Links - 20th April 2024 (1 - Palestine/Middle East Peace)

What would building an 'army of Palestine’ look like? - "A feature in The Washington Post this week warned that the Palestinian Authority’s security forces are not yet big enough or powerful enough for the Palestinian state that the Biden Administration is now advocating. The PA forces are “underfunded and widely unpopular [and] ill-equipped to take on the massive responsibilities that their Western backers are envisioning.” So what will the Palestine statehood crowd prescribe as the solution? Give them more funds and more weapons, of course. Build them into a full-fledged army, disguised as a “security force.” The excuse will be that the PA needs the money and guns to fight terrorism. Everyone seems to have forgotten that the PA was supposed to have been fighting terrorism since it was created back in the 1990s by the Oslo Accords – but it never has done the job. The first Oslo Agreement, in 1993, stipulated that the Palestinian Arabs would have “a strong police force” (Article VII). It didn’t say anything about the formation of an army. But the Palestinian Authority quickly exploited the opportunity. The original 12,000-man “security force” ballooned to 60,000 – and the international community didn’t say a word. Then came Oslo II, in 1995, which spelled out more specifically that the PA security forces are obligated to “apprehend, investigate, and prosecute perpetrators and all other persons directly or indirectly involved in acts of terrorism, violence and incitement” (Annex I, Article II, 3-c).  Not only has the PA never undertaken any serious effort to apprehend terrorists or inciters, but many members of its security forces have been directly involved in deadly terrorist activities. As recently as February 29 of this year, a junior officer in the PA security forces murdered two Israeli civilians – one of them a teenager – near the town of Eli. Again, international silence. In fact, it’s worse than silence. Despite the involvement of PA security force members in terrorism, America’s CIA continues to provide training for their de facto army. EVER WONDER which countries have the largest per-capita security forces? It’s no mystery – the World Atlas lists them. Not surprisingly, the largest ones are those with the tiniest populations, thus making the size of their security forces (law enforcement) disproportionately large, such as the Vatican, Pitcairn Islands, and Monaco. But guess who’s also up near the top of the list, even though it has a population of several million? The Palestinian Authority. The PA has the sixth-largest security force per capita in the world, with a whopping 1,250 police officers per 100,000 people... “by late 1998, the PA security services… had in almost every regard violated the letter of the agreements reached with Israel,” turning the PA-governed areas into “one of the most heavily policed territories in the world. “A proliferation of weapons was occurring, both in quantity and quality, well beyond that stipulated in Oslo II,” according to the Washington Institute report. “By one estimate, there were at least 40,000 more weapons than allowed in the agreement, including RPGs, mortars, mines, grenade launchers, and sniper rifles; also being developed was a small-scale indigenous manufacturing capacity for hand grenades and other ammunition.” And that was many years ago. One can only imagine what the PA has stockpiled in its arsenal by now."

Palestinian leader condemns IDF operation, justifies Nazi Holocaust - "Fatah Official Yasser Aby Sido appeared on Egypt’s Sada Al-Balad TV on February 23, where he claimed that the Holocaust was a necessary action because the “Jews planned to control Germany"... “They planned to take over Germany. They started to bring down Germany in terms of the economy and moral values. Hitler reacted by making the Jews go on the streets and lick the sidewalks. They know this very well. Kristallnacht [the night of broken glass] is well known in Jewish history, but so is the Night of the Long Knives, when Jews were ordered to put Stars of Davids on their breasts, and they were called ‘filthy Jews.’  “Let me say this loud and clear - the Jews distorted many verses in the Torah in order to make them more agreeable for them. I do not want to cite examples because some might consider me an antisemite, although it is us Arabs who are Semites - not them.”   The Fatah official failed to mention that Nazi forces had attempted to genocide Jews across the entire European continent and offered a revised account of the Holocaust which promotes the idea that Hitler had attempted to relocate Jewish populations."
Nothing to see here. This is just "anti-Zionism"

3 Palestinians Arrested In Italy On Terrorist Plot Suspicion - "Italian police arrested three Palestinians suspected in plotting terrorist attacks, including a suicide attack, against civilian and military targets "on a foreign soil."  The suspects are believed to be a part of 'Rapid response group - Tulkarem Brigades' of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, designated a terrorist organization by the European Union."
Damn Zionists! Resistance is not optional!

Imtiaz Mahmood on X - "It’s been widely accepted that most Nazis who fled Germany after World War Two fled to South America, mainly to Argentina and Paraguay, and even Venezuela. But what many don’t realize, and it’s a verifiable fact, is that many of the worst Nazis who were senior members of the SS and Eichmann henchmen fled to and lived in the Middle East, bringing the Nazi ideologies and their hatred of Jews to the region where they ingrained their hatred into local society.   Alois Brunner is one such famous one. He fled to Damascus in Syria and became an adviser to the Assad regime. Another I’ve mentioned before was Johannes von Leers, a close aide to Goebbels, who initially fled to Brazil before moving to Egypt. In Egypt, he changed his name to Omar Amin, converted to Islam, and became Minister of Education where he created the curriculum for all schools teaching kids about the evil Jews and Zionists and indoctrinating generations of hatred during the Sadat era.   In fact, thousands of Nazis relocated to the Middle East, mostly in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and even the British Mandate of Palestine where they worked with the local Arabs to kill the Jews in the region. Many Nazis were advisors to the Arab countries who waged war against fledgling Israel in 1948.   So when you hear Israelis calling Hamas and other terrorists in the region Nazis, it’s because they actually are. The Nazis who fled to the Middle East were welcomed as the Arabs had already established strong relations during the Hitler regime and they shared the common goal of exterminating all the Jews.   One last interesting little titbit… dozens of senior Nazis who fled Germany had their names changed by various governments sympathetic to them, and ended up joining a new organization shortly after the war. That organization was… the United Nations.   Interesting how things begin to fall into place when you actually understand and research history.  ~ Cheryl E 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱 @CherylWroteIt"
The left love Nazis and Nazi ideas when it helps their agenda

Hillel Fuld on X - " Let’s clear this up once and for all.
1- Criticize the Israeli government? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Deny Israel’s right to exist? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
2- Care about innocent Palestinians? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Claiming Israel is indiscriminately and even intentionally killing innocent civilians? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
3- Calling for an end to violence? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Asking Israel to unilaterally cease fire while Hamas continues to fire rockets and commit terrorism against Israelis? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
4- Wishing for the self determination of the Palestinians after their educational system is reformed and stops spreading Jew hatred? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Chanting about the erasure of Israel from the map (that’s what ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ means. No Israel.)? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
5- Investigating the events of October 7th? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Denying Hamas’ October 7th crimes and sexual violence against innocent Jews? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
6- Protesting against Israeli policy? All good. No problem. Not antisemitism.
- Attacking Jews or Jewish institutions including synagogues? Not all good. Big problem. Pure antisemitism.
The line between legitimate criticism and full blown Jew hatred is a fine one, but a good litmus test is to ask yourself “Is what I am demanding from the Jewish state something I demand from other nations/countries or is this opinion of mine only applicable to the Jews?” Antisemitism is a very real and a very painful thing for Jews worldwide. All of the above forms of antisemitism might seem harmless to you, but I assure you, every one of those things leads directly to verbal and physical violence against Jews. Words matter and when you use your words to spread hate, hate spreads. Let’s not confuse valid constructive criticism with the hatred of Jews. Kapeesh? Oh; and more thing. Don’t kid yourself that antisemites are all low life criminals. As always, they also sit at the highest levels in society and mask their Jew hatred with sophistication. They did it in Germany and they’re doing it today. Today, some of the smartest and most successful people out there have proudly removed their masks and revealed their true face, a face of a person who thinks calling for genocide of the Jewish people is totally ok. It’s not ok. Never was and never will be."

