Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 25, 2021

ISLAMABAD: Senators on Monday expressed concern over the situation in Palestine and asked the international community to immediately act to stop killing of innocent Palestinians.

Taking part in the discussion on Israels systematic assault against Palestinian worshippers in Al Aqsa mosque during the holy month of Ramazan, PTI Senator Barrister Ali Zafar said Muslims must think in terms of unity, cooperation and planning.

Leader of the Opposition in the House Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani said Pakistanis would continue their moral and diplomatic support for Palestinians who had been facing atrocities since 1948. The issue has negative effects on Central Asia and the whole Islamic world, he said, rejecting the Israeli claim that it was taking such steps in self-defence. He said dialogue was the only way forward for solution of any conflicts as wars were not always solutions to problems. He said India was committing similar atrocities against the people of Kashmir for the last 74 years.

He said the international community must work on the two-state solution to end the Palestine conflict, asking western countries to play a neutral role to bring the two sides to the negotiation table.

Leader of the House Dr Waseem Shahzad said the Palestine conflict was among the few issues on which all political parties were united. He said Palestinian women and children were subjected to violence by Israeli soldiers, while similar brutalities were being witnessed in India-held Kashmir. He said the UN resolutions were not being implemented to resolve both the issues.

He appreciated the role of Prime Minister Imran Khan in successful diplomatic efforts on Palestinian crisis. He said the foreign minister conveyed the concerns of Pakistan and rest of the Muslim world at the UN General Assembly demanding Israel end Gaza siege and international forces be deployed there to ensure security of Palestinians. The ICJ should be moved against human rights violations by Israel and establishment of Palestinian state in the light of UN resolutions was the only solution.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Parliamentary Leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman expressed concern over a lack of action by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over what was happening in Palestine.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said there was a complete national consensus in Pakistan on four issues Kashmir, Palestine, nuclear programme and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2021

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Senators ask world to take notice of atrocities in Palestine - DAWN.com

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Posted By admin on May 25, 2021

Q&A immediately following with award-winning filmmaker Lynn Roth.

An incredible true story from the producers of "Call Me By Your Name," and based on the acclaimed, bestselling Israeli novel. The film follows the journey to freedom when a young Jewish boy and his German Shepherd dog are reunited in the Treblinka concentration camp during World War II and then attempt to escape.

Director and screenwriter Lynn Roth shared, "This film embodies the two aspects of life which continue to confound me the most: the fascinating quality of dogs what goes on in these creatures minds and how they provide so much love and companionship to the human species... and how the world tolerated 'animals' who came to power in Germany and Austria and almost destroyed an entire people."

Immediately following the screening, Deadlines chief film critic Pete Hammond, who can also be seen on KCETs "Must See Movies," will moderate a Q&A with award-winning filmmaker Lynn Roth.

The film screens on Wednesday, May 26 at 7 p.m. PDT. Only $10 per viewing link. Limited space available.

To sign up, click here.

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Heartwarming WWII Film 'Shepherd: The Story of a Jewish Dog' Screens at the Virtual KCET Cinema Series on May 26th - KCET

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Posted By admin on May 25, 2021

As lethal violence kills ordinary people in Gaza and Israel, news outlets across the globe are constructing versions of events that will keep eyeballs on their content.

After all, war is the most compelling news story of all. And given many people who care about this situation have no direct experience of it, they depend on media reports to form a view.

But when reporting on something as terrible as political violence, journalists face an impossible choice.

While professional ethics of journalism demand objectivity, language just wont come to the party. This is because language has no neutral mode. Once you step into the process of saying anything about the violence in Gaza, language makes you take a side.

There are essentially two main modes for reporting on geopolitical violence. The first and dominant mode is typical of mainstream news reporting. It strives for objectivity by presenting selective factual events devoid of context. It briefly summarises complex events, while not allocating blame or responsibility.

While the effects of events on ordinary people can be reported on, these are typically presented as an unfortunate but unavoidable byproduct of something otherwise official, rational and purposeful.

Read more: Why is accountability for alleged war crimes so hard to achieve in the Israel-Palestinian conflict?

This style is susceptible to the favoured tropes of militaries and, therefore, to inadvertently reproducing official narratives. Destructive and lethal violence becomes obscured by terminology like operations, campaigns, offensives, strategies, targets and phases.

