Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Euronews bizarrely publishes tweet by antisemite Latuff that undercuts story about antisemitism in France

Euronews covered the recent startling statistics showing how antisemitism has skyrocketed in France this year.

The video accompanying the report notes that the rise is mostly due to Muslim attackers.

(I haven't see anyone blame Trump for this yet.)

Euronews chose two tweets to illustrate the article. The first one comes from StandWithUs and describes how armed guards are now necessary to protect Jewish schools, synagogues and community centers in Europe.

Security is important, but only part of the equation. 🇮🇱 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇳🇴 🇸🇪 🇩🇰 🇳🇱 🇺🇸
It's time for a zero tolerance approach to #antisemitism.#usa #germany #france #sweden #israel #norway #denmark #pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/SkeGfMFrrk
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) October 29, 2018

It is quite appropriate for the article.

But then it embedded a tweet by antisemitic cartoonist Carlos Latuff, praising a French graffiti artist for reproducing one of his cartoons where Jews supposedly label everything antisemitic when it is really "merely" anti-Israel.

I commented:

What the hell prompted you to illustrate this with a tweet by antisemitic artist Latuff?

He has compared Jews to Nazis many times in his artwork, and he was a runner up in Iran's cartoon contest to lampoon the Holocaust.

There is no doubt that the attacks against Jews in France in recent years have nothing to do with Israel, yet you choose to push this disgusting artist's tweet that praises graffiti in France that minimizes real antisemitic attacks as somehow being the Jews' fault?

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Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, gave a speech on Saturday for "Martyr's Day."

As usual, the man who no longer appears in public out of fear of being assassinated by Israel spoke about how Israel should be frightened of him.

He described how integral Hezbollah's missiles are to the movement.

Experts estimate that Hezbollah has as many as 140,000 missiles aimed at all of Israel, and according to a recent report by retired US military experts, “Today, Hezbollah possesses more firepower than 95 percent of the world’s conventional militaries, and more rockets and missiles than all European NATO members combined.”

Nasrallah, responding to recent reports that Israel warned Lebanon that it might strike Hezbollah's missile factories, said the “the source of our strength are our missiles because the Lebanese army is not allowed to acquire advanced missiles.”

Moreover, in a section of the speech not translated to English, he said that neither intimidation nor sanctions against Iran, Hezbollah's sponsor, would affect Hezbollah's missile arsenal. "If we must sell our homes" to maintain the missile force, we will do so, he said.

No sovereign nation on Earth would tolerate an independent military that is far more powerful than its own. Lebanon has lost its sovereignty to Iran a long time ago.

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11/10 Links: Glick: J Street, NIF Accused Trump of Antisemitism While Boosting Antisemitic Terrorists; Middle Eastern Christians Are Under Threat. How do They Feel about Jews and Israel?

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: J Street, NIF Accused Trump of Antisemitism While Boosting Antisemitic Terrorists

Having made his unsupported accusation, Ben-Ami proceeded to make a pitch for donations for J Street and for Democratic candidates supported by J Street.

Whereas there is no evidence that Trump has incited or empowered or otherwise engaged in actions that provided any support for Bowers, there is direct evidence that Ben-Ami and his organization have tolerated antisemitic mass murderers.

Just a week-and-a-half before the massacre in Pittsburgh, on October 17, Ben-Ami and the senior J Street leadership met with and expressed support for the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. Among those they met was the PA’s Minister of Civil Affairs, Hussein al-Sheikh.

As Stephen Flatow reported, before assuming his current position, al-Sheikh was a senior terror commander for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade of Fatah, the PA’s ruling faction, headed by Mahmoud Abbas. In the framework of his duties, al-Sheikh paid for and provided arms to terrorists who used the money and the arms he provided to murder and maim Jews – including American Jews.

