07/16 Links Pt2: Why Corbynistas have such a problem with Jews; Marc Lamont Hill at progressive summit: Major news outlets are ‘Zionist orgs’; Boris: Corbyn Guilty of Antisemitism ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: Why Corbynistas have such a problem with Jews

Such Holocaust Relativism is rampant among Corbynistas, too, who will frequently ask why Jews keep going on about the Holocaust or will nauseatingly compare Israel to the Nazis and the Gaza Strip to the Warsaw Ghetto. Here, Holocaust Relativism reaches its dire and racist conclusion. It doesn’t only say ‘Jews are nothing special when it comes to suffering’. It also says they are the Nazis now, the genocidaires, the privileged persecutors of minority groups. This is an explicit attempt to erase or make meaningless the history of Jewish persecution by insisting they are now the persecutors, doing to others what was once done to them.

The chipping away at historic Jewish suffering can also be seen in the way the racism they suffer is always, without fail, contrasted with other forms of racism. Jews might face a little bit of hatred, but at least their white privilege protects them from the most visceral forms of hatred, the identitarian racists will argue. Against the aim is the systemised dilution of Jewish experiences to the end of demoting Jewish suffering and elevating other forms of suffering – in particular the prejudice suffered by Muslims.

When Corbynistas continually say, ‘What about Islamophobia?’, they think they are being good, progressive anti-racists. But in truth what they’re doing is reorganising ethnic, racial and social groups according to their own view of whether they are good or bad, deserving or undeserving, sympathetic or privileged. Their instinct is to demote and by extension denigrate Jews through saying: ‘You have privilege. You have media attention. You are always treated as special people. And we’re sick of it.’ And this, of course, is nothing more than a rehash of the old hard-right hatred for these arrogant, rich, well-connected ‘Chosen People’.

The Corbynistas’ anti-Semitism problem is far more profound than they could ever realise. It points to one of the most terrible things about the relentless rise of identity politics on the left – the way it unwittingly rehabilitates old racial thinking and even old racial hatred through its myopic reorganisation of ethnic groups according to the new morality of victimhood. That some leftists are denouncing the Jews as privileged and overly pampered, and are attempting to distract attention from the racism they suffer today and the horrors they suffered in the past, confirms that so-called progressive identitarianism is in truth the means through which some very old, very ugly prejudices find expression today. Identity politics looks increasingly like a gateway drug to racism itself.

🎥 What is the difference between the UK's Conservative Party and the USA's Republican Party? European Member of Parliament and author @DanielJHannan speaks with @BenShapiro about the Conservative movement in America and Europe.

WATCH HERE: https://t.co/QmFu4IMuGc pic.twitter.com/GqVgX7kZa1
— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 15, 2019

Ex-CNN commentator at progressive summit: Major news outlets are ‘Zionist orgs’

Former CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill claimed that news outlets like NBC and ABC were “Zionist organizations” that produced “Zionist content,” during a panel on Friday at the annual Netroots Nation summit held by progressive activists in Philadelphia.

The summit describes itself as “the largest annual conference for progressives” and has long been a stop for Democratic presidential hopefuls, including this year.

Hill’s comments came less than a year after he lost his CNN perch after calling for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” during an appearance at the U.N. The statement was interpreted by many as a call for the elimination of Israel, something Hill denied.

He made his comments during a panel on “embedding Palestinian rights in the 2020 agenda,” which also featured statements that Israel was engaged in a “white supremacist” project.

In response to a question from the audience, Hill described the choices faced by young journalists when they tell stories about Palestinians.

“They’re like, I want to work for Fox, or I want to work for ABC or NBC or whoever. I want to tell these stories,” he said. “You have to make choices about where you want to work. And if you work for a Zionist organization, you’re going to get Zionist content. And no matter how vigorous you are in the newsroom, there are going to be two, three, four, 17, or maybe one powerful person — not going to suggest a conspiracy — all news outlets have a point of a view. And if your point of view competes with the point of view of the institution, you’re going to have challenges.”

