Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Have We Reached A Tipping Point? Have Jews Reached The "Had Enough" Point? Former Shin Bet Head Speaks Out. Rejection?

Even hate and bigotry can reach a point where the decent are ready to speak out because they have become revulsed.  I think we are slowly reaching that stage.

The victims must begin speaking out and that too is happening.

The question for me remains, when the pressure from the Democrat Party haters persists, and it will, will Biden break with his support of Israel?  Biden has always been a weak politician first and a decent moral driven  human second.

Attacks on America can easily become Israel's fault and Biden could easily use this as an excuse to blame and break with Israel..  So far he has ducked protecting our nation and its borders.
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WTH is Going On with the Explosion of Anti-Semitism on the Left? Ruth Wisse Explains
By Danielle Pletka | Marc A. Thiessen

There are Charlottesvilles happening every day in America. This time, they’re everywhere, driven by an explosion of antisemitism. And these Charlottesvilles are happening at Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford among other elite havens of academe. This is not the alt-right, fringe antisemitism of years past. The modern version has taken on the flavor of the leftist elite: it equates Zionism with racism; it coalesces the extreme aspects of BLM, feminism, and other groups against a common enemy; it is pro-nothing and entirely anti. The Nazi movement had its roots in professors, Nobel Prize winners – this too, is finding roots in elitist bodies who can intellectualize their way around the pernicious evil of the Hamas attacks. The only way to stand up to a culture of hate? Intolerance of it, and imposing consequences on those who profess it.

Ruth Wisse is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Comparative Literature Emerita at Harvard University. She immigrated to Canada from Romania in 1940 and is a preeminent scholar of Yiddish and American culture, literature, and politics. She is the author of several books, including her memoir Free as a Jew.
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It is way past the time.
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 Warning to US universities and colleges: WE JEWS HAVE HAD ENOUGH.

Dr. Michael Kotlikoff provost of Cornell had a meeting with hundreds of Cornell university parents of students. One wrote a phenomenal letter which speaks for itself. I, thought, would have demanded to close the university until the safety of Jewish students is secured. 4 years tuition cost at Cornell is $252.000 per student. Parents are crazy to spend this money and get racism harassment and discrimination. Students have to struggle with racist anti-Semitic teachers who indoctrinate their classes to hate Jews. These little Eichmann students roam the campus and do not allow a safe environment of learning. THINK. Isaac Barr MD Michigan Forum
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 Dear Dr. Kotlikoff:

I am writing you as both the father of a freshman at Cornell as well as well as the President of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, which is one of the largest Jewish organizations in the Northeast involved in fighting antisemitism. I attended the meeting this morning at Hillel where you addressed several hundred parents of Jewish students.  I commend you for attending, speaking and listening, and for handling questions and comments from a group of scared and angry parents.

 However, I also must also strongly condemn your lack of leadership and that of the entire administration as it relates to the safety and security of the Jewish students on campus.  You have tried to remain neutral to a situation where 1400 civilians were brutally butchered, beheaded, raped and burned by an organization that is considered a terrorist group by the United States.  You have failed to understand the nuance between condemning Hamas (which is an undeniable evil every bit as brutal, just not as powerful as the Nazis) and supporting rights for the Palestinians people. The Administration has allowed actions to occur on campus which support Hamas that have come very close to and may have , in some cases,  even rose to the level of the Federal crime of assisting the work of a terrorist group.  And even with that, Cornell has avoided commenting and acting to prevent harassment and intimidation on campus detailed below by falsely claiming "Cornell is not a political institution" when you have commented and shown leadership when hate crimes were directed at other groups.

In your remarks, you falsely tried to equivocate the minimal (though still inappropriate) hate directed against Muslim students with the torrent of constant and vicious hate directed at Jewish students. The cowardice on the part of the Administration to the ever-increasing antisemitism on campus has not quelled the discord as you had hoped but, instead, due to the vacuum of moral clarity has empowered those who no longer feared the consequences which has caused it to expand and worsen.  After your meeting today, the vicious, threatening anti-Semitic posts, exploded on the Cornell section of the Greek online community with calls for “Jewish people to be killed;” “bombing of Jewish home;” calls to “gang rape” Zionist females; and “shoot up 104 West” (the kosher dining hall).

