The new organization comprises Jewish groups in six Arab states, giving them a ‘Beth Din of Arabia’
By: Paul Shindman
The Jewish communities in the Gulf Arab states announced Monday that they had united to form an umbrella organization, the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC), that will oversee some of the key aspects of “building and enhancing Jewish life in the region.”
“Today, we announced the creation of @gulfjewish, a network of Jewish communities from all 6 GCC countries who are developing Jewish life in the region,” the organization tweeted on its new Twitter account.
“The AGJC will serve as the umbrella organization for the Jewish communities of the GCC countries,” the organization said. “While each community is independent, we share a common goal & vision – for Jewish life to flourish in the Gulf.”
Dubai-based Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie and Bahrain resident and former Bahrain parliament member Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo are heading the organization.
“The Gulf nations have been very supportive of the growth in Jewish life. But, as more people move in and come to visit, we must tend to their educational, cultural, spiritual, and religious needs by establishing programs and institutions to service these increased needs,” Rabbi Abadie told the Khaleej Times.
The AGJC said it will oversee programming and services, including “the Beth Din of Arabia, the Arabian Kosher Certification Agency, lifecycle events and other community programs.”
The organization is based in the United Arab Emirates and will bring together Jewish residents of the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The Beth Din, or Jewish court of law for the adjudication of personal issues, will be based in the UAE, the local newspaper The National reported.
One of the people behind the new organization is Houda Nonoo, Ebrahim Nonoo’s cousin and another prominent member of one of Bahrain’s oldest Jewish families who previously served as the Bahraini Ambassador to the United States.
Houda Nonoo appeared to be tweeting non-stop, thanking and re-tweeting the congratulations to the new body from around the world, including Jason Greenblatt, the former advisor to President Donald Trump, who said, “This is great! Wishing this group much success!”
The American Sephardi Federation tweeted the traditional “Hazaq u’Barukh” greeting, Hebrew for “be strong and be blessed,” to the organizers, praising them for “an incredible effort to promote the flourishing of Gulf Jewish life in the six GCC countries.”
Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif (AP/Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service)
It’s likely that Israel will adopt a different strategy than the hardline stance it took nearly a decade ago during the original nuclear deal negotiations.
By: Lauren Marcus
Israel appears to be gearing up for an American return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal amid a frosty silence between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rising tensions in the region.
Netanyahu is planning to meet in the near future with Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi to develop a united front towards the Iranian issue, Kan News reported.
While Biden has promised not to lift sanctions on Iran as the nation repeatedly violates the terms of the 2015 agreement, the Israeli government is concerned that Biden will want to return to a modified version of the deal.
In a September 2020 op-ed for CNN, Biden wrote, “Five years ago, Iran was a bad regional actor requiring active deterrence and pushback. But it had not conducted a major attack on U.S. forces in the region in years.
“I will offer Tehran a credible path back to diplomacy. If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations… I am ready to walk the path of diplomacy if Iran takes steps to show it is ready too.”
Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was closely involved in shaping the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran and harshly criticized former president Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement in 2018.
It’s likely that Israel will adopt a different strategy than the hardline stance it took nearly a decade ago during the original nuclear deal negotiations.
In 2013, the Obama administration, backed by the UK, China, Germany, Russia and France, began negotiating with Iran about curbing its nuclear development program.
Israel vehemently opposed the process, favoring a non-diplomatic route to stopping the program, and wound up outside of the negotiating room and having no say when the 2015 deal was created.
In November 2020, Walla! News reported that Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said during a closed door security meeting that “we don’t want to be on the outside this time.”
That same month, a senior Saudi government official slammed Biden, in an interview with Israel Hayom, calling him a “a pro-Iranian president who will adopt a conciliatory policy towards Tehran that will endanger the region.”
An Emirati security official added, “There is grave concern that Biden’s cabinet will be made up of Obama’s people and that the Biden administration will remove sanctions from Tehran.”
The IAF reportedly carried out a strike against an Iranian arms convoy in Iraq in broad daylight on Thursday. Photo by Kobi Richter/TPS on 2 May, 2017
By: Aryeh Savir
Israeli Air Force (IAF) airstrikes against targets in the Damascus area early Monday morning killed six non-Syrians and destroyed Iranian weapons and missile depots, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.
The SOHR quoted its sources in Syria which reported that the Israeli attack hit the headquarters of the 4th Division in the mountains surrounding the Damascus-Beirut road, where weapons and missile depots belonging to the Iranians and Shia militias are located.
Iran commands a multi-national force of tens of thousands of Shia-Muslims who have come to support their military cause in Syria.
The Syrian Army’s 1st Division in the Al-Kiswa area was also hit, in addition to other locations west and south-west of the capital Damascus.
This area has previously been targeted in Israeli strikes.
The Israeli strikes lasted for about half an hour, the SOHR reported.
The Syrian Army said its air defenses intercepted a number of the missiles, but the SOHR said that some of them reached their targets, leaving material damage.
Six non-Syrian nationals were killed in the bombings, four of whom were killed in airstrikes on warehouses on Beirut’s old road, while two were killed in airstrikes on the 1st Division and its surroundings, the SOHR added.
The IDF has remained silent on the reports, and it usually does.
Iran routinely attempts to arm the Lebanon-based Hezbollah with advanced weapons. Israel has exposed and thwarted multiple attempts by Iran to transfer game-changing weapons to Hezbollah, including by air shipments from Iran, through Damascus Airport.
Israel has significantly stepped up its strikes against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria in recent weeks.
The IAF reportedly carried out a strike against an Iranian arms convoy in Iraq in broad daylight on Thursday.
In general, Iran and Hezbollah’s military build-up in Syria remains a red line for Israel. The IAF has carried out thousands of attacks to thwart the Iranian entrenchment in the war-torn country.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly declared that they will not tolerate an Iranian threat on its northern border with Syria and will take all necessary measures to ensure that such a menace does not emerge.
Israel’s combined security services have exposed and neutralized a money transferring mechanism between Hamas’ headquarters in Turkey and Hamas terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria. Photo by Kobi Richter/TPS on 28 April, 2019
By: Aryeh Savir
Israel’s combined security services have exposed and neutralized a money transferring mechanism between Hamas’ headquarters in Turkey and Hamas terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria, the Ministry of Defense announced Monday.
