At AIPAC, Joe Biden Waves His Finger While Bernie Sanders Flips the Bird

The annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) gathering kicked off in Washington, D.C. on March 1, 2020 during the highly unusual backdrop of both an election in Israel (March 2nd) and the thick of the presidential campaign in the United States (March 3rd). It was an highly opportune time for politicians and candidates to feed red meat to the pro-Israel crowd.

The politicians with some sanity understood that.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) addressed the audience in an unambiguous style that Israel is a strongly bi-partisan matter for Republicans and Democrats alike. He said that a strong Israel is vital for American interests and that he would always stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the strong American ally and oppose any notion of boycotting the Jewish State. Unfortunately, his time slot was right before dinner so much of the crowd was already out the door and didn’t hear it.

In the morning, Senator Amy Klobuchar who is running for president spoke to the crowd via a pre-recorded message. With the U.S. Capital placed on the green screen behind her, she spoke of her long, strong support for Israel and her desire to see peace emerge in the Middle East.

Foreign leaders took the stage to address the 18,000 people, including from Serbia and Congo, who spoke of their strong affinity for the Jewish people. The president of Serbia recalled how his country was quick to back the Balfour Declaration and has always been proud of its relationship of the Jewish community and stated his desire to deepen the connections to the Jewish State. The leader of the Congo quoted scriptures and spoke of his country’s expanding ties with Jerusalem.

President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, addressing AIPAC in Washington, D.C., March 1, 2020 (photo: First On Through)

President of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, saying he will appoint an ambassador to Israel during the AIPAC conference on March 1, 2020 (photo: First One Through)

And then there was former Vice President Joe Biden. He spoke to the audience via a pre-recorded message that looked like he stepped out of a tour bus into an alleyway to quickly say something to a crowd of people he really preferred not to address. While he said he was pro-Israel, he was not convincing, as he sternly warned the crowd that actions by the Israeli government to approve Jewish housing east of the Green Line risked making Israel a wedge issue in American politics. His meaning was clear: only Republicans would give Israelis unconditional support and the green light to live in Judea and Samaria; a Biden administration would come down hard on Israel.

Vice President Joe Biden addressing AIPAC in a pre-recorded message

The Biden video went off with a thud. Whereas the president of Serbia received a standing ovation, the audience was puzzled why Biden would opt to give a speech that was seemingly crafted by staffers from Code Pink and the New Israel Fund.

The thinning Democratic herd just lost Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer, and the leaders of AIPAC were faced with the realization that despite their repeated assertions that the group works closely with both Democrats and Republicans, the two front runners of the remaining Democrats were either hostile or ambivalent about Israel and the US-Israel relationship: Bernie Sanders called AIPAC a racist “platform for bigotry,” and Joe Biden said that real friends told friends when they were drunk and took away their car keys.

The new president of AIPAC, Betsy Berns Korn sounded the alarm bell. The emergence of politicians against the U.S.-Israel relationship is not limited to a few fringe freshmen members of Congress. It is working its way through the entire political power structure.

In November 2015, Vice President Biden addressed a progressive Jewish crowd and stabbed a finger at Israel, admonishing the entire Jewish State for something a private Israeli citizen had once said about Obama. In March 2020, Biden continued to admonish the Jewish State with a wave of his finger that the American-Israeli bond was very, very conditional, while Senator Bernie Sanders flipped AIPAC the bird. Will the pro-Israel community raise their hands in surrender or take a fighting stance?


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Background Checks, a Palestinian Military and Israeli “Military Occupation”

Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialist and candidate for United States president, has been vocally against the Israeli government which he has called “racist,” and against Israel’s “military occupation” of Palestinian land which denies the Palestinians “dignity.”

Whether one agrees or disagrees with the notions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being a racist, or whether there is a “military occupation,” it requires a certain twisted logic for Sanders to condemn Israel and advocate for Palestinians, while simultaneously advocating for strong background checks in regard to gun safety.

Liberals may note that Sanders spent twenty years opposing any gun control including background checks as a senator from a rural state but he has taken to aggressive background checks now that he is running for president. His campaign specifically calls out:

support [for] “red flag” laws and legislation to ensure we keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and stalkers”

Under current federal law, those convicted of domestic abuse can lose their guns if they are currently or formerly married to their victim, live with the victim, have a child together or are a victim’s parent or guardian. Sanders supported a 2019 amendment expanding the law to stalkers and current or former dating partners. His current campaign pledge of “red flag” laws would further extend those laws to enable law enforcement to seize guns from people who are accused of being a potential threat, even if they have not been convicted of anything.

So Sanders believes that the second amendment of the United States, “to keep and bear Arms,” is not really a right but a privilege, and one which can not only be taken away once convicted by a court, but even with a mere accusation.

Advocates like Sanders argue that such legislation is required to address gun violence – against women in particular – even if it may mean that some Americans are able to own guns while others are not.

Which brings us back to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Sanders objections to Israel.

For decades, the working assumption of a two-state solution included the proviso that a new Palestinian state would be demilitarized, meaning that it would have no standing army. The Trump peace plan advocates for the same, specifically calling for Israel to have full control of border crossings and control of the air. Objectors have stated that such ruling denies Palestinians their dignity and leaves them under Israeli military control. These objectors claim that a Palestinian state without an army is no country at all.

