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Saturday, August 26, 2023

08/26 Links: Is it racist to prioritize freedom from terror?; U.S. Warns Israel Normalization with Saudis Must Include Palestinian Concessions

From Ian:

Jews need to protect themselves against modern antisemitism
IT IS our responsibility to accept reality. Anti-Israelism/antisemitism is not going away. This is not the fault of Israelis any more than it was the fault of Jews in the past. Nor is it the fault of Jews living in the US.

The current iteration of antisemitism, as anti-Israelism suggests, is that you can say “I’m a Jew but I don’t like Israel” and then you will not be harmed or discriminated against. But this is not the case.

None of the recent attackers of Jews have stopped to ask their victims about their views on Israel or anything else. Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative congregations have been vandalized and attacked. Jewish sports clubs have been attacked. Jewish grocery stores. Jewish-owned cafes. Jewish students and professors have been denigrated and treated unfairly.

Although there are more attacks against Jews than any other group, Jews are not the only ones experiencing violence. Clearly, there is an uptick in violence generally in the US, Canada, UK, and EU countries – places where Jews still live. People feel unsafe, especially in the big cities, and working with these like-minded people will help. Certainly, the vast majority of Americans are not promoters of violence; they, too, fear and are angry about rising chaos in the US.

And we must protect ourselves. Krav Maga, legal weapons training, and neighborhood watch are important. Every synagogue, Jewish school, and Jewish-owned business must have security. We cannot depend on police arriving in time or there being enough police to handle confrontations.

Of course, Israel is not always safe, either. But it is safer and more protected than big cities in the US. The major difference is that when Israel is attacked, the IDF can fight back, even if much of the world still seems to object to us Jews standing up for ourselves.
Jonathan Tobin: Is it racist to prioritize freedom from terror?
This is not an extreme position. Support in Israel for the checkpoints and security fence that helped to prevent terrorist attacks and essentially ended the horror of the Second Intifada in the early 2000s is a matter of national consensus. Actions taken by all governments to curtail terrorism inevitably involve some impingement if not abrogation of rights.

But in the case of the Jews who do live in Judea and Samaria, the position taken by most Palestinians and their foreign cheerleaders is that Jews have no right to be in the “West Bank” and are therefore legitimate targets for attacks, be they civilians or soldiers.

In most discussions of the situation in the territories, the onus is on the violence allegedly committed by Jews, coupled with the notion that the presence of Jews in Judea and Samaria is illegal. That is what the international community thinks, but that position is itself mistaken. Jews were guaranteed the right to live in the land that is now called the West Bank by the United Nations’ predecessor, the League of Nations, dating back to the 1920s and the San Remo agreement. No other country has a recognized legal title to the land and, at best, Palestinian ambitions for statehood make it disputed rather than “occupied.”

Even if you think it’s unwise for Israel to build communities in what is the heart of the ancient Jewish homeland, the idea that the hundreds of thousands of Jews who live there should be treated as legitimate targets for terrorism is both legally untenable and immoral.

Yet that is exactly the position that Palestinians assert.

It is demonstrated by celebrations held by Palestinians on the streets of their cities—handing candy to children to encourage them—as well as on social media every time there is a terrorist attack on Jews. Were terror against Jews not such a routine occurrence—and if they were treated as the act of deranged outliers by the Arabs—then measures like checkpoints or fences would be unnecessary. Yet not only are they commonplace, they are widely supported by the Palestinian street and financially rewarded by the Palestinian Authority.

So, when Ben-Gvir says that the right of Jews “to life” takes precedence over the right of Arabs to freedom of movement, he’s not making a theoretical racist statement. If Palestinians think that it’s open season on Jews—something clearly shown by the unending string of lethal terror attacks and the applause they generate—then the authorities are obligated to take measures that limit their ability to carry out those murders.

Whatever one may think about Ben-Gvir, he was doing no more than stating the obvious about an intolerable situation that is in no small measure responsible for the support he has among Israelis. At stake in this debate is not the right of Palestinians to freedom of movement or even the right of Jews to settle in Judea and Samaria. Rather, it is whether there is a right to commit terrorism against Jews.

Unless you support such an immoral “right” (and those who believe Palestinians are justified in murdering Jews who have the temerity to live in the one Jewish state on the planet do just that), then what Ben-Gvir said is not only not racist, it’s entirely reasonable. More than that, it’s also not a question of him being, in the State Department’s words, “inflammatory,” he’s actually shining a light on an issue that can’t be ignored. While Ben-Gvir’s presence in the government and the things he says are always bound to be controversial, it is imperative that this debate not be about him, but instead, about the belief of Israel’s enemies that every Jew on either side of the “Green Line” is fair game.
History Warns Us of the Dangers of Unintended Consequences
Soon after the fire subsided, Nero dispatched his good friend Gessius Florus to be the procurator in Judaea, so that he could raise money to rebuild Rome. According to Josephus, “this Florus was so wicked and so violent in the use of his authority,” that the Jews of Judaea yearned for his predecessor, Lucceius Albinus, whose rule had itself been marred by problems and difficulties.

