01/03 Links Pt2: FBI Says Violence Against Jews Is in Decline. Jews Aren’t Buying It; Sweet success in Ben & Jerry’s-MDA blood donor project; Bret Stephens: Jews and Cancel Culture ~ EoZ

From Ian:

FBI Says Violence Against Jews Is in Decline. Jews Aren’t Buying It.

The FBI’s latest annual report shows a decline in violence against Jews, findings that are at odds with Jewish watchdog groups who say anti-Semitic hate crimes have hit their highest levels in history during the past two years.

The FBI’s 2021 findings, released at the end of last year, have sparked accusations the federal law enforcement agency is deflating these statistics at a time when the American Jewish community is facing an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism. At least one watchdog group is calling on Congress to investigate how and why the FBI underreported anti-Jewish hate crimes.

"At a time of record anti-Semitic hate crimes, it is appalling that the FBI's data-gathering has been so badly botched," said Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a watchdog group that combats Jew hatred. "This massive failure has undermined the purposes of hate crimes data precisely when we most need the data. If the FBI doesn't quickly correct this problem, congressional committees will need to ask some serious questions."

Marcus said the FBI’s 2021 statistics on hate crimes against Jews are "essentially useless" due to new reporting procedures that omitted statistics from organizations typically included in the federal agency’s yearly assessment. While the FBI claimed that violence against Jews decreased last year, groups such as the Anti-Defamation League reported that 2021 saw the highest levels of anti-Semitic violence on record. A report from the AMCHA Initiative, a Jewish advocacy group, last year found that assaults on Jewish students and their identities doubled in the 2021 and 2022 academic year.

Marcus, an attorney and former staff director of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, said the FBI’s inaccurate reporting is likely to prompt congressional oversight.

"In my experience overseeing federal civil rights data collections, congressional committees have historically taken a keen interest in the completeness and accuracy of governmental information provided to the public," Marcus told the Washington Free Beacon. "It is hard to imagine that a failure of this scope would escape the notice of congressional oversight staff."

"I am hopeful that the Department of Justice and FBI will clean up this mess on their own," Marcus said. "If DOJ and the FBI do not fix this problem, however, by providing corrected and complete data to the public, we should not be surprised if Congress should get involved."

Sweet success in Ben & Jerry’s-MDA blood donor project

Ben & Jerry’s Israel and Magen David Adom have begun a joint project to raise awareness and encourage young people to join MDA’s regular pool of blood donors in Israel.

To sweeten the project, Ben & Jerry’s set up ice-cream carts at four blood donation stations across the country where anyone who donated blood received free ice cream.

Locations included the Dizengoff Center, where 71 units of blood were donated; in Rishon Lezion, which collected 119 units; at Rupin Academic College, where 80 people donated units of blood; and at the Knesset, which collected 120 units. The donated blood can conceivably help save the lives of about 1,000 people in less than two months.

Able to save the lives of around 1,000 people in under 2 months
MDA vice president of blood services Prof. Eilat Shanar said, “In order to maintain a proper blood supply in the State of Israel, MDA’s blood services are required to collect about 1,000 blood units from volunteer donors every day. We are very happy about the cooperation with Ben & Jerry’s and we hope to continue this activity in other places throughout the country and encourage more and more people to donate blood and save lives.”

Is the UK Turning into Something Extremely Different?

On December 1, 2022, Britain’s Office for National Statistics released the latest 10-yearly census, carried out in 2021, showing that the fastest-growing population in England and Wales is Muslims. According to the census:
“For the first time in a census of England and Wales, less than half of the population (46.2%, 27.5 million people) described themselves as ‘Christian’…”

“It’s not a great surprise that the Census shows fewer people in this country identifying as Christian than in the past,” the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said in response to the findings, “but it still throws down a challenge to us not only to trust that God will build his kingdom on Earth but also to play our part in making Christ known.”

The Muslim community in Britain reacted otherwise. Zara Mohammed, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said:
“Whilst the Census does look at religion, the lack of wider religion-specific monitoring prevents us from fully understanding how acute the issue of under-representation of Muslims is in British society.

“These initial figures give us an opportunity to now make meaningful change and create a better Britain for all.”

In 2013, British journalist Vincent Cooper wrote: “By the year 2050, in a mere 37 years, Britain will be a majority Muslim nation.”

