Former Shin Bet technology division head Ron Shamir says U.S. cyber defenders are experiencing a “very difficult hour”

JNS
Israel must study and learn from prospective Russian cyber breach of US networks
by Yaakov Lappin
January 8, 2021

Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, which is in charge of defending critical infrastructure, needs to study every detail of the massive suspected Russian cyber breach of 250 government and private-sector networks recently uncovered in the United States, a former senior Shin Bet intelligence agency official has told JNS. Ron Shamir, who retired in 2013 from the Shin Bet after 24 years on the job, served as the intelligence agency’s former Technology Division head. He said it was imperative to understand how “the most basic” features of cyber defense appear to have been overlooked, including the ways in which attackers took advantage of the SolarWinds IT management company, which provided software to the attacked entities. READ MORE

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Stand With Us had twice written to Johns Hopkins about TA Rasha Anayah

FORWARD
Johns Hopkins teaching assistant suspected of lowering Jewish students’ grades
by Stewart Ain
January 7, 2021

Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has launched a probe into allegations against a university teaching assistant for “alleged anti-Semitism and potential abuse of authority in the discharge of academic responsibilities on our campus.” The campus Hillel is calling upon students to contact its office if they suspect the teaching assistant lowered their grade as an act of antisemitism. Published reports have identified the teaching assistant as Rasha Anayah, who is also a graduate student in the chemistry department at Johns Hopkins. It is alleged that in a tweet she posted Nov. 15, she wrote, “ethical dilemma: if you have to grade a zionist students exam, do you still give them all their points even though they support your ethnic cleansing? Like idk.” READ MORE

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“The politics of the mob don’t matter. Government must preserve civic order”

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Insurrection Demands Forceful Response
by Tom Cotton
January 7, 2021

Over the sum­mer, as in­sur­rec­tion gripped the streets, I called to send in the troops if nec­es­sary to restore or­der. On Wednes­day in­sur­rec­tion­ists oc­cu­pied the Capi­tol and dis­rupted the pro­ceed­ings of Con­gress. These groups waved signs with dif­fer­ent slo­gans, but our re­sponse must be the same: no quar­ter for in­sur­rec­tion­ists. Those who use vi­o­lence to ad­vance their agen­das must be stopped with the full force of the law. Mob vi­o­lence ex­ploded over the past year. Last May ri­ot­ers and loot­ers ter­ror­ized many cities fol­low­ing the death of George Floyd in Min­neapolis po­lice cus­tody. Left-wing rad­i­cals cap­i­tal­ized on the chaos by at­tack­ing cour­t­houses and tear­ing down stat­ues of Wash­ing­ton, Lin­coln, Grant and oth­ers. READ MORE

JNS After Congress affirmation, RJC congratulates Biden on winning presidency The Republican Jewish Coalition offered to work with the incoming administration “on issues such as the U.S.-Israel relationship and preventing a nuclear Iran.”

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“Navalny concluded lamenting that Russia and other “enemies of freedom of speech around the world” would exploit Trump’s Twitter ban to silence legitimate dissent”

BREITBART
Top Putin Rival, Russian Dissident Alexei Navalny: Trump Twitter Ban ‘Unacceptable’
by Frances Martel
January 9, 2021

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny – one of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent foes who nearly died last year of suspected poisoning by the state – called Twitter’s decision to ban President Donald Trump permanently on Saturday “an unacceptable act of censorship. Navalny, the leader of the opposition Progress Party and a longtime protest organizer calling for the end of Putin’s rule, compared Twitter’s censorship of Trump to Putin’s censorship of himself and noted that “cold-blooded murderers” like Putin and Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro continue to use the platform without restrictions. READ MORE

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“The assault on the Capitol was shocking and disgraceful. It’s also a reminder that everyone’s rights, including minority groups, depends on the preservation of order and respect for democracy”

JNS
When the rule of law breaks down, no one is safe
by Jonathan Tobin
January 6, 2021

What happened at the Capitol on the day both Houses of Congress assembled in a joint session to certify the votes of the Electoral College in the 2020 presidential election was a disgrace. In an unprecedented scene, a violent mob protesting the results broke into the building and sent both the House of Representatives and the Senate scurrying for safety, temporarily halting the quadrennial ritual and providing scenes of the riot that will live in infamy in American history. The only possible decent response to this appalling episode is the harshest condemnation of those involved and even more sadly, those, including the president of the United States, who encouraged the mob that committed the violence. READ MORE

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“The claim that Israel was not vaccinating Palestinians was entirely an invented story built on misleading information”

JERUSALEM POST
How anti-Israel voices made a hypocritical, inaccurate story on vaccines
by Seth J. Frantzman
January 4, 2021

