Israel vs. Iran?

When I was in Israel in the spring of 2012, on sabbatical, there was lots of war talk between Israel and Iran, but nothing happened. I even wrote a short blog post on the question of when to plan the European vacation, wishing to be notified ahead of time when I should visit Europe to avoid the Iranian counterattack if Israel bombed the Iranian nuclear facilities. Well, today it sounds like there actually will be an Iranian attack on Israel, in retaliation for several recent Israeli attacks on Iranian weapons depots in Syria.

According to Haaretz, just now:

Also Tuesday, the Israeli ordered communities in the northern Golan Heights, near the Israel-Syria border, to open shelters to the public after identifying "unusual movements" of Iranian forces in Syria, the military said in a statement.

The Israeli army believes Iran is making efforts to carry out an imminent retaliation against Israel. Intelligence officers and other specialized forces have been called up, though reserve combat units have not been drafted.

CNN reported that Pentagon officials are concerned about signs that Iran might be preparing a military strike against Israel from Syria.

Israeli military bases were preparing for a possible Iranian attack.

Israel believes Iran is determined to retaliate for the April 9 airstrike on Syria’s T4 airbase, which killed seven Iranian military advisers and members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Iran blames Israel for this attack. 

The military said any Iranian strike against Israel will be met with a severe response, even as the working assumption is that Iran is has limited capabilities to engage in conflict with Israel. 

Earlier, the U.S. Embassy in Israel issued an alert warning all U.S. government employees not travel to the Golan Heights unless they obtain an approval in advance. "Due to the recent tensions in the region, until further notice, U.S. government employees are required to obtain advance approval if they wish to travel to the Golan Heights," the warning on the website read. 

For more details on the opening of bomb shelters in northern Israel, see this Ynet article: https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5255105,00.html

The IDF went on high alert for a possible flare-up with neighboring Syria on Tuesday as US President Donald Trump announced he was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. 

The IDF said that, after identifying "irregular activity" by Iranian forces in Syria, it instructed civic authorities on the Golan Heights to ready bomb shelters, deployed new defenses and mobilized some reservist forces. 

The order to prepare bomb shelters on the Golan was unprecedented during Syria's civil war. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally.

"In recent years, we've been making preparations in coordination with the IDF and the Home Front Command so we could deal with escalation in the Golan area in the best possible way," said the head of the Golan Regional Council Eli Malka. "We've been witnessing the very significant preparations the IDF has been doing all over the Golan, and we're confident the IDF could provide a proper response and defend the residents of the Golan and the State of Israel. 

In addition to the Golan, mayors in other northern communities ordered the opening of bomb shelters.

In Safed, while receiving no specific instructions from the IDF on the matter, the mayor decided to open public shelters to help residents feel more secure.

"The public is being asked to ensure the shelters in residential buildings are accessible, clean and aired-out," a message to Safed residents said.

The mayor of Karmiel got no special instructions from the military either, but nevertheless decided to open public shelters as well.

Israel has posted Iron Dome short-range air missile defenses on the Golan, suggesting that the anticipated attack could be by ground-to-ground rockets or mortars.

Also, Israel apparently just carried out airstrikes in Syria, south of Damascus.

#BREAKING
A huge explosion caused by Israeli raids shook south of the Syrian capital #Damascus in the area of #Alkaswa where there is an Iranian military base.#Israel #Syria #USA #Trump #IDF #NuclearDeal pic.twitter.com/DhBRdRDKNF

— Eva J. Koulouriotis (@evacool_) May 8, 2018

Israel missile strikes in #Syria now confirmed by Syrian state TV https://t.co/VGKDTelBbF

— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) May 8, 2018

Israeli jets reportedly carrying out heavy overflights over Lebanon's southern coast. https://t.co/pG3kpZcada

— David Daoud (@DavidADaoud) May 8, 2018

#BREAKING
Video shows the size of the Israeli air strike that targeted the base and storage place of the Iranian missiles in #Alkaswa area south of the Syrian capital #Damascus.#Israel #Syria #USA #Trump #IDF #NuclearDeal #Iran #Russia pic.twitter.com/K4Bsj5tlu8

