President Donald Trump, seeking to halt anti-Semitic discrimination in America, is expected to sign an historic Executive Order today in the Oval Office.
“This is the first time any U.S. president has applied Title Six as a matter of law dealing with anti-Semitism,” said Dr. Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem.
“My own father, a professing Christian and a white Aryan, was an anti-Semite. At the age of 11, I attempted to defend my Jewish mother against his abuse. He strangled me, leaving me for dead. I heard him say numerous times that the Blacks were ruining the country, and Jews were running it. Now a U.S. president has drawn a line in the sand against such evil,” Evans said
According to Evans, the core issue in the peace process is anti-Semitism, and the same can be said of Iran’s terror obsession. Anti-Semitism is also very much alive today in America. “Just think, what seems only days ago, a Saudi gunman, killed three people at the Pensacola naval base on December 6, had gone on Twitter shortly before the shooting to blast U.S. support of Israel. Evans explained, “Jews in Israel are not killed over land; they are killed because they are Jews.”
The Executive Order takes the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and applies it to anti-Semitic discrimination. Both the Department of Justice and the Department of Education will be responsible for the implementation of all anti-Semitic laws.
“Under President Trump’s leadership on this issue, Jared Kushner drove the internal process for months to achieve this astonishing feat,” submitted Evans. “We owe them both a great debt of gratitude.”
Ronald Lauder looks to combat anti-Semitism in US politics
Billionaire philanthropist Ronald Lauder is funding a $25 million campaign against political candidates in the United States who support or normalize anti-Semitism.
Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, announced the new campaign, called the Anti-Semitism Accountability Project, or ASAP, on Monday. The effort will include a nonprofit organization and a super PAC.
Lauder will have the final say on which politicians — federal, state and local — will be targeted for defeat, according to The New York Times.
He is a longtime Republican donor, but Lauder told the newspaper he planned to use the organization to go after both Democrats and Republicans who traffic in anti-Semitic language and tropes.
A statement announcing the launch of ASAP said it would “also respond and take action against institutions and cultural figures who support anti-Semitism.” Lauder also told The Times that he would look into universities and their professors, and pressure them to stop anti-Semitic statements and actions by contacting major donors.
ASAP will partner with existing organizations that are working across the country to combat anti-Semitism, the statement said, and encouraged contact from those groups through its website.
The launch comes in response to a documented surge in anti-Semitism across America, according to the statement. According to a poll commissioned by ASAP and conducted by Douglass Schoen of Schoen Consulting, anti-Semitism has doubled over the past five years. Today, 14 percent of Americans hold anti-Semitic beliefs, as compared to 7 percent from a survey released by the Anti-Defamation League in 2014.
The poll used the definition of anti-Semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Lauder told The Times that he has hired teams of researchers to follow political races across the country “from the most local to the major ones” to track anti-Semitic comments.
Belgium requests UNESCO delist parade where Jews were mocked
Belgium has formally asked UNESCO to delist as a heritage event one of the kingdom’s main parades over allegations of anti-Semitism.
The request to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization considerably increases the probability for removal of the Aalst Carnival, whose previous edition featured effigies of grinning Jews holding money with a rat on one of their shoulders, from the agency’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage is scheduled to vote on delisting the Aalst Carnival, which was put on the list in 2009.
The display of Jews prompted an outcry by Jewish groups and UNESCO itself, which in a statement called it “racist and anti-Semitic.”
The float’s defenders argued in response that it was part of the carnival’s tradition of edgy humor, with themes mocking all religions and creeds. Carnival organizers prepared ribbons with caricatures of Jews for the 2020 edition, which they said were meant to mock UNESCO.
Aalst Mayor Christoph D’Haese last week announced that his city, which is located nearly 20 miles northwest of Brussels, would like to withdraw from the list to be able to preserve its traditions, though his statement had no formal status or recourse with UNESCO.
But Belgium’s request last week to withdraw Aalst from the list does change the event’s status and could mean a unanimous or near unanimous vote to remove it.
Internal UNESCO documents about the Belgian move seen by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency do not mention what reason Belgium gave for its request.
Guatemala’s President honored in Jerusalem
The Jewish National Fund and the Friends of the Israel Museum held a festive event to commemorate the entry of the new Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei.
Speakers at the event include Guatemala’s President-elect Alejandro Giammattei, KKL Chairman Danny Atar, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon, Guatemala’s Ambassador to Israel Mario Búcaro Flores, and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon.
In August, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu congratulated Giammattei after the conservative, pro-Israel politician was elected in a runoff.
“He is a friend of Israel, and I am convinced that together we will strengthen the excellent cooperation between the countries,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
During the campaign, Giammattei of the Vamos (Let’s Go) party, promised to keep Guatemala’s embassy in Jerusalem and act against terror organizations. The embassy was moved in May 2018, one day after the United States made the same move.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammatte said at the ceremony: “When we talk about history, we believe in the word of G-d. We must recognize that the people of Israel are entitled to live in their own land. The world recognized a few years ago for Israel’s right to a state, we have repaired a historical injustice.”
“You manage to make the desert bloom. I hope I can come back here a lot more. With the help of the JNF you managed to make the land bloom. You did it with a lot of love. It’s a once-in-a-millennium event.
“We have nothing left but to invite the world leaders to build here and recognize that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. There is no other way,” he stated.
Sanders campaign drops staffer who posted anti-Semitic tweets
A newly hired staff member on Bernie Sander’s 2020 presidential campaign left his job after reports surfaced about past anti-Semitic and homophobic tweets.
Darius Khalil Gordon announced on Wednesday that he had joined the Sanders campaign team as deputy director of constituency organizing. The following day, the conservative news website the Washington Free Beacon reported that Gordon had posted anti-Semitic and homophobic tweets from 2010 to 2012.
Gordon has since deleted his Twitter account.
The Sanders campaign told CNN on Friday that Gordon was “no longer with the campaign.”
A tweet from Sept. 22, 2010 preserved in a screenshot read: “Working hard so one day I can make that Jew Money.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition in a statement issued on Friday afternoon called on the Sanders campaign to fire Gordon.
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