The GOP’s Post-Trump Trauma: Peggy Noonan, WSJ, May 13, 2021“…in running in fear from [Trump], they are running from a corpse. Because the insurrection changed everything, everything. They say, ‘Trump got 74 million votes,” but many Republicans held their noses and voted for him, … it’s not true 74 million are Trumpists. You could as well call them 2020’s Not Democrats. If the Republicans don’t take an honest stand on 1.6, they’re saying what happened that day was allowable, and there will be more attempts to overthrow elections.”
Behind the Israeli-Palestinian Violence, The Ghost Of A Peace Process: Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail, May 13, 2021
“[The violence in Israel was] a predictable outcome of the deals struck last year between former U.S. president Donald Trump’s administration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governments and some wealthy Arab countries—though without any Palestinian participation. These agreements tore up key premises of the [former “two-state”] Peace Process. They allowed extensive Israeli settlement to be recognized, gave U.S. recognition to the whole of Jerusalem as an Israeli capital (making Jerusalem a twin Palestinian-Israeli capital has long been reserved as a reward for completion of the Peace Process); reduced the recognized territory of a future Palestine to an archipelago of disconnected reservations; and offered no resolution to the issue of returning Palestinian refugees… [Failure of the original Peace Process] is traceable to one persistent factor: Benjamin Netanyahu…This, in turn, led many Palestinians to turn to Hamas…Human Rights Watch [has termed Israeli settlement policy]“ ‘apartheid’. That’s a word such respected organizations have previously avoided [but, given current reality,] it would not be inaccurate. The other alternative, a one-state solution, has a growing constituency…Peter Beinart…has described what it would take to make that solution work. This would also likely make Israel a Muslim-majority nation.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the federal government to block arms sales to Israel amid escalating violence in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Singh accused the Liberal government of “arming one side of the conflict” by allowing military exports to Israel as Palestinians face forced evictions in occupied East Jerusalem. “It is undermining the peace process and it is supporting illegal occupation,” Singh said Wednesday in the House of Commons. “Will the prime minister commit to stopping the sale of arms to Israel while they are violating international human rights?” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not answer the question. Instead, he said the government is “following the situation with grave concern.” He also condemned rocket attacks on Israel by the Islamist militant group Hamas, called violence against Palestinian demonstrators in East Jerusalem “unacceptable” and said Canada is “gravely concerned” with the expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied territories. “Canada supports a two-state solution, and we urge all parties to renew their commitment to peace and security,” Trudeau said. (The Star, May 12, 2021)
“In Tel Aviv, Yishai Levy, an Israeli singer, pointed at shrapnel that came down on a sidewalk outside his home, ‘I want to tell Israeli soldiers and the government, don’t stop until you finish the job’, he said on YNet television.” — reporters Nidal al-Mughrabi, Jeffrey Heller noted the attitude of Israelis to continue the fighting until Hamas is soundly defeated. (Reuters, May 18, 2021)
“I think that transition is even more difficult if you haven’t had as much experience with independence—and if you are among what I do think is the minority of iGen, who are eager to see offense everywhere.” The embrace of minorities has been accompanied by intolerance of diverse viewpoints. The percentage of college students who believe that controversial speakers shouldn’t be brought to campus has risen. “It’s not just a perception,” Ms. Twenge says. “That’s what they say themselves—that they are less comfortable with those situations.” That’s in part because they have short attention spans. “Complex ideas require sustained attention,” she says. “The idea that you’re going to be patient and sit down to read a book for two hours and do nothing else is kind of mind-blowing to an iGener.” The percentage of high-school students who read books or other long-form content every day has dropped from 60% to 15% since the 1980s. Are all of these trigger warnings and safe spaces doing this generation a disservice? “I think so,” Ms. Twenge says. “iGen is both perpetuating this fear and lack of open discussion and iGen is also a victim of this same atmosphere.” — Columnist Abigail Shrier Interviews psychologist Jean M. Twenge on the Institute for Family Studies and the Wheatley Institution’s study of “iGen”, the first generation to grow up with iPhones—context for “woke.” Twenge is the study’s lead author. (WSJ, May 14, 2021)
