02/25 Links: How worrying is the far-right’s ‘Day of Hate’ stunt?; How Can Jews Support Ukraine After the Holocaust?; Israel Must Prepare to Save the World from a Nuclear Iran ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: How worrying is the far-right’s ‘Day of Hate’ stunt?

The proper response to this sort of Internet-inspired attempt at intimidation is for Jews to choose to gather on that day specifically to demonstrate their contempt for antisemites and solidarity in the face of threats. Like the national Jewish response after the Pittsburgh shooting, efforts like that of groups like StandWithUs to promote a “Shabbat of Love” or Club Z’s call for massive synagogue attendance on Feb. 25 demonstrate a healthy unwillingness to be terrorized by a tiny cadre of neo-Nazis. Equally significant (and well-timed) is a Times Square celebration on Saturday night for thousands of young people as part of the annual CTeen Shabbaton sponsored by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

Still, it is more than likely that such efforts won’t command the same kind of support as those organized by left-wing groups like the National Council of Jewish Women, who used the previous Shabbat to promote their stands in favor of abortion. That’s an issue that seems to generate far more fervor among most American Jews than those that revolve around efforts to defend Jews against attacks, either in the United States or Israel.

The hate groups aren’t really focused on what the organized Jewish community does. But should neo-Nazis or white supremacists attempt some sort of organized march to intimidate Jews, they know that it is unlikely that the community will respond with force or active measures of self-defense since the vast majority of them are still resolutely opposed to gun ownership or any form of counter-protest that could possibly lead to violence.

At the same time, the hysteria about unspecified threats from the neo-Nazis tends to distract the community away from forms of antisemitism that, while seemingly less scary, demonstrates the way hatred for Jews is legitimized in 21st-century America.

The demonization of Israel and its supporters in mainstream political discourse and in national publications and broadcast networks are so commonplace as to become routine. In academia or even in popular culture, the acceptance of toxic left-wing ideologies rooted in intersectional myths about Jews being the embodiment of “white privilege” who assist in the oppression of Palestinian people of color is rarely even challenged. Such charges have the support of many progressives with real political clout in a Biden administration that has embraced an “equity” agenda that is harmful to Jewish interests and ready to treat Israel unfairly. Neo-Nazis have no support anywhere in American politics.

Moreover, as worrisome as threats may be, it should not be forgotten that the epidemic of antisemitic violence against Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, N.Y., has shown no signs of abating, as New York City hate-crime statistics have recently shown. That is an ongoing threat that has continued to generate little interest among the liberal majority of American Jewry, not least because the perpetrators of almost all of those attacks are African-Americans and perhaps inspired, at least in part, by the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan.

Legacy groups like the Anti-Defamation League are able to enjoy great fundraising success by sounding the alarm about neo-Nazis. But apparently, rallying to the defense of Jews who do not share the beliefs or politics of their donors isn’t as exciting.

At the same time, the publication that liberal Jews continue to venerate as a holy text—The New York Times—has stepped up its bizarre campaign to demonize ultra-Orthodox Jews. The latest entry in the series is an effort to depict them as deceitful looters of the public purse. While the initial point of the Times’ recent coverage of this community was a legitimate inquiry about the standards of secular education in haredi schools, fears that this massive effort by the so-called paper of record was not only fueling antisemitism but also an example of it have been proven correct.

So while Jews do well to take neo-Nazi threats seriously, the general apathy about the Times’ mainstreaming of anti-Zionist rhetoric and its own antisemitic campaign against the Orthodox illustrate the organized Jewish community’s upside-down priorities. A Jewish community that is petrified about vague threats from politically isolated extremists but is largely indifferent to antisemitism at the nation’s leading newspaper is one that no one can pretend has a rational or serious interest in defending Jews or Jewish rights.

Nikki Haley: I’ll cut the billions in foreign aid we send our enemies

America spent $46 billion on foreign aid last year. That’s more than any other country by far. Taxpayers deserve to know where that money is going and what it’s doing. They will be shocked to find that much of it goes to fund anti-American countries and causes. As president, I’ll put a stop to this fiasco.

Here are just a few examples.

We’ve given Iraq more than $1 billion over the last few years, even though its government is getting closer to the murderous thugs in Iran who shout “Death to America!” and launch attacks on our troops.

