| 04/09 Links Pt2: The future of Holocaust remembrance; Holocaust survivors use social media to show how words ‘stoke the fires of hate’; 'May Prince Philip's memory be a blessing' - Israel expresses condolences Posted: 09 Apr 2021 03:00 PM PDT From Ian: The future of Holocaust remembranceOne way to enhance Holocaust knowledge is to provide a personal connection. In Holocaust education, this is often accomplished through firsthand testimonies of survivors who experienced persecution, roundups, ghettos, deportations and concentration camps. Seeing and hearing Holocaust survivors share their stories of survival creates a personal connection to those events for students, making the information easier to identify with.
Sadly, we are losing the last generation of survivors. And for this generation of students, simply learning about the camps, crematoria and death trains may not be enough to conceptualize such overwhelming horrors. In truth, survivors do not visit schools and relive the darkest moment of their lives simply to provide a history lesson. Rather, they are insistent on sharing their testimony with students so that something even remotely like the Holocaust does not happen again. Their goal in visiting with students and teachers is to show them how the thoughts and words impact the world around them. Ideas and words lead to actions, which can have unimaginable and devastating effects.
This week, a survivor-led, digital campaign was launched by the Claims Conference. #ItStartedWithWords was created to show through survivor testimony that the horrific events of the Holocaust didn't come out of nowhere; it started with words. The campaign will post weekly videos of survivors from across the world reflecting on those moments that led up to the Holocaust—a period of time when racist ideology, transmitted in person and through the media, turned longtime neighbors, teachers, classmates and colleagues into dangerous foes when words of hate were transformed into acts of unprecedented violence.
The importance of this campaign is how it highlights not the actual roundups, deportations and mass murders, but rather, the words of an extreme xenophobic ideology, utterances of hate, racism and intolerance that preceded the Holocaust.
It is difficult to conceive how one would react if forced to flee one's home and community with just the clothes on one's back, running to escape murderous predators. It may be hard to imagine the rounding up of tens of thousands of people in the town centers to have them systematically sent to their deaths. It is nigh on impossible to visualize a gas chamber with a line of people going in and a stack of bodies coming out. But it is certainly our present-day reality seeing people hurling odious epithets at others and treating them as sub-human, unworthy of basic human rights, due only to their culture, religion, sexual preference or color of their skin.
These moments—moments of hate, xenophobia and racism—could be the beginnings of larger atrocities we just cannot imagine. Teaching tolerance and acceptance in our schools, and how the words we use matter greatly, will help pave the way to a better history that we have not yet created. This is the Holocaust education that must be the future of our remembrance. He killed a Nazi guard, fled ghetto with fake identities and joined the UK armyIt was the moment that undoubtedly saved Chaim Herszman's life. In February 1940, the 13-year-old stabbed and fatally wounded a Nazi guard in the Lodz Ghetto who he believed was about to shoot his younger brother.
Herszman fled the ghetto, leaving behind a family he would never see again — and commenced an epic three-year-journey across Nazi-occupied Europe which eventually took him to the safety of Britain. Over its course, he assumed multiple identities, stowed away on a German troop train and, while being sheltered in the heart of the Third Reich by a member of the Wehrmacht, wandered the streets of Berlin dressed in a Hitler Youth uniform.
After the war, Herszman, who changed his name to Henry Carr shortly before the British army dispatched him to take part in the liberation of Europe, married an Irish Catholic. But, in an extraordinary twist, Herszman was secretly baptized and hid that he was Jewish for nearly a decade. The deception began to unravel in 1958 when his only surviving brother traveled from Israel to visit the family in their home in Leeds in the north of England.
Herszman's incredible escape from the Nazis has been revealed for the first time in "Escape From the Ghetto," a recently-published book by his son John Carr.
"It is a remarkable story," Carr writes. "A story of tenacious, quick-witted determination to live, of defeating enormous odds, often in novel ways. But then any and every story of a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust borders on the miraculous."
Herszman died in 1995, but the book is "based entirely on my dad's recollections of what happened to him," Carr told The Times of Israel in an interview. "Over the years he told me and my wife the same story pretty much consistently." The Forger From BerneIn their massive effort, Ładoś, Eiss, Rokicki, Silberschein and others often rescued or tried to save people they did not even know, like Yehiel Feiner, the writer better known as Yehiel De-Nur or Ka-Tsetnik 135633; Itzhak Katzenelson, the Polish Jewish poet; Hanna "Hanneli" Goslar, the best friend of Anne Frank; and the latter's Polish counterpart, teenage diarist Rutka Laskier. Among those who survived, one may find the future chief rabbi of Amsterdam, Aron Schuster, and the Bluzhover Rebbe, Yisroel Spira. At least one survivor died in the Israeli War of Independence, and at least two in the Polish guerrilla war against the Communist regime.
Passports were also forged for Lelio Valobra and Enrico Luzzato, Jewish Holocaust rescuers from Italy, as well as for Fanny Schwab and other leaders of the French Œuvre de secours aux enfants. Frumka Płotnicka and the brothers Kożuch decided not to rescue themselves with their papers, but died in the short-lived uprising in the Będzin Ghetto. Yitzchak Zuckermann, Cywia Lubetkin, and Tosia Altmann, fighters in the Jewish Combat Organization in Poland, probably never learned about the existence of their documents.
Initially the Polish diplomats involved in the scheme believed Jews bearing foreign passports would be spared and interned instead of murdered. But when, by 1944, it was clear that the Nazis did not always honor the documents, Ładoś then supported Vaad Hatzalah in its attempts to bribe Heinrich Himmler and obtain the liberation of the 300,000 Jews still alive in the Reich. We have found several cables documenting the details of the subsequent attempt to bribe the Nazis, as Ładoś permitted the Sternbuchs to freely use the Polish diplomatic pouch.
Ładoś rarely spoke about his lifesaving operation. He promised to tell the whole story in his memoirs, but passed away in December 1963 without finishing them. His subordinates were equally silent. During the war, Agudath wrote a letter to the Polish government in London thanking its Bernese diplomats for having saved many hundreds of people. For the Polish government-in-exile, the existence of the scheme was not a big secret, as two consecutive foreign ministers and at least one prime minister demanded that Ładoś "organize" passports for individual Jewish figures, and the entire network of Polish embassies and consulates intervened both in many Latin American capitals and in Washington to obtain recognition of the Ładoś forgeries.
Yet the Agudath letter was immediately classified—it was January 1945, the operation was still ongoing, and the lives of passport holders were still in danger. We found this paper, attesting to the partnership between the Polish Legation and Jewish organizations, only after 72 years.
In 2019, Rokicki was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem; recognition for Ładoś and Ryniewicz remains undecided. All six members of the Ładoś group were posthumously decorated by the president of Poland two years ago. The gravestone of Konstanty Rokicki was restored in 2018.
Heinz Lichtenstern passed away in 1992 in Switzerland after having lived in Brazil, the United States, and the Netherlands. He never knew that he had been saved by the Polish government, which nurtured a secretive and lifesaving collaboration between Jews and Poles. (h/t MtTB)  The rise in digital manifestations of antisemitism during 2020 — detailed in a new report from Tel Aviv University, which also showed a dip in acts of physical and verbal aggression towards Jews — underlined the evolving challenges faced by Jewish communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, argued Algemeiner editor-in-chief Dovid Efune during a Wednesday interview with i24 News.
"We're seeing what I would call a significant decline in violent incidents, but basically a rise in any other form of antisemitism that doesn't involve physical contact. And in that sense these are hardly consoling figures," said Efune.
The annual antisemitism report published by Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center, in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress (EJC), also found that that while "the total worldwide number of violent antisemitic events decreased from 456 (2019) to 371 (2020) … a 20 percent increase was observed in desecrations of synagogues, graveyards and Holocaust memorials (which were closed or unguarded due to the lockdown and therefore easy prey for antisemitic vandalism)."
"Since, obviously, the world has been on lockdown, the fact that you can still have 371 violent incidents while every society across the planet is closed is really startling," Efune said in the interview.
"Seeing the rise in basically all forms of antisemitism, all expressions of antisemitism that are available to people during the lockdown climate really reinforces that this is a challenge that hasn't gone anywhere this year," he continued. "And certainly there are greater and more serious threats that we've got to look in the eye and face strongly."
The report also analyzed content circulating on the dark web — online spaces that hide the identity of the user — and found that "while in the open networks about 70 percent of the antisemitic messages deal with new antisemitism, and about a quarter express classic antisemitism, this ratio is reversed in the darknet: about 70 percent manifest classic antisemitism and only about 20 percent display new antisemitism."
Efune commented that the rise of digital spaces where antisemitic individuals could gather has changed how online hatred spreads. Holocaust survivors use social media to show how words 'stoke the fires of hate'After the success of a social media campaign last year using the messages of survivors to pressure Facebook to ban posts that deny or distort the Holocaust, Taylor said it made sense to seek their help again.
"The Holocaust didn't come out of nowhere," he said. "Before Jews were driven out of their schools, their jobs, their homes, before the synagogues, shops and businesses were destroyed and before there were ghettos and camps and cattle cars, words were used to stoke the fires of hate."
"And who can draw that line from dangerous words to horrific acts better than those who lived through the depths of human depravity?" A man looks at the wreckage of a Jewish shop in Berlin on November 10, 1938, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. (AP Photo)
For Zoltak, the escalation from words to deeds came rapidly after the invading Nazi army occupied his town east of Warsaw in mid-1941.
The Nazis rapidly implemented anti-Semitic laws that they had already instituted in the western part of Poland they occupied two years previously, and forced Zoltak's parents into slave labor, he said.
A year later, the Germans forced all of the town's Jews — about half the population of 15,000 — into a ghetto segregated from the rest of the town, subject to strict regulations and kept on restricted food rations.
Three months later, the Nazis liquidated the ghetto, transporting its residents to the Treblinka death camp or killing them along the way.
Zoltak was one of the few lucky ones, managing to escape with his parents into a nearby forest, hiding in and around the area until the next spring when they were taken in by a Catholic family in a nearby farm and sheltered for the duration of the war.
