09/02 Links Pt2: Jewish anti-Zionists are trying to legitimize anti-Semitism; The BBC's perfectly sealed thought system; Anne Frank’s Memory Is Under Assault ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: Jewish anti-Zionists are trying to legitimize anti-Semitism

Using the bully pulpit granted him by the Times, Beinart was able to use one of the most read publications in the world to argue that anyone who defends Israel against the apartheid lie or points out the way those who wish to eliminate it (as opposed to merely criticizing some of its government’s policies) are engaging in discrimination against Jews are the real problem. According to Beinart, the mere existence of one Jewish state is a form of racism and “Jewish supremacy” that should be opposed. In his eyes, the century-long Palestinian war on Zionism and opposition to a Jewish state, no matter where its borders are drawn, is a righteous cause. More than that, he argues that the willingness of Jews to defend their state, even while often criticizing it, as the ADL and Lipstadt do, discredits efforts to oppose anti-Semitism.

Like his Palestinian terrorist allies, Beinart is especially angry at those Arab and Muslim states that have made peace with Israel—either overtly via the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords or quietly, as is the case with Saudi Arabia—and thinks links to these admittedly authoritarian governments also discredits Jews. That his cause is discredited by the fact that those who agree with him among Palestinian groups or their Iranian allies have consistently rejected compromise and peace—and seek Jewish genocide—is a minor detail that he ignores.

Beinart’s own embarrassing history of wanderings from a neo-liberal supporter of the Bush administration’s war in Iraq to a virulent opponent of both it and U.S. foreign policy during his time as editor of The New Republic, then as a liberal Zionist supporter of Israel and advocate of a two-state solution to his current position in which he supports Israel’s dismantlement, makes it hard to take him seriously. He has always been an intellectually shallow writer whose willingness to spout his opinions is only matched by his often-breathtaking ignorance of many of the subjects he discusses, of which Israel is the most conspicuous example.

Yet Beinart, who was once included by Foreign Policy magazine on its list of 100 top global thinkers, is not only someone that is regularly given access to one of the largest publishing platforms in the world for his hateful views. He’s also a reliable weathervane that can usually tell us which way the wind is blowing among the left-wing elites who have such a stranglehold on control of the major institutions of journalism, academia and popular culture.

So it is significant that Beinart is not only venting his resentment at the way the overwhelming majority of Israelis, as well as most American Jews, haven’t taken his advice about surrendering to those who would endanger their existence. He is now embracing the intersectional narrative in which the effort to destroy Israel is identified as a cause that lovers of freedom should support.

The not-so-subtle warning implicit in his article is that the overwhelming majority of Jews who are Zionists—even liberals like the ADL and Lipstadt—are discrediting the Jewish people and leaving themselves open to what are, in his opinion, justified attacks from the left.

Melanie Phillips: The BBC's perfectly sealed thought system

After Sir Salman Rushdie was attacked in New York last month by a Muslim intent upon fulfilling the murderous 1989 Iranian fatwa against him, the BBC’s Dateline London programme ran an interview with the Palestinian commentator Abdel Bari Atwan.

Atwan said on the show that The Satanic Verses, Rushdie’s satirical novel for which he attracted the fatwa, was “blasphemy” and “offensive”.

Rushdie, said Atwan, was “very, very cruel when he talked about the Prophet Mohammed and his wives” which was also “very, very dangerous”. He added: “About 90 per cent of the people of the Muslim world believe that freedom of expression [is] practised only to insult Muslims”.

The Jewish Chronicle reports that this prompted Baroness Deech, a former BBC governor, to write in protest to the BBC Director-General, Tim Davie.

Deech, a former Oxford university law lecturer, wrote that “it is absolutely unacceptable to respond to comments with murder or violence,” and that Atwan’s comments “could amount to glorifying terrorism,” a crime under English law.

The BBC dismissed her complaint, insisting that inviting Atwan to comment was “editorially justified” and that “if extreme views are expressed on the BBC we would always seek to challenge them”.

Here, though, lies the rub. For the BBC’s definition of extremism is subjective, ideological and deeply flawed.

In giving a platform to Atwan and standing by his comments, the BBC adopted the attitude common in the west ever since that Rushdie fatwa — genuflection to the claims made by Islamists about their religion which they enforce with murderous violence.

