Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Returning Home: Berkeley Teen Olah Makes Film about the Aliyah Experience (Judean Rose)

Sisters Millea Kenin, Director of Returning Home, (right) and Chanah Ella Kenin, who stars as Eliana (left).

Returning Home is a short film depiction of what it is like to be an American Olah or immigrant to Israel, as a teenager. The challenges are specific. Teen Olim may have a close-knit group of friends they were forced to leave behind in the States, perhaps friends they grew up with. Teenage immigrants may feel alienated from their new, Hebrew-speaking classmates and by Israeli teen culture, in general. Language is often a problem. And sometimes, the choice to come live in Israel is not made by teenage Olim, but by their parents.

Basically, teenage aliyah is teenage angst on steroids.

Millea Kenin, a senior at Oriyah High School in Gush Etzion, made aliyah from Berkeley, California in 2019. At Oriyah, Kenin had the opportunity to choose filmmaking as her study track. The teenager attended film classes for three years, learning to make music videos, short films, and more.

As part of the curriculum for the Oriyah film elective, Millea Kenin directed the short movie, Returning Home, written and created by her and three of her classmates. Being in their senior year, the film was the students’ final project for the program. (Names of the full production crew are in the youtube video description, in Hebrew.)

Asked if Returning Home was based on the Berkeley teen’s personal Aliyah journey, Millea said, “The film was inspired by some of my own experiences, but isn’t specific to my experience. It’s made for all Olim to relate to.”

Millea was the only immigrant among the film producers. But there is another teenage immigrant involved with the film. Chanah Ella Kenin, younger sister of Millea, plays the part of lonely alienated teen immigrant Eliana. Her performance was so genuine and credible, that after seeing the film, her mom Naama—also in the film—came up to Chanah Ella and apologized for making her make Aliyah. The brave teen responded, “It’s okay. I’d totally do it again.”

Likes (at the youtube page) and shares would be much appreciated by these ambitious and talented teen filmmakers.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

05/25 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: Israeli power is the foundation for regional peace; EU envoy: ‘No such thing as Area A and B, it’s all Palestine’; Iran unveils Khaybar missile capable of reaching Israel

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Israeli power is the foundation for regional peace

In all cases, the Arab states that have made formal peace deals with Israel in the past did so because Israel had something to give them. With both the Abraham Accords and Israel’s peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt, by making peace with Israel, the Arab states received better ties with the United States.

Today, the Biden administration is moved far more by its domestic constituents who are hostile to Israel than by U.S. strategic interests as those were understood by the United States until the Obama administration. As a result, the Biden administration is adopting policies that are hostile to both Israel and Saudi Arabia, and to peace between them. Biden’s refusal to date to host Netanyahu at the White House is a graphic demonstration of his administration’s hostile bent.

Netanyahu cannot deliver the concessions Washington is demanding. If he accepts the U.S./Saudi demand to give the Palestinians security powers in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem that Israel holds, Israel will undermine its national security and endanger its national interests. If Netanyahu agrees to cancel his efforts to reform the legal system, he will destabilize his government.

Moreover, given the current anti-Saudi bent among Democrats, Netanyahu will be hard-pressed to persuade Biden to agree to MBS’s demands.

To foster peace with Saudi Arabia, Israel has to do what it has been doing all along: serve as a block on Iran’s rise. Israel’s ties with Saudi Arabia were forged in 2013 as a result of Obama’s realignment towards Iran and away from Saudi Arabia and Israel. The Saudis saw that Israel was steady in its opposition to Iran’s empowerment and that it was militarily and technologically competent to prevent Iran from becoming the regional hegemon. To protect themselves, the Saudis set aside their longtime hatred of the Jewish state and began supporting its efforts to defeat Iran’s Palestinian proxies and sabotage its nuclear program and nuclear diplomacy.

The way to transform these sub rosa ties into an above-the-table alliance is for Israel to undermine Iran’s power. Israel doesn’t need to take military action to accomplish this goal. The best way to avoid a devastating regional war with Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and Syria is for Israel to help the Iranian people to overthrow the regime.

A “highly confidential” IRGC document leaked this week to Radio Free Europe documents concern among senior regime officials that the country is on the verge of an “explosion,” with civil unrest reaching a crescendo. Nearly every day, more industrial plants blow up. Workers strike. And even as the regime ratchets up its execution of protesters, the protests continue. An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base was bombed earlier this month. IRGC forces are under attack on the roads and in their bases.

Israeli support for striking Iranian workers and sabotage of Iranian military installations will go a long way towards destabilizing the regime and empowering the people rising up against it.

Such action, in turn, will demonstrate both Israel’s power and its importance as a regional power, drawing its neighbors, first and foremost Saudi Arabia, closer to Jerusalem.

This may cause MBS to conclude that he wants to directly negotiate a peace with Israel without preconditions. It may cause Biden to drop his demands for mediation. It may convince another party to step into the breach and mediate an accord. Whatever the case, destabilizing the Iranian regime and empowering the Iranian people will strengthen Israel, diminish the chances of regional war and so stabilize the region far more than paying an unwarranted price for a paper peace.

US, Israeli diplomats slam Abbas, as potential UN blacklist worries Jerusalem

The American ambassador to the United Nations blasted the Palestinian Authority’s leader during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday morning.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield chastised P.A. head Mahmoud Abbas for his incendiary speech during the U.N.’s “Nakba Day” event on May 15.

Thomas-Greenfield said that Abbas’s equivocation of Israel “with the lies of infamous Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels” was a “gross affront to Holocaust victims and survivors.”

She added that making such a statement “about the world’s only Jewish state is entirely unacceptable, especially during a time of rising antisemitic violence around the world.”

In that speech, Abbas aired out a list of grievances he said contributed to the Palestinians’ current predicament, including a claim that the United States and the United Kingdom sent their Jews to the Land of Israel in order to benefit their own countries.

Thomas-Greenfield said on May 24 that Abbas’s rhetoric was “totally without basis and it is deeply offensive to the American people.”

Notably, the United States was among 45 countries that did not attend the “Nakba Day” event, according to the Israeli mission to the United Nations, and no U.S. State Department officials met with Abbas during his trip. No senior U.N. officials met with him either.