The Biden administration resumed military aid to Pakistan, though it’s home to at least a dozen terrorist organizations and its government is deeply in hock to China.

Team Biden restored half a billion dollars to a corrupt United Nations agency that’s supposed to help the Palestinian people but in fact covers for deeply anti-Semitic propaganda against our ally Israel.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin speaks with his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

The US gives money to Belarus, which is Russia’s strongest ally.

We give hundreds of millions of dollars to Zimbabwe, a country with one of the most anti-American voting records in the UN.

If those examples aren’t bad enough, it gets worse — almost comical if it weren’t true.

Amid Tensions, Israeli-Palestinian Summit in Jordan Set for Sunday

An Israeli delegation will participate on Sunday in a “political-security” meeting with the Palestinians, hosted in Jordan, to try and restore calm to the tensions after deadly violence, Jerusalem confirmed. The meeting to be held in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba will also be attended by American and Egyptian representatives.

It would be the first such official meeting between Israel and the Palestinian side with participating regional countries in years.

The talks will come after 11 Palestinians, mostly armed terrorists, were killed and many wounded in a gun battle on Wednesday when Israeli troops raided a terrorist hideout in the West Bank city of Nablus. It came after an uptick in Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.

It also comes ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim faith’s holiest month, that routinely coincides with bouts of Palestinian violence in east Jerusalem.

Palestinian factions urge PA to boycott security summit with Israel in Jordan

A number of Palestinian factions, meanwhile, called on the PA to boycott the meeting in Jordan, dubbing it a “stab to the Palestinians and their sacrifices and a betrayal of the blood of the martyrs.”

The factions said in a statement that the meeting would only bring “shame” to the Palestinians and Arabs who are attending it. They warned that complying with American and Israeli “dictates would provide a cover for the continuation if Israeli crimes.”

The PLO’s Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) warned against the “dangerous repercussions” of the meeting, saying it aims to put pressure on the PA to stop the “popular resistance” against Israel. The DFLP warned that such a move would cause “serious internal strife” among the Palestinians.

The DFLP pointed out that the meeting did not receive the blessing of the PLO Executive Committee, but was rather taken unilaterally by the political leadership of the PA.

Saleh Ra’fat, member of the PLO Executive Committee and secretary-general of the Palestinian Democratic Union, said that it was impossible to reach understandings with the right-wing government in Israel “because it has violated all its commitments to the US administration to stop settlement activities and incursions into Palestinian cities and refugee camps.” Ra’fat urged the PA leadership not to participate in the meeting and to continue its push at the UN and other parties to impose sanctions on Israel and compel it to abide by international resolutions.

Mohammed al-Hindi, a senior official with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization, the second largest terror group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, claimed that the meeting in Jordan was tantamount to “surrender to the unjust American understandings.” He also claimed the meeting aims to exert pressure on the PA to resume security coordination with Israel.

Natan Sharansky and Bernard-Henri Lévy: How Can Jews Support Ukraine After the Holocaust?

Questioner: I know there’s a lot of sympathy for the Ukrainians right now —there’s the country that’s been invaded, with innocent children and the women. But as a child of Holocaust survivors, a lot of people that I speak to can’t dredge up much sympathy for the Ukrainians and how they were chewing gum as they shot us in the mass graves at Babi Yar.

Natan Sharansky: Thank you for saying it because it was just a topic that I wanted to raise and there was no time. There’s so many people who died in the Holocaust in my family, and I am the chairman of the Babi Yar Memorial. I’m dealing all the time with the victims. And I hear all the time from very good people and some of my close friends that they have sympathy to the suffering of every child. But they cannot make themselves feel solidarity with Ukraine as a state or Ukrainians as a nation knowing what a terrible history there was there, first with the Chelminitsky pogroms, which were terrible, and of course with the Holocaust. And I can tell you my answer.

First of all, antisemitism is not something which was specific for Ukraine or any other land. Antisemitism is the most ancient hatred, which rises regularly whenever people need to hate the other.

So even if you think about some nice places in the Alps in Switzerland, remember that the whole Jewish community were burnt alive in order to avoid plague there. And if you enjoy traveling to Spain, the thing that you see is Ferdinand and Isabella, big heroes of today’s history of Spain, who exiled half of the Jewish people. Or think about Provence, a great place, I enjoy it there very much. Only think of what Crusaders did there, the terrible massacres of entire Jewish populations.