After the war, he returned to his town and learned that all but 70 of its 7,000 Jews had been killed, including all of his classmates and his father's entire family.
"It's sometimes hard to understand," he said. "We're not actually dealing with numbers, they were humans who had a name, who had families." One-On-One with Israeli Actress, Activist and Author Noa Tishby - Full Interview 'May Prince Philip's memory be a blessing' - Israel expresses condolencesA Greek prince, Philip married the queen in 1947, and had been by her side throughout her 69-year reign.
"His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will be made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss," the statement by the Royal Family read.
Philip spent four weeks in hospital earlier this year for treatment for an infection to have a heart procedure, but returned to Windsor in early March. He was admitted to the King Edward VII's Hospital on Feb. 16 after he felt unwell, to receive treatment for an unspecified, but not COVID-19-related, infection.
Philip's four sisters each married German nobles, at least three of whom became Nazis. But Philip, educated in Britain, joined the allied war effort. As an adult, he showed little patience for Nazi collaborators; he was instrumental in making a pariah of his wife's uncle Edward, who after abdicating the throne dallied with Nazi Germany.
Philip over the years spoke multiple times at Jewish and pro-Israel events.
The prince, who had a passion for environmental preservation, spoke multiple times at Jewish National Fund events and lent his royal sponsorship to other Jewish events. He came under attack in the 1960s for speaking to pro-Israel groups, and, famously impervious to criticism, ignored the attacks.
Philip's support for Jewish and pro-Israel causes ran deep. His mother, Princess Alice of Greece, sheltered a Jewish family during the Holocaust and is recognized as one of fewer than 30,000 "righteous among the nations" by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum. When Prince Philip, honoring his mother, became the 1st UK royal to visit IsraelPrince Philip flew into Ben Gurion Airport in October 1994 in a private plane, with his older sister, Princess Sophie. He was welcomed by Israel's education minister, Amnon Rubinstein, and was hosted during the trip by then-president Ezer Weizman.
At Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Museum, Philip planted a maple tree in memory of his mother, who was married to Prince Andrew of Greece and helped shelter three members of the family of a late Greek-Jewish politician in her palace in Athens.
The Gestapo was suspicious of Alice, even questioning her, but the princess, who was deaf, pretended not to understand their questions. She hid the Cohen family members for 13 months during the Nazi occupation of Greece. Alice later became a nun.
On his visit, Philip met with members of the Cohen family his mother had hidden.
"The Holocaust was the most horrific event in all Jewish history, and it will remain in the memory of all future generations," Philip said at the time.
"It is, therefore, a very generous gesture that also remembered here are the many millions of non-Jews, like my mother, who shared in your pain and anguish and did what they could in small ways to alleviate the horror."
"God brings everything we do to judgment," the prince wrote in the visitors' book at Yad Vashem. Cultural Trends and Jewish Academics Give New Lifeline to AntisemitismThe recent struggle to remove antisemitic and anti-Israel content from a California ethnic studies curriculum demonstrated the formidable challenge posed by the academic doctrines of Critical Race Theory and "intersectionality."
To the extent that Israel is depicted as a white colonial occupation project and the pro-Palestinian cause as a proxy for racial equity in the United States, the Jewish state will be stigmatized and Jewish individuals and institutions will suffer.
The fight to overhaul earlier drafts of the California curriculum opened a window into the difficulty of the Jewish predicament.
Jews are frequently portrayed as part of the privileged dominant class, while their status as targeted victims is often ignored Israel is seen as a European, colonial outpost, while the fact that most of its Jewish population is descended from communities that lived for centuries in the Arab and Muslim world before their expulsion from those countries, is hopelessly obscured.
In other words, Jews are losing further control of the public narrative about them. This point is underscored by the incursion of antisemitic violence into racial justice protests in the US and Europe. The death of George Floyd was followed by attacks on synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses in a number of cities, most recently three Israeli restaurants in Portland, Oregon, in January. The frequent appearance of the slogan "Free Palestine" in graffiti on Jewish targets showed the popular tendency to register discontent with the Jewish state by harming Jews in the Diaspora. An anti-racism rally in Place de la Republique, in Paris, featured signs with directives such as "Stop collaboration with Israeli State terrorism" as the crowd chanted "dirty Jews."
Enter into this demoralizing picture two new proposed definitions of antisemitism, one offered by Jewish academics on behalf of the Nexus Task Force; the second, titled the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, presented by a group of progressive Jews under the aegis of the Van Leer Institute. Both documents profess to serve the cause of confronting antisemitism by identifying its contemporary manifestations — unless, of course, those manifestations take the form of anti-Israel demagoguery.
Why would Jewish critics of Israel feel the need to offer these re-imagined definitions of antisemitism? US Antisemitism Watchdog Opposes Ethnic Studies Course Requirement in California Assembly HearingA Jewish organization that concentrates on fighting antisemitism in schools and academia told a California Assembly hearing on making a controversial ethnic studies curriculum a requirement for graduation could "incite hatred and division among all students," and particularly against Jewish students.
The Education Committee hearing was held to consider bill AB 101, which "requires students, commencing with the graduating class of 2029-30, to complete a one semester course in ethnic studies, as specified, in order to receive a high school diploma," according to the committee agenda.
It would also require an ethnic studies course be offered for grades nine through twelve.
The course would be based on the state's recently approved Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, which has already undergone several revisions in response to Jewish groups' concerns about antisemitic content.
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, director the AMCHA Initiative, told the Wednesday hearing that the problems with the curriculum have not been solved.
"Despite four revisions, the approved ethnic studies curriculum remains firmly rooted in Critical Ethnic Studies, a narrow conceptualization of the field that is politically- and activist-driven," she said. "As an organization that investigates campus antisemitism, we have witnessed how courses based on Critical Ethnic Studies incite hatred and division among all students.
"In addition, filtered through the lens of Critical Ethnic Studies, Jews are viewed as 'racially privileged oppressors,'" she added. "And at a time when anti-Jewish hostility and violence has reached unprecedented levels, indoctrinating students to view Jews in this way is tantamount to putting an even larger target on their backs." Randi Weingarten Knows Nothing about Jewish Values Randi Weingarten is the president of the powerful American Federation of Teachers, a nationwide teachers' union. When Jewish Telegraphic Agency recently asked her if she had a specific message for American Jews who have criticized her stance on school openings – which she often lies is a right-wing grievance – she answered like so:
American Jews are now part of the ownership class. What I hear when I hear that question is that those who are in the ownership class now want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it.
Weingarten's rhetoric immediately reminded me of Karl Marx's anti-Semitic diatribe, "On the Jewish Question," where the infamous crackpot argued that the "secret" of the Jew is to accumulate wealth for "practical need," "self-interest," and "huckstering."
Weingarten combines two contemporary progressive doctrines, class and race struggle, to level her smear. There is not a single person who has even a mild acquaintance with American Jewry that would believe they are trying to take away "the ladder of opportunity" from others.
This brand of anti-Semitic rhetoric has been a growing feature within the progressive Left – which spends its days seeking out minor, often imaginary, thoughtcrimes. These are almost always rationalized and ignored. The fact is that not a single conservative would survive in public life after contending that the Jewish "ownership class" is working to stop the advancement of the less fortunate.
It's one thing to regurgitate Marx's theories on Jews, but unbelievably, she tries to create the impression that her ancient smear is actually a "Jewish value" itself. 2016: Jewish head of teachers union defends Keith EllisonEllison's criticism of Israel has brought tension among Jewish groups, which intensified last week with the publication of a 2010 recording in which the lawmaker said that American foreign policy is "governed" by Israeli interests.
Ellison has come under fire from Jewish groups for his sharp criticism of Israel in his youth, which was spent as an activist with the Nation of Islam, whose leader Louis Farrakhan has a long history of making anti-Semitic statements, and for defending some black nationalists who had hostile relationships with the Jewish community.
He has distanced himself from his earlier activism, but the release of the 2010 recording threatened to undo improved ties with the Jewish community.
American-Israeli Haim Saban, a major Democratic donor, said Ellison's positions, statements and voting record showed that "he's clearly an anti-Semite and anti-Israel individual," and said his election as DNC chairman would be a "disaster for the relationship between Jews and the party."
Anti-Defamation League National Director Jonathan Greenblatt, who had previously praised Ellison, called the congressman's remarks "deeply disturbing and disqualifying."
But others, like Weingarten, urged caution. University of Miami Hillel to Host Virtual Event With Basketball Player Meyers Leonard Who Said Antisemitic SlurThe Hillel at the University of Miami has organized a Zoom event for April 13 with Meyers Leonard, the former Miami Heat basketball player who came under fire in March for using an antisemitic slur.
UM Hillel partnered with the Jewish Community Relations Council for the virtual event, titled "From Heat to Healing." The question-and-answer discussion with Leonard, 29, will be led by Matthew Hiltzik, a communications executive and producer of the Holocaust documentary film "Paperclips." The event is intended for a student audience only.
Igor Alterman, CEO of UM Hillel, told The Algemeiner on Thursday, "When Meyer Leonard's comments surfaced, they hurt all of us, especially those who call Miami their home. Since the incident, Meyers showed signs of remorse and acknowledged the harm of his actions, based largely on his ignorance as it comes to the Jewish community. Hillel's mission is to engage and educate. We felt that giving our students the opportunity to talk to Meyers directly … would create a unique space for our students and Meyers to grow, heal, and commit to fighting antisemitism in all its forms and manifestations."
Leonard was at the center of controversy in March after shouting "you f***ing k*ke b***h" while playing the video game "Call of Duty," during a broadcast for public viewing on the streaming platform Twitch. Shortly afterward he was fined and suspended from the Miami Heat "indefinitely," and then traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who waived him shortly after the trade deadline. The team said at the time, "Leonard will not be reporting to Oklahoma City and will not be an active member of the organization."
Meyers, who also lost a number of sponsorships, has apologized for his remarks and said he was "committed to properly seeking out people who can help educate me about this type of hate." Antisemitic Fliers Posted at University of North Florida During PassoverAntisemitic fliers were posted on the office doors and classrooms of Jewish professors at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville during Passover, reported The Florida Times-Union.
