The Israeli Air Force (IAF) on Sunday night carried out a series of strikes against Islamic Jihad terror targets in the Gaza Strip and in Syria in response to the massive rocket fire launched by Islamic Jihad terrorists at Israel earlier in the evening. Photo by Aviv Hertz/TPS on 24 February, 2020
By: Aryeh Savir
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) on Sunday night carried out a series of strikes against Islamic Jihad terror targets in the Gaza Strip and in Syria in response to the massive rocket fire launched by Islamic Jihad terrorists at Israel earlier in the evening.
Islamic Jihad terrorists launched a massive barrage of some 30 rockets on civilian targets throughout Israel’s south, sending hundreds of thousands of citizens running for shelter.
About half of the rockets exploded in open space and the rest were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system. No one was directly injured by the rocket fire, but several people were treated for shock and others were treated for injuries incurred while seeking shelter.
In response, the IAF bombed targets in Gaza, including a strike on an Islamic Jihad terror squad that was preparing to fire rockets from Gaza at Israel. four terrorists were reportedly hit.
In Damascus, the IAF hit an Islamic Jihad site the IDF said was “a significant anchor for the terror organization in Syria.”
The site was used for terror-related research and the development of weapons meant for production in the Gaza Strip and for local production in Syria, the IDF said.
In addition, tens of pounds of AP, a material used as rocket fuel, were manufactured each month at the site, and it also served as a training center for terrorists.
The Islamic Jihad said two of their men were killed in the strike.
The Syrian army claims that it “immediately confronted” the missile fired by the IAF “with high competence and destroyed the majority of them before reaching their targets.”
In Gaza, the IAF struck underground infrastructures and sites used to store raw materials used for rocket production in Rafah.
In Khan Yunis, the IAF bombed the regional headquarters which included a compound for training.
The IDF stated that it will “respond firmly to Islamic Jihad terror operations that endanger Israeli citizens and violate its sovereignty.”
The IDF “views the rocket attacks against Israeli territory with severity, is in high readiness and will continue to act as necessary against attempts to harm Israeli civilians,” it stated.
The intense exchange of fire began on Sunday morning when the IDF exposed and targeted an Islamic Jihad cell that was in the process of planting an explosive device meant to hit IDF soldiers operating on the Gaza border fence. Two terrorists were killed and another two were injured in the incident.
Later in the day, an IDF tank and bulldozer confronted Gazans as the IDF recovered one of the terrorists’ bodies, presumably as a bargaining chip for later negotiations with the terrorist organizations.
School on Monday was canceled at various locations in the south, leaving some 65,000 students at home.
The IDF shut down several routes and canceled train travel in the vicinity of the Gaza.
A global money-laundering watchdog has announced that it has placed Iran on its blacklist of money-laundering states after the Islamic Republic failed to crack down on its terror funding.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said Friday that it blacklisted Iran after it failed to fulfill 10 promises made to pass and enforce laws against financing terrorist groups.
Iran has “significant strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and financing of proliferation,” FATF stated, calling on all members to apply “enhanced due diligence, and in the most serious cases, countries are called upon to apply counter-measures to protect the international financial system from the ongoing money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risks emanating from the country.”
It is now taking take measures to further discourage and hinder foreign investment in Iran, deepening the country’s already severe economic isolation.
The FATF, an intergovernmental group based in Paris, has given Iran several chances to comply.
Dr. Shlomit Wagman-Ratner, who represented the Israeli delegation at the FATF, welcomed the announcement as “an important and courageous decision, demonstrating the professionalism of the organization and its determination to fight terrorist financing threats.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz added that the decision “of this professional and respected body reflects Iran’s risk to the international financial system.”
Israel “hopes that the international financial system will adopt the FATF decision and the countries of the world will take effective financial preventive measures to protect the global economy from terrorist financing and money laundering threats coming from the Iranian regime,” he added.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commended FATF for calling on members to “re-impose countermeasures needed to protect the world from terrorist financing threats emanating from Iran.”
“Iran must behave like a normal nation or it will continue to pay for its funding of terrorism,” he said.
Iran remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, according to the US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism for 2018 released in November, a dubious title it has held for several consecutive years.
The report notes that Iran has spent nearly one billion dollars per year to support terrorist groups that “serve as its proxies and expand its malign influence across the globe.”
These groups include Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. The three are bent on Israel’s destruction, and as Tehran’s proxies, act on its eliminationist intentions toward Israel.
Iran has also engaged in its own terrorist plotting around the world, particularly in Europe, the report said.
The United Nations’ International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has repeatedly ignored complaints submitted by the Israeli Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) over the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) use of child soldiers, in violation of international law. Photo by Majdi Fathi/TPS on 24 February, 2020
By: TPS Staff
The United Nations’ International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has repeatedly ignored complaints submitted by the Israeli Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) over the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) use of child soldiers, in violation of international law.
Most recently, PMW authored an extensive and detailed report to UNICEF describing how the PA recruited child soldiers and terrorists in 2019.
PMW’s report shows how the PA indoctrinates Palestinian children to hate Jews and Israel and brainwashes them to admire murderers and seek Israel’s destruction.
The report further shows how the PA pays substantial financial rewards to the child terrorists.
PMW’s report also shows how the PA leadership openly admits that child terrorists are the PA’s soldiers.
“While UNICEF, overtly and covertly, collaborates with a host of Palestinian NGOs, who provide them with claims of alleged abuses of the rights of the Palestinian children by Israel, UNICEF does nothing to gather information about the PA or other Palestinian terror groups recruitment of children,” PMW said in a statement Monday.
Conversely, UNICEF annually releases its report on “Children and Armed Conflict,” which routinely blames Israel for its alleged maltreatment of Palestinian children.
PMW noted that “the way to protect Palestinian children from conflict is not to criticize Israeli law enforcement. It begins with identifying the clear factors that drive the Palestinian minors to participate in violence and terror,” and listed six steps to prevent such occurrences.
The recommendations include a demand of the PA that it “immediately desist from indoctrinating Palestinian children to hate Jews and Israel, and to believe in the destruction of Israel,” and that it “immediately desist from paying financial rewards to the child terrorists.”
PMW submitted the report to UNICEF, which has so far failed to respond.
Maurice Hirsch, head of legal strategies at PMW, pointed out that the report “explains why Israel is required to take law enforcing measures against the Palestinian minors, who are being indoctrinated and recruited by Palestinian leaders to be child soldiers and to engage in terror attacks against Israelis.”
Itamar Marcus, director of PMW added that “if UNICEF had any serious concern for Palestinian children, it would not criticize Israel for arresting child terrorists, but would thoroughly condemn the PA for creating child terrorists. The indoctrination, brainwashing and rewarding of child terrorists by the PA is clear child abuse by the PA leaders.”
The Israeli watchdog concluded by stating that it “is hopeful that with this report before them, UNICEF will finally acknowledge and condemn the recruitment of child soldiers/terrorists by the PA that PMW has been documenting for years, and thereby fulfill both their obligation to the international community as well as to Palestinian children.”
Well, the reviews are in — and sadly for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, what happened in Vegas hasn’t stayed in Vegas. Instead, the entire nation got to see him get his 78-year-old butt kicked back and forth across the stage at the Democrat debate Wednesday night. Photo Credit: Getty Images
Well, the reviews are in — and sadly for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, what happened in Vegas hasn’t stayed in Vegas.
Instead, the entire nation got to see him get his 78-year-old butt kicked back and forth across the stage at the Democrat debate Wednesday night.
