Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 19, 2024

Considering the surge of Jew hatred in America today, two questions challenge the Jewish community: how did we get here, and where do we go next?

No single answer suffices, but a recently published book Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew by Noa Tishby and Emmanuel Acho does an admirable job answering both questions. Their book is a chronicle of conversations between the two friends, one a white Jew, Noa, and the other a Black Christian, Emmanuel. In their dialogues, they explore the origins of the current surge of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and antisemitic sentiments in America today.

Noa explains that for millennia, the world shunned or exiled Jews wherever they landed, which forced them to adapt to diverse environments physically, culturally, and spiritually. Thats how different Jewish ethnic communities evolved.

Although Jews are ethnically diverse, their detractors claim they gain an advantage because of their whiteness.

But Noa points out that this supposed whiteness has not protected them from antisemitic attacks in the past or in the present. Jews are a meager two percent of the American population, yet according to the FBI they are victims of more than 60 percent of all religion-based crimes.

Right-wing extremists do not consider Jews white; left-wing extremists consider Jews as privileged and white. The truth is Jews come in all colors and hues. There are white Ashkenazi Jews from Europe, and there are Jews of color from a variety of countries: Sephardic Jews from Spain, Beta Jews from Ethiopia, Cochin Jews from India, Kaifeng Jews from China, and Mizrachi Jews from the Levant and North Africa. Neither color nor DNA is a litmus test for Jewishness.

Noa deftly deflates the all-too-common canards about Jews: they are money hoarders, powerful, disloyal, cheats, bent on world domination, or greedy, dirty, evil, and race polluters.

She explains that when the dominant society holds those mistaken beliefs, regrettably it filters down to the targeted minority who begin to believe those falsehoods, and that leads to self-hatred. Although Jews have been champions for minority causes and supporters of the oppressed groups for decades, there is an absence of reciprocal support for Jews. In fact, the same groups that received help from Jewish allies have become antagonistic to the only Jewish State in the world, as well as to those who support her.

Noa and Emmanuel agree that the recent outrageous and disingenuous responses of university presidents, when asked if students and faculty calling for the genocide of the Jews is hate-speech, speaks volumes about their lack of moral clarity. The same lack of ethical values applies to the morally confused students and professors who justify and support the atrocities Hamas committed on Oct 7, while endorsing the terrorists call for the eradication of Israel.

Emmanuel was most curious to learn about the term Zionist, because it seemed to him to be the root of the tension between Jews and Palestinian Arabs.

Noa gave this succinct definition: Zionism is the Jewish peoples right to have self-governance on parts of their ancestral land. She added, Thats it. Its Israels right to exist. And anti-Zionism is the rejection of Jewish nationhood, and that is a hallmark of antisemitism.

Emmanuel countered Noas explanation by saying that the Black community draws parallels between what they believe Jews did to the Palestinians, and what Americans did to Native Americans. Noa said that is not analogous, because indisputable archaeological evidence shows that the Land of Israel dates to antiquity and the Jewish people are indigenous to the land. In short, the Jewish people reclaimed their ancestral land.

On the other hand, when the first Europeans landed on the shores of America, they found Native Americans, but not a trace of English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French artifacts, language, or culture.

Noa asserts that today, the very countries who expelled the Jews over the centuries, are now trying to deny them the land of their ancestors. And the United Nations, which helped found the modern State of Israel, is determined to destroy its own creation.

As for for the effort to boycott Israel, Noa says that it is entirely antisemitic, because it started before the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948. In 1945, the Arab League called for a boycott of all Jewish products, not just Jewish products made in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, or Haifa but all products made by Jews anywhere in the world. The boycott has never been about the land; it has always been about the Jews.

The battle against systemic antisemitism and systemic racism forged a natural bond joining Noa and Emmanuel. Emmanuel quipped, Your career is what you are paid for, and your calling is what you were made for.

In that sense Noa and Emmanuel were made to co-author this book, which is not for the faint of heart. But it delves into issues that polite company prefers to ignore, because it is easier to ignore this hatred of Jews than face the truth of the situation.

Since retiring from IBM Steve Wenick has served as a freelance book reviewer for HarperCollins Publishing and Simon & Schuster. His reviews and articles have appeared in The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, The Algemeiner, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Jewish Voice of Southern New Jersey. Steve and his wife are residents of Voorhees, New Jersey.

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Want to Talk to Your Friends About Jew Hatred? Read This Book - Algemeiner

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2024

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on Tuesday unsealed a sweeping felony indictment against the 20-year-old they say is the head of a violent Eastern European skinhead gang implicated in a number of assaults and attacks abroad, some of them fatal. The gang, known asManiac Murder Cult or MKY, is connected to the com/764 pedophilia network, with at least one killing in Romania directly connected to MKY.

Michail Chkhikvishvili, otherwise known as Commander Butcher, Michael, and Mishka, was arrested on an Interpol warrant on July 6 in Chiinu, Moldova, for allegedly conspiring to solicit attacks on homeless people, Jews, and other racial minorities in New York City, distributing explosives-making instructions, and making violent threats in online conversations with an undercover FBI employee. One plot prosecutors say he concocted with the undercover fed involved poisoning Jewish children by handing out tainted candy while dressed as Santa Claus on New Years Eve 2023.

Chkhikvishvili remains in custody in Moldovawhich has previously collaborated with the US on the extradition of noncitizensand has yet to be extradited to the United States and make his first appearance in court. He has not been assigned an attorney. If convicted, he faces a potential sentence of decades in an American prison.

The feds allege that Chkhikvishvili tried to incite the undercover agent into additional attacks with either edged weapons or molotov cocktails and that he claimed that the planned attack would be a bigger action than Breivik, referring to Anders Breivik, the Norwegian neo-Nazi who killed 77 people in 2011.

According to the FBI, MKY adheres to a neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and promotes violence and violent acts against racial minorities, the Jewish community, and other groups it deems Undesirables. Much like other accelerationist militants such as the Atomwaffen Division and The Base, MKY seeks to destabilize society through violence and terrorism. It was founded in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro by Yegor Krasnov and is accused of many homicides and assaults in both Russia and Ukraine. In their Telegram channels, MKY members lionized in-person violence and distributed how-to guides on committing violent assaults and shootings, causing maximum harm to victims, and how perpetrators could cover their tracks. Committing and documenting such an attack is the criteria for admittance to MKY.