So if we Jews will start building our relationship with the world on the basis of what they did to us, we should move to another planet.

Second, our sages are giving very good advice. I am not a rabbi, but I was advised to read this comment of Rashi on the chapter when Hagar and Ishmael are sent to the desert, and Ishmael almost dies from thirst. He has no water.

And then God says to Hagar, “Don’t be afraid. I’ll help your son as he is,” and he helps Ishmael. And then the comments of our sages is that the angels of the heavens revolt and said, “Ah, you’re helping him? Don’t you know how many awful things his people will do to our people?” And God says to them, “Now at this moment, is a child innocent or guilty?” And they say “innocent.” So I’ll judge everybody in his time and that’s our way. It means that we have to deal with the people at this time.

The people of Ukraine at this time, not only, as Bernard said, by the way, have the lowest level of neo-Nazis in Europe. You have to understand that when these neo-Nazis that Putin speaks about so much, when they tried to go to election, they didn’t get 1%. They didn’t get one-tenth of 1% of the vote.

And think about many countries in Europe where it is different. And of course half of the Ukrainian government is Jewish, and openly Jewish. And Zelensky is not only speaking about his Jewishness, but about his deep love for Israel. And they were all elected in free elections.

And above and beyond all this, it so happened that God, providence, history, has put Ukraine and its people in the unique position of being defenders of the free world. So let’s judge Ukraine in this time, as God told us.

KJF-2023. Freedom & Tyranny | Bernard-Henri Lévy & Natan Sharansky

Zelensky says Israel should back Ukraine, not take mediator position - report

Israel must choose a side in the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday, according to a report.

“For a very long time I was looking for support from Israel. I didn’t want Israel to be in the position of a mediator, I wanted them to choose Ukraine’s side,” N12 quoted Zelensky as saying. “It was difficult. Israel is in a complex situation vis-à-vis Russia in the Iranian and Syrian context.”

Zelensky made the comment at a press conference on the first anniversary of the invasion.

“I sought support not only from the population but also from the political leadership. It was really important to me, both personally and historically,” he said. “Ukraine has good relations with Israel.”

When asked about Israeli actions against Iran and Iranian aid to Russia, Zelensky said he “has an answer – but cannot say it so as not to risk harming relations between Ukraine and Israel, which are improving.”

Zelensky praised his country’s troops and said he plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but reiterated that he would not hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The US has given Ukraine $46+ billion in military aid in the past year, and no one bats an eye. But Israel haters, including certain US politicians, slam the US for providing $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel each year, which is largely spent on defensive capabilities.
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) February 24, 2023

Mearsheimer has also been a sorry case and apologist for dictators, terrorists and enemies of the West. https://t.co/nDjN9ZC1Gm
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 25, 2023

Except Ukraine doesn’t refuse to recognize Russia’s existence, incite terrorists or pays salaries or murderers … all of which the PA does. But don’t let facts get in way if @AymanM shilling for Palestinian terrorists to attack Israel. https://t.co/d86ZgkICsF
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 25, 2023

Were Roger Waters and Kanye West unavailable? This really is like a ‘who’s who’ of UN-trained Jew haters, Palestinian terror apologists and antisemites … https://t.co/qHJi46n3w5
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 24, 2023

NY Senator accused of making fun of man's 'stereotypical Jewish looks'

New York State Senator Julia Salazar (D) was accused of making fun of a man for having a "stereotypically Jewish look," the New York Post reported on Friday.

David Kelsey, a Jewish man who is accusing Salazar of antisemitism, made a comment pointing to Salazar’s focus on her tattoos over her voting record.

In response to the jab, Salazar reportedly tweeted an enlarged photo of Kelsey’s head with the caption “submitted without comment.” The tweet has since been deleted.

Kelsey responded by saying, “what can I say, Senator Salazar? My grandparents are actually Jewish. And this is how I look.”

Kelsey’s Twitter handle, @TheKvetcher, is identifiably Jewish as ‘Kvetch’ is a Yiddish term meaning ‘to press’ or ‘to squeeze’, which has come to also mean ‘to complain.’

