Opinion
Op-ed piece by Myron Love on Black Lives Matter elicits strong reaction from reader David Weller
In our July 8 issue Myron Love wrote an op-ed piece titled “American Reform movement endorses anti-Semitic organization”. That article elicited a strong reaction from reader David Weller. In the interest of presenting as many sides to an issue as possible, we present here both Myron’s piece and David’s response:
American Reform movement endorses anti-Semitic organization
By MYRON LOVE
Last Wednesday, participants at a Black Lives Matter protest in Washington, D.C., were heard chanting “Jews kill children, too”.
The evening of Sunday, May 30 – Shavuot – Israeli-American journalist Caroline Glick points out, members of Black Lives Matter (BLM) carried out a pogrom in Fairfax, the oldest Jewish community in Los Angeles, largely populated today by ultra-Orthodox Jews. They vandalized five synagogues and three Jewish schools. Most of the Jewish businesses on Fairfax Avenue were looted.
Joseph Klein, writing for a website called Front Page Magazine on June 26, added that the Baba Sale Congregation on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles and other synagogues were spray painted with the letters “BLM”. Congregation Beth Israel was vandalized with graffiti stating “free Palestine” and “f— Israel.”
Glick, writing for the Jewish News Service on June 28, also reports that over the past several years, both Melina Abdullah, the head of Black Lives Matter’s Los Angeles chapter, and her daughter, Thandiwe Abdullah, who is the co-founder of the BLM Youth Vanguard, have racked up long records of anti-Semitic rants and fawning praise for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan, who has praised Hitler, recently called Jews “termites” and obsessively rails against Judaism and Jews.
Writer Clare Lopez, also in a report for Front Page Magazine, notes that the original BLM platform “explicitly supports the BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanction) movement “ and “BLM representatives have traveled to the Middle East to make common cause with Palestinians in Gaza, Judea and Samaria”.
Again, per Glick, the BLM charter itself is structurally anti-Semitic. While accusing Israel of committing “genocide,” she writes, BLM blames Israel for the U.S. war against militant Islam. Its charter states “The U.S. justifies and advances the global war on terror via its alliance with Israel and is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people.”
“According to the BLM charter,” she continues, “U.S. military aid to Israel is the foundation of America’s problems. Because of U.S. military aid to Israel, BLM alleges, “Every year billions of dollars are funneled from U.S. taxpayers to hundreds of arms corporations, who then wage lobbying campaigns pushing for even more foreign military aid. The results of this policy are twofold: it not only diverts much needed funding from domestic education and social programs, but it makes U.S. citizens complicit in the abuses committed by the Israeli government.
“So for BLM, anti-Semitism isn’t a bug,” she concludes. “It is a feature. Hatred of Israel and the Jews is part of its DNA. BLM considers Jews oppressors, not victims. So attacking them is not an act of bigotry. Jews—particularly Israeli Jews, Zionist Jews and Jews who dress in ways that identify them as Jews—are fair game. After all, if Zionism is Nazism and apartheid, then Israelis, Zionist Jews and “Jewy” Jews are racists.”
Nonetheless, as all three writers note, American Jewish organizations are tripping over each other to show their support for BLM. Klein writes that the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) issued a statement on June 12th declaring that “Black Lives Matter is a Jewish Value”.
Since when is supporting blatant anti-Semitism “a Jewish value”?
Klein suggests that progressive Jews, in particular, “wracked by guilt over their white privileged status, have their eyes shut. They are willing to excuse whatever “violence” and “pain” Black Lives Matter decides to commit as revenge against “white affluence.”
He cites one Yonatan Reches, a writer for Jewish Journal and member of the progressive Jewish IKAR Community, who rationalized the attacks on Los Angeles synagogues, by stating that “the safety of our houses of worship is entirely connected with the alignment of our community on the right side of this issue and of history.”
In other words, Klein notes, the Jewish community must align itself with BLM’s notion of the “right side of history” or face the destruction of Jewish places of worship and businesses reminiscent of Kristallnacht.
He points to a New York-based leftwing group called “Jews for Racial Justice and Economic Justice – an eager supporter of Black Lives Matter’s agenda” – which has taken its support for Black Lives Matter to such an extreme level that it collaborated with other activists to create a Haggadah supplement for Passover dedicated to Black Lives Matter. This supplement includes a reworked version of the traditional Passover song Dayenu that includes the following line: “If we had learned and chanted the words from Assata Shakur and not protested violence by militarized police — Lo Dayenu (Assata Shakur, Klein explains, is a former member of the Black Liberation Army, who was convicted of being an accomplice in the first-degree murder of a State Trooper during a shootout in New Jersey.)
