Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, November 09, 2018

Unbelievable photos of Kristallnacht

From a Twitter thread by Elisheva Avital. Click to enlarge photos.
(I posted this without first asking her permission, and I apologize for that. I asked her if she wants me to remove this post.)

Today is the 80th anniversary of #Kristallnacht.

A personal story:
My grandfather fought in WWII. He never spoke about it, so we didn't know much about his time in the service, but based on the patches on his uniform, we think he did something in intel.

The next part takes place two years ago.
He died, and I'm cleaning out his house with my mom and sister.
We find a photo album.
When I open it, I feel like it might burn a hole in my hands.

The first few pages have pictures of Jewish homes being ransacked; people are in robes and pajamas. Several are bleeding.

Here, some jolly Nazis stealing Jewish holy books, later to be burned.

Now we move on to the stores:

The next section is like a gut-punch. They enter a synagogue, overturn everything. You can see prayer shawls strewn everywhere.

Then they get to the holy ark, and pry it open to steal the silver and burn the Torah. At this point I feel tears welling up in my eyes.

Then they pour accelerant, and set the whole thing ablaze. I had never before seen pictures of a shul on fire from the inside.

At this point, I take out some of the pictures and turn them over. This is what I find: November 10, 1938. Nuremburg.
A shiver goes through me. When I google the names, I find they were Nazi photojournalists.

These are behind-the-scenes pics of happy Nazis on a rampage, presumably on Kristallnacht.
What they were doing was COMPLETELY LEGAL.

You tell us "never again."
I'm not so sure.
#Kristallnacht #kristallnacht80

For those who have asked, I forgot to add: we have NO idea how he came to own these

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11/09 Links Pt1: Who speaks for the Democrats on Israel?; Gallant: We’re ready for peace with Arab states; The PA Moves to Take over Area C with European Financial Support

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: What America chose on Tuesday

Recognizing this state of affairs, Linda Sarsour, the rising antisemitic star of the progressive grassroots movement, bemoaned the election results.

Speaking at an Internet forum sponsored by the far-Left website Intercept and the far-Left activist network Democracy Now, Sarsour said: “This was not a blue wave, this was a blue dribble. We didn’t win overwhelmingly and it doesn’t look good if we don’t get our act straight for 2020...”

Sarsour then turned to Israel.

“What Democrats do immediately when there’s politics of fear coming from the opposition is they cower. They stay away from the Palestinians, they stay away from the leftists, and they stay away from the socialists. They stay away from those of us who are actually creating the momentum and the energy that is on the ground.

“The Democratic Party doesn’t have a foreign policy platform that... works for people like me... and then the minute that positioning comes in with fear politics, we cower, right? We go, ‘Oh, AIPAC is mad at us. Oh, those folks, the pro-Israel groups are mad at us.’”

She then made a pitch for ignoring the lessons of Tuesday’s poll by saying, “If you’re not willing to go all the way progressive, you’re just not going to win against Donald Trump in 2020.”

For the past two years, and indeed, for the better part of the past twelve years, the Republican Party has been divided between moderates and conservatives while the Democrats have seen the consistent rise of radical actors at the expense of their party’s moderates. Tuesday’s election unified the Republican Party along conservative principles behind Trump and it empowered moderate Democrats at the expense of the until-now ascendant radicals.

While everything is possible, Tuesday’s results have the potential to reduce the rage in US politics. They portend well for a revitalization of bipartisan support for Israel and for Trump’s reelection prospects.

Jonathan S. Tobin: Who speaks for the Democrats on Israel?

Opponents of Israel will have something to celebrate in January.

Rashida Tlaib will become the first Palestinian-American to serve in Congress. Tlaib, who will represent a suburban district outside of Detroit with a large Arab-American population, is an avowed opponent of Israel’s existence and a supporter of the BDS movement. She will find a kindred spirit in fellow freshman Democrat Ilhan Omar, who will be first Somali-American in Congress when she takes the oath to represent Minneapolis. Omar is a fierce critic of Israel, who has called it an “evil” country that has “hypnotized the world”—a standard anti-Semitic meme—and an “apartheid regime.”

Both are allied with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a socialist who will represent Queens, N.Y. Ocasio-Cortez said she wanted to end the “occupation of Palestine,” though she didn’t seem able to say whether that meant the West Bank or, as Palestinians define the term, all of Israel.

This trio of congressional newcomers is also allied with the Women’s March, whose leaders combine anti-Zionism with a soft spot for anti-Semitic hate-monger Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam.

We can expect them to unite with other Democrats to undermine the U.S.-Israel alliance, such as the dozens who signed letters last year championed by figures such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) calling for the lifting of the blockade of the terrorist Hamas regime that rules Gaza.