Kelsey told the New York Post, “I look stereotypically Jewish and she was just mocking that. Why blow my face up like that unless you’re making fun of my looks? Who cares what I look like?” he added.

Since making the tweet, Salazar has made numerous tweets allying herself with the Jewish community. n 2018, Salazar said she identified as Jewish in part because of her father’s Jewish roots; her brother said their father was not Jewish.

The Israel Guys: Israeli Army INVADES the Palestinian City of Nablus, TRUE OR FALSE?

Israel carried out a raid to arrest terrorist murderers in the Palestinian town of Nablus, and nobody seems to see the justification for this. The media says that Israel invaded the city and shot into crowds of pedestrians. Is this what actually happened? We have real footage from the operation to show you the truth.

Hamas responds by firing rockets into civilian areas in Israel all the while hiding behind their own civilians in Gaza.

Gaza contractors launch partial strike against UNRWA projects

The contractors union in the Gaza Strip suspended work for one day on all United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) projects, in a protest against the agency's "procrastination in fulfilling financial rights." The limited strike on Tuesday could become total if the union’s demands are not met.

The roots of the crisis began in 2014 when the UNRWA "stopped paying contractors the value-added tax, 17% of the contracts' value, and asked them to collect it through the Tax Return from the Ramallah-based Ministry of Finance," the head of the Palestinian Contractors Union in Gaza, Alaa-aldin al-Araj, told The Media Line.

Unlike West Bank contractors, Gaza contractors since 2014 have not received payments for the value-added tax whose value today totals nearly $25 million, according to Araj, who confirmed that the contract signed between the UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority in 1994 “provides for exempting the agency from all types of direct and indirect taxes. This means that the exemption is provided to the UNRWA and not for the contractors. Therefore, we hold the UNRWA responsible for paying these amounts, as was the case before 2014."

The UNRWA media office did not reply to a request for comment from The Media Line.

The union also says that the UN agency has not fairly compensated contractors for work performed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants in the village of Jabaa in the northern West Bank today. pic.twitter.com/LQvcvU8fbI
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) February 24, 2023

Iran Says It Has Developed Long-Range Cruise Missile

Iran has developed a cruise missile with a range of 1,650 km (1,025 miles) a top Revolutionary Guards commander said on Friday, in a move likely to raise Western concerns after Russia’s use of Iranian drones in the Ukraine war.

Separately, Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace force, also spoke of Iran’s often repeated threat to avenge the US killing of a top Iranian commander, saying “We are looking to kill (former US President Donald) Trump.”

“Our cruise missile with a range of 1,650 km has been added to the missile arsenal of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Hajizadeh, told state TV.

The television broadcast what it said was the first footage showing the new Paveh cruise missile.

Hajizadeh said Iran did not intend to kill “poor soldiers” when it launched a ballistic missile attack on US-led forces in Iraq days after Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in 2020 in Baghdad.

“God willing, we are looking to kill Trump. (Former Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo… and military commanders who issued the order (to kill Soleimani) should be killed,” Hajizadeh said in the television interview.

Iranian leaders have often vowed to avenge Soleimani in strong terms.

Israel Must Prepare to Save the World from a Nuclear Iran

This month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Europe “identifies more with the Israeli position” on Iran’s nuclear program, a conclusion he reached after meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. But as Tehran enriches uranium to near weapons-grade purity and European powers resist triggering the snapback of UN sanctions, a dim reality comes into view that only one country — Israel — has the political will and military capability to prevent the emergence of a nuclear-armed Iran.

The issue of “snapback” is a complicated one, but essential to better understand the bleak reality Israel now faces. Snapback is the name for a mechanism that can be used to restore all international restrictions and sanctions on Iran that were lifted by the UN Security Council alongside the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“the nuclear deal”). UN Security Council Resolution 2231 replaced all prior resolutions on Iran — removing the international demand that Iran halt all enrichment activities, striking the outright UN prohibition on Iranian ballistic missile testing, and establishing a series of expirations dates on other key international restrictions.

In 2020, the UN conventional arms embargo on Iran expired. This October, a missile embargo on Iran will expire, despite Tehran’s provision of drones — and potential future transfer of missiles — to Russia to attack Ukraine. Nuclear restrictions sunset soon after, eventually legitimizing Iran’s production of weapons-grade enriched uranium and perfection of missile systems capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

But UNSCR 2231 came with one condition: If Iran ever violated its own commitments under the nuclear deal, any party to the agreement could notify the Security Council and restore all prior sanctions and restrictions in 30 days. This process is called “snapback,” and France — like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany — has the individual power and prerogative to trigger it.

