1605: Techno-douche

A straddle

Pillar 1: Increase awareness and understanding of antisemitism, including its threat to America, and broaden appreciation of Jewish American heritage

In order to fight antisemitism, Americans must recognize and understand it. The strategy seeks to increase awareness and education in schools, communities, and the workplace about both antisemitism, including the Holocaust, and Jewish American heritage.

The United States Holocaust and Memorial Museum will launch the first-ever U.S.-based Holocaust education research center to promote effective Holocaust education.

The National Endowment for the Humanities will issue a special call for research applications to study the origins, history, and effects of antisemitism in the United States, including the spread of antisemitism online.

Federal agencies will incorporate information about antisemitism into federal Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) training programs.

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"From the river to the sea" (Arabic: من النهر إلى البحر, romanized: min an-nahr ’ilā l-baḥr) is a political slogan associated with Palestinian nationalism. The slogan refers geographically to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which includes the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.[1][2]

The slogan has been employed by political groups since the 1960s to advocate for Palestinian liberation, with origins in the Palestinian National Council's initial charters, which demand a Palestinian state geographically encompassing all of historic Palestine. The slogan's meaning is contentious. Some construe it as a call for the dismantling of the Jewish state. Conversely, the slogan may be interpreted as advocating for a democratic state of Palestine encompassing what is today Israel and the Palestinian territories, where individuals of all religions would have equal citizenship.[1][3][4]

The slogan has been used by militant groups including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad that have vowed to destroy Israel. It is regarded by the ADL as antisemitic or hate speech suggesting that it denies the right of Jews for self-determination, or advocates for their removal or extermination.[5][6][7] It has also come under scrutiny in Germany, Austria,[8] the Netherlands[9] and the UK, where it has been proposed to classify it as a criminal offense.[1][7][10][11][12][13][14]

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Absolutely. We proudly endorse the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) until the Israeli government abides by international law.

BDS is a meaningful alternative to two decades of failed peace talks, and is the most effective grassroots means for applying nonviolent pressure to change Israeli policies.

Defenders of Israeli policy often assert that BDS is inherently antisemitic. We reject that idea, and we defend BDS activists when they are wrongly accused of antisemitism.

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I think my site is the only one that has covered the cancellation or diversion of most flights from the Eastern USA to Asia this week because a volcano on the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula erupted causing a risk to airplanes.

What’s interesting is that it’s right at the edge of the Russian Airspace that’s blocked and the jetstream blows the ash toward the open airspace. If there was no airspace closure, planes could go West of the volcano dodging the ash, but not an option. There’s a map on my site. A rather interesting danger to aviation caused by the airspace restrictions.

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This weekend American eliminated its hub in Austin (AUS). Virgin Atlantic had also announced it is leaving only a few days ago saying that corporate demand at Austin had cratered, although on my site the reported data shows it always sucked just because the landrush of airlines to Europe created too many seats. The situation for American was similar with Southwest and other airlines all growing well beyond demand. American isn't leaving Austin, but the new network means people won't really connect there any more, at least they are intended not to.

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Amid mounting curiosity over Kennedy being listed as one of the passengers, a spokesperson for the former Democrat exclusively told Newsweek that he had "flown one time on Jeffrey Epstein's private plane. It was in 1993 from [New York City] to Palm Beach [Florida] to visit RFK Jr.'s mom for Easter."

The spokesperson added that the private jet trip was made possible by Kennedy's then-wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who was friendly with Epstein's partner at the time, Ghislaine Maxwell. Richardson Kennedy passed away in 2012. Kennedy has been married to Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines since 2014.

"Mary, Kennedy's wife, and two of their kids were on the flight," the representative said. "Mary knew Epstein's girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who learned that they were going to Palm Beach for Easter and offered their family a ride."

While there has been no evidence to suggest that Epstein's listed plane passengers were involved in any of his crimes, a number of social media users have falsely pushed the suggestion that all those who knew him were in some way complicit.

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Former Blackrock asset manager and prominent data analyst Ed Dowd recently brought forth worrying data on the Dr. Drew show. Death rates among children in the UK are climbing '-- and fast.

According to yearly excess death data, available at phinancetechnologies.com, the years 2020 and 2021 had negative excess mortality rates, at -9% and -7%, respectively. This means that the death rate among children in that age group was less than anticipated for those years.

These rates dramatically shifted to 16% more deaths than anticipated in 2022 and a projected 22% more deaths than anticipated in 2023. Dowd blamed this rise in mortality on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout for this age group, which commenced in September 2021 for 12 to 15-year-olds and April 2022 for 5 to 11-year-olds.

Unpacking the 0.94 Correlation CoefficientIn statistics, the correlation coefficient measures the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two variables. The value of a correlation coefficient ranges from -1 to 1, with 0 indicating no correlation, -1 indicating a perfect negative linear correlation, and 1 indicating a perfect positive linear correlation.

Alarmingly, Dowd found a correlation coefficient of 0.94 between the vaccine rollout and excess deaths among UK children. This suggests a very strong positive linear relationship between the two factors. So, as one variable increases (vaccine uptake), the other variable (excess deaths) also increases in a way that is closely approximated by a straight line.

But couldn't the excess deaths be because of COVID-19 and not the vaccines?One, children are at a very, very low risk of dying from COVID-19. So, any increase in COVID-19 deaths one year over the other would hardly make a dent in overall deaths among children.

Two, Dowd showed that excess deaths among UK children were declining until late 2021 before the COVID-19 vaccines were introduced. After the vaccines were rolled out, excess deaths began to rise significantly.

Dowd also questioned why COVID-19 would be responsible for the increase in excess mortality among children only after the vaccines were introduced, and not before. He pointed out that if COVID-19 were the cause of increased excess mortality, we would have expected to see these elevated numbers in 2020 and 2021 as well.

Therefore, with all things considered, Ed Dowd concluded, ''It's the vaccine.''The sharp increase in excess death rates among UK children following COVID-19 vaccination prompts questions as to why authorities aren't calling for immediate and thorough investigations. They told us COVID measures were about ''health,'' so why aren't they investigating what's killing children? The only plausible explanation that makes sense is that they don't want to know the answer.

Ed Dowd's full interview with Dr. Drew is available to watch via the video below:

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MIAMI '' Under construction in Miami's Brickell neighborhood is a new school site and workforce housing that Miami-Dade County Public Schools hopes will be a model for all future redevelopment projects.

''What you are looking at here is a very unique collaboration between Miami-Dade County, public housing and community development, and the school district,'' said Raul Perez, the chief facilities, design and construction officer for Miami-Dade County Public Schools. ''They had this particular piece of property, allowing us to build the expansion of middle school grades 6-8 of Southside Preparatory Academy, along with workforce housing.''

The aim of the multi-million dollar school expansion and housing for educators project is to tackle three issues at the same time: a teacher shortage, the need for more school seats and access to workforce housing.

Local 10 News' Christina Vazquez went on a hard hat tour of the site on Monday and heard from Perez on several topics.

Perez on school enrollment: ''This will open additional enrollment at Southside for the entire school since middle school grades here, opening 6-8 here, and now-former K-8 campus, just elementary opening seats there, a critical expansion need for families in area.''

Student areas: ''This the dining room area and if you look back there, it looks like large stairs, it is for students to meet and collaborate and work together '-- like a coffee shop '-- an innovative idea we started bringing to high schools and now bringing to middle schools. The media center is on the third floor overlooking the dining area.

''Each floor features classrooms with natural light filtering through windows with spectacular views. The corner is the ''lantern'' corner window architecture design element that will be visible from I-95.

''The facility is seven stories. The PE area is on the rooftop, to include a basketball court, weight room, dance room, lockers and a running track. This is a district first. Most of our schools are one to three stories. This is the first school we ever built in an urban setting where need to build up.''

Residential areas: ''On the second and the third floor, those are the residential units. Roughly 600 square feet, one-bedroom apartments and above that you have the school itself. They have separate entrances.''

Vazquez asked Perez, ''Is that the idea that those who live here work for the district?''

''Yes, it's part of recruitment and retention for our employees, especially our teachers,'' he said. ''As you know, there's a teacher shortage nationwide, and the South Florida real estate rental market is extremely expensive, and so this is a unique way in allowing some of our employees an opportunity, especially our new incoming employees, to come into one of these units and others in the future and get started.''

Future plans: ''In the future, we have a property, a school at the border of Overtown and Wynwood, Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, and so that one is going to be redeveloped and there is going to be workforce housing, much larger than what we have here, along with a brand new redeveloped school.''

''We are the largest landowner in the county, we are working with other municipalities, public-public partnerships, public-private partnerships, to see how we can bring this type of model to those cities.''

Statement from Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins:

''Miami-Dade's collaboration with Miami-Dade Public Schools is not only important for our community, it's recognized nationally as an innovative approach to addressing multiple community needs in a comprehensive manner.

''Brickell is a growing neighborhood where we don't have enough school seats for all the young families that now live there. We also know we need more teacher housing, more affordable housing, and more workforce housing. This project is using one piece of County-owned land to address all four of these issues. It's even better because the hundreds of new housing units are located within walking distance to Metrorail and Metromover, saving families the expenses of owning a car.''

According to Higgins, the tower will have 465 units, 45% of which will be affordable housing or workforce priced units.

The building's parking will be shared by the school and the tower units.

For more information on the project and to view renderings, check out the PDF below or visit the district's website.

Copyright 2023 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.

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A state judge has taken the unusual step of ordering a new Democratic mayoral primary in Connecticut's largest city to be held after the Nov. 7 general election is completed. The decision comes after surveillance videos showed a woman stuffing what appeared to be absentee ballots into an outdoor ballot box days before the original primary.

Superior Court Judge William Clark determined the allegations of possible malfeasance warrant throwing out the results of the Sept. 12 primary, which incumbent Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim won by 251 votes out of 8,173 cast. Absentee ballots secured his margin of victory.

''The volume of ballots so mishandled is such that it calls the result of the primary election into serious doubt and leaves the court unable to determine the legitimate result of the primary,'' Clark wrote in his ruling, adding that the videos ''are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties.''

The new primary date has not been set yet.

Despite the judge's call for a new primary, the general election is expected to continue as planned. Ganim will appear as the Democratic nominee while Gomes will appear as an independent candidate. Republican David Herz and petitioning candidate Lamond Daniels are also running for mayor.

Ganim's opponent, John Gomes, whose campaign obtained the surveillance video and released it publicly after the primary, sued city officials and demanded a new primary, or for him to be declared the winner.

NBC Connecticut has not independently verified the video.

Under Connecticut law, voters using a collection box must drop off their completed ballots themselves, or designate certain family members, police, local election officials or a caregiver to do it for them.

The Gomes and Ganim campaigns did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.

''The video evidence, exhibits and testimony prove election fraud on a scale not seen in Connecticut - or anywhere else in the country - in recent history. Not only does the record prove election tampering, it was caught on video,'' Gomes' lawyers had written in a legal brief. They noted Gomes identified ''multiple violations'' of absentee ballot violations, including ''hundreds of absentee ballots'' cast by ''party operatives,'' which show the reliability of the primary results to be ''seriously in doubt.''

After reviewing more than 2,000 hours of surveillance video footage, Gomes' lawyers contend they determined about 420 people used the drop boxes but at least 1,255 ballots were submitted.

''A new primary must be ordered,'' they wrote.

Lawyers for city officials questioned the accuracy and relevance of Gomes' review of the video and argued in a joint legal brief that the video does not prove any illegality. They also noted repeatedly that ''not one voter'' testified about their ballot being mishandled.

The State Elections Enforcement Commission is currently investigating the allegations of ballot-stuffing, as well as other complaints of possible election improprieties surrounding the same primary.

Gomes, the city's former chief administrative officer and a one-time Ganim ally, contends the woman in the original surveillance video is Wanda Geter-Pataky, vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee and a Ganim supporter. Geter-Pataky exercised her right to remain silent multiple times in court concerning the case, including when asked if she's the person in the video. A former City Council member and current candidate also declined to answer whether she appears in other videos.

Bridgeport City Attorney, Mark Anastasi released a statement on Thursday.

''The City Attorney's Office is reviewing Judge Clark's opinion and all the legal options available to us. Meanwhile, as Judge Clark's decision makes clear, Tuesday's General Election is proceeding as scheduled and we encourage voters to participate in that election,'' the statement from Anastasi says.

Ganim, who was convicted of corruption during a first stint as mayor but won his old job back in an election after his release from prison, has repeatedly denied any knowledge of wrongdoing related to ballots and has raised concerns about other videos which he says show Gomes' campaign workers dropping in multiple pieces of paper resembling ballots. Gomes has said his staff did nothing wrong.

News of the Bridgeport videos has spread through right-wing social media platforms and on far-right media, connecting the controversy to the 2020 stolen election claims.

Associated Press writers Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Pat Eaton-Robb in Columbia, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

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Brianna Suggs worked to raise money for the mayor's 2021 campaign.

By Aaron Katersky Thursday, November 2, 2023 6:59PM

BROOKLYN, New York -- FBI agents searched the Crown Heights home Thursday of Brianna Suggs, a campaign consultant and top fundraiser linked to New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

The agents descended on the home on Lincoln Place in Brooklyn Thursday morning. The FBI declined to immediately comment on the reason, but acknowledged agents were at the address.

Adams unexpectedly returned from Washington, D.C., to New York despite a day of planned meetings with White House officials and other big city mayors on immigration.

His office said at the time the mayor was returning to "address a matter" but declined to elaborate.

Suggs was apparently at her home at the time of the search warrant. She has not been arrested.

City Hall referred ABC News to the mayor's campaign for comment.

"The campaign has always held itself to the highest standards," Adams 2021 campaign counsel Vito Pitta said in a statement. "The campaign will of course comply with any inquiries, as appropriate."

Pitta added in a later statement, "Mayor Adams has not been contacted as part of this inquiry. He has always held the campaign to the highest standards."

Suggs was an intern at Brooklyn Borough Hall when Adams was borough president in 2017, according to her Linkedin page, and coordinated fundraising for his 2021 mayoral campaign.

She says she raised $18.4 million for Adams' 2021 campaign, and at least $900,000 so far for his 2025 reelection effort.

She also launched Brianna Suggs and Associates in June 2022.

Copyright (C) 2023 ABC News Internet Ventures.

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Hundreds of anti-war protesters were almost arrested Thursday evening after blocking traffic for hours on N.C. Highway 147 in Durham during rush hour.

The protest started at CCB Plaza around 4 p.m., and protesters were calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

"We are demanding a ceasefire, and our elected officials have the power to do that," said Noah Rubin-Blose, a student rabbi in attendance.

Around 4:30 p.m., the group began marching from CCB plaza in Durham and continued onto N.C. 147.