The reason is simple. Bloomberg has imperiously tried to buy the party’s nomination even as his history of misogynistic statements, racially-charged policing policies and “let them eat cake” demeanor have made voters bristle.
On the bright side, it’s only Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals and independents – oh, also farmers and the media — who don’t like him.
Can you blame them? Just to be certain, when the debate ended I grabbed a dictionary and looked up the word “elitist.” Sure enough, there was a photo of Bloomberg right next to it. (His photo also graces the pages holding the words “smug,” “contemptuous” and “entitled.”)
Maybe I ought to buy a new dictionary — but then again, it’s the same one that political pundits and insiders across the spectrum are apparently using. Who knew that it was the diminutive former mayor who could finally bring a divided America together.
I wonder if they’ll mention that on Bloomberg News.
As Fox News recounted, “MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ played a montage of Bloomberg’s ‘worst moments’ and Mika Brzezinski said he was ‘hard to watch.’ Lawrence O’Donnell said the billionaire suffered ‘the worst blows’ of the evening and an NBC News article co-bylined by Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Melissa Holzberg said ‘the biggest individual news from the debate was Michael Bloomberg struggling to defend his stop-and-frisk record as New York City mayor, as well as the non-disclosure agreements his company settled with women.’”
“Cringe” doesn’t quite capture the full Ozymandiasistic quality. Remember the classic Percy Bysshe Shelley poem? “And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Uh…… thanks Mike, but no thanks.
Said Joe Scarborough: “For a guy who is worth $55 billion and says he could run the world, he couldn’t even run his own microphone last night.”
CNN’s Van Jones: “It’s unanimous: a horrible night for Bloomberg….” His “dream scenario turned into a nightmare.”
Democrat David Axelrod: “… disastrous debut… the big loser.”
CNN’s Paul Begala: “Bloomberg lost.”
The Huffington Post: “…rude awakening.”
Vox: “… loser.”
Mother Jones: Bloomberg “got lit up.”
CNBC: the former mayor “took a beating.”
Donald Trump, Jr: “He spent half a billion dollars to look like a jerk.”
Ann Coulter: “Bloomberg ad: ‘I led a complex diverse city through 9/11 …’ Um, I think that was Giuliani. Dem primaries are getting to be like Nursing Home Bingo.”
President Donald J. Trump: “… worst debate performance in history.”
Nor did the humiliation end with the debate. The following day, it was reported that Bloomberg’s campaign staffers tweeted out a video of his performance that, as thehill.com phrased it, “was selectively edited to make it appear that his fellow candidates fell into a lengthy silence when he asked if any of them have started their own business.”
Back in the 1990s New York City was plagued by, "Squeegee Men," those out of work entrepreneurs who plied their trade of standing in streets, at stoplights, spraying Windex or splashing dirty water on windshields, then rubbing them with dirty cloths and demanding money for their labor from hapless drivers who felt intimidated and frightened. They're back!–Photo Caption: Twitter
Back in the 1990s New York City was plagued by, “Squeegee Men,” those out of work entrepreneurs who plied their trade of standing in streets, at stoplights, spraying Windex or splashing dirty water on windshields, then rubbing them with dirty cloths and demanding money for their labor from hapless drivers who felt intimidated and frightened. They’re back! This time there can be no excuse that joblessness has forced these guys to the streets. There are now plenty of jobs for those who wish to earn an honest living, rather than risking their lives in traffic, harassing others and as well, breaking the law.
The inner city of Baltimore has been infected with this same criminal disease. A city group, the Downtown Partnership, together with the Mayor, have stretched the limits of governing credibility by allocating 2 million dollars to employ “ambassadors” in green vests, not law enforcement officers, to key Baltimore intersections at busy times of the day, to counsel the “Squeegee Men” to avail themselves of job training services and other resources to get them off the streets and to help meet their needs. A spokesman for this “help” group stated, “We have trained them to be hospitality and tourism ambassadors.” Good luck to them when they start counseling these guys, some of whom are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, while in the middle of traffic.
Our former Mayor Guiliani realistically understood that to prevent violent crimes, the lower level misdeeds must be swiftly and efficiently addressed. He called that his “broken windows” theory of protecting his citizens. We now see the city very quickly being downgraded to the levels of other large cities that have lost control of the growth of violence and misbehavior on the part of some residents. Crimes of all levels must be handled firmly and immediately.
We have discussed, in the past, on these pages, the recent changes in the laws that have criminals sent back out on to the streets with slaps on the wrists to continue their unlawful behavior as soon as they leave the courtrooms. They merely chuckle and shrug off their promises to return to have their cases adjudicated. In a sense, they are encouraged to continue their crime sprees until locked up….if ever. We must send the signal to those who violate the laws at all levels, that our city will not stand for their behavior. Jobs and training for them are readily available. Better for people to spend time in classrooms or in workshops rather in the streets, intimidating, annoying and menacing our citizens and valuable tourists with their pails of water, squeegees and outstretched hands. Handle the problem now before it gets out of hand!!!!
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu & President Trump at the White House. Photo Credit: AP
If you are shaking your head and complaining about our own election process, try being an Israeli and shlepping to the polls on March 2nd, for the third time within a 12 month period, to vote yet again in another general election. The prior ones last April 9th and September 17th both failed to form a majority coalition. Good luck this time!
Likud, under current Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Blue and White party, with Benny Gantz at its helm, will fight this one out again in order to form a majority coalition. Israelis don’t vote, as we do, for a specific candidate. They vote for a party, of which they have many and with proportional representation, a coalition is formed with like minded ones banding together. The battle is to form a majority coalition and to stick together when it comes time to pass legislation in the Knesset. That’s when they start to wheel and deal. Bibi, being interviewed this past weekend by Mark Levin, put it very succinctly, that the Blue and White is, “a leftist party in disguise….they pretend to be a center-right party.” He warned that the Blue and White would junk Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan which is highly supportive of Israel’s interests and cave in to the Palestinians who have turned down the plan.
Consider then, that Trump looks like he’ll be spending another 4 years in the White House. And without a doubt, Israel has never prospered more than they have under this friendly administration. However, Gantz has Ronen Tzur, his senior Israeli adviser, who recently referred to Trump as another Hitler and claimed that our president colluded with Putin. Throw in another Gantz consultant, this one an American, Joel Benenson, formerly working under Obama, Hillary and Mario Cuomo, and we’ve got to then anticipate that his Blue and White party and their coalition with the Leftist ones would attempt to destroy the positive relationship that Israel now has with the United States. That would be a disaster. Israelis and their American supporters have got to finally come to the conclusion that no matter what faults Netanyahu may have, his positive performance as Israel’s leader over the years indicates that he must remain as Prime Minister to keep Israel as the light to all nations.
Drip, drip,drip, watch your tax dollars go down the drain. Have you also seen all the “Don’t Let Tax, Water, Or Repair Charges Come Between You and Your Property” full page ads in many daily and weekly neighborhood newspapers? It deals with New Yorkers who owes real estate tax water sewer, emergency repair or other property–related charges “the City of New York may sell a lien on your property” advertisement. Is this the best way the NYC Departments of Finance, Environmental Protection along with Housing Preservation and Development can spend taxpayer dollars?
Why can’t all three agencies compare their respective lists of people who owe money with those filing city and state tax returns? Surely the technology exists to place a lien on any tax refunds? You could also extend citizens the courtesy of a telephone call, letter or E-mail informing them of their overdue obligations.
What’s next, will City Hall send out City Marshals going door to door serving subpoenas?
