EoZ

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Egypt gets rid of much of the antisemitism in school textbooks

This story from YNet did not get the publicity it should be getting:

A newly released study showed Egypt was successful in removing antisemitism and other hatred from its school books, The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found. The research and policy institute that analyzes curricula around the world through UNESCO-defined standards, has released its second full report on the Egyptian curriculum, from its London office.

This latest IMPACT-se report evaluated 271 textbooks from the Egyptian national curricula, published between 2018 and 2023. The study focuses on the Arabic language, Islamic and Christian religious education, social studies, values and respect for others, history, geography, philosophy, and more. Egypt has the largest education system in the Middle East and North Africa, with 25 million children currently enrolled in its schools - the largest in the Arab world.

"Our findings show major improvements in attitudes toward Jews and Judaism in the revised textbooks, part of the year-by-year reform of the Egyptian national curriculum between 2018-2030 across all grades, which has already reached Grade 5," IMPACT-se said.

"Promisingly, elementary school textbooks rewritten since 2021 do not include traditional, harmful antisemitic stereotypes such as attributing evil deeds and negative traits like disloyalty, fraud, greediness, and violation of contracts to Jewish people. These were replaced with values of tolerance and coexistence between Islam and Judaism, highlighting common ground such as Islam's recognition of the Torah, and permission for Muslims to eat Kosher food."

Students are required to memorize the provisions of the peace treaty, and describe the “advantages of peace for Egypt and the Arab states.” A photograph of the peace treaty signing at the White House is shown for the first time. Passages such as “recognition of the sovereignty of each side in the conflict over its territory” were changed to “respect by each side of the other’s sovereignty and independence,” and establishing “normal relations” between the two countries, was changed to establishing “friendly relations.”

The article notes that it is not all great; older grades still use the older textbooks with explicit antisemitism, and even in the new ones students are taught that it is an Islamic duty to end the "occupation" which appears to include all of Israel based on the map they still use.

But even so, this is a very positive change. Egypt is just about the most antisemitic nation there is and the indoctrination in the textbooks is part of the reason why.

IMPACT-SE has not yet published the complete study

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Oh noes! "Talmudic dances" in Hebron!

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency is incensed:

The Minister of National Security in the extremist occupation government, Itamar Ben Gvir, stormed today, Wednesday, the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the city of Hebron.

And local sources reported that the storming of Ben Gvir comes as part of a series of continuous incursions by the occupation and its settlers into the Haram since yesterday, Tuesday, as the settlers performed Talmudic dances inside it, to celebrate the so-called "Independence Day."

The Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs, Sheikh Hatem Al-Bakri, denounced this incursion, considering it a flagrant violation of the holy places and places of worship.

Al-Bakri warned that the occupation, and through the continuous Judaization operations, including broadcasting pictures of settlers dancing inside and outside it with comfort and reassurance, is working to displace Palestinian citizens from the places that it wants to control in Old Hebron in particular, according to a systematic plan implemented by the occupation government with the settlers.

He pointed out that what the occupation is doing is a flagrant violation of the sanctity of the Ibrahimi Mosque and a special endowment property for Muslims that no one else has the right to practice worship in, and this requires serious work to stop it and limit it completely and with all force by flocking to the sanctuary.

Here's that Talmudic dance:

Hamas' Felesteen was no less upset at those Talmudic dances:

Today, Wednesday, the extremist minister of the settler government, Itamar Ben Gvir, performed Talmudic dances in the courtyards of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. And "Ben Gvir" appeared in a video clip, accompanied by a number of settlers, while they were performing Talmudic dances and Jewish rituals inside the Ibrahimi Mosque.

To Palestinians, Jews dancing openly and safely in a Jewish holy place is a horrendous crime. Soon their "human rights" NGOs will be calling it a war crime.

Issa Amro, who is considered the most moderate Palestinian and a hero to the Jewish Left, was equally upset at those dances, tweeting, "They are dancing for what Baruch Goldstein did in 1994."

Now, people who celebrate are rarely shy about saying why they are celebrating. They will openly tell you the reason - in this case, of course, celebrating Israel's Independence Day.

But Palestinians are equally open about why they celebrate. They openly celebrate in the streets every time one of them manages to kill a Jew, handing out candy and shooting off fireworks. They aren't shy about telling the world why they are celebrating.

Issa Amro must have gotten mixed up between the Palestinians who celebrate death and the Jews who celebrate life.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

AP reported on the Egyptian and other Arab states' reaction to Israeli independence in 1948: "The weekly Akhbar el Yom said 600 persons, mostly Zionists, were rounded up and sent to concentration camps."

Yes, only three years after the Holocaust, Jews were being rounded up again. Reports of Jews in Egyptian and Iraqi concentration camps trickled into the media during 1948.

In August, 18 French Jews who were interned started a hunger strike after efforts by France to free them were fruitless. At the time it was estimated that 3,000 Jews were imprisoned in these camps. British Jews in Egypt were also arrested without charge. (The French internees were finally released in September.)

In November:

A large number of Jews, most of whom were born in Egypt and whose families have lived there for generations, were ordered to leave the country this week-end or “face the alternative of imprisonment in desert concentration camps,” the American Jewish Committee reported in a telegram to Acting Secretary of State Herbert C. Hoover, Jr.

The Committee disclosed that leaders of the Jewish Communities of Cairo and Alexandria “have already been placed in concentration camps.” At the same time, it reported that the property of Jews in Egypt has been seized as “enemy property” and placed under the custodianship of the Egyptian government.

And that wasn't the worse thing for Egypt's Jews. They were being murdered in the streets.

22 Jews were killed in a June bombing in the Karaite Jewish quarter of Cairo. 19 more were murdered by another bomb in the main Jewish quarter of Cairo in September. Four Jewish-owned department stores were bombed in July and August.

JTA reported this horrific testimony:

The situation of the Jews in Egypt was termed today as "highly alarming" by a Frenchman who returned from Cairo and gave the first detailed and uncensored report of the pogroms, mob violence, mass looting and terrorism which is now taking place throughout Egypt against the Jewish population.

Egyptian mobs, he revealed, killed three rabbis by splitting their throats, after dragging them into a Cairo slaughter house. He estimated that at least 150 Jews had either been killed or had "disappeared" in Cairo incidents during the last four weeks. A substantial number of Jews had been wounded, he said. The pogroms and anti-Jewish terrorism are tacitly encouraged by the passive attitude of the Egyptian Government, he charged.

The gravest single incident, he reported, occurred on July 20 at one of Cairo’s chief street car junctions, in Malika Farida Placo. An organized group of Egyptians ejected all the European passengers from several trolleys. All passengers suspected of being Jews were savagely killed on the spot, and many had their eyes pierced or were knifed, while non-Jews and Europeans were robbed of all cash and belongings. The police made no effort to intervene, the French visitor emphasized.

Of the large number of Jews in Cairo who have been wounded, he continued, 120 are now undergoing treatment in the Jewish hospital there and an unannounced number are in government or private institutions. Scattered incidents of knifing of Jews are repeatedly reported in various parts of the Egyptian capital, he said. The killing of three rabbis in the slaughter house took place on July 21, he reported.

I haven't seen verification of the specifics, but there are many reports of pogroms in Egypt against Jews and scores were known to have been killed.

Then, as now, the excuse given for antisemitism was "Zionism." Yet then as now, they were attacked because they were Jews.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

R' Soloveitchik on Yom HaAtzmaut, 1968

MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan's bizarre apologia for Iranian militarism

Mehdi Hasan of MSNBC tweeted:

I bet most Americans don’t have a clue that Iran spends a third of what Israel spends on the military and less than a *tenth* of what Saudi Arabia spends. And yet the Iranians are continually presented as an scary military threat to both their neighbors and to us - to justify even more military spending. 🤦🏽‍♂️

He then links to a list of military spending for various countries based on SIPRI's database:

Middle East largest Military Spenders:

1- Saudi Arabia, $75 billion (5th globally)

2- Israel, $23.4 billion

3- Qatar, $15.4 billion

4- Turkey, $10.6 billion

5- Algeria, $9.1 billion

6- Kuwait, $8.2 billion

7- Iran, $6.8 billion

8- Oman, $5.8 billion

First of all, there is a seeming contradiction between the SIPRI figures listed here and on their website with how the World Bank interprets the SIPRI numbers. I cannot explain it, but according to the World Bank, Iran spends slightly more than Israel on the military this year:

Clearly, there is a lot of information missing here. The World Bank is not making up numbers out of thin air.