Courtesy of Department of Justice

There are extensive ties between MKY and 764. That alliance was developed by Chkhikvishvili himself, particularly through contact with two 764 members who went by the handles of Xor and Kush, both of whom remain unidentified. Tobbz, a troubled young German who killed an elderly woman and stabbed a man in 2022, had also joined MKY, according to reporting by Der Spiegel and Recorder.

The US Attorneys office for New Yorks Eastern District is also prosecuting two related cases: the child abuse and CSAM distribution case against 764 member Angel Almeida, whose Fall 2021 arrest was the feds first glimpse into the world of com, 764, and MKY; and the case against Nicholas Welker, the alleged former head of the neo-Nazi group Feuerkrieg Division, who was convicted in April for threatening a Brooklyn-based journalist. According to court records, Welker and Chkhikvishvili were in contact from July 2022 to March 2023, when Welker was arrested and charged.

Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian national, was present in the United States in 2022, according to an affidavit by FBI special agent Erica Dobin of the New York City Joint Terrorism Task Force. US authorities say he visited his girlfriend in California in March and April of that year, information the FBI learned after interviewing the young woman about her virulent neo-Nazi social media posts. Shortly thereafter, Chkhikvishvili traveled to Brooklyn, where he stayed with his grandparents and worked in a rehab facility taking care of an elderly Orthodox Jewish patient. Im working in rehab center privately in Jewish family, he messaged another neo-Nazi in July 2022, according to the criminal complaint. I get paid to torture dying jew, I think I almost killed him today. The government says Chkhikvishvili sent multiple images of the patient to his fellow extremist. The patient died later that year, though the government does not allege that Chkhikvishvili caused his death.

It is unclear when Chkhikvishvili left the United States. Federal prosecutors give his place of residence as Tbilisi, Georgia, even though he was arrested in a Balkan country on the opposite side of the Black Sea.

In allegedly urging the undercover fed to commit acts of violence and record them, Chkhikvishvili repeatedly emphasized the lethal level of violence MKY members employed in their attacks, prosecutors say. We murder they larp, he allegedly wrote to another extremist while comparing MKY to another neo-Nazi group, referring to live action role play. Even while allegedly planning the mass poisoning scheme with the undercover FBI agent, prosecutors say, Chkhikvishvili did not shy away from the potential heat the undercover agent warned it would bring on MKY: Thats what we exactly want, he wrote in reply.

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Alleged Maniac Murder Cult Leader Indicted Over Plot to Kill Jews - WIRED

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2024

If the only history-making Jewish feat in baseball this week had been a historic grand slam, it would have been enough. But then a half-dozen Jewish ballplayers were picked in the MLB Draft eclipsing 2023s group of five.

Jewish players still make up only a tiny fraction of those selected during the draft, held during the All-Star break this week in Arlington, Texas. In all, 615 players were selected in 20 rounds split over three days, meaning that the six players identified by Jewish Baseball News represent less than 1% of the new MLB class.

The new picks include an Ivy League graduate and the grandson of a political couple honored for their efforts to free Soviet Jews as well as college senior who collected baseball equipment for needy children as his bar mitzvah project.

Whether they actually play in the major leagues is an open question. Unlike in the NBA and NFL, where its common for draft picks to join their new team for the following season, baseball players often spend several seasons in the minor leagues after being drafted by MLB teams. Jacob Steinmetz, for example, who in 2021 became the first known Orthodox Jew to be drafted into MLB, is in his fourth professional season and was recently elevated to High-A in the Arizona Diamondbacks system.

Some draftees, especially those selected in the later rounds, opt to return to college rather than turn pro. Elie Kligman, another Orthodox Jewish player who was selected in 2021 in the 20th round by the Washington Nationals, is playing college ball.

Read on to meet this years Jewish MLB draft class.

Pitcher and shortstop Levi Sterling entered the 2024 MLB Draft as the No. 58-ranked draft prospect, making his selection by the Pittsburgh Pirates at No. 37 a notable vote of confidence in the 17-year-old. Sterling, who pitched at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, and for the USA Baseball 18U national team, has committed to the University of Texas, though it remains to be seen whether he will play for the Longhorns next season or forgo college and begin his professional career.

The 6-foot-5 righthander is expected by many scouts to drop shortstop and focus on pitching. Should he join the Pirates organization, Sterling would train with Team Israel alum Jeremy Bleich, a former big league pitcher who works as the Pirates assistant director of pitching. Sterling boasts some of the best command in the high school ranks, according to ESPNs scouting report.

Its been quite a summer for southpaw Ryan Prager, who is coming off a stellar season at Texas A&M, where he led the Aggies to a second-place finish in this years NCAA Division I College Baseball World Series. On Monday, the 6-foot-3 Dallas native was selected 81st overall in the third round of the MLB Draft by the Los Angeles Angels.

Prager, 21, posted a 9-1 record with 124 strikeouts and a 2.95 RA for the Aggies this past season, and in one of his College World Series starts, Prager took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. MLB, which ranked Prager the No. 62 draft prospect, has called his fastball unhittable.

Baseball doesnt define who you are, Prager told the Texas Jewish Post in February. Its having that anchor to go back to and Jewish faith is part of it because of all the family virtues that come with it. It doesnt matter what happens on a daily basis on the baseball field or in the classroom, because you have certain things as the foundation of your life.

Relief pitcher Charlie Beilenson was elite in 2024, posting a 2.01 ERA the second best among NCAA Division I pitchers along with 92 strikeouts and 12 saves in 34 appearances. The 24-year-old Los Angeles native was selected 154th overall by the Seattle Mariners in the fifth round.

Beilenson, who played two years at Duke University after transferring from Brown, was named a First Team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the American Baseball Coaches Association. The 6-foot righthander is a member of New Zealands national team.

He is also the grandson of Anthony Beilenson, who served 10 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1977 to 1997, representing a Southern California district. Anthony Beilenson served for a time on the board of J Street, the liberal pro-Israel lobby, and his wife Dolores co-chaired a congressional wives group that advocated for Soviet Jews.

University of Oklahoma third baseman Michael Snyder was selected in the 10th round by the Miami Marlins, capping off a season in which the L.A. native was named to the All-Big 12 First Team and hit .354 with 59 RBI and a team-best 26 doubles.

