Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

UN Chief said that Israel killed 78 Palestinian children in 2021. (Photo: via V Palestine TW Page)

By Jeremy Salt

Outrage has filled the western media in recent weeks over the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, after being arrested by the Gasht i-Irshad, the so-called morality police. The circumstances are far from clear. Iran says she had a stroke and denies allegations that she was beaten, but the media is only interested in what Iran says for the purpose of scoffing at it. For those naive enough to believe that the CIA had nothing to do with the protests that continue, the CIA would not be doing its job if it was not stirring the pot in Iran.

The enormous space and time given to the death of a young woman who may or may not have died as the result of mistreatment by Iranian authorities needs to be compared to the brief mention of the four children on the West Bank who did not die in suspicious circumstances but were shot dead within 24 hours by armed men and women obeying the orders of a regime illegally occupying their land.

Mahmud Sus,18, was shot in the neck; Adel Ibrahim, 14, was shot in the head; Mahdi Ladadweh, 17, was shot in the pelvis; Ahmad Daragmah, 16 or 17, was shot in the head. Mahdi Sammoudi, 12, shot in the belly in late September died in hospital at the same time as these killings. Many others were wounded, either in the raid on the Jenin refugee camp involving armored cars, helicopters, drones, and bulldozers or elsewhere in the West Bank.

Blanket coverage in the western media for Mahsa Amini, the circumstances of death uncertain, but barely a mention of the deliberate killing of Palestinian children and not even a ripple of outrage at their deaths. More attention name plus photograph was given to the female soldier killed near the Shuaafat refugee camp when a Palestinian jumped out of a car and sprayed the checkpoint with gunfire.

Just in 2022, with nearly three months still to go, more than 160 Palestinians have been killed on the West Bank, amidst scenes of rampaging settlers on Palestinian land and ceaseless provocations on the Haram al-Sharif by extremists, as if any zionist is not by definition an extremist. Many of the West Bank dead are children, who, indeed, have been the victims in their thousands ever since 1948, when they were slaughtered with their families or died on the road from thirst, hunger and exposure after being driven out of their towns and villages by European colonists who brought their sick racist ideology to Palestine.

It was not just Palestine, of course, but the children of other countries, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, whose innocent lives were cut short in the raids and missile attacks of these killers. Most of these episodes have been forgotten. One thinks of the bombing of the primary school in the Egyptian town of Bahar al Baqr on April 8, 1970, when 46 children were killed and more than 50 wounded. The tools used to kill them were American F4 Phantom jet fighter aircraft and missiles. Did the US restrain its vicious little friend? No, it accepted that this was just another mistake, like the deliberate air and sea attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 which left 34 seamen dead and dozens wounded.

The killing of children moves forward year after year, up to and beyond the localized genocide at Sabra and Shatila in 1982. As Israel is never punished, whatever the heinous nature of its crimes, like any criminal who is never caught, it continues doing what it has always done best, apart from sucking tens of billions of dollars out of the American taxpayers pockets, which is killing civilians in Palestine or around its borders.

That is where its defense forces really shine. Take as a representative example the young American Jew who goes to Israel and joins the army or the border police. He or she stands at a checkpoint, shoots an unarmed or scarcely armed Palestinian dead and goes back to New York or wherever as a hero in the war on terrorism. Bravery is not required, just a bit of easily acquired expertise in handling an assault rifle and the ability to kill someone a couple of meters away.

That someone might be a woman approaching armed men and women slouching around a checkpoint. They are heavily armed and in no danger but the woman is in deadly danger. She knows it of course. She would be a most unusual Palestinian if she did not have a husband, children, brothers, parents, grandparents, and cousins who had not been killed by these people. As brave as she can be, in her determination to do something for the resistance, she approaches the checkpoint. She might have a small knife in hand (then again she might not, because the knife might be invented after the event to justify the killing) but she still could easily be disarmed by one soldier knocking the knife out of her hand.

She could be disabled with a leg wound but instead, she is deliberately shot and left to die where she falls if she does not die immediately with no ambulance called in time to save her. The young American can go home as a hero with the credit of killing a terrorist. These murders let us not call them anything else are not aberrant but normative behavior in a state which has bred generation after generation of psychopaths, as further evidenced in the glee shown by snipers killing Palestinians young and old through the Gaza fence.

The Defense of Children International has more than 35 branches, one of them Palestinian. The following table drawn up by Defence of Children Palestine charts the killing of Palestinian children (aged up to 16/17) in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2000:

This gives a grand total of 2224 deaths. The 2022 figure does not include the number killed in operation Breaking Dawn (August), as at the date of the publication of these figures they were still being collated. Neither does it include the latest killings. Furthermore, the year still has a long way to go, and more children are going to be killed.

The hypocrisy of the so-called west is something we can take for granted because it is no more than typical of its behavior but these are innocent children whose deaths should be the cause of outrage and demands that the zionist state be shown the door from the UN and any other credible international organization. Of the number of children listed as killed from 2000-2022, 514 were aged eight or under. Sometimes we see the faces, but never in the western media which rarely even names them. Their names and their faces should be front page news.

What goes on in the minds of feminist writers who will defend the rights of women and children everywhere in the world except Palestine? What goes on in the minds of editorial writers and columnists who have nothing to say about these horrors? Of course, they understand perfectly well what will happen if they do speak out. The lobby will get busy to force them back in line and have them sacked if they persist.

These children could be anyones children. Their children, your children, my children, innocent children whose lives were ended barely before they began. Yet there is hardly a flicker of attention to the way they have been gunned down. Their killer is not even reprimanded but is supplied with more weaponry so it can continue to kill at will. These serial killings, the complicity and moral delinquency of the west are equally despicable and the measure of a civilization that has lost its way.

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Slaughter of the Innocents: Iran, Palestine, and Hypocrisy of 'Western' Media - Palestine Chronicle

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

From October 22-29, the Palestinian Alternative Path Movement (Masar Badil) will host a popular march centered in Brussels. (Image: Supplied)

By Benay Blend

From October 22-29, the Palestinian Alternative Path Movement (Masar Badil) will host a popular march centered in Brussels to commemorate its launch, a landmark in the struggle for return, liberation, and victory of the Palestinian people.

Initiated in late October 2021 in Madrid, Beirut, and Sao Paulo, Masar Badil includes Palestinians along with international supporters who are committed to straighten[ing] the Palestinian national compass and mobiliz[ing] the energies and resources of the Palestinian people in the diaspora.

The week includes a varied schedule of events, culminating in the march on October 29 from Square Lumumba, Porte de Namur 1050 Brussels to the European Parliament. Called by Masar Badil with the support of the Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine and the Classe Contre Classe organization, with the participation of many collectives and associations, including the CAPJPO-EuroPalestine bloc to challenge the siege of Gaza, the march includes a series of demands and goals:

Among the common points of unity, the call reaffirms that the just cause of Palestine is not the cause of the Palestinians alone, nor is it the cause of the Arabs alone, but it is also the cause of all the free people of the world.

The week includes presentations on resistance among Palestinian prisoners, including a forum organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network; a talk on the writings of Mohamed Boudia, a fighter in the Algerian war for liberation who later joined the Palestinian movement but was executed in 1975 by the Israeli secret services in Paris; and Secours Rouge International conference on the history of the links between the revolutionary movements of Palestine, Europe, the Arab region and elsewhere, focusing on the ways that the Palestinian struggle stood at the center of international anti-imperialist resistance beginning in the 70s.

These presentations reflect the international nature of the gathering, from Palestinians in the diaspora to Palestine in relation to other global struggles.

This march of return and liberation, state the organizers of the march,

aims to deepen and strengthen the international dimension of the Palestinian cause and our alternative revolutionary path, and to bring Palestine to the forefront of the agenda of liberation movements and revolutionary forces for change in Europe and the world, as well as the womens, student and trade union movements that support and stand with our struggle to achieve justice in Palestine.

Woven throughout all the presentations and events one central theme stands out: Palestinians at the center of their story. In their statement calling for the 2021 launch, Masar Badil organizers explained that the role of Palestinian and Arab youth in charting our new path, and in defining its current and future milestones, is a fundamental issue, not merely an intellectual luxury or a theoretical slogan. Instead, it represents a necessary condition for liberating the popular will and voice of the Palestinian people in their struggle against the Zionist movement around the world.

In an article written nearly a year ago, journalist and activist Ramzy Baroud explains Why the Palestinian Voice Should Take Center Stage. For years, he writes, and still today, the pro-Israel crowd has rejected the validity of the Palestinian narrative, while some in the pro-Palestinian movement marginalize the voices with whom they claim solidarity, as if Palestinians were simply incapable of articulating a coherent narrative.

I remember being shocked hearing a fellow activist claim that he would accept Benny Morris version of an event over that of Palestinian historians, as if by virtue of being an Israeli, Morris enjoyed an authenticity that Palestinians, by virtue of their ethnicity, could not.

After years of watching Palestinian comrades shut down, pushed aside, and generally left out of the academic and more general discourse, this comment probably would not surprise me as much today.

In The Toxic Other: The Palestinian Critique and Debate About Race and Racism, M. Muhannad Ayyash explores the toxification of the Palestinian. In this paradigm, the Palestinian narrative is automatically mistrusted because it is erroneously believed to be rooted in antisemitic thought.

This results in the racialization of Palestinian discourse in the name of anti-racism, which can be seen in the recent controversy at Berkeley Law School, where students were charged with creating Jewish Free Zones because they asked various organizations not to invite Zionist speakers to their events.

Ayyash concludes that academic (and I would add all) erasure of the Palestinian voice amounts to a form of racialization that is part and parcel of colonial modernity. In response, he concludes that without a centralization of the Palestinian critique, decolonial and anti-racist efforts will not live up to their professed ideals.

Baroud concludes the same. Without that genuine and engaged Palestinian intellectual, he writes, the worlds priorities will continue to gravitate towards Israeli priorities, towards US interests and their subsequent fraudulent language about peace, security and such.

Given the many references to present-day hypocrisy of the media, the latest in a fine piece by Jeremy Salt, there can be no doubt that putting Palestine at the center of these stories would change the picture, from one of liberal-supported imperialism to a more nuanced view.

