The Rise of Anti-Semitism

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1. From today’s Arutz Sheva, by Manfred Gerstenfeld:

   Why do people want to kill me as a Jew?
   In memory of Leon Poliakov, founder of antisemitism studies who clarified that the Final Solution was not a sudden eclipse of the ‘humane’ Europe. It was the result of centuries-long antisemitic indoctrination and persecution of the Jews.

   Interview with Philo Bregstein

   “Leon Poliakov can be considered one of the founders of antisemitism studies. He was born in 1910 in Saint Petersburg. After the communist revolution his parents fled Russia and ultimately arrived in France. Poliakov studied law in the thirties. He was, like his father, an assimilated Jew.

   “Poliakov survived the German Nazi-occupation of France in hiding. While there he started to study the Talmud with the help of the Jewish thinker Jacob Gordin. The latter was hiding in the same area and taught many people. After the war, at the age of 35, Poliakov began his career as a historian at the then recently founded Center of Jewish Documentation in Paris. The starting point of his work was a question which came up after the war and which occupied him for the rest of his life: “Why do people want to kill me as a Jew?”

   Philo Bregstein was born in 1932 in Amsterdam. He completed his law studies in 1957 at Amsterdam University. Afterwards he started to write novels and became a filmmaker. Bregstein has lived in Paris since 1979. He assisted Poliakov with the research for his book, whose title translates into English as History of Antisemitism 1945-1993.

   Bregstein continues: “Poliakov received his PhD in history only in 1964 at the Sorbonne with a thesis titled “The Jewish Bankers and the Holy See from the 13th to the 18th Century.” His advisor was the famous historian Fernand Braudel. The latter strongly opposed Poliakov’s intention to write a history of antisemitism and blocked a university career for him. In Braudel’s opinion, Jews should assimilate and he felt that Poliakov’s research would strengthen Judaism.

   “Poliakov called his methodology, the writing of a ‘counter history of Western civilization.’ With his anti-Marxist analysis, at the same time strongly influenced by Freud, he wanted to show the ‘unconscious’ hidden history behind the official ‘conscious’ one. Under the surface of the social and economic structure of society, Poliakov looked for the mythical and religious hidden patterns of thinking which condition it. Very often these are transmitted from generation to generation over centuries. In this way he became a pioneer of the much more
   He exposed the antisemitism of the protestant reformer Martin Luther and of the ‘prince of humanism,’ Erasmus of Rotterdam.
   recent approach to writing history with a psychoanalytical angle known as ‘psycho-history’.

   “In Poliakov’s books about antisemitism many often unknown anti-Jewish statements of leading church fathers, such as Augustine, were mentioned. He exposed the antisemitism of the protestant reformer Martin Luther and of the ‘prince of humanism,’ Erasmus of Rotterdam. In doing so Poliakov uncovered the hidden side of Christian civilization: the history of twenty centuries of anti-Jewish indoctrination.

   “He also exposed the racist and antisemitic theories of French philosophers of the Enlightenment period such as Voltaire and of major German thinkers including Kant, Hegel and Marx.

   “Poliakov furthermore bared the expressions of Jew-hatred of leading authors such as Dostoyevski, although he held him in high esteem as a writer. Poliakov felt that Dostoyevski had the merit to ‘doubt’ his own antisemitism. This strongly contrasts with the antisemitism expressed in pamphlets by Richard Wagner such as The Jews and the Music, which was filled with hatred and jealousy. Poliakov shows how Wagner was part of a strong German antisemitic movement in the 19th century. This was a precursor of Nazi-antisemitism.

   “In a 1971 book on the sources of racism and nationalism, Poliakov investigated Europe’s national myths. In this work he exposed the philosophers of the Enlightenment. They had developed the idea of freedom, equality and brotherhood, as well as the concept of human rights. Yet they continued to develop pseudoscientific classifications, like the division of human beings into ‘races.’ Poliakov thus uncovered the Enlightenment as one direct source of modern antisemitism at the same time also showing the continuity of the centuries’ old Christian hatred of Jews.

   “All these ideas later laid the theoretical basis for the genocide by the Germans. Although the Stalinist mass murders were based on blind prejudice, they never used the idea of race inferiority.

   “Poliakov concluded that Hitler and his associates didn’t invent much in the way of new ideology. They adopted the ongoing traditions of anti-Judaism, applied the nineteenth century race theories to them and added the bureaucratic systems and technology of the 20th century.

   “In his book, History of Antisemitism, he clarified that the Final Solution was not a sudden eclipse of the ‘humane’ Europe. It was the result of centuries-long antisemitic indoctrination and persecution of the Jews. In that way Poliakov showed the dark Janus face of European history and culture.

   “In another book he published in the 1980’s, Poliakov investigated the history of conspiracy theories. He showed that the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion followed a long tradition of false pamphlets and accusations. Poliakov concluded, ‘Credibility often prevails above the truth’. He also showed that if one starts with paranoid projections against the Jews, others will also become the target of hate. In the first part of the 19th Century the Jesuits were also accused of many hidden conspiracies.”

