Binyamin Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by prize recipient Lord David Trimble, who got it in 1998. Trimble was honored for his part in negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement that brought relative peace to Northern Ireland.
In my opinion, the Abraham Accords represent the first ray of light in the darkness of the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948, and if I were a Nobel recipient I would have nominated Donald Trump and Jared Kushner as well.
Of course the chances of Netanyahu receiving anything but abuse from the "international community" of which the Nobel committee is a pillar, are close to zero. The United Nations and the human rights industry, much of it set up in direct response to the industrial murder of European Jewry by the Nazis and their enthusiastic helpers over almost all of Europe, have ironically embraced the would-be genocidaires of the PLO, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the revolutionary Iranian regime. Especially since the year 2000 (see this brilliant analysis by Mark Pickles and Richard Landes), international institutions and NGOs have picked up and carried the flags of misoziony and Judenhass relinquished by the Soviets and the Nazis.
The USA was more or less neutral with respect to Israel (although its Jewish community strongly supported her) until the 1973 war, when it adopted Israel as its Cold War proxy. But soon after, thanks to OPEC's devastatingly effective "oil weapon," US policy became ambivalent. Henry Kissinger negotiated multifaceted agreements with the Arabs which resulted in ending the oil boycott; but one of the conditions was that the US would work to restore all territory conquered by Israel in 1967 to Arab control. Until Trump's presidency, this was firm American policy, followed by relatively pro-Israel presidents like Clinton and Bush II, less friendly ones like Bush I, and anti-Israel ones like Carter and Obama alike.
The policy required a certain degree of cognitive dissonance from American politicians (not to mention the liberal Jews that supported them). It was necessary for them to advocate the transfer of strategically essential territory from Israeli to Arab control, while still at least appearing to support Israel's continued survival. This they did by providing military aid. A master stroke, the massive aid package for Israel and Egypt that began with the Camp David agreement got Israel out of the Sinai, provided the US with leverage to control Israel's behavior, and enriched American defense contractors. Later, it served as a fig leaf to hide the dangers of withdrawal inherent in demands for Israel to leave Gaza, the Golan, and Judea and Samaria.
Anti-Israel politicians like Barack Obama had less of an internal struggle than friendly ones. With the help of the Israeli Left, he argued counterfactually that security would come from territorial concessions. His policy was to weaken Israel while pretending to help her, for example by phasing out the portion of the military aid that could be used to buy from Israel's own military industry. No matter what he did to damage Israel's strategic position, he could always point to those billions of dollars in military hardware as proof of his support for the Jewish state. But whether an administration was friendly or not, the policy was always fundamentally incoherent. It also distorted internal Israeli politics, leading to disasters like the Oslo Accords.
Trump turned everything upside down. New technology that increased oil production in North America and various other developments had defused the oil weapon. In addition, some of the important Middle Eastern oil producers were worried about Iranian expansionism and its nuclear program, and realized that Israel could be an indispensable ally in opposing it. American interests were now seen to lie with a strong Israel, in truth and not just in rhetoric.
So for the first time since 1973, Trump's administration was able to introduce a reality-based policy, affirming the rationality of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and Jerusalem, and ending the obsequious treatment of the frankly terrorist PLO and its dictatorial Palestinian Authority. Under the Trump plan, the Palestinians would be required to give up their maximalist demands and make real compromises, if they wanted a state of any kind.
But as almost everyone finally admits, the clock has run out. There will not be a second Trump Administration. The new one, depressingly, seems firmly wedded to the old paradigm. Although most (not all!) of his appointments do not appear to be overt enemies of the Jewish state, Biden seems likely to restore the traditional deference (and funding) to the Palestinians, as well as to try to reopen negotiations about the JCPOA with Iran, which at the very least implies that sanctions on Iran will be reduced.
This is not because Biden and his people are idiots. They are fully aware that things have changed, and that the oil weapon no longer threatens America. But now the pressure comes from the home front. They can't afford to alienate the misozionist left wing of the Democratic party, which has grown stronger in Congress. They don't worry about American Jews, for whom Israel has little weight when they vote. They can ignore the Evangelicals, who will support Republicans anyway over social issues like abortion and LGBTx rights. And of course, they want to wipe out any traces of Trumpism. Staying in power and achieving domestic objectives is more important to them than logical consistency, or the negative consequences for America's allies in the Middle East.
So we will go back to hearing platitudes about the "unbreakable" US-Israel relationship, while the administration complains about Israel building apartments in Jewish neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem. What appeared to be a real possibility that Israel would extend sovereignty to the Jordan Valley – an area of extreme strategic importance – will fade away. We'll watch as the US goes back to pretending that the failed and antisemitic United Nations can play a positive role in any sphere, and that the PLO can be made into a peace partner. Sanctions on Iran will be relaxed, emboldening the regime to push ahead on the ground and with its nuclear and missile programs.
A dark picture. Israel has a difficult four or eight years ahead of her, at least. There will be little room for mistakes and missed opportunities. It looks like we will shortly go through yet another round of elections. Is it too much to ask that we end up with a government equal to the task?