But that is a minor issue. SIPRI necessarily uses different methods to estimate its figures, and it says explicitly on its website:

In practice it is not possible to apply this definition for all countries, and in many cases SIPRI is confined to using the national data provided. Priority is then given to the choice of a uniform definition over time for each country in order to achieve consistency over time, rather than to adjusting the figures for single years according to a common definition. In the light of these difficulties, military expenditure data is most appropriately used for comparisons over time, and may be less suitable for close comparison between individual countries.

Even that misses the point, though.

Military spending has no relationship with how much of a threat a country is to the world.

North Korea's military budget is much smaller than Portugal's, according to another analysis of these databases. Does that make it less dangerous?

Developing nuclear weapons and their delivery systems is much, much less expensive than building a robust missile defense system that can shoot those nuclear-tipped missiles down.

Iran directly funds international terror groups. I don't know whether those expenditures are considered "military" by SIPRI but they exist - both Iran and the recipients of their cash brag about this support.

Iran directly pays for military installations in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere. Isn't that a better definition of being a threat than military expense statistics that get filtered through an opaque process dependent on Iran telling the truth to begin with.

Iran is actively working on a military nuclear weapons program, and also on building missiles that could carry those bombs to not only Israel but much of Europe.

And Iran directly threatens its opponents, literally every day. It threatens to flatten Tel Aviv. Its Hezbollah proxy threatens to attack Israeli chemical plants to poison millions. If a nation publicly threatens to destroy another nation militarily and to kill its civilians, that makes it a military threat by definition.

Looking at contradictory military budget numbers is a bizarre metric to use when the nation itself makes direct threats.

Which brings up the question of why Hasan Mehdi feels that he has to write apologetics for the would be genocidal leaders of Iran?

Probably because he shares their desires.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

75 years ago, Arabs used the "sacred" Mamilla Cemetery as a base to fire at Jews

Back in 2010, Palestinians were screaming that Israel planned to build the Museum of Tolerance on top of graves at the Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem. How dare Israel disrespect this holy site, with ancient Muslim figures?

They were lying - there were no graves being disturbed;; they had been moved years beforehand.

At the time, I discovered that the Supreme Muslim Council of Jerusalem had deconsecrated the cemetery in 1945 and planned to build a business park there. So it wasn't sacred in 1945 either.

Afterwards, I found out that in the 1930s the Mufti of Jerusalem had once directed sewage pipes from a hotel he owned into this supposedly "sacred" cemetery.

If you need even more evidence that Palestinian Arabs claim sites that they disrespect themselves become :"sacred" when Jews step foot on them, 75 years ago the Arab fighters in Jerusalem used the cemetery as a base of operations numerous times.

February 8, 1948:

April 22, 1948:

April 24, 1948:

April 25, 1948:

When Gaza terrorists shoot rockets from cemeteries, they are following in the noble traditions of their forefathers in 1948 Jerusalem.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Jordanian MP's tribe proud of his smuggling arms to Israel

In a story that was originally censored by the Israeli media, a Jordanian MP was arrested in Israel after being caught smuggling a large cache of weapons to the West Bank.

Imad Al-Adwan was caught smuggling 160 handguns and 17 M16 rifles at the Allenby Crossing on the Jordan River on Saturday night.

Adwan's tribe in Jordan issued a statement casting doubt on the charges, but saying that they are proud of his actions.

The statement said that Adwan "has a patriotic and national spirit" who exhibits a "desperate defense of the Palestinian cause." It stressed "our lack of confidence in the Zionist side and its narrative," and yet says "we are all proud of our son and his actions."

The Adwan tribe also called on the Jordanian government to make every possible effort to "restore the member of the Jordanian legislative authority from the hands of the Zionists, as soon as possible," considering that their son "is not a representative of his constituency, but of all Jordanians."

Other Jordanian groups likewise tried to simultaneously call Israeli officials liars while admitting that this kind of action was exactly what Adwan would do.

The National Forum to Support the Resistance and Protect the Homeland in Jordan called for Adwan's immediate release, saying that "despite the lack of information received, which comes from the Zionist occupier only, every Jordanian knows is that Representative Imad Al-Adwan breathes Palestinian concern and identifies with the heroics of the revolutionary Palestinian youth."

For its part, the Jordanian Workers Party is incensed at Israel's breach of protocol for not honoring Adwan's parliamentary immunity. "This procedure should not have taken place in the first place, given that the representative holds a diplomatic passport, and international norms require that his car not be searched, and his arrest is contrary to international norms."

From what I can tell, Adwan does not benefit from diplomatic immunity for any actions done in a private capacity - and presumably the government of Jordan did not want him to smuggle weapons.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

How many could have been saved if Israel was reborn in 1938 instead of 1948? (posters)

There are always discussions on how to teach the Holocaust in a way that young people can internalize the horror of what happened. These discussions become more prominent around Yom Hashoah.

At the same time, with the upcoming Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel haters try to frame Israel as pure evil whose existence is itself a human rights crime and which reduces the security of Jews, not enhances.it.

Last week, pseudo rabbi Brant Rosen said this on Al Jazeera:

I responded with a tweet that received hundreds of Likes:

Here, "Rabbi" Brant Rosen argues on @AJEnglish to @marclamonthill that a military cannot protect Jews, and if Jews want to be safe they should just work in solidarity with other minorities to protect themselves in the Diaspora.

Six million Jews were unavailable for comment.

On Sunday night, I decided to combine these two themes.

I took actual photos of victims of the Holocaust, but I specifically chose photos that non-Jews could identify with. Except for the first, which as taken in the Birkenau camp before that family was murdered, I chose photos without the yellow star, without the emaciated victims. And I colorized them so they would look recent and not like they came from a long ago era.

I then wrote fairly angry posters noting that no one tried to save these Jews from being murdered - but if Israel existed, things might have been different.

I admit, this exercise really affected me as I was doing it. I was too emotionally drained after four posters to continue.

I don't know if others would be as impacted, but perhaps this is a direction that might be useful for teaching both about the Holocaust and the importance of Israel. It won't help for the many real Jew-haters out there (there are plenty of people on Twitter responding that Israel's crimes are worse than Nazi Germany's) but there will always be Jew-haters - the point is to reach normal people.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

i24news reported Sunday:

Violence should be discarded and condemned “in all its manifestations” for Jews and Arabs to have a common future as neighbors, Mansour Abbas, arguably the most prominent Arab Israeli lawmaker of the day, told i24NEWS in an exclusive interview.

“We think that this demand is a compulsory for all of us, and we should push the violence in all of its manifestations aside, and we should engage in peace and in construction. We need to treat the wounds of both sides, to translate into the reality the goals of both sides, in order for us to reach a solution that would be acceptable for both sides,” Abbas, chair of the United Arab List faction, said.

Abbas stressed that he regards himself and fellow Arab citizens of Israel as Israelis, and rejected attempts by Palestinian leadership including the Hamas terrorist group to enlist Arab Israelis against Israel on the side of the Palestinians.

This is in response to Hamas trying to drag Israeli Arabs into becoming terrorists as a fifth column.

I agree with very little that Mansour says, but this is a sane statement that reflects reality and not the fantasy of wanting nothing less than the destruction of Israel.

Naturally, major Palestinian factions condemned his words.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - which has extensive ties with "human rights" NGOs - strongly condemned Abbas’s statements, and said they are "treacherous and do not represent our people from near or far, and reveal the suspicious role assigned to him as an obedient tool in the hands of the occupation...he is a traitor to the interests of our people and their national rights.”

