From Ian:
Mark Regev: Remember Cable Street, when the labour movement and Zionists were allies
This week we commemorate 80 years since the famous battle of Cable Street, in which the labour Zionist youth movement I grew up in, Habonim, stood shoulder to shoulder with anti-fascists and leftwing demonstrators to prevent the British Union of Fascists from marching into the Jewish East End.
As the labour movement celebrates this milestone in the struggle against fascism and antisemitism, it is also faced with an inquiry into bigotry closer to home: the Chakrabarti report.
Among other findings, Chakrabarti correctly identified “Zio” as a term of racist antisemitic abuse. Yet the word that the insult is derived from – Zionism, a belief in the right of the Jewish people to self-determination – is an ideology that has enjoyed a long and proud history of support from the British labour movement.
The year before the battle of Cable Street, the future Labour prime minister Clement Attlee noted that Labour party conferences would “never falter” in their “active and sympathetic co-operation” with the Zionists. According to Attlee, Nazism and fascism demanded that this support was “all the more necessary”.
In the same year, the future president of the World Trade Union Conference, George Isaacs, called upon the Trades Union Congress to extend its blessing and help to the Jewish people in building, “a new Jerusalem in Palestine”.
Melanie Phillips: America’s nightmare choice
So let’s sum up what voters disgusted by Trump will be electing if they vote for Hillary: a corrupt, untruthful hard-leftist who disdains the US Constitution, whose record includes endangering American security and who has declared her intention to remake American society in the image of the oppressive and illiberal leftist causes she espouses.
People think that, compared to Trump, Hillary is at least a safe pair of hands. If that were so, the choice would indeed be easy. But she is not safe at all.
Let no one be under any illusions. The choice is between a candidate who is a dangerously unpredictable loose cannon and a candidate who is a predictable danger to both America and the world.
The issue in this election is not which candidate has the better claim to be an admirable human being or indeed a fine president. The issue, unfortunately, is which of the two presents the greatest danger to America and, by extension, to Israel and the rest of the free world.
Either way, America’s fate hangs in the balance. We can only look on aghast.
Honest Reporting: “This Is Palestine” – Where All Palestinians Are Innocent Victims
An article in the Irish Independent promotes a photo exhibition by Riverdance founder John McColgan, called “This is Palestine.” The photos were taken in Gaza and the West Bank, yet the article claims the photographer traveled to the region to “document the lives of Israelis and Palestinians affected by the ongoing conflict.”
In fact, judging by what the article says, the only Israelis McColgan met with were activists who campaign against the “occupation.” They are hardly going to give him a balanced view of what it’s like for Israelis living under the daily threat of Palestinian terror attacks.
In the world of the Irish Independent and McColgan’s exhibition, every Palestinian is a victim of Israeli oppression. There are no Palestinians who harm other Palestinians, and there are no Palestinians who harm Israelis. It is the usual, one-sided, simplistic narrative that the media generally favor, where Israelis = oppressors and Palestinians = victims.
These are some of the Palestinians he photographed – along with some facts that he and the Irish Independent left out that may have been inconvenient to the narrative, but would have added some much needed context:
PMW: Changes in Europe and the US - thanks to PMW!
Last Friday, Britain froze £25 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority in response to PMW reports
Lawmakers in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Sweden and the US also call to change, limit, or cut financial aid to the PA in response to PMW reports
Highlights:
About PMW's report The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud "A devastating new report by Palestinian Media Watch
suggests that Western donors have been duped by assertions that the PA no longer funds terrorists"
[The Mail on Sunday (Britain)] Britain
British MP Joan Ryan: "Last month, Palestinian Media Watch showed how the PA sought to deceive international donors"
British MP Jim Shannon: "All the Minister has to do is turn on his computer and visit ww.palwatch.org [PMW website] and see for himself"
Last Friday, Britain acted on PMW findings and announced a freeze in funding:
"Millions of pounds of British aid money [to the PA] is being suspended... The move follows fears money intended for civil servants was being spent on paying terrorist prisoners." [Daily Mail, Oct. 7, 2016]
German TV News: "Itamar Marcus... [of Palestinian Media Watch] has documented the flow of money to the prisoners"
German MP Volker Beck: "Supporting people who have committed terrorist acts against Israel or Israeli citizens cannot be funded under any circumstances by the PA, when we [Germany] support them [the PA] financially."
