An increasing tide of antisemitism around the world is proving that Israel is needed now more than ever. Theodor Herzl, the founding visionary of the modern Jewish state, was right about re-establishing the Jewish homeland as the answer to antisemitism. The only way for Jewish people to truly escape this infectious disease of hatred is by seeking refuge in Israel.

Israel might not be able to eradicate antisemitism, but after 2,000 years of persecution, finally there is shelter. The recent surge in violent antisemitism in France for instance and even in Russia and Ukraine has brought a torrent of Jewish immigration to the Holy Land. Instability in Chile, Venezuela and Argentina is also leading more Jews to the safety and security of Israel. Even in Canada and America, the continued rise of antisemitism is making many Jews contemplate their future.

Israel’s existence is no longer in peril. Antisemitism and internal satisfaction is pushing its population closer to 10 million. Its GDP per capita stands as among the highest in the world, matching most western nations, and just last week, it was ranked among the 10 most influential and powerful nations on Earth by U.S. News & World Report. The same report ranked its military among the top five. Exports have increased dramatically in the past few years, with exports to Canada rising by 95 per cent in 2022. The Abraham Accords have opened new markets for the Jewish state with massive trade deals signed daily with the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain.

Consequentially, even when living in the shadow of pernicious antisemitism, members of the Jewish diaspora find strength and confidence knowing that Israel has their back. What other nation would conduct a stealth raid on a Ugandan airport to rescue citizens held by Palestinian terrorists? None. Israel is our insurance policy — and this is why every single Jewish person and every friend of Israel, no matter of what political or religious persuasion (and there are many), must relentlessly defend it.

This old-new-land is turning 75 years old but it has really been a part of the Jewish nation for more than 3,500 years. In one of the first recorded accounts in the Bible, Abraham purchased a burial place in Hebron for our patriarchs and matriarchs, laying a Jewish stake in the Holy Land. Centuries later and following our enslavement in Egypt, we returned to our homeland and twice built (and rebuilt) our temple in Jerusalem to worship in freedom. 

Over the centuries, our freedom was taken away by the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Ottomans and the British — as our people were repeatedly expelled or taken as slaves and our land became desolate.

But we never gave up on our dream to return home, suffering discrimination in Europe and in Arab lands where we were forced to live in ghettos. The past 1,000 years were especially brutal, particularly during the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 when thousands of Jewish people were forced to convert or were slaughtered or expelled from Spain and Portugal.

In the Eastern part of Russia and in Poland as elsewhere we were subjected to pogroms. These were episodes in which our neighbours turned against us by virtue of whatever conspiracy rumour was circulating in our village. Sometimes it was an unfounded assertion that we had murdered a Christian child to make matzo for Passover. Other times, we were accused of spreading the Black Death (not dissimilar to modern antisemitic tropes about COVID).

In all this, it’s clear that our loyalty and dedication to the countries in which we resided proved pointless against antisemitism. The story of Col. Alfred Dreyfus moved Herzl to act against the assimilationist model. Dreyfus was a dedicated Jewish soldier falsely accused of treason and humiliated, stripped of his medals in public and sent to prison following his trial in 1894.

During the enlightenment period in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Budapest and throughout Europe, Jewish people assimilated and contributed to their nation states — in the military, sciences, academia, law, government and the arts. There were thousands of such Dreyfuses, Freuds and Einsteins producing and contributing to the social good, with complete fealty.

This did not matter. The Holocaust still happened. Herzl was one of the first Jews to realize that antisemitism cannot be overcome by assimilation. The Jewish State of Israel was the answer. Sadly, many Jewish people today, particularly in academia, have forgotten the lessons of the past. Every generation hopes their time is different and that humanity has somehow advanced — the Holocaust, they say, cannot happen again. But with antisemitism rising by 34 per cent to more than 70 per cent annually in western nations, how can we be sure?

In my recent documentary, The Future of Israel and its Defenders, I pointed out that Israel at 75 is an incredible achievement not only for the Jewish people, but for humanity. The land that used to export Jaffa oranges is now the solution-making factory of the globe. Israelis are working on some of the most important medical initiatives in the world and may yet find cures to many of the ailments (including cancer) that plague mankind.

The miracle of Israel today was borne of necessity. Herzl was right. Israel is the only answer to antisemitism. But as it happens, when Jewish people are given the freedom of self-expression, the rest of the world benefits. Can you imagine what gifts Israel will offer humanity in the next 75 years?

It’s become apparent that just maintaining the status quo endangers the Jewish State's future Author of the article:Avi Benlolo

Some media pundits expressed alarm on Tuesday as Benjamin Netanyahu’s election win propelled Israel’s right-wing bloc back to power. But there is no longer a right or a left in Israel. There are only parties who capture and represent the public sentiment of the day. Netanyahu’s landslide victory (by Israeli standards) and voter support for the religious Zionist bloc shows Israelis are feeling insecure. Consequently, the demise of Israel’s so-called left-wing parties or “peaceniks” is indicative of a public sentiment that is more interested in bolstering the homeland than compromising with Palestinian neighbours who have proven untrustworthy.

First and foremost, the Biden administration has been unable to solve the Iranian nuclear problem. America’s blind insistence to renegotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was against the wishes of Israeli military leaders and public sentiment. Now it’s clear that negotiations with Iran have failed and the ayatollahs were biding their time in order to continue the development of nuclear weapons. In their eyes, President Joe Biden was willing to throw Israel under the bus — again. A Netanyahu-led government might be prepared to strike Iran if Israel’s security is at stake.

When it comes to Israel’s security, Iran is not the only threat concerning the Israeli public. Even while Tel Aviv’s cafés are jammed with people, they are well aware of the more than 200,000 rockets pointed at them by their enemies. Living under the gun is untenable. Even while Netanyahu is unlikely to solve this deadlock, the public generally believes Israel is safer under a Netanyahu-led government.

Second, the Israeli public is well aware that Netanyahu has unfettered access to world leaders. He might be the only Israeli leader with a direct line to Vladimir Putin and he would be in a unique position to address the rising tension between Israel and Russia over Ukraine. Even while Israel has joined western allies in aligning with Ukraine, it needs Russia to allow its planes to strike Iranian and Hezbollah installations. Netanyahu is uniquely capable to neutralize Russian angst and rein in Ukrainian demands for Israeli weapons systems.

Third, Israel’s war with Hamas in 2021 heightened public awareness of Arab discontent in such central Israeli cities as Lod and Ramla. Israeli-Arab citizens sided with Hamas by marching through neighbourhoods, burning cars and worse, torching synagogues. For the first time, Jewish-Israelis felt threatened in their neighbourhoods and were reminded of the European and Middle East pogroms of days-thought-long-gone. On one hand, the public has demanded that politicians address the disenfranchisement of Arab youth. On the other hand, with increasing Arab violence in Israeli cities and following the uprisings, Israelis are demanding greater focus on homeland security.

Fourth, the Palestinians killed the peace camp and gave rise to more vocal right-wing politicians. This September, at the United Nations General Assembly, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Israeli settlers “terrorists” while making ludicrous accusations against them and the Israeli military. Instead of extending a hand in peace, his language was sharp, aggressive and non-collaborative. At the same time, and following his remarks, Palestinian terrorism against Israelis increased, becoming more violent and deadly with each passing day. This is causing fear and anger in Israeli society.

Finally, and just as disconcerting, Israelis are responding to the incessant biased attacks by such human-rights organizations as the UN Human Rights Council, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. Israelis feel unfairly targeted, and they are, considering they are vigorously working to defend the only democracy in the Middle East. They wonder why they are being vilified when Israel has the largest and only gay-rights parade in the region; women and minority rights are protected; and freedom of speech and religion is sacred. They look to such human rights abusers as Syria, Iran and North Korea and can only surmise that Israel is targeted while the real offenders are not because Israel is the only Jewish State.

The more critical of Israel that leftish so-called human-rights organizations become, the more Israel will lurch rightward in defiance. A global player, Netanyahu generally takes a pragmatic approach. He will continue expanding diplomacy and engagement and will likely press forward on the Abraham Accords, expanding them to more Arab friendlies. He will rein in some of the more extreme voices in his coalition, while projecting strength and resolve to Israel’s enemies. Israel is more than one person. As a democracy, its strength comes in the many and in the many we trust.