Israeli officials met UN chief on Children and Armed Conflict blacklist

Israeli officials pushing to ensure that the Jewish state is not blacklisted in the United Nation's Children and Armed Conflict report due to be published in the coming months met this week with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“There is, understandably, a lot of interest in different parts of that report,” Guterres’ spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Wednesday when quizzed about the meeting.

“I just ask for everybody's patience to wait” for the report’s release “which should be late June or early July,” he added.

Involvement of UN Ambassador from Israel Gilad Erdan
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Major General Ghassan Alian spoke with Guterres in New York on Tuesday to provide him with data regarding Palestinian casualties during IDF military operations in advance of the report’s release.

“We presented the Secretary-General with clear data proving that the majority of Palestinian minors killed in the past year were involved in acts of violence and terrorism,” Erdan said.

“This information was omitted from the UN data, along with the fact that terrorist organizations use Palestinian children as human shields and fire missiles and rockets from densely populated areas,” he added.

"Whoever is responsible for the incitement and recruitment of minors for murder and terrorism is the one who should be included on the blacklist, not the IDF, which is the most moral army in the world,” Erdan stated.

Israeli officials similarly provided such information to the special representative of the UN secretary-general for children and armed conflict Virginia Gamba when she visited Israel in December. Neither Erdan's office nor the IDF has released that data to the public.

The UN had warned Israel and the Palestinian Authority last year that both governments could be blacklisted in this year’s report if steps were not taken to protect children in armed conflict.

EU envoy: ‘No such thing as Area A and B, it’s all Palestine’

German diplomat Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, who represents the European Union in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, said on Wednesday during a visit to Samaria, “There is no such thing as Area B and C, it’s all Palestine.”

Areas A, B, and C are three administrative zones in Judea and Samaria established under the Oslo Accords. Area A is under Palestinian Authority civil and security control. Area B is governed by P.A. civil control but joint Israeli-Palestinian security. Area C, roughly 60% of the area, is fully under Israeli civil and military control.

Von Burgsdorff also said that “what we’re seeing in Homesh is not just a violation of international law … it’s a violation of Israeli domestic law.”

He was referencing the Knesset’s vote in March to repeal articles of a 2005 law banning Israelis from residing in the four communities in northern Samaria—Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim—that were evacuated during the disengagement.

The E.U. on Wednesday issued a statement saying it is “gravely concerned by and condemns the decision of the Israeli authorities to allow Israeli citizens to establish permanent presence in the outpost in Homesh.”

Von Burgsdorff made his comments during a tour for senior E.U. diplomats organized by three Israeli NGOs opposed to Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria—Peace Now, Yesh Din and Emek Shaveh.

I was reminded of a famous Midrash:

A certain Jew passed before Hadrian and greeted him.

[Hadrian] asked him: ‘Who are you?’ He said to him: ‘A Jew.’ He said to him: ‘Is there a Jew who passes before Hadrian and greets him?’ [Hadrian] said [to his men]: ‘Go and behead him.’

Another [Jew] passed, who saw what had befallen the one who preceded him, and he did not greet him. [Hadrian] asked him: ‘Who are you?’ He said to him: ‘A Jew.’ He said to him: ‘Is there a Jew who passes before Hadrian and does not greet him?’ [Hadrian] said to [his men]: ‘Go and behead him.’

His advisers said to him: ‘We do not understand these actions that you are performing. One who greets you is executed and one who does not greet you is executed?’ He said to them: ‘Do you seek to advise me how I am supposed to execute my enemies?’

Today as well, Israel is considered guilty no matter what it does - and the justifications come later.

The only difference is that today Hadrian would have a team of lawyers and academics who would write reports and papers explaining from a human rights perspective why a Jew greeting the emperor deserves the death penalty. And then they would write another set of reports and papers describing why a Jew not greeting him is a grave violation of the law as well and must be executed.

And Hadrian would have another set of publicity experts to explain to the media why these actions are not antisemitic, and how Hadrian isn't treating Jews any differently from anyone else, it is just that the Jews who greet him and don't greet him have some other attribute - perhaps curly hair, perhaps an offensive headcovering - that explains fully why they should be beheaded, but not others. And to point out that there are some good Jews that Hadrian hadn't beheaded yet which proves that he is not an antisemite.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Arab News parrots Palestinian lies about the Temple Mount. Lying reporter has written for major news media.

The biography of Mohammed Najib says he "a journalist, war correspondent and defense analyst based in Ramallah, Palestine. He reports and writes on the Middle East region for leading newspapers and journals like The Jerusalem Post, Yomiuri Shimbon, Le Monde, Special Operations Report, the Wall Street Journal and Jane’s Information Group."

He is a Palestinian based in Ramallah.

Judging from this article in the Saudi-based Arab News, he has no business pretending to be any kind of journalist. The article is filled with absolute lies and Palestinian propaganda.

Palestinians are outraged by the Israeli government’s move to hold a weekly Cabinet meeting on May 21 inside the tunnels it has dug under Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel has not dug a single tunnel underneath the Temple Mount or under the mosque. All the tunnels that archaeologists have uncovered and excavated are adjacent to the Mount, or stretch hundreds of meters away from it.

For decades, Israel has been excavating under Al-Aqsa as part of a vague, historically motivated search for “Solomon’s Temple” in an attempt to justify the occupation through archeology.

However, after years of digging, Israelis, who claim they can trace their heritage to the land of Palestine, have found nothing linking their history to the Al-Aqsa region.

The only people who have excavated underneath the Temple Mount since the 19th century have been the Muslims of the Waqf.

They dug out hundreds of tons of debris removed to illegally build the huge underground Marwani Mosque at the site of what was (erroneously) called Solomon's Stables.

It was the biggest archaeological crime of the century.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project has been going through the truckfuls of debris - and found countless Judean artifacts from the times of the First and Second Temples.

One example is this bulla inscribed with the name of a well-known priestly family of First Temple-era Jerusalem, the children of Immer.

They also found the distinctive Herodian tiles from the Second Temple period. So we know Herod built something big there - now what structure could it have possibly been and described in detail by Josephus?

Najib is a liar.

Dozens of far-right Israelis visit the Al-Aqsa compound daily to show defiance and provoke Palestinians.