Curiously, many of these detractors in the United States are also progressives who support strict gun control to protect victims and curb violence. However, they excuse the wars, intifadas, stabbings, rockets and bombings of Palestinian Arabs against Israelis. They ignore the incitement to violence and the demonization of Jews from the Arab media and leadership. They discount the antisemitic laws which call for the death penalty for any Arab selling land to Jews. They scoff at polls which show that 93 per cent of Palestinian are antisemitic. For them, the Palestinian Arabs are the victims and any law or aggression they take are purely defensive in nature. It is a “resistance.”

Members of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip [File: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

But the reality is clear: Jews are the most persecuted people in history. Arabs have attacked them since they began coming back to the land of Israel in the 1920’s. To this day, the Palestinian Arabs continue to pay people who kill Jews and voted Hamas to 58% of parliament with the most antisemitic charter in the history of the world.

So the future of a possible two-state solution will have Israel controlling Palestine militarily. It may not meet Bernie Sanders’ ideal of Palestinian “dignity,” but there has never been a group which failed a background test so fantastically.


Related First One Through articles:

Losing Rights

Time to Dissolve Key Principles of the “Inalienable Rights of Palestinians”

International-Domestic Abuse: Obama and Netanyahu

Israel and Wars

The Parameters of Palestinian Dignity

Half Standards: Gun Control and the Iranian Nuclear Weapons Deal

Empowering Women… To Murder

The New York Times Excuses Palestinian “Localized Expressions of Impatience.” I Mean Rockets.

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Belgium Stuns Before It Kills Jews

The annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium will take place today and will likely feature Jews in antisemitic poses as it has in years past. Event organizers were said to have handed out “rabbi kits” with over-sized noses, beards, sidelocks and black hats. Last year’s event featured Orthodox Jews sitting on piles of money which even offended UNESCO (no easy feat) so the organization withdrew the parade from its heritage list.

A parade float at the Aalst Carnival in Belgium featuring caricatures of Orthodox Jews atop money bags, March 3, 2019. (Courtesy of FJO, via JTA)

Aalst Mayor Christoph D’Haese said it is “unavoidable” that Jews will be mocked again this year, saying “we are neither antisemitic nor racist. All those who support this [attack on the parade] are acting in bad faith. Aalst will always remain the capital of mockery and satire.” In other words, stop being so sensitive and enjoy the joke. It’s the larger than life form of French magazine Charlie Hebdo walking down the street. A bit of light fun. A poke. A zinger. It’s not really antisemitic. It’s a light punch in the arm or tweak on the cheek. Shame on you Jews for missing the bigger picture and being offended.

The government of Belgium did not weigh in on the parade. The prime minister, Sophie Wilmes, said it was an “internal affair.”

But the government of Belgium did weigh on another zinger to the Jewish and Muslim community at the end of 2018 when it banned the production of kosher and halal meat.

The government felt that it was inhumane to slaughter an animal while it was conscious, which is required for the production of kosher and halal meats. The government passed a law which went into effect in 2019 that animals be stunned first before killed. That such edict only and directly impacted the Jewish and Muslim communities was considered beside the point. That little zinger to the animal was deemed essential.

The United Nations didn’t weigh in. The world didn’t pause on the cause.

Because for them, animal rights are human rights, just like free speech. If Jews and Muslims are offended, then they must be the parties with the problem.

One sting is a small zinger which makes no difference (free speech) and one which makes all of the difference (animal rights). To Belgians anyway.

Or maybe its actually the opposite; it’s the key to understanding the European approach to antisemitism: a sting makes the slaughter – of Jews or animals – kosher. Antisemitism only exists when it goes for the jugular outright.

Belgian authorities have made clear that the country’s culture demands the stunning of Jews and Muslims, and if they don’t like or appreciate the environment they are free to leave the country.

In 1948, after the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, there were 34 countries with over 25,000 Jews. Today, there are only 17. Expect that number to drop to 16 very soon, as the Jews of Belgium take flight, as they recognize a desensitized environment better than anyone.


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Active and Reactive Provocations: Charlie Hebdo and the Temple Mount

“Protocols of the Elders of Zion – The Musical”

Uncomfortable vs. Dangerous Free Speech

I’m Offended, You’re Dead

I See Dead People

The Antisemitic Youth

The Selfishness, Morality and Effectiveness of Defending Others

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To Serve Jews, United Nations Style

In 1962, the television show The Twilight Zone aired a show called “To Serve Man.” The show featured aliens arriving at the United Nations in New York City who presented themselves as saviors who would bring forth a new era of peace and prosperity for mankind, ending starvation and wars on Earth. Their proposal was greeted warmly, and their manifesto, “To Serve Man,” was understood as a friendly call to service mankind. Only as humans alighted the alien spacecraft to embark on a mission of bi-planet relations, was it revealed that their manifesto was actually a cookbook and humans were on the alien menu.

The friendly face of the United Nations itself is such an alien creature, whose stated mission to service is limited to its authoritarian masses, while it places Jews and the Jewish State in its cross-hairs for devouring.

The United Nations in New York City

The UN was formed at the end of World War II as an outgrowth of the League of Nations. Its new mission was more aggressive than its predecessor, and sought to ensure human rights and promote coexistence as a reaction to the terrible global war and genocide of Jews. But the years after 1945 witnessed the emergence of dictatorships, monarchies and authoritarian regimes around the world which joined the UN, changing its mission to a distorted notion of human rights and decency.

The sole Jewish State became the most targeted country by the United Nations. The various UN agencies advanced specific standing items which called out Israel. So it was a regular day at the UN when the General Assembly passed a resolution in 1975 that equated the national aspiration of Jews as uniquely detestable, with the Zionism is Racism resolution. It was more of the same when the UN Security Counsel declared in 2016 that no Israeli Jews should be allowed to live east of the 1949 Armistice Lines.

