“Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”

Those words were spoken by Menachem Begin in June of 1982, directly to the Democrat senator from Delaware, Joe Biden, who had confronted the Israeli Prime Minister during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee testimony by threatening to cut off aid to Israel.

That’s right, only 32 years after the establishment of the tiny Jewish state, which was surrounded by 22 war-mongering, Israel-loathing Arab states, and only 35 years after the Holocaust savagely murdered––tortured and gassed-to-death––six-million Jewish men, women, children and infants, Senator Biden was once again terrorizing the Jews of the world with his menacing ultimatum.

Not a fluke, not a misstatement, not an error in judgement, but vintage Joe Biden, whose longtime antagonism and belligerence toward Israel has been exhaustively documented, most recently by Shmuel Klatzkin (Biden’s Hostility to Israel––read the whole article) and Janet Levy in AmericanThinker.com (Is a Vote for Joe Biden in the Interest of American Jews?).

EXAMPLES ABOUNDLevy reports a number of the Obama-Biden regime’s consistent anti-Israel policies:Interfered with the 2015 Israeli elections with the goal of defeating the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,Their State Department granted $350,000 to OneVoice, a radical anti-Israel organization that supports the terrorist group Hamas,They fully supported the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement to destroy Israel economically.In 2016, Biden pressured Ukraine, an abstainer, to vote for U.N. Security Council measure 2334, which claimed that ancient and historic Jewish sites were “illegally occupied.”They approved the same U.N. measure, which condemned Israelis building settlements, which emboldened the Palestinian Authority to call for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Judea, Samaria, and the Jewish Quarter, reversing decades of U.S. vetoes against such moves.

Today, candidate Biden pledges to reopen the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) mission in Washington, D.C. And he vows, incomprehensibly, to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, in which the arch-terrorist state in the entire world has vowed to exterminate the State of Israel.

The Balfour Declaration, issued 103 years ago on November 2 on behalf of the British government, stated: "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." But was the Balfour Declaration really a colonial document?

Unlike classic colonial documents, the Balfour Declaration was an open declaration, not a secret treaty or a correspondence. It conveyed a commitment made in public, and it was made not to a foreign government, or to a client chieftain, but to an entire people, the Jewish people. The Balfour Declaration thus belongs to the new style of public diplomacy ushered in by the 20th century.

Yes, the Balfour Declaration looks like a gesture by a powerful empire. But Britain by 1917 wasn't the power it had been and was in no position to issue a unilateral commitment with regard to Palestine or any other Ottoman territory. Any number of dissenting Allies could have scuttled the whole thing: the French, the Italians, certainly the Americans, possibly even the Vatican. Zionist leader Nahum Sokolow secured a letter from the French as good as the Balfour Declaration (if not better), and even received a nod of acquiescence from Pope Benedict XV.

After the U.S. entered the war in April 1917, it was unthinkable that Britain would issue any public pledge without the agreement of the American president, Woodrow Wilson. Had Wilson not given the word, the Balfour Declaration would never have been born. Thus, by the time the declaration was approved by the British Cabinet, its principles, and in Washington's case even its text, had been approved by all of Britain's allies.

The Balfour Declaration had morphed into the Allied declaration. This smoothed the way for its inclusion in the League of Nations mandate of Palestine to Britain, thereby making it international law. The Balfour Declaration survived the war not because it harked back to prewar colonialism but because it anticipated the postwar world of national self-determination and international legitimacy.

Indeed, the hard truth is that Israel had as many enemies among the imperialists as friends. But go to an elite college campus in America today and you will see this line of attack echoed and echoed again: a Jewish democracy misrepresented as a tool of revanchist colonialism. This is perhaps the only success attributable to the Palestinian cause — a relentless misrepresentation enabled by Western establishment elites of the reality of the Jewish state.

Second, it tells us that Palestinian leaders are misusing their own history in service of their cause. In 1948, the “Palestinian people” whose land Balfour purportedly set up for stealing were not a people in a democratic sense and did not yet call themselves Palestinians. Indeed, the would-be beneficiaries of Arab combat were dominated by a trio of landowners of huge estates, the Islamic clerisy, and the sub-stratal tribes and clans of a torn society. Even if Israel were to have lost any of the wars over Palestine from 1947-1948 through 1973 the victor would never have been a democratic “Palestine.” Not only would the Palestinian effendi continue to have ruled, but even if Palestine became a non-democratic state, it would have been a client of the states of Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. No workable democracies there, then or now!

In fact, the West Bank was won by Jordan under the British general John Bagot Glubb “Pasha” in 1948; the Gaza Strip went to Egypt the same year. They are both under ultimate Israeli control now. But they exist with the legal almost-fiction of the Palestinian Authority governing modest measures of land west of the Jordan River while a vibrant technology is run by and for the Palestinians themselves; and with Hamas categorically running the lives of the people of Gaza on the understanding that Israel and Egypt might assert their authority if there is too much bloodshed. The ugly truth is that Egypt and Israel are the securers of Gaza’s “relative” stability and peace.

Third, it tells us that the Palestinian leaders, even the “moderates” (which is to say not Hamas), are still playing games rather than pursuing a two-state solution as the region changes for the better around them. The fact is that President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have literally changed the realities of politics and life in the Middle East: Israel has inadvertently marked the Balfour anniversary with the establishment of full diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and the normalization of relations with Sudan — rumor has it that Saudi Arabia will be next to the table. Of course, the western establishment press pooh-poohed the anticipated accommodations between the Jewish state and the Muslim domains now sitting around conference tables and discussing trade, industry, travel, science, technology, and tourism — as well as what real peace could mean for the entire region.

But still the Palestinian leaders fiddle. Proof positive is the fact that the legal assault on the Balfour Declaration is not new: Mahmoud Abbas, the sort-of president of sort-of Palestine, who is still in office 11 years after his term expired, first announced that legal assault in 2016 and then again in 2017. But nothing substantial happened except that, as David Halbfinger reported in the New York Times the day after the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, there was a demonstration of thousands of youths in Ramallah — at Yasser Arafat’s memorial, no less — where a chant went up announcing Lord Balfour’s “fall.” In Bethlehem, protestors burned an effigy of Balfour and then beat it with their shoes. Palestinian girls met in Jerusalem with the visiting prime minister Theresa May demanding justice. And then it was over. The legal suit was not filed. Tiens!

The findings of the investigation into anti-Semitism in the UK Labour party published Thursday by Britain’s anti-racism watchdog are no less devastating for being so widely anticipated. Nor does the careful legalese in which some points are couched detract from the shattering criticism which the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has leveled at the party.

The EHRC launched its inquiry last year amid a wave of anti-Semitism allegations which rocked the Labour party under its former leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Its work was a forensic legal investigation – to examine whether Labour had breached Britain’s equalities legislation – and its conclusions are extraordinarily brutal.

“Our investigation has identified serious failings in leadership and an inadequate process for handling antisemitism complaints across the Labour Party, and we have identified multiple failures in the systems it uses to resolve them,” the 130-page report stated. “We have concluded that there were unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination for which the Labour Party is responsible.”

The fallout from the report has been far swifter and dramatic than many anticipated. Just hours after its publication, Labour suspended Corbyn from the party and removed the whip from him, effectively placing his membership on hold. The man who led Labour to a disastrous defeat in last year’s general election was, as so often in the past, undone by his own words.

In a statement after the report was released, Corbyn acknowledged that “one antisemite is one too many,” but went on to claim that “the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.” The suspension will give Labour the opportunity to investigate his remarks. Corbyn has vowed to “strongly contest” the party’s decision, labelling it a “political” move, but, for now, the former leader of the Labour Party will be forced to sit as an independent MP in the House of Commons.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission of the UK has found that the British Labour Party violated three components of equality laws in addressing repeated and numerous incidents of antisemitism within the party.

Following the report's publication and subsequent reactions, the party suspended former leader Jeremy Corbyn, under whom much of the allegations of antisemitism in the party's ranks occurred, Reuters reported.

The EHRC, a statutory government authority, said that “at worst” Labour’s failure to tackle antisemitism in its midst could be seen as acceptance of antisemitism.

The report published on Thursday relates to the period in which the Labour Party was led by Corbyn from 2015 to 2020 who took the party in a sharp turn to the left of British politics, and attracted many hard-left, socialist, anti-Zionist, and antisemitic elements to Labour.

According to the EHRC, the Labour Party is responsible for breaching the Equality Act of 2010 through political interference into antisemitism complaints, failing to provide adequate training to those handling antisemitism complaints, and antisemitic harassment.

Our investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party has found unlawful acts of discrimination and harassment.

Read the full report: https://t.co/qfTOEGfYGxpic.twitter.com/JvTxz03gOZ

— EHRC (@EHRC) October 29, 2020

It would certainly be understandable if some in our community took that view. The past few years have had a serious impact on the mental and physical health of many Jews — and not just on those who were active in the fight against antisemitism.

This has been a traumatic time for all of our community and many will grasp this opportunity to put it behind us now that judgement has been given.

But that would be a profound mistake. The EHRC report marks not an end but a beginning.

Sir Keir Starmer has so far made the right noises about what he intends to do but he has done nothing, citing as an alibi the need to wait for the EHRC report.

There are no more excuses for Labour. The clock has now started ticking. The antisemites must be expelled — now. The party must turn itself from a racist organisation to a bulwark against racism — now. The culture of the party, in which fellow members are abused and vilified if they regard Israel as a legitimate country, must change — now.

Not as soon as possible; not in the near future; not when the time is right. Now.

Anything less, and Labour will be merely a party with a smart new look but which remains a natural home for racists.

Britain’s main opposition Labour party on Thursday suspended its former leader Jeremy Corbyn following his response to a damning government watchdog report that said the party had broken equality laws in its handling of anti-Semitism complaints.

“In light of his comments made today and his failure to retract them subsequently, the Labour Party has suspended Jeremy Corbyn pending investigation,” the party announced.

Labour’s new leader Sir Keir Starmer said the report, which found Labour under Corbyn engaged in unlawful “harassment and discrimination,” marked a “day of shame” for the party. The party said Corbyn was being suspended pending further investigation.

Corbyn vowed to “strongly contest” the party’s decision, labelling it a “political” move; for now, he will be compelled to sit as an independent MP in the House of Commons.

In a Facebook post earlier in the day responding to the damning report, Corbyn said he didn’t accept all of its findings and asserted that “the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”

He added that he regretted that “it took longer to deliver… change than it should.”

UK Jewish groups on Thursday hailed as a “damning verdict” a government watchdog report that found that the Labour party had broken equality law through its “inexcusable” handling of anti-Semitism complaints under the leadership of former head Jeremy Corbyn.

“This report is a damning verdict on what Labour did to Jews under Jeremy Corbyn and his allies. It proves why British Jews were so distressed and it disgraces those who attacked us for speaking out against anti-Jewish racism,” said the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust in a joint statement.

“Our Jewish community never wanted this fight, but we had to defend ourselves and are proud to have done so. We thank all those who stood with us, despite the abuse they received as a result,” the statement read. “Jeremy Corbyn will rightly be blamed for what he has done to Jews and Labour, but the truth is more disturbing, as he was little more than a figurehead for old and new anti-Jewish attitudes. All of this was enabled by those who deliberately turned a blind eye.”

Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET), said the “damning report confirms all that has been said about the depths of the endemic anti-Jewish racism in the Labour party.”

“Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories and Jew hate are unacceptable in all walks of life, and certainly nobody expected it to fester in a political party founded on anti-racism, but it did,” Pollock said. “Today is not the end of this dark chapter, but an opportunity for the Labour Party to consign this shameful period to history, take responsibility and begin the journey back to any sort of morality.”

Meanwhile, the Jewish Labour Movement accused Corbyn of presiding over a “sordid, disgraceful chapter in the Labour Party’s history.”

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report is a groundbreaking document. It is the first ever finding by the EHRC of unlawful acts. It heavily criticises the Labour Party’s former leadership. It makes clear recommendations to ensure that there is zero tolerance of antisemitism in the Party in the future. It provides a robust framework for ensuring that the Party complies.

“The EHRC’s report utterly vindicates Britain’s Jews who were accused of lying and exaggerating, acting as agents of another country and using their religion to ‘smear’ the Labour Party. In an unprecedented finding, it concludes that those who made such accusations broke the law and were responsible for illegal discrimination and harassment.

“The debate is over. Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the Labour Party became institutionally antisemitic. It drove almost half of British Jews to consider leaving the country. For five miserable years, every effort to compel Labour to reform failed. We were left with no choice but to refer the Party to the EHRC, which launched an investigation with us as complainant. The EHRC’s findings and recommendations today – that Labour’s leadership and culture created an unlawful environment that discriminated against Jews – closely align with the hundreds of pages of evidence and argument that we submitted to the EHRC over many months.

“Frankly, this report would not be much different had we written it. It is the dispensing of British justice that British Jews have sorely awaited, but has been denied for too long.

“Jeremy Corbyn and those around him who took part in or enabled the gaslighting, harassment and victimisation of Britain’s Jewish minority are shamed for all time. Those who defended and stood by them are shown to have made possible the closest flirtation that mainstream British politics has had with antisemitism in modern history.

Campaign Against Antisemitism first approached the EHRC at the time of the Labour Party Conference in Brighton in 2017. The conference was so rife with antisemitism that Brighton and Hove City Council’s then Labour leader, Warren Morgan, told his own Party that he would not permit use of Council premises for the conference again. Mr Morgan later resigned from the Labour Party over its failure to address antisemitism. Following Campaign Against Antisemitism’s contact with the EHRC, the Chief Executive of the EHRC issued a statement demanding that the Labour Party prove “that it is not a racist party”.Campaign Against Antisemitism made a number of disciplinary complaints to the Labour Party between 2016 and 2018 about Jeremy Corbyn, including about his defence of the antisemitic Tower Hamlets mural in 2012, his Holocaust Memorial Day event in 2010, and his Press TV interview in 2012 (Press TV is an Iranian state broadcaster which Ofcom banned from broadcasting in Britain).

The Labour Party repeatedly refused to open an investigation into our complaints against Mr Corbyn, and consequently on 31st July 2018, Campaign Against Antisemitism formally referred the Labour Party to the EHRC over its institutional antisemitism.

Subsequently, the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Against Antisemitism Ltd made further submissions, which supported our referral.

At the EHRC’s request, Campaign Against Antisemitism submitted detailed legal arguments in November 2018. We continued to provide additional legal arguments to the EHRC in relation to subsequent developments, resulting in the EHRC’s announcement on 7th March 2019 that it was starting pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them. https://t.co/32tnmXFfwD

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) October 29, 2020

In a speech about the dangers of bigotry at a memorial for the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Bernie Sanders included Israel in a list of countries where authoritarianism is rising.

Sanders, the democratic socialist Vermont senator, was the keynote speaker at a virtual memorial event hosted by Bend The Arc, a progressive Jewish advocacy group. The event, held a day after the two-year anniversary of the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in which 11 Jews were killed, centered on warning of the dangerous effects of white supremacy and xenophobia.

Sanders spoke about how relatives of his were murdered in the Holocaust, and how he understands the threat posed when white supremacists gain power. He spoke about how white supremacy targets Jews and all minorities, and how it poses a threat to liberal democracy. He then segued to speaking about how illiberalism and authoritarianism were on the rise around the world, including in Israel.

“They don’t just hate Jews,” he said of white supremacists. “They hate the idea of multiracial democracy. They hate the idea of political equality. They hate immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ people, women and anyone else who stands in the way of their bigotry and racist ideology. All over the world — in Russia, in India, in Brazil, in Hungary, in Israel and elsewhere — we see this rise of a divisive and destructive form of politics. We see intolerant authoritarian political leaders attacking the very foundations of democratic societies.”

Sanders was frequently critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while he was running for president earlier this year. Critics in Israel and abroad have also called out Netanyahu’s perceived disregard for democratic norms, including his remaining in office while on trial for corruption and legislation that critics say degrades the status of Israel’s Arab minority.

A new poll indicates Democrats look more favorably upon Cuba than they do Israel.

According to a YouGov poll released Monday, 39 percent of Democratic-leaning respondents have a favorable opinion of Cuba, compared with a 36 percent favorability rating for Israel.

The poll data feature other notable results: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea rank among the countries in the bottom 10 in overall favorability among respondents. Meanwhile, the poll’s respondents strongly favor long-term allies such as Australia and the United Kingdom.

Results of the poll correlate with many of the larger trends in American foreign policy. Some Democrats have come under fire during the 2020 campaign for their affinity and history with communist Cuba, such as former vice-presidential hopeful Rep. Karen Bass (D., Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).

Meanwhile, anti-Israel activism through the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement is promoted through the Democratic Party’s far left, as national figures such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) endorse many of the movement’s major talking points.

In contrast, Republicans have a long record of defending Israel and taking on its adversaries and competitors during the Trump administration. Under President Donald Trump, Washington moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and continues to work with Israeli leaders to forge new diplomatic ties with longstanding competitors in the Persian Gulf.

Hundreds of Northwestern faculty and staff condemned the university's president for denouncing violent racial protests that veered into expressions of virulent anti-Semitism against him.

On Oct. 26, faculty members sent a letter to Northwestern president Morton Schapiro expressing their dismay at his "response to recent student protests about the pervasiveness of anti-Black violence and the long history and current nature of much policing in this country."

Schapiro had issued a statement condemning students who destroyed school property, surrounded his home after six consecutive nights of protest, and chanted "Piggy Morty," which Schapiro called an anti-Semitic slur.

"What started as peaceful protests have recently grown into expressions that have been anything but peaceful or productive," Schapiro's statement read.

The faculty letter accuses Schapiro of refusing to engage with students of color. "We write … to express our strong support for … our BIPOC students and staff colleagues, and to assert strenuously that all have the right to protest and redress historic injustices and to protect our communities from violence and hate."

Calls for police abolition and on-campus protests have grown alongside the Black Lives Matter movement. At the nearby University of Chicago, student activists vowed to protest for a year because the administration refused to abolish the campus police department. Johns Hopkins University students also protested plans to create a campus police department, leading to multiple student and Baltimore-resident arrests.

A top UK Jewish organization has condemned a recent event at Leeds University featuring infamous Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled.

Khaled, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), took part in the hijacking of a Tel Aviv-bound commercial flight in 1969.

The Telegraph reported that the 76-year-old Khaled addressed Leeds University students last Friday via Zoom during an event sponsored by the school’s Palestine Solidarity Group.

In her remarks, Khaled endorsed terrorism, saying, “We have used all means of struggle and we are still determined to continue using all means of struggle including armed struggle.”

Adam Saeed, the event’s chair, commented, “I think we all can be inspired by this.”

While he claimed those at the meeting did not endorse terrorism, he then contradicted himself, saying, under international law “people are entitled to resist occupation by any means they see fit.”

The vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Amanda Bowman, said in a statement on Wednesday, “That a student event took place at Leeds with Leila Khaled is simply unacceptable.”

“Jewish students and academics should have access to academic spaces free of hate, without platforms being shared with someone who advocates for ‘armed struggle,’” she noted. “The event raises questions about regulation of online gatherings.”

A new report from the Knesset Research and Information Center revealed Wednesday that dozens of left-wing NGOs in Israel have allegedly been failing to adhere to legal directives mandating they report any funding they receive from foreign governments.

The report was commissioned by Yamina MK Bezalel Smotrich after he was approached by the right-wing watchdog group Im Tirtzu. The latter's legal division what the group called "a lack of reporting" via a request made in accordance with the Freedom of Information Law.

In 2016, the Israeli parliament passed the Transparency Law requiring NGOs that receive more than half of their budget from foreign governments and donations to file an annual report with the Registrar of Associations, a subdivision of the Justice Ministry, disclosing their funding sources.

NGOs are also required to practice transparency on their website and any other publication and make said information available to the public.

The law sparked sharp debate in Israel, with supporters calling it a necessary step toward increasing transparency, and opponents arguing that it only targets controversial left-wing NGOs, which are the only recipients of foreign government funding.

The report by the Knesset Research and Information Center revealed that not only were many NGOS failing to properly report their funding, but the Registrar of Associations also has not enforced the law.

Im Tirtzu said in a press release that its information petition listed 13 organizations, of which 11 were found to have neglected to report funding from foreign governments.

Bloomfield Stadium in this teeming Israeli city hosts concerts in addition to its everyday function as an elite soccer venue, but the raging global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has led to the cancelation of any such entertainment events for the foreseeable future, a development that the anti-Israel Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement insists it played an important part.

Activists in the global BDS movement, a loose consortium of like-minded, mostly anti-Israel and antisemitic groups, gave themselves a virtual pat on the back this week as they noted the absence of top-tier, or even mid- or lower-tier, entertainers coming to Israel to perform since this past spring. Even as most observers assume that the ongoing restrictions to stem the spread of COVID lie behind the empty international celebrity event calendar in the Jewish state, the BDS activists know the truth: that their two-decade effort to bring about Israel’s political, diplomatic, academic, economic, and cultural isolation has finally begun to bear fruit.

Leading BDS personalities voiced their satisfaction at seeing years’ worth of campaigning amount to something after all. “It’s been a long journey since Durban,” recalled Omar Barghouti, referring to a 2001 anti-racism conference in South Africa that devolved into an antisemitic hate-fest. “There, a number of international activists formally launched the BDS movement, even though everyone agreed to call it a Palestinian grass-roots initiative. Little did we know, lo these many years later, we could point to a noticeable reduction in the number of rock concerts by A-list artists in Israel. It’s an unfamiliar feeling, this, what do you call it…”

Barghouti paused for several seconds, then continued. “What’s the opposite of impotence?”

Big Tech executives were forced to defend themselves and their platforms in a contentious Senate hearing on Wednesday — with most of the passion relating to the suppression of this newspaper’s Twitter feed over the past two weeks.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explained with an eerie calm that The Post can regain access to its Twitter account anytime it wants — once it deletes a tweet with an image his company has decided violates its standards.

Dorsey’s words echo the ­assurances offered writers in authoritarian states that they will be allowed to publish their other scribblings . . . just so long as they burn the manuscripts the censors find offensive in front of the censors.

Such an insistence would once have resulted in screams of outrage and professions of solidarity by other journalists. But now we see reactions like this on Twitter, from New York Times opinion staffer Charlie Warzel:

“The NY Post leaving a violating tweet up in order to stay locked out of an account in order to use it as a political cudgel is a classic tactic, but it’s usually one you see from ­individual MAGA influencers.”

Thus did a key employee at the Times suggest it was perfectly reasonable for Twitter to demand that another newspaper send its wares down a memory hole.

Two weeks ago, Twitter banned Holocaust denial.Or did it?The company announced earlier this month that it would ban posts that “deny or diminish” violent events, including the Holocaust. But in a Senate hearing Wednesday, CEO Jack Dorsey appeared to say that Twitter did not have a policy of removing content denying the Holocaust.

Responding to a question from Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Co., Dorsey said that Holocaust denial is not included among the types of misinformation Twitter bans.

“We have a policy against misinformation in three categories, which are manipulated media, public health, specifically COVID, and civic integrity, election interference and voter suppression,” Dorsey said in a video shared by Yahoo News reporter Alexander Nazaryan. “We do not have a policy or enforcement for any other types of misleading information that you’re mentioning.”

Gardner specifically asked Dorsey: “If somebody denied the Holocaust happened, it’s not misinformation?”

“It’s misleading information,” Dorsey responded. “But we don’t have a policy against that type of misleading information.”

Today Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei yet again trafficked in Holocaust denial, while @jack defended Twitter’s failed policies to Congress. My interview on @FoxNews this summer on these very topics: pic.twitter.com/RGsCzwbutt

— Ellie Cohanim (@elliecohanim) October 29, 2020

Time for the NYT's bi-monthly celebration of communist tyrannies -- this time, it's East Germany for loving Angela Davis! https://t.co/a0io0UdifY

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 28, 2020

In June of this year, at a West Bank checkpoint near the Abu Dis suburb of Jerusalem, a car approaching the checkpoint accelerated, suddenly made a sharp turn, and rammed into a female police officer, sending her flying through the air. When the driver of the car exited the vehicle, he was shot by other officers. He died of the gunshot a few minutes later.

The man’s uncle told the press, “My cousin, the nephew of my wife, was executed, murdered in cold blood and Netanyahu bears responsibility.”

The uncle was Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the PLO Executive Committee, and it wasn’t his first slander against Israel. As detailed recently by Palestinian Media Watch, he supports terror against Israeli civilians, including not only his nephew’s heinous act but also the pay-to-slay system under which the Palestinian Authority pays money to those held in Israeli jails on convictions for acts of terrorism or to families of those who have died while committing terror attacks. He opposes normalization with Israel, and has even made the completely bogus claim that Jesus was a Palestinian. In January of this year, according to a translation by PMW, Erekat said,

The Palestinian people’s struggle is meant to achieve freedom, independence, and the end of the occupation, settlement, collective punishments, and war crimes, and it is forbidden for anyone and any party that relies on international law and the international bodies to describe this struggle as terror.

So when he was recently admitted to a world-class, cutting-edge medical facility in Israel, Hadassah Hospital, for treatment for Covid-19, most people might have thought that Israel’s magnanimity was newsworthy.

In her 2008 book Occupied With Non-Violence: A Palestinian Woman Speaks, pro-Palestinian activist Jean Zaru speaks of the difficulty that she faces when introducing herself to Christians from the West. They often mistakenly assume that she is either a Muslim or a Jew because she lives in Jerusalem. When she tells these Christians that she is in fact a Christian, they often ask when she converted to her newfound faith.

Her answer, she writes, is that “I am a Christian, because my ancestors were disciples of Christ. Arabs were the first Christians. They formed the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem.”

Zaru’s response is riddled with blatant falsehoods.

Lies.

