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Monday, December 30, 2019

12/30 Links Pt2: The ICC has some nerve to target Israel; Prosecutors find anti-Semitic materials on Monsey suspect’s phone, journals; After US attacks Iranian-backed militias, is America back in the game?

From Ian:
Josh Hammer: The ICC has some nerve to target Israel
Bensouda’s prosecution is utterly lawless. As a political matter, the West must push back against this encroachment on the sovereignty of a democratic nation-state.

For starters, the ICC is structurally biased against Israel. As international-law expert Eugene Kontorovich noted when the Palestinian Authority sought formal ICC membership in 2015, the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, included language at the behest of the Arab states specifically designed to ­demonize Israeli “settlement” activity in the West Bank.

That should have given away the ICC game. But even under the ICC’s own terms, Bensouda’s attempted prosecution doesn’t pass muster. It lacks jurisdiction.

Under the Rome Statute, the ICC can go ahead with a prosecution in a country only if the state has delegated jurisdiction to the ­international court. But which state could delegate jurisdiction to the ICC in the case of the Palestinian territories? Certainly not the fictional “State of Palestine,” which even the United Nations doesn’t formally recognize as a state.

Plus, if Israel is a nefarious “occupier” of Palestine, as Palestinian propaganda constantly claims, then it means that the “State of Palestine” isn’t sovereign over its own claimed territory and therefore can’t delegate jurisdiction to the ICC.

An ICC prosecution, moreover, would flout the Oslo Accords, which call for direct negotiations between the parties to reach a final political settlement and under which Israel ­retains full civil and military control over the majority of the West Bank territory.

A still more glaring problem: Israel is a democratic state with civilian control of the military and an independent, rigorous judiciary that can adjudicate war-crimes allegations. This isn’t some war-torn, broken state or one transitioning out of recent dictatorship — like, er, Gambia. Israel doesn’t need ICC supervision to prosecute war crimes by its own soldiers.

But Bensouda cares not for legal niceties. She has previously opined that Gaza, from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005, remains occupied, because the “international community” says so. The fact that she has gone ahead with this prosecution means she already buys the anti-Israel narrative wholesale: that “Palestine” is a sovereign state; that all of the West Bank belongs to that Palestinian state; and that Jews living in their biblical heartland are war criminals.
Did ICC prosecutors engage with Hamas when drafting case against Israel?
Prosecutors from the International Criminal Court did not deny that they engaged with representatives of the terrorist groups Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) when preparing their case to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes.

When asked whether it heard arguments from Hamas, the ICC told The Jerusalem Post it engages with all kinds of groups within Israeli and Palestinian society. However, it added, its official focal point is with the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas.

Still, the PA’s official committee, appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas to handle matters related to the ICC, which definitely engaged with the court, includes representatives of Hamas and PFLP, among them individuals with known ties to terrorism.

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat, head of the ICC committee, said on official Palestinian TV earlier this month – the day after the probe of Israel and the Palestinians was announced – that Hamas had been involved.

“This committee includes all the bodies of the Palestinian political spectrum without exception… We worked together as a team,” he stated in a video translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “Dr. Ghazi Hammad, for example, was elected as the committee’s spokesman… He is one of Hamas’s leaders. There were six Hamas members in the committee. Khalida Jarrar – may she be released [from prison] soon – represented the PFLP. I don’t want to go into the names, but I will just say that no [faction] was left out.”



Jonathan Tobin: Reform’s Embrace of Reparations Won’t Advance Justice
At the Reform Biennial conference held earlier this month, the movement to grant reparations to African-Americans scored a signal victory when the largest Jewish denomination endorsed the idea. Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, set the tone for the effort with a Chicago Tribune op-ed that didn’t merely embrace this cause as a matter of historic justice. He also declared that it was time for Jews to “reckon with our nation’s bigoted history,” as well as to confront “racism in our country, our synagogues and our hearts.”

In doing so, he didn’t merely implicate American Jewry — the vast majority of whom are descendants of immigrants who arrived long after slavery ended, and who suffered discrimination as Jews and economic hardship as new immigrants — as having benefited from “white privilege,” and therefore also responsible for the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow racism. He also put forward the notion that compensation for slavery was comparable for the reparations both individual Jews and the State of Israel received from Germany as part of that nation’s effort to atone for the crimes committed by the Nazis.

Pesner is right to consider slavery and racism as the original sins of American history. But he is wrong about both the justification for and the utility of reparations in this context. He’s even more wrong to attempt to shame Jews to support such a scheme not least because the enactment of such a law — and the creation of a new federal bureaucracy that would cause American society to become even more race-conscious than before — would not undo past wrongs, while likely making the country a more dangerous place for all minorities.

When last seen opining on the national stage about relations between African-Americans and Jews, Pesner and the RAC was granting absolution to veteran race-baiter Al Sharpton for his history of antisemitism and incitement against Jews. This came at a time of an upsurge of violence directed at Hasidic Jews from a minority of the African-American community about which Sharpton has been far from vocal. The Reform leader was clearly more interested in prioritizing alliances aimed at bolstering the “resistance” to President Donald Trump than in addressing antisemitism that emanates from groups that could not be credibly tied to political opponents.
Anti-Semitism: Once Upon a Time(s)
There has been a noted reluctance of the media, not to mention the cowardly political class in New York, to note the racial angle of the wave of anti-Semitic violence erupting recently in New York. Mayor Warren Wilhelm (“that’s de Blasio to you buster!”) naturally blames it on Trump.

That’s one reason to take in the perspective of Henry Louis Gates, a certified Harvard liberal and old friend of President Obama (remember the famous “beer summit” at the White House?), who wrote the following about the roots of contemporary anti-Semitism in the New York Times:
While anti-Semitism is generally on the wane in this country, it has been on the rise among black Americans. A recent survey finds not only that blacks are twice as likely as whites to hold anti-Semitic views but — significantly — that it is among the younger and more educated blacks that anti-Semitism is most pronounced.

The trend has been deeply disquieting for many black intellectuals. But it is something most of us, as if by unstated agreement, simply choose not to talk about. At a time when black America is beleaguered on all sides, there is a strong temptation simply to ignore the phenomenon or treat it as something strictly marginal. And yet to do so would be a serious mistake. As the African-American philosopher Cornel West has insisted, attention to black anti-Semitism is crucial, however discomfiting, in no small part because the moral credibility of our struggle against racism hangs in the balance. . .

We must begin by recognizing what is new about the new anti-Semitism. Make no mistake: this is anti-Semitism from the top down, engineered and promoted by leaders who affect to be speaking for a larger resentment. . .

The strategy of these apostles of [anti-Semitic] hate, I believe, is best understood as ethnic isolationism — they know that the more isolated black America becomes, the greater their power. And what’s the most efficient way to begin to sever black America from its allies? Bash the Jews, these demagogues apparently calculate, and you’re halfway there. . .

What Gates singled out for censure almost 30 years ago now is still going today. Here’s a sample from Nation of Islam spokesperson Ava Muhammed, who appeared recently at Cal State Long Beach, on how Jews exploit blacks: (h/t jzaik)


Prosecutors find anti-Semitic materials on Monsey suspect’s phone, journals
A handwritten journal containing references to Jews and anti-Semitism was found in the home of a man charged with federal hate crimes Monday, in the stabbing of five people celebrating Hanukkah in a rabbi’s house north of New York City, authorities said.

Grafton E. Thomas, 37, was expected to appear in federal court in White Plains to face five counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon and causing injuries.

The attack on the seventh night of Hanukkah occurred amid a series of violent attacks targeting Jews in the region that have led to increased security, particularly around religious gatherings.

A criminal complaint said law enforcement agents recovered journals from Thomas’s Greenwood Lake, New York, residence that included comments such as questioning “why ppl mourned for anti-Semitism when there is Semitic genocide” and a page with drawings of a Star of David and a swastika.

Internet searches on a phone recovered from his car included repeated searches for “Why did Hitler hate the Jews” as well as “German Jewish Temples near me” and “Prominent companies founded by Jews in America,” the complaint said.

On December 28, the phone’s internet browser was used to access an article titled: “New York City Increases Police Presence in Jewish Neighborhoods After Possible Anti-Semitic Attacks. Here’s What To Know,” the complaint said.

Thomas’ family said he was raised to embrace tolerance, but has a history of mental illness.