Mahmoud Abbas' "moderate" Fatah said his words “essentially affect the historical national rights of our Palestinian people in Palestine,” and described them as “a cheap fit with the Zionist narrative that falsely monopolizes the history of Palestine.... Mansour Abbas crossed the red lines with his positions.”

As of this writing, I have not yet seen any reaction from Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but since Abbas' comments were aimed squarely at them, one can assume that they would be at least as angry as their rival Fatah is.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Haaretz logic: Jews should give up on their holy places if Palestinians violently oppose them

Haaretz has an exclusive: One of their reporters, Hagar Shezaf, managed to visit Joseph's Tomb along with Jewish pilgrims last November.

It is unclear why it took five months to write this report. Perhaps to make the religious pilgrims look as racist as possible while the residents of Nablus are hapless victims.

The headline is, "A Nighttime Trip to Joseph’s Tomb, Where Jewish Prayer Means a Military Raid" with the subhead, "Bus passengers coming from Jerusalem were greeted with empty streets in Nablus – but that’s how it always is when Jewish worshippers visit Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank city, where the Israeli army forces Palestinians to put their lives on hold "

The military operation that was necessary to provide security for this “field trip” (or “entrance” as they are called) was impossible to see through the bus’ windows. The passengers couldn’t see the hundreds of Israeli soldiers deployed around Nablus, the entire streets that were placed under curfew and the Palestinians living there. But they may have gotten a whiff of the residents’ protest – mainly from the smell of burning tires.

Seven Palestinians were killed last year during such “entrances,” though this hadn’t disturbed the sleep of the passengers. From their viewpoint, the sterile road they were on, as if traveling through a ghost town, was simply routine.

Hate for the Jewish worshipers permeates the piece:

“Welcome to the Lion’s Den, pun intended,” Rivka jokes, referring to the local militia group that has regularly clashed with Israeli security forces in the city. There was applause and singing: “Thanks to Joseph the righteous, Ephraim and Menashe.” A few passengers quietly added: “May [the Arabs’] village burn.”

Yes, there are Jewish extremists who curse Arabs. But one almost has to read between the lines to understand that the Nablus militants aren't just cursing the Jews - they are trying to murder them.

The reporter does indeed bury this mention:

The Oslo Accords recognized Joseph’s Tomb as a holy site for Jews and stated that its protection and that of its visitors would rest with the Palestinian police – but that Israeli security would also be allowed within it.

Yet this is the most important fact. Under existing agreements, Jews should have free access to Joseph's Tomb. The Palestinians want to kill them instead, and in the past, they have. those very Palestinian policemen who are supposed to protect Jewish visitors killed Ben-Yosef Livna in 2011, and there are regular gunshots aimed at the Jewish worshipers.

While the words of the Jewish pilgrims are parsed to find evidence of their racism, Palestinians who are interviewed are not subject to any skepticism whatsoever:

The tomb is located in an eastern neighborhood of Nablus, near the Balata refugee camp. A school is located on the street leading to the tomb, and there are shops in the vicinity. However, when worshippers visit the tomb, the shops close early – some two hours before the visitors arrive.

“By 8 P.M., we start taking in our merchandise and get ready to close. The young people begin burning tires and erect barriers such as stone and iron,” one 24-year-old neighborhood resident told Salma a-Deb’i, a researcher for the Israeli anti-occupation human rights organization B’Tselem.

The article notes that the buses normally arrive at 11 PM - specifically to minimize any disruption to the lives of the residents. How many shops are open at 11 PM?

As this snippet shows, the problem is not the visitors - it is the Palestinian terrorists who are determined to stop Jews from peacefully visiting. The IDF must protect the visitors from the terrorists. But to Haaretz, Palestinian terror is a given, and the "militant youth" cannot be held responsible for disrupting the lives of the residents of Nablus by erecting makeshift roadblocks and shooting towards the buses.

There are two choices: Protect a Jewish holy spot, or surrender to the demands of Palestinian terrorists who demand that the site be Jew-free.

Haaretz says that Palestinian demands trump Jewish ties to our sacred spaces. To Haaretz, the most violent Palestinian armed thug should have veto power over anything Jews do, Oslo or no Oslo.

So by that logic, Jews should never visit the Temple Mount, or Tomb of the Patriarchs, or indeed any Jewish holy place that was also claimed by Muslims many centuries later - which is all of them.

It may be a strange concept, but the people responsible for violence are the people who engage in violence, not those who defend the would-be victims.

If the Palestinians weren't by and large antisemitic, there would be no issue of Jews visiting Joseph's Tomb.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

By their own success criteria, BDS has been a massive failure

The website for the BDS Movement has a FAQ section that asks, "What has the BDS movement achieved so far?"

The very top achievement is listed as:

BDS was a major factor behind the 46% drop in foreign direct investment in Israel in 2014, according to a UN report.

How have direct investments in Israel done since then?

If BDS is taking credit for the 46% drop in direct investment in 2014 then the 255% increase since then must be viewed as a huge BDS failure.

Also, the UN report did not say what BDS claims. It quoted a Newsweek article which in turn quoted a YNet article where one of the authors of the report said:

"We believe that what led to the drop in investment in Israel are Operation Protective Edge and the boycotts Israel is facing," Dr. Roni Manos of the College of Management and one of the authors of the report's summary told Ynet. According to her, these are only conjectures that can explain the sharp decline, but there is another reason. "In the past there were large transactions such as Waze and ISCAR Metalworking which boosted investment, but over the past year there were not enough such deals.

So BDS is not only trying to hide the statistics since 2014 that disprove its "victory," it even lied about the reason for the 2014 anomalous decline itself.

The BDS Movement FAQ goes on:

A Rand Corporation study predicts BDS could reduce Israel’s GDP “by 1 to 2 percent” annually over the next 10 years.

That Rand study says, "Historical evidence from other countries suggests that financial and trade sanctions associated with boycott, divestment, and sanctions could reduce GDP by 1 to 2 percent. "

In other words, it was a wild guess for the purposes of making economic forecasts based on various scenarios, not a prediction for Israel.

Rand wrote that in 2015. How has Israel's GDP done since then?

Israel's GDP increased from $314 billion in 2014 to $488 billion in 2021, an increase of 55% and an average increase of nearly 8% a year.

It doesn't appear that BDS has hurt the Israeli economy at all. On the contrary, Israel has thrived and BDS has not affected it in the least.

By the Israel-haters' own standards, on their own FAQ today, BDS has failed.

Now, I have said that economic damage is not really BDS' aim - demonization of Israel is. By that criterion, they have been successful. But part of that success is because they have been lying about Israel to the world and too many people are believing them.

Here we see that they lie repeatedly to make themselves look successful, when by any economic criteria they have been an abject failure.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

04/22 Links: Paris court hands Canadian life term in absentia for 1980 synagogue blast; s trial to start, Pittsburgh Jews find renewed purpose in mourning synagogue attack

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Israel at 75: How the Jewish state compares to other countries

In 1851, 75 years after the US Declaration of Independence, a crowd gathered in the shadow of the US Capitol. They had come to lay a cornerstone for the expansion of the building. An architect had been chosen by president Millard Fillmore. Thomas U. Walter, a Philadelphia architect, was chosen. A cornerstone would be laid to mark the beginning of construction of the new part of the building, at the northeast corner of the House wing.

This would be an extension of the building first begun in 1793. Supposedly, the same trowel that president George Washington had used back in the day, was used in 1851 to mark the occasion.

Several men who had served in the Revolutionary War were in attendance. They must have been only teens in the war. That might not have been so rare; Andrew Jackson had served in the war as a kid. He’d been president in the 1830s and died in 1845. This was only a few years later.

America must have seemed at peace in those days. A year before a crisis in the country had been averted by a major legislative compromise.