The first Christians were not Arabs, but were Jews who had followed Jesus during his ministry and kept his memory alive after his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Moreover, Arabs did not form, as Zaru writes, “the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem.”

That designation, belongs — again — to Jews. Arabs who embraced Christianity are in fact mentioned in the book of Acts, but the fact remains that Jesus’s earliest followers and the first Christian community in Jerusalem were Jews.

This is patently evident in the Book of Acts. The first five chapters describe the early episodes of the church in Jerusalem, with one of the biggest events, Jesus’s ascension, taking place on a Jewish holiday — Pentecost.

With everything going on in the world today, from the global pandemic, U.S. elections and the recession, it was surprising to see Le Devoir devote a front-page story on October 19 containing spurious allegations from anti-Israel BDS activists claiming that Israel is carrying out illegal recruitment activities for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Canada.

Le Devoir reported that 100 university professors, authors, union representatives and Palestinian rights activists had sent a letter of complaint to Justice Minister Lametti on October 19 calling for Israeli diplomats in Canada to be charged. (Le Devoir mentioned it received an advanced copy of the letter, but didn’t reveal who it came from).

The articles, by parliamentary correspondent Marie Vastel, contained accusations that the Israeli Consulate in Toronto acted as a “facilitator of this recruitment” with demands that its employees be prosecuted by Canadian authorities.

The signatories of this letter features a who’s who of notorious anti-Israel activists including philosopher Noam Chomsky and Roger Waters, co-founder of the rock group Pink Floyd.

They claim that by issuing invitations to meet with representatives of the Israel Defense Forces in Canada, that the Israeli Consulate in Toronto conducts recruitment for the country’s army.

Top officials from the US, Israel and a number of southeastern European countries — including Albania, Kosova, North Macedonia and Montenegro — took part on Wednesday on the first-ever Balkans Forum Against Anti-Semitism.

The event took place against the backdrop of Albania’s recent decision to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

A press release from the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement — which helped organized the event, along with the Albanian parliament and the Jewish Agency — said, “Participants discussed how Balkans countries can work together to eradicate anti-Semitism, creating better, more tolerant societies for future generations and the important role that the IHRA definition can play in this process.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the online gathering, “We are here because antisemitism is sadly still with us. We share the responsibility of those before us to crush it. We can do it. First, we must define this threat and understand it clearly.”

“The task of combating antisemitism is pressing, especially as we have seen a disturbing uptick during the pandemic,” he noted.

European Parliament President David Maria Sassoli said, “The shameful and sad truth is: In 2020, 75 years after the end of World War II, many Jewish people all over Europe cannot live a life free of worry.”

“This shows that we must never rest, that we must never stop, that we must never allow ourselves to think that the story we believed was over 75 years ago cannot repeat itself,” he continued.

The southern Swedish city of Malmo announced that it was breaking ties with an annual Arab book fair that takes place there over the sale of antisemitic literature, local news outlets reported on Wednesday.

The book fair — first launched in 2017 — had received a grant of $20,000 from the municipality and may now be required to return the money. A spokesman for the fair, Mounira Alshab, said the organizers were “very sad about what has happened.”

The city’s cultural director, Pernilla Conde Hellman, told the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) — which monitors book fairs around the world for antisemitic content — that the sale of antisemitic literature was impermissible.

“It has come to our knowledge that visitors to the book fair’s website are offered to buy antisemitic literature, which is completely unacceptable,” she said. “It goes against everything we stand for and we therefore choose to immediately terminate the cooperation, and hope that other contributors such as the Swedish National Council for Culture will do the same.”

Shimon Samuels, the SWC’s international affairs director, declared himself “satisfied” with the outcome, but “urged the Malmö municipality to investigate who originally agreed to this generous support and take appropriate measures to ensure that sponsorship for any form of hatred is never repeated.”

Among the antisemitic titles being offered for sale was an Arabic translation of “The Synagogue of Satan: The Secret History of Jewish World Domination,” by the British neo-Nazi Andrew Carrington Hitchcock.

A leading rating agency has left Israel’s credit rating unchanged at A1, expressing confidence in the country’s economy despite two punishing coronavirus lockdowns and a “polarized political system.”

Moody’s Investor Services also kept the outlook on Israeli government debt at stable, the ratings firm said in a statement Wednesday.

“The current rating reflects Israel’s robust medium-term growth potential, strong external position and highly credible institutions, which are balanced against a combination of longer-term demographic challenges and persistent geopolitical risks,” the agency said. “These strengths will help the credit profile to withstand the severe but temporary crisis arising from the coronavirus outbreak.”

Moody’s cited Israel’s offshore natural gas reserves and tech sectors as positives, but noted that the “polarized political system weighs on fiscal policy effectiveness” and that the country’s debt burden is expected to only gradually decline.

Israel’s government has failed repeatedly to pass a state budget, leaving the ruling coalition teetering near collapse.

The report called Israel “economically resilient,” but said it would be challenged by the unpredictability of the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians were seen as risks for a possible future downgrading.

Ecosystem ranking platform StartupBlink rated Israel as the third-best tech ecosystem in the world this year, behind only the US and the UK. It overtook Canada, which was third last year, and has steadily grown to become one of the most reputable and innovative nations in the world.

“When you break things down per capita, you see that the results of Israel are outstanding,” StartupBlink’s Eli David told CTech. As one of the founders of the platform, he has seen the ecosystem grow from a handful of startups to more than 60,000 companies around the world. Its interactive map can be crowdsourced by startups and they are also in partnership with organizations such as Crunchbase and the United Nations to fill in the gaps. “When you consider that Israel is on the list of countries below 10 million people, Israel’s achievements are absolutely impressive.”

Its 2020 report considers more than 30 different parameters, such as quantity, quality, number of unicorns and scale-ups, and general performance compared to the rest of the world. The results focus on the comparative analysis between cities and the countries, so even though some countries might rank high on a global scale, it also provides more regional insights on a local scale.

David explains to CTech that there are only three Middle Eastern cities that reach the top 100 on the cities breakdown: Tel Aviv (7), Jerusalem (55), and Dubai (99), with the UAE ranking 43rd as a country overall. While the new normalization ties between Israel and the UAE are sure to benefit Arab countries who have access to Israeli tech and innovation, David predicts that Dubai can even rise to overtake Jerusalem, nearing Tel Aviv as a leader in the regional space. As these ties extend to Bahrain and Sudan and with more countries rumored to sign peace deals going forward, Tel Aviv and Israel will become somewhat of a “capital” for tech ecosystems in the region — something Israelis might not be so familiar with.

“Israel’s main strength is that no one ever accepted it into their club,” he told CTech, discussing how Israel grew to the powerhouse it became. “By definition, our market is too small and we’re isolated, so we had to go international and remain here while doing it.”

Researchers discovered a gem seal featuring a portrait of Apollo in the drainage channel of the City of David late last month. It was found in archaeological soil that was removed from the foundations of the Western Wall during work on the Archaeological Sifting Project in Tzurim Valley National Park.

The excavations were carried out under the auspices of the City of David and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. The gem features an engraved portrait of the god Apollo. According to researchers, this surprising and rare find is only the third secured gem sealing (intaglio) from the Second Temple period to have been discovered in Jerusalem.

The gem is cut from dark brown jasper and has remnants of light yellow, brown and white layers. In antiquity, jasper was considered a precious stone. The gem sealing was embedded in a ring, and it dates from the first century CE (Second Temple period).

The oval-shaped gem is 13 mm. long, 11 mm. wide and 3 mm. thick. Because it is an intaglio – having a design carved into the upper side of the stone – its main function was a seal to be stamped on soft material, usually beeswax, for use as a personal signature on contracts, letters, wills, goods and bundles of money.

The intaglio features an engraving of Apollo’s head in profile to the left, with long hair flowing over a wide, pillar-like neck, large nose, thick lips and small, prominent chin. The hair is styled in a series of parallel lines directed to the apex and surrounded by a braid above the forehead. One line of hair marks a strand that covers the ear; long curls flow over part of the neck, reaching the left shoulder. Thin diagonal lines at the base of the head mark the upper end of the garment and the body.

Holocaust survivor and British weightlifting hero Sir Ben Helfgott has been honored with a Pride of Britain award for five decades of tireless work in passing on the lessons of the Nazi era and fighting for those who lived through the horrors.

Poland-born Sir Ben — whose parents and younger sister were killed in the Shoah — survived Buchenwald and was liberated from Theresienstadt before being brought to the United Kingdom aged just 15.

Remarkably, just 11 years later, Sir Ben — who turns 91 next month — captained the British weightlifting team at the 1956 Olympics, a feat he repeated four years later.

He is recognized alongside Marcus Rashford and other lesser-known heroes at the Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards, whose format has been revamped this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead of the usual glittering dinner in central London, a host of celebrities have been surprising winners around the country over the last few weeks.

Sir Ben — who has held positions in almost every major Holocaust remembrance and education organization — will be seen by a TV audience of millions November 1 receiving the famous trophy from Stephen Fry, surrounded by his wife Arza, three sons and five of his grandchildren.

“You shouldn’t have to be Jewish or to have a relatives who perished in the Holocaust yourself to be stunned by characters like Ben Helfgott, though of course it does add an extra element of admiration and appreciation,” said the author and television presenter after making the presentation at the Holocaust memorial in Hyde Park earlier this month.

Last month, on behalf of the Knesset, I had the honor as a son of a Holocaust survivor, to participate in a notable event, marking 2020 as the Year of the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, at diplomatic conference organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.

Who is to say how one will react when the bell of history tolls?

In the darkest hour of World War II, we know how Chiune Sugihara responded. His courage is measured in the more than 6,000 lives he saved from the Nazis and their collaborators. He risked his position, his own and his family’s safety, and his future to help the Jews fleeing certain doom in Lithuania. For his deeds he is forever known as a Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

It is indeed an extraordinary story.

Chiune Sugihara, was sent to Kovno, Lithuania, as the imperial consul to establish a network and gather intelligence on the Soviets. In 1939, he traveled from Manchuria to the Russo-German conflict in Europe, where he found the German invasion of Poland and the Soviet occupation of Lithuania had caused a growing surge in Jewish refugees.

It quickly became clear to Sugihara that he must help. When he did not receive approval to do so from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he acted on his own, in 1940 issuing his first transit visit via Japan to the Dutch island of Curacao. Soon his consulate was inundated with Jews, desperate to receive this visa. Sugihara did not turn his back on them. It is said that he continued to issue “Visas of Life” to Jewish refugees even as his train was departing Kovno, after being removed from his post by the Japanese government.

Chiune Sugihara’s courage set in motion a chain of humanity, Japanese individuals acting on their own, to help the Jews along their harrowing journey. Perhaps the greatest example of this chain is a man named Setsuzo Kotsuji, Japan’s only scholar of classical Hebrew, who on countless occasions helped the refugees once they reached Japan. Most significantly, at great risk to himself and his family, he successfully obtained the approval of local authorities and of the foreign minister himself to extend the visas from two weeks to many months.

Today, we remember and salute the former Israeli Prime Minister and IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. (Res.) Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered 25 years ago. May his memory be a blessing. pic.twitter.com/rIgnpsxwml

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 29, 2020

If you read the oped and knew nothing about Farrakhan, you would think he was a gentleman.

During Hitler’s first months in power, there was extensive coverage in the American press of his anti-Jewish policies, such as the mass firing of Jews from their jobs, public burnings of books by Jewish authors, and sporadic anti-Semitic mob violence. To counter this negative attention, Hitler in July 1933 granted Anne O’Hare McCormick of the New York Times his first exclusive interview with an American reporter since becoming chancellor of Germany.

Soon after takeoff, [pilot Uri] Bar-Lev and his co-pilot got word that two terrorists were hijacking the plane. They had shot and gravely wounded an El Al flight attendant and had put a gun to the head of another, demanding to be let into the cockpit, which Bar-Lev had immediately locked.

Explanations given by the US in the past for an unwillingness to connect Jerusalem – any part of Jerusalem – to Israel in passports revolved primarily around the idea that the status of Jerusalem in the eyes of most countries, is still pending, and that this is a hot-button issue that needs to be determined in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The US, according to this argument, did not want to prejudice the outcome of future negotiations by taking a stand on the issue. But that argument was disingenuous, because what about Jerusalem before 1967, before Israel repelled the Jordanian attack during the Six Day War and gained control of the entire city, east and west.

Why could Israel not be Jerusalem’s designated state in US passports before the Six Day War, when Israel only had control of the western part of the city?

The reason: because the US never formally relinquished its support for UN resolutions dating to the Partition Plan in 1947 calling for the city to be designated as a “corpus separatum’’ – a city with a special status to be placed under an international regime. Washington’s clinging on, at least formally, to the “corpus separatum” idea only really ended in 2018 when Trump moved the embassy to Jerusalem, in accordance with a 1995 US law.

The long-standing American refusal to acknowledge in passports that any part of Jerusalem was an integral part of Israel spoke of a belief, or even a hope, that it was not. This reinforced the pernicious notion – an idea propagated by Palestinian propaganda and which gained traction in recent years, and was even incorporated in the resolutions of various UN bodies – that Israel had no valid historical tie or claim to the Holy City. It was high time to put that idea to rest.

The US Supreme Court had the opportunity to do so in 2015, when it ruled on a case brought by Ari Zivotofsky to force the State Department to list “Jerusalem, Israel” as the place of birth for his son, Menachem, in conformity with a 2002 law passed by Congress. But the court missed the opportunity, ruling that the president, not Congress, has the sole authority to make these types of foreign policy decisions and the court struck down the law.

That being the case, once Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US embassy there in 2018, it should have been just a matter of time for the State Department to change its procedures on this matter as well. These types of ingrained policies, apparently, are not easy to reverse, and it took over two years for this to happen.

To which we can only say: It’s about time.

If you conduct foreign policy as a transaction, then there is always a chance that if some part of the transaction doesn't hold up, or if the person in the White House changes, that the foreign state will renege. That means that to cement Israel's relationships with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and potentially other deals with Oman, Saudi Arabia or several other countries, the U.S. needs to continue to be a stakeholder—or Israel and its new friends need to move quickly to cement the deals.

Israel has had pragmatic relationships in the past. It reached out to Iran and Turkey in the 1950s, when Arab states were hostile, and then it signed peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan while never cultivating a particularly close relationship with either. Iran's regime is today the most hostile country to Israel and Turkey—and Turkey, which still has relations with Israel, has vowed to "liberate" Muslim areas of Jerusalem from the Jewish state. This shows how Israel's relationships in the region tend to be precarious.

How can relations with the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan learn from the challenges of the pas?

First, Israel and the UAE already share a worldview on the region, and can be part of an emerging U.S. alliance with India and Greece that would create a nexus of power from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. This is predicated upon a strategic partnership with Washington built on F-35s for Israel, Greece and the UAE, and a close partnership between Israel and India that already exists. People-to-people relationships are also essential to developing ties between Abu Dhabi and Jerusalem. The business hubs in Tel Aviv and Dubai offer excellent opportunities. Already, there is cooperation on the medical front against COVID-19. The first ship has arrived in Israel from the Emirates, as well as the first flights.

The foundation for Israel's new friendships are being built. Now, the countries need to fill the new edifice with economic, cultural and, eventually, defense ties. Some of those ties are being pushed by Washington, but in the wake of the U.S. election, it is important that these new friendships grow on their own accord. Collective focus from Israeli, Emirati and other regional leaders, businessmen and civil society organizations can help make that happen.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has long been considered an anti-Israel institute, to put it mildly.

It was established following an Australian tourist’s attempt to burn down Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque in 1969. Its members are the representatives of 57 Islamic states, including Turkey and Iran, and for the past four years the organization has been headed by Secretary-General Yousef Al-Othaimeen, a Saudi politician. In February, the organization rejected US President Donald Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative, calling on its members not to cooperate with it.

On Monday, however, Al-Othaimeen sounded a very different tone.

In an interview to Sky News in Arabic, Al-Othaimeen said: “We need to think outside the box… This [Palestinian] issue has been going on for over 70 years. We have tried wars and throwing the Israelis into the sea; we have tried a lot. The new generation of our Palestinian brothers needs to try ideas that will lead to a solution to this problem, which is of interest to us all, but in new ways, ways that have not yet been tried, in order to reach a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of this state.”

Al-Othaimeen then asked: “Why insist on the path of resistance and boycott and distancing? What should be distanced are the traditional and familiar ideas.”

A few months ago such statements would have been inconceivable. That they were uttered this week, by the head of this organization, shows how the Israeli normalization agreement with Sudan, and the earlier agreements with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, have generated nothing short of a Middle East earthquake.

The world view of generations of Arabs in the region, in both Sunni and Shiite states, was shaped around the Palestinian issue and the conflict with Israel. Yet here before the astonished eyes of hundreds of millions of Muslim and Christian Arabs — and especially the Palestinians’ shocked gaze — that foundational worldview has collapsed. Suddenly, the Palestinians – who would wave the prospect of normalized relations with the Arab world as the carrot to try to convince Israel to resolve the conflict with them — now find themselves irrelevant. They woke up one morning to find that the presumed consensus, the very premise, the whole concept of Palestinian nationality is in real danger.

Whether US President Trump is reelected next week or replaced by Joe Biden, many of the Trump administration’s novel Mideast policies should be adopted by the next administration, even if Democratic leaders shrink from crediting Trump for any breakthroughs.

Indeed, while Democrats will never admit it, Trump’s Middle East policy successes can stand the test of time for all parties involved – if they are not recklessly jettisoned out of partisan revenge.

There are three intersecting axes of Mideast policy that must not be abandoned.

The first is the unleashing of a fruitful regional dynamic whereby Arab states are moving to open partnership with Israel on a wide range of issues. Already this has led to three peace agreements (between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan). Additional Arab countries should be encouraged to follow suit by any American administration.

Sustaining this momentum requires active American diplomacy in support of Arab-Israel rapprochement, with signals coming from the highest levels in Washington and concrete offers of US aid on the table (yes, including weapons).

It also requires continuing stiff American resolve in opposing Iran’s hegemonic designs in the region. Tenacity is a key ingredient of the glue that brings Sunni Arab states, Israel and the US together. (More on this below).

It also requires resisting the temptation to over-prioritize the Palestinian issue. America must refrain from magnifying Palestinian grievances into the “central issue” in Mideast affairs. It never was, and certainly is not today.

That brings us to second axis of intelligent Mideast policy over the past four years: Treating Palestinians as responsible adults, with no free pass regarding the type of state/s they might establish.

Ahead of next week’s presidential election, the US Jewish vote — typically heavily favoring Democratic candidates — appears to be “as entrenched as ever,” the editor-in-chief of The Algemeiner said during a Wednesday appearance on i24 News, yet there still could be a “surprise.”

How Jews vote, Dovid Efune told “Global Eye” host Natasha Kirtchuk, “boils down to a matter of priorities.”

“I think there really is consensus in the American Jewish community that the president has done some incredible things for Israel and I think it’s not a stretch to say that he has been the most pro-Israel president in the history of the United States — certainly in recent history,” he noted. “Even on the Democratic side, there is a great deal of agreement on that point.”

“Having said that,” Efune added, “his opponents will tend to prioritize a host of other issues — social issues, for example. There’s also a great sense of frustration over the president’s character.”

#Election2020: Latest polls from @AJCGlobal show that 75 percent of Jews in the #US would choose former VP Joe #Biden and 22 percent President #Trump. @Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief Dovid @Efune discusses with 'Global Eye' host Natasha Kirtchuk pic.twitter.com/0fmptgaIs0

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 28, 2020

For a believing Jew, or simply a Jew connected to his roots and to Israel, one simply needs to examine this president’s accomplishments in less than four years to understand his greatness:

-Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city and moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem.-Closing the PLO’s official office in Washington, which served until that time as a shadow embassy and a fundraising channel for terrorism.-Removing the USA from the horrible Iran deal, which had legitimized Iranian non-compliance with attempts to end their nuclear bomb program.-Recognition of the strategic Golan Heights as Israel’s sovereign territory.-Declaring that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria are not illegal.-Ending funding to the Palestinian Authority until it stops paying salaries to terrorists who have killed or wounded Israelis.--Denying funding to American colleges that permit anti-Semitism to flourish on campus.-Brokering normalization agreements between Israel and three Arab countries, thereby removing the Palestinian veto on such relationships.-Recognizing that hatred of Israel and hatred of the Jewish state are usually one and the same.-Pointing out the lie that the most dangerous form of anti-Semitism today is from white supremacists rather than from the radical Left and Muslim haters of Israel.

Speaking with educator and rational settler Uri Pilochowski about his latest list.

After their son Menachem’s birth in 2002, Ari and Naomi Zivotofksy asked for a passport that recorded his birthplace as Jerusalem, Israel but they received the document only this Friday - some 18 years later.

“I am honored to receive this passport as a representative of the many American citizens who were born in Israel, who can now have their official government documents reflect the fact that they were born in Israel. I want to thank my parents who started this process, long before I understood anything,” Menachem said.

He spoke at a brief ceremony at the US embassy in Jerusalem, in which US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman officially handed him his passport, the first one ever to link Jerusalem with the State of Israel.

His parents, told The Jerusalem Post prior to the ceremony that they had requested to register his place of birth as Israel, fully believing such a step would happen, because a 2002 US Congressional Law that had just passed, gave them the option to do so.

They were surprised therefore when the consular office rejected their request.

The consular officer was “emphatic about it,” Ari said.

They filed a legal appeal, which went twice to the US Supreme Court, that ultimately ruled that Congress has exceeded its authority and that the decision with regard to country designation was under the purview of the White House.

A great honor to present the very first passport issued to an American citizen born in Jerusalem with the place of birth designated as “Israel” to Menachem Zivotofsky, who first applied 18 years ago and litigated twice before the US Supreme Court.
Mazal Tov! pic.twitter.com/IIoOkVP3jS

— David M. Friedman (@USAmbIsrael) October 30, 2020

As EU Budget Rapporteur 2019, I have been shocked to find out that the far-left and anarchist organizations protesting outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in Balfour Street in Jerusalem are allegedly financed from abroad, mainly by the EU and Germany.

On Sept. 30th, Likud MK and chair of the Caucus on Combating Delegitimization & Anti-Semitism Ariel Kallner wrote to German ambassador Dr. Susanne Wasum-Rainer to complain about German funding for left-wing Human Rights Defenders Fund (HRDF), which provides legal defense to the violent protestors.

As Chairman of the Knesset Caucus on Combating Delegitimization, Kallner wrote: “I would like to express my sincere concern about this intervention in Israel’s internal affairs that constitutes an undermining of its sovereignty.”

In her answer of Oct. 5, German Ambassador Dr. Susanne Wasum-Rainer denied the allegations. She claimed the German Government “does not support or fund any violent or illegal activities of civil society organizations”, and that “any organization or project funded by the Federal German government has successfully passed a thorough and transparent screening process.”

There is actually nothing transparent about German and EU funding of anti-Israel NGOs. The European Court of Auditors stated in 2018 “that the Commission was not sufficiently transparent regarding the implementation of EU funds by NGOs.”

He vocally supports the Muslim Brotherhood, proscribed as a terrorist entity by many countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. Earlier this month, he outrageously declared Jerusalem to be a Turkish city and fiercely opposed the historic Abraham peace accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.

Erdogan has form on sponsoring terrorists. He has funded, encouraged and facilitated the proscribed group Hamas, hosting their leaders in Istanbul and allowing them to plot attacks against Israel on Turkish soil. Despite his strident self-promotion in fighting Isil, there have been indications of complicity and increasing evidence that Turkey is a permissive jurisdiction for Isil and other jihadist networks.

Standing on the frontier between Europe and the Middle East, Turkey is an important strategic ally for the West. But Erdogan is not, and appeasement will not curb his despotism. France, and Europe, cannot allow his aggression to continue unchecked.

The European Union and other Western powers should impose sanctions. Despite Erdogan’s defiant bluster, this could be a particularly effective tool at a time when the Turkish lira is plunging and now sits at an all-time low against the dollar.

Turkey’s membership of Nato should also be reviewed. Turkey is a significant player in the alliance, with nearly three quarters of a million men under arms. But in a challenge to Nato’s integrity, last year Erdogan acquired the Russian S-400 missile system.

Even consideration of Turkey’s status within Nato would represent a major blow to Erdogan’s prestige as his political support in Turkey is on the decline. We can't let him get away with his misdeeds.

Turkish President Erdogan: Boycott all French goods.

His wife: Carrying a bag manufactured by Hermes, a French company. pic.twitter.com/g0ywaTYyuG

— Imam of Peace🕊 (@Imamofpeace) October 29, 2020

Following the October 16, 2020 Islamist beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty, MEMRI has translated and published reactions to it from across the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. These reports and clips include statements by jihadi and domestic terror organizations, reformists, religious leaders, and others throughout the Muslim world. In the coming days, we will be continuing to add translations, reports, and videos on this subject to our archives.

Below are reports and clips from the MEMRI Special Dispatch Series, MEMRI TV (including the Sermons by Imams in the West Project), the Domestic Terrorism Threat Monitor (DTTM), and the Jihad & Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM).

This is the sick crap to be expected from Al-Jazeera etc. Now it’s the habit of the NYT. An Islamist beheads French citizens and these media dart over the corpses straight onto the ‘Islamophobia’ crock. Sick, cowardly and long past its sell-by-date. https://t.co/FD9dDb4xvz

— Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray) October 30, 2020

Take note: The very last voice to condemn this—if ever—will be the U.N.’s highest human rights body.

