The arrival of Jonathan Pollard in Israel 35 years after his arrest for espionage on Israel's behalf has made me think about the position of the Jew in the diaspora, particularly in America. There are facts about Pollard's case that are shrouded in mystery (for example, the still-secret Caspar Weinberger memo that in part convinced the judge in his case, Aubrey Robinson, to abrogate his plea bargain and sentence him to life imprisonment).
There is very little impartial material written about his case. Did he do what he did out of Zionist motives or did he do it for the money (or both)? Was Judge Robinson influenced by accusations that Pollard had aided the apartheid South African regime? These questions are discussed here (from a pro-Pollard perspective). Was the sentence outrageously unfair or, as some say, was it too light? Was his sentence, like the one given to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, intended as a warning to disloyal 'cosmopolitan' Jews? It is possible to find documentation of various degrees of trustworthiness to support disparate narratives.
It is certain that Pollard provided a great deal of useful information to Israel about her regional enemies that had been withheld by the US. It is also certain that Pollard was abandoned by Israel, expelled from the embassy in Washington where he sought asylum, into the arms of the FBI. And it is certain that he received the harshest sentence by far ever handed down to someone for spying for an American ally, harsher yet than what some who spied for the Soviets received. Early Wednesday morning, Pollard was met at the airport by PM Netanyahu, who said the shehecheyanu with him and personally handed him his Israeli identity document. This of course immediately made him a political football in Israel, to the extent that he wasn't already. But that's not what I want to discuss.
What interests me today is the attitudes of American Jews toward Pollard, and what that tells us about how they see themselves and their position as diaspora Jews.
The diaspora has generally not been a friendly place for Jews since their expulsion from Judea after the defeat of the Bar Kochba revolt by the Romans on Tisha b'Av, 135 CE. Always outsiders, they were often exploited, expelled, oppressed, and even exterminated by their hosts. But – especially between the end of WWII and the beginning of the 21st century – the USA has been different. Although there are examples of anti-Jewish riots and lynchings, and discrimination in employment, education, and residence, the position of Jews in America for a long period has probably been as good as or better than anywhere else in the diaspora.
Like Homer Simpson, an American Jew has two tiny creatures that sit on his or her shoulders and whisper. One says, "you are an American like other Americans, even if you are Jewish. This is your home. You have rights here." And the other says, "never forget that you are a Jew. Your existence is precarious. Keep your suitcase packed." I think that American Jewish attitudes toward Pollard are derived from the interaction of these voices.
On one occasion, a friend told me that "Pollard should have been executed, like the Rosenbergs." This from a liberal American Jew who, I'm certain, opposes capital punishment in general. "America was good to him and he spit in its face," he continued. "He was a traitor both to his country and to other Jews, who will always be suspected of having dual loyalties."
This particular Jew is more knowledgeable than most Americans about Israel, a strong Zionist and supporter of causes related to Israel. But at the same time he was one of the approximately 69% of American Jews who voted for Barack Obama's second term, when it should have been obvious to anyone that he was far from a friend of Israel (unlike his opponent, Mitt Romney). Needless to say, President Trump's remarkably strong pro-Israel stance doesn't sway my friend from his strong antagonism to the president.
When I listen to him, I hear both voices. My friend is proud of being American and takes what he sees as patriotic American positions. His center of gravity is in the US. But at the same time, there is that other small voice, the one that reminds him that as a Jew, he is less than entirely secure in America. He worries that Pollard's actions might cause an increase in antisemitism among non-Jewish Americans. And maybe sometimes at 3 AM, he wonders if he shouldn't have a packed suitcase under his bed.
So it is very important for him to let everyone know that American Jews in general, and he in particular, are good Americans. Maybe better Americans than some non-Jews. This is a position fraught with cognitive dissonance.
There are American Jews that strongly support Pollard. Some (unlike my friend) are Orthodox Jews, like Rabbi Pesach Lerner, the former head of the National Council of Young Israel, an organization of Orthodox synagogues. Lerner visited Pollard in prison countless times, and helped obtain financial support for him after his release when he was unable to work. Pollard "got religion" in prison, and that may be part of it. But I have also heard some Orthodox Jews strongly denounce Pollard in words like my friend's. And, on the other side, the Reform Movement passed a resolution to ask President Clinton to commute Pollard's sentence in 1993; its president, Rabbi Rick Jacobs (whom I usually love to criticize), visited him in prison along with representatives of the Conservative movement.
Pollard is a litmus test of some sort, but it is not either one for Right vs. Left or Orthodox vs. (religiously) liberal. It's something else. I know that my grandmother, who lost siblings in the Holocaust and from whom I inherited much of my sensibility, would have instinctively stuck up for Pollard, despite the fact that she was very proud of the paper that said she was an American citizen.
I think it's related to what I called "center of gravity" above. If your center of gravity is in the diaspora you have to worry that someday you will be uprooted. If it's located with the Jewish people, you may be less comfortable in the diaspora, but you have fewer illusions. Where is your center of gravity?
US President Donald Trump unveiled his "Peace to Prosperity" plan at the White House, with Netanyahu at his side, in the presence of administration officials and other prominent pro-Israel guests. The details of the "Deal of the Century," as it had been dubbed, were finally revealed.
Like Trump's other policies – such as moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel; withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal; recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; halting funding to UNRWA, demanding that the Palestinian Authority cease its pay-for-slay policy; and declaring that Israeli settlements are not illegal – his blueprint for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was groundbreaking.
Rather than treating the PA's corruption and violence as a result of Israeli "occupation," Trump's team offered Ramallah a carrot but threatened it with a stick. It was exhilarating for most Israelis to witness Washington smash the mold of the failed "land for peace" paradigm. Unfortunately, US President-elect Joe Biden and his appointees are going to revert to the old model of appeasing enemies. In this respect, Israelis may come to look back on 2020 with a twinge of nostalgia.
The burgeoning friendship with neighboring Muslim-Arab countries is a blessing that cannot be overstated. The trouble is that relations with Washington are about to take a turn for the worse.
It is understandable for Israelis to be worried about the future and bemoan the past year. But it is a complete distortion of reality to look upon 2020 as a period of pure chaos on the one hand and paralysis on the other.
Indeed, it's worth pausing from the hysteria for a moment to acknowledge the miraculous achievements made by the Netanyahu-led government, in spite of months of bitter infighting, during the pandemic. If anything, then, this crazy year was characterized by an insane degree of uncanny multitasking.
It's that time of the year again - time to review the highlights and lowlights of 2020.
In the 15 years since Point of No Return has been collecting information on Jews from Arab and Muslim countries, there have been 5,940 posts. This year achieved 426,000 views.
This year will be remembered as the year of COVID-19. It was certainly not the first time that plagues have swept through the Middle East. This year's plague took a heavy toll of Jewish communities.
This year gave Iraqi Jews an excuse to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their airlift to Israel.
But the highpoint of 2020 must be surely the historic peace accords achieved with four Arab countries: the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. This is a teachable moment - to educate about Jewish refugees from the Arab world and Iran. (Some Arabs have already absorbed the lesson. )
For the first time, the rights of Jewish refugees were explicitly mentioned in the Trump Middle East peace plan announced in January. Unfortunately, the media still refuse to give the issue the coverage it deserves.
Numbers of Jews continued to dwindle in Arab countries, except in Dubai, which holds out the promise of an expanding Jewish community, serviced by three rabbis. It was a good year for one particular Jewish family from Yemen, who were given refuge in the UAE.
It has been widely observed that the Israeli and Emirati economies, which are similar in size, are highly complementary, not only creating very large potential opportunities for bilateral trade but also giving start-ups in both countries a greater ability to scale within the region before truly going global.