The group could be seen blocking the roadway on the highway and were gathered on the railings of the Mangum Street overpass.

Sky 5 was over the scene as protesters blocked traffic during rush hour. The Durham police declared the movement an "illegal protest" around 6 p.m., and the road cleared around 7:49 p.m. Thursday.

"Some people are willing to risk arrest in this moment," said Kasey Kinsella, a volunteer at the protest. "That's something we're seeing across the country and the world when it comes to civil disobedience."

The protesters did allow traffic to flow through one lane on the Durham Freeway, but police completely shutdown the northbound lanes of the road.

The protesters have shut down traffic on the road for hours."I would like them to join us, [to] get our of their cars and join us," Rubin-Blose said.

The protest was organized by a pro-Palestinian group known as Jewish Voice for Peace.

''It is not antisemitic to call for a ceasefire,'' one protester said at CCB Plaza. ''To insist on a ceasefire is a refusal to justify the unjustifiable.''

The war between Israel and Hamas is in its fourth week. On Oct. 7, Hamas militants attacked Israel's southern border, killing at least 1,400 people and kidnapping more than 200 people.

Since the attack, the Israel Defense Force has hit Gaza with airstrikes and a ground assault. According to Hamas officials, more than 9,000 Palestinians '' including more than 3,600 children '' have died since the war started three weeks ago.

Calls for a ceasefire have increased after the IDF struck a Hamas target near a refugee camp. IDF officials confirmed some refugees were killed as a result of the attack. On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved nearly $14.5 billion in aid to Israel.

The bill, however, is tied to spending cuts in order to fund the aid.

The City of Raleigh has seen protesters supporting Palestinians, calling for the end of hostilities throughout October.

Many of the protesters held up signs for congressional representatives from North Carolina to support a ceasefire, including Congresswoman Valerie Foushee.

WRAL News reached out to Foushee, who provided the following statement:

"While I was previously unaware of today's unplanned protest that took place on the NC 147 highway, I understand and recognize that our entire world is hurting over the human tragedy and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, Israel and the surrounding region. Under international law, Israel has the right to defend itself in the aftermath of Hamas' terrorist attacks. The current humanitarian crisis must be addressed urgently and I stand with the Biden Administration on ensuring clean water, food and medicine and aid is delivered to any civilian affected by this conflict."

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Dive Brief:Olive, a healthcare AI startup that was once valued at $4 billion, announced on Tuesday that the company will shut down.The startup, which sold revenue cycle automation tools, will sell its clearinghouse and patient access businesses to Waystar and Humata Health. Those units represent ''the heart of Olive's business,'' and the company will wind down the rest of its operations. Olive had previously raised hundreds of millions of dollars, including a $400 million funding round, at the height of the digital health funding boom in 2021. Dive Insight:Olive's shutdown is the latest digital health powerhouse to close its doors after interest and funding in the space has waned since pandemic-fueled highs.

U.S.-based digital health startups raised more than $29 billion in 2021, shattering previous totals and propelling some companies to enter public markets.

But funding in the space has declined over the past two years. Startups raised just $2.5 billion in the third quarter of 2023, marking the second-lowest quarter of funding since the fourth quarter in 2019, according to Rock Health. The IPO market has also frozen, with few digital health players turning toward the public markets.

Companies like Olive that thrived during the pandemic-era digital health rush have filed for bankruptcy this year, including Pear Therapeutics, which developed digital therapeutics for substance use disorder and insomnia, and digital health firm Babylon.

Olive faced financial struggles over the past year. The company announced it had laid off about 450 workers in July 2022, with CEO Sean Lane saying the company's ''fast-paced growth and lack of focus'' had strained resources. Olive then cut 200 more jobs in February.

The automation startup had also divested product lines, including its population health and 340B management tools and its utilization management products for payers.

Health startups are ripe for merger and acquisition activity in the midst of a stalled funding environment, investors said at HLTH last month. Acquirers may take advantage of the worsened market to buy up new assets, particularly from point solutions providers who face heightened competition from firms that offer a range of products.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Palestinian political slogan

Map showing Israel and the Palestinian Territories as outlined by the Oslo Accords. The Jordan river is on the right, and the Mediterranean Sea is on the left."From the river to the sea" (Arabic: من اÙنهر Ø¥Ùى اÙبحر , romanized: min an-nahr 'ilā l-baḥr ) is a political slogan associated with Palestinian nationalism. The slogan refers geographically to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which includes the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.[1][2]

The slogan has been employed by political groups since the 1960s to advocate for Palestinian liberation, with origins in the Palestinian National Council's initial charters, which demand a Palestinian state geographically encompassing all of historic Palestine. The slogan's meaning is contentious. Some construe it as a call for the dismantling of the Jewish state. Conversely, the slogan may be interpreted as advocating for a democratic state of Palestine encompassing what is today Israel and the Palestinian territories, where individuals of all religions would have equal citizenship.[1][3][4]

The slogan has been used by militant groups including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad that have vowed to destroy Israel. It is regarded by the ADL as antisemitic or hate speech suggesting that it denies the right of Jews for self-determination, or advocates for their removal or extermination.[5][6][7] It has also come under scrutiny in Germany, Austria,[8] the Netherlands[9] and the UK, where it has been proposed to classify it as a criminal offense.[1][7][10][11][12][13][14]

Usage Originally a political slogan, it has been in use by Palestinian political groups since the 1960s as a call for Palestinian liberation. Initially popularized by the Palestine Liberation Organization upon its founding in 1964 as a "main goal of the movement", the phrase carried official weight within the PLO until the 1988 Algers Declaration, after which "the objective shifted to establishing a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders."[15][16] That same year saw the founding of Hamas, who integrated the slogan into its official platform, which - in contrast with the PLO's then recent tacit acceptance of UN Resolution 242 - called for the "obliteration of the state of Israel" and the killing of all of its Jewish citizens.[17][18][19][20]

By 1969, according to Professor Robin Kelley of the University of California, Los Angeles, the phrase "Free Palestine from the river to the sea" also represents a desire for "one democratic secular state that would supersede the ethno-religious state of Israel."[4] According to Associate Professor Ron J. Smith of Bucknell University, since Palestinian nationalism envisages a land-based state, while Israeli nationalism envisages an ethnically-based state, the use of this phrase is understood differently by Israelis and Palestinians. According to Ron Smith, for Palestinians it refers to the entirety of Mandatory Palestine.[21] In On 15 August 2023 the Dutch court of appeal gave legal protection to "From the river to the sea" on free speech grounds.[22]

The slogan has been used widely in pro-Palestinian protest movements.[23] It has often been chanted at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, usually followed or preceded by the phrase "Palestine will be free".[24][25][26] Interpretations differ amongst supporters of the slogan. Civic figures, activists, and progressive publications have said that it calls for a One-state solution, a single, secular state in all of historic Palestine where people of all religions have equal citizenship.[27] This stands in contrast to the Two-state solution, which envisions a Palestinian state existing alongside a Jewish state.[3][28][29][30] This usage has been described as speaking out for the right of Palestinians ''to live freely in the land from the river to the sea'', with Palestinian writer Yousef Munayyer describing the phrase as ''a rejoinder to the fragmentation of Palestinian land and people by Israeli occupation and discrimination.''[31] Others have simply said it stands for "the equal freedom and dignity of the Palestinian people."[28][32]

Some Islamic militant groups (including Hamas and Islamic Jihad), and Arab leaders (such as Saddam Hussein) came to utilize the slogan when calling for the supplementation of Israel with a unified Palestinian state, sometimes also proposing the removal of all or most of its Jewish population.[33][12][5][6][7][34][16] Hamas, as part of its revised 2017 charter, rejected ''any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea", referring to all areas of former Mandatory Palestine and by extent, the elimination of Jewish sovereignty in the region.[6][35][36][37] Islamic Jihad declared that ''from the river to the sea - [Palestine] is an Arab Islamic land that [it] is legally forbidden from abandoning any inch of, and the Israeli presence in Palestine is a null existence, which is forbidden by law to recognize.[14] Islamic supporters have utilized a version stating "Palestine is Islamic from the river to the sea", with certain Islamic scholars have declared the Mahdi - a redemptive apocalyptic figure central to Islamic eschatology - will declare "Jerusalem is Arab Muslim, and Palestine '-- all of it, from the river to the sea '-- is Arab Muslim."[38][39]

A similar slogan was used in a 1977 election platform of the Israeli political party Likud, which stated that "between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty".[4] Some commentators have referred to Israeli occupation as a policy of Israeli control and oppression of Palestinians "from the river to the sea."[40][41][42]

Antisemitism allegations Pro-Palestinian rally in Columbus, Ohio, 12 October 2023The phrase has been claimed by some politicians and advocacy groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee, to be antisemitic, hate speech, or even incitement to genocide,[12][10][11] suggesting that it denies the right of Jews for self-determination in their ancestral homeland, or advocates for their removal or extermination.[5][6][7][43] Such critics of the slogan claim that it has been explicitly used to call for the land to be placed entirely under Arab rule at the cost of the State of Israel and its Jewish citizens.[44] The usage of this phrase has had the effect of making some members of the Jewish community or people affiliated with Israel feel ostracized and unsafe.[6][45]

Palestinian-American writers such as Yousef Munayyer and University of Arizona professor Maha Nassar have suggested that such a persuasive definition relies on racist and Islamophobic assumptions.[29][46]

On International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in 2018, American academic Marc Lamont Hill made a speech at the United Nations ending with the words: "...we have an opportunity, to not just offer solidarity in words, but to commit to political action, grassroots action, local action, and international action that will give us what justice requires. And that is a free Palestine, from the river to the sea." The ADL accused Hill of using the phrase "from the river to the sea" as code for the destruction of Israel.[48] Hill was then fired from his position as a political commentator for CNN.[48]

On 30 October 2023, British Member of Parliament Andy McDonald was accused of antisemitism and suspended from the Labour Party after using the phrase in a pro-Palestine rally speech.[50] As of 1 November 2023, the UK Football Association barred the use of the slogan by its players, stating they made clear to teams "that this phrase is considered offensive to many'' and that the league will seek police guidance on how [they] should treat it and respond" if players are found to have used it.[51]

Criminalization Following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, British home secretary Suella Braverman proposed criminalizing the slogan in certain contexts.[52] On 11 October 2023, Vienna police banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration, citing the inclusion of the phrase "from the river to the sea" in invitations, which it said was a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.[7]

A majority of the Dutch parliament declared the phrase to be a call for violence.[9] Politicians in Austria and Germany have also considered classifying use of the phrase a criminal offense, with Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer suggesting that the phrase could be interpreted as a call for murder.[8][13]