   Bregstein remarks: “When I interviewed Poliakov in 1990, he said: ‘As it is not fitting today to be an antisemite openly, I think that anti-Israelism will greatly increase, based on a strong dose of antisemitism which can only express itself in that way.’ He added: ‘I wrote a number of times that the Jewish State has become the Jew among the nations. The anti-Zionism of the media could become an acceptable form of antisemitism because it seemingly addresses another problem. The violence of criticism about Israel hides an unconscious antisemitism, not only in the left, but mainly there.’

   Bregstein concludes: “Poliakov recognized the growing danger of the new Islamic anti-Semitism, which was not predominant in the Arab world for centuries. While many major Christian churches finally rejected antisemitism, the same antisemitic obsessions are today cultivated in the Islamic world.

   “Poliakov had the intention to write a new book about the subject, yet did not live to accomplish this. Now, twenty years after his death, his views show great foresight, and prescience of the future.”

   Leon Poliakov was a very great historian. Confirms much of what Bear has written here about the culpability of Chritian civilization and teaching for it.

2. @ Bear Klein: Spot on, Bear. An excellent report in the Miami Herald.

3. Anti-Semitic Attacks Spike, Killing Most Jews in Decades – Aron Heller

   Israeli researchers reported Wednesday that violent attacks against Jews spiked significantly last year, with the largest reported number of Jews killed in anti-Semitic acts in decades, leading to an “increasing sense of emergency” among Jewish communities worldwide. Assaults targeting Jews rose 13% in 2018, according to Tel Aviv University researchers. They recorded nearly 400 cases worldwide, with more than a quarter of the major violent cases taking place in the U.S.
   In Germany, there was a 70% increase in anti-Semitic violence. “There is an increasing sense of emergency among Jews in many countries around the world,” said Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress. “It is now clear that anti-Semitism is no longer limited to the far-left, far-right and radical Islamist’s triangle – it has become mainstream and often accepted by civil society.” (AP-Miami Herald)

   https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article229889544.html

4. Publishing of cartoon is ‘Numbness to creep’ of antisemitism – NYT board
   “Jews face even greater hostility and danger in Europe, where the cartoon was created,” the editorial also said.

   THE NEW York Times Building in Manhattan
   THE NEW York Times Building in Manhattan. (photo credit: REUTERS)
   The New York Times editorial board said in an editorial published Tuesday that the newspaper’s publishing of “an appalling political cartoon” is “evidence of a profound danger — not only of antisemitism but of numbness to its creep.”

   The newspaper also acknowledged its own contributions to the rise of antisemitism, saying that: “In the 1930s and the 1940s, The Times was largely silent as antisemitism rose up and bathed the world in blood. That failure still haunts this newspaper.”

   The editorial said that “antisemitic imagery is particularly dangerous now,” citing Saturday’s attack on the Poway of Chabad synagogue and the release Tuesday of the Anti-Defamation League’s annual Audit of antisemitic incidents, which shows that the number of assaults against American Jews more than doubled from 2017 to 2018.
   “Jews face even greater hostility and danger in Europe, where the cartoon was created,” the editorial also said.

   The editorial also acknowledged that criticism of Israel can be couched in antisemitic terms.

   “This is also a period of rising criticism of Israel, much of it directed at the rightward drift of its own government and some of it even questioning Israel’s very foundation as a Jewish state. We have been and remain stalwart supporters of Israel, and believe that good-faith criticism should work to strengthen it over the long term by helping it stay true to its democratic values. But anti-Zionism can clearly serve as a cover for antisemitism — and some criticism of Israel, as the cartoon demonstrated, is couched openly in antisemitic terms,” the editorial said.

   It also accused President Donald Trump of doing “too little to rouse the national conscience” against antisemitism, saying: “Though he condemned the cartoon in The Times, he has failed to speak out against antisemitic groups like the white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 chanting, ‘Jews will not replace us.’”

   The cartoon, which appeared Thursday in the opinion section of the newspaper’s international print edition, depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a dachshund-breed guide dog wearing a Star of David collar and leading a yarmulke-clad President Donald Trump.

   The newspaper in a first statement acknowledged that the image was “offensive” and “included antisemitic tropes.” A second statement on Sunday said the newspaper was “deeply sorry” and that the decision to publish the image was the product of “a faulty process” resulting in “a single editor working without adequate oversight.”

5. Shmueli’s “hope” that the Times will abandon its antisemitism has no basis in reality. It has been an antisemitic publication since Adolph Ochs bought it in 1897, just in time for him to denounce the World Zionist Congress. And it will remain an antisemitic publication until the Sulzberger-Oaks families sell it or it closes down for lack of subscribers.

6. No Holds Barred: The Old York Times
   The Internet and social media has become a cesspool filled with antisemitic websites, posts and comments that reinforce, encourage and publicize Jew-hatred.

   THE NEW York Times Building in Manhattan
   THE NEW York Times Building in Manhattan. (photo credit: REUTERS)
   The city of York in England was the site of one of the grisliest mass murders of Jews in medieval times. Antisemitism was being stoked throughout Europe in the 12th century due in large part to the Crusades. Then, on March 16, 1190, the entire Jewish community of York was massacred in a tower where they had attempted to escape. William of Newburgh depicted the annihilation and those who carried it out as indulging in slaughter “without any scruple of Christian conscientiousness.”

