by | BLOG, GOVERNMENT, Israel
The White House has taken a fairly strong stand in its support of Israel since the start of the Hamas war, so it is particularly loathsome that it has not done the same with the onslaught of dissent from within the bureaucracy. The Agency for International Development, the State Department, and nearly 40 other agencies with more than 1500 staff members and political appointees have written letters and memos critical of Biden’s position.
Of course, civil servants have the right to say what they want, but the White House also has a duty to respond — especially when the protests are with regard to current policy and the vast majority of dissenters are anonymous. Instead, it was milquetoast and extolled “listening” to the complainants as well encouraging “feedback and ideas.”
What the White House should have done was rebuke the letter writers for their ignorant views. The utter lack of a firm response is a prime example of the cause of antisemitism today. These idiotic and counterfactual views are allowed to go unrebutted, not only among the government but also (as shown particularly in recent weeks) rampantly on college campuses as well. Such timidness encourages many students and others in the academic community to think that maybe there is some substance to what these ignorant antisemitic protestors say. No one is calling for speech to be stifled, but what needs to happen is a pushback. In other words, “you can say what you think, but know that you are actually incorrect because of x, y, and z.” That is how you actually stop antisemitism instead of aiding and abetting it!
Instead we get “organizing forums” and “candid conversations” which just result in more of the same: counterfactual information continuing to be shared — under the guise of tolerance, mind you — without any correction whatsoever. This is unacceptable and it further undermines the US position on Israel. If the White House is unwilling to defend Israel internally to a bunch of unelected bureaucrats with no policy power, what assurances do we have that it will continue to stand strong with Israel among those who actually do craft policy across the world?
by | BLOG, EDUCATION, Israel
A Jewish Canadian professor shares anguish over the plight of the people of Israel, but more importantly — of the students’ inabilities to understand and analyze the history and context of the current war. I have reposted it in full, as it is an open letter widely being circulated across social media in the last day or so:
“Dear Students,
I have spent the last 25 years showing you the beauty of all of the literary, cultural, philosophical, and artistic heights of the human spirit over the course of human history. Teaching you has been the most wonderful and satisfying of callings. I never wanted to do anything other than meet with you, discuss ideas with you, discover and rediscover human insights, truths, and wonders. I never regretted my career path, never hated my job, and never doubted my legacy. I felt privileged and honoured to show you how to analyse, to think critically, to weigh evidence, and to understand people and ideas, contexts and complexity, deeply and thoroughly. I thought my work was helping to make the world a better, more humane, more thoughtful place.
You have broken my heart. No: shattered it, irreparably. I don’t know how I will ever set foot in a classroom again. I don’t know how I will ever see you the same way. I know now that I was deluding myself that I ever had any impact, would ever leave any positive legacy, that my work ever made any difference.
I watch you all on social media, in the streets and the quads, marching in solidarity with a movement that seeks only to wipe me out. To exterminate me, my children, my parents, my entire family and community. I know, some of you think you’re trying to help the oppressed. You think that my kind is the white colonialist racist kind that you hate.
But I thought I taught you how to evaluate arguments. I thought I taught you the importance of understanding context, both historical and rhetorical. I thought that I taught you that the world did not operate according to dichotomies, like black and white, oppressor and oppressed, villain and victim. I thought I taught you about complexity, about judgment, and to examine your sources and not to take anyone’s statements at face value.
Zionism is the Jewish right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. Israel is that ancestral homeland. Jews are the indigenous peoples of that land; not the only indigenous peoples of that land, to be sure. But Israel is the only land to which we are indigenous. After 2000 years of longing, the result of the Holocaust – a Nazi movement which sought to ethnically cleanse the world of Jews by systematically exterminating us – was that the international community granted us a sliver of that ancestral homeland.
It was to be shared, partitioned into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Arabs rejected the partition and attacked the Jews when they declared the state of Israel in 1948. The Jews won. Arabs who remained in Israel became citizens with full rights and freedoms. 20% of Israel’s population today is Arab. They fight in the army, they are doctors, lawyers, members of Parliament and supreme court judges. There is no apartheid. Israel’s Jewish population consists of Jews from Arab lands, whose parents or grandparents were kicked out when the state of Israel was formed, and of descendants of refugees from Eastern Europe, Holocaust survivors who had no homes to return to. Some are more recent refugees from Europe, Russia, and the Americas who either returned to Israel for religious reasons or because the Jew-hatred in their communities grew too excessive and they decided to emigrate, to head for the one place in the world Jews can go if their neighbours or governments turn against them.