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If George Orwell is spinning in his grave these days, he's likely rolling so hard with laughter that it's bringing him and the rest of us to tears. An upcoming webinar on Jew-hatred is but one of many recent examples of phenomena that even the prescient social critic, whose essays and novels predicted with chilling accuracy the world that has unfolded since World War II, couldn't have anticipated.
The Dec. 15 event – called "Dismantling Antisemitism, Winning Justice" – is being hosted by the left-wing, anti-Israel NGO Jewish Voice for Peace, and moderated by JVP and JVP Action deputy director Rabbi Alissa Wise.
Its equally radical co-sponsors are JVP Action, If Not Now, United Against Hate, Jewish Currents, Foundation for Middle East Peace, Arab American Institute, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, the Jewish Vote, and the People's Collective for Justice and Liberation.
According to JVP, anti-Semitism "is used to manufacture division and fear, [and] while anyone can fuel it, [it] always benefits the politicians who rely on division and fear for their power."
The group didn't have to specify which "politicians" it has in mind, but it's obvious that they are in the camp of US President Donald Trump. The stated aim of the online happening is to "explore how to fight back against anti-Semitism and against those that seek to wield charges of antisemitism to undermine progressive movements for justice."
Again, the reference is clear: Trump's team and voters are simultaneously guilty of anti-Semitism and of hurling false allegations of anti-Semitism at innocent progressives, whose only wrongdoing is to seek peace and justice.
To engage in this "discussion," whose purpose is to reach a foregone conclusion – namely, that anti-Semitism is spread by the Republican right – the sponsors of the conference enlisted four apt anti-Israel panelists: Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), columnist Peter Beinart, Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill and the University of Illinois at Chicago academic Barbara Ransby.
Context provides one clue. Political attitudes and statements do not take place in a vacuum. And over the past few years there is no doubt that there has been a palpable rise in overtly threatening anti-Semitic sentiment, a rise that by no means has been limited to college campuses. This sentiment has also, alarmingly, metamorphosed into action.
This is the context, a fraught atmosphere, in which anti-Semitism is becoming increasingly acceptable and, for some, easily translated into virulent anti-Israel attitudes. Israel becomes the easily available vessel into which long-repressed, traditional, anti-Jewish attitudes can be poured.
This applies to the question of double standards. Some consistently portray Israel in demonic, evil terms ignoring its democratic parliamentary system and the increasing integration of its Arab citizens into the life of the country. It is a lie to accuse Israel of engaging in apartheid, racism and ethnic cleansing. It is this special venom, this single-minded animus, this double-standard that masks an anti-Zionism that is no less than an anti-Semitism repackaged.
The best way to address anti-Semitism is to understand it. In order to understand it one needs to be able to define it. Adoption of the complete International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition and examples of anti-Semitism is a critical first step to stopping Jew hatred in its tracks. If the United Nations, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates can do it, so too should any American institution be able to.
All this is taking place in a self-righteous, moralistically indignant "cancel culture'" intent on demonizing and delegitimizing the other. Thankfully, the First Amendment permits free speech, which also permits hateful speech, whether racist or anti-Semitic. The answer to hate speech is more speech, not silencing other viewpoints or excluding individuals because of their race, ethnicity or religion.
Universities properly condemn all forms of injustice and they need to begin to condemn anti-Semitism, especially when it denies the right of self-determination, a right of all peoples. No student should feel that there is a conflict between standing up for social and racial justice and compromising their identity; no Jewish student should feel that they should conceal their identity because they feel a connection to the State of Israel (or out of fear abandon that connection).
Both faith and their historical experience have rendered Jews particularly sensitive to discrimination of all kinds. Either when it is explicit or when it is in the form of dog whistles, these exclusionary measures are unacceptable. As Lauren Nesher, a senior at UIUC said: "The answer to anti-Semitic speech is never to do nothing. Just like the answer to racist speech is never to do nothing."
Jews are America's most abused minority.
FBI data recorded Jews being subject to…
🔸 Twice as many hate crimes as trans folk 🔸 Three times as many as black folk 🔸 Four times as many as Muslims
Tlaib, who described herself and her fellow panel guests as "some of the biggest fighters against antisemitism," is one of the more prominent anti-Semites to serve in the U.S. Congress. For example, she recently attacked Joe Biden's campaign for seeking to distance itself from Linda Sarsour, a prominent anti-Semitic activist who was ousted from the Women's March for being anti-Semitic.
It won't be the first time Tlaib has appeared on a controversial panel. In 2019, she was the keynote speaker at a conference hosted by American Muslims for Palestine, an organization denounced by the Anti-Defamation League for providing "a platform for anti-Semitism." She has accused U.S. politicians of dual loyalty for supporting Israel and once wrote an op-ed for a publication founded by Louis Farrakhan, who led chants of "Death to Israel" during a 2018 speech in Tehran.
