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Jewish Journal

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October 4, 2021

UN Cuts Off UN Watch Director for Highlighting UNRWA Antisemitism

Leave a Comment / About, Worldwide /

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) cut off UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer as he was highlighting antisemitic social media posts from various United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Speaking virtually at the October 2 UNHRC session, Neuer cited UN Watch’s recent report about two UNRWA teachers in the Gaza Strip, one who posted an Adolf Hitler video to Facebook “with quotes to ‘enrich and enlighten your minds’” and another who posted “conspiracy theories” about Jews controlling the world, starting the COVID-19 pandemic aiming “to destroy Islam.” At that point, UNHRC President Nazhat Shameem Khan cut off Neuer’s video feed, accusing Neuer of making “insulting and inflammatory remarks.”

In a series of tweets, Neuer called on Khan “to apologize and rescind your ruling” or else he will ask U.N. Secretary-General Antonio-Guterres to publicly state “that the highest human rights body of the United Nations has just sent a dangerous message to the world when, without any basis, you summarily and arbitrarily blocked me from presenting a report about systemic antisemitism incited daily by the teachers of UNRWA.”

Neuer also noted in a tweet that “Israel is the only nation treated as a standing item on the UNHRC agenda” and that “for three hours, tyrants vilified Israel” during Shabbat, when Israel was unable to defend itself in the forum.

StandWithUs Israel Executive Director Michael Dickson tweeted that the UNHRC “can’t handle the truth.”

The Zionist Federation, a pro-Israel advocacy group in Britain and Ireland, tweeted, “Kudos to @HillelNeuer of @UNWatch for telling the truth. Disgraceful and entirely out of order that he was cut short by the @UN_HRC and reprimanded for simply stating the facts.”

Joel M. Petlin, Superintendent of the Kiryas Joel District, tweeted: “So according to @UN_HRC, it’s *derogatory, insulting and inflammatory* to call out the #Antisemitism expressed by teachers funded by @UNRWA, but it’s not a problem for these same teachers to praise Hitler on Facebook. It’s just the warped logic of the United Nations.”

The August 2 UN Watch report, titled “Beyond the Textbooks,” documents 22 examples of UNRWA staffers promulgating antisemitism on social media. Neuer said in a statement at the time of the report’s publication: “We call on the governments that fund UNWRA to take action to stop the vicious cycle of generations being taught to hate and violently attack Jews. We demand that UNRWA address the core problem, and demonstrate its genuine commitment to basic norms of education in its schools, by publicly condemning UNWRA employees who incite terrorism and antisemitism, removing them from their positions, and creating an independent and impartial investigation of all of its staff.”

UN Cuts Off UN Watch Director for Highlighting UNRWA Antisemitism Read More »

Sarah Silverman Criticizes Squad for Wanting to Defund Iron Dome: “Why Do None of Them Even Mention Hamas?”

Leave a Comment / Israel, News, Worldwide /

Actress Sarah Silverman criticized the group of progressives in the House of Representatives known as “The Squad” over their efforts to defund Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

During her September 30 podcast, Silverman said that “it’s so bizarre” that The Squad never discusses the terror group Hamas that rules over the Gaza Strip. “Yes, the [Israeli] occupation is not right, there cannot be justice in a place where there are people who have no freedom of movement. But they elected Hamas! Why do none of them even mention Hamas, a group that until just a few years ago that had a mission statement that said, ‘Kill all Jews,’ a group that just congratulated the Taliban for taking over Afghanistan. 

“No Israel is not good for Palestine, but you’re kidding yourself if you think Hamas is good for Palestine,” Silverman added.

She pleaded to The Squad to not defund the Iron Dome, pointing out that she has family in Israel. “It just seems to prove the point… people really only like Jews when they’re suffering. Dead Jews get a lot of honor.” Silverman lamented that she really wants to like Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), lauding their domestic politics and calling them “kick ass,” but that their view on the Iron Dome is “really scary.”

Judea Pearl, Chancellor Professor of Computer Science at UCLA, National Academy of Sciences member and Daniel Pearl Foundation President, tweeted, “I refuse to believe that @SarahKSilverman is so naïve as to be surprised by the Squad, whom she courted as a “good Jew”, show no interest in protecting Sarah’s relatives in Israel from Hamas rockets. Zionophobes, unlike antisemites, respect you only when you respect yourself, and they will never, but never, show any empathy for Israelis. Why? Because this may remind the world that Israel has a human face, perhaps even a reason to exist, which goes against the Squad’s mother milk and against what their voters elected them to deny. Her heart is broken!!”