No, they (and visitors like me) visit to be at Judaism's holiest spot - a small fact that Najib doesn't mention to the readers.

In July 2017, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee issued a decision affirming that Israel has no sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967. It condemned the excavations carried out by the Israeli Antiquities Department in the city.

UNESCO never condemned the Temple Mount excavations by the waqf - which continued on into the 21st century.

Ikrima Sabri, a preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque, said that Israel was carrying out comprehensive excavations in the entire area, including the surroundings of Al-Aqsa.

Sabri said the main objective of these excavations “is to search for antiquities belonging to the Jews, but they have not yet found any antiquities or stones related to ancient Jewish history, despite the extensive excavations that have been taking place since the city’s occupation in 1967.”

Besides the examples listed above, and the Temple Mount itself which can be seen to have been built and expanded by Jews, here is a photo of the beams on the roof of the Al Aqsa Mosque that were exposed when it collapsed in the 1927 earthquake.

The beams were removed and, decades later, examined with carbon-14 dating. Some date from the Second Temple and even First Temple periods, and they are cedar and cypress from Lebanon - used in the Temples and repurposed for a Byzantine church on the site and later for Al Aqsa.

This is serious evidence of a major 3,000 year old structure on the Temple Mount. If there is a serious theory that these belong to another ancient building, let's hear it. Especially since the stones of the retaining wall itself show clearly that they were built in different time periods corresponding to the known building and extensions of the Mount.

About 12 tunnels have been dug under Al-Aqsa, some reaching 450 meters in length. The excavation has led to the systematic destruction of many antiquities above and below the ground from all periods — from the Umayyad to the Ottoman

On the contrary: Israeli archaeologists have not only preserved Muslim buildings and artifacts - there are plenty in the Israel Museum which gives them as much prominence as the Christian and Jewish objects - but the only reason we know there was an Umayyad palace south of the Temple Mount is because Israelis discovered it and preserved it.

Notice how Najib defines "all periods" as only the Muslim era, discarding Jewish and Christian history in Jerusalem altogether.

This is not journalism. This is Palestinian propaganda that has not a shred of fact behind it.

No newspaper should ever publish Mohammed Najib's writings again.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Palestinian students in the West Bank vote for Hamas at university elections

Last week, at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Hamas squeaked out a win over the Fatah bloc in student elections, the first time Hamas has won in 16 years - during the second intifada.

Hamas won 40 seats, Fatah's bloc 38, and the socialist PFLP won three.

On Wednesday, there were student elections in Birzeit University near Ramallah, and Hamas's victory was much more substantial. The Islamist bloc won 25 seats, the Fatah bloc 20, and the PFLP six.

Since there aren't any real elections, these meaningless student elections are given outsized importance since they are the closest thing to democracy Palestinians ever see. But as anyone who is familiar with student councils knows, their power is practically nil, and the universities don't follow their decisions.

Even so, these elections do reflect how West Bank students think, and even in the heart of Fatah country, the Islamist terror groups won.

The Islamic bloc campaigns heavily referred to famous terrorists.

Anyone who claims that the majority of Palestinians want peace are lying.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

05/24 Links Pt2: Dershowitz: Amanpour equating terrorists and victims is ‘beneath contempt’; Melanie Phillips: The betrayal of America's Jews; Mahmoud Abbas’s Jewish ancestry

From Ian:

Arsen Ostrovsky: A defining moment for how the White House handles antisemitism

The answer is that the Biden administration has been under relentless pressure from progressive elements within its own party to extricate or minimize any reference to Israel, to “allow more space for criticism of Israel.”

In fact, the IHRA definition does not chill, silence, censor or stifle criticism of Israel or advocacy for Palestinians. In fact, the IHRA definition explicitly states that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” The definition also includes helpful examples, however, illustrating how, “taking into account the overall context,” purported criticism of Israel can sometimes evince antisemitism. This occurs, for example, when critics apply double standards against Israel that they would not apply to other democratic nations, “[draw] comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis,” or “[deny] the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”

Ahead of the Biden administration’s unveiling of its national strategy to counter antisemitism, there are reports that, while it might highlight the IHRA definition, it may also reference “alternatives.” Doing so would be a terrible idea.

Not a single one of these alternatives has ever even been adopted by a government entity or major institution, and for good reason: They fail to identify some of the most common manifestations of modern anti-Jewish hate, including the targeting and vilification of Israel “conceived as a Jewish collectivity.”

With antisemitism surging to unprecedented levels across America, now is not the time to equivocate. If the Biden administration is serious about delivering the “most ambitious, comprehensive effort in our history to combat antisemitism in America,” it will not appease those seeking to undermine this effort. Rather, it will unequivocally endorse the IHRA working definition as the sole and indispensable definition of antisemitism.

The White House intends to fight antisemitism. That starts with a sensible definition

The IHRA definition is the most authoritative and internationally accepted definition of antisemitism. Forty-one nations, as well as hundreds of local governments, academic institutions, NGOs and other entities have formally adopted in different ways the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Over half — 31 — American states also adopted it.

Since the Obama Administration, the U.S. Department of State has utilized and promoted the IHRA definition (and previously, its similarly-phrased predecessor from the European Union’s Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia). Both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt are leaders in advocating for its usage around the globe. The U.S. Department of Education also employs the IHRA definition as a tool in determining antisemitism discrimination in Title VI discrimination cases.

The IHRA definition continues to gain significant attention and support among governments and civil society actors. Fifty-one of the 53 member organizations of the Conference of Presidents adopted the definition – a clear recognition from every corner of a disparate Jewish community that we are unified when it comes to applauding the comprehensive approach it provides for labeling and addressing antisemitism.

One particular aspect of the IHRA definition that draws attention — and criticism from some groups — is its treatment of the relationship between anti-Israel bias and antisemitism. For too long, definitions of antisemitism failed to account for how anti-Zionism often serves as a cover for antisemitism. Forms of antisemitism that are masked as “anti-Zionism” and that deny the right of the Jewish people to self-determination are among those most frequently encountered by many Jews today, whether or not they are Zionists, as documented in surveys by the Anti-Defamation League and by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.

