On Eve of Yom Hashoah, Israeli Statistics Bureau Study Underscores Rising World Jewish Population: Algemeiner, Apr. 6, 2021
The world’s Jewish population has returned to the level of nearly a century ago, according to new research published by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.
MEDIA-OCRITY OF THE WEEK
AOC says calling border crisis a ‘surge’ pushes white supremacy: Lee Brown, NY Post, Mar. 31, 2021
Alessandra Ocasio-Cortez (D.-NY) angrily replies to query why, though she called immigrant detention centers under Trump “concentration camps”, she is quiet now on the Biden migrant camps.
“Are you for real? It’s not a border crisis. It’s an Imperialism crisis, it’s a climate crisis, it’s a trade crisis. And also it’s a carceral crisis,” she said, without directly addressing the kids-in-cages allegation itself. … …But people don’t want to have that conversation. They want to say ‘But what about the surge?’ Well, first of all, just—gut check. Stop. Anyone who’s using the term ‘surge’ around you, consciously is trying to invoke a militaristic frame,” she insisted.
“And that’s a problem, because this is not a surge. These are children and they are not insurgents and we are not being invaded. Which by the way is a white supremacist philosophy. The idea that if another is coming in the population that this is an invasion of who we are.
“If you want to zero in on the conditions of this moment”, focus on the U.S. “carceral [prison] system”, that “black and abolitionist organizers have already been talking about for a long time.”
[On Wednesday, she reverted to criticism of the “inhumane” Trump era border facilities, saying families should be paid money for the experience:These families “are owed reparations.”
Meanwhile, an NPR-Marist telephone poll showed 53% of Americans disapprove of President Biden’s handling of the immigration crisis.]
“As far as safeguarding Jewish tradition is concerned, it is better to go with the representatives of the Arab public than with the representatives from the left.” — Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, spiritual leader of the United Torah Judaism party and an eminent Ashkenazi sage. He was asked if it would be kosher for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox allies to create a coalition dependent on the support of an Arab party, and cited shared family values and alignment on issues such as the role of religion in the state and military conscription. (World Israel News, Apr. 2, 2021)
“Everything that’s ‘wrong’ for me — I’ve had all these problems, I’m a ger (convert), I come from the worst of the worst, my parents sold drugs — I’m taking them, and I’m going to make them my greatness.” — Rapper Nissim Black says he takes the very things that have made his life difficult and makes them work for him. Black grew up as a Muslim, but in 2012 he converted to Judaism together with his wife Adina. They made aliyah in 2016. (Life Magazine, Mar. 30, 2021)
“The complete narrative has not been told of what happened that day.” – Chris Miller, Acting United States Secretary of Defense from November 9, 2020, to January 20, 2021. He discussed the Jan. 6th breach of the Capitol by predominantly President Trump supporters. His department was criticized for its inadequate response to the ensuing riot. The former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center added. ‘It’ll [the truth] come out one day… probably the biggest failure on my part was the idea I was dealing with rational people [Congress] who had the best interests of the country. That definitively was not the case.” (Anthony Pompliano, YouTube, Mar. 30, 2021)
“They don’t believe in facts. It was a political narrative. It was done with malicious intent and a reckless disregard for the truth. They would not talk to the people who were the most relevant to this because they know those key Democrats – Jared Moskowitz, Mayor Dave Kerner – would blow up their narrative. So they just put their head in the sand and pretended like those facts didn’t exist.” — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) responded to ’60 Minutes’ in an interview with FOX News host Tucker Carlson. The news program aired a report Sunday night that deceptively edited an exchange he had with a CBS correspondent and suggested he is involved in a COVID vaccine distribution pay-to-play scheme with Publix. (RealClearPolitics, Apr. 5, 2021)