 Some of these Administration actions include (i) failing to act to and staying silent when faced with criminal action to school property aimed at silencing and terrorism against Jewish students; (ii) allowing harassments on the campus by other groups who are failing to act civilly in their own protests (iii) hiding behind the false narrative of equivocation by not stopping the intimidation of Jewish students walking on campus and also when trying to exercise their right to free speech; (iv) falsely claiming the words or lack of words by professors against the recent genocide to Israeli civilians is a case of academic freedom and (v) permitting outright antagonism to Israel specifically and Jewish students generally in Cornell’s sanctioned groups, on campus related social media (including accounts by many professors whose job it is to educate not to advocate and most certainly not to post false information which they are doing); and refusing to do what is necessary to support the students and address the issues raised to keep them safe, both physically and emotionally.

 As a result of the Administration’s failure and lack of leadership, students are afraid to leave their dorms at times; have removed Mezuzahs from their doors; are not comfortable wearing kippot around campus; are afraid to attend Jewish events; have changed their names on social media and apps; and are generally suffering from fear and anxiety that is detracting from their academic pursuits.

I am letting you know that the Jewish parents at Cornell and the Jewish people all around are not going to be placated by lack of moral clarity and let this continue. The mantra of “Never Again” is real and is going to guide us.  As such, we will now be taking this beyond the Cornell campus to the NYS Governor, Senate and Assembly who have jurisdiction over the State Schools; the NY Attorney General to investigate the criminal activity going on and being allowed at Cornell; the local Representatives and NY Senators who oversee federal educational funding as well as terrorist activities in the US; the courts to adjudicate violations of rights of Jewish students; Jewish organizations to alert their donors and stakeholders;  to social media and the press to publicize what is being allowed to go on at Cornell; and the major funders (Jewish and otherwise) so that they can make decisions on their valuable philanthropic dollars based on the values they want to support.

I urge you and the Administration to reverse course immediately and be guided by the principles of Ezra Cornell and which you claim to espouse.  Having a zero-tolerance policy for hate includes Jewish students as well.  And, when they are treated differently, and not protected as others, that is clearly evidence of the inability to recognize and prevent antisemitism.  Enforcing appropriate modes of behavior, and respect for all views, is not a political position or taking sides.  It is the right thing and moral thing to do.  And, before things get worse as they will if students don’t face consequences for their behavior, I strongly advise the Administration to show leadership and recalibrate the moral compass and campus at Cornell.

Very truly yours,
Dan

Daniel M. Shlufman

And:

American Jews must form a new armed self-defense organization


(JNS) It has been clear to some of us for a very long time that a new Axis of Antisemitism has emerged. Composed largely of radical Muslims and certain progressives who have metastasized into a kind of Neo-Nazi Left, this Axis has been on the rise for over two decades. For the most part, however, the majority of American Jews have denied its existence.

That time is now over. With Hamas’s Oct. 7 rampage of atrocities and the Axis’s rush to celebrate the slaughter, it became clear to any thinking person that, as Freud said during the rise of Nazism, “We live in very remarkable times. We find with astonishment that progress has concluded an alliance with barbarism.”

This Axis makes no secret of its beliefs. It is anti-Semitic, racist, pro-terrorism, pro-genocide and infanticide, and will do anything to put its murderous ideology into practice. It is without scruple, compunction, compassion, humanity or respect for even the most basic rights of the people it targets. Nor does it have any intention of respecting the laws of the societies in which it resides. It is, in short, a satanic force, and it must be treated as such.

To counter the Axis, there are certain steps that can and should be taken through official channels. But it will take time to bring the Axis to heel, and the Jewish community does not have time. It is in immediate and absolute danger. It must take immediate and absolute action to ensure its safety.

