On December 23, 2016, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2334. The resolution was disgraceful in several familiar respects in condemning Israel unfairly. To name just a few:
It falsely labeled a place called “East Jerusalem” which had only existed for a mere eighteen years from 1949 to 1967
It called East Jerusalem a “Palestinian territory”, when it never was anything of the sort, before, during or after 1949-1967
It proposed a “two-state solution based on the 1967 lines” when Israel and the Palestinian Authority had already signed agreements to negotiate lines without any preconceived final boundaries
Demanded that Jews be prevented from living in “East Jerusalem” and other “occupied Palestinian territory”, a blatantly anti-Semitic demand
Called for countries to treat Israel and Israeli territory differently, even though countries around the world – including the United States – do not distinguish in labeling their own products
The U.N. General Assembly (GA) had frequently made such horrible comments. What was new and alarming in this instance was that the resolution PASSED THE SECURITY COUNCIL, which may become legally binding.
As noted by the UN, “resolutions adopted by the GA on agenda items are considered to be recommendations and are not legally binding on the Member States. The only resolutions that have the potential to be legally binding are those that are adopted by the Security Council.” Further, “in contrast to the decisions made by the General Assembly, all Member States are obligated under the UN Charter to carry out the Security Council’s decisions…. As Article 25 of the UN Charter states, “The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter.””
This alarming anti-Israel action managed to pass because the United States opted to abstain in the Resolution 2334 vote. Until that time, the U.S. had always voted against such anti-Israel measures at the Security Council because of possible ramifications.
This time, President Obama took this action in the final days of his administration because of lobbying from Jewish pro-Palestinian groups like J Street, and as payback for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepting an invitation from the Republican House Speaker to speak to a joint session of Congress about the existential threat of the Iranian nuclear deal in 2015, without coordinating with the president’s office.
At that time, a senior Obama official said that Netanyahu “spat in our face publicly and that’s no way to behave. Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price.“
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama in 2015
Anti-Jewish attacks in the United States jumped 22.9% shortly thereafter in 2017, the largest spike since the FBI tracked hate crime data.
The ever-increasing number of boycotts and lawsuits against Israel, and the dramatic spike in harassment on college campuses and other locations of global Jewry, is related to Obama’s bruised ego and lobbying of alt-left groups like J Street.
During Chanukah and the week when the bible portion dealing with Joseph is read in synagogues around the world, Jews often make the trip to Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem / Nablus in Judea and Samaria / West Bank. Accompanied by a military escort, the cars often come under fire from local Palestinian Arabs, as was the case last week.
Ahmed Atef Daraghmeh, a 23-year old Palestinian man from a nearby city, was armed and involved in the shooting attack on the Jewish convoy, and was shot and killed by Israeli troops. The news media covered the story very differently.
The Jordan Times headline was “Israeli forces kill Palestinian militant in West Bank clashes,” making it clear that the Palestinian was an armed militant. The article added “Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, said Daraghmeh was a member of its military wing who “was killed by occupation bullets during clashes at dawn on Thursday”.
Al Monitor picked up the exact same headline and story as above, as produced by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Times of Israel similarly led with “Hamas ‘fighter’ killed during armed clash with IDF in Nablus.” The Israeli site was more clear labeling the Palestinian a terrorist in the article.
Other Arab and Muslim sites reoriented the story.
Turkish site TRT World‘s headline was “Palestinian football player killed by Israeli army in West Bank,” made it sound like Israeli forces went into a soccer stadium and wantonly attacked someone kicking a ball. The sub-header “23-year-old Ahmad Atef Daraghmeh was killed, and five other Palestinians injured during an Israeli army raid in Nablus,” made the Israeli visit an incursion rather than a visit to a Jewish holy site.
Free Press Kashmir picked up the footballer focus with “Palestinian footballer shot dead by Israeli forces in West Bank”
Daily Sabah wrote “Israeli army kills another Palestinian man in occupied West Bank,” skipping the militant’s profession and making it sound like Israelis were on a daily warpath.