References ^ a b c "The culture war over the Gaza war". The Economist. 28 October 2023. Archived from the original on 30 October 2023 . Retrieved 29 October 2023 . ^ Stripling, Jack (31 December 2023). "Colleges braced for antisemitism and violence. It's happening". The Washington Post . Retrieved 1 November 2023 . : "Defenders of the phrase often say that the line refers to a one-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians over that tract of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, in which Arabs and Jews could have equal voting rights. But the U.S. and U.N. position is that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state and that the conflict should be solved with a ''two-state solution,'' one country for each group". ^ a b Zhang, Jane (29 October 2023). "What does 'From the river to the sea' mean to Palestinians, Jews?". The Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved 31 October 2023 . ^ a b c Kelley 2019: "The Likud Party's founding charter reinforces this vision in its statement that "between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty."... During the mid-1960s, the PLO embraced the slogan, but it meant something altogether different from the Zionist vision of Jewish colonization. Instead, the 1964 and 1968 charters of the Palestine National Council (PNC) demanded "the recovery of the usurped homeland in its entirety" and the restoration of land and rights-including the right of self-determination-to the indigenous population. In other words, the PNC was calling for decolonization, but this did not mean the elimination or exclusion of all Jews from a Palestinian nation-only the settlers or colonists. According to the 1964 Charter, "Jews who are of Palestinian origin shall be considered Palestinians if they are willing to live peacefully and loyally in Palestine.' Following the 1967 war, the Arab National Movement, led by Dr. George Habash, merged with Youth for Revenge and the Palestine Liberation Front to form the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP embraced a Palestinian identity rooted in radical, Third World-oriented nationalism, officially identifying as Marxist-Leninist two years later. It envisioned a single, democratic, potentially socialist Palestinian state in which all peoples would enjoy citizenship. Likewise, Fatah leaders shifted from promoting the expulsion of settlers to embracing all Jews as citizens in a secular, democratic state. As one Fatah leader explained in early 1969, "If we are fighting a Jewish state of a racial kind, which had driven the Arabs out of their lands, it is not so as to replace it with an Arab state which would in turn drive out the Jews.. We are ready to look at anything with all our negotiating partners once our right to live in our homeland is recognized." Thus by 1969, "Free Palestine from the river to the sea" came to mean one democratic secular state that would supersede the ethno-religious state of Israel." ^ a b c Eichner, Itamar (25 October 2023). "Austria's Nehammer says pro-Hamas chants will become criminal offense". Ynetnews . Retrieved 26 October 2023 . ^ a b c d e "Allegation: "From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free" ". ADL . Retrieved 26 October 2023 . ^ a b c d e " 'From the river to the sea' prompts Vienna to ban pro-Palestinian protest". Reuters. 11 October 2023 . Retrieved 28 October 2023 . ^ a b Glenn, Matis (25 October 2023). "Austrian Chancellor Visits Israel, Says 'From the River...' Will Be Considered Call to Murder". Hamodia . Retrieved 28 October 2023 . ^ a b " 'From the river to the sea'-leus is geweldsoproep, vindt Kamermeerderheid". nos.nl (in Dutch). 25 October 2023 . Retrieved 2 November 2023 . ^ a b Malik, Kenan (23 May 2021). "From the river to the sea, Jews and Arabs must forge a shared future". The Guardian . Retrieved 28 October 2023 . "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," runs a Palestinian slogan. Originally a call for a secular state in historic Palestine between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean, it soon became a sectarian slogan, deeply inflected by antisemitism. In the hands of Hamas, it is a call for the driving out of all Jews from the region; at best, a demand for ethnic cleansing, at worst for genocide. ^ a b Mitnick, Joshua (1 May 2017). "A revised Hamas charter will moderate its stance toward Israel '-- slightly". The Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 29 October 2023 . While that may be a tacit acknowledgment of Israel's existence, the revision stops well short of recognizing Israel and reasserts calls for armed resistance toward a 'complete liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.''... "Hamas is attempting to fool the world, but it will not succeed," said a statement from the Israeli prime minister's office. "Daily, Hamas leaders call for genocide of all Jews and the destruction of Israel." ^ a b c " "From the River to the Sea" ". Translate Hate Glossary. AJC. 15 March 2021 . Retrieved 26 October 2023 . ^ a b "In Europe, Free Speech Is Under Threat For Palestine Supporters". Time. 20 October 2023 . Retrieved 28 October 2023 . ^ a b "Islamic Jihad Movement". AlJazeera.net. Al Jazeera . Retrieved 31 October 2023 . اÙاÙتزام بأن فÙØ"طين -من اÙنهر Ø¥Ùى اÙبحر- أرض Ø¥Ø"ÙاميØ(C) عربيØ(C) يحرم شرعا اÙتفريط في أي شبر منها، ÙاÙÙجÙد اÙØ¥Ø"راØ...يÙي في فÙØ"طين ÙجÙد باطÙ، يحرم شرعا اÙاعتراف به. [The commitment that Palestine - from the river to the sea - is an Arab Islamic land that is legally forbidden from abandoning any inch of it, and the Israeli presence in Palestine is a null existence, which is forbidden by law to recognize it.] ^ "INTERVIEW WITH RAMADAN SHALLAH (Part II): The Palestinian Resistance-A Reexamination". Journal of Palestine Studies. Milton Park, Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. 44 (3): 41. Spring 2015. doi:10.1525/jps.2015.44.3.39. JSTOR 10.1525/jps.2015.44.3.39 . Retrieved 2 November 2023 . "From the beginning of the conflict and until the interim platform of 1974,* the main goal of the movement was to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea [from the Jordan to the Mediterranean]. The 1974 platform trimmed that goal down to establishing a national authority in those areas that had been liberated. Later, after the Algiers Declaration of 1988 [when then-PLO Chairman Yair Arafat declared Palestine a state], the objective shifted to establishing a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Then there was Oslo, and the PLO's recognition of Israel in exchange for "self-governance" in the West Bank and Gaza, ostensibly as a first step toward full-fledged statehood in the framework of a two-state solution. But in actual fact, Oslo went way beyond the 1974 interim platform. It established that a [Palestinian] state would recognize Israel, normalize relations with it, and back down on the [Palestinian] right of return and of self-determination, all of which had been explicitly ruled out by the interim platform, which had moreover stipulated that any governing Palestinian authority or state would be established on territory that was "liberated" by armed struggle and not obtained via negotiation." ^ a b "Fatah leader: Armed struggle is the perfect choice to uproot the occupation". Qudspress.net. Quds Press. 10 November 2022 . Retrieved 31 October 2023 . 'ŽÙأشار اÙمقدح ÙÙ"قدØ" برØ"" اÙيÙم اÙخميØ"، Ø¥Ùى أن أب٠عمار "اØ"تدرك بعد تÙقيع اتفاق Ø£ÙØ"ÙÙ ( 13 أيÙÙÙ/ Ø"بتمبر 1993) بØ"نØ(C)؛ أنه Ùا جدÙى من اÙمفاÙضات مع هذا اÙمحتÙ، ÙÙا خيار ÙÙمÙاجهØ(C) Ø"Ùى خيار اÙمقاÙمØ(C)، ÙØ°Ùك قام بدعم قÙى ÙفصاØ...٠اÙمقاÙمØ(C) اÙفÙØ"طينيØ(C)؛ Ùمن (حماØ") Ù(اÙجهاد اÙØ¥Ø"Ùامي)، Ùغيرهما من اÙفصاØ...Ù". 'ŽÙأكد أن "انطÙاقØ(C) حركØ(C) فتح اÙتي Ø£Ø"Ø"ها اÙشهيد ياØ"ر عرفات، هدفت Ø¥Ùى تحرير كام٠اÙتراب اÙÙطني اÙفÙØ"طيني، من اÙنهر Ø¥Ùى اÙبحر. [Al-Maqdah pointed to "Quds Press" on Thursday, that Abu Ammar "took, after the signing of the Oslo Agreement (September 13, 1993) a year; that there is no point in negotiations with this occupier, and there is no option to confront except the option of resistance, so he supported the Palestinian resistance forces and factions; and from (Hamas), (Islamic Jihad), and other factions." He stressed that "the launch of the Fatah movement, founded by the martyr Yasser Arafat, aimed to liberate the entire Palestinian national territory, from the river to the sea."] ^ Herzog, Michael (March''April 2006). "Can Hamas Be Tamed?". Foreign Affairs. New York City: Council on Foreign Relations. 85 (2): 84''85. doi:10.2307/20031913. JSTOR 20031913 . Retrieved 2 November 2023 . The group's ideology was set forth in its 1988 covenant, which remains operative to this day. The covenant defines Palestinian nationalism and the conflict with Israel in religious terms: the land of Palestine "from the river to the sea" is considered an Islamic wagf, an "endowment," >> and so no Muslim has the right to cede any part of it. The covenant explicitly calls for the obliteration of the state of Israel through the power of the sword and portrays the Jews as the source of all evil in the world. ^ "Hamas Covenant 1988". Avalon.law.yale.edu. The Avalon Project / Yale University . Retrieved 2 November 2023 . Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it'... "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem). ^ Roy, Sara (2011). "Afterword to the Paperback Edition". Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 246''247. ISBN 9780691124483. JSTOR j.ctt46n3sw.15 . Retrieved 2 November 2023 . Palestine is ours, from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on an inch of the land. We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel, no matter how long it will take . . . The state will come from resistance, not negotiation . . .We don't fight Jews because they are Jews. We fight the Zionists because they are conquerors and we will continue to fight anyone who takes our land and our holy places . . . We fight those who fight us, who attack us, who besiege us, who attack our holy places and our land. . . .We will free Jerusalem inch by inch, stone by stone. ^ "Declaration of State of Palestine '' Palestine National Council". Un.org. United Nations. 18 November 1988 . Retrieved 2 November 2023 . With a view to putting this affirmation into practice, the Palestine National Council insists on the following: (a) The need to convene an effective international conference on the subject of the Middle East problem and its essence, the question of Palestine, under the auspices of the United Nations and with the participation of the permanent members of the Security Council and all parties to the conflict in the region, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, on an equal footing, with the provision that the said international conference shall be convened on the basis of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) and shall guarantee the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, first and foremost among which is the right to self-determination, in accordance with the principles and provisions of the Charter of the United Nations concerning the right to self-determination of peoples, the inadmissibility of seizure of land belonging to others by means of force or military invasion, and in accordance with United Nations resolutions concerning the question of Palestine; ^ Smith, Ron J. (2012). "Geographies of Dis/Topia in the Nation-State: Israel, Palestine, and the Geographies Of Liberation". Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. Berkely, California: International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE). 23 (2): 19''33. ISSN 1050-2092. JSTOR 41758893 . Retrieved 27 October 2023 . Thus, while the occupation functions through separation and isolation of Palestinian enclaves, Palestinian resistance remains national in character, insisting on the identity, culture and space represented by the phrase min al nahr ila al bahr, "from the river to the sea"'... In many ways Palestinian and Israeli visions of the state talk past one another, and there are significant differences in the portrayal of the future for each nation'... the territory of Israel has continued to expand, from its initial existence as a series of outposts in the first aliyah to a state-space encompassing the 1948 and 1967 territories. In this sense, it is the ethnic makeup of the state which defines it. This expansive and organic vision may be contrasted with the prevalent Palestinian nationalist narrative'... The Palestinians with whom I spoke in the course of my research had a vision of a nationalism that demanded a Palestinian state as an entity rooted in geographic, not ethnic, boundaries. When I asked, "Where is Palestine?" the answer often was "Min al nahr illa al bahr" ("from the river to the ocean"). This phrase refers to the historical boundaries of Mandate-era Palestine. By comparison, in normal conversation, the 1967 boundaries are represented as a more immediate future. Israelis interpret this geography as the embodiment of Gamal Abd Al-Nasser's alleged threat to "push them into the sea," a dystopic, millenarian recall of past genocides. However, what separates the Palestinian nationalist vision from that of the Israeli utopic state is that there is no attempt to define its ethnic makeup. It is merely a state where Palestinians can live in relative peace and freedom. This lack of ethnic demands on a future state is present in proclamations from Palestinian leaders that in the event of a Palestinian state coming into being on the 1967 borders, Jewish settlers who choose to remain will be granted Palestinian citizen-ship. This discrepancy is not merely a diplomatic flourish; not one of my respondents, regardless of political affiliation, expressed a vision of an ethnically pure Palestinian state. ^ Rajvanshi, Astha (20 October 2023). "In Europe, Free Speech Is Under Threat For Palestine Supporters". Time . Retrieved 2 November 2023 . ^ Barry Rubin (25 May 2010). The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist Movement. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-230-10687-1. Thus, the MAB slogan 'Palestine must be free, from the river to the sea' is now ubiquitous in anti-Israeli demonstrations in the UK ... ^ "From the river to the sea, Jews and Arabs must forge a shared future". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022 . Retrieved 22 September 2023 . ^ Tanny, Jarrod. "The Real Meaning of "From the River to the Sea" ". The Jewish Journal. ^ "What Does "From the River to the Sea" Really Mean?". Jewish Currents . Retrieved 31 October 2023 . ^ Bandler, Aaron (1 November 2021). "Dem NH Lawmaker Apologizes for 'From the River to the Sea' Tweet". The Jewish Journal. Archived from the original on 2 November 2021 . Retrieved 2 November 2021 . ^ a b Sculos, Bryant W (2019). " "A Free Palestine from the River to the Sea": The 9 Dirty Words You Can't Say (on T.V. or Anywhere Else)". Class, Race and Corporate Power. Miami, Florida: Florida International University. 7 (1). Article 6. doi:10.25148/crcp.7.1.008322. ISSN 2330-6297. S2CID 166905010 . Retrieved 31 October 2023 . ^ a b Nassar, Maha (3 December 2018). " 'From The River To The Sea' Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means". The Forward . Retrieved 26 October 2023 . ^ " 'From the river to the sea': What does the pro-Palestine chant actually mean?". Middle East Eye . Retrieved 31 October 2023 . ^ Munayyer, Yousef. "What Does "From the River to the Sea" Really Mean?". Jewishcurrents.org. Jewish Currents . Retrieved 27 October 2023 . ."From the river to the sea" is a rejoinder to the fragmentation of Palestinian land and people by Israeli occupation and discrimination. Palestinians have been divided in a myriad of ways by Israeli policy. There are Palestinian refugees denied repatriation because of discriminatory Israeli laws. There are Palestinians denied equal rights living within Israel's internationally recognized territory as second-class citizens. There are Palestinians living with no citizenship rights under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank. There are Palestinians in legal limbo in occupied Jerusalem and facing expulsion. There are Palestinians in Gaza living under an Israeli siege. All of them suffer from a range of policies in a singular system of discrimination and apartheid'--a system that can only be challenged by their unified opposition. All of them have a right to live freely in the land from the river to the sea." ^ " 'From the river to the sea': Why a chant for the freedom of an occupied people became so provocative". Dawn.com. 28 October 2023 . Retrieved 31 October 2023 . ^ "Israel-Hamas war: What does 'from the river to the sea' actually mean?". Sky News . Retrieved 28 October 2023 . ^ Wistrich, Robert S. (2003). "The Old-New Anti-Semitism". The National Interest (72): 59''70. JSTOR 42897483. ^ "A Document of General Principles and Policies (Hamas General Charter, rev. 2017)" (PDF) . FAS. Hamas . Retrieved 27 October 2023 . Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. ^ Nassar, Maha (3 December 2018). " 'From The River To The Sea' Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means". The Forward. Archived from the original on 20 December 2020 . Retrieved 28 December 2020 . ^ "Woman explains meaning of 'from the river to the sea' slogan, asks anti-Israelis to wake up and call out Hamas terror". Hindustan Times. 26 October 2023 . Retrieved 28 October 2023 . ^ Oliver, Anne Marie; Steinberg, Paul F. (1 February 2005). The Road to Martyrs' Square : A Journey into the World of the Suicide Bomber: A Journey into the World of the Suicide Bomber. Oxford University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-19-802756-0. ... a message reminiscent of the popular intifada slogan 'Palestine is ours from the river to the sea,' which in the hands of the Islamists became 'Palestine is Islamic from the river to the sea.' ^ Cook, David (1 August 2008). Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature. Syracuse University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-8156-3195-8. Jerusalem is Arab Muslim, and Palestine '-- all of it, from the river to the sea '-- is Arab Muslim, and there is no place in it for any who depart from peace or from Islam, other than those who submit to those standing under the rule of Islam. ^ "Israel Kills Dozens in Gaza While Imposing "Constant War" on Palestinian Residents of Jerusalem". Democracy Now!. 11 May 2021 . Retrieved 31 October 2023 . ^ Barnett, Michael; Brown, Nathan; Lynch, Marc; Telhami, Shibley (14 April 2023). "Israel's One-State Reality". Foreign Affairs. No. May/June 2023. ISSN 0015-7120 . Retrieved 31 October 2023 . ^ Matar, Haggai (6 August 2022). "The End of the Green Line'--Two Views". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378 . Retrieved 31 October 2023 . ^ Angelos, James (21 October 2023). "Israel-Hamas war cuts deep into Germany's soul". politico.eu. Politico Europe. "Hamas' ideology of extermination against everything Jewish is also having an effect in Germany," said the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the country's largest umbrella Jewish organization." ^ Patterson, David (18 October 2010). A Genealogy of Evil: Anti-Semitism from Nazism to Islamic Jihad. Cambridge University Press. p. 249. ISBN 978-1-139-49243-0. ... except the boundary indicated in their slogan 'From the river to the sea', which stipulated the obliteration of the Jewish state. ^ Maqbool, Aleem (31 October 2023). "British Jews are 'full of fear, like I've never seen before' ". BBC . Retrieved 1 November 2023 . " It is why Mr Bell says he feels unnerved by the demonstrations and particularly by the use of slogans like "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," referring to the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. He feels it can only mean the destruction of the Israeli state in its current form." ^ "What Does "From the River to the Sea" Really Mean?". Jewish Currents. 11 June 2021 . Retrieved 26 October 2023 . ^ a b "CNN fires analyst Marc Lamont Hill after UN speech on Israel". AP News. 29 November 2018. Archived from the original on 27 May 2021 . Retrieved 11 October 2023 . ^ "Labour MP Andy McDonald suspended over 'between the river and the sea' speech". The Independent. 30 October 2023 . Retrieved 1 November 2023 . ^ "FA will consult police if players use 'river to sea' phrase on social media". The Guardian. 1 November 2023 . Retrieved 1 November 2023 . After careful consideration, we will be writing to all clubs to make it clear that this phrase is considered offensive to many, and should not be used by players in social media posts. "The player has apologised and deleted the tweet. We are strongly encouraging clubs to ensure that players do not post content which may be offensive or inflammatory to any community. "If this phrase is used again by a football participant, we will seek police guidance on how we should treat it and respond. ^ Syal, Rajeev; Allegretti, Aubrey (10 October 2023). "Waving Palestinian flag may be a criminal offence, Braverman tells police". The Guardian . Retrieved 10 October 2023 . I would encourage police to consider whether chants such as: 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' should be understood as an expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world, and whether its use in certain contexts may amount to a racially aggravated section 5 public order offence. Bibliography Kelley, Robin (Summer 2019). "From the River to the Sea to Every Mountain Top: Solidarity as Worldmaking". Journal of Palestine Studies. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 48 (4): 69''91. doi:10.1525/jps.2019.48.4.69. JSTOR 26873236. S2CID 204447333. Hill, Marc Lamont (30 November 2018). Speech on the 70th Anniversary of the Nakba (Speech). Special Meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. New York City . Retrieved 11 October 2023 .