California, recently acquired from Mexico by the war of 1846-48, wanted to join the US as a new state. It did not want to have slavery, and this created a dispute among the states that had slavery and those that did not. A compromise enabled California to join and called to abolish the slave trade in Washington, DC. But the deal also strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, which required slaves to be returned from free states to the South. The compromisers were hailed as having averted some kind of civil war. So in 1851, when the Capitol was being extended, all seemed well. But in fact they had only postponed the inevitable; a civil war between the states was coming, and it would arrive by the end of the decade.

In Israel the country recently experienced mass protests over the government’s attempt to overhaul the judiciary. There were rumors that the recent protests could lead to a real national crisis and civil conflict. The defense minister warned of the fissures growing in society.

Now it appears that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has climbed down temporarily from the judicial reform. This may lead to a compromise, but as the lessons in the US show, we must be wary of a compromise that only puts off worse to come. On the other hand, we should acknowledge that 75 years after Israel’s founding in 1948, the country is incredibly secure and powerful compared to what has befallen many other countries in their first 75 years.

House group introduces bipartisan bill honoring 75-year US-Israeli partnership

Four House members introduced a bill recognizing the longtime partnership between the United States and Israel in promoting peace in the Middle East.

Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Kathy Manning (D-N.C.)—who are Abraham Accords Caucus leaders—co-sponsored the bill. “Every time we work with Israel, both of our countries are better off for it, including with the transformational Abraham Accords,” stated McCaul.

Wagner added that Israel is one of the closest allies and friends of the United States.

“We are committed to strengthening that vital bond,” she said.

“For 75 years, the United States and Israel have built an extraordinary and enduring alliance based on our shared interests and fundamental values” added Manning. “Israel is our most important, most reliable and only democratic ally in the region.”

Remembrance Day: How can Israel eradicate terror? - opinion

DO YOU remember the circus act where a juggler is balancing numerous plates on sticks? The plates are all spinning, and the juggler rushes from one plate to another to keep them spinning so they don’t all crash to the ground. That pretty much describes our current situation: We are indeed a strong country, but we live in a very fragile environment with lots of plates spinning.

We are surrounded by hostile neighbors and must keep them at bay, all the while seeking alliances with our more friendly neighbors. We must cultivate relationships with nations in the West, whose support we need, while at the same time retaining our independence and our national pride. We have to satisfy the secular, the religious, the Sephardim, the Ashkenazim, the wealthy and the poor. We have to keep salaries high, and the cost of living low. We must be everywhere, all at once.

But if and when the spinning plates start to fall, the frenzied juggler can do little to save them. And that is our situation; the plates are crashing all around us. The world’s leading economists, in Israel and abroad, declare that the proposed judicial reform will have disastrous consequences, as indicated by the lowering of our credit rating this week. Interest rates rise as the value of the shekel plummets, and hi-tech companies – a major source of our collective wealth – seek safer shores to house their products and invest their funds.

Meanwhile, our relations with other countries, both near and far, are fast eroding. We have caused rifts between ourselves and the US, Britain and the EU; Jordan is upset at the ill-conceived statements foolishly made about them; Saudi Arabia has turned away from reconciliation with us and moved closer to Iran; Turkey’s President Erdogan is again demonizing us after a short lull; and even our newest friends, the Emiratis, are thinking twice about doing business with us. All the while, the terror groups within and outside Israel gather together to plot our demise, God forbid.

Most threatening of all, of course, is the unprecedented sense of disunity and distrust of government that today permeates every corner of the land. And it shows no sign whatsoever of easing.

The ancient (some would say modern!) Chinese were ruled by all-powerful emperors, who had absolute control of the country and everyone in it. But there was an unwritten yet unbreakable covenant that held fast: If the basic needs of the people – their security, their safety, their ability to provide food and shelter for their family – were not met, then the emperor was deposed by the masses (and generally executed).

Similarly, even in democratic countries, if the needs of the people are not satisfied, if push truly comes to shove, the people will persevere, and change will inevitably be made, for survival trumps even democracy.

As we face yet another Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Victims of Terrorism and mourn the 24,068 fallen soldiers and 4,216 victims of terror, we must pledge to honor these holy neshamot (souls). We must act so that their deaths were not in vain, doing everything in our power to eradicate terrorism and its adherents. We must project to the world our vitality and unique character. Most of all, we must diligently seek compromise and conciliation with one another, placing the nation and its citizens above any individual person or party.

Then let each one of us pray to the Almighty for peace and prosperity in our wonderful, Old-New Land and State of Israel. Am Yisrael chai!

Who’s Bad? Review of 'Bad Jews' by Emily Tamkin

Emily Tamkin’s Bad Jews is a progressive young American Jewish woman’s exploration of some nagging questions: What makes a good American Jew? And, correlatively, What makes a bad one? Tamkin, an editor at the New Statesman, engages them through historical inquiry, literary analysis, and her own ruminations on immigration, geopolitics, race, and so much more. She comes to an unsurprising answer: There is no way to say what makes a bad Jew, or what distinguishes a good Jew, because Jewish identity is infinitely malleable and always changing.

Tamkin’s structural choices shape her study. Rather than proceeding chronologically (seeing how the notion of a Bad Jew developed over time) or denominationally (by identifying distinct traditions within American Jewry and assessing how each thinks of Good-, Bad-, and Not-a-Jew), she mixes and matches her chapters from historical, political, and sociological categories. She explores the emergent fault lines within each category, tracking the myriad things on which Jews disagree—needless to say, comprehensiveness on this front is impossible—from Communism to the importance of bourgeois norms to Zionism.

The scattered structure and lack of rigor end up dooming the project from the start. Unmoored from the restraints that could hold her to account for maintaining her objectivity, Tamkin descends into left-wing platitudes—chiefly an obsession with “whiteness” that she never quite explains, but also half-hearted defenses of Soviet spies and, wherever needed, the Democratic Party—and tired progressive non-judgmentalism. Neither systematic enough to be a serious work of history nor bold enough to work as a pop-sociological provocation, Bad Jews is a book about Jewish identity marked by several identity crises. It wants to be critical of the Jews she clearly thinks are “bad,” but it’s committed to treating all things as equally Jewish; it wants to analyze the particularistic while maintaining Tamkin’s universalistic bona fides; it aims for objectivity but slides into hackneyed leftism without realizing. What it ends up doing is either trailing off before each story ends or reciting the kind of pablum you would expect from a mediocre progressive candidate for public office when asked what her Jewishness means to her.

Tamkin’s style lands somewhere between that of a dispassionate academic and an activist whose only training was reading Robin DiAngelo. Her writing is speckled with superscripts directing you to the endnotes as if she were engaged in scholarly pursuits, but she frequently makes journalistic moves we would never allow a scholar to make. She draws on interviews she conducted with supposed subject-matter experts without explaining how or why she chose them. Some appear to just be Tamkin’s progressive friends, and some are her family. Some insights are presented as Tamkin sharing what went on in her own mind during various conversations, despite her own admission that she has so little grounding in Jewish things that she might not be the right person to write this book. (She is half-right; no one is.) In Tamkinville, talking to yourself is a scholarly pursuit.

Oren Kessler, Author of Palestine 1936 in Conversation with Steven Turner

On Yom Hashoah we remember our sacred martyrs killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. One of the reasons they were able to kill so many is because Jews trying to flee the impending catastrophe had no place that would accept them. Just as war was breaking out and the Jewish plight became more desperate, Great Britain closed the gates of Palestine with its infamous White Paper of 1939. Why did that happen and how did it come about?

Oren Kessler in his new book, Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict tells the story.

Oren is a journalist and political analyst based in Tel Aviv. He has served as deputy director for research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, Middle East research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London, Arab affairs correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, and an editor and translator at the Haaretz English edition.

Raised in Rochester, New York, and Tel Aviv, he holds a BA in history from the University of Toronto and an MA in diplomacy and conflict studies from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya).Kessler’s work has appeared in media outlets such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Politico.

You know the old conceit? "If the Biden admin was actively trying to XYZ what would it be doing differently?"

I told ChatGPT to pretend it was a staffer in 2021 in a Dem admin deliberately trying to hollow out and reverse the Abraham Accords. And, well.