When will either NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson or Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams who are all 2021 Mayoral-wannabes put an end to this waste, fraud and abuse of the taxpayer’s dollars?
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Where Are Today’s Celebrities?
Dear Editor:
“Frank Sinatra kept the Jewish people and the State of Israel close to his heart. He stepped forward in the early 1940s, when big names were needed to rouse America into saving Europe’s remaining Jews, wore a mezuzah around his neck, a gift from Mrs. Golden, an elderly Jewish neighbor who cared for him during his boyhood in Hoboken, N.J. Time magazine reported that Sinatra walked out on the christening of his own son when the priest refused to allow a Jewish friend to be the godfather.”
In ‘’We Are All Jews Here”, Lee Habeeb, writes, “Courage,” Aristotle wrote, “is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.” And courage is precisely what was on display in a German prison camp over seven decades ago, when one brave American soldier did the unthinkable: Staring down the barrel of his Nazi captor’s pistol, he refused to identify which of his fellow prisoners of war were Jewish. His act of defiance would save nearly 200 Jews and earn him, posthumously, the Righteous Among Nations Award. Only five Americans have earned the distinction. Only one was a soldier. His name was Master Sergeant Roderick “Roddie” Edmonds…”
And so I contrast the courage and bravery of these two Americans, one famous and one who should be famous, with the present sorry lot of American celebrities who seem to only open their mouths to put down Israel or to go on about the “poor Palestinians” or who are cowering in silence. I just looked into my crystal globe. I predict this summer’s Democratic National Convention will bring us another round of ignorant celebs, who wouldn’t know a true victim from a true oppressor, if their Oscar Awards depended upon it. They love to find a “cause” to justify their existence without first doing any homework on facts, thus the Big Lies these Arabs put forth are gobbled up by this glutenous, superficial crowd. To them I say, go back to your mansions and read up on the multiples offers of peace, repeatedly rejected by these Arabs in favor of war, or their numerous wars on Israel, or their own words, stating they will never accept a “Jewish state”, and the entire Middle East Is Theirs, “from the river to the sea.” For my part, I’ll pass on all of this sordid show.
Two weeks ago, Netanyahu held a previously unannounced meeting in Uganda with Sudanese President Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan. Photo Credit: Chaim Tzach/GPO
If the strategic processes now taking place with regard to Israel’s two most formidable adversaries aren’t given time to mature, they can and likely will be undone
By: Caroline Glick
With our attention focused on other things—Israel’s elections, the legal fraternity’s aggressive lawfare against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump’s peace plan, to name just a few—profound strategic shifts have upended the strategic balance in the Middle East.
Israel’s two most formidable adversaries—Iran and Turkey—both came up short in their quests for regional domination, and Israel is reaping the rewards of their losses.
Two weeks ago, Netanyahu held a previously unannounced meeting in Uganda with Sudanese President Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan. Instant commentaries presented the meeting as a salutary side product of the Trump plan, but the truth is much more significant. The sight of the two leaders sitting next to one another, smiling, made heads explode from Tehran to Ramallah. The Netanyahu-Burhan meeting was no mere byproduct of a peace plan. It was a long-planned and hoped-for result of a set of policies that, aided by good fortune, dealt a cataclysmic blow to Iran and its terrorist proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Until last April, Sudan was ruled for 30 years by Omar al-Bashir. Bashir, an Islamist, was a major sponsor of global terrorism. From 1991-1995, Al-Qaeda was headquartered in Khartoum.
Al-Bashir was also a close ally of Iran. He permitted the Iranian regime to use Sudanese ports to move weapons to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to the Assad regime in Syria. Al-Bashir also allowed the Iranians to use Sudanese territory to surround Saudi Arabia, to transfer weapons to the Houthis in Yemen and to threaten the Saudi port in Jeddah, outside of Mecca, and to threaten Saudi oil platforms at Yanbu.
In December 2018, disgusted by rampant corruption and human rights abuses, the Sudanese people rose up against their leaders. For five months, massive anti-government protests were held throughout the country. Responding to public pressure, last April the Sudanese military overthrew al-Bashir.
The units that overthrew al-Bashir were supported by the Gulf states, Egypt, the United States and, according to some reports, Israel. The new regime, which is pledged to transition to some form of democracy within two years, is supported by these governments.
Al-Bashir, for his part, was supported by Iran, Qatar and Turkey. His removal was a huge blow to all three. For the Iranian regime, his removal from power by forces allied with Iran’s bitter enemies was arguably a greater loss than the death of terror master Qassem Soleimani and his lieutenants last month in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. The loss of Sudan calls into question Iran’s ability to maintain its regional campaigns.
Consider its positions in two of its satrapies—Iraq and Lebanon.
Among the people killed along with Soleimani was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the commander of Iran’s Shi’ite militias in Iraq. This week, The Guardian reported that in the wake of their deaths, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi sent his top adviser to Beirut to meet with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Mahdi is an Iranian proxy. His representative beseeched Nasrallah to take command of the Shi’ite militias in Iraq that Soleimani and Muhandis had directed.
Nasrallah acceded to the request, but apparently fearing that he would end like Soleimani if he began flying around to rally the troops, said that he would run the militias by remote control from Beirut.
Nasrallah’s decision to take control over Iran’s proxy forces in Iraq endangers Lebanon. The more the evidence piles up that Lebanon is a Hezbollah-controlled Iranian colony, the more likely it becomes that the United States will end all its military and civilian assistance to Lebanon.
After a long delay, last month U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo approved the transfer of military and civilian aid to Lebanon. That approval is already being questioned and conditioned in the Senate. Without U.S. assistance, the Lebanese economy will crumble.
Like Sudan before it, for the past four months, Lebanon has experienced mass anti-regime protests throughout the country. Long-serving Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned last October in a bid to quell the protests, but his resignation had little effect. The protests have continued since. They didn’t diminish with the appointment of Hariri’s replacement Hassan Diab, who was hand-picked by Hezbollah.
In the last week, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and its speaker of the parliament Ali Larijani both visited Beirut and promised financial assistance. But Iran is in no position to keep such promises. U.S. economic sanctions have dried up Iran’s coffers. The deeper Hezbollah is pulled into Iran’s wars in Syria and Iraq, the worse off Lebanon will be. And the worse the situation becomes in Lebanon, the less likely it becomes that Hezbollah will risk starting a war with Israel.
This then brings us to Iran’s frenemy, Turkey.
In a paper published last week by the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and Africa Studies, Turkey scholar Dr. Soner Cagaptay described how, over the past decade, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made and lost a series of strategic gambles that have diminished Turkey as a regional player.
Erdoğan views himself as a neo-Ottoman ruler and the head of the Muslim Brotherhood. As such, at the outset of the war in Syria, Erdoğan bet on the Sunnis. With halting, lackadaisical U.S. support, he formed the Free Syria Army. The FSA was presented as a coherent fighting force with the will and capacity to defeat Assad and his Iranian patrons, but it was nothing of the sort. The FSA, dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, was a hodgepodge of fighters with no coherent ideology or operational plan. Over time, it was eclipsed by Islamic fanatics who used the FSA organizational framework to form what became the Islamic State (ISIS).
Since Erdoğan supports Islamists, he placed no limits on the entry of foreign fighters to Turkey en route to Syria. From 2013 to 2015, the Turkish side of the Turkish-Syrian border became the logistical base and economic hub of ISIS in Syria.