What started with the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan (which is also moving toward finalizing a normalization agreement with Israel) is unlikely to end there, as Israel eyes additional deals with other regional players. This will turbocharge the local innovation scene: Home to the world's largest youth population, the Middle East and North Africa region is brimming with digital natives, making it an ideal market for Israeli solutions and a vital source of human capital for the region's burgeoning hi-tech industry.
Can the deepening ties between Israel and its new Arab partners fuel new innovation not only on the consumer side, but also in terms of new company formation? Will strengthening business relationships and new commercial opportunities embolden more entrepreneurs in the region, like the founders of Fenix, to pursue their visionary ideas?
The long-term political and economic consequences of this game-changing new development in the Middle East remain to be determined – but the very fact that we're asking these questions underscores that even in an increasingly uncertain world, positive change can come even to the most turbulent regions.
To be sure, Middle Eastern leaders still confront instability, threats and unresolved conflicts, but the normalization agreements inked this year – and the promise of more such deals to come – create opportunities for collaboration that were not imaginable before 2020.
Having a front-row seat to this change has been nothing short of invigorating, and we're only getting started. Building a region known more for disruptive technology than for the types of disruptions typically associated with the Middle East will usher in a new era of creativity, ingenuity, and innovation, dramatically improving the lives of the region's people, with reverberations across the globe.
What awaits at the other side of the Arabian deserts: A post for Israelis looking for opportunities in the Emirates
On the last Hanukkah, the flight information display system at Ben Gurion Airport assumed an appearance that only a few months earlier would have seemed surrealistic: the destination of almost all departing flights was "Dubai." Like tens of thousands of Israelis, I too flew for the first time over the formidable Arabian desert toward the United Arab Emirates, that intriguing destination that has become a magnet overnight. Most Israelis flew for vacation, in the absence of other tourist options, but some travelers were looking for promising new business opportunities. Is it indeed possible to create new and interesting business collaborations between the Emirates and Israel? And if so, what are those collaborations?
First, it is important to correct a basic perception about the Emirates: this is not an economy that seeks to rely on oil money and hedonistically waste income from natural resources, as it is sometimes mistakenly assumed in the West. On the contrary. As a nation, the Emiratis look far into the distance, and in recent decades have made sure to move forward at breakneck speed and with a sharp focus toward a future of an open, diverse, and technological market economy. On the first day of my visit I attended the GITEX international high-tech conference, which, although sparse in attendance because of the corona, proved that Dubai thinks big and out of the box, and that it eagerly seeks to break out from the confines of current technology.
The young Emiratis I met are a highly talented and educated group, reminiscent of the young Israelis who constitute the economic engine of Israel. They are hardworking and insist on proving that although most of them come from established families, they know how to work smart and produce value, and are not content with mediocrity.
The University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) allegedly fosters a "toxic, antisemitic environment," according to an independent appeals commission.
The appeal was made by SOAS student Noah Lewis, who won his initial ruling but appealed because the school should "address the issue of institutionalized antisemitism and a toxic atmosphere," the Algemeiner said.
According to the Algemeiner report, the panel recommended that the school revisit the issue of antisemitism on campus. Examples of the "toxic" environment include the Student Union (SU) parading its support of the BDS movement; Jews who were not anti-Israel being generalized as "Zionists"; and Lewis's proposed dissertation on the systematic UN bias against Israel garnering condemnation from his peers, among others. The appeal, spearheaded by UK Lawyers for Israel, presented evidence of the dismay of Jewish SOAS students within the overall environment and the school's handling of the situation.
One student said that "the Student Union, which represents the total student body, consistently fails to respect the identities of Jewish students on the same level as other minority groups," according to Algemeiner. Others stated that they were either "shocked by the amount of antisemitic attitudes on campus" or felt "unwelcome and uncomfortable at SOAS."
The school and Lewis reached a settlement agreement to the tune of 15,000 pounds sterling, following his request to have his tuition and expenses refunded. However, there was no follow-up or investigation into the issues on campus, which prompted Lewis to seek further legal action.
In the March ruling, the school commission stated that they "considered the objection that it would be inappropriate for every complaint from any individual student to trigger a full scale and meticulous, perhaps external, investigation of the whole culture at the school and the Student Union."
The Appeal Panel, consisting of two members of SOAS staff and an independent chair, stated that it understood the term "toxic, antisemitic environment" to refer to "institutional antisemitism" as defined in the Macpherson Report, namely "the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness, and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people."
It added that the new investigation should also draw on the Equality Act 2010 and the IHRA definition of antisemitism for its understanding of "toxic, antisemitic environment".
The Panel recommended that the investigation should be carried out by a panel of three people not associated with SOAS or its student union, that they should all command the confidence of the Jewish community and its leading institutions, and that they should be selected in consultation with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and the Government's Independent Antisemitism Advisor (Lord Mann). They should include an academic familiar with academic research and debates on contemporary antisemitism, and someone of stature and experience in public life who would add to public confidence in the process.
Jonathan Turner, Executive Director of UKLFI Charitable Trust commented: "The Panel grasped the nettle and has set a benchmark of best practice which should be followed in other cases where there is prima facie evidence of an antisemitic environment. We congratulate Noah Lewis on pursuing the complaint and hope that other students who experience antisemitism at universities will now be encouraged to object. Organisations such as ours are here to help."
Brooke Goldstein, Executive Director of The Lawfare Project commented: "What happened to Noah Lewis should never be considered acceptable at a place of higher learning. The Lawfare Project is glad to see that, with this settlement and continued investigation, SOAS is working to right this wrong and ensure that its Jewish students and faculty members can feel safe and welcome on campus."
Mr. Lewis commented: "I am grateful for the support and guidance provided by UKLFI and the Lawfare Project. The anti-Semitic climate that has taken hold on UK campuses like SOAS cannot be allowed to persist and I strongly urge fellow students who have suffered similar experiences to speak out. This is the only way that we will affect positive change."
ICRC's Twitter Campaign Shows its Obsession With Israel
The International Committee for the Red Cross describes itself as "an impartial, neutral and independent organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence and to provide them with assistance." So why is this allegedly "impartial, neutral and independent organization" running a PR campaign on Twitter in which it singles out the Israeli-made hit Netflix show Fauda for fictional violations of international law? Doesn't it have enough real work to get on with, such as documenting voter suppression, the execution of journalists, and violent crimes against Muslims by the Chinese regime?
Pollster James Zogby, who once famously responded with a fit of a rage to a tweet about Israeli hummus, last week paired up with MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin to vent their shared anti-Israel animus with a focus on the day's topics: coronavirus and Christmas.
Picking up on the narrative embraced earlier by other media outlets such as Associated Press and Washington Post in which Israeli citizens can look forward to a quick rollout of a coronavirus campaign while the Jewish state fails to provide for its ailing, impoverished, occupied Palestinian neighbors, MSNBC's Dec. 24 broadcast dismisses the fact that under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian government is responsible for vaccinating its population ("Covid vaccine distribution underway in Israel, Palestinians may wait months").
Zogby falsely argues that it is Israel's responsibility to vaccinate West Bank and Gaza populations, claiming:International law that governs occupied territories and humanitarian law that governs occupations very specifically stipulate that Israel has, the occupying power, has the obligation to care for the public health, safety and security of the people under occupation. They don't just have nine million people. There are 15 million under their control. Half of them are Palestinian Arabs. Some are citizens, two million and the other [sic] are living under occupation. They're not caring for them. They're not doing what is their required obligation to do for them and so Palestinians are suffering. They have no income. They have no money. The authority doesn't have money. They don't have the physical capability of getting the vaccine and being able to store it and distribute it. And that is the obligation of the occupying power to do.
