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→ 1 October 2020
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Palestinians Can’t Stand In the Way of Israel’s Regional Integration | FP

Mahmoud Abbas

More and more Gulf Arab state officials recognize that the Palestinian people, the Arab states, and the United States (not to mention Israel) would all be better off if new, more constructive Palestinian leaders came to power. At the same time, there is less and less adherence to the conventional view that Israel must make peace with the Palestinians before it can make peace with the Arab states.

By noting that greater strategic cooperation between Israel and the Arab states against Iran would “set the stage for diplomatic breakthroughs,” the Trump peace plan anticipated the UAE-Israel and Bahrain-Israel accords. It implied that such deals could usefully increase pressure on the Palestinians to reform their politics, which is the key to a breakthrough on the issue of Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The message to the Palestinians from yesterday’s White House signing ceremony is that they need a political upheaval—new leaders, new institutions, new ideas—or they are going to become utterly irrelevant in the eyes of the world, including the broader Arab world. As they lose attention, they will lose diplomatic support and economic aid. If they cannot make war and they will not make peace, their hopes to shape their own future will diminish to nothing.

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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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→ 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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→ 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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→ 13 July 2020
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Anglican support for Israel’s claim to West Bank | Jerusalem Post

Gerald McDermott

Not all Anglicans agree with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent protest against extending Israeli sovereignty over the part of the West Bank that contains 132 Jewish towns.

In a letter he cowrote with Roman Catholic Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Justin Welby objects to the Israeli government’s plan “to annex West Bank territory.” He suggests that this would threaten “prospects for peace.”

I am an Anglican priest and theologian who thinks Israel is justified in its extension of Israeli sovereignty over this part of the West Bank. It is not annexation as legally defined in international law, and Jewish Israel has far better claims to the land than do Palestinians. 

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Gerald McDermott recently retired from the Chair of Anglican Divinity at Beeson Divinity School. The author or editor of 23 books, he teaches courses in Anglicanism, history and doctrine, theology of world religions, and Jonathan Edwards. His edited The Future of Orthodox Anglicanism appeared in February 2020.

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→ 6 July 2020
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Being Jewish in New Zealand is lonely, but in quarantine, it’s better | Forward

Tanya Thomson

I live in New Zealand, which has many advantages. It’s beautiful – green hills, dramatic mountains and spectacular water — mostly safe, run by a sane government and still has a semblance of egalitarianism. But we are also a small island nation at the southern tip of the Pacific Ocean, removed from the centres of Jewish life. Our access to Jewish events, learning and culture is limited.

Bridging that gap has been a big part of my life, most significantly with the creation (along with a few dedicated others) of Limmud NZ, the New Zealand version of the worldwide Jewish learning community/event. Through Limmud we have been able to bring amazing presenters to New Zealand and feel more connected to the Jewish world. But distance, cost and numbers constrain our opportunities. Almost every Israeli I have ever approached to come here has said to me — as if I might not have noticed — “But it’s so far — it’s two 12-hour flights!”

The lockdown imposed due to coronavirus changed my place in the world. I didn’t move very far physically – in fact lockdown here was quite restrictive, with no physical contact outside our own household (termed our “bubble”) and no travel beyond our neighbourhood. And so, for seven weeks, the only people I physically interacted with were my husband and kids, with a couple of waves to friends from our front door.

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→ 3 July 2020
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No peace until Jewish presence accepted | Stuff

Mahmoud Abbas has refused to allow elections since 2006

In 2018 I visited Ramallah with two colleagues. In an unanticipated conversation on a street very near Yasser Arafat’s tomb, a friendly and engaging Palestinian lawyer explained to us that their leaders were like gangs, they were corrupt and ‘monopolise the money’. He complained that they do not care about human rights but are only interested in blaming Israel. In this Palestinian’s view, Israel was not the problem – but rather the corrupt and self-serving Palestinian leadership.

It is not uncommon to view the Israel-Palestinian conflict as a power battle, with Israel as the dominant power and the Palestinians as the victims. However, this type of analysis ignores realities on the ground and twists historical facts to suit a political agenda.

A more useful exercise, which might bring real change for Palestinians, would be to consider the power relations within Palestinian society. Why have there been no elections in the Palestinian Territories since 2006? Why does Gaza’s Hamas devote untold resources to terrorism rather than building a state? Where do the millions of dollars of international aid go?

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→ 3 July 2020
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I’m an Israeli settler. American Jews are debating my future, but here’s what they don’t understand. | JTA

Uri Pilichowski

It’s been surreal watching from Israel as Americans discuss my future. I’ve gotten used to presidents spending years developing plans for my neighborhood and other towns in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank — they mean well and I truly appreciate their efforts. But recently I’ve been thrown by all the attention we’ve been receiving from the American Jewish establishment. 

I’ve watched Zoom panels, Facebook Lives and read countless op-eds about my future and Israel’s annexation plan for parts of the West Bank. All the attention is gratifying, but I have noticed that many of the discussions, panels and debates have been missing some important nuance. 

I’ve also noticed that many of these panels don’t include any speakers who are Jewish settlers or Palestinian residents of the area, which made it feel like I was watching an all-male panel discuss women’s issues or three white people discuss Black Lives Matter.

I believe the Palestinian people are peaceful and want a high standard of living for their family just as I want for my family. Predictions of a rise in Palestinian violence should Israel go through with annexation are based on a view that Palestinians are incapable of reacting without violence. I don’t think of Palestinians this way and neither should you. 

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