Intersectional ideology, which falsely analogizes the Palestinian war on Israel’s existence with the struggle for civil rights in the United States, has become fashionable in progressive circles. But those running the Democratic caucus are still firmly in the pro-Israel camp.

House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)—and the presumptive Speaker of the House next year—has been a fairly reliable friend of Israel, though not necessarily a fan of the Netanyahu government. The No. 2 Democrat in the House, current Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is an even more ardent supporter of Israel who has done his best over the years to keep left-wing members of his caucus in line with respect to the Middle East.

US Jews feel more positively towards Israel despite religious pluralism rift

Contrary to popular belief, American Jews’ feelings toward Israel have grown more positive in recent years, according to findings of a new poll conducted by the J-Street lobbying organization this week.

The poll, taken on the day of the US mid-term elections, apparently contradicts the frequent dire warnings heard from elements in the North American Jewish leadership that Diaspora Jews are becoming increasingly alienated from Israel because of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians and on matters of religious pluralism.

The survey, conducted by the GBA Strategies research organization for J-Street on a sample of 903 Jewish voters with a margin of error of 3.3%, found that 65 percent of respondents felt either very or somewhat emotionally attached to Israel, compared to 35 percent who felt not very attached or not at all attached to the Jewish state.

Asked if, compared to 5-10 years ago, they felt more positive or negative, or the same, towards Israel, 55% said they felt about the same, 26% said more positive and only 19% felt more negative.

The survey did note however that Jewish millennials are more evenly split on their attitudes towards Israel than Jews 35 years old and upwards, but full analysis of those results has not been published yet.

Questioned specifically on how Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians has affected their attitudes, a potent issue that is often believed to have alienated US Jews from Israel, the responses were similar.

From Jewish News:

A vigil held by pro-Israel activists in London for Jews murdered in Arab countries was dispersed violently by men shouting about killing Jews in Arabic.

The event on Wednesday by the Israel Advocacy Movement on Speaker’s Corner saw a few people holding Israeli flags and candles ahead of Kristallnacht.

Joseph Cohen, an Israel Advocacy Movement activist, filmed the event as about 20 men drowned his talk, shouting: “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.”

The cry relates to an event in the seventh century when Muslims massacred and expelled Jews from the town of Khaybar, located in modern-day Saudi Arabia. Some of the men shouted about “Palestine,” surrounding the pro-Jewish activists and shoving them.

“As if on cue, before we’d even begun an extremist began screaming a death chant of Jews,” Cohen said. “The vigil went from bad to worse, they shouted us down, they would not allow us to remember our dead until we had to call off the vigil,” he added. The occurrence “goes to the heart of the matter we’d gathered to commemorate in the first place,” he also said.

A German woman who witnessed the event said: “A Christian was preaching and the atmosphere was friendly, a Muslim was preaching, and there were shouts but the atmosphere was still friendly but as soon as Jews wanted to honor their dead a whole of crowd appeared out of nowhere, as soon as the flags appeared, the cursing began against people who only wanted to honour their dead.”

She added: “I think what we just saw was anti-Semitism.”

Here's video:

The Arab said to the Jews "you are a killer of the prophet" and then claimed he had nothing against Jews. He then denied the Holocaust occurred, using the "proof" of "there are six million people in London" and therefore it is impossible for so many Jews to be killed.

I could not find this story in one mainstream news outlet even though it happened on Wednesday night.

Antisemites interrupting a Jewish memorial event is newsworthy - but only when the antisemites are white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

When they are Arabs - silence.

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"...I'm afraid that you [Jewish people] will come to regret the day that I offered you a chance to let us sit down together and dialogue and you, in your emotional reaction, rejected that offer...You will [regret it] because if my influence and growth and power in America does not diminish and it will not, by the help of God, then what benefit would it be to you not to sit down and dialogue with me when the racial problem is not getting any better..."
Louis Farrakhan, Fox News Sunday interview, 3/30/97. Source: Jewish Virtual Library

That is the question -- just how influential is Louis Farrakhan, the Antisemitic leader of The Nation of Islam?

We know that he is influential enough that the likes of Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez (msladyjustice1) and Linda Sarsour have no compunction about associating with Farrakhan and praising him.

Farrakhan is influential enough that he got a front row seat at the funeral of Aretha Franklin, along with Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson -- and Bill Clinton.

Farrakhan is influential enough, that while the video of his calling Jews "termites" was banned by Facebook, Twitter continues to allow it:

But if you click on that link to watch the video on YouTube, you see this:

It's hard to understand how when the media claims to be dedicated to rooting out racism and Antisemitism, and people are being banned on social media for less -- Farrakhan roams free and untouched.

An article asking "Who Is Louis Farrakhan and Is He Still Relevant?" presents both sides of the case as to whether Farrakhan is relevant, let alone influential.