National Post

Avi Abraham Benlolo is the founding chairman and CEO of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/avi-benlolo-israelis-fears-for-their-own-safety-fuelled-netanyahus-landslide-win

Berkeley’s law school's 'Jewish-free zones' aren't about speech, they're about discrimination

Writing in 1940 during the Holocaust years, Viennese Jewish author Stefan Zweig said, “It is an iron law of history that those who will be caught up in the great movements determining the course of their own times always fail to recognize them in their early stages.” What Zweig meant and what we all know is that we can be overtaken by bad movements or rotten people before finally realizing an upheaval has consumed our peaceful existence. The war on Jews on university campuses is one of those movements yet to be recognized by the mass population.

In recent days however, it has drawn reaction even from Hollywood celebs. In response to a scathing article published in the Jewish Journal last week alleging that the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law is developing “Jewish-free zones,” Barbra Streisand rhetorically asked on Twitter, “When does anti-Zionism bleed into broad antisemitism?” In truth, we all know that anti-Zionism is the new antisemitism. It doesn’t quite make sense because Zionism is simply the liberation movement of the Jewish people manifested by their desire to return to their indigenous homeland, the land of Israel.

Non-violent liberation movements are often welcomed by progressives around the world — but not for the Jews. Progressives are ridiculously upset that we Jews had the gall to return to our homeland. They cannot stand that our national political movement called Zionism — which has manifested the only democratic state in the Middle East — actually succeeded. After centuries of trying to kill us off through pogroms, inquisitions and then a genocide, how could it possibly happen that we Jews pulled a fast one on the Jew-haters by rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the Holocaust? It’s never been done before. It’s chutzpah.

In the words of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, our foes are shaking their heads wondering, “Don’t Jews know by now that their role in history is to be scattered, dispersed, homeless and defenceless? And now they want a space where they can defend themselves? How dare they? … We dare because to be denied the right to self-defence is to be treated as less than human.” That is indeed what campus progressives are trying to do — treat us as less than human, treat our desires for freedom and security as unacceptable.

Having lost the physical war against us, progressives who are still instrumental in motivating the forces of terrorism and hate in the Middle East have now turned back to their old-age antisemitic hatred against the Jews. Their racism in plain view, they constantly seek out new, venomous methodologies to isolate and marginalize us. In the past, they called us capitalists, socialists and Marxists. They said we were subhuman — rodents and vermin. They spread rumours about us, alleging we were trying to take over the world, that we were responsible for the Black Death and most recently, the coronavirus.

Now their cover story is an attack on our liberation movement — Zionism itself. In the major exposé in the Jewish Journal, Kenneth Marcus wrote, “Nine different law student groups at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law, my own alma mater, have begun this new academic year by amending bylaws to ensure that they will never invite any speakers that support Israel or Zionism.” Marcus argued that the real issue is discrimination, not speech. “The exclusionary bylaws operate like racially restrictive covenants, precluding minority participation into perpetuity.”

In a response to Marcus’s column, Irwin Cherminsky, Berkeley’s Law School Dean, said he told student leaders in a letter that “excluding speakers on the basis of their viewpoint is inconsistent with our commitment to free speech and condemning the existence of Israel is a form of antisemitism.” He also noted that only nine out more than 100 student law groups had adopted bylaws banning pro-Israel speakers.

But this is not a matter of free speech, argued prominent Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz on his most recent podcast — “it’s discrimination.”

As to Cherminsky seeming to excuse the discrimination by saying “only a handful of student groups … did this,” isn’t one racist too many, or are a few acceptable when it comes to us, the Jews?

Why is it that progressives seem to ignore or unlearn the wisdom of the ages? In the midst of the Holocaust, Zweig, one of the leading European intellectuals of his day, observed: “We have found that we have to agree with Freud, who saw our culture and civilization as a thin veneer through which the destructive forces of the underworld could break at any moment.” He observed that there is little correlation between our technical achievements and an improvement in morality.

As I have argued before, throughout history, human morality has been stuck in the same place. Our wheels keep spinning in the mud. Try as humanity might, it simply cannot overcome hate and discrimination. The proverbial canary in the coal mine — the litmus test for where hate stands — is usually us Jews. But here is the thing: unlike the past 2,000 years, the Jewish State of Israel is back in its rightful place to protect and defend us. So for all the Jew-haters out there, you can shout and scream as much as you want. We are here. We are not going away. Grow up and live with it.

National Post https://nationalpost.com/opinion/avi-benlolo-end-the-war-on-jews-on-campus

Avi Abraham Benlolo is the Founding Chairman and CEO of The Abraham Global Peace Initiative www.agpiworld.com

Patience has worn thin over Palestinian and UN hypocrisy

August 19, 2022

Just two weeks ago I wrote about the UN Commission of Inquiry being caught red-handed in the proverbial antisemitic cookie jar. The notoriously anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council and its inquisition were decloaked after one commissioner made antisemitic remarks in a media interview, stating that social media is largely controlled by the “Jewish lobby.” 

It was a gift because it spotlighted the extraordinary bias of the UNHRC. This week, we were handed two more examples that demonstrate to the world without a shadow of a doubt the laughable absurdity of those who demean, defame and attempt to delegitimize the State of Israel.

Speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a press conference during a visit to Berlin on Wednesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas elicited international outrage when he said Israel had committed "50 massacres in 50 Palestinian villages. … Fifty slaughters. Fifty Holocausts."

His remarks were in reply to a reporter’s question about the massacre by Palestinian militants of 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer 50 years ago during the Munich Olympics. Abbas accentuated the word “Holocaust” in English to drive it home.

Drive it home he did, eliciting harsh reactions. Scholz tweeted, “I am disgusted by the outrageous remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. For us Germans in particular, any relativization of the singularity of the Holocaust is intolerable and unacceptable. I condemn any attempt to deny the crimes of the Holocaust.”

Similarly, the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt, called Abbas's statement “unacceptable,” tweeting that “Holocaust distortion can have dangerous consequences and fuels antisemitism."

Abbas, who is in his 17th year of power despite being elected for only a four-year term, also succeeded in pushing away a possible peace partner should Israel’s interim prime minister, Yair Lapid, be elected in the country's upcoming election. Lapid called Abbas's remarks “not only a moral disgrace, but a monstrous lie. Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, including one and a half million Jewish children. History will never forgive him.”

Israeli journalist Caroline Glick went so far as to tweet that “2-state-solution supporters will have to deal with the fact that the man they pin their hopes on, the “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas, is a Holocaust denying, Nazi-style Jew hater who is also a terrorist and an embezzler.” Too little too late, Abbas tried to walk back his remarks by acknowledging in a statement issued by aides that the “Holocaust is the most heinous crime in modern human history.”

Here is the truth: The stronger and less isolated Israel of today has completely left its detractors in the dust. The more shallow and ignorant Israel’s detractors are, the more they are becoming global pariahs for their false narratives. The world has had enough of falsehoods. Scholz also flatly rejected Abbas’s attempt to call Israel an apartheid state, responding directly to the Palestinian president by saying, “I want to say explicitly at this point that I do not adopt the word apartheid as my own and that I do not think it is right to describe the situation.”

Previously, I wrote about a “seismic shift” that is happening in the entire region. I said people have little patience for wasted energy focused on hate and that “those who truly seek out peace will work toward those goals by promoting tangible solutions, not sowing discord" among people and nations, as is being done by Abbas.

Recognizing its own isolation over the past decade, Turkey is also joining Israel in the region’s peace initiatives. In a press release on Wednesday, President Tayyip Erdogan announced that he had spoken with Lapid and that both countries were reappointing ambassadors to represent them. 

The release explicitly stated that Erdogan “expressed his pleasure over the advancement of the relations within the framework agreed upon during Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s visits to Turkiye.” Unlike before, the recent conflict in Gaza had no detrimental impact on Turkey’s rapprochement.

An acceptance of Israel and the rejection of false narratives is becoming commonplace. Patience has worn thin over Palestinian and UN hypocrisy. The truth is setting the Middle East free. It’s time for Israel’s detractors to catch on.

National Post

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/avi-benlolo-the-truth-is-setting-the-mideast-free-israels-detractors-should-catch-on

The wasted energy and resources on negative ad campaigns that achieve nothing except hate and discord sadly misrepresents the seismic shift that's now underway in the entire region

The United Nations’ so-called Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel was caught red-handed in the antisemitic cookie jar recently, when a member of the inquiry reportedly said that social media is largely controlled by the “Jewish lobby.”

