Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 24, 2025

04/24 Links Pt2: The Jews Who Saw Around History’s Darkest Corner; Objectively Pro-Hamas; Hamas threatened to kill hostage in call to his freed wife

From Ian:

Haviv Rettig Gur: The Jews Who Saw Around History’s Darkest Corner

In their conversation, Ben-Gurion told his Arab interlocutors that he expected six to eight million Jews to ultimately populate the forthcoming Jewish state, because Jews were imperiled in Europe. Arslan and al-Jabri, despite agreeing to strict confidentiality and telling Ben-Gurion their conversation was informal and off the record, published his comments with mocking derision in the November 1934 edition of their journal La Nation Arabe. A frustrated Ben-Gurion would not meet prominent Arabs again for a year and a half.

What did Ben-Gurion know? What was he trying to say? And what were his Arab interlocutors failing to hear?

In October 1938, a month after Chamberlain’s capitulation at Munich and before most people dared to even imagine anything so insane, Ben-Gurion was already warning of a coming annihilation of the Jews, as Tuvia Friling writes in his brilliant two-volume book, Arrows in the Dark.

“The outbreak of a world war—which the Arabs are so vehemently in favor of—will place us once again in danger of abandonment and absolute siege. . . . Hitler is not only the enemy and annihilator of the Jews of Germany. His sadistic and jealous desire is to annihilate the whole of world Jewry,” Ben-Gurion said.

This dire foreboding was the logic behind the Zionist willingness to negotiate with the Nazis for the rescue of Jews, as in the Haavara agreement. This was an agreement in 1933 between the Zionist leadership and the Nazi regime to allow Jews to leave Germany with some of their property. (Nazi Germany did not allow Jews to take their property with them when they fled, causing many to stay behind in hopes of surviving the new regime and rebuilding their old lives.)

Many diaspora Jewish leaders, especially in America, were angered by the agreement, which they felt legitimized dealing with the Nazis just when they were trying to push for a global boycott of Germany. But the Zionists insisted on the policy, not because they downplayed Nazi intentions, but because they believed the Nazis were infinitely worse than Jews in the diaspora really understood. These Zionists understood (not all of them, but enough of the ones who mattered) that every Jew who could be convinced to leave Germany early through the Haavara agreement, some 60,000 by 1939, would be literally saved by it.

In December 1938, just a few weeks after Kristallnacht, Ben-Gurion again offered an explicit, public prediction of extermination. “The Nazi pogrom of last November,” he said at a conference in Jerusalem, “is a signal for the destruction of the Jews of the world. I hope I will prove wrong. But I suspect that this German pogrom is but the beginning. It started in Germany. Who knows what will happen tomorrow in Czechoslovakia. . . in Poland, in Romania, and other countries? Until now even Satan did not dare to carry out such a plan. Now everything is permissible. Our blood, our honor, our property. . . . There are no limits as to what can be done to the Jews.”

And in June 1939, three months before the outbreak of war: “Hitler is a fact and he can be relied upon in this regard. If there is a world war and he takes control of Europe, he will carry out this thing; first of all, he will annihilate the Jews of Europe.”

The Zionists, almost entirely alone, saw it coming.

And so on Yom HaShoah we remember not only the dead, though we spend most of the day recalling their names and lives and stories and the whole lost civilization of European Jews. We remember not only what we have lost, but also that it was by our own initiative and wisdom that the survivors came out of that great death and into a new day, a new/old Jewishness, an unapologetic survival and flourishing.

So let the antisemites rage, let them build their moral worlds on our story in thick layers of hatred, conspiracy, and righteous pretense, offering us, as ever, the most reliable signal of their dysfunction and decline. There’s nothing new in that.

What is new is us—our clarity and purpose, a Jewish collective shorn of the blindnesses and vulnerabilities of the past.

This Yom HaShoah in Jerusalem, I will think about what we might have been able to do for our brethren if we’d been established and strong just a decade sooner. I will think about our strength as much as our weakness, about the ever-present, unfulfillable duty to rebuild what was destroyed. I will reflect on the evil stories told of us that never really go away, but that don’t, in the end, matter anymore. Because those who could see around history’s dark and dangerous corners finally freed us from their grip.

Seth Mandel: Heroism and the Holocaust

UnBroken is an unusual Holocaust documentary. The film, now streaming on Netflix, tells the story of seven siblings, the Webers, who survived the war together—the only known group of siblings of that size to do so.

That statistic is obscure but evocative: Large families simply didn’t stay together and survive, if they survived at all. Amazingly, the Weber siblings weren’t broken up until they got to America and put in separate foster homes.

That doesn’t mean their family was intact, however. Their parents’ fate follows the opposite trajectory from that of the kids: For Lina and Alexander, it is a love story that becomes a tragedy.

Alexander was a German traveling salesman who met Lina Banda in Hungary and fell in love with her. Alexander was Catholic, however, and Lina’s father was an Orthodox rabbi. So Alexander converted and the two married. To start anew, they moved to Berlin with two children in tow. They had five more together in Berlin before Alexander was arrested in 1933, likely for the crime of being married to a Jew. He left prison a beaten and broken man.

Lina, meanwhile, had begun working to help Jews escape Germany, sometimes even hiding them in her family home. This further fractured the marriage, as Alexander repeatedly warned her she’d get caught. She did get caught and was eventually killed in Auschwitz.

The children—Alfons, Ruth, Senta, Gertrude, Renee, Judith, and Bela—were then arrested as well and housed in a local hospital. When they were temporarily sent home, a farmer named Arthur Schmidt, who was a friend of the family, smuggled them out of Berlin and to his and his wife Paula’s farm in Worin. The mayor of Worin was the only one besides the Schmidts who knew of the Webers’ presence in town, and he helped forge ration tickets to make sure the kids had enough to eat.

The Weber children repeatedly found themselves saved by righteous gentiles. At one point they were cared for by the famous Catholic social worker Margarete Sommer (although the film misses an opportunity to talk about Sommer’s work); later, the Berlin house they were hiding out in was bombed and they were trapped underground until Schmidt, who was in the house next door, dug them out. Eventually the family made it into the care of the Joint Distribution Committee and out of Europe—but without their father. They were only permitted to emigrate by claiming to be orphans. Alexander survived by renouncing his conversion to Judaism, though he too eventually made it out of Germany.