International revulsion at the barbarism of ISIS compelled the Obama administration to send forces to Syria to fight it. The United States forged an alliance with the Kurdish YPG militia to advance this aim. The YPG is a spinoff of the Turkish Kurdish PKK, which the Turks consider an existential threat. The U.S. partnership with the YPG, forged as a consequence of Turkey’s indirect sponsorship and facilitation of ISIS, significantly strained U.S.-Turkish relations.
To fight the U.S.-allied Kurds, Erdoğan betrayed Washington and tried to make a deal with Russia and Iran at the Kurds’ expense.
Until last April, Sudan was ruled for 30 years by Omar al-Bashir. Bashir, an Islamist, was a major sponsor of global terrorism. From 1991-1995, Al-Qaeda was headquartered in Khartoum. Photo Credit: Pinterest
Angered by Turkey’s embrace of Russia and by regime-incited anti-Americanism that fomented the arrest and judicial persecution of American pastor Andrew Brunson, last year President Trump imposed economic sanctions on Turkey that nearly destroyed the economy.
Today, Erdoğan is in a new mess of his own design. In the battle for Idlib, Turkish forces are pitted against their erstwhile Russian, Iranian and Syrian partners. The Americans have publicly sided with the Turks, but to receive more than rhetorical support from Washington, Erdoğan will be forced to undermine his own tenuous ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin still further.
Which brings us to the self-inflicted mess Erdoğan has created for himself in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Erdoğan’s Muslim Brotherhood sympathies made him the greatest supporter of Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt in 2012. When the Egyptian military deposed the Morsi government in 2013, Turkish-Egyptian relations became openly hostile.
In part to undermine Turkish power, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has forged close ties with other Mediterranean Basin countries—and Turkish foes—Greece, Cyprus and Israel. Supported by the Trump administration, the burgeoning alliance between these four states has led to joint military exercises between Egypt, Cyprus and Greece on the one hand and Israel, Greece and Cyprus on the other. It also is the context in which Egypt signed a deal to import Israeli natural gas. The Israeli-Cypriot-Greek gas pipeline to Europe will bypass Turkey.
To extricate Turkey from the regional isolation he induced, last December Erdoğan signed a maritime cooperation agreement with the Tripoli-based Libyan government. The Tripoli-based government is at war with the Tabruk-based Libyan government supported by Egypt, the UAE and Russia. Today, Tabruk-based forces are advancing in their offensive against Tripoli.
To save his allies in Tripoli, Erdoğan will need Putin’s help. And if he receives it, it will further weaken his ties with America.
In other words, Erdoğan is boxed in and has no good options.
Among the people killed along with Soleimani was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the commander of Iran’s Shi’ite militias in Iraq. This week, The Guardian reported that in the wake of their deaths, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi sent his top adviser to Beirut to meet with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Photo Credit: PressTV
Then there is the Turkish economy. As a Chatham House report on the Turkish economy published early this week showed, Turkey’s government stimulus-induced inflation and cheap credit are positioning the Turkish lira for another collapse. The political implications of another economic meltdown, just two years after the last one, are self-evident.
Israel and the Sunni Arab states, as well as the United States, are enjoying the benefits of the Iranian and Turkish defeats. This owes in great part to the strategic priorities their leaders have adopted. Netanyahu, Trump, el-Sisi and the other allied leader have placed a premium on defeating and weakening their enemies. New leaders, with different strategic priorities, are liable to squander these gains and even reverse them.
During the Munich Security Conference last weekend, Sen. Chris Murphy, (D-Conn.) met secretly with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other Democratic senators reportedly also participated in the meeting. After the U.S. media reported that the secret conclave had taken place, Murphy acknowledged his participation. He argued that the Trump administration’s maximum pressure strategy is a complete failure—even as Iran’s regional position is collapsing in broad daylight.
Last year, the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution committing the next Democratic administration to restore the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran. All of the Democratic presidential candidates have expressed varying degrees of commitment to the pledge.
Since leaving office, Kerry has remained in contact with Zarif and has reportedly advised him about how to ride out the economic sanctions imposed by the Trump administration in order to survive into the next Democratic administration.
As for Israel, earlier this week, Blue and White Party leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid harshly criticized Netanyahu for maintaining close ties with Trump. Both men pledged to cultivate Israel’s relations with the Democrats.
Gantz’s top adviser, Yoram Turbovich, was Ehud Olmert’s chief of staff during his tenure as prime minister. Last week Olmert traveled to America as the guest of J Street, which in turn enjoys close relations with radical, anti-Israel Democrats. Gantz’s campaign strategist Joel Benenson served in the same role for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
If the next Israeli government prioritizes good relations with pro-Iranian Democrats over defeating Israel’s enemies, it will necessarily undermine the strategic windfall we are now experiencing. Nothing happens by accident. If the strategic processes now taking place don’t have the time to mature, they can and likely will be reversed.
Seventy-five years after the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, Jewish college students across the U.S. don’t just learn about anti-Semitism in their classes or history books. Unfortunately, far too many are directly confronted and victimized by this ancient hatred on their campuses today.
Anti-Semitism is spreading across college campuses around the U.S. at a growing and alarming rate. According to the Anti-Defamation League, acts of campus anti-Semitism last year rose to 201 reported incidents – an 86 percent increase in just two years. No doubt far more incidents go unreported.
The reported incidents included not just harassment and vandalism, but assaults against Jewish students. And growing anti-Semitism at college and universities is just one aspect of a disturbing rise in hatred of Jews around the U.S. and in many parts of the world.
The Anti-Defamation League announced in January that it has launched a new online project to track anti-Semitic incidents throughout the country.
“We are doing this because anti-Semitic incidents are more prevalent nationwide and we felt it was essential to provide immediate and reliable data to the public,” said the group’s chief executive, Jonathan Greenblatt.
The Washington Post recently reported that neo-Nazis and other anti-Semitic groups are moving from spreading hatred of Jews online to taking action against Jews on campuses and elsewhere.
Rita Katz, executive director of the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks online hate group activity, said the groups “place special emphasis on … campaigns at college campuses throughout the country” with “brazen recruitment operations across campuses and other public spaces.”
Today’s anti-Semitism is especially difficult to deal with because it is often cloaked as opposition to the policies of the state of Israel. There is nothing wrong with criticizing governmental policies, of course. Israelis, Americans and the people of many nations frequently criticize the policies of their own governments and other governments.
But anti-Semites go far beyond criticizing Israeli policies. They denounce Zionism itself – the foundational belief that the Jewish people have a right to a state of their own in their more than 3,000-year-old ancient homeland.
Questioning Israel’s right to exist or promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement – the anti-Semitic campaign designed to isolate and crush Israel economically to end its existence as the world’s only Jewish state – is a call for economic warfare. It is an expression of deep-seated hatred not just for Israel, but for the Jewish people and people of other faiths who feel any connection to Israel.
Imagine if a worldwide BDS movement was directed against the United States, calling for a total boycott of U.S. products and services, a ban on international investment, an end to tourism, and a halt to cultural and education exchanges, military cooperation, scientific cooperation and every other time of interaction. Could anyone say with a straight face that such a movement was not directed against the American people?
On college campuses across the U.S. today those who claim that growing anti-Zionism has no relationship to growing anti-Semitism are making an equally illogical argument. Hatred of Israel leads to hatred of Jews, and Jewish college students are experiencing the results.
To cite just one of many examples of anti-Semitic incidents on U.S. campuses, during the week of mourning for the 11 Jewish worshippers murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, memorials that were set up in four different schools– the University of Tennessee, Pomona College, Eastern Michigan University and Duke University – were all defaced with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti.