   It was hoped that New York – a new city in the new world, though named after the old one – would be a city of great refuge for the Jews, and indeed it would go on to become the city with the largest Jewish population in history. But the city’s leading publication, and the newspaper of record, seems to have decided that it’s time to claw back to the spirit of old York.

   On Friday, The New York Times published a disgusting antisemitic cartoon of a blind US President Donald Trump wearing a yarmulke, being walked by a dog with the face of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a Star of David collar. Here was the near-perfect constellation of Jew hatred. The giant nose and menacing facial features superimposed on Netanyahu who was himself superimposed on a dog. The hated Trump suddenly Jewified. The Jew, wearing his Magen David as a dog collar like a yellow arm band, manipulating the blind, gullible world leader as he slowly tries to take over the world (did someone say Protocols?) All that was missing was a bar of gold in the dog’s mouth and the trope would have been complete.
   Two days later, a murderer attacked a Chabad synagogue in California and killed a precious woman who came to say mourning prayers for her recently deceased mother, blew the fingers off the rabbi, injured a heroic visiting Israeli and inflicted shrapnel wounds on an 8-year-old girl.

   The Times cartoon was published in its international edition, so I would not attribute the murderous actions of the Chabad killer to the paper’s visual attack on the Jews. What this despicable example of antisemitism in the “Paper of Record” did do, however, is continue the process of normalizing antisemitism and bringing us closer to Old York.

   The cartoon would have fit nicely in 1930s Germany in, say, Der Sturmer. How could it have made its way into The New York Times? Well, the publication of repeated attacks against Israel by columnists such as Roger Cohen, Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof and the latest addition to the stable of anti-Israel commentators, Michelle Goldberg, has made an attitude of hostility to the Jewish people and their homeland commonplace. The fact that so many of the detractors of Israel are Jews reflects an apparent determination to seek out the minority of writers with these views. It follows the old journalism adage that dog bites man isn’t news, but man bites dog is. Jews who love Israel aren’t news, those who disparage it are news because they are so rare.

   YOU WOULD have thought that the Times would feel an obligation to atone for its failures to give the persecution and murder of the Jews during the Holocaust the attention it deserved. The Jewish-owned paper, however, has always seemed determined to bend over backwards to demonstrate it will show no favoritism toward the Jewish people or their homeland.

   And don’t try to tell me this bias is restricted to the opinion section. We have seen it time after time in the news coverage as well as the Times focuses on the plight of the Palestinians and typically ignores or minimizes the terrorism they direct toward Israelis.

   How many times have we seen articles where the Times refused to refer to the murderers of Jews as terrorists?

   How many times have we seen them give the mothers of the killers more sympathy than their victims?

   How many times have we seen the paper parrot the views of Hamas, Hezbollah and the PLO?

   How many times have they manipulated photographs, captions and headlines to demonize Israel?

   Twitters CEO Jack Dorsey Stands Behind Trump Tweet

   Sadly, I’m not surprised by the upsurge of antisemitism in Europe where it is so deeply ingrained in societies that for centuries persecuted Jews, instigated pogroms and blood libels and ultimately collaborated or stood by while six million Jews were slaughtered.

   But to see such hatred of the Jews in the United States?

   Recently, as President Trump has emerged as Israel’s greatest friend to ever occupy the Oval Office, we have seen the legislative branch become a haven for antisemites and detractors of Israel. When US Rep. Ilhan Omar made a series of antisemitic remarks, her colleagues could not muster the political courage to unequivocally condemn her and inexplicably left her on the Foreign Affairs Committee, where her animus could impact US-Israel relations.

   By giving Omar a pass, the Democratic Party has sent a message that using antisemitic language will be tolerated at the highest level of American politics. It did not help when 22 Senate Democrats, including five presidential candidates, voted against legislation aimed at curbing the antisemitic boycott movement.

   Some of the Democratic candidates have been even worse on the campaign trail. Bernie Sanders, of course, is a long-time critic of Israel. Even so, his recent accusation of Israel’s government being racist was loathsome and disgusting and it was equally disturbing to hear Beto O’Rourke call Israel’s prime minister “a racist.”

   GIVEN THAT antisemitism is being normalized at the highest levels of government, is it surprising that has also seeped into academia where thousands of professors support the antisemitic boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign? When a professor refused to write a letter of recommendation when he found out the student was planning to study in Israel, more than 1,000 professors signed a petition supporting him and saying they would do the same thing. Last week, anti-Israel students tried to ram a divestment resolution through the University of Maryland student government during Passover, knowing many Jewish students would not be around to protest. Fortunately, it was still defeated.

   None of this is a surprise anymore.

   The Internet and social media has become a cesspool filled with antisemitic websites, posts and comments that reinforce, encourage and publicize Jew-hatred.

   What is inexcusable, however, is for the mainstream press, in particular The New York Times, to contribute to the normalization of antisemitism and the demonization of Israel. The silly excuses the Times gave for the publication of the antisemitic cartoon, that it came about through a low-level single editor, will not cut it. Nor will its forced apology, which came only after the publication faced widespread condemnation. The Times needs a complete overhaul. It is more than 70 years overdue to have responsible journalists and editors overseeing the news and editorials, who will put an end to the anti-Israel bias – which often has antisemitic undertones – and present the unfiltered facts. This does not mean Israel cannot be criticized, but it does mean that it should be covered with the same level of objectivity as other countries and that its actions be placed in historical and contemporaneous context. Anything like the cartoon that contains antisemitic tropes has no business in the newspaper.