Their charge against Rushdie’s novel was that it was offensive towards Islam’s founder, Mohammed, and therefore blasphemous. The same charge was levelled against satirical cartoons of Mohammed whose publication led to dozens of killings around the world. It also led to censorship by most of the western media of anything that Muslims held to be offensive.

Along with the rest of the secular west, whose disdain for religious belief is exceeded only by its readiness to capitulate to Muslim demands, the BBC internalised the claim that being offensive about Islam was a religious prohibition that should be respected.

So the BBC probably assumed that Atwan’s comments represented a legitimate point of view. The fact that such an interpretation inspires terrorist violence is a link that, wearing such cultural blinders, it would be unable to make.

Moreover, it has been giving a platform to Atwan for years as an impartial commentator, despite his virulent libels against Israel and support for terrorism.

He has praised Palestinian terrorists as “martyrs”. On YouTube, he called April’s shooting of three Israelis in Tel Aviv a “miracle”.

Last month, he claimed that the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli athletes was not committed by Black September terrorists, with Mahmoud Abbas among the planners, but by “Israeli Mossad operatives and German police”; and that the hands of acting Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid were “soaked in the blood of Palestinian children”.

Yet the BBC repeatedly uses Atwan as a respectable commentator. But then, when it comes to Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, the BBC almost always suspends any critical judgment that it applies to other parts of the world.

In full: Baroness Deech's letter to the BBC

Dear Tim

I am prompted to write to you by viewing the BBC’s featuring of Abdel Bari Atwan on Dateline London on 19 August 2022.

In this appearance, approximately 22 minutes in, Mr Atwan spoke at length about the stabbing of Sir Salman Rushdie in New York, describing his book, The Satanic Verses, as “blasphemy completely and it is offensive”.

He described Rushdie as “very, very cruel when he talked about the Prophet Muhammad and his wives, and actually, to talk about the wives of the Prophet is really very, very dangerous”. He added: “About 90 per cent of the people of the Muslim world believe that freedom of expression [is] practised only to insult Muslims.”

It was wrong for the BBC to have given him this airtime. His comments about Rushdie could amount to “glorifying terrorism” under the Terrorism Act 2006. It is absolutely unacceptable to respond to Sir Salman’s writing or comments, no matter how offensive they might seem to some, with murder or violence, and any attempt to explain or justify violence committed against him should be challenged vigorously, not least by the presenter. No direct challenge was made on the programme when Mr Atwan spoke about this topic.

A quick search of Mr Atwan’s website would reveal inter alia, this post It recounts his condemnation of Chancellor Scholz for disagreeing with Mahmoud Abbas about “50 Palestinian holocausts” and his perversion of history in accusing Israel itself of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

These statements fall within the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and, as racist and hate speech (criminalised by statute), fall outside the limits of free speech.

The BBC must have been aware that Mr Atwan was likely to offend against the BBC’s own commitment to truth and legal speech. In preparing this programme they should have considered balance and readied themselves by adding another panellist prepared to condemn the terrible attack on Rushdie and stand up for the BBC’s own principles.

Hen Mazzig: Anne Frank’s Memory Is Under Assault

In the decades since the publication of Anne Frank’s diary, readers across the world have been captivated by her story. Frank’s sincere and unfiltered writing, coupled with the fact that she wasn’t particularly a religious Jew, made her a figure that both Jews and non-Jews could identify with. Today, her diary remains one of the most powerful literary works to help people understand the horrors of the Holocaust, genocide, and the importance of fighting oppression.

But just as easy as it is to connect with Frank, so too is it easy to attack her.

Throughout history, antisemitism has always shape shifted to fit the political and social aims of those who employed it. These days, attempts to appropriate, misrepresent, and insult the memory of Frank can no longer be brushed aside as isolated incidents. Rather, they are part of a sinister campaign to desensitize people to the dangers of antisemitism.

The most recent prominent example came last week, after a school district in Fort Worth, Texas, decided to reinstate a graphic novel edition of Anne Frank’s diary into its classrooms. Upon reading the news, I was relieved that future generations of students will not be denied the opportunity to learn the heartbreaking story of a young Jewish girl who perished in the Holocaust. That relief, however, gave way to concern over the implication that the existence of Anne Frank’s diary in schools was somehow up for debate.