On March 21, 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber from the Aksa Martyr Brigades detonated in downtown Jerusalem. Three people were killed in the blast, including Tzippi Shemesh, who was five months pregnant with twins. A hundred people were wounded. As Flatow relates, among the seriously wounded were U.S. citizen Alan Bauer and his seven-year-old son Jonathan. Bauer was hurled twenty feet by the force of the explosion.

“Two screws that were packed into the bomb ripped clear through his left arm. … Jonathan suffered severe shrapnel wounds and fell into a coma. Jonathan subsequently underwent numerous operations to remove nails and screws from his head, including one that was lodged in his brain.”

Elliott Abrams: American Jews and Israel

Everyone knows that American Jews are becoming increasingly distant from and disenchanted with the State of Israel. Articles and books expound on this subject regularly. And everyone knows why: Israel's right-wing government and its policy of expanding settlements, and Israel's maltreatment of non-Orthodox strains of Judaism are repeatedly mentioned as the key explanations.

But it seems that what everyone knows is simply wrong--and oddly enough we learn this from none other than the left-wing Jewish group called J Street. J Street has for several elections cycles done a post-election survey of American Jews, and this year's is found here. The poll found that Jews called themselves Democrats rather than Republicans by a 76-19 percent ratio, which is close to what many other polls have found. What did respondents say about Israel?

The survey asked "Compared to 5-10 years ago, do you feel more positive, more negative, or about the same toward Israel?" The result: 55 percent said about the same, 26 percent said more positive, and 19 percent said more negative. Respondents were asked "Does the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank make you feel positive about Israel, negative about Israel, or have no impact on how you feel about Israel?" The result: 48 percent said not had no impact at all, 32 percent said a negative impact, and 19 percent said expansion of settlements had a positive impact on them.

Perhaps most strikingly, respondents were asked "How much have you heard about Israeli policy towards the non-Orthodox population, such as who can pray at the Western Wall, who can perform marriage ceremonies, who can grant divorces, and who can convert to Judaism?" This has been a source of constant controversy, especially with the largest denomination among American Jews, the Reform movement. Only 14 percent of respondents had heard "a great deal" about all of this, and another 21 percent said they had heard "a good amount" (whatever that actually means). But 32 percent said they had heard only "a little" about it and a remarkable 34 percent had heard nothing at all. J Street's poll adds those numbers up and notes in bold print that 35 percent say they have heard a good or great deal about the great controversy, while 65 percent have heard little or just plain nothing.

Those numbers cannot have made J Street's publicists very happy, nor can they cheer the propagandists who are constantly telling us that such Israeli actions (or more narrowly, Netanyahu policies) are simply ruining relations between the American Jewish community and Israel. But relations are not ruined and more people said they felt more positive about Israel now than said the opposite--with most saying their views had not changed. And the impact of the great brouhaha about treatment of non-orthodox Judaism turns out to be exaggerated. Of the 35 percent who have heard a lot about the matter, half say it makes them feel more negative toward Israel; the other half are divided between 22 percent who say it makes them feel more positive and 28 percent who say it doesn't matter. Do the math: while the treatment of non-Orthodox angers some American Jews, the great majority don't know and/or don't care.

How an Iranian asylum seeker raised over $1,000,000 for the Pittsburgh synagogue

Khashayar “Shay” Khatiri doesn’t like taking too much credit for the money he raised for the Pittsburgh synagogue where a shooting took place last month.

“It’s not my fundraiser,” Khatiri, 29, said in a phone interview with JTA on Thursday. “It’s the fundraiser that I started, but it belongs to everybody who donated.”

The Iran native and Washington, DC, resident has made headlines across the country for helping to raise over $1 million in the aftermath of the shooting, in which a gunman killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Congregation.

Khatiri, who is not Jewish, says that he was moved to action shortly after learning about the shooting. The graduate student was staying at a Jewish friend’s apartment on the morning of the deadly attack.
A Jewish emergency crew and police officers at the site of the mass shooting that killed 11 people and wounded 6 at the Tree Of Life Synagogue on October 28, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images/via JTA)

“I woke up, and she gave me the news and it was very upsetting,” recalled Khatiri, who is seeking political asylum in the United States due to his political activism against the Iranian government.

