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Terrorism

Jeffries Backs Ilhan Omar For Re-election

by admin September 3, 2023

written by admin

“It is customary for the leaders of both parties to endorse all their incumbent co-partisans,” according to Mark Mellman, president and CEO of Democratic Majority for Israel.

Bradley Martin

(JNS)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and other congressional Democrats have assured incumbent progressive Democrats—including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who has a long antisemitic history—that they will back them in the 2024 U.S. elections.

“Rep. Omar has been elected by her constituents three times and has consistently stood up for them, including through her service on the House Budget Committee,” Jeffries stated. “As House democratic leader, I vigorously endorse her re-election and stand with her as we battle extreme MAGA Republicans for the future of our nation.”

Neither the House majority leader’s office nor spokesmen for Omar and for more than two dozen Jewish members of Congress responded to queries from JNS.

Earlier this month, Jeffries led two dozen House Democrats on a six-day trip to Israel, sponsored by a group affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

AIPAC aims to oust Omar and other anti-Israel lawmakers, per reporting in Jewish Insider. Marshall Wittmann, an AIPAC spokesman, declined to comment to JNS on Jeffries’ endorsement of Omar.

Mark Mellman, president and CEO of Democratic Majority for Israel, defended Jeffries’ endorsement. “Leader Jeffries has a tremendous record of support for the Jewish community and the State of Israel,” Mellman told JNS. “It is customary for the leaders of both parties to endorse all their incumbent co-partisans.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) supports “Republican antisemites, racists, white nationalists and, of course, election deniers,” Mellman charged. “The difference is that while leader Jeffries has condemned antisemitic statements made by Congresswoman Omar, Speaker McCarthy has been reluctant to criticize such statements by members of his caucus.”

JNS asked about McCarthy’s decision not to endorse former Iowa Republican congressman Steve King when he faced a 2020 primary challenge. (The Republican Jewish Coalition endorsed King’s challenger.)

Rachel Rosen, chief communications officer for Democratic Majority for Israel, responded, “Please see Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Thomas Massie, Paul Gosar, etc. etc.”

Image: U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar speaking with supporters of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders – Attributed to Gage Skidmore – Common Wikimedia

September 3, 2023 0 comments

Community

Dating site boots former ‘Jewish Press’ editor

by admin September 3, 2023

written by admin

When Elliot Resnick added information about Jan. 6, 2021 to his SawYouAtSinai profile, he was kicked off the dating platform.

(JNS)

Elliot Resnick received an email on Monday from the Jewish dating site SawYouAtSinai stating, “Dear Elliot. We are unable to service you. We have refunded your membership in full. Our best wishes.”

When Resnick, who is single, tried to log into his account on the site, he received a notification that it was disabled, the former top Jewish Press editor said on his podcast this week.

He contacted SawYouAtSinai—a reference to the tradition that all Jews were present at the revelation at Mount Sinai—three times and received no answer, Resnick claimed.

“I don’t usually discuss my private life, because I am not a modern person, and I don’t believe in living out my private life in the public eye,” Resnick said. “I am going to make an exception today.”

“Now why was I banned?” he said. “There really is only one possible explanation.”

Resnick had decided a few weeks ago to add to his profile that he was in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 “and that I’m facing possible jail time as a result,” he said on the podcast.

“This way, that will greatly narrow the pool of girls that are suggested to me. Just like if you say you live in Hebron, there are many girls who wouldn’t want to go out with you,” he added. “Or if you say, ‘I want to learn for the rest of my life and never have a job,’ that will limit the number of girls who will go out with you.”

Resnick said he always lets potential dates know that he is facing jail time before they go out, and that he has been on the dating site for 15 years “on and off,” and hadn’t changed anything else about his profile.

“I refuse to let a frum organization join cancel culture,” he said. “Cancel culture is pernicious. It is disgusting. Everyone knows it. Especially people in the frum community.”