The census taken 2021 has revealed that while fewer than half of people (27.5 million) in England and Wales now describe themselves as Christian, those claiming “No religion” rose by 12 points to 37.2% (22.2 million). Those identifying as Muslim rose from 4.9% in 2011 to 6.5% (3.9 million) in 2021. The next most common responses were Hindu (1.0 million) and Sikh (524,000), while Buddhists overtook Jews (273,000 to 271,000).

Religion seems a far more important part of life for Muslims than for other Britons: it appears central to their sense of identity. According to a report from 2006:
“Thirty percent of British Muslims would prefer to live under Sharia (Islamic religious) law than under British law…. Twenty-eight percent hope for the U.K. one day to become a fundamentalist Islamic state.”

An article by Abdul Azim Ahmed, published by the Religion Media Centre in September 2021, admitted that within Britain all the divergent schools of Islam are present — although Salafism has grown in recent years, particularly among younger Muslims.

Trevor Phillips, former head of Britain’s Commission for Racial Equality and Equality and Human Rights Commission, found that the followers of Islam hold very different values from the rest of the society; many apparently want to lead separate lives. “Muslims are creating nations within nations,” he said.

Next steps for the Abraham Accords

With the announcement of the Abraham Accords, the world witnessed the impossible become possible. The nations of the Middle East were on the path to peace with their neighbors. The Accords proved that, under the right conditions, and in an incredibly short time, adversaries can become indispensable allies and even good friends. Such a tectonic shift in attitudes has paved the way for a new era of coexistence and a renewal of our common Abrahamic past, unprecedented since ancient times.

This new reality is a welcome blessing for the three Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—and as such we were honored to attend a recent summit that celebrated the Abraham Accords and served to strengthen the Abrahamic values we all share. This first-ever Annual Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit brought together representatives from six continents and nearly 40 countries, with many of the attending individuals being global leaders, diplomats, ambassadors, ministers and clergy from multiple faiths.

Significantly, the central focus of the summit was not only to celebrate the successes the historic Accords have brought to the region in just two years but, most importantly, the promise to bring people together to explore innovative ways to promote the values of the Accords—tolerance, religion, traditional family, economic peace and prosperity—in as yet unfathomed ways. The goal was to find ways to widen this new regional paradigm and explore novel approaches to replicate the peace and coexistence attained in the Middle East in other parts of the world, including in Europe, the Americas and beyond.

At the summit’s opening, we heard from leaders of the recently united Abraham Accords countries—the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel—as they shared their insights on the global impact of the Accords, provided an insider’s perspective and discussed the promotion of the values of the Accords. But the discussion went far beyond these countries. It encompassed other nations beyond the Middle East. World leaders, diplomats and entrepreneurs from Italy, Malawi, Slovenia, Finland, Poland, the U.K., South Sudan and the Czech Republic, among others, contributed their insights.

These leaders recognized that the Abraham Accords nations have, as a result of the ensuing peace, reaped the even greater fruits of economic prosperity, which, in addition to stability, has promoted open markets and enabled us to build a vibrant and close-knit society that is both entrepreneurial and innovative. The leaders delved into shared challenges, trends and threats faced by changing cultural norms in their countries and internationally. They raised the topics of the possibility of deeper and longer-lasting cooperation between nations and the importance of developing favorable governance policies on a local level. Discussions broadened to encompass how the values of respect and coexistence, as well as heritage and religion, are being actively challenged globally. Approaches to retaining our shared values, those that have allowed our communities to flourish throughout history, were considered.

A Revisionist View of the Intelligence Failure of the Yom Kippur War

The new year of 2023 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, which began when the IDF was caught off guard by a coordinated, simultaneous attack by Syria and Egypt. Although the war lasted a mere twenty days and concluded with a resounding Israeli victory, its disastrous beginning led to the postwar Agranat Commission investigating how the country’s leaders ignored or dismissed various warnings of the impending invasion. Amir Oren, examining the commission’s findings, argues that its highest-ranking officer, Yigael Yadin, put too much emphasis on the failures of the Department of Military Intelligence (DMI or Aman), and not enough on those of then-Prime Minister Golda Meir and her storied defense minister Moshe Dayan:
The sins of the Agranat Commission became gradually evident as its bias and secrets were exposed and declassified. Yadin went easy on Golda Meir because he wanted to join her cabinet. Meir’s meeting with Jordan’s King Hussein one week before the war on September 25, when he warned her that the Syrian military was on “pre-jump positions,” came up in her closed-door testimony but was only revealed to the public fifteen years later—a decade after her death. Meir and Dayan were depicted as being wholly dependent on the DMI’s assessment; therefore, if the DMI was mistaken, they were not at fault.

