MEDIA CRITICS OF THE WEEK
‘We Live in a Different World Now’: Dispatch from a Changed Germany: Michelle Goldberg, NY Times, Mar. 11, 2022“After years of American decline and self-doubt, a period when political momentum at home and abroad seemed to be with Putin-like authoritarian populists like Donald Trump, some seem to welcome a renewed sense of moral clarity. ‘Among the many positive consequences of the Ukraine crisis is the death of wrong-headed Republican nostalgia for isolationism,’ The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin wrote”.
How Millions of Lives Might Have Been Saved from Covid-19: Zeynep Tufekci, NY Times, Mar. 11, 2022“National and international commissions need to see where we went wrong, without scapegoating [or] defensively excusing what public health authorities and national leaders did this time, even if well-meaning. In some countries, it would be easy to focus only on political leaders like President Donald Trump, who severely damaged America’s response…”
The Freedom Convoy, And Now Putin, Are Making Muslims Look Good: Zarqa Nawaz, Globe and Mail, Mar. 4, 2022“Over the past few weeks, I watched the siege of Ottawa along with millions of Canadians. . . it was like witnessing a block party, crashed by middle-aged white men with a penchant for military fatigues and giving the occasional sieg heil. I never thought I’d live to see the day when words generally ascribed to Muslims would be used to describe white people. . . . Newspapers used to be filled with stories about radicalized young Muslims. … And then Donald Trump was elected. . .Muslim terrorists were replaced with QAnon and t the Proud Boys. It was as if our brown fairy godmother waved her magic wand and said, ‘Muslims will no longer dominate the headlines.’ We had done our time. . .For the first time, I could point to white extremists, such as those who helped hold Ottawa hostage. . .not to mention those who, a year ago, ransacked Capitol Hill, leaving five people dead. . . As pundits tell about the dangerous rise of white nationalism in Canada, and how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion has destabilized the world. . .I hope this is an opportunity for people to reflect on how Muslim people have been treated. …”
How Millions of Lives Might Have Been Saved from Covid-19: Zeynep Tufekci, NY Times, Mar. 11, 2022“National and international commissions need to see where we went wrong, without scapegoating [or] defensively excusing what public health authorities and national leaders did this time, even if well-meaning. In some countries, it would be easy to focus only on political leaders like President Donald Trump, who severely damaged America’s response…”
The Freedom Convoy, And Now Putin, Are Making Muslims Look Good: Zarqa Nawaz, Globe and Mail, Mar. 4, 2022“Over the past few weeks, I watched the siege of Ottawa along with millions of Canadians. . . it was like witnessing a block party, crashed by middle-aged white men with a penchant for military fatigues and giving the occasional sieg heil. I never thought I’d live to see the day when words generally ascribed to Muslims would be used to describe white people. . . . Newspapers used to be filled with stories about radicalized young Muslims. … And then Donald Trump was elected. . .Muslim terrorists were replaced with QAnon and t the Proud Boys. It was as if our brown fairy godmother waved her magic wand and said, ‘Muslims will no longer dominate the headlines.’ We had done our time. . .For the first time, I could point to white extremists, such as those who helped hold Ottawa hostage. . .not to mention those who, a year ago, ransacked Capitol Hill, leaving five people dead. . . As pundits tell about the dangerous rise of white nationalism in Canada, and how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion has destabilized the world. . .I hope this is an opportunity for people to reflect on how Muslim people have been treated. …”
“These are not places where we can come to any understandings on ending the war — I’m not talking about technical meetings but meetings between leaders.” – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. “I believe Israel can be such a place, especially Jerusalem. I think so, and I said this to [Naftali] Bennett.” (JTA, Mar. 13, 2022)
“Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity.” — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweets. (Twitter, Mar. 9, 2022)
Columnist Peter Beinart suggests that the United States should no longer continue providing the Jewish state with military aid because doing so would “make Ukraine, Taiwan and every other weaker nation bordered by a rapacious neighbor more vulnerable. Remaking borders by force violates a core principle of international law. Which is why the Biden administration must do more than resist Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. It must stop violating that principle itself.” Beinart writes this in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, accusing the Jewish state of disregarding “a core principle of international law” when it annexed the Golan Heights that were “seized from Syria in the 1967 War.” (WIN, Mar. 15, 2022)
“… to date, not one world leader has had the courage to answer the following question: How many Ukrainian civilians must be murdered before any of the 141 countries signing the UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will take immediate, concrete steps to stop the slaughter? … NATO, for its part, remains steadfast in its refusal to place ‘boots on the ground’ (and pilots in the air) to prevent Putin’s ongoing annihilation of Ukraine. . . Ukraine. . .yet again abandoned by the world in time of need. . . [will] take all necessary steps to never again rely on the promises of others as it did, most recently, in 1994 [the Budapest Memorandum, the U.S., UK and Russia guaranteeing its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in return for its giving up of its entire nuclear arsenal].” — board member of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation Bordan Romaniuk. (National Post, Mar. 15, 2022)
“To summarize: in order to punish its longtime enemy, which it tried to be friends with, but is now quite sure is an enemy again (Russia), the U.S. turned to a friend that should be an enemy (Saudi Arabia), which won’t talk to the Americans because they’re helping a common enemy (Iran), while negotiating with another enemy (Venezuela), even though it’s friends with the enemy that started this whole crisis (Russia). Got that?”—columnist Jesse Kline. (National Post, Mar. 13, 2022)
“A 2019 poll of 41,000 people by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation found that in 49 states, a majority couldn’t earn a passing score on the U.S. citizenship test, which asks basic questions about history and government. (The honorable exception was Vermont, where 53% passed.)” – political analyst Adam Kirsch. (WSJ, Feb. 11, 2022)
“How did this thick fog of repression and insisted upon truths take such hold? … it starts with the schools, the schoolboards and government departments of education. the whole panoply of hard-left dogmas about the evils of Western thought and culture have entered into the very bones of the education al system, which is tasked with preparing young people to understand and fully participate in our society.” – columnist Rex Murphy. (National Post, Mar. 15, 2022)
UKRAINIAN RIGHTEOUS GENTILE’S GRANDCHILDREN SAVED BY ISRAELI GRANDCHILD OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR (Jerusalem) — During World War Two, a woman in Ukraine named Maria Blishchik helped hide a young Jewish girl named Fanya Bass so that she wouldn’t get taken by the Nazis. And now Fanya’s family just returned the favor 80 years later. She survived the Holocaust because of it and eventually had kids. And her granddaughter just saved two of Maria’s grandchildren. They were trying to get out of Ukraine, so she helped make it happen. They flew to Israel, where she lives. And she picked them up at the airport last week. (96.7, Mar. 11, 2022)
ISRAELI SETTLEMENT POPULATION UP 16.5 PERCENT IN FIVE YEARS (West Bank) – WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com, released data indicating that the settler population in Judea and Samaria grew to 490,493—nearly a 3.2 percent increase in 13 months and a 16.5 percent growth in the last five years. (Jewish Press, Mar. 11, 2022)
ISRAELI GOVERNMENT WEBSITES CRASH AFTER ALLEGED CYBER ATTACK (Jerusalem) — Several government websites were inaccessible, including sites for the Ministries of Health, Interior, and the Foreign Ministry due to a cyber attack. The suspected attack came at roughly the same time that the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that authorities foiled an operation by the Mossad to disrupt Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility. (National Review, Mar. 14, 2022)ISRAEL DECIMATED IRANIAN DRONE FLEET IN FEBRUARY AIRSTRIKE INSIDE IRAN – REPORT (Jerusalem) — An Israeli UAV attack in mid- February caused major damage to Iran’s drone fleet, prompting Iran to fire missiles this week at a site in Western Iraq that it claims was an Israeli intelligence base. Hundreds of drones were destroyed in the attack. (Times of Israel, Mar. 15, 2022)
REPORT: IRAN’S NUCLEAR BREAKOUT TIMELINES HAVE BECOME DANGEROUSLY SHORT (Tehran) — Iran reportedly has enough 20 percent and 60 percent enriched uranium to produce two nuclear weapons,” a report published by the Institute for Science and International Security has warned. After nuclear breakout commences, Iran can make its first quantity of weapons-grade uranium “in as little as two to three weeks, including a setup period, and produce the second quantity by the end of that month,” according to the report. (JNS, Mar. 14, 2022)