Additionally, the congresswoman defended her fellow panelist, Marc Lamont Hill, after he was fired by CNN in 2018. Hill lost his job as a CNN contributor after he appeared to endorse violence against Jews during a speech at the United Nations. He has refused to denounce Farrakhan, referring to the anti-Semitic leader as "my brother," and has accused Israel of poisoning the drinking water in Palestine. Last week, Hill declared that "standing up against antisemitism is critical and necessary."
FACT CHECK: Tlaib's claim that she and Hill are "some of the biggest fighters against antisemitism" is both misleading and lacking in context. It is, by almost every reasonable measure, entirely false. We rate this claim Four Clintons.
Incoming president Joe Biden is reportedly close to selecting a vocal Israel critic to serve as his White House press secretary.
Karine Jean-Pierre, a longtime campaign adviser and incoming vice president Kamala Harris's chief of staff, is currently the "top candidate" for the job, according to NBC News. Jean-Pierre was senior adviser and national spokeswoman for MoveOn.org, a far-left anti-Israel group that defends boycotts of the Jewish state, from April 2016 until August 2020, when she was hired as chief of staff for Harris.
Jean-Pierre has been a vocal critic of Israel, accusing the Jewish state of committing "war crimes" and, during the Democratic primary, celebrating Democrats who boycotted the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference in Washington, D.C. She praised those lawmakers for "boldly choosing to prioritize diplomacy and human rights over the power of a lobbying organization."
Team Biden's focus on Jean-Pierre is likely to rankle the pro-Israel community, which enjoyed strong support from the White House during President Donald Trump's tenure in office. As Biden makes early staff decisions, the selection of a prominent Israel critic could signal his administration is willing to make overtures to Israel's detractors.
MoveOn, the progressive group for which Jean-Pierre served in senior roles, launched a campaign during the Democratic primary calling on Democrats to boycott the AIPAC conference and the organization itself. "[Democratic] candidates should be prepared for push back regarding their involvement with AIPAC," a MoveOn spokeswoman told Politico at the time. The group's first candidate endorsements in the 2020 cycle were of the two leading anti-Israel members of Congress, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.).
The Jewish Democratic Council of America this week circulated a letter asking "Rabbis, Cantors, and other Jewish faith leaders" to "reject attempts to divide the Black and Jewish communities" by "spreading falsehoods about candidate for US Senate, Rev. Raphael Warnock."
A group of 169 men and women responded, a move the JDCA hailed as "Rabbis Reject Attempts at Dividing Communities Around the Georgia Runoff Election." I scrutinized the list to discover even one Orthodox rabbi, cantor, or other faith leader (I have no idea what that last thing means), but found none. Hence the headline about "Jewish clergies" rather than Rabbis.
Let's unpack.
First, the fate of the entire Biden administration depends on the results of two Senate elections, both of them taking place on January 5, 2021, both of them in Georgia. The current balance of power in the senate is 48 Democrats versus 52 Republicans. It means that for the next two years, and possibly four, the Biden administration will not be able to generate any major legislation without bipartisan support – very much the way things stood during President Barack Obama's last term in office.
However, should the Democrats be able to flip those two Georgia Senate seats, there will be 50 Democrats versus 50 Republicans, in which case Vice President Kamala Harris will add her vote, as President pro tempore of the United States Senate, to the Democrats in every singe legislation, appointment, and Jay-walking ticket.
One of the two Democratic candidates, the one who led the field on Nov. 3 but didn't reach 50% – the minimum required by Georgia law – is Raphael Gamaliel Warnock, who has been serving as the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta since 2005.
A video from 2018 shows Warnock delivering a hate-filled rant against Israel and the Trump administration on the occasion of moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. He repeated the lie about Israel taking away water from the PA Arabs, and accused the Jewish State of shooting "unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey. And I don't care who does it, it is wrong. It is wrong to shoot down God's children like they don't matter at all. And it's no more anti-Semitic for me to say that than it is anti-white for me to say that black lives matter. Palestinian lives matter."
Should we believe these people that say @ReverendWarnock is okay?
Or should we believe Warnock who himself has likened Israel to apartheid South Africa and communist West Germany? https://t.co/EXFjF1LmvU
Yesterday, CAMERA UK co-editor Adam Levick was one of 30 top pro-Israel advocates who participated in a special Knesset panel, chaired by MK Michal Cotler-Wunsh, to address strategies on combating antisemitism.
Here's are his brief remarks.
Here's some background on the IHRA Working Definition:
In 2004, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) conducted a study of antisemitism in Europe and produced a "working definition of antisemitism" intended as a guideline for identifying the growing number of antisemitic incidents there, and for legislation against antisemitism." The EUMC defined antisemitism as follows:
"A certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews… Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews."
The examples given included both classic antisemitism and antisemitism that targeted the state of Israel "conceived as a Jewish collectivity."
"We need to focus more on telling #Israel's story and not allowing our detractors to define us."
From my testimony at a Knesset hearing with leading pro-Israel advocates, convened today by MK @CotlerWunsh. Thank you again for the honor to address the committee. pic.twitter.com/nevaZuDrJK
Congratulations to my teacher Professor Irwin Cotler on being appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Canada's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism. There is no person more ready and able for this mission.https://t.co/eydFv4sbQZ
A professor of physical science at a Michigan university has been placed on administrative leave after he unleashed a series of tweets that invoked antisemitic, racist and homophobic tropes as he asserted that the coronavirus pandemic was a "stunt" to create a "new world order."