I could cite dozens more incidents where Jewish students are made to feel uncomfortable at U.S. colleges and universities – singled out for criticism, denied college credits for study abroad programs in Israel, accused of being more loyal to Israel than the United States, and attacked for “oppressing” the Palestinian people. Similar anti-Semitic campaigns are taking place on college campuses in other countries as well.
In a positive move designed to combat campus anti-Semitism, President Trump recently signed an executive order protecting Jewish students from discrimination. The order says the U.S. Education Department must take into consideration the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism when determining if Jewish students are facing hostility or discrimination.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. Thanks to the new executive order signed by President Trump, Jews are now added to the groups that are classified as protected minorities.
The executive order makes sense and is just. A study issued in October by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University estimated that there are about 7.5 million Jews in the U.S. – just 2 percent of the U.S. population. How can anyone deny that Jews are a minority group in America? And how can anyone deny that anti-Semitism not only exists in our country, but must be stopped before it can negatively impact more lives?
The problem of anti-Semitism on college campuses should be of concern to all Americans, not just Jews. And thankfully, many non-Jews – President Trump among them – are at the forefront of fighting this ancient evil that has no place in modern society.
Remember this: hatred is like a virus that easily spreads. The hatred directed against Jews today can easily be directed against other groups as well, as is often the case. We must stop the spread of this infection – now.
Just as America’s ugly history of enslavement and racism against African-Americans is a stain on our society, so too is anti-Semitism. All men and women of good will must unite to eliminate such hatred – whether it be against black people, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, the LGBTQ community, Jews or others – because it is vile, ugly and un-American.
Elizabeth Pipko is a former model and 2016 Trump campaign staffer who is the founder and president of The Exodus Movement, which is committed to fighting the rising anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism of the far left, as well as promoting support for Israel.
The greatness of this country rests with a Constitution intended to protect both human rights and G-d given rights. Included in that is the principal of equality under the law. In other words, all men (and women) are created equal and to be treated as such under the law.
This Constitutional system was laid down with the best intentions of promoting freedom by resolving disputes in the most equitable and fair way. Tragically over the centuries since this Country’s inception, the legal system has been increasingly abused to a point where that same vehicle of freedom has been manipulated to preclude people from exercising their G-d given and Constitutionally protected freedoms, be it of Speech found in the first Amendment and many of the other freedoms we enjoy, Freedom of Press and the right to Due Process, both also found in the First Amendment .
Today’s political climate creates an environment where legal actions are used to silence anything someone does not like. On the National level, we saw a President impeached for a conversation his opponents did not like; but saw the President unwilling to comply with Constitutionally founded principals of justice. How many millions of dollars were spent by all sides?
Within our local Jewish community, we’ve witnessed two Satmar billionaire brothers from Brooklyn filing a defamation lawsuit against a formerly anonymous Rockland County blogger (“Lost Messiah”) who got outed without any ability to defend both against unmasking her anonymity or a judicial conclusion resting upon fundamental inaccuracies. The posts in question were removed long ago at the demand of the Plaintiff. Nonetheless, the lawsuit continues in full force, under cover of judicial shield. Why? In reality, the reasons have not been disclosed. The likely guess is either an attempt to bully the blogger to close her site or to cause her significant distress by draining her of the finances needed to defend the suit and any energy she might have. It is a war of attrition.
This is not the first and only suit of its kind, though it seems to be the only one that has been judicially shielded. In Lakewood, NJ a similar lawsuit is unfolding, though in Lakewood no effort was made to unmask the names of the journalists. Rather, assumptions were made and a wide net cast on supposed Defendants by developer Plaintiffs. Similarly, to the LostMessiah suit, the Plaintiffs are real estate moguls. In the Lakewood case, they filed a defamation lawsuit against a number of local journalists, who they claim defamed them when they exposed alleged Lakewood corruption.
The subject matter in that lawsuit was an article written that it would appear claimed that in order to proceed with their development plans, the developers needed to change the zoning designations of properties on which they wished to build. To do so, the writers of the article maintained that municipal officials and local power players received what may be appropriately referred to as bribes. The journalists and others wholly unrelated to them are now facing a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence them by burdening them with the cost of an unfounded legal defense. Similar to the LostMessiah lawsuit, the Defendants are caught in the wide net cast by the Plaintiffs.
The lawsuit seeks an abandonment of any criticism or opposition to the zoning changes by the Plaintiff developers and it chills the speech of others who might pursue similar articles or even judicial intervention.
The ongoing lawsuits filed against Arthur Goldberg, the founder of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing) is yet another example of using the Court system as a tool for overcoming the First Amendment not protecting it. In 2012, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and allied law firms sued Goldberg under the New Jersey consumer fraud statute on the erroneous theory that sexual orientation/behavior could never be changed. Goldberg and his organization provided resources for those who freely chose to seek help with gay/lesbian and transgender issues. Nevertheless, after drawn-out court proceedings, the New Jersey Superior Court ordered JONAH to close and to liquidate its assets by June, 2016.
One would think that this bullying would be enough for these misguided advocates. However, in 2019, after Goldberg helped form a Noahide organization, the Jewish Institute for Global Awareness (JIFGA) to educate citizenry about the universal moral values of the Noahide Code, the same plaintiffs sued again. This time the same judge found that JIFGA was simply an “alter ego” of JONAH. This holding was in spite of the vastly differing mission statements and activities between the two organizations.
In his ruling the ordered all JIFGA’s activities (including a unique crowd-funding site—Funding Morality—established to raise funds for causes consistent with Biblical principles) to be shut down. The case is now on appeal to the state’s Appellate Division.
In all of these cases, the likely intended consequence of the fear of being sued for our community is the erosion of our right to freely speak our minds, a guarantee provided in our Constitution. Without the right to speak absent fear we will lose the ability to defend more than just our right to speech and press, but also our religious rights, our rights to redress, and ultimately other fundamental human rights.
Bullying, manipulation of the courts, the judicial system and the government by those who find fault with the courageous will ultimately have a direct impact upon us all. We will wake up one morning to find that we are wholly unprotected.
Avraham Sharaby is a leading activist & educator in the Lakewood, NJ Orthodox community
A group of Russian Jewish Americans (called the “Make Israel Great (MIG) Russian Jewish Coalition for a Strong Israel) affiliated with the ZOA Coalition (slate #11) in the upcoming World Zionist Congress 2020 elections, issued a press release raising concerns about the competing AFI (Forum) slate.
“These are important questions, because Beyteinu and Lieberman have fallen out of favor with many Russian American Jews, due to Beitenu’s and Lieberman’s negative campaigns on matters of religion and state. Many Russian American Jews don’t want to vote for a slate associated with Avigdor Lieberman.” Photo Credit: Wikipedia
“We are a group of Jewish Russian Americans who deeply care about our people and our land of Israel,” the press release states. “We also care about our communities here in United States and want to contribute to the enhancement of Jewish life around the world. We care about Torah values, sane government and protecting our people everywhere and at all cost. We were happy to see that the ZOA, the Zionist Organization of America (slate #11), has the same ideology, and we joined the ZOA slate.”
“We have several concerns and questions about the competing slate which is closest to home – American Forum of Russian Speaking Jewry, better known as American Forum for Israel (AFI or Forum).
“We are especially concerned as to whether Forum really cut its partnership and close ties with Avigdor Lieberman and his Beiteinu party. World Yisrael Beiteinu’s announcement on February 4th only said that they has parted ways “until further notice.” This wording indicates it could be just a temporary parting.”
