Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 21, 2020

In light of the misinformation running rampant on social media about the cause of the wildfires in our state, the Keizertimes spoke to Keizer Police Department Lt. Bob Trump about the damage rumors cause during an ongoing investigation. The KPD is not directly involved in the handling of the wildfires.

Even though officials have named lightning as the chief suspect in starting the Beachie Creek and Loinshead fires, which are the two deeply affecting Marion County, the internet suspects a more sinister hand at play.

Social media has been abuzz with rumors that members of Antifa have been setting the fires that are raging across our state. Both Marion and Clackamas Sheriffs Offices have denied these claims.

Antifa is described by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as, a loose collection of groups, networks and individuals who believe in active, aggressive opposition to far right-wing movements.

When confronted with the fact that no one has been arrested for arson in Marion County (at time of press) conspiracy theorists will often throw out the line, I have a right to my opinion.

While freedom of speech is a First Amendment right, there are consequences for the words people choose.

Its a tough thing, youre talking about some government official saying, Hey, limit your speech, said Keizer Police Department (KPD) Lt. Bob Trump.

(NOTE: The KPD is not directly involved with the handling of the wildfires across the state. The Keizertimes chose to speak with them about the dangers of misinformation in ongoing investigations in general because they are a local agency.)

In a general sense, wherever the conversation would come up we would remind people that its not helpful to the investigation to speculate and spread things, Trump said.

Various county sheriffs offices have taken to social media to plead with people to stop spreading rumors. According to a post made by the Douglas County Sheriffs Office people have been overwhelming 9-1-1 and the non-emergency line asking about a false report claiming six Antifa members were arrested for arson. It delayed people experiencing actual emergencies from getting help.

We join with our law enforcement partners in basically reminding people not to speculate as to the cause or origins of fires until there can be a complete investigation done, Trump said.

Trump said the KPD has not ever been overwhelmed with calls about a particular case in the way Douglas County described, but he does think social media plays a role in the rapid spread of unconfirmed or not true information.

People have a voice, a direct voice to the community and they can say literally whatever they want to say, Trump said. Though everyone is free and able to express their opinion, that doesnt mean every opinion is helpfulor even rooted in fact.

There may be facts or circumstances about a case that we want to communicate to the public and that story is already being told across social media before I, as a spokesperson, have all the facts of what happened, Trump said.

Social media gives users the ability to spread information quickly, but investigation and fact finding take more time.

I need to report things based on what actually occurred and so Im gathering all of that and there is already some speculation, people talking about things that I just know patently arent the facts, Trump said. He said the department then has to play catch up and attempt to stop the spread of the false information and promote the spread of the actual facts.

In cases like the Clackamas County deputy, who was placed on administrative leave and then resigned after sharing a video in which he made claims that Antifa was setting the fires, misinformation can harm the relationship with the community and damage a departments reputation, though Trump said it is difficult to measure that damage.

As far as the KPD is concerned, its leaders want to be transparent. Trump encouraged community members with questions about ongoing cases to call and ask, though there is a chance that the department may not be able to answer certain questions because it is an ongoing investigation.

In times like these it can be confusing on who to trust. While government officials tend to be more credible than a friend of a friend of a friends Facebook rant, there is a middle ground full of news stories debunking rumors.

The closer the person or speaker is to the facts of the investigation, the more reliable that information is, Trump said.

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KPD Lt: Misinformation not helpful to any active case, fire or otherwise - Keizertimes

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Posted By admin on September 21, 2020

KALAMAZOO, MI A month after the Proud Boys marched in Kalamazoo, the visit remains a source of public debate and yet a key question remains: why did they come here?

An expert who tracks far-right groups such as the Proud Boys pointed to the fact that Kalamazoo is a college town and has easy highway access, sitting at the intersection of I-94 and U.S. 131.

Kalamazoo has also had a number of marches and rallies in support of police reform and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Kalamazoo did nothing that really invited a hate group like this, said Carolyn Normandin, Michigan regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

The group looks for communities that have had tensions over issues such as policing and Black Lives Matter, for instance, she said. Both issues have been on the agenda in Kalamazoo, though the city is not unique in that regard.

Proud Boys like to spoil for a fight, Normandin said. They look for places with discord and try to sew more discord, she said.

Steve Dorsy, a self described member of the leadership of the Proud Boys in Michigan who helped helped organize the Proud Boys march in Kalamazoo on Aug. 15, said group members were picking between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.

In both cities, there had been Black Lives Matters, Antifa rallies that resulted in some type of destruction of property or homes being burned down and things like that, Dorsy said, pointing to events in the cities in June.

Antifa is a loose organization of far-left, anti-fascists who have been active in protesting far-right organization such as Proud Boys.

Equating Kalamazoo with Antifa is conjured up rhetoric, Normandin said, and a justification for why the Proud Boys chose the city.

Their whole ideology likes violence, Normandin said.

Proud Boys use intimidation during rallies, she said. They have been described as a "right-wing fight club, she said.

Despite the fights that happened in Kalamazoo, Dorsy said the group does not want violence.

Coming to Kalamazoo

Group members also talked about previous run-ins with a member of the Kalamazoo community when deciding on the location, Dorsy said, alleging the person harassed members of the Proud Boys.

Ultimately, group leadership voted to come to Kalamazoo, said Dorsy, who lives in the Detroit area and said he is in his 40s. The Proud Boys arrived on Saturday, Aug. 15, and achieved their goal, Dorsy said.

Our mission was to show that you cant march down a street in Kalamazoo without being assaulted if you have an opposing view. And sure enough, thats exactly what happened, he said on Sept. 15, one month after the event that made national headlines.

Videos show a large group of several dozen Proud Boys marching down Water Street after they parked their vehicles in a downtown ramp where they gathered.

As they marched, they chanted, Whos streets? Our streets! Some members flashed an OK hand gesture, which the Anti-Defamation League says is a white-power signal. One member carried a sign that says, Racism does not exist.

Counterprotesters, anticipating the Proud Boys' arrival, were staged nearby at Arcadia Creek Festival Place.

Violence erupted when the Proud Boys and counterprotesters clashed on Water Street. A cup thrown into the Proud Boys crowd was one of the first acts of aggression, according to Dorsy and police. Soon after, according to Dorsy, Proud Boys were defending themselves from attacks.