For Palestine to be free, Baroud concludes, for the Palestinian people to achieve their full rights and for the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees to be honored, the story of Palestine has to be told by the Palestinians themselves.

This is exactly what the March for Return and Liberation accomplishes, from Al Falasteniyeh Media Network, which plans to launch in conjunction with the march, to the daily presentations that hopefully will be reported back to their communities when delegates return home, this is a week devoted to centering the voices of Palestinians.

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From the River to the Sea: Join the Palestinian March for Return and Liberation - Palestine Chronicle

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

Reversing the deadlly contributions of American society to the destruction of the Palestinian people is more than a moral imperative; it is the principle means for guaranteeing survival of the Palestine community.

The Short LetterDear President Barack Obama,

You entered office with a call for a new start to relations between the Muslim world and the West based on common interests and mutual understanding and respect. We assumed your statement and dedication to social justice would orient your administration policies into halting Israels oppression of the Palestinian people and finding an equitable solution to the Middle East crisis.

During your eight years in the Executive office, the destruction of the Palestinian people continued unimpeded. In September 2016, less than two months before a national election and only several months before leaving office, you signed a military aid package of $38bn for the next 10 years for the Israeli oppressor.

Can you explain why your efforts did not match your rhetoric, why you allowed Israel to grind the Palestinians into desperation, and why you capped your term in office with a generous gift to the oppressive Israeli war machine? Your reply will assist in forming a strategy that defeats Israels oppressive tactics and counters the ineffectiveness of established leaders to prevent the calamities that the Palestinians suffer daily from occupation.

The Long LetterDear President Barack Obama,

Foreign forces have supported the destruction of the Palestinian people. Among these foreign forces have been American individuals, American groups, American society, and the American government. Never has this concentration of external forces contributed to the demise of a community. Reversing the deadly contributions of American society to the destruction of the Palestinian people is more than a moral imperative; it is the principle means for guaranteeing survival of the Palestine community. A brief incursion into the wayback machine of history highlights the role that the United States government and institutions played, and still play, in the destruction of the Palestinians.

U.S. Government role in Destruction of the Palestinians

Destruction of the Palestinian community started with U.S. agreement to the 1920 San Remo conferences acceptance of the 1917 Balfour Agreement, which stated that the signatories were in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. Why did the U.S. favor this agreement when relatively few Jews around the world were interested in leaving their present homes for the British Mandate and it was not a desirable area for Europeans and Americans to live? Why didnt the U.S. government recommend a homeland for the Assyrians, who suffered mass killings and deportations by Ottoman forces during World War I in southeastern Anatolia and Azerbaijan. Direct descendants of a mighty civilization, Assyrians, who lived for millennia in the area and were continually subjected to persecution, would have welcomed a home of their own. The same question applies to the Armenians, who have probably endured more oppression in the last 2000 years than any other ethnicity. Those who carved up the Middle East could have easily found a safe abode for these ancient and continually persecuted peoples.

The U.S. might have made amends for its lapse in accepting the San Remo agreement by not casting its vote for UN Resolution 181, the partition of Palestine. A Safe Haven, Harry S, Truman and the Founding of Israel, by Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh, explains President Trumans arguments for approving UN Resolution 181. If these arguments are true, then President Truman showed ignorance and acquired blame for committing one of the worst injustices in history.

He had hoped that a simple announcement that the United States intended to vote for it would be enough. When it became obvious that it would not, he moved quickly and gave permission and encouragement for direct pressure to be applied to secure its passage. Partition, which had been sanctioned by the United Nations, was apparently the only answer for the Jews still in DP camps. American public opinion supported it, and so did his close advisors in the White House. He felt the pressure to act both politically and morally. And he realized if partition went down, there was one person who would be blamed for it; Harry S. Truman.

President Truman postured himself as motivated by a noble conviction; the displaced Jews who had survived the World War II Holocaust needed and deserved an immediate home. Why didnt President Truman consider that most, if not all, of the 150,000 displaced Jews wanted to go to the United States and not to Palestine and allow for that more desired alternative?

Did transferring war wary survivors of concentration camps to an unstable, insecure, and violent environment make sense? Although Truman could not entirely realize the situation, the placing of weapons in the hands of many of these displaced persons reinforced the Zionist military and aided the eventual displacement of 900,000 Palestinians. The European DP camps were temporary shelter for those who would soon find permanent homes and citizenship in countries around the world; the UNWRA refugee camps became permanent homes for magnitudes more Palestinian displaced persons, who still languish in camps with stateless identification.

Historical documents describe the pressure U.S. government officials applied to several nations, and how this pressure managed to change votes from against to for partition 1948 by Benny Morris, Palestine and Great Powers by Michael J. Cohen, A Safe Haven, Harry S, Truman and the Founding of Israel by Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh cover the subject. A brief summary of some of the observations from these books shows the Truman administrations active participation in assuring UN Resolution 181s ratification.

Population statistics in Report of UNSCOP: 3 September 1947: Chapter 4: A Commentary on Partition, show about 500,000 Jews and 1.1 million Arabs in the partitioned area. (International zone of Jerusalem is not included.) The indigenous Arab population had almost its entire population born in the British Mandate.

The figures of Jewish arrivals, between the years 1919 to 1945, give a clue to how many Jews were born in the British Mandate. The Jewish Virtual Library at https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-immigrantion-to-palestine-1919-1941(few arrivals between 1941 and 1945) sums that statistic to 379,734, of which about 250,000 came during the immediate pre-World War II period. Sources estimate about 30,000 returned to their native lands. Subtracting the remaining arrivals (380,000 30,000 = 350,000) from the total population (500,000) gives a rough estimate of about 150,000 Jews born in the British Mandate before 1945.

Because almost all Palestinians were born in the area at the time of UN Resolution 181, the indigenous Palestinians outnumbered the first generation Jews by about 7:1. A partitioned Palestine awarded a minor ethnic group of the total population, which had only two to three decades of time and energy invested in the area, more than 60% of the total land and split the native population, which had worked and cultivated the land for centuries, into two lands. This non-forcible UN Resolution occurred immediately after World War II, when followers of a revived Wilsonian democracy, under the previous leadership of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, pledged to dismantle colonialism and allow the native peoples to express self-determination.

Agreement with the San Remo conference and the partition plan started U.S. participation in the destruction of the Palestinians.

Without suitable weapons, it is difficult to oppress and destroy a large population. The U.S. supplies Israel with the weapons. With no skin in the game, token aid to the Palestinians to soothe the daily pain, and hypocritical words of sympathy for their plight, the U.S. government furnishes quiet acceptance and loud support for the destruction of the Palestinians.

U.S. Institutions Role in Destruction of the Palestinians

It is bewildering that a foreign government assists an oppressive government in the destruction of an indigenous community; it is shocking to observe institutions actively supporting the oppressor.

The New Christian Right, a variety of evangelical organizations that preach the word of God and perform the work of the devil, is the most prominent institution helping Israel carry out its oppression. Christians United for Israel (CUFI) statement of purpose is; to provide a national association through which every pro-Israel church, parachurch organization, ministry, or individual in America can speak and act with one voice in support of Israel in matters related to Biblical issues.

These betrayers of Jesus Christs sermons are available 24/7 to make life miserable for the Palestinians. Volunteers bring Israeli immigrants clothing and items necessary for new homes on stolen property, serve in non-combative roles on an Israel Defense Force (IDF) base, permitting Israels soldiers to have more time to subdue Palestinians, and harvest grapes in vineyards of the Shilo settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which gives the settlers more opportunity to harass Palestinian grape harvesting.

Gary M. Burge Professor of New Testament and Dean of the Faculty, Calvin Theological Seminary, estimates that contributions to Israel from the evangelical community range between $175 and $200 million annually. Where does much of this money go? Here is one report.

American Christian Funding Flows to Jewish Settlers, June 12, 2009, heard on PBS program All Things Considered, by Sheera Frenkel

Sondra Oster Baras, director of Israels branch of the Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, estimates that more than half of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank receive direct or indirect funding from Christian communities. Baras says donors can choose among several programs, including one called adopt a settler, in which money goes toward the daily needs of the settlers: helping build new schools, health facilities and synagogues. Our major donors are themselves organizations or ministries or churches. They themselves have raised those monies in small amounts $5, $20 from a line of people and put it together, so its very much grass-roots.

A plethora of organizations, masquerading as representatives of American Jews, serves the Israel nation. These organizations are an insult to all Jews and all humanity. Their efforts provoke physical and moral backlashes against Jews, which they use to play victim and as a rationale for the existence of Israel a safe retreat for Jews from a hostile world that they have created.

Why are American nationals and their organizations sending their children to Israel, allowing indoctrination by a foreign government, massaging the truth about oppressive Israel, convincing other Americans that Israel is a benign nation trying to defend itself, reshaping Americans in Israels image, and skewing election processes to favor Israel? What other nation has that type of devoted activity in the United States?

The answer is simple Israel needs an army of followers in other nations to serve its cause and influence every man, woman and child that nationalist, militarist, oppressive, and apartheid Israel is a benevolent country. Existence of these dozens, or maybe hundreds, of willful organizations collaborating with Israels oppression, validates the charge of crimes against the Palestinians; if there were no crimes, there would be no reason for these organizations to exist and bend the truth of the situation. Their existence, manipulations, lies, deceit, and attacks on innocent persons indicate a cover-up and make them party to that cover-up.

This deceit is apparent from declarations by Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the senior rabbi of Manhattans Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. His contrived Amplify Israel initiative aims to breathe new life into the principles weve been committed to for decades, with an array of programs aimed at bolstering support for Israel and aligning Zionism with liberal ideology. In clearer words, influence every man, woman and child that nationalist, militarist, oppressive, and apartheid Israel is a benevolent country.

Who is Rabbi Hirsch? Ammiel Hirsch went to high school in Israel, served as a tank commander in the IDF, and was formerly the director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America, the Israeli arm of the North American Reform movement. In a response to a letter, in which 93 rabbinical and cantorial students harshly criticized Israeli actions in the hostilities between Israel and Hamas, Rabbi Hirsch wrote:

For the record, the Reform movement is a Zionist movement. Every single branch of our movement the synagogue arm (Union for Reform Judaism), the rabbinic union (Central Conference of American Rabbis), and our seminary (HUC-JIR) every organization separately, and all together, are Zionist and committed ideologically and theologically to Israel.

