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

Posted on January 3, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

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

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on January 3, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

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

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Conspiracies, Jews, and the Jewish State

Posted on January 3, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“The dreaded triumph of socialism in the land of the free suddenly looks dangerously real”

Posted on January 3, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

THE SPECTATOR
Sharp left: the Democrats have taken control of America
by Freddy Gray
January 6, 2021

In the days following the presidential election in November, political centrists reached a hasty verdict. Never mind all the squabbling about voter fraud — they had won. The extremes had lost. Donald Trump, the maniac, was out; Joe Biden, the moderate, was in. Yes, the increasingly radical Democratic party still controlled the House of Representatives, but as long as the Republicans won one of two Senate runoff races in Georgia in January, the crazies would be checked by a Republican majority in the Senate. The markets rallied. All was well in establishment la-la land, despite the pandemic. Well, guess what? On Wednesday morning, it became clear that the Democrats had won both those Georgia races. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Leave a comment

Flight over Gulf by two Air Force B-52 bombers was in response to signals that Iran may be planning attacks against US allied targets in neighboring Iraq or elsewhere in region

Posted on December 31, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
US bomber mission over Persian Gulf aims to send message to Iran
by AP and ILH staff
December 30, 2020

The United States flew strategic bombers over the Persian Gulf on Wednesday for the second time this month, a show of force meant to deter Iran from attacking American or allied targets in the Middle East…The B-52 bomber mission, flown round trip from an Air Force base in North Dakota, reflects growing concern in Washington, in the final weeks of US President Donald Trump’s administration, that Iran will order further military retaliation for the US killing last Jan. 3 of top Iranian military commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani. READ MORE

THE ARAB WEEKLY US-Israel submarine moves raise concerns in Iran Israeli and US submarine moves in the Arabian Gulf have raised concerns in Iran over the intentions behind such manoeuvres and the messages that Washington and Tel Aviv are trying to convey through their presence in the strategic but highly sensitive area. Israeli media reported late Monday that an Israeli submarine has embarked for the Arabian Gulf, possibly in preparation for potential Iranian retaliation over the November assassination of senior Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Iran FM Zarif warns Trump to avoid Jerusalem’s ‘trap,’ says it will ‘backfire badly’ on Israeli ‘BFFs,’ amid heightened regional tensions between Tehran and US and Israeli allies

Posted on December 31, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Iran claims Israeli agents ‘plotting attacks’ on US in Iraq to spark conflict
by TOI staff and agencies
January 2, 2021

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed Saturday that Israeli agents were planning to attack American targets in order to instigate an aggressive US reaction against Iran and spark armed conflict, warning President Donald Trump to avoid such a “trap”…“New intelligence from Iraq indicate (sic) that Israeli agent-provocateurs are plotting attacks against Americans — putting an outgoing Trump in a bind with a fake casus belli,” Zarif tweet…Iranian officials have issued a stream of threats against the US as the anniversary of Soleimani’s death approaches. The general was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad on January 3 of last year. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Yesterday, 70,000 citizens in Israel were vaccinated. Yesterday, 5,993 tested positive; rate of positive tests stands at 6.1%”

Posted on December 31, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZ SHEVA
44% of those aged 60 and over vaccinated against COVID-19
by Orly Harari
January 2, 2021

Yesterday, 70,000 people in Israel were vaccinated, according to data published today in a situation assessment by the Ministry of Health. 44% of those aged 60 and over were vaccinated with the first dose. As of last night, 1,019,133 vaccinations had been carried out in the country. As early as yesterday, 5,993 tested COVID-19 positive, with the rate of positive tests standing at 6.1% out of 97,887 tests. The weekly average stands at 5,001. In haredi society, the rate of positive tests in the last week is 14.1%. In Arab society, the percentage is 10.8%, and in the general population, the percentage is 3.8%. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East | Tagged | Leave a comment

11.5% of Syria’s population–more then 12 million people–have been killed or injured since their “Arab Spring”

Posted on December 31, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

EMET ONLINE
A Look Back at the Arab Spring, Ten Years On
by Sarah Stern
December 31, 2020

It is hard to believe that next week will have been a decade since Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian fruit vender, set himself ablaze on January 4, 2011 setting off what has come to be known as “the Arab Spring,” and unleashed several decades of frustration with the Middle East’s entrenched autocratic leaders, throughout the region. For a brief period during that time, the hopeful eyes of the world were watching, with the aspirations that this might lead to a more open and democratic Middle East, or at least one in which the most entrenched, tyrannical leaders would be overthrown and basic human rights would be established. It is time to ask: How did it all work out? READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“Rev. Raphael Warnock’s 2019 “Pilgrimage Statement,” in line with his earlier sermons, characterizes the Israel-Arab conflict as an Israeli offense against the Arabs”

Posted on December 31, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Warnock on the warpath against Israel
by Alex Bernath
December 29, 2020

While he’s now trying to hide it, the truth is, Georgia’s Democratic candidate for Senate, Rev. Raphael Warnock, has been known for vehemently anti-Israel rhetoric. Last year, he was one of 18 leaders of African-American and South African churches to sign a carefully crafted document that manages to demonize Israel in one brief document in at least five ways, comparing Israel to numerous expressions of state evil drawn from human history: slavery-era America, apartheid South Africa, Nazi Germany, Communist East Berlin and even the biblical Pharaoh. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Israelis celebrated the Pollards’ arrival. In contrast, American Jews bristled both at the news and the happiness with which Israelis greeted them”

Posted on December 31, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Pollard and the great Jewish divide
by Caroline B. Glick
January 1, 2021

The rift between Israeli and American Jews is palpable almost everywhere you turn today. The most glaring disparity surrounds how they view President Donald Trump. The vast majority of Israelis adore Trump. The vast majority of American Jews despise him. But Trump isn’t the only thing or even the main thing that separates them. The main issue that separates Israelis from American Jews is the issue of exile. Israelis by and large hold to the traditional Jewish view that all Jewish communities outside of Israel are exile – or diaspora – communities. American Jews, by and large, believe that the exile exists in all Jewish communities outside Israel except in America. This disagreement is existential. It goes to the heart of what it means to be a Jew. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment