Table of Contents:
For N.Y.C.’s Orthodox Jews, Protests Inspire Solidarity – but Also Raise First Amendment Concerns: Danielle Ziri, Haaretz, June 5, 2020
The Great Threat to America – and to American Jewry: Caroline B. Glick, Israel Hayom, June 5, 2020
Victim Culture Tears up Jewish Moral Norms: Melanie Phillips, Israel Hayom, June 5, 2020
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Adam Levick
Camera UK, June 2, 2020A Guardian article by Jerusalem correspondent Oliver Holmes (‘Palestinian lives matter’: Israeli police killing of autistic man draws US comparison, June 1) legitimises those exploiting the killing of George Floyd in the US to demonise Israel. Though Holmes used others’ voices to advance such agitprop, he failed to challenge their claims or offer a quote from anyone critical of such facile and toxic comparisons.The article begins thus:A caregiver for an unarmed, autistic Palestinian man killed in Jerusalem by Israeli police has said she repeatedly warned officers he was disabled before they opened fire, in a case that has drawn parallels with US police violence.
The body of Iyad Halak, 32, was buried late on Sunday night. He was shot dead the day before, reportedly after becoming confused by shouting police and fleeing in a panic to hide among rubbish bins.
Israeli police said in a statement they had spotted a “suspect with a suspicious object that looked like a pistol”. “They called upon him to stop and began to chase after him on foot, during the chase officers also opened fire at the suspect, who was neutralised,” the statement said.
Holmes later noted the two Israeli officers “were questioned under caution with one placed under house arrest while investigators looked into the incident”, and that Defence Minister Benny Gantz apologised for the incident during a cabinet meeting.
That both Halak and George were tragically killed by police, and both incidents have elicited understandable outrage, is of course not in dispute. However, Holmes goes further than merely noting the two incidents, by advancing a narratives common amongst anti-Zionists and anti-Semites suggesting the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is one between racist ‘whites’ (Israelis) and oppressed ‘people of colour’ (Palestinians).
Here’s how he does it:
The killing…has been pointed to by Palestinian, Israeli and US activists as an example of what they say is similar neglect for the lives of Palestinian and black people in Israel and the US.
At small protests in Israel and Palestine since Saturday, people held signs reading “Palestinian lives matter”, a reference to the US-based Black Lives Matter movement. Others posted online old photos of Israeli police and army officers kneeling on the necks of arrested Palestinian men – similar images to that of the death of George Floyd, whose killing while under police restraint has spurred protests across the US. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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For N.Y.C.’s Orthodox Jews, Protests Inspire Solidarity – but Also Raise First Amendment Concerns
Danielle Ziri
Haaretz, June 5, 2020
As thousands of New Yorkers continue to take to the streets calling for racial justice following last week’s killing of George Floyd, members of the Orthodox community are calling out Mayor Bill de Blasio on what they see as a “double standard.”
They are asking why large-scale demonstrations are taking place despite restrictions still being in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic, while houses of worship are shuttered – and after the Jewish community was singled out by de Blasio at the height of the outbreak for a perceived contravention of lockdown guidelines. Many, like the mayor, reject the comparison between the right to protest and the right to convene in religious institutions, but the position, voiced by some in the ultra-Orthodox community, highlights the growing divides between them and the city.
“The double standard is blatant and shocking,” said Chaskel Bennett, co-founder of the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition. “For months, we have seen our community come under unrelenting scrutiny by ‘gotcha’ media coverage of Hasidic Jews not social distancing or wearing masks, while the overwhelming majority of religious Jews in New York City were doing all the right things. “After watching the thousands of protesters given free rein to exercise their constitutional right to protest, it begs the question: Isn’t religious freedom protected by the very same Constitution?” Bennett asked. “Is there one rule of law or selective enforcement? It seems the mayor thinks differently.”
In April, after an Orthodox funeral procession through Williamsburg became chaotically overcrowded, de Blasio threatened “the Jewish community” with arrests if it failed to comply with citywide restrictions. The tweet caused much uproar and Jewish groups accused the mayor of generalizing the community and fanning the flames of antisemitism. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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The Great Threat to America – and to American Jewry
Caroline B. Glick
Israel Hayom, June 5, 2020
Scattered among the thousands of cellphone videos depicting looting and destruction in the streets of America’s greatest cities are clips of a different sort. In these short videos, we see throngs of white people on their knees, bowing before black people and asking for forgiveness for their “white privilege” and the “structural racism” in the deplorable, irredeemable United States of America.
Earlier this week, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former vice president Joe Biden symbolically embraced these genuflecting denunciations of “white privilege” as the official position of the Democratic Party. Biden had himself photographed on bended knee with a group of African Americans standing behind him during a visit to a church in Wilmington, Delaware.
These videos point to a socio-political phenomenon that sparked the riots throughout the country following George Floyd’s brutal death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. They also make clear the reason that the liberal media in the US continues to back the protests despite the fact that from the outset they have involved wide-scale violence, destruction and looting.