Instead, they just reelected Pakistan, whose leader stoked the flames by accusing French President Macron of “attacking Islam.” https://t.co/srWo38L2ad

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 29, 2020

Twitter Warns (via #pakistan ) Breitbart Reporter over Violating Pakistan Law with Cartoons https://t.co/XgKD1lb87D via @BreitbartNews

— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) October 29, 2020

They cut off our heads in France while shouting “Allah Akbar,”
In Iran they hang us from the gallows to the chants of morning prayers.
In both cases, they kill us in the name of insulting their prophet.
Then they ask us why are you are afraid of Sharia?
@jack Don’t censor me! pic.twitter.com/n4vQAn6iQ3

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 29, 2020

Canadian Imam Younus Kathrada: Samuel Paty was a Cursed, Evil-Spirited, Filthy Excuse for a Human-Being pic.twitter.com/i9DiZ5ZOs7

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 30, 2020

The Palestinians have been badly advised by some of their left-wing friends in Europe and America, people like John Kerry, who told them not to negotiate for the last four years. This was a huge mistake. Whoever wins next week’s US elections, the Palestinian Authority should return to open negotiations with Israel without pre-conditions and under American auspices. Otherwise history may pass them by as the rest of the Arab world makes peace with Israel, and the Palestinians risk becoming a forgotten conflict like Northern Cyprus. Instead of continuing to praise suicide bombers and arrest Palestinians who want to have good relations with Israel, Fatah and Hamas should allow the many Palestinians who want to do so, to reach out culturally to Israelis in the way that Emiratis and Bahrainis are currently doing.

The Trump administration has updated Congress of its intent to sell F-35 advanced fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates, a ranking House Democrat announced on Thursday.

The informal notification to the House Foreign Affairs Committee revealed that the White House plans to sell as many as 50 units of the Lockheed Martin-made jets for roughly $10.4 billion, a senior congressional staffer told The Times of Israel. Israel has ordered the same number of F-35s from the US, though not all of them have been transferred yet.

The committee’s chairman, Elliot Engel (D-NY), will introduce legislation on Friday to prevent the sale from moving forward without strong assurances that it won’t harm Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge (QME) in the region and that American adversaries will not be able to gain access to the military technology, the staffer said. Similar legislation has already been introduced in the Senate as well.

The informal notification given on Thursday was a courtesy that is not technically required of the White House. However, it has been effective policy for decades to consult with the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees before an official notification of a weapons sale is submitted to Congress. This gives lawmakers an opportunity to raise objections and even try and block a particular transfer.

Thursday’s update is still an early step in the process, and a formal notification from the State Department to Congress is still required. Reuters reported that the White House is hoping to submit the formal notification in December. At that point, lawmakers will have 30 days to produce a resolution to block the sale, though two-thirds of Congress would be needed to override a presidential veto.

Israeli farmers, who face stiff competition in their main export markets in Europe, might be able to sell their produce in the Persian Gulf as early as November.

The United Arab Emirates this week authorized the import of Israeli produce following the two nations’ normalization agreement, Israel’s Agriculture Ministry said in announcing the possible start date.

While Israeli exporters have diversified their markets in response to the mounting competition in Europe, demand hasn’t been sufficient, the ministry said. The UAE imported 80% of the $10 billion in fresh produce sold there in 2018, according to the ministry, and is a trade hub for goods sent on to eastern Asia.

Israel’s agricultural exports totaled $1.15 billion in 2018, according to ministry figures.

British-Saudi Journalist Othman Al-Omeir: Peace with Israel Is the Only Logical Step; We Cannot Put Our Lives on Hold over the Palestinian Cause pic.twitter.com/hYyd5vsYhU

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 30, 2020

Iranian Journalist Ghanbar Naderi: Iran Should Stop Threatening to Destroy Israel and Should Recognize the Sovereignty of Israel, KSA, Other Countries in the Region pic.twitter.com/usl6CdvaHh

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 30, 2020

Sudanese Politician Mohammadain Mohammad Ishaq: We Have No Enmity towards Israel; We Need to Abandon the Islamist, Pan-Arab Ideologies; the Palestinians Are Better Off Than Rural Sudanese pic.twitter.com/8M89Bzodc2

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 30, 2020

Peak +972 🤦🏻‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/e6udIXTZFY

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) October 30, 2020

Turkey has been threatening many countries in recent months. But noticeably absent from the incitement campaign that Ankara tends to run against Greece, Armenia, France and others is Israel.

This is not because Turkey’s ruling party likes Israel; indeed, Turkey is one of the most hostile countries in the world to Israel. Turkey’s president has hosted Hamas terrorists twice this year, has compared Israel to the Nazis and has threatened to break off relations with the UAE after the Gulf state and Israel signed a normalization deal.

So why has Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the leadership in Ankara been relatively silent on Israel recently? It appears that Turkey has been wary of provoking a crisis with Israel because of strong support from the Trump administration.

When the US president took office, Turkey reached out to his team. Turkey believed that the Obama administration’s policies in Syria were wrong and had accused the US of working with Kurdistan Workers Party “terrorists.”

However, Turkey lost out when Trump’s first national security advisor, Michael Flynn, left his job in the first few weeks of the presidency. It next turned its attention to the State Department and to Syria envoy James Jeffrey. Erdogan also became the world leader with whom Trump appeared to speak with more frequently.

An earthquake has struck near the Turkish city of Izmir and the Greek island of Samos. Reports say the earthquake was large, measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale. Destruction could be seen across the skyline of the city as dust rose and buildings collapsed. Flooding then occurred after the sea briefly retreated from the harbor, leaving boats on the sea bed before the water rushed in.

Soon after the disaster, Defense Minister Benny Gantz instructed the IDF to prepare emergency aid for Turkey.

Gantz announced that he had instructed the IDF in a tweet, adding that a conversation was opened between IDF military representatives and the Turkish military attaché in Israel.

During the conversation the IDF representatives conveyed to Turkish authorities that Israel's defense establishment and the State of Israel share their grief over the disaster and are ready to send a delegation immediately that will help rescue buildings destroyed in the area and deploy a field hospital to treat the many wounded.

Gantz announced in a separate statement that the "State of Israel and its security forces will always reach out for humanitarian assistance to civilians who are injured no matter where they are, by using the capabilities and experience gained in the IDF over the years to deal with emergencies."

The International Monetary is predicting the economies in the Arab nations of the Middle East and North Africa will contract by 5.4% in 2020-21 due to the covid-19 pandemic and the collapse in international oil prices. (I’ve left out Lebanon and Libya, because they face exceptional circumstances.) This means the Arab MENA region, despite being among the least affected by the pandemic in terms of confirmed cases and deaths, will suffer disproportionate economic pain.

The IMF’s economic outlook for the world shows that economic contraction has been proportionate to the public-health crisis caused by the pandemic in most regions — North America, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia. The U.S. economy is to contract by 4.3%, the Euro zone, Latin America and India by 8.3%, 8.1% and 10.3%, respectively. Conversely, China is expected to grow by 1.9%, which reflects Beijing’s effective containment of early outbreaks.

Now look at Arab MENA region, excluding Israel and Iran. On the public-health front, the Arab nations have done relatively well when compared to many other parts of the world. This is borne out by the data for Covid-19 deaths per million people in the period between December 2019 and October 2020. The ratios for the U.S., European Union and South American were 673.80, 360.45 and 661.29, respectively. The average for the Arab world was 79.46 per million. For the most populated Arab nations — Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia — the average was even lower, at 62.21 per million.

Even if there is some underreporting in the figures for these countries, they should be comparable to the other parts of the world with similar income levels and relatively limited state capacities to collect, process and report data.

Nobody knows for sure why some world regions are worse-hit than others. However, the situation in the Arab MENA becomes more inexplicable still when you consider that some of its most populated countries — like Egypt — never had full lockdowns for extended periods. This should have mitigated the economic impact of the pandemic, but did not. How can this be explained?

For asking Prince Zeid why under his leadership the U.N. human rights office handed over names of Uighur activists to the Chinese regime, this ex-U.N. rights chief & now Vice-Chair of Human Rights Watch has blocked us.

He can't hear me anymore. Who'll hold @raad_zeid to account? https://t.co/rrr465tKkbpic.twitter.com/urZlzonvIB

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 30, 2020

Israel's COVID-19 death toll crossed 2,500 on Thursday and on Friday morning stood at 2,511.

On Thursday, 36,318 coronavirus tests identified 630 new cases, a positive percentage of 1.8%, the Health Ministry reported Friday morning.

As of Friday morning, there were 11,254 active of symptomatic patients in Israel, with 738 hospitalized, 410 of whom were listed in serious condition. Of those 410, 190 were on ventilators.

Meanwhile, the Corona cabinet decided on Thursday night to allow independent shops to open for business starting Nov. 8, after the Health Ministry opposed reopening businesses starting Sunday, Nov. 1.

The cabinet also decided that synagogues would be allowed to reopen on Saturday, but would be restricted to 10 worshippers inside and 20 outside.

Rural B&B accommodations will also be allowed to return to business starting Sunday, but serve only nuclear families. Shared pools and dining rooms at the facilities must remain closed.

Hair salons, beauty salons, and alternative health treatments will also be permitted starting Sunday.

The meeting was fraught. Finance Minister Israel Katz accused the Health Ministry of "waging a war of prestige on the backs of small businesses."

Female combat soldiers will be front line combat soldiers, called on to cross borders and fight Hezbollah in Lebanon for the first time, Kan news reported.

Ten female soldiers from the IDF's field intelligence corps will make up a drone operating team within the previously all-male field intelligence battalion stationed on Israel's northern border.

The unit is expected to become fully operational in the coming weeks.

Combat soldiers are divided into front line combat soldiers and combat soldiers with the division based on who crosses into enemy territory for operational activity. Front line combat soldiers receive salary bonuses and other incentives for their service in these units.

Female combat soldiers have historically not been allowed in units that cross Israel's borders and so have not been able to fill front line combat roles.

In August, the IDF formed a committee to consider allowing women to serve in all combat positions in response to a recent petition to the High Court of Justice that asked it to force the military to allow women to try out for units that are currently open only to men.

Women are still barred from serving in infantry brigades, armored brigades, submarines and certain elite reconnaissance units, such as Sayeret Matkal and the Navy’s Shayetet 13.

Israeli troops opened fire on a Palestinian car overnight Thursday-Friday after a homemade bomb was thrown from the vehicle at a junction manned by soldiers in the central West Bank, the army said.

A statement from the Israel Defense Forces said soldiers responded after the “improvised explosive device” was thrown from the speeding car.

“The soldiers blocked the road to stop the terrorist cell. The car accelerated in their direction and the fighters responded by firing at the terrorists,” a statement from the Israel Defense Forces said, adding that the car was hit by bullets.

There were no reports of Israeli injuries.

Palestinian media reported that three people in the car were wounded during the incident, which took place near the West Bank city of Jenin.

The Kan public broadcaster said the three were aged 15 and 16. One of them was said to be in serious condition with the other two moderately wounded from shrapnel.

Ynet news site reported that one of those injured in the incident was the son of Zakaria Zubeidi, a former Palestinian terrorist leader charged with carrying out attacks against Israelis dating back over a decade.

Zubeidi, a 43-year-old former commander for Fatah’s military wing, has been indicted on 24 counts for his role in a number of shooting and bombing attacks starting in 2003.

The question about the delayed war is what is Iran’s timetable. Iran appears satisfied to continue to arm and improve Hezbollah and also to eat away at the Syrian state, co-opting regions of Syria for its own networks that plug-in to its allied militias in Iraq and Lebanon. Pro-Iranian militia leaders from Iraq, such as Qais Khazali, travelled to Lebanon in 2017 to threaten Israel. It is clear from the comments in 2019 after alleged Israeli airstrikes in Iraq that these militia leaders see Israel as a central enemy, especially if they are able to evict the U.S. from Iraq and concentrate on Israel. Similarly the Syrian regime wants the US out of Tanf to create contiguity in its territory. Russia, focused on northern Syria, can accommodate Israel for now.

It is less certain if Iran would have wanted to launch a conflict earlier had there been no campaign between the wars. It certainly would have established a much large footprint in Syria had its facilities not been targeted. As Iran has set up shop, Hezbollah has had to recuperate from losses in Syria’s war over the years. When Iran did order salvos fired at Israel or a drone penetration, it used rockets with relative lack of sophistication. Iran has been achieving new precision with its missiles, as illustrated by attacks in Koya in Iraq in 2018, against U.S personnel at Al-Asad base in Iraq in Jan. 2020 and against ISIS in Syria in 2017 and 2018. These missiles, the Shahab, Zulfiqar, Qiam and similar types Iran improved over the last ten years are increasingly lethal and they may get a boost as Iran is able to get out from under an arms embargo and renew work with North Korea. Iran’s use of drones and cruise missiles to target Saudi Arabia in 2019 and its technical advice and weapons trafficking to the Houthis in Yemen reveal capabilities far beyond what it has so-far used against Israel. This may be due to being deterred by knowledge of the Trump administration’s total support for Israel and distraction by the US presence in Iraq. It may be testing its ordnance on what it sees as weaker countries that it is less deterred by.

How much of Iran’s material in Syria that has been destroyed is not replaceable? If the air strikes have hit factories, warehouses and storage facilities, as satellite images appear to show that they have, how many of these missiles and other munitions cannot be replaced? There is lack of information on this key issue but reports about Hezbollah’s attempt to build more precision guided guided missile threats through indigenous production seems to show Iran may have shifted strategy to move infrastructure to Lebanon, where airstrikes have not taken place.

Will the window close on Syria’s airspace being open to airstrikes? Syria has a long way to go in this respect because of the US and Turkish presence and Russia’s focus on the north while Iran gets a free-for-all between Albukamal and T-4 and Damascus. This triangle of Iranian influence, from the Golan to T-4 to Albukamal is the center of concern for Iran’s entrenchment. The tensions with Hezbollah near the Golan indicate that demands that Iranian networks be kept away from the Golan have not been fulfilled due to a power vacuum in southern Syria. The Alma Research and Education Center and other reports have shown that Hezbollah infrastructure, dubbed the Hezbollah “Golan file,” remains in place. If the campaign between the wars was designed to deter or remove Hezbollah entrenchment, as several Israeli defense ministers have said, then that has not happened. The overall campaign is also open ended.

This could mean that Israel’s efforts in Syria begins to look more like other open-ended conflicts, such as the U.S. has fought during the Global War on Terror. Unlike Israel’s involvement in Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s, it doesn’t involve any boots on the ground. It is an air war, like the U.S. conducts in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere against threats. However, unlike the U.S. conflicts, this is a war that is not in a far off country – but directly next door. Hezbollah’s attempt to impose a price for any casualties in Syria does not appear to bode well, creating a constant cycle of crisis whenever Hezbollah wants to entrench. It also presents a Iran with opportunities to threaten Israel and to knit together its Iraqi proxies with pro-Iranian elements in Syrian and Lebanon.

The United States revealed on Thursday it had seized Iranian missiles shipped to Yemen and sold 1.1 million barrels of previously seized Iranian oil that was bound for Venezuela, in the Trump administration’s latest move to increase pressure on Tehran less than a week before Nov. 3 election.

The unsealing of the forfeiture complaints, by the Justice Department, came at the same time that the Treasury Department and State Department jointly slapped sanctions on a combined 11 different entities and individuals for their involvement in the purchase and sale of Iranian petrochemicals.

The latest actions against Iran come after US intelligence officials earlier this month alleged that Iranian hackers sought to threaten some American voters by sending them spoofed emails that were made to appear as though they were from the pro-Trump Proud Boys group.

Michael Sherwin, the acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, said on Thursday that the unsealing of the Justice Department’s complaints was “divorced from politics.”

“These actions started last summer. And these are fluid, organic situations,” he said.

The Justice Department’s forfeiture civil cases involve alleged schemes by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to secretly ship weapons to Yemen and fuel to Venezuela.

I live in 🇨🇭 Switzerland, home of the @Olympics, and our Swiss human rights association United Nations Watch hereby calls on the International Olympic Committee to suspend the 🏴‍☠️ Islamic Republic of Iran for killing the country's own wrestling champion Navid Afkari. https://t.co/cA092DneWr

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 29, 2020

Former Iraqi MP Mithal Al-Alusi: I Support Anyone Who Wants to Limit Iran’s Missiles, Nuclear Capabilities Because They Are a Threat to Iraq pic.twitter.com/XF634nJ2a0

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) October 30, 2020

Antisemitic forms of anti-Zionism have roots in the UK far left going back decades. Before Corbyn’s victory in 2015 the UK far left tried in the mid 1980s to ban Jewish Student Societies on campuses because they were ‘Zionist’. Sunderland Polytechnic did so. A group Corbyn sponsored ran a piece titled ‘Why we support Sunderland Polytechnic’ and said the ban was not ‘in any way antisemitic’.

Move on a few decades and look at this cartoon. It circulated on the radical left and is a kind of summa of how the old socialism of fools has been blended with the new anti-imperialism of idiots and has then gone viral on social media. And you can be sure that those who created it and circulated it thought it ‘in no way antisemitic’.

The left needs to learn that antisemitism is the most protean and changeable of hatreds and it has shape-shifted yet again. Yes, Labour was poisoned in part by the flourishing of ‘classic’ anti-Jewish stereotypes and slurs in the party, as my 2019 report recorded. (There were even a few ‘Hitler was right’ types, believe it or not.) But the heart of the problem was ‘anti-Zionism’ of such an obsessive, conspiracist and demonising kind that it long ago left the terrain of ‘legitimate criticism of Israeli policy’ and merged itself with an older set of classical antisemitic tropes, images and assumptions to create antisemitic anti-Zionism.

There are legitimate criticisms to be made of Israel, as there are of every nation-state. Ringing up a Jewish Labour MP and calling her a ‘Zionist C***’ is not one of them. Nor is tweeting that Israel creating ISIS.

In short, that which the demonised Jew once was in older forms of antisemitism, demonised Israel now is in contemporary antisemitic anti-Zionism: all-controlling, the hidden hand, tricksy, always acting in bad faith, the obstacle to a better, purer, more spiritual world, uniquely malevolent, full of blood lust, uniquely deserving of punishment, and so on.’

Yes, disciplinary action should now follow. It is right that Corbyn has been suspended. But it will be even more important to wage a battle of ideas against antisemitic anti-Zionism. But the useful left-wing idiots who protected Corbyn for four years are legion. They infest a bio-degraded UK left and UK academia. So here is an idea: the party should turn for help to those of us on the left who have spent a good part of our professional and political lives understanding, fighting and defeating left-wing antisemitism. We just might know something.

The EHRC fallout – Jezza – your part in his downfall

I was reporting on antisemitism in the party long before most. In Autumn 2015, after Corbyn’s leadership victory, it felt like a lonely and uphill struggle. Few wanted to see the truth. We are diaspora Jews – we do not like to be seen to be rocking any boats.

It took far too long for some in the community to wake up and realise the dangers that antisemitism on the left poses. The problems that pro-Corbyn elements presented for us as Jews in the UK. There was ignorance about how antisemitism has masked itself and naivety over how quickly it spreads. Until spring 2018 a sense of ‘it will pass’ or ‘can’t happen here’ was still the order of the day.

For now, lots of people are climbing to the top of the hill, metaphorically holding the head of Corbyn aloft and crowing about how they (or their organisation) are heroes. It is my hope that this pause in fighting to chest-beat and celebrate is a brief one. Does our community possess both the understanding to realise the battle is not done and the courage to accept the boat must be rocked even further? I am not sure it does.

We must turn our attention to campus. The unions must also be fought. And on the political front, Jezza’s army – that sees the EHRC only as the establishment protecting itself – is still out there – and it is far larger than it was in 2015. Many local Labour Party groups remain toxic and hostile. Does anyone really believe that the antisemitic Palestine Solidarity Campaign – which actively spreads Jew hatred – will be unwelcome at the next Labour Party Conference?

Celebrate if you must, but make sure you are ready to fight again when dawn comes.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the major drivers of Israel demonization and delegitimization are the universities. The United States took action to address this last year when President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning anti-Semitic behavior and actions at colleges and universities that receive federal funding.

Further key promoters of this infamy are some of the giant international NGOs such as Amnesty International, Oxfam, Human Rights Watch and others. People assume these to be run by people of conscience committed to relieving poverty and oppression.

At a time of unprecedented loss of trust in politicians and other authority figures, NGOs such as these therefore have a massive influence. They have become, in effect, a secular church. In fact, they often peddle pure poison about Israel, singling it out for wildly unfair and twisted condemnation while sanitizing or ignoring the Palestinians' murderous targeting of Israeli civilians.

Once again, it's the Trump administration that is leading the world in trying to tackle this, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushing to brand several of them anti-Semitic and withdraw federal funding from them.

Of course, it's naive to think that the world's oldest hatred can ever be eradicated. The best we can hope for is to push it back under its stone. To do that, however, it has to be correctly called out and its proponents treated as social pariahs.

But to do that on the left means progressively minded people must acknowledge that, in this instance, their anti-racism is actually racism, and they are not on the side of the angels at all.

The problem is that the left can never accept that they are not always on the side of virtue. And that's why the anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, as more generally in progressive circles, is a moral stain that won't go away.

The EHRC has crystallised a new legal precedent that the ‘Livingstone Formulation’ is antisemitic. It has added to the IHRA definition of antisemitism a new archetype of antisemitic behaviour.

I first named the Livingstone Formulation in 2006 after Livingstone’s bizarre spat with a Jewish journalist, whom he accused of being like a Nazi. Instead of apologising, Livingstone came back with an aggressive counter-accusation against those who said his late night ranting had been antisemitic. “For far too long the accusation of antisemitism has been used against anyone who is critical of the policies of the Israeli government, as I have been.”

The Macpherson principle says that if a black person says they have experienced racism you should begin by assuming that they are right. The Livingstone principle says: if Jews complain about antisemitism on the left then you should begin by assuming that they are making it up to silence criticism of Israel or to smear the left.

It is antisemitic conspiracy fantasy because it doesn’t just say that Jews sometimes get it wrong, but that they know full well they’re wrong and they say it anyway, to increase their power.

The Livingstone Formulation is the key mode of antisemitic bullying mobilised against Jews on the left. It treats Jews as alien to the left and as treasonous. Pete Willsman accused the 60 rabbis of being Trump fanatics. Such an accusation is a way, rhetorically, of deporting Jews from their political home and making them homeless.

Livingstone himself was thrown overboard by the Corbynites in an effort to save their own skins and he has now been singled out in the EHRC report as a key example of Labour antisemitism. But Corbyn has now been thrown overboard too and is reunited with his old comrade Livingstone. There is justice in that, since they have always shared the same antisemitic politics.

Today, Sharansky sees some of the same forces that acted on him in the Soviet Union—anti-Semitic anti-Zionism that demonized the Jewish state, and an expectation that he truncate his Jewish identity to fit the dominant ideology—at work on American Jews. To be sure, the United States is not the Soviet Union; but that does not make these forces any less frightening. I asked Sharansky whether American Jews, who are facing these pressures for the first time in their lives, might not benefit from examining the experience of Soviet Jews in greater depth.

Sharansky agreed. For one thing, there is something to be learned from the Soviet Jews’ “Jewish pride” that developed “as a response to anti-Semitism.” Another valuable aspect is their holistic understanding of anti-Semitism.

“In Russia there was no difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism,” said Sharansky. “Soviet Jews knew that both the anti-cosmopolitan campaign and anti-Zionist campaigns were campaigns against Jews.”

Ideological loyalty tests are fast becoming normal parts of American institutional and social life. If the recent trend to “cancel” those who fail to comply is any indication, many may soon be facing Sharansky’s choice: to live in truth or retreat into the splintered life of doublethink. For the Jews, there are additional factors to consider. They include an ability to live in the fullness of their Jewish identity or excising the “undesirable” parts such as their connection to Israel. Sharansky shows that the path of least resistance—self-censorship and doublethink—is not nearly as cost-free as one might think.

When Sharansky stepped down from his position as the head of the Jewish Agency, he gave his successor a piece of advice: “To enjoy your job, not only for nine years but even for one minute, you have to answer one question: Do you love the Jewish people?” For Sharansky, the answer is an unequivocal yes. It is a question, and a challenge, that he directs at all of us. Pluralism and diversity of opinions is one of the Jewish people’s greatest strengths, Sharansky and Troy write. But we also must remember that even as we debate each other vigorously, our goal is not to win. It is, instead, “to continue our journey together,” as one people.

The narrative of the victory and the liberation of Latvia from Nazism was filled with anguish and despair when the soldiers began to confront the aftermath of the Holocaust. Even though many of them knew about the Aktion in Riga (Rumbula Massacre on Nov. 30 and Dec. 8, 1941) already in early 1943, they learned about the full scale of mass killing only when the Red Army returned to Latvia in 1944. Whereas Dov Zahodin confirms that many young Jews, including him, took pride in parading through the streets of Riga as the victors of the war against Nazism, the encounters with the Holocaust and the effects of the purging of Latvia from Jews was devastating upon the soldiers. The veterans confirmed that they found Jewish survivors only in Riga. In the eastern region of Latvia there was “nobody.”

Israel Friedman remembers how upon the liberation of Riga he went to search for the Jews at the registration office of the survivors, where, together with a Russian sergeant and a Jewish officer, he helped to register Jewish residents of Riga, who managed to survive German occupation. The feelings of grief and torment after the victory left many soldiers wandering around the republic to find their relatives and friends who were left behind in 1941. In December 1945, Menachem Epstein was released from the army and went to Liepaja to find out about the fate of his relatives, collecting on his way the stories of the Holocaust in Liepaja. Epstein’s account of the Jewish victory over Nazism in Latvia was the following: “we knew that many Latvians collaborated with the Nazis in the mass killings of the Jews; many went abroad, some walked on the streets … but there was no desire of revenge.”