99 Percent of "Palestine Refugees" Are Fake - "denying UNRWA money does not get to the heart of the problem, which lies not in its sponsored activities but in its perpetuating and expanding population of "Palestine refugees" in three unique, even bizarre ways: allowing this status to be transferred without limit from generation to generation; maintaining the status after refugees have acquired a nationality (such as the Jordanian); and assigning the status to residents of the West Bank and Gaza, who live in the putative Palestinian homeland. These tricks allowed UNRWA artificially to expand the refugee population from 600,000 in 1949 to 5.3 million now; an accurate count of real refugees now alive numbers around 20,000... the "Palestine refugee" status. Denying this to all but those who meet the U.S. government's normal definition of a refugee (in this case, being at least 69 years old, stateless, and living outside the West Bank or Gaza), diminishes the irredentist dagger at Israel's throat by over 99 percent. It also puts the "Palestine refugee" status into play, permits millions of Palestinians to live more healthily, addresses the dank heart of Arab anti-Zionism, and helps resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict."
From 2018

Anti-Jew Text in Trilogy - "The Trilogy spends a lot of time on the Jews. In Mecca, their mention is generally favorable. However, in Medina, Jews became the enemy of Islam because they denied that Mohammed was the last and final prophet in the Jewish line of prophets. In the data on the Jews in the Trilogy, notice that these texts have more Jew hatred than Mein Kampf."
Jihad - "There are four ways that jihad is practiced. Jihad can be by the sword, with writing, with speech and with money.  A common defense of jihad is that it has two forms. There is the greater jihad which is the inner struggle overcoming bad habits. Then there is the lesser jihad of war. Bukhari’s Hadith has about 1400 hadiths about jihad. Only 2% of those 1400 are about jihad as a religious effort. So 98% of the jihad hadiths are about jihad as war."
Trilogy Text Devoted to Jihad - "Political Islam states that the whole world must submit to Islam; Kafirs are the enemy because they do not follow the words of Allah and the perfect pattern of Mohammed.  Violence and terror are made sacred by the Koran. Peace comes only with submission. Political Islam and its accompanying struggle to dominate the Kafir, or jihad, is universal and eternal.  This data includes jihad of the sword, pen, tongue and money."
Amount of Text Devoted to the Kafir - "Much of the Islamic doctrinal texts relates to the Kafir. The majority (64%) of the Koran refers to them, and nearly all of the Sira (81%) is about Mohammed’s struggle with the Kafir. 37% of the Hadith of Bukhari concerns them. Overall, the Trilogy devotes 51% of its content to the Kafir."

Netanyahu and Israel did not prop up Hamas - "Israel is not the one that strengthened Hamas. Even before and during the Oslo process, Israeli governments acted against the terrorist group, among other things, by expelling its leadership and eliminating its senior officials. During the Second Intifada, Israel’s policy of assassinations against the Hamas leaders was intensified, and as a result, the leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and other senior officials such as Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, Ibrahim al-Makadmeh and Salah Shehade were killed. In practice, until the current war, it was Netanyahu who, as prime minister, led Israel to three of the four military confrontations with Hamas since the latter took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 – conflicts that caused great damage to Hamas’s military capability and led to its weakening. When searching for the cause of the strengthening of Hamas and the weakening of the Palestinian Authority, the finger of blame must be pointed at two central players in the Middle East region. The first is the PA itself. Despite the claim that Netanyahu did everything he could to weaken the authority and its leader by avoiding conducting a peace process with them to resolve the conflict, it is the refusal of PA leaders Yasser Arafat and later Mahmoud Abbas that prevented an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. In addition to Arafat’s refusal to accept the Israeli proposal during the Ehud Barak government at the Camp David conference and even the Clinton outline in 2000, Abbas himself refused a more generous proposal from Ehud Olmert in 2008, which guaranteed a Palestinian state on 100% of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with east Jerusalem as its capital... Despite the massive investment by the US and the West in the PA’s security forces, they were found to lack any capabilities in the face of Hamas’s military wing, which took control of the Gaza Strip with ease in June 2007. Another factor that should be mentioned in helping to strengthen Hamas is the many countries in the Arab world. It is not just countries that consciously acted to strengthen Hamas and weaken the Palestinian Authority, such as Qatar, Turkey, and Iran, the latter having embraced the terrorist group since its establishment and considering it part of the “Axis of Resistance” under its leadership (except for a short period when there was a crisis between them due to Hamas’s lack of support for the Assad regime during the Syrian civil war). Countries that share interests with Israel in regional issues, such as the Iranian nuclear threat, including Egypt, have also had a complex relationship with Hamas that has granted it international recognition as sovereign over the Gaza Strip, which deepened the internal Palestinian division and weakened the Palestinian Authority."
Using terrorism supporters' logic that even a small bit of support/benign neglect means that Israel founded and is responsible for Hamas, Arabs are responsible for the establishment of the state of Israel, since in their telling of history (which ignores all the pogroms), Arabs welcomed and lived peacefully with Jews in the early 20th century

Portuguese festival: 'Zionism has no place on a dancefloor' - "Portuguese festival Waking Life said that Zionism shouldn't be allowed on dancefloors and compared it to racism, homophobia, and sexism"
The left shoves politics into everything

Meme - "Opinion of Jews in Islamic countries from a 2010 Pew survey.
Opinions of Jews
Unfav
Egypt 95%
Jordan 97%
Lebanon 98%
Palest. ter. 97%
Turkey 73%
Israel 11%
Israel Jew 6%
Indonesia 74%
Pakistan 78%
Nigeria 44%
Nigeria Muslim 60%"
They didn't get the memo that they were anti-Zionist, not anti-Semitic. Of course, the cope is that Israel is responsible for anti-Semitism, but good luck blaming Islamic countries for Islamophobia

Meme - Left winger with Communist badge, Black Power fist, Pride flag and Trans flag: "but i have been tweeting "i stand with Palestine""
Hamas Member: "DIG THE FUCKING HOLE!"

Brianna Wu on X - "I’m despondent about education helping at all.   I posted a bluntly factual list of times that Palestinians have rejected their own state yesterday. It’s simply true, you can’t argue with it because it’s just reality.   And watching the disinformation, alternative history and what aboutism is shocking. It doesn’t matter what fact you present, an internal logic is prepared to dismiss it.   I’ve just never experienced anything at the scale"

Gad Saad on X - "Now that ISIS has apparently taken credit for the Moscow terror attack, let's remember:
1) To redouble our efforts to combat Islamophobia;
2) To recognize that ISIS has absolutely nothing to do with Islam; its leader who held a PhD in Islamic Studies completely misunderstood the Noble Faith;
3) To reaffirm that the true culprit is Zionism."
This was satire, but terrorism supporters do indeed believe this

Richard Hanania on X - "The secret to the success of the Muslim world is its high human capital."
Meme - @HadiNasrallah Hadi Nasrallah: "We know who was really behind the Moscow attacks. ISIS is just the tool."
Meme - Sadat Afreen @s_afreen7: "The CIA or Mossad?? #Moscow #Russia Multiple armed men opened fire"
Meme - Saif Ali Bhatti @Saif_AliBhatti: "News Alert: Why would ISIS attack #Russia when Russia is the only global power that helps Minor nations around the world? Obvious bullshit, especially since ISIS is Everyone knows it's not ISIS but mosad. #Moscow #crocs_attack #CIA #RussiaisATerroistState"
Meme - Abu Hafsah @AbuHafsah1: "Who thinks Mossad is behind the attack in Moscow? Hmmm mixed responses. Seems like more and more people aren't buying the usual narrative. Anyway since it's Ramadan, help me feed 1000 families in disaster stricken areas across the world. 100% donation policy."
Ironic. The usual narrative by Muslims is that it's the Mossad behind ISIS, so

Meme - ""She was h-holding a." *sobbing*
Therapist: "It's ok, your in a safe place. Take a deep breath and try to describe what happened."
"She was holding a cup of Starbucks coffee!""
"Reverse Canary Mission: Kim Jisoo. Shared a Instagram story holding a Starbucks coffee cup in December 2023 amidst the conflict."

Al Berko's answer to How are Palestinian children treated in Israel and Palestine? - Quora - "I was hiking in the Judean mountains overseeing the Dead Sea: And passed an IDF military base... I came closer and meet a bunch of Bedouin kids... my fellow explained that they watch TikTok on their smartphone (!).
- “In the middle of the desert?” - I exclaimed
- “Yes, thanks to the nearby IDF camp.”
- “Oh, I see, you really enjoy the “occupation”
- “Enjoy? Two months ago they saved my little sister’s life: she had acute appendicitis, and my father had a choice to take her to Jericho to the Palestinian Authority, or to the IDF camp. He chose the IDF. The soldiers rushed her to the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem and her life was saved!”."

Swann Marcus on X - "It's so fucking funny how progressives purity test everyone except on the issue of Palestine where you can be a viciously homophobic anti-abortion zealot who thinks women don't belong in the workplace and they'll be like "well nobody's perfect""

Meme - "WHO DOES THE HOLY LAND BELONG TO? ISRAEL OR PALESTINE?"
"ROME"

Meme - scar @scarlettrabe: "Palestine is every single issue in one issue. It's feminism. It's reproductive justice. It's social justice. It's climate crisis. It's stop cop cities. etc etc etc etc it's not just one issue, it's ALL THE ISSUES IN ONE AND BIDEN ADMIN IS FAILING"
Swann Marcus on X - "We've reached a new level of intersectionality-brain where people are now arguing Palestine and police training facilities in Atlanta are somehow connected... I knew someone was going to bring up this dumbass leftist obsession. Some US police commissioners spend like 2 weeks on an Israeli vacation once every 5 years and you guys think this means "Cop City" and Israel have a deep connection. What a pathetic joke."