That Jewish people somehow control global media is an antisemitic canard. And despite the fact that Israel is the only democracy in the region, the UN’s commissioner audaciously went further by saying that he would “go as far as to raise the question of why are they (Israel) are even a member of the UN?”

In response to these hateful comments, Canada’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, tweeted, “A Commission of Inquiry is different from a never ending Inquisition. Blatantly biased, anti-semitic comments are completely unworthy of the UN, the UN Human Rights Commission, and are a disgrace to institutions supposedly dedicated to the rule of law.”

Its this kind of pervasive antisemitic behaviour by the politicized and ultra-biased United Nations Human Rights Council that has given legitimacy to the Israel-bashing on university campuses and on our own city streets. Recent reports of signs on city buses in St. John’s, N.L., calling Israel an “apartheid” state are but one example. Yet although the signs were shocking to many Canadians, in Israel, the ad only drew laughs from most people with whom I spoke while filming the upcoming documentary, “The Future of Israel and its Defenders.”

In the northern Israeli city of Karmiel on July 27, an Arab-Israeli leader we were filming literally laughed in hysterics when I asked him about the assertion that Israel is an apartheid state. He outlined his own success in Israel, having completed a graduate degree at an Israeli university, then having the freedom to travel to Jordan to earn a doctorate and to pursue a successful career as an educator and media personality. Many of his friends are professionals like him and enjoy the benefits of being Israeli citizens. In fact, he ran in the last national election and still aspires to enter politics.

Indeed, hardly anyone in Israel actually believes it is an apartheid state. Co-existence and peace is the language of most political and community leaders in Israel today. This was the sentiment expressed by a Druze community leader who received me graciously in his home. He told me that the youth of his village, Majdal Shams, study on Israeli campuses and have professional careers throughout the country.

The war of words being waged against the Jewish state in the West seems somewhat surreal in Israel. When asked about the impact of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, Emilie Moatti, an Labour member of the Knesset, looked at me and said, “Seriously? Look around you. Does it look like its impacting us at all?”

While we grapple with these issues in the West on university campuses and our streets, it is becoming increasingly clear that they are having zero impact in present-day Israel. Instead, the Abraham Accords have shattered Israel’s isolation. They have created a complete paradigm shift and an unprecedented sense of normalcy for Jewish and Arab citizens alike.

In my meeting with Morocco’s ambassador to Israel, it became clear that the sense of optimism is regional. The ambassador expressed how proud he is of the warm reception he has received in Israel and the numbers of people who have attended his events to date.

Still, we must stand against the delegitimization campaigns targeting Israel, especially those of us who believe in freedom and democracy. Israeli celebrity Noa Tishby, who is also the country’s special envoy for combating antisemitism and delegitimization, said it best: “destroying democracies is not good for, you know … democracies.”

Those who despise Israel don’t care about the numerous Arab and Israeli families that mingle in the cafes in Jaffa every evening. In a conversation by the clock tower in Jaffa with Col. Richard Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan, he casually observed the remarkable intermingling of people of all faiths around us as we spoke.

Those who oppose Israel do not care about the future of the Jewish and Arab youth who work together at the local sports store down the street. The wasted energy and resources on negative ad campaigns that achieve nothing except hate and discord sadly misrepresents the seismic shift that’s now underway in the entire region. Those who truly seek out peace will work toward those goals by promoting tangible solutions, not sowing discord among different groups of people.

Still, we cannot turn a blind eye to those who are intent on spreading libels and falsehoods about the Jewish state. A lie told enough times can become a truth if unopposed. We have a responsibility to stand up for Israel, because the right thing to do is to support the development of peace and friendship in the region. As Tishby said, Israel is a “miracle that we need to defend whether we live there or not.”

Thus, even when the false libels thrown at Israel are laughable, we must vigorously defend the Jewish state and the freedom and democracy that it represents. Which is why it is now incumbent upon the mayor of St. John’s to ensure that hateful rhetoric no longer has a place on the city’s public transportation network.

National Post

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/avi-benlolo-dont-let-apartheid-bus-ads-in-st-johns-fool-you-in-israel-the-idea-is-laughable

The anti-Israel BDS movement has failed miserably

Those who are aligning with the BDS narrative are stuck in the 1967 Arab League Summit that called for 'no peace with Israel'

By Avi Abraham Benlolo

July 7, 2022

Ben & Jerry’s announced its was suing its parent company, Unilever, over its deal with an Israeli manufacturer that allows for the sale of its ice cream in the West Bank. Ben & Jerry’s says it is suing "to protect its social integrity" and aims to block the sale of its Israeli business to a local licensee reportedly saying to do so was “inconsistent with our values.” 

Social awareness with respect to human rights is critical today more than ever, but sadly, as in the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many social activists are siding with a tyrannical and undemocratic Palestinian regime committing human rights abuse against its own people. I have seen this misplaced social activism on university campuses and elsewhere where social justice warriors are aligning with Palestinian groups that yell human rights abuse on one hand while promote terrorism, incite hate and persecute dissidents on the other hand.

Conversely, Israel just celebrated the biggest Pride parade in the Middle East and most places on earth. Its respect and championship of women’s rights and freedom and democracy is second to none. Like any nation, Israel is imperfect. But it’s incredible social advancement in a region of hate and tyranny should make every human rights defender ponder which country to champion and align with.

In this international row over ice cream, many have argued that Ben & Jerry’s folded to pressure by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Likening its strategy to the boycott campaign against the apartheid regime in South Africa, the BDS movement has so far failed miserably in its ultimate quest to economically bring Israel to its knees.

It must be frustrating for the BDS movement. Over the last twenty years, the reverse has happened. Israel has become an economic powerhouse in the region and around the world. Israel consistently ranks high among the world’s economies especially in terms of technology, venture capital and research. In fact, Israel ranks first in availability of scientists and engineers. Forbes says that “Israel finds itself in the enviable club of top 20 economies in the world with the per capita GDP at $43.7 thousand (USD) for the past year, putting Israel in the 19th spot on the list, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.” 

Anyone visiting Israel can see hundreds of construction cranes scattered along the horizon of nearly every city across the country. International companies like Microsoft, Dell, IBM and numerous others are proudly omnipresent in glimmering office buildings. Given that suicide attacks and indiscriminate rockets landing on civilian populations failed to bring Israel to its knees, BDS was a new strategy that tried to isolate, marginalize and criminalize the Jewish state. But smart business people saw through the propaganda and instead of withdrawing from Israel, double-downed on investment, capital and partnership.

Unilever’s public statement proves this point. In a slap in the face to Ben & Jerry's, it said it “rejects completely and repudiates unequivocally any form of discrimination or intolerance. Antisemitism has no place in any society. We have never expressed any support for the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement and have no intention of changing that position. Over the last decade, Unilever has invested more than 1 billion Shekels (around E250 million) in our business in Israel. We look forward to continuing to make a positive contribution to Israel’s economy and society for many decades to come.”

Even Israel’s neighbours have now realized the double standard and defamatory strategy of the BDS movement. The Abraham Accords have resulted in billions of dollars worth of trade between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco in the last twelve months. Trade will bring about peace, not boycott. Not silence. Not war. With increased trade comes increased dialogue and natural partnerships. The Palestinian question will be solved under the proverbial Abrahamic Tent — where we all come together — rather than the cold shoulder anti-normalization tactics tried by the BDS movement.

Those who are aligning with the BDS narrative are stuck in the 1967 Arab League Summit that called for “no peace with Israel. No recognition of Israel. No negotiations with Israel.” Where has that archaic attitude led the Middle East? Nowhere but more war and conflict. The world has since moved on.

The BDS movement is equally reminiscent of the economic, cultural, religious and academic boycotts imposed on Jewish communities from time immemorial itself. To boycott the Jewish state, is to single out the embodiment of the Jewish people. It’s a stain on history itself, given the trial and tribulations this people has undergone during the Holocaust and the Inquisition, among other horrific periods — where boycotts were imposed. It also symbolizes a profound ignorance to the very indigenous connection of the Jewish people to their homeland.