The 6-foot-4 infielder attended Harvard-Westlake High School, where Atlanta Braves star pitcher Max Fried is an alum, and played four seasons at the University of Washington before transferring to Oklahoma.

After three years at the University of Southern California, right-handed relief pitcher Josh Blum, 21, could be headed to the New York Mets, who selected him in the 16th round of the draft. The Bellaire, Texas, native posted a 1.87 ERA in 27 appearances for USC this past season, with 10 saves and 45 strikeouts.

For Blums bar mitzvah in 2016, held at his familys Conservative synagogue in Houston, the then-seventh grader collected baseball equipment for underprivileged children, the local Jewish newspaper reported at the time.

Lyle Miller-Green, who was taken in the 17th round by the Chicago White Sox, took a rather unique path to professional baseball. Born Oleg Sergevich Kornev in Russia, Miller-Green was adopted by Stephanie Miller and Richard Green, who brought him from Siberia to Virginia and gave him a new name and a new life a Jewish one.

Miller-Green, who attended Jewish day school until third grade, went on to play college baseball at a number of schools, including Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, where he blossomed into an offensive powerhouse. This past season, Miller-Green set school and Atlantic Sun Conference single-season records in home runs (30) and runs scored (94), while hitting .393 with 94 RBI. He was named to five different All-America teams, an Austin Peay record. If he makes it to MLB, he would be only the sixth Russian-born player in the modern era, and the second who was drafted rather than signed directly.

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Meet the 6 Jewish baseball players selected in the 2024 MLB Draft - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2024

US federal authorities have charged, and a grand jury has indicted, a foreign national with planning a mass casualty attack against Jews and other minorities in New York on New Years Eve.

The United States Attorneys Office of the Eastern District of New York reported that a grand jury indicted Georgian national Michail Chkhikvishvili with soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence.

Chkhikvishvili is reportedly the leader of a group called the Maniac Murder Cult, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi group.

Specifically, he was recruiting people to carry out arson and bombing attacks as well as attacks aimed at Jewish and other minority children, according to US officials.

The US Attorneys Office explained that the planned New Years Eve attack involved Santa Claus handing out poisoned candy to racial minorities as well as distributing poisoned candy to Jewish children in Brooklyn.

There were more than 450,000 Jews who lived in Brooklyn as of May 2024. Many neighborhoods are known to be predominantly Hasidic.

Authorities found out about the plot when Chkhikvishvili solicited an undercover law enforcement official to be involved in the attack.

He sought to recruit others to commit violent attacks and killings in furtherance of his Neo-Nazi ideologies, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement. We will not hesitate to find and prosecute those who threaten the safety and freedoms of all members of our community, including members of minority communities, no matter where in the world these criminals might be hiding.

FBI New York Acting Assistant DirectorChristie Curtis lauded law enforcement for stopping the attack before it could ever take place.

The swift disruption of this individual, accused of allegedly plotting violent attacks in New York, sends a clear message: we will use every resource in our power to ensure the safety of the American people, she said. The men and women who work on this task force day in and day out exemplify true service to our community, demonstrating unwavering commitment in thwarting those who seek to harm our citizens and our way of life.

The plot comes amid a wave of antisemitic attacks that ramped up in America and around the world after Hamas Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

Earlier this month, an observant Jew was sucker punched and beaten in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, DC. The alleged attacker subsequently expressed his motive, saying Theyre [the Jews] the cause of all our wars, and We know who you are! We know the lies that youve told, that you have stolen the place of the true children of Israel.

He was charged with assault and a hate crime.

In December, the FBI said there had been a 60 percent spike in antisemitic hate crime investigations since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. Then, in April, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the probes into antisemitic crimes tripled in the months following Oct. 7.

Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 30 of this year, we opened over three times more anti-Jewish hate crime investigations than in the four months before Oct. 7, he explained.

Last year, the FBI found that 63 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the US were directed against Jews.

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Alleged Neo-Nazi Indicted for Plot to Carry Out New Years Eve Mass Casualty Attack Against Jews, Other Minorities - Algemeiner

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2024

Thousands of Hasidic Jews packed into a New Jersey convention center on Wednesday for the annual Satmar Business Expo, an event that showcased entrepreneurship in a tight-knit community better known for its piety and insularity.

The hundreds of booths at the expo represented businesses peddling financial consulting services, kosher wine and travel, vacuum cleaners, custom closets, masonry and welding. A company offering corporate food platters offered up crackers with fish spreads, while passersby peered into the windows of a black Tesla Cybertruck parked alongside the display of a utilities company.

Colorful signs in Yiddish and English adorned the booths, where business owners pitched their goods and services and exchanged business cards with interested customers. Other attendees chatted at tables in a networking area or prayed in a room set aside for worship.

Organizers said the event was likely the largest Jewish business expo in the country and was aimed at fostering connections. Exhibitors and attendees were mostly but not exclusively from the Satmar community, a Hasidic movement with bases in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg and the upstate village of Kiryas Joel, and hailed from around the tri-state area.

The idea behind it, we are a very tight-knit community, so people need to know what their neighbors are doing, what their friends are doing, said Yoel Fried, one of the events organizers. People should do business with each other.

The event also underlined differences among the fervently Orthodox Jews known alternately as haredi or ultra-Orthodox. In Israel, where Torah study is subsidized by the government and many haredi men opt to study full time instead of work, secular Jews complain that the lifestyle is a drain on the economy and municipal budgets.

The Satmar, by contrast, have a work ethic dating back to the movements establishment in Williamsburg in the wake of the Holocaust, said Nathaniel Deutsch, who co-authored a 2021 book with Michael Casper about Hasidic Williamsburg called A Fortress in Brooklyn.

The Satmar spiritual leader at the time, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, encouraged his followers to earn a living.

He thought that the ideal is somebody whos working and learning Torah at the same time, not somebody whos just completely devoted to learning Torah, Deutsch said of Teitelbaum. That has affected the course of the community through its history.

As a result, the community is geared toward small business ownership and has a large working class element, with men participating in trades such as plumbing, construction and truck driving, Deutsch said.

Martin Schwarz, the co-founder of the payroll and team management platform Friday, said the communitys large families and the cost of tuition for private schools encouraged many to get into business.

