Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 3, 2020

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Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant bring back Dan Diker of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs to address what is behind the disturbing rise of violent anti-Semitic attacks against Jews in the US and Europe. Diker is the Director of the Program to Counter Political Warfare at the JCPA. He is the editor and author of monographs and books concerning the radical origins of the international BDS campaign, anti-Israeli Students for Justice in Palestine connected to Hamas and normalization of relations between Arabs and Jews in Israel, Judea and Samaria. The program reflected the increasing concern of more than 13 attacks against members of the Chassidic communities in New York and New Jersey in the last month of 2019. Those attacks that resulted in the deaths of four persons at a Kosher Super Market in Jersey City, New Jersey and a machete attack in Monsey, New York injuring five, one severely, on the Seventh evening of Hanukkah. They were perpetrated by African Americans espousing Israel and Jew hatred, Hitler and Nazism alleged to be extremists of the Black Israelite Hebrew movement. Diker propounded the view that the spike may be attributable to leftist extremists in the US Congress, such as Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and NGOs, fostering Israelophobia hatred of the Jewish nation of Israel and Jew hatred, under the guise of violating the civil rights of the Palestinians. Diker suggests that may be at the crux of the rise of anti-Semitism in both the US and Europe. Diker delineates three strands of anti-Semitism. First strand is Islamic and Arab Jew hatred in Europe that manifests itself in Quds Day march festooned with Hezbollah flags. Second is the extreme right wing in both the US and EU. In this category are the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre that killed 11 Jews at shabbat services in October 2018 and the attack at the Poway Chabad Center in 2019 that killed a congregant injuring the rabbi. They were perpetrated by white supremacists. Third, is exemplified by rise of Jeremy Corbyn, the anti-Semitic Labor Party leader in the UK cloaking Jew hatred in the form of political criticism of Israel delegitimizing it as an illegal racist endeavor. These fit the definitions of anti-Semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and those of the US Department of State in 2010. The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism were adopted by the recent Executive Order signed by President Trump on December 15, 2019 applying Title 6 of the 1964 Civil Rights Law to Jewish Americans asserting Israels ethnic religious heritage as the basis for the Jewish nation of Israel: i.e., the triad of the people of Israel, Torah of Israel and Land of Israel. The Trump executive order provides some important remedies. J Street opposes the Trump executive order because it has a chilling effect on criticism of Israel meaning delegitimizing and demonizing the Jewish nation. Gordon noted that the first compliant filed under the order was by an alumni group at Columbia University, his alma mater. Diker opined that Jewish alumni are important sources of endowment at several elite universities. He suggested that this was one way of combating anti-Semitism suggested by News York Times columnist Bari Weiss, author of a book on the subject, How to Fight Antisemitism. Diker asserted that the recent violent attacks by African Americans in Monsey and Jersey City were a cross category of anti-Semitism which meant that the motivation was no longer the exclusive possession of the extremist right wing. The view of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that the attacks in both New Jersey were domestic terrorism belied the definition that such acts are meant to harm civilians in the name of a political agenda. Diker suggested this downplays the motivation in these attacks of pure Jew hatred. Virulent Israelophobia in the EU is reflected in Quds Day celebration in support of Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Diker noted that the EU refuses to outlaw Hezbollah, that the UK, Holland, the US and Australia has done. On US college campuses annual anti-Israel Apartheid Awareness Weeks and activities of Students for Justice are conducted under the rubric of protected speech. Diker noted that the rise of SJP begin in 2010-2011 as an outgrowth of Hamas supporting charities as Kind Hearts and the Holy Land Foundation, the latter the subject of a 2008 Federal Trial in Dallas, Texas that listed Hamas front groups in the US as unindicted co-conspirators. SJP was an outgrowth American Muslims for Palestine founded by UC Berkeley law professor Hatem Bazian, an extreme Islamist. The discussion turned to the stark contrast between Israelphobia and Jew hatred in the US and EU and the absence of it in Arab Jewish relations in Israel and even in disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. He noted the observations of a co-author of the forthcoming JCPA book, Israelphobia by journalist Abu Khaled Toameh the absence of extremist rhetoric by Arabs in Israel and the West Bank. He suggests that 1.6 million Israel Arabs dont want BDS, instead opting for unprecedented demand for economic integration. Diker noted the active recruitment by Brigadier General Jamal Hakrush of Israel Arab men and women for the Israel Police force to counteract clan and family murders in their communities. On the matter of the International Criminal Court launch of a prosecutorial investigation into alleged war crimes by the IDF in 2014 Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Diker noted that PM Netanyahu slammed the ICC as Anti-Semitic and A.G. Mandelblit suggested that the IIC has no jurisdiction as the PA is not a state. The prospect of another stalemate in the third election in March 2020 Diker suggests is daunting as Israel has not had a government and budget since March 2019 impacting severely on delivery of health care and welfare services. He suggest the Israel Parliament needs reforms of the political system to resolve the impasse.

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What's Behind the Historic Spike in Antisemitic Attacks in the US and Europe: Israelphobia? Beyond the Matrix - The Jewish Press -...

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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