The IHRA definition addresses the relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, while not conflating legitimate criticism with actual antisemitism. Critics fail to identify actual instances where the IHRA definition suppressed free speech. In fact, over the last 20 weeks, as debates raged around the world over Israel’s proposed judicial reform — with hundreds of thousands of Israelis of all political stripes expressing virulent criticism of the Israeli government’s proposed overhaul — I have yet to hear one individual accuse the critics of being antisemitic. Despite the fact that the IHRA definition is so ubiquitous, legitimate speech that is critical of Israeli government policy is not censored. When put to the test, the IHRA definition does not do what its critics say it does.

We at the Conference of Presidents steadily campaign for states, localities, international governments and organizations to adopt the IHRA definition. The Biden administration seems poised to reassert their ongoing endorsement of the IHRA definition, pushing back yet again against those who distort the nature of the definition’s treatment of legitimate criticism of Israel governmental policies.

In a time when antisemitism in the United States has become all too often lethal, this would mean a vital and praiseworthy evolution of policy.

Biden antisemitism strategy is futile without the IHRA definition

How do the incessant attacks on Israel persist, given the widespread adoption of the IHRA? The main reason is that even those who have adopted it do not take it seriously enough to call out the antisemites in their midst. More fundamentally, the IHRA explicitly states that criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic. Furthermore, it does not suggest punishment for those whose words or deeds are antisemitic.

Still, opponents of the definition don’t want to be called out for their bigotry or stigmatized as antisemites.

Sarcasm and cynicism aside, it’s nice to see our government take the issue of antisemitism in America seriously enough to invest some time and hopefully meaningful money into taking steps to address the issue. It is also nice to see the initiative coming from a Democratic president, given that his party has significantly normalized antisemitism. Of course, if the party does not act against the antisemites in its midst, like Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, it will not only fail but be rightly ridiculed for hypocrisy.

The effort can make a contribution if it impels colleges to take the issue seriously, adopt the IHRA definition and end the anomaly of being the only institution in America where antisemitism is tolerated.

The inclusion of the IHRA is necessary but not sufficient. The definition and examples were formulated in 2015. Antisemites have become more sophisticated in disguising their behavior and malign intent. We now see Jew-hatred manifested in ways not covered by its examples.

Even more concerning is how social media has exponentially increased the opportunities to spread bigotry, and jellyfish like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk refuse to prevent their platforms from giving the seemingly infinite number of Goebbels imitators a megaphone to spread their bile. Failure to address online hate will also neuter President Joe Biden’s efforts.

Mr. President, listen to your State Department, which said in 2022 the IHRA definition of antisemitism is “integral to the fight to eliminate this scourge. It is widely accepted and used throughout the world by governments, international organizations, religious and sports entities, and other civil society organizations, which sends a powerful message of solidarity against antisemitism. Bipartisan U.S. administrations have embraced and used the IHRA working definition of Antisemitism, inclusive of its examples, as a policy tool.”

Without this shared understanding of antisemitism, even the most well-meaning strategy is doomed to failure.

And the bit about "caring" about Israel more is circular, and fatuous. Would a single-minded focus on the evils any other religious or national group d be justified by a self-professed "care" about them? (2/2)
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) May 24, 2023

The U.S. has sent $75 billion to Ukraine in the past two years without making "Ukrainianism" a pressing social problem, but Biden Admin wants you to endorse a document that says demonizing Jewish state is ok because American gives it some money. It's not all about the Bejamins... pic.twitter.com/1R2m9OA4Ae
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) May 24, 2023

The opponents of IHRA are reenacting Jabotinsky's anecdote about the European gentleman who says "An anti-Semite is someone who hates Jews more than one should." https://t.co/1sZPnGVDUe
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) May 24, 2023

How the English-Language, Left-Leaning Media is Turning the World Against Itamar Ben-Gvir and Israel (Judean Rose)

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s National Security Minister is variously embraced and reviled for his views, depending on one’s political views. He is embraced by the right for—among other things—his support for settlements; access to Jewish holy sites; and the deportation of terrorists. The left, meanwhile reviles Ben-Gvir for his supposed extremism and racism, though the MK has openly stated that he does not support the deportation of Arabs, only terrorists. The stark difference in perspective is best illustrated through news reports on Ben-Gvir’s recent visit to the Temple Mount. It all boils down to how the different outlets translated the Hebrew “Ba’al HaBayit.”

מתפלל. pic.twitter.com/Ms4zX2nag2
— نير حسون Nir Hasson ניר חסון (@nirhasson) May 21, 2023

According to the Hebrew Ynet report, what Ben-Gvir actually said in his statement during his visit to the Temple Mount, was “We are the ‘ba’alei habayit of the house, here. All of the threats of Hamas will not help; we are the ba’alei habayit of Jerusalem and of the whole of the Land of Israel,” “ba’alei” being the plural form of “ba’al.”

The literal translation of “ba’al habayit” is “Master of the House.” But that is not the sense of this title. A host is referred to as a “ba’al habayit,” or head of household; the one who sets the tone for his family and guests. A landlord is also called a “ba’al habayit,” the owner, as distinct from his tenants. A ba’al habayit can also be someone who concerns himself with the mundane and earning a living, as opposed to someone who engages in the full time study of Torah.

The auto-Google translate interprets Ynet’s Hebrew “ba’alei” as “owners.”

The Jewish Press, a right-wing publication that supports Ben-Gvir, similarly likes the word “owners” for the translation of “ba’alei habayit.” They have Ben-Gvir’s quote as follows: “We are the owners of Jerusalem and the entire Land of Israel.”

The right-wing Israel National News (Arutz 7), prefers to translate “ba’alei” as those in charge: “We are in charge of Jerusalem and of all of the land of Israel." In agreement are Reuters and the Times of Israel—though they probably see “in charge” as exclusionary and maybe even racist.

The Jpost translates “ba’alei habayit” in its most literal sense. “We are the masters of Jerusalem,” blares the headline, betraying the news outlet’s left-of-center bias. They want Ben-Gvir to sound imperious and extreme.

Which version of Ben-Gvir’s quote are English-speaking news consumers most likely to see? How might these different translations color the way western readers are likely to view this controversial Israeli politician? The substitution of “owner” and “in charge” for “ba’al habayit” seem to this writer at least, to be factual; Ben-Gvir is making a statement of fact: Israel owns and is in charge of Israeli territory, not Hamas, no matter what the terrorists say or do.