Having a regular 9 to 5, for most people, it just wont add up [financially], especially when you live in New York, said Schwarz, who was attending the expo for the third year. So you have to get out there and have to innovate, do something, be entrepreneurial in order to get somewhere.

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The event, now in its third year, featured 412 businesses and organizers expected around 6,000 people to attend. Held at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison, New Jersey, the expo was funded by Yetev Lev DSatmar, a leading congregation in Williamsburg, and was organized by Frieds marketing company, FriedCo Media.

Exhibitors said the event was an opportunity to connect with both customers and other businesses.

It doesnt bring us so much money. I would say its more a way to connect to the community, said Yisroel Elek, the CEO of Plan it Rite, a company offering kosher travel packages to destinations including Ukraine, South Africa and Guatemala.

We get live feedback from people and we always find some new leads, show our customers our face, said Elek, who added he connected with other businesses at the expo in the past, such as a customer service company that Plan it Rite worked with after the event.

Noble Wines, a company with offices in Europe and Pomona, New York, distributed glossy catalogs featuring its selection of kosher wines from France and Italy. Wooden racks displayed bottles of French Malbecs and Haut-Mdoc alongside grape vines the company imported from California for the expo.

Abe Israel, a co-owner of the company, said the company connected with wholesale retailers and other customers at the expo and had first come to the event two years ago, while Noble Wines was hesitating over whether it should expand into the United States.

The show made our decision to do this big move and establish ourselves in the USA, Israel said. When we saw how much people appreciated it, we decided to launch and formally establish ourselves here.

Women were absent from the expo, as men and women traditionally occupy different roles in the Satmar community, with women focusing on raising the typically large families. Many women operate small businesses on the side, however, such as selling wigs, strollers or other products related to children, said Moshe Krakowski, a Yeshiva University professor who has studied the community and who attended the expo last year.

Youve got a lot of stuff that doesnt show up at the expo because women are involved, he said. There are all sorts of little micro-businesses that women can do part time while theyre being mothers.

Entrepreneurship and small businesses are also emphasized in a community whose yeshiva school system largely eschews secular subjects. The community largely frowns on higher education outside of yeshivas, leading to fewer members getting into professional fields such as medicine or law. That leads to entrepreneurship as a common avenue to earning a living, Krakowski said.

At the same time, students study complex religious texts for long hours each day, learning high-level reading comprehension and logic skills that can carry over into fields such as programming, he added.

Theres this real culture of entrepreneurship that has developed, Krakowski said. Anything that you do not need formal education for, they will jump into.

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In earlier decades, many members of Satmar worked in fields such as the garment industry and diamond trade. Real estate has also long been a major industry. As Williamsburg gentrified, many Satmar profited from real estate holdings they had acquired before prices skyrocketed. In recent years, many Satmar have made a living by selling through Amazon and other online shipping services. The kosher food industry is another major sector, saidDeutch.

Those industries create opportunities for small business owners in related fields. Satmar entrepreneurs run businesses that offer software to track inventory in warehouses for online retailers, while others supply lumber to real estate companies. Exhibits at the expo included product photography for Amazon sellers, demolition services, asbestos removal and a company that provides electric vehicle installation services to property managers.

Many of the communitys businesses cater to other Hasidic Jews, while others operate outside the community, or employ non-Jewish workers, Deutsch said.

Isaac Gross, who runs the Williamsburg-based Amazon marketing company IG PPC, said he used to sell products on Amazon, then saw a need for PPC, or pay per click, management in the industry. He launched his business five years ago and now has around 200 customers and over 20 in-house employees. He learned the field on his own, he said.

I taught myself, I spoke to people, a lot of online videos, he said.

Rabbi David Niederman, the head of the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn, a social services organization, and a prominent community leader, said the expo was evidence of the communitys success. Criticism of the short shrift given to secular studies at yeshivas came to a head with a series of New York Times exposes in 2022 and remains a sensitive point for the community.The Times interviewed yeshiva graduates who said they lacked the skills for anything but menial jobs and relied on government welfare.

The community is not interested in handouts, just the other way around, they want to make a living, Niederman said. All segments of the economy are presented over here by our people, our education in our school system, and look what they produce. This is something that people should understand.

Despite the ethos of entrepreneurship, many families live below the poverty line in Satmar communities, although communal charities support those in need. Niederman said successful business people are expected to contribute at least 10% of their earnings to charity.

Communal structures such as Brooklyns Viewpoint Academy offer services including professional training and English lessons for those more comfortable in Yiddish, or assistance filling out government forms. The community also has a robust safety net that likely encourages entrepreneurs to take risks, Krakowski said.

Schwarz said trust within the community also smoothed the way for new businesses.

Someone that starts a business, theres a very easy way to get in because you know so many people, and even people you dont know, there is someone else, your friend knows their friend, he said.

The expo had a section dedicated to community services, such as mental health care and matchmaking for young couples. Shia Greenfeld of the UJO said the group ran classes for yeshiva graduates in such fields as architectural design and computer skills. The expo helped the group connect the programs graduates with potential employers. UJO trained around 1,200 job seekers last year and had seen more than 400 visits to its booth by mid-afternoon on Wednesday, Greenfeld said.

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Every person exhibiting here, were trying to approach them to make sure whenever they are looking for an employee they will reach out to us, he said.

The Satmar business ethos has occasionally created tensions with another of Teitelbaums tenets, however: an aversion to luxury and materialism. Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, Joel Teitelbaums nephew and the leader of one of two main Satmar factions, decreed new rules in the early 2000s to significantly reduce the cost and lavishness of weddings.

That friction was apparent in advertisements for the expo that stressed the event was conducted through the Satmar community and at a high spiritual standard, with times set aside for prayer. A video for last years event showed men praying early in the footage.

Theres the potential within the community itself for people to critique some of this activity and say, Youre focusing too much on materiality, Deutsch said. You need to flag very explicitly that youre aware that there is a potential danger associated with it and you are conducting this expo in a way that is consonant with the values of the community.

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How to succeed in business as a Hasidic Jew? A giant expo offers tips and networking - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2024

In recent decades, Haredi society in Israel has stood firm against the winds of change, resolutely defending its traditional way of life. However, in recent years, we are witnessing a surprising and fascinating phenomenon: it is the Hasidim, always perceived as the most conservative, who are leading a quiet but profound revolution at the heart of Haredi society.

