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Monday, November 1, 2021

11/01 Links Pt2: Bret Stephens: Is There a Future for American Jews?; The Guardian Palsplains antisemitism; IAM: Zionist laughs at oxbridge fascist

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: Is There a Future for American Jews?
The antisemitic outbursts during the Gaza War in May 2021 were not, in themselves, murderously violent. Yet the fact that they were expressed in the open, by people who plainly felt no fear in showing their faces, and who were met with weak and equivocating condemnations from so many quarters of the American establishment, gave them the quality of an omen, like the shattering of a single pane of glass. A few months later, House Democrats were briefly forced to capitulate to their most radical members by voting to remove $1 billion in funding for Iron Dome, a system whose sole purpose is to protect Israelis from lethal terrorist rockets.

Any sentient American Jew with an instinct for danger has to know that things won’t simply right themselves on their own. To adapt Isaac Newton, social trends in motion tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force.

What will that force be?

Many of the essays in the current volume of Sapir make the case for Jewish fortification from the inside. Richer and deeper content in Jewish education. More effective management of Jewish organizations. Smarter outreach to potential converts. And so on.

These are necessary and important conditions for Jewish survival and renewal in America. But they aren’t quite sufficient. Jewish Americans live most of their lives outside the gates of their Jewish homes, synagogues, and communities. That is where the battle for the future of Jewish America will have to be waged. A few thoughts on how to fight it.

- The intellectual battle against critical social justice theory (often called “woke” ideology) is one no true Jewish leader can shirk. That isn’t merely because a spirit of liberal-mindedness matters to Jewish well-being. It’s because woke ideology invariably combines three features that ought to terrify Jews: a belief that racial characteristics define individual moral worth, a habit of descending into antisemitism, and a quasi-totalitarian mindset that insists not only on regulating behavior but also on monitoring people’s thoughts and punishing those who think the wrong ones.

- There are a few nonprofit groups that are rising to tackle this challenge, including the newly formed Jewish Institute for Liberal Values (on whose board I sit). But woke ideology needs to be seen as an acute threat and become a key item in the Jewish organizational agenda.

- Prominent Jewish Americans need to use all the political influence, social capital, and institutional muscle they have to defend baseline Jewish interests in ostensibly liberal institutions. That hasn’t happened. Instead, in one institution after another, Jewish leaders — trustees and major donors, university presidents and academic deans, senators and representatives, CEOs and board directors — have, to paraphrase Lenin, sold the rope from which their enemies will hang them.

- Nobody today would imagine, say, a female university president sitting still while a culture of misogyny and sexual harassment prevailed in faculty lounges or student dorms. Yet Jewish leaders and donors will often bite their tongues when the institutions they oversee or support become saturated with anti-Jewish animus. They would do better to stop writing checks; start speaking up boldly at board and faculty meetings; and, if they conclude they cannot rescue an institution, publicly and vocally resign to take their talent and money elsewhere.

- For too long, Jewish Americans have sought the friendship of those who didn’t want us as friends and looked askance at the friendship of those who did. Jewish “allyship” in multiple civil-rights movements usually began early and often proved itself in the darkest hours. Has that allyship been reciprocated at a time of skyrocketing antisemitism?

- Jews will not come out well from this series of unrequited love affairs, just as we didn’t come out well from our unrequited love affairs with German, Austrian, or French culture. There is broad support in the United States for Jewish Americans, demonstrated by the fact that Jews remain the most admired religious group in America and by the widespread support that Israel enjoys outside the progressive bubble (within which so many Jews live). But our non-Jewish friends need to be far more deeply engaged by Jewish communities, not held at arm’s length out of religious differences, political disdain, or simple ignorance.


Yisrael Medad: Islamist Voice: Not Containment but Confronation
I am excerpting from "The Silent Zionist Prayers - Containment Instead of Confrontation" by Ahmed Samir Quneita, published on October 31, 2021 in Arabic. Quenita

is a Master's student in Diplomacy and International Relations and who specializes in Syrian matters.

I post his writing so that we all are presented with the terminology and the framing of the true conceptualization of the Islamic opposition to Zionism.

He is bothered by "Zionist plans to Judaize Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, through a series of provocative activities against Muslims and Arabs" so as "to impose a new reality that enhances the Zionist presence inside the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque at the expense of the original Palestinian right". The goal is "temporal and spatial division of the Al-Aqsa Mosque - similar to what is happening in the Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron - marking the establishment of the alleged temple on the ruins of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque".

He is upset with "the official Arab political apostasy and the rush towards normalization with the occupying Zionist entity":
"What is new this time...is allowing the establishment of 'silent Talmudic prayers' inside the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, after these rituals were forbidden to the herds of rapists who stormed Al-Aqsa...this prohibition of 'silent prayers' was not related to Zionist judicial rulings or legal regulations, but rather in response to security assessments presented by the occupation police to the official authorities regarding the possibility of confrontations between Al-Mourabitat al-Quds and the Zionist police forces...such rituals provoke the religious feelings of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims."


The Guardian Palsplains antisemitism
For the third time in two years, the Guardian published a letter (“If we endorse the IHRA definition of antisemitism we put at risk Australia’s academic freedom”, Oct. 29) by a Palestinian group complaining that a widely accepted antisemitism definition designed to protect Jews represents a form of oppression against Palestinians.

The letter, authored by “a collective of Palestinians who work and study in Australian universities”, follows the vow by Australia’s Prime Minister that the country will adopt the IHRA working definition, and opens with moral throat-clearing, acknowledging that “antisemitism remains a persistent threat to Jewish people”, noting the “rise of neo-Nazi white supremacist groups in Australia”.

However, whilst neo-Nazi antisemitism is a serious threat in Australia, a study currently being peer reviewed showed that another major trigger for antisemitism in the country anti-Israel protests during conflicts with Hamas. This of course mirrors the situation in the UK, US and other countries, where, during these periods, such as the conflict in May, antisemitic incidents, disproportionately perpetrated by pro-Palestinian Muslims, skyrocket.

The signatories opine that the “Palestinian cause is a fundamentally intersectional struggle” and that their “fight against anti-Palestinian racism…unquestionably includes that against antisemitism”, before making their main argument: that the “endorsement of the IHRA definition on university campuses would pose a dangerous threat to academic freedom“.

However, their commitment to academic freedom is, at best, suspect, as the main pro-Palestinian group in Australia (Australian Students for Justice in Palestine) has expressed support for an academic boycott of Israel. Specifically, they signed a petition calling for an end to academic cooperation with Israeli universities that they claim are linked to or complicit in Israeli “crimes” – language so broad that it could include nearly every Israeli academic institution. The hypocrisy of pro-Palestinian academics who, on one had, denounce the adoption of IHRA as a threat to academic freedom, while simultaneously blacklisting all Israeli academics, is stunning.
Israel Advocacy Movement: Zionist laughs at oxbridge fascist
Cambridge educated, Paul Rimmer, is one of the leading voices of the British far-right. Joseph Cohen of the Israel Advocacy Movement debated him on Israel and a number of crazy ideas he had about Jews.


New Hampshire Lawmaker Condemned After Using Anti-Israel ‘River to the Sea’ Slogan
A New Hampshire state representative has been strongly condemned after she used a Palestinian slogan calling for Israel’s annihilation, and then doubled down on it.

On Oct. 23, Democratic Rep. Maria Perez tweeted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”, according to the local NH Journal outlet.

The slogan is frequently employed by those who advocate the end of Israel as a Jewish state and the establishment of an Arab state stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Perez removed the tweet following criticism, but on Friday commented on Twitter, “I shared a slogan that Palestinian human rights activists use to convey that they desire freedom of movement and an end to settler colonization.”

“I believe in a one state solution where Jews, Muslims, Christians and others can live together with equal rights, unlike the current state of Israeli occupation and apartheid,” she added.

Robert Trestan, the New England Director of the Anti-Defamation League, denounced Perez’s comments, saying, “Calling for a one state solution denigrates and denies the existence of a Jewish State of Israel. This is no solution. We hope Representative Perez will reconsider the implications of her choice of language and check the facts.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition also weighed in, saying in a statement, “Maria Perez should be ashamed of herself. The disgusting phrase ‘from the river to the sea Palestine will be free’ is a well-known antisemitic, anti-Israel slogan used by terrorist groups like Hamas to delegitimize the State of Israel and incite violence.”
Kansas State Rep. Likens COVID-19 Mask Mandates to Persecution of Jews
A Kansas state representative has faced strong criticism after she compared COVID-19 mask mandates to the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

The Kansas City Star reported Saturday that Rep. Brenda Landwehr told a hearing on the issue that mandating masks for unvaccinated individuals was “racism against the modern-day Jew, which is anyone who disagrees.”

She also said a state senator’s use of the phrase “go down a path” reminded her of a documentary she had seen on Nazi Germany.

Her comment about “the modern-day Jew” echoed a phrase used earlier in the hearing by Cornell Beard, the president of the Wichita Machinist and Aerospace Workers union.

Gavi Gellar, executive director of the American Jewish Committee of Greater Kansas City, said it was “incumbent upon all Kansas state leadership to be speaking out forcefully against this type of language.”