The West Bank and Gaza strip – along with refugee camps that still exist in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan — were the places that the Arab nations who attacked Israel at its founding told the Arabs living in Palestine (later to be known as Palestinians) to flee. It was supposed to be temporary, because the plan was to “push the Jews into the sea.” When the plan didn’t work out, all of these states refused to absorb the Palestinians. They wanted to keep them in camps because they still planned to annihilate Israel and the Jews that lived there and then the Palestinians could return. The West Bank was in Jordan and Gaza was in Egypt until 1967, when the Arab states tried again to push the Jews into the sea. Their failure this time ended with Israel capturing these territories.
When Israel tried to exchange land for peace and give Gaza back to Egypt, Egypt didn’t want it. And so the territories remained in Israel. In 2005 Israel pulled out of Gaza and left it to govern itself. Most of the West Bank is also self-governing, but not all because of the high number of suicide bombers and other threats to Israel’s existence fomenting there, so Israel hasn’t been able to fully remove itself. The current awful Israeli government has allowed religious fanatics, “settlers,” to build settlements there, which makes everything worse.
And you see what I did there? I criticized Israel’s government. I can do that, and still support the existence of a Jewish state in our ancestral homeland.
When you say “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” this is a call to ethnic cleansing of Jews from their homeland, from the only state in the entire Middle East that would look remotely familiar to you in terms of basic rights and freedoms and a democratic system if you were to visit the region. When Hamas supporters – like those who led you all in a rally on my home campus today – talk about Jews as “occupiers,” they don’t mean Gaza. They mean the whole state of Israel. They want Jews eradicated from the entire land. Hamas actually wants us gone from the whole world, as they have stated many times. Who are the Nazis now?
But here I am, teaching again. I can’t help myself. I wish that you cared what I had to say. I wish that some knowledge, some context, some understanding, could reach beyond the slogans and chants for my death that you are repeating mindlessly and endlessly as you march to the beat of hatred across the tattered remains of my broken soul.”
by | BLOG, Israel, OBAMA
“What Hamas did was horrific, and there is no justification for it. And what is also true is that the occupation, and what’s happening to Palestinians, is unbearable … And so, if you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth. And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree.”
The above comments were given on a podcast called “Pod Save America” just a few days ago by Barack Obama. It’s absolutely disgusting that a former President of the United States could be so blatantly wrong -headed and antisemitic in the face of abject terrorism. While he initially condemned the Hamas atrocities, he then continued to make a ridiculous moral equivalence by suggesting that everyone involved was “complicit to some degree.” As if burning people alive, rape, and beheading can be morally equivalent to anything.
Everyone knows that the Palestinian’s conditions are unbearable; it’s abuse at the hands of Hamas and the PLO. Billions of dollars are siphoned off to their wealthy leaders and their rebel armies, and not used for the betterment of their own people! Yet Obama’s excuse of being “occupied” is clearly false and he knows it, since the Israelis left Gaza in 2005, even before Obama became President! Nor did he explain that Hamas was elected to lead Gaza in 2006 and has held no election since. This is the same Hamas that has long been designated a terror group by the US, the European Union, and the UK (though a UN resolution failed in 2018). Obama, being President from 2009 – 2017 fully knows this yet remained absolutely silent.
If anyone is complicit, it’s certainly Obama. Remember Obama’s Iranian deal freed up some $100 billion in funds to Iran, including an estimated $1.7 billion in cash payments. Those most certainly went to terrorist proxies such as Hezbollah and Houthi, the same rebels currently and directly assisting Hamas.
And as a Jew, I couldn’t be more ashamed that Jews voted approximately 78% for Obama. I thought we were smarter than that. Obama did an exceptional job bamboozling people that he wasn’t an antisemite while in office and he tried the same thing recently with regard to Hamas. He knows better. It’s truly reprehensible that Obama is actually that cowardly and prejudiced.
by | BLOG, FREEDOM, Israel
It has become abundantly clear that there is a big problem with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) community. DEI has labored to push the narrative that you are either an oppressor or oppressed. The problem for them is that this idea doesn’t work when it comes to Israel. There is absolutely no more oppressed minority in the history of the world than the Jews. And yet the same DEI folks make them out to be the oppressor — and try to do so with a straight face.