The transformations taking place in the Hasidic world mark a historic turning point. While the Sephardic public, led by Shas, continues to show principled opposition to the draft order and state-Haredi education, Hasidic rebbes are displaying a surprisingly pragmatic approach. They have instructed their followers to report for initial draft orders and were pioneers in joining the state-Haredi education stream (Mamach). These steps, which seemed impossible just a few years ago, signal a dramatic shift in the Haredi approach to the challenges of modernity.

The key to understanding this phenomenon lies in the unique structure of the Hasidic world. Unlike the centralized structure of Shas leadership or the Lithuanian public, each Hasidic rebbe enjoys autonomy in decision-making for his community. This flexibility allows Hasidic courts to react quickly and pragmatically to contemporary challenges, without succumbing to the constraints of broader consensus.

The implications of this trend could be far-reaching. First, it challenges the accepted notion that the Lithuanian or Sephardic public would lead change in Haredi society. Second, it poses a challenge to other Haredi streams, which may find themselves compelled to respond to these changes. Finally, it opens the door to renewed dialogue between Haredi society and general Israeli society.

However, it is important to emphasize that this is a complex and multifaceted process. While some Hasidic courts are adopting a pragmatic approach, others still adhere to the conservative line. Moreover, even among the more progressive communities, changes are occurring cautiously and moderately, while strictly maintaining the core values of Haredi life.

The quiet revolution led by the Hasidim raises fundamental questions for Israeli society as a whole. Are we witnessing the beginning of a new era in relations between religious and secular? Will these changes lead to more significant integration of Haredim in the Israeli economy and society? And what will be their impact on Jewish and Israeli identity in the coming decades?

The answers to these questions are not yet clear, but one thing is certain: the quiet revolution led by the Hasidim is one of the most fascinating and important phenomena in Israeli society today. It signals the possibility of bridging deep gaps and reshaping the face of society in Israel. Policymakers, public leaders, and all Israeli citizens bear the responsibility to understand the significance of this trend and act wisely to seize the opportunities it offers.

While the road is still long, we may look back on this period in the future as a historic turning point the moment when the wall between Haredi society and general society began to crack, opening a door to a more shared and inclusive future.

Menachem Bombach is an entrepreneur, an educator, Rosh Yeshiva of the boys' residential high school HaMidrasha HaHassidit in Beitar Illit, and the founder and CEO of the Netzach Yisrael Educational Network. Rabbi Menachem Bombach, a Vizhnitz hasid, was born and raised in the ultra-Orthodox community in Meah Shearim in Jerusalem. Following his yeshiva education at the Mir Yeshiva, he earned his undergraduate degree in Education and graduate degree in Public Policy from Hebrew University, where he also founded a preparatory program (Mechina) for Haredi students. Menachem was a fellow at Maoz and in the leadership program of Gesher and is a fellow and senior project leader at the Mandel Institute. After the establishment of the Midrasha HaHassidit in 2017 and in light of its success, Menachem Bombach established Netzach Yisrael, a network of Haredi schools whose mission is to provide its students with an outstanding Haredi education, while in parallel, they work towards their bagrut (matriculation) certificate, a prerequisite for quality employment and higher education in Israel. The networks academic program empowers graduates to create a strong, financially viable future for them, their future families, and the Israeli economy, while remaining strongly connected to their core values of Torah observance. As of November 2021, the growing Netzach network is 15 schools strong. What started out with 14 students, currently serves 1900 students and fully expect to be serving 2500-3500 within two years, not including the over 26.000 registered at our Eshkolot Virtual School, an online platform which prepares Haredi students for their pre-academic studies. In March 2022, the Netzach Educational Network was awarded the Annual Jerusalem Unity Prize in the category of education. The annual prize is awarded to initiatives in Israel and throughout the Jewish world that are instrumental in advancing mutual respect for others, and acknowledges accomplishments of those who work to advance the critical importance of Jewish unity, and inspire tolerance and mutual respect across the Jewish world promoting acceptance of those who think, act or live differently.

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Hasidic Pragmatism - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2024

In a unique account, Ben-Zion Zyserman-Gold, a Polish yeshiva bochur turned Conservative rabbi in America, describes his visit to the Frierdiker Rebbes Yud Beis Tammuz farbrengen 85 years ago in Otvotzk, Poland.

By Anash.org staff

Before the Second World War, Ben-Zion Zyserman was a yeshivah bochur in Poland, where he met many of the Chassidishe rebbes. In the summer of 5699 (1939), Ben-Zion visited the Otvotzk home of the Frierdiker Rebbe, where he saw the Rebbes office, the farbrengen, and the process of chazara.

Although he mixed up some details confusing Yud Beis Tammuz with the geulah of the Alter Rebbe it is unlikely that he would confuse the season and the close timing to the outbreak of WWII. He describes at length the Rebbes he saw while learning in a mechina in Otvotzk, including Shavuos with the Kozhnitzer and Modzitzer rebbes who were vacationing in Otvotzk, and then his visit to LubavitchforYud Beis Tammuz.

Ben-Zion, like many Poilishe bochurim at that time, was impressed with the style of Chabad I had witnessed a new and far more complex, ordered, and demanding Hasidism than I had previously known but he did not maintain this connection due to the outbreak of the war. After surviving the Holocaust and moving to America, he became a Conservative rabbi, and changed his last name to Gold.

The passage below is an excerpt from his book The Life of Jews in Poland before the Holocaust: A Memoir by Ben-Zion Gold, published by University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln,NE),2007. Thanks to Rabbi Shmuel Super for sharing this excerpt with us.

*

Lubavitch is an old Hasidic dynasty; it had a large following in Lithuania and Russia, but few if any adherents in central Poland. Shlomo Singer from my hometown was the first Lubavitch Hasid I knew. He was several years older than I. We never had a conversation, but I remember him for the way he prayed. Long after we had finished our prayers, Shlomo was still standing motionless, not even swaying, his eyes closed, completely absorbed in his prayers. That was my introduction to Lubavitch Hasidism. While I was in Otwock, I decided to visit the court of the Lubavitcher on Yob Tamuz, the twelfth day of Tamuz, which celebrates the release of Reb Shneur Zalman, the founder of their dynasty, from a czarist prison in the summer of 1810.

