South Africa: In the 1970s and 1980s they used to joke, “When the Jews go; it’s time to leave, when the Portuguese go; it’s too late.”

Posted on January 19, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

FUTURE OF JEWISH
A South African Jew asks: Is it time to go?
Howard Sackstein
January 20, 2024

…A year ago, an American Jewish non-governmental organisation visited South Africa to see whether it should begin planning a mass evacuation for South African Jewry. I laughed it off. I feel a little foolish about that now. For Jews, this country no longer feels like a safe space or “home.” The government has been captured by radical Islamists and their sympathisers. We have normalised Jew hatred and justified massacres. Our country has lost its soul, and it’s time for our community to start a real and honest discussion about its future. READ MORE

JERUSALEM POST Major South African banks provide platform to fund Hamas The Jerusalem Post research uncovered what appears to be a network of several South African organizations deeply involved in Hamas funding.

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Occupied City: Amsterdam under the Nazis

Posted on January 19, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

LA TIMES
Review: Steve McQueen’s ‘Occupied City’ is a masterful panorama of WWII-era Amsterdam
Justin Chang
January 4, 2024

One of the many stories we hear in “Occupied City,” Steve McQueen’s quietly staggering new documentary, charts the fate of an Amsterdam arts establishment during the German occupation. In 1941, the Hollandsche Schouwburg, or Dutch Theater, was renamed the Joodse Schouwburg, or Jewish Theater; only Jewish artists were allowed to perform there, and only for Jewish audiences. In 1942, the Nazis turned it into a deportation center and holding prison from which thousands of Dutch Jews were shipped to the Westerbork transit camp, then on to their deaths at extermination centers including Auschwitz and Sobibor. READ MORE

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Chicagoan Beth Kopin, buys a home in Jerusalem and becomes an Israeli-American

Posted on January 19, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
To be or not to be (an Israeli American)? That is the question #1
Beth G. Kopin
January 18, 2024

I have heard from many people since posting on TOI, Being an Israeli American, asking Why my husband and I made our decision to become Israeli citizens and How was the process? It seems there are more like us contemplating Aliyah (becoming a citizen), who knew? I’m now planning to write a series on making Aliyah. Since some of the process can be frustrating (amusing/hilarious), I wasn’t sure in lieu of the war it was appropriate. I realized it might prove helpful. Buying a home and or becoming a citizen, especially across the globe is never an easy or rash decision. We had many discussions; money (headaches), time for travel, jet lag, time difference, time away from both sides, work challenges, language barrier, retirement planning versus spending. If you are married usually one wants it more than the other…READ MORE

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Gordis: A lovely story is making its way around Israeli social media

Posted on January 19, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL FROM THE INSIDE
A brief story of a fender-bender
Daniel Gordis
January 19, 2024

This tweet is making its way around Israeli social media. It’s a sweet story, but the truth is, we see and hear things like this all the time. This moved me to tears. A story of the people of Israel. ..Zvika Gringlik hit a car. He exchanged details with the owner of the car and he said to the owner of the car: “No problem, I’m to blame, I wasn’t okay and we’ll fix what you need in the car.” They arranged to meet together at the garage on Wednesday. On Wednesday she arrives at the garage and Zvika Greenlick does not come. She tries to call him and he does not answer his phone. He disappears, as if the earth swallowed him. Thursday the woman sends him a message: “I’m really disappointed, your behavior is not nice, we arranged for Wednesday and you didn’t come.” He sees the message and immediately sends her a message back: “I’m very sorry, on Tuesday my son Shaul was killed in Gaza, so I couldn’t come.” READ MORE

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How Harvard’s ousting of Lawrence Summers led to the disgrace of Claudine Gay

Posted on January 19, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

COMMENTARY
Harvard’s Tragic Journey
Ruth R. Wisse
February 2024

Forgive me for quoting myself, but there’s no other way to begin: “History rarely issues us a red alert. But the surrender by America’s premier university to its anti-intellectual assailants marked a point of no return. Responsibility was so equally distributed among the administration, Board of Governors, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the main players that I saw no way the damage could be repaired.”This was my verdict on Harvard when I retired from the university a decade ago after having witnessed the ambush and dismissal in 2006 of Lawrence Summers, whose appointment as president five years earlier had given me hope that the decline I had tracked would now be reversed. READ MORE

JNS Jonathan S. Tobin: How ‘anti-racism’ made antisemitism fashionable The woke ideology that fuels BLM—ideas like intersectionality, white privilege and critical race theory—have nothing to do with the conflict between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. But for both veteran ideologues and young progressives who have been indoctrinated in these specious concepts, the same bogus way of looking at the world is just as easily applied to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The result is that a significant portion of young Americans are quick to view the events of Oct. 7, as well as the subsequent fighting in Gaza, as essentially an extension of their assumptions about racial strife in the United States.