Thanks to Obama's 'Nuclear Deal,' Iran Now a Major Arms Exporter

In the next phase of Iran's dangerous development, export and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it is attempting to set up drone assembly lines abroad, likely to expedite the process of weapons delivery to its allies.

"Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two nations...." — Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2023.

Iran's regime has also been focusing on the proliferation and export of long- and short-range precision-guided ballistic missiles.

While ballistic missiles can be used for either offensive or defensive purposes, the sophisticated ones are mainly developed as delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons.

Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

"The regime further isolates itself from the rest of the world..."

Rob Malley is literally, one of the world's foremost advocates for engaging the Iranian regime and has been for literally decades. Just an absolutely sociopathic tweet. https://t.co/YBdIVRC536
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) February 25, 2023

Oxford Union president hit with 'discrimination' allegations for inviting Israeli ambassador to speak

The president of the Oxford Union has been accused of “deliberately conspiring with foreign agents” after hosting a debate that included the Israeli Ambassador to the UK as a guest.

Thursday's members-only event at the historic debating society, titled The Abraham Accords: Prospects for Regional Peace and Prosperity, billed Tzipi Hotovely and her Bahraini and Emirati counterparts as speakers.

Ahead of the event, fellow Oxford student Hamzah Mahomed released a petition urging a no confidence motion in Oxford Union President Charlie Mackintosh, on the basis that the event had been discriminatory.

Such a petition must receive 250 signatures within 48 hours to prompt a vote. The JC understands that the campaign’s requisition is invalid.

Mr Mahomed also claimed that “Israeli security conspired to harass members of colour and pro-Palestinian members” during a June 2022 Oxford Union event with Ambassador Hotovely.

“Mr Mackintosh facilitated a severe threat to the safety and privacy of Oxford Union members,” after they were photographed and videoed without consent “and in some cases manhandled," he wrote.

More than 15,000 call on Barcelona to reverse Israel boycott

The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), Israel-Spain Forum Alliance (ISFA), and Center for Jewish Impact (CJI) on Thursday issued a joint call, backed by a petition with more than 15,000 signatures, for the Barcelona City Council to vote at its meeting on Friday to restore the “twin city” relationship with Tel Aviv that was severed earlier this month by Mayor Ada Colau.

“The efforts to cancel the twin city agreement between Barcelona and Tel Aviv are not only misguided, but they are also rooted in antisemitism according to the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism,” the organizations wrote in a letter to the City Council. “The BDS activists behind the push for the cancellation of the Barcelona-Tel Aviv alliance are peace rejectionists seeking to delegitimize Israel’s very existence.”

“True peace and reconciliation are built through discourse and engagement, not boycotts and isolation, and the bonds between Barcelona and Tel Aviv — which foster tolerance and social harmony across nationalities and faiths — are something to be promoted, not destroyed,” they added.

The letter was read at a protest outside Barcelona City Hall last Sunday against the cancellation of ties with Tel Aviv.

“Barcelona and Tel Aviv are known worldwide for their diversity and inclusivity, and the more than 15,000 backers of the petition demonstrate the broad-based popular support for maintaining the longstanding special ties between the cities,” said CAM Director of European Affairs Oriana Marie Krüger.

Colau stated in her decision from February 8 that she is suspending all of the city’s ties with Israel, citing what she called “the repeated violations of human rights of the Palestinian population and non-compliance with United Nations resolutions.”

She added that Barcelona will maintain relations with “Israeli and Palestinian entities that continue to work for peace and against apartheid.”

Last week, the Spanish government criticized Colau’s decision, calling it a "unilateral move" that would not bring "anything good".

Madrid’s mayor, José Luís Martínez-Almeida, has offered to step up as a replacement for Barcelona.

Virginia School Board Member Calls Iwo Jima 'Evil' and 'Unfortunate'

The remarks are not the first time Omeish has come under scrutiny. The school board member has a record of anti-Israel rhetoric and has candidly acknowledged anti-Asian bias in the district's admissions policy.