IDF FOILS ATTACKS ON OFFSHORE GAS RIG, ELIMINATES TOP HAMAS NAVAL COMMANDER (Jerusalem) — The Israeli military has thwarted several attempts by Hamas to target Israel’s Tamar offshore gas installation over the past week of fighting between the Jewish state and the terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip. The IDF said that both rockets and suicide drones were used in these attempts, none of which ever posed an actual threat to the rig, which nonetheless was placed on alert and ordered to temporarily halt operations. According to the IDF, the head of Hamas’ submarine development program was killed in an Israeli strike this week. (JNS, May 18, 2021)
ARAB-ISRAELI SUSPECT ARRESTED IN JAFFA FIREBOMBING(Jaffa) — The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Police arrestrf an Arab Israeli man in his 20s on suspicion of hurling a firebomb that seriously injured an Arab Israeli child in Jaffa. an attack first suspected to have been carried out by Jewish Israelid. The Arab Israeli suspect apparently believed he was targeting a Jewish home in Jaffa. (JNS, May 18, 2021)
VICTIM OF LOD LYNCH MOB DIES OF WOUNDS (Lod) — Fifty-six-year-old Lod resident Yigal Yehoshua died less than a week after being critically wounded by a mob of Arab rioters in the central Israeli city. Yehoshua was struck in the head by a brick while in his car, as rioters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police and passersby in the 80,000-strong Jewish-Arab city. A yeshiva, synagogues, municipal structures, and dozens of vehicles have been torched during the unrest. (JNS, May 18, 2021)
TOP DEMOCRAT LOOKING TO DELAY $735 MILLION SALE OF PRECISION MISSILES TO ISRAEL (Washington) — US House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Gregory Meeks is considering sending the Biden administration a letter in the coming days requesting that it delay a $735 million sale of precision-guided missiles to Israel. Meeks wants the delay to give his panel time to review the purchase. (Times of Israel, May 19, 2021)
DEMOCRAT ACCUSES US OF FUNDING IDF TO “POLICE AND KILL PALESTINIANS” (Washington) — Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, a member of the far left “Squad” group of progressive Democrats, launched into an anti-Israel speech in Congress, in which she accused the American government of funding the Israeli military to “police and kill Palestinians.” She also linked the “Ferguson unrest” that occurred in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, in which protests and riots took place after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer, to the current events in Israel and Gaza. (Israel National News, May 14, 2021)
DESPITE ROCKET ONSLAUGHT, BIDEN TO SEND MILLIONS IN AID TO PALESTINIANS (Washington) — As the conflict intensifies despite U.S. calls for restraint, the administration notified Congress that it will provide $10 million to Palestinian groups in Judea and Samaria and Gaza, where the Hamas terror group rules with an iron fist and frequently diverts humanitarian aid to fund terror infrastructure targeting Israeli citizens. The State Department said that the money is part of more than $100 million that the administration allocated to the Palestinians earlier this year, reversing a near total cutoff in support under former President Donald Trump. (United With Israel, May 16, 2021)
AP HAMAS CLAIM PANNED, BLINKEN’S ‘SEEN NO EVIDENCE’ OF PRESENCE IN THEIR HQ (Washington) — The Associated Press is taking heat for claiming it had no idea Hamas militants operated at the news agency’s Gaza headquarters destroyed by an Israeli airstrike — as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Monday he “has seen no evidence” presented by Israel of the group’s presence in the building. Noah Pollack, a contributor to the Free Beacon, said in a tweet: “Spoke to a well-placed friend in the IDF just now. The bombed AP office building contained multiple Hamas operations & offices including weapons manufacturing and military intelligence. The building also housed an Islamic Jihad office. And AP’s local reporters knew about it.” (NY Post, May 17, 2021)
ISRAEL SHOWED US ‘SMOKING GUN’ ON HAMAS IN AP OFFICE TOWER, OFFICIALS SAY (Washington) — Israel showed Biden and American officials the intelligence behind the action. “We showed them the smoking gun proving Hamas worked out of that building,” a senior diplomatic source said. “I understand they found the explanation satisfactory.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the source’s remark. (Jerusalem Post,May 17, 2021)