Kamel Amin Thaabet on X- "The Palestinians have faced a fundamental choice for nearly a century:  to strategically accept independent Jewish nationhood on land between the Jordan and Mediterranean, or to reject it.    The day they accept it -strategically and not tactically as with Oslo- there will be peace.  Actual peace, not a "Hudybiya" peace.  And conditions for Palestinians will improve greatly, including the achievement of many positive national aspirations.  If they reject it, there are two possibilities:
-The status quo of Palestinian suffering and societal malaise, while pining for the "imminent" destruction of Israel.
-The actual destruction of Israel, whether by force of arms or otherwise.
Israel's enemies *do* reject independent Jewish nationhood.  And since 1948, they have sought the latter possibility.  Only to get the former again and again.  Continued demonization of Israel feeds the persistent fantasy that the latter is achievable.  As does the ever-kindled rage borne of humiliation and defeat.  The destruction of Israel is not possible.   Notwithstanding geopolitical trends, even American foreign policy impotence and domestic malaise.  Even in the face of an ascendant Iran.  I do not even address here whether it is right or wrong.  It is not possible!  It is not a spider web, but a web of iron.  And it will so remain.  To bet otherwise is to perpetuate one of the gravest series of strategic errors of the last century.  The cost of this error is generations of broken dreams, misdirected efforts, and rivers of blood.    Again and again, the bet is concentrated on a single black tile.  And yet the entire roulette wheel runs red.
Look at Israel in 1948, and look at Israel today.  Look at what was achieved.  Look at the condition of the Arabs of Gaza from 1948 to today.    And look at the condition of the Arabs of Haifa from 1948 today.  For "friends" of the Palestinians to encourage not a strategic pivot, but a strategic doubling down, and a stoking of hatreds, is not the act of a friend.    It is to consign Palestinians to suffering without end.
PS - criticism of Israel is of course acceptable, and welcome when deserved. As with any other state. But when uncoupled from recognition of the Palestinian strategic blunder I have described, in its more strident manifestations it harms Palestinians no less than Israelis."
When you hate the Jews so much you rather die than accept Israel

Palestinians Raise Nazi Flag With Swastika Near Hebron, Soldiers Shoot It Down
Palestinians fly swastika kite with petrol bomb across Gaza border into Israel - "April 20 was Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s birthday."
Of course, the terrorism supporters still claim that Israel are the Nazis

David Eby sorry after social media error on Holocaust Remembrance Day - "Andrew Reeve, press secretary for B.C. United Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon, shared a screenshot of the initial post from Eby’s account, which said: “We stand with the Muslim community throughout Canada on this sorrowful day of remembrance.”"

Palestinians Lack Faith in Biden, Two-State Solution - "In the months and weeks leading up to the Oct. 7 attack, about one in four Palestinians (24%) living in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem said they supported a two-state solution to the conflict, with an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel. Support for a two-state solution among Palestinians has more than halved since 2012, when nearly six in 10 (59%) endorsed the idea."
From 2023, pre-attack. Clear proof the "Zionists" reject a two state solution and are monsters because they don't want to live in peace

Dr. Einat Wilf on X - "“Palestinians are adults”. Of all the ideas I have discussed over the years, in books, essays, talks, meetings, I found that this one idea represents the mental barrier that few are able to cross. Left or right, American, European, Israeli - somehow, the idea that Palestinians are adults, that they can speak for themselves, that they know what they are fighting for, that they have clearly articulated goals that they are singularly pursuing with tenacity, seems to be a step too far.  Whether I call it Westplaining, or simply appeal to American and European policy makers to just listen to Palestinians and give them the respect of taking them at their words - that is, treat Palestinians like adults - again and again I come across what appears an impenetrable barrier.
As I present all the evidence on one side - that Palestinians, in words and deeds, have made it clear that their century long battle is against the very existence of the Jewish state in any borders - and as I share my journey to finding hardly a single Palestinian voice on the other side calling to live in peace side by side the Jewish state (so no “Right of Return”) - I still find my interlocutors struggling to make excuses: “But they must live in fear” (Yes? So why do no Palestinians in New York or LA and only one in London speak up? Why did Palestinians have no fear in criticizing Arafat and Abu-Mazen for daring to negotiate with Israel, but there was zero criticism when they walked away from clear and concrete opportunities for statehood?). Sometime my interlocutors - serious, seasoned policy makers - will just make it into an article of faith “I don’t believe you, these Palestinians must exist” - and leave it at that, even as I challenge them to find these Palestinians (and not the 3 1/2 I already know by name).
Recently, when I asked a recent senior European official to just simply listen to what Palestinians say about UNRWA - that to them it’s not an aid organization, but a political one, the “guarantor of the Right of Return” - she responded with the shockingly neo-colonial “They don’t get to decide” (to which I could not but quietly respond, “but they very much do…”).   Somehow, it never crosses the minds of American, European, sometimes Israeli officials, to treat Palestinians as adults and simply tell them, “until you demonstrate to us that Hamas doesn’t represent you, in word and deed, we will assume that it does”, or “until you make it clear in word and deed, that you want to live next to the Jewish state of Israel, rather than instead of it, we will assume it remains your goal”. When I suggest adopting this attitude and place the burden of proof on Palestinians, given that they are very much capable to meeting it, if they ever so wanted, those officials find the so shocking, as if I had just asked them to defy the laws of nature, that I cannot but begin to suspect that there is a deep, perhaps dark, psychology at work.
 What is it? What makes it so impossible for Westerners, including many Israelis, to simply treat Palestinians as adults, take them at their word, stop making excuses for them, place the burden of proof on them, and make demands of them with a real expectation that they shall be met?   We are never going to forge any other positive future if Palestinians will not be treated as adults."
When you show that you're unable to accept reality like adults, people treat you like children

Links - 19th April 2024 (3 [including Russia ISIS Attack])

Meme - Egypt: "WHEN WE STACk Rocks iN A BiG TRIANGLE SHAPE, THEY USUALLY DONT Fall OVER... "
Mexico: "WHEN WE STACk Rocks iN A BiG TRIANGLE SHAPE, THEY USUALLY DONT Fall OVER... "
Cambodia: "WHEN WE STACk Rocks iN A BiG TRIANGLE SHAPE, THEY USUALLY DONT Fall OVER... "
"Ancient Aliens!" *Coincidence? Chariots of the Gods? Magic! Atlantis!*

Toronto swaps sand for cobblestones at popular Humber Bay beach. Locals are not happy - "Part of the project necessitated resurfacing the beach on Humber Bay Park East, something residents have recently taken issue with. In photos provided by residents, the beach was filled with what looks like sand. It has since been resurfaced with cobblestones, according to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), which is doing the construction on behalf of the city. Local resident Aman Somal said he understands erosion protection is necessary but is frustrated a balance couldn't be found between that work and preserving the previous state of the beach... "We live in small condos here, we don't have backyard gardens, we don't have backyard pools. So the park is our backyard and the beaches are our pools. We want to protect it."... "If you walk on the beach, [it] means that you've got to put on running shoes," Persaud said. Fellow resident Marie Braz agreed. "I can't imagine walking on that, never mind plopping a chair down and, you know, a picnic basket," she said."
"Sustainability" reduces quality of life

Massive bank glitch lets people withdraw millions from their accounts - "People across Ethiopia have managed to withdraw large sums of money from their bank accounts after a system glitch. More than £31million was withdrawn mainly by students from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) after they found out they could take out more money than they had in their bank accounts"

Author Takano says Japan has become ‘outlying zone’ in the world - "In Takano’s opinion, inbound visitors from China and South Korea are flocking to Japan because they see the Asian neighbor as a declining country.  “Seeking to take temporary refuge from harsh competition in their societies, tourists wish to come into contact with natural surroundings, smiles and traditional lifestyles that have been lost in their own countries due to rapid development and urbanization,” he said.  Takano believes foreign sightseers are coming to Japan en masse today for the same reason Japanese once visited other Asian nations as well as Africa in search of “backwardness” that had disappeared in Japan due to economic growth.   Presenting his view on the action Tokyo should take from now, Takano said Japan should promote itself as “an ancient capital of the globe given its deteriorated politics, economy and technology.”  “Japan’s value basically lies in its history, cuisine and scenery,” he said."

Meme - "Fantasy is when Karl Urban has long hair and sci-fi is when Karl Urban has short hair" *Lord of the Rings* *Pathfinder* *Star Trek* *Doom*

Meme - "Friday Night. Spaghetti Wrestling *2 bikini women*
Saturday Morning. All the Spaghetti You Can Eat. $1.00"

Meme - "If you put a fleshlight up your ass, leaving pussy side out, and a guy fucks the fleshlight is it technically no homo? I mean the dick isn't touching your ass and the other guy is fucking a pussy right...?"
"Gay to Straight Adapter"

Meme - Tomi Lahren: ""Don't be afraid" is written in the Bible 365 times- a daily reminder from God to live everyday fearlessly."
"The word "kill" is written 419 times. I'm not sure I want to use the same logic."