The narrative from police and Dorsy differs from a version of events given by Kalamazoo citizens on the street. One account, from the Rev. Nathan Dannison, and another from resident, Andy Argo, said Proud Boys kicked off the violence by assaulting a homeless person.

KDPS Assistant Chief David Boysen said the citizens reporting the homeless person was attacked have an agenda.

I reviewed all of the video from the event and their version is not what happened, Boysen said.

KDPS Chief Karianne Thomas said a review of video evidence shows that counterprotestors repeatedly initiated contact with the Proud Boys as they marched through the city streets leading to several arrests.

Dorsy said the Proud Boys were not the aggressors, and only responded to attacks, defending themselves.

Several people were injured and punches were thrown from either side as police officers were absent from the scene, except for those watching from a distance. Police watched as a man was clubbed over the head. A U.S. Army veteran said he was swept into the crowd and punched again and again in the face by Proud Boys.

One thing that Proud Boys and Kalamazoo citizens agree on, according to Dorsy: Police dropped the ball.

The Kalamazoo police department absolutely, 100% failed, Dorsy said. He pointed out how police responded to Black Lives Matter protests in May and June wearing riot gear," in contrast to the Proud Boys event, when police were not present when violence began.

Officers were wearing the same tactical gear they wore in June whey they did respond to the Aug. 15 event.

Thomas has said they made a tactical decision to initially keep police largely out of view because they didnt want their presence to escalate the situation. Once fighting started, police moved in, Thomas has said.

The decision to keep police back initially has prompted harsh criticism of police actions that day still the subject of an ongoing investigation by city officials.

Dorsy said the Proud Boys received an influx of dozens of applications from Michigan people following the Kalamazoo event.

In response to the Proud Boys' claims that they were not in Kalamazoo to cause violence, Normandin said the way they behaved was threatening.

Theyre marching down the street looking very threatening, Normandin said. If a group is rallying in a peaceful march, theyre not typically carrying guns and wearing camo and acting as if they are going to come to secure things. There was nothing to be secured that day.

She described Proud Boys as a right-wing fight club."

Dorsy said one member of the Proud Boys was openly carrying a gun. Others were carrying concealed guns, he said. Others were carrying flags on sticks.

Police have noted that other armed citizens showed up nearby where the Proud Boys marched and other counterprotesters congregated.

Police documented counterprotesters carrying weapons. Proud Boys used pepper spray during the skirmish.

In response to questions from MLive, an official at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks groups such as the Proud Boys, said it was noteworthy members were armed and carrying chemical irritants.

That they used some of those weapons against counter-protesters isnt surprising because this is a group with a long history of violent behavior targeted at leftist and antifascist protesters, Rebecca Sturtevant, associate media director of the center.

Sturtevant said it was concerning that police didnt attempt to keep the groups separated and instead allowed clashes to break out.

This failure allows the Proud Boys to continue to claim that they are needed on the streets to maintain law and order, a dangerous step toward normalizing the violence of the far right, Sturtevant said.

Who are the Proud Boys?

The Proud Boys were founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, who is the co-founder of Vice Media. In November 2018, McInnes announced he was disassociating himself from the group, The Guardian newspaper reported.

On its website, the Proud Boys describe themselves as a pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists.

Under the description, a dozen values are listed, including minimal government, maximum freedom, and anti-political correctness.

In a speech posted on YouTube in January 2018 and embedded on the Proud Boys website, McInnes explains that he set out to set up a mens club.

I started a mens club called the Proud Boys and we have one caveat and that is you have to be a Western chauvinist, McInnes said. Now liberals are lazy, so they hear the word chauvinist and they assume male chauvinist and thats why I use that word, because theyre too lazy to look it up. And it just means a nationalist, a patriot. And you have to think the West is the best.

During the speech, McInnes described an incident in New York in which Antifa members protested outside where he was making an appearance.

Im the only one allowed in and my guys are left to fight. And here is the crucial part: We do. We beat the crap out of them, McInnes said as the audience applauded. I couldnt see, I was whisked in but I talked to two of our guys who were arrested and I go, How was that? Are you OK.' And they go: It was really, really fun.

They said, Violence doesnt feel good. Justified violence feels great. And fighting solves everything, McInnes added. So, we said, you know what? Were not going to pick fights. But if they pick fights with us, were going to finish them.

In Kalamazoo, counter-protesters clashed with Proud Boys while a police over watch team watched from a building above the street.

City officials have pointed fingers, blaming different factors on the poor handling of the event. Officials have said the Proud Boys got started earlier than expected, and citizens were on the scene carrying guns, as some factors that played into the outcome.

The police department intentionally handled the event differently than recent Black Lives Matter protests in late May and early June, where the police response including tear-gassing citizens met harsh criticism, according to the city.

The Aug. 15 Proud Boys visit caused further fallout between citizens and police, because police were absent when violence broke out. Police officers arrested Kalamazoo citizens, including a working MLive journalist and a legal observer, and did not arrest any Proud Boys. The chief has apologized, in part, for the response and the city manager has admitted things should have been done differently.

The Proud Boys came to town and completed their mission by creating a divisive situation for the community then leaving, hopefully with the chaos continuing, which is their MO, KDPS Chief Karianne Thomas said following the event.

The city commission has formed a subcommittee to focus on police reform, and is working to hire an independent investigator to look into the police response of both protest events.

Dorsy and some other Proud Boys attended a more recent pro-police and Trump rally in Frankenmuth.

Kevin White, an independent journalist who goes by the name Kevin Live on Facebook, said he attended the Aug. 15 event in Kalamazoo, and also came across some of the Proud Boys in Frankenmuth this weekend.

They antagonize you to the point where any sane person is going to feel threatened, White said. And if you try to do anything, theyll hurt you because you know, they do have a lot of numbers. Or they will mace you.

Dorsy spoke at length about how the group has to fight against the label hate group and he doesnt agree with it. He talked about how members of the groups Michigan chapter have been banned for doing racist things, and racism is not accepted, he said.

Dorsy said the group does not support the Black Lives Matter organization, but he and other members believe Black lives matter.

Londa Gatt, a hairdresser who drove from Oakland County to Kalamazoo to support the Proud Boys on Aug. 15, said Antifa makes her sick.

They dont know how to make their voices heard without destruction," Gatt said.

She realizes she cant join because she is a woman, she said, but she supports them, and the Proud Boys gave her a flag signed by members.