— Eva J. Koulouriotis (@evacool_) May 8, 2018

Update: #Israel army reinforcement arrive in 'Ein Qiniyyah town in #Golan Heights,#Syria
📸 pic.twitter.com/lMgr06nuL8

— Mete Sohtaoğlu (@metesohtaoglu) May 8, 2018

#Pt. Another video showing wreckages & fire following #Israe|i airstrikes tonight near #Kiswah, S. of #Damascus. Vehicles & factory were bombed. pic.twitter.com/gQGWV5Bjsd

— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) May 8, 2018

#Pt. Video surveillance showing one of those #Israel|i airstrikes near #Kiswah. Ground sources openly talking about presence of #Iran|ians/#IRGC in area. pic.twitter.com/5zVptprJut

— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) May 8, 2018

Some dancing goddesses

Source: http://blog.ninapaley.com/2018/01/01/24-free-goddess-gifs/.

Close-up of a hummingbird

Photo by Chris Morgan

See on his Flickr account: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismorgan/5695626002/in/album-72057594125556786

You'll find many more beautiful photos of birds there - 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismorgan/sets/72057594125556786/with/12859192083

And here's his photostream:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismorgan/with/21977986202/

GOD - Kendrick Lamar

GOD, from Kendrick Lamar's DAMN, winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for Music.

 

Today's Google Doodle for Israeli Independence Day

Yom ha-Shoah 2018 - the murder of the Jews of Liepaja, Latvia

Tonight and tomorrow are Yom Ha-Shoah, and this is a post commemorating the deaths of the Jews of Latvia, among whom were my grandfather's uncle, Mordekhai Falkon, and his wife, Dobra Falkon.

A few years ago, I joined a Facebook group for Latvian and Estonian Jews in Israel. One of the latest posts provided a link to a documentary that has been made recently on the murder of the Jews of Latvia. (It is one of several made in the series, "SEARCHING FOR THE UNKNOWN HOLOCAUST").

The documentary, called "Drawers of Memory: The Holocaust in Latvia," interviews Jewish survivors and their non-Jewish neighbors about what happened in 1941, after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union and conquered the Baltic states. A very high proportion of the Jews of Latvia were murdered by the Nazis and their Latvian collaborators, mostly by shooting (part of the "Holocaust of Bullets" which was perpetrated by the Einsatzgruppen, the squads of killers that followed the Wehrmacht as it invaded and conquered the western Soviet Union).

If you click on the video, it brings you to the segment on Liepaja (also known as Libau), where my grandfather's uncle, Mordekhai Falkon, lived with his wife Dobra. Mordekhai was probably killed in the summer of 1941, while Dovra probably died at the beach of Skede, north of Liepaja, where thousands of Liepaja Jews were murdered during December 15-17, 1941. The video shows the memorial at Skede, and the beach where people were killed. There are shown some photographs in a book of the Jews at Skede, before, during, and after they were shot. (My assumption is that a Nazi soldier or a Latvian collaborator took the photographs).

The Cave of Hands

Several waves of people occupied the cave where these paintings appear: the silhouettes of the hands were created in a period between 13,000 to 9,000 years ago, using bone-made pipes for spraying the paint on the wall. We've been rarely alone. https://t.co/cRARXTEsh0 pic.twitter.com/m9uZ375wQx

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 8, 2018

America's Federally Funded Ghettos

On a different note, from the New York Times editorial for today -

Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, showed utter contempt for his agency’s core mission last month when he proposed deleting the phrase “free from discrimination” from the HUD mission statement. Yet Mr. Carson is not the first housing secretary to betray the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968 — which turns 50 years old this week — by failing to enforce policies designed to prevent states and cities from using federal dollars to perpetuate segregation. 

By its actions and failure to act, HUD has prolonged segregation in housing since the 1960s under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The courts have repeatedly chastised the agency for allowing cities to confine families to federally financed ghettos that offer little or no access to jobs, transportation or viable schools. The lawsuits, filed by individuals and fair housing groups, have forced the agency to adopt rules and policies that have been crucial in advancing the goals of the Fair Housing Act.