EUROPEAN LAWMAKERS: PALESTINIAN TERROR GROUPS COMMITTING ‘DOUBLE WAR CRIMES’ (Brussels) — More than 50 European lawmakers expressed solidarity with Israel while condemning Palestinian terror groups for their rocket fire on Israel and using their own populations as human shields. In a letter spearheaded by the American Jewish Committee and its Transatlantic Friends of Israel Institute, the European lawmakers affirmed their “unwavering and steadfast support for the State of Israel.” The statement was by leading legislators from the European Parliament and European national legislatures, including Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The statement went on to read, “It’s not only that these terrorists started this latest round of confrontation. Hamas and Islamic Jihad commit the double war crime of murdering Israeli civilians while using their own population as human shields.” (JNS, May 13, 2021)
TORONTO POLICE ARREST 3 MEN FOLLOWING ANTI-LOCKDOWN, PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS (Toronto) — At Nathan Phillips Square, people gathered to denounce violence against Palestinians in Gaza. A Toronto man, 29, has been charged with bringing a weapon to that demonstration. In a news release, police said they are aware of a video circulating online that shows a man being assaulted outside of Nathan Phillips Square. Officers are investigating. On Sunday, new images surfaced appearing to show the man holding what looks like a knife during the altercation. (CBC News, May 16, 2021)
MONTREAL POLICE USE TEAR GAS TO DISPERSE CLASHING PRO-ISRAEL, PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS (Montreal) — Police deployed tear gas in downtown Montreal after pro-Israel and pro-Palestine demonstrations were held just a few blocks apart, leading to clashes. Jewish organizations in Montreal say a group of pro-Palestine protesters attacked the pro-Israel demonstrators with rocks. Several hundred people gathered in the early afternoon at Dorchester Square, waving Israeli flags and dancing to music. They were met by about a dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators, who launched a protest of their own. The two groups argued, and altercations ensued. Police intervened with tear gas to disperse the crowds. (CBC, May 16, 2021)
‘A VERY DIFFERENT TONE THIS TIME’: CANADIAN JEWISH LEADERS WARN OF SPIKE IN ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE(Edmonton) — In a YouTube video, Adam Zepp, a lifelong member of the Edmonton Jewish community described being in front of his parents’ home over the weekend when two men in a black Audi yelled “free Palestine!” before asking “do you know if any Jews live here?” Conflict in Gaza is always apt to stoke ill will against the Canadian Jews, but ever since a new round of Hamas-fired rockets began streaking towards Israel in late April, Jewish leaders are reporting that anti-Semitic hatred has taken a particularly sinister turn. (National Post, May 18, 2021)
ANTI-SEMITIC CONTRIBUTOR IS FIRED BY CNN FOR POSTING ‘THE WORLD TODAY NEEDS A HITLER’, SEVEN YEARS AFTER FIRST PRAISING NAZI LEADER (Washington) — In a statement, CNNofficials said that in light of these abhorrent statements, freelance journalist Adeel Raja will not be working with CNN again in any capacity. The above comment is just the most recent in a series of anti-Semitic tweets Raja has made over the past few years. In 2014, while presumably watching the FIFA World Cup, Raja tweeted, ‘The only reason I am supporting Germany in the finals — Hitler was a German and he did good with those Jews.’ (Daily Mail, May 16, 2021)
ISGAP SCHOLARS SUPPORT THE IHRA DEFINITION OF ANTISEMITISM (NY) — The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) recently circulated a letter supporting the Working Definition of Antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The letter currently has more than 300 signatures from leading scholars, intellectuals, and professionals throughout the world. ISGAP’s statement comes in the wake of increasing opposition to the IHRA definition, a recent example of which is the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA). The current objections to the IHRA definition have come about despite the fact that the definition has been in existence since 28 January 2005, when it was published on the website of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. (ISGAP, May 12, 2021)
The Bad Optics of Fighting for Your Life: Bari Weiss, Substack, May 13, 2021 – … But sitting here, scrolling through my phone, looking at the tsunami of lies — lies that have permeated every Instagram story and every viral meme and every TikTok video and every popular Twitter account — I am weeping.
