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What it’s like to be a Jewish teenager in a small town right now
This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.
(JTA) — About 4.5 hours north of the country’s most Jewish-concentrated city, is Corning, New York. Though it’s technically considered a city, Corning is more of a town, with just about 11,000 people.
While the downtown area is fairly progressive, Confederate flags can be found flying in front of homes in towns just beyond, 10 minutes in any direction. Because of the primarily rural environment, the young Jewish community is small and largely disconnected. The closest synagogue to Corning, Congregation Kol Ami, is two towns away and its youngest member is 22 years old. Teen Jews in rural areas face the challenges of building their Jewish identity in areas with limited support, resources and opportunities.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency interviewed four teens about their experiences of being young and Jewish in a small town. Three of the students attend Corning-Painted Post High School and one attends Corning-Painted Post Middle School. They spoke with JTA via Zoom on Oct. 29, three weeks into Israel’s war on Hamas. The unique Jewish identities they made for themselves are products of the environment they grew up in. In one way or another, their thoughts reflect how being raised in a rural area affected their relationship with Judaism.
JTA: For each of you, what’s your own personal connection with Judaism? In other words, describe your Jewishness.
Jonah Goldwyn, 13, Painted Post, New York: I got a Jewish education at Congregation Kol Ami for a few years every Sunday and so did my brother and sister. When the pandemic hit, it kind of fell apart because there’s not obviously not a big Jewish community around here, so classes were pretty small, there might have been four people in the class. But once the pandemic hit, we tried going virtual and that was kind of a disaster. We also tried connecting with a temple outside of Philadelphia and that was a little awkward. It was way too much screen time. Because of this, I didn’t get the same Hebrew education that my brother and sister got. Now, we go to temple and celebrate holy days. And we do a lot of holidays at home.
McKenna Kagle, 16, Caton, New York: My dad’s family is culturally Jewish and really connected with traditions and things like that. But my dad didn’t really pass it down to me. My family doesn’t really practice Judaism religiously at all. We try to do Hanukkah and sometimes we’ll do holidays with my grandparents. We used to go to the Jewish Food Festival every year when they had it at the temple in Elmira, but I don’t think they do it anymore. So I am connected but definitely not to the extent that I would like to be. I’d like to learn more about the culture, get more experience, and actually participate in holidays besides just Hanukkah.
Historic Market Street in Corning, New York, seen in February 2022. (Andre Carrotflower/Creative Commons)
Abigail Alper, 17, Corning, New York: Both of my parents are Jewish, but we’re not practicing. We celebrate holidays like Passover and Hanukkah, but we don’t participate in the ones where you connect yourself with God, due to the fact that both of my parents were raised atheists. I still identify with Judaism even though we don’t practice. My grandfather was a Cohen and I believe that if circumstances were different, possibly I would be practicing; my parents were raised in environments that made them unable to practice and affected their relationships with Judaism. My dad didn’t know he was Jewish until high school and was raised Presbyterian. I think if he was raised with Judaism, we would be practicing more. My mom came from the Soviet Union and during that time, they weren’t even allowed to practice Judaism. Now, she’s very passionate with knowledge about the Torah because she went to a school later on to educate herself on it. And she even learned Hebrew fluently, but because she didn’t have anybody to speak it with in Corning, she forgot.
Dorothy Piech, 17, Hornby, New York: My mother is Jewish, and she went to temple occasionally growing up. But because she grew up in a really rural area in Maryland, she felt alienated because she didn’t celebrate Christian holidays. And I think she didn’t want that to be our experience as her kids. We do Hanukkah and Passover and sort of acknowledge that the other holidays exist, but mostly not the religious aspects; it’s more cultural. But I identify with Judaism because it’s just such a cultural part of my identity. We use like Yiddish phrases and have that sort of relationship with it.
Consider where you live and think about a larger, more urban city like New York city. How would you compare your own experiences with Judaism to theirs?
Piech: I have cousins who live in Westchester. They get school off for Rosh Hashanah and they have a Jewish Community Center. Even though they’re also not practicing, they have tons of friends who are Jewish and they went to a bunch of bat mitzvahs when they were that age. It’s just very different. I can’t imagine having that experience and not having to explain what being Jewish is like.
