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→ 3 September 2020
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What are Jews who embrace the Black Lives Matter movement endorsing? | JNS

More than 600 Jewish groups placed this ad in the form of a letter in “The New York Times” in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The pro-Black Lives Matter letter isn’t so much a defense of a movement as a not-so-subtle attempt to cancel, shame and silence anyone with the temerity to point out the danger in the cause the signatories have embraced.

As such, it’s clear that Jewish supporters of the BLM movement aren’t trying to help unite us against hate. Instead, they are choosing a side in a culture war that is cruelly dividing a wounded country struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. In doing so, it is they who are choosing to be on the wrong side of history, not their opponents.

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→ 3 September 2020
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Problematic Legacy | ODT

Huber (Left) Zuroff (Right)

Mr Huber was very young — just 17 — when he volunteered for the SS. His contribution to New Zealand skiing, Mt Hutt especially, since moving here in the 1950s has been hugely significant. He has a large family living in this country.

But those are not “mitigating factors”, and they do not prevent us asking one salient question: Should anything in New Zealand be named in honour of a member of a group responsible for some of the worst atrocities in history?

The answer, surely, is that never, in any circumstances, is that appropriate. Nothing, anywhere, should carry the name of a cog in the Nazis’ genocidal machine.

Mt Hutt representatives should have acted sooner. But it is not too late. They can still recognise the contribution made by Mr Huber to the ski area and not carry open, public reminders of a Nazi link.

There was a similar case in Akaroa earlier this year when the Bully Hayes restaurant was called out for honouring an American whose deeds in the Pacific included human trafficking, and abducting and raping young women and children.

We can’t change history. We can’t erase it. But we can recognise when it is very obviously not right to just ignore it.

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→ 20 August 2020
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Why is New Zealand intent on honouring the legacy of an unrepentant Nazi? | Spinoff

Juliet Moses, spokesperson for the NZ Jewish Council

Last week, 97-year-old Cantabrian Willi Huber, a decorated Nazi officer lauded for his role in the establishment of Mt Hutt ski field, died. Juliet Moses says it is an indictment on this country that there has been no real reckoning with his past.

Cantabrian Willi Huber died last week. If you’re not a skier, you may not have heard of him. I’m not, but his name was seared in my mind when I first heard it in 2017. 

That’s when TVNZ featured him in its Sunday programme, lavishing praise on him as a Mt Hutt ski “pioneer” and “father of the mountain”. This did not pique my interest so much as the fact that he was also, in Cameron Bennett’s words, a “remarkable survivor” of World War II. Was he a Kiwi fighter pilot who fought for the RAF in the Battle of Britain? Or perhaps a survivor of a concentration camp? Why, no! He was a decorated Nazi officer – an Austrian who volunteered for the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front, moving here in the 1950s.  

The SS was the Nazi regime’s paramilitary branch, responsible for policing its racial policy and running its concentration camps. The Waffen-SS was its combat unit. Under the auspices of Heinrich Himmler, it ran separately from the German army.

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→ 20 August 2020
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US will not consent to West Bank annexation ‘for some time,’ Jared Kushner says | JTA

Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to the President

Israel will not move forward with its West Bank annexation plan without U.S. approval — and that consent won’t come for some time.

That’s what Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, told reporters from Middle East media outlets on Monday. Kushner said the Trump administration had gained Israel’s trust by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and thus Israel will honor its commitment not to advance its idea to annex parts of the West Bank.

“That land is land that right now that Israel, quite frankly, controls,” Kushner said. “Israelis that live there aren’t going anywhere. There shouldn’t be any urgency to applying Israeli law.”

Kushner said the focus now has to be on implementing the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that was announced on Thursday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to suspend annexation as part of the deal.

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→ 18 August 2020
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The Israel-UAE agreement, winners and losers edition | JTA

(L-R, rear) Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien clap for US President Donald Trump (L) after he announced an agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel to normalize diplomatic ties, the White House August 13, 2020, in Washington, DC. – Trump on Thursday made the surprise announcement of a peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The normalization of relations between the UAE and Israel is a “HUGE breakthrough” Trump tweeted, calling it a “Historic Peace Agreement between our two GREAT friends.” (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The treaty between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is a big deal. 

President Trump announces the Israel-UAE agreement with, from left to right, senior adviser Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, Aug. 13, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

The UAE is a Muslim kingdom in the Persian Gulf made up of seven smaller entities, called emirates, with huge oil and natural gas reserves. Its metropolis, Dubai, is a wealthy city known as a commercial center for the region. The country borders Saudi Arabia and is only dozens of miles across the water from Iran. It has a tiny Jewish community.

It becomes only the third Arab nation to establish official ties with the Jewish state. In addition to trade, tourism and other exchanges, the treaty means the two countries can collaborate on treatment for the coronavirus and countering the influence of Iran, a shared nemesis. 

That makes Iran a likely loser in this deal. The dealmakers are, of course, likely winners.

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→ 18 August 2020
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Canterbury skifield pioneer and former Nazi soldier dies | Stuff

Willi Huber

Mt Hutt pioneer and former Nazi Waffen-SS soldier Willi Huber has died, aged 98.

Hailing from Austria, Huber arrived in New Zealand in 1953 on a two-year work visa. A mountain guide by trade, he was curious about the mountains and thought he would visit for just the two years to work and explore.