Alleged UN-Hamas double-agent charged
A senior United Nations engineer in the Gaza Strip was arraigned Thursday in Beersheba District Court on charges that he abused his post in order to aid Hamas, including using the construction of a port as a base of operations for its naval commandos.
After the court confirmed that Wahid Abdullah al-Bursh, 38, from Jabalya understood the charges, Bursh’s attorney, Lea Tsemel, said she would be filing several pretrial motions against them.
Tsemel, a well-known anti-Zionist Jewish attorney, also took the opportunity to allege that her client had collapsed in prison, possibly due to not being given all of his medications.
Bursh was indicted in September, though the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) had arrested him several months earlier, on July 16.
He is an employee of the United Nations Development Program, which undertakes such projects as rehabilitating Gaza Strip homes damaged in warfare. He has worked as a UNDP engineer since 2003 and was tasked with overseeing the demolition of homes and evacuating the resulting waste.
What are Israel's strategic military threats for the coming Jewish year?
FORTY-THREE years after the Yom Kippur War, the enemy has changed.
While Israel no longer needs to worry about tank divisions trying to plow their way into the Golan or the Negev, the unpredictability of its enemies and their changing modes of warfare mean that the IDF needs to constantly be at a state of readiness.
War can come from any of these fronts at a moment’s notice, and for that, the IDF is always preparing. On the other hand, victory with enemies like these is not absolute.
Conflicts are like cycles these days. They come and then disappear for some time until the enemies rebuild their capabilities and reignite the passion and ideology of their followers.
The IDF’s real challenge is how to remain versatile in the face of multiple threats and adversaries that it faces in the region. Hopefully, 5777 will go down as a quiet year for Israel. It has the potential to be something completely different.
Setting a Foreign-Policy Agenda for the Next President
Regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential election, the words spoken and actions taken in early 2017 will send an important message. Elliott Abrams proposes how the next president should approach the problems in the Middle East, North Korea, and elsewhere. Most importantly, Abrams argues, he or she must let the world know—perhaps by sinking an Iranian ship, or eliminating the Syrian air force—that America is back. (Interview by Bill Kristol. Audio, 73 minutes.)
Elliott Abrams: How Should the Next President Address U.S. Foreign Policy Challenges?
Diplomacy: WikiLeaks gives glimpse of Clinton-Israel relationship
Podesta is the chairman of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and the emails that have appeared on the WikiLeaks website proved a fascinating, unfiltered look at the inner workings of the Clinton campaign.
They also provide a small peep into her thinking on Israel, how some Israeli leaders view her positions on Israel, and efforts to shape her Israel messaging.
If the State Department’s release earlier this year of thousands of pages of emails from Clinton’s private server caused some concern among Israel supporters because a number of those were from Sidney Blumenthal, whose son Max is a rabid anti-Zionist and whose writings were incorporated into some of the messages the elder Blumenthal sent to Clinton, the Podesta WikiLeaks emails will not engender such feelings.
Indeed, many of the emails dealing with Israel were written by Stuart Eizenstat, 73, a veteran of Democratic politics who served in Jimmy Carter’s administration as chief domestic adviser, and in Bill Clinton’s administration in a variety of roles, including ambassador to the EU and deputy secretary of the Treasury. Along with Dennis Ross, Eizenstat is currently the co-chairman of the Jewish People Policy Institute’s board of directors. In the 2008 election he served as a surrogate for Clinton with Jewish audiences.
Daily Freier: Woman Who Chose to Marry Anthony Weiner Thinks AIPAC Is Tacky (satire)
Top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abdedin is in a bit of a pickle lately after leaked emails reveal that she had some not-so-nice things to say about the American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC). Ms. Abedin, the brilliant Washington insider who married and had a child with the underwear selfie artist formerly known as Anthony Weiner AKA “Carlos Danger”, referred to AIPAC as “that crowd“.