About the fish doorbell - visdeurbel - "Every spring, fish swim right through Utrecht, looking for a place to spawn and reproduce. Some swim all the way to Germany. There is a problem, however: they often have to wait a long time at the Weerdsluis lock on the west side of the inner city, as the lock rarely opens in spring. We have come up with a solution: the fish doorbell! An underwater camera has been set up at the lock, and the live feed is streamed to the homepage. If you see a fish, press the digital fish doorbell. The lock operator is sent a signal and can open the lock if there are enough fish. Now you can help fish make it through the canals of Utrecht. Pressing the fish doorbell notifies the lock operator that there are fish waiting to pass. The operator can decide whether or not to open the lock. The lock seldom opens in spring, but can now be opened daily, if necessary. The fish doorbell allows us to work together to ensure that fish do not have to wait as long at the Weerdsluis lock. This is good news, because it means they are less likely to be eaten by other animals, such as grebes and cormorants."

Personality changes following heart transplantation: The role of cellular memory - "Personality changes following heart transplantation, which have been reported for decades, include accounts of recipients acquiring the personality characteristics of their donor. Four categories of personality changes are discussed in this article: (1) changes in preferences, (2) alterations in emotions/temperament, (3) modifications of identity, and (4) memories from the donor’s life. The acquisition of donor personality characteristics by recipients following heart transplantation is hypothesized to occur via the transfer of cellular memory, and four types of cellular memory are presented: (1) epigenetic memory, (2) DNA memory, (3) RNA memory, and (4) protein memory. Other possibilities, such as the transfer of memory via intracardiac neurological memory and energetic memory, are discussed as well. Implications for the future of heart transplantation are explored including the importance of reexamining our current definition of death, studying how the transfer of memories might affect the integration of a donated heart, determining whether memories can be transferred via the transplantation of other organs, and investigating which types of information can be transferred via heart transplantation. Further research is recommended."

Thailand revokes visas for New Zealand tourists arrested for attacking police officer - "Immigration authorities banned brothers Hamish Day, 36, and Oscar Day, 38, from ever returning to Thailand. Thai news outlet Bangkok Post reported that the brothers have been charged with offences including robbery, causing physical harm to an on-duty officer, attempted bribery, and driving a motorcycle without a licence... Video of the incident has gone viral online, where onlookers can be heard shouting at them to stop. Both brothers have denied all charges and the police said on Monday they would ask the court for permission to deny their release on bail."

Student Persuaded by Friend to Amputate Legs for $1.3M Insurance Scam - "A university student in Taiwan who had his legs amputated in hopes of receiving a $1.3 million insurance payout has been arrested on suspicion of fraud, local prosecutors say.  The 23-year-old, identified only by his last name, Zhang, plunged his feet in a bucket of dry ice for more than 10 hours to get them so badly frostbitten that he would need a double amputation... The bureau said a friend of Zhang's from high school, identified only as Liao, persuaded him to carry out the insurance scam.  Liao, also 23, suffered losses from trading cryptocurrency, and he tricked Zhang into signing a legal note obligating him to pay about $800,000... Liao and Zhang rode around Taipei on a motorbike at night, wanting to present the claim that Zhang was afflicted with frostbite while riding the vehicle in the late evening, investigators said.  Just days before, Zhang bought several expensive policies for life insurance, travel insurance, and accident insurance... His legs bore no shoe or sock marks, and his injuries appeared symmetrical, which were inconsistent with a naturally occurring frostbite injury, investigators said.  The weather on the night of January 26 was also nowhere close to below freezing, with its coldest temperature at about 42 degrees Fahrenheit... "As Taiwan is a subtropical region, cases of severe frostbite requiring amputation are unheard of due to natural climatic conditions"... When police investigated Zhang and Liao in November, they found the plastic bucket used to freeze Zhang's feet, insurance documents, a white polystyrene box for dry ice, eight mobile phones, and a tablet computer"

New Zealand set to scrap world-first tobacco ban - "New Zealand will repeal on Tuesday a world-first law banning tobacco sales for future generations, the government said, even while researchers and campaigners warned of the risk that people could die as a result. Set to take effect from July, the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the world would have banned sales to those born after Jan. 1, 2009, cut nicotine content in smoked tobacco products and reduced the number of tobacco retailers by more than 90%... The decision, heavily criticised over its likely impact on health outcomes in New Zealand, has also drawn flak because of fears it could have a greater impact on Maori and Pasifika populations, groups with higher smoking rates. Repeal flies in the face of robust research evidence, ignores measures strongly supported by Maori leaders and will preserve health inequities, said Otago University researcher Janet Hoek. "Large-scale clinical trials and modelling studies show the legislation would have rapidly increased the rates of quitting among smokers and made it much harder for young people to take up smoking," said Hoek, co-director of a group studying ways to reduce smoking."
Paternalism towards indigenous groups is anti racist

St. John's woman notes every step of a new flight scam on social media - "She publicly tweeted at Air Canada, asking for a resolution — and received responses from nine different accounts claiming to be Air Canada agents.  "They had the Air Canada logo ... saying they were supervisors, [but] they didn't have any followers. So that triggered some alarm bells for me," she said. So, she ignored the messages and went directly to the company's website.  A few days later, she noticed she kept getting messages from agents saying they could resolve her issues.  "Curiosity got the best of me," she said. "So I played along." They asked for her booking reference number and, using that, obtained her phone number. They then contacted her via the messaging app WhatsApp. She says she was concerned about how they were able to get her number as it wasn't in any email or booking reference.  Then they asked her to download an app called Remitly — an international money transfer app.  "There was no Canada-to-Canada ability to transfer funds," she said, noting she could only make transfers to countries like Kenya. That triggered more alarm bells, she said.  The person on the other side of the screen assured her they would reimburse her money in Kenyan dollars: all they needed was her bank account number."

Adam Rossi on X - “Kids who nibbled their nails were less likely to get allergies and had stronger immune systems overall. Nail biting allowed bacteria and pollen trapped under the kids' fingernails to get into their mouths, boosting their immune system.”
Thumb-Sucking, Nail-Biting, and Atopic Sensitization, Asthma, and Hay Fever - "Children who suck their thumbs or bite their nails are less likely to have atopic sensitization in childhood and adulthood."
More evidence for the hygiene hypothesis

Jake on X - "Universities are funny. Hey what if we took a medieval institution for training priests and aristocrats and combined it w a hedge fund, sports franchise and resort for teenagers  Oh and it'll be the backbone for fundamental research for our entire civilization"

Actual Fact Bot: Revived | Facebook - "When Steve Madden was convicted of fraud and forced to resign as CEO of his own company, he created a new position for himself that paid $700,000 per year while he was in prison."

Meme - "Looks like your mom bought herself a van
B.J. Champion"

Dating app billboard criticised by Korat women's right group - "The leader of a women’s rights protection group in Thailand’s Nakhon Ratchasima province has described a dating app’s advertisement as being disrespectful to women.  “The word ‘delicious’ should only be used about food, but the ad used it about women. That is not appropriate. I personally think that the ad disrespects women,” said Chanyanut Surachat.  Several billboards promoting the Tinder dating app have popped up in the Muang district of Nakhon Ratchasima, known locally as Korat.  On the billboards, a question is asked: ‘What is delicious in Korat?’ There were two choices: ‘Fried Korat Noodles’ or ‘Korat ladies’. There was a checkmark next to ‘Korat Ladies’ and a cross next to ‘Fried Korat Noodles’.  Chanyanut added that the ad also implies that fried Korat noodles are not delicious, clearly belittling the signature dish of Korat.  She said that the noodles are also mentioned in the province’s motto, which features the province as the ‘Land of brave women, excellent silk, fried Korat noodles, Phimai Historical Park, and Dan Kwian pottery’."

I used vibrators to relieve a tortoise's constipation - "“This is actually a very normal and often used technique,” Emily Cehrs, a vet at the Safari West wildlife preserve in Santa Rosa, told Caters News Agency of her unlikely scat extraction technique... the US Food and Drug Administration recently approved the use of Vibrant, a vibrating pill that achieves the same affect in humans sans the need of a dancing dildo... Unfortunately, while high-tech, stool-propelling vibrators might sound like an innovative constipation remedy, they’re not often used due to the stigma of using a sex toy as a laxative"

WOMAN ORDERS AND CANCELS FOODPANDA DELIVERIES REPEATEDLY - "A Foodpanda rider shared his experience with an unruly customer on Facebook. The rider, Bryen Yap, is also the owner of the restaurant that received the order from the woman... "Guess what, I have your gate access, it is linked to my phone. I also have your lift lobby access key, I even have your house key..  If you are not happy about it… You can move out of the house end of this month.  Because the person who cooks your food, the person who sent your food and the person who owns the place you currently live in-  Is your landlord.”"