In reality, Israel’s political leadership made the wrong call. On the eve of Yom Kippur 1973, Israel’s leaders thought that acting upon war indicators would be more costly than inaction, especially three weeks before an election, and believed that the worst-case scenario could not be that bad. Meir and Dayan were confident in the IDF’s ability to repel an invasion easily and go on a counter-offensive.

Yet despite the deficiencies of its assessments, Oren argues that the recommendations of the commission did much good: The Agranat Commission’s reform of Israel’s intelligence community did . . . bring about one very positive result—fresh brainpower, recruited out of academia and the military to staff the new research and analysis organs. They went on to other positions as spies, diplomats, and managers across the Mossad and the Foreign Ministry, a big plus for their employers and the entire system.

Bret Stephens: Jews and Cancel Culture

None of this is to say that cancel culture is the only or even the main threat to Jewish security and thriving in America. But it’s absurd to suggest that simply because there are many threats, or because some of them emanate from the Right, Jews can afford to relax about this one. Cancel culture is the McCarthyism of our day, and it is shredding the fabric of liberalism, as both a political ideal and a daily practice, in ways that degrade American life and the Jewish experience within it. We need to fight it accordingly.

A few steps worth taking:
1. Jewish teaching on cancellation must be widely disseminated and understood in synagogues, day schools, and Jewish organizations. We are a people of argument, not excommunication. (Our most notorious venture with the latter, against Baruch Spinoza, was not exactly our finest moment.) We are also a people who believe in providing avenues of repentance, not walling them off. Rabbi David Wolpe offers the theological and cultural groundwork for this teaching in his seminal essay.

2. We need to be outspoken in defending the basic rights of those facing cancellation, and compassionate to those who have been canceled. During my own close encounters with cancel culture, I was struck by the number of prominent people with large social-media followings who commiserated with me privately about the insanity of it all. But it was only a brave few who were willing to do so in public. In this issue, former Princeton professor Joshua T. Katz describes his own experience of discovering who his true friends were — or, more often, weren’t — during his two-year cancellation ordeal. Jews should strive to be the true friends.

3. Many instances of cancellation involve he-said/she-said cases where the truth isn’t easy to ascertain. We owe sensitivity, attentiveness, and respect to alleged victims — but not unbounded deference. We also owe the alleged wrongdoer a presumption of innocence that goes well beyond the pro forma nod to legalities. There have been too many cases of false, exaggerated, or seriously questionable accusations that have wrecked or ruined people’s lives. As Jews, we should always stand against the politics, and culture, of personal destruction.

4. To oppose cancel culture, we should practice what we preach. As Samantha Harris wisely notes in her essay, that means putting up with expressions of opinion that most of us abhor: BDS petitions; anti-Zionist campus groups; speakers many of us believe lean too far to the left, or to the right. In my own speaking career, I have twice been disinvited, and both times the cancellations came from the political Right. The people who rescinded those invitations have forfeited their moral right to complain about left-wing cancel culture.

5. We have to step back from the zero-tolerance mentality that underlines cancel culture. Life is a long series of missed cues, missteps, miscommunications, misjudgments, misgivings, and dumb mistakes. There can be no learning from any of these if the default penalty for error is public shaming and professional ruin. It behooves Jews, both in our everyday and professional lives, to learn again that we can correct without harming, admonish without firing, and discipline without humiliating those who err. Jewish organizations can lead the way, with a pledge to encourage viewpoint diversity in their organizations, respect due process for those accused of wrongdoing, and refuse to bend to the demands of social-media mobs or whisper campaigns.

6. “Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.” The line is from Jefferson, not Jacob, Judah, or Jeremiah. But it ought to serve as a standard for every American Jew who believes that we honor our country and our traditions best through open and vigorous conversation and argument, not speech codes and safe spaces.

Call Me Back PodCast #96: Special Episode: Bret Stephens on Cancel Culture

One of our regular guests – Bret Stephens, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The New York Times – returns for a conversation on cancel culture, anti-semitism and a new issue of a journal he edits, called Sapir.

Bret joined The New York Times after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he was most recently deputy editorial page editor and, for 11 years, a foreign affairs columnist. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. And prior to Israel, he was based in Brussels for The Wall Street Journal.