It's well worth reading the whole editorial, as it succinctly lays out the case that residential segregation in the US was substantially created (in the North) by government action, and that it's necessary for the federal government to finally start fully enforcing the Fair Housing Act, passed in the 1968 after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why was Yaser Murtaja killed?

Why was Yaser Murtaja killed, and why were six other Palestinian journalists wounded on Friday, April 6, 2018? Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man writes on +972 on the IDF frequently targeting Palestinian journalists:

The circumstances are that the Israeli military, which insists it doesn’t target journalists, has a highly discouraging record of failing to hold its soldiers and pilots and generals accountable for targeting and killing journalists in Gaza. That includes the 2012 assassination of two journalists who were traveling in a car clearly marked “TV,” numerous airstrikes on media and broadcast offices, and more. 

The circumstances are that, week in and week out, Israeli security forces consistently fail to differentiate between Palestinian journalists and the protests and events they are covering, using violence against both without distinction. In countless cases, documented and undocumented, journalists have been clearly targeted by troops — and the army often brazenly defends that violence.

This is the beginning of Omer-Man's article:

A State-Sponsored Mass shooting 

On a day when military snipers shot hundreds of unarmed demonstrators, the army declares that ‘the circumstances in which journalists were wounded are unknown.’ The circumstances couldn’t be clearer.  

Palestinian protesters take cover behind a dirt mound as Israeli soldiers open fire from across the border in the distance, east of Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, April 6, 2018. Israeli snipers have killed over 30 people and shot over 1,000 others since The Great Return March began a week earlier. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)  

Israeli army sharpshooters and snipers have shot over 1,000 unarmed Palestinian protesters inside the Gaza Strip in the past week, killing more than 30 people. This past Friday, at least six Palestinian journalists were reportedly among those shot at the Great Return March. One of them, Yasser Murtaja, a photographer for “Ain Media” who was reportedly wearing a helmet and vest clearly marked “PRESS” when he was shot, later died of his wounds.

Go to +972 to read the entire story.

A eulogy for Yaser Murtaja

Yasser Murtaja, with a cat sitting on his camera.

A eulogy by Anas N. Almassri, posted on his Facebook page.

While at work today, I was translating the news of deaths and casualties from the border areas. The name of a dear friend, Yaser Murtaja, a husband, a father, and a young photojournalist, was on the list. Yaser was an ambitious entrepreneur; he co-built one of Gaza's most thriving media companies, عين ميديا Ain Media. Through his eyes, the lens of his camera, and the quality work of his company, Yaser documented stories of pain but also of hope, of misery but also of joy and success. Yaser was there on popular celebrations and university graduation ceremonies, yet never just as a photojournalist; he was everybody's wish for a humorous friend--time with Yaser was a genuine bliss. The largest number of his selfies are with happy graduating men and women, with talented children, with singing girls, with loving friends, and satisfied clients. He was furthermore a good friend of nature and the environment; through his camera, I myself restored my appreciation of the beauty of nature in Gaza even when it has grown to be too polluted, now far uglier with the tragic death of him, a modest, kind and very helpful friend. 

Yaser did not deserve the live fire that sent his young and pure soul to eternal sleep, his laughter to forced cessation, and his talent to a melancholy end. I do not agree with the idea of continuing these demonstrations, or even holding them this way in the first place; it is stupid and truly life-demeaning, but I also do not agree with the way Israeli forces are using their mighty power to fatally wound Palestinians. The Palestinians, the Israelis, the free and responsible citizens of the globe should all equally be alarmed by the death and injury of more people like Yaser, who now left his young family in lasting grief and insurmountable trauma of missing him. What is happening is, yes, dehumanizing to the Palestinians, but it is even more so to the Israeli snipers who shoot to kill. I quote my friend Mohammed Alhammami in wondering about "what the soldier was thinking. What kind of upbringing he had, what kind of series of life events that led him to this very moment [the shooting of a civilian protected under legal and moral terms], where he thought it was completely fine to shoot and kill another human being. How dehumanizing is this?" 

May this bloodshed stop. May peace take over. and may Yaser's soul rest in warmth, comfort and joy in a better place. Amen!