Florus’ unrepressed hostility to Jews and the Jewish faith, and his unquenchable thirst for money by any means at his disposal, soon raised tensions, which then escalated to a fever pitch when Florus helped himself to 17 talents of gold from the Temple treasury — equivalent to $28,500,000 in today’s value.

The local population began to publicly disparage the procurator, which prompted him to have Jewish leaders arrested and publicly crucified. This only inflamed tensions further, and a rebellion erupted. Within days, insurgents had overrun the main Roman garrison in Jerusalem, prompting the pro-Roman Jewish king Herod Agrippa II and Roman officials to flee.

Cestius Gallus, the Syrian legate, decided to intervene, and sent in the Syrian Legion XII Fulminata, together with auxiliary forces. Although they initially captured Jaffa, the Roman army ultimately suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Beth Horon, where 6,000 Romans were killed and the Legion’s prized eagle standard was lost.

By this time, Jerusalem was totally under the control of extremist rebels, who battened down the hatches and decided to fight Rome to the death. Things spiraled out of control, and Nero dispatched his best general, Vespasian, to crush the revolt.

The battle between Vespasian and his son Titus on one side, and fanatical Jewish militants on the other, endlessly accelerated until the Romans finally ransacked Jerusalem and obliterated the Temple, thereby relegating Judaea to the margins of relevance in the Roman Empire. Judaea was shattered, and the whole area would struggle economically as well as battle invaders of every color and stripe for almost two millennia, only reemerging from its depressed state with the establishment of the State of Israel in the 20th century.

What I learned from Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook was a tiny factoid that I’d previously missed, despite having intensively studied this era of history in general, and the Jewish Revolt in particular: that the destruction of Jerusalem came about as an indirect result of the Great Fire of Rome. Had Nero not sent Gessius Florus to milk money out of the citizens of Judaea, things might have turned out very differently.

As John Locke warned, “Beware the danger of unintended consequences.” The trajectory of life and history is unpredictably random, and the end results may be way off one’s initial expectations. Seemingly insignificant aspects of an event that may seem marginal at the time take center stage, and before you know it — you are somewhere you didn’t expect to be.


Strengthening the Black-Jewish alliance is as critical as ever
On August 28, 1963, an estimated 250,000 Americans joined together in the historic March on Washington; gathering at the Lincoln Memorial to demand our nation fulfill the promise of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and accord full citizenship to African Americans.

The March on Washington ended with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s transcendent “I Have a Dream” speech in which he articulated a soaring moral vision that helped make possible the passage of the historic Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Racism, a foul stain on American democracy since its formation, finally appeared to be on the way to being excised.

Sadly, as we have learned in the decades since 1963, history often unwinds in cycles; with great leaps forward followed by dismaying reversals. In recent years, the US Supreme Court has largely gutted the Voting Rights Act, while Florida and other states are taking steps to prevent an honest presentation of Black History in public schools.

It is with these concerns in mind that thousands of Americans will be gathering again on August 26 for the 2023 March on Washington under the slogan “Not a Commemoration, A Continuation.”

According to convener Martin Luther King III, “As the nation reckons with historic levels of violent hate crimes and threats to its democracy, we must continue the decades-old fight for democracy, social justice, and civil rights.”

The role American Jews played in the March on Washington
FOR OUR part, American Jews proudly recall the outsized role our community played at the 1963 March on Washington. Tens of thousands of Jews from across America arrived in Washington by bus, train, and plane, while leaders of major Jewish organizations; including the American Jewish Committee, Central Conference of American Rabbis, United Synagogue of America, and the Synagogue Council of America were on the podium.

Jews are prominent at this year’s march as well, with the Anti-Defamation League, National Council of Jewish Women, and Union for Reform Judaism, among the partnering organizations at the event.
Basketball player who fought for Israeli citizenship promotes Black-Jewish ties
Basketball player Jared Armstrong made headlines last year for his months-long effort to obtain Israeli citizenship. Armstrong, who was raised Jewish and completed a Conservative conversion to help his citizenship bid, was rejected multiple times before being granted temporary residence last May. The case drew attention from prominent Jewish leaders and drew accusations of racism.

It also cost him a spot on Hapoel Haifa, a team in Israel’s top basketball league, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The team voided his contract because he didn’t receive citizenship in time.

But this weekend, before returning to play hoops in Israel’s second-tier league, Armstrong is putting the drama aside to focus on something else he is passionate about: strengthening the relationship between the Jewish and Black communities.

On Sunday, Armstrong is running a free basketball clinic for sixth, seventh and eighth graders in Philadelphia. If all goes well, he hopes to start a two-week summer camp next year to continue this work.

“With a rich history of Black and Jewish relations, and kind of where we’re at in society, it’s only right that we come closer together,” Armstrong said. “I thought it would be great to do that starting from the youngest age and up.”