Anyone who calls Israel an occupier or oppressor is either lying or grossly ignorant. The Jews were in what is now Israel 4000 years ago until they were kicked out during the Jewish-Roman wars of the 1st century. The subsequent rulers/inhabitants of the land included Romans, Byzantine Christians, Muslims, Crusaders, Mongols, Mamluks, Ottomans, and Brits. It was not only Arabs despite what others tell you. Not until the post-Ottoman empire were Jews really able to return home, and the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence provided protection for Jews that was sorely needed in a post-Holocaust world. The Oslo Accords of 1993 saw the PLO formally recognize the state of Israel and the right of Israel to exist, but it still was not recognized by many in the Arab world. As for Gaza, the Israelis withdrew from the region in 2005 and it has been under the control of Hamas since 2006. Israel is hardly the “oppressors.” I would agree that the Palestinians in Gaza are oppressed – but the oppressor is Hamas, not the Israelis, who have been gone for almost 20 years.
DEI’s absurd ideology is exposed for what it is: a ridiculous and feeble attempt to see the world through a biased lens in order to push false narratives that don’t hold up to reality.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, Israel
Front Page Magazine put together a nice list of twelve things you can do to support Israel. I’m reprinting it here below and encourage you to do some of the things on the list.
[1] Be informed – Learn the history of the conflict. Do background reading. Good places to start include: “The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of World Order” (1996) by Samuel P. Huntington, “The Case for Israel” (2004) by Alan Dershowitz and “Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs” (2008) by Robert Spencer.
[2] Follow news of the war – reliable sources include The Washington Times (especially its commentary pages), FOX News, The Wall Street Journal (editorial pages), The New York Post and websites like Frontpage Mag.
[3] Put up an “I support Israel” yard sign — weather-resistant vinyl with metal frame, around $15 to $20, plus shipping.
[4] Wear an Israel lapel pin — Available for under $10.
[5] Go to a rally — Check with your closest Israeli consulate, synagogue or local Jewish Community Relations Council for dates and locations near you.
[6] Donate to Magen David Adom – Israel’s emergency medical services. They’re needed more than ever now. You can donate HERE.
[7] Plant a tree in Israel – Through the Jewish National Fund, for only $18 each.
[8] Become an Internet warrior – When you find a particularly useful news story, commentary or website, pass it on to your contact list.
[9] Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper – in response to a news story, editorial or commentary. You can find out how at the paper’s website. Remember, letters in support are as important as letters in opposition.
[10] Support pro-Israel groups – like Students United for Israel, Christians United for Israel Zionist Organization of America and American for a Safe Israel.
[11] Contact your local state legislators – requesting that your state legislature pass a resolution supporting Israel and denouncing Hamas terrorism. They might get help drafting from the American Legislative Exchange Council.
[12] Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
by | BLOG, EDUCATION, HYPOCRISY, Israel
The latest attempt by Liz Magill to smooth over Jewish donors and save her job is absolutely pathetic. She purports to condemn hateful acts and claims they have no place at Penn, but has done nothing to actually ensure they have no place by removing antisemitism from the campus. There is no expulsion of students who actually engaged in antisemitism — even though she even described those acts! There is no removal of faculty or administration who have downplayed antisemitism and allowed its ideas to take root and grow. Penn indeed “has work to do”, and it can start there. But it won’t. And here’s why.
Liz Magill doesn’t actually believe what she says. It is apparent on the front page of her plan. She writes, “As we move forward with this important work, we will ensure that our programmatic efforts consider the interconnectedness between antisemitism and other forms of hate, including Islamophobia, so that we are fostering a welcoming community for all.”
Right there, Magill can’t help but include Islamophobia alongside antisemitism; this means she is fearful of actually taking a unilateral stand solely against antisemitism on behalf of her Jewish students, faculty, and donors. She is equivocating here by including what she calls “other forms of hate” in her statement, because she is more worried about upsetting other members of the community than she is clear about defending Jews.
Even more alarming is the fact that she calls “Islamophobia” a form of hate, but it is not. The very definition of antisemitism is hatred against Jewish, a form of racism and outright hostility toward the Jewish people. In contrast, Islamophobia is a fear (phobia), often irrational, toward Islam or Muslims. Fear and hatred are two very different things and to conflate the two is disingenuous.
But she doesn’t end there. She repeats the sentence in her Education plan, again lumping antisemitism with Islamophobia. And then further along as a Medium Term Action, she announces the commitment to hire “an experienced leader with expertise in preventing and responding to antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate.”
If this was actually about antisemitism, it would be about antisemitism. And that’s why it’s not. The need to throw “Islamophobia” in there three times (and no specific mention of any other forms of hate, mind you) is ridiculous and it cheapens anything she says. Magill is merely pandering to the Jewish community because she is actually terrified of offending the larger UPenn community as well as losing millions in donations to her school. Her action plan to combat anti semitism should start with her own resignation.