Joel M. Petlin, Superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District, similarly tweeted that Silverman “loves the Squad but she just figured out that they don’t care if her family in Israel is killed by [missiles] from Hamas. Perhaps she needs to find different heroes, like the ones who don’t only celebrate dead Jews, but also want to protect the living ones.”

Sarah Silverman Criticizes Squad for Wanting to Defund Iron Dome: “Why Do None of Them Even Mention Hamas?” Read More »

Daniel Lobell

Danny Lobell: Doing Your Worst

Leave a Comment / Podcasts, The Accidental Talmudist Podcast /


Comedian Danny Lobell joins Sal for a laugh-out-loud conversation covering a wide range of topics, including what they’d do with a billion dollars, Sal’s accidental Canada commercial, and the value of doing your worst. Danny shares his perspective on coming back to Judaism, and what conservatives and liberals have in common.

Follow the Accidental Talmudist on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Danny Lobell: Doing Your Worst Read More »

Nancy Pelosi Must be Dreaming of Israel’s Coalition

Leave a Comment / Editor's Note, Featured, Opinion /

The essence of politics is compromise. Everyone knows that, except for ideological gluttons. Those are the folks who are so obsessed with having their way they’re loathe even to think of compromise.

We’re seeing this gluttony unfold right now in the U.S. Congress. Democrats are scrambling to pass a $1 trillion bipartisan bill that would significantly upgrade the country’s decaying infrastructure while adding countless jobs. It would also boost the party’s chances in the 2022 midterms. Piece of cake, right?

Not for the gluttons.

An overheated progressive faction, led by firebrands like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal, insists on attaching a gargantuan, divisive $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill to satisfy their utopian dreams for the country. Never mind that their party holds razor-thin majorities in Congress, to the point that passing the reconciliation bill will require the votes of 99 percent of House Democrats and 100 percent of Senate Democrats. That’s a lot of unity.

The formidable Speaker Nancy Pelosi has met her match. In her frantic efforts to get the factions in her party to compromise, I wonder if she’s been thinking (or dreaming) of Israel’s “unity” coalition— you know, the one that is forcing so much compromise among ideological rivals it wasn’t supposed to last more than five minutes.

Most of the people I’ve spoken to in Israel still don’t give the coalition much of a chance. One dissenting vote, after all, can bring the whole thing down.

But even if it turns out to be temporary, I’m still in awe at this incredible human display of compromise for a higher good. It’s like hearing a brand new, amazing song for the first time. Here you have ultra-Zionists sitting next to anti-Zionists; secular next to religious; peaceniks next to hawks; socialists next to capitalists—and, somehow, after more than 100 days, no one’s killed each other. They’re still sitting at the same table.

I can’t think of any country right now that is governed by such an ultra-broad “team of rivals.” Maybe in that rarity lies its beauty.

I can’t think of any country right now that is governed by such an ultra-broad “team of rivals.” Maybe in that rarity lies its beauty.

In Israel, cynicism aside, it’s a breath of fresh air. After more than a decade of ideological gluttons from the Likud running the show, it’s refreshing to see a coalition that strives to represent the whole nation. For so long, compromise in Israeli politics was a dirty word; today it’s a holy word.

It’s refreshing to see a coalition that STRIVES TO represent the whole nation. For so long, compromise in Israeli politics was a dirty word; today it’s a holy word.

The parties are making huge efforts to put aside their differences and find important things they can agree on — like security, transportation, the economy, education and public health. They’re restraining their personal appetites to focus on the greater good. It’s as if everyone is on an ideological diet that benefits the health of the whole country.

Regardless of how long it lasts (and the threats from rebels keep coming), we can’t overlook how this miracle coalition has redeemed, however briefly, the very notion of politics. Here is one of society’s least savory sectors— the grimy world of politics—rising to the occasion to transcend its own nasty reputation. At the very least, it’s giving us a taste of the possible.

Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that for the first time in its history, Israel has a prime minister, Naftali Bennett, who wears a yamulke. Is he putting the holiness of unity ahead of the politics of ideology? Is he applying the Talmudic lessons of Shammai and Hillel on the art of dealing with disagreements?

When I interviewed Bennett on stage a few years ago at an Israeli American Council (IAC) convention, while he was a cabinet minister, my first question was, “What keeps you up at night?” Without missing a beat, he replied, “The future of the Jewish people.”

Now that he has a piece of that future in his hands, he must have concluded that there’s no hopeful future for his people without the holy idea of compromise.

If you ask Nancy Pelosi, I’m sure she’ll tell you there’s no hopeful future for her infrastructure and reconciliation bills without that same holy idea.

Nancy Pelosi Must be Dreaming of Israel’s Coalition Read More »