The controversies and accusations of antisemitism surrounding rapper Kanye West and NBA star Kyrie Irving last year led to increased calls for collaboration between the Black and Jewish communities, from members of Congress to other prominent sports leaders like New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

Armstrong said 28 kids have signed up for his clinic, including both Jewish and Black athletes, with some attendees coming in from as far as Connecticut. His goal is to use sports as a vehicle for combating antisemitism and racism, and he hopes that as many as 80 sign up for a camp next year.


U.S. Warns Israel Normalization with Saudis Must Include Palestinian Concessions
Sullivan also informed Dermer that Biden was seeking broad support from congressional Democrats for a mega-agreement with Saudi Arabia, a source close to the matter told Axios.

To achieve this, Sullivan insisted that serious Israeli measures towards the Palestinians were essential. For his part, Blinken warned Dermer against any “misinterpretation” of the situation by the Israeli government.

According to Axios sources, Dermer had not demonstrated any real willingness on the part of the Israeli government to make concessions in order to reach an agreement with the Saudis.

For that reason, Blinken insisted that Saudi Arabia had to show the Arab and Muslim world that it had obtained important results from Israel regarding the Palestinians in exchange for a normalization agreement, the officials said.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is considering a proposal from China to build a nuclear power plant on its territory, according to information published Friday by the Wall Street Journal. Saudi officials familiar with the matter told the American newspaper that the China National Nuclear Corporation had proposed to Riyadh that it build a nuclear power plant near the border with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The aim of this move would be to put pressure on the United States to support the kingdom in its quest for nuclear energy.

Unlike the Biden administration, which has set conditions prior to any aid to the Saudi nuclear industry, such as a ban on uranium enrichment, China is unlikely to present Riyadh with conditions aimed at preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons, the media outlet added.

The Saudi civilian nuclear program is one of the parameters at the heart of the potential normalization agreement with Israel, which would involve significant security guarantees from Washington to Riyadh.

Such a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia would be a major diplomatic victory for the Democratic president.

Senior U.S. officials have recently asserted that the Biden administration is seeking to complete its initiative with Saudi Arabia by the end of the year or the first quarter of 2024, before the presidential election campaign completely takes precedence over the Democratic president’s agenda.
9/11 terrorists may get a plea deal
According to the Associated Press, the Pentagon and FBI have advised families of 9/11/2001 victims that Khalid Sheik Mohammed and several other defendants in that terrorist attack may, under plea agreements, never face the death penalty.

If the death penalty which has already been deferred too long were to be taken off the table for that heinous act, we would be noting one of the most cruel injustices in the history of jurisprudence. More American lives were lost in that hideous attack than at Pearl Harbor which was the opening shot of World War II. Not only was it a totally murderous surprise attack, but the victims were all civilians who had arrived at the World Trade Center for their workday. Incredibly, we already saw that a terrorist living in Germany who funneled money to the 9/11 terrorists already had been released from prison in that country in 2018 and sent to Morocco.

This writer was teaching at a high school in Brooklyn which is a borough in New York City adjacent to Manhattan where the attack took place. I was looking through the sixth floor window of my department office watching flames and smoke from the World Trade Center billowing through the air when suddenly the entire structure of WTC One pancaked down as a huge cloud of smoke and dust surrounded and obscured the collapsing structure.

It was about ten o’clock in the morning, and I could not believe my eyes. I sank into a chair in the room and kept repeating, “I wish I had never been born to see this happen.”
Qatari prime minister says his nation does not ‘have a war with Israel’
The prime minister of Qatar said on Friday that his country does not “have a war with Israel,” but stressed that the Jewish state must reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Asked about a potential Saudi-US-Israeli deal at a Q&A session following a speech in Singapore, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that Qatar’s position on any such agreement has remained consistent for years.

“We didn’t hear anything officially about any talks on Saudi-Israel, but at the end of the day, Qatar maintains the same position, that foreign policy decisions of each member states of the GCC — it’s based on their own assessment, on their own evaluation,” said Al-Thani, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a body which also includes Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, who established diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham Accords.

The prime minister said Qatar believes the best way forward is 2001’s Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative, which offered normalization between Israel and the Arab world if Israel withdrew from the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights and allowed the establishment of a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.

“At the end of the day, we don’t have a war with Israel, the Israelis have an occupation over the Palestinians,” Al-Thani added. “So any agreement [of an Arab nation] with the Israelis doesn’t represent peace, the peace [could be] represented only between them and the Palestinians.”

Qatar and Israel do not currently have any diplomatic relations. Last year, however, the two nations cooperated to allow Israeli visitors to attend the World Cup soccer tournament, including allowing the first-ever direct charter flights from Ben Gurion Airport to Doha.
US Marines plan to procure 3 Iron Dome batteries, nearly 2,000 interceptor missiles
The United States Marine Corps plans to acquire three batteries of Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system with nearly 2,000 interceptor missiles, according to an official notice of intent published Thursday, in a deal that is likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The deal would be signed with the US-based Raytheon, with which the Iron Dome’s manufacturer, Rafael, has a partnership.