Everything about the Lubavitch courtthe rebbe, his Hasidim, the quarters, even the furniturewas different from what I had seen at other Hasidic courts in Poland. The rebbe lived in a beautiful villa in the woods. First, I examined the grounds and peeked into the windows. The books in the rebbes library were beautifully bound and neatly stacked on the shelves. Inside the villa, I saw for the first time roll-top desks that were used by his male secretaries. In the early afternoon, two men in Western dress stood reciting the silent prayer of mincha. They didnt sway like Hasidim; they just stood rapt in prayer much longer than what I was accustomed to.

The celebration took place in a large room in which the table was set with wines, soft drinks, and baked goods, elegantly displayed. The people seated at the table were all distinguished rabbis and Hasidim; the rest stood around them, several people deep. I made my way to a place opposite the rebbe and riveted my eyes on him. Because he had suffered a mild stroke it was difficult to hear him, but his facial expressions were so vivid that they made his speech comprehensible.

During his discourse, several students from his yeshiva stood behind his chair serving as recorders. They listened intently, and after a while, they left and were replaced by another group. Outside they dictated verbatim to the copiers what the rebbe had said. By the time the discourse was finished, copies of it were already hectographed and available to the Hasidim.

I left feeling that I had witnessed a new and far more complex, ordered, and demanding Hasidism than I had previously known. I have no way of knowing how this experience might have affected me, because within a few months we were living under German occupation.

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A Visit to Otvotzk on Yud Beis Tammuz - Anash.org - Good News

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2024

"He is a Hasidic yeshiva student, strictly following all the rules of the Hasidic community. At first, we all thought it was a mistake, a student familiar with Stern said. Then we realized he was probably involved, but surely not trying to do anything wrong.

His arrest was remanded for only three weeks rather than until the end of the proceedings against him, so we understand his situation is better now. Theres no proof he knew what he was doing. We understand he didnt know who he was working for or why he was doing it, he added.

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A poster Iranian operatives instructed an Israeli to hang in public

Stern has been held in a correctional facility since the beginning of the investigation about two months ago. He was indicted on Tuesday for "security offenses," and his interrogation revealed that he received his instructions over the Telegram app of a user named Anna Elena and was directed to hang posters, hide money in various locations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, deliver packages including some containing decapitated stuffed animals and dolls as well as threatening messages to be delivered along with a knife, and placed at the doorsteps of Israeli homes.

He was also told to set fire to wooded areas. Stern agreed to all of the instructions but would not start a fire. He enlisted two more Israelis to carry out the missions in exchange for pay which he received from his handlers in crypto currency. His two cohorts were released after an interrogation and are awaiting the prosecution's decision on whether to indict them.

The indictment against Stern revealed that his Iranian handler asked him via the Telegram app to place the head of a lamb in a gift box next to a bouquet of flowers, and leave it at the home of Israel's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency. He informed his contact 'Anna' that he could not find an animal head, and 'Anna' told him she would buy a whole lamb," the indictment reads. Stern was eventually asked to purchase a large stuffed animal, buy a knife and a bouquet of flowers and place them in a gift box. The handler confirmed to Stern that she meant for him to put the knife in the package and he replied that he was afraid, lest he be imprisoned.

The indictment states that Stern was also asked to break a car window, or set fire to a car during a demonstration - and send a video to prove it. "Anna" promised him $500 for every window he broke, and $3,000 dollars for every car he damaged. "The defendant asked 'Anna' whether he should go to the demonstrations on the right or left side of the political map, and 'Anna' replied that it didn't matter. In addition, she suggested that he should break the glass of a store window during a demonstration in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem," according to the indictment.

According to the fellow Hasid: "Hes a normal man from a very respectable family, and Im sure he had no idea who was asking him to do all these tasks or why. The rumor that he did it for money doesn't seem very likely to me either."

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Correspondence between suspect and an Iranian intelligence operative

An official in the Vizhnitz movement, who knows the family well, said that: "His parents are still sure that this is a conspiracy. His mother is a well-known educator, his father is close to the Rebbe of Vizhnitz and is responsible for spreading his messages to the Hasidic world and writing pamphlets and holy books. He was very well known for his connection to the Rebbe. The young man himself is considered a scholar and a very simple man, not really someone who is looking to get into trouble. This story has been hitting the Hasidic community for several weeks."

Senior security officials told Ynet that the ultra-Orthodox population has become a target for the Iranians. According to them, the ultra-Orthodox public is a target of the Iranians especially because of the draft law and because the Iranians estimate that they are less aware of online dangers, that their loyalty is to the state is only partial and that they would be willing to commit security offenses for the sake of excitement or money.

"We understand that they refused to commit serious crimes, but in espionage the danger is the potential for backlash and not necessarily the tasks that were actually carried out," according to a security source. The security establishment is concerned that there are additional operatives who have not been identified or who are not aware that they are in contact with foreign hostile elements.

In addition to the filing of the indictment, Tuesday's publication is intended to raise awareness of the issue of Iranian accessibility and Tehran's attempts to infiltrate inside Israel using these vulnerable populations. That is why the Shin Bet, in a relatively unusual step, has turned to the public and asked for vigilance. The message also has been spread on ultra-Orthodox platforms.

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Israeli charged with working for Iran is Vizhnitz Hasid who 'didn't know what he was doing' - Ynetnews

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2024

What do the first two weeks of a Labour government tell us about howKeir Starmer intends to run Britain's foreign policy?

Before the election, David Lammy, then shadow foreign secretary,laid out his vision of Britains role on the international stage.

Lammy hoisted the flag of "progressive realism" by which he meant "the pursuit of ideals without delusions about what is achievable".

What progressive ideals have Starmer and Lammy pursued "realistically"?

The government started brightly with a leak to The Guardian that the UK would drop its legal objection to the International Criminal Court (ICC)application for arrest warrants targeting Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.

This move was coupled with appointingRichard Hermeras attorney general. Hermer isone of the lawyers who signed a letter in May 2023 calling for the former foreign secretary, James Cleverly, to participate in the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)about the legal consequences of Israels actions in the occupied territories and Jerusalem.

These moves boded well.