After US attacks Iranian-backed militias, is America back in the game?
Just days after IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi lamented that Israel was going up against Iran alone, airstrikes rocked several locations belonging to Iranian-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria, killing dozens.

The airstrikes, which came two days after a barrage of over 30 rockets were fired towards the K1 Iraqi military base in Kirkuk which killed a US civilian contractor and wounding dozens of Iraqi and American troops, were described by the Pentagon as “precision defensive strikes” against the group that "will degrade" the group's ability to carry out future attacks against coalition forces.

The rocket barrage and the subsequent retaliatory strikes in the area of Al-Qaim are the latest peak in tensions between Washington and Tehran. And might have negative effects on Israel, which has been carrying out a war-between-the wars campaign against Iranian entrenchment since 2013.

Situated in Iraq’s restive Anbar province on one side and Syria’ Deir Ezzor province, al-Qaim is an area which is under the control of pro-Iranian Shiite militias who are handled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds force.

Only last week Israel’s top military chief publicly admitted to Israeli airstrikes in Iraq, stating that Iran’s Quds force is smuggling advanced weapons in the country on a monthly basis “and we can’t allow that.”

The first strike close to Iraq attributed to Israel was in June of last year near the town of Al-Bukamal, killing 22 members of a Shiite militia. The next month several other blasts rocked Shiite militia warehouses and bases across the country.
Who is Kataib Hezbollah, the group the US attacked in Iraq and Syria?
On December 29, the US carried out five airstrikes against Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi-based Shi'ite militia that is linked to Iran and is accused of rocket attacks that killed a US contractor and wounded US soliders. Kataib Hezbollah is one of the most important of the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and a group with an extensive role in the Middle East, linking it to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and operations in Syria. Formed between 2003 and 2007 by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis it is a creature of Iran’s IRGC. Muhandis has threatened Israel in the past and is closely linked to both the IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and Lebanese Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah.

Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis is the leader of Kataib Hezbollah. An Iraqi, he was born in Basra and fled to Iran in the 1980s during Saddam Hussein’s crackdown on Shi’ites. He signed on to fight with Iran’s IRGC and became a close colleague of Qasem Soleimani, the head of the IRGC’s Quds Force. He was linked to the military wing of Iraq’s Dawa party at at the same time, illustrating his influence among Iraqi Shi’ites in Iran.

Michael Knight, an expert on Iraq, wrote in 2010 that Muhandis’ life “describes the arc of Iranian support for Iraqi Shi’ite proxies.” He returned to Iraq after the fall of Saddam and became a member of parliament, blending his militia activities with politics. Kataib Hezbollah was described in 2010 as a compact movement of only 400 personnel under the command of the Quds Force. Muhandis was wanted for terrorism in Kuwait and also was sanctioned by the US in 2009.

The US Treasury found that Muhandis and his group threatened the peace and stability of Iraq. He had committed acts of violence. It said he was an advisor to Soleimani and the Quds Force. As such Kataib Hezbollah was designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Kataib was accused of receiving money from Iran through various European banks and using the money to finance attacks on Americans in the years before the US withdrawal from Iraq in 2011.
Seth Frantzman: Fallout from US strikes against Iranian-backed militias
Unsurprisingly, a chorus of voices linked to the Popular Mobilization Units, a group of mostly Shi’ite militias that include the one bombed by the US, were nonplussed. Kataib Hezbollah, which saw its members killed in the US air strikes, said the attacks disregard the sovereignty and honor of Iraq.

But it is Kataib Hezbollah – the Hezbollah Brigades – that has been firing rockets at US bases in Iraq for six months, killing an American contractor on December 27. Asaib Ahl al-Haq, whose leaders Washington sanctioned on December 6, also condemned the “cowardly attack.” The group has called for the US to leave Iraq before; its leader, Qais Khazali, was detained by the US in 2007 after attacks on Americans. Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was sanctioned by the US in 2009 and is a wanted terrorist in Kuwait, also condemned the attack on his bases.

Falih Khazali, a member of the Fatah Party in parliament and leader of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, also condemned the US; he condemned President Donald Trump in December 2018 as well. The group controls the 14th Brigade of the PMU, and like Kataib Hezbollah, is linked closely to Iran.
Iran’s goal now is to leverage the US attacks to its benefit and portray America as a foreign force invading Iraq and killing Iraqis. It will argue that the members of the Hezbollah Brigades, who were members of the 45 and 46 Brigades of the PMU, were Iraqi security forces who were helping fight ISIS. For years, pro-Iranian voices have spread conspiracies arguing that the US is helping ISIS.

Many of the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq earned their spurs fighting the Americans in 2006-2009. They used to fire rockets frequently at the US. They stopped during the ISIS war when a fatwa by Iraqi Shi’ite leader Ali al-Sistani called up men to join the PMU. But these pro-Iranian groups have a large lobby in parliament and have influence over the Interior Ministry. They want the PMU to become Iraq’s version of the IRGC, which is also Iran’s long-term goal. The protesters in Iraq oppose Iran’s role and have attacked militia buildings. But the air strikes now complicate matters. Iran may tread carefully, trying to use the airstrikes to eject the US from Iraq.

US forces are seen as an important balance to Iran’s ambitions. IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani said in a recent interview that in 2006, US forces helped block his desire to aid Hezbollah. Iraqi-based militias like AAH openly oppose Israel, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis frequently condemns the Jewish state. In the Kurdistan region, there is also concern that a departure of US forces would hand Iraq completely over to Iran. The Kurdistan region was working with Prime Minister Mahdi on budget deals – and now the Kurdish region is concerned, too.
Netanyahu: Israel to have normal ties and peace deals with Arab countries
Israel will soon have normal ties and formal peace deals with a number of Arab countries, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised when he spoke at a Likud event in Tel Aviv Sunday night.

He touted his past diplomatic achievements and promised even more successes.

“I intend in the coming years to conclude normalization and peace agreements with a number of Arab countries,” Netanyahu said. He specifically recalled his 2018 trip to Oman, a country with which Israel has no formal diplomatic relations.

Israel’s informal ties with a number of moderate Arab states have warmed since US President Donald Trump came into office in January 2017, as the US has pushed for normalized relations between Israel and the Arab world. To date, Israel has formal peace treaties only with Egypt and Jordan.

Moderate Arab states have publicly insisted they will only make peace with Israel once a deal has been reached. But a number of them have allowed ties with Israel to improve, with Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Sports and Culture Minister Miri Regev visiting Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2020, Israel will have a pavilion at the World Fair in Dubai for six months. An Israeli governmental delegation will be in Dubai for those six months, effectively giving the country de facto representation in the UAE.
StandWithUs Cautiously Welcomes Qatar Comments on Welcoming Israelis to the 2022 Soccer World Cup
StandWithUs, the international Israel educational organization, cautiously welcomes comments by Hassan al Thawadi, the secretary general of the Supreme Committee for the Qatar 2022 Soccer World Cup. Sports network ESPN conducted an interview with al Thawadi, and in response to being questioned about Israelis being able to attend the World Cup, he insisted that they would.

StandWithUs has repeatedly called upon FIFA, the international football/soccer association, to ensure that the Qatari government will issue entry visas to Israeli fans wishing to attend the FIFA World Cup to be held in Qatar in 2022. To date, Israel is not included in Qatar’s online list of nearly 250 nationalities and territories eligible for an entry visa. Like most Arab states (with the exceptions of Egypt and Jordan that have peace treaties with Israel) Qatar does not recognize Israel and bans Israelis from entering.

FIFA’s Code of Ethics unambiguously forbid the banning of people based on their country of origin. Article 22 proscribes “offend[ing] the dignity or integrity of a country, private person or group of people through contemptuous, discriminatory or denigratory words or actions on account of race, skin colour, ethnicity, nationality, social origin, gender, disability, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, wealth, birth or any other status, sexual orientation or any other reason.”

“We call upon FIFA to uphold their Code of Ethics, which is premised on protecting international football from ‘illegal, immoral or unethical’ practices. If Qatar is allowed to ban fans on the basis of national origin, this would be a clear violation of FIFA’s guidelines,” said Roz Rothstein CEO and Co-Founder of StandWithUs.