Alper: I keep seeing clips from, “You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah,” the Adam Sandler movie, on my [TikTok] “for you” page. It’s a very new movie set in a place that has a large Jewish community. I’m like, “Dude, this is so different from my experience. I have never gone to a bar mitzvah.” It’s just so different.
Kagle: I mean, my grandparents live in New York City in a very Jewish area. It’s kind of crazy seeing like six temples in this little area. They just have so much more of an official Jewish community, and there’s none of that here.
Jonah, if you went to one of those bigger, more urban schools, would you appreciate having a larger Jewish community?
Goldwyn: Maybe. I don’t really think it would be that much better. I don’t need to be surrounded by people just because they’re the same.
What’s your high school Jewish population like?
Piech: It’s very small. I think people don’t talk about it because no one’s like, “Hey, what are you doing for Passover?” We just assume everyone else is Christian, because most of them are. I had a Jewish English teacher last year and he told us he wasn’t going to be in school one day because of Yom Kippur. And that was sort of crazy to me that he had to take a day off to celebrate his holiday even though we get days off for Easter and Christmas and things like that. But he was also the only teacher I’ve ever had who knows anything about Judaism. My mom went in and taught my elementary class about Hanukkah, and the teachers had no idea what to think. They were like “What is a latke?” And I was thinking, “You’re an adult.”
“I tuck my star [of David] under my shirt a lot. I usually wear it every day but lately, I’ve taken it off just because of everything that’s going on.” (Getty Images)
Goldwyn: I still go to temple, but I haven’t known any other Jewish kids in my middle school. Also you don’t get you don’t get the day off for High Holy Days. It’s just different because no one really knows about the religion, besides Hanukkah. In elementary school, my dad came and taught the class about Hanukkah actually.
Alper: Even though there’s a lack of a Jewish community, whenever my connection to Judaism is mentioned, people that don’t know are genuinely interested. Even in elementary school where I would assume kids would know better, they were always like, “Whoa, what is Hanukkah — a second Christmas?”
What’s a frustration you have with your school’s education surrounding Judaism?
Alper: Everybody just knows about the Holocaust. Whenever there’s any mention of a Jew or Judaism, people kind of just look around awkwardly. When my literature teacher took off for Yom Kippur, he said that “it’s a very serious holiday” and everybody was like “what even is it?”
Kagle: We were reading “Night” by Elie Wiesel and one of my teachers misspelled it as “Knight,” like the soldier, instead of the time of day. It took her weeks to realize her mistake.
Can you think of a time when being Jewish made you feel “othered”?
Piech: A few years ago in English class, we read “Maus,” [Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel/memoir about the Holocaust]. During one class, we talked about Jewish stereotypes and I was trying to say something and I paused. And my teacher asked me if I paused because I didn’t want to offend anyone. And I remember that I didn’t know how to say what I wanted to because I didn’t know whether to say “they” or “we” when talking about Jewish people because I don’t want to bring that up.
Alper: I tuck my star [of David] under my shirt a lot. I usually wear it every day but lately, I’ve taken it off just because of everything that’s going on; I don’t know with a lot of people what their thoughts on Jews are. And I know that there is history in Painted Post of Nazi agendas. After World War II, there was this guy who painted a swastika on the ceiling of his house and then painted over it. So in one of the Painted Post houses, there is a Nazi swastika under the ceiling paint. You’ll see them in bathroom stalls, under bridges in graffiti, in a lot of places. I think some kids do it because they think they are being quirky or funny. It’s crazy. It’s actually crazy.
Kagle: I forgot about this but last year in my biology class I sat at a table that literally had like 30 swastikas carved into it. I was shocked. I mean I feel like it’s a pretty common thing to graffiti, but the fact that nobody had done anything about it was crazy. That was the place I sat every single day and I had to look at those hate symbols every single day. It was unnerving.
Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” is a Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir about the Holocaust in the form of a two-volume comic book. (Philissa Cramer)
What are your experiences with the conflicts in Israel?
Alper: Mostly what has affected and unnerved me is you hear about antisemitism and people protesting against Jews as a whole. I don’t agree with war in general — war to me is just so unprogressive — but there’s a lot of new prejudice surfacing. It’s crazy to think that right now I can tell somebody that I am a Jew and they might think that I’m dangerous or against Palestine when Islam, Judaism and Christianity are all Abrahamic religions.