This language construes the violence as if it has a higher purpose. The particularly eager journalist will report the official name of an operation, as in this example, where the BBCs diplomatic correspondent tells readers Israel has named its operation Guardian of the Walls.

And they will expound on the types of weapons technology being employed, as if the make and model of the plane and the bombs it unleashes have any real bearing on these events.

The problem with this mode of reporting is that violence is objectified and dehumanised. Objectifying violence means it is construed as if it happens by itself, without reference to either the political masters who order it, or those tasked with enacting it.

And dehumanised, because it fails to put front and centre the most important perspective of these events: those killed, injured, bereaved and traumatised by the actions of (usually male) leaders, who refuse alternative means of resolving differences.

Heres an example of this objective style from a recent report on the BBCs website. The violence, referred to as a conflict, as rockets and air strikes continuing, as a concentration of militant rocket fire, as Israeli air strikes, is all divorced from the human agents of this violence.

And the dead Israelis are killed in rocket attacks, while the scores of dead Palestinians are simply a death toll.

An obvious and often conscious effect of this style is to treat two sides as if they are equal participants in this violence. This is the effect of journalistic shorthand, such as the Israel Gaza conflict, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

These formulations avoid allocating blame to one side or the other. The BBC report shows a scrupulous formulation so that rockets and air strikes appear side by side, even when the syntax of this formulation doesnt make sense. In their phrase rockets and air strikes have continued, while airstrikes can continue, rockets themselves cant.

And the they said while the others said structure keeps up the illusion that this violence is symmetrical.

I dont want to minimise the horror for ordinary Israelis of suffering rockets fired by Hamas foot soldiers. I cant begin to imagine the fear that I could lose a child to this kind of horrendous violence.

But the numbers of dead and scale of destruction belie this false equivalence. Just ask yourself: where would you rather be?

Herein lies the alternative mode of reporting this violence. When the violence you are reporting on is illegitimate, you naturally strive for language that fails the objectivity test.

You will focus on the brutal and inhumane consequences of the violence. You will make the perpetrators of the violence visible, and you will demonise them. You will emphasise the scale of the violence and its devastating effects on families and communities.

Read more: Many questions, few answers, as conflict deepens between Israelis and Palestinians

We can see these linguistic features in the reporting by The Electronic Intifada.

The style goes against everything in the standard journalism textbook. But its crowning, remarkable achievement is that, of everything that is going on, the killing of children is at the heart of this news report.

While we like to believe that what we politely call war is used as a last resort, this quantitative history of war shows that, as time goes on, human societies have been more addicted to war, that what we think of civilisation appears to correlate with more and more lethal wars.

For the journalists who report this violence on our behalf, there is nowhere to hide. There is no neutral, objective mode. Your choice is to stand so far back from the conflict that you obscure its brutal irrationality and, in so doing, unwittingly or otherwise, put your support behind the most powerful belligerents.

Or you can come in close and show mutilated and traumatised children, and suffer the journalistic ignominy of biased reporting.

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When it comes to media reporting on Israel-Palestine, there is nowhere to hide - The Conversation AU

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Posted By admin on May 25, 2021

The organs of an Arab Israeli teenager who was killed in what his family alleges was a police shooting were donated to six patients, five of whom are Jewish, Hebrew media reported Sunday.

Muhammad Mahameed Kiwan died last Wednesday night from a head injury he received a week earlier during disturbances in his hometown of Umm al-Fahm.

His heart went to a 37-year-old man and his lungs to a 66-year-old man, with both transplants performed at Sheba Medical Center. His liver was given to another man, 69, at Beilinson Hospital. One lobe of his liver was transplanted into a 1-year-old boy at Schneider Childrens Hospital, one kidney went to a 16-year-old girl at Rambam Medical Center and another to a woman, 35, at Ichilov Hospital. Only the baby was Arab.

It is true that my son died, but I want to let people live, Kiwans father, Mahmoud, told the Walla news website. That they shouldnt God forbid die.

The father said that as soon as it was clear to him that his son couldnt be saved, it was natural to me to give his organs to save other people.

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Screen capture from video of Mahmoud, father of Muhammad Mahameed Kiwan, 17, who died from a gunshot wound in the Arab Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm. (Walla news)

Every person deserves respect, and I respect everyone, whether Jews or Arabs, Mahmoud said of the transplants, urging all citizens to embrace his view of mutual respect.

Kiwan was survived by his parents, an older sister and two older brothers. Thousands of people attended his funeral last Thursday.