“Look. I was let go from the Jewish Press over January 6. I was disappointed, of course, but at least you could say for the Jewish Press they had certain business interests,” he added. “I was the face of the company. I was the editor-in-chief of the Jewish Press. They were worried about suffering financial loss if I’m the face of the company.”

“What’s SawYouAtSinai’s excuse?” he asked. He added that the site allows users from non-Orthodox Jewish denominations, groups he said amount to “heresy.”

On March 16, the Justice Department announced Resnick’s arrest on charges that included interfering with law enforcement, assaulting or impeding officers and entering and remaining in a restricted site.

September 3, 2023 0 comments

Terrorism

Israelophobia Is The Newest Form Of The Oldest Hatred

by admin September 1, 2023

written by admin

Foreword from Jewish TV Channel: We are dedicated to fighting against the AIM syndrome. A represents AntiSemitism and M represents Miseducation. The middle letter I stands for Israel-phobia. This sterling article provides a clear and concise explanation about the gravity of this latest weapon in the arsenal of Jew-haters. Sadly, as we often point out, many allies in the fight against AntiSemitism fail to realize the immense damage they commit when simultaneously joining in the viral chorus of those demonizing the very source of the Jewish people’s heritage – through Israel-phobia.

The distinction between hating Jews and hating Israel is bogus.

Melanie Phillips

(JNS)

Antisemitism is a rotten term for the “longest hatred” that targets the Jewish people. For a start, there is no such thing as “semitism” to be “anti.”

The word “antisemitism” was invented by a 19th-century Jew-hater, Wilhelm Marr, who wanted to invest this prejudice with the spurious characteristic of race in order to appeal to a society that increasingly defined itself in scientific terms.

Today, with Jew-hatred having reached unprecedented global levels, the inadequacies of “antisemitism” are becoming ever more manifest. Many wrongly believe that it’s just another form of racism. Few understand that it’s a uniquely paranoid, deranged and murderous mindset.

Because Judaism and the Jews are so poorly understood, few recognize that this unique people is victimized by a unique prejudice. And few acknowledge that the prejudice changes shape as societies change.

Used for the sake of convenience, “antisemitism” fosters further misunderstanding over the issue of Israel. People assume that prejudice against the Jewish people is against Jews as people. Few understand that Judaism isn’t a private confessional faith as the West understands religion to be.

They don’t realize that Jewish religious identity is rooted in the Land of Israel, where the Jews were historically the only people for whom it was ever their national kingdom. So they fail to grasp that Israel is at the very heart of Judaism. Denouncing the right of the Jews to the land is to attack Judaism itself.

But because “antisemitism” is associated with bigotry against Jews as people—and specifically with genocidal Nazism—people bridle when it’s used to describe their hostility to the State of Israel.

In other words, demonizing Jews and wishing they would disappear from the world may be beyond the pale, but demonizing Israel and wishing it would disappear from the world is just fine.

In his new book Israelophobia, published next week, Jake Wallis Simons takes this false distinction apart. The Jew-hatred that is now at epidemic levels throughout the West focuses overwhelmingly on the Jewish homeland

Simons, the editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle for which I write, does an outstanding job detailing the astounding tsunami of falsehoods, distortions, double standards and vilification engulfing Israel. Although atrocities and human rights abuses are taking place all over the world, this obsessional campaign is directed only at Israel, the sole democracy in the Middle East.

Israeli products are boycotted, its speakers hounded off campus, its businesses vandalized and its behavior singled out for lies, slander and double standards at the U.N. With the Palestinian cause having become the default position of progressives, the left makes common cause with the world’s worst dictatorships to attack a democracy that protects the rights of women, gays and other minorities.

Reasonable and reasoned criticism of Israel is, of course, entirely proper, just as with any other country. But this onslaught is neither reasonable nor reasoned. So why is Israel abused in this hallucinatory way?