The JPost’s translation of “ba’al” as “master” on the other hand, while accurate, has the effect of making Itamar Ben-Gvir seem like a braggart; someone who is incendiary and in-your-face; someone who is lording Israel’s ownership of the land over the Arabs in order to provoke them. If so, this is blatant anti-Ben-Gvir propaganda that is being fed to a western audience from a biased, left-leaning publication. It has the effect of demonizing the current Israeli government to the entire English-speaking world, and makes Israel in general, look bad.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Ken Roth asks a fair question - if Israel is right, why doesn't hasbara work better? Here's the answer.

In the Wall Street Journal, former Human Rights Watch direct Ken Roth responds to an Alan Dershowitz op-ed and asks this question:

Mr. Dershowitz would have us believe that Israel has lost its standing in the world not because of its repressive occupation without end, amounting to a regime of apartheid, but because of Mr. Soros and two organizations to which he has given funds, Human Rights Watch and J Street. Why are Israeli government partisans unable to resurrect Israel’s reputation in the face of a mere billionaire and two groups?

Roth is being disingenuous. It isn't only two groups that have joined the anti-Israel jihad - it is the media, the entire "progressive" movement, most of the Arab world and much of the EU. And it is difficult to find an unapologetic pro-Israel position in the mainstream media.

But beyond that, it is a reasonable question. Why can't we "partisans" make more of a difference?

The answer is psychology.

People almost never objectively weigh facts and decide which side is right based on pros and cons. That is a fiction that we all tell ourselves, but it is not true. People make their decisions primarily based on emotions and then justify those decisions with a skewed selection of facts or half-truths that support them.

People love underdogs. Before 1967, Israel was accurately regarded as a besieged nation surrounded by enemies that wanted to destroy it. That was the era of Exodus and Cast a Giant Shadow.

But since then, the anti-Israel advocates have managed to chip away at that. Their biggest insight was to recognize that perception is everything and facts are secondary at best. They essentially created the Palestinians to be a "people" to be the underdog in the narrative, pretending that the huge Arab bloc was not an issue. They want the world to see this:

But never this:

When you look at reports by HRW and Amnesty, they spend a great deal of time humanizing Palestinians as victims, while Israelis are unnamed oppressors who don't suffer nearly as much pain and anxiety. This is a conscious decision to get people to hate Israel, not an objective description of facts - which they use very selectively anyway.

The media follows this pattern. Ratings follow eyeballs, and the wide eyes of a Palestinian child in front of rubble are always more compelling than Jews. They adopted the narrative of Israel as oppressor and they don't let the facts change their reporting.

Context is to be avoided at all costs. Israel's supposed crimes always happen in a vacuum; there is never any justification that is worth mentioning and the ones that Israeli officials mention are derided as lies. But Israel can never be compared to how other nations at war act. The standards that Israel is expected to live up to are impossibly high and sometimes contradictory, while no one else is asked to do anything close.

One obvious example is the extensive and expensive campaign Amnesty mounted against AirBnb and other companies, as they mounted huge campaigns against them listing homes in the territories - a non-issue that does not violate a single law and that doesn't hurt a single person. Amnesty never mounts campaigns of that scale against any other country for something so trivial.

There is another factor that cannot be underestimated, and that is old fashioned antisemitism. The entire world isn't antisemitic, but perhaps 20%-30% of the Western world harbors some antisemitic sentiments. As many as one out of four people in the West want to believe that Israel is worse than other countries, and they will eagerly believe even the tiniest scrap of information that confirms their bias. Education does not inoculate one against this disease, so there are plenty of articulate, well-read people who are happy to inflate Israel's mistakes and ignore its achievements; at the same time minimizing Palestinian and Arab crimes.

In the NGO world, this is far worse: the antisemites are attracted to jobs where they can do damage to the Jewish state. It is no coincidence that so many of the employees at HRW and Amnesty had previously been anti-Israel activists. Objectivity is a bug, not a feature.

This is what the pro-Israel crowd is up against: a core of antisemites, some of whom are very smart, surrounded by a sea of people willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the perceived underdog, fueled by media that loves a narrative of an ultra-right wing Israel hell bent on denying human rights to non-Jews.

What is the solution?

Back in 2011 I wrote an article about that very topic. And it holds up very well.

One problem that we Jews have is that we are too logical. Thousands of years of studying Talmud may have made us good at arguing, but it also convinced us that anyone can be swayed by a good argument. So we happily read and write long texts explaining why the “settlements” are legal, why US Resolution 242 does not imply that Israel must stay within the Green Line, and why a blockade of Gaza does not flout international law.

Our enemies, on the other hand, spend their time reaching people on an emotional level. They show photos and videos of crowded camps, of bombed out buildings, of old women crying.

In the real world, the emotional argument wins.

As much as we like to pretend that everyone shares the Jewish love for an innovative and logical thought process, in reality people usually make up their minds about Israel (and everything else) based on their gut. If a person who is not already emotionally invested in the argument one way or the other sees a tear-jerking film that pushes one side of the story, nine times out of ten that person will instinctively gravitate towards the side that pulled at his or her heartstrings.

We need to prioritize our emotional arguments. We need to talk about our deep connection to the land of Israel. We need to emphasize how we have cried every year over the destruction of the Temples. We need to show the human toll that would result from hundreds of thousands of Jews who the world wants to uproot from their homes. We need to describe the pain that would result from losing Har HaZeitim again, and what happened to it during those tragic 19 years that Arabs had control.

Not only is our emotional connection to the Land far deeper than anyone else’s, but no one can argue against love and fear. Emotions are our most potent weapon, but one that we are ceding almost completely to those who hate Israel. We know that we are right from a legal, historical and moral perspective – but we need to humanize the message.

It is not only the message that must hit emotional chords – but also the media that the message is communicated in. People respond to messages that are visceral, and that hit all of their senses. Powerpoints, posters, songs, poetry, film, novels, plays, even cuisine - all need to be employed to impact people on every possible level. Text alone generally does not have the same impact as more visual media.