Israel itself is a vindication of these historic obscenities. It is a triumph of good over evil. It is a land of hope and freedom and what a small group of people can build out of the ashes of the Holocaust. The Jewish people have been here long before Ice cream was invented and we shall be here long after — no matter what fate brings. Our very existence is a rejection of hate and intolerance and this is why we are proud of the State of Israel — and will keep pouring our support into the Jewish State. Thanks Ben & Jerry’s for keeping us motivated!

National Post

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/avi-benlolo-the-anti-israel-bds-movement-has-failed-miserably

This week, about 400 new Ethiopian immigrants touched down to much fanfare at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Their arrival is emblematic of the miracle that is the modern State of Israel.  

The in-gathering of the Jewish people from the four corners of the world is one of the greatest and most admirable stories of our time. A people who had been taken into slavery, dispersed and forcibly converted to other religions following the destruction of the Jewish temples somehow kept their faith for 2,000 years and managed to return home to Jerusalem.  

Some may see the return of the Jewish people as a prophecy. Others see it as a fulfillment of destiny. While others simply understand that the State of Israel offers safety and security to a persecuted people. The Jewish people, after all, are indigenous to the land of Israel and have lived in the region since time immemorial.  Following the destruction of King Solmon’s Temple in 586 BCE, and again after the destruction of the Second Temple around 70 CE, the Jewish people were forced into exile. Generation after generation called out the four most important words in our existential liturgy: “next year in Jerusalem.”  

Our world was incomplete without the beating heart of Jerusalem, the most sacred of all that is sacred in the Jewish religion. The return home of millions of Jewish people who were scattered around the globe is a fulfillment of justice and freedom. Zionism reignited our passion to free ourselves from oppression and antisemitism.  

This narrative contradicts the prevailing pro-Palestinian campaigns that seek to delegitimize the Jewish people's historical attachment to the land of Israel. Despite the fact our history is written in stone throughout the land — from ancient synagogues, to the Dead Sea Scrolls and what remains of our Temple in Jerusalem — there are those who continue to falsely label Jewish people living in Israel as “colonizers” and “settlers.”  

The fact is, however, that there has never been a Palestinian state on this land. Preceding Israel’s independence in 1948, the land of Israel was occupied by the British, the Ottomans and many others. And consecutive waves of immigration into Israel of people from various ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds disproves the shameful “apartheid” accusation that's frequently lobbed against Israel.  

While the independence and freedom of other historically repressed and indigenous peoples is supported by international human rights organizations that have gone after Israel, the same sentiment is not shared when it comes to the Jewish state. In fact, even before it was a state, Jewish immigration into Israel was frequently curtailed, particularly by the British, who blocked many Jews attempting to flee Nazi persecution.  Israel is the fulfillment of a 2,000-year-old dream to return home. 

No other nation on earth has expended so much kindness, acceptance and effort to reunify its lost tribes as has the State of Israel.  Ethiopians started immigrating to Israel in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until Operation Solomon in 1991, when 14,325 Beta Israel were brought to Israel in 36 hours on 35 planes, that the significance of this moment in Jewish history was fully realized. This week’s Ethiopian immigration is part of a long chain of incredible rescue efforts of a people who are fulfilling a dream to come home.  Many Ethiopians, who often had to trek through the dessert to reach the Israeli planes, recount that they were motivated by the idea of seeing the city of Jerusalem with their own eyes. It was the promised land they had been told about for generations. 

Once they arrived in Israel, integration was not simple. But they were welcomed home.  Those of us who grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust and Israel’s existential battles for survival celebrate this reunification of the Jewish nation. It’s a triumph against evil. It’s a win against the Hitlers of the world and a fulfillment of our destiny as a people.  

National Post

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/avi-benlolo-the-modern-miracle-that-is-the-state-of-israel

By Avi Abraham Benlolo and Jerry S. Grafstein February 4, 2022  

On June 1, 2001, a Palestinian terrorist blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv night club, killing 21 Israelis, 16 of whom were teenagers. Two months later, another Palestinian suicide terrorist entered the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem and killed 15 Israelis, including seven children and a pregnant woman and wounded 130 others. In March of 2002, during a Passover Seder in a hotel in Netanya, a Palestinian suicide bomber murdered 30 civilians and injured 140 others in one of the deadliest massacres.  

In response to the more than 1,378 civilians murdered by Palestinians terrorists from Gaza and the West Bank since September 2000, Israel had little choice but to build a security barrier to protect its citizens from continued mass murder. As a result, suicide-terrorism stopped almost immediately and while terror incidents still occur, they are now less co-ordinated by the Islamist groups that try to infiltrate the Jewish nation daily. The security barrier is not an “apartheid wall.” It is there to save lives and bring about peace. Good fences sometimes do make good neighbours.  

Thus, this week’s shameful release of a new report by Amnesty International accusing Israel of “apartheid” in its treatment of Palestinians is devoid of this context. Unlike any other nation on Earth, Israel faces unrelenting violent threats from the various terror organizations that are relentlessly engaged in undermining the Jewish state. Just this past May for instance, Hamas started an unprovoked war with Israel and launched 4,600 rockets at its civilian population. When Israel’s next-door neighbour, Bashar al-Assad in Syria was threatened by a civil uprising, he brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of his own citizens — and continues to do so. Where was Amnesty International?  

Israel’s detractors never seem to worry about the safety and security of Jewish lives in Israel. They never run to Israel’s defence when Israel is attacked. They never issue scathing reports, initiate global campaigns or call on the International Criminal Court to take action against the incitement of hate and war crimes targeting Israeli civilians. Instead, they are quick to come down on the “Jews,” especially if they are trying to protect themselves.  But we say, "Never again." When the Jewish people were herded from their homes, into ghettos and then to concentration camps where they were gassed, the world stood by and did nothing against this vile antisemitic act. So, Amnesty, your report means nothing to us. 

As Jewish people, we will fight back to protect our families this time. At the same time, we will always and relentlessly stand at the forefront of human rights advocacy, promoting freedom and peaceful co-existence.  Clearly, it makes little difference to so-called human rights advocates that Israel is a free and democratic country. It's incomprehensible to understand that a report is issued calling Israel an apartheid state while for the first time in history, an Arab political party is part of the governing coalition of the country. 

Israel’s citizens also represent every ethnic and religious group under the sun. It's also irrational to believe that Israel is intentionally ethnically cleansing the Palestinian population given the fact this community has increased from approximately 500,000 in 1948 to nearly six million in 2021 in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The numbers speak for themselves and completely disqualify Amnesty’s underlying premise.  

Israel’s tormentors have been planning this assault since the United Nations' infamous Durban conference in 2001. The stage was set to falsely equate Israel with the former South African apartheid regime, in an attempt to delegitimize, demonize and disrupt the very existence of the Jewish State. 

The Amnesty report regurgitates this established campaign and is calling for “Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their homes where they or their families once lived,” which it's known would spell a demographic end to the Jewish State. Israel could not possibly absorb millions of Palestinian refugees who have been purposely held up in refugee camps without losing its Jewish character. Everyone knows this.  

We are pleased to note that most of Israel’s allies, including the Americans and Germans, have denounced the Amnesty report. We have called out Canadian leaders including our own prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to follow suit. As we wrote to the prime minister and the former leader of the official opposition this week, no other country is similarly harassed by the international community. 

Because Israel is the very embodiment of the Jewish people, the biased double standard practiced through these unrelenting attacks can only be understood as antisemitism. In fact, given the growth of violent antisemitism around the world, the Amnesty report is blatantly irresponsible and will trigger ever increasing antisemitic attacks, which are already at an all-time high around the world.  

National Post Avi Abraham Benlolo is the founder and chairman of The Abraham Global Peace Initiative. Jerry S. Grafstein, Q.C., is a former Canadian Senator.

In current times we honour non-Jews who saved their Jewish neighbours during the Holocaust. In 100 years, will we honour those who stood up for the Jewish state — the embodiment of the Jewish people — during these times? We venerate and uplift those who refused to be bystanders or “useful idiots” during the slaughter of the six million; Raoul Wallenberg, Irena Sendler, Chiune Sugihara and countless others who shall remain nameless saw behind the evil Nazi mask. They refused to go along to get along at great personal risk. They spoke up. They spoke out. They refused to be silent in action and deed.