IRAN SAYS IT FOILED ISRAELI OPERATION TO SABOTAGE CENTRIFUGES AT FORDOW NUCLEAR FACILITY (Tehran) — The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have foiled an Israeli operation aimed at sabotaging the advanced centrifuges at the nuclear facility in Fordow. The IRGC intelligence says it arrested the entire group of operatives paid by Israel and provided with computers by Israel to carry out the attack. This is the second group that Iran says it has arrested in the last 24 hours. (Times of Israel, Mar. 14, 2022)
BIDEN ADMIN OFFERING $1 MIL FOR GROUPS TO DELEGITIMIZE ISRAEL (Washington) — The State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) project is offering $987,654 to NGOs to “strengthen accountability and human rights in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.” The grant notice posted on the State Department website calls for groups that would focus on “maintaining civil rights documentation to support justice and accountability.” (Israel National News, Mar. 11, 2022)
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT PENCE BECOMES MOST SENIOR GLOBAL LEADER TO VISIT HEBRON (Hebron) — As part of a two-and-a-half-day trip to Israel, former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Hebron’s Jewish community on Wednesday, becoming the most senior international leader to visit the city since Israel retook it in the 1967 Six-Day War. (Cleveland Jewish News, Mar. 11, 2022)
IN RARE SHOW OF UNITY, ALL 25 JEWISH HOUSE DEMOCRATS BLAST AMNESTY DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS ON ISRAEL (Washington) — All 25 Jewish Democrats in The House, a fractious caucus that rarely unanimously agrees on issues of Jewish interest, signed onto a statement slamming recent comments by Amnesty International’s U.S. director, who said he believes polls showing overwhelming U.S. Jewish support for Israel are inaccurate. (JTA, Mar. 14, 2022)IRAN CLAIMS MISSILE ATTACK ON KURDISH-POPULATED ERBIL IN IRAQ (Tehran) — Iran claimed responsibility for a missile barrage that struck Iraq’s northern Kurdish regional capital of Erbil in the early hours of Sunday morning. Iraq’s Foreign Ministry summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest the attack, calling it a flagrant violation of its sovereignty. No serious injuries were reported, but the Kurdish K24 TV channel’s studio and other buildings nearby were damaged. (DW, Mar. 13, 2022)REPORT: IRAN SUSPENDS TALKS WITH SAUDI AFTER MASS EXECUTION (Tehran) — Iran has decided to temporarily suspend its secret Baghdad-brokered talks aimed at defusing years-long tensions with regional rival Saudi Arabia, a day after Saudi Arabia carried out its largest known mass execution in its modern history. (Nation World, Mar. 13, 2022)
DECEASED UKRAINIAN FIGHTER PILOT COL. OLEKSANDR OKSANCHENKO WAS THE “GHOST OF KYIV.” (Kyiv) — “‘Ghost of Kyiv’ dies in combat,’” read a headline that accompanied a photograph of Oksanchenko in a March 4 Facebook post. “Ukrainian stunt pilot Colonel Oleksandr ‘Grey Wolf’ Oksanchenko, who is known as the ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ for having downed seven Russian fighter jets, was shot down over the capital Kyiv on Friday night. … The famed Ukrainian pilot came out of retirement to defend his homeland from Russian invaders.” (Politifact, Mar. 4, 2022)CANADIAN ANTISEMITISM EDUCATION FOUNDATION CIRCULATES PETITION AND CONDUCTS RESEARCH STUDY (Toronto) – Despite a strong emphasis on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion studies, antisemitism is excluded from social work curriculums in Canada and the U.S. The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation hopes to remedy this. The newly-founded organization is circulating a worldwide petition demanding that antisemitism be included in university social work programs. They also seek social work students who will talk honestly about their experiences. Jews in social work are invited to join their newly-launched Facebook group. (Isranet, Mar. 15, 2022)CHINA MARKETS LOSE MOST IN 14 YEARS AMID FLASH PANIC SALE (Beijing) — On Monday, rising concerns about the Chinese economy — including government ties to Russia, new regulatory crackdowns on both sides of the Pacific, and renewed Covid lockdowns — sent stocks listed in Hong Kong tumbling toward their worst single day since the financial crisis of 2008. (The Motley Fool, Mar. 14, 2022)
FOR FURTHER REFERENCE
Taanit Esther: Why Fast Before the Happiest Day of the Year?: Alef Beta, Feb. 4, 2018 — Purim’s almost here! But first, before the happiest day of the year, we’re going to spend the day… fasting. So why do we fast on this day? Is Taanit Esther just a burden we need to get through before all the fun begins, or is there something more to it?