On January 2, the BBC’s homepage featured an extraordinary story. “Israel leads virus vaccine race with 12% given jab.” The article noted that with “more than 1 million people inoculated, Israel has by far the highest rate in the world.” This was a positive story, and it was also extraordinary. However, rather than take an interest in how Israel had accomplished this and what ramifications it might have for other vaccine rollouts from London to Amman, an anti-Israel agenda was set in motion to invent a story about Israel not vaccinating Palestinians. READ MORE

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“The small army of nurses and medical techs injecting one person after another with utter efficiency was that old Israel, the Israel that knows how to come together when facing a mortal enemy”

BLOOMBERG
Vaccination Miracle Brings Israel Back to Its Roots
by Daniel Gordis
January 1, 2021

…Every Israeli citizen is a member of one of a handful of national HMO’s, so we are fairly easily reached. A couple of days before the vaccinations were set to begin — first for frontline medical staff and the next day for those 60 years old and above — we got emails inviting us to make an appointment. The demand was overwhelming, but after a few tries, I got us appointments for the end of the first day that the vaccine would be available to non-medical staff. As the vaccinations were being given in one of Jerusalem’s large sports arenas, I anticipated utter bedlam, the sort of Israeli chaos that I usually can’t stand, and drove to the arena with a bit of dread. But I was entirely mistaken. Inside, there was a hushed calm, even a sense of sanctity. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL David Horovitz: Vaccinated in Israel, I feel incredibly appreciative, and I’m daring to hope A chain of wise and wonderful people, abroad and here, inside a year, managed to find a counter to COVID and have now started to deliver it. May the rest of the planet follow suit.

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“If Orthodox Jews were really to blame for spreading the coronavirus, as the mayor asserted, why weren’t their neighborhoods added to his ‘hardest hit’ list designated to receive the vaccine ASAP?”

TABLET MAG
De Blasio’s Perfect Patsies
by Liel Leibovitz
December 28, 2020

Are the Jews to blame for spreading COVID-19 throughout New York City? That’s what Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested in an inflammatory tweet back in April, which, in his typical bumbling fashion, he defended for six months before kinda, sorta walking it back. Never mind all that. The city is serious! It believes in science! Earlier this week, the mayor’s office launched its “NYC Vaccine for All” campaign, announcing that it will begin offering the COVID vaccine soonest. Who will get it first? Naturally, the neighborhoods “hardest hit” by the pandemic, the mayor’s office assured us, 27 of them in total. READ MORE

SPECTATOR A Vaccine Passover for New York’s Jews The dense [Jewish] neighborhoods of Brooklyn where so many of the most publicly devout Jews live are among the hardest hit by the virus in the city, by the numbers…So of course, those neighborhoods have the statistics that would give them near-top priority for the vaccine…But not for Comrade Bill the mayor. He has passed over the Boro Park and Crown Heights and Williamsburg where most of those kinds of Jews he has targeted are to be found. 

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“At the #NYTimes, hostile coverage didn’t even pause for Jewish holidays”

ALGEMEINER
New York Times Hit New Lows in 2020 on Israel and Jews
by Ira Stoll
January 3, 2020

…Zionist Jews were pushed out at the Times editorial page, while non-Zionists ascended. Times editorial page editor James Bennet, opinion editor and writer Bari Weiss, and opinion page staffer Adam Rubenstein were all ousted. The new regime, led by interim editorial page editor Kathleen Kingsbury leaned heavily on avowed Israel critic Max Strasser, and promoted Peter Beinart after he disavowed Zionism in the paper’s op-ed pages. Even while Bennet was still ostensibly in charge, a presidential endorsement interview process led by Kingsbury featured Times editorial board members doggedly grilling Democratic politicians about which of President Trump’s pro-Israel decisions they would commit to reversing if elected: i.e., “Why wouldn’t you move the embassy back?” READ MORE

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“Antisemitism by attrition”: Wikipedia “has turned turned from ‘doing its best’ into a manipulated monster that breeds ill-will towards Jewish people”

BEYOND THE GREAT DIVIDE
Project Wiki – how Wikipedia is breeding armies of antisemites
by David Collier
December 31, 2020

Tell people that Wiki is a problem when it comes to antisemitism or historical revisionism and they will most likely brush you off. You will hear stock responses that range from ‘everyone knows that about Wikipedia‘ or ‘I only use it as a guide‘ to the more expertly constructed excuse that ‘most people understand it isn’t 100% accurate, but it is a good starting point to gather further sources‘. Sometimes they’ll acknowledge Wiki is a minor problem but claim it ‘does its best’ in the circumstances and suggest it has far too many benefits to give up. I think these attitudes grossly understate the danger Wiki poses and the damage it has already done. READ MORE

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