Arab News extended the story with “Palestine’s FA asks FIFA to probe reported Israeli killing of footballer,” connecting the story to the just concluded World Cup.
Al Jazeera headline was “Palestinian footballer killed by Israel in West Bank: Medics”
Middle East Eye: “West Bank: Palestinian footballer killed by Israeli forces in overnight raid”
Middle East Monitor: “Israel kills Palestinian footballer in Nablus” and led with “Just days after the FIFA World Cup during which the issue of Palestine featured prominently, Israeli occupation forces have today shot dead a Palestinian footballer.”
Tasnim News headline was “Young Palestinian Soccer Player Killed by Israeli Forces during West Bank Raid”
The anti-Zionist blog Mondoweiss wrote “Soccer player and resistance fighter Ahmad Daraghmeh killed in Nablus,” covering his profession and alluding to his military activities.
PALESTINIAN MOURNERS AT THE FUNERAL PROCESSION FOR AHMED ATEF DARAGHMEH, 23, KILLED DURING CLASHES WITH ISRAELI FORCES ON DECEMBER 22, 2022, IN THE TOWN OF TUBAS IN THE WEST BANK. (PHOTO: WAJED NOBANI/APA IMAGES)
Most of the Muslim and Arab world led with Daraghmeh’s profession which had nothing to do with the incident, as did a commentator from BBC, as reported by the Jewish Chronicle:
“The dead Palestinian footballer lamented by soccer pundit Gary Lineker was actually a Hamas terrorist killed after firing on Israeli soldiers. The former England striker and BBC presenter sparked fury after he described the death as “awful” without giving the context…. Mr Lineker had voiced his outrage over the shooting in response to a tweet that read: “This #Palestinian soccer player Ahmed Daraghmeh was waiting for a great future in representing his country’s team, #Palestine. The bullets of the occupation stopped his football dream & took his life treacherously. A little while ago in #Nablus. #FreePalestine #Ukraine #sportgala”.”
Lineker has a history of retweeting Palestinian propaganda and anti-Semitic vitriol. He has 1.1 million followers who read such posts. Add that total to the readership of the Arab sites, and millions of people were fed false news that Israel was targeting Palestinian athletes for assassination.
Hamas militants are also doctors, merchants, teachers and athletes. It doesn’t absolve them of their heinous terrorism – let alone make Israel the aggressor – but highlights how mainstream the political-terrorist group is in Palestinian society.
On December 19, 2022, The New York Times published an article about a menorah that was lit in the window of a Jewish home across from a Nazi flag in Germany, in defiance of the edicts to ban Jews from participating in society. The descendants of that German family brought the menorah back to Germany to rekindle it once again.
It’s an interesting story on many levels. To consider the defiance and fear that the Jewish family must have felt in 1931 as Nazis gathered power in Germany, to openly declare their Judaism in the face of growing anti-Semitism. And then, eighty years later, to return to Germany after the genocide of European Jewry with that same menorah.
Chanukah candles lit in the ashes of millions of slaughtered Jews.
Yehuda Mansbach, the grandson of the Jewish couple who lit that menorah in the iconic 1931 photograph, wept openly after lighting the two candles to mark the holiday of Chanukah in Germany in 2022.
It was the only story that the New York paper would write about the Jewish holiday of Chanukah, other than some recipes for latke cocktails and how to make a DIY menorah. The actual holiday story of Jews expelling the Hellenist pagan rituals from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and throughout the Jewish holy land 2,200 years ago must have been considered too political for the anti-Zionist paper.
During the holiday, the paper preferred to write stories about Arabs who had “ancestors” in “modern day Israel” whose towns were destroyed at Israel’s creation. These “Palestinian citizens of Israel” (commonly called Israeli Arabs) have been trying to get back to the homes where their grandparents lived but have been blocked from doing so by the Israeli military and courts because the town sits in a buffer zone along Lebanon which is in a state of war with the Jewish State.
These are stories that neatly contour to the Times’ jaundiced narrative: Jews are native to Europe but were pushed out by Nazis, and Arabs are native to Palestine but were pushed out by Jews.