Hamas in Turkey sent merchandise to its operators in Judea and Samaria, who sold the commodities and used the proceeds to develop their terrorist infrastructure.
Minister of Defense Benny Gantz signed an order for the seizure of goods worth hundreds of thousands of shekels that were transferred by commercial companies under the guise of legal trade.
Following a combined operation by the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) at the Ministry of Defense, the Shin Bet security service and Israel’s Customs service, Gantz signed the $121,000 confiscation order of goods which were transferred through commercial companies by Hamas in Turkey to Hamas operatives in the territories manning.
The Shin Bet investigation found that the Turkish Tekno Global Makine PLUS IC VE DIS, and the SENSE SANITARY COMPANY from Shechem (Nablus), are jointly owned by Hamas operatives Abdullah Fuqaha living in Turkey and Ayman Masari from Shechem.
Israel’s security forces seized containers owned by the companies in the port of Ashdod that contained goods and disrupted the transfer route.
Gantz stated that “we will continue to strike at terrorism, and pursue its organizational infrastructure everywhere – in Israel and around the world” and welcomed the integrated activities of the security forces that prevent “every day the transfer of funds and means that are the fuel of terrorist organizations.”
Hamas’ headquarters in Turkey focuses on military buildup and terrorism. Its divisions are responsible for procurement, development and recruitment. Its activities in Turkey and Lebanon are a complicated mission and to that end, the former Hamas prisoners have set up Hamas’ military administration and management of terrorism.
The HQ is subordinate to Saleh al-Aruri, number two in Hamas and the commander of all military activities. Majd Khader, one of Hamas’ shadow people, commands the HQ with the assistance of Muhammad Salim and Rabiya Mustafa.
Hamas’ “Construction Administration” (Dairat al-E’emar) in Turkey is active in the fields of intelligence, operations, personnel security, information security, logistics, planning, training and production, and is responsible for the procurement and development of advanced weapons, fundraising and terrorist financing.
Hamas’ efforts to equip itself with rockets and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are also at the center of its activities.
Some Turkish companies serve Hamas’ interests. Some are owned by senior Hamas officials and money changers in Lebanon help launder the funds.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shares a similarity in ideology with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and after having been expelled from Syria, Hamas’ leaders have taken refuge in Turkey and have been working unimpeded.
Since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, Turkey has expanded its ties with the terror organization and has had direct talks with its top representatives Khaled Mashal and Ismail Haniyeh.
Leaders from around the world continued to contact Israel to congratulate it on its successful campaign to vaccinate its population against the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and to seek advice on combatting the virus. Photo by Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS on 20 December, 2020
By: Aryeh Savir
Leaders from around the world continued to contact Israel to congratulate it on its successful campaign to vaccinate its population against the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and to seek advice on combatting the virus.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday with Colombian President Ivan Duque and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who congratulated him on the successful vaccination campaign in Israel.
Netanyahu and Duque discussed “advancing bilateral cooperation in the fight against the Coronavirus,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated.
Duque said that he expects to visit Israel, when it becomes possible, to open his country’s technology office in Jerusalem and bring about the implementation of the free trade agreement that has been signed between the two countries.
Duque “commended the successful vaccines campaign in Israel and said that it was a lesson for the entire world.”
Netanyahu also spoke with Holland’s Rutte. The two discussed “possible cooperation in the research, development and production of vaccines and drugs in the framework of the fight against the coronavirus.”
The leaders also discussed “regional issues, especially the Iranian nuclear threat.”
Rutte stated that the two “emphasized the strong political and economic ties between our countries.”
He also stressed that the Netherlands’ position on a two-state solution “has not changed.”
They further discussed “cooperation on tackling the Coronavirus and the recent historic peace treaties with several Arab states.”
“We are concerned at the Iranian nuclear programme and Iran’s destabilising role in the region,” he added.
Leaders from Brazil, Denmark, and Austria also called Israel to congratulate it on its success with the COVID-19 vaccines.
Over 3,988,700 Israelis have received the first dose of the Pfizer-developed COVID-19 vaccine, some 43.3% of the population.
Over 2.6 million Israelis have received the second dose, about 28%.
Over 80% of Israelis aged 60 and older received the second dose, and another 10% received the first dose.
The University of Oxford’s Our World in Data tracker, a global, aggregated database on COVID-19, showed Israel was the fastest country in vaccinating its population.
On a scale of the number of COVID-19 vaccination doses administered per 100 people within a given population, Israel came in first with 1.35, ahead of the United Arab Emirates with 1.07, and Chile with 0.95.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and then Vice-President Joe Biden at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2016. (AP/Michel Euler)
Edited by: TJVNews.com
It appears that Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon is pretty miffed that newly inaugurated US president Joe Biden has not as yet lifted the phone to call Israel, one of the US’s closest allies. And in this case, namely Israel’s longtime leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.
As to reasons why Biden has not called Netanyahu, none have been offered yet by the White House .Speculation, however, has it that even though Biden and Netanyahu’s friendship stretches back a very long way, there could be more than a touch of resentment on Biden’s part because Netanyahu was “all in” on the Trump plan for the Middle East and because Trump is considered the best US president for Israel in modern history.
This past Wednesday, Danon tweeted: “Might it now be time to call the leader of Israel, the closest ally of the US?” The PM’s number is: 972-2-6705555.”
According to a report on the World Israel News web site, Danon’s tweet was a jocular jab at Biden as the phone number he listed is an unlisted phone number with a recorded message in Hebrew saying “you have dialed a wrong number.”
Even though Danon’s intentions might have been admirable, his detractors say that his pushiness on this issue could end up backfiring on Israel and the kind of relations that it wants to have with the United States.
A source familiar with Danon during his tenure at the United Nations when he represented Israel and who spoke to the Jewish Voice on the condition of anonymity said, “Some find it surprising that Danon is waging a campaign to get Biden to call Netanyahu, when Danon himself, while in New York, never picked up a phone to call publishers of Jewish newspapers and others who had repeatedly reached out to him to solidify an important connection while he was in New York.”
According to the WIN report, pervasive coverage has been dedicated in the Israeli press to the fact that Biden has yet to reach out to Israel. For his part, Danon listed 10 world leaders that Biden has already reached out to during his five weeks in office.
WIN reported that former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, who worked with Biden during the Obama administration, said Israelis should not be too worried that Biden hasn’t called yet.