“This kind of language is a false and slanderous attack on Jews, on Jewish memory and Jewish identity,” he added.
Anti-Semitic, Anti-Christian Rhetoric Condemned, CRT Proponent Sees Conspiracy
Educational leaders are condemning anti-Christian and anti-Semitic comments made at two different Arizona school district governing board meetings last week. The shocking comments were made during the official Call to the Public portion of meetings of the Chandler Unified School District and Peoria Unified School District meetings.

The anti-Semitic, conspiracy theory-based comment was during the Chandler governing board meeting by a woman who identified herself as Melanie Rettler. During an anti-Covid-19 rant, Rettler accused “the Jews” of promoting the vaccines for financial gain.

“… there is one race that owns all the pharmaceutical companies, and these vaccines aren’t safe, they aren’t effective and they aren’t free. You know that you’re paying for it through the increase in gas prices, the increase in food prices — you’re paying for this, and it’s being taken from your money and being given to these pharmaceutical companies and if you want to bring race into this: It’s the Jews.”

Contrary to other media reports Rettler’s comments did not elicit applause and it drew a rebuke from Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate, and immigrant from Israel, Shiry Sapir.

“This abhorrent rhetoric is the direct result of making race and ethnicity the focal point of every conversation in our country,” said Sapir of the comments she described as “utterly unacceptable.”


George Washington University Jewish frat vandalized
Unknown perpetrators broke into and vandalized the Jewish fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon at George Washington University (GW) in Washington, DC, this weekend, according to a statement posted by the frat on Instagram Sunday. The vandals tore apart a Torah, covered it in detergent and poured hot sauce all over the house.

"Our entire chapter is outraged and saddened by this blatant act of antisemitism and violence," the statement read. "We are cooperating with university officials and the ADL."

The news was met with an outpouring of anger and sadness from the Jewish community.

Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai condemned the act in a Facebook post on Monday: "The disturbing images of a desecrated Torah scroll on the ground at George Washington University evoke dark days in our people's past. Antisemitism has not disappeared, it is rearing its ugly head in places we would least expect."

"This baseless hate is simply unacceptable in 2021," he added.


RDI Airs Gaza Documentary Devoid of Context
On October 19th, RDI aired the documentary “Gaza” as part of their Les Grands Reportages series, which provided a myopic portrayal of Palestinians in Gaza as it was devoid of due context.

The original 90-minute documentary was released in 2019 and was directed by Gary Keane and Andrew McConnell. RDI aired a shortened 46-minute version to fit into the usual one-hour time slot allotted to Les Grands Reportages. There is no substantial difference between the version aired by RDI and the original. Although this critique directly addresses the version RDI aired, it is equally applicable to the full documentary (available for streaming in French on Prime Video).

The production company, Filmoption International, describes the documentary as “a cinematic and enriching portrait of a people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the rubble of perennial conflict.” The documentary showcases the lives of Palestinian civilians, focusing on their struggles and their outlook. However, one glaring flaw permeates throughout the documentary, the total lack of background information. The result is a misleading documentary devoid of any historical, political, or social context. There is value in exploring the world of the Gaza Strip from the perspective of those living within, however, the glaring omissions lead to a highly unbalanced view of a conflict that is already fraught with misinformation. Below, we tackle some of the most glaring omissions and add the context required to understand the plight of Palestinians living in Gaza.

Hamas Takeover of the Gaza Strip
In the beginning of the documentary, we’re informed that “In 2005, Israel destroyed its settlements and withdrew from Gaza. In 2007, the Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas, came to power in free elections. Since then, Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, completely sealing its borders.” Someone who is not well versed in the intricacies of the conflict’s history may not perceive three misleading points:

It would be easy to assume from this statement that Israel destroyed their settlements to leave the Palestinians empty-handed when they took over the territory. In truth, this was done at the request of the Palestinians who wanted to replace the “spacious single-family rural dwellings” with the “construction of multi-family apartment buildings, which would be more appropriate for the local population.” The Palestinians also believed that the construction of new apartment buildings would be a source of employment for the local population.
BBC News misrepresents political activism as ‘conscientious objection’
In 2002 Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that while refusal to serve on the grounds of unqualified pacifism is conscientious objection, selective refusal based on political ideology is not grounds for exemption from service.

“The Supreme Court held that exemptions from military service may be granted according to the discretion of the Minister of Defense, pursuant to section 26 of the Defense Service Law (Consolidated Version)-1986. The Court held that the question of granting exemptions to military service based on selective conscientious objections involved a delicate balance between the freedom of conscience and the public interest. Here, the public interest was that it was neither proper nor just to exempt part of the public from a general duty imposed on all others. This was especially true when fulfilling the duty subjected a person to the ultimate trial—sacrificing his life. This is certainly true when granting exemptions may harm national security and lead to administrative unfairness and discrimination in specific cases. As such, and under the circumstances, which included the current situation in Israel, the Court held that it saw no reason to intervene in the decision of the Minister of Defense not to grant exemptions for selective conscientious objectors.”

While the BBC’s film supposedly ticks the ‘impartiality box’ by including a much shorter interview with a young man who is going to meet his legal obligation to serve in the IDF, it is obvious that the actual aim of this report was the context-free promotion of an act of publicity-generating political activism that is misrepresented as ‘conscientious objection’ despite the fact that last month in a different interview Perets stated:
“I decided not to go before the conscientious objectors committee, a medical committee, or the IDF mental health officer,” says Perets, “because it is important for me to stand by my principles and not to create the impression that I am the problem and I should be exempted [from service]. I chose to go to jail and take part in a campaign because I hope it will reach the most people.”

The editorial decision to feature a person who has deliberately broken the law in her own country in material promoted worldwide would appear to be at odds with the BBC editorial guidelines stating “[w]e must ensure that we do not glamorise, condone or encourage criminal behaviour”. Of course had Ms Perets chosen not to comply with any other Israeli law, she would have been of no interest to BBC journalists who bother less and less to hide the political motivations behind their reporting.
Berlin police chief sorry after cops seen doing push-ups at Holocaust memorial
Berlin’s police chief apologized on Monday for an incident in which officers were pictured practicing push-ups on a part of the German capital’s memorial to the 6 million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust.

Pictures published by Berlin’s B.Z. tabloid showed uniformed policemen leaning on one of the slabs that makes up the Holocaust memorial to practice push-ups. The newspaper said they were stills from a video apparently taken by the officers themselves on a cellphone during a holiday weekend in May when they were deployed to the area because of demonstrations.

The memorial, a field of 2,700 gray concrete slabs near the Brandenburg Gate that opened in 2005, is open around the clock and isn’t surrounded by any barriers. Visitors are supposed to refrain from activities such as running and jumping from one slab to another.

Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik said the service would examine the incident internally.

“The colleagues’ behavior disrespects what this memorial stands for and also offends the memory of those who were murdered,” Slowik said.


Moment Australian anti-vaxxer parades through the streets dressed as a Nazi death camp inmate holding a sign comparing Covid vaccine mandates to the Holocaust - until he is attacked by an outraged woman
An anti-vaxxer was attacked by an outraged woman after he dressed like a Nazi concentration camp victim during a bizarre protest.

Shocked witnesses filmed the man standing on the corner of Flinders Street and Swanson Street in the Melbourne CBD about 1.30pm on Saturday holding a sign comparing Covid vaccine mandates to the holocaust.

'History repeats,' the man's sign read, as he paced back and forth chanting propaganda.

The man was wearing a blue-striped pyjama set, which resembled the uniforms worn by millions of Jews in concentration camps across Europe during World War II.

Two women approached the man to tell him he was an 'absolute disgrace' for comparing himself to Holocaust survivors.

A group of young people then berated him for drawing comparisons between his cause and the extermination of millions.

'I spoke to the witness who filmed this, a Jewish woman in her 50s, who has Holocaust survivors in her family,' Dvir Abramovich, chairman of Australia's leading civil rights organisation, said.

'She and her friend approached the man and told him he is an 'absolute disgrace'.'
Costume shop owner sees no problem with selling Nazi uniform
The owner of a costume shop in England refuses to stop selling a "Gestapo Officer" outfit, even after pushback from local Jewish leaders, Metro UK reported.

According to the report, Melvin Smedley, owner of Kids Korner in Kent, was contacted by Tim Spurrier, chairman of the Thanet and District Reform Synagogue, asking Smedley to remove the Nazi uniform costume from his store.

But Smedley has remained defiant, saying he cannot afford to discard of any stock after his business was hit by pandemic lockdown and calling the outfit “historical representation.”

Spurrier explained that seeing a Gestapo uniform in public would cause offense to Jews, as well as other minorities also murdered by the Nazis, including gay people and the disabled.
Conservative councillor accused of supporting far-right Patriotic Alternative resigns from Worthing Council
A councillor for the Conservative Party who had been suspended after being accused of supporting the far-right group Patriotic Alternative has now resigned from Worthing Council.

Tim Wills is alleged to have joined a Patriotic Alternative chat room on the social media platform Telegram in June, where he reportedly posted messages of support.

Patriotic Alternative is known for its efforts to recruit youth to its white nationalist ideology. Previously, the far-right group published an online “alternative” home school curriculum condemned as “poison” and “hateful” and attempted to recruit children as young as twelve through livestreaming events on YouTube, according to The Times.

Earlier this year, the far-right group was found to be using Telegram to create neo-Nazi channels dedicated to sharing vile messages, antisemitic conspiracy theories and images glorifying Hitler.