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Piece from DAWN: ''US Congress: Reject Bill to Support Forced Israeli Displacement of Palestinians'' by Ainsley Zimmer | Oct 30, 2023 | Director's Blog, Militarism and Foreign Policy

From Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN): US Should Push Israel to End War Crimes, Accept Ceasefire(Washington D.C., October 30, 2023) '' The United States should oppose any Israeli actions that could result in the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza,...#DroptheADL Power Hour with USCPR: call on media to stop platforming the ADL! by Nada Khader | Oct 26, 2023 | Blogs, Director's Blog, Militarism and Foreign Policy, Movement Building, Racial Justice

#DroptheADL Power Hour with USCPR: call on media to stop platforming the ADL!Dear friends,As we watch news coverage that papers over the unfolding genocide in Palestine, we are acutely aware of the Anti-Defamation League's role. The ADL has laid the groundwork for the...Elias Foundation Activist Fellowship Program 2024 by Ainsley Zimmer | Oct 23, 2023 | Director's Blog

From the Elias Foundation: Announcing the ACTIVIST FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM 2024 '' Deadline for Letters of Intent November 30, 2023 We are excited to again share with you this opportunity for Fellowships for activists in underserved communities. The Elias Foundation...WESPAC Peace Vigil 10-19-2023 by Nada Khader | Oct 20, 2023 | Blogs, Communities & Focus Areas, Director's Blog, Frontpage, Militarism and Foreign Policy, Racial Justice

Reflections on the last few days from Suhad Babaa by Ainsley Zimmer | Oct 12, 2023 | Director's Blog, Militarism and Foreign Policy

Good afternoon WESPACers, Here are some important words from Just Vision Executive Director, Suhad Babaa: I write this letter after a sleepless night checking in on our team in Israel-Palestine. Like so many in our community, I've been glued to the news and deeply...WESPAC Statement on Israel/Palestine by Nada Khader | Oct 10, 2023 | Blogs, Director's Blog, Militarism and Foreign Policy

WESPAC FOUNDATION STATEMENT We in the peace and justice community are shattered by the ongoing death and destruction in Israel and Palestine. We are in grief over the loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives in the past few days, months and years and are fearful about...

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Sun, 05 Nov 2023 12:43

Piece from DAWN: ''US Congress: Reject Bill to Support Forced Israeli Displacement of Palestinians'' Oct 30, 2023

From Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN): US Should Push Israel to End War Crimes, Accept Ceasefire(Washington D.C., October 30, 2023) '' The United States should oppose any Israeli actions that could result in the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza,...

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#DroptheADL Power Hour with USCPR: call on media to stop platforming the ADL!Dear friends,As we watch news coverage that papers over the unfolding genocide in Palestine, we are acutely aware of the Anti-Defamation League's role. The ADL has laid the groundwork for the...

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From the Elias Foundation: Announcing the ACTIVIST FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM 2024 - Deadline for Letters of Intent November 30, 2023 We are excited to again share with you this opportunity for Fellowships for activists in underserved communities. The Elias Foundation is...

read moreWESPAC Peace Vigil 10-19-2023 Oct 20, 2023

https://youtu.be/JkMhc4laloU

read moreReflections on the last few days from Suhad Babaa Oct 12, 2023

Good afternoon WESPACers, Here are some important words from Just Vision Executive Director, Suhad Babaa: I write this letter after a sleepless night checking in on our team in Israel-Palestine. Like so many in our community, I've been glued to the news and deeply...

read moreWESPAC Statement on Israel/Palestine Oct 10, 2023

WESPAC FOUNDATION STATEMENT We in the peace and justice community are shattered by the ongoing death and destruction in Israel and Palestine. We are in grief over the loss of Palestinian and Israeli lives in the past few days, months and years and are fearful about...

read moreSeptember 2023 Newsletter Oct 2, 2023

Good morning and happy Monday! If you missed the September newsletter via email, here it is. Thank you all, as always, for your support of and dedication to our peace and justice work! WESPAC September 2023 Newsletter

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Sun, 05 Nov 2023 12:40

The U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) is a Palestinian and Arab community-based organization, founded in 2006 to revitalize grass-roots organizing in Palestinian and Arab communities in the U.S., as part of the broader Palestinian nation in exile and the homeland.

All Palestinians and Arabs can email uspcn@uspcn.org or click here to join us. We welcome annual contributions from non-Arab ''Friends of USPCN'' as well!

Make a tax-deductible donation NOW via our fiscal agent, WESPAC Foundation!

And follow USPCN on Twitter, like our Facebook page, and check us out on Instagram!

History and political principles:

On August 8-10, 2008, USPCN launched its work by organizing the first Palestinian Popular Conference in the U.S. in over a decade, drawing 1,200 attendees from our communities across the U.S. to empower our movement, unify our voice, and affirm the right of Palestinians in the Shatat (exile) to participate fully in shaping our struggle for national liberation.

Our guiding principles:

Self-determination and freedom for the Palestinian people '-- ''From the River to the Sea'' '-- in an independent, liberated state with Jerusalem as our capital;The right of all Palestinian refugees, and their descendants, to return to the original homes and lands they were exiled from in historical Palestine in 1947-8 during the Nakba (Catastrophe) and again in 1967; andThe right of resistance against zionist occupation and colonization of all Palestinian and Arab lands.USPCN has members in dozens of states, with chapters in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Chicago, Youngstown, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Madison, Houston, Detroit / Dearborn, New York, and Washington DC.

Organizing work across the U.S.

We organize around a number of campaigns and projects, especially:

Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS), including our most recent #BoycottSadaf launch;Defending Palestinians and allies against repression, including the historic Rasmea Defense Committee, the Antiwar 23 victory, and #StandWithThe6;Protests and direct actions against zionist institutions and individuals, especially attempts at normalization and whitewashing Israeli crimes;Political prisoner advocacy, including #FreeAhmadManasra, #FreeKhitamSaafin, #FreeKhalidaJarrar, #SaveWalidDaqqa, and many others;Arts and culture events and tours, including visits to the U.S. from the Ramallah-based Wishah Popular Dance Troupe and Gaza visual artist Mohammed Qraiqae, respectively; andEducational events, including the May 2023 Nakba 75 tour with Chief Nkosi Mandela from South Africa. Go to MandelaTour.com for details.### End ###

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Sun, 05 Nov 2023 12:26

T he new House speaker, Mike Johnson, knows how he will rule: according to his Bible. When asked on Fox News how he would make public policy, he replied: ''Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That's my worldview.'' But it's taking time for the full significance of that statement to sink in. Johnson is in fact a believer in scriptural originalism, the view that the Bible is the truth and the sole legitimate source for public policy.

He was most candid about this in 2016, when he declared: ''You know, we don't live in a democracy'' but a ''biblical'' republic. Chalk up his elevation to the speakership as the greatest victory so far within Congress for the religious right in its holy war to turn the US government into a theocracy.

Since his fellow Republicans made him their leader, numerous articles have reported Johnson's religiously motivated, far-right views on abortion, same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights. But that barely scratches the surface. Johnson was a senior lawyer for the extremist Alliance Defending Fund (later the Alliance Defending Freedom) from 2002 to 2010. This is the organization responsible for orchestrating the 303 Creative v Elenis legal arguments to obtain a ruling from the supreme court permitting a wedding website designer to refuse to do business with gay couples. It also played a significant role in annulling Roe v Wade.

The ADF has always been opposed to privacy rights, abortion and birth control. Now Roe is gone, the group is laying the groundwork to end protection for birth control. Those who thought Roe would never be overruled should understand that the reasoning in Dobbs v Jackson is not tailored to abortion. Dobbs was explicitly written to be the legal fortress from which the right will launch their attacks against other fundamental rights their extremist Christian beliefs reject. They are passionate about rolling back the right to contraception, the right to same-sex marriage and the right to sexual privacy between consenting adults.

Johnson's inerrant biblical truth leads him to reject science. Johnson was a ''young earth creationist'', holding that a literal reading of Genesis means that the earth is only a few thousand years old and humans walked alongside dinosaurs. He has been the attorney for and partner in Kentucky's Creation Museum and Ark amusement park, which present these beliefs as scientific fact, a familiar sleight of hand where the end (garnering more believers) justifies the means (lying about science). For them, the end always justifies the means. That's why they don't even blink when non-believers suffer for their dogma.

Setting aside all of these wildly extreme, religiously motivated policy preferences, there is a more insidious threat to America in Johnson's embrace of scriptural originalism: his belief that subjective interpretation of the Bible provides the master plan for governance. Religious truth is neither rational nor susceptible to reasoned debate. For Johnson, who sees a Manichean world divided between the saved who are going to heaven and the unsaved going to hell, there is no middle ground. Constitutional politics withers and is replaced with a battle of the faithful against the infidels. Sound familiar? Maybe in Tehran or Kabul or Riyadh. But in America?

When rulers insist the law should be driven by a particular religious viewpoint, they are systematizing their beliefs and imposing a theocracy. We have thousands of religious sects in the US and there is no religious majority, but we now have a politically fervent conservative religious movement of Christian nationalists intent on shaping policy to match their understanding of God and theirs alone. The Republicans who elected Johnson speaker, by a unanimous vote, have aligned themselves with total political rule by an intolerant religious sect.

The philosopher and theologian S¸ren Kierkegaard eloquently explained that religion is a ''leap of faith'', not susceptible to reasoned discourse. The framers of the constitution and Bill of Rights thought the same. Under the first amendment, Americans have an absolute right to believe anything we choose and courts may not second-guess whether a believer's truth is supported in reason or fact. For a believer, their belief is their ''truth'', but for the republic, it is simply one of millions of beliefs across a country where all are free to believe. Thus, a scriptural originalist is by definition incapable of public policy discussions with those who do not share their faith.

The grand irony is that being a ''scriptural originalist'' is oxymoronic. The colonies were first populated by those fleeing the theocracies of Europe '' a fact the founders knew and respected. Millions were killed during the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation and the Spanish and Roman inquisitions, because only one faith could rule. Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, as well as many other kings and queens, ordered apostates killed, imprisoned or exiled. Current theocracies underscore this historical reality. The Pilgrims fled England because they were at risk of punishment and even death for observing the wrong faith. So did the Quakers, Baptists and Presbyterians. Despite the ahistorical attempts of rightwing ideologues to claim we are or were a monolithic ''Christian country'', this was always a religiously diverse country, and they did not all get along at first. Jews arrived in 1654. Early establishments faded away in the early 19th century as they could not be sustained in the face of our diversity.

The founders' 18th-century enlightenment values directly repudiate Johnson's 21st-century theocratic dogmaThe primary drafter of the first amendment, James Madison, was keenly aware of these realities as he reflected on the dangerous history of theocracies in his famous Memorial and Remonstrance, opposing Virginia taxes for Christian education, asking: ''Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?''

Madison further invoked the Inquisition, stating that a bill funding religious education through taxes ''degrades from the equal rank of citizens all those whose opinions in religion do not bend to those of the legislative authority. Distant as it may be in its present form from the Inquisition, it differs from it only in degree. The one is the first step, the other the last in the career of intolerance.'' US history is proving him correct.

Johnson isn't just talking about a tax to support his brand of Christian nationalism, though the right's religious movement, with the approval of the supreme court, has gone all out to ensure that as many tax dollars flow to their mission as possible. Johnson has asserted the hackneyed conservative theory of original intent '' that the constitution must be interpreted precisely according to what the founders said '' but with a twist. According to Johnson, George Washington and John Adams and all the others ''told us that if we didn't maintain those 18th-century values, that the republic would not stand, and this is the condition we find ourselves in today''. The founders, according to Johnson, were scriptural originalists and he's here to take us back to their ''true'' Christian beliefs. In fact, the founders' 18th-century enlightenment values directly repudiate Johnson's 21st-century theocratic dogma.

The Constitutional Convention itself shows how little support there is for the view that America started from a dogma-soaked worldview. During debates, Benjamin Franklin proposed bringing in a member of the clergy to guide them with prayer. Only three or four out of 55 framers agreed. The matter was dropped.

L ess than a decade ago, it looked like the religious right had lost the culture wars. The turning point seemed to be the decision in Obergefell v Hodges in 2015, which established same-sex marriage as a constitutional right. ''It's about everything,'' Focus on the Family's James Dobson mourned, ''We lost the entire culture war with that one decision.''

Leonard Leo speaks to media at Trump Tower. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/APBut instead of surrendering, the truest believers vowed to supplant democracy. They doubled down on furiously grabbing political power, to force everyone else to live their religious lives. Led by the likes of Leonard Leo, a reactionary Catholic theocrat who is chair of the Federalist Society's board of directors, Dobson and many other Republicans, including the then little-known Mike Johnson, remade the supreme court and instituted stringent religious litmus tests for Republican candidates. Unable to control the culture, they have mounted a legal-political crusade against all who refuse to embrace their religious worldview.

In little over a year, since Dobbs, the theocrats have converted their belief in the divinity of the fetus and disdain for the life of the pregnant into law, in one Republican-dominated state after another. But that is just a preview. Johnson and his crusaders would like to insert their scriptural originalism into every nook and cranny of federal law and public policy, to create a blanket of religious hegemony. Conservative governors and legislators have shamelessly invoked their God as the legislative purpose behind such draconian limitations.

In the US, the peaceful coexistence of thousands of faiths was made possible in great part by the separation of church and state, which was demanded by Baptists in Massachusetts, Virginia and other places where they were being ostracized, taxed, flogged, imprisoned and even killed for their beliefs. That separation, which is the wall that protects religious liberty and prevents religious hegemony, was engraved in the constitution. How cruel an irony that some of the spiritual descendants of those persecuted Baptists should, like Mike Johnson, pervert American history and the constitution to impose a theocracy that would mean the end of democracy.