The hunger for Jews continued in February 2020, as the antisemitic UN added to its menu, featuring not only Jews but also companies that service Jews.

A February 12, 2020 report to the UN Office of Human Rights listed 112 companies which are “involved in certain activities relating to settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” A total of 94 companies are Israeli and the balance are headquartered in six other countries including the United States. American companies listed include Expedia, Trip Advisor and Airbnb.

So imagine the following scenario: an Israeli Jew and and Israeli Arab who both live in the Israeli city of Jaffa decide to move to the Old City of Jerusalem. The United Nations brands the Israeli Jew as an illegal settler, but not the Israeli Arab. When each of them decides to rent a room in their apartment on Airbnb, the action of the Jew is considered a grave human rights issue, but not when the Arab uses the Airbnb service.

This backward Taliban mentality has become a core of the UN, as anti-Zionism fervor has characterized the reestablishment of the Jewish State as an appalling injustice which must be righted by serving it up whole to its rightful Arab owners.


In 1945, Jews welcomed the creation of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In theory and in hope, the new world order was designed to protect everyone including Jews who would be guaranteed the right to own property (Article 17) and pray at Judaism’s holy sites (Article 18). At inception, the UN seemed to be an organization meant to service all of mankind, but like an episode of the Twilight Zone, the UN blueprint became a recipe book to devour Jews, the Jewish State and any person or organization who services Jews.


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A Review of the Fifteen US Slates for the World Zionist Congress

The World Zionist Congress is holding elections through March 11, 2020. There are fifteen slates running from across the political and religious spectrum. They represent roughly 1,800 individual candidates.

In the last election held in 2015, there were eleven slates representing 1,100 candidates. Reform Judaism took the greatest number of votes by a wide margin, surpassing the combined total of the Conservative and Orthodox slates.

2015 World Zionist Election
United States’ Election Results

Slate Votes Seats
ARZA – Reform Judaism 21,766 56
Mercaz USA – Conservative Judaism 9,890 25
Vote Torah: Religious Zionists 9,594 24
American Forum for Israel 3,773 10
HATIKVAH: Progressive Zionists 3,148 8
ZOA 2,738 7
Zionist Spring 2,696 7
World Sephardic Organization 1,650 4
Alliance for New Zionist Vision 735 2
Green Israel 443 1
Herut North America 304 1

In this WZC election, one of the 2015 slates – Green Israel – did not run again. Two slates modified their names and there are five new slates including Eretz HaKodesh (#1); Dorshei Torah V’Tziyon (#7); Kol Yisrael (#14) and Shas (#15, which was part of Ohavei Zion in the US).

The full list of slates is as follows (with the ordering / numbering having been chosen by the AZM at random):

  1. Eretz Hakodesh: Protecting the Kedusha and Mesorah of Eretz Yisrael
  2. Vote Reform: ARZA Representing the Reform Movement and Reconstructing Judaism
  3. Israel Shelanu (Our Israel)
  4. Orthodox Israel Coalition – Mizrachi: Vote Torah
  5. Vision: Empowering the Next Generation
  6. MERCAZ USA: The Voice of Conservative/Masorti Judaism
  7. Dorshei Torah V’Tziyon: Torah and Israel for All
  8. Hatikvah: Progressive Israel Slate
  9. Ohavei Zion: World Sephardic Zionist Organization
  10. Herut Zionists: The Jabotinsky Movement
  11. ZOA Coalition: Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Torah from Sinai, Make Israel Great (MIG) & National Pro-Israel Partners – Courageously Defending Israel, Sovereignty & the Jewish People
  12. American Forum for Israel
  13. Americans4Israel: Unity, Peace & Security
  14. Kol Yisrael: For the love of Israel – Making Zionism Compelling in the 21st Century
  15. Shas Olami

As in the past election, the main distinction between the slates mostly breaks down according to religious and political philosophy as portrayed on the graphic below.

 

Religiously Oriented
From Most Right to Most Left

Shas Olami (#15)
Eretz Hakodesh (#1)
Orthodox Israel Coalition – Mizrachi (#4)
Dorshei Torah V’Tziyon (#7)
MERCAZ USA (#6)
ARZA-Vote Reform (#2)

Politically Orientated
From Most Right to Most Left

ZOA Coalition (#11)
Herut Zionists (#10)
Israel Shelanu (#3)
Hatikvah (#8)

Outside of Religion and Politics

Kol Yisrael (#14)
Americans4Israel (#13)
Vision (#7)

Many of the groups have a philosophy combining both politics and religion, and only a few have tried to stay out of politics and religion at all such as Americans4Israel.

The Jerusalem Program
and the Deserved Disqualification of Hatikvah (#8)

There are not many requirements to vote in the WZC elections. Most are basic criteria such as being Jewish, 18 years old, a permanent resident of the United States and not having voted in the latest Knesset elections. The more affirmative declaration asks people to accept the “Jerusalem Program.”

The Jerusalem Program was first established in Basel, Switzerland at the First Zionist Congress in 1897 and has changed very little since that time. Small modifications were made after significant events in the life of Israel, including modifications in 1951, 1968 and 2004. All modifications were made by consensus.

Key points of the Jerusalem Program highlight the particularity of Israel as the home of the Jewish people. For example:

  • Strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic society…”
  • “Ensuring the future and distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education…”
  • “… representing the national Zionist interests of the Jewish people…”
  • “Settling the country as an expression of practical Zionism.”