Im tired of conservatives getting bullied, and the bad press has been written about them, to shut them up, to shut us up, Gatt, a Trump supporter, said.

Most of the members want to see Trump re-elected, though its not a requirement to join, like being born a male is, Dorsy said.

We just want like minded individuals we can hang out with it, Dorsy said. You dont have to be like-minded, we welcome again, anybody, but just want to hang out, have brotherhood.

The group has a centrally located dedicated meeting space in Michigan, he said, where they hang out, drink beer and have a good time.

And you have to agree with the ideology that the West is the best, Dorsy said. And the the culture of the West is, is you know, the culture that we that we lean on.

The group is talking about coming back to Kalamazoo, he said, though they know now is not the right time.

Read more:

Counterprotester aggression was catalyst for violence at Proud Boys event in Kalamazoo, officers report says

Why Black Lives Matter to those leading protests in Kalamazoo

Activists say Kalamazoo blew it with preliminary report on police response to Proud Boys rally

City review of police response to Kalamazoo Proud Boys rally finds areas for improvement

Critics continue calls for resignations over Kalamazoos response to Proud Boys event

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Why the Proud Boys visited Kalamazoo - MLive.com

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Posted By admin on September 21, 2020

I learned of the death of Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from my Rabbi.

It was in the middle of Friday nights virtual live-streaming service to celebrate the Jewish New Year that the Rabbi announced the passing of the most celebrated member of our Adas Israel, Washington, D.C., congregation.

It is rare that one experiences a deeply emotional and spiritual event. Learning the news of RBGs passing in the midst of celebrating the New Year was just such a moment for me.

I was not alone. Late on Friday night, many people spontaneously gathered in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to console each other and to reflect on the meaning of her death just a few weeks before a most consequential U.S. presidential election.

In recent decades, no single Jew in the United States spoke so eloquently and, more importantly, did so much as RBG to promote equality for all Americans.

She was forever sensitive that the U.S. Constitution, which the Supreme Court is called upon to interpret, did not consider the rights of women when it was drafted, while declaring that people of black color were considered as three-fifths citizens.

Ginsburgs Jewish roots were a major influence in her life. She once said that My heritage as a Jew and my occupation as a judge fit together symmetrically. The demand for justice runs through the entirety of Jewish history and Jewish tradition.

Her values, I hope, will be an inspiration to all American voters. In this personal column, let me add that I hope her values will convince many Jews in the United States to set aside partisan matters of daily public policies and to vote in November to secure this fragile U.S. democracy at a time when racial hatred stalks the land.

Back in August 2017, neo-Nazis screaming Jews will not replace us! You will not replace us! marched through the town of Charlottesville, Virginia. They were opposed by peaceful, decent people.

President Trumps first reaction to the situation was to declare that there were very fine people on both sides. After a public uproar, he issued a White House statement condemning anti-Semitism and the thugs in Charlottesville.

However, his initial statement and his constant unwillingness to condemn far-right militant groups across the country have had major consequences. Trumps sentiments reverberate among his followers

In October 2018, a man called Robert Bowers, who claimed to be an ardent follower of President Trump, entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. He screamed, All Jews must die! Then he killed 11 people.

In its 2019 annual report, the Anti-Defamation League reported: The American Jewish community experienced the highest level of anti-Semitic incidents last year since tracking began in 1979, with more than 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment reported across the United States.

The many statements and actions made and taken by Trump convinced the late Congressman John Lewis to call Trump a racist. As the nation mourned Lewis and as leading Democrats and Republicans sang his praises, Trump had nothing good to say about this legendary civil rights leader.

Trump has shown a similar lack of sympathy and empathy for black Americans who have been killed by the police in recent times.

I have recently been reading an extraordinary book about the rise of Hitler, The Unfathomable Ascent: How Hitler Came to Power. Author Peter Ross-Range describes Hitler as a man solely driven by the quest for power and as a ceaseless campaigner. He could have been describing Trump.

Time and again, the book provides descriptions of Hitlers extraordinary ego, vanity and ruthlessness in the years before he took power, descriptions that mirror those of todays United States President.

There is a more profound parallel. Almost exactly 90 years ago, on September 14, 1930, when the Nazis secured a huge vote in elections that provided them with a powerful presence in the Reichstag, there were many Jews in Germany who were quick to discount the dangers.

Many of them, as Ross-Range notes, had fought for Germany in World War I and rightfully regarded themselves as patriots. They believed they would be respected for their service.

I have a photograph of one of my relatives wearing a helmet with the Kaisers signatory spike, sitting on a white horse in World War I as part of the German cavalry.

Many of the friends and relatives of my parents left Germany too late to escape. I have a letter from my mother, written to her friends back in Germany in February 1939, just after she had arrived safely in the UK.

It is a letter of joy at having found an escape route so late, and a letter of sadness that so many others were not so lucky.

I turn the pages of my late cousin Zuzana Ruzickovas memoir One Hundred Miracles to read of how her father could never believe that any harm could come to him and his family as he was such a fervent Czechoslovak patriot. He died in the Terezin concentration camp.

Zuzana describes her teenage years in that camp, in Auschwitz, in slave labor in Hamburg and, worst of all, in Bergen-Belsen. She describes her survival together with her mother and how almost all the members of her large family were assassinated by the Nazis.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgs death, and my learning of it during the New Years service, lead me to suggest that this coming election is, above all, a decision about human rights.

It is a contest of democracy against authoritarianism. Americans are choosing between a United States government that guarantees equal protection for all citizens under the law, irrespective of their color or religion, versus a United States government that promotes the opposite policies.

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said: Donald Trump wants to make America white again.

Many people may disagree with the parallel that I have drawn. However, I am convinced that as Jews in America today, as we prepare to vote, so we dare not forget that millions of Jews in Europe underestimated the threat in the 1930s.

Let me be blunt: If Trump wins this election, then so much that John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg achieved for civil rights and social justice will be reversed swiftly.

After all, the U.S. Justice Department is headed by an Attorney General who believes that the President should be above the law. Plus, we already have the most right-wing dominated U.S. Supreme Court in generations.

I fear that the United States is in danger of ignoring the lessons of a dark past. I trust many Americans will be inspired as they now go to vote by RBGs values and her leadership.