To what he calls the newest form of the oldest hatred, Simons has given another name: Israelophobia. This, he writes, has three characteristics: Demonization, through which Israel is smeared as evil and a threat to the world; weaponization of social justice as a Trojan horse for hatred of Jews and their national home; and falsification, or parroting the lies of Nazi or Soviet propaganda.

All this has twisted the Western mind. As Simons observes, the sheer number of committed Israelophobes and the force of their disinformation, fueled by state-sponsored propaganda from Berlin to Tehran, has established a powerful gravitational pull sucking in ordinary people.

As a result, indefensible assumptions about Israel and the Jewish people—such as “Israelis behave like Nazis towards the Palestinians,” the “Jews have too much power” and “Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for their own purposes”—have become mainstream and produced a kind of herd immunity to common sense.

Some of these falsehoods are positively surreal. Israel is seen as white even though a (small) majority of its Jews are dark-skinned. In 2018, Mark Winston Griffith, executive director for the Black Movement Center in Crown Heights, New York, suggested that Jews were being attacked on the streets of Brooklyn because Jewishness was “a form of almost hyper-whiteness.”

In 2020, after the killing of Gorge Floyd, synagogues and Jewish shops in America were vandalized and attacked with “free Palestine” and obscene anti-Israel graffiti, while in France, Black Lives Matter demonstrators screamed “dirty Jews,” echoing the same chants that filled French streets during the Dreyfus affair a century before.

“In short,” writes Simons, “whether Jews count as non-white, white to hyper- white, privileged or oppressed, colonizers or indigenous, has become a matter of Schrodinger’s Jew: The label shifts on the basis of the agenda. And when it comes to the social justice movement, that agenda is invariably hostile to [the Jews’] nation state.”

In fact, “social justice” and identity politics are positively rooted in anti-Jewish prejudice. The malicious stereotype of rich, powerful Jews oppressing the vulnerable has been embedded in the left since Marx.

“Intersectional” identity politics, in which groups use spurious claims of victimization to gain power over other groups, patterns itself on claims of antisemitism that social justice warriors believe Jews deploy to mask their own misdeeds. Victim culture is thus founded upon anti-Jewish prejudice and its fake claims are exposed by real bigotry against Jews, which must therefore be denied.

Appallingly, the social justice agenda has been endorsed by a majority of American Jews. Simons takes bitter aim at Jewish progressives, for whom, he caustically observes, the Israelification of antisemitism must be a relief. They gain acceptance on the left through “auto-denunciation,” adopting the left’s default Israelophobic narrative while holding their Jewish heads high.

The question is why this supremely perverse onslaught against Israel is happening. Most obviously, it is a product of the left’s current stance against colonialism, imperialism and racism, which is associated with Israel simply because “intersectionality” promotes the monstrous charge that Jews are white-skinned, capitalist oppressors.

And, of course, there’s the vital role of the media in promoting Palestinian Arab lies and distortions as the truth, demonizing Israel by omitting to report Palestinian Arab attacks on Israelis and focusing only on Israeli strikes in response. The media thus present Israel as a wanton and indiscriminate killer, even though its armed forces do more to safeguard civilian lives when it carries out counter-terror operations against its enemies than any other army in the world.

The most powerful passages in Simons’s book demonstrate how both Nazism and the Soviet Union further weaponized antisemitism against Israel. The Soviet Union, which used anti-Zionism to weaken the West by driving wedges and sowing discord, disseminated staggering amounts of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda, depicting Judaism as a vicious and inhuman religion that had spawned “fascist Zionism.” This malevolent narrative is now parroted by the left.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, turned Palestine’s Arabs into Hitler’s forces in the Middle East committed to the genocide of the Jews.

This linkage continues to influence attitudes in the Arab world. Nazi imagery of Jews as spiders, dogs, octopuses, snakes and bloodsuckers remains widespread in Palestinian and Arab media, while the Mufti is the self-professed hero of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas.