Just as he was set to return to Austria, he met his future wife, Edna. He stayed and the couple married and had four children. They remained together up until his death on August 9, spanning 65 years.

At 17, Huber volunteered for the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the Nazi Party’s feared SS, where he served as a machine-gunner and then as a gunner in Panzer tanks.

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→ 18 August 2020
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Nazi Hunter reacts to death of local “Hero” SS-Waffen Soldier | Holocaust Foundation

Willi Huber (left) and Dr Efraim Zuroff (right)

Former Nazi Waffen-SS soldier Willi Huber died recently, aged 96. Having lived in New Zealand since 1953, Huber made a name for himself as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of Canterbury’s Mt Hutt ski area. Hailed as a ‘heartland hero’, locals have appeared willing to ignore his Nazi past. 

In a 2017 TVNZ interview, Huber denied knowledge of the war crimes committed by the Waffen SS or German forces, or of the Nazi murder of about six million European Jews and millions of others, many of whom died in concentration camps run by the SS.

Speaking to the Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation from Jerusalem this week, renowned Nazi Hunter and Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center office in Jerusalem, Dr Efraim Zuroff commented:

As a historian, I can state unequivocally that serving in a Waffen-SS unit on the Eastern front, there is no way that Mr Huber could possibly not have been aware of the massive atrocities carried out by the SS and the Wehrmacht in the territories of the Soviet Union, where 1,500,000 “enemies of the Reich,” primarily Jews, were murdered individually during the years 1941-1943.

Huber’s statements ring incredibly hollow in the face of the historical record of the Holocaust on the Eastern front. If we add the fact that he volunteered for the SS, and his comments that Hitler was “very clever,” and that he “offered [Austrians] a way out”  of the hardships after World War I, it’s clear that Mr. Huber was an unrepentant Nazi, who doesn’t deserve any sympathy or recognition.

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→ 12 August 2020
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China And Iran Approach Massive $400 Billion Deal | Forbes

The Iranian and Chinese Foreign Ministers shake hands

NZFOI: There is much talk about a potential treaty between Iran and China that will enable Iran to circumvent US sanctions, bring respite to their economic hardships, allow Iran to pursue its nuclear programme and will give China access to oil and naval bases in the region.

China, sensing America’s internal political difficulties amidst social justice protests and a poor COVID-19 response, is taking off the gloves: Beijing is said to be in the final stages of approving a $400 billion economic and security deal with Tehran.

In addition to massive infrastructure investments, the agreement envisions closer cooperation on defense and intelligence sharing, and is rumored to include discounts for Iranian oil. If finalized, the PRC would gain massive influence in this geopolitically critical region, and simultaneously throw a lifeline to the embattled Mullah Regime.

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→ 16 July 2020
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Report: 28 Hezbollah missile launch sites aimed at Israel |Arutz Sheva

The Alma Center’s Research Department initiated a project to find the locations of missile launching sites in South Lebanon adjacent to the civilian population, as part of what is known as the “Human Shield tactic”.

In their report, Alma notes that, despite the fact that a large proportion of Hezbollah’s missiles are located in south Lebanon, the information in public sources on the subject is scarce.

The primary source of Alma‘s project was the Wikimapia.org website.

“The first locations we found were all close to civilian infrastructure”, the report states, “which drove us to further the research on the subject and thus find 28 missile launching locations and the sites connected with these locations”.

According to the report, the missiles are medium-range missiles – “The same as those subject to the Hezbollah missile precision guided missile project (PGM’s)”.

The report explains that “as part of its modus operandi, Hezbollah stores its weapons in civilian structures and in the proximity of densely populated areas throughout Lebanon, with highest concentration in the capital city of Beirut, the Beqaa Valley and southern Lebanon”.

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→ 15 July 2020
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Where Is the Outrage Over Anti-Semitism in Sports and Hollywood? | Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter columnist calls out the hateful outbursts against Jews by Ice Cube, DeSean Jackson and others and explains how the muted response “perpetuates racism” and contributes to an overall “Apatholypse.”

Recent incidents of anti-Semitic tweets and posts from sports and entertainment celebrities are a very troubling omen for the future of the Black Lives Matter movement, but so too is the shocking lack of massive indignation. Given the New Woke-fulness in Hollywood and the sports world, we expected more passionate public outrage. What we got was a shrug of meh-rage.

When reading the dark squishy entrails of popular culture, meh-rage in the face of sustained prejudice is an indisputable sign of the coming Apatholypse: apathy to all forms of social justice. After all, if it’s OK to discriminate against one group of people by hauling out cultural stereotypes without much pushback, it must be OK to do the same to others. Illogic begets illogic.

Ice Cube’s June 10 daylong series of tweets, which involved some creepy symbols and images, in general implied that Jews were responsible for the oppression of blacks. NFL player DeSean Jackson tweeted out several anti-Semitic messages, including a quote he incorrectly thought was from Hitler (not your go-to guy for why-can’t-we-all-get-along quotes) stating that Jews had a plan to “extort America” and achieve “world domination.” Isn’t that SPECTRE’s job in James Bond movies?

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THR columnist Kareem Abdul Jabbar is an NBA Hall of Famer and the author of Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage and other books.

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