Also read the punchline. pic.twitter.com/GQV0BrSp1L
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) April 21, 2023

State Department condemns ‘rhetoric’ used by Israeli consul general nominee

At the U.S. State Department’s daily press briefing on Thursday, Said Arikat, who reports for a Palestinian paper and has a history of anti-Israel attacks disguised as questions, asked about May Golan, just tapped to be Israeli consul general in New York.

Golan “has previously described herself as a ‘proud racist,’ ” said Arikat. He asked if the State Department has concerns about credentialing her.

Vedant Patel, Foggy Bottom’s principal deputy spokesperson, referred questions about Israeli personnel announcements to Jerusalem. “But broadly, we would condemn such kind of rhetoric and believe that such kind of language is also particularly damaging when it’s amplified in leadership positions,” he said.

Arikat also asked about Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s recent Israel visit and about a U.S. citizen, whom he said was recently released from Israeli detention.

Israeli-Ukrainian Volunteer Captured and Killed by Russian Forces

An Israeli-Ukrainian was captured and executed by Russian forces in the Ukraine, where he was a volunteer for the Ukrainian army fighting against the invasion by its neighbor. Oleksandr Dubovik was reportedly killed in Bakhmut in December.

It is understood Dubovik was residing in Israel with his wife and two children before the war broke out in early 2022, which pushed him to return to his native Ukraine and fight against the invading military.

His age was not known as of this reporting.

On December 23, Oleksandr Dubovik "Partyzan" was seriously wounded when his unit was ambushed near Bakhmut. ruzZian soldiers found him & executed him.
He was born in Dnipro but moved to Israel before the war with his family.
Hero 🇺🇦 🇮🇱#lviv #RussianWarCrimes pic.twitter.com/0G8rMkoEhC
— TheLvivJournal (@LvivJournal) April 22, 2023

Paris court hands Canadian life term in absentia for 1980 synagogue blast

A Paris court on Friday sentenced Lebanese-Canadian citizen Hassan Diab to life in prison in absentia for the 1980 bombing of a synagogue in which four people died.

The court followed prosecutors’ request for the maximum possible punishment against Diab, now 69 and a university professor in Canada.

Prosecutors had said in their summing-up that there was “no possible doubt” that Diab, the only suspect, was behind the attack.

In the early evening of October 3, 1980, explosives placed on a motorcycle detonated close to a synagogue in Rue Copernic in Paris’s chic 16th district, killing a student passing by on a motorbike, a driver, an Israeli journalist and a caretaker.

Forty-six were injured in the blast.

The bombing was the first deadly attack against a Jewish target on French soil since World War II.

No organization ever claimed responsibility but police suspected a splinter group of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

French intelligence in 1999 accused Diab, a sociology professor, of having made the 10-kilogram (22-pound) bomb.

Canada’s Trudeau considers next steps as citizen convicted for Paris synagogue blast

Canada is considering its next steps after a Paris court on Friday convicted a Lebanese-Canadian sociology professor in absentia for the 1980 bombing of a synagogue in the French capital, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

Hassan Diab, now 69 and a resident of Canada, faces life in prison in France. But he and his supporters want Ottawa to reject any new requests for his extradition.

“We will look carefully at next steps, at what the French government chooses to do, at what French tribunals choose to do,” Trudeau told a news conference.

But, he added, “we will always be there to stand up for Canadians and their rights.”

Diab, speaking to reporters in Ottawa, reacted to the verdict by calling it “Kafkaesque” and “not fair.” “We’d hoped reason would prevail,” he added.

Diab also urged Trudeau to honor his past statement about the case, which appeared to pour cold water on ever sending Diab back to France, after the first extradition took six years.

UN Suggestion To Recognize Taliban Sparks Backlash, Backpedaling

Suggestions from U.N. leadership that the international body could recognize the Taliban government of Afghanistan met with strong backlash from the United States and other allies. Now the United Nations is backpedaling its statement.

In a seminar at Princeton University on Monday, U.N. deputy secretary general Amina Mohammed said that discussing official recognition for the Afghan terrorist group, which took over Afghanistan two years ago after the Biden administration's botched military withdrawal, is on the agenda for a U.N.-hosted May meeting in Doha, Qatar.

"We hope that we will find those baby steps to put us back on the pathway to recognition … of the Taliban," Mohammed said. "In other words, there are conditions."

U.S. officials quickly responded, saying that discussing a Taliban seat at the United Nations was "unacceptable" and never the "intent and purpose of this meeting." The office of U.N. secretary general António Guterres reassured reporters in New York that the Taliban's recognition is not on the agenda.

"The Doha conference on the 1st and 2nd of May is not focusing on recognition and we don't want there to be any confusion about that," U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. "The point of discussion … is to build a more unified consensus on the challenges at hand."

The U.N. General Assembly in December shelved for the second time the decision to recognize the Taliban and allow the terrorist group's leaders to appoint a U.N. ambassador. Granting the Taliban a seat means that the terrorist group would inherit Afghanistan's current seat on the U.N. women's rights commission, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Since taking over the Afghan government, the radical Islamic group has stripped women and girls of their rights to work and go to school.

"Under no circumstance should the United States, or any other country, vote to recognize the Taliban at the United Nations," former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in November. "It should not be a difficult decision to keep a group of terrorists out of an organization founded to maintain peace and security."

The Israel Guys: The TRUTH About What is Happening in Gaza

Today we are going to talk about Gaza, specifically activists' claims that Israel is testing weapons on civilians.

Have you ever seen a cow in a convenience store? Well some Israelis did this week!

Documentation of an attempted shooting attack on IDF soldiers a few weeks ago in the West Bank. The shooters, Saud al-Titi and Muhammed Dira were killed in the attack. pic.twitter.com/ZIwa0Ygd0l
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 22, 2023

So: these guys are ultra orthodox anti zionists, they are not Bibi‘s allies and they are tearing down the flag because they are against the state of Israel and its symbols, nothing to do with the “appropriation” of the flag by the opposition. But you know all that.
— Boaz Arad ?? (@aradboaz) April 22, 2023

The Palestinian Resistance Axis Converges with the Iran-Hezbollah Axis

Conclusions and Recommendations
The escalation in multiple arenas illustrates the convergence of the Palestinian axis, which relies on Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with the Iran-Hezbollah axis, which seeks to gain control of the Palestinian struggle in Israel, as per its needs, while at the same time expanding its response to Israeli attacks against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria by encouraging and strengthening Palestinian terror against Israel (by linking the arenas and smuggling arms and money). The timing of the escalation is directly connected to the internal crisis in Israel and reflects increased temerity by its enemies, and their attempt to examine whether Israel’s resilience has weakened, creating an opportunity to change the rules of the game.

The convergence of the axes has several aims, including:
1. Limiting Israel to operations within its own borders by increasing security instability and terror within its territory, in order to allow continued consolidation of the Iran-Hezbollah axis in the northern arena and removal of obstacles from Iran’s path to attain nuclear capability and at the same time reducing the concerns about Israeli attempts to prevent it.
2. Strengthening the Lebanon-based militant wing of Hamas that is establishing a terror infrastructure under the Hezbollah deterrence umbrella, so that it can instigate terror attacks in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and elsewhere in Israel and from southern Lebanon, and overcome the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip led by Yahya Sinwar, which is focused on reconstruction of Gaza and subject to Egyptian influence.
3. Expediting the end of the era of the Palestinian Authority in its current form.
4. Stirring up Arab citizens of Israel regarding the Israeli government’s conduct in the al-Aqsa compound, in order to cause upheaval in the Arab street in Israel.
5. Harming normalization processes between Israel and Arab states and causing fissures in Israel’s peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt.

If the Israeli government’s policy of containment continues, its enemies will continue to try to dictate the rules of the game. If the agents of chaos within the Israeli government are not restrained and continue to fan tension flames on the Temple Mount and in the Palestinian arena, in parallel with the internal struggle over democracy, the Shiite axis may gain control over the Palestinian resistance axis and lead to provocative and challenging joint actions against Israel.