The program clearly focuses on Israel as a Jewish State, not a bi-national state. The focus is on Jews, Judaism and Hebrew, not on Arabs, Islam and Arabic.

Yet one of the slates running for the WZC – Hatikvah (slate #8) – opposes those basic principles. Its members include The New Israel Fund, J Street, T’ruah, Americans for Peace Now. The New Israel Fund is actively trying to promote a bi-national state and tear down the distinctiveness of the Jewish State. J Street lobbied the US’s Obama Administration to enable United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which labeled the Old City of Jerusalem as illegal Occupied Palestinian Territory, the very opposite of settling Jews and strengthening the Jewishness of the country. Leaders of T’ruah loudly came to defense of Linda Sarsour, a vocal anti-Zionist. According to the philosophy of the far-leftist groups of Hatikvah, 11 million Palestinian Arab refugees from across the world – including Israel – should similarly have their own “World Palestinian Congress” to direct Israeli money towards Arab priorities inside of Israel.

While the groups in the Hatikvah slate stated they support the Jerusalem Program to get on the ballot, it has the equivalent honesty of the Pope saying he’s Jewish. It is a Trojan horse to break the very Jewishness of the Jewish State.

Suggested Slates

Competing slates hurt each other as there is a defined number of seats available. Two similar parties might end up losing a seat by dividing their votes, so it makes the most sense for everyone to rally around a single slate within a cluster which best represents their preferences.

Below are suggested slates to improve the probability of your vote having impact. While there are fifteen slates running, only six of them should be given serious consideration.

Right Religiously/ Right Politically: Vote Slate #4, Orthodox Israel Coalition. OIC has a proven ability to get votes. Don’t dilute and divide the focus among Shas Olami (#15) and Eretz Hakodesh (#1).

Right Religiously / Left Politically: Vote Slate #7, Dorshei Torah V’Tziyon. There is no other option.

Non-Religious / Right Politically: Vote Slate #11, ZOA. A proven vote-getter, avoid the smaller Herut (#10) and the niche Sephardic (#9) and Russian (#12) groups.

Non-Religious / Left-Politically: Vote Slate #3, Israel Shelanu. As noted above, Hatikvah (#8) should not be allowed to participate in the WZC as its actions and deeds are counter to the Jerusalem Program. The best platform is therefore with Israeli-Americans.

Non-Religious / No Politics: Vote Slate #14 Kol Yisrael. This group is about countering antisemitism and promoting Israel without getting into the common fights around the role of religion and politics. It’s appeal and mission are broad and inclusive. While Americans4Israel slate #14 has roughly the same mission, the two will dilute each other so people should rally around one. Vision, slate #7 is much the same.

Left Religiously / Left Politically: Vote Slate #6 Mercaz USA. While the ARZA Reform movement has been a dominant slate in the WZC for many years, its leadership has spent too much time bashing the government of Israel publicly and not using its platform to advocate for the Jewish State. Meanwhile, the Mercaz Conservative Movement has been a more constructive progressive voice while also demonstrating its ability to attract voices and advance its agenda.

Whatever your leanings, take the time to vote at zionistelection.org


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Facts and Stats about the World Zionist Congress Elections

The World Zionist Congress, the organization started by Theodor Herzl in 1897, is having elections again through March 11, 2020.

The organization’s continued existence – let alone the election – is seemingly a curiosity. Why continue an assembly whose mission has already been achieved? The dream of Jewish sovereignty in part of the Jewish homeland was reached in 1948, and throughout Jerusalem in 1967. Is the dream of Zionism still unfulfilled? Does it morph over time?

Or is the WZC simply a manifestation of a collective aspiration, no different than Israel’s national anthem, the Hatikvah, which still speaks of “The Hope” of returning to the land of Zion. Does it remain the country’s national anthem to this day because the hope remains unfulfilled as being free doesn’t end with sovereignty but with true enduring freedom, that the hope is sovereignty that stretches over the entirety of the Jewish homeland, or because one doesn’t stop aspiring to something like love, once already in love?

The Election

The American Zionist Movement is in charge of running the elections in the United States. AZM has been around for 80 years and is an umbrella group of 33 Zionist groups. Its staff includes three full-time people and three consultants.

The election is open to every Jew over 18 years old (as of June 30, 2020). It costs $7.50 to register for the elections, down from the $10 fee in 2015, as AZM is striving to increase voter turnout.

At stake is the direction of roughly $1 billion, which is the collective budgets of the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency, JNF-KKL and Keren Hayesod. Various WZC sub-committees will influence the allocation of resources and policies of those organizations. For example, the international program “Birthright” which brings young Jews for a free trip to Israel might either visit Judea and Samaria or be restricted from visiting it depending on whether right-leaning or left-leaning slates get elected to the WZC.

There are fifteen slates in this 2020 election, representing roughly 1,800 candidates with a wide range of viewpoints. A review of those slates can be found HERE.

The WZC Election by the Numbers

The draw of the WZC appears to have faded over the last few decades, at least in the United States. The 56,450 votes cast in 2015 at the last WZC election, was a paltry sum by historical standards. While WZC elections are supposed to be held every five years, it was not held in 2010. In 2006, a total of 75,686 Americans voted in the elections, a total of 88,753 in 2002, and in 1997 the total was 107,832. If those drops of 18%, 15% and 25% between elections look depressing, consider that the 1987 WZC election had 210,957 Americans voting, meaning that during the eventful decade between 1987 and 1997 – those years which included the First Intifada and the Oslo Accords – American apathy towards Israel doubled, if one could use votes in the WZC as a proxy.

