07/01 Links Pt2: Arnold Roth: Will Joe Biden Grant My Daughter Justice?; 'Jewish Supremacy': A Nazi Slur Goes Woke; Seven minutes of hate courtesy of SJP and UMASS Boston

From Ian:

Arnold Roth: Will Joe Biden Grant My Daughter Justice?

Cynics point to the realpolitik of our situation. Jordan is a key U.S. ally; justice for a murdered American girl is simply not worth disrupting such an important alliance. This theory is bolstered by the U.S.’s near-apathetic response to the grisly murder of Washington Post columnist and Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

But Jordan offered another explanation. In March 2017, six days after the criminal charges against Tamimi were unsealed and more than two decades after the extradition treaty with the U.S. went into effect, Jordan’s highest court declared the 1995 treaty to be invalid. Jordan’s most senior judges said it had never been ratified by the Jordanian legislature.

That isn’t true. Jordan had indeed ratified the treaty. I know because my wife and I used our right under the Freedom of Information Act to request the 1995 treaty documents from the State Department. When they failed to hand them over, we sued. In April, the State Department released the key documents.

They contained a bombshell.

Writing in regal style and invoking the “guidance of God,” the late King Hussein declared in a July 13, 1995, document addressed to the U.S. government his personal agreement as Jordan’s sovereign “to and ratification of that treaty in whole and in part. We further pledge to carry out its provisions and abide by its Articles, and we, God willing, shall not allow its violation.”

Jordan betrayed the treaty, plain as day. But no U.S. government official has publicly addressed Jordan’s failure to comply with its treaty obligation, let alone protest the moral offense or the insult to American interests and decades of mutually beneficial relations.

Tamimi’s name is vastly better known than that of my child and the other victims. In large part this is because there has not been a single investigative report in any part of the mainstream U.S. media into how the world’s most wanted female fugitive remains free. All of this means you likely know nothing about my daughter Malki and the luminous goodness of her tragically short life. That has been the most humiliating dimension of our battle.

Malki embracing Michal. The girls are buried beside each other.

As a parent seeking justice, I know I need to stay calm and restrained. But I have been suppressing an internal volcano for many years now. Together with my wife, I have implored officials at every level in Jerusalem, Washington and Amman to honor justice, the law, and bilateral treaty relationships by allowing a prosecution of obvious justice to proceed.

We have blogged and written Op-Eds. We have spoken by video conference and addressed live audiences. We have asked for support — and we have been stunned by how almost none of the details were known by our audiences until we conveyed them.

President Joe Biden, who knows well the inexpressible pain of losing a child, has a unique opportunity to deliver us justice. Later this month, Jordan’s King Abdullah II will be paying an official visit to Washington, the first Arab leader to meet personally with the 46th president.

President Biden, we beg you: press him to live up to Jordan’s promise by extraditing Ahlam Tamimi. Let her stand trial for murdering innocent Americans — one of them, my child.

CNN: Not just neo-Nazis with tiki torches: Why Jewish students say they also fear cloaked anti-Semitism

In many ways, Jassey and Flayton feel they are being trapped in the middle by inflamed rhetoric on both sides.

"It was much easier to visualize this when Jews were ghettoized," Flayton explains. "Now, you're talking about a world, a largely online world for the younger generations, in which Jews are being excluded from places now, but just in a different way, but the effect is the same." The fear and antagonism of words is increasingly bleeding into the reality of actions.

Flayton sometimes takes off his yarmulke when he goes out on the streets in New York. He's seen the attacks against people in his own Brooklyn neighborhood, people targeted for being visibly Jewish, and takes the decision with a heavy heart.

"At the end of the day, I don't want to get attacked on the train," he says.

Jassey also worries about the physical impact of it all, rattling off incidents around the country: bottles thrown at Jews eating sushi in Los Angeles; synagogues defaced and defiled; a young Jewish man punched, kicked and pepper-sprayed in New York's Times Square.

Jassey is now nervous about bidding farewell to remote learning and returning to campus in such a charged climate. And she worries about the long-term impact of so many young people being filled with hatred for Jews.

"College anti-Semitism is a small thing until those people grow up," she says. "Those people grow up and became doctors and lawyers and politicians and lawmakers."

Flayton promises to refuse to be cowed, whatever is aimed at him online and off.

"I can't imagine a world where I let that break me, because then they would win," he says. "What they're trying to do right now is bully Jews off and out of the public forum ... because we're saying things they don't like. And it would be a colossal waste if we gave into that. That has never been a winning strategy for our people. Ever." (h/t jzaik)

Democrats Attempt to Rewrite History of Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

Last week, 73 members of the House Democratic Caucus sent a letter to President Biden urging him to reverse what they called “the previous administration’s abandonment of longstanding, bipartisan United States policy” as it relates to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. That revisionist history is a desperate attempt by a non-representative minority of lawmakers hoping to use anti-Trump sentiment to obscure what they are actually doing: advocating against the will of Congress and the American people.