Kagle: I have a lot of feelings about this. But I think to me, it’s kind of crazy how many people equate supporting Palestine with antisemitism. Because, without a doubt, Palestinian people are being completely oppressed and have been for years and it’s not antisemitic to say that the state of Israel is doing bad things. And so many people and politicians are saying that they stand with the Jewish community, but that doesn’t mean you have to stand with the state of Israel.
Piech: I don’t support it. I’m against the conflict in the same way Abby is. But people use it as an excuse for antisemitism. There was another conflict a couple years ago and antisemitic activity was on the rise then too. Just because there’s a majority Muslim country and a majority Jewish country fighting, that doesn’t mean you can use that to attack members of either religion.
Do you see yourself staying in a rural area or moving to an urban one?
Goldwyn: I want to live in a city after high school or college, not because of Judaism, but it would be good in that regard too. If I have kids, I’d probably move to somewhere that still has a few temples around it because that’s important to me; it gives some structure. I think it’s good to use religion to help decide what you think about the world. If you don’t have any knowledge on that, then you won’t have good ideas. A verse could change how you view the world. A lot of it is true, and a lot of it is smarter than what people think. I would want that for my kids, if I decide to have them.
Alper: I probably would pick a place where there’s more of a Jewish presence, just so I can educate myself more on who I am. I personally love religion, I think religion is so interesting as a concept. It’s how we find the world as humans, and I would love to learn more about my culture.
Piech: Because I’m a senior, my plan right now is to go to Boston for school. Being a larger city, I would love to have some connection with the campus hillel and with the Jewish community, just to surround myself with people who understand that part of my background. If I have kids, it would be important to me to educate them and teach them about their culture. I also want to make sure that they never feel ashamed or alienated because of it.
Kagle: I don’t think I’m necessarily going to choose where I live based on Judaism, but I definitely want to go to a big city, and with that, there will come connections to Judaism.
—
The post What it’s like to be a Jewish teenager in a small town right now appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Canadians who moved to Israel celebrate the ongoing hostage releases—amid caution that the deal remains fragile
Thursday saw the release of eight more hostages, including five Thai nationals, and three Israeli citizens who were held for 482 days: Gadi Mozes, 80, Arbel Yehoud, 29, and 20-year-old Agam Berger, who was one of seven soldiers kidnapped by terrorists from the Nahal Oz military post on Oct. 7, 2023.
Berger’s name resonated around the Jewish world thanks to images of her life, like a video of her playing violin in her bedroom. Stories abound of the young woman’s adherence to a life of service and faith, who was reported to frequently engage in prayer in captivity and showing defiance to her captors when asked to perform chores on Shabbat, while comforting her fellow captives by braiding their hair.
Agam Berger’s cousin Ashley Waxman Bakshi is an Israeli-Canadian online influencer who has been a vocal advocate for the hostages. She slammed the Canadian government last March over the motion to halt arms sales to Israel and resume funding for UNRWA.
“We’re obviously overjoyed,” she told The CJN from Israel just hours after Berger’s release. “It’s just hard to believe when you want something so bad, that it actually happened.”
Like many, she was appalled at the staged display by Hamas during the release, and had a message for Canadians who “still don’t get it. If everyday Canadian citizens can’t see the difference between the Gazan mob surrounding the hostages and the absolute farce of this terrorist organization dressing up Agam in a fake IDF uniform, when she was kidnapped in pyjamas, and parade her by herself in front of a crowd as some sort of victory while all of Gaza around them is completely destroyed; if they can’t see the difference between good and evil, then there’s some serious moral work that needs to be done in our country.”
While elated that her cousin is home, Waxman Bakshi warned about the fragility of the entire process, not only negotiations but actual timing and procedure involved. She noted that just a few days ago she intervened to put the brakes on a viralsocial media campaign to have all girls braid their hair for today.
“While these kind of things sound like they help and make people feel good, they actually endanger the hostages and the deal if it gets back to the terrorists holding her that what she did may have been a signal of life. We don’t want to endanger her by giving her increased value to the terrorists keeping her.”