For more on his life, see this article from Al Jazeera - Yaser Murtaja's Dreams of Travelling.html.

Real People are Dying in Gaza

I feel sick about what is happening in Gaza. I've read all the justifications for why Israeli forces have to use live fire, about how Hamas is using a civilian protest to try to get terrorists to the border to enter Israel and attack Israelis (which may be true, at least in part), about how all the Palestinians demonstrating at the border are terrorists. What do Palestinians themselves say? Do we automatically think that everything the IDF spokesperson's office says is true?

And, they aren't all terrorists. One non-terrorist was shot and injured today, and then died of his wounds - a Palestinian journalist, a photographer named Yasser Mourthaja. He was wearing a vest that had PRESS printed on it. (Source: Noga Tarnopolsky on Twitter).

Yasser Mourthaja

From Alex Kane, about Yasser Mourthaja:

Confirmed: Israeli army shot and killed Palestinian video journalist Yasir Murtaja. He was wearing a press jacket when he was sniped down. 

In a Facebook post written on March 24, two weeks before Israeli forces killed him, Yasser Murtaja writes of his wish to take photos from the air, not the ground, and says: "My name is Yasser Murtaja. I'm 30. I live in Gaza City and all my life I've never traveled."

Ali from Gaza wrote: "Journalist Yaser Murtaja. After hours of injury, he announced the news of his death. He was shot by Israeli snipers today. No right to the press about the Israeli occupation. Where are human rights?" (This is how Ali identifies himself: "The identity #Palestinian Social worker and psychiatrist #Photographer My life for the children of Gaza Travel to achieve my ambitions. instgram/ali from gaza").

From Elior Levy, about an hour ago. Levy is the Palestinian affairs correspondent and analyst for the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot.

"During the night two Palestinians died from their injuries as a result of the confrontations on the Gaza border yesterday. One of them was a journalist - Yasser Mourthaja, documentary photographer. He was shot in the stomach in the southern (Gaza) strip when he was photographing demonstrators. He wore a vest on which was written PRESS. The number of Palestinians killed yesterday stands at 9."

Mourthaja was not the only Palestinian journalist who was injured by Israeli forces on Friday. The Palestinian journalists' union said that six others were injured. "The union said the six were shot despite wearing clothes clearly identifying themselves as journalists, adding it held Israel 'fully accountable for this crime.'”

According to Omar Ghraieb, posting on Twitter on Friday morning:

Omar Ghraieb Another photojournalist, Ibrahim Al Za'noon, got injured by #Israel while covering #GreatMarchofReturn today. #Gaza

Some more tweets from Omar Ghraieb. Let's listen to what he and other Gazans say. They aren't all members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad or the Salafist factions. Imagine what it must be like to live in Gaza, with the economy collapsing, the environment increasingly polluted, very little clean water - even the IDF admits this is happening.

Dept. of Homeland Security Compiling Database of Journalists and Bloggers

I have the feeling of Big Brother creeping into our lives....

Homeland Security to Compile Database of Journalists, Bloggers

Photo by Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

    

By Cary O'Reilly - Bloomberg Government

April 5, 2018

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers.”

It’s seeking a contractor that can help it monitor traditional news sources as well as social media and identify “any and all” coverage related to the agency or a particular event, according to a request for information released April 3.

The data to be collected includes a publication’s “sentiment” as well as geographical spread, top posters, languages, momentum, and circulation. No value for the contract was disclosed.

“Services shall provide media comparison tools, design and rebranding tools, communication tools, and the ability to identify top media influencers,” according to the statement. DHS agencies have “a critical need to incorporate these functions into their programs in order to better reach federal, state, local, tribal, and private partners,” it said.

The DHS wants to track more than 290,000 global news sources, including online, print, broadcast, cable, and radio, as well as trade and industry publications, local, national and international outlets, and social media, according to the documents. It also wants the ability to track media coverage in more than 100 languages including Arabic, Chinese, and Russian, with instant translation of articles into English.

The request comes amid heightened concern about accuracy in media and the potential for foreigners to influence U.S. elections and policy through “fake news.” Nineteen lawmakers including Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month, asking whether Qatar-based Al Jazeera should register as a foreign agent because it “often directly undermines” U.S. interests with favorable coverage of Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria.

