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‘The Financial Times’ and the Hamas Massacre Test
The bodies of people, some of them elderly, lie on a street after they were killed during a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The immediate reaction by journalists covering the Middle East to Hamas’ mass murder, torture, rape, and mutilation of Jews on Oct. 7th is a moral test like few others.
The antisemitic savagery carried out by the terror group’s death squads throughout Israeli communities like Be’eri, Kfar Aza, Nahal Oz, Nir Oz, Ofakim, and Re’im, resulted in the murder of 1,200 people, thousands injured, and approximately 250 taken hostage. As many have noted, the Hamas massacre represented the most deadly attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
As we’ve demonstrated, some media outlets, journalists, and columnists — after a period of weeks — decided to shift from the uncomfortable and ideologically disorienting reality of Palestinian antisemitism and Hamas barbarism to one where the Jewish State, in its military response to the attack, became the perpetrators of “crimes against humanity,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “genocide.”
Some didn’t wait weeks, or even days.
For instance, on the evening of Oct. 7th, while Hamas butchers were still in Israeli territory, The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan tweeted that “Until this morning, tearing down the walls that have hemmed in Gaza’s 2.3m people for 16 years was unthinkable. Whatever else happens now, this is a clear sign that the siege, and 56-year-old occupation, are not sustainable projects.“ [emphasis added]
That same night, she penned her first Guardian analysis on the massacre, focusing on the current threat to Palestinian civilians in the aftermath of Hamas’ offensive.
But, nothing much at the Guardian shocks us; it has long been a purveyor of the most unhinged anti-Zionist propaganda and, more than occasionally, antisemitic tropes.
The London-based Financial Times (FT), on the other hand, is a far more respected global outlet, one that focuses on business and economic current affairs, and fancies itself as being recognized internationally for its “authority, integrity and accuracy.” So, its Oct. 7th coverage is far more revealing, offering a glimpse into a broader media failure we’ve documented since that dark Shabbat day.
On Oct. 8th, the outlet published an official editorial on the previous day’s massacre. Though the Palestinian violence was still unfolding, and Israel hadn’t yet begun a serious military response, editors opted for cliches and platitudes, such as warning Jerusalem that “violence begets violence” — over moral clarity and serious analysis.
The piece also repeated the mantra that “the region can only secure peace if the decades-old Palestinian demand for a viable state is addressed with serious intent.” In addition to ignoring the actual consequences of Israel’s 2005 Gaza withdrawal, their suggestion that the group’s bloodthirsty pogromists would somehow be appeased by the quotidian demands of attending to the social and economic requirements of statehood beggars belief.
On Oct. 10th, FT editors published a list of suggested reading for understanding the Oct. 7th massacre in particular, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more broadly — a list that included books by anti-Zionist propagandists like Rashid Khalidi, Nathan Thrall, and Joe Sacco.
The Financial Times’ US editor, Edward Luce, in an op-ed (“Biden, Netanyahu and America’s choice,” Oct. 11), seemingly absolved Palestinian terrorists of responsibility for the massacre, writing that “Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel has starved non-violent Palestinian alternatives,” and that the violence is the result of Israeli leaders “depriv[ing] Palestinians of hope for the future and peaceful outlets to express their frustrations.”
FT contributor Ahdaf Soueif, an Egyptian writer and political commentator, literally justified Hamas’s massacre in an Oct. 7th retweet, before publishing an op-ed at the outlet a couple of weeks later, accusing the Jewish State of treacherously using the attacks as pretext to carry out their long desired wish to empty Gaza entirely of their population.
Here’s her retweet:
Kim Ghattas, a distinguished fellow at Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics, is another FT contributor who effectively gave the pogromists a moral pass, tweeting this on Oct. 7th:
The contributor, in addition to falsely claiming that Gaza was under “occupation,” was clearly more morally outraged by Israel’s (potential) “wrath” than with the medieval savagery meted out to men, women, and children by Hamas, in a massacre she described as an “operation” and “incursion.”
Ghattas also wrote what was victim blaming in a FT op-ed three days later, arguing that, at its core, “the current conflict is about the longest occupation in modern history, one that leaves the Palestinians dispossessed.”
No, it’s about the lethal antisemitism of a movement whose objective is the annihilation of the Jewish State — and one that still enjoys a disturbing amount of support from within the Palestinian population. The FT’s early coverage of Oct. 7th is another illustration of the moral corruption within too many Western media institutions, particularly in their insistence on framing the pathologies of anti-Western extremists as legitimate grievances.
Adam Levick serves as co-editor of CAMERA UK – an affiliate of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), where a version of this article first appeared.