That’s an important distinction she says, between listening to family members and just wanting to do good. “That’s what we mean when we say everything is so fragile, we can’t breathe until they’re home. We don’t want anything to draw attention.”
***
Zina Rakhamilova, a Tel Aviv resident raised in Toronto, has spent a lot of time in Hostage Square with the hostage families. The digital marketer—who specializes in Israeli non-governmental organizations and political causes—agrees that everyone “must try to be as discreet as possible not to endanger their status.”
Hours before the Thursday morning release, the mood she said, “like always is very mixed, because on the one hand we’re very excited that Agam and Arbel are on their way home,” but added people were very worried about Gadi Mozes’ status, given confusion over unofficial, unsubstantiated claims about who was alive and who was not.
“It’s definitely part of Hamas’ psychological campaign of terror” she told The CJN, “because we know they’re supposed to release the living hostages first.” It’s important to note says Rakhamilova, that this comes “not even days after back-to-back terror attacks in Tel Aviv, so beyond the emotional torture all of this is taking on everybody, just being outside feels harrowing. We’re continually on edge; we have to watch our backs and we’re doing the best we can.”
As a Canadian she said, “the truth is I’m more concerned for friends and family in Canada than my own status here in Tel Aviv, watching how antisemitism has grown in Canada since Oct. 7, with kosher restaurants and schools and synagogues targeted and attacked.” She lauded Justin Trudeau’s recent statement “that Hamas can no longer rule Gaza, but really, it’s under his leadership that antisemitism has become so bad that people feel so comfortable doing Nazi salutes openly in the streets of Montreal. I’m a lot more worried for the well-being of Jewish Canadians than my own safety or status here.”
As for the mood surrounding the hostage release, she said “people need to understand we do really feel like one united family here, and until anything is made public by the government, prime minister’s office or IDF, saying anything or discussing details is just unethical, and everyone feels that way. We will not go into any details until we know anything for sure.”
After meeting with relatives of Shiri and Yarden Bibas—who were kidnapped on Oct. 7 along with their two young sons, Kfir and Ariel—she said “we’re really worried about them and we don’t know what their status is, but we don’t want to be willing negative things. The family themselves have said they have not lost hope and so our obligation and that of the people outside the family, is to follow their lead and be there for them whatever that is.
“Personally, it’s awful, so many of us feel sick to our stomachs, constantly on high stress, high alert and knowing about the release of known terrorists.”
Ariel Bibas turns five today in Hamas captivity.
I took this video outside the Bibas home on day 265, it is now day 304.
Why isn’t the world freaking out over these children being held by terrorists? Bring them home NOW! pic.twitter.com/HMolDz37VJ
— Zina Rakhamilova (@itsmezina__) August 5, 2024
While personally supportive of the deal, Rakhamilova said she understands “how devastating a price” Israel is paying. “There are people we know who are going to be personally affected by the terrorists being released.” The murderer of Hillel Fuld’s brother, Ari, and the bombers responsible for the deadly 2002 attack on Hebrew University are also scheduled to be released.
“These are hard emotions, but you still see what’s really beautiful: So many people being directly affected, that they’re so happy that the hostages are coming home.
“The lesson is we need to be as kind as possible to one another during all this.”
***
Thai nationals Thenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakham, Sriaoun Watchara, Seathao Bannawat, and Rumnao Surasak also kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, were released as well, following a week of uncertainty that threatened to derail the first phase of the ceasefire and hostage release plan.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group who holding Arbel Yehoud did not release her last Saturday along with four female military observers, as originally agreed. Israel was prepared to block access to Northern Gaza, also part of the original plan, until her release was arranged.
She is a teacher who snatched from Kibbutz Nir Oz where her family has lived for generations. The only presumed but unverified evidence of her being alive came in the form of a video released by Palestinian Islamic Jihad earlier this month.
Gadi Mozes, also of Nir Oz, was also released on Thursday. His partner Efrat Katz was killed during a battle between IDF gunships and Hamas fighters, her daughter and two grandchildren were kidnapped and released in the first hostage deal.
Last Saturday, four other female IDF observers—Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy—were the second group of hostages to be released in the plan, following the release of Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher a week earlier.