Later the pollster absurdly claims that because Palestinian pharmaceutical imports require Israeli approval, Israel therefore is responsible for providing the vaccine:Here's the interesting thing. Israel claims that it's not the occupying authority, that the West Bank is under the control, that Area A, is under control of the Palestinian Authority. But they [Palestinians] can't import. They can't import medicines. They can't import products unless Israel approves them and they have not given the approval for this [Russian] vaccine.
At no point does Mohyeldin make clear that the bilateral Oslo Accords, to which the Palestinians consented, transferred responsibility for healthcare to the newly formed Palestinian government.
Hip hop artist Jay Electronica released two albums this year. The first, A Written Testimony, caused controversy with its references to the Rothschild banking family and to the "synagogue of Satan." The artist was again in the news over the summer for making comments about Rabbi Abraham Cooper that were regarded as antisemitic. Then in October, his second album of the year, Act II: The Patents of Nobility (The Turn), repeated the same references to the Rothschilds and to the "synagogue of Satan." In case there was any doubt about the meaning, other tracks on the album mentioned notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan, who has clearly used the term to refer to Jews, and Farrakhan's publication, the Final Call.
When A Written Testimony came out in March, some gave Electronica the benefit of the doubt due to his somewhat sordid history with Kate Rothschild, the granddaughter of the 3rd Baron Rothschild and the niece of the 4th Baron Rothschild, which left room for ambiguity over the artist's subjective intent. But including the same phrases on his second album after being called out by a Jewish DJ left no doubt that Electronica simply disregards Jewish sensibilities. Yet, the popular music magazine Pitchfork called Act II: The Patents of Nobility (The Turn), one of the top 50 albums of the year.
Pitchfork is a 25-year old music publication that was acquired by Conde Nast in 2015. It boasts 7.3 million unique users, most of whom are millenials, and it's long been considered highly influential. It calls itself, "the most trusted voice in music." But when this publication compiled its list of "The 50 Best Albums of 2020," its editors decided to include an album with antisemitic lyrics. Act II: The Patents of Nobility (The Turn) is number 14 on Pitchfork's list.
Electronica's March album, A Written Testimony, included the lyrics, "And I bet you a Rothschild I get a bang for my dollar / The Synagogue of Satan want me to hang by my collar." As the Jewish News points out, Jay Electronica's previous relationship with Kate Rothschild adds a layer of meaning that could be personal. But regardless of the intent, there's little doubt that, on their face, these lines promote what the ADL calls a "longstanding anti-Semitic conspiracy theory" about the Rothschild family, antisemitic tropes and stereotypes about Jews and money, and rhetoric reminiscent of Louis Farrakhan, a man the ADL calls a "notable extremist figure, railing against Jews, white people and the LGBT community."
No, @Guardian, occupation is not the the reason for Israel's isolation by Arab states. The refusal to recognize even Israel's existence far pre-dates any claims of occupation.
Since 2013 (see 'related articles' below) we have documented contributions and/or information sourced from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) appearing in the BBC's Israel related content.
Often portrayed by the BBC as 'human rights groups', those inherently agenda-driven organisations make no claim to provide unbiased information and are obviously not obligated to the BBC's editorial guidelines.
The BBC's collaboration with political NGOs comes in a variety of forms. In some cases people associated with NGOs are interviewed or quoted in BBC reporting – but their links to those organisations are not adequately clarified.
For example a report by Orla Guerin aired on BBC One in January included a contribution from a person described as a "community organiser" who actually works as campaigns director for the political NGO Avaaz. In the same report Guerin promoted a quote from an unidentified "analyst" who holds a senior position at the NGO International Crisis Group (ICG):
A man was stabbed in Lakewood on Tuesday morning, The Lakewood Scoop reported. He was walking in public around 9 a.m. when a woman stabbed him from behind.
The victim grabbed the weapon away from her and managed to hold her down until police arrived.
The victim was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and the assailant was taken into custody.
An investigation is underway by Lakewood's CSI and Detective's Bureau. The motivation for the attack is unknown as of now, but The Lakewood Scoop reported that the woman was known to the authorities as mentally unstable.
Security camera footage recorded the entire attack and can be seen below.
West Linn police are investigating racist, anti-semitic and anti-police graffiti discovered at an under-construction home Dec. 23.
Police announced in a press release they were investigating the incident as a bias crime.
Steve Sherman, who has lived with his family in the neighborhood for 20 years, said he discovered the vandalism around 4 p.m. Wednesday when he walked the short distance from his current home to his future home on Nixon Avenue.
Sherman said that two swastikas, the N-word, the acronym ACAB (which stands for "all cops are bastards") and "not a nice message" directed at a specific West Linn police officer were all written in putty and pipe glue on the windows and walls of the house.
According to Sherman, a neighbor's video camera across the street showed two teenagers casually walking onto the property when no one else was there.
Sherman, whose family is Jewish, said he thought it most likely that the house was vandalized simply because it was under construction and seemed an easy target.
"We don't hide the fact that we're Jewish. We're one of the only families that doesn't have Christmas lights on every year and people that know us know we're Jewish," he said.
The Bazan Group, whose fossil fuel-based companies are among the most polluting in Israel, announced Monday that it is to embark on a NIS 12 million ($3.7 million) pilot project to produce, compress and transport hydrogen in accordance with the standards needed for the introduction of green, hydrogen-fueled vehicles into Israel.
Its first target will be to create the first hydrogen refueling station in the country — a goal it shares with the Sonol company.
Around the world, the promise of hydrogen power, harvested by separating and reuniting the elements that make up water, is sparking the next revolution in clean energy.
The technology is still in its infancy, but both the government and the private sector are pumping money into developing ways to make hydrogen more powerful, efficient and cost-effective.
Bazan's proposal was accepted by the Energy Ministry's chief scientist and its Alternative Fuels and Smart Transportation Administration, which seeks to encourage innovation in the energy economy.
Israeli fintech firm eToro is reportedly planning to hold an initial public offering of shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange at a valuation of $5 billion in the second quarter of 2021.
The Israel-based online trading platform allows customers to trade in stocks, currencies, commodities and cryptocurrencies as well as derivatives of such assets.
The firm has added 5 million new users this year, bringing the total number of registered users to some 17 million, with its revenues tripling to $500 million, according to the Calcalist financial website, which first reported on the IPO on Monday.
CEO Yonatan Assia said in an interview in September that eToro had experienced significant growth during the coronavirus crisis.
However, the company, which employs 700 people in Israel and 400 elsewhere, has come under scrutiny from regulators and journalists in Australia and the UK in recent months. Questions have arisen regarding precisely how eToro earns its money and whether its products are too risky for the Millenial and Generation Z investors who appear to be flocking to its trading platform in response to aggressive advertising.
A December 6 report in The Australian said the company was being looked at by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) after it recorded a 480% rise in Australian users this year.
IDF's 7 Most Advanced Technologies
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These 7 technologies provide us with an edge on the battlefield and assist us in our mission to save civilian lives.
Israel has offered humanitarian aid to Croatia following a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the European nation on Tuesday.
The tremor — with the epicenter in Petrinja, 50 kilometers south of the Croatian capital, Zagreb — killed at least six people and injured more than 20 more.
It was the second quake to strike the area in two days.
The director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry, Alon Ushpiz, tweeted, "We follow with great concern the effects of the recent earthquakes in Croatia, that caused great damage and the tragic death of a young girl."
