On Kristallnacht, a (Final) Solution for NY Times’ Zionist Smears

Kristallnacht didn’t happen overnight. It was the culmination of years of newspaper articles, pamphlets, speeches, demonizing Jews into the Subhuman, ostracizing, then assaulting, intimidating, before the ‘final solution’ of rounding up for slaughter. How do you manage to convince hundreds of thousands to believe the Big Lies about Jews? George Orwell told us how: “The people will believe what the media tells them they believe.”  

The world has always needed a bogeyman — The Jews, to blame for their woes. Newspaper headlines and articles over the past decade, are increasingly infected with the stench of demeaning Zionists, Israel and Jews, as  ‘racist, genocidal ethnic cleansers, apartheid, white supremacist colonizers, as killers of Arab children.’  Israel is always blamed for…everything, while the Arabs are rarely, if ever, even criticized for…anything.  What comes after you are a Subhuman? Kristallnacht happened on November 9, 1938, yet  in 2021, American Jews, who make up no more than 2% of the US population, are the targets of nearly 60% of religious bias crimes. This is fueled by mainstream media’s utterly anti-Zionist agenda, an unapologetic alignment with an obsessive singling out of only Israel, whose very language repeats classic antisemitic lies about Jews. We are already seeing the next wave of Zionist intolerance, the beginnings of calls for violent resistance against any who support Israel, as justifiable, as the next new norm.

“On the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a Jew hunting mob on the streets of London” “Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, was forced out of the London School of Economics by violent racists on the hunt for a Jew to attack. Social media posts called for her car windows to be smashed. “Let’s frighten her. Let’s make her shake.” https://www.thejc.com/comment/leaders/on-the-anniversary-of-kristallnacht-a-jew-hunting-mob-on-the-streets-of-london-1.522409

“A concerning rise in anti-Semitism, on the eve of Kristallnacht” “Large mobs marched through Canadian cities, ostensibly to protest Israel’s war of self-defence against Hamas…protesters openly displayed the swastika..Jews in Toronto were chased and beaten…dozens called for violence against Jews in downtown Calgary…” https://nationalpost.com/opinion/michael-mostyn-a-concerning-rise-in-anti-semitism-on-the-eve-of-kristallnacht

“Branding American Jews as War Criminals: The Campaign to Ostracize American Jewry”“NYC has undergone years of violent antisemitism…NYC-based groups like “Decolonize This Place” were openly telling people the best way to act in solidarity with Palestinians was to “Find targets nearby, find where these Zionist fools live, and where their offices are, and act!”… What we are witnessing is a growing effort to make it impossible in the United States to be proudly and openly Jewish. And it’s working. A recent study by the American Jewish Committee found that 39% of American Jews changed their behavior over the past year due to antisemitism.”https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/11/08/branding-american-jews-as-war-criminals-the-campaign-to-ostracize-american-jewry/

Out of all the sources of today’s threats to Jews, the one that should be the most concerning for Jews and for democracy itself, is the blind acceptance of mainstream media’s biased, sloppy, inaccurate “reporting”, its deliberate, unapologetic selective amnesia skewing of facts, its re-writing of, and erasing Jewish and Israel’s history to buttress a relentlessly repetitive, anti-Israel narrative.  When newspapers take on an agenda of their own, perpetuate the Big Lies about Israel and what it means to be a Zionist, democracy cannot survive for very long. Its replacement is ‘Onespeak’—distorted views of who is the victim and who is the oppressor. Guess which category Israel and Jews fall into?  

As with the Nazi’s, it began with the media, then, drip-by-poison-drip, oozes into schools: “The Liberated group’s website, http://www.liberatedethnicstudies.org/teach-palestine.html, smears Israel with false charges of “settler colonialism”, “apartheid”, uses classic anti-Semitic tropes of Jewish wealth and power to vilify Jewish organizations speaking out about anti-Semitism; encourages teachers to “create a space within your school” to engage in anti-Zionist activism and to fight the “Zionist backlash,” identified as “white supremacy”; promotes anti-Zionist groups calling for Israel’s destruction; and provides “skill-building” and “training” on how to start your own BDS campaign….Liberated approach has been endorsed by the state’s two largest teachers’ unions, the California Teachers Association and the United Teachers of Los Angeles, and Cal State and UC ethnic studies departments. Liberated has already been successful in promoting its curriculum & consulting services…”https://thejewishvoice.com/2021/09/74-jewish-and-education-groups-join-thousands-of-petitioners-in-demanding-newsom-veto-ethnic-studies-requirement-bill/

