These days, campuses are increasingly battlefields where chief among the spoils are the hearts, minds and loyalties of the next generation of the Jewish people.

BY DEBORAH FINEBLUM, JNS

(August 17, 2018 / JNS) You send your kids off to college, and they come back telling you that Israel is an occupying force with no rights to the land. This Jewish state you taught them to love? Their professors and friends have convinced them that it’s nothing more than a Zionist hoax.

“These parents are thinking, ‘I’ve just had my child colonized by the enemy of our people,’ ” says Richard Landes, a retired history professor at Boston University. “Under the illusion of fighting for the underdog, they’re buying the whole victim narrative put forward by the same people who run all 17 nations that surround little Israel.”

These days, campuses are increasingly battlefields where chief among the spoils are the hearts, minds and loyalties of the next generation of the Jewish people.
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Removing 33 ‘isolated’ settlements wouldn’t allow for a viable two-state solution, despite what a Haaretz colleague of mine argues

By Gideon Levy, HAARETZ

Ori Mark, the new editor of Haaretz’s Hebrew-language weekend magazine, is sure that the land can still be divided. In fact, it’s easy: Remove 9,800 families and the land is divided. Only 33 “isolated” settlements stand between the apartheid state or the binational democracy of the prophets of falsehood and destruction, A.B. Yehoshua and this writer, and the just solution of two states for two peoples, the vision of so many good people.

To read Mark’s article, which appeared in English as well over the weekend, it seems as if peace and justice are still right around the corner. Here comes the Palestinian state, reach out and touch it, just one small evacuation and we’re there. And we haven’t yet mentioned its tiny area, restricted rights, demilitarization and lack of sustainability.

Mark’s optimism is enviable. Only the despondent and the grumpy wouldn’t get caught up in it. In his favor it should be said that he’s taking small steps. His mini-evacuation promises only a mini-agreement. The drawing of a border for a limited period. And what about afterward? Only God knows. Even if he tarries, the Messiah will yet come.

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Spoiler Alert: Contrary to what everyone thinks, Israel has a strategy regarding Gaza, at least for the short and medium term

By Yossi Kuperwasser, TOI

In economics, one way to know what the priorities of an economic player are is through what is called “revealed preference.” Simply look at what they do and you then know their order of priorities. Revealed preference can easily be applied in the case of Israel’s strategy in Gaza. So what are the components of Israel’s short and medium strategy in Gaza, a strategy popularly known as “quiet in return for quiet,” and one that reflect Israel’s interest in avoiding escalation and readiness to live with the status quo?
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He backed a group that called ‘to eradicate Zionism’; he’s likened Israeli policy to the Nazis’; his party can’t accept the world definition of anti-Semitism because he breaches it

By DAVID HOROVITZ , TOI

Until a few years ago, at the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC’s annual conference in Washington, DC, a gala dinner would be held for all the thousands of participants that began with an extraordinary display of political muscle: the roll call.

At center stage in the vast hall of the convention center in the US capital, two or three AIPAC bigwigs would excitedly read out hundreds of names — of the senior administration figures, the members of Congress, the ambassadors, and the other notables who were in attendance — and the crowd would clap and cheer. The process would go on for ages; there were so many such importantly titled people to be name-checked and applauded for having turned out to show their commitment to US ties with Israel.

As someone who spent the first 20 years of his life in Britain, I found this ostentatious demonstration of political clout shocking and somewhat disconcerting. Where I’d grown up, the Jews didn’t trumpet whatever influence they might have; they kept their heads down.
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NSA John Bolton says Putin doesn’t have ‘same interests’ as Iran, agrees with US, Israeli demand that Iran withdraw forces from Syria.

By David Rosenberg, INN

The Russian government is in agreement with the US and Israel over a key issue regarding the future of the Assad regime and the Kremlin’s support for the Syrian military, US National Security Adviser John Bolton claimed on Sunday.

During an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Bolton said that Russian President Vladimir Putin backed the demand by the US and Israel that all Iranian forces be withdrawn from Syrian territory.