Was Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, after receiving training in Israel, eventually sent to the United States to guide the Reform movement and define it in Israels image?

Destruction of the Palestinians

The physical existence of millions of Palestinians weakens using the word genocide as a characterization of Israels policies; Palestinians have not been physically killed en masse. Why mention it when oppression, apartheid, and community destruction are sufficient to reveal the crimes and gather adherents to the Palestinian rightful cause? The diabolical manner by which genocide is being achieved demands its mention.

Israel, knowing it cannot physically eliminate the Palestinians, has adopted a covert and sinister method of genocide attack the Palestinians psyches so they lose the will to live. By posing constant dangers to Palestinian existence, constant impediments to their daily life, constant seizures of their land and resources, constant reminders that they are dominated, Israel creates anxiety, fear, despair, and hopelessness that diminish the Palestinian spirit, immune system, ability to function, ability to think properly, and ability to reproduce. Broken bones lead to broken parents, lead to broken supervision, lead to broken homes, and end in broken communities. Those Palestinians who can still lift their heads will want to leave. The indomitable Palestinians have not permitted this to happen.

Israels greatest crime is the denial of ontological security, the latter being a stable mental state derived from a sense of continuity of events in ones life. The severe Israeli repression terrorizes communities, isolates individuals, produces anxiety, disables breadwinners, and hinders satisfactory child/parent relationships by humiliating the parents and subjecting them to brutal and senseless beatings. Add purposeful denial of agriculture, water rights, and fishing rights, willful ruin of cherished olive and orange groves, interference in acquiring livelihood and employment, and the absence of ontological security accelerates the deterioration of the Palestinian community. Without laws and leaders to protect them, the Palestinians are victims of genocide.

As of April 2022, 138 of the United Nations 193 members recognize the State of Palestine. Almost all South American, Asian, African, and East European countries have given recognition, while the major nations of North America and western Europe, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy the liberal democracies that pursue social justice and follow the United States doctrine of a new world order deny the Palestinians ontological security by not recognizing the State of Palestine.

These nations lead NATO, whose principle guide is the United States. As mentioned earlier, NATO declared it intervened in the 2011 Libyan Civil War as a duty to The Responsibility to Protect, an international norm that seeks to ensure that the international community never again fails to halt genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. All of these nouns apply in Israels oppression of the Palestinians. Well, what are you waiting for, U.S. led NATO do your stuff and fulfill your duty to The Responsibility to Protect. Need to defend the Libyans was conjecture; need to defend the Palestinians is a verifiable fact

This type of U.S. hypocrisy has turned societies against democracy and fostered extreme rightist positions that model themselves after Israels nationalism, militarism, and racism. By supporting Israel, the U.S. encourages the divisions and polarization that are slowly tearing it apart. To much of the world, America has lost its elevated moral position, declined in prestige, and is drifting into abandonment.

Israel will never change its oppressive polices; those firmly dedicated to the Palestinian cause Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, and some Arab nations dont have the military or political power to modify the situation; and those who sympathize with the Palestinians will not challenge the combined powers of Israel and its benefactor, the United States. Palestinian salvation is dependent on America reversing its Middle East policies. That is the rub. Americas salvation as a dominant world power is dependent on the United States assuring the salvation of the Palestinians.

Pundits confuse support for Israel with support for this Israel. The United States, for military and geopolitical reasons, can support Israel, as it does Columbia, but there is no reason to support and assist this Israel in the destruction of the Palestinians. The Washington establishment and foreign policy makers have incorrectly calculated the tradeoffs between supporting this Israel in its denial of Palestinian rights and ontological security and satisfying the Palestinian cause.

In addition to the moral elevation, which should be sufficient when considering U.S. complicity in the forecasted genocide, by reversing policies that aid repression of the Palestinians, the U.S. will gain a multitude of benefits and will enable Washington to regain its leading role in the global community:

For money and votes, U.S. politicians sell out their commitment to the American people, follow the dictates of a foreign nation, and make Americans party to the destruction of innocent people. TREASON!!

Hopefully, more people will meet the challenge, gather the resources, form the organizations, confront the oppressors, shout much louder, push much stronger, and succeed in changing American attitudes that have been a principle contribution to Israels deliberate destruction of the Palestinian community.

Dan Lieberman edits Alternative Insight, a commentary on foreign policy, economics, and politics. He is author of the non-fiction books A Third Party Can Succeed in America, Not until They Were Gone, Think Tanks of DC, The Artistry of a Dog, and a novel: The Victory (under a pen name)

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Letters To Barack Obama Short And Long , And Of United States Destruction Of The Palestinian People - Countercurrents.org

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

A man whose parents survived a massacre of 20 civilians in Palestine by troops of the Royal Ulster Rifles is seeking a government apology more than 80 years on.

id Haddads mother and father were in the village of al-Bassa when it was the target of so-called punitive measures by soldiers of the Belfast-based regiment on September 7, 1938.

The region was then governed by Britain as the Mandate of Palestine, created by the League of Nations following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War.

Both Arab and Jewish groups revolted against the British administration, with the violence suppressed by police and troops.

On the night before the incident at al-Bassa, two soldiers of the Royal Ulster Rifles (RUR) were killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol near the village, with two more later dying of their wounds.

According to various accounts, the next day a detachment from the RUR, accompanied by members of other regiments, arrived at al-Bassa with armoured cars and began machine-gunning houses before burning the village.

It is claimed the troops then rounded up around 50 Arab men, put them on a bus and forced the driver to drive over a mine. The total number killed has been put at 20.

Mr Haddad is one of those behind a petition and dossier of evidence sent to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) asking for an acknowledgement and apology for actions carried out by troops during the period of British administration.

Speaking to the BBCs Newsnight, Mr Haddad said: I wanted people to know that my parents, as youngteenagers, they suffered. And those who died, we have to speak for them now.

The MoD said it would review any evidence of historical allegations of crimes committed by soldiers in Palestine.

One account of what happened at al-Bassa was given by Major Desmond Woods, then a newly commissioned officer in the RUR, which is part of the Imperial War Museums oral history collection.

Major Woods, who died in 2002, said the village elders had been warned that if any soldiers were blown up by a mine, the nearest village would be subject to punitive measures.

A patrol went down one night commanded by a young officer called Millie Law he was slightly senior to me. Unfortunately, the Arabs had laid a mine and the patrol vehicle was blown up by one of these mines, he recalled.

Millie Law was killed and a couple of riflemen were also killed. Word came through at about 6 oclock in the morning that one of our patrols had been blown up and Millie Law had been killed.

Gerald Whitfeld [battalion commander] had told these mukhtars [village leaders] that if any of this sort of thing happened, they would take punitive measures against the nearest village to the scene of the mine.

The nearest village to the scene of the mine was a place called al-Bassa, and our company were ordered down to al-Bassa to take part in punitive measures.

I will never forget arriving at al-Bassa and seeing the Rolls-Royce armoured cars of the 11th Hussars peppering al-Bassa with machine-gun fire. This went on for about 20 minutes.

Then we went in. I remember we had lighted braziers, and we set the houses on fire and we burnt the village to the ground.

Major Woods said the divisional commander queried what was going on when he saw clouds of smoke from the balcony of his headquarters in Haifa.

We all thought this was going to be the end of our commanding officer Gerald Whitfeld. Certainly if it had happened these days, it would have been, he added.

He said, Sir, I warned the mukhtars that if these things happened to any of my officers or men, I would take punitive measures against them. I did this and would have lost control of the frontier if I hadnt.

Major Woods said the divisional commander replied: Well, just go a wee bit easier in future.

He added: The Royal Ulster Rifles treated the Arabs very firmly indeed but, by Jove, itpaid dividends. Of course you cant do those sort of things today.

Sunday Life contacted the Royal Ulster Rifles museum for a comment but did not receive a response.

Al-Bassa was rebuilt but later razed to the ground by Israeli forces after its capture during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

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Man seeking Royal Ulster Rifles apology after civilians 'forced to drive over landmine' in Palestine - Belfast Telegraph

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Posted By admin on October 17, 2022

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (WKBN) For some, running mile after mile is their worst nightmare, but for others, its pure bliss.

I just kind of get lost, like, I dont even know what Im thinking half the time and whenever I do start thinking, I just I usually relax my arms and then I just think, dang, this is amazing, I get so excited that Im even able to do this sport, Cunningham said.

Obviously, East Palestine Senior Hannah Cunningham is on the latter side of that, owning the 3200 Eastern Ohio Athletic Conferece RECORD, busting out two miles in 12:50 last Spring.

The second I think anything negative I instantly slow down so I know that I cant do that, Cunningham said. So, I only really have like positive things that go through my mind during the race to keep me moving and to keep me going.

Cunningham is also a two-time regional qualifier in cross country, and a two-time regional qualifier in track, but maybe more importantly to her is the sparkling 4.0.

I got a B one time in third grade and I cried and I grounded myself, ever since Ive got that B, Ive never got anything below an A, Cunningham said.

Thats earned her scholarship opportunities through the National Honor Society, all while growing a sport.

One that, she hopes to continue at the college level, while pursuing culinary and baking, and also an interest in becoming a dietitian.

I continue doing it because of my friends. I had some older friends that did it, and I was really excited to be on their team because they were like really fun people and I loved being with them and now its just really cool to be able to spread that love, you know, like spread the love of the sport and the fun and the excitement of it, Cunningham said.

Hannah Cunningham is our WYTV Student Athlete of the Week.

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French politician

Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (French pronunciation:[ ma.i l.pn], born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015.

Le Pen graduated from the faculty of law in Paris in 1949. After his time in the military, he studied political science and law at Panthon-Assas University.