"The Foreign Ministry, in coordination with the home front command, has offered immediate assistance to Croatia," he added.
Israeli Ambassador to Croatia Ilan Mor tweeted, "#Israel stand in solidarity with the #Croatian citizens after the 2 devastating #Earthquakes in only 48 hours. Our thoughts go to the families of the 2 victims, the injured and all those who lost their homes. We stand ready to support. A friend in a need is a friend indeed."
Israel has a long history of sending emergency responders to disaster zones around the world, including Honduras earlier this year after two hurricanes there.
HEROES OF 2020
On July 3, Michael Ben Zikri drowned after rescuing an Arab family (woman and three children) from a sinkhole in a lake south of Israel
The news has touched many Arabs throughout the Middle East who referred to Ben Zikri as a hero and praised his humanitarian act pic.twitter.com/sKl69fnEvu
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.
Netanyahu has held onto the reins of power far longer than any other Israeli prime minister. But love him or hate him, at some point Bibi must go, because barring other reasons for being deposed from the prime ministerial throne, no one lives forever. The problem is, there is no one to step into Netanyahu's shoes, because he hasn't groomed a successor. From Jonathan Tobin:
The defection of Likudniks under Sa'ar's leadership to join the other former Netanyahu aides that oppose him at the head of other parties, like Bennett and Lieberman, reminds us that the prime minister has never tried to groom a successor. Indeed, he doesn't seem to believe in the concept. That "après moi, le deluge" attitude is not only a good argument for term limits. It's a bad look for any leader in a democracy even if, as is true of Netanyahu, his expertise in diplomacy, security and economic issues may be unrivaled.
With another election looming, the fourth since April 2019, Israelis must again ponder their electoral choices. There is no question that the right is stronger than the left in Israel right now, and has been for years, but the right has reason to be dissatisfied with Netanyahu. The right doesn't like how Bibi has handled the situation in Southern Israel where Gaza uses Israeli citizens for target practice. They aren't crazy about the fact that Bibi promised sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and it never happened. Aside from these issues, Likud, the party of Netanyahu, is seen as failing in its mission. Likud is supposed to be the party of Greater Israel, the party that builds in all parts of the Land, but it seems like illegal Arab building in the territories gets a pass, while Jewish homes are deemed illegal and are demolished in the blink of an eye to make a show for the EU, the UN, and fake human rights organizations, whenever they give a schrie, a shout.
Because of this situation, where Likud is deemed to be not really on the right, many voters took a chance, the last several times around, on the smaller right wing parties, which sucked away votes from Netanyahu's party, the Likud. This necessitated the Likud wooing several smaller parties to join together as a coalition, in order to gain enough seats to form a government. As these smaller parties vie for a place in the government, Netanyahu has to be careful about divvying out political favors to rising stars on the right, lest they rise above to supplant him and usurp his place of power.
And that is how someone like Gantz, someone unseasoned and unsuited to rule, rises to power. It's all about balancing out that coalition and those favors. Bibi dare not cede too much power to anyone else on the right, lest he lose his place and fall off the throne.
But whenever elections are announced, there are always some who will jump ship to form new parties, diluting the vote even further, and demanding more favors for the sake of joining the right wing coalition. This time, Gideon Sa'ar a longtime member of Likud, tendered his resignation from the Knesset and left the Likud to form the New Hope party. That same day, Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser of the Center Right Derech Eretz party signed on with Sa'ar's party. Likud members Yifat Shasha-Biton, Michal Shir, Sharren Haskel, and Ze'ev Elkin, subsequently left the party of Netanyahu to throw in their lot with Sa'ar.
This many people coming onboard with Sa'ar tells us that the former Likudnik is attempting to form a new Likud, a party that will truly represent the right, and not fake it to make it, as the Likud, under Netanyahu, has done. This is not a new phenomenon. Many parties have sprung from the loins of the Likud. Some of the parties make it, some of them don't. But none of these parties, and none of their leaders have succeeded in amassing the power of a Benjamin Netanyahu. And this is, in part, because Netanyahu has not groomed a successor.
It is the responsibility of a leader to groom a successor. No one lives forever. No politician can stay in power forever. If Netanyahu cares about securing the future of the Jewish State, he must prepare someone to take over from him when the time comes.
That could have been Sa'ar. But Sa'ar saw no future in the Likud, because Netanyahu gave him no hope that the former more junior member of Likud might someday succeed him. Nor did Netanyahu give hope to any other rising star in the Likud that he or she might someday rise to power.
Maybe that is because Netanyahu doesn't see anyone in the talent pool of rising stars in the Likud who comes close to meeting the Netanyahu standard of statesmanship. And maybe there really is no one who is capable of the magic of statecraft Netanyahu-style—no one to pull rabbits out of hats, the way Netanyahu always seems to do, like when he stares down the UN . . .
. . . or speaks to Congress against the wishes of Obama.
But I'll tell you this: I've seen Netanyahu speak, and it's like he's the entire room. You feel as though he's speaking only to you. Maybe he was born that way, with a gift. Or perhaps Netanyahu was born with the potential to be a leader and someone took a chance--took him under his wing, and helped to nurture that gift.
All I know is that love or hate him, Netanyahu makes every other potential Israeli leader look small. I see no one with the gravitas to take his place. And that's a scary thought for the future of Israel. Which is why Netanyahu must groom a successor, now. Netanyahu needs to create a leader in his own powerful image, a Bibi 2.0--except more rightwing--to take his place on that day when it will finally be time for him to step off the dais and let someone else lead the Jewish State to prosperity, peace, and success.
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The Abraham Accords are a major opportunity for Israelis and Arabs, and I think they represent an incredibly important milestone for the world as a whole.
I have been reading Arab media and government reactions to these accords, because these reactions are one gauge of how Israel's Arab partners view the situation. It's important to do this in order to avoid the kind of overly optimistic assessments about "the other side" that accompanied the Oslo Accords. What people say in their own press (especially in their own languages) can give a deeper sense of what they are thinking than western-focused reports in global media or sometimes-optimistic reports in Israeli news sources.
Arabic and French media responses in Morocco have changed over the last few weeks.
In the days after the Morocco-Israel announcement, there was virtually no commentary on the Israel deal per se on Arabic- and French-language Moroccan news sites; most ment ioned only that the US had recognized Morocco's claim to Western Sahara, but mention of the Israel relationship was either indirect or almost nonexistent; the word Israel did not always appear anywhere in these stories, and of course it never appeared in the headlines. In some cases, this lack-of-coverage was accompanied by articles insisting that Morocco was a strong supporter of the "Palestinian Cause", e.g. the king called Abbas.
That situation has changed.
For example, no stories about the Morocco-Israel renewal appear on the front page of the As Sabah news site, but the "Patriotism" or "Nation" section includes the following stories:
I don't think I appreciated before how interested the Moroccan media is in opinions from Latin America. I know that the country had been engaged in a diplomatic push in Latin America to gain support for its claims to Western Sahara, but this makes at least 5 unrelated Moroccan news sites (in the Arabic, French and English languages) that are reporting on comments by Moroccan Jewish communities or experts in Mexico, Panama and now Argentina, praising the Morocco-Israel accord. These join reports on praise from American Jews, French Jews from Morocco, Moroccan Jews and Israelis of Moroccan descent.
The two agreements signed between Morocco and the United States of America, on the sidelines of the visit of the Israeli and American delegations to Morocco, will contribute to mobilizing financial resources amounting to 5 billion dollars, approximately 48 billion dirhams (4800 billion centimes).