The post Canadians who moved to Israel celebrate the ongoing hostage releases—amid caution that the deal remains fragile appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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The Gaza-Auschwitz Comparison Is a Moral Failure
British teens placed pictures of Israeli hostages seized by Hamas on the train tracks leading to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the notorious Nazi death camp. Photo: JRoots
The banner proclaiming “Palestine: the victory of the oppressed people over Nazi Zionism,” was prominently displayed behind Hamas terrorists as they forced hostage Naama Levy — whose pants were bloodied at the time of her capture — to smile in an army uniform. The goal of this image is clear: to “Nazify” Israel, whitewash Hamas’ crimes, and invert the roles of victims and oppressors. This is the essence of the Iran-backed terror group’s propaganda.
This is not merely an act of cruelty and humiliation; it is a calculated political message, designed to invert historical roles: Israel as the modern-day Third Reich, and Zionism as its ideology.
But Hamas is not alone in spreading this message. It is part of a long-standing antisemitic propaganda campaign that has gained renewed traction far beyond Gaza.
On American college campuses, in activist circles, and across social media, this rhetoric finds eager amplifiers: “Israelis are Nazis,” “Israel is genocide,” “Hamas is resistance.” Pseudo-human rights organizations, pseudo-anti-racists, and pseudo-feminists echo these slogans. At the same time, these voices remain disturbingly silent about the mass rapes, murders, and kidnappings carried out by Hamas on October 7. Their hypocrisy speaks volumes about their supposed commitment to justice and human rights.
These comparisons are not simply misguided or exaggerated; they have a double-edged effect. On one hand, they trivialize the Nazi atrocities by equating them with a contemporary conflict, tragic as it may be, that differs fundamentally in purpose and scope. On the other, they invert historical roles, casting Jews — victims of an unparalleled genocide — as today’s oppressors. This shift doesn’t necessarily deny the Holocaust outright, but distorts its meaning, drains it of its uniqueness, and repurposes it as a malleable ideological tool. The result is an assault on memory itself — on its ability to prevent the resurgence of hatred and, most urgently, the rising antisemitism witnessed since October 7, 2023.
The accusations of genocide directed at Israel are not new. They trace back to Yasser Arafat and Soviet propaganda in the 1970s, gaining momentum with each flare-up in Gaza. These claims rely on a deliberate distortion of historical facts. The Holocaust was a systematic and industrialized campaign of extermination, carried out in secrecy to annihilate an entire people. Gaza, despite its immense suffering and devastation, is the scene of a conflict between a terrorist group and a sovereign military — not an extermination effort. Comparing Gaza to Auschwitz distorts history and reduces the Holocaust to a vague, manipulable idea, undermining its status as a universal moral anchor.
This confusion does more than undermine the past; it undermines the present. The legal mechanisms designed to prevent genocide lose their potency when misused in this way. Raphaël Lemkin, who coined the term “genocide,” emphasized its specificity: the deliberate, systematic destruction of a group. By conflating the horrors of asymmetrical warfare with organized genocide, we blur the critical distinction between war and extermination. This misapplication of language is not just a semantic issue; it is a moral failure.
The issue doesn’t end with hashtags or protest slogans. It reaches the highest levels of political discourse. In 2014, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Israel of “surpassing the Nazis in its barbarity” during Operation Protective Edge. In 2022, Mahmoud Abbas claimed Israel had committed “fifty holocausts,” and made these remarks in Berlin — the very city where the Holocaust was meticulously planned.
These statements are more than rhetorical flourishes; they trivialize the Holocaust and weaponize its memory against Israel — and, by extension, against Jews worldwide.
Why this fixation? Part of the answer lies in a broader effort to reshape the moral foundations of the postwar order. For decades, the Holocaust served as a cornerstone of postwar ethics, justifying the establishment of Israel and supporting universal human rights. Yet some now seek to replace this foundation with a new paradigm: decolonization. In this narrative, Israel is no longer the homeland of a persecuted people but the final vestige of colonialism. This reframing severs the historical connection between the Holocaust and Zionism, presenting Israel not as a resolution to Jewish history, but as a historical anomaly to be rectified.