Jules Gerstein, 19, who founded the school's Jewish Student Union, said fliers with QR codes that led to an antisemitic radio station were discovered in the social sciences building on March 29. "Multiple" professors who had the fliers posted on their doors were Jewish, according to the Jewish Student Union.
The campus Chabad center said the codes "led to antisemitic and white supremacy material." It added that university police have identified the perpetrator, and the student is "actively being investigated by the university and being assessed for disciplinary action."
Administrative spokeswoman Amanda Ennis said "the university was made aware of the incident and initiated an immediate investigation. The person responsible has been identified, and it was determined that there is no additional threat to the campus community."
Student-privacy laws prevent the school from releasing any additional information about the perpetrator, she added. Miscommunication on Indiana Campus Turns Into Finger-Pointing, Harassment of Jewish StudentsButler University in Indiana said Jewish students had nothing to do with the postponement of an event with longtime political activist Angela Davis, despite false accusations circulating on campus targeting the Jewish student body.
The school's student-run newspaper, The Butler Collegian, published a letter to the editor on March 30 by Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Muslim Student Association, saying that administration "canceled" an April 1 virtual event titled "Joint Struggle and Collective Liberation" with the 77-year-old Davis, an outspoken supporter of the BDS movement against Israel.
The letter claimed that "days before Butler University's shameless censorship of Dr. Angela Davis, the Student Government Association [SGA] was bombarded by pressure from Zionist students who claimed to oppose Davis' event because of her support for [the] Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement," which the groups describe as "a grassroots demand for nonviolent economic pressure against Israel's illegal military occupation of Palestine."
It added: "Simply put, Butler and others try to silence marginalized voices in order to maintain systems of power and privilege. This is not the first time that Zionists have attempted to deplatform Angela Davis for her supportive stance on Palestine."
The letter was shared on Facebook by Davis. Outrage as South African BDS Advocate Tells Students, 'Hitler Committed No CrimeA prominent South African supporter of the "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions" campaign that opposes the legitimacy of the State of Israel is under investigation by the University of Cape Town (UCT) for delivering a lecture to students in which he defended Adolf Hitler.
In a pre-recorded lecture shared online with first-year political science students, Lwazi Lushaba — a lecturer at UCT's Department of Political Studies — asserted: "Hitler committed no crime. All Hitler did was to do to white people what white people had normally reserved for black people."
Lushaba's comment — which became public as South Africa's Jewish community marked Yom Hashoah, the annual day of Holocaust remembrance — was described by a spokesperson for UCT as a matter of "grave concern."
"We are verifying all the facts," Elijah Moholola told the TimesLIVE news outlet. "In the meantime, the university is clear that all brutalities of genocide constitute both formal crimes against humanity and ongoing sources of pain. We distance ourselves very strongly from any other view."
Lushaba is known as a supporter of the academic boycott of the State of Israel who appended his signature to a petition that resulted in the University of Johannesburg breaking ties with Israel's Ben Gurion University in 2011.
One Jewish student at UCT, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had been deeply disturbed by Lushaba's apologia for the Nazi dictator.
"Hitler didn't just persecute Jews. He also persecuted black people, [Roma] and disabled people. Six million people died in the Holocaust and the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day has been a part of my life," said the student, whose great-grandfather was murdered by the Nazis. UCU Scotland defends Prof. David Miller over accusations of antisemitism and rejects International Definition of AntisemitismThe University and College Union (UCU) Scotland has defended Prof. David Miller over recent inflammatory comments that he has made.
Prof. Miller, a Professor of Political Sociology, has a history of peddling conspiracy theories relating to Jewish students, and the UCU statement was prompted by his latest outburst, when he asserted that "Zionism is racism", declared his objective "to end Zionism as a functioning ideology of the world" and accused the Bristol University Jewish Society of being part of a worldwide Zionist conspiracy, adding that it is "fundamental to Zionism to encourage Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism". At the same online event, Prof. Miller also observed that the Jewish Society and the Union of Jewish Students are Zionist, thereby implying that Jewish students (and the wider Jewish community) inherently "encourage Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism".
He also portrayed the International Definition of Antisemitism as an attack on free speech and accused the Israeli Government of engaging in an "all-out attack" on the global Left as part of an "attempt by the Israelis to impose their will all over the world".
In comments reminiscent of the darkest years of the United Nations, Prof. Miller insisted that "Zionism is racism" and asked how "we defeat the ideology of Zionism in practice", "how is Zionism ended" and about the way "to end Zionism as a functioning ideology of the world".
In its statement, UCU Scotland showed little regard for the anxieties of the concerned students involved, dismissing them as "Zionist lobby groups". In addition, UCU Scotland have rejected the widely accepted International Definition of Antisemitism.
UCU has a horrendous reputation in the Jewish community. Sex Scandal Plagued Oxfam Suspended from Bidding for Taxpayers' CashThe British government has suspended Oxfam from bidding for taxpayers' cash after the charity confirmed it had suspended two staff amidst an investigation into corruption and sexual misconduct in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Oxfam had been receiving around £30 million a year in British taxpayers' cash until it was revealed in 2018 that charity workers had engaged in the sexual exploitation of vulnerable women in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. Allegations of rape in South Sudan also surfaced that year.
Last week it was revealed that Oxfam was investigating abuse of power, sexual misconduct, and intimidation in the Congo — a month after the government cleared the charity to bid again for public funds after a three-year suspension.
Sources from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office told The Times on Thursday that Oxfam would again be temporarily blocked from accessing funds, pending the outcome of the investigation into the allegations related to the charity's Congo mission.
A spokesman for the FCO told the newspaper: "All organisations bidding for UK aid must meet the high standards of safeguarding required to keep the people they work with safe.
"Given the most recent reports which call into question Oxfam's ability to meet those standards, we will not consider any new funding to Oxfam until the issues have been resolved." Reformers Launch Group Aimed at Challenging Muslim AntisemitismAntisemitism has become "a pandemic raging for many years" among a large number of Muslims, said interfaith activist Soraya Deen. "Unfortunately though, we have no vaccine that can cure it."
Deen joined a group of reformist Muslims on Wednesday — the eve of Yom HaShoah — to announce their best effort to develop that cure.
In a webinar launching the Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism (CMAA), author Raheel Raza announced that the organization will be guided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The definition already appears on the CMAA website.
Embraced by nearly 30 countries, the IHRA definition includes "Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective," blaming Jews for actions by the Israeli government, and "Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination" among the examples of antisemitism. It specifically notes, however, that criticizing the Israeli government as one would criticize any other government is not antisemitic.
CMAA members say their support for Israel's existence has triggered personal attacks.
"I myself have been called many names the minute I challenge Islamism, political Islam, and Islamists," said Deen, founder of the Muslim Women Speakers Movement, and co-founder of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Solidarity Network. "I'm called a Zionist. A Jew lover. And they often say, 'She's paid by the Zionists.' And the blanket indictment is that all Jews are responsible for anything and everything the government of Israel does." New York Times Touts Nation of Islam's Self-Help Approach Following Attack on CapitolIn October 2020, the New York Times ran an op-ed glorifying Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March and failing to provide context about Farrakhan's antisemitism. In 2017, the paper published a paean to a Nation-of-Islam style bean pie bakery.
Now — with an apparent follower of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam having launched a violent attack on the US Capitol — the Times is groping its way, comically and ineptly, toward trying to describe the organization accurately to its readers.
An early effort came April 2 in an article the day of the attack headlined, "Suspect in Capitol attack appears to have been a follower of Louis Farrakhan." Said the Times: "The Nation of Islam is a Black nationalist movement that has advocated African-American self-sufficiency." Well, that is sure one very kind way to put it, but it lacks crucial context.
By the April 3 print newspaper, the Times had added to the description slightly: "The Nation of Islam is a Black nationalist movement that has advocated African-American self-sufficiency. It has been condemned by the Southern Poverty Law Center for 'the deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-gay rhetoric of its leaders,' including Mr. Farrakhan."
That's a slight improvement, but the Southern Poverty Law Center is notorious for inaccurately smearing even mainstream, reputable figures; for example, a 2017 blog post on the center's "hate watch" inaccurately described Daniel Pipes as "anti-Muslim activist Daniel Pipes, a man who has spent the better part of three decades vilifying Muslims, and Palestinians in particular." As Washington Post columnist Mark Thiessen put it in 2018, "The Southern Poverty Law Center has lost all credibility." So for the Times to ride the Southern Poverty Law Center horse rather than just itself accurately describing the situation, or seeking a more credible source, is a default. Sky News Arabia legitimises Israel conspiracy theory over Jordan turmoilThroughout the entire segment, Baissari did not once challenge Madi's unfounded claims that Israel is somehow behind whatever new hardship the Jordanian regime is currently experiencing – and that this is the view of the Hashemite Kingdom's government as well (Madi's use of the pronoun "we" in the beginning of the video is particularly noteworthy in this context). Madi's sole rationale for raising this wild charge against Israel was the existing "uncomfortable and unstable relations" between the two countries, and both he and his interviewer seemed positive that this pseudo-evidence was sufficient to warrant his uninterrupted live rant on a television channel watched by millions.
Madi's interview was then uploaded to Sky News Arabia's YouTube channel, entitled "Badr Madi: I reckon Israel played a role in destabilizing Jordan".
It bears mentioning that most rumors about Israel's connection to recent days' drama in Jordan revolved around a single report from Sunday, published by Ammon news agency's website only to be retracted from there shortly after.
The report speculated that Israeli Roy Shaposhnik, who reportedly offered his assistance in fleeing the kingdom to the Prince's family "on a private jet", was "an ex-Mossad agent". Shaposhnik, an Israeli living in Europe, later denied any connection to Israel's intelligence services, although he did confirm that he and the Prince are friends and that Shaposhnik suggested the Prince would send his wife and children over to his place so that they'll stay somewhere abroad at this difficult time. Nevertheless, this story was not discussed by Madi and Baissari. They also didn't mention the Israel HaYom report which argued that Israel actually helped King Abdullah against the plotters, by providing him intelligence which led to some arrests.