Though 20 years ago Farrakhan's Million Man March brought hundreds of thousands of black men to Washington, DC, putting him in the public spotlight, his events today draw thousands. -- and Farrakhan’s 2015 demonstration on the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March was not as large.

The article quotes Jay Tcath, executive vice president of the Jewish United Fund in Chicago, who says that Chicago’s Jewish institutions don’t see Farrakhan's hate as a major threat:

“He has not grown the movement, he has not graduated to a larger venue, he has no public policy agenda, the number of mosques under his domain are not increasing,” Tcath told JTA. “That’s not to diminish his bigotry, but it’s to recognize that of the many challenges our community faces, including anti-Semitism, his brand is not contagious among many others.”

But on the other hand, the article quotes Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, who says the fact that Farrakhan can still draw thousands makes him the most popular peddler of hate in the US -- more influential than the likes of Richard Spencer and other white supremacists. After all, for all their publicity, the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, in August drew only 500 people.

The influence of Farrakhan and The Nation of Islam is deceptive:

“Its influence is broader than its individual members. Farrakhan has been sort of marked not only as an anti-Semite for many years, but given a pass by some in the mainstream in ways that others don’t get a pass.”

Which puts Farrakhan on the level of Al Sharpton. Journalist Jeff Jacoby notes that despite Sharpton's incitement of hatred and violence in the case of Tawana Brawley, Crown Heights riots and Freddy's Fashion Mart -- the latter two of which led to deaths:

If Sharpton were a white skinhead, he would be a political leper, spurned everywhere but the fringe. But far from being spurned, he is shown much deference. Democrats embrace him. Politicians court him. And journalists report on his comings and goings while politely sidestepping his career as a hatemongering racial hustler.

The secret to Farrakhan's success is The Nation of Islam's positive messaging and work within the African-American community. While Farrakhan incites hatred of Jews, he stresses family values and encourages his followers to avoid drugs.

How successful that "positive messaging" is remains unclear or how successful a leader he really is. The fact remains that Farrakhan has to continually fall back on periodically relying on Jew-hatred to rally and unify his flock.

Meanwhile, hatemongers like Farrakhan and Sharpton will continue to wield influence out of proportion to any actual accomplishments, put on a pedestal by the same media that claims to be the guardians of human rights and values in society.

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Saeb Erekat says no Arab state will normalize relations with Israel, as Bahrain invites Israel's Economy Minister to a conference

PLO official and self-admitted liar Saeb Erekat reassured whoever is still listening to him that the Arab world will not normalize relations with Israel without prior, comprehensive implementation of the Arab Peace Initiative.

Ironically, he made these statements in Amman, Jordan, which has been at peace with Israel since 1994.

Erekat, the Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the PLO, said that talks about normalization are "merely hallucinations of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu."

Erekat dismissed the meeting between Netanyahu and Oman's sultan, saying that Oman only wants to help negotiate a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines.

He insisted that President Trump's "Deal of the Century" was a non-starter because the US was so biased against the Palestinians, and that no Arab country would be involved.

Oman's Foreign Minister explicitly said that he supports Trump's Middle East peace efforts in a conference in Bahrain.

Meanwhile, Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Israel's Economy Minister Eli Cohen was invited by the Bahrain to participate in the "Startup Nations Ministerial" conference.

That conference is part of the Global Entrepreneurship Conference scheduled for April in Bahrain.

The PLO has been bitterly opposed to all contacts between Israel and the Arab world, including issuing a statement berating Gulf countries for allowing Israeli athletes to compete in international competitions.

Erekat is, as usual, doing everything he can to avoid reality so Palestinians can continue to live in a fantasy world where their issues are still considered to be front and center on the world stage, eventually pressuring Israel to surrender without any concessions on their part. It hasn't worked for the past 25 years, but that hasn't caused them to rethink their strategy.

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11/08 Links Pt2: NYU, SJP and a response to ‘the 10 Common Misconceptions About BDS’; Trudeau issues apology for Canada’s refusal to let in Jews fleeing Holocaust

From Ian:

David Collier: NYU, SJP and a response to ‘the 10 Common Misconceptions About BDS’

NYU and the ‘ten common misconceptions about BDS’

‘Washington Square News‘, is an ‘Independent Student Newspaper’ at NYU. Three days ago they published an article written by SJP ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’. It was titled ‘10 Common Misconceptions About BDS‘ and set out to reassure the reader that the boycott movement against Israel (BDS) is a legitimate, credible, successful and ethical tool with which to bring peace to Israel and the Palestinians. I thought I’d take a look:
1 BDS is antisemitic

This is an easy one. BDS is clearly antisemitic. SJP argue that ‘BDS targets the nation-state of Israel, not any religious or ethnic group’, which is half-true, but they fail to address the lies and hypocrisy inherent in the movement. In their argument they bring up historical Jewish anti-Zionism in the shape of the Labour Bund. The logic is this – if some Jewish people were against the formation of Israel in the 1900-1940’s, it is okay to oppose Zionism today. That’s pretty twisted. The Bundists opposed Zionism because they believed Europe could provide safe haven in the shape of Jewish autonomous regions. They were wrong and Bundism burnt in the fires of Auschwitz. SJP are cynically using Holocaust victims to shield criticism of an attack against Jews.