Perhaps it is unfair to state that American Jews were distancing themselves from Israel in the 1987 to 1997 decade. The Oslo Accords were controversial for many, and maybe Americans concluded that the concept of the Israeli government considering the views of American Jews when making policy was either historical or a marketing ploy. Just as the national anthem of Israel, “The Hope,” would appear as a more logical dream for people OUTSIDE of Israel than its inhabitants, the idea of being a “free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem,” may have held – and holds – different meanings for Israeli and Diaspora Jews: for the former it is a dream of daily peace, while for Diaspora Jews it is an aspiration to bond the Jewish collective of the people, religion and land. Zionism means different things to people around the world, and certainly on a daily practical level for Israelis living in a hostile neighborhood. The Israeli government may care about the opinions of Diaspora Jews, but within limits, and certainly as it relates to daily security.

In regards to the WZC elections, the United States is unique in that it reaches out to its Jews to vote for its representatives. Of the 525 seats in the World Zionist Congress at this election, the United States is allotted 152, or 29% of the seats. Roughly 37% of the seats go to Israel and 34% to the rest of the world based very roughly on the world’s global Jewish population. Israel allocates its seats based on the members of Knesset and the countries of the world allow their major Jewish organizations to directly decide on their representatives.

The WZC voter turnout has been spotty. The United States has eleven states with populations which are over two per cent Jewish. These “Jewish states” did not have great turnouts at the 2015 WZC elections, with fewer than half having one percent of their populations voting. Meanwhile, some smaller states like Oklahoma and Arizona had great turnouts in 2015, with 4.9% and 2.9% of the Jewish populations voting, respectively. As a consequence, the Jews of Oklahoma had a greater impact than the Jews of Oregon, even while the Jewish population was less than one-tenth the size.

2015 World Zionist Election
States with Highest Percentage Jewish Population

State Per Cent Jewish Population Per Cent of Jews Voting in WZC
California 3.2% 0.5%
Connecticut 3.3% 0.8%
Washington, D.C. 4.3% 1.6%
Florida 3.3% 0.4%
Illinois 2.3% 1.4%
Massachusetts 4.1% 0.8%
Maryland 4.0% 1.2%
New Jersey 5.9% 1.4%
Nevada 2.7% 0.1%
New York 8.9% 1.0%
Pennsylvania 2.3% 0.7%

The global community got seats according to their Jewish populations. While Israel and the USA got 190 and 145 seats at the 2015 election, respectively, other countries received significantly fewer seats: France (23), Canada (20), England (19), Australia (13) and Argentina and Russia each with 10. There were 25 countries with fewer than ten seats. Some countries received “penalties” from the Zionist Supreme Court which reduced their seats, resulting in Germany and the Netherlands each having no representation.

The political leanings of the various countries’ ruling authorities were clear. France voted 30% of their members to Likud and England 36%, while Australia only allotted 8% of the seats to Likud. Putting the various parties into groupings of Left, Center and Right shows an interesting divide in the Jewish world’s orientation towards their religious and political leanings as shown in the table below:

2015 World Zionist Election
Global Religious and Political Leanings

Left Center Right
Israel 29% 21% 50%
US 61% 5% 34%
ROW 47% 14% 39%

Note: Left consists of Kadima, Mercaz Olami, Zionist Union, Arzenu and Meretz; Center consists of Yesh Atid, Kulanu, Confederation, Over the Rainbow and undefined; Right consists of Likud, Mizrachi, Beiteinu Olami and Ohavei Tzion

Israel is more right-leaning and the United States is much more left-leaning than the rest of the world. Almost no Jews in the US vote for centrist slates, a unique phenomenon.

If you want to have your opinions reflected in the direction of Zionism over the next five years, register and vote at zionistelection.org


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The Anger from the Zionist Center

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Antisemitism Includes the Denial of Jewish History

World leaders gathered in Jerusalem in January 2020 to both remember the Holocaust on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp, and to show unity in a fight against antisemitism.

It is right and proper to not only recall the horrors of the Holocaust but also to recognize that world action can defeat the scourge of antisemitism, if it so desires. It is right and proper to hold the event in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish State of Israel. And it is right and proper to unite against antisemitism, as the attacks on Jews have never dissipated, and have become more common, more violent, and more mainstreamed around the world.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) developed a “working definition of antisemitism” and has been achieving some success in getting countries and institutions around the world adopt its definition. In it, the IHRA focused on Israel and the Holocaust in many examples of antisemitism including comparing Israel to Nazis, saying that Jews and Israel exaggerate the Holocaust, stating that Jews have no right to self-determination and that Israel is a racist endeavor.

These were good examples as were the others listed by IHRA which have existed for centuries including “[m]aking mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” and “[a]ccusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.

But the IHRA did not mention another form of antisemitism that has gathered momentum in recent years: the open and complete denial of Jewish history.

People do not just deny the Holocaust or twist its history to fit a narrative to benefit a political agenda like the acting-President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. People around the world – including world leaders – are denying the essence of 3,700 years of Jewish history in Israel and around the world.

  • Denying the thousands of years of Jewish history in Israel, the world calls Jews “colonial invaders” stealing land from the “indigenous” Arabs;
  • Denying that Jews built their two Temples in Jerusalem and that the site is Judaism’s holiest location, the United Nations backs the Arabs’ antisemitic declaration that Jews should be limited access to the site and denied the right to pray there, while the UN only calls the site by its Muslim name;
  • Denying that Jews made Jerusalem their capital city 3,000 years ago and have been a majority population in the city in excess of either Christians or Muslims since the 1860’s, the United Nations passes resolutions condemning the “Judaization” of the city and others stating that it is illegal for Jews to live there

It is both obvious and correct that denying the Holocaust and using Nazi imagery against Jews and Israel is antisemitic but so is denying the long history of Jews and their rights in the holy land.