Le Pen focuses on issues related to immigration to France, the European Union, traditional culture and values, law and order, and France's high rate of unemployment. His progression in the 1980s is known as the "lepnisation of minds" due to its noticeable effect on mainstream political opinion. His controversial speeches and his integration into public life have made him a figure who polarizes opinion, considered the "Devil of the Republic" among his opponents or the "last samurai in politics" among his supporters. He has been convicted for statements downplaying the Holocaust, and fined for incitement to discrimination regarding remarks made about Muslims in France.

His longevity in politics and his five attempts to become President of France have made him a major figure in French political life. His progress to the second round in the 2002 presidential election left its mark on French public life, and the "21st of April" is now a frequently used expression in France. A former Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Le Pen served as the Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. He was expelled from the party by his daughter Marine in 2015, after new controversial statements.

Jean Louis Marie Le Pen was the only son of Jean Le Pen (19011942). Jean Le Pen was born in Brittany, like his ancestors, and had started work at the age of 13 on a transatlantic vessel. He was the president of L'Association des Ancients Combattants and Councilor of La Trinit-sur-Mer.[1] Jean-Marie Le Pen's mother, Anne-Marie Herv (19041965) was a seamstress and also of local ancestry.[2][3]

Le Pen was born on 20 June 1928 in La Trinit-sur-Mer, a small seaside village in Brittany, the son of Anne Marie Herv and Jean Le Pen,[4] a fisherman. He was orphaned as an adolescent (Ward of the Nation, brought up by the state), when his father's boat La Persvrance was blown up by a mine in 1942.[5][3][6] He was raised as a Roman Catholic and studied at the Jesuit high school Franois Xavier in Vannes,[7] then at the lyce of Lorient.[8]

In November 1944, aged 16, he was turned down (because of his age) by Colonel Henri de La Vaissire (then representative of the Communist Youth) when he attempted to join the French Forces of the Interior (FFI).[9] He then entered the faculty of law in Paris, and started to sell the monarchist Action Franaise's newspaper, Aspects de la France, in the street.[10] He was repeatedly convicted of assault and battery (coups et blessures).[11]

Le Pen started his political career as the head of the student union in Toulouse. He became president of the Association corporative des tudiants en droit, an association of law students whose main occupation was to engage in street brawls against the "Cocos" (communists). He was excluded from this organisation in 1951.[12]

After his time in the military, he studied political science and law at Panthon-Assas University. His graduate thesis, submitted in 1971 by him and Jean-Loup Vincent, was titled Le courant anarchiste en France depuis 1945 or ("The anarchist movement in France since 1945").[13][14]

After receiving his law degree, he enlisted in the Foreign Legion. He arrived in Indochina after the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu,[11] which had been lost by France and which prompted French Prime Minister Pierre Mends France to put an end to the Indochina war at the Geneva Conference. Le Pen was then sent to Suez in 1956, but arrived only after the cease-fire.[11]

In 1953, a year before the beginning of the Algerian War, he contacted President Vincent Auriol, who approved Le Pen's proposed volunteer disaster relief project after a flood in the Netherlands. Within two days, there were 40 volunteers from his university, a group that would later help victims of an earthquake in Italy. In Paris in 1956, he was elected to the National Assembly as a member of Pierre Poujade's UDCA populist party. Le Pen has often presented himself as the youngest member of the Assembly,[15] but a young communist, Andr Chne, 27 years old and half a year younger, was elected in the same year.[16][17][18]

In 1957, Le Pen became the General Secretary of the National Front of Combatants, a veterans' organization, as well as the first French politician to nominate a Muslim candidate, Ahmed Djebbour, an Algerian, elected in 1957 as deputy of Paris. The next year, following his break with Poujade, he was reelected to the National Assembly as a member of the Centre National des Indpendants et Paysans (CNIP) party, led by Antoine Pinay.

Le Pen claimed that he had lost his left eye when he was savagely beaten during the 1958 election campaign.[19] Testimonies suggest that he was only wounded in the right eye and did not lose it. He lost the sight in his left eye years later, due to an illness.[20] (Popular belief is that he wears a glass eye.[21]) During the 1950s, Le Pen took a close interest in the Algerian War (195462) and the French defence budget.

Elected deputy of the French Parliament under the Poujadist banner, Le Pen voluntarily reengaged himself for two to three months in the French Foreign Legion.[22] He was then sent to Algeria (1957) as an intelligence officer. He has been accused of having engaged in torture. Le Pen has denied these accusations, although he admitted knowing of its use.[11]

Le Pen directed the 1965 presidential campaign of far-right candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, who obtained 5.19% of the votes. He insisted on the rehabilitation of the Collaborationists, declaring that:

Was General de Gaulle more brave than Marshal Ptain in the occupied zone? This isn't sure. It was much easier to resist in London than to resist in France.[11]

In 1962, Le Pen lost his seat in the Assembly. He created the Serp (Socit d'tudes et de relations publiques) firm, a company involved in the music industry, which specialized in historical recordings and sold recordings of the choir of the CGT trade-union and songs of the Popular Front, as well as Nazi marches.[citation needed]

In 1972, Le Pen founded the Front National (FN) party. He then ran in the 1974 presidential election, obtaining 0.74% of the vote.[11] In 1976, his Parisian flat was dynamited (he lived at that time in his mansion of Montretout in Saint-Cloud). The crime was never solved.[11] Le Pen then failed to obtain the 500 signatures from "grand electors" (grands lecteurs, mayors, etc.) necessary to present himself in the 1981 presidential election, won by the candidate of the Socialist Party (PS), Franois Mitterrand.[citation needed]

Criticizing immigration and taking advantage of the economic crisis striking France and the world since the 1973 oil crisis, Le Pen's party managed to increase its support in the 1980s, starting in the municipal elections of 1983. His popularity has been greatest in the south and east of France.[citation needed] The FN obtained 16 seats in the 1984 European elections.[23] A total of 35 FN deputies entered the Assembly after the 1986 elections (the only legislative elections held under proportional representation), which were won by the right wing, bringing Jacques Chirac to Matignon in the first cohabitation government (that is, the combination of a right-wing Prime minister, Chirac, with a socialist President, Mitterrand).[citation needed] In Paris, Jean-Marie Le Pen was elected to the National Assembly.

In 1984, Le Pen won a seat in the European Parliament and has been consistently reelected since then. In 1988 he lost his reelection bid for the French National Assembly in the Bouches-du-Rhne's 8th constituency. He was defeated in the second round by Socialist Marius Masse.[24] In 1991 Le Pen's invite to London by Conservative MPs was militantly protested by large numbers coordinated by the Campaign Against Fascism in Europe, CAFE, which led to a surge of anti-fascist groups and activity across Europe. In 1992 and 1998 he was elected to the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Cte-d'Azur.

Le Pen ran in the French presidential elections in 1974, 1988, 1995, 2002, and 2007. As noted above, he was not able to run for office in 1981, having failed to gather the necessary 500 signatures of elected officials. In the presidential elections of 2002, Le Pen obtained 16.86% of the votes in the first round of voting.[25] This was enough to qualify him for the second round, as a result of the poor showing by the PS candidate and incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin and the scattering of votes among 15 other candidates. This was a major political event, both nationally and internationally, as it was the first time someone with such far right views had qualified for the second round of the French presidential elections. There was a widespread stirring of national public opinion as virtually the entire French political spectrum from the centre-right to the left united in fierce opposition to Le Pen's ideas. More than one million people in France took part in street rallies; slogans such as "A crook is better than a fascist" ("Un escroc mieux qu'un facho") and "Graft rather than hate, Chirac rather than Le Pen" ("L'arnaque plutt que la haine, Chirac plutt que Le Pen") were heard in opposition to Le Pen.[26] Le Pen was then defeated by a large margin in the second round, when incumbent president Jacques Chirac obtained 82% of the votes, thus securing the biggest majority in the history of the Fifth Republic.[27]

In the 2004 regional elections, Le Pen intended to run for office in the Provence-Alpes-Cte-d'Azur region but was prevented from doing so because he did not meet the conditions for being a voter in that region: he neither lived there nor was registered as a taxpayer there. However, he was planned to be the FN's top candidate in the region for the 2010 regional elections.[28]

Le Pen again ran in the 2007 French presidential election and finished fourth.[29] His 2007 campaign, at the age of 78 years and 9 months, makes him the oldest candidate for presidential office in French history.

Le Pen has been a vocal critic of the European Reform Treaty (formally known as the Treaty of Lisbon) which was signed by EU member states on 13 December 2007, and entered into force on 1 December 2009.[citation needed] In October 2007, Le Pen suggested that he would personally visit Ireland to assist the "No" campaign but finally changed his mind, fearing that his presence would be used against the supporters of the NO vote. Ireland finally refused to ratify the treaty. Ireland is the only EU country which had a citizen referendum. All other EU states, including France, ratified the treaty by parliamentary vote, despite a previous citizen referendum where over 55% of French voters rejected the European Reform Treaty (although that vote was on a different draft of the Treaty in the form of the Constitutional Treaty).[citation needed] After the Irish "No" vote, Le Pen addressed the French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the European Parliament, accusing him of furthering the agenda of a "cabal of international finance and free market fanatics." Ireland has since accepted the treaty in a second Lisbon referendum.[30]

After Le Pen left office in January 2011, his daughter Marine Le Pen was elected by the adherents of the party against Bruno Gollnisch. He became honorary chairman of the party[31] and won his seat again at the European elections in 2014.