For many Zionist Jewish combatants, life in Soviet Latvia had no future. Israel Friedman remembers how, after completing his task of finding Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in Riga, he got in contact with other Jews and discussed the possibility of Briha to the Eretz Israel: “at that time, I was almost an officer, in Jelgava was released from the service, and then we began our route to Palestine.”

The spirit of volunteerism of the young Latvian Zionists, especially in the first phase of the creation of the Latvian national formations, was neither derived significantly from their loyalty to the Soviet motherland, nor was it the product of Soviet war propaganda. They did not have any particular attachment to Latvia nor Soviet patriotism. Their status in the Latvian national divisions was disruptive to the historical narrative of the Soviet-Latvian effort against Nazi Germany, but they nevertheless took pride in the fact that they contributed to the Soviet war effort against Nazi Germany. What they certainly had in common was their strong ethnic identity and the motivation to fight together against the Germans as Jews under the banner of the Red Army, which made them a capable force in a Jewish war of survival.

Adapted from “Jewish Warfare on the Shores of the River of Daugava: Zionist Combatants of the Latvian Military Formations of the Red Army Remember World War II,” the Kornberg-Jezierski Family Memorial Essay Prize in Holocaust Studies, University of Toronto, 2016. Reprinted with permission.

An Anglo-Arab regime controlled Libya until independence in 1951. The administration would not let Jews leave. Emigration was only legalised in January 1949. Those desperate enough were smuggled across the Mediterranean in overcrowded boats from September 1948. Some 1,300 made it to Israel via Italy between 1947 and 1949.

According to Danielle Willard-Kyle (21.30 into the video) who has made a study of the inmates of the DP camps, an additional complication is that many fleeing Libyan Jews did not have citizenship, or had been stripped of their citizenship. Arriving in the DP camps, some pretended to have Eastern European citizenship.

The international community, in the shape of the International Refugee Organisation (IRO), which had been set up to deal with the massive postwar refugee crisis, callously refused to recognise Libyan escapees as refugees. The IRO went so far as to claim that they were economic migrants. They would therefore not be eligible for asylum benefits.

The American Joint Distribution Committee, which cared for the humanitarian needs of Jews, insisted that those who had made it to Italy were bona fide refugees. But the IRO argued that if they helped the Jews, they would have to help the Arab refugees fleeing from Palestine. If the Joint had not intervened, these Jews would have been repatriated to Libya, not allowed to continue their journey to Palestine.

The Arab problem was soon dealt with by the creation of UNWRA, dedicated to this day, to helping Palestnian 'refugees. The case of the Libyan Jews in DP camps seems to be the perfect example of an international double standard when it comes to Jewish refugees.

The Times, wrote Aris Roussinos recently in the British publication UnHerd, “is no longer predominantly engaged in descriptive analysis of the rest of the world but instead in telling its readers moral fables about the U.S.; parables in which the rest of the world features as mere local colour.” In the paper’s coverage of Brexit and English politics generally, he writes, “Britain itself, with all its complexities, is reduced to a mere shadow play for American journalists to tell their readers improving stories about themselves.”

France and Britain are not the only countries that the Times helps its readers to understand as distant reflections of us. In a December 2017 editorial, the Times expressed grave concerns that Trump’s plans to relocate the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem “almost certainly will make an agreement harder to reach by inflaming doubts about America’s honesty and fairness as a broker in negotiations, raising new tension in the region and perhaps inciting violence.” When the new embassy was eventually opened in May of 2018, the Times’ solemn coverage suggested its fears had been justified. An article titled “Killings in Gaza, New Embassy in Jerusalem, and Peace as Distant as Ever” assessed that Israel’s response to Palestinian protests and attempts to breach the country’s southern security perimeter had “restored international attention to the Palestinian cause with each one-sided casualty report, and revived Hamas’s flagging political fortunes.” The article quoted Aaron David Miller, a former White House official and fixture of Washington, D.C.’s foreign policy mandarin class. The embassy would energize not only Hamas but other jihadist groups as well, Miller warned, galvanizing “a national and religious issue around which to rally: Defense of Jerusalem.”

All of that was wrong; it was a fantasy, the politics of a narrow class of Americans projected onto a distant place whose symbolic meaning was allowed to overcome reality on the ground. In fact, the much-warned-about eruption of violence in the Arab world never occurred. Hamas is more marginalized than ever. International attention to the Palestinian cause, which has always been fickle, was not revived and, in fact, diminished considerably under the Trump administration, for reasons that are only partly about American actions. The point here is not the failure of Middle East analysis, which is hardly unique to the Times, but the fact that the paper’s view of the Middle East was constructed out of a set of talking points generated in D.C. and New York that had no connection to the real dynamics in the region, and which remained immune to all but the most superficial airbrushing even after they were shown to be false.

Kingsley has some Israel experience already, but it’s not at all encouraging. A March 2020 article he wrote from Israel for the Times carried a whopper of a correction: “An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the number of Israelis who are of Arab ethnicity. It is about one in five, not two in five. The article also misstated Arab turnout in Israeli elections. Turnout fell below 50 percent in the April election, but it is not the case that turnout has been below that level historically.” Left uncorrected in the article was the claim that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Middle East peace plan “would annex large tracts of Palestinian land.” As I wrote then, “It’s not accurate for the Times to describe it as ‘Palestinian land.’ Usually they call it the West Bank, or, sometimes, Israeli-occupied territory. Some Israelis refer to it as Judea and Samaria. Whether it is or isn’t Palestinian land is what the Israelis and Palestinians have been intermittently negotiating about or fighting about for decades. To call it Palestinian land is to take one side — the Palestinian one — in that dispute.”

An April 2019 front-page Times article by Kingsley about antisemitism was full of inaccuracies, including the false assertion that “For decades after World War II and the Holocaust, anti-Semitism was mostly consigned to the political fringes.” The same article falsely claimed that Netanyahu’s government “has forbidden non-Jews to exercise the right to self-determination, and removed Arabic as an official Israeli language.” I commented then, “Leave it to the New York Times to turn a front-page article on antisemitism into a vehicle for spreading destructive falsehoods about the Jewish state and its prime minister.”

Apparently that is the sort of thing that, at the New York Times, wins someone promotion to a plum post at a young age.

The Times memo announcing Kingsley’s appointment reported that he failed the British driver’s license test seven times before finally passing on the eighth try. One admires his persistence while at the same time wondering precisely how many more Kingsley failures will be inflicted on long-suffering Times readers. I wish him rapid improvement to passing level on the accuracy front, and good luck in the new job.

In November of 1945, the American Jewish Committee established a new, independent magazine of Jewish ideas, with the goal of explaining America to the Jews and the Jews to the America. This month, Commentary marks 75 years of publishing about everything from culture, politics, and history to foreign affairs, Israel, and Jewish thought. During that time, it has proven to be one of America’s most influential journals of public affairs and central fora for great Jewish debates. The late Irving Kristol is said to have called it the most important Jewish magazine in history. He was probably right.

In the history of American Jewish letters, Commentary is responsible for bringing Phillip Roth, Bernard Malamud, and Cynthia Ozick to the attention of the reading public. During the cold war, the magazine fought against the then-reigning foreign-policy paradigms of both the Republican and Democratic parties. Not one, but two separate Commentary essays helped secure their authors’—Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jean Kirkpatrick—appointments as United Nations Ambassadors. And in the field of Jewish and Zionist ideas thought, the magazine has over the years published such leading Jewish scholars as Gershom Scholem, Emil Fackenheim, Leon Kass, and Ruth Wisse.

Commentary was for many years edited by the legendary Norman Podhoretz, who was followed by Neal Kozodoy (now Mosaic’s editor-at-large); it is now led by John Podhoretz, the guest of this podcast. In this conversation with Mosaic Editor Jonathan Silver—inspired by the magazine’s 75th anniversary issue—Podhoretz looks back at his own history with Commentary, reflects on the work of an editor, recalls how Commentary shaped American Jewish history, and articulates why Commentary still matters three-quarters of a century after its birth.

Britain’s main opposition Labour party was in turmoil on Friday, a day after it suspended its former leader Jeremy Corbyn following his response to a damning government watchdog report that said the party had broken equality laws in its handling of anti-Semitism complaints.

After the decision to suspend Corbyn, the former leader’s allies lined up behind his vow to “strongly contest” the “political” move to suspend him, while senior Labour figures rallied around new chairman Kier Starmer, who succeeded Corbyn in April.

Speaking Friday morning, Starmer said: “I don’t want a split in the Labour Party. I stood as leader of the Labour Party on the basis I would unite the party, but also that I would tackle anti-Semitism.”

“I think both of those can be done, there’s no reason for a civil war in our party. But we are absolutely determined, I am absolutely determined, to root out anti-Semitism,” he told Sky News.

Responding to a devastating investigation released Thursday by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) investigation — which found there were “serious failings” by the party’s leadership under Corbyn when it came to anti-Semitism, that its handling of the issue broke the Equalities Act, that Jewish people were harassed, and that Labour had “inadequate processes” for handling complaints — Corbyn said he didn’t accept all of its findings. He asserted that “the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”

Labour promptly said it was suspending Corbyn “in light of his comments made today and his failure to retract them subsequently.”

A landmark moment: read the JC’s special edition on the EHRC report

With David Collier, David Hirsh, James Libson, Peter Mason, Claudia Mendoza – and morehttps://t.co/PuLBSPjO5Dpic.twitter.com/MltiLirS81

— The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) October 29, 2020

What land of Palestine was stolen from Palestinian people and who was the general that lost that war @derbychriswhttps://t.co/vAOz0CUYFB

— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) October 30, 2020

When Jeremy Corbyn compared Israel to ISIS, @KenRoth defended him.

Today, Corbyn was suspended by his own Labor Party for antisemitism.

Ken Roth still heads Human Rights Watch. https://t.co/9CTdi1wxPS

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 29, 2020

A far-left organization that counts three members of the US Congress among its supporters has issued a statement of solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn — the former British Labour leader who was dramatically suspended from the party on Thursday, following the publication of an official report into antisemitism within its ranks.

“Solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn,” the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) tweeted. “Thank you for always being a champion of the international working class.”

Solidarity with @JeremyCorbyn. Thank you for always being a champion for the international working class.

— DSA 🌹 (@DemSocialists) October 29, 2020

DSA’s high-profile supporters include Reps. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). The organization’s platform is bitterly hostile toward Israel and Zionism, promoting the BDS campaign against the Jewish state.

In August, DSA activists provoked fury among members of the New York State Assembly for issuing what was denounced as a “blatantly antisemitic litmus test” to prospective New York City Council candidates.

The DSA’s questionnaire to candidates included the line, “Do you pledge not to travel to Israel if elected to City Council in solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation?”

Ocasio-Cortez — a leading figure in the Democratic Party’s progressive wing — has expressed deep admiration for Corbyn in the past.

After the two spoke by phone in February 2019, Ocasio-Cortez described their exchange in glowing terms.

Corbyn was resoundingly defeated in the British general election last December, after which he resigned as Labour leader.

It was an honor to share such a lovely and wide-reaching conversation with you, @jeremycorbyn!

Also honored to share a great hope in the peace, prosperity, + justice that everyday people can create when we uplift one another across class, race, + identity both at home & abroad. https://t.co/7qnz42I8du

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 3, 2019

We now have it in writing: Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite.

An investigation by the United Kingdom’s Equality and Human Rights Commission released Thursday found that the British Labour Party, under the leadership of Corbyn, broke the law in its systematic discrimination against Jews.

Created by a 2006 law intended to protect citizens of the United Kingdom from all forms of discrimination, the commission concluded that Corbyn’s high command interfered to suppress complaints about anti-Semitism inside the party and conspired to exonerate members fairly accused of anti-Semitic conduct.

The report lays responsibility squarely at Corbyn’s feet, citing "serious failings in leadership" that created "a culture within the party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it."

Those findings are unsurprising, given the explosion of Jew hatred on the British left following Corbyn’s takeover in the fall of 2015. As a backbencher in Parliament, Corbyn referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as "friends," invited the radical Islamic cleric and Hamas funder Raed Saleh—now behind bars for inciting terrorism—to Parliament, and laid a wreath at the grave of Palestinian terrorists who massacred Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

None of this stopped prominent American left-wingers from championing a man whose indulgence of hatred was obvious to Jews long before it was deemed a violation of law. These same figures never hesitate to blather about their own "lived experience," or to lecture that society must defer to the perceived oppression of any marginalized or minority group—any, that is, except for the Jews, who are not allowed to decide for themselves what constitutes overt and obvious anti-Semitism.

Take Squad darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), who boycotted an event honoring the martyred Yitzhak Rabin but slobbered over Corbyn ("an honor to share such a lovely and wide-reaching conversation") on Twitter; Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), who lauded Corbyn’s political achievements as a victory over "inequality"; Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), who praised Corbyn’s "bold vision" and "positive populism"; and, of course, the political godfather of these lawmakers, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), whom Corbyn has described as his political inspiration.

I wrote to Corbyn's office directly asking him to explain why he described the convicted terrorist who authorised the attack that killed my 16-year-old cousin as his "brother" and sat on a panel with him at an "electrifying and fascinating" Hamas conference. He never replied. https://t.co/OdJDeJ3EUT

— Adam Ma'anit (@adammaanit) October 29, 2020

Democrat vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) made an unannounced stop in Metro Detroit, Michigan, last weekend and followed up with an interview with Dearborn-based Arab American News published Wednesday, where she shared her support for reinstating aid to Palestinians in Israel, and for reoopening the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) mission office in Washington, DC, and the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem.

Harris said of herself and Democrat presidential candidate former vice president Joe Biden:

Joe and I also believe in the worth and value of every Palestinian and every Israeli and we will work to ensure that Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and democracy. We are committed to a two-state solution, and we will oppose any unilateral steps that undermine that goal. We will also oppose annexation and settlement expansion.

“And we will take immediate steps to restore economic and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, reopen the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem, and work to reopen the PLO mission in Washington,” Harris said.

As Breitbart News reported, both Harris and Biden are wrong about the U.S. consulate being in Eastern Jerusalem:

The U.S. consulate in “East Jerusalem” was not even in “East Jerusalem,” but in the Western part of the city, near downtown, on the Israeli side of the 1949 armistice line (also known as the 1967 border). Its old functions still exist, and are handled by the U.S. embassy — of which the old consulate building is now an annex.

And neither Harris nor Biden have asked for anything in return for restoring aid to the Palestinians, as also noted in the same Breitbart News report:

Imagine telling a Palestinian 'You're a sellout for meeting the Israeli who offered Arafat a state at Camp David.' Western leftists may not want peace but a great many Palestinians do, and they should not stand in their way.

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) October 30, 2020

The student government at Pace University in New York City adopted the widely accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism on Wednesday.

The resolution, obtained by JNS, was introduced by Eden Litvin, a student at the school and president of its chapter of Students Supporting Israel (SSI), and co-signed by SSI, the university’s Hillel and the Israeli-American Council Mishelanu campus network.

It states that the student government “was created as a forum for students to voice their opinions on issues presented” by the administration, faculty and student body. Moreover, Pace University “aims to create and sustain a living-learning community that embraces diversity in all its forms, challenges habits and assumptions underlying the structures of power, privilege and injustice, and works to ensure that we are inclusive, welcoming and empowering to all our members.”

The resolution goes on to say that “Jewish students constitute an important part of the broader Pace University community, yet remain distinguishable from the majority by common ethnic, religious and cultural characteristics,” and that the university’s Jewish community is “a distinct and significant cultural community within the university, which Pace University is charter-bound to support, protect and defend.​”

The resolution also mentions the spike in antisemitic incidents in recent years across the country, listing instances including, but not limited to, the 2018 Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha shooting in Pittsburgh, the 2019 Chabad of Poway shooting in Southern California, the 2019 shooting at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, a Star of David drawn on a Pace University building in feces in 2019 and the recent string of attacks against Jews in Brooklyn, NY.

Additionally, it notes that Jews and Jewish institutions are the most targeted for religious-based hate crimes in the United States.

In its ongoing campaign against the Jewish State of Israel, Foodbenders shared this post to its Instagram account today claiming that “all of Israel is a settlement.”

This claim is incitement and implies that all land is tenuous and that Israel has no right to exist. This is pure antisemitism.

The prospect of the Florida high school principal at the center of a Holocaust denial scandal returning to the state’s education system is “very scary,” a Jewish student at the school where he served has told The Algemeiner.

The principal, William Latson, was fired from Spanish River High School in Palm Beach County last November after sending an email to a parent who inquired about Holocaust education programs that stated, “not everyone believes the Holocaust happened.”

In the same email, Latson told the parent that when it came to the subject of the Nazi murder of six million Jews and millions of other people from minorities including Roma gypsies and the disabled, “you have your thoughts, but we are a public school, and not all of our parents have the same beliefs.”

He concluded: “I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school-district employee.”

Following a year-long appeal process, however, the Palm Beach County School Board voted at its Oct. 7 meeting to rehire Latson by a narrow margin of 4-3. Latson’s appeal had received an earlier boost in August when the judge at his appeal, Robert Cohen, ruled that his offense was not serious enough to warrant termination.

On Monday, Latson’s case will be debated once again at the school board’s regular monthly meeting. For one Jewish student at Spanish River — who spoke to The Algemeiner on condition of anonymity — his potential reappearance in the education system amounts to a “very scary” proposition.

“There are lots more students who feel the way I do, there are many Jewish students at the school as well, but they are scared to say so,” said the 10th-grade student, during a phone conversation on Wednesday.

On October 25, Toronto Star Columnist Shree Paradkar claimed that a chill has descended on Canadian university campuses when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. As evidence, she cites two recent cases of academics being criticized for their views of Israel which she describes as being “moderate”.

While Ms. Paradkar, the Star’s “Race and Gender Columnist,” is entitled to her views, sadly, she misses the forest for the trees in her analysis of what’s happening on campuses across Canada.

Firstly, it’s important to draw a distinction between what Ms. Paradkar terms a “moderate critique” of Israel and what went beyond legitimate criticism of Israel and which verged into borderline hate speech. York University professor Faisal Bhabha, who complains that his university has not publicly defended him against a campaign to have him fired, publicly equated Zionism with “Jewish supremacy.” That is, of course, a grotesque lie. Zionism is the Jewish people’s strive for self-determination in their historic homeland, and when Professor Bhabha misrepresents it as repugnant and akin to white supremacy, he not only tarnishes the vast majority of Canadian Jews, he also applies a bizarre double standard: Palestinian self-determination is acceptable, but Jewish self-determination is racism. This isn’t “moderate” criticism, and his saying it was possible that Israel is “exaggerating the Holocaust” is textbook antisemitism.

As to Dr. Valentina Azarova, she’s not merely a “critic” of Israel as she supports and advocates for the “one-state solution” which is a thinly veiled strategy for destroying the State of Israel and questioning its very right to exist. At its most basic level, the one-state solution denies the right of Jews to self-determination in their historical homeland and calls into question the very legitimacy of Israel as a state. A bi-national state would have the same consequence as the “right of return” – the negation of Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinians, by virtue of a higher birthrate, would turn Jews into a minority before voting in favor of another Muslim Arab state in place of Israel.

This is precisely why the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Definition of Antisemitism is critically important. When individuals deny the inherent right of the Jewish people’s self-determination and call for Israel’s destruction, that is itself antisemitic. Anyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but spreading dangerous lies about Israel and the Jewish people is certainly not a “moderate critique.”

.@swarthmore graduate, SJP activist and aspiring PhD Taylor Morgan believes “Israel is a white supremacist project/apartheid state following the genocidal legacy of the USA."https://t.co/QwKcrrHUzIpic.twitter.com/Or97HO6zYZ

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) October 29, 2020

When there are two wildly different versions of a story, and in the absence of conclusive evidence of either version being proven objectively correct, a responsible journalist should always strive to ensure that readers are presented with each narrative, along with additional relevant information, in a fair and equal fashion.

But the reporting of the recent death of a Palestinian youth in unclear circumstances in the West Bank this week by leading British newspaper The Daily Telegraph leaves much to be desired.

Two Contradicting VersionsAs the Times of Israel reported, there were two versions of the story: According to the IDF, 18-year old Amer Snobar fatally injured himself while running away after throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles. But according to the Palestinians, troops allegedly shot and beat him to death while he was driving.

It’s clear that only one of these versions of the story can be true. And in the absence of certainty, journalists owe it to the readers to make clear that the circumstances behind the man’s death were unclear. They should also include information that would seem to strengthen or contradict either of the side’s stories

For example, the Times of Israel report mentioned that no damage from gunfire could be clearly seen on the car – highly relevant when considering the claim that Israeli troops were supposed to have shot the man while he was in the car.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court has ruled in favor of Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh in his defamation case against Ted Belman, the editor of IsraPundit, a news blog website.

The decision was made earlier this week.

Abu Toameh said he was gratified that Belman would need to retract comments he had written about him.

Belman’s posts on his website and Facebook page relating to “Jordan is Palestine” in which he mentioned Abu Toameh had no factual basis, and he apologized for them, the court said in its ruling.

Furthermore, Belman must post his declaration and apology on his website and send it to his mailing list within 14 days of the ruling, the court said.

Should Belman republish similar baseless charges in the future against Abu Toameh, he can be fined NIS 5,000 for each new post, it said.

The court rejected Belman’s counterclaim against Abu Toameh, who voluntarily agreed to express regret for one negative reference to Belman in response to Belman’s years of defamatory posts.

Mudar Zahran’s campaign against Abu Toameh began in 2013 and continued until 2017, when Abu Toameh sued.

The Global Imams Council (GIC) adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism on Thursday, becoming the first Imams Council in the world to do so. This was just a few days after Albania became the first Muslim-majority country to adopt the definition.

The GIC is the world’s first and largest international non-governmental body of Muslim religious leaders from all Islamic denominations and schools of thought, with a rapidly growing number of over 1000 members worldwide, according to its website.

In a historic move, the GIC's Governing Board Senior Imams Committee and Advisory Committee passed on Monday a unanimous vote to adopt the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.

"We live in a time of rising antisemitism and terrorist attacks, which makes our responsibility as faith leaders greater, and even greater as Imams," GIC's members stated, adding that they are "the first Imams Council in history to invite a rabbi to become a permanent member of its Interfaith board."

The IHRA definition adopted is as follows: "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities." The adoption of the IHRA definition, that took effect on Thursday, will be binding on all current and future members of the GIC, including all affiliate mosques, centers, institutes and organizations operated by the Imams of this council worldwide.

A Dutch human resources firm has determined that a Palestinian man who twice vandalized a kosher restaurant and tried to set it ablaze had terrorist motives.

The NTA firm on Wednesday determined that Saleh Ali, an asylum seeker from Syria, indeed had terrorist motives when he smashed the windows of the HaCarmel restaurant in Amsterdam in 2017 and again in May 2020 while holding a lighter, Het Parool reported. NTA was hired by the Dutch government to determine Saleh’s motives in the attack and prosecutors have accepted the firm’s conclusion, Telegraaf reported.

Ali, 32, has not been convicted of a hate crime and served 52 days in jail for vandalism for the first attack, which he said he committed to avenge the moving of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. NTA was hired to determine his motives in the second attack, for which he now awaits trial.

A former jihadist fighter in Syria, Ali remains at a psychiatric observation center, where he threatened a fellow resident who is Jewish with a billiard ball, the Het Parool report said.

News of the NTA findings provoked ridicule on social media.

“So this wasn’t a case of an unsatisfied patron who didn’t like the gefilte fish,” the opera critic Olivier Keegel wrote on Facebook.

Online design store #BapUp (based in #NYC) doesn't seem to think there's an issue with monetizing the murder of 6 million Jews and is featuring multiple items like these featuring #Hitler.

Email support@bapup.com and demand these disgusting item are promptly removed. pic.twitter.com/sTY281IOFw

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) October 29, 2020

The city government of Riga, Latvia, waived its demand for rent from a Holocaust museum whose director said it couldn’t afford to pay.

The Riga City Council on Monday withdrew its intention to collect $12,000 in rent per month from the Riga Ghetto Museum, one of the Latvian capital’s three Holocaust museums, Rabbi Menachem Barkahan, who heads the Shamir Association that runs the museum, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The city also revised its plan to rezone most of the area it had leased to the museum for 10 years, agreeing to take away only half of its allocated 6,500 square feet. “This will allow the museum to keep its main exhibition, Ghetto Street, as is,” the Shamir Association said in a statement Tuesday.

The museum’s previous 10-year lease, which expired this year, did not charge any rent.

Shamir “welcomed the decision, and thanked the council for choosing to maintain the agreement,” the statement read.

The Nazis and their collaborators murdered about 70,000 Jews in Latvia during the Holocaust. The Riga Ghetto refers to areas of the city where Jews were forced to live during the Holocaust.

2020 Antisemite of the Year Contest 👉🏻 Voting is NOW OPEN! 🗳

10 semi-finalists 👉🏻 YOU chose your top 3 Jew haters through Nov. 23rd

We’ll announce the 3 finalists Nov. 30th

Ultimate winner declared on Dec. 21st

Vote Here 👉🏻 https://t.co/uW2k45D3fvpic.twitter.com/AuqeORcVCj

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) October 30, 2020

India is regularly ranked among Israel’s top-10 trade partners, but that doesn’t mean doing business with companies from the sub-continent is straightforward. One of the major issues frustrating many Israeli companies, often to the extent that deals fall through as a consequence, is the time it takes to do business in India. The local business culture is nowhere near as fast as that Israelis are used to, and those gaps can sometimes end up becoming insurmountable obstacles. However, the Covid-19 pandemic may be helping to change that. The fact that for several months meetings are no longer being held in person and have moved online has not only saved travel costs for companies, but has also made the entire process more effective, and in many cases in India, also significantly shortened the time of doing business.

Natasha Zangin, the head of the Economic and Commercial Mission at the Embassy of Israel to New Delhi, is experiencing this first hand and believes it could be a positive consequence of the coronavirus crisis.