Hope Not Hate describes Patriotic Alliance is “a racist far-right organisation with antisemitism at its very core. They aim to combat the ‘replacement and displacement’ of white Britons by people who ‘have no right to these lands’.” The group reportedly holds that “it is Jewish elites, particularly, who are orchestrating the ‘replacement’ of white Britons.”

The group is led by the former head of the youth wing of the BNP, Mark Collett, who is reported to have dabbled in Holocaust denial, collaborated with the infamous American antisemite David Duke, and espoused antisemitic and racist views.
Police Arrest Boy, 16, for Painting Swastikas Outside London’s Belsize Square Synagogue
London police on Saturday arrested a 16-year-old boy for spray painting swastikas on the side of a wall close to the Belsize Square Synagogue in Camden, The Evening Standard reported. The arrest was made after police had been alerted at 7:30 PM on Saturday by an individual who saw the graffiti.

At 8 PM, thirty minutes after being called, the police found the boy nearby and arrested him on suspicion of “religiously aggravated criminal damage.”

Other nearby walls were also painted with swastikas, but it isn’t clear if the boy is responsible for them, too. If he is, the authorities may be obliged to remove the “religiously-aggravated” part from the criminal damage charge.

The Camden Faith Leaders Forum told the Standard that they were made aware of swastikas graffitied around Belsize Park on Saturday night, and “immediately started working with the local Jewish community and Camden Cabinet Members who saw to a quick response which led to an arrest and rapid clean up operation. We pay tribute to all involved. As faith communities, we stand together against all bigotry in our Borough.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews tweeted Saturday night: “Tonight we’ve worked with local Jewish communities, to coordinate actions by police & Camden in response to this anti-Semitic graffiti. We welcome swift action by all concerned, including an arrest & start of clean up.”
A prolific Jewish writer has collected 4,000 tiny dreidels found by Eastern European treasure hunters
Even when Arthur Kurzweil sits by himself in his study, he doesn’t feel that he’s alone. After all, he has the dreidels — all 4,000 of them.

Kurzweil, 70, is a prolific author and editor who has written books about Judaism and magic and his car rides with Talmud scholar Adin Steinsaltz, as well as the Kabbalah and Torah installments in the “… for Dummies” series.

His most significant contribution to Jewish publishing, however, may be his books and teaching about Jewish genealogy: He has exhaustively chronicled his efforts to trace his own family’s lineage, including along the many branches that were broken when family members were murdered in the Holocaust.

The dreidels, pulled from the earth across Eastern Europe, represent an extension of that work, Kurzweil told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from amid the collection in his Long Island home.

“I look at them … and I think, what’s the history of this? And when’s the last time somebody played that game?” he said, adding, “I wonder what this person’s fate ultimately was.”

It’s not just dreidels that surround Kurzweil. Quietly and in collaboration with Eastern Europe’s sizable community of treasure hunters, he has amassed a sweeping collection of Jewish objects unearthed from throughout Eastern Europe. While Holocaust museums and concentration camps bring visitors face to face with the piles of shoes and eyeglasses worn by Jews who were about to be killed, Kurzweil lives with reminders of the lives they lived.
First Jewish dating website debuts in Gulf
The Association of Gulf Jewish Communities announced over the weekend that it has launched the first Jewish dating website in the region, with the aim of pairing up local Jewish singles living in Gulf states.

JSG – "Jewish Singles in the Gulf" – debuted with a website where participants are encouraged to fill out a questionnaire and then a group of matchmakers recommend matches.

"As our communities throughout the GCC experienced unprecedented growth over the past few years, we have seen more and more singles move here with an interest in establishing more permanent roots in the region," said AGJC President Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo.

"By helping these singles find their spouses in the GCC, they are more likely to get married here and establish their families here, which in turn grows Jewish communal life and the need for more Jewish institutions like schools, kosher food, etc."

AGJC Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie noted that "the buzz around JSG has reverberated around the world and in the weeks leading up to the launch of the platform, we received interest from dozens of singles in the region.
The Jew who became a priest and will be buried as a Jew
Later this week, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who became a Catholic priest in Poland, moved to Israel and served the Christian community here for nearly four decades, will be buried in Poland as a Jew alongside his mother and sister who were murdered by the Nazis.

Having grown up in a religious Jewish household, Father Gregor Pawlowski, born Jacob Zvi Griner, was saved during the Holocaust by dint of papers he obtained stating he was Catholic, and he eventually was baptized and ordained as a priest.

He eventually moved to Israel stating that he was part of the Polish people but that he was part of another nation first, the Jewish people, with whom he felt an ongoing attachment and among whom he wished to live.

Many years later, Rabbi Shalom Malul, dean of the Amit Ashdod Yeshiva in Israel was on a trip to Poland with his students, and noticed a headstone Pawlowski had made for himself at the mass grave where his mother and sisters had been murdered by the Nazis, and made contact with the priest upon his return to Israel and formed a friendship.

Malul will this week fly out to Poland with several of his students, give Pawlowski a Jewish burial at that site and recite kaddish, the mourners' prayer, in accordance with the priest’s wishes that he be buried as a Jew.
The Orchestra (ELO) returns to Israel
The Orchestra, featuring former members of the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), is returning to Israel for three shows in January – the 16th at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv, the 18th at Binyanei Hauma in Jerusalem and the 19th at the Congress Center in Haifa. With original member Mik Kaminski in the lineup on violin, the band performs all of ELO’s hits, including "Don’t Bring Me Down," "Evil Woman" and "Mr. Blue Sky." The band has performed here in 2009 and 2015.
Bennett at COP26: 'Start-Up Nation can save the world'
Israeli technology can help save the planet from the adverse impact of climate change, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on Monday.

“As the country with the most start-ups per capita in the world, we must channel our efforts [in]to saving our world,” Bennett declared. Bennett was one of over 100 world leaders participating in the conference, known as COP26, which is meant to strengthen past decisions on climate change.

The meetings between leaders were particularly focused on getting developed countries to fulfil their pledges to help poorer nations meet their goals to reduce emissions, but other aims of the conference include mitigation of climate change via slashing greenhouse gases - with many countries, like Israel, committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and finding ways to adapt to the challenges of rising temperatures. While Israel made commitments in line with Western states, the delegation was especially focused on its strengths in the last point, adaptation.
PA premier calls ‘Israeli occupation’ biggest threat to Palestinian environment
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said “Israeli occupation” was the greatest threat to the Palestinian environment, in remarks at Monday’s international climate conference in Glasgow.

“We’re here today to tell the world that the Israeli occupation is the most critical long-term threat to the Palestinian environment,” Shtayyeh said in a tweet.

The Palestinian premier further claimed that Israeli policies were “systematically destroying” the traditional Palestinian environment.

“If one looks at the map of modern Palestine, one sees how the environment is being systematically destroyed. Since 1967, Israel has uprooted about 2.5 million trees, including about 800,000 olive trees,” Shtayyeh alleged.

Ramallah signed the Paris Climate Accord when it was launched in 2016. In his speech, Shtayyeh hailed the PA’s efforts to increase the use of solar energy in the West Bank over the past decade.
Archbishop of Canterbury apologizes for comparing climate change to Holocaust
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby apologized on Monday for suggesting that the impact of climate change would be worse than Nazi genocide.

Welby, the most senior cleric in the Church of England and leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, made the comments in an interview with the BBC at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

He said that national leaders will be “cursed” if they do not achieve the goal of the United Nations summit to urgently find concrete ways to stabilize global heating.

Politicians who fail at this task will be spoken of by future generations “in far stronger terms than we speak today of the politicians of the (19)30s, of the politicians who ignored what was happening in Nazi Germany,” he said.

He added that this was because climate change “will kill people all around the world for generations” and “allow a genocide on an infinitely greater scale” that will “come back to us or to our children and grandchildren.”
Study finds nature contributes billions to Israel’s economy
A new study estimates that Israel’s rich tapestry of nature and the benefits it provides to society could be worth tens of billions of shekels annually to the economy.

The government report, released last week after eight years of research involving more than 200 scientists, aims to give decision-makers a different view of natural resources, beyond just being something to exploit.

Initiated by the Environmental Protection Ministry and HaMaarag–Israel’s National Ecosystem Assessment Program, the study is the first of its kind in the country to try to quantify the contribution to human welfare of the nation’s different ecosystems.

Critical to the proper functioning of the planet’s life support system, ecosystems are webs of living organisms and inanimate elements such as rock and water, which interact together in a myriad of complex ways, providing oxygen, absorbing carbon dioxide, purifying water, regulating temperature, and more.

An ecosystem service is a positive benefit that an ecosystem provides to people.

The problem, worldwide — and Israel is no exception — is that ecosystems are seen more as resources to be exploited for profit rather than things or processes with value whose financial worth should be calculated and taken into account to ensure that they are protected.

How, for example, does one price an acacia tree that feeds several species of wildlife, helps to bind sandy soil, interacts with subterranean fungi and bacteria, absorbs carbon dioxide and emits oxygen during photosynthesis?
Suez Crisis: 65 years since Israel, UK, France fought Egypt
The period of October 29-November 7 marks the 65th anniversary of the 1956 Suez Crisis, a conflict between Egypt, the United Kingdom, Israel and France over the vital waterway that had significant geopolitical ramifications in the region and in the Western world. The Suez Canal is one of the most vital shipping lanes in the world, connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and bypassing the long trip around Africa.