During the Holocaust, Nazism was normalized. In the eyes of millions of Germans and other Europeans, the Jewish people were denigrated, dehumanized and marginalized, giving way to their murder. Parades took place in Berlin and across Germany with hundreds of thousands of youths and adults alike clamouring to cheer Adolf Hitler as he drove by in his motorcade. The photos of their smiling and excited faces as they raised their arms in the Nazi salute reveal either their complicity or sheer ignorance. As we look back now, we often ask how it was possible for millions of people to have fallen for Hitler.

The Nazi rallies in Nuremberg that brought together formations of youths and soldiers showed how easily a society can normalize evil. Photographs exist of Jews being led out of their towns to their slaughter while their neighbours cheered and spat on them. Father Patrick Desbois carefully documented hundreds of villages scattered across Eastern Europe where non-Jews turned against their Jewish neighbours and literally walked them to the ravine down the street and shot them into the pits they had dug for them hours before.

If history repeats itself, it’s repeating itself here and now. The Jewish people have seen this movie before. The media turns against them, propagandizing false narratives: Israel is attacking Gaza. Israel is committing genocide. Israel is occupying Palestine. Israel is blockading Gaza and committing ethnic cleansing.

Politicians grandstand by calling on their nations to stop selling arms to Israel and increase aid to the Palestinians. Universities and their equity departments make false accusations, asserting that Israel is a colonial state.

The promotion of false narratives against the Jewish state and by extension, the Jewish people, is an effort to reduce them to a level that makes it acceptable for the public to engage in violent anti-Semitism and more seriously, to commit genocide against the Jewish state itself. What we are witnessing in the surge of anti-Semitism on social media platforms and violent incidents across the world is a normalization effect that legitimizes attacks on Jewish people, not unlike Nazism. Incidents of anti-Semitism have skyrocketed, particularly affecting Millennials and young children.

For all those righteous groups that are siding with Hamas-led Gaza, shame on them for their ignorance and complicity in evil. The Nazis did not hide their agenda to eradicate the Jewish people. Neither does Hamas. For anyone who professes to have expertise in equity, diversity and anti-racism initiatives to be ignorant of the mission statement and charter of Hamas — the Islamic Resistance Movement — makes them enablers of the anti-Semitism and hatred now levelled against Jewish communities worldwide. 

How could anyone who professes to promote human rights agree to the following statement in the Hamas charter: “The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O’Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him!”

If you believe Hamas is a peaceful movement, its charter has something to say about that as well: “Peace initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement … the Movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their jihad.”

If you are standing with the pro-Palestinian movement that supports Hamas, at the very least, you should declare fealty with its charter and to violent jihad. Why have this masquerade of false assertions relating to the “occupation” (which is untrue because Israel does not occupy Gaza); or historically ignorant assertions that Jews are colonizers of their own land (there is evidence of Jewish history on the land but little if any of Palestinian nationhood); or that Israel is a “racist-apartheid” state (completely invalidated by the international community). 

If you believe in Hamas and its stated goal in its own charter of “waging Jihad against the enemy” — why not simply declare yourself as such? Say it.

The right to self defence is the most basic human right. Israel has every right and an obligation to defend its citizens against a terrorist organization. In my naïve world view, I cannot see how anyone in their right mind can align themselves with a radical jihadi group that espouses violence. Neither can I understand how anyone can join anti-Semitic protests around the world — especially if they are aligned with anti-racism and anti-discrimination movements. In almost every protest, posters are shown depicting Jews as Nazis and calling for their genocide in the state of Israel. At a car rally in London, England, one protester called for the raping of Jewish girls. Is this the movement you want to be aligned with?

If there is one thing we have learned from history, it is that it does repeat. No matter the logic provided or the counter arguments given, those who are bent on destroying the Jewish people will try to normalize their crimes and propagate them. They will overlook anti-Semitism. They will convolute news and information and set forth new policies in their institutions that advance the anti-Jewish agenda. 

History has shown that what starts with the Jews won’t end with them. If you think the pandemic is bad, take a look at how many people were killed in the Second World War — a war and a genocide that started because of hate, ignorance and complicity.

TEL AVIV — The other day, I walked by a convenience store in Tel Aviv that was stocked to the brim with Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. No one was buying it. That’s probably because most Israelis might be finding it hard to stomach a dessert that has waded into Middle Eastern politics.

Ben and Jerry’s has caused a stir in Israel and around the world by announcing that its ice cream will no longer be sold in the “occupied territories.” Its website touts important social justice activities like “climate justice, marriage equality and peace building” — but boycotting the disputed territories, where Jewish people reside because of their religious connection to the land, is not the same. Some might say it’s discriminatory. If we are all promoting freedom, why can’t Jewish people live there?

Outraged Israeli politicians called it an acquiescence to the anti-Semitic boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against the Jewish state. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett went as far as to lodge a formal complaint with the CEO of Unilever, which owns Ben and Jerry’s, warning him of possible “serious consequences, legal and otherwise.”

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, wrote to 35 countries that have passed anti-BDS laws, encouraging them to engage in “rapid and determined action … to counter such discriminatory and anti-Semitic actions,” in order to “send an unequivocal message that this will not be tolerated.”

In Tel Aviv, I met with Israeli progressive leader and former parliamentarian Stav Shaffir, who told me that unilateral boycott campaigns like this one actually undermine the Israeli left. Rather than working with civil society, and even with the business community, to find effective strategies that advance peace, by embracing the BDS movement, multinational companies end up perpetuating the conflict.

Boycotts build walls, not peace and dialogue. I admire socially responsible companies, including Ben and Jerry’s, interest in making the world a better place. In general terms, perhaps rather than the promotion of boycotts, greater investment in projects that promote dialogue, unity and pluralism might result in a more effective strategy for change.

At a time when anti-Semitism is at an all-time high, and when vicious and unfounded campaigns against Jewish communities and the State of Israel are raging widely, greater social responsibility is necessary, on the part of governments and corporations, to ensure their actions are not re-enforcing this climate of hostility.

Given the international community’s vociferous condemnation of anti-Semitism, including this week’s summit in Canada and last week’s in Israel, it would seem prudent to take a measured approach to the Middle East conflict. Anti-Semitism must not be excused as a consequence of events in the Middle East, as no other form of racial and religious discrimination is excused in this manner.

Its not just about Ben and Jerry’s. This is a significant problem that has grown from anti-Semitic campaigns on university campuses over the last two decades. It must be understood that boycotting Jewish people is never right, and is antithetical to the cause championed by those who espouse social justice and human rights.

A quick look at history reveals that for more than 2,000 years, Jewish people have been marginalized, isolated and boycotted. If this was a legitimate form of social justice, as some might argue, then why do we so rarely see boycotts targeting real human rights abusing countries like Syria, Iran, China and Myanmar?

Anti-boycott legislation in the United States jeopardizes the business affairs of any corporation targeting the Jewish state. Sadly, Ontario’s previous government refused to pass such precedent-setting legislation several years ago, when, alongside Tim Hudak and Mike Colle, I presented this groundbreaking opportunity to fight the BDS.

With the global community now recognizing the tsunamic levels of anti-Semitism worldwide, very few leaders are embracing boycotts. In fact, the four Muslim countries that recently signed onto the Abraham Accords have outwardly condemned the BDS movement through accelerated trade with Israel. But this hasn’t stopped those who wish Israel harm from continuing on their hateful mission.

The anti-Israel campaigners have attempted to characterize Jewish-Israelis as oppressors, if not the devil itself. Their demonizing and public shaming serves to help legitimize and perpetuate the boycotts, along with violence perpetrated against Jews and the Jewish state.

Ice cream is the least of Israel’s problems, as it contends with continued threats from terrorist organizations like Hamas, along with state actors like Iran. But such boycotts are a symptom of the wider problem of anti-Semitism that has seen a frightening resurgence recently.

Let’s put everything on the table: there is no equivalence between Hamas and Israel. The latter is a nation just like any other and should be treated with the respect and dignity it deserves. The former is a globally designated terrorist organization that should be treated with the disrespect and the indignity it deserves. There should be no ifs, ands, or buts.

Instead, what we are starting to see once again in the media and in some political circles are attempts to excuse Hamas for sending 1,500 high-powered Iranian-made rockets into civilian populations in Israel. Rockets that are launched indiscriminately targeting civilian populations (not the military) are classified as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. They are intended to murder as many people as possible — including children.