The Israel Police says that two officers fired at a car that ran into them near Umm al-Fahm on the day Kiwan was fatally wounded. But police say it is still unclear who fired the shots that killed him, or whether he was in the car that struck police.

According to police, officers called to the scene of a riot shot at a passing car that rammed the commander and the officer, who miraculously sustained only light injuries.

The car in question has yet to be located, although an investigation is ongoing.

Posted by Yousef T. Jabareen onThursday, May 20, 2021

Kiwans family tells an entirely different story. According to Nadia, Kiwans aunt who spoke last week to The Times of Israel on the familys behalf, Kiwans friends had persuaded him to drive out to Mei Ami junction on Route 65 to watch a confrontation between demonstrators and police.

He wasnt participating in the protest. He had driven out with some friends and they were in a car close to Mei Ami junction. They were approached by the two police officers and they got scared and started to drive off. The officers opened fire at the car, Nadia said.

The Justice Ministrys Police Internal Investigations Department announced on Thursday that it had opened an investigation into the shooting at the car, but also said it could not determine whether Kiwan died from police gunfire.

As a sign of mourning, Kiwans hometown Umm al-Fahm went on strike on Thursday. Shops shuttered in the citys thoroughfares and thousands of residents attended a mass funeral in the evening where the crowd chanted: We werent born to live in submission, we were born to live free.

Kiwans death came as rioting and clashes between Jews and Arabs had spread across the country in the worst ethnic violence the country had seen for several years.

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Organs of Arab teen allegedly shot by police save Arab and Jewish lives - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on May 25, 2021

Two women sit on top of a truck while holding a Palestinian flag during a demonstration in Columbus, Ohio, against Israel's occupation of Palestine, May 18, 2021. (Stephen Zenner / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via AP Images)

Thank you for signing up forThe Nations weekly newsletter.

When I call my family in Palestine, my heartbeat pauses as rings go unansweredonly to resume, relieved but shaken, once I hear their voices.

Nearly two weeks into the latest explosion of Israeli violence against occupied Palestinians, the world is finally beginning to understand what we have known for decades: Israels settler-colonial violencethe forced cleansing of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah, the rampaging mobs in cities throughout the country, the bombs dropped on captive Gazanshas no place in the 21st century.

Palestinians have been saying this for years. But for us, as for our allies demanding freedom and justice for Palestinians, there are consequences for our speech. As soon as we speak out, we are immediately confronted by a repression machine restricting any criticism of Israels foundational and ongoing violence against Palestinians. We are then often punished.

Believe me, I know the consequences firsthand.

In June 2020, I became the subject of an international campaign to unseat me as Student Senate president of Florida State University. I had just made history as the first Palestinian, the first Arab, and the first Muslim to assume that office.

But, alongside other Palestinian student leaders, I was quickly drowned in a sea of animosity and intolerance toward Palestinians.

Pro-Israel students swiftly rummaged through my social media in a cyber-fishing expedition that is now understood as standard procedure when it comes to outspoken young Palestinians. Focusing on a photo of me in Palestine next to a statue of Nelson Mandela, students called my presidency into question because I cursed the Israeli military occupation oppressing my family and that I had lived under.Current Issue

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A campaign to unseat me eruptedwith the help of petitions and an Israeli-government-funded app that, much like a video game, rewarded users for making complaints about me to my school. The embedded argument was that Palestinians like me who share experiences of Israeli oppressionlike military occupation, apartheid, and inequality under the lawdo so out of anti-Jewish and violent intent.

Not much later, my inboxes were filled with racist slurs based on this distortion of Palestinians and their allies. I received messages calling me dirty ass towelhead and monkey ass piece of Arab shit. I was told I should be castrated immediately and deported to Gaza. I was told that Muzzlits like me should be hunted down and killed.

My student body received enormous pressure too, with elected officials in Florida jumping into the mix. Legislators threatened to cut funding to my school. Cities adopted resolutions rebuking me, and the head of the states Covid-19 management department demanded my removal while Covid-19 deaths soared in Florida.

Given the scale of the response, the message was clear: Palestinians who challenge our oppression or even speak about violence committed against us and our families will themselves be painted as bulliesjust as Palestinians resisting the current round of callous bombardment and dispossession are painted as aggressors.

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My university knew all of this. It knew about threats to my safety and the fact that I couldnt focus on school while trying to weather the storm.