In 2004, on Holocaust Memorial Day, Justice Ginsburg spoke at the U.S. Holocaust Museum and noted:

I was fortunate to be a child, a Jewish child, safely in America during the Holocaust. Our nation learned from Hitlers racism and, in time, embarked on a mission to end law-sanctioned discrimination in our own country. In the aftermath of World War II, in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, in the burgeoning Womens Rights movement of the 1970s, We the People expanded to include all of humankind, to embrace all the people of this great nation. Our motto, E Pluribus Unum, of many one, signals our appreciation that we are the richer for the religious, ethnic, and racial diversity of our citizens.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Titan on Values and the 2020 Election Risks - The Globalist

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Posted By admin on September 21, 2020

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, died on Sept. 18 at the age of 87 at her home in Washington, D.C.

Ginsburg, a heralded liberal judicial, feminist and Jewish icon who was the second woman to serve on the nations highest court, died from complications of metastatic pancreas cancer,according to astatementfrom the Supreme Court shortly after her death.

Her passing came on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year 5781, and just six weeks before the Nov. 3 election.

Before her death, Ginsburg was hospitalized numerous times this year, including twice in July. Sheannouncedon July 17 that cancer had returned, though had often said that she would remain on the court as long as she was able to do the work.

Joan Ruth Bader was born on March 15, 1933, to Nathan and Celia Bader in Brooklyn, New York. Her older sister, Marylin, died of meningitis at age 6, when Ruth was a baby. Ruths mother died shortly before Ginsburg graduated from high school, though having been a significant factor in her education.

She earned her bachelors degree at Cornell University on June 23, 1954; a month later, she married Martin D. Ginsburg. One year later, they had a daughter, Jane, before Ruth started law school at Harvard University.

Ginsburg was a standout and one of the few women at Harvard Law School. She later transferred to Columbia Law School, where she jointly graduated first in her class in 1959. However, she had difficulty getting hired directly into a law firm and turned to academia, teaching at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School.

The couple had a son, James, in 1965.

In 1970, Ginsburg co-founded theWomens Rights Law Reporter, the firstlaw journal in the United States to focus exclusively on womens rights. Two years later, she co-founded the Womens Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, and in 1973, she became general counsel of the project.

After working with the American Civil Liberties Union as a volunteer attorney and as a member of its board of directors and a general counsel in the 1970s, Ginsburg was nominated by President Jimmy Carter and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which is regarded as the second-most powerful court in the United States behind the Supreme Court.

In 1993, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton and confirmed to the Supreme Court, where she served until her death.

Ginsburg spent much of her career fighting for gender equality and womens rights, winning many arguments before the Supreme Court. During her 40-plus years as a judge and a justice, she was served by 159 law clerks.

A 2018documentarytitled RBG became a hit with audiences, as did a feature film that followed, On the Basis of Sex.

Attorney Norm Eisen, a former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic,told JNS that Ginsburg was a Jewish icon who personified Jewish values an ideal Americans should look for in her successor.

Justice Ginsburg exemplified a core Jewish principle:tzedek tzedek tirdof, justice, justice shall you pursue, he said. She understood it was not just a Jewish virtue but an American one.

That commitment to justice is, of course, what American Jews and all Americans are looking for in the next justice much more than ethnicity or religion, he continued. That starts with a just manner of choosing that individual. For that reason, Justice Ginsbergs last wish to let the new president make that choice should be honored.

Chief Justice John Roberts said: Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her a tireless and resolute champion of justice.

U.S. President Donald Trump said shortly after Ginsburgs death that he plans to fill the vacancy this week, putting forth a woman candidate. Trump has already seated two other Supreme Court justices: Neal Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

Attorney Nathan Lewin, who has argued in front of the Supreme Court, told JNS that Ginsburg was a dynamic force in eliminating gender discrimination and will have a well-deserved place of honor in American legal history.

Regarding whats at stake for the Jewish community over the vacancy, if you are speaking of the observant Jewish community and protection for religious rights, the future of that community and those rights is now bright, said Lewin, citing that Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are strong defenders of religious liberty.

A champion for civil rights

Jewish groups expressed condolences over Ginsburgs death.

The Anti-Defamation League tweeted on Sunday that it mourns the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a trailblazer and judicial giant. She dedicated her life to advocating for a more equitable and just world, and was a true champion for civil rights. May her memory be a blessing.

In a statement on Sunday, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs said Ginsburg rose from the humble beginnings of an immigrant Jewish family to become a Supreme Court Justice, and that as a lawyer and advocate she fought to change laws and policies that advanced reproductive rights and equality for all.

The best way to honor Justice Ginsburgs life is to continue to fight for equality and to deter the rollback of womens reproductive rights, said JCPA president and CEO David Bernstein in the statement. Her work and legacy live on in our work.

Ina statementthe day after Ginsburgs death, leaders from the Union for Reform Judaism, Central Conference of American Rabbis and Women of Reform Judaism said, Few people have had as long or as profound an impact upon the course of a nation as did Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As an attorney, Justice Ginsburg committed herself to advancing womens rights at a time when women were denied equal access to educational, employment, economic and other opportunities. Such injustice offended Justice Ginsburg as a woman, but also as a Jew.

Indeed, she spoke often of the many ways in which her Jewish upbringing and faith shaped her sense of justice, including the discrimination against Jews that was part of life even in her native New York City during her formative years, continued the leaders.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said in a statement on Sunday, We are deeply saddened by the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was in her own words a judge, born, raised and proud of being a Jew.

Justice Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to serve on the high court, sought to apply the values of her faith in seeking equal justice under law and had a lifelong love for Israel, continued the Jewish umbrella organization. She is recognized as among the great jurists in modern history. She never ceased to advocate for gender equality while leading the way for women in the legal profession.

Bnai Brith said that Ginsburg was a giant of the Supreme Court, a champion to many women and others as a strong, progressive voice on the court, with a trailblazing judicial presence. She was courageous in her many battles against cancer.

Jewish Democratic Council of America executive director Halie Soifer said in astatementon Sunday that Jewish Democrats mourn the enormous loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the most influential and powerful Jewish women to serve our nation. Justice Ginsberg embodied Jewish values including a commitment totikkun olam, and our traditions commandment of justice, justice, you shall pursue, which hung in her chambers in Hebrew.