On 4 May 2015, Le Pen was suspended from the party after refusing to attend his disciplinary hearing for describing the gas chambers, used in concentration camps during the Holocaust, as a "detail" of history.[32] A French court decided in June to cancel this suspension; although the members of the party were to hold a vote to accept or reject a whole series of measures aiming at changing the National Front's status, including Le Pen's Honorary Presidency. On July 10, another French court ruled to suspend the vote two days beforehand and urged the party to organize an in-person Congress, as Le Pen sued the National Front again. The party decided to appeal against both of these decisions.[33] The FN then decided, on July 29, to count the votes on the suppression of Le Pen's Honorary Presidency, which showed that 94% of the members were in favor of this decision.[34][35] However, due to the legal challenges to the FN's removal of Le Pen as its honorary president, he continued to officially hold the position.[36]

In August 2015, Le Pen was expelled from the National Front after a special party congress.[37] He has since founded the Comits Jeanne.[38][39]

Le Pen's marriage to Pierrette Le Pen from 29 June 1960 to 18 March 1987 resulted in three daughters, who have given him nine granddaughters. The break-up of the marriage was somewhat dramatic, with his ex-wife posing nude, to ridicule him, in the French edition of Playboy which printed 100,000 more than the normal production of 150,000 nevertheless needed to print a second printing of 150,000, to satisfy demand.[48][49][11] Marie-Caroline, one of his daughters, broke with Le Pen, following her husband to join Bruno Mgret, who split from the FN to found the rival Mouvement National Rpublicain (MNR, National Republican Movement).[11] The youngest of Le Pen's daughters, Marine Le Pen, is leader of the National Rally. On 31 May 1991, Jean-Marie Le Pen married Jeanne-Marie Paschos ("Jany"), of Greek descent. Born in 1933, Paschos was previously married to Belgian businessman Jean Garnier.[50]

In 1977, Le Pen inherited a fortune from Hubert Lambert (19341976), son of the cement industrialist Leon Lambert (18771952), one of three sons of Lambert Cement founder Hilaire Lambert. Hubert Lambert was a political supporter of Le Pen and a monarchist as well.[11] Lambert's will provided 30 million francs (approximately 5million) to Le Pen, as well as his opulent three-storey 11-room mansion at 8 Parc de Montretout, Saint-Cloud, in the western suburbs of Paris. The home had been built by Napoleon III for his chief of staff Jean-Franois Mocquard.[11][51] With his wife, he also owns a two-story townhouse on the Rue Hortense in Rueil-Malmaison and another house in his hometown of La Trinit-sur-Mer.[51]

In the early 1980s, Le Pen's personal security was assured by KO International Company, a subsidiary of VHP Security, a private security firm, and an alleged front organisation for SAC, the Service d'Action Civique (Civic Action Service), a Gaullist organisation. SAC allegedly employed figures with organized crime backgrounds and from the far-right movement.[52][53]

National Assembly of France

Municipal Council

European Parliament

Regional Council

Le Pen supports bringing back the death penalty in France.[54][55]

Le Pen has been accused and convicted several times[56] at home and abroad of xenophobia and antisemitism. A Paris court found in February 2005 that his verbal criticisms, such as remarks disparaging Muslims in a 2003 Le Monde interview, were "inciting racial hatred",[56] and he was fined 10,000 and ordered to pay an additional 5,000 in damages to the Ligue des droits de l'homme (League for Human Rights). The conviction and fines were upheld by the Court of Cassation in 2006.[57]

Arguing that his party includes people of various ethnic or religious origins like Jean-Pierre Cohen, Farid Smahi or Huguette Fatna, he has attributed some anti-Semitism in France to the effects of Muslim immigration to Europe and suggested that some part of the Jewish community in France might eventually come to appreciate National Front ideology.[citation needed] Le Pen has denied man-made climate change and has linked climate science with communism.[69]

He also infamously compared gays to soup with salt, saying "it's like salt with soup: if there is not enough, it's too bland, and if it's too much, it's undrinkable" and compared pedophilia with "the exaltation of homosexuality".[70][71]

Le Pen has made several provocative statements concerning the Holocaust which have been interpreted by the legal system as constituting Holocaust denial. He has been convicted of racism or inciting racial hatred at least six times.[56] Thus, on 13 September 1987, he said, "I ask myself several questions. I'm not saying the gas chambers didn't exist. I haven't seen them myself. I haven't particularly studied the question. But I believe it's just a detail in the history of World War II." For Le Pen, the French deportation of 76,000 Jews from France to Nazi concentration camps, where they were killed, is a trivial matter, and he denies that 6 million Jews were killed, saying "I don't think there were that many deaths. There weren't 6million ... There weren't mass murders as it's been said."[72] He was eventually condemned under the Gayssot Act to pay 1.2million francs (183,200).[73]

In 1997, the European Parliament, of which Le Pen was then a member, removed his parliamentary immunity so that Le Pen could be tried by a German court in Germany, for comments he made at a December 1996 press conference before the German Republikaner party. Echoing his 1987 remarks in France, Le Pen stated: "If you take a 1,000-page book on World War II, the concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers 10 to 15 lines. This is what one calls a detail." In June 1999, a Munich court found this statement to be "minimizing the Holocaust, which caused the deaths of six million Jews," and convicted and fined Le Pen for his remarks.[74] Le Pen retorted ironically: "I understand now that it's the Second World War which is a detail of the history of the gas chambers."[75]

Le Pen is often nicknamed the "Menhir", due to his "granitic nature" as he is perceived as someone who does not give way to pressure or who cannot be easily knocked down. It also connects him to France's Celtic origins.[88] Le Pen is often described as one of the most flamboyant and charismatic orators in Europe, whose speech blends folksy humour, crude attacks and rhetorical finesse.[88][89][90][91]

However, Le Pen remains a polarizing figure in France: opinions regarding him tend to be quite strong. A 2002 IPSOS poll showed that while 22% of the electorate have a good or very good opinion of Le Pen, and 13% an unfavorable opinion, 61% have a very unfavorable opinion.[92]

Le Pen and the National Front are described by much of the media and nearly all commentators as far right. Le Pen himself and the rest of his party disagree with this label; earlier in his political career, Le Pen described his position as "neither right, nor left, but French" (ni droite, ni gauche, franais).[93] He later described his position as right-wing and opposed to the "socialo-communists" and other right-wing parties, which he deems are not real right-wing parties. At other times, for example during the 2002 election campaign, he declared himself "socially left-wing, economically right-wing, nationally French" (socialement gauche, conomiquement droite, nationalement franais).[94] He further contends that most of the French political and media class are corrupt and out of touch with the real needs of the common people, and conspire to exclude Le Pen and his party from mainstream politics. Le Pen criticizes the other political parties as the "establishment" and lumped all major parties (Communist, Socialist, Union for French Democracy (UDF) and Rally for the Republic (RPR)) into the "Gang of Four" (la bande des quatre an allusion to the Gang of Four during China's Cultural Revolution).[95]

Some of Le Pen's statements led other right-wing groups, such as the Austrian Freedom Party,[96] and some National Front supporters, to distance themselves from him. Controversial Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, who has often been accused of being far-right, has also criticized Le Pen.[97] Bruno Mgret left the National Front to found his own party (the National Republican Movement, MNR), claiming that Le Pen kept the Front away from the possibility of gaining power. Mgret wanted to emulate Gianfranco Fini's success in Italy by making it possible for right-wing parties to ally themselves with the Front, but claimed that Le Pen's attitude and outrageous speech prevented this. Le Pen's daughter Marine leads an internal movement of the Front that wants to "normalize" the National Front, "de-enclave" it, have a "culture of government" etc.; however, relations with Le Pen and other supporters of the hard line are complex.[98] Le Pen's National Front electoral successes along with the party gaining wider public prominence led to suggestions for the renewal of the pan-European alliance of extreme-right parties with Le Pen as its figurehead,[99] a suggestion that eventually did indeed bring about the establishment of the Europe of Nations and Freedom group in the European Parliament, chaired by Le Pen's daughter Marine.

On 22 March 2018, Le Pen joined the Alliance for Peace and Freedom.[100] In October 2021, he endorsed ric Zemmour for the 2022 French presidential election over his daughter Marine.[101]

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Elon Musks recent effort to buy Twitter along with court fights over social media regulation in Florida and Texas have recharged the public conversation surrounding social media and political bias. Musk and his followers have suggested that Twitter release regular audits of Twitters algorithmor that Twitter open source its algorithmso independent parties can audit it for political bias.

Before Elon Musk entered the fray, however, a growing body of journalistic work and academic scholarship had begun to scrutinize the impact of social media platform algorithms on the type of content people see. On the one hand, most empirical research has found that user behavior, not recommendation algorithms, largely determines what we see online, and two recent studies disputed Musks claim of anti-conservative bias. On the other hand, disclosures from the Facebook Files last fall suggested that adjustments to Facebooks algorithm amplified angry and polarizing content and may have helped foment the January 6 insurrection. Social media content feeds are crucial to media consumption today. By extension, then, it is critical to understand how the algorithms that generate our feeds shape the information we see.

In a new working paper, we analyze the ideological content promoted by YouTubes recommendation algorithm. Multiple media stories have posited that YouTubes recommendation algorithm leads people to extreme content. Meanwhile, other studies have shown that YouTube, on average, recommends mostly mainstream media content. In our study, which utilizes a new methodological approach that makes it easier for us to isolate the impact of the YouTube recommendation algorithm than previous work, we found that YouTubes recommendation algorithm does not lead the vast majority of users down extremist rabbit holes, although it does push users into increasingly narrow ideological ranges of content in what we might call evidence of a (very) mild ideological echo chamber. We also find that, on average, the YouTube recommendation algorithm pulls users slightly to the right of the political spectrum, which we believe is a novel finding. In the remainder of this article, we lay out exactly why such research is important, how we did our research, and how we came to these conclusions.

By many measures, mass polarization is on the rise in the United States. Americans are more willing to condone violence, less open to relationships that cut across party lines, and more prone to partisan motivated reasoning. Weve seen two prime examples in the past two years. First, the nations response to COVID-19: Preventative measures such as mask wearing and vaccination became inextricably linked to partisanship. Even more dramatically, many Republicans claimed that the 2020 U.S. presidential elections (although not the concurrent legislative elections) were riddled with fraud, culminating in the January 6 Capitol attacks, while Democrats largely accepted the results as legitimate.

While few claim that social media actually is the root cause of political polarization, many worry that the affordances of social media are accelerating the more recent rise in political polarization.1 One prominent concern is that our rapidly evolving information environmenthas increased the number of ideological news outlets and made it easier for individuals to exist in echo chambers where theyre rarely confronted with alternative perspectives. Many believe that social media algorithms exacerbate this problem by suggesting content to users that they will enjoy. While this can be harmless or even beneficial in areas like sports or music, in areas such as news content, health content, and others, this type of personalization could lead to harmful societal outcomes, such as siloing individuals into anti-vaccine, extremist, or anti-democratic echo chambers.