Huma, who chose to stay with Mister Dick Pic until his Internet antics moved from “need to take a shower” icky to “need to call the FBI” criminal, felt that an AIPAC event was beneath the dignity of one William Jefferson Clinton and that the Former President was a “no go for AIPAC”, despite his having addressed the group twice as President.
Ms. Abedin, famous for having worse taste in Jewish guys than any woman since Mia Farrow, could not be reached for comment, as she is no doubt continuing her track record of dating Jewish weirdos with sexual hangups by going onto the popular website Secret Tel Aviv.
UN meeting too anti-Israel for Peace Now - but not B'Tselem
An Israeli non-governmental organization has partnered up with the PLO delegation at the United Nations for a special anti-Israel meeting at the UN Security Council scheduled for this Friday.
The PLO delegation at the UN organized the meeting, which they say will focus on Israeli “settlements” in Judea, Samaria, and the eastern portion of Israel’s capital city, Jerusalem. The meeting is set to be held under the headline "Israeli settlements as an obstacle to peace and the two-state solution."
To avoid billing as an explicitly anti-Israel event, however, the informal Arria-formula style meeting is slated to include representatives from Israeli organizations.
Two far-left NGOs - B’Tselem and Peace Now – were both invited to the hearing. While Peace Now responded Thursday morning that it did not intend to send representatives, B’Tselem is expected to participate in Friday’s UNSC meeting,
Participants at the event will discuss what the PLO delegation has termed “land confiscations”. Organizers of the meeting are expected to demand a binding resolution by the United Nations Security Council against Israel regarding the presence of Jews in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.
Five of the UNSC’s 10 temporary member states convened the meeting, including Egypt, Angola, Malaysia, Venezuela, and Senegal.
US governors join AJC initiative fighting BDS movement
So far, 27 governors and D.C. mayor sign American Jewish Committee statement denouncing anti-Israel movement • "Governors across our country know very well the enormous value of the U.S.-Israel partnership in every sphere," says AJC head David Harris.
State governors across the United States are joining an initiative by the American Jewish Committee to affirm their rejection of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, Israel Hayom learned Friday.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Democratic Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy were the first to sign the Governors United Against BDS statement, and are leading the effort, the ACJ said on its website.
"Governors across our country know very well the enormous value of the U.S.-Israel partnership in every sphere imaginable, and, no less, the pernicious goals of the BDS movement," said AJC CEO David Harris. "We are delighted and grateful that Governors Abbott, Cuomo and Malloy have agreed to lead this critically important, bipartisan effort that at its midway point has already gained the support of a majority of U.S. governors."
IsraellyCool: Roger Waters Can’t Stop Bashing Israel
He’s got a new album and tour, but In his latest interview with Rolling Stone, Roger Waters can’t stop talking about Israel.
Waters, an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights, also speaks about the latest, improbable Floyd reunion. On October 6th, Waters, guitarist David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason announced a message of support on Pink Floyd’s official Facebook page for the Women’s Boat to Gaza, 13 activists sponsored by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition who were intercepted when they attempted to breach the Israeli navy’s blockade of Gaza. “It is an issue I care about deeply,” Waters says. “I knew the women – one of whom I know [Mairead Maguire, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Northern Ireland], all of whom I admire – were going to try and get through the blockade. And we knew they would be arrested.
“I was really happy that Dave and Nick joined me on this,” the bassist adds, “to be finally united with them, taking this stance.”
History-making website aims to beat BDS with facts
Founders of a new and exhaustive informational website hope that their project will provide a powerful tool to beat back the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement’s inroads on college campuses — and it may just break some records along the way.
Offering a deluge of information on Jewish identity, Israeli studies and –yes — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the professors behind the project hope that it will provide a key to stemming the tide of BDS arguments in higher education, and even help to forward their goal of a two-state solution.
The website, Israel and the Academy, debuted Thursday as the latest initiative by a group of senior American academics, mostly affiliated with the anti-boycott MLA Members for Scholars’ Rights. The faculty members, many of whom have been on the front lines of the struggle against the academic boycott of Israel for the better part of a decade, envisioned a website that would provide all of the informational resources necessary to counterbalance — and at times challenge — BDS activity on campuses.