In the past 72 hours, five-year-old Ido Avigal was fatally struck by shrapnel that penetrated his home in Sderot during one Hamas rocket barrage. I have visited Sderot many times and met with its mayor, seen the piles of rockets at the local police station and noted that every bus stop is also used as a bunker against rockets. The town is within eyesight of the northern tip of the Gaza Strip and is the most targeted by Hamas terrorists. I have seen art-therapy drawings by its children — they are traumatized and suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Many have nightmares. Some wet their beds at night from fear. Others cry spontaneously.

So when politicians like NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stand up in Canada’s Parliament and denounce Israel for so-called human rights violations, they should be answerable to the Jewish and Muslim children of Israel who hunker underground in fear of a murderous terrorist organization that is out to kill them. 

Before standing in our House and accusing Israel of anything, Singh and similar minded leaders should step into the shoes of every Israeli child. That includes 16-year-old Nadine Awad, an Arab citizen of Israel, who was killed alongside her 52-year-old father, Khalil, when a Hamas rocket hit their home in central Israel.

Israel does not discriminate against defending and saving the lives of its citizens, no matter their faith. Conversely, Hamas does not discriminate in wanting to kill any Israeli citizen, no matter their faith. When a rocket is launched from Gaza at Israel, crowds are heard cheering and yelling “Allah Akbar.” When Israel sends its soldiers to the border with Gaza, mothers and fathers cry in pain and sorrow that their children may have to fire a weapon to defend their nation state.

While strongly condemning Hamas and rocket fire into Israel, our government leaders are also unfortunately drawing a moral equivalence of some sort. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would always support “Israel’s right to assure its own security.” But in the next sentence, he added, “We are also gravely concerned by the continued expansion of settlements and evictions.” What does this have to do with terrorist rocket attacks on innocent civilians in Israel? Do land disputes justify bombing an ally? Would Ottawa allow bombs to fall on any Canadian city without taking action?

Bassem Eid, a Palestinian human rights activist living in Jerusalem, wrote that he only blames Hamas: “The fanatics who rule over Gaza with an iron fist cannot resist the opportunity to stir up anti-Jewish violence for their own political gain. If innocent Jews and Muslims die in the process, all the better for them. The pretext for the latest missile barrage is the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem, where a long-running legal dispute was scheduled for a court hearing. It is the kind of situation that would be handled by a local municipal court in any other country and there would be no public interest.”

Exactly. Instead, what we are seeing once again is that some Western governments are excusing the bombing of Israel and interfering in the civic and security affairs of a free and democratic state. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Iran has been deeply involved in arming Hamas, and in the past week, inciting the violence now taking place. Given the fact that Iran shot down an airliner killing nearly 60 Canadians, Canada’s leaders should be well aware of what Iranian proxies like Hamas are capable of.

Former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper got it right when he tweeted days ago, “Attacks on the State of Israel are attacks on us all and must be immediately condemned by international leaders.” Harper understands there is no moral equivalency between a free and democratic state that shares the same values as Canada, and Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. This conflict is not about so-called “settlements,” “evictions” or land disputes. It is not about the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is treated with the utmost respect by Israel and all Jews alike. This is about a terrorist group whosr mission statement and raison d’être is the destruction of the State of Israel.

To excuse this terrorist attack on Israel with “ifs, ands, or buts” endangers freedom, democracy and human rights worldwide.

A media firestorm was set off recently, after actress Scarlett Johansson was widely criticized in Egypt for being a Zionist. It all started on Dec. 1, 2020 when Johansson released a YouTube video calling for the release of four human rights activists who were arrested after they hosted foreign diplomats to discuss the human rights situation in Egypt.

It didn’t matter that her calls were backed up by the United Nations, numerous foreign governments and human rights organizations, as well as other celebrities. The fact that Johansson is Jewish was cause enough for many in the Egyptian media, as well as on social media, to single her out as an enemy of the people.

No matter what one’s political inclination is, from this point of view, if being a Zionist implies standing up for human rights, it should be considered a badge of honour. Those who have worked hard to defame and delegitimize Israel and, by extension, the Jewish people, suggest that Israelis are racist colonizers. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Zionism was, and still is, a movement based on the belief that the Jewish people have a right to return to their ancestral homeland to live in peace and harmony with their neighbours. It inspired the foundation of the only true democracy in the Middle East — a hostile region of the world that is largely ruled by tyrannical regimes.

Today, Israel is a nation that celebrates and promotes equal rights for all people, regardless of race, religion or gender. It respects the rule of law according to Western legal standards and promotes freedom of the press, free speech and freedom of movement and assembly, as well as gay rights.

Zionism is an ideology that has created a Jewish state with vigorous democratic debate — so vigorous, in fact, that many have criticized its multi-party system for being too democratic.

When Morocco joined the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in normalizing diplomatic relations with Israel, it showed that many Arab states are not threatened by this vision. In fact, they were now partnering with Israel and the United States to stand up to rogue and dangerous regimes like the one in Iran.

Many ethnic and religious groups around the world have struggled for their freedom. But only the Jewish people have been severely and repeatedly reprimanded by the international community for rebuilding their homeland.

In the late 1800s, Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, advocated for the re-establishment of the Jewish state, after prophesizing that a catastrophic event was about to befall Europe’s Jewish community. Indeed, less than 50 years after his prediction, six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, including his own daughter.

The Jewish state came into being in 1948, following the Holocaust. Even while its founders were being attacked by their Arab neighbours, they never gave up on Herzl’s vision of creating a modern state that strives to promote tolerance, justice and human rights. Herzl himself advocated living peacefully and respectfully with Israel’s Arab, Druze and Christian population.

Like all countries, Israel is imperfect. It’s still a work in progress and, over the past number of years, an incredible development has been occurring: young and energetic Israeli Arabs, Christians, Bedouins and Druze have been joining Israel’s military and diplomatic corps and representing the country around the world.

Take for example, Muhamed Heib, an Israeli spokesperson who works out of its Embassy in India and hails from a Druze village in Israel’s north. In his online video, which has garnered nearly 400,000 views, he proudly represents the Jewish state. He is also becoming a role model in his village.

There is also Lorena Khateeb, a young Druze woman who is garnering much online attention in the Persian Gulf for her work with the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s digital diplomacy department. And then there is Ambassador George Deek, an accomplished Christian-Israeli diplomat who is currently serving his country in Azerbaijan.

Israel has changed. All over the Jewish state, we are seeing new and inspiring stories of pluralism, diversity and acceptance. Yoseph Haddad is the co-founder and CEO of a new non-profit organization called Vouch for Each Other. An Israeli Christian Arab, he served in the famous Golani Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces and was wounded in battle. He now dedicates himself to promoting integration among all Israeli citizens, including bridging the “Arab sector of Israeli society with Israeli society as a whole.”

It’s no longer simply about politics or ideology or a singular identity. Israeli citizens I have spoken with recently are optimistic, excited and motivated to advance their country. What we are seeing are positive social shifts from a maturing of Israeli society that involve collaboration and integration.

Israel’s diversity, openness and democracy, coupled with its economic, scientific and military successes and now the Abraham Accords, presents a dramatic shift for its diverse citizens and its neighbours.

The seeds of a more peaceful and prosperous future in the Middle East are already starting to sprout. Hopefully, those spouting hate against Scarlett Johansson and others will prove to be the last vestiges of an old way of thinking that has allowed violence and hatred to fester for far too long.

Will President Joe Biden and his administration move against Israel? 

Even while the Middle East is giving up on hating Israel, in the West, radical leftists just cannot get off the bus. They keep trying to throw Israel under the bus, as they ride along to the next cocktail party. In this case, the party is being hosted in beautiful Vienna to discuss America’s grovelling return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and giving in to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

While Austria’s relationship with Israel is positive, historically speaking, Vienna should be the very last place any nation should be hosting Iran — the top sponsor of Holocaust denial and terrorism. Austria unequivocally co-operated with the Nazis starting in 1938, while its Jewish community of some 200,000 citizens was decimated by the Holocaust.

Iran, for its part, has been giddy about the U.S. nearly begging to come back to the table. The Biden administration has already declared that sanctions against Iran imposed by Donald Trump must be dumped. Now, alongside other Western democracies including France, the United Kingdom and Germany, and together with the European Union, China and Russia, Biden wants to re-establish the highly criticized 2015 agreement created under the Obama administration.