In this episode we speak extensively about Sapir journal

Phyllis Chesler: An American college student: Problems, real and Imagined

The American professor asked all her students to share a little bit about themselves. The student who had recently arrived from Afghanistan said this:
“I am so lucky. With my passport pasted to my body, I walked and ran under a hail of Taliban whips and guns to the airport. Somehow, miraculously, some members of my family also kept up, and we managed to jump into the filthy sewer that surrounded the airport. I found the gate to the country that was going to offer me asylum. This took more than two days. I did not think we would get out alive, but we did. I am so grateful to be here. But I don’t know how long my luck will last.”

The next student, born in America, said this:
“I am really suffering, as I wrestle with my gender identity. I definitely think I’m queer but then what? Am I non-binary? What if I’m a trans-man? What if all the meds and surgeries that I need are too expensive or not covered by my parents’ insurance? What if I lose some friends over this or am discriminated against at a job or even here at the university?”

The Afghan student, a woman, has faced the most brutal misogynist tyranny. Her troubles are far from over in terms of obtaining citizenship anywhere on earth. The American student is concerned only with herself and with her identity. She does not seem connected to the still existing plagues of rape, incest, domestic violence, and the trafficking of women, even in America, all of which can afflict her. Nor is she concerned with what happens to others in the world such as war, exile, homelessness, mental illness, violent crime, racism, etc.

What have we done to our coming generations? Can this ever be turned around? If so, how?

Given young people’s addiction to the internet where naught but misinformation and disinformation, as well as online peer pressure and fake “friendships” prevail (maybe adults are equally enthralled by the internet)—an addiction which has profoundly limited our attention span. Increasingly, people choose audiobooks and movies as their preferred go-to venues for information.

I recently met a young woman in her twenties, a college graduate, who was proud of the fact that she had not read any book written before 1985. But who am I? I am someone whose young granddaughters know more about Instagram, TikTok, and avatars than I do.

How Israel on the Media Battlefield Impacts Jewish Students

On university online forums, misinformation and biased accounts of events were often used to demonize Israel and those that support them by diminishing the role of terrorism in Israeli actions. Misleading infographics with no context were often posted. Such one-sided information and the use of inaccurate and derogatory labels, such as “settler colonialists,” “ethnic cleansers,” “fascists,” or “endorsing Apartheid” to describe those supporting Israel hindered the potential for constructive dialogue and were used to advance a hateful agenda.

Contrary to the progressive image that these movements try to portray, there is a significant presence of hateful discourse within the “wokeness” that is often promoted among students. This is the antithesis of progressivity.

Related reading: UK National Union of Students’ New President Celebrated Massacre of Jews, Called Hamas Critic ‘Dirty Zionist’

The centrality of social media within university life and the extension of the campus into the virtual realm drastically increase the reach of these posts.

This has tangible consequences, not only creating a hostile environment for Jewish students online but also in person on campus. No wonder so many Jewish students like myself often felt hesitant to openly identify as Jewish in university spaces.

Feelings of unsafety among Jewish students on campus became all too common, especially during times of heightened tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Measures such as hiding Stars of David on necklaces or changing walking routes to avoid anti-Israel protests were often taken.

Israel must continue its efforts to improve on the media battlefield, particularly regarding social media platforms. This is crucial in advancing public opinion of Israel, especially among young progressives, who are potential future world leaders and influencers.

By addressing and exposing biased media coverage surrounding Israel, we can take important steps toward promoting Israel’s image in the media. But that would not be the only positive result.

Shifting progressive attitudes toward Israel could also significantly impact the challenges Jewish students experience on campus.

Addressing Israel-related antisemitism, by promoting support for and understanding of Israel among students, would ensure a safer experience at universities and colleges for Jewish students around the world.

Anti-Jewish Hate Fills Rutgers University Event on Israel

On November 18, 2022, the Rutgers New Brunswick chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Endowment Justice Collective (EJC) hosted a panel entitled “Divestment From Israeli Apartheid At The University Level.”

The event was moderated by Rutgers post-graduate student Abire Sabbagh, who has a history of promoting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement at UC Davis. The panel included Iman Abid, Director of Advocacy and Organizing at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights; Israel critic Dov Baum; Wassim Kannan, Vice-Chair for the New Jersey Chapter of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP); and David Litwin, co-founder of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return.