The idea of a clearinghouse website was first floated in May 2015, when a group of some 15 faculty members met to determine their next course of action.
Activists Blast Inclusion of Student Group's Anti-Israel Events in Columbia's LBGT Awareness Month
Events backed by an anti-Israel student group and included in the October programming of Columbia University’s Queer Awareness Month drew criticism from LBGT activists and experts who spoke with The Algemeiner on Thursday.
Corinne E. Blackmer — an associate professor of English and Judaic Studies at Southern Connecticut State University who is currently writing a book on the use of LGBT rights in the anti-Israel movement called “Queering Anti-Zionism: LGBT Academic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction Activism” — and Jayson Littman — a leader in the LGBT Jewish community and a pro-Israel LGBT activist — both critiqued the methods and intentions of the events’ host, Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Blackmer told The Algemeiner that one talk — titled “Good Gay/Bad Gay” and described on its Facebook page as a look at “indigenous communities with rich legacies of queer and trans life [who] find themselves targeted by imperialist projects” and a discussion of “colonial forces [that] justify ongoing occupation, racism and xenophobia against marginalized societies,” including the United States and Israel — is based on “factually inaccurate grounds that substitute activism for hard truths.”
“‘Intersectionality,’ as usual,” said Blackmer, “[is] a convenient ploy for ignoring real historical facts and falsely claiming that things are related because they are claimed to be under the collective umbrella of terms like ‘imperialism’ and ‘silencing,’ etc.”
Guardian parrots Palestinian propaganda on Israeli settlement football club row
No matter how ludicrous or hypocritical their accusation, anti-Israel propagandists can always expect a fair hearing and ample publicity from the Guardian – especially as it involves BDS.
As such, within the past two days the Guardian has published two pieces on efforts by Palestinians and their anti-Israel chorus in the UK to pressure Fifa (the international governing body of football) to kick out Israeli football teams located in the West Bank – an article by Jerusalem correspondent Peter Beaumont and an op-ed by Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal. An earlier Guardian article by Beaumont on the row over settlement teams was published on Sept. 25th.
All three Guardian pieces have one thing in common: they rely on the opinions of UN officials and anti-Israel NGOs, and give short shrift or ignore completely counter-arguments by Israeli officials and anti-BDS activists.
Ahead of Celebrations Marking 500th Anniversary of Protestant Reformation, Calls Made to Remove ‘Jewish Pig’ Sculpture From German Church Where Martin Luther Preached
Ahead of festivities next year to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, calls are being made to remove an antisemitic sculpture from the façade of a church in Wittenberg, Germany where Martin Luther preached, Christianity Today reported on Wednesday.
One outer corner of St. Mary’s Church, the report said, features a “14th-century sandstone sculpture of a pig with two people in identifiably medieval Jewish hats suckling at its teats and another holding a piglet’s ear.” Furthermore, “[a]n additional Jewish person lifts the tail while looking into the sow’s rear.”
Inscribed above the sculpture are the words “Rabini Shem Hamphoras” — which Christianity Today called a “nonsensical reference to the Jewish appellation of God’s name, added after Luther’s time” that “quotes a derogatory comment in one of Luther’s writings.”
74-year-old Lutheran Sister Joela Krüger — described as a leader of the campaign to remove the sculpture from the church — was quoted as saying, “The Judensau (Jewish pig) grieves people because our Lord is blasphemed. And also the Jews and Israel are blasphemed by showing such a sculpture.”
According to the report, around 30 such “Jewish pig” sculptures remain on churches around Europe, mostly in Germany.
Maryland sheriff who disparaged blacks and Jews to resign
A county sheriff in Maryland accused of making racist and anti-Semitic comments is stepping down after weeks of intense pressure to quit.
James Fitzgerald, a Democrat who is in his third term as the elected sheriff in Howard County, a mixed rural-suburban county straddling Baltimore and the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., will step down on Saturday, The Washington Post reported.
The resignation announcement Thursday in a news release from the county council came just moments after Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said Fitzgerald should resign.
Public protests also have called on Fitzgerald to leave and the county’s elected leaders have threatened impeachment, according to the Post.
