Trevor Noah: You have no idea what you’re talking about, but that won’t stop you from lecturing us

TIMES OF ISRAEL
An open letter to Trevor Noah
by David Harris
May 14, 2021

I just watched your 10-minute monologue on the Israeli-Hamas conflict for your popular television program “The Daily Show” (May 11). Frankly, it wasn’t easy viewing. In fact, I began talking back to the screen, but, obviously, to no avail, so I chose instead to write you this open letter. You framed your comments quite cleverly by suggesting there were competing narratives out there, depending on who was doing the talking and the starting point of their version of history. And then, as if nothing more than a curious third party, you waded into the debate, essentially assigning yourself a certain moral credibility because of your “non-combatant“ status. READ MORE

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Rabbi Vernon Kurtz: “Just when we thought life was getting back to normal here things changed very quickly”

KOL BETH EL WEEKLY
Rabbi Kurtz Report From Israel
May 2021

…Two requests: Don’t let the media or the general public get away with equivalency arguments. Israel is using surgical strikes to attempt to destroy the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership as well as their missiles and armaments. They have issued warnings to vacate buildings in Gaza before they attempt to destroy the intended targets. On the other hand, the terrorists are sending out rockets indiscriminately attempting to kill as many people in Israel as possible and it makes no difference to them whether they are Jews, Christians, Arabs or Bedouin. Secondly pray for the safety of those under attack and for a peace and quiet to reign in the region. READ MORE

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“Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel and a “you can’t murder Jews” extremist, explained that from his point of view it was Hamas that was being unreasonable”

BABYLON BEE
Tensions Rise In Middle East As One Side Wants To Kill Jews And The Other Side Are Jews Who Don’t Want To Die And Neither Will Compromise
May 12, 2021

Israel has tried to get along with Palestine and other neighboring countries, but a core disagreement between the two groups has increased tensions and made peace seem impossible. For many in the Middle East, what they want most of all is to kill Jews — which they see as a reasonable request. But a majority of Israel is made up of Jews who, first and foremost, do not want to be killed. And neither side is willing to compromise on these desires. “We’re a simple people with a simple desire,” explained Bob Hamas, Palestinian founder of Hamas. “We just want to kill the Jews. We’re not dead set on how. Stabbings. Gunshots. Explosions. Pushing them into the sea. Any of those are fine with us, but Israel won’t allow any of those. Not even strangling. It’s keeping us from living our truth.” READ MORE

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“After 75 years of making excuses and denying the plain fact that antisemitism is the root and the branch of the Arab conflict with Israel, Israelis of all walks of life and across the political spectrum need to accept that it is true”

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Facing the real cause of the long Arab war
by Caroline B. Glick
May 14, 2021

In his book From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel, the late historian Robert Wistrich documented how before, during and after the Nazi period scholars from the political left disregarded and denied the ideological power antisemitism held over the Germans and their collaborators. The cause of their blindness was Marxism. Marxism has long been the theoretical prism through which the left sees the world. Marxism is hateful and contemptuous of Judaism because Judaism is fundamentally opposed to the obedient universality Communism demands. Karl Marx and his followers sought to eradicate Judaism through a world Communist revolution that Jews could only join if they first abandoned their national, cultural and religious identities. READ MORE

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“Lod is burning,” says an Israeli police official as a mob hurled rocks and firebombs, and replaced Israeli flags in the city with Palestinian ones

JERUSALEM POST
Northern Israel struck in latest midnight barrage of Gaza rockets
by Anna Ahronheim, Sarah Ben-Nun, Tzvi Joffre
May 13, 2021

After several hours of quiet, rocket fire resumed early Thursday, and sirens were heard in Ashkelon and the surrounding regions. They also sounded across the center and south of the country, as well as northern Israel, as far as the Galilee region. One rocket is reported to have directly hit Rishon Lezion, and another in Petah Tikva. Five people are being treated for minor injuries in Petah Tikva, several of them caused by anxiety and smoke inhalation. Israel’s security cabinet on Wednesday night approved the recommendation of IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi to escalate retaliatory airstrikes into the Gaza Strip. Defense Minister Benny Gantz is briefing members of the Knesset as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel will not accept a ceasefire with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. READ MORE

JNS Arab Israelis in Lod riot, set fire to synagogue Arab Israelis took to the streets of Lod and neighboring Ramla in the center of the country on Monday night, hurling rocks and firebombs and setting fires to trash cans, tires, a synagogue and a pre-military academy. “Lod is burning,” an Israeli police official said of the riots, held in solidarity with the recent anti-Israel uprising of eastern Jerusalem residents and Hamas rocket barrages from Gaza, according to Ynet.