The actual Chanukah story disrupts the anti-Zionist propaganda, that Jews have thousands of years of history in Israel and not just throughout the land, but on the Jewish Temple Mount itself. That is where the original menorah of the Jews was lit, not in defiance of any edict but as a basic part of Jewish religious ritual.
Today, while Arabs may be blocked from returning to living in villages alongside the border of a hostile country by Israel’s military, Jews are considered to be in violation of United Nations edicts for going to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. While Israeli Arabs freely drive around Israel as recognized citizens of the Jewish State, countries around the world demand that Jews be forbidden from living and praying in their holiest city.
Jews have been lighting menorahs for 2,200 years, even in the face of blatant anti-Semitism from neighbors, governments and media propaganda. And Jews will continue to light their menorahs in their windows as proud Jews, and visit the reestablished Jewish State, as they use the anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda as the rags that they are.
A single menorah of defiance lit before a Nazi flag in Germany, dozens of menorahs held aloft in Montana in 1993 amidst a wave of anti-Semitic attacks, and thousands of menorahs lit in Jewish homes in Jerusalem and around the world today in the face of blatantly anti-Semitic articles and resolutions. Jews are indigenous to Israel and will always insist on the basic human right to practice their faith everywhere, especially in their holiest city.
The New York Times has spent considerable ink this year telling its readers that Israeli leadership loves a murderer of Arabs, yet it never prints anything about Palestinians who do it daily.
The anti-Zionist and very anti-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paper has written repeatedly about a new member of the Israeli government Itamar Ben-Gvir. It portrays him as a racist extremist who praised a killer of Palestinians, over and over, again and again.
October 24, 2022: “Until recently, he hung a portrait in his home of Baruch Goldstein, who shot dead 29 Palestinians in a West Bank mosque in 1994…. The portrait of Mr. Goldstein, who killed the Palestinians in 1994, no longer hangs in Mr. Ben-Gvir’s home.”
November 2, 2022: “Itamar Ben-Gvir, Jewish Power’s leader, seeks to grant legal immunity to Israeli soldiers who shoot Palestinians and deport rival lawmakers he accuses of terrorism. Until recently, he hung a portrait in his home of Baruch Goldstein, who shot dead 29 Palestinians in a West Bank mosque in 1994.”
November 4, 2022: “The mosque massacre in 1994, whose perpetrator, Baruch Goldstein, was once feted by Mr. Ben-Gvir in his home, occurred a few hundred yards away. “I’m afraid that fanatic settlers will feel more empowered” by Mr. Ben-Gvir’s rise, said Mr. Amro. “I’m afraid that more Baruch Goldstein massacres will happen.”
November 13, 2022: “Mr. Ben-Gvir, a resident of Hebron with a history of provocations and racism, who until recently hung a portrait in his home of Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli doctor who massacred 29 Muslim worshipers praying at the city’s holy site in 1994.”
November 17, 2022 podcast: “Patrick Kingsley (NY Times reporter): Why have you got a picture of Baruch Goldstein, this extremist, on your wall? And when your son asks who he is, what do you say? And he defends it. Archived Recording (Itamar Ben-Gvir) Patrick Kingsley: He says, I tell my son, he’s a righteous man, he’s a hero. Sabrina Tavernise (another NYTimes journalist): Wow. A picture of a mass murderer hanging on his wall. Patrick Kingsley: Exactly.”
November 20, 2022: “Mr. Ben-Gvir has also been a source of alarm. He has expressed admiration for Meir Kahane, a politician who called for expelling Israel’s Arab citizens and banning sex between Jews and non-Jews, as well as for Baruch Goldstein, a West Bank settler who killed 29 Palestinians and wounded 125 more when he attacked a mosque in 1994.”
The examples continue. Over and again, the paper mentioned that Ben-Gvir once hung a picture of Baruch Goldstein, a man who shot 29 Muslim worshipers in the Cave of the Jewish Matriarchs and Patriarchs in Hebron, nearly 30 years ago.
