How coverage of the Jewish state became a signifier of the ideological activism that now permeates Western culture

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, TABLET

A video cameraman for the Reuters News Agency in the West Bank city of Ramallah, April, 2002>CHRIS HONDROS/GETTY IMAGES

This year many people have discovered that liberal life and institutions in the West are in the grip of something resembling a new religion. Anyone following the doings of the past few months won’t need a recap of the attempted “cancellations” of scholars and scientists for heresies, the purge of editors for running the wrong op-ed, or the excommunication of J.K. Rowling.

Adherents of the thought system vaguely described as “woke” believe themselves to be fighting evil in the name of justice. They share a hierarchy of good, a lingo, purity tests, and a stark division of the world into friend and foe, all of which borrow heavily from religious modes of thought. But one of the most obvious signs that religion is in play, and not merely empirical observation or political criticism, is the way this ideology has focused and amplified the condemnation of Jews.
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PM Netanyahu steps in to stop MKs from impeaching Miki Zohar from his role as head of Likud faction over his “thuggish” conduct.

By  Yehuda Shlezinger, ISRAEL HAYOM

A political bully? Likud MK Miki Zohar | File photo: Oren Ben Hakoon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday had to step in to prevent furious lawmakers from pursuing the dismissal of MK Miki Zohar as head of the Likud faction and chairman of the coalition.

Twelve of the 32 Likud MKs signed a petition to fire Zohar, whose style as coalition chair has been slammed as “thuggish.”

In recent weeks, Zohar has threatened to sanction MKs and ministers who go against coalition discipline, and has been locking horns with Finance Minister Israel Katz, a high-profile Likud lawmaker and Netanyahu confidant, even demanding Katz be fired.

The proverbial straw for the ministers and MKs demanding Zohar’s impeachment was his decision Monday to remove fellow Likud MK Yifat Shasha-Biton as head of the Knesset Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

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While some fear the breakdown of the Palestinian Authority, former senior US officials say that Israel should promote its end so that a new generation of leaders can take over.

By Ariel Ben Solomon, ISRAEL HAYOM

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas | File photo: AFP/Abbas Momani

Despite US President Donald Trump’s release of the “Peace to Prosperity” Mideast plan earlier this year to help resolve issues associated with the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, it remains clear that no negotiations between the two parties are on the horizon amid a Palestinian boycott of the Trump administration.

Given this and the ongoing discussion of Israel’s imminent move to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, questions are being raised over the viability of Palestinian Authority, especially as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, 84, has once again threatened to cut off security cooperation with Israel over the move.

While some in both the Israeli and US governments fear the collapse of the PA, former senior US officials told JNS that Israel should promote the end of the entity so that a new generation of leaders can take over.

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WHICH HAS BEEN BANNED FROM ALL SOCIAL MEDIA

By Pamela Geller, AMERICAN THINKER

What’s with all the Obama holdovers who can still be found throughout the Trump administration? It is now just a little over three months before the 2020 presidential election, and despite an alarming amount of evidence of Obama holdovers still in the Washington bureaucracy, working hard to block Trump policies, all too many of these saboteurs are still in place. One of them is an appeaser, capitulator, and Muslim Brotherhood stooge named Eric W. Treene.

The Justice Department’s “Religious Freedom in Focus” is “a periodic email update about the Civil Rights Division’s religious liberty and religious discrimination cases.” It lists as a contact the Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination, Eric W. Treene. I exposed Treene’s subservience to Muslim organizations linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood over eight years ago. What’s Eric Treene still doing there?
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By John Ainger, BLOOMBERG

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. put a spotlight on the suddenly growing concern over inflation in the U.S. by issuing a bold warning Tuesday that the dollar is in danger of losing its status as the world’s reserve currency.With Congress closing in on another round of fiscal stimulus to shore up the pandemic-ravaged economy, and the Federal Reserve having already swelled its balance sheet by about $2.8 trillion this year, Goldman strategists cautioned that U.S. policy is triggering currency “debasement fears” that could end the dollar’s reign as the dominant force in global foreign-exchange markets.

While that view is clearly still a minority one in most financial circles — and the Goldman analysts don’t say they believe it will necessarily happen — it captures a nervous vibe that has infiltrated the market this month: Investors worried that this money-printing will trigger inflation in years ahead have been bailing out of the dollar and piling furiously into gold.