This can mean only one thing: The Jewish community must immediately create a nationwide armed self-defense organization.

Many Jews will instinctively recoil from such an idea. There are several reasons for this: centuries of a Jewish culture of quiescence, the enervating middle-class values the Jewish community largely embraces, fear of the vast and often cruel non-Jewish world, and a general and indeed commendable distaste for physical violence.

There is also the problem of recent history. The only major Jewish self-defense organization ever created in the United States was the Jewish Defense League. While admirable in its initial stages, the JDL ultimately collapsed into fanatical and indeed suicidal extremism. No one wants to repeat this experience.

But there is no reason that a new self-defense organization must be a repeat of the JDL. Properly organized and led, such an organization can easily avoid the mistakes of the past.

First, the organization should be quite clear that it is a defense organization. It will not attempt to provoke violence and will only employ physical force when necessary to prevent harm to Jews and Jewish institutions.

It should also be avowedly non-sectarian. Elie Wiesel once said, “When Jews are together, I am never afraid.” The JDL should have taken his advice. Instead, it never had much appeal beyond the Jewish right and indeed had little support from secular Jews in general. A new organization should be open to Jews of all denominations and political views, as well as non-Jews who wish to support or join it.

Further, the organization should not discriminate between forms of antisemitism. Whether right or left, Christian or Muslim, white or otherwise, all anti-Semites should be the object of its efforts. There is no monopoly on hate, and if the Axis is to be defeated, it must be defeated as a whole, without letting any of its adherents off the hook for political or sectarian reasons.

Nonetheless, defense is a proactive matter. Thus, the organization should not simply impede antisemitism but also preempt it. Violence must only be used in self-defense, but nonviolence should be actively employed to disrupt, deplatform and cancel any and all manifestations of antisemitism. This means, above all, a concerted effort to deny the Axis any public forum whatsoever.

That this will involve adopting the Axis’s own tactics—such as shouting down speakers and physically stopping public events—is irrelevant. The Axis has chosen this sword, and cannot complain if it dies by it. Moreover, recent events have shown that the Axis has ceded any legitimacy it might once have had as a tolerable, if deplorable, social movement. The Axis has now openly declared itself in enthusiastic support of terrorism and genocide, and there is no place for such people in the public square of any decent society.

Obviously, the first duty of a new organization should be to train Jews in the techniques of self-defense. Every American Jew of sound body should be capable of defending themselves physically. Every American Jew should at the very least know how to use and maintain a firearm, even if they do not wish to own one themselves. Every Jew should know that they are not alone when attacked and can call on other Jews to take collective action if necessary.

Finally, the organization should not set itself against the mainstream Jewish organizations. It should make it very clear that it is not a militant or radical group, except for its embrace of the militant and radical notion that Jews are human beings. Self-defense is not about extremism or hate. It is simple common sense.

The mainstream organizations want to protect and serve the Jewish community, but thanks to the Axis, this is no longer possible without also possessing the capacity for effective self-defense. Every effort should be made to convince the mainstream organizations of this fact and to gain their political, organizational and financial support.

I have no doubt that there are American Jews who consider such measures unnecessary. They believe the authorities will protect them sufficiently, and would prefer that their children devote themselves to getting into Harvard rather than acquiring guns and baseball bats. That the Axis now essentially controls Harvard is something they either do not know or do not wish to know. Nor are they willing to admit that large segments of the American political establishment, especially in the Democratic Party, are either part of the Axis or too cowardly to purge it.

As David Ben-Gurion said, however, “No delusions, no despair.” Like Hamas, the Axis has had 20 years to entrench itself. It has infiltrated almost every aspect of American life. It will not be dislodged and destroyed without a fight. But that fight cannot be won until American Jews realize that it is a fight. They did not want it and did not start it, but it is here, and American Jews can no longer afford delusions.