   Let’s hope that Old York stays firmly out of The New York Times.

   Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” is the international best-selling author of 32 books including The Israel Warrior. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.

7. New York Times cartoonist to ‘Post’: Caricature was not antisemitic
   Antonio Moreira Antunes said he sought only to ‘critique Israeli policy’ and that his work is not antisemitic.

   New York Times cartoon depicting Netanyahu as a guide dog with Trump
   New York Times cartoon depicting Netanyahu as a guide dog with Trump. (photo credit: THE NEW YORK TIMES)
   Antonio Moreira Antunes, the cartoonist behind a recent controversial caricature in The New York Times, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that he does not understand how people view his work as antisemitic.

   Antunes has served for several decades as a cartoonist for the Portuguese newspaper Expresso. Last week, a cartoon he drew of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump was reprinted in The International New York Times, igniting a firestorm of controversy. The Times at first deleted the cartoon from its syndication website, said it was offensive and that it was an “error of judgment” to print it. But the paper later offered a full apology, saying it was “deeply sorry” and that “we are committed to making sure nothing like this happens again.”

   Antunes, for his part, was unapologetic on Tuesday.
   “Trump’s erratic, destructive and often blind politics encouraged the expansionist radicalism of Netanyahu,” he wrote in an emailed response to questions from the Post. “To illustrate this situation, an analogy occurred to me with a blind man (Trump) led by a guide dog (Netanyahu) and, to help identify him, little known in Portugal, I added the Star of David, symbol of the State of Israel and central element of its flag.”

   Antunes did not explain why he drew a kippa on Trump’s head. He also did not respond to a question about the reactions of either The New York Times or his employer, Expresso, to the cartoon.

   “I do not seek controversy,” he wrote. “I try to make critical cartoons of situations that seem to me wrong, unfair and undemocratic. I have already made drawings on the politics of my country, Spain, France, Russia, Italy, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, USA, Brazil, United Kingdom, North Korea, etc.”

   Antunes bristled at the notion that his cartoon would be viewed as antisemitic.

   “What will be the reason why I cannot do a critique of Israeli policy without being immediately categorized as antisemitic?” he wrote. “I have nothing against the Jews but I have many things against the politics of Israel.”

   Despite Antunes’s denial, The New York Times called the cartoon antisemitic, as did the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and a slew of US congressmen and media figures, as well as Trump himself and US Vice President Mike Pence.

   More than 35 years ago, Antunes also drew ire from Jewish groups with a caricature relating to the first Israeli-Lebanon war, which depicted IDF soldiers as Nazis. That cartoon won him an international prize in 1983, despite outcry from the Jewish community.

8. This speaks for itself. Antisemitism alive and poisonous in both Europe and New York.

   New York Times cartoonist to ‘Post’: Caricature was not antisemitic
   Antonio Moreira Antunes said he sought only to ‘critique Israeli policy’ and that his work is not antisemitic.

   New York Times cartoon depicting Netanyahu as a guide dog with Trump
   New York Times cartoon depicting Netanyahu as a guide dog with Trump. (photo credit: THE NEW YORK TIMES)
   Antonio Moreira Antunes, the cartoonist behind a recent controversial caricature in The New York Times, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that he does not understand how people view his work as antisemitic.

   Antunes has served for several decades as a cartoonist for the Portuguese newspaper Expresso. Last week, a cartoon he drew of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump was reprinted in The International New York Times, igniting a firestorm of controversy. The Times at first deleted the cartoon from its syndication website, said it was offensive and that it was an “error of judgment” to print it. But the paper later offered a full apology, saying it was “deeply sorry” and that “we are committed to making sure nothing like this happens again.”

   Antunes, for his part, was unapologetic on Tuesday.
   “Trump’s erratic, destructive and often blind politics encouraged the expansionist radicalism of Netanyahu,” he wrote in an emailed response to questions from the Post. “To illustrate this situation, an analogy occurred to me with a blind man (Trump) led by a guide dog (Netanyahu) and, to help identify him, little known in Portugal, I added the Star of David, symbol of the State of Israel and central element of its flag.”

   Antunes did not explain why he drew a kippa on Trump’s head. He also did not respond to a question about the reactions of either The New York Times or his employer, Expresso, to the cartoon.

   “I do not seek controversy,” he wrote. “I try to make critical cartoons of situations that seem to me wrong, unfair and undemocratic. I have already made drawings on the politics of my country, Spain, France, Russia, Italy, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, USA, Brazil, United Kingdom, North Korea, etc.”

   Antunes bristled at the notion that his cartoon would be viewed as antisemitic.

   “What will be the reason why I cannot do a critique of Israeli policy without being immediately categorized as antisemitic?” he wrote. “I have nothing against the Jews but I have many things against the politics of Israel.”

   Despite Antunes’s denial, The New York Times called the cartoon antisemitic, as did the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and a slew of US congressmen and media figures, as well as Trump himself and US Vice President Mike Pence.