Morocco likes to tout its long relationship with the United States, and in addition to rediscovering its ties to Israel's Moroccan Jewish community, the opportunity to refresh Morocco's ties with the United States and the US backing for its Western Sahara stance give Morocco a morale boost that should not be underestimated.
The photo accompanying this story, which was printed 2 days ago:
No Jews have been as relentlessly maligned as the Jews of Hebron. From the time of their arrival following the 1967 Six-Day War—40 years after the murderous annihilation of its Jewish community by rampaging Arabs—they have become the pariahs of the Jewish people. Their presence in the city where the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people are entombed, and where King David reigned before relocating his throne to Jerusalem, is deemed to be an unlawful and immoral Israeli intrusion on the Palestinian residents of Hebron.
The most recent contributor to this enduring falsehood is Tamara Neuman, an anthropologist and Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute at Columbia. The first page of her Introduction to Settling Hebron: Jewish Fundamentalism in a Palestinian City displays the misinformation that reveals her embedded bias. Gazing at the Machpelah shrine where, according to the biblical narrative, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah are entombed, she nonetheless discerns its "staunch witness to the site's Islamic character." Muslims, however, first appeared in the seventh century C.E. long after the reign of King Herod, when the towering Machpelah enclosure was built.
It was, for Neuman, "impossible not to notice the deadening effects of the many [Israeli] soldiers deployed throughout a Palestinian urban area"—in translation, the ancient Jewish Quarter that was "established illegally" following the Six-Day War. (Her tour guide was a founder of Breaking the Silence, a renegade group of ex-soldiers who oppose Jewish settlements.) In a repetitive inversion of historical reality, she accuses Jewish settlers of "the remaking of many Palestinian areas into a geography of biblical sites and origins," as if Palestinians superseded millennia of Jewish habitation in Hebron. In Neuman's convoluted (and occasionally incomprehensible) rendering, "Jewish settlers establish a putative sense of the real, which arises from the very materiality of the scene."
Historically myopic, ignoring millennia of Jewish history in Hebron, she can only discern the "colonial backdrop" of a "land takeover" with "Jewish observance and forms of direct violence in order to erase the presence of an existing Palestinian population." As for erasure, it was Hebron Arabs who murderously obliterated the centuries-old Jewish community in 1929. She imaginatively, but falsely, describes their targeted violence against a tiny community of several hundred Jews and yeshivah students as "anticolonial riots."
Are the Jews to blame for spreading COVID-19 throughout New York City? That's what Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested in an inflammatory tweet back in April, which, in his typical bumbling fashion, he defended for six months before kinda, sorta walking it back.
Never mind all that. The city is serious! It believes in science! Earlier this week, the mayor's office launched its "NYC Vaccine for All" campaign, announcing that it will begin offering the COVID vaccine soonest. Who will get it first? Naturally, the neighborhoods "hardest hit" by the pandemic, the mayor's office assured us, 27 of them in total.
Hallelujah! So now we have an official record of the hardest hit corners of New York, which means that if the mayor's criticism was correct, we should find many familiar ZIP codes among those singled out for urgent care. Let us, then, turn to the list and search for the neighborhoods heaviest populated by Orthodox Jews, the clear target of the mayor's ire.
What about, for example, the venerable 11213, at the heart of which lies 770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad's headquarters? Nope, not on the list. Maybe 11218, 11219, and 11230, representing Borough Park? Not on the list either. Now, surely that massive Hasidic funeral that drew thousands and spurred the NYPD to launch a criminal investigation led to a massive outbreak that sent the neighborhood right into the hardest-hit list, right? Check again: That funeral was launched from the Yetev Lev D'Satmar yeshiva, ZIP code 11249. Good luck finding it on the mayor's list. You can play this game with most NYC neighborhoods that are home to vast populations of Orthodox Jews; you won't find them on the list.
None of this is to say that no Jews live in any of the neighborhoods most distressed by the pandemic. Take a close look, and you'll find some neighborhoods that do have strong Jewish populations, like the border between Bushwick and Williamsburg, say. But look closely, and the picture grows complicated: Wallabout Street, for example, one of the neighborhood's main Hasidic thoroughfares, is largely uncovered by the mayor's announcement. So while a significant number of Williamsburg Jews do live in areas that get vaccine priority, the densest part with the largest Jewish population in Williamsburg isn't in any of the priority neighborhoods. Neither are the central Satmar shuls, or the popular restaurant Gottleib's.
This exclusion of the lion's share of the city's heavily populated Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods from the mayor's list suggests that one of two things are true.
The first possibility is that the list is an accurate, science-based representation of the virus's spread rates and patterns. In that case, the absence of most Orthodox Jewish enclaves from the list means the mayor was being both a criminally irresponsible public official for pinning the plague on one blameless minority group, as well as a filthy anti-Semite for picking on the Jews.
The second possibility hardly portrays de Blasio in a better light. According to the mayor's office—which did not return Tablet's request for more information—the vaccine's distribution will be spearheaded by the Taskforce on Racial Equity and Inclusion, which is chaired by the city's First Lady, Chirlaine McCray, not a medical doctor. In fact, the only prominent physician on the committee, Dr. Raul Perea-Henze, resigned in September, joining a wave of senior officials departing the grossly inept administration.
A federal court of appeals ruled that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's capacity limits on houses of worship in areas with rising COVID-19 cases constituted a violation of religious liberty.
The ruling on Monday comes after a Supreme Court injunction last month blocked Cuomo from enforcing the rules until the lower court could reevaluate an earlier ruling that upheld state guidelines limiting synagogue attendance to 10 or 25 people.
The case, brought by the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel of America, an advocacy organization representing ultra-Orthodox Jews, was one of the first religious liberty cases to be decided by the court's new conservative majority. The appeals court ruling was celebrated by Agudath Israel as confirmation that it had achieved a victory for religious liberty.
"The courts have clearly recognized that the restrictions imposed by New York State violate the constitutional rights of those seeking to attend religious worship services," Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, said in a statement Monday.
The court of appeals did not rule on the constitutionality of percentage capacity limits, which would have impacted smaller houses of worship. Houses of worship in zones with the highest rates of COVID-19, so-called red zones, were subjected to capacity limits of ten people or 25% of building capacity, whichever is fewer. In orange zones, the limit was 25 people or 33% of capacity, whichever is fewer.
The acrimony between never-Trumpers and pro-Trumpers has generated some fiery accusations from both sides. As a Jew who admires what President Donald Trump has done in the interest of the United States to promote peace in the Middle East and to bring security to Israel, but who is appalled by his extravagant narcissism and capriciousness, I tolerate what many regard as extreme abuse hurled in print at Trump and his supporters. Hardened by years of courtroom battles, and the charges and counter-charges made during hotly contested litigation, I calmly read aggressively expressed opinions with which I disagree. Proof is that I even continue to subscribe to The Washington Post.
But the Post published on Dec. 23 a reprehensible and revolting opinion piece that exceeds even my high tolerance level. It is called "Denying the Holocaust Threatens Democracy. So Does Denying the Election Results" by Deborah Lipstadt and Norman Eisen.
Both are names well-known to American Jewry. Lipstadt is a renowned professor of Holocaust studies who first made a reputation more than 20 years ago when she was sued in England by a notorious Holocaust denier. After an internationally publicized trial in which, to her credit, she stood fast and presented evidence proving that he had distorted history, Lipstadt was vindicated in a 349-page decision by the British judge.
Eisen is a Harvard-trained lawyer whose expertise includes legal ethics. His mother is an Auschwitz survivor. He was a law-school classmate of former President Barack Obama, who appointed him in 2011 to be U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Eisen proudly arranged a kosher kitchen in the ambassadorial residence in Prague and is a member of an Orthodox synagogue in downtown Washington.