Among the most egregious of the short letter’s follies were several requests the fulfillment of which would actually be illegal, along with several others that rely on gross distortions of the truth about the conflict.

First, the letter pushes for the reopening of a Palestinian consulate in East Jerusalem. As a practical matter, this would be a redundant waste of taxpayer money, because the Jerusalem embassy already provides consular services on a non-discriminatory basis. But it would also run directly against the will of Congress, as expressed in the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which provides that “Jerusalem should remain an undivided city.” For the record, that Act was passed by overwhelming bipartisan consensus, in both houses of Congress, 21 years before Trump was elected president.

Opening the Palestinian consulate would also be illegal under the 2018 Taylor Force Act, another law passed by a massive bipartisan congressional consensus, not by Trump. That bill put a hold on any assistance that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority (PA) just and only until the PA stops paying terrorists to kill American and Israeli citizens.

Another of the letter’s requests, that Biden disburse all remaining congressionally appropriated aid to the Palestinians “following all applicable U.S. laws,” is also exposed under the Taylor Force Act as being either remarkably ill-informed or ill-intentioned. As recently as March, the State Department confirmed that “the PA has not revoked any law, decree, regulation, or document authorizing or implementing” its system of structured payments to terrorists. In layman’s terms, that means the U.S. cannot possibly, following all applicable U.S. law, disburse the appropriated aid. Under Trump the PA was held accountable for its laws. Why do the Democrats would want to reverse that and reward their intransigence? (h/t MtTB)

Prof. Phyllis Chesler: The Conversation that dares not speak Its name

Racism in America is real. Health care housing, educational opportunities, and job disparities, as a function of race are real issues in our country—but so is black on black violence, black on Asian and black on Jewish violence. Guns, drugs, trafficking, and domestic violence in every community, including in racially marginalized communities, are real problems. Whether police really do target black men more than those of any of color and/or whether those targeted and glorified in the headlines are—or are not—criminals is now being hotly debated. Whether racism is or is not “structural” in America and whether all white folk are “racists” is also being contested.

But why bring the Jews into it—why bring Israel into all this? We are witnessing the diabolical linking of “black and brown bodies” (that’s the choice, academic phrase) to “Palestinians”—as if the Arabs in Gaza and in Yehudah and Shomron are really African-Americans; as if the IDF, the most ethical army in the world, is somehow equivalent to the most prejudiced and most violent of American police officers. Given the propaganda and the vast sums spent on indoctrination, George Floyd has become a Palestinian.

There is no end to this false equivalency, this scapegoating of Jewish Israel for the historical crime of slavery and for continued racism in the United States. Matti Friedman has penned an excellent piece about this. He writes:

“While following the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, which to me seemed just and necessary, I saw a sign that read FROM FERGUSON TO PALESTINE. This was puzzling…If activists were seeking foreign inspiration for a domestic movement, they had hundreds of ongoing ethnic conflicts to choose from… For these Americans, distant Jews have become an embodiment of the American evil, racial oppression. People have always projected fantasies onto other places and groups, but this particular type of projection, in which Jews are displayed as the prime symbol of whatever’s wrong, has a long history. When it surfaces, it usually heralds an impatience with logical analysis and normal politics, and a move toward magical thinking.”

It also leads to individual physical attacks on individual, visibly Jewish Jews; to attacks on kosher supermarkets, synagogues, and cemeteries; and to pogroms and genocide.

Just as the Intifada, Hamas-style, has invaded campuses in California and activist uprisings everywhere, so too: California is the template for what is surely coming our way.

The Time Has Come for a Domestic Anti-Semitism Czar in the U.S.

The IHRA working definition examples delineate how anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Examples of when speech or actions have crossed the line into anti-Semitism include, "Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor." Another example: "Applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation."

In the United States, the two institutions of great societal import that have demonstrated time and again the need to adopt the IHRA working definition are Congress and our institutions of higher education. Since coming to power, Democratic House members in the so-called "Squad" have engaged in anti-Semitic and anti-Israel vitriol. The czar would lobby on Capitol Hill to ensure that combating anti-Semitism remains a top priority that is confronted, including within the halls of Congress itself.

Anti-Zionism also permeates on university campuses in the United States, where Jewish and pro-Israel students are intimidated, harassed and even violently attacked by anti-Semitic campus groups like Students for Justice in Palestine. Too often, many campus administrators take little action or even justify the hostile anti-Israel environment as something protected under the First Amendment. Additionally, too many university campuses receive money from anti-Israel sources, leading to academic departments spreading anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda. The czar can bring the moral authority of the White House and the resources of the federal government to bear on battling the anti-Semitism plaguing these segments of American society.