Replacing the memory of the Holocaust with that of other struggles — even legitimate ones — poses a grave threat and betrays the spirit of “Never again,” which was meant as a universal call for vigilance, not as a pretext for contemporary hostility toward Jews. The danger of succumbing to this propaganda is not just the betrayal of historical memory, but its devastating real-world impact. The rise of antisemitism under the guise of political activism threatens the safety of Jewish communities worldwide, and chips away at the universal principles of justice and human rights.
If there is one lesson to be learned from the last 80 years, it is that antisemitism remains rife, though it now takes new forms. The latest version today hides behind the rhetoric of human rights and anti-colonialism. Israel is not the only target; Jews across the globe are under attack. Unless we confront this reality with clarity and determination, we risk allowing history to repeat itself.
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen is the Director of AJC Europe.
The post The Gaza-Auschwitz Comparison Is a Moral Failure first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Behind the Mask of ‘Pro-Peace’ Groups in Israel
A general view shows the port in Haifa, Israel, July 24, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green, the Israeli national directors of the Standing Together movement, were included in the Time 100 Next list for 2024 due to their extensive pacifist activities, such as the national campaign “The North Demands Peace – Deal Now.” As part of this campaign, the organization’s activists hung billboards in northern Israel with the statement “The North Demands Peace” in Arabic and Hebrew. Ironically, or perhaps tragically, one of the billboards placed at the Maxim intersection in Haifa was near a site damaged by a Hezbollah rocket last October. This area also witnessed the horrific terror suicide bombing at Maxim restaurant, co-owned by Arabs and Jews, in 2003, which killed 21 Jews and Arabs and injured 51 others.
The push for a diplomatic solution with Hezbollah for a ceasefire at any cost, without restrictions or the possibility of Israeli action for violations, indicates a lack of security awareness among Standing Together activists. Last November, northern residents, local authorities, and community forums expressed firm opposition to the proposed ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, fearing future violations by Hezbollah and the potential for a terrible massacre. This fear was reinforced when an IDF spokesman revealed Hezbollah’s plans to conquer the Galilee. Although the ceasefire was eventually signed, Hezbollah violated it within five days.
Besides calling for a ceasefire in the north, Standing Together does not address the circumstances that led to the Sword of Iron war. While they importantly call for the return of hostages to Israel, they mislead the public by claiming that “the government and media in Israel are ignoring war crimes in Gaza and claiming everything is fine.” They assert that Israel is waging a war of extermination in Gaza and that “we must not get used to killing and starving innocent Palestinians in Gaza, hundreds of rocket launches daily, or abandoning cities in the north and south.”
At a demonstration, one of the national directors held signs showing Israeli and Palestinian death tolls since the war’s beginning, citing 44,249 Palestinian deaths without specifying how many were Hamas terrorists. This figure, from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, is unsupported. According to UN data from last May, a third of those killed in Gaza were women and children. A University of Pennsylvania expert’s study suggests the ratio of killed militants to civilians is around 1:1, according to the UN’s assessment. The ratio in urban combat zones around the world is 1:9, meaning nine civilians killed for every combatant killed — and that Israel is doing far more than any other military to avoid and reduce civilian deaths.
Regarding claims of starvation in Gaza, COGAT has facilitated the entry of over a million tons of aid on 57,545 trucks since the war began. From January to July 2024, the average daily food consumption in Gaza was about 3,004 calories per person, compared to 3,540 in Europe and North America, and 2,600 in African countries. Standing Together fails to blame Hamas for systematically stealing humanitarian aid from the residents of Gaza.
Originally supported by a German organization that backs the BDS movement and opposes the IHRA‘s working definition of antisemitism, Standing Together now promotes efforts embraced by the international delegitimization campaigns against Israel. They claim the destruction of Jabalia was for revenge and ethnic cleansing, ignoring the IDF’s continued discovery of weapons and terrorists since the military campaign renewed there on October 5, 2024.
The widespread recognition of organizations like Standing Together in Israel and internationally is concerning. While supposedly promoting coexistence and peace, they spread disinformation that could lead to sanctions harming both Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in the West Bank. Their focus on blaming Israel while neglecting to name Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran as the real culprits blurs the line between victim and attacker, undermining their legitimacy as a coexistence organization.
Tom Yohay is the manager of CAMERA on Campus Israel.
The post Behind the Mask of ‘Pro-Peace’ Groups in Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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