The siblings weren’t all reunited until 1986. Ten years later, at a family gathering, Alfons presented his siblings and their families with a brief written memoir of their story, which later became the backbone for the documentary, helmed by Beth Lane, daughter of the youngest Weber sibling.

Yet the movie has nothing resembling the triumphant tone of the usual stories of survival, and in that sense it’s likely a preview of the Holocaust documentaries to come. The amount of time that has passed means that even when we meet the survivors themselves on-screen, we won’t be meeting any more heroes who saved them. (There is only one living recognized member of the Righteous Among the Nations residing in Israel, the 90-year-old Jarosława Lewicka.) The Schmidts died a decade after the war and a good half-century before they were added to the Yad Vashem registry of righteous gentiles. The mayor of Worin, Rudolph Fehrmann, died soon after the war. We see his grandson meet Lane in the film.

Gil Troy: Hmm... maybe anti-Zionism really is antisemitic

You don't need to like Trump to recognize his efforts to combat antisemitism
True, it is confusing. US President Donald Trump is polarizing. His sledgehammer approach to genuine problems like campus Jew-hatred risks backfiring. Universities are justifiably mobilizing to defend their autonomy from presidential bullying and to protect critical scientific research from governmental blackmail. But universities seem far more passionate about defending their prerogatives than defending their Jewish students after letting Jew-hatred fester for years.

As anti-Trump Jews reject the boldest governmental assault against Jew-hatred in American history, they should instead become (F. Scott) Fitzgeraldian Zionists, holding “two opposing ideas in mind at the same time” while still retaining “the ability to function.”

Liberals should join conservatives in thanking President Trump for getting universities to do more against Jew-hatred in a few weeks than they did for years. And all must admit that anti-Zionist antisemitism has become so central to modern progressivism that you can’t really fight campus Jew-hatred without bold, systematic campus reform.

Read Trump’s statements carefully. It’s good to ban masks, penalize protesters’ crimes swiftly, hire based on merit, admit based on merit, and foster an open-minded, liberal campus culture that welcomes diverse viewpoints backed by thoughtful, substantive scholarship. But that’s not the government’s job. Universities should have developed such initiatives internally, not been force-fed them externally.

Simultaneously, it’s also true: Universities double down when assaulted by outsiders, especially by unpopular presidents, and most especially by Donald Trump. So, it’s possible to condemn Trump’s tactics while applauding much of his vision and – trigger warning – thanking him for showing the way, even for critics repudiating other aspects of his agenda.

And to my seemingly bold but sniveling Jewish colleagues joining this long chain of un-Jews betraying their people in the pathetic quest to be popular among our enemies, I offer a simple definition: Jew-hatred is an obsessive hatred that exaggerates the centrality and supposed wickedness of Jews and anything Jewish – the Jewish people, Jewish traditions and values, Jewish institutions, and Israel, the Jewish state.

This disproportionate hatred is often expressed in demonization, delegitimization, and double standards – Natan Sharansky’s “3 Ds.”

Be honest. Most protesters share that obsessive hatred. And you’re legitimizing it.

04/24 Links Pt1: King Abdullah and the Islamists; ICC appeal judges: Court should consider Israel’s jurisdictional challenges; Egypt Is Demanding that Hamas Disarm

From Ian:

Rubio torpedoes the left’s anti-Israel stronghold inside the State Department

How rogue elements ruled
The answer to that question is fairly simple. Until now, no one in the White House or at the head of the State Department has tried to rein in what Rubio rightly termed “rogue” elements within the government.

They have operated with the impunity that comes with civil-service protections and the fact that past administrations either lacked the will or ability to restrain a powerful bureaucracy. As is true in almost all governmental departments and agencies, the permanent employees lean hard to the left. They also have managed to fend off any efforts to control them by manipulating the political appointees, who are supposed to be their bosses, treating them as incompetent amateurs who know little about how the government works in much the same manner as the characters in the classic British political comedy “Yes, Minister.”

It’s also true that, at least in principle, both the Obama and Biden administrations had no problem with this “human rights” lobby inside the State Department because they largely agreed with them.

Yet the inherent problem of having a portion of the government conducting an ideological foreign policy largely independent of the people at the top of the organizational flow chart became exposed in the last 16 months of Biden’s term in office. That’s because the anti-Israel bureaucrats, like the pro-Hamas mobs on college campuses, believed that the administration of President Joe Biden was insufficiently hostile to Israel after Oct. 7.

Biden’s civil war
As soon became apparent, the barbaric attack on Israeli civilians and the war to eradicate Hamas that followed had fomented nothing less than a civil war within the administration. Large portions of the permanent foreign-policy bureaucracy, as well as many of Biden’s political appointees ensconced in positions below the rank of cabinet and undersecretary rank, simply opposed the ambivalent Biden stand on the war, in which he publicly opposed Hamas but at the same time didn’t want Israel to succeed in defeating it. They wanted a complete cutoff of U.S. aid and an American-imposed ceasefire that would enable Hamas to both survive the war they started and even to win it.

While some officials, including members of the State Department’s human-rights bureau, resigned in protest over Biden’s half-hearted support of Israel, most remained in place. They continued working to undermine that stand and help fund projects that would hurt Israel and aid Palestinians fighting it, including, as one Middle East Forum study noted, indirectly financing anti-Israel terrorism. Indeed, as the City Journal reported in February, USAID was directing American taxpayer dollars to Hamas.

That is the context with which Rubio’s reorganization should be understood.

One aspect of the scheme is that it will eliminate redundancies and reduce costs in keeping with the mandate of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), initially guided by billionaire Elon Musk.

Backing human rights
Rubio, who, as the Times noted, was an ardent supporter of human rights and encouraged using American power to advocate for freedom abroad during his 14 years in the U.S. Senate. Contrary to the assertions of his critics, he has not changed his mind about the importance of the issue. Rather, he is attempting to rescue the cause of human rights and democracy from activists who have turned it into a crusade against Israel and other governments, such as that of Hungary, which is falsely labeled as authoritarian because of its resistance to left-wing attempts to undermine its national identity.

Rubio’s plan involves a massive shift that he hopes will end the radical power base inside the State Department by stripping it of its autonomy and putting it inside existing regional bureaus, where it won’t be free to undermine Trump’s pro-Israel policy or fund groups working to promote policies and ideas antithetical to U.S. interests.