In fact, other than the principal accusation against Israel, Madi's speech was awfully lacking in specifics. Over and over, he resorted to evoking nameless "opposition individuals" (without revealing what exactly is it that they oppose), and attributing to them general allegations of "destabilizing" and "penetrating" (without clarifying what concrete things did they say and do). French City of Neuilly Adopts IHRA Definition to 'Fight Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism With Strength and Vigor'The French city of Neuilly-sur-Seine has formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, with one council member hailing the decision as proof of its commitment "to fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism with strength and vigor."
After the city's adoption of the IHRA definition at an April 1 meeting, councillor Franck Keller declared on Twitter that Neuilly — located to the west of Paris — was "proud" to be involved in combating the hatred of Jews as well as attacks on Israel's right to exist.
Another council member, Constance Le Grip, stated that the endorsement of the IHRA definition demonstrated that the city was "even more committed to the fight against antisemitism and for the values of the Republic."
The Israeli Embassy in France and several Jewish organizations warmly praised the announcement.
"We salute the city of Neuilly for unanimously endorsing the IHRA definition of antisemitism," the embassy said on its Twitter account. "Thank you for taking action in the fight against antisemitic hatred."
The European Jewish Congress (EJC) similarly praised Neuilly for "standing up to hatred" in adopting the definition. Jews in Paris prevent antisemitic knife attackJewish residents in Paris chased and apprehended a man whom they suspected of trying to stab three Jews. The man was then handed over to the police.
The incident took place on the evening of 31st March near a synagogue in Sarcelles, a suburb in northern Paris with a large Sephardic Jewish community.
Witnesses say that the man, a 35-year-old from Pakistan, approached three Jewish men, all wearing kippot and therefore visibly Jewish, from behind while carrying a large knife.
Residents caused a commotion in order to alert the Jewish men who all escaped unharmed. The man was then chased and apprehended.
This is only the most recent antisemitic incident which has taken place in France. Antisemitic graffiti found at home of Pittsburgh's South Side BearsAntisemitic graffiti has been discovered in Pittsburgh's South Side.
The graffiti was scrawled on the side of a concession stand at Quarry Field, home to the South Side Bears, a Pittsburgh youth American football team.
Kevin Alton, President of the South Side Bears, condemned the vandalism, stating: "The South Side is not for hate."
An investigation has been launched by the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said that the city would cover the costs of the clean-up and would commission a mural artist to restore the original mural.
Mayor Peduto said: "We'll put together the funds in order to be able to improve this entire area, and we'll send a message to anybody who wants to talk in hate that we'll come back stronger." Jewish cemetery in Aalborg, Denmark vandalised during PesachA Jewish cemetery in Aalborg, Denmark was vandalised during the Jewish festival of Passover.
Red paint, baby dolls and antisemitic literature relating to the blood libel conspiracy theory were left outside the cemetery.
Flyers were also deposited directing readers to a website that associated with the Nordic Resistance Movement, a Pan-Nordic neo-Nazi organisation that is proscribed in Finland.
Henri Goldstein, Chairman of Denmark's Jewish community, said: "Historically, a lot of antisemitism with a physical outcome has started with, among other things, vandalism against cemeteries and Jewish shops." He added: "The vandalism at the cemetery around Passover is simply as classic antisemitism as it can be. We have seen this for centuries in Europe."
Security in Denmark has been elevated and the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
Danish politicians have condemned the attack. Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup declared that it was "outrageous and deeply shameful". Upcoming TV Series Inspired by Israeli Activist, IDF Officer Who Lost Left Hand in GazaA new television series set for development will be inspired by the life of Israeli activist, entrepreneur and former IDF commander Ziv Shilon, Deadline reported on Thursday.
Shilon was serving as a company commander with the IDF's Givati Brigade when he was badly injured by an explosive device at the Israel-Gaza Strip border in October 2012, which resulted in the loss of his left hand. He underwent 17 surgeries and 11 months of intensive rehab.
He later worked with companies to create products that are more accessible to consumers with limited motor skills, helping Microsoft Xbox develop a gaming remote for players with disabilities. He also founded an international NGO that helps integrate wounded combat soldiers into academia. He is now the co-founder and chief revenue officer of the financial technology company Polli.
The Israeli production and distribution company ADD Content Agency and European media group Mediawan have partnered to co-produce the TV series. It will be co-written by Iranian-French writer Negar Djavadi, and Israeli writers Shahar Segall and Oren Jacobi. Shilon will contribute as a creative consultant. Commemorating Holocaust, Blinken knocks State Dept.'s WWII failure to save JewsHolocaust Remembrance Day commemorations are by their nature calls for accountability for atrocities past and present.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, used the occasion to take his own department to task for its neglect of Jews during the Nazi era, and to call for action on behalf of the persecuted today.
Blinklen, delivering the keynote address Thursday at the event organized by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, savaged the World War II-era assistant secretary of state, Breckinridge Long, for blocking the entry into the United States of Jews fleeing Nazi Europe, and for lying to Congress about it.
"He had immense power to help those being persecuted," Blinken said at the event, this year presented virtually because of the coronavirus. "Yet as the Nazis began to systematically round up and execute Jews, Long made it harder and harder for Jews to be granted refuge in the United States."
Long notoriously also suppressed information from sources overseas describing the Nazi genocide.
Blinken, who has said he was shaped by the story of his stepfather's Holocaust survival, said Long's failures were a lesson for US policymakers today, pointing both to attacks on minorities in the United States and the need to speak out for those oppressed abroad. British Actress Helena Bonham Carter Explores WWII Heroism of Her Grandparents in New SeriesBritish actress Helena Bonham Carter discovered new details about the heroism of two grandparents during World War II in a new four-part docuseries that debuted Sunday on PBS.
In the premiere episode of "My Grandparents' War," Bonham Carter, 54, learned about her paternal grandmother — an air raid warden and politician who spoke out against the rise of Hitler and Fascism in the 1930s — and her maternal Jewish grandfather, a Spanish diplomat who save thousands from the Holocaust.
Bonham Carter's grandmother, liberal politician Violet Bonham Carter, was the daughter of a former prime minister and close friends with former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill. She helped Jews from across Europe seek refugee in Britain and campaigned against antisemitism, Helena discovered. The British actress, who played Princess Margaret on The Crown for the past two seasons, met a descendant of a family Violet helped escape from Czechoslovakia, and the survivor shared letters between her parents and Violet.
Helena also saw speeches Violet gave in the 1930s — including a speech at the UK's Royal Albert Hall, in which she voiced solidarity with the Jewish community amid War War II and slammed the British government for not doing more to help Jewish refugees. As a result of her outspokenness, Violet was put on the Gestapo black list to be arrested and executed in the event of a German invasion. Helena also learned that during the Blitz of 1940–41 in London, Violet remained in the city as a volunteer air raid warden when other citizens fled.
On her Jewish mother's side of the family, Helena's grandfather, Eduardo Propper de Callejón, was a Spanish diplomat in Paris during WWII who defied government orders and issued exit visits that helped thousands of people escape Nazi-occupied France in 1940. The travel visas allowed people to cross safely into neutral Spain and then make their way to Portugal and, ultimately, the US. He was punishing for defying orders by being sent to an outpost in Morocco.
In 2008, he was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for his role in saving Jews in the Holocaust. 'The Only House of Remembrance of the Holocaust by Bullets': Synagogue Unveiled at Memorial to Babi Yar Massacre in KievA new synagogue in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev honoring the tens of thousands of victims of the Babi Yar massacre was unveiled Thursday as the world marked Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Memorial Day in the Jewish world. The "symbolic" synagogue was built near the site's ravine slope, where on Yom Kippur eve in 1941, more than 33,000 Jewish men, women and children were shot dead during just two days by the Nazis.
The first Jewish house of prayer at the massacre site will be part of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC), established by a private foundation, which was created in 2016 to build a Holocaust museum in Kiev to collect the historic facts, testimonies and narratives that were silenced for decades and to find names of victims.
"This is a significant event because it demonstrates the ongoing commitment by the Ukrainian government to acknowledge the mass murder which happened on Ukrainian soil so many years ago," Mark B. Levin, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of the National Coalition Supporting Euro-Asian Jewry told The Algemeiner.
The synagogue is part of a wider project to create an interfaith complex to include houses of worship for Jews, Christians and Muslims, since the atrocious massacres at the Babi Yar site — sometimes referred to as Babyn Yar, using the Ukrainian spelling — also saw Ukrainian dissenters, homosexuals, Roma and the mentally-ill suffer the same fate. There is already an Orthodox church near the synagogue, and other prayer spaces will be added in the future. The number of victims murdered at Babi Yar is estimated at around 100,000, making it Europe's largest mass grave.
"At Babi Yar not only Jews were killed so we will also make space for the prayer of other religions, but it will not undermine the Jewish character of the place," said Ukraine-born Natan Sharansky, chairman of BYHMC's supervisory board, in an interview with The Algemeiner. "The synagogue is part of a very big complex which will serve as the only house of remembrance of the Holocaust by bullets."
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| Cartoon of the Day: The right side of history Posted: 09 Apr 2021 11:00 AM PDT |
| 04/09 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: Israel: The necessary superpower; David Singer: Israel’s voting system needs urgent reform; Ruthie Blum: Abbas’s snubs work like a charm on Biden Posted: 09 Apr 2021 10:04 AM PDT From Ian: Melanie Phillips: Israel: The necessary superpowerAppeasement is a symptom of profound cultural demoralization, caused by a loss of national self-belief and faith in the future. That process has been going on in the West ever since the Holocaust delivered the devastating message that there was something rotten at the very heart of Western high culture.
The most important proof of this demoralization is the birthrate in America and Europe, which is either below or barely the rate at which the indigenous population can reproduce itself. In other words, the West is literally dying out.
By contrast, Israel is emerging from the pandemic at a world-beating rate – its economy strong and resilient, and crucially, its birthrate healthy and high.
This is because Israel actually believes in itself. Sure, it has a ludicrously dysfunctional political culture, currently illustrated once again by its post-election gridlock and absence of a functioning government. It is also disfigured by deep social divisions between secular and religious communities, and subversive elements who regard the very idea of a Jewish state as anathema.