An existing prototype system — known as the Marine Corps’ Medium-Range Intercept Capability (MRIC) — combines the Iron Dome’s launcher and Tamir interceptor missiles with a Marines radar and command center.

The US Marine Corps has conducted two successful series of tests with MRIC, in July and October 2022.

According to the notice of intent published to the System for Award Management site, which collects data on US acquisitions and contracts, the Marine Corps plans to procure three MRIC batteries with 1,840 Tamir interceptor missiles, 44 launchers and 11 US-made command centers.

Additionally, the Marine Corps intends to procure 80 Tamir missiles for the initial MRIC prototype, as well as “logistics and technical support” for all the systems.

The exact cost of the deal was not published but was expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.


Seth Frantzman: West Bank terror attacks show Iran has become a bigger threat
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and took the unusual step of traveling to the site where preschool teacher Batsheva Nigri, 42, was shot to death by Palestinian terrorists in front of her 12-year-old daughter on Highway 60 near Hebron in the West Bank.

Nigri, a mother of three who had grown up in Efrat, received a ride from her Beit Hagai home to nearby Kiryat Arba with neighbor Aryeh Gottlieb, 39, who was shot multiple times by the terrorists, but has been improving following surgery at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.

After inspecting the scene, Netanyahu and Gallant both made comments to the media, and they both pointed the finger of blame in the same direction, making their visit perfectly clear.

“We are in the middle of a terrorist onslaught that is encouraged, guided, and funded by Iran and its proxies,” said Netanyahu. “A significant portion of this wave of terrorism came from external guidance.”

Gallant, in his comments, added, “It is important to understand the significant change that is taking place on the ground – it is related to Iranian funding, and to the proliferation of weapons under the Iranian directive. Iran seeks every means to harm the citizens of Israel.”

Their decision to accuse Iran is important because it shows how the defense and security establishment is increasingly convinced that Iran is behind the increased attacks in the West Bank. This extends beyond what is already known about Iran’s backing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas. Iran’s hand is seeking to inflame the West Bank. This is also linked to the smuggling of weapons in the West Bank, as the statement noted “proliferation of weapons.”

“We will reach the terrorists,” the defense minister went on to say, “and we will take additional action in order to ensure the security of Israel’s citizens, while exacting a price from those responsible for any harm.”
The Israel Guys: Mr. Beast DECLARES a Palestinian State
It finally happened, Mr. Beast declares a Palestinian State, we’ll get into that, along with another controversy concerning Security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, is he really a racist like the western media is claiming, and a UFC fighter finds a different way to defeat holocaust denial.




Hamas Claims Responsibility for Two Deadly Huwara Attacks
The military wing of Hamas stated Saturday it was behind last week’s deadly West Bank attack where a Palestinian terrorist murdered an Israeli father and son. The statement also claimed an earlier deadly attack where two Israeli brothers were murdered.

Both murderous attacks took place near the Palestinian town of Huwara that’s emerging as one of the flashpoints of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The armed wing of the Palestinian terror group, known as Al-Qassam Brigades, posted a picture on its Telegram account that read: “Our jihad continues, and our operations will not stop…”.

A Hamas spokesperson said that the group, which rules over the Gaza Strip, “raises the level of challenge against the Zionist enemy, and we say to it that all its threats will not stop the path of resistance.”

“The resistance has become more present and more powerful in action and achievement in order to inflict losses on the occupation,” he added. “The Al-Qassam Brigades are at the heart of the battle in the West Bank, as they have always been, in a continuous and persistent fight. The Palestinians are on all fronts in the battle with the Israeli occupation until the liberation of Jerusalem.”

Last Saturday, Shai Negrekar and his son Aviad were killed point-blank by a Palestinian terrorist in Huwara as they waited at a car wash garage.


Iran's Religious Influence Spreading throughout the United States
The Iranian regime is advancing its ideology and increasing its influence in Shia mosques throughout the United States, while the Biden administration is sitting idly by, presumably still seeking to return to a disastrous nuclear deal, lift sanctions against Iran, and fund the regime to launch more terrorist attacks, further repress its own citizens, and pave the way for it legally to obtain an unlimited supply of nuclear weapons.

"In four separate cases, recent reports have illustrated the Iranian regime's influence on multiple Shi'a mosques and religious institutions in the United States. This is unacceptable." — Letter from nine US House Representatives to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, June 28, 2023.

"This appears to be part of a network of regime-sponsored mosques acting as agents for a foreign adversary. The radical ideology being promoted by this regime preaches hatred not only towards Jews, Christians, and Westerners but also to Sunni Muslims and fellow Shi'a Muslims who do not accept the regime's ideology." — Letter from 9 US House Representatives to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, June 28, 2023.