Yet the real issue with BDS is in its selectivity. Notice how BDS ‘target’ Israel. Why not Lebanon? Inside Lebanon are descendants of the 1948 Israel /Arab conflict, perpetually held under a real Apartheid system. These ‘refugees’ are explicitly referenced by BDS, yet BDS does not target those guilty of oppressing them. Why not? If human rights of Palestinians is key here, then BDS should cross borders, but it doesn’t. This shows that promoting the ‘human rights’ of Palestinians is an excuse. BDS is a movement set up to exclusively target the ‘Jewish state’ for reasons beyond those officially stated. Picking exclusively on Jews sounds pretty antisemitic to me.
2 BDS is too extreme

The SJP article doesn’t even put forward arguments to oppose this statement, it just suggests that such a label can be used against any movement. The extremist label ‘is just a convenient way to shut down all avenues of resistance’. This is merely a deflections that doesn’t address the issue. Of course BDS is too extreme. There is one nation in the whole of that region that provides all of its citizens with a voice, protects its minorities and has a respected judicial system. It has 9 million citizens. BDS seeks to destroy that nation. How is that not ‘too extreme’?
3 The way forward is through dialogue, not boycotts.

‘This is not an issue of communication, but of violent occupation’. Even if true that only explains away 33% of BDS (BDS have three goals, the 1967 ‘occupation’ is only one of them). Unless of course they wish to suggest *ALL* of Israel is ‘occupied’, which they don’t like doing because it exposes the extremism of the movement (see misconception number two). If you read the SJP response, it suggests dialogue is a negative thing. This is the core pillar upon which the case for Israel is silenced. They don’t want people to talk because they know their lies, hypocrisy and inconsistency will be exposed – hence – no to dialogue. What type of justice movement doesn’t give the ‘accused’ an opportunity to defend itself?

JCPA: The Sky Is Not Falling in Washington: The U.S. Mid-Term Elections

Despite the habitual Jewish gevalt expressions of anxiety, the results of the 2018 U.S. elections do not foretell any change in congressional policy toward Israel, the Middle East, and Iran.

2. Do the elections of Arab Americans and progressives augur bad times for Israel?
An Emphatic No.

I have watched Arab-American and progressive Members of Congress over the last 50 years. Some were often strong critics of Israel, but their impact was negligible, and their national parties tended to limit their exposure. Examples of Arab-Americans include Senators James Abourezk and James Abdnor, and Representatives Nick Rahall, John Sununu, and Mary Rose Oakar.

Muslims: At least two were elected on November 6, 2018: in Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, and Ilhan Omar, a hijab-wearing Sudanese-American in Minnesota. Tlaib had been endorsed by J Street, but the Left-wing organization took the unprecedented step of rescinding its endorsement after she came out in favor of a one-state solution. Omar takes the place of Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress, who won the race for Minnesota’s Attorney General. Leaving Washington and the limelight is probably good for Ellison, who faced domestic abuse allegations.

Progressives and anti-Israel Members of Congress: Don’t forget that the progressives in the Democratic Party have been active for years. Jesse Jackson and Arab-American leader Jim Zogby were frequent speakers before the party’s platform committee, where they criticized support for Israel. The only flag that flew at the last Democratic Convention in 2016 was the Palestinian flag after it was decided no American flags would fly because they bothered some delegates.

There have always been anti-Israel members of Congress (political correctness requires us to say “critical of Israel”), such as Senators William Fulbright and George McGovern (Democrats), and Representatives Paul Findley and Paul “Pete” McCloskey (Republicans). Despite McGovern winning the Democratic Party nomination for President in 1972, none was particularly influential in their parties or the Congress.

Arab op-ed, upset over Oman, says "Bibi is the sultan of the region"

The editor of As Safir (Lebanon) wrote a scathing and frustrated op-ed against the Arab countries who are becoming friendlier with Israel.

It is lunacy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the right to boast that he is now the "Sultan" of this region, formerly called the "Arab homeland", which has become the "Middle East" ... whether by direct occupation, as in Palestine and Egypt, or under the pretext of the legitimacy of the Jews of the West to occupy occupied Palestine, who are now called "Israelis".

The Israeli occupation and foreign hegemony have caused the collapse of the "nation state" from this region. They have lost their identity and have become cardboard states, kingdoms, emirates and republics under American-Israeli protection.