StandWithUs-Israel Executive Director, Michael Dickson responded, “While we welcome Hassan al Thawadi’s comments, we will be watching this issue closely. There have been major issues raised regarding Qatar hosting World Cup 2022 in light of their support for terror organizations including Hamas, their use of slave labor and their attitude towards the LGBTQ community. These are all legitimate concerns, as is the issue of fans from the world’s only Jewish country being banned from attending the tournament. Many World Cup sponsors will be watching carefully to see that Qatar complies with the values that FIFA purport the championship to stand for. We expect Israeli fans – together with all others – to be able to attend and enjoy the World Cup in safety.”
Watch: Netanyahu Posts Mark Levin Show Alleging PM Victim of Coup
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday posted a video with Hebrew subtitles on his social media accounts entitled “The Coup Against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” in which a former U.S. federal prosecutor tells Mark Levin that the Israeli premier is facing bogus charges orchestrated by an “unethical” and “feckless” attorney general.

The BlazeTV interview was hosted by Levin, a star radio host, lawyer, author and also the host of a popular weekend show on Fox News. The interview first aired on December 11.

“I do not believe that — in my view — the greatest prime minister in the history of Israel has had a fair shake with the Israeli media and most of the American media,” Levin said.

“And so using our new technologies, using the platform we have here, I intend to do my very best to explain these allegations against the prime minister of Israel and to explain why they are so untoward.”

Soon after Levin’s program was broadcast, Netanyahu tweeted a Breitbart Jerusalem article on the interview.


Cyprus court rules UK woman lied when claiming Israelis raped her
A 19-year-old British woman who claimed that 12 Israelis raped her in a hotel in the Cypriot resort town of Aiya Napa in July was found guilty on Monday of committing public mischief and lying about being raped, Judge Michalis Papathanasiou ruled.

The court said the woman was an “unreliable witness” and ruled that she lied about being raped, doing so in revenge for being filmed by the Israeli youths during a sexual act.

“My conclusion is that the guilt of the accused has been proven beyond reasonable doubt,” the presiding judge said in his verdict. He said her claims were inconsistent, adding that she had attempted to mislead the court.

Her sentence for being found guilty of fraud and filing a false complaint could be up to a year in prison and a €1,000 fine.
Judge Papathanasiou adjourned sentencing until January 7.


Dexter Van Zile: Hamas Has Lost Its Mojo in Gaza
The upshot is that Hamas has nothing to show for itself after more than 300 Palestinian rioters who put themselves in harm’s way were killed in confrontations with Israel. Some folks apparently want more violence, but a larger number of inhabitants living in Gaza want their leaders to start building their society so they can get on with their lives, work for a living, and provide for their families.

For all of its talk about being committed to “democracy” and “free elections,” Hamas is, in practice, a collection of top-down gangsters who impose their will on the people they have promised to liberate.

Hamas is so committed to liberation and “coexistence of people with dissenting views” that its leaders can’t even allow people the freedom to gather in the streets to protest its policies. Spontaneous bottom-up protests are a lethal threat to Hamas, just as they are to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the mullahs in Iran.

Maybe, just maybe, young people in Gaza are starting to come to grips with the central facts of Palestinian national life — that Israel isn’t going away and that in their refusal to accept this reality, Palestinian elites are consigning yet another generation of young people to pointless death and suffering.

With the collapse of the March of Return movement, Hamas is learning that anti-Israel propaganda will only get you so far in the face of facts such as this. In the long run, mass ideologies only work when they explain the facts, not when they demand that people deny or ignore reality.

Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are revealing themselves as fundamentally indifferent to the welfare of the people whose destinies they currently control. As a result, the wheels are starting to come off the bus of their anti-Israel jihad, which is ultimately nothing more than a cover and a distraction for the corrupt habits and agenda of Palestinian elites.

Good luck finding coverage of that reality in The Palestine Chronicle.
PA claims Israel-Hamas ceasefire would further divide Gaza from West Bank
The Palestinian Authority said Monday that a possible Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza would deepen the rift between the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave and the Fatah-dominated PA in the West Bank.

Citing reported Israeli “promises of easing [blockade] measures for Gaza including the delivery of funds, a seaport, an airport, a hospital and an industrial zone,” PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh told the weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah that the emerging ceasefire plan “is another piece of evidence of the efforts aimed at strengthening the division.”

Hamas denied reports earlier Monday that it was in contact with Israel and was seeking a long-term ceasefire. The PA and Hamas have been at loggerheads since the 2007 ouster of the Mahmoud Abbas-led PA from Gaza in a bloody coup. Repeated attempts by the warring Palestinian factions to reconcile have failed to stick.

“There are no ceasefire talks with the Zionist enemy,” the terror group insisted in a statement. “The occupation has not carried out the understandings reached in the past with the Egyptian mediators.”

The statement came after Israel’s security cabinet met Sunday for several hours to address the ceasefire talks. The meeting ended without any statement as to the status of the negotiations.

The latest round of ceasefire talks, first reported by Channel 12 over the weekend, were said to involve Israel easing its blockade to allow expanded overland trade between Gaza and Israel, expanding Gaza’s fishing zone, and speeding up the laying of a gas pipeline to help resolve chronic energy shortages in the Strip.
Amid talk of truce, Israel said to allow tires into Gaza in first since 2018
Israel has agreed to allow tires into the Gaza Strip starting on Monday, according to Sawa, a news site based in the coastal enclave, citing “well-placed sources.”

The report comes amid persistent talk of a truce deal shaping up between Israel and the Hamas terror group.

It also comes after the Palestinian committee responsible for organizing protests in the border region between Israel and the Gaza Strip announced last Thursday that demonstrations would take place less frequently in 2020.

Israel banned tires from going into Gaza shortly after the protests in the border region began on March 30, 2018, saying the embargo was in response to Palestinians setting them on fire at the protests to impair the vision of Israeli soldiers and other security personnel.

The shortage, however, has reportedly been felt more among motorists than among the protesters. After Israel instituted the ban, some shipments of tires entered Gaza through Egypt’s border with the territory.

The Al-Quds daily also reported that Israel would allow tires to be imported into Gaza, citing “informed Palestinian sources.”
Hamas: PA security officers helped Israel kill Islamic Jihad commander
The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry said the cell members collected information about al-Ata, including monitoring his movements.

“They followed him for several months until the last hour before the [Israeli] occupation assassinated him,” a statement said.

According to the ministry, the cell members are officers from the PA’s General Intelligence Service in the West Bank, who were assigned the task of monitoring and following the movements of al-Ata.

The statement named General Intelligence Service commander Sha’ban Abdullah al-Ghrabawi of ordering the cell members to collect the information about the slain PIJ commander. It claimed that Ghrabawi, for his part, transferred the information “directly to the Israeli occupation intelligence services.”

The Hamas security forces also seized “technical materials” confirming that Ghrabawi had communicated with Israeli intelligence officers, the statement added.
Sec.-Gen. Of Jordan's Royal Committee For Jerusalem Affairs: Hanukkah Rituals Are A Direct Threat To Al-Aqsa
In a December 28, 2019 article in the Jordanian daily Al-Ghad, 'Abdallah Kan'an, secretary-general of Jordan's Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs, [1] wrote that the festival of Hanukkah is based on traditions relating to the "false" Jewish Temple, and therefore constitutes a direct threat to the Muslim and Christian holy places in Jerusalem. Titled "The Festival of Lights – A Zionist Colonialist Ritual, Not A Jewish Religious Festival," the article claims that Israel and right-wing organizations in it use Hanukkah to further their plans of Judaizing Jerusalem and to carry out mass raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque "in the guise of Talmudic religious rituals."

It should be noted that the article was published amid tension between Israel and Jordan, including over the Jordanian Waqf's management of the Al-Aqsa compound and Jordan's opposition to Jewish worshippers visiting the compound.[2] A month ago, Jordan's king even said that "relations with Israel are at an all-time low."[3]

The following are excerpts from Kan'an's article.[4]
"In realizing its Zionist plans in Palestine and Jerusalem, Israel's colonialist occupation policy relies on phony religious justifications and excuses designed to mislead global opinion and elicit its support. The religious rituals create an atmosphere that allows the Israeli government and the right-wing organizations that support it to carry out their systematic Judaizing programs in Jerusalem that target the entire area of the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque (144 dunams).