But instead of supporting me, it bought into the racist charades and took action of its own to stigmatize Palestinians on campus by recognizing a distorted definition of anti-Semitism that mutes Palestinian experiences of oppression by conflating any and all criticism of Israel with hatred for Jewish people.

I am no stranger to violence. Ive been shot at, tear-gassed, and stripped down by the Israeli military as a child in Palestine during the Second Intifada. But when I arrived in this country, anti-Palestinian bigotry did not stop at the US border. Instead, it took a new shape in the States, following me if I intended to speak, share, react to, or otherwise own my experiences as a Palestinian.

Like so many other students of color advocating for the rights of marginalized people, I was painted as a disruptor for speaking truthfully about Israels oppression of Palestinians.

What happened to me is only a drop in an ocean of ongoing efforts to silence and punish outspoken Palestinians, as well as allies, who criticize Israel. Over 33 states have passed laws targeting solidarity with Palestinian rights, including laws that attempt to redefine anti-Semitism as a way of policing what Palestinians can and cannot say about Israels occupation and oppression. Some states have even passed measures to limit the First Amendment right to boycott businesses complicit in Israel apartheid.

At the same time, activists, particularly students like me, are falsely accused, investigated, cyber-bullied, fired, legally threatened, surveilled by law enforcement, and physically assaulted because they stand for Palestinian freedom.

Thats why I decided to file a civil rights complaint against my university for reinforcing anti-Palestinian harassment against me. With the help of Palestine Legal, which is dedicated to pushing back against repression of the Palestinian rights movement in the United States, I am calling on the federal government to investigate my school for encouraging harassment by Israel speech police, and to take measures to protect campus advocacy for Palestinian rights.

I shouldnt have had to drown in racist messages from online trolls and elected state representatives while my school stood alongside bigots, even cheered because I said that Palestinians deserve equality, too.

I will not allow others to shove my experiences under the rug, subvert my intentions, or rewrite my story. These tactics used against meto smear, discredit, and distortcan only go so far. The harassment that Palestinians face for daring to share their stories is a testament of the fear people have of our deeply moving power.

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I am a Palestinian, we are a resilient people, and I will not allow the silencing of Palestinian voices to be the status quo any longer.

Discrimination at and by institutions has no place in the 21st centuryfrom the United States to Palestine.

Excerpt from:

I Will Not Be Silenced Because I Demand Justice for Palestine - The Nation

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Posted By admin on May 25, 2021

Faten Alzinaty was heading to the community center that she manages in the Israeli city of Lod on Sunday morning when she noticed a familiar face. Itzik! she called out. A police officer wearing full body armor and carrying a semi-automatic rifle approached her, and the two embraced. We missed you, the officer told Alzinaty, who is Arab and has lived in Lod all her life. Whats all this? She scanned his getup. Its nothing; its for the camera crews, he said. He smirked uncomfortably. Take it off, she told him, her smile slightly fading. Its way too hot.

By day, the streets of Lod are quiet. Its a nervous quietthe kind that descends after an earthquake, say, or a tornado. When I arrived, on Sunday, torched, upturned cars were strewn all along a single road. Around the corner, charred dumpsters blocked the paths leading to the square where a mosque, a church, and a synagogue converge in what is known as the triangle of religions. I walked to the sound of glass crunching underfoot. Over here, a graffiti saying Death to the Arabs had been sprayed over but not hidden; over there, the second story of a Jewish prep school had been burned.

Every night this past week, duelling mobs of young menJewish and Arabhave descended on the citys streets, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, carrying knives and firearms. Three hundred people have been arrested, and the city has been brought to the brink of civil war, as its mayor has put it. Rockets are whirring daily into Israel from the Hamas-led Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes are levelling buildings in Gaza. Its a conflict that repeats itself to devastating effect every few years. Amid this deadly escalation, an alarming new reality has set in, threatening to tear Israel apart from within. The mixed cities of Israel, where Jews and Arabs have lived side by side for decades, are experiencing the worst bouts of internecine violence since the countrys founding, in 1948. These cities were built on the foundationsome say the illusionof coexistence. These days, neighbors are turning against neighbors. Perhaps nowhere are the tensions more palpable than in Lod, an impoverished city fifteen miles south of Tel Aviv.