Netanyahu, along with his wife, stood in front of the Sultan of Oman, who gave him great respect and affection. Then the talks took place between two old friends, and then the Prime Minister of Israel came out to declare frankly: We have accomplished the occupation of this region, We have relations now with various countries, we can roam freely, and go anywhere.

...
Are the Arabs tired of their Arabism and they migrated from it to another identity?!

...It seems as if the Arabs are narrowing their land and want to get rid of the huge land areas, offering it to those who want it, begging to "old colonialism" to return in his modern name: imperialism, which is Zionism!

The Arabs nowadays have trampled on the martyrs and the blood of their wounds who fell on this blessed land from the 1920s until today, through the revolution of 1936 to the Nakba of 1948, to the tripartite aggression of 1956, to the 1973 war, to the war against the Israeli occupation in Lebanon Eighteen years later, to the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006.

His newspaper has a cartoon of the figure ("Handala") that represents Palestinians next to a pen/flame, with the caption that the Palestinian cause will not be extinguished, the purpose of the newspaper.

To even say that out loud shows how nervous they are that this is indeed what is happening.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

America is under (cognitive) attack, almost certainly by Russia. The threat is very real and has already done a great deal of damage. Americans have almost certainly already died as a result, and the eleven Jewish victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre could be the latest.

The liberal media likes to suggest that Russia has “intervened in US elections” to benefit Donald Trump. Conservatives tend to say that the whole thing is a story made up by liberals. Both are likely wrong.

But something else is going on, and has been for decades, something more dangerous than trying to influence an election (even Obama did that to Israel). There is a serious effort being made by Russian actors to influence the social and political atmosphere in the US. I have seen no evidence that the intent is primarily, or even at all, to elect a particular candidate or party. Rather, the objective of the campaign is to destabilize the country by encouraging extremism of both the Right and the Left, to exacerbate racial, religious, and class conflict, to stoke anger, increase polarization, encourage violence, and ultimately bring about the virtual or actual secession of segments of the population from the USA.

In other words, to make the country fly apart.

The Russians are the world’s experts in cognitive warfare. The Soviets deployed it against the US starting in the 1930s, but their recent weaponization of social media has served to make it a hundred or a thousand times more effective. Eric Frank Russell’s 1957 science fiction novel “Wasp,” which I described here, written long before social media was a gleam in anyone’s eye, explains how it works.

Let me quote a recent Reuters report describing the campaign against the US being waged today. I have deleted some references to alleged intervention into elections, which make it harder to see the overall pattern:

One clear sign of the continued Russian commitment to disrupting American political life came out in charges unsealed last month against a Russian woman who serves as an accountant at a St. Petersburg company known as the Internet Research Agency. …

The indictment said the Internet Research Agency used fake social media accountsto post on both sides of politically charged issues including race, gun control and immigration. The instructions were detailed, down to how to mock particular politicians during a specific news cycle. …

If the goals of spreading divisive content have remained the same, the methods have evolved in multiple ways, researchers say. For one, there has been less reliance on pure fiction. People have been sensitized to look for completely false stories, and Facebook has been using outside fact-checkers to at least slow their spread on its pages. …

Instead, Russian accounts have been amplifying stories and internet “memes” that initially came from the U.S. far left or far right. Such postings seem more authentic, are harder to identify as foreign, and are easier to produce than made-up stories. …

“They are baiting Americans to drive more polarizing and vitriolic content” …

One of their objectives is to widen the black/white divide. Blacks are sent the message that they are oppressed, and whites that blacks unfairly get special treatment. There is some truth in both of these contentions – there always is, in good propaganda – but the nature of the messaging is to create anger, indignation, and alienation on both sides.

Almost any controversy can provide an opportunity to fan the flames of anger and hatred. Automated Russian social media “bots” even targeted the debate about vaccinating children against disease.

Jew-hatred is another area that has received a great deal of attention by social media bots. One study indicated that almost 30% of antisemitic tweets in the past year came from bots. Were they Russian-operated? It’s not known for sure, but Russia has been using Jew-hatred as part of its cognitive warfare arsenal since The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was promulgated as a tool to discredit the Bolsheviks around the turn of the 20^th century.

Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh terrorist, was furious about what he believed was a Jewish conspiracy to bring illegal immigrants into the US. His last social media post on Gab (a Twitter alternative that catered to racists, Jew-haters and similar types who would be likely to have their real Twitter accounts shut down) mentioned HIAS, a Jewish organization that aids the resettlement of immigrants in the US. Another congregation that met in the Tree of Life synagogue building had hosted a HIAS event a few weeks prior to the attack. In a sense, the meme about a Jewish plot to dispossess the white race by flooding the country with immigrants provided the ideological impetus for the mass murder.