At the summit, t-shirts were sold grouping Zionism with racism, sexism, homophobia and antisemitism as maladies to be “resisted.” (h/t MtTB)

Marc Lamont Hill suggests ABC and NBC are "Zionist organizations" that produce "Zionist content"

Hill was fired by CNN late last year after he called for the elimination of Israel

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) recently sat down with Hill on BET and did an interview with him pic.twitter.com/jgbbyIJKLq
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 16, 2019

Liz Cheney Rips Progressive Democrats: A ‘Callousness That's Born Out Of Ignorance’

Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican, has been an outspoken critic of socialism and has frequently emphasized the importance of standing in staunch opposition to an overbearing government.

“They’re wrong when they rush to blame America first, when they fail to recognize that this is the greatest nation that has ever existed, the exceptional nation,” Cheney said. “They’re wrong when they fail to recognize that no people have ever lived in greater freedom, and then they go on and fail to provide the resources our men and women in uniform need to defend that freedom.”

While abstaining from directly naming who she was reprimanding, the rebuke came only hours after four House Democrats, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Massachusetts Rep. Aryanna Pressley held a press conference of their own. During the presser, the group of freshman, referred to as “the Squad,” attacked President Donald Trump for what they considered to be racist and sexist motives.

Cheney also reiterated her condemnation of “vile anti-Semitism” that the freshman group has espoused on multiple occasions.

Omar and Tlaib became America’s first Muslim congresswomen when sworn into office in January. Along with Ocasio-Cortez, the three progressive lawmakers have been embroiled in allegations of anti-Semitism and anti-American sentiments even prior to taking office.

.@Liz_Cheney 🔥🔥🔥

"Our opposition to our socialist colleagues has absolutely nothing to do w/their gender, religion, or race. It has to do w/their policies

They're wrong on socialism

They're wrong when they fail to recognize this is the greatest nation that has ever existed" pic.twitter.com/GW6kUswZ46
— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) July 16, 2019

Antifa Member Who Attacked ICE Center Echoed Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Concentration Camp’ Language In Final Manifesto

The man who attacked an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center over the weekend echoed Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s description of detention centers as “concentration camps” in a manifesto he published before the attack.

Willem Van Spronsen, who identified himself as a member of the left-wing Antifa movement in his manifesto, died in a shootout Saturday after storming an ICE center in Tacoma, Washington, armed with flares and a rifle. Van Spronsen, 69, reportedly attempted to ignite a propane tank on the premises in order to burn down the facility.

“Evil says concentration camps for folks deemed lesser are necessary. The handmaid of evil says the concentration camps should be more humane,” Van Spronsen wrote in his manifesto. He referred to detention centers as “concentration camps” on four separate occasions in the manifesto, which local media confirmed as authentic.

Van Spronsen’s manifesto also referred to a coming “revolution” and urged his “comrades” to arm themselves.

Ocasio-Cortez has repeatedly accused the U.S. government of running “concentration camps” on the southern border.

“That is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps,” Ocasio-Cortez said in June, referring to detention centers for people who cross the border illegally.

.@AOC refuses to condemn the Antifa attack on the Tacoma ICE center; refuses to tell @TheRealKeean if her inflammatory comments about “concentration camps” radicalized the attacker. pic.twitter.com/YOjn0yL032
— The Rebel (@RebelNewsOnline) July 15, 2019

Ilhan Omar Refuses to Condemn Al-Qaeda: 'I Will Not Dignify It with an Answer'

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on Monday that Muslims shouldn't be asked to "condemn terrorists"

In defense of his tweets over the weekend about a group of freshman lawmakers, President Trump criticized Omar specifically on Monday.

“I look at Omar, I don’t know, I’ve never met her. I hear the way she’s talked about al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda has killed many Americans, she said you could ‘hold your chest out,'” Trump said at the White House after a Made in America Product Showcase. “When she talked about the World Trade Center being knocked down, ‘some people,’ you remember, the famous ‘some people.’ These are people who in my opinion hate our country.”

Omar was asked for her response to Trump saying she was pro-Al-Qaeda.

“When he made the comment, I know that every single Muslim who has lived in this country and across the world has heard that comment,” she said. “So I will not dignify it with an answer because I know that every single Islamophobe, every single person who is hateful, who is driven by an ideology of othering, as this president is, rejoices in us responding to that, and as defending ourselves.”

AOC, Ilhan Omar repeatedly REFUSE to condemn Antifa attack on ICE!