The post ‘The Financial Times’ and the Hamas Massacre Test first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jews Targeted in Majority of New York City Hate Crimes in 2023, New Data Shows
Pro-Hamas activists gather in Washington Square Park for a rally following a protest march held in response to an NYPD sweep of an anti-Israel encampment at New York University in Manhattan, May 3, 2024. Photo: Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Reported hate crimes in New York state spiked by a staggering 69 percent since 2019, largely fueled by sharp increases in antisemitic incidents, according to a new analysis released by New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on Wednesday.
The report from the Office of State Comptroller found that hate crimes against Jews increased across New York by 89 percent — from 253 incidents in 2018 to 477 outrages in 2023.
“In 2023, nearly 44 percent of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88 percent of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish victims, the largest share of all such crimes,” the report stated.
As for New York City specifically, antisemitic incidents accounted for a striking 65 percent of all felony hate crime incidents last year.
One such outrage that made headlines this week was a man in New York City allegedly spitting in a 65-year-old Jewish man’s face late last month after proclaiming “Hitler was right” in what is being investigated as an antisemitic hate crime.
On Tuesday, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) released a video of the alleged perpetrator of the crime, who has still not been found or arrested.
The NYPD said its Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incident.
The perpetrator also allegedly said “Should I slap you or punch you,” prior to pulling down his mask and spitting on the man in broad daylight.
New York defines a hate crime as “an offense that is motivated by a perception or belief about the victim’s race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, or another protected characteristic. Hate crimes can be committed against a person or property.”
New York state’s total of 1,089 reported hate crimes last year marked the highest number “since data collection and annual reporting were mandated by New York’s Hates Crimes Act of 2000,” according to a press release accompanying the report.
“Fighting hatred and bigotry demands that we communicate with, respect, and accept our neighbors,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “It requires our spiritual, political, community, and business leaders to take active roles in denouncing hate, investing in prevention and protection efforts, and increasing education that celebrates the value of New York’s diversity.”
The surge in antisemitism in New York was also seen nationwide across the US. Earlier this year, the Anti-Defamation League released a report showing antisemitic incidents in the US rose 140 percent last year, reaching a record high. Most of the outrages occurred after the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 across southern Israel, during the ensuing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
In December, the FBI said there had been a 60 percent spike in antisemitic hate crime investigations since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. Then, in April, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the probes into antisemitic crimes tripled in the months following Oct. 7.
“Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 30 of this year, we opened over three times more anti-Jewish hate crime investigations than in the four months before Oct. 7,” he explained.
In 2023, the FBI found that 63 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the US were directed against Jews.
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We Defeated Pro-Hamas Protestors By Proving They Support Rape and Terror
Hamas terrorists kidnapping Israeli women at the Nahal Oz base near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Screenshot
I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews.
The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt he and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.
On August 16, 2024, the pro-Hamas activists conducted their retreat from Lexington in two stages.
First, they walked away from the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Pleasant Street, where they have been protesting on an intermittent basis since October 7. Then, after they retreated a couple of hundred feet down Mass. Ave. (while tenacious, but peaceful, pro-Israel protesters followed them), the Hamas supporters packed up their signs and withdrew altogether, leaving an Iranian-born American citizen to conduct a solitary rear-guard action. Once the pro-Israel protesters took pity on the police officers charged with keeping the peace and got ready to leave, the pro-Hamas supporter also left — clearly a little bit worse for wear.
The pro-Hamas folks did not abandon the site of their weekly standout because they were outnumbered. The two groups were evenly matched. In fact, the pro-Hamasniks may have even enjoyed a slight numerical advantage over the pro-Israel folks who challenged them. Nevertheless, it was the anti-Israel folks who retreated.
The pro-Israel activists, who had coalesced around a core of Iranian human rights activists associated with From Boston to Iran, used a very simple message to break the resolve of the pro-Hamas activists: “You are on the side of rapists and murderers.”
The pro-Hamas protesters tried countering with the lie that Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza, but it didn’t work on the pro-Israel folks who just kept repeating their message: If you’re pro-Hamas, you’re siding with rapists and murderers. They offered this message in chants and individual conversations.
The pro-Israel folks didn’t bother reminding their opponents that Hamas attacks civilians while hiding behind civilians, thereby making civilian casualties inevitable. They didn’t waste their breath reminding the pro-Hamas folks that Arab and Muslim leaders have killed millions of Arab and Muslim civilians without much comment from the progressive left in the United States. The pro-Israel folks knew these facts– but didn’t waste their time repeating them on the streets of Lexington. They just kept repeating the central truth of the conflict in Gaza: Hamas is a bunch of rapists and murderers, and many leftists and anti-democratic radicals in the US have taken their side.