Touting their Jewish credentials and Holocaust expertise and experience, Lipstadt and Eisen opine that contesting the results of the presidential election parallels Holocaust denial. They graciously acknowledge that Trump is not Adolf Hitler, but claim that the comparison is correct because both Hitler and Trump "adopted the propaganda technique of the big lie" and "serve antidemocratic political ends."
"Democracy denial," they declare, is equivalent to Holocaust denial.
To say that this cheapens the memory of the 6 million who were exterminated in the Holocaust is a gross understatement. Comparing the Nazis' genocide to some criticized contemporary conduct is a sophisticated form of Holocaust denial. Milder comparisons than the Lipstadt-Eisen analogy have met universal condemnation. Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) had to provide an implausible gloss for an extreme statement she made in June 2019 comparing American detention camps at the Mexican border to concentration camps. I would be surprised if Lipstadt and Eisen disagreed with the criticism of a Jewish Community Relations Council that Ocasio-Cortez's statement "diminishes the evil intent of the Nazis to eradicate the Jewish people."
As the announcement of a vaccine that is 90% effective in preventing the novel coronavirus has dominated the headlines and given hope to people in every corner of the globe, we pause at this juncture to pay tribute to Albert Bourla, the chairman and CEO of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
Founded in 1849 in New York City by Charles Pfizer, the eponymously named pharmaceutical company is one of the world's largest of its kind and it ranked 57 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Pfizer develops and produces medicines and vaccines for a wide range of medical disciplines, including immunology, oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, and neurology. Its products include the blockbuster drug Lipitor (atorvastatin), used to lower LDL blood cholesterol; Lyrica (pregabalin) for neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia; Diflucan (fluconazole), an oral antifungal medication; Zithromax (azithromycin), an antibiotic; Viagra (sildenafil) for erectile dysfunction; and Celebrex (also Celebra, celecoxib), an anti-inflammatory drug.
Currently, Pfizer is under the dynamic and innovative leadership of a man who came from humble beginnings and who rose to prominence in the medical field through his remarkable diligence and his tireless desire to help people.
Born in October of 1961 in Thessaloniki, Greece, Albert Bourla was raised in a Sephardic Jewish family. Bourla is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and holds a Ph.D. in the Biotechnology of Reproduction from the Veterinary School of Aristotle University. He left Greece with his wife when he was 34 and since then he has lived in seven different cities, in four different countries.
In 2020, he was ranked as America's top CEO in the Pharmaceuticals sector by Institutional Investor magazine. He is on the executive committee of The Partnership for New York City, a director on multiple boards – Pfizer, Inc., The Pfizer Foundation, PhRMA, and Catalyst – and a Trustee of the United States Council for International Business. In addition, Bourla is a member of the Business Roundtable and the Business Council.
Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich) has been enlisted by the virulently anti-Israel "Jewish" group IfNotNow to help with their fundraising campaign. On Monday, Tlaib sent out an email on behalf of IfNotNow soliciting donations of $18 to $180 or more, under the header: "IfNotNow has my back."
Tlaib, who in response to being refused entry by the Israeli government tweeted an anti-Israel cartoon by Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff, wrote in her email: "Since I was elected to Congress in 2018, our Squad for justice and equity has continued to grow. But, even as we grow our progressive movement for change, there are those who attack us because they are scared of our collective power."
"As the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, I have been the focus of many attacks — sexist, racist, and Islamophobic. These constant smear campaigns have made me grateful for those in my corner and those who continue to work tirelessly for the freedom and dignity of every person — especially IfNotNow Movement," Tlaib continued.
One of those attacks followed her retweet of a jarring statement from a bandana-masked user calling herself Rasha (how apt, seeing as Rasha in Hebrew means wicked) who posted a cheerful poster celebrating "International day of solidarity with the Palestinian people" above which she noted: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
Which flew in the face of repeated statements from Tlaib claiming that she's not supporting the destruction of Israel, only two states for two ever-loving, equal and happy peoples, side by side. How do you do the side by side thing if one side is swimming in the sea?
Blogger Elder of Ziyon posted recently about a webinar held by The Lajee Center, an NGO centered in the Aida UNRWA camp, that featured Health for Palestine Director Dr. Bram Wispelwey arguing that Israel was responsible for high levels of diabetes among Palestinian "refugees."
However, of greater concern, is the fact that several months ago, the London Review of Books (LRB) published a blog post by Dr. Wispelwey ("Underlying Conditions," April 18) where he made the same accusation.
Here are the relevant passages:At nearly 18 per cent officially, and probably higher, the prevalence of diabetes among Palestinian refugees in the West Bank is one of the highest in the world. The official rate in Gaza is 16 per cent. Among adult citizens of Israel, it's 7.2 per cent…
Decades of living in overcrowded refugee camps and a rapid transition to cheap and readily available high calorie foods, in part a result of the neoliberal economic changes that came with the Oslo Accords, have led to an explosive increase in obesity and diabetes among Palestinians. As in other parts of the world, the prevalence of the disease is linked to land dispossession, structural violence, colonial domination and oppression.
First, Elder put the charge in context by citing a report from the World Diabetes Foundation showing that the Palestinian diabetes rate, nearly 18%, is similar to other Middle Eastern countries. Additionally, this graph shows that wealthy oil-producing Gulf countries with high levels of expenditures on public health, such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, are among those states with higher levels of diabetes than Palestinians.
If the LRB contributor was to make a serious argument about the cause of high levels of diabetes among Palestinians, he would have at least had to acknowledge that other, far wealthier states in the region similarly have a high prevalence of the disease.
But this would have required real research, and forced him to consider that cultural or sociological factors, and individual lifestyle choices regarding diet and exercise within the MENA region may explain such high Palestinian morbidity rates.
But, as the passages above show, no serious research was conducted.
The Zachor Legal Institute, a legal think tank and advocacy group, is urging the outgoing Trump administration to publish a list of anti-Israel BDS groups.
In a letter sent to Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Elan Carr, Zachor identifies more than two dozen organizations tied to the BDS movement. Among those are several domestic organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, IfNotNow and American Muslims for Palestine.
"The enclosed report identifies a number of organizations that promote BDS. While some of the identified organizations are not based in the United States, they often work together with domestic groups that should be covered by the BDS Statement," the letter reads.
In November, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's announced that America would withdraw funding from groups that support the BDS movement, which he called "anti-Semitic."
Pompeo said he had instructed Carr's office "to identify organizations that engage in, or otherwise support, the global BDS campaign" to "consider whether an organization is engaged in actions that are politically motivated and are intended to penalize, or otherwise limit, commercial relations specifically with Israel or persons doing business in Israel or in any territory controlled by Israel."
In line with Pompeo's announcement, a senior Trump administration official told JNS that the administration plans to release the list in the next few weeks.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) took aim at the hit television show Fauda over the weekend, on the official Twitter account of its delegation to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"Like many of you, this year we've also watched @FaudaOfficial and noted a number of violations of #IHL," the account posted, using an acronym for "international humanitarian law."
"Check out this Twitter thread and tell us if you see more!" it added.
A thread of tweets followed in which the ICRC called out scenes of torture and hostage-taking from various episodes of the Netflix show, which follows an undercover counter-terrorism unit in the Israel Defense Forces.
In response, social media users were quick to point out that the fictional series presumably falls outside the organization's purview.
"The local Israeli branch of the International Red Cross found human rights violations on a television program," wrote school superintendent Joel M. Peltin. "Seriously? If we're calling out movies & TV shows that include law breaking, I nominate all the films in the Fast and Furious franchise for the use of excessive speed."