Ocasio-Cortez Admits She Had No Idea Israel Is a Country (satire)

Confronted over her baffling explanation of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict on PBS’s “Firing Line,” Democratic House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez admitted that she had no idea that there’s a literal country called “Israel” or an aspiring nation called “Palestine.”

Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged that her opposition to the “occupation” stemmed from her Socialist aversion to anything that sounded like it might have to do with a job.

“I just think Israel should end the occupation, because like, we’re all people, so why should the corporations get all the money by occupying the people,” Ocasio-Cortez told a bewildered Margaret Hoover, after a long pause. “If Mr. Israel, I think it is his last name but it may be his given name, wants to help build world peace he will stop with the settlements, and by that we mean settlementing for anything less than a livable minimum wage.”

Trump, Netanyahu are both racists, says Arab MK in defense of congresswomen

Hadash-Ta'al MK Aida Touma-Sliman sent a message of solidarity on Tuesday to a group of controversial congresswomen who have been repeatedly attacked on Twitter this week by US president Donald Trump.

"Trump went on a racist attack against left wing congresswomen of color," said Touma-Sliman, who headed the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women in the 20th Knesset.

Touma-Sliman added that "Trump and Netanyahu work in the same way. They represent the same racism, nationalism and incitement against minorities."

Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib have been called antisemitic, Communist and anti-American in a series of tweets by Trump.

Former Labor MK Merav Michaeli also criticized Trump on Twitter.

"Turning Israel into a wedge issue is bad for Israel, dangerous for Israel's security and harmful for US-Israel relations," she wrote. "Israel's best interest is dependent on by-partisan support. If Trump is a real friend of Israel, he should make sure it stays that way."

UK PM Candidate Johnson: Labour Party Leader Corbyn Guilty of Antisemitism

The frontrunner to become Britain’s next prime minister, Boris Johnson, said on Monday that the leader of the main opposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, was guilty of antisemitism.

“I think by condoning antisemitism the way he does, I’m afraid he’s effectively culpable of that vice,” Johnson told a leadership debate organised by The Sun newspaper and TalkRadio.

The Labour Party has battled accusations of antisemitism since 2016 and Corbyn — a veteran campaigner for Palestinian rights — as well as other senior party officials have been accused of failing to take decisive action to deal with it.

“Jeremy Corbyn is implacably opposed to antisemitism in all its forms and has campaigned against it throughout his life,” a Labour Party spokesperson said, calling Johnson’s comments “baseless.”

The UK Labour Party’s Antisemitism Is No Longer Deniable

How can we explain the phenomenon of Labour’s antisemitism? One explanation is that Corbyn ascended to the top of the party from the fringes of the radical left. The spirit he has sought to imbue runs counter to the center-leaning spirit inculcated by former leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

But the Panorama expose makes it impossible to argue that Corbyn is simply a victim of malicious and libelous propaganda, as claimed by his supporters, even those in Israel. And the Panorama revelations didn’t come as a surprise to many in the United Kingdom. Those who follow the newspapers there know that the press hasn’t relaxed its coverage of antisemitism within Labour. It is in Israel that the issue should be far more prominent than it is.

In Israel, though, it seems the press would rather obsess over the antisemitic pasts of the ruling parties in some central European countries and tendentiously cover their present activities. However, the leaders of these countries are, at the very least, making a concerted effort — some more than others — to emphasize the ideological amendment they are making, or shunning their party’s antisemitic past entirely.

It’s very possible that in the future, in light of the fissures within Great Britain’s governing Conservative Party, Corbyn will be elected prime minister. Perhaps, if he is elected, he will look to openly oppose the antisemitism in his own party. It’s highly unlikely, however, that he will be able to duck the facts exposed by the BBC.

Jewish Labour member says he wasn’t aware of Jordanian MP’s anti-Semitic remarks

A Jewish member of the UK Labour Party has sought to distance himself from a Jordanian MP with whom he met last week and who has made anti-Semitic remarks and backed terrorism against Israelis.

Fabian Hamilton, who is shadow minister for peace and disarmament, said Monday he was not aware of Yahya al-Saud’s “appalling and Anti-Semitic remarks” when he met him and other Jordanian lawmakers in London.

“Being Jewish myself, I am appalled to learn of his remarks and totally reject any suggestion that I somehow support what he said simply because this MP was part of the delegation,” Hamilton wrote in a series of tweets.