Soifer went on to say that Ginsburgs life was dedicated to ensuring equal protection under the law for all Americans, and we are incredibly grateful for her service.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg combined stunning moral clarity with acute legal acumen, said Democratic Majority for Israelin a statement on Sunday. All Americansowe her a profound debt of gratitude for her moral leadership, for the example she set as the first Jewish woman on the Supreme Court, and for her fierce advocacy of gender equality and justice for all.

An iconic trailblazer, Justice Ginsburg worked tirelessly and successfully to make our country more just, continued DMFI. A strong supporter of Israel and a lifelong Zionist, she spoke of her inspiration from heroes like Emma Lazarus and Henrietta Szold.

The Republican Jewish Coalition tweeted on Friday, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a trailblazer and a great patriot. We, along with all Americans, mourn her passing. May her memory be a blessing.

In addition to her two children, Ginsburg is survived by four grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and one great-grandchild. She was predeceased by her husband, who died in 2010. JN

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Jewish groups react to passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix

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Posted By admin on September 21, 2020

Joseph Farkas survived the Holocaust75 years ago. Today his town of East Brunswick is honoring him with an epic drive-by parade. USA TODAY

Almost two-thirds of millennials and Gen Zers don't know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust,and almost half can't name a single concentration camp, an alarming new survey on Holocaust knowledge has found.

The survey demonstrated wide gaps in younger American's knowledge of the genocide while also showing a concerning 15% of millennialsand Gen Zers thought holding neo-Nazi views was acceptable.

"How much of that is based on genuine understanding of neo-Nazis principlesand how much is based on ignorance is hard to tell. Either of them is very disturbing," saidGideon Taylor, president ofthe Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which commissioned the survey.

"If people can't name Auschwitz... that's something that's deeply concerning. Idon't think there is any greater symbol of man's depravity in recent history than Auschwitz," he added.

The survey is the fifthin a series that looks at people's knowledge of Holocaust history worldwide as well as education around the genocide.

Visitors are seen near the gate with its inscription "Work sets you free" as the memorial site of the former German Nazi death camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim reopens on July 1, 2020 to visitors, for the first time after a break caused by novel coronavirus COVID-19 lockdown.(Photo: BARTOSZ SIEDLIK, AFP via Getty Images)

2018 survey: On Holocaust Remembrance Day, a reminder that we're forgetting the world's worst genocide

The survey of 1,000 18- to 39-year-olds in all 50 states also provided the first state-by-state breakdown of Holocaust knowledge in the U.S. In New York, for example, which ranked among the bottom 10 states in an analysis of Holocaust knowledge, nearly 20% of millennials and Gen Zers incorrectly believethat Jews caused the Holocaust.

That sort of denial and distortion around the causes of the Holocaust "is a form of anti-Semitism," saidGretchen Skidmore, the director of education initiatives for the Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The results come amid arise in anti-Semitic incidents around the U.S. in recent years. The Anti-Defamation Leaguesaid in May that it had recorded an all-time high of anti-Semitic incidentsin 2019 since it tracking of such events began in 1979.

75 years after Dachau: Holocaust survivor Ernie Gross shares a message of hope and forgiveness

Another concerning finding in the Claims Conference survey: Almost half of respondents had seen social media posts denying or distorting facts about the Holocaust, and more than half said they had seen Nazi symbols in their community or online.

Taylor said theseresults demonstrate howthe internet "hasgiven a voice to and amplified Holocaust denial in a way that was unimaginable just a few years ago."

Approximately 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust afterAdolf Hitler andthe Nazi regime came to power in Germany in the 1930s. Jews and other groups were targeted by the Nazis and their allies on beliefs of perceived racial inferiority. Millions were sent to ghettos, labor camps and concentration camps andkilled in mass shootings,gas chambers and from starvation.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. today share an affinity for Hitler and Nazis fascist political ideology while also focusing on hatred toward Jews and minority groups.

More: Like Americans, Austrians are forgetting the Holocaust. These are the shocking numbers

Past surveys from the Claims Conference found similar gaps in knowledge aroundthe Holocaust from Americans of all ages as well as people in other countries like Austria.

In a 2018 survey,almost a third of Americansincorrectly believed 2 million or fewer Jewish people died in the Holocaust. More than40% of respondents in that survey also could not identify Auschwitz, the notoriousconcentration camp located in German-occupied Poland.

"In order to understand the importance of this history, there are certain fundamental aspects of it that you need to understand,"Skidmore said. Knowing the basic facts allow people to then "go to the next level" and think critically about the causes and other enduring questions, she added.

Taylor said that the state-by-state data in this year's survey will prove valuable for individual states where there can be more targeted changes to how educators teachHolocaust history.

The survey found that 8 in 10 respondents believe continued Holocaust education is important to prevent it from happening again. That education becomes all the more important, Taylor noted, as fewerHolocaust survivors are still living.

"On the one hand, you have this very worrying lack of knowledge, but on the other hand, you see see this hunger to learn," Taylor said.

Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller

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Almost two-thirds of millennials, Gen Z don't know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, survey finds - USA TODAY

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Posted By admin on September 21, 2020

Sometimes, when I talk to people about my work on climate change, theyll ask, How do you keep from being depressed all the time? I usually offer some variation of I live in the woods, and so I go for a hike most days, and that helps. Which is more or less true: I do live in the woods, and I do go for hikes, and it does often help. At the very least, it keeps me off the Internet for a time, which may be a reasonable approximation to mental hygiene in the twenty-first century.

Last week, I set off, with my dog, for a two-hour hike up a trail Ive taken a hundred times before. It rises steeply through the woods until it connects to the Long Trail, a north-south hiking path that stretches the length of Vermont. I was meandering along, admiring the first hints of fall color on the maples, when my eye was caught by what looked like a handful of little yellow labels tacked to the smooth skin of a young beech tree. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they were tags of the sort youd see at the bottom of a flyer posted outside a shop, except that, instead of offering dog-walking services or enrollment in a trial of a new medicine, they bore the words Facemask Exemptions Facemask Science and the URL for a video featuring a doctor.