"The Jews are currently celebrating the Festival of Lights, or Hannukah..., commemorating the building and dedication of the false Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BC. The misleading Jewish tradition claims that some Jews needed olive oil to light the seven-branched candelabra, but they only had enough oil for one day. But by a miracle, they claim, this small amount lasted for the eight days required to produce more oil. The main ritual of this holiday is the lighting of the eight-branched candelabra (called hanukkiah) after sundown. On the first night of the holiday a single candle is lit while chanting certain prayers, and this is repeated each night until the end of the holiday, on which all eight candles are lit. In addition, large electric candelabras are erected in squares and public buildings.
Reflections From A Jew At A Mock-Jewish Restaurant
At the Golden Rose restaurant in Lviv, Ukraine, your non-Jewish host and servers will do their utmost to surround you with purportedly Jewish touches. You'll be greeted with a wan "Shalom" as you enter, a waiter will sometimes appear in peyot (Jewish sidelocks) and kippah (head covering), and you'll be invited to haggle over your check.

It may seem odd that I decided to visit this restaurant on a recent trip to explore some of my family's roots. I expected to feel offended by its caricatures of Jews, and, by extension, myself. But the Golden Rose turned out to be more complex than it first appeared. In fact, this whole trip was a complex undertaking.

According to my family's Ukrainian guide, Alex Dunai, the two main reasons people give for visiting the decimated Jewish towns of their ancestors in Eastern Europe are curiosity and a desire to pay respects. I'm not sure I was clear on my motivations when I got the idea for the trip a year ago. There was curiosity, for sure, to see whether I would feel a bond with my place of ancestry. But it seems now that the stop at the Golden Rose was also an urge — however naive, privileged and ultimately impossible — to see whether I could feel what it is to experience racism or discrimination in a country with a history of animus against people like me. Perhaps, I thought, I might be able to empathize more deeply with those currently experiencing it. (h/t Zvi)


BBC WS radio misrepresents the IHRA definition of antisemitism
To sum up, BBC audiences heard three voices opposing the US president’s executive order and just one in favour. In breach of BBC editorial guidelines they were not informed of the agendas of the organisations with which two of those voices are associated and neither were they given any relevant background information concerning the BDS campaign which they support.

Most egregiously, listeners were told that the IHRA working definition of antisemitism is “controversial” and that its adoption means that people who “talk about Israel” and criticise Israel “are by definition antisemitic”. That of course is completely false. As Dave Rich of the CST has pointed out, the IHRA definition does not “repress” freedom of speech at all.

“The IHRA definition does no such thing, stating plainly that ‘criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.’ This leaves room for the full range of rational, evidence-based opposition to Israeli laws, policies and actions. It doesn’t allow for the kind of obsessive, irrational hatred that depicts Israel as a Nazi state of unparalleled cruelty that needs to be wiped off the map, or that sees “Zionist” conspiracies behind everything from 9/11 to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, and for good reason: because, as the IHRA definition recognises, antisemitism sometimes includes ‘the targeting of the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.’”

If the BBC’s partners at PRI are not capable of portraying the IHRA working definition of antisemitism in a manner that meets BBC editorial guidelines on accuracy and impartiality, that content should obviously not be rebroadcast on ‘Boston Calling’.


Cuban boy banned from wearing kippah in school following violent bullying
A twelve-year-old boy and his brother are currently being prohibited by Cuban educational authorities from entering their school while wearing their kippot following the onslaught of continuous beatings from fellow schoolmates.

The boy, Liusdan Martínez Lescaille, received the notice that he was forbidden to wear his kippah in school by Nuevitas Municipal Director of Education Osdeini Hernández Navarro on December 11 - reportedly due to inaction by the school's security personnel to prevent the boy from repeatedly being attacked - claiming that the school and the educational authorities do not have the means to protect the boy, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Lescaille's parents, Olainis Tejada Beltrán and Yeliney Lescaille Prebal, members of the Sephardic Bnei Anusim community in Cuba, claim that the ridicule began in September of 2019 after their son started school at the Latin America Urban Basic Secondary School in Nuevitas and since then the boy has been "subjected to four severe beatings" from conflicts brought upon by classmates.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added Cuba to the State Department's Special Watch List on December 20, which monitors governments that have "engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom" in the past. Bullying at school, stemming from personal religious practices, is highly prevalent and relatively common in Cuba.
Netherlands synagogue invitation-only due to antisemitism fears
A synagogue in the Netherlands that once counted over 1000 members among its congregation on high holidays now operates on an invitation-only basis due to growing antisemitism in Europe.

Before the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, Grongingen was home to a thriving Jewish community of over 2,800 Jews. The Jewish quarter featured kosher butchers, bakers famous for their challah, and Groningen's domed synagogue, large enough to hold a congregation numbering 1,000 worshipers on High Holy Days, Politico reported.

But by the end of the war almost the entire population had been wiped out, with some Jewish Groningers losing over 100 family members each. Some survived the camps, others were able to hide or escape deportation, but many drifted away from a city filled with painful memories.

Unable to sustain a congregation, the synagogue was sold off and first turned into a laundromat, its stained-glass windows smashed out to make way for steam pipes, as explained by Politico. By the 1970s it had fallen into disrepair, saved from demolition by only one vote in the municipal council.


Tesla to launch Israeli operations in January
Electric and autonomous car company Tesla Inc. is planning to launch its Israeli operations in January, according to several people familiar with the matter who spoke to Calcalist on condition of anonymity. A company team already operating locally has decided to flout convention and set up a pop-up shop in Tel Aviv’s Ramat Aviv Mall instead of waiting for an official company showroom, the people said.

The pop-up shop will enable potential customers to examine some of Tesla’s cars, especially its popular Model 3, and place advance orders for cars for a fee. When Tesla launched its Model 3 in the U.S. in 2016, it charged interested parties $1,000 for the option of being some of the first customers to receive it, and collected 253,000 orders within 36 hours. When it launched its first pickup truck, the Cybertruck, in November, the company only charged $100, receiving 146,000 orders within three days.

Ramat Aviv Mall caters to the upper socioeconomic class of north Tel Aviv and neighboring towns, making it especially suited for the launch of a new car brand that will be classified in Israel as a luxury car due to its starting price of NIS 250,000 (approximately $72,300). Israel’s decision to cut tax benefits for electric cars as of January 1, 2020 means that Tesla models are expected to be relatively expensive in the country. Luxury brands like BMW’s Mini and DS Automobiles held similar events in the mall at the past, as did brands like Mazda Motor Corporation and Peugeot.
How to prevent juice jacking at the airport and other vital cyber hacks
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office issued an alert in November warning travelers to avoid using USB charging stations in hotels, airports and train stations “because they may contain dangerous malware.”

Hackers tamper with charging cables and attach them to public USB outlets. When travelers plug their phones or laptops into these hacked cables, cyber-criminals can access the traveler’s device, steal credit card data and passwords or even demand ransomware.

“Attackers are always innovative. They’re one step ahead of everyone,” says Iftah Bratspiess, CEO of Israeli startup Sepio Systems, “rogue devices” including manipulated cables.
A hacked computer mouse, with rogue components circled in red. Photo courtesy of Sepio Systems

Bratspiess tells ISRAEL21c that hackers know people don’t willingly plug an unfamiliar storage device into their machine, but they think of charging cables and power banks as batteries, not IT devices. “They see an open USB port in a conference room or a café and will use it without thinking twice.”

A doctored cable can easily be implanted with a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi remote control. Once it’s connected to your phone or laptop (or worse, an entire network server), software hidden in the cable “impersonates” a mouse or a keyboard, and thus capture keystrokes, mouse moves and data.
Israel’s M&A deals surge to 166, clocking value of $20.4 billion in 2019
Merger and acquisition activity in Israel surged 34% to 166 deals in 2019, compared to 124 deals in 2018, and reached a deal value of $20.4 billion, according to a new report by PwC Israel.

The deal value this year is, however, lower than the deal value of 2018, which came in at $21.6 billion, PwC’s M&A report for 2019 shows.

The report analyzes the merger and acquisitions of Israeli companies, and is not limited to the tech industry alone. Such deals as the sale of Mellanox Technologies Ltd. to Nvidia, valued at $6.9 billion; Habana Labs to Intel, valued at $2 billion; and Lumenis to funds of Baring Private Equity Asia (BEPA), valued at $1.2 billion, which were announced this year but not completed, are not included in the PwC numbers.

According to the data, the number of deals in the range of $400 million to $1 billion more than doubled, to nine, accounting for as much as 42% of all activity, up from four deals and 38% in 2018. On the other hand, deals worth over $1 billion declined to four, from five in 2018.

