The Jew News Review – January 21, 2024 – “”When the Jews go; it’s time to leave, when the Portuguese go; it’s too late.”

Shalom everyone! And happy Sunday! It’s colder than an eskimo’s tuchus out there, so bundle up if you are going out! I suggest the knit kipah today for a little more insulation. 

No insulation from the news however. The war in Gaza has now passed the hundred day mark and I didn’t think it was possible, but the situation there seems to be in an endless cycle of going from bad to worse. Even Tom Friedman, usually an optimistic voice for the fate of the middle east, a region he has covered for many decades, had this to say on Ezra Klein’s latest podcast, “I have no idea how this ends. I have never seen it so broken.” Yikes. One thing is very clear from Friedman and many others following Israeli politics: Bibi must go. The sooner the better. 

Given this grim analysis by Friedman, I spent some time this morning scouring sources for some good news for the Jews, and was rewarded with a piece from Joshua Hoffman titled, “Not everyone hates us”. Phew! I was beginning to wonder! But, in my searching I also discovered something interesting: most of the people defending Israel publicly are NOT Jews! There are a few notable exceptions, including Ben Shapiro and Alan Dershowitz, but where are other leading Jews with a platform that matters? Zuckerberg, Bloomberg, Kushner, Jon Stewart, Sorkin, Spielberg? Maybe they are doing things privately, but folks, we could use more help on the social media and PR front! Perhaps we should do as Scott Galloway suggested on “Unholy: Two Jews on the News” this week and shut down TikTok, as the pro Palestinian content on that most popular platform outnumbers pro Israeli content by 10 to 1! Thank you China!

Here are a few samples from Joshua’s podcast of some folks that don’t hate us:

1. At Davos this year, the World Economic Forum’s Flagship event, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, said on a panel that the kingdom agreed “regional peace includes peace for Israel.” He said Saudi Arabia “certainly” would recognize Israel as part of a larger political agreement, reiterating a consistent message that the Saudi kingdom is still very much interested in normalization with Israel.
2. British Goyim – Former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, as well as British author and political commentator, Douglas Murray, have also become staunch defenders of the Jews and Israel. Both Kemp and Murray have spent the past three months in Israel covering the war, with Kemp joking at a recent event: “I’ve almost made aliyah.” I have become a big fan of Douglas Murray, who has appeared on countless debate panels defending Israel with some stridency that borders on arrogance, but he is very effective. Murray rose to fame at the start of the current conflict with his acerbic response to an interviewer’s question as to whether Israel’s response to the Hamas atrocities of October 7th could be considered “proportionate.” In a segment on Britain’s Talk TV, which instantly went viral, Murray responded: “There is some deep perversion in Britain whenever Israel is involved in a conflict, and it’s the word you just used — ‘proportion,’ ‘proportionate,’ ‘proportionality.’ Only Britain is really obsessed with this. Proportionality in conflict is a joke. It is only the Israelis that, when attacked, are expected to have precisely a proportionate response.” 
3. Bill Maher (half-goy) – Bill Maher has unabashedly come to Israel’s defense on a regular basis since October 7th. In one episode of his weekly HBO show, Maher said Israel cannot negotiate with people whose position is “you all die and disappear. Palestine was under the Ottoman empire for 400 years, but today, an Ottoman is something you put under your feet,” he quipped. “Look at what Mexico used to own — all the way up to the top of California. But no Mexican is out there chanting, ‘From the Rio Grande to Portland, Oregon.’”
4. Germany, of all countries, has also taken the rare moral high ground, standing by Israel immediately following the October 7th massacre. In addition to supplying Israel with military equipment amidst the Gaza conflict, Germany has said it will intervene on Israel’s behalf in the genocide case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. “Accusing Israel of genocide is a complete distortion of victims and perpetrators,” said German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck.
5. South African Goy – Radio personality and television host, Gareth Cliff, also had the courage to stand up for Israel, even though he is not Jewish and has no ties to the Jewish state. “Perhaps when the dust has settled we can examine the insidious links between Anglo-American leftism and antisemitism, between Europe never reckoning with what happened in the holocaust and their growing Muslim populations, and between ignorant regimes like mine in South Africa and their determination to stand alongside the worst human rights abusers in the Middle East,” said Cliff. “I’m afraid there are only two sides in a war — your allies and your enemies. On September 11th, 2001, I knew whose side I was on. I feel the same today.”

So, there have been a few glimmers of support from some surprising places, but overall, Israel continues to lose the war on the popular support front. And it’s getting uglier. I read this week an open letter from a notable Jewish leader from South Africa, Howard Sackstein, who raised the question of whether Jews should consider leaving the country. Although diminished the last few decades, there has always been a very vibrant and active Jewish community in South Africa. According to Sackstein, who has lived in South Africa his entire life, 

“For Jews, this country no longer feels like a safe space or “home”. The government has been captured by radical Islamists and their sympathisers. We have normalised Jew hatred and justified massacres. Our country has lost its soul, and it’s time for our community to start a real and honest discussion about its future.” In the 1970s and 1980s they used to joke, “When the Jews go; it’s time to leave, when the Portuguese go; it’s too late.”

The clock ticked, and stopped on 7 October 2023.

The behaviour of the South African government was nothing short of betrayal. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s failure to condemn the 7 October massacre; his failure to reach out to the families of the two South Africans massacred in the Hamas genocide; his failure to act on the two South Africans kidnapped by Hamas; and his smirk blame of Israel for deserving the attack two weeks after the massacre, while wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh, will forever be a symbol of his Judas moment.