Accordingly, the Israeli government must reduce polarization and tension within Israeli society, perceived by enemies of Israel as undermining its ability to confront them in all arenas. At the same time, Israel must ease the tension in the Palestinian arena, adhere to the status quo on the Temple Mount, as per the decision reached regarding the last ten days of Ramadan, and continue in the efforts to strengthen the Palestinian Authority and the security coordination. In this way Israel will be able to focus on the three levels, namely: restoring the rules of the game vis-à-vis Hezbollah in Lebanon, while reexamining the “mutual deterrence equation” that prevents Israel from operating against Hamas’s terror infrastructure in Lebanon; stopping Iran’s march to a nuclear capability, its consolidation in the northern arena, and its efforts to gain control over the Palestinian struggle in Israel; and undermining Hamas’s growing status in the Palestinian arena.

Israel Confiscates Dozens of Digital Accounts Dealing with Hamas

Israel’s National Commission for Combating Economic Terrorism succeeded in exposing hundreds of wallets and dozens of digital accounts, which were traded with money changers previously declared terrorist organizations by Israel, due to their involvement in money laundering and transferring money to Hamas.

The operation included the seizure of over 80 digital accounts and hundreds of digital wallets that maintain contacts with exchange companies providing services for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Namely, the United Exchange Company, the Dubai Exchange Office in Gaza and Al-Weraq Exchange Company.

The law allows for the confiscation of money from people dealing with changers that have been declared terrorist organizations. As soon as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant signed the order, half a million shekels ($135,500) were seized from the digital accounts. The Binance cryptocurrency exchange company that maintains these wallets and accounts will transfer the money to the state coffer.

Palestinian Hamas, Fatah supporters clash at Temple Mount - report

Violent clashes broke out on Friday afternoon between Hamas and Fatah supporters at the Temple Mount, according to a report by N12.

Rioters hung a banner with an image of Palestinian militant Mohammed Deif, the report said, with the inscription "The real promise of liberation is approaching."

Videos of the clashes were posted on social media.

Earlier Hamas-Fatah clashes
On Tuesday, a Palestinian youth from Nablus was documented waving a Fatah flag - to which Hamas supporters surrounded him and threw stones, water bottles and shoes at him, according to N12.

"Eid al-Fitr this year has a special meaning after the battle of our people in the month of Ramadan in all arenas," N12 quoted Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem as saying. "The battle for the identity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque is still open and the conflict will not end."

It was also reported this week that a Hamas delegation visited Saudi Arabia after years of tensions, according to Palestinian media.

In Jerusalem, Palestinian terrorists interrupted Muslims praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque earlier today.

On the Temple Mount, Fatah supporters and Hamas supporters fought running battles.

It is guaranteed that Israel will be blamed over the next week. pic.twitter.com/5xyPebYGgj
— RedBrasco - RedLehi (@redbrasco) April 21, 2023

more than 16 years, escaped his prison in #Nablus today, and fled to #Jenin.#PA-affiliated channels claim that he was given a two-hour vacation for the holiday and that he used it to get to Jenin (which has become somewhat of a haven for fugitives and militants -... (2/3)
— AbuAliEnglish (@AbuAliEnglishB1) April 22, 2023

Islamic Jihad: Israel will pay 'heavy price' if senior official dies in prison

Khader Adnan, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) official in the West Bank, has been on hunger strike in Israeli prison for 77 days, his family said over the weekend.

Adnan, 44, was one of the organizers of recent hunger strikes launched by Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli jails.

A mass hunger strike by the security prisoners that was supposed to begin on March 22 was called off at the last minute after the inmates claimed they reached an understanding with the Israel Prison Service. The hunger strike was called to protest a series of “punitive measures” imposed on the prisoners, including reducing the time for showers and closing bakeries managed by the inmates.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club and the family warned that Adnan, who was arrested by the Israeli security forces on February 5, was in critical condition and could die at any moment.

Adnan, a resident of the town of Arrabeh, near Jenin, went on a hunger strike immediately after his arrest. Khader Adnan (credit: REUTERS)

Members of Islamic Jihad's branch in Jenin, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hamas celebrate Eid al-Fitr. pic.twitter.com/zCYGsuCjH2
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 21, 2023

Mind you, a lot of Gaza restaurants have been renovated in recent weeks. And I mean A LOT! Now this. I smell a rat. A terror-tunnels-connected-to-restaurants rat...??@abualiexpress1 https://t.co/4ZUTHNpqqa
— Imshin (@imshin) April 22, 2023

More footage of the bus falling into a hole on Salah a-Din St. Zeitoun Gaza City, outside Al-Sada Shafout Restaurant. #TheGazaYouDontSee https://t.co/HQBMPCWSAn pic.twitter.com/XI3DERUzTo
— Imshin (@imshin) April 22, 2023

Grand opening of Shawarma Kareem on Shuhadaa St. Gaza City with Dr. Mofeed al-Hassayna, Hamas Minister of Public Works and Housing. Also, see Gaza influencer Abu Jood stuffing his face #TheGazaYouDontSee https://t.co/JUM14TSDGg https://t.co/qf2vgj0XqU https://t.co/DFuhhjYJTN pic.twitter.com/wELuXxfhhD
— Imshin (@imshin) April 22, 2023

Al-Saada (Happiness) Land resort, restaurant and swimming pool, Khan Younes, south Gaza Strip, Palestine invites Gazans to come celebrate Eid al-Fitr with them. #TheGazaYouDontSee https://t.co/wpYsOmLr8f https://t.co/y80XUnKRtz pic.twitter.com/8m4VouLRel
— Imshin (@imshin) April 21, 2023

Biden Administration Still Negotiating a Secret 'Deal' with Iran: As Many Nuclear Weapons as They Like?

Nothing seems to stop the Biden administration from wanting to reward the ruling mullahs of Iran with a nuclear deal that will pave the way for the Islamist regime of Iran legally to obtain as many nuclear weapons as it likes, empower the ruling mullahs with billions of dollars, lift sanctions against their theocratic regime, allow them to rejoin the global financial system and enhance their legitimacy on the global stage.

These benefits presumably include further enabling the regime's ruthless expansion throughout the Middle East -- Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip -- and into Latin America.

"The Americans are keeping their desire to negotiate with the Islamic Republic [to revive the nuclear deal] in secret in the midst of denial and silence". — Independent Persian, February 23, 2023.

In addition, Iran, called by the US Department of State a "top sponsor of state terrorism," has been ratcheting up its presence and terror cells in Latin America while using the continent as a sanctuary.

During the Biden administration, the Iranian regime has also attempted to assassinate US officials on American soil.

Even The Washington Post pointed out that the attempted kidnappings should be a serious warning to the Biden administration: "The message for the Biden administration, which has frequently proclaimed its intention to defend pro-democracy dissidents, is that Iran and other foreign dictatorships won't shrink from launching attacks inside the United States unless deterred..."

Instead, the Biden administration remains silent and evidently still wants to reward the mullahs with the nuclear deal and it continues to see "diplomacy" -- read: appeasement -- as the only path to deal with the Iranian regime.

Nothing.... seems to be deterring the Biden administration from trying to give the Islamist regime of Iran the ultimate gift: unlimited nuclear weapons.

48 former generals, admirals call for US to arm Israel against nuclear Iran

A month after the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) issued a letter signed by 44 retired U.S. generals and admirals that called on the United States to arm Israel against the threat of a nuclear Iran, the entity reissued the text with four new signatories.

The updated letter, which also appeared in The Hill, urges: “To confront this pressing high-priority threat, the United States should immediately provide Israel with the advanced weapons it needs to deter and prevent a nuclear Iran.”

On April 18, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi proclaimed his desire to “destroy Haifa and Tel Aviv” should Israel take even the “smallest action” against the Islamic regime.

Good news everyone. The US and other global powers are in "lock step" on hairstroking Iran, as a matter of policy, while Iran enables Putin attacking Ukraine.