Most importantly, our strategy worked.
By repeating the simple truth of what’s happening in the Middle East, a gathering of pro-Israel Jews and Iranians stripped a gathering of pro-Hamas protesters of the moral superiority in which they have wrapped themselves since October 7. By sticking to the “Hamas is a bunch of rapists and murderers” message, pro-Israel activists reminded any self-proclaimed progressives who joined the Hamas supporters, that the October 7 massacre was not performed to “liberate” the Palestinians — but to build a social order in the Middle East in which terror and violence is the dominant culture, as opposed to peace, tolerance, and full rights for all religions, genders, and minorities.
It is no accident that Iranians who oppose the theocratic leadership in Tehran have become a powerful force of anti-Hamas activism in the United States. Having to deal with the rapists and murderers who oppress their friends and relatives, Iranian human rights activists understand that the violence against moderate Muslims, non-Muslims, and women in Iran has a common root with the violence of October 7 massacre. They know that the violence perpetrated against Iranian and Israeli women is justified by radical Islamism, a supremacist ideology that privileges the rights of Muslim men over non-Muslims and women.
Although leftists should know this as well — many don’t, and they need to be reminded repeatedly, and publicly, of the true nature of the radical Islamist movement they help support. One day, they will be the target of the Islamist oppression endured by Iranians and Israelis and when it happens, they won’t be allowed to say no one told them.
Dexter Van Zile, the Middle East Forum’s Violin Family Research Fellow, serves as managing editor of Focus on Western Islamism.
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Over 300 Filmmakers Condemn Inclusion of Israeli Films in Venice Festival, ‘Artwashing of Gaza Genocide’
Actor Sveva Alviti, who hosted the opening ceremony of the 81st Venice Film Festival, and director Alberto Barbera react, in Venice, Italy, on August 27, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Yara Nardi
Nearly 350 filmmakers, actors, and other members of the film industry signed an open letter on Wednesday, the same day as the opening of the Venice Film Festival, criticizing the prestigious festival for featuring two Israeli films.
At the center of the controversy is Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film “Al Klavim Veanashim” (“Of Dogs and Men”), which is about the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, and “Why War” by director and screenwriter Amos Gitai, which will be making its world premiere on Aug. 31 out of competition. The latter film was inspired by a correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud about avoiding war and “embarks on a search for an explanation of the savagery of wars that inhabit our world,” according to a synopsis provided by the Venice Film Festival.
In the open letter, published by Artists for Palestine Italia, members of the film industry claim “Of Dogs and Men” and “Why War” were “created by Israeli production companies that are complicit in whitewashing Israel’s oppression against Palestinians.” They claimed it was “unacceptable” for the Venice Film Festival to showcase both films and said they “reject complicity with the Israeli regime of apartheid and oppose the artwashing of its Gaza genocide against Palestinians at the 81st Film Festival in Venice.”
“‘Of Dogs and Men,’ shot in the midst of Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza, whitewashes the genocide,” the letter continued. “Like ‘Of Dogs and Men,’ ‘Why War’ was created by complicit Israeli production companies that contribute to apartheid, occupation, and now genocide through their silence or active participation in artwashing. Palestinian society, including the absolute majority of filmmakers, has called for refusing to screen such productions.”
Among the signatories were a number of Palestinian filmmakers and actors — including two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, Rosalind Nashashibi, Raed Andoni, and Saleh Bakri — as well as more than 80 Italian film industry figures such as screenwriter and David di Donatello nominee Davide Serino; filmmakers Enrico Parenti and Alessandra Ferrini; and actors Niccolò Senni, Simona Cavallari, Chiara Baschetti, and Paola Michelini. Others who signed the open letter included Tony Award nominee Kathleen Chalfant, César-winning actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, composer Nitin Sawhney, and Israeli filmmakers Oreet Ashery and Eyal Sivan.
The film industry figures also took issue with the Venice Film Festival for staying silent “about Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people.”
“This silence outrages us deeply,” they explained, before urging film festival organizers to take “effective and ethical measures to hold apartheid Israel to account for its crimes and system of colonial oppression against Palestinians.”
“The film festival should not program productions complicit in apartheid crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, regardless who perpetrates them, and should refrain from doing so in the future,” the open letter stated in conclusion. “Artwashing Israel’s genocide in Gaza on the international cultural stage, including film festivals, is profoundly immoral.”
The Venice Film Festival last year hosted the world premiere of “Tatami,” the first feature film co-directed by an Israeli and an Iranian filmmaker, as well as the world premiere of “Letters from Drancy,” a virtual reality film about the life of a Holocaust survivor.
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