Read the whole thing.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

05/24 Links Pt1: Palestinian Leader Abbas Is No Partner for Peace With Israel; We're witnessing the birth of a new Middle East; Shin Bet foiled bus bombing by Hamas

From Ian:

Jason Greenblatt (not the ADL one): Palestinian Leader Abbas Is No Partner for Peace With Israel

In 1973 Israel's former Ambassador to the United Nations Abba Eban, referring to the Palestinians, said they "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." When I served in the White House 44 years later this was a go-to quote about the Palestinians that I often heard in Washington, European capitals, and throughout the Middle East, including from Palestinians themselves.

This famous quote needs some updating. My suggestion is to add that today's Palestinian leadership also never misses an opportunity to defame the Jewish people or lie or pervert the history of Jews in a land that is holy and of monumental significance to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Last week marked the 75th Anniversary of the birth of the modern State of Israel. Abbas commemorated this 75th anniversary not with words of possible conciliation between Israel and the Palestinians or the hope for peace and a better life for Palestinians who deserve so much more than they have today. Instead, he traveled to the United Nations to attend the ignominious, first-ever Commemoration of the 75th anniversary of what Palestinians call "the Nakba" at UN Headquarters.

In his remarks, Abbas slandered Israel and invoked Joseph Goebbels, the master propagandist for the Nazis by saying Israelis and Zionists "continue to lie, like Goebbels." Abbas mourned the creation of the State of Israel as a "catastrophe" of history, and castigated the United States and Great Britain, countries that have given billions upon billions of their taxpayer's dollars and pounds sterling to help the Palestinians. He accused the United States and Great Britain of expelling their respective Jewish populations and planting, for their own colonialist purposes, a "foreign entity" in what he pretends was then an Arab State of Palestine. His speech was a cornucopia of hatred, lies and slander.

The denial of the two Jewish temples on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a fixture of Palestinian propaganda and a fundamental building block of the Palestinian campaign to whitewash Jewish history in Jerusalem and Jewish claims to its historical holy places, was on prominent display at Camp David in 2000, when Abbas' predecessor, Yasser Arafat, denied such historical facts to President Bill Clinton. Clinton, a bible-believing Christian, responded forcefully that "not only the Jews but I, too, believe that under the surface there are remains of Solomon's temple." That did not stop Abbas from his Temple denial claims at the United Nations. Such historical revisionism should be condemned by today's world leaders. Instead, Abbas' speech received significant applause from those who attended it. So much for the United Nations seeking to maintain international peace and security and developing friendly relations among nations.

EU says nothing, not a word, as Abbas stood before UN last week and engaged in the most vile Holocaust distortion. In fact, EU states attended and applauded! But a few Jews building a home for their kids? Immediate outrage!
Hypocrisy much? @eu_eeas @EUinIsrael @ExtSpoxEU https://t.co/mXhTzzJIU1 pic.twitter.com/7vuHXe9Pem— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 24, 2023

Abbas invokes the Canaanite canard in UN speech - a Dystopian Fiction

It is important to note that Arabs claim descent from Ishmael. As recorded in the Bible [30], on his father’s side, Ishmael was a child of Abraham. On his mother’s side, he was a child of Hagar, a descendant of Mitzraim, one of the other sons of Ham; and not Canaan.

Thus, being an Arab negates being a Canaanite and vice versa. It must be difficult for those inventing a false narrative and people out of whole cloth, in furtherance of a wholly political agenda, to keep track of their absurd meanderings, uttered with such enthusiasm and unfounded certainty. Even the PLO Charter and Hamas Covenant proudly proclaim that the so-called Palestinian people are a part of the Arab nation.

It also clearly identifies Philistines as being a distinct people from the reviled Canaanites. It should also be noted that Canaanites are not explicitly mentioned in the Quran or the New Testament and the Quran does not refer to Palestinians.

It is interesting to note that that the Talmud [31]records a legal action was brought, approximately 2,350 years ago, by descendants of the Canaanites [32], who as noted above were ancient occupiers of the Land of Israel. The Judge was no less a personage than Alexander the Great.

At the trial, Geviyah, representing the Jewish people, examined the plaintiffs and asked what proof they had to support their claim to title to Israel. They testified the Bible [33] was their proof of record title. Well, Geviyah handily countered that assertion. He cited the very same Bible [34] to defeat the Canaanites’ claim. As noted above, the Bible reports title to the Land of Israel was vested in the Children of Israel as an inheritance. The Canaanites had no legitimate claim to title to the Land. Moreover, the Canaanites had compounded their illegal occupation of the Land by sinning mightily and G-d assured the Jewish people the Canaanites would be dislodged [35]. Alexander the Great ruled in favor of the Jewish people.

King David ????????, King of Israel ????, is mentioned 16 times in the Holy Quran, and for the revelation of the Zabur (Psalms). A Hadith explains that “The most beloved prayer to God is that of David and the most beloved fasts to God are those of David. He used to sleep for half… pic.twitter.com/J8NrSAYPq1
— Avi Kaner ??????? ??? (@AviKaner) May 24, 2023

Another unreported story: The Palestinian Authority gives essentially no legal protections against modern slavery

The Global Slavery Index for 2023 has been released, where it rates every country for how well they combat modern slavery, which includes all kinds of forced labor and forced marriage.

It details the horrors of the kafala system, where Arab employers import workers from poor African and Asian nations and then control their lives.

It does not rate the West Bank or Gaza Strip because they say the split between Hamas and the PA, as well as Israel's control of parts of the West Bank, make data collection difficult. However, it says,

Despite limited data, anecdotal evidence indicates that Palestinians experience various forms of modern slavery, including forced labour, worst forms of child labour, forced begging, and forced and child marriage. Palestinian men and boys employed in the Israeli construction sector are vulnerable to debt bondage, as discriminatory employers charge them high fees and commissions and sub-contract them to other employers illegally.[These are typically Palestinian brokers - EoZ.] Illegal workers without permits face greater risks of abuse and exploitation. Gender biases further embed women and girls’ risk of modern slavery, particularly forced commercial sexual exploitation and forced and child marriage, with risk heightened for Palestinian women and girls living in refugee camps. Palestinian government data estimates that more than 17,600 girls age 15 to 19 were married in the West Bank in 2018. In Gaza, an estimated 11 percent of women were married before the age of 18. There are also reports of women and girls being trafficked from the West Bank to the Al Naqab desert where they are forced to marry older men.

