“What we see in Bethlehem today, this need to affirm that Jesus was not Jewish, is political”

ALGEMEINER
‘Jesus Would Be a Hostage in Gaza if He Was Alive Today,’ Says French Catholic Priest Who Pioneered Holocaust Research
Ben Cohen
December 26, 2023

The French Catholic priest who developed an international reputation for his pioneering research into the Nazi “Holocaust by bullets” in Ukraine has spoken out forcefully against the antisemitic attitudes coloring criticism of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. “I always say: if there were no Jews in Israel, few people would look out for the Palestinians,” Father Patrick Desbois told the French language service of Israeli broadcaster i24 on Tuesday. Desbois was particularly irked by repeated claims on social media over the Christmas holiday that Jesus himself would be persecuted by Israel were he still alive. “If he had lived in 1942, Jesus would have been deported to Auschwitz, and if he had been born today, he would be the target of missiles or be a hostage in Gaza,” Desbois remarked… READ MORE

The Gospel According to Berkeley

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If UNRWA were not there, Hamas would have been forced to fill the vacuum and, for example, build hospitals and schools and find solutions to economic hardship, including unemployment and poverty

GATESTONE
How UNWRA Grooms Terrorists
Bassam Tawil
December 26, 2023

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was originally a small agency mandated to provide basic humanitarian relief for Palestinians, including a vote for renewal every three years. Seventy-three years and four generations later, and with more than 30,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $1 billion, it has astonishingly become one of the largest UN agencies.…Palestinian textbooks produced by UNRWA contain “antisemitic, hateful, and violent passages,” according to IMPACT-se. Some of these passages in an Islamic education drill include labeling Jews as inherently treacherous. A poem included in the educational content glorifies the killing of Israelis, and portrays dying as martyrs by killing Israelis as a “hobby.” READ MORE

UN WATCH U.N. UNRWA: Obstacle to Peace UN Schools use Western taxpayers’ money to teach Palestinian children to hate Jews

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Alice Walker, author of “The Color Purple,” in the mid-2010s began promoting works by an antisemitic conspiracy theorist and authored an antisemitic poem of her own

JTA
As ‘Color Purple’ adaptation hits theaters, Alice Walker’s antisemitism returns to spotlight
Andrew Lapin
December 23, 2023

…But even as the reputation of “The Color Purple” has soared over the decades, Walker’s own has become more muddled — specifically for her difficult relationship to Judaism and her outright flirtations with antisemitism. Married to a prominent Jewish civil rights lawyer when she was younger, Walker in the mid-2010s began promoting works by an antisemitic conspiracy theorist and authored an antisemitic poem of her own. This combined with her longtime outspoken criticism of Israel has led some in the Jewish community to question her continued stature as a well-regarded figure of American letters and led to her being disinvited from a major book festival just last year. READ MORE

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Tailoring, matchmaking, jogging: Israelis are finding quirky and unusual ways to pitch in to aid those affected by the events of October 7 and the ongoing battle in Gaza

ISRAEL 21C
12 unusual ways Israelis are volunteering during the war
Abigail Klein Leichman
December 27, 2023

The Hamas attacks on October 7 unleashed a tsunami of death and destruction on the Israeli people. But it also unleashed a tsunami of volunteering. Several studies show that about half of Israeli citizens have been giving of their time since the war began, in addition to thousands of foreign volunteers. Preparing meals for soldiers and displaced families; filling in for high-tech workers on reserve duty; donating blood and breastmilk; and harvesting produce on severely shorthanded farms, are among the needs volunteers are stepping up to fill. Other volunteers are folding laundry at evacuee hotels, stocking supermarket shelves in the absence of regular workers; cleaning hospital rooms; babysitting for children of reserve soldiers; and giving haircuts and beauty treatments to evacuees. READ MORE

How you can volunteer in Israel during the war If you’re visiting Israel during the war, or living here, you can make a meaningful contribution with the gift of your time.