The history of Lod, or al-Lydd in Arabic, is both ancient and raw. The city dates back eight thousand years to Neolithic times. It is mentioned in the Bible as the place from which Jews fled after the destruction of Solomons Temple. In 1948, Jewish battalions, fighting a war for independence, entered the city, expelled the Palestinian population, and killed two hundred and fifty men, women, and children inside a mosquea massacre that is seared into the collective memory of Lods Arab population. Today, the city is 72.5-per-cent Jewish and 27.5-per-cent Arab. By law, Arab citizens of Israel are entitled to equal rights; in practice, though, many are barred from buying land or property. (Although the Arab population is now seven times the size that it was in 1948, the state has not built a single new Arab settlement since then, while it has added seven hundred Jewish communities, according to the Israel Democracy Institute.)

Last week, protests broke out in Jerusalem over the imminent expulsion of six Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and the subsequent police raid of the holy al-Aqsa compound. These protests spilled into other cities across Israel, including Lod, where local Palestinians gathered outside the citys Grand Mosque, chanting to free al-Aqsa. A protester took down an Israeli flag and replaced it with the flag of Palestine. Police then stormed the area with stun grenades and tear gas aimed at protesters, some of whom threw back rocks and Molotov cocktails. As protesters marched through the streets of Lod, gunfire sounded and a local Arab man was shot and killed, and another wounded, apparently by Jewish rioters. The following night, a Jewish electrician driving home from work was pulled out of his car by a rioting mob and beaten; he later died from his wounds.

On Sunday, a week after the murder of the Arab man, thirty-two-year-old Mousa Hassuna, a small crowd gathered down the street from where he was killed for a joint peace demonstration of Jews and Arabs. Four Jewish suspects had been arrested in Hassunas death but were promptly released from custody after citing self-defense. Lawmakers from the right denounced their arrest as awful and morally despicable. At the peace demonstration, people held signs saying: Its simple: End the violence. A Jewish resident of Lod, in his sixties, walked up to the microphone. We are all on a rubber boat in the middle of the sea. One pinprick is enough and we will all drown, he said.

Just then, the windows of a passing car rolled down and the people inside screamed, Go back to Gaza!

Among the people at the rally was Abed Shahada, a thirty-four-year-old teacher at the local Arab high school. Shahada said that, while he had physically restrained some of his students from rioting, he understood their motive. True, there was violence and thats unacceptable, he said. True, there was vandalism and thats unacceptable. But there was anger. Pent-up anger. And the city couldnt contain it. Still, he spoke with guarded hope that something positive might come out of the tension. At the end of the day, a person doesnt only care about being a doctoras successful and normative as he may be, he would still have an inner self that says he is part of a national minority, he said. And the city needs to recognize that, even if its uncomfortable. Its being able to say Im Abed and Im a Palestinian. If we teach these young people to express themselves with words, they wont throw a rock.

Standing next to him was Mira Marsiano, the Jewish owner of a bridal salon who has lived in Lod all her life. Marsiano described a lifetime of friendships with her Arab neighbors. When I say I have Arab friends, these are not just people you go have hummus with, she said. These are soul mates. Its hard to describe the rupture. Last week, when violence erupted, Marsiano drove to her sons house in a nearby neighborhood to extricate him, his wife, and their baby while fire raged outside their building. I was scared senseless, she said.

As the crowd at the peace rally dispersed, some of the Jewish attendees decided to pay their respects to Mousa Hassunas family, one of the oldest and most well-regarded families in Lod. During the short drive over, Aviv Wasserman, a former deputy mayor, told the other passengers that Mousas father had been saddened that only a few of his Jewish friends had gone to visit. Why didnt you go there to say hello? Wasserman asked a man with a graying ponytail who was sitting beside him.

Well, because you dont know who youre going to run into, the man, Nissim Dahan, said.

Who? Wasserman asked, his voice rising. Who will you run into? A friendship of forever is erased because you dont know who youll run into? Is he a criminal?

Of course not! Dahan said. But you think everyone has balls like we do?

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The Tensions Inside a Mixed Jewish-Arab City in Israel - The New Yorker

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Posted By admin on May 25, 2021

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the worlds capitals in mid-May 2021 blamed the Israeli government for recent bloodshed in Israel and Gaza, and called on world leaders to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu into calling a ceasefire. Protesters emphasized the perceived power imbalance between Israel and Palestine. According to this view of the asymmetry between the two sides, Israel is a major economic and military power while Hamas-led Gaza is poor, weak and has suffered many casualties.

