Melanie Phillips: America’s electrifying counter-revolution
America is attempting to clean up its house. Europeans are burning theirs down.Exposed: Anti-Israel Group Under Fire for Using Name of Raphael Lemkin, Zionist Who Coined the Term Genocide
Within hours of his re-election as president of the United States, Donald Trump started the process of rolling back the influence of the left on American society.
In a series of uncompromising statements, Trump announced that he would reclaim the universities from “Marxist maniacs,” deport Hamas sympathizers and haters of America, and tear up the entire “climate change” agenda.
His picks for government positions have been no less uncompromising. One after another, his senior appointments have been of people who take absolutely no prisoners in their support for Israel, in their attachment to core Western values, including biblical faith, and in their commitment to uphold and defend America’s interests at home and abroad.
It’s an electrifying turnaround following four years of America’s defeatism, self-destruction and dumping on its allies. Israel is daring to wonder if, at long last, it might be allowed to win its war of survival and if, even more amazingly, an elusive peace might actually be brought to the whole region.
Others are more cautious, viewing Trump as the ultimate loose cannon and observing uneasily that a couple of his administration picks have controversial and even obnoxious records.
Nevertheless, his victory has given hope to those who have watched aghast as America has steadily immolated itself in the flames of cultural division, national self-hatred and unreason—the bonfire of Western identity and constitutional order that was lit and relentlessly stoked by the left.
In that process, the mainstream media have been active players by reflexively pushing the falsehoods and distortions of anti-American, anti-West and anti-Israel ideology.
Trump’s stunning victory was as much as anything an emphatic repudiation of those media outlets by millions of Americans who just aren’t buying it anymore and are instead getting their information—for good and ill—from X, podcasts and other social media.
Parts of the media appear to understand this and are also going in for some house cleaning. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, has announced that he will revamp his “very left” editorial board in order to include more conservative and centrist opinions in the paper.
And CNN is reportedly about to make sweeping layoffs, including some of its biggest stars, in a bid to save the network’s crashing reputation and ratings.
These are promising developments but will scarcely scratch the surface of the problem. The cultural malevolence in the “progressive” world, of which the media is its propaganda arm, is deeply ingrained and extends way beyond American politics.
Members of the family of Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer who coined the term “genocide” and pushed for the passage of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, say they are outraged that a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization is using the Lemkin name to pursue an agenda of extreme anti-Israel activism.Ben & Jerry’s sues Unilever for blocking ‘pro-Palestine’ action
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention was initially registered as a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation on Aug. 19, 2021, and won US federal tax-exempt recognition in September 2023. In recent months, it has veered into strident anti-Israel political advocacy, supporting anti-Israel campus protests and reaching millions of viewers with social media posts that falsely accuse Israel of genocide.
Less than one week after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, the institute released a “genocide alert” calling the onslaught an “unprecedented military operation against Israel” while decrying the Jewish state’s actions against Hamas as “genocide.” The Oct. 13 message came before Israeli launched its ground offensive in Gaza.
Then on Oct. 18, 2023, the Lemkin Institute called on the International Criminal Court “to indict Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the crime of #genocide in light of the siege and bombardment of #Gaza and the many expressions of genocidal intent.” The social media post accumulated 1.3 million views, according to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The institute’s vocal anti-Israel advocacy has continued unabated for the past year. In September, for example, it described Israel’s war against Lebanese Hezbollah as “terrorism” and “the slaughter of Arab peoples” leading to “the wanton slaughter of all mankind.” The post did not mention that Hezbollah is an internationally designated terrorist organization that began firing rockets at Israel the day after the Oct. 7 attacks.
‘Totally Outraged’: Lemkin Family Disavows Institute
Joseph Lemkin, a New Jersey lawyer who is related to Raphael Lemkin, said he was unfamiliar with the institute until being informed of it by The Algemeiner.
Lemkin, who represented the family at a UN event marking the 65th anniversary of the genocide convention, described himself as “totally outraged” to see his late relative’s name used to push an anti-Israel agenda. His father was Raphael Lemkin’s first cousin.
Ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s on Wednesday sued its parent company, Unilever, for allegedly blocking its efforts to voice support for Palestinians in Gaza.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the United States, claims that Unilever had threatened to dismantle Ben & Jerry’s board and pursue legal action against its members over this issue, Reuters reported.
The lawsuit highlights ongoing tensions between Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever that began in 2021 when Ben & Jerry’s announced it would no longer sell its products in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. Doing so ran contrary to Ben & Jerry’s values, the firm said. This decision prompted some investors to divest from Unilever.
Ben & Jerry’s has taken legal action against Unilever before, after it sold the brand’s business in Israel to a local licensee, allowing continued sales in Israel and Judea and Samaria. That lawsuit was settled in 2022.
In this latest legal action, Ben & Jerry’s accuses Unilever of violating terms of the confidential 2022 settlement. Under this agreement, Unilever is required to “respect and acknowledge the Ben & Jerry’s independent board’s primary responsibility over Ben & Jerry’s social mission,” according to the lawsuit.
“Ben & Jerry’s has on four occasions attempted to publicly speak out in support of peace and human rights,” the lawsuit states, “Unilever has silenced each of these efforts.”
Unilever did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.
Last year, a Manhattan judge dismissed another lawsuit against Unilever by investors who said that Ben & Jerry’s political involvement on behalf of the Palestinians was hurting Unilever, and that Unilever had failed to properly disclose details about this.