But there is also no reason whatsoever to despair. I know from my own recent personal experience that things are changing. American Jews are waking up. They now know the Axis is real, even if they do not yet know what to do about it. They may not admit it even to themselves, but they are desperate to fight back, to show the Axis that even one Jewish body broken, one Jewish life taken, one Jew made fearful of venturing out in a kippah, one threatened pogrom, one genocidal chant, is too much and will not go unanswered.

We are the only ones who can ensure that this is the case. But as the sage put it, the day is short and the master of the house is impatient. If this must be a call to arms, then so be it. American Jews require a Praetorian Guard, Lions of Judah who will stand like a wall between them and the demonic forces that have been unleashed.

In ancient times, the prophet said, “Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong.” The Jews are not weak and have never been weak. Alone and atomized, however, we cannot make use of our strength. Together, we are a mighty fist. It is time to strike.
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No doubt there will be an inquiry after the war has ended. Liberal Jews have to have a scape goat when their actions are actually more to blame, as I believe they are, because they turned against Bibi for a variety of reasons.  I have no doubt, when a politician remains in office for a significant period, they change, they might even begin to believe they can drink their bath water and yes, they even might become corrupt.  We have such a president now and I am informed enough to conclude Bibi has sunk to such a low.  

All I know is Bibi's economic policies changed Israel, were successful and Israel became powerful and  known as the "Start Up Nation."  Time will tell. However,  I fear Bibi might receive pin cushion treatment akin, in many ways, to what Trump is currently subjected to and that would be tragic.  Churchill was rejected by the Brits after WW 2. He too deserved better.
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Netanyahu Should Remain Until the War Ends
By Sherwin Pomerantz

It was a classic error in judgement.  A social media post on X (formerly Twitter) went up at 0110 Sunday, while most of us were asleep.  The Prime Minister opined that his military and security chiefs had failed to provide him with any warning of the surprise Hamas assault on Oct. 7th.  In that short post he placed all the blame on them for the colossal lapses even as the IDF was expanding the challenging ground war in Gaza.

I suppose that he had no recollection of the famous name plate on the Resolute Desk in the White House office of former US President Harry Truman which said in no uncertain terms: “The Buck Stops Here,” the antidote to those who, like the Prime Minister, choose to pass the buck to someone else.

It did not take long for the outrage to build, including from members of the war cabinet.  Netanyahu knew he’d made a colossal error in judgement, deleted that post and then apologized in a new one saying simply: “I was wrong.” And boy, was he.

Since then, any number of people have called for his immediate resignation.  Labor party leader Merav Michaeli said the government is failing to lead Israel during its toughest moments, and demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be ousted from office immediately.

“Even in our hardest hours, until today, we had leadership,” she said. “The State of Israel is in its hardest moment and the public feels that there is no leadership, there is no management…..the public sees the prime minister worrying only about himself.”

I have no doubt that there are a great many people in this country who agree with her.   However, I think it would be a huge mistake to force that issue in the middle of a war.

We here in Israel spent the first 9 months of this year tearing ourselves apart conflicted over the issue of judicial reform as the precursor to a whole series of additional changes to Israeli society planned by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Netanyahu.  There is no doubt that the inordinate amount of attention paid to this struggle, the chasm that was created between various segments of society as a result of the struggle, and the resultant destruction of the social contract between the people and the government, drew the leadership’s attention away from the single most important thing in our lives here…..protecting us from our enemies. 

A commission of inquiry will be empowered, discussions will be held, evidence will be collected, but we already know the outcome.  The government will most likely be found to have neglected its seminal obligations while it pursued a strategy that weakened us even further than their lack of attention to the security issue.

Based on this alone the current coalition and its leadership have clearly forfeited their right to govern.  Given that, the Prime Minister would do well to own up to these errors and resign…..but not now. 

On October 6th, a day before the massacre of over 1,400 of our friends and neighbors, we were, for all practical purposes, two separate countries.  But on October 7th, the brutal invasion by Hamas did for us what we could not do for ourselves, it brought us together as one people.  The very same reservists who a day before swore they would not fight for this country, donned their uniforms and reported for service.  200,000 Israelis living abroad returned to the country to either report to their units or just be here to help.  ELAL, the only airline flying here from western countries, even flew on shabbat and, when needed, permitted people to fly home sitting on the floor of the planes, if there were not enough available seats.  We were, once again, one country facing a common enemy.