Other nominees for scrutiny by the organization included HBO's "Game of Thrones," Stephen King's horror novels, and "The Avengers" series, in which supervillain Thanos kills half the life in the universe.
When the leader of a US and EU-designated terrorist group makes a claim, journalists, perhaps more than anyone else, should know that the comments should not necessarily be taken at face value and that additional investigating is required.
But a recent piece by Associated Press parrots the words of Lebanon-based Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, effectively promoting them as fact.
Indeed, the headline of the December 27 article — "Hezbollah doubled its precision-guided missiles in a year" — is a direct quote from the head of the Iranian proxy, which through its nefarious actions has brought Lebanon to the brink of total collapse and whose members have killed countless innocents on behalf of the Assad regime in Syria, trained Iraqi insurgents who have gone on to kill US forces, and targeted Israel repeatedly.
In this respect, the headline should at the very least have included Nasrallah's name or a reference to him in order make clear that the headline is not a statement of fact.
By contrast, an accurate title might have read, "Hezbollah chief: We have doubled our precision-guided missiles in a year;" or, "Nasrallah: Hezbollah doubled its precision-guided missiles in a year."
The point is that what terrorists say must be taken with a grain of salt. And while the media should document these claims, journalists have a responsibility to ensure that the public understands the difference between a claim and objective truth.
It is telling, too, that the article is based entirely on a four-hour-long interview given by Nasrallah to the Beirut-based Arabic television station Al-Mayadeen.
On December 10, Foreign Policy published a piece about Sudanese in Israel that gave the inaccurate impression that all members of this cohort are refugees:
HonestReporting contacted Foreign Policy to point out that while the United Nations' 1951 Refugee Convention guarantees that refugees not be sent back to their countries of origin if doing so would put them in harm's way, the intergovernmental organization also clearly differentiates between what constitutes a "refugee" as opposed to a "migrant." HR noted that most experts agree that the latter applies to those who leave their states in search of economic opportunity and an overall better life.
As such, not everyone from Sudan presently residing in Israel is, by definition, a refugee. Accordingly, the title of the Foreign Policy article is misleading.
Asylum Seekers Are Not the Same as RefugeesNotably, the piece repeatedly uses the term "asylum seeker" interchangeably with "refugee." The former applies to individuals whose claim to refugee status has not yet been determined. By contrast, a refugee is someone who has been recognized as such under the 1951 Convention.
Indeed, not all asylum seekers are ultimately recognized as refugees and, even then, only about one percent of them are, on average, resettled every year.
Last week, Agence France Presse's Israel-related coverage took on a turn towards the fantastical. First, there was the Dec. 21 article story which misidentified Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial museum, as "the holiest day of the Jewish year." CAMERA prompted coverage of that absurdity, but days later the agency's fact-checkers apparently were still out sipping eggnog. On Christmas day, a heart-warming story of an Israeli ice hockey team competing in Dubai against an Emirati team bizarrely maintained that the Israeli city of Bat Yam, "south of Tel Aviv, on the shores of the Mediterranean, is better known for its sandy beaches, an idyllic climate and its retired Mossad agents, than for its ice hockey club." ("Breaking the Ice: Israel-UAE Hockey Match Makes History," emphasis added.)
Yes, famed Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who successfully infiltrated the highest levels of the Syrian government in the 1960s, had hailed from Bat Yam. Cohen, however, never was able to relish the luxury of retirement prior to his execution by hanging in Damascus. Then there's Isaac Shoshan, featured in Matti Friedman's "Spies of No Country," a fascinating book about Jews from Arab countries who spied on behalf of Israel before the country's independence. But that low profile Palmach-era spy who worked in Beirut is hardly a household name. Neither his name nor his occupation is widely associated with the city of Bat Yam. (Incidentally, the elderly, modest Shoshan passed away just yesterday.) How, exactly, is Bat Yam "known" for its retired Mossad agents?
Separately, the AFP piece refers to a "new ice rink in Tvunot [sic] near Jerusalem." That's the OneIce Arena in Tnuvot, not Tvunot, near Netanya — nowhere "near Jerusalem." CAMERA yesterday brought these errors, which appeared also in French, to the attention of AFP's Jerusalem bureau, but as of this writing, the AFP story has yet to be corrected in either language, despite the wire service's stated commitment to "correct errors quickly and transparently."
The Times of Israel had published AFP's hockey story, including the errors. In response to communication from CAMERA, Times of Israel editors yesterday immediately deleted the unfounded reference to Bat Yam's supposed fame on account of its retired Mossad agents and corrected the information about Tnuvot.
Back in July the BBC News website published a report headlined 'Captagon: Italy seizes €1bn of amphetamines 'made to fund IS'' in which audiences were told that:
"Italian police have seized what they believe is a world-record haul of 14 tonnes of amphetamines they suspect were made in Syria to finance the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).
About 84 million counterfeit Captagon pills worth an estimated €1bn ($1.1bn; £0.9bn) were found in containers at the port of Salerno."
That report is still available online in its original form. However in a filmed report published on the same website on December 21st – 'Captagon: Destroying the frontline drug' – BBC Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville stated that the source was not as originally thought.
"The source of origin wasn't the Islamic State group, but this drugs bust and a wave of others which have occurred across the world, the source turned out to be Syria. The drugs came from the Syrian port of Latakia, the second haul the Italians have seized this summer. The Syrian regime and its ally, Lebanese militia Hezbollah, are deep in the drugs trade. It's a major source of funding."
Sommerville provided no further details concerning Hizballah's involvement in drug trafficking in that filmed report. Viewers searching for more information on the topic from the BBC would find that the corporation's profile of Hizballah (last updated in 2016) provides no information whatsoever on that aspect of the terrorist organisation's activities. A search online for previous BBC reporting on the topic only brings up articles from fifteen years ago, eight years ago and 2018, mostly relating to Hizballah's drug related activities in South America.
The human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) on Tuesday announced its top ten outbreaks of antisemitism and anti-Israelism for 2020, with various conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the COVID-19 pandemic earning the lead spot.
"From the earliest stages of the pandemic in February 2020, far-right extremists across social media platforms blamed Jews and Asian Americans for the virus," wrote the center, citing the example of a "posting with an image titled 'Holocough' [that] urged, 'If you have the bug, give a hug. Spread the flu to every Jew.'"
The center said that "Antisemites have blamed Jews for the medieval Black Plague to the WWI Spanish Flu. In the 1930s, Nazi propaganda compared Jews to vermin who spread disease."
The number two spot went to the social media platform Telegram. "Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and many others turn to Telegram, a platform with little or no rules or content moderation. The murderous Atomwaffen Division, its successor, the National Socialist Order, extremist The Base, the Boogaloo Movement, the violent Nordic Resistance Movement that targeted Jewish institutions on Yom Kippur in four Scandinavian countries, have all found a home on Telegram," wrote Wiesenthal, adding that "Hamas and other Islamist terrorists with hate and violence agendas also have active feeds targeting their enemies."
The Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, secured the third spot. His entry was labeled: "Godfather of hate spreads Jews-hatred to new generations." He alleged that Jews tried to kill him with "radiated seeds."
Fourth place went to the far-left and far-right in the US for their "Desecrations, arson, violent attacks against synagogues as America reels from turmoil after George Floyd's death." Wiesenthal wrote that "Synagogues in Los Angeles and Oakland, California and Kenosha, Wisconsin were targeted in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, George Floyd's and Jake Blake's killings."
Spanish police found a warehouse full of Nazi memorabilia as they arrested three suspected leaders of an international arms ring that sold guns to drug traffickers along the Costa del Sol, the Civil Guard force said on Tuesday.