   More than 35 years ago, Antunes also drew ire from Jewish groups with a caricature relating to the first Israeli-Lebanon war, which depicted IDF soldiers as Nazis. That cartoon won him an international prize in 1983, despite outcry from the Jewish community.

9. Catholic high school teaching may be the source is some current antisemitism.
   Woodward who murdered Bernstein in Orange County was catholic.
   Poway shooter went to Mt. Carmel High School.
   I’ve seen a fill-in-the-blank for about Jews used by Nuns at ND high in Sherman Oaks Ca and its problematical.
   The Church may be a source of the problem.

10. ‘A great guy’ Trump lauds rabbi wounded in synagogue attack
    President calls Rabbi Goldstein, one of the victims wounded in Poway synagogue shooting, ‘a great guy who only wanted to help others.’

    Donald Trump speaks to reporters before leaving White House April 27th, 2019
    Donald Trump speaks to reporters before leaving White House April 27th, 2019
    President Donald Trump on Monday lauded the rabbi of the synagogue hit by a shooting attack on Saturday, following a phone call in which he offered his condolences for the death of a veteran member of the community.

    “I spoke at length yesterday to Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, Chabad of Poway, where I extended my warmest condolences to him and all affected by the shooting in California,” the president tweeted Monday. “What a great guy. He had a least one finger blown off, and all he wanted to do is help others. Very special!”

    Earlier on Monday, it was reported that President Trump called Rabbi Goldstein, who has been hospitalized after being shot in the April 27th attack.

    During the call, Trump offered his condolences over the death of congregant Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, who was killed when the 19-year-old gunman John. T. Earnest, opened fire in the foyer of the Chabad of Poway, just north of San Diego.

    Rabbi Goldstein said the president noted his family ties to the Jewish people and his strong support for Israel.

    He was amazing,” said Rabbi Goldstein, “I have never spoken with a president of the United States before.”

    When Rabbi Goldstein asked Trump “What are you doing about the anti-Semitism?”, the president responded: “You know, I have a son-in-law that is Jewish, my daughter is Jewish, my grandkids are Jewish. I love Israel and I support Israel. I just annexed the Golan Heights and I moved the embassy. My love is for the Jewish people.”

    “I never such words from any president before,” Rabbi Goldstein said. “He was so kind and so generous with his words.”

11. Watch: Message from wounded rabbi
    Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein speaks after the shooting attack on his synagogue.

    Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, the spiritual leader of the Chabad of Poway near San Diego, spoke on Sunday a day after being wounded in the shooting attack on the synagogue.

    “It’s not even 24 hours since the unthinkable, unfathomable terrorist attack occurred at Chabad of Poway. It was yesterday as we were finishing the reading of the Torah for the last day of Passover,” said the rabbi, who recalled seeing Lori Gilbert Kaye, who was murdered in the attack.

    “I turned around and then I heard the very first shot. I instinctively turned around to try to see what’s going on, and I locked eyes with this terrorist, this murderer, evil human being standing there. As he turned the rifle on me, and I lifted up my hands to protect my face, he shot a couple of rounds off, taking off my right finger and severely damaging my index finger which we hope will survive this.”

    Rabbi Goldstein recalled shouting as loud as he could to get all the members of the synagogue who were present to leave.

    “Miraculously, his gun jammed and there was a border patrol agent who recently discovered his Judaism. Jonathan was there. As soon as he heard the commotion, he was able to get access to a gun and he pursued the shooter, who got away in the car, and fortunately the police were able to apprehend him.”

    “I went outside where the congregation was huddled together, and I got up on a chair and I told loud and clear, with my fingers bleeding profusely, saying, ‘Am Yisrael Chai! Nothing is going to take us down. This is what the Rebbe has taught us. This is what we live with. We are going to stand tall. We are going to stand proud of who we are. We are going to get through this.’”

12. Der New York Stürmer
    New York Times Jew-hatred has now been translated into pictures for those neo-Nazis of the Left and Right who have difficulty keeping up with words that are spelled with letters.

    ?????: PR
    Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer
    The writer is adjunct professor of law at two prominent Southern California law schools, Senior Rabbinic Fellow at the Coalition for Jewish Values, congregational rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County, California, and has held prominent leadership roles in several national rabbinic and other Jewish organizations. He was Chief Articles Editor of UCLA Law Review, clerked for the Hon. Danny J. Boggs in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and served for most of the past decade on the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America. His writings have appeared in The Weekly Standard, National Review, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Jerusalem Post, American Thinker, Frontpage Magazine, and Israel National News. Other writings are collected at http://www.rabbidov.com .
    More from the author ?
    The New York Times? How about more accurately calling it Der New York Stürmer? This despicable anti-Semitic publication has been attacking Jews mercilessly for more than half a century. Now its Jew-hatred has been translated into pictures for those neo-Nazis of the Left and Right who have difficulty keeping up with words that are spelled with letters.

    In a vicious, unforgivable cartoon over the Passover holy season, the international edition of Der New York Stürmer published a cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a dog — a dirty Jew dog — with a big Jewish Star of David hanging from its neck. Get it? Jew dogs? Get it? A Star of David? Get it?

    Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) surely got it. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) certainly got it. In fact, lots of Democrats running for President would have gotten it: Irish-Scottish Robert “Play-Doh” O’Rourke, Princess Speaking Bull Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders.

    Just recall the outrage when Roseanne Barr, in one of her idiot moments on Twitter, tweeted that Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett was the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes. Hold the presses! African Americans and apes? End of the “Roseanne” show. End of the Roseanne career. No apologies accepted. No matter whether she was drug-induced, alcohol-induced, stress-induced. She. Is. Permanently. Finished.

    But compare Jews with dogs? Well, tomorrow is another day.

    There is a rabid strain of new anti-Semitism now rife throughout the Left, permeating well into the Democrat party’s lowest and highest echelons and their media wing. It is a raw Jew-hatred that masks itself as “anti-Zionism.”

    Anti-Zionism? Baloney. It is raw Jew-hatred. It holds Jews to standards that no one else is held to. It creates insane stereotypes of Jews that are so crazy that they actually generate self-fulfilling prophecies. Take a look and listen to this recent “anti-Zionist” conference sponsored by universities including the University of North Carolina and Duke University, with a $235,000 grant from the United States Department of Education. When you go to this link, focus at 2:20 and following. Your tax dollars at work.

    We soon shall return to the Jew-haters now running for President on the Democrat side, but first back to Der New York Stürmer’s cartoon. The Jew Dog is pulling along a big fat blind man with a yarmulka — a Jew cap like the one I wear — bearing the face of Donald Trump. Get it? The Jews are pulling Trump along. He does not know they are pulling him because he is stupid and blind. And besides he wears a kippah, a yarmulka. Like, what, he is secretly a Jew? How did the Nazi Ilhan Omar once put it? Oh, yes: the Jews of Israel are hypnotizing the world.

    Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. #Gaza#Palestine #Israel — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 16, 2012

    If ever there has been an “America First” President it has been Donald Trump. Whether in dealing with protecting our southern border or confronting NATO or imposing devastating tariffs on foreign goods coming from international trade cheaters from China and Europe and Asia, or turning America into a net exporter of energy — this President is not led by his nose by anyone. His support for Israel is because he knows, as do the vast majority of all Americans and the almost-unanimous predominance of Republican conservatives, that Israel stands in lockstep with America, while every other entity in the Middle East has had one foot in with the former Soviets or the present-day Russians, one foot here, one foot there.

    Israel is the one place in the Middle East where the United States reliably can station weapons for use elsewhere as needed to protect American interests in the region. It is the one country in the region that never would deny American air force access to air space. Every time Israel destroys a Russian-made tank or plane, it shares the lessons learned with the American Defense Department.

    As Russians develop new weapons to shoot down American fighter planes, Israel is the laboratory in its wars with the Arab Muslims where American-made counter weapons are employed and tested. Often, Israel’s experience in combat then leads the Israelis to upgrade the American weapons from battlefield lessons drawn, and all those upgrades then are shared with America. That is the reason that, from one American Administration to another, Israel often has had problems with America’s State Department and foreign diplomats who imagine they can curry favor with terrorists like Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and the Saudi Wahhabis, but Israel always enjoys the strongest of its backing from America’s Defense establishment. Because the Defense establishment has access to the guarded military secrets that protect our nation — and they know.

    That is why this President stopped sending hundreds of millions annually to the Palestine Authority for them to pay lifetime annuities with our money to families of terrorists who have murdered American and other civilians. Why this President recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and then moved the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — a promise that even Obama made, as did Bush 43 and Clinton before him. The President pulled out of the Iran Deal because “America First” means not having crazy Shiite mullahs with nuclear missiles pointed at Washington, D.C. He pulled out of the U.N. Human Rights Council because it is anti-American no less than it is anti-Israel and is comprised of blood-thirsty cut-throat regimes.

    By the way, since she took her Nazi tropes public, Ilhan Omar has raised $1 million. When using Nazi stereotypes to attack Jews, it’s about the Benjamins, baby
    Donald Trump does what he believes is best for America First. The Left — even Der New York Stürmer — regularly attacks him for just that. And although Netanyahu and Israel would have loved for America to remain highly engaged militarily in Syria, President Trump made clear that “America First” means changing course to pulling our troops out of Syria, much as we have to get our boys home from all those dirt holes. No one pulls this President around.

    Back to Der New York Stürmer. The message of that cartoon came straight out of Nazi Germany’s Der Stürmer, whose cartoons were the same. The implication of the all-powerful International Jew. The ones who run the world with their money. How did the Nazi Ilhan Omar put it? “It’s about the Benjamins, baby!” (By the way, since she took her Nazi tropes public, Ilhan Omar has raised $1 million. When using Nazi stereotypes to attack Jews, it’s about the Benjamins, baby.)

    Many observers will wonder: Are you saying that Jews are anti-Semitic? Isn’t Der New York Stürmer owned and operated by Jews, the Ochs-Sulzberger family? Well, if a century and a half of Karl Marxes (actually, the anti-Semitic son of a father who converted to Christianity) and Leon Trotskys and Lev Kamenevs and Grigory Zinovievs and George Soroses and Bernie Sanderses have not yet made it clear, here is a cup of coffee — smell it and wake up to it: some of the worst anti-Semites in every generation are Jews. They are there to give cover to the haters, to clear the air and pave the way for the White Nationalists at one extreme and the rabid Communists at the other extreme to go after the Jews.