Israeli flag at the Kotel (photo: FirstOneThrough)

Limiting the definition of antisemitism narrowly to the Holocaust and Israel ties the two together in a false narrative that the world gave Israel to the Jews as penance for European crimes of antisemitism, which in turn produces more antisemitism, as it strips Jews from their three and one-half millenia history in their holy land, and turns them into invaders and thieves.


Related First.One.Through articles:

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Names and Narrative: CNN’s Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Complex Inversion

There is No Jewish Temple Mount for The New York Times

The Holocaust Will Not Be Colorized. The Holocaust Will Be Live.

The Ultimate Chutzpah: A New Form of Holocaust Denial

Seeing the Holocaust Through Nakba Eyes

In the Shadow of the Holocaust, The New York Times Fails to Flag Muslim Anti-Semitism

Palestinians of Today and the Holocaust

The Holocaust and the Nakba

Failing to Mention the British White Paper of 1939 when Discussing Refugees

Organized and Disorganized Antisemitism

Linda Sarsour as Pontius Pilate

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Organized and Disorganized Antisemitism

Analysts have been attempting to place anti-Semites and anti-Semitic attacks into neat buckets for a long time. Recently, people have described the hatred as stemming from three main sources: the alt-right and the alt-left, and in Europe, Muslim antisemitism while in the United States the third category is Black antisemitism. Some argue that groups like the Black Israelites are essentially alt-right Black supremacists, while others consider they are alt-left members of the Black community who “punch up” against the perceived wealthy Jewish landlords and bankers and established white society. Perhaps followers of the Nation of Islam are a mixture of all the groups.

There is merit to this approach but I would suggest that there’s an advantage at looking at the global antisemitism as coming in two main forms without getting into particulars of the attackers’ skin color or religion as it clarifies how to deal with the hatred: organized and disorganized antisemitism, which should be fought directly and swarmed aggressively, respectively.

Organized Antisemitism

Organized antisemitism is easy to recognize because its actions and words are consistent. There is no surprise when a member of the group takes action against a Jewish person or property, as the language of hatred and disdain are in plain sight.

Consider one of the most anti-Semitic groups in the world today, Hamas. It drafted its foundational charter in 1988 based in large part on the Russian forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the worst possible reading of the Koran.

When Hamas launched wars against Israel in 2008, 2012 and 2014, there was no surprise. When it fired rockets against civilians in Israel, no one was shocked. This is a group that does not simply want to have an Arab Palestinian state, they want to rid the land of Jews whom they view as “sons of apes and pigs” and nefarious Nazis, not simply “colonial invaders.”

Fatah, the competing Palestinian political party is only slightly less organized in its Jew hatred. It does not have a charter which demonizes Jews; they prefer to do that on a daily basis with specific actions. These include naming schools and parks after terrorists, paying salaries to terrorists who kill Jews, and having a law which calls for capital punishment for any Arab selling land to Jews. Their party leader and president Mahmoud Abbas wrote his doctoral dissertation on Holocaust denial and he routinely denies that Jews have any history or ties to Jerusalem and bemoans the “Judaization” of Judaism’s holiest city.

It is no surprise that the Palestinian Arabs are the most anti-Semitic according to polls by the ADL, as their two principle political parties function as organized anti-Semitic organizations.

In the United States, organized antisemitism can be found as well.

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the most infamous hate group in the country. It hates Blacks, Jews and others who are not White Christian. It was birthed at the end of the Civil War and was effectively reestablished after World War I in the 1920’s. Some claim that it was the rise of the KKK and its anti-immigrant policies that led the United States to curtail immigration years before the stock market crash of 1929.

Black anti-Semites exist alongside White anti-Semites. The leader of the Nation of Islam is a proud anti-Semite who calls the Jews “vermin” and “Satanic” to a standing ovation of thousands of people.

The largest organization that promotes Jew hatred is the United Nations. While it does not state that it is against Jews in its literature, its actions clearly treat the sole Jewish State as a pariah entity, condemning it more frequently than the other 192 nations combined. It holds Israel to a double standard and doesn’t bat an eyelash when member states talk of destroying the country.

Many media organizations are also overcome with antisemitism, such as Al Jazeera and The New York Times. They routinely call Israel racist and exaggerate real or perceived crimes committed by Jews and under-report when Jews are victims. They claim to be balanced and even-handed but their words make clear their systemic culture of Jew-hatred.

The commonality of the organized anti-Semitic groups are their consistency. They do not waiver in their attitudes towards Jews. They trade in tropes and peddle the vile. They call out the Jew consistently, day by day, page by page. They use their podiums to encourage others to join the jihad, the riot, the pogrom, and the genocide of the Jews and the Jewish State.

Hamas’s 2014 war against Israel, the 2016 United Nations Security Council resolution declaring that Jews living in their holiest city of Jerusalem is illegal and the 2018 alt-Right shooting of a Pittsburgh synagogue are recent examples of organized antisemitism.

Disorganized Antisemitism

Disorganized antisemitism is not carried out by established organizations but by individuals and newly formed groups. They are inspired by the organizations which spout Jew-hatred, but don’t necessarily belong to them.