Under Rubio’s plan, there will still be plenty of people at the State Department who will be tasked with monitoring human rights around the world and seeking to promote American values of liberty, including political and economic freedom. The administration will also preserve the office of the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. Reportedly, it will shift to a global Jewish affairs coordinator rather than the old division under the office of the undersecretary of civilian security, human rights and democracy—a section of Foggy Bottom that was a major part of the problem Rubio is trying to solve. The Office of International Religious Freedom will also still be there.

Will Rubio succeed in taming and redirecting the energy of the diplomatic bureaucracy away from toxic left-wing activism and toward efforts that will promote American interests and strengthen U.S. ties with Israel and other allies? Only time will tell, but as Trump has demonstrated on other issues, such as his efforts to reform or defund academic institutions that tolerate and encourage antisemitism, enacting such fundamental changes requires bold strokes and decisive leadership.

For far too long, the administrative state, of which the left-wing elements in the State Department were a key part, ruled as an unelected and unaccountable fourth branch of the U.S. government that was dedicated to pursuing left-wing policies that no one had voted for. Trump and Rubio have rightly decided this has to end.

Their actions will provoke much consternation and pearl-clutching from the foreign-policy establishment and its liberal media cheerleaders. But their taking an axe to a portion of the State Department bureaucracy run by radicals is a victory for friends of Israel and American interests, and a clear defeat for their opponents who operate under the false flag of “human rights” advocacy.

Melanie Phillips: King Abdullah and the Islamists

A remarkable situation is fast developing in which the West is becoming more Islamist—the term for Islamic holy war extremism—than the Arab Muslim world itself.

This week, Jordan banned the extremist Muslim Brotherhood. All Brotherhood offices there have been closed, and its assets will be confiscated, shortly after 16 of its members were arrested in an alleged armed plot against the kingdom.

The authorities found weapons and explosives being stored in residential areas and transported across Jordan; secret missile-manufacturing facilities that could have produced up to 250 short-range missiles; and “training and recruitment operations” linked to the group.

Hamas, the Brotherhood’s armed wing, praised the alleged plot as an “initiative” by young Jordanian men conscious of the “continued genocide in Gaza.”

The Brotherhood has long been banned in Egypt, where it originated, and in the United Arab Emirates. The ban by Amman is extremely significant and not without danger for Jordan’s King Abdullah, who is permanently threatened by his substantial and restive Palestinian Arab population.

The Muslim Brothers are powerful enemies against whom he has preferred, until now, not to act. However, the Islamist group has been exploiting public anger over the war in Gaza by leading street protests denouncing the government for co-operating with Israel, with which it has had a peace treaty since 1994.

Six months ago, two Jordanian Brotherhood members tried to mount a cross-border raid near the Dead Sea but were shot and killed by Israeli forces. The incident occurred shortly after the group made significant parliamentary election gains amid anger at Israeli actions in Gaza.

Jordan is also worried about a potential Iranian connection with the Brotherhood, especially given Tehran’s increased attempts to destabilize the kingdom through violent cross-border smuggling of weapons and drugs.

Yet the West is even now choosing to ignore or even deny the threat to itself from the Islamist group.

The Brotherhood is a global organization that works in the shadows to conquer the West for Islam. Its tactics are to use a combination of terrorism, infiltration of democratic processes and maintaining a high birth rate among Western Muslims.

Egypt Is Demanding that Hamas Disarm

Israel and the US, with mediation by Qatar and Egypt and with the involvement of the Palestinian Authority, continue to pursue a hostage deal. Parallel to these negotiations, the Israel Defense Forces are pushing ahead in Rafah, taking over one area at a time, consolidating control in northern Gaza, and gearing up for the next phase of combat.

Egypt, which has joined the demand for Hamas to fully disarm, as first reported by Israel Hayom, is now leading the mediation efforts. According to the Qatari channel Al-Araby, Egypt's proposal places demilitarization at the top of the agenda. In return, Hamas would receive a long-term ceasefire of at least five years.

Sources involved in the negotiations say Egypt is providing Israel with regular updates on the proposals, terms, and outcomes of talks with Hamas leaders. A Hamas delegation expected in Cairo is anticipated to address primarily the demand to relinquish all weaponry - a condition that senior Hamas officials in recent weeks have called a "red line."

Egyptian officials have made it clear to Hamas that any further refusal to disarm will lead to an escalation in Israel's military campaign. Reports indicate that the organization's remaining military and civilian supplies are expected to run out within a month to six weeks.

Cairo is attempting to soften Hamas' opposition by offering immunity for its leadership and suggesting the group could play a future role in governing the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian territories more broadly. However, the Palestinian Authority has rejected such a proposal.

A senior Palestinian Authority official said the possibility of integrating Hamas into any governing body would be pushed far into the future, if at all, citing the "bitter experience" of Hamas' 2007 takeover of Gaza, during which hundreds of Fatah members and PA officials were killed. He added that any such agreement would require Hamas to hand over all its weapons to Egypt "down to the last Kalashnikov bullet."

Israeli Physicists Turn Impotent Islamist Rage Into Power Source (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook and Substack pages.

Tel Aviv, April 24 - Scientists at Tel Aviv University have developed a renewable energy technology that has the potential to transform the tiny Jewish State into an electricity-generating juggernaut, the research team announced today, with a new process that transforms the resentment, tantrums, and indignant outrage of Muslim Brotherhood and other haters, into carbon-neutral energy. The scientists announced their discovery yesterday at a press conference at the university.

Professor Evra Vazaam lead a team of researchers in a four-year study that identified and replicated a process to turn the impotent fuming of Islamists into a harnessable energy source, he stated.

"I estimate we can begin generating power by this method within six months," he predicted. "It can hook up to the existing electricity grid, and, at least for the foreseeable future, this energy source is effectively unlimited."

The seething of Islamists and other Israel-haters finds outlets in a diverse array of media and forms, but according to the scientists, enough such bile on social media alone already far exceeds Israel's electricity consumption.

"The cool thing about this is that the development of this technology has the effect of making it even more effective," explained research team member Dr. Harona Po. "Every ounce of success that Israel enjoys makes the haters burn hotter with frustration, and now we can harness that to produce electricity. The honor-shame mentality that characterizes the Islamist mind will never permit reconsideration of violent, bombastic animosity for Jewish sovereignty in the ancestral Jewish homeland, which all but guarantees a self-perpetuating cycle that will meet Israel's electricity needs and more for decades. We can basically export all of our natural gas instead of only most of it."