Iran, a long-time ally of the Assad regime, has deployed elements of the Quds Force – a branch of the Revolutionary Guards – inside of Syria to bolster Assad against rebel forces.
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Civil disobedience, public demonstrations and strikes aim at a systemic collapse of the regime.

By Reza Pahlavi,  The Wall Street Journal

Aug. 15, 2018

Protesters at Tehran’s grand bazaar, June 25. PHOTO: IRANIAN LABOR NEWS AGENCY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Iranian people have a message: We want our country back.
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There is a revolution developing in Iran against the Shia theocrats. The main reason for it is simple, “bad governance” by the regime.

Religion and Ideology Feed No One

By Sia Sufi, ISICRC

Massive corruption and embezzlement has lead to higher unemployment, and there is a complete a lack of social liberties or accountability. These factors have created a state so poorly governed that even the regime’s most devoutly loyal are struggling to survive.

The regime has historically blamed its economic failures on the West, specifically the US and Israel, pointing to sanctions on the country.
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ISRAEL’S ASHRAM SETS WORLD RECORD IN RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS, GRABS GOLD

The gymnast also won two medals at the 2017 World Games, taking a silver in the clubs and a bronze in the hoop.

Nicol Zelikman. 2018 European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships. Ribbon

The answer lies in the 19th century, when Judaism became a distinctively American religion.

A group of young Austrian Jewish immigrants wave to the Statue of Liberty upon their arrival in America aboard the S.S. Harding. The 50 Jewish children, who were greeted by their new adoptive families, were fleeing Nazi persecution in their homeland.Bettmann Archive, via Getty Images

A startling opinion survey released this summer revealed just how wide is the rift between the world’s two largest Jewish communities.

Israelis approve of President Trump’s handling of United States-Israeli relations by 77 percent, which is hardly surprising for the most pro-Israel occupant of the White House in many years. But only 34 percent of American Jews feel the same way, and 57 percent disapprove of Mr. Trump’s approach to Israel, according to the same poll, which was taken by the American Jewish Committee.
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The Jewish community is demanding political change because the agenda of Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress is fundamentally out of sync with our values.

BY Halie Soifer, JPOST

In every US presidential election since 1980, an average of 70% of Jewish voters have supported the Democratic candidate. As we approach the midterm elections, Jewish voters will overwhelmingly vote for Democrats once again, and in record numbers. The Jewish community is demanding political change because the agenda of Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress is fundamentally out of sync with our values.

Since Trump has taken office, Republicans have sought to erode the separation of church and state, restrict access to affordable healthcare, forcibly separate migrant families, close our borders to those in need, attack a woman’s right to choose, and shift the ideological balance of the Supreme Court. This agenda is in stark opposition to the values of the American Jewish community, and it’s the primary reason Jews will overwhelmingly support Democrats this November.
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By Dr. Yvette Alt Miller, AISH

Patrick Little says he’s dedicating his life to exposing Jews who supposedly “control” the United States. He “woke up to the Jewish question” and has described himself as “counter-Semitic” who wants the United States to be “free from Jews.” Little is running for California’s U.S. Senate seat and defeat four-term Senator Diane Feinstein, whom Little describes as a “Zionist (expletive)”.

In the past, such extreme anti-Semitic views might have rendered Little politically toxic, but today Little is a viable candidate. He’s leading the pack of ten Republican challengers who hope to unseat Sen. Feinstein. The California Republican party has disowned Little, and forcibly removed him from its state convention this past Saturday. Delegates describe how Little spat on the Israeli flag.

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Maxime Bernier Is Our Strength, Growing Diversity Is Our Weakness

by Tim Murray

Tory MP Maxime Bernier: Have immigration restrictionists finally found a real leader?

News item: Conservative MP Maxime Bernier says that more diversity will destroy Canada’s greatness.