It's not that Team Biden doesn't want Ukraine to win. It's just that they want to reenter a nuclear deal with Iran more. https://t.co/ibHs2v4eOc
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) April 21, 2023

There is no more evil, ruthless, destructive terrorist organization than #IRGC! https://t.co/QWRA1pc4C2
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 22, 2023

A video going viral today shows Iranians in Mashhad, one of the most religious cities, chanting:

“Long live Israel, Down with Palestine.” pic.twitter.com/Ymdr6u3KIM
— Adam Albilya - ??? ??????? (@AdamAlbilya) April 22, 2023

Israel is the only country in the Middle East, where local communities have given public recognition to the Iranian women who are fighting against the barbaric rules of Ayatollahs.
Thank you so much dear @nic_jansezian for your amazing work. https://t.co/3upRsw4wa2 pic.twitter.com/dmTk77BfmO
— Marziyeh Amirizadeh ????? ????? ???? (@MAmirizadeh) April 22, 2023

Stanford Daily: Confronting antisemitism

Students targeted and harassed for their identity feel marginalized, distrustful and isolated from the campus community. We are disheartened that the victim of one recent antisemitic incident shared that his experience was “really making this living situation feel pretty hostile…” and that “it’s very unsettling thinking that [he] was in [his] room sleeping and someone was outside of [his] door doing this.” We cannot help but be concerned that this will irrevocably tar this student’s experience at our esteemed institution.

We believe that it is the responsibility of Stanford University — including ourselves as scholars and educators — to foster a campus climate where all students feel welcome and included, free from bigotry, intimidation and harassment. Thus, we call on our university’s leadership, and our fellow faculty, to double down on confronting antisemitism at Stanford and creating the supportive learning environment that our Jewish students deserve.

This will require a sustained effort to understand the scope of the problem, engage a broad array of stakeholders, and educate the campus community about the roots and consequences of one of the oldest and most widespread forms of hate. We stand ready to lend our academic expertise to this necessary task. In addition, many educational organizations, such as the Academic Engagement Network, in which we are members, and Hillel International, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and others now have excellent resources, trainings, best practices and professional development opportunities and programs that we can utilize in our effort.

Our institution, to its credit, has a track record of confronting antisemitism. This past fall, a report was released detailing Stanford’s deliberate limitation of Jewish enrollment in the mid-twentieth century. President Tessier-Lavigne forthrightly apologized “to the Jewish community, and to our entire university community, both for the actions documented in this report to suppress the admission of Jewish students in the 1950s and for the university’s denials of those actions in the period that followed,” and stated that “these actions were wrong. They were damaging. And they were unacknowledged for too long.” We hope this courageous work of self-reflection and education will continue in the wake of these most recent incidents of vandalism and harassment.

In this spirit, we are proud to endorse the words of Stanford Hillel’s Rabbi Jessica Kirschner, as she exhorts: “Let us ensure that our campus is united by its own founding and current mottos: a place dedicated to truth and service, where the winds of freedom blow for all who are part of this ever-flourishing community.”

Parent files complaint against New Jersey education board official’s anti-Israel screeds

Sahar Aziz, vice president of the Westfield Board of Education and a professor at Rutgers University, has expressed anti-Israel views on social media and by signing a public manifesto that calls Israel “apartheid” and refers to “racial supremacy of Jewish-Zionist nationals.”

That’s according to a formal complaint that Stephanie Siegel, a mother in Westfield, N.J., filed with the New Jersey School Ethics Commission. The Deborah Project assisted in the effort.

Aziz’s published views “grossly violate” the state requirement that education officials refrain from making remarks that suggest “apparent bias,” which might discourage the public from engaging with the board, according to the nonprofit Deborah Project.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus, legal director of the Deborah Project, told JNS that Aziz hasn’t been able to implement her antisemitic views in educational policy.

“Whether or not Aziz has yet followed through on her commitment to support BDS and insert the Palestinian narrative into policy in the Westfield School District as yet, the fact that she has committed to do that is enough to justify a complaint,” she said.

“What’s more, the inflammatory and false narrative attested to by Ms. Aziz in the manifesto she signed makes clear her animus towards Jews and the Jewish state,” added Lowenthal Marcus. “Such publicly expressed animus in a board of education member, let alone one who is an officer, violates both New Jersey law and common decency.”

Literally yes https://t.co/mIKgTqHAPE pic.twitter.com/4PBuZKBsXe
— neuroticjewishgay (@neuroticjewgay) April 21, 2023

Allowing @amnesty to define antisemitism is like allowing Ted Bundy to instruct the jury in his own trial. https://t.co/R3js4HgEfF
— Samawal Foundations (@Samawal_LLC) April 21, 2023

Patterns of Antisemitism in Mainstream Media Comment Threads. Case Studies of the UK, France and Germany

With the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine just passed, we are seeing many analyses of how the war has affected the lives of people in Ukraine, Russia and – albeit less directly – the UK over the past twelve months. Examples of its impact are many and complex, but one that probably does not immediately come to mind is a shift in antisemitic hate speech in British online media. And yet, there is compelling evidence that mainstream media coverage of the invasion has boosted the levels of antisemitism – especially Israel-related – in online comments sections, and that they may be particularly high in the UK.

When the news of the invasion broke at the end of February 2022, it soon became clear that the issue would dominate the media in the UK and Europe. To researchers of online antisemitism, it was also quickly obvious that it would provide ample material for analysis. In the regularly published discourse reports prepared by our team at the Decoding Antisemitism project (based at the Centre for Research on Antisemitism at TU Berlin and funded by the Alfred Landecker Foundation) we analyse thousands of online reactions, to this and other events which have triggered a spike in antisemitism levels in the comments sections in the UK, as well as France and Germany.

Our recent report showcases findings from two internationally covered events, the invasion of Ukraine and the eruption of terrorist violence in Israel in the spring of 2022. We also take a closer look at several country-specific cases from the past months: in the UK, the writer Sally Rooney’s boycott of Israeli publishers; in France, the Pegasus spyware affair; and in Germany, the controversies surrounding the singer Gil Ofarim and the reactions to some of the artwork on display at the documenta 15 exhibition. This may seem like an eclectic list of contents – it spans three countries, a few dozen news outlets, hundreds of online comment threads, and a range of topics from culture, to technology, to foreign politics – but it turns out to be rather coherent when it comes to the results of the analysis. What the events have in common is not just the fact that they have all generated antisemitic commentary, but also that most of the antisemitism revolves around the themes of delegitimisation, demonisation, and dehumanisation of Jews and Israel, either by openly rehashing classic tropes or by employing new strategies. Some comments imply antisemitic meaning through creative use of words, emoticons or punctuation, others look innocent on the surface because they use irony or are phrased as a question. Many simply acquire an antisemitic undertone only in the context of the thread. Our research shows how antisemitism can attach itself to virtually any issue, reach a broad spectrum of audiences, and lurk not just in the dark corners of the internet but in plain sight.

Terrorist propaganda broadcast from Britain

Two exiled Egyptian television presenters who found a safe haven in Britain are using it as a base to wage a “jihad of words”, glorifying terror and broadcasting anti-Israeli propaganda to an audience of millions, a JC investigation has revealed.

Broadcasting from Britain, Osama Gaweesh — who was granted asylum by the Home Office after entering the country in 2018 — claimed that Arab leaders who have friendly relations with Israel are “puppets of the Jewish lobby” and defended Hamas as “the resistance”.

And this month, the television station set up by his colleague Moataz Matar — a former prominent Egyptian sports journalist with 20 million followers on social media, who has also taken refuge in Britain — called the murder of former Radlett Rabbi Leo Dee’s wife and daughters “an operation by the resistance” online.

Between them, the firebrand presenters regularly reach millions of viewers via satellite TV and their social media channels.

Despite having a track record of celebrating acts of terrorist violence, Gaweesh, who says he has recently worked for the BBC and ITV, was given refuge in Britain by the Home Office after arriving in 2018.