Discoveries of offshore natural gas deposits in the earth's crust under Israel's territorial waters have already steered the country toward energy independence, though Israel must still import all of its petroleum. Solar and wind power have produced limited success at best - but with the new power source available, Israel will be able to export significant surplus electricity to other countries in the region, such as Jordan, that have not achieved energy independence.

"The governments of the countries that are forced by circumstances to depend on Israel are, for the most part, pragmatic," noted analyst Malakhi Mrai'm. "The problem lies with the subjects of those governments. Jordan and Egypt have formal peace treaties and critical economic arrangements with Israel, but the people of those countries, for the most part, absolutely despise Israel. The growing dependence on Israel for energy - especially with the crash in crude oil prices - basically cements this technology as self-perpetuating."

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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Jewish Ethics vs. the New Secular Messianisms

I have argued that Jewish ethics can become the basis for a secular morality. But not being incompatible with secularism is not the same as being attractive to secularists. What could secularists get out of a Jewish ethical system?

Let's turn the question around. What do they get out of joining extreme Leftist movements?

The extreme Leftist, usually secularist, movements like Animal Liberation Front, Extinction Rebellion and BDS have something in common rarely seen in their Rightist counterparts - a seemingly religious fervor and a quasi spiritual dimensions. They regard themselves as modern doomsdayers, warning the world of catastrophe if we do not repent from our evil ways like climate change. They demand that we "decolonize" our minds and embrace the new edicts as written in their sacred texts - Ibram X. Kendi's How to be an Anti-Racist and the Call to BDS. They chant new rhyming psalms at their demonstrations to the point of self-hypnosis. They anoint new prophets like Great Thunberg. Those who are part of the "oppressor" groups like white men must publicly repent and acknowledge their status, and salvation can only come from allyship with the oppressed. People who do not follow their dictates - especially believers who turn away - are "canceled," i.e., excommunicated. They actively recruit new followers, especially targeting young people. Finally, they promise a utopian vision of a world that they will perfect with their actions and redeem with their struggles - a pseudo-messianic vision.

While they claim that religions are one source of oppression, they have created a new set of beliefs that have all the trappings of religion, without God.

Blaise Pascal wrote, "What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? … [T]his infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself’ (Pensées, 425).” Based on the extremist secularist movements actions, it appears that at least for some non-believers, they indeed are looking for a spiritual experience. People who reject religion still crave meaning, justice, community, and moral clarity, and these movements provide a shallow replacement for religion.

As we have seen, antisemitism thrives in groups that view Jews or Jewish beliefs or Israel as a threat to their entire existence. The Jewish ethical system does not accept one-dimensional, simplistic answers to life's questions. It rejects the binaries of oppressor/oppressed, colonizer/colonized, white/people of color, animal lives as sacred or worthless.

So if these movements succeed because they fill a need, what would it take for Jewish ethics to meet that same need more honestly—and more durably? Can a secular version of Jewish ethics, with few pat answers, offer what people are missing from their lives?

Yes.

While these movements present themselves as moral revolutions or secular equivalents to spiritualities, they bear far more resemblance to cults than to religions. They imitate religion’s outer forms—ritual, purity codes, sacred texts, prophets, and excommunication—but they lack its inner core: the pursuit of enduring truth through humility, tradition, and moral complexity.

Cults offer brainwashing in place of moral introspection. They satisfy the desire to belong, but only through enforced conformity. They promise redemption, but only through submission. They silence doubt, they punish dissent, and they demand emotional loyalty above all else. This is not spirituality. It is programming.

And once someone is drawn in, it is incredibly difficult to break the spell. Former cult members often describe their experience as a kind of moral gaslighting: they were told they were good only if they chanted the party line. Their doubts were demeaned. Their previous relationships were severed. The world was reduced to a binary of us vs. them, good vs. evil. The moral complexity of real life was replaced by a simple script. And the answers they were promised were all lies, often meant to give more power to their leaders.

Meanwhile, Jewish ethics form the true DNA of causes like human rights. "The Jewish tradition is a tradition of law and justice. The Ten Commandments and the teachings of the prophets are a source of inspiration for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," according to René Cassin, who drafted the Declaration itself.

So the question becomes: how can we prevent people from falling into these kinds of ideological cults? And how can we help those already captured to reorient themselves toward genuine ethical inquiry?

The answer, I would argue, is not just to critique the cults—but to offer something better, earlier, deeper. The antidote to cult thinking is moral maturity and literacy.

We must teach people—early and often—how to navigate ethical tension, how to hold multiple values in tension, how to argue without dehumanizing, how to seek justice without demanding perfection. And we must do this in community, through discussion, with humility rather than performative rituals of moral superiority. That might take the form of paired study groups, discussion circles, online forums, or even digital tools that foster thoughtful disagreement.

Imagine a secular activist who feels burned out by the moral absolutism of their climate or anti-colonialist group, constantly shamed for not being "pure" enough. They stumble upon a Jewish ethics discussion group, where chesed encourages them to practice kindness without judgment, where machloket lets them debate ideas without fear of cancellation. For the first time, they feel both morally grounded and free.

The medium can vary. The principle is what matters: we must teach people to think morally, not just claim the mantle of morality.

Jewish ethics offers a model for this. Not because it is the only source of moral truth, but because it is one of the few surviving systems that trains people from youth to think ethically without collapsing into ideology. The chavruta system of studying in pairs, the halachic process, the culture of respectful dissent and precedent - all of these immunize against unthinking cult-like movements.

This is not just a philosophy—it is a method. And if we can share it widely, honestly, and humbly, we may offer people not only protection from cultic-style ideologies, but a path to reclaim their moral autonomy after having been misled by them.

The secular extremists claim that they are brave, that they are courageous, that they are speaking forbidden truths. Yet when people try to talk to them, as we saw during the anti-Israel university encampments in 2024, most of them duck the questions and refuse to have a discussion. That isn't courage - it is cowardice.

Moral courage is being able to defend your beliefs in the face of the mob. That takes time and effort, it takes honest debate and discussion. The Jewish ethics system excels at teaching people how to find a moral position, refine it, and defend it against all arguments.

Becoming a mature, thinking person might not be as fun as shouting slogans and vandalizing buildings. But it is a lot more rewarding.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Gizmodo's hate for Israel is showing

Gizmodo is outraged. The National Institutes of Health, under pressure from the Trump administration, has updated its policies to allow the termination of funding to researchers who engage in discriminatory boycotts of Israel. And to hear Gizmodo tell it, that’s a scandal.