Marci A Hamilton is a professor of practice and the Fox Family Pavilion non-resident senior fellow in the Program for Research on Religion at the University of Pennsylvania

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Sun, 05 Nov 2023 02:57

WASHINGTON '-- U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.

The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.

The discussions are an acknowledgment of the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.

They began amid concerns among U.S. and European officials that the war has reached a stalemate and about the ability to continue providing aid to Ukraine, officials said. Biden administration officials also are worried that Ukraine is running out of forces, while Russia has a seemingly endless supply, officials said. Ukraine is also struggling with recruiting and has recently seen public protests about some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's open-ended conscription requirements.

And there is unease in the U.S. government with how much less public attention the war in Ukraine has garnered since the Israel-Hamas war began nearly a month ago, the officials said. Officials fear that shift could make securing additional aid for Kyiv more difficult.

Some U.S. military officials have privately begun using the term ''stalemate'' to describe the current battle in Ukraine, with some saying it may come down to which side can maintain a military force the longest. Neither side is making large strides on the battlefield, which some U.S. officials now describe as a war of inches. Officials also have privately said Ukraine likely only has until the end of the year or shortly thereafter before more urgent discussions about peace negotiations should begin. U.S. officials have shared their views on such a timeline with European allies, officials said.

''Any decisions about negotiations are up to Ukraine,'' Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement. ''We are focused on continuing to stand strongly in support of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence against Russian aggression.''

An administration official also noted that the U.S. has participated with Ukraine in discussions of its peace summit framework but said the White House ''is not aware of any other conversations with Ukraine about negotiations at the moment.''

Questions about manpowerPresident Joe Biden has been intensely focused on Ukraine's depleting military forces, according to two people familiar with the matter.

"Manpower is at the top of the administration's concerns right now,'' one said. The U.S. and its allies can provide Ukraine with weaponry, this person said, ''but if they don't have competent forces to use them it doesn't do a lot of good''

Biden has requested that Congress authorize additional funding for Ukraine, but, so far, the effort has failed to progress because of resistance from some congressional Republicans. The White House has linked aid for Ukraine and Israel in its most recent request. That has support among some congressional Republicans, but other GOP lawmakers have said they'll only vote for an Israel-only aid package.

Before the Israel-Hamas war began, White House officials publicly expressed confidence that additional Ukraine funding would pass Congress before the end of this year, while privately conceding concerns about how difficult that might be.

Biden had been reassuring U.S. allies that Congress will approve more aid for Ukraine and planned a major speech on the issue. Once Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the president's focus shifted to the Middle East, and his Ukraine speech morphed into an Oval Office address about why the U.S. should financially support Ukraine and Israel.

Is Putin ready to negotiate?The Biden administration does not have any indication that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to negotiate with Ukraine, two U.S. officials said. Western officials say Putin still believes he can ''wait out the West,'' or keep fighting until the U.S. and its allies lose domestic support for funding Ukraine or the struggle to supply Kyiv with weapons and ammunition becomes too costly, officials said.

Both Ukraine and Russia are struggling to keep up with military supplies. Russia has ramped up production of artillery rounds, and, over the next couple years may be able to produce 2 million shells per year, according to a Western official. But Russia fired an estimated 10 million rounds in Ukraine last year, the official said, so it will also have to rely on other countries.

The Biden administration has spent $43.9 billion on security assistance for Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022, according to the Pentagon. A U.S. official says the administration has about $5 billion left to send to Ukraine before money runs out. There would be no aid left for Ukraine if the administration hadn't said it found a $6.2 billion accounting error from months of over-valuing equipment sent to Kyiv.

Public support slippingProgress in Ukraine's counteroffensive has been very slow, and hope that Ukraine will make significant advances, including reaching the coast near Russia's frontlines, is fading. A lack of significant progress on the battlefield in Ukraine does not help with trying to reverse the downward trend in public support for sending more aid, officials said.

A Gallup poll released this week shows decreasing support for sending additional aid to Ukraine, with 41% of Americans saying the U.S. is doing too much to help Kyiv. That's a significant change from just three months ago when 24% of Americans said they felt that way. The poll also found that 33% of Americans think the U.S. is doing the right amount for Ukraine, while 25% said the U.S. is not doing enough.

Public sentiment toward assisting Ukraine is also starting to soften in Europe.

As incentive for Zelenskyy to consider negotiations, NATO could offer Kyiv some security guarantees, even without Ukraine formally becoming part of the alliance, officials said. That way, officials said, the Ukrainians could be assured that Russia would be deterred from invading again.

In August national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters, ''We do not assess that the conflict is a stalemate.'' Instead, Sullivan said, Ukraine is taking territory on a ''methodical, systematic basis.''

But a Western official acknowledged there has not been a lot of movement by either side in some time, and with the cold weather approaching it will be tough for either Ukraine or Russia to break that pattern. The official said it will not be impossible, but it will be difficult.

U.S. officials also assess that Russia will attempt to hit critical infrastructure in Ukraine again this winter, attempting to force some civilians to endure a frigid winter without heat or power.

Administration officials expect Ukraine to want more time to fight on the battlefield, particularly with new, heavier equipment, ''but there's a growing sense that it's too late, and it's time to do a deal,'' the former senior administration official said. It is not certain that Ukraine would mount another spring offensive.

One senior administration official pushed back on any notion of the U.S. nudging Ukraine toward talks. The Ukrainians, the official said, ''are on the clock in terms of weather, but they are not on the clock in terms of geopolitics.''

Courtney Kube Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Carol E. Lee Carol E. Lee is an NBC News correspondent.

Kristen Welker Kristen Welker is the moderator of "Meet the Press".

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Archived Version

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 16:27

The Biden-Harris Administration released the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism on May 25, 2023. The strategy outlines a whole-of-society approach to tackle the scourge of antisemitism in America. It features over 100 meaningful actions that over two dozen government agencies will take to counter antisemitism, as well as over 100 calls to action for Congress, State and local governments, companies, technology platforms, students, teachers and academics, civil society and faith leaders, and others to counter antisemitism. The four pillars of the strategy address key themes and threats raised by over 1,000 diverse stakeholders across the Jewish community and beyond: (1) increasing awareness and understanding of antisemitism, including its threat to America, and broaden appreciation of Jewish American heritage; (2) improving safety and security for Jewish communities; (3) reversing the normalization of antisemitism and countering antisemitic discrimination; and (4) building cross-community solidarity and collective action against hate.

Pillar 1: Increase awareness and understanding of antisemitism, including its threat to America, and broaden appreciation of Jewish American heritage

In order to fight antisemitism, Americans must recognize and understand it. The strategy seeks to increase awareness and education in schools, communities, and the workplace about both antisemitism, including the Holocaust, and Jewish American heritage.

The United States Holocaust and Memorial Museum will launch the first-ever U.S.-based Holocaust education research center to promote effective Holocaust education.The National Endowment for the Humanities will issue a special call for research applications to study the origins, history, and effects of antisemitism in the United States, including the spread of antisemitism online.Federal agencies will incorporate information about antisemitism into federal Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) training programs.The Department of Labor will disseminate model resources for unions on how to recognize antisemitism and how countering antisemitism relates to workers' rights.The Small Business Administration will facilitate the provision of training and resources for small business owners and employees on understanding, preventing, and responding to antisemitism.The Institute of Museum and Library Services will partner with the Council of American Jewish Museums to host a summit for museums, libraries, and archives on countering antisemitism.Pillar 2: Improve safety and security for Jewish communities

To prevent violence against Jewish communities through accountability, deterrence, and effective responses to attacks, the strategy aims to improve data collection on antisemitism, ensure vigorous enforcement of hate crime laws, and increase federal funding for the physical security of Jewish institutions.

This summer, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security will undertake targeted engagements with the Jewish community to understand and help address their security needs.The White House will launch an interagency effort to understand the barriers to reporting hate incidents, eliminate those barriers, and improve criminal justice data reporting.The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice published and disseminated a resource guide for houses of worship and other faith-based institutions to increase security while sustaining an open and welcoming environment.The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will offer risk assessments, planning assistance, and active shooter and bomb prevention-related training to Jewish houses of worship, community centers, and day schools.The Department of Commerce will publish a report on telecommunications' role in the commission of hate crimes, including the use of social media in antisemitic harassment.The Biden-Harris Administration calls on Congress to fully fund its FY24 budget request of $360 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP)'--$55 million above the FY23 enacted amount.Pillar 3: Reverse the normalization of antisemitism and counter antisemitic discrimination

To address the rise of antisemitic speech and intimidation in the public square and especially online, the strategy urges all Americans to speak out against antisemitism and calls on Congress and tech platforms to take action to address hate online. The strategy also commits agencies to raise awareness of and fully enforce federal nondiscrimination laws. It additionally aims to boost digital literacy and civics education and combat growing antisemitism in schools and especially on college campuses.

The Department of Education will launch an Antisemitism Awareness Campaign aimed at raising awareness among educators, students, parents, and school communities about the alarming rise of antisemitism and giving them the tools to address it. Federal agencies will raise awareness about and fully enforce federal nondiscrimination laws to counter antisemitic and related forms of discrimination as well as promote religious communities' equitable access to government programs and religious accommodations. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a letter to the over 200 federally-funded Fair Housing Initiatives Programs and Fair Housing Assistance Programs on how to identify and counter antisemitism, Islamophobia, and related forms of bias and discrimination in housing. The Department of Agriculture will work to ensure equal access to all USDA feeding programs for USDA customers with religious dietary needs, including kosher and halal dietary needs. The Department of Health and Human Services will similarly expand efforts to ensure kosher and halal foods are provided in hospitals.The Department of Defense will evaluate all existing training to identify any gaps in coverage of antisemitic conduct as a form of prohibited discrimination.The Biden-Harris Administration calls on Congress to hold social media platforms accountable for spreading hate-fueled violence, including antisemitism, by requiring fundamental reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and by removing special immunity for online platforms; to impose much stronger transparency requirements on online platforms, including their algorithmic recommendation systems, content moderation decisions, and enforcement of community standards; and to pass legislation requiring platforms to enable timely and robust public interest research, including on the spread of antisemitism and other forms of hate, using platforms' data and analyzing their algorithmic recommendation systems, while maintaining users' privacy.The Biden-Harris Administration encourages all online platforms to independently commit to actions such as ensuring that terms of service and community standards explicitly cover antisemitism; adopt zero-tolerance standards for hate speech, including antisemitism; permanently ban repeat offenders, both personal accounts and extremist websites; invest in the human and technical resources necessary to enable vigorous and timely enforcement of their terms of service and community standards; improve capabilities to stop recommending and de-rank antisemitic and other hateful content; and increase the transparency of their algorithmic recommendation systems and data.Pillar 4: Build cross-community solidarity and collective action to counter hate

Partnerships across diverse communities and faiths provide a foundation to counter antisemitism and other forms of hate. They are one of America's greatest strengths. To strengthen the bonds of solidarity and mutual support among Jewish and other communities, the strategy expands the most effective efforts at coalition-building against hate and supports efforts to mobilize multi-faith partnerships nationwide.

The President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition will launch a digital campaign to spotlight the importance of cross-community solidarity.The President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities will work with national and local leaders in the public, private, and non-profit sectors to bolster social cohesion in America, and combat hate and targeted violence.The White House Office of Public Engagement will launch the Ally Challenge, inviting Americans to describe their acts of allyship with Jewish, Muslim, or other communities that are not their own. The White House will recognize leaders of outstanding projects.The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will, in cooperation with federal agency Centers for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and diverse faith leaders, produce a toolkit for faith communities on standing in solidarity with other religious communities to combat antisemitism and other forms of hate.The Department of Veterans Affairs will expand its chaplain partnership with Jewish, Muslim, and other chaplain associations and facilitate local multi-faith partnerships among chaplains of diverse faiths.

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Archived Version

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 16:23

The Israelis are promoting a Red Sea-Mediterranean Sea waterway, the Ben Gurion Canal, as a rival to the Suez Canal. As per the Israelis, the distance between Eilat, a southern Israeli port and resort town on the Red Sea near Jordan, and the Mediterranean is not long and is in fact similar to the distance of the Suez connection between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

Although it poses a direct threat to Egypt's Suez Canal but Suez Canal is shorter than the Israeli route and the Suez Canal rarely reaches 100 meters in height making it a better option. At the same time, Israel says this route is good for the ships which are unable to transit the Suez Canal due to restrictions on the size of the ship.History of Canal proposals via IsraelIn the mid-1800, the British considered the proposal of a canal to the Red Sea via the Dead Sea. In 1855, Rear Admiral William Allen FRS, an English naval officer and an explorer proposed an alternative to the Suez Canal titled ''The Dead Sea '' A new route to India.'' But William Allen did not know that the dead Sea was much below sea level. His idea was that a canal that would connect the three water bodies, Red Sea, Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, would be cheaper than the projected Suez Canal.

The US toyed with the idea of digging a canal opposite the Suez Canal in 1963. It was recommended in a memo submitted by Lawrence Livermore Patriot Laps in the US as a response to the decision taken by the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to nationalize the Suez Canal in 1956. The controversial plan was revealed to the world only in 1994. The controversial US proposal involved 520 nuclear blasts to excavate more than 160 odd miles through Israel's Negev desert, instead of traditional methods. The contentious proposal also noted that the project will be aggressively opposed by the Arab states. The canal would connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Aqaba (also called the Gulf of Eilat) and thus the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

The Modern ProposalThe idea of Ben Gurion canal has surfaced at a time when the Abraham Accords have radically changed the political landscape of the sensitive region. On 20th October 2020, the unthinkable happened when the Israeli state-owned Europe Asia Pipeline Company (EAPC) and the UAE-based MED-RED Land Bridge inked an arrangement to use the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline to move oil from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

On 2 April 2021, Israel announced that work on the Ben Gurion Canal is expected to begin by June 2021. The initial reference to the Ben Gurion Canal was published about two years back in Hebrew language publications. As per the sources, Israel will build the canal from Eilat on the Red Sea to Mediterranean. Unlike the Suez Canal, the Israeli canal can handle ships going in both directions. This will be achieved by the creation of two canals. Unlike the Suez Canal which is along the sandy shores, the Israeli canal will have rocky walls which means that it scarcely requires maintenance. Israel plans to build small cities, hotels, restaurants and nightclubs along the canal. Each proposed canal is about 50 meters in depth and about 200 meters in width. They will be 10 meters deeper than the Suez Canal. A ship with a length of 300 meters and a width of 110 meters, which is the largest size of ships in the world, will be able to pass through the canal. The Suez Canal is 193 km long and the trans-Israel canal would be about 100 km longer.