As the American historian Jeffrey Herf has observed, this association has poisoned Western universities and “aligned the western left with the afterlife of Hitler’s Nazi party and its larger designs for the Middle East.”

The West’s historic Jew-hatred and current unhinged animus against Israel are joined at the hip. By using a new word to reflect this, and through careful and detailed research, Jake Wallis Simons has delivered a powerful blow against the big lie through which the Western left tries to wash from its hands an indelible stain.

September 1, 2023 0 comments

Terrorism

Terrorist Threat Assessments Update

by admin August 31, 2023

written by admin

The National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Division (NSCCTD), today (Thursday, 31 August 2023), has issued its terrorist threat assessment for Israelis abroad and the travel warnings for the 2023 fall holidays, in order to raise the awareness of the Israeli public regarding terrorist threats to it in various places around the world and the taking of appropriate actions. It should be emphasized that this is an updated summary of the main trends in terrorist activity around the world and its influence on the threat level to Israelis abroad and not new travel warnings.

To this end, an updated list of travel warnings for Israelis abroad in all countries is herein submitted as well as recommendations for conduct in countries with various levels of risk. This list is current and will be continuously updated; it is accessible 24/7 throughout the year both on the National Security Council website and at 02-6667444.

Main trends:

Iran

1. Iran still constitutes the main global terrorist threat and is continuing to promote attacks on Israeli nationals around the world both directly and via proxies that it operates, in various countries while violating their sovereignty.

2. Iranian terrorists are continuing their attempts to contact Israeli nationals, in Israel and abroad, under business covers or by impersonating other elements, in order to attack or abduct them. Several Iranian attempts to attack Israeli and Jewish targets have been thwarted in the past year.

Global Jihad

3. The various global jihad and radical Islamic organizations are continuing to carry out attacks at various sites around the world. These organizations have recently shown greater interest in attacking Israelis and Jews and has called on its supporters to attack such targets around the world. Lone wolf terrorists, who are inspired by these organizations and who are liable to carry out attacks against Israelis and Jews, are a principal threat.

4. It should be noted that these organizations are currently focusing their activity in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe alongside more sporadic efforts in additional countries.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad

5. Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives have recently shown high motivation to carry out abductions in Israel in order to obtain bargaining chips vis-à-vis Israel. These organizations aspire to carry abductions of Israelis and / or Jews abroad especially given Hamas’ notion that the contacts on the captive and missing are at a stalemate become stuck and pressure on the organization to resolve the issue. Hamas Chairman Ismail Haniye has even publicly declared that, “Hamas will not hesitate to carry out abductions,” and that, “We hold four prisoners and if this is not enough to persuade Israel to make a deal, we will carry out more abductions through our arms which reach everywhere.”

The extreme Right

6. Jewish communities (as well as other minorities) have been a principal target with religious and community institutions being a preferred target, especially during holidays. In recent years, religious institutions have been attacked throughout Europe and [North] America for ideological and anti-Semitic motives.

Threatened areas

7. Areas with the highest likelihood of Iranian terrorist activity are those countries in proximity to Iran (such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Türkiye and the Kurdish area), the Mediterranean Sea basin, Africa and Latin America.

8. Given that Sinai is still a threat area, the NSCCTD recommends that Israelis in Sinai stay only in recognized tourist areas (the secured beaches and Sharm el-Sheikh) where the Egyptian security forces maintain a presence and avoid traveling in the interior or staying in isolated and unrecognized sites.

9. There has recently been an increase in the potential terrorist threat in Sweden and Denmark due to incidents of Quran burning. Sweden has raised domestic threat level to high. Please monitor events (also in light of possible spillover to additional countries).

Prohibition on the Entry of Israelis to Enemy Countries

10. According to Israeli law, Israelis are absolutely prohibited from traveling to enemy countries (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran), even for dual nationals who hold additional passports. Israelis in these countries are at veru high risk of abduction or attacks on their lives.