“The challenge presented by Covid-19, it has also brought with it many opportunities. One of the most significant opportunities, in my opinion, is the shortening of the time it takes to do business here,” Zangin told CTech. “If in the past companies had to travel here to physically hold meetings, today they can be done over Zoom. The Indian companies have adopted the digital platforms and it is quite easy to set up introductory meetings. The Indian market is hungry for innovation and they view Israel as a hub for innovation and want to learn more about these technologies and the way in which they can integrate them. They are open to meeting online and this has resulted in more meetings than in the past.”

Zangin began her role in Delhi only last month after several years working for the Ministry of Economy and Industry’s Foreign Trade Administration, including in the Trade in Services and Investments department.

Israeli scientists who specialize in cleaning algae from large bodies of water were called in to save an estuary in Florida last week from an ecological disaster due to the spread of toxic blue-green algae.

The company, BlueGreen Water Technologies, was given a $945,000 state contract to keep the toxic algae in Lake Okeechobee from getting into the St. Lucie River estuary.

The algae spread in the waters of Lake Okeechobee and from there to the canals and rivers around it. Blue-Green algae create enormous damage to the local agriculture, fisheries, tourism, economy and infrastructure, in addition to being toxic in humans and animals due to bacteria that develop on top of the algae secreting toxins.

The Israeli team from the BlueGreen company have developed a unique technological solution called Lake Guard. From a raft that floats on the water, the technology disperses measured amounts of a green substance named Lake Guard Oxy, a hydrogen-peroxide based algicide which eliminates the algae and bacterial colonies on them, while preserving the surrounding vegetation, fish and animals.

The affected bacteria transmit chemical distress signals that are absorbed by additional groups of bacteria in the lake and cause them to collapse in a chain reaction.

#PhotoFriday
The first mass deportation of Jews took place in late October 1938 – Jews with Polish citizenship were evicted from Germany & placed in the Polish border town of Zbaszyn

This deportation took place BEFORE the Kristallnacht pogrom

Learn more: https://t.co/hiqwNOSF5Ppic.twitter.com/btB9pp20mj

— Yad Vashem (@yadvashem) October 30, 2020

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee's decision to award the prize to the World Food Program this year assuaged the fears of elitists from New York to Paris and Berlin. The Abraham Accords, which include bilateral peace treaties between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and most recently Sudan, and Israel have fundamentally changed the Middle East. They have upended fifty years of failed peace processing on the part of Western foreign policy elites who seem to fall into deeper and deeper funks with word of each new peace deal.

Newsweek's cover story on Oct. 2 nicely encapsulated the distress. The cover featured a leering black and white photo of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a red and white headline, The Netanyahu Dilemma: Can The Nobel Prize Say No to Bibi?

By giving the prize to the World Health Organization, the committee kicked the can down the road. Maybe President Donald Trump will be defeated next week. Maybe Netanyahu will be ousted from power. And then things can return to normal, they console themselves. They will be able to forget all about the unpleasantness.

What is it about the Abraham Accords that makes the foreign policy "experts" so upset?

Three aspects of the deals really get their goat. The first is their authors. For the likes of the British Foreign Office and the Council on Foreign Relations, few are held in greater contempt than Netanyahu and Trump. The Newsweek article, which dealt with Netanyahu specifically, called him "widely loathed." And of course, there hasn't been a US President as despised by "the smart set" as Trump since Andrew Jackson.

The second aspect of the Abraham Accords that drives the peace processors to distraction is the fact that they were done at all. The Arab-Israel conflict isn't supposed to end this way. For 50 years, the "experts" have all agreed that the road to peace goes through Ramallah. So long as Israel doesn't make peace with the Palestinians, it cannot make peace with the Arabs. And in the two instances where Israel was able to sidestep the Palestinians – its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt and its 1994 peace treaty with Jordan – both the Jordanians and the Egyptians refused to implement the normalization clauses of the deals so long as Israel didn't make peace with the Palestinians.

The absence of normalization reduced the deals from actual peace to little more than long-term ceasefires. The same hostility and anti-Semitism that fueled the Arab wars against Israel which Egypt and Jordan led, remained and even grew within their societies in the years and decades after they signed the peace agreements.

As Newsweek put it, with barely disguised fury, "The agreements that Netanyahu has wrangled with Arab states of the Persian Gulf fail to resolve, or even address the situation of the Palestinians – a cause with passionate supporters in Europe, on US college campuses and with many US liberals."

Israelis are fretting. What nonsense! | “a Trump victory offers Israel no guarantees. A second-term President Trump, unfettered of his need to please pro-Israel evangelical voters, might rush into an overly forgiving new deal w/Iran, many Israelis fret.” https://t.co/Y3Kagv68sV

— Mike “10ForTheBigGuy” (@Doranimated) October 31, 2020

Allegations that @realDonaldTrump, the best friend the Jewish people have ever had in the White House, is in any way anti-Semitic are utter nonsense. They are an attempt as well to divert attention away from the Democrat Party's growing anti-Jewish bigotry. https://t.co/8DYjjOHoEm

— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) October 30, 2020

The Anti-Defamation League slammed a conservative political action committee for calling prominent New York Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum an “antisemite.”

The ad, paid for by the American Liberty Fund and appearing on Facebook, begins: “Are you Jewish? Are you even thinking about voting Democrat? Have you ever heard the phrase ‘never again?'”

The ad then runs through an array of figures it describes as “antisemites” who spoke at the Democratic National Convention this summer, two of whom were Jewish: Kleinbaum and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Others on the list include Tamika Mallory, a Black activist who has spoken admirably about Louis Farrakhan, and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has been accused by mainstream Jewish organizations of making statements seen as crossing into anti-Semitism.

“Anti-Israel Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and Bernie Sanders were on the program,” the ad says. “She sits on the board of radical NIF, which accuses Israel of war crimes.”

In a tweet on Friday, the ADL said: “The video distributed by Super PAC American Liberty Fund disrespects the memory of the Holocaust and smears a respected rabbi, @Skleinbaum. This is just another shameless attempt to use Jews as a political football.”

The protests and boycotts against France are openly calling into question the value of freedom of speech. Indeed, in September, prior to the murder of Mr Paty, Imran Khan slammed Charlie Hebdo for republishing the caricatures of Muhammad and called for a global ban on mockery of Islam. ‘Wilful provocations and incitement to hate and violence must be universally outlawed’, he said. These sentiments have been echoed on many of the anti-French protests in recent days. The Guardian’s report on the Muslim world’s ‘rage against Macron’ quotes a protester in Bangladesh as saying: ‘I don’t condone the killing of the teacher… but it’s a two-way street. If no one makes hateful comments targeting the core beliefs of another religion, this kind of heinous violence will be reduced anyway.’

But. I don’t condone the killing of Mr Paty, but… This is where we can see a deeply worrying interplay between the outlook of anti-Macron protesters in Karachi, Tehran and Bangladesh and the worldview of the cultural and intellectual elites here in the West. Here, too, there is a tendency to ‘but’ any commentary on the massacre at Charlie Hebdo or the beheading of Mr Paty. Of course these people shouldn’t have been murdered, but they were being racist, they were punching down, they were promoting Islamophobia, etc etc. Victim-blaming has become par for the course in discussions of radical Islam. If only arrogant, liberty-obsessed Westerners would stop mocking Muhammad, then there wouldn’t be extremist violence, we’re told. You’re as likely to read this sentiment in a politely worded editorial in the New York Times as you are to hear it expressed at a febrile protest in Karachi.

What this does, of course, is give Islamic extremists a veto over public debate. It says we must circumscribe public discussion of Islam in order to appease those who would murder us for criticising their religion. This implicit empowerment of terrorists to determine what is and isn’t acceptable discourse is promoted as much in woke circles in the West as it is in Islamist circles in the East.

Where are our politicians in all of this? Why have they not expressed solidarity with France, both for losing a public servant in such a horrific way and for coming under unjust attack by intolerant political forces in the Muslim world? The German foreign minister Heiko Maas has condemned Erdogan and expressed solidarity with France in its battle against Islamist extremists. But British and other European politicians have been cravenly silent. Boris Johnson, France is one of our most important allies, and Britain still very much wants to be friends with European countries even after we leave the European Union – so why won’t you publicly stand with France as its people and its values come under assault from regressive and reactionary forces?

French President Emmanuel Macron said that he could understand if Muslims were shocked by cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, as French authorities on Saturday sought to ascertain if a young Tunisian suspected of killing three people in a knife rampage inside a Nice church had outside help.

France is on edge after the republication in early September of cartoons of Muhammad by the Charlie Hebdo weekly, which was followed by an attack outside its former offices, the beheading of a teacher and now the attack in Nice.

Macron sparked protests in the Muslim world after the murder earlier this month of teacher Samuel Paty — who had shown his class a cartoon of Muhammad — by saying France would never renounce its right to caricature.

But in an apparent bid to reach out to Muslims, Macron gave a long interview setting out his vision to Qatar-based TV channel Al-Jazeera, seeking to strike a softer tone.

“I can understand that people could be shocked by the caricatures but I will never accept that violence can be justified,” he said.

“I consider it our duty to protect our freedoms and our rights,” he added in an extract of the interview to be broadcast Saturday.

The Prime Minister Justin trudeau does not endorse his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron who maintains that terrorism or not, we must continue to be able to caricature the religious fact, including the Muslim prophet Mohammed. According to Trudeau, there is no point in doing things that unnecessarily hurt others.

The holding these days of the trial of the pimps of the attack against Charlie Hebdo was the pretext in France to publish again the cartoons of Muhammad which had shocked and urged the terrorists to act in 2015. Some believe that this gesture is at the origin of the knife attacks which have multiplied in France during the last few weeks. The beheading of teacher Samuel Paty also occurred after he showed caricatures of the prophet to his students.

All this brought Emmanuel Macron to say that France will not renounce “caricatures, drawings”. But Justin Trudeau is definitely not on his side.

Asked again on Friday on this subject, Mr. Trudeau first argued that he would “always defend freedom of expression”. “But freedom of expression is not without limits,” added the Prime Minister. We don’t have the right, for example, to cry “fire” in a crowded cinema; there are always limits. In a pluralistic, diverse and respectful society like ours, we must be aware of the impact of our words, of our actions on others, particularly these communities and populations who still experience enormous discrimination. “

According to Mr. Trudeau, freedom of expression must be exercised with “respect for others” and with the concern “not to injure in an arbitrary or unnecessary manner”.

The Prime Minister adds that the intention of the caricature, however good it may be, is not necessarily relevant in the debate. “It’s a matter of respect, not to seek to dehumanize or deliberately hurt. There is always an extremely important debate, a sensitive debate to be had on possible exceptions on issues where we do not want to hurt, but often the intention is less important and the fact can still hurt, so in a society based on respect each other and listening and learning, let’s have these complex conversations responsibly. “

A Greek Orthodox priest was shot and injured on Saturday at a church in the center of the French city of Lyon by an assailant who then fled, a police source and witnesses said.

The priest was fired on twice at around 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) as he was closing the church, and he was being treated on site for life-threatening injuries, the source said.

Witnesses said the church was Greek Orthodox. Another police source said the priest was of Greek nationality, and had been able to tell emergency services as they arrived that he had not recognized his assailant.

The incident came two days after a man shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice. Two weeks ago, a schoolteacher in a Paris suburb was beheaded by an 18-year-old attacker who was apparently incensed by the teacher showing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad during a class.

While the motive for Saturday's attack was not known, government ministers had warned that there could be other Islamist militant attacks. President Emmanuel Macron has deployed thousands of soldiers to protect sites such as places of worship and schools.

Jewish schools and synagogues in Nice remained closed on Friday as a precautionary measure following this week’s shocking Islamist terrorist attack at a Catholic church in the southern French city.

A knife-wielding attacker shouting “Allahu akbar” beheaded a woman and killed two other people in Thursday’s attack at the Notre Dame church, the largest in Nice.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 13 hours after the attack, Franck-Daniel Teboul — the chief rabbi of Nice — said that synagogues and schools would be closed on Friday and that kosher shops would be on “alert.”

“We’re all feeling threatened,” Rabbi Teboul said.

French authorities were on Saturday seeking to ascertain if a young Tunisian suspected of killing three people in a knife rampage inside a Nice church had outside help as police arrested a third man who could have been associated with him.

Brahim Issaoui, 21, only arrived in Europe from Tunisia last month and, according to prosecutors, killed the sexton, a Brazilian woman and a French woman in the attack in the Notre-Dame Basilica on Thursday morning.

The attack, which the government has described as an act of “Islamist terror,” sent a shockwave across France, a country already on edge after the beheading this month of a teacher who showed a class a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed.

Issaoui was shot by police multiple times and is currently in grave condition at a hospital.

Investigators have been unable to question him and his precise motivations remain unclear.

French police are currently holding three people under arrest for questioning in the investigation, which is focusing on two telephones found on the suspect after the attack.

Hundreds of people protested at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on Friday against French President Emmanuel Macron’s vow to protect the right to caricature the Prophet Muhammad, with three arrested after scuffles with police.

The protestors chanted, “with our souls and with our blood we sacrifice for our prophet, Muhammad,” and what Israel Police described as “nationalist slogans.”

Protesters also called Macron “the enemy of God.”

Police said they dispersed the “rioters” and arrested three people for disorderly conduct.

Hundreds of Palestinians also reportedly participated in a march condemning Macron’s remarks in Jerusalem’s Kafr Aqab neighborhood and in the neighboring Qalandiya refugee camp.

Demonstrators wore headbands declaring insulting Muhammad to be a red line and waved flags emblazoned with the Islamic declaration of faith.

Hundreds of people gathered on Friday at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to demonstrate against French President Emmanuel Macron and his comments protecting the right to caricature the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, the Jewish News Syndicate reported.

The protests followed comments made on Thursday by Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Palestinian Islamic Supreme Council, when he called for a “day of rage” on Friday to protest “attempts to harm” the Prophet Muhammad, and were part of such demonstrations throughout the Muslim world.

Protesters were heard chanting slogans like “With our souls and with our blood we sacrifice for our prophet, Muhammad,” and referring to Macron as the “enemy of God.”

Three protesters were reportedly arrested after clashing with police forces.

Other mass demonstrations were reported in Jerusalem’s Kafr Aqab neighborhood and in the neighboring Kalandiya refugee camp.

The protests were part of a global Muslim uproar following Macron’s statements from October 2, when he said that Islam was “a religion in crisis” and that there was a need for an “Islam of Enlightenment.”

Macron’s comments were made in light of recent terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic extremists in France. Tens of thousands of Muslims also protested throughout the Muslim world.

In Pakistan, police briefly fired tear gas at protesters who broke through security blockades in Islamabad in a failed attempt to demonstrate at the French Embassy against the printing in France of images depicting the Prophet.

The head of Lebanese terror group Hezbollah on Friday told France to back down from its defense of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

“Do not allow this mockery, this aggression… to continue, and the whole world will stand with you,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said.

“French authorities instead of fixing the issue… became stubborn about this being freedom of expression,” Nasrallah said. “You need to think about correcting this mistake.”

Anger has erupted in the Muslim world over French President Emmanuel Macron’s defense earlier this month of the right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The French leader spoke after an Islamic extremist beheaded a schoolteacher in a Paris suburb on October 16.

The teacher had shown cartoons of Muhammad published by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo during a lesson on freedom of expression.

Nasrallah urged France to “be fair and just.”

“No Muslim in the world will accept our dignity… the dignity of our Prophet, being insulted,” the terror leader said.

The Dominican Republic is looking into moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Caribbean country announced Friday.

In a statement, the Dominican foreign ministry touted the country’s longstanding ties with the Jewish people, noting Jews first began arriving on the island in the late 15th century. It also highlighted the Dominican Republic’s granting refuge to several thousand European Jews during World War II.

The Dominican Republic previously had its embassy in Jerusalem until 1980, which the statement said was a factor it was considering in whether to return its diplomatic mission in Israel to the capital.

The development came after Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi spoke by phone with his Dominican counterpart Roberto Alvarez, according to Hebrew media reports.

Moving an embassy to Jerusalem is highly contentious. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Most diplomatic missions in Israel are situated in or near Tel Aviv as countries try to maintain a neutral stance over the status of Jerusalem.

If it were to go through with the move, the Dominican Republic would be the third country to relocate its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, following the United States and Guatemala.

Honduras has pledged to move its embassy to Jerusalem by the end of the year, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement last month.

I think @KenRoth went almost 24 hours until engaging in his favorite hobby of Israel-obsession and Jew-hatred! https://t.co/bDCfXzbHA2

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) October 30, 2020

Sudan and the United States signed an agreement to restore the African country's sovereign immunity, the Sudanese Ministry of Justice said on Friday.

The ministry said in a statement the agreement will settle cases brought against Sudan in US courts, including for the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, for which Sudan has agreed to pay $335 million to victims.

The deal is part of a US pledge to remove Sudan from its designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, which goes back to its toppled Islamist ruler Omar al-Bashir when Washington believed the country was supporting militant groups.

President Donald Trump said this month that the United States will remove Sudan from the list as soon as Khartoum sets aside the $335 million it has agreed to pay to American victims of militant attacks and their families.

To avoid new lawsuits Sudan needed its sovereign immunity restored, which it lost as a designated sponsor of terrorism.

Shortly after receiving her master’s degree in ancient history from King’s College in London, Daisy Abboudi found herself listening to yet another dinner table conversation about her relatives’ early life in Sudan.

Sudan’s Jewish community, founded at the turn of the 20th century and numbering roughly 250 families at its zenith, was one of the smallest — and shortest-lived — in the Middle East. And while its members enjoyed warm relations with their Muslim neighbors for decades, Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 and the subsequent wars unleashed by its Arab neighbors brought a flood of anti-Semitism that eventually forced the community to flee, most of them arriving in Israel or Switzerland as stateless refugees.

Still, many of the people who fled Sudan as second- or third-generation natives often get sentimental about their former home, of which they recall fond childhood memories. It was a feeling of inherited nostalgia that inspired the now-30-year-old Abboudi to begin recording this oral history, which she is currently compiling into a book as well as making available on her website Tales of Jewish Sudan and Instagram account Jewish Sudan.

“My grandparents were all born in Sudan,” Abboudi told The Times of Israel. “Well, that’s not strictly true — my paternal grandmother wasn’t born there, but she moved there as a child and her mother was from Sudan. So I started interviewing my grandparents and their friends, and it sort of just snowballed from there.”

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told Israeli officials during a visit to Israel this week that the Trump administration has approved selling F-22 stealth fighters to the Jewish state, according to a Friday report in a Saudi-owned newspaper.

US President Donald Trump okayed the sale of the F-22 Raptor and precision-guided bombs to Israel, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported, citing senior sources in Tel Aviv.

Israeli defense officials requested to buy the F-22 — one of the world’s most advanced fighter jets — to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region after the US agreed to sell F-35 fighters to the United Arab Emirates, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

Israel had previously expressed interest in buying the F-22, but the US declined, the report said. The US halted production of the fighter in 2011 and legally barred its sale to foreign countries.

Esper and Defense Minister Benny Gantz have met three times in just over a month, including Esper’s visit to Tel Aviv on Thursday. Esper also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Eshel and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi during the trip.

“They discussed the imperative to maintain regional security and stability and to confront Iran,” Gantz’s office said.

A source familiar with the meeting, who requested anonymity, told AFP that Gantz and Esper built on the discussions held in Washington last week on “making progress toward upgrading Israel’s qualitative military edge” following “developments in the region.”

The Trump administration has updated Congress of its intent to sell F-35 advanced fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates, a ranking House Democrat announced on Thursday.

The informal notification to the House Foreign Affairs Committee revealed that the White House plans to sell as many as 50 units of the Lockheed Martin-made jets for roughly $10.4 billion, a senior congressional staffer told The Times of Israel. Israel has ordered the same number of F-35s from the US, though not all of them have been transferred yet.

The committee’s chairman, Elliot Engel (D-NY), will introduce legislation on Friday to prevent the sale from moving forward without strong assurances that it won’t harm Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge (QME) in the region and that American adversaries will not be able to gain access to the military technology, the staffer said. Similar legislation has already been introduced in the Senate as well.

The informal notification given on Thursday was a courtesy that is not technically required of the White House. However, it has been effective policy for decades to consult with the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees before an official notification of a weapons sale is submitted to Congress. This gives lawmakers an opportunity to raise objections and even try and block a particular transfer.

Thursday’s update is still an early step in the process, and a formal notification from the State Department to Congress is still required. Reuters reported that the White House is hoping to submit the formal notification in December. At that point, lawmakers will have 30 days to produce a resolution to block the sale, though two-thirds of Congress would be needed to override a presidential veto.

Israel offered to immediately send an IDF search and rescue team to Turkey on Friday, after a deadly earthquake toppled buildings in the city of Izmir, killing at least 12 people. Two teens also died in a wall collapse on the Greek Island of Samos.

A strong earthquake struck Friday between the Turkish coast and Samos, collapsing buildings in Turkey’s western Izmir province. Dozens more were injured.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz ordered the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command to prepare to send a team and assistance to Turkey, the defense ministry said.

IDF representatives spoke with Turkey’s military attache in Israel, telling him that Israel was ready to immediately dispatch a search and rescue team to the area, and also set up a field hospital to treat the wounded.

It was not immediately clear if Turkey had accepted.

Israel’s Magen David Adom also reached out to the Red Crescent in Turkey and the Red Cross in Greece offering assistance, the group said.

Israel has sent rescue missions to Turkey in the past, with teams assisting after the devastating 1999 earthquake in the country.

Israel’s once-close relations with Turkey have deteriorated in recent years amid tensions with Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Israeli disaster relief delegations provided rescue and medical services after a dam collapse in Brazil last year, an earthquake in Mexico in 2017, an earthquake Nepal in 2015, a typhoon in the Philippines in 2013 and an earthquake in Haiti in 2010.

Recently, the United Nations’ World Health Organization identified Israel as having the world’s top emergency medical team.

A senior commander of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Fatah faction, was killed on Saturday in the Balata refugee camp, near Nablus.

Palestinian sources said that the man, Hatem Abu Rizek, 35, was affiliated with deposed Fatah operative Mohammed Dahlan, a powerful archrival of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The circumstances surrounding Abu Rizek’s killing were unclear.

Some Palestinians claimed he was fatally shot by PA security officers during armed clashes in the camp.

PA security sources, however, said that Abu Rizek was killed when a hand grenade he was trying to throw at Palestinian officers exploded in his hands.

The sources said that five camp residents were injured during armed clashes between rival Fatah armed groups in Balata on Friday night and Saturday morning.

Abu Rizek, who previously spent time in Israeli prison for security-related offenses, was rushed to the Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus, where he later died of his wounds.

Balata was the scene of several armed clashes between PA security forces and various Fatah armed groups, including the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which was formed during the Second Intifada. The group was responsible for many terrorist attacks against Israel.

In 2017, Abu Rizek and six Fatah gunmen from the camp handed themselves over to the PA security forces, who accused them of imposing a reign of terror and intimidation on Palestinians in the Nablus area.

The Palestine Liberation Organization continues to pay terrorists and their families from government coffers despite a massive cash crunch that has paralyzed the Palestinian government, according to a non-public State Department report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Known as a policy of "pay to slay," the Palestinian government uses money from international donors and other aid groups to financially support imprisoned terrorists and their families. The practice has long attracted international scorn and played a significant role in the Trump administration’s 2018 decision to cut nearly $200 million in U.S. funding to the Palestinian government. While the move was meant to pressure Palestinian leaders into ending the payments, the PLO has continued the practice under the radar, according to a recent report submitted by the State Department to Congress.

"Despite fiscal constraints … the [Palestinian Authority] continued to make payments through the PLO to Palestinians connected to terrorism," according to the report. "This is despite Israel’s decision to suspend extension of sovereignty into the West Bank. The recipients of the payments included Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prison, released Palestinian terrorists, and the families of Palestinians who were wounded or died while committing terrorist acts or in connection with terrorism."

The continuation of these payments is likely to frustrate lawmakers and U.S. diplomats who have been working to make the Palestinian government solvent and more likely to engage in peace talks with Israel. While the State Department did not say how much the Palestinian government spends on terrorists, outside groups put the number at upwards of $300 million a year. The pay-to-slay program has been a major roadblock with Israel, which moved in February to fine any banks that facilitate these payments. Palestinian leaders, however, have vowed to continue supporting terrorists.

"The [Palestinian Authority] argues these transfers are social payments for families who have lost their primary breadwinner," according to the report. "The United States and Israel argue that the payments incentivize, encourage, and reward terrorism, given higher monthly payments for lengthier prison sentences tied to more severe crimes."

The Palestinian envoy to UNESCO, Mounir Anastas, called on the United Nations' cultural heritage arm to pressure Israel into returning a Byzantine-era baptismal font back into the possession of Palestinian authorities, according to the state-run WAFA news agency.

The fifth century baptismal font was originally stolen from the Tel Tekoa archaeological site in the West Bank by antiquity looters around 20 years ago. The artifact, which dates back to the Byzantine period, is about 1.5 meters high and is shaped as an octagon and decorated with a cross and a stylized garland.

Anastas said on local radio in the West Bank that he demanded UNESCO to pressure Israel into returning "the stolen baptismal font," and urged the UN body to create a permanent item on the agenda to discuss "illicit ownership of cultural and historical property."

In July, COGAT officials located the font within the city Tuqu', near Bethlehem, together with the Bethlehem District Coordination and Liaison Office and the cooperation of the Etzion Regional Brigade.

In the night, COGAT loaded up the graffitied artifact, which they found left abandoned in a yard, and brought it back to Tel Tekoa.