Meme - Circle K: "If you are buying slushies and videoing for TikTok - in our store OR parking lot, the police will be called. Thank You"

Cookie Monster on X - "Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller. 😔"
Frank Oz on X - "@MeCookieMonster I'm shocked to see a news article on Cookie Monster talking about "shrinkflation". Jim would NEVER have allowed this. The SS Muppets need to live in their own pure world. Not our world. What has happened to the integrity of the character and the integrity of Sesame Workshop?"
Frank Oz on X - "I realize now what happened.  My head and heart are still in the Sesame Street that existed when Joan Cooney was active in it and when Jim and Jon Stone were alive, and when I was still performing on it.  But I have not kept up with it for years. I guess it's changed."
Frank Oz on X - "I understand what you're pointing out. Yes, the real world needs to come to Sesame Street. But that doesn't mean that The Muppet characters need to react in a real-world way.  The Muppet characters' reactions need to rise from their own naive and pure world."
Frank Oz on X - "To clear something up, the real world does indeed need to come to Sesame Street. But that doesn't mean that The Muppet characters need to react in the same real-world way.  The Muppet characters' reactions need to rise from their own naive and pure world."
Frank Oz on X - "No, Cookie Monster would react by having no idea what shrinkflation means. If he was told that it caused his cookies to be smaller he would be aghast. But he would not connect it to a concept. He would just be upset about the smaller cookies. He is a monster, not an adult human"
Clearly, Frank Oz is just an ignorant boomer who doesn't know anything about the muppets
From his other tweets he's a left winger, so this is about artistic purity, not politics

Meme - "When you both fucked the shit out of each other and you're just laying there trying to recuperate *wrestling scene with 2 wrestlers lying on ring floor*
I got no more in me"

Meme - "me, as my laptop fan suddenly becomes louder: what is it?? what program?? who is doing this to you????
*opening task manager* Who do I need to kill?"

Explaining Elections in Singapore: Dominant Party Resilience and Valence Politics - "The People's Action Party (PAP) of Singapore is one of the world's longest ruling dominant parties, having won every general election since the country's independence in 1965. Why do Singaporeans consistently vote for the PAP, contrary to the expectations of theories of democratization? We argue that valence considerations---specifically, perceptions of party credibility---are the dominant factor in the voting behavior of Singapore's electorate and a critical piece to the puzzle of the PAP's resilience. Furthermore, we argue that the primacy of valence politics arose in part by design, as the PAP has used its control of Singapore's high-capacity state to reshape society and thereby reshape voter preferences towards its comparative advantages. We use a multi-methods approach to demonstrate evidence in support of our argument through a within-case, historical analysis; a qualitative analysis of contemporary party competition and voter behavior; and a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the 2011 and 2015 general elections. Ultimately, our findings suggest that a focus on valence politics can increase the resilience of dominant parties, but that such a strategy also faces natural limits to the advantages it confers."
Cherian George - "This sober analysis by two political scientists attributes the PAP's electoral dominance mainly to its perceived capability in delivering generally desired outcomes – so-called "valence issues". Challenging the view that voters are driven by fear or by strategic motives, the authors argue that support for the PAP is sincerely motivated, by not just economic considerations but also the desire for social stability, national sovereignty, and efficient  delivery of grassroots services.  The PAP has benefited from the fact that a high-capacity dominant state can, over time, reshape society and bring voter preferences into alignment with the dominant party's comparative advantages, the authors argue. "The long-term reshaping of voter preferences, in short, constitutes an additional channel through which to entrench this 'self-reinforcing authoritarian equilibrium'.""

Meme - "When you ask a 1st grade class to write letters to people in a nursing home...
*hourglass with sand running out* times allmast up"

The Cultural Tutor on X - "Setting is a big part of any film, but how do you get the right place? You can use CGI, build a set — or find the perfect location. So from Star Wars to The Grand Budapest Hotel, here are some real places you might recognise from fictional worlds..."

U.S. Warned Russia Before Moscow Attack That Killed at Least 60 - "U.S. officials said they believed Islamic State was responsible for the attack. The group claimed responsibility in a statement issued by the Islamic State-affiliated news agency Amaq... On March 7, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a cryptic warning to American citizens to avoid concert venues. The U.S. had information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow potentially targeting large gatherings—including concerts—which prompted the State Department to issue a public advisory, White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement Friday night. “The U.S. government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy,” Watson added.  This week, Russian state news agency TASS said Putin described U.S. warnings about a possible terrorist attack as “provocative” statements that resemble “outright blackmail and an intention to intimidate and destabilize our society.” He called on the Federal Security Service and other law-enforcement bodies to step up efforts at preventing terrorist attacks... The intelligence was considered “actionable,” potentially providing Russian authorities with enough time to mitigate an attack, officials said... The shooting carries echoes of terrorist attacks on the capital by Chechen insurgents in the 2000s and undermines the image of invincibility Putin had sought to portray"
Clearly, the US knew about it because they were behind it!

Monday briefing: Why Vladimir Putin won’t link Islamic State to Moscow terror attack - “Shaun Walker, Pjotr Sauer and Andrew Roth set out signs of “a catastrophic security failure on the part of Russian authorities”. They note a slow police response to the attack and claims that the FSB, the federal security service, has been largely focused on domestic opposition and potential threats from Kyiv, with thousands of security officials sent to occupied Ukraine. Another factor they cite is a view that the threat from Islamist terrorism had subsided in recent years. It is unlikely that these concerns will be aired in Russia in the coming days. Andrei Soldatov, senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, argues in this piece that this is part of a deeply ingrained culture, instigated by Putin, of protecting the security agencies at all costs and ensuring the FSB is “completely immune to any criticism”. The FSB is expert at “killing and torture” and “investigating attacks after the event”, he writes. “But these are not the qualities that help to prevent attacks happening, and time and again, the FSB has failed.””

Lukashenko undermines Putin’s Ukraine claim on Moscow concert hall attack - “ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre, which killed at least 139 people, and released graphic footage of the incident, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested, without evidence, that Ukraine had helped orchestrate it. Putin on Saturday claimed that a “window” had been prepared for the attackers to escape to Ukraine, which Kyiv has denied. But Lukashenko, one of Putin’s most loyal allies, on Tuesday appeared to contradict the Kremlin’s claims, saying that the attackers initially intended to enter Belarus rather than Ukraine… Putin on Monday conceded the attack had been carried out by “radical Islamists,” but still tried to pin ultimate responsibility on Ukraine… Ukraine has vehemently denied involvement in the attack and called the Kremlin’s claims “absurd.” Others have speculated why the attackers would try to flee through a heavily militarized section of the border, with a large Russian troop presence.”

Russian defector sheds light on Putin paranoia and his secret train network - “A senior Russian security officer who defected last year has given rare insight into the paranoid lifestyle of Vladimir Putin, confirming details of a secret train network, identical offices in different cities, a strict personal quarantine and escalating security protocols. Gleb Karakulov, who served as a captain in the Federal Protection Service (FSO), a powerful body tasked with protecting Russia’s highest-ranking officials, said the measures were designed to mask the whereabouts of the Russian president, whom he described as “pathologically afraid for his life”. The 36-year-old said the train was used because it “cannot be tracked on any information resource. It’s done for stealth purposes.”… Karakulov described a virtual state within a state that includes firefighters, food testers and other engineers who travel with Putin on his trips abroad, providing a rare first-hand insight into the levels of paranoia and sheltered lifestyle of the Russian president. “They call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms,” he said… He confirmed that Putin relies heavily for information on reports provided by his security services. Putin did not use a mobile phone or the internet, Karakulov said, and did not even bring an internet specialist with him on foreign trips. “He only receives information from his closest circle, which means that he lives in an information vacuum,” he said. Putin is still in quarantine and requires all staff working in the same room as him to also undergo a two-week quarantine, severely limiting the number of people who have personal contact with him. Karakulov said Putin used identical offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo, and that the secret services used fake motorcades and decoy planes to pretend he was leaving. “This is a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence, in the first place, and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life,” he said. He said Putin’s behaviour and lifestyle had altered significantly since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when the president retreated from most travel and public appearances. “He has shut himself off from the world,” Karakulov said. “His take on reality has become distorted.””

Meme - "I call for an immediate ceasefire between Russia and ISIS. Russia should be restrained, have a proportional response and operate according to international law. For their conflict to be over, there should be an independent ISIS state established next to Russia. I urge Russians to provide humanitarian aid to ISIS, including food, water, medicine electricity. FREE ISIS."

The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending

Richard Hanania on X

"Jewish woman moves to the Bay Area for the "progressive values," shocked that the half-literate DEI types who control the school system take the side of the Palestinians." 