11. In this context, it will be noted that academic researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli citizen who also holds a Russian passport, was abducted by a Shiite militia while she was illegally present in Iraq.

The NSCCTD calls on the Israeli public to continue to travel abroad but to be alert, to act responsibly as per the threat level in the country they are in, and to strictly adhere to the recommendations detailed below. In high-risk countries, Israelis must show greater caution and avoid external indicators of their being Israelis and / or Jews. The NSCCTD recommends that the public monitor the status of the NSCCTD travel warnings. As has been shown in the past year, these warnings are based on, and reflect, concrete and valid potential threats. The NSCCTD again calls on those planning to travel abroad to check the status of the travel warnings to their intended destinations before purchasing tickets.

https://www.gov.il/he/departments/news/nsc-news-september (Hebrew link)

The National Security Council is responsible for travel warnings vis-à-vis terrorism only. Other issues (consular matters, warnings to Israelis regarding combat zones, political instability and crime) are dealt with by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; travelers should also check the relevant sites.

August 31, 2023 0 comments

Terrorism

Four IDF soldiers wounded in terror attack near Joseph’s Tomb

by admin August 31, 2023

written by admin

Terrorists set off an IED as the Israeli forces, who were securing civilian access to the site, passed by • MK Zvi Sukkot: “Terror will not win, in the merit of Joseph the righteous.”

(JNS)

Four Israeli soldiers, including an officer, were wounded on Wednesday night during an operation to secure entry for civilians to the Joseph’s Tomb compound in Shechem (Nablus).

An improvised explosive device was set off as the soldiers passed by. Thirty-nine people were injured in related clashes, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The wounded troops were evacuated to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah. The officer and two of the soldiers were lightly wounded, while the fourth was in moderate condition, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Worshipers’ access to the tomb complex remains open in spite of the attack, according to the IDF.

The Nablus Battalion, part of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We are praying from the depths of our hearts for the safety of the soldiers who secured this entrance,” said Knesset member Zvi Sukkot, in a video posted on X (formerly Twitter).

מול הטרור אסור למצמץ לרגע.
תודה לחיילי ומפקדי צה”ל על אבטחת הכניסה גם מול הטרור המתפרץ.
הטרור לא ינצח!
בזכות יוסף הצדיק. pic.twitter.com/LAZxxJpQhq

— צבי סוכות (@tzvisuccot) August 30, 2023

“Terror will not win, in the merit of Joseph the righteous,” he added.

Image: Four Israeli soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb in Shechem, Aug. 30, 2023. Source: Twitter/X.

August 31, 2023 0 comments

Terrorism

Huwara bypass road to open two months ahead of schedule

by admin August 31, 2023

written by admin

The road, which was scheduled to open in December, will instead open after the High Holidays, according to Israel’s transportation minister.

(JNS)

The main section of a road that bypasses the Palestinian town of Huwara, the site of multiple terror attacks in recent months, will open after the High Holidays, two months earlier than planned, according to Israel Hayom.

Four Israelis have been killed in Huwara in the past six months—brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv in February and father and son Shay Silas and Aviad Nir Nigrekar earlier this month.

Dual Israeli-U.S. citizen David Stern, 41, narrowly survived a shooting on March 19 while he was driving through Huwara with his wife on their way to Jerusalem.

Two Israeli soldiers were also wounded in a drive-by shooting in the village on March 25. A few days later, dozens of Arabs stoned cars traveling through Huwara bearing Israeli license plates.

A public opinion poll conducted in early March showed that 71% of Palestinians supported the murder of the Yaniv brothers. Only 21% of those surveyed were against it and similar armed attacks.

Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev toured the site on Wednesday together with the head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan. The two announced that the road would open two months ahead of schedule due to the danger facing Judea residents, who—without an alternative—are forced to drive through Huwara.

Dagan has been the main driving force behind the initiative and together with families of terror victims has pushed for a bypass road for about six years.