The tweets by Thomas Brennan, a professor at Ferris State University (FSU), included references to a "Jewish mafia," a claim that "Covid19 is another jewish revolution," and a defense of his use of the "n-word" as a means to "neutralize its power."
FSU President David Eisler announced on Monday that Brennan had been placed on administrative leave following his remarks, and said the university condemned the professor's offensive statements, local news outlet MLive reported.
"Our University was founded on the concept that education is for all of the people all of the time, that all people are welcome here," Eisler said.
"We strongly reject these statements, condemn them and will not tolerate them," he added. "We have worked diligently to become a more diverse university, and these statements demonstrate vividly how one person can set back the work of many."
In a separate statement in which he robustly defended himself, Brennan denied being an antisemite.
The US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on 17th November that it has officially launched a formal investigation into a complaint of antisemitic harassment, spanning over five years, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
The federal investigation will examine the complaint, submitted on behalf of UIUC's Jewish student body, into allegations of numerous antisemitic and anti-Zionist incidents at the University. Several instances include offensive graffiti, particularly swastikas, discovered across campus, the vandalism of religious items and frequent harassment and abuse by members of the student activist group, Supports for Justice in Palestine.
The recent complaint also outlined how administrators and UIUC leaders have continually allowed a hostile environment to develop, with University employees, on occasion, being complicit in the facilitation of a hateful atmosphere on campus in what was alleged to be a direct violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The complaint maintains that all Jewish college students deserve the right to learn and live peacefully and freely in a safe, welcoming academic setting.
Various other higher education institutions agreed to implement steps to combat rising antisemitism and discrimination threatening the wellbeing and experiences of Jewish students.
.@risd sudent and SJP president Aya Ghanameh made an entire presentation based in bigotry: "White Supremacy and Settler Colonialism are the foundational ideologies of…Israel."https://t.co/HBPYPp2TL7pic.twitter.com/758M79qEiJ
Tikkun Olam isn't meant to be easy. Difficult choices await us at every turn. The latest: follow the dictates of vaunted progressive figures such as Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York and refrain from holding or attending large Thanksgiving dinners with loved ones, or risk COVID exposure by participating in just such an event for purposes of accusing Zionist family members of complicity in genocide? The decision weighs heavily on the progressive mind.
On one hand, nothing animates the progressive mind more than justice for Palestinians. On the other hand, progressives only care about Palestinians when their suffering can be cast as Israeli malice, or more accurately Jewish malice that everyone agrees to euphemize as "Israel." The latter point demonstrates it isn't really about Palestinians per se, but whatever agenda we can coopt to further the goals of the progressive movement: ideally, equality and empowerment, but in practice, power over every little details of everyone else's life. Restricting family get-togethers is just too juicy a progressive morsel to let go, even for the sake of Palestine, at least for some.
But oh, the opportunity to drive a wedge between Jews over Israel! How scarce those opportunities have become during COVID. As so many of us disregarded distancing and other restrictions to throng in protest for Black Lives Matter or in triumph at Trump's electoral defeat, can we not similarly bend those sensibilities for the noble purpose of putting the vast majority of our Jewish relatives on the defensive over the alleged actions of other, totally different Jews thousands of miles away? The latter in fact dovetails with progressive trends of the twenty-first century, assigning people value and responsibility by virtue of their membership in a progressive-imposed identity group.
That four and a half-minute long interview clearly contributed little to audience understanding of the ostensible subject matter but certainly did promote Palestinian messaging concerning Pompeo's visit to Psagot Winery.
In the days prior to that visit Tamam Quran and additional residents of Al Bireh appeared in various media outlets to promote claims concerning land ownership.
Both AP and Al Jazeera featured two women apparently from Quran's extended family:
"Kainat and Karema Quraan, two sisters from Al-Bireh, say they have documents showing they own a plot of land on which some of the vineyards and a winery building were established.
"Imagine that your own land, your property, that you lived off of and your ancestors lived off of, is taken like this by strangers, by force, and you can't touch it," Kainat said."
The New York Daily Post ran an article (which had to be amended due to false claims about supposed Israeli actions) by a lawyer with offices in the US and Ramallah with family roots in Al Bireh which included claims of ownership of the land on which Psagot is located while concurrently stating that the same land had been sold.
"The land was purchased in 1964 by the Jerusalem municipality with plans to develop it into a tourist attraction, but they were thwarted when the Israeli army occupied the West Bank in the 1967 war."
As for Tamam Quran herself, she gave an interview to the Radio France Internationale correspondent in Al Bireh and was the featured face in a video made by an organisation called 'The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy' (which is reportedly "affiliated with the PLO") promoting a petition "to ban Psagot wine and all settlement products from the U.S."
Clearly 'Newshour' producers did not randomly stumble across the "young Palestinian woman" who was given a four-and-a-half-minute platform from which to promote political messaging that supports the BBC's chosen narrative on this story and which was recycled in part in the evening edition of the same programme (from 00:10 here).
