Antisemitism Requires a United Front – More Definitions Won’t Help

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs said he was “shocked” that the Labour Party rejected a motion calling for the adoption of a definition of anti-Semitism, saying its vote aimed to curry favor with some Muslim voters.
On Tuesday, a majority of lawmakers in the lower house of the Dutch parliament, the  Tweede Kamer, passed a nonbinding motion calling on the government to adopt the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. But Labour, along with all the other left-wing parties, voted against it.
The definition has been adopted as official policy by the United Kingdom, Germany and five others in the European Union, as well as the EU as a whole.
Some pro-Palestinian activists have opposed the definition because it says that some forms of vitriol against Israel are anti-Semitic.
Jacobs, a member of the Rabbinical Center of Europe, rarely comments on political votes. He made an exception here.
The lawmakers who voted against the motion, he said, “did so out of political considerations.” Asked whether he meant that Labour opposed the motion to woo some Muslim voters, he said “Yes.”
Labour leader Lodewijk Asscher declined to say why his party voted against the motion, Ernst Lissauer, a prominent freelance journalist, wrote on Twitter.
‏Bram van Ojik of Green Left told Lissauer: “Anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel should be kept separate.”
On Wednesday, Jacobs and Rabbi Izak Vorst, the co-heads of Chabad’s team of emissaries to the Netherlands, attended an early Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the Dutch parliament in The Hague. Khadija Arib, the chairwoman of the Tweede Kamer, also attended along with Ankie Broekers-Knol, chairwoman of the Eerste Kamer, or Senate.
Despite Labour’s vote, Jacobs said, “There is real determination in the Dutch political establishment to fight anti-Semitism, and the chairwomen’s remarks at the event reflected that.”
The article was published on JTA

On Monday, EIPA held a press briefing in Rome with Prof. Uzi Rabi, one of Israel’s leading Middle East scholars and Iran experts.

Prof. Rabi’s briefing gave detailed insight into the current trends of shifting Middle East alliances catalysed primarily by:

(1) Iran’s alliances and hegemonic aspirations; 

(2) future consolidation, projected takeover and extremist radicalisation of power in the post-Ayatollah Chameini era in the Islamic Republic by extremist factions controlled by Chameini’s son (Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei) together with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; 

(3) Iran’s enablement of Hamas and Hezbollah in Israel’s multifront war (Gaza and the Lebanese border), Russia in its offence against Ukraine, militant groups in Iraq and Syria, etc. – all of which serve to prolong regional wars; 

(4) the tightrope balancing act that Middle Eastern states are playing in the jostling of diplomatic power between the United States and China; 

(5) Iranian activities in the drug trade in places as far away as Colombia and Venezuela and how all of this is influencing the jostling of alliances in the greater Middle East.

Professor Uzi Rabi is Principal Researcher and Head of the Regional Cooperation Programme at the Moshe Dayan Centre for Middle East and African Studies and Principal Researcher at the Centre for Iran Studies, both at the University of Tel Aviv. Previously, he was head of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University.

Prof. Rabi’s research focuses on modern history and the evolution of states and societies in the Middle East, on relations between Iran and Arabia, on oil and politics in the Middle East and on the dynamics between Sunnis and Shiites; in this context, he has supervised the theses of numerous doctoral students in this field over the years.

It is still not too late to take a stand and make a diference in the lives of Jews all across Europe!
And it’s a lot easier then what you might think. How?
Read all about our Red Lines Here .
Take a stand! Get involved! Fight antisemitism!
For a short explanation klick on the picture or go to the following link: https://www.facebook.com/ejassociation/videos/286901565522129/

 

In an open letter co-signed by 34 Jewish leaders, the Brussels-based European Jewish Association (EJA) called for Maryland-based Alexander Historical Auctions to abandon its sale of a slew of Nazi objects.

The items auctioned by the broker include a gold watch and candy bowl belonging to Adolf Hitler, and items belonging to his partner, Eva Braun, including a dress and dog collar for her terrier.

Also on sale are Wehrmacht toilet paper and the cutlery and champagne glasses of senior Nazi figures.

The highest valued item — the watch belonging to Hitler — was expected to fetch between $2 million (€1.97 million) and $4 million. The sale was taking place over two days from Thursday to Friday.