It’s repetitive and lazy journalism, but that’s not really the point. The issue is that the Times never points out that the lionization of many Palestinian mass murderers of Israeli Jews is a daily occurrence in Palestinian society. It happens in schools, public squares and the government-controlled media. Constantly.
Dalal Mughrabi was a woman who killed 37 people including 12 children. Her name appears in public squares and elementary schools. She is a featured celebrity in Palestinian society. School children call her the “bride of Jaffa” to this day.
Video shown to school children praising Dalal MughrabiSupporters of the Palestinian Fatah movement march with a poster of female militant Dalal al-Mughrabi during a rally marking the 55th foundation anniversary of the political party in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on January 1, 2020. (Photo by Musa AL SHAER / AFP)Pictures of Dalal Mughrahbi in elementary schoolNaming of a public square for Dalal Mughrabi
Abd Al-Baset Odeh was a Hamas operative who killed 30 Jews enjoying a Passover seder in a hotel in Netanya in 2002. In 2003, the Palestinian Authority sponsored a soccer tournament named the “Tulkarm Shahids Memorial soccer championship tournament of the Shahid Abd Al-Baset Odeh” describing the mass murderer as a “martyr.” According to Palestinian Media Watch’s translation of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, official PA daily, the event was under the auspices of the Department of Education, and the mass murderer’s brother handed out trophies to the winning team.
In 2020, the Student Union Council at Palestine Polytechnic University gifted the school with a gate named after Salah Khalaf, the leader of the Black September terror organization who planned the Munich Olympics massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered in 1972. According to the Israeli watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch, there are four Palestinian schools named after Salah Khalaf.
In March 2022, Palestinians planted a garden in a boys’ school naming various trees after several mass murderers.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, there are 31 schools named after terrorists, aside from the various other mentions of killers in places like gardens.
This is never mentioned in the mainstream media.
Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, wrote that the recently deceased Nasser Abu Hmeid, a murderer of seven Israelis, was in an Israeli prison because of his “activism in the resistance of the Israeli occupation of their homeland.” The media site then called him a “martyr” and “resistance fighter,” as did Palestinian leadership including PA President Mahmoud Abbas, cleansing his crimes and vaulting him to hero status.
In October 2022, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh went to Jenin to pay his respects to the mass murderers of Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv in April. He stood next to Fathi Khazem, the father of the terrorist Raad Khazem, and said “This struggle is an ongoing process, from generation to generation, victims to victims. Jenin has created national unity on the ground.” Mahmoud Abbas had told the father “We are all mourning. That is our destiny and we can’t escape it. We must make sacrifices for the homeland.”
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh seen during a visit to a mourning tent alongside Fathi Khazem, October 16, 2022. (Screenshot/Twitter: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
These comments are in addition to the terrorism incentive scheme orchestrated by Abbas. The weak president scores points with the Palestinian street with his pay-to-slay program which rewards the families of terrorists with salaries for life.
Such is the essence of Palestinian leadership and society: a culture of anti-Semitism and terrorism. All deliberately hidden from western eyes.
On the Israeli side, there is an extremist politician who once hung a picture of a solitary Israeli terrorist, and The New York Times mentions it almost daily. On the Palestinian side, there are dozens of mass murderers who are celebrated everywhere in Palestinian society, and the Times refuses to mention it a single time.
That is neither hypocrisy nor double standards. It is corporate anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism; vile propaganda to incite hatred and actions against Jews and the Jewish State.
The United Nations Security Council met on December 19, 2022 during the Jewish holiday of Chanukah which marks Jews rededicating their temple in Jerusalem 2,200 years ago. The council heard from Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process (aka Coordinator For Palestinian Demands) about the situation in the region during the period September 21 to December 7.
The comments and replies from various countries hit upon Jews in Jerusalem several times.
Wennesland called the Old City of Jerusalem and its surroundings as “occupied East Jerusalem,” and bemoaned the fact that the “number [of new housing units for Jews] more than tripled from some 900 units in 2021 to some 3,100 units in 2021 with tenders doubling from 200 to 400.”
Other countries chimed in.
The spokesperson from France said “The priority today is to halt the Israeli settlement building policy in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.”