The lack of transparency and failure to adhere to editorial guidelines concerning "contributors' affiliations" however means that BBC audiences around the world remain unaware that what they heard was not in fact a news item but part of an organised political campaign with which the BBC chose to cooperate.
Knell's answer was based on what unidentified "people say":
Knell: "He's not expected to move the US embassy back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv but what people say is that he will return in general to a more traditional US approach. He will put Jerusalem back on the negotiating table. He will look to re-establish ties with the Palestinians that have been cut off under the Trump administration. That could mean reopening a consulate for Palestinians in the east of Jerusalem, reopening a Palestinian representative office in Washington; things like that."
Knell then unquestioningly amplified debatable claims made by the political NGO 'Peace Now' concerning construction plans in Givat HaMatos which had appeared days earlier in a written BBC report on the topic.
Knell: "He's expected to return to a more traditional position on settlements, which is why…eh…anti-settlement Israeli campaign groups are accusing the Netanyahu government at the moment of trying to rush through controversial settlement plans while they have a more favourable US administration in place. I should say as well that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not something that people here acknowledge will be a top priority for a President Biden because he's just gonna have such a full domestic in-tray when he reaches the White House and internationally what he's gonna be looking at much more is other problems in Iran, in Russia and China."
The framing of this story and the political narrative promoted by Yolande Knell in this report are blatantly obvious. Radio 4 listeners may however be asking themselves why they need to pay the obligatory licence fee in order to hear little more than rehashed versions of messaging from the political NGO 'Peace Now' which they could just as well access online for free.
That three-minute item however was not the end of the 'Today' programme's coverage of the US Secretary of State's visit. Later on listeners heard nearly six more minutes on the topic from the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen which will be discussed in part two of this post.
Bowen did not provide listeners with any information concerning recent trade and business agreements and investments involving Israeli and Gulf firms. He did however go on to give an entirely context-free account of a recent incident which once again has no connection to the US administration.
Bowen: "So that is certainly going on and Mr Pompeo has said during his trip already there that it shows that Iran is being weakened, that it's less relevant and that the American policy of so-called maximum pressure – big sanctions against Iran – is working and it's bearing fruit. The Israelis as well have mounted airstrikes in recent days against Iranian forces inside Syria and most unusually admitted that it was they who did it."
Citing a New York Times report and attributing unsourced 'messages' to several sources, he closed the item:
Bowen: "So that pressure is continuing and while there've been some reports that Trump has even flirted with the idea of trying to attack Iran in some way – I think it's most unlikely that that will occur before January – the…very much the message coming from Trump White House, from the US State Department, from Pompeo, from the Israelis and from their new allies in the Gulf is that Iran needs to be kept under pressure and may well buckle as a result. The Iranians of course would say that is not going to happen."
Those nearly six minutes of maundering 'analysis' of a visit not yet completed from the person tasked with making Middle East issues comprehensible to BBC audiences promoted speculation, context-free irrelevant linkage and clear political messaging as well as inaccuracies. Obviously its aim was not to inform listeners about Mr Pompeo's visit to Israel but to promote the Middle East editor's chosen narrative on that and additional topics.
An 11-year-old German girl who compared holding her birthday party under coronavirus restrictions with the plight of the Dutch Jewish girl Anne Frank during the Holocaust has fueled concern among German officials that children are being deliberately targeted by antisemites as an effective means for breaking social taboos.
The young girl made the comparison with Frank during a speech she gave in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe to a crowd of more than 1,000 people protesting coronavirus social-distancing polices.
Flanked by her mother and sisters, she explained that her recent birthday party had been conducted with less fanfare than previous years, to avoid alerting neighbors who might have then called the authorities.
"We had to be quiet the whole time because otherwise we might have been tipped off by our neighbors," the girl told the Nov. 10 demonstration. "I felt like I was with Anne Frank in the Secret Annex, where they had to be as quiet as a mouse to avoid getting caught."
Far-right symbols and signs that deploy Holocaust imagery as an analogy for present-day restrictions have been a common feature of the increasingly vocal protest movement in Germany opposed to social distancing and the wearing of protective masks.
There was similar outrage over a coronavirus protest in the northern city of Hannover this past Saturday, where hundreds of demonstrators heard a young woman compare herself with Sophie Scholl — a founding member of the "White Rose" anti-Nazi resistance group who in 1943 was executed by guillotine for distributing leaflets opposing Nazi aggression in Europe.
"I feel like Sophie Scholl, because I have been active in the resistance for months, giving speeches, going to demos, distributing flyers," said the woman, who introduced herself as "Jana from Kassell."
The frequent and cavalier use of Holocaust imagery and themes by the coronavirus protest movement has sparked worry that Germany's much-vaunted public education about the Holocaust was now falling short.
Authorities in the northern Germany city of Braunschweig moved on Monday night to prevent a neo-Nazi group from holding a demonstration outside a former synagogue under the banner "Stop Zionism!"