A few hours later, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Department of Public Diplomacy and Policy released a video on Twitter claiming that “Israeli occupation forces stole a historical baptismal font dating back to the 6th century from the city of Bethlehem last night.”

The Palestinian envoy claims that after the font was stolen in 2000, the Tuqu' municipality, located in the area of Tekoa in Gush Etzion, "managed to retrieve the font and placed it in the vicinity of the mayor’s house, pending the construction of a local museum.

PLO official Hanan Ashrawi described the event at the time as “an abominable act of thuggery and cultural appropriation.”

In 2018, after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, calling it “the worse deal ever,” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, vowed never to renegotiate another nuclear deal with the United States.

The Iranians understand that if Trump is reelected, they may have no choice but to reengage in negotiations with the United States. Based on his recent statements, including some uttered during the peace ceremony between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, Trump appears eager to get back to the negotiating table. And he may even try to get Senate approval (67 votes) to convert his deal into a treaty – with buy-in from the Israelis this time.

Former vice president Joseph Biden, if elected, is also expected to quickly negotiate a new deal with Iran, with help from the Europeans. Some of his advisers have circulated working papers with the aim of getting “back to the JCPOA,” the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. There is also talk of returning to the interim 2013 deal, the Joint Plan of Action, as a show of good faith while negotiating a new deal. Some of these Biden advisers appear to have not learned from their own diplomatic missteps during the Iran negotiations of 2013–2015. In some cases, their working papers use remarkably similar language to US memos from the Obama years.

From all indications, a Biden plan would offer up-front sanctions relief to entice Iran back to the table, without getting much (if anything) in return. That was a bad idea in 2013 and 2015. It would be equally problematic 2021.

Since the United States withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, the Iranian regime has engaged in nuclear blackmail, enriching more uranium, installing new centrifuges, enhancing its R&D efforts, and taking many other dangerous steps.

Instagram blocked the French-language page of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Friday after he published an open letter to French youths promoting Holocaust denial, according to reports in Iran’s state-controlled media.

"Why is it a crime to raise doubts about the Holocaust?" Khamenei wrote in his Wednesday post. "Why should anyone who writes about such doubts be imprisoned while insulting the [Islamic] Prophet is allowed?"

Muslims across the globe have launched protests in recent days following French president Emmanuel Macron’s vow to protect free speech in the country, including controversial cartoons portraying the prophet Muhammad, the Islamic religion’s central figure. Depictions of Muhammad are banned under Islamic law. Macron also has come under fire for his government’s efforts to combat the rise of hardline Islamists in the country and promote further integration into French society.

Iran’s Khamenei opened a new French-language Instagram page following the ban on his initial account.

2500 years ago Cyrus the Great defended the Jewish people from persecution. Now, Khamenei once again shamefully peddles Holocaust denial from his uncensored Twitter account while he throws religious minorities in jail, executes dissidents, and imposes digital darkness on Iran.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) October 30, 2020

The UK’s Guardian newspaper came under fire on Friday for publishing a cartoon portraying Labour Party leader Kier Starmer holding up Jeremy Corbyn’s severed head on a golden plate, a day after Corbyn was suspended from the party following his response to a damning government watchdog report that found Labour broke equality laws in its handling of anti-Semitism complaints under his leadership.

The cartoon, by Steve Bell, was criticized for being both anti-Semitic and insensitive, coming the day after a woman was beheaded and two others were killed in an Islamist terror attack in France, and a week after a French teacher was beheaded after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

The newspaper said it had received several complaints and was looking into them.

“The Steve Bell cartoon published today portrays his observation on the recent events in the Labour Party,” a spokesperson for the Guardian told the Jewish Chronicle. “Some complaints have been received which the readers’ editor is looking into.”

Several social media users who saw the cartoon on Twitter said they had reported it to the platform as an instance of “race hate,” the Daily Mail reported. It also quoted the Labour peer Lord Andrew Adonis saying “Today’s Guardian cartoon by Steve Bell is repellent.”

Bell wrote “After Caravaggio” on the side of the drawing, a reference to its inspiration.

Caravaggio’s painting “Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist” is one of the most famous depictions of the event described in the New Testament when Judean King Herod had John the Baptist killed at the request of his stepdaughter Salome.

Pleased at her dancing at a party, a drunken Herod had promised her any reward, up to half his kingdom. But on the advice of her mother, she demanded the head of Jesus’s mentor.

The cartoon was denounced by some critics as an attempt to portray Corbyn as a Christian martyr, with Starmer doing the bidding of the Jews.

As the blogger Elder of Zion documented in a March 23, 2020 post, Oxfam also sold a book that “tries to exonerate Nazi war criminal Albert Speer,” along with works that blame Jews for the Holocaust. Further, the books themselves were approved by Oxfam volunteers and were donated, as Oxfam’s own website acknowledged, “by supporters.” As Elder noted: “The problem is not that Oxfam accidentally is selling some antisemitic books. The problem is that these books are what Oxfam members are reading and recommending to others.”

Nor is this particularly surprising considering that Oxfam has funded the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WLAC). WLAC supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS), which seeks to single out Israel for opprobrium. As NGO Monitor has documented, WLAC fieldworker Manal Tamimi has endorsed terrorism and anti-Jewish violence. In September 2015, on Yom Kippur (the holiest day of the year in the Jewish calendar), Tamimi tweeted: “Vampire zionist celebrating their Kebore day by drinking Palestinian bloods, yes our blood is pure & delicious but it will kill u at the end.”

Another Oxfam partner, Miftah, has published claims that Jews consume Christian blood and defended suicide bombers. In 2013, when Miftah’s promotion of the antisemitic blood libel prompted concern, Oxfam defended the group. Comparing Jews to bloodsucking creatures is a staple of antisemitism that goes back centuries.

Amnesty International’s record of antisemitism is also clear.

As The Times revealed in 2015, Yasmin Hussein, Amnesty International’s Director of Faith and Human Rights, has links to the Muslim Brotherhood and possibly to Hamas, both of which are vociferously antisemitic groups. Other Amnesty employees have accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing and compared Israel to Nazi Germany and singled out the nation as a “scum state.” A top Amnesty UK employee, Kristyan Benedict, libeled three British members of Parliament—all of whom were Jewish—as “warmongers.”

In an April 19, 2015 vote, Amnesty UK rejected a resolution to campaign against antisemitism, claiming that “our membership decided not to pass this resolution calling for a campaign with a single focus.” Yet, as NGO Monitor pointed out, Amnesty UK has frequently engaged in single focus campaigns, including for the Sinti and Roma communities. But fighting Jew hatred—at a time of rising antisemitism throughout Europe and the UK—clearly wasn’t of interest. Amnesty’s decision was profiled by several news outlets, notably a Tablet Magazine entitled “Amnesty International Rejects Motion to Combat Record-High Antisemitism in the UK.” One doesn’t need to be a Woodward or a Bernstein to find and cite such an article—just a good-faith and competent reporter.

It doesn’t matter if Jews identify as Zionist.

Belief in an illusory power nexus described as “Zionist” is an updated version of antisemitic conspiracy theory, and it has the same end result as political antisemitism: hatred of Jews.https://t.co/yzhZ5fWrhW

— The Conspiracy Libel (@ConspiracyLibel) October 31, 2020

Just two days after the Province of Ontario adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance – IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, a Professor from York University, Faisal Bhabha (already accused of antisemitism) and Greg Shupak, a Professor from the University of Guelph, are listed as panelists in a November 2 antisemitic event which claims that the nation-state of the Jewish people, Israel, is a “racist endeavour.”

The very premise of this event espouses Jew hatred.

Five years ago Guardian columnist and Jewish Chronicle contributor Jonathan Freedland published an op-ed at The Jewish Chronicle about Yitzhak Rabin on the 20th anniversary of his assassination. Titled “An assassin’s bitter legacy”, it included themes similar to those seen in the synopsis to the BBC’s upcoming programme.“Yigal Amir was surely the most effective assassin in modern history. He wanted to destroy the peace process, then real and under way, and he did so. Oslo is a dead letter.”

As noted by CAMERA UK’s co-editor at the time:“Tellingly, Freedland only mentions the word “Palestinians” once (in passing) in his entire op-ed.”

The notion that Amir managed to single-handedly destroy an otherwise viable ‘peace process’ is one which BBC audiences have also seen promoted by the corporation’s Middle East editor on repeated occasions.

“My view is that Rabin’s assassination, 20 years ago today, was one of the most successful political killings of the 20th Century; his assassin, Yigal Amir, wanted to destroy the Israel-Palestinian Oslo peace accords by shooting dead the only Israeli leader who had a chance of making it work.” “Did Rabin assassination kill the best chance for peace?“ November 4th 2015, discussed here.

“How the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin changed the region’s history, as remembered by BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen. “No political killing in the twentieth century was more successful,” he argues, observing the dramatic effects on the Oslo peace process. “Perhaps there was a moment for peace, and it came, and went.”” “Recipe for Disaster“ May 19th 2017, discussed here.

On November 2nd we will find out whether or not Freedland’s account finally provides BBC audiences with the essential context of the intense campaign of devastating terror attacks that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad were running against Israelis at the time and the effect that was having on public support for the Oslo process.

It all began at a dinner party in Florence. A guest related how a collection of documents, bearing the Nazi insignia, had fallen out of an old chair that her mother had taken to an upholsterer in Amsterdam. The proprietor was furious with the owner and categorically refused to even touch the chair. Yet the woman was not an old Nazi, but a Czech – and the chair had been bought in Prague long ago. The next day, another guest at the meal, Daniel Lee, a Jewish academic in London, called the chair’s owner in Holland – and so began an almost possessed attempt to reconstruct the life and times of SS Obersturmführer Robert Arnold Greisinger, a Stuttgart lawyer and Nazi functionary, in The SS Officer’s Armchair: Uncovering the Hidden Life of a Nazi (Hachette 2020).

The author, Daniel Lee, elegantly takes the reader through the momentous changes in the 1920s that transformed Griesinger from “a gentle schoolboy interested in stamps and Renaissance art into a political agitator.” Someone who came of age in a country, led by a ranting demagogue who wanted to make Germany great again after the defeat and humiliation of World War I. Weimar became “the Jewish Republic” and conservative voters were transformed into Nazi ones.

In June 1933, Greisinger scraped through his law exams and a few months later found employment in the Württemberg Ministry of the Interior. On the same day, he joined the SS Gruppe “West.”

Greisinger’s desire for career advancement reflected how ordinary people realized that times had changed and that the Nazi bandwagon was rolling – regardless of how many were crushed in its path. Indeed when Hitler had visited Stuttgart in December 1925, the SS could muster only nine recruits.

While Lee surmises that Greisinger was not involved in interrogation, torture and beatings, he would have been only too aware of what was going on. In April 1933, nearly 2,000 political opponents in Württemberg were incarcerated in Heuberg, one of the first concentration camps. Following the Nuremberg Laws, the 8,000 Jews in Stuttgart were surveilled even more closely and Greisinger sent out a report, decrying sexual relations between Jewish guests and Aryan employees at Jewish-owned hotels, sanitoria and pensions – Greisinger demanded that the police investigate.

Before I met him, I saw Benjamin McDowell’s name in the news. Inspired by Dylan Roof, the notorious shooter responsible for the Charleston church massacre, he planned an attack on a synagogue that was thwarted by FBI agents.

No lives were lost. No lasting physical harm was done, though the synagogue members certainly felt threatened and terrified. I read the news item online and, though I didn’t yet know the word, doomscrolled onward.

I probably wouldn’t have thought much about McDowell again had I not seen a video of him in my Facebook feed three years later. Rabba Karpov, the rabbi of Jewish Center of Indian Country, Oklahoma, had posted a Youtube video uploaded by McDowell in which he expressed remorse for his past behavior. (The video has since been removed, though I don’t know why or by whom).

I watched the video and was genuinely moved. Something had happened to Benji while in prison. Here he was, talking about the power of love and light to transcend differences, political and religious, and how we were all part of one larger human family. How many of us have undergone such a profound, public transformation from deadly darkness to hope? How many ex-White Supremacists are out there seeking to amend their past ways?

A few nights before I had watched the film “Burden,” which tells the true story of how a Black minister, Reverend Kennedy, welcomed a former KKK member, Mike Burden, into his home and changed his life forever. Inspired by this radical act of loving kindness on the reverend’s part, I felt compelled to act on the video of McDowell. I reached out to him directly on Facebook.

Christian and Jewish religious leaders came together on Thursday to celebrate the 55th anniversary of “Nostra Aetate,” the declaration promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1965 following the Second Vatican Council that denounced antisemitism and exonerated Jews from the charge of “deicide” — the killing of Jesus.

Keynote speaker Cardinal Kurt Koch — president of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews — hailed the 1965 document as a “milestone document articulating the promise of a new and better era in Christian-Jewish relations” by promoting a recognition of their common spiritual heritage, deeper understanding of one another and mutual respect.

Koch was addressing a virtual meeting that was arranged after the coronavirus forced the cancelation of a planned in-person dialogue in Brazil with Jewish leaders from around the world.

“Yes, even if we are not able to meet personally, our contact remains steadfast, attesting to the fact that our friendship is stable and strong,” the cardinal said. “Let us give thanks to God, the eternal and almighty, for these bonds of friendship and for all that has been achieved in the last decades of Jewish-Catholic dialogue.”

Koch said it was essential for Catholics to recognize that dialogue with the Jewish community was not “external to the life of the church,” nor was it “optional.”

“Jesus is and remains a son of the people of Israel,” the cardinal said. “He is shaped by that tradition and, for this reason, can only be truly understood in the perspective of this cultural and religious framework.”

Scottish movie legend Sean Connery, who shot to international stardom as the suave, sexy and sophisticated British agent James Bond and went on to grace the silver screen for four decades, has died aged 90, the BBC and Sky News reported on Saturday.

The Israeli Airforce gave their condolences on Twitter.

"Sir Sean Connery, best known for his role of James Bond, passed away today at the age of 90. In 1967, Connery visited Israel and took this historic picture with then IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Moti Hod with the background of an Iraqi MiG-21, numbered '007' after Bond. RIP," the tweet read.

RIP Sean Connery, 1930-2020.

Pictured: the James Bond actor with the late IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Motti Hod in front of the Iraqi MiG-21 numbered "007" in Israel, 1967.

Credit: Raanan Weiss Collection pic.twitter.com/lswy3BiIb3

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 31, 2020

Connery was raised in near poverty in the slums of Edinburgh and worked as a coffin polisher, milkman and lifeguard before his bodybuilding hobby helped launch an acting career that made him one of the world's biggest stars.

"The world’s greatest Scot, the last of the real Hollywood stars, the definitive Bond," said Alex Salmond, Scotland's former first minister. "He was also a staunch patriot, a deep thinker and outstanding human being."

Connery will be remembered first as British agent 007, the character created by novelist Ian Fleming and immortalized by Connery in films starting with "“Dr. No" in 1962.

As Bond, his debonair manner and wry humour in foiling flamboyant villains and cavorting with beautiful women belied a darker, violent edge, and he crafted a depth of character that set the standard for those who followed him in the role.

Here, too, Iran is the exception to the rule. Most Middle East countries want to see Trump remain in the White House; the fact that Iran fears him so much is considered a bonus. One can argue about his style, but no one can deny Trump credit for the fact that his regional policies have made friends and foes alike take notice. He has restored the United States’ standing as a major power-player in the Middle East.

There is also no doubt that his crowning achievement is making actual breakthroughs in the moribund Middle East peace process. His decision to go over the Palestinian Authority’s head was proven right, and regardless of what the future might bring, Trump will go down in history as the US president who brokered three peace agreements between Muslim nations — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan — and the Jewish state, and presided over the Israel-Lebanon maritime border talks. And more is sure to come.

Effective progress in peacemaking in the Middle East alongside the very effective deterrence gained vis-à-vis Iran has restored stability to the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring, and therefore has been welcomed by the region’s rulers. Trump has proven he has a better understanding of regional realities than his predecessor, and unlike President Barack Obama didn’t create an Islamist backlash by trying to push Western democracy or preach morals.

The results of the November 3 elections are for American voters to decide, but Trump’s legacy will be felt in the Middle East long after he leaves the White House, be it in 2020 or in 2024. His will be a legacy of power and determination, of resorting stability to the region, and of proving that the United States stands by its allies.

Support for Normalization: Sudan National Dialogue

All of this came on the backdrop of the so-called Sudan National Dialogue, a summit attended by all of the country’s political parties and factions, during which many of them expressed support for normalizing relations with Israel, especially due to the economic benefits that such a move would entail.

Under-the-radar discussions between Sudan and Israel were launched and continued into February 2020, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Uganda with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Khartoum’s Sovereignty Council. The two held a two-hour tete-a-tete that resulted in a loose agreement to start forging ties.

Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization, “aggressively” condemned the move, saying that it constituted “a stab in the back of the Palestinian nation.” Massive Country, Massive Achievement

Despite objections from Ramallah, the encounter bore immediate fruit as Israeli commercial planes were later that month given permission to use Sudanese airspace. This, in turn, decreased the flight time from Israel to South America by three hours.

The fact that Sudan, which has a population four times larger than the UAE and Bahrain combined, and whose geographical size is 22 times bigger than those two countries together, appears to be choosing a path of engagement with Israel is a remarkable twist.

A historic development of this magnitude between former enemies simply cannot be downplayed or ignored.

Regardless of the outcome of next week’s election, former Vice President Joe Biden will have the distinction of being the first American presidential candidate to draw attention to the US government’s shameful record of friendly relations with Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

During the final presidential debate on October 22, President Donald Trump claimed that he has “a good relationship” with North Korea and argued that “having a good relationship with leaders of other countries is a good thing.” Former Vice President Biden retorted that “we had a good relationship with Hitler before he in fact invaded Europe.”

Biden’s assertion must have surprised many viewers of the debate, who likely assumed that because President Franklin D. Roosevelt led America in a war against Nazi Germany, he must have always been hostile to the Hitler regime. In fact, from the time FDR first took office in 1933 until America entered World War II in December 1941, the Roosevelt administration’s policy was to pursue cordial, sometimes even friendly relations with the Nazi regime.

Many Americans boycotted products from Nazi Germany. But the Roosevelt administration helped Nazi Germany evade the boycott in the 1930s by permitting goods from Germany to bear labels that misled consumers as to their country of origin. The administration halted this disgraceful practice only when threatened with a lawsuit by boycott activists.

FDR also sent Secretary of Commerce Daniel Roper to address a pro-Nazi rally in New York City in 1933. At that rally, Nazi Germany’s ambassador to the United States was the keynote speaker and the podium and hall were decorated with swastika flags. In 1937, the administration sent one of its senior diplomats to represent the United States at the annual Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg.

In some instances, the Roosevelt administration actually apologized for U.S. citizens’ anti-Nazi sentiment. In 1935, the administration publicly apologized to Adolf Hitler after a New York City judge released protesters who tore a swastika flag off a visiting German ship. Then, in 1937, when New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia called Hitler a “brown-shirted fanatic who is threatening the peace of the world,” Roosevelt’s secretary of state expressed the US government’s “regret” over “utterances calculated to be offensive to a foreign government.

In a speech on Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah raged against cartoons that had offended the “prophet to over a billion people.”

Then in a seemingly unrelated comment, he said in a matter “less sensitive” than offending Muslims, France had prosecuted “philosopher Roger Garaudy, who wrote a book questioning the myths of the so-called Holocaust.”

In his speech, Nasrallah denied the Holocaust and supported Holocaust denial, claiming that denying it was less offensive than cartoons mocking religion.

His tirade against the Holocaust began by referring to a controversy with France, in which Turkey and other countries led by leaders who identify with political Islam have claimed France is insulting Muslims.

The controversy is largely invented because it stems from cartoons published years ago in a French magazine. It has been revived primarily by Turkey to encourage attacks on France.

Why did Nasrallah seek to deny the Holocaust to get back at France for cartoons? The cartoon controversy has led to a series of hypocritical statements by leaders claiming to be offended. Mahathir Mohamad, the former Malaysian leader, claimed that “Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people.”

France is on its highest terror alert in many years following a series of terror attacks by Muslims, and the PA has chosen to be on the side of the terrorists.

The terror attacks started after a French teacher who showed his class cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad as an example of freedom of expression, was beheaded by a Muslim. Reacting to the murder in a Paris suburb, President of France Emmanuel Macron spoke in defense of freedom of expression, and said: “Islam is a religion that is experiencing a crisis across the world.” He also called the murder “a typical Islamist terrorist attack.” [The Guardian, Oct. 18, 2020] Subsequently another Muslim murdered three Christians in a church in Nice, one of them an elderly woman whom he beheaded. A few days later, yet another terrorist shot and injured a priest as he was leaving church. In addition, Muslims are demonstrating against France and against cartoons portraying Islam’s Prophet Muhammad across the world.

Significantly, the Palestinian Authority has chosen to take the side of the Islamists. The official Palestinian news sources have not published condemnations of the murders of innocent French Christians by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas or any other PA leader. In fact, no one has even mentioned the killings. Instead, while being careful not to criticize France by name, since France is one of the PA’s top financial supporters in Europe, PA religious leaders - including the Ministry of Religious Affairs - have condemned the publication of the Muhammad cartoons, saying that it is the cartoons that “fan the spirit of hatred and hostility”:

“The Ministry of Religious Affairs expressed its rejection of the affront to Prophet Muhammad… Ministry of Religious Affairs Director-General in the Ramallah District Wafiq Alawi said: ‘The ministry – with all its administrative staff and all the mosque imams, preachers, and guards – has followed with great resentment the publication of the cartoons affronting Prophet Muhammad… We warn against continuing these affronts… This fans the spirit of hatred and hostility, and contributes to burying the culture of tolerance and peace between the peoples.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 28, 2020]

Muslim organizations across New York plan to protest in front of the French Consulate in Manhattan on Sunday, in response to recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron in a row about cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

"The French President is directly provoking the Muslim world in his support of offensive and vulgar depictions of the beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)," the Islamic Leadership Council of New York said in a press release. PBUH is the acronym for "peace be upon him."

"Moreover, he continues to directly terrorize the French Muslim community by raiding private homes and mosques over baseless accusations in the aftermath of the attack against a French teacher," it added.

The council said that even before his most recent comments, Macron had been on a "crusade against Muslim communities" and accused the French president of "further alienating an already marginalized" society.

"The Muslim world will not tolerate such blatant disrespect of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and stands in solidarity with their French Muslim brothers and sisters," the council said.

Tens of thousands of Muslims protested from Bangladesh to Pakistan and the Palestinian territories on Friday after killings in a French church prompted a vow from Macron to stand firm against attacks on French values and freedom of belief.

Thousands of Palestinian worshipers rallied after Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, in Jerusalem's walled Old City to condemn the republication of Muhammad caricatures in France. "A nation whose leader is Muhammad will not be defeated," protesters chanted.

“We believe in the Enlightenment, and women have the same rights as men... People who think otherwise, let them do it somewhere else, not on French soil.”

Powerful comments by French President Macron 👏 👏 👏 pic.twitter.com/9jWBP0znJD

— James Bloodworth 🇫🇷 (@J_Bloodworth) October 31, 2020

.@AP just deleted the tweet below. Lucky I kept a screenshot so you can see what it was I had called out.

Their quasi-apology: https://t.co/TTw5qDkuS5https://t.co/Bpw2XmUgDDpic.twitter.com/5ZdYOLGpAL

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 1, 2020

Palestinian scholar Nidhal Siam at Al-Aqsa Rally: Macron, You Lowlife, Soon We Will Conquer Paris and Rome, Rule Europe with Islam pic.twitter.com/kcYqPBafFn

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 1, 2020

A Teacher at Islamabad Islamic School Beheads Effigy of Macron in Front of Students pic.twitter.com/l6AYkC0xOu

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 1, 2020

As early as September 2020, with the opening of the trial of those involved in the murder of 12 members of the Charlie Hebdo editorial board in Pares, the Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the French magazine that re-published the cartoons from 2015, which mocked the Prophet Muhammad. Iran’s Foreign Ministry defined the publication as an “anti-religious move.” A ministry spokesman said that “the publication of the cartoons ostensibly in the name of the freedom of expression, shows disrespect for the values and beliefs of over a billion Muslims around the world, and this is unacceptable.”

Even then, Iran sharply criticized the “indifference” of French President Macron, who, following the re-publication of the cartoons in early September 2020, defended the freedom of expression and freedom of the press in France. Tehran claimed that while France saw the Mohammed cartoons as freedom of expression, it defined Holocaust denial as a crime. The news agency website Alef claimed that France makes a distinction between Jews and Muslims and that anyone accused of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial is a candidate for a trial.

The paper cited the case of French Communist author Roger Garaudy, who was convicted and fined for Holocaust denial, and the case of the anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala. The site also criticizes French policy, which expands the definition of anti-Semitism to include anyone who insults Israel and Zionism and considers it a crime. Alef’s article addressed Macron and wrote: “If you have red lines regarding freedom of expression, then they should apply to everyone … Why do they apply them only to Israel and anti-Semitism but not to Muslims who are victims of anti-Islamism and on whose back you teach a lesson of liberty and freedom in France?10“

For Iran, Macron’s remarks and the publication of the offensive cartoons are an opportunity to present itself as leading the fight against those who harm Islam and protect them from the “Crusades of the West.”

In this context, Tehran competes with Ankara, Turkey, which has also responded belligerently and called for a boycott of French products. Furthermore, Tehran looks at the attack on Islam in the broader context. Tehran points out that Macron’s reaction is actually a part of the Western axis – Israel, the United States, and Europe – policy against the Prophet Muhammad, the martyrs of Islam, and their supporters. Thus, the planned cartoon exhibition that challenges the Holocaust was declared to provoke international media noise that will, it hopes, reveal the hypocrisy of the West and its biased attitude toward Israel and Zionism.