A move today to oust the Prime Minister would generate a new rupture, a new split in our community that would put in danger our capability to be victorious over the enemy.   Moving in that direction today is the last thing we should consider given that we have already learned the lesson this year that this country cannot afford a society splitting dispute.

Let’s let the war cabinet govern, let’s win the war and then, if the Prime Minister is the man I think he was and can still be, he should take responsibility as Golda Meir did after the 1973 war, and resign.  Either way, whether he does or does not do this, the Knesset will most likely dissolve itself and new leadership will be elected, hopefully leadership that fully understands that the future of the state overrides any person’s individual desires or concerns

At this point in time, almost four weeks into the war with Hamas, it is worth remembering the closing portion of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address which has a message for us even today, 160 years later, given how many of our dead we have already buried

“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

This is our charge today and must be our charge until victory is complete.  Those who want to throw yet another monkey wrench into the pile of challenges, should restrain themselves and let the leadership finish the job.  Then we can deal with the political side.

Sherwin Pomerantz has lived in Israel for 40 years, is CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., a international business development consultancy.  He is also the Founder and Chair of the American State Offices Association, former National President of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel and a past Chairperson of the Board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.

And:

Former Shin Bet Chief: ‘We misread the intelligence data’
Yaakov Peri, former head of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet: “We have witnessed a military and technological intelligence failure.'

Former Shin Bet chief Yaakov Peri said that since October 7th he has been trying to understand what happened not only in terms of the heinous massacre by Hamas terrorists but the failures of Israeli intelligence.

"Since October 7th, I have not been able to sleep. I feel for the [current] head of the Shin Bet and the organization that I was part of for over 30 years," Peri told the Knesset Channel.

He also said: "I'm trying to understand what happened, what happened not only on that Friday-Saturday, but to the intelligence in general, and I am coming to the conclusion that there was probably a misreading of the intelligence material that was collected, which apparently stated that Hamas had no intention of any confrontation with us."

Peri pointed out, "the fact is that the service and other sources also recommended increasing the number of workers entering from Gaza. We have witnessed a military and technological intelligence failure. We must examine what happened."

On the reports that the heads of the security forces met on the night before the terrorists' infiltration, Peri said: "I don't know exactly what happened on Friday night, I know that there was a conversation between the head of the Shin Bet, the head of the security forces and the Chief of Staff, and they probably came to the conclusion that this was not a danger, but unfortunately they were wrong and my heart goes out to the service and the entire intelligence forces and, of course, to the thousands of civilians who were murdered.”
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When, and if, America is attacked by Islamist terrorists, two will be blamed.  Jews and Israel and Biden.  The first because and ant-Semitism and who are not guilty and Biden who is guilty, corrupt and should have been impeached. He might have been but for the fact of his Vice President.
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TOMORROW HAS ARRIVED
Now it is clear why the media hardly mentioned Pearl Harbor this year.
When I was a kid, I couldn't understand why Eisenhower was so popular. Maybe this will explain why General Eisenhower Warned Us.
It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.
He did this because he said in words to this effect: 'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'
This week, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.
It is now more than 70 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the, six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while many in the world looked the other way!
Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.
This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people! Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world
How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center 'NEVER HAPPENED', because it offends some Muslims???
Do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along.
Remember when all classrooms had an American flag in them?
Do they even teach our children about the World Trade Center attacks in 1993 and 2001, or did it go the way of Pearl Harbor and Veterans Day?
Don't even mention Christmas or Hanukkah or prayers in school. Many schools no longer recite the Pledge of Allegiance and many children do not know the words to our National Anthem, or that we even have one!
Do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along.
Diane Castellucci
President, Republican Club of Martin County
973-610-7910

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