Im not going to tell you the doctors name or link to his video, but its No. 708 (!) in a series that also includes anti-vax messages. It posits that face-mask laws are the result of letting people with no educational requirements whatsoeverbureaucrats, legislators, governors, etc. make the rules. In the past, the doctor says, when there have been actual outbreaks of true infectious diseases, you quarantined the diseased, not the entire population. This attack on the worlds healthy population shows how docile we have all becomeeven in Las Vegas, where he had just sojourned for a week, and where, he claimed, even though there was no mandate (there is), thirty per cent of the people were still walking around with their masks on. He expresses outrage that the lowliest bag clerk in the grocery store has now been elevated to the rank of junior G-man.... Minimum wage and I get to join Youth for Hitler. And so on, for twenty-nine minutes and forty-nine seconds. If only everyone would ignore the mask mandate, think how much better our lives would be today, he concludes, before urging viewers to catch his next video, about the evils of contact tracing.

Material like this does real damagethe flyer sent me to watch the video on a service called BitChute, which the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have described as a locus of racist, anti-Semitic content. (Its where Alex Jones and InfoWars retreated to when YouTube had finally had enough.) Such videos also serve as a transmission mechanism for massive quantities of scientific disinformation. Millions of people have used the site to view Plandemic, a documentary that insists that Bill Gates helped create the coronavirus so that he could sell you the vaccine.

But I confess that I was disturbed less by the content of the video than by the fact that someone had taken the time to post ads for it along a lightly used trail through a federally designated wilderness in backwoods Vermont. Every few hundred yards, I found another little cluster of the tags tacked to another treetheyd only been there a day or two, because the last rainfall hadnt touched them. I did my best to collect all of them, but I bet I missed some; in any event, my hike was not the restful escape from the worlds cares that Id been counting on. Instead, I was right back in the world. It reminded me of the plans that resurface from time to time to beam ads onto the surface of the moon, making them visible to half the residents of the Earth at any given moment. (If that ever happens, Im moving underground.)

And it made me reflect anew on just how incredibly hard it is for anything useful to happen in our country right now. Between the President tweeting (sometimes a hundred times a day), Fox News shouting nightly, and Facebook serving as a right-wing echo chamber, its no wonder that weve become confused about basic facts. Do masks help? In the right-wing world, they didnt, until the President said that they did. Are vaccines a useful addition to the modern world? The President used to have his doubts, but now he seems to be pinning his relection on one. Government agencies have become founts of misinformationeven the C.D.C. has apparently knuckled under, granting the White House the right to review information that it sends to health professionals.

This is not, of course, new. Weve delayed action on the climate crisis for decades as a result of campaigns of organized lying. But in that case there was a profit motive: the goal was to keep the business model of the oil industry alive for a few more decades, even at the cost of breaking the planet. This other kind of freelance falsehood is more baffling. And its not entirely confined to the right. In Vermont, outbreaks of measles in past years tended to center on small, independent schools favored by people who would count themselves as environmentalists and progressives but dont trust doctors about vaccines. (The Vermont chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics asked me to make a video a few years ago, trying to convince such people thatwell, that science is good. I was happy to do it, but I did feel as if Id been called to explain that gravity meant that if you leaned forward far enough youd fall on your face.)

It takes lots of patient, careful labor to make a society of any kind work. Ive written about Vermonts success in containing the coronavirus, at least compared with other areas of the country. Part of that success is attributable to high levels of public trust, which have made mask-wearing almost ubiquitous, even without a government mandateprecisely the kind of social solidarity that the wilderness pamphleteer was attempting to undercut. Weve let our governor and his bureaucrats do their jobs, and followed their advice, and its gone pretty wellat the moment, theres no one in the state hospitalized for Covid-19.

That same kind of hard work seems to be paying off in our colleges, which have not become the coronavirus hot spots that weve seen elsewhere in the nation. Middlebury College, where I work, sits down the hill from the trail where I found the flyers. It has managed to welcome back more than two thousand students, from all fifty states, with only two testing positive for COVID-19 so far; both were immediately quarantined and have now recovered. Administrators have worked for months with public-health officials to establish tight protocols; theyve had to send a few students home for disobeying the carefully worked-out rules, but for the most part the students have been champs, understanding that normal college life isnt in the cards right now. Our local public schools have begun to open without incident, though with lots of masks. Expertise actually matters; coperation in a joint task is still possible. We can do thisor, we could, if there werent constantly people insisting that somewhere there lurks a conspiracy, or the Gestapo, or George Soros.

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An Anonymous Anti-Masker, Deep in the Vermont Woods - The New Yorker

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Posted By admin on September 21, 2020

The groups, including QAnon, feel incredibly passionate about their cause and will do whatever they can do attract new people to their conspiracy movement. Meanwhile, Facebook has nowhere near the same type of urgency or mandate to contain them, Mr. View said. Facebook is operating with constraints and these extremist movements are not.

Researchers who study QAnon said the movements continued growth was partly related to Facebooks recommendation engine, which pushes people to join groups and pages related to the conspiracy theory.

Marc-Andr Argentino, a Ph.D. candidate at Concordia University who is studying QAnon, said he had identified 51 Facebook groups that branded themselves as anti-child trafficking organizations, but which were actually predominantly sharing QAnon conspiracies. Many of the groups, which were formed at the start of 2020, spiked in growth in the weeks after Facebook and Twitter began enforcing new bans on QAnon.

The groups previously added dozens to hundreds of new members each week. Following the bans, they attracted tens of thousands of new members weekly, according to data published by Mr. Argentino.

Facebook said it was studying the groups, but has not taken action on them.

The company is increasingly facing criticism, including from Hollywood celebrities and civic rights groups. On Wednesday, celebrities including Kim Kardashian West, Katy Perry and Mark Ruffalo said they were freezing their Instagram accounts for 24 hours to protest Facebooks policies. (Instagram is owned by Facebook.)

The Anti-Defamation League also said it was pressing Facebook to take action on militia groups and other extremist organizations. We have been warning Facebook safety teams literally for years about the problem of dangerous and potentially violent extremists using their products to organize and to recruit followers, Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the A.D.L., said.

The A.D.L., which has been meeting with Facebook for months about its concerns, has publicly posted lists of hate groups and conspiracy organizations present on the social network. David L. Sifry, the vice president of A.D.L.s Center for Technology and Society, said that the A.D.L. has had similar conversations about extremist content with other platforms like Twitter, Reddit, TikTok and YouTube, which have been more receptive.

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Facebook Tried to Limit QAnon. It Failed. - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on September 21, 2020

By Todd Guild

When armed Air Force Sgt. Steven Carrillo gunned down Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller and injured three other law enforcement officials in a short but violent June crime spree, it thrust the Boogaloo group in which he claimed membership into the national spotlight. Carrillo, who used a homemade weapon, faces additional charges for gunning down a federal officer in Oakland.