Under the Trump administration, the National Institutes of Health has announced a new policy that allows it to cut off funding to any medical researcher who engages in a political protest of Israel.

Except that there is nothing in the policy about protesting Israel or having "mean thoughts about what is happening in Gaza." The policy is a long-overdue recognition that boycotting Israel is not a neutral act of political speech - it’s discriminatory conduct targeting a single nation, and a Jewish one at that.

The NIH policy doesn’t say you can’t criticize Israel. It says if you refuse to work with Israeli companies or institutions because they are Israeli, you may be in violation of nondiscrimination rules. That’s not censorship. That’s applying the same standards that would apply if someone said they wouldn’t collaborate with Nigerian or Japanese partners.

But Gizmodo, like many progressive outlets, insists on treating BDS as “mere criticism”—a protected act of conscience rather than what it actually is: a campaign of economic warfare that singles out the world’s only Jewish state for boycott, exclusion, and academic isolation.

The NIH is responding to a real-world problem: researchers refusing partnerships, grants, or collaborative work with Israeli counterparts - not because of policy disagreements, but because those people are Israeli.

Imagine someone refusing to collaborate with anyone Chinese, or Muslim, or Catholic, or Cuban. Would Gizmodo write glowing profiles about their bravery? Of course not. But anti-Israel activism, especially when cloaked in the language of "justice," gets a free pass—even when it becomes indistinguishable from bigotry.

This wasn't the first time this writer, Lucas Ropek, has shown his hate for Israel under the guise of journalism (or whatever Gizmodo is.) In February, he made up facts about the Israeli pager attack on Hezbollah to make it sound like it caused mass civilian casualties. Apparently, Ropek thinks an Iranian proxy Islamist terror group that shoots rockets at Israeli civilians deserves more sympathy.

If Gizmodo’s writers were less interested in propaganda and more interested in principle, they might ask why only the Jewish state is the target of this kind of academic excommunication. They might also ask whether it’s ethical for publicly funded research to include people who refuse to engage with colleagues on the basis of nationality - again, not because of war crimes or human rights violations (hello, China), but because it’s Israel.

Moreover, Israel is in the forefront of medical research. Any institution that chooses to exclude researchers and partners for political reasons is hurting the entire health industry.

Now, that's a scandal.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

The EEOC text questionnaire at Barnard is a microcosm of Trump's questionable methods of fighting antisemitism

The New York Times reports:

The personal cellphones of dozens of current and former Barnard College employees pinged Monday evening with a text message that looked, at first, like a scam.

The text said it was from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, part of a review of the employment practices of Barnard. A link led to a survey that asked respondents if they were Jewish or Israeli, and if they had been subjected to harassment.

After faculty members asked Barnard administrators about the text, the college confirmed to them on Wednesday that the messages were authentic — part of a federal investigation into discrimination against Jewish employees that started last summer.

Serena Longley, Barnard’s general counsel, acknowledged in an email to the faculty members that Barnard had provided the commission with the personal contact information of staff members to give them the opportunity to participate. “Participation in the survey is voluntary,” she wrote.

The texts, which faculty members said appeared to have gone to nearly all Barnard staff members, appear to be part of an aggressive new tactic by the Trump administration to collect reports of alleged antisemitism at Barnard, a women’s college affiliated with Columbia University that has come under heavy criticism for pro-Palestinian demonstrations on its campus.

The EEOC has plenty of valid reasons to proactively reach out to employees to determine if there is antisemitic or anti-Israeli harassment at Barnard.

Its methods leave much to be desired.

The EEOC is tasked to identify and stop discrimination in workplaces under Chapter VII of the Civil Rights Act. It can open an investigation based on public reports, and there are certainly enough of them at Barnard. These include a January protest that disrupted the “History of Modern Israel” class taught by Israeli professor Avi Shilon, and the February 2024 lawsuit against Columbia and Barnard, alleging that Jewish and Israeli students faced physical assaults, spitting, threats, and relentless intimidation due to pro-Palestinian activism which may have extended to faculty and created a hostile work environment for Jewish and Israeli employees.

In fact, the EEOC investigation of Barnard didn't start under the Trump administration but it was opened last summer.

So the investigation itself is appropriate and the EEOC had opened similar ones in the past.

Employers are required under federal law (via the EEO-1 report) to collect and report racial and ethnic data, as well as gender, but not religion or national origin. The only way that the EEOC can investigate whether there is a pattern of antisemitic/anti-Israel harassment is to proactively seek information from the employees themselves.

The problem is how creepy the EEOC methods were.

It should not have sent unsolicited texts to all employees without telling the university in advance and coordinating the investigation with the university or with any Jewish employee groups on campus. It could have set up and publicized a webpage to encourage employees to report incidents voluntarily, and if necessary anonymously.

The EEOC's methods could, and did, make some Jewish employees even more uncomfortable. That is not what the government should be doing.

As with everything else under this administration, there seems to be little thought about repercussions and unintended consequences. The impression being given is that antisemitism is an excuse to attack elite, anti-Trump institutions even when the specific actions do not violate any laws. Over the long run, this risks increasing antisemitism, not reducing it.

And Jews shouldn't be pawns for anyone's political goals, right or left.

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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

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Linda Sarsour's BDS group implies it is losing funding

MPower Change, the Muslim grassroots and pro-BDS organization founded by Linda Sarsour, sent out a fundraising "emergency" email:

I don't know if this is true, or whether some of its funders have pulled out, but MPower Change's donors include the Proteus Fund ( $25,000 in 2017), Ford Foundation ($300,000 from 2019 to 2023), Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and George Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society.

It is not a tax exempt group. It is sponsored by NEO Philanthropy, which funds many left-wing organizations.

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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

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04/23 Links Pt2: Yom HaShoah and October 7: Memory Without Meaning Is Just Silence; Hamas releases propaganda video of hostage Omri Miran

From Ian:

Yom HaShoah and October 7: Memory Without Meaning Is Just Silence

There are few nations in the world where memory is not only preserved — but lived. In Israel, remembrance is not just about looking back. It is a living, breathing act of collective identity. Every year, on Yom HaShoah, something extraordinary happens. Without government mandates or media campaigns, life pauses — not out of obligation, but from a shared internal rhythm. The siren sounds, and a nation of millions responds in unison. The image is powerful, but its strength lies not in silence — it lies in meaning, in the understanding that remembrance binds us.

