heartfelt condolences and apologizing for the pain that her words had caused.
SUCCESS: Following our campaign for a public apology, @CNN’s @amanpour says live on air: “I have written to Rabbi Leo Dee to apologize and make sure that he knows that we apologize for any further pain that may have caused him.”
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 22, 2023
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