Glick further points out that of late, a group of far-left Jewish groups published an open letter to the community demanding that American Jews pledge allegiance to a “new covenant” based on seven new principles. The first principle: “Explicit endorsement that Black Lives Matter. Recognizing that Black Lives Matter is a statement that is inherently true and should be accepted without caveat or qualification.”
“The other six principles are extrapolations and expansions of the first,” she writes.
“So not only is the community not dealing with BLM’s structural anti-Semitism, radical groups now demand that the rest of the community make supporting these anti-Semites and embracing their anti-Semitic cause the first principle of a “new covenant for American Jewry.”
So far, she adds, Hillel International, the Reconstructionist movement and the San Francisco Jewish Federation among others have written letters of support for the “new covenant.”
So why are American Jews refusing to stand up for themselves? Glick asks. One reason she suggests is that “while some of them may actually sympathize with the people who destroyed their income source, no doubt many are too terrified to criticize them. And in the current atmosphere of mob rule, where the police charged with defending them are themselves under attack, caution may be the better part of valor”.
She further suggests that as most American Jews are Democrats and most Democrats get their news from the very news organizations that, as members of the identity-politics-dominated left, are not reporting what is happening.
“Large organizations and liberal synagogues are openly supporting BLM,” she writes. “How are average Jewish Democrats supposed to know what is happening?”
She concludes by quoting the Wall Street Journal which called on members of the political left “to wake up and oppose the thought policemen of identity politics”.
“Sadly,” she writes, “it appears that the Jewish victims of those policemen will be the last to hear or heed the call.”
Here is the letter from David Weller taking issue with Myron’s piece:
Myron Love was wrong
Your columnist Myron Love makes false claims about the Black Lives Matter protests. In the June 24, 2020, and July 8, 2020 editions he contends that Black Lives Matter protesters incited a pogrom in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles on May 30, 2020. Many Jewish Los Angeles residents have discredited this report as fake news and had called for solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters. Also the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and the Anti-Defamation League both insist the Jewish community has NOT been targeted by protesters or by looters. They insist that “fake news and social media exaggerate the L.A. protest.” While there was graffiti it was not seen as serious by mainstream L.A. Jewish organizations.
Another claim Mr. Love makes is about anti-Semitic remarks made at a Washington D.C. rally such as “Jews kill children too”. This “report” came from the discredited website World Net Daily (WND). The WND is a notorious right-wing conspiracy website that has a history of lies and deceit.
As for the contention that Black Lives Matter (BLM) is “structurally anti-Semitic” there is no evidence on the BLM website that there is anti-Semitism as part of their program. In fact Mr. Love is vilifying criticism of Israel by Jewish groups that support BLM. Pointing out that crimes against humanity such as the Apartheid wall, Jews only roads, rampant house demolitions and the illegal seizure of Palestinian land doesn’t constitute anti-Semitism. The Jewish organizations who support BLM are examples of the anti-Racist tradition that Jews have historically supported.
In addition Mr. Love sees the inclusion of support for BLM in Passover materials as somehow diminishing the holiday. Passover is about the freedom from oppression and slavery for all peoples, not just for Jews, so a Hagaddah making the connection with the oppression suffered by BLM is completely appropriate.
Mr. Love has shown himself to be an apologist for racists in dismissing the Nazi “unite the right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017. He contended the Nazis were not so bad, while our real concern should be with Black and Muslim people. In the latest edition of the JP&N, he’s promoting false claims and racist theories in two successive papers.
Why is your paper allowing staff to publish false news that incites hatred towards Black and Brown communities who are already the victims of state violence and historical racism?
Mr. Love has proven to be a commentator who promotes lies and racism over facts. Silence in the face of racism is compliance in racism. By publishing commentaries that scapegoat Black Lives Matter as anti-Semitic, you are complicit in the silencing of black people’s voices.
I submit that these lies need to be withdrawn from your paper, and an apology be made to your readers and the Black Lives Matter movement.
David Weller
Local News
Is It Alberta’s Turn to Regulate Online Gambling? Looking at the Possibilities
Online gambling and betting in Canada is booming, with each province allowed to regulate its own space. Ontario, Canada’s most populated province, turned two this year after leading the way in April 2022. In what should motivate Alberta and other provinces, Ontario is already reaping the rewards, generating $100 million annually in gambling revenue. Will the local administration in Alberta do what is needed?