Khatiri, who is studying at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, initially told his friend that he wanted to donate directly to the synagogue.

“I told her I was going to give a little money, a small amount, to the congregation, but then I thought to maybe do this in the hope of it going viral and actually have a big impact,” he said.

The Women's March posted on Facebook:

Women’s March wouldn’t exist without the leadership of women of color, and we stand with Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory. Women's March leaders reject anti-Semitism in all its forms.

We recognize the danger of hate rhetoric by public figures. We want to say emphatically that we do not support or endorse statements made by Minister Louis Farrakhan about women, Jewish and LGBTQ communities.

It's important to remember that many on the right are thrilled to use any tool they can find to divide and undermine our movement -- one that inspired the #WomensWave we saw this week in the midterm elections.

Our women of color leaders at the Women’s March have risked their safety to build a bold direct action strategy that addresses the real threat against our communities and country - the threat of white nationalism, which is fueled by anti-Black racism and anti-Semitism.

We all know the real cause of violence and oppression of our communities. This is well-documented and inspired by vile rhetoric coming from the Trump administration and from members of the Republican Party.

Let's compare this statement with the Women's March statement about Harvey Weinstein:

This is an important day in terms of visibility for all women whose lives have been devastated because of the actions of Harvey Weinstein. We seek justice for women and all people who have been harassed and abused in the workplace. No person should be violated at work, or anywhere else. Ever. Toxic masculinity and misogyny can no longer be ignored or tolerated at the workplace or any other place in society.

If they are really against antisemitism as they claim to be, then they should be treating Farrakhan the same way they treat Harvey Weinstein.

Compare their statements about Harvey Weinstein and Louis Farrkhan.

They aren't saying that they "don't support or endorse" Weinstein's apparent actions. They are saying that misogyny cannot be tolerated anywhere in society, period. They do not make any statement close to that about antisemitism.

Weinstein is persona non grata among feminists. For good reason. But Farrakhan is free to do what he wants, and the Women's March leaders are free to admire him, and they will get support from their movement.

Oh, you might argue, Farrakhan also does good things and that counteracts his hate? Well, here is a list of good liberal causes that Harvey Weinstein publicly supported:

American Foundation for AIDS Research

Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation

Exploring The Arts

GLAAD

GLSEN

LeBron James Family Foundation

Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation

Oceana

Robin Hood

UNICEF

Would anyone even pretend that this makes up for his misogyny?

Even worse in their statement about Farrakhan is that the statement isn't about Farrakhan. The Women's March waters it down by saying that those who think that their leaders should dissociate from a rabid Jew-hater are the evil ones - "many on the right" who are "thrilled" to use Farrakhan to divide and undermine their movement.

The statement is not primarily against Farrakhan but against those who are disgusted by Farrakhan's antisemitism.

Does that include Alyssa Milano?

The statement isn't a full throated condemnation of Farrakhan's hate. It is an excuse to go after the "right" - the real evil people in their minds.

If the Women's March truly cared about antisemitism then Farrakhan would be treated with as much disgust at Weinstein. But it doesn't care about antisemitism, it only cares about right-wing antisemitism. One chapter issued a statement about Kristallnacht as if to make up for criticism of its stance on Farrakhan, but no....it takes no bravery to say that you find Nazis to be contemptible. It takes real bravery to go after the people you claim are your natural allies against oppression - people of color and Muslims, in the case of the Women's March - when they are shown to have viewpoints equally as repugnant.

When they become truly color blind and recognize that all hate is equally unacceptable, when they apologize for mainstreaming Farrakhan's hate while issuing lukewarm denunciations of specific topics they disagree with him on, then they might be able to claim that they are against all forms of racism, sexism and discrimination.