The demonstration was promoted on social media by the far-right party Die Rechte, which told supporters to gather on the corner of Steinstrasse and Alte Kniehauerstrasse, near a plaque that commemorates the synagogue built there in 1875. The time to assemble was given as 7:33-7:45 p.m. on Tuesday, with each of the 12 minutes representing one of the years that the Third Reich existed.
Several politicians called for an outright ban on the demonstration, which urged "Free Palestine" alongside other anti-Zionist and traditionally antisemitic slogans.
"Disgusting and repulsive!" tweeted Christos Pantazis, a state representative of the center-left SPD party. "With this targeted provocation, this micro-party reveals its unconstitutional sentiments and should be forbidden."
At a meeting on Monday night, city administrators in Braunschweig decided to ban the neo-Nazis from demonstrating "at that time and place."
For the second time in recent months, neo-Nazi white supremacist leaflets have been seen in Lexington, KY.
A photo of the offensive antisemitic and anti-Black fliers was shared by local rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Litvin. The leaflets said that Jews were "the masterminds" in the media, "behind every anti-white post" and "defend your children, Hitler was right."
In a statement, Rabbi Litvin said that hateful words against the Jewish community must be "countered" or could "lead to hateful deeds."
A spokesperson for Lexington police reportedly said that the department was investigating after a report about the leaflets was filed on 19th November. The fliers appear to have been distributed by a neo-Nazi group calling itself 14First The Foundation.
In August similar offensive, racist leaflets, were sent to homes in Kentucky. At the time, a man claiming to be Vice-President of the group behind the leaflets claimed that they already had up to 60 members in the state and had "received interest" from prospective members. He explained that the group puts its pamphlets in plastic bags "with a rock" and throws "them onto properties" because placing offensive material "in a mailbox" is illegal.
An Israeli company has started final-stage tests of its oral insulin, bidding to become the first to make the product available on the international market.
The product started phase three trials under the US Food and Drug Administration in California on Monday, after 14 years of development. If all goes well, Oramed Pharmaceuticals says it expects type 2 diabetics to start taking its pills in just over three years, followed by type 1 diabetics after further testing.
"This has the potential to improve lives of hundreds of millions of diabetics worldwide," Oramed CEO Nadav Kidron told The Times of Israel. "And by improving treatment it can reduce complications and, in turn, reduce the cost of treating diabetics."
He said that the dosing tech that is being used for insulin has "very significant" potential for the creation of oral versions of other medical injections.
An Indian company, Biocon, is also working on oral insulin, but unlike Oramed it has not started advanced trials with the FDA, which is seen as the main path to the international market.
In a move toward upgrading solar power technologies, a team of Israeli researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has developed an eco-friendly way to lengthen the lifespan of perovskite-based solar cells.
The researchers designed a new structure to hold the cells, which allows for the easy removal and replacement of perovskite, a light-sensitive material that degrades over time. The process allows for the full restoration of a panel's photovoltaic capacities and essentially enables it to be recycled.
Perovskite is a mineral structure that has the capacity to absorb light and is used as a semiconductor. The growing field of perovskite-based solar cell (PSC) technologies has gained traction in recent years, as its manufacturing costs are significantly lower than those for standard silicon-based equivalents.
Perovskite has also dramatically increased the efficiency of solar cells.
"Before this research, it was impossible [to remove perovskite]," Prof. Lioz Etgar, head of the Excitonic Solar Cells Research Group and a chemistry professor at the university, told The Media Line.
"You needed to throw out the whole solar cell and make a new one, so this is one of the advantages of this technology," Etgar, who led the research, explained. "We took one step forward and actually designed a new architecture for solar cells."
TIME magazine has listed six Israeli-made innovations among its annual list of 100 Best Inventions of 2020 that are "changing how we live." In 2019, the magazine featured nine Israeli innovations.
This year's list was published late last week and features gadgets, devices, products, and services in multiple categories such as artificial intelligence, accessibility, electronics, augmented reality, design, finance, and entertainment. There is also a "special mention" category where one Israeli innovation was listed.
The magazine said the list was compiled through solicited nominations from TIME editors and correspondents around the world, and through an online application process. Each contender was then evaluated on key factors such as "originality, creativity, effectiveness, ambition, and impact."
"The result: 100 groundbreaking inventions—including a smarter beehive, a greener tube of toothpaste, and technology that could catalyze a COVID-19 vaccine—that are changing the way we live, work, play and think about what's possible," the magazine wrote.
Among the best inventions were a power wheelchair accessory, a smart baby crib, an AR training platform for frontline workers, a made-to-order manicure service, a phone that doubles as a notebook by Microsoft, a robotic tutor, a vegan pork offering, and an indoor gardening solution.
Here are the six Israeli innovations that appear on the list:
When the mainstream media and United Nations refer to refugees in the context of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, they're usually referring only to the Arab so-called Palestinian refugees. While much can be said about the Palestinian Arab refugees and their controversially unique and privileged status globally, the media and international organizations rarely address hundreds of thousands of Jews who were forcibly exiled from their homes and communities in the Middle East and North Africa during the mid-20th century.