“Also, at the same time of the announcement, World Yisrael Beytenu CEO Alex Selsky appeared live and asked people to vote for Forum, on many Russian American media outlets, including the RUNY web Russian website (on Feb. 6), and RTN Russian NY-based television (on Jan. 26).”
“Additionally, Forum (AFI) CEO and candidate Eugene Lekakh, is a key person and the founding representative of American Friends of Beytenu Olami, Inc., and works for the World Zionist Organization, under Marina Koritny, Avigdor Lieberman’s staunchest supporter.”
“These are important questions, because Beyteinu and Lieberman have fallen out of favor with many Russian American Jews, due to Beitenu’s and Lieberman’s negative campaigns on matters of religion and state. Many Russian American Jews don’t want to vote for a slate associated with Avigdor Lieberman.”
“We are also concerned that AFI’s voting record seems to contradict its statement that it supports the Orthodox Jewish community.”
“Forum (AFI) voted together with left-wing organizations for voting on Shabbat in the World Zionist Congress elections. By contrast, ZOA and Mizrahi voted to close voting on Shabbat. ZOA also wrote a brief to the Zionist Supreme Court, pointing out that Shabbat voting is unfair to observant Jews, and will harm efforts throughout the United States to combat discrimination against Sabbath-observers. …”
A group of Russian Jewish Americans (called the “Make Israel Great (MIG) Russian Jewish Coalition for a Strong Israel) affiliated with the ZOA Coalition (slate #11) in the upcoming World Zionist Congress 2020 elections, issued a press release raising concerns about the competing AFI (Forum) slate.
“[Also, f]orum (AFI) delegates were caught on videotape offering gift cards and concert ticket for votes. They later deleted the incriminating part of the video, but we were able to download the video prior to the deletion. Providing gift cards and tickets for votes violates the election rules.”
“This situation raises important questions among U.S. Russian-Jewish speakers, which we would like answers to.”
“Meanwhile, we remain proud to be a part of the ZOA Coalition (Slate #11). The ZOA Coalition has proven that it is dedicated to defending Israel, the Jewish people, and our Jewish values.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Photo Credit: YouTube
AIPAC said “by engaging in such an odious attack on this mainstream, bipartisan American political event, Senator [Bernie] Sanders is insulting his very own colleagues and the millions of Americans who stand with Israel.”
By: Jackson Richman
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary, announced on Sunday that he will skip the annual AIPAC Policy Conference next week.
“The Israeli people have the right to live in peace and security. So do the Palestinian people. I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights. For that reason I will not attend their conference,” he tweeted. “As president, I will support the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians and do everything possible to bring peace and security to the region.”
The announcement came just weeks after Sanders said on Feb. 5, “I don’t think I am [going]. I don’t think it’s going to be on my schedule, but you know, I have no objection to going,”
The annual pro-Israel event will take place from March 1-3, with the final day falling on Super Tuesday, where 14 states will hold presidential primaries.
The Sanders campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
AIPAC immediately criticized Sanders.
“Senator Sanders has never attended our conference and that is evident from his outrageous comment,” said the pro-Israel lobby in a statement. “In fact, many of his own Senate and House Democratic colleagues and leaders speak from our platform to the over 18,000 Americans from widely diverse backgrounds—Democrats, Republicans, Jews, Christians, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, members of the LBGTQ+ community—who participate in the conference to proclaim their support for the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
“By engaging in such an odious attack on this mainstream, bipartisan American political event, Senator Sanders is insulting his very own colleagues and the millions of Americans who stand with Israel,” continued AIPAC. “Truly shameful.”
Sanders, along with former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, attended the J Street’s annual conference in October 2019.
The Republican Jewish Coalition did not hold back in criticizing Sanders for announcing his boycott of this year’s AIPAC conference.
“Bernie Sanders, the now de facto leader of the Democrat Party, does not support Israel and our alliance with the only democracy in the Middle East,” RJC spokesperson Neil Strauss told JNS. “That Bernie Sanders doesn’t care about advancing bipartisan support for Israel is unsurprising and shows that he will complete the Democrat Party’s abandonment of bipartisan support for Israel.”
Strauss continued, “This all goes to show how important it is that Jews come out strongly to support the Republican Party, the only pro-Israel party.”
The move by Sanders follows fellow Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who said earlier this month that she won’t attend the conference.
The anti-Israel group IfNotNow, which has asked the Democratic candidates if they’ll skip the AIPAC event, celebrated Sanders’s announcement.
“Bernie Sanders’ commitment to Skip AIPAC shows growing momentum in the campaign to ensure that the Democratic Party rejects the bigotry that we will see on AIPAC’s stage next week,” said IfNotNow co-founder Dani Moscovitch in a statement.
“Bernie’s progressive agenda, which is strongly motivated by the Jewish tradition of social justice, has no room in it for the unholy alliance of Islamophobes, anti-Semites and white nationalists that AIPAC has worked with in recent years,” he added. “We renew our call on every single Democratic candidate to follow the lead of Bernie and Elizabeth Warren and Skip AIPAC and embrace the movement fighting for freedom.”
The Jewish Democratic Council of America said “we are participating in AIPAC Policy Conference, along with many other Democrats, including members of Congress. We welcome the opportunity to come together with others with a wide range of views to express the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, which has been and must remain a bipartisan issue.”
Sanders also declined to speak at AIPAC when he ran for president in 2016.
At the time, Sanders reportedly offered to address the conference remotely, citing scheduling conflicts, but was denied by AIPAC. Instead, Sanders released a speech of what he would have said had he been in attendance. AIPAC has presidential candidates speak only in an election year. AIPAC has yet to announce which, if any, presidential candidates will be in attendance.
As we observe the 14th anniversary of Ilan Halimi’s death this week, “24 Days” is, as of today, available for the first time in bookstores in the US, in a new translation authorized by Ms. Halimi and co-published by ADL and Behrman House.
By: Jonathan A. Greenblatt
Fourteen long years have passed since the murder of Ilan Halimi, the young French cell phone salesman who was kidnapped and held for ransom in a basement in a Paris suburb where he was starved, tortured and beaten for 24 days before his captors gave up their depraved plan to cash in on a young Jewish life.
The memory of this horrific event – seared for a time on the consciousness of France – has been fading in the wake of the murders of 10 more French Jews in anti-Semitic attacks in the intervening years. But we cannot let the world forget the tale of Ilan Halimi, both for the warning it provides about the lethality of anti-Semitism, and for the message his torture and death sends about the twisted allure, power and endurance of anti-Semitic canards.
In Ilan’s case, his undoing wasn’t the beautiful woman who lured him into a deathtrap. It was a single stereotype: Jews are wealthy and horde their money. Ilan’s kidnappers, a self-proclaimed “Gang of Barbarians,” believed that Ilan’s family and the Jewish community would turn over these untold riches in exchange for their son.
But Ilan’s working-class family had nowhere near the fortune demanded by the “Gang of Barbarians.” Through ignorance and anti-Semitism, the kidnappers found themselves in a position of having committed a terrible crime but without any chance of reward, and they took out that frustration on him. Ilan’s family found themselves victims of the age-old stereotype of Jews and money, but without the means to ransom their son.
I remember reading about this terrible crime when it happened, long before I entered Jewish communal life. Reading about Ilan’s horrific fate felt like a dagger plunged into my soul. When I started at ADL, I intentionally prioritized France. It was the first country that I visited outside the US and Israel. With the help of CRIF, French Jewry’s representative organization, I was able to meet Ilan’s mother, Ruth Halimi.