Across the pond, the debasing of Frank’s legacy isn’t much better. Last month, the London-based Anne Frank Trust UK — named for one of the most famous Holocaust victims and which educates teenagers about prejudice — was forced to issue an apology after inviting Nasima Begum to host a storytelling workshop. Begum’s history of antisemitic rhetoric includes justifying Hamas rocket attacks, comparing Jews to Nazis, and calling supporters of Israel “Zionist scum.” While top leadership attributed this invitation to a lack of due diligence, it is just one in a series of blunders inside that organization.

National Post Editorial: Liberal incompetence + identity politics = Laith Marouf affair

Finally on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke his silence and admitted that his government had erred, promising that a review, which is currently underway, would get to the bottom of how it happened. But this is not an isolated incident: the Trudeau Liberals have a long history of awarding questionable contracts and failing to deliver government services.

Two years ago, Trudeau apologized for not recusing himself from cabinet deliberations over the awarding of a $900-million sole-sourced contract to We Charity to run a student jobs program, particularly because “it created unnecessary controversy and issues.”

Now, once again, his government is responsible for creating “unnecessary controversy,” because its bureaucrats could not take the time to Google a tiny organization co-founded by a man who had been posting xenophobic and antisemitic comments in publicly accessible forums.

Trudeau cannot even blame this one on the pandemic-related staffing issues that have caused so many problems throughout the federal government in recent months: CMAC has been awarded over $500,000 from the Broadcast Participation Fund and Canada Summer Jobs Program since 2016.

Part of the problem is that Trudeau is adept at riding the coat tails of the current zeitgeist, but not so good at coming up with workable solutions to the problems he identifies, other than throwing around money and hoping something sticks, or forming a committee to figure out how things went so horribly wrong.

It’s one thing to initiate anti-racism programs after anger over George Floyd’s murder boiled over into Canada, for example, but the Liberals took it to the extreme, directing departments to embrace critical race theory and awarding contracts to organizations like CMAC, which should have raised huge red flags.

After Marouf’s comments were made public, CMAC released a statement saying that the press coverage reminded it “of how online and mainstream media are powerful tools of white supremacy.” That it thinks exposing racism is a tool of white supremacy should tell you all you need to know about the organization, and the incompetence of the government that gave it both money and praise.

South African International Film Festival Reverses Boycott Decision, Screens Israeli Film

A prestigious international film festival in South Africa showcased a short by an Israeli filmmaker following its boycott last year of a film by another director from Israel.

The 43rd Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) screened the short film “His Best Friend,” written and directed by Oz Zirlin. In the 15-minute Hebrew language movie, Zirlin recreates the day his best friend committed suicide in scenes reenacted with help from family and friends of the deceased.

Benji Shulman, director of public policy at the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), welcomed DIFF’s decision to screen the movie, saying that the festival had “abandoned its ill-conceived boycott against Israeli films,” in a statement to The Algemeiner.

“Over the past year, the SAZF has worked extensively with members of the cultural community to ensure that the basic rights of freedom of expression and association are protected in our country. We’re happy that these rights have been restored to DIFF this year,” Shulman added.

DIFF, which was held from July 21-30, is organized by the Centre for Creative Arts (CCA) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

CAA, the festival organizer, said in a statement on its website that it “upholds freedom of expression and freedom of creativity as guaranteed in Section 16 of the South African Constitution.”

Hamas Praises Google Worker Who Quit Over Company’s Ties to Israel

The Hamas terror group is praising the "courageous stance" of a Google employee who quit her job over opposition to the company's work with Israel.

"Hamas hails the courageous stance of Google marketing manager, Ariel Koren, who rejects Google's policy of providing services and logistical support to the Zionist occupation, which targets the Palestinian people and their rights, and accuses Google of being complicit in violations against Palestinian human rights," Hamas said in a statement posted Wednesday on its official website.

Koren, who is Jewish, announced this week in a public blog post that she is quitting the company after seven years, claiming that Google tried to retaliate against her for her anti-Israel activism. Koren spent the better part of a year protesting "against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion agreement for Google and Amazon to supply Israel and its military with artificial intelligence tools and other computing services," according to the New York Times.

Koren spearheaded opposition to the deal with Israel, with several of her colleagues anonymously backing Koren's claims that Google "systematically silences Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, and Muslim voices concerned about Google's complicity in violations of Palestinian human rights—to the point of formally retaliating against workers and creating an environment of fear," according to her blog post.

"Due to retaliation, a hostile environment, and illegal actions by the company, I cannot continue to work at Google and have no choice but to leave the company at the end of this week," Koren wrote.