But the vast majority of Israel's public understands that its core value is the preservation of life and liberty and doing good in the world. It is a society built on redemption and hope, and in dramatic contrast to the death-spiral gripping America and Europe, it is relentlessly focused on its survival.
The Arab world has come to understand that all this is of priceless value – not just for Israel but for itself, too. It sees that Israel actually takes out its enemies. It is increasingly realizing that the country most likely to defend Arab interests against Iran is not America but Israel, the Arabs' new and unlikely ally.
As America falters and Western societies break apart, might this become Israel's century? The Tikvah Podcast: Mohammed Alyahya on Two Competing Visions of Power in the Middle EastThis week, the Biden administration officially began multilateral negotiations with Iran, in hopes of re-entering some form of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or the so-called Iran nuclear deal.
The debate over the deal is one of the most contentious in contemporary American foreign policy, and reveals a genuine conflict of visions. Supporters of the deal, including prominent officials in the Biden administration, tend to view the Middle East as consumed by an eternal conflict between the Sunni states of the Gulf, led by Saudi Arabia, and the Shia allies led by Iran. Opponents of the deal tend to think that the central regional faultline is not Shia Iran vs. Sunni Saudi Arabia, but instead the American-led alliance structure—including Saudi Arabia and Israel—against Iran and its regional proxies.
That's the view of this week's podcast guest, Mohammed Alyahya, the editor of Al Arabiya's English edition. He, who is based in Dubai and grew up in Saudi Arabia, explains the central paradigms at the heart of Middle East politics, and he outlines what the Biden administration should and shouldn't do when confronting Iran and the threat it poses to America and the regional order. David Singer: Israel's voting system needs urgent reformA million or more Israelis did not vote in each of the four indecisive elections held in the last two years – costing Israel an estimated $4.24 billion - whilst causing political upheaval and electoral instability as a result.
The Central Elections Committee (CEC) sets out how Israel's electoral system works:
"Israel has an electoral system based on nation-wide proportional representation. In other words, the number of seats that each list receives in the Knesset - the House of Representatives - is proportional to the number of votes it received…the only limitation placed on a list which participated in the elections that can keep it from being elected is that it must pass the qualifying threshold, which is currently 3.25%."
The CEC explains the historical background for this unique voting system:
"The State of Israel inherited the rigid system of proportional representation from the political system of the yishuv (the organized Jewish community) in mandatory times. This system was based on the zeal with which the various political parties - in which ideology and personalities played a major role - fought to preserve their independence. The justification given for the large number of parties resulting from the system was, that in a period in which major, far-reaching and rapid changes were still taking place in the population make-up as a result of immigration, it was important to enable maximal representation for various groups and opinions."
What was appropriate during the Mandate for Palestine (1920 – 1948) is clearly not working now.
The following highlights why Israel's electoral system needs urgent reform:  Ruthie Blum: Abbas's snubs work like a charm on BidenAbbas's gall is not new and has served the P.A. ruler well with the international community, which has elevated him to ill-deserved heights. This is due to an unfounded, knee-jerk opposition to Israel, not to the way in which he rules his own people, who view him with disdain and outrage.
Nor is American appeasement of petty tyrants a novelty; certainly not among those, like Biden and many of his appointees, who served under former President Barack Obama. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's verbal abuse of former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during nuclear negotiations—so loud and disrespectful that even Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered him to tone it down—comes to mind in this context.
Trump put a temporary stop to such supplication. Ramallah, like Tehran, responded by spewing rhetoric, but feared suffering the consequences of Washington's wrath. One key basis for the trepidation was financial.
True, sanctions didn't stop the P.A. from paying terrorists' hefty salaries or prevent Iran from keeping its centrifuges spinning. The withholding of cash has, however, made life more difficult for both regimes.
Emboldened by the old sheriff's posse being back in town, each has been testing Washington's limits. So far, there don't seem to be too many.
In fact, the Biden administration's allocation of $90 million in aid to the P.A. ($15 million in "coronavirus relief" and another $75 million for the Palestinians to regain "trust" in the United States) comes weeks after Abbas rejected Blinken's telephone overture. Talk about a return to Obama's proud "leadership from behind."
Whether Abbas and his governing Fatah faction survive the fast-approaching elections—slated for the Palestinian Legislative Council on May 22, for the P.A. presidency on July 31 and for the Palestinian National Council on Aug. 31—remains to be seen. Still, what's already clear to him and any potential successor is the path to Uncle Sam's purse and heart strings. Khaled Abu Toameh: Biden Administration to Support Palestinian DictatorshipSadly, while the Biden administration is talking about the "need to protect [Palestinian] civil society through the reduction of arrests of bloggers and dissidents," the Palestinian leadership is evidently moving in precisely the opposite direction.
While the Biden administration says it wants to strengthen Palestinian civil society organizations, the Palestinian leadership is working to tighten its grip on these organizations.
The elections are part of Abbas's attempt to curry favor with the Biden administration and present himself as a leader who cares about democracy and fair elections. The fact is that Abbas is desperate for US funding to preserve his regime and remain in power until his last day.
Abbas's punitive measures against [Nasser al-Kidwa, a former PA foreign minister] are aimed at sending a warning to these officials that they would meet the same fate should they run outside the Abbas-led list. Abbas is essentially announcing that anyone who challenges him will be expelled from Fatah and deprived of money and employment.
Instead of holding Abbas to account for his repressive measures, the Biden administration seems to be headed toward financially supporting his totalitarian regime.
According to the internal memo, the US is planning to resume unconditional financial aid to the Palestinians in late March or early April. This means propping up Abbas and his associates ahead of the elections and allowing them to step up their campaign of intimidation against any candidate who dares to demand reforms and an end to rampant corruption.
The Biden administration is about to pump millions of dollars into Abbas's coffers to help him cut off the emergence of new and young leaders and to help him maintain his authoritarian rule over the Palestinians. Once the bounty is paid, Abbas shows all signs of stepping up his repressive measures against his rivals and critics to ensure that he and his Fatah faction triumph in the elections. Nikki Haley slams UNWRA as 'corrupt' and 'counterproductive'Congressional Republicans put a hold on $75 million of the newly reinstated US aid to the Palestinians, two sources in Washington confirmed on Thursday.
On March 26, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) sent Congress a "program narrative" of about $75m. in Economic Support Funds (ESF) for programs in the West Bank and Gaza that would begin 15 days after the notification was received.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), used their respective positions as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and lead Republican of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to stop the USAID's notification about the reinstated funding from reaching the committees, which means the aid will not start on April 10 as planned.
The USAID programs for the Palestinians include roads, sidewalks, bus lots, emergency preparedness, adapting to climate change, "community initiatives" and "safe spaces to engage in community initiatives."
On Wednesday, the State Department announced a financial package of $290m. for the Palestinians, including security and humanitarian aid, as well as funding for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
Risch and McCaul said, shortly after the announcement, that "resuming assistance to the West Bank and Gaza without concessions from the Palestinian Authority undermines US interests. UN Watch: Hillel Neuer calls out U.S. funding of UNRWA, blasts ICC investigation Republicans delay Biden administration's funds to PalestiniansCongressional Republicans put a hold on $75 million of the newly reinstated US aid to the Palestinians, two sources in Washington confirmed on Thursday.
On March 26, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) sent Congress a "program narrative" of about $75m. in Economic Support Funds (ESF) for programs in the West Bank and Gaza that would begin 15 days after the notification was received.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), used their respective positions as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and lead Republican of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to stop the USAID's notification about the reinstated funding from reaching the committees, which means the aid will not start on April 10 as planned.
The USAID programs for the Palestinians include roads, sidewalks, bus lots, emergency preparedness, adapting to climate change, "community initiatives" and "safe spaces to engage in community initiatives."
On Wednesday, the State Department announced a financial package of $290m. for the Palestinians, including security and humanitarian aid, as well as funding for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
Risch and McCaul said, shortly after the announcement, that "resuming assistance to the West Bank and Gaza without concessions from the Palestinian Authority undermines US interests. Republican Senators Oppose Palestinian Aid in Letter to BlinkenA group of Republican senators sent a letter to the Biden administration urging it to halt aid to the Palestinians until several conditions can be met to ensure the support isn't going to terrorists.
"We call on you to halt these expenditures until the State Department accounts for statutory restrictions and remedies known deficiencies in the distribution of such assistance, which have for years promoted and facilitated terrorism against Americans and Israelis," the senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The letter comes after the Biden administration restarted aid to the Palestinians that had been frozen during President Donald Trump's tenure. That includes about $100 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development to support Covid-19 recovery as well as peace-building programs and aid to address basic needs, according to a statement from USAID on Wednesday.
"U.S.-funded programs have better developed the provision of public services; improved the functioning of local governance; alleviated human suffering; increased economic opportunities; and supported civil society and youth," according to the statement.
The letter, which was led by Texas Senator Ted Cruz along with more than a dozen colleagues, cites a March 19 Government Accountability Office report that found that USAID "did not consistently ensure" that assistance would not land in the hands of terrorist groups during the fiscal years 2015-2019. The letter asks the State Department to implement the changes recommended by the report.
It also asks the department to certify to Congress that the assistance doesn't violate the 2018 Taylor Force Act, which restricts funding for programs in the region under certain conditions. By restoring aid to UNRWA, Biden insists on going backwardThere is no justification for the existence of Palestinian refugees 73 years after the 1948 War of Independence and 54 years after the 1967 Six-Day War outside of the Arab desire to ensure Israel's decimation through the return of generations of "refugees" who have no personal connection to the Land of Israel.
UNRWA, which was initially intended to serve the "Palestinians" that fled the State of Israel for Arab states until that time when they would be integrated into their new places of residence, has long been a tool in the political struggle against the Jewish state. This is clear from the existence of "refugee camps" in territories governed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Has there ever been any other instance in which refugees were kept in miserable conditions in their own land by an international system that pours a lot of money into efforts aimed at preventing said "refugees" from living under normal conditions?