Kuwaiti Islamic Scholar Nabil Al-Awadhi Called on a Boycott of French Products; French Speaking Muslims should call the “Miserable” French nation to Islam pic.twitter.com/4fY6400THO

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 1, 2020

Pakistani Politician and Islamic Scholar Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi Calls on Pakistani Government to Use the Atom Bomb, in the Wake of the Charlie Hebdo Cartoons Affair pic.twitter.com/wuuigYVEYM

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 1, 2020

It was Mr Corbyn’s decision to make what should have been a turning point for the better for Labour into another argument about himself. To some extent, it was always going to be about him. Antisemitism was never a big problem in the Labour party under any previous leader and only became a hugely divisive and damaging issue under him. The EHRC report puts it starkly: “Our analysis points to a culture within the party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it.” The independent investigators clearly do not believe Mr Corbyn’s assertions that he was “always determined to eliminate all forms of racism and root out the cancer of antisemitism”. The report says: “It is not hard to conclude that antisemitism within the Labour party could have been tackled more effectively if the leadership had chosen to do so.” Since it was beyond their remit to peer into Mr Corbyn’s soul, the investigators don’t come to conclusions about why he didn’t choose to tackle it more effectively. The most generous explanation offered by some of his associates is that he has “a blindspot for antisemitism”. Much more severe verdicts are available.

Mr Corbyn’s vanity simply will not allow him to accept responsibility. Many things have been said about his character over the years, but one thing has not been said enough: he is a narcissist. He cannot deal with criticism because it challenges his self-conceited estimation of his own purity. He can never be the transgressor, he must always be the sufferer. So his response to the EHRC report was to weakly express “regret” that Labour took too long to address the issue while trying to shift culpability on to “an obstructive party bureaucracy” and adding the self-exculpating, responsibility-denying, victimhood-claiming assertion that the antisemitism on his watch had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media”. Despite a statutory investigation finding otherwise, he stuck to his dog-eared denialist script that the antisemitism scandal was an exaggeration fabricated by his enemies.

After this direct violation of the “zero-tolerance” policy, Mr Starmer did not instantly treat it as an opportunity to demonstrate his “new leadership” by making an example of his predecessor. Mr Corbyn was first given a chance to avoid being suspended by retracting the statement. He instead went on TV to repeat it. There was no real choice then but to suspend his membership pending investigation, with the automatic consequence of also losing the party whip. For those asking under which rule, it is for “bringing the party into disrepute”. That appears rather appropriate.

Luciana Berger has revealed that she received a message online threatening that she “would pay” for the suspension of the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The former Labour MP was also subjected to vicious attacks during a live chat session run by the pro-Corbyn Novara Media website – including comments labelling her a “vile fifth columnist” and having a “face of evil.”

The former Liverpool Wavertree parliamentarian told the Sunday Times: ”The volume and toxicity of what has come in the past 48 hours is an example of the problem that still permeates the left.”

Ms Berger added that supporters of the former Labour leader were “still seeking to do down the experience of Jewish members and former members.”

On Twitter she was called a “criminal”, an “agent of a foreign power” and “Zionist scum”.

Commenting on Mr Corbyn’s response to the damning EHRC report into Labour's handling of antisemitism, Ms Berger said what was needed was a “wholesome apology” and not “another moment when he has chosen to obfuscate and not take responsibility.”

The 39 year-old also told the newspaper she believed Mr Corbyn is antisemitic, noting how he “can’t process not to be" but then engage in actions such as defending the Tower Hamlets mural that featured caricatures of Jewish bankers with hooked noses.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission report had one focus: to decide “whether the Labour Party had unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimised people because they are Jewish”.

The commission was aware of many who had spent the past years in what sometimes looked like a hopeless battle, to raise awareness of antisemitism in the party – and to challenge its proponents wherever possible.

Simon Myerson, a barrister, is not a party member (he left in 2018). But, along with all those to whom Jewish News spoke, he has paid a price (of vitriolic abuse) for his vigilance and monitoring of anti-Jewish hatred.

He battles what he calls “the triumphalist left”, who are “thick and stupid – and malign”, adding: “These are people who are genuinely unpleasant. The minute you start making excuses for racism, or say it is justified because of Israel – when people are prepared to put aside their moral principles to do those things, where do they stop?”

Myerson took up the cudgel on Twitter because he is passionately anti-bullying, seeing it as “morally offensive”. His wife has urged him to stop, telling him “nobody listens”; but he says: “What about all the people who say nothing, but watch and read [antisemitism]? If they don’t hear the voice, it’s too easy for them to assume there’s something in it.”

Gnasher Jew is the anonymous online collective that has taken a leading role in challenging the Corbynistas. Three of the group were Labour members and one a Labour voter. They have a professional background in OSI, or Open Source Investigation, and had been challenging antisemitism on social media before Corbyn’s advent as Labour leader.

Those of you who are on social media or who have been following the news would have heard the line that only 0.3% of Labour members have been investigated, or suspected of being antisemitic.

Channel 4 Factcheck has done an excellent job of killing this nonsense by pointing out two things:

1. “It’s hard to understand how Mr Corbyn can claim to know how many Labour members were investigated by the party for antisemitism throughout his leadership. This is because people close to him have always argued that Labour did not have proper systems in place to track antisemitism cases until they took over the management of the party.”

2. “FactCheck approached Labour last year to ask how Mr Corbyn was able to recite such statistics then if, according to Ms Formby’s later statement, there was no “consistent and comprehensive system” in place for recording antisemitism complaints until she took over a month later. Those representing Labour at the time denied that there was any inconsistency between Mr Corbyn and Ms Formby’s statements, though they were unable to provide a full explanation of how the two might be reconciled.”

It appears that the statistic comes from a survey commissioned by Professor Greg Philo whose book downplayed (to put it mildly) antisemitism in the Labour Party. It was co-authored by Professor David Miller of Bristol University, whose comments on antisemitism have been well documented on this blog. Miller was suspended from the Labour Party twice. He has since quit the party in a huff using language that the Community Security Trust, an organisation that documents antisemitism, claimed was “disgraceful and dangerous”.

A meeting held by the left-wing Momentum organisation to demand Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party suspension be rescinded included an incendiary speech on “the Jewish Question” which suggested antisemitism “has been used as a diversionist weapon against the progressive forces.”

Labour MPs Jon Trickett, Diane Abbott, Richard Burgon and John McDonnell all delivered speeches at Friday evening’s virtual event openly challenging Sir Keir Starmer over the decision to suspend the former leader over his response to the damning EHRC report into the handling of antisemitism complaints.

And Unite union executive Howard Beckett delivered his own interpretation of the EHRC report’s findings – claiming he believed the watchdog recognised the “reality” that Mr Corbyn had been “unjustly labelled” by the “right-wing media” and “given ownership of every act of antisemitism in the Labour".

But addressing the ‘Stand With Corbyn’ event, Rivkah Brown, who writes for the Novara Media website, made reference to a book she said had been shared with her by a “comrade” written in 1942, Antisemitism and the Jewish Question by “the Austrian Jewish Marxist scholar I Renapp.”

She quoted a passage from the book in which she said the author wrote: "Throughout the ages antisemitism and the Jewish Question have been used as a diversionist weapon against the progressive forces and their struggle for a better and higher order of things and today they can still be used for the same purpose.”

Ms Brown continued: ”This is entirely relevant to our moment.

“We have just had a day, and you know years, when antisemitism and the Jewish question, as we might call it, have been used to distract us from what ought to be the focus of the Labour Party which should be about winning power but should also be about transformative change.”

This is truly disgusting. It is clear to even the most simple of minds what is going on here. Winstanley and the other antisemites at Intifada are stoking antisemitism, utterly disgusting. pic.twitter.com/qYdNeLyhAO

— SussexFriendsofIsrael (@SussexFriends) October 31, 2020

The Left called for a protest outside Parliament in solidarity with Corbyn.

No one turned up 😂 https://t.co/NKPnvIGOqw

— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) November 1, 2020

Over the course of the past four years, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has charted a new direction towards Israel, Iran and the greater Middle East. Many of the policies advanced during this period have looked considerably different from those of previous administrations—particularly that of Trump’s immediate predecessor, Barack Obama.

A central figure in the advancement of these policies has been U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, an American-Jewish bankruptcy attorney who represented Trump in previous business dealings, and a longtime advocate for Israeli settlements. His appointment initially was opposed by much of the U.S. diplomatic elite and many Mideast experts.

Highlights of the Trump administration’s Israel policy include: official recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city; the transfer of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; rollout of the Peace to Prosperity vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace, accepted by Israel as the basis for negotiations; and a reversal of longstanding American policy on the legality of suburban settlements in Judea and Samaria.

The U.S. election this week is likely to have profound implications for the future of America’s Mideast policy. Included are the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship and whether or not Friedman gets to spend another four years serving as ambassador. In the final weeks of a first or possibly only term, many of the Trump administration’s hard-fought efforts are only now beginning to bear fruit.

In just the past several weeks, three countries—the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan—have pledged to fully normalize diplomatic and commercial relations with the State of Israel. In the wake of these deals, which were advanced over the course of many years, America has further committed to ensuring Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME)—a fundamental principle of the Israel-U.S. alliance.

Officials in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain made it clear over the weekend that the Persian Gulf states' support for the re-election of US President Donald Trump extends to encouraging moderate Muslims in the US to vote for him, despite the fact that traditionally they do not support the conservative Republican Party.

"We have one eye on the US election. We hope for a Trump victory, but we are also preparing for the possibility of a new president entering the Oval Office," a senior Emirate diplomat told Israel Hayom.

A senior official in the Bahraini capital of Manama, who is close to government circles in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, also confirmed to Israel Hayom that the moderate Sunni states are concerned that Trump will be defeated and that his rival, Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden will pursue changes in US policy in the Middle East.

"There are preparations in case the administration changes and the [new] administration's policy in the Middle East changes completely," he said.

"Nevertheless, neither scenario is expected to affect the agreements signed so far with Israel," he stressed. "In fact, a Biden victory may pave the way for a stronger alliance with Israel, with the understanding that we are dependent on one another and therefore we don't need constant backing from the Americans."

The Bahraini official added that although there are no plans for additional normalization deals between Gulf states and Israel by Nov. 3, such negotiations are ongoing.

"Talks with other countries in an effort to have them normalize their relations with Israel continue all the time, but if there is an agreement, it will be implemented only after the US election and in accordance with who wins them.

"If Trump wins, there will be a flood of moderate Arab and Muslim countries that are very interested in taking part in the Middle East [peace] process," he continued. "A Biden victory will see many of the countries that are currently exploring the possibility of normalizing relations [with Israel] take a step back and rethink the risk they are taking.

They are looking for abs cause to spoil the whole Middle East peace Trump has created, and of course will invoke understandings of Israel’s security rejected by Israel’s govt’t. Iran deal all over again https://t.co/TfHB9UFcq3

— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) November 1, 2020

The United Arab Emirates on Sunday gave its final okay to an agreement with Israel that will exempt tourists from both countries from visa requirements when visiting the other country.

“The cabinet ratified a number of agreements between the government of the UAE and a number of friendly countries, including the ratification of the agreement between the UAE and the State of Israel regarding mutual exemption from entry visa requirements,” UAE’s state news agency WAM said in a statement.

The agreement still must be ratified by the Israeli cabinet and Knesset before it enters into force.

The Israel-UAE visa exemption agreement will mean that citizens from both countries will be allowed to enter each other’s countries without having to go through the hassle of applying for a visa first.

The deal will be the first such arrangement between the Jewish state and an Arab country. Notably, even Israel’s closest ally, the United States, has so far refused to sign a visa exemption agreement with the Jewish state.

The treaty was signed last month during high-level meetings and a ceremony outside Tel Aviv attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and two senior UAE ministers — part of the first high-level delegation from the Gulf nation to visit Israel.

Theodor Herzl likely died of exhaustion and frustration on July 3, 1904. The founder of political Zionism and the great and charismatic leader at its helm struggled for almost a decade to find a strong foreign power with influence that would recognize the reality of a Jewish state. He negotiated with the Turkish sultan, Kaiser Wilhelm, the king of Italy, and Pope Pius X.

In his 1989 study of Herzl, biographer Ernst Pawel writes, “Time and again he proceeded to act on the assumption that a few men at the top were free to determine the course of events, and that if he could talk to the key players he could convince them to follow his game plan.” It was all for naught during Herzl’s lifetime, but his legacy would lead to what Zionists considered a major triumph years after the leader’s death: the Balfour Declaration.

The Balfour Declaration was the product of practical politics and religious zeal. On November 2, 1917, British foreign secretary A.J. Balfour sent a letter Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, the de facto leader of Jewry in England. Balfour assured Lord Rothschild that “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish People and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object.”

The declaration was the culmination during WWI of a year of continuous negotiations between the Zionist movement and the British government. It was in part a gesture of appreciation for Chaim Weizmann’s critical work on developing acetone for explosives for the British military, an attempt to counter Bolshevik propaganda and convince Russian Jews to remain in the war effort, and the influence of Balfour’s Christian Zionist religious beliefs.

While news of the Balfour Declaration electrified the Jewish world, the joy would soon be tempered by political reality. The Ottoman Empire collapsed and was soon replaced by the British Mandate. There can be no doubt that the power of the British Empire played a major role in England’s promises to the Jews. Historian Sir Martin Gilbert states in his 1998 history of Israel that Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion “sounded a cautionary note” to the news of the declaration.

Ben-Gurion’s words were prophetic: “Britain has made a magnificent gesture; she has recognized our existence as a nation and has acknowledged our right to the country. But only the Hebrew people can transform this right into tangible fact; only they, with body and soul, with their strength and capital, must build their National Home and bring about their national redemption.” As it turned out, the British were the power Herzl was looking for. Yet, in a short time, they betrayed their promises and eventually had to be driven out of the Land of Israel by the Jews. Their policies that favored Arab wrath at Jewish immigration into the Promised Land didn’t help.

THERE ARE two betrayals by the British of the Balfour Declaration that stand out. The first betrayal was the British Empire’s appointment of Haj Amin al-Husseini as the senior Muslim cleric in Palestine following the 1921 riots against Jews that he led, and which resulted in 47 dead. This appointment of a murderer of Jews as “grand mufti” was done to placate Arab opposition to Jewish immigration into the Mandate. The leader of this pogrom soon became “the predominant Arab political figure” in Palestine.

Could you @ukinisrael@UKinJerusalem@BorisJohnson@DominicRaab@JamesCleverly clarify whether the lawsuit filed against the 🇬🇧 by Palestinians was directly/indirectly funded by the UK tax payers, who have given the Palestinian ingrates over £400,000,000 in the last 5 yrs alone!

— Maurice Hirsch, Adv. 🇮🇱 עו''ד מוריס הירש (@MauriceHirsch4) November 1, 2020

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries will display their wares at the upcoming International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) set to take place in Abu Dhabi in February.

The companies’ participation at the biennial arms and defense technology sales exhibit, the largest of its kind in the Middle East, was facilitated through the recent normalization deal signed with the UAE.

Rafael and IAI, Israel’s largest military hardware manufacturers, will be joined in the Israeli pavilion by other companies such as SmartShooter, who make lightweight precision counter-drone systems that have been used operationally by the IDF along the Gaza border, and by US Special Forces and by BIRD Aerosystems, a company that develops and markets airborne missile protection systems (AMPS) and aerial surveillance, intelligence, and observation solutions (ASIO).

Last month, BIRD Aerosystems unveiled its ASIO Holistic Solution, a comprehensive system tailored for maritime and ground surveillance missions that provide a multidimensional approach to combating diverse security threats.

The Defense Ministry will decide which other companies will participate and what systems and platforms they will be allowed to display.

Although the list of products has not been finalized, Rafael’s Iron Dome Missile Defense System, the Trophy active protection system for armored vehicles and electronic jamming and radar systems are possibilities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded optimistic on Sunday over the coronavirus pandemic, saying, “I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I see the vaccines in the State of Israel.”

The prime minister arrived at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, where the Israeli-developed COVID-19 vaccine launched its clinical trial with the first participants, to deliver statements to the press alongside Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz.

“In this means or another, a vaccine developed here or abroad, we will bring enough vaccines to Israeli citizens and then we will be able to finally break free from the pandemic,” Netanyahu remarked

“I don’t think this will happen immediately,” he added. “I have only one request: Until there is a vaccine, heed the instructions and don a mask above the nose.”

Gantz, stressing “cautious optimism” and wishing luck to the volunteers, also took the opportunity to criticize the Israeli premier, urging to pass the 2021 state budget as soon as possible.

The experimenter who received the vaccine an hour ago “told me: ‘Help us, I came here to tell you to help us financially. I switched three jobs in the last several months before I received the vaccine,’” the former military chief recalled.

Israel began human trials on Sunday for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate which, if successful, could be ready for the general public by the end of next summer.

Eighty volunteers will initially take part in the trial that will be expanded to 960 people in December. Should those trials succeed a third stage with 30,000 volunteers is scheduled for April/May.

“We are in the final stretch,” said Shmuel Shapira, Director General of the Israel Institute for Biological Research.

The institute, which is overseen by the Defense Ministry, began animal trials for its “BriLife” vaccine in March and announced a week ago it had received regulatory approval to take it to the next stage.

Shmuel Yitzhaki, head of the institute’s biology division, told Reuters that if all goes well the vaccine could reach the general population by the end of next summer.

While the first batch of volunteers received the potential vaccine, around the country elementary students returned to school as a second nationwide lockdown comes to a gradual end.

Restrictions in Israel, with a population of nine million, are being slowly lifted following a steady decline in the rate of daily infections.

Israelis will be recruited to take part in two additional coronavirus vaccine trials beyond the Israeli Institute of Biological Research trial that started Sunday, according to Eytan Ben-Ami, head of early phase clinical trials at Sheba Medical Center.

According to the hospital, Israelis will be selected to take part in vaccine trials being run by undisclosed companies in Australia and Europe. The trials should begin within months if not before.

“Many thousands of people will be participating in the trials,” Ben-Ami told The Jerusalem Post. “We hope that in the very near future we will have various vaccine options for our population.”

If the vaccines are proven safe and effective, the people who were inoculated with them will be immune to the virus.

The European trial, like the IIBR trial that kicked off Sunday morning with two volunteers at Hadassah Ein Kerem and Sheba, is a Phase I/II trial. The Australian trial is in Phase III.

Ben-Ami said that he expects the volunteers that will be recruited for these trials to be broader and more diverse than those recruited for the Phase I IIBT trial, which only includes healthy adults between the ages of 18-55.

Sheba will not be the only medical center participating in the trials, he said, but will join other hospitals around the world.

Israeli experts say that sewage plants in some developed countries need to add a step to their treatment, fearing that the coronavirus can make it through the process and be introduced into natural bodies of water.

“We’ve found that copies of the virus have survived after conventional sewage treatment, raising a concern that when treated wastewater is released to streams and rivers, it could infect animals,” Oded Nir, one of the scholars, told The Times of Israel.

He said that only one percent of coronavirus RNA survived in treated sewage inspected by his team, and researchers have estimated that SARS-CoV-2 can only remain active in untreated or inadequately treated wastewater for a few days.

However, the amount of virus and quick treatment time in sewage plants, which can turn dirty water clean in 12 hours, are enough to raise alarms.

“It’s hard to predict what this would mean, but there is a concern that this could cause reinfection from animals back to humans, possibly after a mutation,” said Nir, a researcher at Ben Gurion University’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research. “If we pump large amounts of the virus to nature without further treatment, it could impede efforts to eliminate the virus.

“There is also a concern that humans could possibly get infected directly from wastewater that has coronavirus RNA.”

The Palestinian Authority denied reports claiming that it would begin accepting tax revenue funds from Israel again, with Secretary General of the Palestinian Council of Ministers, Amjad Ghanem, saying that the reasons for the refusal still remained, meaning the PA would not accept the funds.

Watan News reported on Sunday that Ghanem had told them that the PA is expecting to start receiving tax revenues from Israel later this month, after refusing to receive the revenues since earlier this year. The report was circulated by additional Palestinian media outlets.

All public employees in the Palestinian Authority will be paid full salaries once the funds are received, said Ghanem. "We hope that we will win the political battle with the occupation and have the ability to recover the funds for compensation and end political blackmail," added Ghanem to Watan news, saying that efforts are being made in this regard and that the PA hopes to receive the funds this month.

Ghanem stressed that while there are many details concerning the "efforts" being made to receive the funds without any concessions by the PA, the result of the efforts is all that concerns civilians.

All imports to the PA go through Israeli checkpoints, and Israel collects VAT and tariffs for the PA. Those funds are the largest source of income for the PA. Israel also collects income tax and health insurance funds for Palestinians who work for Israelis.

In all likelihood, the arms embargo imposed on the Iranian regime will not be significantly breached, especially by Western countries. An ally of the United States would have no business getting involved in arms sales to the mullahs, as this could lead to strong tensions with the US administration.

In terms of the nature of the threat posed by the mullahs’ regime, other Western countries have the same opinion as the Americans. But differences between the two sides lie not in the strategy, but in the tactics proposed for dealing with this regime.

As for China and Russia, it would not be a good idea to sell “qualitative” weapons to the mullahs. China has made no secret of its intention to sell arms to Iran after October 18. But I believe that these weapons will not affect the regional balance of power or increase the mullahs’ ability to threaten regional peace and stability.

Such a decision would anger the United States. On top of that, it would strain their already complicated relations, especially after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised that “any arms sales to Iran will result in sanctions,” and would anger the two countries’ allies in the GCC and Israel.

But all these scenarios will depend on precise calculations of strategic interests, gains and losses vis-à-vis Iran and other countries. It is these calculations that will tip the scale for the major powers that have been talking about possible military cooperation with Iran in the near future.

Lifting the UN embargo five years after the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 group—made up of the US, the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany—whose legal framework is defined by UNSC resolution 2231, leaves no doubt about the serious shortcomings and weaknesses of this agreement.

Listen to these thought-provoking remarks from @samrajabii, jiujitsu World Champion, who has joined the #United4Navid campaigh: "Why don't I have any female athlete friends"?

That's because the regime in Iran has segregated men and women from a very early age.

Join our campaign pic.twitter.com/DyTw37JXRy

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 30, 2020

A report by Louisville, Kentucky, high school students has drawn national attention to local police training materials that quoted Adolf Hitler admiringly.

Hitler was the most-quoted person in a Kentucky State Police training presentation that encouraged officers to be “ruthless killers,” according to the report that appeared Friday in the Manual Redeye, the student newspaper of Louisville’s DuPont Manual High School. The presentation quotes from Mein Kampf and links to Hitler’s page on a social networking site about books, according to the report.

The student journalists, brothers Satchel and Cooper Walton, obtained the presentation because they are related to a partner at a law firm that had requested training materials as part of its work in a case related to a 2018 police killing, their article disclosed.

The report swiftly drew widespread attention from national news organizations and clarification from the state that the presentation had not been used since 2013. It also elicited condemnation from Kentucky officials and Jewish leaders.

“I am angry. As a Kentuckian, I am angry and embarrassed. And as a Jewish American, I am genuinely disturbed that there are people like this who not only walk among us, but who have been entrusted to keep us safe. There needs to be consequences,” tweeted Rep. John Yarmuth, the Democrat who represents Louisville in Congress. In a second tweet, Yarmuth said the presentation reflected “a poisonous culture that has gotten too many innocent people harassed and killed.”

US Senate candidate Al Gross has accused Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan of publishing antisemitic tropes. Sullivan published an ad showing Gross, who is Jewish, surrounded by cash with a faded-out picture of New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is also Jewish, in the background.

The ad was accompanied by the text: “Lower 48 liberals are flooding Alaska with millions,” possibly referring to out-of-state funding for Gross’s campaign. Both campaigns have received large amounts of funding from outside of Alaska, 87% of Gross’s and 76% of Sullivan’s, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

The combined spending of the two campaigns reached almost $21 million as of October 14, and outside groups have spent about $27m. more.

“This ad has disgusting antisemitic tropes but it’s what we should expect from a candidate who has hidden how his family does business with communist China and has voted time and again to benefit their bottom line,” Gross tweeted on Saturday. “They should take the ad down.”

Gross is an independent candidate running with the Democratic nomination.

His race with Sullivan has garnered national attention as it may result in a Republican seat in the Senate flipping to a Democratic seat.

.@SecPompeo: Under the leadership of President @realDonaldTrump, the U.S. Department of State is forging new alliances in the fight against anti-Semitism with social media giants, faith groups, activists, NGOs, and other governments. https://t.co/E7KL2Nizic. pic.twitter.com/jeKBAs19K5

— Department of State (@StateDept) October 31, 2020

Israel’s OrCam, a maker of devices to assist the blind and visually impaired, is joining forces with US hearing-aid firm Starkey, to integrate their technologies and help those suffering from both hearing and vision loss.

The result of this collaboration is a single solution that pairs Starkey’s Livio Edge artificial intelligence-based hearing aids with the wearable OrCam MyEye devices via a wireless connection, providing both hearing enhancement and audio communication of the visual world to a user at the same time, the two firms said.

“Livio AI transformed hearing aids into multipurpose, connected health devices with integrated sensors and artificial intelligence,” said Starkey chief technology officer Achin Bhowmik in the statement. “By using AI, we’re bridging the gap between a patient’s hearing health and their overall health and wellness. This partnership with the OrCam MyEye device allows us to achieve even greater success in our quest to help people live happier and healthier lives by enhancing and augmenting human perception and cognition with advanced technology.” Starkey’s Livio Edge AI hearing aids combine sound quality and sound processing for listening environments that are challenging. With a double tap by users, the device’s inbuilt AI system conducts an analysis of the acoustic environment and makes necessary adjustments immediately. OrCam’s MyEye is a finger-sized device that attaches to any pair of eyeglasses. Using artificial intelligence software, the device is able to read printed and digital text out loud, but discreetly, from any surface in real time. The device also recognizes people’s faces, as well as identifies consumer products, colors and money notes.