The tech sector led the way in deal-making, marking $9.1 billion in deal value, followed by the production industry with $4 billion, the data showed. The pharma sector continued to weaken in the wake of low activity levels by the troubled Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., which used to be a key player in that segment and in the M&A market at large, the report said.

The Orbotech acquisition by KLA-Tencor for $3.4 billion and Delek Group’s buy of Chevron North Sea for $2 billion were among the prominent deals this year.

The value of deals by US entities was $11.5 billion in 2019. This figure was lower than the $12.9 billion in 2018, but the 2019 figure is still “strong,” especially in light of a US tax reform that made offshore investments less attractive. “Taking that into account, this is a strong show of faith by US investors in Israeli companies,” PwC said in a statement.
Israeli Exports Soared 68% over Past Decade
Israel’s exports of services and goods are forecast to break another annual record in 2019 as full-year revenues climb toward $114 billion, the Foreign Trade Administration said on Monday.

The predicted export value represents a 4.5% increase compared to 2018, and some 68% higher than 2009, when exports totaled approximately $67.7b. Over the past decade, exports have increased by an annual average of 5.3%.

The hefty increase during the past 10 years has been fueled by soaring exports of services, notably hi-tech exports. Service exports have soared by a staggering 160%, from $21.5b. in 2009 to almost $56b. in 2019. This year alone, service exports have increased by approximately 11.7%. Service exports represented approximately 49% of all exports in 2019, versus only 32% a decade ago.

“The export data for the past decade is proof of the good health of the Israeli economy,” said Economy Minister Eli Cohen. “Israeli exports are of great importance to the Israeli economy. It is the driver of economic growth and a central source of stable employment, and economic and social prosperity.”

Recent years have seen significant changes in the destination of exports. Total exports (excluding diamonds) to Asian countries grew from 18% in 2009 to 22% in 2019, driven by a huge 402% leap in exports to China over the past decade. Exports to Japan and Taiwan also increased by 73% and 38% respectively.


Hannukah Surprise from IDF soldiers on a train in Jerusalem.




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Fatah terror group holds parade in Gaza. Practically no one shows up.

The Nidal Al-Amoudi brigades of Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades held a parade in Gaza to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the first Fatah terror attack.

About ten years ago, Mahmoud Abbas claimed he dismantled all the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades military groups. He lied.

There were a few teen gawkers at the parade, based on the photos, and no one else.







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12/30 Links Pt1: Why No One Can Talk About The Attacks Against Orthodox Jews; Monsey stabbing suspect may be tied to another knifing at nearby synagogue; In Light of Anti-Semitic Attacks, What Can You Do to Help?

From Ian:
JPost Editorial: Fight the hate together
The shooting incident at the kosher New Jersey supermarket on December 10 – in which two ultra-Orthodox Jews were killed along with a non-Jewish employee and a policeman – was another dreadful reminder that the situation is growing out of control.

The fatal attacks on worshipers in synagogues in Pittsburgh last year and Poway in April this year are a tragic evidence of the extent and dangers of the phenomenon.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered a thorough investigation and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted, “Hate doesn’t have a home in our city,” promising an increased police presence in Jewish neighborhoods and adding, “Anyone who terrorizes our Jewish community WILL face justice.”

We welcome their support and action.

Part of the problem is that Jews are targeted for attacks from many different directions: the far Right, Islamists and, in the case of the New Jersey attack, members of a marginal community of so-called Black Hebrews. The anti-Zionism and anti-Israel sentiment of the radical Left also fosters hatred. The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement is another modern expression of antisemitism, singling out Jewish and Israeli businesses.

The wave of antisemitic attacks in the US has grabbed the headlines recently, but there have been incidents throughout Europe, the UK, Australia and elsewhere.

Several Israeli politicians condemned the attacks and urged the Jews to make aliyah. There are many reasons for Jews to move to Israel but it shouldn’t be done out of fear. And Jews shouldn’t have to live in fear wherever they are.

As Moroccan publisher Ahmed Charai wrote in an opinion piece in this paper earlier this month, “Antisemitism is everyone’s problem.” He called for cooperation in fighting hatred, writing, “Arabs and Jews simply must stop hating each other so that together we can face the truly dangerous people who hate us both.”

Zero tolerance for antisemitism cannot be a meaningless slogan. This kind of hatred does not bode well for society as a whole. The Jews will not be the only victims.
An American pogrom
Bill de Blasio, a longtime ally of Sharpton’s, responded with the same hypocrisy as the anti-Jewish violence in New York City ran out of control. In February 2017, Jacob Siegel recently noted in Tablet, the NYPD reported ‘an 81 percent increase in hate crimes compared to the same period in 2016, an increase largely caused by a 115 percent rise in incidents targeting Jews’. Questioned a few days after, de Blasio ignored his police department and the growing CCTV evidence: ‘The horrible, hateful rhetoric that was used in this election by candidate Trump and by a lot of his supporters directly connects to an increase since the election in anti-Semitic incidents, anti-Muslim incidents and anti-LGBT incidents.’

In June 2019, de Blasio called anti-Semitism ‘a right-wing force’. He continued to deny reality until the Jersey City killings. I’m sure he didn’t meant to incite, but the effect was to connive, just as Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders connive when they’re photographed with Al Sharpton as they compete for the Democratic nomination — or, moving from one kind of Jew-hatred to another, Nancy Pelosi connived with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib by posing with them on the cover of Rolling Stone.

A similar connivance has corrupted the pro-Democratic media which uses the killing of Jews by white supremacists to hammer President Trump, only to consistently suppress the embarrassing reality of attacks on Jews by non-whites. On Sunday, Seth Mandel of the Washington Examiner described ‘practically begging’ editors to cover anti-Jewish violence that didn’t come from white nationalists, a ‘humiliating spectacle’ made all the worse by consistently negative responses.

‘There’s no one doing this work at the Atlantic,’ Mandel wrote. ‘There’s no one doing this work at the Washington Post.’ Nor, he said, are the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books covering what’s happening on their doorsteps. The same, Mandel said, goes for HuffPost, Slate, Mother Jones, Vox, BuzzFeed, the Daily Beast and NPR.

I hope Mandel is wrong and that all of these publications have assigned resources and reporters to an obvious and serious crisis in American life. Many of them have recently supported and published worthy investigations into the ways in which Republican politicians have mainstreamed the bigotry of white racists. It’s time that they did the same with the Democrats — and past time for the Democrats themselves to address their longstanding complicity with their preferred forms of anti-Jewish incitement.
Batya Ungar-Sargon: Why No One Can Talk About The Attacks Against Orthodox Jews
And therein lies the trouble with talking about the violent attacks against Orthodox Jews: At a time when ideology seems to rein supreme in the chattering and political classes, the return of pogroms to Jewish life on American soil transcends ideology. In the fight against anti-Semitism, you don’t get to easily blame your traditional enemies — which, in the age of Trump, is a non-starter for most people.

Of course, the rise in anti-Semitism is not incidental to the times we live in. While the Brooklyn attackers are, at least according to demographic trends, extremely unlikely to be Trump supporters, our president, who has a penchant for anti-Semitic tropes, is a conspiracy theorist, and anti-Semitism often manifests as a conspiracy theory about secretive Jewish power.

But conspiracy theories flourish on the left as well in today’s day and age. They twist and torque those rigid ideologies to which so many are enslaved, reshaping the extremes from polar opposites into a horseshoe whose ends meet — again and again — to justify, excuse, or muzzle criticism of anti-Semitism.

It has resulted in a staggering, shameful silence when it comes to speaking out on behalf of the wave of pogroms against the Orthodox. For many people, it seems when they can’t blame the other side of the political aisle, they would rather say nothing at all.

This is not acceptable. The Jewish community’s most visible, vulnerable members need Americans to stand up and say “no more.” They need us to climb out of our trenches and find common ground to fight this ugly resurgence of anti-Jewish hatred.

We can only fight this fight together, because it is a pox on all of our houses. It is only by remembering what unites us as Americans that we can help our fellow Jews and, as “Maoz Tzur” suggests, hasten the time of salvation.



A Horrifying Machete Attack on Jews in Monsey
People used to say about Monsey that it was a “place where you didn’t have to lock your doors.”

The assumption of safety has been changing over the past 10-15 years. Many synagogues are now locked at all times and it is no longer strange to see a security guard standing outside the building. Now, the illusion of safety is completely shattered.