In our study, we focus on YouTube. YouTube, started in 2005 and acquired by Google in 2006, has grown to prominence as the internets archive for video content. Even before Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or other platforms implemented algorithmically-generated user feeds, YouTube was providing users with recommended videos to watch next. By many measures, YouTube is the largest social media platform in the United States. In 2021, 81% of American adults reported using YouTube, compared to 69% who use Facebook and 23% who use Twitter. YouTube is the second-most visited domain on the internet, just behind Google, part of their parent company. Twenty-two percent of, or roughly 55 million, Americans, also report regularly getting news on YouTube. In addition, YouTubes recommendation algorithm drives around 70% of total views on the platform. Taken together, these statistics suggest that YouTubes recommendation algorithm is vitally important for news consumption. Understanding what content YouTube recommends to usersand the extent to which YouTube recommends various types of harmful contentis both an important and challenging problem to solve.

For starters, the recommendation algorithm is highly personalized, meaning one individuals experience on YouTube can be completely different from anothers. While there are documented cases of individuals who are radicalized on YouTube, these cases dont allow us to understand scale, prevalence, or cause, which is key to being able to remedy any adverse effects of the algorithm writ large. In addition, platform algorithms change frequently, and researchers outside the company do not have access to data to conduct audits.

For YouTube, outside researchers are limited to using user watch histories (donated by survey respondents to be used in research) or using web scraping to collect recommendations. Both methods present challenges for understanding the effects of the recommendation system on online consumption. The first, using donated watch histories, does not allow researchers to disentangle user demand for content from the supply the platform provides. That is, we can see what users choose to consume on YouTube. However, what users choose to consume within a YouTube session is a composite of what the platform chooses to show in recommendations, (i.e., the supply of videos) and the users choices of which videos to actually watch (i.e., user demand, or the users preference for particular content).2 If researchers rely on watch histories and find increased consumption of right-wing content among a particular user, it could be a result of YouTube recommending increasing amounts of right-wing content to that user or it could be a result of that user receiving an ideologically diverse set of content but consistently choosing right-wing content. This is the crux of the difficulty in disentangling the effect of the algorithm from the effect of user choice on consumed content.

Alternatively, researchers can collect recommendations produced by an algorithm via web scraping. The way this works is that the researcher automates the process of visiting the YouTube webpage repeatedly and recording what is on it. In this way, the automated program can simulate the experiences of a user visiting YouTube. However, these automated visits to the web sites (we can think of this as a bot that watches YouTube videos) do not contain real user histories. No matter how a researcher programs a bot to simulate user behavior on YouTube, these user-agnostic recommendations disconnect the YouTube algorithm from the real user data on which it relies to operate, calling into question the extent to which web-scraped recommendations represent the lived experiences of users on the platform.

In our paper, we overcome the limitations of using watch histories or web scraping by analyzing what YouTube recommended to a sample of real users who participated in our studythat is, we are able to observe the actual videos that were recommended to users based on what YouTube chose to recommend to that person. However, instead of allowing users to choose which video to watch (and thus confounding the impact of the recommendation algorithm with user choice, as is the case when relying on watch histories) we constrain the users behavior for the duration of our survey by requiring our participants to click on a predetermined recommendation (i.e., always click on the third (or first, or fourth) recommendation). While we could have programmed a bot to do the same thing, we would not have been able to record what YouTube recommended to actual human users with real user histories. With the data collection method we employ, though, we can isolate the impact of the algorithm on which videos are shown to real users. When we combine this with a novel method to estimate the ideology of YouTube videos (described below) we are therefore able to assess the impact of YouTubes recommendation algorithm on the presence of ideological echo chambers, rabbit holes, and ideological bias.

In Fall 2020, we recruited 527 YouTube users and asked them to install a web browsing plug-ina piece of software that would allow us to see what appeared in their web browserto record their YouTube recommendations.3 Each participant was randomly assigned one of 25 starting videos, consisting of a mix of political content across the ideological spectrum and some non-political content from music, gaming, and sports.4 Users were then randomly assigned to one of five traversal rules, which instructed them to always click on a predetermined recommendation by the rank order of the recommendation. That is, a user would be instructed to always click on the first video, or always click on the second video, and so on. Respondents followed their assigned rule for 20 steps, and the browser extension collected the list of recommended videos presented at each traversal step. Thus, for each user, we would collect the set of twenty recommendations they received across twenty traversal steps, allowing us to understand the ideological content they were recommended.

After the survey, we used a novel method involving a machine-learning model (trained on Reddit and YouTube data) to estimate the ideology of each video recommended to users. To do so, we turn to Reddit, which is organized into sub-communities, or subreddits, for particular interests or beliefs. These subreddits cover a variety of topics, from broad forums like r/politics to discuss political content and r/music to discuss the newest music to more narrow forums like r/dataisbeautiful to show pretty data visualizations and r/backyardchickens to discuss chicken raising. For our method, we focus on subreddits dedicated to political content like the aforementioned r/politics and other subreddits such as r/The_Donald, r/liberal, or r/Conservative. The underlying assumption of our method is that videos shared in these political subreddits are likely on average to be ideologically aligned with that subreddit. For example, a conservative Fox News video would be more likely to appear in r/Conservative than in r/liberal. We can use this informationwhat videos appeared in what ideological subredditsto estimate the ideology of YouTube videos.

To that end, we collect all posts with YouTube videos shared on 1,230 political subreddits from December 31, 2011 until June 21, 2021. We remove posts with negative upvotes (users can give a post either a thumbs up or a thumbs down, with a negative score indicating that the members of that subreddit did not like the content, which we interpret as an indicating that the content is not aligned with the ideology of the subreddit). We filter the remaining posts for basic popularity metrics to make sure the videos and subreddits being used to train our machine learning model are actually informative for the model.5 With our final set of videos, we use correspondence analysis, a method commonly used in social sciences, to estimate the ideology of the videos shared on Reddit.

However, in our survey users encountered many videos that never appear on political subreddits. Therefore as a final step, we train a machine learning classifier to predict the ideology of YouTube videos using ideology estimations from the (Reddit-based) correspondence analysis. Using state of the art natural language processing, we trained a BERT model on video titles, tags, and descriptions to predict ideology of videos using the text features for the videos. Using this method, we can estimate ideology for all videos that users encountered in our survey.6

We use these ideology scores to measure the three concepts noted in the introduction of this article: ideological echo chambers, rabbit holes, and system-wide ideological bias.

Ideological echo chambers refer to a distribution of videos recommended to a user that is both ideologically homogeneous and centered on the users own ideology. For example, we consider a user to be in an ideological echo chamber if they are a conservative user who receives mostly conservative videos recommended from YouTube (and vice versa for liberal users). These users are in an echo chamber because they are only exposed to information that is consistent with their own ideology and prior beliefs. Echo chambers, as we define them in our article, are static: They represent the overall distribution of ideologies to which a user is exposed by the algorithm, rather than an evolving process that happens over the course of a traversal. So, if the YouTube recommendation algorithm puts users in echo chambers, we would expect users to see ideologically narrow content centered around their own ideology.

Alternatively, rabbit holes capture the process by which a user starts in a rich information environment and ends up in an ideologically extreme echo chamber. While much early social media research explored the prevalence of echo chambers on many platforms, rabbit holes are a specific phenomena related to personalized recommendation systems like YouTubes.7 The underlying intuition of this hypothesis is that recommendation systems provide a self-reinforcing feedback loop whereby users click on content that they like, and YouTube provides a more intense version of that content. In a non-political example, this could look like users watching videos about learning how to start jogging and then receiving recommendations for ultramarathon or triathlon-related videos. In the political context, a user might start on content about the presidential election and land on content espousing Holocaust denial or white supremacy.

Finally, we look at system-wide ideological bias, meaning bias in the overall recommendations of the majority of users. More specifically, system-wide ideological bias refers to the process by which all usersregardless of their own ideologyare pushed in a particular ideological direction. For example, if all users are pushed toward ideologically liberal content, we would consider YouTubes recommendation system to have system-wide ideological bias toward liberal content.

The figure above summarizes our findings from the study and allows us to assess the prevalenceor lack thereofof echo chambers, rabbit holes, and ideological bias. The figure displays the ideological distribution of recommended videos by traversal stephow many steps they had taken in the recommendation path(0-5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-20) and a users self-reported ideology (conservatives = red, moderates = white, and liberals = blue) where a positive ideology score on the x-axis is more conservative and a negative ideology score is more liberal. Therefore, the distributions at the bottom of the figure illustrate the ideological distribution of video recommendations users received during the first five videos watched during the traversal task, while the distributions at top of the figure illustrate the video recommendations users received during the last five videos watched during the traversal task.

If the YouTube recommendation algorithm were fostering echo chambers, we would expect liberals recommendations to be more left leaning, conservatives recommendations to be more right-leaning, and little overlap between liberals and conservatives. If the recommendation algorithm was leading users down rabbit holes, we would expect the distribution of video recommendations to shift toward either extreme as the number of traversal steps increased (again, moving up the y-axis). Finally, if the recommendation algorithm has an ideological bias, we would expect the distribution of recommendations to shift uniformly across all users, regardless of their ideology, in one direction or another.

So what can we conclude from the figure above?

Echo chambers: We find that YouTubes algorithm pushes real users into (very) mild ideological echo chambers. As we can see in the figure, by the end of the data collection task (the top part of the figure, traversals 15-20), liberals and conservatives received different distributions of recommendations from each other (we see that the three different color distributions in the top part of the figure do not perfectly overlap) in the direction we would expect: Liberals (blue) see slightly more liberal videos and conservatives (red) see slightly more conservative videos. The difference was statistically significant, but very small. Moreover, as the figure clearly illustrates, despite these small differences, there is a great deal of overlap between videos seen by conservatives and liberals at all stages of the traversal process. Furthermore, while the variance of these distributions does decrease across the different traversal steps, meaning that the ideological diversity of recommendations declines, it is only by a minimal amount.

Rabbit holes: While we do find evidence of the recommendation algorithm contributing to mild echo chambers, we did not find evidence that the algorithm led most users down extremist rabbit holes. There is little evidence from the figure that the ideological distribution becomes more narrow or increasingly extreme over time.