Up until 1956, the canal was controlled by the Suez Canal Company, itself controlled mostly by the UK and France. However, this changed when Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized it.

Tensions between Nasser-led Egypt and the UK were high, due to the UK having backed the monarchy overthrown by Nasser as well as close ties between Britain and Iraq, which Nasser believed threatened his ambitions to bring Egypt to the head of the Arab world.

Also at play were Cold War tensions, as Egypt was a non-aligned company, and attempted to maintain good ties with both the US and Soviet Union. Further at play was Egyptian support for Algerian rebels fighting against French colonial rule, as well as cross-border raids between Israel and Egypt.

But another contributing role was money, as the funds generated from traffic through the Suez Canal could be used by Nasser for other purposes. Ultimately, Nasser went ahead with the nationalization in late July 1956, sending Egyptian troops to seize control of the canal, freezing assets of the Suez Canal Company and – most crucially – barring Israeli shipping through the canal, as well as through the Straits of Tiran.







Elder Comix: The evolving consensus on how to destroy Israel







Deterrence: Anwar Sadat said that fear of a nuclear response is what kept Egypt from pushing its Sinai offensive further in 1973



I had missed this story, and it is a pretty big one. From Haaretz:
The Yom Kippur War was the first, and also the last, all-out war fought by Israel and the Arab countries after Israel became an undeclared Middle East nuclear state. The war, the most difficult since the War of Independence in terms of the number of losses Israel suffered, was the first test case of the impact of Israeli nuclear deterrence on the regional conflict.
...

According to a number of sources, Sadat’s insistence on a military action with a very limited territorial aim – to the pronounced displeasure of senior figures in the Egyptian armed forces – was partially related to his assessment that Israel would not use nuclear weapons in the face of a limited attack. At least one senior Egyptian source cites this as an explicit consideration by Sadat.

Additional third-hand testimony supporting the idea that Egypt was deterred by Israel’s nuclear capability from advancing toward the line of the Gidi and Mitla passes in the Sinai emerged in a television interview with Shimon Peres, conducted several months before his death, in 2016.

Peres related that, on his arrival in Israel on November 19, 1977, President Anwar Sadat was welcomed by then-Deputy Prime Minister Yigael Yadin. According to Peres, during the trip from the airport to Jerusalem, Yadin asked Sadat why the Egyptian army had not proceeded to the Sinai passes during the Yom Kippur War. Sadat’s answer: “You have nuclear arms. Haven’t you heard?”
The article puts this in the larger context of the Yom Kippur War and general deterrence, but it appears that Egypt, at least, limited its goals for the war based partially on the (justified) fear that if Israel was in danger of being destroyed, it would unleash nuclear weapons. Meaning that at least in this case, nuclear deterrence had an effect on how a war was fought, and even in the face of the terrible losses Israel suffered during the war, many more would have died without Israel's policy of ambiguity on its nuclear weapons.



11/01 Links Pt1: NGOs fellow-traveling with Palestinian terror; Survey shows that Rep. Tlaib, Progressives don’t represent Palestinian opinion; The joystick intifada

From Ian:

Yisrael Medad: NGOs fellow-traveling with Palestinian terror- opinion
It was Tuvia Tenenbom, disguised as “Tobias,” who in his book “Catch the Jew” shines an investigative light on what he termed the “peace industry” funded by foreign nations and NGOs. If that funding was reduced or properly spent, thousands of ‘good souls’ would lose jobs and their raison d’etre. And local Arabs would have less of an impetus potentially to siphon off funds for terror.

Instead of propping up violence, we might have had peaceful behavior, compromise and coexistence long ago. As one example, in 2019, it was made clear to the EU that their monies were spent on BDS campaigns and the demonization of Israel.

Moreover, the return, in early October, of the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Council is, in connection with this latest incident, all the more worrisome. This body, fed with lies and misrepresentations, much of it even antisemitic, by organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International – who do not do independent research but rely on reports from, among others, these six PFLP- NGOs in order to besmirch Israel, has created a cauldron of spuming hostility. This is combined with the fact that the diplomatic corps and the foreign affairs officials in the related countries who attend international conclaves and approve the spending are youngish and have been brought up in universities, which are not necessarily friendly to Israel and Jews, and their training is to accept the Arab narrative to the “Palestinian Question.”

The US State Department is being briefed about the information upon which Minister Gantz made his decision. I assume other EU states are as well. If the information proves reliable and true, will there be an apology forthcoming? And will these activist diplomats admit error? Or is Israel to be treated as a pariah, the goal of Arab propaganda all these past decades?

What is also disturbing is the blind commitment Israel and Jewish groups display. A petition by the organization Peace Now refers to “Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations” who have “long faced such spurious accusations” regarding their terror links. Delegates from 25 Israeli civil society groups showed up in Ramallah on Wednesday in order to express their solidarity with their counterparts in the Palestinian Authority.
Left-wing NGO calls for US sanctions on Benny Gantz
A self-described "anti-occupation" Israeli-Palestinian non-governmental organization has called for US sanctions on Defense Minister Benny Gantz over his designation of six Palestinian human rights organizations as terrorist groups.

In a post to Facebook, Combatants for Peace said it was calling on US President Joe Biden to impose sanctions on Gantz, whom they accused of "political persecution" of the human rights groups, through the use of the Magnitsky Act.

Signed into law by then-US President Barack Obama in 2012, the Magnitsky Act grants the US government the authority to sanction individuals that violate human rights.

In addition, the organization further asked Biden to ignore Israel's terrorist designation of the human rights groups.

Combatants for Peace accused Gantz of deciding "to criminalize the six organizations without presenting any basis or proof, without a transparent procedure ...."

In addition, Combatants for Peace alleged that Gantz had "a personal interest in the matter: Some of the six organizations have raised personal accusations against him in the International Criminal Court in The Hague of committing war crimes during the 2014 attack on [the] Gaza [Strip]."
In apparent 'payback,' PLO designates 2 Israeli NGOs as terrorist entities
The Palestine Liberation Organization on Sunday designated two Israeli nongovernmental groups as terrorist entities in an apparent reprisal over a similar move made by Israel.

Last week Defense Minister Benny Gantz outlawed six Palestinian groups affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designating them as terrorist organizations.

The PFLP is considered by several countries to be a terrorist entity, including Israel, the United States and the European Union.

The move against the groups was slammed by the Palestinian Authority and international human rights organizations as "a major escalation of its decades-long crackdown on political activism in the occupied territories," and equally criticized by the US and the EU.

Sunday saw PLO-affiliated workers unions slap a similar designation on the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor and Regavim organizations, citing their "collaboration with the Shin Bet [security agency] and the government of the occupation."

NGO Monitor is a watchdog group that analyzes and reports on the output of the international NGO community from a pro-Israel perspective. Regavim is a right-wing NGO that monitors illegal Palestinian building in Area C of Judea and Samaria and pursued legal action to stop it.

A joint statement by the Palestinian groups further urged all international institutions and NGOs to sever ties with both groups.

While it is doubtful the PLO's designation would affect NGO Monitor and Regavim's operations, but it reflects the Palestinian's anger over Gantz's move.


Palestinians want better lives, regardless of rights
Survey shows that Rep. Tlaib, Progressives don’t represent Palestinian opinion

Tlaib, who campaigns on being the the voice of Palestinians in the US Congress, added that Washington “must end funding (US annual aid to Israel) for human rights abuses.”

But the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip do not think it is Israel that is violating their human rights. According to the PSR survey, 71 percent of West Bankers said that people in their area cannot criticize the Palestinian Authority (PA) without fear. In the Gaza Strip, inaccessible to Israel, 62 percent of Palestinians said that people in the strip “cannot criticize Hamas’s authority without fear.”

Unlike how Tlaib wants America to force Israel to give Palestinians rights, the survey showed that only 10 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip believe “that the first most vital Palestinian goal… should be to establish a democratic political system that respects freedoms and rights of Palestinians.”

Palestinians want better lives, but it is unfortunate that they have no idea that such goal is connected to peace with Israel. According to the poll, 53 percent of Palestinians oppose the two-state solution, while 60 percent of them support perpetuating the conflict with Israel, 44 percent of which endorse “armed struggle.” Only 36 percent of Palestinians support negotiations with Israel, and 46 percent agree to a two-state solution.

But Tlaib and co tell America and the world a different story, arguing that Palestinians seek peace, human rights and democracy, and that it is Israel, and successive US governments, that refuse peace talks and suppress Palestinian democracy and human rights.

When asked about their goals — politics aside — Palestinians are like all other humans: They seek better lives for themselves and their loved ones. However, with the lack of leadership and with their populist leaders in the Palestinian Territories and their friends in America and the world, when Israel is added to the mix, Palestinians suddenly refuse peace, support more conflict with Israel, and therefore end up supporting the exact opposite of what can get them to their goal of better lives and a better future.
The joystick intifada
Fursan al-Aqsa’s gore is part of a Palestinian penchant for promoting attacks on Israelis. Palestinian textbooks distributed for grades 1-12 glorify violence , according to the monitoring group IMPACT-se. The European Parliament recently moved to condition aid to the Palestinians on removing such incitement.