In 2015, Iran outmanoeuvred the United States and received the deal of the century. No one could believe that Barack Obama sent Iran US$1.7 billion that ended up fuelling its terror activities, in Syria and Yemen especially, while providing it with a 10-year time frame to continue its development of ballistic missiles that could serve as warheads for nuclear bombs when the time came.

Snubbing its nose at the JCPOA and trying to once again achieve more negotiating mileage, Iran’s chief of its Atomic Energy Organization said the nation will not stop its drive toward nuclear capacity and that its uranium enrichment has increased. He added that the “nuclear industry will not stop with the JCPOA” and that Iran plans to keep driving its nuclear ambition forward. Its chief negotiator said from Vienna, “We demand that the United States first fulfill all of its obligations and lift all the sanctions it has imposed, and then we will verify and return.”

Tehran is known for its propaganda, deception and negotiating prowess. Still, since Joe Biden came to power and his administration showed its hand as weak if not timid, Iran has been playing it like a fiddle. Iran recently signed a US$400-billion investment deal with China over the next 25 years — securing the strength and stability of the brutal mullahs sitting at the helm in Tehran. The demise of the Trump administration has invigorated if not empowered Tehran to build new relationships in Asia and Africa and cement new trading partners, as sanctions fall apart.

All this grovelling is taking place in the shadow of the incredible co-operation now underway between Israel and Arab states. It makes no difference to the West that Sudan this week made a substantive declaration — that it would be repealing its boycott against the State of Israel. At the same time, flights to Israel from Dubai have resumed as business between the Gulf states and Israel accelerates. And this week, for the first time ever, communities in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco held Holocaust commemorations — refusing to give in to the Holocaust denial that has plagued the Middle East for decades.

Overlooking these incredible strides and an opportunity to work co-operatively and collaboratively with allies in the region, Western JCPOA partners have largely excluded both Israel and the Gulf States from negotiations. The nations that have the most to lose and the greatest concerns, in other words, have been shut out once again from critical talks that could stabilize the region. It’s likely Israel and the Gulf States will strengthen their unified front against Iran in reaction.

Contrary to Israel’s opinion, the Biden administration has even gone ahead and extended monetary support to the Palestinians through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), an agency in desperate need of reform due to allegations that its school curriculum inspires anti-Semitism and even terrorism. Given America and Israel’s “unbreakable and unshakeable” bond and extensive security co-operation, this diplomatic approach is disappointing and promises a return to the foreign policy fiascos under the Obama administration.

Worse, Biden has announced he is removing sanctions against International Criminal Court officials, thus giving the ICC tacit approval to move ahead with its false allegations of war crimes committed by Israel (the Palestinians are also accused of war crimes). Secretary of State Antony Blinken has gone further by terminating visa restrictions placed on ICC personnel in 2019 and unfreezing their property and assets in the U.S. Naturally, this change in tone puts a chill on diplomatic relations between the allies. Israel claims the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel or the Palestinian territories and has not been authorized to conduct an investigation by the UN Security Council.

It’s often repeated that those who forget the past are destined to repeat it. Western powers are sitting around the table negotiating with an evil, anti-Semitic regime in Vienna — with all its history relating to the Holocaust. It cannot escape us that as this is happening this week, the Jewish world is commemorating 76 years since the Holocaust. Will humanity ever learn?

After our enslavement in Egypt, our return home with the holy scriptures centuries later, followed by another exile that culminated in the Holocaust, our renewed statehood has been the fulfillment of a dream. We have been blessed with another chance to fulfill our destiny. The people of Israel are strong and devoted. But a fourth election in just two years is fracturing the fabric of this beautiful nation.

Is there a possibility of having too much democracy? Most major nations in the West have a maximum of two to four major political parties. In Israel, 13 parties have won mandates competing for a total of 120 seats. The problem is that the threshold is so low that nearly every religious, secular, Muslim and ideological group can snag a seat to represent its interest. 

Three decades ago, we gamed out this very crisis in my political science class at Tel Aviv University. The situation has now become untenable and may lead Israel either to a structural political reformation or continuous elections.

Still, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again proven he is the ultimate chess player. Through his defiant gamesmanship, he was able to outmanoeuvre more than 10 active political parties and a growing public sentiment that is defiantly against him. 

Even while his Likud party is holding on to only 30 seats in comparison with the 36 seats won in the previous election, it is miles ahead of the second largest party, Yesh Atid (“there is a future” in Hebrew), which achieved only 17 seats.

The election is not decisive and Netanyahu still needs to cobble together a coalition of 61 seats to form a government. That may take days or weeks but one thing is for certain, the 24th Knesset will be Israel’s most centre-right government ever. To retain his position as Israel’s “kingmaker,” Netanyahu will have to partner with a religious block that demands more of Israel’s budget and will even dictate much of Israel’s policy regarding West Bank settlements and foreign relations including those with the U.S. and the global diaspora. An unconscionable outcome for most Israelis.

The divide between Israeli secular society and the Orthodox is increasingly problematic. The road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is becoming a massive divide between two distinct worlds: The secularists — mainly represented by Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White, Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope, Merav Michaeli’s Labor Party and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beytenu — have won a combined 45 seats and are unlikely to be able to form a reasonable coalition government. Besides, none of these candidates has proven to be prime-ministerial, with Lapid even evading declaring himself a candidate during the campaign.

Everyone sees “Ra’am,” an Arab party led by Mansour Abbas, as the party that could pull either the left or the right over the top. Described as an “Islamist” party representing nationalist Israeli Arabs, Ra’am made it through the electoral threshold by winning some four seats. 

Searching out a deal, it’s still unclear if it will be invited to join Netanyahu’s coalition — an unlikely scenario given the likely dominance of religious parties in a Likud-led coalition. In fact, any compromise with Ra’am was ruled out today by Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich. This makes it nearly impossible for Netanyahu to form a coalition.

Before Smotrich’s declaration, it appeared that Netanyahu was in the sweet spot of becoming Israel’s next prime minister. And in reality, while he is fighting unsubstantiated criminal allegations, there is no political candidate in Israel today who even comes close to him. 

Everyone has weaknesses and who are we to speak for Israelis who are frustrated with the daily hardships? But Netanyahu has kept Israel relatively safe and prosperous for the past 15 years and more. Still, in a huge blow to his authority, Israel’s supreme court blocked Netanyahu from circumventing the law banning him from appointing a new attorney general, state prosecutor, police commissioner and judges.

All this turmoil has worn out the Israeli public. Only 34.6 per cent of Israelis turned out to vote — the lowest number since 2009. Over 16 per cent are said to be unemployed comprising some 700,000 citizens. In comparison, only 3.8 per cent of the population was unemployed in 2019. Israel’s debt has increased to 72 per cent of the GDP in 2020 and everyone is concerned there may have to be tax increases, burdening the nation even more. 

The secularists are feeling tired of carrying the nation’s load with increasing demands from the Orthodox community.

From a distance, it appears that under Netanyahu’s watch, Israel’s diplomacy and communication channels with foreign nations have multiplied exponentially. Embassies and consulates have opened around the world; he has produced four new peace agreements and is said to be in talks with other Arab nations to expand the Abraham Accords; and he is one of the few world leaders who can pick up the phone and speak to Putin, Biden and Xi Jinping all in the same day. But is that enough for the Israeli public?

He has excelled at paving the way for Israel to become nearly 85 per cent vaccinated — but that did not translate into a decisive victory. It is now one of the few nations on Earth that can operate freely and with little risk of infection from the coronavirus. 

Yes, there are imperfections, but recently, the Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla, told an Israeli news channel that Netanyahu called him 30 times, including in the middle of the night, to discuss the vaccine and its procurement. Bourla said Netanyahu showed genuine concern about how the vaccine would impact the population, including pregnant women and children. That’s what convinced the CEO to choose Israel for clinical trials.

This election was a referendum not only on Netanyahu, but on Israel itself. President Reuven Rivlin, who has stayed out of the political fray, has expressed worry, saying, “I am voting for the last time as president. But above all as a worried citizen — a very worried citizen.” 

Now that the election is over, and the numbers are in, the next few weeks will be dramatic again as politicians hammer away at each other to form coalitions. Ordinary Israelis are paying the high price for political gamesmanship. A fifth election will not be tolerable. 