The meme is a continuation of a theme that may be as old as Jew-hatred itself: the Jew is seen as “mongrelizing” whatever racial or ethnic group the Jew-hater belongs to. Sometimes, as in Nazi Germany, it was the Jew himself that wanted to “pollute” the “pure” German race, and so laws needed to be passed to forbid intercourse between Jews and “Aryans.” During the civil rights movement in America, “Jewish agitators” were accused of supporting integration because it would inevitably lead to interracial sex and marriage, which would be a tragedy for “Southern white womanhood.” Today the alien elements are Hispanics from Central and South America, or Muslims from the Middle East or Africa, but the idea is the same. And its power to evoke violence is apparently undiminished from 1964, when it impelled Klan members in Neshoba County, Mississippi, to brutally murder civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner (the latter two, of course, being Jewish).

The idea of racial pollution did not need to be introduced by a Russian bot, but Bowers and likeminded friends spent a lot of time bouncing ideas like this off one another on social media, which has been turned into an echo chamber for extremists of all kinds – to a great extent by careful prodding from the cognitive warfare experts based at the Russian Internet Research Agency or similar institutions.

While Bowers ultimately bears responsibility for his act and may receive a well-deserved death sentence, there is a sense in which the eleven Jews who were murdered in Pittsburgh were casualties of cognitive warfare directed at the US by a foreign enemy.

Unfortunately for Bowers, “the bots made me do it” is not recognized as a legitimate excuse in federal court.

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11/08 Links Pt1: Dutch MPs call to cut PA funding, following terror survivor’s testimony; The U.S. Must Punish Iran for Its Human-Rights Violations

From Ian:

PMW: Dutch MPs call to cut PA funding, following PMW and terror survivor’s lectures

Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus spoke to members of Dutch Parliament yesterday documenting the many ways in which the Palestinian Authority in itself is the fundamental impediment to peace. Marcus documented PA’s vicious Antisemitism, its indoctrination of children to hatred and terror, as well as the PA's continued monthly payments to terrorist prisoners and families of killed terrorists.

Members of Dutch Parliament expressed their condemnation of these PA activities and discussed steps that should be taken to stop the funding by their own government.

MP Kees van der Staaij: “I think it’s also important to have now further steps [by the Netherlands] and to stop each payment to Palestinians as long as there is no real progress.”
[Parliament of The Netherlands, Nov. 7, 2018]

The MPs were also addressed by Kay Wilson, a British-born Israeli tour guide who survived a brutal terror attack in 2010. Kay was bound, gagged, and stabbed 13 times with a machete and left for dead, while her Christian friend, Kristine Luken, was murdered.

Kay Wilson: “I watched in horror as a Palestinian terrorist butchered my Christian friend to death right in front of me only because he thought she was a Jew. A second Palestinian terrorist stabbed me 13 times with his machete, snapping my ribs and shattered more than thirty bones. The PA’s rewarding of those two killers and all the other thousands of terrorists in prison is both morally abhorrent and incomprehensible.”
[Parliament of The Netherlands, Nov. 7, 2018]

MEMRI: Contrasting Reactions In Arab World To Gulf States' Harbingers Of Normalization With Israel

Three events in three Arab Gulf states in the past week have reflected these countries' process of normalization with Israel. On October 26, 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Oman, accompanied by the head of the Mossad; the visit was extensively covered by Omani media. Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi declared on several occasions that Israel is a Middle Eastern country that must be accepted as such.

On October 25, Israeli Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev arrived in Abu Dhabi to join the Israeli judo team participating in the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam; while Israelis had previously participated in this competition, it was the first time their national symbols were allowed to be displayed. The Israeli anthem was even played twice when Israeli judokas won two gold medals. During Minister Regev's stay in the country, she visited the Sheikh Zayed mosque, named for the founder of the UAE.

The previous week, an Israeli gymnastics team had competed in the 48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Doha, Qatar, under the Israeli national flag.

Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Oman took place a few days after a similar visit by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud 'Abbas. Omani Foreign Minister bin Alawi stated that 'Netanyahu's visit was aimed at presenting the Israelis with ideas to help renew the political process with the Palestinians, but stressed that his country had no intention of serving as a mediator, since that role was reserved for the U.S. Following Netanyahu's Oman visit, the Omanis sent several messages to 'Abbas about it. On October 28, Omani Sultan Qaboos' envoy Salim bin Habib Al-'Omeiri arrived in Ramallah with a letter for 'Abbas, and three days later, on October 31, 'Abbas met with the Omani foreign minister, who conveyed to him a "direct message" from the sultan. The London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported that Oman wanted to play an important role in settling both the Palestinian-U.S. and the Palestinian-Israeli disputes.[1]

Additionally, it has been assessed that Netanyahu's visit also concerned the issue of Iran. The Omani daily Oman reported that Netanyahu and Sultan Qaboos discussed kickstarting the peace process and also "several issues of shared interest that serve security and stability in the region,"[2] perhaps hinting at discussions on that subject.