In Israel where Ive lived and worked for 25 years, and from where I write these lines from the reinforced concrete saferoom legally required in all apartments erected here since Saddam targeted Israeli civilians during the first Gulf War debate is raging over different asymmetries.

Where Israels critics see a powerful nation attacking a weak one, Israelis see a sovereign state defending itself against terrorists who deliberately target civilians. And where Israeli right-wingers see violent betrayal of Israeli Jews by Arab citizens with whom theyve coexisted for decades, Israeli left-wingers see a Jewish majority that hasnt done enough to ensure equal rights for its Arab minority.

As a cognitive psychologist, I am not surprised by the mirror images that different sides in the conflict hold of the asymmetries between them. Asymmetries are perceptions and, just like optical illusions, people can look at the same sets of facts and events and see or be persuaded to see different things.

In op-eds and viral social media posts, many Israelis have been contrasting Arab aggression with Jewish restraint. They talk about Hamas targeting missiles at Israeli civilians and inflaming dormant inter-ethnic tensions in Israels mixed cities. And they describe themselves as going to unprecedented lengths to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza and to preserve a delicate coexistence that took years to construct between Israels Jewish and Arab citizens.

This asymmetry is diametrically opposed to the one emphasized by Israels critics. Palestinians and their supporters cast Israel as the aggressor and the Palestinians as weak victims. Most Israelis see Hamas and their Arab Israeli supporters as the aggressors, and perceive the group to be growing stronger, as the range of its missiles and incitement of anti-Jewish violence extends ever deeper into Israeli territory, threatening its major cities.

But there is a split in Israeli politics. Those on the right see Israels Arab citizens attacking innocent Jews, torching synagogues and destroying property in neighborhoods theyve shared for years. Those on the left, however, see their governments continued disregard for the rights of Israels Arab citizens and reluctance to apply the full force of the law equally to Arab and Jewish rioters.

Posts by right-wing commentators this week contrasted the relative frequency of acts of violence committed by Arab Israelis on Jewish Israelis and their property with the relative absence of corresponding violence perpetrated by Jewish Israelis on Arab Israelis.

Left-wing commentators, on the other hand, focused on Israels shared responsibility for, and moral duty to address, the pent-up frustrations of Israels Arab minority.

Cognitive psychologists deal with such differences in perception all the time.

One example is the Muller-Lyer illusion, in which two lines of identical length are made to seem shorter or longer by the addition of fins, which slope inward or outward, respectively at each end. Similarly, in the current conflict, perceptions of who is aggressor and whom victim are shaped by the inclusion or exclusion of additional data, such as who has suffered the most casualties, who has more effective defenses, and so on. Like the fins in the Muller-Lyer illusion, such data can shape perception irrespective of their relevance.

Another example is Solomon Aschs conformity experiment, in which a group of participants is required to identify which of three lines on one card is the same length as a reference line on another card. But theres a catch: All but one of the participants has been told in advance to select a line that is obviously shorter than the reference line. The uninitiated participant usually changes his correct answer to conform with the incorrect answer chosen by the rest of the group.

A similar dynamic seems to be playing out on social media around the current Israel-Palestine conflict. Some celebrities who initially posted relatively balanced messages later adopted more partisan positions in response to pressure from followers.

One person who has gained from Israelis shifting views on Jewish-Arab asymmetries is Netanyahu himself.

Earlier this month, an anyone but Bibi coalition government seemed about to be formed following Israels fourth inconclusive election in two years. Unprecedentedly, Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing, and largely Jewish, Yamina (Rightwards) party, was deep in talks with Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List party. Last week, Bennett pulled out of the talks. One week, 3,000 Hamas missiles and several more riots later, the prospect of such talks being revived seems farther away than ever.

So Bibi is back on top, performing very publicly the role of heading Israels military response and reaping the political rewards of the greatest crisis of trust in decades between Israels Jewish and Arab citizens. A week is a long time in politics.

[Youre smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversations authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter.]