As it is, their statement blaming the "right" for trying to divide them indicates that they are just a political organization, not a human rights organization. This statement is a way to cover for their leaders, not a fearless condemnation of all forms of bigotry.

The Women's March leaders are not brave at all. They are very afraid of upsetting people of color and Muslims. They are only "brave" when it comes to confronting white males and Jews.

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11/09 Links Pt2: 80th Anniversary of Kristallnacht; Natan Sharansky: All People Want to Be Free and They Want to Belong; My journey into the darkest depths of British antisemitism

From Ian:

Natan Sharansky: All People Want to Be Free and They Want to Belong

Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident, refusenik, Israeli government minister and chairman of the Jewish Agency, spoke this week with the Jerusalem Post about national identity. Sharansky asserts that not all populist parties should automatically be rejected by Israel, and that there are objective tests by which such parties can be evaluated.

"Do they support Holocaust deniers? Do they support legislation against Jewish life, ritual slaughter and circumcision? Do they use anti-Semitic stereotypes?" He points to his three Ds definition of anti-Semitism - demonization, delegitimization and double standards toward either Jews as people or the State of Israel - as a good barometer.

"After the Second World War, there was a lot of anger against nationalism, and it turned into a philosophy that nationalism brings about fascism, and that we in Europe had a few hundred years of religious wars and then national wars, and that the time had come to be above religion and nationalism. The dream was a world where there was nothing to fight over and nothing to die for, but it meant that there was also nothing to live for."

"We must remember that all people have two basic feelings: they want to be free and want to belong, and we should not weaken their feeling of belonging. Patriotism, nationalism and religious belief can be very positive and a very necessary part of building our liberal world. When we take it away from our liberal world, then at some moment liberalism will become a hated word by everybody who is looking for their national identity."

"The reaction to the First World War and the Second World War was to erase all identities, and the result was a decadent society with almost no values. Now there is overreaction to reestablish identity, and you're afraid of every foreigner, and there is a danger there [as well]. The sooner we will bring these two extremes together and people will be able to enjoy a liberal-democratic, national world, the better."

Melanie Phillips: As I see it: How Pittsburgh has deepened the chasm dividing American Jews

For Diaspora Jews, the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre has felt like a family bereavement.

Among Jews in America, the trauma has been profound. Their sense of inviolability has been shattered. The fact that Jews were gunned down in the sacred space of a synagogue service has caused even greater torment.

Yet in the midst of the communal grief, something has surely been overlooked. In 2014, six were gunned down and murdered in Jerusalem’s Har Nof synagogue. Attacks on Jews in Israel are relentless. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has said it foiled 480 terrorist attacks in the last year.

Of course, an atrocity nearer to home always feels worse. But there are other echoes.

Israel is subjected to relentless lies, selective reporting and twisting of events. Much the same has been done to President Trump after the Pittsburgh atrocity. And just as with the demonization of Israel, some of those responsible for this have themselves been Jews.

Peter Beinart is a journalist who attacks Israel through distorted, hate-fueled writing. After Pittsburgh, he did the same thing to Trump.

Beinart claimed that the antisemitism which fueled the Pittsburgh shooter, Robert Bowers, was “an inevitable byproduct of the nativist conservatism being championed by President Trump.”

To support this claim, he made two leaps of logic: That Trump’s “nativism” was racist, and that this racism provokes antisemitism. Both assertions are false.

Pittsburgh Penguins raise $350,000 for synagogue shooting victims

The Pittsburgh Penguins donated nearly $350,000 Thursday to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh to benefit victims and families of the shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, the professional ice hockey team announced.

The team, its foundation, fans and corporate partners have been raising money through its "Stronger Than Hate" campaign since the Oct. 27 shootings. Eleven people were killed and six others were injured.

The Penguins committed $50,000, then raised the rest through auctions, sales of "Stronger Than Hate" patches, a text-to-donate program and an in-arena collection.

In all, the team so far has raised $348,705.