The DHS request says the selected vendor will set up an online “media influence database” giving users the ability to browse based on location, beat, and type of influence. For each influencer found, “present contact details and any other information that could be relevant, including publications this influencer writes for, and an overview of the previous coverage published by the media influencer.”

A department spokesman didn’t immediately return a phone call and email seeking comment.

Responses are due April 13. Seven companies, mainly minority- or women-owned small businesses, have already expressed interest in becoming a vendor for the contract, according to the FedBizOpps web site.

— With assistance from Daniel Snyder

More antisemitism from "The Labour Party Supporter" Facebook page.

It's just astonishing to see how many posts can be made to a Facebook page called "The Labour Party Supporter" that are blatantly antisemitic. The people who post to the page seem far more enthusiastic about attacking Jews than they do about helping or supporting Palestinians. If their focus was on criticizing Israel for what is does to hurt Palestinians, I would find that much more understandable - even if I wouldn't always agree with them. But being anti-Jewish is obviously far more compelling to the active members of the page.

And just to remind you all - this is the Facebook group that Jeremy Corbyn signed up to himself.

I was just kicked out of the group, but I still have screenshots of antisemitic posts from several members, Sheem Bari, Dara Miah, and Keith Everson - for them, see below.

Sheem Bari, apparently to celebrate Easter, has posted a series of antisemitic Youtube videos about how the Jews killed Jesus.

Sheem Bari always seems to think that the Jews control the Labour Party. Bari wants to kick all the Jews out of the Labor Party and not talk about the Holocaust. (Despite the fact that Bari has stated this, she has posted several links to articles about the supposed Muslim Holocaust.

Dara Miah, a frequent poster, is always going on about "Zionist Terrorists" and "Child Abusers" who "attack Islam." Dara never engages in a bit of introspection to wonder why he hates Jews.

And finally, Keith Everson has posted several times on the mural that Jeremy Corbyn did not originally recognize as antisemitic. Apparently he's having the same problem.

Antisemitic postings on FB group Labour Party Supporter

I joined the Facebook group "Labour Party Supporter," which Jeremy Corbyn used to be a member of (he's not anymore, although he was a member for seven years). The group is rife with antisemitic postings, which are sometimes challenged by members of the group and other times are defended. Here are some examples (with names of posters removed):

This is the antisemitic mural by Mear One that was removed several years ago, but which came up once again recently because it was discovered that Corbyn had written a comment on it that did not note in any way how antisemitic it was. One member of the group asked "Is the Jewish State like (Russia on the USA) conducting an attack on the Labour Party?"

This is a comment posted on a discussion about the mural.

One of the admins posted a link to a blatantly antisemitic Youtube video:

This same admin Sheem Bari, identifies himself on his Facebook profile as a "campaign manager at the Labour Party." I wonder why he's still a campaign manager after posting such vile antisemitism, since the party is supposed to be kicking out its antisemitic members.

On his own page he posted some other unambiguously antisemitic material. He's a fan of David Icke.

Another member posted an FB post from George Galloway, who has been expelled from the Labour Party, and who typically said it's all about Palestine:

Another member posted from the vile Tony Greenstein. She's posted other items from his blog as well (as have other members of the group). He's also been kicked out of the Labour Party.

One of the moderators posted a statement from the Jewish Voice for Labour group, inviting people to their Monday counter-demonstration.

He also posted this question about the infamous mural:

Another member put up a blog post from Tony Greenstein, this time an attempt by Greenstein to deny Adam Bull's antisemitism and Holocaust denialism (which Bull has been suspended from Labour for).

And on and on. How did Corbyn manage to be in this group for 7 years and not notice the blatant antisemitism?

Redux: Cats at the Seder

Re-upping this post from three years ago:

The Jewish Studies Library at Oxford has posted a charming article about depictions of cats at Pesach seders in medieval manuscripts. Here are some of these delightful images.

Forli Siddur, Italy, 1383 (London, British Library, MS Add. 26968, fol. 119v). 