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As trust between Israeli Jews and Arabs reaches new lows, Netanyahu rises again - The Conversation US

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Posted By admin on May 25, 2021

Behind the Pew Research Center surveys estimate of the number of Jews are far-reaching demographic and cultural trends in American society in general and particularly in American-Jewish society. We need to confront them truthfully and acknowledge the opportunities and challenges that they present to Jewish vitality in 21-century America.The study found 7.3 million people in the US who define themselves (or, if children, defined by their parents) as Jewish. Three-quarters of them view their Jewishness through the lenses of Judaism as a religion; another quarter consider themselves Jewish by ethnicity, culture or family background. These people see their Jewish identity in no uncertain terms and claim no other group affiliation.This definition of Jewish identity mirrors that adopted by the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, which resonated widely due to its having found an unprecedentedly high rate of Jewish intermarriage, and estimated the countrys Jewish population to be at 5.5 million. The substantial increase since then nearly 2 million within three decades traces to a rare coincidence of natural growth, immigration and, especially, changes in group identity. First, the proportion of Orthodox Jews, the majority of whom are haredi (ultra-Orthodox), is on the rise, especially among the young, whose fertility rates are two or three times higher than the intergenerational replacement level.Second, a relatively large cohort of grandchildren of boomers is now entering the critical stage of family formation, bringing a large number of children into the world.

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The American Jewry demographic is only growing and becoming more diverse - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on May 25, 2021

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) A Jewish man was attacked Thursday in the Diamond District, as pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protesters clashed in Times Square.

Police said a group of five to six men attacked the 29-year-old victim around 6:30 p.m. on Broadway near West 49th Street.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating some of the incidents in the area.

CBS2s Alice Gainer spoke to one man who was beaten on the ground.

My whole face felt like it was on fire for hours, Joseph Borgen said.

A bruised Borgen says thats him on the ground in disturbing video showing a violent attack by a group of men. Police said they also used an anti-Semitic slur during the attack.

They were macing me for like a minute straight, he said. Kicked me, punched me, beat me with crutches, hit me with flags.

He says hes bruised all over and has a concussion.

Watch Alice Gainers report

Borgen was alone, on his way to attend a pro-Israel rally at 47th and Seventh the same one he says he attended last week.

Wore my yarmulke, wore my kippah, he said. I never made it to the rally. By 48th street I saw someone start chasing me from behind, and next thing you know, before I could react, I was surrounded by a crowd they were making anti-Jewish comments.

The 29-year-old was taken to Bellevue and released and is now recovering at home with his loving dog Roman.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating. After canvasing the area and looking at security video, police arrested 23-year-old Wasseem Awawdeh of Brooklyn for using a crutch to assault Borgen.Hes facing assault as a hate crime, gang assault and weapons charges.

Theyre still looking for the others.

Its absolutely disgusting and unacceptable, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday. We have had a man viciously beaten simply because he appeared to some individuals to be Jewish. We had folks throwing very potent fireworks and creating harm to others and burning some folk, at least one person. This is unacceptable.

The mayor urged New Yorkers to call police if they have any information about the incident.

What happened last night is absolutely unacceptable. There is no place for anti-Semitism in York City. We will not tolerate it. My message is very clear. Anyone who commits such an act is going to be arrested and prosecuted, he said.

The mayor, other city leaders and police officials met with Jewish community leaders at City Hall on Friday to explain what the city is doing to keep the community safe.

Police sources say an M-80 blast in Times Square last night injured a 55-year-old woman who suffered burns to her back. Its unclear if she was part of the protest or walking by.

Police are searching for an individual accused of throwing an explosive device in Times Square on May 20, 2021, burning a 55-year-old woman. (Credit: NYPD Crime Stoppers)

Police have released photos of a man theyre looking for in connection with that attack, which is being treated as a hate crime.

Dozens of others were taken into police custody after pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli brawlers squared off in Times Square Thursday night, throwing objects and other projectiles.

Borgen says despite what happened wont deter him from attending any future rallies.

We all want peace. We all want to get along. We all want to be on the same page. Violence is never the answer, he said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has directed the New York State Police Hate Crimes Task Force to help the NYPD with the investigation.

I unequivocally condemn these brutal attacks on visibly Jewish New Yorkers and we will not tolerate anti-Semitic violent gang harassment and intimidation, he said in a statement. New York is the vibrant and dynamic home for people from around the world. This tapestry makes New York the extraordinary place that it is. Those of all faiths, backgrounds and ethnicities must be able to walk the streets safely and free from harassment and violence.

The Anti-Defamation League also condemned the attack, saying violence is absolutely unacceptable.

Anyone with information about the beating is asked to call the NYPDs Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.

CBS2s Alice Gainer and Dick Brennan contributed to this report.

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Joseph Borgen, Brutally Beaten By Group Of Suspects In Manhattans Diamond District, Speaks Out: My Whole Face Felt Like It Was On Fire For Hours - CBS...