He went on to hail Jordan as “a vital ally and good friend of the United Kingdom” and said he sure al-Saud’s views do not represent those of the Jordanian king and government.

Hamilton’s tweets came after al-Saud, a member of Jordan’s House of Representatives, posted a picture to his Facebook account Thursday of himself with Hamilton outside the Houses of Parliament.

According to al-Saud, he and other members of the Jordanian parliament’s Palestine Committee met with Hamilton at the House of Commons, where they discussed stopping Israel’s “racist” practices toward the Palestinians, as well other aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Al-Saud also met with members of the House of Lords, among them Jenny Tonge, who has a history of making anti-Semitic statements.

UK MP: Quite openly, we are for the destruction of the State of Israel

British socialist and activist Gerry Downing, who belongs to the Socialist Fight Organization, appeared on an episode of Kalima Horra, a show broadcasted on the pro-Hezbollah Maydeen TV program, hosted by former British Member of Parliament George Galloway, explaining that his organization supports the destruction of the State of Israel, according to a Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) report.

"We are for a single state. Quite openly, we are for the destruction of the State of Israel," Downing said in the interview.

Downing believes that the State of Israel is unreformable, mainly considering the latest law passed by the Israeli Knesset, the Nation State-Law which we alleges describes Israel as a "State for Jews only."

"The Palestinians from Israel are 'untermensch' or treated as second class citizens," Downing said.

Downing believes that the actions being carried out by the Israeli government categorize as a racist and genocidal endeavor that can not be reformed no matter the circumstances presented in the years to come.

*Mega Thread* containing over 125 elected antisemitic @uklabour officials

Labour was an anti-racist political party but then @jeremycorbyn became leader with his garbled world view of Israel, and like many of his fans, he can't differentiate from anti-Israel views & antisemitism pic.twitter.com/XtrQwzsh2F
— GnasherJew גנאשר (@GnasherJew) July 16, 2019

Betsy DeVos: Efforts to boycott Israel are a ‘pernicious threat’ in colleges

US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Monday that a movement to boycott Israel has become a “pernicious threat” on college campuses and is fueled by bias against Jews.

Speaking at a Justice Department summit on anti-Semitism, DeVos issued a scathing rebuke of the BDS movement, a campaign led by pro-Palestine activists calling for a boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.

The movement has inspired activism at many US universities but is often a source of tension, especially among students and professors who support Israel. DeVos said Monday that Israel has friends in the Education Department and that the BDS campaign is “one of the most pernicious threats” of anti-Semitism on college campuses.

“These bullies claim they stand for human rights,” she said. “But we all know that BDS stands for anti-Semitism.”

DC Suburb Reschedules Showing of Anti-Israel Film Narrated by Roger Waters

After postponing a screening of an anti-Israel documentary narrated by pro-BDS activist and former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters, the Maryland municipality of Takoma Park, a suburb of Washington, D.C., has rescheduled the showing for next week.

“Occupation of the American Mind” will be screened on July 23.

According to Culture Spot MD, a website by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, where Takoma Park is located, the film “is a captivating documentary that reveals how the Israeli government, US government, and pro-Israel lobbying groups have engaged in a decades-long propaganda campaign to shape American media coverage of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian lands … the film examines how the Israeli government has sought to avoid condemnation for civilian deaths, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, and illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank that are a ‘flagrant violation’ of international law according to the United Nations.”

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington was described as being outraged by the rescheduling instead of the screening being canceled altogether.

JCRC Executive Director Ronald Halber told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the choice was a “leadership failure.”

“A municipality is using taxpayer money to show a widely rejected ‘documentary’ narrated by a notorious antisemite that peddles antisemitic canards,” he said. “They should be bringing people together, not dividing them.”

Guardian, Independent and Telegraph ignore Hamas official’s call for genocide

Hamas Political Bureau member Fathi Hammad said, in a July 12, 2019 speech at a March of Return rally that aired on Al-Aqsa TV, that Palestinians abroad should “attack every Jew on planet Earth and slaughter and kill them.”

Thus far, most British media outlets – including the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph and BBC – have ignored Hammad’s call for genocide, a speech, our sister site BBC Watch observed, that’s at odds with the media narrative of the Great March of Return, which has downplayed such extreme antisemitic incitement, whilst characterising the violent riots as mere “protests”.