Important detail ignored by @nytimes, but caught by @Starrlord89 re: the pro-BDS Google employee

"[T]he [NLRB] dismissal letter found that the decision to relocate the position predated the employee's actions."

Basically undercuts her entire claim.https://t.co/QwZgC8GgAW
— David Litman (@dmlitman) September 1, 2022

'Jews infiltrated politics:' Man with megaphone spouts antisemitism at CUNY

"This is life for Jewish college kids in America 2022," nonprofit watchdog group StopAntisemitism tweeted on Wednesday, accompanied by a video showing Jews and other college students being harassed by a virulent antisemitic man at New York City's Queens College.

The man can be seen yelling loudly into a megaphone, spewing hateful words as students pass by.

In the recordings, which span two days, the man can be heard saying: “They infiltrated law and politics to overturn Roe v. Wade, they have infiltrated clinical psychology…”

He continued: “They have their own banks, their own grocery stores, they were siphoning the wealth of Germany…this campus is named after a **** Jew and all these retarded colored folks walk in here.”

“The same way (((they))) have infiltrated law and politics” - first video pic.twitter.com/GkdZI3Do07
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 1, 2022

'Death to Israel' student magazine angers Australian Jewish students

An article declaring "death to Israel" published in the Adelaide University student magazine On Dit has become the focus of alarm for Australian Jewish students, with the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) calling for the university to take action on Monday.

"The solution to achieving peace and bringing forth justice for Palestine is to demand the abolition of Israel," wrote Habibah Jaghoori, an editor of the magazine. "Free Palestine and Death to Israel."

The article was pinned to the top of On Dit's Facebook page, commenting that "On Dit stands with Palestine through and through and so should you," and "glory to the Intifada. Glory to the resistance."

On Friday the article was made unavailable by article hosting platform Medium, as it was "under investigation or was found in violation," of its rules. According to the platform's rules, it does not " allow content or actions that threaten, encourage, or incite violence against anyone, directly or indirectly.

Reactions by Australian students
AUJS wrote that it was "horrified" by the article, which it said "actively calls for and encourages the destruction of the world's only Jewish state. The majority of Jewish students identify with Zionism. Rather than seeking to understand the religious and cultural connection Jewish students have to the Land of Israel and encouraging productive conversations, the divisive and hateful speech in the On Dit article sends a dangerous message to Jewish students."

“This is not a case merely of a few bad apples” Labour’s NEC election results underscore Party’s enduring cultural problem over antisemitism

Last night, the results of the election of members to the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) were announced.

While most of the results indicated that Labour is trying to move on from its scandal of institutional antisemitism, a number of successful candidates have worrying records that raise questions about the Party’s progress.

Foremost among them is Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, the Media Officer of Jewish Voice for Labour, which is an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation. Ms Wimborne-Idrissi received the endorsement of well over one hundred of the 650 Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) – which poll their members to decide whom to endorse – as well as sufficient votes to win a place on the NEC. She has previously been suspended from the Labour Party before inexplicably being reinstated.

Another is Yasmine Dar, the pro-Corbyn former Chair of Labour’s disputes panel who did not believe that the Party has a problem of institutional antisemitism even as her brother was suspended over antisemitism allegations.

There were other concerning figures as well, such as Young Labour Chair Jess Barnard, who has expressed support for Jeremy Corbyn, amongst other worrying positions.

Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The outcome of the election of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee shows that there still remains a significant section of the Party’s membership that is intent on returning – or even newly elevating – the extremists of yesteryear to power, including those who undermined the disciplinary process and made their names denying the Party’s antisemitism.

“This is not a case merely of a few bad apples that happened to get elected, but rather a problem with the cultural soil of the Party. These fruits are the flowering of the rotten roots that Sir Keir Starmer has repeatedly pledged to tear out.

“It must be asked why these people remain members of the Party and therefore able to stand for office at all, and why a group like Jewish Voice for Labour has still not been proscribed, as other groups have been. Then there is the much harder question of why there are so many people in Labour who are electing them.