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Posted By admin on May 25, 2021

Much of the media and many experts and observers have succumbed to what can be described as a complete loss of rational thinking when it came to evaluating the Israel-Hamas war.

Israels critics invented an entirely new set of illogical rules of war for Israel that one can only conclude is aimed at leaving the Jewish state defenseless and allowing the terrorist group Hamas to attack freely.

There are four key themes that are propagated in articles, interviews, social media and by well-known comedians, all of which are simply absurd.

It has been noted repeatedly that the ratio of deaths in Gaza to Israel is about 20:1. To those pointing out the disparity it therefore follows that Israels war conduct is unjust, while Hamas is not really of much concern because, well, look at the numbers.

Americas military campaign to eliminate ISIS in Syria and Iraq, however, demonstrates the incredible hypocrisy in how Israels conduct is treated versus the rest of the world. The battle against ISIS was conducted in part by the Combined Joint Task Force, a U.S.-led coalition which included Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE and U.K.

The task force reported that airstrikes from 2014 through 2019 led to 1,257 civilian deaths which were characterized as unintentional. Other credible estimates cited by the New York Times shows at least 7,500 civilians killed. Few coalition soldiers were killed resulting in a casualty ratio far above the current conflict in Gaza; in fact no one bothered to even calculate the ratio.

While civilian deaths were lamented, the general international attitude was praise for the final destruction of ISIS.

A recent comment by Comedy Centrals The Daily Show host Trevor Noah encapsulates this preposterous thinking: I just want to ask an honest question: If youre in a fight where the other person cannot beat you, how hard should you retaliate when they try to hurt you?

Writer Bari Weiss replied: Just so we have this straight: A country should accept a terrorist group launching deadly rockets at its civilian population because a comedian thinks that the terror group wont win?

In fact, the concepts of overwhelming force and shock and awe were implemented by the U.S. in wars in the Middle East and are regularly adopted by armed forces around the world to defeat their enemy.

Somehow Israel is seen as immoral due to its greater power and is expected to use a lower amount of force against Hamas under some invented notion of proportionality that critics seek to apply only to Israel.

Incredibly, Israel has been castigated for having a rocket defense system since Gaza does not have similar defenses for airstrikes. The bizarre notion is that it is inherently unfair that one side in a conflict has better defensive measure than the other.

An article in the Washington Post even suggested that Iron Dome perpetuates the conflict as it allows Israel to avoid resolving the conflict through negotiation; the article does not suggest that the pathway to peace is for the international community to disarm Hamas.

Not mentioned by Israels critics is that Israeli airstrikes are a response to Hamas rockets and if Hamas stopped firing rockets and disarmed its rocket stocks, Israel would not engage in retaliatory airstrikes.

Once again, the only conclusion from this absurd viewpoint is that if more Israelis died, its actions against Hamas would be more justified.

It is universally acknowledged that civilian deaths are a tragic and unfortunate consequence of all wars, but when caused by Israel they are treated as automatic war crimes even when Hamas continues to fire rockets.

In an editorial discussing civilian casualties caused by U.S. drone strikes in the Middle East, which number by estimates at over 1,000, the New York Times conceded, no matter how precise the weapons, how careful the planners and how skilled the fighters, mistakes, faulty intelligence, even calculated decisions often led to civilians being killed and that There is no such thing as combat without risk.

In describing civilian deaths in the war against ISIS the Joint Task Force released a statement saying: Although the coalition takes extraordinary efforts to strike military targets in a manner that minimizes the risk of civilian casualties, in some incidents casualties are unavoidable.

Such common sense understanding is totally missing when it comes to Israel despite significant evidence that Israel goes to great lengths to minimize civilian casualties from its roof knocking policies to precision-guided attacks.

How long would any nation tolerate the majority of its population in bomb shelters before demanding overwhelming force? Which nation would instruct their military to go light on their terrorist attackers because the attacks can be repelled? Which defense secretary would instruct their generals to only respond to the enemy proportionally? Which nation would be vilified for their better defense systems?

When will the international community focus its efforts on forcing Hamas to stop firing rockets and stop spending international aid on military infrastructure as a condition for any future aid to Gaza?

Salo Aizenberg of White Plains, NY., is the author of Hatemail: Anti-Semitism on Picture Postcards, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards.

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Essay: The Four Absurd Criticisms of Israel's War Conduct Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News

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