The agent from Russia offered that “the expropriation of Palestinian property, the demolition of houses and the systematic violation of the status quo of Jerusalem’s holy sites continue.”
UAE, Israel’s new theoretical ally in the region, said “Any unilateral measures affecting the legal status of Jerusalem and the holy sites are a violation of international law which threatens to exacerbate tensions,” and added “the need to respect Jordan’s custodianship of Jerusalem’s holy sites,” making it sound like Jordan had authority over all Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites, when in fact it only has a “special role” regarding Islamic sites.
The representative of Ghana urged “Israel’s Government to not continue with plans to expand or create settlements, particularly in and around East Jerusalem.”
The basic idea that Jews should be banned from living somewhere, let alone in their holiest city of Jerusalem, is anti-Semitic at its core. That many countries would publicly call for such action at the United Nations during the Jewish holiday celebrating Jewish rights in Jerusalem adds a noxious element of antagonism towards global Jewry.
Jewish Chanukiah at the Kotel in Jerusalem (photo: First One Through)
Jews will never abandon Jerusalem. The perpetual calls at the United Nations for them to do so is pure inflammatory rhetoric, and makes any resolution from the organization about the conflict fall on hostile ears.
Chanukah is a celebration of Jews purging the pagan practices of their holy Second Temple in Jerusalem, and expunging the Hellenists from the holy land. It is a worthwhile time to consider how Jews today think about the Jewish Temple Mount and the future of Jewish prayers on the site.
Reform Judaism
Reform Jews are the largest denomination of American Jews, accounting for roughly 33% of American Jews (right ahead of 29% of Jews of no religion) according to a 2021 Pew poll. Their authoritative rabbinic body, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) issued a resolution in 2015 about the Reform movement’s view of the Temple Mount. While it said that Jews considered it “holy”, it noted that it only was so because of historic significance. It added some important points:
There is “not to any hope for rebuilding the Temple, reestablishing sacrificial rites, or restoring any future Jewish worship where the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock now stand”
“Supports the status quo on the Temple Mount which restricts prayer to Islamic, not Jewish, prayer.”
“Stands in opposition to those Jews who attempt to alter the status quo by praying on the Temple Mount, which is contrary both to traditional Jewish law and practice as well as peaceful co-existence.”
“Affirms the freedom of religion and the right of persons to pray where they choose, while at the same time, asserts that the interests of peace and safety are, in this unique and extraordinary circumstance, best served when some rights are suspended and legitimate religious passions restrained in deference to the rights and sensibilities of others.”
“Encourages efforts of the [Reform Movement’s] Israel Religious Action Center, in cooperation with the Religious Action Center, to maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount while combating terror and incitement to violence.”
The Reform Movement repeatedly makes clear that it opposes Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount now and forever. It believes that Temple Mount is simply a relic of the past, and any Jew who seeks to pray at Judaism’s holy site is essentially inciting violence.
The Reform movement’s leaders echo this theme. Rabbi Rick Jacobs lied to his base during Chanukah 2016 that the Maccabees of 2,200-years ago fought for religious tolerance when they did did the opposite. The Maccabees fought for a Jewish Temple, period. Further, it is perplexing (revolting) that the movement advocates for religious tolerance seemingly for all religions except for Jews at their holiest location.
Conservative Movement
The Conservative Movement is the fastest shrinking denomination of American Jewry. For every Jew who joins, three leave according to Pew, with the vast majority migrating to Reform or Jews with no denomination.
The movement has said remarkably little about the Temple Mount.
Way back in 2001, the Rabbinical Assembly issued a resolution which said almost nothing about its position about the sacred site, other than confirming its holiness to Jews, and respectfully asking Islamists to stop proclaiming otherwise. It has issued no other official comments about the holy compound.
Its silence can be found in other places as well.
In 2016, the Conservative movement published a new prayer book, a siddur, meant to be more egalitarian which included a wide variety of contemporary commentators. The siddur sits somewhere between Reform and Orthodox denominations’ liturgy, but much closer to Reform as it relates to the Temple Mount.