Work on the road began approximately two years ago, with several delays in the beginning. The construction received a boost in the form of an additional 50 million shekels ($13.2 million) following the murder of the Yaniv brothers and was planned to be completed by December.

Regev lauded the project, saying the bypass road “will save lives and give residents a sense of security.”

Dagan said, “This is great news for the residents of Judea and Samaria and all the people of Israel, both in terms of safety and security, and is a significant tool for reaching the goal of one million residents in the Samaria region.”

The Israeli military recently upgraded the transportation infrastructure to increase security for Israelis driving through Huwara.

Route 60, the main north-south highway in Judea and Samaria, runs through the village, which is located just outside Shechem (Nablus).

The number of lanes on Route 60 at Einabus Square was doubled from two to four. The IDF also removed a traffic circle at Yitzhar Junction that had been built as a traffic safety measure. Both projects are aimed at lowering travel times through the village until the completion of the bypass road.

Also, a large number of IDF personnel have been deployed to the area and 13 new defensive positions were built to discourage attacks and to reduce response times.

The IDF’s Samaria Brigade has also bolstered security inspections, including the deployment of additional checkpoint barriers.

Image: Israeli soldiers patrol at the scene of a deadly shooting in Huwara, near Nablus, Aug. 20, 2023. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90.

August 31, 2023 0 comments

Terrorism

Israeli killed, two injured in terror attack near Modi’in

by admin August 31, 2023

written by admin

The Palestinian terrorist fled the scene, but was neutralized by security forces.

(JNS)

An Israeli was killed and two others injured on Thursday morning when a Palestinian terrorist rammed them with a truck at the Maccabim Crossing along Route 443, close to the central city of Modi’in.

The victims, all in their 20s, were treated by Magen David Adom emergency medical personnel before being evacuated to hospital. According to Channel 12, one was in serious condition and one suffered only minor injuries.

Police at the scene of a car ramming terror attack near Maccabim, Aug. 31, 2023. Photo by Jamal Awad/Flash90.

The terrorist fled the scene but was tracked down and neutralized at the Hashmonaim Crossing some 10 kilometers (6 miles) away, according to the Israel Police.

The Defense Ministry said its security guards operating the Hashmonaim checkpoint received a description of the terrorist’s truck from the IDF moments after the attack, and subsequently opened fire at the vehicle after identifying the assailant.

Israel Police Deputy Commissioner Avi Biton said the terrorist was a 41-year-old Palestinian who was known to security forces and had a work permit to enter Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was receiving updates on the attack, according to his office.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was set to hold an assessment with security brass later Thursday.

“This is an attack with serious consequences; [my] full appreciation to the security forces for their resolute action that quickly led to the elimination of the terrorist,” Gallant said in a statement.

Overnight Wednesday, an Israeli officer and three soldiers were wounded during an operation to secure entry for civilians to the Joseph’s Tomb compound in Shechem (Nablus).

An improvised explosive device was set off as the soldiers passed by.

The wounded soldiers were evacuated to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah. The officer and two of the soldiers were lightly wounded, and another fighter was in moderate condition, the IDF said.

Nablus Battalion, part of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, reportedly claimed responsibility.

Hours earlier, an Israeli man was moderately wounded in a stabbing at the Shivtei Yisrael light-rail stop outside Jerusalem’s Old City.

The alleged assailant, identified by local media as a 14-year-old Arab resident of Beit Hanina in northern Jerusalem, was shot and killed by a Border Policeman who witnessed the attack.

Separately on Wednesday evening, two Israeli bus drivers were lightly injured when their vehicles were stoned by Palestinians on a highway in western Samaria.

The attacks occurred on Route 55 near the Arab village of Nabi Ilyas, located close to the Israeli community of Alfei Menashe.

One of the drivers was wounded in the eyes by shrapnel, while the other suffered a shoulder injury, according to Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria). Both were evacuated to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba.