The event centered on gathering support for BDS’ anti-Israel campaign through the demonization and delegitimization of the the Jewish state.

Wassim Kanaan set the tone for the evening, when he was asked by Sabbagh if he could “walk us [the audience] through how Israel perpetuates apartheid, and why it is important to name it as an apartheid and settler colonial state.”

Kanaan’s response included numerous falsehoods: that Israel appropriates Palestinian water in the West Bank and destroys water infrastructure; that Israel has laws dictating where Arabs can and cannot live; and that Israel constructed segregated roads in the West Bank. These are all false.

Litwin continued in a similar vein, when he stated that “what the BDS movement has shown is that the problem is the presence of a racist, settler colonial, Zionist regime … Someday soon, we’re gonna see the toppling of the apartheid regime.”

Litwin is apparently proud to combine “Zionists” — a dog whistle for Jews — with modern perceptions of evil, such as racism, colonialism, and apartheid.

Sacha Baron Cohen Returns as Borat to Roast Ye’s Jew-Hatred

The Kennedy Center last week shared a memorable comedy routine from Sacha Baron Cohen, who revived his Borat character — a Kazakh “journalist” known for his absurd accent, signature suit, sexual improprieties and over-the-top satire on antisemitism.

On Dec. 4, the Kennedy Center’s Honors Event celebrated the cultural contributions of George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight and U2 with Cohen’s routine. The center later shared footage of the stand-up act for those not in attendance.

The comedian’s jabs at embattled hip-hop mogul Ye (formerly Kanye West) grabbed the most attention, though his commentary on President Joe Biden (who was in attendance) and former President Donald Trump also generated abundant laughter.

“I am told the president of US and A is here…Where are you Mr. Trump? Oh, you don’t look so good. Where have your glorious big belly gone? And your pretty orange skin have become pale!” Cohen said.

Cohen then went after Ye. “Before I proceed I must say I am very upset about the antisemitism in US and A. It not fair! Kazakhstan is number one Jew-crushing nation! Stop stealing our hobby. Your Kanye, he tried to move to Kazakhstan, and he even changed his name to Kazakhstanye West. But we said no, he too antisemitic even for us,” he said, prompting applause from the audience of celebrities.

No room for facts at the BBC World Service radio inn

Previously we looked at Yolande Knell’s exploitation of Christmas season reporting for the promotion of one-sided narratives:
BBC NEWS USES CHRISTMAS TOURISM REPORT TO PROMOTE CHOSEN NARRATIVES

On the day that written report was published, Yolande Knell also appeared on BBC World Service radio with a similarly seasonally opportunistic audio item.

The final item in the last hour of the December 24th edition of ‘Weekend’ was introduced (from 15:38 here) by presenter Krupa Padhy with a description of a town that has been under exclusive Palestinian Authority control for twenty-seven years as “occupied”:
Padhy: “Well I don’t need to remind you; it is Christmas Eve and let’s now head to Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. That is of course where Christians believe Jesus was born in a stable. The BBC’s Yolande Knell joins us on the line from Bethlehem.”

Having described the scene in Manger Square and the preparations for the evening’s celebrations, Knell went on to note the return of tourism after the Covid pandemic and the rising trade done by local businesses. Padhy however soon changed the subject.

Padhy: “It must be so reassuring for them but of course this is a part of the world that lives in the shadow of so much political and humanitarian tension. Can you just remind us of the tensions that we’ve seen in recent months there; in the occupied West Bank.”

Knell: “That’s right. I mean this is a year in which there’s been a flare-up in the Israel-Palestinian conflict that has especially affected the West Bank. We’ve seen increased deadly violence…ahm…something like 30 Israelis killed…ahm…some 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. According to official figures 2022 has been the deadliest year since 2006.”

In line with BBC practice throughout the past year, listeners were given no background information concerning the factors which have brought about that “flare-up” such as the Palestinian Authority’s loss of control over parts of the territory under its control, the participation of members of the PA security forces in terrorism and violence or foreign funding and weapons supplies for terrorist organisations. Neither did Knell bother to clarify that the majority of the Palestinians killed throughout the year were terrorists and/or people engaged in violent rioting against Israeli forces whereas the majority of the Israelis killed over the same period of time were civilians.

BBC report on UNGA resolution marred by omissions

The BBC’s description of the outcome of the UN GA vote does not tell readers that the session was held after the start of Shabbat on a Friday, meaning that Israel could not participate, or that 53 countries abstained while others did not vote at all:
“The resolution was backed by 87 countries but opposed by 26 others, including the UK and US.”