Former US President Donald Trump understood the absurdity of UNRWA's existence. He knew how to deal with inherent Palestinian recalcitrance that seeks to ensure the continuity of the Palestinian "refugee" problem, among other things. Current US President Joe Biden insists on going backward, to the pre-Trump status, instead of marching ahead and acting to improve the situation.
The Democrat administration could have conditioned a renewal of funding on UNRWA's cancellation and its replacement by a temporary Palestinian welfare agency that would act to resolve the Palestinian "refugee" problem in their places of residence. Such an agency would need to be temporary, it would require a limited budget, and its management would need to be absolutely transparent.
Caught up in disproven political perceptions, the Biden administration insists on destroying all of the positive steps Trump took while in office. The former US president thought outside the box. Biden prefers to bury himself, his administration, and the entire Middle East in a box. 5 things to know about US funding to Palestinians and terror paymentsCan the US offer financial assistance to the Palestinians even while the Palestinian Authority pays monthly stipends to terrorists and their families?
The question was raised by reporters and pundits on Wednesday when the US announced it planned to restore humanitarian and security assistance to the Palestinians, as part of an overall financial package of $290 million.
Former US president Donald Trump cut all funding to the Palestinians, which had soared close to $600 million annually under the Obama administration. Trump also put in place legislation to hold the PA financially accountable for terror activity and to halt its practice of terror stipends, known as "pay-for-slay."
A reporter referenced that legislation when quizzing US State Department spokesman Ned Price on how the Biden administration could legally restore funding. "US laws – there's several of them – say that the US cannot provide money to the Palestinian Authority," the reporter stated.
Price assured him that the funding was "absolutely consistent with relevant US law." Pro-Israel Groups Press Congress to Help End 'Hateful Content' in UNRWA SchoolsSeveral pro-Israel and Jewish organizations urged US legislators to pressure the United Nations to end hateful antisemitic content found in the curriculum of schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
The letter to Congress—spearheaded by Hadassah and signed by more than a dozen leading Jewish and pro-Israel groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, B'nai B'rith, the Orthodox Union, the Zionist Organization of America, the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement and Christians United for Israel—called on lawmakers to urge "UN Secretary-General António Guterres to shield students in UN-run schools from lessons steeped in antisemitism and supportive of violence."
"It is critical that we stand together to demand systemic reform to educational materials used by … UNRWA before one more child is taught from textbooks riddled with hateful lessons," the letter stated.
It cited a recent report by IMPACT-se that discovered how UNRWA staff have authored and disseminated educational content, which in some cases was "more egregious than that of the Palestinian Authority." Martin Sherman: Jordan's "House of Cards"–The implications for IsraelThere is nothing certain, but the uncertain. ~ Traditional Proverb.
Incoming media reports from Jordan indicate that the clash within the royal family earlier this week has now been resolved…or quashed.
Swirling shrouds of suspicion & uncertainty
However, much uncertainty still shrouds the recent events in the Hashemite monarchy as to whether there was a genuine attempt at a coup, led by King Abdallah's half-brother and former crown prince, Hamzah bin Hussein; or a pre-emptive power play by the king himself against his recalcitrant sibling.
Prince Hamzah was Jordan's heir apparent for five years after his father, King Hussein, died in 1999. But in 2004, King Abdullah stripped him of his title, later appointing his then-teenage son, Prince Hussein bin Abdullah, as crown prince.
Amid conflicting reports that Hamzah had been placed under house arrest—and following a number of high-level arrests allegedly linked to a coup attempt-- he accused the Jordanian leadership of corruption, incompetence and harassment in a video conveyed to the BBC.
Hamzah denied that he was part of any initiative to undermine the regime, and although the military had claimed that he was not under house arrest, it did disclose that he had been ordered to stop actions that could be used to harm Jordan's "security and stability". For Jordan's Allies, Royal Ructions Are a Rude AwakeningThe 100-year-old monarchy faces serious challenges at home and abroad. The Jordanian government's mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic has deepened the longstanding public dissatisfaction over endemic corruption and general economic malaise. By casting himself as a crusader against corruption, Hamzah might have scored powerful points against the status quo represented by his half-brother.
On the foreign-policy front, Jordan has long felt taken for granted by the U.S., Israel and Gulf Arab countries, all of which rely on the kingdom to play a quiet but essential regional role. The resentment in Amman deepened during the administration of President Donald Trump, when Washington seemed to go along with Israeli plans to annex large swathes of the West Bank. Jordanians regard annexation with existential dread because it could export Palestinian nationalism into the kingdom, given that over half its population is made up of Palestinians displaced by Israel in the 1948 and 1967 wars.
More generally, Jordanians feel they are punished for the relative stability of their country in a restive region, the non-squeaking wheel that doesn't get much grease. The consequences of instability in its neighborhood are often visited upon the kingdom, most obviously in the form of refugees, whether from Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion or from Syria after the rise of the Islamic State and the subsequent civil war.
For the West, Israel and Gulf Arab states, the Jordanian government is an important contributor to political and diplomatic initiatives, whether on the Palestinians, Iraq or Syria. They also rely on Jordanian intelligence services in the fight against terrorism and extremism.
So the specter of instability in Amman should have set off alarms in capitals across the Middle East, and in Washington. A collapse of order could easily turn much of Jordan into a facsimile of parts of Iraq and Syria just over the border, with militias, ISIS-like terrorist groups, tribal warlords and other forces battling it out in a situation of protracted chaos. The Hamzah affair is a useful reminder of how much all the other parties stand to lose if, like many of its neighbors, Jordan begins to fall apart.
The government's success in reining in Prince Hamzah may in the short run strengthen the king's hand and undermine oppositional activities. The challenge for Jordan's allies is to preserve the stability of the monarchy while pressing the palace for the political, institutional and economic reforms necessary to prevent a repeat of last weekend's events. Jordan 'coup' no danger to Israel, but simmering discontent with king may beJordan has been gripped by rare palace intrigue since King Abdullah's half-brother Prince Hamzah was placed under house arrest on Saturday, accused of plotting a coup.
The dramatic and very public episode — which appears to be drawing to a close — is a potential source of significant concern for Israel, which considers the stability of the Hashemite kingdom a central plank of its national security doctrine.
Since its founding, Israel has had some level of security cooperation with Jordan. In the days before the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Jordan's King Hussein met secretly with Prime Minister Golda Meir near Tel Aviv to warn her about the impending Arab invasion. Cooperation ramped up following the 1994 peace treaty between the sides, and though diplomatic ties are often frayed, the military relationship has been especially close over the decades, with Israeli and Jordanian jets even driving Russian planes in Syria away from their borders together in 2016 in a firm show of resolve.
Israel views Jordan as a reliable buffer against hostile states to the east — once Iraq, now Iran. Israel's border with Jordan, and the Israel-controlled frontier between the West Bank and Jordan, has remained an oasis of quiet even as Iran's armed proxies entrench themselves from Baghdad to Beirut, and jihadist groups grow in the Sinai.
A weakened regime in Amman could create a power vacuum that would allow terrorist groups to establish a foothold all along Jordan's border with Israel and the West Bank. Palestinian refugees in Jordan could inspire dangerous unrest in the West Bank, and far more radical elements could replace the Jordan-funded Islamic Waqf on the Temple Mount. Iran would also likely seek to take advantage of the chaos to open a new front against Israel.
Hamzah is not about to lead a coup that destabilizes Jordan, certainly not without the support of significant parts of the military. But behind the unfolding drama are real frustrations in Jordanian society that, if they continue to grow, could threaten the foundations of Abdullah's regime. Seth Frantzman: Yemen, Syria and Iran's capabilities: A look at Israel's strategic view of key proxy conflicts in the MidEastRecent years have seen increased reports of Israel and U.S. cooperation on Syria, including U.S. sources indicating January 2021 airstrikes were aided by American intelligence provided to Israel. Former U.S. envoy for Syria James Jeffrey highlighted that support in statements in January. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and other officials were key to the cooperation in the last years. The Israeli official sees the U.S. as vital in this space and underscores that Israeli operations must never jeopardize U.S. forces. Full coordination with Israel's "friends" in the region is key. "Coordination will continue," he said, praising the new Biden team, including U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, CENTCOM's McKenzie, Brett McGurk and Colin Kahl among others.
Iran's increased role in Syria, as well as foothold in Yemen and influence over proxies and militias in Iraq and Lebanon, showcase recent success. This has changed the region rapidly in just the last few years. While Iran's desire to export its 1979 Revolution largely failed in the 1980s and 1990s, it has now "done well," the official pointed out. Iran's only setback was in Sudan in recent years. Reports between 2009 and 2015 alleged Israeli airstrikes in Sudan and linked them to Iranian weapons trafficking. Today, Sudan and Israel appear on the path toward warmer relations.
The corollary of these two trends, the rise of Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen and the War between the Wars in Syria, also dovetails with decreased influence by the Gulf states in regional affairs. Saudi Arabia once played a larger role in Iraq and Syria. Today, the Gulf states, which have grown closer to Israel, are more focused internally or on their immediate neighbors. This appears to mean that there is little balance for Hezbollah in Lebanon, for instance. Progress on a maritime deals to delimitate economic zones by Israel and Lebanon will likely be held hostage by Hezbollah.
Israel warned that Iran's capabilities are increasing. In the wake of the Abqaiq attack in Sept. 2019 and the ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces in Jan. 2020, Iran's abilities are on full display. Iran has carried out recent tests with its ballistic missiles, including a satellite-carrying missile called Soljanah in early February. Such large missiles could carry other payloads, such as a nuclear capabilities. In the first months of 2021, Iran claimed new anti-ship ballistic missiles and used its Emad, Sejjil and Ghadr-type missiles in its Great Prophet 15 exercise.