While Orthodox Jews recite a short prayer after the central Amidah service three times a day (four times on Sabbath and holidays), as well as earlier in the morning service, asking for the Temple to be rebuilt, the Conservative Movement omitted it:
May it be Your will, Adonoy, our God, and the God of our Fathers that the Holy Temple be rebuilt speedily in our days, and grant us our share in Your Torah. And there we will serve You reverently as in the days of old, and in earlier years. And let Adonoy be pleased with the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem as in the days of old and in earlier years.
Perhaps the Conservative movement agrees with Reform Jews that there is no need for a Third Jewish Temple and that Jews should be banned from the site. Or maybe it is just staying out of the fray.
View of the Jewish Temple Mount from the top of the rebuilt Hurva Synagogue in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter (Photo: First One Through)
Orthodox Jews
While most non-Orthodox American Jews do not focus on the Temple Mount even as they might pray facing it, the small Orthodox community actively prays about rebuilding the Third Temple, as seen above. Many have gone to the site in recent years, during the few hours in which visitation for non-Muslims is currently permissible.
In December 2013, the Chief Rabbis of Israel reimposed a ban on Jews ascending the Temple Mount, as Orthodox Jews began to do so with greater frequency. The rationale had nothing to do with angering Islamists, as it did with potentially walking on the most holy of spots, which is not permitted for Jews other than a High Priest, according to Jewish law.
Despite the ban, the number of Jews visiting the Temple Mount has jumped in recent years as Orthodox Jews have rationalized that the location of the holy of holies is understood. In 2012, the total number of Jewish visitors was about 7,700. In October 2022 during the Jewish month of Tishrei, the figure was almost 8,000 according to Beyadeynu, an activist group encouraging Jewish visitation. The group estimates that the total this year doubled to about 50,000 from last year and it hopes to double again – to 100,000 Jews – in the coming year.
That figure remains a small fraction of the millions of Muslims who frequent the site at all hours.
In Israel, the Ultra-Orthodox Haredi community makes up 13% of the population and it is growing twice as fast as the rest of the country. There is roughly another 10% of Jews who are dati, or Modern Orthodox religious. Taken together, the 20%-plus Orthodox Israeli Jews is quite a bit larger than the 8% of Orthodox American Jews. Israel – and Jerusalem in particular – is much more Orthodox than world Jewry, as the devout Jews are drawn to the holy city much more than other Jews.
The increasingly secular nature of the majority of America’s Jews has fed a narrative that the Temple Mount is not central to Jewish prayer or aspirations. As Israel’s new government includes several Orthodox parties in the ruling coalition, the likely promotion of a greater Jewish presence at Judaism’s holiest spot will be cast as foreign and extreme around the world, when it is, and has always been, a basic component of Orthodox Judaism.
The world is tuned in to Qatar to watch soccer during the 2022 World Cup. Being so focused on its favorite sport, the world has ignored local tragedies.
Start with the estimated 6,500 migrant workers who died in Qatar since the small Islamist country won the rights to host the games ten years ago. Approximately 37 deaths were connected to the building of the stadiums, while the others passed in the harsh working environment that is Qatar.
There was no backlash against Qatar.
During the games itself, three journalists died reporting on the matches. Khalid al-Misslam (Qatar), Roger Pearce (UK) and Grant Wahl (USA) died in three separate locations at three different times. It was an extraordinary loss of journalists during a short span.
Despite the highly unusual number of deaths, there would be no claim of murder or poisoning, and no investigation of Qatar.
According to UNESCO, 117 journalists were murdered between 2020 and 2021. This was actually the lowest tally since it began reporting on the situation. The Latin America region had the highest number of murders (38%), followed by the APAC region (32%). In an interesting trend, UNESCO noted that “the percentage of journalist killings in countries not experiencing armed conflict has been increasing since 2016.”
UNESCO claims to have sent letters to 65 countries to understand the status of judicial review of 1,284 killings from 2006 to 2021. Nearly 84% of those cases remain “unresolved.”