The recent move to upgrade the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism to an ambassadorship was a true step forward in the fight against global anti-Semitism.

The time is now for the United States to create the position and appoint an individual combating Jew-hatred at home. The domestic anti-Semitism czar can help the United States stay on the course envisioned by America's Founding Father George Washington, with his timeless message to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island: "For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

Gil Troy: 'Jewish Supremacy': A Nazi Slur Goes Woke

Just as Hitler considered Zionism an attempt to build "a central organization for [Jews'] international world swindle, ...a haven for convicted scoundrels and a university for budding crooks," Duke also deemed Zionism to be a launching pad for Jewish power. Duke asserted: "I would have to defend my people from the intolerant sector within the Jewish community that seeks domination rather than conciliation."

There is no justification whatsoever for resurrecting this horrific Nazi term to now slander Zionism. Beyond the millions who were tortured and murdered based on this vile lie, the term remains rooted in an obsessive, distorting hatred of the Jewish people. Zionism is simply Jewish nationalism. Like all nationalisms—in fact, like all expressions of a particular identity—it necessarily distinguishes between "us" and "them." That's what Palestinian nationalism and Black nationalism do, what feminism and queer pride do, and what Americanism and Canadianism do as well. But commonality isn't superiority; celebrating the bonds that form a community builds up the "us" without necessarily denigrating the "them."

If Zionists were Jewish supremacists echoing white supremacy, apartheid or Nazism, Israel would treat every Arab equally—equally harshly, that is. The State of Israel's relationship with Arabs varies, from its Arab-Israeli citizens to its new Abraham Accords friends to its Palestinian neighbors. Israel's relationship varies with different groups of Palestinians too, whether they live in Gaza, in East Jerusalem, in the Galilee or in Jordan. These variations based on differing jurisdictions prove that these are political and national questions, not racial and ethical ones. Israel adjust its relationships based on all kinds of changing political dynamics. And the notion that Israel treats all Arabs—in fact, all non-Jews—equally contemptuously as do racists is a grotesque lie.

Words matter. In popularizing the phrase "Jewish supremacy," Palestinian supporters—including dozens of woke Jewish studies and Israel studies professors—continue to try piggybacking on America's racial reckoning and the West's necessary fight against white supremacy. They are also continuing the broader campaign to demonize Zionism and Israel—dooming any peace efforts with slashing, delegitimizing rhetoric. So the next time Israel-bashers want to use "Jewish supremacy," be honest about its true origins: Use the ugly, demonizing, blood-drenched phrase in the original German, die jüdische Vorherrschaft.

Bassem Eid: It's Time Ilhan Omar and "the Squad" Learned the Truth about Israel and Hamas

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" Tuesday, and was asked by host Jake Tapper about her long record of virulently anti-Israel comments (which included her comparison earlier this month of Israel to Hamas) and why some of her Jewish congressional colleagues had called her out for again issuing anti-Semitic tropes.

As Omar has done so many times in the past, she blamed her critics rather than take responsibility. "I've welcomed any time my colleagues asked to have a conversation to learn from them [and] for them to learn from me," said Omar, D-Minn. "I think it's really important for these members to realize that they haven't been partners in justice."

I'm a Palestinian who grew up in a UNWRA refugee camp outside of Jerusalem, and been a human rights activist all my life. Let me say this as directly as I can: Rep. Omar does not know what she is talking about. Worse, for years, Rep. Omar has been engaged in not arguing any facts, but simply throwing out dirty anti-Semitic epithets, a mirror image of the anti-Semitism by "white supremacists" she claims to decry.

Politicians like Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spend a considerable amount of time attacking Israel for the supposed harm it inflicts on Palestinians. If they truly care about the wellbeing of Palestinians, they ought to focus their attention elsewhere. These days, the vast majority of suffering Palestinians experience is the direct result of the corruption of the Palestinian Authority and the influence of the terrorist group Hamas.

Thank you for speaking with me @Eve_Barlow - your fortitude and bravery are incredibly inspiring! https://t.co/FXgmVrvPo7

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) June 30, 2021

Your casual reminder that Ilhan Omar pulled an "all genocides matter" to justify her "present" vote on recognition of the Armenian genocide, as well as hint at not having academic consensus regarding acknowledging the genocide.
Oh, and also her relationship with Erdogan. pic.twitter.com/3hNjDtL3A1

— Claire (@ClaireRedacted) March 15, 2021

Thank you to Michigan’s AG (@dananessel) for calling out Ilhan Omar’s vile accusations against Jewish members of Congress! https://t.co/Flm3sKXKkj

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) June 30, 2021

They’re directly criticizing the Jews now. Is criticism of Jews like all that criticism of Israel?