The most significant thing about this story is not Bernier’s gutsy comments, but the predictable reaction to them. The nauseating cant issuing from Scheer’s spokesman Brock Harrison, and Michelle Rempel’s tightrope walk over both sides of the fence was to be expected. Unless an organ donor steps forward to offer his brain, I can’t help Harrison. But I can help Rempel. If Michelle wants data to support the argument that ours is not a “functioning pluralism”, if she sincerely wants to learn about the costs of diversity, she only need to google Robert Putnam + Bob Birrell + a myriad of other studies related to theirs. Or if it would be more convenient, she can take a look at this or this or a comprehensive reference list like this.
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God’s vengeance on Canadian logic in its values and human rights abroad and at home 

By Dogan Akman

The article of Christine Douglass-Williams published on the August 8 inst. issue of Israpundit titled What is Canada Trying to Accomplish in Standing Against Saudi Arabia sets out a number of facts to document the Liberal government’s inconsistent utterances and actions concerning Islamic cum Saudi Arabian and Canadian sets of values both abroad and on the home front.

In the current spat between the two countries, there is almost unanimous agreement that the Liberal government’s condemnation of the arrest of two activist Saudi sisters in the Kingdom was in large measure motivated by the Prime Minister’s feminist agenda and his compulsive need to impress the Western world that Canada is invariably on the right side of issues concerning values and human rights.
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by A.J. Caschetta, The Algemeiner 
August 15, 2018

https://www.meforum.org/articles/2018/john-esposito-what-everyone-needs-to-know

One of academia’s most renowned experts on Islam, John Esposito, wants everyone to know that there is nothing to fear from Shariah law and that it is not incompatible with democracy. In Shariah: What Everyone Needs to Know, he and Natana J. DeLong-Bas argue that “far-right political commentators and popular Christian televangelists” have “hijacked” the term Shariah in order to perpetuate a clash of civilizations.

During his long academic career, Esposito has focused his attention on a non-specialist readership, rhetorically absolving Islam of any violent or supremacist tendencies by emphasizing the peaceful parts of the Koran, making him guilty of the same cherry-picking and out-of-context quotation he has accused others of doing. He is fond of slippery assertions such as “Islam, like all world religions, neither supports nor requires illegitimate violence.”
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By Zvi November

I read the NYT op-ed by Ron Lauder, head of the WJC. His world view is full of misconceptions. First, American secular Jewry needs Israel much more than Israel needs Jewish American help. The secular Jewish community in the US is in an advanced state of disintegration. Forty percent of Jewish women never produce a child. The intermarriage rate is well over 50%. Reform Judaism is little more than another Protestant sect minus Jesus Christ. The basic tenets of Judaism such as kashrut, Sabbath observance, Torah study and fulfilling the 613 mitzvot enumerated in the Torah are mostly ignored because secular Jews are about 95% American and perhaps 5% Jewish. As things stand now, the secular American Jewish community will probably disappear in 100 years time despite organizations like the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee that ISSUE STATEMENTS while doing little.

And Jewish self-destruction has a frightening precedent.
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A new community organization made up of Newton residents, Education Without Indoctrination, has filed suit against the Newton School Committee on behalf of three Newton taxpayers. Please see their press release below.

NEWTON RESIDENTS SUE CITY’S SCHOOL COMMITTEE
Claim Violations of Open-Meeting Law to Shield Superintendent

NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, August 17, 2018 — On August 9, 2018, the community group Education Without Indoctrination (EWI) filed a lawsuit against the School Committee of Newton, Massachusetts in Massachusetts Superior Court on behalf of three Newton taxpayers. The lawsuit claims multiple violations of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law stemming from the school committee’s handling of a burgeoning scandal over anti-Semitic lessons and the promotion of Islamic religious beliefs as objective facts in the public school district’s history classes.

In teaching world history, Newton Public Schools (NPS) use hateful educational materials funded by the Saudi oil company ARAMCO and the government of Qatar. As a result, Newton public school students are propagandized with materials that slander Israel and the Jewish people, and that falsify history to promote the Islamic religion in public schools. Just this past May, Newton North High School invited an anti-Semitic group to screen Palestinian propaganda films to its students. For this, NPS Superintendent David Fleishman earned a rebuke from the New England branch of the Anti-Defamation League and Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council.
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