Second Nuremberg Haggadah, Ashkenaz, 1460s

(Jerusalem, Schocken Library, MS 24087, fol. 3v)

From the Oxford Jewish Studies Library:

In some medieval miniatures of the Seder feast, feline creatures appear under the table at the feet of the celebrating family. 

What do these animals do at such an occasion? 

The Pesahim tractate of the Babylonian Talmud discusses at length what to do if a mouse runs into the searched house with a bread crumb in its mouth (bPes 10b). The question is if the house has to be searched again or not. 

In the Second Nuremberg Haggadah, the cat itself comments on its task: “Behold, I bite the mouse, lest he eat the grain” (הנני נושך בעכבר פן יאכל את הבר). Another image on the same folio depicts a man pouring the content of a bowl into a big vessel. The caption says: “One hides the leaven and the grain, lest the mouse drag it away.” Thus it seems that cats are “invited” to catch mice which might bring in some leavened bread crumbs to the searched and already ritually clean house.

Prayer book, Italian rite, 15th century (London, British Library, MS Or. 11924, fol. 153v)

Sister Haggadah, Catalonia (Barcelona), 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 14th century 

(London, British Library, MS Or. 2884, fol. 18r)

"Enough is Enough": against antisemitism in the British Labour Party

Statement by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council:

Today, leaders of British Jewry tell Jeremy Corbyn that enough is enough. We have had enough of hearing that Jeremy Corbyn “opposes antisemitism”, whilst the mainstream majority of British Jews, and their concerns, are ignored by him and those he leads. There is a repeated institutional failure to properly address Jewish concerns and to tackle antisemitism, with the Chakrabarti Report being the most glaring example of this. 

Jeremy Corbyn did not invent this form of politics, but he has had a lifetime within it, and now personifies its problems and dangers. He issues empty statements about opposing antisemitism, but does nothing to understand or address it. We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate antisemitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities.

When Jews complain about an obviously antisemitic mural in Tower Hamlets, Corbyn of course supports the artist. Hizbollah commits terrorist atrocities against Jews, but Corbyn calls them his friends and attends pro-Hizbollah rallies in London. Exactly the same goes for Hamas. Raed Salah says Jews kill Christian children to drink their blood. Corbyn opposes his extradition and invites him for tea at the House of Commons. These are not the only cases. He is repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly antisemitic views, but claims never to hear or read them. 

Again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with antisemites rather than Jews. At best, this derives from the far left’s obsessive hatred of Zionism, Zionists and Israel. At worst, it suggests a conspiratorial worldview in which mainstream Jewish communities are believed to be a hostile entity, a class enemy. When Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party, Jews expressed sincere and profound fears as to how such politics would impact upon their wellbeing. Our concerns were never taken seriously. Three years on, the Party and British Jews are reaping the consequences. 

Routine statements against antisemitism “and all forms of racism” get nowhere near dealing with the problem, because what distinguishes antisemitism from other forms of racism is the power that Jews are alleged to hold, and how they are charged with conspiring together against what is good. This is not only historic, or about what Jeremy Corbyn did before being Party leader. It is also utterly contemporary. There is literally not a single day in which Labour Party spaces, either online or in meetings, do not repeat the same fundamental antisemitic slanders against Jews. We are told that our concerns are faked, and done at the command of Israel and/or Zionism (whatever that means); that antisemitism is merely “criticism of Israel”; that we call any and all criticism of Israel “antisemitic”; that the Rothschilds run the world; that ISIS terrorism is a fake front for Israel; that Zionists are the new Nazis; and that Zionists collaborate with Nazis. 

Rightly or wrongly, those who push this offensive material regard Jeremy Corbyn as their figurehead. They display an obsessive hatred of Israel alongside conspiracy theories and fake news. These repeated actions do serous harm to British Jews and to the British Labour Party. 

Jeremy Corbyn is the only person with the standing to demand that all of this stops. 

Enough is enough. 

Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jewish Leadership Council

Jeremy Corbyn's favorite antisemites

Liam Hoare on Twitter has assembled a greatest hits list of Jeremy Corbyn's association with blatant antisemites. Jeremy Corbyn is the head of the British Labour Party, and if Labour wins the next election, he could become the Prime Minister.