Previous alleged criticisms of Israeli policy have included spy sharks, controlling the weather in Iran, starting World War 1, and denying Cornel West tenure at Harvard. https://t.co/RG5An1mvPC

— Conspiracy Libel (@ConspiracyLibel) June 30, 2021

Yum, I needed this pic.twitter.com/xKVk5CcCoN

— Ex-UWS-Democrat (@exUWSdemocrat) June 30, 2021

Fired CNN Commentator Supports Antisemitic Former US Presidential Candidate

Former six-term US Congresswoman and once-Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney has blamed “Zionists” for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. McKinney is such a rabid antisemite that earlier this year she agreed to appear on a white supremacist show simply to bash Jews.

Social media users were quick to point out that Al Jazeera anchor Marc Lamont Hill advocated on behalf of McKinney when she ran for president, although he subsequently downplayed his enthusiasm. However, McKinney was clearly an antisemite before her presidential run. For example, in 2001, she posed with a Holocaust denier at the infamous Durban Conference.

Lamont Hill previously was fired from his job as a CNN commentator after effectively calling for the elimination of Israel during a speech at the United Nations. Perhaps Lamont Hill is accustomed to lying, especially when considering he now works at Al Jazeera, Qatar’s state-funded mouthpiece that is widely considered one of the most anti-Israel outlets in the world.

Washington State GOP Lawmaker Wears Holocaust-Era ‘Jew’s Star’ to Attack COVID-19 Vaccination Drive

Another far-right Republican lawmaker has invoked the analogy between the “Judenstern” (“Jew’s Star”) which the Nazis forced Jews to wear in their outer clothing and vaccine mandates to roll back the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Jim Walsh, who represents the city of Aberdeen in the Washington State legislature, wore the star affixed to his shirt at a conservative rally on Saturday, the Seattle Times reported.

“It’s an echo from history,” Walsh wrote on a Facebook page where a video of the event was posted. “In the current context, we’re all Jews.” He said that he had been given the star by someone at the event, where most attendees were wearing one. He described some of the organizers as “deeply concerned about vaccine passports and vaccine segregation.”

For good measure, Walsh also likened any disparate treatment of people who freely choose not to be vaccinated with the Supreme Court’s 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld “separate but equal” racial segregation laws targeting African Americans.

Walsh received strong criticism from a local Holocaust educator for using a symbol inextricably associated with the murder of six million Jews with public health initiatives to counter the pandemic.

“Our government is making an effort to protect their own citizens, not kill them,” said Dee Simon, Baral Family executive director of the Seattle-based Holocaust Center for Humanity. “It not only trivializes it, it distorts history.”

Student-Led Jewish Advocacy Group Shares Data on Hundreds of Campus Experiences With Antisemitism

An advocacy group that began as an Instagram account collecting anonymous experiences from Jewish college students released a new report documenting antisemitic harassment and bullying on college campuses across the US.

Released Tuesday, the Jewish on Campus’ (JOC) 2020 Data Report discussed 1,097 anonymous submissions of antisemitic incidents reported to JOC through a form on its website.

The report included a list of the 15 colleges and universities with the most reported incidents of antisemitism, as well as a map highlighting states with the most incidents on their campuses, while noting that trends were partly driven by where large Jewish student populations were located.

“Over the past several months, the Jewish on Campus University Team has labored arduously to process hundreds of submissions of antisemitism collected on the JOC’s form,” the group said.

It said these were most frequently reported by students at New York University (30), George Washington and University (25), Rutgers University (20), and Tufts University (19). Other students whose experiences were recorded attended Cornell University (24 submissions), Depaul University (24), Tufts University (19), and Columbia University (17).

The data report also included a chart categorizing episodes of antisemitism based on definitions by AMCHA, a nonprofit that studies and advocates against antisemitism on college campuses.

Actress Debra Messing Defends Former Officer at Children’s Book Authors Group Who Resigned Over Antisemitism Statement Row

Actress Debra Messing voiced support on Tuesday for a Black Jewish woman who recently resigned from her position as diversity officer of an international organization for children’s book authors and illustrators over a statement condemning antisemitism and its aftermath.

“April Powers must be given her job back,” tweeted the former “Will and Grace” star, who is Jewish. “This cannot go unchallenged. Condemning hate against Jews is NOT Islamophobic NOR Anti-Palestinian. If you think it is, you have a prejudice against Jews.”

Powers was the first person to hold the title of chief equity and inclusion officer at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), the only worldwide professional organization for children’s book authors and illustrators. She introduced herself as Jewish in a welcome video when she started her position in June 2020 and spoke a few words of Hebrew in the clip.