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By Nadav Shragai, JCPA

Jews Praying at Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, by Johann Martin Bernatz (Ottoman Archives, 1868)

Institute for Contemporary Affairs – Founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation

Against the background of the Jordanian condemnation of Israel for work carried out by Israel on the southern extension of the Western Wall and the Muslim denial of the Jewish connection to the Western Wall, Nadav Shragai, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center, published this collection of forgotten and lesser-known facts about the Western Wall, which Muslims are trying to deny.

• After the destruction of the Temple, Jews prayed on the Temple Mount, on the Mount of Olives, at the eastern and southern walls, and finally – when Jerusalem was reopened – Jews returned to the Western Wall, which is closest in proximity to the Holy of Holies.
• The current place of worship at the Western Wall was established after an earthquake in 1546, which collapsed a row of buildings leaning against the Western Wall and cleared a short prayer alley for Jews, used with the approval of the Ottoman authorities.

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‘Since when is it okay to try and burn down a federal court?’

Editorial of The New York Sun | July 28, 2020

If the hearing of Attorney General William Barr today made anything clear at all, it is this: The Democratic Party is unwilling to back up the federal authorities who are defending the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon. In four hours, the House heard from the Democrats nary the slightest expression of support of the officers who are on the front-line of this battle. The hearing will shock millions of Americans.

All the more so because of the opening statement by the chairman, Congressman Jerrold Nadler. It has to be one of the rudest statements with which any cabinet officer of the United States has ever been greeted on the Hill. It was followed by the ranking member, Congressman Jim Jordan, who showed a video compilation of one broadcaster after another describing the protests as “peaceful.” It was a veritable meme.
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T, Belman. This is good news. If Bibi goes, Liberman will join the right wing coalition and form a right block of 68 seats.

The right-wing bloc would fail to win a majority in the Knesset if new elections were held today, poll shows, as support for gov’t sinks.

By David Rosenberg , INN

The Israeli Right can no longer count on a majority in the Knesset if new elections were held today, a new poll released by Radio 103FM Wednesday shows.

According to the poll, which was conducted by Panels Politics Tuesday and surveyed 525 Israeli adults, the right-wing bloc has fallen from 62 seats in last week’s survey to just 60 seats – one short of the 61 necessary for an outright majority.

The left-wing – Arab bloc gained three seats since last Friday, rising from 49 seats to 52.

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Time for social media to change its ways

Facebook, Twitter and their ilk enjoy broad immunity from any liability over user-generated content. That fact that this translates into selective enforcement must change.

By Nitsana Darshan-Leitner

On June 30, 2016, 17-year-old Mohammad Tra’ayra from the West Bank village of Bani Naim infiltrated a home in nearby Kiryat Arba and stabbed 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel to death as she slept in her bed. It was later discovered that his Facebook feed was rife with messages of hate and incitement and that he boasted on his own page that he wished to die as a “shahid” – a martyr – writing, “Death is a right and I demand that right.”

The complaints lodged with Facebook over his posts, as well as the demand later to remove posts praising the killing and the murderer were, as always, ignored.
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From Frank Sinatra’s hometown in Hoboken, N.J., to LA’s Skid Row, dozens of mail-in, absentee and ballot box fraud cases have emerged.

By John Solomon, JUST THE NEWS

Many news media, political activists and social media giants have gotten on the bandwagon that voter fraud is fiction. It is not.

A review of court cases and recent indictments – including one this week in Philadelphia against a former congressman – finds there have been at least four dozen cases in criminal and civil court since the last presidential election in 2016 in which voter fraud has led to charges, convictions, lawsuits or plea deals.

The schemes have ranged from old fashion ballot box stuffing to absentee and mail-in ballot fraud.

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During this time in lockdown in Israel, I have started to reflect more than usual on my life in hiding during the Holocaust.

By Manfred Gerstenfeld

Usually in the days before Yom Hashoah, I recall my year and a half in hiding during the Holocaust. During this time I was holed up in a small apartment in Amsterdam with my parents. Until today I do not understand where they found the mental and emotional strength to withstand this situation. As a child of 6 and 7 years of age, I did not grasp the full importance or the risks involved. I now know that somewhere between 30-40% of the Jews in hiding were betrayed to the German occupiers, mainly by Dutchmen.