Tel Aviv University is planning to launch a research nanosatellite, the size of a shoebox, hitching a ride on a spacecraft sent by NASA and US aerospace firm Northrop Grumman to resupply the International Space Station in the first quarter of 2021.

Once it’s at the ISS, a robotic arm will release the TAU-SAT1 nanosatellite into low-earth orbit (LEO). The satellite will conduct several experiments while in orbit, including measuring cosmic radiation in space.

The TAU-SAT1 is currently undergoing pre-flight testing at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). From Japan, the satellite will be sent to the United States, where it will “hitch a ride” on the resupply spacecraft, the university said in a statement on Sunday.

“This is a nanosatellite, or miniature satellite, of the ‘CubeSat’ variety,” said Ofer Amrani, head of Tel Aviv University’s miniature satellite lab, in the statement. “The satellite’s dimensions are 10 by 10 by 30 centimeters, (4 x 4 by 12 inch) the size of a shoebox, and it weighs less than 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds). TAU-SAT1 is the first nanosatellite designed, built and tested independently in academia in Israel.”

The TAU-SAT1 was created, developed, assembled, and tested at the new Nanosatellite Center in Tel Aviv, an interdisciplinary venture of the Faculties of Engineering and Exact Sciences and the Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences of the university.

Approximately 400 kilometers (249 miles) above sea level, the nanosatellite will orbit the earth at a speed of 27,600 kilometers (17,150 miles) per hour, or 7.6 kilometers (4.72 miles) per second, completing an orbit around the Earth every 90 minutes, the statement said.

Netanyahu with Sean Connery, Arnon Milchan (the Israeli Hollywood producer accused of bribing Netanyahu) and French MP Meyer Habib (who was a businessman, not an MP, back then) https://t.co/CwyKDv3De8

— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) November 1, 2020

Like millions around the 🌎, we were saddened to hear about #SeanConnery's passing.

Many Israelis still remember Sean's visit to our country at the height of his career, in 1967.

Sean's immense talent & legacy will live on through his films.

May his memory be a blessing. pic.twitter.com/wLevrtdfSX

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) November 1, 2020

#OnThisDay 1917: The heroic #Australian Light Horsemen led the successful #BattleofBeersheba.

The crucial campaign helped turn tide of WWI, leading to end of Ottoman rule & #Israel's ultimate regaining control of Jerusalem. 🇦🇺🐎🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/25nWRzjuyD

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) October 31, 2020

Unlike Trump’s unilateralism, Biden is expected to bring back the “old” American brokership to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The 2020 Democratic Party Platform calls for the creation of a “viable” Palestinian state where Palestinians “should be free to govern themselves,” and opposes “unilateral action” from either side.

Would that reduce the number of attacks against Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers? Unlikely. But, Biden has made it clear that he will “fully support the Taylor Force Act, which withholds aid to the PA based on payments it makes to terrorists in Israeli jails.”

Biden has also said that “Palestinians need to end incitement in the West Bank and rocket attacks in Gaza” and that the leadership “must begin to level with their people about the legitimacy and permanence of Israel as a Jewish state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people.”

What about Iran?

Israel considers Iran’s nuclear program its number one concern. According to intelligence assessments, if the Islamic Republic does decide to fully renege on the agreement, it wouldn’t take long to produce enough fissure material to make a nuclear bomb.

Biden has signaled that he will try to bring Iran back into the nuclear deal and that the economic sanctions placed on the country could eventually be eased. Nevertheless, he has acknowledged that there’s no guarantee Iran would return to compliance with the agreement.

Netanyahu has been one of the loudest critics of the deal. Although IDF officers and defense experts were concerned about some elements of the JCPOA, many believed that Israel was better off when the deal was alive and Iran was adhering to it. Should Biden win, he may only have a short time to bring Iran back to the agreement before hardliners, including members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, who oppose any engagement with the West, are expected to win Iran’s upcoming presidential elections.

And should that happen, Israel will not be any better off.

Nevertheless, no matter who wins the upcoming US elections, Trump or Biden, Israel has to remember one thing: When it comes to its security, Israel has to be able to defend itself, by itself, at any given time. At the very least, Washington will continue to reinforce that.

The sound of the ram’s horn resounded in front of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the biblical city of Hebron as settler leaders held a small rally and brief prayer service Monday for US President Donald Trump’s victory in the November 3 election.

“We are people of faith, and here – from the Tomb of the Patriarchs, we pray and express our gratitude to President Trump,” Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz said.

As Ganz spoke, he stood on the stone plaza in front of the King Herod-era structure that housed the Tomb of the Biblical forefathers and foremother, including that of Abraham, whose purchase of the site is recorded in the Book of Genesis. The settlers and their right-wing supporters, out of all the Israelis, have the most to gain from a Trump victory.

Among those who stood there were leaders like Ganz and South Hebron Hills Regional Council head Yochai Damri, who opposed Trump’s peace deal with the Palestinians, but have in the last weeks still come out in support of the US president. Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who held a Trump rally in his region of the West Bank last week, was absent from the event.

Both the settlers and Trump support Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank settlements, but the settlers want a more expanded annexation map and opposed the creation of a Palestinian state, even the demilitarized one that is part of the Trump plan.

Ganz said he hoped that Trump would “be granted additional years as President of the United States, and will strengthen the State of Israel, so that together, we can apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”

America is at an inflection point more ominous and dangerous than the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Then, America elected a president who would fight for the good of the Union against misguided forces that broke with the Nation and sought to continue the evils of slavery.

Today, another great evil haunts the United States of America. It is an evil that has infected almost all of the Democrat party, as well as mainstream media and can be described as cultist woke-ism. Woke-ism is the accelerating set of “acceptable” ideas whose adherents dictate that if you fail to accept every single one of the cult's lunatic fringe “axioms,” you will be called a “racist,” “homophobe,” “transphobe,” Islamophobe,” be summarily "cancelled" and even lose your job.

Increasingly, the “end point” of this ghoulish intellectual infection appears to be that the only “cure” America’s “systemic racism” is to “burn it down.” Today, in the possible election of Joe Biden, we will have a president who will not fight for the forces of good, as did Lincoln, but instead, will be fighting to instill a new Fascist plan of Wokeness that enslaves Americans in a tyranny worse than the regime of hate and evil that would have ensued had the enemy defeated and occupied America in WWII. Our only salvation from this regime of Woke is for President Trump to win re-election in the coming election.

Why is a Biden victory more dangerous than America’s so far only Civil War?

The answer is first and foremost, that unlike the Lincoln victory which put the reins of power of America into the hands of the forces of Good, a Biden victory will put the awesome powers of the government into the hands of the faceless forces of political correctness, Woke-ism, and the Deep State.

Today, the media is keeping Biden’s blatant corruption off the front pages so as to elect Biden’s “name,” but then slip in Kamela Harris. If the Biden-Harris ticket wins, within three months the same media that suffocated the Biden corruption scandal, will blare it from every site and hound him from office, thereby installing the “most liberal Senator in the Senate” as President of the United States.

Biden is the Trojan Horse that hides a Harris extreme-Left Presidency. No Democrat seriously thinks Biden will last out his first year in office, most bets are on 3 months.

On #ThisDayInHistory, 103 years ago, the #BalfourDeclaration was sent to Lord #Rothschild for the attention of the @ZionistFed.

103 years on and the ZF remains committed to celebrating #Israel& challenging its enemies.
❤️🇮🇱❤️🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/dVRcdTNGA3

— Zionist Federation (@ZionistFed) November 2, 2020

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are among countries slated to establish relations with Israel under a regional rapprochement launched by US President Donald Trump, an Israeli official said on Monday.

Straying from Israel's reticence about Tuesday's US election, Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said implementing further normalization deals could depend on the next president displaying continued "resolve" against Iran.

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden wants to rejoin the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal that the Republican incumbent quit, to the satisfaction of Israel and some Gulf Arabs.

Trump, who has played up his Middle East policy while campaigning, was asked last week which countries might follow the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in normalizing ties with Israel. "We have five definites," he responded. Cohen said Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Morocco and Niger were "on the agenda."

"These are the five countries," he told Ynet TV. "And if the Trump policy continues, we will be able to reach additional agreements."

While not explicitly favoring either US candidate, Cohen argued that Trump's policy had prompted Arab and Muslim countries to seek accommodation with Israel.

Two senior Palestinian officials have confirmed to The Media Line that the Palestinian Authority is maintaining direct channels of communication with the campaign of US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a Palestinian-American businessman had helped establish contact between the PA and Biden's top advisers.

"Having dialogue with the Democratic candidate is important to the leadership,” one of the officials told The Media Line. “We want to let Mr. Biden know that we are willing and ready to talk.”

PA officials have roundly condemned the policies of the incumbent, President Donald Trump. Under Trump, the US recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved its embassy there from Tel Aviv. The PA claims east Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state.

In response, the Palestinian leaders cut off contact with the Trump Administration and refused to enter US-led talks with Israel under the so-called deal of the century, which they swiftly rejected as biased toward Israel. Washington also terminated millions of dollars of annual financial aid to the PA and ordered the Palestine Liberation Organization office in the American capital shuttered.

The PA has proclaimed that under Trump, the US is no longer an honest broker to mediate peace. Biden, on the other hand, is closely associated with the Obama administration, regarded by Palestinians and most Israelis as having been far-more friendly to Palestinian aspirations.

“We are sure that if he wins, he will reassert the US position on the two-state solution and order the PLO office in Washington reopened," the second PA official told The Media Line.

Jihad Harb, a political analyst for several Palestinian media outlets, says the Palestinians are watching the election campaigns with great interest because whoever wins will have a major impact on the Palestinian cause.

During a visit by a Hamas delegation to Cairo last week, Egypt called on the terrorist group to maintain the ceasefire reached with Israel in August until after the US elections on Tuesday, according to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.

A Hamas delegation left the Gaza Strip for Cairo last week to discuss bilateral relations, mutual interests, regional politics, the humanitarian situation in Gaza and developments between Gaza and Israel, among other topics.

The delegation was headed by Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, who was joined by bureau members Izzat Al-Rishq, Khalil Al-Hayya and Rouhi Mushtaha.

While the Hamas delegation wanted Egypt to pressure Israel into implementing the understandings of the ceasefire, sources from Hamas told Al-Akhbar that Egypt's responses to the terrorist group's demands were "lackluster."

The Hamas delegation was informed that Israel had told Egypt that some of the requests, such as supplying natural gas to the Strip, would take years.

The Al-Akhbar report added that the Egyptians stressed to Hamas that an escalation should not be pursued currently, insinuating to Hamas that Israel may consider returning to targeted assassinations against terrorist leaders if an escalation occurs.

Explosive balloons were reported in southern Israel last week, as tensions rose between terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip and Israel, with the groups threatening action if the health condition of Maher al-Akhras, a Palestinian who has been on a hunger strike in Israel for almost 100 days – becomes too dire, or he dies.

While Israel seeks "normalization" with the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan, all of which are 1,000 miles from Israel, a "normalization" process is already well underway closer to home.

MK Mansour Abbas of the Ra'am faction of the Arab Joint List party wrote Saturday on Facebook that Israel's Arabs were ill-served by the belief that their political role was limited to being the "reserve force" propping up the Israeli left. "I'm not afraid to say I'm introducing a pragmatic new political style." The post received over 4,300 "likes" and 700 comments, nearly all positive.

Ra'am, founded in 1996, emerged as the political home of the conservative Muslim impulse within Israel's Arab population. It is the political vehicle for the southern branch of the Islamic movement.

Islamism in Israel is divided into two branches: the anti-Israel northern branch headquartered in the Galilee town of Umm al-Fahm, and the pro-integration southern branch which draws much of its support from the Bedouin of the Negev. Both branches support Palestinian independence, but only the northern branch, declared illegal in 2015, openly supported violence and extolled terrorism.

Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish, who led the southern branch for three decades until his death in 2017, urged Israel's Arab community to reject terrorism and integrate into Israeli society. Mansour Abbas, a student of Darwish, is deputy chairman of the southern branch.

As the Palestinian cause fades throughout the Arab world, it fades among Israeli Arabs as well. And the demand to integrate, to gain acceptance, to have a say in the affairs of a country they have come to accept as their own, has overwhelmed the old ideologies.

The prince stressed his rejection of hate speech, and any justification for crime, violence and terrorism

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan expressed his condemnation of recent terrorist attacks in France, during a phone call with president Emanuel Macron, state news agency WAM reported on Sunday.

The prince stressed his rejection of hate speech, and any justification for crime, violence and terrorism, WAM said.

Prince Mohammed, the first Gulf leader to strike a deal normalizing relations with Israel, has long been seen as a savvy politician who has driven the United Arab Emirate's rise to diplomatic prominence.

With his brother Sheikh Khalifa the nation's president, he serves as deputy commander of the armed forces and chairman of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi, which controls the emirate's substantial finances.

Meanwhile in France, police made two additional arrests Sunday as the investigation continues into the church attack in the southern city of Nice that left three people dead, including one almost beheaded.

France has endured a spate of brutal, seemingly lone-wolf attacks in the last few weeks, for which the catalyst was Charlie Hebdo's republication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad - the original ones having sparked off a massacre of 12 people at the publication's Paris offices in 2015.

The Abraham Accords are not the only recent peace treaty to originate in the UAE. Beginning in 2019 in Abu Dhabi, the similarly named Abraham Family House began construction, aimed at being a major center for interfaith reconciliation.

The site is set to be completed in 2022 on Saadiyat Island, and will contain houses of worship for the three Abrahamic faiths, meaning there will be a synagogue, mosque and church.

According to Euronews, each house of worship will be carefully designed, incorporating traditional materials and architecture used in all three faiths. Even the smaller details will not go unnoticed, with the church's alter pointing east, the mosque pointed towards the Kaabaa in Mecca and the synagogue's bimah and Torah scrolls set to face Jerusalem.

And this level of detail is something the architect, Sir David Adjaye, is very proud of, making it distinctly different from other buildings seen in Abu Dhabi.

“We also realized that in each of the faiths there had been very unique details,” he told Rebecca McLaughlin-Eastham of Inspire Middle East, Euronews reported.

“The domes, vaults and arches of mosques, ideas of enclosure in Jewish tradition and the idea of deliverance and ecstasy in Christian churches, for example. So, they became the details that started to be amplified.”

If you had asked Israeli businessman Yehonatan Ben Hamozeg earlier this year where he’d be pitching his palm tree saving technology in October, there was no chance he would have said the United Arab Emirates.

But after a surprise US-backed normalization agreement between the UAE and Israel, the soft-spoken, grey-haired entrepreneur found himself doing just that in a Dubai hotel last week.

Ben Hamozeg is the founder and chief executive of Agrint, a company that uses seismic sensors to detect insects that eat — and destroy — palm trees from the inside.

He was one of the 13 business leaders who joined a four-day trip to the UAE organized by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), a venture capitalist firm.

Before normalization, there had been discreet links between the Gulf nation and Israel’s flourishing high-tech sector.

But after the deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election on Tuesday, those links have come to the surface and are poised to expand.

“We’re learning, we’re opening our eyes, friendships and personal ties are being formed,” said JVP founder Erel Margalit, who led the Israeli delegation.

But of course. @KenRoth of @hrw is engulfed with so much Jew hatred, that he just can’t stand to see #Israel making peace! https://t.co/MP32m7l2ck

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) November 1, 2020

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday the United States would seek to end United Nations sanctions on Sudan over the conflict in Darfur as the new government makes peace.

The promise is another sign that the United States is eager to reward Sudan after it agreed to recognize Israel — a decision made at the urging of US President Donald Trump’s administration as it moved to delist Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Pompeo said the year-old civilian-backed government had made “substantial improvements” in human rights including in Darfur, the parched western region where the former dictatorship carried out a scorched-earth military campaign.

“The United States is committed to working with the Sudanese government and our international partners to identify circumstances that could result in lifting sanctions related to the Darfur conflict at the earliest opportunity,” Pompeo said in a statement.

“We have already begun consultations at the UN with this objective in mind,” he said.

Sudan’s new government a month ago signed a landmark agreement with rebels that have been active in Darfur as well as the southern states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

A new Israeli PCR testing system developed by the Health Ministry will reduce the wait time for coronavirus test results from eight hours to four hours, the Health Ministry announced on Monday.

The new system, which is run by robots, will enter service at labs and hospitals around the country in the coming weeks. While usually it takes about an hour to transfer the sample to a sub-test tube, with the robot, which does not need a sub-test tube, the transfer process in the lab will take about five minutes.

The process to neutralize the virus will also be shortened from an hour to 40 minutes. In kits from abroad, the production of nucleic acid used in PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests takes three hours, while with the Israeli system, the process only takes about one hour and 15 minutes.

The test itself will be shortened from two hours to an hour and the software that displays the results will process the data in just ten seconds instead of the half hour it currently takes.

The new testing kits are now entirely Israeli-made in contrast to the old kits which were mostly from outside Israel. The new software for displaying results is also Israeli-made.

"Israeli technology is breaking records time and time again. Even now, the world will be able to see the shortcut as risk-reducing, more efficient and, no less important, based entirely on Israeli products," said Health Minister Yuli Edelstein. "I thank the Laboratories Division of the Health Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office for assisting in this matter."

Tensions between Mohammad Dahlan supporters and Mahmoud Abbas loyalists have escalated in the West Bank. In Ramallah, Palestinian Authority security forces entered the al-Am’ari refugee camp, close to the city center, to arrest Dahlan supporters and quash the potential for an armed takeover of Ramallah. In the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, one of Dahlan’s senior commanders was killed on October 31, 2020.

The tensions came to an explosive head because of the peace agreements between Israel and the Gulf States and reports that Dahlan is affiliated with the Emirates.

In east Jerusalem, Dahlan supporters were expelled from the ranks of the “official” Fatah, but they are organizing separately. While Ramallah mobilizes violent elements from the underworld, the Dahlan people are organizing around former Orient House personnel, who represented the “inside” Palestinian leadership against the “outside” Fatah leaders from Tunis who arrived after the Oslo Accords.

It is a mistake to view the competition for the Palestinians’ leadership as just a battle of personalities. The example of east Jerusalem illustrates that the real struggle is between the local Palestinians and the “outside” Tunis leadership imposed on them during the Oslo Accords.

Israel could never have closed the Orient House in Jerusalem in 2001 that served as the PLO’s Jerusalem office under Jerusalemite Faisal Husseini if not for the actions of the main PLO headquarters in Ramallah. Under Arafat, the Palestinian Authority had already abolished the Orient House’s authority, minimized its standing, and clipped Husseini’s wings and budget. Israel was just the official locker of the gate. Faisal died in Kuwait in May 2001; Israel closed the gates in August 2001.

Today, on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the PA portrayed Arthur Balfour as a devil with horns, fangs, and large red ears.

In 1917, Arthur Balfour, then British Foreign Secretary, wrote the letter stating that Britain was in favor of “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” This was later adopted by the League of Nations, which made the British Mandate “responsible for putting into effect the declaration,” leading to the UN vote in favor of partitioning Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state in 1947.

Every year, PA leaders condemn the Balfour Declaration as “the ominous promise,” “the most despicable plot,” and “a crime against humanity,” as Palestinian Media Watch has documented, and this year the PA is sticking to tradition.

In the official PA daily, the PA put a bloodstained image of a poster with a distorted image of former British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour together with a collage of images of Israeli Prime Ministers David Ben Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Levi Eshkol, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Shamir, Shimon Peres, and Ehud Barak, with an Israeli flag behind them.

Mona Zemili had lunch at Nu Level rooftop restaurant in #Gaza City yesterday and filmed the view of the city. Isn't it lovely? #TheGazaYouDontSee
مُنى الزميلى تغدّيت امس في مطعم نيو ليفل في مدينة غزة وصوّرت المنظر الرائع.#غزة#غزة_المخفية_عنكمhttps://t.co/wbkCiv8zXohttps://t.co/gGXXIpRYPkpic.twitter.com/al5Fp5SEGZ

— Imshin (@imshin) November 2, 2020

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar said in an October 27, 2020 interview on Al-Alam TV (Iran) that normalization with Israel is an act of betrayal against Allah and the Prophet Muhammad, and he argued that the Quran strictly forbids striking alliances with the Jews and the Christians. Al-Zahhar also said that the Palestinians have been able to manufacture their weapons domestically and without the aid of countries that are now normalizing with Israel (see MEMRITV clip no. 8307 for more info about Hamas weapons manufacturing in Gaza). In addition, he said that the people of Gaza and Palestine must fight the Israeli occupation and that an alliance between the Palestinians, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and others who have been affected by the Israeli occupation would surely spell the end of Israel.

The normalization between Israel and the Sunni Arab Gulf states of Bahrain and the UAE is perceived by the Iranian leadership as a direct threat to it, and as trespassing in its backyard in the Gulf. The normalization agreements endanger Iran's hegemony in the Gulf – an exclusive hegemony that the Iranian regime has taken care to establish.[1] Furthermore, the Arab Gulf states' public joining up with and normalization with Israel deal a severe blow to Iran's narrative of Islamic unity and Islamic values, and to the ideological messages of the Islamic revolutionary regime in Iran that claims to be the standard-bearer of the defense of the pure and correct Islam.

Tehran called the UAE "a traitor to the Islamic ummah and to Palestine" and issued warnings and vague threats to it (see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 8928, Iran Reacts To UAE-Israel Normalization: UAE Rulers Are 'Traitors'; The Agreement 'Heralds A Dangerous Future... Particularly For The Residents Of The UAE's Glass Palace,' September 11, 2020). However, Tehran's threats against the Bahraini royal Aal Khalifa family and its rule, after Bahrain announced that it too was normalizing with Israel, were much blunter and more and explicit.

Until 1971, as the Iranian regime mouthpiece Kayhan underlined on September 13, 2020, the Shi'ite-majority Bahrain was Iran's 14th province. On September 19, 2020 Kayhan claimed that Bahrain is "a province belonging of the Iranian people." Iranian officials regularly stress Iranians' sentimentality regarding Bahrain, and even reiterate Iran's demand for Iranian sovereignty over it.[2] Bahrain is perceived by Iran as the latter's strategic stronghold against its Sunni Arab rival Saudi Arabia, because of Bahrain's Shi'ite majority which Iran backs and cultivates. The Iranian regime has more than once been accused by Bahraini authorities of encouraging civil rebellion against Bahrain's Sunni regime.

Iranian spokesmen clarified to the Arab Gulf states that now, as they have openly stood alongside Israel, Tehran will treat them like an enemy, and warned them again that their move destabilizes their regimes. They also explicitly warned, on behalf of the resistance front and the Palestinians, of a decisive response and of the destruction of Israel.

The Syrian media this week reported that Israeli aircraft had dropped leaflets over the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, warning local residents and members of the Syrian Army's 1st Corps stationed there that anyone who assists the Hezbollah terror organization in acts of aggression towards Israel would be targeted by the IDF.

"While Hezbollah sits comfortably in Lebanon, they have put you on the front line. Be warned," the leaflets read. The leaflets were dropped a day after another Syrian media report (that was not corroborated by Israel) that the IDF fired an anti-tank rocket at a target near Quneitra and hit Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian fighters.

Those incidents are further proof that the border area on the Golan Heights is deep in military conflict.

Israel and Russia jointly agreed to allow Syrian forces back into the region in order to restore stability, but that stability has not come to pass.

The fighting continues. Pro-Assad forces, anti-Assad fighters, pro-Iran, Hezbollah proxies and others are all fighting each other. Dozens of fighters are killed each month and occasional crossfire even crosses the border into Israel.

Israel is in a strategic race against Iran and the Assad regime over influence on the Syrian Golan, with Russia playing a key role in events.

Iranian forces were already seen entering the region at the end of 2018, even before the IDF dismantled its field hospital on the border that offered medical assistance to Syrian citizens affected by the country's civil war. Hezbollah forces soon followed. Now, two years later, all humanitarian efforts by Israel have ended.

🇹🇷 Turkey writes to the U.N. denying the 1915 Armenian genocide and saying it is "a subject of debate." (https://t.co/wBlyHpE7jC) pic.twitter.com/HzE55rUj7J

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) November 1, 2020

Official Arabic-Language Chinese TV Commemorates 70 Years Since China Participated in Korean War: Our Position Has Not Changed in the Past 70 Years - The Door for Negotiations with the U.S. Is Open But We Are Ready for War pic.twitter.com/Gmi7GuhvEj

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 2, 2020

Human Rights Lawyer Emma Reilly reveals that the UN is actively sharing the names of Uyghur dissidents with the Chinese Government, telling Maajid Nawaz the actions of the UN here are 'criminal.'@MaajidNawazpic.twitter.com/tiaEVg5YVp

— LBC (@LBC) November 1, 2020

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, sounded upbeat about the interest of the world community in participating in the suggested conference due to take place after the inauguration of a new US president in 2021.

The Security Council discussions revealed near-unanimous support for the initiative presented by Abbas at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 25. [emphasis added]

U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft was skeptical that a conference would produce results, but said the Trump administration, Israel’s closest and most important ally, was open to the possibility raised by Abbas.

“We have no objection to meeting with international partners to discuss the issue. But I have to ask, how is this different than every other meeting convened on this issue over the past 60 years?” she asked the council.

Israel’s new U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan opposed the Palestinian call, accusing Abbas of refusing “every peace offer made by the state of Israel” and attacking Israel’s recent agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan instead of viewing them as “a new opportunity to kick-start negotiations.”