The county’s Office of Human Rights had compiled a report alleging that Fitzgerald had frequently used the N-word to disparage blacks, referred derisively to women’s bodies and called a former county executive, Ken Ulman, “little Kenny Jew-boy,” the Post reported. The county executive is equivalent to a mayor.
Polish groups deny that pogrom was motivated by anti-Semitism
Representatives of right-wing organizations have applied to the Institute of National Remembrance to resume investigation of the Kielce pogrom, claiming its cause was not anti-Semitism.
In the application submitted this week, they claim the murders in the 1946 pogrom, which killed 42 Polish Jews who had returned to the town after surviving the Holocaust, were committed by Communist officials and not city police and residents.
According to the groups, most of the victims died from shots fired by military weapons, which they say means that the responsibility for the massacre should not be borne by the residents of Kielce.
Six representatives of right-wing and nationalist organizations in Kielce signed the application. They are Małgorzata Soltysiak, Wojciech Zapala, Michal Sadko, Karolina Lebiedowicz, Karol Michalski and Filip Bator.
"Those who signed this application are well known for years as deniers of the pogrom," Bogdan Bialek, president of the Jan Karski Association in Kielce, told JTA.
Synagogue that survived Kristallnacht gets new Torah scroll
Hundreds of people from "Congregation Adath Israel" synagogue in Berlin participated in a ceremony welcoming a new Torah scroll to the old Bet Zion synagogue, which survived Kristallnacht.
During the Holocaust, the Re'em family commissioned a scribe who had fled Poland to Zurich to write a Torah scroll, wishing to provide him with a livelihood. Later, due to the Holocaust, the writing was stopped.
Completion of the Torah scroll was funded by a family who requested that the scroll be given to Germany's flourishing Jewish community.
The emotional ceremony included hundreds of Jews and many children, and the community sang and danced in the streets of Berlin.
Rabbi Meir Hildesheimer said, "The police and security forces who secured the event closed off Bronenstersa Street, which is a central thoroughfare, to ensure the safety of the celebration. It was an amazing sight. Hundreds danced in joy, welcoming the Torah."
Israelis help Haitians cope after devastating hurricane
Israelis didn’t have far to go in the rush to get aid to the people of Haiti following Hurricane Matthew’s destructive brush with the island country. That’s because they were already there.
A crew from the nonprofit organization IsraAID has been in Haiti for more than six years, having arrived just after the January 2010 earthquake to help in rescue and recovery operations.
“Our team is doing food and water distribution around Port-au-Prince,” IsraAID Media Director and emergency team leader Mickey Noam-Alon told ISRAEL21c over the weekend, as the number of dead in Haiti nears 900.
Hurricane Matthew’s 145-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rains destroyed houses and entire villages as well as roads, bridges and other infrastructure on October 3 and 4. Government and UN officials estimate that some 350,000 Haitians are in need of assistance.
Oscar-Winning Actress Rachel Weisz Reveals a Family Holocaust Story and Its Connection to Her ‘Denial’ Role
Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz — who plays the character of Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt in the movie “Denial” — told People magazine this week about her personal connection to the story of the film.
Recounting the tale of how her eastern European Jewish parents were helped by a British pastor to escape the Nazis, Weisz said she was moved to discover that Lipstadt was not only familiar with the works of Reverend James Parkes, but taught them in her classes on antisemitism at Emory University.
Parkes, said Weisz, “got my mom and her family out [of Austria in 1939] — he saved their lives.” Lipstadt then sent one of Parkes’ books to Weisz during the filming of “Denial,” and it was used as a prop in a scene of the film.
“Denial” tells the story of Lipstadt’s high-profile fight — and ultimate victory — in a British court against Holocaust denier David Irving, whom she accused of falsifying history in her 1993 book, Denying the Holocaust. Parts of the movie were filmed at Auschwitz, where Lipstadt and her team of lawyers visited to gather information for their legal defense in Irving’s libel suit.
Weisz told Time magazine, “There was something disconnected from humanity. You stop to think, ‘How does a human get to a place where that was okay?’ A lot of people say, ‘It happened ages ago — let’s get over it.’ Historically, it’s a minute ago. My parents were children.”
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.