Consider the European riots against Jews in 2014 while Hamas waged its war against Israel. Many people in cities throughout the continent attacked local Jews, incited by local imams, an antisemitic press and a United Nations which routinely vilified Jews and the Jewish State’s defensive war.

The 2015 attacks by West Bank Palestinians against Jews was called a “stabbing intifada” carried out by “lone wolves.” Those attackers watched Palestinian TV and heard the words of their leaders to kill the Jews. They may or may not have been active politically but they had been brain-washed Jew-hatred for years.

Black Americans have been told by their leaders that they have suffered from rich Jewish landlords and bankers. Therefore it may not have been a surprise when they shot up a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, NJ and axed Jews in Monsey, NY.

People have tried to downplay disorganized antisemitism as a non-issue; one-off attacks committed by desperate people which can be ignored. The liberal approach portrayed the attackers as as much the victims as the actual victims, whether the perpetrator was a disenfranchised Black man or beleaguered Palestinian. They refused to recognize the individuals’ inherent guilt or call out the organized antisemitic infrastructure as being culpable for inciting the antisemitic voices in their heads.

So newer organizations have begun to take shape which adopt the models of the prior organized antisemitic groups. BlackLivesMatter produced a manifesto calling Israel an apartheid state and the Woman’s March snuggled up to Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Zionists were labeled as monsters and a new crop of antisemites were born.

Carmen Perez, Bob Bland, Tamika D. Mallory, and Linda Sarsour attend the TIME 100 Gala on April 25, 2017, in New York. CHARLES SYKES / INVISION / AP)

The Appropriate Response

It is easy to address organized antisemites: block them at every turn. Cancel the subscription to the New York Times and don’t watch any videos produced by Al Jazeera or AJ+. Push the United States to block anti-Israel UN resolutions, defund anti-Israel UN organizations like UNRWA and run foreign policy directly between nations and not via the corrupt UN regime.

Shout down anti-Semites who want to march or speak in your town, whether they be the KKK or the Nation of Islam. Call members of Congress to not accept endorsements from people associated with these groups.

And in regards to the blossoming anti-Semitic organizations like BLM and the Woman’s March, demand that they change their platforms or be treated in the same manner as the established antisemitic organizations.

As for the “lone wolves,” surround them, do not empower them. Bombard them with actual facts about Jews and the Jewish State to counter the antisemitic propaganda they have been taught. Engulf them with a robust Jewish presence, letting them know that Jews will not disappear the way they did in Hebron in 1929, and that they should get used to seeing them as neighbors.

A peaceful world of coexistence must be built on some plain truths, and those include honest assessments of relationships. It is time to aggressively COMBAT organized antisemitism and SWARM disorganized antisemitism. The future security of Jews depends on it.


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Is the Southern Poverty Law Center Part of the Problem of Anti-Semitism?

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) bills itself as the “premier U.S. non-profit organization monitoring the activities of domestic hate groups and other extremists.” In reviewing the articles and analyses on its website, one can see a particular bias in covering hate groups and victims: aggressively monitoring alt-right white supremacist groups while doing very little work on other hate groups, and focusing on anti-Black, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ acts while doing very little work about anti-Semitism.

And it matters, because the average Jew suffers more hate crimes than any other group in America with the pace of hate crimes increasing rapidly, and more hate crimes are increasingly being committed by non-Whites.

SPLC Ignoring The Murder of Jews

On November 12, 2019, the SPLC wrote an article about the FBI Hate Crimes Report of 2018. The article focused on:

  • Blaming white supremacists and President Trump for attacks: “This uptick in violent hate crimes comes on the heels of FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in July, when he said the majority of domestic terrorism investigations are connected to white supremacy. Given President Trump’s incendiary – and often false – rhetoric about immigrants, it is not surprising that the FBI reports a nearly 14 percent increase in hate crimes against Latinos in 2018. A president’s words have consequences, and this administration continues to normalize the bigotry that motivates hate crimes. Earlier this year in El Paso, we witnessed one of the deadliest white nationalist, anti-immigrant acts of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.” But the article didn’t say that anti-Black hate crimes declined by 1.3% in 2018; anti-Jewish crimes by 9.5% and anti-Muslim by 27.4%. What’s more, while the total hate crimes against those groups went down, the anti-White hate crimes JUMPED by 20.1%, the largest one year increase since 2012.
  • No discussion of anti-Jewish murders. The report noted an increase in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes and that the largest percentage of hate crimes were against Blacks. But it said nothing about the facts that an average Jew was three times more likely to suffer a hate crime than an average Black person. It said nothing about the slaughter of Jews in Pittsburgh, the largest mass shooting of Jews in U.S. history. NOTHING. The words “anti-Semitism” and “Jews” never even made the article, even as the number of murders reached 1.0% of total hate crimes for the first time since the FBI has kept such statistics, mostly due to the killing of Jews.

That article was not an aberration in focusing on White perpetrators and ignoring Jewish victims.

Go to the site’s tab on “Hate & Extremism.” The only hate groups featured are all White supremacist, even though it claims to track 1,600 hate groups, many of whom are anti-White.

In an article describing the “Year in Hate” on February 15, 2017, the  SPLC bemoaned the increase in anti-Muslim hate groups which it claimed was not unexpected. Why?

“By far the most dramatic change was the enormous leap in anti-Muslim hate groups, from 34 in 2015 to 101 last year — a 197% increase. But that explosion was not unexpected. Anti-Muslim hate has been expanding rapidly for more than two years now, driven by radical Islamist attacks including the June mass murder of 49 people at an Orlando, Fla., gay nightclub, the unrelenting propaganda of a growing circle of well-paid ideologues, and the incendiary rhetoric of Trump — his threats to ban Muslim immigration, mandate a registry of Muslims in America, and more.”