It was a wrenching and emotional conversation, but Ruth’s courage and strength were inspiring. As a parent, it is hard to imagine losing a child, let alone in such an unspeakable manner. And yet, Ruth’s quiet fortitude was palpable. She had suffered so much, grieved for so long, and yet she carried her painful burden with solemnity and strength.
We spoke for several hours. At the end of our conversation, when I asked her if there was anything that ADL could do to help her, she handed me a large manila envelope. It contained her manuscript. She looked me straight in the eye and squeezed my hand. Ruth asked me to share her story. I couldn’t look away. I promised that I would do so.
Three years later, it is truly a privilege to be able to make good on that promise and honor Ruth’s request.
The story of Ilan’s kidnapping and the harrowing weeks that followed is recounted by Ruth in her gripping memoir “24 Days,” which was published in France nearly three years after her son’s death and was later turned into a French-language film of the same title. As we observe the 14th anniversary of his death this week, “24 Days” is, as of today, available for the first time in bookstores in the US, in a new translation authorized by Ms. Halimi and co-published by ADL and Behrman House.
Why is the retelling of his story important for American audiences? Because we recently have seen in America what can happen when anti-Semitic tropes about wealth, secret control of governments, and treacherousness are taken by anti-Semites to their seemingly logical conclusion – if the Jews are so powerful and malignant, then something must be done to stop them.
During the past three years we have seen this conclusion lead to violence against Jews in America, where we had thought, perhaps wrongly, that we were immune to the disease of violent anti-Semitism that had plagued France.
The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter was a white supremacist who believed that Jews were plotting to flood America with immigrants, thus diluting what he perceived as its dominant white culture. The Poway synagogue shooting, six months to the day after the Pittsburgh attack, was committed by another hateful gunman who fulminated online about his hatred for Jews and all non-Christians. The shooting in Jersey City was committed by a homicidal maniac who claimed that Jews were not authentic but instead somehow related to a “synagogue of Satan,” a vile slur used by Louis Farrakhan for years.
As she recounts her son’s ordeal in “24 Days,” Ruth Halimi points to these and other events in America, showing the line from her son’s death to these episodes. She writes, “This is not only my son Ilan’s story. I want it to be published to remind people of what hatred and intolerance can do, hatred for the other, intolerance of what we see as different. Given the world we live in today, we have to remember that we are all people, regardless of our beliefs. Otherwise, there will be very dark times ahead.”
Today, I’m proud to say that we have delivered on my commitment to Ruth. I hope this new English-language edition of her book will help keep Ilan’s memory alive, and also serve as a warning to us all. Ilan’s story is more than a tragic episode in Jewish or French history. His fate shows the deadly consequences that can occur anywhere, or to anyone, when hatred is left unchecked.
A shocking new book reveals facts that every American – and every citizen of the free world – should know, but few do. In The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process, historian and Islam expert Robert Spencer shows how from the instant it came into being, and even before that, the State of Israel, far from being the aggressive violator of human rights of UN myth, has been the target of gratuitous and unprovoked violence by Arab Muslims – the “Palestinians,” who, as Spencer demonstrates in this book, have no actual existence as a people with a distinct ethnicity, language or culture.
These and other facts Spencer marshals in The Palestinian Delusion will surprise many, especially the young Americans who are involved in the BDS movement, in the mistaken belief that it is a justified and righteous response to Israeli wrongdoing. Spencer explains that the “Palestinians” were invented in the 1960s to distract from the fact that the Jewish State was a tiny sliver of land surrounded by huge and hostile Arab states. Before that, it was the name of a region, not of a people, like Staten Island or Compton. The name “Palestine” is ancient, but had never been attached to anything but a region: it was given to the land of Judea (i.e., land of the Jews) by the Romans in 134 AD, when they expelled the Jews from their ancient homeland. To rub salt in the wound, they renamed the land after the Jews’ Biblical enemies, the Philistines.
Spencer points out that just one hundred years ago, “the word ‘Palestinians’ was more often applied to Jews than to Muslim Arabs.” Not only that, but “some Arabs rejected the term, explaining: ‘We are not Palestinians, we are Arabs. The Palestinians are the Jews.’” The Palestinian Delusion shows that the claim – also false – that Jews stole Palestinian land actually predates the creation of the Palestinian people itself. The Arab Higher Committee called for the Arab Muslims of Palestine to leave the area in 1948, so that the Arab states could crush the Jewish state without hurting Arab civilians. The plan was that they would be able to return home in a matter of weeks. Instead, the Arab states lost the war, and began claiming that Israel existed on stolen land
It wasn’t until a couple of decades later that the Arab Muslims of the region began to refer to themselves as the Palestinian people. As Spencer demonstrates, even some of their central figures – Yasser Arafat, Edward Said – were really from somewhere else. In 1977, a leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) actually admitted it: “The Palestinian people does not exist.” The creation of the Palestinian people is one of the biggest propaganda victories in history, as their existence is now taken for granted.
That is not the only explosive revelation in this book. Spencer provides a brisk recounting of how the vaunted peace process began, with startling accounts of what really happened during the negotiations for the Camp David and Oslo Accords. He shows the bad faith on the Arab Muslim side that characterized these negotiations from the beginning, especially Camp David, where Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took cruel advantage of a naïve and credulous Jimmy Carter, with both men browbeating and manipulating Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin into giving Egypt everything it demanded, in exchange for almost nothing but promises.
Spencer shows that Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama followed in Carter’s footsteps, with no less naivete and credulity toward the Palestinians – and no less thinly veiled animosity toward Israel.
The Palestinian Delusion contains much more as well. He delves into the truly nauseating depth of Palestinian hatred for Jews and Israel, showing how even Palestinian children of the youngest ages are inculcated with venomous and even genocidal Jew-hatred. The book also reveals the duplicity of the Palestinian grievance factory, which fabricates wrongdoing supposedly committed by the Israeli Defense Forces, and has been dismayingly successful in swaying world opinion (and in particular the United Nations) in doing so. And there is much more: the Palestinian Authority’s “Pay for Slay” program giving money to jihad terrorists and their relatives, the pocketing of a great deal of aid money by Palestinian leaders, and how Donald Trump changed the entire game when he moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
Even if you are familiar with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and have been following the “peace process” for years, there is a great deal in Robert Spencer’s The Palestinian Delusion that you’ll see in this book for the first time, and will enhance your admiration for Israel in being able to survive against such prohibitive odds. The Palestinian Delusion is a much-needed antidote to the disinformation about the Jewish State that prevails almost everywhere today.
Brian Grodman has written for the Jewish Advocate and the Zionist Organization of America.
The Horn and Hardart Automat was the restaurant where portions of food appeared in glass cages—but their liberation could be purchased with as little as five cents. Oh, those baked beans! And those tempting slices of pie! Photo Credit: Pinterest.com
By: Phyllis Chesler
I knew it was all over when they shut down the Horn and Hardart Automat, the restaurant where portions of food appeared in glass cages—but their liberation could be purchased with as little as five cents. Oh, those baked beans! And those tempting slices of pie! They took Chock Full O’ Nuts away along with their nutty, dark raisin bread and cream cheese sandwiches.
They took Chock Full O’ Nuts away along with their nutty, dark raisin bread and cream cheese sandwiches. Photo Credit: Reddit.com
Schraffts, a genteel women-only preserve, which served elegant little sandwiches and dessert (and where I kept to myself and studied while in graduate school)—lost in the mists of memory. The Peacock Cafe, on West 4th St., where they started my cappuccino the moment I entered, and where I also sat, read, and wrote—now closed. The Copa is gone as is the Waldorf Astoria, with its gilded pagan facade and Art Deco magnificence, sold to the Chinese government.