Sources of invective even include senior Palestinian leaders such as Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who stated in 2015, “We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem.” Abbas's Fatah party celebrated its anniversary in 2016 by having children wear suicide belts, carry mock RPGs, brandish Molotov cocktails, and bear firearms.

Such incitement to violence helped inspire the “Stabbing Intifada” in 2015, a series of lone-wolf attacks that left 42 Israelis dead . Just last month, Palestinians carried out several stabbing attacks in Israel . Echoing Nijm’s sentiment, a spokesperson for the U.S.-designated terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad said , “Acts of resistance are the legitimate right of the Palestinian people.”

The estimated average age of attackers during the stabbing intifada was between 19 and 20 years old. A 2018 study across several Arab countries found that 55% of those in the 18-24 demographic play video games, while 45% of Arabs aged 25-34 play. Fursan al-Aqsa may inspire some of these gamers to live out their video game fantasies and murder Israelis.

But the danger will not be limited to Israel. During the latest round of Israel-Hamas fighting in May 2021, thugs in Los Angeles, New York, and elsewhere attacked Jews in retribution. If Steam or others provide a platform for this game, they will be complicit in putting a target on the backs of Israelis and Jews in Israel and abroad.
'I believe the US will respect Israel if Israel respects itself'
It has been almost a year since US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman completed his service. In an interview with JNS, Friedman – who recently joined former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's new investment fund, Liberty Strategic, as its Israel representative, and established the Friedman Center-Peace through Strength – talks about his years with the administration of former US President Donald Trump and plans for the future.

Q: How do you feel now that you are out of office?
" I miss it. We accomplished a lot, but there there are still a lot of good things that we still could have accomplished. With God's help, we'll have a chance to come back."

Q: Did President Trump ever speak to you about his disappointment in the predominantly Democratic Jewish vote?
"Yes, and he did so publicly, as well. He was the best US president that Israel ever had. Domestically, as well, he spoke out very strongly against anti-Semitism. He felt that, given how much he did for Israel and to fight anti-Semitism, more Jews should have voted for him. However, he did receive more Jewish votes in Florida than any Republican before him. So, it's a mixed picture. But he definitely was disappointed."

Q: In hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently?
"I'm pretty satisfied that we did as much as we could to strengthen the US-Israel relationship. Had we known that we were only going to be in office for four years, we might have accelerated our efforts, some of which took a long time, due to their complexity."
Saudi FM Says Palestinian State Before Israel Normalization With Israel
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said in an interview with Saudi news channel Al-Hadath that a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital is a prerequisite for normalization with Israel.

Israel’s Kan public broadcaster on Sunday reported the remarks made by Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat.

Although supportive of the Abraham Accords that established diplomatic ties between Israel and four Arab countries, the kingdom has maintained that a resolution to the Palestinian issue must happen before it will join the pact.

Saudi Arabia has recently made positive moves toward the Jewish state, including allowing the use of its airspace for commercial flights from Tel Aviv to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, significantly shortening travel time between the two countries.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords with Israel at a White House ceremony in September of 2020. Morocco and Sudan were later additions.

In an interview last year with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Faisal said that normalization with Israel would take place eventually, “but we also need to have a Palestinian state and we need to have a Palestinian and Israeli peace plan.”


European Union Will Not Outlaw All of Hezbollah
The European Union will not ban the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah in its entirety.

When asked about a full ban of Hezbollah, Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, eschewed the question and passed it onto her superiors, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Peter Stano, EU Spokesperson for Foreign Policy, told the Post, “The military wing of Hezbollah is already on the EU terror list.

“Any changes in the nature and scope of the existing listing are for EU Member States to discuss and decide by unanimity.”

The EU currently designates the “military wing” of Hezbollah under the EU sanctions regime to combat terrorism, a decision that was undertaken in 2013 in the aftermath of an attack on a tourist bus in Bulgaria. The attack killed five Israelis and their bus driver.

Hezbollah, as an organization, considers itself to be a unified movement that cannot be divided into political and military sectors. Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Mousawi stated in 2013, “Hezbollah is a single, large organization. We have no wings that are separate from one another.”
In Glasgow Bennett Asks Australian PM to Condemn All of Hezbollah as Terror Group
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met on Monday with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

The two leaders discussed the Iranian nuclear threat, and Bennett asked his Australian counterpart to work toward the strong condemnation of Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting that is due to take place later this month.

The Prime Minister also requested that Australia officially define Hezbollah, in its entirety, as a terrorist organization, an issue that is currently on the agenda in Australia.

Prime Minister Bennett thanked Australian Prime Minister Morrison for his country’s long-standing support of Israel in the international arena. The two discussed ways to enhance and upgrade bilateral relations, especially regarding climate innovation, and PM Bennett invited PM Morrison and his wife to make an official visit to Israel.

“I am delighted to meet you. We view you personally as a friend and a supporter and of course, we view Australia as a huge friend,” Bennett told Morrison, adding, “I’m looking forward to strengthening our relations and as you said, there’s a vibrant and a very lively Jewish community in Melbourne and Sydney.”
Israel and Australia discuss free trade agreement
Economy Minister Orna Barbivai met virtually on Wednesday with her Australian counterpart Dan Tehan to examine the viability of a free trade agreement (FTA) between the countries and explore different ways and means to strengthen trade relations.

During their conversation, the two ministers agreed on kicking off preliminary talks as early as January, with a desire to create new initiatives that will serve as a lever for economic cooperation between the two countries.

The Ministry of Economy and Industry’s Foreign Trade Administration, entrusted with promoting and leading the processes for establishing Israel’s FTAs with countries and trade blocs the world over, estimates that such an agreement will increase Israeli exports to Australia and expand trade between the countries.

Foreign Trade Administration Director Ohad Cohen stated that “Australia is a significant market for Israeli exports. A free trade agreement — if signed — could help Israeli companies compete in the Australian market and strengthen business ties between companies and corporations in the two countries.”

Israeli export of goods and business services to Australia in 2020 amounted to about $736 million while imports amounted to about $325 million with a total volume of trade estimated at over $1 billion.

Israeli exports to Australia — chiefly consisting of consumer goods, software and high-tech technologies, and medical equipment — are five times higher compared to imports from down under to the Jewish state.


Israel and UAE Work Towards Instituting a Free-Trade Agreement
Israel and the United Arab Emirates are working on a free-trade agreement that would reduce tariffs and introduce other economic benefits, facilitating trade and enhancing cooperation between them. It’s one more sign of the rapidly developing ties that have come as a result of the Abraham Accords.

The news came as something of a surprise when Israel’s Ambassador to the UAE Amir Hayek announced it on Oct. 17 during a business conference in Abu Dhabi that brought together business leaders and entrepreneurs from the two Middle Eastern countries.

“Our ambassador was actually addressing the crowd and also addressing the UAE minister of trade, saying, ‘We have to work on the free-trade agreement, and we have to do it fast,’” Dan Catarivas, director general of foreign trade and international relations at the Manufacturing Association of Israel, told JNS. “So he did, indeed, reveal—he did leak—that there are various talks on both sides about reaching an FTA between Israel and the UAE.”

The greatest value of the FTA will be in its symbolism, said Catarivas, noting that the UAE customs tariffs are relatively low to begin with, fixed at 5 percent. “An FTA shows the countries have good relations; that everything’s for the good,” he said.

Despite the ambassador’s remarks, an FTA won’t happen right away; various steps must be taken first. Usually, there is a feasibility study, then a joint study to judge “the profitability of such an agreement for both parties,” followed by more negotiations, explained Catarivas, though “it could be relatively short term. By short term, I mean in a year or two.”
200 House Republicans sign letter opposing Jerusalem consulate
All but 12 House Republicans, including all members of the party’s leadership, signed onto a letter to President Joe Biden opposing the administration’s plan to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that served Palestinians.

The letter, which was signed by 200 Republicans and led by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), argues that reopening the consulate, which was shuttered by the Trump administration in 2019, “would be inconsistent” with the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995. That bill directed the president to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and recognized Jerusalem as an “undivided city” and the capital of Israel.

“Your administration would create a misguided situation in which the U.S. would essentially have two separate diplomatic missions in Israel’s capital,” the letter, which was expected to be sent Monday morning, reads. “The U.S. consulate general in Jerusalem that was established in 1844 was not intended to serve as an outreach to the Palestinians in Israel’s capital.”

“Reopening the U.S. consulate general in Jerusalem would also reward and turn a bilnd eye to the Palestinian Authority engaging in the real obstacles to peace,” it adds. The letter also notes the Israeli government’s opposition to the move.

The arguments in the letter echo those made by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and more than 30 Senate Republicans in a bill introduced last week seeking to bar the U.S. from reopening the consulate.


MEMRI: Palestinian Authority Minister And PLO Executive Committee Member Majdalani: UNRWA Is The Political Symbol Of The Right Of Return
In a recent meeting with UNRWA Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini, Palestinian Minister of Social Development Ahmed Majdalani, who is also a member of the PLO Executive Committee, described the Palestinians' efforts to ensure UNRWA's continued existence, while stressing that it is not just an institution assisting the Palestinian refugees but "a political symbol of the right of return."