In addition, the team has pledged $200,000 to the newly created Public Safety Support Trust Fund in the city, which will benefit first responders.

Ice cream is something I used to think of as a luxury item. I needed someone else to make it. I had to pay the prices they dictated. I was glad that it’s not cheap because it made it easier not to have the delicious fat-making stuff around.

Now there is ice-cream in my house all the time. I make it myself.

Even before Ben & Jerry’s “PeCAN Resist” I saw some research about ice-cream and it turns out that most of the ice cream brands on offer in the stores don’t have a lot of actual ice cream in them. They are full of sugar and chemicals and sometimes there is no cream at all!

In Israel Ben & Jerry’s and Häagen-Dazs are the higher quality brands that are actual ice-cream. Both are expensive and come in small containers that if you have three grown men in your house is a completely irrelevant portion size.

Recently the always political Ben & Jerry’s went over the top. It is one thing to be left-leaning in politics. Ben & Jerry have the right to infuse politics in their business as much as they please but for Jews concerned with the rise of Antisemitism around the world and particularly in America, this step was too much.

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Director of Special Projects Elizabeth Berney, Esq. released the following statement:

Appallingly, Ben and Jerry’s has given the public a new reason to not buy their fat-and-sugar-laden and unhealthy ice cream: A new Ben and Jerry’s flavor called “PeCAN Resist” supports unsavory hate-promoting, violence-promoting, anti-Semitic political groups, including: the Israel-bashing “Women’s March” along with its Jew-hating, violence-promoting, anti-Israel boycott-promoting leaders Linda Sarsour and Farrakhan associate Tamika Mallory; “Color of Change,” which is running a campaign promoting Maxine Waters’ call for harassment and incivility; and a subsidiary of “Progress Texas” which is demonizing pro-Israel Senator Ted Cruz as a subhuman monster. This is frankly sickening and frightening, especially so soon after the Pittsburgh Synagogue massacre and other appalling anti-Semitic and violent incidents.

It is deeply painful that Ben & Jerry’s heads Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield – who are Jewish – are promoting, financially supporting and taking a smiling picture with Jew-haters such as Linda Sarsour, who promote massacres (the intifada) and boycotts against Ben & Jerry’s fellow Jews. Ben & Jerry’s insensitive, alarming and downright dangerous promotion has been correctly widely criticized, including in Israel and by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

So, here’s the thing. You don’t need Ben & Jerry’s in order to have good ice cream. If you have a mixer in your house, you can make your own ice cream, any time you want.

You don’t need an ice cream maker. You don’t need anything special at all. This is what you need:

· 1 mixer

· Whipping cream

· Concentrated milk

· Your choice of flavoring

Flavors:

The favorites in my house are coffee and vanilla chocolate chip. We also make chocolate with Oreos and rum and raisins. You can make any flavor you like, add fruit or whatever is yummy in your tummy.

The base for every ice cream is the same. You control how sweet it is according to the proportions of ingredients you use.

This is how it’s done:

Whip cream until firm – I use a container of 500ml.

Mix in condensed milk – I use 1/3 of this 397gr tin (see photo).

*Amounts make 1 liter of ice cream

The principle of the proportions is -
Condensed milk is very sweet, the more you add the sweeter your ice cream will be.

It also effects the texture of the ice cream when it’s frozen. The more condensed milk, the softer the ice cream will be after it’s frozen.

When these are whipped together, you have the base of your ice cream. Now it’s time to add your flavor of choice:

· Vanilla extract + chocolate shavings makes vanilla chocolate chip.

· Cocoa powder makes your base chocolaty and then you can add cookies, chocolate, nuts or anything else you like.

· Add instant coffee to make coffee flavored ice cream – we like ours strong so I add 3 tablespoons.

· For rum & raisins I make a vanilla base and then add raisins that were presoaked in rum (or rum extract).

Try it! If you make a different flavor, let me know how you did it!

Warning: readily available yummy ice cream can make people fat.

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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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