But such national memory did not appear fully formed. It was cultivated. In the early years of the Israeli state, Holocaust survivors struggled to tell their stories. The ethos of the “new Jew,” the sabra fighter, clashed with the image of the persecuted victim. That’s why the state didn’t create “Holocaust Memorial Day.” It created “Holocaust and Ghetto Uprising Remembrance Day.” Heroism came first.

It took decades of political, cultural, and educational work before Israeli society could embrace the Holocaust not only as a tragedy — but as part of its moral and historical DNA. Only then did the siren become sacred.

And now, as we approach Yom HaShoah 2025, a new question confronts us: How will we remember October 7th?

It is not a rhetorical question. It is a national challenge.

October 7th was a rupture. A moment of profound trauma — but also of remarkable unity. It revealed painful truths about our vulnerabilities and our divisions. Yet, in its aftermath, it also uncovered a core of resilience: families opening homes to evacuees, young people lining up to volunteer, strangers embracing one another in tears.

This is the essence of Israeli society at its best. But moments fade. What remains is memory. And memory must be shaped.

Do we allow October 7th to become a political football? A symbol of betrayal, anger, or blame? Or do we craft a new ethos — a foundational story that speaks not just of horror, but of heroism and responsibility? One that doesn’t erase the pain, but transforms it into a source of purpose.

We must ask ourselves:
Who are the names our children will memorize?
Who will be the Hannah Szenes or Mordechai Anielewicz of this generation?
What symbols will we pass down? What songs? What stories?

This responsibility cannot rest solely on the state. It belongs to all of us. To our educators and artists. To our journalists and rabbis. To parents, commanders, and influencers.

A siren alone is not a memory. Memory requires meaning.

Sometimes remembering Yom HaShoah feels like an act of resistance

Yom HaShoah, begins on Wednesday evening. Its full name in Hebrew is Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG’vurah: the Day of Remembrance for the Holocaust and Heroism.

The day has rightly become a significant date in the Jewish calendar, when we come together to remember the victims of the Holocaust and pay tribute to the survivors who have dedicated their lives to sharing their testimonies. The act of remembrance is powerful.

It is not only a solemn reflection on the horrors and losses of our past, but a declaration that we will continue to honour and protect that past for the sake of our future. As antisemitism rises, it takes renewed strength to stand together in remembrance and Yom HaShoah, for me, is a poignant source of this strength precisely because it urges us to contemplate acts of heroism and resistance.

I am reminded of the Bielski brothers who became partisans and took to the forests and fields. They ambushed German troops and provided refuge for Jewish people seeking safety. By the time the Red Army reached them, their group had grown to over 1,200 Jewish people including Holocaust survivor Jack Kagan BEM. Using rudimentary tools, Jack was part of a small group of prisoners who succeeded in digging a narrow 250km tunnel from a concentration camp in Eastern Europe, enabling 150 Jews to escape. He was only 14.

I think of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – which gives Yom HaShoah its date. As the Nazis attempted to liquidate the ghetto, 700 young Jewish fighters, led by Mordecai Anielewicz, took up arms and held off the Nazis for nearly a month. At the same time, thousands more who were not actively fighting, resisted by refusing to assemble at collection points.

Although the uprising was ultimately crushed, it is believed that as many as 20,000 Warsaw Jews managed to escape and survive in hiding and the uprising itself displayed the resilience and fighting spirit of a people who were starved and subjected to unimaginable brutality. An incredible feat.

04/23 Links Pt1: There’s No Such Thing As ‘Just Rockets’ Anymore; JPost reveals why Israel held back from striking Iran's nuclear sites; India has ordered all Pakistani nationals to leave

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: There’s No Such Thing As ‘Just Rockets’ Anymore

Or take this observation, from Jonathan Foreman’s remarkable cover essay on the failures that led to Israel’s vulnerability on Oct. 7:
“It is now clear that some of Hamas’s rocket barrages in the months and even years before October 7 were part of a program of intelligence-gathering, in accordance with the old Soviet military doctrine of Razvedka Boyem, or ‘reconnaissance through battle.’ The bombardments not only offered a means by which Hamas could assess the capabilities and limitations of the Iron Dome system, they led to the discovery of an enormous Israeli vulnerability. This was a civilian and military safety measure without which the October attack would have been much harder to pull off. It had somehow become standard operating procedure for all IDF personnel, as well as the Kitat Konenut guards on the Kibbutzim, to go into their rocket shelters on hearing rocket alarms, leaving the posts and communities for which they were responsible completely open to attack.

“This was not previously the norm in the IDF. And for an obvious reason: Attacking armies have advanced under cover of artillery fire since at least the invention of the ballista in the fifth century B.C.E. As one retired IDF officer reminded me when despairing of this contemporary Israeli practice, ‘During the First World War, the armies on the Western Front kept soldiers on the fighting steps of their trench systems even during the heaviest artillery bombardments, bombardments vastly more intense and destructive than the rocket barrages of October 7.’”

One response to that IDF officer might have been: Well, we don’t treat rocket barrages as if they are artillery bombardments on the battlefield. To which Israelis might very well now answer back: Perhaps you should.

In fact, several aspects of the conflict will never go back to being treated as lightly as they were. One of them, perhaps paradoxically, is suspicious calm. As we now know, crucial to Hamas’s ability to pull off its surprise attack was its commitment to acting as though it wanted peace. The lesson: Peace with Hamas isn’t possible, and the same is true of peace with Hamas’s fellow Iranian proxies like Palestinian Islamic Jihad. There can be no true détente with Iranian satrapies.

Training exercises by terrorist groups must be treated as the preludes to action that they are. Aid into Gaza will forever be more strictly examined, and if no one can deliver aid while avoiding Hamas, then the IDF will have to take whatever actions are necessary to clear a path to aid distribution that circumvents the terrorist gangs that seek to intercept it. If Gazans close to the border continue to threaten their Israeli neighbors, the buffer zone will be adjusted accordingly. The Hamas tunnel system proves that the so-called “Israeli siege” of Gaza was illusory. That might not be the case in the future.

And so on. But the rockets are among the most significant examples of this, because cracking down on rocket fire will require vigilance. Israel’s overly defensive stance toward rocket attacks must be made a thing of the past.