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It will take years to correct the damage the generals wrought by reducing the size of the IDF and inducing its total dependence on the United States

JNS
Rising from the ruins of a generation of Israeli doctrine
Caroline B. Glick
December 22, 2023

…As Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Brick, (retired) who served as the IDF ombudsman for ten years, has documented, operating under the spell of [Ehud] Barak’s doctrine, the IDF shut down multiple reserve divisions. It cut its artillery forces by 50%. Armored brigades were shut down. The reserve force was reduced by 80% between 2003 and 2017. The non-commissioned officer corps was gutted. The bulk of the IDF budget and nearly all the U.S. military aid were diverted to the Air Force—the strategic arm of the “small, technological and lethal” IDF. The doctrine was repeatedly exposed as a farce. But to no avail. READ MORE

BREITBART Caroline Glick Warns Israel Perilously Dependent on U.S. Munitions, Biden’s 2-State Plan Would ‘Annihilate’ Israel Israel has become dangerously dependent on American munitions, according to conservative Middle East analyst and commentator Caroline Glick, who is calling for Israeli self-sufficiency, while slamming the Biden administration’s push for a “hideously anti-Israel” two-state solution policy, declaring it a “plan to annihilate Israel, piece by piece.

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Would College Students Donate to Support the Killing of Jews?

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“We know that female hostages were raped during their captivity under control of Hamas,” one Israeli military official said

I24 NEWS
Israeli doctors: Many of 30 released female hostages were assaulted in Gaza
December 22, 2023

Two Israeli doctors who treated freed hostages, as well as an Israeli military official familiar with the matter, confirmed to American newspaper USA TODAY that some released women revealed that they had suffered violent sexual assaults in captivity. All three spoke on condition of anonymity. One of the doctors said that among those aged 12 to 48, many of the 30 suffered sexual assault during their captivity at the hands of Hamas in Gaza. The doctor chose not to detail the specific nature of the assaults, while emphasizing that victims of sexual abuse generally have a four times higher risk of mortality than people who have not suffered such abuse. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Released hostage Mia Schem: Everyone in Gaza is a terrorist, I experienced hell In a preview clip of an interview scheduled to be released by Channel 13 tonight, released hostage Mia Schem, 21, says she experienced a Holocaust-like hell during captivity in Gaza. “It’s important to me to reveal the truth about the people who live in Gaza, about who they really are,” she says in the video. “Everyone there is a terrorist.” Schem says she realized she was being held in a family home during her time in captivity and that the whole family was involved with Hamas, including the women and children.

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Bradley Cooper and his cast shine in ‘Maestro,’ a film about the life of Leonard Bernstein

TABLET MAG
The Schnoz
Judith Miller
December 17, 2023

…At its core, Maestro is a love story, not dissimilar in some respects to that of Cooper’s directorial debut, the 2018 remake of A Star Is Born. In both films, Cooper (an obviously secure man, still all too rare in Hollywood) lets his female costars shine. Just as Lady Gaga’s stunning performance dominated Cooper’s first film, the true star of Maestro is Carey Mulligan—destined to be an Oscar contender for her riveting portrayal of Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre, Bernstein’s complicit, long-suffering wife. Cooper clearly had no interest in making a comprehensive biopic. What clearly fascinated him was the couple’s complex, loving, and fraught relationship. READ MORE

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Take a minute of your day and make a call, save their lives.

GOT A MINUTE? There are still 129 hostages in Gaza; Elderly men and women, fathers, young women, disabled, and chronically ill. According to testimonials from released captives, the hostages are kept without medication, are food deprived, have no access to showers, are forced to watch horrific documentation of the October 7th massacre repeatedly, and are constantly assaulted by their captives. Every second that passes could be their last. They must be released immediately.

Make a call and make a difference. Every call you make to your elected officials, whether you speak to someone or leave a message, is tallied by a congressional aide. Every call counts. Make a quick call or leave a voicemail and demand the immediate release of all the hostages in Gaza. An easy and simple act, just 1 min of your day, is the most effective action you can do. Together, we will bring them home.

Get started here: One Minute a Day

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Between his mic drop moments and fiery rebuttals of skeptical interviewers, Eylon Levy is learning to master TikTok and confronting Hamas supporters on social media

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel’s newest, British-born international spokesperson is raising some eyebrows
Avner Hofstein
December 20, 2023

When Levy was asked about his tweet calling participants in the anti-Israel protest movement in London “rape apologists,” Levy, 32, decided to shake things up. “I told him, if anyone is offended by the term ‘rape apologists,’ I issue the following challenge: For every person attending a pro-Palestine march with the sign ‘I condemn Hamas for raping Israeli women and girls’ and tagging me on Twitter, I’ll donate £10 to UNRWA or any other charity of their choice, and I’ll also publicly apologize to them. Now, I told him, the ball is in their court,” Levy says, speaking with The Times of Israel’s sister site, Zman Yisrael, which shadowed the spokesman for a day. READ MORE

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