Talks have been rife that Alberta is considering going the Ontario way by having an open-licensing system. In July 2023, the minister for Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, Dale Nally, issued a mandate to make this province a hub of online sports betting and gambling.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recently asked Nally to cooperate with indigenous partners and other stakeholders to develop an online gaming strategy. The main focus will be on revenue generation and responsible gambling. In light of this, Nally said Alberta’s primary focus is becoming a “leading hub for iGaming” with streamlined regulations and low corporate taxes. Such conditions should position Alberta to become a leading iGaming destination.
A few weeks ago, the minister attended the ICE international gaming conference held in London. Together with Ontario’s Attorney General, Doug Downey, and other stakeholders, Nally participated in a roundtable discussion regarding the status of iGaming in Canada. CDC Gaming Reports also revealed that the discussion highlighted the success of iGaming in Ontario and how Alberta can emulate this success story.
Looking into the Alberta Budget 2024, it’s evident that state monopoly could soon give way to Canadian casinos to thrive in the province. Alberta took the first baby steps towards a more liberal gambling sector after setting aside $1 million for gambling. This budget will support the looming review of the Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis Act and supporting Regulation. The idea is to review the entire regulatory framework to find more funding ways for Alberta charities and community projects.
Major operators like BetMGM, PointsBet, and PokerStars have since hired lobbyists to ensure commercial operators become a reality in Alberta. Speaking to investors and industry analysts in March this year, PointsBet CEO Sam Swanell tipped Alberta and British Columbia to legalize online betting soon. He noted that this could provide the much-needed expansion of that TAM.
Alberta is yet to take full advantage of online gambling despite being the country’s fourth-largest province, with around 4.3 million people. Smaller markets in North America, such as West Virginia and Connecticut, are already benefiting from commercialized online gambling. The good news is that noises about legal online gambling are getting louder in Alberta. It’s just a matter of when the government will make the announcement.
What Next for Online Gambling and Betting in Alberta?
Including a $1 million gambling review budget is definitely a step in the right direction. However, there’s still much to do to end Alberta’s long-standing gambling status quo. But at least the budget opens the door for further discussions and reforms regarding iGaming in Alberta. That discussion has been underway, although the momentum has increased in the last year or so.
As it stands, PlayAlberta.ca is the only regulated online gaming platform in Alberta. It’s a government-run website operated by the AGLC (Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis). Besides casino games, this website provides sports betting and lottery-style gaming experiences. The legal sign-up age on PlayAlberta.ca is 18 years.
For Albertans who prefer more gambling freedom, the government doesn’t restrict anyone from joining offshore operators. Most gaming sites operating in Alberta are licensed in Curacao, the UK, and Malta. Compared to PlayAlberta.ca, these websites provide a more extensive variety of games, rewards, and general experience.
In conclusion, it’s just a matter of when Alberta will introduce an open-licensing market. This approach has proved to be a success elsewhere, especially in Ontario. A recent Ipsos report in Ontario revealed that only 13.6% of the residents prefer to gamble on offshore websites. Alberta could soon follow this path, although there’s much work to do to realize this dream.
Opinion
Hamas savages make no distinction between Israeli Jews, Arabs
By MYRON LOVE I remember many years ago attending a presentation by Simon Wiesenthal, the world’s leading Nazi hunter, during which he made the point that the focus of Holocaust education should not be on the number six million – the number of estimated Jews who were murdered – but rather on the 12 million martyrs – including other targeted groups such as the Roma, people who were gay, the mentally and physically handicapped and the many great many Slavic people who were also murdered. After the Jews, the Slavs were next on the list.
By focusing strictly on Germans killing Jews, he observed, it became too easy to make it out to be only Germans versus Jews – thereby making it easier for Holocaust deniers and absolving the other European peoples who were complicit in the killings.
Similarly, while we naturally mourn our Jewish brethren who were so horribly slaughtered on October 7, we need to also bear in mind that Hamas made no distinction in its murderous rampage between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs or between Israelis and foreign workers.
In a posting for The Gatestone Institute on November 30, Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh noted that he Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel on October 7 did not slaughter Jews alone. The terrorists also murdered and kidnapped scores of Muslim citizens of Israel, including members of the Bedouin community. The terrorists’ murder spree made zero distinction between young and old, Muslim and Jew.
