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‘Absolute Lies’: Israeli Minister Denounces New York Times Article
Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, in Krakow, Poland, Jan. 22, 2024. Photo: Beata Zawrzel via Reuters Connect
Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, has denounced a New York Times article that falsely accused the Israeli government of a “secretive” and “covert” campaign “to influence the US government.”
In a Hebrew-language post on X/Twitter, Chikli called the Times reporter “fake” and said that the story consisted of “absolute lies whose purpose is harming Israel.”
The Times article, published online, was headlined, “Israel Secretly Targets US Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War.” A subheadline said, “Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs ordered the operation, which used fake social media accounts urging US lawmakers to fund Israel’s military.”
Notwithstanding the Times hype about the effort being “secretive” or “covert,” the Israeli ministry actually published a public request for proposals to advance digital initiatives.
In typical Times fashion, the article focused exclusively on Israel’s social media efforts, without mentioning at all that there are Iranian, Russian, and Chinese social media campaigns aimed at influencing American public opinion related to the war in the Middle East.
Even the context in the Times article was contentious. It said, “The United States has long been one of Israel’s staunchest allies, with President Biden recently signing a $15 billion military aid package for the country. But the conflict has been unpopular with many Americans, who have called for Mr. Biden to withdraw support for Israel in the face of mounting civilian deaths in Gaza.”
Actually the aid to Israel was part of a larger $95 billion package that also included $60 billion for Ukraine and $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, as well as money to protect Taiwan. And the Times claim that “many Americans” want Biden “to withdraw support for Israel,” ignores polling that shows even more Americans — the overwhelming majority — support Israel, supported the aid to Israel, and think Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties.
At least one former Israeli government official, Michael Oren, appeared to take the Times report seriously. “If the report is true, the campaign represents a flagrant violation of American law and an inappropriate interference in the internal politics of our most important ally,” Oren said in a social media post. “I call on the Government of Israel to immediately and thoroughly investigate the claim, to disassociate itself and denounce any such campaign, and to dismiss all the individuals involved.”
There’s a segment of journalists and opinion-makers out there who just want to bash Israel whatever the country does. If the Israeli government had not mobilized on social media, it’d be criticized for having poor public relations and doing a bad job of telling its story. And when the Israeli government does mobilize support on social media, it gets attacked for operating an “influence campaign.” Either it has too little influence, or it has too much influence. A reasonable person would reach the conclusion that what this is all about is not “influence” but Israel, and some people who intensely dislike it.
As a pro-Israel individual active on social media, let me tell you, if there’s some immensely orchestrated synthetic campaign to amplify pro-Israel voices, it doesn’t seem to have benefited me. Instead, I spend a lot of time blocking obnoxious comments from antisemitic or Israel-hating accounts.
It’s delusional to think that American public or congressional support for Israel is the product of a covert spending campaign rather than the result of shared values, religion, and national security and economic interests. Yet it fits perfectly with the worldview of New York Times land, which largely doesn’t share the values or the religion so can’t understand the durability of the US-Israel relationship.
To the Times, the only reason a member of Congress would vote for Israel is that they’ve been conned by a covert influence operation.
What’s remarkable is how few members of Congress have fallen for the New York Times‘ own campaign to erode support for Israel by falsely depicting American Jews as divided over the country and by demonizing Israel for conditions in Gaza that are Hamas’ fault. That Times influence campaign is costing a lot more than the $2 million the newspaper claims Israel spent.
The online comments on the Times article play into all the worst antisemitic stereotypes about Israeli “manipulation” of American democracy. Leave it to the New York Times and its readers to demonize a country for the sin of trying accurately to tell its own story. What bothers the Times most is the chance that Israel might be able to use new and democratic technology tell the truth to the American public without having to rely on the New York Times as an intermediary.
In other words, what really bothers the Times is the chance that the Israeli government can reach America without needing to grant an interview to Tom Friedman. The “influence” the Times is most worried of all about is its own. It is waning.
Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here. He also writes at TheEditors.com.
The post ‘Absolute Lies’: Israeli Minister Denounces New York Times Article first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai
Around 200 people gathered for a pro-Israel demonstration at University of Toronto’s downtown campus at King’s College Circle—which was the site of one of Canada’s largest pro-Palestinian encampments during May […]
The post A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters
A statue of George Washington tied with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh inside a pro-Hamas encampment is pictured at George Washington University in Washington, DC, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is waging a campaign to gut Jewish life in academia, calling for the abolition of Hillel International campus chapters, the largest collegiate organization for Jewish students in the world.
“Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes,” a social media account operating the campaign, titled #DropHillel, said in a manifesto published last week. “Across the country, Hillel chapters have invited Israeli soldiers to their campuses; promoted propaganda trips such as birthright; and organized charity drives for the Israeli military.”
It continued, “Such actions reveal Hillel’s ideological and material investment in Zionism, despite the organization’s facade as being simply a ‘Jewish cultural space.’”
DropHillel claims to be “Jewish-led,” although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.
Hillel International has provided Jewish students a home away from home during the academic year. However, NSJP says it wants to “weaken” it and “dismantle oppression.”
The idea has already been picked up by pro-Hamas student groups at one college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to The Daily Tar Heel, the school’s official student newspaper. On Oct. 9, it reported, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) unveiled the idea for “no more Hillel” during a rally which, among other things, demanded removing Israel from UNC’s study abroad program and adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Addressing the comments to the paper days later, SJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, proclaimed that shuttering Hillel is a coveted goal of the anti-Zionist movement.
“Zionism is a racist supremacist ideology advocating for the creation and sustenance of an ethnostate through the expulsion and annihilation of native people,” the group told the paper. “Therefore, any group that advocates for a supremacist ideology — be it the KKK, the Proud Boys, Hillel, or Heels for Israel — should not be welcome on campus.”
The #DropHillel campaign came amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published last month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have reached crisis levels.
Revealing a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena, the report — titled “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2023-2024” — painted a bleak picture of America’s higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate.
“As the year progressed, Jewish students and Jewish groups on campus came under unrelenting scrutiny for any association, actual or perceived, with Israel or Zionism,” the report said. “This often led to the harassment of Jewish members of campus communities and vandalism of Jewish institutions. In some cases, it led to assault. These developments were underpinned by a steady stream of rhetoric from anti-Israel activists expressing explicit support for US-designated terrorists organizations, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.”
The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Harvard University, the University of California – Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, it continued, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
The “Muslims for Trump” organization has officially launched initiatives to help elect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the White House, arguing that he would be more likely to end the war in Gaza than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In a statement released on Monday, the group said it will focus on recruiting Muslim voters in key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The organization both praised Trump for his supposed “peace-focused” approach to ending the war in Gaza and condemned Harris for helping facilitate a so-called “genocide.”
“After meeting with President Trump, it was clear to me he is the right leader for Muslims to get behind,” Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump and former co-chair of the “Abandon Harris Movement,” said in a statement.
Chowdhury added that during his discussions with Trump, the former president vowed to “ending the escalation of wars and bringing peace to war-torn regions.” In contrast to Trump’s promise to stop the “bloodshed” in Gaza, he claimed, Harris has “recklessly pushed us toward World War III.”
Chowdhury, a self-described “peace advocate,” urged the Muslim community not to fall victim to supposed “misinformation” campaigns by the media and Democrats that paint the former president as hostile to immigrants. He claimed that the former president’s focus is on “ending war, not dividing families through false immigration claims.”
Samra Luqman, chair of the Michigan chapter of Muslims for Trump, underscored the need to punish the Biden administration for what he described as supporting a “genocide” in Gaza.
“The goal of this election is to hold the Biden administration accountable for a genocide. No amount of fear mongering or scare tactics will persuade my community into forgiving the mutilation, live-burning, and genocide of over 200,000 people,” he said.
According to data produced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, roughly 40,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began last October. Israel has said that its forces have killed about 20,000 Hamas terrorists during its military campaign.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
On the organization Muslims for Trump’s official website, it claims that the Abraham Accords, a series of historic, Trump administration-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several countries in the Arab world, helped stabilize the Middle East. It also says that had Trump not lost the 2020 presidential race, the so-called “genocide” could have been prevented.
“Under Trump’s leadership, the Abraham Accords were brokered, fostering peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab countries. Supporters might argue that Trump’s diplomacy prioritized peace and stability in the Middle East, reducing the likelihood of large-scale conflicts like genocide,” the group wrote.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them if he were to win November’s US presidential election.
Harsh US sanctions levied on Iran under Trump crippled the Iranian economy and led its foreign exchange reserves to plummet. Trump and his Republican supporters in the US Congress have criticized the Biden administration for renewing billions of dollars in US sanctions waivers, which had the effect of unlocking frozen funds and allowing the country to access previously inaccessible hard currency.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Despite Harris’s repeated efforts to woo Muslim voters, polling data indicates that the demographic has made a dramatic swing away from the Democratic Party. Polling data from the Arab American Institute reveals that Trump slightly edges Harris among Muslim voters by a margin of 42 to 41 percent. A report from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows that Green Party candidate Jill Stein leads Harris and Trump with Muslim voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
The post ‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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