“Yes, progress has been made since Sir Keir became leader, but his recent claims to have solved the antisemitism crisis are belied by this result, which in any other major political party would be utterly scandalous.”

in Professor Lax's August 31 resignation letter. Items include:

- Schrader's silence when an Orthodox Jewish student was assaulted with a baseball bat
- Schrader excluded Jews From a search committee charged w/hiring a DEI officer to address CUNY antisemitism

Press DM for more
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 2, 2022

What a stain this terrorist mouthpiece is on @Harvard @Harvard_Law! https://t.co/0SGsQtIIQi
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) September 1, 2022

This is literally a map of the twelve tribes of ISRAEL. https://t.co/eJPSix8dNs
— Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (@academic_la) September 1, 2022

Online Platform Could Face Lawsuit for Selling Video Game That Lets You Slaughter Israelis

The online gaming platform Steam could be taken to court for its refusal to take off the market a video game that allows players to slaughter Israeli soldiers and perform acts of terrorism, an international legal group told the Washington Free Beacon.

Steam, which has some 25 million users and is owned by the Valve company, may be "in direct violation of United States anti-terrorism legislation" over its sale of Fursan Al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to the International Legal Forum (ILF), an advocacy group of more than 3,500 international lawyers and civil society activists. The video game puts you in control of a Palestinian militant who slaughters Israelis with high-powered weaponry and other munitions.

The game has drawn widespread condemnation in Israel, as well as from international anti-Semitism watchdogs, but remains on sale by Steam for $14.99. While the game was temporarily removed from Steam's library following an October 2021 Free Beacon report, it reemerged in April 2022 in an updated version that includes "even more gruesome and violent" material, according to ILF chief executive officer Arsen Ostrovsky, who said his organization notified Valve in recent correspondence that it will "consider pursuing all availing legal actions" to get the game removed.

The ILF has spent months privately attempting to contact Valve, including as recently as last month, and alert it to potential violations of U.S. anti-terrorism laws, but the company has not responded to any of these efforts. "We put them on notice that this game, with its horrific glorification of violence and incitement to terror, may place them in direct violation of United States anti-terrorism laws and that in the absence of a satisfactory response and the removal of the game, we would consider pursuing all availing legal actions."

Social media companies like Facebook removed promotional materials for the game, but Steam has yet to respond to overtures by the ILF and other pro-Israel advocacy groups. The game, which urges players to "join the resistance now," features the violent murder of Israelis, including execution-style gunshots to the face, according to recent clips posted online.

The video game's creator, Nidal Nijm Games, has fully embraced the controversy, publicly bragging in his Twitter profile about being the "most based Game dev on Steam" and "making Zionists cry." Promotional materials for the game posted on YouTube tout Israeli opposition to it and feature Jewish soldiers being shot in the face. With anti-Semitic hate crimes spiking in the United States and other Western nations, legal experts say that Steam could be running afoul of laws barring material support for terror acts, according to one legal watchdog group.

"This is not a mere game, but an unhinged display in glorification of violence and incitement to terror, that may now also place Steam and Valve in direct violation of United States anti-terrorism legislation," Ostrovsky told the Free Beacon.

Hi @BBCNews, your choice of headlines is shameful. The Israeli athletes in #Munich Olympic weren’t “killed” they were brutally kidnapped and murdered by a #Palestinian terror organization. You know how to spell Palestinian when you want to. pic.twitter.com/v8q6ori2fA
— Ohad Zemet (@OhadZemet) September 2, 2022

Memo to Secret Police Chief Reveals Hunt for Chabad’s Soviet Underground

On June 6, 1950, Maj. Gen. Mikhail Popereka, a deputy minister of the Ukrainian branch of the MGB Soviet secret police—the precursor to the KGB—drafted an 11-page memo on the status of the ongoing investigation into the case of the “Chassidim” and sent it to Viktor Abakumov, minister of state security (MGB) of the Soviet Union. Marked with a hand-written “Top Secret,” the report synopsized information gathered by the MGB over the course of its investigation into “the Schneerson anti-Soviet organization” via foreign agents, informants and interrogations. An anti-Soviet center headed by the “tzaddik Schneerson”—standard shorthand for the Sixth Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory, in Soviet documents—had been set up in New York by American intelligence under the guise of a yeshivah, a European branch established in France, and all of it connected to an extensive anti-Soviet network within the Soviet Union. This, at least, is how the Soviet Union’s intelligence apparatus saw it, all the way to the top.