"Iran has tremendous capabilities," the Israeli official admitted. These capabilities, paired with UAVs and cruise missiles, puts Iran in a unique category with only a handful of countries in the world that have such an arsenal. Biden Builds Back Obama's Middle EastWhat was particularly galling about Blinken's announcement was its disconnect from the nature of Palestinian governance. Here is an administration that says the conflict between democracy and authoritarianism will define the 21st century. Here is an administration that prides itself on its support for human rights. And here is an administration that says it will be able to prevent millions in taxpayer funds from directly benefiting the Palestinian Authority, and thereby breaking U.S. law, by taking into account:
the intended primary beneficiary or end user of the assistance; whether the PA is the direct recipient of the assistance, of course; whether the assistance involves payments of Palestinian Authority creditors; the extent of ownership or control the PA exerts over an entity or an individual that is the primary beneficiary or end user of the assistance; and whether the assistance or, in some cases, the services provided directly replace assistance or services that the PA would otherwise provide.
Good luck. The renewed assistance, remember, will be circulated in a polity whose president is in the 16th year of a 4-year term, whose official corruption is legendary, whose 2.7 million subjects are policed by no less than six internal security forces, and whose entry in the 2020 State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices reads as follows:
reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings, torture, and arbitrary detention by authorities; holding political prisoners and detainees; significant problems with the independence of the judiciary; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on free expression, the press, and the internet, including violence, threats of violence, unjustified arrests and prosecutions against journalists, censorship, and site blocking; substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including harassment of nongovernmental organizations; restrictions on political participation, as the Palestinian Authority has not held a national election since 2006; acts of corruption; lack of investigation of and accountability for violence against women; violence and threats of violence motivated by anti-Semitism; anti-Semitism in school textbooks; violence and threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex persons; and reports of forced child labor.
The entry for Hamas is no better.
For all of his "transformative" ambitions at home, Biden's Middle East policy is remarkably backward-looking and uninspired. By denying aid to the Palestinians and UNRWA, the Trump administration recognized that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process had become a counterproductive sideshow, and that U.S. aid wasn't contributing to the resolution of conflict, but incentivizing it. The more urgent problem is Iran, which is why Trump was able to broker the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, and Morocco.
Now Biden has pivoted away from the anti-Iran coalition and toward the pro-Iran deal European allies. He's distanced himself from Israel and moved toward the Palestinians. He's rebuked the Saudis and coaxed the Houthis. He is trying to reconstruct, ever so slowly, Barack Obama's Middle East. But he hasn't really explained why this time will be different. After all: When you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. And that is exactly what Biden is doing. Biden's Anti-Israel "Point Man" Behind Plan to Fund Terrorists"I was inspired by the Palestinian intifada," Hady Amr wrote a year after September 11 while working with an anti-Israel group.
A few years later, the Beirut-born extremist had become an advisor on Muslim relations to the World Economic Forum before heading up Brookings' Doha Center for Qatar. The tiny Islamic tyranny is allied with Iran, Al Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood. It's a backer of Hamas.
The Obama administration appointed Amr as the Deputy Head of USAID's Middle East Bureau which put him in a key position to direct taxpayer money from an organization already notorious for funding pro-terrorist and anti-Israel groups.
A decade after Amr had responded to the death of a Hamas leader by ranting that "there will be thousands who will seek to avenge these brutal murders of innocents", the Obama administration made him a Deputy to its Special Envoy for Israeli Palestinian negotiations.
Amr decamped back to Brookings during the Trump administration, becoming one of Biden's big bundlers, joining his transition team and getting picked as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Within two decades of praising the intifada against Israel and a decade of working for a think-tank deeply compromised by its pro-Hamas regime sponsor, the foreign radical had climbed to a pole position in setting the Biden administration's policy on Israel.
Politico described Amr as "the key U.S. official dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian issue." The Times of Israel called him, "Biden's point-man on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Biden's point man didn't waste much time. Gantz slams 'blind and unjust' ICC decision, as Israel issues formal responseDefense Minister Benny Gantz on Friday criticized the International Criminal Court's probe of alleged war crimes by Israel as "blind and unjust," after Israel sent a formal response to the decision.
"I believe the truth will come to light," Gantz said. "It's not just a matter of the court's 'technical-legal' lack of jurisdiction, but a matter of justice and morality, of a strict military ethical code, of truth and falsehood, of a democratic state with strong legal institutions, clear values, rules and laws — against a blind and unjust decision."
"I am sure many countries will understand that there is no room for [such an] investigation, that could harm many other countries in the future," Gantz said, adding that such an ICC investigation would harm Israel's relations with the Palestinians and make it difficult to "improve the regional situation."
The defense minister made his remarks at a ceremony marking 80 years since the formation of the Palmach in Sha'ar Hagai — a site near Jerusalem that commemorates the efforts of the paramilitary's Harel Brigade during the War of Independence.
In its formal response to The Hague-based court's decision to open the war crimes probe, Israel will say it won't cooperate with the investigation, according to a statement Thursday from the Prime Minister's Office.
"In the letter, it will also be noted that Israel completely rejects the claims that it is carrying out war crimes," the statement said. Israel-France relations in light of the ICC decisionFrance not only does not tend to oppose biased, discriminatory U.N. resolutions promoted by the Palestinians and anti-Israeli states and organizations, but at times even joins them. Such resolutions single out Israel for unique opprobrium and are designed to isolate and delegitimize it. They present Israel's justified fight against terror as on a par with the actions of Iranian terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.
There are several factors that could motivate France to change tack and join the countries that are supporting Israel's position.
The attitude of Paris toward the ICC probe might damage its attempt to portray itself as an impartial mediator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. France recently renewed its efforts to promote an initiative that would advance an agreement. Its reluctance to publicly support Israel's position on the ICC ruling could not only undermine its legitimacy as an impartial mediator but encourage the Palestinians to double down on their unilateral legal war against Israel, which, one can argue, will ultimately harm them.
The French reaction to the ICC ruling could also be detrimental to France's own fight against terror. The overtly political ICC prosecution of Israel regarding its fight against terror could equally come to expose French soldiers who are involved in anti-terrorist operations to ICC prosecution.
The controversy surrounding the recent decision of the ICC risks weakening its ability to fulfill its true role, which is to prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide when state mechanisms for prosecution are either nonexistent or failed. Azerbaijani official calls to open embassy in IsraelIsrael and Azerbaijan celebrated 29 years to the establishment of bilateral ties, Wednesday.
Senior officials from both countries, including Azeri politicians and Israel's Deputy Ambassador to Azerbaijan Doron Pe'er, took part in the event.
Marking the occasion, Farid Shafiyev, the chairman of Azerbaijan's Center of Analysis of International Relations, said, "The Azeri people and the Jewish people have a long history together."
According to Shafiyev, "Jews have lived in Azerbaijan for 2,500 years. The historic ties between the peoples are deep."
He said this shared history was the basis for bilateral ties.
"There are Israelis that are influenced by the Armenian lobby, who think the basis for Israel-Azerbaijan ties is oil and weapons," he said. "Factually speaking, they are wrong; the basis for the ties is historic. There's also no doubt the economic ties are significant."
He said, "Historians attack the image of the Israelis and the Azerbaijanis. This is antisemitism and anti-Azerbaijanism. Nevertheless, that is also what unites us. We are united, and we need to upgrade our ties. The time has come to open an Azerbaijan Embassy in Israel."
Anatoliy Rafailov, the head of the Azerbaijan-Israel lobby in the National Assembly in Baku, and fellow lobby member Shahin Seyidzade, both members of Azerbaijan's parliament, also took part in the virtual event.
"I represent the Jewish community in the Azeri parliament. It's known that Azerbaijan has no antisemitism problem, and that relations between the countries are particularly strong. Israel has also supported Azerbaijan's territorial continuity. Caroline Glick: The new plan to oust Netanyahu and its implications for IsraelAt the end of the day, there are only three possible political outcomes from last month's elections: Bennett and Sa'ar can agree to form a right-wing government with Netanyahu, in keeping with the wishes of the voters for the Right-religious bloc of parties and in keeping with their own ideological convictions. They can form a leftist government in which they serve as a minority faction. Or, Israel can have a fifth election in August.
This then brings us back to the devastation that ousting Netanyahu through parliamentary procedure rather than at the ballot box will wreak on Israel's national solidarity – and its strategic implications.
After Sharon split Likud and formed Kadima, his successor Ehud Olmert formed a leftist-dominated government that advocated appeasement. Its stance broadcast weakness and so invited aggression. That aggression came from the Bush administration in the form of pressure to make massive concessions to the Palestinians. Olmert collapsed under pressure and offered PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
It came as well in the form of war from Iran's Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. Olmert, together with his radical leftist defense minister then-Labor party leader Amir Peretz and then-foreign minister and fellow Likud deserter Tzipi Livni demonstrated utter incompetence in leading the nation in war. Their helter-skelter, ill-conceived military operations and self-destructive diplomatic efforts ensured Israel's failure to defeat Hezbollah and so set Hezbollah on course to take over the Lebanese government two years later.
The Likud voters Olmert and Livni demonized and trampled just the year before did not rally around them during the war and the public's distrust of its leaders was impossible to set aside even in time of war.
Israel now faces the most hostile US administration in its history. The Biden administration is itself inviting aggression against Israel by empowering Iran, the Palestinians and international organizations in their campaigns against Israel. Our time is one fraught with dangers. A plan to crown a leftist government and undermine national solidarity by ousting Netanyahu without first defeating him will undoubtedly produce disastrous results for the country. JPost Editorial: Smotrich has not learned the lessons of the Holocaust - editorialNevertheless, an essential lesson that Israelis must internalize from the experience of the Shoah is how to treat the 'other' in our midst.
Whether they be Muslim, Christian or Druze, the non-Jewish citizens of Israel must be regarded with an extra measure of sensitivity.
As long as they abide by the rules and laws of the state, they must be considered equals in all aspects of the Israeli experience. And that includes the right to express divergent opinions.
When Joint List MKs pledged on Tuesday to fight "apartheid," "the occupation" and "racism" while being sworn into the Knesset, it was unpleasant – and unprecedented. But just as they are free to express those opinions – which are held also by a minority of the Jewish public – it is also every Israeli's right to refute those ill-advised claims with reasoned arguments.
That's what Bezalel Smotrich should have done, instead of issuing threats to those who don't share his ideology – a dogmatic belief system that seems to discount anyone who doesn't share his view of a Jewish-only "greater Israel."