    Remember how Ilhan Omar was going to be condemned for being the Nazi she is? Remember how a resolution was going to call her out for saying that Jews hypnotize the world, dominate the world with their money? And then along came Bernie Sanders — an anti-Semite who honeymooned in the most anti-Semitic place on earth, Communist Russia; a Communist who praised Soviet breadlines and admired the Soviet Union — and he gave the all-clear to Ilhan Omar. That is all it took. A Jew came out to clear her, so now the rest of the Democrats could line up with her.

    Before long, we found Elizabeth Warren white-washing Omar while calling Netanyahu the racist. Irish-Scottish Play-Doh O’Rouke, who does not have a Mexican or other Hispanic bone or gene in his body, suddenly paused from his skateboarding and free-falling in the polls to call Netanyahu a racist. One by one, led by the anti-Semitic Bernie Sanders, they each now defame Netanyahu as a racist while giving the Nazi Omar a free pass. It always begins with a Jew. Just as the same Sanders led the fight in the Senate against the bill to punish the “BDS” campaign against Israel. Just as Sanders led the way to bring into the Democrat party certain anti-Israel individuals who never before could gain entry at that level.

    Just as Sanders’s own campaign staffs have included people so anti-Semitic that even he had to fire them. Like Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Soros, so it is that Sanders does not fight all Jews. Only those who comprise the majority of Israel’s Jewish electorate, only those who oppose BDS, only those who stand for Torah principles, only those who believe that Israel has a right to defend itself as it sees it must.

    And so it is with Der New York Stürmer. A “Jewish” newspaper? During the Holocaust, they white-washed the Nazi murder machine, giving it almost no coverage, just as their Walter Duranty white-washed Stalin’s Golodomor, the Ukrainian Holocaust. By and large, they refused to report on the unfolding Nazi Holocaust of six million Jews. Between 1939 and 1945, they published more than 23,000 front-page stories. Of those, 11,500 were about World War II. Only twenty-six — in six years — were about the Holocaust.

    Next, as a country named “Israel” became a possibility after World War II, Der New York Stürmer led the American media effort to prevent the country from ever rising. They gave undue coverage to a minute, meaningless group called the “American Council for Judaism,” an utterly irrelevant organization comprised of some Reform Jews who opposed a Jewish country. And for the past seven decades since Israel’s founding, they have given disproportionate coverage and attention to every Israeli flaw while white-washing the full destructive reality of Hamas on Israel’s southern border, Mahmoud Abbas’s Arab terrorism on Israel’s eastern border, and Hezbollah terrorism on Israel’s northern border. In covering Israel’s wars, they report civilian casualties without giving the context that Hamas sets up its weapons and terror infrastructure in school buildings, hospitals, mosques, and apartment buildings to force Israel to choose between allowing the terror a free sanctuary or bombing those buildings while imperiling civilians.

    And they create a myth of some kind of illegality in Jews living in Judea and Samaria.

    The people of Israel are tired of being told by anyone where Jews in Israel may live and where Jews may build. For two thousand years Jew haters have been telling Jews where not to live. England expelled all Jews in 1290. France expelled its Jews in 1182. As their economy started collapsing, they allowed the Jews back in 1188. Then they expelled Jews again in 1306. As the French economy started collapsing again, they invited Jews back in 1315. They expelled Jews again in 1394. Spain, at the height of their world power, expelled all Jews in 1492. Within a hundred years, their Spanish armada collapsed in 1588, and now Spain is a charming destination for a nice cruise to visit once-important historic locales. Portugal, once the greatest world power alongside Spain, even leading along with Spain in exploring the New World, expelled all Jews in 1497. Today Portugal makes a nice side excursion during the cruise of Spain historic sites, perhaps to pick up a bottle or two of Port wine. And so it goes. For purposes of space, we will omit the history in Germany.

    For two thousand years Jew-haters have told Jews they may not live here and may not live there, ending with the refrain: “Why don’t you damned Jews just get out of Europe and go live in Israel?” Now in the modern era, Jews have been driven there by haters in Europe, and by others in the Soviet Union who drove out a million, and by an entire Arab Muslim world who expelled 800,000 Jews from North Africa in the 1940s and 1950s to go to Israel.

    And now they would tell Jews in Israel that they may not build homes for themselves even in Israel, even in Biblical Judea and Samaria, even in Jerusalem? As recently as the Obama Wasted Decade, Obama demanded that Israel not build Jewish homes in East Jerusalem. Hillary screamed that Israel not build Jewish homes in East Jerusalem. And Joe Biden blasted Israel for building Jewish homes in East Jerusalem. Yet, for all Biden’s endless recent apologies over other public policies that he legitimately and properly advocated in the past, his vulgar opposition to Jews building homes in Jerusalem remains a true crime for which Biden never has apologized.