At the time that he received this memo, Viktor Abakumov was one of the most powerful men in the Soviet Union. A member of a younger generation of Communist Party cadres wholly devoted to Stalin, he joined the secret police at age 24 in 1932 and rose through the ranks to become a top deputy to the notorious Lavrentiy Beria, head of the secret police and a close confidant of Stalin. In 1943, Abakumov was appointed the head of the newly formed SMERSH (a Russian acronym for “Death to Spies”), Stalin’s particularly brutal, war-time military counter-intelligence organization, and began reporting directly to Stalin. At no point was Abakumov above personally torturing his captives. After the war, in 1946, SMERSH was merged into the secret police and Abakumov, by then one of Stalin’s favorites, was promoted to head of the MGB. “For the next five years, Abakumov was in control of the life of almost every Soviet citizen and his MGB could arrest any citizen it chose—without waiting for an order from Stalin,” Vadim J. Birstein writes in his comprehensive SMERSH: Stalin’s Secret Weapon. “Through the MGB branches in occupied countries, Abakumov also controlled half of Europe.”1

In other words, the danger posed by the “Chassidim,” a term used interchangeably with “Schneersonite” in Soviet secret police documents, to the state security of the Soviet Union and perhaps the fate of Lenin’s revolution itself, was of concern to literally the highest echelons of Soviet power.

The report to Abakumov, presented below in its original form and for the first time in English, focuses on the aftermath of what is today known as the Great Escape, a sophisticated and dangerous operation conceived and executed by Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidim to illegally escape the Soviet Union after World War II. With the Sixth Rebbe’s blessings, beginning in the spring of 1946 and concluding on New Year’s Day 1947, approximately 1,200 Lubavitcher Chassidim procured false or doctored Polish citizenship papers and fled the Soviet Union via the Ukrainian border city of Lvov (today Lviv).2 The last successful crossing took place on Jan. 1, 1947 (9 Tevet, 5707), after which, as mentioned in the document and in more detail in histories of the Great Escape, the remaining organizers of the operation were hunted down and arrested.3

But the main focus of this MGB memo is a second, far less known Lubavitcher attempt to flee the Soviet Union en masse through Romania. The plan was tested in December of 1948, when four Chassidim—Moshe Chaim Dubrowski, Meir Junik, Yaakov Lepkivker and Moshe Greenberg—left the city of Chernovtsy, Soviet Ukraine, less than 40 kilometers away from the border, and smuggled themselves into Romania.

Austria dedicates 1.5 million euro for Holocaust remembrance at Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem chairman Danny Dayan sign a memorandum of understanding with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Friday under which Austria will allocate 1.5 million euros for a multi-year Holocaust remembrance program.

The cooperation will focus on documentation, research, commemoration activities and raising awareness of the Holocaust over a period of three years.

Poll: 1 in 3 Germans say Israel treating Palestinians like Nazis did Jews

A new survey by an independent German foundation has found that over a third of Germans believe Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is essentially the same as the Nazi genocide of the Jews during the Holocaust.

The wide-ranging survey of thousands of Israelis and Germans conducted by Bertelsmann Stiftung mostly looked at relations between the countries, but also checked antisemitic and prejudiced views in the German public.

Asked to voice their position on the statement “What the State of Israel is doing to the Palestinians today is in principle no different than what the Nazis in the Third Reich did to the Jews,” a full 36 percent of respondents said they agreed or strongly agreed, while another 25% said they did not know. Only 40% disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Meanwhile, 24% of German respondents said Jews have too much influence in the world, 62% disagreed and the rest did not know.

The study found a correlation between lower education levels and prejudices against Israel and Jews.

IRS wants $2.1 million from 82-year-old grandmother whose family fled the Nazis

The Internal Revenue Service is demanding that an 82-year-old grandmother whose family fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s pay more than $2 million in penalties because she failed to report her father’s endowment to the agency on time.

Monica Toth, a resident of the Boston area, is asking the US Supreme Court to prevent the government from collecting the money, which she claims would violate the Eighth Amendment that protects citizens from excessive fines.

Toth’s father fled Jewish persecution in Nazi Germany in the mid-1930s and relocated to Argentina, according to the news site Reason.

Toth moved from her birthplace of Buenos Aires to the US when she was 22 years old, working as a homemaker. In 1980, Toth became a naturalized US citizen while her parents stayed behind in Argentina.

Her father, a successful businessman, died in 1999. Shortly before his death, he opened a Swiss bank account in her name and gifted her around $4.2 million.