Seth Mandel: Medical Groups Are Suddenly Silent

Mohammed Sakar, for example. Dr. Sakar works at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and recently posted a highly interesting note on his Facebook page. He has since deleted it, but here is the Times of Israel’s translation of it in part:

“As head of the department, I exerted all efforts to reopen the hospital and I succeeded… in serving the wounded. I made sure that the hospital wards were used only for patients, and not for displaced persons… In this way, I managed to keep the hospital safe and avoid threats of closure.”

He then warned that he was “being openly threatened, even though I explained to those who came to my office that all the steps I took were to protect the hospital. God will not forgive you.”

He included a threatening note he received from the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: “Dear one, you have crossed the line, take heed!”

The Times of Israel notes that that was Sakar’s last post on Facebook and that he has not appeared in the media since deleting it.

The main takeaway from Sakar’s post is that it serves as yet more proof that the terrorist organizations in Gaza are still using hospitals as cover. Posts in support of Sakar, apparently from other Gaza residents, could be found on X, but that’s about it so far. One such post reads: “Dr. Mohammed Sakar received threats from mercenaries belonging to Islamic Jihad because of his opposition to armed men inside the hospital. Every mercenary organization has thieves around it, and it wants to take the land into its own hands and play with people’s lives as it pleases.”

In February 2024, IDF soldiers operating at Nasser hospital discovered Hamas terrorists and weapons, as well as medicine that had been withheld from hostages. In January, when the cease-fire went into effect, Hamas forces were seen emerging from the Nasser complex armed and in uniform.

But there’s another angle to this: Where’s all the international support for Dr. Sakar? It sure sounds like he’s trying to keep terrorists out of the hospital. He seems to be in mortal danger from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Medical organizations and NGOs around the world ought to be interested in getting to the bottom of this. I eagerly await their campaigns to do so.

Beyond Bibi: Can Israel Find Its Next Great Leader? (Judean Rose)

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

If you’ve ever been lucky enough to see and hear Netanyahu in person, you’ll know what I mean when I say he is an absolutely mesmerizing speaker. Some years ago, I was in the front row for Bibi’s opening remarks at an event for journalists. It was a smallish room, so that for a moment, the feeling I had that the prime minister was looking directly into my eyes, made me wonder if he really was. But no, I do not think I am that special. Bibi Netanyahu, on the other hand, is especially gifted at public speaking—you feel drawn in like a magnet, even if you’re inclined not to like the guy.

Which brings me to my next point. Among our many pols and MKs I see no one who can step into Netanyahu’s shoes. There’s no one even close to projecting leadership in quite the same way—no one who’s got the charisma to take over.

The fact that Netanyahu has not groomed a successor is a serious problem, and has been for a long time. No one stays in politics forever. No one stays alive forever. That includes Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his excellence as a speaker, his lengthy reign as head of Likud, and despite having held the office of prime minister of Israel for more years than any other past Israeli PM.

Then there is the matter of October 7. Netanyahu may very well have to resign when this is all over. Ronen Bar may be a garbage person who likes to persecute Jews instead of taking his job of protecting the Israeli people seriously, but the buck stops with Bibi. October 7 happened on his watch.

All of this explains why we need to have someone ready for the eventuality of Bibi leaving office. But who knows if grooming a successor would even make a difference. You can’t teach someone to have magnetic eyes and charisma. Those are things you’re born with. Or not.

It’s important to note here that charisma and magnetic eyes have nothing to do with good governance, and certainly doesn’t speak to whether a leader’s policies are worth a damn. But leadership qualities and skills are vital in a prime minister, in particular because of the spotlight the world shines on Israel. The Israeli prime minister has to be able to develop relationships with foreign leaders. He has to be able to connect with presidents and premiers on a personal level—has to make them like him, so they’ll be favorably disposed toward Israel. So he needs to have personality. But he (or she, actually), also needs to speak good English. Bibi does.

A lot of the others do not.

Take Bezalel Smotrich, for example. I really like the guy. I like his policies, in particular the way he is working against illegal Arab building, and the fact that he sticks up for the rights, the safety and the security of all Israeli citizens, including those of us living in Judea and Samaria. More than that, I know he’s a good person.

Bezalel Smotrich (photo: Avi Ohayon / Government Press Office of Israel)

Back in 2015, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that two apartment buildings in Beit El had to be torn down, because they accepted the anti-Israel nonprofit Yesh Din’s claims that the buildings were built without permits on Arab land. There were expulsions, riots, protests. Netanyahu promised to build 300 new buildings instead of the now demolished buildings and ground was broken, but no buildings materialized.

At that point, I took part in a protest outside the Israeli Supreme Court where, with very few exceptions, the protesters were Beit El residents who had been bussed into Jerusalem for the protest. Also there was Bezalel Smotrich. He was speaking to the protesters from inside a tent that had been erected specifically for the event. I couldn’t get anywhere near that tent, such was the size of the crowd. But I liked that Smotrich showed up. I like every politician who shows up at protests against terror or on behalf of settlers and settlements. It means something to me.

Liking someone and their actions, however, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve got leadership skills. Or decent English. Smotrich has neither. He is neither distinguished-looking nor a commanding speaker.

In fact, Smotrich the politician makes me think of Kamala Harris the politician. Dems liked her without being able to articulate why. Possibly because Harris didn’t articulate any policies. But also because she can’t articulate anything at all. Not even a single coherent sentence. Basically, she was the anti-Trump, because there was no other reason to vote for her.

Happily, that is not the case with Smotrich. Good guy. Good policies. But bland, milquetoast presence. Which is funny considering he is demonized by the left as a far right firebrand. The left went absolutely out of its mind when Israel Bonds invited Smotrich to speak. Little did they know they were in for a treat: Smotrich speaking in such execrable English that it made for absolutely hilarious parodies.

Haaretz writer Refaella Goichman went to town on that speech, noting as I have, that Smotrich is no Bibi:

Smotrich struggled to read large portions of the speech from the paper, which isn’t so bad – not everyone is cut from the same international cloth as Bibi. But at a certain point, when discussing family who had died in the Holocaust, he finally managed to pronounce the word “perished” after several tries (“my entire family preshit? preshade...?”) and smiled proudly to himself.

Screenshot, Haaretz

Listening to the full speech was painful.

Smotrich’s performance went viral. But for all the wrong reasons. There were parodies galore.

@daniellachyani איים בצלאל #סמוטריץ #אנגלית #אנגליתבכיף ♬ original sound - Daniel Lachyani

Contrast and compare Smotrich's disastrous performance with any of Netanyahu’s many eloquently executed speeches to the UN and to Congress. Congress goes nuts over him.