“How he has spent his time, and the leaders he has spoken to, is a very clear reflection of the priorities and the emergencies that he inherits as president,” Shapiro told Times of Israel . “I don’t think there’s any other explanation.”
“He’s taking office facing more crises and emergencies both at home and abroad than any president since Franklin Roosevelt,” said Shapiro, who remained in Israel where he has been working with the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. “He’s been very disciplined about focusing on those priorities.”
“The timing of a phone call is utterly irrelevant,” Shapiro said.
Asked on Thursday why Biden has yet to talk with Netanyahu, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president will be talking with the Israeli leader “soon.”
A Cypriot delegation led by President Nicos Anastasiades arrived in Israel on Sunday to discuss the European energy market, the shared gas project, and tourism amid the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Photo by Haim Zach/GPO on 14 February, 2021
By: Aryeh Savir
A Cypriot delegation led by President Nicos Anastasiades arrived in Israel on Sunday to discuss the European energy market, the shared gas project, and tourism amid the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi met with his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides.
Israeli Minister of Energy Yuval Steinitz met with Cypriot Minister of Energy Natasa Pilides and discussed the EastMed gas pipeline, the connection of the electricity system between the countries, and the attempt to reach an agreement on the Aphrodite and Yishai gas reservoirs.
The EastMed pipeline, the longest underwater pipeline in the world, will connect the Israeli and Cypriot gas fields through Greece to Europe. It is estimated that the project will provide 10% of Europe’s natural gas.
The two countries agreed to recognize each other’s Green Passport given to citizens who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 and which enables them access to culture and tourism. This agreement will enable tourism between the two countries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Anastasiades in Jerusalem, during which he highlighted the two working “tirelessly and effectively to build a very special partnership between Cyprus and Israel. And through our common efforts, I think we have ensured that our relationship is constantly growing stronger all the time.”
Israel and Cyprus cooperate in energy, water, tourism, technology, healthcare, public security, and emergency services.
He noted that the Abraham Accords with four Arab countries have “opens up options for new regional cooperation that can involve Cyprus as well.”
“We already see this through the involvement of Arab countries in the East-Med Gas Forum. They’re coming to our gas cooperation, and that’s a sign of the future. I think this is only just the beginning,” Netanyahu stated.
Some 35 trillion cubic feet of gas have been found in Israeli waters, worth some $500 billion.
These crucial discoveries are enabling Israel to become energy independent and have also turned Israel into a major player in the international energy-exporting market.
The Israeli government is expected to earn NIS 17 billion in royalties from the gas discoveries. Additionally, the windfall profits levy is expected to reach up to 10 billion a year by 2040.
Mohamed Mahmoud Al Khaja will be the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first ambassador to Israel, Abu Dhabi announced Monday. Photo by Elron Zabatani/TPS on 15 September, 2020
By: Aryeh Savir
Mohamed Mahmoud Al Khaja will be the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first ambassador to Israel, Abu Dhabi announced Monday.
Al Khaja was sworn in as the Emirati Ambassador to Israel before Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.
The new ambassador “vowed to respect the UAE’s constitution and laws, work sincerely to prioritize the Emirates’ interests, and keep the State secrets while performing his diplomatic tasks,” the UAE’s WAM news agency reported.
Sheikh Mohammed wished Al Khaja success and called on him to “work sincerely to strengthen the friendship and cooperation relations with Israel, and to maintain the culture of peace, coexistence and tolerance between the two nations’ peoples and the peoples of the region.”
A number of ministers and senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Presidential Affairs attended the event.
The UAE’s Embassy in the US stated that al Khaja “will be a great champion of the Abraham Accord — of people-to-people exchange, of trade and investment, of regional peace and stability.”
“I look forward to visiting him soon in his new post,” tweeted Hend Al Otaiba, Director of Strategic Communications at the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Al Khaja served as Chief of Staff at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and is a Member of the Board of Trustees at the Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi.
The Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi officially opened on January 25 with the arrival of the Head of Mission Eitan Na’eh, Israel’s former envoy to Turkey.
The Emirati government approved a motion to open an embassy in Tel Aviv.
The UAE and Bahrain signed a historic peace agreement with Israel at the White House on September 15, the first agreement to be signed between Israel and an Arab country in 25 years.
The UAE was the first major Arab state to recognize Israel since the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty was signed in October 1994.
Announced on August 13, the Abraham Accords is the first between a Gulf state and Israel and is expected to lead to similar agreements with other Arab countries, possibly Oman or Saudi Arabia.
Israel and Sudan announced the normalization of ties in October 2020. Morocco joined the Abraham Accords in December.
(COVID-19) vaccine, revealed a 94% efficacy in preventing symptomatic disease. Photo by Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS on 1 February, 2021
By: Aryeh Savir
A comprehensive Israeli analysis of 1.2 million Israelis, half inoculated with the Pfizer-developed Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, revealed a 94% efficacy in preventing symptomatic disease.
The analysis, conducted by the Clalit Health HMO, also showed a 92% drop in severe disease in those who received the vaccine.
The research compared 600,000 fully vaccinated Israelis who were at least seven days after receiving the second shot with 600,000 who were not inoculated.
Those in the vaccinated group included Israelis aged 16 and over, of which about 170,000 were between the ages of 60 and above, and about 430,000 were between the ages of 16-59.
Vaccine efficacy is maintained in all age groups, including those aged 70 and older, an age group in which vaccine efficacy could not be evaluated in clinical trials due to its limited scope.
“These results are the first in a series of research results that complement the Clalit Research Institute to evaluating vaccine efficacy in various Groups and scenarios,” explained Prof. Ran Balicer, Director of the Clalit Research Institute. “It is unequivocal that the Pfizer vaccine is very effective in real life one week after the second dose, just as found in the clinical study.”
Over 3,905,100 Israelis have received the first dose of the Pfizer-developed COVID-19 vaccine, some 43.4% of the population.
Almost two and a half million Israelis have received the second dose, about 27.5%.
Over 80% of Israelis aged 60 and older received the second dose, and another 10% received the first dose.
The University of Oxford’s Our World in Data tracker, a global, aggregated database on COVID-19, showed Israel was the fastest country in vaccinating its population.
On a scale of the number of COVID-19 vaccination doses administered per 100 people within a given population, Israel came in first with 1.28, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 1.16, and Chile with 0.95.