The canal construction will take about 5 odd years involving about and 300,000 engineers and technicians who will be recruited from around the world. Israel has projected an income of about USD 6 billion a year or more from the canal. This is in addition to the fact that Israel will have the largest artery connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. The cost of making this canal is estimated to be between $16 billion to $55 billion depending upon sources.

Ben Gurion Canal VS Suez Canal An estimated 12% of world maritime trade passes through the Suez Canal making the route far from indispensable. Egypt can either build a new canal parallel to the Suez Canal or expand the existing one at a third of the cost proposed by Israel. The key reason for the construction of the Ben Gurion Canal is that merchant vessels sailing to and fro Asia and Europe have an alternative to sailing around Africa's southern tip. Africa's southern tip route is more time consuming and expends more fuel. A shipper will have to choose from faster navigation via the Israeli Canal or the cost-saving, but delayed transit due to the wait time, of the Suez Canal. The Ben Gurion Canal will also drastically reduce the possibility of a crisis in world trade like the one seen during the Suez Canal blockage.The military aspectThe Suez Canal was built to profit from international trade and was opened on 17th November 1869. In 1888, the maritime powers of the era signed the Convention of Constantinople, which stated bluntly that the canal should be open to ships of all nations in times of both peace and war. Acts of hostility in the waters of the canal and the construction of fortifications on its banks were forbidden by the convention. Great Britain joined the convention in 1904.

There were instances when naval ships were denied access to the Suez Canal, which included denial to Spanish Navy ships during the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Russian Navy during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 and the Italian Navy during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-36. In the two World Wars, no party was denied canal use, but the Allied Forces dominated the canal. Israel was denied canal use following the armistice between Israel and its Arab opponents in 1949. The canal itself was a battleground during the Suez Crisis of 1956-57 and the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967. Egypt had physically barricaded both ends of the canal during the second crisis. All three conditions of the Constantinople Convention were broken during these events. The canal was reopened in June 1975 and a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed in 1979 resulting in all ships, including those of Israeli registration, having access to the canal.

During the March 2021 Suez Canal blockade, the Pentagon said that the ongoing stoppage of traffic caused by a grounded container ship in the Suez Canal would affect the movement of U.S. Military vessels, but stressed that the Defense Department had alternative means of supporting operations in the area. ''We are not going to talk about specific operational impacts. The Suez Canal is an essential maritime chokepoint, and the longer passage is suspended, the more impact it will have on civilian and military transits. However, we have alternate capabilities to mitigate impact and support to our operations in U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility throughout any extended blockage,'' said Rebecca Rebarich, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet.

The incident made the world rethink the responses to the choke points. A flurry of alternative routes was proposed, including the sea routes and Landrail routes. Israel too announced the Ben Gurion Canal.

Ben Gurion Canal will give Israel the freedom from blackmail arising out of access to the Suez Canal. Arab states have been leveraging the Red Sea to pressure Israel and in response, Israel has decided to gain more control of the Red Sea. Not just the Arab states, even the African states around the Red Sea have conflicts among themselves and their strategies to deal with it are a concern to the Red Sea stakeholders. These African countries have cultural and economic affinities with the Arab states.

The strategic and mineral-based economic potential of the Red Sea attracts even the big powers. In the past, it was an area of rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union which still continues in a milder manner.

One of the main military benefits for Israel is that it gives Israel the strategic options as the Ben Gurion Canal will totally take away the importance of Suez for the US Military if needed in the aid for Israel.

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Sat, 04 Nov 2023 16:19

New York CNN '--

Multiple US banks were hit by deposit delays on Friday caused by an error at a payment processing network, according to the Federal Reserve.

Banks stressed that customer deposits remain safe, and the bug was introduced by human error and not a malicious attack. Although the rare deposit delay affected deposits at a large number of banks, it appeared that other banking systems were functioning normally.

Bank of America alerted customers that their deposits may be delayed due to a problem impacting multiple banks. A Chase spokesperson confirmed to CNN that some of its customers' direct deposits haven't updated.

Customers at Bank of America, Chase, US Bank, Truist and Wells Fargo complained of issues on Friday morning, according to Downdetector. Some users on X, formerly known as Twitter, complained they didn't get paid on Friday.

The Federal Reserve alerted banks Friday afternoon the problem was caused by a ''processing issue'' at the private sector operator of the Automated Clearing House (ACH), a national network for processing transactions.

The ACH system allows banks to send electronic payments to each other. Everything from direct deposit paychecks to customer bill payments for mortgages and utility bills flow through this system.

The Fed said an ''error'' in a batch of payments delayed the processing of payments.

The Clearing House, the private sector operator of ACH, confirmed to CNN that it ''experienced a processing issue'' with a batch of bank transactions. Greg MacSweeney, a spokesperson for The Clearing House, said the problem was caused by a ''manual error'' and is not linked to a cybersecurity issue.

''TCH is working with impacted financial institutions on the matter,'' MacSweeney said in a statement.

There was no update on when the problem will be resolved.

Some frustrated bank customers complained on social media about the deposit delays.

''@BankofAmerica where is my money and will you be covering my bills that are due today?'' one user on X said.

In a message to customers on Friday, Bank of America said ''some deposits may be temporarily delayed.''

The message said the deposits from Friday may be delayed due to an ''issue impacting multiple financial institutions.''

''Your accounts remain secure, and your balance will be updated as soon as the deposit is received,'' the Bank of America message read. ''You do not need to take any action.''

>>''A system issue affected ACH debits and credits sent to us, as well as to other banks,'' Chase said in a statement to CNN. ''The originators of these deposits are working to resend the payment files and we will post them as soon as we can.''

An industry source told CNN the problem does not appear to be a bank-specific issue.

US Bank said in a statement it is aware of an ''industry-wide technical issue'' impacting some deposits.

''Customer accounts remain secure, and balances will be updated when deposits are received,'' US Bank said. ''We do not have an estimate on timing at this point. Customers do not need to take any action.''

In a post on X, Wells Fargo told customers it is ''aware of the deposit issue'' and ''working on a resolution.''

The ACH is operated by the Federal Reserve Banks and the Electronic Payment Network.

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Sat, 04 Nov 2023 16:09

Language is changing in America; indeed, probably throughout the West. And the changes are not good.

The changes I see being introduced into English speech in America, are designed to kill off the practices and assumptions of individual freedom and responsive representation that have also been embedded for generations in us as a people.

The language and language practice changes that have arisen in the past few years tend to ''deconstruct'' (a favorite word of the globalist elite) the core concepts upon which the West has been built for four millennia. They also tend to subvert the norms of representational government that America has practiced since its founding. The new phrasings, cliches and speech patterns replace those foundational Western concepts with Marxist/feudalist and oligarchical concepts.

Language, of course, always changes. That is why we distinguish ''living'' from ''dead languages.'' ''Dead languages'' have stopped changing because they are not in use by living societies.

However, the new language usages that concern me are not from language changing organically, the way it used to '-- that is to say, via changes in sensibility and usage; via new inventions arising and requiring terminologies, or old habits, traditions and objects passing out of memory. In other words, the changes being imposed on our language and language practices are not arising for the same reasons that we no longer talk about ''voyageurs'' rather than salesmen , or why we no longer discuss wielding a ''bare bodkin'' .

Rather, the same monsters who have taken the rest of human civilization into their grip for the last two years, to establish their neo-Marxist/feudalist globalist oligarchy, are deliberately driving artificial changes in language and language practices.

(I'll call the goal of these monsters, awkwardly, ''NFGO'' for short, as we tend to lack a catchall phrase for this horror. A ''neo-Marxist/feudalist globalist oligarchy' sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it isn't; it's neo-Marxist feudalism for you and me, friend, and the pleasures of a globalist oligarchy '-- with the oligarchy's elites at the pinnacle '-- for them.)

Why does this matter more than slightly?

Changes in language are far from trivial. Linguists have pointed out, as I explore in my new book Facing the Beast: Courage, Faith and Resistance in a New Dark Age, that language constructs reality. People can only conceive, understand, communicate about and act upon what they can name.

Thus, language and language practices shape national identity and even individual character: ''[S]peakers of different languages develop different cognitive skills and predispositions, as shaped by the structures and patterns of their languages,'' writes Dr Lera Boroditsky, Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at UCSD, in her essay ''Language and the Brain''

So your conciousness is affected by your language, which in turn imprints your brain processing; the way you structure information is affected by details as subtle as the direction in which letters flow: ''Exposure to written language also restructures the brain, even when acquired late in life. Even seemingly surface properties, such as writing direction (left-to-right or right-to-left), have profound consequences for how people attend to, imagine, and organize information '', writes Dr Boroditsky.

When certain language practices are altered, they won't just affect how easily people can understand each other; they can actually shut down certain assumptions about freedom and accountability, and thus close down expectations of political representation and individual rights, for an entire society.

New practices introduced into language can thus chip away at the identities of Westerners, and especially of Americans, to wear down what is most Western and American in the core of their being; to introduce, at level of their brain processing, acceptance of what would formerly have been alien norms of social conformity, servitude, submissiveness, powerlessness and hopelessness.

So those who wish to destroy America in other, material ways, such as by poisoning our pharmaceutical supply, as we discussed in Facing the Beast, or by buying up our farmland, are not wasting their time in their efforts also to subvert our language.

Here are some examples.

I. ''Social Distancing.'' ''Public Health''. ''Public Good. ''Public Safety.'' I've written about how Chinese Communist ideas popped up like mushrooms overnight when the ''pandemic'' drama was rolled out in 2020. '' Social distancing '' became a ''thing'', even though in the individualistic West, the ''social'' part of that term was not organic.

The phrase lingers, threateningly, to this day: ''In the pandemic, people needed moments of levity, and Barrymore's crew could avoid spreading the virus by wearing face masks and social distancing .'-- Tori Otten, The New Republic, 15 Sep. 2023''.

The ''social'' of ''social distancing,'' just like the privileging of ''public health'' as a concept that is supposed to stamp out fragile protests about personal choices, or the rise of terms such as ''safety'' and ''public safety'' (and I gather, in Europe and Britain, ''convenience''), are being used in ways that are meant to crush faint murmurs about rights and freedoms. And all of these are Marxist usages meant entirely to reorder how we think of humans in groups.

We used to have a society made up of individuals. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was famously accused of having said, in a 1987 interview in Women's Own , that ''there is no such thing as society.'' I was living in Britain at the time and ''There is no such thing as society'' was inaccurately attributed to her everywhere, making her sound driven slightly mad with her lust for unfettered individualism.

And yet what she really said was:

''I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand 'I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!' or 'I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!' 'I am homeless, the Government must house me!' and so they are casting their problems on society and who [italics mine] is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people [italics mine[ and people look to themselves first.'... [It] is, I think, one of the tragedies in which many of the benefits we give, which were meant to reassure people that if they were sick or ill there was a safety net and there was help, that many of the benefits which were meant to help people who were unfortunate '... [t]hat was the objective, but somehow there are some people who have been manipulating the system '... when people come and say: 'But what is the point of working? I can get as much on the dole!'''

Whether you agree with her here or not about benefits, her larger point was true of Western society: she did not say ''society does not exist.'' What she said was: '' who [italics mine] is society? ['...] individual men and women.''

Indeed, this premise is the core building block of the Western project.

It is also essentially true of the American project - the fact that ''society'', meaning the direction of a community or nation, must be made up from the autonomous wills of individual men and women.

But terms such as '' social distancing '' (which clearly parallels such Chinese concepts as '' social credit score ''), along with newly empowered terms such as '' public safety'' and even '' public health '', are being ''privileged'' '-- that is to say, given validity and authority '-- over and above that formerly fundamental Western premise, that society is made up of individuals with rights.

Phrases such as ''social distancing,'' are predicated, in contrast, on the core beliefs of societies that manage the ordering of movements or behavior of masses of people by compulsion, as they do in China.

The repetition of '' social distancing '', '' public health ,'' '' public safety '' etc., along with the weird little circles on the supermarket floor during 2020-2022 telling you where to stand, as if you were prisoners getting exercise in a prison yard, all served to rewire the Western brain to become accustomed to the concept that we can indeed be told where to go, where to stand, whom to touch, whom to avoid; and that our individual wishes and rights are fungible.

All of this repetition is mind-rewiring that undoes the Western brain's original wiring toward liberty.

I got into a gentle argument once with a right-on young lady who was speaking with me after I had been forcibly escorted out of a restuarant in Salem, Oregon, because I was unvaccinated. (I found it historically ironic that the restaurant, which would not let me eat alongside the vaccinated diners, had windows plastered with icons of the Black Lives Movement). The young lady accused me, during our back and forth, of ''centering yourself.''

I had never heard that expression before, but it is an important one. It aligns with the Marxist goal of the restructuring of our language: from the Renaissance on, the ''self'' has been ''centered'' in the West. This was the great, revolutionary innovation of Western consciousness.

That centering of one's self has now been turned into a ''social'' crime.

II. ''What I can tell you'...'' ''What I will say'''....''Again'...'' ''As I've said over and over'...''

There is a change in how dialogue is being conducted at a public level. Questions are being dissevered from answers and we are being propagandized that that is ok.

A feature of the Biden era is that the Western notion that in a representative democracy, your elected officials have to answer you, or at least, have to appear to do so, is being demonstrated to be dead. The phrases above form a new set of non-answers that break apart the Western representative-democracy premise that our elected or appointed officials are answerable to us.

These are highly scripted responses that some media trainer in the Biden administration has imposed on every single public spokesperson (these mannerisms seem to be especially warmly embraced by the women).

The phrases manifest along with robotic, NLP-style hand gestures that make the speaker look as if she is repetitively dividing dough with the edge of her hand. They are accompanied by that maddening upward vocal lilt, when the spokesperson is challenged, that sounds exactly like, ''Young man, any more sass from you'....''

This obnoxiously smug tone of voice and set of mannerisms does not just position the speaker as being superior to the questioner, but they also now indicate to the questioner that the speaker's accountability is at-will . She or he does not have to give the challenger an answer at all.

Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, and now her successor Karine Jean-Pierre, use these phrases in response to reporters' questions, and especially in response to their follow-up questions.

The press secretaries also use the off-putting word '' Again '...'' , before simply repeating what they had said before; or the equally Mom-ish '' as I've said over and over ''.

When these spokespeople are confronted with questions requiring, under normal Western expectations, actual answers, or at least squirmy Clintonesque gestures at answers, the spokeswomen are trained to restate their non-answers until the questioner gives up.

Here, incredibly enough, is Robin Dunn Marcos, Office of Refugee Resettlement Director, stonewalling Rep Andy Biggs in this way, at 46:40 '-- ''What I can tell you'' '-- when he asks her about emails sent to staffers whom she manages, raising concerns about hundreds of children in her care who were being trafficked.