We are fortunate enough in the US to have freedom of religion enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

All the same, Americans might like to be aware that there are clergy in the US whose goal it is to take the beliefs you now hold away from you and replace them with their own?
Iranian Court Orders U.S. to Pay $330 Million for ‘Planning Coup’ in 1980
A Tehran court has ruled that the U.S. government must pay a sum of $330 million in damages for its alleged involvement in planning a coup against the newly established Islamic Republic back in 1980.

The decision was announced by Iran’s judiciary on a Saturday.

The incident in question occurred a year after the 1979 Islamic revolution that saw the ousting of the U.S.-backed Shah regime. At that time, a group primarily comprising army officers aimed to overthrow the nascent government.

Led by Saeed Mahdiyoun, a former Iranian air force commander, the group was based at the Nojeh air base in the western province of Hamedan.

Reports from Iran’s state news agency IRNA suggest that clashes between the coup plotters and government forces led to fatalities and numerous arrests. The coup’s objectives reportedly included seizing control of military bases across the nation and targeting strategic centers as well as the residences of key revolutionary figures. These efforts, however, were ultimately thwarted.

It was revealed that the ruling was prompted by a legal petition filed last year by relatives of those who lost their lives during the coup attempt. These petitioners took their case to Iran’s International Court, asserting that the United States had orchestrated and executed the coup.


Taliban release Iranian journalist to embassy in Afghanistan
An Iranian journalist who was detained in Afghanistan has reportedly been released to the Iranian embassy in Kabul. The Tasnim News journalist was detained last week when he was trying to leave Afghanistan.

He had been in the country for two weeks and was there legally. The detention threatened to lead to a crisis between Iran and the Taliban.

Tasnim News, where the journalist worked, said on Saturday that “last night, the Taliban handed over the photographer of the Tasnim news agency, Mohammad Hossein Velayati, to the Iranian embassy in Kabul.” He had been detained for a week.

Why did the Taliban arrest an Iranian journalist?
It was not clear why the Taliban detained the journalist, though the Taliban have cracked down on media since they took over the country two years ago. They have also been increasingly brutal in their treatment of protesters, women and minorities.

Iran’s regime tends to have difficult relations with the Taliban because the Taliban have historically suppressed Shi’ites in Afghanistan. However, Iran also opposed the US presence in Afghanistan and had quietly backed the Taliban against the US.

Since the US left in 2021, the Iranian regime and the Taliban regime have been at odds over water policy and other issues. Tasnim News is considered pro-regime and close to the IRGC, therefore detaining a Tasnim journalist is also a potential attack on Iran itself.


‘Mixed Bag’: New US Education Department Guidance Both Helps, Harms Jewish Community, Ex-Top Official Says
A new “Dear Colleague” letter issued by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) includes a “mixed bag” of measures that will both help and harm the Jewish community, according to a former top US official who now heads a leading civil rights group.

The missive offers guidance on how colleges and K-12 schools receiving federal funds should develop curricula that fosters “racially inclusive school communities.” To that end, the letter lists examples of actions or policies that OCR would investigate in any civil rights complaint filed against schools.

Several of the actions and policies are immediately relevant to the civil rights of Jewish students, Kenneth Marcus, former Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights at OCR and current chairman and founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told The Algemeiner on Friday. Marcus noted one example in particular could have implications for ongoing debates over ethnic studies curricula in California — which, experts have said, may contain antisemitic content about Jews and Israel.

According to the letter, “OCR may decline to open an investigation” when someone alleges that an individual was subject to discrimination for being required to take an ethnic studies class teaching material that students may perceive as “subjectively offensive.” Marcus told The Algemeiner that the Biden administration is possibly getting out ahead of possible challenges to ethnic studies requirements for high school graduation.

“There is concern that some extremist versions of ethnic studies present Jewish Americans in a negative light and could contribute to anti-Jewish attitudes,” Marcus explained. “Now, it’s hard to say for sure because we don’t know yet what the fact patterns might be, but it is unhelpful that the administration gave an example that could discourage people from filing sound, good-faith complaints in those school districts that may adopt extremist curricula of the sort that are now circulating in California and that might, in future months or years, be circulating in other states as well.”

However, he added that OCR also issued guidance that stands to benefit the Jewish community. One example in the letter says the Education Department would investigate a complaint alleging that a student club predominantly comprising members of a minority group were denied recognition by the university on dubious grounds, such as failing to meet key requirements comparable to those that another group granted recognition might not have satisfied.
Jewish groups praise California mandate barring ‘bigotry’ in ethnic studies classes
California Jewish groups applauded a letter from the state’s education board saying that high school courses meeting an ethnic studies mandate must avoid “bias, bigotry, or discrimination against any person or group of persons.”

The letter comes at the start of the school year, and nearly two years after Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation making California the first state to require all public high school students to complete a semester-long course in ethnic studies. California Jewish groups aired concerns that curriculums they feel are anti-Israel or antisemitic will be used at school districts across the state.