In the weeks that followed, Police also arrested Carrillos alleged accomplice in the Oakland shooting, another man with ties to Boogaloo.

Then on Aug. 27, Gilroy resident Alan Viarengo was arrested for allegedly sending 24 anonymous, threatening letters to Santa Clara County Health Officer Sara Cody. Investigators serving a search warrant at his home found 138 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and explosive materials.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Office also received threatening letters, as did Gutzwillers family, and Santa Cruz sheriffs deputies are investigating whether those letters have any connection to Viarengo, who worked as a teacher at Gavilan College in Gilroy, and had his own ties to Boogaloo.

Despite the high-profile Boogaloo Boi cases, theres no evidence that the movement has a particular foothold in the region, although law enforcement and civil rights experts are still learning about the underground group.

Origins of the Boogaloo name trace back to 1960s New York City, where a man named Joe Cuba invented a Latin-American dance by the same name. Then came a 1984 movie titled Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo, a B-movie about evil developers trying to demolish an urban recreation center, and the plucky dancers who try to stop them.

The Boogaloo term took on new meaning when a loose-knit group of anti-government activists adopted it.

Anti-government activists began sharing memes playing on the films title, with variations like Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Per the ADL, Boogaloo members built the movement around preparing for the civil war they believe will lead to the collapse of the U.S. government and society.

The Boogaloo group is not mainstream nor even particularly well understood, says ADL Regional Director Seth Bryst.

It still is very much a fringe group, he says, not something where we have any particular imminent threats, none that were aware of or that are being reported about.

The FBI declined to comment directly for this story, but instead emailed a prepared response that the term Boogaloo does not refer to a single, cohesive group.

It is a loose concept discussed on internet platforms, which has become a rallying point for a variety of actors motivated by several different ideologies, the statement reads. The bureau says its concern is not about ideology, but potential violence.

The pandemic may be fueling more interest in the group. Bryst explains that members associated with Boogaloo have increasingly made appearances at public demonstrations, many of them expressing frustration with restrictions in response to the pandemic.

Some, Bryst says, are hoping to stoke racial tension as a catalyst for what they believe is a coming civil war. Others, he adds, claim not to be racist but are merely protesting what they frame as government overreach.

The Boogaloo movement also sometimes uses similar-sounding words such as big igloohence the igloo images sometimes connected to itand big luau, which is why many members wear Hawaiian print shirts. (One symbol for the group is a modified black-and-white American flag with a Hawaiian-print stripe and an igloo on it.)

In addition, some members have used hashtag terms such as #CNN and terms like CNN Bois, Bryst says. These terms are both a way to identify themselves to other members and to hide their activities from those who arent in the know, he says.

Because it isnt a membership organization and it has no leadership structure, its difficult to determine the prevalence of the movement, Bryst says.

Bryst says law enforcement should pay attention to the activities of the Boogaloo movement, even when they are engaged in constitutionally protected activities.

Its not a bad idea to make law enforcement aware, because sometimes it can be a harbinger and sometimes it can help to establish a pattern, or be helpful in terms of a future investigation, Bryst said.

Spokespeople from the Santa Cruz and Watsonville police departments and the Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Office, all had similar statements: yes, were aware of the group but no, were not concerned that theres any imminent threat from the Boogaloo movement.

We do pay attention to various hate groups in the city and in the county, SCPD spokeswoman Joyce Blaschke said.

Boogaloo members claim that their community is peaceful, and not a hate group.

Duncan Lent, who goes by Boogalooboi on social media, lives in the Appalachian region. He estimates that between 500,000-1,000,000 people around the U.S. identify with the movement, with members communicating largely through social media. But with platforms clamping down on language associated with Boogaloo, many are turning to local, in-person networking, he says.

Lent says he doesnt believe Carrillo speaks for the movement, adding that the group pretty much excommunicated Carrillo after he was arrested for murder. (Carrillo allegedly wrote boog in his own blood after his crime spreean apparent reference to the movement. He also had at least one Boogaloo patch and met his accomplice Robert Justus through the movement.)

Guns are central to the Boogaloo groups ideology, though.

Lent says he began to identify with the term Boogaloo years ago while working in a gun shop, and saw lawmakers pass laws that he viewed as onerous. This includes legislation governing barrel length, and a law banning bump-stocks, which came in the wake of the October 2017 shooting in Las Vegas that killed 59 and wounded 412. Bump stocks replace the stock on a rifle, which allows the recoil to bump the rifle back and forth against the trigger finger, making rapid fire easier.

The point of the Boogaloo movement is for us and generations moving forward to maintain the freedoms that this country was founded with, Lent says.

In June, Facebook removed 220 Facebook accounts, 106 Facebook groups, 95 Instagram accounts and 28 Facebook pages associated with the Boogaloo movement, for fear they were planning violent attacks.

Bryst, of the ADL, says some companies have been more proactive than others when it comes to enforcing violations.

What we do find is that extremist groups like this have found it easier to spread their messaging in the age of social media, Bryst says, and there are some social media platforms that have done a better job of eliminating those that violate their terms.

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What are 'Boogaloo Bois' and what do they want? - Morgan Hill Times

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Posted By admin on September 21, 2020

WASHINGTON - Far-right groups in America such as the anti-government Boogaloo Boys have long used a host of tactics and platforms to incite violence, including dehumanizing memes, online forums and organized militias.

Now, left-wing groups are employing many of the same tactics against police and other targets during the social justice protests since the death of George Floyd, according to a new report by researchers affiliated with Rutgers University.

Many of the features of anarcho-socialist extremism seem to parallel the key tactical structures documented in libertarian-anarchist and Jihadi extremism, says the 24-page report, entitled Network Enabled Anarchy.

The report underscores that far-left movements such as antifa, while decentralized and seen as less lethal than their counterparts on the far right, are just as capable of turning peaceful protests into violent confrontations with law enforcement.

It comes as President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr continue to blame much of the violence at the protests on antifa and anarchists. To date, though, the Justice Department has not charged any left-wing groups in connection with the civil unrest, and extremism experts say while the threat of violence from antifa is real, organized groups on the far right pose a greater threat of violence.