However, these conclusions are based on average outcomes. Does this mean that extremist rabbit holes dont exist at all? To answer this question, we visually inspected each participants traversal path, looking for cases where the average ideology grew increasingly narrow (i.e., no liberal videos suggested at all) and increasingly extreme (i.e., more conservative than Fox News). We found that 14 out of 527 (~3%) of our users ended up in rabbit holes, which we defined as recommendations that are more liberal/conservative than 95% of all recommendations, and more narrow than a variance of 0.4 on our scale ranging from -2 to +2. While this is a substantively small proportion of users, due to YouTubes size, a small proportion of users could still amount to non-trivial numbers of individuals occasionally falling into rabbit holes on YouTube. These findings underscore an important point about algorithmic systems and their effect on media consumption: Harmful effects are often concentrated among small numbers of users, and what is true for the platform as a whole can be very different for these sets of users.

Ideological bias: Finally, we found that, regardless of the ideology of the study participant, the algorithm pushes all users in a moderately conservative direction. If you look closely at the figure, you will see that all of the curves shift a bit to the right as they move up the y-axis. Although not large, these effects are statistically significant, and somewhat surprising given that we have never previously seen this feature of the recommendation algorithm publicly discussed. Moreover, the magnitude of the conservative ideological bias we identified far outweighs the magnitude of the echo chamber measure. This bias could be a result of two possible states of the world. First, YouTubes library could consist of a normally distributed set of videos centered around moderate content, but the algorithm could choose to only recommend content that is skewed ideologically conservative. Second, the YouTube library could consist of content that skews conservative and the algorithm could recommend videos representative of that underlying distribution. Our study does not allow us to adjudicate between these two causes.

Contrary to popular concern, we do not find evidence that YouTube is leading many users down rabbit holes or into (significant) ideological echo chambers via its recommendation algorithm. While we do not find compelling evidence that these rabbit holes exist at scale, this does not mean that some that the experiences of the small number of individuals who encounter extremist content due to algorithmic recommendations are not consequential, nor does it mean that we shouldnt be worried about the possibility for users to find harmful content online if they go searching for it. However, as we consider ways to make our online information ecosystem safer, its critical to understand the various facets of the problem.

While our study was designed to test whether the algorithm leads users down rabbit holes, into echo chambers, or in a particular ideological direction, these outcomes could still emerge from user choice (recall that the recommendations in our study were collected without user choice). So, for example, a well known article by Baskhy et al. shows that Facebook recommended an ideologically diverse array of content but users consistently clicked on ideologically congruent content. In another study of YouTube, Chen et al. found that other platform featuressubscriptions and channel featureswere the primary path by which users encountered anti-social content.

Furthermore, other platforms, like 4chan, are hotbeds for extremist content. Indeed, if an individual is bound and determined to jump down a rabbit hole online, they can do so fairly easily. What we explore in our work is incidental exposure: that is, users who are perusing content and encounter harmful content by accident, subsequently leading them down a rabbit hole. While recommendation systems may play a small role in this type of incidental exposure, we do not find significant evidence that they drive consumption of harmful content (at least on YouTube). Other studies have found that harmful content is often encountered off-platform via link sharing, driving users to extreme places on YouTube via the internet at large rather than the recommendation algorithm. Thats what makes this problem tricky. If its not just the recommendation engine and instead its the entire online ecosystem, then how do we fix it?

Our findings are consistent withand add additional evidence toa growing body of research showing that YouTube is not consistently pushing harmful or polarizing content to their users but rather that users self-select into viewing the content when offered. Collectively, the research suggests that there is unlikely to be one technological panacea to reducing the consumption of harmful content on YouTube. Instead, we need to be sure we focus both on the amount of harmful content online as well as the (many) paths which users might take to this content. Focusing solely on the role of YouTubes algorithm in advertently luring people to extremist content may make for great headlines, but our research suggests that this alone is not going to get us at the crux of the problem.

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and policy solutions. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public. The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars.

Google, YouTubes parent company, provides support to The Brookings Institution. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions in this report are not influenced by any donation. Brookings recognizes that the value it provides is in its absolute commitment to quality, independence, and impact. Activities supported by its donors reflect this commitment.

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Posted By admin on October 15, 2022

Minister Ahmed Hussen, Minister Mlanie Joly and Minister Pablo Rodriguez reiterated Canada's pledges and commitments to promote Holocaust awareness, remembrance and research, and to combat antisemitism.

OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 14, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Antisemitism, racism and hate in any form have no place in Canada. Unfortunately, Jewish communities across Canada and around the world continue to be threatened and targeted for who they are. This is an important reminder for all Canadians to combat antisemitism in all of its forms.

The Government of Canada strongly condemns the alarming rise of antisemitism at home and abroad. Last year, at the Malm International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism in Sweden, Canada committed to implement and fulfill the following pledges:

Combat antisemitism, Holocaust denial and distortion, hate crimes and all other forms of racism and to protect at-risk communities;

Promote awareness about the Holocaust and antisemitism in Canada;

Continue supporting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and to promote the alliance's working definition of antisemitism.

Canada's pledges also included commitments to counter online antisemitism by introducing new legislation, along with strengthening the Canada Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code.

Today, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, the Honourable Mlanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez reiterated Canada's pledges and outlined the government's ongoing efforts to combat antisemitism and promote Holocaust awareness, remembrance and research.

Since the forum, Canada has:

Doubled the Government of Canada's annual contribution to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance;

Reappointed the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism and announced $5.6 million over five years with $1.2 million ongoing to support the special envoy's work;

Provided $85 million over four years, starting in 2022-23, to support the launch of a new Anti-Racism Strategy and the Action Plan on Combatting Hate.

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To continue the work of preserving Holocaust remembrance, Budget 2022 includes $20 million for the construction of a new Holocaust museum in Montral, $2.5 million to support the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre in Toronto as well as a commitment to support the building of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.

Canada's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism has been vital this year in supporting the Government of Canada's work to combat antisemitism and preserve the memory of the Holocaust internationally and domestically. He has also been instrumental in marking Jewish Heritage Month, Raoul Wallenberg Day and more in Canada.

The Government of Canada also amended the Criminal Code to prohibit the communication of public statements that willfully promote antisemitism by condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust. The government recognizes the work by provinces following joint federal efforts in the fight against antisemitism.

The Government of Canada remains unwavering in its commitment to combatting antisemitism, hate and systemic racism in all forms whenever and wherever they occur. We acknowledge that there is much more that remains to be done as we continue to build a more inclusive and just society for all.

Quotes

"Antisemitism has no place in Canada or anywhere else, and we will continue to work with the Jewish community to fight hate, discrimination and systemic racism in all forms. Our government's urgency to take further action is evident as we reiterate our pledge to build a safer, stronger, more inclusive and equitable future for all. I look forward to continuing to work closely with Canada's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism."

The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion

"The antisemitism that fuelled the Holocaust is very much alive in Canada and the world today. It is imperative that we continue to fight antisemitism, defend human rights and inclusion, as well as counter hate for the betterment of our country and global community."

The Honourable Mlanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs

"Antisemitism and Holocaust denial is disturbing and frightening. We're committed to continuing to take concrete action to combat antisemitism in all its forms, preserve the memory of the Holocaust as well as promote and defend pluralism, inclusion and human rights."

The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage

"The Malmo pledges represent important Canadian commitments for preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism. We have undertaken significant initiatives this past year, but the most important and ongoing pledge is to learn and act upon the lessons of remembrance, including unrelenting action to combat the challenges of antisemitism and hate."

The Honourable Irwin Cotler, Canada's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism

Quick Facts

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to strengthening, advancing and promoting Holocaust education, research and remembrance. It includes 35 member countries and eight partner organizations with Holocaustrelated issues as part of their mandate.

Canada adopted the alliance's working definition of antisemitism in 2019 in Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy to help combat antisemitic attitudes and behaviours, including Holocaust denial and distortion.

The Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism works with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, and other implicated ministers to inform and advance Government of Canada policy and programming.

On July 21, 2021, the Government of Canada and the Honourable Irwin Cotler, Canada's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, convened the National Antisemitism Summit to identify ways in which organizations, communities, individuals and the federal government can work together to increase public awareness, enhance community security, combat misinformation and online hate and identify new measures necessary to combat antisemitism.

Building a Foundation for Change: Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy (2019-2022), unveiled on June 25, 2019 after extensive cross-country consultations, represents an investment of more than $95 million, including $70 million to support community organizations across Canada addressing efforts to fight racism and to promote multiculturalism.

Recognizing that Canada's fight against racism is far from over, Budget 2022 provides $85 million over four years, starting in 2022-23, to support the work underway to renew Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy and to launch a new Action Plan on Combatting Hate.

From March to May 2022, as part of the development of the new Action Plan on Combatting Hate, the Government of Canada held consultations to gather input from individuals and communities with experiences of hate to integrate the unique reality of these communities from all regions of the country.

Associated Links

Canada's Pledges on Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism

Canada and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

The Government of Canada Concludes National Summit on Antisemitism

Budget 2022 - A Diverse and Inclusive Canada

Federal government launches national consultations for Canada's first ever National Action Plan on Combatting Hate

Building a Foundation for Change: Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy 20192022

Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat

Follow us on Twitter: @CanadaFPLike us on Facebook: Canada's foreign policy - Global Affairs Canada

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One year after pledging to promote Holocaust remembrance and combat antisemitism at the Malm International Forum, the Government of Canada remains...

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Posted By admin on October 15, 2022

Dr. Irving Berkowitz, the son of Holocaust survivors, is a renowned scholar and lecturer. He is passionately engaged in issues and causes related to the Holocaust, antisemitism, human rights and social justice. I have heard Dr. Irving lecture on several occasions, and recently had the opportunity to interview him. This is Part One of a two part series.

I started our conversation by asking Dr. Irving why raising awareness of social injustice is such a passion of his.