MEMRI: Kuwaiti Journalist Calls On Arabs To Change Their Attitude Towards Minorities

n a column titled "The Christian Here and the Muslim Over There" in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, liberal journalist Ahmad Al-Sarraf called for greater tolerance towards religious minorities in the Arab world. He recommended to learn from countries like Senegal and Ethiopia, in which members of religious minorities served as heads of state, and from Europe and America, where Muslims serve in prominent positions.

The following are translated excerpts from his article:[1]

"The following text is attributed to the late Sudanese MP Muhammad Ibrahim [Nugud]: 'If a Muslim governs me, this will not guarantee me a place in Paradise; if an infidel governs me, he will not keep me out of Paradise, and if I am governed by one who guarantees employment, freedom and self-respect for me and my children, I will stand up to show him my respect and appreciation.

"'The issue of [attaining] Paradise depends upon my faith and my actions. [So] stop fighting for power in the name of religion, believing that this will lead you to Paradise. The government's job is not to get people into Paradise, but to provide them with a Paradise here on earth, which may help them attain the heavenly Paradise.'

"Reading this text, I remembered the great African poet Leopold Senghor, who served as President of Senegal for 20 years, from October 1960, when [Senegal received its] independence [from France] until 1980, at which time he voluntarily stepped down in favor of his successor, President Abdou Diouf. Senghor is widely regarded as a world-renowned writer and one of the most important African thinkers of the 20th century. Although 94 percent of the Senegalese are Muslim and only 5 percent are Christian, they elected the Christian Leopold Senghor (b. 1906) to be their president, and reelected him several times before he stepped down of his own accord, and died in France in 2001.

One of the issues in Tuesday's midterm elections was the prominence of Democratic candidates who are anti-Israel, thus raising with it the question of Antisemitism. That latter issue was all the more prominent following the massacre of 11 Jews in Pittsburgh.

Perhaps with that in mind, Tablet Magazine concentrated on 8 candidates a week before the election in an article analyzing "eight candidates who have expressed blatantly anti-Semitic views, or who openly associate with anti-Semites." Tablet focuses on 4 Republicans and 4 Democrats and followed up with a second post, reviewing how the 8 candidates faired.

Here are the candidates that Tablet selected:

John Fitzgerald
Republican, California's 11th Congressional District

Fitzgerald made the list because he is a Holocaust Denier:

“Everything we've been told about the Holocaust is a lie,” John Fitzgerald told the Hitler-glorifying radio host Andrew Carrington Hitchcock. “My entire campaign, for the most part, is about exposing this lie.”

Arthur Jones
Republican, Illinois' 3rd Congressional District

Jones was put on the list for the same reason:

A frequent speaker at KKK and Aryan Nation events, Jones isn't as layered and intricate as the other candidates on this list: He's a neo-Nazi who openly celebrates Adolf Hitler, denies the Holocaust, and disapproves of Donald Trump because of the Jewish members of his family.

Rep. Danny K. Davis
Democrat, Illinois' 7th Congressional District

David is one of the 8 because he is a vocal supporter of Farrakhan

“I personally know [Louis Farrakhan], I've been to his home, done meetings, participated in events with him,” Democratic Rep. Danny Davis told The Daily Caller's Peter Hasson. “I don't regard Louis Farrakhan as an aberration or anything, I regard him as an outstanding human being who commands a following of individuals who are learned and articulate and he plays a big role in the lives of thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people.”

...Under pressure from J Street and other progressive organizations, Davis condemned Farrakhan. But it was forced and disingenuous—not least of all because he has in fact been defending Farrakhan and his acolytes since he was an alderman in Chicago

Rep. Andre Carson
Democrat, Indiana's 7th Congressional District

Carson is another supporter of Farrakhan:

Carson is reported to have attended multiple meetings with Farrakhan and has met with the Nation of Islam hate-group leader while in Congress. He also joined New York Rep. Gregory Meeks and current deputy Democratic National Committee chair Rep. Keith Ellison, then a congressman from Minnesota, at a 2013 dinner hosted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Farrakhan was also present at that dinner.

Carson also joined Ellison in visiting Farrakhan at his hotel room, Farrakhan said in December 2016, and he appears to look forward to continuing his visits.

Rep. Steve King
Republican, Iowa's 4th Congressional District

Tablet links King's racism to his support for the mayor of Toronto:

His bigotry knows no borders, as evidenced by his endorsement of a virulent anti-Semite named Faith Goldy for mayor of Toronto...
In an April interview, she recommended For My Legionaries, a book by a Romanian fascist that repeatedly assails the alleged “parasitism of the Jews” and calls to combat “the Jewish menace.”