The goal of the ethnic studies requirement is to increase knowledge of the state’s ethnic minorities and their histories. The graduation requirement in the topic is set to take full effect in 2029, and schools must begin offering such courses in 2025. Many schools have already begun offering the courses.

The effort has been mired in controversy since a draft of a model curriculum was published in 2019 that, Jewish groups said, excluded their experiences and included anti-Israel sections. Newsom came out against that draft, and revisions of the model curriculum removed the anti-Israel content and added lessons on the experiences of Jews in California.

But school districts are still free to determine their own ethnic studies curricula. According to J, The Jewish News of Northern California, advocates of the original draft, who blamed “rightwing pressure” for the revisions, are encouraging districts to adopt curricula that better reflect the first draft.

A letter from dozens of Jewish leaders across the state to Newsom and other state officials, sent in late June, claimed that antisemitic and anti-Israel content was being taught as schools began to introduce the new courses.


Success! CityNews Toronto Amends Article Which Incorrectly Stated Syria Officially Recognizes Statehood Of Israel
On August 24, 2023, CityNews Toronto published a review of the new film “Golda”, based on the true story of former Prime Minister, Golda Meir, as she navigated the State of Israel through the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Within the review of the film, journalist and film critic, James Mackin, stated incorrectly that the end of the Yom Kippur War was the beginning of both Egypt and Syria officially recognizing the State of Israel.


In truth, Syria, to this day, does not recognize the official statehood of Israel, and both countries are currently officially in a state of war.

After alerting CityNews Toronto of this error, they quickly amended the article to reflect the truth. We thank CityNews Toronto for their prompt corrective action.


Decades-old antisemitic flyer threatens to upend German state vote
An antisemitic flyer distributed at a German secondary school more than three decades ago is at the center of a dispute that threatens to engulf Hubert Aiwanger, deputy premier of Bavaria, ahead of a regional election in the state later this year.

The flyer, whose existence was first reported by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Saturday, parodies a national history competition and makes mocking references to Nazi concentration camps and the Holocaust.

Aiwanger, 52, denied authorship of the typewritten document, written in 1987 when he was 17,

The newspaper said multiple witnesses had said he was summoned before a school disciplinary committee over the flyer, which was found in a school lavatory.

"These are serious allegations. This flyer is hateful and revolting," said Bavaria's conservative premier, Markus Soeder. "The charges have to be cleared up, and fully."

Soeder needs Aiwanger
Aiwanger heads the populist Free Voters party which governs Bavaria in coalition with Soeder's Christian Social Union (CSU). Soeder has previously said he wants to renew his alliance with the Free Voters after October's election.

Late on Saturday, Aiwanger issued a statement saying he had not written the flyer, a copy or copies of which were merely found in his schoolbag, and that the person who had done so, whose name he knew, would come forward of his own accord.

"Neither then nor now has it been my style to snitch on people," he wrote.

The leaders of the Social Democrats and Greens in Bavaria said Aiwanger must stand down if he was the author of the flyer.


'Knesset Israel': The illegal immigration ship that fought the odds
There was great excitement last month at the Palmach House in Tel Aviv, where a conference commemorating 76 years since the arrival of the Knesset Israel illegal immigrant ship to the future State of Israel took place. Among the hundreds who attended the conference were 25 individuals who had actually been passengers on Knesset Israel.

They were very excited to greet old friends they hadn’t seen for decades and finally be able to introduce them to their children and grandchildren. Attendees of the conference, most of whom were descendants of Knesset Israel passengers, were looking forward to hearing about the most challenging experience their loved ones had ever experienced in their lives.

The Knesset Israel was a cargo ship built of iron in the US in 1892. Emissaries of the Mossad LeAliyah Bet (illegal immigration organization) had purchased the ship, and then sailed from the US to the port of Piraeus in Greece, loaded with cans and preserves. The plan was to sail from Greece to Israel. Mossad LeAliyah Bet members who joined the crew of the ship included Avraham Govsky, Binyamin Yerushalmi, and Yoash Chato Zidon, along with many others. When the British authorities discovered the illicit plan, they immediately issued an order to block the ship in Greece, but luckily the ship managed to slip away and sail for Port Bakar in Yugoslavia.

The commanders of the ship were Yosef Hamburger Harel and Palyam (Palmach’s Naval Platoon) member Reuven Hirsch Yatir. The original name of the ship was “The Jewish Resistance Movement,” but just a day before reaching Israel, its name was changed to the less provocative Knesset Israel in order to appease the British authorities.

On November 5, 1946, after two months of preparation, the ship set sail from Yugoslavia, carrying 3,400 immigrants. Around the same time, a smaller ship named Aba Berdichev with 600 people on board also set sail for Israel. During the journey, the smaller ship was swept against the rocks, crashed, and sank, so its passengers were transferred to the Knesset Israel. Most of the illegal immigrants were Holocaust survivors, including 1,500 youngsters who belonged to Jewish youth movements. On November 25, as the ship was approaching the port of Haifa, it was surrounded by three British Royal Navy destroyers.