The latest row about his patience with antisemites arose because of a response he made on Facebook in 2012 to an antisemitic mural that had been painted in London. I remember when the whole issue of the mural arose in 2012, but Corbyn wasn't involved then (since he wasn't the head of the Labour Party then).

In 2015, the Jewish Chronicle asked: Did Jeremy Corbyn back artist whose mural was condemned as antisemitic? They didn't receive an answer.

This is the mural and Corbyn's response in 2012:

The leaders of the British Jewish community have called for a rally at Parliament tomorrow to protest against the lax attitude towards antisemites and antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Here's the list:

Just a note: another founder of Deir Yassin Remembered is Daniel A. McGowan, who lives in Geneva, New York, and is also an antisemitic Holocaust denier. I've written about him several times on this blog: https://mystical-politics.blogspot.com/search?q=daniel+a.+mcgowan. Here's an article on Corbyn's connections with Paul Eisen and DYR in Britain: Jeremy Corbyn's links to Paul Eisen.html.

Black teenagers in Philadelphia wonder: Why doesn't the world listen to them?

The world is listening to Parkland teens. Some Philly kids wonder: Why not us?

Milan Sullivan is horrified that 17 people died in a mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school. And she does not disagree with the teenage survivors who have stood up since the massacre, demanding action on gun violence. 

But she’s not leaving class next week for the National School Walkout, and she won’t board a bus for Washington for the March for Our Liveson March 24. Sullivan, a junior at Mastery Charter School-Shoemaker, is all for activism, but she is like a lot of her classmates: hesitating a little over this particular movement. 

For some students, it’s because they feel too removed from things that go on in suburban high schools in far-away places, or they feel numb to gun violence. Others wonder: Where was the attention during the protests over issues pressing our community, whether it be Black Lives Matter or the murder of a friend or relative? 

“Politicians are going out of their way to help these kids,” Tatiana Amaya said of the Parkland activist students. “And there’s just a disconnect — when something happens in the white community, the black community is expected to support them, but people don’t stand up for the black community. The focus isn’t ‘What can we do to make black and brown kids feel safe in school?’ ” 

Amaya, Sullivan, and the other members of Raised Woke, a Mastery-Shoemaker club focused on social justice and youth engagement, wonder where the outrage is when people in predominantly black neighborhoods get shot.

They’re not alone. From Florida to Chicago, some people in marginalized communities have been asking the same question in the wake of the Parkland massacre.

“When something happens in the black community, we don’t get a lot of support,” Sullivan, 17, said. 

Or, as Kaiyah Taylor put it: “We have a lot of dying in our community, and no one is paying attention.” (Her brother’s friend was recently gunned down on her block, Taylor said, and there was no media coverage, no story about what the victim was like, no uprising to demand answers.) 

No one disputes that the mass slaughter in a matter of minutes by a teen toting an assault weapon rekindles what has been a bitterly fought and politically divisive national debate in the last two decades. But for this group of Mastery-Shoemaker students, a collection of dynamic, bright high school juniors, the issue is complicated, and a lot of it is about race. 

What would have happened if the mass shooting happened in Philadelphia, not suburban Parkland? the students asked during a recent wide-ranging conversation. Would the outrage have been as sharp? As national? They couldn’t imagine any celebrities coming to survivors’ aid with cash and acclaim. 

“We do care,” said Ahmad Abdullah, 17, “but we have to take care of ourselves.” 

Why do black shooters tend to be portrayed as thugs and white shooters quickly labeled as mentally ill? the teens wanted to know. 

And frankly, there’s also an element of desensitization, said Nathaniel Brown. “We’re numb when it comes to gun violence,” said Brown. “We see it every day. Honestly, you can only cry but so much.” 

Around the Mastery-Shoemaker conference room where the students gathered, everyone nodded. Then the talk turned to President Trump’s call to arm teachers as a way to ward off school shooters. Kyra Lewis is OK with arming “certain people — like security guards, or the deans.” 