This was never about, and is not now about Israel’s policies or “just Zionists.”  This is about Jew hate. Anti-Zionism is just the latest version of the oldest hatred. Jewish organizations are treading water, barely able to keep up with it.  We are drowning.  Where were our Jewish ‘leaders’ after 2014’s Gaza Operation Protective Edge when we still had a chance to turn this around, when the BDS/SJP mobs had not yet totally polluted our universities, when the media was not yet proudly boasting of an openly anti-Israel agenda? Where are you now? As far back as 2015, I advocated for every place where Jews gather to form proactive groups. I’m still waiting. This bears repeating. In my Blog, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/israel-gets-an-f/, I wrote, “The totality of the failure of collective American Jewish organizations to get even basic facts about Israel printed by mainstream media, or disseminated on campuses, or to the average American, is astounding.  I can’t think of a better time to revisit words of wisdom attributed to Albert Einstein, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” 

Antisemitic, Anti-Zionist speech has become so much a part of our daily lives, that we are now seeing “Courses” offered on ‘how to respond to antisemitism.’ Courses. Not petitions, not planing for massive marches, not picketing bigoted media and their CEO’s offices with loud bull horns, demanding they hire reporters who are pro-Israel, who are balanced and fair to Israel.  Courses. Typical Diaspora passive Jewish stuff, defensive posturing, reactive vs. proactive, more blah blah blah. 

Benjamin Kerstein, “A New Tack for US Jews Fighting Antisemitism: The ‘You’re Dead to Me’ Strategy.” “By now, the failure of the American Jewish establishment should be manifest and self-evident….the younger and better generation of activists who are doing their best to fight antisemitism where they can, but have been marginalized and ignored by a geriatric and enervated establishment determined to protect its power and privilege.”  Amen to that.  https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/10/12/a-new-tack-for-us-jews-fighting-antisemitism-the-youre-dead-to-me-strategy/

We bear witness to the vicious NY Times’ headlines, a catalyst for verbal and physical attacks on Jews worldwide:

“NY Times Hires Journalist Who Blamed Israel for Palestinian Suicide Bombers”  https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/11/09/new-york-NY Times-hires-journalist-who-blamed-israel-for-palestinian-suicide-bombers/

“NY Times RECASTS NAZIS, COLLABORATOR, AS ANTI-ZIONISTS”https://www.camera.org/article/ny-NY Times-recasts-nazis-collaborator-as-anti-zionists/

“NY Times Casts Violence Against Jewish Civilians as ‘Resistance’ ”https://www.camera.org/article/the-ny-NY Times-casts-violence-against-jewish-civilians-as-resistance/

“NY Times Tightens Ties With Foundation Known for Anti-Israel Grants”https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/10/05/new-york-NY Times-tightens-ties-with-foundation-known-for-anti

“NY Times BLAMES POWERFUL “RABBIS” FOR CRUSHING AOC’S PRINCIPLES”https://www.camera.org/article/ny-NY Times-blames-powerful-rabbis-for-crushing-aocs-principles

There are days when I honestly don’t know if I am more upset with the 1.75 MILLION Jews in New York State who are failing to protest this rag of a newspaper, or this rag itself.  Camera.org’s list of other offenders will take you months to read, if you have the stomach for it: https://www.camera.org/media-corrections/outlet/

Jewish leaders need to form a coalition, gather thousands of signatures, send media culprits a letter (below) demanding they, the NY Times, and all other mainstream media outlets, meet with them to hire knowledgeable pro-Israel journalists.  If they refuse, we begin large-scale picketing of their headquarters with loud bull horns, protests 24/7, until our demands are met. We fund billboards across America, full page ads, throw red paint on their doorsteps to symbolize the spilled blood of Jews being attacked, egged on by their demonizing of Zionists & Israel, handcuff ourselves to editors’ offices, until our Jewish Civil Rights are honored. 

I previously called for Jews, worldwide, to “put aside our differences” and fund our very own Public Relations Firm to get the truth, the facts about Israel out, to expose these media darlings, these Arabs’ repeated refusals for peace, their Nazi speech, in their own words on  https://palwatch.org/,  their true human rights violations by using civilians, schools, and children as human shields.  Perhaps then the world might rethink their myopic love affair with these Arabs. 

Someone once said,  “Don’t give up hope-Remember, Moses was once a basket case.”  We need to rediscover our collective Chutzpah before we are forced to give up all hope.

A (Final) Solution for NY Times’ & Mainstream Media:

TO:  NY Times: A.G. Sulzberger, Owner; Dean Baquet, Executive Editor; Editorial Board, Journalists & Staff

RE: Words Kill. We demand Remedial Action, as outlined below.  

The undersigned are outraged by the NY Times’ obsessive, factually incorrect, barrage of unfounded accusations, smears, singling out only Israel for relentless false blame, devoid of accurate historical or present day context.  When a major newspaper engages in visceral hatred of the Jewish State, falsely and maliciously depicts Israel as ‘baby killers, Zionists as racists, apartheid, white colonial oppressors’, what is the direct and indirect inevitable result?  Danny Danon, Israeli Ambassador to the UN, “The words…and the (NY Times’ multiple Nazi) cartoons turn into shootings against worshipers in synagogues.”   