Bibi is brilliant, every time. My political views may align more closely with those of Smotrich. But he’s no Bibi. And I definitely don’t want to see Smotrich go up against Iran.

So just what is it that makes Bibi a leader, Bezalel not? Social psychologist Amy Cuddy, in her 2012 TED Talk, “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are,” describes the qualities that inspire crowds: expansive postures, steady voices, and piercing gazes that make them appear confident and captivating.

Netanyahu’s tall frame and the magnetic gaze that held me at his speech, echo Ronald Reagan’s warm authority, Margaret Thatcher’s steely resolve, and Winston Churchill’s defiant presence, inspiring public trust. Bezalel Smotrich, whose Judea and Samaria policies I admire, lacks this—his slight build, plain attire, and broken English, mocked in his 2023 Israel Bonds speech, fail to inspire beyond his base.

In Israel’s global arena, fluent English is non-negotiable for any leader to sway Congress or counter Iran, ruling out Smotrich and others who falter. But then there is Nir Barkat, who earned the name "Batman" after he tackled a terrorist to the ground in 2015.

Barkat, a businessman-turned-Jerusalem mayor, offers polished looks and solid English, but his reserved demeanor lacks Bibi’s fire, despite that epic terrorist takedown. Though the subject of many a meme, Barkat is just like every other superhero. You never quite know who you're going to get—to extend the superhero analogy—Superman or a mild-mannered Clark Kent. I want him to project power, but I'm not seeing it.

Just one of many Nir Barkat memes from 2015.

I made this with Grok. Doesn't look like Nir Barkat, but whatever.

With Smotrich’s faint optics, Barkat’s dim spark, and no one else I’d vote for, Netanyahu’s ungroomed successor may well leave Israel feeling and looking leaderless—not a good look for dealing with the threat of a nuclear Iran. Meantime, I watch and wait for a successor to emerge. Someone with that certain something, in addition to perfect English, that projects leadership for all to see.

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Times of Israel reports:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday called terror group Hamas “sons of dogs,” and told the terror group to release hostages it is holding in order to eliminate what he said was Israel’s pretext to continue its war in Gaza.

“The first priority is to stop the war of extermination in Gaza. It must be stopped – hundreds are being killed every day,” Abbas said in a speech. “Why don’t you hand over the American hostages?”

Addressing Hamas as “sons of dogs,” the PA president told the terror group to “release those you’re holding and put an end to this story. Shut down their [Israel’s] excuses. End it.”

He further called on Hamas to cede control of Gaza to the PA, give up its arms, and become a political party.

“Hamas must hand over Gaza responsibilities and hand over its arms to the responsibility to Palestinian Authority and transform into a political party,” Abbas said.

The speech as provided by the official Wafa news agency is quite a bit different:

Undoubtedly, implementing this comprehensive vision, which has become an Arab-Islamic vision by decision of the emergency Arab summit held recently in Cairo, based on the Egyptian-Palestinian plan presented to that summit, requires the fulfillment of the following conditions:

First: The existence of a political horizon based on ending the Israeli occupation and implementing international legitimacy resolutions, including the establishment of an independent, sovereign, contiguous, viable, and recognized Palestinian state, which would be a full member of the United Nations and live in security and peace alongside Israel.

Second: Israel's complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, ensuring clear and sustainable mechanisms for the flow of essential supplies and reconstruction requirements to the Gaza Strip, and the release of prisoners, hostages, and detainees.

Third: Halting all Israeli military operations in the West Bank, halting settlement activity and settler attacks, and halting the violation of the sanctity of holy sites in the West Bank and Jerusalem. A comprehensive truce must be achieved in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem, including confidence-building steps and creating the conditions for launching a serious political process that leads to a just and comprehensive peace in accordance with the principles and resolutions of international legitimacy.

Fourth: Adopting a comprehensive plan for recovery and reconstruction in the Gaza Strip, based on the principle of preventing the displacement of the Palestinian people from the Strip—that is, "reconstruction without displacement." This plan was actually adopted at the recent emergency Arab Summit in Cairo, and requires international cooperation and partnership for its implementation.

Sada News quotes more of what he said, and while its description says Abbas said Hamas should release the hostages, the longer speech only said,

To be frank with you, and to dot the i's and cross the t's regarding our internal national affair, I find it necessary to say before you: Hamas, since its coup against Palestinian national legitimacy in 2007, and its work throughout this period to separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank and Jerusalem, passing through six devastating wars it caused on the Gaza Strip, and of course without absolving the occupation of responsibility, has inflicted severe damage on the Palestinian cause, and provided the occupation with dangerous free services, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and provided this criminal occupation with free pretexts to implement its conspiracies and crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent of which was the detention of hostages.

I don't see "sons of dogs" mentioned in either transcript. But Hamas media says that is what he said, and it condemned him for it:

In a statement broadcast on state television, Abbas attacked Hamas, saying, "You sons of dogs, hand over the hostages and that's it," referring to the Israeli soldiers held by the resistance in the Gaza Strip. Observers considered this a "dangerous precedent in Palestinian political discourse ."

Sometimes Abbas goes off script, so it is possible he went beyond what he meant to say - and now the PA is covering it up.

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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

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The most dangerous place for Jews in the US? Not where you might think

The ADL has released its annual report on antisemitism in America. As could be expected, 2024 was the worst year on record:

In 2024, ADL tabulated 9,354 antisemitic incidents across the United States. This represents a 5% increase from the 8,873 incidents recorded in 2023, a 344% increase over the past five years and a 893% increase over the past 10 years. It is the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents 46 years ago.

The report includes a state-by-state breakdown of antisemitic incidents.

You might think that Jews are safer in North Dakota or Alaska than New York or California.

But when you compare these numbers with the incidents per 100,000 Jewish population, some of the states with the smallest Jewish populations end up on top, while New York and Florida are towards the bottom.

Wyoming has only 1,150 Jews but it had 31 incidents in 2024 (18 harassment, 13 vandalism.) Florida, with nearly 660,000 Jews, had 353 incidents - about 2% of the number of incidents per 100,000 Jews.

This is not completely fair, since comparing states with very small Jewish populations tend to skew the data. If we look at only assaults, which is what Jews would be most worried about, and only include states with 3 or more assault incidents over the past three years, this list might show the worst states to be a Jew in today (total assaults 2022-2024)