It also provides this table showing that the Palestinian Authority gives essentially no legal protection against modern forms of slavery.

This is horrific.

And even worse is that while there are hundreds of international reporters reporting about Palestinians in the West Bank, one never sees stories about how there are next to no protections under PA law against slavery.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The Palestinian Center on Human rights issued a press release last Thursday, May 18, before the Flag March in Jerusalem.

“Flag March” Violates International Law and UNESCO Resolutions: PCHR Welcomes UNESCO’s Adoption of Resolution Safeguarding Jerusalem’s Historical Character

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) welcomes the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s unanimously adopting a resolution on Wednesday during the 216th session of its Executive Board that has considered all Israeli measures seeking to change the historical character and legal status of Jerusalem’s Old City and its walls null and void.

The resolution and its annexes call on Israel to cease its unilateral violations and unlawful action against Blessed al-Haram al-Sharif and places of worship in Jerusalem’s Old City and walls. The resolution also underscores the significance of protecting Palestinian heritage sites from destruction and falsification, including fraudulently altering their names, threatening the legal and historical status of Jerusalem.

The resolution aligns with dozens of resolutions issued by the United Nations (UN) and its bodies, and is in accordance with international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

The resolution coincides with heightening daily raids into the holy city in order to change its religious and historical character; the last of which was today in the morning when extremist Jewish groups have raided al-Aqsa Mosque and intend to organize the so-called “flag march” in the afternoon to celebrate the occupation of East Jerusalem with full support of the Israeli government.

PCHR is saying that Jews walking peacefully anywhere in the Old City of Jerusalem violate international law with every footstep. They also claim that those Jews, by merely existing, violate UNESCO resolutions against changing the historical character of Jerusalem.

Apparently, PCHR considers the "historical character of Jerusalem" to be the anomalous 19 years between 1948-1967 when Jordan banned all Jews from entering.

It is truly an Orwellian world where Jews walking, singing and praying in their holy city is considered a violation of international law, and banning Jews from walking in Jerusalem is the apex of human rights.

Not to mention the newspeak of PCHR's claiming that using the historic Hebrew names of sites in Jerusalem is considered "fraudulently altering the names" that Muslims imposed over a millennium later.

According to these Palestinian experts on international law and human rights, Jews are simply not human. There is no other explanation for their official support of explicit discrimination against Jews as human rights.

PCHR is respected and quoted often by international human rights groups like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch. This is hardly a surprise. PCHR hosted papers accusing Israel of "apartheid" even before the infamously antisemitic Durban conference in 2001, and wrote its own paper making that charge in 2011.

HRW and Amnesty look to the terror-linked PCHR as a model for fabricating the next generation of accusations against Israel. Don't be surprised if they soon agree that Jews breathing in Jerusalem violate international law.

After all, they already advocate the forcible ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Jews from all of Judea and Samaria in the name of "human rights."

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Roger Waters' Berlin concert proves that he is thoroughly antisemitic

German site Belltower has a review of Roger Waters' concert in Berlin. Writer Nicholas Potter goes into detail about all the implicit and explicit antisemitism he saw during the concert. A video of the concert is online so there are even more offensive parts that Potter didn't mention.

The concert was outrageous, starting from before the concert itself.

German police stopped Jewish protesters of the concert - but allowed BDSers to hand out literature.

Waters began the concert by declaring "A court in Frankfurt has ruled that I am not an anti-Semite." This is a lie, he has been allowed to move forward with the concerts for various bureaucratic reasons, but there was no such ruling.

During the song "The Powers That Be," Waters put up photos of people he claims were murdered because of the crime of their identity. Two of them were Anne Frank, and Shireen Abu Akleh, the latter supposedly executed for the crime of "being Palestinian."

This is Holocaust trivialization and incredibly insulting.

One person listed during the song was not killed for being Jewish or Roma or Black or female. That was Rachel Corrie, "sentenced to death" for the "crime" of "defending Palestinians."

Rogers' hypocrisy is acidly noted: his stage backdrop screams "resist capitalism" while he gets rich by charging hundreds of euros per seat for the concert.

But the most antisemitic part was an entire dialogue displayed on the backdrop before the aforementioned "The Powers That Be."

The on-screen dialogue says:

"They must think we're fucking stupid!"

"Who do you mean by they?"

"Them, up there in the penthouse, the fucking oligarchs"

"Ah, you mean....the Powers That Be."

"Yeah, the powers that fucking be."

"Wow! Why are they so brutal?"

"Because they want to crush our resistance and keep ruling the world."

Waters is asserting that there are powerful wealthy people who secretly pull the strings and control the world, specifically attacking anyone who speaks truth to power.

Waters is promoting a conspiracy theory that is virtually identical to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But like the Soviet-era antisemites, he couches his hate of Jews in terms like "oligarchs"- a euphemism that he uses the way the Soviets used "rootless cosmopolitans" and "bourgeoisie," or how more recent antisemites say "Wall Street bankers" or "globalists."

Now, a reminder of what Waters said about Sheldon Adelson: “the puppet master who is pulling the strings of Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo..." And he then claimed that "Sheldon Adelson believes that only Jews – only Jewish people – are completely human. That... everybody else on Earth is there to serve them."

This was an antisemitic trope right out of Nazi literature, and it is what Waters believes - that Jews like Adelson are "the powers that be" who brutally rule the world.

Which makes it difficult for the audience not to then associate the rich "Wall Street globalists" with the pigs in suits opening up suitcases of cash during the later song "Money," evoking the classic antisemitic trope of Jews as pigs.

His twin hatred of Israel and his hate for "the powers that be" only make sense when you consider what, to his mind, the two have in common: Jews. Israel cannot be considered a worldwide "power that be" unless you also believe that the powers that be are primarily Jewish.

In a later song, "If I Had Been God," Rogers took direct aim at Israel. The graphics started off with supporting Julian Assange and then general slogans using his limited vocabulary, like "Fuck the patriarchy," "Fuck imperialism," "Fuck drones" and "Fuck the war on terror." Yet inevitably - while wearing a keffiyeh so no one could mistake his real message as being universal - he zeroed yet again in on Israel. The display said, "Fuck bombing people in their homes. Fuck the occupation. You can't have occupation and human rights."