Shimon Pepper lives a few hundred yards away from Rottenberg. Local and state police vehicles drove past his home for hours with their sirens blaring on Saturday night. “I am numb,” Pepper said. “The Forshay neighborhood here in Monsey has been our home for 36 years. Our children freely rode their bikes here and we went for nighttime walks and runs. Now our tranquility has been broken. State police were at every intersection this morning.”

The pain that comes along with this loss of safety is unfortunately familiar to many Monsey residents. A generation of the children of Holocaust survivors who are now parents and grandparents are living in Monsey. Their inherited PTSD has been triggered, and dark thoughts of where this violence might lead invades their imaginations.

Michael Sabo, a former member of the Monsey Fire Department, Chaverim, and Hatzalah (local Orthodox Jewish EMS service) who has lived in Monsey for more than 30 years, said, “We need the ability to protect ourselves and not be held back from self-preservation” by appointing “representatives for each synagogue to train with law enforcement and be totally prepared for dealing with an attack.” For some, the pain is being channeled into a call for Orthodox Jews to apply for gun licenses to arm themselves in order to repulse future violent attacks.

But the spirit of Monsey’s Orthodox Jews is strong and the solidarity of strangers across the world makes it even stronger. Shortly after the attack, Rottenberg hosted a festive melaveh malkah with his community, demonstrating that they remain undeterred in their religious commitment and Jewish pride. The next morning Rottenberg led a special blessing of thanksgiving during Shachris in his synagogue.

Sunday afternoon hours after the attack, Forshay road was closed to traffic once again. This time it was for a celebration with music and dancing to celebrate the dedication of a new Torah scroll in a shul down the block from Rabbi Rottenberg.
Sitting Ducks
Buying an illegal firearm in New York City is no more difficult than procuring MDMA, say, or any other illegal substance. But those of us who wish to be legally armed—to protect ourselves, maybe, against violent anti-Semites like Tiffany Harris, who is currently free to roam the streets and continue to assault Jews, or the Black Hebrews, whose ranting against “fake Jews” resulted in six deaths in Jersey City—are out of luck.

New York City’s ordinances make obtaining and carrying a firearm nearly impossible for law-abiding civilians from communities that are under daily attack. Generally speaking, the city differentiates between several categories of gun permits. The first, and most popular, is a premise license, which allows its holder to keep a firearm in his or her place of business or residence. That is nice, except the anti-Semitic hate crime wave targeting New York’s Jews isn’t happening inside people’s homes. It’s happening on the streets.

Though now challenged in court, the laws pertaining to transporting firearms remain draconian, making it impossible for Jews—or anyone else for that matter—to have a means of self-defense when attacked in the street, at a park, at a Hanukkah party, or anywhere else. If you do obtain such a license, the current law requires you to carry the weapon and ammunition separately, and for both to be locked.

Another type of permit is a business-carry license, which applies only to individuals who need armed protection due to the circumstances of their work—carrying around bagfuls of diamonds, say, or possessing large amounts of cash. A third is a carry license designed primarily for security guards, retired cops, and a few privileged, high-profile individuals. In 2011, for example, only 4,000 New Yorkers enjoyed this sort of license, the only one that makes it possible to carry a weapon everywhere irrespective of one’s immediate business considerations.

Add to that the convoluted application process, the steep registration fee, and the discrepancy of the NYPD to refuse a license at will and for any reason it deems fit and the fullness of the paradox becomes clear. If you are a Jew in New York, the police—at the direction of the city’s politicians—can no longer offer you full protection from violent attack. If you are attacked, the courts will set your attacker free, as a matter of public policy. But exercising your constitutional right to defend yourself is forbidden.

New York’s progressive politicians, alongside a host of left-leaning Jewish organizations like the ADL, have spent the last 24 hours releasing statements condemning the attack in Monsey. These statements are utterly meaningless unless followed by concrete action. Anyone wishing to keep Jews safe must first make sure that anti-Semitic attackers are held responsible for their violent acts of hatred, and then help amend the laws and allow Jews the right of self-protection.


Honest Reporting: Stabbings in Monsey
There have been attacks against Jews in the New York area every day of the past week. According to the FBI, Jews are the most highly targeted religious group in the United States, despite making up only 2% of the population.

Attackers over the past year have included white supremacists, Black Hebrews, and others. We urge the media, police and political leadership to treat these events with the seriousness they deserve.

Hate against any of us endangers all of us.


Trump slams ‘horrific’ Monsey attack, assails ‘scourge of anti-Semitism’
After almost a day of silence, US President Donald Trump commented Sunday on the stabbing spree at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, the night before that left five injured, calling it “horrific” and wishing the victims a full recovery.

“The anti-Semitic attack in Monsey, New York, on the 7th night of Hanukkah last night is horrific,” Trump tweeted.

“We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism,” Trump said. “Melania and I wish the victims a quick and full recovery.”

Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the stabbings by urging action against anti-Semitism.

“Antisemitism and hate have no place anywhere in our world and we must continue to stand together against them,” Trudeau tweeted. “Last night’s attack on Jews celebrating Hanukkah in New York is a sad reminder of the rising numbers of such heinous acts. We must all come together to end them.”
Amid rabid anti-Semitism in the US, Left finds way to blame Trump
It didn’t take very long for the Left to turn Saturday's horrific attack on Jews in a synagogue in Monsey, New York into a partisan issue.

Members of the Left quickly blamed US President Donald Trump for the violent incident in which five people were critically wounded after the assailant, Grafton E. Thomas, stabbed them with a machete.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who in September suspended his presidential campaign for the Democratic ticket in 2020, blamed "an atmosphere of hate" for the recent outburst of violence against the Jewish community in the New York area.

"A lot of it is emanating from Washington and it's having an effect on all of us," he said.

He added that "[New York] is seeing a growth of anti-Semitism in this country that is profoundly dangerous."
An Early Analysis of Black Anti-Semitism
While the synagogue shootings of Pittsburgh and Poway were carried out by anti-Semites of the white-supremacist variety, the shooting at the kosher grocery store in Jersey City, and Saturday night’s stabbing attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, NY, were the work of African Americans. These incidents come alongside the frequent, but less deadly, verbal and physical assaults on Jews in New York City and some of its suburbs that almost always involve young blacks targeting visibly Orthodox Jews.

Over 70 years ago, the celebrated essayist and novelist James Baldwin addressed what he termed “the Negro’s ambivalent relation to the Jew” in his essay “The Harlem Ghetto: Winter 1948,” published in Commentary. He was writing at a time when Jim Crow was alive and well in the South, blacks were unwelcome in many areas of New York City, Jewish activists in the area of civil rights were not yet as numerous as they would become, and the state of Israel did not exist:

To begin with, though the traditional Christian accusation that the Jews killed Christ is neither questioned nor doubted, the term “Jew” actually operates in [a religious] context to include all infidels of white skin who have failed to accept the Savior. No real distinction is made: the preacher begins by accusing the Jews of having refused the light and proceeds from there to a catalog of their subsequent sins and the sufferings visited on them by a wrathful God. Though the notion of the suffering is based on the image of the wandering, exiled Jew, the context changes imperceptibly to become a fairly obvious reminder of the trials of the Negro, while the sins recounted are the sins of the American republic.

At this point, the Negro identifies himself almost wholly with the Jew. The more devout Negro considers that he is a Jew, in bondage to a hard taskmaster and waiting for a Moses to lead him out of Egypt. The hymns, the texts, and the most favored legends of the devout Negro are all Old Testament and therefore Jewish in origin. . . . The favorite text of my father, among the most earnest of ministers, was not “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” but “How can I sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”

[But] I remember meeting no Negro in the years of my growing up, in my family or out of it, who would really ever trust a Jew, and few who did not, indeed, exhibit for them the blackest contempt. On the other hand, this did not prevent their working for Jews, being utterly civil and pleasant to them, and, in most cases, contriving to delude their employers into believing that, far from harboring any dislike for Jews, they would rather work for a Jew than for anyone else.

The tension between Negroes and Jews contains an element not characteristic of Negro-Gentile tension, an element which accounts in some measure for the Negro’s tendency to castigate the Jew verbally more often than the Gentile, and which might lead one to the conclusion that, of all white people on the face of the earth, it is the Jew whom the Negro hates most. When the Negro hates the Jew as a Jew he does so partly because the nation does and in much the same painful fashion that he hates himself. It is an aspect of his humiliation whittled down to a manageable size and then transferred.
Monsey stabbing suspect may be tied to another knifing at nearby synagogue
The man accused of using a machete to hack five Hanukkah celebrants is a schizophrenic who is now being investigated in the earlier stabbing of a Jewish man near a synagogue in the same Rockland County town, family friends and police sources said.