While many, if not most, Palestinian Arab refugees had only arrived in their new homes in the Holy Land during the previous century, Jews had been living in places like Iraq for over 2,500 years. In fact, the Jewish presence in the wider Middle East predates the rise of Islam—as well as the Arab conquest, occupation and colonization of the region—by over 1,000 years.
In the early part of the 20th century, some 850,000 Jews lived in what is today known as the "Arab world." However, today there are no more than a few thousand Jews left in that region—meaning this was one of the most successful ethnic-cleansing events in modern history.
In 2014, the Israeli Knesset passed a law mandating that Nov. 30 would be the Day to Commemorate the Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Countries and Iran. The Jewish refugees from Arab countries issue remains an unresolved one, even though international law and United Nations resolutions mandate a redress.
On two separate occasions the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ruled that Jews fleeing from Arab countries were indeed "bona fide" refugees who fell under its mandate. Many of the most pertinent and relevant resolutions on the conflict that reference refugees—including U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 and U.N. Security Council Resolution 242—do so without defining the type of refugee. This means that such resolutions—whether referencing compensation or assistance—can and should also apply to Jewish refugees.
The attacks and ethnic cleansing of Jews in Arab countries was one of the most egregious examples of the violent rejectionism of Jewish human rights by Arab leaders.
Meanwhile, there have been 172 resolutions specifically on Palestinian Arab refugees, 13 U.N. agencies and organizations mandated or newly created to provide protection and relief to Palestinian refugees and tens of billions of dollars disbursed by the international community to provide services and assistance to Palestinian refugees.
Diaspora and Israeli organizations and communities representing millions of Jews around the world will participate on Saturday in a mass Kaddish (mourners' prayer) and say a specially designed azkara (memorial prayer) for Jews buried in inaccessible Arab countries across the Middle East and North Africa.
More than 100 organizations and communities have signed up thus far for the "Kaddish Initiative," slated for Nov. 28, the date of the Shabbat closest to Nov. 30, which the State of Israel legislated in 2014 as the official "Day to Commemorate the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from Arab Countries and Iran." Since then, it has been marked by Jewish communities around the world.
The Kaddish Initiative was launched in 2018 by Iraqi-Jewish Canadian Sass Peress. According to British philanthropist David Dangoor, during the project's first year, 12 communities participated, and in 2019, participation had grown to 50. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the prayers will be recited mainly online.
Groups already registered for the event include the Israeli umbrella organization for Jews from Arab countries, representing millions of people in the Jewish state; Maccabi World Union, the Jewish organization with the largest active global membership; the European Jewish Congress, the organization representing all Jewish communities in Europe; the American Zionist Movement, representing dozens of Zionist organizations across North America; and the umbrella organizations for US, British, Canadian and Australian Jewry.
More than 11,000 rabbis and community leaders from every continent and all strains of Judaism and ethnic origin have downloaded the azkara prayer from the Kaddish Initiative website.
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.
Shirley Kopelman Meyers, January 10, 1927-November 8, 2020
I like to tell people I made aliyah when I was young and stupid and that that's the way to do it. When I made aliyah at the age of 18, I wasn't thinking about what it would be like to have an aging parent far away, and not be able to help. I didn't think about how, someday, in middle age, I would long to care for my mother, as I only I would have cared for her had I been there. But I was not there, except in fits and starts, two-week visits that were somehow never enough for either of us. And now she's gone.
In the middle of the morning, the message came: "Our mother went to the true world this morning."
I was not even surprised. I had seen it coming. She was 93. She was fading. This was Sunday morning, and she had fallen asleep in the middle of our last phone call, on Thursday night.
I watched her funeral on Zoom. Which was a blessing. I always knew I would not be going to the States for her funeral, as she had forbidden me to do so, some years ago.
A child of the Great Depression, my mother was practical. She didn't see the point of me spending all that money on a ticket when she wouldn't even be there to see me. Never mind that in some respects, the rituals are for those who remain. My mother had made her wishes clear, and I was stuck with respecting those wishes, and her.
Because of the Depression, she couldn't go to college. But at age 46, widowed with 4 children, she became a student at the University of Pittsburgh. It took her 8 years, but she got her degree in journalism.
Had there not been a pandemic, perhaps no one would have thought to set up that Zoom funeral I got to see, so at least I had that: the beautiful chill autumn day, some red and gold leaves still on the trees in the Beth Shalom Cemetery, in Millvale, Pa.
We visited my dad a few years ago. Now she is next to him.
On the other hand, had there not been a pandemic, I might have been able to see her one last time. But I was terrified at the thought of picking up the virus during my travels and that I might somehow, unwittingly, bring it to her, when I loved her almost as much as life itself. The thought of making her sick was paralyzing, in its most literal meaning. That thought kept me here in place in Israel, and far away from her.
And I think that was difficult for her. Knowing that I wasn't going to be there that one more time. Perhaps—at least a little—she gave up hope that I would ever come again. It was not going to happen: a thing that made life worth living when she could no longer walk, see or hear, a visit from her baby.
