It is unacceptable that while non-Jewish students get protection from microaggressions, Jewish students don’t merit protection from macroaggressions, especially when those aggressions have nothing to do with academic freedom

Posted on August 25, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH JOURNAL
Princeton Case Shows That When Jews Get Attacked, It Suddenly Becomes “Academic Freedom”
Lori Lowenthal Marcus
August 30, 2023

“Wokeness” and cancel culture operate in reverse when it comes to the Jews. For all other minorities, the Woke Police eagerly sniff out barely perceptible (or non-existent) “harm” caused by a teacher’s stray phrase in a classroom, an actor’s comments, an author’s opinion, or a physician’s approval of biological facts. When such a “sin” is discovered, the woke world demands not merely retraction of the offending statement and a craven apology for the statement’s issuance, but also abnegation of the sinner. And then the offenders are often officially cancelled…But then there are statements about Jews. For these, even the most outrageous and wildly unfounded assertions about Jews and/or the Jewish State are not only permitted to be uttered but also tweeted and retweeted, expounded upon and, most significantly, taught as truth in classrooms. READ MORE

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“One year from now – Israel will be the first country to have partial laser protection”

Posted on August 25, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Israel to have partial laser defenses by next year
Yonah Jeremy Bob
August 27, 2023

Israel will have partial laser defenses by this time next year, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems chairman Yuval Steinitz told Army Radio on Sunday.”One year from now – Israel will be the first country to have partial laser protection. In two years there may be complete protection – against missiles, shells, rockets, or anything else. This will protect us both in the South and in the North,” said Steinitz. READ MORE

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What the viral sensation behind ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ can learn from Robbie Robertson, writer of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”

Posted on August 25, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
The Night They Drove Oliver Anthony Down
David Meir Grossman
August 24, 2023

…On Aug. 7, a YouTube channel called “radiowv” uploaded a song by a guy nobody had ever heard of named Oliver Anthony with the pointed title of “Rich Men North of Richmond.” All sorts of accusations have followed the song’s rapid rise up the Billboard charts—including that Anthony, who lambasts politicians (the “rich men north of Richmond”) and welfare recipients in equal measure, has an incoherent political ideology. Indeed, his overnight rise from alcoholic obscurity into viral success is a version of the American dream. The video of “Rich Men,” which features Anthony alone, singing and playing his guitar in his backyard, has a certain austerity to it, which, for The New Yorker’s Jay Caspian King, called to mind the works of documentarian Les Blank. READ MORE

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“Her group’s success in “breaking a billionaire’s soul” whet her appetite, and the next targets, she insisted, must be everyone associated with Kohelet—intellectuals and donors”

Posted on August 23, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Israel’s #MeToo Stalinists celebrate their victory
Caroline Glick
August 20, 2023

Campaigners against Israel’s Netanyahu government scored a notable victory on Aug. 4. After a six-month demonization, defamation and harassment campaign against the Kohelet Policy Forum and its chief donor, Arthur Dantchik, Dantchik, a Philadelphia businessman, announced that he was ending his support for the conservative Jerusalem think tank. Moshe Koppel, a Bar Ilan University professor, founded Kohelet a decade ago as a full-spectrum policy think tank. Like its opposites on the left, Kohelet has developed policies on legal reform, economics, education and welfare. Its scholars work closely with like-minded policymakers to advance their policies in government ministries and the Knesset. READ MORE

TABLET MAG Gadi Taub: Israel’s Elites Revolt Against Democracy The architects of the anti-Bibi protests are clear about their motives: defending elites from the masses. Thomas Friedman is right that Israel’s democracy is in danger, but Netanyahu’s government is not the source of peril. The real danger comes from the court itself, which is now asserting a made-up “right” to remove a sitting prime minister—that is, to nullify the results of a legal election and eclipse Israel’s democratic politics and institutions through its own self-perpetuating fiat.

