Israel Debates Launch Of State Inquest Into Meron Disaster: Yair Altman , Ariel Kahana and Itsik Saban, JNS, May 3, 2021 — All eyes are on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and whether he will order a state commission of inquiry into the Lag B’Omer disaster that left 45 people dead and 150 injured.
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Former CIA Head Targets Jewish Suffering In Israel’s Actions- Analysis: Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, Apr. 29, 2021
Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Brennan slammed Jews on Tuesday, demanding they be held to a higher standard than others. “I always found it difficult to fathom how a nation of people deeply scarred by a history replete with prejudice, religious persecution and unspeakable violence perpetrated against them would not be empathetic champions of those whose rights and freedoms are still abridged.”
Anti-Zionist Jewish Faculty And Students Take Lead As “Contentious” IHRA Antisemitism Definitions Defeated In Student Government Votes. Alternate Definitions Without Israel Gain Political Support As BDS Looms Over New York City Elections.: Alex Joffe, SPME, Apr. 28, 2021
“The most important BDS development in April was the alignment of left-wing Jewish faculty, students and groups with opponents of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.”
The debates over the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism have reached new heights, with faculty and students claiming the clauses mentioning Israel restrict free speech and the Palestinian right to attack Israel. Alternative definitions have been proposed which effectively remove Israel from the concept of antisemitism and force Jews to accept demonization, delegitimization and double standards. These new definitions – proposed and supported by left-wing Jews including BDS supporters -are already gaining traction in Democratic political circles.
I Left Apartheid South Africa. Applying The Term To Israel Is Disingenuous.: Hirsch Goodman, Forward, Apr. 27, 2021
“Every paragraph in the 213-page diatribe serves one goal: brand Israel as an apartheid state.”
Human Rights Watch could do with a new pair of glasses. The organization’s new report, “A Threshold Crossed — Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” is blind to fact and reality. Every paragraph in the 213-page diatribe serves one goal: brand Israel as an apartheid state.
I left South Africa as a teenager in 1965 because of its policy of apartheid. I have openly and consistently criticized Israel’s settlement policies. And I am on the left of the Israeli political spectrum.
To me, this document cheapens and derides both the word “apartheid” and its legacy.
It is a disgrace to the memory of the millions who suffered under that policy in South Africa — including many anti-apartheid activists in the Jewish community, some close to me, who lost their freedom and were left shattered in consequence.
J Street and Abbas Deserve Each Other: Mitchel Bard, JNS, Apr. 28, 2021
“You’ve been telling me to wait, and telling me to wait, and telling me to wait. You can’t deliver the Israelis.” That one remark says it all about the Palestinian strategy, and it is heartily endorsed by J Street, which exists for the sole purpose of lobbying the American government to capitulate to Palestinian demands and “deliver the Israelis.””
It was telling that J Street, the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby, would invite to its annual conference Mahmoud Abbas, the anti-Israel, anti-peace, Holocaust-denying president of the Palestinian Authority. The lobby, whose hallmark is gullibility, soaked up the familiar propaganda from Abbas and joined him in castigating Israel while ignoring the tyrant’s intransigence and persecution of his own people.
Both Abbas and J Street are hoping to return to the heyday of the Obama years when Israel was expected to make one-sided concessions to satisfy Palestinian demands. Hence, Abbas found a receptive audience to his request that the group lobby President Joe Biden to ignore the laws that placed the PLO on the terrorism list and bars aid until he ends the “pay-for-slay policy.”
For Further Reference :
New York Times Essayist, Obama CIA Chief, Infuriates Jews by Accusing ‘Scarred’ Nation of Lacking Empathy: Ira Stoll, Algemeiner, Apr. 28, 2021 — Jewish readers are furious about a New York Times opinion writer who issued a tweet complaining that he can’t understand why Jews aren’t more “empathetic champions” of the Palestinians.
John Brennan Disputes Israel’s Right To Defend Itself. There’s A Word For That.: Martin Sherman, The Times of Israel, Dec. 12, 2020 — It has been over a week since the lynchpin of the Iranian nuclear project, Mohsen Fakhridazeh, was killed in what appears to be an immaculately planned and flawlessly executed strike by elusive and yet to be identified assailants.
Fathom Long Read | Accommodating the New Antisemitism: a Critique of ‘The Jerusalem Declaration’: Cary Nelson, Fathom, April 2021 — Controversy is swirling anew around the Working Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2016 and subsequently endorsed by a wide range of nations, agencies, and organisations.
J Street, Peace Now, Join Palestinian NGOs in Supporting Betty McCollum’s Curb on Aid to Israel: David Israel, Jewish Press, Apr. 16, 2021 — J Street and Americans for Peace Now on Wednesday added their names to a list of some 20 vehemently anti-Israel groups, including mainstays in the Palestinian rights movement like the Adalah Justice Project, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, and Justice Democrats who endorsed a bill introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn) titled “Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act.”
Additional reading:
Human Rights Watch: Israel Commits Crime Of Apartheid, UN Must Apply Sanctions: Tova Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, Apr. 27, 2021
Anti-Semitism’s Loudest Megaphone? Big Tec: Yakir Benzion, United With Israel, May 2, 2021
The ‘Apartheid’ Smear, Antisemitism and the Unending Battle to Destroy the Jewish State: David M. Litman, Algemeiner, Apr. 28, 2021