When the British attempted to forcibly transfer the immigrants to three deportation ships that had been waiting for the Knesset Israel near Haifa’s port, a violent struggle broke out. During the confrontation, two Jewish immigrants were killed in the ensuing gunfire: Isaac Rosenboim, who was 16; and Chaim Mueller, 30, who was a member of Hashomer Hatzair. When the British threatened to harm the children, Yossi Harel – the ship’s commander – ordered all the immigrants to surrender. On November 27, 1946, all the male immigrants were transferred to detention camps in Cyprus, while the women and children were taken to the Atlit detention camp in Israel.
With new technology, researchers find mass grave of Jews murdered by Nazis in Latvia
A mass grave of Jews killed by the Nazis has been identified in Latvia following decades of searching.

Separately, the body of a World War II Jewish resistance fighter buried in a mass grave has been identified in the Netherlands.

The grave in Latvia was located using technology created by American researchers, LTV News Service reported Wednesday. It holds the bodies of dozens of Jews murdered by the Nazis in July 1941 in the western Latvian city of Liepāja. The massacre, one of a series of Nazi mass murders of thousands of Jews in the area over the course of that year, was filmed by German soldier Reinhard Wiener, and the footage survived the war.

Wiener’s film includes shots of the trenches where the Jews were murdered, as well as the city’s historic lighthouse. For decades, researchers had tried to use the lighthouse as a landmark in order to identify the exact location of the mass graves, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

This summer, a team of students and researchers led by Harry Jol and Martin Goettl from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and Philip Reeder from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, were invited to Liepāja to search for the grave. Using soil sampling and georadar analysis, they were able to locate the mass burial site from 82 years ago.

“There are historical maps that we can compare with our data and see changes in the soil layers,” Jol told Latvian Public Media. “We can use the dendrological method, determined by the age of trees. There is also a relatively new technique for soils — optically stimulated luminescence dating.”

According to Latvian press reports, the researchers are certain that the grave they located is the one filmed by Wiener, and are looking for documents and testimony to buttress that finding.

The area of the mass grave is currently being leased by a Lithuanian fish processing company, Ilana Ivanova, a representative of the Jewish community in Liepāja, told LTV News Service.

Ilya Lensky, director of the Museum of Jews in Latvia, told LTV News Service that he believes the site should be marked as a memorial to honor the Jews who died there. Gunārs Ansiņš, the mayor of Liepāja, said that discussions are ongoing in the municipal council to address what to do with the site.
“Golda” is a Beautiful Depiction of a Leader, and her People, Fighting for Survival
The new film “Golda,” which opens in theaters on August 25th, provides a poignant and deeply moving portrait of one of Israel’s most beloved and transformational Prime Ministers, Golda Meir. Raised largely in Wisconsin, Meir, who served as prime minister from 1969-74, was one of the world’s most prominent female leaders. Many outside Israel know her for the profound insight and empathy encapsulated in her pithy sayings, such as “A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader” and “We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” In the film, Helen Mirren as Golda captures her steely leadership during the bitter challenge of the Yom Kippur War, revealing another side of her powerful character.

October 6, 1973, was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar year – the Shabbat Shabbaton (Sabbath of Sabbaths), when Jews traditionally spend the whole day fasting and praying in synagogue. In the leadup to the Holy Day, Israel was aware that Egyptian and Syrian armies were massing on her borders but, as depicted in the film, deferred to U.S. requests not to launch a preemptive strike. Instead, Israel suffered a surprise invasion by the Arab alliance, with the two invaders rapidly advancing as Israel engaged in the largest tank battles since World War II, desperately trying to repel the numerically superior invaders. The stakes could not have been higher — a mere 28 years after the Holocaust, it was understood that not only the survival of the Jewish State but the very lives of its people were in jeopardy. In the film, Golda tells one of her aides that if the Egyptian army captures Tel Aviv, she must not be taken alive.

Israel’s tiny geography and the tragic history of the Jewish people inform another of Golda’s famous quotes: “We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs — We have no place to go.” In the film, Golda recalls that as a little girl in Ukraine — then a province of the Russian Empire — defenseless Jews were beaten to death in the streets by Cossacks, out of sheer spite, without suffering consequences. We now know that these murders were not random but part of a deliberate policy by the Russian government, with one of the Tsar’s ministers vowing that “one-third of the Jews will convert [to Christianity], one-third will die, and one-third will flee the country.” This gives the lie to the enemies of Israel who suggest that its citizens should “go back” to where they came from — apparently meaning the killing fields of Europe that stole six million Jewish lives or the Middle Eastern nations that expelled another million Jews in the years after Israel’s independence. Those who hate us know full well that this is not a serious proposal. There is nowhere else for Israelis to run to. As a beloved Israeli song puts it, “I have no other country.”
‘Golda’ biopic aims to counter notion that PM was chiefly to blame for Yom Kippur War
Golda Meir, the first and so far only woman prime minister of Israel, is a figure as shrouded in mythology as she is veiled by plumes of cigarette smoke in “Golda,” a new political drama starring Helen Mirren.