Contrary to the narrative being pushed by the media and America’s elites, the riots are not a consequence of increased police brutality towards African Americans. As Heather McDonald documented this week in the Wall Street Journal, over the past several years, police violence against black people has decreased significantly.
The violence we are seeing is a result of the steep radicalization of progressive white Americans. Biden gave voice to this radicalization last summer when, during a campaign appearance in Iowa he said, “We choose truth over facts.”
Last year, political scientist Zach Goldberg published an article in Tablet online magazine where he presented statistical data demonstrating the depth and breadth of the radicalization of white progressives over the past 10 years. Goldberg revealed that between 2010-2019, white progressives became the only demographic group in US history to prioritize the interests of other groups over its own interests. White progressives prioritize the advancement of the interests of minorities and immigrants over their own and over those of American society as a whole. Moreover, as Goldberg showed, white progressive positions on race and immigration are more extreme than the positions black, Latino, and Asian progressives hold on these issues. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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Victim Culture Tears up Jewish Moral Norms
Melanie Phillips
Israel Hayom, June 5, 2020
The appalling rioting that followed the shocking death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer has left a trail of devastation across America. Once again, however, Jews have found themselves singled out for particular attack.
In Los Angeles, Jewish-owned stores and synagogues in Beverly Hills and the predominantly Orthodox Fairfax district were looted and defaced with anti-Jewish graffiti.
How could this Jew-hatred have occurred in what was repeatedly described as “protests” against racism? And why were so few Jewish voices raised against either this or the general destruction and violence?
In a statement by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, 130 organizations said they were “outraged” by the killing of Floyd, declared “solidarity” with the black community and called for an end to “systemic racism.” Yet they expressed no outrage about the rioting during which police officers had been shot, businesses and buildings torched and looted, and innocent people beaten up. They made no protest against the specifically targeted attacks on synagogues and Jewish businesses.
In the Jewish Journal, Yonathan Reches was “pained” by the picture of “a predominantly white and highly militarized police force,” which used “heavy-handed tactics to protect a synagogue from a predominantly black crowd.” The riots, he asserted, were a “natural response” to “five centuries of unfathomable subjugation,” which gave “communities of color” an “undisputed moral authority to call attention to their own oppression.”
An “undisputed moral authority” – to riot, burn and loot, or perpetrate anti-Semitic attacks?
In Los Angeles, Canter’s Deli was one of the few Jewish businesses untouched by the riots after it posted a sign expressing solidarity with Black Lives Matter. Yet BLM is an anti-white, anti-capitalist and anti-Jewish hate group.
Four years ago, its members accused Israel of “genocide” against the Palestinians. Last weekend, BLM activists held a rally in Los Angeles at which they led chants of “disrupt white capitalism” and issued a string of expletives against Fairfax, Beverly Hills and other L.A. districts which were attacked and vandalized that night.
Astonishingly, Marc Canter, the owner of the deli, actually excused the violence. “Tensions have been very high since COVID-19 and a lot of people are out of work, so it’s hard to do peaceful demonstrations with so much going on at the same time,” he said. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:
Israeli in LA: Palestinians Piggybacking on Riots to Wreck Synagogues: Hanan Greenwood, United With Israel, June 4, 2020 — The riots over the killing of George Floyd have turned Eyal Dahan’s Los Angeles neighborhood into “a war zone”—and according to Dahan, some Palestinians are taking advantage of the chaos to wreck synagogues.
Los Angeles Jews Take Stock After George Floyd Protests Batter Local Institutions: Tom Tugend, JTA, June 2, 2020 — Graffiti on the walls of a synagogue read “Free Palestine” and “f*** Israel.” A statue of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis, was smeared with anti-Semitic slogans.
Candace Owens: ‘I Do Not Support George Floyd and the Media Depiction of Him as a Martyr for Black America’: James Barrett, Daily Wire, June 4, 2020 — In an explosive 18-minute video posted on YouTube Thursday, conservative commentator Candace Owens explains why she does “not support George Floyd and the media depiction of him as a martyr for black America.”
“You Have Lost The Plot”: Piers Morgan & Rudy Giuliani Clash In Explosive Interview On UK’s ‘Good Morning Britain’: Jake Kanter, Deadline, June 4, 2020 — Piers Morgan and Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani were involved in a fraught exchange on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today over the U.S. president’s remarks about the George Floyd protests.
Former Obama Intelligence Official Helps Secure Bail for Molotov Cocktail-Throwing NYC Lawyer: Brent Sher, Washington Free Beacon, June 3, 2020 — A former Obama administration intelligence official who worked in both the Departments of State and Defense has guaranteed bail for a human rights lawyer accused of firebombing a police vehicle in New York City.
Candace Owens: ‘I Do Not Support George Floyd and the Media Depiction of Him as a Martyr for Black America’: James Barrett, Daily Wire, June 4, 2020 — In an explosive 18-minute video posted on YouTube Thursday, conservative commentator Candace Owens explains why she does “not support George Floyd and the media depiction of him as a martyr for black America.”
This week’s French-language briefing is titled: Les modalités entourant l’annexion font toujours débat (Juin 6,2020)