On June 10, she published a statement on the SCBWI Facebook page that denounced the rise in antisemitism and hate crimes against Jews. The statement noted that “Jewish people have the right to life, safety, and freedom from scapegoating and fear. No person should be at risk because of their heritage, religion, disability, or whom they love.” She also invited people to join SCBWI “in not looking away and in speaking out against all forms of hate, including antisemitism.”

While many thanked SCBWI for speaking publicly about antisemitism, the statement was also met with some protest over its lack of discussion of Islamophobia and bigotry against Palestinians, followed by backlash to the group’s blocking of one of those critics’ posts.

Philadelphia City Council Approves Hearing Over Food Truck Festival That Disinvited Israeli Vendor, ‘Mishandled’ Antisemitic Threats

A Philadelphia City Council resolution has authorized an investigation into an incident involving an Israeli food truck that was disinvited from a local food festival, which was subsequently cancelled following outrage.

The June 24 resolution allows the city’s Committee on Commerce and Economic Development to hold a hearing about Moshava’s exclusion from the “Taste of Home” food festival, and to “raise awareness of a recent rise in antisemitism, and discuss best practices for organizations and cultural event planners facing similar situations in the future.”

“Taste of Home” was scheduled for Sunday, June 20, in Philadelphia, and was organized by the local non-profits Eat Up the Borders (EUTB) and Sunflower Philly. On June 19, Moshava, which serves Israeli cuisine, announced on social media that it was disinvited from participating in the food festival due to antisemitic threats of violence and protests that organizers of the event had received regarding the truck’s presence. After organizers were lambasted for disinviting Moshava, the entire food festival was called off, while EUTB apologized for cancelling the Israeli vendor’s involvement in the event.

The resolution noted that while Moshava does not believe the decision of the event’s organizers stemmed from antisemitism, “an Israeli vendor was excluded from a public event at a moment where antisemitic incidents have been on the rise in the United States.”

“Threats to the safety of this event based on the presence of an Israeli food truck are antisemitic,” the resolution stated. “When we consider that Moshava and the festival itself were threatened for an Israeli food truck’s participation in the festival, the broader context of violence against Jews is essential context. The mishandling of concerns of protest and aggression by organizers of the ‘A Taste of Home’ event, in addition to mismanaged communications with Moshava, the other participants of the event and the public highlights the need to discuss and present new best practices for these types of cultural events.

“The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations has agreed to do a full review of this specific situation.”

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) Philadelphia/Southern New Jersey said in a released statement on June 25 that it commends the City Council’s decision to investigate the incident.

Yale student council okays statement on Israeli 'genocide, apartheid'

Yale’s student council approved a statement authored by a campus pro-Palestinian group accusing Israel of genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

Two campus Jewish groups condemned the statement as having “antisemitic overtones.”

The Yale College Council, the undergraduate student government, approved the statement on Sunday first authored by Yalies 4 Palestine, in an 8-3 vote with four abstentions, the Forward reported.

Yalies 4 Palestine released the statement on May 12 amid the Israel-Gaza conflict.

“As Yale students, we condemn the injustice, ethnic cleansing and genocide occurring in Palestine,” it said.

The statement also likened Israel’s actions during the conflict to police violence against Black Americans.

“Just as Israel’s military imposes the apartheid system against Palestinians, the US police enforces the system of white supremacy against Black Americans,” it said. A number of left-leaning campus groups subsequently endorsed the statement. A group of anti-Zionist Jewish students and alumni released their own statement endorsing the Yalies 4 Palestine statement.

Jewish Students Denounce Yale Student Body Resolution on Israel

Dexter Van Zile: Seven minutes of hate courtesy of SJP and UMASS Boston

Last Thursday, June 24, 2021, I was publicly humiliated and scapegoated at a rally organized by the UMASS Boston Chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, (SJP). More to the point, I was shoved, spit at, called a bitch, a Nazi, a pig, and doused with water at a rally organized by a student organization supported with funds collected and distributed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. SJP has been organizing rallies like this on college campuses throughout the U.S. for years, but now, SJP is moving off campus, with the powers that be taking little notice.

The ordeal was the longest seven minutes of my life, but I have nothing to complain about. Jews throughout the world have been subject to much worse abuse at the hands of their fellow citizens in episodes that lasted a lot longer than what I endured.

And even during the most frightening moments of my ordeal, I was comforted by two people who stood up for me out of principle, telling the mob assailing me I had done nothing wrong and that I should be left alone. Very rarely have Jews enjoyed such solidarity from their fellow citizens, even in the most enlightened polities.

Throughout history, people have been voyeuristic bystanders to anti-Jewish violence. These days, people who engage in antisemitic attacks are egged on, sometimes implicitly, sometimes explicitly, by people who declare they are on the side of peace and justice.