Omeish in her Thursday comments made reference to the Day of Remembrance, a Feb. 19 day of observance for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II that occurs on the same calendar day as the first U.S. landings on the island of Iwo Jima in 1945.

"Just a few days ago was Japanese Day of Remembrance," Omeish said. "Something for us to certainly reflect on … the days when, you know, Iwo Jima unfortunately happened and set a record for really what, I hate to say, human evil is capable of."

When asked by the Washington Free Beacon to clarify why she called Iwo Jima an example of human evil, Omeish in an emailed statement backtracked from her framing of the battle.

"There is no reason to warp what was said and reading more into it merely reflects biases forced in by the listener," Omeish said. She said Iwo Jima "happens to fall on the same day" as the 1942 executive order issued by then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt to incarcerate Japanese Americans and noted that the order remained in effect "even after Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, three years later." She did not explain why in her comments at the meeting she said Iwo Jima was evil and "unfortunately happened."

The battle of Iwo Jima saw the United States capture the heavily defended island from Japan in one of the most famous engagements of the war. In the bloody weeks-long battle, nearly 7,000 Americans were killed. The U.S. victory allowed for American fighter planes to take off from the island and escort bombers attacking mainland Japan.

Omeish has attracted controversy for her comments in the past. The Free Beacon in May 2021 reported on a series of anti-Israel social media posts the school board member made, in which she called Israel an "apartheid" state that "kills Palestinians." In private text messages revealed through a federal lawsuit, Omeish also acknowledged anti-Asian bias in the admissions process for the district's elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

"I mean there has been an anti asian feel underlying some of this, hate to say it lol," Omeish texted a fellow board member in fall of 2020. "They're discriminated against in this process too."

Jeremy Corbyn hanging around with Roger Waters last night.
And to think people wanted this crank to be our Prime Minister.
Never mind the suspension, Labour should just get on with it and boot him out.
And all his supporters too.
Kick them all out. pic.twitter.com/dyGs6I6W3D
— Ian Austin (@LordIanAustin) February 25, 2023

Why was Israel eager to help save lives in Turkey? - opinion

Dr. Itai Basel reaches for his cellphone to show me photos. Not of his own three beautiful children or the very sick children he takes care of in the intensive care unit in Hadassah Mount Scopus. These are the children his team pulled out of the rubble in Turkey.

He drinks a glass of water because his throat and airways are still full of the dust of the collapsed apartment buildings and the soot of burning refuse from heating campfires.

In his home outside of Jerusalem in Mevaseret, Basel didn’t feel aftershocks the night the earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria. He first heard about the disaster on the 7 a.m. news on his car radio, driving to work on Thursday, February 6. Basel pulled over on Golda Meir Boulevard and phoned his army unit. In recent years, he had switched from his Air Force reserve to a military search and rescue unit. “I wanted to get my name in,” he said. “I knew that many Israelis would want to go to help.”

His second phone call was to his wife, Marina, an environmental consultant. He wouldn’t go if she objected.

“First, she said yes. Then she thought about the possible danger and said no. Finally, she said yes again because I’m a doctor and that’s what we do – try to save lives.”

In the meantime, United Hatzalah of Israel, the volunteer rescue organization of first responders, together with the Israel Rescue Team, decided to send a team to Turkey. There would be experienced volunteers from their search and rescue units, as well as doctors, nurses and medics.

Hundreds of Jewish fighters were lost at sea in WWII. Here’s how Israel honors them

Sometime in the early summer of 1941, seven bodies washed onto the shores of Tripoli, Lebanon, which was then controlled by Nazi-aligned Vichy France.

As soon as it heard the news, the Haganah — Israel’s pre-state defense force — sent a representative to Syria to investigate. Not coincidentally, on May 18 of that year a British ship called the Sea Lion, carrying 23 Jewish Haganah-trained commandos and one British officer, had set off on a mission to sabotage oil refineries in Tripoli. And the ship had disappeared.

Thousands of Jews living in British Mandate Palestine prior to Israel’s establishment took part in missions against the Axis powers. Of these fighters, 560 are considered to be missing in action, as their burial sites are unknown.