“all that Trump did became an unspoken veritable gift to Biden, and how Trump spoke and communicated was even a greater present for the mute and invisible Biden. All knew that the mediocre Biden—a former two-time presidential loser … at 78 of questionable cognitive abilities, a proverbial fabulist, habitual plagiarist, and prone to the most nonsensical racial riffs of any major political figure in recent memory—was an unlikely presidential winner and likely would be an inept president. … Of all Biden’s diminishing powers, megalomania seems the last to go. So instead of claiming credit for his predecessor’s accomplishments, Biden did the very opposite, with pretensions he would outdo Obamacare, the New Deal, and the Great Society all at once. In that vein, he has not only misrepresented Trump’s achievements, but in spite and ignorance sought to undo them at the border, on the economy, and in public health.” – political columnist and classics scholar Victor Davis Hanson on Biden’s determination to destroy former President Donald Trump’s accomplishments. (American Greatness, Apr. 4, 2021)
“Our mainstream media and pop culture continue to give a pass to Farrakhan, a man with a following of hundreds of thousands. With statistics showing that most hate crimes against Jews and Asians are committed by African Americans, it’s time to start treating his widespread influence as a serious problem. … The old bigot doesn’t deserve the free pass he still receives from a media establishment that believes racism is worth discussing only when it comes from one direction.” – Jonathan Tobin, editor-in chief of JNS referening the mentally unhinged Noah Green, who had a “strong” relationship with the antisemitic Louis Farrakhan. Green, 25, drove his car into two officers of the Capitol Police, killing one and injuring another, before getting out and brandishing a knife. He was fatally shot by the police. The media, Tobin points out, ignored his relationship with Farrakhan. (NY Post, Apr. 5, 2021)
11 LEADING NATIONALIST GROUPS URGE NETANYAHU, SA’AR, AND BENNETT TO COALESCE (Jerusalem)
Eleven leading organizations from the nationalist camp issued a call to the leaders of three nationalist parties to put their personal differences aside and join together to form a government that is not reliant on anti-Zionist parties (or on Avigdor Liberman). The signatory groups include Im Tirtzu, Regavim, Professors for a Strong Israel, Cafe Shapira Forum, Choosing Life Forum of Bereaved Families, My Israel, Headquarters for the South Tel-Aviv Struggle, Wounded IDF Veterans Forum, Lach Yerushalayim, Lavi, and Yozma Ezrachit (civic initiative). (Jewish Press, Apr. 4, 2021)
RECORD LOW: NEW CORONAVIRUS CASES IN ISRAEL FEWER THAN 1% (Jerusalem)
According to the Israel Ministry of Health, there has been a slight decrease in the transmission coefficient of the infection, and it now stands at 0.61. On Thursday, 331 new infections were diagnosed, with more than 35,000 tests performed, of which one percent were positive. Pfizer announced that its vaccine has been effective for at least half a year and that it also protects against the South African mutation. (World Israel News, Apr. 2, 2021)
REPORT: ABBAS’ PARTY LIST FOR UPCOMING ELECTIONS INCLUDES TERRORISTS AND THEIR RELATIVES (Ramallah)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party has placed convicted terrorists and relatives of terrorists on its list for the upcoming PA elections. These include the widow of one of those responsible for the notorious 2001 attack that killed Israeli 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass, during the second intifada; a former security prisoner from Jenin who killed an Israeli named Moti Biton in 1992 and was later released as part of a goodwill gesture to Abbas; and a man from Hebron who received a life sentence before being let go in another deal and was later imprisoned for 15 years during the second intifada. The legislative elections are scheduled for May. (Algemeiner, Apr. 1, 2021)
ISRAELI CYBER COMPANIES SET NEW RECORD WITH $1.5 BILLION IN INVESTMENTS IN 90 DAYS (Jerusalem)
The volume of investments made in Israeli cyber companies is second place in the world, after the US. These performances are a continuation of a trend after peaking in 2020, during which investments reached $2.9 billion in all four quarters and accounted for 31% of all cyber investments in the world. One can further see the extraordinary achievements of Israel’s cyber industry if the industry is measured by unicorn companies, private companies that has reached a value of over a billion dollars. Some 50% of all unicorn cyber companies in the world are in Israel. Israel has 11 such companies, the US has eight, China has one, Ireland has one, and Switzerland has one. (Jewish Press, Apr. 4, 2021)
ISRAEL’S RELIGIOUS ZIONISTS LEAD THE WORLD IN KIDNEY DONATIONS: DOUBLE THE US RATE, 5 TIMES EUROPE’S (Jerusalem)