But the final straw for many has been the sacking of David Teeger as captain of the South Africa Under-19 cricket team. By even Cricket SA’s own account, Teeger did nothing wrong, but his presence as a Jew and Zionist as captain of the junior Proteas became untenable for it in case it would become a flashpoint for violent pro-Palestinian protests.

Effectively, the decision by Cricket SA means that no Jew could ever captain another South African sports team. Lawson Naidoo, the head of Cricket SA has effectively instructed Jewish South African sports people to “get into the closet”. His belief being, if you wish to play for us, hide your identity don’t tell anyone who you are or what you believe in, become the Marranos of South Africa.

As a community, we need some urgent dialogue about the red lines that have been crossed and whether South Africa still affords us the opportunity to live as free Jews in a society where we’re equals. Regrettably, it’s the question from which we can no longer hide.

As a community, we’ve contributed far more to South Africa than we’ve received, and if South Africa doesn’t realise that now, it will be too late.

Yikes. After reading this open letter, it became abundantly more clear why South Africa brought the genocide claim against Israel. Do I feel things are that bad here in the good old Jew S of A? Or in Europe? Not yet. But if we don’t have a major unified stand against the further spread of antisemitism, the clock may be ticking here as well. Jews cannot remain silent on antisemitism, or on the future of Israel. Support for Israel among Gen Z has never been so low. On TikTok, where half the users are under 30, #freepalestine has 31 billion posts compared to 590 million for #standwithisrael — more than 50 times as many. If these be our “future leaders”, what does that portend for the future of Israel and our support of the only real liberal democracy in the middle east? Ugh.

I ramble. Let’s move on. Now, what about all those other Jewy bits of journalism? Here then, finally, is your weekly buffet of baffling, beguiling, and biased news for the Jews copied and pasted from the likes of The Forward, Kveller, Times of Israel, The Jewish Chronicle, JTA, and other reputable sources of all things Jewish-y. 

1. The latest on the war….
   • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea, advanced this week by U.S. officials, that postwar plans should include a pathway to creating a Palestinian state. “Israel must have security control over all the territory west of the Jordan,” he said.
   • As Netanyahu and the U.S. tussle over postwar plans, he’s also confronting conflict within his own government over management of the war. A Wednesday report on Israeli TV said Netanyahu had unilaterally decided to change the parameters of a potential deal for the release of the hostages remaining in Gaza, angering war cabinet ministers. One of those ministers, Gadi Eisenkot, blasted Netanyahu in a Thursday interview, and called for new elections within a matter of months — a challenge to Netanyahu’s assertion that new elections should only take place after the war.
   • Israeli forces have exhumed bodies from a cemetery in Khan Younis in search of the remains of hostages killed in captivity, as well as those killed on Oct. 7 whose bodies were transported to Gaza.
   • Mexico and Chile referred Israel to the International Criminal Court, citing possible war crimes. The ICC is the criminal counterpart to the civil International Court of Justice, which last week heard arguments related to South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
   • Communications systems in Gaza have been down for seven days, the longest such blackout of the war.
   • The school board of Ann Arbor, Michigan, became one of the first in the U.S. to call for a cease-fire.
   • A second Turkish soccer team has fired an Israeli player for speaking out on the war. Eden Kartsev was suspended from his team, a favorite of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after creating an Instagram post calling for the return of hostages still in Gaza. His firing comes only days after Turkey deported his compatriot Sagiv Jehezkel after Jehezkel commemorated the 100-day anniversary of Oct. 7.
   • The U.S. Senate voted against considering a resolution, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, to freeze U.S. aid to Israel unless the State Department produces a report investigating whether Israel has committed human rights abuses during its war with Hamas.
   • Israel released more details of the Hamas tunnels it has found under Gaza. Israel intelligence currently believes the network to be between 350 and 450 miles long, a significant increase over the estimate of 250 miles issued in December.
2. An Israeli professional soccer player who played for a Turkish team was detained by authorities on Sunday after commemorating the 100-day anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack during a game. Sagiv Jehezkel, 28, has since been released from his contract and returned to Israel.
3. 🤝  Schlomo and Mo: “peace, love, and pot bro” – Staten Island’s first marijuana dispensary has been opened by a Jewish and Muslim duo. Shlomo Weinstock and Mo Elgaly “want to show what happens when Jews and Muslims work together,” Weinstock said. (New York Post)
4. 🎶  An operatic adaptation of Michael Chabon’s novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay will premiere next year at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, in a co-production with New York’s Metropolitan Opera, which commissioned the work. (Facebook)
5. ✡️  Yale University’s next chaplain will be Jewish — a first for the Ivy League institution. Maytal Saltiel, affiliated with Yale since 2013, will be the university’s eighth chaplain, and the second woman to hold the post. (Yale Daily News)
6. 😍  MiraLAX and the politics of constipation – Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, creators and stars of Broad City, reunited in a laxative ad. In the promo for MiraLAX, the beloved Jewish duo discuss the politics of constipation — yes, you read that right! — over their “quarterly Jewish food feast.” (Hey Alma)
7. 😒  Ey, formerly know as Ye, is reportedly planning to launch his new album with a 40-minute apology video to Jews. Uh, thanks? (Vibe)
8. 🚧  Demolition of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue has begun. The building, site of a 2018 antisemitic mass shooting, will be redeveloped into a memorial and museum devoted to antisemitism — with a synagogue still on site. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

That’s enough for the week! Stay warm everyone, and on behalf of the entire JNR staff, stay healthy and be safe out there.

Brad out.