Meanwhile, in November 2022, in a highly unusual move, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into the death of Qatar’s Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a firefight in Jenin in May 2022. In the same NOVEMBER week, the Biden Administration decided that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, should be granted immunity in ordering the brutal slaughter and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
Journalists are dying and being murdered in non-conflict zones and there are virtually no investigations into the cases. The Biden Administration is even handing out free passes to his favorite Arab leaders and countries.
Yet at the same time, Biden is investigating Israel for a journalist killed in the middle of a firefight, a double-standard celebrated by those who enjoy demonizing the Jewish State.
J Street is a far-left wing extremist group which markets itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace” to confuse the uninformed that it is something bipartisan and mainstream. It has never been anything of the sort as it made plainly clear again.
The RJC also doesn’t advocate for Israel’s strongest ally to take action against the Jewish State.
On December 1, 2022, J Street issued a statement right before its annual policy conference, called “POLICY STATEMENT: US MUST ACT NOW TO COUNTER EXTREMIST ISRAELI OFFICIALS & POLICY MOVES.” The declaration was made in the hopes of drilling into its supporters and U.S. politicians who joined the rally, that Israel is extremist and Americans must act against the Israeli government in formation.
Over-and-again, the desired “policy statement” called the yet-to-be-formed Israeli government “extremist,” “right-wing,” “radical” and “vicious.” It stated that “we are at the precipice of a crisis in Israel’s relationship with not just the United States but with democratic norms, international law and Diaspora Jews,” and urged “the United States government must not delay in making clear its views on the threats posed by these moves — and take steps to counter them.”
J Street then issued a call for the Biden Administration to reiterate policies it falsely labeled “bi-partisan.” For J Street, that includes the demand that Jews be banned from praying at their holiest location on the Jewish Temple Mount, a plainly anti-Semitic policy.
The alt-left group then called for the United States to take six “concrete steps” against Israel. It included this gem:
“Stating that while Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, parts of the city will also one day be the capital of a Palestinian state and that the contours of the city remain a matter for negotiation and are not “off the table,” as former President Donald Trump claimed;”
If the borders of Israel and a potential Palestinian state are to be negotiated between the parties, it is asinine and counter-productive to declare what the outcome of such discussions will be.
Meanwhile J Street actively supports the Palestinian Authority which demands a Jew-free country, and has a law calling for capital punishment for any Arab who sells land to a Jew. It supports building a seaport in Gaza, so that terrorist groups like Hamas have access to better weapons to attack Israel. It wants Hamas to be part of the Palestinian political process, essentially assuring that Israelis will never be safe if a Palestinian state is created.
Attendees at the 2022 J Street Policy Conference
J Street’s CEO and comrade-laureate, Jeremy Ben-Ami, addressed the audience to demand that members of the group stop theoretically supporting Israel. As reported by the viciously anti-Zionist site Mondoweiss, Ben-Ami said:
“We believe our community for its own sake – even more than for Israel’s sake – must root its identity in a commitment not to a flag or a piece of land but to a set of principles and values. My friends, if we don’t do this, we will see large swaths of our community walk away. Not only will they walk away from engagement with Israel– that’s already happening. They’ll walk away from the Jewish community itself…. Those in the establishment of our community who insist that Jewish America must stand united and unquestioningly loyal to Israel no matter what are doing a deep, deep, disservice to the health of the Jewish community.“
Mondoweiss cheered the Ben-Ami speech and concluded “This is an important speech, as it signals open warfare inside the Israel lobby and the wider Jewish community.” It is a little late to this story, as far-left secular Jews had abandoned Israel and huge sections of the religious Jewish community several years ago to openly embrace progressivism as its true religion.
Anti-Israel activists got it right when they said that J Street has declared “open warfare inside the Israel lobby and the wider Jewish community.” Like the zealots of 2,000 years ago who burned supplies while Jews fought the Roman army assaulting Jerusalem, alt-left Jewry is out to destroy American – and Jewish – support for the reestablished Jewish state.
On December 5, 2022, 126 members of Congress sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging a comprehensive government response to the scourge of anti-Semitism. Many people did not sign the letter despite historic comments that they strongly support Jews, such as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Other names missing from the letter were not surprising.