Nearly 200 such soldiers were lost at sea during World War II. The Sea Lion’s ill-fated mission — known to the British as Operation Boatswain — is commemorated in Israel as the “24 Yordei Hasira,” translated literally as “The 24 Boatmen.” (The designation honors the British officer in addition to the 23 Jewish soldiers.)

The Sea Lion wasn’t alone in its fate; two more ships carrying Jews from Palestine also disappeared during the war.

Owned by the British Indian Steam Navigation Company, the SS Erinpura was an ocean liner that served as a hospital ship during World War I. The ship was also active during World War II, and on April 29, 1943, left Alexandria in a convoy headed for Malta. It was carrying more than 1,000 troops, including members of the African Auxiliary Pioneer Corps and 140 Jews from pre-state Israel who had volunteered to serve in the British military.

Anne Frank animated film attacked for ‘colonising’ memory of the Shoah

A cartoon film that explores the life of Holocaust victim Anne Frank alongside a twenty-first-century protagonist has been accused of "colonising" and “appropriating” the memory of the Shoah.

The film “Where Is Anne Frank”, was released in 2021 by Israeli director Ari Folman, himself the son of Holocaust survivors, but a tweet from an Australian distribution firm promoting it has recently prompted backlash online.

The docudrama explores Anne Frank's posthumously published "The Diary of a Young Girl" through the eyes of Kitty, the imaginary girl to whom Ms Frank addressed her diary entries.

In the magic realist film, Kitty "comes to life in the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

“Her memories are reawakened by reading the diary, believing that if she’s alive, Anne must be alive as well, she sets out on a quest to find Anne.

"We follow Kitty as she travels across Europe and back to Anne Frank’s time, armed with the precious book, in search of her beloved friend,” according to its section on the distribution company Madman Entertainment's website.

At one point in the film, Kitty’s character accuses the world of deifying Anne and misrepresenting her message of helping and saving people.

She subsequently threatens to burn Anne's diary if the government refuses to shelter a group of undocumented immigrants.

However Mr Folman has previously told the JC that he did not intend to make comparisons between the immigration debate in Europe and the Shoah, stating: “I don’t see any similarities and I don’t think there’s any parallel in the movie between the Holocaust and the refugee crisis.

also remember when anne frank literally wrote about the uniqueness of antisemitism as a form of oppression and everyone was just like “this could’ve happened to anyone” no it couldn’t and she herself knew that https://t.co/wKaPnxRJci
— 🕊הילה🪬 (@toteskosh) February 23, 2023

Israeli experts removed, rebuilt top of iconic Tower of David amid fears of collapse

Experts in recent months completely removed the top of Jerusalem’s iconic Tower of David and rebuilt it, using a mix of mainly new stones combined with salvaged original stones.

In a television report aired Friday night on Channel 12, authorities revealed details of the highly sensitive work, carried out as unobtrusively as is possible for a structure that towers over the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City.

The project was undertaken amid growing fears that the 400-year-old tower faced potential collapse, and that its top two meters in particular were in urgent need of reconstruction.

Sensitivities surrounding the restoration and reconstruction work were heightened by the fact that although the entire Tower of David complex, also known as David’s Citadel, has yielded archaeological findings dating back to the First Temple period, and though it is a landmark widely highlighted as an Israeli national symbol and widely but erroneously believed to be directly connected to King David, the iconic tower is actually the minaret of a mosque that was added to the complex during the Ottoman era some 400 years ago. The construction was part of an expansion project at the citadel initiated by the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who also restored the Old City walls. (The mosque was used until 1917, when Britain’s General Allenby marched into the Old City and proclaimed, at the citadel, the capture of Jerusalem.)

Zionist pioneers adopted the citadel, with its soaring tower, as a secular symbol of “power and hope” in contrast to the religious centrality of the Western Wall, noted Eilat Lieber, the director of the Tower of David Museum. Its image quickly became a mainstay on everything from postcards to menorahs, foods and wines.

Lieber told Channel 12 in a report on the renovation work that all of Israel’s various security apparatuses had weighed in on the project, with various requests that it be postponed “until after Ramadan, after Jerusalem Day, after Nakba Day,” for fear that it could prompt an escalation of friction in the incendiary Old City and East Jerusalem.

“In the end, we said, ‘If we don’t fix the tower, and something happens on our watch, it’ll be a lot worse… Let’s just get it done,'” she said.