Demonstrators gather to protest nursing home deaths in New York. Photo Credit: AP
New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo is squirming now that his “death sentence” to over 15,000 seniors, residents in the state’s nursing homes, has been revealed by none other than his top aide. We knew about this months ago, but this revelation by Melissa DeRosa, may seal Andy’s fate. We’ll make no bones about it: Cuomo is a mass murderer. It all started back on March 25, 2020, when Cuomo issued a controversial order that required nursing homes to admit Covid-19 patients. This, while the fully equipped and staffed Navy hospital ship, the U.S.S. Comfort was docked in the city and the Javits Center was turned into a hospital, both empty. Among the helpless, elderly, frail seniors, the disease spread like wildfire, killing what we now learn may be well over 15,000. Criminal…and the chutzpah of this guy continued when he obfuscated justice and withheld this information from investigating authorities. Is this not criminal, requiring justice for the victims and their bereaved families?
There was a probe last year by the federal Justice Department into these mysterious clusters of deaths, followed by questions from state legislators, asking just how many seniors died of the disease not only in their nursing home residences but those succumbing after they were transferred into hospitals. The Cuomo administration purposefully, willfully and illegally withheld this information. Ms. DeRosa’s admission: “We froze.” And, “We weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the DOJ or to you guys was going to be used against us and we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.” Even loyal Democrat, NY’s AG, Letitia James, found that the state Health Department understated the number of long-term-care facility residents who died from Covid-19 by over 50%.
So, why did Andy not only lie about these fatalities and what motivated him to order so many ailing seniors out of hospitals and return them back to their facilities? And why did the receiving nursing homes not complain? Just follow the money trail. According to Yaakov Apelbaum, of the Illustrated Primer, when Andy faced primary challengers tor re-election, the General New York Hospital Associations, a group of NY healthcare providers handed him $1m in cash. They are one of his major financial supporters. Then in March of 2020 he rewarded them by signing legislation shielding hospital and nursing home exec’s from any lawsuits arising from the Covid-19 outbreak. They got blanket immunity protection. The same guys that made a fortune moving sick Covid patients to nursing homes. The GNYHA. Money talked, seniors died and helpless, grieving families mourned.
And to top it all off, when Letitia James recently revealed that the Cuomo administration downplayed the total number of nursing home residents killed by Covid, Gov. Cuomo responded with a straight face and a crooked mentality: “Who cares {if they} died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died!” Sounds like words out of the mouths of the Nuremburg defendants. And look how they ended up.
The Lincoln Project donation page is down amid multiple scandals and alleged misappropriation of funds.
What is this dark cloud of a curse that has befallen so many “Trump Haters” now that he’s been removed from the White House? And this political fickle finger of shame has engulfed both Democrats and Republicans. Governor Cuomo (D), may soon face a jury of his underlings for the deaths of thousands. California’s top honcho, Governor Gavin Newsom (D), is on the brink of a citizen recall for his disgraceful ineptitude. That same state’s Congressman Eric Swalwell (D), has been outed for sleeping with a (female) Chinese spy and now a large bunch of heavy hitting, right-wing Never Trumpers, the biggees of the Lincoln Project (R) are being outed as common crooks and chronic pedophiles. What more good political news can we look for in the immediate future?
Focusing on the Republican Trump hating group, the Lincoln Project (LP) that spent its energies and public donations campaigning for Biden and mosquito-biting Trump, they have been ravaged by revelations that their leaders were outright pedophiles and that they stole millions from their supporters for their own personal needs. John Weaver, one of the group’s co-founders was recently denounced by them for sexually harassing young men who were looking to break into politics. In a statement sent out by the LP, they called Weaver, “a predator, a liar, and an abuser,” following reports that he repeatedly sent unsolicited and sexually charged messages online to young men. Reports now made public, of course, after the election, indicate his perversity was well known to all in the group. Weaver was a major strategist for other No Trumpers, such as John McCain and John Kasich. The group pounced on and tossed him into the Dumpster after he had accomplished his work to get Biden elected.
And just this past week, veteran Trump hating Republican strategist, Steve Schmidt, announced that he was resigning from the board of the Lincoln Project. He claimed he’s still suffering from a childhood incident where he was touched by a Boy Scout medic, that he was depressed and that he wanted a woman to replace him as a board member. We can’t stem the flood of tears rolling down our cheeks. This same guy who ruled this organization while it raked in $40 million in the third quarter of 2020 alone, funneling half of that bundle into their own personal firms and spent a sky-high $13 million in donor money on questionable “operating expenditures,” is now bailing out with a super parachute of bucks.
Strange that the above bunch of political losers of both stripes, crooks and perverts all, worked in conjunction to incriminate, prosecute, persecute, demean and destroy Donald Trump with baseless charges, fabricated rumors and outright lies. Now that their job of getting Biden into the White House by hook or crook is over, they are being led into oblivion and some, surely to prison, leaving vacancies for other Progressive, Socialist radicals to fill the void for the next campaign against true America lovers. Be ready for them to start swarming this Spring.
The Democrat impeachment case against President Trump began with the false claim that “President Trump incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol during the Joint Session” and concluded with the false claim that he had engaged in “insurrection or rebellion.”
Like the Russia hoax, impeachment was a false pretext for a national security emergency.
By: Daniel Greenfield
The Democrat impeachment case against President Trump began with the false claim that “President Trump incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol during the Joint Session” and concluded with the false claim that he had engaged in “insurrection or rebellion.”
In between these two false claims lay a multitude of lies, misstatements of law, exaggerations of events, false conclusions, and fundamental attacks on our entire political system.
It’s no wonder that despite the media hysteria and political pressure, President Trump was acquitted of a baseless charge based on arm-waving, pulpit-pounding, zero witnesses and fewer facts. The Democrats littered their case with terms like “incitement”, “insurrection”, and “sedition” using them in the way that totalitarian regimes do to mean opposition to the regime.
President Trump’s defense team had the facts on their side while the Democrats had the lies.
The Democrat impeachment case falsely claimed that President Trump “imperiled” Congress.
The alleged peril came from an “armed, angry, and dangerous” crowd whose members, according to the Democrats, were waving “many American flags wielded” because “they believed they were performing a patriotic act in the service of their President.”
