Conservative superstars Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro lectured a standing-room only audience of approximately 3,000 at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center on Thursday. In their speeches, the Daily Wire pundits addressed major challenges currently facing the Western world, the dynamics of power and totalitarianism, how the Torah’s well-known stories and a core belief in God serve as pillars of morality for all of mankind and the role Israel can play as an emerging technological and moral superpower on the world stage. READ MORE
Iran’s Islamist regime wields varied instruments of violent repression and totalitarian control, but most detested may well be the Basij force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a paramilitary militia of young ideologues that polices Iranians’ everyday lives. Since the beginning of the nationwide uprising sparked by the gruesome killing of Mahsa Amini for not covering her hair, the Basij have been called up to provide their usual service of clubbing and shooting protesters. This time the response from demonstrators has been a deep fury that is expressing itself in open rejection of the regime. READ MORE
The top official at the UN Human Rights Council stands accused of ordering his staff to manipulate speakers lists and engage in other illicit activities to block speeches by a watchdog that is the UN body’s staunchest critic, according to explosive new testimony from a UN whistle-blower, and from the release of a first tranche of leaked internal emails. In a 30-page legal complaint filed in New York today with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the independent non-governmental organization UN Watch charged Eric Tistounet, the chief of the Human Rights Council branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, with “systematic harassment, censorship and discrimination.” Tistounet, a French national, helped negotiate the creation of the council in 2006, has overseen its running ever since, and is considered its institutional memory and central figure. READ MORE
…Those [Berkeley]clubs are engaging in a combination of Stalinism and antisemitism: Stalinism in the sense that they allow no dissenting views from their “politically correct” doctrine of no Israel; antisemitism in the sense that among all the nations of the world which are involved in controversies — Russia, Iran, China, Belarus, to name a few — they have singled out for banning only the nation-state of the Jewish people…Clubs and universities generally have a right to choose their speakers, but there is a vast difference between individually deciding who will speak and making a collective decision banning all people of a particular ideology, religion or race. These clubs are effectively banning most Jews…Imagine if a university club were to exclude all speakers who support Black Lives Matter? READ MORE
TIMES OF ISRAEL We Zionists are actually thriving at Berkeley LawYes, the ban on Zionist speakers by some student groups is shameful. No, our alma mater is not a hotbed of antisemitism, and claims of ‘Jewish-free zones’ are harmful
BERKELEY LAW UC-Berkeley Law Faculty Statement In Support Of Jewish StudentsWe hereby endorse the principle of free and open speech at the law school. This includes the fundamental principle that all students should be freely admitted to all student groups and under no circumstances should any student be denied admission to any student group.
…Palestinianism originated in the 1960s and was created by the cognitive warriors of the Soviet KGB. At the time, the Soviets were supporting pan-Arab nationalists like Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in order to counter American and British influence in the Middle East. With the decline of pan-Arabism, Palestinianism became a useful way to incite the Arab world against the West. It also provided an excuse for opposing Israel, which the USSR now considered an enemy. Ironically, the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin had initially hoped that Israel would join the socialist camp, but it had become clear by the mid-1950s that Israel was drawing closer to the West. READ MORE
According to what we hear from the White House and from the television networks, the issues at stake in the Ukraine War are simple. They concern the evil of Vladimir Putin, who woke up one morning and chose, whether out of sadism or insanity, to wreak unspeakable violence on his neighbors. Putin’s actions are described as an “unprovoked invasion” of a noble democracy by a corrupt autocracy. How we ought to respond is assumed to be a no-brainer. The United States has pledged vast quantities of its deadliest weaponry, along with aid that is likely to run into the hundreds of billions of dollars, and has brought large parts of the world economy—particularly in Europe—to a standstill. Now, whenever people in power tell you something is a no-brainer, there’s a good chance that it’s a brainer. And the Ukraine War is more complicated than we’ve been led to assume.READ MORE
Israel is preparing for a possible confrontation with Hezbollah after rejecting increased demands from Lebanon in maritime border talks on Thursday. Defense Minister Benny Gantz instructed the defense establishment “to prepare for any scenario in which tensions increase in the northern arena – including defense and offense readiness,” his office said. The instruction was issued following an assessment of the situation with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi and other senior military officers and defense officials. Shortly afterwards, the Security Cabinet authorized Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Gantz and Alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to take decisions if there were to be an escalation in the North. Gantz warned that Israel will defend its infrastructure regardless of the outcome of negotiations. READ MORE
TIMES OF ISRAEL Mossad head said to warn of face-saving Hezbollah strike on gas field as deal waversThe head of the Mossad spy service reportedly told government officials that the Hezbollah terror group would likely attempt a limited attack on Israeli-controlled installations in a disputed offshore gas field, as Jerusalem put troops in northern Israel on alert after a maritime border deal appeared to falter Thursday, sending tensions spiraling.