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According to Israeli military planners, Hezbollah was supposed to carry out the same invasion, mass murder, and kidnapping that Hamas carried out alone under Iranian instruction

Posted on January 17, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Iran’s Siamese twins: Hezbollah and Hamas’s massacre strategy
Dan Diker
January 10, 2024

…In fact, Israeli military planners assess that Hezbollah was to have undertaken the same invasion, mass murder, and kidnapping operation that Hamas ended up carrying out alone, under Iranian supervision. Hezbollah’s major invasion plan through its hundreds of kilometers long tunnel system in Northern Israel, similar to Hamas’ underground terror “metro” – would have resulted in thousands killed in and kidnapped from Israel’s northern communities. Hezbollah’s Radwan forces prepared a similar ground invasion and takeover plan of Israel’s northern towns and cities, including Kiryat Shmona, Metula, and Nahariya. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Israeli father says Hamas tried to sell his son’s decapitated head for $10,000 David Tahar, father of former Israel Defense Forces Sgt. Adir Tahar, said Hamas abused the body of his son after he was killed during the terrorists’ Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel...”I did everything I could, it wasn’t easy, in the end, I got a body without a head,” he said, adding that the defense forces did not want him to view his son’s butchered body, but he had insisted. The grieving father said that after his son’s body arrived at Mount Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery, he opened the coffin to see for himself what had happened. 

24NEWS IDF conducts searches for Hostage bodies in Gaza Strip cemeteries The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on Thursday that they are actively conducting searches for the bodies of hostages in cemeteries located in the Gaza Strip. The announcement comes in response to reports from Gazans claiming that soldiers had caused destruction in a cemetery in Khan Younes.

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“Not only did the Gazan public not protest against Hamas following the attack, but thousands took an active part – publicly and without fear – in the massacres, kidnappings, rapes and lootings, including the theft of bodies as a sort of ‘appreciating asset,’ and of course participated in the victory celebrations that included abuse of the kidnapped and the bodies”

Posted on January 17, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

NAOMI RAGEN BLOG
Gaza War Diary
18 January 2024

…Let there be no mistake: this is a war between Israel and the Gazans [versus just Hamas]. All of them. It is a war between Israel and the Palestinians, excluding Israeli Arabs. We shouldn’t be feeding them, employing them, minimizing harm to them, or providing them with electricity or shelter. Just as the average Berliner was a Nazi, the average Gazan and West Bank Palestinian, is Hamas-ISIS. They want us dead. Dr. Milstein believes that we should nevertheless not dehumanize the Gazans: “This would undermine the moral foundations of Israel and its image in the eyes of the world.” What we have to do then, is dispose of our illusions that anything we do can affect change in their morality, prejudice, savagery, and genocidal dreams. What we need to do is create a buffer zone between us and never, ever allow them to pass over it. READ MORE

JTA A poll shows Palestinians overwhelmingly support Oct. 7. What does that mean? For Israelis and others who hope to see Palestinians reject Hamas and its attacks on Israelis, the poll offered little reason for optimism. It found that 72% of respondents approved of Hamas’ decision to launch the Oct. 7 attack, in which the terror group killed 1,200 Israelis, took more than 240 captive and committed numerous atrocities.

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“There’s nowhere like Israel in the world,” Jehezkel told reporters. “I’m very happy to be here, and I couldn’t wait to arrive.”

Posted on January 16, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Soccer player returns to warm welcome in Israel following detention in Turkey
Suzan Fraser
January 15, 2024

Israeli soccer player Sagiv Jehezkel returned to Israel on Monday evening to a cheering crowd, hours after he was briefly detained in Turkey for allegedly inciting hatred after he expressed solidarity with hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza during a top-flight league game. Jehezkel landed in Israel in a small plane and was draped in an Israeli flag upon disembarking. Dozens of fans mobbed him as he left the airport, cheering, singing, and waving flags. “There’s nowhere like Israel in the world,” Jehezkel told reporters. “I’m very happy to be here, and I couldn’t wait to arrive.” The Antalyaspor player was released from custody following questioning by police and court officials, a Turkish official said. READ MORE

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Iranian espionage operation included fake social media pages urging users to photograph homes of top officials and rallies for release of hostages, tried to gather intel via fake surveys

Posted on January 16, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Shin Bet unveils Iranian plot to trick Israelis into giving info on defense officials
Emanuel Fabian
January 15, 2024

…According to the Shin Bet, Iranian operatives, using fake online profiles, tasked Israelis with photographing the residences of Israeli defense officials and other officials who appear frequently in the media and speak out publicly against Iran. Using fictitious social media pages and websites, the Iranian operatives also initiated gatherings near the homes of the families of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas and had bouquets of flowers and messages sent to their homes, the Shin Bet said. The agency said that the Iranian operatives had taken advantage of the protests in support of the hostages by having Israelis hang signs relating to the issue that had been written by them, as well as asking them to photograph the demonstrators. READ MORE

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Fetterman says he’ll continue standing with Israel even as a growing number of fellow Democrats call for a ceasefire in the war against Hamas

Posted on January 16, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
‘Sit this one out,’ Fetterman tells South Africa, of Israel genocide accusation
Andrew Bernard
January 11, 2024

South Africa, which brought genocide charges against Israel at the International Court of Justice, a U.N. body in The Hague, should “sit this one out,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said on Wednesday at an Orthodox Union lunch on Capitol Hill. The Pennsylvania Democrat, who has developed a reputation as one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress, said that Hamas’s terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7 cannot be compared to Israeli self-defense and critics of the Jewish state should not accuse the latter of asymmetrical response. READ MORE

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