His asylum was approved by officials even though he has publicly backed the armed wing of Hamas, outlawed by the British government since 2001, and claimed Israel “will burn at the hands of the heroes of the Muslim world”. It is not known if Matar has also been granted asylum.

This isn't an online news magazine. It is a propaganda machine that spreads lies about history.

Haifa was a battle the Arabs started, wanted and lost. Half ran long before and 1000s of foreign Arab fighters there wouldn't accept a truce.

Stop lying!https://t.co/CeGHc4jFVQ
— David Collier (@mishtal) April 22, 2023

As trial to start, Pittsburgh Jews find renewed purpose in mourning synagogue attack

Three Jewish congregations, resolute in their defiance of the hatred that tried to destroy them, are still waiting for justice.

But united in their horror and grief, they haven’t been standing still as the criminal case for the massacre that changed everything has crawled through the federal court system.

Four and a half years ago, a gunman invaded the Tree of Life synagogue on a Sabbath morning and killed 11 worshippers from the three congregations that shared the building — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life. The shooting, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood at the heart of Jewish Pittsburgh, was the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history.

On Monday, jury selection is scheduled to begin in the long-delayed trial of the suspect, accused of dozens of charges including hate crimes resulting in death.

The three congregations are wary of what’s to come. Some members may be called to testify, and they’re bracing for graphic evidence and testimony that could revive the traumas of the October 27, 2018, attack — often referred to around here as simply 10/27.

The tension can be felt in private conversations and encounters — the griefs, the anxieties, the feelings of being in a media fishbowl.

Austria’s Turkish and Arabic speakers ‘more antisemitic' than the rest of the population

Austrians with Turkish or Arab backgrounds have “far stronger antisemitic attitudes” than the rest of the population, according to a new report.

The study into antisemitism in Austria — the third of its kind since 2018 — was commissioned by the Austrian parliament.

A majority of Turkish and Arabic speakers, 53 per cent, agreed with the statement that “Jews control the global economy” compared to 36 per cent of Austrians in general and 26 per cent of young Austrians.

And 53 per cent said that “Jews are exerting their influence over global media and politics to an ever-greater extent” and that “Jewish elites working for international companies are often behind current price rises”.

While surveying Austrians as a whole, the study focused on two control groups: Austrians aged 25 and under — the generation who came of age after Austria’s coming to terms with its Nazi past — and Turkish and Arabic speakers in Austria.

This group was in turn divided into two sections: 53 per cent were born and raised in Austria and educated in the Austrian school system, while 47 per cent were migrants from Turkey and the wider Middle East.

As concerns the Middle East, 57 per cent of Turkish and Arabic-speaking respondents said that “Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is fundamentally no different to the way Germans treated Jews during the Second World War” compared to 30 per cent of Austrians in general.

Junior doctor leader who joked on Twitter about gassing 'the Jews' is suspended from British Medical Association which has described his comments as 'totally unacceptable' in email to its members

A junior doctors leader who joked on Twitter about gassing 'the Jews' has been suspended from his roles at the British Medical Association (BMA).

Dr Martin Whyte, a deputy chair of the junior doctors' committee and a member of its executive, is facing a probe over a series of 'utterly vile' tweets.

The paediatrician used his account to promote videos that claim the holocaust was a hoax and called for people to boycott Israel 'out of spite'.

He also made jibes about the 'decomposing carcass of the Queen' and called Conservatives 'bastards', adding they should not be allowed to work as medics.

The BMA called his comments 'totally unacceptable' in an email to their members today. It said there was 'absolutely no place in the BMA for anti-Semitism'.

In an email to junior doctors last night, the BMA said: 'Dear member, We unfortunately have distressing information to share.

'Today we have discovered that a UK Junior Doctors Committee officer has made deeply troubling comments online that are anti-Semitic.

'There is absolutely no place in the BMA for anti-Semitism.

Eurovision: The ultimate display of Israeli patriotism

You may think that all those flags that have unfurled from porches and car windows over the last few days are in honor of Independence Day, which will be celebrated next week.

But, in essence, the annual festival of picnics, barbecues, visits to historical sites and hikes in nature are just the opening act for the ultimate display of Israeli patriotism – Eurovision.

You can claim to ignore it or relish in mocking the garish Euro-trashiness of it all, but come on… admit it. When those scores are read out from Liverpool sometime after midnight on May 13, you’ll be biting your nails along with the rest of us as each country hands out their tallies to their three favored songs.

That’s because, along with the Olympics and maybe the rare instance of an Israeli film or actor getting nominated for an Oscar, the Eurovision Song Contest is one of the few times that Israelis can feel unabashedly Israeli, with no strings attached. There’s no Right, Left, judicial reform or dysfunctional governments to consider; there’s only the glorious spectacle over substance, and boa feather costumes over content. That’s something we can all get behind for a night, no matter where we stand on the political map.

“People may say they don’t care, but deep down there’s a lot of pride there,” said Benny Dudkevitch, the veteran Israel Radio culture correspondent who has witnessed decades of Israeli Eurovision participation.

Robbie Williams thinks Israel is “f****** amazing”

“I speak to a lot of my fans on my website and the question ‘Where are you most excited to play?’ comes up a lot. I always say Israel.”

These were the words of Robbie Williams ahead of his first concert in Israel in 2015. And when the interviewer followed up with a withering, “Really, but why?” Robbie just kept going. “Because I am genuinely excited to go there. The people, the place and the history – there is an unspoken energy coming from the place.”

Every supportive word was another jarring slap in the face of a BDS supporter – and there were many who were opposed to his visit to the Jewish state. On social media and in column inches they reminded the entertainer that he was a UK UNICEF children’s ambassador and that, as such, by appearing in Israel would ‘normalise settler colonialism, war crimes… and apartheid?’.

Robbie took his dad Robert to Israel last time
But Williams verbally shrugged off the calls to stay away: “I have pressure from people not to appear in Blackpool. And I’m sure if enough people got together, they could start a petition demanding that they don’t want me to perform anywhere, ever. Because I offend their sensibilities.”

He certainly offended the sensibilities of Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, who unsurpris- ingly was one of his most strident critics. But it was Waters off a duck’s back as far as the former Take That star was concerned when he touched down at Ben Gurion International Airport on 30 April in his private Boeing jet, later telling his adoring 40,000 crowd: “Israel is f***ing amazing.”

And now, after infuriating the baying activists nine years ago, Robbie is fearlessly returning to Israel.On1 June, he is the big name at the Summer in the City festival at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park.

DeSantis Set To Visit Israel and Other US Allies Ahead of Expected 2024 Run

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is set to begin a trip abroad on Saturday taking him through Japan, South Korea, Israel and the United Kingdom.

While the trip is officially billed as a trade mission, the tour is widely seen as an attempt to burnish his foreign policy credentials in the lead-up to an official announcement, expected in the late spring or early summer.

The governor had said in March that the Ukraine War is a "territorial dispute" and that it is not of strategic interest to the United States, a position he has since partially walked back. Those comments provoked criticism from Democrats and many Republicans, though it is a stance he shares with about half of the party's base as well as Republican former President Donald Trump.

In Japan, DeSantis will meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi during his visit on April 24 and 25, the Japanese foreign ministry said. He is then slated to travel to Seoul, where he will meet with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, before continuing to Tel Aviv and London, where he will talk with a mix of government and business leaders.

Back home in Florida, there are signs he is beginning to build out a foreign policy apparatus. His political operation is in the process of bringing on Dustin Carmack, a cybersecurity and intelligence expert with significant foreign policy experience, said one person with knowledge of the matter.

Winston Churchills son visits Israel ???? 1955 pic.twitter.com/ZxE2LeLtp7
— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) April 22, 2023

You who say that the State of Israel is apartheid…
Tell that to the guy in this video, an Israeli Arab from Nazareth who completed a commander's course, later commanded Jewish soldiers and today refutes your lies around the world...
You continue to lie, I’ll continue to fight… pic.twitter.com/7Txqf60UjH
— ???? ???? - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) April 22, 2023

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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