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The previous Tory government hadcontested the ICCs jurisdiction over Israel though the issue had been exhaustively examined by the court for nine long years before itdecided in 2021 that it had jurisdiction.

Cast your mind back to a statement Lammy made to parliament when the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, backtracked on that policy by saying it was not for the British government to state whether the ICC had jurisdiction or not.

"Labour has been clear throughout this conflict that international law must be upheld, that the independence of international courts must be respected, and that all sides must be accountable. Israel must now comply with the orders in the ICJ ruling in full,"Lammy told parliament.

Now that the Labour Party is in power, will Starmer and Lammy respect international courts?

Optimism was short-lived.

Within days, the distinguished human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson - who gave Starmer his first job as a lawyer - revealed that Washington was putting pressure on Starmer to back down. The issue would be the "first big moral test" of Starmers premiership, Robertson wrote pessimistically.

David Lammy's visit to Israel was a disgrace. He must now act on arms sales and Unrwa

Last week, Starmer and Lammy flew to the US for the Nato summit. Others might say for instructions. Washington doubled down, saying it would pursue its own objection that the ICC had no jurisdiction over Israel.

Lammys next trip was to Israel, where he astonished many by shaking hands with Netanyahu, one of the men accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan.

The timing of Lammys handshake could not have been worse.

The meeting took place just hours after Netanyahu had authorised an air strike on al-Mawasi in Khan Younis which had previously been designated a safe zone. Over 90 Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded.

Netanyahu waited until 9pm that night for proof that the strike had killed its alleged target, Mohamed Deif, the leader of Hamas military wing, but none came.

Even by the measure of nine months of repeated massacres of civilians in Gaza, this air strike marked a new low in depravity, and showed contempt for the ICC and the International Court of Justice which had already warned Israel to stick to its obligations under the Genocide Convention.

Not one word - that I can find - came from Lammys lips about al-Mawasi massacre, despite the fact that his prime minister had swiftly reacted to the Russian strike on a childrens hospital in Kyiv in the same week.

A day after Lammys meeting with Netanyahu, the well-sourced Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that the British foreign secretary had given Israel assurances that the UK will maintain its objection to the application that was initially raised by the Conservative government.

The Foreign Office denied that any decision had been taken.

Is their silence on al-Mawasi massacre, their apparent bowing to pressure from the US and Israel over the ICC - is this what Starmer and Lammy call realism?

I have another word for it:cowardice.

It is no surprise that Starmer is following the path every British government has trod in this conflict. But it is a surprise to find him doing so in these extraordinary times.

It is no surprise that Starmeris following the path every British government has trod in this conflict. But it is a surprise to find him doing so in these extraordinary times

Never before has Israel launched a war in Gaza that has lasted nine months. Never before has up to 40,000 people been killed directly, and possibly three times as many indirectly, as the Lancet medical journal reportedthis month. Never before has Israel been in the dock of two of the highest international courts.

Supplying arms to Israel in any circumstance is questionable. Doing so in these circumstances could well amount to complicity in war crimes and genocide.

Exhibit number two is the expectation that Lammy will restore Britains35m ($45m) of funding to Unrwa.

This was cut off precipitously, and without due diligence, after Israel claimed that Unrwa members participated in the 7 October attack and that up to 10 percent of its staff in Gaza were members of Hamas - Israel offered no evidence to either claim, not even to Unrwa.

Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) has backed the move to restore funding with an important caveat;it is campaigning to change Unrwas mandate.

The group says Unrwa perpetuates an "unreasonable expectation"that most Palestinian refugees could return to Israel, as opposed to a future Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

"In the medium-term, therefore, the UK should work at the UN with our allies to establish a framework that considers UNRWA as "transitory".This should put in place a firm process which leads to UNRWAs resources and services mandate being transferred to a revitalised Palestinian Authority and, in other cases, to the UNHCR."

This is the core of what Netanyahu wanted to achieve all along. His purpose in wanting to make Unrwadisappear had nothing to do with fighting Hamas.

What can be more cynical than continuing a policy you know can never be enacted by any Israeli leader?

Unrwa is the only UN agency that recognises Palestinian refugees and their descendants. No Unrwa, no refugee problem, to borrow a phrase from Stalin.

Should Britain, which is historically responsible for the first major Palestinian refugee crisis in 1948, known as the Nakba, follow Israel down this path? Itwill do so at its peril, in the Middle East and at home.

LFI argued, speciously, that getting rid of Unrwaand transferring its schools and teachers to the Palestinian Authority (PA) would boost the PA and a future Palestinian state.

This is the height of cynicism, for as Starmer was promising in the King's Speech that his government would dedicate itself to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside an Israeli one, the Knesset threw out the two-state solution - by an overwhelming majority.

Among those who voted to throw it out was Benny Gantz, on whom Starmer and Biden place such hope. What can be more cynical than continuing a policy you know can never be enacted by any Israeli leader?

Exhibit number three in this charge sheet is yet more damning.

It concerns the Labour Partys reaction to the clear rejection it received from the Muslim community in Britain, which before Israels war on Gaza, used to be its biggest block vote.

A political party can have one of two reactions to constituents who decide not to vote for it. It can either acknowledge that it is their right to protest, that this is the only way they can register their dissatisfaction with their MPs performance, and that it's democracy in action which the party can learn from. It can then approachmembers of this community and engage with them.

UK elections: How Labour lost millions of voters to apathy and a Gaza earthquake

Orit can ignore this communityand turn to other voters like disaffected Tories.

Those are the only two options if, as the Labour party claims, it believes in democracy.

What the Labour Party can not do is seek to criminalise andde-legitimise that protest vote by saying the vote against sitting Labour MPs was the work of intimidation, and that it was a "toxic"campaignto bully ordinary voters into rejecting their sitting MP.

What the party can not do is appoint fake Muslim councils to talk on behalf of a community that had no say in choosing them. Because, if Labour goes down that authoritarian path, the anger and disaffection in that community will grow exponentially, with all the consequences that this entails.

This is the course that John Ashworth, Rupa Haq, Lisa Nandy, Wes Streeting, Jess Phillips and Khaled Mahmood have all apparently set themselves on.

Thereappears to be a coordinated campaign, because all of these Labour MPs and former MPs are saying the same thing at the same time.

The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, is now convening a "Defending Democracy Taskforce" to discuss election intimidation. The Home Office will conduct a "rapid" review of the election campaign and the police are looking at "a number of incidents".