Neither are BBC audiences informed that the resolution was proposed, inter alia, by the Palestinians. That information – as well as some background concerning the UN’s record on Israel – would obviously have been helpful to BBC audiences reading the following:
“Palestinian officials hailed the UN vote as a victory. Nabil Abu Rudeineh said it was time for Israel to be “held accountable for its ongoing crimes against our people”.”

The BBC’s report does not clarify that this resolution was already in the pipeline months before Israel’s recent election. That omission is particularly relevant given that five of the report’s 18 paragraphs promote linkage between the story about the UN GA resolution and the new Israeli government.

“Friday’s vote came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn as prime minister of the most hard-line Israeli cabinet. […]

On Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu returned as prime minister of Israel in a coalition with ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies.

The first guiding principle of the new government, published on Wednesday, declares that “the Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the land of Israel”.

It says that includes the occupied West Bank and promises to “advance and develop” settlements there. […]

The new government has also promised to retroactively legalise some 100 outposts in the West Bank built without Israeli authorisation – and to annex the West Bank.”

And of course no BBC report on this topic is complete without the corporation’s standard partial and unhelpful portrayal of ‘international law’:
“About 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.

The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.”

Once again we see that omission – both long-standing and new – hampers the ability of BBC audiences to fully understand a story which is likely to be in the news again in the months to come.

More Palestinian Propaganda from New York Times Reporter Raja Abdulrahim

When Palestinian terrorists get killed while attacking Jewish civilians or IDF soldiers, terror groups like Hamas or Islamic Jihad are quick to laud the “martyr” as a member of their group in social media and on the web, often with a poster showing the terrorist in a heroic pose with a rifle. But the latest from the New York Times is that many of the claimed martyrs were actually just innocents murdered for no reason by the Israeli Army. Written by Raja Abdulrahim and Hiba Yazbek, For Palestinians, a Rush to Claim ‘Martyrs’ Killed by Israel includes interviews with family members who swear that their relative was never a member of any “resistance” groups. We’ll get to these claims in a moment, but first let’s note another serious charge from the Times reporters:
In Israeli military news releases there is little acknowledgment of the civilian toll from its raids into Palestinian areas this year, with the word “civilian” never used in reference to Palestinians. The military generally acknowledges that a Palestinian was killed simply with the phrase “a hit was identified.”

Never? In fact, the IDF’s official twitter feed shows repeated references to Palestinians as civilians. For example, following an IDF raid in Jenin on December 11, there are multiple official tweets on December 12 referring to Palestinians as civilians. For example:

The IDF and its commanders regret any harm to uninvolved civilians, including those who are in a combat environment and in close proximity to armed terrorists during exchanges of fire. 5/6
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 12, 2022
The IDF then reiterated the point:

Security forces will continue to conduct counterterrorism activities wherever necessary while making efforts to avoid harm to uninvolved civilians. 6/6
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 12, 2022

CAMERA has contacted the Times about this clear-cut error and asked for a correction.

Please make this go viral pic.twitter.com/2gVWTL0wd9
— ElBluemountain #JusticeforMalkiRoth ???? (@EBluemountain1) January 3, 2023

Jewish Londoner Slashed And His Infant Son Assaulted While Taking Walk

A Jewish man and his infant son were assaulted in London while taking a walk, a local Jewish community watch group reported on Friday.

“A racist male unhappy with the child’s speed pushed the 1-yr-old shouting ‘Move F** Jew, I will stab & kill you’ before cutting the victim on his face/hand,” Shomrim Stamford Hill, which provides security and support to the local Orthodox Jewish community — one of the largest in Europe — tweeted on Dec. 30. The son, the group added, was also pushed to the ground.

The incident, for which the mother was present, is the latest in a spate of attacks on Jewish Londoners that have been occurring all year and peaked shortly after Halloween during what Shomrim described as a “hate crimes pandemic.”

Antisemitic hate crimes have been an ongoing problem in London all year. Earlier in December, an Orthodox Jewish woman in the Stamford Hill neighborhood of London was stalked and assaulted by an unknown perpetrator.

The suspect followed the woman, shouting “Dirty Jew,” and then snatched her shopping bag, “spilling her shopping onto the pavement whilst laughing,” according to Shomrim Stamford Hill, which provides security and support to London’s Orthodox Jewish community.