But most students shared Perla Espinal’s view. “School is a safe place — we don’t want guns in school,” said Espinal, 16. “That’s promoting gun violence,” said Amaya. “It shouldn’t be that you have to have guns to feel safe.”

The Lebanon War and "Off Our Backs" in summer 1982

While engaging in the egotistical practice of looking myself up on Google, I found a link to a letter I wrote in 1982 to the radical feminist journal Off Our Backs, on the perennial subject of Israel and the Palestinians, written after the beginning of the Lebanon War in the summer of 1982. I am pleased to discover that my political opinions have not changed at all.

I wrote then, and still believe:

"To say it as shortly as possible, I believe that both Zionism and Palestinian nationalism are legitimate movements, and for either to think they can eliminate the other is unrealistic."

To the left of my letter is one written by Sarah Schulman, who is now a strong supporter of the BDS movement. This letter, written when she was 24 (I was 25 at the time) shows the roots of her anti-Zionism. She does, however, argues that we should not "fall into ahistorical rhetoric ranging from 'Zionism is racism'' to 'Anti-Zionism is Anti-semitism.'"

Ben Faulding on Farrakhan and antisemitism in the Black community

Good article in the Forward by Ben Faulding, an African American Jew, about Louis Farrakhan:

Louis Farrakhan is more than just a bigot, a homophobe, a misogynist or an anti-Semite. Explaining who he is in these terms reduces the true nature of his evil. He is an exploiter. He exploits the economic depression, resentment and anger of blacks to leverage his own power and status. He uses the language of liberation and the language of demagoguery in tandem. He is a poverty pimp. No civilized discourse or progress can move forward with him, or anybody who associates with him.

Deepening the controversy was the unambiguous support or non-reaction from many Women’s March collaborators, including Linda Sarsour. She doubled down on her support of Mallory, completely dismissing the complaints of detractors. 

Even Jewish advocacy groups such as Jewish Voice For Peace and Jews For Racial And Economic Justice, who both recently collaborated with Sarsour on a forum on anti-Semitism, failed to respond. 

This failure reflects a more general blindness to anti-Semitism on the left. Indeed, a backlash to the backlash ensued, focused on Farrakhan’s lack of power (as opposed to say, the anti-Semites who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia). But Farrakhan’s bigotry is not powerless. Black anti-Semitism is a real thing, something the Jewish community in Crown Heights has been subjected to on a daily basis for decades.  

Even as a black Jew, I myself have not been immune to harassment on the streets. I’m one of the lucky ones. I’m a man, and a large one at that. There have been muggings, stabbings, sexual assaults, break ins and murders. I know two people who have suffered permanent long lasting brain injuries as a result of these attacks.  

I cannot draw a direct connection between Farrakhan’s rhetoric and any of these incidents, but there has been a similar non-reaction from sectors who have taken upon themselves the mantle of fighting anti-Semitism. 

There were no marches of solidarity four years ago when a man walked into the basement of the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters and stabbed a rabbinical student in the head. Nobody changed their Facebook profile picture in response. We were on our own; as always. 

We can talk about the legacy of racism and how that affects anti-Semitism. But what that doesn’t change is that cynical goons like Farrakhan have exploited that legacy and increased the divisions for their own agenda — and we feel it. 

So, when I hear leftists talk about anti-Semitic incidents only in the context of white supremacy and Trump, I get a bit frustrated. 

JFREJ claims to be the fighters of anti-Semitism. But they only condemn anti-Semitism that fits into a narrow window that they have approved, no matter how much it comes in conflict with other people’s lived experiences. One has to wonder if JFREJ is fighting anti-Semitism, or just white supremacy? 

I don’t even think that Tamika D. Mallory is anti-Semitic. But I have seen person after person condemn the alt-right associations of prominent politicians and the Trump administration and remain silent about Farrakhan anti-Semitism or any other anti-Semitism emanating from the left. 

Their silence sends a message. It’s a message that reaffirms what many have suspected all along: The left doesn’t care about Jews and anti-Semitism. They care about their enemies and allyship is only important to them when it is convenient. Any leftists who fails to condemn Farrakhan and others who traffic in anti-Semitism is no comrade of mine.