I am not a Jew, but what happened to me last week on the streets of Boston, my home for the past 20-plus years, is part of an ongoing campaign designed to drive Jews out of civic life in the U.S. This is not about Israel, but Jews. And it’s not just about Jews, but about undermining the rule of law and poisoning inter-group relations throughout the country — using public funds. It’s a recipe for disaster and the people who run the city are asleep at the switch.

On June 17, the UMASS Boston chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine started promoting a rally that begins on the steps of the Massachusetts State House in Boston and then proceeds to the separate offices of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Boston.

BBC WS radio’s ‘Newsday’ does NGO report churnalism

On June 28th the NGO ‘Save the Children’ put out a press release promoting a report (which includes a foreword by UN special rapporteur and anti-Israel activist Michael Lynk) that it published on the same day.

Bright and early on the same morning (UK time) the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newsday’ devoted over five minutes (from 14:03 here) to uncritical and context-free amplification of that report which, according to the relevant webpage, will remain available online for “over a year”.

Presenter Clare McDonnell introduced that item with a politicised, partisan and simplistic caricature of the story:
McDonnell: “Let’s take you to East Jerusalem now where tensions continue there because Palestinian residents face eviction to make way for Jewish settlers and a report out today claims that four out of five children whose homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were demolished by Israeli authorities say they feel socially isolated and abandoned. The report is from the charity ‘Save the Children’. Twelve-year-old Leen is from East Jerusalem. In the area where Leen lives with her family there are 88 homes currently under threat of demolition by the Israeli authorities.”

The recording that listeners then heard (with a voiceover) was actually provided in the ‘Save the Children’ press release but that fact was not communicated to BBC audiences.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Syria, Yemen Parents Shipping Kids To Gaza So NY Times Will Notice Their Deaths (satire)

Families from elsewhere in the region have taken to paying human traffickers to smuggle children into this coastal territory, in the hopes that at least here, they stand a chance of Western media and NGOs caring that the children suffer or get killed.

Observers of migration patterns have discerned in recent months a trend involving parents in war-torn Yemen and Syria, among other places, hiring third parties to transport the parents’ children into the Gaza Strip through illicit tunnels via Egypt into Gaza, a place that, in contrast to the established practice anywhere else in the world, boasts a mainstream media presence ready to give front page-attention to child casualties of armed conflict. This way, the parents believe, their children have a shot at someone, somewhere, noticing them and calling attention to the injustice and suffering surrounding their tragic deaths, even if by the time the media do so it will be too late for those specific children.

“You’ll never see the New York Times put pictures of dead kids from Yemen or Syria on the front page,” explained analyst Sahar Bivnay-Adam. “And if you’re a resident of some godforsaken place such as Afghanistan, Nigeria, or, God help us, Congo? You’d be lucky if those deaths even get an article with a separate byline instead of some aggregated ‘world news briefs’ without so much as a photo or individual mention of any victims. What’s a parent supposed to do? Well, some of them have managed to scrimp and save enough to get their children to Gaza, where at least if they die some tragic or criminal death the international media will pay attention, because Jews.”

How the CST penetrated deep inside London’s neo-Nazi underground

It was one of the Community Security Trust’s most secret operations ever.

Under our 1994 joint project to expose some of London’s worst far-right extremists, an anti-fascist informant — codenamed Arthur — infiltrated the British National Party (BNP) and spent the next decade distributing leaflets and attending hundreds of meetings, birthday parties for fascists, BNP weekend festivals and Blood & Honour concerts full of neo-Nazi skinheads.

Arthur reported all of it to us and the anti-fascist Searchlight magazine — which was also involved in the operation — as part of our effort to combat the extreme-right’s violence, bigotry and hatred.

This is an area of CST’s work that we rarely, if ever, discuss publicly, but it is an essential part of our efforts to protect the Jewish community.

Fifteen years after the operation ended, Nick Lowles of anti-racism group Hope Not Hate has told the story of the operation — and CST’s involvement — in a book called Codename Arthur.

It describes how during that time, I would regularly meet Arthur in various hotel bars around central London and scribble frantically while he told me about what he had been up to.

We would discuss upcoming activities and plan his operations. His information and insights were invaluable and allowed us to build a detailed, three-dimensional picture of the BNP’s activities in London.

We knew all the organisers and main activists and we were inside their supposedly secret meetings. But more than that, Arthur helped us to get under the skin of the far-right and really understand the culture of this violent, racist, misogynistic world at its grassroots.

Canadian Jews Faced ‘Highest Ever’ Number of Antisemitic Incidents in May, Says Jewish Group in Report

Canada’s Jewish community “came under assault on multiple fronts” during the month of May, a leading Jewish group charged Wednesday, in a report that collected data on recent antisemitic incidents across the country.