French judge rules Jewish woman’s killer not responsible because he smoked weed

A Muslim man who killed his Jewish neighbor in Paris while shouting about Allah is probably not criminally responsible for his actions because he had smoked marijuana beforehand, a French judge ruled.

The preliminary ruling in the trial of Kobili Traore for the 2017 murder of Sarah Halimi came Friday from a judge of inquiry — a magistrate that in the French justice system is tasked with deciding whether indicted defendants should in fact stand trial.

Francis Khalifat, the president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities, called the ruling “unsurprising but hardly justifiable.” He said his group and others will appeal in hopes of bringing Traore to trial.

He could be hospitalized for treatment of his psychotic lapses or made to attend a drug rehabilitation program, or he could be released.

Khalifat’s op-ed published Monday on the CRIF website follows a series of protests over perceived delays in Traore’s trial and the efforts, including by judges, that CRIF and others have condemned as attempts to prevent a murder trial.

Man convicted of racist attack on Jewish philosopher Finkielkraut

A man who was put on trial for an anti-Semitic attack on Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut was found guilty and given a two-month suspended sentence on Friday, the French media reported over the weekend.

The attacker, a 36-year-old man from the Alsace region, was convicted of having violated France's anti-racism laws, which prohibit verbal attacks that are based on religion, ethnicity or race.

Finkielkraut, 69, was attacked during a yellow vest protest in Paris in February this year. The insults included phrases like "Dirty race!" "Dirty Zionist!" and "Go back to Tel Aviv!" and "France is ours!"

Finkielkraut, who the son of Holocaust survivors and a staunch defender of Israel, was initially supportive of the yellow vest movement's anti-establishment and pro-reform message, but later criticized it because of its violent acts.

Judge recommends $14 million award to victim of neo-Nazi trolling

The publisher of a neo-Nazi website should have to pay the victim of an internet trolling campaign over $14 million and remove all posts that encouraged his readers to contact the Montana real estate agent, a magistrate judge recommended on Monday.

US Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch called The Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin’s behavior reprehensible and atrocious in telling his internet followers to unleash a “troll storm” on Tanya Gersh, her husband and her 12-year-old son in 2016.

The magistrate judge doesn’t have the final word in the case. His findings and recommendations must be approved by US District Judge Dana Christensen to take effect.

Gersh, whom Anglin accused of trying to run white nationalist Richard Spencer’s mother out of the mountain resort community of Whitefish, said her family received hundreds of threatening, harassing and anti-Semitic messages. She sued Anglin, who argued unsuccessfully through his attorneys that his writings were protected by the First Amendment.

Anglin, who lives outside the US, was found in default when he didn’t show up for a deposition scheduled in April. His attorneys withdrew from the case when he failed to appear.

Harry Potter star cries over anti-Semitism his great-grandfather faced

Actor Daniel Radcliffe broke down in tears on television after reading his great-grandfather’s suicide note, which he possibly wrote after suffering anti-Semitic prejudice at the hands of British police.

The scene was filmed for the television show “Who Do You Think You Are,” a British show similar to PBS’s “Finding Your Roots,” in which celebrities learn about their family histories.

The Sun of London reported the news Thursday. The BBC show’s episode about Radcliffe’s family is scheduled to air on July 22.

The “Harry Potter” actor’s relative, Samuel Gershon, had been ruined by a 1936 robbery at the family’s jewelry business in the London neighborhood of Hatton Garden. But police accused the Jewish businessman of faking the raid to claim insurance cash in what may have been anti-Semitic treatment by the officers. Gershon took his life at the age of 42.

The insurance company eventually paid the claim.

Evidence suggesting that the detectives were anti-Semitic and reluctant to properly investigate the crime was included in the police report that said, according to The Sun: “Jews are so frequently responsible for the bringing down of their own business premises.”

Oregon Signs New Holocaust Education Law After Death Of Auschwitz Survivor

Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed legislation on Monday requiring Holocaust education to be included as part of the state’s public school curriculum.

“Now more than ever we must empower our children with knowledge so together we can stomp out the growing hate in our country,” Brown wrote on Twitter. “Proud to sign the Holocaust education bill today, mandating Oregon schools to teach our kids about genocide so this history is never forgotten or ignored.”