You can see the Republicans melting in anguish at the wall of willed obtuseness facing them.

Variations on this non-response are: ''What I will say'', ''What I will tell you'' ; as if it is perfectly OK now to pick and choose what answer a public official constructs, to give to a public question.

Karine Jean-Pierre makes use of '' What I can tell you '' at 0:19 in this clip.

This language practice (and I call it a ''language practice'' instead of simply a change in language, because it is literally changing the rules of the dance of speech, severing questioning, linguistically, from any prompt to provide an answer) is dividing Republicans and Democrats, especially in public hearings, dramatically.

The Republicans cannot believe how maddeningly childishly the target of their questions is behaving. The repetition of non-answers feels to them like that awful moment all parents will recognize, when 8-year-olds realize they can drive adults crazy (and they realize the power this gives them), by reiterating ad nauseam ''No I'm not, you are!'' or ''Says you!'' '-- or by repeating the adult's question verbatim, until the kids are finally sent to their rooms.

The trouble is, the Republicans can't send anyone who is now doing this, to his or her room.

You can watch Republicans devolve in astonishment, writhing with irritation, in hearing after hearing: but they remain balked by the non-answerers. The targets of the questions remain stolidly and shamelessly unmoving in their own commitment to non-meaning.

This refusal to answer in any meaningful way, would not have been allowed to pass, a mere three years ago. ''You are not answering the question'', the subjects would have been told, and eventually the question would be answered grudgingly or else the person charged with contempt of Congress. At the very least, the subjects who stonewalled in this way would be torn to bits in the press and the administration that sent them out as front people, would never be re-elected.

But now, no.

Here is Rep. Ayana Pressley insisting to CNN's Jake Tapper that ''The border is secure.'' He gives her multiple opportunities to correct what is obviously an arrant fib, but she refuses to take the opportunity to correct an untruth, and insists: ''The border is secure.''

This divide has now become not just two groups struggling to communicate; this has now become two completely separate worlds of meaning , two different hermeneutical universes, with utterly different social rules, within one United States of America.

Establishing the baroque non-answer as legitimate, is not trivial. Every time we hear an elected official or government employee, a government spokesperson, or a corporate leader in the cross-hairs facing the press, give a categorical, bald-faced non-answer ''answer,'' it's not just that moment that is frustrating. Over time, with repetition, our brains are being worn down; the goal of our enemies is that we eventually will accept the premise that we do not deserve answers.

Questions in public from the public to ''officialdom,'' or to elites, will soon feel theoretical, cosmetic, or purely rhetorical.

Questions themselves will be drained of the positive social valence that they have had in the West. As in any totalitarian system, we will conclude: why even bother asking?

Sooner or later, these new linguistic practices and structures will indeed rewire our thought processes, so that we will forget that we ever had the expectation of the right to a public answer.

That is the goal. The meta-goal.

III. ''I'm/we're not doing this.'' ''Cancel culture.'' ''Speaking with One Voice.'' Just leaving the room.

You may have experienced a variation on this new norm in your own personal life, since speech norms from the top of the leadership chain, tend to filter down into everyday life. Have you ever been in a debate with someone on the Left '-- someone thoughtful, educated, trained in critical thinking '-- who recently has begun to announce, when he or she has no good answers, '' We are not doing this ''?

I have. I have literally had people from the Left get up and walk out of the room when he or she ran out of good responses in an ordinary debate.

(A variation on this is the much-discussed '' cancel culture '' '-- again, a recent coinage. In the pre-Marxist past, no one would consider that he or she had the option to '' cancel '', as opposed to dispute, ignore or contest, someone else's point of view.)

Until very recently, we understood that the person who stopped debating, who walked away, who gave up on the back and forth '-- had lost.

Commentator Steve Kirsch has interviewed a whistleblower, Michael Tsai, who was elected to the Milpitas, California school board, and was told that the Board ''speaks with one voice'' : ''we are going to control what you can and cannot say now'' . A ''mandatory training'' was involved. Again, this is a Marxist, collectivist approach. Yet similar coercions and impositions are taking place nationwide. This may explain the shocking experience I had in Chatham, New York, in 2022, when an entire school board got up and walked out when it was asked a direct question by a parent about where certain sums of money had gone.

If people can now simply get up and leave a public, civic debate, with no loss of professional prestige or threat to their job status '-- and especially if this is true now for our elected officials '-- we have entered into a post-democratic space in which we can't ever expect to run down the truth in a public context.

IV: ''Call it out.'' Karine Jean-Pierre has said, in response to reporting about Hunter Biden, ''There has been some irresponsible reporting about the family. And so I've got to call that out here . ''

I had never heard the phrase to ''call something out'' in English, until four or five years ago. Then suddenly the phrase was everywhere, with every liberal sophomore on social media scrambling to ''call out'' someone before she or he was ''called out'' in turn, as if in a game of anxious musical chairs.

But to ''call someone (or something) out'' is a Marxist term, containing a Marxist concept. Rather than ''challenging'' someone, or ''disagreeing'' with something, or even ''objecting'' to something, which positions the critic as an equal among equals '-- the Western/American premise of how people in a democracy contest one another's claims '-- when you ''call someone out,'' you are holding him or her up censoriously, from a top-down position, for mob condemnation '-- for ''social'' ostracism and shaming.

What is this? What? We never had that in America.

What ''calling out'' is, is prorabotka , a ''ritual of public shaming'' that was common in post-Soviet society. In schools, universities and workplaces in the former Soviet Union, the transgressor was ''called out'' to be shamed in public. As Svetlana Stephenson writes in '''A Ritual Civil Execution'': Public Shaming Meetings in the Post-Stalin Soviet Union'', in The Journal of Applied Social Theory:

''Prorabotka, whose genealogy can be traced to early post-revolutionary years, was aimed at the reinforcement of social norms challenged by political and moral deviance. Public shaming was applied to a wide range of behaviours, including ideological and moral deviations such as public drunkenness, marital infidelity by party members, planned emigration to Israel, etc. The paper ['...] shows that, in addition to an official script, the meetings had a supplementary script that unleashed a jouissance [loosely translated, orgasmic or joyful eruption] of punitiveness but also generalised guilt and fear in the face of collective justice.''

What are the keywords in this article about Soviet shaming? ''[C]haracter assassination, citizens' justice, emotionalisation, everyday life in the Soviet Union, informal law, public shaming.''

Do any of these now sound familiar?

V: ''Standing with,'' internet badges, and simplistic labelled ''identities.'' All over the internet, people discussing the current geopolitical crisis in the Middle East are either ''standing with'' Palestine (without defining what that means) or ''standing with'' Israel (without defining what that means). You can't ''stand with'' everyone who is a civilian, it appears, or with ''peace.'' Those are not options in the dominant language.

Unsurprisingly, the groups ''standing with'' Palestine are in some places devolving into an injudicious fury at all Israelis, at all of Israel, and in some cases at all Jews, and people ''standing with'' Israel are painting with a not-identical but to me alarmingly still-too-broad brush, Islam as a whole, or are making generalizations about ''all'' Muslim countries, or are damning to Hell everyone who lives in Gaza.

The binary, stupid language itself, produced in this way as a blunt object '-- with Internet ''badges'' an unhelpful additions to the simplification of ''positions'' '-- creates the near-violence and the escalation in hostilities we see erupting worldwide.

If people have a debate or a discussion about their views on the Middle East, as we used to encourage in our educational systems in America and the West, there are a milli

on places of nuance, and maybe thus a million places in which a Venn diagram of reasonable opinion can possibly intersect.

Do you want everyone, both Israel and Palestine, to obey the rule of law and not kill civilians on either side? Do you ''support Palestine'' defined as, dissolving the post-1948 State of Israel and doing away with its current Jewish inhabitants? Or do you ''support Palestine'' defined as respecting the autonomy and self-determination of the territories identified under current borders? Does ''support for Palestine'' mean turning on internet access and allowing deliveries of food and water through, for civilians? Or does it mean ''support'' for Hamas' goal of retaking the land now known as Israel, and wiping out the ''colonizers''? Does ''supporting Israel,'' for that matter, mean supporting the wiping out of Gazan civilians? Or does it mean defending Israel's right to secure its own borders and to counter terrorism within the laws of war? What, for that matter, does it mean to ''colonize''? Is that a simple term? Or is it the case that the Ottomans were also ''colonizers'' in what was known as Palestine, as were the Saracens, Crusaders, Romans et al, all the way back to the days of the Hebrew Bible and before? What of the Canaanites, the Jebusites? Is ''colonization'' something unique to the current nation of Israel? Or do people, including Muslim nations, do this everywhere throughout history?

And so on.

I am not suggesting there is a ''right answer'' in the morass of questions above. There isn't, of course.

I am reminding us all that we used to live in a nation of civil dialogue and debate, and that in the rigors and excitement of dialogue and debate, as it existed pre-2020 (and in some sense until a generation ago), it was the excitement of learning new information and of sharpening our own understanding and positions, that were the points of engaging with language in this way. The complexity of our language in debate at that time, allowed for us to engage with complex realities in sophisticated ways, and to find points of alliance with those with whom we disagreed in other ways.

In contrast, the Newspeak of ''standing with'', or badges, and simplistic labelled identities, suppresses debate, and un-persons the person who does not ''stand with'' you, wherever you have chosen to ''stand''. This simplistic language practice also makes us all stupider, as we are learning nothing about the ''other'''s positions by ''standing'' wherever we do.

Are we in preschool? Is this Mother May I? If you stand here , does that metaphor imply (yes it does) that you can't also ''stand,'' or even tiptoe toward, anywhere else?

Children's games may work like that, but Western adults' brains are not supposed to work like that.

Western adult discussion should not work like that. Adults in the West should be able to think with nuance, and not in black and white.

But adults in closed societies, in contrast, are encouraged to think tribally and simplistically, and to shout slogans, and to think in binary terms of ''us'' and ''them.'' They are intentionally not taught the skills or values of debate.

So: making us in the West too, and especially in America, stupider and less capable of nuanced thought or of civil discussion is, I would argue, the purpose of introducing linguistic binaries such as ''standing with"'', badges and for that matter, simplistic ''identities.''

People who cannot engage in debate, soon cannot engage in democracy.

I will pick this theme up again in a followup essay. There is a violent, dehumanizing outcome for many, if we head further in this direction, I will show.

I will demonstrate too, I hope, that there is a grave spiritual aspect to this embrace, through language and language practice changes, of non-accountability, collectivism, stupidity and lies.

Words have, in our Western tradition, always been sacred. They are meant to be vessels with which to seek the truth, rather than used as means to abandon it.

As John 1 explains:

''1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.''

There is a reason that the most free societies boast the most glorious literary traditions. This is not an accident.

When language abandons the intention of truth, as critics from Franz Kafka to George Orwell knew, totalitarian evil flourishes, literature desiccates into state-approved cliche, and societies collapse into corruption.

Leviticus 19:11: '' Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.''

Lying -the abuse of language '-- is not trivial. It is a violation of our task on this earth.

What happens to our nation'-- to our young people and their mental health '-- to freedom itself '-- when words are deliberately drained of the possibility of even gesturing toward the truth?

How can our status as a ''city on a hill'' '-- possibly survive?

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Sat, 04 Nov 2023 15:44

For ReleaseWASHINGTON '-- Citizens Bank, Sac City, Iowa, was closed today by the Iowa Division of Banking, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect depositors, the FDIC entered into a Purchase and Assumption Agreement with Iowa Trust & Savings Bank, Emmetsburg, Iowa, to assume all of the deposits of Citizens Bank.

The two branches of Citizens Bank will reopen as branches of Iowa Trust & Savings Bank on Monday during normal business hours. This evening and over the weekend, depositors of Citizens Bank can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

Depositors of Citizens Bank will become depositors of Iowa Trust & Savings Bank, so customers do not need to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage. Customers of Citizens Bank should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from Iowa Trust & Savings Bank that it has completed systems changes to allow its branch offices to process their accounts as well.

As of September 30, 2023, Citizens Bank had approximately $66 million in total assets and $59 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits, Iowa Trust & Savings Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's assets.

Customers with questions about the transaction should call the FDIC toll-free at 1-866-314-1744. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m. Central Time (CT); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. CT; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m. CT; on Monday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. CT; and thereafter from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT. Interested parties can also visit the FDIC's website.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $14.8 million. Compared to other alternatives, Iowa Trust & Savings Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the DIF, an insurance fund created by Congress in 1933 and managed by the FDIC to protect the deposits at the nation's banks. Citizens Bank is the fifth bank to fail in the nation this year. The last failure in Iowa was Polk County Bank, Johnston, Iowa, on November 18, 2011.

FDIC: PR-91-2023

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Sat, 04 Nov 2023 15:05

[1/3] People raise flags and posters during a rally held by American Muslims for Palestine calling for a cease fire in Gaza near the Washington Monument in in Washington, U.S., October 21, 2023. REUTERS/Bonnie Cash Acquire Licensing Rights

WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's support among Arab Americans, who are crucial voters in battleground election states, has plunged from a comfortable majority in 2020 to just 17%, a new poll shows, amid growing anger over the Democratic president's support for Israel's attacks on Gaza.

Arab American support for Biden, at 59% in 2020, fell even before the outbreak of violence in the Middle East to 35%, the poll commissioned by the Arab American Institute showed, but has halved since.

The poll, released Tuesday, marks the first time since its inception in 1997 that a majority of Arab Americans did not identify as Democrats - 32% now identify as Republicans and 31% as independents. Forty percent of those polled said they would vote for former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican candidate in 2024, up 5 percentage points from 2020.

THE TAKEThe poll is the latest evidence that Biden's campaign for a second term in office is rapidly losing Muslim and Arab Americans support over his staunch support of Israel. These voters have traditionally voted for Democratic candidates and are prominent in hotly contested states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, that could decide the 2024 presidential election.

KEY FINDINGSA quarter of Arab Americans said they were unsure whom they would support in 2024; 13.7% said they would back Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and 3.8% are backing Cornel West.

Only 20% of Arab Americans would rate Biden's job performance as "good," the poll showed, with 66% reporting a negative view of the president overall.

Sixty-eight percent of Arab Americans believed the United States should not send weapons and military equipment to Israel and believed the U.S. should use its influence with Israel to call for a ceasefire, it said.

Majorities are concerned about rising antisemitism (67%) and anti-Arab bigotry (78%), and 59% report experiencing discrimination, a jump of 6% since the last poll in April.

The poll showed that 45% of Arab Americans were concerned about their personal safety due to the recent violence in Israel and Palestine.

CONTEXTMany Arab and Muslim Americans say they feel betrayed by Biden's financial, political and military support for Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip after an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that Israeli officials say killed 1,400 people and took 239 hostages.