Only Democrats could use American flags and patriotism as evidence of a threat.
Meanwhile, poll numbers showed that in September, 41% of Democrats believed that there could be justification for violence if President Trump won.
Left-wing groups had been prepared to “flood the streets” with protesters.
The Working Families Party had, according to the New York Times, had “been in touch with bail funds that could be activated in response to mass arrests” and even had a “fund to raise money for the families of anyone killed in violence on or around Election Day.”
Preparing for protests so violent that people would die is angry and dangerous. So does 4 in 10 Democrats believing that violence could be justified if President Trump won the election.
But the Democrats and their media have built a false narrative to smear Republicans as violent.
Democrats, from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez on down, have claimed without evidence that they were on the verge of being murdered. While AOC’s claim is particularly absurd, there were no shots fired during the battles between police and rioters. The only weapons used were the familiar ones from many riots: fists, shields, poles, assorted bludgeons, and chemical sprays.
President Trump addressed a crowd that he knew “was armed and primed for violence,” the House Democrat impeachment managers wrote in their rebuttal.
In their original impeachment, they contend that, “armed insurrectionists breached the Capitol.”
It’s an odd sort of insurrection and coup in which the rebels never actually fire a shot in a country with some 400 million firearms. The Capitol Police drew guns and in one case used them, but nobody actually took any shots at them. Democrats, their media, and their political allies have repeatedly claimed without evidence that Senator Mitt Romney and others were on the verge of being killed. Yet the only violence that took place was between rioters and police.
The impeachment managers claim that “many feared for their lives”, but showed no basis for it.
Journalists and photographers were able to capture photos and videos of the rioters, most notably the QAnon Shaman, without being assaulted. The one single incident of an attack on a journalist involved an AP photographer attacked outside when he was mistaken for Antifa.
No one seems to have touched a reporter inside Congress, despite partisan hostility, leaving little basis for believing that anyone was going to physically assault House or Senate members.
Let alone kill them.
The Democrats have repeatedly played on the idea that Senate members, including Romney, were within minutes of being killed in order to bias the jury. That’s cynical and dishonest.
“President Trump is personally responsible for inciting an armed attack on our seat of government that imperiled the lives of the Vice President, Members of Congress and our families, and those who staff and serve the Legislative Branch,” the Democrats concluded.
The only arms were physical bludgeons used in exchanges with Capitol police. The Democrat misuse of “arms” to refer to poles and shields is deliberately misleading. The Democrats insist on claiming that the lives of everyone were imperiled, but they never actually proved it.
There was no insurrection. Nor was there a coup. Once inside, there was nothing more than vandalism. A group of protesters had made a strategic move to breach the Capitol, but once inside no efforts were made to secure the premises, to set up a defensive perimeter, let alone any of the fantastic claims that hostages would be taken or executions would be carried out.
Once inside, there was no plan. Offices were broken into. Some petty vandalism occurred. A few rioters posed for photos. Others cooperated with Capitol Police. The atmosphere was indistinguishable from student occupations of campuses in the sixties with no one having much of a clue what to do once they were inside the building itself and there was no one to protest.
There’s no excuse for violently assaulting police officers. But that’s a riot, not an insurrection.
Members of the US Senate during the second impeachment trial of former President Trump. Photo Credit: AP
The Democrat impeachment falsely transforms a protest and a riot into an insurrection with no actual evidence that the protesters were there to do anything more than protest a stolen election beyond a few people chanting violent slogans that they made.no attempt to actually carry out.
President Trump couldn’t be convicted of an insurrection that never happened. Redefining protests and riots as insurrections and support for them as incitement would mean impeaching nearly every Democrat who has held elected office in the last 60 years.
And the evidence for the incitement was even thinner than the evidence for the insurrection.
“He launched into an inflammatory speech that was bound to result in the violence that followed,” the Democrat rebuttal argued.
Democrats keep mixing inflammatory and incitement together. Political speeches, including their own impeachment histrionics, are frequently inflammatory. They’re not incitement.
The Democrat impeachment case hinged on President Trump using the word “fight” to his supporters, while ignoring the fact that he told them to protest peacefully. Democrat politicians repeatedly urge people to fight for their agendas. If using “fight” in a speech is incitement, then every politician in the country is guilty of incitement and can be impeached over it.
That’s a point that President Trump’s defense team made with a video highlight reel.
The Democrat impeachment case falsely claimed that President Trump had made “a militaristic demand that they must fight to stop what was occurring in the Capitol at that very moment.”
If telling people to “fight like hell” is “militaristic”, then what of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s “Now is the time to fight like hell” speech, and former Senator Barbara Boxer praising Senator Harry Reid for being willing to “fight like hell”? Is fighting like hell “militaristic” only when Trump says it?
The Democrat case accusing President Trump of incitement even began by noting that, “President Trump praised Giuliani, saying ‘he’s got guts, he fights.’” Does that mean that Giuliani physically assaults people, or that fighting refers to aggressively working toward a political goal?
It’s bad enough that the Democrats insisted that fighting is literal when Trump said it, but a figure of speech when they say it, but they also have to insist that when President Trump said it, it was both a figure of speech and a militaristic call for violence whenever it’s convenient for them.
“President Trump said that those marching toward the Capitol should do so ‘peacefully,’” the Democrats conceded, but then argued that he then spoke “using highly inflammatory rhetoric—exactly the kind of language calculated to incite violence”. What sort of rhetoric?
“Fight like hell”.
The Democrat argument for incitement ignored the literal meaning of what President Trump said, insisting that the Senate shouldn’t take him seriously when he called for a peaceful march, but should assume that when he said, “fight like hell”, he was calling for a violent insurrection.
“The tenor of his speech (and his repeated demand that they ‘fight like hell’ and ‘show strength’ to save their country) belied any desire for a peaceful demonstration,” the Democrats argued.
Their case for incitement rested on the indefinable “tenor” which is a wholly subjective argument that ignored what President Trump actually said. The Democrats then made the even more dangerous argument that Trump incited the violence because violence then took place.
“The insurrectionists themselves made clear that they understood that they were following President Trump’s commands,” the Democrats argue. Also, the Son of Sam believed that he was following the commands of a dog. Charles Manson believed that a Beatles album was telling him to start a race war. Democrats claimed to be following the will of the Framers by unconstitutionally impeaching President Trump. The deranged criminal behavior of the Son of Sam, Manson, and the Democrats is not the fault of the dog, the Beatles, or the Framers.