My parents had rented an apartment in the center of Amsterdam in the name of an unmarried mother. I know now that this apartment was about a kilometer from where Anne Frank and her family were hiding. This was the place we intended to go into once it became clear that Dutch Jews were being transported to the transition camp, Westerbork. We did not know that trains were departing every week to the east from there. Those people who were sent to Sobibor were murdered upon arrival. Some of those on the trains sent to Auschwitz/Birkenau were gassed immediately. Other Dutch Jews had a small chance of survival there if they were put to work. Most of them died from the horrible conditions in the camps.

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By Stephen M. Flatow<

The Democrat-controlled House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs officially adopted an amendment to send $250 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, despite an ongoing pay-to-slay Israelis policy.

Two years ago, Congress cut off funds to the Palestinian Authority because it pays salaries to terrorists. Now a group of Democratic members of Congress are trying to restore that funding, even though the P.A. continues to dole out salaries to terrorists.

In March 2018, the Taylor Force Act became law. Named after a 28-year-old West Point graduate and U.S. Army veteran who was visiting Israel as a part of a graduate program when he was brutally stabbed and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist, it was long overdue. From its earliest days, the P.A. had a policy of handing out salaries to imprisoned terrorists and the families of dead terrorists. The Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations gave the P.A. $500 million annually, despite the pay-to-slay policy.

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By Steve McCann, AMERICAN THINKER

In the world of politics, repetition is almost without fail the key to winning elections.   The dominant campaign issue in the upcoming election that President Trump, the Republican Party and the conservative media must relentlessly repeat is the now irrefutable fact that Joe Biden, the Democrat party and the mainstream media have tacitly sanctioned sedition and have betrayed the American people.  Consequently, if Biden and the Democrats win in November, they will be incapable of preventing the Marxist ultimatums of the radical left from becoming the law of the land.

By refusing to not only condemn but implicitly encouraging the ongoing riots and violence as well as meekly acquiescing to the demands of the left-wing extremist, the Democrat party establishment, which includes the mainstream media, has exposed their spinelessness for the world to see and signed on to government by mob rule.
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But after a good cry, wipe the tears and take back our culture and values while we still can.

By DOV FISCHER, SPECTATOR

I write today to cry for my beloved country, the United States of America.

First, a word about that love. I have visited, set foot in, and explored the vast majority of the United States. I have been to almost every battlefield of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. I not only visited Guinea Station where Stonewall Jackson died but even searched irresponsibly with my daughters, then young girls, through endless grain stalks during a Virginia summer’s lightning storm until we found the oak tree at Ellwood Plantation in Chancellorsville where his left arm is buried. After visiting the McCoy family cemetery in Pikeville, Kentucky, I crossed state lines to visit the Hatfield family cemetery in western West Virginia. There we met Henry Hatfield, a grandson of patriarch Devil Anse Hatfield. I was the first Orthodox Jew he ever met. In one of my most forgettable faux pas ever, when my 12-year-old daughter asked me in his presence whether he was messing with us or whether I believed he was a direct descendant, I responded to her, “Yep, he’s the real McCoy.”

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By Hugh Fitzgerald, JIHAD WATCH

In the U.K., a university lecturer has been fired from his job for expressing, in a private conversation with a colleague, admiration of Jews for what he saw as their unusual talent in physics and mathematics.

The story is here.

A British university professor has been fired for, in part, saying that “Jewish people are the cleverest in the world.”

Stephen Lamonby, 73, a lecturer at Solent University in Southampton, made the remarks in question during a meeting with another academic, the Daily Mail reported.

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Cultural revolutions are suicidal, nihilistic, and incoherent. Those who survive such cannibalism do so by arbitrarily exempting their leaders from their own rules of mandated purity and no statute of limitations.

By Victor Davis Hanson, AMER GREATNESS

Since late May, the United States has been convulsed by a cultural revolution unlike any seen in its recent history. Statues have been toppled, often without any logic or consistent grievance. Institutions have been renamed, again without coherent consistency.

Christian iconography has been a common target. Television shows have been taken off the air; particular corporations boycotted; professional sports recalibrated into social activist spectacles.

If there is any common denominator to this madness, it is apparently that the past was toxic, and erasing it in the present will make for a more just and united future.

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