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“The message currently being sent to Americans that Israeli democracy will be destroyed unless the protesters get their way is a falsehood”

Posted on August 23, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH PRESS
Want to Support Israeli Democracy? Then RESPECT Democratic Elections
Jonathan Tobin
August 22, 2023

…As the political warfare inside Israel has escalated since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition won a clear majority in last November’s election to the Knesset, a new variation on that theme has arisen. It comes in the form of a request from prominent Israelis with strong ties to American Jewry for their foreign friends to intervene in the debate about judicial reform that is convulsing the Jewish state to aid those protesting against the Netanyahu government. As outrageous as previous calls for Washington to fight and win battles for the Israeli left that they couldn’t win at home were, this one is actually even more unprincipled and dangerous. That was the conceit of an op-ed published this week in The Times of Israel by Daniel Gordis, Yossi Klein Halevi, and Matti Friedman. It declares that non-Israeli Jews have a moral obligation to join in the delegitimization of the government that was chosen by the people of Israel in a free and fair election. READ MORE

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When Biden was elected in 2020, many hoped and some predicted that his would be an administration far friendlier to Israel than Obama’s. It’s not turning out that way.

Posted on August 23, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

COMMENTARY
The Biden Turn Against Israel and the mishandling of the problem of anti-Semitism
by Michael R. Pompeo and Elan S. Carr
September 2023

…More than halfway through the 46th president’s term, the facts are these: At almost every turn, the Biden administration has pursued policies that undermine Israel, imperil its security, and empower its enemies here and abroad. That record merits review, as well as an exploration of the ideological dogmas that explain it. The trouble began only three weeks after Inauguration Day, when the administration announced plans to rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The Council has made Israel-bashing a primary focus, racking up over 100 condemnations of that one country in 17 years—roughly the same number as for all other countries combined. READ MORE

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Earlier this week, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for a return to the policy of targeted killings

Posted on August 18, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

I24NEWS
Gaza terrorist groups fear resumption of targeted killings by Israel
August 23, 2023

After two terror attacks that caused the death of three Israelis in recent days, Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza are on heightened alert, fearing that the Israeli army will resume its strategy of targeted eliminations of their leaders, according to Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar. This tactic was previously implemented during Israel’s Operation “Shield and Arrow.” An unnamed source within the terrorist organizations issued a stern warning to Israel, stating that any response to the targeted killings would not only be swift, but would “exceed Israel’s expectations” in terms of power and method. READ MORE

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FDD: The Jewish state faces intensifying threats and internal divisions

Posted on August 18, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

FDD
Israel’s Long, Hot Summer
Clifford D. May
August 17, 2023

…Analysts at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) believe the Biden administration is working to conclude a wider deal, and that it is doing so secretly, bypassing Congress in violation of U.S. law. That deal would enable Iran to become a threshold nuclear weapons state, enriching at 60 percent which is almost all it needs to produce weapons-grade uranium for bombs. In exchange, Iran’s rulers would promise Washington not to “break out” with nuclear warheads – for now. So, Israelis face intensifying threats on multiple fronts. What are they doing in response? Quarreling among themselves. READ MORE

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What the latest outburst of anti-Haredi misinformation on a United flight tells us about progressive notions of identity and power

Posted on August 18, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
Admit It: You Hate Religious Jews
Liel Leibovitz
August 22, 2023

Late last week, a 29-year-old Israeli reporter boarded a United Airlines flight from New York to Tel Aviv. A short while later, she tweeted a photo of several Orthodox Jewish men, with the following caption: “Haredis on my flight right now are trying to move me around from one seat to another. Because I’m a woman. By the way, United Airlines are doing nothing about it. They’re telling me that because of me, the flight won’t take off. For shame.” It didn’t take long for the digital tongues to start wagging…The drama quickly seeped into the mainstream press, with headlines speaking of shame and discrimination and conjuring a perfect storm of religious intolerance, corporate malfeasance, and misogyny at 30,000 feet. There was only one minor problem with this grand guignol: It never happened. READ MORE

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“I believe the fact that Israelis developed a system that can protect the German population from ballistic missiles is a very important milestone”

Posted on August 18, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
78 years after the Shoah, Israel’s air defense system to protect Germany
Yaakov Lappin
August 18, 2023

Thursday’s dramatic announcement by the Israeli Defense Ministry that the United States gave the green light for the sale of Israeli’s Arrow 3 air defense system to Germany—the largest defense export deal in the Jewish state’s history—carries powerful historical messages. Boaz Levy, president and CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries, the prime contractor of the Arrow 3 system, said during a telephone press briefing, “One final sentence as a person who has led this project for so many years and as someone whose mother survived the Holocaust, this is a very important moment for me…READ MORE

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