“The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, has long dissected and debunked the NY Times’ faulty coverage of Israel...How low does the NY Times have to sink for them and their senior colleagues to finally acknowledge, if only to themselves, that the paper’s foundation is rotting, and that radical repairs are urgently needed?”    “Camera.org “has posted a new billboard outside the NY Times headquarters…Executive Director Andrea Levin, “the aim of the ad was to help bring attention to “the deplorable role of the NY Times today in failing to cover the full facts about antisemitism and actually fueling hostility towards Jews with its incessant, false and inflammatory depictions of Israel.”

Your Newspaper’s Selective Amnesia Never Mentions: 

• “For the first time, Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas has admitted that he rejected “out of hand” an Israeli offer for a PA state on nearly 95% of Judea and Samaria…Abbas: All Israel Is An “Occupation.” http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/203729#.V3dlcusrLnA
• The Arabs have 99.6% of the Middle East. Israel’s land comprises just  0.25% of the entire land mass of the Middle East, the approx. size of New Jersey. But this is still too much Jewish land for the NY Times. 
• Since 1947, Israel has been seeking a two-state solution. But the Arabs refuse to accept the reality of the Jewish state, refuse peace offers and refuse to negotiate, openly declare “From the River to the Sea”—no Israel in sight. That is the true obstacle to peace. And these truths go unreported. Israel affords full civil, religious, legal rights to all its citizens, while having to maintain full security against terrorism. Arabs sit in the Knesset. Israel is the only state in the Middle East ranked ‘Free’ by Freedom House, which evaluates countries according to their political rights and civil liberties. And relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth, in stark contrast to its Arab neighbors, all of which goes unreported because of your false, biased agenda. 
• You deliberately whitewash the violence storming Israel’s border: “Hamas co-founder admits ‘we are deceiving the public’ about peaceful protests. Mahmoud al-Zahar says Gaza border demonstrations are ‘peaceful resistance bolstered by a military force and by security.” https://www.NYTimesofisrael.com/hamas-co-founder-admits-we-are-deceiving-the-public-about-peaceful-protests/

The NY Times’ tradition of rejecting all things Jewish as tainted, relegating to its back pages, news reports on the Holocaust, as it was happening, continues on. The NY Times is an unrepentant lockstep soldier.  You hire guest editors who call for the end to Israel, and its nuclear capacity to defend itself from the openly stated genocidal intentions of Islamic Hamas and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Richard L. Cravatts, “Palestinianism and the New Anti-Semitism. How the supposed quest for Palestinian statehood and social justice is actually a campaign to slander and destroy Israel, “While Arab aggression and homicidal impulses against Jews have been unrelenting—before and since the creation of Israel—Palestinianism has been successful in casting the Arab Palestinians as the perennial victim of Jewish supremacism, even though the irredentist aims of the Islamists to establish a Muslim-only state in historic Palestine is the very form of self-determination that is repeatedly decried on the part of Israel for being racist, inhumane, internationally criminal, and morally unacceptable.”https://blogs.NY Timesofisrael.com/palestinianism-and-the-new-anti-semitism/ 

Jews who are forced to leave their countries because antisemitism makes it impossible to remain, ultimately means Jews will once again be scattered to the ends of the earth, as they were forced to do, after WWII.  Without a Jewish State, a home to flee to, Jews will eventually no longer be able to…be Jews. Perhaps this too is a longer term goal of the NY Times?

How many dead Israelis and dead Jews are enough for the NY Times?  We, the undersigned, have had enough. The NY Times and the world may need a bogeyman to blame for these Arabs’ woes (largely of their own peace refusal making), but we will not ever go quietly again.  It was only eighty years ago that Jewish children were being thrown alive into the crematoriums as the Allies descended on the death camps. The Jewish State, needs to be armed to the teeth to defend itself, to be powerful and avoid another Hamas or Islamic Republic of Iran generated genocide, and for that strength, is blamed. The NY Times would prefer Jews to be pitiful, weak and powerless, as more acceptable. We do not.

• We request you meet with us to review, from a list of names we will present to you, which pro-Israel journalists you will agree to hire.
• We request you create a working environment that is without harassment or censorship of pro-Israel perspectives.
• We request you circulate to your entire staff,  the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism to distinguish antisemitism from legitimate criticism. This should be uncontroversial, as the definition was adopted by the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, of which the United States is a member, in a 56-1 vote.  The United States now uses this working definition and has encouraged other governments and international organizations to use it as well. https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism, 

We are, and will hold you accountable.

Signed,

Ginette Weiner, (and hopefully soon, many more Jewish “leaders” )

PS: I just turned 70 but I’m ready to rock ‘n roll.  I’d rather go down protesting, wouldn’t you?