“Videos of the crowd eliminate any doubt that President Trump’s words in fact incited the crowd to commit violence,” the Democrats argued, because some people responded with, “take the Capitol right now!” That’s in line with the New York Times’ ethos that intent doesn’t matter. But the Democrats are making the even worse argument that President Trump’s intent can be inferred from the response of some members of the crowd who called for taking the Capitol.
President Trump had never called for taking the Capitol. He had called for a peaceful protest outside the Capitol. Nor did the Democrat managers ever explain how he would have benefited from anyone breaking into the Capitol, let alone “taking the Capitol”.
“President Trump’s speech did not promote election security—it exhorted a mob to attack Congress in order to overturn a free and fair election,” the Democrats falsely claimed.
At no point in time did President Trump exhort anyone to attack Congress. And how would breaking into the Capitol even possibly overturn an election? It wouldn’t and it didn’t.
The Democrat case rested on a complete disconnect between what they accuse President Trump of wanting to do and what any possible outcome of doing so would actually accomplish.
That is its fundamental structural weakness. It’s why impeachment had to fail.
To buy the Democrat case is to contend that the alleged insurrection would have overturned an election. The Democrats never actually explain how it could have done so. They’ve constructed a foolish and dishonest house of cards in which words mean whatever they want them to, evidence never actually needs to be presented, and motives never have to line up with reality.
President Trump wanted an election protest. He did not want an assault. And he certainly didn’t benefit from the violent confrontations between some protesters and police. Just the opposite.
Democrats had protested the 2016 election certification, both legislatively and physically, to disrupt the count without being accused, as the Democrat Impeachment managers accused President Trump of placing his “own political ambition above our Nation’s commitment to democracy” and thus having become guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors”.
If challenging an election is a high crime and misdemeanor, the Democrats are guilty.
But, once again, whether it’s fighting like hell or challenging an election, it’s not a crime when Democrats do it. The very same case in which Democrats claimed that challenging an election is somehow a crime, they repeated the false claim that, “Gore and many of his political supporters thought he would have won the Presidency had all of Florida’s votes been properly counted.”
Democrats can imply that Florida’s votes were not properly counted and that the election was stolen in the same breath in which they contend that claiming an election was stolen is an attack on the country and incitement to violence. But that’s the animating hypocrisy of the Democrats.
Impeachment failed. But then it was always going to fail because it was meant to fail.
Like the Russia hoax, impeachment served as a pretext for national security abuses. It allowed them to deploy troops in D.C. until March. And now they’re plotting to extend it until the fall.
The troop deployment is itself theater. Much like impeachment, it creates the atmosphere of a national emergency that allows the Democrats to investigate political opponents as enemies of the state.
The Democrats have wrongly described a riot as an insurrection. That is the lie that goes to the heart of their case because it also depends on accusing President Trump of plotting to benefit in some way from the riot. But it’s also their justification for a national emergency.
Like their previous Russia smear, the accusations depend on outrage and false claims of an urgent threat because the Democrats have no actual evidence to back up any of their charges.
The Democrats falsely claimed that the 2016 election had been stolen by a Russian conspiracy. After four years of threats, smears, and riots, they belatedly declared that election conspiracies are an incitement to violence. That’s because they were the ones inciting the violence all along.
The Russian hoax and the insurrection hoax are both pretexts for a state of emergency.
Impeachment, like the Russia election hoax, never proved anything, never explained how one thing led to another, and never laid out credible motives. Instead it followed the Democrat pattern of declaring an emergency and accusing anyone who questions it of treason.
And that has always been the underlying motive.
The Democrats went from attacking an election on false grounds to criminalizing challenging an election. But their one consistent theme has been to accuse their political opponents of posing a national security threat, pushing a state of emergency, and moving to criminalize dissent.
Impeachment, like the thousands of soldiers occupying D.C., was political theater. The reality behind the theater is meant to sweep away the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, due process and free elections as if they had never existed under the guise of fighting domestic extremism.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial has concluded with an acquittal, just like his first impeachment trial a year earlier. Both impeachments were travesties of justice in which Democrats weaponized the impeachment process to exact political revenge on Trump. But there are times when government leaders have so badly abused their powers and violated the public trust that they must be held fully accountable for their misdeeds and removed from office if necessary. New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo is a prime example.
Thousands of elderly nursing home residents in New York lost their lives last spring because of Cuomo’s reckless disregard of human life in exercising his emergency powers to deal with the coronavirus crisis. He ordered last March that elderly patients infected with the coronavirus be sent from hospitals to nursing homes. “No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to [a nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” the order stated. “[Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”
The first shoe that dropped evidencing a possible coverup was New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ release of a damaging report last month. The report estimated that if deaths of nursing home residents in hospitals from the coronavirus had been counted, the total tally of nursing home resident fatalities would have increased by more than 50 percent. Photo Credit: AP
As previously uninfected nursing home residents began to drop like flies in the wake of Cuomo’s directive, the governor reversed course last May. But Cuomo took no personal responsibility for the tragic loss of life. Instead, after shifting blame to anyone but himself, Cuomo and his top aides covered up the true extent of the human toll the nursing home directive had inflicted.
The first shoe that dropped evidencing a possible coverup was New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ release of a damaging report last month. The report estimated that if deaths of nursing home residents in hospitals from the coronavirus had been counted, the total tally of nursing home resident fatalities would have increased by more than 50 percent.
“As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,” James said. “While we cannot bring back the individuals we lost to this crisis, this report seeks to offer transparency that the public deserves and to spur increased action to protect our most vulnerable residents.”
Even more shocking, Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa let the cat out of the bag during a video conference call with Democrat state legislators. Photo Credit: Twitter
Transparency is not in Cuomo’s vocabulary. The governor revealed his callousness when he responded to the report with these chilling words: “Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died.”
What the families of the elderly victims care about and deserve is the truth about what led to their loved ones’ deaths and who is responsible for those deaths. They certainly won’t get the truth from Cuomo’s self-serving book about how well he thinks he handled the coronavirus crisis in New York. The Emmy he received for his news conference performances last spring is a cruel joke. A woman whose mom, a resident in a Long Island nursing home, died of COVID-19 last year, put it best when she called Andrew Cuomo and his book a “fraud.”