“Scores of Arab Israelis were wounded, murdered or taken prisoner,” he reported.
One such brave individual was 23-year-old Awad Darawshe, an Arab-Israeli paramedic who was on duty at the music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, which was among the first locations under attack. When the medical staff on site were ordered to flee, he insisted on remaining behind to treat the wounded.
Abu Toameh suggests that the paramedic thought that because he was Arab, he could reason with the killers. He was murdered nonetheless.
Another courageous Arab-Israeli that the writer noted, 50-year-old Abed al-Rahman Alnasasrah, was murdered by Hamas terrorists when he attempted to rescue people from the music festival. He was married and a father of six children.
Fatima Altallaqat, 35, from the Bedouin village near Ofakim, was murdered while working with her husband near the city of Ofakim in southern Israel. She was a mother of nine children, the eldest nine years old.
Abu Toameh quotes her husband as saying: “We’re a religious Muslim family and she wore the traditional headdress of a devout woman. It is inconceivable they [Hamas terrorists] could not see who was inside [the car]. They were five meters away from her as they passed.”
Forty bullets were fired into her.
Abu Toameh further cites the comments of Suleiman Zayadneh, brother and uncle, respectively, to four of the Arab-Israeli hostages, who describes himself “as proud to be a Palestinian and Muslim”.
‘The people who came to shoot and kill — they know nothing of religion,” the writer quoted Zayadneh as saying. “These [Hamas] people came and killed left and right.”
Abu Toameh went on to reference the words of Nuseir Yassin, a video blogger with 65 million followers. Two days after the massacre, he wrote: “I realized that… to a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets. More than 40 of them [the murdered] are Arabs. Killed by other Arabs. And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I’m not Jewish: Israel…. So from today forward, I view myself as… Israeli first. Palestinian second. Sometimes it takes a shock like this to see so clearly.”
Abu Toameh reported that “there have been many storie about reciprocal inter-communal generosity and heroism in the aftermath of this national tragedy, and they create hope for the future”.
He quoted a statement by the Darwashe Family:
“We are very proud of Awad’s actions… This is what we would expect from him and what we expect from everyone in our family — to be human, to stay human and to die human.”
Abu Toameh also quoted Ali Alziadna, four of whose family members were kidnapped, as saying that he was “touched by the outpouring of support” by other Israelis.
“People from all over the country have come to hug and support our family,” Alziadna said. “The entire nation is one family now.”
Abu Toameh pointed out that many Arab citizens of Israel serve as IDF officers and policemen, risking their lives for their fellow Israelis. Many are serving at the front lines, saving lives.
Undoubtedly, Abu Toameh suggested, one of the objectives of the Hamas massacre, in addition to slaughtering as many Israelis as possible, was to thwart normalization between Israel and Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia. Hamas may also have aimed to damage relations between Jews and Arabs inside Israel.
”The terror group was, without doubt, hoping that we would witness another cycle of violence between Jews and Arabs inside Israel, similar to that which erupted in May 2021,’ Abu Toameh posited. “Then, Hamas succeeded in inciting a large number of Arab citizens of Israel to take to the streets and attack their Jewish neighbors and Israeli police officers.
“This time, however, the Arab-Israelis have not heeded the calls by Hamas. One reason is that Arab-Israelis saw, with their own eyes, how Hamas terrorists make no distinction between Jews and Muslims.
“Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated that it cares nothing for the well-being of Arabs and Muslims. From their luxury homes and hotel rooms in the safety of Qatar and Turkey, Hamas leaders give the orders to attack Israel and then sit back and let the world weep over the destruction they wrought upon their own people.
“On October 7,” Abu Toameh concluded, “Hamas metaphorically shot itself in the foot by showing the world, with unfathomably ghoulish pride, by way of Go-Pro cameras and other self-documentation, that it has neither a religious nor a secular-humanist set of values. Perhaps the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip should look at the Arab citizens of Israel and note how they enjoy equal rights, democracy, freedom of speech and a free media. If Palestinians wish to live well, like the Arab-Israelis, this is the time for them to get rid of Hamas and all the terror leaders who, for seven decades, have brought them nothing but one disaster after another.”
It is too bad that so many gullible fools in our Western societies refuse to open their eyes to the truth.