B’nai Brith Canada said that it was aware of at least 250 such incidents during May, a month that saw the 11-day conflict between Israel and the Hamas terror group and the wave of antisemitic invective and attacks that followed.

Those 250 incidents — the highest ever reported in a single month by B’nai Brith since the group began collecting data in 1982 — included 154 incidents of harassment, 51 incidents of vandalism, and 61 incidents of violence. The figure did not include “many other online incidents” still being reviewed.

“One alarming finding that has not been sufficiently publicized is the degree of antisemitism present at anti-Israel rallies. In almost every city where such rallies took place, Jews were singled out and targeted for abuse by angry mobs of demonstrators,” the group said.

“These rallies were not the typical kind of civil and lawful political protests with which most Canadians are familiar. Many of these events devolved into open hatefests with blatantly antisemitic, obscene, and violent rhetoric.”

It cited several, specific “noteworthy” incidents, including a rally in Montreal at which Jewish demonstrators were attacked with rocks; death threats hurled at an Israeli restauranteur in Vancouver; and public calls for violence against Jews made by protesters driving through Calgary.

Syrian-Trained Islamist on Trial in the Netherlands for Arson Attack on Amsterdam Kosher Restaurant

The Jewish community in the Netherlands will be closely watching the trial of an Islamist charged with arson and vandalism against a well-known kosher restaurant in Amsterdam, the editor of the country’s main Jewish newspaper remarked in a television interview on Wednesday.

“If there is a strong punishment, it will at least give a sign to the Jewish community that the threat posed by this man is finally being taken seriously,” Esther Voet — editor of the Nieuw Israëlitisch Weekblad (NIW) — told broadcaster NPO 1′s breakfast program.

The defendant, named as 32-year-old Salah A., is accused of burning an Israeli flag outside the HaCarmel restaurant and smashing its windows. In 2017, he was convicted for similar offenses. He is also a suspect in a sexual assault case from Feb. 2020.

Voet emphasized that Salah A., whose trial began on Wednesday morning, had previously “trained in Syria with a terrorist group.”

“It is very important that this case is now substantive, because we can finally hear that this man had a terrorist motive,” Voet said.

In March, HaCarmel’s Israeli owner, Daniel Bar-On, told local news outlets that he could no longer keep track of the number of attacks on his property by antisemites.

Romania holds unprecedented commemoration of Jewish victims of 1941 pogrom

Romania, which has long denied taking part in the Holocaust, on Wednesday paid tribute to thousands of Jews killed during a 1941 pogrom in the northeastern city of Iasi.

An unprecedented meeting of parliament was convened in the presence of the massacre’s last survivors.

“We, as a nation, must openly admit that our past was not always glorious,” said Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu, recalling the “unimaginable suffering, cruelty and savagery” inflicted on the orders of pro-Nazi marshal Ion Antonescu.

Some 15,000 victims, almost a third of Iasi’s Jewish population, were killed in what historians call “one of the most documented massacres of the Second World War.”

On June 29, 1941, thousands of Jews were taken to the Iasi police headquarters while being beaten and humiliated by Romanian police and civilians.

They were then shot dead by army troops.

Jewish group launches virtual tribute to heroic Righteous Gentiles

Amid the global uptick of antisemitism, the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) on Wednesday called attention to its sought-after virtual series, which highlights heroic Righteous Gentiles: people who risked their own lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.

The group, which provides financial support to aging and needy non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, said in a press release that the series' mission is to educate the public on the hazards of spreading hate speech toward any racial or religious group and to make sure the atrocities of the Holocaust never reoccur. The timing of the release is purposeful, stated JFR executive vice president Stanlee Stahl.

“We’ve seen an uptick in antisemitic attacks – both physical as well as on social media channels – at an alarming rate in recent weeks,” Stahl said. “Our hope is that this series reaches as broad an audience as possible so that in such trying times, we as a society can learn from the heroism of Righteous during the Holocaust, and through education bring about the abolishment of hate.”

JFR staff interviewed Jews who were rescued and non-Jews who were rescuers from around the world, as well as family members, for the documentary.

The award-winning film series will run on the JFR Facebook page every Monday night from July 12 through August 2. A similar viewing last year attracted close to 17,000 live attendees, the foundation said.

Israeli special-needs education tech unveiled in UN convention

Athena Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the empowerment of teachers in Israel, held an event within the UN's 14th session of the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) that took place last month. The event focused on the use of technology in special-needs education during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"I call on governments around the world to supply their teachers with computers and iPads and give them the opportunity to help students, especially those with disabilities," said Uri Ben Ari, president and founder of Athena Fund, at the event.