Clearer evidence of a coverup has come out since the release of New York Attorney General James’ report. The Associated Press reported on February 12th that, according to new records it had examined, “More than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York State were released from hospitals into nursing homes early in the pandemic under a controversial directive that was scrapped amid criticism it accelerated outbreaks.” This appalling number “is more than 40% higher than what the state health department previously released,” according to the Associated Press report.
Democrat Assemblyman Ron Kim was even more explicit. His uncle had reportedly died in a nursing home from the coronavirus. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Even more shocking, Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa let the cat out of the bag during a video conference call with Democrat state legislators. As heard on an audio recording of the call leaked to the press, DeRosa admitted that the Cuomo administration had withheld the state’s true nursing home death toll from legislators who had requested the data last August. In reconstructing the Cuomo administration’s scrambling to hide the truth at the time, DeRosa told the Democrat legislators that then-President Trump had directed “the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us. And basically, we froze .Because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.”
In short, DeRosa admitted that there was a deliberate attempt at the highest levels of the Cuomo administration to conceal scandalous and potentially incriminating information. She apologized to the legislators but not to the grieving families of the victims. The reaction to DeRosa’s remarks was swift and bipartisan. “Lawmakers from both parties have called for stripping the governor of the emergency powers that he has exercised during the pandemic,” the New York Times reported.
“Crucial information should never be withheld from entities that are empowered to pursue oversight,” said Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Majority Leader of the New York State Senate. Democrat State Senator Andrew Gounardes called DeRosa’s revelations “a betrayal of the public trust.”
Democrat Assemblyman Ron Kim was even more explicit. His uncle had reportedly died in a nursing home from the coronavirus. Kim said that DeRosa’s remarks sounded “like they admitted that they were trying to dodge having any incriminating evidence that might put the administration or the [Health Department] in further trouble with the Department of Justice.”
On the Republican side, State Senator Jim Tedisco called for a thorough investigation of possible obstruction of justice. He said that if what has been reported turns out to be true, Cuomo should either resign or be impeached and removed from office because he “has totally lost the trust of the people he represents and violated his oath of office.”
Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik minced no words in demanding prosecutions. “Governor Cuomo, the secretary to the governor, and his senior team must be prosecuted immediately – both by the Attorney General of New York State and the U.S. Department of Justice,” Rep. Stefanik said. “This bombshell admission of a coverup and the remarks by the Secretary to the Governor indicating intent to obstruct any federal investigation is a stunning and criminal abuse of power. The families who lost loved ones, New Yorkers, and all Americans deserve accountability from the U.S. Department of Justice that will be independent and not swayed by the desperate political pressure from Governor Cuomo.”
“Crucial information should never be withheld from entities that are empowered to pursue oversight,” said Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Majority Leader of the New York State Senate. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
There is no recall mechanism in New York like there is in California, where the hopelessly incompetent Governor Gavin Newsom is facing the real prospect of being recalled. Impeachment and removal from office are the remedies available in New York. If a thorough independent investigation confirms Governor Cuomo’s wrongdoing and he does not resign, he should be impeached and removed from office for his abuse of power, dereliction of duty, and obstruction of justice. The actions of Cuomo and his cronies should also be fully investigated by federal and state law enforcement agencies for possible criminal prosecution. Justice must be served for the benefit of the elderly who died unnecessarily as a direct result of Cuomo’s reckless order and for the benefit of their grieving families.
Social media platform Parler is expected to be back online Monday after being offline for over a month following Amazon Web Services (AWS) booting the site off the internet. Photo Credit: AP
By: TJVNews.com
Social media platform Parler is expected to be back online Monday after being offline for over a month following Amazon Web Services (AWS) booting the site off the internet.
Interim Parler CEO Mark Meckler says that the social media platform is back, and that some existing users have already been live as of Monday morning, adding that the rest of them should have access by midday, after the new servers propagated across the internet, according to a report by Just The News.
As for new users, they should be able to sign up for the service within a week or so.
Amazon knocked Parler offline last month after Twitter permanently banned then-President Donald Trump from its platform, and while a plethora of prominent conservative figures and their followers began leaving Twitter for Parler.
“We are off of the big tech platform, so that we can consider ourselves safe and secure for the future,” said Meckler in an interview with Just the News.
The report added that Parler has moved to a server farm, and that the 20 million users who were on the site at the time AWS booted it from the internet will be able to start using their app and logins on Monday.
The CEO added that Parler is now using artificial intelligence and human editors to police for illegal content that violates its service agreement, but that the site will stay true to its free-speech roots.
Meckler, who is credited with co-founding the Tea Party Patriots, was appointed interim CEO to help guide Parler through its re-launch, as well as its search for a new, permanent CEO.
“Cancel culture came for us, and hit us with all they had. Yet we couldn’t be kept down. We’re back, and we’re ready to resume the struggle for freedom of expression, data sovereignty, and civil discourse,” said radio host and Parler investor Dan Bongino.
“We thank our users for their loyalty during this incredibly challenging time,” Bongino added.
According to a report on NPR, SkySilk, a Web infrastructure company based outside of Los Angeles, is now hosting Parler. This was confirmed by SkySilk’s chief executive Kevin Matossian to NPR.
“SkySilk is well aware that Parler has received an aggressive response from those who believe their platform has been used as a safe haven for some bad actors,” Matossian said in a statement, according to the NPR report. “Let me be clear, Skysilk does not advocate nor condone hate, rather, it advocates the right to private judgment and rejects the role of being the judge, jury, and executioner.”
He said while the company many disagree with some of Parler’s content, he believes the company is taking “necessary steps” to monitor its platform, as was reported by NPR.
“Once again, this is not a matter of SkySilk endorsing the message, but rather, the right of the messenger to deliver it. SkySilk will support Parler in their efforts to be a nonpartisan Public Square as we are convinced this is the only appropriate course of action,” he said in a statement.
Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan. Photo Credit: AP
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Now that former President Trump has left the White House for his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, New Yorkers who want to navigate midtown Manhattan can do so with an ease in restrictions. For the last four years, the block of East 56th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues had been closed to vehicular traffic because of security purposes but now things have reverted back to what they were prior to the 2016 presidential race.
According to a New York Post report, the people who are most thrilled by this development are the owners of an office building that isn’t even open yet.