Lena Epstein
Republican, Michigan's 11th Congressional District

Epstein's claim to the list lies not on what she said, but on what she did in addressing the massacre of Jews in Pittsburgh:

It was Lena Epstein who chose to invite a non-Jewish “messianic” rabbi to her campaign event outside Detroit on Monday to pray for the victims of Saturday's massacre in Pittsburgh. She has since doubled down on defending that decision.

Ilhan Omar
Democrat, Minnesota's 5th Congressional District

While referencing Omar's comments about Israel, Tablet focuses on her tweet from 2012:

As a Minnesota state representative, Ilhan Omar was a fierce and consistent critic of Israel as well as an enthusiastic advocate of restoring America's diplomatic ties with Iran. Neither of these positions is inherently anti-Semitic, and Omar enjoys the support of leading Democrats, including Sen. Chuck Schumer.

But in May, a conservative political writer from Minnesota resurfaced a noxious 2012 tweet of Omar's:

The language here is of vital importance since the idea that Jews, or Jewish entities, control the world via mystical, dark powers is a staple of anti-Semitic conspiracy thought, as illustrated by these bigoted cartoons from different anti-Jewish sources in the last century:

...But, again, narrowly political positions about how to address the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians—including Tlaib's—are not inherently anti-Semitic. But it is textbook anti-Semitism to attribute supernatural—and thus unseen, and consequently terrifying—powers to Jews or the Jewish state.

Leslie Cockburn
Democrat, Virginia's 5th Congressional District

Cockburn is on the list because of her husband, an anti-Israel conspiracy theorist, whose book she co-authored:

Leslie Cockburn is the co-author, with her husband, the notorious Israel-hating British conspiracy theorist Andrew Cockburn, of Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship.

The book accuses Jews of global power and influence, involved in everything evil that occurs in the world.

Bottom line we have:

2 Holocaust Deniers
2 Farrakhan Supporters
1 White Supremacist
1 Supporter of a Messianic Jew
1 Anti-Israel Muslim
1 Conspiracy Theorist

How do you think each of them did?

Keep in mind that the selection of 8 candidates is itself a small pool and Tablet does not claim their list is exhaustive. Clearly, they wanted to show fairness and selected an equal number of Republicans and Democrats.

Also, one can question who was included in -- and excluded from -- the list.

For example, while the Republican party withdrew its support from Steve King in October, his racism seems more obvious than his Antisemitism. It is odd they can only prove his Antisemitism from his association with Goldy, who forms the bulk of Tablet's proof of his Antisemitism, and not from his own consistent statements. But a racist is a racist.

Lena Epstein seems an odd choice among Holocaust Deniers and Farrakhan Supporters. The title of the Tablet article is "Citizens Must Know if Their Political Candidates Hold Hateful Views," and adding Epstein to the list seems a bit of a stretch.

Tablet does add Ilhan Omar, who belongs on the list based on her tweet. They are careful to make the point that not all anti-Israel criticism is automatically Antisemitism - and of course, they are right. But it is a fine line, all the more so when they refer to the controversial Rashida Tlaib as an example of someone who is anti-Israel but not Antisemitic. Many will argue on applying that distinction to Tlaib.

Let's get to the election results.

Trying to tie how each did in the election with their Antisemitism obviously requires a good deal of generalizing. We are not taking into account important factors such as their party, the state they campaigned in and obviously who their opponent was.

But maybe we can still tease out some patterns.

Name	Party	Form of Antisemitism	Won/Lost
John Fitzgerald	Republican	Holocaust Denier	Lost
Arthur Jones	Republican	Holocaust Denier	Lost
Danny K. Davis	Democrat	Farrakhan Supporter	Won
Andre Carson	Democrat	Farrakhan Supporter	Won
Steve King	Republican	White Supremacist	Won
Lena Epstein	Republican	Gave Platform to Messianic Jew	Lost
Ilhan Omar	Democrat	Anti-Israel Muslim	Won
Leslie Cockburn	Democrat	Conspiracy Theorist	Lost

Some conclusions we can draw:

o Holocaust Denial is still not fashionable.

o Farrakhan is still made of Teflon, and no matter how vicious his Antisemitic statements get, both he and those who praise and associate with him are immune from the consequences.

o Being a White Supremacist may rankle, but apparently, if racist statements are not constant enough to make a negative impression, and they are made in the context of policy and politics - it is possible to get away with it.

o I doubt that Epstein's misstep was responsible for her loss - it was perceived more as a careless mistake and not as an actual attack or statement. Besides, people were more eager to blame Pence.

o An Arab making anti-Israel statements gets a certain degree of Proteksia. People will bend over backward defending her right to attack Israel.

o Finally, a conspiracy theorist is still a conspiracy theorist. It may not have hurt her that much in the election, but it did not help.

One thing seems clear.

We can see what kind of politics are not trending.
But we can also see what politicians can get away with.

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