JNS Lapid rejects Lebanese ‘amendments’ to maritime border deal “Israel will produce gas from the Karish platform as soon as this is possible. If Hezbollah or anyone else attempts to harm the Karish rig or threaten us—the negotiations over the maritime border will cease immediately, and Hassan Nasrallah will have to explain to Lebanon’s citizens why they don’t have a gas rig or an economic future,” the source added.
If it wasn’t so frightening, one might be able to recognize the irony in the sight of campus progressives trying so hard to signal progressive virtue that they fall victim to a deeper moral shame. Nine different law student groups at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law, my own alma mater, have begun this new academic year by amending bylaws to ensure that they will never invite any speakers that support Israel or Zionism. And these are not groups that represent only a small percentage of the student population. They include Women of Berkeley Law, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association, Law Students of African Descent and the Queer Caucus.READ MORE
WASHINGTON EXAMINER The new loyalty oath imposed on Jews32 Jewish and non-Jewish students and young alumni, academics, communal and advocacy group figures, governmental leaders, activists, and creatives contributed to this article. Taken together, what follows is a portrait of profound societal changes.
JEWISH JOURNAL Jewish Civil RightsBrooke Goldstein, founder of End Jew Hatred is fighting Jew hatred with a civil rights movement that seeks justice for Jews…Goldstein explained to the Journal, fighting Jew hatred is “a civil rights issue which should be combatted through a civil rights movement for Jews” in the same tradition as other great justice movements.
…“Leopoldstadt,” which premiered in London in 2020 before its initial run was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, finally had its long-postponed Broadway opening this week in a limited engagement at the Longacre Theater that is scheduled to end in January. Any play with the kind of buzz that preceded this one, marking it as the major event of the new season before it even began, might be bound to disappoint. But “Leopoldstadt” does not. It’s two hours and ten minutes without an intermission of drama, leading inevitably to tragedy, maintains Stoppard’s reputation as an author of dialogue that is destined for collections of brilliant quotes. More importantly, though not without its flaws, the play also adds a late-career triumph to Stoppard’s resume that will be looked upon as a not insignificant contribution to the literature of the Holocaust.READ MORE
Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s latest anti-Israel slur highlights yet again just how far Democrats have strayed. Once upon a time, they wouldn’t have tolerated such outrageous attacks on the Jewish state. Today, Tlaib is just one of several Dems who repeatedly lie about Israel and push for its demise. “You cannot claim to hold progressives values yet back Israel’s apartheid government,” Tlaib said Tuesday. Yet the suggestion that Jerusalem is under an “apartheid government” is beyond outrageous: Israel welcomes people of all faiths and backgrounds. READ MORE
INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT ON TERRORISM Will Rashida Tlaib Get Away with Her Antisemitic Comments?“The outrageous progressive litmus test on Israel by @RashidaTlaib is nothing short of antisemitic,” wrote Florida U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. “Proud progressives do support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state. Suggesting otherwise is shameful and dangerous. Divisive rhetoric does not lead to peace.”
DAILY SIGNAL AOC Tweet Shows She Doesn’t Know Meaning of Oppression. Iranian Women Could Tell HerAOC sees the recent wave of American pro-life legislation protecting unborn lives across the nation after the overturn of Roe v. Wade as being comparable to the oppression of women living under radical Islam. Perhaps Ocasio-Cortez would benefit from considering what the oppression being suffered by Iranian women really looks like.
ArchitectGuy on Israel 