His party's entrance into Israel's government would be a huge mistake, a setback to the inroads being made to create an open and democratic society. It would also expose the reality that we still have not learned the lessons of our past. This professor is not worthy of public esteemThe ruling by the High Court of Justice on Thursday that the Israel Prize can be withheld from Professor Oded Goldreich until it can be clarified whether or not his political stances violate laws against boycotting Israel is an important one that shows a different side of the High Court.
The education minister is supposed to clarify the matter within 30 days, but it can still be hoped that Professor Goldreich will demonstrate integrity and follow in the footsteps of the late Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who decided to forgo the prize. This would allow Goldreich to, as he put it, "avoid the pain of shaking hands with two slimebags – the prime minister and the education minister, who does his bidding." If that is how a candidate for the Israel Prize expresses himself, and this is the personal example he chooses to represent, we shouldn't wonder at the slanderous slogans being shouted at the anti-Netanyahu demonstrations.
Education Minister Yoav Gallant did well to not allow Goldreich's remarks, in which he calls for a boycott and has reached out to foreign and hostile entities on the matter, to be ignored.
I am not an expert in the field of cryptography and computational complexity theory, but I accept the Israel Prize committee's decision that Goldreich is a world-renowned expert.
The Israel Prize is awarded for excellence and for achievements in the fields of science and humanities, as well as for life achievement. No one disputes that this is the most prestigious award granted by the nation and its citizens. This is why it is called the "Israel Prize." But scientific excellence is not the only aspect of it. The prize is also an expression of appreciation for unique individuals who can serve as role models and inspiration. As scientist, talented as he might be, who signs a petition calling on the European Union to boycott academic cooperation with Ariel University – thereby working against academic institutions in the country in which he lives as a citizen, and attempting to harm the thousands of students who study there – is not worth of the recognition by Israeli society that the Israel Prize confers. Israel will fully reopen in a month if no new rise in contagion, virus czar saysIsrael will be fully reopened in a month if there is no new sudden rise in contagion as the country moves to return the education system toward full operation, coronavirus czar Nachman Ash said Thursday.
"We want to see that the return to studies does not cause a rise in contagion," Ash told Channel 13 news after government ministers voted to further ease coronavirus restrictions at schools.
"We are talking about a few weeks only if the current rates are maintained," he said. "We want to get past the [recently completed] Passover holidays and see that there are no infections in the schools."
"If there is no rise in contagion, everything will be open in a month," he said.
It was not clear if Ash's comments also referred to completely reopening Ben Gurion airport to international travel. Israel currently limits the number of people who can enter and exit each day, fearing the spread of variants that could undermine the effective vaccination program.
Channel 13 reported that airport authorities plan to test arriving passengers on the airplanes to prevent overcrowding in testing tents at the airport. El Al announces new flights to multiple countriesEl Al will offer new flights to Belgrade, Sophia, Paphos, Rhodes, Crete, and Thessaloniki, the company announced this week. These destinations have been added to the list of other cities to which El Al currently provides flights to, including Paris, London, Dubai, Amsterdam and more.
The list of cities to which El-Al provides flights will be updated at the end of June, according to the company.
El-Al will offer flexible tickets with no fees for ticket changes and allow changes to tickets up until April 2022.
All passengers must have a negative coronavirus test from up to 72 hours before departure and must fill out health statements.
El Al has said it will offer significant discounts on 25,000 tickets for flights to New York, Miami and Los Angeles during the spring, summer and High Holy Day season. Khaled Abu Toameh: Al-Aqsa preacher: Muslims who sell property to Jews are denied burialSheikh Ikrimah Sabri, the preacher of al-Aqsa Mosque and former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, announced on Thursday that any Muslim who sells land or houses to Jews will be denied burial in a Muslim cemetery.
Sabri's new fatwa (Islamic religious decree) came after 15 Jewish families moved on Thursday morning into 15 apartments in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan (Kfar HaShiloach).
The village, built on the slope descending from the Mount of Olives, includes the City of David (Ir David) archaeological site and was previously inhabited by Yemenite Jews.
The apartments were reportedly purchased by Ateret Cohanim, an organization that has long been working to expand the Jewish presence in east Jerusalem. "Anyone who sells property to Jewish organizations will not be buried in Muslim cemeteries," Sabri ruled. Richard Goldberg: How Republicans Can Stop Biden from Lifting Iran SanctionsPresident Joe Biden sent his negotiators to Vienna this week with a singular mission: Offer Iran billions of dollars as part of a first step toward rejoining a dangerous nuclear deal that Tehran cheated on from the very beginning. The only question now is what Congress plans to do to defend the sanctions architecture it has built over many years.
For weeks, Republicans and centrist Democrats in Washington held out hope that Biden would utilize the historic sanctions leverage he inherited from his predecessor to negotiate a better, more comprehensive deal with Iran. Biden had said that his goal was to "tighten and lengthen Iran's nuclear constraints, as well as address the missile program." Secretary of State Tony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that it would not be in the U.S. interest to lift terrorism sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran or the National Iranian Oil Company — institutions that were originally provided sanctions relief under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the 2015 nuclear deal is formally known.
Under the Biden administration's reported offer, however, the U.S. would lift terrorism sanctions on Iran up front without requiring any halt to the regime's state sponsorship of terrorism. Iran would gain access to billions of dollars through its central bank and national oil company — both of which are subject to sanctions because of their ties to terrorism and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which itself is correctly designated as a terrorist entity. When asked this week if terrorism sanctions were, in fact, on the table in Vienna, State Department spokesperson Ned Price all but admitted it.
Under the arrangement being discussed, the Islamic Republic would gain tacit approval to sponsor terrorism, hold Americans hostage, enrich uranium on its own soil, test nuclear-capable missiles and engage in human-rights abuses against the Iranian people. More shockingly, a so-called nuclear deal to limit Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons would not require Tehran to account for its secret nuclear-weapons archive or clandestine nuclear sites, materials and activities currently under investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Recall that Iran lied to the IAEA in 2015 to gain access to sanctions relief. Its continued deception should be at the heart of any negotiation over its nuclear program.
Effectively, Biden is offering to subsidize the IRGC and reward Iranian nuclear deceit if the mullahs merely stop enriching uranium at higher levels and stop testing advanced centrifuges — neither of which are truly concessions since the JCPOA allows Iran to do both over time. Moreover, the offer of terrorism-sanctions relief constitutes a material breach of trust by the secretary of state, who led senators to believe that would never happen if they voted to confirm him. Erdan Demands UN Security Council Investigate Iran's Ballistic Missile ViolationsIsrael's Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations Gilad Erdan sent a letter to the UN Security Council and Secretary-General on Thursday demanding action against Iran after recent violations of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 were exposed.
In the letter, Erdan highlighted that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had carried out a series of tests of ballistic missiles, including those capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
The information comes as members of the council are meeting in Vienna with representatives of the Iranian regime and as the United States considers returning to the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
"I strongly urge the Security Council to condemn these ongoing violations by Iran of UNSCR 2231, and call on members to respond to the clear threat to international peace and security posed by the Iranian nuclear program, their ballistic missile program and the regime's active arms proliferation," wrote Erdan. "Furthermore, I call on the UN secretariat to investigate and report the findings of the cases outlined in this letter. It is imperative that these violations be reflected in the upcoming report of the implementation of UNSCR 2231, and for the Security Council to remain actively seized of these matters in its deliberations." Does Iran Even Need Spies in Academia?The Justice Department recently indicted professor Kaveh Afrasiabi, charging that for decades his persona as a neutral, mild-mannered scholar was a cover and that, in reality, he was an agent of the Islamic Republic of Iran. If the allegations are true and this seasoned academic (Boston University, Harvard and UC Berkeley) was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote Iranian interests in the New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe and to appear on television, it was wasted money.
Perhaps Iran got lucky and a man with a good cover offered his services, or perhaps he is one covert operative in a much larger operation to infiltrate American academia. But the sad truth is that Iran really doesn't need agents to pose as neutral experts because American academics long have done Iran's public messaging free of charge.
After his arrest, Afrasiabi's alleged handlers at Iran's United Nations Mission defended him by invoking his credentials, insisting that "Dr. Afrasiabi has not been working as an agent of the Mission, and only as a university professor and an expert on international relations." The two aren't mutually exclusive.
Even before the Shah of Iran was overthrown, Michel Foucault, France's most famous academic, helped to usher in the Revolution by downplaying the ruthlessness of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's followers and exaggerating their popularity. In September 1978, traveling to Iran as a journalist for the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Foucault wrote enthusiastically that "the reactivation of Islam" would be peaceful and women would be free under the new system. Claiming that he "met, in Tehran and throughout Iran, the collective will of a people," he insisted that Khomeini "is not a politician" but rather "the focal point of a collective will." "Curse on Jews" and calls on children to "fight against the tyranny of the Jews" found across educational materials in Houthi-controlled areas of YemenExplicitly hostile attitudes to Jewish people and Israel, including repeated use of the slogan "curse on the Jews" have been found in educational materials in Yemen.
A newly released report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School (IMPACT-se) reveals a violent and hostile attitude to Jewish people in materials published in areas of Yemen controlled by the rebel Houthis, the Iranian proxy whose organisation is known as Ansar Allah. The report points out that Ansar Allah's attitudes to Jews closely mirror those of its Iranian backers.
IMPACT-se notes that "Violence and jihad are expressly encouraged" and that the materials contain "explicit antisemitism", including manipulated images relating to the Holocaust and children urged to "fight against the tyranny of the Jews." It also states that the Houthi Ansar Allah slogan, "death to Israel, curse on the Jews," is seen repeatedly throughout the material.
IMPACT-se states that while Ansar Allah has "made education a core tenet" of its campaign to increase its influence in Yemen, the "hatred, glorification of violence" and "worldview of its materials" are contrary to "UNESCO standards of peace and tolerance and are unacceptable in any society."
IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff said that the report offered "a worrying insight into the violent mindset" of Ansar Allah and was "an extreme example of how education can be weaponised to perpetuate conflict."
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