Always new restaurants keep popping up and then closing due to sky-high rents. Increasingly, the Manhattan sky has been pierced by heartless, mirrored skyscrapers, so that the human frame is increasingly diminished; these towering temples of greed put us all in our lowly place.
Nearly sixty years ago, when I visited Europe for the first time, the buildings did not yet dwarf the human frame, one felt grounded, centered, and of consequence.
Schraffts, a genteel women-only preserve, which served elegant little sandwiches and dessert (and where I kept to myself and studied while in graduate school)—lost in the mists of memory. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Both Bemelmen’s Bar and the Carlyle Hotel which houses it are now owned by Katara Hospitality (Qatar); the Plaza Hotel is still standing but the fabled Palm Court is different, the Old World violinist and pianist have been replaced by Muzak, and it is now owned by Rosewood Hospitality (which is Hong-Kong based); the Waldorf Astoria, which I mentioned yesterday, is now owned by China.
Have we sold the Empire State Building—well yes, but only in part to Qatar. Rockefeller Center is owned by a consortium which at one point included Mitsubishi Estates. Kiehl’s Pharmacies are still here but they are now owned by L’Oreal (France). What’s wrong with this picture?
And the movie theaters that once were—are gone, going. I used to go to the Thalia in the late 1950s and early 1960s to see the best foreign films. Long gone. And now, they’ve shut down Lincoln Plaza Cinema, the Beekman on Second Ave, and the cinema that once stood at 210 East 86th St. Are we all now couch potatoes with unlimited access to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Acorn, Britbox, Hulu, Vudu, MHZ, etc.? What’s wrong with this picture?
What’s Popular; What’s Not??
The comments I posted about the two raunchy, pole dancing, crotch-grabbing, half-naked celebrity performances at the Super Bowl at half-time “reached” nearly 6500 people, “engaged” 3089 people, and drew 52 comments. What I posted about Harvey Weinstein’s genitalia “reached” 878 people, “engaged” 328 people, and drew 14 comments. Only what I posted about the Oscars (disagreeing with some of the Chosen) also “reached” 835 people, “engaged” 328, but only drew 14 comments. Perhaps one of the most important articles that I linked to was about Wuhan.
The bar at the Carlyle, the internationally acclaimed luxury hotel and East Side institution. Photo Credit: Pinterest
It was written by a friend, Marion Dreyfus, who once lived there and who described the utterly unhygienic, filthy, frightening, conditions that applied in Wuhan in the early 21st century (no potable water, all manner of fish, fowl, and beast, slaughtered in the open marketplace, etc.). This article “reached” 687 people, “engaged” 328 people, and drew only 3 comments. Far more important than pole dancing at the Super-Bowl, but apparently, of far less interest. Woe!
Everything else I posted about Honor Killing Escapees, Islamist Death Threats to “Blasphemers” in France, sacred music, divine ballet, the scourge of Anti-Semitism in the UK, and Old Manhattan (to name only a few entries) drew far less interest.
People: Must I write about entertainers, celebrities, reality show stars such as Kim Kardashian—or worse yet, about electoral politics, in order to command reader attention at Facebook? If so, what have we become? A nation of sex- and star-crazed voyeurs, oblivious to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse thundering our way?
The New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival (NYSJFF) announces its action-packed 2020 program of 19 films. Showcasing 11 première films, including two world premières (THE WOLF OF BAGHDAD and THE HUG OF DESTINY), the NYSJFF specializes in bringing to NY audiences compelling, Greater Sephardi narratives and documentaries, comedies and critical perspectives that celebrate the beauty, diversity, and vitality of the Jewish experience. 10 filmmakers will be joining the NYSJFF for post-screening Q&As and several stars will be honored with the Pomegranate Award for Sephardi Excellence in the Arts. The Pomegranate Awards are hand-sculpted by world-renowned Baghdad-born artist Oded Halahmy of the Pomegranate Gallery in Soho and Jaffa.
“We are exceptionally proud to present the NY première of RED FIELDS for Opening Night on February 23rd. Keren Yedaya is a Cannes Film Festival favorite and her latest, award-winning cinematic gem features an all-star Sephardi cast, including Neta Elkayam and Dudu Tassa,” said Sara Nodjoumi, Artistic Director of the NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
Preliminary estimates indicate that the first wave of Jews who settled in Albania were survivors of a shipwreck containing Jewish slaves on their way to Rome as early as 70 CE. Based on original documents and eyewitnesses, HUG OF DESTINY is an illuminating documentary about the history of Jewish people in Albania and Kosovo, including the largely unknown story of Jewish lives saved by Muslims during the Holocaust. Special appearances are made by Edi Rama (Albania’s Prime Minister), Kadri Veseli (President of Kosovo’s Parliament), and Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel’s Prime Minister).
Nodjoumi produced REGGAE BOYZ (Audience Award, Brooklyn Film Festival 2019), WHEN GOD SLEEPS (PBS 2018, Passion for Freedom Gold Award Winner, 2018) and THE IRAN JOB (Shortlisted German Academy Award, 2014) and is a programming alumna of the Tribeca Film Festival.
“New York audiences will be pleased to know that we have films spanning the Greater Sephardi world. These are stories steeped in history, community, and traditions,” said Nodjoumi.
“The 23rd NYSJFF prides itself on providing our patrons with premières, such as THE WOMEN’S BALCONY and LETTERS FROM BAGHDAD, exceptional films that went on to win international awards and have strong theatrical runs,” said Jason Guberman, Executive Director of the American Sephardi Federation.
“The NYSJFF challenges audiences to think outside the shtetel with programs dedicated to exploring Ladino (including a classic film starring Tom Hanks); Greek, Italian, and Balkan Jews in the Holocaust; Portuguese conversos (Crypto-Jews); the Syrian Sephardic community coming to America; and Jewish life in Azerbaijan, Israel, Iraq, Mexico, and Morocco,” Guberman added.
“This year’s edition will bring great films, Q&As, and celebrations. I’m deeply proud to have iconic French film director Elie Chouraqui, popular Syrian Sephardi actor Dan Hedaya, and poetic Israeli storyteller Karen Yedaya joining us to be honored. We will also present a special Moroccan Night After Party and Iraqi Closing Night with many surprises! The NYSJFF is full of wonderful memories and important cultural exchange,” said David Serero, the NYSJFF’s Producer and a Moroccan-French Sephardi opera singer.
Serero, who previously created and starred in the ASF’s successful theatrical seasons (Merchant of Venice, Nabucco, Don Giovanni, Cyrano de Bergerac, Othello, Romeo and Juliet), staged a critical, well-received reading of The Jew of Malta, performed at the ASF for world leaders, including the President of Portugal Marcel Rebelo de Sousa and Mr. André Azoulay, Senior Counsellor to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, and is the co-founder, producer, and artistic director of the ASF’s American Sephardi Music Festival, which has featured such international talents as Yemen Blues, Francoise Atlan, Gerard Edery, and Itamar Borochov. He recently received an Award for Diversity at the UNESCO in Paris.
All films and events are taking place at the Center for Jewish History located at 15 West 16th Street. The special screening of LEONA for Mexican Night will occur at Instituto Cervantes (211 East 49th Street, New York, NY, 10017).
The complete list of selected NYSJFF films with dates, times, pass, and ticket information can be found at www.nysephardifilmfestival.org