 The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending - The Atlantic

"Stacey Zolt Hara was in her office in downtown San Francisco when a text from her 16-year-old daughter arrived: “I’m scared,” she wrote. Her classmates at Berkeley High School were preparing to leave their desks and file into the halls, part of a planned “walkout” to protest Israel. Like many Jewish students, she didn’t want to participate. It was October 18, 11 days after the Hamas invasion of southern Israel.

Zolt Hara told her daughter to wait in her classroom. She was trying to project calm. A public-relations executive, Zolt Hara had moved her family from Chicago to Berkeley six years earlier, hoping to find a community that shared her progressive values. Her family had developed a deep sense of belonging there.

But a moral fervor was sweeping over Berkeley High that morning. Around 10:30, the walkout began. Jewish parents traded panicked reports from their children. Zolt Hara heard that kids were chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a slogan that suggests the elimination of Israel. Rumors spread about other, less coy phrases shouted in the hallways, carrying intimations of violence. Jewish students were said to be in tears. Parents were texting one another ideas about where in the school their children could hide. Zolt Hara placed a call to the dean of students. By her own admission, she was hysterical. She says the dean hung up on her...

Most worrying was what parents kept hearing about teachers, both in Berkeley and in the surrounding school districts. They seemed to be using their classrooms to mold students into advocates for a maximalist vision of Palestine. A group of activists within the Oakland Education Association, that city’s teachers’ union, sponsored a “teach-in.” A video trumpeting the event urged: “Apply your labor power to show solidarity with the Palestinian people.” An estimated 70 teachers set aside their normal curriculum to fix students’ attention on Gaza.

Even classes with no discernible connection to international affairs joined the teach-in. Its centerpiece was a webinar titled “From Gaza to Oakland: How Does the Issue Connect to Us?,” in which local activists implored the kids to join them on the streets. They told the students—in a predominantly Black and Latino school district—that the Israeli military works hand in glove with American police forces, sharing tips and tactics. “Repression there ends up cycling back to repression here,” an activist named Anton explained. Elementary-school teachers, whose students were too young for the webinar, were given a list of books to use in their classes. One of them, Handala’s Return, described how a “group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people.”

The same zeal was gripping schools in Berkeley. Zolt Hara learned from another parent about an ethnic-studies class in which the teacher had described the slaughter of some Israelis on October 7 as the result of friendly fire. She saw a disturbing image that another teacher had presented in an art class, of a fist breaking through a Star of David. (Officials at Berkeley High School did not respond to requests for comment.) In her son’s middle school, there were signs on classroom walls that read Teach Palestine.

Zolt Hara didn’t need to imagine how kids might respond to these lessons. She heard about incidents at her children’s schools. One kid walked up to a Jewish student playing what he called a “Nazi salute song” on his phone. Another said something in German and then added, “I don’t like your people.” A Manichaean view of the conflict even filtered down to the lowest grades in Berkeley. According to one parent complaint to the principal of Washington Elementary School, a second grader suggested that students divide into Israeli and Palestinian “teams,” and another announced that Palestinians couldn’t be friends with Jews.

On November 17, the middle school that Zolt Hara’s son attends staged its own walkout. Zolt Hara was relieved that her son was traveling for a family event that day. But she heard about video of the protest, recorded on a parent’s phone. I tracked down the footage and watched it myself. “Are you Jewish?” one mop-haired tween asks another, seemingly unaware of any adult presence. “No way,” the second kid replies. “I fucking hate them.” Another blurts, “Kill Israel.” A student laughingly attempts to start a chant of “KKK.”...

Students began to recall how painful their school’s walkout had felt. Their classmates had left them alone with teachers, who they suspected would think less of them for having stayed put. At every stop in their education in this progressive community, they had learned about a world divided between oppressors and the oppressed—and now they felt that they were being accused of being the bad guys, despite having nothing to do with events on the other side of the world, and despite the fact that Hamas had initiated the current war by invading Israeli communities and murdering an estimated 1,200 people.

At the end of the session a student in a kippah, puffer jacket, and T-shirt pulled me aside. He said he wanted to speak privately, because he didn’t want to risk crying in front of his peers. After October 7, he said, his school life, as a visibly identifiable Jew, had become unbearable. Walking down the halls, kids would shout “Free Palestine” at him. They would make the sound of explosions, as if he were personally responsible for the bombardment of Gaza. They would tell him to pick up pennies. As he was walking into the gym to use one of its courts, a kid told him, “There goes the Jew, taking everyone’s land.” I asked if he’d ever told any of this to an administrator. “Nothing would change,” he said. Based on how other local authorities had responded to anti-Semitism, I didn’t doubt him.

Like many American Jews, I once considered anti-Semitism a threat largely emanating from the right...

I consoled myself with the thought that once Trump disappeared from the scene, the explosion of Jew hatred would recede. America would revert to its essential self: the most comfortable homeland in the Jewish diaspora.

That reassuring thought required downplaying the anti-Semitism that had begun to appear on the left well before October 7—on college campuses, among progressive activists, even on the fringes of the Democratic Party. It required minimizing Representative Ilhan Omar’s insinuation about Jewish control of politics—“It’s all about the Benjamins baby”—as an ignorant gaffe. And it meant dismissing intense outbreaks of anti-Zionist harassment by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, which coincided with tensions in the Middle East, as a passing storm.

Part of the reason I failed to appreciate the extent of the anti-Semitism on the left is that I assumed its criticisms of the Israeli government were, at bottom, a harsher version of my own. I opposed the proliferation of settlements in the West Bank, the callousness that military occupation required, and the religious zealotry that had begun to infuse the country’s right wing, including its current ruling coalition.

Such criticisms were not those of a dissident—the majority of American Jews share them. The Palestinian leadership has a long record of abject obstructionism, historical denialism, and violent irredentism, but American Jews heap blame on recalcitrant right-wing Israeli governments, too. Polling by the Pew Research Center in 2020 found that only one in three American Jews said they felt that the Israeli government was “sincere” in its pursuit of peace... 63 percent of American Jews said they considered a two-state solution plausible. Jews were, in fact, more likely than the overall U.S. population to believe in the possibility of peaceful coexistence with an independent Palestine.

Among the brutal epiphanies of October 7 was this: A disconcertingly large number of Israel’s critics on the left did not share that vision of peaceful coexistence, or believe Jews had a right to a nation of their own... Over the three-month period following the Hamas attacks, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 56 episodes of physical violence targeting Jews and 1,347 incidents of harassment. That 13-week span contained more anti-Semitic incidents than the entirety of 2021—at the time the worst year since the ADL had begun keeping count, in 1979...

Liberal Jews once celebrated Israel as the lone democracy in a distinctly undemocratic region. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition of theocrats and messianists seems bent on shredding the basis for that claim. But many governments in the world share these undesirable traits. Still, no one calls for the eradication of Hungary or El Salvador or India. No one defaces Chinese restaurants in San Francisco because Beijing imprisons Uyghurs in concentration camps and occupies Tibet.

The anti-Zionism that has flourished on the left in recent years doesn’t stop with calls for an end to the occupation of the West Bank. It espouses a blithe desire to eliminate the world’s only Jewish-majority nation, valorizes the homicidal campaign against its existence, and seeks to hold members of the Jewish diaspora to account for the sins of a country they don’t live in and for a government they didn’t elect. In so doing, this faction of the left places itself in the terrible lineage of attempts to erase Jewry—and, in turn, stirs ancient and not-so-ancient existential fears.

Nowhere is this more fully on display than in the Bay Area. After October 7, protesters flooded city-council meetings, demanding cease-fire resolutions and rejecting any attempt to include clauses condemning Hamas for the rape and murder of Jews. One viral video compiled enraged citizen comments at an Oakland city-council meeting. These citizens weren’t just showing solidarity for the people of Gaza, but angrily amplifying wild conspiracy theories. One woman declared, in the style of a 9/11 truther, that “Israel murdered their own people on October 7.” Another, in the manner of a Holocaust denier, described the events of that day as a “fabricated narrative.”

For months, the Berkeley city council resisted the pressure to pass a cease-fire resolution; the mayor regarded foreign policy as far beyond its jurisdiction. But the pressure grew so intense that the council could hardly conduct any other business. Protesters disrupted official meetings, forcing the mayor to keep adjourning deliberations to another room where the public was not allowed. Police offered to escort council members to their cars after meetings. The mayor’s unwillingness to condemn Israel was anomalous, even in his own city. On December 4, the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board voted to endorse a cease-fire.

Impassioned support for the Palestinian cause metastasized into the hatred of Jews. Anti-Semitism has become part of the landscape. In 2021, a community space in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, owned by a progressive gay Jewish activist, was defaced with messages including Zionist pigz. After October 7, the windows of Smitten Ice Cream, owned by a Jewish woman, were smashed and spray-painted with the words Out the Mission.