My passion for social justice, equal protection, non-discrimination and equality of opportunity is rooted in the very proud, deeply observant, socially aware and tragic history of my Jewish family. I am the son of immigrants, survivors of one of the worst atrocities in human history, the Holocaust. Having lost my entire extended family in the largest and most infamous of all Nazi death camps, Auschwitz/Birkenau, for no other reason than being Jewish. From an early age I had a mission that was spiritual and educational, to actively lead, serve and become educated, so I could educate others about antisemitism, racism, hatred, and violence. Both of my parents were not only Holocaust survivors but, like 75% of all survivors they were the sole survivors of their entire families in the former Czechoslovakia. This very personal family tragedy and the cataclysmic fate of my tribe, the Jewish people, loomed large in my life and briskly animated me to learn all that I possibly could about my people, including Jewish history, theology, and culture. I forged an inexorable and uncompromising commitment to becoming a Holocaust scholar with a deep well of knowledge about this longest hatred of Jews throughout history. It was upon this foundation that my interest and activism evolved to encompass the broader issues of the human condition, (e.g. human rights, human diversity, human dignity, and human development).

Dr. Irving explained why some people continue to deny that antisemitism exists.

Jew hatred has roots that run centuries deep in the soil of history. Its intensity, longevity and universality may only be exceeded by its irrationality. From its provenance in the early days of Christendom, throughout the Middle Ages when Jews were persecuted, isolated and expelled from virtually every European country they inhabited, during the pervasive pogroms of the 18th and 19th centuries, to the annihilation of European Jewry far and wide in the Nazi era, Jews have been scapegoated, blamed, brutalized and murdered en masse for others misfortune. There seems to be nothing evil for which Jews cannot be blamed. Indeed, everything evil is Jewish and everything Jewish is evil. This is most evident in countless daily Anti-Zionist/Antisemitic websites and posts across all major social media platforms despite supposed community standards designed to monitor and restrict content that is false, hateful, racist and violence inducing.

Dr. Irving continued, The denial of antisemitism is nearly as outrageous as the denial of the Holocaust. It flies in the face of irrefutable evidence amassed by the Anti-Defamation League that antisemitism in America, especially violent hate crimes, is not only on the rise but has reached record levels in the last three years, suggesting that deniers simply deny the undeniable. Perhaps more disconcerting than denial is the fact that so many dismiss antisemitism as a serious social issue, unworthy of the kind of attention garnered by other forms of bigotry such as racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, etc. Perhaps it has become so ingrained in the fabric of American society that seeing and or hearing of omnipresent antisemitic incidents has become normalized. Either way, antisemitism in America, Europe and elsewhere is not a thing of the past, vanquished with the fall of the Third Reich. It may have taken a brief sabbatical after the war but remains a pernicious and persistent virus coursing through the bloodstream of civilization, exacerbated by pervasive silence, denial and indifference.

I asked Dr. Irving, what can be done to curb or eliminate Holocaust denial on social media?

Few can argue about the enormous social, economic and cultural benefits of social media today. But just as obvious as its auspicious uses, is the weaponization of social media to deny, distort and revise history, to subvert the truth, to propagate and promote false narratives and stereotypes, and to advance an intolerant, dogmatic and fractious far left or far right agenda against Jewish people, communities, organizations and institutions. This, in my opinion, is how social media platforms are being used as flamethrowers of disinformation in the contemporaneous war against the Jews and the Nation/State of the Jewish people. The challenge of curbing the venomous role of social media in stoking Anti-Zionism, antisemitism and Holocaust denial may be formidable but not indomitable.

The most obvious, effective and strategic means of confronting this juggernaut is as follows:

1) Jews must rise above their own political and other differences, even forging coalitions with other targeted and affected ethnic or religious groups to create a sustained campaign of advocacy for more vigorous, consistent and equitable enforcement of community guidelines.

2) The captains of these social media giants must be confronted with their own organizational and employee biases and complicity in fomenting hate, violence, discrimination and denial through lax enforcement of their own published standards, particularly albeit not exclusively in relation to inauthentic, hate-filled, violence-inducing content they permit to be posted about Jews, Israel and the Holocaust. We must be uncompromising about the Holocaust, the most documented atrocity in human history, as a matter of historical fact, open neither to debate nor denial.

3) Finally, enforcement of community standards must be followed by swift and certain action holding those who abuse and/or flagrantly violate such policies accountable by expeditious removal of such harmful Antisemitic content. For those who regularly post Holocaust denying or endorsing material, social media companies must be willing to exercise the ultimate sanction, blocking or disabling accounts and account holders.

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Dr. Irving expressed why Holocaust awareness is so important.

The value of Holocaust knowledge to Jews and non-Jews can best be appreciated when weighed against the cost of Holocaust ignorance. In less than 80 years since the worst genocide in history ended, surveys conducted in America and Europe have shockingly revealed a frightening low level of interest in and knowledge of the Holocaust. Even more concerning is the fact that among millennials and Generation Zrs, few have any knowledge of what concentration camps such as Auschwitz were or how they were used as factories of death.

Nearly half of this demographic havent a clue that 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust. It is unconscionable to think so many know so little about an unparalleled atrocity such as the Holocaust. This prodigious lack of Holocaust knowledge resulting principally from the failure of most states to mandate Holocaust education lends an unpalatable measure of credence to the belief that this could happen again. In my opinion, the relevance of Holocaust knowledge is universal, not merely because it was the genocidal culmination of a racist ideology, in this case, antisemitism, but especially because the Holocaust is not exclusively a matter of Jewish history, but human history.

Dr. Irving continued, Learning about the Holocaust exposes and challenges us to understand the darker side of humanity, the motivation and capacity of people and societies to discriminate, dominate, segregate, subjugate and annihilate any racial, religious, ethnic or national group. Learning about the Holocaust raises our awareness of the ideological, political, economic, psycho-social and historical factors and forces that spawn conditions in which hatred, scapegoating, prejudice and persecution lead to state-sponsored violence and mass murder. It demonstrates how even the most enlightened, cultured and civilized society(ies) can turn to barbarism and genocide against a devalued and dehumanized segment of their population. This, in turn, allows us to highlight the perils of radical extremist ideologies and the central role of a propaganda apparatus in galvanizing hatred and rationalizing a campaign of genocide. On the level of human behavior, it enables us to grasp the many different choices people made and the roles they played in response to the unspeakable horrors committed by nefarious leaders and their obedient followers.

In conclusion of Part One of our conversation, Dr. Irving was asked what message he tries to pass on to young adults?

The core of my teaching and message to young people is the importance of doing good things. Be a lifelong learner, or as I say of myself, be a student of life and for life.

In Part Two of my conversation with Dr. Irving, he will share details of his career as an educator and lecturer.

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A conversation with Holocaust scholar Dr. Irving Berkowitz - South Florida Sun Sentinel

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Posted By admin on October 15, 2022

By Sruli Fried and Dovid Friedman

There are two central concepts in Jewish tradition that speak to our peoples passionate regard for unity, kindness, and charity. The first is that to save one life is to save an entire world. The second is that all people are responsible for one another.

These Talmudic moral principles inspire a deep-seated respect for one another and the unparalleled value of charity, compassion and human life.

These are values that fundamentally characterize our Jewish community, around the world, and here in the Lakewood area. Our community is home to countless charitable organizations and innovations and tremendous philanthropy dedicated to providing life-saving, life-sustaining, and financial support for the sick and impoverished. Time and again we have stepped up to help one another.

It is with this in mind that we call on our community once more to respond to the recent polio outbreak, which has led our neighbors to the north to declare a state of emergency, after a confirmed case and polio samples were found in wastewater in several nearby New York counties.

While the New Jersey Department of Health shows that the state overall has a high polio vaccination rate of 97.7% overall and 95.2% here in Ocean County significantly higher than neighboring Orange and Rockland counties in New York it is still critical that every one of us does our part to stop the spread of this dangerous and life-threatening disease.

Our purpose here is not to rehash a debate over vaccination in general. The pain of the chasm that has erupted in global society over the recent years is something that God should spare us from ever witnessing again.

Yet we are fully aware that the current apathy to established childhood vaccines is not taking place in a vacuum but is directly linked to those events. The journal Nature recently wrote how childhood vaccination rates are at a 30-year low in the wake of the pandemic so one would have to be ignorant not to make that correlation.

There is therefore an urgent need for all in positions of influence to come forth and say that while claims of religious freedoms or rights to personal privacy might be respectable in many cases, they cannot trump the far more fundamental rights to live a right that has been blessedly strengthened by the technological wonders introduced decades ago by the polio and other similar vaccines.

In this current debate, the reality is that every parent or individual who chooses to refrain or delay childhood vaccination is contributing, perhaps unwillingly, to the promotion of the belief that childhood vaccine refusal can be condoned.

But it cannot be condoned.

On the basic medical level, polio was a disease that had practically disappeared as a result of vaccination. And on the moral level, the very nature of infectious disease means that ones actions impact their families, neighbors, communities and, eventually, the world.

If we claim to be people of compassion, where we elevate lifesaving and unity to the highest levels, then we need to embrace those ideals whenever we are given the chance.

This is that chance.

We speak from very personal perspectives where we are literally pleading for a widespread re-examination of this issue. We are privileged to lead two community-based organizations, Chai Lifeline New Jersey and CHEMED, which help thousands of children and families, many of whom are now threatened by infectious outbreaks.

These include children with congenital or acquired conditions with suppressed immunity who would become the most susceptible victims if polio or other infectious diseases such as measles are not quashed. They are no less deserving of health than all those of us who were vaccinated for these diseases decades ago when it was so obvious that God had extended us his hand through the form of medical technology, and we were blessed to take it.

We write these words at the start of the Jewish New Year. This is a period of renewal and reflection, and a time for us all to recommit to one another. To our Jewish brothers and sisters, it is in your hands to save lives and prove that the values of charity and compassion will be what continue to define our people.

May you make that choice and may all humanity be blessed with a new year of happiness and true health.

Rabbi Sruli Fried, MSW, is the director of Chai Lifeline New Jersey.

Dr. Dovid Friedman is the CEO of CHEMED, which leads organizations dedicated to providing psychosocial support and healthcare to children and families in Lakewood and surrounding areas.

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