Earlier Wednesday, an Israel Defense Forces soldier was lightly injured when a Palestinian terrorist rammed his car into a military post near Beit Hagai, close to Hebron in Judea.

Image: Police at the scene of a car ramming terror attack near Maccabim, Aug. 31, 2023. Photo by Jonathan Shaul/Flash90.

August 31, 2023 0 comments

Terrorism

Violent Terror Advocate To Speak At Tel Aviv School

by admin August 31, 2023

written by admin

A member of Shimon HaTzadik’s “neighborhood committee,” Saleh Diab has been arrested numerous times for assaulting Jews.

Akiva Van Koningsveld

(JNS)

An Arab convicted of attacking his Jewish neighbor is set to address students at Tel Aviv’s prestigious Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium high school on Sunday, according to Jewish advocacy group Btsalmo.

Saleh Diab, an Arab resident of eastern Jerusalem’s Shimon HaTzadik/Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, was invited to the Sept. 3 event by the radical left-wing Youth Against Dictatorship group, which has been rallying teenagers to refuse to serve in the Israel Defense Forces.

The event is being held to protest against the government’s judicial reform effort.

“Starting in the afternoon [of Sept. 3], Youth Against Dictatorship activists will take over the Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv,” the organization announced earlier this week. “Open classes will be held on the subject of activism and social struggles, led by representatives of Breaking the Silence and residents of Sheikh Jarrah.”

Seventeen-year-old Tal Mitnick from Tel Aviv, one of the organizers, was quoted by local media as saying, “We must stop the judicial revolution and we must stop taking part in a military that serves settlements and the occupation.”

A member of Shimon HaTzadik’s “neighborhood committee,” Diab has been arrested numerous times for assaulting Jews, most recently in June on suspicion of attacking Shabbat worshippers with an iron rod. In 2014, he served eight months in prison for aggravated assault on a Jewish neighbor.

Last year, Diab was caught chanting slogans lauding violence, with one video showing him praising Palestinian Udai Tamimi, the Hamas terrorist who shot and killed Military Police Sgt. Noa Lazar, 18.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir previously called Diab “a terrorist responsible for harassing and bullying the Jews of the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood.”

Btsalmo CEO Shai Glick has called on Education Minister Yoav Kisch to cancel the “delusional” on-campus demonstration, adding that the State Education Law mandates schools to prepare pupils for “a meaningful service in the Israel Defense Forces or national service.

“The time has come once and for all to check the delusional behavior of [headmaster] Mr. [Ze’ev] Degani and whether he is fit to lead students,” Glick wrote in a letter copied to a handful of national politicians and local officials.

Responding to a question from Israel National News on Tuesday, the Education Ministry said it would “check the complaints and the facts” and take action “in accordance with the legal means at its disposal.”

Glick told JNS, “There is nothing to check; there’s a terrorist and an organization that calls for refusals [to serve]. Just prohibit this unlawful event from taking place already.”

He added that he was disappointed that Kisch did not personally respond to his missive.

Right-wing politicians and activists similarly decried the failure to take swift action.

“The terrorist Saleh Diab, who served prison time for attacking Jews on nationalistic grounds, was invited to give a speech at the opening day of the Herzliya Gymnasium alongside representatives of Breaking the Silence. Kudos to the ‘right-wing’ government,” Likud Party lawmaker MK Tali Gottlieb sarcastically proclaimed in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium was founded in 1905 as the first Hebrew high school in what was then Ottoman-controlled Palestine. Its current headmaster, Ze’ev Degani, who has headed the institution for the past 15 years, has clashed with successive right-wing governments in Jerusalem.

In 2016, Degani invited members of Breaking the Silence to speak with students, defying calls from the Education Ministry to cancel the lecture. He also stopped sending delegations from his school on state-sponsored trips to the Auschwitz extermination camp, claiming they contributed to a “process of fascisization taking over politics in this country.”