The following are translated excerpts from a report on the meeting and on Majdalani's statements in it, posted October 27 on the website of the Palestinian daily Al-Quds:
"Dr. Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and secretary-general of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, stressed the endeavor to ensure the [continued existence] of the [UN] Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, not as an institution that provides services to the Palestinian refugees, but as a political symbol of the refugees' right of return. In his Wednesday meeting in his office with UNRWA Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini, Dr. Majdalani added: 'We will discuss with all the friendly countries [the topic of] meeting [their] commitments and increasing the financial contributions, and all the ways to raise the level of cooperation and coordination, so as to overcome the financial crisis the agency is experiencing.

"Underscoring that UNRWA is the main political symbol of the refugees' right of return and right of self-determination, Majdalani stated: 'We will support [UNRWA's] survival and continued activity despite the difficult condition of the Palestinian cause.' He noted the importance of convening the agency's donors, and said that the international community is responsible for helping [UNRWA], so as to enable it to deliver services to the refugees in its areas of operation. [He added] that the ongoing incitement campaign of the occupation [i.e., Israel] requires completing the [provision of] international support to UNRWA.

"Majdalani reiterated the opposition to the framework agreement between the U.S. and UNRWA,[2] which is perceived as replacing the source of authority for the agency, which was established by UNGA Resolution 302. [This agreement] sets out political terms enabling American intervention in the activity of UNRWA, which is a UN agency, and [intervention] in the aid delivered to the Palestinian refugees. 'We believe that [the agreement] contains dangerous elements that are aimed against the refugees' cause, elements that threaten this cause with the purpose of destroying and eliminating it. It also redefines the status of refugee, which the PLO regards as dangerous,' [Majdalani said]…"


Yoni Ben-Menachem: Time for Israel to "Reoccupy the Gaza Strip"
Ashley Perry, advisor to the Middle East Forum's Israel office, interviewed Yoni Ben-Menachem, an Israeli journalist and senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, during an August 30 Middle East Forum Webinar (video) about escalating violence emanating from Gaza and what Israel can do about it.

Ben-Menachem said that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has "alarming" implications for Israel because Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are "encouraged by the victory." All of these terrorist organizations "share the same Islamic ideology of jihad and sumud [steadfastness]," he explained. "The lesson of Afghanistan is that they have to stay on the land and not give any inch ... [and with]stand Israeli pressures, and they will win in the end." Two months ago, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met in Doha with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, who praised Hamas's war with Israel.

As U.S. troops pulled out of Afghanistan in late August, Hamas and the other militant Islamic factions in Gaza staged violent rallies and border riots in hopes of pressuring Israel to relax its blockade of Gaza. Hamas demanded that Israel allow the "immediate transfer" of $30 million per month of purported humanitarian aid from Qatar (from which it takes a hefty "commission"), allow deliveries of construction materials to resume, and otherwise return to the status quo prior to Israel's May 2021 Guardian of the Walls operation against Hamas.

Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar (left) with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Doha earlier this year.

Israel has rejected such Hamas efforts to "impose new rules of game on Israel," while insisting that any new agreement provide for the return of four Israeli prisoners being held by Hamas. As Hamas has rejected Israel's terms, the situation has remained a dangerous stalemate.


Ramle Arson Attacks Solved; Gaza Resident Arrested
A resident of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip who had been residing in Israel illegally was arrested on Oct. 12 in connection with several arson attacks in the central city of Ramle, it was cleared for publication on Monday.

Saliman Kasab, 29, entered Israel in January 2020 on a humanitarian permit to accompany his mother, who was being treated in Judea and Samaria for a serious illness, according to a statement released by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet). Following the completion of his mother’s treatment, Kasab remained in Israel illegally.

On Sept. 30 and Oct. 4, Kasab perpetrated arson attacks against sukkot (temporary dwellings erected for the Jewish holiday of the same name) and buses in Ramle, according to the Shin Bet.

It was also learned during the course of the investigation that Kasab had been in working with the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades terrorist group to commit serious attacks in Israel, and had been due to receive weapons from the group toward that end. However, at the time of his arrest, he had only received funds from the organization, according to the Shin Bet.
Gantz Cancels Plan to Allow Jews to Privately Buy Land in West Bank
Defense Minister Benny Gantz declared last week to the Supreme Court that he is cancelling an initiative by the defense establishment that would allow Jews to buy land in the West Bank privately. The move was made in order to avoid conflict with the Palestinian Authority, since the initiative would significantly accelerate building settlements in the West Bank.

In 2019, legal advisers in the Defense Ministry and Israel Defense Forces issued opinions in favor of cancelling a law which allows Israeli Jews to make real estate purchases in the West Bank only via a company and not privately, subject to the approval of the Civil Administration.

According to the law – still applied in the West Bank from the time it was under Jordanian rule – only Jordanians, Palestinians or “foreigners of Arab origin” are allowed to buy land in the West Bank.

Last week, Gantz told the Supreme Court that “After having considered the issue at stake with the relevant parties, it was decided that, as of now, there is no room to make changes in Law no. 40\1953 of renting and selling real estate to foreigners.”

He was responding to a petition by the right-wing Regavim NGO that demanded the law be amended, arguing that it “Discriminates on ethnic grounds regarding the possibility to purchase land in Judea and Samaria.”

While the legal opinion issued in 2019 and first published in Haaretz confirmed the initiative, it voiced concerns about international law and international fallout.
Supreme Court Orders Arab Squatters Evacuated from Sheikh Jarrah Parking Lot
Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday rejected the appeal of Arab residents against the decision of the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court and District Court to evict them from a parking lot they had invaded in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

The judges imposed on the appellants’ legal expenses in the amount of NIS 18,000 ($5,700).

Court Vice President Justice Neil Handel, Justice Yitzhak Amit, and Justice Noam Solberg, ruled: “We have heard the arguments of the parties and reviewed the material. Therefore, the appeal can be rejected because we did not find any reason to intervene in this determination,” meaning the two rulings of the lower courts.

This is not the “big” Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood case, which is still being litigated and deals with Jewish-owned homes that were invaded by Arab squatters after the Jordanian Legion chased the Jews out of eastern Jerusalem. The current Jewish owners want their property back, but the High Court’s ruling in favor of evicting the illegal squatters is being delayed because the European powers and the Biden administration say it’s wrong.

Perhaps Jews should squatter on the lovely grounds around the White House?

The lot in question in Sunday’s ruling dominates the entire area and is owned by the Jerusalem municipality. Arab residents recently invaded the area and turned the place into a parking lot that was also used by the same Arab illegal squatters to throw stones and Molotov cocktails at Jews in the area. The High Court ruling confirms the district court’s decision and states that the place must be vacated by the Arab invaders.

The Jerusalem municipality has had ambitious plans for the entire area along Wadi Joz Street that runs from Mount Scopus, through the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, to the Old City. Wadi Joz has been the car workshops street of Jerusalem since the 1967 war. Along with dozens of garages, there are also shops carrying vehicle accessories, as well as shops offering building materials.
PMW: Corona breathes new life into PA demonization of Israel
The Corona pandemic is to blame for many things, but ironically, it has also breathed new life into the PA’s constant demonization of Israel!

In the following animated cartoon produced and broadcast by official PA TV, Israel is demonized as a virus like the Coronavirus:
The call of Allahu Akbar (i.e., “Allah is greatest”) and the ringing of church bells are heard.

Text on cartoon: “Jerusalem between two viruses”
“Produced by PA TV, 2021”

[Official PA TV, Oct. 16, 2021]

PA TV broadcast another cartoon showing an Israeli soldier and a Coronavirus particle having joined forces, about to “invade” a Palestinian home:
Text on cartoon: “The ongoing Israeli invasions
Break-in
Produced by PA TV, 2021”

[Official PA TV, Oct. 18, 2021]

In its new series of animated cartoons demonizing Israel, PA TV also repeated an old demonization theme depicting Israel as a poisonous snake. One cartoon showed Israel as a venomous snake baring its fangs while coiled around the Old City of Jerusalem. The body of the snake forms a cement security wall around the city:


In addition to Hezbollah, Venezuela a safe haven for Palestinian terrorists
Last week, Israel Hayom reported that a Venezuelan hacker group by the name Team HDP broke into the country's Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence, gaining access to information on purported Hezbollah operatives living freely in the country under the protection of President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government.

Now, new details have emerged: According to the information stolen by Team HDP, Venezuela also hosts Palestinian terrorist cells involved in money laundering, drug dealing, and terrorist activity, among other crimes. It was also revealed that Cuba's foreign intelligence agency plays a central role in the matter.

One of the Palestinian cells, according to the information from Venezuela's Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence, allegedly belongs to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah faction. The cell reportedly consists of at least four men identified as "doctors," whose cover includes working for Venezuela's national social security agency in Merida state in the country's northwest. "Fawaz Snofar," "Mahmoud Khalaf," and "Muhammad Abu-Rah" are some of the names that appear on the list.

The report alleges that the Palestinian "doctor" cell is responsible for the deaths of several patients due to medical malpractice, possibly the result of their questionable medical bona fides. One of the names mentioned on the list, "Khaled Badawi," is said to be of Pakistani origin and allegedly belongs to several Palestinian terrorist groups. Under the guise of being a doctor, his name was connected to activity in Merida, "a region in which uranium, thorium and coltan mines currently operate."