Opinion
An Arab Trusteeship Council for Gaza
By Prof. BRYAN SCHWARTZ Oct. 17, 2023 (Originally posted to The Times of Israel)
1 No peace is possible with Hamas. It is genocidally antisemitic. This position is foundational, not rhetorical or mutable. Waiting for the emergence of a “pragmatic” version of Hamas is suicidally naïve.
2 Peace and cooperation are possible with most of Israel’s non-Iranian neighbours. They are militarily threatened by Iran, not Israel. For many in those countries, Iran’s version of Islam might be more problematic from the religious perspective than Israel’s Jewishness.
3 Hamas’ attack was partly to prevent a Saudi deal and a long-term economic cooperation
4 Israel has no territorial claim to Gaza and no material, religious, or ideological interest in running it.
5 Israel has vital moral and material interests in the emergence of a peaceful, demilitarized, and prosperous Gaza. If that can occur in the medium term, a long-term reconciliation of the Palestinians with Israel is achievable.
6 As and when Hamas is evicted from power, Gaza will need some new form of government.
7 The Palestinian authority probably cannot be trusted to take over Gaza. It is corrupt and lacked- and probably still lacks- credibility with a majority of the population in Gaza.
8 There used to be a concept called trusteeship in international law, whereby foreign powers would govern a territory in its best interests until its final status is clarified at the wishes of its own people.
9 The United Nations cannot be trusted to administer Gaza – any more than it has shown to be trustworthy to maintain strategic security in Southern Lebanon or to operate UNWRA in a manner that is effective for Palestinians and not hostile to Israel.
10 Consider this alternative. After Hamas is evicted from power, there is an interim period- say five to seven to ten years -of governance over Gaza by an Arab trusteeship council. The Council members are appointed primarily by Arab states sympathetic to Israel and eager to see the people of Gaza thrive. This Council could include local Gaza representatives and a representative of the Palestinian Authority but the majority would be representative of states like Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
11 The trusteeship agreement would be formal, agreed to by Israel, and unequivocally state its objectives, including:
-demilitarizing Gaza;
-defining the sole purposes for which outside reconstruction and development money can be spent and requiring strict accounting
-ensuring that the education system in Gaza is not contaminated by antisemitic hatred;
-promoting sound administration of Gaza, including providing for transparent and non-corrupt government, with significant safeguards for human rights, and conformity to the rule of law;
-promoting the development of a real economy for Gaza, not one fuelled primarily by international subsidies.
13 No state could participate in the Council without having a peace agreement with Israel.
14 In fact, the creation of the Council and Saudi participation in it could be part of a peace deal with Saudi Arabia. The deal could involve a reconstruction package from the Saudis for Gaza, which would help secure the support of the people of Gaza for the Council arrangement as an interim measure.
15 Policing would be carried out by a force composed of Palestinians and members of the police forces of Trusteeship states, under the direction of the Council.
16 The net effect would be to remove Gaza from Iran’s influence and establish temporary control by a consortium of mostly Sunni states. The latter would be chosen from among those that are at least reasonably friendly to Israel and genuinely committed to good governance in Gaza.
17 The definitive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict can only be achieved in a series of steps. Compromises are even more painful if they are framed as permanent. But if practical peace, stability, and some prosperity can be achieved in the medium term in Gaza and the West Bank, an amicable and enduring resolution should be achievable with the Palestinians.
18 While Israel is under severe military menace right now, it is not too early to think about how a positive political outcome can be achieved after the necessary and painful battle is concluded.
19 The current catastrophe is a so-far successful attempt by the regime in Teheran to disrupt peace negotiations involving Israel, the United States, and Saudi Arabia. Political vision along with military force might enable Israel to turn around the situation and complete and consolidate a lasting peace with almost all of its Arab neighbours and to set the stage for a formal and enduring peace with the Palestinians. The Teheran regime would be isolated, diminished in prestige, and more likely to be replaced from within.
About the Author
Bryan’s Jewish-themed musical “Consoulation: A Musical Mediation” premiered in the Spring of of 2018; https://consoulation.com His new album will appear in the coming months. Bryan Schwartz graduated with a doctorate in law from Yale School and holds an endowed chair at the University of Manitoba Law School. He is the author or editor of over thirty books and collections of essays. Bryan also created and helps to deliver an annual summer program at Hebrew University in Israeli law and society. He has served as a visiting Professor at both HU and Reichman university. . As a practising lawyer, Bryan has argued a number of cases at the Supreme Court of Canada, advised governments, and served as an arbitrator at the provincial, national and international level.
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