According to Matnat Chaim (Gift of Life), an Israel non-profit that encourages kidney donations from a living person, Israel is today in first place in the world in altruistic kidney donations, with 2020, the year of the Corona, seeing the highest number of transplants ever. On April 4, Israel reached its 1,000th kidney transplant, with a cross-over transplant at Beilinson Hospital, and two other altruistic kidney transplants on the same day at Tel Hashomer and Hadassah hospitals. In the cross-over kidney transplants, patients whose own family members cannot donate to them for immunological or other reasons, are given a kidney from a family member of another patient in exchange for their relative’s kidney. (Jewish Press, Apr. 4, 2021)
ELECTION’S UNLIKELY KINGMAKER CALLS FOR NEW PAGE IN ARAB-JEWISH COOPERATION (Jerusalem)
In a much anticipated speech by the most unlikely of Israeli kingmakers, Mansour Abbas of the Arab Islamist Ra’am party said that he didn’t want to be part of any bloc, neither Right nor Left. At the same time, he said he extends his hand to any and all who want to start a fresh page in Arab-Israeli cooperation “based on mutual respect and equality.” (World Israel News, Apr. 1, 2021)
IAEA: IRAN ENRICHING URANIUM WITH ADVANCED CENTRIFUGES UNDERGROUND (Tehran)
Iran has begun to enrich uranium with a fourth cascade (cluster) of advanced IR-2m centrifuges in its underground nuclear facility at Natanz, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This activity marks yet another breach by Iran of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal signed by Iran with world powers. (Jewish Press, Apr. 1, 2021)
US STATE DEPARTMENT CAN’T SAY ‘ABRAHAM ACCORDS’ (Washington)
Matt Lee, AP’s diplomatic reporter, simply asked Ned Price, the US State Department Spokesman to name the recent agreement signed between Israel and numerous the Middle East countries under President Trump, and Price refused to say the agreement’s name, the “Abraham Accords”, repeatedly preferring to call it a normalization agreement. (Jewish Press, Apr. 3, 2021)
U.S. AND IRAN AGREE TO INDIRECT TALKS ON RETURNING TO NUCLEAR DEAL (Washington)
After weeks of failed starts and back-channel exchanges, Iran and the United States will, next week in Vienna, begin exchanging ideas about how to restore the 2015 nuclear deal. Initially, though, there will be no direct talks between the two countries, according to officials in Europe and the United States. (NY Times, Apr. 2, 2021)
BIDEN REVERSING TRUMP POLICY, QUIETLY RAMPING UP PALESTINIAN AID (Washington)
The State Department, along with the US Agency for International Development, notified Congress of their intent to deliver nearly $75 million in aid to the region just one day after announcing a $15 million commitment publicly to vulnerable Palestinian groups. The State Department declined to say whether the $15 million was included in the $75 million mentioned to Congress, or if the two were separate payments. The funds do not require further Congressional approval, as they were largely appropriated in the 2020 fiscal year budget. (NY Post, Apr. 2, 2021)
BIDEN READY TO SCRAP TRUMP SANCTIONS ON ICC PROSECUTOR, REPORT SAYS (Washington)
President Joe Biden plans as early as this week to revoke President Donald Trump’s June 2020 executive order levying sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) officials. Though the order is set to expire in June, advocates said it is important for Biden to revoke it now to “send a signal to the world.” (World Israel News, Apr. 1, 2021)
ADL: MOST AMERICAN JEWS HAVE EXPERIENCED ANTI-SEMITISM IN PAST FIVE YEARS (Washington)
More than 60 percent of American Jews “have either experienced or directly witnessed some form of anti-Semitic incident in the last five years,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement. Moreover, “9 percent of Jewish Americans indicated in the survey that they had been physically attacked in the last five years because they are Jewish, up slightly from 2020. And one in four Jewish Americans reported having been directly targeted by anti-Semitic comments slurs or threats.” (Jewish Press, Apr. 1, 2021)
NYPD NABS ASSAILANT BEHIND SHOCKING KNIFE ASSAULT ON JEWISH FAMILY IN BATTERY PARK (NYC)
Police in New York City have arrested Darryl Jones, a 30-year-old man for a shocking knife attack on a young Orthodox Jewish couple and their baby in lower Manhattan’s Battery Park. Jones has 12 prior convictions and was released from his latest prison sentence only in February, after serving time for attempted murder. (Algemeiner, Apr. 2, 2021)
DISNEY BLASTED FOR CENSORING ‘JERUSALEM’ FROM PASSOVER SHOW (California)
The Disney Channel got slammed for some bizarre, and politically motivated revisionism related to the Passover story, an event that is central to the Jewish people’s history, culture, and tradition. Disney intentionally changed the actual end of the Passover seder story by removing the word “Jerusalem,” which is the Jewish people’s eternal capital and also the modern state of Israel’s capital. They replaced it with the words “holy land.” (United With Israel, Apr. 6, 2021)