During Hanukkah, a menorah sponsored by Chabad Oakland and perched on the shore of Lake Merritt, in the center of the city, was torn apart by its branches and hurled into the water, replaced by graffiti reading your org is dying, we’re gonna find you, you’re on fucking alert. Oakland Public Works quickly painted over the message and other anti-Semitic graffiti. But when I walked the trail around the lake several weeks after Hanukkah, I found a weathered metal box, built to display a work of public art. On its side was a laminated message titled “The World We Wish to See.” What followed was a lyrical vision of liberation that imagined a future in which “all beings are treated with dignity.” But whatever display had once existed in the box had been removed. What was left were the etched words Zionist KILLER.

In the hatred that I witnessed in the Bay Area, and that has been evident on college campuses and in progressive activist circles nationwide, I’ve come to see left-wing anti-Semitism as characterized by many of the same violent delusions as the right-wing strain. This is not an accident of history. Though right- and left-wing anti-Semitism may have emerged in different ways, for different reasons, both are essentially attacks on an ideal that once dominated American politics, an ideal that American Jews championed and, in an important sense, co-authored. Over the course of the 20th century, Jews invested their faith in a distinct strain of liberalism that combined robust civil liberties, the protection of minority rights, and an ethos of cultural pluralism. They embraced this brand of liberalism because it was good for America—and good for the Jews. It was their fervent hope that liberalism would inoculate America against the world’s oldest hatred.

For several generations, it worked. Liberalism helped unleash a Golden Age of American Jewry, an unprecedented period of safety, prosperity, and political influence. Jews, who had once been excluded from the American establishment, became full-fledged members of it. And remarkably, they achieved power by and large without having to abandon their identity. In faculty lounges and television writers’ rooms, in small magazines and big publishing houses, they infused the wider culture with that identity. Their anxieties became American anxieties. Their dreams became American dreams...

The sons and daughters of immigrants may have dabbled in socialism, but in the 1930s and ’40s, liberalism became the house politics of the Jewish people. Walter Lippmann, a descendant of German Jews, first used the term liberal in the American context, to describe a new center-left vision of the state that was neither socialist nor laissez-faire. Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish justice on the Supreme Court, conceptualized a new, expansive vision of civil liberties. Lillian Wald and Henry Moskowitz co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in the belief that all minorities deserved the same protections. Jews became enthusiastic supporters of the New Deal, which staved off radical movements on the left and the right that tended to hunt for Jewish scapegoats. As a Yiddish joke went, Jewish theology consisted of die velt (“this world”), yene velt (“the world to come”), and Roosevelt...

The Jewish vacation from history ended on September 11, 2001. It didn’t seem that way at the time. But the terror attacks opened an era of perpetual crisis, which became fertile soil where the hatred of Jews took root. Though Osama bin Laden claimed credit for the plot, that didn’t stop some people from trying to shift the blame. One theory explained in exquisitely absurd detail how Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, had toppled the Twin Towers.

But there was also a more sophisticated version of this conspiracy theory, one that had a patina of academic respectability. On the left, it became commonplace to fulminate against the neoconservatives, warmongering intellectuals said to be whispering in the ear of the American establishment, urging the invasion of Iraq and war against Iran...

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for one, took exception to the idea that Jews were pulling the strings of the United States government. “I suppose the implication of that is that the president and the vice president and myself and Colin Powell just fell off a turnip truck to take these jobs,” he said.

In 2007, Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, professors at Harvard and the University of Chicago, respectively, spelled out what others implied in The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, a book published by a venerable house, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, that soon arrived on the New York Times best-seller list. This was the opposite of the schmaltzy Streisand tribute—the Jewish state as not a friend but a villain surreptitiously manipulating American power to further its own ends.

One year later, Lehman Brothers, a bank founded in 1850 by the son of a Jewish cattle merchant from Bavaria, collapsed. That news was followed by the revelation that Bernie Madoff had masterminded the largest-known Ponzi scheme in history. Although politicians, on the whole, refrained from casting Jews as the primary culprits of the 2008 financial crisis—which was, in fact, systemic—a sizable portion of the public harbored this thought. Stanford University professors conducted a survey that found that nearly a quarter of the country blamed Jews for crashing the global economy. Another 38.4 percent ascribed at least some fault to “the Jews.”

In the era of perpetual crisis, a version of this narrative kept recurring: a small elite—sometimes bankers, sometimes lobbyists—maliciously exploiting the people. Such narratives helped propel Occupy Wall Street on the left and the Tea Party on the right. This brand of populist revolt had long been the stuff of Jewish nightmares... 

In the old Jewish theory of American politics, the best defense against the anti-Semitism of the right was a united left: minorities and liberal activists locking arms...

In the late 1960s, former comrades began to quietly, then brusquely, discard this spirit of common cause. Younger activists in the civil-rights movement took a hard turn toward Black Power and dismissed the old liberal theory of change as a melioristic ruse. Anti-war protesters embraced the decolonization struggles of the developing world. After Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1967, many came to view the Jewish state as a vile oppressor. (This was well before right-wing Israeli governments saturated the occupied territories with Jewish settlers.) Even as Israel’s shocking victory in the Six-Day War, 22 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, filled American Jews with pride and confidence, a meaningful portion of America’s left turned on Israel.

The turmoil of the late ’60s presaged the rupture that has occurred over the past decade or so. A new ideology has taken hold on the left, with a reordered hierarchy of concerns and an even greater skepticism of the old liberal ideals...

Even before Trump took office, the Resistance announced a mass protest set to defiantly descend on the capital, what organizers called the Women’s March on Washington. In an early planning meeting, at a New York restaurant, an activist named Vanessa Wruble explained that her Judaism was the motivating force in her political engagement. But Wruble’s autobiographical statement of intent earned her a rebuke. According to Wruble, two members of the inner circle planning the march told her that Jews needed to confront their own history of exploiting Black and brown people. Tablet magazine later reported that Wruble was told that Jews needed to repent for their leading role in the slave trade—a fallacious charge long circulated by the Nation of Islam. (The two organizers denied making the reported statements.) That moment of tension never really subsided, either for Wruble or for the left.

When the march’s organizers published their “unity principles,” they emphasized the importance of intersectionality, a theory first introduced by the law professor Kimberlé W. Crenshaw... Transposed by activists to the gritty work of coalition-building, it became the basis for a new orthodoxy—one that was largely indifferent to Jews, and at times outwardly hostile.

When the Women’s March listed the various injustices it hoped to conquer on its way to a better world, anti-Semitism was absent. It was a curious omission, given the central role that Jews played in the conspiracies promoted by the MAGA right, and a telling one. Soon after the march, organizers pushed Wruble out of leadership. She later said that anti-Semitism was the reason for her ouster. (The organizers denied this charge.)

The intersectional left self-consciously rebelled against the liberalism that had animated so much of institutional Judaism, which fought to install civil liberties and civil rights enforced by a disinterested state that would protect every minority equally. This new iteration of the left considered the idea of neutrality—whether objectivity in journalism or color blindness in the courts—as a guise for white supremacy. Tolerance, the old keyword of cultural pluralism, was a form of complicity. What the world actually needed was intolerance, a more active confrontation with hatred. In the historian Ibram X. Kendi’s formulation, an individual could choose to be anti-racist or racist, an activist or a collaborator. Or as Linda Sarsour, an activist of Palestinian descent and a co-chair of the Women’s March, put it, “We are not here to be bystanders.” To be a member of this new left in good moral standing, it was necessary to challenge oppression in all its incarnations. And Israel was now definitively an oppressor.

The American left hadn’t always imposed such a litmus test. During the years of the Oslo peace process, groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine had no problem attending events with liberal Zionists. Back then, the debate was over the borders of Israel, not over the fact of its existence. But that peace process collapsed during the last days of the Clinton administration, and whatever good faith had existed in that brief era of summits and handshakes dissipated. Hamas unleashed a wave of suicide bombings in the Second Intifada. And in the aftermath of those deadly attacks, successive right-wing Israeli governments presided over repressive policies in the West Bank and an inhumane blockade of Gaza.

Palestinian activists and their allies began the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, pushing universities to divest from Israel. The new goal was no longer coexistence between Arabs and Jews. It was to turn Israel into an international pariah, to stop working with all Israeli institutions—not just the military, but also symphonies, theater groups, and universities. In that spirit, it became fashionable for critics of Israel to identify as “anti-Zionist.”...

Zionist can start to sound like a synonym for Jew. Zionists stand accused of the same crimes that anti-Semites have attached to Jews since the birth of Christianity; Jews are portrayed as omnipotent, bloodthirsty baby-killers. Knowing the historical echoes, it’s hard not to worry that the anger might fixate on the Jewish target closest at hand—which, indeed, it has.