Twenty-five years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in cold blood. And so were the dreams of peace in the Middle East

It was a beautiful sunny autumn day in Washington, D.C. The world was watching with anticipation as leaders gathered on the White House lawn. We were filled with hope and awareness about witnessing a historical moment, which was capped by a now-infamous handshake and what promised to be a new chapter that would end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

That fateful day on Sept. 13, 1993, could not have been more exciting for me, having just started my career in the Jewish community. My earliest recollection as a child was seeing my father in army fatigues come home from the brutal Yom Kippur War. The possibility of losing my father to war left me with an indelible impression and a longing for peace.

And so, the signing of the Oslo Accords and the Declaration of Principles was cause for hope. Little did I know that just two years later, I would be thrust into organizing a 5,000-plus person memorial for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the Centennial Arena in Toronto. Rabin’s assassination by a fellow Jew hit the Jewish community like a bulldozer. Young students cried, sang and lit candles outside the arena. They shared their shattered hopes and dreams for the future.

It’s incomprehensible to think that 27 years later, a full generation of Palestinians and Israelis have grown up without having witnessed the pledges for peace that were made on that day in Washington. They missed the part where PLO leader Yasser Arafat promised U.S. President Bill Clinton and the Palestinian people that he would promote the “values for freedom, justice and human rights.” His promise to “usher in an age of peace, co-existence and equal rights” meant nothing. It flew in the face of his handshake with Rabin, and Clinton’s warm embrace.

Rabin was often criticized for what many said was naivete for believing Arafat wanted to make peace with Israel. However, Rabin’s grim face during the signing and reluctant handshake revealed that the deal pained him. A former war hero, he knew his enemy well but decided to give peace a chance. In his remarks, Rabin explained that he was determined to “put an end to hostilities so that our children, our chidren’s children, will no longer experience the painful cost of war, violence and terror.”

He held up his end of the bargain for two years and on Sept. 28, 1995 — just one month before his assassination — he agreed to move to the next stage of the Oslo Accords, the Interim Agreement. It marked the conclusion of the first stage of negotiations between Israel and the PLO. Its main objective was to broaden Palestinian self-government in the West Bank through an elected self-governing authority, in order to foster a new era of co-operation and peaceful co-existence.

But while Arafat called violence “morally reprehensible” at the signing ceremony, nothing was further from the truth. Like the fable about a scorpion who can’t help himself and kills the frog that is carrying him across the water, Arafat would use his foothold in Ramallah to plunge his people into a war of attrition with Israel. Through his divisive actions, he lost control of the Gaza Strip, giving rise to a mini terrorist state now run by Hamas.

Months after Rabin’s death, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem, killing 17 civilians and wounding 48. A month later, another killer blew himself up outside the Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, killing 13 people and wounding 130. The chaos of dozens of suicide bombings continued well into the 2000s. They included the horrific attack on the dolphinarium in which 21 youths were killed and the Sbarro attack in central Jerusalem in which 15 civilians were killed, including seven children.

Perhaps Rabin foresaw what would happen should the peace process derail. In his last moments of life, on Nov. 4, 1995, he still held out hope for peace despite the public and political pressure. In his final speech at a peace rally in Tel Aviv’s main square (now called Rabin Square), he said, “There are enemies of peace who are trying to hurt us in order to torpedo the peace process. I want to say bluntly that we have found a partner for peace among the Palestinians as well. The PLO, which was an enemy, has ceased to engage in terrorism.”

Moments later, following the singing of the classic Hebrew melody, the “Song for Peace,” Rabin was shot by a Jewish assailant who wanted to stop the peace process. He did. For Israelis and the Jewish world, this was their JFK moment. Time stood still. The pain of betrayal by one of their own still haunts the nation. But Israel’s quest for peace hasn’t abated.

And so, for everyone who shared this brief moment in time, who participated in the memorial rally 25 years ago, who sang the “Song for Peace” at the rally the night Rabin was shot and who continue to impart his message of hope and peace to the next generation — you might be wondering, where do we go from here?

We go to where the wisdom of sages point us in sacred text. They instructed that even while it may not be our responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world, even when cut short as in the case of Rabin, we are not free to desist from it either. And thus, it is up to us to carry this work forward and to never give up on making peace. As Rabin aptly said, “The path of peace is preferable to war.”

NOTE: The Abraham Global Peace Initiative does not make political endorsements.  It is non partisan.  It supports policy not a party or a politician. 

Instead of recognizing that this is one area in which Trump made some historic gains, Biden has begun wavering on his Mideast policy

With U.S. President Joe Biden already reversing course on some of his predecessor’s Mideast policies, there’s every possibility that it will end in disaster.

Former president Donald Trump, for all his imperfections, reduced conflict, held Iran at bay and forged a historic peace between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Sudan and Bahrain. No other American president has ever been able to make as many peaceful gains in a single term in office.

Yet instead of recognizing that this is one area in which Trump made some historic gains, Biden has begun wavering on his Mideast policy. He was criticized for not having called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Although White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she expects Biden to call Netanyahu in the coming weeks, this isn’t good enough, given that Israel is America’s staunchest ally in the region.

It almost feels like the stunt former president Barack Obama pulled when he gave his 2009 speech at Cairo University, leaving out a possible quick stop in Israel. In order to continue down the path toward peace in the Middle East, Biden must learn from the Obama-era foreign policy mistakes, and recognize where the Trump administration achieved success.

The following roadmap could ultimately revolutionize the landscape in the Middle East:

The first step would be to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu and senior Israeli political and military leaders to the White House. Israel still has a bad taste in its mouth from the Obama administration’s duplicity. Signalling that America has Israel’s back no matter what is first and foremost imperative for the Biden administration to be successful in the region. Israel’s enemies have already begun to salivate at the prospect that Biden appears to be distancing himself from the Jewish state.

Second, the Biden administration must continue to hold the Palestinian Authority (PA) accountable for its bad behaviour. This week, the PA announced it would be planting 35,000 trees to honour the “martyrs of the Palestinian cause.” Continued veneration of terrorism is unacceptable and must not be rewarded by promises of reinstating aid and re-opening the PA’s office in Washington, as the Biden administration has done. All this will do is embolden the Palestinians to incite terror. It will not make them more likely to sit down at the negotiating table.

Third, Biden should not let Israel’s development of the so-called “settlements,” or disputed territories, sour the relationship between the two countries. Instead of criticizing Israel, the Biden administration should focus on quickening the pace of a peace agreement, in order to help settle the territorial disputes.

Fourth, the Biden administration must continue to focus on the Abraham Accords by strengthening the relationship between the existing signatories and expanding the accords to other Muslim nations (especially Saudi Arabia). The Abraham Accords were a home run for American foreign policy, yet because so much of the media was hostile toward Trump, many Americans failed to notice the revolution that has been underway in the Middle East. Biden has a real opportunity to make further gains in this regard.

Fifth, the rising tide of anti-Semitism from white supremacists, radical Islamists and far left-wing groups must be confronted by the Biden administration head-on. To do so, it must strengthen and embolden the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. This will mean having more international and Middle East partners sign the declaration against anti-Semitism and, most importantly, relentlessly confronting anti-Semites, wherever they might be.

Sixth, Biden should be cautious about re-engaging with United Nations agencies. The Trump administration stopped aid payments to UNWRA for good reason. The Biden administration should not reinstate funding until it investigates recent reports of anti-Semitism in its school textbooks. Similarly, re-engaging with the UN Human Rights Council, which is known for its disproportionate condemnation of Israel, is a mistake, unless the council is willing to undertake fundamental structural changes.

Most significantly, the Biden administration must continue being Israel’s protector at the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. To his credit, the new U.S. ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has already indicated that she “looks forward to standing with Israel, standing against the unfair targeting of Israel, the relentless resolutions proposed against Israel unfairly.” This is the right way to approach relations with the UN.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly for America’s Middle East partners, an alignment on containing Iran’s nuclear ambition is essential. As in the case of the Palestinians, the Biden administration has begun making strategic mistakes by signalling to Iran that America is willing to compromise. By recalling the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and suggesting that the U.S. would re-enter the Iranian nuclear agreement, Biden is giving Iran time to develop its nuclear capabilities and losing trust among its allies in the region. To avoid an all-out war, the president must immediately consult with his allies and develop a unified action plan to confront Iran.

This roadmap would continue the gains that have been made toward forging a lasting peace in the Middle East and ensure that tyrants like those who control Iran are not re-emboldened. It would allow Biden to strengthen America’s commitment to its allies, while building on the Trump administration’s strategic foreign policy successes.