Toth’s dad, traumatized by the family experience in Germany, placed the funds in a Swiss bank account in case his daughter once again needed to flee persecution at the hands of her own government.

Imam accused of ‘virulent anti-Semitic’ hate speech expelled from France

France’s highest court has approved the expulsion of an imam accused of incitement to violence and anti-Semitic hate speech, announced French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

Hassan Iquioussen, 58, “will be expelled from the national territory” as ordered by the Council of State on Tuesday in “a great victory for the republic,” wrote the minister on Twitter.

Iquioussen was to be deported to Morocco, but police who tried to arrest him at his home in France on Tuesday evening were unable to find him, reported RFI. He is now registered on the Interior Ministry’s database of wanted criminals, and a source close to the case told AFP he may have fled to Belgium.

The imam, who has hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube and Facebook, was born in France but holds Moroccan citizenship. The Interior Ministry ordered his deportation in late July, citing his “especially virulent anti-Semitic speech” and sermons that called for women’s “submission” to men.

"Yo, I'm f***ing German.. Don't ever f***ing come here. Go back to Brooklyn, you're safe there. But here you're not, OK?"

This happened last year in Manhattan.

Victim, a Hasidic man from Boro Park who was first pushed on train, shared this video now after filing police report. pic.twitter.com/KcmbpiBLYc
— Jacob Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) September 1, 2022

Manna From the Seas: Israeli Researchers Develop ‘Superfood’ Seaweed

Israeli researches have found a way to grow an enriched seaweed “superfood” using a novel, environmentally-friendly approach.

The method used by researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute in Haifa resulted in an up to 25 percent increase in seaweed biomass daily, “with significant enhancements” in the levels of protein, healthy carbohydrates, and minerals in its tissues within days, they wrote in a paper published in the August edition of Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies, a peer-reviewed journal.

Seaweed is already regarded as a nutrient rich food with significantly higher mineral content than land-growing plants. Ph.D. student Doron Ashkenazi, who led the research, said that with the technological approach he and his team developed, “a farm owner or entrepreneur will be able to plan in advance a production line of seaweed rich in the substances in which they are interested.”

The researchers growing approach, and aquaculture in general, is also not dependent on large amounts of land, fresh water, or fertilizer, making it a more environmentally-sustainable way to farm compared to land-based agriculture.

Study: New treatment increases cognitive function in Down Syndrome patients

A new hormone treatment improved the cognitive function of six men with Down Syndrome by 10-30 percent, scientists said Thursday, adding the “promising” results may raise hopes of improving patients’ quality of life.

However, the scientists emphasized the small study did not point toward a cure for the cognitive disorders of people with Down Syndrome and that far more research is needed.

“The experiment is very satisfactory, even if we remain cautious,” said Nelly Pitteloud of Switzerland’s Lausanne University Hospital and co-author of a new study in the journal Science.

Down Syndrome is the most common genetic form of intellectual disability, occurring in around one in 1,000 people, according to the World Health Organization.

Yet previous research has failed to significantly improve cognition when applied to people with the condition, which is why the latest findings are “particularly important,” the study said.

Recent discoveries have suggested that how the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is produced in the brain can affect cognitive functioning such as memory, language and learning.

Jewish Actress Helena Bonham Carter Joins Holocaust Film About ‘British Schindler’ Nicholas Winton

Jewish British actress Helena Bonham Carter has joined the cast of the upcoming drama “One Life” about the late Sir Nicholas George Winton, who saved more than 600 children from the Nazis.

Bonham Carter will play Winton’s German-Jewish mother Babi Winton and will star alongside two-time Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn. Both actors will play the humanitarian but at different ages. The drama, which was first announced in 2020, is currently in production, according to See-Saw Films.

In a case of reality mirroring fiction, Bonham Carter’s maternal grandfather helped thousands of French Jews escape the Holocaust while her British paternal grandmother campaigned against antisemitism as a volunteer air-raid warden and helped Jews from across Europe seek refugee in Britain.

“One Life” is based on the book “If It’s Not Impossible…The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton,” which was written by his daughter Barbara Winton.

The film tells the true story of how the London stockbroker helped rescue 669 children, mostly Jewish, in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia before the start of World War II. He arranged for the children to travel safely to England, where they were taken in by British foster families. He was later nicknamed the “British Schindler” for his efforts and knighted in 2003 by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi Germany.” He died in 2015 at the age of 106.