    So Der New York Stürmer finally has shown its true colors: red, white, and black — the colors of Hitler’s swastika flag. Not merely because of one hateful anti-Semitic cartoon it published on the holy seventh day of Passover. But because of a century and more of attacking Jews, whitewashing the Nazi Holocaust, over-emphasizing the American Council for Judaism and fighting the rise of Israel, and tilting its coverage towards Arab demands against Israel. Whether they are publishing op-eds insanely arguing that “Jesus was a Palestinian” or editorializing against Jewish rights to live in East Jerusalem, Kiryat Arba, elsewhere in Judea and Samaria, or just publishing Jew-hatred in pictures, they now are exposed: All the Jews That Can be Hit in Print.

    The writer is adjunct professor of law at two prominent Southern California law schools, Senior Rabbinic Fellow at the Coalition for Jewish Values, congregational rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County, California, and has held prominent leadership roles in several national rabbinic and other Jewish organizations. He was Chief Articles Editor of UCLA Law Review, clerked for the Hon. Danny J. Boggs in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and served for most of the past decade on the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America. .

    Ami on the Move: Open Anti-Semitism At UNC And Duke Conference

13. In midst of apology for one anti-Semitic cartoon, ‘New York Times’ publishes yet another
    Norwegian cartoonist Roar Hagen depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with sinister eyes taking a picture of himself with a selfie-stick, carrying in what appears to be an empty desert with a tablet featuring the Israeli flag painted on it.

    By Jackson Richman(April 29, 2019 / JNS)
    Despite apologizing on April 28 for running an anti-Semitic cartoon in its international edition on Aug. 25, 2019, “The New York Times” published another anti-Semitic cartoon in the same edition over the weekend. Credit: VG.
    Despite apologizing on April 28 for running an anti-Semitic cartoon in its international edition on Aug. 25, 2019, “The New York Times” published another anti-Semitic cartoon in the same edition over the weekend. Credit: VG.
    Despite apologizing on Sunday for running an anti-Semitic cartoon that ran in its international edition on Thursday, The New York Times published another anti-Semitic cartoon in the same edition over the weekend.

    The weekend cartoon by Norwegian cartoonist Roar Hagen depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with sinister eyes taking a picture of himself with a selfie-stick, carrying in what appears to be an empty desert a tablet featuring the Israeli flag painted on it.

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    The cartoon also resembles a different one from the same cartoonist featuring Netanyahu carrying a tablet that resembles the Ten Commandments, which the Israelites received in the desert after fleeing their enslaved lives in Egypt, in what appears to be a desert being followed by a sinister-looking U.S. President Donald Trump, both walking in the opposite parallel of a directional sign marked “Golan,” a reference to the Golan Heights.

    Trump officially recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan last month.

    The Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Thursday’s cartoon featured U.S. President Donald Trump wearing a yarmulke, sporting dark-tinted glasses and being led by a dog with the face of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a large blue Star of David hanging from its collar.

    On Sunday, the publication said that it was “deeply sorry,” and that it “investigated how this happened and learned that, because of a faulty process, a single editor working without adequate oversight downloaded the syndicated cartoon and made the decision to include it on the Opinion page. The matter remains under review, and we are evaluating our internal processes and training. We anticipate significant changes.”

    Times columnist Bret Stephens responded harshly to Thursday’s cartoon, which was printed above a column about immigration from Thomas L. Friedman.

    “Here was an image that, in another age, might have been published in the pages of Der Stürmer,” he wrote in a piece published on Sunday. “The Jew in the form of a dog. The small but wily Jew leading the dumb and trusting American. The hated Trump being Judaized with a skullcap. The nominal servant acting as the true master. The cartoon checked so many anti-Semitic boxes that the only thing missing was a dollar sign.”

    “The image also had an obvious political message: Namely, that in the current administration, the United States follows wherever Israel wants to go,” continued Stephens. “This is false—consider Israel’s horrified reaction to Trump’s announcement last year that he intended to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria—but it’s beside the point. There are legitimate ways to criticize Trump’s approach to Israel, in pictures as well as words. But there was nothing legitimate about this cartoon.”

    Stephens added, “The problem with the cartoon isn’t that its publication was a willful act of anti-Semitism. It wasn’t. The problem is that its publication was an astonishing act of ignorance of anti-Semitism—and that, at a publication that is otherwise hyper-alert to nearly every conceivable expression of prejudice, from mansplaining to racial microaggressions to transphobia.”

    Andrea Levin, president and executive director of CAMERA, told JNS that is “striking” that the Times would publish another cartoon that denigrates Netanyahu just days after the latest firestorm.

    “In the midst of a firestorm of criticism about the Times publishing an antisemitic cartoon on April 25, it’s striking that three days later editors choose to publish yet another image that caricatures and denigrates Israel’s prime minister and links the message to Judaism [italics intended],” she said.

    “The second cartoon may not sink to the same level of Der Stürmer-like bigotry as the first but its publication points to the Times’ obsession with smearing Israel and, in particular, to its continuous expressions of contempt for the nation’s elected leader. It also points to the contempt of the media giant toward public concerns regarding biased depictions of Israel and Jewish issues.”

    “At a moment when readers might expect greater sensitivity in coverage of these issues, the message appears to be more in the vein of a crude expletive than a reassurance,” said Levin.

    Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, also criticized The New York Times for its latest cartoon, calling it “insensitive, inappropriate and offensive.”

    Additional reporting by JNS news editor Sean Savage.

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