An Israeli source told Israel Hayom's Arab Affairs correspondent Daniel Siryoti that one of the names on the list is indeed known to the Israeli security services after he was questioned in Israel for throwing rocks at IDF soldiers as a 16-year-old. "Consequently, he was expelled from the country and forbidden from returning until the age of 21," the source said.
Seth Frantzman: Hezbollah-Saudi crisis deepens and could impact Israel – analysis
A crisis between Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia is growing.

“We are facing a crisis created by one of the countries in the region, which is waging a brutal war against another Arab country,” said Mohammed Raad, head of the Hezbollah faction in the Lebanese parliament.

The regional tensions could also affect Israel.

Raad was quoted in Iranian media in recent days. His comments refer to Saudi Arabia’s “hostile” actions against Lebanon. In fact, Riyadh responded to a Lebanese official supporting the Houthi rebels in Yemen after Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi had appeared to praise the Houthis.

The Hezbollah official said: “One of the ministers of the Lebanese government issued a statement in support of the right of the Yemeni people to protect themselves against the aggressor coalition that has invaded their country, before assuming the post of minister in this government.” Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have expelled Lebanon’s ambassadors in recent days. Lebanon’s president is seeking to heal the rift. Hezbollah may see an opening and could increase tensions. Saudi Arabia wants to harm the “stability” of Lebanon, the official said. In fact, Lebanon is unstable and bankrupt.

Hezbollah claims to be concerned that Riyadh might be making more light of the controversy because of upcoming elections. However, the reality may be that Hezbollah is trying to stoke a controversy to get votes or create a crisis.


Dennis Ross: The Threat of War Is the Only Way to Achieve Peace with Iran
Like a military plan that seems to work until it encounters the enemy, the Biden administration's approach to Iran required the Iranians to go along - and they have shown they will not be a partner to the White House's plans. Instead, they have made their nuclear program far more threatening and in the process have raised questions about whether there is a diplomatic answer to it.

They have been taking steps that have no justifiable civilian purpose: the enrichment of uranium to the 60% level and the production of uranium metal - actions that have no relationship whatsoever to the peaceful use of nuclear power.

The loss of Iranian fear about what they can get away with on their nuclear ambitions is dangerous. It may produce a miscalculation on Iran's part about whether the U.S. might ever respond militarily and for sure makes a diplomatic outcome less likely. Unless the Iranians understand that the pathway they are on is dangerous for them, the probability of the use of force will go up. Certainly, the Israelis, believing the Iranian nuclear threat is existential, are more inclined to act.

China needs a stable Middle East, not one disrupted by war, and an Iran on its current nuclear pathway toward a threshold weapons status risks precisely that. In 2009, during my time in the Obama administration, I was sent to Beijing, where I made the argument that neither country wanted to see a major conflict in the Middle East, yet Iran's nuclear program, if not contained, would produce that. To avoid that, China needed to be part of the effort to isolate Iran politically and economically - and it subsequently was. Moreover, neither the Russians nor the Europeans want to see Iran acquire or develop nuclear weapons.

The Biden administration, while emphasizing its commitment to diplomacy, should say that if Iran makes a diplomatic outcome impossible, it risks its entire nuclear infrastructure. Beyond this, Biden needs to disabuse Iran of the notion that Washington will not act militarily and will stop Israel from doing so.

If Washington wants to make the use of force against the Iranian nuclear program less likely, it is essential to restore deterrence. For that, Iran's leaders must believe either the U.S. or Israel will act militarily to destroy their massive investment in the nuclear program if they stay on the current path.
Israeli diplomat gets into a fiery social media spat with Iran
Israel's newly appointed ambassador to India leveled heavy criticism against Iran over the weekend, which prompted the Islamic Republic's mission in New Delhi to snap back at him on social media.

Speaking to a press conference on Friday, Ambassador Naor Gilon described Iran as a destabilizing element and a danger to the Middle East if its extremist regime manages to lay its hands on nuclear weapons.

The Iranian mission in Delhi's Twitter account issued a fiery, solecistic statement in response, slamming Gilon as "adventurous" and his remarks on Tehran as "childish."

In the communiqué, Iran labeled Israel "a terror house" whose "illegitimate establishment has been rooted in bloodshed, assassination and massacre of Palestinians and other nations in the Middle East."

It then went on to cite Israel's regional entanglements over the years and the recent involvement of Israeli malware Pegasus in a major spying scandal, implying that the Jewish state had no moral mandate to lecture and advise "peace coalitions" and "accuse others who have defended victims of extremism and aggression in the region."
MEMRI: Fmr. Iranian Diplomat: Iran Causes Instability in Middle East; There Is No Alternative to the JCPOA
On October 14, 2021, the Iranian website Didarnews.ir posted an interview with Mohammad-Qasem Mohebbali, who has served as Iran’s ambassador to Malaysia and Greece and as the director of Middle East and North African affairs in Iran’s foreign ministry. Ambassador Mohebbali said that 40 years of economic sanctions have crippled Iranian economy and have left the country very far behind other countries in the region in terms of economic growth. Mohebbali then discussed the issue of Palestine, which he said has “paved the road” to many of the crises in the Middle East, such as Islamic extremism.

He said that Iran has been a key player in making the Palestine issue a central issue in the Middle East, and he explained that Iran adopted the “slogans” of the Palestine issue as part of an attempt to align with Arab countries during the Iran-Iraq War and to prevent the Iran-Iraq War from becoming a war between Iran and the Arab world. He elaborated that Iran, many of the Arab regimes, and Iranian allies like Hizbullah have all had no interest in liberating Palestine because they benefit politically from the issue being prolonged. Mohebbali later said that support by Iran and its proxies for Arab governments led by ethnic minorities, such as the regimes in Syria and Yemen, has a negative impact on Iran’s relations in the region, and he said that political development and democracy in the Middle East would greatly benefit Iran and would improve these relations. He reflected that Iran should not have caused instability in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Later in the interview, Mohebbali said that Iran’s policies since 2017 have not taken the national interests into account. He argued that Iran should have ensured that the JCPOA was an agreement between Iran and the United States rather than between Iran and President Obama, and he expressed his opinion that Iran’s current government lacks the experience to successfully negotiate with the “giants” on the other side of the negotiations table. He argued that Iran’s economy is being “held hostage” by its foreign policy, which in turn is being held hostage by the JCPOA and Iran’s regional policies. He said that any alternative to the JCPOA would be a step towards war with the United States because the U.S. military considers the development of Iranian nuclear weapons to be an important threat.

In addition, he pointed out that even though Iran’s official policy is that nuclear weapons are prohibited for religious reasons, it is natural for Iran’s opponents to conclude that there could be no other purpose for Iran’s uranium enrichment efforts other than for nuclear weapons, since Iran has no nuclear power plants or nuclear submarines. Mohebbali added that Iran had initially agreed to the JCPOA because it was in dire straits, and that he fears that Iran’s current government will do the same, rather than act out of “wise policy.”


TV Teaches Turks to Hate Israel
The most popular TV show in Turkey, broadcast on the government channel, is the drama series "Teskilat," about agents of the country's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) who work to unearth foreign conspiracies. Among the MIT's chief enemies is the Israeli Mossad agent Ariel.

Concurrently, the news headlines in Turkey have been about the exposure of a Mossad spy ring in the country.

In the first season, Ariel, posing as a technician, infiltrated a Turkish oil and gas drilling rig in the Mediterranean in order to steal Turkish secrets.

In the second season, the head of the MIT decides to eliminate Ariel and sends a team to kill him in Israel.

Watching the series, it is difficult not to feel the deep hatred for Israel in every frame.







Egyptian journalists upset that Israel has an archive of Al Ahram newspapers since 1875 - that their own government keeps from them



Here a case where the meta-story is more interesting than the story itself.

Israel’s foreign ministry announced last week that the National Library of Israel has launched a digital archive of Egypt’s  Al-Ahram newspaper dating back to its beginnings in 1875.

Egyptian journalists are upset. They denounced the move as Israel stealing Egyptian heritage.

This is a digital archive, not the actual physical paper. 

“This is a catastrophic incident that requires an immediate inquiry on the parts of Al-Ahram and the authorities in charge of the press in Egypt,” Khaled El-Balshy, a former member of the journalists’ syndicate board, told The New Arab.

“The looming questions now are: how they did acquire the archive or how did they buy it? Who can give away valuable content like this to Israel?” he asked. “Other than normalisation, the idea is about intellectual property rights.” 

The answer is on the archive page itself. 

Apparently, an American company named East View Information Services purchased rights to the newspaper archives eight years ago for $185,000. They work together with Stanford University Libraries  and the Hoover Institution to digitize historic foreign newspapers.

Israel seems to have purchased the rights to Al Ahram, although the rights only extend to use within Israel.

The thing is, Al Ahram doesn't make its own archive available to Egyptians!

Instead of being angry with their own leaders for not making material available, Egyptian journalists are upset with Israel for legally acquiring the digital rights - and calling it theft.

Sounds vaguely familiar.

Israel's National Library has the full text of over 100 Arabic language newspapers - some of them Jewish, many of them Palestinian, but also from all over. I imagine many Arab researchers use the Israeli site for their own uses, as these archives are easily available and searchable. 

The real story here are about how information is still not free in the Arab world even today. 

The real story is about how Egyptian journalists still blame Israel for doing something that is perfectly normal and legal, and calling it theft. 

The real story is how Arab nations still try to control all information, and how this impedes national progress.