For the last four and a half years, vehicular traffic has been banned from the block. According to the Post report, people strolling down the fashionable street where Trump Tower stands as an imposing figure have been faced with “fortress-like zone of steel and concrete barricades, NYPD and Secret Service sheds, and tank-size security trucks.”
The Post reported that now that Trump is no longer residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the NYPD reopened the block last week. This comes as a breath of fresh air to such high-end stores like Giorgio Armani, Armani Ristorante and Oxxford Clothes, each of whom are located at 717 Fifth Avenue.
Because of the barricades and security structures, the flow of pedestrian traffic had been curtailed and business was steadily decreasing. An Oxxford manager who wished to remain anonymous told the Post that the situation around Trump Tower was “miserable.” The Post also reported that Trump Tower was also referred to as the “Black House” by employees of Armani Restaurant because of the substantial loss in business that they sustained.
A source told the Post that the restaurant that caters to an affluent crowd lost 50 percent of its business immediately after the 2016 street shutdown. The source revealed to the Post that, “many clients came by car or limousine and they couldn’t get here. We struggled after that to bring at least some of our business back.”
Other happy campers or business owners are the owners of 550 Madison Avenue between East 55th and 56th streets, the vacant former Sony headquarters that Olayan America is spending $300 million to redesign, according to the Post report.
Olayan Group managing director and head of US real estate, Erik Horvat told the Post that the intense security apparatus around Trump Tower “changed the dynamic and the vibe to see the whole street on guard.”
Horvat added, “It’s not a political statement to say that until November, nobody even knew if the street would be closed for four years more.”
Horvat added that the barricades, along with security guards carrying machine guns were “inconsistent” with the health-conscious image the building wanted to project, according to the Post report.
The War is Over (La Guera è Finita) is a compelling, newly-released, eight-part Italian miniseries produced by RAI (the Italian national public broadcasting company), now streaming on MHz Choice in Italian with English subtitles. Photo Credit: MHz Choice
The story of an abandoned estate in Italy, and the 800 traumatized orphaned Jewish children who were treated there from 1945-48 before going to Palestine
By: Dr. Phyllis Chesler
Poland’s “dignity” is offended by the truth—but only when that truth exposes a Polish official or citizen for having aided and abetted the Nazis and for having persecuted Polish Jews during the Nazi occupation. The Polish government has never tried any Polish historian or journalist for having described Polish individuals and clergy who fed, hid, and saved Polish Jews.
Isabella Ragonese as Giulia (credit: MHz Choice)
The honor of Poland is at stake and the Poles are deeply invested in presenting themselves as “victims”—of the Russians and of the Nazis, never also as the perpetrators of Jew-hatred and pogroms long before the Nazi armies came to town, and after they were driven out (Jewabne, Kielce).
Down the decades, I have learned bitter but complex truths about the French, Dutch, Belgian, Spanish, Hungarian, Greek, Croatian, Norwegian, and Ukrainian complicity in the Holocaust. Somehow, because I loved Italy (the art, the opera, the landscape, the cinema), I never looked too closely at their role during World War Two. Once, when I hired a guide to take me on a tour of Jewish Italy, she gave me a book which contained a fairly gruesome history of 2,000 years of Italian Jewish sorrows. And once, when I was living in Venice, it hit me hard when I learned that Venice—Venice! had also turned over its Jews to Hitler, albeit, not until 1943.
When I looked into the matter further, I understood that Italy had begun to disenfranchise its Jews in 1938, before Kristallnacht took place in Germany. Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend private schools, Jewish professors were exiled from all universities, from government and military service, as well as from banking and insurance industries. In 1939 and 1940, Jewish peddlers and shopkeepers’ licenses were revoked and all Jews who held stocks and bonds were required to turn them over to “Aryans.” If possible, matters worsened once Germany occupied Italy in 1943. According to Ms. Ilaria Pavan, a former Italian official investigating the “looting of property of Jewish Italian citizens,” as of 2010, such looting “totaled almost 1 billion in today’s values.”
Michele Riondino as Davide (credit: MHz Choice)
As with Poland, all the European histories describe governments and individuals who were eager to expropriate Jewish property (real estate, homes, factories, art work, chinaware, clothing, bank accounts, furniture); eager to hand over the former Jewish owners to Hitler’s gas chambers. There are also accurate accounts of non-Jewish European who saved Jews and who fought Hitler’s armies as partisans.
There were heroes and villains, resisters and cowards, in every country.
What got me thinking about this all over again was my accidental discovery of a very moving eight-part miniseries, The War is Over, which is just now being live-streamed on MHZ in Italian with English subtitles. This RAI film is based on the book by Aharon Megged about the orphaned “children of Selvino,” and relates the true story of the 800 traumatized Jewish children who were rescued from concentration camps and ghettos all across Europe, who had no parents, no families, and who were physically, psychologically, spiritually, and sexually wounded, as well as educationally deprived.
From 1945-1948, the Milanese Jewish community, the municipality of Milan, soldiers of the Jewish Brigade (Moshe Ze-eri and Teddy Be’eri), the Jewish Agency, the Joint Distribution Committee, Youth Aliyah, and former anti-fascist partisan fighters, and Jewish and non-Jewish youth workers all took care of these children in an abandoned estate in northern Italy. They tried to heal them well enough so that they could make the journey to Palestine on those heroically “illegal” immigrant ships that the British stopped, fired upon, and forced to land in Cyprus. Eventually, some of these children joined Kibbutz Tze’elim in the Negev.
Vintage photo of Passover Eve at the Sciesopoli House (credit: Wikipedia Commons)
In 2019, after a seven year campaign, a museum opened in Selvino to commemorate this heroic rescue operation.
The miniseries is beautifully and soulfully acted (Michele Riondino, Isabella Ragonese, Valerio Binasco), but the children will steal your heart. Please watch it. Experience the past present.
Vintage photo of the Sciescopoli Building (Wikimedia Commons)
(Israel National News)
Prof. Phyllis Chesler is a Ginsburg-Ingerman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, received the 2013 National Jewish Book Award,.authored 20 books, including Women and Madness and The New Anti-Semitism, and 4 studies about honor killing, Her latest books are An American Bride in Kabul, A Family Conspiracy: Honor Killing and A Politically Incorrect Feminist.