The revelations came Sunday as grisly new details of Saturday night’s assault in Monsey came to light — including that accused attacker Grafton Thomas was covered in blood when cops arrested him in Harlem.

Thomas, 38, apparently tried to “destroy evidence” of his guilt, Rockland District Attorney Michael Dugandzic said in Ramapo Town Court, citing a “strong smell of bleach in the car” he was driving.

Thomas, who lives with his mom in Greenwood Lake, Orange County, was ordered held in lieu of $5 million bail after his lawyer entered not-guilty pleas to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary in the attack.

The rampage marked the latest in a string of attacks targeting Orthodox Jews in and around New York City, including the killing of three people at a Jersey City kosher market this month by two assailants who had fatally shot a local detective.

Authorities, including the FBI, are now investigating whether Thomas is tied to a recent stabbing near a Monsey synagogue, a law-enforcement official briefed on the probe told The Post.

In that case, a 30-year-old man was beaten and repeatedly knifed while walking to Mosdos Meharam Brisk of Tashnad at around 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 20, The Journal News reported at the time.
The moment police captured Grafton Thomas after Monsey synagogue attack
Closed-circuit television footage from the arrest of Grafton Thomas was released Sunday, showing the moments when police located and apprehended the 37-year-old suspect wanted for Saturday night's machete attack on a Hasidic synagogue in Monsey, New York.

Thomas was arrested in Harlem at around midnight, roughly two hours after he burst into a synagogue brandishing a machete and wounded five who had worshippers gathered in the synagogue for the Hanukkah candle lightning marking the seventh day of the festival.

Thomas was charged with five counts of attempted murder Sunday, along with one count of burglary. He denied the charges.






In Monsey after Hanukkah terror stabbing, fear and then an insistent celebration
The morning after an assailant tore through a rabbi’s house in upstate New York with a machete, slashing at Hanukkah celebrants, residents huddled outside smoking cigarettes, rehashing the attack.

By evening, many Monsey, New York, residents would be dancing through the streets to welcome a Torah in a defiant act of celebration.

More than 100 people were inside the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg on Saturday night for the holiday celebration when the attacker stormed in, wounding five people, two critically.

Survivors and neighbors returned Sunday morning, gathering outside Congregation Netzach Yisroel next door. One of them had fought off the attacker, others had fled, and everyone knew someone who had been inside.

Children stood on the roof of a car across the street to watch the action as police waved vehicles through. Residents and reporters chatted in a mix of English, Yiddish and Hebrew.

After covering the aftermath of violent incidents in Israel, this reporter found the scene familiar, recalling terror attacks in Jerusalem and rocket strikes in Ashkelon. The cadre of Israeli reporters outside the rabbi’s home seemed like the foreign journalists covering news events in Israel.

Monsey residents described the foreboding, confusion and resignation following the attack on their rabbi’s home. Most members of the insular community were eager to talk, but didn’t want their names or photos published.


De Blasio Blames Washington For Recent Spate of Anti-Semitic Attacks In and Around NYC
Readers of LI are well aware that anti-Semitism has been on the rise in the U.S. and across Europe for many years. It seems that the media and politicians are starting to figure it out, too.

As is so often the case, however, they are focused very narrowly on the recent spate of attacks in and around New York City and fail to see the forest for the trees.

An example of this occurred this weekend when New York City mayor Bill de Blasio appeared on Fox News and blamed an “atmosphere of hate has been developing in this country over the last few years.” He went on to note, quite rightly, that a “lot of it is emanating from Washington and it’s having an effect on all of us.”

I doubt, however, that de Blasio means that the “atmosphere of hate” he sees “emanating from Washington” includes Democrats. Back in June, he infamously called anti-Semitism a “right-wing movement.”
Woman accused of assaulting 3 Jewish women arrested again day after release
A Brooklyn miscreant accused of slapping three Orthodox Jewish women last week struck again on Sunday and was busted for assaulting another woman, police said.

A day after she was released without bail on charges stemming from the Friday attack, Tiffany Harris was charged with assault for slugging a 35-year-old in the face on Eastern Parkway near Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights at about 9:15 a.m., according to police.

It’s unclear if Sunday’s victim is Jewish — and police weren’t treating the incident as a hate crime. The victim suffered swelling and bruising to her right eye from the pummeling, police said.

On Friday, Harris allegedly assaulted three Orthodox women on Eastern Parkway near Kingston Avenue — one of at least eight anti-Semitic incidents in the city last week.

“Yes, I slapped them. I cursed them out. I said ‘F-U, Jews,’” Harris admitted to cops after that attack, according to a criminal complaint.

The two assaults occurred about a mile from each other.


Victim of Antisemitic Attack in Brooklyn Decries Release of Perpetrator, Blasts ‘Unwillingness to Sympathize With Orthodox Community’
A young Jewish woman whose antisemitic attacker was released without bail on Saturday despite admitting to her crime, voiced anger over the failure of law enforcement to protect future potential victims.

It’s “a win for the criminals, and a big fail for the protection of the vulnerable targets they’re going after,” Dalia Shusterman told The Algemeiner on Sunday.

Shusterman was among three women who were attacked by Tiffany Harris on Thursday in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Harris was released over the weekend as a result of new bail reform legislation just passed into law and set to take effect on January 1, the New York Post reported. A law enforcement source told the Post, however, that “the de Blasio administration has made it clear that we all need to get into compliance with bail reform now.”

Harris admitted her crime to police officers, according to the criminal complaint against her. “Yes, I slapped them,” she said. “I cursed them out. I said ‘F-U, Jews.’”

According to Shusterman, the decision to release Harris was also symptomatic of the authorities’ broader failure to adequately protect the Jewish community. “It’s a malignant growth out of their unwillingness to sympathize with the Orthodox Jewish community, which has always been relegated as the other, stereotyped as oppressors, and treated as unworthy of societal protection,” she asserted.

“There are too many voices encouraging this very specific hatred and not enough efforts to call it out as the evil that it is,” she said.
Man Who Threatened To Kill In 770 Arrested
The man who made death threats inside of 770 [World Headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic] Friday morning has been arrested by the police.

The police were able to track the man as he made his way onto the train by Utica Ave. From there he was identified as a man living in a homeless shelter in the Bronx.

He was arrested by the NYPD over Shabbos.
Man threatened to bomb Jersey City Jews just days after Kosher store attack: authorities
A Jersey City man is accused of threatening to “bomb all of the Jews” in Jersey City less than a week after the deadly attack on a kosher grocery store in Greenville, according to court documents.

Darryl Jacobs, 47, allegedly made the threat during a Dec. 13 phone call with a county welfare worker and was arrested three days later. Police did not recover any explosives, but seized two cell phones, the criminal complaint states.

The defendant told the welfare employee, who did not know him, that he “was going to come down and bomb all the Jews in Jersey City,” according to the court document.

Darryl Jacobs is accused of threatening to "bomb all the Jews" in Jersey City three days after the deadly attack on a kosher supermarket.

Jacobs appeared to be intoxicated during the call, authorities said.

Hudson County Superior Court Judge Sheila Venable ordered that he be detained throughout his prosecution during a Dec. 20 detention hearing. He faces a third-degree charge of making a terroristic threat.
“Deadly Exchange”- It’s time to speak out against anti-Zionists who seek to turn Blacks against Jews
The recent spike in attacks on Jews in the greater New York City area follows a pattern that does not fit with the media portrayal of violence against Jews being solely a ‘white nationalist’ problem. All or almost all of the attacks were perpetrated by non-whites, including the deadly shooting in Jersey City, street attacks in Brooklyn, and the machete attack in Monsey.

While this seems to come out of nowhere, in fact there has been a highly organized and aggressive campaign to stoke and exploit pre-existing racial tensions against Jews as part of anti-Israel activist tactics. The effort goes back decades to Louis Farrakhan, who serves as an inspiration for “intersectional” activists like Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez, and Linda Sarsour, formerly of the Women’s March.

But more than anything in recent years, anti-Zionist groups, including anti-Zionist purportedly Jewish groups, have sought to turn Blacks against Jews for the purpose of demonizing Israel by blaming Israel and American Jewish groups for domestic police violence and other policing problems.