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Patrick Kingsley is a 32-year-old British-born journalist, educated at Eton and Cambridge in English Literature, now #NYT Jerusalem bureau chief; as usual, NYT headlines position Israel as the aggressor, Palestinians as the victims or reactors.

ARUTZ SHEVA
The New York Times Strikes Israel Again
by Phyllis Chesler
May 11, 2021

…Just in the last four days, [NYT Jerusalem bureau chief] Kingsley has written more than 3,000 words about Israel, most of them biased, misinformed, and as highly incendiary as the kites and rockets that Hamas has been launching into southern Israel for some time. The headlines that accompany Kingsley’s articles, often co-authored by Isabel Kershner (and perhaps written by someone else), invariably position Israel as the aggressor and Palestinian “protesters” either as the victims or as the reactors. For example: “Israel Hits Gaza with Airstrikes as Hamas Increases Rocket Fire” and “Evictions in Jerusalem Become Focus of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Always unclear, purposely so, is what came first. Was it the more than 200 rockets fired into southern Israel or was it the first-to-be-named but Israeli response—the airstrikes? Do Kingsley and Kershner simply fail to understand that the alleged “evictions” in Sheikh Jarrah/Shimon Ha-Tzadik are legal, under both Israeli and international law—and that this is a question of “provocative” squatters refusing to pay rent to a legal landlord? Or obey the court decision to vacate? READ MORE

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“In the Middle East, Biden is finishing what Obama started. And his top advisers are all on board”

TABLET MAG
The Realignment
by Michael Doran and Tony Badran
May 10, 2021

On Sunday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan phoned his Israeli counterpart and turned back the hands of time. According to the American readout of the conversation, Sullivan called “to express the United States’ serious concerns” about two things: the pending eviction, by court order, of a number of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, and the weekend’s violent clashes on the Temple Mount between Israeli police and Palestinian rioters. The Biden administration, in other words, publicly asserted an American national interest in preventing the Sheikh Jarrah evictions, regardless of the dictates of Israeli law—just as Hamas was sending rockets and incendiary devices into Israel with the same message. READ MORE

BREITBART Biden Sends Anti-Israel Official, Hady Amr, to Israel to Encourage ‘De-escalation‘ President Joe Biden has sent Hady Amr, a State Department official with a history of anti-Israel views, to Israel in an effort to encourage Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “de-escalate” the Israeli response to Palestinian terrorist rocket attacks. As Breitbart News reported earlier this year, Amr has accused Israel (falsely) of “ethnic cleansing,” and appeared in the past to justify Palestinian violence against Israelis.

JNS Israel Kasnett: If current Mideast violence a test, some experts say Biden is failing “American silence on Iran’s involvement in Gaza is shocking. They are so eager to sign another nuclear agreement that that they don’t want to antagonize Iran,” said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S. policy in the Middle East at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan.

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As I write here in Jerusalem, sirens have sounded and explosions have been heard. Ignore the lies. Here are some important facts

MELANIE PHILLIPS SUBSTACK
Hamas commits war crimes. Israel is blamed. Of course
by Melanie Phillips
May 12, 2021

Over the past few hours, fresh barrages of Hamas rockets from Gaza have been raining down over Israel. Most have been intercepted by the country’s Iron Dome defence system. But at least 20 Israelis have been wounded in Ashkelon, and a five-year-old boy was killed by a direct rocket hit on a house in Sderot. The boy’s mother was seriously wounded, a five-year-old is moderately wounded and four others are lightly hurt. Rockets have also been fired at the town of Dimona, site of Israel’s nuclear reactor. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fired more than 1200 rockets at Israel since Monday evening. Dozens of Israelis have been injured. A five year-old girl was critically injured when a rocket fell next to a bus in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon. READ MORE

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With Israel under attack from US-designated terror group Hamas, Andrew Yang is now sorry he had shown support for Israel

NEW YORK POST
Andrew Yang apologizes for pro-Israel tweet after criticism from the left
by Julia Marsh
May 12, 2021

Democratic mayoral contender Andrew Yang backtracked on his support for Israel amid the latest battle in its ongoing conflict with Palestinian militants — after critics on the left, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, blasted his remarks. Yang posted an apology on Twitter Wednesday following a discussion with longtime volunteers who were upset by an earlier post that said he stood with “the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks, and condemn the Hamas terrorists.” His first tweet, published Monday night, continued, “The people of NYC will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere.”  READ MORE

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Gal Gadot issues plea for peace in current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, triggering social media backlash Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s plea for peace in her home country Wednesday created anything but that on social media.

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Benjamin Anthony Speaks on BBC Persia to Defend Israel in Recent Conflict with Gaza

Benjamin Anthony of The MirYam Institute Speaks on BBC Persia to Defend Israel During Recent Conflict with Gaza

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