Read that highlighted section again: a Muslim extremist killed 49 members of the LGBT community in a horrible hate crime, and rather than call attention to the victims being LGBT and the perpetrator being Muslim, the SPLC reoriented the reader to state that presumably White people are anti-Muslim because a Muslim killed gay people. Huh? SPLC, are you warning us that White people are the real problematic haters because they don’t like Muslims slaughtering gay people?

The article capturing the year in hate mentioned “Muslims” fifteen times, while “Jews” was referenced just three times. This despite there being 834 hate crimes against Jews and 381 against Muslims, according to the FBI in 2016. Where’s the focus and where’s the problem?

When the SPLC addressed the shooting of Jews in Poway, CA on April 27, 2019, it focused on the perpetrator: “Once again, a young white male has apparently been influenced by dangerous online white supremacist propaganda. And once again, we see how this propaganda can lead to terrorist acts.” But when the attacks in Jersey City, NJ were committed by Black people, SPLC seemed to be confused as to whether the two killers belonged to the Black Israelites which SPLC labels as a hate group, while noting “many Hebrew Israelites are neither explicitly anti-white nor antisemitic and do not advocate violence, there is a rising extremist sector within the movement.” Maybe the killers were part of the group, maybe not. The group is considered a hate group, but many people are not really racists. It’s very clear, thank you. It seems that uniquely among the 1,600 hate groups the SPLC tracks, there may be some “very fine people” (to quote Donald Trump) among the Black Israelites.

When Jews were attacked again on Hanukkah 2019, SPLC saidWhen any one of us is attacked, we are all at risk. This is a time in which the voices for good cannot be silent. Stand with the Jewish community and SPLC as we continue to challenge the rise in anti-Semitism. As Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote: “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” Thank you for your recent concern. You’ve been absolutely mum for years.

People have described Jews as the canary in the coal mine when it comes to hate crimes but what happens to the miners when the person who claims to be in charge of watching the canary is in fact staring at everything else but the canary? The canary dies and the miners are too sick to even escape.

And here we are.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has systematically ignored the plight of Jews in America for years while it solely focused on white supremacists attacking Blacks and Muslims. In doing so, it has failed the Jews and it has failed America.

Protester in New York City’s March Against Hate, January 5, 2020 (photo: FirstOneThrough)


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The Heartwarming Story of My Guilty Demise

Imagine that from tragedy sprang hope. That from murder, came unity.

It’s a beautiful image of rebirth that gives us hope that the world can be a better place. It’s the stuff that makes us get up each morning with a sense of optimism.

Does that story truly work for ALL scenarios? Does the sentiment described above have a uniquely linear orientation to be truly positive, or is it an uplifting message regardless of the actors and their roles?

Consider a different scenario than the one that actually played out in 2014, when an “incel,” an involuntary celibate man by the name of Elliot Rodger went on a killing spree in California because girls would not go out with him. Imagine that in the days following his murders that various women from sororities at the university took his message to heart and went out of their way to be nice to all men they encountered. Wouldn’t that have been a heartwarming gesture for the many men who felt neglected by women?

That approach of “restorative justice” did not happen. Rodger was roundly denounced and the incel community was labeled as a dangerous group that unjustly targets women. These celibate men were further marginalized by society and denounced for having horribly hateful ideas which only gained legitimacy in the cramped echo chamber of their social media consoles.

The victims did not reach out to their attackers, as society played out its normal process of criticizing the perpetrators. It made no demand of the victims, as to do so would have suggested that they were not truly innocent but had a shared responsibility in the attack against their persons.

People rallied to the victims, not the attackers.

If immediately after the attack, a male member of the university school board said that the voices of the marginalized men must be heard and that women should be kinder to men, people would not have come to his defense. Women’s groups would have demanded his resignation by the end of the day.

But our world doesn’t always operate consistently. For 99.8% of the world, there is a common language, which could be called base 10 in mathematics. For Jews, there is a different standard, base 666; it is the calculus based on the formula that Jews are evil and can never be truly innocent.

So people came to defend a Black member of the Jersey City school board who said that the Black murderers of Jews had a valid point that Jews were “brutes” ruining the community. People considered that Jews caused their own demise for moving into a predominantly Black neighborhood.

Because dead Jews are not the same as dead women.

Such attitude is not limited to the non-Jewish world. Even in its own progressive papers, Jews are called upon to consider how their own actions cause people to hate and kill them.

The New York paper The Jewish Week ran a story on January 3, 2020 about the aftermath of the shooting death of people in a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, NJ just weeks earlier. It was a story meant to inspire.

The article noted how Blacks and Jews “United” for a holiday charity drive. It described how Jews and Blacks came together to bring food and toys to the Black community in Jersey City for Christmas.

I had to read the article twice to make sure I caught the facts underlying the message.

The article did not write about the Black community delivering presents to the Jews for Hanukkah as would have met the natural linear thinking of reconciliation. No, no. Too simple. This was a story where the Jews tacitly admitted their guilt at being killed for not being good neighbors and not getting to know the people in the community.

Hannukah 2019 was turned into the holiday of Purim, where everything was upside down. Not only were Jews killed but they voluntarily handed out sweets to their attackers and apologized for getting their dirty Jewish blood on the attackers’ hands. Another “al chet” to consider during Yom Kippur: too many al chets.


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