Oregon’s Senate Bill 664 was inspired by Alter Wiener, a Holocaust survivor who spent three years in Nazi concentration camps, reported Oregon Live. Wiener was well-known locally for his lectures on the Holocaust, as well as for his published autobiography “From a Name to a Number,” but was killed in December 2018 after he was struck by a car.

Claire Sarnowski, a 13-year-old Oregon resident at the time, introduced the bill to state legislators as an homage to Wiener, whom she befriended after she heard him speak about his experience in the Nazi concentration camps.

“Alter’s dream was to mandate education which would continue the legacy of the Holocaust and genocides,” Sarnowski said during her public testimony. “Although he is not here with me today, he prepared me to carry on this mission and to persevere in making this a reality … we need to ensure these atrocities are never forgotten nor ignored.”

The Nazi Who Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe

When war broke out on Sept. 1, 1939, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, was staying in Otwock, a resort town outside of Warsaw where he’d established a Chabad yeshiva. The Rebbe was suffering from multiple sclerosis, he was overweight and a heavy smoker. He walked with difficulty.

The journey from Otwock to Warsaw was only 60 kilometers, but perilous. The Luftwaffe’s Stutka war planes bombed and strafed traffic and destroyed rail lines, leaving mutilated bodies and dead horses littering the road. Roadside ditches were filled with Poles hiding from the planes, which they called “death on wings.”

The Rebbe arrived in Warsaw with his family and a group of students, hoping to catch a train to Riga, Latvia, where Mordecai Dubin, a Chabad follower and member of the Latvian parliament, had arranged Latvian citizenship for the rabbi and his family. But Rabbi Schneersohn found the Warsaw train station destroyed and was forced to seek shelter among Chabad followers in the city.

“They bombed all the Jewish neighborhoods, flattened them,” said Rabbi Joseph Weinberg, then a yeshiva student in Otwock who had followed the Rebbe to Warsaw. Rabbi Schneersohn went into hiding. “He would sit in the room writing memorim (articles) and his hand would shake from the bombing.” The Rebbe was taken from apartment to apartment in the beleaguered ghetto to avoid detection by the Nazis.

Beyond Falafel. Israeli food in America

Did ya catch the Google doodle a few weeks back?
Falafel, the mainstay of Israeli street food, is hitting the mainstream.

Beyond falafel, Israeli cuisine- that glorious synthesis of cultures that reflects the diversity of Israeli society is now lauded and glorified. Philadelphia's Zahav, (Hebrew for gold) was just voted the best restaurant in America in 2019 by the James Beard Foundation. Think "the Oscars" for the culinary arts. Last year, Zahav’s chef and co-owner, Michael Solomonov, was named outstanding chef in America. Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's cookbook Jerusalem was a culinary phenomenon. Check out the "tasting Jerusalem" #tastingjrslm hashtag on Twitter- still going strong years after the the book was initially published.

In the Bay Ara, Oren's Hummus has just opened its 4th restaurant, with more in the pipeline.
Oren's proudly broadcasts its Israeli roots, in the store, and on the web, and on the menu.

Yeah, this counts as a BDS fail.

A ‘game changer’: Vast, developed 9,000-year-old settlement found near Jerusalem

An unprecedentedly vast Neolithic settlement — the largest ever discovered in Israel and the Levant, say archaeologists — is currently being excavated ahead of highway construction five kilometers from Jerusalem, it was announced on Tuesday.

The 9,000-year-old site, located near the town of Motza, is the “Big Bang” for prehistory settlement research due to its size and the preservation of its material culture, said Jacob Vardi, co-director of the excavations at Motza on behalf of the Antiquities Authority,

“It’s a game changer, a site that will drastically shift what we know about the Neolithic era,” said Vardi. Already some international scholars are beginning to realize the existence of the site may necessitate revisions to their work, he said.

“So far, it was believed that the Judea area was empty, and that sites of that size existed only on the other bank of the Jordan river, or in the Northern Levant. Instead of an uninhabited area from that period, we have found a complex site, where varied economic means of subsistence existed, and all this only several dozens of centimeters below the surface,” according to Vardi and co-director Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily in an IAA press release.

Roughly half a kilometer from point to point, the site would have housed an expected population of some 3,000 residents. In today’s terms, said Vardi, prehistoric Motza would be comparable to the stature of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv — “a real metropolis.”

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