Meir has been called Israel’s “Iron Lady,” alternately lionized as a founder of the state, scorned for her dismissive statements about Palestinians and, most notoriously, held responsible for Israel being caught by surprise at the outbreak of the bloody Yom Kippur War of 1973. The film recreates Meir’s experience during the 19 days of that war, which would indelibly mark both her legacy and the Israeli consciousness. Directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv, who won an Oscar for his 2018 short film “Skin,” “Golda” opens in theaters across the United States on Friday.

Generations of Israelis, including many who fought in 1973, have blamed Meir for a traumatizing war. But Nattiv offers a different portrait, building on recently declassified wartime documents that reveal how she was disastrously misinformed by her complacent military commanders. He presents Meir as a steely, ruthless yet vulnerable woman, tortured by guilt and motivated by the belief that she was defending her country from extinction.

“She was the scapegoat of the war,” Nattiv told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The notion was that she was the only person responsible for this debacle, this failure, and it wasn’t true.”

Nattiv himself was 4 months old when war broke out on October 6, 1973 — Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar — and his mother took him to a bomb shelter while his father headed to the front.

In a colossal intelligence failure, Israel was surprised by a two-front attack from Egypt and Syria, which sought to regain territories they lost in 1967. Many Israelis were overconfident after their young country’s swift victory over three Arab armies in the 1967 Six-Day War. But in the first 24 hours of the Yom Kippur War, thinly manned Israeli positions were overwhelmed along the Suez Canal in the southwest and the Golan Heights in the northeast.
'Golda:' What the movie doesn't tell you about the Israeli prime minister
“Golda,” the new biopic starring Helen Mirren as Israel’s first (and so far only) female prime minister, focuses on the few terrible weeks late in her life that would in some ways seal Golda Meir’s legacy.

On Yom Kippur 1973, Egypt and Syria led a sneak attack on Israel that, in its stealth and fury, erased the euphoria that followed Israel’s lightning victory six years earlier in the Six-Day War.

The public blamed Meir for Israel’s lack of preparation; she resigned in 1974 and her reputation, particularly in Israel, has never really recovered.

For Meir’s defenders, her legacy has often been obscured by misogyny and condescension. Biographers like Francine Klagsbrun, in 2017’s “Lioness,” and Deborah Lipstadt, whose “Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch” was published this month, argue for a fuller, more generous assessment of Meir.

They recall a Zionist pioneer, born in present-day Ukraine in 1898 and raised in Milwaukee, who helped shape public opinion about the nascent Jewish state in the United States and ignited American Jewish fundraising for its cause; a Labor Zionist activist who helped establish the Israeli welfare state that sustained the country and its waves of immigrants through the 1980s, and a foreign minister who, over a decade, forged important alliances with the French, the United Nations, and, most importantly, the United States.

In “The Only Woman in the Room: Golda Meir and Her Path to Power,” which came out late last year, Pnina Lahav picks up on these themes and develops another: How Meir, adamant in not calling herself a feminist, nevertheless refused to be defined by the traditional roles set out for her and instead forged a path for other women in politics.

Lahav, born in Israel, is an emerita professor of law and a member of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University. We spoke this week about the ways Meir has been underestimated, how she defied the Jewish grandmother stereotype, and how a flawed leader can also be considered a great one.
In first, Israeli team wins gold at 2023 World Championship for rhythmic gymnastics
Israeli athletes took home the first-ever gold medal at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships 2023 in the group all-around category on Friday, winning top marks for a two-part routine that clinched first place at the contest in Valencia, Spain. It was an Israeli team’s first gold in the sport at the international competition and its second medal in the all-time event following last year’s silver.

On Friday, the Israeli team bested China and Spain, which took silver and bronze, respectively.

Their performance involved a three-minute ribbons and balls routine to a dance track interspersed with the chorus of 1998 Eurovision winner “Diva” by Israeli singer Dana International and a complex hoop routine of another three minutes to a more suspenseful track with a quote from the 2017 Wonder Woman film starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot.

Team Israel consisted of athletes Shani Bakanov, Eliza Banchuk, Adar Friedmann, Romi Paritzki, Ofir Shaham and Diana Svertsov.

In a statement cited by sports network Channel 5, the team said: “We were so happy that we were able to win this medal, and get to shout the national anthem on the podium. This is the best feeling an athlete could have.”

Olympic medalist Yael Arad, who chairs Israel’s Olympic Committee, said in an Instagram post that the victory was a “distilled moment of supreme happiness behind which there are so many pit stops and thousands of hours of training.”




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