The real story is how anger that should properly be directed at Arab leaders is instead redirected to Israel - because the Jews have been the scapegoats for everything that the Arab elite don't like rather than looking at their own shortcomings.




A LOT of news about antisemitism in the US over the weekend

This weekend, as we marked the third anniversary of the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh,  there was a great amount of news about antisemitic incidents in the US.

A citizen at the Chandler school board meeting went on an antisemitic rant: 

Speaking about critical race theory and vaccines — topics not listed on the meeting agenda or discussed by the board — [Melanie] Rettler talked discursively for over a minute before blaming a number of the country’s problems on the Jewish “race:”

“If you want to talk about racism, if you want to bring it in, then let’s bring it in. Let’s get to the bottom of it. We’re talking about white supremacy. OK, let’s get to the very bottom of it. Every one of these things, the deep state, the cabal, the swamp, the elite — you can’t mention it, but I will — there is one race that owns all the pharmaceutical companies and these vaccines aren’t safe, they aren’t effective and they aren’t free. You know that you’re paying for it through the increase in gas prices, the increase in food prices — you’re paying for this and it’s being taken from your money and being given to these pharmaceutical companies and if you want to bring race into this: It’s the Jews.”
The school board complained that her screed was off-topic but did not address the fact that hate was spewed.

A New Jersey high school sent a letter to parents about incidents where students engaged in "homophobic, transphobic, anti-Semitic, and racist comments." No details were given.

New Hampshire State Rep. Maria Perez (D-Milford) posted a tweet last month calling for the destruction of Israel, echoing the terror slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." 



After pushback, she deleted it - but after publicity, she doubled down, calling Israel an apartheid state and making the dubious claim that she wants a state with equal rights for all citizens, which has been  code for "anything but a Jewish state" since 1947.

Jewish students at Yale University reflected on two recent incidents of antisemitic and racist graffiti at a building under construction on campus. Some said that they have heard subtle antisemitism in campus conversations.

A Brooklyn man was  convicted on hate-crime charges for a brutal 2018 attack on a Jewish man walking home from his synagogue. James Vincent, 40, was found guilty of strangulation as a hate crime and assault as a hate crime. On April 21, 2018, Vincent shouted antisemitic slurs at Menachem Moskowitz, choked him and hit him in the head. Moskowitz suffered a black eye and broken rib.

 A complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights over Oberin College professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, who was Iran’s ambassador to the UN from 1987 to 1989,  The complaint included "anti-Israel teaching material from Mahallati’s courses, specifically noting a fall 2016 incident where students in his Religion 270 class were tasked with creating 'anti-Israel blogs online that reflect the professor’s lectures and assigned readings,' that his teachings refer to Israel as a 'colonialist state,' and citing him in connection with 'support for Hamas and terrorism.'"

There were also reports about a vandalism incident at a fraternity house at George Washington University where a student's paper Torah model (not a real Torah but including all the text printed) was ripped apart and detergent poured on it. 

 




Gazan who entered Israel with his sick mother burned a bus, threw Molotovs at sukkot, planned major terror attacks





YNet reports that Israel's Shin Bet arrested a 29-year old Gazan on terror charges. He had been in Israel for well over a year.

Suleiman Kasab, from Khan Younis, entered Israel in January 2020 with humanitarian approval as an escort for his mother, who is suffering from a serious illness and was apparently treated in an Israeli hospital. 

Kasab was in contact with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades branch in Gaza, which he was apparently a member of in Gaza. He contacted them asking how he can be of service in performing terror attacks. According to the indictment, the terror group leader Abu Abu Saif al-Din told him to lay low, and said they would provide him with weapons and money.

Kasab hid in the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Ramle.

Correspondence between the terrorist and his Gaza mentor on the Signal app showed that they discussed many potential attacks, including blowing up fuel tanks at a kibbutz to cause many deaths, shooting attacks, and abducting and killing a Jew in order to use the body for bargaining to release prisoners.

It seems that Kasab became impatient and decided to start an arson spree in Ramle. He set a bus on fire, and then he threw a series of firebombs at residents' sukkot, spraying graffiti that "Fatah was here."



When Israel haters claim that Israel is blocking people from Gaza from traveling to Israel, they don't care about the fact that there is a history of terror attacks perpetrated by people who were given permission to enter Israel. Many of them support such attacks. 

There is no incentive to attack sukkot during the holiday outside of pure antisemitism. It is only meant to not only damage a symbol of Judaism but to hurt innocent Jews. 

This is Fatah - the political party that is led by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.





Sunday, October 31, 2021

Book review: Bad News: How Woke Media is Undermining Democracy



I've had my share of disagreements with Batya Ungar-Sargon, most notably when she was Opinion Editor of The Forward. But she has been outspoken about the dangers of the current far-Left "woke" movement, and I've had some reasonable private discussions with her, so I bought her brand new book to see what she has to say.

Bad News: How Woke Media is Undermining Democracy is centered around two themes. The primary one is that the media has swallowed the woke narrative, specifically that everything must be viewed through the prism of race. 

Ungar-Sargon traces the history of modern journalism through the lens of the New York media world since the 1820s, noting the divide between the media that catered to the upper classes and the newspapers that were aimed at the working class, derided by the traditional media as "sensationalistic." She contrasts the New York World and the New York Sun with the founding of the New York Times, which was explicitly aimed at the rich. She shows that the NYT continues with that mission today, using even digital media to aim at the most wealthy people and those who aspire to join them. Local news and stories about ordinary working class Americans are given short shrift.

Ungar-Sargon demonstrates that while the news business was a trade, with most reporters not having attended college until five decades ago and in touch with the working people, now the journalists are nearly all from a small number of exclusive universities and are in the top tier of what is now known as privilege. Even though journalism pays very little for entry level jobs, the New York media world is filled with young people who could only afford to live in the city because of their wealthy parents who subsidize them. More recently, these privileged young journalists - who have remarkably little experience with actual, on the ground reporting and instead concentrate on doing their jobs using the Internet - have been pushing out the older, experienced journalists by canceling or threatening to cancel them. The result is a remarkably homogeneous, ultra liberal, mostly white class of know-nothings. 

Batya brings much evidence that the current fashion of claiming that everything is centered on race is nonsense. Americans are less racist than at any time in our history yet the number of articles about race have skyrocketed. Intersectionality theory is equally shown to be nonsense - African women immigrants, who should according to that theory be on the very bottom of the heap, have no economic disadvantage when seeking employment in the US. She does a great job at taking apart the hypocrisy behind the NYT's treatment of the Tom Cotton op-ed and the aftermath. 

Her argument falters when it intersects with her second theme, a more implicit one that pervades the book. This theme is that while the racial problems in the US are exaggerated, there is a serious class problem that is not being addressed, especially not by the media.

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who divide up everyone into two types of people and everyone else. Looking at the world as though everything is a class problem is just as simplistic as looking at everything through the lens of race. There are certainly class issues, but they don't explain everything, and Batya's class arguments are not convincing. While she demonstrates very well that journalists are overwhelmingly in the super liberal upper class, she does not show that the upper class itself buys into the woke narrative. In fact, she doesn't define what she means by upper class - her most consistent definition seems to be "college educated." What about Wall Street professionals - it seems unlikely that they buy into the woke/intersectional narrative even though they are clearly upper class (and college graduates.)  The American middle class is treated as being effectively part of the upper class if they are "aspirational." But how many college-educated middle class Americans really want to be part of the rarified world of the New York Times Style section? And the huge middle class who live between the two coasts don't fit into her upper vs. working class worldview in this book at all. 

As with race, this is not to say that there isn't a problem with the divide between the professional class and the working class, or with the working class not being represented by the media. The author shows that it is this very feeling of being disenfranchised that caused so many working class Americans of all races to vote for Donald Trump, who instinctively spoke to their concerns about keeping their jobs- and he even gained non-white voters in the 2020 election. (Ungar-Sargon somehow manages to say that the Republicans don't care about the working class after showing that Trump's policies were geared exactly to them.)   

Because of her conviction that class is the defining feature of American life, one of Ungar-Sargon's core  arguments does not hold up well. She claims that the young writers at the major newspapers support the idea of wokeness because they feel guilty about their white, upper class privilege, so they choose to focus on race because it is immutable - if the problem is one of race, then they don't have to examine their own privileged lives because they cannot solve the problem. There might be some truth to that, but it seems to me more likely that they learned this ideology in their universities and never questioned it as they moved from the college bubble to the media bubble. 

If there was any consistent formula that Ungar-Sargon's data indicates, it is not the importance of class, but of money, power and influence. The reason that the New York Sun succeeded wasn't because of a principled coverage of the working class but because the larger market was lucrative. The reason Bernie Sanders flipped his stances on topics like immigration between 2016 and 2020 was because his desire to be elected was more important than his interest in consistency with his principles and agreeing with Trump was not a good look for a Democrat in 2020. The reason that the liberal media is obsessed over race stories is because they get ratings. 

Bad News is an excellent book for members of  the Left. If they have any intellectual honesty, it could convince them that their philosophy is not only wrong but a danger to democracy and the nation. For people who already know that critical race theory is ahistorical and wrong, this book gives more ammunition. There is plenty of interesting history and statistics (such as data that indicates that people on the Left are more racist than those on the Right)  that make it a worthwhile read for anyone. 




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