In another separate incident, a cab driver shouted “This is the last time I am taking Jews as you kill Muslims in Israel” at a “heavily pregnant” Jewish woman after picking her up from Homerton University Hospital.

“Hitler was right” projected onto a building in Orlando, FL by white supremacist group Goyim Defense League (GDL), headed up by Jon Minadeo II.

GDL members include a convicted pedophile (Jesse Shenk) who solicited sex from a 14 year old girl. pic.twitter.com/v2TDlZH3k3
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 3, 2023

Thank you to one of our followers who saw our IG story about this vandalism, physically went to the Deerfield PD station, and cleaned up the swastikas along with train cleaning staff ?? pic.twitter.com/tQ2RgwetQp
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 3, 2023

Disney+ Releases First Look of New Miniseries About Dutch Secretary Who Hid Anne Frank’s Family During Holocaust

Disney+ recently revealed the first image from its upcoming limited series “A Small Light,” based on the true story of Miep Gies, the Dutch secretary of Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father. Gies helped hide the Jewish family during the Holocaust and saved Anne Frank’s now famous diary.

In the image, released during Chanukkah, the Frank family celebrates the Festival of Lights, complete with a lit menorah, while hiding in a secret annex during World War II. They are celebrating alongside the van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer, who hid with them in the secret annex, and Gies and her husband Jan.

British Jewish actress Bel Powley will play Miep, Jewish actor Liev Schrieber will star as Otto and Billie Boullet will take on the role of the young diarist, Anne. The cast also includes Amira Casar, Ashley Brooke and Rudi Goodman. The eight-episode series from National Geographic and ABC Signature in partnership with Keshet Studios will stream exclusively on Disney+ later this year, although a set release date has yet to be announced.

The limited series tells the story of Miep, a 20-something-year-old who did not hesitate when her boss asked her to hide him and his family from the Nazis in Amsterdam during the Holocaust. For two years, Miep, Jan and several others risked their lives to protect the eight people hiding in the secret annex.

Israel may resume youth trips to Poland - ex education minister

Israel's former education minister Yifat Shasha-Biton announced a return of Israeli youth trips to Poland on Sunday as her final act as minister before vacating the position, Israeli media reported.

Israeli youth trips to Poland have been a hallmark of the Israeli education system for years, with Israeli teens going to the eastern European country to learn about the Holocaust by visiting concentration camps and former Jewish landmarks.

However, these trips were put on hold in the summer of 2022 by then-prime minister Yair Lapid, who accused Poland of trying to manipulate the educational content.

"The Poles wanted to mess with the content of the trips and what can or can’t be said to Israeli teens visiting," Lapid said at the time.

However, it seems the content issue has since been resolved, according to Shasha-Biton, though what remains is a security issue.

"In recent months, we worked together with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to find solutions to delegation security dispute," Shasha-Biton said Sunday, according to N12. She added that she hopes these efforts will result in youth trips to Poland resuming in the near future.

‘President’ of Alexandria Jewish ‘community’ dies

Jews from Alexandria are mourning the passing of El Hag Abd El Nebi Abou Zaid, caretaker of the Nebi Daniel synagogue in Alexandria. The Heritage of Jews from Egypt posted this tribute on its Facebook page:

“We are saddened that the long serving warden of the Heritage of Jews in Alexandria passed away after a long illness. More than anyone he was central to the community- Collecting funds from the Properties belonging to the community, running the numerous staff, overseeing the cleanliness of the cemeteries, keeping checks and balances with the security services, encouraging the restoration of the syangogue- so much so that he was seen as the de facto President.

His great objective was to revive Jewish prayers and presence in the Synagogue. He was never as happy as when 180 of us came to pray in February 2020. He was fully dedicated to his function and objective, even speaking Hebrew and fluent in certain Jewish prayers more than many of us. His long dedicated service, sarcastic but witty approach to all things worldly endeared him to my heart despite his obstinacy at times. Raguel Tayeb! (A good man)

On every one of my visits, as that of many of our friends he was always ready to extend a warm smiling welcome and comprehensive ear. I always felt the Temple on El Nabi Daniel Street and Abd El Nabi were predestined for each other. We will not forget his years of service and he will be missed sorely. To his family I extend my heartfelt condolences and warm affection especially to Rasha. May they find consolation in his memory as a blessing; may he rest in Peace and Allah Yerhamou.”