It hurts that I hurt her that way. And it hurts that I lost my mom. But in spite of the terrible pain of losing my mother—of missing out on being able to care for her as only I would have cared for her—in spite of depriving her of my presence at the end, and missing her funeral, I do not regret making aliyah. "Non, je ne regrette rien."
I regret nothing.
Is aliyah a selfish act? In some ways, no doubt, it is.
There's no doubt it was excruciating for my mother not to have me with her all these years, when she loved and needed me so. It was I who picked up and left Pittsburgh to make aliyahto Israel. I who made the decision, and simply did it—made aliyah—when I was young and stupid, and unaware of what the future held. It was painful for my mother to not be close by my children, her grandchildren, whom she loved so dearly.
I put out photos of my mother in the shiva house, and there was one photo where you could see just the edge of her face, and she was glowing with love for a newborn grandchild she held, and you could see it, that love, though much of the picture was in shadow, including the object of her love, obscured. How it must have hurt her, to be so far away from them, her grandchildren, whom she would have loved to have cuddled and loved and known.
As evening fell on the day my mother died, Z"L, my rabbi's wife came to my house to help me do kria, to help me tear my shirt just over the heart, as one does for a mother. "This is the price of aliyah," I said to her, and she knew what I meant: that I hadn't been there to care for my mother or be with her at the end, that I was observing the rituals from a distance: that I wasn't there.
It was all a part of the price: the price of aliyah.
She issued no bromides or platitudes, my rabbi's wife. My rabbi's wife, who is wise, said something I've held onto, during the past two weeks, through my shiva and the days that followed. "Look," she said in her quiet voice. "That's Lech Lecha. You did Lech Lecha."
This was a reference to the Torah portion not long past, Lech Lecha, in which God directs Abram to leave his native land and all that he knew, for a "land that I will show thee."
Now the LORD said unto Abram: 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee.' Genesis 12:1
One can only imagine the depth of Abram's faith, leaving his father's house like that with no second thoughts. But I was no Abram. The repercussions of the act were not clear to me at the time of the act: It is not an easy thing to leave a mother, or to leave all that I knew. I gave up one life for another, yet the shock and the pain of it all, came on only over time. It was a gradual sinking in.
And now that I've experienced this loss, I think that had I known how painful this all would be—the not being there—the enormity of this thing, I might not have made aliyah, at all.
I don't think I could have done it, though I regret nothing, "Non, je ne regrette rien."
It was the right thing to do, to make aliyah, and I'm glad, every day, that I did.
I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I only longed and yearned to be here in Israel and I made it happen. But there was a cost to aliyah that makes Israel and my living here, all the more dear to my heart. I put my people ahead of myself, and even my own dearest mother, z"l, by moving to Israel. And how can I regret the chance to play a part in this noble project, the building of our national home, making Israel stronger, just by dint of being here?
"Non, je ne regrette rien."
I wish that things had been different. I wish that my mother hadn't fit into Pittsburgh the way I wished I fit Israel: like a glove. Because then she might have come here and I could have taken care of her. She would have had the chance to really know her Israeli grandchildren and great grandchildren, growing up under a different sun, proud and free in the Jewish State.
Instead of snatching a few weeks here, a few weeks there, for a birth or a bar mitzvah.
But it was understood: my mother was a Pittsburgher, born and bred, and she would never live anywhere else. It was who she was.
And the truth is, it is who I was, and the last several times I visited there, I found myself touching the trees, and the buildings, the low walls and soaring yellow street lights, and would shed a tear or two as I said goodbye, over and over again. The smells of that place! The sight of that curb, that hill, this tree! A sensory experience that reached down to me, toward some primal place, an essence.
But Israel had called, had always called, that nobler cause from afar, from when I was little. This too, was me. Perhaps the ultimate me, the place I had to grow into. The place I had to earn.
Yes, I was young and stupid when I made aliyah. I hadn't seen the cost. But no. From afar, from this distance, I regret nothing.
"Non, je ne regrette rien."
I regret nothing in part because I live in a wonderful community that embraced me in my sorrow, came to sit with me, talk with me, cook for me. The people here know they are my family, since my family cannot be here. And they try hard to fill the breach. They know that I gave up my real family to be here with them in our land. And that makes them my family, in some ways more even than the real family I knew as a girl.
But community cannot replace my mother. It is hard to lose a mother. It hurts: another one more installment on the price of aliyah, which I continue to pay in ways and amounts I never anticipated, back when I was 18, young, and stupid. I think I never could have done it—made aliyah—if I'd known the price, how much it would cost, how much it would hurt.
It's the kind of knowledge—well, it's better not to know, to be young and stupid: to dare to just dothe thing without knowing what's ahead, the repercussions of the act. Did Abram know what was ahead, the trials and tribulations? Can anyone really make an informed aliyah, for instance know loss of this sort without having been in it, away from a mother they love, so far away?
Now I can say I've been there. I've dwelt in the country of my loss and I know the price of aliyah.
And still, I am here.
Today, and hopefully for a long time, I am here in Israel. And I do not and will not regret that.
"Non, je ne regrette rien."
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