Medical authorities in Gaza on Tuesday said 8,525 people, including 3,542 children, had been killed in Israel's three-week-old air and ground onslaught.

The poll was conducted by John Zogby Strategies of 500 Arab Americans with some answering online only. The poll has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.

Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Heather Timmons and Nick Zieminski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Sat, 04 Nov 2023 14:27

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has clarified the nature of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, after it was revealed that the presidential hopeful had flown on the convicted sex offender's private jet.

The independent 2024 presidential candidate was among a number of high-profile people who in 2021 were named as passengers on Epstein's jet, which was often used to transport guests to the financier's private Caribbean island, Little Saint James.

Epstein's luxury Boeing 727 was derisively referred to as the "Lolita Express" by a number of media outlets following allegations that it was used to fly underage girls to some of the multi-millionaire's properties.

Following Epstein's death in jail in 2019, which was ruled a suicide, lists have been shared on social media purporting to show the public figures who had visited the island, which is located east of Puerto Rico in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

From left, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on May 16, 2023, in Washington, D.C.; and Jeffrey Epstein on September 8, 2004, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A spokesperson for Kennedy has shared a statement with Newsweek regarding the 2024 presidential candidate flying on Epstein's private jet. Shannon Finney/Getty Images;/Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty ImagesThe Epstein scandal also continues to be a talking point in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. In recent years, several high-profile names have been added to the list of Epstein's guests by social media users who have falsely targeted celebrities and politicians as part of an apparent campaign to link them to Epstein's crimes. There is no suggestion that those who did fly on the jet were involved in any illegal activity.

Amid mounting curiosity over Kennedy being listed as one of the passengers, a spokesperson for the former Democrat exclusively told Newsweek that he had "flown one time on Jeffrey Epstein's private plane. It was in 1993 from [New York City] to Palm Beach [Florida] to visit RFK Jr.'s mom for Easter."

The spokesperson added that the private jet trip was made possible by Kennedy's then-wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who was friendly with Epstein's partner at the time, Ghislaine Maxwell. Richardson Kennedy passed away in 2012. Kennedy has been married to Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines since 2014.

"Mary, Kennedy's wife, and two of their kids were on the flight," the representative said. "Mary knew Epstein's girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who learned that they were going to Palm Beach for Easter and offered their family a ride."

While there has been no evidence to suggest that Epstein's listed plane passengers were involved in any of his crimes, a number of social media users have falsely pushed the suggestion that all those who knew him were in some way complicit.

Epstein's former personal pilot of almost 30 years gave testimony during the New York City trial of Epstein's former partner Maxwell, who in June 2022 received a 20-year jail sentence for trafficking girls for the financier to abuse.

From left, former President Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 12, 2000. Trump has distanced himself from Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, in recent years. Davidoff Studios/Getty ImagesLarry Visoski testified that he never saw evidence of sexual activity on planes as he flew Epstein and his passengers aboard the two jets he piloted for roughly 1,000 trips between 1991 and 2019.

He told the court that he recalled Prince Andrew being a passenger on the jet as well as actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker. He also recalled violinist Itzhak Perlman and named tech mogul Bill Gates, as well as politician and former astronaut John Glenn and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.

During Maxwell's trial, the pilot was asked if he ever saw sex acts with underage females, to which he replied: "Absolutely not."

In June 2022, Maxwell received a 20-year jail sentence for trafficking girls for Epstein to abuse.

Who Flew on Jeffrey Epstein's 'Lolita Express' Plane?Donald J. TrumpBill ClintonKevin SpaceyChris TuckerBill GatesPrince AndrewRobert F. Kennedy Jr.Itzhak PerlmanJohn GlennGeorge MitchellAll of the above names were reported by the Associated Press and CNN. There is no suggestion that those who flew on the jet were involved in any illegal activity.

Virginia Giuffre alleged that she was abused by Prince Andrew and claimed that Maxwell flew her around the world when she was 17 and 18 for sexual encounters with billionaires, politicians, royals and heads of state. Andrew, who settled out of court with Giuffre in 2022, has denied all of the claims made against him.

Supporters of Donald Trump, one of Kennedy's likely 2024 opponents, have also sought to highlight the Epstein scandal to contrast it with the former president's current legal predicament. In August, for example, MAGA loyalist Kari Lake posted on X, formerly Twitter: "It's been 3 years, almost to the day, since Jeffrey Epstein 'killed himself.' Not a single one of his clients has been indicted for heinous crimes against children. Yet, President Trump was just indicted for the 4th time. Justice is dead in America."

Moreover, Roger Stone, a longtime ally of Donald Trump, sought in February to distance the former president from statements that he had flown on Epstein's jet.

While making an appearance on Lindell TV, Stone said Trump only once visited Epstein's residence in Palm Beach, Florida, and added that he "told the traveling security guard, 'Wow, what a nice guy Jeffrey Epstein is, letting all the kids in the neighborhood swim in his pool."

"Reportedly, Trump left the Epstein residence after only 15 minutes because he was uncomfortable with the mix of younger women and the limited number of men," Stone said.

He dismissed any other assertions about their relationship as a "smear."

"But now I see these smears being recycled all over the internet," Stone said. "And I hate to say this, but they are courtesy of supporters of Governor Ron DeSantis."

Newsweek has contacted Trump's office for comment.

Although Stone tried to downplay the ties between the two, for years they ran in similar social circles. Newsweek previously reported that records show Trump boarded Epstein's plane, which allegedly flew underage girls to his properties, seven times, though no evidence of wrongdoing has been presented.

Over the years, Trump has distanced himself from Epstein. After Epstein's 2019 arrest, the then-president said he knew Epstein only because "everybody in Palm Beach" did.

"I had a falling out with him. I haven't spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you," he said.

But earlier on, he offered more complimentary words toward his former friend.

"I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy," Trump told New York magazine in 2002. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it'--Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

Uncommon KnowledgeNewsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2023 16:57

When girls at Westfield High School in New Jersey found out boys were sharing nude photos of them in group chats, they were shocked, and not only because it was an invasion of privacy. The

images weren't real.Students said one or more classmates used an online tool powered by artificial intelligence to make the images, then shared them with others. The discovery has sparked uproar in Westfield, an affluent town outside New York City.

Copyright (C)2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Fri, 03 Nov 2023 16:44

We worked with the airline industry to use AI and satellite imagery to reduce the warming effects of contrails

Carl Elkin

Staff Software Engineer, Applied Science

Dinesh Sanekommu

Product Manager, Google Research

Contrails '-- the thin, white lines you sometimes see behind airplanes '-- have a surprisingly large impact on our climate. The 2022 IPCC report noted that clouds created by contrails account for roughly 35% of aviation's global warming impact, over half the impact of the world's jet fuel.1 Google Research teamed up with American Airlines and Breakthrough Energy to bring together huge amounts of data '-- like satellite imagery, weather and flight path data '-- and used AI to develop contrail forecast maps to test if pilots can choose routes that avoid creating contrails.

Visual explanation of nighttime and daytime contrail radiative effects. Nighttime contrails are often more warming than daytime contrails because they exclusively trap heat.

Contrails form when airplanes fly through layers of humidity and they can persist as cirrus clouds for minutes or hours depending on the atmospheric conditions. While these extra clouds can reflect sunlight back into space during the day, they also trap large amounts of heat that would otherwise leave the Earth's atmosphere. This creates a net warming effect. Avoiding flying through areas that create contrails can reduce warming. The challenge is knowing which flight routes will create contrails.

Reducing the warming impact of contrailsA group of pilots at American flew 70 test flights over six months while using Google's AI-based predictions, cross-referenced with Breakthrough Energy's open-source contrail models, to avoid altitudes that are likely to create contrails. After these test flights, we analyzed satellite imagery and found that the pilots were able to reduce contrails by 54%. This is the first proof point that commercial flights can verifiably avoid contrails and thereby reduce their climate impact.

American Airlines Managing Director of Flight Operations, Captain John P. Dudley (right), and First Officer, Tammy Caudill (left), from the flight deck of the first contrail avoidance flight, who used our predictions in PACE's FPO application to avoid contrails.

The other significant finding of our test with American is the flights that attempted to avoid creating contrails burned 2% additional fuel. Recent studies show that a small percentage of flights need to be adjusted to avoid the majority of contrail warming. Therefore, the total fuel impact could be as low as 0.3% across an airline's flights.2 This suggests that contrails could be avoided at scale for around $5-25/ton CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) using our existing predictions, making it a cost-effective warming-reduction measure, and further improvements are expected.

Contrails detected over the United States using AI and GOES-16 satellite imagery.

What's next?Contrail avoidance has the potential to be a cost-effective, scalable solution to reduce the climate impact of flying. We will continue research and development to automate avoidance, target the highest impact contrails and improve satellite-based verification. We're committed to working across the aviation industry to use AI to make contrail avoidance a reality over the coming years.

Let's stay in touch. Get the latest news from Google in your inbox.

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Fri, 03 Nov 2023 16:39

P oppy Gustafsson runs a cutting-edge and gender-diverse cybersecurity firm on the brink of a £3bn stock market debut, but she is happy to reference pop culture classic the Terminator to help describe what Darktrace actually does.

Launched in Cambridge eight years ago by an unlikely alliance of mathematicians, former spies from GCHQ and the US and artificial intelligence (AI) experts, Darktrace provides protection, enabling businesses to stay one step ahead of increasingly smarter and dangerous hackers and viruses.

Marketing its products as the digital equivalent of the human body's ability to fight illness, Darktrace's AI-security works as an ''enterprise immune system'', can ''self-learn and self-heal'' and has an ''autonomous response capability'' to tackle threats without instruction as they are detected.

The Darktrace threat visualiser, providing a graphical visualisation of the spread of unusual activity from an infected device. Photograph: Darktrace''It really does feel like we're in this new era of cybersecurity,'' says Gustafsson, the chief executive of Darktrace. ''The arms race will absolutely continue, I really don't think it's very long until this [AI] innovation gets into the hands of attackers, and we will see these very highly targeted and specific attacks that humans won't necessarily be able to spot and defend themselves from.

''It's not going to be these futuristic Terminator-style robots out shooting each other, it's going to be all these little pieces of code fighting in the background of our businesses. In my time here at Darktrace, I've seen attackers try [to] use things like Teslas parked in the office car park, [internet-connected] fish tanks in casinos, and fingerprint scanners on the doors of warehouses, all as a sort of new and novel way into businesses.''

Gustafsson was 30 years old when she co-founded Darktrace in 2013, and her star has ascended in tandem with the company's rise from promising tech startup to rare British ''unicorn'' to list on the London stock market in the coming months. While Gustafsson is likely to be worth at least £20m from the flotation of the business, which has almost 5,000 customers ranging from the NHS to Coca-Cola, she has also become something of a gender diversity champion in the male-dominated tech world.

Poppy Gustafsson at a tech conference in London. Photograph: John Phillips/Getty ImagesDarktrace employs more than 1,500 staff globally, of which 40% are female '' including at management level '' a rarity against an industry average of just 15%. A rare tweeter, the last post still lingering at the top of her Twitter feed references how ''proud'' the company was of its gender diversity marking International Women's Day.

''It's only something I'm aware of when I'm doing interviews or when I'm at an industry event and suddenly you see a sea of men staring back at you,'' she has previously said.

By design or not, Gustafsson, who was awarded an OBE last year for her contribution to cybersecurity, has proved to be something of a gender stereotype-breaker for much of her life.

She grew up in Cambridgeshire, where her father ran an agricultural sales business and her mother was a journalist for Farmers Weekly. After attending Hinchingbrooke secondary school '' alumni include Oliver Cromwell and Samuel Pepys, and Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel was patron of its 450th anniversary '' she took a maths degree at the University of Sheffield, where her first student job was building kitchen cabinets. She then qualified as an accountant at Deloitte before working for Amadeus Capital, the venture capital firm run by ARM Holdings founder Hermann Hauser. In 2009, she moved to Mike Lynch's Autonomy, a business that would become inextricably intertwined with Darktrace, for a two-year stint, before the cybersecurity company was born.

In February, former home secretary Amber Rudd, who sits on Darktrace's advisory board alongside former MI5 director general Lord Evans of Weardale and CIA veteran Alan Wade, penned a piece asking ''how we can find the future Poppy Gustafsson and more like her'' in male-dominated science, tech, engineering and mathematics. She also complained that despite the female-led success of Darktrace, when the company is written about, ''the only name that seems to get mentioned is the founder, Mike Lynch. It is as if women don't get to run their own show.''

The problem is that Lynch, whose Invoke Capital was Darktrace's first and biggest shareholder, has always had a significant influence on the business. The Autonomy co-founder is fighting extradition to the US, where he is accused of fraudulently inflating the value of the company before its £8.4bn sale to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. Lynch, who could face a maximum prison sentence of 25 years if found guilty, denies any wrongdoing.

Darktrace was built from ex-Autonomy staff, including Gustafsson, and in 2018 it was subpoenaed by US authorities for information about Invoke, warning there was a risk of money-laundering claims if its backing money included cash from the Autonomy sale. Darktrace says its liability in this regard is ''low-risk'' in IPO registration documents.

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To create distance, Lynch stepped down from Darktrace's board in 2018. However, he remained on its advisory council until last month, when he moved to a newly created science and technology council. Last year, Darktrace used $127m of a loan from several existing investors to reduce Invoke's share holding. Lynch, with his wife, Angela Bacares, currently owns 19% of Darktrace, worth as much as £570m when the company floats.

Gustafsson has for the most part remained tight-lipped about her former boss, the financial backer instrumental in her rise at Darktrace, rejecting the idea that London may have been chosen over the US for a flotation because of Lynch's situation.

''No, not at all,'' is all she will say.

Gustafsson, whose choice of transport is a canary yellow Vespa and has said her one regret is not putting more time into learning the piano, is laser-focused on ensuring Darktrace has a legacy all its own.

''It really feels like we are just getting started,'' she says. ''We've never been happy with just sort of following the status quo and doing things, you know, 2% better than the last product. We are never going to be happy to be a company just following in the footsteps of others.''

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Fri, 03 Nov 2023 16:32

While our mission is to build and mobilize enough power to change Olam HaZeh, the world as it is, we also seek to embody Ha'Olam She'Ba '' the world to come '' right here and now. When you organize with us, you are part of building a Jewishness and Jewish life beyond Zionism

We have millennia of Jewish history where our traditions and our communities were not bound up with support for an apartheid government. We have liturgy, poetry, rabbinic debate, jokes, theater, dance, film, and song. Organizing rich in ritual, culture, and art connects us to those histories, and strengthens us in fighting for a future where our people '' and all people '' live with freedom, dignity, joy, and belonging.