The report was issued by the Contagion Network Research Institute,an independent nonprofit that tracks hate on social media. The group lists the United Nations, the Anti-Defamation League and liberal billionaire George Soross Open Society Foundations as its affiliated partners.

In an earlier report on the Boogaloo Boys, an anti-government militia, researchers at the Contagion Network looked at more than 100 million social media posts, concluding that Boogaloo messaging, while a joke for some, acts as a violent meme that circulates instructions for a violent, viral insurgency for others.

Joel Finkelstein, founder of the Contagion Networkand lead author of the report, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

For the report on anarchist violence, the researchers examined more than 100 million posts on platforms such as Twitter and Reddit, finding a rapidly growing online ecosystem of what they call anarcho-socialist extremism with ties to rioters in a number of U.S. cities.

Social media memes and code words that dehumanize police such as ACAB, short for all cops are bastards, surged during the protests, with Twitter and Redditseeing 1,000% and 300% increases in postings respectively, according to the report.

Extreme anarcho-socialist fringe online forums on Reddit use memes calling for the death of police and memes for stockpiling munitions to promote violent revolution, the report said.

Derogatory anti-police memes also appeared near the sites of demonstrations, with protesters painting them on government buildings, courthouses and fallen statues.

A Reddit spokesperson said the company's policies prohibit content that promotes hate or incites violence.

In a statement to VOA, a Twitter spokesperson said, We welcome the chance to collaborate with external stakeholders on identifying and taking action on attempts to manipulate the conversation on Twitter.

The NCRI researchers also identified several far-left militia groups and uncovered signs of coordination with rioters in several cities.

They noted that on July 25, anarchist networks, using the hashtag #J25, prepared, executed and propagandized simultaneous rallies in more than 20 cities, leading to riots in four Portland and Eugene, Oregon; Richmond, Virginia, and Seattle, Washington.

Among the organizing networks was "Anonymous," a digital hacker collective; the Youth Liberation Front, which describes itself as a decentralized network of autonomous youth collectives dedicated to direct action toward total liberation; and Its Going Down, one of the largest online sources of anarchist news, according to the report.

In Portland, the Youth Liberation Fronts Twitter feeds, cited in the report, directed mob preparations and provided tactical information.

In Seattle, local anarchist Twitter feeds called for the sacking of a local police precinct, leading rioters to throw explosives and rocks at officers and laying siege to the station.

Courthouses and police precincts were targeted by agitators in each case, the report said.

An author and a spokesman for the Anarchist Agency, who uses the name scott crow without capitals, said the report exaggerates the anarchist threat.

In the report, theyre equating the murder of human beings by the Boogaloo and neo-Nazis with property destruction because people are sick of having boots on their neck, crow said.

Josh Lipowsky, a senior research analyst with the Counter-Extremism Project, said the decentralized antifa movement poses a lesser threat than the better organized groups on the far right.

While far-left extremists boast groups such as the John Brown Gun Club, they dont actively promote violent attacks, Lipowsky said.

On the far right, we do see more active networks calling for organized attacks on synagogues and other religious institutions, as well as individuals that are deemed the enemy of that ideology, Lipowsky said.

Last December, the Department of Homeland Security issued a strategic framework on countering terrorism and targeted violence, singling out domestic terrorism as a growing threat.

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Anarchist Groups Tied to Riots in 4 US Cities - Voice of America

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Posted By admin on September 21, 2020

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi entered his new position under less than ideal circumstances.

Each side in the Likud-Blue and White unity coalition more or less had veto power over the other, leading to the political paralysis and infighting seen over the past few months.

Plus, the coalition agreement granted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the ability to put to a vote the extension of Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria as detailed in the Trump peace plan something that presented a challenge for Blue and White from day one.

It put much of the world, and especially Europe, on alert. One foreign minister after the other reached out, and some even visited Israel, to emphasize their opposition to the move. The address for many of their warnings Ashkenazi.

But Ashkenazi was in no position to defend it. In public comments, he and Defense Minister Benny Gantz stressed the need to maintain Israels peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and that if there was going to be a sovereignty move, it would need to be part of the larger Trump peace plan, which the two fully endorsed.

But while some on the Right might blame this position for scuttling the move, it could actually be seen as what helped bring Israel and the United Arab Emirates together. Ultimately, Israel got a historic normalization deal out of the situation.

And while Blue and White defends its presence in a Netanyahu-led government by saying its blocking what it feels are undemocratic policies in the coalitions right flank, this does not mean that Ashkenazi is an obstructionist. The former IDF chief of staff, credited with major reforms in the military after the Second Lebanon War, has brought that same approach to the Foreign Ministry, grabbing his new role by the reins.

After years of Netanyahu holding the portfolios, while sending his own envoys to do much of the major foreign policy work instead of the ministrys diplomats, and then Israel Katz seeming to have little to no interest in the job of foreign minister while he held it, Ashkenazi is a full-time foreign minister.

He immediately got to work bringing back the ministrys dignity and influence, including making sure it got back some of the tens of millions of shekels cut in the last state budget. In his first 100 days in office, he hosted 10 foreign ministers, and another eight are on the way, plus he appointed over 20 ambassadors, including the first Bedouin ambassador. He addressed all 27 EU foreign ministers while in Berlin on the personal invitation of his German counterpart, Heiko Maas.

He is in direct contact with foreign ministers across the Middle East not only UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed, with whom he chats on WhatsApp, but others whom he will not name. He took ambassadors of countries in the UN Security Council to the border with Lebanon to understand how Hezbollah operates in the area ahead of the vote on extending UNIFILs mandate.

One of Ashkenazis top priorities in office has been using diplomatic means to block Irans malign activity in the region, especially by convincing other countries to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

On his watch, Germany and Lithuania outlawed the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group, and Serbia and Kosovo say they are on the way. This will hurt Hezbollah in its pockets, making it less able to threaten Israel and, perhaps, bringing greater stability in Lebanon and on our borders.

This is also part of Ashkenazis attitude toward diplomacy as give-and-take. If a country is Israels ally, it should show it, whether by outlawing the terrorists who threaten us or another matter the minister emphasizes in his talks with his counterparts by not voting against Israel in the UN.

There is an entire toolbox of ways countries can show their friendship with Israel, and Ashkenazi has sought for the ministry to maximize those tools to Israels advantage.

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Gabi Ashkenazi: Putting the Foreign Ministry back on the map - jpost.com

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