"In special-needs education, advanced technology is not just a means of teaching, it also helps the students communicate with their environment," Ben Ari added.

Prof. Amnon Shashua, co-founder and CEO of OrCam Technologies, discussed his company's use of Artificial Intelligence in order to aid persons with disabilities. OrCam's MyEye, a wearable, voice-activated device which instantly reads texts and digital monitors out loud, has been used in special-needs education.

Shashua also added that OrCam Technologies is currently developing a device for students with hearing impairments, which will be able to recognize and isolate a person's voice in a conversation.

Israeli, UAE airlines announce codeshare and frequent flyer partnership

The UAE and Israeli flag carriers announced a codeshare cooperation deal on Thursday, the latest sign of deepening ties between the two nations following September’s normalization of diplomatic relations.

The move follows Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s visit to the UAE this week to inaugurate the Jewish state’s first Gulf embassy in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi.

The airlines said in a statement that they had “launched their joint codeshare network and reciprocal loyalty agreement for frequent flyers.”

“This builds on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the airlines signed in 2020 following the Abraham Accords signed by the UAE and Israel,” it added.

Under the agreement, El Al will sell tickets and offer frequent flier points to its members for the twice-weekly Etihad service between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv from July 18.

Pending regulatory approval, Etihad will then begin to sell tickets for 14 routes operated by El Al as well as offering benefits to its frequent fliers.

“We are very pleased to be able to announce the launch of our codeshare and frequent flyer partnership with El Al,” said Etihad chief executive Tony Douglas.

How the world’s Jewish community came together to bring aid to Surfside

This is not just a Jewish tragedy; everyone knows that.

The beads, the crucifixes, one as blue as the Miami sky (when it’s clear of the rains), the leather-bound New Testament on the pavement abutting the fence. The yellow note, hanging precipitously, making a plea “in Jesus’s name.”

The circle of evangelical Christians standing next to the memorial fence, holding hands and belting out prayers in Spanish.

The relics that are heartbreaking in their universal meaning: The toy truck, the battered Supersoaker.

Among those who remain missing, The Shul says that about 40 are Jewish, meaning most are not Jewish. And the Jews who have come together from across the world, the rescue teams from Israel, from Mexico, from Canada, know it.

“It’s not only about Jews,” said Nachman Shai, the Israeli minister for the Diaspora who was given VIP treatment when he visited here this week accompanying Israeli rescuers. “I have to make sure that that’s fully understood. It’s about human beings, it’s about a national tragedy.”

Raphael Poch, the spokesman for the United Hatzalah team from Israel, describes how Hatzalah’s trained counselors are working on the second floor of the Grand Beach Hotel, where the families, Jewish and non-Jewish, sit and wait.

“It’s a state of unknowing, and that can cause a sense of helplessness,” he says. “Helplessness is the beginning of what can lead to an emotional reaction or traumatic stress reaction. And that’s what we’re trying to avoid — we’re engaging them to help the people around them if we see there’s a need because they’re often in the same place, the same location with other families. So even if they’re not doing anything that moment, they can go and help another family, can have a conversation with them, they can talk with them, they can interact with them.”

Why Israel Got to Surfside So Fast

Many believe Israel cannot do anything right.

Many insist on lifting their index fingers (and other digits, as well) and saying, “But, Israel …”

Many insist on doing to Israel what they would never dream of doing to any other nation or people — essentializing the entire story of Israel and turning it into a Manichean Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader morality tale — because of the problematic nature of Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians.

News flash: If you believe the world’s only Jewish state can do nothing good, then you are saying the majority of Jews in the world are not capable of doing good. You have successfully demonized the Jews.

You are no better than a medieval antisemite.

And, if you say Israel was quick to get to Surfside because of its substantial Jewish population (which is not entirely wrong — not that there is anything wrong with that), I invite you to go a little deeper.

Because you would have to explain Israel’s rush to Ghana, Kenya and New Orleans. Not a whole lot of Jews in those places.

Now you know why there needs to be a Jewish state. Not only as a place of refuge for Jews — this, and this alone, would be enough.

To be a Jewish state is to take up the banner of the Jewish people, which is the eternal banner of the Jewish faith — to engage in tikkun olam, repairing the world, through being an “Or l’goyim,” a light to the nations.

Let me put it to you this way: When Israel is at its best, it serves as the public relations department for the Jewish people and for Judaism itself.

Israel responds immediately — not because the victims are Jewish.

Israel responds immediately — because Israel is Jewish.

117 years ago, #OTD (1904), Theodor #Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism passed away. Today, his dream - a Jewish state reborn - is a living, thriving reality. May his memory, vision and courage always remain a blessing and inspiration. pic.twitter.com/mPfxE75ijK

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) June 30, 2021

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