Uncategorized
Netanyahu adviser who peddled Trump election lies and said Biden is ‘ruining America’: ‘I don’t hold those views today’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Gilad Zwick, who just started a new job as a media adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no longer believes President Joe Biden is “ruining America” or that Donald Trump should rightfully be in Biden’s place.
“I was a private citizen when I wrote the tweets about President Biden,” Zwick, who most recently was employed in Israel by right-wing pro-Netanyahu media outlets, said Monday on Twitter. “I don’t hold those views today and I will act in a completely professional manner in the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Over the weekend, Haaretz reported past tweets by Zwick that align him with the Republican Party’s extreme right, asserting that Biden is mentally unfit and that Trump won the 2020 election.
In May 2021, Zwick quoted a tweet by a right-wing provocateur, Logan Clark Hall, that depicted Biden licking an ice cream cone and saying “I ordered chocolate chip ice cream,” while a man representing mainstream media outlets cries out “OMG.”
“An accurate caricature that very well reflects the admiring American ‘media’ coverage of Supreme Leader Biden who slowly but surely is ruining America,” Zwick wrote then.
A year ago in another tweet, Zwick said, “The media is doing everything to hide Biden’s incompetence, yet the Chinese, Russians and Iranians are not stupid, they understand well that there is no leadership in Washington.”
In the wake of the 2020 election, Zwick also retweeted multiple tweets advancing false claims that Trump had won the election.
Biden and Netanyahu have been friendly for decades, but Biden has indicated that he is in no hurry to meet Netanyahu since his reelection in December as Israeli prime minister. Among the reported reasons for Biden’s reluctance is Netanyahu’s alignment with extremists in creating the most right-wing coalition government in Israeli history, and the Netanyahu government’s plan to overhaul the country’s court system in ways that Biden has criticized.
Should such a visit take place, Zwick, as a media adviser, would be expected to accompany Netanyahu to meetings.
Netanyahu has in the past hired advisers reviled by Democrats, among them Aaron Klein, an activist on the American far right who spearheaded a campaign to discredit women who accused an Alabama politician of abusing them as minors; and Arthur Finkelstein, the late strategist who was credited with advancing negative campaigning techniques and who advised a candidate in a South Carolina race in 1978 to make an issue of his rival’s Jewishness.
In 1998, Netanyahu deeply irked the Clinton administration when his first stop on a U.S. tour was to address a gathering convened by Jerry Falwell, the Evangelical leader who had peddled false claims that Clinton was a murderer and a drug peddler.
—
The post Netanyahu adviser who peddled Trump election lies and said Biden is ‘ruining America’: ‘I don’t hold those views today’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
VIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press
די ייִדיש־ליגע האָט לעצטנס אַרויפֿגעשטעלט אַ ווידעאָ, וווּ די היסטאָריקערין וויווי לאַקס דערציילט וועגן דער אַמאָליקער ייִדישער פּרעסע אין לאָנדאָן.
צווישן 1884 און 1954 האָט די לאָנדאָנער פּרעסע אַרויסגעגעבן הונדערטער פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון אָרטיקע שרײַבערס וועגן אָרטיקן ייִדישן לעבן.
די קורצע דערציילונגען זענען סאַטיריש, קאָמיש און רירנדיק, אויף טשיקאַווע טעמעס ווי למשל קאַמפֿן אין דער היים צווישן די מינים; פּאָליטיק אין די קאַפֿעען, און ספֿרי־תּורה אויף די גאַסן. די דערציילונגען האָבן געשריבן סײַ גוט באַקאַנטע שרײַבער (למשל, מאָריס ווינטשעווסקי, יוסף־חיים ברענער און אסתּר קרייטמאַן), סײַ היפּש ווייניקער באַקאַנטע.
שבֿע צוקער, די ייִדיש־לערערין און מחבר פֿון אַ ייִדישן לערנבוך, פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס. זיי וועלן פֿאָרלייענען אַ טייל פֿון די פֿעליעטאָנען אויף ענגליש און ייִדיש, און אַרומרעדן די טעמעס וואָס די פּרעסע האָט אַרויסגעהויבן.
וויווי לאַקס איז אַ היסטאָריקערין פֿון לאָנדאָנס ייִדישן „איסט־ענד“, ווי אויך אַן איבערזעצער און זינגערין. זי איז די מחברטע פֿון Whitechapel Noise און London Yiddishtown, ווי אויך אַקאַדעמישע און פּאָפּולערע אַרטיקלען. זי איז אַ קולטור־טוערין אין לאָנדאָן און האָט מיטאָרגאַניזירט סײַ דעם גרויסן ייִדישן פּאַראַד, סײַ דעם Yiddish Café Trust. זי זינגט פּאָפּולערע לידער אויפֿן „קאָקני־ייִדיש“ מיט די גרופּעס קלעזמער־קלאָב און קאַטשאַנעס, און פֿירט שפּאַצירטורן איבער דעם „איסט־ענד“.
The post VIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
It’s not every day that a kosher dill pickle puppet gets a chance to learn some Yiddish.
Monty Pickle, star of the children’s series The Monty Pickle Show, recently joined Rukhl Schaechter, host of the Forward’s YouTube series Yiddish Word of the Day, for an episode teaching viewers the Yiddish words for various wild animals.
Or as they’re called in Yiddish: vilde khayes.
The Monty Pickle Show, a puppet comedy on YouTube and TikTok, aims to show young viewers what it means to be Jewish in a fun, lively way. The series was created by the Emmy Award-winning producers of Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock.
So far, he’s met a number of Jewish personalities, including rabbis, musicians and chefs, and explored holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah and Passover.
Sitting alongside Rukhl during the lesson, Monty eagerly tries to guess what each word means, providing for some very funny moments.
The post Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’ appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
IDF Nabs Islamic State Terror Suspect in Syria
Guns seized in the course of the operation. Photo: IDF Spokesperson via i24
i24 News – Israel Defense Forces soldiers conducted an operation on Wednesday in the area of Rafid in southern Syria to apprehend a suspected terrorist affiliated with ISIS, the military spokesperson said on Saturday.
The announcement comes as Washington announced a major operation to eliminated Islamic State terrorists in Syria after three Americans lost their lives in a jihadist attack in Palmyra.
The Israeli soldiers completed the operation in Syria “in cooperation with IDF intelligence,” the statement read, adding that “the suspect was transferred for further processing in Israeli territory.”
Additionally, during the operation, weapons were found and seized.
IDF troops “continue to remain deployed along the Golan Heights border in order to protect the State of Israel and its citizens,” the statement from the spokesperson concluded.