Herzliya Gymnasium graduate Lt. Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi, a former IDF chief of staff who went on to become the Jewish state’s foreign minister in a short-lived unity government in 2020-2021, has said that he is “ashamed” of his alma mater.

Image: Saleh Diab during a protest in Jerusalem’s Shimon HaTzadik/Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Photo by Aryeh King.

August 31, 2023 0 comments

Community

Jewish leaders react to white supremacist killer

by admin August 29, 2023

written by admin

Police reveal that the murderer used an AR-style rifle scrawled with at least two swastikas.

(JNS)

Before the massacre began at the Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Fla., the gunman reportedly texted his father to check his laptop, where multiple racist manifestos awaited alongside a suicide note.

Sheriff T.K.Waters in Jacksonville said that Ryan Palmeter, 21, “hated black people,” leading the man who lived with his parents to don a tactical vest, arm himself with a Glock and an AR-style rifle (a long gun similar to the AR-15 now common in mass shootings in the United States) before murdering three people at a Dollar General store. Photos released of the weapons showed white swastikas drawn next to the serial number and “Palmetto State Armory” logo.

Law enforcement identified the victims as Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19; and Jerrald Gallion, 29.

Palmeter shot and killed himself after he barricaded himself in an office.

Detailed information on what Waters described as “this cowardly shooter’s personal ideology” has yet to emerge. The writing described by Waters as “the diary of a madman” does not appear online.

One former classmate described Palmeter as socially awkward, “obsessed with video games” and “involved with Internet humor.” A neighbor speculated that Palmeter’s allegedly discontinuation of certain medication may have contributed to the shooting.

Before shooting up the store, Palmeter had visited Edward Waters University, a historically black private college in Jacksonville, possibly with the intent to attack and apparently deterred by campus security when asked to identify himself.

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said that “from Charlottesville to Pittsburgh to Poway to El Paso to Buffalo and now Jacksonville, we’re witnessing a cycle of white supremacist violence—fueled by increasingly normalized conspiracy theories and hate promoted directly by politicians and pundits and enabled by social media.”

Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said: “We must also take stock of what fuels the unbridled hate and conspiracy theories that propel extremists to carry out such wanton acts of violence.” He said that “from government and law enforcement to social-media companies and the business community, there is a role we can all play to reject hate and prevent it from spreading.”

Spitalnick added that “it’s sadly no surprise that this racist shooter marked his gun with swastikas: because antisemitism, anti-black racism and white supremacy are inextricably linked, animating and fueling each other in a constant feedback loop with deadly consequences for our communities and our democracy.”

Waters said of Palmeter that “he hated blacks, and I think he hated just about everyone that wasn’t white. He made that very clear.”

The shooting came two days before the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington against racism and for ethnic equality, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Image: A Dollar General store in Fort White, Fla., about 90 minutes west of Jacksonville. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

August 29, 2023 0 comments

Community Entertainment

Mayim Bialik steps down as host of Celebrity Jeopardy!

by admin August 29, 2023

written by admin

Ken Jennings will host the show in her stead, as Bialik supports the workers’ strike in Hollywood.

(JNS)

Mayim Bialik on a visit to Israel in 2018. Credit: Mark Neyman/GPO via Wikimedia Commons.

This Jewish actress won’t host Season 2 of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” in solidarity with striking Hollywood unions of writers and actors.

Who is … Mayim Bialik?

Known for playing Amy Farrah Fowler on “The Big Bang Theory” and the title character in the 1990s show “Blossom,” the 47-year-old Jewish mother of two has publicly supported several causes, including education, non-vaccination and veganism.

Her decision to step down as host of the second season of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” supports the strikes of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG)‒American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

“Our words are on the screen every night,” one of the show’s writers told Variety. “There is no ‘Jeopardy’ without writers. Without us, it’s just an empty blue screen.”

ABC announced that Ken Jennings will host in Bialik’s stead.

Earlier this year, Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America named Bialik one of 18 U.S. Zionist women to know.

August 29, 2023 0 comments