In 2014, dorms at NYU where religiously observant Jews lived received mock eviction notices—“We reserve the right to destroy all remaining belongings,” read the flyer slipped under doors—as if intimidating college kids with unknown politics somehow represented a justifiable reprisal for Israeli-government action in the West Bank. The same notices appeared at Emory University, in Atlanta, in 2019. At the University of Vermont and SUNY New Paltz, groups that helped sexual-assault survivors were accused of purging pro-Israel students from their ranks. “If you don’t support Palestinian liberation you don’t support survivors,” the Vermont group exclaimed. Years before October 7, students at Tufts University, outside Boston, and the University of Southern California moved to impeach elected Jews in student government over their support for Israel’s existence. This wasn’t normal politics. It was evidence of bigotry.

Among the primary targets of the activists were the Hillel centers present on most college campuses. These centers occasionally coordinate trips to Israel and, on some campuses, sponsor student groups supportive of Israel. Those facts led pro-Palestinian activists to describe Hillel as an arm of the “Israeli war machine.” At SUNY Stony Brook, activists sought to expel Hillel from campus, arguing, “If there were Nazis, white nationalists, and KKK members on campus, would their identity have to be accepted and respected?” At Rice University, in Texas, an LGBTQ group severed ties with Hillel because it allegedly made students feel unsafe. What made this incident darkly comic is that Hillel couldn’t be more progressive on issues of sexual freedom. What made it so worrying is that Hillel’s practical purpose is not to defend Israel, but to provide Shabbat dinners and a space for ritual and prayer. To condemn Hillel is to condemn Jewish religious life on campus.

As exclusion of Jews became a more regular occurrence, the leadership of the left, and of universities for that matter, had little to say about the problem. To give the most generous explanation: Jews simply didn’t fit the analytic framework of the new left.

At its core, the intersectional left wanted to smash power structures. In the American context, it would be hard to place Jews among the ranks of the oppressed; in the Israeli context, they can be cast as the oppressor. Nazi Germany definitively excluded Jews from a category we now call “whiteness.” Today, Jews are treated in sectors of the left as the epitome of whiteness. But any analysis that focuses so relentlessly on the role of privilege, as the left’s does, will be dangerously blind to anti-Semitism, because anti-Semitism itself entails an accusation of privilege. It’s a theory that regards the Jew as an all-powerful figure in society, a position acquired by underhanded means. In the annals of Jewish history, accusations of privilege are the basis for hate, the kindling for pogroms. But universities too often ignored this lesson from the past. Instead, they acted, as the British comedian David Baddiel put it in the title of his prescient book about progressive anti-Semitism, as if “Jews don’t count.” ...

For a brief moment, it felt as if the October 7 attacks might reverse the tide, because it should have been impossible not to recoil at the footage of Hamas’s pogrom. Israel had yet to launch its counterattack, so there was no war to condemn. Still, even in this moment of moral clarity, the campus left couldn’t muster compassion. At Harvard, more than 30 student groups signed a letter on October 7, holding “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” Days later, the incoming head of NYU’s new Center for Indigenous Studies described the attacks as “affirming.” This sympathy for Hamas, when its crimes were freshest, was a glimpse of what was about to come.

On the afternoon of October 11, Rebecca Massel, a reporter at the Columbia Daily Spectator, received a tip. She was told that a woman, her face wrapped in a bandanna, had assaulted an Israeli student in front of Butler Library in a dispute over flyers depicting hostages held by Hamas. The woman’s alleged weapon was a broomstick. Her battle cry was said to be “Fuck all of you prick crackers.” After striking him with the broomstick, the man said, she attempted to punch him in the face. By the end of the fracas, she had bruised one of his hands and sprained a finger on the other.

Massel began to report out the story. She spoke with the victim, who told her, “Now, we have to handle the situation that campus is not a safe place for us anymore.” She spoke with the NYPD, which confirmed that it had arrested the woman, who was charged with hate crimes and has pleaded not guilty. Massel and her editors curbed their impulse to quickly score a scoop, double-checking every sentence. They didn’t publish the story until 3 a.m. on October 12.

Later that morning, Massel, a sophomore studying political science, was sitting in her Contemporary Civilization seminar when her phone lit up. It was her editor, calling her back. She had texted him to get his sense of the response her article had elicited, so she stepped out of class to hear what he had to say. She had already caught a glimpse of posts on social media, harping on her Jewishness and accusing her of having a “religious agenda.” She’d worried that these weren’t stray attacks. The editor told her the paper had been inundated. The messages it had received about the article were vitriolic, but he didn’t give her any specifics. Before returning to class, she checked her own email. A message read, “I hope you fucking get what you deserve … you racist freak.”...

She thought about what the Israeli student had told her the day before. A dean had apparently advised him to leave campus because the university couldn’t guarantee his safety. Now Massel felt unsure of her own physical well-being. She decided that she would stay with her parents until she could get a better sense of the fury directed at her...

Massel spoke with 54 students. What she amassed was a tally of fear. Thirteen told her that they had felt harassed or attacked, either virtually or in person. (One passerby had barked “Fuck the Jews” at a small group of students.) Thirty-four reported that they felt targeted or unsafe on campus. (At one precarious moment, the Hillel center went into lockdown, out of concern that protesters might descend on the building.) Twelve said that they had suppressed markers of their Jewish identity, wearing a baseball cap over a yarmulke or tucking a Star of David necklace into a sweatshirt. She learned that a group of students had created a group-chat system to arrange escorts, so that no Jew would have to walk across campus alone if they felt unsafe.

Perhaps even more ominously, Massel uncovered incidents in which teachers expressed hostility toward Jewish students. One Israeli student told Massel that a professor had once said to him, “It’s such a shame that your people survived just in order to perpetuate another genocide.” When I made my own calls to students and faculty, I heard similar stories, especially instances of teaching assistants seizing their bully pulpit to sermonize. One TA wrote to their students, “We are watching genocide unfold in real time, after a systematic 75+ years of oppression of the Palestinian people … It feels ridiculous to hold section today, but I’ll see you all on Zoom in a bit.” One student left class in the middle of a professor’s broadside against Israel in a required course in the Middle East–studies department. Afterward, he sent an email to the professor explaining his departure, to which the professor wrote back, saying they could discuss it in class later. When the student returned, the professor read his email aloud to the whole class, and invited everyone to discuss the exchange. It felt like an act of deliberate humiliation.

When I talked with Jewish students at Columbia, I was struck by how they, too, tended to speak in the language of the intersectional left. They described their “lived experience” and trauma: the pain they felt on October 7 as they learned of the attacks; the fear that consumed them when they heard protesters call for the annihilation of Israel. They sincerely expected their university to respond with unabashed empathy, because that’s how it had responded in the past to other terrible events. Instead, Columbia greeted their pain with the soon-to-be-infamous concept of “context,” including a panel discussion that explained the attacks as the product of a long struggle. This historicizing felt as if it not only discounted Jewish students’ suffering but also regarded it as a moral failing...

There are many reasons for the unusual intensity of events at Columbia, which is located in a city that is a traditional bastion of the American left; its campus is where the late Palestinian American literary critic Edward Said achieved legendary status. But Columbia is also a graphic example of the collapse of the liberalism that had insulated American Jews: It is a microcosm of a society that has lost its capacity to express disagreements without resorting to animus...

In 2022, the Tufts political scientist Eitan Hersh conducted a comprehensive study of Jewish life on American college campuses, which surveyed both Jews and Gentiles. Hersh found that on campuses with a relatively high proportion of Jewish students, nearly one in five non-Jewish students said they “wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who supports the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.” They were saying, in essence, that they couldn’t be friends with the majority of Jews...

The German government, for understandable reasons, doesn’t count Jews. But the embassy sent me a tally of passport applications submitted under laws that apply to victims of Nazi persecution and their descendants. In 2017, after Trump’s election, the number of applications nearly doubled from the year before, to 1,685, and then kept growing. In 2022, it was 2,500. These aren’t large numbers in absolute terms; still, it’s extraordinary that so many American Jews, whose applications required documenting that their families once fled Germany, now consider the country a safer haven than the United States.

I also saw signs of flight in Oakland, where at least 30 Jewish families have been approved to transfer their children to neighboring school districts—and I heard similar stories in the surrounding area. Initial data collected by an organization representing Jewish day schools, which have long struggled for enrollment, show a spike in the number of admission inquiries from families contemplating pulling their kids from public school."

 

This is yet another counter-example to the right wing anti-Semites' claim that all Jews support Israel unconditionally

Of course, he has to bash Trump and Musk even though she can't point to anything they did or said that's anti-Semitic ("dog whistling" is the way to put words in people's mouths as usual)

Too bad if you point out that the left treat Jews like they treat white people, you get condemned as racist