Consider the nine members of Congress who voted against supplying Israel with funding for its defensive Iron Dome system against Palestinian rockets: Cori Bush (D-MO), Andre Carson (D-IN), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Marie Newman (D-IL), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). None of them signed the letter.
In another vote, several members of Congress voted against supplying Israel with American made weapons in May 2021, as Israel fought against terrorists in Gaza. Co-sponsors included Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Betty McCollum (D-IL) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in addition to Cori Bush, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar. None of them signed the call to combat anti-Semitism letter.
In February 2020, members of Congress voted to send money to the terrorist enclave of Gaza. In addition to Pocan and Debbie Dingell (D-MI), signers to the letter included Don Beyer, Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, André Carson, Judy Chu, Danny K. Davis, Peter A. Defazio, Mark DeSaulnier, Ruben Gallego, Jesús G. “Chuy” García, Raúl Grijalva, Deb Haaland, Jared Huffman, Pramila Jayapal, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., Dan Kildee, Barbara Lee, Betty McCollum, James P. McGovern, Gwen S. Moore, Ilhan Omar, Chellie Pingree, Donald M. Payne Jr., David E. Price, Bobby L. Rush, Jan Schakowsky, Jackie Speier, Rashida Tlaib, Paul Tonko, and Peter Welch. Of this list, the only signers to the letter to fight anti-Semitism were Bonamici, Dingell, Lee and Schakowsky. All of the others did not sign the letter to fight Jew hatred.
While many New York members of Congress signed the fight-anti-Semitism letter including Sen. Kirtsen Gillibrand, Rep. Ritchie Torres, Rep. Grace Meng, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, Rep. Lee Zeldin, Rep. Thomas Suozzi, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Mondaire Jones, several in the tri-state area did not.
Jamaal Bowman, who rejected the Abraham Accords and declined speaking to an American Jewish Committee electoral event, did not sign the letter. Hakeem Jeffries, who is slated to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi as leader of House Democrats also declined to sign. Other anti-Israel New Yorkers like AOC and Paul Tonko also did not sign. Click on the links above to write them voicing your displeasure.
During the 2022 election campaign, J Street, a pro-Palestinian lobbying group which markets itself as “pro-Israel”, wrote checks to 138 members of Congress. Very few of those recipients signed the letter to combat anti-Semitism. Omissions included: Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI), Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA) and many others including those voting for anti-Israel measures listed above, such as Bowman, Newman, McCollum, Tonko, Jayapal, Pocan, Garcia, Carson, Chu and Davis.
Members of the anti-Israel squad all declined to sign the letter urging President Biden to address anti-Semitism
When so many anti-Israel members of Congress also refuse to join decent voices in Congress to combat the scourge of anti-Semitism, it offers another response to the question of whether anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism are one and the same.
Tor Wennesland, the poorly-named United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, who is in fact just a Palestinian promoter, took to the stage to report about the Arab-Israeli Conflict on November 28, 2022.
He once again lied straight to the UN Security Council.
As reported in the UN Press report, Wennesland said that the “two-State solution… still garners considerable support among Palestinians and Israelis.” In fact, the Palestinians poll themselves every three months and have NEVER had a majority supporting a two-state solution.
The PCPSR October 2022 poll showed that Palestinian Arab support for two-states stood at 37%. Three months earlier it was 28%. That’s quite a bit lower than Palestinians who support full blown terrorism, now at 48%, a bit lower than 55% supporting killing Jews three months earlier.
More specifically, according to Palestinians themselves, “Support for the concept of the two-state solution stands at 37% and opposition stands at 60%.” Further, “a majority of 68% opposes and 24% support an unconditional resumption of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.“
The simple reality is that a majority of Palestinians oppose the two-state solution and negotiations, and support killing Jewish Israeli civilians. Yet the United Nations deliberately lies and misdirects to maintain its position in the conflict, an insidious vanity project which has contributed to the deaths of thousands and misery of millions.
Tor Wennesland, the poorly-named United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process
First One Through 