I always thought of Cooper as a decent and thoughtful person,not a clone of the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

The loudest of the voices crying foul is Ashworth. He claimed he was toppled on a "lie" that he had blood on his hands for voting against a ceasefire in Gaza for much of the last nine months.

The evidence: a filmed dispute in which activist Majid Freeman confronted the Labour politician for his purported support for Israel on Gaza and accused him of having blood on his hands.

Freeman was later charged with encouragement of terrorism and supporting a proscribed organisation.

Ashworth then claimed in a post on X that Freeman was a "key campaigner for [Leicester Souths] new MP Shockat Adam". Ashworth deleted the post, after receiving a warning from lawyers acting on behalf of Adam.

This is not a good start to an official campaign of vilification and demonisation of voters who dared not to vote for Labour as a government.

Voters, Muslim or otherwise, have every right to vote out of office MPs who dont represent them on an issue as crucial as this.MPs had styled this brutal military campaign as "Israels right to defend itself".

This resulted in multiple massacres, frequent attacks on hospitals, collective starvation, and the destruction of houses on a scale not seen since the Allied bombing of Hamburg and Dresden. The Labour MPs who voted against an immediate and permanent ceasefire are in no sense of the word victims.

Muslim voters are not 'intimidating' the MPs. They are holding them to account for the votes they cast in parliament

Muslim and other pro-Palestine voters are not "intimidating" the MPs. They are holding them to account for the votes they cast in parliament. If anyone needs a lesson in democracy it is Ashworth and Cooper.

If Ashworth had, as he says he has, a political brain, he should arrange to meet his new MP, learn from him about what is going on in Gaza and ask him what he could do to support his constituents.

Then Ashworth should do the same in every mosque in Leicester.

That would be wiser than seeking to demonise his victor and the people who voted for him. Because it could be the start of a political comeback for Ashworth in Leicester South.

The real victims of what Britain is supporting by arming Israel arein Gaza. They are being blown to bits in the safe zones that the Israeli military have designated for them.

Every Palestinian in Gazastands taller than any member of Starmer's cabinet or any other MP who voted repeatedlyagainst a permanent ceasefire.

Like France and Germany, Britain is set on a path of criminalising peacefully expressed political dissent. This authoritarian response has failed every time it has been tried.

French President Emmanuel Macron attempted to divide French Muslims into "good Muslims"and "bad Muslims". He paid a heavy price for that policy in the recent elections.

Across Europe, the defenders of liberal democracy are resorting increasingly to illiberal means

That same policy was tried in Austria where at one point in their campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood,road signs were erected warning motorists of dangerous mosques.It was tried in Germany, where a declaration of support for Israel is now baked into the laws of obtaining citizenship.

Across Europe, the defenders of liberal democracy are resorting increasingly to illiberal means. All they do is stoke the fires of anti-Muslim racism and those in the far right who have no qualms about expressing that.

Little wonder that the leader of the far-right Reform UK party,Nigel Farrage, and former Prime Minister Liz Truss flock to the Republican Convention where Trump is being crowned king.

An international alliance of the far right is being formed.

Little wonder that Trumps running mate, JD Vance, dismissed Britain as the "first Islamist country with nuclear weapons", a statement instantly dismissed by the Labour government.Because this is the minefield that Starmer and Cooper are leading us into, just as Macron led France into it.

Vance has got other views too about Israel. He told Fox News that the US, under a second Trump term, would help Israel finish the war as soon as possible. Not push for a ceasefire, but finish the war.

Starmer needs to break with the failed playbook on Palestine, Israel and Ukraine

David Hearst

And when that task was completed, he would push for an alliance of Sunni Arab states and Israel against Iran.

This is the America that awaits us in the Middle East and it would have disastrous consequences.

First Israel is unlikely to defeat Hamas militarily. Second, the very opposite is happening between Shia and Sunnis in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.They are coming together in their joint support for resistance against Israeli occupation.

The Sunni leaders of the states Vance is talking about see this all too well and also understand they are powerless to stop it. But make no mistake, Vance feels right now like the voice of the future.

In defying Joe Biden to stop his war in Gaza, Netanyahu will have got his tactics right.All he has to do is play for time, because Bidens voice on Gaza will fade as the election looms. He can hope for a ceasefire, but that is all.

The Biden camp is fatally divided. The candidate himself leans ominously on his immediate family for advice and succour.And you can almost hear the oxygen being sucked into Trumps campaign. After the assassination attempt, he can argue that he exists by divine will.

God help Palestine under a second Trump term. But it is into the hands of the far right that Starmers government is leading Britain.

As opposition leader,you can accuse Starmer of many things, but his worst sin as prime minister will be to fail, and open the doors to the political gates of hell.

For it is not just the Labour Party that he would have dragged down by calling in the police to quell pro-Palestinian dissent in Britain. But the very democracy on which Britain thrives.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye

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Keir Starmer ignores election anger over Palestine at his peril - Middle East Eye

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2024

Soccers global governing body, FIFA, said it had reached an agreement on Thursday with the federations representing Israelis and Palestinians that put off a decision on a potentially explosive dispute until after the Olympics.

The dispute, prompted by a Palestinian bid to temporarily suspend Israel from the sport over its actions in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, spares FIFA from a ruling that could have led to Israels team being thrown out of the mens tournament at the Games less than a week before the competition is to begin.

The issue, a long-simmering source of controversy for FIFA and the soccer neighbors, was rekindled by the raging war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, including of soccer players and other athletes.

FIFA had already put off a decision once, but boxed itself in at its annual congress in May when it said it would make an announcement on the Palestinian complaint before the start of the Olympics, where the mens soccer tournament opens next Wednesday.

It had already bought itself time by pushing the decision to the FIFA Council, its top executive body, after Palestinian soccer officials made an impassioned appeal for action to be taken by FIFAs entire membership at its annual congress in Bangkok.

The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, told delegates that he would seek independent legal expertise to see if Israel was in breach of its statutes, the claim made by Palestinian officials, who called for Israels suspension citing international law violations committed by the Israeli occupation in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and cited violations of FIFAs human rights and discrimination statutes.

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Palestinian Bid to Ban Israel From Soccer Is Put Off - The New York Times

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