Following a year-long investigation into a wave of gun crimes in the region, police raided three locations, recovering 160 firearms, nearly 10,000 bullets and 1.5 kg of explosives.
The warehouse where the weapons were found was stuffed with Nazi artifacts, including portraits of Adolf Hitler, German military uniforms and medals displayed as if in a museum, police footage showed.
Officers arrested two German men, one of whom had links to far-right groups, and a British man. They have been charged with arms trafficking, drugs trafficking and falsifying official documents.
According to police, the gang acquired weapons from Eastern Europe before modifying them in their workshop in Malaga and selling them on to drug runners.
Dozens of tombstones at graveyard in the French town of Fontainebleau were defaced with swastikas, the town's mayor said Monday, but in an unusual twist Jewish gravestones were spared.
"Sixty-seven old or more recent gravestones were vandalized with swastikas in pink, white and silver," Fontainebleau's mayor Frederic Valletoux told AFP.
The words "Biobananas" and "Charles" were found inscribed on some of the graves but there was no sign of anti-Semitic graffiti, Valletoux added.
Meanwhile, the town's Jewish cemetery which is situated next to the main cemetery was found untouched.
Famous for a royal palace that served as a country retreat for monarchs from Louis VII through to Napoleon III, as well the surrounding forest that was their hunting ground, Fontainebleau is situated about 60 kilometers south-east of Paris.
The incident is the latest to target cemeteries in France, where Jewish gravestones have regularly been targeted by vandals.
Israeli model Yael Shelbia may have been named the most beautiful woman in the world for 2020, but those who disagreed with TC Candler magazine's decision to crown her as such were not shy about leaving ugly messages on her Instagram account, flooding it with angry anti-Israel comments.
"Liberate Palestine," one person commented. "Your country does not exist. Palestine is the only legitimate country," another person wrote.
The post garnered many angry responses in Arabic depicting flags of Palestine, despite the fact that the winner is named based on the votes of viewers from all over the world.
One person wrote, "now all Jewish girls will think they have the most beautiful face in the world."
Nevertheless, the post received many encouraging responses too. "A wonderful achievement for our Israel," one person wrote.
"Very beautiful," wrote Israeli model Nataly Dadon in support of Shelbia.
"I can't believe that I am at the top of the list," Shelbia told Israel Hayom. "Thank you to everyone who voted for me."
The Rafael defense contractor on Sunday unveiled a number of new weapons and systems, including miniature drones and a robotic dog, which it plans to sell to the Israel Defense Forces and foreign militaries and that it claims will change the face of modern warfare.
The company, one of the country's leading weapons manufacturers, sees these technological developments as a step toward a more interconnected and intelligent future battlefield, one in which many of the impediments to proper communication between various units and vehicles have been removed, granting the entire military access to up-to-date information and intelligence.
"Today, we can really talk about the ability to connect — in real time — the plane, the helicopter, the drone, the tank, the soldier, the half-track on every front, at all times, constantly," said Rafael CEO Yoav Har-Even.
According to Har-Even, a former head of the IDF Ground Forces, such interoperability was once impossible due to the inability of various communication systems within the military to work with one another.
"Today, the technology enables the strategies," he said.
Improved communication between various branches of the military is a central points of IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi's Momentum Plan. A main lynchpin of that plan is a powerful mapping and communication system produced by Rafael known as Smart Trigger, which allows for the rapid sharing of intelligence between units and allows commanders to easily determine which troops are in the best position to attack a target.
Rafael is developing a number of devices that can grant access to this system — and the information it contains, which was once only available to senior commanders — to individual troops on the battlefield.
"All the capabilities of intelligence collections, data analysis and assault will be made accessible not only to aerial forces, but also to ground forces, down to the level of the infantryman," the company said.
Israel will rely on its own natural gas supplies without needing external suppliers, starting in 2022, the Energy Ministry has said.
Israel maintains an offshore emergency gas supply in a Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) boat off the coast of Hadera. Canceling that unit will save Israelis more than NIS 250 million per year in electricity costs.
Israel operates two major natural gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea: Tamar, which has been pumping gas since 2013, and Leviathan, which began production last year. A third gas source, the Karish field, is expected to start producing gas during the coming year. At that point, the Energy Ministry maintains, there will be no need for external backups.
The existing FSRU infrastructure that was built in 2012 will be maintained in case of future need, the ministry noted. The system allows liquefied natural gas to be imported and stored, and then converted back to a gas and delivered via sea link to Israel's natural gas transmission system.
In a letter to the American company that provides the FSRU, Energy Ministry director-general Udi Adiri thanked the company for its service, and said it would cancel the arrangement.
Israel began using the FSRU system in 2013, when gas imports from Egypt ceased and the Tethys gas reservoir, Israel's only natural gas source at the time, was approaching depletion.
The ever-growing list of Israeli tech companies targeting a Nasdaq IPO in the coming months is closing in on double figures, with eToro becoming the latest, and probably not the last to join. This multitude of companies, the likes of which hasn't been seen since 2000, when at times, five and even seven Israeli companies would go public each day, is the result of two factors. The first is high demand for tech shares due to the accelerated digital transformation of the past year and the second being the almost complete lack of M&A deals due to the dramatic decrease in travel which complicated due diligence and integration processes. During this time, companies have continued to grow and receive generous funding from private investors which has allowed them to join the unicorn club, which in this day and age is essentially the minimum threshold to go public on Nasdaq.
Over the past three years, there has been an awakening in the IPO sector after years in which companies preferred to first try and obtain private funding. This created a new reality in which private companies reached dimensions previously unseen and are in no rush to go public. But the investing public is hungry for these companies, which is evident in the sharp increase in the shares of tech companies during their first day of trading.
It started with a trickle in 2018 and 2019, with IPOs of companies like Uber, Lyft, Beyond Meat, Zoom, and Slack, but peaked in 2020 when the average surge on the opening day of trading reached 40%. Companies like eToro and Robinhood are about to enjoy a phenomenon which they helped create in which young investors want to have a share in companies which sell products they use every day.
This is also where the significant difference between now and 20 years ago rests. In the year 2000, business models weren't structured enough and everything was based on fantasy rather than vision. Currently, the most sought-after shares in Robinhood are those which represent the digital economy that investors interact with on a daily basis, when using a cab, renting a home for a vacation, or buying a vegan hamburger.
Leading US Jewish organizations on Monday commemorated the one-year anniversary of the antisemitic stabbing attack at a Hanukkah party in Monsey, New York.
In the incident, Rabbi Josef Neumann was critically wounded, and he died several months later at the age of 72.
The perpetrator, 38-year-old Grafton Thomas, was arrested several hours after the attack, which took place in the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg. In April, Grafton was found mentally unfit to stand trial on federal hate crime charges.
"One year ago, on the 7th night of Hanukkah, a machete-wielding assailant entered the home of a rabbi in Monsey and attacked a gathering celebrating the holiday," tweeted the American Jewish Committee (AJC) on Monday. "We will never forget."
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt pledged to "continue fighting the vile antisemitism & #hate that fueled this tragic incident."
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) tweeted, "It's been one year since the Monsey Hanukkah stabbing in New York. An attacker wielding a machete entered the home of a rabbi during Hanukkah celebrations, stabbing several people. Joseph Neumann, 72, died of his wounds several months later. May his memory be a blessing."
One year ago, on the 7th night of Hanukkah, a machete-wielding assailant entered the home of a rabbi in Monsey and attacked a gathering celebrating the holiday.
Five people were wounded and one victim, Josef Neumann, later died of his injuries.
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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.