He isn't talking about the Russian occupation of Crimea or parts of Ukraine, which he evidently supports. There is only one "occupation" he goes beyond criticism to real hate.

If that isn't enough Israel obsession, he also displays Israel's life-saving security barrier during "Us + Them."

Us vs. Them is the theme of the show. This rich white male rock star getting paid a fortune to spew half-baked political messages pretends to be the everyman "Us" while the Jews and Israelis of every race and economic status are the unseen wealthy "Them" that secretly control the world and oppress the disadvantaged for no reason beyond their age-old greed and bigotry.

This is the profoundly antisemitic message that Roger Waters is giving to millions of his fans. A large number of Germans recognize it for what it is - because they know all about the euphemisms for Jews that incite hate and violence.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

05/23 Links Pt2: The Shoah Was Brought about by Anti-Semitism, Not “Hate”; Israel Police save unique Bar Kochba revolt coffins from grave robbers

From Ian:

The Shoah Was Brought about by Anti-Semitism, Not “Hate”

In 2018, Jewish students at a pluralistic community high school participated in a project called “We Will Not Be Silenced,” a week-long commemoration of the Holocaust. To broach this topic, this prestigious school focused on Kristallnacht, the 1938 pogrom carried out by the Nazi Party against the Jews of Germany. The interactive project compelled students to write on small pieces of paper the things about which they would not be silent as a result of Kristallnacht. The following are examples of what students chose to write. On note cards bearing the heading “I will not be silent in the face of,” students wrote “homophobia,” “trans violence,” “gun violence,” “environmental degradation,” “rape culture,” “sexism,” “racism,” and “any hate.” Not one student wrote “anti-Semitism,” the very reason that Kristallnacht occurred.

An essential question surfaces: why not? What occurred pedagogically in the classroom that encouraged students to walk away with knowledge that in no way expressed the main undercurrent of the Nazi regime?

One should be shocked by this. But taking stock of the field of Holocaust education, the answers yielded by the students are not in any way exceptional. They reflect the fact that Holocaust education—very simply—is not working. Far worse, it has been usurped by individuals with very specific learning objectives, one of which is to universalize the Holocaust to such a degree so as to render its particular history abstract—almost irrelevant.

The universalization of the Holocaust did not occur overnight. Historically, in the immediate post-war years, awareness of the Nazi atrocities began to grow. One of the first testimonies, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, published in 1952, slowly became a staple of Holocaust literature in public schools. Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, joined Anne Frank’s diary in the hope of serving as eternal witnesses to the Holocaust.

The first state to mandate Holocaust curriculum was Illinois in 1990. It is important to note that initial efforts, as reported in a 2006 study on the “State of Holocaust Education in the State of Illinois,” produced eight major findings as a result of teaching the Holocaust, one of which was “a wide array of topics such as death camps, anti-Semitism, Hitler’s rise to power, non-Jewish victims, creation of the state of Israel, and the U.S.’s response to the Holocaust is being taught in Illinois high schools.” It would seem, therefore, that, initially, the architects of Holocaust curriculum seemed to grasp the singular nature of the subject. Using the state of Illinois as a case study, a major shift occurred in 2005, when the legislature mandated that Holocaust education include “other cases of genocide.” Other states slowly followed suit. Before 2016, only seven states required Holocaust education in schools. In the past seven years, eighteen more have passed Holocaust education mandates. And yet, anti-Semitism in the United States is at an all-time high. For example, the phrase “Hitler was right” was posted online more than 17,000 times over the course of just one week in 2022 alone.

All in all, the belief that Holocaust education is an effective antidote to hate is not consistent with reality, mostly due to its universalization. Take, for example, a person who condemns the “Israelization” of American domestic policy, or says that Israel is a “colonial” state guilty of “state terror” and “is waging a war against civilians.” That same person claims “it is certainly true that one universal truth about the Holocaust” is that “there is value in seeing analogies and perhaps hidden similarities” between it and the “Palestinian disaster.” Do we really think this person does not know about the Holocaust? Was his problem really a lack of knowledge, or something much darker?

Holocaust education: Learn resilience, strength from survivors

Recently, I was asked why the topic of Holocaust education is so important to me. I sat there thinking, trying to decide my answer. Eighty years later and what have we learned? What have we, as a nation, accomplished?

Elie Wiesel stated that “those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Therefore, as a nation and as a world, we have days dedicated to Holocaust remembrance and genocide awareness. But do we, as a nation, understand what that means and reflect on its importance more than once or twice a year?

It’s not just about remembering what happened but about us learning and, as a nation and a world community, doing better for humanity, equality and acceptance.

In 2022 alone, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported over 3,000 cases of antisemitism in the United States alone. The world has not learned but neither have we.

When we take a day to remember the Holocaust, we should not just remember that one time. We should be active in fighting for our nation and in being role models to others.

Wikipedia disciplines editors in Holocaust distortion dispute but sidesteps debate over Polish complicity

Wikipedia has banned three editors from working on articles related to Jewish history in Poland during World War II, in a bid to resolve editing disputes and safeguard its credibility.

But the online encyclopedia stopped short of taking more aggressive action in response to allegations of widespread Holocaust distortion on the platform.

The decision, handed down Saturday, concludes more than two months of deliberation by Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee, which acts as Supreme Court over the community of volunteers who edit the website.

The Arbitration Committee had opened an investigation in response to an unprecedented academic study concluding that a group of editors had gamed Wikipedia’s rules to introduce content that absolves Poland of blame for antisemitism and Jewish suffering during the Holocaust, in line with the ultranationalist view prevailing in the country.

In keeping with Wikipedia’s accountability framework and to the dismay of the study’s authors, the committee didn’t take a position on the underlying dispute over Polish antisemitism and complicity with the Nazis. The committee instead concluded that then editors did not adhere to the community’s code of conduct.

The committee’s conclusion “entirely missed the mark,” said Shira Klein, a history professor at Chapman University whose study, written with University of Ottawa historian Jan Grabowski, triggered the investigation.

Klein said that by avoiding the issue of historical truth and focusing on civility, Wikipedia sent a clear message: “There’s no problem with falsifying the past; just be nice about it.”