Leading the way has been the anti-Zionist non-Jewish group calling itself “Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP), which launched the “Deadly Exchange” campaign in 2017 falsely tying anti-terrorism training of U.S. police chiefs during short visits to Israel with police violence in the U.S. That “Deadly Exchange” campaign now has spread more broadly to the anti-Israel community, where various groups led by JVP seek to disrupt and terminate U.S.-Israel police exchanges.

As detailed below, the recent deadly shooting of Jews in Jersey City was by a Black supremacist group which espoused conspiracy theories eerily similar to the Deadly Exchange propaganda. While not all of the recent attacks can be tied to such conspiracy theories, what cannot be denied is that JVP and the other anti-Zionist groups promoting Deadly Exchange are playing a deadly game by promoting false claims of American and Israeli Jewish responsibility for police shootings.




Guardian describes 1991 antisemitic Crown Heights riots as two communities “clashing”
A Dec. 29th Guardian report on the brutal Monsey stabbings which targeted Chasidic Jews on Saturday included the following passage, noting comments by NYC mayor Bill De Blasio:
De Blasio invoked the Crown Heights violence of the early 90s when black and Jewish communities in Brooklyn clashed violently.

To describe the Crown Heights Riots, which has been aptly characterised by some as the first anti-Jewish pogrom in US history, as merely two communities “clashing violently” is obscene.

The incident in question began after a Jewish driver accidentally hit two black immigrant children, killing one of them. Later that evening, based on unfounded rumors involving police and Jewish culpability in the boy’s death, blacks began rioting and chanting antisemitic slogans. Some incited the crowd to kill a Jew, which they ultimately did. Yankel Rosenbaum, a young Australian Orthodox Jew, was beaten and stabbed to death by a mob of up to twenty young black men on the first night of the two day riots.




PreOccupiedTerritory: American Jewish Orgs Condemn ‘Stabbing In All Its Forms’ (satire)
Prominent Jewish groups all over the United States reacted over the weekend to the Saturday night stabbing attack at a Monsey, NY Rabbi’s home, by issuing a sweeping denunciation of stabbing in all its forms. The attack left five people injured.

Statements by the Anti-Defamation League, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, and other high-profile Jewish organizations all condemned stabbing, calling the phenomenon “a violent act that undermines the security and civility of a functioning society” and “a wake-up call to our communities to address the issue.”

The attack at a Hanukkah event involved a machete, but the Jewish groups took pains to make clear they oppose the use of sharp objects of other kinds, as well. “It would be irresponsible to suggest we harbor more tolerance for other implements or varieties of stabbing,” a spokesman for J-Street stated. “Therefore our statement did not single out the machete as an important element in the message. We would oppose this kind of behavior whether it involved a sword, dagger, butcher knife, knitting needle, carving knife, fireplace poker, pitchfork, or flatware of any sort. I’m sure our counterparts across the spectrum of American Jewish organizations share the sentiment.”
Jewish, Black Residents in Jersey City Unite for Charity Drive After Deadly Shooting
African-American and Jewish volunteers in the Jersey City neighborhood of Greenville on Monday partnered up on a charity drive to deliver food and other goods to hundreds of local families in need.

Trucks full of pretzel challah, soup mix, hummus, turkey, chocolate, toys and more, provided by nearby Jewish vendors, were handed out to families lined around the block.

Just a few blocks away was the site of a deadly shooting at a Jewish-owned kosher supermarket on Dec. 10.

The idea for a charity drive came was proposed during an informal meeting last week between Jewish community leaders and local Jersey City officials, reported JTA.

By Dec. 23, with the help of the Jewish soup kitchen and food pantry Masbia, a network of soup kitchens, kosher-food vendors, Jewish-owned toy companies and a nonprofit from Brooklyn, NY, teamed up to gather supplies for those in need.

“We’ve been in communication since the tragedy on Dec. 10 trying to find ways to work together as a community,” said Pam Johnson, one of the drive’s organizer and the leader of the Jersey City Anti-Violence Coalition Movement. “We wanted to make sure that we sent a clear message of solidarity, that we are all in this together.”
Turkish NBA star defends fearful US Jewish community
The Boston Celtics’ Swiss-born, Turkish professional basketball player Enes Kanter, sent a message of support – via Twitter – to the United States’ Jewish community in the wake of the latest anti-Semitic attack.

Kanter tweeted, “America has no place for hate. Our Jewish sisters and brothers should not be living in fear. Antisemitism will NOT be tolerated.”

This is a significant moment. There have been plenty of players from different sports, who show solidarity with the black community over alleged police brutality. However, this is a rare instance where a superstar athlete publicly stands up for the Jewish community that is currently living in fear from outlier members of the black community – particularly in the tri-state area.

It is also not the first time that the NBA star has spoken out about social and political issues. Kanter is a fierce critic of Turkish strongman, President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, who in recent years has grown both increasingly authoritarian and Islamist – moving sharply away from Turkey’s more democratic and tolerant beginnings.

Kanter has paid for his opposition to Erdoğan; he has not been able to set foot in the country since a 2018 declaration that the Turkish government was a friend of "armed terrorist groups." That same government deprived him of his Turkish passport and declared him a fugitive, particularly for his support of the Gülen movement. Kanter even recently missed a game against the Toronto Raptors in Canada, fearing for his life.
11-year-old daughter of Jersey City hero calls rabbi in solidarity after Monsey
Less than a month ago, 11-year-old Amy Rodriguez lost her dad, Miguel, in the shooting that targeted a kosher supermarket in Jersey City. Rodriguez, 49, was an employee at the store. Before succumbing to his wounds, he saved a customer.

"After being shot, he opened the back door for a customer to be rescued and unfortunately, he died at the footstep of that door," Rabbi David Niederman of the Brooklyn-based United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg told reporters in the aftermath of the tragedy, according to CNN.
He called Rodriguez a "hero."

When Amy heard what happened in Monsey on Saturday, when five people were wounded in a horrific attack in a rabbi's house, Amy called Rabbi Avi Weiss to make sure that he was ok and to express her solidarity with the Jewish community at large.

"Amy is the daughter of Miguel who was killed saving the life of Chaim Deutsch in the Jersey City antisemitic attack, where Moshe Deutsch and Mindy Ferencz were also killed. I attended Miguel's funeral and spoke with Amy and her mom, leaving them my phone number," the rabbi wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.

"This morning, I was overwhelmed when Amy called. She had heard what had happened in Monsey and with great emotion, wanted to make sure I was ok. Tears welled up in my eyes," he added. "Her words touched the depths of my soul. Here is a youngster, just eleven years old, in the midst of her own grief, calling to express concern – not only for me, but for the larger Jewish community."
Bethany Mandel: In Light of Anti-Semitic Attacks, What Can You Do to Help?
In light of the most recent anti-Semitic attack in a suburb of New York City, where a man broke into the home of a prominent rabbi holding a Hanukkah celebration with a machete, I’ve heard from many friends “What can I do to help?” I wanted to offer some tangible suggestions for those horrified by the slow-moving pogrom happening in New York City and wishing to act:

1 Contact your local Jewish community and ask if they would accept volunteers from outside the community to provide security.
2 The cost of upgrading security has been enormous for many Jewish institutions across the country. Off-duty police officers are paid to work shifts on holidays and on Shabbat, but many buildings have undergone serious renovations to install new security systems, panic buttons, auto-locking doors, new windows, and more. Consider donating to your local synagogue, Jewish community center, Hillel, schools or Jewish Federation’s security fund.
3 Another worthwhile organization worth noting is the Community Security Service. You can donate to their efforts to train Jews to protect their community, or contact them to ask how you can get involved in their work.
4 Shop at Kosher supermarkets and restaurants. It’s a scary time to run a business that is a potential terror target, and it’s encouraging for those working there to have the support of the wider community.
5 Contact your local representatives and ask them to step up to the plate, especially if you live in a district with a Jewish population.
6 Lend support and encouragement to officials doing the right thing,
7. And hold feet to the fire of politicians who refuse to do more than tweet (if they’re even doing that).
8. Encourage your faith leaders to take a stand and give them ideas of what that looks like: a statement to the congregation, a joint-vigil or gathering with the local Jewish community, or merely a public statement of support.
9. When you see biased or toxic representations of Jews in popular culture, the media, or in your daily life, say something. Dehumanizing Jews is a root cause of the violence we’re now seeing.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
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